#I have playlists for all of these (besides Dracula) | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

skyechild · 4 months

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𖤐 pairing: Idol!Seonghwa x Actress!reader (M/F) 𖤐 genre: smut ehehe 𖤐 warnings: language, alcohol consumption, miscommunication, rumors 𖤐 wc: 8.9k 𖤐trope/au/kinks: trope: (one sided) e2fwb 𖤐 summary: You and Seonghwa have been friends since childhood, but one miscommunication caused a rift and between you. What happens when you both learn to communicate and you tell him your side? 𖤐 notes: surprise Sar im your secret santa for CODN' Secret Santa. (This banner sucks, and im sorry this took so long) 𖤐special tag: @kpop-stories-21 𖤐 tag list: @cultofdionysusnet / @kikouku / @spooo00oky / @yoonjonguwu 𖤐 Playlist: Crazy Form by Ateez, Getting Closer by Seventeen,

"Why are you always in the fucking way?" The voice comes from behind you and you already know who it is. Your body tenses and turn around in the dress. "Excuse me? Do you plan to walk into my dressing room?" Your glare at Seonghwa as he hums, looking the dress up and down, He has to admit it's a beautiful dress, and it looks beautiful on you.

It's a dress slightly modernized, and that hat is very cute. He is not one to bring anyone down. You are a successful actress for a reason and he isn't going to bring you down.

"Why are you even here Seonghwa?" It was almost hard to not call him Hwa. It had been a few years since you last saw each other. You had to admit, he had grown up very well. He was attractive, very attractive. He had debuted with a group you knew as Ateez, with one of your friends being the social butterfly Wooyoung, the boy being a year and a half younger than you.

He rolled his eyes, as if the (valid) question was stupid. "Im casted in this drama...what are YOU doing here?" You crossed your arms. "You better not be the lead male." His lips quirk into a smirk. "Oh my lovely little Y/n is going to be my partner?"

You felt the blood drain from your face in almost horror. This was a vampire themed tv movie. There were kisses, there was neck biting, a possible bed scene. Was your hatred enough to make you back out of this? These were only promotional photos.

You bit your lip and turned around, picking up the train of your dress and walking towards the director and photographer. Seonghwa grabbed your bicep and frowned. "You hate me that much that you would back out?" His brows furrowed, a thinly veiled look of hurt hidden by disappointment in his eyes.

"I'm not, I just want to shoot the photos. The faster we shoot, the faster I can leave...this." You motioned to him. The muscle in his jaw jumped and you raised a brow. "Did that offend you? I'm so sorry princess." You mocked, calling him the name Wooyoung called him privately.

You watched the muscles in his jaw tense. "My patience is running thin Y/n." He warned and you pulled your arm away, huffing. "Let's go. I don't want this to take all day." You continue your walk over.

"You look beautiful Miss L/n." You felt the pink spread over your cheeks. You were never good with compliments. "Thank you Director Hong." Director Hong was only a few years older than you, his assistant however, was two years younger. A pretty boy named Felix that looked like the stars made their home on his cheeks. But his voice was almost a whiplash. You smiled at the younger boy.

"Please, call me Josh." You chuckled, shaking your head. "Then you have to call me Y/n. We have had this conversation many times. We are friends, remember?" He rolls his eyes teasingly. You and Joshua had gone to college together with you only meeting him through a mutual friend, Minghao, Who was tired of you whining about the artist being one of your only friends.

"Shua." You called him the nickname you used in college. He grinned softly, nodding. "That's fine." He chuckled, motioning towards where the pictures would be taken. "Alright Y/n, these are just promotional photos." You nod but the energy kind of drains once Seonghwa is standing beside both men.

"It's a bit of a remake of Dracula, similar to Gary Oldman's dracula." You bite your lip and grin at Joshua. He knows about Your love for that movie, and the actor himself. He has to shake his head teasingly before you are put into positions by Felix, the flashes from the cameras almost making you blind and many photos and different positions Joshua motions for a break. "After break it's time for the duo photos."

A bit after and after an outfit change for you, one more towards the era you felt was nice did Joshua break the news. "Alright, these ones will probably be the main ones they post." You hold back your grimace and Seonghwa smirks. "A bit seductive." Joshua reiterates and you want to punch the grin off Seonghwas face as it grows wider.

"You heard him, seductive." You glare at him before you move into position. "Alright Felix, would you please position them?" Seonghwa stands behind you, one hand wrapping around your waist and one wrapped around your throat. Your mouth opens a bit as you tilt your head back and over, resting it on his shoulder as Felix explains. Your eyes close and you can barely feel Seonghwas breath against your neck, his mouth parted.

Felix steps off the set and to the side.

It's almost perfect. Joshua calls out. "Seonghwa can you get a bit closer to her neck, you're a bit too far away." He nods and pulls you more towards his chest, mouth getting closer to the skin of your neck. Photos are taken in that position, his eyes down and almost closed. "Look at the camera Seonghwa." He looks up, eyes dark and sharp as he stares at the camera.

You go through multiple photos with him and you are getting to the point you are starting to get squirmy. One of the last positions has you are fully in his arms, leaning against his left arm as his right hands tilts your head back till you are arched back, laying on the ground with your hand gripping Seonghwas shirt and the other holding his right hand when it moves to rest on your sternum.

The last one is your least favorite. Felix has you back to the position you started in but turned slightly towards Seonghwa. "Kiss." You hear both Felix and Joshua say at the same time and your body stiffens from reflex. Seonghwa nods and holds your cheek in one hand, putting a thumb between your lips so they dont touch fully. You thank him in your head quietly before you close your eyes, hands holding his thats around your waist. At Least he had some morals unlike some of your other coworkers.

You sighed once Joshua called finish and quickly shoved yourself away from Seonghwa. The slightly surprised look on his made you raise a brow. “Why do you look so surprised?” He blinked a few times before smirking. “Was surprised you let me almost kiss you.” Your eye twitched. “God, I can't stand you.”

“Then sit.”

“I fucking am.”

You bit back the urge to punch the guy in the face. If these were just the promotional pics, how were the rest of the shootings going to take place? You knew Joshua but Felix was pretty new to you. But he didn't seem very new to Seonghwa and that made your skin crawl. He was young and wasn't involved in what happened. But Joshua was just the photographer, maybe you could get him to come visit the recordings. Maybe you'll see if your manager can talk to Yoohyeon’s manager to see if she could stop by sometimes with Pie.

You walked off towards your dressing room and stripped out of the uncomfortable dress. You shivered as you slipped on your robe, the familiar knock sequence of your manager alerting you to her incoming, making a noise of acknowledgement as you watched the door swing open. “Alright little daisy.” Your manager had been with you since the beginning and you grinned softly at the sight of coffee and a donut in her hands. “Is that for me?” Your eyes glittered as you gave your manager the puppy eyes. When she shut the door she looked at you. “Did you play nice with Seonghwa?”

Your huffed, moving to sit down in the chair in front of a mirror to start removing your makeup. “The best I could with his shitty behavior.” She rolled her eyes.”Sujin please.” Your manager sighed. “Fine.” She watched you carefully as she cocked her head to the side, meeting your eyes. “You know that you won't be able to avoid him for long, you're in the same movie now. You need to tell him the truth.” She spoke as she placed her hands on your shoulders. “That's his fault for believing the rumors, Sujin! ‘N this was first year of high school. It's almost been ten years. It's easier to just return the attitude he gives me.”

You rubbed your eyes and sigh, the gentle squeeze on your shoulders told she understood. You do want to tell Seonghwa, but every time you looked at him the anger of him believing the rumors instead of coming to you always lit a fire inside you, leading your disappointment and anger towards him. If he came to learn the truth it would be like this between you both.

You lean back in your chair, resting your head on Sujin’s shoulder. “I'm so tired of fighting him but he never bothers to learn the truth.” You close your eyes and sigh. Sujin frowns down at you before she purses her lips. “Y/n.” You look up at her, seeing the look in your eyes and furrowing your brows. “I could talk to his manager? Or Hongjoong’ he seems to listen to him.” You sigh. “Wooyoung knows everything so i'm surprised he hasn't told him, i did ask him to not tell him. If Seonghwa ever wants to know the truth he can ask Wooyoung who will probably tell him to come to me.”

You smile as your manager takes down your hair from the updo the hair stylist had put you in. A breath left you as you closed your eyes, the small massage making you relax into her. “Fuck that was starting to give me a headache.” You confess and she chuckles, fingers sliding through your hair.

There's a knock on your door and you both turn to face it. “Who is it?” Sujin calls and you hear Joshua’s voice on the other side. “Just me, can I come in?” You stand up and move towards the door, opening it with a bright smile. “Hi Shua.” He gives you a tight hug, stroking your back for a moment. “Hello little one.” You forget how tall your best friend is sometimes, he's about a head and a half taller than you.

Pulling him in your room you quickly shut the door, not noticing the eyes watching the door close, a frown on his lips before he is following, getting close enough to hear the conversation.

You lean against the wall, a giddy feeling in your chest. Joshua always gave you the butterflies in the tummy and a giddy feeling in your chest. He was the first crush you had other than Seonghwa. You rest your head on the wall when you turn to face him. “How can I help you?” You smile and Joshua chuckles, returning the grin. “You could help me if you come to lunch with me.” You feel a blush rise on your cheeks. You forgot how direct your friend could be.

“..as a date?” He hummed softly. “Yes and no.” You crossed your arms and nodded. “When?” He pulls his phone out the same time you do, both checking schedules. “How about Thursday? We can go when everyone takes a break.” You nod. Thursday is full with filming of some of the movie.

Seonghwa crosses his arms from where he leans against the wall a bit down from your door. You're going on a date with Joshua? He glares at the door. Of course you would go out with him, he was perfect. He rolls his eyes and kicks one leg over the other, head down.

Standing straight you wrap your arms around Joshua’s waist and squeeze. He chuckles and hugs you tightly back, swaying a bit before he backs up, hand on the door. “I'll text you.” You nod and wave and he leaves the room.

Seonghwa is gone before the door opens.

Joshua walks down away from your room before turning down a hall, catching the younger male. “It isn't nice to eavesdrop on a private conversation.” Joshua spoke, startling Seonghwa. He tenses. “I wasn't.” Joshua huffed. “I saw you turn the corner.”

Seonghwa fights back the slight amount of shame he feels from being caught. “I was just wondering what you were doing with her…” Joshua raises a brow. “Why would you care? You hate her.” Seonghwa looks down, biting his lip. “I don't hate her….” He trails off and the elder crosses his arms. “You could fool me, probably her too. She's convinced you hate her. Believing the rumors and not coming to her.” Joshua starts, cutting the other off when he opens his mouth.

“What kind of friend are you?” Joshua narrows his eyes. “She told me everything. What you said, what the rumor was. The truth.” He walks closer, keeping eye contact with Seonghwa. “Maybe stop being a bitch and ask her what really happened.” He looks at the younger for a moment longer before sighing. “She doesn't hate you. But what you said really hurt her.” He whispered. “Let her tell you the truth.” Joshua walks past him before he can reply and Seonghwa is left standing in the middle of the hallway, staring at the floor blankly.

He clenches his fist. He should probably talk to you before the bed scene. He doesnt want that scene to be more awkward than it will be. He ruffles his hair angrily before returning to his room to remove his makeup and change, already finding his own manager inside, sitting on the couch. “Where were you? We are in a time crunch. We have a radio broadcast.” Seonghwa nods. “You have an interview next week with how the movie is coming along.” He lists and Seonghwa slips on his jacket and grabs his own.

His manager stops, frowning. “Where is your head at?” When there's no response his manager’s frown deepens. “Seonghwa.” He jumps, eyes locking with his managers. “Where are you at?” Seonghwa frowns back. “Sorry I'm just…tired I guess. It's been a long day.” His manager looks at him for a moment before nodding and walking behind Seonghwa as he leaves the room. “Van is here.” Seonghwa nods, looking around in case he will get a glimpse of you. He sees you walking towards him with your own manager, not looking at him.

You have to get past him to be able to leave and you want to disappear, go out the back way. Maybe if i don't look at him he wont talk to me. You hope, biting your lip but smiling as your phone starts ringing. It's a small part of Wooyoung’s part in mist. “Hi Woo.” You whisper, glancing at Seonghwa as you walk past him.

I'd like to thank Satan for creating Wooyoung and his perfect timing.

You hum when he starts complaining about Seonghwa and Hongjoong. “Hey, Joong is a busy guy. Plus everyone, including atiny, know you like when he degrades you.” There's a scandalous gasp on Wooyoung's end. “...just because my heart flutters doesn't mean anything.” You roll your eyes. “Wooyoung thats a degradation kink, try to lie again and i'll tell Hongjoong.” You threaten and the line is silent for a moment before Wooyoung's voice drops into a whisper.

“I know Seonghwa went to do promotional photos today. How did that go?” You sigh, your own voice dropping. “About as good as you think Woo.” There's a sigh from the other end. “I don't know what to do Woo…” You continue when it's silent. “Everytime i see him, i think of his words and the fact he didnt want my side of the story fucking hurts. The pain fuels my anger so then I just…break.” You start mumbling at the end. “It's been years, Woo.” Wooyoung sighs and nods. “I know.” He murmurs before there's muffled talking on his end. “I gotta go, Seonghwa is the last one here, do you see him?” You take a quick glance around before nodding. “Yeah, he's just kind of…staring.”

You smirk for a moment before waving at Seonghwa and disappearing into your car. “I waved and now I'm leaving.” There's a burst of laughter on the other end and you gasp mockingly. “Did you put me on speaker phone?!” San’s laughing joining just confirms your guess.You barely get a look at the shocked look on the others face before the door is closed and you're off to your next schedule.

“Have fun on the radio guys, I'll be watching!” The replies come together into gibberish and you laugh softly before hanging up. “Love those kids.” You mutter.

Looking up at Sujin you smile a bit. “What's next?” She hums as she drives. “Next is just a solo interview about what you're excited about for your upcoming movie, then there's a meeting with a brand that would like you as one of their ambassadors.” The smile that's playing on her lips has your stomach spinning in anticipation. “What brand?” You bit your lip, crossing your arms. “Starts with a G and ends with a y.” Your grin slowly grows.”Givenchy? Same one Hao is in?” She nods, her smile growing along with yours. “Can I message him about it? Or do I need to wait?” You are half tempted to pull out your phone.

Minghao has been your best friend since before you were even in the industry. Being under the acting portion of the same company you both had been friends before either of you had a debut. Minghao with his dancing and artwork and you with acting, you were both known friends. You were each other's rocks, especially when you found out Seonghwa was debuting in a kpop group.

She nodded, a glance back at you as she drove. “You can message him about it. He will probably be very excited.” You pull out your phone quickly, the memory and day with Seonghwa slipping your mind as you quickly texted your best friend about the news.

If there was one thing Sujin was good at, it was distracting you and making you forget about whatever happened during the days that made you sad. You grinned softly as you talked to Minghao throughout the rest of your free time between schedules.

Once sitting on the couch next to the interviewer you placed a blanket on your lap to keep modesty with how short your skirt was. “Hello Y/n, thank you for coming on the show.” You grinned widely, shaking your head. “It's no problem.” You leaned back. “So it seems you are having a new movie coming up. It looks like Ateez’s Seonghwa will be the lead male.” You nod softly. “Have you guys already met?” You nod, looking towards the camera. “We actually did promotional pictures today.” The interviewer gasps. “Can we expect anything? Can you give us any hints?”

Shaking your head you chuckled. “There's no need, once the photos are out it will be all you need to know.” You tease carefully and the lady in front of you pouts softly before it changes. “So you met with Seonghwa, with their rising fame did it make you nervous at all. “No. I was already friends with Wooyoung and San. So it wasn't hard to be friendly with him. I'm only a few months younger than him and I've been watching them for a while. They're all so talented and friendly.” You mention.

“Should we expect any collabs soon?” You laugh at the question and shake your head. “Oh no, I can't sing or anything at all, ‘n i wouldn't want their captain's hard work to go to waste.” You grin. “Though everyone knows of my friendship with Minghao, he often tries to help me dance but I'm not very good at it.” The interviewer shakes her head. “We have seen some of the tiktok challenges you do with some idols. They look like some of the best ones we've seen from the actors and actresses”

You bite your lip and nod, bowing a bit. “Thank you.” Your cheeks turn a soft pink at the compliment.

You weren't used to compliments from strangers. Even now with being in the industry for almost 8 years. Your attention is brought back when the other chuckles softly. “So it’s Seonghwa’s first big acting role. Are you teaching him the ropes?” You shake your head. “I think he got it down from when Ateez had their own acting film.” She nods and sits up straight. “Well thank you for visiting me here Y/n. I hope to see you again soon.”

You nod and smile, standing up once the camera is off. “Thanks for inviting Lia.” She grins, eyes turning into crescents. “No problem Y/n. I do want to see you again soon though.” You nod. “We can get lunch in a few days?” You propose and she nods, standing up as well. “I'll be off first.” You bow your head a bit as the younger girl waves you goodbye.

Sliding into the car you huff when you catch Sujins gaze. “You did pretty well hiding your reactions from everyone.” She compliments and you nod, keeping quiet as you lean against the seat and closing your eyes. “Just a few months with him then you're done.” She comments and you sigh, eyes closing. “I can't believe he believed the end of what he saw.” You mumble before sitting up straight. “Now it's the meeting?!” She laughs and nods, driving away from the set and back to the company.

“Should I go home after this or ask Hao to get lunch with me? Maybe Jun?” You're mostly talking to yourself but your manager still answers. “It's been a while since you last saw Jun, why don't you call him and see if he's back?” You purse your lips and nod. You know both of your managers had to have something going on between them. Considering her cheeks turning pink whenever you mention you're gonna see Jun.

You giggle quietly at the thought. You wont ask until she comes to you, after all it's her personal life even if you are friends too. You're just happy she doesn't keep it professional and stand offish as your last manager did.

“Actually call both of them, I know their friends too.” She comments and you smile, nodding. You'd love to see both of your friends at the same time. Plus it's a known fact between all of your fans that you guys are best friends so you don't worry.

Seonghwa totally slips your mind once you step into the meeting room to talk with givenchy.

You also walk out as a new ambassador for the brand. You're quickly calling your two friends and asking them to dinner. “It's been so long.” You pout. “Especially since we have all gone to eat.” You wait for them to answer, grin growing as they both say yes. “Ok, how about in an hour? I just want to get out of these clothes and into something more comfortable.” They hum in response and you end the call, biting down on your bottom lip.

—---time skip—-

The next months are brutal, you barely got through the first month of shooting and Seonghwas remarks before you were aware of the kiss and bed scene. “Seokmin…” The blood drains from your face. “Don't worry Y/n, The covers will be over both of your bodies, nothing will be seen and both you and Seonghwa will be wearing skin coloured clothing so it's not like you'll both be seeing each other naked. The chemistry so far is amazing.” He grins brightly and you feel your protests crumble.

How can you be mad when he gives you that smile. You sigh and nod, Seonghwa behind you also nodding. You rub your eyes lightly, careful of the make up. “Alright, the scene is the day after tomorrow. Hopefully you'll be able to prepare yourselves in time.” He leaves with that remark.

The tv crew for the interview is already arriving and both of you go back to your rooms to put something a bit more modern on before you back in chairs in front of the cameras, Lia beside them. You smile as the camera man counts down and Lia starts her greeting before asking for both of you to introduce yourself.

“Hello, Im Ateez’s Seonghwa.” He bows his head a bit.

“Hey, thanks for having me again. Im Y/n.”

She smiles before she crosses a leg over the other, hands on her knee. “So how has recording been so far? We have seen the pictures, which look incredible. It seems like you have incredible chemistry even through pictures.” She comments and you shift in your seat. “Yeah it's been, about as you'd expect for a movie filming. Seonghwa and I have actually met before. We went to middle school together but never talked.” You can feel the way the male tenses a bit beside you. “It also helps that I'm already friends with most of his group.” You grin a bit.

“What about you Seonghwa? How've you felt so far?” You're a bit nervous about his answer. You could both destroy each other's careers with a single sentence. You tense a bit as you look over towards the male beside you.

“So far I think it's going pretty good. Its fun working with Y/n and seeing her again after a long time.” You want to laugh in his face at his words. Thats a whole fucking lie. You smile at his words, making sure it feels natural. “So as your first big screen debut how does it feel Seonghwa?” She asks and he chuckles a bit.

“It's a big change from webtoons and small things like Ateez has done before.” He nods, you nod along with him. “But Y/n has been amazing at helping me learn more. I'm happy it was her that got the lead.” You think he's being truthful at the beginning. You have helped him a lot with learning the ropes of acting, getting him used to it just in case he gets another role in a different movie.

“That's amazing!” Lia grins and she sits up straight. “So you're way through filming right?” You both nod and she lowers her voice dramatically for the effect. “Can you give me a little inside as to how the movie is going?” You shake your head. “I can't give you anything Lia, I'm sorry.” You sigh teasingly and she slouches back in her chair.

“Alright, I give.” She pouts a bit and you grin and sit up straight in your seat. “But…” You say, grabbing her attention. “We have a scene coming up that everyone will like.” She gasps. “Is it a kiss? Bed scene? A steamy make out?” She throws questions and you ignore the barely concealed shock on Seonghwa’s face.

You know you might get scolded later, but you liked breaking the rules sometimes. You grin and Lia sighs when she notices you won't answer any of her questions. “I guess we should end it here.” She speaks, back to herself as she bows her head. “Thank you for visiting again Y/n and thank you Seonghwa for coming today, hopefully i can see you guys after the movie comes out.” She has a hopeful lilt in her words and you nod.

“Thank you for having us Lia.” The cameras shut and you're off the seat, eyes landing on Sujin who is already on the phone, eyes narrowed at you and you smirk, shrugging your shoulders. ‘Give the people what they want, just a peak.’ Your mouth and her scowl dissipates, a sigh leaving her lips and she turns away.

“You're going to get in trouble for that.” You glance around, making sure all fans have gone before you turn back and half roll your eyes. “Sujin knew I'd probably pull something, I do it sometimes, especially with Lia.” You wave your hand dismissively. “Plus, I have to keep everyone on their toes.” You pat his cheek teasingly before walking away towards the hallway. You're half way down the hall when Seonghwa catches up to you, holding your wrist.

Frowning you turn around, seeing the other biting down on his bottom lip. “That photographer…” You raise a brow. “Shua?” He nods, frowning. “He told me a few things, well more yelled at me the day we had the promotional photoshoot…” You pull your arm out of his grip before sighing and pulling him to your dressing room and making him sit down. “So what?” You continue and he looks away before he starts recounting the more one sided conversation.

By the end you're huffing out a laugh. “Ok? He told you the TRUTH if you were interested in it. The side you should've gotten, the side that made sense and matched with others.” You chuckle bitterly. Seonghwa went to college, not knowing Joshua as he was a few years ahead. You can tell Seonghwa is done with your attitude but you think he deserves it.

You snort as his eye twitches, raising your own brow before getting comfortable on the couch and staring at him. “So why are you here?” He clenches his jaw, and sighs. “I'm sorry…” It's clear and audible but it still sends surprise through your body. “You're sorry? Now you're sorry?!” You almost let out a hysterical laugh, disbelief on your face. “Are you sorry before you feel guilty for yourself or because you know the truth and realize you did the wrong thing? Didn't get both sides?” You spit, locking eyes with him.

“Y’know what, let's just…forget it and once we finish the movie we will go our separate ways.” You wave your hand and sigh before getting up to grab your clothes. “Now, if you'd get out, that'd be great. I'm going to see Wooyoung after this.” He frowns. You're going to see Wooyoung? “Why are you going to see him?” You sigh and face away from him. “If you aren't going to leave, can you atleast make yourself useful and unzip the back of my dress so I can change.”

He nods and walks closer. “You didn't answer my question.” You sigh once he unzips the dress, slipping on your shirt before turning around once he steps away. “Thank you. But I'm going to see Woo because we are friends.” You explain before slipping your shorts on under the rest of the dress and slipping it off. Seonghwa sighs, resting his head in his hands. “I never hated you…” You rolled your eyes as you slipped on your shoes and grabbed your phone. “Ya’ coulda’ fucking fooled me.” You snap before you're grabbing the rest of your items and calling Wooyoung.

“Hey Woo- '' He frowned as you called one of his members. Grabbing your phone he hung up the call and pulled you into his arms, hugging you tightly, you couldn't help but melt into his hold first, hiding your face in his chest with a sigh. Your body tensed and you tried to pull away only to give up when you felt his body shaking. “...Seonghwa?” His sniffles grew loud and he hid his face in your neck. “I’m sorry Y/n…” You sighed. “I never hated you Hwa, I was just… just…disappointed that you didn't want to listen to my side.” You sighed. “I missed you Hwa. A lot, but you seemed so happy to just drop me because it didn't look like you cared.” You frowned gently, arms raising and hesitating before hugging him back.

You heard him sigh, a shaky sound as he hugs you tighter and pulls back. “Tell me everything.” You pause, eyes flickering between both of his eyes, seeing if there was anything else in his eyes. You have a few hours before you have to meet Wooyoung. Pursing your lips you sigh. Why not? You mumble before putting your back down and turning to sit on the couch. Once Seonghwa sits on the couch you take a breath before explaining.

—--

By the end Seonghwa hasn't said anything, he's quiet, eyes on his hands as he tries to find the words. “Why did you think Yujin told the truth?” You speak and Seonghwa bites his lip. “I had a crush on her…” You scrunch your nose in disgust. “Are you serious? You believed I was a slut because she said so? You believed I slept with your family. Your dumbass believed her over me, you knew her for maybe a month. What other lies did you believe? Didn't she tell you that I slept with your friends too? That I slept with the whole school?” He looked away. “No, Seonghwa look me in the eye when you lie to me.”

His eyes found yours after a moment. “Im…” You kept eye contact and his bottom lip trembled. “She fed me so many lies I didn't know what to believe.” He spoke and you sighed. “I won't forgive you and I won't forget, but we can be friends again.” You handed him your phone. “Put your number in and we can talk more, maybe even meet up after shooting when our schedules line up for dinner or drinks.”

Seonghwa’s cheeks flushed red. “I, uh, i'm not a good drinker.” You blinked before you nodded. “That's right, Wooyoung told me.” He huffed before he put his number in your phone. “Maybe we can continue back to when we were friends? When Yujin wasn't there?” You sighed. “I think we talked enough about it right now. I'll see you tomorrow.” You finished and got up. Seonghwa watched for a moment before he nodded, resting against your couch.

You could almost see the million thoughts going through his head and you bit your lip before walking over to him and leaning down. There was only one way to get his mind to stop running. You knocked your forehead against his gently. It was a thing you both always did when one was spiraling, thoughts running 100 mph with no end in sight. “Breath Hwa.” You could hear his breath hitch, no doubt remembering how many times you both did the same thing to each other.

Once you felt him relax you stepped back, his eyes looking at you with almost sparkles. Your cheeks flushed. “Stop looking at me like that.” Why did he still have the same effect on you as he used too, if not more intense. Enemies to lovers was one of your favorite tropes. You rapidly shook the thought out of your head before walking towards the door. “Text me Hwa. We need to catch each other up on everything.” Your voice was the softest it had been towards him in a while.

He nodded, a small smile growing on his lips as he watched you leave. He finally had a second chance. When he lost you he felt it. The pain of losing your best friend. But the lies she kept telling them only fueled his hatred for what he believed you had done. Why didn't he ask for your side, ask his family or friends if it was true? Everything he could have done was now spinning around his head. He really was an idiot.

He pulled his phone back and sent you a text, smiling as he saw your contact name. He stood up and walked towards the door as well, not seeing you in sight before he left as well, heading back to the dorms just in time to see Wooyoung leaving. “Bye Wooyoung.” He said instead of a greeting. The younger waved before he was shutting the door and off to meet up with you.

He bet Wooyoung knew what had happened, assuming by the way Wooyoung had given him a soft smile.

—--

The next day you both met up for shooting, you had both agreed to head out after the shoot to catch up, maybe continue where the good things ended. He had high hopes. You bit your lip as you watched him come into your dressing room, Sujin giving you a firm look before walking out. Seonghwa smiled faintly at you. “I know today is the kissing scene and the bed scene is two days ago. I think we should be on friendly terms…” He trailed off, leaning against the make up table you were at as you nodded, eyes locking on his.

The silence should've been awkward or tense but you guess the talk yesterday had an effect. You licked your lips as you leaned back. “Tell me about afterwards. When did you join your company?” You watched him look down as he started talking about what happened after. You both went back and forth talking about what had happened when you both split ways.

There was a knock on the door that interrupted you both, a voice through the door telling you it was time to shoot. Giving each other a look you both went out, hoping to finish quickly so you could both go to eat after. Seonghwa had an early schedule tomorrow and you had a rare day off. You took a breath as you went onto the set, going through the lines and scenes in your head. Giving both the director and Seonghwa a confident nod and a smile, you were both ready to start. “We finish last time right before the kiss, so we will go from there.”

You smiled as you stood in front of Seonghwa, face softening as you changed into your character, arms going around his neck and one hand on the back of his head in his hair. When the cue was given you went through your lines, head tilted to the side before you glanced down at his lips, before Seonghwa was leaning down to press your lips together, a hand somewhat covering both of your lips., the other gripping your waist.

Your eyes fluttered shut as you felt consumed by Seonghwa, letting him lead.as he adjusted you both, turning as the camera changed positions, tongue swiping against your lip and you let him, a harsh breath through your nose as you let the other move you like a doll, your grip on his hair. You gasped as he pulled away, your head tilting back as you felt him move to your neck. You bit your lip as the camera zoomed in on Seonghwa, catching the way his mouth opened and bit down on your neck.

You faked a struggle and held your neck as you backed up, fake blood smearing against your neck and Seonghwas mouth.

“Cut!” You gave Seonghwa a high five before you both changed into a different scene, a grin on both your lips as you both changed and cleaned up.

The filming ended quicker than usual and you thanked everyone for their help before you nodded towards the other. “I'll meet you by the door so we can head to dinner together? There's a place across the street I've wanted to try.” Seonghwa nodded before you both disappeared into your room,

You had to admit, you were a bit scared of what this dinner could come out to. He could only want to be on friendly terms for only the rest of filming. But he seemed genuine. Maybe he wanted to start catching up? You frowned as you finished changing, slipping on your jacket before texting your manager that you would be getting dinner with Seonghwa and would be home later. You got the expected reaction from her.

‘???? Dinner??? With THE Park Seonghwa??? What happened to this mutual hatred?’

There were masses of texts from her and you had to sigh, a fond smile on your lips before you locked it and put it in your pocket, walking to the door and finding Seonghwa already. “Well?” You question and his head snapped up, gaze meeting yours and he nodded. “Let's go.

You smiled, walking beside him as you both left to go to the restaurant across the street. “So this dinner, did you want to talk about what's gonna happen after this? After filming ends?” He took a minute, eyes on his feet for a moment before he looked over at you. “Yeah.” You nodded, pursing your lips as he opened the door for you, giving a small smile and nod of thanks as you asked the waitress for a private table as her eyes widened when the recognition hit her. She led you away towards the back where there were small partitions splitting the few of the tables. “Thank you. Could we start with water and desert wine?” She nodded, scribbling it down and disappearing.

You took a breath and sat down, Seonghwa sitting across from you. “I think we should be friends, start over.” He started, looking at you. “I'm not saying forgive and forget, I'm saying, maybe forgive over time? I’ll show you that I'm better, that I won't hurt you again.” He pursed his lips when the waitress came over with the water and wine. Nodding his thanks he continued. “I did miss your friendship, and I'm sorry that I let her brainwash me with lies.” You nodded, drinking your glass of wine as you listened to him talk.

“Im ok with that…” You nodded and you couldn't fight your smile when you saw Seonghwas own. “I’ll give you another chance, but i wont forget.” He nodded. “I get it.” He smiled crookedly. “Maybe we can get back to where we were in friendship?” You shrugged and watched as he took a drink nodding. “Maybe.” You nodded, licking your lips and both looking through the menu and you both quickly picked something and ordered before you leaned back in your chair.

