#‘oh I work double the hours and make half the salary but at least I get to maybe teach and publish a paper or two?’ fuck off

[doctorweebmd]

Not to post bout profit on the class consciousness webbed site but wow I’m getting a taste of that sweet sweet attending salary uhh and to be honest…….. making way more money for less work fucks so so hard

[cerealyoam]

Mystic Messenger x Middle Eastern Reader

Basically POV youre Middle Eastern and the little things that add to the relationship

Characters; Jumin Han, V, 707

A/N: you might be thinking, dami, why are you writing for a dead fandom about something nobody asked for? And i assure you. Impulse overtakes me on a daily basis. Also I feel the need to add that I am Middle Eastern

(Gender neutral reader as per the usual!)

V

When he first saw you, he thought you were beautiful

Because of his nature, he really wanted to photograph you in warm sunlight. He felt the best way to remember you was by taking as many photos as he could

When you told him where you were from, he thought it was pretty cool, and always likes to ask about your cultures and traditions.

I like to think he wants to try your country’s cuisine, and he’ll definitely like it. Probably buys a cookbook so he can learn your favourite desserts and foods, and he thinks its a great way to learn more about you.

Since he travels abroad often, if you’re comfortable, he’d love to visit your hometown, and possibly your parents as well.

Oh my god he would be so so good to your parents

He’s respectful, greets them at the door, brings his own food to give to them

You know because he’s loaded he can basically buy expensive ass gifts for your family if they’re more traditional

So so sweet. Helps you do housework at your parents’ home, all of that.

He honestly wants to learn how to speak modern Arabic, or your Arabic slang as well.

It’s just he doesn’t know where to start.

Like? How do all the different pronouns work? Why are there so many words for so many different specific things?

Pls help him

Oh yeah he definitely messes up by saying some slang word that means something entirely inappropriate given the context. Watch him call a cat a bra bc he doesn’t know the difference

Calls you habibi/habibti (my love) or hayati (my life) because its the only words he kind of knows the meaning of

Overall really sweet like he always is. Practically the best boyfriend ever. Unmatched

Jumin Han

Oh you have nothing to worry about at all

The worlds most civilised polite businessman with manners that are just perfect for meeting your parents with

He’s already travelled half the Arabian peninsula I’m 90% sure he knows the language too

Super sophisticated, super sweet

If you like any particular food he hires a full fledged 3 Michelin star ass restaurant chef for any dish you’d like

Oh you want some kubba or smn? Say no more in the next few hours you’re eating the best kubba in your life ok

Idc if you don’t like kubba the 3 Michelin star ass chef is gonna make you like it I swear

Has probably already been to where you live at least twice but he’ll go again just for you

He finds you absolutely gorgeous like have you seen yourself you’re gorgeous

Likes to trace your face and cheeks with his knuckles and tells you you’re absolutely beautiful

Can probably get any outfit tailored perfectly to you the moment you mention your specific traditional clothing

Again your parents cant refuse. He’s literally a corporate executive of the highest ranking business where he is. He has so much money he’ll only ever get richer. Dowry money? Oh yeah that costs just about an eighth of his weekly salary let’s double the dowry

You feel v v v loved. Unmatched husband material

707

He knows Arabic

Was a bit shocked when you had zero issue getting into his house bc u know the language enough to say cat in Arabic

But he also sort of knew so he changed the entire algorithm of his lock system to be in Tagalog just to be safe

Vanderwood has held a grudge since then

You know how he is he’s totally got every random nuanced joke memorised and prepared up his sleeve so if you swear in your language slang ever he probably knows what it means and will definitely snicker even if you don’t realize it

Honestly nothing much changes he just knows already lmfao

[sserpente]

A/N: That Hyundai ad hit different. *chuckles*

Words: 3097 Warnings: kidnapping, hostage

New York smelled pretty bad, come to think of it. You had almost forgotten the hustle and bustle of this huge city that never slept and if there was one thing you had not been missing at all after spending a few months in Morocco for work, it was the constant traffic jams.

It was hot, unbearably so. You’d been a sweating mess ever since your cab driver had picked you up at the airport and the fact that the air conditioning in the cab was broken didn’t exactly help with that. Your thighs stuck to the leather of the backseat, your forehead glistening and your make-up… well, it used to be make-up.

The cab driver seemed nice, at least and since the long snake made entirely of cars had not moved for at least an hour now, he had offered to park on the side of the road and get you both a bottle of water. Ironically, you were only a few yards away from Stark Tower.

Perhaps you shouldn’t complain about the traffic jam. Half of the city was a mess after the atrocious battle you had been fortunate enough only to have witnessed on the news on the plane. You could only hope that your tiny studio flat was still intact and quite frankly, it was short of a miracle that a cab service had actually agreed on picking you up so shortly after an almost-war—not to mention that the plane had actually landed.

You sighed, brushing a strand of hair sticking to your cheek out of your face. You were unbelievably tired—even more so knowing that you had dodged a catastrophe that would go down in history all thanks to work. Your eyes fell shut and you leaned against the car window when suddenly, the driver’s door was all but yanked open and someone who certainly did not resemble your cab driver, started the car and clutched at the steering wheel as if his life depended on it.

Your lips parted. Shackles and a muzzle, along with a blue glowing cube landed on the passenger seat with a loud clatter, followed by an annoyed groan. It was him. The man who had attempted to take over the entire planet only moments ago, he was here in this car and he was currently kidnapping you with it.

A scream escaped your lips, a mixture of shock and fear spreading in your body and fuelling the rising amount of adrenaline. It was only then the God of Mischief glanced at the rear-view mirror and spotted you there panicking—but by then, he had already stirred the car back on the road, straight towards the traffic jam.

“You… you are… Let me out! Let me out at once!” You screeched, the heat around you—along with your miserable appearance—all but forgotten. Loki rolled his eyes. Great. Another mortal.

“I am not stopping this car,” was all he said. Your eyes widened in utter shock.

“Then don’t! Fuck!” Danger was radiating off of this man like heat from an active volcano; so if necessary, you would jump out of the moving car as well. Biting your lower lip and wondering if you should go through with this risky stunt at the speed he was going, the wheels squeaking over the asphalt with every abrupt turn he took, or if that would be a suicide mission. It was probably the latter, and when you reached for the handle of the back door, it took the God of Mischief only a mere second to lock it, trapping you inside.

“Let me out! Let me out!”

“You’ll kill yourself.” Loki spat. You did not miss the patronising tone in his voice—stupid. He believed you stupid.

“And if I stay in here with you I won’t?” You retorted hysterically. And it was justified, really—for when your gaze drifted back to the road ahead of you, you could see him racing straight towards a long line of cars waiting for the traffic to clear up.

“Watch out! The other cars, watch out! Oh my God…” You screamed, squeezing your eyes shut and covering your face with your arms but the imminent crash never came. When you opened your eyes again, Loki had all but moved through the other cars as if by magic. God, what was this, Harry Potter?

With your heart in your mouth, you brought your trembling hands to your thighs and pressed down on them in a desperate attempt to fight off the panic attack rising within you like the forthcoming eruption of a volcano.

But even when you reached the suburbs, ironically moved closer to your home, and the car finally slowed down to a reasonable speed, making you wonder how a god from another realm knew how to drive a car in the first place, your dread kept growing steadily. What would happen once Loki decided he had reached his destination? What would he do with you? Would you end up as another casualty? You’d know where he was, after all, and only God knew how he had managed to escape after the Avengers reported his capture—not to mention that he was in the possession of that mysterious blue cube you were certain bore even more chaos and destruction in the wrong hands.

“I take it this vehicle is supposed to be a means of transport in exchange for payment?” He suddenly said.

“What?” You gaped at him, swallowing. “Yes! I mean, yes, it’s a taxi. That’s… I was…”

“Where do you live?”

“Excuse me? What, are you going to drop me off and expect me to tip you?”

Loki smirked. He couldn’t quite put his finger on why but he did like your feistiness. “I need a place to hide.”

“What… no! No! I am not giving shelter to a criminal!” You snarled, swallowing your fear of him—and then you made the mistake of peeking at the navigation system the taxi driver had set up next to the steering wheel, with your address on bright display to show Loki exactly where he’d have to go.

The God of Mischief tilted his head. “You don’t have much choice in the matter, my dear.”

You took a deep shaky breath, digging your nails into the backseat. If your lower lip was trembling, you didn’t notice. “P-please… please just let me go. I promise I won’t tell anyone where you are or where you went. Please.”

“I am not going to kill you if that is what you are worried about.” He replied after a long pause. When you said nothing, too stunned and scared to come up with another snarky comment, silence spread in the car like wildfire.

Hugging your knees to your chest, you closed your eyes, hoping that this was a bad joke, a terrible nightmare and any moment now, you would wake up safely on the plane, yet to land in half-destroyed New York City—but the end of slumber never came. You were wide awake; even more so when, after what felt like hours, Loki finally stopped the car. Of course, you had not noticed him observing you repeatedly through the rear-view mirror, almost as if to check if you were still alive.

Your eyes met and then, finally, he unlocked the doors. Only now, you did not move an inch. You had no idea what to expect if you stepped out of this car.

Naturally, Loki disagreed with your cautious decision. He yanked the car door open when he saw you frozen in place, grabbing your upper arm so fast you didn’t even have a chance to react, and all of a sudden, seeing the entrance door of the apartment building you lived in did not at all look as appealing as it had at the airport anymore.

His grip around your arm was firm but when you whined in pain, the God of Mischief actually softened it—if only a little, barely noticeable.

“Unlock the door, my dear, will you?” He inquired, smiling sweetly at you. Right beneath the surface, you could hear that there would be dire consequences if you failed to comply.

Surely at this point, he could hear your rapid heartbeat. Shaking, you fumbled for the keys in your bag until they were jingling in your palms all the while Loki watched you like a hawk. You had dismissed calling the police on your phone in the car already—for now.

Fuck, you had been kidnapped. You were about to be held hostage in your own flat, or… or… was he just going to enter and kick you out? Had he been lying about not killing you? Would he fling a dagger at you any moment now like you had seen him do on TV?

Loki followed you when you approached the door and unlocked it clumsily. One floor up and to the left. For just a brief moment, you wondered what would happen if you started screaming bloody murder, alerting your neighbours but even when you opened your mouth to attempt it, not a single sound would escape your lips.

Even a little further out and farther away from the centre of New York City, rent prices were horrendous. Your salary was not bad but your apartment was no more than a small studio equipped with a humble kitchen, a separate bathroom with a tiny shower and lastly, your double bed in the centre of the room, posing as your sofa during the day.

Loki looked around unimpressed when he entered. “Well… it will do.”

“N-now what?” You choked out.

Loki raised his eyebrows, his voice dripping with sarcasm. “Pretend I’m not even here.”

Right—because that was going to be so easy. He sighed and rolled his eyes when you only stared at him in horror.

“You don’t trust me, do you?”

“W-would you? You tried to subjugate our planet like ten minutes ago!”

“And for good reason too. This realm is lawless, your people slaughter each other day in and out and you feel threatened by me? I would have given you a new purpose.”

He had a point… but… “And what is that so-called purpose? Slavery?” Loki’s expression darkened, making you flinch back.

“S-sorry… I’ll… I’ll be i-in the bathroom taking a shower. Please just… I mean… whatever.” Would he stop you? Hesitating, you made your way to the bathroom, waiting for him to yank you back, press you against the wall and threaten you? Threaten you with what, exactly? Could you trust that he wouldn’t kill you? Loki felt like a ticking time bomb in your flat.

But a painful yank never came and when you locked the bathroom door behind you, you exhaled. Inhaled, exhaled, inhaled, exhaled, trying to process the fact you had a war criminal in your home.

Once you had gathered enough energy to do what you had come to the bathroom for and, an hour later, returned to the main room, Loki was sitting on your bed cross-legged, the Tesseract right before him, glowing away.

“I roamed your ‘kitchen’”, he said without glancing up to meet your eyes, “Do you have anything edible at all?”

“I was away for a whole month.” You argued. “I haven’t done any shopping yet because I was kidnapped by a space Viking.”

Loki smirked. Amused, he finally looked up. “Well, perhaps I should take you back to Asgard with me then. I could use a diligent little servant.”

Your reaction did not disappoint him. Chuckling to himself, he slid off the bed more elegantly than you could ever muster, the Tesseract disappearing into nothingness.

“What I am trying to say is that even gods need to eat and I am, quite frankly, starving.”

“That sounds like a you-problem.” You grumbled. And then, as if on cue, your stomach growled. Damn it.

“Fine. I’ll order some pizza.”

-

Loki had all but watched you like a hawk upon calling the local pizza place. Everything inside of you had screamed to let them know about your predicament, to beg them to call the police and send them to you instead of the pizza.

But as soon as the food was delivered, the mood in your apartment changed so rapidly it left you wondering if the only reason for Loki’s world domination attempt had been his hunger. The man devoured a family-sized pizza in but what felt like two minutes and, upon realising you were done with yours, leaving three pieces in the box, he devoured those as well. And never before had you seen someone eat pizza so gracefully.

It didn’t exactly make it feel like you had been kidnapped anymore. Perhaps… perhaps he hadn’t been lying about not wanting to kill you after all. Perhaps he wasn’t as evil as you… no, stop. He had literally just tried to take over the planet!

“What are you pondering on, little mortal?”

You shivered, the nickname affecting you in a way it truly shouldn’t, especially after he had lost his armour and magically exchanged it for more casual clothes—they still looked like they were from a different time period altogether but it wasn’t nearly as intimidating as before.

“W-why did you really do it?” You found yourself asking. It was a risk—but you were feeling braver now that your stomach was full even though part of you was surprised you had managed to eat at all.

“What?”

“Why did you really try to take over the planet? Did you… do you really want to enslave us all?”

“A lack of freedom does not equal slavery. It offers protection from failure and bad choices.” He said. You frowned.

“You truly believe that?”

“You fight wars over opinions, religions and race among your own species. Your choices are suffocating the whole of Midgard. I would have changed that.”

“You can’t be serious.”

You looked down, reaching for the sweet treat that had come with your pizza to stop your fingers from trembling.

“What is that?”

“Oh, uh… those are marshmallows. This pizza place always packs them with your order, don’t ask me why.”

“What’s that?” He repeated, frowning at the plastic wrapper.

“It’s candy…”

“Well, it doesn’t look very natural.”

Woah. How had this conversation just gone from “humans should not have freedom of choice” to “marshmallows look unhealthy”?

“They’re… I mean they’re not. They’re made of pure sugar and artificial flavouring.”

“Then why do you eat them?”

“Because… because they taste good?”

Loki gave you a taunting look. See? It said. This is what I meant.

But when you opened the package and handed it to him, he took one out nonetheless. It looked tiny between his long fingers—as tiny as you must have looked next to him.

You gulped when it disappeared between his lips. When you reached out to take the package back, he snatched it away from you.

“They are quite delicious, actually.” Your jaw dropped when he popped them all into his mouth at once, winking at you. Not quite sure how to react to this, you averted your gaze, taking a feigned interest in your digital alarm clock on the nightstand instead.

It was only 5 PM but you were positively ready to pass out. Where would you even sleep tonight? Where would he sleep? Would he even sleep?

“You are tired.” He suddenly stated as if on cue. He couldn’t read your mind… right? He did have that weird cube of his, after all.

“Well, yeah… I got kidnapped, experienced a live remake of ‘Fast and Furious’ and I have a criminal in my flat.”

“I only understood half of what you just said but I can ensure you that I will not harm you when you sleep.” There it was again, that frown that almost made it look like he was offended. As if the very circumstance of him hurting an innocent for no reason other than malice insulted him.

“So by all means, retire to bed.” He went on, gesturing to the bed and eventually, standing up to make space for you. The pizza boxes disappeared in but a green shimmer of light and you watched Loki, albeit still suspicious, heading over to the small kitchen table. To be quite frank, it was the last thing you remembered.

-

Loki was gone, no trace of him left. It was as if he had never even been here. It was already past noon—the exhaustion from your flight as well as the racy car drive and last but not least, your shining time as a hostage had worn you out to the point you didn’t even remember falling asleep anymore.

You only realised now that it was your doorbell that had woken you up. Jumping out of bed and moaning when your vision turned black for a moment, you headed over to your speaker and pressed the button. Perhaps it was Loki. Perhaps he had locked himself out but then again… would he not be able to magic himself back in? Why had he insisted on you unlocking the door yesterday in the first place? You shook your head.

“Hello?”

“Hi. This is Henry, I’ve got your delivery.” A boyish voice responded.

“W-what delivery? I didn’t order anything.”

“You did, ma’am, would you come open the door, please?”

You sighed. “Fine, I’ll be down in a second.”

You had fallen asleep in your clothes from last night, so one quick glance in the mirror was all you had before you headed back down and opened the main entrance door.

The delivery boy was holding both your suitcase and a jumbo-size package of marshmallows in his hands. Big marshmallows—the bonfire kind, to be precise.

“Who…” But you knew. You knew the moment you made the connection and knew the moment you looked straight into Henry’s eyes and noticed them glowing unnaturally blue when he handed the items to you.

It had not been a dream then. Loki had really been here. You had been eating pizza with the God of Mischief and now… the gesture was almost sweet. Was that his way of saying thank you? For what? You hadn’t exactly done much except for trembling in fear.

“He instructed me to tell you that you will meet again soon.” Henry announced and then, before you even had a chance to respond, he turned on his heel, hopped back into the delivery van parked in front of the building and left. You only realised now that the Hyundai taxi was gone too.

[myherowritings]

PART 6. FUCK THE RICH, STEAL THEIR CANDY

SUMMARY. Todoroki Shouto was a wealthy, young CEO who inherited his father’s enterprise. You were a barista at a local cafe who wouldn’t mind some extra cash. One day, Shouto came in during an early morning shift and tipped you such a large sum of money, you were certain it had to have been an accident. To your surprise and complete pleasure: It was not.

PAIRING. ceo!todoroki shouto x barista!reader

WORD COUNT. 3.7k

GENRE. ceo/barista au, fluff, eventual smut

WARNINGS. enji...ew, some judgmental rich people, just a little bit of sexual tension and suggestive content to prep for the next part ;3

A/N. gala time omg let’s gooooo writing this made me 100% ready to fight rich ppl fjhjkgf and want to give shouto all the kisses ;p i hope you enjoy and tysm for reading!! xx sof 

SERIES MASTERLIST

© myherowritings — all rights reserved. reposting, modifying, copying, or translating of any kind is not allowed. do not read my writing as asmr. do not plagiarize.

The only thing you hoped for this past week was for Shouto not to regret the events that happened in the dressing room. (Or, more precisely, the events that didn’t happen because of an interruption but you both had very much wanted to happen at the time.) 

(Or so you hoped he did. It seemed like he did…) 

You groaned, burrowing your face in your pillows after flopping back onto your bed after a shower. Why was this so confusing? 

It wasn’t like Shouto was ignoring you or pretending nothing happened, but he’s just been so busy with work neither of you had time to sit down and really talk. You briefly got to see him for his daily morning coffee runs but you didn’t want to accidentally ruin what little time throughout the work week the two of you had by bringing it up. And now it was the weekend, which would have been the perfect time to talk about it, if not for the fact Shouto was picking you up to get ready at his place and then head to a super fancy gala in less than an hour! 

With a charity ball full of strangers you had to prepare for, you supposed your potential romance could take the back seat for a little while longer. 

At least the fruity little candies would be there waiting for you. 

Snapping you out of your thoughts, your phone buzzed with a message from Shouto telling you he was less than 20 minutes away from your place. Within the last few minutes, you double checked you had the necessities, like your makeup and clothes and hair supplies and shoes and possibly every ‘getting ready’ product you could think of under the sun, all ready to go. Your dress was already hanging in Shouto’s house, ready for you to change into.

Apparently, there wasn’t a moment left to spare since you soon got a call with him telling you he had just arrived. Taking deep breaths, you walked out your door, lugging your bag of belongings in tow.

“Good afternoon, Y/N,” Shouto greeted as you settled into his car. He smiled as you reached over to give him a quick side hug. He squeezed your shoulder gently. “Nervous about tonight?” 

You tried to calm the tapping your fingers were doing against the inside of the car door. “Is it obvious?” 

“Not really,” he assured. “Regardless, you shouldn’t worry. You’ll be an amazing date and we don’t even need to stay the whole time if you would rather not.” 

Amazing date date? Or amazing fake date? 

Would it be too forward of you to ask? (Not that anything could’ve been more forward than Shouto pinning you against a wall and almost kissing you just a few days ago.) 

“You’re right, it’ll be fine!” you said, trying to sound more confident than you felt. “After all, you’ll be there.” 

A smile. “Hm.”

It didn’t take very long for you to get from your place to his seeing as he lived relatively close to his work and therefore yours. He parked in front of a luxury high-rise apartment that was characterized by glass windows and angled architecture. It looked like something straight out of Portfolio Magazine. 

“All those ‘Japan’s Youngest CEO Bachelor’ tabloids are starting to make sense now,” you said with a teasing whistle, following Shouto into the building after being greeted by the security guards and receptionist. 

He held his hand out to you and you placed yours in his palm as he led you to the VIP elevator that brought you all the way up to the top floor. His hand gave yours a soft squeeze when he noticed your gaze darting around the area nervously. 

When the elevator doors opened, your eyes widened as you took in the ceramic floor tiles, the spotless walls, floor-to-ceiling mirror columns, and the natural light pouring in through the bare, glass windows. “Whoa— This looks like a wealthy bachelor pad if I’ve ever seen one.”

Letting go of your hand, Shouto offered to take your bag of belongings and brought it to a room for you to get ready in. “Do you...not like it?” 

“Oh, that’s not it at all!” You shook your head earnestly. “This place is so beautiful! And a little cold.” 

Both literally and metaphorically. 

His penthouse was elegant and sleek, with tasteful decor that probably cost more than a month’s salary for you. But it seemed a little...empty. Not like a home. 

Apparently, Shouto agreed. 

“I live here because it’s close to work. But it’s a little unwelcoming,” he admitted wryly. “Not something I ever really settled into. Though my mother and sister did try to help decorate.” 

You looked at the finely chosen contemporary paintings displayed on some of the walls. “They have good eyes.”

Shouto nodded but appeared to be in pensive thought. “If I were to ever settle down with a family, it wouldn’t be here. But this is what’s most suitable for now.” 

Running your fingers against the cold glass windows, you peered down into the city in an attempt to calm your fluttering heart having just learned Shouto valued having a family in the future. Something in you just liked hearing he one day wanted to settle down with someone. You bit your lower lip to stop a hopeful smile from spreading. 

“I’m sure you’ll be a great husband and father when the day comes,” you said quietly, still gazing out the window to avoid looking into his eyes. “But, um, anyway— I should start getting ready now! Don’t want us to be late for tonight.” 

His hand that was reaching out to hold you suddenly dropped to his side as he stepped away at your words. “Of course.”

You silently cursed yourself under your breath, wishing you had waited a few moments to talk so you could’ve seen what he was going to do. Would he have tried to kiss you again? You hoped that was the case, but it was too late to know for sure now.

“You can get ready in here,” said Shouto, opening the door to what looked like a guest bedroom, your dress hanging on an armoire inside. “There’s your dress. And the bathroom is right there if you need it.”

