#AND AFTERWARDS i waited at the bus stop for twenty minutes because again i couldn’t check to see when the bus was coming

[luvrodite]

you guys. you will not believe the day i’ve had and it isn’t even mid afternoon

[hopefuloverfury]

ey yooooo are requests still open?? if so, what are the bachelor/ette's first impressions of the farmer? who do you think has a crush right off the bat and who takes a little longer to warm up to them?

They are open! I’ll let y’all know when they’re closed, but you can still send in requests regardless—I won’t delete any, but I have to wait until I have time to work through them. This got away from me, it’s so long, and I really wanted to do a bit for everybody, but the post is a monster so I'm going to make the bachelorette's a little later, if that's alright! It also fell a little more toward “How The Marriage Candidates Fall In Love With You,” so. Uh. Whoops? I hope you enjoy!

Bachelorettes are here.

This is super fluffy for some of them, others not so much, Shane is Shane, and Seb is Seb. There’s some little bits of dialogue here and there, but I didn’t go crazy, and I tried to stick to canon but also I did not stick to canon lmfao

Sam

Sam saw you on the first friday of spring, at the saloon

He thought you looked… pretty normal, actually

like, yeah sure, you had work boots caked with dried mud, and a backpack stuffed past-full with an assortment of busted up tools slung over your shoulder, but other than that, pretty normal

Besides, it wasn’t weird for people living on a farm to have a lot of tools, right?

He’s got the image of you seared into his brain for a few days afterward, but doesn’t talk about it with Seb and Abigail because they’re both weirdly touchy about the subject (more on that later)

Then you approach him at the egg festival to introduce yourself, and Sam’s curiosity grows that much more

Your boots are still filthy, your backpack is practically bursting at the seams, and he’s pretty sure he saw you drop at least 5000 gold on seeds at Pierre’s stand

He wants to talk to you more, but then Lewis starts the egg hunt, and for the first time since Sam moved to Pelican Town, Abigail loses—to you

Everyone is surprised, Abigail is bitter about it, Sam wishes he’d had the chance to talk to you again after the egg hunt was wrapped up, but he couldn’t find you

He’s even more taken aback when he hears about your stints in the mines to the north of town, because aren’t there monsters down there???? 

Not to mention you apparently have a nasty habit of falling asleep in town instead of at your farmhouse?? Where you should be sleeping?? Hello?????

Plus the acts of literal deforestation you’ve apparently been enacting outside of Seb’s house? (with robin’s permission, but still)

He is so confused

The flower dance rolls around

You don’t ask anyone to dance, but you do make your rounds, making sure to talk to everyone—even Clint and Mr. Mullner, and he’s especially surprised when he spots you talking to the homeless guy that lives behind Seb’s house

He’s interested to get to know you, but isn’t self-aware enough to examine the underlying intentions there

Over the course of your friendship, he starts feeling things he didn’t know he could

When you defend him with Lewis, when you take the blame for the egg incident—and when you arrive to the bus stop twenty minutes early for their gig in the city—even though you hate the city

You dressed up for the occasion, and Sam almost drops his guitar case in the dirt when he sees you

You help them load up their equipment into the bus, and Sam can’t stop looking at you

Asks to sit next to you during the drive

You share his earbuds and he shows their music to you

You both bob your heads to the beat, and your thighs are pressing together, but he's the only one who notices

He wants to hold your hand so bad

And then when he’s on stage, he’s got anxiety bubbling in his gut, but one look at you standing in the front row has him jumping headfirst into the set with a wild grin on his face

He catches you buying one of their band shirts and a CD from outside the venue

He gets breathless every time he sees you wearing it around town after that

You wear it when you hand him the bouquet, too, and he swears he could fall to his knees

Seb

He doesn’t like you

Even before you showed up, he didn’t like you

For weeks, you were all anyone could talk about

He couldn’t make it through one conversation without hearing about you, and it drove him nuts

He didn’t understand the allure, or the interest, and he was genuinely irritated every time you were mentioned

Like a song that you overplay so much that you end up hating it?

Yeah. exactly like that

When he meets you, he’s even more put off because he doesn’t understand you

He doesn’t understand why you’d leave the city to go to Pelican Town

He understands the allure of a gigantic swathe of land waiting to be claimed, but still. 

Pelican Town???

Also weirded out by how eager you are to make friends, and the first time you gift him a quartz crystal, he doesn’t know how to react—mainly he’s just afraid about how you knew he liked them because he knows for a fact that he's never told you

But even though you make him uncomfortable at first, he’s not going to be outright rude to you or go out of his way to be a dickhead

And honestly, you’re still nice

You’re weird, and he’s never seen the land around his house so devoid of trees before, but that’s really as far as his opinion goes

his mother isn’t stressing nearly as much about bills anymore due to your commissions, so he’s kind of glad about that

But you’re so different from him, and he’s pretty committed to getting the hell out of pelican town, so what does it matter? He’s not going to be around for long enough to make a real friend out of you

Oh, Sebby

He immediately changes his tune the first time you give him sashimi

It was surprising that you didn’t make up a story or give an excuse for it, either

You waltzed into his room like you owned the place, waited until he was finished with work (which was… a new experience for him) and set the container on his corner shelf

“You like sashimi, so I made this for you. Tell me what you think. Have a good day, Seb.” and you smiled at him, and maybe you didn’t notice the way his ears flushed bright red, or maybe you were just too nice to point it out

And it was good sashimi

It wasn’t a special occasion, it wasn’t a prank, and he was dead confused because you’d only exchanged a few hellos and stilted conversations that altogether totaled a grand three minutes, so he had no idea how you knew again

Worked up the courage to ask

Everything clicked into place when you told him that his mother and half-sister mentioned it to you

And then he was stuck with the knowledge that you talked about him to other people—that you even asked about him

You’re respectful of his time and boundaries, you speak kindly to him, show an interest in his hobbies, and he’s amassed a small collection of frozen tears and quartz crystals lined on his shelves

He orders stands for every last one, dusts them all regularly, and when you give him an obsidian stone, he starts carrying it around with him in his pocket, just because

He fights with himself for months before he can admit to himself that he has a crush on you

Definitely has that “oh no” moment lmao

Can’t look at you for a little while, but once he gets over that, he can’t stop looking

Takes longer to admit it to anyone else, and doesn’t intend to admit it to you

You throw a wrench in that plan eventually :)

Alex

We all know he finds you attractive right off the bat

Which—obviously, why wouldn’t he? (<3)

But unlike Shane, for example, he’s readily kind and eager to talk to someone other than his grandparents or Haley

He might be attracted to you, but he’ll try his best not to let that color his interactions as much

There are moments where he slips up, but there’s no negative intentions there

And because he knows himself, he figures whatever mini-crush he’s developing will eventually go away

When it doesn't, he gets really down on himself

Starts thinking about you constantly, and rethinking all of your interactions so far

Kind of ashamed of how he treated you

You’ve always been so kind to him, and so supportive of his goal to go pro

But he’s never really… reciprocated that

It takes him a long while to work up the courage to apologize

He wishes he didn’t do it while in the middle of a workout, but the moment felt right otherwise

It helped that it was just you and him, because you’re so damn popular with the rest of the town that he can rarely get a moment alone with you

And just like he figured you would, you accept his apology without any fanfare, and then turn right around and encourage him again

He’s got hearts in his eyes, trust

His crush builds over the course of months, and the moment it’s solidified is when you catch him on the beach, reminiscing about his mother

You don’t judge him for his tears, and even though you laugh when he asks you to keep it under lock and key, the sound is bright in his ears like wind chimes

And you still kept his secret

Alex is gone on you from that moment, 100%

You’re kind, and attractive, and you treat him so well it almost makes him feel insecure

When he’s working at the ice cream stand during the summer, there are plenty of times where he’s almost scooped out of the wrong tray because he was busy thinking about you

He’s never felt this way about anyone

All of his crushes have been super shallow in the past, but this is different

They were all physical, but he fantasizes about living on the farm with you, and wonders what kind of partner you’d be on the regular

Sticks his face in the freezer when his thoughts veer into less innocent territory (he thought about how you might like to kiss him)

Haley makes fun of him about it lmfao

Y’all don’t figure your shit out until year two, probably during the dance of the moonlight jellies

You ask him to watch them with you, and with the glow of the ocean illuminating your face, you hand him the bouquet

He accepts it (duh) and tries to play it cool, but he’s cheesing for the rest of the night

Elliott

Sees you fishing on the beach after an early morning spent in the mines

He walks out of his cabin to stretch his legs after a long night sitting at his writing desk

He’s only been in Pelican Town for a year himself, but he notices a new face right off the bat

You’ve got your legs hanging off the edge of the pier, fishing rod in hand, and two buckets next to you (one for bait, the other for your catches)

Elliott knows you’re the new farmer immediately

Though he’s not entirely sure why a farmer would need a sword, or a shoulder guard

He’s not intending to introduce himself to you, but when you look up and lock eyes with him, there’s a sudden tug in his chest

He believes in soulmates, I’ll just say that

Then you wave at him and smile, and he walks up without thinking about it

You take your fishing rod out of the water and set it aside, getting up to introduce yourself, and Elliott is fond of you already

Anyone who prioritizes the person they’re speaking to is going to be very attractive to him

And because Elliott’s a little sensitive, he tends to take it the wrong way when the person he’s speaking to doesn’t give him their full attention

One of my personal hcs is that he came from a rich family that never paid any real attention to him or valued his input

So when you give that to him without a second thought, he knows he’ll get along with you just fine

He’s curious about you in the beginning, but that’s as far as allows himself to take it

He thinks of you as a friend, or at least he tries to

Maybe it was the way the sunlight streaming through his windows caught your eyes as you inspected his struggling rose, or maybe it was the soft smiles you gave him when he would find crabs in his shirt pocket, but he’s constantly catching himself thinking about you

He plays it cool for the most part

But then you gift him a bottle of squid ink, mentioning how you noticed his stock getting low during your last visit, and the gears in his head make a funny noise

During the long process of writing his book, there were many times he was cemented in place by his writer’s block

But when his brisk walks through town and his piano breaks weren’t enough to spark inspiration, even a short conversation with you was enough for his fingers to twitch

You make him enjoy his art again, and he doesn’t care if someone notices the similarities between you and the protagonist of his book

Finally embraces it and dedicates his book to you

He knows he’s probably being so obvious about his feelings, but your face flushes brightly when he tells you during his reading at the library

If I’m honest, I don’t think he’s actually capable of having crushes on people

He feels everything so deeply that he might just fall straight into the ‘smitten’ category, but he swears that something about you is different

When you hand him the bouquet, he doesn’t blame fate, or any cosmic forces

None of them hold a candle to your power over him, anyway

Shane

We know how this guy is

Or rather, we know how he acts

He’s not at all curious, and he would rather you leave him alone entirely, but it’s not because he hates you or anything

He just doesn’t know you

But most everyone in town looks at him with pity, and he can’t stand another person looking at him like that

He’d rather you just not like him at all, so at least your expression will be different

Except you’re a persistent little shit

Every request he sticks on the board outside Pierre’s will be completed within the first few hours of the day, and he knows every time that it’ll be you, with whatever he’s asked for in your hands and an eager smile on your face

You always make time to talk to him, you smile at him on your way to whatever it is you get up to in your free time, and he’s pretty sure you’ve spent a small fortune on pizza and beer for him at the saloon

You laugh at his jokes, you listen to him rant about Morris and shitty customers without a shred of complaint—you make him feel like he’s actually worth listening to

The first time he’s properly mean to you is when he’s on his way to work

He’s finally accepted that you want something to do with him, and you’re tentative friends now, so it isn’t on purpose, but it’s still his fault

It’s cold outside, he hasn’t had a drink in two days, and he can’t drink before work if he wants to keep his job, so his withdrawals are bad

The wounded look on your face when he snaps at you swims behind his eyelids for his whole shift

He’s fighting tears back for the rest of the day, and his self-talk is the worst it’s been in a long time

He’s convinced he’s driven you away for good, and while part of him is almost glad that he’s managed to do it, the other, much louder part of him, is breaking apart because he’s really and truly fucked up with you

He’s at the saloon that night, already two beers in, when you waltz in

He makes eye contact with you out of habit, and your smile falters, just a bit

He feels like shit immediately, and looks down into his pint

For the first time he realizes that having you hate him feels infinitely worse than how it would if you pitied him

But with that knowledge, he reserves himself to his fuck-up

Even though he knows he should apologize, because that’s the right thing to do, he figures it’d be better for you if he just kept to himself and left you be

Until you plop down on the stool next to him at the bar, with a drink of your own

“Hey, grumpy. Do you feel like tolerating some company now?”

Stares at you in surprise for what feels like a minute before he stares into his pint again, squinting and trying to find anything wrong with it

You chuckle at him and guide him into setting down his beer

“No one spiked your drink, knucklehead, it’s me”

Was convinced that you’d want nothing to do with him, but then you order a pizza for the two of you, and he’s struck clean through by how… normal you’re being about him

Apologizes while you’re waiting for your food, and asks pretty bluntly why you’d still want to talk to him after that morning

“I figured you were just in one of your moods,” you shrug, taking a long drink from your glass, “Besides, I’ve had my moments, too. It’d be pretty hypocritical of me to get on your ass about it. But I forgive you, so quit beating yourself up about it, yeah?”

Probably doesn’t believe you’re capable of any “moments” because you’re always busting your ass to be the kindest you can possibly be

He used to think it was weird, and probably took you as the manipulative type when you first arrived, because you gave gifts and started conversations undeterred, desperate to win affection

But looking at you right then, he finally figures it out—that that’s just you

Maybe you do want everyone to like you, but your interactions with everyone have never been shallow

His chest gets tight, and he sets down his pint. He doesn’t intend on finishing it, because his vision is blurring around the edges, and he really wants to remember your conversation

Usually you’d ask him about how his shift went—if Morris was an annoying prick again, but he beats you to it while you’re in the middle of a sip 

“Tell me about your day?”

The surprise coloring your features makes him feel guilty, but he shoves that aside in favor of listening to you talk

He didn’t know you went into the mines as frequently as you did, and he has no idea what the hell a “skull cavern” is, but he hangs on every word

You both walk home together, dropping him off at Marnie’s as you go, and he flops into bed with his head swimming and a dopey smile on his face

He wakes up the next day with a hangover, but he’s off work, and he’s still got the image of your smile tattooed on his brain

“Fuck.”

Y’all he’s so dumb

Harvey

You have this man stressed out from day one, and it takes him longer than the others to realize his feelings—or develop them (longer than Shane, too. Wild isn’t it?)

He’s a little impressed with your complete lack of anxiety about most things

He’s been the valley doctor for years now, but he still doesn’t have a very personal relationship with most of the townies

But you moved in three months ago and you’re already on your way to being besties with half of the town

The only thing he’s not sure about is your apparent lack of self-preservation instincts

You’ve passed out in every part of the valley at least once, and he’s treated several broken bones and serious injuries of yours by the time summer rolls around

he’s worried about you—as the valley doctor, he practically holds everyone’s lives in his hands, and there are patients that he’s lost in the past and can’t forget about

So making sure everyone is taking care of themselves is already nerve-wracking enough without throwing someone like you in the mix

You, who can’t go one week without some incident happening

He’s started up a tentative friendship with Marlon up at the guild, if only for the many times he’s carried you down to the clinic with varying level of injuries littering your skin

But you’re aware of the stress you bring him, and over time, you start improving

You get better at defending yourself in the mines, and he hasn’t found you passed out in front of someone’s porch in at least two months

That doesn’t sound like a long time, but given your track record, it’s impressive

And you’ve made a habit out of bringing him a coffee twice a week as a silent apology/thank you

He appreciates the caffeine, and your efforts to not stress him out

And during your check-up, he’s surprised to find that you’re actually—all things considered—pretty healthy

You bashfully admit that you’ve been trying to take better care of yourself so he doesn’t have to worry, and even though there’s no way he won’t worry, he appreciates it nonetheless

He properly realizes his feelings when you watch the plane fly overhead together

You’ve got your head poked out his apartment window, trying to catch a glimpse of the plane

He’s watching you carefully, making sure you don’t lean too far out, when it hits him

He’s not sure why, but you’ve got the sun shining on your face as you squint through your fingers to look at the sky, and the smile on your face when you spot the plane is brilliant

His breath leaves him in a silent gasp, and he doesn’t really care that he doesn’t get to take a good look at the plane, because he’d rather look at you

Over-explains his model planes to keep you around longer, but thinks about it for days afterward

Can’t stop thinking about how you looked, listening to him talk with your full attention

He doesn’t have many friends, and no one has ever shown a real and true interest in his hobbies—most people have found him dorky for it, but not you

He can tell the model of a plane based on the shadow of it in the sky and the sound of its motor, and you never fail to point one out and ask him which one it is

The glee on your face when he picks it out easily will never fail to make him smile

For what feels like the first time in his life, he can impress someone

His family is full of successful people: lawyers, musicians, a few unsavory cousins of his have turned to politics, and there’s more than a few pilots as well. Him being a doctor was never impressive to the people around him growing up—it was expected

He didn’t get much praise, forever overshadowed by everyone else in his family

Fake praise grinds his gears, but he knows it’s never anything but the truth when it comes from you

And the fact that it comes from you, who took up the mantle of your grandfather and turned the farm around from its steady decay and deterioration with your bare hands?

His confidence always jumps a level or two when you compliment him, because if you like him and think he’s cool, then he must be, you know?

A few weeks later, when he sees you standing outside the clinic through the window, he’s a little confused

He’s pretty sure you’ve already given him his caffeine for the week, but when he walks out to ask you what’s up, he sees the bouquet in your hands

He’s your doctor, and because he’s your doctor, he knows the blush on your cheeks and the scattered eye contact isn’t indicative of anything but nerves

You’re both practically steaming with how hard you’re blushing, and he gently takes the bouquet out of your hands

He doesn’t mind that he didn’t get to be a pilot. If he had, he doesn’t think he would’ve met you, and with the scent of flowers in his nose and your image etched into his memory, there’s nothing he’d hate more aw you guys are so cute

[rrazor]

hq boys post wisdom teeth extraction

tags: fluff, soft boyfies lol

kuroo tetsurou wakes up and immediately the first thing he tells the professionals around him is that he wants to see his girlfriend because he knows you’re waiting for him and “i love her so much 🥺🥰" he says it a few more times and everyone laughs at how doped up he is both from the drugs and you. when you walk in to take notes on how to take care of him afterwards, he just stares at you as he holds you hand with the SOFTEST LOOK on his face like 🥺😍☺️❤️💕💖💝🥺🥰💖💝☺️

tetsu cannot stop looking at you and u almost have to plead with him to watch where’s he walking like tetsu pls we don’t wanna have to come back to get your front teeth done sweetie 🅱️lease!!!!!! other than that he is pretty easy to reason with it as long as you promise to kiss every part of his face once in a particular order and if u mess up, unfortunately, you’ll just have to start over again sigh it makes his heart go 💥💥💥

bokuto kuroo offers to drive him back home and brings you along to support and comfort him. he helps kou get into the back with you but he refuses and goes “kuroooooo, she’s too pretty, I dun wanna sit next to her ☹️” LMFAO kuroo rolls his eyes and just sits him down and buckles him in despite his protests HA

kou is super nervous and keeps looking over you when he thinks you aren’t looking like 🥺😊 and you decide to play along and ask him how he’s feeling and if he’s in pain and he shakes his head and goes “‘m okay, you’re really pretty though 🥺😍” kuroo snorts in the front seat and you’re trying rlly hard to not laugh at how cute he is so you take his hand and kou lit rally thinks he’s gonna pass out when you call him handsome and ask him out before kissing his cheek. he starts crying as he says things like “kuroo!!!! the pretty girl is my girlfriend now!! 🥺❤️😭💖💕😭😭🥳”

akaashi you’re already by his side by the time he wakes up but he doesn’t remember jack so he goes “hello, have u seen my girlfriend? she looks just like you. can u tell me if u see her? I would like to see her—she’s my everything 😊🥰” UGGHH KISS HIIMMM

he doesn’t remember who you are until the medication wears off but you manage to convince him that you’re gonna take him to his girlfriend so you can take him home 💀 and he spends the whole car ride really pretty quiet until you ask him why he’s so fidgety and then he softly tells you “i… can’t wait to see my girlfriend 🥺🥰💕 she said we’d go on an ice-cream date after🍦i hope she’s not mad that it’s been so long 🥺❤️💗” AHDHJANAA like a little happy babyyyy 🥺😭

oikawa tooru’s procedure finishes earlier than expected and has a dental hygienist watching over him as they wait for you and for some reason he starts to sing, but it’s really out of tune because of all the cotton in his mouth and the dental hygienist is just standing there, taking it. you can hear him down the hall as you walk into his room and he’s so excited to see you!!! “did you hear me sing for you, babe? i didn’t want you to get lost in this maze 🥺🥰” “yes, i did, tooru, tysm you don’t have to sing anymore 😊😇💕”

tries to pull you into his lap as the dentist goes through the aftercare procedures and whines “pleasssseeeee, it huuurrrrrttttts i just want cuddddlllleesssss 😭☹️🥺💕” you opt to sit on the edge of the chair as he buries his head in your back 🥰

iwaizumi YOU try to flirt with hajime because he doesn’t remember that you’re his girlfriend and he’s all like stop!!! i have a girlfriend! 😡 AHAHA so you decide to ask him about his lovely girlfriend and he gets the softest smile on his face omggg and he starts going on about how hardworking you are ❤️, determined 💘, beautiful 💖, how nice you smell 😳

when you tell him its you he doesn’t believe you!!! like stop u r trying too hard, stranger!!! 😠 It’s not until you bring up a photo of yourselves and stick it next to your face does he go all soft again like babe i missed you 🥺 there was this weirdo trying to flirt with me, i’m so glad you’re here 🥰 and you tell him that the weirdo was you and he’s like “no, you’re better than that” LMFAAOO THANKS HAJIME 😭

matsukawa his mom is there to pick the two of you up and he’s holding your hand as he turns to you, super concerned and goes “babe, we forgot my teeth 😞” HWJJCKWJSJEF 💀 he’s all pouty and its sooooooo cute LMFAO WHAT DID HE THINK A REMOVAL WAS??? but you play it cool and squeeze his hand and say “i didnt forget you though 😊” he nods like a little kid and says “yeah” and tries to pull you into his lap so that you can cuddle but his mom is right there and you’re tryna be a good passenger and stop him from unbuckling your seatbelt: issei, we can cuddle when we get home!!!!

this giant dude just looks at you all 🥺 and BEGS like “babe please, just a little, i just want to hold you 🥺💕” he tries to guilt trip you like “c’mon, babe, you forgot my teeth” 😭😭😭 STFU u somehow make it back to his place and he tackles you into the couch and promptly falls asleep in 2 minutes flat 😴 his mom thinks its hilarious and thanks u for taking care of him ☺️❤️

hanamaki straight up asks you if you have a boyfriend. you say yes and he gets REALLY SAD OH MY GOD and is all “oh ☹️🥺” but then you cup his cheek and hold one of his hands and start telling him what your boyfriend looks like and how he has cute strawberry hair and pretty eyes and how handsome he is and talking about his cute little eyebrows and how good he is at volleyball and takahiro is like…. 🧐🤨 is that…… me??? but then he’s like wait it couldn’t be and gets all sad again 😭

you can’t take how sad he is and tell him it’s him!!!!! you give him some kisses as an apology 😭🥺💖❤️ and he’s all really?!!? 🥰💖💕💝🥳💕as he pulls you close to rest his head on your chest. he asks you to talk about how much you love him again 😭🥰🥺 refuses to remove himself from you

kyoutani he’s got this super angry expression on his face and everyone stays a good ways away from him 😬 when you come in, you get the same 😡 but then he chills because you’re wearing that one dress he went out of his way to buy for you when you were window shopping together that one time and he’s like …..suspicious why is she wearing her dress 😒 HAJFKAKSW KENTAROU

but THEN he sees the bracelet he got you for your one year anniversary and takes a whiff of you (um 😷) and NOW he’s all WAIT…… connections r being made—he gets super handsy 😳💕 really likes it when you kiss his forehead 🥺 and glares daggers at the dentist with his head on your chest, arms around your waist as you stand next to him and listen to what the aftercare instructions are because he’s all like grrr my girlfriend!! no touch!!! 😡🤬

daichi omg daichi is SO SHY and BASHFUL like he looks at you all 🥺🥰 and when you look towards him he immediately looks away but it’s so obvious because his ears are red and you can see his blush high on his cheekbones 😭🥺💕 you ask him what’s wrong and he’s stuttering trying to ask if you have a boyfriend and you’re like yes 💔

his face FALLS and it hurts but then you show him your matching engagement rings 💍 like “we’re fiancés, dai 🥰❤️” and he almost cries as hard as when he heard you say yes 😭💖💕 he’s so EMBARRASSED when you show the video back to him 😭 suga and asahi clown him 🤧

sugawara fella wakes up, looks you in the eye and is like “they’ve rebuilt me, babe✨” what? “the technology!!!” ??? “they made me better than i was before: better, stronger, faster 🤖💪🧠" LMFAO thinks he underwent some experiment like no we just fixed your teeth 😌

when you tell him so he gets a little dejected and asks you if you’d still love him without any upgrades with his lips pursed and his cheeks pink as he plays with your hands 🥺💗 like OFC KOUSHI!!! 🥰🥺❤️ really sweet and giggly on the bus ride home—holds you close and draws circles on your skin as he talks about the strangest things 🙈💖

kageyama no inhibitions so tobio is very attached to you!!! when he wakes up to see you next to him, he grabs you in his half-asleep state to leave slobbery kisses all over you like some dog before he falls back asleep again 💀 he wakes up twenty minutes later to see that you’re gone (had to wash off his spit 😬) and he panics when he doesn’t see you 😭🥺

he gets up to try to look for you and the second you come back, he hugs you and is all ☹️ telling you “don’t go too far, i wanna always be able to find you 😠🥺” you rub his back and pinky promise to stay close by and he’s so relieved he falls asleep standing 😴💕 like …..thanks 🤧 asks if he can play volleyball and pouts rlly hard when the dentist says no 😭💔

atsumu atsumu is loopy af and he wanted to go to the washroom so the poor staff had to hull around this 6’2”, 80kg man around but then you walk in just as they’re about to turn the corner and the moment he sees you, he’s goes “BABIEEEEE, I loOoove yoU! 😍” in this super adorable, high pitched sing-songy voice and makes OBNOXIOUS kissy faces at you but it looks so funny because his mouth is full of cotton 😭😭🤧🥴 the nurses tell you he’s a keeper but then he promptly slips and nearly falls on his face trying to walk over to you unassisted 🙄

the walk to the car is SO HARD because he clings to you like a baby koala and whines when you try to get him to loosen up so that you can get better leverage to support his weight like atsumu pls we’re almost there, just let go for a bit and he’s all puppy eyed like “don’t 🥺 ya 🥺 love 🥺 me 🥺 baby???????? i jus’ wanna be close to ya 💔💔💔” JAJCJJWNCMS he denies all of it when he sobers up

osamu all this fool remembers is that he has a girlfriend and that she looks EXACTLY like you but his brain synapses aren’t working like they used to 😔 so he doesn’t remember that YOU are literally his girlfriend so he just sits there and goes all “you look so much like her….. i miss her sm 😢🤕😞” with this faraway look in his eyes AS IF YOU WERE DEAD 💀 THE DISRESPECT

he rlly wants to hold your hand and touch you but like u aren’t his girlfriend right??? but you tell him u are after rolling ur eyes and show him some photos of the two of you as proof and he’s all “oh!” 😳 and he smiles so broad you can see his little dimple on his left cheek 😭💖 because he can FINALLY hold your hand 🥰 no filter so he whisper-begs for kisses throughout the entire time the dentist talks you through his surgery and how to care for him and you’re so embarrassed JAJCJKAKDSS “pls, pls can i have a kiss” you give him one “can i have one here now” “what about here” “pls another one pls” 🥺🥺🥺 at least he’s polite JAJCNKAFB

suna rin remembers you and right when he wakes up to see you next to him he says, “hello, wife 💖" and waits for your response but like wtf do u SAY like you’ve only ever heard him tell you he loves you that ONE time he thought u were ASLEEP!!! and you haven’t even talked about anything beyond dating yet!!! is it the anaesthetic that’s making him say this or is he just fooling you??? 💀😵 a few minutes later, he sighs and goes “you’re supposed to say ‘hello, husband ❤️’….” 🙄🥱

show him the video after the anaesthetic wears off and he’ll sit there looking at you like “….well? i’m still waiting? 😐” ugH modern romance am i right HAHDJKAKSKAA

ushijima wakatoshi thinks you’re another nurse even though you’re dressed nothing like them and he asks you when his girlfriend is coming and if she knows he’s done with the procedure and also “have you met my girlfriend? she is very beautiful and very kind. you must meet her ☺️” he asks the same questions to the dentist who comes in to talk to you afterwards and they’re looking at him like ?????? “isn’t this your girlfriend, ushijima-san?”

