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jungxk · 6 years ago

Text

just one (vi)

notes: the only guy on campus who’s track record trumped that of your best friend’s - park jimin - was jeon jungkook. not that that was a problem…until he set his sights on you.

warnings: smut (f recieving), protected sex

genre: drama, romance, humour, college!au

wordcount: 5.3k

part i // part ii // part iii // part iv // part v // part vi // part vii // part viii // part ix // part x

you watch sadly as you tip your case of empty paint tubes into the bin. they were your absolute favourite, a birthday gift from jimin almost two years ago. you had been so careful and stingy with them all this time to preserve as much as possible - at least to get you to the end of the semester - so it was disheartening to have to finally throw them out. oils were always your favourite. still, there wasn't much time for moping; if you were to get your next piece finished by the deadline you better start now because of the drying period between layers of watercolour.

"maybe jungkook has a hairdryer..." you mumble to yourself before padding over to his room. he's sitting at his tiny little work desk with his back to you when you peek over his shoulder. "kook, do you have a hairdryer?"

he points without removing his eyes from the screen. "the bottom drawer over there."

"thanks," you do a double take as you pass him with the appliance in tow, his eyes a little bloodshot and face twisted into what looks like terror. usually you couldn't so much as clean a paintbrush without jungkook all over you while you were at his place, but he barely spoke the whole afternoon. you take a tentative step towards him, because if he was anything like jimin when he's stressed he might get rabid. "you alright?"

"i dunno, am i?" he collapses back into the chair, threading his fingers through his hair which was getting wonderfully long. but the only thing you can pay attention to now are his panicked eyes and jittery knees. "i don't know what the fuck any of these numbers mean! why do i even need this for photography-"

"what is it?" you smooth your hand over his back, muscles stiff.

he deflates under your touch. "i agreed to peers taking questionnaires about my portfolio so far and i fucking regret it, noona. this stats software looks nothing like minecraft. i dont know what this all means. my prof said it'd help with cohesiveness - whatever that means - but he's off on one if he thinks this has done anything other than confuse me and ruin my life."

you try your best to hold back a smile, but jungkook is so cute when he's pouty and frustrated. "okay, well what are your variables?"

"my what? baby, i'm not in the mood right now-"

"no you dipshit, like," you gesture with your hands. "what are the things you're measuring? in the questionnaire?"

jungkook stares at you blankly. "i'm...what?"

you roll your eyes, grabbing the back of his chair to swivel him and plop onto his lap. "let me see."

jungkook has no idea what's going on, both because he doesn't know what you're talking about and also because you're covering the screen so he's spared of having to follow your clicking and tinkering. all he knows is that you fit nicely on his lap and that your bare thighs are warm on his, and it's much easier to focus on that anyway. especially since you aren't wearing underwear. after a few minutes he hooks his chin over your shoulder to at least try to keep up. "what are you doing, noona?"

"just cleaning up your dataset," you mumble. you finally perk up after a few more minutes. "oh, okay! so all you want to know is if the people who like the first half of your portfolio like the second half just as much, and whether that opinion affects the other? like a correlation, right?"

he sits up excitedly. "yeah! yeah, that's it," he stares at your profile in disbelief while you waste no time in running the analyses. "how do you know about this stuff, noona?"

"i did stats in my science major. the software i had back then, now that was a real pain in the ass. but this one isn't so bad," you reply absently while jungkook keeps staring at you like you're an angel that descended from the heavens especially for him. he has yet to believe otherwise. "hmm, you know i think you can skip all the sample level descriptives and cronbach's alpha scores and go straight to pearson's r if all you're looking for is a correlation. what would you prefer?"

he breathes in your hair; coconut, jasmine. his cologne. "you’re so sexy when i don’t understand what you’re saying."

jimin's face twists when he tests the contents of the pan. "can you tell me why this tastes like tae's dirty socks?"

“can you tell me why you know what tae’s dirty socks taste like?” you lean over the counter, swiping a finger over the ladle before bringing it to your mouth. you always used to cook for your family when you were younger, and although you had gone off it after what happened, you didn't mind when it was with jimin. with him, you didn't think about the memories of cutting onions with your father or grinding chillies with your mother and sister. it all felt new again, something that was never tarnished. which is why jimin is the only one you can stand to cook with even if he's unable to make anything but mojitos and a single pasta dish. "not enough garlic."

he squints at his phone while you manoeuvre him out of your way. "but it says two cloves in the recipe?"

"it's never two cloves," you take the knife and start to crush and peel more. "always start with four, maybe five."