“Thank you, Shouto.” You resisted the urge to plop right on the huge bed and jump on it while he was in the room. “I’ll try to be quick!” 

“No need to rush; we have time.” He checked the watch on his wrist before turning to you. “I’ll be in the shower for a bit but if you need anything just let me know.” 

In the shower? While you were under the same roof? Your stomach did funny flips at the thought. 

“I’ll keep your offer in mind,” you said playfully, glancing over at the dress. You’d need his assistance sooner or later buttoning the dress up, but there was sadly no time for funny business if you wanted to make it to the gala in a timely manner. 

When Shouto left the room to take a shower, you began getting ready yourself. You did your hair and makeup in a way that made you feel confident and happy, and by the time you were done about two hours had passed. All you had left was to change into the dress and throw on some fancy shoes and you’d be set with time to spare. 

You were just wondering if Shouto was almost ready when you heard a knock on the door.

Speak of the devil. Or angel. He was much too sweet to be the devil, after all. 

“Everything okay in there?” he asked, voice muffled from the outside of the wall. 

You nodded before realizing he couldn’t see you. “Yeah! Just putting on the dress now.” 

There was a shuffle outside then a pause. Then, “Did you want any help?” 

“Yes, please.” You slipped into your outfit and pulled the front over your chest. The fabric was light against your body, making it feel almost ethereal. 

After a while, Shouto cautiously opened the door to the room and you turned to catch sight of him. He was dressed up in a fitted black suit with silky red trimmings and a tie that matched the color of your dress. His hair was combed back and to the side, pulled out of his face and giving you a clear view of his forehead. That was one pretty forehead. 

All in all, he looked as handsome as ever, but with some extra pizzazz. 

“You look great,” you both said at the same time. 

There was a beat of silence, then you both laughed.

“I’m only half in my dress and I’m sure I look a bit unruly, but thank you,” you giggled as Shouto walked over to grasp at the fastens on the back of your gown. 

He shook his head. “You look beautiful like you always do. The dress just helps compliment it even more.” 

His words brought warmth to your cheeks and you were glad you were faced away from him so he couldn’t see your all too pleased expression. “Smooth talker much?” 

“Not flattery. Just the truth.” 

Your smile grew even wider. “Hm.” 

Shouto nimbly fastened the buttons on your back, cold fingertips lightly grazing your skin in ways that sent shivers down your spine. You closed your eyes and hoped that was only a phrase and that he couldn’t actually tell how much your body was affected from such a simple touch by sensing shivers in your spine. 

You held your breath as he travelled up your back, skin sparking against skin. Time seemed to slow down as he closed the last few buttons. 

“Finished,” he said quietly, though his hands didn’t move from their position on you. 

Turning around, you caught his palms in yours, lightly stroking his knuckles with your thumb. Shouto looked down at your hands joined together then back at you.

You murmured, “Thanks for your assistance.” 

The tips of your noses were almost brushing together as you stared up at him. If either one of you were to lean forward a few centimeters more, your lips would be touching. Just like in the fitting room last weekend.

And just like in the fitting room, Shouto’s hands encircled your waist and toyed with the buttons on your dress while you tugged at his color. 

But just like in the fitting room, there was an interruption mere seconds before the kiss. It’s just that, this time, the interruption was from you.

“Wait! I have makeup on!” you cried, pulling away in despite the dissatisfaction you knew the both of you were feeling. “If we kiss it might get messed up and I’ll have to redo it and then we’ll be late to the gala.”

He made deep a sound of frustration. “Fuck the gala.” 

You wanted to. In this very moment, you would much rather ditch the gala and fuck something else, but you had to remain somewhat rational. “But we made a commitment to show up, didn’t we?” 

Shouto looked down like he had just been chided. “We did.” 

“Plus… The candy!” 

He blinked before a grin took over his face. He chuckled, “Of course. Can’t forget the greatest candy heist of the year.” 

“Exactly!”

His smile was amused but his hands rested intimately on your hips. “Besides, you put in effort to get ready for tonight, it’d be a disservice to keep you from showing it off.” 

Your cheeks warmed at his compliment as you let out a laugh. “Flatterer,” you accused, though your tone had no bite to it. Instead, it was teasing as you brought your palm up to cup his jaw. “We should probably get going if we don’t want to be late, hmm?”

“Mm.”

“But first—” You planted a kiss on his cheek, giving him just a small hint of what could come later that night. When you pulled away, there was a lipstick mark in the shape of your lips where his jawline met his cheek an you smiled, satisfied with your work. 

His grip on you tightened as his gaze turned hooded. “If I’m a flatterer, you’re being a tease.” 

“Sounds like a good combination to me.”

— ✩ —

Oddly enough, the Naruhata Charity Gala was going quite well. 

The food was yummy, there were cute places for you and Shouto to sneak off and take obnoxious selfies, and—most importantly—there were bowls of free candies scattered throughout the entire premise. 

A whole building was rented out for the charity ball to be held and the venue even had an outdoor pool and with complimentary champagne (not that anyone was exactly prepared to take a dip in the middle of the night, but the only thing that mattered to the guests was that you could). 

Both of you were having fun.

You met some of Shouto’s friends, got complimented by the DJ for your...enthusiastic dance skills on the dance floor, and, for most of the night, Shouto was successful in avoiding making conversation with his father. 

Things were going well. Until they weren’t. 

You and Shouto were standing in a hallway just outside the main ballroom, exchanging jokes and talking about how many crabcakes a person could fit in their mouth. Totally business as usual, until you heard a group of people whispering only mere feet away from you. 

“Are you sure that’s them?” a woman in a red dress whispered—and you used that term rather subjectively since the whisper could be heard by practically half the room—as she glanced at you.

Seeing their gazes, you froze in your spot. Shouto must have heard them to since his brows furrowed as he held you closer to him, protectively. 

“And you really heard them, right? Mr. Todoroki has a… You know…”  

Another girl who you recognized as another customer from the dress store the other day nodded her head. “Yes, I overheard it with my own two ears when I was getting my outfit. That’s Mr. Todoroki and his sugar baby!”

You almost choked on your crabcake. 

Shouto rubbed circles into your back. “You okay?”

“Peachy,” you said sheepishly, trying not to draw even more attention to yourself than there already was. On the plus side, at least more people would notice how hot you look in this dress with your hair and makeup done. (Though it might be for the wrong reasons…) 

You vaguely recalled teasing Shouto about looking like a sugar daddy, and he joked back. But you didn’t think anyone would want to gossip enough to overhear a joke and spread it around as a rumor! 

The group began chattering some more and seemed to gain a crowd. You even saw a large figure you recognized as Todoroki Enji walking towards you.

“I’m going to have to clear things up, aren’t I?” 

Shouto shook his head, a frown present on his face. But you knew his displeasure wasn’t directed at you. “You don’t need to pay attention to this nonsense. People can think what they want.” 

“It’s okay! I don’t want to ruin your reputation with the media when I was initially here to help it get better. Besides, they don’t seem to be doing it maliciously. They’re just curious.” 

He looked at you, but before he could think of the words to say, you walked over to the group of gossiping partygoers. 

You tapped on the shoulder of the one you saw at the store. “Hi! Excuse me…” All eyes turned to you and you tried not to shrink down. “I, ah, I know what you overheard that day at the dress retailers, but I just wanted to clear it up and say it was a joke! Funny right? Well, maybe not so funny to you guys, but it was just an inside joke between me and Shouto.” You laughed, growing nervous at the lack of response. “You see, I’m not actually his sugar—” 

Just then, a booming voice interrupted, “Shouto! What are you thinking, son?”

You almost jumped at the sound and turned towards the direction of your date. As you whirled around, you made eye contact with him. Shouto had a furious expression on his face, but when his gaze met yours he tried giving you a comforting smile. Seeing his distress, you immediately made your way back to him.

“A nice woman to boost your media image,” Enji whispered, trying to lead his son to a less crowded area, probably so no one else would overhear or spread more rumors. “That’s all I asked for. Not a…a…you know!”

Was it a criterion that rich people must not know how to whisper? you asked yourself. Either, one, no one was actually trying to whisper, or two, they could not control their volume very well. 

“Actually,” you spoke up from behind him. When Enji turned to look at you, you gave him a wave before walking over to Shouto’s side. “I’m not his sugar baby. But even if I were, what’s it to you?” 

There was a hush of silence that settled around the room and you almost had to laugh at how comical it was. 

“As long as it’s an agreement between two consenting adults, there’s nothing wrong with it,” you said, hoping it didn’t just go in one of his ears and out the other. “You could think of it as like a business deal, but...with more of a relationship aspect.” 

Enji’s face turned a shade of red. “That’s not the sort of people someone with Shouto’s upbringing should hang around with. I don’t know how you were raised, but—” 

“Stop it, father.” Shouto’s voice was angry as he clenched his jaw. But his arm was wrapped around your waist. You gently squeezed his hand with yours. “You don’t get to make assumptions about Y/N without ever even talking to them.”

“Shouto,” he said in a warning tone when he noticed more and more people were paying attention to them. This didn’t exactly seem like the attention he wanted. “We can talk about this later.”

Shouto frowned. “There’s nothing to talk about. All you have to do is say sorry to Y/N and then we can leave.” He turned around to the crowd trying to pretend they weren’t listening in. “And everyone else, you can stop eavesdropping.” 

They look startled at the forward confrontation and you stifled a giggle, leaning into your date with a smile. 

He gave you a chaste kiss on your forehead before murmuring under his breath, “Everyone attending a charity gala just to brag about how generous they are but then turning around to judge everyone who might not be in the same circle as them? How shameless.”

Although it seemed like he was whispering it, your hypothesis that rich people really didn’t know how to whisper was right, since it was loud enough for the whole room to hear. Not that you or Shouto seemed to mind. 

“You know, if you’re not going to apologize to Y/N, there’s no reason we should stay any longer,” he told his dad as a stiff goodbye. 

You nodded in agreement before taking a handful of candy from a nearby bowl. “Well, now there’s no reason to stay.” 

Spinning on your heel, the two of you headed for the exit, somehow not caring but all too aware of the eyes on you at the same time. Before reaching the door, Shouto grabbed two bowls of candy in the reception area and walked out the door with it, everyone too stunned to say anything about it. You walked into the parking lot smothering fits of laughter the whole way, still in disbelief about the events that had just occurred.

“For you,” said Shouto as the two of you reached his car, still carrying the candy in his arms. 

You choked out a laugh at the audacity of it all. He even took the bowls? The candies were free for the guests, but you weren’t so sure the bowls were. “I… Thanks, Shouto. I’m never going to run out of these candies now!” 

“Hm,” was the approving noise he made. 

When you both got into his car, he looked at you before turning the engine on. Now that the adrenaline had passed, he had a much more solemn expression on his face. 

“Y/N,” he said, sounding apologetic, “I’m really sorry about my dad. And about the gossip. You didn’t deserve any of that.”

“It’s okay. It wasn’t too bad, and none of it was your fault! Besides,” you said, giving his hand on the gear shift a squeeze. After pulling out of the parking spot, he let go of the stick and interlocked his fingers with yours. “I had the best date ever to make up for it.”

“I have to disagree with that because I think I was the one with the best date.” Shouto smiled playfully, squeezing your hand in his. 

“Agree to disagree, then.” 

He chuckled and you grinned. Tonight was going great until the last hour’s mishap, and while it was uncomfortable and disheartening to hear gossip about you from people who were supposed to be sophisticated, grown adults, you weren’t lying when you told Shouto he was enough to make up for all that bullshit. You were grateful for him standing up for you and basically saying fuck rich people and charity galas in front of them all. 

Oh, and for getting you enough candy to last you at least a few months, of course.

He really was the best date ever.

As Shouto signaled to get out of the structure, he asked, “Now, should I take you back to your home or…?”

You shook your head, already knowing where he was going with this (and very much liking it). “Hmm,” you drawled, pretending to think about it. “How about we go back to your place to finally finish what we started?” 

“I thought you’d never ask.”

In all honesty, you were quite surprised yourself that you asked. But, damn, would you be glad you did.

a/n: woOO EAT THE RICH STEAL THEIR CANDY STEAL THEIR BOWLS HGFJKS, i’m already so in love with shouto but i have fallen in love with one (1) rich boy even more :3 

what to expect in the next part:

yes. it’s time for u know what ;)

y/n and shouto finally……high five <3

jkjk

THE NEXT PART IS THE FINAL PART AND YOU WILL SEE WHY THIS SERIES OVERALL HAD TO BE 18+ KSKKFG

[mystic-deep]

“You don’t know how to beg, darling.” part 2 | Nanami Kento x fem!reader

♡ ♡ ♡ description: Moving to your dream home had been more difficult than you had expected. Everything seems so be going well, until you get a surprise guest.

♡ ♡ ♡ warnings: nsfw, fingering, rough kissing, penetration, shower sex

♡ ♡ ♡ notes: part two is here! hope you guys enjoy it, I know I did while writing it haha and as always it's not proofread so please show mercy.

♡ ♡ ♡ part one here:  “You don’t know how to beg, darling.”

♡ ♡ ♡ word count: 3.3 k

“It’s not too big but it’s not too small, and property is selling like crazy in this neighborhood, so I think you’re making a great investment!”

The real estate agent pulled in front of a modest looking house and offered you a hopeful grin. It had been almost a month since you were house hunting and nothing really fit with what you were looking for. Your dream home was proving to be quite an impossible task – either the property was good but it was too far from the beach, or the property was right on the beach but the house was a disaster. The ones that hurt the most? The houses that were just right but they were over budget.

“I don’t know, I’m not impressed.”

With pursed lips, you stepped out of the car and looked at the exterior wall of the house that clearly needed some good repairs. As you followed the agent through the metal gate and into the front garden, you had to admit that it at least had some nice flower arrangements and sturdy trees offered a pleasant shade.

“It has two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a small study, a large kitchen equipped with all the newest gadgets, a garage and quite a cozy living room.”

As you stepped inside you had to admit that it looked much better that what the exterior had promised. The rooms were spacious enough, the main bedroom having a nice view of the beach and the kitchen was indeed equipped with everything you’d want a modern kitchen to have.

It might not have been perfect, there was definitely work to be done and the furniture it came with was hideous, but so far it was the best you’ve seen. However, just like you expected, it was over budget.

Sensing your indecisive state, like any good agent would, the young woman pushed you from behind towards the terrace. “Oh, but I haven’t showed you the best part yet!”

You gasped, you just stood there like an idiot and gasped as you stepped out on the terrace and looked straight at the sea in front of you. Forget being near the beach, you were literally on the beach! There was a small wooden trail leading to the golden sand and the blue waves, just a minute walk and you’d be submersed in the cool water.

“Imagine waking up to this every morning and imagine reading a book and drinking a glass of wine as the sun sets.” The devil on your shoulder, that’s what it felt like as she whispered almost seductively in your ear. You were impressed with her skill though - she definitely left the best part for last just to give it that wow factor.

Still, it was a going to drain almost all of your economies and - “The beach in front is private, you own it.”

“Where do I sign?”

The agent gave you a tight hug, more than happy to finally be rid of you, and dashed to the car where she happened to have a bottle of champagne prepared for the wonderful occasion. You thought to yourself that she either was so confident in her skills that she will convince you to buy this house, or prepared to get drunk after yet another failed attempt.

You looked back at the incredible blue sea and took a deep breath. It was scary, it was right down terrifying to jump head on into the unknown and with no current financial stability. You still had a regular income from your previous job since your boss pretty much refused to let you go, but you had half of your responsibilities and obviously half the salary. You would be on a tight budget for the next few months, you had to see if the house needed any immediate repairs and you had to redecorate everything inside.

“And when will your husband be joining you?”

You were brought back to the harsh reality by the excited voice of the young woman who was now pouring the cheap champagne in plastic glasses.

“Soon…he still has some things he needs to take care of back home.”

Your heart began to tighten in your chest as your thumb gently rubbed the golden ring on your index finger. You were so used to wearing it that you simply put it on every morning like routine. When asked, you told everyone that you were still married because you felt you would be safer that way and because, technically, you still were.

After your last exchange of messages Nanami had not contacted you once. He didn’t sign the divorce papers and you were starting to think that hiring a lawyer just seemed inevitable at this point. You had been so caught up with the moving and the house hunting that you just pushed it in the back of your mind like some trivial matter that you’ll take care of once you got around.

“Well I’m sure he’s just going to love your new home! Here’s to a happy family!”

You took a sip from the champagne glass, quickly spitting the liquid back before the agent could see you, and looked outside the window. Family…you felt like you were a long way from achieving that, but owning your very own little piece of heaven in Malaysia sure made things easier.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

With a sigh you pulled the phone away from your ear as the whimpers of your boss were now scratching your eardrums. “No, I’m not coming back, we’ve talked about this hundreds of times already. Also, please stop crying.”

“And I’m telling you that you’ve offered them too much for such a small quantity of products. Last year when we made the purchase we offered them 30% less, what made them spike the prices so high this time around?” You poured the fresh coffee in your favorite mug and skillfully avoided stepping on your cat as you moved to place it on a tray.

“The bad economy has affected everyone not just them.” You propped your phone between your shoulder and your ear as you dropped a tablespoon of sugar in the coffee and began to stir. “Tell them that you’re going to offer them 10% more than what we offered last year and only if they increase the batch by 20%.” Your eyes narrowed slightly as you placed a book on the tray and a freshly baked pain au chocolat. “What do you mean what are you going to do with the rest of the products? Sell them to your competitors at double the price. Have I taught you nothing?”

Several minutes later, after somewhat managing to calm down the older man, you strolled down the wooden path to the beach where a large folding chair and a small table were waiting for you. You placed the tray on the table, sat down and took in the wonderful view in front of you. The weather outside was perfect and you decided to wear just a light summer dress that was slightly transparent.

You took a sip from your coffee and opened your book, deciding that this was a day for lazing around. It had been more than a month since you’ve finally finished with all the repairs and decorations but it was worth the long wait. Everything looked just perfect now, you had flexible working hours and you even managed to adopt a stray cat.

Yes, everything was perfect, everything was going great.

“Took me forever to find you.”

You looked up from your book and blinked once, blinked twice, and still couldn’t believe what you were seeing. There, hovering above you, stood Nanami with his blond hair and sharp blue eyes, with his sand colored pants and his white shirt with the sleeves pulled up to his elbows, the golden band of the wedding ring shinning in the sun.

“What…How…When…” You didn’t even know how to phrase your shock. A part of you was hoping that you were hallucinating.

“It took me forever to convince your mother to talk to me. Then probably just as long to get her to tell me where you were. She’s not really good at remembering small details so she had no idea what your house looked like.” He huffed in annoyance before plopping down on the sand by your side. “Took me awhile to find the house.”

“How did you get in?”

“Strangely enough she remembered perfectly where the spare key was.” Betrayed by my own mother, you thought bitterly.

“Why are you here, Nanami?”

“Not Kento? From what I remember, you’re Nanami too.”

Your face began to burn with anger and sensing that you were on the verge of exploding, he quickly fished out of his pocket a folded paper.

“I’m not here to fight, I just came to give you this.” You took the piece of paper with trembling hands and opened it. The divorce papers, and they were signed. Finally, your marriage was over.

“You could have just mailed them to me.”

“I didn’t come all the way here just to hand you the papers, I also wanted to talk. You owe me that much after pulling that disappearing act.”

Your first intention was to protest, then again maybe listening to him rather than fighting back would make things end quicker. You offered him a little nod to continue.

“I don’t have excuses for cheating on you. No one seduced me, I searched for someone to bend to my will and I found her quickly. I wanted to feel needed…no, I wanted to feel like I was dominating.” His eyes looked down to his hands almost in shame. “You were working so hard, you were so ambitious, it felt like you could truly achieve our dream…while I had so little hope it was possible, it felt like you would leave me behind.”

You listened attentively to every word, trying your best not to let the anger get to you. Just bear with it, let him say whatever will make him feel better and then you won’t have to see him ever again. Although, now that he was in front of you, that thought was turning to be hell.

“I was jealous, I was jealous of the fact that I was no longer your priority. I feared the day you’d realize you didn’t really need me and that you could achieve everything by your own.”

“So you’ve cheated on me and said all those cruel things because you were insecure?” Your eyes became watery as your hands curled in tight fists. “Is this all you had to say? Because I think I’ve heard enough.”

“I’m sorry, y/n. I’m sorry for the pain I’ve caused, I’m sorry for not being strong enough to make our dream come true. That day when you left me was also the day I ended my affair. If I could…but I can’t, so I guess that yeah, that’s all I had to say.”

He stood up and gently patted his pants to get rid of the sand before looking at you.

“For all it’s worth, I really like the house and I like the cat and-” His eyes traveled to your chest that was covered by the thin white material of the dress. “-I definitely like this dress.”

Your cheeks turned pink and your arms quickly went to cover the skin that felt so exposed. Taking advantage of your distraction, he reached for your legs and lifted you up, carrying you princess style, and began to walk towards the sea.

“W-What are you doing?”

You were met with silence as Nanami continued his march unbothered by your kicking and screaming.

“Wait! The water is pretty cold!” Despite your protest, he entered the icy blue water, trying his best to hide the little winces every time a small wave hit him.

“Nanami, if you drop me, I swear-”

“I thought you wanted me to let you down.”

“Oh you’ve let me down plenty of times already.”

With a small glare, he retrieved his arm making you fall unceremoniously in the cold water. You let at a shriek and realized in horror that the divorce papers that you were holding were now being washed away by the sea.

“Oh no, how very tragic.” Nanami’s smirk and sarcasm were the last straw, and you plunged yourself at him, knocking him down in the shallow water.

His eyes grew large and tried to fight you as you straddled him and pinned his arms above his head.

“Move.” His voice was low and dangerous but the adrenaline pumping in your veins made you immune.

“You don’t know how to beg, darling.” There were a series of emotions flashing in his eyes, from shock, to anger, to amusement and finally…sadness.

“But if I learn, will you take me back?”

You looked at him and time just seemed to stop. Right here, this moment, this bickering and playing in the water, this half wet half disheveled man, the way he looked at you, your clothes wet and sticking to your skin, sticking to each other…it was perfect.

Your lips crushed on his in a hungry kiss and he eagerly retuned it. With a quick movement, he wrapped his arm around your waist and lifted your body along with his. Effortlessly, you thought as you your legs wrapped around his waist and let yourself be carried inside the house.

“Bedroom.” You motioned to the small stairs that ledmk to the first floor and he pretty much jogged towards the room, all the while maneuvering splendidly your excited cat that thought it was time to play.

He closed the door behind you before his hand reached for the back of your head and pulled you in for another deep kiss. You both began to shiver, probably from the excitement of finally touching each other for so long but also because you were wet from head to toe.

“Undress.” He pulled slightly away and began to unbutton his shirt, his eyes never leaving you.

“You’re pretty monosyllabic today.” You ignored his annoyed expression and focused on removing your dress, but your hands froze on the waistband of your panties.

What were you doing? Was this enough? Was this all it took for you to forgive him and welcome him back with opened arms?

“I’ll help you remove these.” With a quick movement, he pulled down the piece of lingerie and tossed it on the ground where the rest of the clothes were. You didn’t even realize when he had backed you against the wall, but now here you were, trapped like last time, the only difference was that now you were both very much naked.

