#<- this place overall was very upsetting even if it is a ''good hotel'' the hallways and rooms are creepy as fuck

[stinky-rainboo]

[whiskersz]

AH OMG (I'm the one who requested the husk coworker one! If you wanna call me anything 💜 is fine!) I LOVE IT OMG PLEASE DO A PART TWO ITS SO CUTE

Good day, 💜!! Here's your part 2, you weren't the only one who asked for it! I hope you enjoy, I'm quite proud of this one even if it's just double the length of the original - no warnings, just fluffiness :3

Here's Part 1 for anyone who hasn't read it yet!

⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱⋅•⋅ ⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱⋅•⋅

Actions Speak Louder - Part 2

You’d think the night following your first kiss with the demon you’ve had a soft spot on for a while would be full of wonder, hours spent daydreaming about what you and him could possibly become after this, and well, in a sense it kind of is.

At first the giddiness about it all is what’s keeping you awake; no matter how many times you toss and turn in your bed, or how many times you try to engage in an activity such as reading or simply staring at the ceiling waiting for tiredness to take over you... nothing seems to be working.

But, as time inevitably passes, something else becomes the reason why you can’t get to sleep. The room adjacent to yours happens to be Husk’s, but he doesn’t seem to be having as much trouble falling asleep as you are: in fact, he’s snoring so loudly that you can barely hear your own thoughts at this point.

You even wonder what makes you love him at some point, this should probably be your last straw – jokingly, of course. It would be a little silly if you really couldn’t sleep all night because of his snoring, so at what you guess is probably way too late of a time to be doing this you lazily get up from your bed, wrapping a blanket around your form, and make your way in front of Husk’s door.

Something about Husk that makes you appreciate him a lot is how he doesn’t lock his room at night; it doesn’t seem like much, rather it’s probably unsafe and not a good idea overall, but he knows not to fear most of the residents of the Hotel anyways and his reasoning for it is rather sweet; sometimes, someone will have a particularly rough night, and he’s open to hearing them out at any hour. He wouldn’t want to miss the knock on his door, so he just prefers leaving it open in the first place.

So you open it, careful not to make too much noise as everyone else is probably sleeping as well; you navigate through the room with difficulty, as the only light source happens to be the red moon outside of the window, but eventually your knee touches something soft that you’re safe to assume is the bed...the snoring seems awfully close too, after all.

You whisper, “Husk, hey.”

Too quiet, doesn’t seem to be working. You try being louder and gently shaking his shoulder.

“Husk, you’re snoring, wake up...”

There’s a grumble coming from him and finally the snoring stops, your ears thanking you profusely. He mumbles something before you hear him shift and sitting up, his tail accidentally brushing against your leg in the process.

“What...who is it?” he asks, voice deeper than usual; your heart might have skipped a beat. He struggles for a bit but he eventually manages to reach the lamp on his night table, turning it on; “Oh, ‘s you-“

“Yeah, sorry, you were...snoring very loud.” Suddenly it dawns on you how awkward this conversation is, especially with everything that happened earlier in the evening; “Just make sure you sleep on your side or something, man.”

“Ah, shut it...” he retorts, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

You stretch tiredly and turn on your heels to leave his room and go back to yours, pretending the snoring was your biggest issue, but his tail unexpectedly wraps around your ankle, almost making you trip and make a fool of yourself.

“...Stay for a bit, will ya?”

“...Oh, sure thing. You’re not upset I woke you up?” You ask, sitting down next to him. Silence fills the room, before he groans and mumbles something. Your eyebrow arches;

“Can’t really hear you, I’m exhausted.”

“I said, I was dreaming ‘bout you anyways. So it’s like...”

You patiently wait for him to continue, a blush spreading across your cheeks. The light from the lamp is fairly dim, so hopefully he doesn’t catch that – he’s looking away anyways.

“Ah, whatever.”

“No, now I...kind of want to know.”

“It’s like, better to have you actually here. See I was a romantic once, now it jus’ doesn’t hit the same.”

“Oh.” Is the only thing you manage to let out. He’s just about to tell you to go back to sleep and forget about it, when your lips part once again; “Well, it kinda does hit. I was thinking about you too, after all.”

“Ah.” It’s his turn to be speechless. You’re not really sure what to do, all you want to do is honestly lie down next to him and cuddle into his soft chest – that would be kind of out of pocket though, you guess, but tiredness is taking over.

“Listen. What...”

“What are we, Husk?”

You ask in unison, surprising each other in the process. He blinks at you, and you blink back, both waiting for an answer from the other. You guess he’s been romantic enough tonight, asking you to stay and confessing to have been dreaming about you, so it’s your turn now.

“This is silly, I could’ve waited until tomorrow to talk to you about this, but I just...am impatient, I guess. I really enjoy your company-“ It’s like the hours at the bar fly by when we’re working together, you want to say, “Certainly more than I enjoy a friend’s. The kiss was also...something I’ve been waiting for. B-But if you want to give it time...!”

“I’m fine.” He immediately replies, “Really. Don’t think I’ve ever felt more comfortable. Which is weird ‘cause I’m surrounded by sinners and owned by an Overlord, but with you I forget all that.”

In the end, none of you ends up answering the original question out loud. You guess you both already know by the way your hand fits so well into his own; by the way he gently cups your face, retracting his claws to avoid hurting you, and kisses you once again, ever so cautiously.

In love, that is what you are.

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

WIBTA if I blocked/ghosted this guy I can't quit?

so I've(nb25) known this guy(m29) about 8 months, but we haven't seen each other that many times. maybe 10 total. It's just a friends with benefits situation but he's very generous, he's splurged on hotels in the city for us we didn't really need, expensive meals, he's also just given me pocket money straight up before. He will kind of do whatever I want, all I have to do is mention it and he will make it happen. i mention I wanna see the ocean at 9pm and he's driving us around to find a beach that's open. i mention a food im craving and he's already ordering it, etc. he's not rich either, he lives with his parents(I think it's more for cultural reasons than financial) but his job pays pretty well I guess. he talks about the money and I think he's trying to impress me but I know so little about money and still rely on my parents I don't even really have the context. he's constantly trying to impress me with stuff like that or how much he can bench press and i find it super off-putting and don't respond to it. He's been nothing but nice to me I think, but I think he's got issues and he can't really open up emotionally. I am very suspicious of how "nice" he is and I find his positivity to be really invalidating sometimes.

Recently I got mad at him for an insensitive comment, and while I was chewing him out he just smiled at me and kept saying "I like you". It really irked me and I felt like he wasn't taking me seriously, even after asking him why he was reacting that way he just elaborated saying he liked me because I stick up for myself ? I was upset so I kicked him out of my place, it was the middle of the night. He left with a smile on his face still. it creeped me out and I almost felt like he was gonna come back and kill me while I was home alone.

I know that I'm not into him. not just that but I actively think he's annoying, and his toxic positivity thing really gets on my nerves. Ive explained that to him and he still wants to hang out. every time were together, our dynamic gets worse. im not mean to him, but I don't hold back when I think he's making something up to sound cool/nice or being fake. he says he likes my honesty and often puts me on a pedestal for it, and im constantly having to take myself off the pedestal bc im just a human being, capable of lying and inauthenticity.

He knows I don't want a relationship and I don't think that's what he wants either? hes never asked. i know he's dating and looking for someone though. I don't even really know what he meant when he said he liked me.

Every time I see him, I end up feeling like I don't wanna see him again. I find him really annoying and end up feeling really alone with him. ive tried to break it off before which he respected but would still DM me on insta occasionally, and it's bad but eventually I just went back to him bc I liked the way he was nice to me and spent money on me. it's really pathetic but it makes me feel worthwhile? but I want to stop seeing him. and im thinking, he doesn't have my phone number and I could just block him on Instagram then Id be done with it. I think we're bad for each other and that I probably frustrate him more than he shows, I think he tried to make me jealous recently by talking about some "beautiful blonde girl" he slept with, who didn't have a "good heart" like me or something. it felt weird and negg-y. overall just really weird, bad vibes. Would I be the asshole if I just blocked him ? i have a feeling that the only other way this will stop for us is with something worse than that.

What are these acronyms?

[formulauno98]

Once Upon a Time in Montreal | Chapter Five

Baku brought you WAP but in Montreal things were about to get truly wet, in more ways than one.

Word Count: 11k

Warnings: Unprotected sex (wrap it before you tap it guys and girls) 🌶

Author’s Notes: Disclaimer, purely fiction, no-one is married in this alt-universe. The raft race is a real thing, they just haven't done it for a few years.

FRIDAY PM

Exactly a year on to the day from that fateful night in Baku, you were making your way to the airport to catch a flight to Montreal, for what was to be your second Canadian Grand Prix with the team. A lot had happened in the last year and you’d experienced the true highs and lows of being part of the Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One team. The season had been relatively successful, with Lewis coming second and George fourth in the overall championship and the team taking second in the constructor's championship, conceding to Red Bull. Unfortunately, the rivalry with Red Bull was very much alive for the second year in a row and Max Verstappen was dominating thus far with Lewis a good way behind.

You’d passed your six-month probation period with flying colours and had pleased the board with your enthusiasm and more lighthearted approach than that of your predecessor. You’d gained some new, fresh sponsors and cut ties with some of the more ethically questionable brands. Life was good and you felt well and truly settled in with the team.

It had been extremely awkward with Toto at first, after the initial pleasantries you’d shared as he snuck out of your hotel room, he had withdrawn, barely able to look you in the eye after your impromptu sleepover. You’d kept things professional but had zero contact aside from group meetings. There were no more one-on-one lunches, no sponsor events and no gym sessions. If you’d not been snowed under with your work, you would have been upset but it had been non-stop and you hadn’t had much time to dwell on it.

Fortunately, another Mercedes race win came in Zandvoort and you had a frank discussion after a few beers where you cleared the air. The entire team stayed in motorhomes at Zandvoort and the atmosphere was much more relaxed than at other tracks. Toto took this as his moment to approach you and offer an olive branch, perhaps buoyed by the confidence that alcohol could bring. You mutually decided that you liked each other but knew that it wasn’t a good idea to pursue anything further, you were better off as friendly colleagues and nothing more. No blurred lines and certainly no more kissing. A small part of you was disappointed with how things had unfolded but you knew that it was the wisest course of action and since then things had been a breeze. 

Toto had dated a few women over the Summer break last year and you’d been on a couple of dates with a charming Ferrari electronics engineer, a set-up via Bella. Neither one of you had found anything serious but it was enough to break the tension that had been simmering away. You were in a good place with the formidable Team Principal and had even swapped stories of your dating escapades during your now regular gym trips together.

On the topic of gym sessions, watching the episodes of Drive to Survive that featured your workout sessions had been an interesting experience. Toto had been correct in surmising that you were going to accumulate a few fans of your own. People now recognised you and knew your name and you’d even been approached for photographs in and around the paddock, mostly by young men, a fact that Toto never let you forget. It was all rather surreal but you were grateful as it offered some small insight into how Lewis, George and Toto felt being the public-facing spokesmen for the team.

All in all, it had been a roller coaster of a year and you could hardly believe that you were already doing the same race weekends for a second time around. Last year, the infamous constructor’s raft race had made a return to the calendar, where brave members of each team built a makeshift raft, made of anything from pallets to oil drums and raced across the basin alongside the Montreal track in the afternoon after qualifying. You’d seen the positive press that the teams who had participated last year had earned and it seemed foolish to not take part.

Initially, the team were reluctant but when Christian Horner tauntingly brought up the topic in a Team Principal press conference a few weeks ago, Toto took him up on the challenge and decided he should personally participate, encouraging the team to join him in taking down your arch rivals. Quite how you had ended up being roped in was another question entirely but Toto was adamant that he wanted his gym buddy there. 

Snapping out of your reflections on the past year you realised you were almost at the airport. Ever since you’d cleared the air with Toto, he’d taken to inviting you to travel on his jet. To begin with, you’d been thrilled at the novelty but it had soon worn off when his intention of using the time to work and vent became apparent. As much as you liked him, his work ethic drove you crazy and as George had told you many months ago, he never switched off. The man was a machine and his life revolved around running the team.

Your driver pulled up outside the departures building at London Luton Airport where there was a convenient side entrance for those taking a private jet via Harrods Aviation. A man whisked away your luggage and you were rushed through the smaller, more discreet airport security and through to the small lounge where you’d need to wait. It was a true first-world problem that Duty-Free didn’t exist in this part of the airport and you always found yourself missing the process of spritzing yourself with a cocktail of perfumes while you waited.

You’d barely sat down in one of the luxurious leather lounge chairs when Toto breezed in. Today it was just the two of you on the jet as the rest of the team had flown out to Montreal the day before. You were a little nervous as it was a long flight to spend in the company of just Toto and you hoped that he would at some point go to sleep. You knew that some of the seats in his jet folded flat into beds and you’d presumptuously brought a pair of pyjamas and cosy socks in your carry-on tote, just in case the occasion arose. Your flight had been scheduled to depart at eight o’clock on the dot to allow you to arrive late on Friday evening Montreal time and go straight to bed, but you knew you’d be struggling to keep your eyes open.

“Good evening Y/N.” said Toto as he approached you, “How are you?”

He bent down to kiss you on each cheek, something that you’d gotten back into the habit of doing.

“Good thanks, how are you?” you hadn’t seen Toto for a while as he’d been in Germany for most of the last week working on a new engine supplier deal. 

“Good but tired. I might sleep on the plane if you don’t mind.” he said, “Shall we make a move?”

“Sure, that’s no trouble with me, I’m the same. The Tommy event went on far too late last night,” you said, reaching out to gather your travel tote bag from the seat beside you.

“Here, let me,” he said, reaching out and taking your bag out of your hands, “I spoke to Lewis, he said the same but he’s in good spirits. He said he slept well on the plane this morning so he sounded fresh.”

“Thanks, Toto,” you smiled, he was always a gentleman, opening doors, carrying your luggage or putting your coat on for you, “I’m glad Lewis left for the flight when he did, it went on for a few more hours. He would have been wrecked.”

The event in question had been a launch party for a new capsule collection between Mercedes and Tommy Hilfiger, one of your most prominent sponsors. Lewis was the face of it and had to attend the event as part of his contractual obligations, so naturally, you had to accompany him to ensure everything went smoothly. It was a fun event but the crowd was young and keen to keep dancing into the night. 

“I saw the photo of you and Lewis, that was quite an outfit,” said Toto, as you both crossed the tarmac and made your way towards the sleek white jet.

You laughed, knowing that your outfit had been a talking point all night long. The dress code was “Silver Arrows” so naturally you’d gone all out, in a silver metal mesh mini skirt, cropped white vest, oversized blazer and pointed knee-high boots. It was a departure from your normally demure work wardrobe but you felt that the occasion warranted it and Lewis had been very complimentary all night, even posting the photo of the two of you on his Instagram stories. “Lewis approved of it.” you said, “I know anything aside from a white shirt terrifies you but it’s fun to dress up.”

“Oh no I liked it,” said Toto winking at you, “Will you be wearing it this weekend?”

You rolled your eyes, despite your agreement, Toto was still always a flirt, “Yep, every day. Maybe even to the raft race.”

“Don’t wear it to the raft race, it will weigh us down,” said Toto, laughing as he waved you ahead of him up onto the steps up into the jet.

“Ah, now I know why you were so adamant I joined you. It’s to balance out the extra weight that you bring.” you teased him, ducking into the plane door.

“You got me. You’re miniature, it was an easy decision,” he said with a dimpled smile, following closely behind you into the cabin. Everything in Toto’s jet was various shades of beige with walnut trim. It was as cosy as you could get for a plane and you had to admit it would always beat flying commercial.

Toto gestured at the eight ivory leather chairs onboard, “Now it’s just us, where do you want to sit? We don’t need to decide who’s going forwards or backwards for once.”

“Sitting anywhere else feels wrong. You went backwards last time so it’s my turn,” you said, settling down in one of your usual spots, one of two chairs that faced each other across a small table.

“I don’t mind either way,” said Toto, still hovering in the aisle.

“It’s totally up to you, I’m fine here but if you want to go and sit by yourself that’s also fine,” you said, “Is this a laptop trip or are you actually going to nap?”

Toto mused for a moment and then sat down across the table from you, “You know me too well. I’m going to work for a bit then take a nap after dinner.”

The two of you settled down into comfortable silence as the plane took off, with you tapping away on your laptop and Toto swiping on his iPad, the grind never stopping. You’d been airborne for little over an hour when the steward came through into the cabin with your dinner, grilled chicken and a salad.

“Wine, Mr Wolff?” he asked as he served the porcelain dishes in front of you.

“Let’s do a rosé. Something dry,” said Toto.

You raised your eyebrow at Toto, “Wine?”

“It will help me sleep. You don’t have to if you don’t want it. I know you might be… how do you say… delicate since last night.” he said with a smirk.

“I actually didn’t drink anything, so yes please I will have some wine.” you smiled at the steward.

“Of course Ma’am,” he said, pouring you a generous glass ahead of Toto.

“You hardly ever drink at work functions lately,” Toto said astutely as his glass was poured. He added to the steward, “Thank you, that’s all.”

“Well we both know what happened last time,” you said quietly, conscious the steward was not quite out of the cabin.

“Looking back it was quite funny,” Toto said.

Seeing that the steward had now left, you looked across the table at Toto who was now tucking into his dinner, “I’m glad you think kissing me and passing out on my sofa was funny.”

Toto’s eyes went wide, gulping down his food, he replied, “I don’t think kissing you was funny but the scenario was funny.”

“Kissing me wasn’t fun?” you feigned horror, dramatically clutching your chest.

“You are so tricky.” he said, narrowing his eyes, “You know what I meant.”

“Sure, sure, dig the hole deeper Toto.” you laughed as you sipped your wine.

The rest of your meal passed in jovial chit-chat, discussing Toto’s trip to Germany and your adventures trying to extract Lewis from the clutches of various Instagram models at the party.

“Did they think you were his date?” Toto asked, neatly placing his knife and fork down, having finished his dinner.

“Funnily enough, a few people asked me that. And a few recognised me from Drive to Survive.” you said, silently redacting the fact that one girl had said she was a keen Formula One fan and had asked after your “husband” Toto. 

“I’m not surprised,” said Toto, leaning back into his chair, “I called it as soon as you made your debut.”

“That you did,” you said, neatly piling up your empty plates as Toto pressed the small button to call the steward to clear them.

Toto sat back and silently smiled at you as the steward came bustling back in with a tray. “Could you please make up the beds?” Toto asked him politely.

“Of course sir.” the steward replied, “They’ll be ready in ten minutes.”

“Great, thank you,” said Toto as the man left once again.

“The beds?” you asked curiously.

“Ah yes, you’ve never seen them before.” said Toto, “The seats behind me fold flat down into beds.”

Your mind immediately jumping to the question that everyone would have, Toto read you like a book, “And no, I have not joined the Mile High Club.”

You laughed, “I was not thinking that!”

“You so were.”

“Maybe a bit.”

“Knew it.”

“Shut up! Does this mean I can put my pyjamas on?” you asked, exasperated with the man sitting across the table.

“Depends what they are like.” Toto wiggled his eyebrows at you.

“You’re so annoying.” you said, “Wait and see.” You gathered up your tote bag and made your way past where the beds were being made up and towards the bathroom at the back of the plane. Another luxury of flying private was the bathroom, although compact, it was much cleaner than your average aeroplane bathroom and had a large counter space to lay out your toiletries.

You made quick work of your skincare routine then changed into your pyjamas, a crisp white button-up shirt and matching shorts from Skims that you felt were appropriate for present company. Finishing your look with a pair of slouchy cashmere socks and an eye mask you unlocked the door to reveal a shirtless Toto standing in the aisle, wearing nothing but a pair of grey sweatpants.

“Oh gosh, sorry,” you said, trying not to gape. You knew he was jacked from your gym sessions and the one night when you’d gotten up close and personal but you were pleasantly surprised to confirm that he had a serious set of abs underneath it all. Impressive for a guy of any age, let alone one in his fifth decade.

Toto blushed as he frantically pulled on a white t-shirt, “Don’t worry, sorry I thought I would change here while you were in there.”

“It’s okay, this is payback for when you first met me,” you said with a wicked grin.

Toto blushed harder, clearly recalling the day he walked in on you, getting an eyeful of your scantily clad breasts as you tried your Mercedes uniform on for the first time. “I felt so awkward that day.”

“I know,” you laughed, “Think how I felt, it was my first day!”

“It was memorable though, I remembered your name immediately.” he laughed, taking a seat on the fluffy-looking white duvet that was laid out on the reclined seat “Nice pyjamas by the way. Not what I was expecting.”

“Oh really?” you raised an eyebrow, “What were you expecting?”

“I don’t know, the leopard print from before?” he said, referring to the ones you’d worn in Baku.

“I do own more than one set of pyjamas, you know.” you said, before adding “I’m surprised by your pyjamas.”

“These?” he said looking down, “This is what I wear around the house. I don’t wear pyjamas.”

“Now that’s TMI,” you said laughing, sitting down on the newly made bed across the aisle from Toto, just as the steward made his way back towards you.

“Mr Wolff, Ma'am, would you like me to dim the lights?”

“Yes please,” replied Toto, carefully unfolding his duvet.

“No problem, I will do that now and then we will gently brighten the cabin when it’s time to prepare for landing.” the steward replied.

“Great, thank you,” said Toto, dismissing the man for the evening.

“Good night.” the man replied as he exited the cabin.

Sure enough, the lights dipped down to a low glow, making it impossible for you to see where your bed began and ended.

“He really dipped those lights, Jesus,” you said stabbing around in the dark trying to find the corner of your duvet.

“I’ll do it,” said Toto from somewhere in the darkness, his large hand reaching across the aisle and accidentally brushing your breast as he flicked your duvet open. “Sorry, sorry!”

“That’s okay, thank you,” you said, climbing into the bed and trying not to think about the fact that that was the most action you’d had since last Summer. “Now I know the trick is to do it before they dip the lights. Sweet dreams Toto.”

“Sorry again,“ replied Toto in a low voice, “Sweet dreams Y/N.”

Several hours later you stirred, opening your eyes to a warmly lit cabin. The gentle wake-up had worked a treat and you felt incredibly refreshed. You glanced across the aisle to see Toto sound asleep, his long legs and arms hanging over the edge of the bed. No matter what you’d promised him, you couldn’t help but hold a soft spot for the man. He was charming and brilliant, a cutthroat businessman but also with a goofy side that came out behind closed doors that was utterly endearing. You sighed, knowing it was not to be, but a girl could always daydream.

Deciding it was time to get up and get changed you tried to gather your bag as quietly as possible and head towards the bathroom to freshen up. Unfortunately, you weren’t quiet enough and Toto woke up with a start.

“Y/N, what are you doing here?” he said, rubbing his eyes in disbelief.

“Relax sleepyhead, we’re on the jet. You haven’t slept in my room again.” you said, before adding, “Sorry if I woke you, I was trying to be quiet.”

“The day you’re quiet, hell will freeze over, pigs will fly and Haas will win on Sunday,” Toto said, rolling over and ruffling his hands through his messy brown hair.

“All sound perfectly plausible to me.” you said, “Go back to sleep, I’m just going to freshen up.”

“Mhmm five more minutes,” said Toto, already half asleep again, flipping his pillow over his head and rolling back over.

Shaking your head you made your way to the bathroom where this time you took your time. Knowing that Toto was still asleep, you did some light make-up, changing into a pair of loose Levis jeans and a cashmere jumper. It was casual but you were only going in a car to the hotel so could be off-duty.

When you finally emerged, Toto was fully dressed, sitting on the seat he had originally been sitting in, sipping on a cup of what looked like coffee.

“How are you drinking coffee at this hour? You asked, knowing it was ten o’clock at night at your destination.

“It’s hot chocolate,” said Toto. “I know you think I’m crazy but I’m not that crazy.”

“I don’t think you’re crazy.” you said, bending down to repack your pyjamas into your tote, “But equally it wouldn’t have surprised me if it had been coffee.”

“Would you like one?” he asked, “I can order from here.”

“Do you know what, maybe I will,” you said. “I don’t have long before we land.”

“No problem,” said Toto, pushing the button and ordering you one across the intercom. “I’m going to use the bathroom but can you please make sure he packs the beds away when he comes back?”

“Sure,” you said, smiling at your boss. Sometimes you were surprised at how close you’d become with him, having initially been unsure. Granted it wasn’t normal to share such close quarters with a colleague but working in Formula One was anything but a normal job. You took the peace and quiet as an opportunity to whip out your laptop and queue up some responses to emails that would be sent automatically in the morning.

In record timing, the steward came through with your hot chocolate, “Thank you,” you said as he placed it down on the table in front of you, “Could you also please pack the beds away?”

“Of course Ma’am, with pleasure,” he said, making his way back to where you’d neatly folded your duvets and pillows.

Having responded to everything that needed an urgent reply, you put your laptop away and sipped on your hot chocolate contently, gazing out of the window at the snowy white clouds that surrounded you. Sometimes you tried to sit and live in the moment, not thinking about work.

Snapping you out of your trance, Toto returned to the seat opposite you, having changed back into the navy jumper and chinos he had had on earlier. He looked refreshed, the bags gone from under his eyes.

“Damn, you look fresh,” you said.

“I feel fresh,” he smiled, crossing his legs and reaching once again for his iPad.

“Oh my god, you can’t put that thing away for a single second,” you said.

“Force of habit,” he smirked, “We can’t all sit there with nothing but hot chocolate.”

“I’m living in the moment. No one is awake or working in the UK or Canada at this hour, there’s no point in even trying to contact anybody.”

“You don’t queue and schedule your emails?” he said, tapping away.

“I already did.” you said, a smug smile on your face, “While you were doing your twelve-step skincare routine in the bathroom, I replied to everyone who needed one.”

