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ahundredtimesover · 3 months ago

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Something About You (02) | JJK

Pairing: Jungkook x (f.) Reader

Genre/Tags: friends au, vacation au, slow burn, romcom-ish vibe; adulting; inspired by AYS; PE teacher!JK and researcher!OC; fluff, comfort, smut (?)

Chapter Warnings: foul/explicit language; alcohol consumption, talks of cheating (JK’s ex), minor injury (18+)

Word count: 9k

Series Masterlist

Status: Complete

Series Summary: You and Jungkook have been friends for a decade. And while he’s the charming and dependable, often reserved boy-next-door, he’s also just been a friend - a constant in your life, a part of a whole, and someone who’s seen all the flawed and probably unattractive sides of you.

A resumption of your friend group’s out-of-town trips has caused you to spend more time with him. And somewhere in between the morning coffee in the forest, running around in the snow, and watching the sunset on a boat, he’s become something more. And you’re not quite sure how to deal with it.

🎶: Beautiful Soul by Jesse McCartney || Yes or No by Jungkook

Despite your busy schedule, the week flies by painfully slow. You’re thankful to Mo-eum for checking on you and accompanying you to dinner on some days. Otherwise, you wouldn’t get off your laptop screen and actually eat. With the questions given to you in advance, you’ve also been practicing your answers for the panel discussion.

To be able to share your research to a group of people who’ll find the value in it and understand what you and your team went through to get it done is a big deal to you. More than anything, you just want to be able to give justice to the stories of the community you worked with; you want to shed light on who they are and what they’re experiencing.

Saturday finally comes, and after you grab a quick lunch after a field visit, you head home and get your power suit on then wait for Jungkook to arrive.

He’s in high spirits when you enter the car. His students won yesterday’s round of the swim meet again and they’ll be going into regionals next Friday. You’re elated for him, as he gets to share something he loves for the young people he truly feels passionate about.

You know about Jungkook's youth being all about sports. He wanted to become a professional athlete and growing up, he played everything he could. He was a taekwondo black belter and he excelled in swimming and track and field. He thought he’d go to the National Sports University to become an Olympian, but something changed in his senior year of high school.

One day he just decided he wanted to be a spectator of the sports he loves instead of being in the midst of it. The passion dwindled, he’d said. He was a late applicant to your university and took up Sports Science. He still enjoyed swimming so he joined the varsity team and won local competitions, but that was as far as he wanted to go. He eventually chose a teaching path over being a therapist in honor of his mother who’s also a teacher, and suddenly his desire to share his love for sports with kids like him just grew.

He talks about his students with such joy. It’s definitely different from the way you talk about your passion with such anger and intensity but like he’d said not long ago, you’re both changing lives anyway. Anger can do that. So can patience and commitment.

You let him talk about his classes to calm yourself down, and you learn that it’s easy with him. You don’t spend time alone with Jungkook as much as you do with Jimin or Taehyung, and you’re finding his presence to be comforting.

It’s mixed with teasing and nonsense talk and encouraging words. He makes fun of you one minute then tells you to stop biting your lips the next. He makes you play rock-paper-scissors and pinches your cheek when you lose, then goes to a drive-thru to get you a drink and a pastry, even if you insist there’ll be lots of food at the event.

“I bet you’ll be too anxious to eat before you go on,” he shrugs. “Just get something in your stomach.”

So you agree and nibble on the tarts he buys. The 75-minute drive ends and he drops you off at the conference center. He says he’ll find a cafe or a park to hang out in and that he’ll just wait until you finish.

You go through your panel discussion and engage in really good discourse with your peers. You feel that flutter in your chest the more you talk about your work and its importance in today’s social and political landscape.

You stay there for four hours. It’s enough time to entertain other attendees who ask more about your research and to make new networks that’ll be beneficial to your research teams moving forward. You only intended to stay a while so you message Jungkook and let him know you’re ready to go.

It’s 6:30 PM when he picks you up, and you breathe out a long exhale both in relief and in exhaustion.

“I’m sure you did well. You can take a nap if you want. All the talking and worrying must’ve drained you,” he says.

“It did,” you yawn. “Choose whatever restaurant you want. Just wake me up when we get there.”

Jungkook nods and watches you immediately fall asleep, with your arms reflexively crossing against your chest, as if you’re hugging yourself. You rarely snore loudly but you do this time; it tells him just how tired you really are. He records it for future use, but he can’t help but look at you fondly at how much you give yourself to the things you do.

You’re deep in dreamland when you suddenly feel tapping on your head, then your nose, then a pinch on your cheek. An annoying sing-song voice urges you to wake up.

You curse under your breath.

“Is that how you thank your chauffeur?” Jungkook laughs. “Wipe your crusty eyes. We’re here.”

You wake up to find yourself outside a Japanese hotpot place that you remember him talking about last week. You’re surprised he didn’t choose something more expensive, as Jimin and Taehyung tend to take advantage of you paying when you treat them out, but you suppose Jungkook is different in that sense.

“This is dinner,” he says. “There’s a dessert place not far from here.”

“Do I treat you there, too?” You cock an eyebrow.

“Yup. A meal isn’t complete without dessert.”

He flashes you his cheeky, bunny smile.

Never mind. They’re all the same, you think to yourself.

“Fine. That place better be good.”

As you expected, both are insanely delicious. Jungkook’s a foodie and you knew that he wouldn’t waste this free meal for something he’s not sure he’d like.

He took charge of the hotpot earlier. You don’t recall your bowl being empty and that’s another thing you’re not surprised about him. He likes making sure other people enjoy their food just as much as he enjoys eating.

Your conversations during dinner about your respective weeks continue over dessert.

His mornings are packed with PE classes for middle and high school kids. In the afternoons, he coaches the swim and track teams on alternate days. In between all of that, he organizes sporting events, facilitates intra-school competitions, makes sure the gyms are well-maintained, and occasionally deals with students with behavioral issues because he’s apparently good at managing them, and they seem to trust him, too.

He crashes when he gets home, wakes up in time to prepare his dinner, goes back to sleep, then does it all over again the next day. Weekends are really his only time to do things for himself - swim in the community pool, play his video games, or go to the gym.

“Sorry I hijacked your one other day of leisure and rest,” you sigh, as you finish the last of the black sesame cheesecake.

“Nah, all good. It was nice to go out for a drive. It’s relaxing for me,” he explains. “Except for when my passenger spends the entirety of it snoring but that’s fine, too.”

You kick his shin in response and he’s used to your violence by now. He barely feels anything anyway.

“But really, thank you, Kook.”

“Friends do nice things for each other,” he smiles. “Plus, I’m sure there have been times over the years when I wasn’t there for you when I should have been.”

“Such as?”

“I don’t know, maybe after your breakups or when you were getting burnout from your other job,” he shrugs. “Maybe even recently when you were so stressed with work.”

It’s a thought he had this past week, as your conversations last weekend triggered memories of your friendship. You’re a constant, as all his other friends are, but you always existed as part of the whole.

Within your smaller group, you’re the one he’s spent the least time with the most. He and Jimin have been friends since middle school and shared an apartment during university, which Taehyung crashed everyday. He and Mo-eum had a few classes together and he often asked her to teach him First Aid and other things to do during an emergency.

You were always busy and when you weren’t, he was. He knows the struggles you went through personally and professionally, but somehow hearing you talk about them at this point in your lives made you seem a little unfamiliar to him even if he was already used to you. It’s as if he’s experiencing you and your friendship on its own for the first time, and that’s made him think that perhaps he should’ve been a better friend to you.

“Kook, we were both going through breakups at the same time,” you remind him. “I never expected you to deal with my shit when you were dealing with your own. Plus, you’re literally the one with the stressful job. You deal with kids, parents, other teachers… that’s a lot to handle. We’ve been there for each other every time we could.”

“I guess,” he smiles, appreciative of the assurance.

“For all I know, there have been times when I also haven’t been there for you when I should’ve been,” you point out.

Come to think of it, there may have been instances when you were too caught up in your own issues to even ask him if he was doing okay.

“Remember the party the night after our graduation?” He asks, softening at the memory. “You kept dancing around me and I remember thinking you were just drunk and being a weirdo but I found out later on that Joo-yun was there and you were trying to make sure that she didn’t see me.”

“Yeah because if she did, she would’ve tried to talk to you and you said you were done with her shit. Keeping her away from all of us was the sane thing to do. I was scared they’d take back my diploma if I pulled her hair because I really wanted to do that,” you frown, remembering how that bitter woman was trying to look for him and you wanted to make sure that Jungkook didn’t have to deal with her again.

“And that last night at your apartment when I told everyone about Si-an…” He continues. “I was drunk but I clearly remember hearing you hatch a plan to go to her apartment and egg her car.”

You both burst into laughter. Twenty-five year old you was kind of a bitch.

“It was supposed to be her face but I didn’t want to get sued. That’s her money-maker after all,” you explain. “But you know me, Kook. I get angry a lot.”

“I know. And it’s not always a bad thing,” he says.

“Well, whatever happened or didn’t happen during those times, what matters is that we get to do good friend things for each other this time, right?” You smile. “Although you’ve been doing more of that recently with the driving and all.”

“Hey, you helped me with the research I needed for the youth wellbeing plan that the school asked me to do not long ago.”

“That just took me like, an hour,” you shrug.

He playfull rolls his eyes. He knows you put effort on that regardless.

But you accept his thanks and assure him that he can always go to you for help in that area.

You finish the last of your drinks and dessert and Jungkook drives you home.

Your night ends with the relief of the hot shower and your cozy bed.

His night ends with the warmth of the rare hug you give him and the sting of your pinch of his cheek.

It's next Friday when you find a chance to be there for Jungkook this time. Although you doubt he needs you, you think that showing your support would do good for team morale.

You’d just finished an offsite meeting and rushed to the school that you heard the swimming competition will take place. Jungkook’s students made it to the next round after last week’s win, and placing today would mean they’ll have a chance to compete in the nationals.

You make your way to the bleachers and spot him huddling the kids and giving an impassioned pep talk. You don’t think you’ve ever seen this side of him and it’s nice to witness the often quiet, sometimes cheeky boy you know show this much emotion and intensity.

He finally looks up and spots you, waving eagerly at him in your corporate attire and looking a bit out of place, but somehow you fit right in. He smiles as he waves back and points to one of his kids taking position.

You cheer for each one and even get the crowd to yell louder when Jungkook’s team places in a race. You’re not really sure how this goes but his students have been performing well and you just keep hollering to encourage them.

Jungkook laughs from where he stands on the bench, even more so when he overhears one of his students remark that he didn’t know they had fans.

“Do we know her?” Another one asks as he gestures towards you.

“I do,” Jungkook hums. “She’s a friend.”

“You’re not even competing,” another one comments.

“Well, she’s cheering for me. And I’m part of your team so that means she’s cheering for you, too,” Jungkook smiles now.

His students look at you and wave, and you excitedly wave back. Your cheers seem to pump them up, as they all place, earning the team enough points to advance to the next round.

You meet them after awarding and introduce yourself as the loud auntie.

“We were surprised because no one ever cheers that loud for us,” one of the kids says. “But Coach said you’re his friend and you’re cheering for him which means you’re cheering for us, too.”

“Well, Coach Jeon cares about all of you and he’s my friend which means I care about you guys as well,” you smile. “But you all did really great out there. I’m sure you’ll do amazing next week.”

“Will you be there again?” One of them asks.

“I will,” you say. “Maybe a few of our other friends, too.”

They look excited and promise that they’ll train even harder. You bid them goodbye and walk with Jungkook to his car, reminding him that you still don’t have yours. It prompts him to tease that you probably only came today so he could drive you home.

“I can find my way, excuse you,” you stick out your tongue. “But a ride wouldn’t be bad.”

“Why did you come, anyway?”

“My meeting ended early. Plus, you were talking about how excited your students were,” you respond. “You did a lot to improve the school’s swimming program and you’re literally their coach, their biggest cheerleader. You need one, too. And that’s me.”

“Thanks,” he hums, flashing you his dimpled smile this time. “That’s actually pretty sweet.”

“Good friend things,” you remind him.

“So you’re really watching again next week?”

“Yeah! My schedule seems fine. Plus, the crowd’s really interesting,” you say. “I was talking to the women who were there for their sons and brothers from the other teams and they were gushing about the young Coach of the other school who was really handsome.”

“Oh, really? And did you agree?”

“Hmm, I said he was alright,” you shrug.

Jungkook laughs and accepts the honesty. He turns on the engine and turns to you.

“So, where to?”

“This barbecue place,” you say. “Jimin and Tae are meeting us there and Mo-eum will follow after her shift. So let’s go. We’re celebrating you tonight.”

Jungkook’s team was a few points away from placing in the nationals but none of the students, as well as him, was any bit disappointed. They worked hard and went as far as they could; even they didn’t expect to make it all the way here.

But Jungkook did. Despite his own concerns about stepping up at the start of the year after the head coach took an emergency leave, he knew the potential of his students. They did the sport for fun, but he saw how they committed themselves to it, how they disciplined themselves, and how they trusted and encouraged each other.

That final competition was a memorable one, especially as he had all of his friends supporting his students who received the loudest cheers from the audience. You managed to get everyone to attend on a Friday afternoon, and when Jungkook thanked you for showing up when you didn’t have to, you teased him by saying that you “did it for the kids.”

The soft smile you gave told him that was only partly true.

That night ended with dinner and drinks with everyone and an unspoken promise between the two of you that you’ll try to be there for each other more this time around.

That was two weeks ago and he’s hung out with you three times since then. He clocked out later than usual one Wednesday and randomly texted you, and you both ended up having dinner at a noodle house.

The Saturday after that, you all went to Taehyung’s apartment. You fell asleep, woke up at 2AM, and found Jungkook was still there because your friend insisted that he take you home.

A few days later, you were craving kebabs and messaged Jungkook, who was always good at finding the best restaurants and food stalls. So you went to one in another neighborhood and stayed until closing.

It’s another Friday night and you, Jungkook, Jimin, and Mo-eum decided to indulge Taehyung and go to this Club to relive your early twenties when you all used to do this almost every week.

Once you enter, you’re hit with the reality that you are definitely no longer built the same way, as the dress with the heels ensemble doesn't feel that bearable anymore. The crowd is at least around your age, and the place is a lot more sophisticated than you’re used to. The music has more of a chill vibe, and not the EDM sound that nowadays gives you headaches.

You’d much rather be elsewhere but you spend some of your nights like this because you want to be with your friends and tonight, at least three of them want to let loose and have fun.

Taehyung is socializing like always while Jimin and Mo-eum are dancing and taking shots on the dance floor. You were doing that earlier, too, but your legs started giving in and you asked Jungkook to not leave you at the cocktail table so you don’t look like a complete loser, hanging out by yourself.

“Not your ideal Friday night anymore, huh?” Jungkook whispers in your ear over the music. “You look so done with everything.”

“My feet hurt,” you pout. “I wanna drink some more but it’s so loud and so… busy. So many things are happening.”

“We can always–”

“Jungkook?”

It takes a while for the voice to register. It’s been years and it’s something he’s tried hard to forget but once he places it, the mixed feeling of anger and sadness comes rushing in. There are many things he never got to tell her, mostly because everything was so sudden and he just tried to bury it all in hopes of never having to deal with them again.

But the universe fucks with him sometimes and tonight just happens to be the night when it does.

“Uh, Si-an…” he finally says, the sound of her name tasting bitter off his lips. “Hey.”

“It’s so good to see you,” she says, eyeing him up and down. “It’s been so long! I saw you from the bar and thought you looked familiar and wow, you’ve… you’ve changed a lot. In a good way, of course. It’s so weird because I was thinking about you the other day and I was wondering how you were doing. I wanted to message you and ask—”

“Seriously?”

You wish your tone expressed how pathetic you think she sounds right now and her incredulous face tells you it probably did.

“Oh, you’re here,” she glares at you, her eyes looking offended at your mere presence. “And so are your friends,” she grudgingly says after looking around the Club.

“Is that a problem?” You ask, crossing your arms and moving closer to eye her up and down.

“Let’s just say… you’re not exactly the most pleasant people out there,” she replies.

“Aww, well. We tend to be like that to snakes and shitty people,” you sneer. “And don’t worry, we think the same way about you. Kinda surprised you even have the nerve to walk up here and talk to him after everything you did but then again, I guess being pathetic knows no limits.”

You can tell this provoked her, as her already irritated face distorts into anger but you’re unsure what else she has to say. She’s the one who messed up in the first place.

“Look, you may be friends with Jungkook but you don’t know me to be making claims like that. Whatever—”

“I know you enough. That shit you did says everything about you,” you interject, feeling your blood boiling to a high degree by now with how she thinks she even has a defense. Like she even has the right.

You feel like you’ve really pushed her buttons, as she rolls her eyes and flips her hair as if she’s someone important and you’re not even worth her time. You know she’s about to say something completely stupid and you telepathically apologize to Jungkook for the person you’ll become once that happens.

“You have no right to talk about my relationship with Jungkook,” she bites back. “We had our issues but we loved each other. Things happen and people make mistakes. He was busy and I needed—”

“Oh. Don’t even go there. You know what you did, Si-an,” you warn, your voice getting louder and more pointed now. “Don’t you dare trivialize or justify it. That was all on you so don’t come around here and act like you actually care.”

“You’re the one who seems to be caring too much!” She chides. “Why? You want to impress him by humiliating me? By showing him you can do better? Is that what you’re trying to prove?”

You shake your head in disbelief. You’ve dealt with people like this - the ones who deflect, the ones who can’t deal with the consequences of their actions, and those who think they can just get away with shitty behavior because of who they are. And well, you’ve got to admit she’s still as pretty as she was and she knows it; she’s not a model for no reason.

But still, you can’t stand her accusing you of stupid shit and taking everything she did to your friend this lightly.

“You know what? I actually feel sorry for you,” you sigh. “You finally get to date a good guy for once and then you mess it all up. Jungkook’s one of the nicest people in this messed up world and you know this, but you treated him like crap because you think you could and then get away with it. And now what, a couple of douchebags later you realize what you let go of and you regret it all? You get what you deserve. And you stopped deserving him the moment you betrayed him so cut the crap. No one’s falling for your shit this time.”

You’re panting by the time you finish, as the pent up anger from all these years reaches its boiling point. They may have dated for only a year but you knew Jungkook cared a lot about her. Even if she clung to him like glue whenever he brought her along, you respected their relationship enough to not meddle, although you knew that Jimin and Taehyung had hinted how uncomfortably clingy she was.

He seemed content. And then she cheated, and that was just inexcusable.

You remember how sullen Jungkook looked when he announced the breakup, and how he couldn’t properly narrate how he found out. You always thought it affected him so much that he never really talked about her in the three years since then, except when you were at the cabin not long ago. And even then, it wasn’t really much. You can’t imagine what it’s like to be betrayed like that, and for a tender-hearted man like him, you suppose it hits that much harder.

And so knowing how he’s kept it all in and then seeing her act like what she did was worthy of forgiveness or even another chance, it makes you sick. You’re not about to just stand around and watch her trivialize what she did, so you gave her a piece of your mind, which you think is quite overdue.

Si-an looks truly offended; she can’t even look in your direction.

“I don’t have to deal with you,” she manages to say, annoyance laced in her voice.

“Good, because we’re just about to leave,” you say.

You turn towards the left where the exit door is, not wanting to be anywhere near her, either. But then she speaks again.

“Jungkook, I meant what I said that I’ve been wondering how you are. There’s so much I want to say and I was hoping we could talk.”

Your gaze stays on him, wondering what he’ll do this time. You know he has self-respect that he won’t bend to her will and give her a chance to say whatever she thinks still needs to be said, but your heart still stops at the possibility of him still doing that.

“It’s too late for that, Si-an,” he utters. “I don’t really have anything to say to you. Have a good life.”

Then he grabs his coat hanging over the chair and walks towards you.

“Let’s go,” he gestures towards the door. “Kinda don’t wanna be here anymore.”

You grab onto his wrist to not lose him in the crowd and manage to get down to the lobby of the building unscathed. It’s nearing 12 AM and the Club is just about to get more full, and you know Jungkook enough that he won’t want to be around people after what happened.

Getting out on the street, you spot a convenience store. He looks a little dazed and you think a different environment is good for both of you at this moment.

“I’ll just buy a bottle of water over there. Is it okay?” You ask.

“Yeah, sure,” he responds, walking to the dangerous side of the sidewalk next to you.

It’s just a block away but you’re reminded of how painful your feet are, now that the adrenaline has waned a bit. He notices and holds your arm for support. You mumble your thanks and sit on the first stool you see and sigh in relief.

He chuckles as he looks at you.

“I’ll get the water,” he says before heading inside.

He returns with two bottles of them, ice cold, and sits across from you. You watch as his eyes flick from one side of the street to another and sip his drink. You’re unsure what’s going on in his mind but yours are flashbacks of what happened just minutes ago and how you lost your cool and called out his ex-girlfriend. Which you now realize you maybe shouldn’t have done.

“I’m so sorry, Kook,” you finally say, covering your face and bowing your head.

“For what?” He asks.

“For crossing a line and saying all those things to her.”

“You mean, for telling her all the things I wish I should have?” He replies, prompting you to look up and see his soft smile.

“When all of that happened, I felt like there was nothing more to say to her,” he says after a beat of silence. “But seeing her again, knowing she wanted to talk now? Maybe there was something to be said, and I kinda just froze and you swept in and said all of that, much more eloquently than I probably would’ve been able to,” he hums. “So thanks, ___. I felt a big load off my chest because of that.”

“That’s a relief,” you sigh. “I couldn’t stand her acting all apologetic and risk her rekindling things with you. But do you believe her? About wanting to talk to you?”

“Somewhat,” he nods. “I blocked her number and unfollowed her everywhere on social media but she was trying to send a message on Instagram the other day so maybe she was honest about that.”

“And you’re not curious about what she wants to tell you?” You wonder.

“Nope. I caught up with a friend who still sees her posts and he said she’s had a couple of boyfriends since the breakup so what you said about reaching out to me a couple of douchebags later… that seemed accurate. I wouldn’t have thought of it that way.”

“Oh wow. I mean, I just made that up but I wouldn’t put it past her to be like that,” you shake your head. “She really might be trying to get you back, then.”

“Her boyfriends before me didn’t really treat her well, so maybe it’s the same this time.”

You know enough that in many cases, that pattern of relationships is rooted in some kind of pain. And you feel a tiny bit bad for Si-an if that’s the case. Jungkook might’ve been really the only one who ever treated her right.

“It’s not your responsibility anymore. You don’t have to deal with whatever she has going on, whatever it is,” you advise.

“I don't want to anyway. What she did… that changes a person,” he sighs. “It’s not an easy thing to get over.”

He sees your somber face and thinks that with you seeing him like this, he might as well tell you everything.

“The night I caught her with that guy, she got emotional. She’d been drinking and it was her defense but it also made her more honest,” he continues. “That… that wasn’t the first time.”

“What the f—” you start, although you doubt any other curse word would suffice.

“So yeah, that’s why it was hard to talk about and why I just wanted to forget about it. A part of me wanted to know why she did that. One time was something but more than once? That’s messed up.”

“You know, maybe I was too nice,” you groan. You remove your shoes and attempt to get up. “Let me go back and smack her f—”

He puts his arm in front of you to stop you and laughs.

“It’s okay, ___. She got the message. She doesn’t deserve our time.”

“Ugh. I should’ve egged her face when I had the chance,” you growl.

He just laughs again and you’re glad it’s a sound you get to hear now. You look at him and see perhaps just a fraction of the pain underneath and hope you could do something to ease whatever is remaining.

“So, I doubt you wanna get back in there. What if we buy something to drink here and get back to my place? Not unless you want to be alone or something…”

“Definitely not,” he says. “Your place is fine.”

“Alright, let me just tell Tae.”

You call your friend while you and Jungkook enter the convenience store to get some beer and something else a little stronger. Taehyung says that Jimin and Mo-eum are still enjoying themselves and that some of his friends have just arrived.

“We saw Si-an,” you explain.

“What! That witch is here?” He exclaims.

“Yes. And I went off on her so she probably expects you’d do the same. I won’t be surprised if she’s left after that though,” you say. “But Kook and I will just hang out at my place.”

“Alright. I’ll tell Mr. Yang to drive you home.”

“Great. Thanks, Tae. Let me know when the three of you get home.”

“Will do. Hug Kook for me, yeah? He secretly likes those.”

“I will,” you smile, just as Jungkook checks out your purchases.

You drop the call and inform Taehyung’s chauffeur where you are.

It’s quiet in the car the whole ride home. You leave Jungkook to his thoughts, knowing that he prefers a bit of time for himself to process things.

You arrive at your apartment, grab your drinks, and head to your small balcony. It’s quite chilly outside so you take your blankets with you and sit next to Jungkook. With cans of beer and a nice bottle of whiskey - that you take shots of while he drinks it on the rocks - you watch the moon sit prettily on the sky and think it’s not a bad way to end an unpleasant evening.

It’s quiet again for the first few minutes as you both settle in, and it’s Jungkook who speaks first.

“Thanks again, ___,” he says. “And not just for standing up for me but also for saying those things about me.”

“And I meant them. You’re a great guy, Kook, but she stuffed it up so sucks for her because someone else gets to have you now, or whenever. Let’s hope she’s a good one,” you smile. “But also, I’ve literally fought so many of our friends’ exes. That’s kinda my thing. Not that I’m proud of it but you know… I’m the back up when you guys can’t say what you want to say.”

“That’s true. There are those like us who find it hard and—”

“People like me who find it easy to get angry?” You finish.

“I meant people who can find the words to say and actually say them like you,” he corrects. “Plus, I told you that anger is good sometimes. You’ve always stood up for us and we always appreciate it.”

“Well thank you. The times I did that for myself, it led to my relationships ending,” you bitterly laugh. “But I guess they were bound to.”

“Is that how you look at it? That they ended because you stood up for yourself?”

“I think it changes, depending on where I’m at in life,” you say. “I mean, isn’t that a normal thing? A defense mechanism of some sort? We shift the blame? Or chalk it up to immaturity or inexperience? Or think the relationship just ran its course?”

“What is it this time?”

“Lately I’ve been thinking it’s all of that, all at once. It’s me standing up to them but also probably me being too much, or too impatient. Maybe I had high expectations or I deserved better or maybe we weren’t a good match. Maybe I just wasn’t the right person for them, or for myself, at that time.”

“Hmm,” he hums, sipping his second glass of whiskey.

He seems to be in deep thought, as he sinks a little deeper into his seat. You let him, as you let your own words linger in your mind.

How would you know if you’re the right person entering a relationship? How would you know if the other is? Or better yet, is it about being or becoming the right person? How do both of you get to that point without losing the person that you are?

“I was just wondering if there’s anything I should’ve done differently,” Jungkook says after some time. “So many times before, I kept asking myself if it was a moment or an action I did that made Si-an decide to just… do that.”

“Yah!” You nudge his knee then turn towards him.

You’re two bottles of beer and three shots down and he’s a little distorted in your eyes but you still see the hint of sadness on his face.

“Do not for a second think any of that was your fault. She did that. She made that decision,” you exclaim.

“I know, but what if I made it easy? I would pick her up from a shoot at dawn; sometimes I’d drive out of town just to see her for two hours,” he shares. “I was always around for her and maybe she saw me as expendable or too available and so someone she could treat badly and expect would forgive her. But then again, she was always clingy when we were around in public and I wasn’t because I wasn’t like that so maybe I should’ve been the same?”