He was so close to you that your perked nipples were softly brushing against his bare chest. Slowly, he let his hand travel between your thighs and began to rub gently with his thumb. You inhaled deeply and looked down at his cock, hard and swollen and begging for attention. You wrapped your small hand around it and gave it a few gentle strokes, noticing how his brows began to furrow and sweat began to form on his forehead.

He was hard and more than ready to have you against the wall, and as his finger travelled to your folds, he realized you were wet and needy and more than ready to be taken.

Just as you were anticipating his fingers to enter you, he pulled away and took a few steps back. You were left there, the light of the morning sun shining on your naked body and looked at him in a quizzical way.

“Beautiful…you’re just so damn beautiful.” Your face felt red and hot and the lack of his touch made your body shiver.

Noticing your state, Nanami gently took your hand and guided you both to the bathroom, turning on the shower before letting you step inside.

You left out a sigh as the hot water washed over your skin and glanced over your shoulder as Nanami stepped inside as well, one hand resting on the shower tiles while the other rested on your hip.

“Hard and fast.” He whispered in your ear as you felt the tip of his cock probing at your entrance. “Hard and fast and then I promise…I’ll make it slow and good for you.” With that he entered you with a deep thrust and you let your head fall back in a silent scream.

He wasn’t joking when he said hard and fast, his hips were snapping into you at such a pace you were seeing stars. Your hands fell on the wet tiles, trying to hold your body from collapsing. It had been too long for the both of you so you understood the urgency of fucking you so intensely.

His hand travelled to your clit and began to rub it vigorously, making all your body tremble from head to toe. “Oh! K-Kento!”

“So we’re back to Kento now?”

You turned your head to look at him and arched a brow. “Do you want me to call you ‘daddy’?”

He pinched your clit hard and rubbed your left nipple with little mercy. “Would you like to call me that, princess?” His hand left your clit and landed a slap against your ass. “Although, I suggest next time you put a little more effort into it, just to avoid punishment.” He was grinning from head to toe, the damn bastard was enjoying every single second of this teasing.

Your mouth opened in order to argue back but you let out a loud moan as he began to push himself inside of you even deeper. So close, you were so close and he was hitting just that right spot. The warm water was falling on your already hot skin, the slaps that his hips made against your body were making lewd sounds that filled the whole bathroom, everything was foggy and your mouth felt dry.

“Fuck, I’m so close-” You could hear him mumble some other words but you were so far gone at this point that the only thing that you could concentrate on was your inevitable soul shattering climax.

“Oh god, please, please, Kento, I’m almost, I’m-” You let out a scream as you came around his swollen cock, nearly collapsing in the process. With his hand tightly fixated on your hips, Nanami slowed down for a moment, letting you regain some kind of composer before returning to a fast pace. You were so wet, you were squeezing him so tightly, your little moans and whimpers sent vibrations to his lower stomach, making him shiver.

“You’re just so perfect, my love. You’re always just so perfect for me to fuck.” A few more thrusts and his hands gripped with such force at your hips that you were sure he left bruises. You didn’t care at the very least, not when your husband had just let out the most primal growl you ever heard him making and his cock filled your hole with his delicious hot cum.

You both just stood there for a few seconds, your forehead resting on the slightly cool tile while Nanami kissed your shoulders before finally pulling out of you.

“Now that hard and fast is over…when am I getting slow and good?”

“Always so greedy.” He let out a light chuckle before pressing a soft kiss on your lips. “I love you.” Just like that, he let the words roll out of his mouth with such ease and looked at you with complete adoration.

“I love you too.” You turned around and let your hands gently caress his cheeks, the happiness of being able to say these words again making you feel light as a feather.

“Good, I’ll need you to love me a lot. There will be plenty of other ‘hard and fast’ sessions before this day is over.” And for once, you didn’t open your mouth to argue.

[ugly-crying-over-bucky-barnes]

Interruptions

Summary: Ada’s twin sister takes a more active role in her brothers’ company. Yet that means she has frequent run-ins with Alfie Solomons who she is less than fond of.

Requested by @bangbap

            To be fair, Helen didn’t hate Alfie Solomons as much as she hated other people. There was a clear hierarchy of the men that her brother did business with. Alfie was somewhere around the middle. She found him arrogant, overbearing, and aloof with a bit of a god-complex mixed in. But she didn’t get to pick and choose who she worked with as a part of the Shelby Company Ltd.

            Helen didn’t feel like she owed her brothers anything but seeing as her twin, Ada, took no interest in the company, she felt as if she might as well help. She was very close with Polly and took comfort under her aunt’s wing, learning all she could.

            Still, there were days when she wished she had followed Ada’s route. Taking a salary and living nicely in London. One of those days was trekking all the way out to London, Camden Town more specifically.

            Her brothers were all too busy to bring paperwork to Alfie. While Arthur had some reservations about their younger sister going, the paperwork was important in upholding the fragile relationship between the Camden Jews and the Blinders. Besides, everything Helen learned was from either her brothers or Polly. She didn’t go down without a fight.

 ~~~~~~~~

            Ollie recognized the woman as she approached the bakery. “Morning, Miss Shelby.” He greeted politely although there was a hint of confusion on his face.

            “How are you, Ollie?” Helen took no issue with Alfie’s assistant. The young man seemed to do his best and had a personality very opposite of his boss.

            “I’m well…but we weren’t expecting you.” He admitted. There was nothing on Alfie’s agenda that had anything to do with the Shelbys.

            “Tommy confirmed with him over the phone that I would be coming out today.” She replied.

            “Right…I guess there was a mix-up.”

            “Well, this will only take a moment.” Helen smiled tightly and went to go through the double doors.

            Ollie looked a little panicked, following her close behind. “I should warn you not to trouble him. He’s in a mood.”

            “So am I. I’ve had to travel all the way to London to do my brothers’ dirty work. I’m not exactly in the best mood either.” She didn’t slow down, striding down the hall toward Alfie’s office.

            “It wouldn’t be wise-”

            “I’ve dealt with him before; I can handle it.” And that was that. There was no stopping her as she knocked on the door.

            “Fuck off!” Alfie’s angry voice came from the other side.

            “It’s Helen Shelby, I’ve got contracts that need signing.” She didn’t waver.   

            There was a pause before heavy footsteps crossed the office and the door flung open. “What part of fuck off do you not understand, love?” Alfie stood in the doorway with an intimidating stance.

            “What don’t you understand about these contracts need signing?” She retorted before slipping past him and making herself comfortable in his office. “You knew I was coming, oh hello Cyril, Tommy called you and confirmed. It’s not my fault, oh yes I see you Cyril that’s a good boy, that you can’t keep track of your appointments.”

            Alfie turned around bewildered that she had pushed her way in. The nerve of some people. “Love, I could shoot you right now, yeah, just on the account of you fucking trespassing into me office.”

            Helen dropped the stack of paper on his desk and sat down to pet Cyril. At least the dog was happy to see her. “Then you’d have more Shelbys trespassing, wouldn’t you?”

            Alfie grumbled obscenities under his breath. She’d called his bluff more than enough times. Both of them were highly aware that he would never bring her harm, but it was the only threat he had in his arsenal. No other threats worked on her. After a few months of their professional relationship, Alfie found that she was a mix of her brothers. That was the worst thing about her. She had the calm, stoic nature of Tommy but had the temper of Arthur when she so chose.       

            “You just have to sign a couple of papers and I’ll be gone.”

            “I may not sign them just on the fucking principle,” Alfie responded stubbornly.

            “Oh God, Alfie, please don’t act like a child.” Helen rolled her eyes.

            “I’m acting like a child? You’re the one who barged her way in here without a fucking care in the world.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “I’ll reschedule a day with your brother. Get out.”

            “I came all the way from Birmingham, I’m not leaving without a fucking signature.” She stood up to stare him down.

            “Well, you can think about your manners on your way back to that shithole.”

            She scoffed. “My manners?”

            “Yeah.”

            “Oh, for Christ-never mind. Fuck it.” She gathered the papers on the desk. “I’m not wasting my time with you. But you’re the one who will have to answer to Tommy.” She spat before storming out of the office.

            “Like I’m scared of your brother!” He yelled after her. The sound of her heels on the concrete floor faded away. There was no trace of her left. Alfie hated that he felt a pang of emptiness in her absence.

~~~~~~~~~~ 

            Tommy exchanged words with Alfie and a week later, Helen was sent back to Camden Town despite her protests.

            Ollie wasn’t at the door, so she let herself in. She passed the assistant on the way to Alfie’s office.

            “He’s expecting you.” He confirmed.

            “Oh, good. The man can finally remember something for once.” Helen replied sarcastically as she knocked on the door.

            “Come in.” At least it was a nicer reply than last time.

            Helen walked in. “Are you going to behave this time or am I going to have to go back empty-handed again?”

            Alfie leaned back in his desk chair, arms crossed, half-moon glasses perched on the bridge of his nose. “Depends.”

            “On what?”

            “On your attitude.”

            “You want me to grovel or something? May I remind you; you were the one who caused the fuss last time.”

            Alfie tutted his tongue and shook his head. “You’ve learned too much from your brothers.”

            “I’m not my brothers.” She decided to sit down instead of arguing on her feet. “They lack my charm.”

            He laughed and shook his head. “You Shelbys and your charm.” He leaned forward and lazily sorted through the paperwork she set down on his desk.

            “Oh, please just sign them. Don’t play around.”

            But each of his movements was deliberate. Slow and careful to increase their time together. Alfie couldn’t put his finger on why he liked Helen so much. After all, she had most of the Shelby qualities that drove him up the wall. Yet, he could tolerate her for hours. He enjoyed their banter and it didn’t hurt that he thought she was beautiful.

            Helen raised an eyebrow at him. “Well?”

            “Well, what?”

            “Do you need a pen? I’ve got one.”  She began to rummage through her purse.

            “Tell you what,” He tapped his knuckles against the desktop. “I’ll sign ‘em, but not here.”

            “Alf-”

            “Just hear me out, aye? There’s a place on Regent’s we can go to.”

            Helen paused and recollected herself. “I’m sorry. Alfie Solomons, are you asking me on a date?”

            He cleared his throat and shrugged. “S’pose it depends on if you want to call it that.”  

            “Well…” She subconsciously fixed her hair. “If my brothers found out they would kill you.”

            “They want to kill me for a lot of reasons, love. But I understand.”

            “Do you understand that our meeting at this place on Regent’s will be business?”

            Alfie narrowed his eyes. She had a small smirk on her lips. “Right…right, business. Business.” He nodded in affirmation. He understood.

            Helen couldn’t help but laugh softly. “All this time you’ve been giving me trouble.”

            “Well, you Shelbys are attracted to trouble. So, to keep you around…”

            “You stirred up trouble.” She never thought her second trip to Camden would result in such a way. And yet…it felt right. Maybe she’d been waiting all this time. Being a Shelby was thrilling in its own right. But sneaking around with Alfie Solomons? It felt like electricity coursing through her veins.

            “So?”

            “So, I’ll go to my sister’s home to get ready for our meeting. You can pick me up there.” She stood up and lingered by his desk.

            “Ada won’t tell your brothers?”

            “No, she won’t notice where I’ve gone.”

            Alfie nodded and stood up as well. “Erm, I’ll walk you out then.” He offered.

            But Helen stopped at the door and waited until he got close to her. Feeling that jolt of thrill, she kissed his cheek.

            He stopped in his tracks as if he’d completely frozen.

            She looked smugly at him. “That’s for making me come out here a second time, Solomons.” She murmured before going on her way.  

            “Fucking hell.” He grinned and watched her leave.

Permanent Tag: @papa-geralt-of-cirilla @biba3434 @kimmietea @enrapturedbythemoon @vampgirl1997 @tarafaithe @evelynshelby

PB Masterpost

[deiliamedlini]

WIP Wednesday

This is a piece of a long oneshot I was working on that I actually just went back to so I could change the era this took place in to use for something else! So this is is the modern meeting of small-town Link and big-city-moving-to-small-town-for-work Zelda. 