wakatoshi just goes 😯, looks at you and says your name so softly and in the sweetest way possible and tells you he missed you and he loves you and he wants to go get curry from that one restaurant later and the dentist tells you they’ll be back later as you sob 😭😭❤️💕❤️😭💖

semi eita thinks you’re one of the office receptionists when you walk in and asks you if you, his girlfriend 💕, had been notified that the procedure was done and you’re all uh yes she does, she’s coming soon!! he nods very cutely and thanks you, handsome smile on his face at the thought of seeing you 🥰 he turns around to look at the window and you just stand there all 😶 he HUMS softly as he waits and it’s that one song he played for you on his guitar HAJXNJSW 😭🥺💘❤️

he turns back around thirty seconds later like “babe?? is that you?? you got here so fast 😍🥺💖😚” as if it wasn’t you THE WHOLE TIME 💀 melts when you kiss his cheeks tenderly 🥰 plays with your fingers as he softly looks into your eyes!! 😍

tendou really wants to get his wisdom teeth back like just because you pulled them out doesn’t make them yours, sensei 🙄 LMFAO the dentist gives him his teeth afterwards and he holds them out for you and you’re like “tysm for your bloody, gross teeth, satori 🥰😬” “AWWW you’re welcome 😊 aren’t they cute? ya think our kids will be this cute? 💖”

many thoughts: 1) oh god oh GOD he wants to have KIDS WITH YOU!! MARRIAGE??!? 😵❤️ 2) y does he think his molars r cute and y does he hope your kids will look like nasty teeth 😭💀 he’s rlly adamant about you lazing around with him. keeps showing u his teeth for some reason but gives the cutest smiles and hums when you feed him his fav chocolate ice cream 💗💗💗

goshiki he tries to flirt with you but its so funny and endearingly awkward because he’s got all the gauze in his mouth and he isn’t that good at it and he’s on the verge of tears half the time and you dont know why??? you ask him and his brows are all furrowed, pout on his lips and says “just wanna be your boyfriend pls 🥺💕” “yeah?” “yeah,” he nods. “i promise to do my best 🥺”

when you tell him you’re already dating, he starts to cry and is all like i have to tell all my friends 😭 tsutomu cries to the dentist like “sensei, y’know, we’re boyfriend and girlfriend 😭❤️” he quiets down when you brush through his hair with your hands ☺️

terushima you walk into his room after he’s done and ask the dental hygienists how he’s doing and he looks at you all confused like 🤨 and asks the hygienists who you are. they think you’re married for some reason and say “that’s your wife!” and you’re so EMBARRASSED but also super happy on the inside HAHA he straight up goes “DAAAMMNNN, I did alright, huh?! when we bustin’ outta here?!” 🤪😜🥴😘 as if he could actually differentiate between left and right, up and down 😔

just in case, he asks you if you’re his wife at the same time the dentist asks if the two of you will be okay from here on out and you nod to the dentist’s question but yuuji thinks it’s for him so he lays back down with this satisfied look on his face like HELL YEAH alright, alright, alright 😌🥰🥴 and does those little nods SIDJAJJDJSJFJR HAHAHAHA

sakusa omi lets you play with his bangs and hands as you wait for the dentist and he LOVES IT softest smile on his face!! RIDICULOUSLY CLINGY!!!! he does NOT want you to leave him at all, will not let you go to the bathroom even though you’re like “omi, please, the dentist is busy with another patient right now, i’ll be back soon before we go through the aftercare stuff” “no” “omi, i have to pee” “do it here” and now it’s you who’s all 🤢

gets really defensive and protective when the dentist comes in and just shoves his head in your chest because he doesn’t want to look at them LMFAO death grip around your waist 🤧 when you show him what he said about you going to the bathroom he demands you delete it “omi, i didn’t know u loved me that much 🥰🥺💕” “…………..🤐”

hoshiumi kourai insisted he was fine on his own “nothing is impossible for hoshiumi kourai, national athlete 😤” when the dentist asked if he needed someone to watch over him and the dentist is 🤨 ok sir and leaves after he falls asleep. when he wakes up, no one’s in his room and he has to use the washroom and he’s like i’ll do just it myself 🙄 he tries to stand and promptly collapses to the floor. he CRAWLS around on his stomach and makes it out of his room just as you walk in and you’re like KOU whY are you on the FLOOR like a ROACH 😭😭😭

it’s like you’re reenacting some dramatic romance movie as kou groans around the gauze and makes poor attempts to stand up, holding onto you LAKDSHLASKAHD 💀💀💀 asks you to get on the floor with him because he honest to god can’t get UP so that he can cuddle with you as the dentist and his assistants stand two feet away 🥰💕 tries to fight the staff when they get too close to you trying to help him get back to his bed HAJJFKAKDMAD

extra: kita shinsuke (lol) when kita finishes his wisdom tooth extraction, he looks at you like this and doesnt remember who you are; he thinks you’re here for another patient and doesn’t say a word to you because his grandma taught him not to talk to strangers.

[tendousthoughts]

HQ Boys Calling Their S/O Clingy Pt. 3

Character(s) included: Sakusa & Oikawa

Warnings: Cursing, fainting, and mention of blood

A/N: Uh wow thank you- I’ve decided to make a pt. 3! Unlike part one and part two it will all be in one day! Idk I was seeing it become kinda repetitive so I’ve decided to change it up a bit! If you want any other hq boy go ahead and request! Please read the rules first though thank you! Ignore my terrible spelling and grammar. Reblogs/follows/likes are all greatly appreciated!

Song of the day: Cloud 9 by Beach bunny

Where to find all my content!

Where to find all the parts!

Credit: @/teesumu

Sakusa

This was Sakusa's chance to show his family members and old team how much he had grown. He was kinda worried and you could tell. You made your over softly resting a kiss on his nose.

“You’ll be great bab-” he cuts you off.

“Y/n, can you let me practice in peace?” He bit his lip before returning to practicing.

“Oh ya.. so-” he turns to you.

“Do you know what let me practice in peace means? Or are you so fucking clingy, that you need me to tell you to get the fuck away from me? This is my shot to show them how much I have improved and I don’t need a pestaround to fuck it up!” He shouts, everyone on the team can hear him scold you for no reason. Looking around their eyes are full of disgust towards Sakusa. Your eyes feel watery as you head to the bleachers to grab your stuff. Atsumu runs up to you.

“Hey y/n.. um can you stay for me? My brother is coming and I don’t want to let my team down and um..” he wasn’t sure what to say. You bit your lip before hugging him tightly.

“Hey, you're going to do great okay? No need to worry about screwing up anything, you're on the MSBY for god sake..” you whisper softly into his ear.

“Thanks.. but can you please stay..? You can leave afterward but just for the game if you don’t mind..?” He looked desperate to be honest, he was annoyed how Sakusa had treated you and felt like you deserved better.

“I guess.. imma head to the vending machine for now, you want anything?” You let go of him. Sakusa is watching you two and you don’t spare him a glance.

“Um... can you get me anything? Your favorite snack?” He smiled softly and your thoughts of what Sakusa had said to you melted off and you giggled a bit.

“Ya I’ll go grab it,” you grab some cash. Atsumu ran off, and just to grab some money before.

“Here for my stuff,” he smiled trying to hand it to you.

“Don’t worry about it, I’ll pay it isn’t that costly and you made my day sooo,” he chuckles softly before giving you a soft thumbs up and you start to walk to the vending machine.

“Hey Atsumu back off,” Sakusa mumbled.

“What?” Atsumu looked over. “I’m sorry that you're going against past teammates and family like the rest of us. I’m sorry that y/n was trying to comfort you yet you pushed them off, I mean them just trying to help is annoying to you. God. I mean I wish I had someone who cared about me like how y/n cares about you. I hope you know there are many people who would have left you if you did that to them, and frankly I don’t understand why they are still with you assuming that you have done that before.” He bit his lip. By the time his rant was over you were back, the vending machine not too far away you heard everything.

You waited a minute before walking back. “Hey I got the snack, sorry if you don’t like it” you smile before handing him the snack.

“I’m pretty sure I’ll like it but don’t worry about it.” He chuckles, Sakusa giving him a death glare.

“Okay well good luck! You’ll do amazing so don’t worry about it, I’ll be watching,” you go and sit on the bleachers. Using your phone until the match begins.

Unsurprisingly they won. Whenever Atsumu made a good set or a good setter dump you cheered and gave him smiles. Sakusa on the other hand it was almost as if he was invincible. You didn’t wanna be“clingy” and “a pest”. Every so often you could see Sakusa's eyes land on you trying to see if you noticed his amazing talent. Of course you did, of course you were proud. Why wouldn’t you be? But his words still hurt and you couldn’t give him the ability to talk to you like that you couldn’t give him the ability to think it was okay to talk to you like that.

You ran up to Atsumu “see I told you! Nothing to be afraid of,” you giggle a bit smiling. Sakusa was talking to his cousin explaining what happened, feeling terrible.

“Thank you y/n,” he chuckles and talks for like twenty minutes. “My brother said he will pay for lunch, you wanna come?” You glance over to Sakusa, before accepting.

“Ya sure,” you smile as all of you head to the bus. You sit next to Atsumu and Osamu the whole time ignoring Sakusa.

After lunch everyone said their goodbyes and you made sure to have both Atsumu’s and Osamu’s number saved. When you guys got back to the apartment you began to work.

“Y.. y/n?” You look over at the sound of your name.

“Yes?” You didn’t have the gut to be mean to him using a calming voice.

“Um.. Can we-” you cut him off.

“Sakusa I don’t wanna speak to you at the moment, okay? Can I have some space please.” You mumbled typing away on your computer.

“Sorry but I wanna-” you cut him off once again.

“I said I need space. I don’t need you to be clingy right now.” You mumbled as you type.

He waited behind you on the bed sniffling softly as tears brimmed his eyes. “You're not going to leave me right.. I’m sorry I didn’t mean too..” he sniffed again. “I’m really sorry y/n.. your the best thing that ever happened please don’t leave me.” You turned around annoyed that he kept bugging you but as you saw the tears you got up going onto the bed.

You hug him softly as he holds on to you tightly crying softly. You lay down next to him as you hold each other. Sakusa hides his head in your chest as he cries a bit. You rubbed his back softly as tears fell from his eyes. “Hey baby.. it is going to be okay I got you... I’m not going anywhere I promise. We aren’t breaking up or anything okay?”

He slightly shakes his head, “I’m sorry...” he mumbles.

“I know.. please don’t do it again you embarrassed me in front of everyone... I was just trying to help,” you whisper.

“I won’t..” he closed his eyes.

“You did amazing by the way baby..” you mumble knowing how Sakusa is. You know the fact you didn’t say or do anything with him afterwards is eating him up.

“You were watching..?” You know he is smiling by the sound of his voice.

“Of course babe.. I told you, you had nothing to worry about.. you were amazing,” you smile as he relaxes a bit letting go of the tight hold and just enjoys you hugging him.

“Thank you...” he mumbles falling asleep. “I love you y/n...”

He falls asleep before you can respond but you still whisper, “goodnight my love..”

Oikawa

“What the hell was that?” Oikawa shouted from the room away.

“Nothing!” You tried to sweep up the glass quickly with your hands.

“What the fuck are you doing!” He pushed your hands away grabbing the broom, “can you stop making messes please?”

“I didn’t mean to, I just knew that you needed to do a few things and I thought I could help.. like I finished the dishes.. other than this one. I also watered the plants and did the laundry..” you try to smile, your hands slightly bleeding.

“Well can you stop? I understand your clingy and you want me to be with you every fucking moment of the day,” he looked at you angrily. “But this just makes so much more fucking work for me!”

“I didn’t mean too..” you whisper.

“Of course you didn’t! I mean why would you? Your sooo amazing and the whole world needs to forgive every fucking mistake you do because, ‘I didn’t mean too’!” He looks at you. “I mean seriously can you be any more of a fuck up?”

“What..?” You whisper as tears roll down your face.

“You clingy shit, can you be more of a fuck up? I mean seriously you messed up my work earlier because you wanted to ‘help organize it’ and you broke the glass, and you wouldn’t leave me alone all fucking day! Tōru this and Tōru that! I mean seriously, why the fuck am I dating you?” Everything was going blank for you as tears rolled down your face.

“Please stop..” you whisper.

“What? Telling you the fucking truth?” Oikawa looked at you now noticing how pale you were looking.

“I’m sorry.. I’m sorry.. I..I’m sor-” you kept whispering as everything went blank.

When you woke up Oikawa was holding you tight. “Shit y/n.. I’m sorry.” He mumbled holding you tight tears rolling down his face.

“What..?” You were looking around trying to get a hold of your surroundings.

“Please don’t leave me.. I was really stressed about everything and I didn’t mean to take it out on you.. I know you just wanted to hang out and I was being a dick.. please I’m sorry..” he hugs on tight.

“I..it is okay babe, I know you didn’t mean too.. but please don’t do it again..?” You tear up, “I was just trying to help because I knew you were stressed and I thought it might help. Clearly it didn’t and I won’t do anything without your permission again but please next time don’t yell..”

“Of course.. and you were doing any bad it was my fault you were being really helpful.. I should have appreciated it and not yelled..” he whispers. “I mean seriously I was being an ass.. you were just trying to be nice to me and then I had to come in and fuck it up. Your so fucking amazing and I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have called you those names or even mention you being clingy. I know you hate when you're called that.. and I should have stopped.. I shouldn’t have even done it in the first place. Your my fucking everything and I fucked that up...”

“It is okay.. you can do your work now I’m just a bit tired so I’m going to sleep.” You kiss his head.

“No i wanna sleep with you right now..” he whined softly.

“Okay.. I love you Tōru..” you mumble closing your eyes.

“I love you too.. y/n” he whispers in your ear before closing his own eyes.

Follows and likes are appreciated! Please reblog if you enjoyed it so more people can find my work! Thank you all for your support! Stay safe, and have a good rest of your day!

[nickydestati]

duolingo tog prompts #1

sooo i decided to use random duolingo sentences i encounter as small prompts because some of them just give me a lot of inspiration for some reason ksjhfdjk, currently i’m learning greek and italian so we’ll see where this goes! 

anyway today’s prompt: i am a butterfly (io sono una farfalla)

***

will be home late, sorry. had an awful day at work and traffic is horrible. don’t wait for dinner. x

nicky reads the text over again before pressing send. he puts his phone away only to fish it back up from his bag three seconds later. no answer yet. joe probably has his hands full with cooking and entertaining their daughter. 

nicky worries at his lip as he looks through the front window of the bus, bouncing his leg up and down. red lights from stopping cars stare back through the rain like angry eyes. there must have been an accident, this street usually takes only five minutes and now they’ve been stuck on the same spot for twenty already.

he sighs and checks his phone again. the minutes jump from 50 to 51. 

on some days it’s better if you just stay in your bed and wait until it quietly passes, nicky thinks, because everything that can go wrong just goes wrong. today has been such a day for him. it started with him oversleeping because he had forgotten to set his alarm the day before. when he ran to the bus stop, stuffing a sandwich in his mouth, he missed the bus by a second and had to wait for another fifteen minutes for the next. when the bus arrived five minutes late, they had to stop for every traffic light on the way and it had started to rain. not just a drizzle, no, a pouring rain that got you soaked within ten seconds. so he had to give a lecture soaking wet and completely unfocused. and everything got only worse from there:  he spilled coffee on the papers he was grading and the printer wouldn’t work when he needed it and the books he needed for his research weren’t in the library and so on and so on.

and now he’s an hour later than usual and with the luck he’s having today, he will probably not even be in time to put his daughter to bed and kiss her goodnight. 

he swallows away the tightness in his throat at the thought, blinking to ward off the uncoming tears. god, he really needs a good night’s sleep. or a holiday. or both.

finally, finally, finally the bus stirs. everyone in it sighs in relief. they are still moving at a snail’s pace, but at least they are moving.

another twenty minutes later, nicky twists the key in the lock and opens the front door. 

he has only put one foot inside when rapid footsteps tap on the wooden flooring and he can fling his bag away just in time to catch his daughter in his arms. 

“hello, sweetie, i missed you so much,” he says, pressing a kiss on her head as he lifts her up and hugs her. 

“papa, look! i am a butterfly!” she yells.

he pulls back a little to look at her and sees how bright pink and purple and blue wings are painted over her cheeks and eyes and temples. Along her nose runs the brown body of the butterfly and on her forehead curl its feelers.

“wow, honey, you look beautiful! did daddy do that for you?”

she beams and nods eagerly and smiles as brightly as her dad. it makes all worries and stress of the day fall from nicky’s shoulders, it’s all already turning into a distant memory. 

joe appears around the corner to the living room, leaning against the wall and nicky immediately forgets the cold of the rain outside. 

his husband is hoding a brush in his hand and waves it at nicky with an amused smile. “now it’s your turn, ya hayati.”

“my turn?” nicky asks.

“yes, we wanted to cheer you up, didn’t we, my little butterfly?”

their little butterfly yells and giggles her agreement as she wraps her little arms around nicky’s neck to hug him again, probably getting paint all on his shoulder but he couldn’t care less.

nicky laughs. “how sweet of you, honey. and shall we paint daddy together afterwards? what do you think?”

at this, their daughter squeals and jumps out of nicky’s arms. “yes! then we can all be butterflies!” and she runs to joe, pulling at his arm and dragging him to the living room. he glances back at nicky with a smile and a wink before following.

nicky shrugs off his coat, takes off his shoes and with them all the building frustration of the day. he goes and joins his little butterfly-family, and marvels for what must be the millionth time at how lucky he is.

[bella-caecilia]

can you make a fanfic with cora and robert like teen parents?

Haha, thank you for this prompt. I laughed really hard when I received this ask and I thought, ‘yes, I’ll definitely write that’. Still took me a while to figure out how to put it into practice (turned out less funny than my first reaction had led me to think). It’s a rather short one-shot for this topic. I hope you like it nevertheless.

Oh, and it’s modern Cobert but I think there is no question about that with this particular prompt, right?

…

Cora sat at the breakfast table, not touching her toast for minutes. Her mother was scurrying around the kitchen and singing with emphasis.

“Please, mom! This is unbearable in the morning,” Cora finally snapped. Her nerves were on edge since she had awoken with this nasty nausea. Now her mother’s eccentric demeanour was straining all Cora’s senses. Worse than the loud singing, though, was the intense smell of the bacon Martha fried.

“Excuse me, Cora. I am sorry that my mood isn’t as sulky as yours.” Her mother’s answer was as sarcastic as expected.

“But do you really have to cook bacon every morning?” Cora whined while rubbing her hand over her unsettled stomach. “This abhorrent smell will be in my nose all day.”

“You are particularly sensitive lately, Cora,” Martha stated. She turned around at the oven to face her daughter and pressed her hands into her hips, one hand clutching a spatula. “You’re having the nostrils of a pregnant woman, darling,” she mocked her daughter with a chiding tone.

“You’re being ridiculous, mother,” Cora rebuked. Her mother let out a short laugh and turned back to her bacon.

“Well, that would really take the cake if my son-in-law gave you a baby for your one-year anniversary,” Martha babbled more to herself chucklingly.

“Robert is not your son-in-law!” Cora exclaimed. He was her boyfriend for nearly one year.

Twenty months ago, Cora held a tally sheet in her nightstand, she had moved to England with her parents. Her father’s job had required his direct attention at the British branch of his company. The family had decided to settle their lives in London for the next years. Cora’s brother, Harold, who had no intentions to leave the States whatsoever, had argued and baulked until Martha had enrolled him in some elite boarding school in Ohio. Everyone was happy with this solution. Cora thought maybe she was happiest about Harold staying behind but knowing her brother and his absolute laziness that probably wasn’t true.

Moving to the UK at the age of nearly fifteen had been super exciting for her. Her heart was constantly beating at a high pace because everything around her had been new and fresh. Yes, of course, her emotional picture had also been painted with an amount of nervosity but that never kept her from enjoying the new world around her. Her racing heart though was allowed no rest when she bumped unpreparedly into the charming boy with the most attractive British accent she ever encountered right in the centre of the school’s cafeteria. She had managed to spill her entire lunch on the matt tiles, and his clumsily uttered apologies and courteous assistance had set her heart galloping since. She had tried to tell herself that it wasn’t his coy smile or sandy curls but merely his attentive manner that had captivated her. But not long and then there was no use. If it was his smile or his manners didn’t matter, for she had fallen hard for him. Their encounters had increased and Cora couldn’t tell if it was coincidentally or if he was seeking her contact. The awkwardness of their first meeting faded away as soon as they engaged in a real conversation, experiencing an instant familiarity that drew them together even faster. The first kiss behind a bookshelf in the deserted library was as coy as it was unexpectedly prompt. That Robert had sought her closeness afterwards deliberately had been obvious. 

For nearly a year now they went out together. Both were sixteen years old by now and inseparable. Robert was a constant visitor at the Levinson’s mansion and Martha liked to call him her ‘son-in-law’ jokingly. Cora didn’t think it funny at all. She couldn’t quite sort if her mother wasn’t taking their relationship seriously or if, on the contrary, she was putting her under pressure to make this work because Martha didn’t like to think of a son-in-law other than Robert. Cora was rather seldomly at Robert’s. His mother had a distinct reaction to her presence but other than Martha’s it was not one of amused excitement.

But now her mother carried her teasing too far with mentioning the possibility of a baby.

“I have to go,” Cora stated, deciding she couldn’t take her mother’s presence at the moment anymore.

“But you haven’t eaten anything yet!” Martha called confused behind her daughter.

Cora merely mumbled, “I am not hungry,” while exiting the room.

Before leaving for school, Cora went to the bathroom and, sitting on the toilet, she scrolled through her phone and accidentally opened her period tracker app. The picture that met her froze her thoughts. Late, very late, overdue. How could this have gone amiss? The count of days, that appeared on her screen, was a horrible image and she tried to block the number from her thoughts. She deliberately pushed away all reflections, closed the app, put away the phone and carried on as if nothing had happened. Cora couldn’t do anything else. She just was not able to take in the consequences of this unforeseen discovery. She washed her hands, not meeting her reflexion in the mirror. She left the bathroom and grabbed her schoolbag that waited in the hallway.

“Bye, mom!” she called casually.

“Bye, sweety! Have a nice day!” her mother exclaimed, and Cora exited the house, seeking the bus stop.