“Sujin was surprised when I told her where I was going, more that i was going with you.” He nodded, a chuckle leaving his lips. “Yeah, I think Woo was surprised when I told him.” You grinned wider at the mention of the younger. “I'm waiting for his call.” You admitted, Seonghwa nodding before he took another drink, closing his eyes. “Maybe he will wait til after?”

He didnt end up calling that night.

The dinner ended with you both drinking another bottle of wine before walking back to your place, giggling and bumping into each other like old times. Every now and then your fingers would brush and Seonghwa would hesitate to hold your hand. Was it too soon? You both had just made up and he didnt want to risk it by doing anything dumb too soon.

You bit your lip, once you got inside the lobby you pressed the button for the top flood and barely got inside before Seonghwa had up up against the mirrored walls and a rushed ‘i cant wait’ before he leaned forward and pressed your lips together again. This one was full of passion, longing and a bit of sadness. You gasped before you relaxed and let him take over again, hugging him close to you before he heard the elevator ding, dragging you out and grinning against your lips.

He gripped your hip as he pressed you against the wall beside the door, locking the door easily. You let out a sigh as his lips met the skin of your neck, eyes closing as your hand reached up to tangle in his hair, pulling him closer. Your free arm wrapped around his waist as you held him against your body tightly. “No marks.” You managed to get out and you heard Seonghwa huff. “I can't make you either. Your fans wouldn't be happy and neither would mine. The media would have so much fun.” You managed to choke out when he nipped at your neck, hands slipping under your shirt and up towards your bra, stroking the warm skin of your back.

You rested your head back against the wall, tugging on his hair to bring him up to your lips. “Are you going to let me ride your cock Hwa? Make me forget my name and only remember yours?” You could feel the effect your words had on him, his cock on your thigh twitching with every dirty word that left your mouth. You giggled against his lips as he grinded against your thigh, hissing quietly. He leaned down, tapping the back of your thighs, hinting at you to jump. “Wrap your legs around my waist baby.” He murmured against your lips as he pressed them together, nipping at your bottom lip.

He chuckled, catching you easily as you wrapped your arms around his neck, hand hands tangling into his hair as he deepened the kiss, letting him lead you to the couch. His hand slipped up your back to find the clasp of your bra and easily unclipped it before you both fell onto the couch, him grinning.

“I just might make you forget your name. You've been teasing me lately.” He hums. “I could punish you but I bet you'd like it.” You rested your head back against the cushions, legs falling from his waist but still caging his hips in. You chuckled. “I think we have waited too long for you to just punish me, after all.” You trailed off, lifting your hips enough to grind against him, a smirk on your lips as you felt the hardness pressing against the fabric of his cheeks. “You're seeming to get a bit…what's the word, impatient yourself.” You hummed, sitting up to slip off your shirt and bra. “How about we practice for that scene?” You grinned a bit, sliding your hands underneath his shirt and pulling it up. “We can make it real. Not having barriers against us.”

You grin and he groans against your lips as he leans back down. “Such a tease.” He shifts both of you enough to get your pants and panties off as his shirt and pants disappear. “You're already so wet.” He cooed quietly, hands sliding against your thighs before he shuffled down and laid on his stomach the best he could, thanking you in his head that you had a long couch.

“Can I?” He flicks his gaze up to you as he glances at your pussy, licking his lips. You pretend to think about it for a moment, but the warmth of his breath against the wet patch of your panties makes you clench around nothing. You nod and he wastes no time with getting you accustomed to his tongue. You would've never guessed Seonghwa was good at head, but looking at some of the videos and what fans have to say you should've guessed he would be.

You groaned at the swipe of his tongue through your folds, hand tangling into his hair as you let your head fall back on the couch, eyes closed. “Fuck…” You feel more than hear Seonghwa hum against your pussy and your hips jolt from reflex, a string of expletives leaving your mouth.

You sighed as you felt Seonghwa wrap his lips around your clit and suck, his finger pressing his way inside after swiping them through your folds. You wanted to close your legs but it was like he could read your mind, his hands coming to pin your legs against the couch before pulling away, licking his lips. “You taste so good.” It sounds pornographic, the whine you let out when he pulls away. His eyebrow raises and his lips quirk into a smirk. “Was my tongue that good?” The smirk on his face tells you he knows it was. You pout, avoiding his eyes as he presses his fingers into you, crooking them upwards, fingertips pressing against the spongy spot inside of you, a grin on his lips.

“There?” You nodded, hand gripping his wrist as his massaged the spot, eyes tracing over your body. “You're so pretty.” His tongue swipes across his bottom lip, hunger in his as he adds another finger. “More?” He looks back up at you, free hand coming to stroke your side, humming as you nod. “I want you cock Hwa. Please…” He bit his lips before he slipped his fingers out and straight into his mouth. He groaned softly at the taste, eyes falling shut before you wrapped your legs around his waist, trying to put his cock inside you by yourself.

A quick swat to your outer thigh had you stopped, a pout on your lips as he looked down at you. “No.” You huffed before it broke into a low whine, gripping his wrists once he caged you in with his hands next to your head as he slowly pressed inside you. His eyes locked between your body, biting his bottom lip. When he glanced back up he furrowed his brows at the slight pain on your face.

“I knew you werent stretched enough, so impatient you couldnt wait long enough so i could fuck you comfortably? Maybe you wanted it this way.” He cooed once he managed to fit all of him inside, a deep breath leaving. “Wanted to be stretched by my cock and not my fingers. Do you like the pain?” He taunted and you bit your lip as your eyes opened, looking up at him.

A look into his eyes told you he was holding himself back the best he could, Maybe talking was distracting him. “Hmmm.” You hummed out, eyes a bit hazy as you tried to focus on the man above you. “You can move.” He raised a brow but sat up, hands on your hips, a faint smile on his lips as you kept your hands on his wrists. The first snap of his hips ripped a gasp from your throat, a groan following. “Fuck thats good.” You whined, tightening your legs as his gaze stayed on where you both were connected. “Look at you…” He murmured. “Taking me so well…” He bit his bottom lip as his thrusts sped up slowly, punching moans out from your chest with each one.

You released one of his hands to put it against the arm of the couch to prevent your head from hitting it, Seonghwas thrusts scooting you up the couch little by little. He raised your hips a bit, shifting his aim and grinning when you tighten your grip and arched your back, a loud broken moan leaving your lips. “Right there?” At your frantic nod he kept his hips aimed and sped up his thrusts, licking his thumb and rubbing your clit quickly. “Fuck…” He breathed, hissing under his breath. “You're so tight.” He looked up at you. “Cum baby.” He purred as he held back his own orgasm, wanting you to cum first.

Watching you fall apart on his cock made him wish he could have recorded it. The thin layer of sweat covering your body and the way your body arched, mouth falling open in a silent moan, the way your eyes squeezed shut and your grip on his wrist tightened. Beautiful. He had half the mind to ask if he could take a pic. The image had him quickly pulling out, his cum pooling on your stomach and some on your chest. He let go with a groan, giving you both a second before he got up and walked to your bathroom, grabbing a washcloth and wetting it to wipe off his cum.

“Hey Y/n. You need to go pee.” He murmured after he finished cleaning you up. “And take a shower.” He spoke softly, using the other side of the rag to wipe his own body clean. He will take a shower when he gets home. You nodded, disappearing into the bathroom on shaky legs. He sat down at the table after slipping his pants and boxers back on. You both had to talk about what had just happened.

When he saw you come out he nodded towards the chair in front of him. “We should talk about it.” You nodded before you sat down in front of him and quickly spitting out what you were thinking in the shower. “I'm ok with keeping this friends with benefits thing…” Seonghwas mouth dropped a bit, surprise on his face. “I know jacking off only helps so much until you start needing something better.” His cheeks are turning pink so you continue. “While I know any of your fans would line up for a chance, we would be better. We are friends to the public eye and it won't be TOO hard to pass everything with no scandal.” You watch him, mouth still open. You grinned slowly. “Hwa?”

He rapidly shook his head, shaking away the surprise before he covered his face. “Im…ok with that.” He admitted and you chuckled. “While its hard for idols its hard for actresses, we are seen as sluts or whores if we hand out with any guy that the public doesnt seem to know. Hao, Jun and I hang out because we are all under the same company so theres no scandal.” He nods, peeking through his hands.

“We can both fill each others sexual needs. Easy.”

You were both in agreement. You smiled at him. "Maybe we will end up as more some time." That got Seonghwa to pull his hands away to look at you. "Really?" You nodded.

"Really."

#cultofdionysusnet #park seonghwa imagine #ateez imagine #park seonghwa smut #ateez smut #codn: santa23 #skyechilds work

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starlightkun · 1 year

Text

❧ word count: 20.1k

❧ warnings: cursing, mentions of death/dead people but as a moral quandary, definitely more legal jargon than there should be i am so sorry (if it doesn’t make sense then it wasn’t important), oh there’s a short scene with a weirdly graphic depiction of eating fruit sorry if that gives you the ick, it gets very existential and kind of angsty at some points in this one in terms of morality around death and reader’s job

❧ genre: fluff, no literally so fluffy it probably should have been in the warnings actually, established relationship, greek gods/goddesses au, hades jaemin, human reader, nades au, paralegal reader, bit of a ham-fisted persephone allegory, inspired by the gods/goddesses assigned to the work it unit in 2020 for this video, appearances by aphrodite johnny, bestie jeno, coworkers kun and sicheng, and galactic-threat level menace yangyang

❧ extra info: this is the sequel to obsidian black, it cannot be read as a standalone!!!

❧ spotify playlist

⤷ series masterlist

Your fingers were still caressing his cheek, softly, he was still holding you with a hand on your back, and he was beholding you with a yearning that made your heart lurch against your ribcage; and you knew in that moment if you asked him for his own heart he would have reached his hand into his chest and given it to you, the organ still beating and dripping crimson.

“Hi, honey, how was work?”

Jaemin was already in your apartment when you got home that night, sitting in his favorite spot in your armchair, book in hand. As you walked around in front of him, you saw that this time his pick was Dracula by Bram Stoker.

“It was alright, lots of revising briefs,” you stretched your neck out. “And what exactly do you do all day while I’m at work anyway?”

“I do own a business, you know.”

“The Underworld is an LLP?” You joked as you stretched your shoulders next.

“An LLC actually,” he quipped back as he flipped to the next page. “But I meant one on Earth.”

“Glad you’ve got something to keep you busy aside from dead people,” you twisted around to crack your back, letting out a groan when you heard a satisfying pop. “Dinner?”

“I know a place nearby.”

And just under forty-five minutes later you were sat beside Jaemin in a private booth at a nice restaurant, drink in hand and food on the table.

“By ‘know a place’ you meant you had surprise reservations,” you declared, affectionately bumping his knee with yours.

“Maybe so,” he grinned, resting an arm over the back of the booth. “Did it work?”

“Depends, what were you hoping it would do?”

“Oh you know, woo you, make you fall madly in love with me, the usual.”

“Hmm,” you pretended to scrutinize your surroundings. “I guess I’m feeling mildly wooed.”

Jaemin suddenly leaned in, and you watched him, breathless, eagerly awaiting his next move. You always enjoyed your back-and-forth, the seamless way you two went around each other, the mutual pushing and pulling. With him this close you reveled in the smell of cedar, cinnamon, and bergamot wafting around you, drawing you in even closer.

“Well then how…” his arm that had been resting on the back of the booth now wrapped around your shoulders, the fingers of that hand gently gracing over the shell of your ear “…about…” his cool fingertips brushed over the back of your neck, raising goosebumps in their wake to then caress over your other ear, “…now?”

Suppressing a giddy smile, you lifted your own hands to feel at your earlobes. You hadn’t been wearing any earrings when you got to the restaurant, but now you could feel jewelry there.

“And what are these?” You asked as you felt over the smooth gems dangling from your ears.

“Opal.”

Your enamored grin finally took over your face, “Okay, I’m officially wooed. The magically appearing earrings got me. Thank you, Jaemin.”

“Success,” he murmured before giving you a fond peck.

His hand stroked up and down your back as you leaned against him, enjoying the quiet that the private booth afforded you.

“You looked tired when you came home, Y/N,” Jaemin commented, and you could hear the hint of worry coloring his tone. “More tired than just proofing briefs.”

You sighed, reaching for your glass to take a sip of your drink, “It was the content of the briefs. I’m usually pretty ambivalent about the morality of the stuff we do at Kim & Moon. But the one that Ms. Haseul had written on this medical malpractice case…”

Your date didn’t speak as he let you find your words.

“The argument she constructed… it was the first time I genuinely just felt… gross about the work I was doing, and all I was doing was proof-reading the thing! I didn’t even write it! And I know Ms. Haseul doesn’t actually believe in what’s in that brief, it’s just a legal argument, it’s all putting together precedent and logic and interpreting the facts of the case. She doesn’t even think it’ll work; she just has a responsibility to try every avenue she can for her client. But… I don’t know. Someone died in this case, Jaemin.”

“They did?”

“Yeah, and I can’t say for sure whether it was because of anything our client did or didn’t do. But the crux of Ms. Haseul’s argument is that our client, as this patient’s medical provider, didn’t owe a duty of care to the patient because the provider wasn’t technically an employee of the hospital due to a bunch of legal stuff, even though our client directly treated them. She said our motion will definitely be denied at the hearing but… it’s scary.”

“Death?”

“Hm?” His question threw off your train of thought for a moment.

“Death is scary?”

“I meant that Ms. Haseul’s duty to her clients involves arguing that medical providers don’t have a duty of care to ensure that their patients don’t die. And that my job involves helping her do that. But yeah, I guess that involves a want to not die. I don’t think not wanting to die and being afraid of dying are the same thing, though.”

“Are you afraid of dying?”

“I… don’t know,” you frowned thoughtfully as you looked down into the mouth of your glass. “I think most people who are, are usually afraid because they don’t how they’ll die or because they don’t know what happens after they die. They’re afraid of the unknown. Which is a pretty good thing to be afraid of. But I’ve been to the Underworld with you, I’m dating Hades himself, for fuck’s sake. I’ve got a fairly good idea of what’ll happen to me after I die. And… I don’t know if I’m afraid of dying.”

“That’s fair. You know more about it than most humans do, but not enough about what your specific experience of dying will be like to make a determination.”

“Really though, I just couldn’t stop imagining living in a world where I could go to a doctor who doesn’t owe me any duty of care, who doesn’t legally have to give a shit if I lived or died,” you sighed, then took a long swig of your drink, well aware that it was mostly diluted by the melted ice by now. “And I don’t want to contribute at all to making that world a reality. I don’t want any part of that, big or small. Even just proof-reading a legal brief. It just… grossed me out.”

You set your glass down on the table a little too harshly, the garish bang making you jump a little.

Looking up to meet the dark eyes that you could feel watching you, you searched them for something, “Jaemin, do you think I’m a hypocrite? I-I have all these opinions, but when it comes down to it, I’m at this job, helping attorneys to write briefs that say all this horrible stuff.”

His gaze was steady as he answered, “I think that if you had to find a new job every time your boss asked you to do something that went against your morals in the slightest way, you’d be spending so much of your time trying to find new jobs that you’d never have the time to actually impact the world in any meaningful way.”

“So that’s a yes.”

“That’s a ‘you proof-reading one brief isn’t going to bring about the end of The Hippocratic Oath and all morality is relative anyway.’”

“Damn, moral relativism…” you clicked your tongue. “Intro to Philosophy flashbacks aside, you might be making some points, Jaemin.”

“Thanks, I try,” he chuckled. Tilting his head to the side, he brought a hand up to grace over your new earrings again, tender but contemplative gaze in his obsidian eyes, “Y/N, do you think I’m a monster?”

His voice wasn’t sad or forlorn, just curious, inquisitive. You took his hand in yours—the one that was looking over the jewelry he’d just gifted you—and squeezed it. It was really more self-soothing than anything else, and he ran his thumb over your bejeweled knuckles in response.

“And where’s this coming from?”

“Humans have a lot of monstrous ideas about death and the dead. I want to know what you think.”

“In my ghost lit class, one of the concepts we discussed was the difference between the monstrous and the divine. I argued that there is no line between the two, that it’s up to how one chooses to interpret what they’re seeing or experiencing.” You brushed the back of your fingers over his cadaverous cheeks, taking comfort in the familiar cold against your skin. “So no, Jaemin, you’re not a monster. Not to me.”

You finally found what you’d been searching for in his eyes, that warmth of evanescing embers that compelled you to keep looking lest you miss the moment the ephemeral glow finally died. Your fingers were still caressing his cheek, softly, he was still holding you with a hand on your back, and he was beholding you with a yearning that made your heart lurch against your ribcage; and you knew in that moment if you asked him for his own heart he would have reached his hand into his chest and given it to you, the organ still beating and dripping crimson. Surging forward, you claimed his lips with your own. He reciprocated your kiss with one that made your head spin and your very bones ache and burn with a craving to both embower him and be consumed by him. Jaemin, god of the Underworld, your Hades.

“Hey, Y/N, I need you to draft a—”

“I’m going on lunch, Sicheng. I can in sixty minutes.”

“Oh. Right.”

“Y/N, will you please help me research this—”

“Qian Kun, the clock just struck 5:00 p.m., the work day is over. I’m going home and you should too.”

“God, sorry, I didn’t even realize. Yes, go home. I still have so much to—”

“I say this with the best intentions and all the platonic, workplace appropriate, and professional love in the world: Don’t make me go into your office and turn your computer off without saving your files.”

“…5:30?”

“Fine. And you know I can check your billing logs in the system, right? I’ll be able to see if you’re here even a minute past 5:30.”

“I know that now.”

“Uh-huh. Goodnight, Kun.”

“Goodnight, Y/N.”

And so went your days at Kim & Moon, helping to conduct the three-ring circus that was Kun, Sicheng, and Yangyang. Despite the legal assistant initially seeming like a trustworthy and responsible ally on your first day, you soon found that he was an accomplice to the madness, or more often than not, the instigator. He was good at his job, and you could rely on him to make sure things got done by deadlines. But when it came to making the workplace itself run smoothly and ensuring your day-to-day lives were stress-free? Absolutely not. He knew exactly how to make his attorneys tick in the worst ways.

Dong “dumber than a box of rocks” Sicheng was the current victim of Yangyang’s boredom today. How he could even get bored with your workload was just a testament to his efficiency, but it irked you that instead of using this free time for good he instead used it to be the menace of the millennium.

“Isn’t that right, Y/N?” Yangyang’s voice suddenly cut into the recording of Ms. Haseul’s voice that was playing into your headphones. His tone clearly begged for you to agree with him.

“Hm?” You took the headphones off and paused the dictation.

Sicheng was standing at Yangyang’s desk, a stapler in his hands. You raised an eyebrow to look between them. This seemed somewhat normal so far.

“All the new staplers now have a safety mechanism so that they won’t staple fingers because a kid stapled all the way through his finger and his parents sued the stapler company for like millions of dollars,” the assistant said with the right amount of casualness, sincerity, and almost disbelief that Sicheng didn’t know this ‘common piece of knowledge.’ “They rolled out the new ones what—ten years ago?”

“You seriously interrupted my transcription for this?” You rolled your eyes. You were about to put your headphones back in when you saw Sicheng tentatively reaching his index finger towards the mouth of the stapler. “No, Sicheng!”

You lurched forward to take the stapler from his hand before he could test the ‘safety mechanism’ on himself. Yangyang had to bury his face in his arms on his desk to stifle his laughter.

“He was lying, wasn’t he?” Sicheng was catching on quicker to when Yangyang was teasing him these days. Not quick enough that you didn’t have to intervene every time you saw it happening, but you had to give him credit somewhere at least. Sometimes you didn’t have to explain to him afterwards the fact that he was being had.

“How did you even become a lawyer, Sicheng? How did you get through law school?” You waved the stapler at him accusatorily. “And I don’t mean grades, I’ve read some of your briefs, so I don’t doubt your 4.0 GPA. I mean how did you not die before you ever got there? How did you not stick a fork in an electrical socket, or eat candy with razorblades in it, or get kidnapped before you met me? I’m convinced you should be dead in a ditch and yet here you are.”

“It’s because he’s pretty,” Kun walked up to your desks then, setting down the papers in his hand to pinch Sicheng’s cheek, and the other attorney swatted his hand away. “People want to do stuff for him.”

Yangyang had sobered up from his laughing fit, teasing glint in his eye now focused on his other attorney, “That why you followed him to Kim & Moon, Kun? To make sure the big bad lawyers here don’t be mean to your pretty Sichengie?”

“So all sense of professionalism and decorum is just out the window right now?” Sicheng scoffed.

“That is not how it happened, Yangyang, and you know it,” Kun rolled his eyes.

“Did you two know each other before you worked at the firm?” You asked, realizing that you didn’t actually know anything about how the two associates had started at Kim & Moon, even after working at the firm for six months now.

Kun took it upon himself to explain, “We were friends in law school. I was a year ahead of Sicheng and after I graduated, I did a short stint at the prosecutor’s office. He came here straight out of law school.”

The other attorney finished the story, “When Kun figured out being a prosecutor wasn’t his thing after a couple years, he came to Kim & Moon as well.”

“That’s cute. Besties who litigate together, stay together. Right Jeno?” You tossed the last question over your shoulder at your friend who was working at his own desk. Jeno gave a thumbs up back without turning around, and you could see that his headphones were definitely in. Returning to the other three men with you, you looked to your fellow assistant, “And what about you, Yang? When did you start working here?”

“Oh you mean the worst day of my life?” Yangyang sighed melodramatically.

“One of these days I’ll record you with my dictaphone when you say that, play it for the senior partners, and you’ll be out of here you little demon,” Sicheng narrowed his eyes at his assistant.

“Anyway, I actually started out as an intern like…” Yangyang craned his neck around until he spotted a tall, lanky figure carrying probably too many boxes of copier toner into the copy room. “Like Sungchan over there. I got an internship here in undergrad because one of my professors knew Mr. Jeong, and I didn’t have anything better to do. Then once I graduated, I had no other plans and was offered a full-time legal assistant position working with Yejin. She was Ms. Haseul’s paralegal before you, Y/N. She used to do all of Ms. Haseul and Sicheng’s work by herself. They wanted to have Kun start medical malpractice too, so I came on as more support.”

“And when was that?”

“I came on full time a little before Jeno started I think?” Yangyang grabbed a pen from his desk, spinning his chair around and throwing the pen at said man. It missed Jeno’s head, thankfully, smacking against one of his monitors and clattering onto his keyboard. Your friend whipped around, immediately focusing in on your chaotic coworker as the source.

“What?”

“When was your first day at the firm?”

“I don’t know, summer like two years ago now?”

“Sounds about right. Thanks.”

“I’m keeping the pen, asshole.”

“I have more.” Yangyang shrugged, once again turning back to your conversation. “So I started full-time probably May that same year.”

“You are a galactic-threat level menace,” you shook your head. “You know that, right?”

“Don’t compliment him, Y/N,” Kun sighed.

Laid in Jaemin’s arms one night, feeling full, warm, and content, you couldn’t think of anywhere else you wanted to be in that moment. Dinner had been exceptionally delicious that night, and when you got back to your apartment you wanted nothing but to curl up with him on your couch, which he easily indulged you in. He picked a couple books off your shelf, plopped down onto your couch, and pulled you down on top of him. You nearly melted when he tucked you under his chin, and had been in a hazy state of half-consciousness since. Your eyes would occasionally flutter open or shut as you listened to his heartbeat under your ear, the sound of his fingers running along the pages as he turned them, and felt his chest rise and fall with his breaths. His arms were wrapped around you enough to read the book behind your head—The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, you’d caught a glimpse of the cover. You knew when he’d found a passage that he was exceptionally taken with or wanted to ponder, because one of his hands—the right one, specifically—would fall to the small of your back just under the hem of your shirt, his middle finger drawing mindless circles along your skin until he was ready to move on.

This particular part seemed to be stumping him, though, as his fingers ruminated on your back for much longer than they had before. Before you could comment on this, you let out an embarrassing noise at the sudden feeling of his cool fingertips working their way up your spine then along your shoulder blades, caressing your skin and pressing on your body playfully.

“Jaemin!” You coughed to cover up the squeak in your voice. “What are you doing?”

“Just checking for wings, I know they’ve got to be around here somewhere,” his words hummed against you as you continued to wriggle away from the ticklish feeling.

His book had apparently been set aside at some point, as you felt both his hands on you. When you’d finally managed to twist yourself onto your back, albeit still on top of him, he gave up his ministrations.

You couldn’t help the tiny bursts of laughter that continued to bubble up out of you at the pure cheesiness, “After thousands of years, you still can’t get better lines than that?”

You grabbed his hand, holding your linked hands to your chest, a fond smile on your lips as you looked down at his fingers between yours. He kept you tucked under his chin, wrapping his left arm around your waist as you had already claimed his right.

“Why would I want to when they make you giggle like that?” He then splayed his right palm over your chest, and you could feel your heartbeat thrum up against it as if your heart were trying to leap into his waiting hand, “And make your heart race like this?”

Another few moments passed by of the two of you quietly listening to your heartbeat before you spoke up again; softly, absentmindedly, the words leaving your mouth as soon as you thought them, “Sometimes I feel more like Icarus with you, actually.”

“How do you mean?”

“I swear sometimes it feels like it’s just too good to be true, like I’m too happy and if I’m not careful it’ll all melt away and I’ll fall into the ocean.”

“You do remember the other part, right? Icarus was warned that if he flew too low, the seawater would weigh down his wings.”

“…You’re right.”

“Of course I am,” he said, and you could hear the smug smile in his voice, annoyed that it actually kind of made you feel better. The fact that your Hades was so confident about something, it made you want to believe in it too. His right hand moved from your chest so that two of those fingers could lift your chin. Once you were looking up at him, he continued, “Besides, you don’t have beeswax wings anyway, you have angel wings, remember?”

You let out something between a scoff and a chuckle, both in disbelief that he was still on about that, and also absolutely smitten with him as usual.

Knowing that he didn’t have you convinced or cheered up enough for his liking, Jaemin’s other hand snaked to the space in between his chest and your back, fingers playing at the bones of your shoulder blades once more. “Aha! I’ve finally found them, Y/N, they’re right here! I told you you’ve got angel wings!”

The longer he went on the more his fingers drifted around to your sides to tickle you instead, and you squirmed in his grip as both his hands participated in the assault, you soon falling from your previous spot on top of him. His arms darted out to gently guide your tumble, twisting himself around to make sure that you landed on the couch cushions instead of the ground.

“Jaemin!” You yelped out as the breath was being squeezed from your lungs.

He quickly let up his tickle attack, now hovering over you, supported by a hand on either side of your head. You looked up at your Hades with a bright grin that surely mirrored his, reaching up to grab his face with both your hands and kiss that smile right off him.

“Anything else on the agenda, Y/L/N?” Ms. Haseul prompted you.

“No, ma’am,” you shook your head, having crossed off the final thing. You’d just concluded your monthly team meeting for everyone under Ms. Haseul’s purview at the office.

“Does anybody have anything to add?”

At the other three shaking their heads, Ms. Haseul dismissed everyone, already efficiently packing up her supplies in her briefcase.

“Y/L/N, don’t forget to send that memo to Mr. Moon and Lee Donghyuck,” she reminded you on her way out, referencing the managing partner and his trusted paralegal.

“Of course, Ms. Haseul.” You nodded, but she was already out the door.

The other four of you were a little slower to leave. You cracked your back as you stood, “Alright, I’m going to the break room to grab a cup of coffee, anybody coming with?”

“I have to jump on a conference call in a couple minutes, but could someone get me a cup?” Sicheng asked from the threshold of the doorway. “The orange K-cups, two sugars.”

“Sure, Sicheng, I’ll grab you one,” you nodded for him to go ahead, and he immediately disappeared down the hall.

“Y/N, what did I tell you about telling him no?” Yangyang chastised you as he tucked his pen behind his ear. “All those suffragettes didn’t chain themselves to stuff for you to give in to the patriarchy so easily.”

“Yangyang, I’m really starting to think that you’re just one of those guys who took a singular Women and Gender Studies class in college and hasn’t shut up since.”

“I think Yangyang is one of those guys who was born and hasn’t shut up since,” Kun scoffed under his breath.

But your fellow assistant wasn’t letting it go, “Y/N, seriously—”

“Liu Yangyang, it’s a cup of coffee, and I’m already going there anyway. If you asked me to make you a cup and I was already going, I’d say yes too. If Sicheng asks me to wash his car or clean his apartment, I promise I’ll say no.” You rolled your eyes. “Anyway, are you coming with to watch me singlehandedly take away my right to vote by making a man a cup of coffee or not?”

“Yeah, fine.”

“Can we go then?” Kun asked sternly, clearly waiting by the door for the two of you to stop bickering. The twitch of his hand belied that he was itching for his caffeine fix. Presumably his fourth or fifth cup at least. He must have pulled a late night or early morning. Or both.

“Oh and we’ve even got Kun to witness the downfall of gender equality as we know it!” You cheered in mock enthusiasm.

“Do I want to know what the hell you two are talking about?”

Jeno was already in the breakroom when you got there, pouring creamer into his own cup of coffee. He stepped aside for the attorney to use the machine as you and Yangyang struck up conversation with your friend.

“Did you guys see that email Mr. Jeong sent to all the support staff this morning?” Jeno asked, shaking in some sugar.

“About the Administrative Staff Appreciation Lunch tomorrow?” You confirmed. “Yeah, I’d feel a lot more appreciated if they could get somewhere nicer than the pizza place down the street to cater.”

“Or just get an open bar,” Yangyang snorted. “No lunch necessary.”

As you and Jeno groaned out your agreement, Kun had finished making his black coffee, freeing up the machine for you to start on yours and Sicheng’s.

The attorney was on his way out but slowed to a stop in the threshold of the doorway, turning and lowering his voice to address the three of you, “You didn’t hear this from me, but all of the associates were taken out for an appreciation lunch just last week at Nobu. You all deserve much more than pizza.”

And with that, he left the break room.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” Jeno spat out, setting his cup down and crossing his arms over his chest.

“Oh now I definitely need a fucking drink,” you sighed, violently snapping Sicheng’s orange K-cup into place.

“I’m going to key somebody’s Tesla,” Yangyang whispered resolutely, curling one of his hands into a fist.

“No, Yangyang.” You shook your head, grabbing the two sugar packets you’d need in a minute. “No property damage. Or no property damage in our parking garage with cameras. Lord knows I’m not paying your bail.”

Your best friend took over, “What we need is a drink, or five. Tomorrow after work?”

Yangyang grabbed a coffee stirrer and gestured around wildly as he spoke. “Oh yeah, especially after that fucking insulting pizza party they’re throwing us.”

“We can invite all the support staff. At least the ones we actually like,” Jeno suggested. “Us three, Lee Donghyuck, Osaki Shotaro in Billing, uh, Sungchan the intern…”

As he trailed off, you all looked at each other.

“And that’s it, right?” Jeno asked.

“Our coworkers kind of suck, don’t they?” Yangyang mused, chewing on the plastic stirrer.

“Or are we just assholes?” You locked your own K-cup into the coffee machine.

That night you were sprawled out on your couch, legs propped up in Jaemin’s lap as you anxiously scrolled through restaurant recommendations on your phone. Every Saturday night you and Jaemin tried a new place, and this week it was your turn to pick, but you were yet to find one, fearing that the two of you had finally ran out of restaurants in your city. Jaemin, meanwhile, was reading another book from your ghost lit syllabus, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. You swore he’s read more of those books than you ever did, and you actually paid to take the class.

A text popping up on your screen from Jeno caught your eye.

[make it double: you’re DD tomorrow, right?]

[you: i am. might have other plans though, let me double check]

[make it double: don’t make me pay for an uber please]

“Jaemin,” you called out his name softly.

“Yes?” He put his thumb in the novel to hold his place as he looked over to you attentively.