“Of course you did,” Toto smiled proudly, for all your joking you had a work ethic that matched his and always stayed on top of everything. “And it’s not twelve steps, I actually use three products.”

Laughing, you teased Toto, “Hmm maybe you should think about upping that number.”

“You’re so mean to me now. I miss when you were scared of me,” said Toto.

“When was I ever scared of you?” you said indignantly, “If anything it was the other way around. Your face when I came in with HR to meet you officially after you’d gotten an eyeful. That was pure fear.”

“Fine you win,” said Toto.

“Glad to hear it, besides, someone has to keep you humble. Everyone else blows smoke up your ass all day long.” 

“I don’t mind the smoke,” said Toto.

“I bet you don’t,” you muttered from across the table, “I might have another hot chocolate. Which button do I press?” you ghosted your hand over the panel by the side of the table, trying to find the intercom.

“This one,” said Toto, his hand hovering over yours, close to touching but not quite.

“Thanks, would you like one?”

“No thank you, one is enough. I have self-control,” he smirked.

“Wow, you are perfect.” you teased. “Please teach me your ways sensei.”

“You’re beyond help,” said Toto, his eyes sparkling as he carried on swiping on his iPad.

The rest of your plane journey passed quickly and you’d barely tasted your hot chocolate when the steward announced he was preparing the cabin to land. You frantically downed it, Toto stifling laughter at your panic.

“It’s not funny Toto!” you pouted.

“Yes, it is.” 

“I burnt my tongue!”

“How will you live?” Toto mimed shock. 

You narrowed your eyes, you enjoyed your sarcastic exchanges with him but sometimes he was a bastard. “Thank you for the sympathy,” you replied. “I’ll be sure to extend the same treatment next time you sustain an injury.”

“I’d expect nothing less from you.” said Toto with a wry smile, turning away to look out of the window, “Look, we’re almost there.” 

You peered out of the window, the city lights appearing through the clouds as you approached the airport. Not long until you’d be tucked up in a proper bed, ready to face the weekend ahead.

SATURDAY PM

Since landing in Montreal things had been non-stop. You’d not slept very well at the hotel, having slept a little too much on the plane and had been grumpy all morning, much to your team’s displeasure. Fortunately for them, however, qualifying had then been a roaring success, with Lewis starting in P2 and George P4 and your mood had lifted considerably.

Now all that was left for the afternoon was the raft race. As you stood on the banks of the rowing basin with some of the Brand Comms team waiting for the rest of the Mercedes team, you regretted every decision that had led to this. When you’d pitched it you had assumed that some of the young engineers and mechanics would want to partake, not your Team Principal and several other senior members of the team, including yourself.

You watched as the other teams gathered up and down the bank, bringing all sorts of team paraphernalia with them. Of course, Red Bull had an obnoxious inflatable bull as well as a range of super soakers which they were busy filling up in anticipation. Haas had a large cardboard cut-out of their Team Principal, Gunther Steiner, along with a banner that read “The Steiner Ship”, you chuckled wondering if that meant that their quirky boss was not participating in the flesh. Ferrari had opted not to participate with a few of their redshirted team members pulling up folding chairs to watch the spectacle from afar.

The media was starting to gather and sure enough, you spotted Toto and company making their way through the throng to where you waited. He met your eyes with a smile as he clocked you and your team waiting in anticipation.

“Well, this is going to be interesting.” he said as he came to a stop, “Have you seen Christian? He’s an idiot, he’s wearing a pirate hat.”

You glanced over to where Toto’s arch-rival stood, talking animatedly to the Sky presenters, decked out in a comedy pirate hat.

“He’s ridiculous,” you said, shaking your head, “You know they also have water pistols,” you said, gesturing at the rest of the Red Bull team who were now eyeing up your team with evil grins, full super soakers in hand. You knew that they wouldn’t dare shoot Toto so you made sure to stay by his side.

“They’re children. This whole thing is for children,” said Toto, bending down to tighten his shoelace.

Sure enough, as soon as Toto knelt down, a spray of water made its way in your direction, spritzing your back. You whipped your head around to see three Red Bull engineers standing there laughing. You threw them a filthy look whilst contemplating the best way to get revenge.

“Don’t worry Y/N, we’ll get them on track,” said Toto with a smile. You couldn’t help but crack a grin as it was a phrase you’d heard him say to the team several times, normally under more high-stakes conditions but it was equally true for the impending race.

You looked around, the basin banks were starting to fill to capacity and you spotted Race Control handing out life vests. The race was made up of two parts, the first being a twenty-minute scramble to construct your raft from the materials around you. Each team had been given a pack of the same materials and had been allowed to bring additional rope, tyres and oil drums from the garage but nothing else. Part two was the race itself where you’d see which teams would sink and which would swim trying to cross the basin.

Sky were now busy interviewing Toto, highly amused that the normally serious Team Principal was participating. You knew it was good PR and smiled as the two presenters, Natalie and Johnny, grilled him on his rivalry with Christian Horner. 

“I always say that it’s nothing personal with us, but this time it is.” he said, folding his arms, “This might be the first step towards taking back the constructors championship.”

“Those are fighting words, Toto,” said Natalie laughing at his serious tone. “Who do we have on your team here today?”

“Well, we have two of our finest mechanics, our Strategy Engineer over there along with two of his team and we have Y/N, our Director of Communications along with two of her team. Come here Y/N!” Toto called out, gesturing you to join him on camera.

Shaking your head you made your way across.

“Oh yes, of course, your right-hand woman.” said Johnny as Toto put his arm around you, “What’s your team's USP, Y/N?”

You smiled, trying not to think about the fact that this was being broadcast live to millions of people, “We’re a very athletic team, we all work out together every morning so we should be able to out-paddle the others.”

“Of course, we’ve seen your gym sessions on Drive to Survive, you’re definitely ones to watch,” said Johnny, just as another spurt of water made its way towards you, this time hitting you square in the face, “Although it looks like you have some rivals.”

You wiped your eyes, looking past the cameras to see none other than Christian Horner armed with a super soaker, poised and ready to shoot you again.

“Now notice how he won’t aim for Toto, he’s too scared,” you said, with false bravado. Right on cue, more water sprayed towards you, this time inching closer to your boss.

“More fighting words from Mercedessssssarghhh” Natalie leapt back as now she’d been hit down the back. “Boys will be boys huh?”

“Indeed,” you said, ducking under Toto’s arm and standing behind the solid man, correct in your assumption that Christian would not try to hit him.

“Well thank you and good luck to Mercedes, a first raft race for the team,” said Natalie, signing off and running for cover.

“Thank you, Natalie,” said Toto before turning to you, “Are you using me as a human shield Y/N?”

“Maybe.” you said, “Like I said they won’t try anything on you.”

Toto looked over to the Red Bull camp who had now turned their attention to one of the women at Aston Martin, “They’re animals, look at them trying to hit the girls.”

“We have to take them down, Toto.” you grinned, making your way towards the jetty where you’d be building the raft. 

“Copy that,” the tall Austrian smiled.

The next five minutes were spent agreeing on a game plan for the build (in typical Mercedes fashion) so when the starting horn finally blew you each knew your role and got to work immediately. You glanced over at some of your rivals and they were still allocating roles as you taped oars together, thinking that it was no wonder they couldn’t nail a pitstop. It wasn’t long before your raft started to take shape and by the end of the hectic twenty minutes, you were proud of the makeshift construction that your team had fashioned. 

“Not too bad team, not too bad,” Toto stepped back onto dry land to admire the Mercedes raft, with the team nodding in agreement.

Scanning the bank, you could see that Red Bull had taken a vastly different approach to you and had strapped numerous oil drums together to make a base. The Mercedes design was much more streamlined and used flat plains to float. It was typical that you’d gone down such different routes, something that seemed to follow no matter what the task was at hand.

The horn sounded again signalling it was time to get back on your rafts and be prepared to go. You climbed onto the very front as the team had nominated you to steer thanks to you being the smallest, ergo lightest member of the team. Toto knelt just behind you with Mo, the Marketing Executive, next to him. The engineers and Ben, the Social Media Assistant, made up the back section, all perfectly weight balanced for maximum speed.

“Ready?” asked Toto with a smile.

“Of course,” you said, brandishing your makeshift paddle.

The horn sounded again, 3…2…1, it was lights out and away we float.

You were not prepared for the sheer amount of splashing that ensued, you tried to cut through the water but it was slow progress and you got barely twenty metres across the basin before trouble hit. Alpine, the team next to yours had somehow drifted into your path and unless you did some serious steering you would collide. You could hear them cursing in French as they came to the same realisation. Fortunately, you had two secret weapons, Toto and Mo, both burly enough to steer you out of trouble. 

You turned to them in admiration as you sailed clear of the floundering Alpine team, “Good job guys!”

You’d spoken too soon. In your panic to get out of the path of Alpine, you’d failed to spot McLaren coming up the side at quite some speed. You noticed them too late and all you could do was hold your breath and hope for the best as they capsized your raft in one fell swoop. You got dunked under the water and came up gasping, a strong arm reaching out to pull you out of the way before the wooden base of the raft swung back around and hit you. Turning to see who your knight in shining armour was, it came as virtually no surprise to see it was Toto.

“Thanks,” you said, rebalancing yourself as he released his grip on your arm, starting to tread water to one side of him. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t see them!”

“That’s okay, let’s try and get back on guys,” said Toto, rallying your team as he spied Red Bull sailing past your capsized vessel jeering. To add insult to injury, Christian had decided that now was the time to take a pop at Toto with his super soaker, spraying him right in the face.

“So petty,” exclaimed Toto as he helped your team flip the raft over. In typical engineer fashion, they made quick work of it and it was righted in no time. Getting back on, however, was proving tricky, with nothing to weigh it down and nothing to hold onto it was near impossible.

“Come here Y/N” called out Toto, continuing to tread water.

“Coming,” you swam over, grabbing your paddle on the way, wondering what he had planned. Your question was shortly answered as he scooped you up with one arm and pushed you up by the butt back onto the raft. 

You turned to face him, feeling half undignified by the butt touching and half impressed that he’d managed to lift you with one arm. You reached out an arm to help pull your teammates back up onto the raft one by one, purposefully leaving Toto until last.

Obviously feeling cocky, he raised himself up out of the water with his arms and managed to push himself back on without any assistance.

“Show off,” you said, making your colleagues laugh,

“I thought you were going to leave me there,” Toto said, shaking his head and splashing water all over you.

“Maybe.” you laughed before you tried to set off once again. There was no way you would beat Red Bull but Alpine were still struggling to one side of you and Alpha Tauri were still a good ten metres behind having also capsized. 

“Let’s go for third worst,” said Toto, rallying the team. This time you were much luckier having found a tailwind and you reached the other side of the bank effortlessly. Feeling bedraggled, you climbed off of the raft alongside your teammates, thankful that it was over.

“Hey Toto, this isn’t a wet t-shirt contest you know.” came a voice from the crowd. Of course, it was none other than Toto’s rival, Christian Horner, always ready with a jibe, especially when cameras were around. 

Toto laughed, taking it in good humour, looking down at his now see-through white t-shirt, the fabric clinging to his impressive physique, “I’m sure if it was you’d win that too Christian.”

You smirked at your colleagues as the various camera crews flocked to the two Team Principals wanting to capture a potential slinging match. Christian laughed in response, “Of course, we would.” 

Toto rolled his eyes, “Congratulations on the win, it’s the only one you’ll get this weekend so enjoy it.”

“Oooh,” said Christian, a glint in his eye as his team hoisted him up onto their shoulders to celebrate their win, “Let’s see tomorrow on track.”

“Indeed,” Toto smiled, looking at this longtime rival in amusement. Christian always wanted to pick a fight but Toto rarely fought back. He had a classic case of small man syndrome and even when they were the frontrunners he couldn’t resist rubbing it in.

You shivered, suddenly aware of how cold it was on the windy bank.

“Can I get you some tea?” asked Louis sweetly, “You look freezing.”

“Thank you, Louis, let’s see if anyone else wants one. I’ll come and help.”

“Thanks, Y/N,” he said, asking around if anyone else wanted one. 

“I’m fine thank you, I’ll come back to the motorhome Louis,” said Toto, “I need to change my shirt.”

Murmurs echoed around the team as everyone agreed that they needed to get changed in the warm. Christian had not been wrong in his comparison to a wet t-shirt contest. Thankfully you’d thought ahead and put a white bikini on underneath your team tee, you were very conscious that your usually immaculate uniform was now see-through. 

As you made your way back towards the Mercedes motorhome in the paddock, you fell in step with Toto.

“Thank you for doing that Y/N, it was good fun no?” said Toto, still wringing out the bottom of his t-shirt and leaving a trail of water in his wake.

“I’m not sure if fun is how I would describe it but it was certainly not a day I will forget,” you said through chattering teeth.

“I wish I had a sweater or jacket for you, I’m sorry I’m not much use,” said Toto kindly, noticing how cold you looked.

“Honestly it’s okay, we’ll be back in the warm in no time at all.”

Walking back through the paddock you encountered Lewis making his way back to the hotel.

“Guys, that was bold. I can’t believe McLaren sank you!” he exclaimed, his face crinkled with laughter. 

“We’ll get them on track,” replied Toto with a wink.

“Without a doubt,” said Lewis, looking you both up and down “Nice outfits by the way.”You blushed as you saw Lewis do a double take at your now completely see-through t-shirt. You were freezing and your nipples were betraying you through your thin white bikini.

“Yes, next season we’ll wear black,” said Toto, noticing Lewis gazing at you.

“Maybe I’ll do it next year,” Lewis said with a smile.

“No way in hell is that happening.” you said bluntly, gesturing at Toto “It was worrying enough with this one.”

“Says the one who nearly knocked herself out with her own raft,” said Toto.

“You guys make me laugh,” said Lewis, “I’d better go, got my car waiting. Get warm and see you later at dinner.”

“See you,” you said, bidding the enigmatic driver farewell. Your team had organised a group dinner at a local steakhouse that evening, booking out almost the entire restaurant so that everyone could go.

“About that, I’m not going to go,” said Toto, “I always feel awkward, who wants their boss there when they’re trying to let loose.”

“Toto!” you exclaimed, “They love it when you come along, why would you say that?”

You’d finally made it back to the motorhome, opening the double doors to reveal the engineers and your team stripping off their wet clothes in the middle of the hospitality area. Trying to avert your eyes you crossed the room, making your way to the stairs towards your office.

“I don’t feel like it.” said Toto stoically as he followed you up the stairs to your respective offices, “I just know they will have more fun without me.”

You rolled your eyes at the stubborn Austrian, he sometimes had mood swings and you could never quite predict when they were going to strike.

“No problem, either way, we’ve booked a huge space,” you said nonchalantly, making your way into your cosy office. “I’m going to change now, just in case you suddenly feel like opening the door.”

“You can talk,” he smiled as he went into his office next door.

You peeled your t-shirt and shorts off, realising they were still saturated with water. As there was no sink in your office you decided to do the next best thing and open the window, wringing them out and then resting them on the windowsill to dry. You then set about trying to find your team shirt and trousers that you’d been wearing that morning, rifling through every cupboard, only finding a pair of pool sliders and stumped as to where your clothes could be.

“Fuck!” you said out loud, remembering that your new and eager-to-impress PA, Sophie, had asked you earlier if you needed anything taken back to the hotel and you’d given her your bag with your laptop and clothes in.

‘Everything okay?” called out Toto from next door.

For once thankful that the walls were thin, you replied, “No, I realised I accidentally gave my clothes to Sophie to take back to the hotel. I don’t have any dry clothes to put on.”

You could hear him chuckling to himself, “I have a spare shirt and jacket you can have. Do you want me to bring them? Unfortunately, I only have one pair of trousers but maybe you can dry your shorts?”

“That would be amazing, thank you, Toto,” you said, hearing him bustling around next door.

A short minute later there was a soft knock on the door. Highly aware that all you were wearing was a now completely see-through skimpy white bikini, you cracked the door open an inch, with just enough space for Toto to pass the clothes through.

“Thank you so much," you exclaimed, eagerly grabbing the shirt and jacket out of his hands. “You are a lifesaver.”

“It’s no problem, I’m just glad it wasn’t the other way around,” Toto said with a laugh. You couldn’t help but giggle at the idea of Toto trying to fit into your uniform, he wouldn’t even get an arm in. 

“I think you could pull off a crop top,” you said cheekily.

“Not as well as you do,” he replied, flirtatiously. He was relentless.

“Stop it! I’m going to get changed and then let’s go and get some tea,” you said, firmly closing the door.

“Can’t wait,” he called out, still laughing away to himself.

You sighed as you resigned yourself to the fact that you were stuck in a wet bikini and shorts no matter what, annoyed at yourself for not preparing for this.

Unfolding Toto’s shirt and slipping it on, you realised that it was long enough to wear as a dress so there was thankfully no need to put your wet shorts back on. Slipping your sliders on, you glanced in the mirror on the back of your door, satisfied that it almost passed as a look. You rummaged once again in your cupboards to find an old shopping bag, neatly folding your still-sopping wet t-shirt and shorts into it. You kept hold of Toto’s jacket as you could at least use it as a blanket in the car back to the hotel.

Opening the door you were surprised to see Toto standing outside, now with two cups in his hands. Upon seeing you in his shirt he burst out laughing, “Y/N, that is ridiculous.” he held out one of the cups in your direction, “Here, Louis made you a tea.”

“The perfect fit, no?” you twirled around before taking the tea from his hands, pleased to have something warm to hold. “Thank you for this.”

“Perfect.” he smiled, “My car is leaving asap, would you like a ride to the hotel?”

“Sure, I hadn’t even gotten around to that.” you said, holding up the squelchy bag, “I had to improvise.”

“Very glamorous,” Toto said, smiling at you. “Let me take it, let’s go now.”He grabbed the bag straight out of your hands, leading the way back down the stairs and out into the paddock.

“You don’t always need to carry my things you know,” you said.

“I know, but I want to,” he said.

“Well it’s very kind, thank you, Toto,” you replied, strolling alongside him, “And thank you for the clothes.”

“It’s the least I could do,” he said, before adding, “Besides, it’s entertaining to see you dressed like that. You’re always so prim and proper, apart from when you’re going to parties with Lewis, it seems.”

Surprised at the last part, you retorted, “That’s the second time you’ve brought my party outfit up, why are you so put out by it?”

Toto turned around, “I’m not at all, on the contrary, you’re young, you should have more fun. Wear crazy outfits, you have plenty of time to be an old fart like me.”

“You always say you’re old, you need to stop that. You’re not at all.” you said before adding, “And noted on the outfits. Next time we have an event I’ll turn it out.”

Toto smiled at you fondly, “Believe me I am,” he gently put his arm around your shoulder and squeezed, “I can’t wait to see these outfits.”

You rolled your eyes, he was always teasing you. “Okay I believe you, you are ancient.”

“So funny,” he said, as you approached the parking lot where his driver was waiting. Upon seeing you both he leapt out of his Mercedes and opened the door, waving you into the backseat ahead of Toto. 

“Thank you,” you said as you scooted over so that Toto could follow.

“My pleasure Ma’am,” he said, closing the door once Toto was inside. Mercedes staff were always so polite and in a way, old-fashioned. Toto may be the boss but they always allowed ladies first, something you had gotten used to very quickly.

“Are you sure you’re not up for dinner tonight?” you asked Toto as you sped along the highway back into the city.

Toto sighed, putting down his iPad that he’d been furiously typing on, “Let me take a shower and see how I feel. There is some work I need to do first which takes precedence.”

You smirked at him, knowing that was Toto's language for thanks but no thanks. He often retreated to his hotel room in the evenings, an aficionado of every room service menu going. You’d tried time and time again to get him to come out and about on some of your nights out with the team but he was always reluctant. Occasionally he’d go out, as he had done in Miami and Baku, after a special win or race but it was rare he would let loose. When there were sponsors involved it was different but normally he kept himself to himself.

“That’s okay, text me if you change your mind?”

“Will do,” he promised, somewhat unconvincingly, going back to answering emails on his iPad.

It was not long before you pulled up to the hotel and were back in the lift up to your rooms. 

“Thank you again for lending me this,” you said, handing the loaned black windbreaker jacket back to Toto, “I’ll give you the shirt back later if that’s okay?”

“No worries, and keep it if you want. I have far too many,” he replied affably. “It looks better on you anyway.”

“Shush!” you said, “I think Christian was pressed by how good you looked at the raft race. I’ve never seen him so speechless.”

Toto raised an eyebrow, “I think Lewis was rather taken by how good you looked.”

You crossed your arms, “Because I am exactly his type, a supermodel”

The lift dinged, signifying you had arrived at your floor. As you exited the lift Toto said softly, “Well you could be.”

You shook your head as the doors closed on Toto, smiling as you made your way along the corridor. He really knew when to turn the charm on.

———

Feeling pampered after a long steamy shower you slipped on your outfit for the evening, Toto’s words about you being too prim and proper ringing in your ears. You’d pulled out a pair of vintage Levi’s, a black turtleneck and black ankle boots, casual but respectable for a dinner at a steakhouse. Sighing, you looked in the mirror and took everything off, swapping it for a dressier black corset top and short black skirt that you’d packed just in case the occasion arose. Perhaps Toto was right, you were always so eager to fit in, you’d subconsciously started dressing like the rest of the team, swapping your dresses and heels for sensible trousers and team-issue sneakers. Finishing the look with a black Celine belt and gold jewellery, you slipped on your trusty oversized blazer and knee-high boots and stepped back, pleased with the results.

Casting an eye across to your alarm clock you saw that you still had plenty of time before you needed to head out so thought that you may as well drop Toto his shirt back. Despite him saying that you could keep it, you knew that he’d want it back. For safety, while travelling you were always given a list of your colleagues' room numbers which was about to come in handy. Taking it out you looked towards the bottom of the list to find “Wolff” and saw that bingo, he was two floors above.

Clutching his neatly folded shirt to your chest, you made your way along the seemingly endless beige corridor until you found the correct room number. Knocking on the door you stood there awkwardly in silence before a sleepy-looking Toto opened the door.

“Y/N, for what do I owe this pleasure? Would you like to come in?” he said, welcoming you into his room. This was the first time you’d been in any of Toto’s hotel rooms and you were not surprised to see that everything was immaculate, nothing like the mess of make-up and clothes that you’d left in your room. A solitary bottle of cologne stood on the console table by the mirror and three pairs of shoes were lined up neatly by the side of the door but aside from that, there was nothing personal out.

“I came to return this,” you said, handing him his shirt with a smile, “I got ready in record timing for dinner and figured I may as well return it tonight, otherwise I’ll forget.”

“That’s very kind of you, I honestly didn’t expect it back,” Toto looked at you, still somewhat awkwardly, “How long do you have before you need to go? Would you like a drink?”

Acutely aware of where this scenario ended last time you must have looked mildly uncomfortable as Toto hastily added, “No worries if not.”

You laughed, “Sure, why not. I have half an hour to kill, as long as you don’t mind?”

“Why would I mind? I’m waiting for my dinner and then going to bed,” he said, placing his folded shirt on the console table and then making his way through into the living area to busy himself at the minibar.

“Well if you insist,” you said following him. Once again he was dressed casually in navy sweatpants and a white t-shirt, laid back but expensive-looking.

“What can I get you? I was going to have some wine anyway,” said Toto as you took a seat on the sofa.

“Wine sounds good. Thanks, Toto,” you said. The air was thick with tension so you added, “Are you sure I can’t tempt you to come to dinner?”

“No, I’m fine, I already ordered room service,” said Toto, coming to join you with two glasses of wine. As he sunk down onto the sofa, you saw him glancing at your attire, “I like this outfit, I know you don’t care for my fashion advice but it suits you.”

You smiled, “That’s true, I don’t care for your advice,” you sipped some wine, “But I figured that you are right. Even when I’m not wearing the uniform, I am starting to wear things that look like it.”

“You took my advice?” Toto’s eyes widened, “Wow, what did I do to deserve this?”

“You agreed to participate in the raft race, you get extra special brownie points for that. Even if you did make me do it with you.” your eyes crinkled, you loved to rile up your boss.

“Well you were right, we got good press from it.” He said matter-of-factly, drinking his wine, “And now that Sky are calling you my right-hand woman, you had to be there.”

“Hm yes, I clocked that too,” you said, “I think they just like a woman being there, it’s good for diversity quotas.”

“Don’t discredit yourself, you’d be here if you were a man.” said Toto, his tone more serious, putting his wine down on the coffee table in front of you “The team love your approach, it’s important to remember that.”

“Thank you, Toto, that means a lot.” you shifted slightly nearer to him, placing your wine down too, “You guys honestly make my job easy. It’s a pleasure working with you.”

Toto gazed at you through heavy eyes, “Trust me, the pleasure is all mine.” 

With that, he slid his arm around your back and pulled you closer, dipping his head to press his lips to yours. Surprised that Toto would cross the line after what had happened in Baku last year, you threw caution to the wind, deciding to live in the moment and just go with it. Shifting your body, you turned around to face him entirely without breaking the kiss, hooking one leg over his lap so that you were straddling him. He moaned into your mouth as you ground down into his lap, one of your hands on his chest, one wrapped around the back of his neck. His hands reached around your back, moving from the small of your back down and under your skirt to grip you from behind.

“Mm you’re beautiful,” he said breathily, breaking the kiss.

You brought your second hand up to caress his face, “You’re not so bad yourself.” You leant back down to kiss him passionately, the angle making it easier with the height difference. 

“Fuck me,” growled Toto as you doubled down grinding into his lap. “If you keep doing that…” his words tailed off, his hands now doing the talking. One hand was continuing to clutch your upper thigh, the other creeping up to where your breast was threatening to spill out of your corset top. You divested yourself of your blazer, throwing it behind you, (you’d worry about it later) grazing your hand down from Toto’s chest to the top of his sweatpants. You moaned as Toto’s large hand reached into your corset top and cupped your breast, freeing you from your corset and exposing your bare skin. 