Only once she was seated in the bus, gazing out of the window it hit her with full force what she had found out minutes earlier. Oh god! There was no doubt. She could keep on ignoring everything as much as she wanted. The absence of her period for this long could only mean one thing. And now all the little hints that had been there over the last weeks came to mind. How had she been able to overlook it? Cora felt her chest constricting unpleasantly. She clutched the front of her shirt in an attempt to loosen anxiety’s grip, but of course it didn’t help. Not being able to stand her unrest she jumped out of the bus one stop early and took a few deep breathes before striding the way to school briskly. She pulled her phone out of her bag and dialled the number, which was always up on her list of last calls, with trembling hands.

“Robert?” her voice was shaky.

“Hello, darling? What’s up?” he inquired. Hearing his voice, even if it was distantly through a phone, took away a small part of the heavy weight that had settled deep in her stomach.

“Uhm… can we talk?” she mumbled.

“Of course! What is on your mind?” he said encouragingly.

“I’d like to do it in person. Can you meet me on our bench in the yard in a few minutes?”

“Golly, that sounds serious!” his answer came out with a slightly nervous chuckle. “Sure, I am on my way. But are you alright, Cora?” Robert inquired.

“Mmh,” she hummed in affirmation. She didn’t trust her voice. The “Sure” she added after a second held little conviction.

“You have me worried here, Cora,” Robert spoke insistently from the other end of the phone. Cora really had no idea how to answer that. She didn’t want him to worry but she couldn’t just undo the grand drama that was trailing around the two of them with evergrowing density.

“I am alright,” she spoke softly into the receiver. The next minutes went by in a blur until she walked onto the yard and her eyes immediately found his form sitting on ‘their’ bench fidgety. She could spot from afar the bobbing of his knee and despite his apparent nervosity, his sight enveloped her with a thin veil of relaxation. Her feet carried her reliably toward him, and she noticed his exhalation of relief as he spotted her. He swiftly rose from his seat and took a step to meet her halfway. He took her hands in his instantly. His eyes sought hers, and the concerned look he directed at her made Cora’s stomach twist uncomfortably. She cast down her gaze and pulled him gently towards the bench. She had to sit down, but no doubt would be restless again in a matter of seconds.

“Robert?” she breathed cautiously. His thumbs brushed over her knuckles.

“Yes, dear?” She heard how he attempted to keep the nervosity out of his voice by caressing the words lovingly.

“Why do mothers always have to be right?” She shook her head, still not meeting his gaze.

“Uhm… I don’t know. What did your mother say?” he gave back in slight confusion.

“She was only joking I think but she was right,” Cora answered. Now she looked up at him, took in the warm dusty blue of his eyes and felt soothed by the care she found in them. “Robert, I don’t know when exactly we have been sloppy but the fact is… I’m… Robert, I’m pregnant,” she uttered and the tone of her voice sank with every word. The last one was only a mere breath. At Robert’s agape lips and his frozen look, she saw, however, that he had understood what she’d said. Her heart began beating more and more rapidly and she pressed his hands anxiously, trying to irk a reaction out of him. He inhaled deeply.

“We’ll manage,” he said calmly. Cora looked at him baffled.

“That’s the first thing you say?” she asked taken aback. “No question like ‘how could this happen?’ You say we’ll manage?”

“Yes. Because I am sure of that. I don’t know how, and actually, I don’t know a lot. My head is quite mushy at the moment. But what I know is that we’ll get this,” he assured. Cora nodded slowly. His rather alert reaction surprised her. “We’re in this together. We have been from the beginning.”

At his last words, Cora sank against his chest and buried her face in his jumper. Her welling tears soaked his pullover, and she couldn’t tell if it were tears of relief, or worry, or fear, or joy, or utter adoration. She felt too much at the moment and was only grateful for the hideaway Robert’s embrace offered.

[ayamari-no-goshi]

Verboten 2 | (T)

ff.net | AO3

Fandom: Danny Phantom (DP)

Summary:   AU. When Danny was five years old, he went missing for 2 weeks. In the years that follow, his family tried to make sense of what happened, only for the truth to be discovered years later.

Warnings: rated T for violence, mentions of death, language. Be prepared for some very weird things

Parings: Danny/Sam

Notes: originally uploaded to Ff.net. Cross-posted to AO3 and tumblr. This fic is very heavily inspired by folklore surrounding mysterious wilderness disappearances

Chapter 2

“I’m honestly surprised your parents allowed you on this trip, Danny,” his friend Sam mentioned as they and their other friend, Tucker, packed their bags onto the bus.

The now seventeen year old Danny shrugged as he focused on trying to make sure his bag wouldn’t be squished in the luggage compartment of the bus during the trip. He brought a foldable telescope with him in case he had a chance to stargaze, and he didn’t want it to get broken.

His school, Casper High, had some sort of deal with one of the local National Parks. The school was allowed to camp at the park at a reduced rate as long as the students helped the Forest Rangers with some minor tasks. Both parties considered it a win-win situation as the Park Service received some extra hands, and the school was able to pride itself on the survival and conservational experiences its students received. Technically, the trip was voluntary for seniors, but the teachers indirectly pressured the students to participate.

“To be honest, I’m more surprised they convinced Tucker to go,” Danny eventually replied after he was satisfied with the location of his bag.

“You’re telling me!” Tucker whined as he waited for his two friends while he fiddled with his PDA. “My mother actually threatened to stop making her meatloaf for me if I didn’t go! They said, “It would be good for me”. Can you believe that?”

“I think a little bit of hiking do you some good.” Sam poked him in the stomach for emphasis.

As Tucker shouted in protest, Danny and Sam exchanged a glance. Tucker did not like the outdoors, and he was very vocal about it. His world primary consisted of technology, and while it was amazing what he could do with his handheld and twenty minutes, his physical prowess was lacking.

“But seriously, Danny,” Tucker injected after he finally fended off Sam, “how did you convince your parents to let you come?”

Danny shrugged as he headed towards the door of the bus. Shouts from the teachers made it clear they would be boarding soon. “It seems like the school board managed to somehow convince them. All I know is that they had a meeting with them to raise concerns and to tell them I wasn’t going to go, but they came back stating it was fine. It must have been one heck of a persuasive argument.”

“That’s because my mother was involved.” The boys glanced over to see Sam angrily kick a rock out of the way. Her parents were often a taboo topic. “I thought I told you she was on the school board. I don’t know the full details of it, but I know she was preparing counterarguments to objections.”

“I’m honestly surprised your parents are so gung ho about this trip. You’d think they’d consider camping beneath them.”

“It’s because of the prestige. They can brag that their daughter and their daughter’s school has ties to a government agency.”

While Danny raised an eyebrow, he admitted it seemed petty enough of a reason. Sam’s parents were very wealthy and liked to show off their wealth, much to their daughter’s dismay. They often argued with her regarding her appearance, music tastes, friends, after school activities, and other issues as they believed their daughter’s choices reflected poorly on them. However, they were usually fine with their daughter’s activism regarding conservation and animal rights as long as she didn’t go too far with it, such as the time she tried to stage a break out at the local zoo.

Their conversation ended as the boarding began. The three somehow managed to get the back of the bus, which allowed them to continue to talk without interruption. Most of the other students tended to avoid their group. They didn’t know why until one of the band members, Mikey, once asked Tucker how he put up with being so close to Danny. Confused, Tucker asked him to elaborate.

According to Mikey, a lot of the other students felt unnerved by Danny. As polite and quiet as he tended to be, there was something odd about him that no one was directly able to pinpoint. Mikey said he thought it could have been his eyes, citing how at times it almost seemed like Danny saw the world in a slightly different way than the rest of them. Tucker just laughed it off and explained that Danny had a traumatic event as a child so he often seemed unusually reserved. Mikey seemed to accept that answer, and afterwards, at least some of the students involved with the band were more open towards Danny.

The Fentons moved to Amity Park two years after Danny’s disappearance, so the majority of the student body was unaware of the event. If he was honest, Danny would never have told Sam and Tucker what happened, but his parents’ eccentricities forced the issue.

When his parent’s found out about Sam’s activism the first time she and Tucker visited their house, they made her swear she would not take their son into the woods with her. When he was finally allowed to take them to his room after Sam promised she wouldn’t, he hesitantly explained why they were so intense. His friends were very understanding, though they were just as puzzled about the entire thing as he was. Tucker even offered to hack into the old case file if Danny ever decided to look into it.

Sam did mention that it did help explain why they sometimes caught him staring off into space. She figured he was probably traumatized by something he couldn’t quite remember. Danny mentioned his sister once told him something similar, but he honestly didn’t remember anything that happened.

What he never admitted to his friends was that he knew why he sometimes seemed distant. Ever since his disappearance, he sometimes saw figures out of the corner of his periphery. Usually, he thought it was another person, but when he tried to check, whatever it was had disappeared. More recently, however, the figures seemed to let him glimpse them for a second or two. He could never make out anything other than the vague shape as a person. Since no one else seemed to notice them, he figured it was some weird sort of paranoia due to a repressed memory.

….

About a half hour after they left, Danny received a voicemail from his parents. He had forgotten he had put it on silent, but there was no way he could call them back while he was on the bus since Mr. Lancer was the chaperone for his bus, and that man was a stickler for the rules. Instead, he made a mental note to call them back as soon as he had permission as he clicked the play button.

His mother’s voice sounded absolutely frantic. “Daniel, you call me as soon as you get this! I don’t know what came over us, but we never should have let you go without some sort of protection. I should have never have let you go. If the teachers won’t let you call us, jest remember to never be the last or first in line, and never, under any circumstances, go anywhere alone. And, this is important Danny, if anyone you don’t know offers you food, don’t take it.” His dad could faintly be heard in the background talking about some sort of weaponry he made.

“And here I thought only my mom could sound like that. What was that about?” Sam asked. Her raised eyebrow told him she wasn’t going to let it drop until he had an answer.

“I think my parents finally realized I was going into the woods,” he replied as he put his phone away.

“I thought you said they were fine with you going,” Tucker chimed in while he rummaged through his back for a snack.

Danny didn’t immediately answer. He glanced away for a moment before finally he decided to open up about something which had been bugging him. “I know this is going to sound crazy, but my parents almost seemed like they were in a daze after that school meeting. They were so adamant I was not going to be allowed to go on that trip, and then they just changed their minds and stopped voicing their concerns. It was so weird that I actually called Jazz.”

It was true. He had called his sister at collage because of how out of character it was. While Jazz understood his concern, she reassured him one of the teachers or other parents managed to ease their concerns, and/or they realized some of their worries were silly and unfounded. He tried to tell her there was something more to it as she couldn’t physically see how off they were, but she just told him he was being paranoid and to enjoy himself.

Tucker whistled. “It must have been weird for you to do that.” Both Sam and Tucker knew full well how Jasmine “Jazz” Fenton tended to overanalyze almost everything. As a result, Danny often tried to avoid asking her questions regarding why a person would act in a certain way. The resulting explanation was often too lengthy to be interesting.

“As weird as that is, do you really think anyone in Amity would do something like drug or hypnotize your parents?” Sam argued.

“I… I don’t really know. Look, I never told you guys this,” Danny sighed as he steeled himself, “but, there has been a second incident prior to us moving. Our old house had a wooded area behind it. It wasn’t dense or anything, and you could see in it for like a half mile… but, according to my parents, and Jazz confirmed it, I went missing again for several hours in those woods. I don’t remember saying this, but they said I mentioned something about my playmate from the forest in Arkansas payed me a visit. There’s been an unspoken worry that this guy is following us for some reason.”

Neither of his friends said anything for a while until Sam spoke up. “That’s really messed up, but do you really think that’s the case? How would this person be able to find you? Do you even know what he or she looks like?”

He shook his head. “You know my parents are big names in fringe science. It’s possible he found us that way. I know that it’s really unlikely… It… It’s just… it was too weird, you know? With how my parents go on and on about other dimensions and being spirited away, them just suddenly changing their minds went against everything they believe.”

“Don’t worry, Danny. You’re with us and a bunch of other students. We’ll keep an eye on you.”

“And if something does happen, Sam can chase off the bad guy with those boots of hers. Ow!” Tucker glared at Sam as he rubbed his shin. “That was a compliment.”

She just snickered which caused the two to start bickering. The familiarity of it helped ease some of Danny’s worries. He knew he was just being paranoid, and that it was very unlikely anyone did something to his parents. It was just that he couldn’t shake off his uneasy feeling.

….

Their camp ground was in the Cuyahoga Valley region which was on the outskirts of the Allegheny plateau. The hills in the area were rolling due to the plateau and ancient glacial activity, but they were nowhere near as large as the ones found closer to the mountains in the next state over. Like many forests in the plateau, it was surprisingly old and dense.

Danny was unsettled by it. The hardwood trees blocked out a large percentage of the sun which cast permanent shadows on the area. Not only was it unlikely he would be able to stargaze, he kept thinking he saw something peek out from behind the trees. Chalking it up to paranoia, he decided to focus on the interior of the bus until they reached their destination. He didn’t need to freak out this early in the trip.

Due to the amount of students, the school split them into groups of about thirty and split them around the park. His group was sent to a series of cabins near one of the ranger stations. There were five or six assigned to each cabin. Thankfully for Danny, Tucker was also assigned to the same cabin.

After Mr. Lancer told them some general rules, they were told they had an hour to settle in before they would met up for lunch. The unpacking was fairly uneventful, though Danny was dismayed to learn some of the football players would be in his cabin. Most of them tended to leave him alone, but the one, Dash, liked to bully him. It was strange since he was the only person aside from Sam and Tucker who would come anywhere near him. Thankfully, other than a warning to keep his weirdness to himself, the football players decided to ignore him and Tucker.

He unpacked fairly quickly, so he decided he had enough time to try to contact his parents. Stepping outside, he tried to make a phone call. Someone picked up on the other end, but the signal must have been poor as the call was extremely choppy. After several minutes of trying to figure out what she was saying, he told her he would ask the Rangers if they had a land line he’d be able to use before he ended the call. He frowned as he checked the bars on his phone. There signal was strong enough that the call shouldn’t have been that choppy, but it was a cheaper phone since he had a bad habit of breaking them, so that could have been the reason.

They ate lunch at a mess hall in the camp complex. It was a fairly modest meal, but the beef and gravy was surprisingly good. Danny mused it was probably because his parents often experimented with cooking which often created strange results. He was also surprised that there was a vegetarian option available for Sam, but the school must have called ahead to let them know.

When they were finishing up, Mr. Lancer announced that one of the Rangers had an announcement. Danny glanced over to see a stern man, possibly in his late thirties, move towards the front of the room. He was fit and weathered, but every once in a while, there was a haunted look in his eyes.

The ranger, Rusty, gave the group a rundown of the general rules. He then paused for a moment before he spoke again. “This is unprecedented, but we are going to need your help for a search for a missing person.” Murmurs of excitement ran through the students. “This is a serious matter, and I request you pay attention. We have our search and rescue people and volunteers out right now looking for a twenty-two year old male. He is Caucasian and was last seen in a red jacket and blue jeans. He goes by Aiden.”

“Because you are not properly trained,” Rusty continued, “I only ask that you walk along the nearby trails for a couple hours in groups of two or more. Each group will be given a walkie-talkie. If you see or hear anything strange, call it into us. Don’t go off the trails. We don’t need more people getting lost today.” He fell silent and seemed to argue with himself for a moment before adding, “If you hear what sounds like screaming, particularly a woman screaming, call it in immediately. Large cats sometimes make that kind of sounds, and we definitely have Bobcats around. Luckily, they tend to avoid people, but we do like to know when we have signs of them.”

Twenty minutes later, the teens separated into their groups. Each group was provided a map, compass, and walkie-talkie. Rusty took them to a large map posted outside the Ranger station and explained a little about the area. The trails he wanted them to take circled the surrounding area and were well marked. Before he let them go, he again warned them to report anything off, but did try to reassure them by letting them know other rangers would be regularly sweeping the area.

“Well, isn’t this a reassuring start to our trip,” Tucker sarcastically mentioned as he tried to figure out the map.

“It can’t be helped,” Sam told him as she ripped the map out of his hands and corrected it before handing it back to him. “They must be desperate if they’re asking students to help.”

“Hey, I’m not used to replying on handheld maps.”

“You could try bringing it up on GPS,” Danny mentioned as they headed towards the one trail.

“That’s a great idea!” Tucker fiddled with his PDA for a moment before turning back to his friend. “Are you okay, dude? You sound a little off.”

“Oh, I guess this would hit a little too close to home,” Sam mentioned as she examined his expression.

Danny sighed as he glanced away from her. “Kind of. Even though I don’t remember it, I was in this exact same situation before. I hope they find the guy, at least for his family’s sake.”

The trio fell silent as they began their walk on one of the easy trails. They didn’t see anything out of the ordinary, though Tucker complained starting about halfway through the hike. Sam tried to distract them by identifying some of the local flora, but it only worked for so long.

By the time they made it back to camp, it was almost dinner time. Danny was glad to be back around the group. Although he never mentioned anything to his friends, he felt as if he was being watched the entire time. The trees seemed oppressive at times, and he was honestly surprised he didn’t have a panic attack while they were on the trail.

After dinner, he asked Rusty if there was a phone he would be able to use. Rusty told him that he would have to wait until the morning because they needed the line for the search. Danny understood and thanked the man.

Before he had a chance to head back to his cabin, Rusty called out to him, “While you’re here, make sure you never go off on your own.”

“I know. I mean, my parents drilled that into me for years,” Danny admitted with a shrug.

Rusty examined him closely before stepping closer and whispering, “You’ve witnessed something strange in the past. I can tell by the look in your eyes and how tense you are. In any heavily wooded area, the more open you are to the unusual, the more likely it might show up again.” He walked off without another word. Unnerved, Danny returned to his cabin and waited for his friend.

Tucker still wanted to complain about the amount of walking they did when he returned to the room, which prompted a discussion regarding how in the world Sam was able to enjoy things like that. Danny was about to bring up what the ranger told him when the football players burst into the room. Normally, Danny would just ignore them, but this time, he was intrigued by their excited whispers.

“Hey dweebs,” Dash addressed them, much to Danny and Tucker’s surprise, “did you hear what happened?” An evil grin appeared on his face when they told him they didn’t. “Kwan overheard the rangers talking earlier. You know that guy they were looking for?”

“Yeah,” Danny answered, “Did they find him?”

“Yeah, but he wasn’t alive.”

“Wait, what?”

“You heard me. They’re saying he’s dead.”

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- End of chapter notes :

The Cuyahoga (Ky-ah-HOE-ga) Valley is a real place. I chose it for some very specific reasons. 1) The forests in that area are extremely large 2) I’m fairly familiar with the landscape and weather as I grew up in another part of the Allegheny plateau 3) The parks in that area are a bit unusual as you have a mix of privately owned and government owned areas which I’m using to my design as there’s more leeway with what they can and can’t build in those areas 4) some old towns have been “swallowed” by the national park including one famous “helltown”

The Allegheny (Al-ah-gain-ie) plateau is one part of the Appalachian Mountains, which are said to be the oldest mountains in the world. You don’t really have the high peaks or rock terrain associated with other ranges since they’re so worn, but there are a lot of hills, valleys, creeks, and streams. There are also a lot of coal mines since it’s a coal rich area. What’s also very strange about the plateau is that you can be in a town or suburbs, but within 15-20 minutes, you can be on the outskirts of a deep forest. There are also some swamps and marshy areas within the plateau as well.

Also, a lot of the names for natural landmarks in the Allegheny plateau originate from the tribes who originally settled there. There are even some burial mounds in the Cuyahoga area.

[softsatxn]

The Next Chapter

i've been watching a lot of “telling my partner i'm pregnant” vids on youtube and this is the result. /// Izuku woke up to his mate nuzzling against the back of his neck. Katsuki wrapped his arms tighter around the Omega and nuzzled his nose against Izuku’s scent gland.

“G' morning,” Izuku said sleepily.

“You smell different,”

Izuku laughed off the strange comment. He acted like he wasn't expecting Bakugou to say something eventually about the change in his scent.

“Bad different?” He asked. He just had to play it cool. Kacchan has mentioned it before, said how his scent was sweeter that day, but just barely, and Midoriya thought he handled the whole situation well. Deku knew it would be too hard to hide forever and he had to tell him soon. He just didn't really know how.

“No,” Katsuki mumbled, still sniffing at his scent gland. “You smell like you, but just sweeter, and it’s stronger,”

“Maybe an early heat?” Izuku threw out there, trying to make sure Kacchan didn’t figure out the real reason. Izuku knew it wasn’t an early heat. He can promise that.

“Hm, I don’t know, it’s not your preheat smell,” Katsuki kissed the back of Izuku’s neck before haphazardly scenting him. “All I know is everyone else better keep their hands to themselves because you smell fucking great,”

Izuku laughed at the Alpha’s protective behavior, waiting a few more moments while Katuski scented him, before turning around so he could be eye-to-eye with his mate. He greeted the Alpha with a smile, to which the blond returned.

Katsuki leant forward and kissed Izuku. It was short and sweet. “You have morning breath,” Izuku teased once they broke away, but that didn’t stop him from kissing the blond again.

“Yeah, well so do you,” Katsuki said once they broke apart from the kiss. Izuku laughed before rolling out of bed.

“Nooooooo,” Katsuki whined. “Where are you going?” His arms that were previously wrapped around Izuku’s waist now laid limply on both sides of him dramatically.

“To brush my teeth,” Izuku called out as he walked into their bathroom. It was a few moments of Katsuki staring at the ceiling huffing to himself that his Omega had decided to leave him, cold and alone in their bed, before said Omega called out again. “And I recommend you do to, because no kisses until you do,”

“You’re a pain in my ass, you know that?”

“Yes!” Izuku said, Katsuki could hear the water run for a short amount of time. “But you love me,” He said, this time his voice was muffled by the toothbrush.

“You’re not wrong,” Katsuki mumbled so quietly Deku could hardly hear it. He begrudgingly rolled out of bed and joined Deku, aggressively grabbing his toothbrush and applying the toothpaste, before running it under the water.

Deku was somehow all smiles this early in the morning. Katsuki on the other hand was still pretty tired. He always enjoyed coffee in the mornings, to give him that sort of boost. He rested his chin on Deku’s shoulder and wrapped one arm around the other’s waist as they stared in the mirror, brushing their teeth.

Deku placed his hand over Katsuki’s, resting them both over his stomach. Katsuki wasn’t exactly suspicious of this action. However, it did make him think that Izuku could actually be  entering an early heat, like the Omega had mentioned earlier. Usually when Omega’s, including Deku, were going into heat their heads got filled up with pregnancy and babies, and that’s probably what Deku was doing right now, thinking about babies.

Their babies.

Babies they’d have together one day.

The idea made Katsuki smile. Deku leaned over to spit, but Katsuki kept his hand on Izuku’s stomach. It wasn’t some weird thing. Izuku’s scent, and the maybe-early heat brought this on. It wasn’t the first time their heads got clouded with baby-thoughts, and it probably wouldn’t be the last.

Katsuki leaned over Deku’s shoulder to spit out the toothpaste in his mouth. “Oi, you could’ve ‘pit on me,” Deku said, his speech a little unclear due to the foam and toothbrush in his mouth.

“But I didn’t,” Katsuki said, putting his toothbrush back in his mouth and continuing to brush his teeth, murdering all the germs. He was already waking up a bit more. Once he was going, he could go (even without coffee, but the drink was preferred). However, the getting up and going part was always the hardest part.

“Bu’ I didn’t,” Izuku mocked just before spitting into the sink. He looked up at Kacchan, smiling and Katsuki smiled back, only after rolling his eyes.

After they had finished brushing their teeth, Katsuki had went to make coffee, which Izuku was going to have to pass up. Ever since finding out, he decided to cut caffeine out of his life. His mate called him stupid whenever he rejected the drink, but it was never actually meant hostilely.

“You sure you don't want any?” Katsuki called out from the kitchen as Izuku made their bed.

“I'm sure, thanks though,” Izuku called back, tossing the final pillow back on their bed were it belonged.

“Next you're going to stop eating ice cream or something,”

“I'll never not eat ice cream,” Izuku laughed.

“You used to say that about coffee,”

“It's not just coffee, Kacchan, it's caffeine,” Deku clarified, walking into the kitchen and leaning against the island.

“God, next you're going to go vegan,”

“Veganism isn't a bad thing,”

Katsuki turned over his shoulder and looked back at Izuku. “Please do not go /Vegan/, it'll be way too hard to feed you,”

Izuku just laughed Kacchan off. He drummed his thumbs against the marble countertop. He didn't know how he was going to tell him.

It was important for Kacchan to know; sooner rather than later. Soon, Izuku would be showing. His stomach would slowly start softening, and he knew Katsuki would notice. It's not like he was scared, okay, he was a little. However, he knew Kacchan wouldn't just up and leave. They'd stay together and raise their child together.

They'd be a family, but when you're a pro-hero, having a family can be dangerous. Villains will use that to their advantage.

Izuku was about to just blurb it out right there. Just tell Kacchan the news. However, a quick moment of hesitation had decided what Deku was going to do, because three seconds later, Katsuki’s phone went off.

“Shit,” Katsuki mumbled. Today was their day off, and they were both very excited about their days off aligning, however, their agency didn't just call for no reason, and Izuku knew Katsuki would probably have to go.

In a matter of twenty minutes, Katsuki has gotten dressed, and made his way out the door. “Love you, bye,” He said as he kissed Deku on his lips.

“Love you, be safe,”

“I’ll try,” He said. And Deku has wished that he could do more than ‘I’ll try,’ but he knew he couldn't. In a field like this, all you can do is try.

When the door shut, Izuku just stared at it for a moment. He kind of didn't know what to do now. It wasn't the first time this had happened or anything, sometimes Kacchan had to leave Deku in a hurry, and other times Izuku would have to leave the blond.

Just something about this time… he didn't know what to do afterwards… so he stared at the door. Wasn't the most logical thing, but you can't always control things like that. Sometimes your brain just did things. Izuku couldn’t explain it.