I might still go back to this one specifically, especially since most of this info can’t transfer to the earlier era I’m changing it to. I also haven’t edited it, since I’m just in the process of hijacking bits and pieces, so please excuse my dear Aunt Sally. No, wait... that’s not writing... 

~~~~

“I just can’t believe they sent me here,” Zelda said into her phone. It was tucked between her cheek and her shoulder as she drove down a dirt road. On one side, there was farmland: an extensive few acres of it, from what she could tell. On her other side, trees.

Zelda loved trees. She did! They were a big part of her job, and she had nothing against them. But goddess above, she’d never seen so many trees in her life. Glancing at the clock, she realized that she’d been surrounded by trees for nearly an hour now, overwhelmed by the sight.

A city girl through and through, her entire life had been spent in the bustle of Castle Town: the largest, busiest, most innovative and thriving city in all of Hyrule. She’d gone to the best schools there, and worked at an exclusive corporation.

But they needed her to go somewhere else.

For the sake of the research, she reminded herself as she tried to focus on the phone and not all the trees. Or the mountains that replaced skyscrapers and castles. Or the farms that replaced parks and streets.

On the other end of the receiver were two voices. One was Midna, Zelda’s best friend. The other was Tetra, her older sister. The three of them together were incredibly close, and Midna had even offered to uproot her own life to join Zelda on this rural adventure. But Zelda had told her to hold down the fort; this move wasn’t permanent, and she’d be joining Midna back in their three-bedroom apartment that they all had shared in the heart of Castle Town.

“Are you almost there?” Midna asked, loudly typing something into her computer.

“She’s got to be,” Tetra muttered.

“I think I am.” Zelda looked around, but there were only… more trees. Shocker. “If the moving truck could find this place, then so can I.”

“Does she start work tomorrow?” Tetra asked, clearly directed at Midna.

“No,” Zelda answered for her. “I start Monday. They’re going to send me all the information ‘once I get settled.’”

“At least you know how much they value you,” Midna tried, but it was clearly a forced compliment and a poor attempt to make Zelda feel any better about taking this position. But really, when her boss asked her to take on a special assignment, one that paid double her old salary, she couldn’t resist, no matter how uprooted her life became.

“I know, but it’s—”

Suddenly, there was more than just trees.

A goat stepped into the road, much faster than Zelda ever thought goat could move. She dropped the phone, let out a high-pitched noise of absolute panic, and swerved around the goat. But she swerved off the dirt path, heard a thud, felt the car shake, and immediately slammed the breaks, rearing forward into the steering wheel.

“Sweet Goddess Hylia and all things holy!” she hissed, breathing heavily. Her chest hurt where she’d bounced into the wheel, but it hadn’t nearly been hard enough to cause the airbags to deploy.

Quickly putting the car in park, she shakily unbuckled her seatbelt and stepped outside, shaking out her hands and letting out some nerves before reaching into the car to grab the fallen phone.

“I’m okay,” she said quickly, brushing her hair from her face. “I almost hit a goat.”

“Goddess!” they both breathed. “We thought you were dead! My heart, Zelda!”

“I know, I’m sorry! Look, I hit something. I don’t see any dead animals in the road, but I’m going to hang up so I can look. I’ll call you later.”

The three of them were notorious for never saying ‘goodbye’ on the phone. Really, they didn’t do it in real life either. Even when Zelda left, the last thing Tetra had said was ‘I’ll come up to visit  real soon’, and Midna had said, ‘find me a hottie, or some other excuse to move up there with you.’

So, Zelda hung up with just a promise to call them back, and she hurried down the road to where she’d heard the thud.

It didn’t take much investigating to figure out what had happened: there was a broken fence, splintered and thrown wildly around the area after her apparent impact with it, and a frayed rope on the ground. And a sign that said “fence broken”. Helpful.

Zelda glanced back at the goat, unmoved by anything that had just occurred. It was meandering through the road, boredly exploring an area that it didn’t seem interested in. Perhaps the trees felt familiar to it.

Zelda groaned and took a picture of the fence before trying to get the internet on her phone so she could look up the local police number to report that she’d damaged property.

No internet connection.

“Great,” she muttered, turning to take a picture of the goat before it could move. Then, she headed back to her car, just to make sure there was no innocent animal underneath. She flipped the flashlight on and ducked down.

Zelda groaned, but not because there was a dead animal. No, it wasn’t an animal that was dead; it was her tire. There was a giant piece of the broken fence impaled into the rubber, and thanks to her rolling a few feet away, it was in there good.

“Of course. Of course!” Zelda yelled into the abyss, not even earning a curious glance from the goat.

Grabbing her phone, she was blinded by the light she’d left on and turned it around so she could look up the tow company immediately but was met by the same message. No internet connection.

Rolling her eyes, she scrolled to Midna’s name and pressed call.

Silence. Not even ringing.

Zelda checked the corner of the screen, struck first by her red battery life, and second by the device bars desperately looking for a connection.

“I was just talking to them!” she yelled at the phone, as if it cared that she’d had service moments ago. It gave her the urge to throw the phone, but she wasn’t that angry yet.

Instead, she turned her camera on, took a picture of her impaled tire in case the insurance company would need it, and then took several pictures of the goat just for fun, praying that it didn’t charge at her or whatever goats did.

She continued observing the goat without anything else to do until a car headed down the road. She stood and began to wave her arms wildly, but the car drove right past her.

“Jerk,” she muttered, pushing her hair back and returning to sit. But it wasn’t long until a pickup truck slowed down before she could even get back out of the car. She breathed a sigh of relief when they stopped and rolled down the window.

“Everything alright, Miss?”

“Not really,” she sighed, looking at her car sympathetically. She gestured to her tire.

“Got a spare? I got a jack if you need it.”

His voice was accented with the local dialect, which made her feel a little at ease. At least this was someone who’s likely be familiar with the area and could tell her how far away she was.

She had to admit, she’d spoken to one of her coworkers on the phone and had also become enamored with her accent, though it wasn’t from around here either. Zelda had a feeling she was just a sucker for anything that wasn’t the harsh poshness of the Castle Town accent, where every letter pronounced, every syllable attempting to be heard. It was a hard accent, and a cold one. The ones around here was warm and inviting.

Of course, it would make her stick out anytime she opened her mouth, which she didn’t really want.

Castle Town was posh, for sure. A town for the rich and the well-off, or those in school or at work. So Zelda knew a thing or two about stranger danger, and the deeply rooted nerves she felt when she saw the man unbuckle his seatbelt from her peripheral vision bubbled up. She had an escape route planned: toward the broken fence. She wasn’t being kidnapped on her first day in town. But he didn’t get out. He just leaned across the seat to the open window.

Finally, she looked at him, and her breath caught. Well, he certainty matched his voice. Something tired and alert all at once. His blonde hair was long and tied back into a ponytail, falling out in the front so his bangs messily framed his face, bringing her attention to his piercing blue eyes.

Oh yeah, this was the kind of guy they warned you about in Castle Town. Too pretty for their own good. She’d have talked to him in a crowded bar for sure. But out here…?

She glanced back at her car, breaking her distracted trance, trying to remember what he’d asked. “Oh, uh, no. I took everything out of the car to fit my things. I figured I’d take my chances for not getting a flat, but surprise, surprise, a goat wants me dead.”

“Where you going? I can give you a lift if you want. You can get Daruk out here tomorrow morning to tow it wherever you need to go.”

“Oh,” she breathed. Don’t get into a car with someone you just met unless someone knows who they are or where you’re going. “Yeah, I was actually just going to ask if I could borrow your phone? Mine isn’t getting service. I can just call my tow company that I’m enrolled with.”

He nodded and reached across his passenger seat before handing her a phone out the window. She half expected it to be something old and rustic, like this whole place, but it was new and modern and almost exactly like hers. She’d just assumed the small town didn’t have the newest phones. What a stupid assumption.

“Mind if I just look up their number first?” she asked before randomly clicking around on a strange man’s phone.

“Go for it.”

She did and listened to all the automated options. The man was bobbing his head to some music she couldn’t hear. A car came down the road, stopping and honking, despite the fact that they could clearly go around him.

The man rolled his eyes and backed into the breakdown lane behind Zelda’s car, though she was thankful he still didn’t get out

It was only when Zelda’s eyes widened in either shock or horror at whatever she’d heard over the phone that he leaned his head back out the window curiously.

She walked up to him and handed the phone back. “Thanks.”

“So?”

“Three hours to get out here.” Zelda’s misery was palpable.

“Where are you going, if you don’t mind my asking?”

“Some little village called Ordon”

He smirked and leaned back in his seat. “I’m headed there as well. Want a ride? We can get Daruk out here sooner to just tow your car in if he knows he’ll just be headed back into town. It’s not far.”

“Oh, I don’t know… not that I don’t appreciate it, but I don’t know you.”

He reached his hand out the window. “Link. I live in Ordon. Work too. Nice to meet you”

“Zelda,” she said, taking his hand.

“Here,” he said, pulling out his wallet and handing her a business card. “So you don’t think I’m lying. But I do have to get to work at some point, so if you want that ride…”

“I just don’t want you to be a kidnapping murderer and kill me, you know?”

He grinned, suppressing a chuckle.

Zelda crossed her arms. “Don’t laugh at my potential murder.”

Gesturing to his phone still in her hand. “You can keep that with you the whole ride so you can call the cops on me if you think I’m kidnapping you.”

Toying with the phone, she took another look at her car. “Okay. Just let me grab my bag.”

[adamfoolcry]

How the Tables Turned (One-Shot)

pairings: Reader x Hendery, Lucas(mentioned)

rating: PG-13  

warnings: none just cringe inducing fluff

genre: comedy, fluff

synopsis: You are a student assistant at the library and Hendery seems to love staying in the library past open hours.

word count: 1,734

a/n: Mentioning @nctcreations in case the tags don’t work. I love Hendery he exudes so much positivity and is very thoughtful.

Everyone who is acquainted with you knows that you are good-natured and possess a calm temperament. Right now though, the way you are glaring at the back of Wong Kunhang's head makes you resemble a bull seeing red complete with steam blowing out of your nostrils. The ticking of the old clock as it counts every second passing by infuriates you as if it's its sole purpose. It is already past five in the afternoon to other high school students it isn't much of a nuisance but to you, it is life or death. You need to be out of the school premises past five and should be on the way to the cafe you work in the evenings. Being a minute late at your part-time job means that you will receive a lengthy sermon from the cafe's owner as if they will not deduct it from your salary. But here you are still at the library waiting for Wong Kunhang to go on his merry way so that you can return the book he is pretending to be reading back to its respective shelf. Honestly, you would have let this pass but it's as if he is doing this on purpose for the past seven days. Adding salt to the wound, for every single day he takes a different book bringing it to his desk leafing through the pages eyes unfocused. Making you conclude that he is not doing any reading at all but just drops by the library to spite you. Each time before he leaves he will try to approach the desk where you are situated at and as if changing his mind in a millisecond he always makes a hasty retreat, exiting rather abruptly. You have reached your threshold and decided that you are going to confront him, for whatever his game is this got to stop. You walked towards the desk where he is, standing from behind his seat. You cleared your throat to get his attention. He craned his head back to look at you.

"Ummm, hi"

He immediately stood up from his seat in a frantic manner and rise to his height to stand opposite you. The seat's leg scratched the concrete producing a screeching sound.

"Hi, my name's Kunhang you can also call me Hendery if you like." He scratched the nape of his neck sheepishly smiling.

"I know who you are it is past five and the library closes at 5:00 PM sharp and I need to be at work -"

"I can totally take you there!" Kunhang exclaimed cutting you off. His words echoing in the empty library. You were not expecting that, the heat started blossoming on the tops of your cheeks.

"Uhhhmm, I was going to say that if you can, you know tidy up before five that would be great." You replied awkwardly.

"Ohh uhmm sure sure." You can see that he was embarrassed. He picked up the book from the desk. "I am sorry, I am gonna put this book back." You watched him as he put the book on its respective shelf and exited the library leaving you bewildered. Well, at least you got that over with.

After that incident, you no longer have to deal with him as he does not visit the library anymore. But he now occupies the other half of your brain you see him from your peripheral vision wherever you go. It seems that you are hyperaware of his presence and you can't take your eyes off him. How could you not notice before that he sits a few seats away from you at classes? By the things are going you can probably write a one-page essay about him.

He likes cats, not fond obsessed is the right word. His pencil case is imprinted with cat designs. He keeps a picture of his cats in his wallet, you know because you peeked over his shoulder at the cafeteria while he is paying for his food. He always remembers to feed the school's resident stray cat every morning. You saw him one morning bending down at the bushes near the outskirts of your school petting and feeding the stray cat.

He always hides a manga behind his textbook during classes snickering quietly so that he wouldn't be caught. Strangely enough, for someone who is not trying to do his best academically, he excels in maths and sciences and actively participates in those classes.

He likes to exchange crumpled notes with Yukhei. Maybe containing a joke or two because one time the teacher caught them they were kicked out of the class and got detention for the rest of the afternoon.

You can't deny that you are fascinated with him the same Wong Kunhang that you used to curse in your mind. You might even develop a tiny crush on him. This is why you found yourself boring holes at the back of his skull with the intensity of your gaze. Looking for minuscule details to add to your Hendery's cute and quirky habits list. Yukhei caught you in action sending you a wink and a teasing smile like he knows what's going on in your mind. He leaned down and whispered it to Kunhang.

Oh god no ...

Which made Kunhang spare you his attention looking at you with his biggest signature goofy smile. You abruptly hide your face behind your textbook and pretended that you are not gaping pathetically at his back so intently. You avoided looking at his direction for the rest of the day but you can feel Kunhang's eyes following your every move making you flustered and rendering you to something akin to tomato for the rest of the day.  

You do not feel good scratch that this is the worst menstrual cramp that you have experienced in your life. Top that with the fact that your PE teacher has instructed your class to do ten laps in the field under the sweltering heat. Your peers are already ahead of you and you have long given up trying to match their pace. You stopped jogging and clutched your stomach the spasms intensifying making you double over in pain.

"Hey _______, you okay?" Kunhang kneeled at your crouched figure.

"Yeah, I am fine." As soon as you said that your abdominal muscles contracted so hard and a whimper escaped your lips.

"Let's go to the clinic you don't look so good." Kunhang reached for your forearm and slung it on his shoulders providing support to your frail figure helping you stand up. Although feeling like you might pass out any minute you can't help but observe Kunhang now that your bodies are now in close contact. His perfect side profile, tall straight nose, big doe eyes, plump pink lips, his floppy hair that frames his face, and his light perfume which smells like the sea breeze. As Kunhang led you to the clinic he started telling you about the time he collapsed due to over-exertion at one of the PE classes blaming the teacher's strenuous routine and launching on his tirade about what a pain in the ass the teacher is. You giggled finding his attempt to comfort you adorable.

"I am on my period Kunhang. The cramps are a bit on the painful side today."

"Oh ..." Hendery said embarrassed.

After dropping you off at the clinic Hendery got back to the PE class to inform the teacher about your mishap and that the nurse advised you to take the rest of the day off. You decided to rest up at the clinic and head home after the classes are over. Exiting the clinic you advanced your way to the classroom to collect your belongings when you froze on the spot upon seeing Kunhang leaning at the opposite wall to the clinic. He was carrying your bag on his shoulder. Noticing your presence he greeted you with his smile.

"I thought it'll be a hassle for you."

You can't help but smile back at him, taking your bag from him as the two of you walk towards the school gate Kunhang started bribing you to buy him ramen as payment for his good deeds.

He has this habit of looking at you but he isn't trying to hide it, in fact you think he is waiting for you to catch him because every single time you caught him redhanded he'll flash his goofy smile at you. The first few times you caught him your initial reaction was to start blushing but after the novelty of being embarrassed wears off you just shook your head smiling your eyes crinkling in mirth.

He'll always approach you and start acting cute doing silly little poses sometimes Yukhei drags him off before he starts embarrassing himself other times Yukhei will join in and start imitating Kunhang's comical poses resulting in overjoyous laughter erupting from your classmates.

He leaves you food and other trinkets on your desk. Lately after coming back from the cafeteria the ever-presence of food at your desk baffles you sometimes it contains other miscellaneous items like hair clips and ties. It was not after that your cramps manifested again that you finally knew who the culprit was for in your desk is a hot water bag. You quickly looked in the direction where you knew Kunhang was sitting, his head thrown back laughing at Yukhei's joke. As if sensing your stare he turned his face in your direction and grinned charmingly doing another of his silly poses.

It's fifteen minutes to five o clock and you need to make sure that every book is on their designated shelf and there is nothing out of its place scrutinizing the library with a sweep of your eyes you deemed that everything is in order. You grabbed your bag under the desk when the sound of the door hinges creaking got your attention. You quickly look to whoever dares to come in at the library fifteen minutes to its closing time. Surprise it was none other than Wong Kunhang. You walk up to him to stand at his opposite side, clearing your throat to get him to address you.

"Is the offer of a ride to my workplace still up?"

"Only if we go to the movies afterward."

"It's a date then."

There it is Kunhang's goofy smile. Perhaps you are too, smitten with him.

a/n: Read more of my works for NCT here:masterlist.

[twelvedy7]

Twisted - One shot

warning: sensitive topics (drugs). 

I just wanted to write something a bit different. It might be a bit OCC but I thought it might be a great fit for the manga universe.   This story won’t be published anywhere else than tumblr so feel free to save the story if you like it.

Oh and also english isn’t really my native language so sorry if there are incoherences. 

Takano had no sense of self-control. From a very young age he has been a witness of the sheer harshness of his mother and the complete indifference of his father towards their family. Despite how much he tried to convince himself of his difference he inherited from most of their flaws, which filled him with anger every time he thought about it. 

No wonder that whenever he met someone bright, kind, generous and appreciated he became more aware of his whole dark gloomy personality. That was the case with Ritsu he was still viewing today as the 16 year-old teen he used to be a decade ago.

No wonder that when he met this bright, kind and generous highschool kid he had become more aware of his dark gloomy personality. He was still viewing Ritsu as the 16 year-old teen he used to be a decade ago and yet he couldn’t understand for the life of him the reason why such a lovable person would waste their time with him rather than finding another likeable person that would be such a better companion than him.

If all the open rejections from the brunette could make him believe he hated him, he was at least smart enough to read between the lines and see what the other tried so hard to conceal under feigned anger and flustered reactions. 

What seemed to be like a bitter-sweet genuine love story from two ignorant teenagers who lost each other from a foolish misunderstanding was driving him straight into madness. Ritsu was constantly on his mind, invading his thoughts at any time of the day, reminding him of the terrible person he was and how he will never be nowhere near enough for him. Even in the poorly credible reality where the younger one would actually build up the courage to admit his feelings, he knew that their relationship was sealed to failure. 

One day Ritsu would mature and realise how incompatible they were and how idealistic they’ve been this whole time before leaving him to find another person that could offer him the support and love he needed. Maybe one day Ritsu would find the man of his dreams, different from senpai in every way, to finally live the blissful life he aspired to. That’s what broke his heart the most: they were not made for each other. No matter how hard he tried, it will never be enough because they were simply not meant to. 

He imagined Ritsu’s soulmate to be fun, social, caring, communicative and considerate which would make him forget all the turmoil he went through for all this time. His parents might be so enchanted by their personality that the fact they weren’t An-Chan wouldn’t even bother them.

The truth is he was physically and emotionally drained. He couldn’t feel a thing if it wasn’t his love for Ritsu and sometimes he felt as if that was his last tie with sanity. There were times where he would shut down his emotions. When it became too difficult to confront their inevitable fate, he would put himself in a semi-automatic mode working up to 15 hours straight without paying attention to anything or anyone, only accomplishing what he ought to.

Over time, he came to accept that he wasn’t able to love anyone without causing them a great deal of pain and suffering. That’s why he decided to distance himself from the few people who actually cared about him in his life and managed to bring him some split meaningful moments of happiness. It was like a lightning bolt shaking him from side to side, making him surrender to the hope of one day being able to spend the rest of his life with Ritsu and recovering from his long-lost friendship with Yokozawa. He hurt them both and didn’t deserve to be part of their lives. 

His phone vibrated. He broke off his thoughts to center his attention on the alias displaying on the screen: “Taisho” along with a message “I’m here.”

He stood up from the floor, came up to the entrance of his apartment and opened the door. A man of average-height in his mid-thirties was waiting for him. At first glance, he gave the impression of being a regular salary-man coming back home to his family after a long day of hard work. However, he came to discover that the man likely had a long history of debt behind him involving matters such as a costly divorce and low paychecks.

Not bothering to greet him, he pulled out 6,000 yen from his pocket and handed it to the fearful looking man who replaced the notes with a small transparent plastic bag containing a white powder. 

“Same thing next week?” asked the anxious black-haired man, his light blue eyes too faithful to be a dealer squeezing behind his oval glasses. 

“Yeah. See you.” 

Without giving him a second glance, he double-locked the door and came back to his dimly lit living room that felt so lonely without Ritsu here. It would take some time, if not forever, to prevent this heavy load in his heart from manifesting every time he would find himself alone without the prospect of his first love joining him any time soon. 

It still pained him… Nao came unannounced in the office earlier in the morning and asked Ritsu out for something that too likely looked like a date. A walk in the city center, a restaurant, and a nighttime exposure. That bastard. 

The rare times he had managed to take Ritsu out for a date was by forcefully dragging him out of his apartment or bluntly lying by message playing the card of ‘emergency’. He remembered the dull ache he felt in the morning as he realised how easy it was for his “best-friend” to take him out to a full outing while he had to prepare a strategy days ahead just to drink a coffee together. 

Opening the tiny bag in his hands, he chased away his dark thoughts and kneeled in front of his coffee table, pouring half of the powder out on its surface and realigned it in two fine lines with the help of an old credit card. He usually didn’t take such high doses in one shot, but tonight he knew that he needed it. The accumulated pain and overthinking were taking a toll on him. Rolling a paper, he brought it to his right nostril and sniffed the first line, ignoring the burning pain in his cavity before passing it to his left one and repeated the action.

A few seconds later he started feeling the tiny molecules flowing through his blood system, noticing the faster pace of his heart beat and the gradual relaxation of his muscles as the drug invaded his mind.

He closed his eyes. 

As always, the thrill was exquisite. The far away sounds of ambient city noises echoed and at some point the only thing he could decipher in the absolute silence was his own breath. His body was soft and any psychological pain he felt instantly disappeared. It was as if someone had covered him with a warm fluffy blanket while stroking his hair with a gentle grasp, providing him an endless feeling of comfort and security he so desperately needed. 

At that moment, everything stopped and all his troubles went away. Nothing mattered anymore. He was back being a young child pampered by a protective mother he never had with an unconditional sense of love. Pleasurable sensations coursed through his body from head to toes until his spirit went numb and he lost any notion of space and time. 

He reached that moment of nothingness that he wished could last forever.

___ 

“Takano-san!” 

...

“Takano-san!” 

Who was it? 

The voice seemed so far away he wasn’t even sure it was real.

“Masamune!” Why would someone try to break the silent darkness that was surrounding him?

For what seemed like hours, he felt himself trapped in-between the process of gaining and losing consciousness. He didn’t want to be drawn from his deep slumber yet.

He recognized some familiar voices in the background but it was hard to put a name on them as they seemed to continuously echo. 

It took him several more minutes to realise that people were present and it shook him. He became hyper aware of his environment.

The first thing he saw when he opened his eyes was a bunch of white blouses around him scampering around the room at a feverish speed. 

His mind whirled. The world seemed to be going so fast but his brain was so slow. 

His golden eyes blinked several times to adjust to the brightness of the room. In an instant he was blinded by the artificial light of the leds on the ceiling. 

In the chaos of all the fast-paced strangers around him, he felt a delicate hand fondling with the hair on the short back of his neck and let out a soft tired moan escape his lips. 

“Takano-san can you hear me?!” 

He groggily stretched out his limbs while burying his head on the petite body frame behind him and looked up to see who was the kind stranger offering him such soft intentions. 

Above him were two wide teary green eyes displaying a worried expression. Despite his blurry vision, he could recognize the refined and familiar traits of the man he loved. It looked surreal, having the both of them like this sharing such intimacy in a restless atmosphere.

Next to him was standing Yokozawa in his usual professional attire. He could only watch them through half-closed eyes all the while trying to figure out what they were doing in his apartment in the first place.

“He’s stable now. Overdoses happen regularly when cocaine and other powerful stimulants are added to the equation. That’s what producers do nowadays to boost the effects”. Said a firm feminine voice. He could see the lady in white gesturing around to her colleagues and immediately realised what just happened. She was staring at him, probably trying to jauge how awake her patient was. 

“You were lucky Takano-san. This could have been much more serious.” 

He saw his friend sitting next to Ritsu, his usual severe expression ruptured by the deep crease in his eyebrows. 

“How did you find me?” asked the raven, his voice so weak he wasn’t sure the two others heard him. 