“I’ve thought about these for a long time,” he said smirking as he broke the kiss, gently pulling your top down to expose you entirely, kissing his way down your neck, down your chest and flicking your nipple with his tongue.

You moaned, conscious that if you kept going there was no way you were going to stop now. “Oh my god Toto, do that again.”

“This?” he asked, expertly flicking your nipple once again.

“Mm yeah, that.” you managed to breathe out, feeling that he was getting increasingly hard underneath you as you gyrated in his lap.

You had just started to reach down into his sweatpants and expose his growing bulge, eager to rid yourself of any fabric getting in the way, when there was a knock at the door. Exchanging a panicked glance with Toto, you leapt off his lap as if he was on fire.

“It’s room service, fuck.” said Toto, hastily rearranging his sweatpants where you’d started to pull them down, nothing helping to hide his prominent semi. “I can’t answer the door like this.”

“Well I hardly can, can I?” you said gesturing at your bare breasts and rumpled skirt. “It’s not even my room.”

There was another knock on the door, this time a little louder, “Room Service.”

“It’s fine, I’ll go, stay here,” Toto said, blushing as you pulled your top up and your skirt down, trying to look halfway respectable.

“That’s kind of a talking point though,” you said, glancing down at his sweatpants tenting.

‘It’s fine, it will go down.” he said, before adding cheekily, “Just like I was about to before we were rudely interrupted.”

Now it was your turn to blush, this man had you like putty in his hands. 

You sat yourself back down on the sofa, fluffing the cushions and trying to hide the evidence of what had just transpired. It was just a hotel worker but you never knew who might recognise Toto and be willing to sell a story to the press for a quick buck. Fortunately, you needn’t have bothered as Toto convinced him to leave the trolley in the entryway, generously tipping him on the way out.

“Right, now where were we?” he asked, eyeing you up as he crossed the room back towards where you were sitting drinking wine.

“Now don’t take this the wrong way as you know I would love to stay but I have this dinner to go to and if I don’t go in the next ten minutes I’ll be late,” you said, feeling a little guilty.

“Y/N, if you take your clothes off, you’ll be lucky if I can last five,” Toto said, bending down and pinning you to the sofa with his muscular arms. The arms that you’d fantasised about many a time.

“Wow, those are exactly the words every woman wants to hear,” you joked, silencing him with a kiss. Toto laughed, then swung around, sitting back down beside you, taking your wine glass out of your hand and putting it back down on the table. 

You returned to your spot on Toto’s lap, leant down once again and kissed him. This time with some urgency. “Maybe I can get stuck in traffic and be a few minutes late for dinner?”

Toto’s eyes lit up, “Yes that’s true, Montreal traffic is bad.”

“Hang on, let me text Sophie to tell her.” you climbed off of Toto’s lap, trying to locate the blazer that you’d flung off with wild abandon. Bending down, you fished around in the pocket and found your phone.

“You should wear that skirt more often Y/N,” Toto said, leaning back into the sofa, evidently enjoying the view as you’d bent down. You were wearing a black thong that semi-matched your corset, offering him a prime view. Not having intended to get intimate tonight, you were glad that you’d put on some half-decent underwear for the dinner.

You hurriedly shot a text off to Sophie, outright lying about your whereabouts.

Hi Sophie, it’s Y/N. Unfortunately, I’m running a little late, the ETA is looking like I’ll be around twenty minutes late. Please order without me.

“I’ve said I’ll be twenty minutes late, so maybe we can get, what’s twenty divided by five? Four rounds in?” you laughed.

“You are so bad,” said Toto, a hungry look in his eye. Standing up, he strode across the room, towering above you imposingly. One thing was for certain, the height difference was going to be an interesting challenge. One that you were more than ready for.

———

Not long after that Toto collapsed onto the sheets alongside you, having spent the best part of a quarter of an hour on top of you, pounding relentlessly while you gripped his arms for dear life. You hadn’t spent much time thinking about how Toto would be in bed but your still shaking legs proved he knew what he was doing, albeit a little over-enthusiastically. You winced slightly as the bed creaked and you knew that you’d be sore the next day.

Noticing your sharp intake of breath, Toto turned to face you, “I didn’t hurt you did I? I’m so sorry if I did.”

“No not at all,” you smiled at him, “You’re just so big.”

At that Toto looked pleased as punch, “Am I?”

“Oh shut up, I meant big and heavy. But yes if it makes you happy you’re also big where it counts. In fact, I may never walk again thanks to your prowess as a man. Happy now?” you teased.

“Well I quite like it when you walk, your ass jiggles,” he said, kissing you on the forehead. “So I hope you can regain the use of your legs.”

“Oh really? How long have you been watching me walk?”

“Probably the same amount of time you’ve been checking me out in the gym.”

You mock batted him away, “In your dreams, I’m your spotter, it’s my job.”

“Well, it’s my job to spot you jiggling.”

“That’s funny I didn’t know that was part of the role of Team Principal.”

“It’s one of my key duties.” Toto winked at you as he rolled out of bed, going over to the bathroom. He returned shortly with a warm towel which he handed you with another forehead kiss before climbing back into bed next to you, “I’m sorry for this too, I was maybe a little over-enthusiastic.”

You were surprised to see Toto blushing, especially considering what he’d spent the last half an hour doing with you. When it had become apparent that this was happening you’d scrambled to find a condom and having had no luck he’d promised to go with the good old-fashioned pull-out method, that you were now gingerly wiping away. 

“On the contrary, I enjoyed the enthusiasm,” you said, folding the towel up carefully and placing it on the nightstand. You sat up, plumping the pillows, revelling in the post-sex glow.

Toto gazed up at you, now looking very sleepy. “Do you really have to go to dinner? Can’t you stay?”

“Fuck, the dinner!” you exclaimed, “I almost forgot, fuck! What time is it?”

“Relax,” said Toto, looking down at his watch, “You still have ten minutes but you know I am the boss, if I called you to a meeting you have to come.” 

“Jesus, pulling the boss card already,” you said, pulling his head into your lap, and stroking his jawline absentmindedly.

“A guy can try.” he said, smiling up at you, “I like this view by the way.”

“You’re ridiculous.”

“Give me ten minutes and I’ll be ready to go again.”

“Go again?” you said, not sure if you could go again if he was going to pound you in the same manner for a second time.

“You don’t want to?”

“Of course I do.” you smiled at him. “Let me text Sophie, maybe I’ll just tell her the truth?”

With that, Toto sat bolt upright, wide awake, “That you’re naked in bed with me?”

“No silly, that you called me into a meeting.”

“Ow,” he said quietly, “That makes sense.”

“You’re such a guy,” you said, resting your head on his chest as you shot another text to Sophie.

Hi Sophie, I am so sorry but TW has asked me to join him on a call. I won’t be able to make it tonight, please send my apologies to the team. 

“What makes you say that?” Toto asked, his arm wrapped around your shoulders as he lazily drew circles on your arm with his long fingers.

“That you’re too busy thinking with your other head.”

Toto shrugged, “My bad. What did you tell them?”

“That I have a call with you. If anyone asks we can say it’s a sponsor.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Toto said, his hand now trailing tantalisingly across your breast, moving down your stomach and further down, ghosting just shy of where you needed it most. 

“I just realised, your dinner must be cold?” you said, clocking the room service cart that Toto had abandoned by the door.

“It’s a salad, it can wait,” he said cockily, still caressing the skin at the top of your thigh. “If you’re hungry I can order something for you?”

You turned your head to face him, stealing a kiss before replying, “I think I can wait five minutes.”

[simply-hyacinth]

Two Months Later

A sequel of sorts to the last one. It's kind of a series? I don't want them to be too connected to the point where you'd need to read everything to understand, but they're joined in ways.

Not edited! Not well written! Not super great! But here it is! I might edit/change it later lmfao

It had been two months since you had given your number to the mysterious cake-lover, and you had not heard a word from him since. On top of that, the aforementioned cake orders ceased, much to your disappointment. 

“Don’t give him another second of thought,” Eva huffed, sharing in your annoyance at him. “Two months? What a dick. I don’t know why you’re still hung up on him. You should take that other guy up on his offer for dinner. What was his name again?”

“I’m not hung up on him, he was just…incredibly interesting.” You sighed, thinking back to the curious way he sat and how he looked at you. “And he seemed really smart too.”

Eva rolled her eyes. “You can’t be in love with someone just for their intelligence.”

“I’m not in love with him!” You protested. 

“You bring him up almost daily.”

“Because he was one of our best customers for a solid week,” You tried to reason. “Of course I’m upset over the loss of such a massive source of income. Admit it, you enjoyed that overtime paycheck too.”

She snorted at you before turning her attention to help a new customer. She wasn’t wrong, of course. Not that you would ever admit it. It was pathetic of you to be so upset over a boy you had talked to for less than an hour, and whose name you hadn’t even gotten, but you were just so enamored with him. His bluntness, his intelligence, and his skin crawling ability to see through your words despite not commenting on it. He never had to say it, but you could tell he was always one step ahead of your own thoughts. It was those traits that you rarely saw in a person, and it made him unforgettable.

So when you got the message, it was not panic that ran through your mind, but rather, excitement. It was a simple address and a stated time that most people would deem the creepiest of first texts, but what you focused on was the way it had been signed off.

102 Harvest St.

Room 244.

8:00 PM tonight.

- L

L. 

The first initial of his name? Last name? Simply the letter he used to sign off on things in general? Regardless of what it meant, you now knew what you would be doing in the next four hours.

“What is - “ Eva looked over your shoulder and at the text, eyes wide. “Oh my god. He’s going to murder you.”

“What? Of course he isn’t.”

“Yes! This is exactly how it happens. Creepy guy leads the unsuspecting girl to an abandoned hotel and then stabs her to death. I’m going with you.” Her words planted a seed of doubt in your mind, but your overall curiosity of the boy defeated your common sense. 

You shook your head at her. “Here, let’s at least check where this even is. If it is an abandoned hotel, then maybe I won’t go.”

In a few quick minutes you and Eva had located the address that the text specified, but something seemed very off about it. Contrary to the perfect place for murder as Eva had suggested, it appeared to be one of the nicest hotels in your city, one you had passed many times but had never even dreamt of going near.

“Isn’t this where that one singer stayed when she was doing events here?” Eva murmured, examining the name of the hotel closer. “Jesus, this guy really is rich.”

“And the unnecessary amount of cake orders and tips never clued you in on that?” You responded dryly. “Good god, I think this is one of the most expensive hotels I know of. We almost catered an event here, remember? It fell through, but I remember the number I quoted them on…and it probably would’ve allowed us to renovate the kitchen like I’ve always wanted to.”

“Well, at the very least you should bring pepper spray.” Eva said firmly, clearly still on her he’s-a-serial-killer train of thought.

You smiled, staring at the message one more time before you silently resolved to go, if only for the chance of seeing him again and talking to him.

Three and a half hours later you were on your way to the hotel, fidgeting with the hem of your shirt nervously. Eva’s words ran through your head again, and you wondered if you really were about to die. If you were, at least you knew you would go out looking good.

Just as she had suggested, pepper spray was carefully tucked away into your bag, along with a very sharp pair of scissors and your wallet.

“It’s okay, you wouldn’t go out with a serial killer. You have a better gut instinct than that.” You told yourself, shaking as you knocked on the door to room 244. Your fingers wrapped around your scissors, and you held them tight by your side.

No one answered, and so you knocked again. This time, you heard the latch hitting the door and the gentle click of the handle as it turned. Taking a small step back, you watched as the door opened to a room of darkness and a tired face appeared in the shadows. 

His eyes immediately darted to the scissors in your hand. “I don’t suppose you’re here to kill me, are you?”

You shoved them back into your bag and loosed a breath. “Sorry, it was just for precautions.”

He nodded, leaning against the doorway. “I was not entirely sure you would come.”

“Well when a strange and unnamed boy messages me after two months of initially meeting and tells me to come to a very nice, but very strange hotel at night, who am I to say no?” You rolled your eyes as if you were talking to Eva. When he didn’t respond, your shoulders sank and you merely said, “So, can I come in?”

He opened the door further at that, which you took as a yes. The hotel room was even nicer than you had expected; ornate rugs and a floor-to-ceiling window that had thick curtains pulled all the way to cover every inch of the glass. 

He scratched his head and observed your reaction carefully. You turned to him and raised an eyebrow. “Should I even ask?”

“I would prefer you not.”

“Perfect. I’m not sure I want to know.” God forbid he was involved in the mafia or some other illegal activity. Best to not stick your nose in anything which you may regret later. “What were you planning to do when I got here?” You spoke as if you didn’t notice the stacks of files and open laptops that filled up the table. 

“Again, I was not entirely sure you would come.”

You fixed him with a stare. “So, even on the rare chance that I did, you had nothing planned for my arrival? This may be the worst first date I have ever been on.”

“Date.” He echoed. It wasn’t a question, but he said it as if the word was foreign on his tongue.

You nod. “You invite a cute stranger over to your place - well, hotel in your case, knowing damn well they’re interested in you. Of course that’s a date.” Waving off whatever he was planning to say next, you pick up the remote next to the couch and turn on the TV. “We can watch a movie. Do you like movies?”

“I can’t say I watch them often.” He answered, amused at your initiative. “But I do have experience in observing footage of sorts.”

You blink at him, and chart that up to yet another thing you did not think wise to ask him about. “Oh! Look at the selection of movies they have. God, it must be nice to have money.” You pause. “Speaking of which, why did you stop ordering the cakes?”

He met your eyes, and you could see the signs of lack of sleep and proper nutrition that seemed to have gotten worse in the last two months. “I was not in town anymore.”

“I see,” You flipped through more movie options until you landed on a nostalgic Christmas movie, one that you had watched when you were younger almost every night leading up to the holiday. “This one. This is the one.”

He was standing near you now, slouched over with his hands at his side. “It’s almost March.”

You scowled at him. “Is it, isn’t it? And what month was it when we first met?”

There was silence, and then, “December. Never mind, I know what you’re getting at. And I sincerely apologize for the two month wait.”

You beckoned towards the space next to you, inviting him to sit. “Good, then we can watch this movie with no objections then?”

“You don’t ask questions.” He stated bluntly, not answering your question as he sat down in that same odd way you had noticed about him before.

“Hmm?”

“I know you see these things. I know you want to ask. But you don’t.”

With a wry smile, you answered, “Do you want me to ask? Do you want me to pry into your deepest darkest secrets with no hesitation? Is that what you want?”

He blinked. “No, I suppose not.”

“Then I think we’re good here.” You laugh, pulling your knees to your chest as the movie starts. He was right, of course. You noticed everything about him that you knew most people would want to ask about, but you felt as if the air was heavy with expectation, and you didn’t want to fulfill them by questioning him. Not now, at least.

The movie was comforting, and it eased your nerves about being there with him. He truly did make you nervous, wish was not a feat many could accomplish.

Few words were exchanged as you started watching, but soon commentary was flying around from both of you. 

“This is a very unrealistic movie.” He noted.

You snorted. “Was it the singing elves that gave it away? Or the flying reindeer?”

“It’s the political system of the North Pole and that there would be such a hierarchy for the brothers in the first place. You would think it would matter less about blood and more about the passion one has for gift giving.”

“But they have all this new technology, which is why the older brother is the one considered for the new Santa.” You explained, a little grin playing on the corners of your lips.

“Ridiculous.”

“It’s a Christmas movie,” You smiled at him, pulling the blanket he had brought for you closer. “There really isn’t supposed to be much logic to it.”

He regarded you with a new look. “You said earlier you would not ask me questions.”

“Indeed I did. Unless you become comfortable with me asking them.”

His fingers pinched his bottom lip for a second and he looked back between you and the now paused movie. “I have a proposition.”

You shifted until you were facing him. “Go on…”

“I ask you a question and you answer, and then you may ask me a question that I will answer to the best of my ability.” He nodded slightly, as if pleased with this arrangement. 

You stared at him blankly for a moment. “Do you mean…getting to know each other?”

“The other terms for it are irrelevant.”

Another laugh escaped your lips as you crossed your legs and leaned forward. “Alright then, ask away.”

“Is this a movie you watched with your mother?”

The smile faded, which did not go unnoticed by him. “Interesting first question.”

“What would you rather have me ask?” He sounded genuine.

You shrugged at him. “I don’t know, maybe what my favorite color is? Or my hobbies?” You quickly shake your head and exhale, knowing very well that would have never happened. “Yes, it is a movie I watched with my mother. You know, she made similar comments as you about the whole brother-rivalry thing.”

He hummed as he absorbed your answer, and then looked expectantly at you. “You may ask me something now.”

It took you a moment to think of a question; one that would not be too personal, but would also give you further insight into the type of person he was. He gave you plenty of time to think about it, and reminded you that you had more than one question to ask him - as many questions to ask as ones you answered.

“Why didn’t you order another cake?” You finally settle on. “You come back into town, and instead of doing the proper mysterious-strange-character thing, which would be to order another one of my cakes and have your pickup man leave me a little sticky note as I did to you, you just texted me. Do you not like my cakes anymore?”

He raised his eyebrows. “Is that your question? Whether or not I like your cakes still?”

You felt your cheeks turn red and you turned away so you didn’t have to meet his eyes. “Well, no! But, I was just wondering. I mean, you originally met me through my bakery. To be honest, I’m not sure why you would want me here unless it was because you wanted more sweets.” 

“That’s a very good point. There was no reason for me to have invited you here.” He agreed with you, much to your surprise. “However, I feel as if I should be able to do things without needing much reason for it. Don’t you?”

“Not if it implies that I’m only here because you wanted to do something spontaneous and with no real prompting.” You laugh dryly. 

He asked his next question. “Then why did you come?”

You were waiting for this one. “Because you’re cute. And it’s evident you’re fairly smart, which has always been something I’ve found attractive in people. Not to mention, you bought a couple thousand dollars in cakes, so there’s obvious intrigue in that. Maybe I felt like I owed it to you, considering how much money you brought in for that week.”

And for the first time this night, you felt as if you had the upper hand on him. He was blunt with his words, yes, but your ridiculous transparency was not quite what he was expecting, even if he had an inclination that it was coming.

“Those are…very good reasons.”

“I would hope so. I came all the way here following the instructions of the shadiest message I’ve ever received. I needed a good damn reason to.” You smiled brightly. “My turn now?”

“I - yes.” He still seemed slightly unsettled by the words you unleashed on him prior, which was truly entertaining to watch.

You took another minute to think, looking around for more things to become curious about. “Are you a spy?”

“No.” He answered quickly. “Although, I can see why you may think I am.”

The game continued for almost two more hours, and you managed to squeeze out a bit more information from him, while he seemed to extract your entire life story. You learned that the man who came to pick up the cakes was called Watari, and that he was L’s ‘assistant’ of sorts. You also learned that L was the name he went by, and was not just a weird nickname as you had previously assumed.

By the end of it, you were tired from explaining and talking so much, your head sinking into the soft plush of the couch cushion. 

Eventually, L suggested that you leave to get some rest, as you would have to open the bakery tomorrow.

“Will you be there?” You asked in between yawns. “You should come by, even if just for a second. I promise I’ll give you something for free.”

L considered it for a moment. “Perhaps. I wouldn’t wait for me, however.”

You beamed at him, drowsy and entirely drained. “No, I will. You seem like the type of person I would want to wait for.”

As you slumped off the couch and bid him farewell, the thought echoed around in your head. He was the type of person you would wait for. And you knew it was something you would end up doing if you pursued this relationship.

But nothing about that thought seemed to bother you. You honestly felt like you had a wonderful first date, despite the odd circumstances. You didn’t know if L would agree, but you left the hotel wanting to see him again, even if it was just a brief interaction at the bakery later.

And as you would find out seventeen hours and one free cookie later, he felt the same.

[alexyssc13]

May 24 - Kinkakuji | Daitokuji

Thank God! I’m so happy that today was an easy day. We ended class excursions pretty early and everything. If only everyday was like this.

The day started with a bus ride surprisingly. We took it to Kinkakuji. When we arrived, there was a lot of people already. I was able to push through the crowd and take a faraway picture of the golden pagoda. When we got closer, we saw more details, like the golden phoenix on top of it. However, we didn’t stay very long because we continued to walk on. On the walk, we passed by a small shrine, little waterfalls, another pond, and a small white stone pagoda. We took a break in this busy area where there were small shops near a temple. I ended up buying a small Coke and a vanilla Coolish since it was a hot day. As we were leaving that area, I got so upset because I saw another ice cream vending machine with a chocolate Coolish. Then, after a long flight of stairs, the class regrouped near an ice cream shop. I was able to chill in the shade for a bit before heading to the next place.

To get to Daitokuji, we walked about 20 minutes. By the time we got there, I was so tired, and the heat was getting to me. I also thought we would have to walk more because when you go through the gate, it kind of seems like a large area with a lot of various buildings, making it similar to a maze. However, I was glad that we arrived at one of the gardens after a bit of a walk from the gate. Before entering, we took off our shoes, and then a lady walked us through the meanings behind the garden designs. Afterwards, Dr. Smith gave us time to roam, but my friends and I just sat in front of the garden and quietly meditated. I prayed because I haven’t been to church for the past 3 weeks. Overall, I really enjoyed sitting there peacefully. The next place was another garden. This one was more self-guided, so I walked around and saw all of the gardens. Then, I found a bench in the shade and sat down until we regrouped. After we left that garden, Dr. Smith took us back to the gate and ended class for the day.

For lunch, my friends and I went to get yakiniku for the first time on the trip. It was really good, and I enjoyed cooking with them, even though Skylar struggled cooking her food and actually ate 2 pieces of raw squid haha. Then, we went to this department store nearby called Daimaru, and we bought desserts from one of the cafés. Finally, for dinner, some of us went to an Italian restaurant near the hotel. I got some pretty yummy pasta, bitter sparking wine, and delicious mango sherbet. Good way to end the easy day!

[danniburgh]

I WATCHED WANDAVISION EP 1 AND 2 AND I HAVE THOUGHTS

needless to say: SPOILERS

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.

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I ADORE the aesthetic of the first episodes, i love that they even did the accents the tv stars had at the time

THEY ACKNOWLEDGE THAT SHES FROM SOKOVIA THATS JUST STRAIGHT AWESOME

the references in the comercial breaks had me screaming, I'll elaborate:

the toaster: MADE BY STARK INDUSTRIES!!!!!!! is it a direct reference to what wanda may see as the cause of her parents death? is it a reference to her "toaster boyfriend"? is it both?

the watch: STRIKER????? HYDRA????? ALSO WORDPLAY "HYDRA IS WATCHING" like damn lady, also i loved the slight mysoginy of that add

i need to say that almost all the analysis I'm making is based on my experience with desired realities, daydreaming and a bit on my obsession with memory

in ep 1 when ms hart keeps saying "stop it" and she's looking at wanda rather than her husband can be interpreted as Wanda's conscience telling her to fix it, so she gets vision to do it instead because in her mind he's the only one that can

also: when the harts ask them where are they from and when did they meet and how long theyve been married wanda was just so confused and scared and i think it was because when she was creating that reality she didn't think of those small details, there's a lot in the dialog that you can get if you keep in mind that most probably everything it's fake

oh God I just love vision being all over the place trynna beat the Google authentication box

VISION DRUNK ON GUM I REPEAT VISION DRUNK ON GUM

don't you just love paul bettany?

from the first moment they said "for the children" i was like "welp, she's preggo", it was almost as if by just doing the repetition of that phrase she self inserted the idea of babies in her mind and that's why the bump appeared so suddenly

the whole sequence of the talent show can be also read/seen as how wanda is basically running the show, she's pulling the strings and fixing the details of her makeshift reality to fit in it and make it as close to her idea as she can.

on that same note: I'm 76% sure that the reason of her making this family sitcom/cheesy crafted/white picket fences reality it's because when she and vision wanted to be together and settle in they only had 3 star hotels and open 24 hour diner dates, she never had the chance to actually live a normal life with him as she would've wanted so she's creating it now

dude also the title of the fucking show lmao im just going all out with this train of thought: wandavision it's their names yes but also may be because all of this it's just a vision that wanda has of what might've been if he was still there with her??????

I'm still thinking about that freaking red helicopter WHATS GOING ON IS THAT JUST A LITTLE GLIMPSE OF REALITY? IS ANOTHER REALITY LEAKING INTO THE ONE WE ARE WATCHING?

can we talk about agnes for a sec?? shes so cute and sassy i love her, I'm pretty sure she has meaning

wanda really said ✨no✨ on the sewer man, he was in color as well as the red helicopter, which makes me think that, as in the end of episode one with the tv on the desk and the voice on the radio, they're keeping eyes on her, they're trying to get inside to see what is she doing and what, I'm still wondering why the man was dressed as a bee keeper... is it maybe a costume? a cover?

can we also talk about the slight change in music and overall camera work when glimpses of out-of-wandas-reality come about?????? it just changes the mood, the vibe, i can see they might have even used a different camera, different lighting and different techniques because its very unsettling, it's the visual way to tell us that something it's just wrong and make us as upset as wanda feels

THE COLOR TRANSITION WAS SO GOOD AND THEY LOOKED SO CUTE ALL DRESSED UP IN THEIR COLORS

holy shit elizabeth olsen you gorgeous angel

i loved every second of it I can't wait to watch more 🥺🥺🥺

[we-love-imagines]

How about one where Jotaro has a crush on the reader but he thinks the reader likes Kakyoin, so he tries to get them be together. Reader notices this, gets frustrated by it, and confesses to Jotaro out of said frustration

I really liked this ask!!! Thank you so much anon! I’m sorry this took so long, my ask box was being mean, but I hope you enjoy! I’m going to start writing more frequently again- I took a little break after Christmas Countdown!

warning: some naughty words and a sprinkle-dinkle of angst!