You’d think that you’d get used to this, your Hades’ full attention on you, head lolling to the side as his gaze drank you in, black hair falling into his eyes, and fingertips messing with the edges of the pages absentmindedly. But you still weren’t, your breath hitching in your throat for a moment, your question being momentarily forgotten.

After a beat, you finally regained your speech and were able to say, “Some of my coworkers want to go out for drinks after work tomorrow, but I know that’s your time that I gave you.”

“I can come a couple hours late and we’ll add an hour each to Saturday and Sunday,” Jaemin suggested.

“Here’s the thing: tomorrow is a Friday, and Jeno and I have been taking turns DD’ing whenever we go out since college, and it’s my turn.”

“You’re anticipating a late night.” He surmised.

“I’m anticipating taking care of a drunk Lee Jeno until midnight then passing out as soon as I get home. I can’t imagine I’ll be much fun to be around after.”

“And you want to go get drinks with these people?” He clarified with an eyebrow raised.

“I know I’m not making it sound appealing but yes, I promise,” you chuckled.

“Just checking that this wasn’t a cry for help.” Jaemin tucked his bookmark in the novel to fully set it aside. “How about we move those eight hours to Saturday or Sunday then? Instead of arriving at six p.m., I'll get here at ten a.m. and we can spend the day together too.”

You squinted skeptically at him, “Can you even go out during the day? Won’t the sun burn you or light you on fire or make you glitter or something?”

“I’m the god of the dead, angel, not a vampire from a teen movie.”

“I know, just teasing,” you snickered.

“And I know you were just teasing. I love to see the little smile you get on your face in the middle of one your bits. Too adorable.”

He grabbed your free hand, and you watched him fondly as he kissed your fingers before letting your linked hands rest over your stomach.

You continued your weekend planning, “I’ll need to recuperate from Friday night and run some errands on Saturday, so a Sunday date sounds perfect. For sixteen hours straight, you’re mine.”

“I’m yours all the time,” he squeezed your hand.

“You know what I meant, you sap.” You rolled your eyes despite how warm his words made you feel inside. With the daytime suddenly available to you, a destination immediately popped into your mind, “And no making big romantic plans, I’ve got it this time; I know exactly where I want to take you for our first daytime date.”

“Understood. I can’t wait.”

Sunday morning you were practically skipping through town, relishing in the warm sun on your skin and the feeling of Jaemin’s fingers laced through yours. You came to a stop at an intersection, waiting impatiently for the lights to change so you could cross. Bouncing on your heels, you could feel your Hades’ gaze on you, even through the dark sunglasses he was wearing.

“What?” You asked, taking your eyes off the crosswalk signal to look over at him.

“Nothing.” He was grinning at you, hair getting blown around by the passing cars. His shirt was made of a loose-fitting, flowy material with a deep-cut V-neckline, showing off an assortment of fine silver chains with pendants and gems. Even the leather belt around his hips betrayed a subtle expensiveness, the impression of a designer brand’s logo on the buckle.

He pressed a chaste kiss to your cheek, making a smile spread across your face in turn.

“Oh, signal’s changed,” he pointed out.

The rest of your walk didn’t take long, and finally you had arrived.

“Art museum?” Jaemin questioned as you tugged him towards the front doors.

“Yep!” You were buzzing, and fought to keep your voice down once you passed the threshold into the quiet building.

He bought your tickets, and you accepted the informational pamphlet from the worker behind the front desk that listed the exhibits, quickly tucking it into your handbag.

The first gallery was just behind the ticket counter, and was one of the largest, mostly for paintings. You stopped Jaemin at the very first one by the door.

“I brought Jeno here exactly once,” you whispered. “You see how big this gallery is? He cleared the whole thing in like two minutes then waited for me at the door literally tapping his foot.”

“There’s like a hundred paintings in here,” Jaemin pointed out in disbelief, looking around the gymnasium-sized room.

“I know. I’ve been back by myself and spent over two hours in just this gallery alone. Saw the docents switch out like four times.”

Looping your arm through his, you leaned against your Hades to look over the first painting. You liked to just absorb the piece in front of you, ruminate on it, really ground yourself in what you were looking at. Sometimes you read the small information card next to it about the artist and the piece. But mostly you looked at the subject, the brush strokes, the colors and how they blended into each other—or didn’t. It was relaxing. Sometimes the paintings made you feel things, and sometimes they didn’t. Sometimes they were just pretty to look at.

Jaemin was quiet for the most part, occasionally commenting when he especially enjoyed a painting, or to respond to something you said. But generally the two of you were silent, and you were satisfied that you’d found the perfect art museum companion. He never dragged you from a painting before you were done with it and even wanted to stay with some longer than you did.

The museum had three levels, the second was split into two smaller galleries, this time with sculptures, drawings, and etchings. After you and your Hades were done with that one, you found it difficult not to practically run up the stairwell to the third and final floor, knowing exactly what was waiting for you there.

“Okay, Jaemin, so this museum has something kind of special,” you forewarned him, pressing your lips together in an attempt to fight off your excited smile. “Or, I hope it’ll be special. I think it’s special, you know, for you.”

He tilted his head curiously at you as the two of you reached the top of the stairs, “Okay. It’s up here?”

“Yeah, yeah, come on,” you took him by the hand to pull him towards the entrance door to the final gallery.

The gallery you had entered was void of other patrons; and sectioned up into several smaller areas, many stark white pedestals displaying vases, urns, trinkets, with a large marble sculpture of a woman at the center as the focal point. Your focus was entirely on Jaemin’s face as you held your breath, waiting for his reaction. His eyes widened as he scanned the contents of the room.

“It’s…”

“An Ancient Greece exhibit,” you finished his sentence, drawing his eyes back to you. You fidgeted with your ring nervously, “What… uhm— Do you like it? Like, do you want to look around? This isn’t weird, is it?”

Jaemin brushed a piece of your hair back from your face, the tenderness of his touch making your chest swell. He pulled you closer, kissing your forehead before pulling back to look you in the eye.

“This is great, angel, thank you.”

At his words, you let out an audible sigh of relief. Your Hades’ obsidian irises were twinkling in the museum fluorescents as he looked at you with pure adoration.

“I love you,” he declared simply, earnestly, for the first time. “And, I’ll never love someone exactly like this again.”

You nodded in understanding, “I love you too, Jaemin. And, I believe you.”

He was still holding you, and despite the emptiness of the exhibit you were currently in, you were aware of the fact that it was a public museum that you two were in.

“Jaemin…” you murmured, listening to the docent’s footsteps in the other room. “Don’t you want to look at all the stuff?”

“In a second,” his tender gaze roamed your face. “Right now I’m looking at something more beautiful.”

“Oh God, you’re so chee—” Your retort was cut off by Jaemin finally pressing his lips to yours.

Blearily looking around your room, you realized that it was vacant in the only way that mattered. Jaemin was gone, and you didn’t remember getting into bed last night. You were pretty sure you had fallen asleep on your couch with your Hades after getting back from your long day out. Half-sitting up against your headboard, you grabbed your phone from your nightstand to check the time. You still had five minutes until your work alarm went off. Flopping back down, you were fully intent on dozing back off, and rolled over to face the empty half of your bed.

Except it wasn’t quite empty. Atop the second pillow was a small black box. When you reached out to grab it, you felt the velvet that encased it, and pushed yourself up onto your side, held up by an elbow. It was a jewelry case of some kind. Flipping the lid open, you took a sharp breath in. Inside was a gorgeous necklace; a teardrop-shaped gemstone the size of your thumbnail in a deep red shade, surrounded by smaller white diamonds, and hanging from a dainty silver chain.

Clicking on your bedside lamp, you were able to get a better look at the center stone. It was a dark, cool red, with just the slightest tone of purple when you held it up in front of the light. Outside of direct light, it was so dark you couldn't even call it blood red. Pomegranate red, you thought to yourself. It was the color of fresh, bursting pomegranate seeds.

Unlatching the hook, you carefully clasped it back around your neck. The crystal wasn’t obnoxiously weighty, but you could feel the subtle pressure of it as it rested against your bare skin.

“Thank you, Jaemin,” you mumbled, eyes trailing over the unoccupied sheets longingly. “I love it.”

“Damn, Y/N,” Yangyang whistled lowly as you walked into work that morning, eyeing the gems adorning your fingers, ears, and now neck. “Did you get a sugar daddy or something? You’ve got an entire jewelry shop on you.”

“Oh, uhm, no,” you shook your head, warmth spreading across your face. No sugar daddy, just the god of the Underworld.

“Mind sharing with the class where all the new bling is coming from then?”

You looked up from where your fingertip had been gently gracing the pomegranate red gem that hung from your neck to stare Yangyang directly in the eyes as you scoffed, “Actually, I would mind, thanks.”

“Bet she’s moonlighting as a cat burglar,” Jeno teased from his desk.

“Ooh, that’s a good guess,” Yangyang nodded, eyes gleaming as he continued that avenue of jibes. “Mafia boss’ daughter maybe? Y/N, what does your dad do for a living?”

The ringing of your desk phone saved you from having to respond to that. It was your boss.

“Y/L/N,” she was as monotone as ever, voice giving no indication as to her thoughts or intentions. “My office, please.”

“Yes ma’am,” you assented before placing the phone back on the receiver.

Standing from your seat, you gave Yangyang and Jeno a professionally concealed middle finger down by your thigh, earning giggles from Jeno and indignant protests from Yangyang. You coolly dropped the offending gesture to grab your company tablet, a notepad, and pencil before departing the open floor for the hallway of private offices.

You stopped in front of one partway down the hall, in the midst of the junior partners’ offices. ‘Jo Haseul’ was engraved on the nameplate in an elegant font, and you rapped your knuckles below it on the solid wood door.

“Come in,” the familiar voice of your boss called out from within.

Gently turning the handle first, you then pushed the door open.

“Good morning, Ms. Haseul,” you bowed your head politely to her.

Junior partners at the firm allowed the assistants and paralegals to address them by a formal version of their name, the associates were just addressed by their given name, but senior partners and the managing partner were of course always addressed in the most formal vernacular, Mr./Ms. Surname. Not that you really interacted with anybody higher up than Ms. Haseul anyway.

“Good morning, Y/L/N. Please, sit.” She gestured to one of the two armchairs in front of her desk.

“Thank you,” you replied quietly, taking the seat she had indicated. You quickly opened up your tablet to view her calendar and readied your pencil over your notepad. Ms. Haseul typically had a sit-down meeting with you every Monday morning to discuss the upcoming week: deadlines, hearings, meetings, etc.

Ms. Haseul took a moment to click a few things on her desktop, “Looks like we have those Hwang discovery responses due Thursday. I’ll finish dictating those this morning and you can get started on transcription today. This morning I have my hearing on the Motion to Dismiss in Lee that you filed last month. Mediation on Wednesday for Alpine Products, we sent out those letters on it, right?”

“Yes, ma’am, two weeks ago,” you confirmed, scribbling down the key events. “You also have a teleconference with the insurance company for that file this afternoon.”

“Yes, I see…” she mused, a twinge of annoyance in her tone that was only discernable to the trained ear—i.e., yours. You knew she didn’t like the insurance rep assigned to that case, he tended to be a pain in the ass constantly asking for updates. “Where are we at in scheduling the expert witness depositions for Peng?”

You filled her in on all your progress in various matters, attentively writing down her directives in response to your reporting. Finally, you had finished out the calendar for the week, as well as your works in progress.

“One last thing before I let you go, Y/L/N,” she cleared her throat.

“Yes, ma’am?”

“I have a new client meeting tonight.”

“You do? I don’t remember scheduling one,” you flipped through the calendar on your tablet in mild panic. You hadn’t booked a conference room or let building security know about an evening meeting.

“You didn’t schedule it, don’t worry.”

Your boss’ words immediately made you let out a short sigh of relief. It wasn’t long lasting, as you still needed to handle arrangements on your end, “How many will be in attendance? Will you want Jade Conference Room or Malachite? Would you like me to stay to scribe?”

“It’s a dinner meeting, so the conference room won’t be necessary.”

“Understood.”

“I would like you to come, though, Y/L/N.”

You felt your eyes bug out, stylus slipping from your fingers. Ms. Haseul never asked you to come to meetings outside of the office. Sure, you would act as scribe for some of her meetings in the office, but you’d never accompanied her to a lunch or dinner meeting.

She continued, “This will be a general corporate client, and I anticipate having them on for quite some time. You’re familiar with corporate matters, correct?”

“Yes, ma’am, that was my concentration in my paralegal studies, and you of course have several corporate clients currently.”

“I plan on having you act as case manager for this client. This dinner will be a good way for you to be introduced.”

“Of course, I’m honored, Ms. Haseul.”

The corner of her mouth quirked up just the slightest, “Good. The meeting is at Nobu in downtown. We will leave from the office at the end of the day. Change on your lunch if you need to.”

You looked down at your outfit, your typical office wear. The office’s dress code was business formal, which you made sure to follow to a T. She wanted you to wear something else?

“A little dressier but less formal,” your boss spoke again, as if reading your thoughts. “Think office Christmas party.”

An image of a suitable outfit flashed in your mind, and you nodded, “Right, thank you. I’ll change on my break.”

“That is all I have. You’re dismissed for this morning, Y/L/N. I have to prepare for that hearing now. I'll be leaving at 9:00 a.m.”

At her dismissal of you, you got back onto your feet, bowed your head to her again and departed her office. The heavy door closed with a soft click behind you. You held the pencil, notepad, and tablet in one hand as the other reached up to play with the jewel hanging from your neck. Looks like you wouldn’t be seeing your Hades until tomorrow night.

You stepped out of the company car that Ms. Haseul had driven you there in and followed her towards the restaurant. Nobu was a high-end sushi restaurant downtown, much out of your everyday dinner price-range, but you figured she’d be paying with her firm credit card since this was a business dinner.

The hostess greeted you brightly, to which Ms. Haseul informed her of your reservation.

“Of course, right this way,” she grabbed four menus before guiding you further into the restaurant.

You two were brought to a private room, and the hostess slid the door open for you. As you sat down at the table that was within, you marveled at the aesthetics of the restaurant. It fused traditional style with modernism in a way that was effortless. The menus were set down in front of each of the four chairs at the table. Your waiter came by soon, and Ms. Haseul put in an order for four waters while you waited for the clients to arrive.

The door suddenly opened again, and two men entered the room. Your eyes were first drawn to the taller of the two, who entered ahead of his colleague. He had roughly shoulder-length wavy blonde hair that was half pulled back from his face, and he was so stunning you could hardly believe that he was anything other than a model. He was wearing an all-white suit, a bold move for a dinner. When your gaze moved from the gorgeous man to his companion, you choked on your own throat. Black hair, dark eyes, silver and gems glittering across his ears. Jaemin cocked an eyebrow at you when you made eye contact with him. He was in a similar ensemble as to when he first appeared to you: black slacks, black suit jacket, and black vest. This time, however, he did have a dress shirt underneath the vest, the top buttons buttoned up as the silver chains that hung from his neck rested atop the crisp material.

Thankfully your boss took the lead on introductions, allowing you a moment to attempt to compose yourself. She stood up from her chair to greet them, as did you.

“Thank you both very much for coming, I’m Jo Haseul,” she bowed to both of them, and you rushed to follow suit from your position beside and just behind her. Ms. Haseul then gestured for you to come forward, “Mr. Suh, Mr. Na, this is my paralegal, Ms. Y/L/N Y/N. She will be your first point of contact on all matters. She’s incredibly capable and reliable. So please, reach out to her with whatever you need.”

While the open and high praise from your boss should’ve made your chest puff out with pride, instead it practically went in one ear out the other. Jaemin, your Hades, was standing right in front of you. It took everything in you to draw your eyes from him and to the floor to once again bow appropriately to him and the other man.

“Yes, please contact me with anything at all. I will do everything I can to assist you as treasured clients,” you declared respectfully before standing back up straight.

“Thank you, Ms. Jo, and of course thank you very much too, Ms. Y/L/N,” Mr. Suh was the one who acknowledged your words. “We will be sure to contact you as needed. I’m Johnny Suh and this is my business partner, Na Jaemin.”

“It's a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Suh, Mr. Na.”

“Shall we eat, then?” Ms. Haseul suggested, prompting all of you to sit at the private table.

You took the same seat as you did before, a prick of disappointment in your chest as Johnny, not Jaemin, sat across from you. It took everything in you not to scoff and roll your eyes at yourself. What exactly would Jaemin sitting across from you accomplish? It’s not like you could do anything that indicated your knowing him prior to this meeting, especially not in the way that you do.

After drinks had been brought out and your appetizer orders were put in, Ms. Haseul began pushing her chair back, “Excuse me for a moment; ladies’ room.”

A few silent moments after she departed the private room, Mr. Suh had already finished off his drink and grabbed his empty glass. He shook it to make the ice inside clink, “I’m going to get a refill at the bar. Ms. Y/L/N, Jaemin, anything for you two while I’m there?”

“Oh, no thank you, Mr. Suh,” you hurriedly shook your head, nervous fingers twitching around your own half-full glass.

“Jaemin?”

He waved off his business partner, “I’m good, Johnny. But thank you.”

“‘Course,” he too, then exited the room.

Leaving just you and your Hades.

You finally spoke to Jaemin for the first time since being introduced, leaning forward to ask quietly, “Jaemin, don’t take this the wrong way but what the fuck are you doing here?”

A smirk came to his lips, “I told you I own a legitimate business.”

“You’re not expecting me to believe that this is an honest coincidence, are you?”

“No, of course not.” Any teasing immediately dropped out of his tone. “I obviously know what firm you work at, the best in the city. Why would I not hire the best firm in the city for my business? It would be irresponsible not to.”

“Did you request Ms. Haseul be your attorney?”

“No, she was recommended by the managing partner. And again, it would be irresponsible of me to not heed the recommendation to the best, most promising junior partner who specializes in corporate matters.”

With your worries somewhat placated, you relaxed back in your seat, “Fine. Thank you for telling me the truth.”

“Of course,” Jaemin reached across the table to brush his fingertips over the back of your hand. His fingers sparkled even in the dim light of the restaurant from the multitude of rings across his knuckles, as did yours. “I’m sorry. Does this make you uncomfortable? I’m sure we can use another attorney at the firm if you’d like. Mr. Moon mentioned a different partner too, uh, Ms. Kang?”

“And let Lee Jeno be your case manager? Absolutely not.” You retorted.

He chuckled at that, switching to smoothing circles into your skin, “Thank you, Y/N.”

“Yeah, yeah. So, your business partner, ‘Mr. Suh,’ is he... another god?”

“Smart, as always. Aphrodite.”

“I thought Aphrodite was a woman.”

“Sometimes,” he shrugged nonchalantly. “He seems to like this form right now. Changes it up every century or two.”

You mulled over this information in your mind. It certainly explained your initial idea that ‘Mr. Suh’ must’ve been some kind of model. And yet, as you looked over Jaemin’s features, you came to the conclusion that the goddess of beauty had nothing on your Hades and his haunting elegance.

“I see that you got the necklace,” he changed gears in the conversation, nodding towards where the jewel sat on your chest, easily seen with the top you were wearing.

You reached up to touch the jewelry in question, “Yes, thank you. It’s beautiful.”

“It looks even more stunning on you than I thought it would.”

“Jaemin...” You were supposed to have said his name in warning, but as your skin grew hot with equal parts embarrassment and giddiness, it came out as more of a whine.

The sound of heels clicking outside made you jerk your hand back from his, placing both of your own in your lap just a moment before Ms. Haseul opened the door. Your Hades nonchalantly picked up his drink again.

Ms. Haseul took stock of just you and Jaemin in the room, “Where’s Mr. Suh?”

“He went to get his drink refilled at the bar,” Jaemin explained as your boss took her seat once more. “Should be back soon.”

Right then the door opened once again, and the blonde man entered, amber brown drink in hand.

“Ah, speak of the devil,” your Hades let out a short laugh. “Were your ears burning, Johnny?”

“Oh, you all were talking about me?” The man grinned. “I hope you weren’t poisoning them against me, Jaemin.”

“Only bad things, John, you know that.”

“Why must you wound me at every opportunity?”

“Because you give me so many.”

You giggled at their banter, feeling yourself become a little more comfortable with your Hades there.

At the end of the dinner, after Mr. Suh had paid the bill at his insistence, the four of you were stood at the front of the restaurant.

“Thank you again for paying, Mr. Suh,” you bowed your head to him.

“No worries, I was happy to,” he waved off your thanks.

“It was a pleasure to meet you both, Ms. Jo, Ms. Y/L/N,” Jaemin spoke up, dazzling grin sweeping you off your feet for a moment. “We’re looking forward to working with you and your firm.”

“As are we,” Ms. Haseul said graciously. “I’m afraid we must be going. I have to take Y/L/N home before attending to something urgent.”

“Oh Ms. Haseul, you can go take care of whatever you need to, I’ll take a cab,” you assured her. “Please, you’ve done so much for me tonight, I can worry about getting myself home.”

“Very well, if you’re sure. Thank you, Y/L/N. See you in the morning,” she gave both you and the two gentlemen with you a final wave goodbye. “Goodnight, everyone.”

She hurried to the black company car that was parked just a little further down the block.

“I’ll go get the car,” Mr. Suh said to Jaemin. “Jaemin, if you could assist Ms. Y/L/N in hailing a cab.”

“Of course.”

And with that, Mr. Suh took off around the building towards the parking deck on the other side of the restaurant. And for the second time that night, you were alone with your Hades.

He stepped up towards the edge of the sidewalk, holding out a hand to passing traffic. You took the quiet moment as an opportunity to observe Jaemin, letting yourself bask in his presence. That same stubborn lock of his black hair had come out of place during dinner was now falling in his eyes. A nearby streetlight illuminated him from above, his unearthly features awash in a soft glow. Jaemin was stoically focused on the task at hand, a satisfied smile crossing his face as a taxi pulled over and stopped right in front of the two of you.

Wordlessly, he opened the back door for you.

“Thank you, Jaemin,” you stepped up to the vehicle.

“See you in a few, angel.”

“Right. See you.”

You climbed into the taxi, Jaemin’s cool hand on the small of your back as you did so. He gave you a wink before closing the door behind you.

The cab stopped in front of your apartment building, and you quickly paid the driver before getting out. Your apartment door swung closed behind you, and you locked up before making your way further into your home. Knowing that Jaemin would be arriving soon, you quickly kicked off your shoes and went to get into your pajamas.

Right as you walked back out of your bedroom, you heard your name being called from the living room. Turning the corner, you couldn’t help the smile that immediately came to your face when you saw your Hades standing there. He was in the same outfit as dinner, and your heart started thudding at the image of such a handsome man being there, in your living room.

“Jaemin,” you said his name in delight.

He’d just turned around before you got to him, catching him in a hug. Jaemin’s arms immediately wrapped around your waist, pulling you flush to him. Yours were around his neck, squeezing him tight, happy to just feel him there in your arms.

“Well, hey there,” he laughed. “Did you not just see me ten minutes ago?”

“I know, but I couldn’t do this ten minutes ago.”

“You could’ve, but your boss might’ve had a couple questions.”

“And she’d probably have a couple more if I did this.” You pulled your head back from where it was resting in the crook between his neck and shoulder, so that you could be face-to-face. With no hesitation, you threaded the fingers of one hand in the back of his hair and pulled his mouth to yours.

Your Hades smiled against your lips, thumbs rubbing circles into your hips. With his grip on your waist, he could easily guide you with him down the hall towards your bedroom, mouth still locked with yours.

You were sat on your kitchen counter later that night, passing a spoon back and forth with Jaemin to polish off the last of your ice cream.

“Does Mr. Suh—? Aphrodite? What should I call him?” You cut yourself off with a thoughtful frown, stumbling over what exactly to call the god-slash-client you’d met tonight.

“Johnny is fine since it’s just you and me right now,” Jaemin accepted the spoon you held out to him.

“Does Johnny know? About me, and what we actually are?”

Your Hades swallowed the spoonful he’d just popped into his mouth, returning the utensil to you, “No, I had no reason to tell him when you and I first made our agreement and now… if I told him he’d think I made the deal for your soul, no matter what I said. He likes to think that he gives me the benefit of the doubt, but he doesn’t.”

“Mm… Alright, I trust that you know him better than I do.”

“Yeah, for thousands of years. He’s a good business partner, but he can be a condescending little bitch.”

You couldn’t help but snicker at this, “Really?”

“Yeah, Johnny usually handles the client-facing side of the company while I do the back-office stuff, because according to him I ‘give clients the heebie-jeebies.’”

“You are the god of the dead, Jaemin,” you reminded him with a giggle, wiping away a stray drop of ice cream at the corner of his pout.

“I know, and that’s what makes us great business partners. I don’t want to do client meetings, I’m not good at them, he loves them, he wants to do them. Vice versa for the back-office things. But he said that like I didn’t know that already when this whole operation was my idea anyway. I factored my heebie-jeebies into the plan. The heebie-jeebies were accounted for long before he ever came into the picture, and he gently put his hand on my shoulder like he was the first person to ever explain this to me.”

“Oh of course. The audacity, to underestimate your business acumen and foresight to calculate for heebie-jeebies.” You nodded, putting on your best serious face despite the urge to laugh.

Jaemin looked you dead in the eye, then sighed, “You can laugh, Y/N.”

You immediately let out a round of giggles, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, hearing you say heebie-jeebies so much, and so seriously I just—”

“You’re right, it’s a bit juvenile,” he shook his head, face finally cracking into a smile as he plunged the spoon back into the ice cream container.

“A warning would’ve been nice, by the way.”

“A warning?” Your Hades asked through a mouthful of ice cream. “For what?”

“That you were hiring Ms. Haseul as your attorney. I understand why you’d want to use her, but not why you chose not to give me at least a little heads-up.”

He shrugged, “I thought it’d be a fun surprise.”

“Fun for you or for me?” You scoffed.

“Would you believe me if I said you?” Jaemin dug up another big spoonful of ice cream, holding it out for you this time.

“Would you believe me if I said I believed that?” You rolled your eyes, but opened your mouth for him to feed you anyway.

“No, not at all.”

A glance at your microwave clock made you sigh. It was late. You should be getting to bed, you still had two more days in your work week.

Jaemin had just turned to throw the empty ice cream carton in the trash, and thinking of work reminded you of plans you’d made with your coworkers.

Swinging your feet lightly from your perch on your countertop, you spoke up again, “Heads up, Friday is after work drinks for the support staff again. My turn DD’ing for the Terrible Two.”

“Noted.” Your Hades walked back over to you. You reached out for his forearms, dragging, pulling, and rearranging him until he was standing between your knees, allowing you to wrap your arms around his neck, hugging him tightly to you, surrounded by the warm scents of cinnamon, bergamot, and cedar. Jaemin kept talking as he looped his arms around your waist, voice low, quiet, and right beside your ear, “Also, isn’t that phrase supposed to be ‘the terrible twos’ and refer to toddlers who throw tantrums?”

“Yeah, but it was one of the nicknames Jeno and I got in undergrad from a professor of ours. The full title was specifically ‘The Terrible Two of You.’” You hummed wistfully at the fond memories that cropped up, eyes fluttering shut as your muscles relaxed more and more in your comforting position. “Dr. Go, one of the best professors I’ve ever had. We ended up taking like three or four of his classes, and I had one more in grad school.”

“Sounds like you two were nuisances to the poor man for four years straight.”

“He was one of those professors that treated students like actual human beings, and you could joke around with. Hence, the nickname. I promise we were good students and the man adored us. Well, me, at least. Jeno on the other hand…”

“You always say the meanest things about that guy and he’s never around to defend himself,” Jaemin clicked his tongue teasingly. “So it sounds like I’ll be bringing bagels Saturday morning then?”

“Please?”

“Of course, angel,” he murmured, rubbing a hand up and down your back.

“Okay Jeno, here you go,” you patted your friend’s back before taking his arm off from where it had been looped around your shoulders, giving him a gentle push to deposit him face-down onto his bed.

Getting him up to the third floor of his building wasn’t so bad this time, he was able to support his own weight for the most part and needed you primarily to make sure he didn’t veer into a wall or trip over his own feet. But he did seem to think that knocking his apartment key from your hand while you tried to unlock his front door was a fun little game.

“I recommend changing into pajamas before going to sleep,” you said from where you stood at his bedside, looking down at him as he twisted around to squint up at you.

“Good idea, Y/N,” Jeno nodded, sitting up in his bed. “That’s why you… why you got that degree.”

“Of course. I got my Master of Legal Studies solely to give you sage advice when you’re drunk.”

As Jeno grabbed at the hem of his shirt, presumably to take heed of said sage advice, you quickly turned, shielding your eyes and heading for the bedroom door.

“I’ll grab you some water and medication. Let me know when you’re done.”

After filling up a water bottle and grabbing medication for the imminent nausea and future headache, you waited in the hall outside your friend’s room. He yelled out something that sounded like a ‘Ready!’ and you hesitantly tried the door handle. Opening the bedroom door again, you were relieved to see that Jeno was at least decent. Sure, his t-shirt was on backwards, but he was wearing pants, which was your main concern. No need for a repeat of Nu Kappa Theta’s Halloween party your sophomore year: plastered Jeno, DD you, and a missing pair of boxers. Needless to say, you were scarred for life, and Jeno couldn’t remember anything from that night past arriving at the NuKapp house still fully clothed. Lucky bastard.

You set the water and meds down on his nightstand to guide him back over to sit down on the edge of the bed. Kneeling on his bed behind him, you prepared to turn his shirt around the right way.

“Come on, arms up.”

He did as you asked, and you only took it off his arms, flipping it around at his neck before working on getting his arms back into the sleeves.

“Arms down.”

And his arms flopped back down obediently in his lap.

“Are you 23 or 3, dude?” You snickered.

“I can put a shirt on, Y/N!” His voice was practically a whine, but his movements had no umph to them as he let you manhandle him like changing a child.

“Apparently not, Jeno.”

He was quiet as you finally got the other arm in, and he straightened out the torso of the shirt himself.

“Alright, there you go.” You patted his shoulder before climbing off his bed to grab the water and medication once more. “You didn’t drink enough that I feel concerned about alcohol poisoning so I’m not going to make you puke your guts out tonight.”

“I ‘preciate that.”

“Me too. So, pills for you to keep it all down… and pills for the bitch of a headache coming your way in the morning,” you pointed at each in turn as you held out the tablets. After he grabbed those, you gave him the bottle. “And water. Wash them down then have a few more sips before going to sleep, please.”

“You’re the best,” Jeno mumbled before putting the tabs in his mouth. He knocked them back with the water then started to lay down in bed, “He’s lucky to have you. And I’m lucky to have you, too.”

Your friend had been trying to pull the covers up over himself, except he was also on top of them. Amused, you began assisting him as you entertained his drunk ramblings, “He who?”

“Th’ guy you’re seein’, duh!” His words were slurring together at this point as he let you tuck him in. “Th’ one with all th’ rings ‘n stuff. We’re lucky t’ have you, Y/N.”

“Thank you, Jeno.” You sat beside him on the bed to brush some of his hair out of his face as his eyes started fluttering shut.

“Even if… even if you won’ let me… meet ‘im. ‘M lucky… t’ be your bes’ friend.”

You let out a bittersweet sigh at that, your hand coming to stillness on his head as he completely fell asleep. He knew you were keeping something from him and was letting you bring it to him at your own pace, and you loved him for that. And he really was your best friend, you’d seen each other through everything of the past nearly six years. The Dynamic Duo, Trouble and Make it Double, The Terrible Two of You. You’d sign up for classes together to make sure you’d sync up your schedules as much as possible, pulled innumerable all-nighters in the library together, were roommates in your first off-campus apartment, done your undergraduate research together, you were there when he got the news of his grandfather passing, and you were certain he’d kept creepy guys off you at parties more times than you’d ever know.

“And I’m lucky to be yours, Lee Jeno,” you said quietly to his sleeping form, watching his even, shallow breaths.