He walked back into the main bathroom, where they had been brushing their teeth half an hour ago. He opened the cabinet below the sink and reached his hand around, looking for a very particular item he had hidden a few days ago when he first suspected he would be pregnant.

He found the pink box with four pregnancy tests inside, one was already used, and he pulled that one out. He examined the two pink lines, indicating that he was pregnant. He decided he was going to take another one and make sure he was pregnant- so he did just that. He put the first one back in the box, because he didn’t exactly want to throw it away yet- he would because keeping it in that box for too long might be weird, but just not yet.

He grabbed another test and took it, waiting for the five minutes required before looking at it, finding the two lines, stronger than they were a few days ago when he took the first test. He was really pregnant- this time he was almost positive it wasn’t just a false positive. He and Katsuki were going to have a baby.

He had known this, but not for sure. He just had a good feeling, and he had a feeling the first test wasn’t a false positive, but you could never be too sure. Now knowing that the chances of him not being pregnant were slim to none, he thought of better ways to tell Kacchan. Might as well make it special…

He grabbed both the tests and walked out of their bathroom and into their room. He scoped the area for a place he could put them where Katsuki would look. He thought about their draws, and then the closet, even thought about hiding the tests in plain sight, but he didn’t think any of those were good enough.

He knew he was probably overthinking it, but he just wanting it to be special… maybe in the kitchen somewhere? When he gets home he will most likely want to eat something- but if he grabbed takeout or something that wouldn’t really work.

He could set up a lame scavenger hunt, but that was lame.

If he had more time he would go out a buy a world’s best dad shirt, but there was no telling when Kacchan would get home.

… Then it hit him. Almost every night they would drink some form of tea before bed (God, they sounded old)... but nonetheless, to make tea you need cups. A genius idea hit him as he quickly ran to go get dressed, he hoped the store that was around the corner would have what he needed.

As fast as he could he ran down to the store, going straight to this mug section. He frantically searched for any mug resembling what he had in his mind. Unfortunately, he couldn’t find one. He didn’t want to waste time looking, so he thought about the closest baby-stuff store to his house… It was a few miles away, but he was confident he may be able to make it in time, but he may be cutting it close.

Once he arrived at the baby-store, he got a call from his Alpha. “Shit,” Izuku mumbled, trying to think of a small lie to save the surprise. He answered the phone. “Hey ‘zuku,” Kacchan said as soon as the omega had answered.

“Hey, Kacchan,” Izuku said, walking into the store. There was no point in not getting a move on, Katsuki was gonna know he was out, he just couldn’t, under any circumstances figure out where.

“I just wanted to call you and say I’m heading home, just need to swing into my office and grab some things,” He said through the phone. Izuku could hear the elevator ding.

“Good, I’ve been bored without you,” Izuku smiled, even though he knew his Kacchan wouldn’t be able to see it, but the smile formed nonetheless. “I ran to go grab more icecream, beccause we ran out, want me grab something for dinner as well? Or do oyu just wanna cook something,”

“I can assure I was more bored- we didn’t even do hero stuff, just monitored a buch of shit, but I’ll yack your ear off about it later,” Katuski began.

“I’ll be waiting,” Midoriya laughed.

“But as for dinner, where are you around? Don’t want you driving around the city to get something,”

“Near the store around the corner,” Wasn’t really a lie, he just knew Kacchan would think about the first store he went to, not the outdoor mall a few more miles away from that.

“Hmm, what about Katsudon, from that one resturant, what’s it called?”

“Beats me, we always just call it the Katsudon Place,” Izuku laughs. “But that sounds good,”

“Okay, babe, I’ll see you when I get home, or when you do, whoever gets there first I guess,”

“Okay, I love you, Kacchan,”

Bakugou laughed- more like gave an amused chuckle. “Love you, too, ‘Zuku,” And with that the two hung up. Izuku had made it into the store and searched for what he could, as fast as he could. First he found more than what he wanted, a cute onsie saying “I love my daddy” so of course he had to grab that. Then he found a cute little lion stuffed animal that made a rattling noise when you shake it, and once again, he couldn’t resist himself.

Now he looked started really searching for what he came for, a cup that said something along the lines of ‘HEY YOU’RE A DAD’ however, mugs are a hard thing to find in a baby store, but he eventually found them. He fell in love with the mug that said: ‘Best Dad in Training’

He checked his items out and went to rush over to the Katsudon place to buy their dinner- oh and to buy the icecream he said he was gonna get. He should have thought of a slightly better lie that required less running around.

When Izuku finally got home, Kacchan’s car was already there. Izuku carried in the ice cream bag, and put the baby-stuff bag inside of that one. They used the reusable ones, so transparency wasn’t the issue, but maybe Kacchan would really want some ice cream in that exact moment, Izuku just had to hope for the best.

He knocked on the door before unlocking it. Kacchan was sitting on the couch, he clearly had already slid back into the pajamas he was wearing this morning, practically resuming where they had left off. However as soon as Katsuki saw Izuku’s face, he got up off the couch and hugged him. “I missed you,”

“I missed you, too,” Izuku said basically melting into Kacchan’s hug, taking in the Alpha’s scent. “Stupid work,”

Katsuki laughed. “Do not get me started,” He kissed Izuku’s head before separating. “Let me get these for you,”

Izuku shoved the takeout bag into his hand, hoping he wouldn’t continue to pry for the other one. “Thank you,” Izuku said, leaving him with the katsudon, as he walked into the kitchen to put up the ice cream. He then took the bag into his and Kacchans room and carefully put it in the closet, then changed into his pajama pants and top. Walking back out, he opened a kitchen drawer and pulled out chopsticks. “So, tell me about this day you’ve had,” he said bringing the utensils to Kacchan as he sat down next to him on the couch, pulling a blanket over him, then taking his meal from his Alpha.

“So, they call me in, on my day off, so obviously I think it’s important, right?” He says, beginning to eat. “But once I get in there, they essentially put me on an honorary guard dog position, I just sit there and watch their official cameras, in this official room, with an uncomfortable chair, and literally it was just me, and then it turns out, the guy they were so scared was sneaking around ready to bomb us or something, was literally just some random tourist who was lost,”

“Ew,”

“EW is very right, pissed me off, not going to lie,” He took a second to take another bite of his food. “Oh, and then when I’m leaving, not have done any actual hero work all day, boss comes by and pats me on my fucking shoulder and says: ‘thanks for coming in, couldn’t have done it without you,’ and I’m sitting there like ‘Actually, bitch, you could’ve, but whatever, I wasn’t gonna say anything, I just nodded and then called you,”

Izuku finished chewing his food before speaking. “That’s dumb, why didn’t they get some random intern to do it, back in our internship days that would’ve been extremely cool, he acts like you haven’t been working with him for years,”

Kacchan nodded. “That’s exactly what I’m saying!” He took a deep breath, “I think I’m done talking about it now, what’d you do today?”

‘Oh y’know, panicked about telling you about our unborn child’ “I just cleaned around a bit, watched TV, then realized I wanted ice cream, realized we didn’t have the kind I wanted, and went to get it, not much else to say,”

The two ate, and once they were done, snuggled close to each other while watching TV. About an hour later though, Katsuki excused himself to go take a shower, and Izuku knew this was when he should do it. As soon as he heard the water running he ran to grab his stuff so he could set it up. He grabbed the two tests. (Which he left in the bathroom, so he pretended he was grabbing the shirt he needed to be washed by tomorrow)

Once he had everything, he made sure the test caps were on tight, and he placed them on the counter. He then opened the mug cabinet, and placed the new mug in it. He then stuffed the toy lion in it, followed by setting the onesie next to it, the tests then going on the onesie.

Everything was now in place. He went and sat back on the couch, getting more nervous by the second. He continued watching TV, so when Kacchan walked back out, nothing would look suspicious.

However, once the water shut off, he knew in only moments, Kacchan would know, and that was so crazy to him. He just stared at the TV, trying to process his thoughts before his Alpha walked out and he had to act calm so he didn’t spoil the surprise.

It was about five minutes when a wet-haired Katsuki walked out of their room and didn’t even sit down on the couch before asking if Izuku wanted tea. Izuku said he would, and then Katuski turned on the kettle. While the blond waited for the water to boil, he sat down next to Izuku and motioned for the omega to come closer to him. Izuku had no problem complying, and went to lay on top of him.

Bakugou ran his fingers up and down Izuku’s back. They sat their in a comfortable silence while the water boiled. They just sat, enjoying each other's company. Sometimes that’s all people needed- was to feel the presence of someone they loved, rather they spoke or not.

However, as soon as the kettle began ringing, Kacchan gave Midoriya a kiss, and slowly sat them up. “What kind of tea do you want?”

“Any kind,” He said, cuddling back up to his blanket. Oh god, Izuku was so nervous.

“Easy enough,” Katsuki mumbled. He went to the pantry and grabbed their tea first, set it on the counter, then went to grab the mugs. As soon as he opened the cabinet, he froze. “Wha? What’s-”

Izuku shifted nervously on the couch. Katsuki turned to face the omega, he had the little stuffed rattle in his hand. “Are you? You’re?”

All Izuku could do is nod.

“Oh, my God,” Kacchan put the toy down and ran up to his Omega, engulfing him in a hug. “This isn’t some prank, like you’re actually pregnant?”

“Why would I lie about something like this?”

“Oh, I don’t know,” Katsuki said, holding the smaller male tight. “We’re gonna have a little person walking around,”

“We are,” Izuku said, wrapping his hands around the alpha’s waist.

“This is so amazing, Izuku,” He said, kissing the top of the omega’s head. “You’re the best damn thing that’s ever happened to me,” He said, planting a kiss on His Omega’s lips.

They were ready to begin the next chapter of their lives together.

[enchanted-seokjin]

The 1; kim seokjin.

↬ summary: Y/N meets Jin after six months following their break-up.

↬ genre: one shot

↬ word count: 2.6k

↬ warnings: very slightly smut insinuation

↬ note: inspired by the 1 by taylor swift

I hold my breath when I see him walk through the door. He smiles widely at my friend and hands her over the gift which stands out from every other I’ve seen so far. And I’ve seen them all, for I’ve been here even before people arrived.

My friend wanted me to help her with the last details, setting the table, making sure everything looked neat and smell good. It was a façade. I realized once I crossed that same goddamn door and saw that my friend had opened a bottle of wine and served two glasses. That could only mean that it was a setup. I didn’t say anything, though. I was reminded that it was her birthday and I had to put up with any crazy idea she had in mind.

Many thoughts crushed my brain. Was she going to cancel the party? Was she going to ask me to tell one of the people she’d invited that the party wasn’t going to happen after all? 

I laugh as I remember how naïve I must’ve looked caressing the cat while my friend told me that she had invited Jin.

I didn’t get mad, but I was indeed shocked. I knew they got along well but I wasn’t aware that they were that close. For a moment, I thought she was going to confess that they were dating and my heart sunk just by the thought of it. When I asked her directly if they were more than friends, she looked at me confused and then disgusted. She assured me that Jin was her friend and nothing would ever change that. She was sorry for not letting me know earlier but it was kind of a last-minute invitation since she wasn’t sure how I would feel. She also said, “I understand if you want to leave.”

I couldn’t leave.

Now I wish I had.

My friend looks at the present, surprised by the presentation. It’s a tiny box, wrap in an elegant white paper with a red ribbon. I try not to smile but I fail and I look down at the cat moving between my legs and I’m thankful I’ve found this empty couch with no one around to bother me as a hang onto the glass of wine as if my life depends on it.

Jin has always had a good eye for details and I know that my friend appreciates it. I know I did. I know anyone would. 

When I look back up, I see Jin greeting a few of the people who are standing close to the door. He’s wearing black jeans and a dark shirt tucked inside his jeans which accentuates his waist. He looks stunning, smiling cordially, and having chit-chats with strangers. He’s always been good at that, too. The first time he invited me to an event I was nervous. I hate crowded places so I tried to turn him down but he assured me that everything would be okay and I believed him. He was right. He made me feel comfortable and included. He showed me a side of me I had never seen, one that glowed every time I stood next to him, talking to strangers and making new friends.

None of the people I’ve met during those events are my friends now.

As Jin moves, I want to get up, take the cat and fly upstairs but instead, I stay where I am because, at least, the floor isn’t quicksand here.

He’s late to the party, nevertheless. I noticed that as I was drinking my third glass of wine, thinking about how I should react once I see him after six months following our break-up. He’s never late. He’s always early. If he had a meeting at the dentist, he’d be there twenty minutes earlier. He doesn’t mind waiting but hates the idea of making other waits.

I guess he has changed.

Our eyes meet and I can feel my whole body turned numb as Jin gives me a tiny smile. A shy smile. The kind of smile which has always made my heart flutter, now makes me want to disappear.

I want him to keep chit-chatting with the blonde guy but I know he’s apologizing when he interrupts him to walk towards me. 

I forget how to breathe.

“Hey,” he says, smiling. His hands inside his pockets. He looks stunning under the white artificial light which makes his black hair shine. “New friend?” he asks, nodding towards the cat, now sitting next to my legs.

“She’s protecting me,” I reply, gazing at the cat as well. I don’t know if I’m holding the glass properly so I lower it to the armchair. I’m not leaving it at the little table. I’m afraid the waiter may come and take it away--- I wouldn’t know what to do with my hands either. I don’t have pockets as Jin does. I wish I hadn’t worn this stupid black dress.

I wish I was at home.

“From whom?” Jin asks.

I smile without saying anything. I don’t know what to answer. This situation is way too awkward for me.

“You’re late,” I point out instead and I wish I hadn’t. Though, Jin doesn’t seem to mind it. He stares at the window. A black cloudy sky displays through the lime curtains.

“I had to take care of a few things,” he replies, calmly and I wonder if he’s feeling his world crashing as mine is because I can sense everything coming down to pieces with him so close to me and I want it to stop.

I sigh and, this time, I gather the strength to put the glass on the table. I wait for the waiter to come and get it as a mouse waiting for a piece of cheese to drop. He doesn’t.

It’s time for me to go home.

“Well…” I begin as I get up. The house spins around for a second but I manage to keep control. Jin stares at me intently and I ignore his gaze. Instead, I focus on the cat, which meows and leaves. I’m completely alone with Jin. Great. “I hope you have fun,” I smile. I hope it sounds genuine. 

“Are you leaving?” he inquires, confused.

“Yeah, I have an appointment tomorrow,” I explain. It’s a lie, so I don’t get into any detail. I know enough not to reveal too much information when you’re lying, especially when you’re drunk. I pass past Jin, hoping he’d let me go but he follows me.

“Let me take you home,” he whispers as I take my black coat. 

“No,” I simply say.

I put it on and hear him sigh with impatience. Even though I’m not looking, I know he’s scratching his ear.

“My car’s right outside. I’ll take you home and then I’ll come back,” he begs. I turn to look at him. I’ve my bag between my hands, clutching onto it as hard as I was clutching on the glass of wine.

I smile ironically. Does he think I’m preoccupied he might miss this party?

“No, Jin,” I argue, slowly. “I’m good.”

I’m not getting into that hell of a car with you. I’m drunk, not stupid, I want to add. However, I choose silence and aim to walk towards the door when Jin steps in the way.

“Your house is not far,” he protests. “Let me walk you, then. It’s late.”

It’s true. It is late. The plan wasn’t for me to leave the party, I was supposed to help my friend clean up the mess afterward and stay overnight, and I was excited to have a girl’s night. I hadn’t had one in such a long time; I yearned for a little bit of fun. Yet, seeing Jin changed everything. 

“Fine,” I give up. I also know that he won’t let this go. If I leave without saying a word, he’d still follow me so it’s better this way.

“Great,” he smiles. “Are you going to say goodbye?”

I deny, reaching the door. As much as I love my friend, if I see her now and get the chance to say a word to her, it would be something far from “Happy birthday! I love you,” so I’d rather leave quietly.

Outside, the air is cold. I listen to the door close behind me and Jin approaching me as I start walking in the right direction.

“Aren’t you cold?” I ask. The answer is obvious; I can see Jin shrugged with his hands inside his pockets. He’s lucky there’s isn’t any wind. “Didn’t you bring a jacket?”

“No,” he barely looks at me so I stare at the empty street. “It was kind of a last-minute thing, coming here. I forgot to bring a jacket.”

“That present didn’t look like a last-minute thing,” I point out before I can stop myself and I hate how bitter my words sound.

“It wasn’t,” Jin answers, ignoring the bitterness. “I was going to give her the present even if I didn’t come tonight.”

“Of course you were,” I agree. “You’ve always been meticulous over important dates,” These words shouldn’t be charged with resentment but they are.

Jin takes a deep breath and I gaze at him. Our eyes meet for a second and I feel I’m about to break so I turn my head straight, though I can feel his piercing eyes on me.

“I wasn’t sure if I was going to come because I knew you were going to be here,” he explains with a little bit of frustration. My heart sinks but I ignore it.

“For what’s worth, I didn’t know you were coming until today.”

He stays silent for a second.

“I should’ve told you.”

“I blocked your number, remember?”

Jin quiets again. This time, it feels like an eternity. Then, his voice echoes in my brain.

“I’m sorry,” he whispers. “I never meant for any of this to happen,” he goes on and I lower my head, closing my eyes for a second as his sincerity burns inside my chest. 

“Don’t say that,” I beg.

Jin takes a deep breath.

“I’ve been wondering about you, you know?” he says. And I want him to stop but I don’t say anything because my heart’s in half and I forget how to speak. “What you’ve been doing… If life’s been treating you good…”

I laugh and look at the other side. Job wise? I’m good. Study wise? Getting there. Love wise? Still can’t get over him. I was at the bus stop last week and my soul left my body for an instant when I thought the man driving a black Mercedes was him.

“I’m good,” I answer. “I’ve been focusing on my studies.” 

“Trying to get into Art School?”

I smile as memories come flashing back.

“They say it’s never too late,” I look at him with a smile and he smiles back. We both know it was he who convinced me of that. “Don’t know if I’ll get in, though.”

“You’re really talented, Y/N,” he says with all seriousness. It’s always been like that when it came to my dreams. “Don’t throw yourself under the bus. You have a bright future ahead of you.”

I did have one. Once. With you.

“Thanks,” It takes me a few seconds to gather the strength to keep talking. “What about you?”

“Same old, same old,” he replies without looking at me. “Still working.”

“That’s good,” I babble as our eyes meet again and he flashes a tender smile. My heart sinks again and I feel tears burning behind my eyes. “Love wise?” I ask and look away. I’m not sure how I’ve mustered the strength to ask this. It’s as if someone else has taken control over me… Or something…

Jin doesn’t reply right away and I ignore the urge to start running because if I did, I don’t know if my legs would be strong enough to support me.

“Tried online dating,” he responds. “But it wasn’t for me,” he continues and I know he means it as a funny anecdote but it doesn’t sound like that. The air has shifted and I can feel the weight of these past six months over my shoulders. “You?”

“Nothing,” I say, shaking my head. 

It’s funny to hear that he’s been trying to move on while I’m still trying to get used to waking up alone every morning.

Jin sighs again and scratches his nose. I know he’s about to say something serious even before he opens his mouth.

“I did love you. You know that, don’t you?”

Of all the things I was expecting to hear from him, this was at the bottom of the list.

I shake my head as I bite the inside of my cheek. It’s all too real. It’s all too raw. I can’t take this, but Jin doesn’t take into account my feelings.

“After we broke up,” he mumbles as if he’s measuring his words. And I know for sure that he is. Jin’s too afraid to break me. “I’ve made up scenarios in my mind where everything worked out. I think it could’ve if we’d tried.”

I let out a weak laugh because it’s better than crying.

“I didn’t know you wanted to try.”

“I wanted everything that had to do with you.”

I smile, trying to hide my sadness. Suddenly, the shakiness in my hands is gone.

“You should’ve shown it.”

Jin looks down for a moment, and I know he’s regretting his decisions.

“We were something, don’t you think so?”

I nod. Yes, we were. All our friends and family were so sure we were going to end up together for the rest of our lives. I thought so, too. I thought Jin was the one. My family thought Jin was the one. I guess it would’ve been fun, to grow old together. To keep learning from each other until we’ve memorized every aspect of our personality, every inch of our bodies.

I see my house in the corner and we slow down our pace. Maybe it’s our subconscious working for us.

“Yeah,” I agree.

Jin lowers his head again.

“I’m seeing someone,” he lets out carefully.

I don’t react. There’s nothing else he can break in me.

“I’m glad you’re happy.”

“You’ll find someone, too.”

I guess I will. Someday.

I picture Jin with this new person, hanging out with his family. I picture them visiting Jin’s family every Sunday and Jin’s mom teaching them how to cook. That’s what I did every Sunday, at least. It was fun. Jin’s mom would end up amazed at how useless I was in the kitchen while Jin would assure me that I didn’t have to worry about anything because I had him.

We stop when we reach my house. He walks me to the porch and I turn to him. I open my mouth, ready to ask him if he believed that we would be together now if only one thing had been different… But I say nothing.

“Thank you, Jin,” I mutter instead.

“It was nice seeing you, Y/N,” he smiles but he doesn’t move.

I know that, in a different time, he’d come in with me, have a glass of wine. He would be telling bad jokes as alcohol starts to hit us while I fall in love with him as every second passes by. I wouldn’t wear this black dress for too long, he’d get rid of it as soon as he gets the chance and I’d enjoy each torturous moment unbuttoning his shirt.

“It was nice seeing you, too, Jin. Have fun at the party,” I state as I walk in because I should be the strong one; as I always have.

Still, tears fall in silence knowing that Jin is on the other side of the door and I will wake up alone tomorrow, again.

[johzenjei]

Can I request a fic where s/o is a figure skater and hurts themselves at practice, and Kageyama has to go pick them up because their parents are busy? And he helps take care of them. Gn please and thanks!

Anon you can have the sun and stars too, this ask gave me the giddies

1,573 words

Kageyama Tobio

How could this have happened? You couldn’t help but wonder.

Everything had started fine that day. You ate a good breakfast and left your house on time, you had aced a test in your English class, and your bus ride to the rink had been quiet and uneventful. It had been your best day in a while, so what caused it to turn south?

You had been on the ice, practicing your routine for a far-off competition. You had jumped and spun without any hesitation, without making a mistake. Your movements were smooth and calculated to the most minute detail.

‘Next is a salchow…’ you thought to yourself, though it hardly mattered. You moved on muscle memory alone, as you went into your jump. It was over as quick as it started. You landed it perfectly. “Nice, (s/o)!” A fellow skater yelled to you. You might have smiled, had you heard them, but you were so deep in concentration that all you could hear was the scratch of your blades on the ice, and all you could see was the smooth, cold, glassy surface beneath you.

Next was a quick turn. You pivoted your feet to glide into it when a sudden pain exploded in your right ankle. With a yelp, you toppled over onto your side, sliding a little ways before you were stationary, lying on your side, with the freezing ice delivering a painful chill to your exposed forearm.

It took you a moment to realize what had happened. A few other skaters came over to check on you. Questions on your well-being rang out around you, but you were still trying to process the turn of events. “I’m okay. I think I just turned too quick and too hard. Did something to my ankle. I’ll be fine.” You assured them.

You braced your feet to stand, and pushed yourself up off the ice, only to fall back down, hissing at the now throbbing pain in your ankle. “Or maybe not.”

Another skater helped you to your feet and across the rink, taking you off the ice and situating you on a bench. “Do you need anything else?” They asked kindly.

“No, I’m okay now. Thank you so much though. I’m just gonna call my mom.” You assured them. They left you to practice, and you dialed your mother. You held the phone with your shoulder, swinging your leg up over the other to untie your skates.

She didn’t answer until after a few rings. “(s/o)? What’s up hon?”

“Hey mom, I twisted my ankle during practice today. I can’t walk. Could you please come pick me up?”

“Oh my gosh, (s/o), are you okay? Does it hurt? Which ankle?”

“My right, it does hurt, though not as much as when I try to stand on it.”

“Oh honey, I wish I could come get you, but I have a meeting in ten minutes, I wouldn’t be able to get there, home, and back to work in time.” She said, and papers shuffled on the other end. “Have you called your dad yet?”

“That’s okay mom! I’ll call dad, it’s no problem. Good luck with your meeting!”

“Thank you, hon. I hope you feel better. I’ll see you later tonight!”

“Bye mom, love you.”

“Love you!”

The call ended, and you pulled the phone away from your head. “I’ll just call dad, then. No biggie.” You mumbled to yourself.

You pressed call, and waited. He didn’t pick up.

“What the heck dad?” You said, before it hit you. Tuesdays at the store were always understaffed, he must be really busy. He probably wouldn’t pick up the store’s phone either, so you gave up on calling him all together.

‘Who else would be free right now?’ You wondered. After a minute of thinking, you checked the time. Your adorable boyfriend would be out of volleyball practice right about now. “Couldn’t hurt to ask.”

You pressed the button. He picked up after the first ring.

“Hey (s/o)!” He sounded cheerful. Practice must have been good that day.

“Hey, Tobio. Sorry to bug you, but are you done with practice?”

“Yeah, I just left the school. Why?”

“So, funny story…”

You explained what had happened to him, short and sweet. You reached down to touch your ankle, but pulled your hand away when it stung. “Yeah, ow.”

He was silent for a second, before he spoke. “I’ll be there soon.” And then he hung up.

What does that mean? How soon is soon? Was he going to take the bus? All pointless questions to have, because even if you called again he probably wouldn’t pick up. He tended to lazer-focus on one thing, especially when it came to you. And you knew this well.

You tried to quell the pain in your ankle, to no avail. All you could do was scroll through social media and try to ignore it. You trusted Tobio would come, you weren’t worried.

You also weren’t worried about your injury much. There was no way you could have broken anything, and the competition was a ways away. You’d have time to recover, and plenty to practice afterwards. Besides, now you had time to study. Yay.