Ripping off the Band-Aid

Jotaro couldn’t take it anymore.

How you looked at him, how you laughed at all his jokes, how happy you two seemed together- it hurt more than words could express. Jotaro, over the course of your journey to Cairo, had somehow learned to love you; but he saw how you didn’t return his feelings, that much was obvious. There was little question in his mind that you and Kakyoin had a thing for each other. Yet, that isn’t what hurt the most.

It was the lack of closure that really stung; the feeling that he still had a chance with you clawing in the back of his mind every time he saw you and Kakyoin. Frankly, he wished you two would just get together already so he could pack away his feelings and be done with them. If he knew you were taken, forever out of his reach, he could let you go. But this weird limbo you were in, where you were simultaneously attainable and out of his grasp, was torture.  

While Kakyoin certainly wasn’t outgoing, he was far more approachable than Jotaro was. Of course you would prefer him; Kakyoin was nicer, smarter, and overall the better option compared to him. Jotaro really wanted to beat himself over the head sometimes, wondering if he’d be in Kakyoin’s position if he had just been a little nicer. Getting sick of all the ‘what if’s’ and heartache, Jotaro made the decision to get you and Kakyoin together as soon as possible. That was the only hope he had to pack away his jealousy, and put this stupid feeling behind him.

It started small, of course. Jotaro would distance himself from you and Kakyoin, giving you two a lot more time alone together than you were accustomed to. This technique quickly grew more obvious, like when Jotaro would whisper to the Old Man to let you two room together or insisting you both sit in the back during long car rides. While you enjoyed your time with Kakyoin, of course, both of you started to notice Jotaro’s desire that you two stay together at all times. When it was just the two of you, it felt like there was a piece missing- the third member of your little trio.

Jotaro got tired of you two still dancing around each other’s feelings, so he upped the ante. Pushing aside how much it hurt, he’d throw the old man’s money away on flowers and jewelry for you, writing “From: Kakyoin” on the little tags and leaving them in your hotel room. While he was never into this lovey-dovey type shit, part of him wished he could address this sweet, romantic gifts from himself. 

He didn’t know where he was going with this idea- you weren’t stupid. If Kakyoin admitted to you that he didn’t give you these gifts, you’d probably think it was some sick prank. For once, he hoped Kakyoin would lie to you, claim it was his doing and confess, so this could all be over with. Even if you did think it was some mean joke Jotaro was trying to pull, who cares? Maybe you and Kakyoin could bond over your shared hatred of him.

After a few of these incidents, your patience was beginning to wear thin. At this point, Jotaro refused to speak to you and Kakyoin outside of conflict, always ducking away the moment you three were alone together. Not to mention the weird, frequent gifts; it was clear Kakyoin wasn’t getting them for you, seeing as he freaked out and assumed the strange objects in your room were part of an enemy Stand. Quickly discovering it wasn’t part of a ploy to kill you, you figured that it must be from another member of the group- you had a sneaking suspicion of who it could be.

The next time you checked into a hotel, you hatched a plan with Kakyoin to catch your mysterious benefactor red-handed. While you two were “hanging by the pool,” Hierophant Green remained in the hotel room, watching and waiting for them to deliver the goods. 

Wouldn’t you know it, Jotaro shuffled into the room, looking around to make sure the coast was clear. When he saw you weren’t there, he pulled back his large, black coat to reveal a little bouquet of daisies, scribbling “From: Kakyoin” on the tag, leaving as quickly as he came.

Something in you was deeply hurt by this, rage pooling in your gut as you stood up from your poolside chair.

“I knew it!” you exclaimed to Kakyoin, your eyebrows knitting tightly as you spoke, “That bastard’s been messing with us! I’m gonna go give him a piece of my mind!”

As you began to stomp away, Kakyoin called for you to wait just a second, to try and calm down before you went to confront him. However, his words fell on deaf ears, your face going red out of pure frustration. Jotaro has the gall to ditch you and Kakyoin out of nowhere, try and push you two together at all times, and now he’s trying to fool you? Nuh-uh. Not on your watch. You were determined to figure out his little game so you could figure out why he wanted you out of his life so badly. 

Behind all your anger was genuine hurt- someone you cared about very, very deeply looked like he wanted nothing to do to you. You deserved an explanation at least.

Angrily marching up to his hotel room door, you knock with resounding force before waiting for him to answer. After a moment, the door opened up, Jotaro’s eyes widening when he saw the furious look on your face. Before he could shut the door on you, you placed your foot in the doorframe, forcing yourself in with an angry glare.

“You’re not getting out of this one, Jojo,” you practically snarled, crossing your arms as you stood before him, “You owe me an explanation.”

Without skipping a beat, Jotaro dryly remarked, “Kakyoin asked me to do it.” In his mind, Jotaro felt like shit for what he was doing; the fact that you were this upset surprised him, but he didn’t let that show on his face. His bold-faced lie only seemed to heat you up further, the hurt in your heart threatening to boil over.

“Don’t spout Bullshit at me, Jotaro. Since you’ve been making me and Kakyoin spend every waking moment together, he’d never have the time to buy anything.”

Jotaro, in his usual emotionally-unavailable fashion, remained stone-faced as he turned away from you. He was trying to suppress his feelings, trying to put the pain of hurting you aside so all of this could be over and done with. While he felt you staring daggers into his back, he tried his best to pretend you weren’t there, searching for the TV remote in the hopes you’d just go away- go away and find Kakyoin, that is.

You were both used to fighting in the literal sense, beating the snot out of enemy Stand users on the regular. However, fights like these, arguments about emotions and friendship and junk, were somehow a million times scarier for Jotaro. He couldn’t just hit the problem until it stopped moving, he had to sit down and sort out his feelings- the very feelings he was trying to keep hidden.

While Jotaro wanted to ignore you, you were done being ignored by him. Your bubble of anger burst as Jotaro grabbed the remote, sending your Stand to slap it out of his hands and forcefully turn him around to face you.

“You know how much it hurts when you try to push me and Kakyoin away? How much we miss hanging out with you?” you spit at him, words spewing out of you as everything boiled over, “I dunno what you’re trying to do with the flowers and boxes of chocolate, but it isn’t funny. If you’re trying to get me and Kakyoin together or something, it won’t work- I don’t like him like that. I like you like that!”

Clutching a hand over your mouth, you couldn’t believe what you said. By the uncharacteristic blush on his face, Jotaro couldn’t believe it either. Ever since he saved your ass from Yellow Temperance, you’ve definitely had a thing for Jotaro. That thing grew and grew, especially in his absence; in all honesty, that’s probably why his trickery hurt you so badly. Both of you stood motionless, silence hanging in the air as you both waited for the other to speak.

After a few long, deafening moments, Jotaro finally croaked out, “So... you’re not into Kakyoin?”

“Only as a friend,” you squeaked out in response, your cheeks reddened and blazing hot, “Did you think me and Kakyoin were...?”

“-Yes.”

Again, both of you just stared at each other, trying to gauge what the other was thinking. You had just confessed your feelings to Jotaro, and other than his pink cheeks, his stoic face remained the same. Little did you know, his stomach was doing backflips, his mind racing at a mile a minute trying to comprehend what you had said. 

You liked him? You really, really liked him? Like that?

He practically short-circuited, anything about DIO or the outside world gone from his mind; to him, it felt like the entire universe was just this room, and you two were it’s sole inhabitants.

“Jotaro?” you mumbled his name weakly, breaking him out of his reverie. He didn’t realize how long you’d both been standing there, tears pricking at the corners of your eyes as the prolonged silence left you wondering if your feelings were returned.

“I- I, um-” he stuttered, quickly trying to regain his composure, “I thought you and Kakyoin had feelings for each other, so I tried to help you two out.”

“Oh, I see,” was all you managed to mumble out, your mind swirling with thoughts of rejection. Was this a subtle way to tell you to get lost? If he wanted you and Kakyoin to get together, he probably didn’t feel the same. You turned to leave, trying to hold back tears as you reached for the door’s handle.

“(Y/n),” he stopped you, grasping you by the wrist. You turn to face him, his grip sliding towards your hand as you found yourself closer to him than ever before.

“I tried to get you and Kakyoin together because I thought I didn’t have a chance with you. I thought it would make me feel better,” he admitted, his face now fully red as he averted his gaze from yours, “You know I’m bad with the mushy stuff, but I like you, (Y/n). A lot.”

Both you didn’t realize how good hearing that out loud would make you feel. Wordlessly, you wrapped your arms around him, pulling him into a tight embrace. His body was still for a moment, almost as if he didn’t believe this was really happening, but eventually his tenseness melted away as he returned your physical affection. Jotaro felt a little dizzy, but in a good way- he was so surprised you felt the same way, it made him delirious.

“I’m sorry I got so angry,” you whispered into his chest, arms slowly pulling off of him, “Me and Kakyoin really missed you.”

“I’ll try not to overdo it next time,” he chuckled, looking down to meet your eyes again. You jokingly punched him in the arm, trying to muster up an angry expression despite how good you felt.

“There won’t be a next time doofus!”

As you both laughed together, you tried your best to memorize the rare joyful look on Jotaro’s face. You had a feeling you’d be seeing it more often.

[0aurelion-sol0]

"There's no place like gnome."

Stranger Things 3: The Game.

Gnomes 1-10. 🧙‍♂️

IT'S FINALLY HERE!

It's no secret that the Duffers take a lot of inspirations from Pop Culture. From the most well known movies to the more obscure comics, they are always able to sneak a reference somewhere everytime. And they are also able to make it connected to the story.

I've bragged about how the Stranger Things expanded universe in media is one of the best out there compared to many others. I think that the Duffers, the writers or people in the highest places of the marketing are really paying attention to what comes out of the ST franchise because there is no way to have such content with so many details without someone looking into them.

And ST3: The Game is a very good example of that.

So let's start! The first 10 Gnomes out of 50 that you have to find in the game.

BE AWARE THAT THERE ARE SPOILERS BELOW!

"There's elements that could please those who makes metas/analyzes or theories. Especially things related to possible future plot points, easter eggs, references in previous seasons mainly season 3 like unsolved mysteries or unanswered questions and for future seasons such as season 4 like foreshadowing or teasers, trailers or as of lately the sneak peek."

If you have anything you'd like to add, might think I have missed or think it might be referencing something else don't hesitate to share it by commenting or reblogging.

(Say thanks to @hawkinsschoolcounselor for having helped me with some of them. )

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Gnome #1: Johnny

"He's here... with an axe."

Overall plot:

"The film's central character is Jack Torrance, an aspiring writer and recovering alcoholic who accepts a position as the off-season caretaker of the isolated historic Overlook Hotel in the Colorado Rockies. Wintering over with Jack are his wife, Wendy Torrance, and young son, Danny Torrance. Danny is gifted with "the shining", psychic abilities that enable him to see into the hotel's horrific past. The hotel cook, Dick Hallorann, also has this ability and is able to communicate with Danny telepathically. The hotel had a previous winter caretaker who went insane and killed his family and himself. After a winter storm leaves the Torrances snowbound, Jack's sanity deteriorates due to the influence of the supernatural forces that inhabit the hotel, placing his wife and son in danger."

So I assume a lot of you know The Shining by Stanley Kubrick. A movie which was adapted from the novel of the same name by Stephen King in 1977.

There's a lot of things that could have served as an inspiration for ST.

A boy/child who has psychic abilities = Eleven has psychic abilities such as telekinesis. Will has his True Sight which consist in seeing what the MF was seeing and feeling.

Now there's also the theme of family and parenthood that is also a big theme in Stranger Things. Especially abusive parenthood such as Brenner, Lonnie and even Hopper to a smaller degree.

In Shining, Jack tries to kill his family with an axe due to supernatural forces that are in the hotel but there's a difference between King and Kubrick. While King specifically said that Jack was heavily influenced by the Hotel, Kubrick shows that Jack always had that sinister violence in him even before they arrived at the hotel.

It's interesting to draw a parallel to Billy and Will, both characters called William who tried to kill their families and other people while being possessed. But Billy compared to Will was shown to have been abusive even before that. Dacre Montgomery also said that he was inspired by Jack Nicholson's performance in the Shining for his character Billy.

Joyce and Jonathan were shown to get ready to fight the monsters by taking an axe.

It's also interesting to note that Jack dies in the snow while a blizzard is happening outside the hotel. Much like the storm of the Mindflayer who is in the Upside Down, the same Mindflayer who "likes it cold". While in the book, the Overlook explodes and burn.

(Cold vs Fire much like everything Upside Down related not liking Fire.)

Also "Johnny" = "Jonathan", it's kind of similar and Jonathan did wield an axe before. Maybe this is teasing parts of Jonathan storyline next seasons ?

The gnome was also found in Mike's basement, Mike who wants to be a writer when he's older just like Jack.

Let's just hope that Jonathan and Mike don't get the same fate as Jack.

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Gnome #2: Christine

"Two bright, beaming lights for eyes."

Overall plot:

"Written by Bill Phillips and based on Stephen King's 1983 novel of the same title, the movie follows the changes in the lives of Arnie Cunningham, an awkward and unpopular teenager, his friends, his family, and his teenage enemies in Rockbridge, California after Arnie buys a classic red and white 1958 Plymouth Fury named Christine, licence number CQB 241, a car that seems to have a jealous, possessive personality – and a mind of its own, which has a bad influence on Arnie. After working on a car in a junkyard owned by Will Darnell, Arnie drops his glasses, starts dressing like a 1950's greaser and develops an arrogant and paranoid personality. He than decides to invite and date the most beautiful girl in highschool, Leigh, who will soon become the next victim of Christine."

I was actually quite surprised by how this story parallels Stranger Things a lot.

First off, Christine is very much like The Mindflayer, a dangerous supernatural being set out to destroy anyone who is in her way, the people who tries to take the things that she thinks belongs to her or threatens her. This is very much relevant to The Mindflayer who after being hurt by the Fire created by the Hawkins Lab was upset and attacked everyone he could. Or as Will putted "Not me, everyone else."

This is very much like Christine who tried to kill Leigh because she was taking her place in the life of Arnie. Christine also tried to kill the bullies of Arnie who after a conflit with him, tried to destroy the car which angered Christine heavily.

The Mindflayer has been described someone who views himself as superior to other species and wants to conquer them, even if it's not his real "goal", the description fits anyone who is possessive and paranoid.

Both the MF and Christine are associated with the color red. Red storm = red color of the car.

Arnie ressembles Will and Billy alot. Will is an awkward and unpopular teenager who after being possessed by the Mindflayer became very different and more violent. Billy was shown to be paranoid, jealous, violent and his look even ressembles the one Arnie takes after repairing Christine.

Both of these boys have the same name as Will Darnell, the owner of a junkyard. Just like the boys in Season 1 who takes shelter in a junkyard, or in season 2 where they fight the Demodogs.

Billy dies, killed by the Mindflayer just like Arnie who was completely possessed by Christine who tried to kill Leigh and Dennis, his best friend after they tried to destroy the car when they realised the supernatural nature of it.

Billy's car ressembles a lot Christine with those lights on. Especially with shots like in the Void or at Starcourt during the night.

Chrissy, a new character that will be in season 4, the most popular girl in Hawkins High like Leigh, has a name that is the diminutive of Christine. It is said that under the perfect surface lies a dark secret. Much like the car Christine, while a beauty is actually a dangerous supernatural being. We'll see if the both of them actually connects in the show.

Also it is set in California where Billy and Max come from and has been rumored by many people due to set leaks (The Surfer Boy Pizza Van.) that it is where the Byers went. I won't get into it in this post but this could be a tease or hint of that IF the set leaks ARE true and not fake to mess with people and the fandom.

Arnie also dies in a car crash having been completely possessed by the evil powers of Christine which is something we see in the sneak peek of ST4. It also reminds of Carrie who has a bully named Chris who she kills in a car crash with her boyfriend Billy aka William.

So will someone die from that car crash ? Who is it ? Chrissy, Joyce, Lonnie ? We can only speculate.

The gnome is also found outside the Wheeler's house where Karen lives near the community pool where Billy works and where the car of Billy is located during the first few chapters of the game. Again, a "bad boy" hitting on the beautiful girl in town. (with a lot of creepy subtext all over it.)

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Gnome #3: Doc

"Always mumbling something about being late."

Overall plot:

"Set in 1985, in the town of Hill Valley, California, the story follows Marty McFly, a teenager accidentally sent back to 1955 in a time-traveling DeLorean automobile built by his eccentric scientist friend Doctor Emmett "Doc" Brown. Trapped in the past, Marty inadvertently prevents his future parents' meeting—threatening his very existence—and is forced to reconcile the pair and somehow get back to the future."

So I don't think I need to explain why this is here given how much it has been shown and mentioned in season 3. But few things are interesting here, the fact that California is mentioned is a big deal for me again. I know you are aware of the set leaks just as I am aware, if we can trust them than this could be a hint of that location.

Next, we have the theme of Time. Now ever since ST4 was announced, clocks and times have been a key feature in the promotion. Who know what this might mean but again, we're not going to develop that in the post.

There is also the whole funny scenes of Robin realising that indeed Marty's mother had tried to "bang" her own son. Now given the nature of the shown, certain images in the show during certain events and certain stories, you know to what it connects and to which theories it connects. Won't develop further on it but it can be used as an element that can go into those theories.

The gnome is also found outside of Starcourt Mall where Robin and Steve talk about "Back to the Future". It is also where Billy has his "Back to te Future" moment with his car going extremely fast just like the DeLorean.

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Gnome #4: Indiana

"Master of Adventure."

Overall plot:

"After arriving in India, Indiana Jones is asked by desperate villagers to find a mystical stone and rescue their children from a Thuggee cult practicing child slavery, black magic, and ritualistic human sacrifice in honor of the goddess, Kali."

Fun fact, on Twitter for ST3 promo, a parody poster of this same movie has been posted here of the official ST account.

Jim is obviously Indiana Jones, the look speaks for itself and when he is in the Tunnels in season 2, there's a lot of Indiana Jones imagery.

And of course Kali as 008, a Hindu goddess but as we will see here, it parallels more the Mindflayer.

In 1935, Indiana Jones survives a murder attempt by Lao Che, a crime boss in Shanghai who has hired him to retrieve the remains of Emperor Nurhaci. With his young orphaned Chinese sidekick, Short Round, and the nightclub singer, Willie Scott, in tow, Indy flees Shanghai on a cargo aircraft. While the three of them are asleep, the pilots (employed by Lao Che) dump the fuel and escape via parachute, leaving the plane to crash over the Himalayas. The three narrowly manage to survive by jumping out of the plane on an inflatable raft.

(I wonder if this could be something we see in season 4 with Hopper where he tries to escape on a plane and ends up crashing somewhere or is betrayed by someone who he asked the help of. Now it's a trio and in season 3, Jim, Joyce, Alexei and Murray are the main group that fits this trio. Jim for all the fighting and crazy shit, Joyce and Alexei are kind of like Short Round, they are the sidekicks of Hopper. Murray the role of Willie Scott since she speaks Chinese and him Russian and that Jim just like Indy finds annoying sometimes. Alexei is also kind of like Willie since he kinda goes along with them.

But if we also look at season 2, El is alot like Short Round since she is kind of an orphan too and has a father figure later on. It could also be Will since Hopper is with him a lot of times through season 2. Also Willie did felt out of her element like Alexei because of course he is Russian. Willie in itself doesn't have a lot in common with Joyce but still it's another connection to Will since she has a name close to the one of her sons. Something that does fit a bit more is Jim and Hopper both escaping death, of course Hopper at the end of season 3 but also during season 3 at the farm where he's being shot at by Gregori and than the car doesn't work and explodes and they have to make their way through the forest.

Willie Scott could also be referenced when El disguise herself as this pretty blonde girl in season 1.

Now however, Scoop Troops does fit certain parts of these trio. All the fighting with Steve like Indiana Jones but Robin got his brain because she cracked the code. Dustin and Erica are kinda like short round (especially Dustin who has kind of the same hat as short round.) and are referenced with all the others as children by Robin. Steve doesn't feel in his element like Willie with the three of them who are nerds just like Erica who also doesn't want to accept it. And Robin just like Willie speaks some languages.)

They ride down the mountain slopes and fall into a raging river, eventually arriving at the village of Mayapore in northern India. The villagers plead for their aid in retrieving the sacred stone (shivalinga) stolen from their shrine, along with their missing children, by evil forces in the nearby Pankot Palace. Indy agrees to do so, hypothesizing that the stone is one of the five Sankara stones given by the gods to help humanity fight evil. (It's kinda like Alexei who turns his back on the Russians, for his life of course and agrees to help Hopper close the gate to save Hawkins and their kids before monsters start to appear or may attack one of their kids. Now the stone could be something similar to the promethium or the two keys who opens the gate and is a highly valuable ressource. It also may be the Flayed who are needed to create the monster for the Mindflayer.)

The trio receive a warm welcome at Pankot Palace and are allowed to stay for the night as guests, attending a lavish, but revolting, banquet hosted by the young Maharajah. The officials rebuff Indy's theory that the Thuggee cult is responsible for their troubles. Later that night, Indy is attacked by an assassin. After Indy kills him, he discovers a series of tunnels hidden behind a statue and sets out to explore them, overcoming a number of booby-traps.

(This could be like when Hopper, Joyce and Murray disguised themselves as Russian soldiers but was than discovered by Grigori who attacks them.

The tunnels could be both groups discovering that there is a secret russian base underground and a gate which explains why there are monsters again in Hawkins but it also be the Source, Brimborn Steel Works, where the Mindflayer is lurking underground where he has cult-like followers who makes sacrifices for him to grow bigger and bigger.

It's also like the Tunnels in season 2 who explains why the soil of Hawkins seemed to literally rot. )

The trio reach an underground temple where the Thuggees worship Kali with human sacrifice. They discover that the Thuggees now possess three of the Sankara stones and have enslaved the children to search for the last two, hidden in the palace catacombs. As Indy tries to retrieve the stones, he, Willie, and Shorty are captured. Thuggee high priest Mola Ram forces Indy to drink a potion that puts him into a trance-like state in which he mindlessly serves the cult. (It's very much like Robin and Steve who after discovering the gate are catched by the Russians and than drugged to answer their questions. But also like the Flayed who drinks the chemicals and serves the Mindflayer like a mindless cult.)

Willie is prepared for sacrifice, while Shorty is put to work in the mines with the other children. Shorty escapes and returns to the temple, where he first frees Indy and, later, the Maharajah from the effects of the potion. Indy saves Willie and retrieves the stones. After freeing the children, Indy fights a hulking overseer and leaves him to be killed by a rock crusher. (Basically Dustin saves Steve and Robin. Willie being prepared for sacrifice is kind of like El prepared for sacrifice by Billy in 3x08 but also frees Billy from the effects of the Mindflayer by making him remember his mother, a pretty blonde woman like Willie and sacrifices himself. And Hopper fights Gregori, a "hulking overseer" and kills him.)

The trio escape from the temple, pursued by Thuggees, and barely escape Mola Ram's attempt to flood them out. They are again ambushed by Mola Ram and his henchmen on a rope bridge above a crocodile-infested river. Indy cuts the bridge, causing several of the henchmen to fall to the crocodiles and leaving the survivors to hang on for their lives. As Mola Ram and Indy struggle, Indy invokes the name of Shiva, causing the stones to glow red-hot and burn through Indy's satchel. Two of them fall out; Mola Ram tries to catch the third, but burns his hand and falls from the bridge and into the river, where he, too, is eaten by the crocodiles. (This can be connected to all the kids fighting in Hawkins with the Spider Monster. But the bridge could also fit for the key in the secret base where Hopper and Gregori fights. The gruesome death of Mola Ram is similar to the gruesome death that Gregori has.)

Indy catches the stone safely and climbs up just as a company of British Indian Army riflemen, sent by the Maharajah, arrive and open fire against the Thuggees to drive them away; the surviving Thuggees are soon cornered and arrested by more soldiers. Indy, Willie, and Shorty return safely to Mayapore with the stone and the missing children. (While it may end well in the movie, we know Billy and multiple people die, the Thuggees unlike the Russians have been captured while the Russians where all able to flee before the US Army arrives and Hopper is presumed dead. Only the children in both stories are alive but are probably traumatized for life.)

All in all we can see that this movie might have had a big influence on the plot of season 3 through many characters and more. It may have some hints about possible events for Hopper in season 4 or even beyond but that's about it for. It's a nice package of comparaisons and references though.

The gnome is found in the Hawkins Community Pool where Billy is. The same Billy who obeys mindlessly the Mindflayer and sacrifices people to it. Just like the Thuggees with Kali.

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Gnome #5: Chunk

"Posed in some odd dance maneuver."

Overall plot:

"In the film, a band of kids who live in the "Goon Docks" neighborhood of Astoria, Oregon, attempt to save their homes from foreclosure and, in doing so, they discover an old treasure map that takes them on an adventure to unearth the long-lost fortune of One-Eyed Willy, a legendary 17th-century pirate. During the adventure, they are chased by a family of criminals who want the treasure for themselves."

So first, let's get this out of the way, Sean Astin who play Bob Newby, our beloved who plays a character named Mikey.

The Goonies is a 1985 American adventure comedy film co-produced and directed by Richard Donner from a screenplay by Chris Columbus, based on a story by executive producer Steven Spielberg. In the film, kids who live in the "Goon Docks" neighborhood of Astoria, Oregon, attempt to save their homes from foreclosure and, in doing so, they discover an old treasure map that takes them on an adventure to unearth the long-lost fortune of One-Eyed Willy, a legendary 17th-century pirate. During the adventure, they are chased by a family of criminals who want the treasure for themselves.

I wonder if this might hint at some Season 4 plot right here. The Hawkins gang faces the threat of Hawkins becoming a literal ghost down and might need to find something to save it. Also Willy like William, again Will is still there.