Usually everything was simple with Jeno. Your friendship with Jeno was always simple, even the stuff that felt complicated or heavy at the time, the solution was simple: talk to him. When you’d dropped his phone in the street and it got ran over, absolutely shattering the screen; when you’d forgotten to pay the power bill for your shared apartment one month and your electricity was turned off for a day; when it was his turn to DD at a party, you were a little more than tipsy and ended up making out with his brother Mark. It all worked out because the two of you had talked.

But this time… you were dating a client of the firm. A client of your attorney. A client who was a god. Admittedly, you’d started your relationship before he’d become a client. But again, he was Hades. Then there was how exactly you’d met. Even just thinking about which parts to tell, how much to tell, and what you’d inevitably have to bend, twist, or straight up lie about to Jeno made your head spin.

There at least was nothing you could do tonight.

So you gave his hair one last ruffle before standing up and walking over to his dresser. Your plans had initially been to go back to your own apartment, but you didn’t want to traverse the streets all alone this late at night. Is at least what you told yourself. Really, you’d been missing your best friend. After grabbing a couple articles of clothing that could serve as pajamas, you also stole the second pillow from his bed and a spare blanket before heading out of his bedroom.

You quietly shut the door behind you, setting the bedding down on the couch and changing clothes in the bathroom. After going around to turn off all the lights in the apartment and double check the locks on the front door, you finally laid down for the night. In the low light, you found yourself looking over all the rings and things adorning your hands and wrists. They were all gorgeous, but you still favored the simple silver band, the first one Jaemin ever gave you, to seal the deal you had made the night he appeared to you.

A robotic melody took your focus away from the document on your monitor that you had been drafting. You glanced over at the screen of your office phone, the source of the ringing. ‘RECEPTION’ was emblazoned across it in all caps.

Holding the receiver to your ear with your shoulder, you grabbed for your telephone notepad and a pen, “This is Y/N.”

“Hey Y/N!” The bright voice of the firm’s receptionist, Somi, greeted you. “There’s a Mr. Johnny Suh on line 1 for you.”

“Great, I’ll take him, thank you!”

“No problem.”

You scrawled down Mr. Suh’s name and number from the caller ID on your notepad before pressing the button for his hold, “Thank you for holding, this is Y/L/N Y/N.”

“Hi, Ms. Y/L/N, this is Johnny Suh, how are you?”

“I’m good, Mr. Suh, thank you. How are you?”

“Only thing that’s changed is the weather, you know?” He chuckled.

You gave a short laugh, not entirely sure what he meant by that but needing to build your rapport anyway, “And how can I help you?”

“I am looking to schedule a meeting with you for us to discuss some assets. When are you available next week?”

“Let’s see…” You pulled up your calendar. “Just myself or Ms. Haseul as well?”

“Just you, Ms. Jo has assured us of your capabilities.”

“Oh, thank you, Mr. Suh,” you were warmed at the indirect praise. You couldn’t believe how much Ms. Haseul had apparently talked you up to these clients. “I’m free next Monday afternoon, Tuesday until 1:00, and all day Wednesday and Thursday.”

“Wednesday should be fine. 10:00 a.m.?”

“Yes sir, I have you down for Wednesday at 10:00. Will it be just you in attendance or is Mr. Na coming as well?”

“Actually, it will just be Jaemin. I have prior arrangements that day.”

“Understood,” you made the correction on your notes. “Is there anything else I can help you with?”

“No, that is all I needed from you, Ms. Y/L/N. Thank you for your time.”

“Of course, sir, thank you for calling.”

“Have a good day.”

“You too, goodbye.”

With that, you hung up, immediately pressing the quick-dial button for reception.

“Hey Y/N!” Somi was as cheery as ever when she picked up.

“Hi, Somi, what do conference room bookings look like for next Wednesday at 10:00 a.m.? Just two people in attendance.”

“Obsidian is open, or—”

“Obsidian will be fine,” you immediately jumped at her words. “I have a client meeting: Mr. Na Jaemin from Olympus Investments.”

“Okay, you are all booked for 10:00 a.m. on Wednesday.”

“Thank you very much, Somi.”

“You’re welcome, Y/N. Is that it?”

“Yes, thanks,” you put the phone back on the receiver in order to use both hands to enter the details in your calendar.

‘Client Meeting w/ Mr. Na Jaemin; re: assets; Obsidian Conference Room’

“Oh shit,” Yangyang frowned, tossing the coffee cup he had just picked up into his trashcan. “I’m out of coffee. Anybody coming to the breakroom with me?”

Jeno pushed his chair back from his desk with a groan, “Sure, if I don’t take a lap before replying to this email I just got, somebody’s going to get their feelings hurt.”

“Y/N?”

You shook your head, eyes still on your screen as you printed off a couple copies of the documents you’d need, “Would if I could, but I’ve got a client meeting in a few minutes.”

“Who?”

“Uh, Mr. Na Jaemin, CFO of Olympus Investments. General corporate client of Ms. Haseul’s.”

“Gross, sounds boring,” Yangyang wrinkled his nose. “I’ll keep you in my prayers.”

“Thanks, Yang,” you rolled your eyes.

Just then, your desk phone rang, and you grabbed it without taking your eyes off your screen as you printed a couple more things, “This is Y/L/N Y/N.”

“Hey Y/N!” It was Somi. “Mr. Na Jaemin is here for his 10:00 appointment with you. I’ve gone ahead and set up Obsidian for you two, he’s waiting in the lobby.”

“Can you let him know I’ll be there in just a couple minutes?”

“Of course.”

“Thanks, Somi!”

You hung up, standing and grabbing all your materials from your desk, then off the printer. Momentarily stopping to organize your papers, you then made your way to the reception area, flashing Somi a smile before your eyes landed on him, on your Hades.

Keeping a straight spine and formal bow of your head, you greeted him politely, “Good morning, Mr. Na, it’s a pleasure to see you again. Welcome to Kim & Moon.”

“Good morning, Ms. Y/L/N. Thank you, thank you,” Jaemin bowed back, flashing you a dazzling grin once he’d stood back up. “Shall we?”

“You can’t do that.” You shook your head at the business proposal you’d just heard from Jaemin. The two of you were deep into your meeting about reviewing Olympus Investment’s plans for renegotiating assets in the next quarter.

Jaemin’s brow furrowed in confusion, shifting forward in his spot across the table from you as he pointed to some numbers on his paper, “Of course we can, there’s plenty of assets to pull from—”

“Doesn’t matter, courts say no you can’t. There was a ruling ten, fifteen years ago now that’s been used as precedent in a swath of multi-billion dollar cases since. I actually studied this particular case law quite a bit because—hey!” You cut off your own excited rambling with a snap of your fingers in the space created by the table between yours and Jaemin’s faces.

Jaemin blinked at you innocently, “What?”

“Stop admiring me with that lovestruck grin on your face and listen, this is important.”

“I’m admiring and listening, I can multitask,” he countered teasingly, picking up his pen again. “Anyway, continue.”

“I studied this particular piece of case law in depth because I had a professor who was one of the attorneys who argued the original ruling. It’s a common thing that companies looking to redistribute assets will try to do. And you can’t.”

“You’re right.” Your Hades was beaming at you.

“About this? Of course I am,” you snorted, flicking through your papers to find what you needed to review next.

“Well yes, but I meant about you being good at your job.”

A smile crept across your lips as you continued busying yourself with looking for your papers.

After your meeting had concluded, you walked Jaemin back to the lobby, giving him a final business-appropriate goodbye before turning around to make your way to your desk. You nearly jumped out of your skin when you saw Jeno seemingly waiting for you back behind the reception area. Suppressing your lovestruck grin, you approached your friend and started meandering back to your desks with him.

“Who was that, Y/N?” He nodded back towards the lobby.

“Mr. Na, the corporate client of Ms. Haseul’s I was telling you about earlier,” you desperately tried to keep your voice level and nonchalant as you talked about Jaemin. “I said I had a client meeting this morning.”

“And I was expecting like an eighty-year-old man,” Jeno snorted. “That guy looked like he was—I don’t know maybe five, ten years older than us at the most?”

“I’m… sorry to disappoint you?”

“But like something was… off about him. Right?”

“What?”

“You know how people say that one actor looks like a haunted Victorian doll?”

“…Yeah.”

“He kind of looks like that but— what’s older than the Victorian era?”

“I don’t know? The Dark Ages?” You suggested, looking at him with a raised eyebrow as you could only imagine where the hell this conversation was going.

“Yeah!” Your friend’s eyes lit up mischievously. “He looks like a possessed doll from the Dark Ages that’s had like five unsuccessful exorcisms done on him.”

“Oh my god Jeno.”

“Oh come on, you can’t say I’m wrong!”

“I can say that this is an extremely unprofessional thing to be saying about a client.”

“Oh look at you Ms. Professional Paralegal who isn’t disagreeing with me,” he snickered. “Anyway, you seem to have good rapport with him.”

“What do you mean?” You could feel your back stiffen with alarm. How long was Jeno standing there in the lobby watching you and Jaemin? Had you done anything that belied the true nature of your relationship? If you did then Somi would have seen it too. God, you did not need to be the next topic of office gossip.

“Ms. Haseul let you have that client meeting on your own. Both she and the client must trust you lots. Congrats.”

Immediately, your shoulders relaxed, “Oh, thanks. Yeah, it’s going well.”

Monthly after-work drinks with your coworkers—the one you actually liked—had become part of your routine, one that you looked forward to. Almost as much as you looked forward to the myriad of ways Jaemin insisted you “made up” the missing time that you “owed him.” This time, he was preemptively making up the forfeited time, as he had spent the night before and was now staying the morning of.

Somewhere between starting your coffee maker and putting the last dish from breakfast away in the sink, you had been pinned between Jaemin and said sink, a warning not to mess up your work clothes breathed out in the narrowing space between your mouths. Your Hades hummed out his acknowledgement against your lips, kissing you so delicately your eyes nearly rolled out of your head. Of course he had to listen to you this time.

You pulled back from kissing Jaemin as you were about to make something between a quip and a complaint when you heard a click from your front door.

“Y/N!” A familiar voice called out for you.

It all happened too quickly for you to attempt to do anything other than stare in horror at the scene unfolding before you. Lee Jeno stepped through your front door, turning around to close and lock it behind him. He was dressed for work in navy blue slacks and a light blue button up, looking down at his phone as he walked towards the kitchen. In your periphery, Jaemin looked between you and your friend with an eyebrow raised, not moving, but you couldn’t answer his unspoken question. It felt like you were outside your own body, watching a car crash about to happen and you couldn’t look away.

“I’m here! Ooh, something smells good, is that—” his words were cut short when he finally looked up from his screen just shy of the threshold to the kitchen, where you were frozen in place. Your rather lascivious place between Jaemin and the counter.

It took him an entire second to compute what was happening in front of him. Then he let out a yelp, which made you let out one of your own, a little less grating in pitch, but no less distressed. Your body was finally unpetrified, and you rushed to stand between your friend and your Hades.

“Jeno!” Your voice was half chastising and half bewildered. “What the hell are you doing in my apartment?”

“You told me where your spare key is, said I could use it any time!” His voice was still raised and pitched up in surprise.

“I figured that’s how you got in; I’m asking why the hell you’re in my apartment right now!”

“To pick you up?” He jangled his keys that were in his hand, his car fob being on the key ring, “I’m DD for tonight.”

You sighed, pinching the bridge of your nose, “No, Jeno, I'm DD tonight.”

“No, I'm DD.”

“I am.”

“I’m— Wait this isn’t important, that’s Mr. Na!” He pointed behind you accusingly.

With a very visible grimace, you turned to looked behind you. Jaemin was leaning against your kitchen counter, hands resting on the edge on either side of him. With the focus now on him, he lifted one in a casual greeting, “Good morning, Jeno. It’s nice to meet you. I’ve heard a lot of good things, from Y/N.”

“Jeno, this is Na Jaemin. I’m seeing him,” you jumped in to do introductions, well aware that your voice was noticeably tight and tense. “Jaemin, this is Lee Jeno, my best friend since… it feels like forever at this point I guess.”

While your friend’s features did soften a little at how you had described him, when he had to reciprocate your Hades’ offer of goodwill, he turned suspicious again.

“Nice to meet you... uh, yeah, nice to meet you.” Jeno tersely nodded at Jaemin once before his eyes went back to you, serious. He wanted to talk. And clearly, you had a lot to talk about.

“Well, time to go to work,” you announced. “Uhm, let me grab my shoes and my phone, then I’ll be ready to go, Jeno. You don’t mind carpooling since you’re already here, right?”

“Of course not.”

Your Hades spoke up again then, “My tie is in your room, Y/N.”

The two of you had to shuffle by Jeno on your way out of the kitchen and into your bedroom. In your room, you groaned as you rooted through your closet for a pair of shoes.

“I am so sorry, Jaemin,” you whispered as you slipped on your shoes. “I had no clue he was going to come here this morning. I wanted the two of you to meet so differently.”

“It’s okay, angel,” Jaemin reassured you quietly as he tied his tie in your full-length mirror. “You said he’s your best friend, and that you and he have been able to talk through everything before. I think the two of you have got this. One lowly god isn’t going to come between the Terrible Two.”

You’d finished putting your shoes on and slipped your arms around his waist to watch him do the final adjustments to the black silk tie.

“You really believe that?” You murmured.

“I do,” he patted your hands. “I still need to get a tie clip. Now go, you can’t keep him waiting or he’s going to think we’re doing something more scandalous in here than what he walked in on.”

You rolled your eyes and let him go, knowing that unfortunately he was kind of right. As you went to walk away towards your door, Jaemin caught you by the hand, lifting said hand up so he could press a delicate, cool kiss to your fingers before finally letting you depart.

“Have a good day, Y/N. I love you.”

“I love you too, Jaemin.”

You grabbed a purse by the door of your bedroom and braced yourself for what was waiting on the other side.

Jeno was by the front door, arms crossed over his chest. He narrowed his eyes as he appraised that you were alone, “Where’s Mr. Na?”

“He’s not ready to go yet, he’ll lock up on his way out,” you told him.

And thus began your lying, your carefully chosen words to make Jeno come to certain conclusions, your bending of the truth, your ‘well it’s technically true’s. Truthfully, Jaemin would make sure your apartment was locked from the inside before disappearing from here and appearing wherever he needed to be with his god powers.

“He has a set of keys.” Jeno spat out as he opened your front door for you.

Your tone was resigned as you started towards the stairs, “Is there a question in there, Jeno?”

There were a silent few seconds as he mulled it over, then sighed, his voice much less harsh, “No, that was me being bitchy. Sorry.”

“Thanks.” The two of you began the descent to the ground floor as you continued, “And I’m sorry too. Like... really sorry. I know that must have been a lot to walk in on, you have every right to be shocked and hurt.”

“Right. Thanks, Y/N.” And you finally got a Lee Jeno smile again. It was only a small one, and it passed you by far too quick as he opened your car door for you to get in. But you saw your friend’s delightful little eye smile again, and it made you think that maybe, hopefully, Jaemin was right.

Jeno pulled away from the curb, and you kept talking.

“I also know that I haven’t been forthcoming at all about what’s been happening in my life, about who I’ve been seeing.”

“About Mr. Na,” Jeno’s words were blunt but there was no malice to them.

“Yes, about Jaemin,” you confirmed. “I’m sorry about that too. Please, please know before like anything else that we were dating for a while before he was ever a client. Those two things happened separate of each other.”

“Oh.” Your friend’s previously white-knuckled grip on the steering wheel softened. “That’s... better.”

“Like, I know that I’m being kind of stupid, but I’m not that stupid.”

“You said it, not me.”

“I want to talk about this with you more, but I really don’t think now, driving to work, is going to be able to provide us with the time nor the ability to process it. Can we get together some other time?”

“Good to see all the money you spent on that therapist after your last ex paid off,” he snickered.

“Hey, I’m trying to be an adult here!” You protested indignantly.

“No, no, it’s good,” he attempted to reassure you through poorly-suppressed chuckles. “Let’s see if we can pencil in our emotional friendship discussion re: your love life for 1:00 p.m. tomorrow?”

“I’ll have to check my calendar once we get into the office,” you rolled your eyes. Despite the fact that he was teasing you, you welcomed the light jesting, knowing that meant he wasn’t too upset at you in that moment. And he was legitimately trying to follow through on your offer of planning to sit down and discuss your issues with him, albeit with some jabs at you of course.

“Hey, since it’s about you fucking a client, do you think we can call it a business lunch and use the firm credit card?”

With the mood now officially lightened you joked, “Yeah, I’ll put that on Ms. Haseul’s expense sheet for the week and see how that goes down with Billing.”

“Shotaro would get a kick out of it at least.”

Your apartment was quiet and dark when you got home. Jaemin hadn’t arrived yet. Pushing down your disappointment, you changed into pajamas before going to your kitchen to browse for something to make for dinner. If Jaemin wasn’t here yet, then he probably wasn’t planning on whisking you to the Underworld tonight. Fine by you, that made getting to work in the morning easier. The first night you’d spent with him in Hades had been the perfect start to your romance and you definitely didn’t regret it, but the next morning was something straight out of a rom-com.

It was difficult for your phone alarm to go off on time when time zones didn’t really exist in the literal Underworld. So you ran into work exactly on time with unwashed hair, followed around the office all morning by nosy comments from Jeno and Yangyang about that and the blouse that you were tucking into your dress pants as you were stepping off the elevator— which Jaemin had to magically poof you into, having no time to take public transport. Oh and the embarrassingly obvious love bites on your neck that you couldn’t cover up in your haste to get ready; a combination of no time to apply makeup, and carelessly choosing a top whose neckline was cut lower than the marks.

The memory made you shake your head fondly now, months later, as you opened your fridge doors. You’d barely done so when a familiar cool breath blew over the back of your neck and shell of your ear.

“Jaemin!” You exclaimed, immediately closing the fridge again then whipping around to face the god. He had a mischievous smirk already playing on his lips. “It’s been a while since you’ve snuck up on me like that. You must be in a good mood.”

“Yes, I am,” he confirmed.

You cocked your head to the side, “And why is that?”

“Because...” he took a step forward, and you instinctually took one back, quickly pinned against one of the doors. His hips pressed against yours, holding you there as his lips found yours, then your jaw, then your throat. You hummed as he continued pressing kisses along your skin, looping your arms around his neck, your search for food entirely forgotten. His hands on your waist only drew you even closer—if that was possible—fingertips brushing under the hem of your t-shirt and leaving goosebumps along your skin.

Your Hades finally detached his mouth from where he’d been sucking and nipping a mark on your collarbone, “I’m going to take you somewhere.”

“Huh?” You couldn’t help the stupefied noise that came from you.

He was standing up straight again, so close that your noses were almost touching, and you saw yourself reflected in his deep, dark irises. You looked ravished, your own pupils blown wide, mouth parted to let the deep breaths from your heaving chest out, the collar of your shirt askew to allow Jaemin access to more of your skin.

“I’m in a good mood because we’re going somewhere. Go get changed.”

You tipped your head back as you let out a groan, shaking yourself back to reality, “Why are you literally the worst?”

He chuckled as he stepped back, allowing you to push off the appliance, “Because I can be. Now go get changed. Doesn’t have to be too nice, just better than your jammies.”

With a final roll of your eyes, you left the kitchen to do as he requested. You reemerged in the living room in casual going-out clothes, “This good enough?”

“Perfect,” Jaemin offered you his hand, which you took without hesitation.

He gently spun you around, and a giggle tumbled from your mouth as you were spun right into his arms, your back to his chest. You closed your eyes on instinct as he swayed the two of you to a non-existent melody, and you drank in the sultry notes of cedar, cinnamon, and blood orange that surrounded you. His hair tickled your cheek as he started peppering light ghosts of kisses to your skin.

“Alright, you tease, come on. You said we’re going somewhere,” you lightly elbowed whatever part of him was by your arm. His rib, maybe, or that could’ve been his arm. From where you were all wrapped up in him, you couldn’t tell where you ended and he started. And despite your words of complaint, you hadn’t yet opened your eyes or even attempted to wrangle yourself from his grasp.

“I know, we’re here.”

Curiosity won out and you squinted an eye open. Holy shit, this definitely wasn’t your apartment. With wide eyes, you looked around the huge living room Jaemin had brought you to. Plush furniture, floor-to-ceiling, wall-to-wall windows, large dining area that connected to a kitchen that was clearly built for entertaining. The entire place had an upscale mid-century modern feel to it, and you found your eyes drawn back to the huge windows.

“Where are we?” You questioned, still taking it all in.

“My place,” Jaemin said casually, and you could feel him shrug from where he was holding you.

“This isn’t the Underworld.”

“My new place on Earth. I just got it this week.” He took one of your hands to guide you over to the windows, “Come on, look at the view.”

Spread out below you was the entire city, all twinkling lights. If you unfocused your eyes they could almost be mistaken for stars in the night sky. Your Hades stood just behind you to begin pointing out landmarks, “There’s downtown, that’s the museum you took me to, your apartment should be over that way, and there’s the river way over there.”

“It’s amazing but… why did you get it?” You questioned him, turning away from the view to look him in the eye. He’d never expressed any interest in living on Earth whatsoever, any want to get a home here.

Jaemin walked back a couple steps to lean against the arm of one of the couches, bringing you with him by your hands, “Since Johnny and I have been doing more business up here, it’s good to have a home to keep up appearances.”

“And just how many business clients are you planning on inviting back to your place, Jaemin?” You raised an eyebrow, tone expressing your immediate disbelief.

He grinned up at you in your position standing between his legs, “You caught me. Just one, you.”

“I meant, why now?” You pushed on in the conversation, not so easily distracted. “Why get a place on Earth this week?”

“Jeno.”

“You got a penthouse for Jeno? How romantic, I’ll let him know.”

Your Hades let out a soft laugh at that, looking down at your hands that he was holding, his fingertips taking a moment to adjust your rings that were slightly askew. “The entire situation that happened with him really made me think about you, and about who I am to you. And I want to be more for you than I am.”

You frowned at his words, taking back one hand to cup his cheek and have him look up at you, “What do you think you are to me?”

“I’m a secret.”

“Oh, Jaemin…” You felt your heart breaking at the way he said it. Not in a fun, flirty way, but despondent, isolated. Before you could move to say more, hold him, do anything, he spoke again.

“That’s not passing any sort of judgement on you, angel,” he assured you, squeezing the hand he had in his. “I know the secrecy comes solely from who and what I am. I know there are some things that we'll never really be able to tell everyone. And I don’t think you’ll ever be able to fully understand how much I love and adore you for keeping that between us.”

You pressed a kiss to his forehead, afraid that if you tried to speak in that moment, you’d cry.

“But I still want to be someone that you can introduce to your friends, to your family. Someone that you don’t have to agonize over keeping secret from them. I want you to get to have at least some of that, and I want to do as much as I can to help. I figured having my own place on Earth wasn’t a bad start.”

“Oh… I understand,” you held his face between both your hands, taking a step closer to narrow the distance between you two. He now had to crane his neck up to look at you. Clearing your throat and blinking a couple tears away, you smirked down at your Hades, “You want to be shown off.”

“Maybe a little,” he admitted, not a hint of bashfulness in him despite the coy words.

“Gladly. Starting with a dinner party here I think.”

“I’ll cook.”

“Penthouse and you cook? Careful, it’ll turn from an honest meet-the-boyfriend into shameless bragging.”

His hands that had previously been resting in his lap now gripped the sides of your thighs, “Oh, we both know you’re as shameless as I am.”

“Maybe so. But we’re only inviting friends of mine, no coworkers other than Jeno,” you declared. “I may be shameless, but I’m not an idiot. Still need to figure out the work part.”

“Of course,” he acquiesced with a nod of his head. Apparently thinking that the conversation was over, he pulled you fully flush to him, mouth attaching to your collarbone. Seemed he wanted to finish what he’d started in your kitchen earlier.

But you couldn’t yet let yourself sink into the pleasure of your Hades’ lips, your mind was still ruminating on the previous issue, “And let me know if you have any bright ideas, by the way. It’s your fault I’m in this mess, after all.”

Jaemin pulled back from where he’d been kissing down your sternum, about to get to the neckline of your top, “I offered to work with another attorney, but you insisted we stick with you and Ms. Haseul.”

“You picked Kim & Moon in the first place.”

“I concede, my apologies,” he sighed, entirely removing his hands from you for a moment. “And I mean it.”

“Mhm.” Satisfied with his answer, you grabbed his shoulders and crashed your lips to his.

“But isn’t it just a little fun?” He teased, giving your bottom lip a playful nip. “Knowing that you’re—gasp—seeing a client? Sneaking around?”

You groaned at the interruption, attempting to tug his suit jacket off, talk, and kiss him all at once. “I was seeing you—” kiss “before you—” kiss “were—” kiss “a client.” Kiss. “But yes, maybe a little.”

“Good afternoon, Mr. Suh,” you greeted the goddess brightly as you crossed the room to sit across the conference table from him. “Just you today?”

The other half of Olympus Investments had called pretty much as soon as the firm had opened that morning, requesting a meeting with you as soon as you were available, and you did happen to be able accommodate him that afternoon.

“Jaemin doesn’t know I’m here.” He shifted forward in his chair, looking you in the eye so intensely you couldn’t hold the eye contact for long.

You were a little confused as you laid out your materials in front of you, “Okay... Well, what did you wish to speak with me about? Somi emphasized that this was an urgent matter. Was there something the matter with the documents I sent for your review yesterday?”

“I am so sorry, Y/N...”

Your eyebrows shot up at his words, the forlorn tone he said them in, and at the fact that this was the first time Mr. Suh had addressed you by your first name. “For what, sir?”

“That Jaemin’s done this to you.”

“I don’t understand. What has Mr. Na done?”

“Taken your soul.”

His words made you immediately sputter out, “What are you talking about? I’m sorry, I don't underst—”

“Dinner the other night wasn’t the first time you two have met,” the goddess in front of you declared, gaze piercing you as he changed from despondent to stern. “What did you ask for, Y/N? What was worth your soul?”

“I didn’t sell Jaemin my soul!” You sighed in exasperation, fully dropping all pretenses now. “All he wanted was for me to spend some time with him.”

“And what did you want?”

“A job.”

“That’s it?”

“Yes, that’s all I asked for.”

“I’m sorry about all this, Y/N. All the jewelry... I get worried.” His gaze was still appraising you, and you could tell that you didn’t quite have him convinced.

“Oh,” you twisted the plain silver band you’d first been given around on your finger nervously. “I mean, he did give me all this too, but I didn’t ask for it.”

“Why would he...” Mr. Suh’s eyes fell to the pomegranate jewel sitting below the hollow of your throat. “Ahh... I get it.”

“Get what?” You asked cautiously, now self-consciously fidgeting with the pendant once again.

“That’s a lovely color.”

“Uhm, thank you. But I can tell you mean something else by that.”

“Ha,” he chuckled, leaning back in his seat but keeping his eyes on your necklace. “He’s courting you, isn’t he?”

“Uh that might’ve been what you called it in 300 BC or whenever, but now we call it dating.”

“No, honey. I may be… old-fashioned but I know the difference between dating and courting. Jaemin does too. Do you?”

“What?”

He nodded towards your necklace, “Ask him about the meaning of that color next time you see him.”

Your skin prickled uncomfortably; you didn’t like that Mr. Suh apparently knew more about your relationship than you did. “Did you have any actual business for me, Mr. Suh?”

“Oh, no. I’ll get out of your hair now. Sorry, hon.”

You stood up as he did, showing him out wordlessly to the lobby.

Walking into work some weeks later, you saw Jeno, Yangyang, Kun, and Sicheng gathered around yours and Yangyang’s desks. Not too unusual of a sight, especially considering the matching coffee cups they all had.

“Good morning, boys,” you greeted the four of them brightly, setting all your stuff down on your desk.

When you looked up from where your fond gaze had lingered over your keys, the shiny new one to Jaemin’s place on Earth there, you were met with silence.

“What?”

“Here, uhm, it was my turn to buy coffee this week,” Yangyang handed you a cup from the shop down the street from the firm.

You took it, a little alarmed that he wasn’t doing his usual complaining about being “forced” to buy coffee for “the bourgeois” (Kun and Sicheng) when they could definitely afford it and truly he was just being “exploited” (despite the five of you all rotating out who bought coffee for the group once a week).

“Uh, thanks,” you took a sip, not liking his wide eyes, Kun’s pained ones, Sicheng’s inquisitive gaze, and Jeno’s knowing look that usually meant the two of you needed to talk ASAP. “Okay, what, you guys?”

“Ms. Haseul wants to see you,” Yangyang was still speaking.

“Okay…”

That wasn’t unusual, you were her paralegal, you frequently were called into her office by yourself to have discussions and they never garnered reactions like this from your coworkers.

Kun rubbed at the back of his neck awkwardly, calmly explaining, “She told Yangyang to have you come into her office once you arrived regarding an issue on the Olympus Investments file. Said to make sure you knew it was urgent and severe.”

Your grip tightened on your coffee cup. Jeno’s jaw clenched as he gave you a very much ‘I told you so’ look.

“Then why the fuck did you guys make me play 20 questions with you if it’s that fucking serious? God, I have to go see her!” You set your cup down, briefly checking the phones to see if she was on a landline call. Her quick dial button wasn’t lit up, meaning that she wasn’t, and you grabbed a notepad and pen just in case. Maybe this was about something solely work-related, and not about you seeing a client and breaking company policy. One could only hope.

After speed-walking down the hall, you stopped outside her door to listen for a moment for any sign that she was on the phone or had someone else in her office. It was quiet, and you took another moment to inhale deeply through your nose, then exhale, composing yourself. Rapping your knuckles on her door, you waited for her reply.

“Come in.”

You opened the door, bowing your head respectfully, “Good morning, Ms. Haseul. Yangyang told me you wanted to see me regarding Olympus Investments.”

“Yes, sit, Y/L/N,” she gestured to one of the chairs across her desk from her.

You could feel her sharp eyes on you as you did so.

“I’m going to get straight to the point. Out of gratitude for the work you’ve done in your time here, I’m going to ask you only once and I of course expect the truth. Are you romantically involved with Mr. Na Jaemin?”

To your credit, your jaw didn’t drop. Part of you was expecting this, of course. You breathed in, taking a moment to think about how to phrase your response, “Yes, Ms. Haseul.”

She sighed, taking her glasses off and setting them on her desk. As your boss rubbed her brow and remained quiet, you felt anxiety creeping up through your veins.

Figuring that you were as good as fired anyway, you at least wanted to know how long you’d been made for, when and where you went wrong. “Ma’am? May I ask when— How long you’ve known?”

“Y/L/N…” She clicked her tongue and leaned back in her chair. “I’ve known the whole time. And I know you’ve been seeing him since before he became a client of ours as well.”

“I’m so sor—”

Your boss cut you off with a wave of her hand, “Don’t apologize, please. Aside from not telling me the next business day as you should have, you’ve been incredibly professional about this the entire time. Honestly, nothing about your behavior or work product is how I know.”

“Then how?” You asked, brows furrowing together.

“The first client dinner we had with Mr. Suh and Mr. Na. When we went to greet them, I caught a whiff of Mr. Na’s cologne, and it was remarkably familiar to me. Because you’d come in to the office in the mornings frequently smelling like it before that dinner.”

“Please don’t take this the wrong way but… why wait until now to address it?”

“Would you believe me if I said that I didn’t know how to bring it up?”

You were nearly speechless. It was hard to imagine Ms. Haseul not knowing what to do.

“I don’t… I don’t know what to say.”

“Anyway, like I said, you’ve been the model of professionalism; your client relations—in the office—have been impeccable, and your work product is the same high quality I expect to see from my employees. We of course need to address that you did not inform me of this conflict the next business day as is firm policy, but I see no reason to take any further action than that nor remove you as case manager for Olympus Investments.”

“Ma’am?” Now your jaw was on the floor, your eyes practically bugging out of your head.

“Both Mr. Na and Mr. Suh report being incredibly satisfied with your work. Therefore, as long as that continues then I am fine with having you stay on as their case manager, with your conflict of interest being properly noted in the file, of course. But as soon as any issues arise or you feel as though your conflict is affecting your ability to do your job, you will report that to me. Do you understand, Y/L/N?”