Around twenty minutes later, the doors to the rink slammed open violently. One girl under-rotated a jump in her surprise. You almost dropped your phone.

In the doorway, panting slightly, was your boyfriend. He scanned the benches along the sides of the rink until he spotted you. He hurried over to you.

His coach followed him in. “Jeez, Kageyama. Calm down, you’re disrupting their practice.” He said, which Kageyama ignored.

“(s/o)! Are you okay?” He asked, picking up your bag. He offered you his hand, which you took. “I’m better now that I can get home. How was practice, Tobio?”

“I’ll tell you later. Here, put your arm around my shoulder.” He said, shifting you to lean against him. He assisted you in hobbling to the door, where his coach still stood.

“Hi coach Ukai, nice to see you again.” You smiled at him, as he walked beside you out of the rink. “Hi (s/o), nice to see you too. Would be nicer if you weren’t banged up. What’d you do to it anyways?”

“I twisted it going into a sharp turn. I’ve never heard of anyone doing that before, which is embarrassing but also impressive.”

“You impressed yourself?”

“Yeah, a little.”

Ukai grinned. You weren’t one of his pupils, so you didn’t see him often, but he enjoyed talking to you when you were around. “Well, I’m driving you home, so you’ll have to give me directions.”

“And I’m staying with you until your parents get home.” Kageyama announced, looking over at you. You blinked once, before grinning. “Aww! You’re gonna take care of me? Tobio, how sweet!” His face flushed red. ‘He might explode.’ You thought. “Yeah.” Was all he could seem to say. ‘Is that cute? Is it weird? Do boyfriends usually do stuff like this or is this abnormal?’ he wondered. You could almost see the little gerbil in his head running double time on it’s wheel.

When you got to the coach’s little yellow car, Kageyama helped you into the back seat, before climbing in beside you.

The car ride was as uneventful as anything. You told him where to turn right and where to turn left, and he listened. You held Kageyama’s hand the whole way, your interlocked hands resting on the seat between you. Whenever you adjusted your grip slightly, he would tense, just a little. He was so cute.

When you got to your house, Kageyama helped you to your door. Ukai got out and leaned against the side of the car, making sure you both made it inside safely. Before you went in, you both bowed and thanked him. “No problem, kids. Don’t stay up too late. We still have morning practice tomorrow, Kageyama.”

“Right.” He said, with a small nod, before helping you inside.

The door closed behind you, you both stopped in the doorway to take your shoes off. As you did, you heard the coach’s car start and drive off. Kageyama all but carried you to the couch, before immediately leaving to go grab an ice pack and some painkillers.

You took the pills without complaining. Kageyama sat down on the couch by you, pulling your legs into his lap. He paused in between movements, to make sure you were still comfortable. He held the ice to your ankle, wrapped in a cloth. The ice felt so stupid good that you sighed at the contact.

“Sorry, did that hurt?”

“Quite the opposite.” You grinned. You were glad he was there for you. It meant a lot.

You reached over your head to grab the remote, before giving it to him. “Here, put something on. Whatever you want.”

The rest of the evening was quiet, aside from whispered jokes, and soft giggles. Eventually, you fell into a dreamless sleep. Dealing with the pain and walking as much as you did had exhausted you. Kageyama glanced over at you, almost wanting to get up and plant a kiss on your cheek. But he still had your ankle in his lap, and didn’t want to move it.

When your parents came home, they would find you both asleep on the couch, looking quite comfortable. They probably wouldn’t wake you, figuring you both need the rest.

[ttooccaa]

Seeing the Ups and Downs

I just wrote a Soulmate AU bartuardo fic! I hope somebody likes it.

It’s under the cut. Here’s the Ao3 link as well.

Summary: Almost everybody gets a tattoo (or tattoos in some cases; also known as soulmarks), either when they are born or when their soulmate’s born, that represent their soulmate(s), the tattoo is just an outline, until the soulmate is met, afterwards it fills itself with colour.

That’s great and all, but Ed has never had one and just as he’s accepted that he’s probably never going to get one, it happens, problem is it’s 14 years too late, he’s been kidnapped by aliens, so he’s still unconscious and has no idea he even got one. On the upside, he might die long before he has to meet them and deal with everything so that’s… just peachy.

Santa Fe

December 14, 22:45 GMT-3

Ed had just officially ran away from home, it was surprisingly easy, he just had to wait for his abuelo to fall asleep in front of the TV, Ed had gotten really good at sneaking out, practice made perfect as the people say.

He had ran away before, but it was never serious and the police always found him anyways, but this time was different, it felt different. Honestly, he still didn’t know if it was real or not, as of right now he had one goal, get to America (and his father?) without being caught by the police.

Well, first stop, the bus station.

As he was walking through the dark streets, barely lit by the street lights, he once again thought how lucky he was not to have a soulmate. He had just recently convinced himself it was  something good, before he was sad, sure that he simply didn’t deserve one, that he was not worth it, but after seeing how restricting it was to have one, Ed started thanking his lucky star he was born without a tattoo. He was free to do whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted without caring if somebody might or might not be upset. It was also lonely, but recently he has really been trying to see the bright side of things.

Downside: I will probably be alone and lonely my whole life.

Upside: I am free.

Porto Velho

January 21, 20:16 GMT- 4

Ed was quietly sitting on the ground in an old, decrepit building, surrounded by other runaways and homeless people. He was eating a very stale and disgusting sandwich from a local gas station, while listening to other people talk or at least trying to, Portuguese was definitely not his forte, good thing their group was a mixed one and most everybody either knew spanish or english.

The person next to him moved and a guy took his place. “Hey!”

“What’s up, Lucas?” He greeted, mouth full with bread.

Lucas was one of the few people Ed had met while in this city, Lucas was older, twenty something, really skinny and tall, dirty blonde hair and a lot of small and medium sized scars all over his body, a few on his face. He was a nice enough guy, but really sad, he tried to hide it, but he couldn’t, Ed had seen him go into his depressive state once and it was more than enough. From what he heard it happened often.

They stayed in silence, until Lucas broke it “Have you met your soulmate, Edu?”

The Argentinian swallowed the last of the sandwich and answered “Don’t have one.”

Lucas nodded his head “So you’re one of those people.” He smiled gently, his gaze far away.

“What about you?”

“Oh, yeah.” His smile grew and his eyes started to glisten.

The silence stretched for a bit, until Lucas continued “She was perfect, god, I would’ve done anything for her, I did do everything I could and more for her. She was beautiful and smart and absolutely perfect.” He was still smiling, though tears were forming in his eyes.

Ed has started to feel uncomfortable, but his curiosity got the better of him “What happened? If… ugh… you know, you want to tell me…” He was blushing a bit.

Lucas nodded his head “Don’t worry, it’s not like it’s a secret. She left me.”

“Oh, I’m sorry for your loss.”

“Hahha, not like that! I meant, she just left me, for another, said I wasn’t good enough for her and she was right, you know, I really wasn’t, still am not, now more so than ever.” Tears were slowly rolling down his cheeks, he looked like he was no longer in the room mentally. He probably wasn’t, relieving the good ol’ times he had with his soulmate. Lucas spoke up once again “Only reason, I’m still here, I hope she will take me in one day.”

Ed was shocked, he had heard of soulmates leaving before, but he mostly thought that they stayed together, no matter what. He had always thought that your soulmate was your perfect person, the one always here for you, the only one you can truly trust with everything, turns out he was wrong… very wrong.

Downside: I’m still going to be alone and lonely my whole life.

Upside: I will never have an abusive psycho for a soulmate.

Mitú

February 10, 23:01 GMT-5

The Argentinian had just arrived in the city, thanks to a bit of hitchhiking and a lot of walking, being on the run was exhausting and miserable…

He walked through the streets, the only thing he wanted was to find a somewhat safe spot and just crash over there and fall asleep. It’s not like he was afraid of somebody stealing his things, he didn’t have anything valuable left. Also no money, but right now that really wasn’t current Ed’s problem.

Just as he was considering passing out on a street corner and hoping for the best, he saw it, a bench! But not just any bench one in a secluded but still pretty lit part of the park in front of him. Ed gathered whatever strength he had left and walked to it. He took a blanket out of his backpack and laid down on the bench, his skateboard against his back and the backpack a pillow. He quickly felt sleep overtake him.

It felt barely like minutes had passed, but suddenly he was being woken up by a hand over his mouth and strong arms wrapping around him, he barely had time to register what was happening to him, yet alone panic as he lost consciousness once again.

Downside: I got kidnapped.

Upside: I (most likely) will not live long enough to be alone and lonely my whole life.

Taos

April 1, 18:15 MDT

Now Ed felt like even more of a freak, not only was he one of the few thousand people without a soulmate, but he also had weird, superpowers thanks to a gene inside his body… because aliens. He didn’t think his life could get any worse, at times like these he almost regretted running away from home.

Ed did, in a way, reach his goal - he was in America and with his father. He had forgotten just what a hoot his dad was, but Senior quickly reminded him by throwing his only son inside STAR labs like a lab rat.

He was walking towards one of the changing rooms at STAR labs, it wasn’t enough that aliens had experimented on him and the other abductees, apparently his dad also wanted to take a stab at it

Ed rounded a corner and opened the door of what he hoped was a changing room, he also hoped he would be alone, but no such luck was found. He opened the door, while Virgil was mid tacking his pants off.

Ed quickly started to close the door “Sorry, dude, I’ll leave you be.”

Virgil quickly recovered “Nah, it’s cool.”

The Argentinian went inside and opened one of the lockers, all of them contained the same white jumpsuits.

He took his vest off, then his scarf and finally his T-shirt. He started unzipping the jumpsuit.

“Damn, dude, cool soulmark.” Virgil whistled.

Ed looked at him like he was seeing him for the first time “What…?”

The other teen rubbed the back of his neck, suddenly uncomfortable “Well, ugh, you know, the thing on your back, unless it’s just a tattoo, than cool tattoo, but aren’t we a bit young for tattoos, I-I mean you do you… hahha.” Virgil was bright red and rambling.

“Calm down. Look, I don’t know if this some kind of American humour I don’t understand, but I don’t have a soulmate and therefore a soulmark. Whatever you’re talking about was probably a parting gift by the Reach.” Ed was trying to reason, feeling a little nervous, like he had ever since he’d been freed from the Justice League and been able to form more coherent thoughts than ‘Everything hurts.’

He tried to deny to himself over and over again the weird itch he’d been having on his back, hasn’t even looked at it, scared at what might be or might not be there.

Virgil looked thoughtful for a second “I’m not an expert, but it sure looks like a soulmark to me. Wait, I’ll take a picture, so you can see it.” He took his phone out and snapped a picture, before even Ed realised what was happening.

The phone was suddenly in front of his face and there it was right in the middle of his shoulder blades… a round clock? He took the phone from Virgil and zoomed in on it. It was a clock alright, but missing both of his handles, in the middle of it was a big lightning bolt, almost like the one the Flash had on his costume. He started at it for several minutes straight, then even tried to twist his head around to see it.

Ed threw the phone back at Virgil, who caught it while panicking a bit and dashed to one of the bathroom mirrors. Ed turned around and then twisted his neck uncomfortably and there it was - a clock…

Virgil approached him once again “Hey, man, you feeling good?”

Ed blinked rapidly, overcome with emotion, it was neither a happy or a sad one, tears were forming in the corners of his eyes “I-I… I didn’t think I had one, I don’t how to feel, I don’t even know what’s going on anymore.”

He had started to breath rapidly “First I lived months on the streets, absolutely miserable, then I w-was kidnapped and experimented on by Aliens! Then I got superpowers, and now I have a soulmate tattoo.” Everything was becoming blurry, he didn’t even know what he was saying anymore.

Virgil rushed in and helped him sit on the cool ground, he helped him with his breathing and Ed slowly started to calm down.

“Feeling better?”

“Yeah, yeah… thank you.”

Virgil slowly reach out and hugged Ed, the later hugged him back and buried his face in the place between his neck and his shoulder.

Downside(s): I’ll probably never meet him(?), while I’m trapped in START labs and also WHAT KIND OF AN AGE DIFFERENCE IS 14 YEARS?!

Upside: I’m not alone.

The Warworld

May 30, post-03:36 UTC

‘Why did we have to listen to Virgil and come back to save the superheroes or whatever they called themselves?’ Ed thought for the what felt like the hundredth time, while teleporting behind a couple of Reach soldiers and taking them down.

Asami signalled to him in which direction to go ‘Finally, we’re getting out of here.’ He teleported next to her and they took off.

That’s when he saw him or at least felt him run past him, Ed suddenly felt this pressure on his back, his skin felt thigh and sensitive. He was so confused, but decided to chalk it up to the adrenaline from the battle and think about it later.

When the door burst open and Ed saw Nightwing, Miss Martian and a sphere he couldn’t be happier.

Everybody quickly got onto the ship.

Ed couldn’t help but steal a couple glances at this Impulse character, he hadn’t met him, but that’s what the others were calling him. He didn’t know why he was so nervous around the guy, he felt dizzy and like he might throw up. His stomach was in knots, he wanted to talk to him, but something was stopping him.

He sweared he felt Impulse’s eyes on him.

After Nightwing’s dismissal of Arsenal, they were just about ready to leave, but Ed wasn’t so sure, he wanted to leave, but he also wanted to stay, not because of Nightwing and his offer of joining some Justice League for kids thing, but because of the speedster, he felt this pull towards him. But still, he walked through the portal created by the Fatherbox in tow with his friends and Arsenal.

Before that he stole one last glance at the speedster and saw that his eyes were also trained on him.

Downside: My back really itches.

Upside(?): Is it possible for soulmate tattoos to appear late without a reason?

Taos

July 5, 09:37 MDT

Ed was currently once again at Star Labs, this time luckily not as an experiment. After what happened those few months all he wanted to do was lay down somewhere and sleep for as long as humanly (meta-humanly?) possible. But that wasn’t an option, at least not now. He was helping his father move some stuff around and get settled into STAR labs, after it was rebuild.

In the end he had decided to stay with his dad, maybe they will grow closer, maybe they won’t, no matter what happens, he was just happy that everything was over and that getting a citizenship was easier than ever, thanks to being kidnapped by the same aliens the American government trusted before their attack. It was a sort of “Sorry the Reach experimented on, want to not sue us, but instead live here, you illegal immigrant?”

The teen’s mind quickly drifted away and he started focusing on more interesting thoughts, such as the speedster. He still couldn’t explain why the guy wouldn’t get out of his head, he had a speculation, but that was impossible, right?

Just as Ed thought that, a strong gust of wind hit him from behind and Kid Flash was standing right in front of him, though it didn’t quite look like him.

Ed blinked a couple of times “Ugh, hi?”

Kid Flash smiled, a bit awkward “I just wanted to… thank you! You know for freeing us and helping out after.” He rubbed the back of his head.

“Yeah, yeah I mean, I guess you should be thanking Virgil for the rescue, he insisted.” He cringed at himself ‘Wow, Ed, real smooth.’

Impulse blinked, awkwardness settling between them “Anyways… I’m Impulse! Well Kid Flash now, rebranding.” He said proudly, but full of sadness, while extending his hand towards Ed.

Ed looked at it for a second than took it in his own “I’m Eduardo or just Ed for short.”

The moment he said that and their hands touched Ed felt a burning, yet calming sensation on his back. He flinched and so did the speedster.

Without thinking the Argentinian teleported to the bathroom/locker room close by. He poked his head out of it and signalled for the new Kid Flash to follow him inside.

The brown haired speedster was currently looking at the inside of his left arm, but quickly followed Ed inside.

The stared at each other, neither saying anything.

The Argentinian swallowed and shook his head ‘Dios mío, this is so awkward.’ “So, ugh, there’s no other way to say it, but I’m going to take my shirt of to check something, yeah?” He felt like he might die of pure embarrassment alone, he was bright red and fidgeting awkwardly.

Kid Flash also grew increasingly red with each second “Yeah, of-of course, I’m gonna see something for myself as well.” He nodded once and reached for his left glove.

Ed quickly took his arms out of the T-shirt and left it hanging around his neck. He looked in the large mirror, twisting his neck uncomfortably and that’s when he saw it from the corner of his eye – his soulmark completely filled in. The clock was simply black and white, but the lightning bolt was like a real one, full of oranges and yellows with little sparks flying all around the clock.

His emotions were so mixed up, he was happy, ecstatic even, but also nervous and definitely scared… very sacred.

He put his shirt down and turned towards the superhero, who had taken his glove off and pushed the sleeve of the yellow costume up, exposing his inner arm. There right above the inside of his elbow was a stylised sun – a golden sun, simple, yet very beautiful.

Kid Flash slowly ran his fingers over the tattoo “Wow, I mean - I just –“ tears were gathering in his eyes.

Panic overtook Ed “Hey! Is that from happiness, is something wrong? Are you unhappy? You know I’m also very emotional right now.” He was rambling.

The hero sucked in a big breath, clenched his eyes shut, then exhaled, opened his eyes and looked straight at Ed. He smiled slightly “Yeah, I’m fine.”

Ed also returned the smile, his cheeks growing hotter “So, we good?”

Kid Flash grinned “We good, well I think proper introductions are in order!” He reached for the cowl.

The Argentinian was definitely a bit surprised, he wanted to know his… soulmate’s identity, but he also didn’t want the other teen to be uncomfortable or feel like he was forced to reveal it.

“It’s fine, if you don’t wanna, I mean I’d like to… but you know, if you don’t want to, that’s cool too.” He tried to sound nonchalant, he wasn’t sure he succeeded.

Kid Flash shook his head “If not now, then when?”

He took the cowl off “Name’s Bart Allen!”

Ed studied his face for a bit, he was quite simply, pretty damn attractive, not that it mattered, but it was still a nice touch. He smiled brightly and shook his hand once again “Pleasure to meet you.”

Bart winked “Believe me, the pleasure is all mine.”

Ed raised one of his eyebrows, still smiling, his cheeks had a light dusting of pink. Then it hit him, after all of the emotions of meeting his soulmate and confirming it was him, logic had started kicking in once again.

He let go of Bart’s hand “Sorry, I have to ruin the moment, but why did my tattoo appear just a couple months ago? No offence? But you don’t look like a one year old.”

The speedster rubbed the back of his head “Well, if it makes you feel better I was also quite shocked when I came here from the future and suddenly had a soulmark.” He was smiling brightly.

“Wait! The future?”

“Hah, let’s say we have a lot to talk about.”

Ed didn’t mind that at all “How about we have that conversation some place other than the bathroom?”

Downside: I don’t know anything about my soulmate (from the future?) and neither does he about me.

Upside: I am more than happy, that we can do that together.

[anotherkpopvictim]

Seven Is Our Lucky Number - OT7 Story Chapter 3

(Gif Source - my gif)

Chapter 3: When Hoseok met Seokjin

A/N: So hear me out...this is different than the 2Seok/JinHope drabble I did a few months ago because they’re playing with a cat instead of a dog, okay. It’s different, I swear it is...

Truthfully, I just have a thing for these two with animals so I’m sorry.

I wrote the first part on a rainy day while I listened to RM’s Mono album.

Also, I decided that I wanted to add dates for the flashbacks so I went back to the previous chapters and added them. You don’t really need to pay attention to them, but the way I’m writing the flashbacks in the upcoming chapters might be a bit confusing, so I wanted to make the timeline a bit more clear. Italics indicate a flashback and anything not in italics takes place present-day (spring-summer 2020).

Anyways, enjoy I guess?

Relationship: BTS X BTS (Hoseok X Seokjin focused)

Rating: G

Words: 2789

Fluff

Italics = flashback

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>

May 2, 2011

Hoseok and Seokjin’s first meeting was completely different from the others in that they didn’t know that they would be working together for a long time in the future when it happened.

Whenever Hoseok got super stressed out, too stuck in his own head, he would take a few buses across the busy city of Seoul and go to his favorite cat cafe. He would order a hot chocolate and a slice of lemon cake and spend time with the cats for hours, petting and scratching them to his heart’s content.

He especially liked this one cat cafe because it was a home for stray cats who were extremely friendly. The best part about going there was seeing another customer fall in love with one of the cats and come back to adopt it. The people always looked so happy, and these cats who hadn’t had such a good start to life were getting a second chance.

So maybe that’s why Hoseok liked it at the cat cafe so much, maybe seeing the happiness and joy in others’ expressions made him happy too.

He seemed to crave that escape more often lately.

While Namjoon and Yoongi had been working with some producers at the company in preparation for their group, Hoseok was working with some choreographers.

Now, Hoseok was confident in his ability to dance. He knew that he was talented, he knew that he had the passion, but that didn’t mean that seeing these even more talented dancers didn’t make him feel a little pathetic.

The choreographers were all nice and really helped him further himself as a dancer, but it didn’t stop the thoughts running through his brain that were telling him he wasn’t good enough. That he wasn’t good enough to make a career out of it.

So, the dancer found himself sitting on a crowded bus, earbuds in as he watched the city pass by outside the window. Once he got off at his stop, Hoseok pulled his hood over his head to block the drizzling rain. He wasn’t so much worried about his hair as he was his headphones, which were well used and nearly falling apart and probably wouldn’t take too well to water.

He enjoyed the fresh scent of the rain as he walked down the sidewalks, passing by hundreds of people who didn’t spare him a second glance. It didn’t take him long to get where he was going, as his self-deprecating thoughts flooded his mind.

He quickly found himself at a booth in his favorite cat cafe, hot chocolate, and lemon cake on the table in front of him, along with a friendly tabby cat who hadn’t left Hoseok’s side since he walked through the door. He liked to think that the animal could sense how down he was feeling that day and wanted to give him some company to help him feel better.

He smiled tiredly at the cat and scratched its head softly. The animal let out a content purr and pushed its face up into Hoseok’s hand.

A large crowd of students - high school age it seemed like - came through the doors of the cafe, immediately disrupting the previous calm atmosphere provided by the few patrons.

Hoseok tried to focus on the cat and the comfort it was bringing him, and he was thankful when the students quieted down a bit a few minutes later.

He wasn’t sure how long he’d been lost in the cute cat before he looked up again to take a glance around the cafe. It was an unintentional habit of his, people watching. Especially here at the cafe.

He wasn’t expecting to catch sight of the best-looking young man he’d ever seen in his life. He was probably twenty or twenty-one and had dark eyebrows and plump lips that Hoseok startlingly thought about wanting to kiss for a moment. He was tall and handsome and although Hoseok usually found that those two words went along with egotistical and rude, this man’s demeanor was nonchalant if not a bit subdued - the complete opposite of the stuck up personalities he’d seen all too many times before.

The young man looked a little lost as he picked up his drink from the counter and turned around to find a seat. Unfortunately, every single seat, even the worst ones, were taken.

Hoseok locked eyes with the man and was speaking up before he could stop himself. “You can sit with me if you’d like,” he invited, grimacing internally immediately afterward. He hoped he didn’t sound too weird.

The man appeared surprised but nodded, giving him a gentle smile as he took a seat across from him in the booth. “Ah, thank you,” he said.

“No problem, I feel bad taking up such a big booth on my own now that it’s so busy,” Hoseok replied. “I’m Hoseok.”

“Seokjin,” the man - Seokjin - said. His dark brown eyes strayed to the cat perched on the table.

The cat happily accepted the pets from Seokjin when he reached over the table to run his hands through the orange fur on its back. Seokjin smiled and cooed, “You’re a cutie, aren’t you?”

Hoseok couldn’t help the grin the spread across his lips as he watched the two of them interact. With Seokjin’s entrance into his day, his insecurities were pushed to the far back of his mind. Seokjin’s kindness and ensnaring aura about him demanded Hoseok’s attention.

“So, Hoseok-ssi,” Seokjin began casually, glancing up from scratching the tabby cat’s head. “I couldn’t help but notice you looked a little down earlier.”

Hoseok’s eyes widened, “Oh, uh, you saw that?”

“Yeah,” Seokjin cheeks tinged pink, “That probably sounded strange but I saw you earlier while I was waiting in line. Did you come here to get some love from the cats?”

“Yep, I usually come here after a bad day.”

Seokjin hummed curiously, “Me too. Sometimes university gets to be too much.”

“Well, I’m just a dancer.” Hoseok replied, “A hard day for me is probably nothing compared to what you deal with.”

The other man immediately shook his head, “Don’t say that. Dancing is difficult. I certainly need some help in that area.”

Hoseok huffed out a chuckle before he fell somber once more. “Sometimes I don’t think I’m good enough,” he admitted. It felt good to say it out loud to someone else, even if that someone else was a total stranger.

Seokjin nodded understandingly, “And do you think that because other people have told you or because you’re telling yourself?”

Hoseok paused, digesting the other’s words. No one had ever told him he wasn’t a good dancer - in fact, he was often told the exact opposite. He’d won competitions before and had quite a few trophies back at his parents’ house to show for his efforts. His close friends and family constantly told him how he was given a special gift to be able to dance the way he does.

“I’m only telling myself,” he murmured under his breath in realization. Acceptance.

“Not that I think others should be the judge of your talent,” Seokjin continued, “But I think that we’re too often our own worst critics.”

“You’re right,” Hoseok replied, feeling like a weight was lifted off of his chest. “I’ve worked hard at dancing for five years now. I shouldn’t doubt myself so much.”

“Five years?” Seokjin whistled, impressed. “You’d definitely destroy me in a dance contest then. My best move is The Sprinkler.”

Hoseok burst out laughing, a loud noise that garnered the attention of quite a few booths around them. The dancer slapped his hand over his mouth and ducked his head shyly.

“Don’t do that,” Seokjin said, giving him a gentle kick to the leg. “You have an adorable laugh.”

Hoseok was blushing bright red now.