The Goonies include optimist lead Goonie Mikey Walsh, his older brother Brandon, the inventive Data, the talkative Mouth, and the overweight klutz Chunk.

Rummaging through the Walshes' attic, they come across a 1632 doubloon and an old treasure map purporting to lead to the treasure of legendary pirate "One-Eyed Willy", believed to be located somewhere nearby. Mikey considers One-Eyed Willy to be the original Goonie. (It kinda reminds me of Mike who got mad at Max in season 2 and told her they didn't need another party member. And he mentionned Will first right after him.)

The kids overpower and bind Brandon and make their way to an abandoned restaurant on the coast that coincides with the map; Brandon soon follows alongside Andy, a cheerleader with a crush on him ( there has been cheerleaders that have been reported in season 4 such as Chrissy.); and Stef, Andy's friend. The group quickly discovers the derelict restaurant is a hideout of the Fratelli crime family: Francis, Jake, and their mother. (Maybe it is both a reference to the Russians in season 3 who have a hideout under the mall who have many restaurants. Or the Lab who OBVIOUSLY does a lot of illegal activities. )

The Goonies find a tunnel in the basement and follow it (like the tunnels made by the Mindflayer in season 2), but when Chunk flags down a motorist to go to the sheriff’s station, he gets abducted by the assailants and imprisoned with their hulking, deformed, younger brother Sloth. (This is obviously like Dustin who befriends Dart in season 2, a literal Demogorgon in the making.)

The Fratellis interrogate Chunk until he reveals where the Goonies have gone, and begin pursuit. Chunk is left behind with Sloth, but befriends him. After Sloth frees both of them, Chunk calls the sheriff, and both follow the trail of the Fratellis. (This is very reminiscent of Hopper in season 1 who gets interrogated by Lab agents or Steve and Robin by the Russians.)

The Goonies evade several deadly booby traps along the tunnels, while staying ahead of the Fratellis. Finally, they reach the grotto where Willy's pirate ship, the Inferno, is anchored. (Will also has a ship, the rainbow ship he drew for Joyce, also Inferno literally means Hell just like what Hawkins has been called.)

The group discovers the ship is filled with treasure, and they start filling their pockets, but Mikey warns them not to take any on a set of scales in front of Willy, considering that to be their tribute to him. As they leave the ship, the assailants appear and strip them of their loot. They start to bind the Goonies and make them walk the plank, until Chunk arrives with Sloth and distracts the assailants long enough for the Goonies to jump overboard and swim to safety. (It's the opposite of the season 2 finale, where Dustin has to distract Dart so that the other could pass through the tunnels.)

The Fratellis proceed to grab all the treasure they can, including those on Willy's scales; this triggers another booby trap that causes the grotto to cave in. With Sloth's help, the Goonies and Fratellis barely escape.

The two groups emerge on Astoria's beach, where they reunite with the Goonies' families and the police. The Fratellis are arrested, but Chunk prevents Sloth from also being taken; he invites Sloth to live with him, which Sloth accepts. ("Unfortunately", Dart compared to Sloth probably died.)

As the kids describe their adventure to their parents, the Walshes' housekeeper, Rosalita, discovers that Mikey's marble bag is filled with gems he took from the ship and had not been seized by the Fratellis. Mikey's father triumphantly rips up the foreclosure papers, declaring they have enough money to negate the foreclosure. As the Goonies celebrate, they see the Inferno, having broken free of the grotto, sailing off on its own in the distance. (Could it be hinting at a possible happy ending for Stranger Things ?)

So Fratellis, is similar to fratello which means "brother, fellow, neighbor" which perhaps could be a reference to the Mindflayer who is kind of our neighbor since he is basically in the same places but in the Upside Down. The Mindflayer also has been paralleled to Billy and other abusive father figures. Billy who is the brother of Max. He has also been paralleled to Kali through his anger and him attacking people who hurted him or might hurt him. Could in itself The Mindflayer should be taken or seen as some sort of family figure ? Maybe him being always associated with Will The Wise especially in 2x04 or someone who has the name Will like Billy is a connection. The same Billy who also parallels Russians who just like the Fratellis have secret hideouts.

Though the Fratellis are more motivated by greed which fits Brenner, Lonnie (who tried to use his son's death to gain money.) or Russians most.

Now Willy, Willy is a captain. Maybe it could be hinting at the fact that Will has more importance to the story than we think. There's also Inferno, "Hell" which is Hawkins but also the name of the ship. And Will has a rainbow ship... Could Hawkins be the ship of Will where his adventures are taking place ?

As for the dance... well as you've seen upper in the post: it's the "Truffle Shuffle Dance". It's something that Chunk has to do before entering Mikey's house. It's similar to what Dustin do at the beginning of season 1 to the bullies when he makes his bones crack due to his medical condition, cleidocranial dysplasia.

As for where this gnome is located, it's in Weathertop where Cerebro is located which is fitting since Dustin has a lot of Goonies as inspiration for his character.

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Gnome #6: Elvis

"He's not dead!"

"Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977), also known simply as Elvis, was an American singer and actor. Dubbed the "King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as one of the most significant cultural icons of the 20th century. His energized interpretations of songs and sexually provocative performance style, combined with a singularly potent mix of influences across color lines during a transformative era in race relations, led him to both great success and initial controversy." - Wikipedia.

It is a lot known that people in the 80's thought that Elvis Presley was still alive due to his status and the aura he had as a celebrity. However, no matter how appealing this myth may be, he died of an excessive usage of prescription drugs which reminds me of Nancy who said she thought Tom was on drugs when he fired her and Jonathan while he an the Flayed were drinking chemicals. He also died in 1977, the same year "Heroes" by David Bowie came out which is a song that was used two times when we thought a character died when he was actually alive which are Will and Hopper. Will and Hopper both have a lot of rock in their Spotify playlist.

Also, I personally think that Steve has kind of an Elvis Presley aura to him especially in season 1. After all, Steve has a nickname "King Steve" and Elvis Presley is often nicknamed "The King" and both were popular with girls.

Fun fact: Dacre Montgomery who plays Billy who literally becomes the new "King" of Hawkins will play in the biographical music drama "Elvis" about Elvis Presley where he will play a character called "Steve Binder".

Also actor David Harbour also got married with singer Lily Allen by Elvis in Las Vegas.

It's also found hidden behind bushes near the Public Library. Maybe indicating that Elvis is still out there in the world and hiding.

Which also may be a reference to Brenner who has a similar haircut but also about the novel "Suspicious Minds", a prequel of ST taking place in the Lab when Brenner was doing his sinister experiments which is the same title as one of the songs of Elvis. Like Elvis, Brenner is still out there, hiding in Hawkins.

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Gnome #7: Jack

"All work and no play makes Jack a dull gnome."

Again another reference to Shining. So what you are seeing here is a proverb, it means:  "It means that without time off from work, a person becomes both bored and boring."

In Shining, it represents Jack's slow descent into madness. But it could be a reference to Joyce, Jonathan and Nancy who all work their asses off and don't take a lot of time for themselves and so don't have the time to explore anything else than work which also cause for them not to be there when Will got kidnapped. It may also represent Jonathan's words to Nancy in season 1 where he "called out" the boring life she will have and that she will live like her parents so in this case the proverb becomes about societal norms.

Mike just like Jack is an aspiring writer, Mike just like other members of his family falls into these societal norms that are expected like work and overworking in this instance which makes them boring in the eyes of people like Jonathan. "No play" may also reference D&D which Mike started to ignore in season 3 and worried more pointless and superficial things.

Again, hope it doesn't foreshadow anything for these two characters.

This gnome is found in the Library which is fitting considering Jack wants to be a writer.

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Gnome #8: Flynn (Flynn Rider from "Tangled" (2010))

"Looks like he rides well."

Overall plot of Tangled (2010):

"The film tells the story of Rapunzel, a lost, young princess with magical long blonde hair who yearns to leave her secluded tower. Against her abusive foster mother's wishes who kidnappee her when she was young, she accepts the aid of an intruder to take her out into the world which she has never seen."

This story is literally what the boys was arguing about at the end of season 1.

1)The lost knight...

Flynn Rider is actually the son of a king and queen that were from a kingdom that got destroyed by a powerful opal. He was evacuated and placed in an orphanage. He made his reputation as thief.

So Mike and El both parallels this guy, well Mike is a palladin in D&D and he is the son of a wealthy family so he is basically a night. El however also lost her parents like him and has more attributes of a knight in season 1 than Mike.

Flynn is arrogant, which Mike can be a bit sometimes but the both of them can be extremely courageous and care a lot about the people they care about though they are not very strong, nor athletic. Maybe Flynn a bit more.

Also fun coincidence Flynn = Finn, the name of the actor who plays Mike. (almost the same name).

Both him and El run into each other in the woods. Just like Flynn who discover Rapunzel while trying to enter Rapunzel's tower but is knocked out by her who is none other than the...

2)The proud princess...

Well first Rapunzel = Eleven. Both of these girls have magical powers and are used by an abusive and evil parental figure who needs them for their own interest, Mother Gothel used the powers of Rapunzel to stay young forever (like an addiction, a drug) and Martin Brenner aka "Papa". They are both locked away somewhere. El in the lab and Rapunzel in the tower which they both seeked to escape out of. Both believed that these parental figures loved them while it was not true. El also has long blond hair in season 1 like Rapunzel. And both quickly form a relationship with a boy they just met. Both don't know who their real parents are and wants to find them. While Rapunzel has long blonde hair, El had a shaved head.

Also in season 2, El is locked in a cabin in the woods because of Hopper because he believe it is not safe out there which is exactly what Mother Gothel tells Rapunzel. Just like her El disobeys and seeks to discover who her true parents are.

Rapunzel seeks to know what are those floating lights that always appear on her birthday, it is actually her parents who are the king and queen of a kingdom not so far away that do that every year hoping one day she will come back to her. She is a "lost princess". It is very similar to Terry Ives who was communicating through the lights to El.

Rapunzel's power comes out of something that is also connected to something famous in ST.

3) Weird flowers in the cave...

Rapunzel's power come from a flower called "Sundrop flower". = Sunflower which is said by Terry Ives.

This flower can pretty much heal anything including mortal wounds. The Queen got pregnant with Rapunzel but was also terribly sick so she took this flower to heal herself and while doing so, Rapunzel got this ability.

This is very reminiscent of Terry Ives who was pregnant with El and took part in the MKUltra experiences that gave her these powers including certain drugs. She is also "ill" in a way as she is now stuck in a loop. At least from what we saw.

But Rapunzel also parallels another character.

Will Byers. Will could communicate through lights to his mother, just like the parents of Rapunzel and Terry Ives.

The weird flowers could be referencing the sort of vines that entered inside of him in the Upside Down which gave him his "now-memories".

Both had abusive parental figure that would lock them somewhere for whatever reason. (Lonnie with Will in his trunk.)

(Also Hopper may have tried to separate Mike and El but he wasn't like what a Lonnie or Brenner would have been. This is why yes, the situation in season 2 parallels but Hopper truly wished good for El while Brenner and Mother Gothel didn't care for any of these two.)

Same is for Lonnie, he doesn't care about Will.

Since Will is a cleric, both him and Rapunzel have the same time of power. Powers that El doesn't have:

To heal the sick and injured

To revive the dead

To work as a shield

Given this story, it may hint at the fact that Brenner and Lonnie may try to take El and Will for their own greed and purposes.

Since Rapunzel parallels both Will and El, you know what that means for Flynn who parallels Mike.

Flynn in the movie is stabbed by Mother Gothel and dies before cutting the hair of Rapunzel killing Mother Gothel in the process. Rapunzel mourns him and one of his tears heal him.

If Flynn parallels Mike, than something bad could happen to him. If Will does have powers and has feelings for Mike, a supposed death may reveal his powers.

And if he has the same powers as his cleric role, than he could heal those who get hurt or even bring the dead back to life.

If Lonnie sees Mike around Will, given he is homophobic. He may try to hurt him so that he doesn't go near Will again which could lead to him being in grave danger.

Of course all of that is just speculation.

This gnome was found on the parking lot of Starcourt where El decided to break up with Mike and we saw Will smiling in the background.

Also I don't know but... "Looks like he rides well", I mean there's certain undertones to that which are... I don't know how to process that but from what you've just read, Mike apparently rides well. I mean I have nothing against gay sex jokes but still...

Even if it's unintentional, it's how it'll sound on the internet.

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Gnome #9: David

"At 399, he's the oldest gnome around."

So this gnome was already in the first ST official mobile game. And this reminds me a lot of The Lord Of The Rings and The Hobbit but also and of course; Dungeons & Dragons.

The World of David the Gnome, originally titled David, el Gnomo (also known as David, the Gnome), is a Spanish animated television series based on the children's book The Secret Book of Gnomes, by the Dutch author Wil Huygen and illustrator Rien Poortvliet. The series was originally created in Spain by BRB Internacional (who were also responsible for the Dogtanian and the Three Muskehounds franchise (Like Dart in season 2 and Mike, Lucas and Dustin where very much like the Three Musketeers in season 1.) and other cartoons such as Bobobobs and Around the World with Willy Fog)

The series presents the gnomes as a kind species, of 15 centimetres (6 inches) of height, and between 250 and 300 grams (8 and 10 ounces) of weight depending on gnome body mass. According to their habitat, different types of gnomes are distinguished: the ones of the forest, the ones of the garden, the ones of the farm, the ones of the house, the ones of the dunes, those of Siberia (David = David Harbour = Hopper = Hopper is in Russia), and nomadic "gypsy" gnomes (commonly looked down upon by other gnomes). A gnome's lifespan is usually 400 years, though there is one example of a couple in the Balkans living 550 years.

Gnomes such as the main characters live in pairs in comfortable caves or holes under trees [kinda like Hobbits] (in their case in the company of a pair of mice and a cricket). Their diet is mostly vegetarian. They are helped by the animals of the forest (kinda like Radagast who is the password to Castle Byers who is located in the woods) when travelling long distances or when they need to arrive quickly at a specific location. Gnomes work in various ways to repair the damage inevitably caused by humans. They also have the power of telepathy and mind control. (kinda like El or the Mindflayer, or even Galadriel in The Lord Of The Rings.)

Their main enemies are the trolls, malevolent and clumsy creatures who always make trouble for the other inhabitants of the forest, as well as gnome poachers. They have supernatural powers that are really strong but they have a weakness, if the sunlight gets on them, they turn to stone.(could be referencing all the Upside Down creatures who don't like sunlight and everything hot.) [Also very much like the Hobbit.] Also one of the trolls was voiced by someone who had the name Henderson, like Dustin Henderson. I also think it references a comic where some bullies attack Will and Mike calls them trolls.

Here are the most important characters:

David is a gnome of the forest. David is 399 years old, making him the oldest gnome around (since gnomes live no more than 400 years exactly, except Franklin, the gnome from the west, who lived 550 years), although he possesses exceptional constitution. David is a doctor, and he uses his knowledge of many fields, such as hypnosis and acupuncture, to heal his patients, usually animals, such as his faithful friend Swift the fox, or other gnomes. David also befriends a bird that, when he whistles, immediately arrives to quickly transport him to wherever necessary. For longer trips, he sometimes travels in a basket attached to the neck of the bird. (It may be a reference to clerics who are known to heal their allies and travelling with birds reminds me of Gandald who sometimes has the help of Eagles in some stories.)

Paul is David's twin brother. Not only does Paul have a normal moustache in contrast to David's handlebar moustache but his jumper is a darker shade of blue, he has a bigger nose, his gnome hat is dark blue whereas David's is red, and his trousers and boots are an inverse of David's: David's trousers are brown and his boots are beige, while Paul wears beige trousers and dark boots. (Of course this is a reference to Will and El who have been compared a lot of times throughout the show and who a lot of people in the fandom consider them siblings and twins, Will has a lot of Red in his wardrobe while El has a lot of blue.)

This gnome was found in a secret Russian base underground in Weathertop where Dustin discovers the Russian transmission coming from their main base located under the mall like a cave (like where gnome lives.). There are also gnomes in Siberia and having the name David, the name of Hopper's actor creates a connection since right now Hopper is in Russia. It may also be a nod to the group of kids who are all little gnomes running around the forest with their magical powers.

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Gnome #10: Baskin

"Robin's favorite gnome."

Now this is a funny one.

This is a reference to the famous Baskin-Robbins which is a chain of ice cream restaurants that did special ice creams for Season 3 because of Scoops Ahoy. It is Robin's favorite gnome because they literally share the same name.

Baskin could also be a reference to the film of the same name where Five police officers, Remzi, Arda, Yavuz, Apo, and Seyfi, are dining at a restaurant, during which they have a discussion. Their meal is interrupted when they receive a distress call from Inceagac, a town known for being the focus of strange rumors. During the trip Seyfi has a terrifying vision of a bloody figure and accidentally drives their van into the water. Stranded, the officers eventually make their way to Inceagac, where they find themselves in an abandoned building (back in the Ottoman days, this used to be a police station), captured by cult members and are subjected to a number of increasingly bizarre and surreal scenarios. In the end, they realize they have all inadvertently wandered into Hell.

It has alot of similiraties with stories like Silent Hills or Hellraiser, two stories that inspired Stranger Things especially Hellraiser for Stranger Things 4. And it fully embraces the satanic imagery and themes which is something we are going to see with the satanic panic and also has the theme of time, dreams and visions.

We'll see how much season 4 decides to use those sort of elements in the show.

Well this gnome is easy to find. It's in the Scoops Ahoy parlor next to Robin. USS Butterscotch seems to be very popular there

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Gnomes 11 - 20 coming soon.

[thr-333]

Just Another Class Trip :)  Part 2

Marinette sacrifices Adrien and then steals his alter ego.

First<>Next

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With the help of the staff Marinette is directed to the room she will be sharing with Chloe and Kagami. It was meant to be two to a room, but yada yada Lila yada yada medical condition yada yada tears= Lila gets her own room.

“Marinette,” Kagami spots her first, rising from the couch.

“Mari!” Chloe vaults over the couch and hug tackles her, Marinette barely moves an inch, “You should have heard all the shit Lila was saying on the way here, you’d think it be enough she got the class to leave you behind!”

“Perhaps it’s best if you do not,” Kagami pulls Chloe off her, “You didn’t answer your phone,”

“Flat,”

“Bags?”

“Stolen,”

“Lila?”

“Probably,”

“Well lucky for you housekeeping dropped this by earlier,” Chloe hands her a box, inside filled with essential items, tooth brush, hair brush, even a pair of pyjamas, along with a note

‘Courtesy of the Waynes, for Miss Marinette Dupain-Cheng’

“Must be a generic package,” She had shrugged off the bellhops earlier saying her bags were lost.

“Well since you don’t have to unpack, help me with this,” Chloe leads her over to their kitchen that might actually be bigger than her houses.

On the counter beauty products are lined up along with random ingredients.

“We’re making face masks!”

“Correction, Chloe is making face masks,” Kagami scolds, “I argued that sleep would be more effective,”

“And yet you didn’t go to sleep,” Chloe teases, mashing up avocado.

“Well not without you,” Kagami smirks, making Chloe blush, but it’s not like her to back down.

“Awe, you’d wait for me~” Chloe relishes in the blush dusting Kagami's cheeks.

Marinette dry heaves, wondering how long they were going to keep pretending to flirt like this, each too stubborn to back down. They have been doing this more and more recently, great that they were more comfortable around each other but…

“How about we go to bed,” Marinette disturbs their challenging stares.

“Not without Kagami,”

“I already used that one,”

“I never said we’d use the bed for sleeping~”

“Hey!” Her exclamation doesn't get them to drop their staring contest, “Do either of you know what room Adrien is in?”

“End of the hall,” They both answer, not looking at her.

“Great,” Marinette hastily grabs her bag and the box, she could get ready in Adrien's room, away from the weirdness.

She practically runs down the hall, ignoring her Kwami’s snickering.

“Mari!” Adrien throws the door open for her, “Did everything go ok, you didn’t answer your phone, you look upset,”

“Sorted everything out with security no problems, Phones dead, Bag stolen,” She plops down on the couch next to Nino, “Chlo and Kags are driving me crazy,”

“How long have you been back?” She looks down at her watch.

“Three minutes,”

“Are they doing that thing again?” Adrien, Kwami bless him hands her a mug of coffee.

“Yep,” She takes a sip from the mug, she retracts that blessing “Betrayal! This isn’t coffee!”

“It’s hot chocolate,” Adrien is in the kitchen fixing another mug, “You need to go to bed, and coffee will keep you up,”

No she needed to go on patrol, and a coffee is vital to her surviving it.

“What’s up with Chloe and Kagami?” Nino takes off his headphones.

“They started teasing each other by jokingly flirting but their both too stubborn to back down," Marinette sighs, downing half the mug of hot chocolate so she can get herself a damn coffee, "So they get uncomfortable then we get uncomfortable and its overall very uncomfortable,”

“I think it’s kind of funny,” Adrien sits down next to her, mug in hand.

“It would be if they both weren’t horrible at flirting,” She steals the mug away from him taking a sip.

That is not coffee, that is sugar disguised as a liquid

“That’s the funny part,” Adrien smiles as she hands back the mug,

“Touche Agreste, Touche,”

“If you wanted you could sleep in my room,” Nino offers, oh so innocently.

“Thank’s Nino, but I would rather Alya not kill me,”

“Nah dude, I was going to stay with Alya anyway Madame Bustier wont mind,” Yeah their teacher really should learn not to trust teenagers, "So you can have my room,”

“Nino you are a godsent,”

Nino cleans up his few thrown about items and bids them adieu. Marinette was glad they could still talk, maybe they were even still friends. When you have the devil in one ear and her loyal sidekick in the other it is actually kind of impressive they still have a friendly relationship.

“So how’s your day been?” Marinette gathers up the strength to start a conversation after making her own coffee, and her mouth was only very burnt from chugging a hot drink.

“Good, Chloe took us to a supermarket, I brought a bunch of american snacks!”

Indeed he had, Marinette watches in mild horror as he plops bags full of junk food in front of her.

“I didn’t realise we were feeding an army,” Adrien starts rooting through the bags, “If a super villain comes after you because you brought all their favourite snacks in Gotham I’m not protecting you,”

“I’d just share with them,” Adrien hums, chomping down on a chocolate bar.

“... Yeah that could work,” Dear Kwami I have to protect this sunshine child,  “Maybe,”

“Oi, don’t eat too much, I don't want to have to re tailor your outfit for the runway,” She teases, regretting it immediately as Adrien's shoulders sag.

“Sorry,”

“Adri I’m kidding,”  She places a hand on his shoulder smiling gently, “I already made the measurements a bit bigger so you’re good.

“Have I ever told you you’re the best?”

“Not enough you haven't,” Marinette huffs in mock offence, “Now eat,”

She shoves the chocolate bag in his face, getting it all over his cheek. They both start laughing as Adrien tries to get his revenge. They end up falling off the couch, Marinette on top of him. Adrien is blushing a bright red, Marinette just grins and shoves the chocolate in his face before getting up.

She could almost laugh at how her younger self would react to that. It wasn't as if she didn’t like Adrien, well maybe not in that way anymore, she honestly hadn't put that much thought into it lately. Things just got busy she supposed, Akumas got harder, then she became the guardian, she started her fashion career. Actually her fashion career might be at fault.

Gabriel had started lending Adrien to model for her more and more. The man stepping further and further back from the fashion world, or the world in general, over the years for whatever the reason. At first she had been a blushing mess around Adrien, not directing him properly and making her work suffer for it. Overtime she had learnt how to handle it, getting less flustered every time they worked together. Now that she thought about it, when she had revealed her identity as MDC Adrien didn’t seem surprised; maybe her work attitude had bled into her regular life well before then.

Marinette is washing the chocolate off when a knock sounds at the door. Neither feel like walking to it so shout out ‘come in’. That turned out to be a mistake as Lila bursts into the room. How were they supposed to know Lila would actually knock?!

“Marinette you slut!” Lila all but screeches.

“Lila, you don’t have an audience and neither of us believe you,” Marinette comes out of the bathroom, already bored of the conversation she really needed to go, Lila and Marinette both.

“Well just wait, tomorrow the whole class is going to know what you did,” Lila gets up in her face, so close she can smell her perfume.

No not Lila's perfume her perfume.

“Right, sorry to say but there’s worse rumours than sleeping with a supermodel,” Marinette tries to edge her way around Lila, good excuse as any to dip out for patrol.

“Not if I say you forced him,” Lila looks way to self satisfied for what she is implying

I think the fuck not

“Nah,” Adrien shrugs, getting Lila’s ire turned on him, a noble sacrifice indeed.

“Nah?” Lila looks livid, “What do you mean Nah !”

“I’d just say I wanted to,” Adrien stays calm with Lila's face inches from him, Marinette gives him the thumbs up as she edges closer to the door, Adrien nods back.

She loved this version of the high road

“After all Marinette's super pretty and talented,” Adrien gushes, Marinette grins at the face Lila must be making, “Honestly your lie is so unbelievable, why would she ever go for someone like me?”

Marinette closes the door on Lila’s cursing response, saying a quick word of praise for Adrien's bravery and sacrifice.

At least he gets to see Lila’s reaction when she realises I’m gone

Marinette uses a back door of the hotel to get to the street, not wanting the staff to stop her and warn about the dangers. She skips along looking for a good place to change. The city was actually kind of beautiful at night, she feels drawn to it in a strange way.

“Marinette!” Tikki looks out from her scarf, “You forgot the Miracle box,”

“Shoot!” She looks back to the hotel, a few blocks away from it by now, “It’ll be fine Tikki I leave it at home all the time,”

“You’re not at home right now,” Tikki looks worried, those are her friends after all, “It’s a guardians duty-”

Marinette tries not to groan, she really does.

“I know Tikki, I know,” She looks over the buildings surrounding her, feeling a deep itch to see Gotham from the rooftops “But can’t I just be myself for once, not the guardian?”