“Of course, Ms. Haseul,” you bowed your head as deeply as you could from your seat. “Thank you so much.”

“You’re dismissed, Y/L/N.”

“Right. Thank you again, Ms. Haseul,” you leapt to your feet, bowing once more now that you were standing before exiting her office.

Walking back out to where your desk was, the guys were exactly where you left them, clearly pretending to be doing anything else other than waiting to see if you got fired. Jeno, however, immediately zeroed his focus in on you as you approached them, the others soon joining suit to varying degrees of shamelessness.

You gave them two covert middle fingers down by your sides, “Fuck you guys, I still work here.”

“Oh thank god,” Jeno breathed out as you fully entered the pod of desks, pulling you into a hug.

“Hell yeah!” Yangyang jumped to his feet to join in, squeezing the two of you with reckless abandon. “The Atrocious Trio lives on!”

“Did you just invite yourself into our friendship, Yangyang?” You asked incredulously as Jeno shoved him out of the group hug.

You had just finished relaying the news to Jaemin that night—that Ms. Haseul knew, and had known the whole time, about your relationship—over dinner at his place on Earth. He claimed he wanted to test out some recipes before you had your meet-the-boyfriend dinner with your friends there.

Truly, it was a relief to have this weight off your chest, but that didn’t make it any less mortifying to relive possibly the most nerve-wracking meeting of your career yet. If you never had to feel like that again for the rest of your life, it would be too soon.

“Your boss is quite astute, huh,” Jaemin commented as he picked up your empty plate to start cleaning up after dinner, a smile pulling at the corners of his mouth.

“Real bloodhound, that one,” you muttered, standing up as well to grab the drained wine glasses. “And I can see that smirk, Jaemin.”

“Damn,” he clicked his tongue as he began washing the dishes, fully letting his dashing grin overtake his features. “Nothing gets past you either, angel.”

“I’d say that’s why they hired me but—” you gestured at him vaguely.

“That’s why they keep you around, even after such a scandal.”

“You are so—” You cut yourself off with a sigh, feeling how big the smile was on your face as you came to settle in beside him, dish towel in hand, knowing that your words had no punch when paired with how adoringly you were looking at him.

You dutifully dried each dish he handed you until the kitchen was cleaned up. The two of you were in a comfortable quiet, your Hades humming softly as he finished washing up, then took the towel from you and dried off his hands. With your own hands free, your fingers habitually found the pomegranate red gem hanging from your neck. Johnny’s words bounced around in your head. You hadn’t brought it up to Jaemin after, wanting to mull it over with yourself for a bit longer first. Wait until you were in the right headspace to address what the hell that conversation was even about.

“Guess that means we’ll be having more guests then?”

“Huh?” You asked lamely, not following Jaemin’s sudden question at all.

“For dinner,” your Hades clarified, walking towards the bedroom, and you followed him down the hall as he kept speaking. “You didn’t want to invite any coworkers other than Jeno before. But since Ms. Jo told you she knows, you’ll be inviting coworkers, right?”

“Oh. Uh, I guess. Maybe the ones I get drinks with,” you answered absentmindedly. “Or just the team. I don’t know.”

“Think about it, angel,” Jaemin squeezed your hand briefly before dropping it and moving over to the dresser to grab lounge clothes. “Guess I should tell Johnny, then. Funny, goddess of love is the only one who doesn’t know.”

But you most definitely weren’t thinking about the guest list for some dinner as you two did your separate nighttime routines. Your mind felt like it was in another galaxy, wrapped up in flashes of dazzling obsidian black and pomegranate red, dancing in bergamot, cedar wood, and cinnamon sticks. Courting. You’d done your obligatory dictionary reading the same day as your meeting with Johnny: to have a romantic relationship with someone one hopes to marry. Not engagement, not dating, something in between, somehow less and more.

Your eyes got caught on the necklace again in the bathroom mirror, finishing up at your sink at the dual vanity.

In the bedroom, Jaemin was sitting up against the headboard, legs crossed at the ankle and the wall sconce on his side turned on to illuminate the book he was reading—a collection of Edgar Allan Poe’s short stories, borrowed from you.

“Jaemin,” you called out for him quietly, leaning in the threshold of the bathroom.

“Yes?” He looked up at you attentively.

You nodded to the book in his lap, “Which one are you on?”

“‘MS. Found in a Bottle.’” Your Hades patted the spot beside him, “You want me to read for you, angel?”

“In a second.” You reached for your pendant. “Gems have meanings sometimes, right? In different cultures. Other than just being an expensive status symbol.”

He raised an eyebrow, “Yes. Why?”

“What about this one? The necklace you gave me.” You held it up, watching the dark red stone gleam as it caught the light.

He tucked his bookmark into the tome and fully put it aside on the nightstand, “Johnny’s spoken with you.”

“He came to the firm the other day freaking out thinking you’d taken my soul in exchange for riches,” you admitted, feeling a little guilty. “Sorry I didn’t uh, tell you before.”

“It’s okay. Sounds like you two had an interesting conversation.”

“Yeah. I told him that I didn’t sell you my soul for the jewelry, but he didn’t seem to believe me until he saw this one. Said to ask you about the color.”

Jaemin chuckled, “Mm, of course he did. The ego.”

You walked across the bedroom, stopping by his side of the bed. Tilting your head inquisitively, you asked, “Are you going to explain or just keep making cryptic statements, Jaemin?”

“Third option: Cryptic question. What color do you think it is, Y/N?”

“To me... it looks like fresh pomegranate seeds. Pomegranate red.”

“That’s exactly what I was thinking when I gave it to you,” your Hades nodded, a tender smile overtaking his more cynical one from when he was talking about his business partner. “The meaning that Johnny wanted you to ask about. According to one version of a myth, the first pomegranate tree came about from Aphrodite’s mourning of the death of a lover. Pomegranate juice came to symbolize love.”

“I already know that you love me, Jaemin,” you told him frankly, taking a step closer to the bed.

“Well good, something would be very, very wrong with me if you didn’t.”

“And I also know that we’re going in circles around the point right now.” Another step.

“We are.”

“He specifically used the word courting.” Another step. You were now directly beside him, at his nightstand, casting a shadow over his face.

Jaemin looked absolutely delighted to be cornered, both in conversation and literally. He always enjoyed your dialogues like this, as did you, or else you wouldn’t participate. The pushing and pulling, the back and forth, it was the nature of you and your Hades, and you wouldn’t have it any other way. Because at the end of it, everything was always out on the table, laid bare, open and honest.

“You got me, angel,” he held his hands up in defeat. “I’m all yours, now and for eternity, if you’ll have me. And I don’t need an answer about eternity right now of course, but will you let me start trying to convince you?”

You wound the necklace chain around your knuckles thoughtfully, “I want you to tell me something, Jaemin, before I answer you.”

“An answer for an answer.” He was looking up at you with a familiar fond, tender smile, “Of course, angel, anything.”

There was something itching at the back of your mind, that never quite made sense to you, as you came to know your Hades better over all this time, fell in love with him, something that just seemed… out of place. Something he said that just hasn’t sat right every time you thought of it.

“Why did you want to spend time with me in the first place? Way back, the night we met, when you came to me to make our deal, I asked you why you would give me the job for just hanging out with you. Do you remember what you told me?”

“I remember everything about that night,” he admitted freely. “I told you I was tired of spending time with dead people.”

“And that was a lie,” you stated simply, softly, no anger or hurt in your words. Instead, there was a kind commiseration underlying them.

“Yes.”

“So, why did you want my time?”

“I was lonely.”

And you reached in front of you to grab your Hades’ hand, your lonely-no-more god, and you squeezed it tight between both of yours. “I owe you an answer now. Yes.”

Jaemin tugged you closer, making you momentarily lose your balance and fall forward onto his chest, your mouths just centimeters apart. Obsidian black was all that you could see, his eyes looking at you with nothing short of absolute devotion, divine worship, insatiable hunger. You pushed back that obstinate lock of jet black hair from his forehead before twisting your fingers in the strands at the back of his head and pulling his lips to yours. In the split second before your eyes fluttered shut, they caught the glint of a pomegranate red gem on his ear.

You were sat beneath the tree of golden fruit with your shadow man, the fruit you had picked still in your hands. With no hesitation, you dug your thumbs into the golden outer husk, splitting it in half. Inside were hundreds of bright red seeds, ripe, plump, glistening like rubies. Your mouth watered. Looking to your shadow man for reassurance, you were immediately given it.

You set one half down on your lap to dig into the other with your fingers. Bringing the first couple seeds you could get out up to your mouth, your tastebuds were immediately met with the ambrosial, saccharine, tart juice. They burst in your mouth, coating your tongue and dripping down the back of your throat. You went back in for more, eating handful after handful of the fruit’s plentiful seeds. Soon that half was emptied, and you grabbed the other that had been sitting in your lap.

You wanted more. Never had you ever wanted for something more in your life. Your fingers and hands were dripping red, and you could feel beads of the scarlet nectar running down your chin to your neck and down your sternum before disappearing into your top. But you still wanted more, wanted everything the fruit could give to you.

When you had finally finished the other half, you felt your want satiated. Your skin was sticky, and the white dress you were wearing had swaths of crimson red stains all over it. And your shadow man was still there beside you, and he finally touched you. His arm wrapped around your shoulders, encouraging you to lean against him, resting your head on his chest and letting out a sigh of relief.

His name tumbled from your lips then, something you’d always known. You’d always known him. An epiphany, a rite, a blessing, a hymn, a miracle, a prayer.

“Jaemin.”

⤷ series masterlist ⤷ blog masterlist

#i: jaemin #jaemin #na jaemin #nct #nct dream #nct imagine #nct dream imagine #jaemin imagine #na jaemin imagine #nct x reader #nct dream x reader #jaemin x reader #na jaemin x reader #s: golden fruit #f: pomegranate red #g: fluff #writing #text #mine

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ohhgingersnaps · 2 years

Note

for the character bingo: jonathan harker / wheatley / sebastian stardewvalley :)

Thanks for asking!! Gonna do these in order of Strength of Feeling

(From the Character Bingo post here: x)

Sebastian Stardewvalley, my beloved blorbo emo boy, current hyperfixation, love of my life, etc. He is confident in who he is and what he wants! He is an introvert who has the self-awareness to know when he needs space and enforce boundaries politely! He's complicated and independent and loves frogs and has cool hair and likes horror films and runs a fun DND campaign for his friends! He tries to be edgy and cool but really he's just a big soft nerd and I love that about him. I always accidentally romance him even when I don't set out to do it, just because I really enjoy talking to him. Whenever I hear Iris (Goo Goo Dolls) on the radio I turn it up in his honor. Also Colors (Halsey). Actually I have an entire dedicated playlist lol

Admittedly I've been on a big SDV kick lately, mostly because I've been working on this novel-length superpowers AU (which ofc features him as one of the protags), so a lot of what I like about him is definitely shaped by my own version of him viewed through that lens, but he was my first-ever SDV spouse and I'm pretty sure he's always going to secretly be my favorite

Side note: I came very close to also checking "everyone but me is wrong about them <3" because although about 90% of the fandom takes on him are good, every time I see a bad one (specifically ones that malign/mischaracterize him for being an introvert who's good at enforcing boundaries, or bad takes about how he relates to his family) it does make me angry enough to block on sight. I have a lot of strong feelings about their family dynamic actually, because it reminds me of a less healthy version of my own?? not to project my own life onto this but tl;dr nobody is really at fault and it's all mismatched expectations and badly-paired neuroses, but this is a story for another day

Wheatley! Specifically Blue Sky Wheatley is just. Chef's kiss amazing, Blue Sky Wheatley still has one of the best character arcs I have ever seen in my life. I have marked "wow! they are a horrible person" because he is, but like, in the same way all of us are, you know? It's about the redemption arc. The important bit is that he actively chooses to be better. Obviously he also works better as part of a dynamic with Chell, that's part of the point, right? He is still a blorbo but he's like, a dormant blorbo I haven't thought about in a minute. I'm sure I'll pull him off the shelf again to put him in the main rotation whenever I reread Blue Sky for the dozenth time, though.

Okay so, Dracula Daily is really my first ever exposure to Dracula (and therefore Jonathan Harker)? Like, everything I know about Dracula is via cultural osmosis, so I don't know a ton about him yet, besides what I know from fandom osmosis and the entries we've had so far. I do think it's very sweet how much he cares about Mina, and that earns him several bonus points. I also think his mentality of, "This is my first big job after passing my exams, I better get a good grade in this customer interaction," is absolutely relatable, which I enjoy. He's just a little lawyer man trying his best, and I really hope he makes it through his ordeals in one piece. (It's not looking like he will, but, you know, I can hope, right?)

#thanks for asking!!#character bingo #ask game #sebastian sdv #wheatley #jonathan harker #the supers au is 50k already lol i might start posting chapters at some point #long post #ioannemos

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edupunkn00b · 3 years

Note

1. What’s your favorite character(s) to write for?

5. Do you listen to music when writing?

13. When did you start writing fanfic?

22. Do you enjoy making OCs for your fanfics, or prefer sticking to canon characters?

35. Where’s your favorite place to write?

Thank you so very much for these questions, Namine! :)

1. Favorite Characters to Write

Shocking no-one, I'm sure, my favorite characters to write are Remus, Logan, and Janus.

5. Music during writing?

Oh, yes! I usually make playlists for my fics and I'll listen to them, sometimes editing the list after writing. As a result, I have a few too many playlists on Spotify.

The type of music varies by story, but there's some Queen in nearly every single one. :)

13. When I Started Writing Fanfic

I wrote two original mini-stories when I was in middle school. I stopped when someone (IRL) I shared my work with made some inappropriate comments, implying a metaphor that, as a twelve year old, i had not intended.

I'm a lot older than twelve now.

I wrote my first actual fanfic last December, almost a year ago, when I wrote The Sides Celebrate Chanukah, a little ~400 word ball of fluff i wrote to get it out of my head. I thought that would be my one and only foray into creative writing an adult.

I had no idea what that little story would spark in me.

22. To OC or not OC?

In short, if I need a true villain, there will be an OC. Not that all of my OCs are villains, but... All of my real villains are OCs. The absolute closest i come to using a Canon character as a villain is Patton in Shackled (sorry) and Roman in A Rough Start to Camp Croft. Arguably Dee in Beside Me. They get redemption arcs, though, because they weren't evil, just making some bad choices. (Yes, i want to write a redemption arc for Dracula.)

Kelly, Devin, Max, Alice, Tosh? All Evil. All OCs.

35. Favorite Place to Write

My very favorite place to write is on an ancient MacBook Air at my kitchen table. Perhaps that's why so much stuff happens at the kitchen table in my fics? I like to edit and create posts at my tiny desk where I have a second monitor that i bought for work.

#asked and answered #i'm a sucker for Asks #thank you so very much!

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nashibirne · 4 years

Text

Against all odds - 2.8

Here we go again! Enjoy. You will finally find some smut in this chapter!

A very big thank you to the wonderful @hell1129-blog who beta’ed this chapter.

Part 2.1 Part 2.2 Part 2.3 Part 2.4 Part 2.5 Part 2.6 Part 2.7

Pairing: Henry Cavill x ofc Summary: Dream a little dream of me….Henry gets horny and dreams of Anna Warnings: 18 + only! NSFW, smut, sex, explicit language, oral, deep throat, bondage, foursome/mfff, vampires, bloodsucking, fangs, mentioning of choking, masturbation Credits: The dream was inspired by the movie “Bram Stoker’s Dracula” (Draculas brides having their way with Jonathan Harker)

If you don’t like explicit sexual content, don’t proceed!

When he listened to her playlist a few hours later, sitting in his kitchen, having a beer, he was surprised. The songs she had chosen did not only cheer him up, some of them made him very, very horny.

Sure, there were some innocent flirty pop and rock songs, nothing to think about much. But there also were a few songs that were too explicit to be ignored or misunderstood. Too hot. Too sexy. Too obvious.

Prince for example with “Get off” singing

“Gett off, twenty three positions in a one night stand Gett off, I’ll only call you after if you say I can Gett off, let a woman be a woman and a man be a man Gett off, if you want to baby here I am (here I am)”

God yes, he wanted to get off. On her, inside of her…have his ways with her in 23 positions and more.

And it kept getting better with ‘I touch myself’ by The Divinyls going like

“I don’t want anybody else, when I think about you I touch myself. A fool could see just how much I adore you, I’d go down on my knees, I’d do anything for you.”

How could he not imagine Anna now, lying lonely in her bed, stroking her clit with one hand and her tits with the other. Moaning his name, dreaming of kneeling in front of him, sucking and licking his big cock till he comes in her mouth making her swallow his cum to the last drop.

But the best was Closer by Nine Inch Nails.

“I want to fuck you like an animal, I want to feel you from the inside.”

Yes. Yes. Yes. That summed up his desires pretty much. Taking her like a predator, feeling her heat, her lust, her hunger from deep down inside. Making her scratch her nails in his back, screaming his name. Filling her with his dick and with his tongue. Eating her pussy was one of his wettest fantasies ever. He just wanted to bury his face between her thighs, smelling her scent, tasting her juices, driving her crazy with his tongue, making her come with his mouth like no man before him.

The images crossing his mind made him so hard it hurt. He couldn’t help but wonder if she did this to him on purpose. If so it was a three point turn. From ignoring his flirting completely to turning him on intentionally. If so it meant she at last did react to his confession now and that there really was a chance that she wanted him as much as he wanted her. That she loved him too.

With that thought he went to bed becoming the protagonist of one of the hottest dreams he’d ever had.

I find myself spread-eagled on a huge bed unable to move my limbs, tied up by invisible chains. Admiring the beauty of the room I am locked up in, suddenly a woman appears out of nowhere right between my legs. She’s diving up from underneath the smooth white satin sheets, a veil of black lace covering her face. When she lifts it slowly to my big surprise its Anna’s face that looks at me. She’s beautiful as ever, wearing not much more than the headdress and a black leather choker. Her bare breasts are spectacular and I would die to touch them but I can’t. Smiling wickedly she looks me right in the eyes, her gaze burning with lust and desire and something more. Greed. Her hands glide upwards over the rough fabric of my trousers her thumbs running along the insides of my thighs. When they reach my crotch she lightly touches my erection that is visible through my jeans, still staring at me intensly. As if by magic my belt unbuckles and the buttons fly open without a single touch. I realize I don’t wear any underpants. She slowly licks her lips, grinning and exposing sharp vampire fangs. The sight is horrifying and arousing to the same degree and shivers run down my spine. When she lowers her mouth on my dick, briefly touching it’s tip with her luscious, kitten-like tounge I tilt my head back, closing my eyes, moaning with pleasure. She now licks up and down my shaft provocativly slow, torturing me with visible joy before taking my hard cock in her mouth completely - deep throat like I’ve never experienced it before, the danger of getting hurt by her fangs hanging over my head like a sword of Damocles but the sensation of her hot mouth and her tight throat around my dick oh so spectacular.

Just as I’m wondering if this can get even better two other women appear beside me. One to my left and one to my right. They look exactly like the first vampire Anna, perfect copies of each other, sexy triplets from hell or maybe from heaven. I don’t know which. They start kissing me passionately, both at the same time, their tongues hot against mine. I whimper in protest when I notice that Anna has stopped giving me the blowjob of my life. Instead she now moves her naked body over my lap lowering her pussy, taking me in deep down with one swift motion and starting to ride me. Slowly at first, searching for the perfect rhythm, faster when she’s finally found it. Her head is bend backwards, her throat exposed and I hate that I’m unable to lay my hands around her neck, choking her, making her beg for mercy. I try to move my limbs again, but they’re still like paralysed. Annas lustful moans are loud and unrestrained, her voice hoarse when she whispers my name again and again. I’m close now, panting and groaning in pleasure and pain because the invisible cuffs rub my wrists and my ankles raw, steering towards what is going to be the best orgasm I’ve ever had.

The other Annas are now kissing and licking my forearms, their hands pinching my nipples, caressing my hairy chest and stroking my abs. I’m shocked by the stinging pain when they unexpectedly drive their fangs deep into the sensitive flesh of my wrists but when they start sucking my blood it feels so overwhelmingly intense it pushes me over the edge and I come with a predatory cry, lifting my hips, squirting my cum deep into Annas pussy which makes her reach her climax to. She spasms uncontrolled still riding my cock uttering a primal scream.

When Henry woke up he was a sticky mess, completely exhausted, holding his still hard dick in his hand, his belly smeared with sperm and sweat.

***********************************

Hope you liked this chapter, it was quite hard to write so I would love to hear your opinion. Please leave a comment, like or reblog if you enjoyed my story.

#henry cavill #henry cavill fandom #henry cavill fanfic #henry cavill x ofc #friends to lovers fan fic #smut #henry cavill smut #friends to lovers

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robinsnest2111 · 3 years

Note

Favorite shows besides MTL? Also favorite movies, books?

Ohhh, at the moment I'm really into Hogan's Heroes!

Avatar: The Last Airbender has been a favourite ever since I saw all 3 seasons on TV as a kid/teen. Cat Scratch is another big favourite from back in the day! (I used to stay up all night to watch TV and sometimes I'd catch episodes of Cat Scratch at 9pm and the re-runs at 5am before school lol)

All time favourite movie: The Road to El Dorado! I still remember the day my mother took me to burger king to get the toys (I had Miguel, Altivo and Tzekel Kan lol). I used to annoy my parents to rent the dvd at the local video rental store on the regular until they got fed up and bought me a dvd of my own :') And I still know all the songs by heart!

I'm also really soft for Nightmare Before Christmas, Corpse Bride and Coraline! And a handful of Ghibli movies (The Cat Returns, Howl's Moving Castle, Kiki's Delivery Service), Shrek, Madagascar, Emperor's New Groove and Mary Poppins used to be on regular dvd player rotation for years as well lol

In terms of movies with real actors, I have a small collection of Spaghetti Western movies (most of them with Lee Van Cleef because Revolver Ocelot is based on him lol) which are really comforting to me because nice memories and nice memes with nice people :') Sabata and Beyond The Law are my favourites!

Mad Max: Fury Road is also very cool, really aesthetic. Love the cinnamon tography 👌

Oh and not to forget: Codename UNCLE and What We Do In The Shadows!

I feel really bad about it, but lately I've not felt up to reading as much as I did a few years ago... So most of my favourite books are from my childhood and teen years lol

Shiloh, the Inkheart series and a few select Goosebumps books are what I devoured in just a few reading sessions in the middle of the night as a kid. The Indiana Jones novels were also subjected to the same treatment lol

A few more "recent" favourites are: The Hobbit, a few select Sherlock Holmes stories, Frankenstein, a gay parody of Sherlock Holmes I got for my 17th birthday (Hemlock Bones: A Stud In Scarlet by Sarah Masters), and a historical gay mystery/romance novel I found at a random grocery store (Think of England by K. J. Charles)

Do fanfics count as books? Because I got two favourites in that category that could very well count as books because of their length and depth and level of emotion and action. First one is: Season of Light and Shadow by eldritchmage on AO3, 160 chapters of Modern AU Barduil goodness which got me through one of my toughest years) And the second one I'm in the process of catching up with and finishing: Men of Honor (109 chapters of Hogan's Heroes fanfic with a Klink x Hogan flavour and some serious historical parts concerning the last few months of life and war in Germany before the surrender to the Allies.)

And I'm extremely fond of two stories a dear friend has written over the past few years:

Blutige Anfänger (literally "Bloody Beginners"), an entertaining and thrilling story about Count Dracula being woken up in modern times and having to face a new very strict and bureaucratic vampire society (typically german lol) alongside a recently turned college student who would rather be back on twitter than deal with all this mess lol (best thing is that parts of the story play in a city that I know well and in areas that I have fond memories of!!!)

And Hyding Adam, a story that started as a Frankenstein/Jekyll+Hyde crossover and turned into something absolutely beautiful ahhh I still get all teary-eyed just thinking about it! (I'm even responsible for one song on the matching Hyding Adam mood playlist!!!)

There's probably loads of movies, series and books I can't think of right now but this will do for now lol

#...i have way too many favourites lmao #if somethig catches my interest it's got it for a loooong long time :')#thank you so much for the ask!#ask robin #inpraiseofbacchus

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bluesey-182 · 4 years

Text

We Have To Stop Meeting Like This - Chapter 8

holy shit??? i finally did it??? i finished this chapter??? amazing. since there are so many chapters now i’m just going to start linking the fic on ao3 instead of linking all the posts separately. i hope that’s okay. now, without further ado, here is the update:

--------

“Hey, I didn’t think you’d answer.”

On the other line of the phone came the blasting sounds from a video game as someone shot a simulated gun. “Why?” Cardan asked. It sounded like he had his cell on speaker phone. “Cause it’s one in the morning?”

Jude couldn’t help herself--she rolled her eyes even though he wasn’t there to see it. “No, Cardan, because I thought both of your hands had been gnawed off by a giant rat. Of course because it’s almost one o’clock.”

There was uproarious laughter--deep and male--from the other end that didn’t sound like Cardan’s laugh. His roommate, probably. But if he had heard her, that confirmed her theory about being on speaker.

“First of all,” Cardan’s amused voice cut through the laughter. “The only rat that would be big enough to best me in a fight is an R.O.U.S from The Princess Bride and they don’t actually exist. And second of all, darling, I’m a nocturnal creature, so of course I’m awake to answer your late night booty calls. Now what can I do for you?” Machine gun fire continued in the background from his end, joined with shouting from Cardan’s roommate to “watch out, dude, watch out! damnit now you’re dead. way to go, geezer.”

“I just,” Jude began but quickly cut off, unsure of how to proceed knowing that someone else was listening in on their conversation--even if he was clearly wrapped up in whatever violent video game the two boys seemed to be playing. “Um…”

“Hang on, Jude.” There was some mumbling from his end as words were exchanged, then a click like a door being closed, and suddenly the game’s noises were gone and Cardan’s voice was closer. He had taken her off speaker. “Okay I’m alone now, sorry. Is everything okay?”

“I just,” Jude started again and trailed off once more. “I can’t sleep.”

It had been almost a week since her last seizure. A week since Cardan broke down her door to find her on the floor laying in her own blood. Six days since Madoc hired someone to fix the girls’ door, five days since Madoc ordered Jude to move back home until they could get her seizures back under control, and two days since Vivi finally helped Jude convince their father to let her stay in her own apartment. The last week had been exhausting and yet Jude was restless. She would be lying if she said she wasn’t scared after what had happened.

“Do you want me to come over?” Cardan offered helpfully, and the sincerity of his offer nearly brought tears to Jude’s eyes.

“No,” she admitted. “No, I want… out. I don’t want to be here right now.”

“Where do you want to be?”

“I don’t actually know.”

A brief silence washed over them, interrupted only by the sound of Taryn’s cat meowing from somewhere in the apartment. Finally, Cardan said, “I’m on my way to pick you up.”

--------

The first thing Jude noticed when she got into Cardan's car was his wild hair. The perpetually messy curls were somehow even more unkempt than usual. The second thing she noticed was that Cardan was wearing sweatpants that fit him in a very pleasing way underneath a hoodie that some primal part of her begged to steal from him. The third thing she noticed was his smirk at her noticing him.

"Good evening," Cardan said in a mockery of a stereotypical vampire voice.

"What, are you Dracula now?" Jude teased.

"I think I'd be more of a faerie than a vampire, actually."

"Then why the vampire voice?"

"Jude Duarte: ever the critic."

"Spare me.” Jude tugged the seatbelt across her body and buckled it with some effort--the buckle itself was coated in a sticky substance that was likely spilled soda. She hoped it was soda. “Where are we going?"

"It's a surprise."

"Cardan--"

"I promise there's not immediate danger to your person, if that's what you're worried about. Just trust me?"

Jude searched Cardan's face for any trace of deceit but came up empty. Hesitantly, she nodded her assent. Satisfied, Cardan put the car into gear and drove down the street like a person who decidedly deserved to have their license revoked. At Jude's surprised shriek, he laughed, earning himself a scowl from Jude.

"I thought you said there was no immediate danger to my person," she said.

"I just floored the gas a bit, it's not like I ran a red light into oncoming traffic."

"You really are such a terrible driver, you know that?" Jude asked once Cardan had stopped laughing. Instead of a verbal response, Cardan reached for the volume nob on the radio and turned his music up to deafening volumes. As he had done before in the car, Cardan began singing along to the words--the sound more shouting than singing--as he occasionally looked over to Jude to sing parts of the lyrics to her. His face was so openly happy and carefree that something in Jude’s chest tugged on her like a line trying to reel her into him. Watching his lips form the words made her want to kiss him. Hearing his terrible singing made her want to join in. Watching the streetlights flash across his face made her feel free, alive, happy. Her mind told her heart that she was right where she was supposed to be.

The song changed and Cardan flashed a grin over to her but soon frowned at whatever expression was on her face. Quickly, he spun the volume back down to near silence and asked Jude ever so gently, “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” she croaked. Really, nothing should have been wrong, but her chest was aching in a way she couldn’t place. It was the sort of feeling of being happy but fearing it at the same time--a fear that it would end. “Can I play a song?”

Cardan looked as if he didn’t quite believe her answer to his question but nevertheless waved a hand to his phone on the dash in permission for her to pick it up. A cursory search through his music library showed her mostly alternative rock and pop music and loud punk songs, but in his playlists she found one with a promising title of “Chill Music.” She also found a playlist with her name on it. Jude pretended not to see it, even though her heart skipped a beat, and instead clicked on the first playlist.

Khalid started playing through the speakers as Cardan turned into an unlit parking lot in front of a chain of mostly darkened store-fronts. The stereo continued to play even after the car was shut off before finally turning off completely when Cardan crawled into the backseat and opened a functioning door to get out of his crap car. He came around to her side of the car and opened the door for her, holding his hand out to her like some fairytale prince asking a princess for a dance instead of a boy in a dark parking lot on a late night outing in his sweats who had also just clambered around his own car like a jungle-gym.

“Shall we?” He asked. Jude rolled her eyes at his dramatics--eliciting a laugh from Cardan--but accepted his hand and allowed him to guide her out of his car.

“Are you ever going to get your dented front bumper fixed?” Jude asked when her eyes caught on the evidence of their first meeting. She was surprised that even after all that time had passed he still hadn’t taken his car into a body shop. He clearly had the money for it. “Or your door, for that matter?”

“Nah, it pisses my dad off that I’m ruining the car.”

“Makes me wonder if you crash it on purpose,” Jude teased.

“Maybe I do,” Cardan admitted flippantly, his voice at odds with whatever flashed in his eyes. “I do a lot of reckless shit. But crashing into you truly was an accident, in case you're wondering. Now, let’s go inside before all my precious fingers fall off. It’s cold out here.”

"Are you going to tell me where we're going now?"

"Well there's only one place still open right now," Cardan said, indicating with his hand one of the only lit buildings in front of them. A half burnt out sign above the doors proclaimed the place to be Ginkgo Garden and the smell of Chinese food drifted through the air. Jude inhaled deeply and looked to Cardan for confirmation of food in her near future. He smiled softly before offering her his hand to hold. Somehow, in the dark, it seemed like no big deal to hold onto him. She took his hand and they strode towards the restaurant.

“Why are they still open?” She wondered aloud. Beside her, Cardan shrugged.

“We’re in a college town and they do late night deliveries to the panicked students trying to cram everything into their brain at once?” He suggested.

“Makes sense.”

Inside the front doors they were blasted with a rush of hot air coming from an unseen heater in the ceiling. Jude welcomed it and, beside her, Cardan shivered one final time as if to shake the cold from his body for good. He released her hand to pull open the second set of inner doors for her, and Jude tried not to mourn the loss of his hand in hers. The restaurant's interior greeted them with green chairs and wallpaper patterned with mandarin trees. Soft music played softly over the sound of clinking dishes coming from the kitchen. Other than the young man standing behind a counter to the left of the door, no one appeared to be in the front house of the restaurant. Cardan exchanged familiar greetings with the smiling guy at the counter as Jude further took in the beautiful and elaborate decorations all over the place. It felt more like a home inside than a restaurant with its cramped but lovingly decorated space. Behind her, Cardan and the man kept chatting like old friends and Jude wondered just how often Cardan came here.