“Kook, you wanted to be where she was because you liked her; that’s not being too available and that’s not a bad thing. And she just had this complex, okay? Like, she needs people to see she’s wanted,” you explain. “Otherwise she wouldn’t have taken you for granted. Whether you were busy or not around, that’s no reason to do what she did; she’d be loyal either way if she was a good person. And she wasn’t.”

“I guess,” he sighs, unconvincingly.

Wanting to make a point, you turn to him and cup his cheeks with your hands.

“Kook, look at me.”

“I am. And you look like a tomato.”

“Shush, I turn puffy when I’m mad and drunk,” you pout, but you continue.

“You are a great guy, okay? And you care about people. You treat your friends so well so I just know you treat your partners amazingly. You may not be perfect but your exes messed up. And I’m not just saying this because I’m your friend but because I can see it. Don’t ever think that you have to change or dim your shine or be less nice or more clingy to be wanted enough. Because the right person will want you regardless.”

Jungkook meets your eyes to let you know that he’s listening to what you’re saying, and that he’ll keep them in mind for the next time and next person, whenever or whoever that might be. He also wishes you can hear yourself and that you’ll take that to heart, too. You’re all kinds of great things; he just doesn’t know how to express that to you.

“Okay,” he smiles at you.

“Okay?”

“Yes, okay,” he chuckles.

You remove your hands from his face and turn your gaze back to the view before you. You lean your head on his shoulder and he shifts his body to make you feel comfortable.

“We’re good people, Kook. We’ll find other good people meant for us, too.”

It’s a good thought, as the person who’s right or could become right for him is just out there in the world, going about their life, and completely clueless that the right person for them is out here, just waiting to find them.

It’s 3 AM by the time you and Jungkook decide to call it a night. It felt so long with everything that happened in the Club. You just spent the past few hours finishing some cans of beer and ¾ of the whiskey while talking about random things like your college days and books you’ve read and weird food you want to try and your non-generic fears.

You were close to tears due to laughter for half of it. Jungkook has this charming, playful sense of humor that’s different from what you’re used to with Jimin and Taehyung and it felt comfortable being able to experience him that way.

You usually spend time with him within a group and these past few weeks of hanging out with just him has been nice. He’s thoughtful and attentive, holding your arm before you fall off your chair and making sure you don’t hit your head on the wall since you keep leaning back when you laugh. He plays along with your jokes and teases you constantly. He also has a quiet wisdom about him that’s very assuring.

To Jungkook, you’ve always been a fiery individual. You’re constantly moving, thinking, and talking. You have this burning passion for good things and you’re not afraid to speak out about them.

You work with many types of individuals and your energy and how you present yourself changes with each set of people. Within your friend group, everyone looks after you. They give you the hugs you always seek and make sure you’re fed and well taken care of.

Spending this much time with just you these past weeks has given him a deeper look into who you are outside of all that, which is all of those versions of you all at once. It’s quite the experience, as you go from angry to pouty to unhinged to sentimental then introspective in one sitting.

And it’s entertaining for him. And exciting. Somehow it’s very reassuring. Especially earlier when you defended him to his ex and said all those good things about him.

He didn’t realize it right away but his heart did a thing then. He’s not really sure why and where it came from, but it happened several times the rest of the night at your balcony when you cupped his face and looked in his eyes and every time you leaned on his shoulder.

It’s doing it again now, with you softly looking at him - despite the glassy eyes - standing by the couch as you tell him to just spend the night.

“I’ll fix the sofa bed while you shower. I have some of Jimin’s clothes here that you can use.”

“Okay,” he responds.

“Oh, and one last thing,” you say, before wrapping your arms around his neck and pulling him close in an embrace.

“Tae told me to hug you,” you whisper.

Jungkook chuckles and he takes it. But you sigh and rest your chin against his shoulder then there goes his heart again. He flattens his palms on your back and pulls you in a little tighter.

It lasts for a few seconds before you pull away, pinch his cheeks as you like to do, and gesture towards the bathroom.

“Toothbrush on the first drawer and towel on the second,” you say.

“Got it. Thanks.”

You pull the levers on the couch to convert it into a bed then put sheets and pillows over it. You put away all your beer cans and turn on the humidifier.

You get in the shower after he does and then find him still sitting on the bed when you finish.

“Let’s sleep in tomorrow,” you say while combing your hair. “I’m sure I’ll feel all this alcohol and sore feet all morning.”

“Sure thing. Good night, ___.”

“You’ll be okay?”

“Yeah. I already am.”

Jungkook stays up for another hour just staring at your ceiling. There’s nothing particularly interesting about it but it connects him to where you are, just behind the half wall that separates your bed space from the rest of the apartment.

You’re probably in deep sleep and he hopes it’s a good one. You’d spent much of the night filled with emotions related to him, from the anger over what Si-an said to the heartbreak over what he experienced. At the end of it was the assurance and shared hope over the good that you both deserve and the love you'll one day find.

The tenderness of your smile and the warmth of your embrace linger after all that. Even more concerning, at least for him, was the rapid beating of his heart whenever he saw your lips turn up or when you’d try to cheer him up or when you’d move closer to him.

He acted unaffected, as if everything was natural. But the thing is - it is. You’re naturally like this. You’re emotional and encouraging, passionate and hopeful. You’ve called out your friends’ exes before, which always left them stunned and speechless. You’ve had hundreds of pep talks that Jungkook had been the receiver of or witnessed.

And you’re affectionate, endearingly so. You have this fondness for all your friends, which they all return with the way they take care of you. You like to hug and cuddle and cling to people and it’s never meant anything more - not to you and as far as he knows, not to your other friends.

But tonight, it felt different. It felt confusing. It also felt good, like something he wants to feel again. And maybe he will, as the thought of spending the next day with you invades his mind.

He finally falls asleep after doing the trick he taught you not long ago, where he tenses his muscles then relaxes them. It’s the next morning when a loud thump from nearby wakes him up from sleep.

He turns around, as he’d cocooned himself to one of the pillows, then finds you standing by the sofa bed, grimacing in pain. He sits up and rubs his eyes.

“What happened to you?” He grunts.

“I was gonna wake you up but I stubbed my toe on the foot of the couch,” you frown. “It hurts.”

“Show me,” he instructs, scooting to the side so you could sit down and stretch your leg. “You’re such a child sometimes,” he teases.

You playfully smile then remove your sleeping socks and wiggle your toes but wince again in pain when you do.

Jungkook assesses it and decides it’s nothing to be concerned about.

“It’s just bruised. It'll heal soon but just put ice on it for relief,” he says.

You nod and watch him stand to get your cold pack in the freezer. You place it on your toe while he washes up in your bathroom and you already feel better. He comes back out and you say you just ordered hangover soup for the both of you.

“Do you have coffee?”

“Yes, Kook. It’s the one thing I actually have,” you giggle, given that your non-cook ass doesn’t have anything else.

You usually just get your meals delivered. Your mom also occasionally sends containers of food to heat up and Mo-eum and Hayoung sometimes come to your apartment just to cook. It sounds pathetic, you know, which is why you bought yourself an air fryer to make you feel a little less helpless.

You just put something in, turn a knob, then wait. You’ve only used it a few times but still, it doesn’t make you one of those people with staple ingredients in their pantries. It’s something your friends often tease you about.

Jungkook pulls out two drip coffee sachets from the jar and you limp towards the balcony. It’s 1PM - you really slept through to midday - and the autumn sky is beautiful today. It’s also quite chilly, but it’s the perfect weather to enjoy your hot coffee outdoors.

Jungkook arrives with your mugs and the teapot and gradually pours the water over. You sit in silence as you wait for the drink to be ready. You’re still slowly waking up and he seems to still be in that post-sleep daze.

He hands you your coffee and you hum in satisfaction after your first sip.

“Hmm. Reminds me of the second morning in Chungbuk,” you hum.

Jungkook smiles. You were surprisingly the first two people from your cabin who were awake that time and you spent almost an hour just talking on the picnic table outside. There was chaos in both your minds but it was calm all around. He remembers that day fondly.

“Tae messaged and wants to know what happened,” you inform him. “He said we’ll all have dinner tonight at his favorite Chinese restaurant. We can just chill and then I’ll drive us there. I can drive you home, for a change.”

A tiny smile forms on Jungkook’s face.

“Sounds good.”

You eat your hangover soup on your tiny dining table, then you spend the rest of the short afternoon on your couch while watching random shows on TV. You talk and laugh then sit in silence, then talk and laugh again.

It’s Jungkook and he’s used to your fluctuating energy by now. You’ve been friends for over 10 years and he knows how you are - blabbering one minute then zoning out the next. You never felt like you had to be a certain version of yourself around him. You go from berating and teasing him to asking him to take care of you.

It’s how you are with all your friends though. It’s why your friendship has lasted this long. It’s also why you think you’re able to just comfortably sit next to him with your messy hair and raggedy pajama pants and whine about your toe.

He just laughs and takes it all in. He doesn’t complain about you nor does he make you feel bad about anything you do. Just like all your friends, he’s supportive and dependable, and you suppose it’s what you’ll always need.

It’s 6:30 PM by the time you’re driving out of the basement parking lot to the restaurant, with you insisting that stepping on the gas doesn’t cause any pain on your toe. You arrive and are led to one of those private rooms because with your big group, it’s just always better to have your own space where you could be loud without much care for your surroundings.

You sit next to Hoseok, who babies you about your little injury because he truly is the most doting one out of all your friends, and to Mo-eum, who engages you in side conversations because there’s always something for you to ramble about.

You let Jungkook talk about last night. He mentions Si-an’s Instagram message and narrates the things she said, then he repeats the things that you said, almost in verbatim. You stop yourself from exploding at the memory of your exchange with her but it seems that your friends are making up for your hesitation, as a few of them curse and shake their heads in response.

He leaves out the part about Si-an cheating on him more than once, and you suppose it’s not a story he intends to share with others. He was vulnerable with you last night, so when he assures your friends that the past is something he’s already come to terms with and that he’s truly moved on, you send him a soft smile.

Jungkook’s heart does that thing again, and like the trained teacher that he is, he knows how to keep his emotions in check and not show them on his face.

He can’t help it though, not when he’s reminded of last night, especially with how you seemed affected again with just his narration. You were groaning under your breath earlier, clenching your fist, and pinching the corners of your eyes.

But like you always are, at the end of that rage is a kind of gentleness that he used to take for granted. Now, it’s what he looks forward to, whether it’s a smile or a lean on his shoulder or a pinch of his cheek.

The conversations continue around him but he finds himself still being drawn to you. He hopes the way he looks at you is as natural as it always had been; he hopes the effect of the leaping of his heart isn’t that obvious, either.

There’s a moment when concern creeps in, as he tries to make sense of what he suddenly feels, as if he just woke up one day and started feeling differently. He knows it’s too soon to act on it, though, especially with him still trying to figure it all out. He doesn’t want to risk anything, especially if it’ll cost him your friendship.

He tries to rationalize it. Perhaps he might just be reacting to how you’d been protective of him and it’ll pass. It could also be just a harmless crush or a fleeting one. He might also still be hungover. Or maybe it’s a result of how much time you’ve been spending together since your trip to Chungbuk, which hasn’t happened for a while, so maybe spending less time with you will return things to normal.

He decides that not making too much effort to be around you will help stabilize himself and his stubborn heart. That is, until Taehyung makes an announcement, which apparently is the reason why he asked for this dinner.

“So… I got the call earlier,” he starts, looking around at everyone’s expectant faces. “I got the role on Broadway. I’m heading to New York!”

The room erupts in excitement and Taehyung sports that proud and appreciative boxy smiley of his while he gets hugs and high-fives.

“There’s been a delay with production but I’m one of the first casts. They wanted to lock me in right away because they know I’m eyeing another show,” he explains. “But I fly in May and the shows start in October. I’m so excited.”

“Oh, our Tae,” Hayoung says. “We’re so proud of you! We’re definitely flying out to watch.”

“Yes! It’ll run for a couple of months so there’s time,” he nods. “But since I’ll be leaving again and the holidays are coming up soon, I was thinking of going on a trip.”

“To where?” Several of you ask.

“Hmm, any suggestions?” He asks back.

“Let’s go to Sapporo!” Jimin chirps.

It’s a place you’ve all talked about going to before, especially after your trip to Tokyo some time ago, so it’s not hard to convince everyone to agree. The planning begins and you all decide on a mid-December trip so it’s the school holidays and the rest can take their leaves. Some are checking out hotels while the others are searching up what to eat and where to stay.

Jungkook tries to process all the different conversations happening all at once but his mind goes back to his thoughts from earlier. So much for trying to spend less time with you. Now he’s thinking of those few days - snow, food, warmth… and you.

And if he’s being honest, he can’t wait for December to come.

Series Masterlist

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mediocre-writing · 2 months ago

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Don't run away from me | Ellie Williams

` synopsis: Y/n is having a breakdown because she's attracted to a girl, Ellie is having a breakdown because she met probably the most beautiful girl in the world.

pairing: Ellie Williams X Fem!Reader | Modern Au!

Warnings: Drinking, Y/n having a lot of trouble accepting her sexuality, Y/n and Ellie are falling in love, Dina and Jesse are the biggest supporters of the couple

—

Notes: I never watched Star Wars sooo lol English is not my first language, please forgive any mistakes, I will review it again as soon as I get home.

prologue | next | masterlist serie

Ellie looked around with a glass of soda in her hand, a bunch of people she had no idea who they were, in fact she wasn't sure if Jesse himself knew who all these people were, but well, it's his birthday, isn't it?

"She's not here yet." Jesse says taking Ellie by surprise.

"Damn Jesse, you scared me." The redheaded girl says with a sigh.

"Yeah, you were too distracted thinking about your girl."

Ellie scoffs "I wish it was mine" She thinks.

"What's that in your glass?" He says with a frown.

Ellie Williams is not drinking alcohol at a party?

"Oh I just... I wish I was sober."

"For who exactly?" Jesse asks with a smirk.

"Jesse... Fuck you." Ellie responds, taking another sip.

"Yes, as soon as Dina arrives."

"You disgusting pig." While rolling her eyes, Ellie looks at the door and holy shit!

Y/n walks in with Dina right behind her and damn, Y/n had a smile on her face that definitely turned Ellie's legs to jelly.

Dina looks around and sees Jesse and Ellie, pulling Y/n's hand towards the duo.

"Hi Ellie! Happy birthday Jesse!" Dina says pulling Jesse into a tight hug.

"Hi." Ellie says to Y/n who is behind Dina, looking a little uncomfortable.

"Hi," she replies, smiling a little shyly.

Ellie takes a quick look at Y/n and holy shit, she was so fucking gorgeous.

The couple lets go and Y/n hugs Jesse too.

"Happy birthday loser, sorry I'm late, Dina couldn't remember what your favorite color of lingerie was." She says this laughing, making Jesse freeze, Dina blush and Ellie smile.

"My God, I hate you." Dina says, punching her friend in the arm.

"There," she says, running her hand over her arm and then her eyes meet Ellie's.

"Those beautiful green eyes, just above those rosy cheeks full of beautiful freckles"

"You already met the other day, right? Great, that way I don't need to introduce anyone." Jesse says, pointing between the girls.

"While we're on the subject, do you know all these people from yesterday Jesse?" Y/n asks and Ellie smiles wider.

"I was just about to ask him that!" Ellie says raising her hand and giving Y/n a high five.

Jesse and Dina look at each other suspiciously.

"Dina... I wanted to tell you something, can we talk?" Jesse asks a little shyly, and Dina's smile widens.

"Of course!" Dina says taking Jesse's hand and the two walk away hand in hand leaving Ellie and Y/n alone.

"Is he finally going to ask her out now?" Ellie says moving and standing next to Y/n.

"I hope so, it's getting painful to watch." The two laugh and Y/n watches Ellie's smiling face.

What a beautiful face she had.

"Want to go outside?" Y/n asks and Ellie smiles in agreement.

Geez, where did that come from? Why did you ask to go outside with her Y/n? Because-

"I still can't believe Jesse's parents lent their house for his party." Y/n's thoughts are interrupted by Ellie's beautiful voice as soon as the two arrived in the huge backyard.

"Unbelievable, isn't it?" Y/n says laughing and the two walk side by side, until they reach a bench near some flowers.

"This isn't even close to the apartment we both shared."

"Ah, you're his roommate." Y/n says remembering the conversation she had with Dina a few weeks ago.

"I don't know why he has to share a room with a girl!" Dina says angrily with a pillow over her face.

"Yes, unfortunately." Ellie says rolling her eyes, making Y/n smile.

"Dina went crazy when she found out he was sharing a room with a girl."

"Ah, you can tell her to stay calm, I like the same thing as him." Ellie says analyzing Y/n's reaction.

So yes, she definitely noticed the little smile the girl gave.

"I'll tell her that for sure." The two smile at each other, and then look at each other for a while.

Y/n had never felt this before, this need to be so close to someone, feeling their warmth, their smell, hearing their voice.

"Y/NY/N, LOOK AT THIS!" They turn their heads to the garden entrance door, and see a Dina smiling from ear to ear with her hand raised, probably Valentine's ring.

She comes running towards the two with a somewhat shy Jesse behind her, and throws herself into Y/n's lap, celebrating and hugging her friend.

"Finally huh Jesse." Ellie says smiling and punching Jesse's arm as he approaches.

The four of them settle down in the garden to talk, Y//n and Ellie sitting on the bench shoulder to shoulder with each other, while Jesse and Dina sit on the ground side by side.

"You know, I could have had a party with just the four of us." Jesse says, seeing some people he certainly didn't know walking past him.

"I told you to only do it with your closest friends, but you're stupid and don't listen." Ellie says trying to kick him.

"Well, in that case you wouldn't be here Ellie."

"Fuck you Jesse!"

"You go Williams!"

Y/n and Dina look at each other laughing, and Dina analyzes the two better, Y/n and Ellie have their knees and shoulders glued together, it may seem like a simple thing, but Dina knew how Y/n didn't feel very comfortable with physical contact.

She analyzes her friend's expression, who is smiling in a light and natural way, she is certainly not bothered by Ellie's touch.

"Look who's here!" The voice catches the attention of the four, and Y/n feels like running away.

"Hi John," she says in a low voice, but doesn't move a muscle.

"Hi? I was worried, you didn't answer my messages anymore." He says smiling and Ellie looks him up and down.

"Oh yeah, I've been kind of busy lately." She says, fixing her hair and looking down at her feet.

"Really? Well, it was nice meeting you again, you can call me if... you're still interested or something." He says, scratching the back of his neck awkwardly.

"Yes, I'll call." Y/n gives him a smile and he leaves awkwardly with his head down.

"I think he was really into you Y/n." Jesse says taking another sip from his bottle of beer.

"No, it wouldn't work." Y/n says immediately, and Dina smiles in amusement.

"Do you want to tell Jesse why it wouldn't work Y/n?" Dina asks with a teasing smile and Jesse looks at his girlfriend in confusion.

"Dina..." Y/n says sighing.

"No no, come on Y/n they need to know."

Y/n sighs and Ellie watches the scene in silence, she was really curious now.

"Hedoesn'tlikestarwars."

"What?" Jesse asks, coming closer.

"He doesn't like Star Wars!" As soon as she says this, an incredulous silence falls between them.

Of course it would be broken by Jesse's idiotic laugh.

"Holy shit!" Jesse says between laughs and Ellie smiles softly.

"Well, I like Star Wars." Ellie says quietly, the intention was for only Y/n to hear, but Dina's eyes widen when she hears that.

"Do you like it?" Y/n asks, feeling her cheeks heat up.

"I must be sick, yes that's the explanation." Y/n thinks

"Yeah, it's on again, maybe we can go see it next week if you want." Ellie says, fixing a few strands of hair that were sticking out of her bun.

"I would like to do this for her- NO Y/N! Don't even think about it, and don't even think about agreeing to go out with a GIRL, ARE YOU CRAZY?"

"Ah thanks for the invite Ellie but-"

"THAT'S A GREAT IDEA ELLIE, the four of us can go out, it would be so much fun." Dina says interrupting her friend before she can ruin everything

"The four of us? Like a double date?" Jesse says this and Dina pinches his leg discreetly. "Ouch Dina, that hurt!"

"No Jesse, it's not a date, we're just going... Four friends going out, right girls?" Ellie is a little confused but smiles softly.

"I guess so? You want to go, right Y/n?" Ellie asks softly, looking into Y/n's eyes.

"Yeah, I think I'd like that." She says, looking away from Ellie's face.

"Great, we can even make a group on social media." Dina plans excitedly.

Y/n looks at her feet, half-thoughtful, these feelings were messing with her head.

"Is everything okay?" She hears Ellie's soft voice very close to her ear.

"Yes, everything is fine"

No, nothing was right.

Taglist (Request in the comments)

@wrappedinvines

I COULDN'T FIND THE OTHER BLOGS! 😭😭😭

#lesbian #ellie x fem reader #ellie willams x reader #ellie williams masterlist #ellie williams x reader #ellie x reader #ellie williams x reader fluff #ellie williams #ellie tlou #tlou x reader

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losers-clvb · 18 days ago

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ICEBREAKER two

pairing: stanford!hockey player!sam winchester x figure skater!female!reader

content: language, slightly ooc sam

word count: 3k

note: here's part two!!! i hope you all love it, even if it is a bit of a filler part. peep the very forward foreshadowing about hockey jess' series, hehe. anyway, hope you enjoy!!

The next few days were a whirlwind of sleep, class, practice, repeat. A bit less of the sleep portion than usual, however, thanks to the stream of texts from a certain hockey player.

The chance for your date – or whatever you two would choose to call it – hadn’t come up yet. You were drilled on your routines for hours on end while also trying to juggle the seemingly endless amounts of homework being thrown at you. Sam was in the same boat, coaches slamming him with new techniques to pick up on before his Friday night game.

So, you two had resorted to flirty texts and pictures. Most were tame enough, just little things here and there that had you biting back a smile during lectures.

I can’t wait to see how that lemonade tastes. And how you taste, Sam had texted once, making you roll your eyes playfully and tap a heart onto the message.

Selfies of him, sweaty from practice and smiling like a golden retriever, were immediately inspected by you, eyes narrowing in on the ripple of his muscle when he was shirtless.

You especially liked the darkened mirror pictures of him post-shower, a towel wrapped around his lips lazily. You wouldn’t ever admit how long you would spend staring down your phone screen when he sent those.

Lissa caught you once or twice smiling at your phone. Despite your deep need to brag about how over the moon about this man you already were, you kept quiet. Right now, for example, she was trying to get to your phone, which you were deftly holding above your head.

“Come on, babe, just let me see who you’ve been blushing over!” Lissa protested, stretching her arms as high as they could go. Fortunately for you, she was just the slightest bit shorter than you, and that slightest bit added the necessary height to keep your phone out of her hands.

“It’s really none of your business, Liss.” You laughed when she sighed in defeat, falling from her tiptoes. She sent a glare your way, one that told you she would push about this topic later. “I’m serious.”

“And I’m just trying to look out for you.” Lissa argued, crossing her arms. You raised a brow, not believing a minute of it. Maybe she was looking out for you, but you knew she was the biggest gossip on your team. You learned that fact when everyone was coincidentally curious about the East coast just a day after telling Lissa that you had matched with a Maine-native on Tinder.

At the sight of your doubtful expression, she threw her hands up defensively.

“I’m serious! What if this guy is a… serial killer who likes feet!” She nodded, her eyes wide. “Your feet are beautiful, you’d be dead in a heartbeat.”

“Why does he have to like feet?” You laughed, hoping this would steer the conversation away from your love life. You would talk foot fetishes all day long if it meant Lissa didn’t find out about your embarrassingly schoolgirl-crush-ish feelings toward Sam.

“Wait!” Lissa gasped, clutching her hands to her chest. “Is it a girl?”

You watched the way she was practically bouncing on her feet, excitement running through her like a shot of adrenaline. Lissa was under the belief that every individual out there had some degree of homosexuality in them. It didn’t matter how many times you told her that just because she had a very large dose of said homosexuality in her didn’t mean everyone did. You almost felt bad for the way you were about to crush her.

“No.” You watched her face fall into a pout.

“Why not?!” Lissa huffed. “Girls are hot and funny and sexy and taste-”

“Liss, I’m gonna stop you right there. I don’t need to hear about the flavor profilings of the human female. Again.” You held a hand up, giving her a face that said I’m done with this conversation.

“I’m just saying, don’t knock it ‘til you try it.” She shrugged, grinning. “Give me a hint about who this mystery man is and I’ll leave you alone, promise.” She held her pinky up.

“I don’t believe you, but fine.” You hooked your pinky into hers, just as you had done third grade on the playground that first day you both had met each other. “He’s… good on the ice.”

“Good on the ice?” Lissa repeated, disappointed with the ambiguity of this hint. “What’s that supposed to mean? There’s so many things that could mean!”

“Ah, ah, pinky promise.” You chided, shaking the hand that was still attached to yours. You raised your eyebrows, expecting a fight. Lissa only kept the pink promises that were really important.

“Fine.” Lissa sighed dramatically. You ignored that little pout, tapping awake your phone screen to view the newest text from Sam.

Sam found himself in a similar kind of situation, only, for him, Dean was much harder to shake off than Lissa.

“Sammy!” Dean drawled out, grinning. “Who’s got you giggling like a chick?” He plopped down onto the worn cushion of the couch.

“I’m not giggling, Dean.” Sam grumbled, clicking his phone off. He didn’t need Dean giving him shit for being “too romantic” or “too pussy-whipped” as he often did in situations like this. He’d gone through it the entire time with his ex. The brotherly taunting only got worse after Dean discovered the real reason Jess had broken up with him.

“I’m not giggling, Dean.” Dean repeated, in a mocking tone that was obviously supposed to imitate Sam. This earned him a firm push on the shoulder, which did little to move him thanks to his built upper body. “Come on, stop being such a wimp and show me.”

“You don’t need to know.” Sam stood, stretching his arms up and wincing at the soreness in his lower back. Maybe spending five hours straight studying solely the international relations between the United States and Russia wasn’t the best decision for his body.

“Uh, yeah,” Dean followed Sam up, looking quite annoyed at his little brother’s unwillingness to share, “I do.”

“Why?” Sam wasn’t going to give in so easily. He’d realized a few weeks ago how little secrets him and Dean had between each other when Dean had decided to share, in explicit detail, how his first threesome had gone. Sam cut him off at the first mention two pairs of hands grabbing Dean’s ass, unwilling to continue picturing the male-female-male event that had taken place in the bedroom next to his own. He was trying to change that codependency, create a little space between them.

“Well… because… you…,” Dean sputtered, trying to find a suitable answer. Evidently, he wasn’t used to Sam not being instantly obedient. A younger Sam, one who’d idolized Dean like he was God himself, wouldn’t have even required an interrogation. He would have gone running to Dean, words flowing out naturally. This Sam, the one standing four inches taller than his older brother, wasn’t so easy to work with. “I’m your brother, Sammy! You have to tell me.”

Now Dean was the one sounding like a chick, not that Sam would ever point that out to him.

“I don’t have to tell you anything.” Sam mumbled, turning to walk into the kitchen. His phone buzzed with a text from you, making a wide smile break across his face without him even realizing it. This also provided ample distraction for Dean to snatch up Sam’s phone, tapping and swiping through it like he was trying to find evidence for a murder case.

“You’re talking to a chick! God, Sammy, she's hot.” Dean wiggled his eyebrows with a smile that let the tip of his tongue peek out. Sam huffed in frustration, taking his phone back.