The brunette brought his face closer to his ear, petting his forehead as he replied in a shaky shy voice: “Yokozawa-san found you like this…” he heard a sneeze. “The front door was unlocked and your phone was ringing without you answering it. You… You stopped breathing.” 

He felt absolutely miserable. 

Trying to shift his position to have a better view of his comrades, he caught the look of utter disappointment and guilt from his older friend. He probably thought that he was long done with this dark hazardous period of his life. 

“I’m… I’m sorry... I didn’t want to…” 

His battle to stay awake was getting harder and harder. 

“It’s okay Masamune. Just rest for now.”

The nurse took a hold of his wrist and stuck the intravenous line with a patch. 

“We’re going to transfer you to the clinic as you need to take several tests. You’re safe now but your body needs to recover.” 

The hand that was playing with his hair resumed and he let his head fall back on his lap. This combined with the liquid in his body led him to a sleep without dreams.

___

When he woke up again, he found himself buried under the sheets of a hospital bed. It took him some time to become accustomed to the artificial lighting of the room. Gathering enough energy to finally keep his eyes open, he gazed at the clock at his right indicating 4:55AM.

The first thing he felt was an atrocious headache that hit him with a massive chest pain undertaking his whole body. He noticed the numerous wires connected to his skin accompanied with the steady regular bips of a machine.

He heard a light snore on his right. Shifting his head, he immediately saw the small fragile figure crawling up into a ball on the couch. A cheap blanket was covering him from toes to his neck. This sight made him feel so terribly selfish. As seconds went by he started getting back to a normal state of awareness despite a fizzy pang at the back of his skull. 

With as much strength as he could gather he sprawled a hand towards him and rested it on the others’ laps. He stroked his thigh lightly with the help of his thumb and stared at his seemingly exhausted resting face. He felt so worthless. He knew he had hurt him badly in the past already and the only thing he could think of is that this was too much.

“I’m so sorry Ritsu…”. 

After reuniting with his first love following the 10 years they had spent apart from one another he had started to believe in fate. Yet he had been too trustful, using it as a justification for every one of his impatient and inappropriate moves towards the younger one. Everything became painfully obvious. This whole thing they had was destructive and that was mainly his fault. It was time to finally respect the distance that Ritsu wanted and deserved. He could not go back to these college years pretending that nobody cared about him. 

Now Ritsu would need him. 

Still, they were nowhere near close from getting into a relationship. Too many mistakes had been made. It was crucial for both men to work on themselves first as jumping the steps one more time would only bring them unhappiness.

That day Takano swore he would stop pursuing Ritsu. He’s forever been broken and finally accepting to get help was a start towards a less twisted life.

“It’s okay Ritsu.” 

One day they would be okay. They would get the life they both secretly wanted. 

[selfmadesuperhero]

i’m very much not okay 

and i’ll probably take very long for me to explain why

i don’t know how to write this. i don’t know where to even start. i’m here because i just don’t have anywhere else to go. i can’t afford therapy. i no longer have any close friends other than Mabu (gf).

it’s getting pretty bad inside my head

i know most people’s lives are hell this year and i’m not special. i know that. to me, this year is feeling like the last nail in my coffin because 2019 had already chewed me up and spit me out. 

i kept my last job for eight years. after my first year there, another developer came in, and we became friends. we worked side by side less than 4 feet apart for six years. our hours were flexible but we always agreed upon our schedule just so work would be more bearable, because we both hated it and often had to team up against our boss’ downright abuse. it was a very small company (at its biggest we were only 7 employees). we were also going to graduate at the same time from the same school (different majors), so we had a bit of a pact to leave our shitty boss once we’d graduated and start developing our own, way less shitty games.

at the start of 2019, he got an excellent job offer. i was thrilled for him and told him to of course get out of that hellhole we hated so much, we were only there because the pay was decent and the hours were flexible so we could get our degree, you know? it stung, but i was happy for him. on the last day i gave him a ride home (which is also something i did almost daily), he surprised me by hugging me and telling me i was like a brother to him and our plans weren’t going to change. 

i believed him, and went back to work. he was soon replaced, obviously, by a junior developer because that’s how capitalism works. but suddenly, i no longer had someone to take a stand with me against my boss - there was no one left that i knew, everyone had resigned or been fired and i was the oldest employee. you’d think that’d earn me something, after eight years being dedicated to the same company, right? 

(shortly after, my grandma passed, after years and years of agonizing in a wheelchair. we lived together)

fuck that

the first months were fine. i was being the senior developer and teaching the junior constantly, so my boss stayed out of my way. but see, this is where he started to get ansty. the more the junior stopped being a junior and was actually useful for something, the more that piece of gigantic ass just started thinking only about our salaries. i started in that company in 2012 making little more than 3 bucks/hour (remember i live in a third world country, but it was still specialized work), but by 2019, my salary was pretty much double of what the junior was making, and every penny extra i got during those years was a CONQUEST. i also worked six hours while he worked eight, so.

my boss basically started treating me even more like shit. he wasn’t nice to be around before, but he was bearable in small amounts. suddenly it was obvious to everyone that he was really fixating on me and my performance, and to me it was obvious he just wanted me to walk away too so he could replace me with TWO junior developers instead of just one measly charlie. 

then, the nationals elections began. oh boy.

this probably wouldn’t read as news to anyone, but i’m a huge leftie, obviously. if you’re at all interested in politics, read about what socialist policies have done for uruguay during the past 15 years and how they turned us into AT LEAST a developing country, but i digress. 

the people that sat in my office even shared my political views or whatever, but my boss is actually part of the conservative party and started actively campaigning. every time something involving politics happened, he made a point to come barging in the office and telling me and specifically me about it like i was personally running against his party. i actually recorded him once to have proof of him at least screaming at me, so i could check if i was crazy for thinking he had something against me. he frequently called me communist and just mocked my views. if you’re wondering, yes, this is illegal, but nothing happened. 

then, two big things happened at once: we lost the election, and my recently adopted puppy was diagnosed with distemper. yes, it happened on the same that and it’s a day i’ll never forget. 

my girlfriend and i had talked about getting a puppy once we moved in together. we’d named him like two years before it actually happened. we moved in together on may 2019 and on september i found the most precious boy for adoption on facebook and i was innocently all like “oh i’ve had to put rescue dogs for adoption before, let’s give back!”. 

on october 27th, he had a seizure and the vet told us it was likely we’d have to put him down because only 20% of dogs survived, and it was even less for puppies. 

when i went to work, i had to put up with my boss laughing and mocking me for winning the election “against me”. i guess i missed my running for anything?

this post is already too long for me to get into details about my dog’s disease. for months, every day we looked after him constantly. i read everything there was to BE READ about distemper online, spent thousands of pesos on medicine and treatments just in case he had a chance. good news is he did! this is the only positive note in this post. 

it still wasn’t easy. he made us cry at least three times a day. we really thought he was dying, and we’d made the mistake of naming him 2 years before he was even born. we’d taken PERFECT care of him while he was unvaccinated, but the vet told us it was most likely he was already infected before he came home to us. i’d never seen such a small puppy so sick. he hallucinated constantly. if you don’t know, distemper is a neuro/digestive/skin/bone/HELL disease that’s really nasty. he’d have seizures almost daily and poop and pee himself. he stopped being able to control his body other than his two front legs, which he didn’t even have full control of. when he stopped being able to walk, he started crying constantly, it really tore the heart out of my chest

we called another vet, a dog physical therapist, so she’d tell us how we could help him. she told us to make him stand as long as possible, so every time he had a meal, i’d bend down with him and hold his hips - so he’d be able to stand, and slowly gain back some muscle mobility. every day we massaged his legs and flexed his joints, even his tiny toes, so he’d avoid atrophy. and we did it!! as i’m writing this, he’s one year old now, he’s no longer sick even if he’ll carry with him plenty of lifelong sequels, and he walks and runs and barks like the best of them ♥ i wasn’t going to plug anything but if you wanna see his progress, it’s on instagram @hamiltonthefighter

okay, i guess i ended up talking at length about his disease in the end, sorry. his walking again had a price to pay for me: my own back. for two or three months i was bent over this dog, you know? i still can’t get out of bed without help sometimes lol around december it got really bad but i just kept popping pills because joy oh joy, i was doing my thesis and i didn’t really have time or money for anything else. my job was basically paying for our rent, my university classes including the thesis course which was ridiculously expensive, and our dog had given me credit card debt out of desperation (we even had to buy those rubber things used for yoga to place on our floors so he’d have something to use his nails against instead of constantly slipping on the floor, we tried every medication that might help, we gave him CBD oils, all kinds of vitamins, constant vet visits where during the first two weeks he got like three different shots every day, etc)

i’m rambling, and i’m sorry, but i don’t really think anyone will read this. i started this post crying my eyes out and writing about my dog at least has been calming, because even if he’s a drooling mess now, he’s still the same he ever was and i love him very much and he’s sleeping soundly next to me and he’s finally close to fine. 

remember the friend i talked about like half an hour ago? the one that worked with me for six years? nothing changed between us during the first months. for my thesis, i was going to develop a videogame with Mabu, but we were allowed to have external coding help because it was about GameDev, not the actual coding. i knew how to code, obviously, but Nico (the friend, guess we’ll give him a name) was also part of our project so he was gonna help us code so i had more time to focus on art and 3D modelling. the idea was kill two birds with one stone, make something we all liked, mabu and I were going to graduate with it and then we’d keep working on it during 2020 as we’d always always talked about.

by december, even if nico and i still talked regularly, i could tell he had just moved on with his life. he’d said he’d help us, but he was doing his own thesis, so i told him not to worry at that time, our final due date was in february. he asked us to forgive him during december and promised us he’d come back in january to DEVOTE himself to the project. i started coding the project besides working on the art and i was thankfully able to meet all the deadlines, so it was really fine, of course i understood where he was coming from. 

then, on january 7th, Mabu’s grandma passed away. she was scheduled for a heart surgery that supposedly only had 1% risk, and she passed on the table because of a doctor’s mistake. the surgery was here in the capital, but Mabu’s family lives five hours away. she comes from a very big, very loving family, and her grandma (being the mother of five children) was very much the center of it. i also loved her. she’d replaced my grandma the second she passed and every time i saw her she hugged me like i was a lost grandson. 

when my girlfriend called me during her surgery, i immediately left work because i just knew she would be crying if things were okay. this was a nightmare come alive for a family of 20+ people, and most of them were 5 hours away from their own house. my mother in law was (and still is) devastated by the lost of her mother because she was the one to encourage the surgery and she still thinks she killed her. i drove my her, my girlfriend, her sister and her sister’s boyfriend on my mother’s in law van for five hours while they all cried or slept and i had to really, really pinch myself because i was EXHAUSTED but what else could i do? 

logically i missed work the next day. LOGICALLY. i had the service to attend and i was 5 hours away from the office and i didn’t even have my own car with me. i told my boss to discount the day, since i wasn’t entitled to the mourning day by law because it wasn’t my grandma. he didn’t even reply - he almost never talked to me by this point unless it was to berate me for something. i went back to work the day after the service.

now, remember we were doing our thesis and it was due in february? it really wasn’t great timing for anyone to die, but i was trusting Nico’s promise that he’d have more free time and he’d make up for not helping us code sooner. i told him the news about Mabu’s grandma, and then basically had to tell him to say something to her for her loss because he was supposed to be her friend, what the fuck, why aren’t you at least sending her a text.

let’s just say, january wasn’t a great month for Mabu and myself. two weeks after the passing, we still hadn’t had news from Nico. Mabu didn’t even have time to properly mourn because we had to turn our thesis in like, little over a month. i wrote to nico just downright ASKING if he was gonna be able to help us or WHAT, to which he said to me...

he’d never promised anything because he was really busy with his own stuff and he didn’t want to bring it up sooner because he knew Mabu was mourning and things were hard for us at the moment? 

like that’s great pal, thanks for telling me at the last POSSIBLE second you were just dropping out altogether, what the actual fuck? it still baffles me that someone can be so thick headed, but he kept saying he had made no promises and both Mabu and I knew that was a lie and i honestly just couldn’t deal with someone so selfish he couldn’t at least give a heads up sooner

the icing on the cake during the beginning of this year is someone i haven’t even mentined: MY PIECE OF SHIT BROTHER. talking about him may deserve another post, because this is already so long and convoluted and i haven’t even talked about his involvement in my misery during 2019-2020. i’ll try to make the story short if anyone’s still reading this far: 

a lot of years ago, our maternal grandmother moved to uruguay from russia and bought a tiny shitty house here next to my mother’s. my mother still hasn’t talked to me since 2013 because i’m trans, but that’s neither here nor there. i tried to keep in touch with my brother (we don’t share dads so he was no relation with my side of the family), and around 2017 i finally succeeded in making friends with him. or so i thought, clearly. 

that grandmother passed... sometime. i don’t really know because they cut me off. she didn’t speak to me either, she was literally a crazy old nasty woman and i didn’t even care when i heard she’d died, to be honest. she was such a nasty woman, she’d put her tiny shitty house to my and my brother’s name just to keep her own daughter out of the inheritance when she bought it. 

that also meant i was inheriting something for the first time ever, even if it was shitty. BUT my brother had his own fake grandma (the woman who looked after him his whole life instead of our mother) who was very old and frail and asked me if he could house her there. i said yes because again, i didn’t give a shit about the inheritance or the house or anything regarding my mother’s side of the family (other than him obviously), so for years this woman occupied the house. my brother basically took all existing furniture and appliances because he was moving in with a girlfriend and i even loaded up my shitty car with his stuff. all i wanted to inherit was the couch set, which had come all the way from russia and everyone had promised me since i was a wee lad, but he started whining about his fake-grandma not having a living room set and nowhere to sit and i didn’t even live by myself yet so i let them have the fucking couches, too. 

oh boy this is already too long but now i’m too lazy to make a separate post

anyway, sometime during 2019, the woman moved out to an old folks home because she could no longer take care of herself. i immediately asked about the couch set with hope in my heart that it could finally be mine, but my brother told me our mother didn’t want me to have it. 

he wanted to rent the house to make a profit, which sounded good to me because of that dog related credit card debt i talked about. and here’s where you might think i’m not that there in the head, but all my life i didn’t want anything to do with that house until my mother was in the ground - not out of hate but because i thought it was a shitty thing her own mother had done to her, and the inheritance should have been hers. she doesn’t have a degree or a stable job because she’s a russian translator so hey, whatever, they needed it more than i did. but then my brother starting getting ideas about improving the house so we’d make more money, and how we should do it together, and... i think i might have mentioned already why i didn’t exactly have time to redo a house? i was doing my thesis? about to graduate? my boss was constantly on my case? my dog was about to die? 

i helped as much as i could at first, but then december came, and then january, and my brother just kept nagging me about the house like i was purposefuly sitting on my ass doing nothing, because oh every day it’s not rented it’s money lost. no amount of explaining how stretched thin i was seemed to suffice, not even when mabu’s grandma died and nico left us hanging with the thesis and i had less than a month left to code the whole project by myself while ALSO taking care of the art. 

by the end of january, i was so stressed, i called a doctor after a panic attack. he gave me a weeks rest because of my back, because i wasn’t even able to get up without help at that time. it wasn’t much of a rest because i still used that time to sit at the computer and code 15 hours a day at LEAST, but hey. 

it was the first time in 8 years i’d taken medical leave of ANY kind. i didn’t even get medical leave when i got my chest surgery. it happened on a friday and i was back to work the next monday. i’d never skipped more than 2 days of work at best when i had a bad case of the flu or something, but that was it. 

when i went back to work, my boss immediatelly called me to his office. he started berating me about my performance again, bringing graphs comparing the amount of lines of code i’d written next to my coworkers. i didn’t mention this, but the graphic designer had also quit during 2019, so i was also covering that workload and no, that didn’t exactly translate to lines of code. i also had to spend HOURS every day tutoring the junior because he was too much of a cheap shit (didn’t use those words) to hire an experienced developer. i’d even WORKED AS A GRAPHIC DESIGNER FOR MEDIA CONTENT FOR HIS POLITICAL CAREER, EVEN IF IT WAS AGAINST MY BELIEFS AND NOT AT ALL RELATED TO MY JOB. he denied everything. EVERYTHING. he stuck to the narrative that i was just lazy and the proof was i’d just taken AN ENTIRE WEEK because “my back just hurt a little” and i had the audacity to skip work for someone else’s grandmother dying

i’m not exaggerating, i swear to anyone who might be reading this. that day was brutal and i’m still not over it half a year later, i don’t care if that makes me sound like a wuss. i worked eight years of my life in this fucking place. 

this argument lasted for hours, but i kept my head down because i couldn’t afford to lose the job, specially not then. i even apologized for any loss in performance and tried to explain my point of view and what i was going through (which i’d already done to another superior weeks ago anyway). but just when i thought i’d MAYBE be able to keep my head above water, he told me he was denying my the request i’d made to take two weeks of holiday days before the thesis final due date. 

i had already explained everything to him. everything, even nico dropping the team and my having to do everything by myself. i broke down and i told him he was forcing me to leave my job, i’d just have been certified by a doctor and i was asking for leave for SCHOOL (all things that are protected by law here), but he just kept repeating i could either walk away from my job or show up during those two weeks. he just wanted me gone, but he couldn’t fire me right away without having to pay me THOUSANDS because of my seniority (by law). he knew what he was doing to me and he didn’t care about it. he didn’t even let me TOUCH MY COMPUTER, he told me he wasn’t the one pushing me away, that i was doing this to myself, and he’d ask for a lawyer to check my computer for any “inconsistencies in my activity”, even. i really have a hard time just thinking about that day and how utterly humilliating it was. i lost a lot of personal files, because i sat at that desk for eight years and of course i had personal files because sometimes i stayed after hours before going to class. 

imagine for a second a sixty year old man, rich as shit, political candidate, standing in front of a computer, disconnecting the mouse and keyboard so i couldn’t touch it, yelling at me i was doing this to myself and i was losing my job because i had the audacity to ask for two weeks leave to finish my fucking school thesis. 

and yeah, i lawyered up. i didn’t have actual money to AFFORD a lawyer, but mabu’s cousin’s girlfriend was a lawyer and lived one block away and i immediatelly told her everything there was to tell. she brought me to the firm she worked in and they guaranteed me i had a pretty strong case and i was at least gonna be able to walk away with something.

that put things in hold for a while because the “trial” or whatever wasn’t gonna be held until after the thesis, so i tried to forget about it. my boss even owed me my untaken paid vacation days, which i told the lawyers because i was pretty sure he’d just forgot, but i wanted to know if it made a better case against him. they agreed, and i left it at that. 

but you know who was still making my life miserable even when february began and i had less than three weeks to finish our project right? MY SWEET BABY BRO. he was constantly nagging me about having to do all the work himself, like I’D ASKED ANYTHING FROM THAT HOUSE TO BEGIN WITH. but see, the nastier he started getting, the more apparent his lies began to appear. he got nasty to the level where ON THE DAY I WAS TURNING THE PROJECT IN he kept calling me demanding MONEY for stuff he’d paid for the house without checking in with me. i was honestly baffled by his level of selfishness, i was already sleeping three hours a day tops and he expected me to what, paint walls? he was FIERCELY against having to wait for my project to be done even if it was two weeks away and he was asking and asking for money when i’d just told him i’d lost my job without a penny to show for it. nice guy, really. 

suddenly, the following lies became clear: 

 my mother didn’t care if i took the couch set, he told me that because he was moving again and he was planning on taking the couches himself. (he ended up doing just so, too). he lied to me with the thing that hurts me most in the world: my mother hating me. he had even made a joke about it, because my mother had bought a new couch not long ago, and he didn’t “get” why she “didn’t want me to have anything”

 years ago he’d told me he had refinanced a tax debt the house had, and i gave him money for it. now that the house was about to be put up for rent, he pretended that had never happened and suddenly started talking about how we needed to take care of that

 he wasn’t planning on splitting the rent three ways between him, our mother and i. he was gonna keep two thirds, and i later even found out my own mother had given him the idea. 

 then poor mabu confessed to me once, two years ago, she’d wore a skirt one time visiting my brother and his then girlfriend, and he had told her nasty stuff to her year upon saying goodbye and she had never said anything because didn’t want to hurt our sibling relationship 

talk about final nail huh? 

i confronted him and he denied everything, obviously, he instantly played the victim card, how dare i think that way about him, how dare i break his dreams of reuniting the family again. he said things to me i’ll also never forget like, apparently, it shows that i’m a shit person because i have no friends and no one wants me around, unlike him that has so many. he told me i thought the world owed me when i was shit and i believed anything anyone told me before believing him. no one told me any of his lies, i caught them all by myself, but whatever. he cursed me and told me he never wanted anything to do with me because i was rotten and i only cared about money and i was so so selfish. this must have been around march and i still don’t know anything from him, or care.

what do i have to do for that side of the family to leave me alone, i wonder? all i ever wanted to do was be his friend

the “trial” against my boss came and suddenly every lawyer that worked at that firm was taking a fucking holiday except for the one that was supposedly leading my case - except suddenly, i didn’t have much of a case at all. i walked away with less than 2 thousand dollars and that was WITH the vacation days i hadn’t taken. the agreement was the lawyers were gonna keep 25% of however much i made but THAT vacation money wasn’t supposed to count because it didn’t come out of the “trial” thing, you know? 

well, it did. the lawyer screwed me over too. but hey, at least he’d gotten me unemployment for a couple of months (you only apply for unemployment if you’re fired, not if you walk away from a job, and my having been fired or not was what was being contested), i still tried to be optimistic, i had a few months to figure things out while i looked for another job, and at least i was able to finish paying for school with that money.

yeah, this was late february, beginning of march. joke’s on me for being optimistic at all

my own brother plotting with my own mother against me has done a number for my mental health. i already had baggage aplenty, like every trans dude or girl whose parents would rather see them dead than be a dyke/fag (my mother’s own words, ladies and gents)

my boss of eight years kicking me to the curve at the worst moment in my life in the most humilliating of ways while blaming me for it has left me feeling so worthless to people in general. i’m getting better with time, i think, but i’m still all not there. i have a really hard time thinking my work is worth anything at all.

i keep thinking my brother was right, and i’m a shitty friend, and i don’t deserve anyone around. my only real friend at the moment is my girlfriend, which makes it really hard to have any arguments because i start feeling like my life is ending because she’s pretty much all i have left and she’s the most important thing in the world to me because i wouldn’t have survived all this shit i’m writing without her by my side. i would walk to hell and back for her. but nico also left me behind without a second thought, after telling me i was like a brother to him, no matter how many times i invited him to hang out or anything to keep in touch. i’ve been a shitty friend to a lot of people, but not him, and he still didn’t care about me at all, so i just stopped trying. 

but now social distancing has got me all fucked up. i can’t trust people. i can’t go outside. everything is scary to me, i have at least two or three panic attacks per WEEK and they get nastier and longer every time. i know i need help, but i can’t even afford rent, let alone therapy. Uruguay has the worst unemployment rates since 2006 now thanks to our baby-Trump right now. i look for jobs daily even if the notion of having a job even SIMILAR to the one i had before gives me the shakes. programming isn’t as hard as some people may think, but the workplaces are usually VERY toxic because you’re valued by the amount of lines of code you write, and i’m so so tired. i’m still looking because I NEED. TO. PAY. RENT. but not because it’s something i want in life, at all. i’d much rather be poor and just do freelance work instead, but i’m failing.

i thank the people that have helped me or commissioned me these past few months from the bottom of my heart. i’m sorry i’m not more active, i’m sorry i’m still rusty and can’t draw faster, i’m sorry i sometimes spend half a day crying my eyes out because i just don’t know how to move forward. i have a week left, i still haven’t made enough for rent, let alone the bills or food. mabu used to get plenty of art commissions on etsy, but she hasn’t sold anything since march either and she’s younger than me so our financial struggles have an even deeper impact on her

i’m just so, so tired. i’m lucky to have mabu, and that is about it. i honestly don’t think i could have survived this year without her. for months the future has looked like a black screen to me. i can’t even trust the vegetable market in front of my fucking house because some piece of shit spread the rumor that i’m trans and now i can’t even open the door to my front house without getting stares sometimes, it’s ridiculous. i wish i could trust more than one person in the world so that everything wasn’t on her shoulders.