“Jude, this is Harry,” Cardan interjected into her train of thought, confirming her suspicion that he was a regular here. “Harry, this is Jude.”

“Hey, nice to meet you,” Harry smiled at her with so much genuine warmth that for a moment Jude was caught off guard by the open kindness from a total stranger. On its own accord her face seemed to smile back, but something told her it came out a bit more like a grimace. Cardan grinned at her and turned a conspiratorial grin towards Harry.

“I’m afraid Jude doesn’t smile much,” he said.

“You’re such a dick,” Jude remarked.

“She does, however,” Cardan continued, “say sweet nothings such as that to me all the time.”

Jude rolled her eyes as the two boys chuckled and decided it was best to tune them out. When her efforts proved fruitless (Cardan had proceeded to start listing all the “wondrous, heartfelt names” that Jude had “very fondly” called him since they had met for Harry to laugh at in increasing volumes as the names got more creative) Jude caught sight of a sign near the back that read "Bathrooms" with an arrow pointing in the wrong direction. Over her shoulder she caught eyes with Cardan long enough for an exchange of nods--one from her indicating where she’d be and one from him acknowledging that he understood--then ducked into the single stall restroom and locked the door behind her. Sounds from outside the small room reached her through the thick door as if from underwater. Everything sounded distorted and far away. Though she could hear the undertone of Cardan’s voice, all distinct words were drowned out, leaving behind only a melodic quality to his speech. She loosed a heavy sigh and turned so her back was against the door. From this new perspective, she caught sight of herself in the mirror.

She liked to think that the mirror was hung unusually high but knew the reality was that she was too short to see her reflection below her shoulders. In the mirror she could see the dark circles under her eyes as evidence of her sleepless nights. Not for the first time, she wondered what Cardan saw when he looked at her. Did he see the girl in armor or the girl beneath it? Was she pretty to him? Or were her edges too sharp?

Jude tore her gaze away from her reflection and stepped forward to the sink where she turned her attention to the drain instead. As if on autopilot, she absently reached out to turn the sink handle, cupped some cool water into her palms, and gently splashed it onto her face. Droplets of water ran down her arms into her rolled-up sleeves as she allowed herself to stand there for a moment with her hands covering her face. Finally, she took a deep breath, snatched a paper towel from the dispenser, dried herself off, and walked out of the bathroom to find Cardan playing on his phone at one of the tables.

“All good?” He asked.

“Yeah, I got an eyelash in my eye and needed to rinse it out.” The lie came easily, but then again they always did.

“I ordered some food to go, Harry just ran back to get it for us. I was thinking we could take it back to my place and watch TV? I’ll even let you pick the show, as long as you don’t pick something that sucks.”

“Says the guy that watches Criminal Minds,” Jude teased, falling back into their easy banter.

“Hey,” Cardan pointed an accusatory finger in her face as she sank into the chair opposite him and she batted it away like an annoying gnat. “Criminal Minds,” Cardan continued regardless, “is interesting. It’s interesting to me how someone can be so fucked up to do the things they do.”

“And why do you do the things you do, Cardan?”

“Because my family didn’t want me so now I must act up to get attention.”

“See? That didn’t take fourteen seasons to explain.”

Just as Cardan made to reply, the kitchen door opened to reveal Harry carrying a large brown bag. Cardan stood and took the food, goodbyes were exchanged, and then Jude and Cardan were walking back into the cold. Before the doors closed all the way, Harry’s voice called out, “It was nice meeting you Jude!” and she waved over her shoulder and tried for a real-looking smile this time. When she turned back around, Cardan was standing with the passenger side door open for her.

“You know I can get my own doors, right?” She said with no real heat behind it.

“Yes, well, I keep getting to the doors before you and it seems foolish to stand and wait for you to open them for me.”

“I hate you, do you know that?”

“You’re lying. Do you know that?” Cardan grinned his wicked grin and Jude considered stomping on his toes. Instead, she got in the car. Cardan jogged over to his side of the car and pointed at the window controls as a request for Jude to roll it down for him. She shook her head in mockery, pretending not to understand what he was asking. Cardan gave her a withering look and mouthed at her to roll down the window. With her left hand she reached over for the controls and locked the doors.

“Jude,” Cardan groaned through the glass barrier as Jude began to laugh. “C’mon, my balls are freezing off.”

“Fine, fine.” She unlocked the car. Cardan glared at her and Jude continued to laugh.

Finally the sight of him shivering out in the cold, as well as the beginnings of a snow storm drifting through the air, became too pitiful and Jude rolled down the driver’s side window for Cardan to crawl through. Immediately his hands reached for the heater and he turned to her with a scowl as she laughed.

“I so want to be mad,” Cardan said as he reached into the backseat to set the bag of food onto the leather backseat, “but your laugh is distracting me.”

“I’ll stop laughing then,” Jude replied, trying to school her features into a more serious expression. The efforts sent her into a laughing fit again.

“No,” Cardan said softly. His lips curled up into a small smile while he watched her. “Don’t stop. I like your laugh.”

At his confession, Jude’s laughter finally petered out. The sudden silence in the car felt deafening as the two of them sat at stared at each other. The air felt charged with--something. All Jude knew was that if she didn’t look away now, her feelings were going to overwhelm her.

She looked away.

Cardan cleared his throat as Jude played with the hem of her jacket. Neither of them spoke as he turned on the car, connected the bluetooth on his phone to the stereo. Not a glance was exchanged as the music started up again and Cardan turned to look through the rearview window to back the car out of the parking lot. When the car pulled up to the third stoplight in a row, Cardan broke the awkward silence.

“Do you want me to take you home?”

“No,” Jude whispered. “No, I’m sorry. I’m just…”

“It’s okay.”

Jude resumed fiddling with the hem of her jacket as the streetlight washed over them in green and the car proceeded with its progress down the road.

“I’m scared,” Jude found herself saying.

“I can take you home,” Cardan offered again softly, looking over at her with those dark eyes that she could so easily drown in.

“Not of you,” Jude said. “Just… this whole… seizure thing has had me messed up lately.”

“Understandably so.” Though he still looked concerned, Cardan seemed to have relaxed slightly at her words.

“I mean… What were you thinking?” Jude continued.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean,” Jude started, then stopped abruptly. “I mean what were you thinking when I called you? When you found me just laying there? Were you thinking ‘oh god she’s so pathetic’ or--”

“Jude,” Cardan interrupted, stopping her words with a gentle hand placed over her knee. “Please don’t ever think that I’d feel like that.”

“Then what were you thinking?” Until now Jude hadn’t noticed the moisture in her eyes. She tried to hold the tears back, but Cardan noticed them anyway and pulled over onto the side of the road. As the car rolled to a complete stop, all of Jude’s emotions finally poured over and she was crying, she was crying, she was crying. Distantly she registered Cardan’s fingers brushing against the backs of her hands. He asked a question, asked if it was alright to touch her, and took her hands in his when she nodded. Gingerly, he cradled her hands in his. Reached out to wipe away the streams of tears rolling down her cheek. Whispered to her until his voice finally reached her and she began to calm down. His thumb was rubbing soft circles into the back of her hand as his other hand trailed gently through the hair framing her face. Slowly, slowly, Jude came back to herself, back to the car, back to him. She forced herself to look into his eyes because the only other option was to let the shame of her tears consume her. In his eyes, though, was only a gentle understanding. Any judgement or disgust she may have expected was missing from his gaze. The Cardan sitting in front of her was so far away from the Cardan that she had met when he rear-ended her, or the Cardan she had ran into at Valerian’s stupid party. The Cardan in front of her was without armor and she longed to take off her own.

“Do you really want to know what I was thinking?” He asked her gently. Jude nodded, unable to speak. Instead of answering right away, Cardan looked down to where he still held her hand and watched his own fingers draw circles on her skin. His voice cracked when he tried to speak. "When you called me…. when you called me, I had some joke ready to make you laugh or call me a jackass or roll your eyes at me. But then I answered and you didn't say anything at first and I knew something was wrong. I know you don't remember, but I do. You said help. Just help, that was all, but you sounded so scared and my heart started beating out of my chest. I asked you where you were three times before you were finally able to tell me you were at home and then you were completely silent. I drove like a bat out of hell to get to you, pushing the speed limit by 20 in some areas and daring the cops to pull me over, because there was no way in hell I would stop for anything. I was on the phone with you the whole time, just hoping you'd say something else, anything else, but you never did. I got to your place and… you wouldn't answer the door, Jude.” He looked up at her, his eyes glazed over. “I have never in my life been that afraid or that desperate to get to someone. So I broke the door in. I didn't even know I could do that,” Cardan laughed without humor and turned his eyes to look through the windshield. “I was just so goddamn panicked. And then I saw you there, and you were crying, and that was the only way I knew you weren't dead. There was so much blood, Jude. And you weren't moving. And all I could think was ‘I can’t lose her. I can’t lose this girl that makes me feel like I’m more than the fuck-up my family has always seen me as. This girl that makes me feel safe enough to laugh without cruelty, who smiles so rarely but so brightly, who calls me a jackass even though her eyes seem to be begging to say something else. I can’t lose this girl when I’m just finally getting to know her.’ All I could think about, Jude…” When he looked at her this time, it was his eyes full of tears. “Was that you had to be okay. Because I don’t know what I would have done if you weren’t.”

Was she crying again? Instinctively Jude’s hand tightened around his and she cradled his hands like he had done to hers. She didn’t know what to say, didn’t know if there was anything to say. She felt useless as Cardan gathered himself back together without a word from her, but then he brought her knuckles to his lips and brushed a kiss across her skin.

“Thanks,” she whispered lamely. “For saving me.”

“Sorry for breaking your door.”

“I didn’t like it, anyway.”

Cardan laughed, but it was a shadow of his usual one.

--------

At midnight Jude awoke having to pee. Yuri On Ice still played quietly on the television that washed the room in a soft blue light. Empty containers of Chinese food were spread haphazardly around them on the comforter. Cardan was sprawled out on his bed beside her, mouth open slightly as soft noises of sleep escaped him. At the sight of his peaceful face Jude stopped to look at him for a moment. The planes of his face looked softer in sleep--his cheekbones and jawline less like they could cut her heart to pieces, his beautiful mouth so invitingly soft and begging for her to make them smile. And those beautiful black curls of his were a halo on the pillow. He was so heart-achingly beautiful.

She thought she might love him.

The revaluation jolted her out of bed and she rushed to the bathroom while her heart jackhammered in her chest. With the bathroom door closed and safely separating them, Jude tried to reason with her own racing thoughts. Love was a complicated thing. Love was a distant memory that came with her mother spinning her around in her arms and sticky fingers from popsicles and chasing her father around the living room when he snatched her blanket from her. Love was something she chased to get from Madoc, something she found late at night curled in bed with her sisters as they laughed to hide their shared heartbreak, something the morning light seemed to wash away once reality set back in. Love was something that could die, and the thought of losing Cardan hit her like a punch to the gut. For a moment she couldn’t breathe.

No, she couldn't love Cardan. But back in his bedroom, when she crawled into bed and he immediately wrapped his arms around her without waking up, she wondered if maybe it wasn't just possible--but undeniable.

She felt him shift behind her until their bodies were pressed together and then his soft voice spoke into her hair. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," she replied a little breathless. "Just had to use the bathroom."

Cardan hummed a response and was likely already halfway to being asleep again when Jude rolled over onto her other side to face him. His eyes reluctantly opened to look at her, bleary and half open. He really was beautiful. Jude’s chest tightened with want.

No, she couldn’t lose him. And yet...

"Cardan," she breathed before she could lose her nerve. "About what you said at the hospital. About you telling them you're my boyfriend…"

"I didn't know what else to s--"

"What if I want you to be. My boyfriend, I mean."

A small, sleepy smile spread across Cardan's face as his eyes drifted closed once more. He pulled Jude into him more so that her head rested against his chest--planted a kiss on top of her head, and said, "Then I'm yours."

Moments later he was softly snoring.

#jurdan #the cruel prince #the folk of the air #the wicked king #my writing #jurdan au #text post #okay to reblog

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mooifyourecows · 4 years

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Hi, I've been listening to the GMB playlist a lot lately, it really hepls me study! I was wondering if it, besides being a mood playlist, has some songs you heavily associate with certain characters in particular?? LOVE the new chapter btw

I’m sure it’s not a surprise at all but a looooot of the songs are Suga or DaiSuga inspo, oopsie doopsie there’s my bias showing again. But I do have some songs specific to other pairings and single characters too! (though not all of them, ripperonis) Here’s some of the associations:

Keiji:

Don’t Get Too Close by Nathaniel Rateliff

“Well I got pain, and I’m gonna salt it now And with ma mouth, I’ve got so much I could send or Even fall out and then pretend You get lonely and I gave in They say we don’t come any closer Yeah we don’t come any closer When you’re weak boy ya bend at the knees”

Anxiety by Julia Michaels (feat. Selena Gomez)

“Feel like I'm always apologizing for feeling Like I'm out of my mind when I'm doing just fine And my exes'll say that I'm hard to deal with And I admit it, yeah”

Catastrophize by Noah Kahan

“And may we remember the past but not hang on to our old ways Let's pity laugh at the jokes we tell in bad taste All my friends think I'm funny in a sad way But they know not how they speak”

Paranoia in B Flat Major by The Avett Brothers

“With paranoia on my heels Will you love me still When we awake and you find that the sanity has gone from my eyes? I got secrets from you, you got secrets from me Because you’re so worried about what I’m gonna think Baby I’m worried too”

Koutarou:

Break My Face by AJR

“Okay! So if I break my face, and I don't look so great My face is just my face (My face) 'Cause everything is going great So if I break my face, it ain't my darkest day My face is just my face, I'm okay”

Pups to Dust by Modest Mouse

“We remain the same (I'm not sure about that) Or pretty much the same (Now that's more like it) From birth to grave, I couldn't see so clearly what I was or became Oh, I missed a spot (Scrubba scrubba scrubba scrubba) On my dirty thoughts The way we feel about what we do is by who has watched us, so...”

Barbed Wire by Tom Grennan

“Young man, but wise to the bone From a youthless man who’s walked a lonely road And no fear of picking up Daddy’s traits He holds himself together with these barbed wire gates”

Take your Time (Coming Home) by fun.

“How did I end up here? How'd I find love and conquer all of my fears? See, I made it out Out from under the sun And the truth is that I feel better Because I've forgiven everyone”

100 Bad Days by AJR

“A hundred bad days made a hundred good stories A hundred good stories make me interesting at parties, yeah No, I ain't scared of you No, I ain't scared of you no more”

BokuAka:

A Quiet Mind by Blue October

“I call baby up, leave me alone I'm in pain but I won't let you Band-Aid my wound I am mad at a stage where I can't seem to handle my own You give me a quiet mind And I, I love you”

The Good Parts by Andy Grammer

“Show me where it hurts and give me something real And lead me to the part of you that never really heals And say the words that burn when they leave your mouth Tell me your story, but don't leave the good parts out”

Issei:

CONFIDENCE by X Ambassadors (feat. K.Flay)

“Usually I'm cold, but you got me off balance Usually I'm loud, but you got me all silent When you look into my eyes, you cut me down to size Usually I’m strong, but I'm acting like thirteen”

Takahiro:

Dracula From Houston by Butthole Surfers

“Oh no, we gotta go, we're not gonna live forever Why, why, we gotta die? You know that we'll be together Hey, hey we gotta say, I could never be a savior And I know that you'll miss me but I'm never, never, never comin' home”

Tetsurou:

Simple Life by Casey Abrams

“Don't need no TV I don't need no phone Don't need a speedy car to get me home Don't need no nothing All I need is time for the simple life”

Daichi:

Death of a Bachelor by Panic! At the Disco

“I'm cutting my mind off, feels like my heart is going to burst Alone at a table for two, and I just wanna be served And when you think of me, am I the best you've ever had? Share one more drink with me, smile even though you're sad”

Every Night by Lo-Fang

“Even if I'm with somebody Even if you're with somebody else You could always have my body Even if I'm with somebody else”

NONE of this has been about you by Spencer Sutherland

“It may be wrong (Oh), but I won't give you excuses All that I want, I'm not the one to choose it It don't make it okay, there's nothing I can say But anyway”

Koushi:

I Might by Tom Grennan

“Don't want no one taking up my time Staying on my mind, changing up my life Don't want no one messing up my bed Fucking with my head, it's no lie But when you look at me like that I might”

JOYFUL by X Ambassadors

“If I stay here much longer, surely will die Lived a life full of vice, passion and crime Can't say I'm perfect, but I certainly tried To be joyful, joyful Joyful and happy, sunny and bright To be joyful, joyful Joyful and happy, just being alive”

Save Yourself by KALEO

“It weighs heavier on one's heart I could tell right from the start that sweet ones are hard to come across Well there is more than meets the eye Heart like yours is rare to find Someone else's gain will be my loss”

Dynamite by Sigrid

“I'm the same, but I'm bolder You'll get home, but I'm on my way out now Not the same destinations Know I will stay when you get off the train You're as safe as a mountain But know that I am dynamite”

Funeral by Lukas Graham

“Everyone welcome to my funeral Everyone I know better be wasted You know I would pour one up 'Cause the way I lived, it was amazing Ooh ooh ooh all of my friends are in the room Ooh ooh ooh party for me, I'd party too”

Low Life by X Ambassadors

“Wanna be a better man, but it's a hard life Without that love inside you, it's a cold bind I started to reflect on all that's been before Started to wonder, but, but you can't be sure”

Hero by Family of the Year

“Let me go I don't wanna be your hero I don't wanna be a big man Just wanna fight with everyone else”

DaiSuga:

Just Click by Emily Warren

“So just tell her, I know it hurts But you're starting to drift apart When you close your eyes, I'm on your mind That's when it hits hard You and I just, you and I just Tell her you and I just, you and I, you and I just click”

What Have I Done by Dermot Kennedy

“I never thought I needed saving, I was right where I should be Good God, I know it's dangerous, but it's you that I need I'm in love this time, I'm in love this time What have I done? What have I done?”

Love You Much Better by The Hush Sound

“I can love you much better If you can't see it, you're blind I can love you much better Oh, you know someday I'm gonna make you mine”

June:

Don’t Stay by X Ambassadors

“I know that there's times That you get so tired And you know I want you to stay But don't stay for me Don't stay for me”

Daichi & June:

Hurt Somebody by Noah Kahan

“Taking it slowly I'm afraid to be lonely Nobody told me It's harder than I thought to tell the truth It's gonna leave you in pieces All alone with your demons And I know that we need this But I've been too afraid to follow through”

you were good to me by Jeremy Zucker and Chelsea Cutler

“And now I'm closin' every door 'Cause I'm sick of wantin' more You were good to me You were good to me, yeah”

Hajime:

I DON’T KNOW HOW TO PRAY by X Ambassadors

“So here I go, "Oh, God, oh, God, oh, God, what do I do? I've got, I've gotta ask a favor from you And I know, I know we've never spoken before But I hope you hear me, oh, Lord Please let my brother live And let me learn to forgive And why do bad things happen to good people? That's all, I guess, amen" And God said—”

IwaOi:

Acoustic by Billy Raffoul

“We don't have to get loud to lose it All we need is just me and you We don't have to scream out to prove it We could keep it all acoustic”

Hajime & Koushi:

HEY CHILD by X Ambassadors

“So you're numbin' the pain, stuck in your ways Since we were kids it was like this But I will be there, I will be there for you Hey child, hey child We were born wild Let your neon lights Keep shinin' bright”

I Lost a Friend by FINNEAS

“I'm on the mend Like I'm icing a new sprain Like I'm walking on a new cane Like it's been a couple days Since I slipped and said something sorta like your name I know I'll be alright, but I'm not tonight”

Koushi & Koutarou:

Oh My Dear Lord by The Unlikely Candidates

“My future used to shine as bright as a diamond Where did time go? I was so high, it was frightening I know I messed up, but there's no use in crying (No use in crying) Oh, my dear Lord I've been running wild, had a good time But I can't stop now (Oh, my dear Lord)”

I Wanna Get Better by Bleachers

“I didn’t know I was lonely 'til I saw your face I wanna get better, better, better, better I wanna get better I didn't know I was broken 'til i wanted to change I wanna get better, better, better, better I wanna get better”

Aaaaand I think that’s about it? I mean, there are songs that are associated with a larger group of characters, like the rowdy bunch and what not, but these are the more specific ones.

(There’s also a couple Koushi/that character ones too but uhhh let’s leave the spoilies out for now.)(even though songs aren’t really spoilers, are they?)(Hmmm)

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hungline · 5 years

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pairing: vmonkook genre: fluff, smut, travel au, bookstore au, vampire au, rated xxx warnings: explicit sexual content, oral sex, anal sex, multiple smut scenes, mild swearing, mentions of blood, referenced nightmare a/n: as part of the #BSCproject held by @btssmutclub in collaboration with group4some. a HUGE thank you to @lovewyself for the beautiful banner and to group4some as a whole for hyping the hell out of this! please check the replies for the link to our collab masterlist and read my group members’ wonderful stories as well 💕💗 you’ll also be able to find the fic playlist linked in the replies as well! 🎶🎵 words: 5002

summary: When Namjoon and Jeongguk decide to travel to Transylvania, they end up staying long past the summer for one supernatural being with an obsession for strawberries.

+ tag list: @dimplemono @kirtikagarg @disrespectfulkookies @honeymoonjin @reeneryu ✨

When they step off the bus with their one piece of luggage and backpacks strapped to them, Jeongguk almost stumbles.

He wasn't expecting the wave of sinister heat that was lurking just outside the air-conditioned windows of the bus to strike him against the face so soon. He knows that in the summer, most places are high in regards to heat, but Namjoon had assured him that it would be tolerable here.

Either Namjoon was wrong, which Jeongguk very much doubts, or an unexpected heatwave struck this town.

Probably a heatwave since Namjoon looks confused about the heat as well. Oh, well. At least the town is pretty and their Airbnb has air conditioning.

Namjoon has an interview lined up at a nearby bookstore, so they pull their luggage between them and walk into town. Brașov has an old-time feel to it, from its swooping architecture and cobbled streets to its cheery air and lacking signs of technology around. Jeongguk doesn't understand much of the language spoken around them, but he's used to that by now.

They have spent the entire summer backpacking around the world. They stopped first in Japan and stayed there for two weeks before they moved on to China. Namjoon cut their stay there short, so they ended up in Europe only a week after that. London was pretty if you could get over the pollution and Paris was even better. But now they are on their last leg of their mini-tour around the world. Transylvania.

Namjoon is a Dracula fanatic and pouts whenever Jeongguk doesn't use Dracula's proper name, but Jeongguk isn't bothered enough to remember it, so. Dracula. Everyone knows who that is anyway.

They stop by the bookstore first. Namjoon follows one of the managers into the back of the shop while Jeongguk waits in the poetry section. The shop is filled to the brim with books; old, new, current, and historical. It isn't your typical Barnes & Nobles, but Jeongguk likes it. Namjoon would thrive here anyway.

Namjoon tends to thrive just about anywhere though.

Jeongguk kicks his feet against the plush red rug underneath his armchair and turns his gaze back towards the surrounding shelves. He can't read most of the titles, but a few are in English and he knows enough of that to understand them at least. In the five countries they visited, Jeongguk's limited knowledge of English came quite handy. Especially, in London.

They saved up as much money as they could which was actually quite plenty thanks to Namjoon's books selling off the shelves as soon as they were published, but Jeongguk insisted they take on jobs during their trip anyway. After all, he doesn't want to coast off Namjoon's money forever and he definitely doesn't want someone to mistake him as Namjoon's sugar baby instead of his long-term boyfriend.

He hums as he reaches out and picks up a tiny collection of poems, browsing through it quickly. Most of the pages have very short poems on them, sometimes with illustrations, but generally without. Jeongguk wonders why this kind of book is on the best-selling shelf and puts it back, staring down at his feet and keeping a steady hand on their suitcase.

There are a few customers walking around in the other shelves, but they don't stray towards the section he finds himself in and wonders if it's because they've read these books already or they find them as interesting as Jeongguk does, which is not at all.

Just as he's contemplating picking another random book off the shelf, Namjoon returns. A bright grin that shows off his dimples has Jeongguk smiling in return before his boyfriend has even uttered a word. He already knows it's good news.

Namjoon keeps a hold on their suitcase as they leave the shop, a skip in his step that wasn't there before. He starts humming a song that Jeongguk vaguely recognizes as Hoody's Sunshine and takes his boyfriend's hand as they continue to walk.

Soon enough, Namjoon is leading them into an apartment building where he spends a few moments talking to the owner before he comes back with a set of keys in hand. Namjoon hadn't blinked an eye at the cost of the apartment they would be staying in for the last month and a half of their vacation, but Jeongguk had later calculated the cost and almost had a heart attack. It was less than half a month's worth of the rent they pay back in Seoul and that was with the utilities they had to pay for on top of that as well.

The apartment is bigger than their own back at home with a washing machine in the kitchen that Jeongguk wants to get his hands on immediately. Namjoon pulls him away though and shows him the two bedrooms, repeating the fact that the manager wouldn't let them get a one-bedroom apartment if he revealed they were a couple. Jeongguk only shrugs, not caring too much since they are bound to end up in different rooms a few nights during their stay anyway.

Namjoon presses a kiss to his forehead then hefts their suitcase onto the bed and Jeongguk loses himself into dividing and organizing their clothes.

Bran Castle broods high up over its surrounding peaks and forests. Jeongguk has to tip his head back impossibly far before he's able to see the very top of the castle.

The bus ride to the castle had lasted far longer than it actually was and Jeongguk almost fell asleep plenty of times aboard. Namjoon had nudged and prodded him each time he began to nod off and Jeongguk world startle awake, leaning heavily onto Namjoon’s side so as to not disturb the other passengers. The dense forest they had driven past made Jeongguk itch to draw, but he had left his sketchbook back at their apartment so he left his head on Namjoon’s shoulder and watched the scenery pass by.

Now, they’re here and facing a mob of a crowd. Namjoon is vibrating with excitement beside him, a travel-sized dictionary held in one hand and one of his smaller backpacks clenched tight in the other. Jeongguk can admit that the castle is gorgeous, but that's mostly thanks to the scenery that he already had his fill of.

Either way, it'll be good to listen to his mother tongue for the next few hours. Namjoon signed them up for a Korean tour of the castle, which Jeongguk was surprised they had, but Namjoon's excited so he will behave.

Near the entrance is a booth. A crowd of people mingles about there, a mix of tour guides, janitors, and tourists. The clash of languages is harsh on Jeongguk's ears as they approach, but he heeds it no mind. Namjoon keeps shooting glances at him, a wide smile spread across his face as he tries to figure out if Jeongguk is actually enjoying himself or merely pretending for Namjoon's sake. But nothing much has happened as of yet, so he's pretending for now.

They get in line and once they reach the front, Namjoon pulls their tickets out of his special folder in his backpack and hands them to the woman behind the booth so she can scan them and wave them inside. Namjoon had printed their tickets out back when they were still in Seoul, vibrating with his excitement much the same way he was doing now. Jeongguk had agreed to the tour because it was the least he could do after Namjoon had insisted on paying for all of their plane tickets.

Once they have finished checking-in and sport new colorful bracelets, Jeongguk leans on Namjoon's shoulder and goes on tiptoe to look over the heads of the gathered crowd. He spots a handsome looking man holding up a sign in Korean that reads: BRAN CASTLE TOUR.

"Found it," Jeongguk says into Namjoon's ear as he drops back down to his regular height. "Follow me."

Namjoon grips onto the back of Jeongguk's shirt and trails after him as they push their way through the crowd. Jeongguk occasionally goes back on the tips of his toes to make sure they are going the right way then maneuvers them through the bodies pressed so closely together around them. It's not as hot today as it was yesterday when they arrived, but here in the thick of things, Jeongguk feels almost suffocated by the body heat.

He's relieved once they emerge from the crowd and find their tour guide. Until their tour guide smiles at them and Jeongguk's breath catches in his throat.

Holy shit.

The man's smile is rectangular in shape, but bright enough that Jeongguk's sure it could very well light up this entire castle at night. Namjoon freezes beside him in a similar fashion at the sight that greets them but he recovers much more quickly than Jeongguk.

"Hi! Are you the tour guide?" Namjoon asks while a hesitant smile of his own spreads across his lips.

"Yep! Hello. My name is Kim Taehyung and welcome to the Korean tour of Bran Castle," Taehyung greets them.

Jeongguk blinks, unsurprised by their tour guide's fluency. "Hello, Taehyung-ssi. Are we expecting anyone else?"

Taehyung shakes his head. "Not today! But yesterday, the tour was jam-packed full of people. I almost wish I wasn't the only one who speaks Korean here. It was difficult leading the tours by myself."

"How often does that usually happen?" Namjoon asks, instantly intrigued.

"Very often this summer actually! But it was rare to have a day like that the last couple of summers. Management is thinking of hiring someone else to help me out," Taehyung smiles at them. "But enough about that, let's start the tour!"

Jeongguk takes Namjoon's hand and follows after Taehyung, finding it hard not to stare at the tour guide's ass. It’s plump and round, which is only complimented by his jeans that are practically hugging his legs. Jeongguk laughs under his breath when he catches Namjoon blatantly staring though. The pervert. At least Jeongguk is making an effort not to look.

Namjoon frowns at him but doesn't stop staring at Taehyung's ass. Probably to spite him.

Once they've passed a few other tour groups and made their way into the courtyard, Taehyung stops and turns to face them. His smile is still as bright as ever and Jeongguk feels a strange stirring in his chest as Taehyung reveals a box of strawberries that he hadn't noticed before.

He feels hypnotized as he watches Taehyung raise a strawberry to his mouth and take a bite. A bit of the fruit's juice dribbles down his chin but is quickly wiped away by Taehyung's pink tongue. Namjoon shuffles beside him, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose in what Jeongguk knows is a nervous tic.

Seems like it isn't just Jeongguk who is very interested after all.

Taehyung finishes his strawberry in record time and smiles at them when he looks up to meet their gazes. Jeongguk can't fight the feeling that their tour guide did that on purpose, but he pushes it down and tries to give his most polite smile in return. Namjoon leans into his side and hides his face in Jeongguk's shoulder instead, the coward.

Jeongguk knows it isn't in his imagination when Taehyung smirks at that.

Namjoon looks up once Taehyung has resumed the tour, speaking of the queen whose artifacts are being showcased in the castle. How the castle is popular amongst Dracula fans, but that it is only ever spooky on Halloween when tourists are allowed to spend the night in the castle. Jeongguk does his best to nod along even though he doesn't actually care.

He lets Namjoon grip onto his arm and pinch him from time to time when something excites him, but Jeongguk can't help but think that they definitely could have been doing something a lot better than this.

Of course, that doesn't mean that watching the excitement and happiness on Namjoon's face (or watching Taehyung’s ass in those jeans) isn't worth his boredom though. Jeongguk would do just about anything for Namjoon and that includes walking through an old as shit castle listening to a hot as fuck tour guide talk about its history and architecture while torturing them with his strawberries and eating habits.

By the time the tour is over, Jeongguk is half hard in his pants. They thank Taehyung for the tour and Namjoon shoves a scrap of paper that has their numbers on it in Taehyung's hand before he forcibly drags them away to the bus stop.

Namjoon jumps him as soon as they have kicked off their shoes back at the apartment and Jeongguk responds happily. Namjoon is always so gentle with him, always keeping them face-to-face as he fucks into him. Sometimes his hands will frame Jeongguk's face as he murmurs praise into his skin, but this time Namjoon grips his hair and kisses him hard as he rides him. Jeongguk comes in Namjoon unexpectedly and feels utterly boneless after Namjoon has jerked himself off on Jeongguk’s stomach.

Namjoon is cleaning him up when he leans over and kisses Jeongguk tenderly, garnering his attention.