Thankfully, he was saved from having to respond by the tabby cat standing up on the table and moving towards Seokjin, accidentally knocking over his paper cup with its foot. Coffee spilled all over Seokjin’s shirt and pants, fortunately not hot enough to burn him.

Seokjin let out a little yelp of surprise before snickering, amused.

An employee who saw the incident hurried over from behind the counter with a towel and apologizes on her lips. “Aye, you clumsy cat! I’m so sorry, sir.”

Seokjin gave her a reassuring smile and waved his hand as he took the towel from her and started gently patting at his drenched clothing. “No worries. I’ve heard coffee is great for the skin!”

The girl sighed in relief and let out a little giggle. Then she poked the cat’s nose fondly, “Well, Qi, you’d better learn from this mistake or you won’t be allowed out here again.”

“Qi?” Hoseok inquired.

The girl nodded. “His name. He’s from a litter of eight stray kittens. They were simply given Mandarin numbers as names by the good citizen who found them and we thought it was cute so we kept the names.”

Hoseok wasn’t brushed up on his Mandarin, but he was pretty sure ‘Qi’ was either the number six or seven.

Qi meowed and swished his tail back and forth in the air. The animal looked quite satisfied with himself and Hoseok wondered if maybe he’d knocked over the cup on purpose.

After a few more minutes of conversing with the waitress - Hyojin, she told them - she excused herself to get back to work with a final apology for the mess to Seokjin.

Hoseok took a look at his phone and sighed resignedly at the time. “I should probably get going before it gets dark.” He looked up at the other. Hoseok really didn’t want to leave - he was enjoying his time with Seokjin and Qi. “It was nice to meet you, Seokjin-ssi. And, uh, thank you, for putting things into perspective for me.”

Seokjin smiled. “No worries. It was nice to meet you, too, Hoseok-ssi.”

Hoseok, a total and complete idiot, forgot to ask for Seokjin’s number. When he realized this, he was bummed as he liked the young man. With no way to contact him, he could only hope that they would meet again somehow.

--------------------------------------------------

“No way!”

“Jimin-”

“No!” Jimin shouted, an angry (cute) pout on his face. “How did we not know the first real time you guys met?”

“Yeah!” Taehyung whined, “That’s so sweet! How could you keep that from us!”

“It just never came up,” Hoseok replied sheepishly.

Jungkook patted both Jimin and Taehyung’s shoulders soothingly until they sat back down on the sofa.

All seven of them were gathered around their living room for a group meeting called by Hoseok. After looking back at his own first meetings with the members, he realized that there was another seven in their lives.

Now, Hoseok really didn’t believe in this whole thing the first time Namjoon mentioned it. But after speaking with Yoongi and having his own revelation that ‘Qi’ was indeed the number seven in Mandarin, he was starting to question it. Was it possible at all to have a lucky number? It seemed so silly, so childish to think so, and yet...it was slowly progressing beyond more than just a coincidence.

That was exactly why he called the meeting with all six of his boyfriends.

“It was a couple of months after that we met at the dorms for the first time, and neither of us were super close to you guys then so there wasn’t really a reason to say it,” Seokjin explained in an attempt to placate his (cutely) angry boyfriends. “I haven’t even thought about that day for years. I didn’t remember that the cat’s name was Qi.”

“This is starting to get really weird,” Jungkook remarked. Jimin was sitting in his lap now, and the maknae had his hands running through Jimin’s dark locks.

“It is,” Namjoon agreed, “It’s probably nothing, though...right? Maybe this whole quarantine thing is just driving us crazy.”

Yoongi snorted, “We’ve always been crazy.”

Namjoon rolled his eyes and cuddled further into Hoseok’s side, “Fine, maybe it’s driving us crazier than we normally are.”

Seokjin and Yoongi hummed in agreement from their spot on the love seat. With Jimin and Jungkook stuck together on the other couch, it left Taehyung on his own.

The second youngest was on the other end of the couch from Jimin and Jungkook, and he was clutching a blanket closely to him as he stared off into space.

Jimin frowned and nudged him when he noticed this. “Hey, are you alright, Tae?”

All eyes were on Taehyung as he blinked and took in the situation. “Oh, yeah, I’m fine,” he replied quickly. He smiled tiredly, “Just didn’t sleep well last night.”

None of them bought his excuse but they let it go anyway. They knew better than to pressure Taehyung into talking about what was going on in his head. They just had to wait until Taehyung was ready to tell them.

“I wonder where Qi is now?” Hoseok wondered out loud, a smooth transition to a different subject. “I liked him.”

Seokjin hummed in agreement. “Me too. Except, he interrupted my attempts at flirting with you.”

Hoseok looked at him with wide eyes, “Wait, you were flirting with me?”

“Of course,” the eldest replied smugly, “How could I not when you’re such a cutie and sweet enough to offer me a seat.”

Hoseok was blushing as red as a tomato. He felt just like he did that day he first met the older man. He leaned over and smacked Seokjin’s arm lightly with a pout, “Don’t tease me!”

“But you’re so easy to tease!”

Seokjin and Hoseok ended up in some kind of hand slapping fight while the others watched on in amusement. Just another typical day in the Bangtan household.

--------------------------------------------------------

July 21, 2011

“Two new members?” Yoongi inquired.

Namjoon nodded, “PD-nim didn’t tell me much but one of them is moving into the dorms today. The other will be here next week.”

While Yoongi and Namjoon begrudgingly went about making the dorm presentable for their new housemate, Hoseok was much more enthusiastic about it. He’d always been a fairly neat person and got a feeling of pride and calm when things were orderly.

So, Hoseok unsurprisingly went the extra mile. Namjoon and Yoongi were all but passed out on the couch and groaning like children after tidying while Hoseok went through the small dorm three times over, each time finding something out of place that he could fix.

Just as he was fluffing up the pillows on the beat-up couch, there was a knock at the door, immediately gathering the attention of the three boys.

“That must be him,” Namjoon commented, rising from the sofa to answer the door.

“At least he knocked first,” Yoongi mumbled, “Unlike some people.” He looked pointedly at Hoseok. Obviously, he was referring to the fact that the first time they met, Hoseok had kind of just barged into the dorm.

The dancer pouted and put his hands on his hips, “Hey! They gave me keys because they weren’t sure if you were going to be there! That’s not my fault!”

Yoongi chuckled fondly and ruffled Hoseok’s hair. “I know.”

Namjoon returned to the living room with someone following him.

It took a moment for Hoseok to recognize the young man. He locked eyes with the newest edition and both their eyes widened a little bit.

“Guys, this is Kim Seokjin-ssi.” Namjoon announced, “He’s the oldest of us, so show some respect please.”

Kim Seokjin. Seokjin, the young man Hoseok had talked with at the cafe what felt like so long ago. He really never thought he’d ever see him again and now here he was, in front of him once more. What were the chances?

Hoseok moved closer and gave a quick bow in greeting. He wasn’t sure how he should act around the other in this situation, so he kind of just went with the flow. “Uh, hello, I’m Hoseok?” It came out like a question.

Seokjin gave him a secretive little smile. “Nice to meet you, Hoseok-ah.”

Yoongi sat up on the couch and gave Seokjin a head nod, “Nice to meet you, Seokjin-ssi. I hope we can work well together.”

Seokjin smiled, the expression filled with a natural tenderness. It was the same tenderness Hoseok had witnessed on the young man at the cafe with Qi. “Call me hyung. I have a feeling we’re going to be together for a long time.”

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>

A/N: So I hope that all the flashbacks aren’t making things too confusing. Let me know if it is, please.

Otherwise, I always appreciate likes and comments as they keep me motivated. I’m open to any constructive criticism as well.

I hope you guys are staying safe and healthy <3

[xxfanfiction-emo-trinityxx]

Mutual - Ryan Seaman x Reader

Request: Ryan Seaman x reader where reader is in a band that Ryan really likes and one day they meet and romance ensues?? 💕 Word count: 1 890

Nervously Ryan took a look at his mobile. It was almost 9pm, the opening band had left the stage almost twenty minutes ago, and everything was set for the main band, the Midnight Demons, which he had come to see. Being a musician himself, he knew how much time was needed to get everything ready between bands, but now it had to be only a matter of minutes until the lights would dim, and the main band would enter the stage.

It did not matter how often he had seen that band play already, or that he was often performing on stages just like this one himself, he was excited and nervous, and when finally the lights turned off, and the music that had been playing stopped, he couldn’t help but get on his tiptoes to see better.

The venue was not big, maybe three or four hundred people, and he was well in the first quarter, at the right side of the room, with a perfect view to where you, the guitarist and singer of the band, would be standing. Part of him felt silly, like one of the overexcited teenage girls he met at his own shows. He had never minded them, but the difference between them was that they were about half his age, and he had always felt like it was somehow socially more acceptable for girls to be huge fans of bands.

But that did not change the way he felt about the Midnight Demons.

As far as he knew, they were a few years younger than him, but had been around for ages already. Their music was a mixture of polemic criticism of society and politics, honest face-to-face with everyday problems, and the occasional love ballad. They had drawn him in from the first moment on. And now, years later, he still made sure to catch every concert every time they were close by. Sadly it had almost been year now since he had last seen them play, due to touring himself, but now, that the lights dimmed he could not find it in himself to care about the missed opportunities over the year.

The first one to enter the stage was the drummer. Ryan had always admired his style, it being so very different from his own. The rhythm guitarist and lead singer followed, a young woman with long hair pulled into a messy tail. And then there were you. Your guitar hung around your shoulders as if it was the most natural thing in the world. You strode over to your mic, giving a shy smile to the audience, and plugged your guitar in, before quickly checking all the pedals. How dare you to still smile so shyly while walking on stage after what, ten, fifteen years? Ryan barely noticed the bassist and pianist go on stage as well, because he was watching you.

When he had gotten first into the Midnight Demons, he had only listened to the music, and for a long while he had had no idea what any of you looked like. But he had always loved the harmonies the backing vocals created in mixture with the lead vocals, and he was most definitely in love with the difficult riffs and runs you were playing. Only when he had gone to the very first concert, he had realised that you were not only exceptionally talented, but also incredibly beautiful, and ever since it had been hard for him to focus on anything else as long as you were around.

Soon he got lost in the music, only sometimes stopping to admire your skill when you were playing one of the difficult solos. When the lead singer asked everyone to take out their phone torches for the next song, a love ballade from the new album, he took the chance, and filmed part of the performance at the same time, wanting to have a little piece of recorded memory from the show.

All too soon the concert was over, and only now he noticed how exhausted he was. The set had been long, almost two hours, and from the jumping around, and singing along he was sweaty and thirsty.

After grabbing a drink from the bar, he sat down close to the merch table, waiting for the crowd to disperse so he could grab a shirt and a copy of the new album. Then he would take the bus home, and hopefully not have a muscle ache from jumping around so much, tomorrow.

Once he had finished his drink, most of the people had already left, and only a few still hung around the merch table, so he took the opportunity, and took a look at the different shirt designs. Once he had decided on one, he stepped up the table, almost bumping into a person who had tried to slide past him in just that moment.

“Sorry, sorry,” he quickly apologized, and his heart almost stopped when he recognized the person to be you.

Your hair was wet, and you wore different clothes than on stage. That, plus the smell of shampoo made him assume you had taken a quick shower backstage, and then decided to come out here. As far as he knew you had never done that before, and the rest of the band was nowhere in sight either.

“No problem, nothing happened,” you smiled at him, giving him yet another almost-heart-attack.

Gracefully you slipped behind the merch table, and looked at him expectantly.

“Already decided on what you want?”

It took Ryan a moment to understand that you were asking which article from merch he wanted to get, and he quickly stuttered his answer.

You nodded and turned around to search through the shirts, before eventually pulling out one with the design he had decided on.

“You’re lucky,” you grinned, presenting the shirt to him, letting him check if the print was alright, “this is the last one in your size. We held it back just for you.”

Damn, was he really blushing as hard as it felt like he was? How old was he again? Thirteen?

“And, could I also maybe have a CD, please,” he asked, making you gasp in mock-shock.

“You don’t have the CD already,” you asked wide eyes, but with a grin on your face, “that’s a scandal.”

“Yeah, I’m late; I know,” he admitted, nervously fumbling for his wallet.

“Better late than never, right?”

“I guess so, I mean, I did listen to the music online,” he admitted, making shake your head with a smile.

“That’s cool, thanks,” you answered, “uhm, the shirt and the CD… that makes 35dollars.”

Ryan handed you two twenty dollar notes, and you gave him back five, which almost made his heart sink again, because this meant your conversation was as good as over until he remembered he could ask for a picture. Again he felt like one of the teenage girls who came up to him after his shows with iDKHOW, but he pushed the feeling aside.

“Hey, even if this might be a bit weird, but do you think we could take a picture together?”

You grinned and nodded happily at his question, so he quickly pulled out his mobile while you made your way back around the table next to him. When he had started the camera, you put your arm around his back as if it was the most natural thing in the world, making his heart skip a beat, before he placed his arm around you in return. You were shorter than him, so he angled the camera downwards a little, and when he saw you lean into him, he could not help the fond grin on his face as he quickly snapped a couple of pictures, hoping that at least one of them would turn out not completely blurred.

“Thank you so much, the show was amazing,” he mumbled, when he pulled away again, making you laugh quietly.

“Thank you, I’m glad you had a good time, Ryan.”

Surprised he turned to look at you.

“How do you know my name,” he asked confused, making you laugh again.

“I may or may not be totally in love with iDKHOW,” you confessed, and for a moment he was not sure if it wasn’t your turn to blush now.

“Really,” he asked surprised, finally feeling like he regained some of his confidence.

“Yeah, I was at a couple of shows, I really enjoyed it,” you explained, making him smile embarrassedly.

“Why didn’t you say anything, we could have met up afterwards,” he asked, suddenly feeling like maybe you knew him better than he had originally assumed.

“Because I didn’t know you knew the Midnight Demons,” you asked back, “it only would have been super awkward if you had had no idea who I am.”

Ryan laughed and nodded.

“Yeah, right, you couldn’t have known.”

For a moment you looked at each other hesitantly, before you spoke up again.

“Sooo, I’m thinking… I still have some work to do here, but maybe… I don’t know. This is a stupid idea, forget it” you looked away, and this time Ryan was sure you were blushing.

“No, what were you about to say,” he inquired curiously.

“If you like we could go out for a drink? The rest of the band is already on their way home, but I really feel like staying out a little longer, what do you think?”

Surprised Ryan looked at you. Had you really just asked him out for drinks?

“Uhm, sure, I don’t mind waiting,” he finally stuttered out, making you smile.

“Great, I’ll try to hurry.”

Luckily there were only a couple of fans left, and even though you took the liberty to have a chat with each one of them, you did not take very long, but long enough for Ryan to realise what exactly had happened. You had really asked him to come out for a couple of drinks! He was about to go to a bar, or restaurant, or club, or whatever, with you, one of the people whose skill and character he had admired for years from afar, not to mention that you even knew who he was.

After you had said good bye to the last people, and the guy who had helped sell the merch, you strode over to find Ryan leaning against a wall next to the exit. He had a black leather jacket pulled over his shoulder, and you were wrapped in your own jacket as well, protecting you against the cold outside.

“Shall we,” you asked, and watched as he pushed himself off the wall.

He grinned shyly, and knowing it was directed at you personally made you feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

“Of course,” he held the door open for you, and together you stepped outside into the night.

“I was thinking we could go to this small pub close by,” you suggested, “it’s kinda cosy, not too loud, and the people mind their own business.”

You pulled a beanie out of your jacket pocket and over your head, Ryan watching closely with, as he was very well aware, an idiotically happy grin on his face.

“Sounds great, lead the way,” he agreed, and side by side you walked down the street into the night.

Taglist (if you want to be added or taken off, please let me know):

General: @robinruns @justawriterinprogress @jayloverthe3rd @lookalivefrosty @butterfly-writes @angelevansfalls @rene-royale @500240​

[pigeontheoneandonly]

No One Is Ever Ready

A short story of Hannah Shepard’s thoughts shortly following her daughter’s death in 2183.

Hannah Shepard stepped out into the dark, into the primordial chill of Hellas Basin.  She closed her eyes against the night and inhaled deeply, tucking her wine glass to her chest, just standing in the cold silence and still air.  Letting the burden of playing hostess to mourners fall away.  The clocks had stopped for Martian midnight, the not-quite-real half hour between 2359 and the new day, an effort to keep pace with Earth and a time that felt as delusional as everything lately.  

Nathaly’s skycar sat in the driveway.  A cherry red 2160 Fire Starter.  She spent all of her navy enlistment bonus, and her first month’s salary, and an advance on her second month’s acquiring it, not one day after she finished boot camp.  Then called her father begging for grocery money a week after that, when she found out what navy food was like on the outer moons.

Paul had given it to her, of course.  He could never deny her anything.  He left that unpleasant task to her mother.

Hannah ran her palm over the canopy, and heard an echo of her daughter’s strangled outcry at leaving a handprint on the glass.  But the planitia dust carried by the last storm had covered the car in a fine rust coating, and all she managed was a smear of desiccated soil.  God, but she’d lectured her until her ears burned, when she bought the damn thing. Not that her shouting ever made any difference.  Nathaly was Nathaly.  The purpose of rules or prudence or even rational behavior simply eluded her.  

But it also gave her a certain exuberance. That same young woman who drove herself into debt had been a little girl who played in the rafters of a carrier hanger like they were monkey bars, swinging from beam to beam while Hannah stood below with her heart in her throat.  She’d yelled at her to come down, and she had, her face flushed with a smile lightyears wide.  To this day, Hannah didn’t know how Nathaly even got into the hanger.  

A brief burst of noise, murmurs of voices- their family and friends gathered inside the hab- and a block of light reflecting off the car.  Hannah turned.  Paul closed the hatch.  Rubbed his arms.  “Cold night.”

“It’s Mars,” she said.

He came up beside her.  Shivering now and then.  “She hated the cold.  Used to wait for the school bus bundled up in three sweatshirts, a hat and a jacket, in the dead of summer.”

She closed her eyes again.  Her voice a sigh, tired and ancient as the planitia surrounding them.  “I can’t.”

He touched her shoulder.  Tentative.  She’d been standoffish since she arrived, speaking little if at all, keeping busy preparing for the informal memorial tonight.  “Hannah—"

“I can’t,” she repeated, sharper than before. “If I have to spend one more second in that house, with those people, pouring over old pictures and telling stories—"

Paul put his arms around her, pulling her tight to his chest.  For several long moments, she let herself sink into him, face hidden in his shoulder, throat swelling shut, her eyes hot with tears.  She finally lost it on the shuttle from the Citadel, after the public funeral.  A private breakdown in the tiny bathroom, while some impatient frat boy still hungover from a party weekend pounded on the door and complained other people needed it.

Losing her composure never provided Hannah with any solace.  She preferred privacy, and decorum, and going about her life as usual until it was usual again.  But her daughter was dead, and that one clarion fact cut across all her effort to cope quietly.

She stood like a statue, feeling her husband’s arms warm where they touched her, the crystalline biting cold where they did not. Listening to their neighbors two doors down fumble up the walk after a night out, apologizing to the sitter for keeping her so late.  Rubbing the dust from Nathaly’s car slowly into her palm.  “Did we fail her?”

Paul stiffened.  Shifted slightly to look at her face.  “What are you talking about?”

“I spent half her life telling her no.”  She let out a helpless, baffled laugh.  “Even when she was born.  I had ten days left when my commander packed me onto a shuttle and sent me to Arcturus to start leave.  But we got through the relay and she started to come— I kept saying no, over and over, because it was all wrong and too soon and I couldn’t stop her, even then.”

“I remember,” he said, not without a wisp of humor, smoothing his hand across her cheek.  “You were incoherent on the comm afterwards.  I’ve never heard you so undone, before or since.”

Hannah let out a small chuckle, despite herself. Twenty-nine years later it had lost all its trauma.  Even on a night like this.  “That poor private on the shuttle with me.  I think I scarred her for life.”

Paul leaned in, resting his chin on her shoulder, his voice in her ear.  “Somewhere, her own parents are cursing you for the grandchildren they never had.”

She rested her head against his, fumbling at the wine glass, looking out into the night.  “And then there she was, our Nathaly.  All our things were on Earth.  I didn’t have a crib, I didn’t have a car seat, I didn’t have a diaper or stitch of clothing for her, but there she was, expecting me to figure it out.”

“But you did,” Paul said.  Trying to comfort her, though Hannah herself could not have told him how.  “When I got to Arcturus a week later, you’d slapped together a nursery that would put any expert to shame.  You can manage anything.  You’ll go on about how she was my daughter, but that part of Nathaly always belonged to you.”

“I just…” She swallowed, thickly.  Drew away and took a sip of the wine to clear her throat. Focused on the neighbors, who were now trying to convince the sitter to let them drive her home.  “Maybe if she’d had a mother who knew how to say yes, or at least yes-but, maybe she wouldn’t have run so far in the other direction.”

“No, no.”  He turned her around.   Eased his hand over her silver hair in a gentle, soothing motion.   “Hannah, no. Our Zey-Zey was always going to run the way the wind blew her.  It’s how she was made.”

They both froze up for a moment, as the neighbor’s air car trundled by, but they drove on oblivious to the gaping wound in Hannah’s front yard.  It was a relief and an offense to go unnoticed, this reminder that most of the world had gone on without them.

Paul frowned.  “Their stabilizer’s going.  I keep telling them to have it looked at— one day it’ll fail and someone’s going to get hurt.”

Hannah read his frustration for the projection it was, because they both understood their daughter, and it hurt too much to be angry with her, so they might as well rant about the neighbor’s car.  But just for a moment, she didn’t want to hide or pretend.  

She shook her head.  “You know, when I saw that boyfriend of hers on the Citadel, I told him I always expected this?  To bury her, I mean.”

“You can’t mean that,” he said, his face falling, back down into the grief she saw when he first met her at their door, yesterday evening.  The kind she couldn’t begin to heal, either.

“I did mean it.  You’d have to be a fool to believe her life wouldn’t kill her one day.”  Her voice so bitter it could pucker the air. But then she put her hand over her face, hiding her eyes, struggling with the words.  “But I didn’t want her to go, I never wanted— I never—”

Paul took the wineglass and did something with it, she couldn’t see what.  And then he held her again, rocking them both, his hand on her head and his cheek pressed into her ear.  “Shhh. Shhh.”

She couldn’t speak.  Instead, Hannah clung to him, bunching up his shirt in her hands, frustrated and ashamed and annoyed and angry, at this lapse of self-possession, at the family still inside her house, cluttering it up so she had to stand out here on the street, at her daughter for being the way she was and for failing Paul like this now, taking his comfort instead of giving it.  That was her job.  To be a pillar, hard and immoveable as stone, to hold her family up. Now she was only water.

But Paul had known her nearly forty years.  He knew very well these kinds of displays didn’t help her.  So after a fairly short while, he asked, “Did you like him?” She was startled out of her misery, just for a fraction of a second.  “Who?”

“The boyfriend,” he said.  She could feel him smiling, just a little, at the absurdity of the question.  The attempt to normalize something beyond all normality.

“You know, I did?”  And then she was laughing, a sad kind of laughter she couldn’t stop, burying her face in his shoulder and muffling her voice.  “I’ve never liked any of her partners so of course this is the one that got to me.”

“Now I wish I had gone to the Citadel with you,” he teased.  They said his medical problems prevented him from traveling.  Really, neither of them had wanted to go, but Hannah was able to do that one small thing for him.  It felt like trying to sop up a tsunami with a dishrag.  

After another minute, he nudged her.  “You can’t leave it at that.”

She scoffed.  “He…”

Then she sighed again, and gently detached herself. Found the wine on the roof of the car and took another sip, and ran her hand through her hair.  “You know they brought her to the medical deck aboard my ship.”

“The night after Saren attacked the Citadel? I remember.”

“She had a brain injury.  And my skipper didn’t see fit to inform me until nearly dawn.” She frowned, leaning against the vehicle.  Her C.O. needed his executive officer in the CIC, doing her job.  The battle’s aftermath left the fleet in crisis.  In his shoes, she’d have made the same call. But it didn’t do much to ease the sting. “I ran down to Deck 10.  I outran the nurse manning the door.”

Hannah could recall it so clearly.  Sixteen hours after the battle ended, the medical staff had finally finished the initial triage, the facility at complete capacity.  A kind of calm had descended over the deck.  It could never be silent, not with so many injured, but with the lights down and all but the worst cases asleep, quiet reigned— save for the staccato click of her shoes over the tile.

“I found her bed just as the nurse caught up to me.”  Her hand went to her mouth.  There was her daughter, her baby, surrounded by medical equipment with a halo monitor on her head.  “Alenko was asleep beside her.  There wasn’t even an arm’s length between beds, much less any room for a chair.  So he just climbed up next to her.”

She’d simply stared when she saw them.  The kind of stare that had the nurse stammering apologies.  “The staff said he refused to leave.”

Paul blinked.  “He stayed there all night?”

“He had a gash on his forehead.  The nurse said they had to replace the field bandage right there, because he wouldn’t let Nathaly out his sight.”  She could see him still, an exhausted slump with his arm curled around her daughter, protective even in sleep.  “And then she woke up.”

“She woke up?”  His brow furrowed.  “You told me she didn’t wake for two days—"

“Just a little.  She was confused.  Disoriented.”  Hannah took a breath, let it out slowly.  Because there was a part of her that wondered— would always wonder— whether that head injury was the reason they were here now, in mourning.  It made the memory that much scarier.  “She couldn’t remember where she was.  Alenko woke up as soon as she stirred.”

His head lifted off the pillow.  “Hey, it’s ok.  You’re in the hospital.”

She looked around, a bit frantic.  “Kaidan—"

“I’m right here.”  This said with a certain patience, as though he’d said it before.  Quelling her panic before it could bloom.  “The ship’s fine.  Liara’s fine.”