“She's off limits.” He grumbled, knowing exactly what Dean was thinking. Yes, it was true that most some of the girls he slept with usually ended up in his brother's bed as well. Often, he didn't care. Who was he to police who they slept with? It wasn't as if he was in love with any of those girls.

Dean always knew his limits. He didn't sleep with Jess because Dean knew Sam was really into her. Even that one sorority girl that had almost ruined Sam's life hadn't gotten into anything with Dean. Though, that may have been more to do with Dean claiming she was a demon from Hell that needed to be exorcised from the earth – dramatism was Dean's middle name – and less to do with Sam's intense whatever he'd had with her.

“Off limits?” Dean raised a brow, a grin spreading over his face. He knew what off limits meant. It meant-

“Sammy likes a gi-rl.” He said in a sing-songy voice, clutching his hands to his chest. “When’s the wedding? You’re wearing the dress, right?”

“Shut up.” Sam rolled his eyes, scoffing. “She’s… special. Just drop it.” He made his way to the refrigerator, pulling out a pre-made pressed juice. Dean nudged him out of the way to grab a beer for himself. How Dean could eat and drink like crap and still be in prime playing condition was beyond Sam. He played it safe with his high water intake and fresh veggies and expensive ass protein powder that the athletic department paid for.

“Ohhh… special, right.” Dean took a swig of his beer. “Why is that?”

Because she’s funny and smart and beautiful and dedicated and-

“She just is, okay?” Sam turned away, swallowing down the blush that threatened to creep up his cheeks. For all his big talk at parties and sport events, he sometimes felt like he was little Sammy again, the one that couldn’t talk to girls without his voice cracking. Though, he hadn’t found a girl that made him like that since Jess.

God, Jess. He should call her. Even broken up, they were still best friends. She’d been the first and only one – other than Dean, of course – to know the real reason why he was so dedicated to excelling at hockey. He’d been the first and only one – again, other than Dean – to know she was in love with her teammate. The same teammate who was her coach’s daughter, who, apparently, wasn’t “into girls like that” despite having really, really been into Jess at that pre-season party they’d all attended.

Yeah. He would call Jess to ask about you. Casually, of course. I mean, the girl’s hockey team and the figure skating team had to mingle, right? Maybe that was more of the mindset that all girls knew each other, something Jess constantly teased him about.

Now, he just had to find a way to coincidentally bring you up in conversation.

The day was finally here, a section of time when your schedules let up enough to allow for a date. You totally didn’t change your outfit more than necessary, and you’d taken an extra-long shower because you liked the water on your skin, not because you were shaving and scrubbing at everything with an obsessive precision.

A quick five-minute walk later, you were pulling open the door to the cafe, eyes glancing down at your phone to check for any I’m going to be late texts. Some would call the assumption pessimistic, you named it as playing it safe.

You did have a text sitting there in your notifications, it just wasn’t that text.

Waiting on someone else, pretty girl?

It had your eyes scanning the booth tables until you spotted a flop of brown hair and a red Stanford hoodie. Sam grinned at you, gesturing to the plastic cups of that heavenly lemonade sitting in front of him.

You hoped you didn’t look too giddy while you strode over to him.

“I didn’t think you’d show up on time.” You shot at him, settling in across from him.

“Timeliness is my middle name.” Sam scoffed playfully, feigning offense at your jab. Your smile blossomed without any conscious effort.

“Did you try it?” You nodded at his sweating cup, twirling the still-wrapped straw for your own between your fingers. He shook his head, making you frown slightly.

“Wanted to wait for you.” He admitted, his fingertips brushing against the back of your hand. It was like he couldn’t help himself, he just needed to touch you. A bloom of warmth filled you at the confession and for once you ignored the overwhelming urge to be a skeptic about the situation.

Sam really was just a nice guy who also happened to be really good at grinding.

“How charming.” You answered, actually meaning it despite the sarcasm that dripped from the words. He looked triumphant, as if you had just given him a gold-star sticker and called him a good boy.

You freed your straw from its paper, jabbing it through the designated spot on the lid, and flicked your gaze to Sam. He was watching you, amusement crossing his face when you scrunched your nose up.

“What?” You tried to force annoyance into your voice, annoyance that was quickly betrayed by the crooked smile that just slid into existence. He leaned forward, holding himself up on his forearms.

“You’re so cute.” He said it quietly, not needing to raise his volume thanks to his freakishly long torso that allowed him to get mere inches from your face. You shortened the distance further, nose almost brushing his.

“You’re cuter.” You mumbled, staring him straight in the eye. He held eye contact with you for a few moments and you forced your gaze to stay trained on his instead of flicking down to see how tempting his lips were today.

Finally breaking the tension of the moment, he settled back against the booth back, wrapping his hand around his cup.

Without saying a word, you both lifted your drinks, cheersing them together before bringing the straws to your lips. While you were silent about how good the beverage was, Sam let out a long, theatrical moan, rolling his eyes back. You blinked away the immediate flutter of need that sparked in you at the noise just in time for Sam to look back at you, wide eyed.

“This,” he pointed to his cup, “is the best thing I’ve ever tasted.” He beamed at you, smile widening when you let out a soft laugh.

“I told you it was good.” You replied, sipping the lemonade again.

“No.” Sam shook his head, locking eyes with you. “It’s not good. It’s heavenly.” His grin tilted a bit. “It’s only fitting, though, since I’m sharing it with an angel.”

You rolled your eyes playfully, fighting down the blush that was threatening to bloom on your cheeks.

“You have anything else planned for today, or was it just going to be lemonade and sex?” You asked bluntly, hoping to get a reaction out of him. It didn’t work.

“Lemonade and sex are perfectly good plans, pretty girl.” Sam sighed, leaning forward again. “But, no, that’s not all. There’s this bookstore a few blocks from here, closer to my place.”

“Are you just trying to get me closer to your bed?” You tilted your head, warmth flooding you at his small head shake and quiet chuckle.

“I just thought you’d like the store. I know you like books, or maybe you just like carrying them around everywhere to look smart.” He teased, looking at you with downturned eyes. You furrowed your brows, confused.

“You know I like books? How?” You couldn’t think of a time when you had brought that fact up, and it’d been a while since you actually read anything. As you excelled in your collegiate figure skating career, it became more demanding, forcing you to exchange lazy reading nights for military-grade skating training.

“Freshman year, eight-am psych class.” It was simple, as if it should cover any other questions you had. You thought for a moment, still drawing a blank on what this had to do with the conversation at hand.

Then you had it. You remembered, with a fuzzy brain, some boy with the same mop of brown hair you now had in front of you. Sam. He’d been a bit hesitant in the beginning of the semester, but by finals, he was having debates with the professor on whatever the lesson was focusing on. You’d forgotten about the class as a whole, the excitement of it getting eclipsed by your first year of college-level skating competitions, the same season you’d received first place at a state level.

“That was almost three years ago.” You answered, casually, as if you didn’t want to launch yourself across the table into his lap over the fact that he’d remembered your dorky-freshman self.

“You brought a book every day,” he continued to cement in his perfection, “And a new one almost every week.”

“You never said anything to me.”

“Why would I? You were this perfect figure skater and I was still Dean’s rookie little brother ‘Sammy.’” He scoffed, shaking his head. “You would have rejected me in an instant, gorgeous. I was a loser.” You didn’t think there was ever a time little could be used to describe Sam.

“You were hot back then, too, Sammy.” You teased, swiping the tip of your tongue over your lips. “I would have been all over you.” You watched him breathe out a laugh and place his hand on the table, palm turned up.

“Guess we should make up for lost time.” Sam looked into your eyes, almost challenging you. You stared at him for a few moments, trying to gauge whether or not he was serious about this. Could it be more than just sex for him?

You decided there was only one way to truly find out and laid your hand on his, intertwining fingers as he guided you out of the cafe and into a world of new beginnings.

icebreaker tags: @gigiwritess @h8aaz @angzls @myceliumsunshine @unfortunaterat

everything taglist : @littlesoulshine @sacr1ficialang3l @blossomingorchids @plasticflowersinahistorycemetery @mostlymarvelgirl @missus-ackles @tinas111 @ambiguous-avery @jollyhunter @saltcxrcle

sam winchester taglist : @hobiespick @xoswiftieprincess @whothefvckami

#supernatural #sam winchester #x reader #spn #supernatural x reader #sam winchester fluff #sam winchester x reader smut #sam winchester smut #sam winchester x reader #sam winchester fic #hockey!sam #stanford!sam #stanford!hockey player!sam winchester x figure skater!reader #stanford!sam winchester

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kissitbttr · 2 years ago

Text

miguel with a jealous fiance

“stare a little longer and you might actually kill her, y/n” jess chuckles as she follows your eyesight, spotting miguel being flirted by a woman whom you’ve never seen before.

you and miguel are attending a gala fundraiser. run by some rich bastard named ‘bruce wayne’. he didn’t want to go at first, but because mr. wayne had sent the invitations to you both himself, it would be rude not to attend. plus, it’s best if he’s out and try to socialize, make some new friends instead.

but now you’re starting to regret the decision when you see some red haired getting cozy with your man. she keeps touching his arm, giggling obnoxiously at something he said. which pisses you off because your fiancé is not that funny.

Ignoring jess’s comment, you twirl the wine glass softly, emerald green manicured nails clicking against it. you bite the inside of your cheek with cold eyes dead set on the girl. you wanted to laugh at how that woman had been trying too hard to catch his attention.

miguel isn’t doing anything rather than answering without holding an eye contact, casually sipping his whiskey on rock as he searches through the crowd. you could tell he’s annoyed. but it wouldn’t be polite for him to tell her to fuck off, would it?

god, you wish he had the balls to actually do it.

“you know he wouldn’t do such thing right?”

scoffing as if it’s the most stupid question ever, you nod. of course he wouldn’t. he’s too damn crazy about you.

“i know. it’s her i don’t trust” you mutter, almost growling. “that bitch could clearly see he has a ring on his finger. she fucking blind or something?!”

jess could only laugh while shaking her head. she thinks you and miguel are too much alike. a perfect pair. “then show her who’s the boss.”

“oh i will” you respond with hesitation, gulping down every last drop of your drink before setting the glass down on the table. “be right back”

with that, you flick your hair over your shoulder, adjusting the straps of your silky emerald green dress and begin walking towards your fiancé’. jess’s commentary about ‘try not to kill her’ from behind fall deaf upon your ears.

sorry, jess. no promises.

you could feel all eyes on you as you walk. it’s hard not to. men and women craning their shoulders to get a better look at the beautiful woman who looks like she’s invented class and beauty herself. the world completely stop when you walk through the crowd.

and not to be cocky or anything, but you’re fully aware of how gorgeous you are. with curves that look like built by the gods themselves, full plump soft lips and long, beautiful thick hair that cascade down to your back and eyes sharp enough to draw sailors if you were ever a siren.

it’s like looking at freyja the goddess whom paid a visit on earth.

as miguel’s eyes continues to scan through the busy evening filled with mindless chatters, his dark red irises then stop at you. a small grin creeps to his face when he sees you walking towards him with your head held up high.

but your eyes aren’t on him, it’s on the woman.

“i just think, that you are sooo-“

“so what?” you cut her off with a fake smile and arms crossed over your chest. standing beside your soon to be husband, you watch how the woman’s eyes then flicker to your figure. “making friends without me, my love? how impolite”

miguel shakes his head, his hand quick enough to snake around your waist pulling you close. “of course not, mi vida. this is—“

“not interested. so, you wanna fuck my husband?” your voice coming off venomous, glaring at the woman who seems to be shocked at your question.

a sigh escape from miguel’s mouth, one that implies ‘this is not going to be good’

the woman has her mouth hang wide open as she struggles to respond. she can’t exactly decide whether she’s intimidated by you or attracted to you.

“i—i’m so sorry… I didn’t know he had a wife—“

with a scoff, you roll your eyes. “you’ve been eyeing and talking to my man for at least twenty minutes. you’re saying that your eyesight is so fucking jacked you couldn’t even see the ring on his finger?!”

miguel could only stand there and listening to you scold the woman. because if there’s one thing he learned being with you? is that to not meddle or interrupt.

she shakes her head rapidly, stuttering out a nervous response, “n-no! i—i—I did see it, i j-just thought—“

“oh you did see it!” you exhale a sarcastic laugh. “and what, you think it’s okay to flirt with someone else’s husband when clearly he has no interest?! you really think he’s gonna go for you, sweetheart?”

the tone of your voice is far from polite. miguel could sense that, and he squeezes your waist in attempt for you to take it easy on the girl but you only shrug it off and pay no mind to it.

the woman look like she’s about to cry by how you’re scolding her. shaking quiet a bit and embarrassed that her flirty gesture had failed to steal someone else’s man.

“i’m s-sorry… I’m—i—“

“you” your raise your finger at her face. “need to get the fuck out of my sight before i drag you by the hair and beat your ass hard that no one will ever recognize that pretty face of yours again.”

she nods quickly at that, taking her champagne flute before walking away quickly. you’re still fuming on the inside. glaring at the back of that girl’s head until she’s fully disappears.

“damn, mami” miguel lowly whistles, a dark chuckle follows after as he moves to stand in front of you. hand around your waist still attached, pulling you close to him. “you’re so sexy when you get jealous.”

jealous. you hate that word.

everyone needs to know that you don’t take it lightly when it comes to miguel. he belongs to you and vice versa. and if you have to beat a bitch up to get your point across, then so be it.

“let’s get one thing straight, miguel. I don’t get jealous” You emphasize the word as you turn your focus on Miguel, giving him a stern look. “I get territorial. they need to know that you’re my man. I see a girl trying to take over my territory, then consider her fucking finished. you got that?”

miguel can’t argue with the fact that you just turned him on just by saying that. especially when you come off as demanding like this. It’s one of the reason why he fell in love with you.

bossy. ambitious. confident. and Independent. traits that miguel loves in a woman.

he smirks, looking down at you as he clicks his tongue against his bottom teeth. “yes, ma’am” he replies with a nod.

you nod back, crossing your arms. “good.”

“and just when i thought you couldn’t get any sexier” he shakes his head, squeezing your ass before leaning down a bit to give you a kiss on your cheek. “you do”

rolling your eyes, you lightly shove his shoulder. yet you can’t help but blush at the gesture. “easy there… we’re in public.”

he cocks an eyebrow, palm not leaving your ass. “and when has that ever stopped you before, mi amor?”

you bite your lower lip softly, remembering the times when you and miguel had done it over and over outside the comfort of your home.

yeah, both of you are pretty experimental.

“bathroom in 5. don’t keep me waiting”

#miguel o’hara blurbs #miguel o’hara fluff #miguel o'hara x reader #miguel o’hara

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miajooz · 4 months ago

Text

★ Do I Wanna Know? ★ ⌞ part 1 - intro ⌝

overview ★ - Part 1 • You and Ellie are in the same rock band: The Immunity. She is the guitarist while you’re the vocalist. The band is actually pretty successful, your fan base is favorable. One thing your bandmates and fans notice though, is the tension between the guitarist and the vocalist. After your latest concert, suspicions are confirmed.

warnings ★ - no smut yet! wlw content, making out, ‘the knee thing,’ slow burn, lesbian jokes

part 2 here

. ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁˖ . ݁ . ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁˖ . ݁ . ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁˖ . ݁ . ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁˖ . ݁ . ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁˖ . ݁ . ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁˖ . ݁

The Immunity: A rock band you started with your childhood best friend, Ellie, and the rest of your friend group. This was a topic you and Ellie talked about for years, so when it was accomplished the two of you were elated. When the two of you would hang out as teenagers at Ellie’s house, you’d watch as her adopted father, Joel, taught Ellie how to play the guitar.

Joel taught Ellie how to play a Taylor guitar, she was immediately hooked. She’d play for you almost every hangout, the songs she learned were usually classic rock songs that she spent hours perfecting so she could show you. You loved it, Ellie really was a talented person and you couldn’t help but admire her. She was so passionate too, that’s probably where the feelings started. After her whole fixation on guitars, she got an Electric Guitar on her birthday. With that going on, you wanted a talent too. More preferably a talent you could do with Ellie — something that complimented both your ears for music.

Singing had always been a fun activity for you, so that was the first thing you thought of for a talent you could do with Ellie. You looked up to a lot of people — like Amy Lee from Evanescence and whatnot. When you presented this idea to Ellie, she was thrilled. You’d sing to her and she’d play the guitar for you, it wasn’t long before you both were practicing everyday in Joel’s garage.

When you were both older, out of high school, and started to go out more, that’s when you were finally able to meet more people. Jesse was a guy you met at some party, he was really chill. He explained how he played the drums and that intrigued you and Ellie. He of course joined the group and you’d practice — still in Joel’s garage, unfortunately.

You and Ellie didn’t have your own house for awhile, you both dreamed of having your own place together and Joel helped. Now you could practice in your own garage, you got significantly less complaints. After a month or so from getting your house and all that, you met a girl named Dina. Dina could play bass, she was actually really talented in the matter. So of course — she joined the group.

The talk about starting a band had been on your mind for a while, you and Ellie dreamed about it for a while. Why not give it a shot, what could go wrong? That’s what you told your friends at least. To your luck, they actually agreed. That’s how all of this started.

It took awhile for The Immunity to be a known band, but your fan base continued to grow. Everything was worth the wait when you guys started doing concerts. Concerts were especially fun for you, who wouldn’t want to sing and preform in front of an audience like that? The energy was always great, you loved preforming with Ellie by your side.

Ellie would always watch from a bit behind, admiring you. She’d admire how your voice echoed through the venue when you sang, she admired the way you held the microphone in your hand. She loved how you could please the crowd and emit an almost contagious energy, Ellie admired every thing about you. But her feelings for you started much earlier.

She knew she had feelings for you for awhile, but seeing you do something you loved so much with her by your side made her crush on you almost double. You were the most beautiful girl in her life, maybe even the world to her. Jesse and Dina definitely noticed her fixation on you — unfortunately your fanbase did to. An even more unfortunate case was that they knew you liked her back.

It was so obvious in the way you two interacted. The casual way she’d put an arm around your waist while you talked to the crowd or interviewers. The way she would look at you like there was nothing else around, or maybe the way she’d just be caught eying you up and down — which of course there was video evidence of made by a fan. She was smitten, and you knew it.

You liked her just as much, and you knew she knew it. Everyone knew it, your friends and fans teased you for it. When someone would ask if you and Ellie were actually a couple you’d just smile and brush it off, even though you longed to be her girlfriend for the longest time. Ellie was perfect for you, you wanted her so bad it was nearly painful.

The temptation you felt when you saw a ship edit or posts about the two of you was unreal. So badly you wanted to make it official, and you knew she did too. The only fear being that you didn’t want to ruin anything in the band. If you broke up, what would happen to the band? You didn’t want to risk anything, it was so much work to get here. But the temptation to just kiss Ellie in front of that whole audience was suffocating. This concert though, that choice was made for you.

You were in the middle of your set, singing passionately like you did every concert; this was routine. While walking around stage, you wrapped an arm around Ellie’s shoulders. She looked at you with a lopsided smile, when you peeled your eyes away from the crowd, you made eye contact with her. Your eyes were locked, the tension was so thick your singing almost faltered. Dina and Jesse looked at each other from the back, trying not to laugh — the crowd was going crazy.

Ellie’s eyes were locked on yours, appreciating your face. She loved how your lips moved when you sang, she loved how your hair framed your face messily. She almost dropped her guitar pick, she would much rather have her hands on you instead. You eventually brought yourself back to Earth, removing your arm from her shoulders and walking away. Ellie watched you walk away, the tension still lingering.

When the song finished, the crowd was cheering loudly. Screams, cheers, whistling, all of it. You had a stupid smile on your face, Ellie took notice of this and gawked at you a bit. She walked forwards on the stage to stand next to you, you immediately felt the tension again. You began talking to the crowd, trying to get the energy going again.

“Is everybody having a good time?”

As soon as you asked, the crowd cheered and screamed. You laughed in response, which Ellie admired, of course. She snaked an arm around your waist, the gesture made your breath hitch. To your embarrassment, the crowd heard your caught breath from the microphone you had held up to your lips and started screaming. You quickly recovered and threw an arm around Ellie’s shoulders again, holding her right against your side.

“Can we just appreciate how angelic our lovely vocalist sounds today? Come on, make some noise.”

Ellie said smoothly to the audience, which earned her the responses she wanted. You felt very flattered, and her raspy voice made you feel things you hadn’t felt in awhile. Her calloused fingers against your waist was making you dizzy, something about her enamored you so much — you swore you were about to just pounce on her. You blew a few kisses in appreciation for the cheering, scanning the crowd. One of the biggest signs and the crowd was illuminated in the lights.

You noticed the sign first, and read it as Ellie talked to the crowd. Upon reading the sign, you weren’t exactly shocked, but your stomach was doing backflips — the sign just said “KISS!” Ellie seemed to feel you tense up, her eyes darted towards where you looking. When she read the sign, a slow, almost guileful smile appeared on her face. She turned to you, which made your heart beat faster.

“Kiss, huh? Why haven’t we done that?”

Ellie asked you teasingly, but you could tell there was some truth to it. You knew she meant it, hell, everyone in that fucking venue knew it. But you wanted it, more than anything you wanted her to kiss you. You couldn’t even make a snarky remark back, because you were cut off by a pair of lips on your own.

Ellie turned you to face her, put her hand on the back of your neck, and kissed you. It was a soft kiss, but it lasted long — almost too long. The crowd was going absolutely berserk. Everybody had their phones out and were recording this, you could practically smell the edits you’d wake up to. Jesse and Dina were whistling and sneaking pictures, they would never let you live this down.

You only kissed back for a brief moment, before she pulled away from you. It was embarrassing how you tried to chase her lips when she pulled away, especially in front of your fans — but you missed her chapped lips as soon as they were gone. The next song immediately started up, Ellie let go of you and spun around to walk back to her respected place on stage. You stood there dumbfounded, all you could do was watch. There’s no way, your childhood best friend just kissed you. In front of HUNDREDS of people.

It was nearly impossible to focus on the song, but you reminded yourself that you had a crowd to entertain. You kept eye contact with her as you started singing again, but you reluctantly averted your eyes towards the stage again. By some miracle, you were able to focus on the lyrics of the song, you were almost able to pretend it didn’t happen. But you knew it happened, everybody saw it. You could feel the lingering feeling of her lips, you could feel the tension, the screams in the crowd going crazy over what just happened — it was almost overwhelming.

Eventually, the set was over. The whole band was exhausted, since the only break you took was to be kissed by Ellie — that put you even more out of breath.

“Thank you all so much for coming out tonight, I appreciate you all so, so much! I hope to see you guys soon, don’t forget about the album, yeah?”

You smiled and waved at the crowd, excited cheers making you smile wider in response. Ellie approached you again, and of course everyone went crazy, the screams became more excited. She ran her hand down your back, watching you try your best not to squirm or lose your fucking mind. You were falling apart, where did this sudden confidence come from? Was she trying to tease the crowd? Was she just trying to embarrass you? No, you knew that wasn’t the reason.

The rest of the band and yourself went backstage, Ellie’s hand was still on your back — almost too low. As soon as you stepped into the hidden room, Jesse started bursting out laughing.

“No fucking shot you just kissed in front of everybody! Do you even know what you’ve done to yourselves?!”

Jesse was practically doubled over, wheezing. You never felt such utter humiliation in your life, this was worse than that time Ellie loudly called you out for having your zipper down in front of your whole Chemistry class. Or that time you fell down the stairs during a fire drill. It was clear embarrassment followed you into adulthood — especially now.

“Oh, shut the hell up. It’s not like people didn’t already make fanfics and edits about this. I’ve SEEN the smut fics, Jesse. The word ‘strap’ has its own vein in my brain.”

Ellie bit back, her tone was too serious for what she said. She had her arm wrapped snuggly around your waist. You stayed silent, frozen from the casual gesture that felt so intimate now. Dina was trying her best not to laugh for your own sake — complete opposite of Jesse.

“Don’t play stupid, you gal pal. You know good and well why that happens to you! So your genius idea was to kiss her? Nice one.”

Jesse wheezed out, he was hollering, this was something straight out of a TV show. You wanted to curl up in a savanna and get crushed by an elephant. Dina eventually butted in, of course she was gonna rip on you for this; she couldn’t hold back anymore.

“Oh yeah, that’s true. You literally look at each other like you want to go bumper to bumper, clam to clam, donut to donut, full on—“

She was cut off by her own wheeze, it was much too loud. You were bright red at this point, your arm around Ellie. This was getting ridiculous, it was just a kiss..right? Seriously, friends kissed all the time — that’s what you told yourself, anyway. But friends didn’t crave more, friends don’t dream about that at night and want other ungodly things to occur. But then again, you had too much tension to be labeled as just friends.

“Hey, lay off, would you? You act like we went full on rug muncher on stage.”

You said in defense — but it was a weak one, too weak. Ellie cackled at this, wishing you could go further, but in privacy. Your comment seemed to rile them up even more, Jesse was laughing hysterically and hitting Dina with a stick from his drum set.

“Yeah, tell that to the hundreds of people who saw that — you..clam wrestler..?”

It was silence, crickets. The silence lasted about five seconds before everybody started laughing. Why was your straight best friend better at Lesbian jokes than you were? Ellie squeezed your shoulder tight, it made your laughing almost falter. Your arm was still around her, it felt so intimate and you didn’t want to let go.

Eventually Dina and Jesse waltzed off somewhere, preparing to go back to the airbnb, they sounded like two elephants giving birth — who laughs that loud?

You and Ellie made eye contact again, you felt your stomach do slips. It felt like she was undressing you with her eyes — even though she looked at you so casually. Internally, she was freaking out too, she couldn’t stop thinking about how she kissed you — and how she wanted to do it over and over again. You stared at each other in silence for a moment, the tension was too much.

“Ellie..did we fuck up?”

You asked, your tone was much more serious now. Your worst fear was ruining the band or causing issues, but this seems so far from an issue.

“Nah, that’s not even rational. The damage was done ages ago, ever since we started this band.”

Ellie replied, rubbing the back of her neck. You kept eye contact, unable to peel your eyes away from her.

“I’ve been waiting for you to do that. You don’t know how long I’ve wanted that.”

You said genuinely, your eyes practically piercing each other. There was a pressure weighing down your lungs, this was bad. Ellie smiled in response, she saw the nerves on your face wash away into something different. A wanting feeling, and she wanted it too.

“Oh for fucks sake, I can’t do this.”

Without a second thought, Ellie leaned forward and kissed you again, her almost desperate voice was cut off. It was so much more intimate now that the two of you weren’t in front of a giant crowd. You immediately wrapped yours arms around her in return, and she let go of your hip with one hand to grab the back of your head. The two of you were locked in a passionate embrace, tongues tied like you were trying to devour each other. You were making out with sheer need, all those years of tension, crushing, casual touches, ship edits, all of it was for this moment. The two of you pulled away briefly, panting a bit. It didn’t last long, your lips almost immediately reconnected.

“Ellie, we— we have to— fuck..”

You said between kisses, but she couldn’t stop, and neither could you. Ellie backed you up against the wall, her hands moving down to your hips. Your breath hitched when your back hit the wall, but you recovered and kept kissing Ellie. Your lips were red and nearly swollen, the passion was unmatched. She moved her knee up to press between your legs, pushing up against your clothed cunt. You melted, you let out a pleasured sigh into Ellie’s mouth.

In the midst of your lively make out session, you were interrupted by Dina, she knocked on the wall to get you and Ellie’s attention. You and Ellie pulled your lips away from each other’s with a gasp, your head snapping towards her direction. There was saliva dripping down your lip.

“Hey, our ride is here.”