i’m not okay. we’re not okay.

that’s about it. i’m sorry i can’t end this on a more positive note. at least we graduated with an excellent score. not that we had a graduation, obviously. thanks corona.

thank you for reading if you read this far ♥

[deltastorm101]

So, I tried to calculate Control...

... and its Epic Games deal, with the help of my certified smooth brain™ and probably incorrect sources. I started this last night hella tired and with a headache, I have finished it up today hella tired and with a headache, and this is what I produced: bullshit! :D But hey, at least double checked bullshit that’s open for discussion and contribution and expansion. Also, I probably won’t list the sources because a) I’m lazy and b) I didn’t have to dig thaaat deep down to find all this so if you really wanna know you could probably hit google with it as well. Anyhow here we go lol So, the initial thought which got all of this rolling was the 2020-wrap-up-post Remedy linked on their twitter, and Epic’s linked publishing announcement in it: studios Remedy, Playdead and GenDesign will release their next next-gen games with Epic. Now, we all know Remedy are working on some sort of Alan Wake-ish thing as we speak (right? right?? god I hope so), which meanssss our boy will most likely be an Epic exclusive. Which makes me kinda sad because, well. I’m deep in Steam’s ass. Hell, I waited for Control for a full year before I played it because they can pry the Steam version from my cold dead hands. So I asked myself... was it worth it for them? How much money did they throw at Remedy (and 505 Games) to have them play along? Would they have reached more people from the get-go if they had released it on Steam right away? Did the individual programmer, designer, writer, artist, person behind it profit from this at all? (Also, like, about the rights and copyright thing,,,,, you’d think they could have learned from Alan Wake and its IP belonging to Microsoft and so not really being able to do anything more with it because they don’t ‘own’ it and shit) buuut anyway that’s not the point of this post, now it’s time to do some MATH BABEY

Ok, let’s start with some things we know. Facts. Figures. Data. Turns out my initial question, how much money was involved, could be answered by doing one (1) google search: according to Wikipedia, Epic gave Remedy and 505 Games €9.49mio. The total budget for the game was €26.9mio over the course of 3 years of development. We know that as of December 2020, over 2mio copies of the game were sold, with November 2020 being the best-selling month ever since its initial release in August 2019. This is where question 1) comes into play: how many of those 2 million copies were sold in 2019 and how many in 2020? Stay tuned, I think I found out.

We know that Remedy gets to keep 45% of the revenue, which, I assumed, means that 505 keeps the remaining 55% (probably a lot more going on there but shhh). We know that Control’s sales cooked up €17.84mio in 2019 (so months September – December), €17.7mio of those in the first month alone (O.O). Side note: because it came out at the very end of August, I’ll ignore that month and declare September the first sales month.

We know that 60% of sales in 2019 were digital ones (aka Epic Store, mostly), 40% physical ones (consoles PS4 and XB1), while in 2020, only 10% of sales were physical and a whopping 90% digital; which is people on Epic who wanted to get their hands on the first DLC and – you guessed it – the Steam release of the Ultimate Edition in August 2020.

Which begs question 2): what’s bigger, 60% of 2019 sales because ‘ooh shiny new game’, or 90% of 2020 sales because ‘yay steam release’? The answer may look obvious, but you have to take into account the dropping price, which I also researched for your pleasure and enjoyment.

For this I used a German website called idealo.de, which focuses on looking for the best deals for basically anything you can buy on the internet, and it also gives you diagrams that describe at which point in time the product was at which exact price. This is what it gave me: - release price: €60 - December 2019: €41 (PS4)/€44 (XB1) - mid-2020: €30 - Ultimate Edition release: €30 - December 2020: €14 (PS4)/€18 (XB1)/€30 (Ultimate Editions) At this point I was like “lol hold on i need chocolate for this cuz i’ll be here for some time *sweating*”

To continue this mess™, I see more questions: 3) How many employees does Remedy have, which positions do they work in and what are their salaries? 4) How many employees does 505 have, which positions and salaries do they have? 5) What’s the total revenue that Control has generated so far?

And also some more stuff like, are my numbers accurate, am I even grasping these concepts correctly, are there even more people involved or am I just trying to explain complete crap (yes) but let’s just ignore all of that shall we. At that point I went “oh shit what have i gotten myself into, this screen does not get my point across, i need pen and paper” and you know shit is gonna go DOWN when I do math on paper.

My paper math birthed the following calculation:

Following this up, we can calculate the end-of-2019 sales, if we set the price for September and October to €60, for November and December to approx. €45:

Now, you might notice that one of those numbers is big and the other is HUGE. Why might that be? Well...

- Covid19: everyone stayed at home and needed video games to play - More sale months of the year, naturally - dropping price: why get it for €60 when you can get it for 20 - Ultimate Edition: why buy it in June when you get more content in August aaaand... - it comes out on Steam.

With this in mind, let’s see what questions we can answer: 1) 661,110 copies in 2019; 1,338,889 copies in 2020 2) 60% digital sales in 2019 means 396,666 Epic copies; 90% digital sales in 2020 means 1,205,000 copies – most of it from Steam? Some of it? A good chunk? The bigger chunk? There’s no way of really knowing for sure but... you could read this into it. I definitely am. 3) Google told me Remedy had a little over 250 employees at the end of 2019... 4) ... and 505 has less than 100. I found no good sources for this, I think linkedin said 37, someone else said 50. I’ll just use the 50 figure, idk. No idea man. and for 5) I’ll contradict my point that the Steam release is what knocked the sales out of the park and assume that the number of sold copies stayed the same across all 12 months of 2020, which gives us this:

Ok and now we’re getting into the most dangerous of danger zones because I have no idea how companies or capitalism work, so for educated people™, the remaining calculations might read like a toddler wrote them; I apologize profusely and hereby present last night’s brain vomit:

As stated earlier, development took 3 years, but everyone wanted to get paid in 2020 as well so let’s use 4 years to find out the salaries, which is 48 months. Let’s assume the utopian idea that every employee on the line here gets the exact same amount of money (LOL ikr but shhhh, let’s live out our dirtiest equality fantasies for a second ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)). Which would mean...

And now without the Epic Deal™:

Quod erat demonstrandum. Remedy has been selling their souls to Epic for €350 a month since 2017. (I don’t mean this as maliciously as I’m making it sound, don’t worry xD)

OKAY SO, O B V I O U S L Y, I have not the slightest idea what on earth I’m talking about so read this like you’d read a good fanfiction. We don’t know the different salaries across the different positions (and genders HAH), we don’t know if other parties were involved, I’ve completely ignored the sum that Epic themselves get, I have ignored taxes, I don’t know if my numbers are accurate (they’re definitely not I mean 505 must have more employees than 50), if I made mistakes (yes), and also somewhere along the way I forgot to use the €26.9mio budget figure because, uuh, I have no idea where to use it, what it means, where did it come from, where did it go, cotton eye joe - but oh well, I’m not starting over, take it or leave it.

So... I can now officially say I have written hot steamy economics fic xD Man I put waaay too much time into this but damn was it fun. Good three-hour-deep-dive (two of them spent munching on chocolate half-asleep listening to psytrance to keep my brain twitchy). Real-life-theorizing. Fuck capitalism. Don’t do drugs. Pet a cat. Wear your mask. Call your grandparents.

If there’s typos in this I’m sorry but also I’m not, I can’t be bothered to proofread again lol. Goodnight imma catch up on the sleep I lost. Gotta love full moons

[voltagesmutter]

KBTBB x OC Prologue

Hello all! My first go at writing on here, no smut yet but just wanted to build a base background slightly different to the actual story! Ending with your choice of character, so please let me know if theres a preference! Enjoy and I’m super excited to build this, especially with a more strong held character, also much smut to come for all!

OC does smoke lightly in this, but its to gain slight connection whilst writing Mamoura’s part!

\\

Abit of difference and twist to the storyline, still being brought by the bidders but quitting you of your maid job, you are now confined server in the penthouse where you also reside. The MC is unlike the story as she’s feisty and not as submissive as the traits of the story, she has a fight in her along with other skills. 

 \\

 ‘So, you’re telling us, you get to live here, FOR FREE, with 5 beautifully stunning men and there’s no catch?” Your best friend Rachel asks you, still shocked at the news you just told her. Pressing yourself you move from the lavished cream couch and head over to the immaculately clean open-spaced kitchen.

“I mean, I wouldn’t say no catch,” You reply, you certainty wasn’t going to them you was brought in black market auction and these men now (as they repeatedly liked you to remind you) owned you.

 The reality was you was a maid at the hotel, about 2 years into the job, you joined at the ripe age of 20. It was never meant to be a long-term thing but the pay cheque was nearly triple the other monthly wages in the city and you were desperate for the money. Taking all the overtime you were able to became a bad habit over yours, working your fingers in the hotel. But the cruelness of the other staff at times had tempted you more than once to leave your job, especially Erika and Rina and Kana (or as you often referred to them Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dumb).  The constant remarks and degrading attitude they had towards you brought you tears at times though a cruel word towards them never left your mouth. You were better than that. Not to mention the often statements and remarks you received from hotel guests, most days you were cat called by men staying at the hotel and many offered payment to spend a night with you. You had always declined.

 The attention you received you was mainly due to these pesky uniforms Mr Ichinomiya had stated mandatory for the staff. A tight white button up shirt clung to your chest which tucked into a skin-tight black skirt which settled mid-way down your thighs but had a strong tendency to rise when you walked and bending over in this was mere impossible. You wouldn’t say you wasn’t attractive, but you also wouldn’t say you was beautiful either. You were quite pale, with naturally thick straight blonde hair that cascaded half way down your back with light blue eyes to match. You blame your paleness of the fact you were British, moving from the country to Tokyo at the age of 18. 

 So how did you end up in this position of living in one of the city’s most expensive penthouses with five handsome men to keep you company? It started like a normal work day, running out of your apartment throwing your hair into a sleek high ponytail trying not to be late. That was getting harder since the new uniform came into place, tugging at your skirt trying to keep it down. You reached the end of the corridor to the staff elevator and spammed the button, waiting for the doors to open. Come on, come on you cried in your head watching the numbers slowly reach your floor. If you was late again Erika would have your head! When the doors finally reached and opened you ran into the lift and waited for it to take you to the lobby. You arrived with a minute to spare before your shift and let out a sigh of relief. Your shift manager, Mr Ren, was at the front desk waiting you.

“I’m not late” You say to him before he can even make a noise. He shook his head and chuckled.

“No, you are on time, but there’s some new changes I need to go over with you, since it’s a big weekend and you know you’re working on introducing guests and presenting them to their rooms, Mr Ichionmiya has requested another uniform change,” He said before reaching behind the desk. Shit, you forgot this was the big poker weekend for the casino in the hotel and that you was introducing guests. Your eyes light up when you saw what Ren had pulled from the desk, a beautifully stunning pair of black stilettos, you dare think how much they had cost most likely more than your weekly salary. 

 “Size 5?” Ren said seeing the twinkle in your eyes. You nodded and sighed kicking of your normal pumps and slipping your feet into them one at a time. You tried not to curse at the pinching sensation in your feet. Today was going to be long you thought to yourself.

“So, what’s the plan?” You asked Ren, trying to find a balance in your new added height. Pulling out several ID cards and sliding them to you, he replied “Mr. Oh, Mr. Baba, Mr Kisaki and Mr. Kishi, will all be arriving in the next hour. You need to greet them and bring them to Mr Ichinomiya penthouse suite where they will be residing, use this key in the elevator to take them to them their”. He slides along a gold-plated key card.  You nod and take all that has been passed to you. 

 “Oh, and these are here by Mr Ichinomiya special request, whatever they do, act or say to you, just remember these are the CEO’s friends. I heard rumours one is a high superior of a gang, just smile, be nice and don’t get fired,” Mr Rem added giving you a slight pat on the arm before turning away to maintain the rest of the hotel staff. 

 Taking a deep breath, you walked into the middle of the lobby and put on your best *fake* friendly smile and waited for you guests to arrive. It must be have been 10 minutes before the first two arrived together and from their appearance you guessed it Mr. Oh and Mr. Baba. You felt your eyes watching them checking to the front desk before being pointed in your direction. You gave a friendly smile and walked towards the men, the one had an unimpressed stern look whilst the other had a friendly smile.

“Mr. Oh and Mr. Baba, welcome I’m (YN) and I’ll be escorting you to Mr Ichinomiya suite,” You say sweetly holding our hand to be shaken. Mr. Oh tuts and ignores whilst the other bows, taking off his fedora hat and presses your hand to his mouth. You blush at the boldness of this stranger and try to brush it off.

“The pleasure is all mine princess,” Baba says before gently releasing your hand resulting in an eyeroll from his friend. You felt slightly flustered at the gestor and regain yourself.

“Um, is it just the two of you?” You ask before you see a young man, running and panting through the lobby.

“I just saw the cutest dog,” He said through pants before leaning on Mr. Oh who to say the least did not look impressed and tutted loudly pushing the younger man off him. The young man who entered was Ota Kisaki and you was trying extremely hard to have a fan-girl moment, he was a star in the arts world producing paintings that would sell for more than you could count. He finally caught his breathe and looked at your eyes wide open.

“Dear god, I didn’t get to pet the dog outside but the gods have gifted me with this,” He said quickly taking your hand. You were slightly star struck, mainly creeped out by the young man and his comments. You wanted to jerk your hand back and give him a good scolding but Ren’s words stayed in your head ‘just remember these are the CEO’s friends’. Giving a smile through gritted teeth you reply, “Mr Kisaki, pleasure to meet you, I’m (YN). I’ll be escorting you to the suite,”. He finally let’s go of your hand and you pass the ID badges you were given to all of the men in front of you.

“These are your ID’s, they grant you access to the casino event and must be worn at all times during the event,” You say. You realise you still have one pass left for Mr. Kishi. 

“Is Mr. Kishi with you gentlemen?” You ask, realising all three men have been looking you up and down whilst explaining to them. Typical men. 

“God damit, you didn’t say he was coming,” Oh said through gritted teeth turning to Baba, his eyes going a dark shade. Baba chuckled slightly behind patting his friend on the back, “It’s okay old friend, I’m sure you can get on for this time, is he coming but not with us so if we could go up,” he said turning his attention to you. 

“Of course, gentleman if you will follow me,” You said before turning your back to them and strutting towards the elevator. You didn’t hear them following so you stopped and turned your head over your shoulder. All three of them had been watching your ass sway, mesmerised and in a state like trance. 

“Boys?” You said watching them snap out of it and chase behind you. 

“She talks to me like that again, I put a bullet through her,’ You heard Mr. Oh whisper to one of them, making your heart almost stop. 

“I’ll put something in her, repeatedly,” You heard Mr.Kisaki reply earning a chuckle from Mr.Baba. Pigs you thought to yourself, but you bite your tongue and dared say anything in retaliation. One for the fear of one shooting you and two your job, you was being paid nearly double time for this weekend. 

‘Don’t be so crude to my beautiful princess!” Mr.Baba chimed in. Reaching the elevator, you inserted the gold key card into a slot and watched the three other men clamber in. It was a tight squeeze, 3 grown men, a woman, three full suitcases and an extra-large duffle bag which Mr.Oh kept extremely close to him. Scuffling around you ended up with your back being pressed into one of the chest of the men, your plump little behind pressing against their front. You felt a slight heat rising inside you, you hoped it was just the embracement of the situation. 

“Hey no fair! Mr, I hate women is getting her all to himself,” You heard Kiaski whine and pouting. 

“Shut up Kid,” Was stated, through gritted teeth behind you.

You flushed as the comment made you realise you was pressed up against Mr.Oh.

‘So, my pretty, where has Mr Ichinomiya been hiding you,” Mr. Baba said taking your chin in his hand and forcing you to look up at him. Your lips slightly parted and a blushing tint was rising on your cheeks.

“I…I’m just a maid,” You reply to him, his eyes glistening and burning into yours. Your gaze is broken by an abrupt stop and fall forward onto his chest. The lift had jolted to a stop before carrying on up the 52 floor of the hotel.

“Mother fucker,” You curse due to losing your balance from these heels before you gasp, realising you was pressed against Mr.Baba chest and your strong choice of words. Pushing yourself off him, you heard a chuckle from all three men.

“I’m so so sorry, the shoes are new,” You mutter, your face quickly rising in colour. I knew this would be a long day.

 “No worried princess, feel free to fall for me anytime,” Mr. Baba replied giving you a cheeky wink. You heard a few murmurs of protest from Mr.Kisaki, you was positive you heard the word pet escape from his mouth. The rest of the journey up is silent and as the elevator finally reaches it stop, it shunts forward again but rather sending you forward again into the welcome arms of Mr.Baba, a strong arm wraps around your waist keeping you in place. Surprised at the arm around you, you fall back ever so slightly pressing your behind strongly against the front of Mr.Oh and a quiet but deep growl escapes from his throat. Highly embarrassed by the situation you aim to get out of the elevator as fast as you can. Whispering a quiet thank you to Mr.Oh you race out of the elevator and wait for the men to follow. Walking forward a few steps you feel the gaze of the men burning into your backside once a again. 

 Reaching the marble coated double doors, you knock and wait for a response.

“Tsk,’ Mr. Oh says before opening the doors and allowing himself to enter, followed by the two other men. Unsure what to do, whether to leave them men or follow suit, you feel a wrist wrap around yours and tug you into the suite. It was beyond beautiful inside, coated in marble and gold with the most luxurious furnishing inside. It almost took your breath away. It was Mr. Kisaki who had pulled you in and let go before wrapping his arm around your shoulder.

“Eiiiiiisuke!” He yelled, his voice echoing through the suite, “We want to thank you for the gift,” he added. You wanted to protest, you wanted to leave but you couldn’t. You was normally a ruthless person, taking no shit from anyone but the fear insulting one of your CEO’s friends, in his suite, with him somewhere inside was more powerful. 

 “Well, well, well,” A voice said. You looked around and saw a deviously handsome man strutting down the marble staircase which lead down to the open plan kitchen. It was him, Eisuke Ichinomiya, the king. You almost stopped breathing, your breath caught in your throat at the sight of him. His long legs strutting down the stairs before making way over to you, ignoring his guests. As Mr.Baba had done earlier, he took your chin in his hands and pulled your face up to meet his gaze.

 “And who are you?” He said, his mouth forming a cheshire smile. You was lost for words gazing at your CEO.

 “Don’t make me ask twice girl,” He said in a harsh tone and gripped your chin tighter. 

‘I… (YN), I work here, I have the honour of greeting your guests sir,” You say. You wasn’t sure what you said but his face smirked and you felt the other men’s gaze burning at Mr Ichinomiya. 

 “Honour of greeting my guests? If you consider that an honour, what would you call being bedded by me?” He says smugly. What an asshole. What a unbearable smug git he was.

 “Hands off shes mine!” Mr. Kisaki whines pulling me away from Mr Ichinomiya’s grip.

“No way, this is my princess, I saw her first,” Mr Baba joins in, tugging me into arms. Dear god what is happening, am I dreaming?

 “Hands off the goods,” You hear Mr Oh say and feel the grip around you loosen. You met Mr.Ohs gaze and see  his pointing a gun at Mr Baba. Seriously, what the fuck is going on, like there is a gun. Being pointed. At another man’s head. And he’s joking around all calm. WHAT IS HAPPENING you cry in your head.

 “Well it seems Miss (YN) that you’ve had an extremely positive effect on my men here, if you affect them anymore I think I’ll have lock you away for only my eyes,” Mr Ichinomiya says holding his hand to Mr.Oh a signal to lower the gun which he does. He takes a step towards you, but you step back as he does. Forgetting about these sodding heels, you lose your balance slightly and feel your back collapse against the wall behind you. Taking advantage of the situation, Mr Ichinomiya presses a hand next to your face and learns forward pressing into you, you could feel his breath heavy on yours. The scent of him was intoxicating and made you feel slightly dizzy.

 “So tell me why I should let you go,’ He whispers into your ear. He was the most glorious sexy bastard you had had ever laid eyes on. Your face was burning hot and you were speechless. Unable for words, you tried to mutter something, anything but nothing came on.

 “Eisuke, don’t torture the poor girl, she still needs to collect that sloth you decided to bring for no reason,” Mr.Oh said but was meant with a daggering flare from Mr Ichinomiya. Seizing the opportunity of his attention being diverted from you, you duck under Mr Ichinomiya arm and scutter to the door.

   “I’ll be with back Mr. Kishi when he arrives,” You say quickly and dart to the elevator as fact as the heels will let you. You heard several remarks about your behind coming from the men you had just left. Escaping into the elevator, your mind raising about what had just happened and trying to piece together the events. Reaching the lobby floor you scan the room in case Mr.Kishi had appeared but he had not. Your cheeks were flushed and you felt the heat from within you rising.

 Seeing as your guest had not arrived yet, you head outside the hotel to try cool down and think about what really happened. The cool air hits you, leaving slight goose bumps on your skin and you inhale, breathing in the fresh air. Whilst outside a man in a long detective style coat had just sparked up a new cigarette and you couldn’t take your eyes off it. You use to smoke, not as a regular but you found it happened when you felt stressed or in uncomfortable situations. 

“It’s rude to stare kid,” You hear from the man who turns around and walks towards you. He had a roughed attire to him, his cigarette handing from his mouth. 

“I… I’m sorry!” You said, take back slightly from words, he wasn’t even facing you when you was staring. He stretched out his pack of cigarettes towards you, guesting.

“I… I shouldn’t,” You say looking at his out stretched arm.

 “Sweetheart, I can tell you need this,” He says and slowly takes one and puts it into your mouth. You inhaled as he hit lit the end.

 “Fuck,” You say slightly louder than hoped and the man chuckles. His eyes followed your hand and mouth inhaling and exhaling, moving the cigarette expertly in your hand. His eyes lit up as he watched your lips perfectly hold the cigarette between them and ever so softly suck the bottom of your lip when you exhaled.

 “Thank you, honestly I can’t begin to explain how much this is needed,” You say to your detective styled hero. His hair was slightly messy with a goatee stubble perfectly trimmed, he had a sleepy look in eyes. 

 “Rough day sweetheart? I find nothing beats that than a nap,” He said, the words nap seemed to make his eyes sparkle slightly.

 “Aha, I wish, I’m waiting for a guest to arrive for Mr Ichinomiya but after from up there, I don’t really want to go back up,” You say with a slight defeat in your voice. Before your mysterious stranger can say more, you stub out your cigarette, you’d be in such trouble if you had been caught.

 “Thank you again, true hero detective man,” You say with a slight chuckle and run back inside the hotel. Walking over to reception, you ask if your last guest had appeared but nothing so far. At least it meant you had longer without being in that room of men. 

 Your eyes flickered as you saw your humble stranger from outside enter into building and head to reception, maybe you would be seeing more of him you thought. Deciding to look at your final ID card, your face went pale slightly and you wanted to curse. Of couse the handsome stranger was Mr.Kishi. Fucking brilliant. You saw him chuckling as he headed over to you.

“Mr. Kishi, welcome, please forour brief encounter outside, I had no idea you was a guest of Mr Ichinomiya,” You said, your eyes slightly pleading to him. You felt so embarrassed by the situation from outside, you hoped to god he wouldn’t tell Mr Ichinomiya. 

“It’s okay darlin, I wont say anything if you don’t,” He said his eyes gazing into yours and gently strokes your face. Another one, dear god why. Handing him his ID card you guested towards the elevator. He keeps his distance slightly behind and as you enter the elevator you catch him in the reflection checking you out. This uniform was the worst thing to ever happen in this hotel. Slotting the key card in, you feel the lift begin its ascent to the suite, you felt dread slightly come over you.

 “Don’t worry sweetheart, I wont let them touch you,” Mr Kishsi says stepping forwards slightly towards you. You gave up at this point and smiled back. He didn’t seem like the pervy kind like the others, maybe he was nice. Learning from your previous mistakes, you hold tightly to the rail to keep your balance. You see the man opposite you leaning against the wall, his eyes shut, is he asleep? No, he can’t be possibly. As the lift comes to a stop, his eye don’t open but falls forward like I had in the previous time up. Not realising the flailing man in front of me I pulled my skirt down as much as I could before entering that wolf-stricken suite. He fell forward and his eyes flung open, his arms out forward to brace the fall. He fell onto me causing me to lose balance and tumbling to the floor with him ontop of me. You gasped with the man ontop of you and the doors to the elevator open for you to see on the other side three of the men who you previously left, smirks on their faces. Your face burned red, the man ontop of you floundered and got off you as fast as he could.

“If you seduce any more of my men, I’m going to lock you away where no-one can set eyes on you again,” Mr Ichinomiya says with a smug smirk on his face. The other men behind in chime in with comments and unfair whines of how close Mr Kishi was. I watched their gazes skimming over me, most of their gazes stopped as they saw the skirt had hitched higher and was barely coming yourself. You pulled it down as quickly as you could and saw a hand stretched out to you. You took with it without hesitation and was pulled to your feet by the man who had knocked you down. You mouthed thank you to him and slowly felt the heat rising down from your face. You stepped out the elevator brushing yourself off and avoiding the gaze of the men surrounding you.

“Mr Ichinomiya all your guests are here, I’ll leave them in your care,” You say turning to Mr Ichinomiya. His smirk turns to a serious face.

“Did I say you could leave?” He says. You look a little stunned.

“No but… I thought…” You said slightly confused.

“What happened to that obedient girl from before, has too much time with other men distracted you?” He questions, crossing his arms.

“Mamo, you brooooke her,” Whined Mr Kisaki with a wide pout.

“Shut up,” Mr Baba says through gritted teeth elbowing the young man in the ribs. You wasn’t sure what to say.

 “Go easy on the kid,” Kishi said placing another cigarette between his lips. Mr Ichinomiya is the only one not to react, his expression unchanged. He grabbed your arm and pulled you close.

“I told you once. I will not tell you again little girl, do not make me ask twice,” Mr Ichinomiya said still clutching your arm. You look slightly confused still, just wanting to escape. 

 “No Sir, I was only told to present the guests, I thought my dutys stopped there,” You whisper back. You were slightly terrified of what might come out of his mouth next, you felt the gaze of all men on you. Mr Ichinomiya let go and pushed you slightly in front of him and the other men, so that you was facing the doors to the suite.