“You are the guardian,” Tikki insists, before sighing, “Which means you can make your own decisions regarding the miracle box,”

“Thank you Tikki,” She hugs the little Kwami, “I promise to be back super quick, I just have to stop one bad guy, an eye witness account of Starling so I don’t just appear randomly, I won’t even need to go on patrol again after this,”

“Alright Marinette, I trust you,” Tikki nuzzles her cheek, easing Marinette's conscience.

With that she ducks out of sight to get changed. Her costume is pretty simple really. All she had to do was pull her infinity scarf up, discrete holes allowing her to see. She turns her skirt inside out to a black side, with white, purple, and blue detailing to stick to her Starling namesake. The skirt pulls over her shoulders, a zip down the middle allowing her more movement, and a zip to form a secret hood.

Ready to go she climbs up to the roof, super strength and speed making roof hopping easier. She supposed if someone looked too hard they would be able to piece together pieces of her costume but her ‘cape’ hides the detailing of her shirt. Besides if she has her way she won’t have to use this identity ever again, but she rarely has her way.

About ten minutes into her search through Gotham she spots a broken window. Not notable except that the lights are on. She lowers herself onto the fire escape and sure enough someone is being held at gunpoint.

“Excuse me,” Both people jump, spinning to look at Starling casual sitting on the broken glass on the window sill, “You seem to have a very rude house guest on your hands,”

“Who the hell are you!?” The burglar turns their gun on her.

“Just a stray passing through,” She gives a bright smile, and a very Chat like bow, “Starling at your service… milady,”

If I’m going Chat I might as go full Chat Noir, hope he doesn't file a lawsuit against me

“Ummm,” The woman looks very confused, but not as confused as the burglar.

“Would you like me to remove him from your home?”

“Ah… yes?”

With another smile Starling makes her move. In the split second it takes the burglar to register her offer she's standing in front of him. The gun moves a second too late as she ceases his arm, her strength being as good as handcuffs. She hits a pressure point her Aunt taught her to make him drop the gun, kicking it away. Pinning the man's arm behind his back she spins him around, zip tying his hands.

“What the fuck!!”

“That’s no kind of language,” Starling reprimands, pushing him towards the window, “Now apologise,”

“What?! No way fuck you!” Starling grins, hooking a bungee cord to his shirt.

“Alright then, bye!” She pushes him out the window.

His screaming doesn't stop even when she watches as he bounces back up, dangling out the window. She grins.

Ladybug would never get away with that

Tying the other end of the cord to a post, she double checks to make sure everything is secure before turning back to the victim.

“So sorry about the rude intrusion milady,” She bows again, in jest, “Have you contacted the police?”

“Yeah… what are you?”

“A Starling bird,” Starling spins, showing off her cape, the patterning placed to resemble wings, “I though the name would be a dead give away,”

“Yeah, but what are you? A Bat? Vigilante?”

“Vigilante yes, Bat not so much,” Starling can see as she looks more cautious after that, “Just happened to be passing through Gotham when I saw you in need of assistance,”

“Right... ok then...” She sits down, letting herself slump over the couch, “Ugh, this has been a terrible day,”

“How so?” Starling eyes up the kitchen, “Besides from mister bungee jump out there,”

“I was almost out of work this afternoon when a new rumour about the Wayne's blew up,” Starling nods along, turning the oven on and picking out ingredients.

“I work in the PR department at Wayne tower, do you have any idea how hard that is?!” Starling shakes her head finding a bowl but no measuring cups, she could just estimate.

“They have new bruises everyday,” Starling does look up to that, very concerned, “Don’t worry it’s not abuse or anything, they really are just dumbasses,”

Starling snickers a little bit at that, pouring in ingredients like second nature.

“I once asked mister Drake why he had a giant bruise on his forehead, he told me he passed out at his desk and just slammed into it!” Starling does laugh at that one, “Like?! How am I supposed to tell people that without sullying the Wayne name?”

“I think its funny,” She did clearly not agree, Starling changes the subject as she starts mixing “What was the problem today?”

“Nothin much really someone took pictures of mister Drake talking and giving a ride to some girl with black hair and blue eyes, and now everyone thinks she’s a Wayne,”

“That’s all it takes?” She starts placing the cookie dough on the baking tray, “Maybe I should apply?”

“Nah, you’d sooner be Batman's kid than Bruce Wayne's,” She cracks the first smile Starling has seen so far, “He’s got the same amount of kids, if not more,”

“Maybe they should share custody?” Starling puts the cookies in the oven, “Double the number each,”

“Yeah, how about no?” She smiles more, which is good, “I can’t imagine having to explain away the bruises the Bat kids get,”

Starling smiles, the sound of sirens now drawing close.

“I guess that's my cue to leave Milady,” Starling jumps up onto the window sill, the burglar still shouting below, “Take the cookies out in fifteen minutes,”

“Hey,” Starling looks back, “Thank you,”

“No problem,” Starling sends a dazzling smile, “Good night, Milady,”

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Taglist (guess I’m doing these now, please let me know if theres any issues):

@smolplantmum @flufflepuffle296 @dawnwave16  @caffeinetheory   @g-arya   @Maribat-2k20   @ladybug-182    @Actual-disaster-human    @fusser90   @messrs-weasley   @soap-lady  @paintedhope7   @zeneralla    @mochegato     @random-nerd-3 @clumsy-owl-4178  @throneoffirebreathingbitchqueen   @too0bsessedformyowngood @certifiedbidisaster  @Purplegeekypanda

[supernovafics]

𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐘 𝐋𝐈𝐄 𝐋𝐄𝐀𝐃𝐒 𝐓𝐎 𝐓𝐑𝐔𝐓𝐇

pairing: tom holland x fem!reader

summary: in which tom is your ex-boyfriend and a night in vegas for your mutual friend’s birthday leads to a surprising drunk confession

warnings: explicit language, drunkenness, so much angst, (italicized means flashback)

word count: 2.9k

author’s note: first time ever posting any kind of writing on here but i’m actually very proud of this so i hope you all enjoy! things gets berry berry angsty and sad in this so i’m sorry in advance </3

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。. .・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

Against your many drunken protests, the night was coming to an end. You did not want to leave the club you were in along with Zendaya and the friends she invited, so you pouted at the girl, knowing that since this whole Vegas trip had been for her birthday, she would be able to make everyone stay.

“Come on, Z. We should all have a couple more drinks,” You told her, words coming out slightly slurred, showing how inebriated you were.

“No way, Y/N. I think you’ve had enough drinks for the night,” Zendaya responded, and instead of verbally responding to her, you simply pouted again.

You felt upset that you had to leave, but the tiniest part of you that was sober knew you would thank her in the morning for making you do so.

Zendaya turned her attention to Tom, who was sitting at the table that the group of friends had been occupying for most of the night. “Tom, since you and Y/N are staying at the same hotel, can you make sure she gets back to her room okay?”

Tom turned his gaze away from his phone and nodded at Zendaya’s request. He looked at where you were now standing by the bar, animatedly talking and laughing with Jacob and Harrison. Seeing how happy you looked with them reminded Tom of the situation the two of you were in.

For the past two days of this Vegas trip, you both had barely spoken any words to each other. This avoidance wasn’t necessarily purposeful, it was just something that happened, and it honestly made sense. With the way things ended between you two, there was bound to be some lingering awkward tension, especially since this was the first time you guys had been in the same vicinity of each other since the breakup, which happened a little over six months ago.

Neither of you hated the other, but you definitely weren’t going to initiate anything more than some simple small talk.

However, tonight was much different than the past two days in Vegas had been. You were drunk, and anytime you were in this intoxicated state, you became overly friendly and a little too honest, a mixture that almost always led to some type of disaster.

• • •

The beginning of the elevator ride up to your floor was fairly quiet until you started drunkenly rambling to Tom, acting as if there wasn’t any awkward tension between the two of you. It was mainly because the drunk version of you gave zero fucks about the awkwardness that had been lingering for so long.

“We should’ve stayed for just one more drink. It would have been really fun,” You said to him, grinning widely as you leaned back against the wall of the elevator. Tom was standing right next to you. He had been like this the entire way to the hotel just in case you tripped or anything else; he had seen you drunk enough times before to know some of your usual mannerisms.

“You’re already pretty drunk, though,” Tom responded, chuckling lightly.

Even though his words were true, you still gasped, offended. “No, I’m not!”

Once again, Tom laughed, and the sound made your heart simultaneously flutter and ache.

His laugh was your favorite thing about him, not only the soft and happy sound of it but the way his mouth turned up in a wide smile as he did so too. And hearing that oh-so-familiar laugh right then made you realize that this was the first time you’ve heard it in a while, and it also made you desperately want to listen to it again.

“I still love your laugh so much,” You told him, knowing you would not have said that if you were any hint of sober.

As the words spilled from your lips, you noticed the corner of Tom’s mouth perk up the tiniest bit in a smile. “And this honesty is how I know you’re very drunk right now.”

You rolled your eyes, and a full smile took over your features. “I didn’t see you drink at all tonight.”

Tom simply shrugged. “Wasn’t really in the mood.”

The grey elevator doors then opened up to the nineteenth floor before you could say anything in response to Tom’s statement. Both you and he exited the elevator, and you began walking in the direction of your hotel room. That was until you noticed that none of the numbers was the one for your room, and instead of the room numbers on the doors decreasing to the one that was yours, they were actually increasing.

“Wait, fuck. We’re going the wrong way.” You quickly turned around and started walking in the opposite direction. The abrupt action caused you to trip over absolutely nothing but your own feet. Tom attempted to reach for you, but you hit the ground before he could even get the chance to grab your arm.

“Shit, you okay, Y/N?” Tom asked as he knelt down next to you.

You nodded at his question as you laughed a bit and sat up on the carpeted floor, crossing your legs under you. “I’m okay. Can we actually sit here for a sec? The floor is pretty comfortable.”

Tom smiled amusingly at your drunken actions and proceeded to sit down across from you on the carpeted floor of the hallway.

It was quiet for a few moments, and things mainly consisted of you silently admiring his face and him attempting to decipher what you were thinking.

“How are you and Lily?” You asked him. The question randomly came to mind, and before you could stop it from coming out of your mouth, it was blurted.

To say Tom was confused about your words would be an understatement. He hadn’t posted anything about his new relationship yet since it was still slightly recently, and he was nowhere near ready to do so. When you two were together, it took over ten months until you both decided to “go public” with your relationship.

“We’re good,” He answered after his brief moment of confusion. “I didn’t even know that you know about Lily and me.”

Your shoulders lifted in a simple shrug. “I was talking to Harrison about a month ago, and he accidentally mentioned it.”

That conversation was something you remembered all too well. Specifically, the bittersweetness you felt when Harrison told you that Tom was with someone new. You knew that it was a good thing, and overall you were happy for him, but you couldn’t help but feel the tiniest twinge of sadness, knowing that Tom being in a new relationship meant that things were truly over for the two of you.

The thought made you feel a thousand times more upset than you knew you would’ve felt if you were sober. And it also made you feel like an idiot because you were the one who ended things all those months ago, so you shouldn’t be feeling sad at all. But if you considered the circumstances which made you end things, your emotions entirely made sense.

“Hey, are you okay?” Tom was quick to notice how upset you looked, and his voice was full of concern.

God, now you absolutely hated the fact that you were drunk. It made the tears that were threatening to spill from your eyes feel uncontrollable.

You ultimately swallowed back the tears and sad thoughts, letting your drunken mind roam to a place that was much less depressing. “Yeah, yeah, I’m fine. I just— Nevermind. Hey, do you remember that time we went to Disney and became completely obsessed with the churros? I swear we both had like five that day.”

You had no idea how your mind brought you to thinking about and bringing up that story, especially because it was something you hadn’t thought about in forever. But the memory always made you laugh, just as you were doing right then.

Tom laughed too as he nodded his head. “That feels like it happened so long ago, but yeah, I remember that. Honestly, I’d go back to Disneyland just for the churros.”

The more you thought about that memory, the more you missed those times with Tom. It made you wonder if he missed that as well. Does he miss me too?

Even though you were drunk, your brain was smart enough not to ask that question. However, it was sadly not smart enough to stop you from saying the next thing you said.

“Can I tell you a secret?”

Once again, a confused expression took over Tom’s features. He had no idea where you were going with your question, but he still nodded his head, quite curious about what you were going to tell him. “Sure,” He said along with the nod.

You leaned a tad bit closer toward Tom and dropped your voice to a whisper. “Sometimes I wish that I didn’t lie to you at the airport by saying I wouldn’t do the same for you, which was basically me saying that I didn't love you. Because I really did love you.”

Your softly spoken words lingered in the air between you and Tom for many moments after they fell from your lips.

If you somehow remembered what you just told him in the morning, the smallest part of you that was sober knew that you would completely regret the confession you made.

However, you were unsure if you’d regret the confession more than the actual lie you had told Tom all those months ago; because that was something that the deepest part of you regretted every day.

• • •

The next time you two would see each other was very uncertain. Tom was getting on a plane to London, which was what led you to drive him to LAX, and it was a flight that you would’ve taken with him if there weren’t some things you needed to handle in Los Angeles for the next week.

You were both pretty good at making set plans on when you would see each other next, especially considering how busy your schedules could always be. But, this time was much different. A photography job was going to be taking you to New Zealand for the next six months, and Tom was going to start filming a new movie in Canada in a couple of weeks. It felt like your lives were moving in two completely different directions.

You had known that fact for a long time, but you loved him so much that you always pushed away all of those doubts and worries that would flood your mind.

The past week was when you finally decided to stop. You couldn’t halt the thoughts that took over your brain, and quite frankly, you didn’t want to. Mainly because of how much sense they made. Both of your respective careers were exponentially growing, with your nature photography becoming more recognized and Tom receiving more acting jobs. And those facts were something that you knew would only continuously draw the two of you farther and farther apart.

“So, I’ll see you soon?” Tom’s questioning words pulled you out of your thoughts, and you turned to look at him as he began gathering his things from your car, knowing that the drop-off point you had to park in front of didn’t allow for too long goodbyes.

You were quiet for a few moments, having absolutely no idea how you wanted to word your next statement. Tom looked over at you with curious and hopeful eyes, and that expression made what you knew you had to say feel a million times harder.

“I don’t know,” You finally said, the words coming out soft and almost too quiet, but Tom was still able to hear them.

His eyebrows furrowed in immediate confusion, and he stopped his actions of attempting to make sure everything was in his carry-on backpack. “What do you mean?”

“Next week I’m going to New Zealand for six months, and you’re going to film in Canada. And then after that, there are probably just gonna be more jobs that will push us further away from each other. Our lives are moving in two completely different directions, Tom.” Your words came out rushed, but that didn’t change how true they were.

“We know how to make things work, though. We just had to do a long period of long-distance a few months ago when I had to be in France for a month, and you were here, and we made it through that,” Tom told you, and there was that hopeful look again, making your heart lurch the longer you looked at him.

You pulled your eyes away from him and turned your attention downward for a brief moment. “Yes, we did, but it was still so hard, and we both knew it. And even then, we at least had a set date when we knew we would see each other again. Right now, we have absolutely no clue, and it’s just going to continue to get harder.”

Tom wanted to rebuttal your statement, but he didn’t know the exact thing to say right then, so instead, he opted for the dreaded question, “So what does that mean for us?”

A beat of silence went by before you answered him with, “I think we both know what that means.”

“Just say it, Y/N,” Tom said, and you could already see the hurt that was brimming behind his features. It made you hate the fact that you'd become able to read him so well. You turned your gaze away from him and instead focused your eyes on the Nevada license plate of the car that was in front of you.

This was it. There was nothing more you could do to tread around the words that had to be said.

“I think it would be best if we broke up.”

Silence prevailed in the small space of your car for what felt like hours but was actually just barely a minute. A car honking from behind you put an end to the quiet, and you finally turned to look at Tom.

“You should go. You’re gonna miss your flight.” The fact that you were still processing the last words that you just said to Tom made your voice sound distant and quiet.

Tom was quick to shake his head. “I don’t care about the flight right now. You can not expect me to give up on us so easily, Y/N.”

You didn’t know what to respond to him with, so instead, you just gave him the smallest shrug.

“I love you. We can figure everything out and make it all work,” Tom told you. “If there are times where I need to give up an acting job to make sure that we’re not away from each other for months at a time, then I’ll do it. I really don’t need to take on every role that is offered to me, and I won’t if that means I don’t have to lose you.”

You knew exactly how true those words were, and that was what scared you. In a heartbeat, Tom would give up any acting job if that meant he would get to spend more time with you, and you would do the exact same for him. However, you knew that that was not a good thing. You had always been someone that thought about things long-term, and you knew that regret would eventually spur from both ends if the two of you continuously did that, and that regret would lead to resentment. That was exactly what you did not want to happen.

Once again, you were quiet, not responding to his words with anything, so Tom took that as his cue to continue on, saying something that almost mimicked your previous thoughts. “I know you’d do the same for me too, Y/N. We love each other so much.”

You did love Tom so much, sometimes maybe even too much. And you also knew that he loved you the same amount too; it was a fact that was easily confirmed from the current pleading look in his eyes. However, as much as it hurt, you knew exactly what you needed to do.

“No,” You said with the slightest shake of your head. You took a shallow breath and disconnected your eyes from Tom’s before you finished off your sentence. “I wouldn’t do the same for you.”

There was no need to look at Tom to gather his reaction to your words because you had a strong feeling what it was. Hurt and heartbreak. And that was something that you really did not want to see.

The sound of a car honking again behind you broke the growing silence again, and Tom took that as his cue to finally exit your car. He said nothing to you as he slung his bookbag over his shoulder, grabbed his suitcase from the backseat, and then headed into the airport.

You had just told him something that was a complete and utter lie, and as much as you wanted to chase after him and tell him that your statement had been just that, you didn’t. As you watched his figure become smaller and smaller as he continued inside the expansive airport, you noticed that he did not turn to look back at you once. That was what let you know that the damage was done.

Your heart hurt like hell right then, a completely self-inflicted wound, but you knew that in the long run, your actions would prove to be the right thing. The pain from it all would ease up eventually.

• • •

Tom had absolutely no idea what to say in response to your confession. He was beyond confused and had no idea if you were even telling the truth; he honestly hoped that you weren’t.

That day at the airport was fucking heartbreaking for him, and if it actually had all been just a lie, he wouldn’t know how to feel.

Before he could utter any type of response to your previous words, your drunken mind moved to a completely different place, disregarding everything that had come out of your mouth less than a minute ago.

“I’m really tired,” You said and stood up from the cross-legged position you were in on the floor so that you could start heading to your hotel room.

Tom wordlessly followed suit, and less than a minute later, the two of you were standing in front of your door. You pulled your key card from your pocket and managed to unlock the door after receiving some help from Tom. Using the card was something that had already been slightly difficult to do sober, so adding your drunkenness to the table did not make it any easier.

When the door was opened, you began to step inside the room, but you stopped when you decided to pull Tom in for a hug. He felt completely awkward and tense at the action, but that was something that you didn’t at all notice due to your inebriated state.

“Goodnight, Tommy,” You said to him once you pulled back from the embrace. The nickname you used to always call him, slipping out way too easily.

“Goodnight, Y/N,” Tom responded, forcing out a small smile. His mind was still completely stuck on your drunk confession, and he knew that he would be thinking about it all night.

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。. .・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

let me know your thoughts! <33

[hold-my-hand-kuroo]

bus ride

you’re on a bus with suna, and there’s some unresolved tension

an impulse write because i’ve wanted to sit on a bus with suna for a while now

pairing: suna x reader

“Are we almost there?” Suna asks rather miserably for the umpteenth time. You’re not sure if he’s asking because he’s genuinely suffering or if it’s because he’s picked up on the fact that his parroting of the question gets on your nerves, but all you can do is sigh.

“Suna, we’ve been on this bus for thirty minutes,” you mumble, frowning. “It’s gonna be a few more hours before we reach the stadium. You know that, right?”

You hear some grumbling followed by a sigh. Suna slouches in his seat, eyebrows furrowed before turning to look at you. He comes awfully close, reaching over the armrest that separated the two of you from each other and leans on your shoulder. It’s not a very comfortable position, and his overall dissatisfied expression gives it away, but neither of you says anything about the proximity. Instead, you clear your throat uncomfortably and try to ignore his presence while scrolling furiously through Twitter.

In the first place, you’re not even sure why he chose to sit next to you, especially since he always took the back row where he could nap comfortably in silence away from the twins in the front of the bus. He enjoyed having two seats to himself and that was always the case, but when you felt the weight shift from beside you, you could only stare agape at his drowsy figure settling down in the seat next to you. It was jarring to say the least.

“Then just nap,” you finally offer when you can’t stand his eyes practically boring holes into your side profile. He’s up to something, you think. Scheming. “Don’t you always nap during long rides?”

“Can’t,” he mumbles in response. He’s so close that you feel his breath tickle against your neck. “It’ll already be late when we get to the hotel anyway, and I won’t be able to sleep if I sleep now.”

“That’s literally never stopped you from napping before,” you sigh, rolling your eyes. “You sleep at practice sometimes too. Don’t think I don’t catch you dozing off.”

“The manager shouldn’t be ogling at players during practice,” he fake-chides, chuckling ever so slightly at your exasperation. As expected, he’s just sitting here to push your buttons. Honestly, you’re not sure how long you’ll last.

“It’s hard to ignore when you’re the only person in the court that never moves.” You try your best to hide your embarrassment because he’s not entirely wrong. It was only sometimes though when your eyes seemed to naturally drift toward the middle- blocker. Sometimes. “I’m doing the team a favor by keeping you slightly focused at the very least.”

“You’re doing a very bad job, then,” he laughs. You hate how smug he is about everything and anything and wish he’d take you seriously for once. “Manager, I have a request.”

“No.”

“What happened to helping out the team?” You’re not sure if he realizes what he’s doing, but when his hand moves onto the armrest to put himself in a more comfortable position, it grazes against your own arm. Worst of all, he doesn’t move it, letting his warmth seep into your skin. “I’m part of the team, right?”

“No, you’re-,” you try to respond, but your words are stuck in your throat as he rests his head on top of your shoulder. Quickly glancing at his face, you’re a little disappointed to see that it’s still his poker face. You’d be infuriated if you weren’t so flustered by the way his hair prickles your shoulder and neck and the slight smell of his shampoo. It reminds you of the time when the two of you were caught in the rain and had no choice but to seek shelter in his home where he let you bundle up in his bedsheets while your clothes were in the dryer.

It smells like his blankets, his pillows, and you almost catch yourself thinking about what it’d be like to take a nap with him in his bed, but you stop yourself almost immediately.

“I’m what?” he asks, rather amused at your reaction. There’s a knowing glint in his eyes, a tell that he, too, considers you something more than a friend, but he doesn’t say anything else.

“A loser,” you conclude firmly with your entire chest.

You couldn’t let him win this one. Instead, your eyes are back to your phone screen, ignoring the slight hum he makes before going completely silent. Still, he doesn’t bother removing his head from your shoulder, not even after he takes out his phone too to try and past time. You wish the bus ride would end soon, but judging from the time, you’d have to stay in this position for another four hours. It’s not entirely displeasing, having Suna this close to you, but it makes you more than nervous. It’s not unlikely for him to be able to hear the thudding of your heart, but you know that he knows all your tells like nobody else. He knows that you’re nervous and that’s why he doesn’t move.

You almost jump when your phone buzzes with a text from Suna. You’re mildly curious at what it is, but you try to ignore it. If you ignored it, he wouldn’t keep bothering you. Maybe he’d even give you some space to breathe and collect yourself.

But of course, he doesn’t, and you realize this when you get two more texts from him.

“Really?” you ask in utter disbelief. He doesn’t even react to your words, staring pointedly at his phone. “We’re right next to each other, you know?”

Another text.

Sighing, you finally tap on the banner wondering what the fuss is all about only to feel yourself wanting to beat him to a pulp. You weren’t expecting much, but you weren’t expecting so little either.

“Let’s play 8 Ball!”

“Let’s play 8 Ball!”

“Let’s play 8 Ball!”

“Let’s play 8 Ball!”

You groan inwardly. Of course, it’d be something useless like this. Of course. You hate that you feel a little disappointed, but you’re even more upset that you’re this let down by four 8 Ball texts.

“I guess you don’t want to play,” he murmurs, and you roll your eyes at that one. “I guess I will nap then.”

“That’s what I told you to do from the start,” you nearly hiss.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m getting to it,” he mumbles, closing his eyes, and you think you’re safe from trouble for now. Again, you’re wrong, but this time, it’s your fault.

It’s a few minutes into his nap when you’re almost sure that Suna’s fully asleep based on his slow breathing. You’ve always wondered what kind of magic he used to keep his hair the way it was, and the curiosity eats away at you. It’d be funny if his hair was solid stiff from gel, but you’re well aware that Suna isn’t the type to wake up early to work on his hair. Then again, surely it wasn’t just the power of bedhead-

You’d have to figure it for yourself. It’s not because of your massive crush, you reason. It’s because you just want to know what his hair feels like. That’s all.

Slowly, you set your fingers on top of Suna’s head, pleasantly surprised that it’s soft and fluffy. It’s not gel, you conclude, but although you already have your answer, your hand doesn’t leave its position. Raking through his hair and scratching lightly at his scalp, you almost smile to yourself at how peaceful it is. It’s silent, but you like it that way, especially with his quiet breathing in the background. The fact that nobody around you seems to have noticed either is an added bonus, and you play with his hair as you please, running your finger through his locks.

You’re mesmerized by how at peace Suna looks like. Without his usual half-cocky and half-tired smile or his normal poker face, you almost his childlike mischief that seemed to make you burn bright red every single time. You swear he leans into your touch at one point, and you have to crack a smile at how he likes to be spoiled so much. He’s never normally the affectionate type, preferring to stay on the sidelines to cause trouble, so when you notice that he’s enjoying someone playing with his hair even in his sleep, it makes your heart flutter.