Dina said casually, it was clear she didn’t want to embarrass you to bad. You almost fell for it, but you knew better — your suspicions were confirmed when you could hear her cackling down the small hallway.

Ellie wiped the saliva on your lip with her thumb, followed by wiping her own lip as well. She reluctantly let go of you, fixing the hair in the back of your head she messed up. She looked at you so lovingly, you could see in her eyes how she felt. She didn’t even have to say anything — you knew.

“Cmon, let’s go. Can we continue this, please?”

You said breathlessly, trying to catch your breath. she gave you a lopsided smile and nodded, grabbing your hand and leading you to the exit of the venue.

“You can keep your hands to yourself until we get back, yeah?

She said lowly, but she was doubting her own abilities the most.

Oh, this was bad.

@eriiwaii

. ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁˖ . ݁ . ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁˖ . ݁ . ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁˖ . ݁ . ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁˖ . ݁ . ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁˖ . ݁ . ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁˖ . ݁

#ellie williams #ellie williams imagine #sapphic #wlw love #lesbian #tlou part 2 #slow burn #wlw #rockstar!ellie #modern au

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seeeuspaceecowboyyy · 11 months ago

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Y’all I hate when Miguel is portrayed as the “silent brooding” type in fics. Like yeah he had his brooding moments in the film but canonically he’s so sassy. Literally always has a comeback (maybe not super witty) and yeah he might be a bit awkward and mopey but he’s not shy or quiet. Irritated and grumpy maybe but not silent. He’s a talker and he’s got some sass. Just look at how he talks with Lyla, Peter, and Jess.

I also don’t like when he’s portrayed as “unreasonably cruel”. If that were the case, Peter B. and Jess would not have stood behind him and supported him all those times before the Miles incident. You can tell he really cares deep down when he:

• Lets Gwen join the Spider Society despite his reservations because he knows what it feels like to lose family

• Keeps Lyla around even though all she does is tease him because if he was a jerk he wouldn’t have wanted to put up with that and would have just shut her down instantly

• Carefully holds and watches Mayday while she’s with him instead of recoiling from her

• Tries to patiently explain the spider-verse canon problem to Miles and you can see the sympathy yet determination in his eyes when he tries to reason with Miles about the sacrifices of being Spider-Man

• Shows Miles his most vulnerable and heartbreaking moment as a way to connect with him

• He regularly calls for backup and works in a team instead of just going on his own which shows how much he trusts and appreciates his colleagues

I just wish we could have seen more of his normal interactions with other characters when he’s not dealing with high pressure situations.

(Edit: Yeah he got crazy scary during the Miles chase scene and kicked Gwen out at the end. I’ll admit he’s got a temper. But he was desperate guys. It was life or death to him and linked to his trauma with losing Gabriella. He literally thought another universe would collapse again if he didn’t do anything to stop it, making it partly his fault. It wasn’t just a pride thing. He felt like there was so much at stake and that’s why he went ballistic on Miles, just to make him listen.)

#wow didn’t mean to write this essay but obviously I have some things to say about migue #he’s under a lot of stress and pressure #give him a break #miguel o'hara #across the spiderverse #spiderverse #spider verse #spider man 2099 #atsv miguel #miguel headcanons #atsv #Miguel essay #miguel spiderverse

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theshiniestgemstone · 3 months ago

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my wife- fem!reader x gideon gemstone

summary: in which a slip of the tongue lets the cat out of the bag

warnings: none

It was one of those slow, golden afternoons at the lake house—warm and lazy in the way that begged for sunburns and slightly-too-sweet lemonade. Everyone was sprawled out across the yard in various states of half-conscious relaxation. Eli sat in a wicker chair under the shade of an umbrella, sunglasses perched on his nose, his Bible in one hand and a sweating glass of iced tea in the other. Jesse and Amber were bickering lightly near the grill, Jesse jabbing the tongs in her direction every time she corrected his technique.

You were settled on a blanket spread over the grass, legs tucked neatly beneath you as you tried to keep your sundress from riding up too far. Gideon sat beside you, leaned back on his hands, ankles crossed, his eyes half-lidded from the sun and the comfort of being home.

Pontious and Abraham were tossing a football back and forth while Keefe—sweet, ever-patient Keefe—sat on a stump nearby, watching like a proud coach even though he didn’t seem entirely sure what was going on, whether it was two man football or just a game of catch or keep away. The family had spent most of the afternoon tossing playful jabs at each other and unlike other times, you earned your own. Mostly about how you and Gideon look at each other, but it's a rite of passage. Judy was in rare form today, all high-volume opinions and deeply questionable fashion choices, flopped on a pool chair with a wine spritzer. She took a lazy sip, then zeroed in on you.

“Y’all see how her hair’s puffed up like a cotton ball?” Judy said, grinning. “Girl, this humidity is committing war crimes on your head. Look like a Bratz doll who stuck a fork in an outlet.”

You blinked, caught off guard for half a second before you could formulate a response. But before you could say a word, Gideon casually looped his arm around your shoulders and drew you in closer.

“Don’t talk about my wife like that,” he said, lighthearted but with enough weight to still the air.

Every conversation around the yard stopped. Even the football hit the ground with a thud after whizzing past Pontious's head. You could feel your heart leap into your throat, suddenly very aware of every eye in the Gemstone family squarely on you.

Jesse squinted, his mouth twitching into a knowing grin. “That’s why you’ve had that moony look in your eyes all week,” he said, pointing a pair of tongs straight at Gideon. “Boy’s been walking around like he’s in a damn perfume commercial.”

Amber’s eyebrows shot up. “You married her?” she asked, her tone more curious than judgmental. “Like… for real?”

Gideon, who hadn’t moved his arm, just nodded. Then he smiled down at you, gently brushing a piece of hair away from your face like it hadn’t just been the most monumental reveal in the middle of a casual afternoon.

You were caught somewhere between mortified and glowing.

Eli chuckled low from his seat, shaking his head. “Well, I’ll be. I had a feeling. The boy's been smiling like he’s got a secret.”

Pontious just let out a long, “Daaaaamn,” while Abraham clapped a hand over his mouth, like the word wife had physically stunned him.

And Judy, after a beat of wide-eyed silence, muttered, “Guess the hair’s not that bad,” before tipping back the last of her spritzer.

Keefe, sweet and wide-eyed, clapped softly. “Aw, I love love.”

There was a brief silence, then Jesse slapped Gideon on the back with a laugh, nearly knocking him forward. “You better be treating her right, son. And you—” he turned to you, wagging a finger, “—if you hurt him, we will televise the revenge.”

You just gave him your best innocent smile, sliding your hand into Gideon’s without a word. Gideon leaned into you a little more, whispering under his breath, “Guess the cat’s outta the bag.”

“Yeah,” you murmured, smirking. “And so is the ‘moony look,’ apparently.”

He groaned, burying his face in your shoulder.

You shifted slightly under the weight of everyone's eyes, tucking a loose strand of hair behind your ear, the sundress riding up again as you crossed your ankles tighter. The air was thick with curiosity and disbelief, but also—somewhere under all the noise—something close to acceptance.

“Well,” you started, trying to smooth your voice, “we could have been a little more subtle about it.”

Gideon let out a short breath, somewhere between a laugh and a wince.

“A little?” Amber deadpanned, crossing her arms. “Y’all dropped a bomb like it was a group text about brunch.”

Eli, to his credit, just chuckled again, still relaxed under his umbrella. “Sounds like y’all did what made sense for you.”

"See! He gets it!" You gave him a grateful glance. “We tried to plan it. We really did.”

“Oh, God, did we,” Gideon added with an exaggerated groan. “It was like every time we talked about it, someone had an opinion. Y'all wanted doves."

"My mom wanted it at home."

"Her uncle wanted it outdoors. Her cousin thought she should wear cream.”

You shuddered at the idea of wearing the same cream wedding dress your cousin offered for 'good luck'. But with three baby daddies and four divorces, you thought about burning it.

“Cream?” Judy scrunched up her face. “Like milk?”

“And my family kept sending links to, like, five different venues—across four states,” you said, shaking your head. “It stopped being about us and started being… I don’t know. An event for everyone else. Song requests in my DMs from distant relatives."

Gideon nodded. "I love her as much as the next guy, but Adele at a wedding?"

Jesse snorted. "We could have had her perform live for y'all."

“We were already living together,” Gideon added, his voice softer now. “We’d already chosen each other. So one night we were just like… why not?”

“So you just did it?” Abraham asked, his mouth full of chips.

You nodded. “Drove down to Tallahassee, signed the papers, got lunch after. Nothing fancy. But it felt… right.”

Abraham looked mildly offended. “And none of us were invited?”

Jesse just scoffed. “Son, I didn’t even get a phone call.”

“You would’ve live-streamed it,” Gideon said flatly.

“And thrown doves,” you added with a smirk.

Amber held up a hand. “Okay, wait—Tallahassee? Like… Florida?”

“Yeah,” Gideon shrugged. “They had a drive-thru chapel. And there was a restaurant across the street that gives free meals to newlyweds."

Eli laughed out loud then, shaking his head. “Well, I suppose it’s better than the time Jesse proposed to Amber during the Fourth of July fireworks.”

“Oh my Lord,” Amber muttered. “We said we’d never bring that up again.”

Judy, now two drinks in, lifted her glass lazily. “Here’s to the freaks who get married in Florida.”

“Hell yeah,” Gideon murmured, squeezing your hand again.

The moment passed into laughter and teasing again, just like that, the same warm chaos as before. Except now you weren’t just with Gideon—you were his, fully and unapologetically.

And as he leaned over to kiss your cheek, murmuring a “thanks for not running away,” you just smiled.

“Was never gonna run, Gemstone. I drove to Tallahassee for you, remember?”

He grinned, glowing with that soft, stupid, moony look all over again.

#gideon gemstone #skyler gisondo #gideon gemstone x you #gideon gemstone x reader

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dollyhao · 2 years ago

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sending nudes to a high ellie

cw: phone sex, high ellie, mutual masturbation, dirty talk

“baby…” ellie says through the phone sounding desperate as ever. she missed her girl friend so bad. she went on a friends trip with jesse and dina. you couldn’t come because you had to work still.

but two days in, you were completely regretting not calling off and going with her, especially since your super horny right now and it wasn’t fair that you were the only one.

“yea els?” you say feigning innocent. you sent ellie a video of you riding the purple dildo she loves using on you.

in the video your whimpering and moaning out ellie’s name begging her to come home to take care of you. ellie was around her friends smoking and laughing when the message came in. she immediately jumped up excusing herself seeing the content of the video.

after ellie watched the video she immediately called you, super horny. “oh baby i wish i was there to take care of you,” you hear her heavy breathing over the phone. “tell me what you want me to do when i get home.”

“i want you to kiss me while you fuck me with your fingers. i can’t reach the way you can.” ellie moans out on the other side of the phone. you assume that she must be playing with herself. ellie’s palm of her hand bumps her clit, throwing her head back. “oh— fuck, what else.”

you rub your legs together trying to ease the ache. you whimper, “i want you to fuck me so hard you get me pregnant.”

you and ellie both know that she can’t get you pregnant. but her head is foggy from smoking and pure lust, so the thought of breeding you and getting you pregnant pushes her over edge. ellie cums on her fingers, moaning out your name.

“imma be home in one more day baby, wait for me” and says with a raspy voice panting, “i promise i’ll fuck you so hard, i’ll pump you full of my kids.”

#i really like writing about phone sex…#lesbian #the last of us #wlw #ellie williams #ellie williams x reader #ellie williams smut

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elliesbabygirl · 4 months ago

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GOLDEN RULE [E.W]

synopsis: In which you meet ellie at a coffee shop, or in true order, Jesse messes up your order and ellie comps your drink while flirting with you, from behind the counter.

Warnings: no warnings! unless you're not into intended-lowercase from a lazy author.

–cutesy flirting and ellie being perfect.... (I love her)

Author's note: This is a sfw one-shot but my account is 18+ and therefore would like minors to not interact with this post or my blog in general.

- Petal & Pines Co. Coffee

The soft humming of espresso machines fill the air, blending into the quiet chatter of early customers. The energy of the coffee shop energizing you as the cashier calls for the next person in line.

"Can i get a medium vanilla latte, two extra shots of espresso and almond milk?" The barista's half-paying attention to you as he talks to his coworker down the prep line.

"Yeah, sure thing. Vanilla latte, extra shots and almond milk...got it." The barista, Jesse, presses a few buttons on the ipad register, fumbling with your cup as he turns around to make your vanilla latte.

Jesse's movements are sloppy as he rushes. Tossing the almond milk to the side as he grabs the regular milk instead and starts pouring.

"I asked for almond milk?" You didn't want to get a stomach ache by drinking regular milk. Jesse's mouth forms an 'oh' as he turns back to you. Replacing the cow milk for almond milk. spilling some in the process, before wiping it up with a nearby rag.

you watch as Jesse starts pouring the espresso, but the machine starts sputtering, letting out a loud, angry noise. The high-pitched whine cutting through the atmosphere as Jesse flinches .

"i got this Jesse, go take your break man — what can I get you?" An auburn haired girl with freckles looks at you, effortlessly shifting into the space behind the counter while flashing you a smile.

"she got uh–a vanilla latte with almond milk and two extra shots of espresso!!" She nods at Jesse's words, muttering 'vanilla latte' as she grabs a to-go up.

"what's your name?–I'm ellie!" Like it was muscle memory, Ellie pulls for the fresh shots of espresso. A smile on your face from her charisma, giving her your name and watching as she repeats it, like she was trying to remember it.

"Y/n? cute...I love it" Ellie says, steaming the almond milk in the pitcher as she keeps eye contact with you. Taking in your appearance, biting the corner of her bottom lip like she was in deep-thought.

"Have you been here before?– I've never seen you before today" She asks, pouring the two shots of espresso into the to-go cup.

"No yeah- it's my first time here!"Ellie eyebrows shoot up at your words, a nervous smile creeping on her face as she looks down. Pouring the steamed almond milk into the cup, watching as the liquid turns into a satisfying light brown.

"Really?" She adds a lid, sliding the to-go cup across the counter. You expectantly look at Ellie, waiting for her to tell you the cost of your drink.

"oh..it's on the house, don't worry about it!" She says, shrugging her shoulders with a giddy smile. A rag in her hand as she wipes down the pickup counter.

"How is it? is it better than Jesse's?" Ellie beams at your approval when you take your first sip and give her a thumbs up. She plays with her fingers, thinking on whether she should ask you for your number or not. –Why not?

"you're really pretty–"

"can i get your–"

You both cut eachother off, staring at eachother with smiles that can only be described as awkward. Ellie awkwardly clears her throat, the nerves getting to her as she tries again.

"Can i get your number?– you're really pretty" Ellie asks again. Making you smile as you nod, grabbing the marker that Ellie fumbles with as she tries to rip off a piece of paper towel to act as paper.

A smile beaming across Ellie's face as she takes the paper towel piece from you. Looking down at it, reading your number with the drawn heart next to it.

xxx-702-xxxx –> y/n ❤︎

"Text me, yeah?" She nods ecstatically, watching you walk out the brewery and down the street from the large glass bay-window in front of the shop.

"she said yes....to me" Ellie whispers to herself from behind the counter.

"dude...you're actually hopeless"

"shut up, jesse.."

"are you paying for her drink..?"

The vanilla latte was in fact NOT on the house. Ellie's wallet was now seven dollars shorter...

xxx-749-xxxx:

Hey, it's ellie from the brewery

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slapthosewilliessilly · 5 months ago

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The shit these drugs will do to you

Josh Washington x AFAB Reader

Warnings; MDNI 18+, smut, AFAB reader, Asthmatic Reader, Stoner Josh, Weed smoker Josh, Josh is a fucking muncher, begging, oral receiving (fem), drug use, body worship if you squint, semi established relationship, partying, awkward situation

I wrote this while I was insanely stoned and sipping chocolate milk hope y’all enjoy! Requests are still up just send a message whenever!

Photo credit to anti.huntress on instagram!

🪷🪷🪷🪷🪷🪷🪷🪷🪷🪷🪷🪷🪷🪷🪷🪷🪷

“You uh- you ever smoke before?” Josh asked, his back turned towards you as he seemed to dig around in his drawer for something.

Your eyebrow arched as you watched him, sat criss crossed on Josh’s bed. Swirling whatever bright blue concoction Jess poured for you in the cup in your hand. God that was forever ago- hard to forget it’s 3AM and all the others were passed out for the night. “I mean I’ve taken a hit off of Jess’ geek bar before. Almost died.” That made Josh chuckle.

“No I’m not talking about a geek bar.” Josh said before turning around, showing a small baggie with some joints inside making your eyes widen slightly. You never knew he smoked pot. “Can’t say that I have.” You answered.

“Do you…” Josh started before taking a seat on the bed. “Want to have some? With me?” First time you’ve seen Josh almost nervous.

“I mean sure but-“ you hesitated. “I have asthma Josh I don’t know if it’s the smartest idea for me.” You felt almost disappointed by your own answer, it was embarrassing sometimes.

“We can shot gun it.” Josh suggested almost too quickly, the faintest blush on his face. You chuckled, unfamiliar with the term. “Shot gun a joint? Dude what does that even mean?”

Josh grinned slightly again as he opened the small baggie and pulled out one of his joints. “Well would you rather me tell you about it,” Josh spoke before setting the baggie to the floor and holding the joint between his thumb and index finger, looking at you with an expression similar to one of endearment. “or do you want me to show you?”

That made your cheeks flush slightly, his usual cool and collected tone seemed sweeter- excited almost. You felt your thighs twitch absentmindedly, you could always blame it on the alcohol.

“Show me.”

You spoke with a breathless whisper, surprised that Josh could even hear you. But he did. He grinned before scooting closer to you, “Just relax, I’m taking care of you- just follow my lead.” He reassured you, once you nodded he brought his joint to his lips and dug in his back pocket for his little flip lighter.

Watching Josh smoke was definitely doing something to you, you weren’t sure exactly why but seeing how his lips were wrapped around it and inhaling was sending heat straight to your core. You wondered how good he’d look with his lips wrapped around something else.

God you sounded like Mike.

Josh gave you a sideways glance as he exhaled through his nostrils, a small smirk tugging on the corners of his lips. He brought the joint to his lips once more, inhaling deeply before turning to face you. The joint in one hand, his other hand gently caressing the side of your face. A look on his face seemingly asking ‘you ready?’

You nodded, suddenly your mouth felt dry. Josh leaned forward- his thumb brushing over your bottom lip as he gently began to blow the smoke into your mouth, lips just an inch away as your eyes fluttered shut and you inhaled what Josh was so generously giving you.

Your skin felt hot from the proximity alone, tingles and electricity covering your body. God your core is damn near pulsing on his bed with the thought of how easy this would be to take it to the next level.

When the heat of Josh’s presence faded and your eyes fluttered open, face feeling hot paired with an indescribable need for Josh Washington to be inside you right now. When your eyesight focused you were met with Josh’s red tinted eyes all but gleaming at you with a smug grin on his face. It makes you cough in a brief awkward manner at the realization of how you were looking at him like you wanted to jump his fucking bones.

“Woah hey girl easy-“ Josh comforted as he placed a hand on your back, rubbing circles onto your now sensitive skin. “Take a breath, we’re cool. You actually did really well.” He soothed in a soft and subtle tone.

Oh god the praise.

You were already half soaked you didn’t need him to add more fuel to the fire. You recovered from your coughing only a moment or two later, sometimes once it started it was hard to stop. Josh only continued his sweet slow circles on your back, carefully watching you to see if he needed to grab your inhaler for you.

“Sorry.” You blurted, eyes on your lap in embarrassment.

“Dude for what?” Josh asked quietly, his hand feeling lower on your back than what it did when he first touched you. Maybe you were imagining things.

“I just- I feel like a weirdo for looking at you like that. I’m sorry.” Jesus this was humiliating. “Hey-“ Josh’s hand moved to your knee, making your skin jerk slightly in surprise.

“We’re cool, you’re totally fine. Promise.” Josh soothed. How could he not feel how hot your skin was? “In fact…” Josh whispered, his eyes focused where your plush thighs were clenched. A faint smirk on his face before his eyes moved up to catch yours.

“You want some help there?” He asked, referring down to your slightly grinding thighs. You were going to cry if you couldn’t get more friction.

You felt caught red handed. You felt lightheaded, giddy, nervous, and soaked- you bet your face was hot red. “Please Josh?”

Josh’s eyes widened slightly, jaw slacked as he studied your expression carefully in case you weren’t being serious. He didn’t actually think you’d entertain what he said, but neither did you.

You didn’t know what josh did faster- shove his lips on yours or put out the joint in his ashtray of the bedside table. His hands felt like they were everywhere, trying to devour you by touch. Your thighs, your hips, the side of your neck, your breast- leaning you back further onto his bed and climbing over top of you.

His lips felt everywhere too. Your lips, your cheeks, your jaw, up and down your neck. His lips meeting with your own once more after you whined when he kissed your breasts through your shirt. God he was making you feel dizzy but you never wanted it to stop.

“Can I taste you?” Josh whispered his question, his fingers almost pawing at the waist band of your shorts. His breathing heavy and almost ragged, you shivered at the idea of him holding back.

“Yes-“ that was the only thing Josh needed to hear before kissing you passionately once more as his fingers hurriedly began to slide your shorts off. After your shorts then it was your shirt, nipples being met with his soft kisses as well before adjusting you both.

Your legs dangling off the edge of his bed as Josh moved you carefully with a strong touch, moving your knees to rest on top of his shoulders as he got on his knees.

Josh took his time, wanting to make you squirm and beg for him to fuck you with his tongue. He left soft kisses all over the inside of your thighs, his hot breath fanning against your clit making you shiver in anticipation.

“Please-“

“Please what baby?” Josh’s eyes interrupted your weak plead with a question. Blue eyes glinting something smug from their place between your thighs. “Tell me pretty girl.” He purred before lowering his head and blowing soft cool air against your heated entrance.

“Fucking-“ you whined. Tears building in the corner of your eyes. You didn’t know what to say- you forgot how to beg. Laying there soaked waiting for Josh to just devour you was just torture. “Don’t tease me anymore please I need it so bad.” Your voice shook slightly as you pleaded for the wait to be over- you wanted to cum on his face and you wanted to do it now.

“I’m so sorry baby.” Josh cooed- you could feel that smirk of his radiating off of him. “Let me take care of you pretty girl.”

You nearly squealed when you felt his lips wrap around your clit and began to suck and lick you apart. Thighs squeezing Josh’s head closer as he devoured you entirely. The sounds of wet slurping and his panting combined with your moans and mewls of pleasure echoed through the room.

“Holy fuck! Oh shit baby-“ you moaned, “so fucking good Josh holy shit-!” Your squeals only seemed to make Josh more determined in his mission of having you cum all over his face.

You felt so close to the edge already and he barely started. Josh’s hands roughly gripped onto your thighs, not minding at all how you were squeezing his head so tightly. Lightheaded and eyes rolling to the back of your head as Josh pushed you closer and closer to the edge- eating you out like a man fucking starved. Did having sex stoned always feel this good?

Your hips grinded absentmindedly against Josh’s face, seeking just the slightest bit more friction to cum. Your words slurring as you moved your hips against his face faster, Josh’s hands holding your pussy tight against his face before he sucked on your clit again.

You squealed one more time as you felt yourself soak Josh’s face in your fluids, looking down at him between your thighs already looking up at you with half lidded eyes. Your breathing hitched slightly at the sight. Josh waited until you were shivering and body twitching for him to pull away. Josh made his way up to your lips once more, you could taste yourself on his tongue and it was almost addictive.

When Josh pulled away he rested his forehead in the crook of your neck, breathing heavily, seemingly trying to steady himself. Glancing down you see a wet mark on his jeans from your current position. “Josh did you- did you cum in your pants from that?”

Josh could only answer with a slight scoff. “Shut up.”

#josh washington #until dawn #chris hartley #18+ mdni #i need him #mike monroe #x reader #riding him until dawn #mdni #fanfic #fanfiction #josh washington x reader #smut #smoke blunts #Spotify

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shintaru · 1 month ago

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Darling, hold my hand

m.list ♡ taglist

It hasn’t been long since you joined the hummingbird crew. You flew to Korea after finding out Shelly lives here. You had been childhood best friends and how could she move to Korea without telling you. You had found out from Owen that her trip to visit her grandpa had turned into her new life. It’s all in the past now but you’re still a little salty.

You were still new to Korea not having many friends besides your crew but they were all busy today even Shelly was busy with her boyfriend. You wish you could make some more friends so you wouldn’t be so lonely here. It seems like only one person will give you the time of day but he’s definitely not an option on your list to hang out with. You’d rather voluntarily hang out with TJ than him.

Since joining the hummingbird crew some odd guy from another team has been following you around constantly and you’re not really sure why. You never pay attention to what he’s saying he gives you the creeps. You were warned by Dom that you should stay away from him because he’s from the sabbath crew and apparently they are trouble makers. You always try to ignore him but he doesn’t seem to respect your personal space nor does he seem to care that you don’t want to talk to him.

Anytime you turn to walk away from him he just spins you around to face him once again and he always gets way too close to your face. Gosh just thinking about him makes you feel uncomfortable you wish he’d leave you alone. You did get a little curious about his crew and you looked them up to find out his name was Hyuk. Every member looks scary so you still want to keep your distance.

You decided to head to an ice cream shop for a sundae. You had nothing else to do and you were really craving an ice cream. You enter the ice cream shop heading straight to the counter to order a banana split. After receiving your order you take your seat at a booth by the window. Taking a bite of your banana split you get a notification from Shelly.

It says “AHHHHH loook what I got Jayyyy to do with me!!!!!!” With a video attached. You play the video and it shows Jay holding Shelly’s hand in a shy way. “They are so cute,” you say to yourself. “Awww that’s so cute” you text Shelly back, attaching a photograph of your banana split. “Let’s try it, I'll do better than Jay!” Hyuk says.

Making you jump slightly you’re in shock and quite frankly a little scared “HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN THERE?” You whisper and shout at him trying not to disturb other customers in the shop. “I followed you in” he says while using a spoon to take a bite out of your banana split. “Hey, that’s mine, go buy your own!” You say sternly. “Show me the video again” he replies.

“I didn’t even show you the first time you invaded my personal space to see it” you say rolling your eyes. Unlocking your phone to see if Shelly texted back you decided you were just going to ignore him. That was until he snatched your phone out your hand and scrolled through your messages with Shelly. “What are you doing with my phone?” You say trying to reach for it but he raises it too high in the air even being on the tips of your toes you can’t reach it.

You fold your arms across your chest slightly annoyed as you watch him replay the video on your phone. He starts recording and hands the phone to you. You raise your eyebrow at him. “Are we going to try it or not?” He asks. You give in only because you know he won’t leave you alone until you do. You put your hand up waving it making sure it’s in frame before you give him a look that indicates you want him to hurry up.

He places his hand firmly against yours and slowly interlocks his fingers with yours taking his precious time. “You’ve got to be kidding me he’s doing this on purpose” You think to yourself. You’re brought out of your thoughts when you feel his hand fully enclosing your hand in his. His hands are cold and huge compared to yours.

He turns both of your wrists so now the back of your hand is facing his chest. He bends down and brings both of your hands to his face allowing his lips to brush softly against your knuckles while making eye contact with you. He straightens his posture while stepping back and slowly letting go of your hand while smiling at you. “Aww what a cute couple” an elderly lady says while walking past you two.