 “Walk. Slow,” He muttered to you. Taking a deep breath you headed slowly towards the doors. You knew why, you felt all four of the men present staring at your ass once again. You felt slightly humiliated at what was happening but you was a big girl, you knew what men was like. You knew Mr Ichinomiya was known for his womanizing ways. You almost reached the doors when they burst open and Mr.Oh came flying out, the doors swinging wide open. Your eyes widened seeing the inside of the suite, masses of guns were lying about, with more poking out of the duffel bag he had brought out. So the rumour was true, he had some relation to a gang. He again had a gun in hand and it was pointing at you, his face stern.

“Eisuke, what are you playing at, you know what’s happening in here,” He hissed, keeping his posture. You didn’t know what to do, the men behind you had walked to your side whilst the man in front of you kept his gun pointed at you. 

“Don’t hurt my princess,” Baba said, wrapping his arms around you, almost trying to shield you.

 “Go. You forget what you saw here, you speak of this to no-one or we’ll come after you,” Mr Ichinomiya said stepping in front of you. Without hesitation, you free yourself from the grip of Mr Baba and scurry into the elevator trying to erase your memory of the last 10 minutes. You heard the whining at your lack of present and stating Mr Ichinomiya was a pure kill joy. Your breathing was frantic and you felt your heart in your stomach of the events. As you watched the numbers slowly descent, you realised the lift never stopped at the lobby, instead it went down future. You sighed and repeatedly pressed the lobby button but it kept going down. Dear god what now, you sighed and slumped against the elevator wall. Once it came to stop you didn’t see anyone outside the lift so you stepped out but as you did you bumped into a figure you never saw and heard a horrifying smash. You gasped and saw two figures who had been holding something that looked like a statue was smashed into pieces on the floor. Fuck sake.

 “Ohmygod Im so so sorry,” You cry unsure what to do. The figures grabbed your arms tight and pulled you down the corridor.

 “You idiot that was an irreplaceable statue!” One screamed. You tried to free yourself but it was no hope you were too weak against the men.

“I guess we’ll have to take her instead,” The other replied. You thrashed against them but to no use. You were shoved into a dark room and flinger into a small cage. They left you in the darkness and tears started streaming down your face. What was this day, what was happening? 

 You had no idea how much time passed before you felt like the cage you was in was moving and before your eyes you was left on a stage, thousands of masked people in the audience gazing at you. You wanted to scream for help but that was when you heard it.

“Sold for 20 million to you sir at the back”. You chocked. You was being sold like cattle at market, you’d just been sold in a black market auction. 

 The cage you was in was covered up and you felt it moving again, you couldn’t stop the tears from falling but you refused to let who was moving you hear you cry. Exhausted from your tears and slumped against the bars of your cage waiting for this nightmare to be over. You wasn’t sure you travelled far, but then again you had no idea where you was, until you heard a recognisable voice. No scrap that, five recognisable voices. Are. You. Serious.

The cover was removed and there you saw them. The five men you had encountered that morning standing on the outside of your cage.

 “I told you, I’d lock you away for only me,” Mr Ichinomiya said smirking. This was his doing?  “She’s not just yours, she’s all of ours!” Pouted Kisaki making puppy eyes.

“None of you touch my princess, please let us get her out of that cage,” Baba says looking innocently at you. 

 “She looks like a pet!” Chimed in again from Kisaki. This was the most degrading experience of your life. You finally mustered up the courage to say something.  “W…whats happening?” You say with more tears in your eyes looking hopelessly at the men around you. 

 “We brought you, we own you, us,” Mr Ichinomiya said, he emphasised own more than anything else. 

 “The five you…?” You whispered back, seeing each of their hungry eyes on you, eyeing you up like a piece of meat. 

“You belond to us, all five of us, we brought you for a share each and now you have to obey what we say,” Babe says with a devious smile. Your eyes meet the rugged detective styled man from earlier, once again a cigarette handing from his lips, his eyes focused on you. Your head ached and you felt cramped inside the cage you had been thrown into earlier.

“Can… can I please get out this,” You asked, your voice just above a whisper. You hear a small chuckle from some of the men, you don’t know who but you hope they heard your plea. You see Mr Ichinomiya learn forward and unlock the cage allowing you to be free. You don’t hesitate to spring from the cage, your legs slightly week and once free you fall a little unable to keep your balance only to be caught by several pairs of strong arms, each man had lunged to keep you from falling. Guiding you to one of the cream sofas you sat down, whilst the men placed themselves around you, Kishi sitting on one side of you.

“So… so you brought me? Why? I’m confused what’s happening,” You ask.

“Who could let such a thing of beauty go?” Kishi finally speaks, taking your face in your hand. You flustered at the movement. 

 “You need to decide a place to stay, one of us as your master,” Mr Ichinomiya said from a separate armchair, crossing his legs. You started to laugh. But none else did. 

“Wait, your serious…” You said, looking at all the men’s stern faces. Babe fell to the floor and crawled to you, placing his hands on your exposed knees.

“I’ll treat you like a princess, the princess you truly are,” He said burrowing his hazel eyes into yours and slowly moving his hands up your thighs. You feel your face turn in one powerful swift to face Kishi who was inches away from you, he smelt strongly of whisky and cigarettes. 

 “I’m a detective, I’ll keep you safe,” He whispers against your lips. Before you can register what’s happening your swept of your feet and held into an embrace by Kisaki. 

“Be my precious pet,” Kisaki said brushing your hair out of your face. You were once again whipped away by another strong pair of arms and held strongly against Mr.Oh’s chest. 

“Women are a waste of time, but for you I’ll make the acceptation” He spoke softly into your hair. Before finally, you pulled down onto the lap of the king , Mr Ichinomiya. Your back pressed firmly against his chest and he leaned against you snaking his hands over your waist.

 “Stay with the king and be treated like a queen,” He whispered into your neck. You felt dizzy, the staring of each men burning into you whilst the hot breath of Mr Ichinomiya tickled against your neck. 

“I… I have an apartment here, can’t I just st-“ You started but was cut off with a no from almost everyman. 

 “What if we propose a new deal then,” Baba said walking over and stroking your face. A rival growl from Mr Ichinomiya was stated from behind you. Almost like a look, don’t touch. 

“I’ll stay here,” You pipe up before any other men can stay anything. A chuckle comes from behind once again and he places a kiss against the back of your neck causing a slight shiver to run down your back.

 “Boss wins again,” Sighs a defeated Kishi .

“God damit” Oh mutters. You feel daggers staring at Mr Ichinomiya who’s still chuffed with the result. 

 “I said here, not him,” You state and try to stand up but the hands around tighten.

 “Don’t toy with me girl,” Mr Ichinomiya whispers into your ear. 

 “I… I’m serious, I don’t know you, any of you, if you own me I’ll be here, but I belong to all you not just one,” You say after mustering all you can. You was done, you was tired, no exhausted. Enough of this, enough of all of this.

 “I mean, I can share my princess here but if any of you touch her…” Baba starts.

 “I swear to god, I will shoot one of you if you break her,” Oh adds, his hand in his blazer. A deep sigh comes from behind you but there’s still a tight grip around your waist with one placed now placed on your thigh.

 “I’ll be here all the time, just more time to myself,” He says squeezing your thigh.

“I…um, I need to get back to work,” You say before pushing his hands off you and standing up pulling down your high risen skirt. 

“You don’t leave.” A stern voice said. You wasn’t sure who said it but you heard it.

“I… I have a job, I cant just-“ You start but was interrupted.

 “We’ll look after you, but as part of this you do not leave, not without one of us,” Kisaki says walking over to you and holding your wrists gently. You look over your shoulder to Mr Ichinomiya.

 “S…Sir?” You ask, regardless the others he was the CEO of where you worked. He smirked.

 “Look at me like that again and I will have you pinned against a wall faster than you can Sir, but yes. You live here, your life is here, you serve us now and if you leave you will be ended,” Mr Ichinomiya said his eyes glazing with a darkness. 

“O…okay,” You finally surrender and the men give me devilish smirks and smiles.

 The penthouse was exquisite, beautiful in every way. From the living area was joined with a open kitchen which had a marble staircase leading to a upstairs full of rooms. Each man had his own suite and bathroom, Mr Ichinomiya had his own office and you were finally taken to your room. It was bigger than the whole of your apartment you lived in and beautifully detailed in every way. You also had your own en-suite with a spa bat-tub and wall to floor shower. You gasped when you saw it, a smirk appeared on Mr.Oh’s face.  “Impressed by this? We have so much more to show you darlin,” Kishsi said gently wrapping his arms around you much to the protest of the fellow bidders.

 A few hours had passed and you spent them in your room still confused of the events that had happened today. You was owned by these five men, no choice, no escape, no home to go back too… You ended up passing out from exhaustion on the silk bed in your room. When you woke you found the stuff from your apartment had been placed inside and you realised this wasn’t a nightmare or a bad dream, it was all real and happening. Walking into the bathroom you looked at the state of you in the bathroom and sighed, you looked a mess. You skirt was hitched up from your slumber, barely covering your ass, your shirt was messy and untucked, your sleeked ponytail was messy and falling out and you still had the toe pinching heels on.  Stripping off, you stepped into the shower washing away the humiliation you faced from today away. You used the lotion already stacked in the shower, making your skill smell of vanilla. Drying yourself off and stepping into your room, you found your lounge wear in the pile of stuff brought to your room. Sliding into your lacey low-cut tank top with your black lace shorts, not your best clothing option by far but it’s all you had I mean you never expected to live with a group of five men. Grabbing the secret stash of cigarettes, you kept hidden in one of your coat pockets and retying your hair back up and slipping on your flower kimono you take a deep breath and exit your room.

 You was greeted to a cheerful sound of men and the mixed smell of alcohol and cigarettes greeted your nose. It was a smell you wasn’t use to but it’s a smell you finally get use to and call home. A round of whistles filled your ears when you stepped down the marble case gaining all of the bidder’s attention. This was something you would never get used to. 

“Well, look whos finally come to join us,” Mr Ichinomiya said sitting in the same chair as earlier, a whisky in hand and that smug smirk on his face. 

“Yes, yes enjoy the show,” You say and twirl before walking into the kitchen, all eyes on you.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Mr Ichinomiya says to you rising an eyebrow. Looking confused.

“Getting a drink…?” You respond. 

 “Did we give you permission?” He responds. You scoff and grab one of glass flutes before picking up the bottle of champagne and pouring a glass.

 “You can’t be serious,” You say shaking your head but the next minute your slammed up against the fridge Ichinomiya pressed inches away from your face. His hot breath pulsing against your next and your hands pinned to the side of your face.

 “Do not test me, you obey me, you answer to me with sir and if you don’t do what I say within 5 seconds, I will bend you over the nearest thing and fuck you there and then,” He says whilst pressing his lips against your neck. You cant help but let out a sweet moan at the sensation and without realising you respond, “Yes sir, sorry sir,”. You feel the smirk of his mouth pressing against your neck before he pulls away. Your face is slightly flustered and you feel the drink you previously poured pushed back into your hand. 

“Good girl,” He mumbles, watching you walk away. The men had moved to a poker table sitting around and you sat in the free chair next to Baba, which you didn’t know was the best option.

“So princess how are you.” He says and places his hand on thigh and squeezes it gently. You give a simple smile and look around the table feeling the gaze of the bidder either on your face or your chest. You sipped away at your drink whilst watching the men engage in their game of poker. Every time you found your glass empty, one of the bidders had filled your up glass up almost instantly. 

“So sweetheart you playin?” Kishi asked before popping a cigarette into his mouth whilst shuffling some cards. You licked your lips slightly watching him fondle the cigarette in his mouth before you took yours out to the gasps of the other men.

“If you like the look of his mouth, wait til you see what mine can do,’ Kisaki whispers into your ear, Baba’s hand still squeezing your thigh. It was like a competition of them for your attention…

 “Yeah, fuck it,” You replied, before placing the cigarette between your teeth and raising your eyebrows to Kishsi gesturing to his lighter. Instead he shifted from his chair and shoved Kiaski out of the way taking his place. He leaned in close to you placing the end of his lit cigarette to yours and mumbles for you to inhale which you comply. Your eyes lit up watching the end spark up. You rolled it between your lips and lean back in your chair and cross your legs with your drink in the other. You hear muttered curses and comments from the others.

“God, I wanna see what else you can do with them lips,” Oh says watching your every movement. 

“Let me put something better between those lips,” Ichinomiya says with a smirk. You wasn’t sure if it was the attention you was receiving, the drinks you’d had or a mix of both because you started to feel more confident. 

“So we playing boys or what,” You say leaning forward, before seductively sucking the end of your cigarette and slightly licking your lip. You heard a low grown from the bidders, unable to place the groans to each man. This could get interesting you think to yourself, inhaling, exhaling, your chest rising to each movement. You knew the men were watching anticipating your next move, but there was none. You leaned forward for Kishi’s ashtray and stubbed out your cigarette. 

 The cards were dealt and a round was played, losing within the first few minutes of the game. 

“Shall we make it more interesting?” Ichinomiya says smirking behind his cards. All eyes were on him, except for mine, I was far more interested in topping up my drink, since we started playing the men stopped catering for your needs.

 “For her.” He states shortly and quickly with the other bidders in unison. Realising what was said you almost chocked on your drink. You wasn’t dumb or naïve and you knew what that meant and by god was you going to let one of these men win you like a prize. Looking for an escape on this, you watched as Baba loosened his tie and it hit you.

 “Or…” You start and finishing your drink for courage, all eyes back to you.

“Strip poker, winner gets a kiss…” You breath out after a deep exhale. You hear Kisaki clap and rub his hands together, sitting opposite you in Kishi’s original chair. Oh winks at you before diverting your gaze and you feel Baba had snaked a hand around your waist giving you a tight squeeze. Kishi gently took your wrist before placing a small kiss to your palm sending a heat of excitement through you. Ichinomiya gets up and walks to you and pulls you back by your ponytail gently, he leans down and places a kiss against you neck, sending you slightly breathless.

“You better get that pretty mouth of yours ready to kiss me all over,” He whispers into your ear before releasing your hair and returning to your seat. Slightly intoxicated with the situation at hand you regain yourself and smile.

“Game on boys” You say. 

Surprise, surprise you lost the first round so you lost the kimono, leaving you in your tank top and shorts. 

 You didn’t lose the next few but you watched, Oh Baba and Kishi all lose an article of clothing, mainly ties and fedoras.  But then you lost again and you had to decide on what went. Sighing and mustering your courage, you slowly removed your tank top thankful you kept your white lace bra on but it left little to the imagination, your slight erect nipples poking through the material. Kisaki and Oh’s jaws dropped, Baba placed his hand back onto your waist before slowly tracing it up your side, Kishi who had nearly fell asleep was now wide awake and his eyes burning through your chest. A recognisable growl came from the king, the same kind you heard earlier when you was sat on his lap. This was the first moment you realised the full effect you were having on these men but also the effect they was having on you.

“Okay boys, pack it in,” You saw with a new confidence and throwing you shirt at the table. You play two more round, winning both and watching Ichinomiya lose his jacket and Kisaki his shirt, he was hiding a beautifully tone chest under there.

  It was the last round, a make or break for you. You lost the first half much to your disagreement but you sucked it and teased the men watching you. Standing up, your first traced your hands up your stomach but moved them down to your shorts meet with anticipated breath from the bidders. Slowly you tug your shorts down just a little reviling the hem of your lacy panties. Slowly you push them down, using your other hand to keep up your shorts. Met with gasps and you catch Kishi drop his cigarette his mouth gaping open. Sitting back down, you extend your leg out pulling your panties full off and placing them on the table. You was met with a stunned silence and felt extremely proud of your power move.

 The final cards were dealt and you could cut a tension with a knife, the bidder slowly revealed their cards, all but you and Mr Ichinomiya. He smirked and laid out his cards, “I want all them clothes gone for our kiss,” he says smugly. You look at your cards and give him a defeated look before sighing. He knew he had won, until you laid your cards out.

 “I call that a royal flush, sir,” Your purr, seeing his eyes widen and that cocky grin wiped off his face. You raise a brow at your defeated opposition and watch him slowly lose his lavender shirt. His chest was chiselled and you felt it hard to keep your cool.

 Regardless of his dick attitude, he was a sight to behold. You licked your slightly parted lips at the sight but a comment from Baba brought you back to reality.

“So winner…” He said leaning into you neck. You already knew who you wanted to kiss… right now it was all of them. Each one brought a sexual tension and with your confidence and high of winning you was ready to explore. 

“Since you all share me, I want a kiss of each of you, you know please all my masters,” You say with a cocky grin on your face.

No-one complained or whined infact they were rather submissive. Each kiss was different, Oh’s and Kiski were sweet and delicate, Kishi’s tasted like an ashtray (but you enjoyed the taste), Baba however was gentle with a tight grip on your waist and sucking delicately on your bottom lip. And Mr Ichinomiya, he pulled you into his lap and kissed your cheek before moving closer and kissed the corner of your lips, instantly you leaned to him but he pulled back and then you heard it, the words beg fell from his mouth and formed a declivous smile. You couldn’t believe this prick.

“Kiss me,” You muttered against his lips. He pulled back again.

“Kiss me who?” He said cocking an eyebow.

“Kiss me, sir,” you said and his lips came crashing onto yours, forcing his tongue into your mouth, showing his dominance. He pulled back leaving a string of saliva connecting your lips. Feeling heavily intoxicated with passion and lust, you bid the bidders fair well before retrieving your top and kimono and bounding upstairs.

“Aren’t we forgetting something?” One of them yells up, your panties still in the middle of the table.

“Keep them,” You respond, hearing an argument breaking out between them. You reached your room, shut the door and sighed, what had you got yourself into? 

“So what is the catch?” Your other friend Gemma asked, perking up from the sofa still marvelling at the fact she was in the penthouse of the Hotel Tres Spades. Grabbing a fresh bottle of champagne from the grey-metallic fridge you place it on the counter and lead forward pressing the palms of your hands flat against it.

Taking a deep sign, you reply, “I mean my freedom in a way, I’m a private maid for the penthouse, I’m not allowed to go freely out of the building without informing anyone of where I’m going, my apartment is gone I can only stay here, I guess I can kiss a love life goodbye, not that there really one,”.

“I mean the last time you last got laid was when you were 17 wasn’t it,” Rachel said, both her and Gemma giggling.

“Shut up!” You yelled, lobbing a bag of peanuts at her head and trying not to go the colour of the perfectly red apple sitting on the counter. She was right though, it had been five years since you last had any sexual connection with a man. Not that you hadn’t had the opportunity, but the first and last time you had sex, you were lied too, tricked into thinking you and he was in love but really all he wanted was your body. You never told or spoke to anyone about it because you felt embarrassed, ashamed of your naivety but you were young, you thought you was in love.

Pouring yourself and the two others a drink, you waltzed back across the room.

“To Miss (YN) new lavish lifestyle!” Gemma said raising her glass and waiting for us to join in.

“To no catches!” Rachel chimed in causing a giggle from all three of you.

 “So come on, what’s the real gossip, what are these men like?” Rachel ask you, wiggling her eyebrows. You took a sip of your champagne and though about your response. You knew no-one was in the penthouse, or you hoped at-least, you was still getting use to everyone’s schedules even though they never really stuck to them. You gave your friends a brief description to your friends of them ensuring to leave out details from the poker night, that only happened 2 nights ago.

“They all sound devious but come on, if you had, which one would you screw?” Gemma asked and you had to think.

The smug and demanding yet charming boss – Eisuke Ichinomiya

The mafia leader – Soryu Oh

The flirtatious thief – Mitsunari Baba

The young artist – Ota Kisaki

The ruggedly handsome detective – Mamoru Kishi

[iamleavingthisfandom]

real question: if I wrote a vampire!AU for reddie with the oh my god they were roommates trope, would y'all read it? I'm just,,,,, feeling unmotivated and depressed af, but not writing is making me even more depressed, so can I at least do this dumb little thing? I mean, whatever, I wrote a vignette for them anyway, but idk, might fuck around and keep writing it if existential dread doesn't consume me whole to be safe it's probably rated M

Eddie didn’t quite know what was wrong with Richie Tozier, and the few ideas that came up made him question his own sanity.

When Bill set him up with a roommate, he was very grateful for it. New York ain’t cheap, and having someone to share the rent of a double-bedroom with was much appreciated, despite the fact that technically he was getting a nice salary and could afford it. How he was making enough money to be able to live like that, he didn’t know. Magic, probably. He didn’t question it, though. Him and Richie hit it off right away. The guy was funny and charming, and for every time he got on Eddie’s nerves (which was a lot), he also managed to be thoughtful, smart, and understanding like Eddie would never expect. It didn’t hurt that most of the time he saw the guy, he was suddenly overcome with the need to suck a dick. Preferably Richie’s. Bill was old friends with Richie, apparently, and most of the stuff he’d told Eddie was true: Richie was loud and obnoxious and ridiculously smart and he couldn’t ever shut up. However, there were some things Eddie kept noticing about Richie that made him question whether Bill really knew him as well as he said he did. From the start, it was really small stuff. Sure, Eddie noticed that the guy practically never left the apartment during sunlight hours, but his night job at a radio station was probably to blame for that, so at first he didn’t pay it much mind. His paleness wasn’t a red flag either. Nor were occult symbols on his clothing and in the small part of his room Eddie caught glimpses of — the aesthetic fit him. He became a bit concerned when he tried cooking dinners for the two of them, intent on doing something for Richie, since he was nice to Eddie and helped him out constantly, be it grounding him when Eddie started spiralling into anxiety attacks or massaging his shoulders after a tough day at work (now that Eddie thought about it, his hands were suspiciously cold, which was a blessing at the time), and such. Both times Eddie tried to casually bring it up in that definitely not rehearsed ‘hey, I accidentally cooked too much food — do you want to join me?’ way, Richie very politely declined. The food, not hanging out. Then Eddie started noticing he only ever seemed to drink red-coloured smoothies, and he didn’t keep much food in the kitchen at all — although from time to time he did see Richie stuffing his face with snacks that made his skin crawl (he could understand the appeal of gummy bears, but five fucking bags in a row?), so maybe it wasn’t that big a deal. The guy had unhealthy eating habits. He could explain that away and he was content with that. That didn’t necessarily convince him that everything was fine and dandy, but he wasn’t going to go into the whole thing. Another thing that made him question stuff happened one Friday night. Eddie had just come home from his shift and Richie was lounging on the couch watching Netflix and sipping his smoothie from a plastic cup through a reusable straw. He was wearing sweatpants (that Eddie had grown kind of obsessed with because they hugged all of Richie’s business, and while there was plenty left for Eddie’s imagination, he just knew he would need numbing spray to get it all down his throat, and the first time he had gotten this thought, he blushed bright red and had to excuse himself to dart to the bathroom before Richie noticed anything) and a hoodie — and overall he looked so cozy that Eddie couldn’t help himself, and the next thing he knew, he was dropping his bag next to the couch and cozying up to Richie’s side, head on his shoulder. Richie was nice to him like that: he never objected to physical contact and would drape his arm around Eddie’s shoulders more often than not when they hung out in the shared space. This time was no different. “Tough day?” Richie asked sympathetically as he buried his fingers in Eddie’s hair and scratched his scalp, nearly making him purr. “Yeah,” he breathed out, closing his eyes and basking in the contact for all of half a minute. He opened them again to find Richie looking at him with a small smile that he never quite knew how to interpret, but it made him blush every time still. So to change the topic he reached for the plastic cup with the smoothie in it. “Gimme that, I want to try what you’re constantly drinking if it’s so good.” He’d never seen the expression of concern and anxiety that briefly passed on Richie’s face before the cup was held firmly out of Eddie’s reach. “No can do, Eddie my love, there’s so much Kool-Aid mix it’ll give you diabetes.” Richie’s tone was not very convincing, and Eddie raised his eyebrows, willing to challenge him on that. Unfortunately, when he tried reaching further, he felt a recent cut on his arm open up. It wasn’t a big deal, it was just a not-great-looking scratch he’d gotten while running, but it really wasn’t a big deal — he was a nurse, he’d know if it were. It did hurt though, so with a hiss he sat back, watching Richie’s eyes widen and… was he trying to smell something? “Did you hurt yourself?” he could hear the concern in Richie’s voice. “It’s nothing, just picked the wrong fence to fuck with while running,” he commented, sitting back and taking off his jacket to reveal the cut — it had started to slowly fill up with fresh blood. He examined it, noting that he’d probably need to disinfect it again now. When he looked up at Richie again, his eyes were as wide as they could go and he was white as a sheet. He licked his lips and looked like he couldn’t tear his eyes away from the scratch on Eddie’s arm. “I, uh— I gotta—” Richie mumbled unintelligibly before darting for the door to his room. “Are you afraid of blood or something?” Eddie called out to him, a joke more than anything else. He didn’t look scared, not really. He heard a nervous laugh. “Yep, that must be it,” with that weird phrasing Richie shut the door on him, leaving Eddie to sit there in wonder. What the fuck had just happened? Did Richie have a blood fetish or something? It would explain that, possibly, but somehow Eddie doubted it. That was when the thought of his roommate being a vampire came to his head. And before you say anything, he knew well enough there was no such thing as vampires or werewolves, and parents bought children Christmas gifts and his mom was who left pennies under his pillow when he lost a tooth — he knew that. And he didn’t think it was possible Richie was a vampire. But the whole thing was awfully weird and suspicious and made Eddie question his own sanity.

[moonlight-breeze-44]

Always With You

Summary: Magnus and Alec have a ‘date night’ and talk about becoming Inquisitor and the High Warlock of Alicante. Fluffy fluff fluff.

Read on AO3