"Again?" Jeongguk asks, already beginning to turn over so Namjoon can have him this time.

"No, maybe later," Namjoon murmurs as he grabs his hips and turns Jeongguk on his back. "But we should talk about something before we get dressed though."

Jeongguk nods, tendrils of his hair sticking to his sweaty face. "Taehyung?"

Namjoon nods in return, an amused smile on his face. "You were hard by the time we got on the bus."

"You were too."

"We should sleep with him."

"Yeah, we should," Jeongguk sighs, closing his eyes as he relaxes into the pillows. "He has our numbers thanks to you."

Namjoon kisses him again, slower this time. "We just have to wait."

Jeongguk doesn't bother with a verbal reply. He's pretty sure that the kiss is enough of an answer for the both of them.

Jeongguk is visiting Namjoon in the bookstore when Taehyung texts them.

unknown: is this namjoon and jeongguk?

jeongguk: yep! namjoon is working right now so he can't answer messages for another hour this is taehyung, right?

unknown: yes. i thought a group chat would be a better idea than individual texts

jeongguk: well you were right

taehyung: i'm glad (:

Jeongguk looks up from his phone to shoot a cheeky grin at Namjoon. "Seduce Strawberry Man is a go."

Namjoon rolls his eyes. "I didn't agree to that name."

"Well, it's not like Wine-and-Dine Tae was any better!"

"So you say," Namjoon says with another roll of his eyes.

"Because I'm right!"

"Sure."

Jeongguk grabs the application Namjoon had been trying to convince him to take since he arrived and angrily starts to fill it out. "Just watch. I'm stealing your job to get back at you. This is Seokjin-level of petty right here, Joon."

Namjoon laughs and excuses himself as a customer comes up to him. Jeongguk doesn't understand most of what they're saying since the customer is most definitely a local, but Namjoon has always said that practice helps more than studying when it comes to languages.

And, well, Namjoon is always right.

Jeongguk continues to fill out the application, cringing at his mediocre writing in English. By the time he's done, Namjoon has returned and spares a quick glance at the paper before he goes behind the register and starts to rifle through things. Soon enough, he's holding up a few papers stapled together and hands it to Jeongguk with a triumphant look on his face.

It's his resume. Seems like Namjoon is always one step ahead of him after all. It's even been updated since they both worked in that coffee shop back in Paris. Jeongguk shakes his head fondly and staples his resume to the application. Namjoon takes it and drops it in a small in-and-out stand Jeongguk recognizes from countless office scenes in movies. Next to that is a box of new books Namjoon immediately starts to sort.

"I'll see you for dinner then?" Jeongguk asks.

Namjoon hums in response and Jeongguk smiles at him before he turns and leaves.

He has dinner to cook after all.

A few days after Jeongguk has gotten the job at the bookstore, Taehyung convinces Namjoon to apply for the new tour guide position up at the castle.

Jeongguk isn't surprised in the least when Namjoon does so immediately and hands in his twenty days at the bookshop right after. Once it's confirmed that Namjoon has gotten the tour guide job, Jeongguk and Taehyung take him out to celebrate. Jeongguk gets drunker than he can imagine and almost climbs onto Namjoon’s lap right there in the restaurant before a smirking Taehyung pulls him firmly back into his seat. He has to forcibly stop himself from leaning in and kissing Taehyung just to get rid of that irritating smirk on his face, but all in all, the night turns out to be pretty great.

Taehyung shows them his favorite haunts slowly after their first night out. His Romanian is perfect, much better than Namjoon's and leaves Jeongguk wondering just how long Taehyung has been living here. Namjoon quirks his eyebrows every time Taehyung easily switches between a variety of languages, all with the ease of someone who is fluent in them, but never verbally asks about it.

Well, not to Taehyung anyway. Jeongguk falls victim to his musings instead each time they return home after going out someplace new with the pretty tour guide.

"You know what's really weird though?" Namjoon asks when he comes to visit Jeongguk at the bookshop one morning.

Jeongguk looks up from the books he was registering on their system, a brow raised in silent question before he returns to the ancient computer.

"He never eats anything except those strawberries he carries around," Namjoon hums, fingers tapping against his chin as he leans on the counter. "I've never seen him eat anything else. He'll order food and stuff when we go out, but have you ever seen him actually chewing any of it?"

Jeongguk pauses then, shock overcoming his senses as he realizes that what Namjoon is saying is true. "Holy shit. You're right."

"Of course, I am," Namjoon replies with a frown, fingers moving through his hair now. "It's just really strange. Honestly, if I hadn't seen Taehyung in the sunlight multiple times, I would have thought he was some kind of vampire. You know, since they only feed on fruit and stuff."

"Maybe he's just following a new fad diet or something," Jeongguk theorizes. "You never know."

Namjoon's frown deepens. "I don't think that's it. Taehyung is very comfortable in his outward appearance. I can tell just by observing him at work. It's something else, I just don't know what."

Jeongguk turns back to the computer screen in front of him again. "Well, maybe we should leave it alone. It's not like it's any of our business."

"No," Namjoon agrees, before sighing, "but it could be. He's coming to our place for dinner again tomorrow. We should make our move soon, we only have two weeks before we go back to Seoul."

"Yeah, sure," Jeongguk says.

He ignores the yawning pit in his stomach that declares he doesn't want to leave Brașov just yet and leans in for the kiss Namjoon places on his cheek before leaving. Jeongguk watches him go, not knowing what he's going to do.

Jeongguk wakes up with his heart in shambles, breaths fighting to get past his lungs.

Namjoon lies beside him, curled into himself right on the edge of the bed. Jeongguk watches him, pressing a hand to his chest to calm himself. It works slowly, but Jeongguk is just glad that it works at all. He hopes it isn't one of those nights where it doesn't because those are the worst and they have a guest spending the night too. The relief he feels is tremendous once he has managed to calm himself down.

The clock on their bedside proclaims it as seven past three in the morning. Jeongguk sighs and gets out of bed, leaning down to kiss the back of Namjoon's head before he puts his slippers on and leaves the room.

Jeongguk slows down as he passes by the second bedroom, cocking an ear out in the hopes of hearing deep breaths. When silence is the only thing that greets him, however, Jeongguk frowns and makes his way down the hallway towards the kitchen.

There he finds what he was looking for.

"Oh, you're awake," Taehyung says in greeting.

Jeongguk nods as he gets a glass of water. "Yeah. I had a bad dream, so I decided to get some water and then try to get back to sleep."

Taehyung hums thoughtfully. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"Not really," Jeongguk murmurs. "Thank you though."

Once the glass is full, Jeongguk turns and leans on the counter. He takes a sip from his glass before he finds himself chugging the whole thing down, surprised by his own thirst.

"Thirsty?" Taehyung asks.

Jeongguk meets his eyes over the glass, setting it down once it is empty. Taehyung's eyes are dark with want and amusement, something Jeongguk has found himself getting used to after spending two weeks in his company. A box of strawberries stands on the island, open and nearly empty, but Jeongguk isn't worried. He knows that Taehyung has another one in his bag, completely filled to the brim with bright, blood-red strawberries.

"Yeah," Jeongguk manages to rasp after a while.

Taehyung smiles, the want in his gaze slowly ebbing away until amusement is the only thing left. "Think you can sleep now?"

Jeongguk shrugs. Taehyung takes it as a yes.

"Come on," Taehyung urges as he stands, flipping the lid on his strawberries closed before he holds his hand out in Jeongguk's direction. "I'll sit in the rocking chair until you fall back asleep."

Jeongguk takes his hand, surprised by the heat he can feel coming off the older man in waves. He remembers Namjoon's words in the bookshop yesterday as they echo in his head, but he follows Taehyung back down the hallway and lays down in bed beside his boyfriend.

The rocking chair creaks quietly as Taehyung settles down in it. Jeongguk can see him over Namjoon’s messy hair, but he closes his eyes anyway and throws an arm over his boyfriend's chest. He can feel Taehyung's gaze on them, branding them as his somehow and Jeongguk swallows.

Of course, they want Taehyung. Jeongguk knows that the what he and Namjoon feel isn't just sexual, but something more too. It's just hard to convince Namjoon of that when he's focusing on how long they have left here instead.

Jeongguk settles himself into his boyfriend's side and falls asleep quickly, the rocking chair's creaking sounding like a lullaby.

Jeongguk wants to get his shirt off already, but Namjoon gives him a look to slow him down. He pouts, but obeys it, and continues to kiss Namjoon languidly.

Taehyung watches from the rocking chair, one hand on his thigh as the other digs around in his box of strawberries. Jeongguk wants to watch him watch them, but Namjoon's mere presence demands most of his attention. Kissing Namjoon requires tact and all of his focus, something he learned easily and quickly after they first started dating.

Namjoon hums in the back of his throat and Jeongguk groans against his mouth, handing over the reins to his boyfriend as he closes his eyes. Hands grip his waist and clamber up underneath his shirt, barely-there fingertips grazing the bumps of his spine. Jeongguk shivers, leaning into Namjoon's embrace as his boyfriend takes his time picking him apart.

"Are you sure you want me to be here?" Taehyung asks quietly, his voice not more than a murmur.

Jeongguk glares at him. "Yes. Get over here."

Taehyung laughs, standing up from the rocking chair and approaching them. Jeongguk shivers in anticipation as he closes in, his eyes fluttering shut when Namjoon grabs the ends of his shirt and swiftly pulls it over his head. A new set of hands take claim to his torso then, pressing down on his stomach before moving upwards and rolling one of his nipples between nimble fingers.

A moan makes its way past his lips and Jeongguk loses himself in the motions. He's the first one to get naked, but then Namjoon and Taehyung follow quickly after. Namjoon ends up being laid out like a feast on the bed and Jeongguk takes him in his mouth as Taehyung works him open.

Namjoon groans underneath them, throwing an arm over his eyes as Jeongguk takes him all the way down to the base at the same time Taehyung manages to get three fingers into him. Watching his boyfriend of many years writhe under their mercy is more intoxicating than Jeongguk ever imagined actually. He almost doesn't know what to do next.

Taehyung taps his shoulder and asks him for a condom, drawing his attention away and forcing him back on planet Earth. Jeongguk grabs one of the condoms they set aside on the bedside and opens it, rolling it down Taehyung's already leaking cock before he moves back to observe what comes next.

He has to stop a moan of his own from mingling with the ones Namjoon and Taehyung let loose when Taehyung buries himself in Namjoon slowly. Namjoon is tense at first then relaxes soon after, focusing on his breathing as Taehyung and Jeongguk watch him. Jeongguk kisses him once Taehyung has started moving, the sounds of skin slapping against skin almost too loud to bear.

Jeongguk looks up when Taehyung taps his cheek though, immediately caught off guard at his closeness. Taehyung grins, gripping Jeongguk's chin as he tilts his face up towards his and kisses him.

His lips are softer than flower petals, but he tastes weirdly of strawberries and blood. Jeongguk feels his insides melt and turns towards Namjoon, starry-eyed after Taehyung has pulled away. "You were right."

"About what?" Namjoon gasps, raising the arm over his eyes so he can chance a glance at Jeongguk.

"He is a vampire," Jeongguk breathes, smiling when Taehyung pauses behind him.

Namjoon only smiles. "I told you."

Taehyung interrupts then, a frown marring his beautiful features. "Wait, you knew?"

"Of course. You're not really subtle," Namjoon tells him, gasping again as Taehyung leans over him while hitching his legs up over his waist. "You only eat strawberries."

Jeongguk watches the two older men stare at one another, not knowing if he should say something or stay quiet. Taehyung makes the decision for him though.

"Ah, so then you also know that I'm Dracula then?"

Namjoon sputters. "What?"

"Nevermind. We can talk about it later."

"You almost came just now, didn't you?" Jeongguk asks with a sly smile on his face.

Namjoon flushes. "Shut up."

Jeongguk smiles over his shoulder at Taehyung. "You don't know how many times I've dressed up as a vampire just to make him squirm during sex."

"Well, no need now. A real vampire is fucking your boyfriend. How does that make you feel?" Taehyung says, his eyes flashing before he starts to build up a rhythm again.

"Turned on," Jeongguk answers honestly.

Taehyung smirks, leaning down so he can press his nose into the hollow of Namjoon's throat, inhaling deeply. "Good. Because after I make our little vampire fucker here come, I'm fucking you, Jeongguk-ah."

Jeongguk shivers, not knowing at all what to do with himself. "Please."

His only answer is another smile before Taehyung lifts himself up and fucks Namjoon with vigor, looking from Jeongguk to Namjoon's cock. Jeongguk understands almost immediately and lays down sideways on the bed, taking Namjoon into his mouth again. Namjoon hisses loudly somewhere above him, but Jeongguk ignores it, focusing instead on getting his boyfriend to come.

It doesn't actually take a lot to get Namjoon to reach his orgasm after that. Namjoon is, of course, fulfilling his biggest fantasy after all.

Fucking Dracula himself.

Namjoon is never allowed to make fun of Jeongguk for his fantasies after this now, the vampire fucker.

It is embarrassing just how quickly Taehyung makes him come afterward. Jeongguk refuses to believe his endurance has really fallen that low to come apart after just a few minutes of getting fucked by the best cock he has ever had in his life.

Nope. Just not believable. At all.

After it is all said and done, Jeongguk lays himself on top of Namjoon and throws an arm over Taehyung beside them.

Namjoon is tapping away at his phone, a look of the most utmost concentration morphing his features. Jeongguk lazily glances at the screen before blinking himself into awareness.

"Are you canceling our plane back to Seoul?"

"Yep," Namjoon says without missing a beat. "You don't sound surprised though."

Jeongguk laughs in delight at the news and kisses Namjoon firmly on the mouth. He turns to Taehyung right after and kisses him hard, relishing in the taste of strawberries on his tongue. There's no trace of the blood he tasted earlier but Jeongguk decides to ask about that another time.

Because now they have time.

“You know as well as I do that we were gonna stay the second we laid eyes on Taehyung,” Jeongguk murmurs into Namjoon’s skin as he leans back into him once he remembers to answer the question Namjoon asked just moments before.

Namjoon rolls his eyes and runs a hand through Taehyung’s mussed hair. “Yeah. I guess I did.”

Jeongguk hums happily, leaning down to kiss his kiss lovers again. He lets the warm feeling in his heart tingle in his fingertips as he traces lines down their naked bodies and enjoys the blissfulness of this moment.

He’ll never have anything greater than these two, that Jeongguk is more than sure of.

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nicolasnelson · 4 years

Text

Sizzie fic - Perchance to Dream [oneshot]

Title: Perchance to Dream Relationship: Lizzie Saltzman/Sebastian Additional Tags: Hurt/Comfort, Anxiety, Panic Attacks, Sebastian’s POV Words: 2,388

Summary: Sebastian has a dream about Cassandra which scares him. Thankfully Lizzie is there to comfort him, but he wonders how long she will stay by his side.

Requested by @fandommatchmaker19 // Prompt: Would love a Sizzie one-shot in which Lizzie comforts Sebastian about something.

[AO3 LINK]

Sebastian could see her face in vivid detail, every inch of her as fine as an artist’s masterpiece. Her loving gaze and playful smile invited him in, and she whispered a promise to him.

“I will protect you always.” She kissed his palm and brushed her hair aside, allowing him access to her stunning neck.

“I cannot,” he said, though the temptation burned in his chest. Cassandra always did this to him, teased him with what he could not have.

She scooted closer to him on the bed, wrapping a leg around his torso and pushing her body against his. She slipped the sleeve of her silk gown off her shoulder so her breast pressed against his skin. Soft and warm and oh so tempting.

Sebastian nuzzled his cheek against her neck. His body was taut as he fought to maintain his control. If he broke for even a moment, desire might take over.

“Please, Sebastian,” she pleaded. “Blood will increase your lust. I want to feel all of you, to experience you the way only your victims have.”

“You may not survive it,” Sebastian said, his voice soft and strained. He sounded a little scared, even to his own ears, and maybe he was. It was hard to stop feeding once he started. The only times he managed it were when his victims were less than desirable.

She ran her fingers through his hair and pulled his head closer against her neck. “I trust you.”

Sebastian chuckled against her skin. That was a mistake. No one should trust him when he could not even trust himself. The warm, sweet scent of blood tickled his nostrils, and he looked down to see Cassandra had drawn a knife under her collarbone. Red pooled from the cut in rivulets, trickling down onto her exposed breast.

His mouth watered, and he licked his lips. He could feel that his self control was already gone.

Sebastian awoke. He sat up in bed and saw the woman beside him, the long blond hair. He sighed in relief. He hadn’t killed her after all.

“Cassandra, dear,” he whispered and turned her onto her back. Dead eyes stared up, not quite meeting his, and he scrambled backwards off the bed. He hit the floor with a thunk.

And then he opened his eyes and found himself in a different bedroom. He was in bed, a blond woman beside him. It was all so familiar, like he was reliving the same nightmare. He didn’t dare check to see if she was alive.

The room was suffocating him, the floor wobbling beneath his feet. He stumbled to the door and tried the knob, but it wouldn’t turn. Oh, God. He was locked inside.

He slid his back down the cool wood and crumpled up, arms wrapped around his legs. His whole body was shaking, and he felt the tears trickling down his cheeks. Like the blood trickling down Cassandra’s chest. Oh, God. He still remembered the taste on his lips, sweet like strawberries.

“Sebastian, are you okay?”

He jumped, looking up to the blond woman. As his eyes focused on her, a name popped into his head. “Elizabeth.”

He sighed with relief. At least he hadn’t killed her. He hadn’t killed Cassandra either. He knew that now. It was just a dream, a memory, but knowing that didn’t calm him down. He was still on edge, like balancing on a tightrope above a pit of blood.

Elizabeth Saltzman sat down next to him and put a hand on his knee. “What happened?”

“It’s nothing you need to worry about. You should go back to sleep.” He gave her a small smile.

Elizabeth laughed. “That was the saddest smile I’ve ever seen. Come on, Sebastian. You can’t keep this inside. I know what that’s like. It’ll just burn you from the inside out.”

“Like your episodes?”

“Exactly. You’ve seen how bad those can be. I don’t want you to go through that too.” She grabbed his hand, which was still shaking, and squeezed his fingers.

There was something soothing about being with Elizabeth. She understood him better than most, and she had the patience to learn more. It hadn’t always been that way. He could remember a time when she hated him, but now they were at a comfortable place. Not lovers, but certainly more than friends. Partners in copulation and the occasional crime.

“It was a dream,” Sebastian said. It felt wrong to say it aloud, like he was lying, because it was so much more than that. “Not a dream. A memory. There was a time I nearly killed Cassandra. I managed to stop myself, but it has always haunted me.”

“The past tends to do that,” Elizabeth said, sighing. “And you have more of it than most.”

Sebastian laughed, but it was soft and self-pitying. “I wish memories were not so long lasting. You would think I would forget after all these years, but I can never forget. Even when I am not actively thinking of them, they influence my actions.”

Elizabeth pulled out her cellular device. “I’ve got a playlist I like to listen to when I think I’m about to have a meltdown. It doesn’t always work, but sometimes it helps to get my mind off what’s bothering me.” She hit a button and music sprung forth from the device. She set it on the floor in front of them and leaned her head on Sebastian’s shoulder.

Sebastian squeezed her hand, grateful to have her by his side. The music was indeed soothing. He focused on the words and seeing how he could relate to them. The refrain particularly resonated with him.

I don't know if I can stay strong. Hold on, for too long. I've been lost. I need you here to calm me down. I need you here to calm me.

“Thank you, Elizabeth.”

“You’re welcome.”

They stayed like that through several more songs until Sebastian really did feel calm again. He’d never been able to calm himself down with music before. These fits of anxiety had plagued him for many, many years. They always made him feel like he was dying as a memory replayed in a loop in his head.

But Elizabeth had helped get him out of that loop. He had to do more than thank her with words. He had to show this beautiful creature how much she meant to him. How grateful he was that she had treated him like a person and not a child or someone crazy. She hadn’t seen his anxiety as a weakness at all.

And he’d never seen her struggles with her mental health as a weakness. So why all the self pity? He was strong and capable too. He was allowed to break down sometimes. His life was complicated and difficult. It was a wonder he hadn’t had a big meltdown after waking up in another century.

Everything was still so new, and he was still adjusting. Some things were amazing improvements that made life more convenient, like these devices that played music and relayed messages to other people. Some things were more annoying, like the doors that would open suddenly when you walked near them. Others were downright mind boggling, like the game of matching candy that people played on those devices for hours on end, wasting their lives away, chasing the satisfaction of reaching each new level.

It was a whole new world, and he wanted to make the most of it.

“Can we go for a ride in your vessel?” Sebastian asked.

“Right now?”

Sebastian chuckled. “Why, yes, my dear, it is my time of night after all.”

“We’d have to sneak out,” Elizabeth said, though there was a smile on her face and a glint of mischief in her eyes.

“Add it to our list of crimes, Bonnie.”

Elizabeth rolled her eyes, laughing. “I should never have shown you that movie. You relate far too much to Clyde.”

“Only for his dedication to Bonnie,” Sebastian said, drinking her in. Elizabeth really was the most wonderful creature he’d ever met.

...

They snuck out through the kitchens in the dorms. Pedro was in there having a snack, but he promised Elizabeth he wouldn’t tell anyone. Sebastian wasn’t sure whether they could trust the small child, but he didn’t really care if they got into trouble. He was used to it by now.

Elizabeth put the top down on the car and drove them through the town and onto the interstate. Sebastian enjoyed the cool air against his face. It reminded him of horse riding, but it was so much smoother and faster, much more exhilarating. He looked over at Elizabeth to see her blond hair whipping all around her like a tumbleweed.

“Oh, hush. Your hair doesn’t look any better,” Elizabeth said when she caught his amused smile in the mirror.

He glanced at himself. The wind was slicking his hair back, much like the 1931 version of Dracula. “This is very old wine. I hope you will like it,” he said, smirking.

Elizabeth barked out a laugh at the reference. “Aren't you drinking?”

“I never drink”—Sebastian paused dramatically—“wine.”

Elizabeth jerked the car to the right and took the exit. She drove into a small patch of woods and parked the car. “Should we put the top back up?”

“Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn,” Sebastian said.

“Oh, God. I love it when you quote Gone with the Wind.” Elizabeth grabbed his neck and pulled him into a hungry kiss.

Her breath still smelled of peppermint toothpaste, and Sebastian found it downright intoxicating. He helped maneuver Elizabeth over the center console so she could straddle his lap. It felt nice to look up at her, like she was some goddess smiling down at him, bestowing kisses upon him like gifts no mortal man deserved.

Sebastian had to remind himself he was no mortal man. He’d made his share of mistakes, but this beauty believed he was worthy of her affection. He had confidence that he looked the part, but he never believed he had the personality to match. All his charm was heavily practiced, as he’d spent years studying (and flirting with) the masters. Kings and prostitutes and everything in between.

Elizabeth pushed her hair behind her shoulder, exposing her neck to him. “Do that thing I like.”

Sebastian was hesitant for a moment as the old fear gripped him, but he obliged, pressing his lips against Elizabeth’s smooth skin. He ran his tongue along the back of her ear, playing in the corner just behind her earlobe. Elizabeth melted in his arms, goose pimples prickling all along her skin as she shivered in delight.

He was still surprised she trusted him to do this. Was she even a little afraid he might be tempted to bite her instead? Or was she like Cassandra, naively trusting he’d be able to stop once he started?

Witches couldn’t know the allure of blood, how it wasn’t like a delicious cake they could eat bit by bit over time. Blood was like wine to an alcoholic, drugs to an addict, that stupid candy game to mindless teenagers. You didn’t have to be a ripper to become consumed by that hunger.

Elizabeth nuzzled her nose against his, pulling him from his thoughts, and he couldn’t help but think instead about how adorable she was. And how unfairly lucky he was to have her in his arms. He wasn’t good enough for her, and she knew it, but she wanted him anyways.

Their lips met again, tongues dancing to the familiar choreography, and he ran his fingers through her hair, marveling at its softness. He imagined transporting her to his time. Not his drab life on the colony, where he was devoted to Cassandra, but the time before he became a vampire. His life in Europe, the elaborate parties he had attended. Elizabeth would look wonderful in one of those ball gowns, with her hair pinned up, that lovely neck on full display. Dainty gloves on her dangerous hands. Pink slippers on her beautiful feet.

Oh how she would have turned heads. He would never have gotten the chance to dance with her then, only to admire from afar.

“I am pleased with how my life has turned out,” Sebastian admitted, a little surprised that he’d uttered the thought aloud.

Elizabeth sat back a little to study his face. “Because of me?”

Sebastian let out a chuckle. “Well, yes, you’re a big part of it. But there’s more to it. If I hadn’t been desiccated in that box, the colonists would have killed me. I never would have gotten the chance to see the twenty-first century, to attend a school of witches, werewolves, vampires, and other things I had never heard of, like tribrids and phoenixes.”

“Well, they are one of a kind,” she said.

Sebastian smiled. “As are you, Elizabeth. I am at an odd place in my life right now. While I am grateful to have the chance to live in this world and interact with you, I fear that all of this will not last. No one in that school trusts me, even after everything I do to help all of you. It feels like I may never earn my place. I am merely being used for my muscles and my vampiric abilities.”

“That is not how I think of you,” Elizabeth assured him.

“Do you think the others will ever change their minds? Or will they continue despising me forever?”

Elizabeth pressed her forehead to his. “Forever is a long time. I think they can warm up to you eventually. I’m doing everything in my power to persuade them.”

Sebastian felt that bubbly happiness in his chest. The kind that made him nervous. Elizabeth was doing so much for him, and all he was doing was helping her when she asked, offering his body to her when she asked.

Maybe it was time he did a favor for her without asking. A gift perhaps, or a special day just for her. An idea was already forming in his mind.

“Elizabeth, how would you feel if I took you on a proper date?”

She blinked in surprise, then smiled sweetly. “I would like that very much.”

#legacies #legacies fanfiction #sizzie #lizzie saltzman #lizzie x sebastian #sebastian #*#my writing #rated M #sizzie fanfiction #this one turned out different than expected #but i love it lol

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tsukishima44 · 5 years

Text

Ai Rabu Yuu

Yamada Hizashi, Japan's Number 1 DJ, has a crush. Unfortunately, his crush is as dense as a brick. How does he confess his undying love of 15 years? Easy-peasy. Cats.

P.S : a bonus story is added in my ko-fi account

Yamada Hizashi was making a compilation of playlist for his next radio show. As Halloween approaching, the blonde DJ thought about scary creepy songs which could make his fans, dubbed as listeners, experienced halloween for the whole month. The playlist he had played yesterday was a blast. Regional fans and international fans were going crazy with a Japanese man celebrating such a western tradition. His radio team was very happy even when their website had gone haywire from plentiful comments. The amount of early month gifts Hizashi received from fans had doubled its number. For three days he opened each present carefully, day and night, accompanied by one bodyguard namely Aizawa Shouta.

Aizawa Shouta or Shocchan for short was one of his best friends from high school. Both of them attend U.A with different major. They met on U.A's annual sport tournament in which Hizashi, business major, had faced up with Aizawa Shouta, a general student, in the final. U.A's teachers, students, and the media were shocked upon learning the truth. There was no history of non-hero class student never make it to the final. Hizashi and Shouta completely turned the book around. In the aftermath, both Hizashi and Shouta received special invitation to change their major. Hizashi didn't bother. He always knew what his future would be splayed as. It wasn't as a pro-hero. On the other hand, Shouta took the invitation like it was his only chance to change his destiny. After being told of his previous rival acceptance, Hizashi grew curiosity. He could still remember black strands flowing when Shouta's quirk activated. He completely looked like a medusa, a beautiful medusa, with raven tendrils instead of poisonous snakes. That was his last thought before the beautiful medusa completely swept him off his feet. Two days after their fateful match, Hizashi sought after Aizawa Shouta, gaining information easily through his friend connection. Hizashi persistently tailed after Shouta for a week until on the eight day Shouta had enough and stride up to an electric pole, Hizashi's current hiding place. Both of them started their friendship ever since the accident.

15 years later both of them have stable job. Hizashi as a famous DJ who host his own radio program and won award each year. Shouta had become an underground pro-hero under an agency near Hizashi's radio station. Hizashi had adjusted his radio schedule to match Shouta's patrol time to they could go together and end the day together. Ever since Hizashi had his first stalker, Shouta always accompanied him coming back home even in the middle of the night. Likewise when Shouta had to gather intel Hizashi always helped either through his radio program or friends connection since he got plenty. They worked in a symbiosis mechanism and it would never change. Or Hizashi hoped so.

On Hizashi's 22nd birthday, he got a bit of enlightenment.

Shouta had stood there, on his new apartment that he rent cheaply, with a half burnt birthday cake wishing him a 'happy birthday' and not to give up on his dream of being a dj when others mocked him. The sunset light that was painted on Shouta's medium length hair was amazing. Shouta's fond smile, however, was the highlight.

The next day, Hizashi realized that he want nobody but Aizawa Shouta in his life.

Present Mic was cheerful, boisterous, and easy-going. It could throw a cheesy romantic line easily from a storage of thousands. It could make any fans, woman or man, melted with its charming words. It has court and be courted each day. It make hundreds-million money from being smiling to anyone it met. Too bad, its only purpose was as a marionette playing in front line to hide its maker, Yamada Hizashi. Hizashi was a subdued version of Present Mic. He could still rant about his daily lives into a 10 page paper. But in his home, his sanctuary, he spoke less and much calmer than when putting on Present Mic mask. Present Mic's name was on billboards, but Yamada Hizashi never care because it was not his name. Each fan letter he gained always begin with 'dear Present Mic', but Yamada Hizashi was content on not receiving any. In his whole life, Yamada Hizashi never jealous of anything Present Mic has.

Until his days were full of courting a dense Aizawa Shouta.

He had tried using hook-up lines, baking cat cookies, chatting with more emojis, asking him out on a 'date' and nothing was born any fruit. He even used a very very obvious method through one of his radio program to signal Shouta on his feeling. The pro-hero always tune in to his channel each time he was on air and Hizashi knew it although he denied. What he gained was not a new lover but a mess of media trying to interview him on this special S-san he talked so fond of the other night. Hizashi almost gone mad from love and his being from not able to put words into his mouth. On his 28th birthday, the day of his first winning an award, Hizashi finally gathered his nerve to confess. It went well into the night where after the award show Aizawa was about to pick him up and be his courier. If it wasn't for shaking the hand of a four-year-old child with mute quirk, he would probably have an armful of Shouta or a tearful nights await him. Shouta had arrived to erase the child's quirk, but Hizashi's courage had vanished.

This time, Hizashi had a plan. A very simple plan that had occurred to his mind when his emerald orbs saw a cardboard with a grey kitten inside. Hizashi was about to place his umbrella and shield it from the rain. But his idea prevent him from doing so. Then with a wide smile, he took the gray kitten and slipped it into the space between his jacket and shirt. The small head poking from it looked hopeful to him and Hizashi too give his hopeful smile.

True to his idea, Shouta appeared the next day on his door.

"I've heard you adopt a kitten" Shouta said as a greet.

"Yup! Ai is sleeping on my sofa" Hizashi replied but his crush had barged inside and knelt beside his leather couch.

Shouta's light footstep had probably awakened the kitten because Hizashi heard a mewl form his living room. Hizashi watched as his new pet immediately warmed up to Shouta. In a mere minute Shouta had Ai in his hands, cupped gently, while the kitten licked Shouta's thumb.

"Ai?" he asked.

Hizashi had finished placing both his and Shouta's cup of coffee in the glass table.

"Yeah"

Shouta didn’t say anything until he was about to head to his agency.

“You know that Ai is a male kitten right?”

Shouta’s glabella had frown on it.

Hizashi had smiled from the sight.

“I know!!”

14th October, approximately a week after, Hizashi welcomed Shouta into his residence once again. This time, Hizashi was not the only one to greet Shouta. On his right ankle was Ai-chan, the first kitten he adopted. Beside Ai was a black kitten with white fur on its paws. Hizashi watched as Shouta’s eyes went wide at the new member of Hizashi’s family.