“Wait we aren’t…” you cut your sentence off after feeling Hyuk snatch your phone out your hand again. “What are you doing now?” You ask. He raises the phone in the air to where he knows you can’t reach once again until he’s done with it and hands it back to you. “My number is in there now” he says then he turns and walks out the ice cream shop leaving you confused .

You check your phone seeing you got a message from Shelly “OMG WHO IS THAT GUY HOLDING YOUR HAND?!!” “WHAT THE FUCK HE SENT THAT TO SHELLY!!” You shout. Once you see people staring in your direction you mouth “sorry” hoping they will quit staring. You sigh “at least I can finish my banana split now” you think to yourself.

Except your banana split isn’t there, it’s gone… “WHAT THE FUCK HE ATE ALL OF MY BANANA SPLIT!!” You shout out making people stare at you once again. “You ape you owe me a banana split” you text him. “So it’s a date” he replies back. He still gives you the creeps because he’s so unpredictable but he’s kinda cute.

Hyuk’s reference is Zayne from Love & Deepspace

Dedications: @dzvelinaskebiyars @hyukwwn

#Spotify #windbreaker webtoon #windbreaker #windbreaker x reader #windbreaker manga #windbreaker manhwa #windbreaker anime #hyuk kwon windbreaker #hyuk kwon x reader #kwon hyuk x reader #hyuk x reader #hyuk kwon #hyuk #windbreaker sabbath #sabbath crew

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ahundredtimesover · 2 months ago

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Something About You (04) | JJK

Pairing: Jungkook x (f.) Reader

Genre/Tags: friends au, vacation au, slow burn, romcom-ish vibe; adulting; inspired by AYS; PE teacher!JK and researcher!OC; fluff, comfort, smut (?)

Chapter Warnings: foul/explicit language; alcohol consumption, mentions of cheating, an aggressive man, minor injury (18+)

Word count: 16.5k

Series Masterlist

Status: Complete

🎶: Beautiful Soul by Jesse McCartney || Yes or No by Jungkook

Spending the holidays in Busan brings about unparalleled comfort, as Jungkook fills his days with video games, hangouts with Jimin in their favorite spots, riding his motorcycle, and home cooked meals.

Whenever he’s at home, he feels like a child where he does whatever he wants and where he’s doted on by his parents, which he can’t really argue with as an adult.

It grounds him somehow. It reminds him of how he felt growing up - wanting to be valued and taken care of but also being trusted and respected. He knows that his students feel the same way as middle and high school kids who are just starting to figure things out. It’s always a good start to his year, and it gives him clarity and that sense of direction.

That’s probably the only good thing about being home this year because other than that, he’s reminded of his physical distance from you, the time you’re not spending together, and the conversations and banter you’re not having.

You’re back in your hometown, too, and he knows that the holidays with your relatives is your favorite thing in the world. You’ve always been close with your cousins, as most of you spent your childhood at your grandparents’ farm. Only you and Hayoung are based in Seoul so it’s a celebration every time you visit. It’s busy times, too, as you spend the days playing with your nieces and nephews and driving around the surrounding towns.

Jungkook knows this, so he looks forward to your or Hayoung’s messages in the group chat, which would usually just be photos or a funny story or a little accident that involves you. It’s the only time he actually reads the messages and that itself is an indication that he misses you terribly, much more than he expected he would.

The Sapporo trip suddenly feels like a lifetime ago. He spent everyday with you - seeing you in the morning, teasing you throughout the day, being in your little bubble of weirdness, talking about serious and mundane things, and falling asleep to your adorable soft snoring.

He thought that spending it how he did was his way of settling into his feelings for you - just feeling it, trying to figure it out or understand it. He still doesn’t know how he got here, even if he could point to some moments where things started to change.

Perhaps he’s only thinking about it as much as he is because you don’t think that could just happen to you - that you could just one day feel differently about a person you’ve known for years. You feel intensely, instantaneously, and he supposes if you were ever to like him, you would’ve done so a long time ago but that ship never sailed and he’s unsure if it ever will.

That still doesn’t stop him from thinking about you though. He sees your photos and reads your sometimes short and sometimes long narrations of what you’re doing and he imagines your pouty face or constant complaints and it makes him smile.

He thinks of teasing you about stubbing your toe or getting followed by bugs or your slow walking and that makes him feel giddy, too. Even the thought of you talking about current events and the pervasiveness of patriarchy in every aspect of social life is something he seeks.

And then there are the puppy eyes and sweet smile when you want something that makes him want to just give it all to you. But there’s also the affection - your hugs, your playful smacking, your shoulder leaning, and the occasional hand on top of his that makes his heart take a leap just reminiscing about it.

He feels a little silly, as he’s perhaps had hundreds of those moments with you in the past but he’s never thought much about them until recently. Until after your trip to Chungbuk, if he’s being specific.

And now he replays them in his head over and over again just because he wants more, even if he’s the one who’s not texting nor replying, and he’s slowly losing his mind.

It’s been two weeks and other than your messages to the group, both of you haven’t spoken. He knows you’re busy and he’s the one with spare time. He could easily reach out to you and you’ll probably reply, but given all this yearning, he’s nervous he’ll overdo it, that he’ll say or do something out of the ordinary and you’ll see right through him.

It’s the day of his trip back to Seoul. He and Jimin will drive out in the afternoon and they’re spending their last few hours in his living room, just playing games after a morning of riding his bike around town.

His best friend’s phone rings and he puts the call on speaker while trying to score a goal in a game of FIFA.

“Jiminie!” your voice cuts through the crowd cheering sound effect. “How’s my annoying best friend doing without me?”

The surprise from hearing you causes Jungkook’s mind to go blank. It leaves Jimin free near the net and he scores a point.

“Finally!” Jimin yells. “Did you see that, Kook? You sucked and I kicked a goal.”

Jungkook waves him off, his pride not too hurt because only he knows his momentary lapse was because of you and not for his lack of skills.

“You’re with Kook?!” You chirp.

“Yeah, we’re playing video games in his house,” Jimin replies.

“Kook! How are you?! I miss you!” You shriek. “I didn’t know if you were alive because you weren’t reacting to my messages in the group chat. Did you know that I almost slipped into a gutter? And that we went hiking with my cousins and I slid down my butt?”

“He knows because I told him,” Jimin says. “It’s not like he reads messages.”

“Hey, I do,” Jungkook corrects. He really does though, very rarely. Recently, all the time when it’s from you. “You also rode an ATV and got stuck in the mud.”

“So you read my messages! Why didn’t you reply then!” You whine.

“It’s pointless to laugh at you if you can’t hear or see me,” he reasons. “But yes, I saw them. Everyone was posting about how their holidays were going so I read through them.”

“Well, you would’ve laughed hard if you saw me.”

“And then you would’ve smacked me for doing so,” Jungkook points out.

“That is very true. Then you would’ve scolded me but then proceeded to treat my wounds,” you giggle. “As expected. Anyway, what have you bums been up to?”

“What do bums do, ___?” Jimin replies after making a defensive play. “We literally just eat and play and ride around when we’re home. And it’s been perfect.”

“Sucks I’m not there to piss you off though,” you say.

“Right? This is what peaceful living is like,” your best friend responds. “But I’m gonna deal with your annoying ass soon so let me savor this.”

“You better,” you hum. “Did you get enough rest, Kook?”

“Lots of it actually,” he half lies. He spent much of these two weeks agonizing over being away from you. “But I guess I’m ready to get back to work. I’ll start coaching the taekwondo team next week.”

“Already? Isn’t it still the winter break?” You wonder.

“Training starts early because of the competition in March,” he answers.

“Ooh, new kids to cheer for?” you excitedly ask.

“If you’re free on Wednesdays and Saturdays, sure,” Jungkook says. “But no pressure, ___.”

“I’ll make time,” you promise him.

“Okay, then,” he hums, doing his best to keep his smile from forming over the thought of spending time with you again.

“Anyway, I just wanted to check up on my friends. Gonna go play with the kids at the park now,” you say. “Careful when you drive to the city! See you guys soon!”

“Miss you! I’m going to your place right when you get back!” Jimin sneaks in.

“Don’t hurt yourself!” Jungkook adds, and you respond to him in laughter, a sound he definitely misses.

Jimin drops the call and shifts his full focus on the game.

“Well, she sounds jolly. Glad she got her joy back,” Jimin comments. “I remember last year, I begged her to take a longer leave and spend another week with her family so she could deal with her burnout.”

“Did she stay?”

“No. She said she’d be more stressed with all the backlog.”

“How’d she get through that, by the way?” Jungkook asks, immediately being reminded of how uninvolved he was at certain points in your life.

“Mo-eum and I convinced her to talk to her manager and apparently others were feeling it, too, so there was a restructure that happened and it helped with her workload,” Jimin explains. “But she would also take her leaves because she barely did, and she tried her best to switch off once she clocked out and that also helped a lot. She didn’t talk about work when we were in Japan, didn’t she?”

“Nope, which is good. At least she got the help she needed,” Jungkook hums, content that even if he didn’t know the extent of your stress that time, you were able to deal with it properly.

As an educator, he knows enough about burnout, especially when he has to deal with his students’ problems on top of just teaching them. He’s always tried to manage his emotions and compartmentalize. Working out and going back to playing the sports he loves helped him tremendously with that.

“Yeah, she did. But she’s doing so much better now and I guess having Tae back and doing our trips again lifted her spirits even more. Like, she gets to take actual breaks and be around us,” Jimin shares. “I guess watching your students’ matches gave her something new to do, too. She really enjoyed that.”

“She did,” Jungkook smiles, realizing now how those afternoons of you cheering for his team was also beneficial for you. “And well, there’ll be other matches for her to watch.”

“Yeah, it should be fun,” Jimin nods. “Anyway, one more game. I’m beating you this time.”

Jungkook drops Jimin off at his place and spends the drive to his apartment thinking of you again. He knows that even with your ability to express yourself, there are some things you don’t share with everyone. There were times when you were open to him about your thoughts and feelings though, and he takes them as a sign of your feeling of comfort around him and of your trust.

He looks back at the instances where you’d thanked him for making you feel good about yourself, and while he thought it was a natural thing for him to do that, he realizes it probably meant more to you than he expected. He hopes he continues to make you feel at ease around him, as he realizes that that’s what he feels when he’s with you.

There’s assurance and trust that you understand him. There’s comfort in your words no matter how playful or cheeky they are. There’s that affection over the things he does and his fondness over the things you do. And then there’s that desire to take care of you, to make you feel comforted and understood just the same.

He takes a deep breath before he exits his car. Two weeks of being away from you and he’s settled into his feelings. He knows they’re not fleeting. He also knows they’re not just because he wants to be a better friend to you.

As he checks his phone and sees a message from you in the group chat asking him and Jimin if they got home safely and tagging him to reply, Jungkook thinks that now is when he starts wanting more.

And he’s not exactly sure how to go about it. Or if it’s a feeling you’ll even reciprocate.

It’s been three weeks since Jungkook returned to Seoul and two weeks since you did. You apparently had to use up your remaining leaves until mid-January so you decided to stay in Gwangju for a few more days. He knew that because he sent you a message after you announced it in the group chat, and you’ve sort of been texting each other since then. It’s not an all-day nor daily type of thing but it’s much better than not hearing from you at all.

He told you that he got assigned to accompany the high school table tennis team to a competition in Sokcho for a few days after one of their assistant coaches got sick. You told him that you started working on your operations plan on your first day back at work and that you had to stay in Daejeon for a weekend to attend a conference because one of your managers couldn’t go. With that, he missed your friends’ Sunday lunch out, and then you missed dinner and drinks the Friday after that.

It’s now the end of January and Jungkook’s been living off of the occasional text messages from you and nothing more. As it’s the Saturday before the end of the winter break, he takes this time to relax and decides on making himself some bulguri noodles and then going for a jog later in the afternoon.

On your end, you intend on cleaning up your apartment after over a month of barely being around. You make a checklist in your head of what to do first when suddenly, your light turns off and for the briefest moment, you think you’re being haunted. But you remember it’s just past lunchtime and ghosts won’t appear until the evening.

You just paid your bills so that’s not the issue. You call your neighbor and find out that she has her light on, so it’s probably just you. So you ask for help.

[to: My Elders] How do you change a lightbulb?

You know that searching online would lead to multiple results, which ironically is going to overwhelm you, so you ask your very adult, very capable friends for advice. Surely they’ll be able to instruct you properly.

[from: joonie] I’d tell you if I knew

[from: uncle yoon] DON’T. TOUCH. ANYTHING.

[from: suhyeonie] please be careful!!

[from: jiminie pabo] someone pls get to her right away before she burns down her apartment or electrocutes herself

[from: my taetae] kook?

[from: bunny kook] coming

You sigh in relief once Jungkook confirms that he’s on his way. And while you think you can follow instructions had your friends called or sent them in - which they didn’t - it’s probably better if someone does it for you. Jungkook just happens to be the one who lives the closest.

You try to clean up whatever you can while waiting for him but you only manage to fold some of your clothes before the intercom is ringing and you’re granting him access to come up. He rings the doorbell and you greet him immediately.

“My savior,” you chirp, fluttering your eyelashes.

“Yah, I’m already here,” he playfully shakes his head. “No need for puppy eyes or whatever that is.”

“It’s my thankful face!” You correct him. “Not that I expected anyone to be empathic to my plight but wow, our friends were not helpful. Except maybe for Tae, who asked you to come.”

“You know you can search online for this, right?” Jungkook chuckles as he gets your stool and starts unwinding your old lightbulb.

“Yeah but AI will tell me one thing, WikiHow will tell me another, so will TikTok… I just didn’t want to be overwhelmed.”

“You… a researcher… didn’t want to be overwhelmed with… information?”

“Kook, since when did basic things make sense to me?” You pout.

“I’m pretty sure they’re not that hard to comprehend.”

“Look, if it didn’t involve a possible fire or electrocution, I’d manage,” you argue. “I mean, I can do other things. Just not… this. I’m scared to make a mess.”

You say it so softly and Jungkook hopes he didn’t make you feel bad or anything. It’s not that you expect people to just do everything for you because you actually watch others do them - like now, as you stand close to him and observe him as he replaces your old bulb with a new one. He just thinks there are things you can’t really grasp because you weren’t exposed to them. He knows you can manage yourself on a farm because you grew up going to one but when it comes to household management, you always had the rest of your family to do them for you.

He finishes and turns on the switch to see if it’s working, and you squeal in joy when it does.

You even go to him and give him a hug, which catches him off guard. He returns it though, and a part of him wishes he’d prepared for this so he wouldn’t act so nonchalant about it.

“___, it’s just a lightbulb,” he points out.

You let him go and laugh, not seeming bothered one bit. He was a little worried that he might come off as snobbish to you though, even if he thinks it’s something he’d totally say.

“It’s a belated hug, Kook. I feel like I haven’t seen you in so long,” you say.

“Because you haven’t. It’s been, what– 5, 6 weeks since Sapporo?”

“Yeah, that feels like a lifetime ago,” you sigh. “I wanna go back! But yeah, you haven’t been around to make fun of me and to take care of me so it feels that much longer. I kinda missed you.”

You say it so casually yet you have no idea how much it’s affecting him. Again, it’s something you’ve said to him so many times before. But it sounds different to him now, only because he wishes it carries a different meaning than you probably don’t intend.

He can’t bring himself to say it back, only because he’s worried about how it’ll come out, so he expresses wanting to hang out with you instead… in a not so direct way.

“Well, I’m here and I changed your lightbulb, although I suggest getting an LED one so it’s more efficient and it’ll last long,” he advises, given that what you have is the incandescent one. “Do you wanna get one at the store? I can replace that already so you won’t have to worry about this one again.”

“Sounds like a plan,” you smile sweetly. “But now that you’ve mentioned it, maybe we can get a few more things?”

Jungkook chuckles to himself as he nods then sits on your couch while you change your clothes in the walk-in closet. He hoped for a quick run at the shops and maybe grab something to eat, perhaps talk more about how your past few weeks have been.

But now, you’ll probably have more time together and that satisfies his desire of being around you. It truly has been so long that he was close to wondering if the Japan trip had been a dream.

The “things” you wanted to get turn out to be Pilates clothes.

You and Jungkook arrived at the mall an hour ago and quickly got an LED light bulb at the home store. But then you dragged him to the other floor and into a shop full of leggings and tank tops and sports bras that he just looked at you blankly and you responded with a giggle.

He now awkwardly stands by one of the shelves with hoodies and has to act unbothered when he sees you pick up a few things, willing his mind not to go to places.

“I’ll be quick, I promise,” you say.

And you do keep it. He expected you to be in the fitting room for at least 30 minutes but you were done in 10. You say that you just need to try the size and you’ll get it in different colors. Efficient, and something he also does.

“Hayoung convinced me to get into Pilates,” you share as you grab the bag from the counter. “She said it’ll help with the stress. And getting my weakening body moving because I’m just in front of the screen most days. I thought I should give it a try so I signed up at the studio near my apartment and I just need to get the proper outfit for it.”

“That sounds good,” he smiles, softening at how you’re truly trying to manage your stress levels so as not to feel burnt out again. “I know that’ll help. When do you start?”

“Next week! So I just have to get these washed and then I’ll be good. I hope I don’t fall on my face while using the machine,” you suddenly frown.

“You won’t. Just don’t force yourself with the tension of the strings,” he advises. “You’re there to exercise and relax, not to get hurt. Yeah?”

“I’ll try. I’ll tell you how it goes,” you smile.

“Can’t wait to hear it.”

You mindlessly walk around and Jungkook just follows, not knowing what else you have in mind. He’s about to internally sulk at the thought that today might just end here when you stop in your tracks and turn to him.

“Did you have anything else planned today?” You ask.

“Just a jog,” he shrugs, quickly adding that it’s something he can do tomorrow once your face falls a little. “Why? Did you want to buy anything else?”

“I don’t have an outfit for our all-white college reunion party,” you pout.

“That’s in three months” he says.

“Two and a half,” you correct. “I wanna get a dress already because I’m definitely gonna forget it. And so I have time to have it dry-cleaned. Do you have something to wear?”

“Uh, a white shirt?”

“Boo, corny,” you chide. “It’s gonna be at a Club, Kook,” you remind him, referring to the one owned by Jihyo, your friend from university who also organized the event.

“What else am I supposed to wear?” Jungkook laughs.

“Well, you can show up in a tank top and you’d still look nice,” you say nonchalantly as you head towards another direction.

“Did you just compliment my looks?” He jogs after you. “You’ve never done that!”

“Oh, don’t be dramatic. I always praise your cute nose.”

“That… that was never a compliment,” he frowns.

But you don’t mind him, as you quickly enter a store and start looking around.

He follows you and observes how you shop. You touch the items hanging on the shelf as you pass them by even if it’s not what you’re looking for. When you see something you think you like, you stare at it for a good five minutes before deciding to either try it on or put it back. When you do try on something, you’re quite expressive, as he could hear you groan or yelp even when he’s outside the fitting room area.

You leave another store empty-handed and you apologize for dragging him around and possibly boring him. He insists he’s fine and that it’s not like it’s something he hasn’t done before, clarifying that he’d accompanied Mo-eum to look for clothes a few times before as well. Obviously, he doesn’t want to imply anything by saying that he’s done this too many times with his ex-girlfriends but looking back, he wasn’t as entertained with them as he is with you.

Though you tend to hyperfocus when you’re doing something, surprisingly when it comes to shopping, you’re very engaging. You ramble, like you often do, but you also ask him things and try to get his opinion.

It’s been over an hour of looking around but you still haven’t found anything. The ones you like are too pricey and the others just don’t fit right. You find a newly-opened store and get excited when you see the clothes are your style and you quickly choose a couple for you to try on. He’s mindlessly looking around when he hears you call for him.

He sees your head peeking out of the curtains. With the sales person attending to another customer, you ask him to help you tie the straps of the dress you have on.

“They’re supposed to be ribbons but I can’t tie them properly,” you say. “Can you fix them so I can see if it’s nice?”

He nods as he works on them, trying his best to make the knot look pretty. You turn around so he can work on the other side and he does his best to not fall into the temptation of looking at you while he does. When he finishes, you face the mirror and smile.

“It looks pretty,” you beam.

“It does. So are you getting that?”

“Hmm, probably the other one,” you say, gesturing towards one of the several dresses hanging on the hook. “That one looked nicer.”

“Oh,” is all he can say. You already look pretty in this one so that could only mean that the other option is much prettier. “Okay.”

“Mission accomplished,” you smile at him now. “I’ll get dressed and get that!”

It’s late in the afternoon by the time you finish, and you’re reminded that you’ve only had some sweet bread all day and you’re starving, something Jungkook learns when your stomach starts to grumble.

“So… early dinner?” He chuckles.

“Yes. And we’re having Japanese.”

He suggests a hotpot place after you said that you miss the soup he made on your last night in Sapporo. He comments that you seem to enjoy his cooking a lot and you remark that they’re very hearty and that he should cook for you more. It’s a request he doesn’t mind fulfilling, especially if that’ll mean being with you again.

You order a similar-tasting broth from the one he made, and you sigh in delight at just being able to take in the scent of a restaurant that reminds you of your trip from a few weeks ago.

“That week felt so fast,” you say. “The days were long and slow but they somehow still ended so soon. Did you enjoy that trip, Kook?”

“Of course. Why’d you think I wouldn’t?”

“I don’t know. I hurt your abs and smacked you with a pillow and you gave me a piggyback ride and dealt with my injuries,” you shrug.

“But I got free beer and a nice bottle of whiskey,” he reminds you.

“True. And I didn’t elbow your face when I slept next to you,” you remind him as well.

“Yup, that was a very big factor,” he nods.

“I couldn’t hurt the nose,” you sweetly smile at him.

He just playfully shakes his head at you and you clarify that you just find it adorable.

At least you find him charming, he thinks to himself.

You sit across from each other as you devour your dinner and talk about more stories of your visit to your hometown and how his weeks of training his students have been. You reminisce about Sapporo once more and mention the places you want to travel to in the future.

You’re laughing about a memory from your Hong Kong trip years ago when Jungkook gets a call. When you find out it’s Taehyung on the other end, you ask for the phone to say hi.

“___!” Taehyung greets. “I was just asking Kook if he got to save your ass from being electrocuted or something.”

“Yes, he did,” you playfully roll your eyes. “Thanks for telling him to go to me though. I would’ve waited for him to pity me before I asked him to come over.”

“Nah, he would’ve gone to you either way,” your friend laughs. “Where are you now?”

“Having dinner out,” you say. “We bought an LED light bulb and I ended up running errands and I dragged him with me. Poor guy had to deal with my annoying ass today,” you add, as if lamenting on his behalf. “I at least didn’t trip or hurt myself.”

“That’s new,” Taehyung hums. “But I’m sure he doesn’t mind it. Anyway, I was just asking him to send me something. I’ll leave you two to your dinner. See you on Thursday after work?”

“Yes, at 5 PM,” you say, referring to this string quartet charity event you asked him to watch with you. “Here’s Kook.”

You give the phone back to Jungkook and slurp the remainder of soup in your bowl.

“Yeah, I’ve got all the ones you asked for. I’ll give the hard drive tomorrow. Bye!”

He drops the call and you ask him what Taehyung needed.

“He asks me to download movies for him,” Jungkook says. “Like, the black and white Hollywood kind. They’re kinda hard to find.”

“Aww, Kook. That’s sweet. So you’re who he gets them from,” you smile. “So wait, can you download movies for me, too?”

“Sure, just tell me what you want. I can give you the hard drive on—”

“Saturday? There’s no rush. I won’t get to watch until the weekend, anyway.”

“Alright, then.”

“Thank you,” you smile at him again, the kind that’s meant to express your appreciation for all the things he does for you.

And the thing is, he doesn’t mind doing them. Even if he didn’t have these developing feelings for you, it’s something he’d still do. He’s never minded doing you favors or being collateral damage when you hurt yourself or having to take care of you when you do. He’d always done them willingly because it’s what he does for all his friends.

He supposes that the difference now is the anticipation of seeing you again when he does. It’s the excitement over knowing you’d ask him to do something and your accompanying smile and laughter. He supposes there’s more attachment in how he looks after you and in how he returns your affection.

And now with every spontaneous day or planned weekend you make him share with you, he enjoys each minute of it. Not just through your ramblings but through your silence, too; not just in your moments of triumph but in your instances of doubt as well.

It’s like settling into the feeling but more. It’s as if somewhere along the way of your friendship, he learned to settle into you.

“I thought you wanted to watch this,” Jungkook mumbles as he munches on some popcorn. “Why are you covering your face?”

“Because it’s scary, duh,” you bite back as you wrap one arm around your folded legs while your other hand makes slits over your eyes. “The spirit's gonna kill the sons now!”

“Well yeah, that’s what bad spirits do,” he deadpans. “Why did you want to watch this in the first place?”

“Because I heard it’s a good mo– Ah!” You squeal. You wait for the next scene and try to catch your breath. “I heard it’s a good movie. Plus, I like horror. Didn’t you know that?”

“I do, I mean… you’re always up for it whenever I suggest watching one. You just scream a lot. I guess you could like something and not enjoy it all the time.”

“I enjoy it though,” you correct him. “Getting scared and stressed and yelling is all part of the fun. Just like how in rom-coms, the frustration over the two leads being dumb is part of the experience. You take it all and that makes everything so satisfying.”

Jungkook merely nods in agreement but lingers on what you just said. The more he spends time with you, the more he learns how contradictory you are as a person, which is something he admires so much about you.

As a professional, you’re intellectual and decisive. You’re passionate and intentional and every single thing has a purpose or meaning for you. Outside of that, you feel intensely, whatever it is - fear, joy, wonder, anger, but you take them as part of a whole. You’re clumsy and disorganized sometimes. You’re affectionate and transparent yet there’s always something more that you feel and want, something that he’s unsure you’ve figured out yet.

And as he sneaks a glance at your wide eyes and anxious face over the next scene, he can’t help but smile at how open you are to feeling what’s out there for you. It’s quite captivating to watch, as he’s one who prefers to feel things more moderately, and perhaps it’s why it took this long for his feelings for you to develop.

His thoughts are disrupted with your gasp, followed by milder curses than he expected, and then another shriek. He focuses on the movie now, as he’s sure you’re gonna wanna talk about it after, and it ends with your deep exhale and your satisfied smile.

“That was good,” you say, as you grab a can of beer from your fridge and hand him one.

You rehash the whole two hours while you sit next to him on the couch then conclude that you’re still a little creeped out so you state you want to watch something else.

“The Thai movie about the grandmother,” you say, choosing from the long list of things you had him download.

“Are you sure?” He cocks an eyebrow.

“Yes, I heard it’s good, too,” you shrug, already getting comfortable.

“Okay, then.”

As it turns out, it’s as emotional as it is good. And you can’t stop the tears as they waterfall down your face, to the point that you can barely breathe through your nose. You, in fact, wail, and you can hear Jungkook stop himself from laughing, even if despite your glassy eyes, you can see him tear up as well.

“You can cry, you know?” You turn to him, prompting him to pause the film.

You’re sniffing and distorting your face and he chuckles in response.

“I was about to but you started sobbing. It felt like your tears were good enough for the both of us,” he hums.

“It’s sad,” you pout.

“I know, and you wanted this,” he points out. “But hey, part of the experience, right?”

You nod because it’s true. You’d rather watch comedy dramas that make you hurt so good or horror movies that make you jump off your seat over ones that barely make you feel anything at all. But you suppose that’s how you’ve always lived your life.

People think you’re driven by logic and ideas all the time but you surprise yourself with how much you feel and how much that motivates you. But then again, that’s exactly why you’re in the field you’re in, and not everybody gets to understand or even see that.