"Magnus, you didn't have to do all of this for me," Alec objected, a rosy blush colouring his pale cheeks. He was chewing his lip, clearly conflicted over the candlelit dinner Magnus had set up. It was their only day off for quite some time, and Magnus had spared no expense. The tablecloth was fine Italian silk, and the wine was a lavish brand Alec recognised only from Jace's 'guilty pleasure' magazines. The overhead lights had been transformed into soft white lighting that cast an almost enchanting glow over their table. Dinner was steak and potatoes with buttery rolls on the side. Alec was used to Magnus's insistence that they have only the best on their date nights, but he was still a little overwhelmed by the grand gesture.

"Nonsense, darling," Magnus replied, pulling Alec out of his own thoughts and back into their conversation. "I wanted it to be a special night."

"Well, thank you," Alec said, looking down shyly. "I love it."

"Good," Magnus chirped, and he reached over to pull the chair out for Alec. Alec sat, and they began to eat. Chairman Meow wandered over and rubbed himself against Alec's legs, purring. Alec smiled softly. The cat was the last piece of the puzzle needed for him to relax and simply enjoy the dinner with his husband. Magnus, who was even better than Alec himself at picking up on subtle changes in his behaviour, gave Alec a bright smile and locked their ankles together under the table.

"How's the campaign coming?" Magnus inquired. "I asked Isabelle yesterday, but she just said it was 'top-secret'."

Alec smirked. "Good for her."

"Why all the secrecy?" Magnus whined. "I'm your husband. I deserve to know these things, Alexander."

"Well, I have something to show you after dinner," Alec promised. He took a deep breath and reached over the table to squeeze Magnus's hand. "It's going to change a lot of things, Mags."

Magnus raised their interwoven hands and kissed Alec's knuckles. "It won't change my love for you, and that's what's important. Anything else, we can deal with."

Alec felt suddenly and violently grateful for Magnus Lightwood-Bane. His throat closed with emotion, and he roughly shook his head, embarrassed at himself.

Magnus smiled and changed the subject. "Did you feed Chairman today? He looks hungry."

Alec rolled his eyes. "Don't be fooled by his act, Magnus. He does this every day. Haven't you noticed?"

Magnus appeared taken aback. "He's not like that!"

"Not like what, exactly?" Alec raised an eyebrow.

"He's not dishonest!"

Alec chuckled. "Magnus, he's a cat."

"Yes, well, he's not a dishonest cat!"

Alec shook his head. A small smile turned the corners of his mouth up, and he took a bite of steak before answering. "I don't think cats know what honesty is."

"That's ridiculous!" Magnus sputtered. "You know, people are quick to assume that animals are nothing like us because they can't communicate the way we do. But I've had cats for over 200 years, Alexander. They know what honesty is. They're honorable."

"I think that's open for debate," Alec countered. "At least in the case of the Chairman."

Magnus sputtered indignantly but chose not to respond. Instead, he took a roll, tore it in half, and fed half of it to the cat, who was waiting underneath the table with a confident, self-satisfied gleam to his eyes.

Alec rolled his eyes. "You need to stop feeding him human food, Magnus. He's obese."

"No, he's not. He's just fluffy."

Alec shook his head in exasperation, chuckling. "You're blind when it comes to those that you love, Mags."

"Mm, how true that is, Alexander." Magnus rose a few feet from his chair to press a light kiss to Alec's lips.

Alec hummed in gratitude when Magnus pulled away, popping the last piece of steak into his mouth. "I'll clean the dishes," Alec offered, standing up. "Since you made dinner."

"I didn't make dinner, darling. I borrowed dinner from a restaurant in New Hampshire. And I'm too eager to see this surprise of yours to wait for you to clean up all the soap you'll get on my counter in the process of washing the dishes." He snapped his fingers and the plates and utensils disappeared, along with the leftover steak.

Alec pointed to the half-full platter of potatoes. "What are you going to do with those?"

"...give them to the cats."

"Magnus."

"They're hungry! Look at them!" He pointed to the double doors leading to the balcony, where several other cats that Magnus fed had congregated, meowing pitifully and looking at Chairman Meow with something akin to jealousy.

"They're deceiving you, Magnus. You gave them cream this morning, remember?"

Magnus did remember. "That doesn't mean anything. We have three meals a day, and they're only supposed to live on one?"

Alec sighed, inserting every bit of overdramatic Lightwood flair he could muster up into the sound. Magnus smiled and pecked him on the cheek. "Go wait for me in the living room, darling. And get that surprise ready, would you?" He threw his husband a glittery wink before disappearing onto the balcony.

When Magnus returned, Alec had settled himself on the sofa and pulled up the email. His hands shook and his thick black hair clung to his perspiration-dotted forehead. This was it. Time to tell Magnus what was going on.

For better or for worse.

"So what is this?" Magnus asked, gesturing to the email on Alec's phone screen.

"Here. Read." Alec thrust the phone into Magnus's hands.

When Magnus got to the end of the email, to Alec's surprise, he was beaming.

"Oh, Alexander, this is wonderful! Congratulations!" Magnus pulled Alec into a tight hug. "I knew you would be appointed Inquisitor. I'm so happy for you, sweetheart."

"Y-You're not upset?"

"Upset? Darling, why would I be upset?"

"Because the Inquisitor position is in Alicante," Alec mumbled. "It's - I mean - I couldn't possibly portal back home to New York every night."

"Alec, look at me." Magnus cupped Alec's cheek in his palm and tilted his chin up, forcing him to meet Magnus's eyes. "Distance means nothing to me. While it is, of course, preferable to have you close, I will love you no matter where you are in the world. Distance can do nothing against our bond." He raised his hand, on which the Lightwood family ring stood out proudly, for emphasis.

Alec felt tears rise to his eyes, but he quickly blinked them away. "Magnus, I - you have no idea how much that means to me. I just - I just thought the distance might be too much for you. Alicante is a long way from home." He bit his lip and focused his gaze on his lap once more.

"Well, though I stand by my original point, I have a surprise for you, as well," Magnus said. He raised his hand and, a few seconds later, a scroll flew into his hand from their bedroom. He handed it over to Alec, smiling. "Read it."

Dear Mr. Lightwood-Bane, Due to your unique skill set, we would like to request your presence in Alicante. The Head of the New York Institute, Mr. Alexander Lightwood-Bane, and his Downworld Cabinet have brought to our attention the need for a more open, welcoming environment here in the city. We would like to ask you to be the first High Warlock of Alicante. Should you choose to accept this offer, please send a return message with your confirmation and we will arrange a date to discuss further details, including your salary and the hours you will be expected to be available for work. Thank you very much. Please reply at your earliest convenience. Sincerely, Consul Penhallow & staff

Alec peered up at Magnus from beneath his lashes, blinking incredulously. "Mags, how long have you known about this?"

"About as long as you've known you won the race for Inquisitor," Magnus replied. He smirked at Alec's dumbfounded expression. "Of course I could tell, darling," he said, reading his husband's mind. "You were giddy with joy from the moment they emailed you." Alec chuckled. After all, Magnus wasn't wrong. Despite his misgivings about how it would affect his future with his husband, Alec had been overjoyed to learn he was to be the new Inquisitor. “I wanted to tell you sooner, but then there was that mishap with one of the werewolf packs and the vampire clan, and then you had that nest of Drevak demons to deal with - " Magnus cut himself off with a smile. "Anyway, it just never seemed like the right time."

"And you want to? Accept the offer, I mean."

"I do," Magnus replied steadily. "I've thought about it, and New York is my home. It's where I found my place after nearly a century of wandering the Earth, not quite fitting in anywhere I went. It's where I've lived for the past 200 years and it's where I want to be when I die. But Alicante is a new opportunity, and I want to embrace it. I can very easily see myself being quite happy there. The fact that I am allowed in at all to a city that was once warded against all Downworlders is sign enough that things are changing, and I have you to thank for that. Being the first of my kind to take the leap and change old prejudices is something I dream about. Besides, I can take the best of New York with me." He gestured to his apartment, sweeping over the cats, still huddled around the plate of mashed potatoes, and the framed picture of Catarina that hung on the wall, before turning to Alec and placing a sound kiss on his lips. "Wherever you go, Alexander, I'm right there with you."

Alec rested his forehead against Magnus's and exhaled a sigh of relief. "I'm so glad you want to go." He looked up to meet Magnus's eyes. "I agree with everything you were saying earlier, about distance not being able to diminish what we feel, but I think I need to see you." He huffed a breath of a laugh. "If I didn't have you there with me, I think I'd go insane from all of the Clave's politics."

Alec, now fully relaxed with the knowledge that he was not going to be leaving his husband behind to further his career in Alicante, slumped into Magnus's side, resting his head on Magnus's shoulder. Magnus kissed it absentmindedly, reaching down to run his fingers through Alec's hair. Alec purred in delight when Magnus's nails scratched over his scalp, and buried his face into the bright purple vest Magnus was wearing in order to give him more access.

"I wouldn't blame you, sweetheart. The Clave can be quite intolerable." Alec hummed in response.

"Are you tired?"

"No," Alec said, suppressing a yawn.

Magnus chuckled. "Sure you aren't. Come on, darling, let's go to bed."

"But it's only eight!"

"And numbers mean nothing," Magnus said firmly. "We can go to bed whenever we'd like to. Come on, get up."

"I'm pretty comfy right here."

Magnus rolled his eyes. "We are not sleeping on the couch again, Alexander."

"You go on ahead. I'll join you in a minute."

"No, you won't," Magnus said knowingly. "You'll fall asleep here and wake up with a sore neck and a bad attitude. Come on, darling, just a few steps."

"Can't you just use magic?" Alec whined. "You're warm. I don't want to move."

"Alright, alright," Magnus relented. A wisp of cool blue floated from his fingertips and surrounded Alec, levitating him into the bedroom while maintaining the comfortable warmth from the couch. Magnus followed shortly afterwards, magicking himself and Alec into suitable sleepwear.

Alec curled up on his side of the bed and called out for Magnus impatiently. Magnus chuckled and slid underneath the red silk sheets, pressing himself to his husband’s side. He dropped a light kiss to Alec's forehead and pulled him close.

By the time Magnus had buried his face in Alec's hair, ripe with the scent of sandalwood and citrus, and whispered, "Goodnight," Alec was already asleep, snoring quietly next to the man he loved.

Centuries' worth of heartbreak seemed like nothing at all when Magnus was with Alec.

[essays-for-breakfast]

Memento

Melizabeth Week Day 3: Precious

As usual during the early evening hours, the Boar Hat was bustling with customers. Meliodas had prepared rounds upon rounds of fine ale from all the outlandish places he had stocked in his wine cellar – out of the absence of a basement located on the third floor –, and none of the packed tables showed signs of slowing down. Most of his clientele belonged to the Holy Knights, easy to identify by the straight way they held themselves even while drinking and the occasional pieces of armor catching the light.

Meliodas rolled his eyes and polished the mug in his hands with more vehemence. His experience had taught him that there were only two types of customers every tavern owner wanted to fill his house with: people with money and people with unhappy marriages.

And if the pathetic salary paired with the grueling workhours Meliodas had endured when he had been a Holy Knight of Liones were any indicator, his current set of customers fit into neither category.

At least the atmosphere was cheerful enough to motivate multiple rounds of booze, which Meliodas gladly filled into another set of mugs placed on the wooden tray Diane was all too eager to shove in his face.

“Another round coming right up,” she yelled, earning herself cheers from the table in the far-off corner, before she disappeared within the crowd on light feet.

Meliodas was lucky to have her today; his assistance waiter only showed up to work on rare occasions these days. No wonder with all these political troubles on her mind about clan fusions, border regulations, and peace treaties. He could call himself lucky to have avoided that particular set of hassles. Life as a tavern-owner sure had its downsides – customers with a drinking habit, or as Meliodas liked to call it ‘drowning habit’, similar to Ban’s loved to grind his nerves –, but at least he had no expectations to trouble himself with.

Well, apart from the expectations of hungry customers of course.

“Hey, where’s my meat-pie special?” one of the loudmouths from the front table asked while shaking his mug with enough élan to spill half its content on the table. Shame about the liquor; the burgundy drink looked suspiciously similar to one of Meliodas’ most expensive offers on the menu. But if that compelled him to order a second serving faster, Meliodas would be the last one to complain.

“I’ll check in with the cook,” Meliodas said to appease the troublemaker. If Ban was slacking in his agency as prized top chef again, he would give him hell on earth. Or he could demand the keys to his booze storage room back – that should do the trick too.

But before Meliodas had a chance to knock down the kitchen door with a commanding stare and the words ‘Captain’s orders’ on his lips, that same door swung open as Meliodas’ favorite person in the world emerged from the kitchen.

“No need, good sir, I have your order right here,” Elizabeth said.

Not even the dim light of the Boar Hat’s oil lamps screwed to the ceiling could take away from her beauty as she slipped into the tavern room, a plate stacked with meat-pie balancing in her hands. Her long silver hair flowed behind her, charmed by the new waiter outfit Meliodas had presented her a few days ago with a sly grin. The scandalously short skirt and ribbon-top enhanced her perfect curves, and Meliodas patted himself on the back for coming up with the design. Elizabeth almost floated into the room on her white slippers, and presented a beam to the customers that made Meliodas forget everything at once, including the urge to scold Ban. All he saw was her as she moved with the grace of a Goddess…

… and stumbled over her own feet.

His brain kicked back into action, and in a fit of chivalry Meliodas jumped forward to prevent her fall. He was a man of opportunities, however, and when he caught her, not only did he save Elizabeth from a bruised knee, he was also treated to a first-class look – and more crucial, touch – of her upper body’s unique and soft qualities.

Elizabeth shrieked in a return to old habits, and Meliodas could imagine the priceless redness creeping into her cheeks, but because his face was still tucked into her bust, he missed out on the sight. Not that he would have traded this place for anything in the world.

The rattle of costly china invaded their privacy, and Meliodas steeped back to examine the damage with an unflinching poker face. Elizabeth, still with a blush on her face, stared at him with wide, blue eyes as large as plates. Speaking of plates, Elizabeth’s hands, frozen in the forward motion they had entered when she had lost her balance, were empty; the meat-pie along with its porcelain company had shattered on the floor to cover the stonework with white shards more pricy than Meliodas could afford after a week of double-hours. Out of all the pieces of crockery he owned, it had to be this one.

Elizabeth shocked gaze skipped between Meliodas and the broken plate, the first tears swimming in her eyes.

“Not again!” Ban complained from the kitchen. “I can’t prepare each meal twice just because it keeps raining plates. I want to submit vacation!”

“Shut up, Ban,” King said, followed by a low thud that sounded like Ban’s head had made the acquaintance of the ceramic workbench.

“I’m so sorry, Meliodas,” Elizabeth said teary-eyed. “I know this was your favorite plate. Even after you’ve made me co-owner of the tavern, I’m still no use when it comes to lending you a hand. If there’s a way to make it up to you, I’ll –”

“Sssh, if you keep talking like that, you’ll soon start to believe this nonsense.” Meliodas petted her head, and a glimmer of happiness returned to her eyes. “It took me five years to turn into a somewhat decent tavern owner, and even then, I maybe failed to offer my customers a decent meal once or twice. As I’m sure Hawk will be eager to inform ya. Yo, scraps disposal, there’s work for you.”

The named swine emerged from behind the counter and sniffed at the leftovers on the floor. “Even your best food can’t compare to what Ban cooks on his worst day. The smell alone… and the soft flavors that explode in your mouth with an aftertaste only the gods could have created…”

“Well, help ya’self.”

“Oh, I will,” Hawk said with a cloudy expression; he had already fallen victim to the intoxicating aroma of Ban’s food and used his hooves to shove the remains of the plate aside to dig into the meal that was no doubt too good to be wasted on him.

All these servings of Ban’s cooking had made him choosy, and if Meliodas didn’t threaten him with starvation, he wouldn’t do as much as look at the scraps Meliodas and Elizabeth handed him when Ban was out and busy enjoying his own life. Why did he continue to pay these morons? Well, technically their salary consisted of nothing but a pat on the back, but Ban and the pig enjoyed the luxury of unlimited access to Meliodas’ booze and groceries – and they both knew how to make the most of this privilege.

Elizabeth had dropped to her knees beside Hawk and collected the white shards with her bare hands and more bitterness than Meliodas could bear to see on her face. She treated each piece covered with artistic lines depicting birds and deer and landscapes almost like a lost child.

He bent down next to her and took her hands with soft firmness. “You’ll cut yourself.”

Elizabeth’s hands were shaking when she let go of the shards, but despite the emotional struggle she worked herself through, she had regained enough control to climb to her feet with his assistance. All these curious gazes from the overcrowded tables only added to her unease, and the meat-pie guy made a particularly sour face as he watched his order disappear into the greedy maw of the pig. Elizabeth needed a bit of air to calm herself, and Meliodas would be happy to escape the noise, so why not delegate some tasks to his underlings?

“Yo, Gowther, take over the counter for a bit, wont’cha?” Meliodas said and scooped Elizabeth with the same ease he would have a baby bird.

Gowther left the corner he had occupied with the stiffness that befell him whenever a captivating book found its way into his hands and saluted. “Roger, Captain!” He picked the mug Meliodas had polished to perfection, and rubbed the dirty cloth from the counter over its surface in an attempt to copy Meliodas. Maybe he hadn’t been the best fit for the job, but Meliodas had other things on his mind besides Gowther’s inability to look like a bar tender with any sort of competence.

With Elizabeth in his arms, Meliodas rushed out of the door and trod over dry patches of grass until the sounds of conversation and laughter from inside the Boar Hat had faded to background stereo. Sometime after he had ordered Diane to lighten the oil lamps in the tavern room, the sun must have disappeared; apart from the stars and the beams of orange seeping through the Boar Hat’s lattice window, the landscape was covered in shadows.

Meliodas placed Elizabeth on her feet and reached out to cup her face. “Feeling better?” Her small but honest nod encouraged him to continue. “You shouldn’t get so worked up about this tavern business, we set this up because we both enjoyed the idea, remember? And who cares if that chattering knight in training doesn’t get his meat-pie? I’ll be the last one to complain.”

“Sometimes I feel so useless next to you,” Elizabeth admitted quietly. “In other lives I was a warrior or a knight or a sailor. But the longest time in this life, I’ve spent as nothing but a spoiled princess. Even running a tavern with you is more than I can manage.”

Meliodas studied her with a knot in his throat he couldn’t swallow. “Elizabeth…”

“But,” she interrupted, “no matter how often I fall and how often I let you down, I won’t give up. That’s what you did for me. I want to at least repay you a little, and with more practice, I will do better, I promise.”

“There’s nothing you’d have to repay me for,” Meliodas said with a smile that turned wicked when an idea crossed his mind. “Of course, if you’d ask your crazy wealthy relatives to fund our business every once in a while, I won’t decline.”

Elizabeth laughed that adorable laugh he was so addicted to before her gaze was caught by Liones’ capital glistering in the distance with tiny lights from a thousand windows. The palaces’ outline, a bulk of stone towering above the city, stood out against the hill ranges in the distance. For a moment, the reflections of her old home shone in her eyes, and Meliodas soaked in this beautiful expression like a man dying of thirst.

She surprised him with the question she asked next. “What about the plate was so dear to you?”

“You’re still thinking about that stupid piece of china?”

“No… I mean, of course I am still sorry for breaking it, and if I knew how to mend it, I would in a heartbeat, but what I want to understand is what the plate matters to you. I would like to be able to see the value in those objects that surround you the same way as you do.”

After three thousand years, she still surprised him with how much she cared about the little, unimportant details others would fail to even notice.

Meliodas crossed his arms behind his head and let his eyes trail over the landscape without seeing any of its shapes. “I got this plate from an old woman in Byron, a few years after I opened the first version of the Boar Hat together with a Hawk. There were all these people on the street, trading their tableware, laughing, and shoving around in these idiotic traditional dances. I stopped by the town by pure chance on that day, but Hawk forced me to spent all my hard-earned savings on new plates, so I went to the stall of this woman with the intention to get this trip over with as fast as I could. But even for someone who doesn’t care one bit about how the dishes under the food look, the craft she had put into these things was a sight for sore eyes. And while I was studying this one plate, she told me that she’d give me that one for free. She wouldn’t accept a single coin. I asked her why she would do that for a stranger, and you know what she said?

“She said it was the birthday of the third princess of Liones, a day to celebrate and show kindness to those who aren’t offered sympathy on other days. That one was the only plate I brought with me that day. Hawk was furious, of course. But that plate and the gesture behind it always reminded me of you, Elizabeth, and of your kindness. That’s why it was my favorite.”

When he craned his neck to peek at Elizabeth, Meliodas was met with a warmth that could melt glaciers and a sorrow that could bring tears to the eyes of stone-cold warriors. “Now I regret that I broke that plate even more. It sounds like it was a very precious piece of remembrance to you.”

“Forget that plate,” Meliodas said and stepped closed to take her hand. “What’s precious to me are all these little moments with you – especially when you stumble over your own feet and I’m there to catch you.”

They leaned closer until they lost themselves in the touch of the other. And if Meliodas had been given the choice by some higher entity, he would have traded that plate – that had by miracle survived all the times his tavern had been shredded by accursed strokes of fate to remind him of the kindness he had been granted – for this moment every single time.

[welldonebeca]

Home (XI)

WC: 1.1k words Warnings: Spoilers, fluff, angst. Proofread by the lovely @onebatch--twobatch

“That was quite a sell,” you approached George, who’d just said goodbye to one boy with a very heavy bag of products.

Even though the times were hard, the store was now packed up with kids and teens, all visiting Diagon Alley to get ready for Hogwarts and many filling up their personal stocks for pranks – at least until Christmas -, and that meant very good news for you.

“They’re going back to school,” he pointed out. “Fred was right when he said we should double our stocks for the second half of August.”

“Excuse me,” his twin stop in front of you two. “Can you say that again?”

“You were right,” you repeated, rolling your eyes. “Do you want a medal for that?”

Before he could say anything, your eyes fell on the group of teens who’d just entered the store.

“Your family is here,” you noted.

Fred walked away from you, squeezing himself between the customers to reach them, while you put yourself behind the counter to check the order you’d just received from the Ministry. Apparently, they’d heard from the Shield Hats the store was selling – George’s idea – and wanted five hundred of them, and your other Defence Against the Dark Arts products had suddenly started flying out of the shelves.

“Hey, Y/N,” Hermione squeezed herself until she reached the counter, which was a few steps from you. “Are you busy?”

You stored the paper in one of the drawers and quickly walked closer to the divisor. The moment you looked up her face, you knew just what she needed.

“Let me guess,” you palmed your apron, looking for the Bruise Removal Paste. “Boxing Telescope?”

She nodded and you reached out, spreading some of the thick paste on her skin.

“It’ll be better in an hour.”

The girl smiled shyly to you.

“Thanks.”

You leant onto the surface and gave her a small smile.

“I actually came up with it,” you confessed. “It’s not my field, but the boys couldn’t find anything to help with the telescope.”

“It’s quite nice,” she noted. “The store isn’t doing so bad.”

“It has some ups and downs,” you sighed. “I think people are only now hearing about us, so that’s a positive.”

She nodded, and you turned around when Vera stopped by the counter.

“Miss Malfoy,” Vera, a girl who’s started working with you just a couple of days prior. “Mister Weasley is asking your assistance with a client outside.”

You offered Hermione a smile, excusing yourself before walking out and leaving the room, making sure to fix your hair while you were still out of their presence.

“Did you ask for me?”

. . .

“I think someone is gonna get a full salary next time her pay-check arrives,” George joked, grabbing you by your waist affectionately. “Any idea what you’re gonna do with so much money?” he extended the two last words in a mocking tone.

You chuckled, rolling your eyes but throwing your arms over his shoulders. The store had emptied out, as it was nearly closing time, and Fred was checking what you had to replace while Vera cleaned the floor.

“I was thinking of taking a guy out,” you teased. “We never got to celebrate our first anniversary together.”

George raised his eyebrows, smiling largely.

“Oh yeah? And where do you plan to go?”

You tilted your head to the side.

“I don’t know… But I’m taking suggestions. You two,” you moved your hands down, holding the sides of his greed suit jacket. “Have very similar tastes.”

George moved forward, taking your lips in his whilst giggling. He had his back pressed onto the counter, so you were facing the door, and you weren’t sure if you regretted the position when you opened your eyes, losing your smile instantly.

Standing by the door of the store, your mother was staring at you with ice-cold eyes.

You untangled yourself from George slowly, not missing when your boyfriend pulled his wand from his pocket discreetly.

“Can we help you with anything?” you lifted your chin, unwilling to show any emotion but pride.

“Is that what you do now?” she looked around the place, clearly displeased and maybe even disgusted. “You work in this… Trash heap?”

You ground your teeth.

“This is a respectable store, ma’am,” you affirmed in the coldest voice you could find, though there was a knot ready to form in your throat. “Is there anything you need from us? It’s closing time.”

You blinked twice, hoping she couldn’t see the way her presence was affecting you. So that was it? Months away and the only things she can do when she sees you is offend you?

“No,” she straightened her back, but instead of leaving, your mother lowered herself down and put a pack of whatever was in her hands down the floor.

Then, she turned around and left, and you felt your shoulders stopping in response, instantly leaning onto George when he braced you.

“Are you okay?” he whispered.

You took a deep breath. Things were going okay. You wouldn’t let that affect you, you couldn’t.

“Yes. I’ll be just fine.”

All four of you stared at the box until Fred walked up to it, bringing it to you and George and dropping it to the counter.

“What are you waiting for?” he raised his eyebrows. “Open it!”

Sensing it was her time to go, Vera walked out of the room when you unwrapped the deep purple paper, leaving the three of you behind as you silently opened the gift.

Inside, a summer cloak in deep green was neatly folded.

“It’s a gift,” you whispered.

You noticed the details of the piece when you pulled it out. It could be worn at both sides, with one in deep green velvet with your family’s crest embroidered right over your chest, and the other side in black silk, and it also had a hood.

“Try it on,” your boyfriend requestioned.

When you did, it became clear that the cloak had to be custom made, as it fit your height perfectly.

A card fell onto the floor, and his brother was quick to pick it up.

“Happy birthday,” he read, breathing in deep. You closed your eyes. She did think of you, after all.

You breathed in deep, covering your face with your hands for a moment, completely confused by the mixed signals.

“Let’s just help Vera cleaning up,” you decided.

No one said anything, and you folded the cloak right back into its previous state, putting it back onto the box.

“Just…” you cleared your throat. “Let’s not talk about this,” you request, just as the girl entered your room. “Please.”

. . .

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