“Where am I?”

“You’re in the hospital,” he repeated.  Neither of them took any note of their audience.

Aloud, Hannah said, “The nurse told me she kept asking the same things, over and over.  That memory lapses were common with head trauma, and talking to her helped.  I’m her mother and I don’t think I could have endured more than an hour of that.”

Paul had gone pale.  “You never mentioned any of this.”

“She asked for ice cream,” Hannah said, her voice catching.  “Barely conscious and she was still begging for sugar.  That’s when I knew if she survived there wouldn’t be any permanent damage.”

He took a shaky breath.  Crossed his arms and looked away.  “I had to hide the hot chocolate when she was little.  She got up early when she was seven and made three gallons of it.”

“I remember.”  She found she couldn’t look at him anymore, either.  So instead she looked off down the street.  Watching the red blink of the highway marker, a few klicks away, the fading taillights of the car.  “And the time she was thirteen, and ruined the coffee maker in quarters on the Tai Shan, using soda instead of water.”

“You had to explain to the twenty other officers living in the family housing why they wouldn’t have morning coffee until you made port.”  He reached out and took her hand, startling her.  She looked into his face and saw him smiling.  Fond, and a little sad, but a smile all the same.  Gently, he asked, “And did Alenko get her the ice cream?”

“He said sure, he’d get her some from the mess. And then waited a few minutes for her to fall back asleep.”  Her face crumbled.  “I never got to tell her that stupid boy treated her better than anyone she’s ever chosen, and she should never let him go.”

And though she wouldn’t admit it, that was when Alenko won over Hannah Shepard.  He had to realize Nathaly would never remember this act of endurance and love, and he was doing it anyway.  Because she needed him right then, and he was there.

Paul’s fingers tightened on hers.  “I’m glad she had that.  At the end.  I’m glad he was there with her.”

She sniffed, and wiped at her nose.  Glanced away and back again.  “He’s a mess.  I only spoke to him for ten minutes after the funeral, and he was barely holding together with spit and string.”

“I know you haven’t been watching the news.”

“I don’t understand how you can.”  

His thumb ran over her knuckles. Quelling.  “I’ve had a VI filtering out the bad stuff.  And what’s left…  Hannah, so many people loved her.”

“No,” she said, shaking her head.  “They loved the idea of her.”

A long pause.  “We should go back inside.  They’re going to wonder what happened to us.”

Hannah bit her lip.  Finished off the last of her wine in one swallow, and gave him a nod. He slipped his arm around her waist and they turned back to the hab.

As they headed inside, leaning into each other, she said, “I miss her, Paul.  I miss her so much.”

He kissed her hair, and opened the door.

[dubmill]

Thursday, 8 August 2019

To Hatton Wall for a haircut (341 bus to Mount Pleasant, then walked the rest of the way to the salon).

Afterwards, I walked to Holborn Circus to pay in a cheque at the bank, then continued down Shoe Lane towards Fleet Street. At one point I heard a man’s voice close behind me say, in an American accent, ‘Look at that Brutalist building!’ The Shoe Lane and Fetter Lane area has been hugely rebuilt of late, with construction still going on even now, so I wondered what he was referring to. It was the Shoe Lane Library, which stood out among the recent buildings. (Hill House, which contains the library, was built in 1975–79.) The speaker was a thin, wiry man in his sixties, wearing shorts and what I took to be walking shoes. A similarly dressed woman I presumed to be his wife stood back looking slightly ill at ease as he approached the library entrance, perhaps to read a sign. I carried on downhill and they eventually overtook me, not walking but very slowly jogging.

I hadn’t decided where to go next but noticed the American couple had crossed Fleet Street and gone down a side road, Salisbury Court, so I thought I would follow them. I soon reached Salisbury Square, where there were benches arranged around an obelisk of some sort. I sat down for a while. I quite liked the view of the obelisk, with random office workers standing about on smoking breaks, so I took a photo.

From where I was sitting I could see a passageway on the other side of the square, and I had an idea the American couple might have jogged down it, although they were long gone by this time. Nevertheless, I thought I would have a look down the passage, which it turned out led to another paved area with benches. I sat down again, but soon got up as I didn’t much like the view of a nearby office block. As I retraced my steps I noticed there was a church on the other side of a wall. It looked interesting, so I approached it via another alleyway further up Salisbury Court.

I could have gone inside the church (St. Bride’s, a Wren church on a very old site, perhaps as early as the sixth century), but the benches outside were more tempting. The churchyard was shady and cool, and I sat there for a good twenty minutes, alternately watching the movement of the shadows of tree branches on the wall of an adjacent building and glancing around at other people, while half listening to a man at the next bench speaking on the phone.

At length I got up and made my way back to Fleet Street to wait for a bus to either Waterloo or Charing Cross station, where I could use the public toilets. A 341 came first, so I took it to Waterloo.

After using the toilet, I left the station via the footbridge that crosses York Road and leads to the South Bank. This took me past the ‘Upstream Building’, as it is called, a surviving portion (and the most prominent tower) of the Shell Centre, built between 1957 and 1962 but now largely demolished. Not long ago I watched a video on YouTube, made in 1964, in which the newly built Shell Centre is seen from a boat on the Thames. Now, gazing up at the 351-ft tower, in its day the tallest office building in London, I reflected on the passing of time. I don’t even like the building particularly, so it’s not as if I’m relieved it’s been preserved, but it’s striking how much of what was familiar in London has been or is in the process of being replaced.

Above: Shell Centre tower, 25 July 2008

On a similar theme, I had already decided to take a 77 bus to Wandsworth Road to see what progress had been made in demolishing the building I used to work in.

Catching the 77 from Concert Hall Approach felt a bit strange as I hadn’t done it for nearly ten years. The feeling of going back in time persisted as the bus circled the IMAX cinema, took the familiar route along York Road, Lambeth Palace Road and Albert Embankment to Vauxhall Bus Station, then turned up Wandsworth Road. At Lansdowne Green I alighted and walked the short distance to Belmore Street. I had been here a couple of times in recent weeks, walking up from Stockwell station on evenings after visits to my mother. What I was interested in was seeing the old Vauxhall Centre of Lambeth College in different stages of demolition. Today, there was plenty of activity on the site, but what had remained of the building about a month before was still there, chopped off at one end, with a door on an upper floor opening on to empty space.

Above: Belmore Street, 9 July 2019

Next, I walked further up Wandsworth Road to the Mind charity shop I often visited in my lunch hour when I worked at the college. I was surprised to see the same elderly woman working behind the counter. She seemed a bit older, but not that much considering I hadn’t been there for ten years. The shop itself had changed a lot: It sometimes used to have unusual old books for sale, but the books section was now reduced in size and had nothing of interest.

Above: Mind shop, Wandsworth Road, 11 October 2008

Back on the street I waited for a 452 bus. I planned to spend the rest of the afternoon visiting Kensal Green Cemetery, which I hadn’t been to before.

By the time I got to Kensal Green, I was starving hungry. I was close to the East Gate of the cemetery but thought I would buy a sandwich before going inside. There were a few shops nearby but I couldn’t find any that sold sandwiches, so after a while I abandoned the idea of visiting the cemetery. Frustrated, I walked up the hill towards Kensal Rise. At first I was still hoping to find something to eat, but my hunger eventually began to fade and I thought I would just walk north-east, in the general direction of home.

The route, an unfamiliar one up Chamberlayne Road, then Sidmouth and Lydford Roads, was surprisingly light in traffic. I wouldn’t say I enjoyed the walk, as the weather was hot and stuffy, but it wasn’t too bad, and at least I was getting some exercise. (One point of interest on this stretch was a cricket ground hidden behind a wooden fence. Peeping through a gap in the fence, I saw that a game was in progress, and I watched a few balls before moving on.)

Having calmed down a bit, I began to feel frustrated again at the end of Skardu Road. Continuing north-east was impossible because of the rail tracks of the Midland Main Line out of St. Pancras, and to cross the railway I had to detour some way south along Fordwych Road before turning north-east again on Minster Road.

When I reached Menelik Road (named after Emperor Menelik II of Ethiopia, with whom local landowner and explorer Major Percy Powell-Cotton had an audience in 1900), I made a mistake. I followed the road as it curved round, up a hill and down again, and after about ten minutes ended up back more or less where I started, at the junction with Westbere Road. The problem was another obstacle: Hampstead Cemetery. To avoid it, I should have turned instead into Sarre Road, where I could have reached Gondar Gardens by a footpath.

Above: Gondar Gardens, West Hampstead, 1 February 2014 (I didn’t realise I’d been there before. In fact, had I taken the footpath from Sarre Road, I would have come out at almost this exact spot.)

I could then have skirted the cemetery and continued north-east towards Finchley Road and Hampstead Heath. Unaware of this possibility (I didn’t spot the very faint outline of the footpath on Google Maps), and by now feeling a bit weary, I gave up. Conveniently, there was a bus stop on Westbere Road and I caught a C11 to Archway, followed by a 41 to Turnpike Lane, then walked home via the Harringay Passage.

It had been just another aimless day. I’d walked a total of 8.3 miles, as well as riding around on buses quite a bit, but overall it felt unsatisfying because nothing I’d seen or done really stood out.

[borathae]

↳ Index [#03 Believe Me]

Genre: Fluff, Angst

Wordcount: 9.599

Just as Taehyung had promised the feeling of guilt has disappeared the next morning you awake. You peel your eyes open and sit up. Five twenty. You have got ten more minutes before your alarm would ring. Normally you would fall back into bed and doze off again, but you feel wide awake today. You stretch your arms above your head, yawning loudly. Your whole body shutters before a content smile creeps up your face. You feel lighter today. Your eyes wander to your plants on the window sill. They need water.

You throw your blanket off your legs and jump out of bed, shuffling into your kitchen to fill up the small turquoise water can, which you have ever since you are nineteen.

You walk back to your flowers starting with the little cactus on the far left side of your window sill.

“Here you go little one”, you say to it before moving on to the next plant. The alarm clock interrupts your task and you have to put down your watering can onto the floor to walk to your bed side table. You take your phone into your hands, turning off your alarm. There are three new notifications on your display, two emails from Taehyung and one new text message from Yoongi.

You unlock your phone, checking your emails first. Taehyung had kept his promise, all of the required documents are here and you smile, at least he kept his promise. You exit your email app, opening your text messages.

- Yoongibear ❤: Did you already fall asleep??

You look at the time, he had sent it an hour after his last message and you feel guilty. Maybe you should have at least answered him. You decide to write him now.

- You: Good morning baby, sorry I fell asleep yesterday… I hope you aren’t mad. Is lunch still on today? ❤

You lock your phone afterwards. Yoongi is probably still sleeping, after all he has to wake up an hour later than you. You throw your phone onto your bed, returning to your flowers to finish your task of watering them. Once you are finished you decide to make some quick breakfast, consisting of a cup of black coffee and a bowl of yoghurt with berries. You take longer to finish your breakfast today and when you look at your clock you have exactly twenty minutes to get ready and out of your house. You gasp, jumping up and putting the dirty dishes into your sink before abandoning them. You don’t have time to do them right now you can still wash them later at night. You rush to your bathroom, washing yourself in the speed of light. You look at the clock on your way out of the bathroom, fifteen minutes left. You rip open your closet, pulling out a beige thigh-long dress and the first underwear you can find. You don’t have time to actually plan your outfit today. You dress yourself, looking at the clock afterwards. Twelve minutes left. You sigh, throwing yourself onto your knees in front of your mirror to put some makeup on. Some concealer and only doing your eyebrows must be sufficient enough today, you don’t have time for anything more. You look at yourself in the mirror, nodding contently. It’s definitely not your best look, but at least you don’t look dead anymore.

You jump to your feet, running to your front door, grabbing your bag from your couch on the way out. You grab your coat and slip into the next best shoes you can find before unlocking your door and rushing out of your apartment. You look at your watch, six minutes left. Good, that’s very good. At least you don’t have to run to your bus stop now.

Knowing that you can actually walk at a normal speed slows down your heartbeat in your chest and you take a deep breath. At least now you can actually enjoy the city slowly waking up for a new day. The old bookstore you always pass by has already set his variety of boxes full of books in front of shop window. You greet your neighbor from down the street with a bright smile, telling him that his knitted sweater looked lovely today making him smile at you. Just like always the woman living one block away manages to startle you, when she pulls up her blinds rather forcefully. You chuckle, holding your racing heart in your chest before reaching into your coat pocket to get your phone. You gasp, stopping in your tracks. You have forgotten it at home! You groan, you are already too far away to turn back and get it.

“Good job Y/N”, you mumble to yourself before continuing to walk into the direction of the bus stop with a pout on your face. “Let’s hope that Yoongi doesn’t worry about me”, you whisper.

The next corner you cross leads to the main road and you can already see your bus waiting at your bus stop in the distance. You gasp before starting to run. It’s so close you can still do it! You wave at the bus driver yelling loudly that he should wait for you. He rolls his eyes closing the bus doors before starting the engine.

“No please don’t!” you scream waving furiously. But he doesn’t care, driving off right when you reach the bus stop.

“Fucking bastard!” you yell after the bus, wanting to flip him off but deciding against it. Instead you kick the air groaning loudly.

You turn around a few times, hoping that it would help you find a solution to your problem. The next bus arrives in fifteen minutes, that’s too late! You don’t want to be late for work again. You sigh before sitting down on the bench of the bus stop. You reach for your phone to call a taxi only to remember that you had forgotten it at home.

“Jeez Y/N talk about being a total idiot”, you whisper to yourself shaking your head. You fold your hands in front of you staring at the traffic passing by, hoping that you would spot an unoccupied taxi.

Suddenly a car rolls up to the edge of the road, stopping right in front of you. You don’t know this car, so why is the owner letting the windows down right now?

You gasp, your eyes becoming big.

“Good morning Y/N, you need a ride?” Hoseok grins at you leaning closer to the passenger window.

You stare at him, your heart racing in your chest. It would be the perfect solution to your problem right now, but do you really want to get into the same car as your ex? You keep seated, nervously playing with your fingers.

“Oh come on, I won’t bite. I know you missed your bus didn’t you?” he says telling you to come close with a wave of his hand.

Shit, he knows you too well. You groan before standing up and slowly walking to the car. His smile grows and you can hear him turn the music down. This is a bad idea, you think to yourself before opening the passenger seat door and getting in.

“Thank you”, you say closing the door and settling on the seat. They are beige leather seats, squeaking with every move you make. You press your legs shut, staring at the road ahead.

“Of course don’t mention it”, he says before steering his car back into the main traffic. He falls silent after that, mostly because the traffic got quite hectic and he needed to concentrate on not killing the two of you.

The silence is killing you. This was a bad idea. You should have just dismissed him and waited for a taxi to arrive. You swallow, your fingers playing with the button of your coat. He is so close you can actually smell his cologne. He still smells the same than he did all these months ago and you can feel your heartbeat quicken in your chest. This was a bad idea! You need to get out of here!

“Sorry for storming off like this yesterday”, Hoseok says startling you. His voice had been so loud in the silence right now. You look at him, he is staring at you.

You look away, taking a deep breath. Nope, you will not stare at him! Not today!

“Don’t worry it’s okay”, you tell him to which he hums. He looks back at the road again and the moment his eyes are away from your body you feel yourself relax a little.

“Actually I think it should be me who apologizes instead of you. Sorry for being so cold and mean to you yesterday”, you say before looking at him.

He sends you a quick glance. A small smile creeps up his lips.

“Don’t worry about it, it’s already forgotten and forgiven”, he says dismissing you with a wave of his hand, “besides I wasn’t really hurt anyways”, he adds and the words of Taehyung come into your mind.

That’s so typical Hoseok right now, denying his feelings like that. You sigh suddenly feeling guilty.

“I’m still sorry, you didn’t deserve to find out about my engagement like that”, you say and you can see him clenching his jaw.

“It’s really okay don’t worry about it”, he says before turning the music louder, an obvious sign that he doesn’t want to talk about your current relationship.

You nod understandingly before averting your gaze to the road ahead. That was definitely a bad idea. You can feel yourself starting to sweat already and you can’t seem to stop yourself from biting your nails. What did you even think would happen when you get into his car? That you would be all good and unbothered by his presence? After all, the last time you had seen him had been in May last year. You steal a glance at him. Does he still look the same? Your eyes land on his face first he look just like you had remembered, safe for the very obvious black circles underneath his eyes. Is it because he couldn’t sleep yesterday? Did he think of you, did he even cry because of you?

“Do I have something on my face?” he asks and your cheeks turn red. You look away, his eyes burning holes into the side of your face.

“No it’s just, just uhhm, I have never seen this car before. Since when do you have it?” you say. It was only partially a lie. You really didn’t see him drive this car before.

“Oh yeah it’s new I bought it last September. I kind of had an existential crisis in September and decided to sell my sneakers collection to get a car”, he tells you and your head snaps into his direction.

“You sold all of your sneakers?” you gasp. He chuckles nodding.

“Yeah I did.”

“Even your Balenciagas?” you ask feeling nervous all of a sudden.

“Even my Balenciagas”, he says nodding and you can feel your heart shatter in your chest.

“Why? You love your sneakers”, you say and you can’t help but feel sad all of a sudden. He actually sold the shoes you had gotten him on your second anniversary.  

“Of course I do, but my apartment has gotten too small for all of my shoes and besides a car is much more convenient than hundred pairs of shoes from which I actually only wear five pairs”, he says shrugging his shoulders.

“Is it really? We live in Seoul, a city with amazing public transport and you decided to get a car”, you say sounding offended.

“Why do you sound so angry right now? It’s not like I sold your stuff”, he says looking at you with confusion in his eyes.

“I’m not mad I don’t know what you are on about”, you mumble crossing your arms in front of your chest.

“Sure if you want me to believe that”, he scoffs, “Also just to add I only sold the black Balenciagas not the ones you got me”, he says and you can’t help but smile.

“Really? Oh, okay, well-”, you clear your throat “-my point still stands getting a car in a big city with good public transport is a waste of money”, you say trying your hardest to still sound annoyed.

He chuckles shaking his head.

“Well then I am sorry for making such a bad decision”, he says still chuckling.

You stare at him, anger burning in your eyes before you break out into laughter as well. You need it right now, your heart feels too heavy and laughing with him had always helped you rid yourself of some emotional weight.

You hide your smiling mouth behind your hand giggling loudly before looking at him. He can feel your eyes on him making his head snap into your direction to smile back at you. Suddenly his smile fades at the same time than yours does. His eyes race between yours, your own staring into his. They are still the same beautiful chocolate brown you remember them to be.

This feels weirdly comfortable right now. It shouldn’t feel like that.

He clears his throat before looking back at the road. But you can’t stop looking at him, your eyes wandering from his shoulders over his arms before landing on his hands. He is clutching the steering wheel, his knuckles already turning white. Does he feel as nervous as you do right now?

“I shouldn’t look at you too much or else I’ll accidentally drive my car into a street lamp or something”, he says before laughing awkwardly.

You hum letting your eyes wander from his hands back to his face. His hair had gotten longer in the months you had spent apart. It suits him, makes him appear mysterious. You quickly look away. What are you thinking about right now?

“How are you Y/N? I have talked enough about me right now. Are you well?” he asks all of a sudden, surprising you. You send him a quick glance.

“Yeah I’m good, a little stressed out with work, but that’s not new”, you say nodding.

“That’s good to hear, I mean not the stressed out part but the other part”, he says making you chuckle.

“Yeah it’s okay though, I can handle it and what about you? Is everything okay at work?” you say. You don’t know why you try to keep the conversation going, maybe you just want to use this opportunity to see him one last time.

“Everything’s good, it got a lot quieter these days. We got two new dance teachers and I finally have some free time again. I don’t even have to go to work on Fridays anymore. It’s great I started to go to the gym because of it and I actually gained some muscles already”, he says padding his shoulder. He looks at you smiling awkwardly, “I don’t know why I just told you this, sorry this was unnecessary”, he says brushing a strand of hair out of his eyes.

“Don’t apologize I like listening to you”, you say regretting the words the moments they had left your lips. I like listening to you? Seriously? What are you trying to achieve here?

He looks at you clearly surprised by your reaction before smiling shyly.

“I’m glad you do”, he says before reaching out to take your hand into his. Your whole body freezes when he touches you, his hand burning your skin. You stare at your intertwined fingers swallowing loudly.

“I’m sorry I, that, force of habit”, he says quickly pulling away. The loss of contact makes your hand feel cold and you clench it into a tight fist.

“It’s okay, don’t , don’t worry”, you stutter hiding your shaking hands between your thighs.

Yep, getting into a car with him was definitely a bad idea. You pinch the skin of your hand as an attempt to distract yourself from your racing heart. Why is it so silent all of a sudden? Your cheeks grow hot. Did Hoseok turn on the heating right now or why did it get so hot inside all of sudden? You open your coat fanning air to your face.

Hoseok looks at you before opening the windows without saying anything. The moment the cold air hits your face you dare to take a breath again. Fresh air fills up your lungs but to your demise you still feel as hot as you did before. You look at your watch. You still have ten minutes until your work starts. You are surprised Hoseok had actually been faster than you would have been if you had taken the bus.

“We are nearly there don’t worry”, he says mistaking your nervous fidgeting for being scared that you might be late.

You look at him before nodding.

“Hmh”, you manage to get out before looking away again. You can spot your work building in the distance already. You are nearly there, everything will be over soon. Don’t worry.

“See I told you that you wouldn’t be late”, Hoseok says once the two of you had stopped in front of your company. You take your bag from the floor and put it onto your lap. You open the door before stopping and turning around to look at him.

“Thank you for driving me today, you were my savior”, you say offering him a smile.

“Don’t mention it, I am always happy to help you”, he says reciprocating your smile.

“See you again”, you say before throwing the door closed. You turn around before rushing up the three stairs to get to the big fountain. You don’t even realise the big smile that creeps up Hoseoks cheeks when your last words seep into his brain.

See you again.

He will see you again, just like he had hoped. He squeals loudly in the safety of his own car, excitedly shaking his hands in the air.

“Good morning Y/N how are you?” Taehyung greets you once he spots you, running up to you with a big smile on his face.

“Let’s get inside real quick”, you rush out, not bothering to stop in your tracks running to the front door.

He looks around, confused as to why you looked so scared right now until he spots Hoseoks car still parked on the side of the road. His eyes grow big, his mouth falling open. Hoseok raises his hand waving at Taehyung with a bright smile. Taehyung waves back, forcing a smile to his features. He must be dreaming right now. Did Hoseok actually wait for you in front of your work building and therefore you had to flee inside? Or wait. Did you actually drive to work with him?

Oh no.

He turns around running into the building to catch up with you. You are standing at the elevator panting hard whilst clutching your hands to your chest.

“Y/N what did you do?” he yells the moment he sees you. Your head snaps into his direction and he can already see your red cheeks from a distance. He quickens his steps and soon he is standing next to you staring down at you.

“I missed my bus and Hoseok randomly saw me and asked me if I needed a ride”, you manage to get out between your heavy breaths.

“Good job at avoiding him Y/N”, he says crossing his arms in front of his chest.

“Hey, I don’t need you scolding me right now, I am already upset enough”, you say pressing your pointer finger into his chest. He takes a deep breath trying to contain his anger.

“Fine, I’ll try not to. What happened? Was it awkward?” he asks letting you step into the elevator before him.

“It was so awkward I actually wanted to disappear. And the worst part, it wasn’t him that made it awkward but my stupid thoughts”, you say rubbing your aching temples.

“Damn Y/N”, he says trying to come up with something that would help you calm down.

“Damn indeed. I’m so annoyed. Why did I have to miss my bus today of all days? It’s not like I have been confused enough already yesterday, nooo fade decides that I have to meet him today as well”, you groan leaning your head against Taehyungs chest.

He rests his hand on the back of your head, massaging your scalp and wraps his other arm around your waist.

“Hey it’s over now”, he whispers padding your back.

“I hope it is, I’m really not in the mood to see him again and make it even worse. It felt like so comfortable Taehyung, just sitting in the car with him and talking. We even held hands for a moment Taehyung. Hands okay?!” you say and Taehyungs eyes grow big.

“You did what?” he gasps and you groan.

“We held hands. It wasn’t on purpose; he kind of reached out and grabbed my hand because of how he called it ‘force of habit’.”

“Jeez, that, wow. Okay now I understand why you are so upset”, he says and you nod accidentally rubbing your concealer on his black turtleneck.

“I’m so upset I want to disappear”, you groan before stepping back from your friend. You send him a quick smile, “thanks for not being mad at me. I don’t think I could survive today if my best friend would be upset with me.”

“Don’t mention it, I’m here for you”, he smiles patting your back.  

The elevator stops, announcing its arrival before the doors slowly open. The two of you step out at the same time, walking next to each other.

“Change of topic now before my mind explodes. Thanks for sending me the files I really appreciate it”, you say making Taehyung smile.

“See? I told you that I would send them to you the moment I get home. I hope you like them, I worked really hard on them”, he says holding the glass door open for you to slip through.

“I still need to check them out, but I am sure I do”, you say before the both of you stop in front of Taehyungs office.

He opens the door, leaning his hand on the door handle.

“Thank you. Tell me what you think of them later okay?” he says.

“I will. See you later Tae”, you say nodding.

“See you”, he says before turning around and walking into his office. You watch him close his door before you start to walk again.

Your office is only three rooms away from Taehyungs, so seeing him later probably means when the two of you decide that it is time for some coffee from the vending machine opposite of the elevators. You open your door and are greeted with Namjoon sitting in front of his computer with his eyebrows furrowed together.

“Good morning Namjoon”, you greet him and his head snaps up to look at you. He fixes the glasses on his nose smiling at you.

“Good morning Y/N”, he says before he averts his eyes back to his computer screen.

“You are early today”, you say sitting down on your desk and turning on your computer.