Your tears remain and Jungkook scoots closer to wipe them off your cheeks with his paw sweaters. You meet his worried doe-eyes and you didn’t realize how innocent-looking yet expressive they are. You suddenly hiccup and he playfully shakes his head in response.

“I wanna laugh now,” you mumble.

“We’re going through the emotions of the wheel now, aren’t we?” Jungkook chuckles while proceeding to check his movie list again. “I’ve got–”

“What if we just watch Running Man reruns? I kinda don’t wanna be invested in characters again but I just don't wanna be sad anymore.”

“Then we go with that,” he nods. “And… uh, do you have anything I could cook for dinner?”

You check the time and realize it’s almost 7 PM. You had lunch out with Hayoung earlier then started your movie marathon with Jungkook when you got home. You’ve been with him for hours and it feels like time is flying.

“Ramen?”

“Sure, I can get two packs ready,” he hums, standing up to find his way around your tiny kitchen.

“I’ll also order pizza because I’m craving. What about chicken?”

“Hey, as long as it’s good food, I’m all in.”

As it turns out, eating Jungkook’s creamy ramen, then some pizza, and then some chicken wings over beer while laughing your bellies off is incredibly satisfying. You’re in tears for half of it because not only is the show funny, but so are Jungkook’s ridiculous side comments and imitation of the hosts and guests. You have to beg him to stop and let you breathe.

This is one of the most unhinged you’d seen him and you don’t care one bit that you’re snorting in laughter or close to drooling at this point. Once you calm down, you stretch your legs on the floor where you’ve been since you started dinner, and you breathe deeply.

“I needed this,” you smile then turn to look at him. “I needed to laugh and just… be comfortable.”

“Why? Work bugging you down? Pilates not yet working?”

“Work is always stressful and I’ve accepted that. Pilates is something I’m still getting used to but it helped that one day I needed to relax,” you say. “But I guess I just needed to laugh and cry and stuff myself with good food and not worry about the next day or something. Thanks for coming over with your movie library and watching and eating with me, Kook. It was fun.”

“Glad I could help you with having a worry-free day like this,” he replies. “And honestly, it feels good to just do whatever you want and not really have plans. It’s why I spend my weekends the way I do.”

“So it feels good being with me, then?” you smirk.

“Of course. You’re a little chaotic sometimes,” he teases. “But it’s part of the fun. I get to let loose and watch you be a weirdo.”

“Well I’m glad,” you softly smile this time. “You’re a little weird sometimes, too. I get to enjoy myself a little bit more when I’m around you. I mean, I say that about the other guys as well but I guess we haven’t spent as much time together.”

“We do now.”

“I know. And it’s fun. I hope you don’t get sick of me yet.”

He could tease you and say he already is, but he doesn’t want to lie to you like that. He doesn’t want you to think that even a tiny part of him would prefer not having you around.

The truth is, he’s been finding it harder to let a day pass without speaking to you, and he reminds himself to do things gradually and naturally despite the fear that you’d freak out and think of him differently just because he’s treating you differently.

“Just keep being that way and I won’t,” he says instead.

“Hmm. That’s a relief. I will, then.”

Jungkook sees you again the next Wednesday after Jimin messaged to ask who was free for dinner and drinks after work. A few from the group made it, including you, and even if Jungkook was a few seats away, just knowing you were okay and enjoying Pilates and eating well was enough to appease him.

He sees you again on Saturday for a late celebration of Hoseok’s birthday where you hog the mic during karaoke despite being tone deaf and unable to hold a note. Jungkook tries to remember all the times this had happened before and if he had found you as endearing as he finds you now.

He tries to make sure you’re okay the next day, and he ends up grabbing you some hangover soup and drinks just to get rid of the headache. You sleep for pretty much the whole day but those two hours with you was enough to get him through the week.

You’re off to a work trip overseas over the next weekend so Jungkook decides to preoccupy himself with a full day of gaming and probably an evening swim. But then Taehyung comes over to hang out and with his friend leaving in a few months, Jungkook welcomes the company.

Jimin joins for lunch then leaves for a shoot. Mo-eum drops by then leaves as well for a family dinner.

It’s during the second half of the FIFA game they’re playing when Jungkook’s phone beeps. A small smile forms on his face when he glances at your multiple messages, perhaps to rant about the food like you did last night, or to say that the bugs were biting you again, or maybe to talk about some research project you came up with while taking a shit - because yes, it apparently happens.

He hopes Taehyung doesn’t notice but his friend is quite observant, so he does.

“Is ___ doing okay?”

Jungkook misses a free kick at the sound of your name.

“What?”

Taehyung gestures towards the beeping phone.

“___. That’s her, right?”

“Uh, yeah,” Jungkook hums as he finally checks your messages and learns that yes, it’s the food.

You also got a papercut and he can imagine you whining about it.

“She’s just… you know, talking about the conference she’s attending,” Jungkook continues as he sends replies of memes and questions of how it’s going and if the annoying guy from yesterday is still bugging you.

“Hmm, I see,” Taehyung hums as he attempts a kick. “I was with her last week, right? She had that charity event she asked me to attend with her. We had dinner after and she was laughing while texting someone. It was you.”

“Oh, right.”

Jungkook instantly remembers what both of you were talking about then.

“I was just telling her this vacation story of one of the teachers. It was funny.”

“Wow, how trivial. And to think you don’t even reply to me,” Taehyung chides.

“It’s because you prefer to call me! Or randomly show up at my door just like you did today,” Jungkook counters.

“Because you literally don’t reply!”

Jungkook just shrugs and focuses on the match, hoping his friend would just drop it. Instead, he pauses the game.

“Okay, Kook. I’m gonna ask you a question and you gotta answer me honestly. Just remember that you’re a terrible liar.”

Jungkook groans in response. “What?”

“Do you… like ___?”

Jungkook could easily deny it, but he also knows that he is a terrible liar and Taehyung would figure it out anyway. So he answers after a few seconds and understates the truth.

“I… I guess there’s something more.”

“It’s a yes or a no.”

There’s another beat of silence, as Jungkook is nervous about verbalizing something he’s been keeping to himself for months.

“I mean, between shopping with her, downloading her movies, driving her around… it should be clear, right?” Taehyung presses further.

“Hey, I do those things for you,” Jungkook tries to defend himself as he feels like he’s being called out.

“Yah! Do you think I’m stupid? Do you steal glances at me, too?”

“No.”

“Exactly, but you do it with her. And you let her squish your cheeks and you hate it when we do it.”

“She’s always been much gentler,” Jungkook reasons.

“She rarely is but sure,” Taehyung chuckles. “So, you really do like her, huh?”

“It’s something that just happened,” Jungkook sighs, knowing there’s no point in hiding anymore. “I don’t even know how. I mean, we’ve been good friends for years, Tae. We’ve seen each other’s highs and lows. We’ve witnessed each other’s relationships and breakups, and we’ve just… always been around each other.”

Jungkook looks back at the days when it was all so simple, then suddenly being hit by a train from out of nowhere.

“There was no fuss, no drama, no expectations, no desire. Just friends,” he continues. “And then one day it was like… suddenly she looked so cute whenever she complained or pouted. And then it was fun just watching her tell stories and be weird and be smart. And then it felt nice when she would do something nice for me. And then I liked how she looked whenever I did something nice for her. And then… and then she stood up for me to my ex then hugged me later that night and I haven’t stopped thinking about her since then.”

“So it started that night, huh?” Taehyung smiles. “Was it seeing her angry and defending you?”

“Yeah… and then seeing her be so gentle after that,” Jungkook hums. “It’s how she’s always been - intense, loyal, caring. I guess I’ve always admired those things about her. I’ve always enjoyed having her around but that comfort, that familiarity, that desire for something a bit chaotic but also reassuring that I get with her, it just suddenly felt different. And I just wanted more of that, I guess.”

“Was it really all sudden, though?” Taehyung wonders. “I mean, how could something like her presence and her quirks and all these good things about her be there all these years and then just be different one day?”

“I was thinking about that because I couldn’t really figure out how I could just feel differently about her.”

“And?”

“I settled into her, I think that’s what it was.”

Jungkook has been pondering on it since movie night at your place. It’s like moving into a house then becoming familiar with it over time, and then it becomes comfortable, and then it becomes a home.

Sure, the floorboards creak and the faucet leaks sometimes and there’s a stain on the wall that won’t get off but it doesn’t matter, because he’s already settled in and he likes the place. He likes its flaws and wear and tears… It's all part of the experience. And friends are like that - there’s no changing or forcing anything. Friends kinda just adjust their way around each other over time and just fit together a certain way.

That’s how it was with you.

He tries to explain this and Taehyung nods, understanding what he means because all his friends feel like home, too.

“What was it like when it changed, then? When did it become more?” He asks.

“When I realized that, hey, I think I wanna hold hands in this home, too. I wanna kiss and cuddle and get to know every inch of it. I… I wanna stay here. Something like that.”

Jungkook smiles, thinking back to that night you hugged him after a tough night. And how every time you’d done it since then made him want you to do it again.

He thinks back to the moments these past months of your hands or arms brushing, and him wondering what it’s like to intertwine his fingers with yours. Maybe have you touch his cheeks again but look deeply into his eyes this time.

Taehyung feels comforted by his friend being able to express his feelings like this, something he’s never really been that comfortable doing before.

Jungkook feels deeply, but he’s a bit more reserved than most of their friends. He tends to express whatever he feels by being dependable, by being someone they could be around and not feel judged, by being encouraging in his quiet way. Even in his past relationships, Jungkook just seemed to suppress what he felt - whether it was love or affection or hurt or anger. To be able to articulate all that he feels for you in this way is quite special. Maybe you’re rubbing off on him.

“Hmm. Sounds like a couple we know. And they’re getting married in a few months,” Taehyung smiles now.

“I’m not even thinking about that far into the future,” Jungkook frowns.

“I know but that’s not the point,” Taehyung corrects. “I just meant that it happens, Kook. That’s how some love stories go. Just like with my brother. He and Hayoung got along so well that we just kept secretly waiting for them to finally get together. And they did, seven years after they met. Because that friendship just naturally became deeper and blossomed into something more. I mean, it’s a natural thing. Like you said, you just learn to… settle into someone. You gravitate towards them, feel like they’re a person you can tuck yourself in and just be comfortable with and that’s such a beautiful feeling. I’ve witnessed it with them and I’m witnessing it with you, too.”

“Is that how you knew?” Jungkook chuckles as he shakes his head, unsure if his friend is just that perceptive or if he’s that transparent. “Because you’ve seen it happen with your brother?”

“Sort of,” Taehyung hums. “But I’m close to her, Kook. And I know how I am with her. I’m fond of her, I’m amazed by her, I want to take care of her, but she also drives me crazy sometimes. In a very sibling-like way because that’s how I treat her. That’s how I see her. I saw how you took care of her during the flight to Japan. I saw how you smiled every time she did. Even when she was being a brat, you just… wanted to be there for her. And it’s different from how Jimin or I treat her.”

Jungkook nods, thinking now that perhaps those times in Sapporo when his friend looked at both of you smiling, left you alone together, or even had him give you a piggyback ride was Taehyung’s way of figuring it out. But another thought alerts Jungkook.

“Shit. Do you think he knows? Or maybe Mo-eum?”

“They haven’t said anything. But then again, you and ___ have kinda been treating each other the same way. I think I’m just noticing the subtle differences because I’ve been away for a while. And well, since I’m leaving again I'm a little bit more sentimental,” Taehyung laughs. “Why, don’t you want them to know?”

“Not yet,” Jungkook shakes his head.

“Why not?”

“Because they might tell me to keep off or run for the hills.”

“Or tell you to get your head out of your ass and do something about it,” Taehyung exclaims.

“They could, and I’m not sure if I’m ready for any of that. I.. I want her to settle into me. Naturally.”

“I get that, but this is the same girl who meets someone and then gets attracted to them right away. Just saying,” Taehyung warns.

You’ve always said you tend to act on your intense feelings immediately. It’s true that at any point, you could serendipitously meet someone and then pursue them the next day.

“___ is used to a life where things are clear to her, including the people in them,” Taehyung continues. “She’s always been honest about her intentions with others and doesn’t compromise who she is with them, and we all like that about her. You might wanna just let things happen because you don’t wanna rush or pressure her and I get that but a little nudge won’t hurt.”

“How do I do that?”

“Be intentional, I guess. Act on what you feel but gently, gradually,” Taehyung advises. “Put feelers out and see how she thinks about friendships and relationships and whatnot.”

“I guess I kinda have been… unknowingly,” Jungkook shakes his head. “We’ve been having tons of conversations about how we dealt with our relationships and how we go about them.”

“And?”

“You know how we used to tease her with Namjoon?”

“Yeah, and she said that helpless clumsy people will burn the house down and so it was never gonna happen,” Taehyung laughs.

“There’s that. But she also wonders how someone could just one day decide to like a friend they’ve known for years. It’s a normal thing like you said but I guess it’s just not how she approaches relationships,” Jungkook says. “And there’s nothing wrong about that. It’s just… how do I make her see me as something more?”

“Show her that you could be? How would she know if you’re a home she wants to cuddle and kiss and hold hands in if you don’t show that potential?” Taehyung points out. “You don’t have to impress her or treat her so differently all of a sudden. Just be natural but know that you’ll have to be assertive when the time comes.”

“That is the most confusing thing but I guess that works” Jungkook sighs. “So… should I pick her up from the airport tomorrow, then?”

Jungkook picks you up from the airport on Sunday. Your conference wrapped up in the morning but your flight was delayed and you’ve been irritable since then, given that you weren’t able to eat a decent lunch.

You were texting with him last night and he kindly offered to give you a ride, reminding you that he likes long drives so it’s not a bother. You couldn’t say no, especially since an hour-long trip is much better having him to just talk with, something you’ve been enjoying a lot recently.

Jungkook was never really the texting type, that much you knew. He barely replies in group chats and the rare times you would message each other in the past was about random, shallow things. It wasn’t until a few months ago when you started texting more frequently, and your conversations go from mundane to deep, and you appreciate them equally.

Outside of that, you’ve been spending more time together, too, and you like that as well. He’s just a calming person to be around, very chill and laid-back, and you suppose it’s what you’ve been needing.

You know that he’s a reserved guy, often quiet and not very expressive compared to your other friends, unless he’s teasing you. He’s the kind to not let things bother him easily but also just does whatever he likes as long as he doesn't get in anyone's way.

You suppose that’s one reason why you were always closer to Jimin and Taehyung - they’re uninhibited and a little crazy like you, always going off about something together, narrating things animatedly, and being dramatic about everything. Jungkook, alongside Mo-eum, would just sit around and watch the three of you do all of that, and then take care of any one of you when needed.

While you still do most of those, you suppose that over time, you’ve all mellowed down a little bit. Over time, you’ve needed something else - a presence to calm you down and to contrast your often frenzied and chaotic state, a kind of energy that balances you out and grounds you.

Jungkook has been that for you recently. He listens to you rant about everything. He reassures you about your thoughts but also offers a different perspective. He makes you laugh and teases you comfortably. He shows up when you need him and he takes care of you like it’s second nature.

You know that’s the kind of person he’s always been. You don’t know though if you’ve just taken it for granted all these years because of that; you don’t really remember appreciating or even depending on him this way before. Perhaps it’s just time that’s passed and you grew up. Maybe at this point in your life, that’s the kind of person you need more of.

You smile at the thought as you watch Jungkook load your luggage in the trunk then head to the driver seat. He asks you about the delay and how the flight was. You say it was fine but that you only got to eat a sandwich at the airport and now you’re hungry, which makes it worse because you didn’t even enjoy the food at the conference.

“Was it really that bad?” He asks.

“For some reason, everything was spicy,” you frown. “And those that weren’t were just too intense and I just wanted something familiar. And delicious. Tae was sending photos of your suyuk from last night and I got so jealous. He said it was really, really good.”

“Oh. Do you want that, then?” Jungkook asks. “It’s not hard to make.”

“Wha–? Are you serious?” You look at him with puppy eyes, although this shouldn’t really be surprising anymore.

“Yeah. We’ll just get back to Seoul late afternoon and then pass by the supermarket for the ingredients. Can you wait until then?”

“I could. I mean, I heard it’s a life-changing dish,” you wink.

“Well, Taehyung’s an easily satisfied guy but I think it’s one of the best things I’ve made, too,” he chuckles. “Not sure about it being life-changing but you can maybe tell me later.”

“I’m sure it’ll be, since I’ll be very hungry by then,” you laugh. “But we could also just eat at a restaurant or something.”

He cocks an eyebrow, knowing that when you set your mind on a certain dish, you need to have it. The fact that you brought it up is a hint that it’s what you really want and Jungkook won’t say no.

He’s unsure if this counts as making a move on you but at this point, he’ll take whatever chance he can get to show you he cares and wants to make you happy. And that maybe, let you know in the most subtle way that something’s changed on his end without freaking you out.

“Fine, I know you know I really want to try it,” you giggle at having been caught.

You suppose he’s familiar with your antics at this point.

“I do,” he playfully shakes his head. “And it’s fine, really. I don’t mind doing things for you.”

“Hmm. That means you aren’t sick of me yet!”

“Don’t think I will anytime soon.”

Jungkook says it with certainty, and not in a teasing or even shy manner the way you’d expect. But you don’t think about it much. You’re just glad your constant presence hasn’t been a bother to him.

You spend the ride talking about how your respective weeks have been. You’re in your neighborhood before you know it, and he’s stopping by a supermarket and getting the ingredients while you message your friends about having dinner at Jungkook’s place. The three of them quickly reply they’ll be on their way, with Taehyung offering to pick them up.

You watch Jungkook do his magic while you wait for them to arrive, and you’re amazed when he says that he just watched a video on it online then went by feeling when he made it himself. You’re left in awe; you know your clueless ass could never.

Your friends arrive not long after, all of whom are just as excited to eat Jungkook’s dish, even if Taehyung just had it last night. He hypes it up and Jungkook calls him out for setting the expectations too high. He doesn’t want to disappoint you, he says.

Sitting next to him, you take your first bite. And your friend is right. This is incredibly delicious; you seriously don’t think any other version could top this.

You pinch the corners of your eyes in response, expressing dramatically - as you always do - how good it is. You take another bite with the kimchi, and given the unsatisfying dishes you’ve had the past three days, this quite literally tastes like heaven.

You reflexively lean on Jungkook’s shoulder as you close your eyes and savor it.

“Fuck, Kook. This is insane,” you moan.

“Yeah, well you haven’t even eaten it properly yet,” he hums. “Here.”

You turn to him and find him trying to feed you the pork wrapped in lettuce with rice and kimchi. You open your mouth and it’s even more delicious. This tastes like home, and in a way you didn’t expect.

You curse under your breath again, like Jimin is, while Taehyung and Mo-eum quietly enjoy it.

“It always amused me how Kook is the baby of the group but he never acted like it,” Mo-eum points out.

“Yeah, it was always me,” you chuckle.

“Debatable. Tae’s the baby. You’re the princess,” Jimin corrects.

“I agree,” Jungkook hums. “But we never minded, just so you know. At least, I never did.”

He says the last part softly, you’re probably the only one who hears it. Between his assuring words and this dinner he made, there’s not much you can do, so you prepare a portion of the meat with rice and side dishes, too, and offer to feed him.

He hesitates only briefly but lets you do as you wish. Your fingers graze his face and he feels the shiver on his skin.

“My thank you ssam,” you smile, and Jungkook praises you for making it well-balanced because that’s the only harmless thing he can really say.

You spend the next two hours the way you usually do when you’re together, until Mo-eum yawns and says she’ll go ahead because her three straight 12-hour night shifts are getting to her. She just wanted to see you so she came, even if you have your usual post-work dinners on Wednesdays. Tuesdays are reserved for Jimin while Taehyung usually just messages you whenever. Jungkook, you realize, has become a staple of your weekends.

Taehyung then offers to take Mo-eum home, then drags Jimin along because they need to buy something.

“What about ___?” Mo-eum asks.

“She’s out of the way,” Taehyung answers. “Plus, she craved this so she’ll help Jungkook clean up, right?” He continues, smiling sweetly at you.

“Of course I will,” you answer.

You bid them goodbye then start clearing the table of the dirty dishes.

“___, you don’t have to,” Jungkook says, taking them from you.

“This has always been my task,” you pout. “Plus, this is all I can do. You always do so much for me.”

You don’t wait for him to respond and proceed to washing the dishes. He stands next to you though and you continue talking, up until he drives you home then messages you good night.

You end up seeing Jungkook pretty much every week after that, whether it’s because of a get-together - like karaoke night on Friday after work, or a special event - such as the screening of the movie that Yoongi composed the music for.

You see him on your own, too, like on nights when you crave something after work, when there’s a movie you ask him to download that he watches with you, when you have an errand to do that you don’t feel like doing alone, or to cheer for his high school taekwondo team, just like you promised.

He’s always willing to join you even if he’s got things going on himself. He just says he doesn’t mind and deep down, you’re glad that he truly hasn’t gotten sick of you yet, given your tendencies to whine about things and complain about your work despite how much you love it.

Jungkook shares a lot more about himself, too. Not that he never did but you notice him being more open and comfortable about things he worries about - like how his students will grow up to be and if he’s being a good role model to them. There’s the occasional mention of wondering if he’ll be a good enough partner to whoever he’ll end up with after you open up a bit more about your past relationships.

It’s always stuck with you how he says that being with someone means that you witness the birth of a different person every time and then celebrating that. It strikes you because you feel like somewhere along the way, even you failed to do that yourself - accept how you’ve changed then embracing it. But he says he’s also learning, and that being with someone means you learn together.

It’s those conversations that have you appreciating your time with him even more. He’s there when there’s chaos in your mind, and even more so when it’s around you.

It’s near the end of April when you find yourself in Mo-eum’s apartment with Jimin, getting ready for your college reunion party. It feels like it’s been a while since you dolled up for something like this. Mo-eum, like you, only does it when there’s a special event. For Jimin, this is a norm in his line of work.

Your best friend eyes your outfit, fixes your dress, then suggests a bolder lipstick color.

“It’ll work with the guys,” he smirks.

“I’m not trying to get anyone’s attention, just to remind you,” you say, even if you go with the red that he hands you. “It’s a party and I’ll drink, watch people get shit faced, and then bury myself in the covers at night then lay in bed all day tomorrow.”

“You’re getting old,” he teases.

“You’re gonna feel the effects of all this partying at one point,” you reply.

“Nah, I’ve got energy. I keep myself in shape, you know?”

You throw your pillow at him at the dig, but you do point out that you still do your Pilates session every week and that’s helped with your energy, amongst other things.

“Plus, who’ll it work on? The guests are literally the same people from college. No one’s gonna go for me after all these years and vice versa,” you add.

“You have such a narrow and simplistic way of looking at things sometimes, you know that?” Jimin shakes his head at you. “You think that attraction is only immediate and a one-time thing, as if it doesn’t develop overtime or something.”

“Well, if it wasn’t there at the start, then it won’t be there later on,” you shrug.

“You only think that way because all your relationships have been that way,” Mo-eum says.

“Yeah, and they all ended right away,” Jimin points out.

“Ouch,” you say with no real bite, not like it’s something you haven’t thought about anyway.

“You want the feeling to smack you in the face at first glance,” Mo-eum adds, earning a nod from you because that’s true. “But it could also smack you years later, when you least expect it. Isn’t that intense and genuine, too?”

“Yeah, imagine one day realizing you like that cute ops guy at work that you have lunch with who’s so chill and unproblematic,” Jimin says. “Or your neighbor from childhood that you still talk with sometimes. Maybe Namjoon? He can already make ramen and you know how to slice fruits now. Who knows, it could be Tae. Or even Kook!”

“Jimin, I’m gonna hold your hand when I say this,” you sigh. “I don’t really see myself liking my friends in that way. Things that are good and comfortable don’t need to be disrupted.”

“___, I’m gonna hold your hand when I say this, too,” he counters. “You can. You only think otherwise because as much as you feel things, you don’t really pay attention to them. For you, things and people that are new are the only ones worth giving a shot because that’s what you’re used to. And I say this in the most loving way - I really think that the one who can truly handle all of you is someone who’s known you for years.”

You’re not offended, but it does intrigue you. So you ask what he means.

“You’re a lot of amazing things but that doesn’t mean every new guy you date sees that,” Jimin explains. “And I know you never said it directly but you always worried that your exes wouldn’t understand you, and so there were parts of you that you didn’t really wanna show them.”

You think about your best friend’s words and you agree. You weren’t the type who spent less time with your friends when you were in a relationship, and you always thought that meant you maintained your independence and social circles outside of your partner. Deep down, a part of you felt that there were aspects of your life you wanted to keep separate from the men you dated - your friends, your dreams, your bare and unfiltered self.

With Jeong-su, you were the passionate student leader who was so sure of herself. So on the days when you were stressing about school or life in general, you ran to your friends and not him. You suppose that’s where all the fights about not making time for him stemmed from.

It was similar with Seungho, as you were the independent and confident woman who worked hard for what she wanted in his eyes, and you felt like you had to keep that image up even if you had bouts of doubt or insecurity. He was aloof and wasn’t the type to spoil you. It was his lack of compassion that really bothered you, and you never really sought him for comfort.

There were many things that attracted you to them, but ultimately they faded away. During those years, you were focused on building yourself and your career, and they helped you in a way, because they were also attracted to that side of you - ambitious, polished, uncompromising.

But once you became in tune with the more human and flawed, unfiltered parts of yourself, you pushed them away, perhaps fearing they wouldn’t understand. Or that they wouldn’t want to deal with that side of you at all.

Maybe that’s what Jimin meant about you not paying attention to your feelings. You focused on how they made you feel, and not on what you felt about them, nor about how you felt about yourself because of them. As you grow up, you realize they’re not the same.

“What does knowing someone for a long time have anything to do with this?” You try to deflect. “You can know someone for years and still be surprised by who they are once you learn more.”

“They’re not afraid of you,” Jimin responds. “They don’t want to tame nor fit you into an idea they have of you because they already know the many versions of who you are. They’ve… they’ve learned how to exist alongside you and have fun along the way. I think that makes the difference.”

“And what does paying attention to how I feel even really mean?” You wonder out loud, as you process more of what he says.

“It means actually thinking about them, you know?” Jimin hums. “Like, giving yourself time to understand what you’re feeling, independently of what they do or say to you. You’ve always gone with your heart and we love that about you but the intense, genuine emotions that you want actually take time. I think it’s something you’ll figure out right away. It’ll be different from how it used to feel.”

“Okay, love guru,” Mo-eum chuckles. “Where’s all this coming from?”

“I listen to this podcast that talks about grown up stuff like relationships and I’ve picked things up,” Jimin shrugs. “But also I think I have a good read of people. I had a vibe with Seokjin and Hayoung long before they got together.”

“Is that why you keep pushing for Yoongi and Gyu-rim? Because you have a vibe about them?” You ask.

“Yes. And I just really think they like each other but they don’t know it yet.”

“Hmm. Interesting. And what about Mo-eum and Tae?”

“I asked her about it before but she didn’t answer me,” Jimin responds, triggering your other friend’s memory about that time.

It turns out he was right about that, too.

“And now I’ll ask you,” Jimin turns to you.

“Look, the Namjoon ship sailed a long time ago. You know how I feel about that,” you explain.

“I wasn’t referring to him,” Jimin shakes his head. “I was gonna ask about Kook.”

“Oh,” you and Mo-eum say at the same time.

Jimin watches your face distort, going from processing to wondering to somehow lost, and he chuckles in response.