“Hey, Y/N, do you have any band-aids-,” instantly disrupts you from your peace, and you quickly fling your hand out of Suna’s hair to look up at Aran. The two of you maintain eye contact in silence. It’s awkward to say the least, especially when Aran tries to open his mouth to say something quick to save you from your humiliation but closes it, no words coming to mind. Instead, he clears his throat, nods, and walks away. “I think I have one in my bag actually. Sorry.”

“Well, that was awkward,” Suna comments from his seat after Aran is out of earshot. You’re mortified and can only stare at the boy in shock.

“How long were you awake?” Panic fills you as you suddenly realize that he probably was just pretending asleep all along.

“I never fell asleep in the first place.” He says it calmly still on your shoulder, voice unwavering, and you envy him for that. In contrast, you know that you’re distress is very much visible on your face, and he knows that too. That’s why he spares you a small smile. “So…are you going to continue?”

“I’m sorry?”

“It seemed like you were having a good time,” he teases, but when you don’t reply out of sheer embarrassment, he wordlessly takes your hand in his and places it back on his head. You try to sputter something out but fall back into silence as he tries to move your still hand around on his scalp before sighing and giving up altogether. Closing his eyes, Suna releases his grip on your wrist, fingers lingering around your skin before setting his hand back down on the armrest. “And I guess it was felt pretty good on my side too. Kinda.”

You keep your hand on his head out of shock, but you feel your arm falling asleep before Suna gets the chance to properly doze off. When that happens, he simply sighs and takes it back into his own hand.

[chrisevansgoodgirl]

you got a fetish for my love, i push you out and you come right back

summary: the softest man in the world is in love

warnings: nick is a warning. how dare he. smut. smoking (but we’re trying to get him to stop). some of that daddy shit bc ugh, that beard.

word count: around 5,320

pairing: nick vaughan x reader

a/n: let me tell you, it is weird writing nick one second, the softest, sweetest man, and then switching over to ransom, aka satan.

“You shouldn’t be smoking.”

The man with his back to you turned around, arching an eyebrow. “And why is that?”

You brought your hands up to your waist, looking as confident as you could possibly make yourself look. You didn’t have a mirror on you, but you would bet it wasn’t very convincing. “Um, second-hand smoke. Third-hand smoke. Not to mention what it could do to you.”

Moving closer, he took another brief drag. “And what’s that?”

You huffed. Really? You were going to reach way back into your 8th-grade health class memories for that. “Lung disease, it can cause cancer, like, everywhere, heart disease—”

“But you’re already taking care of my heart, angel.”

You fell silent at that, frowning.

He continued to close the gap between you. “What else?”

“It’s bad for your skin,” you asserted, tone firm despite how close he was getting. “Causes wrinkles.”

“That so?”

You nodded, refusing to step back as he stopped mere inches before you. “We wouldn’t want anyone to think you’re my father.”

He smirked, dropping his cigarette on the floor and stepping on it with the toe of his boot. Boots that were far too expensive to be stepping on cigarettes with. Hell, he shouldn’t even have been outside with them. “No, we wouldn’t want that.”

Your gaze moved off to the side and finally, you stepped away to create some distance. ‘You said you were going to stop, Nick.”

“I know, I’m trying.”

“Try harder. I’m being serious, okay? People die—”

He moved back in front of you and took your chin in his hand, forcing your gaze up to his. “I’m working on it.”

“If you really care about me, you’ll stop.”

“I’m gonna stop,” he promised. “Soon. Come on, don’t give me those eyes.”

He loved your eyes. He had to have told you about a hundred times by now, claimed he liked the innocence in them that never seemed to die out. No matter how many times he took you up to his hotel room and fucked you in every filthy way he could think of. Sure, it was pretty sick sometimes, but he always touched you so softly, whispered the sweetest things to you, and held you afterward.

Your eyes could make him do just about anything, he would often declare. Except, apparently, stop smoking.

“Come on, I’m sorry.”

You crossed your arms, pulling out of his hold. “You’re only sorry you got caught.”

“No, I’m sorry for upsetting you.”

“And don’t be sorry to just me, be sorry to yourself. I think you need healthy lungs for your music career, right?”

He lifted his eyebrows, still amused at how serious you were being. No one in New York took smoking seriously.

“Also, you ever stop and think about what would happen to me if you weren’t here?” That was a little on the sneaky side. You knew that there was the overall scenario of you being lonely, but he would soon start to think about how that would mean you would be with other people.

He scoffed, feigning calmness. “No, I don’t. I don’t want you to, either.”

You didn’t need to hear it, you knew he could connect the dots. “You are forcing me to.”

“Angel, what’s all this about?” he wondered. “Why are you being such a brat?”

“I’m not being a brat,” you immediately protested. Even though you knew he didn’t mind, there was just something in you that twisted at the thought of being bratty. You were not trying to be argumentative even, you were just worried.

“You want daddy to spank you?”

You looked around with wide eyes. Not that anyone in New York had the time or interest to listen to anyone else’s conversations, but still, this was private. “Nick.”

He tsked. “Nick?”

You sighed, casting a look around. “There are too many people here.”

He chuckled. “No one’s listening, angel.”

“I’m not being bratty,” you muttered. “I’m just concerned about you. Since when is that a crime?”

He smiled, reaching his hand out for you. You didn’t waste any time nearly wrapping your entire body around his arm. “What do you want?”

You were not getting away this time, he was also in a mood. Evidently, since he usually spoiled you to the point of letting you get away with “misbehaving” if you apologized or feigned discomfort.

“Take me upstairs, daddy.” It was hardly above a whisper, but it thrilled him to no end that he’d managed to get you to call him that outside of the absolute comfort of the bedroom.

Nick liked you feeling safe with him. He’d never met a more trusting soul, someone almost naive. However, it had taken him a long fucking time to get that sincere trust from you. He picked up on the body language, the things you wouldn’t say. That was why he could give the date for the night you finally let him fuck you with the lights on, the night you finally stayed with him until morning, the night you finally gave him your number because he had convinced you to sneak away from your dad to meet him at the hotel and you had to get back home but you still wanted to talk to him. He could give the date for the first morning you woke up and put on one of his shirts, the morning you let him eat you out for the first time, the morning you let him fuck you against the hotel window.

He wrapped his arms around you and started to lead you inside. It had been almost a year now and you were obsessed with Nick. He was the most beautiful man you’d ever seen, and he was kind and gentle, but also passionate and sometimes a little rough when he knew you wanted him to be. It was never mindless, hard fucking. Even when he made it hurt, he held you so close, so tight, his eyes would remain on yours the whole time. He would wipe away your tears and continue bucking his hips. He would whisper to you, coo at you, and make you fall apart until you were so exhausted you couldn’t keep your eyes open.

You were pretty sure you were in love with him. He would be the first. Sure, there was your first boyfriend who you had wanted to be your first for everything. He’d given you a promise ring and told you that he wanted to wait until you were his wife. That one didn’t end well. Your third boyfriend, you thought that one was real. You’d had sex with him, and then he completely disappeared. To this day, you had no idea where he was. But you knew now, those things you’d felt for them, they were so small, so weak. What you felt for Nick was consuming, you felt like every inch of you belonged to him, like you were made for him.

In the elevator, with an elderly couple, an older man, and a party of four younger women that looked like they were on their way to a club, Nick had his lips to your ear. “Angel, I’m gonna fuck you until you’re crying. You know I love those sounds you make and the look you give me when you just can’t take anymore. When your beautiful, little cunt is used and aching and dripping with my cum. But that’s only after I have you on the bed, wet, squirming, begging daddy to make you feel good.”

You felt like you were on fire. If anyone heard, you would be mortified, you would never be able to leave your house again. Things like this were supposed to be private, between the people who were doing it. Nick had the audacity to make some of it almost public. You would admit that there was the tiniest bit of thrill, but most of it was fear and panic.

He touched the side of your face and you startled a little, one of your hands coming up to settle over his forearm. “Jesus, you’re beautiful and so fucking…innocent.”

You were not innocent. You weren’t even sure what he meant by that. Ever. When he said it, you were confused each time.

“The thought of your gorgeous lips wrapped around my cock, trying to take all you can because you’re so good to me, those eyes staring up at me…”

You swallowed thickly, eyes moving to the elevator buttons. How many more god damn floors were there? The elevator stopped again seconds later, and the elderly couple got out. Fewer people but you still didn’t feel any less nervous.

“Afterward, your sweet, tight pussy will be dripping. You know how wet you get after you suck my cock.”

Embarrassingly wet. He was fascinated the first time you’d done it, then he laid you out on the bed and when he made the discovery, he ate you out until you could barely remember what year it was.

“Then I’m gonna have you on top of me, angel. You’re so good at it, I swear you were made just to ride my cock. Remember what you were begging me for last time?”

You remembered and instantly felt your skin burning all over again.

“Maybe I’ll fuck your—”

The elevator stopped on your floor and you rushed out. The group of girls was also getting out, creating some time for you to get away from Nick and breathe. He was always intense, and he never stopped pushing you. You didn’t necessarily hate it. Really, you knew you liked it, but you could never admit that to him, his behavior would just get worse.

He found you with your back pressed against the door, waiting patiently for him. He’d been staying here for several months; he had the same room because he’d wanted to give you a key. For emergencies, he claimed. If you ever needed a place to get away, even if he wasn’t home. It had only happened a few times, he wouldn’t say a word when he would find you bundled up in his bed. He would just join you under the sheets and make you come several times, at least.

He set his hands on your hips and you looked up to him. “What’s on your mind tonight?”

You woke up that morning just knowing. You were in love with Nick and you were terrified. You didn’t want to be in love, not with him. With his music career taking off, he couldn’t want something serious. You figured this was just him wasting time. When he was an established name, he would go out and find himself a proper partner. It wasn’t you, this shy, small thing with no backbone, terrible parents, and no solid plans for your future.

But why ruin a good thing? You wanted to let it last while you could. You smiled at him and shook your head. “Nothing, really. I missed you.”

He smiled back. “I missed you, too.”

You didn’t live in New York with your father, but you had been visiting a lot more frequently. Your father was thrilled about it, thrilled enough not to want to question it. Your mother took it as an insult and didn’t ask a single question about why. It was honestly the perfect crime.

It had only been three weeks since you’d last been with Nick, you were allowing for less time to pass in between the nights you spent with him. You once went a month and a half, how unimaginable that felt—you knew you wouldn’t be able to do that anymore. You would go crazy without him being able to touch you for six weeks.

“You could stay,” he pointed out. “Here. With me.”

You scoffed. “No, I can’t.”

“You could apply to NYU, I’m sure you’ll get in. You could start building your life over here. If not with me, why not live with your dad?”

This was getting serious and you were worried this conversation would wreck everything. Nick thought he wanted something, but only because he was scared. You didn’t want to uproot your entire life for something fleeting.

“I don’t want to talk about this tonight,” you said quietly.

“Okay. But we will. Later.”

You nodded—a lie. You wouldn’t even be with him much longer. You had breakfast you’re your dad and then you would be on a flight back to your mother’s. “Yeah.”

Smiling, he asked, “Well, what do you want to talk about?”

You shrugged. “I don’t want to talk.”

He hummed. “No? You don’t have more scolding to do?”

“I can wait,” you teased. Your eyes flit to either side just to make sure no one was around. “But right now, I just want you to touch me.”

He bent down just slightly to pick you up by your thighs. You eagerly wrapped yourself around him and pressed your lips to his, kissing him like it’d been years.

He struggled to open the door, but you didn’t seem to mind that you could get caught at any moment, you seemed completely distracted by him. That was his goal, make your time here so good that eventually, you just wouldn’t be able to leave him.

Finally, he managed to get you inside the room. You had it all memorized, even with your eyes closed you knew exactly where he always was. He was leading you down the hallway, past the kitchen and the living area, to the door at the end of the walkway. Past the bathroom, past the dresser full of sheet music and records.

He laid you out on the bed delicately, pulling away so he could stare at you. You moved to pull your skirt up, but he caught your hands in his. “Not yet.”

He started at your feet. He pulled off your shoes and began kissing your calves, a touch that felt so distant through your tights.

You whined. “Daddy.”

“You’re going to be patient, angel.”

And that was that. You never argued with him, rarely disobeyed. You were perfect, you were good. You were, as he so fondly called you, an angel that did everything she was supposed to do. Not just for him, but for everyone. He knew that about you, knew that you never liked to make trouble for anyone. Even your dad, who had been almost completely absent during your childhood, off chasing his current wife. Even your mother, who was mean, unsupportive, and childish. You were sweet as could be, well-behaved, soft-spoken, bright-eyed, and glowing. He thought you were perfect.

Biting your lip, paying close attention to how much you were moving, you watched in near silence as he continued to press his lips up your legs. As soon as his eyes flickered up to yours, your heart was pounding. There was a lot about Nick that you just didn’t understand.

You could look at yourself in the mirror and understand why people thought you were pretty, but of course, you did not think as highly of yourself as Nick thought of you. Alternatively, he could not do the same. He could not understand why you liked looking at him in the mornings, why you liked to trace his features with your fingers, why you spent so much time just kissing his face whenever you got the chance. You were baffled that he could look like that and not know what he did to people.

He blushed a lot. When you accidentally told him, the first time, that you thought he was beautiful—never again would you drink wine with him—and now, all the deliberate times after that. Because unintentional or not, you meant it and you wanted him to know. When you would take him in your mouth and he had his hands at his sides, leaving you to control everything, and when you took so much of him that you would gag and choke, he was permanently flushed. When he played for you, forget it.

He was at the hemline of your skirt and started pushing it up, kissing at the insides of your thighs. You bit down harder on your lip as he continued up, up, up until he kissed your pussy. Over tights and your panties, it was still good enough that you shuddered. You could feel his beard, some random hairs managing to poke into the open spots of your tights. It was a feeling that reminded you of being home, not with either of your parents now, but when they were still together in your first home. Nick was comfort and security, he was warmth and so much raw emotion.

You brought one hand up to press your fingers to your lips. You were so wet that you could feel the material against you was damp. He always knew how to do that to you, how to get you so wanting. And the neighbors always knew when you were there, they would play music because you were so embarrassingly loud, not that he was ever considerate about that. You just wanted to pretend you had some dignity, at least for a while.

He kissed across your thigh and up the side of your hip, back across until he could kiss down the opposite side. You remembered you used to hate when he would do this, when there wasn’t a part of you that he wouldn’t at least devote a moment of attention to. You didn’t hate it now, you noticed it made you a lot more confident. You didn’t care how tight a skirt was around your hips or that a skirt was so short that everyone could see your thighs touching. It wasn’t even his goal and it wasn’t dependent on his interest in you at all, but you knew he was the cause.

You often wondered if he looked at everyone like this. It really hadn’t been long, but sometimes you swore he might feel the same about you. You’d always wrote it off as your age, but how would someone his age honestly fall in love with you? And if he wasn’t, why the hell did he look at you the way he did?

“How many lives have you ruined?”

His eyebrows rose and he pulled his mouth away from you. “I’m sorry?”

“You look at me like that, you kiss me like that—”

“Like what?”

You rolled your eyes. Honestly, you weren’t sure how to put it into words. The last thing you wanted to do was accuse him of acting or pretending. That was one of the few boundary lines with Nick that was quickly established—he didn’t like analysis of his emotions. They were his own and he didn’t want anyone to presume that they knew them better than him. You truly didn’t mind. You’d come from a toxic environment of men who would sooner die than cry and couldn’t healthily express their anger if the world depended on it. “You know like what.”

“Yes, but I want to hear you say it.” He leaned back down, kissing either knee once. “But I won’t make you, I want you to want to say it.”

First time he’d ever taken that route. He teased you a lot, like challenging your views. And he liked those rare times you could challenge his. You’d both talked and talked until you managed to get to this place where you were both completely comfortable with what you were. He had to compromise on how casual this could seem at times, and you had to compromise on how obscenely intimate it was to you sometimes. And though you both compromised, it was still hard to see the other’s point of view. What was he so scared of with ‘casual’? You, on the other hand, dreaded falling for someone who couldn’t reciprocate.

He reached for your tights and slowly pulled them down. Again, he moved to where he was exposing skin and scattered kisses all over you. He deliberately got as close to your pussy as he could without ever touching you, several times, and enjoyed that you gasped and shivered each time.

He didn’t pull your underwear out of his way before he finally kissed you there. He went on like this, curious to see just how much you could take. You tried not to ask for more, to feed into his ego, and you succeeded for several minutes. You could feel his tongue and his lips, the texture of your panties was slight stimulation, but as time went on, you craved him more.

When you finally broke, your eyes were filled with tears, your hands were shaking as you reached for him, and you couldn’t form a single coherent word. Instead of pulling your panties down and eating your pussy, he moved up your body and removed your sweater and your bra. Again, he was kissing you all over, but you could hardly focus on anything other than your throbbing pussy.

“Daddy, please,” you whimpered.

He moved his mouth up until he could kiss your lips. He settled down on the bed beside you and pulled away, sitting you up a little. You took his cue and shifted up on the bed until you could rest on the headboard.

You watched as his hand reached for you, holding your breath until he was sliding one finger into you. “Fuck, daddy.” Your hips bucked almost immediately, silently begging for more. He added a second finger and you turned to hide your face against his chest.

He curled his fingers slowly, focusing on the sounds you made, the way your body would tense and shudder, and soon enough, he’d found that blissful spot that he knew made you see stars.

You clumsily reached for his pants, taking far too long to get your hands on his thick cock. You felt yourself get so much wetter, remembering just how big he felt inside you. Not that you were experienced when he’d found you, but taking his cock had been so delightfully painful and you kind of liked that he was the first man really stretching you out like that.

“Fuck,” he breathed against the side of your face. “Watch my fingers, angel, watch me fuck you with them.”

You turned down, paying attention to how they moved, and the wet sounds from your pussy. You slowly moved your hand along his cock, wanting—but too shy to ask for—him to cover your body with his cum. He preferred finishing inside you, he liked letting it drip out of you and then filling you back up all over again.

When your breaths turned shorter and your moans became louder, he knew you were so close. He moved his fingers faster, brought his thumb down to your clit. Your whole body was shaking, and he could feel how desperate you were because your hand around him tightened.

“You wanna come, angel?”

“Please, daddy,” you blurted out. “Please, please make me come.”

He pulled your hand off his cock and kissed you when you made a noise of protest. His opposite hand never even faltered as he explained, “Daddy’s coming inside you. Keep begging.”

“Please, I want to come, daddy. I want to come on your fingers, I want you to get me wet enough so my tight, little pussy can take your huge cock.”

“What a filthy mouth, angel. Where’d you learn to talk like that? Been watching the videos I’ve been sending you?”

“Yes, daddy. I watch every single one and I touch myself, thinking about how much I miss you inside me.”

“You have no idea how much I miss having your pussy wrapped around me when you’re gone.”

You finished with a sharp cry, using your free hand to try to push his touch away, but he was so much stronger than you. Add to the fact that you really didn’t want him to stop, if you could stay there in bed with him, feeling that for the rest of your life, you would.

You almost instantly rolled over on top of him, kissing him as you moved up his body until you were straddling him. He set his hands on your hips, holding you steady as you slid down on him. As you adjusted, he let his hands wander to your breasts. You were still shaking, panting, trying to come down from your high but you were addicted to pleasing Nick.

You rolled your hips, fumbling with the buttons on his shirt. You needed to see him naked, coming here without seeing all of him would be an absolute waste. He helped you get the shirt off after a moment and your hands roamed all over his torso.

He took your hips again, using his hold on you to pick up the pace just a little. You let your head fall back, he would want to watch your body anyway. You brought your arms back and rested your hands on the mattress around his legs. He had to fuck you just a little harder from this angle to see your breasts move with every thrust, but you were okay with that.

You always knew when he was close because his fingers would dig into your skin and he always did everything he could to get as close to you as he possibly could. This time, he sat up and pulled you up so your chest was flush against his. You continued bouncing up and down on his cock, mewling and whimpering because you knew he loved those sounds.

“Are you close, daddy?”

“Yeah, angel, keep going just like that.”

“Tell me when you’re really close.”

He faltered for just a second, processing your odd request, but did not argue.

You set your hands to his face, dragging him in for a kiss, open-mouthed, tongues, moaning obscenely for one another. As he was distracted, you unwound his arms from your back and held them flat on the mattress by his forearms.

“I’m close,” he informed after turning his head just slightly, breathing heavily on your skin. “I’m so fucking close.”

You started moving quickly, pulling off of him and crawling back down the bed. He was stunned silent until you bent down and took his wet cock, messy from your pussy, in your mouth. You’d only just closed your lips around him when both of his hands settled on the back of your head to hold you down. He only needed to jerk his hips up a few times before he was filling your mouth.

He kept you there until his high had drifted away, and you never once complained. You swallowed the cum that you could, but some of his had slipped out of your mouth, and sucked softly until he let you up.

As soon as you were sitting up, he was wrapping his arms around you and pulling you on top of him. Still trying to catch his breath, it was clear that he wasn’t letting you go for quite some time. Because no one would expect Nick to want to cuddle after sex.

And because his brain was not functioning at its best, he was simultaneously attempting to kick off his pants and pull the sheets over the two of you. But you weren’t there to be unsupportive, you simply laid on his chest and tried not to laugh.

After he’d managed it, which had to have taken about five minutes, he turned off the lamp on the bedside table and stretched over to do the same on the other side. He once again wrapped his arms around you and kissed the top of your head. “Fuck, I love you.”

You weren’t sure how to respond, so all you did was lay there. He didn’t miss a beat, he just started running one of his hands through your hair and then nothing. Not another word.

Fuck.

You only woke up because Nick was moving around so much. As quiet as he tried to be and as softly as he tried to move out from under you, he always failed at it. When he realized he’d woken you up again, he froze.

You grabbed one of the pillows and yanked it over his face as you climbed out of bed. You didn’t want to have to get up because that meant that you would soon have to leave. You grabbed your phone out of your bag on the way to the bathroom, not bothering to get dressed. Nick loved seeing you walk around the room naked, and that was why you always ignored that nervous nagging feeling that told you to cover up.

“Sorry,” he called out.

You didn’t respond.

After you brushed your teeth, you opened the door. You heard him moving around the bedroom as you were performing your simple morning skincare routine. He always did that, just waited until you were done so he could get in. He liked making you watch in the mirror.

And right on cue, Nick entered the bathroom, stopping just inches behind you. You didn’t turn, you merely watched him in the mirror and waited. He wrapped his arms around you, and you noticed the single red rose he was holding. He started at your lips, letting the flower trail down, then over your nipples, and down just above your navel.

You shivered when he pulled it away, offering it to you. With a smile you were looking down to hide, you took the rose from him.

He kissed the side of your face, arms wrapping loosely around your waist He pressed one hand to your stomach, and you were reminded of how much you loved his stupid hands. “Happy Valentine’s Day.”

“Happy Valentine’s Day.”

“I’m sorry about what I said last night. I know it was…a lot.”

Yeah, it was. You’d built it up in your mind as some terrifying thing that you would never want to hear, especially from him, but when he said it, it just wasn’t like that. When he said it, it made you feel safe. It made you feel loved. “But did you mean it?”

“Only if you’re not going to run away.”

You finally looked up in the mirror, meeting his gaze. “Maybe I won’t.”

He arched an eyebrow.

“And maybe I love you back.”

“Maybe?”

“Maybe,” you confirmed. “And maybe I’m even considering staying.”

He perked up at that, turning you around quickly to face him. “Tell me what I need to do or say and I will.”

You brought the rose up and set it to his lips, smirking again.

He narrowed his eyes.

All you did was shrug. “Not sure yet, but you have all day to convince me.”

“I thought you were leaving today.”

You set the rose down on the counter. “Changed my mind.”

He was beaming as he picked you up and sat you on the counter. “That means you’ve already decided to stay.”

“I never said that.”

“I’m not letting you leave. Ever.”

You rolled your eyes but couldn’t stop your smile. “I have to go home, you know…and pack.”

“I’ll go with you.”

Wrapping your arms around his neck, you smiled. “Probably a good idea to let my mom meet my daddy.”

“Please don’t make those jokes in front of your parents.”

You snorted. “Oh, now you want to be a gentleman?”

“Always am, angel. Open your legs and I’ll prove it.” He spread your thighs wider as he got down to his knees. He pulled you to the edge of the counter and with his eyes on yours, he took your pussy with his mouth.

“Fuck,” you gasped. “But this means you have to stop smoking.”

He pulled back, narrowing his eyes at you. “Now, seriously?”

You buried both hands in his hair and pulled him back in.

chris tags:

@onetwo3000 @chris-evans-indian-fanfic @donutloverxo @kleohoneyao3 @cevans-fics @gotnofucks​

[thatwitchrevan]

So this isn't inspired by anything except that some of the dreams I've had lately involve hotels and I find that interesting and I just feel like talking about this: my weirdest trigger is hotels.

Obviously I'm talking about triggers and in this case anxiety and anxiety/panic attacks so please scroll if you're not up for reading that, but I'm gonna keep it pretty light and I'm not in any significant stress rn so don't worry.

So yeah, I'm triggered by hotels a bit. Mostly being in them rather than seeing images of motels or thinking about them, although the concept in abstract can kind of make me feel melancholy or dwell on upset feelings. And there's no distinction here between hotels or motels.

The reason is that when my parents split up, me and my brothers and mom stayed in a hotel for about a week while my dad moved his stuff out. It felt alien and wrong and sad and lonely. I was going thru Lots of Stuff. I had my first major panic attack while staying there, and overall I just hated it. I couldn't sleep, I hated going from there to school and having to pretend everything was fine, but I also didn't want to tell my school friends "yeah, my parents are getting divorced and we're living out of a hotel for a few days and I'm starting to become aware just how deeply messed up I am. Anyway what's up with you?"