Shouta cupped the new kitten into his caloused hand. The new kitten, like Ai, licked his thumb happily. Shouta wiggled his thumb when the kitten didn’t bother with his thumb anymore.

“What’s this one name?”

Hizashi had reappeared from the kitchen with a tray of their casual coffee and a small packet of cat’s food. He placed each things carefully on the table then scooped Ai into his lap.

“Her name is Rabu”

“Rabu?”

“Yeah, rabu!”

Shouta didn’t bother to ask the meaning of the weird name Hizashi gave it.

Hizashi watched Shouta still playing happily with Rabu.

Two weeks later, Hizashi opened his door with a grin. Shouta stood with blown wide eyes. His black hero suit still was full of sweat and what might be speck of blood. Hizashi cringed.

“Did yo-“

“Yes” Hizashi cut sharply “But you are not going anywhere near Yuu with those clothes on”

Shouta was ushered into Hizashi’s toilet without a single word. Hizashi slipped in his softest hoodie and sweat pants to the ajar space of his toilet door.

The kittens swarm to his feet immediately when Shouta came out of the toilet.

His eyes trailed to Ai who was clawing Hizashi’s expensive sofa. Rabu was coming to him happily since Shouta always come to Hizashi’s house everyday, much more often than before. Beside Rabu, a cat probably 5 months old walked leisurely to Shouta. A cat with lush milky white fur.

“A persian type cat. His name is Yuu”

Hizashi giggled when he heard Shouta muttered ‘finally a proper name’. Yet despite the weird name Hizashi gave, Shouta still called each name with the one Hizashi gave.

When Shouta came to Hizashi’s apartment at 31st October he expected the whole apartment to be full of costume guest dancing to loud music and drunk as hell. He didn’t expect an anxious Hizashi and no cat. Hizashi wore a full Count Dracula costume. He was gorgeous with red ribbon tying a bit of Hizashi’s blonde hair on the end. He really glad he wore a mummy costume. Hizashi’s living room at least was screamed Halloween into his eyes. A handful of bat dolls hanging around from the orange-black accentuated ceiling. Hizashi’s huge window also covered by black clothe which was still transparent enough to let moonshine shone the living room. There were several spider webs in each corner and sofa. In the middle of the room were carved pumpkins looking like All Might, and several other pro-heroes. He tried to quench his blush when he saw Eraserhead on one of the pumpkin. What surprised him the most was the appearance of a table in the center beside the pumpkins. The wooden table had an orange tableclothe. Candles in a variety of size acted as a border between one end of the table. Clean white plate were placed on each end and clearly it was for two people by the number.

“Hiza—“

“Shouta, do you remember my cats?”

Shouta looked down to the hands grabbing his. His eyes turned back to the host.

“Yeah...”

Hizashi gave him a small uncertain smile.

“Can you tell me each of their name?”

“Well... Ai, Rabu, and Yuu”

“That’s how I felt about you”

Shouta’s lips thinned while trying to understand Hizashi’s hidden message. It took a century by Hizashi’s dictionary, before Shouta finally understand.

“Did you just...make me say..”

“I am sorry, Sho..” Hizashi let go of his hands “I know you probably don’t feel the same as I do. I just...it’s been too long since I feel this way and I finally get the courage to confess. I know I’m a jerk for adopting those kittens just for my selfish way, but-“

“Zashi” Shouta took Hizashi’s hands in his “Are you going to throw those cats now?”

Hizashi spluttered

“W-Of course not! I still love them even if you don’t l-“

Shouta took Hizashi’s lips into his own. He gave a light nip, gained a moan, before roaming once again. As they parted, both lips were glistening with saliva and Shouta took the chance to peck Hizashi once more.

"S-Shouta?"

"I love you too, Zashi"

Is he dreaming?

"R-really? You sure?"

"I'm dead serious, Hizashi"

When Hizashi's face was in a grimace Shouta couldn't help but laugh at his lover. He slipped his arms into Hizashi's waist and brought the leaner man into him. Hizashi taller figure made his shoulder the right place to put his head on. His ears could feel Hizashi's heart thudding excitedly inside.

"I really do love you Zashi..."

His ears heard a sniffle from above him.

"I really really love you Shouta"

#boku no hero academia #erasermic #eraserhead #present mic #civilian present mic #aizawa shouta #yamada hizashi #aizawa x hizashi #happy halloween #fluff #confess #fanfiction #ao3

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petoskeystones · 5 years

Text

In Which They Go To The Amusement Park

stucky, pepperony, thruce, danbeau, platonic clintasha

no warnings

tw: cursing, maybe anxiety/panic attack

5,556 words

chapter 1/1

no beta because I’m not a coward

Tony was excited to go to his favorite amusement park with his best friends. He was not excited about the fact he had to wake up at three o’clock in the goddamn morning to get there. But he did wake up, and it only took him 25 minutes to get dressed and meander his way into the kitchen.

“Morning, Jarvis. Hey, Peter- what the hell?”

“Hey Tony!” Peter Parker sat at his breakfast table while Jarvis- bless him- made bacon.

“And what are you doing here?”

“You told me to be here at 3:15!”

“Oh yeah.”

And Tony sat down and ate a piece of bacon and inhaled three cups of coffee while Jarvis looked concerned.

“Master Tony, we have to pick up Bruce Banner at three-forty-five.” So the boys grabbed some food and jumped in the car. Once Bruce was safely in the seat next to Tony (Peter had grabbed shotgun, and he was so cheerful at this ungodly hour that Tony didn’t complain) and Peter was rambling away up front, they raced to school and made it to the bus in time to grab great seats. Once they were seated Tony took the opportunity to look around. He saw Thor get out of a black escalade in the parking lot smiling, and as it drove away a hand from the driver’s seat waved (Hela, probably) and a hand in the back flipped him off (Loki, definitely)

Bruce had sat in the window and Thor quickly joined him, just across from Carol and her girlfriend Maria. Carol and Thor were chatting while their respective girlfriend and boyfriend slept. Steve and Bucky were sitting upright like the ridiculously well-adjusted people they were: Bucky was reading some Russian novel and Steve was sketching him. Clint and Nat were not sitting together but opposite each other. Natasha was listening to music and Clint was interrupting her every fifteen seconds. Natasha was capable of murder and Clint seemed to forget that fact. Scott Lang and Hope Van Dyne were watching Netflix and-

Pepper. Potts. She walked onto their bus? Pepper was on their bus? Tony nudged Peter, who was already vibrating with pent-up energy beside him: “Did you know Pepper, Rhodey, and Peggy were on our bus?”

“Yeah?”

“Sh-oot. Shoot.”

“You can swear in front of me, you know.”

And thus began the four hour bus ride to the competition and amusement park.

The ride up was actually fun? Peter was surprised that he made it either way though. He could barely make it from the Stark building to the school. And he usually would walk around the bus and maybe talk to someone at the front, or ask the teacher a question, but when Fury was the chaperone he decided to not risk it. He contented himself by scrolling his Tumblr dash for an hour, then checking his regular tags (“ravenclaw”, “adhd”, “thomas sanders” and “science side”), then he rearranged his apps. He also added some songs to his playlist and watched an episode of Buzzfeed Unsolved. Then he texted every group chat he was a part of, chatted with Steve who was across the aisle to him, and took some aesthetic pictures. He also went over his sheet music, scoured the website for the park, and finally fell down a Wikipedia rabbit hole about Dracula that ended up with the Korean revolution. And then they were there.

He was in band, and so was Tony, Bruce, Thor, Carol, Rhodey, Hope, and Bucky. Everyone else was in orchestra. That’s why they got to go on this sweet field trip: they were competing in their individual categories and then would spend the day going on roller coasters.

The performance went well, surprisingly. Peter yawned during their second song but that’s all and he was singled out by the moderator for being the youngest! Skipping two grades had its perks. Then they were on the bus getting ready to go! Peter had his headphones, his earplugs, his earbuds, his phone and his portable charger and his money and his raincoat in case it rained. His science teacher had gone over the weather the day before and it would almost definitely rain, and so everyone brought an umbrella or poncho or jacket. Except Steve and Bucky.

“How does the weatherman know?”

“All that technology can’t be trusted.”

“And besides, Ms Bowey gets things wrong.”

They hadn’t brought anything and everyone was waiting for it to rain to see the looks on their faces.

So after a lot of rules and yelling from Fury, and some smiles and reminders to have fun and to be at the ballroom area for the awards at five pm from Hill, they were off!

Bruce was happy. He was happy to do this forever, maybe: walk around the park holding hands with Thor, smiling while Peter talked and talked and talked, while Steve and Bucky walked side by side with whispers and scowls at Tony, and while Tony suggested every huge and scary coaster in the place, while Nat and Clint walked a ways behind and bickered. No school, no stress, no worrying. Even when Peter stopped to put his headphones over his ears when it got especially crowded and noisy, even when Tony stopped dead and hid behind a bench (Pepper had passed) and even when Clint tripped over absolutely nothing and they had to stop to check that he hadn’t broken anything he was absolutely fine! What a concept.

Carol and Maria were having the time of their lives. They had gone on every medium-level coaster in the park and were excited to try the especially fast and scary ones. The ride up had been nice too: Maria had napped and listened with one earbud to their Queen playlist and Carol had taken the other earbud while she chatted with Thor and exchanged pictures of their pets. Carol’s cat Goose was the greatest cat ever, but Mjolnir was a huge golden retriever and he was pretty freakin’ awesome too.

Carol had only joined band because Thor joined band. Thor only joined because Bruce joined. Bruce joined because Tony talked him into it in sixth grade. Thor had been dismayed to find he was the only jock. Carol had had to choose between orchestra with her girlfriend and band with her best friend, but she decided violins were dumb and took up the trombone. It wasn’t her favorite thing ever, but they got to take cool trips. And now they got in line, holding hands, hair windblown and messy. About five seconds after they got in line it someone put up a sign: the ride was closed due to weather. Good thing, too: it started to pour about five minutes after they left the line.

It started to rain while the group looked for food and Steve was going to punch something, he swore. Tony had an umbrella, Peter had a raincoat, even Nat brought a jacket. Clint had a dumb poncho. Thor and Bruce had jackets too and he and Bucky had nothing. As everyone started to snicker, Bucky scowled and Steve rolled his eyes.

“Yeah, yeah, keep laughing Poncho Boy. “

“Poncho boy!” Nat started to laugh. “New contact name.”

“Oh, you’re getting rid of Katniss Ever-lame?” Clint fake-smiled at her.

“Yep,” Natasha already had her phone out and was typing. “Smile!” Clint looked confused and so his new contact photo was him looking confused in a poncho while the rain poured with the new name “poncho boi”. Everyone was already changing the name too. Steve smiled while Clint looked disgruntled. He was still, however, wet. Peter’s hair was starting to frizz and Bucky looked less than enthusiastic. He dragged his boyfriend, along with Tony, Peter,. Thor and Bruce, and Clint and Nat, into a random store that apparently had candy and ice cream. And ice cream cheered everyone right up.

It stopped raining and they headed outside in the post-rain warmth and haze. Everyone else was smiling outside and when Bruce tugged on his hoodie sleeve Thor looked up and saw a double rainbow. He took a picture and posted it to instagram along with most of their friends, but Peter won Best Caption.

The sky said GAY RIGHTS

The speakers around the park had been playing music the whole time and all of a sudden, You’re My Best Friend was playing and through all of the people, Thor saw a tall girl with dark, short hair start wildly waltzing with a shorter blonde girl in a flannel. He smiled.

Their group had a problem, Clint soon realized. Natasha, Thor, Bucky and Tony wanted to go on every single ride and coaster in the park. Peter, Steve and Bruce, along with him, wanted nothing to do with scary rides. So they compromised. They built up to the scary rides and they started with some of the wild, spinny rides; those were Peter’s favorite anyways. There was no line for them. They rode them about five times in a row: Clint and Peter (he was mad at Nat), Nat and Steve, Bucky and Tony (they looked ready to throw the other out of the seat) and Thor and Bruce. Peter weighed about five pounds so he was repeatedly thrown into Clint while they laughed.

Then they went on the pirate-ship that rocked from side to side. Peter wasn’t allowed to have headphones and Nat saw him get worried, so she sat next to Peter and let him latch onto her wrist during the ride.

“HOLY FREAKING- OH MY- Oh wait, this isn’t so bad!” Natasha laughed as Peter relaxed next to her (even though he maintained his grip on her arm) and once they got off of the ride everyone was a lot less stressed.

“YOOOOOO,” Tony yelled. Bruce looked over and saw one of those cheesy games: Guess Your Age, Weight or Birthday! If I Guess Wrong, You Win A Prize! The prize was a large stuffed sloth that was about as big as Peter.

“Nope.” Natasha flat out forbid Tony. “You want to drag that thing around the rest of the day and then on the bus? Bad idea, Tony. Just buy one, you’re literally a billionai-”

He was already giving the lady five dollars and hopping on the scale. Natasha sighed and resolved to join the group with Pepper, Rhodey, Peggy, and Carol and Maria next time.

“So the way this works is that I guess the weight. If I’m wrong by five pounds you win a small prize. If I’m off by ten pounds you win a big prize.” Tony nodded.

“Hmmmm. I wanna say ninety pounds.” Tony stepped on the scale.

“A hundred and ten! Jeez, okay. You win a big sloth.”

“Fine. Nice job, Tony.”

“How on earth do you weigh a hundred and ten pounds? I can bench press you,” Steve wondered.

“It’s all muscle, Steve.” At that, Bucky choked on his water.

They sat down at some benches in order to get situated when Steve’s eyes opened wide and Tony turned around and Pepper Potts, the most beautiful girl in school, his best friend Rhodey’s new sort-of best friend, the girl who was rumored to already have been accepted to Harvard business school, she was walking right towards him and he was holding a ridiculous sloth and also hanging out with a bunch of nerds and Thor.

“Oh, hey, Peg. Hi, Rhodey, hey Pepper!”Steve smiled like he wasn’t talking to a literal goddess, the head of the debate team as well as the head of the Women’s Club at their school, and the greatest person possibly ever.

“Hey, so Tony, Rhodey pointed out your sloth and we were wondering where you got it? It’s so cute!” Pepper smiled at him and Tony would have come up with a good response, he swears, something like oh yeah I won it at that game over there they guessed my birthday wrong! And his friends would have maybe kept their damn mouths shut because they all knew how long he had liked Pepper. He forgot, however, that at the particular late-night study session when he had admitted this, Bucky hadn’t been there and so Bucky ruined it all.

“Yeah the lady at that booth guessed Tony’s weight as ninety pounds because he’s a midget, haha, and he actually weighs one-ten! Which is probably the snacks we’ve all been eating today. It’s funny because Steve’s maximum weight at the gym is one-thirty, Steve could literally bench press Tiny- sorry, Tony, here-”

A few things happened at this point.

Bruce yelled “Bucky, shut up!” while

Steve clamped a hand over his boyfriend’s mouth.

Meanwhile Peter and Thor began to ramble to cover everything up and

Natasha apologized for “my dumbass friends.”

Clint was giggling and the worst part was that

Rhodey shot Tony an I’m-so-sorry-dude-I’ll-talk-to-her look while

Pepper walked away, confused and probably thinking Tony was a short, weird, loser who could be bench-pressed by her best friend’s ex boyfriend, and most likely deciding to never speak to him again.

“BUCKY!” Steve was berating his boyfriend. “Why would you say that?”

“What does it matter, Steve?”

“Bucky. Pepper- Pepper’s the first person I ever really liked, like I really like her!”

“The first person you really-really like?” Steve arched an eyebrow. Tony had confessed to liking him in their freshman year, and Steve had felt the same way for a while too, but it was all in the past now. “The first person ever?”

Tony rolled his eyes. Bucky, meanwhile got the drift.

“Ohhhhhh, shit, Tony, I’m so sorry.”

“As entertaining as this is, guys, we’re going to be late for the awards if we don’t haul over to the pavilion thing. It’s four fifty-five,” Bruce interrupted. “C’mon.”

When Bruce said “C’mon”, the Panic! At The DIsco song got stuck in Peter’s head and he hummed it while they jogged through the park. They found everybody in their school standing at the pavilion, milling around with the students from a bunch of other schools in the area. Peter felt his chest getting tighter and took a few deep breaths in order to calm himself down. Hill and Fury called them all into the huge room and told them to sit with their groups on the ground. Peter hated sitting on the ground. Everybody was so darn loud, why were people so loud? He was sandwiched between Peter Quill, who was yelling something, and T’Challa, who was at least talking at a normal volume to Nakia, and Quill was touching him and everybody was so loud still, and where was Tony? Why were people touching him? Why couldn’t he breathe correctly? He heard Thor yell something across the floor, and his jeans felt weird on his knees, and he really hated the way those jeans felt, why did he wear them? Was the floor always slightly sticky? He grabbed his headphones and slid them over his ears, screwing up his eyes and humming “C’mon” a little louder and tapping a beat on the sides of his headphones. WAs that kid from another school laughing at him? He had to get out of here. Natasha and Clint were the closest to him. Clint noticed Peter and signed “are you o k?” at him. “No. SOS” Peter signed back. (Most of them knew sign language. Clint was deaf and Peter, when things got to be too much for him, would slide headphones over his ears and revert to signing everything.)

“I'm gonna take Pete outside, Nat.” Cluint stood up, earning a glare from Hill, and grabbed Peter’s arm and took him outside. They sat on a bench and watched the ceremony.

The band was the only one in the mixed highschool category and got first place, but the orchestra got third. Peter smiled and met up with ihs friends afterwards, keeping his headphones on but chatting with them nonetheless.

Maria and Carol were in line for the biggest roller coaster in the park. Again. They had been kicked out due to rain, had to leave the line to watch the awards, and now they were back. There was a huge line and Pepper and Peggy were supposed to meet them in the line after finding Tony and Peter and trading Rhodey for Thor. They were looking at a picture of Goose on Carol’s phone when they heard Thor’s loud voice from the back of the line (they were about halfway there, and the line was long as hell) yelling “Carol! Maria! I am here with Pepper and Peggy!”

The girls and Thor started to walk past the people waiting and were almost there when some lady stopped him.

‘Excuse me, where do you think you’re going, young man?” Karen (Carol decided to call her Karen because she looked like a Karen) asked him.

“Well, those are our friends right up there and we were going to ride the roller coaster with them.” Karen looked up at Carol and Maria, still holding hands, who waved at her and smiled. Karen faced Thor again.

“No.”

“But we have to be in a group together! It’s the rules for our school trip. Let us up!” Peggy looked angry.

“Young lady, go to the back of the line!”

Peggy was going to yell some more, and Pepper was seriously annoyed. But then there was a chime from their phones.

Maria: just leave it

Maria: legit it’s okay we can go on this one and y’all can pick another ride

Maria: and meet at another, cooler ride

Carol: my girlfriend is so smart❤❤❤❤❤❤

Pep: fine

Thor: sounds good!

Peggy: i will fight this lady tho

Carol and Maria advanced in the line, and they saw that the coaster even went upside down. They looked at each other and grinned.

“Good practice for when you’re in a fight and your plane goes upside down,” Maria said with a smirk.

“Yes, Maria. Because going on one roller coaster will prepare us for the Air Force. Mhmm. Yep. Okay. Put that on your application, Rambeau.

Carol and Maria continued the back-and-forth that Bruce and Thor loved to watch on their frequent double dates until it was their turn on the roller coaster-

“Sorry, girls. The ride’s full. You get to be first on the next turn!”

Carol was hopping up and down in excitement, and Maria was excited too (just a little less… bubbly) and that’s when the ride lurched forward and took off. They saw how fast it was and it was going to be so cool and then they heard the mechinery of the ride sort of stop. They waited for amminute but they couldn’t see the roller coaster come speeding back around. And then the announcement:

“Laaaaaaaaaaidies and gentlemen, the roller coaster is experiencing technical difficulties and we’re going to have to shut it down for the rest of the night. Our apologies again, and have a lovely evening!”

Maria snapped a picture of the priceless look on her girlfriend’s face.

Peggy, Pepper and Rhodey were having a great time on their own. Peggy was happy to see how much fun all of her friends were having, but the one thing that would have made her day almost-perfect was having a boyfriend there with her. Not because she particularly cared about romance right now, not because she was pining over Steve (she wasn’t) but because she was in a group of either five or three all day. Carol and Maria were roller coaster buddies for life, and Pepper rode with Rhodey because she was the one who had invited him along with their group to spend the day away from his best friend anyways, it would be rude to make him ride with Peggy or with a stranger. So Peggy was stuck with the “dad in the family of three” or the “third wheel” or the “flirty boy who had no sense of boundaries” and she was sick of it. On this ride, which might be one of their last, she turned around to see her prospects and decided that she might as well be proactive and pick someone who looked nice and her age and who would be willing to shriek with terror and exhilaration in the front seat.

There was a group of about seven boys directly behind them and so she took a deep breath and pivoted around, smiling.

“Hey, I’m Peggy. I’m in a group of three-” she indicated Pep and Rhodey, “-and so I was wondering if any of you guys would want to ride the roller coaster with me? Preferably someone who doesn’t mind the front seat and my incessant yelling.”

The boys looked at each other and Peggy worried she was about to be made fun of, or worse, put in yet another bad situation, but instead a boy with a smile and a crutch walked forward.

“Daniel Sousa, roller-coaster-rider extraordinaire, at your service, Peggy.” He smiled and she smiled back and the boys behind her started to giggle and Pepper did too. Peggy didn’t care, though.

Apparently Daniel wanted to go into the military, maybe the government, same as Peggy. He was here with a different school and had lost his leg after a bad car crash when he was a kid. He did martial arts and liked roller coasters and Peggy had a good feeling about her roller-coaster buddy.

The coaster itself was great. Pepper hated it but Rhodey, Peggy and Daniel loved it. And afterwards, when they were leaving to meet Carol and Maria at another ride, Peggy said “Well, it’s been lovely riding roller coasters with you.”

“Come on, Daniel! Give her your number and let’s get outta here,” one of Daniel’s friends called. Peggy and Daniel turned red.

“Shut up, Ray.”

“Wait!” Peggy grabbed a random piece of paper in her pocket, it turned out to be a note Steve had tossed her on the bus reading “does peter quill ever shut the heck up” but she scribbled her number on it and handed it to Daniel.

‘If you ever want to talk more about politics and martial arts, let me know.” Daniel nodded and Peggy smiled before walking away with her friends. As soon as they were out of earshot from the boys, Pepper whooped and Rhodey high-fived her.

“Tooooooooooonnnnnnnnnnnnyyyyyyyyyy,” Peter groaned in the arcade. “Lend me a dollar. Please. You’re part of the reason I lost five bucks on the bus! You’re a billionaire. Please.”

“What do you want to play, anyways?”

“I want to do the claw machine? They have a stuffed Bulbasaur I’m almost positive I could win.”

“Fine. Have a dollar. One dollar only.” Tony handed it to Peter, who grinned and ran to the machine. Clint was trying to get a stuffed Rowlet, and as soon as he lost Peter pushed him aside.

“My turn, poncho boy.”

Peter did win the Bulbasaur, and he gloated to Tony the whole way to the next ride.

“Okay. So some of us want to go on the huge, scary rides. And some of us want to go on the smaller ones. So Rhodey and Maria are meeting us here, and I’m going with Thor, Bucky and Tony and meeting Pep, Peggy and Carol at that ride that goes up the huge pole thing and drops down? And you guys can go on another ride. Deal?” Natasha finished speaking and nodded at Rhodey and Maria.

“Pep and Peg are at the Big Scary ride, Carol’s meeting them there after she eats her ice cream. Have fun!” Maria waved them off and the new group set off for some smaller rides.

They found one that didn’t have a very long line. It was basically a tilted platform, with a big circle on top with the seats. The circle spun around, slightly elevated, and Bruce took a long look at the machinery underneath. It was greasy and not very well maintained, but still cool.

Peter was hugging his Bulbasaur (“Her name is Delilah!”) and while they stood in line and watched some smaller kids go around and around, Maria picked Delilah up.

“Aww, how cute.” Clint grabbed Delilah away and put her in between the metal railing separating them from the ride. And Peter made to grab Delilah but only knocked her onto the ride. He looked in horror as she spun around, fell off, rolled to the edge of the underneath platform, and settled mere centimeters from falling into the greasy, deep pit of machinery and despair.

“Clint! Look what you did!” Peter said as they watched, transfixed by the steady brushing of the top platform brushing her bulb. The ride stopped, finally after what seemed like an eternity. Peter rushed forward and rescued Delilah, sticking his tongue out at Clint. The ride was starting, and Rhodey yelled “Steve! Your hat!” but it was too late and Steve’s army patterned baseball hat was blown off onto the platform, then off the platform, then it slid down to the gate. After the ride he grabbed it, ignoring the snickers from his friends, and they set off to find their friends. They were not in line for the Big Scary ride, on the ride, or anywhere near the ride.

“I’ll call Natasha.” Clint grabbed his phone and the conversation on the end Peter heard went like this:

“Hey Natasha, where are you? I can’t hear you. Yes I’m wearing my hearing aids, zhopa. I’m hanging up now.” Clint hung up and then said “No idea, couldn’t hear.”

Peter, Bruce and Rhodey went to their group chat with Tony:

Petey boi: tony where u at

Platypus: yeah tiny where r u

Bruce Banner: Tony, where are you guys?

Tiny stank: can’t talk rn guys

“Nothing.”

“Let’s get some food, then, we haven’t had dinner,” Maria suggested.

“Yeah! Let’s get this bread!” Peter punched the air and Btruce closed his eyes in silent pain. He missed his lab, with its complete silence and absence of memes.

They found the food and sat down on some benches in a sort of courtyard area, laughing at Peter as he stood on the tiptoes of his converse to order some tacos. Then Clint saw poor Delilah (who had already been through quite an ordeal) and grabbed her and sat on her.

Peter returned, saying “Dinner orders are in! For Maria, Clint and Steve: hotdogs! For Steve: a slice of pizza! For me and Bruce: Tacos! Where the frick-frack is Delilah?”

Clint snickered and everyone else maintained a poker face.

“You have to find her and then we can leave.”

“Give her to me, Clint!”

“Why do we always assume it’s me that does these things?”

“Because you’re the only one who does these things.” Everyone nodded.

Peter, resigned to his fate, walked in circles around the courtyard while Clint shouted “HOT” and “COLD” and Maria stifled laughs. FInally Peter gave up.

“Where is she?”

Clint stood up, Peter started to pounch Clint’s arm, and then their friends walked up.

“Topolino, what’d poncho boy do to you?”

“He took Delilah, Tony.”

“I swear to god, Tony- if you just referred to Peter using an Italian word that parents call their small children- I’m gonna-”

“Shut it, Steve. Like Bucky doesn’t call you dorogoi more than he calls you Steve.”

They kept bickering through two more small coasters, and another spinny ride, and then when it got dark they walked back to the bus. It was eight pm and they were going home.

Pepper was standing with Peggy and Carol, Rhodey and Maria jogged over and some of Peter’s group followed. Tony went over, too, and so Peter followed and left Clint, Nat and Steve on a bench looking at a vine compilation.

‘Hey… guys,” Tony said and Peter watched him not look at Pepper, but like in a subtle and chill way so it was less of a I’m-not-looking-at-you-because-Bucky-made-me-look-like-an-absolute-buffoon

And more of a I’m-just-really-interested-in-this-story-Rhodey’s-telling-about-that-one-guy-behind-you-on-the-ride

And Peter thought he was doing very well. Then they all drifted away to their own groups and Tony returned to casting wistful glances at Pepper, who was chatting with Peggy and some boy with a crutch and a wide grin.

“Y’know, in the cheesy romance movies, the boy wins a stuffed animal and gives it to the girl. Give your sloth to Pepper!” Bucky aid it like it was an amazing plan.

“No,” Natasha and Peter said in unison.

“If you had won the smaller sloth, and if Bucky had kept his mouth shut, and if you had given the hypothetical smaller sloth to her earlier, and if you were better friends with her, maybe. But if someone you were good acquaintances with gave you a sloth that was, like Peter’s size, and this was after that same person’s friends had acted like idiots- me and Peter not included- that would be red flags that that person had a huge crush on you. Don’t do it.”

Then they were called to get on the bus, and so they did.

AN HOUR LATER

Natasha was smiling at her phone. She was watching her favorite anime, First Squad. Her head was leaning on the chilly bus window, her feet were dangling off of the seat, one earbud was out, and she could hear the bus sounds around her.

Pepper and Peggy giggling and looking at Peggy’s phone.

Bruce and Thor watching Masterchef on Thor’s iPad.

Peter humming a Panic! At The Disco song right behind her.

Tony’s classic rock very faintly, he was blasting it in his headphones.

Carol and Maria quietly singing “Good Old-Fashioned Loverboy”.

Rhodey whispering to Tony, something like “it’s okay, she didn’t care.”

And of course, Clint Barton being a bitchass bus-mate.

Clint was her best friend, a decision she regretted almost every day. Right now she just wanted to watch some anime, relax, and maybe doze off a bit. But Clinton Francis “Poncho Boy” would not let that happen.

Natasha had brought snacks, and in the aisle of the grocery store at ten pm the night before, a big box of Welch’s Fruit Snacks seemed like a good idea.

“Nat, I want a fruit snack.”

“Natty, I can’t open the fruit snack!”

“Tasha, can I have another one? This one is mostly raspberries and those suck.”

“Natka, I started season three of Stranger Things and I swear to god, If Joyce Byers doesn’t get a break this time I will destroy the Monster Of The Year myself.”

“Holy shit, Tashie, you will love this season of Stranger Things.”

Finally Natasha opened her texts and just texted him with both earbuds in.

Poncho boy: it’s too loud on this fckin bus

Nat: take out your hearing aids and shut up

Nat: <shutthefuckupandgotosleep.mov>

Poncho boy: rude

Poncho boy: u know what

Nat: what

Poncho boy: imma watch buzzfeed unsolved

Poncho boy: also fuck you

Natasha was fine with that as long as Clint shut up, so she lay down and tried to fall asleep for a bit but Clint was also laying down (he took off his shoes because he was a horrible human being) and their legs were too long to fit on the seats, so after a brief (read: five minute) foot war they settled by having Clint put his legs on Nat’s seat and Natasha balanced her toes on the edge of Clint’s, she was shorter by about six inches. Clint soon fell asleep and Nat rested her head on her arm and finished her show.

Peter was less bouncy on the ride home. He got a seat to himself and so he curled up with The Office, spinning a fidget spinner and chuckling quietly, and then settled into his playlist until they pulled into the parking lot. That’s when the BIG THING, the thing that made this field trip go from “just another band trip” to a trip that was legendary in their friend group.

TOny had been eating the whole trip: chips in the morning, and then ice cream and tacos and cotton candy at the park, and on the bus home he finished off Natasha’s fruit snack stash with Clint and ate a Hershey's bar he found in his bag. Then he watched Netflix the way home on the bumpy bus ride. And the bus stopped, Peter Kept his earbuds in and then… something changed in the bus. Peter pulled out his earbuds:

So don't go breaking my heart

I won't go breaking your heart

Don't go breaking my heart

And nobody told us

'Cause nobody showed us-

“What the fuck just happened?”

“LANGUAGE, Mr. Lang.”

“Tony? You OK?”

Tony Stark, the heir to the biggest tech company in the world, a genius, the coolest dude in school, had just thrown up in the dimly lit bus aisle with his crush- the beautiful, incredibly smart and poised Pepper Potts, sitting two seats in front of him. Natasha started to yell.

“You guys. Let’s just get off of the bus, everyone.” Clint supplemented with “Shut up, Burch. It could have happened to anybody.”

Everybody got off of the bus except peter, Tony, Delilah, and the giant sloth that Tony named George. Tony looked at Peter. He really didn’t look that bad.

‘I should have given her the sloth, Pete.”

Peter laughed despite everything and helped Tony off of the bus, where JARVIS was waiting.

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