“You know what, never mind. I’ll leave that for you to think about,” he smiles instead. “Anyway, come on. We have a party to go to.”

You get inside your booked car and decide to not think too much about what Jimin had asked you right before you left. Not that his question was completely out of left field because even you would say that you’ve been spending more time with Jungkook lately, but you suppose you hadn’t really thought much about what it could mean.

You can chalk it up to that unspoken promise from months ago about being better friends to each other, but maybe that’s a big part of it, too. Was it really just about that? Or have your efforts naturally progressed to mean something more?

You internally sigh at all these thoughts that your best friend unfortunately put in your head. Tonight’s not the time to be contemplating about this, not when you’ll be around people and around him.

And just as the reminder that Jungkook will be here crosses your mind, he just happens to be the first person you see right when you exit the car.

He greets familiar faces as you and your friends meet him and Taehyung in line to the Club before he turns to you with a smile.

“Hey!” Jungkook greets, going in for a hug like what you do every time you see each other.

He smells like cotton. It’s so fresh yet so manly.

“Hey,” you return, taking in how he looks. “So, uh, what happened to the white shirt?”

“Tae told me to ditch it. He said this was better,” Jungkook shrugs, eyeing his outfit of white tank top under a simple white jacket. He gestures towards your dress. “So, this was the nicer option,” he hums.

“Yeah,” you nod, remembering that unplanned afternoon of shopping when he let you drag him around the mall. “Is it alright?”

His lips turn up and he leans closer, as you near the entrance and the music gets louder.

“Yeah, you look pretty.”

Your smile is immediate and you’re surprised at how much that affects you. You’re pretty sure he’s called you pretty before, but maybe it has a lot to do with how he looks right now because if you’re being honest to yourself, he looks really good.

You finally enter the Club and get properly greeted by Taehyung, who gives you a tight hug the way he always does. You end up talking about his cameo in this one show and his guest appearance in Running Man, which you and Jungkook watched together the other day.

Once you make it to one of the cocktail tables, you greet your other friends from university and take shots with them to jumpstart the evening. You don’t really intend on drinking a lot tonight so you pace yourself and catch up with those you haven’t seen for years, including Jihyo, who introduces you to the co-owners of the Club.

It’s not really your favorite thing to do, as meeting people overwhelms you sometimes, but you go along with it. It’s still a night to dress up and kind of let loose, so that’s what you do, as you dance around with the ones you used to party a lot with once upon a time.

Taehyung is jumping from one group to another, and you never really knew how the theater kid ended up knowing a bunch of people from every faculty and department in your university. Jimin is with his course buddies whom he hangs out with frequently, and you spot Jungkook and Mo-eum in the same area they’ve been since you arrived, chatting and taking shots with people you recognize from their pre-med classes.

You finished university about six years ago and though it’s not too long ago, somehow seeing all these people you used to walk by in the halls, the library, or the clubs makes you feel like it is. There’s something about them that’s different than you remember, and it hits you just how much time can change many things - people, places… feelings, beliefs.

The initial exhilaration from seeing old friends again and letting loose quickly dies down as your energy starts getting drained and your legs begin to cramp up.

Despite your low block heels and not-too-tight dress, you still feel a little bit uncomfortable. It’s a much different experience than the last time, which you suddenly remember was months ago when Taehyung invited you all to a night out. That was when Jungkook’s ex showed up, and the memory prompts you to quickly search for him, irrationally thinking she might be here even if she doesn’t have a reason to be.

You spot him at the same cocktail table, chatting with some girls. You look around to look for either Jimin or Taehyung but a bunch of rowdy guys dance past you and bump you as you make your way towards one of the couches.

“Hey, you okay?”

You turn around and find Jungkook’s worried eyes looking at you.

“Yeah, I was just… trying to find a place to chill at,” you respond. “I’m a little tired.”

He gestures towards his earlier spot. “I’ve been saving that table all night.”

You follow his lead and get introduced to the girls he was speaking with earlier. They were members of the women’s swim team that he used to train with. They leave not long after you greet them, then you sit on the stool that Jungkook offers.

“Did you see Mo-eum on her way out?” He asks, leaning closer so you could hear him over the loud music.

“Yeah, Jimin and I walked her to Taehyung’s car. She has a shift tomorrow afternoon and she wanted to get some rest tonight,” you explain.

“Right, she did mention that,” he nods.

Jungkook offers you water as you talk about who you’ve been catching up with all night. You haven’t hung out with him much and you quickly feel at ease, reminiscing and giving updates on the other friends you’ve both been talking with.

It’s clear that at this point, people have had more to drink. There’s more screaming of the song lyrics, more cheering at the dance floor, and definitely more bumping from those drunkenly walking around.

Including this woman who gets bumped and falls to the ground, right next to Jungkook. She’s unfamiliar so she’s probably from another course you didn’t really interact with.

He gets over his surprise and quickly crouches down to help her up. She eventually does but instead of just saying her thanks and walking away, she lays her hands on his chest and dazedly smiles. The music is still loud but you hear what she says.

“Oh my god, you’re so hot,” she mumbles. “Can I dance with you? Just don’t tell my boyfriend. He’s right over there.”

She giggles and it’s clear she’s had a lot to drink. But Jungkook’s not the least bit interested, especially given that she’s not single. It’s obvious why that puts him in a sour mood.

Just as he’s letting her go and moving back, the said boyfriend makes his way towards where you’re sitting, and you get the feeling that things aren’t going to end well.

He calls out for the girl, saying he’s been looking for her, and she just had to make up a story that she’s been dancing with Jungkook, which clearly didn’t happen. This enrages the man who turns to Jungkook, yelling at him to keep off his girl.

Jungkook raises his arms, explaining that all he did was help her up after she fell but the man doesn’t listen. Surely by this time, he should be focused on ensuring his girlfriend is fine, but he seems quite drunk, too, so he probably isn’t thinking straight.

There’s a bit of commotion, as the girl starts whining. Taehyung, unknowing of what’s happening, sees the man walking closer to where you and Jungkook are, so he attempts to pull the man’s arm to get him away. That enrages him, too, so now he’s turning around and pulling on Taehyung’s shirt, which prompts Jungkook to now pull the man away from your friend.

Which ends badly, as the man tries to shove Jungkook away and ends up elbowing him in the face before he finally leaves you alone.

You shriek in response, shocked at the aggression and how fast everything happened.

You’re just behind Jungkook so you walk to face him and see that he’s busted his lip. He tries to use his white jacket to stop the bleeding, but you gently pull his hand away and place a napkin over it.

“How bad does it hurt?” You ask, trying to sound calm even if you’re boiling in anger.

All Jungkook did was try to help the girl, and though you’re unsure if she intended to deflect and place the blame on him instead, she still shouldn’t have taken advantage of the situation like that. And the man definitely didn’t need to be that aggressive and unwilling to listen.

“It stings pretty bad,” Jungkook responds, wincing in pain as he puts pressure on the cut.

This angers you even more, and you try to storm off with your clenched fist, pumped up with adrenaline that you think you could even do anything.

But Jungkook pulls you back before you could make another step.

“Hey, hey. Where are you going?”

By this time, people around you have dispersed. Taehyung followed the guy, perhaps to make sure he gets escorted out of the Club. It’s just you and Jungkook at the table now, and somehow he looks calmer than you do.

“Give that man a piece of my mind,” you grumble.

“With your fist?” He cocks an eyebrow.

“With my words first. And then my fist,” you answer.

He smiles at you, softly, perhaps knowing the way you do that that’s a stupid idea but that he appreciates the thought regardless.

“You know you don’t have to,” he says. “I’m okay. It’s just a busted lip.”

“I can’t believe he elbowed your face. You were just trying to help,” you scowl.

“I can’t believe some stranger elbowed my face before you ever did,” he chuckles, earning you an apology after you reprimand him for joking about something like this.

“Really, ___. I’m fine. The pain will go away soon,” he tries to assure you.

You take his word for it and are willing to let it go. It’s that same time that Taehyung and Jimin get to your table, asking Jungkook how he is. They say that the man has been brought out and they found the girl’s friends for her to go home with. They wanted to make sure she was safe and being taken care of.

“I’m okay,” Jungkook assures them, too. “I just need to ice it and find a pretty good pain reliever for this one.”

“I have some at home that Mo-eum gave me,” you say. “They’re really effective but they make you sleepy.”

“That should be good, yeah?” Jimin asks. “___, can you clean his wound and give him the meds? Jihyo asked us to help with managing the rowdy guests so we’ll stay a bit longer.”

“Yeah, of course,” you answer, turning to Jungkook who looks a bit apologetic.

“Take my car,” Taehyung offers. “I’ll get Mr. Yang to pick you up.”

“Thanks, Tae,” you tiredly smile, the adrenaline from earlier now gone and you’re just exhausted and upset.

“Alright. Take care of him, okay?” He gestures towards Jungkook.

“Yeah, it’s my turn to,” you say. “Take care of yourselves. Let us know when you’re home.”

Jimin and Taehyung nod in response so you and Jungkook start making your way out of the Club. You come across Jihyo, who apologizes for not managing the crowd better, but Jungkook waves her off, saying it could’ve been worse.

You both wait by the street for Taehyung’s chauffeur, who’s just coming back from dropping Mo-eum off at her apartment. You move closer to Jungkook to assess the cut, frowning at the memory from earlier. The scene plays in your head and you’re hit with that feeling of anger all over again.

Jungkook sees your face contort and he can tell you’re being worked up thinking about what happened.

“I never asked you if you got hit or something,” he disrupts your thoughts. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I… you, you were blocking him,” you say, recalling how Jungkook immediately stood in front of you, his hands signaling you to move so you’re not close to the man.

“He had a lot to drink and I was scared he’d do something to us.”

“Yeah well he did, to you,” you grumble.

“Like I said, it’s fine, ___,” he smiles now to try to convince you. “My lip could've split even more with how built he was but it’s not. I’ll survive.”

“Why are you so calm?” You question him, wondering if it’s always been in his nature to be like this.

And you remember that it is.

“If I’m not then who would be between us?” He chuckles.

You frown and bow your head because it’s true. He’s the one who’s hurt but you’re the one who seems to be so affected by it.

But it’s in your nature, too. It’s not like it’s the first time you’ve ever been angry at someone mistreating him.

“Hey, I’m sorry. I don’t mean to make light of you being upset,” he mumbles, as he gently tilts your chin up to face him again.

“It’s just… I get his anger, okay?” He explains. “I’m not justifying his actions or anything. I mean, I wouldn’t react that way. And I… didn’t. I’m just saying that yes, he shouldn’t have been aggressive but seeing your partner do something like that gets to you and you end up… doing unpleasant things. Plus, he had been drinking so that made things worse but I’m not mad at him. I’m not mad at anyone.”

His words hit you, as you can imagine that the moment the woman mentioned she had a boyfriend after trying to flirt with him, thoughts swirled in Jungkook’s mind at what probably happened that night when his ex cheated on him. You saw his face fall then, and it angers you all over again at the thought that he experienced all that before and now some stranger tried to make him the other guy because his woman got caught.

Jungkook sees you clench your jaw, seemingly controlling your emotions. It’s not just anger this time. It seems like there’s something more.

“Hey, hey,” he says softly. “What else is bothering you?”

“People are just so mean,” you huff, close to tears at the overwhelming emotions. “And they’re mean to you. You don’t deserve any of that.”

And with your words, Jungkook knows - you’re not just talking about tonight.

He pulls you close to hug you, knowing that this is who you are. You feel things intensely, and while he’s not the type to do that, you’re doing it for him, and that comforts him somehow.

He feels you slowly wrap your arms around him and sigh into his chest, as if this is helping you calm down. He also knows that letting you take care of him is one other way to do that.

He pulls away and tilts your chin to face him again.

“I know I don’t, so thanks for reminding me,” he says. “I guess I just easily accept bad things that happen to me because there's not much I can do about other people’s actions but that doesn’t mean I don’t get to feel upset. I don’t want them to win and they will if I put myself down because of it.”

You nod, understanding what he means.

And he’s right. At least you get to be the one who’s mad about it. You get to expend that negative energy towards those mean people and let them feel even a tiny bit of it in one way or another.

“I’ll let you treat my cut and I’ll take the meds, yeah?”

“Sounds good,” you say, amazed at how he’s the one who’s still able to pacify you when he’s the one who’s hurt.

You wait a few minutes more with him until the car arrives.

The ride to your apartment is quiet. You spend most of it looking out the window, occasionally turning towards him where he meets your gaze once he senses you’re looking at him. He gives you an assuring smile and you return it, as if to say that you just want to make sure he’s okay.

You instruct him to take a seat once he enters your place and you immediately give him the pain reliever. You hand him a cloth-wrapped cube of ice to soothe the cut, which has thankfully stopped bleeding. But you see the blood stains on his jacket sleeves and offer to soak it so they don’t stick.

You leave him to prepare a vinegar solution that you search online then return to your dining room. He’s already rid himself of his jacket, and he sits there with his tattooed arm holding up the ice to his wound, wincing at the sting. That man was big, and you’re thankful that his elbow didn’t slice Jungkook’s lip completely open because that definitely could’ve happened.

“How’s it looking?” He asks, as he shows it to you.

“Still a bit swollen,” you sigh. “How do you feel?”

“Meds are starting to work,” he yawns.

“And what do you have to do next?” You ask, remembering that he’s a PE teacher and he definitely knows about cut treatment more than you do.

“Just rinse and make sure I don’t irritate it.”

“Sounds pretty simple,” you nod. “It really could’ve been worse,” you shake your head.

“Yeah, he could’ve elbowed my nose instead. Imagine that,” he chuckles, knowing how protective you are of it, even if he really doesn’t know if you mean it or just say it to tease him.

“If he did, I really would’ve gone to him and smacked him or something,” you frown. “Nobody messes with that cute nose, I swear.”

“I appreciate how it’s worthy of your protection,” he smiles, yawning again.

You note his glazed eyes and think of how tired he must be right now. It’s been a long night and you want him to just rest and feel better in the morning.

“Just stay the night, Kook,” you offer. “You can wash up and go straight to sleep. I’ll set up the sofa bed.”

Jungkook looks softly at you. You’ve been everything he’s needed all night. Even if he was barely with you, he kept glancing to where you were to see if you were enjoying yourself. And of course because you looked really pretty in the white halter dress that he just wanted to see more, and he’s glad he got to tell you that early on.

But once he started to get tired from all the socializing, there you were. Both of you got to talking and he immediately felt at ease. And while that woman and her boyfriend disrupted his night, they didn’t completely ruin it, not when he gets to be with you at the end of it.

Sure, he hopes he didn’t have a busted lip but him getting hurt is much better than you experiencing even a fraction of what he did.

So yeah, it’s not all bad. He gets to sleep knowing you’re around him again and that you’ll be there in the morning.

“Alright,” he smiles. “I’ll get myself cleaned, then.”

Just like before, you give him a towel and clothes to use. The spare toothbrush from last time is still there, you say, and he feels giddy knowing you hadn’t thrown it away.

You set up the sofa bed in time and give him something to further soothe his lip. You leave a glass of water on the coffee table, too.

He’s asleep by the time you finish taking your shower. The cold compress lays loosely on his hand so you kneel next to him and take that away.

He looks tired as his mouth is slightly opened and he breathes heavily. But still, he looks peaceful and that assures you.

He was never the type to be doted on, especially since he’s always managed to get things done on his own. Most times he doesn’t even ask for help, instead looking out for others who need him. You know this, but he also knows of your tendencies to panic and your need to know for certain that he’s okay. Perhaps that’s why he agreed to stay.

You walk towards your bed but decide to look back, as Jimin’s words from earlier ring in your head. Leaning on your wall, you gaze at Jungkook and try to understand what you’ve felt this whole evening.

There was that sense of protectiveness earlier. He’s a good person who deserves good things, and whether it’s because of someone he cared about or a complete stranger, he gets hurt in the end, even if he was just trying to love and trying to help.

You’ve always been protective of your friends but there was a different type of intensity when it came to Jungkook. You felt helpless but you also desperately wanted him to know that you were gonna stand up for him regardless of what it meant for you.

As you look at him tonight, it’s a similar feeling, just a bit more mellow. You want to protect him in whatever way you can. You want to see him enjoying life. You want him to know he’s cared for, that someone looks forward to his laughter and his presence, that he makes someone’s day bearable and fun.

And as you lay in bed, you think about what else you’re feeling and it hits you. You want to wrap your arms around him and make him feel comfortable, like there’s a place for him to breathe and be himself. Because that’s how he’s been making you feel recently, and there’s no denying that anymore.

Jungkook is still asleep when you wake up the next day. You both slept through the morning and you’ve gotten hungry, so you search for the things he’s allowed to eat and decide on getting some cold noodles and milkshakes delivered.

You reply to your friends’ messages about how he’s doing, and Mo-eum recommends that he just rest since based on your account, he got knocked pretty hard so that might still have an effect on him.

You’re putting his soaked jacket inside your laundry machine when you hear Jungkook grunting awake from his sleep. You head to him immediately and ask him how he’s feeling.

“I feel fine,” he hums, rubbing his eyes as he gets used to the early afternoon light. “That pain reliever knocked me out good. I needed that sleep.”

“That’s good to hear,” you nod. “I got us food delivered so just wait a while. I’m getting your jacket washed, too, if that’s fine.”

“Sure. I can also just come back for it so you don’t feel rushed.”

“Okay,” you answer. “I was worried about you last night. I know you know how I get so if you stayed to appease me, I appreciate it, Kook.”

“What if I also just wanted to spend more time with you, would that have been okay?” He asks, catching you off guard.

He’s cheeky sometimes, but you don’t recall him being this bold. Your heart does a weird thing. You’re not actually sure if it’s stopped or if it’s just fluttering too hard that you don’t feel it.

Maybe it’s the way he said it with his low, gravelly voice. Maybe you're just overthinking what Jimin had said and now you’re putting meaning into everything. The last thing you want is to convince yourself that something’s there when there isn’t, just because your best friend assumed that there was.

Your face might have made a dozen different expressions again because before you can answer, he’s already chuckling at you and standing up, seemingly not interested - or perhaps just impatient - in what you have to say.

“I’ll just wash my face,” he says.

Jungkook faces the mirror and scolds himself. What he said was way too bold than what you’re used to, even if it’s the truth. He truly could’ve managed on his own, even if he probably would’ve sleepily dragged himself up to his apartment last night.

But he stayed because he knew you’d be worrying. And he wanted to bask in that feeling, even if he fell asleep right away. But being here, seeing you first thing in the morning, and spending a few more hours with you - those are things he wants to do, too.

He recalls what he told Taehyung he’d do about his feelings for you. He’ll probably drop hints or be a little more forward, but he doesn’t want to overdo it nor be too different for fear of scaring you. Or worse, pressuring you. You’ll most likely tell him off.

He wants you to settle into him, like he’d said. He wants you to just feel your way around him until you’re comfortable - until you want to hold hands and kiss and cuddle. If that’s what you want.

You’re preparing the delivered food by the time he’s finished in the bathroom and he sits in front of you, acting like there aren’t a hundred things running through his mind. This domesticity is one of them; liking and wanting more of it is another.

You no longer seemed too bothered about what he said earlier and you both get into your usual banter while eating.

Your phone beeps, so does Jungkook’s, and it seems that your friends have resumed asking how he is, now that you’ve informed them that he’s awake.

“Reply, please. They’ll wanna hear it from you,” you tell him.

They eventually call. Jimin’s driving, Taehyung is working out, and Mo-eum is on her way to her shift. You let Jungkook share his account this time and you watch him from your seat, happy that he’s regained his energy. There’s that smile again. And your heart has seriously been so weird since last night.

You wonder if it’s always done that. Or perhaps this is an entirely new feeling that you’re slowly discovering.

Jungkook scrunches his nose. He’s laughing and then asking if you’re full and then filling your glass with water. You’re reminded that yes, he’s always been like this.

It’s you that’s probably changed. And you’re not quite sure what to do. Keep your distance to sort your feelings out and see if you’ll miss him? Keep spending time with him and see if the sensation and giddiness continue?

Just then, you get a notification from your other group chat, and it’s Hayoung who’s messaging.

[hayoung 💛] Hello friends! Less than 2 weeks until our pre-wedding party / send off trip for Tae in Jeju! I’ve got everything booked. Meet up at 11 in the airport!

[hayoung 💛] To Kook and ___ who can’t leave earlier because of work (boooo 😢), I’ve arranged an airport transfer to drive you to the house. I’ll send the details later. See you all! We can’t wait!

You’re reminded of the last trip before Taehyung leaves, the late afternoon flight you have with Jungkook, and the four days you’ll be spending with him.

Seems like you’ll have to go with the second option, then.

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misshoneyimhome · 5 months ago

Text

What's up buttercups! 💕

Chapter three is here, and things are starting to take shape! I know, we’re still keeping a steady pace, but trust me—good things take time (at least that’s what I keep telling myself while writing this f-ing slow burn…🙈).

As always, I hope you enjoy it. Happy reading, darlings! 😊✨

Tropes & warnings: inexperienced!reader x Auston Matthews, meet cute, strangers to friends, fake relationship, smut 18+, Auston x unknown female character, protected vaginal penetration

Word count: 6.8k Chapter one ; Chapter two

➼｡ﾟ

Chapter Three: Pucks, Plans, and Pretences*

“Dearest Toronto readers, it seems our Ice King has traded his signature cool for something decidedly warmer. A newly surfaced photo from the depths of the Scotiabank Arena has set the internet alight, capturing Auston Matthews and his now-infamous Mystery Queen in a moment that could rival any story.

The city can’t stop talking.

But what’s the real story? Is this the beginning of something genuine or a strategic distraction for Toronto’s captain? Matthews, ever the enigma, isn’t saying much—but that smirk of his has done little to quell the rumours.

As for his Mystery Queen, she’s still just that—a mystery. Ambitious, poised, and undeniably captivating, she’s become the city’s obsession overnight.

Whether this is love, strategy, or something in between, Toronto is hooked. And with Matthews at the helm of this unfolding drama, one thing is certain: it’s going to be a season to remember.

Yours always,

The Benchwarmer”

Tuesday –

Sitting by the high table in the compact kitchen of your small studio flat, you traced the rim of your coffee mug absentmindedly. The faint hum of the city outside was a comforting white noise, a familiar backdrop to your mornings. But the fragile peace didn’t last long.

Your phone buzzed sharply, shattering the moment. You groaned, setting down your mug to glance at the screen. Of course, it was Jess and Maya. The two of them had wasted no time diving into what was clearly the hot topic of the day.

Jess (7:13 AM): “Spotted: You and Auston. AGAIN. Girl, explain.”

Maya (7:15 AM): “We need a FULL breakdown. Coffee tonight. No excuses!”

You sighed, gripping the warm mug a little tighter as you composed a response. Your fingers hovered over the screen, hesitating.

You (7:18 AM): “There’s really nothing to explain.”

The reply came almost instantly.

Maya (7:19 AM): “Oh, please. You’re trending AGAIN. #MysteryQueen is still going strong. Spill.”

Jess (7:20 AM): “You can’t brush this off. Coffee tonight after work, our usual spot. Don’t make me come to your place.”

You let out a soft laugh despite the tension knotting in your chest. Jess and Maya were relentless, but their concern came from a good place. They were your best friends—your constants in a world that felt increasingly chaotic.

Still, the guilt nagged at you. They were cheering for you, defending you, believing you were swept up in some whirlwind romance. And here you were, dodging their excitement with half-truths and carefully constructed vagueness.

You (7:22 AM): “Fine. Coffee tonight. But it’s really not as exciting as you think, ladies.”

Jess (7:23 AM): “We’ll be the judges of that.”

Maya (7:24 AM): “Don’t forget the juicy details. We need to know EVERYTHING.”

You set your phone down with a heavy sigh, your appetite fading as stress settled over you like an unwelcome houseguest. It wasn’t just the messages. It was the weight of everything that had piled up over the past few days.

You stirred your coffee absentmindedly, watching the liquid swirl. The events of the gala played on a loop in your mind, every moment amplified now that the media had latched onto you. And then there was Auston.

Had you really agreed to fake-date Auston Matthews, the Ice King himself? The words “Let’s do it” echoed in your mind, making you wince. What had possessed you?

You knew the answer: desperation.

Auston’s reasons were crystal clear. He wanted control over the narrative. He needed a way to silence the incessant speculation about his personal life. His pitch had been logical, almost clinical. And you, standing at the crossroads of your career, had agreed.

You rolled your eyes at the thought. If his biggest problem is dodging rumours about his love life, he’s got it easy.

Your problems felt heavier. Tangible. Your boss’s voice rang in your ears, his warnings cutting through your thoughts: “No distractions. No drama. No more headlines.” The gala had already pushed you to the edge of his patience. And now? Now you were willingly diving into a situation that could unravel everything you’d worked for.

But wasn’t this what you wanted? A chance to make your mark, to prove you weren’t just another cog in the machine? Maybe this was the universe’s way of throwing you a lifeline—wrapped in chaos, sure, but a lifeline, nonetheless.

Or maybe you were just grasping at straws.

You sighed, pushing your barely touched breakfast aside. The decision had been made. There was no turning back now. Auston had given you an option, and you’d taken it.

Your to-do list for the day felt overwhelming. Face your boss. Navigate the fallout. And later, coffee with Jess and Maya. They’d want answers—real ones, not the half-hearted deflections you’d been giving them.

You weren’t sure how much you could—or should—tell them. But one thing was certain: you needed to pull yourself together. Time was ticking, and the last thing you could afford was to let it all spiral out of control.

Auston Matthews awoke with nothing but a grin on his face. The kind of grin that wasn’t about a win or a goal, but about the sheer satisfaction of knowing he’d set the board perfectly for the game ahead. Sunlight filtered through his bedroom window, casting warm, golden rays across the room. Felix, his Australien Bernedoodle, was already wagging his tail eagerly, sensing that his human was in a particularly good mood.

“Alright, Snuff” Auston muttered, stretching as he reached for the dog’s leash. “Let’s go.”

The grin stayed fixed on his face as he walked Felix through the quiet morning streets of Toronto, hidden just slightly under the brim of his cap. The rhythm of his steps matched the upbeat hum in his chest. Felix trotted ahead, pausing every so often to sniff a tree or a fire hydrant. Auston’s thoughts, however, were far from their usual pre-game routine.

You’d said yes. The moment replayed in his mind, not because he doubted it had happened, but because of the satisfying sense of control it gave him. You had agreed to his plan. Fake dating. It was genius, really. It ticked every box: no questions about his personal life, no endless media speculation about who he was seeing, and the cherry on top—it made him unavailable. Off the market. And if anything, it made him even more unattainable.

Felix barked once, pulling him out of his thoughts. “Alright, alright,” Auston chuckled, tugging the leash gently to keep his dog moving. “Don’t get too excited.”

Back at home, Felix flopped onto his dog bed with a satisfied huff while Auston grabbed his duffel bag and packed for the day. The grin still hadn’t faded. Tonight was a game night, and he had an away trip to Columbus. Normally, his thoughts would already be on the ice, visualising plays, but today his mind kept drifting back to you and the whirlwind of events from the past few days.

Auston wasn’t an idiot. He knew how the media worked. They’d dissect every glance, every move, every word exchanged between the two of you. That was the world he lived in—a world of scrutiny, where even his most mundane actions were twisted into headlines. And yet, for once, he didn’t mind. You weren’t like the others who had flitted through his orbit.