I probably could've, but I kinda would rather die. So I'm dealing with all of this basically alone because my siblings are kids and my mom's my mom. So I got a very negative association with hotels.

The thing is, I generally like hotels. Both before and after this incident I've enjoyed staying in them, at least when they're nice. I usually don't sleep well in places that aren't home but there's so much novelty in staying in a hotel and I love traveling. When me and my mom went to New Orleans we stayed in a really nice, really old hotel that was just gorgeous, and I loved it. But I also feel just a little uneasy and sad every time I'm in one, even like 8 years later.

So it's interesting that my brain sometimes throws hotels at me in my dreams. It makes sense, I've got both good and bad associations with them.

Anyway, I bring this up partly because I like to ramble and partly because I think it's important to represent the fact that triggers are varied. Innocuous things can be triggers and different triggers will affect you differently. I've got some things I won't bring up or think about because they just always upset me, and I've got things that have the potential to make me anxious or depressed but can also be fine in the right circumstances/mindset, and I've got things that I've got to prepare myself for or do some quick self-soothing damage control to prevent an episode.

Human minds are complex! Therefore so are our triggers.

And to be clear this is not something I ever need or want anyone to tag for me or avoid talking about. I've been in hotels in the past year and been just fine, this is one of those things I've got a handle on and/or doesn't affect me that severely anymore. However I firmly believe it's okay if you do need to avoid innocuous triggers sometimes and it's okay to ask, within reason, for people to tag certain stuff for you, with the understanding that everyday things can't always be avoided or treated the same as more serious and urgent things. That's a whole discussion with a lot of nuance but bottom line is no one should ever be shamed for what triggers them.

Also hotels are both liminal spaces and super versatile settings for all kind of fiction and I'm into it.

[syndianites]

A Queen Serves and Protects

Chapter Five

First Chapter –> Last Chapter –> Current –> Next Chapter Summary:

Post-Style Queen, Pre-Queen Wasp.

Chloe finds the Bee Miraculous, but instead of finding an obliging, subservient Kwami, she finds the Kwami of Order and Subjugation, and Pollen is not about to let herself be used like Nooroo was.

Granted, the only danger in a teenage girl is the damage she poses to herself. Can Pollen shape Chloe into a hero? Or will she stubbornly refuse to change and remain the bitter, harsh person the city has long since known?

[My take on how Chloe’s character could have developed] ——————————————————————————————

“Okay,” Pollen brought her paws together. “Let’s get this study session started.”

After the debacle of Chloe’s mother walking out on her again, Pollen insisted she get some food and relax for a bit. The two watched some cute cartoons- which Pollen was happily enraptured by- and sat together in pleasant silence.

That hadn’t stopped Pollen from plotting her next move, however.

Floating over Chloe’s tablet, which Pollen had asked her to hook up to the TV, she picked up the tablet pen and began drawing a simple figure. Adding a blonde ponytail, Pollen wrote ‘You’ over the top of the drawing.

“Let’s start with the basics. Emotions!” Pollen wrote out the word. “This is the thing that motivates people the most. Someone spills water on you? You’re angry. You are given a nice gift? Happy. So on and so forth.”

Chloe rolled her eyes. Even she knew this stuff. What was the point of this?

Tapping the pen on the drawing of Chloe, Pollen asked, “Now, what makes you a bad person?”

“What!” Chloe interrupted, “I am not a bad person!”

Pollen put her paws up. “I’m sorry, that was out of line. Let me try again: What makes people not like you?”

Chloe huffed. “I’m better than them and they know it.”

Instead of writing what Chloe said, Pollen wrote ‘you see yourself as above others.’

“Ugh, is this just an excuse to make fun of me? I’m so out.” Chloe made to stand up but was stopped by Pollen.

“Patience, Chloe. Right now, you're doing well. You working with me is a good start..” Pollen beamed at Chloe and she had to look away, lest the warmth blossoming in her chest got any bigger.

“What else makes people not like you?” Pollen asked.

Chloe hummed, trying not to make a sarcastic comment. “They don’t agree with my opinions, even when I’m right.”

Shaking her head, Pollen wrote down ‘You say things that upset people.’

Chloe crossed her arms and muttered, “It’s not my fault that they are upset by the truth.”

Ignoring her, Pollen continued, “Do you have any other ideas?”

Pollen received a head shake in reply. Which was fine, of course.  She could work with this.

Making a new page, Pollen re-wrote ‘You see yourself as above others.’

“So,” Pollen delicately sat on a pillow she had prepared next to the tablet, “Why do you see yourself as above others?”

Chloe scoffed. “That’s easy, it’s because my father is-”

“I said why do you see yourself as better than others, not why your dad is above others,” Pollen interrupted, fighting back an eye roll.

“Fine then, it’s because my mo- I mean,” Chloe gave a light cough as Pollen raised an eyebrow at her. “It’s because I’m rich and they aren’t.”

Pollen, sighing, wrote down ‘lives luxuriously.’

Chloe frowned. “Doesn’t that just mean I’m rich?”

“No, Chloe. Technically, you aren’t rich. Your parents are. You just live in a very comfortable, very nice place that is paid for and maintained by your parents and their employees. Is that something that makes you better than someone else?”

“Uh, yes?”

“No!”

Pollen took a deep breath.

Today was going to be a long day.

“Consider this Chloe.”

“I’m considering it.”

“Consider this, Chloe. Would you still be better than others if you didn’t live in this hotel? If you lived in a three bedroom apartment with your father?”

“Of course.”

“But what separates you from others if you live just like them?”

“Um.” Chloe was at a loss for words. If she was just like the others, how would she be better? “I just am, Pollen.”

“No.”

“Because I’m rich?”

“What if you weren’t?”

“Then it’s because I’m smarter than them?”

“Who is the smartest person in your class?”

“Ugh, fine, it’s because I know better than them.”

“Are you sure? You’ve been misguided before.”

“I’m more talented than them!”

“What are your talents?”

“Shopping, obviously.”

Pollen fought to not scream. Like talking to a brick wall. Well, if Chloe wanted to be a brick wall…

“I’ll ask one more time Chloe, what makes you better than others?” 

“I’m-”

Pollen cut her off by drawing an arrow beneath where she wrote ‘You see yourself as above others’ and wrote, with a deadpan look, ‘Nothing.’

Standing up furiously, Chloe waved her arms about. “What do you mean nothing! Of course I’m above others, that's just how it is! My family has more money, so we get better things, so I have a better upbringing, which means I’m better overall.”

“How often are your parents around?” Pollen stared Chloe down.

“I-, um, sometimes?” 

“How often is your father around?”

“He always picks up when I call.”

“How often is he physically around you, seeing what you do and spending time with you?”

Chloe sat back down. “We eat meals together. He greets me in the morning. And sometimes he brings me gifts. And, and! I sometimes go with him on his campaign stuff.”

Pollen rubbed her eyes in frustration. No wonder this girl had so many problems.

“Alright then, let’s start again. You are not better than others and here is why…”

//////////////

Monday was her first test. Pollen had insisted on making her work on how she talked to people first and foremost. According to her, ‘It will be easier to see others as equals if you treat them as such. The first step in that is to talk to them politely.’

That’s all she had to do. Be polite.

So when Sabrina greeted her as she arrived at school, instead of giving her a curt nod and waltzing past her, expecting her to keep up, Chloe grit out a “Good Morning.”

Sabrina, on her part, took the greeting in stride. “You seem to be in a good mood today, Chloe!”

Ready to walk forward without a response, Chloe almost groaned at the nudge she felt from her inner jacket pocket. “It is a nice day, Sabrina.”

Pollen, from inside the pocket, rolled her eyes. At least it was a response.

The duo walked into school, ignoring the chatter amongst the other students, and made their way to their classroom.

Ms. Bustier kindly greeted Chloe and Sabrina as they walked in and- after a nudge from Pollen- both Sabrina and Chloe greeted her back. Already Chloe was growing tired of this. Is this what people had to do every day? Ridiculous.

Class was the easiest part. Ms. Bustier, as nice as she was, was strict in her classroom. Even Chloe respected her. So the students behaved. All Chloe had to do was not make any biting comments.

‘Just because you say something you think is true,’ Pollen had told her in one of their many ‘Let’s Bee Nice’ sessions, ‘Doesn’t mean it isn’t hurtful. A good hero always thinks about how they affect others with their words.’

That is when someone decided to start shit. Of course.

In the brief period where they had a quiz- nothing serious, just a check to see how well they were keeping up with the subject so far- and had to go up to Ms. Bustier’s desk to turn it in, Lila happened. 

Lovely, lying Lila.

Chloe had taken her paper up, all on her own to Sabrina’s shock, and had been walking back to her seat when she saw Lila pull a quick sleight of hand. From inside her sleeve she dropped a simple, but nice, white hair clip just close enough to Marinette’s stuff to look like she knew it was there. Normally, Chloe would have shrugged and ignored it. But she knew Lila would disrupt the class over some little hair clip.

Did she know Lila had been messing with Marinette for a while now? Yes. Did she care that some of Lila’s stories were far-fetched? No. As Chloe saw it, Lila was just another girl trying to be popular and feel exceptional at school. Compared to Chloe, she would never be exceptional.

She pinched herself. Sitting back down at her desk, she reminded herself of the lesson Pollen had taken to drilling into her head everytime she talked down about someone.

‘What makes you better than others?’

Chloe, each time, had groaned before repeating, ‘Nothing. Everyone is unique in their own right but just as good as someone else.’

Did Chloe believe that? No! Some people were just better than others. All that sweet talk about how everyone was unique? That was just Pollen seeing the best in people. Chloe wouldn’t strain herself looking for something that wasn’t there. Some people just weren’t exceptional.

‘The only exceptional thing about you is your mother.’

Still, Chloe DID like Pollen a whole lot, and what was her speech about how people give other people power? If Chloe thought Pollen’s word was worth something, then clearly it was.

In any case, Chloe decided to keep an eye out for Lila’s next move. She wouldn’t let her cause chaos in Ms. Bustier’s class. She was the best teacher in the school, after all. And that had nothing to do with how nice she was to Chloe. Not at all.

It didn’t take long for Lila to act. As she was returning from Ms. Bustier’s desk, she gasped. “Marinette! Where did you find that hair clip?”

Marinette, unsurprisingly, was confused. “Find what?”

“That clip right there,” Lila pointed it out. “That’s the clip I lost this morning! My dear old grandmother had given it to me as a gift years ago, before she passed it’s-” She teared up a bit then, bringing a hand to her mouth. “It’s one of the last things I have from her.”

Chloe eyed the exchange with disinterest. Lila putting on the waterworks? Check. Marinette having no clue what was happening? Check. The whole class trying to pretend they weren’t listening in on the conversation? Check.

“I didn’t find it anywhere. I hadn’t even seen it until now,” Marinette said, bewildered. 

Taking that as her chance, Lila gasped again. “Marinette… did you steal it? Oh my gosh, no wonder I couldn’t find it! I had looked all over for it after I left my bag here to go get a quick breakfast. My poor mother was too busy this morning to get me anything, but left money for me to get food after wishing me a good day. Did you take it from my bag?”

For a moment Marinette’s eye twitched. Clearly, she didn’t believe the whole tale Lila had just spun. Chloe didn’t care. Lila loved to color her words with as much grandeur as she could. It was like a child coloring in a coloring book- just because the art was good didn’t mean the colors weren’t messy and didn’t clash horribly.

Belatedly, Marinette realized the whole class was listening in on the conversation. “I, uh, I-”

Lila turned to the rest of the class with misty eyes. Immediately, they jumped to her defense.

“Marinette, did you take it?”

“What do you mean you have no idea how that got there? It’s at your desk!”

“It couldn’t have just appeared.”

“It’s highly unlikely for the hair clip to have just made its way to Marinette’s desk on its own.”

Tired of the overlapping voices, Chloe audibly scoffed. “Puh-lease.” The class turned to her. Good. “Dupain-Cheng probably just found it on the floor and picked it up thinking it was lost garbage or something. Knowing Miss Goody-Two-Shoes over there, she was going to give it to Ms. Bustier or lost and found until she remembered that her clumsy, scatter-brained self was about to be late for class.”

There. All Marinette had to do was say, ‘Yes, Chloe! That’s exactly it! Thank you so much.’

Instead, she stared at Chloe just as dumbfounded as before. Lila, realizing she wasn’t going to get anywhere with this anymore, turned back to Marinette happily. “Thank you so much! I don’t know what I would have done if I had truly lost it.” 

“Uh, yeah, you’re welcome?” Marinette gave an awkward smile, eyes moving between Lila and Chloe rapidly.

“Although, I do wonder if you would have done that if you knew it was mine…” Lila wilted dramatically, before sending Marinette a pained smile and walking back to her desk. Leave it to the girl to find a way to still make Marinette a bad person.

Chloe rolled her eyes. Whatever. Now that the class had settled back down, Ms. Bustier could keep teaching and they could go back to making Chloe’s life of being a ‘better person’ easy.

Maybe this nice thing wasn’t so hard.

Pollen, meanwhile, was counting the nice comments versus the mean comments to see if she could count that towards Chloe’s niceness score.

[aenngelic]

I will protect her at all costs (chapter 2)

Disclaimer: please don’t hate me for it, if you don’t ship them please just don’t read it ok 🥲

contains: slow burn, Sniper falling in love with Kuon, Snipers view/thoughts, sexual fantasies, nudity, lemon stuff overall

It is a very long chapter I’m sorry

Note: please feel free to message me if you have certain romantic moments to include in the story! (Already running out of ideas oops)

It did not take long for us to find a bag of supplies. It was on a coffee table in some sort of lobby area. It seemed as if this building probably was meant to represent some kind of hotel, which I thought was a good thing, because that meant that there would be beds and showers to be found here as well. To our surprise, the bag contained mostly candy, which I wouldn't interpret as a balanced meal. However, the girl seemed to like this finding. It was only a matter of minutes before the chocolate residue stained the corners of my companion's mouth in a brown color. However, I preferred to smoke a cigarette at first and watch the girl devour her own body weight in the form of chocolate.

" This is fantastic! It feels like forever since I last ate chocolate! I faintly remember dieting before I entered this world too, so this must have been probably weeks since I held chocolate in my hand." Kuon said with delight. It was amusing to watch her enjoy sweets. Kuon's carelessness may be a burden at times, but her innocent character makes up for it.

" you partly remember your life prior to this, don't you?"

" Yes, not much to be honest. I'm sorry you can't," Kuon replied in a concerned voice.

"Tell me about it."

She gave me a visibly puzzled look before straightening her back so that she was sitting as straight as a candle on the sofa across from me, staring at her hands somewhat lost in thought. She seemed uncomfortable that I had now brought up this topic. Unfortunately, I could not take back my question. "Well," she began, "to be honest,the life I remember has not been the greatest, I guess." Kuon abruptly shook her head. " That's not true either. I was born into a rich family and had many privileges. My father owned a large company and had very high expectations of me from the very beginning. One day I was supposed to take it over. I was probably pretty lucky compared to other people. I was probably a big disappointment for him. My character was just not strong enough in his eyes. I also remember not really having any friends either, because I was privately educated. And anyway..." I could literally hear the lump in Kuon's throat as a tear began to stream down the girl's cheek.

" i'm sorry. You know, I didn't really mean to end up crying."

I felt my heart break once again, watching the girl grieve. I was surprised now, though, to find out that this yet seemingly uncomplicated high school student was actually carrying a lot of emotional baggage. I did not hesitate as I jumped up from my seat to calm the blue-haired girl. I really hated it like the plague when she cried. Trying to preserve my Coolness, however, I grumbled, "oh girl. What's wrong?"

I placed myself to her left, and pressed her against my shoulder while running my hand over her hair a few times. There was no way I could bring myself to face her, though. It would be too embarrassing and, after all, I was far from being the Prince Charming who would dry her tears with a silken tissue. Besides, I could not withstand the sight of her teary eyes. So there I sat, a weeping teenage girl wetting my blazer with salty drops of grief on my right, awkwardly staring off into the distance.

"It's, it's..." she stammered, not being able to form a word. "You're the first person I've been able to trust, and because of that, I'm kind of..."

She took a deep breath, "It makes me so unbelievably happy."

Almost for the second time that day, a cigarette nearly got stuck in my throat, but this time I was able to suppress my urge to cough. The girl seemed to really like me. But did I like her too? I would be lying if I said I did not care about her. And if she got killed, I could never forgive myself. It was astonishing how one could form such a strong bond with another person in such a short period of time. However, pouring out my entire feelings in front of her would not come close to the cool lifestyle I was pursuing.

" i'm also happy to have met you, Kuon.", i finally decided to answer after a moment of figuring out how to respond.

Kuon's face, which was still streaked with tears, started to smile again, which made me feel much relieved. However, it took her a while to completely stop her wailing . We remained in this position for a while, until at some point I realized that the girl had fallen asleep. Her head had lowered in the meantime even further toward the ground, so that after some time she was no longer leaning against my shoulder but much rather against my belly. When I noticed this after some time and looked down to the girl, a cute sight presented itself to me. Admittedly, on the one hand it felt nice to act as this girl's pillow. On the other hand, it triggered an immeasurable amount of embarrassment in me. But cool guys do like to take care of girls' comfort, don't they?

Therefore, I decided I'd rather not wake her up and hardly moved at all. I looked out the window to my right, watching the sunset and reflected on certain issues. I was thinking about Rika as well as the two girls we were trying to find and, of course, about Kuon and so many other things until my eyes started to close.

When I regained consciousness, the night must have settled in. Before I could even perceive my surroundings properly, I swiveled my head once to the left and once to the right and let my gaze wander through the room. Because the moon was particularly bright this night, everything around me had taken on a deep blue tone. It was so quiet around me that I could have heard a pin drop. In the next second I realized that I should not have fallen asleep in the first place. Somebody would have had to keep watch, after all! Crap! If an enemy would have come along the way, it certainly would not have been good for me and Kuon. I looked down to my thigh where the blue-haired girl was supposed to lie. I felt her place her head on my thigh at some point during the night, but when I looked down at my thigh, I could not find any girl. Where the hell was Kuon? A rational thinking person, as I was one, could of course assume that my companion did not necessarily have to be in danger, but could also have simply visited the toilet, for example. Nonetheless, my alarm bells started ringing immediately. Kuon was, after all, a young girl who, apart from the "rail gun", did not posses many possibilities for self-defense. So of course I was worried.

Without thinking much, I hopped up from the sofa, on which I had been napping a few moments before. In quick stride I wandered through the poorly lit hallway without really having a clue where I was heading. My head was foggy from the idea that the girl might be in serious danger. A few days ago, I probably would have accepted the fact that she was suddenly nowhere to be found and continued my journey. And now my stomach was already twisting at the thought of her getting in trouble.

Nevertheless, a short moment later, my heart pounding madly from the ever-repeating scenario in my head, I heard a noise at the end of the corridor. A soft, high-pitched humming was heard, drowned out by the pattering of many drops. Light emerged from the crack of a door on the left. Was she taking a shower? The feeling of relief spread through my chest, followed by some degree of annoyance. Why did the girl not wake me up? I took a few steps towards the door, but before I was about to reach for the door handle, I remembered that I should not do so. A gentleman never violates a lady's privacy. So I decided to wait.

I leaned against the local wall, one leg bent. Then I let my thoughts wander, while the pattering of the raindrops in the bathroom right next to me showed no indication of stopping anytime soon. A lady of high society must spend quite a bit of her life showering, I thought to myself. And before I knew it, the image of Kuon suddenly popped up in my head. In my imagination I pictured her body, wondering what it looked like completely naked. A bar of soap running over her plump breasts, leaving traces of foam on her soft, wet skin. A body swinging under the hot rainfall like a leaf in the wind, presenting its vivid buttocks. I wonder if she was shaved? Hardly had I been able to finish this dirty thought of mine and get mad at my filthy thinking when my ears picked up the sound of footsteps in the distance. And they were coming ominously closer.

Damn, I thought to myself and was about to reach for my rifle, only to realize that I forgot it next to the sofa where I had been sleeping. I had been so upset about her disappearance that I could seriously forget the most crucial item for our survival.What was I going to do? For a brief moment I was at a loss. Escape proved almost impossible at this point, since I was at a dead end and I could not force the approaching enemy down with any surrounding objects. Besides, if I escaped, it would only be a matter of time before the enemy would track down my helpless companion. In the next moment, almost instinctively, I reached for the door handle that led to the bathroom that Kuon had still claimed. Perhaps there were objects in the room that were suitable for fighting, or perhaps we could be lucky and not be found, I speculated in the heat of the moment. So I tore open the door and rushed into the bathroom, greeted by a hot haze that took over the entire area.

"Kuon!" I called out in a hushed tone.

Without hesitation, I pushed my way through the door that separated the shower from the rest of the bathroom as if I was walking through nothing. Until that moment, I had hardly given a thought to the circumstances of this situation. But at the latest, when finally the naked body of a schoolgirl jumped into my field of vision, I quickly realized this again. I was just about to violate Kuon's privacy. An obviously shocked girl looked towards me, that from 1 second to the other tried to cover herself desperately.

"Mr.Ma-", she was about to say, but I interrupted her raised voice by pressing my hand to her lips as quickly as possible.

While I was still in the act of stepping into the shower, I flicked the light switch in the same movement so that no sign of our presence could escape from the room. Maybe they would not find us here, I hoped at this point.

"There's someone out there," I whispered to the naked girl in front of me.

" if we are quiet, maybe we won't be found. If we are, then..."

Kuon replied to me with an unintelligible "Mmm" , which resembled the sound of a frightened gasp. My body had pressed so close to hers by now that I could feel the wetness of her skin soaking through my shirt. I had directed my face facing away from her so that I could sharpen my hearing for the footsteps I could hear. Furthermore , I did not want to add unnecessary tension to the whole situation. It was uncool enough to interfere with a naked girl taking a shower even if it was an emergency. My hand was still resting on her lips and even though I was wearing gloves and looking away, I could clearly feel the warmth building up in Kuon's cheeks. She was obviously blushing in this moment. But having her pressed against the bathroom wall while forcing my hand tightly onto her lips and not even keeping a distance of not 2 inches, I could not blame her.

For quite a while, we did not move at all. We listened closely to the footsteps, which came a little closer and finally slowly moved away from us again. Temporarily it was even so quiet in this bathroom that we could hear each other breathing. Kuon's breathing was fast and almost verged on hyperventilation in this situation. Because there was hardly any distance between our bodies, I could literally feel her chest rising and falling in short intervals. With each rise, her breasts brushed my upper body a slight bit. I tried, as always, to keep my composure and block out the fact that Kuon was completely naked. Only when several minutes had passed did my posture loosen and I breathed a sigh of relief.

"Okay, we should be safe for now," I stated and let go of the girl.

I flipped the light switch and had to swallow.

Kuon had been naked before too, but it was only now that the danger was gone that I could really comprehend this fact. She had tried to cover her breasts with her hands and had simultaneously crossed her legs, looking down with a shameful expression on her face. However, the concealment attempt seemed to be unsuccessful for her. Although I only caught a glimpse of her appearance before I turned away from her as quickly as possible, I saw her entire beauty for a moment.Her breasts were in relation to her otherwise so petite body, large and plump. She had a narrow waist and perfectly shaped legs, in combination with her smooth, fair skin. And so she shaved, I could still tell. What remained most imprinted on my mind, however, was the look on her face.I of course preferred to see her friendly smile a thousand times more than this face that expressed pure shame. But I could not help but adore the sight of her big sparkling dog eyes looking at the ground helplessly.

My breath stopped for a moment, but then I quickly cleared my throat, my gaze already averted from her, scanning the room for a towel. I tried to hide the fact that I actually wanted to slap myself for the thoughts I was having. Luckily, my embarrassment was not visible through the mask. I had to change the subject immediately before the situation became even more awkward:

"Sorry, Kuon." , I mumbled. I was surprised myself by my harsh tone. It took me a while to recollect the words.

"You should let me know next time you decide to go somewhere else."

"Oh yeah right. I didn't mean to cause any trouble.", Countered the girl who also seemed to be a bit embarrassed. So it wasn't just me who was feeling uncomfortable about this situation. Without giving my companion another look, I threw a towel right over my head at her. I had a precise aim.

" I'm going to get my rifle. I forgot it in all the hurry near the sofa."

Just as I was about to open the door to step out, the girl interrupted my process by grabbing my arm with unusual intensity.

" can you come back here afterwards? Please?"

"That's what I was planning on doing anyway. I'll be waiting right outside the door," I replied, a bit puzzled by this question.

" but I have -." she interrupted herself, shaking her head slightly before continuing.

Then her facial expression regained its former composure, whereupon she gave me her typical, beaming smile. I could tell, however, that she did not mean it honestly. How I could tell that, I had no idea myself though. But did she want me to stay here with her?

" no you're right. I'll hurry up and be done in a few minutes," she said. While she was talking, she wrapped the towel around her body in a quick movement, fastening it in front with the help of a knot.

I had meanwhile turned my gaze back to her. Although Kuon was now dressed, it was difficult for me not to inspect her from top to bottom. Her entire body was still drenched in a hint of wetness, so that her skin was reflectingthe bright bathroom light. It was also slightly red from the hot shower water. I wondered if the red tint to her cheeks was also caused by that, or if I was responsible for it.I could not help but notice the way the towel just managed to hide all the places it was supposed to cover and yet was far too tight. If she bent over, a special view would present itself to me. Immediately I dashed this disgusting thought from my head. If I continued to reduce myself only to her appearance this could end in negligence on my part and I would not be able to protect her properly.After all, that was the most important thing. I also discarded this thought. Had this strange girl really become so important to me? Nevertheless, there was no place for interpersonal relationships in this world.Before I could get any further into this train of thought, I turned away again and finally walked out of the room. I was in need of a cigarette.