“Yeah I couldn’t sleep anymore, so I decided to just go to work and get some projects finished already”, he says with his eyes staring at the screen.

“Impressive”, you say making him chuckle.

“Thanks that’s my goal”, he says cracking you up.

The room falls silent after that, the both of you far too occupied with working on your projects. You normally would enjoy the silence, but today it is killing you. Your mind just can’t seem to concentrate on the work in front of, always reliving the moment with Hoseok. Did he actually wait for you to come to your bus stop or was it pure coincidence that he had spotted you? You blink trying your hardest to get your eyes focused on the graph before you. You lean back in your chair. Why did you feel so sad when he told that he had sold his shoes? It’s not like it should matter to you anymore. On the other hand it felt like he had sold your memories together, like he had wanted to forget them. You sigh rubbing your temples. Namjoon looks up at you, studying your face.

“Do you need some painkillers?” he asks mistaking your current for state for your having a headache.

“No thank you I don’t think a painkiller would help me right now”, you say shaking your head.

“Okay, if it gets worse you can always ask me”, he says before looking back at his computer screen. You smile at his nice gesture, using the opportunity of a calm mind to start working on your project.

But soon your mind starts racing with thoughts again. How does he know where you are working at now? You had been working somewhere different when you two broke up and you had never told him about your new job. You swallow, your heart racing in your chest. Did he stalk you?

“Hey are you sure you are okay? You are breathing rather loudly. Do you want me to get you some water?” Namjoon says now standing up and walking to your booth. You watch him with big eyes. He puts a hand on your forehead, his eyebrows furrowing together.

“You definitely don’t have a fever, your temperature feels normal”, he mumbles more to himself than to you before sitting on the edge of your desk, “What is it Y/N?” he asks, crossing his arms in front of his chest.

You shake your head, avoiding his eyes by staring at your lap.

“Nothing really, I just, I don’t feel that good” you say playing with the material of your dress.

“You want me to get you some water, some painkillers, something to eat? Just tell me”, he says and you can’t help but smile.

“No it’s okay I can get them myself I don’t want to interrupt your work flow”, you say scratching the back of your neck.

“You already did so it’s totally fine”, he says standing up to walk to the door. He opens it, turning around to look at you, “so what is it going to be water or food?” he asks.

“No Namjoon I’m really okay, believe me”, you insist but he just shakes his head.

“Alright, but would you still say yes if I asked you to go for some cafeteria coffee?” he asks nodding into the general direction of the cafeteria.

You sigh, standing up from your chair. Maybe this can actually shut your mind up for a bit.

“Sure why not”, you say making him smile. He steps out of your office with you following close by.

The cafeteria is at the ground floor and at this time of day, the two of you are the only one visiting it. Namjoon looks at the menu for a moment before turning to the man behind the counter.

“One black coffee please and one caramel macchiato please”, he says and the barista turns around with a nod of his head.

You look at Namjoon, impressed that he knows what you like. He smiles at you, his dimples appearing on his cheeks.

“I hope I didn’t speak for you too soon”, he says massaging his neck with an awkward smile on his face.

“No you didn’t I’m impressed you know me so well”, you assure him making him smile at you.

“Besides being your colleague I’m still your friend after all”, he says shrugging his shoulders.

He was right, next to Taehyung, him and Seokjin are the ones you had known for the longest. They had always been good friends of Hoseok and with time they had become your friends as well. So you were all the more happy when you found out that you were able to get a new job at the company him and Taehyung are working at.

“Thank you”, you say accepting the cup of coffee he is holding with a smile on your face.

“You are welcome”, he grins before taking a sip of his cup. He groans, pressing his eyes shut, “I always forget how hot the coffee here is”, he hisses sticking his tongue out to try and cool it down.

“They even write warning hot content on the lid”, you say and Namjoon sends you an annoyed glare.

“Well thank you Y/N I have never noticed that before”, he says sarcastically, rolling his eyes.

“Sorry”, you giggle before taking a sip of your drink. It’s not as sweet as the one you had yesterday, but you like it nonetheless.

“Don’t worry”, Namjoon assures you holding the cafeteria door open for you. “Can I ask you now, what happened before?” he says watching your face.

You keep your eyes fixated on the elevators, shrugging your shoulders.

“It’s too complicated to explain at work, also too personal if I may add. All you have to know is that I am very confused today and I already apologize if I mess up today”, you tell him.

“I understand, if you ever want to talk about it we can always like meet up after work”, he says and you scoff.

“Tell me one day that you are free Joon, you are basically a workaholic”, you say making him raise his eyebrows at you.

“You think of me like that?” he gasps, stepping into the elevator which had arrived at this moment. You nod, pressing the button of your floor. “Wow okay I’m offended right now”, he scoffs shaking his head.

“Sorry I didn’t mean it like that”, you say feeling guilty all of a sudden.

“Don’t worry I’m not really mad”, he assures you with a wave of his hand, “and to prove to you that I am in fact not a workaholic I am going to invite you now. Do you maybe want to join me tomorrow at Seokjins place? You told me that you are always free on Friday evenings”, he says and you think about his offer for a moment.

He is right, you would be alone tomorrow evening and being alone means your thoughts would race with pictures of Hoseok. Nope, you definitely don’t want that to happen again.

“Sure why not, sounds like fun, I haven’t seen Seokjin in ages anyways”, you say nodding your head.

“Great I’m looking forward to it. Also don’t forget to wear some comfortable clothes, you are going to carry a lot of heavy boxes I can tell you that”, he says raising his finger.

“I will”, you tell him before sitting down on your chair. You had arrived at your office right at this moment and soon the both of you fall silent again.

The coffee had definitely helped you with clearing your mind for a bit, making working on your current project easier again. Soon lunch break comes and after some small-talk with Namjoon you are off to see Yoongi at the restaurant. Hopefully his presence can make your heart feel lighter again.

You rush up the streets from your bus stop to the location of the restaurant and when you turn the corner you can already see Yoongi waiting in front of the restaurant with his hands in the pockets of his jeans. You quicken your steps, calling out his name, waving you arm with a bright smile on your face. His head snaps into your direction his own face lighting up. He waves back at you, taking the last two steps to close the distance between the two of you.

“Hey handsome”, you say before pressing a kiss to his lips.

“Hey princess”, he smiles kissing you once more, “I missed you. Why did you not answer my calls today? I wanted to ask you how you are doing and you ignored me”, he says pouting.

“I’m sorry I forgot my phone at home”, you apologize taking his hand into yours.

“Aaah, thank god I thought I did something to upset you”, he says chuckling out in relief.

“No don’t worry I was stressed in the morning that’s all”, you tell him squeezing his hand.

“Why were you stressed?” he asks looking at you with worry in his eyes.

I don’t know, maybe because my ex decided to drive me to work and I actually felt comfortable talking with him again.

“I kind of forgot the time in the morning”, you tell him instead to which he nods.

“That’s so typical you”, he chuckles, wrapping his arm around your shoulder before opening the door to the restaurant.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” you complain, playfully hitting his chest.

“You are always late, even now I had to wait for ten minutes”, he says to which you pout.

“Sorry I was looking at the trees whilst walking here”, you apologize remembering the occurrences from just a few minutes ago.

You had rushed from the bus stop to the restaurant but had stopped once you had seen the cheery blossom trees on your right. You had turned to them, watching them sway in the light breeze. Your legs had started walking on their own accord stopping underneath the same tree you had kissed Hoseok for the first time all those years ago.  You had sighed, thinking to yourself what you had done in your past life to deserve to be forced onto this emotional rollercoaster. You had looked up, watching the pastel pink petals dance above your head whilst wishing for it to be over, for everything to return back to normal.

“You really like cherry blossom trees don’t you?” Yoongis questions rips you back to reality your head snapping into his direction.

“Yeah I guess I do”, you say forcing a smile to your face. You are going to be happy today, for Yoongis sake. He doesn’t deserve you forcing your bad mood onto him.

“Good to know”, he says, not noticing your fake smile too immersed with the menu the waitress had brought right this moment.

Your eyes snap to the menu, reading it over and over again until you decide to go for some simple pasta. You aren’t really in the mood for anything big and special today, all you wanted to do was to eat so you wouldn’t faint later on. Yoongi decides to go for some steak again, explaining that he had loved it so much the last time he just had to get it again.

“So how is work going?” he asks, turning to you once you both had ordered your food.

“Good like always, I honestly don’t have a lot to report”, you say shrugging your shoulders. And here goes your resolution of not being grumpy.

“That’s good to hear”, Yoongi says studying your face for a moment. He crosses his arms in front of his chest, “if everything is okay, why do you look so down today?”

You look up, shrugging your shoulders before lowering your head again.

“I don’t really know”, you lie. Truth is, you had hoped that meeting Yoongi would cheer you up, but all it did was make you feel guilty about talking with Hoseok in the morning.

“When you feel like you are ready, you can tell me I’m always here to listen”, Yoongi says reaching over the table to gently stroke the skin of your arm.

“I appreciate it thank you”, you smile, feeling weirdly lighter eventhough you hadn’t even told him about your worries yet.

“By the way baby, what are your plans for the weekend?” Yoongi asks, giving your arm one last squeeze before leaning back in his chair.

“For the weekend? Well, uuhm, tomorrow I’m going to help Seokjin move into Jungkook’s place and I don’t really have anything planned on Saturday and Sunday. Why?”

“Just curious”, Yoongi says shrugging his shoulders.

You study his face for a moment, trying to figure out what he had meant by that.

“By the way, why did I not know about Seokjin moving?” Yoongi asks pouting. You laugh, shrugging your shoulders.

“I didn’t know either if it wasn’t for Namjoon inviting me to help them tomorrow”, you say playing with the napkin on the table.

“Tzzt”, he scoffs shaking his head, “I’m gonna tell Seokjin how bad of a friend he is. If I had known that he is going to move tomorrow I would have taken a day off to help as well”, he shrugs his shoulder, taking a sip of his water which had arrived right this moment, “Oh, well guess I just have to sit on my comfortable chair all day now and I just not have to carry heavy boxes”, he says making you roll your eyes.

“Quit being so dramatic baby, Seokjin probably just forgot to tell you”, you say, watching the waiter carry your food to your table.

“I still like to be invited to things you know”, he pouts, his eyes staring at the steak in front of him.

“I know baby, I’ll scold Seokjin in your name tomorrow okay?” you say making him smile.

He nods, looking satisfied. Both of you turn you attention to the food afterwards. It didn’t taste as good as it did yesterday, as a matter of fact you hated it today it made you feel nauseous. You force every fork full of food down your throat, wishing that the plate would be empty already. But not finishing everything would mean that Yoongi would begin to worry and you don’t want him to question you about it. So you force yourself to eat your food as well as your dessert and the cup of coffee Yoongi had so kindly ordered for you.

“It was delicious as always”, Yoongi grins after taking the last bite of his chocolate cake. You nod, forcing a smile to your lips.

“It was I loved it a lot”, you say, concentrating your hardest as to not throw up.

Yoongi stands up, rounding the table to pull the chair out for you. You stand up thanking him with a small smile before accepting the coat he is offering you with an outstretched arm. He takes your hand afterwards, leading you down the stairs and out of the restaurant only stopping once you had arrived at the bus stop. He turns to you, pulling you close to his body making you gasp. He cups your face in his hands forcing you to look up at him.

“You are going to get through your hardships Y/N. I believe in you”, Yoongi says, pressing a longing kiss to your forehead. Your eyes fall closed, your fingers finding their way to his chest, “I don’t know what burdens you today but just know that I love you very much”, he adds, hugging you against his body.

You inhale his scent, clutching onto the material of his jacket. Despite the cold wind blowing around you, you feel warm and you smile.

“I love you too Yoongi”, you mumble hiding your face in his shoulder.

“Also don’t try to force yourself to eat, I don’t want you to throw up and feel even more miserable”, he says and your eyes snap open.

“How?”

“I know when you are actually enjoying your food and when you are trying to keep up a façade just so I wouldn’t worry”, he says caressing your back, “It’s okay I won’t force you to tell me what worries you”, he whispers pressing a kiss to the crown of your head.

“Thank you so much for being so understanding”, you say, blinking away the tears which are threatening to spill.

“Of course princess”, he says pressing one last kiss to your cheek before stepping away from you. He points to the bus, which had arrived at this moment, looking sad.

“I have to go now, I’ll see you tomorrow at lunch”, he says walking to the opened front door of the bus. He turns around, raising his fist, “Fighting baby!”

“Fighting baby I love you”, you yell after him, waving furiously.

“Love you too”, he says before finally stepping onto the bus and sitting down on an unoccupied seat. He rests his head on the window, staring at nothing, clearly lost in his own thoughts.  

You watch him drive off, smiling brightly. He did manage to make you feel better after all. You giggle, leaning your back to the railing of the bridge, watching the traffic pass by. Soon your bus arrives and you get onto it, sitting down on the first empty seat.

You are working better in the afternoon, your mind only racing with sweet pictures of Yoongi. You manage to check out Taehyungs work, which leaves you thoroughly impressed. He had done an amazing job.

Friday turns out to be the same than your every other work day. You wake up before your alarm, you water your plants before writing Yoongi a good morning text and eat breakfast. You manage to catch your bus this time and greet Taehyung, who was waiting for you at the fountain with a bright smile. Just like always you have a quick small talk with Namjoon before you both fall silent and work on your projects. You meet Yoongi for lunch as always and this time you are laughing the whole time feeling happy again. And after finishing your afternoon shift and some small talk with Taehyung outside the building you are off into the weekend.

You arrive at your apartment thirty minutes before you have to leave again, which gives you enough time for a quick afternoon snacks. You pull out your red jogging suit and a white t-shirt from your wardrobe before slipping out of your skirt and blouse. At least you don’t have to keep wearing this terribly tight skirt anymore. You sigh rubbing your stomach, which was now able to relax again before slipping into your sweats and t-shirt. You put the jacket on and bind your hair up into a ponytail. So that’s it, now you are ready to carry boxes.

You decide on eating a banana and drinking some apple-raspberry smoothie before you have to get out of the door again. The banana is already starting to brown, but you couldn’t care less taking big bites of it. You are hungry and you need the energy for later. The smoothie is sweeter than you had thought it to be and after reading the label you know why. You sigh, great there is sugar right at the second place of the ingredients, so much for it being a ‘healthy smoothie’. You take the last two sips of the overly-sweet beverage before throwing it into the bin and walking to your front door. You have ten minutes to get to the bus stop and with the sneakers you are putting on you are actually able to do it this time.

Seokjin’s old apartment is located opposite of the Han River and the drive takes you around forty minutes. You can already spot Namjoon waiting at the bus stop, a book in his hand and his glasses dangerously low on his nose.

“Hey did you wait long already?” you greet him, running up to him.

He raises his head from the book, a smile forming on his face.

“Hey Y/N. No it’s okay I kept myself entertained”, he says waving the closed book in the air.

“What are you reading?” you ask trying to get a glimpse of the cover.

“Runaway Horses by Yukio Mishima, it’s a really great book”, he says showing you the cover.

“Everything’s written in Japanese”, you pout after realising that you can’t read a single letter on the cover.

He nods, stuffing the soft cover book into his coat pocket. You start to walk, both of you looking at the grey apartment complex appearing in front of you.

“Yeah, I try to study Japanese these days, it’s actually really easy once you have gotten the hang of it”, he says shrugging his shoulders.

“Easy for you, you mean. Only you can learn these many characters in such a short period of time.”

“I’m flattered I guess”, he says smiling shyly, “if you ever need a teacher I am happy to help.”

“Ah, no thank you I think I’ll pass, I’m far too busy with work already”, you say dismissing him with a wave of your hand.

“Fine suit yourself”, he says shrugging his shoulders.

You press the door bell of Seokjins apartment, waiting until you can hear a faint crack through the speakers.

“Hello?” you hear Seokjins voice.

“Hey man it’s Y/N and me, open up”, Namjoon says.

“Sure, wait a minute”, Seokjin says before you can hear the buzz of the front door.

You press the door open, leaning your back against it, so it wouldn’t fall closed again.

“Did it work?” Seokjin asks and you can hear another buzz from the door.

“It did, we’ll be coming up now”, Namjoon says.

“Okay”, Seokjin says before you can hear another crack.

“Let’s go”, you say holding the door open for Namjoon to step through.

Seokjin is already standing in the frame of his door with his hands stuffed in the pockets of his sweaters, when you and Namjoon arrive at the last step. You wave at your friend whilst panting hard from having to walk up two stories.

“Hi guys I’m so happy that you came”, Seokjin smiles, welcoming you with spread arms. He hugs you first, patting your back before doing the same to Namjoon.

“Of course, if our friend needs help moving out of this shithole we will come”, you say making him chuckle.

“You can’t even imagine how happy I am that I can finally leave this place. Please come inside”, he says stepping out of the doorframe to let you into his apartment, “you can keep your shoes on, honestly as dirty as everything is, some dirty shoe tracks is the least of my problems. I mean it guys, you can’t even imagine how dirty everything became lately. Just before you came I found three new moldy spots in the bathroom”, he tells you, pointing at the opened bathroom door.

“Jeez, thank god you are out of this place now. Mold is so dangerous”, you say starring at the greying walls.

“I know, I think I’ve already gotten sick because of it. My eyes don’t stop watering and since three days I have this very painful cough”, he says touching his chest.

“Yo bro I think you should go see a doctor. That sounds serious”, Namjoon says, staring at Seokjin with worried eyes.

“I will don’t worry, after I have moved into my new place”, Seokjin says before kneeling down on the floor of his living room area.

“I hope so or I’ll personally drag you to one. What should we do?” you say kneeling next to him. He looks at you before pointing at the boxes next to his bed.

“I’ll try to disassemble my coffee table and carry it to the moving van Jungkook said he’ll arrive with in ten minutes and Namjoon could you try to carry my bedside table and the lamp down?” Seokjin tells you.

Namjoon nods, storming to the bedside table and grabbing it before grunting loudly. Seokjin watches Namjoon struggle with the table for a few moment before looking back at you.

“And could you put all of my skincare and beauty supplies in the plastic container in the bathroom? Here you can have my mask in the mean time”, he says handing you the grey face mask. You accept it, pulling it over your face and jump to your feet.

“You can count on me”, you tell him before storming off into the bathroom.

“Oh and after that, could you sort my kitchen supplies into boxes as well?” Seokjin screams after you and you give him a thumbs up.

“Sure”, you say to which he mumbles a quiet thank you.

You open the mirrored bathroom cabinet, gasping at the great variety of Seokjins skincare products. You can spot everything from three different oil cleansers over to two foam cleansers and five different essences. For toners you counted two and for moisturizers he had apparently one for winter nights and one for winter morning as well as one for summer nights and one for summer mornings.

“I should step up my skincare game”, you whisper to yourself, throwing the variety of sunscreen bottles into the plastic container.

Soon his big collection of sheet masks and other bathroom products are getting thrown into the container and you finish everything of with a content sigh. That was a lot, you think to yourself pressing the lid closed before squatting down to try and lift it off the floor but failing miserably.

“Jesus fuck that’s heavy”, you groan holding your aching back.

Seokjins form appears in the doorframe, a worried look on his face.

“Don’t try and lift too heavy stuff, I don’t want you to get a broken back or something”, he says kneeling down and heaping up the heavy container with ease.

“Thank you bro”, you say watching him put the container in front of the bathroom door with his tongue sticking out.

“Don’t mention it, just tell me if you need help again I’m right here”, he says pointing at the small TV, “I’ll try to disassemble the TV stand next”, he explains to which you nod.

“Sure have fun, I’ll be in kitchen if you need me”, you tell him before turning around and walking to the kitchen era.

To your luck Seokjin was nice enough to actually put all of his kitchen supplies out of the cupboards already. He even had gone as far as to sort them by use, so putting them into boxes turns out to be a fairly easy process.

“Hey man how are you?” you can hear Seokjin say from the front door which makes you stop in your movements.

“Fine, traffic is literal shit today, but what else can you expect on a Friday evening”, you can hear Jungkooks voice which makes you storm to the front door as well.

“Hey Kookie”, you smile making his head snap into your direction.

“Oh, Y/N! I didn’t expect you to be here. Hello how are you?” he says bowing.

“I’m good thanks for asking”, you say bowing back at him.

“Where’s Namjoon by the way?” Seokjin says looking out of the door onto the empty corridor.

“Still downstairs, putting the furniture, which was already downstairs when we arrived, into the van”, Jungkook explains throwing his jacket carelessly onto the couch. He looks around Seokjins small apartment.

“What should I carry?” he asks, rolling his sleeves up exposing his arms.

“You can carry down the boxes full of bathroom supplies already and I’m nearly finished with the kitchen supplies box as well”, you tell him, pointing at the plastic container next to the bathroom door.

Jungkook nods, squatting down to grab the box before standing up grunting loudly.

“That’s heavier than expected”, he groans furrowing his eyebrows.

“Should I help you?” you ask, reaching out to grab the underside of the container. Jungkook shakes his head, turning his body away from you.

“Nope I’m okay don’t worry”, he says before trotting out of the apartment and down the stairs.

You look after him until he disappears and turn around to walk to the kitchen afterwards. You open the last empty box to put Seokjins mental pots and pans away before you can hear Seokjin call for you.

You storm into the living room, stopping next to Seokjin who is currently leaning over the TV.

“Can you maybe put all of my DVDs and games in a box?” he asks and you nod.

You kneel down next to him, opening an empty cardboard box to put all of his stuff into it.

“Oh besides I should tell you in Yoongis name that he is very hurt that you haven’t told him about you moving places”, you say making Seokjin look at you.

“He told you that?” he asks looking confused.

“Yep, he also said that if he knew about your plans he would have taken a day off to help”, you say making Seokjin scoff.

“As if he had helped. This man has a desire to carry heavy things like an old man has the desire to walk up steep hills”, Seokjin says shaking his head.

You laugh, agreeing with your friend with a nod of your head.

“No but in all seriousness, I haven’t seen him for two weeks now, so I didn’t even have an opportunity to talk to him. Can you tell him that I’m sorry?” he says to which you nod.

“I’ll tell him that”, you say throwing the last of his playstation games into the box. You stand up, taking the box into your hands, “I’ll carry this down and help Namjoon with getting everything into the truck. Or do you still need me upstairs?” you say, stopping at the doorframe to look at Seokjin.

He shakes his head, taking the small TV into his hands before walking up to you.

“It’s just heavy stuff up here, so I think you would be more useful downstairs”, he says following you out of his apartment and down the stairs.

When you and Seokjin arrive at the moving van, Jungkook and Namjoon are carrying Seokjins work desk to the moving van, both of them grunting in exhaustion. With the help of Seokjin, who had put down the TV to storm to his friends, they are able to heave it onto the van. Jungkook and Seokjin walk up to Seokjins apartment afterwards leaving you alone with Namjoon. Soon everything is stored in the big van and they four of you are off to Jungkooks apartment.

With the very much needed elevator in Jungkooks apartment complex you are much faster with carrying everything upstairs and storing it in Seokjins room. So after two more hours of carrying boxes and furniture you are finally finished.

“That was faster than expected”, you say taking a sip of the beer Jungkook had offered you as an after-work-reward.

“It really was thank god for the holy elevator”, Jungkook says sitting down on one of his barstools.

“Honestly I think I would have gone home if I had to carry the heavy ass work desk for seven flights”, Namjoon says making you laugh.

“I wouldn’t even have been mad at you”, Seokjin chuckles opening a second can of beer.

“Do you guys maybe wanna stay for some pizza or something?” Jungkook asks to which both you and Namjoon shake your heads.

“I would love to, but I exhausted and I honestly just want to go to bed already”, you tell them.

“And I still have to finish a project that I couldn’t finish at work today”, Namjoon says making all of you roll your eyes at him.

“You are such a workaholic man”, Seokjin says earning an angry look from Namjoon.

“Stop saying that all of you, I’m not a workaholic I just can’t sleep if I haven’t finished everything that I wanted to this week”, Namjoon hisses crossing his arms in front of his chest.

“Fine if you want us to believe that, just don’t forget to take breaks in between as well”, you tell him before taking the last sip of your beer and throwing the empty can into the bin.

“I will”, Namjoon mumbles following the rest of you to the front door.

“Thanks for helping me today, I really appreciate your hard work”, Seokjin says giving Namjoon and you a tight hug.  

“Don’t mention it bro, we are always happy to help”, Namjoon smiles, patting his friend’s back.

“Besides it was fun”, you say raising your finger.

“It really was I loved hanging out with you guys again”, Jungkook says combing a fallen strand of hair out of his face.

“It was”, Namjoon says putting on his shoes and reaching for his coat afterwards, “thanks for the beer by the way it was delicious”, he adds before opening the front door. He stops, turning around on the corridor, “I’ll see you guys on Sunday!” he grins bowing at the rest of you before walking down the long corridor leaving you behind.

“Why does he never wait for me?” you groan struggling to put your shoes on.

“Cause he is a total slob and is probably in his own world again”, Seokjin scoffs making you laugh.

“Typical Joonie”, you laugh shaking your head.

“By the way, I nearly forgot. Hyung and I have a housewarming party on Sunday and we would really love it if you and Yoongi could come as well. We will have food as well as a nice variety of alcoholic beverages”, Jungkook says making you look up from your feet.

“Sure I would love to come, I’ll tell Yoongi tomorrow”, you say sending Jungkook a sweet smile.

“Great, I’m happy to hear that, I’ll count you two in then”, Seokjin says, scratching the back of his neck.

“Yep count us in. Thanks for the invite guys”, you smile bowing at the two men.

“You are welcome. See you on Sunday then”, Jungkook grins bowing back at you.

“See you”, you say before turning around and walking down the long corridor to the elevators.

Now all you want to do is get home, take a hot shower and fall into bed afterwards!