Most women in this position would’ve jumped at the chance to bask in the glow of his fame. But you? You seemed determined to avoid it entirely, almost as if the spotlight burned too bright for your liking. That was refreshing. It intrigued him. And maybe—just maybe—it was part of why this plan felt so right.

He paused mid-pack, considering for a moment if he should bring his PR manager into the loop. Ultimately, he decided against it. The man hadn’t even batted an eye at the first photo. For someone like Auston, these kinds of headlines were par for the course. A fake relationship wouldn’t even register as a blip on his radar. And besides, Auston didn’t want anyone meddling. This was his game, and he intended to play it his way.

His teammates? They didn’t need to know. Not yet, anyway. They’d complicate things with relentless teasing, and Auston wasn’t in the mood to deal with Mitch Marner’s inevitable barrage of questions. And his family? Absolutely not. All they needed to know was that he wasn’t available. End of story.

The airport was bustling with the usual pre-travel chaos. Players joked and jostled each other, tossing bags into overhead bins and making playful bets about who would score the first goal of the night. Auston moved through the commotion with his usual calm, but the grin remained—a subtle, smug reminder to himself that he had everything under control.

“Yo, Tony!” Mitch’s voice rang out as he flopped into the seat beside Auston. “What’s with the face? You win the lottery or something?”

Auston smirked, adjusting his noise-cancelling headphones. “Something like that.”

Mitch squinted at him suspiciously. “This have anything to do with the latest post? You know, the one that’s got X losing its mind?”

“Don’t start, Marner,” Auston replied, his voice even but amused.

“Oh, I’m starting,” Mitch said, leaning closer with a conspiratorial grin. “Come on, man. Spill. Who is she? I mean we know what she works with, but… She’s not another one of those random girls you keep fucking, is she?”

Auston sighed, pulling one side of his headphones down. “She’s just someone I’m getting to know. Relax.”

“Someone you’re getting to know?” Mitch echoed, his grin widening. “That’s all we get? Not even a compliment about her ass?”

“Drop it,” Auston said, though his tone lacked any real bite.

Across the aisle, William piped up. “If she’s just someone you’re getting to know, why’s she all over your social media? You’re usually better at keeping things under wraps.”

Auston shrugged, playing it cool. “She’s not all over my social media. That’s the media doing what they do.”

But Mitch wasn’t about to let it go. “You don’t talk about the other girls, but you’re dodging questions about her? That’s new.”

Auston shot him a look. “Maybe because it’s none of your business, Mitchy.”

The banter continued as the plane took off, Mitch throwing playful jabs from across the aisle and William chiming in with his usual teasing smirk. Auston brushed it off with ease, keeping his replies curt and nonchalant. But their questions lingered in his mind, nagging at the edges of his thoughts like a loose thread.

If his teammates were already this curious, what would happen when the media started digging deeper? And they would dig deeper. It wasn’t a matter of if but when. They’d dissect every detail, every inconsistency, every crack in the story. That’s when it hit him—he didn’t know enough about you. Not the kind of things that would make a fabricated relationship believable, at least.

Your favourite coffee order. Your go-to excuse for leaving a party early. The kind of music you liked to blast when no one else was around.

He needed to know something—anything—that could make this story feel authentic. His teammates might have been satisfied with the vague details he’d given them for now, but they nor the media wouldn’t let it slide. This had to look real. And for it to look real, he had to be able to talk about you like he’d known you for longer than a fleeting gala moment.

Auston leaned back in his seat, letting out a small breath. The team’s chatter faded into the background as he turned his focus inward. He’d have to talk to you, but it couldn’t feel forced. It had to be casual, natural. Just enough to set things straight and make sure the narrative stayed intact.

Satisfied with the plan forming in his mind, Auston allowed himself to relax, the familiar hum of the plane’s engines lulling him into a moment of calm. He adjusted his noise-cancelling headphones and gazed out the window as the city faded into the distance. The grin he’d worn all morning crept back onto his face, a mixture of confidence and anticipation.

This was going to work. It had to.

You might not realise it yet, but Auston Matthews had chosen you for a reason. You weren’t just a pawn in his game. You were the perfect partner in crime for the plan he was about to execute.

As you walked into the office, you held your chin high, shoulders back, just like Jess always encouraged during your frantic late-night phone calls. Her voice still echoed in your head: “Own it. Whatever you do, don’t let them see you sweat.” Easier said than done.

Your heels clicked against the polished floor with a rhythm that you hoped exuded confidence. Each step felt heavier than the last, the weight of the charade pressing against your chest. The office buzzed with its usual energy—keyboards clacking, phones ringing, snippets of conversations floating through the air. But today, the atmosphere seemed to hum with something sharper, something just shy of gossip. Again, you didn’t have to hear the whispers to know they were about you.

You felt their eyes on you as you passed, a few heads turning slightly as you walked by. It was subtle—an extra glance, a barely concealed smirk, a phone quickly tucked away as if you’d interrupted someone mid-scroll through the latest viral photos. You’d expected this, but that didn’t make it any easier.

Your phone vibrated in your bag, but you ignored it. No doubt Jess or Maya was checking in to remind you of your coffee date later. Or worse, your boss with a sharp-edged “we need to talk.” Neither option felt appealing.

By the time you reached your desk, the tension in your chest had settled into a dull ache. You sat down, carefully placing your bag at your feet, and took a steadying breath. The screen of your laptop glowed to life as you opened it, the familiar sight of your inbox providing a small sense of normalcy.

But even as you sifted through emails, your thoughts kept circling back to the lie you were living. You felt bad for keeping Jess and Maya in the dark. They were your best friends, your ride-or-die crew, the people who’d been there for you through every triumph and heartbreak. But you couldn’t risk telling them the truth.

What would happen if anyone found out? The question lingered in your mind like a persistent shadow. Even the smallest crack in the story you and Auston would be concocting could lead to an avalanche. If word got back to your boss that this wasn’t just an accidental photo op but a deliberate ruse? You didn’t even want to imagine the fallout.

So, you kept your cards close to your chest, smiling politely when a co-worker passed by, nodding along to the faint hum of office chatter. It wasn’t that you didn’t trust Jess and Maya—it was that you didn't want to burden them with this. The stakes were too high. Or maybe, just maybe, you felt a bit embarrassed about having agreed to it?

For now, your best move was to stick to the plan: keep your head down, stay professional, and pray the whirlwind around you would eventually settle.

But as the day stretched on and the whispers persisted, you couldn’t shake the feeling that you were walking a tightrope with no safety net.

During the workday, you did your best to stay under the radar, skirting through the office with a practiced air of nonchalance. Your strategy was simple: avoid your boss at all costs. Fortunately, his schedule was jam-packed with back-to-back meetings, giving you a much-needed buffer.

Still, you weren’t entirely off the hook. You’d barely rounded the corner when he appeared, laptop in hand, his expression sharp and unreadable.

“Y/N,” he called out, his tone clipped.

Your stomach flipped, but you kept your face neutral. “Good day, Mr. Manion.”

He raised an eyebrow, clearly unimpressed. “Yes, well. Care to explain why half the office is suddenly fixated on some hockey romance conspiracy theories? Or why your face seems to be at the centre of it, again?”

You swallowed hard, scrambling for a response that sounded calm and collected. “Just media being media,” you said lightly, forcing a small shrug. “They’re spinning something out of nothing. It’ll die down soon enough.”

Manion stared at you for a long moment, his eyes narrowing as if he were trying to dissect the truth. “It better. We’ll discuss this later. My office, tomorrow morning. Or… when I have time for this mess.”

Before you could respond, he turned on his heel and walked away, leaving you with the sinking feeling that you’d just delayed the inevitable.

The rest of the day dragged on in a blur of emails and half-hearted attempts at productivity. No matter how much you tried to focus, the looming conversation with your boss weighed heavily on your mind.

By the time the clock struck five, you were almost relieved to escape the office and head to the coffee shop where Jess and Maya were waiting.

The café was warm and bustling, the scent of freshly brewed espresso mingling with the faint sweetness of baked goods. Jess and Maya were already seated in the corner, their expressions a mix of curiosity and impatience as they spotted you walking in.

“Well, well,” Maya teased, her grin widening as you slid into the chair opposite her. “Look who finally decided to show up.”

Jess smirked, crossing her arms. “Let’s skip the pleasantries, Y/N. Spill. Now.”

You sighed, wrapping your hands around the mug the barista had just placed in front of you. “Please, calm down. It’s not as exciting as you think. I promise.”

“Bullshit,” Jess said bluntly. “You’re trending. You don’t just get to brush this off.”

Maya leaned in, her eyes sparkling with excitement. “Come on. We’re your best friends. If you can’t tell us, who can you tell?”

There it was—the guilt. It crept into your chest like a cold weight, but you couldn’t let it show. You had to stick to the story.

“We met at the gala,” you began, keeping your voice as casual as possible. “He was… well, exactly how you’d expect. Arrogant, cocky, a total smartass.”

Jess arched a brow. “So, what? He just walked up to you and swept you off your feet?”

You hesitated for a fraction of a second before nodding. “Not exactly. I sort of… tripped, and he caught me. It was all very cliché.”

Maya gasped, her hands flying to her chest. “Like something out of a movie! I knew it!”

“It wasn’t like that,” you said quickly, laughing nervously. “He was just being polite. Honestly, I thought he’d forget about me the second I walked away.”

Jess tilted her head, her gaze sharp. “But he didn’t.”

You shook your head, taking a sip of your coffee to buy yourself a moment. “No, he didn’t. He’s been… persistent. But it’s not what you’re thinking. He’s not really my type.”

Maya’s jaw dropped. “Not your type? Are you serious? He’s Auston Matthews. Literal perfection.”

“Perfection isn’t exactly charming when it comes with an ego the size of the CN Tower,” you shot back, earning a laugh from Jess.

“Fair,” she said, smirking. “But don’t pretend you’re immune. Something about him must’ve worked if he’s got you responding.”

You shrugged, feigning indifference. “Maybe. Or maybe it’s just the media doing what it does best—blowing things out of proportion.”

Maya studied you for a moment, her expression softening. “You’re really into him, aren’t you?”

You nearly choked on your coffee. “What? No. Absolutely not.”

Jess leaned forward, her grin devilish. “You’re blushing.”

“I am not,” you protested, but the heat rising to your cheeks betrayed you.

The conversation continued, a whirlwind of teasing and speculation, but you managed to hold your ground, weaving just enough truth into your story to keep them from digging deeper. By the time you left the café, your nerves were frayed, but at least you’d survived the first round of questions.

As you stepped into the cool night air, you couldn’t shake the uneasy feeling that this was only the beginning.

The training rink in Columbus carried the usual buzz of pre-game preparation: the slap of pucks against the boards, the hum of skates carving into the ice, and the low murmur of coaches directing drills. But something about the energy felt off. Auston could sense it in the way passes missed by inches and shots rang off the crossbar instead of finding the back of the net.

The Leafs were coming off a high, but the weight of expectations clung to the team like an anchor. By the time practice wrapped up, the locker room was filled with subdued chatter, players trying to shake off the tension as they prepared for the night’s game.

Auston, ever the focal point, felt the weight more than most. Captaincy wasn’t just about leading on the ice—it was about carrying the team’s hopes and shielding them from criticism when things went sideways. And tonight, things went very sideways.

The game was a mess from start to finish. Columbus exploited every crack in the Leafs’ defence, while Toronto’s offense sputtered, unable to capitalise on power plays or momentum. Auston had his moments—a slick assist here, a near-miss there—but it wasn’t enough. By the time the final buzzer sounded, the scoreboard told the story: a 4-1 loss.

Auston’s jaw tightened as he skated off the ice, his grip on his stick like a vice. The locker room was eerily quiet post-game, the usual camaraderie replaced with a heavy silence. Players peeled off their gear in near silence, a few murmuring frustrations under their breath. Auston exchanged a few words with the coaches, but the sting of defeat lingered long after he left the rink.

Back at the hotel, the air in Auston’s room felt heavy—thick with the weight of the night’s loss and the expectations that always seemed to grow louder in defeat. He sat on the edge of the bed, his duffel bag still untouched by the door, scrolling aimlessly through his phone.

Down the hall, his teammates were decompressing in their own ways—some glued to their gaming consoles, others nursing quiet drinks in the lounge—but none of those options appealed to him. Auston’s frustration needed a different outlet.

Without much thought, he opened his DMs, the endless flood of messages a familiar distraction. His name was a magnet, his inbox teeming with invitations, compliments, and the occasional overly bold proposition. One message caught his eye—a familiar face from Columbus. They’d met on a previous trip, a fleeting encounter that left no lasting impression, which was exactly what he needed now.

Auston: “In town for the night. What’s up?”

Her: “Still waiting for you to call. Thought you forgot about me ;)”

Auston: “Never.”

The exchange was simple, transactional, and within the hour, she was knocking on his door.

Auston opened it, leaning casually against the frame. His expression was unreadable, save for the faint smirk that tugged at the corner of his lips. She smiled up at him, dressed to impress—or undress. As always, no pleasantries were exchanged; none were necessary. She stepped inside, and the door clicked shut behind her, sealing off the outside world.

It was exactly what Auston needed—a reprieve from the relentless noise in his head. She was eager, uncomplicated, and predictable, offering a distraction that required nothing from him emotionally. He let himself sink into the physicality of it, her hands trailing across his chest as she whispered something flirtatious. But her words barely registered. His thoughts were elsewhere.

They were on the ice, replaying the game in relentless detail: the missed chances, the failed plays, the sting of another loss. They drifted to the media frenzy surrounding his so-called “Mystery Queen” and the elaborate charade he was now orchestrating with you. No matter how much he tried to focus on the present, the weight of everything he was juggling refused to let go.

Still, he allowed her to take the lead, lying back as she straddled him with practiced confidence. The friction, the heat, the rhythm—it was enough to stoke his hardening member. She felt good, but it was a fleeting, surface-level pleasure. The connection was purely physical, and Auston was fine with that.

Her fingers dug into his chest, as she rode him expertly. Auston felt his climax slowly building, her tight cunt wrapped so neatly around his throbbing cock. He didn’t need more than this. Shutting his eyes he could imagine her to be anyone he’d like. His mind wandered as he heard himself let out a moan. She was good to him, picking up her pace as she too chased her own high.

Her moans filled the room, crescendoing as she announced her climax with exaggerated fervour. Auston stayed silent, his body tense beneath her, waiting for the moment to pass. And when she slumped forward, her chest rising and falling against his, he decided to take control in order to reach the rush.

Flipping her onto her back, he moved with renewed intensity, chasing his own release. His hips slammed against hers in a steady, unrelenting rhythm. His fingers clenched the sheets as he gave up holding back. He was merciless. Ruthless. Her cries of his name echoed in his ears, a mantra that boosted his ego but did little to penetrate the hollow space inside him.

And when his climax finally hit, it was like a tidal wave, crashing through him with a force that left him momentarily breathless. His low, guttural grunt filled the air as he spilled into the condom, his movements slowing until they finally stopped.

For a moment, the room was quiet, save for their heavy breathing. She brushed her fingers through his hair, her touch lingering as though she hoped it might spark something deeper. But Auston rolled away, reaching for his phone on the nightstand. The message was clear, though unspoken.

So, within minutes, she was dressed, smoothing her hair and offering a coy smile as she slung her bag over her shoulder. “See you around,” she said lightly, though they both knew she wouldn’t.

“Yeah,” Auston replied, his tone indifferent as he closed the door behind her. The lock clicked, and just like that, she was gone.

He sank back onto the bed, staring at the ceiling as the hollow feeling settled in—a familiar, unwelcome companion. The release had been satisfying enough, but it hadn’t erased the gnawing frustration or the pressure weighing on his shoulders. It never did.

His phone buzzed again, and he glanced at the screen. Notifications flooded in: highlights from the game, speculative articles dissecting the team’s loss, and the ever-present hashtag: #MysteryQueen.

A small, wry smirk tugged at his lips despite himself. The plan was working, and that was something. For all the chaos, for all the noise, the narrative was moving exactly as he’d intended. Now all he had to do was keep it that way.

He set his phone back on the nightstand and let out a long sigh, running a hand through his hair. Tomorrow, he’d regroup. Tomorrow, he’d strategise with you, fine-tune the story you were selling. For tonight, survival was enough.

As exhaustion finally crept in, Auston closed his eyes, his thoughts drifting to you once more. You weren’t like the others—too smart, too grounded to fall for someone like him. That was part of the appeal, he realised. You weren’t here for him, not really. And maybe that made you the most intriguing person he’d met in a long time.

But that was a problem for another day. Tonight, all that mattered was that the noise had faded, if only for a moment.

“Oh, Toronto, isn’t it fascinating how our beloved Ice King chooses to thaw? While the Leafs are licking their wounds after a tough night in Columbus, it seems Auston Matthews is sticking to his tried-and-true method of post-game ‘recovery.’ Word on the street—or rather, whispers through the grapevine—suggests that our captain might not be as unavailable as the Mystery Queen narrative wants us to believe. Curious, isn’t it?

But here’s the thing, dear readers—there’s always more beneath the surface. Matthews might play the media like a maestro, but even the best orchestrations can hit a sour note. Will the cracks start to show? Or will our Ice King’s dual life—both on and off the rink—continue to skate by unscathed?

As for his Mystery Queen? One has to wonder how she fits into this symphony of appearances. Is she just another carefully placed pawn in Auston’s game, or is there something more stirring beneath the headlines?

For now, Toronto, we’re left with a tantalising mix of speculation and intrigue. The season is still young, and the drama is only just beginning. - The Benchwarmer”

Wednesday -

Auston tried to enjoy the breakfast with his teammates. A hotel was a part of their routines, yet it never truly felt like home. His phone buzzed relentlessly with notifications, but one headline in particular caught his eye: “The Ice King’s Double Life? Drama Heats Up Around Toronto’s Star Captain and His #MysteryQueen.”

Auston clicked the link and was greeted by The Benchwarmer’s latest post. The commentary was sharp, hinting at cracks in his narrative and questioning whether the supposed romance with you was genuine—or just another fleeting distraction. The subtext was clear: his actions in Columbus hadn’t gone unnoticed.

He let out a groan, running a hand down his face. Reckless, Matthews. Really reckless. Sure, the plan with you was still in its infancy, but if this was going to work, it needed direction—intent. Otherwise, it would just look like every other shallow story he’d been a part of.

He needed to fix this. Fast.

Grabbing his phone, Auston scrolled to your contact—“PR Genius”—and fired off a quick text.

Auston: “Coffee today? We need to strategize.”

You: “Agreed. When and where?”

Auston: “3 PM. A café on Yonge. I’ll message the address later. Bring your game face.”

As the message was sent, Auston stared at the screen for a moment longer. This wasn’t just about keeping the media at bay—it was about keeping you on his side. If this plan unravelled, it would take both of you down with it.

A bit further North, your morning was no less chaotic than Auston’s. Jess, ever the early riser, was already on fire by the time your phone buzzed with the first notification.

Jess (7:15 AM): “HOW DARE HE???”

Maya (7:16 AM): “Is he seriously doing this to you? I’m ready to slash some tires.”

You couldn’t help but laugh softly, even as you groaned at their intensity. To them, it was a betrayal of epic proportions. To you, it was just another complication in the tangled web of your arrangement with Auston. But how could they know that? All they saw was a man seemingly toying with your feelings, and as your best friends, they were ready to go to war on your behalf.

You (7:18 AM): “Guys, relax. It’s not like we’re official or anything.”

Maya (7:19 AM): “Not official?! You’re trending as #MysteryQueen, Y/N! That’s practically a royal engagement!”

Jess (7:20 AM): “I swear, if he breaks your heart… bad things will happen!”

You chuckled despite yourself, shaking your head at their over-the-top reactions. It was sweet how protective they were, but you couldn’t let them spiral into full-blown outrage.

You (7:22 AM): “Look, it’s still early. He can do whatever he wants—we haven’t even been on a real date yet.”

The group chat fell silent for a moment, long enough for you to think maybe they’d finally let it go. But Jess’s response proved otherwise.

Jess (7:30 AM): “Fine. But he better get his shit together, or I’m hunting him down.”

You rolled your eyes affectionately, setting your phone down as you leaned back in your chair with a sigh. Jess and Maya were reacting the way anyone would if they thought their friend was being strung along. You couldn’t exactly blame them for jumping to conclusions—it wasn’t like they knew the truth.

Still, it left you with a heavy feeling you couldn’t quite shake. Sure, you weren’t dating Auston—not really. But even you couldn’t ignore how bad it looked. His actions might not have stung personally, but they made everything feel messier, more complicated. You were suddenly questioning whether this whole arrangement was as foolproof as he’d made it seem.

You stared into your half-empty coffee mug, the quiet of your kitchen contrasting sharply with the chaos in your head. By now, the plan you and Auston had agreed on felt more like a house of cards, ready to collapse at the slightest push.

The afternoon coffee with him couldn’t come soon enough. If this ridiculous plan was going to work, you needed to lay everything out on the table and get on the same page—and fast.

The coffee shop was bathed in the golden light of late afternoon when you arrived, your workday still clinging to you in the form of a slight tension in your shoulders. You pushed open the door, letting the comforting aroma of roasted beans and the soft murmur of conversation wash over you. The café was the perfect midpoint between your home and Auston’s—a cosy, unassuming spot where you could blend in without drawing too much attention.

You spotted him immediately, leaning casually against the counter, waiting for his order. He was dressed in dark jeans and a simple hoodie, a baseball cap pulled low over his face. Felix, his ever-loyal best friend, sat patiently by his side, drawing a few admiring glances from other patrons. Auston, as always, looked like he belonged anywhere and nowhere at once, exuding an ease that made people take notice without realising they were doing so.

Auston caught sight of you as the barista handed him his drink. He gave you a quick nod, that trademark smirk tugging at the corners of his mouth. “Hey,” he greeted as you approached. “Long day?”

“You could say that,” you replied, offering a small smile as you ordered your coffee.

As Auston watched you at the counter, his gaze lingered longer than he’d intended. You were dressed in your workday attire—professional yet effortless, like you hadn’t spent a second longer than necessary pulling yourself together. But it was the way you carried yourself that intrigued him. Even with the slight tension in your shoulders, there was a quiet determination in your movements, a resilience that he couldn’t help but notice.

Once you had your drinks, you stepped outside, where Felix immediately perked up, tail wagging enthusiastically. “He’s got more energy than I do,” you said, watching the dog sniff at a nearby patch of grass.

“Good thing he burns it off fast,” Auston replied, handing you Felix’s leash with an easy confidence that caught you off guard. “Here, you take him for a bit.”

“Me?” You stared at the leash, then at Felix, who was now looking at you with expectant eyes.

“Yeah, you,” Auston said, his grin widening. “It’s not that hard. Just don’t let him drag you into traffic.”

You rolled your eyes but took the leash, letting Felix lead the way as the three of you started down the quiet street. Auston glanced at you out of the corner of his eye, amused by the way you held the leash like it might bite you. Despite your initial awkwardness, he had a feeling Felix would win you over in no time.

“You’re stiff,” Auston said after a few moments, his tone casual but observant. “Relax. It’s just a walk.”

“It’s not just a walk,” you muttered, glancing around. “There are probably a dozen people ready to take a picture right now.”

“And what if there are?” He shrugged, taking a sip of his coffee. “That’s kind of the point, isn’t it?”

You huffed but didn’t argue. He wasn’t wrong. Still, the weight of being “seen” felt heavier than you’d anticipated.

“You’re overthinking it,” Auston said after a moment. “We’re just two people, walking a dog. Act like it.”

“I’m trying,” you shot back, but the edge in your voice made him smirk.

“Try harder,” he teased.

As Felix tugged you toward a nearby lamppost, Auston found himself studying you again. You didn’t fit the mold of the people who usually surrounded him. There was no pretense, no calculated charm. You were genuine—maybe to a fault, given how uncomfortable you seemed in the spotlight. He found it oddly refreshing.

“He’s really into this whole sniffing thing,” you said, changing the subject as Felix investigated another patch of grass.

“He’s thorough,” Auston said with a chuckle. “Doesn’t miss a single blade of grass.”

The light banter helped ease the awkwardness, and soon, the conversation shifted to more neutral topics. He asked about your day, and to his surprise, you opened up with a candid rundown of your work. You asked him about his travel schedule and the demands of his career, your questions more thoughtful than the usual superficial ones he was used to. And for the first time in a while, he felt like someone was genuinely interested in him, not the player or the famous persona.

“You’re used to it, though, right?” you asked. “The attention?”

“Yeah,” he said, his tone almost dismissive. “It comes with the job. You get good at tuning it out.”

“Must be nice,” you muttered, more to yourself than to him.

He caught it anyway. “You’ll get there,” he said simply.

You raised an eyebrow. “You sound awfully confident.”

He smirked. “Someone has to be.”

The conversation gradually turned more personal as you walked, Felix weaving between the two of you. Auston told you about growing up in Scottsdale, his early days in hockey, and how he adjusted to life in Toronto. In return, you shared snippets of your own life—your family, your job, your goals.

Yet, as you spoke, Auston couldn’t help but notice how you deflected any kind of praise. If he complimented your work ethic, you’d shrug it off. If he mentioned your ambition, you’d redirect the conversation. It was clear you weren’t comfortable taking credit for your own strengths, and that baffled him. In his world, confidence was currency, and yours seemed to be in short supply.

By the time you circled back toward the coffee shop, the awkwardness from earlier had all but evaporated. Felix was panting happily, his energy finally burned off, and you felt a little lighter too.

As you handed the leash back to Auston, he gave you a considering look. “You should come to the game tomorrow.”

“The home game?” you asked, caught off guard.

“Yeah,” he said, as though it were the most obvious thing in the world. “You’re supposed to be my…” He trailed off, his smirk turning playful. “It’ll look good. You know, for the act.”

You hesitated, unsure, but he pressed on. “Come on. VIP seats, good company. What’s there to think about?”

You rolled your eyes but found yourself nodding. “Fine. I’ll be there.”

“Good,” he said, pulling Felix closer as he grinned down at you. “And don’t forget your game face.”

As he walked away, Auston couldn’t help but glance back, his thoughts lingering on you longer than he expected. For all your insecurities, there was something undeniably compelling about you. This arrangement might have started as a strategy, but he was beginning to wonder if it could be something else too.

“Oh, Toronto. What a tangled web our Ice King is weaving. One moment he’s dominating the ice (or, well, trying to), and the next, he’s walking through the city with his Mystery Queen by his side—dog in tow, coffee in hand, and cameras lurking around every corner.

It’s a scene straight out of a romance novel: casual smiles, shared laughs, and the kind of chemistry that can’t be ignored (even if it’s staged, we see you, Matthews). Yet, there’s something undeniably intriguing about this pairing. She’s poised, seemingly unbothered by the chaos surrounding him, and he? Well, let’s just say he doesn’t seem to mind the added spotlight when she’s in the frame.

But don’t get too comfortable, dear readers. There are cracks in every façade, and this one is no exception. The whispers in the hockey world are growing louder, and if there’s one thing we know, it’s that the truth has a funny way of coming to light—especially when the stakes are this high.

So, what’s the endgame here? Is this truly a strategic pairing, or are we witnessing the beginning of something that neither of them saw coming? Whatever the answer, you can bet your last sip of Tim’s coffee that I’ll be here to spill the tea.

Until next time, Toronto. Keep your eyes on the ice—and the streets. The season is young, and this story is just getting started.

Yours always,

The Benchwarmer”

#The Benchwarmer #inexperienced!reader x Auston #auston matthews fanfic #Toronto maple leafs fanfic #nhl fanfiction #nhl romance #nhl imagines

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