"can't we just order takeout?" jimin pouts pathetically. he just washed his hair so its still damp, cheeks a rosy from the bathroom steam. you only wish his long line of hookups could see their ladies man now, bundled up in a powerpuff girls sweater that he stole from you months ago.

"no," you pluck his phone from his hand before he can dial, replacing it with more cloves for him to peel. "you've been having takeout all week! all that oil can't be good for you, what's the point of sweating your tits off in that gym if you're just gonna eat shit?"

"i don't always eat shit!"

"jimin. we share a just eat email account. i know the chinese place isn't sending me customer loyalty codes," he rounds the stool where you're sat in the small place between your back and the wall, his palm skirting behind your waist to move you gently aside. "just let me see you eat a vegetable today, i'm begging. so if you keel over tomorrow from IBS i'll feel less guilty."

"alright alright," he huffs, rubbing at his puffy eyes with his sleeve before picking up the knife again. "i don't see what the big deal is, if i was breaking out then that'd be another issue but my body can clearly handle it. maybe it's like that episode of drake and josh where his body becomes accustomed to all the junk food he eats and-"

"please don't use drake and josh as a marker for your health."

"fine," and then without missing a beat, "but what about kenan and kel? all that orange soda and kel was totally fine. healthy even."

"physically, maybe. but did you see the screw in the tuna episode? don't tell me he didn't have inner demons that may or may not have been increased by an overly processed diet," you pause. "wait, am i the kenan in this friendship?"

"depends. i want to say you're the brains but i've also seen you try to open a can with a fork, so."

"hey! that wasn't my fault!" you exclaim, but jimin ignores you purposely. "taehyung told me you fucked yeri in the kitchen, how was i supposed to know what was and wasn't contaminated?"

"___, the fork was plastic."

"well what else would you have me do, starve?"

"what is this, the fucking famine? you said it yourself, we share a just eat email so the smart thing to do would be order. besides i dunno what makes you think i'd fuck a girl with a can opener in my vicinity anyway-"

"um, you're you," you chastise. "so i rest my case."

"then i'm definitely kenan," jimin laughs when you swat at him before your phone vibrates, one after another until it almost falls off the kitchen counter if you didn't grab it in time. you don't dare to unlock your phone when you see the contact name on the screen, too hyper-aware of jimin eyeing you over the chopping board. even he sees the gist of the messages jungkook sent you.

[jungkook 7:13pm] u left ur shirt here again noona

[jungkook 7:13pm] at this rate ur never gonna get it back are u :)

[jungkook 7:14pm] i'm free all day tomorrow

[jungkook 7:16pm] wanna come over?

[jungkook 7:16pm] i still haven't washed it btw so

[jungkook 7:17pm] we can do laundry together :))

[jungkook 7:18pm] or maybe later tonight ? i can pick u up ?

you don't even get a good read of the messages - all those smiley faces gave you enough of an idea. it wasn't a surprise or anything, but you still switch your phone to do not disturb and leave it face down on the counter like you have something to hide. which you don't. so why did it feel so wrong? so disrespectful, here in jimin's kitchen? you gnaw at your cheek.

jimin has his back to you so thankfully you're spared of having to gage his expression. he's probably sent a million thirsty texts so he knows what they look like, knows that he shouldn't be surprised. still, he shifts from foot to foot uneasily. the only thing that makes him stop is you leaning wordlessly over him to lower the stove to a simmer, turning the tap on to wash some rice and hum quietly. here was jeon jungkook, arguably the biggest stud on campus blowing up your phone on a friday night but nothing felt different. you'd always choose him and jimin knew that.

"what do you think of egg fried rice?" you ask over your shoulder. "i haven't made it in ages. the one with the veggies?"

jimin smiles. "i love that one,"

"he's not back yet?" you ask when yoongi lets you into the flat, shoulders deflating childishly. he gives you a lazy shake of his head before nudging you to the sofa to take up your usual spot on the matted cushion in the corner, kicking your shoes away and sitting cross legged. yoongi and namjoon's flat was only round the corner from jungkook's, a worn down little two-bed that smelled rather questionable at times, but it quickly became a familiar place. a safe place. especially because of how often you'd come over while jungkook was running late at class or the gym or photo-hunting. coming to terms with the fact that you were sleeping with jungkook wasn't that hard, but being friends with his friends was.

"it's leg day. you know how jungkookie feels about his chicken calves," yoongi says before flopping down next to you. namjoon was tucked into the other side with a book, effectively squishing you into yoongi with his big shoulders. if jungkook was here he'd pout about having nowhere to sit and the thought only makes you more pleased. "he'd be there until sundown if you weren't waiting for him."

"are you sure you're one to talk about chicken legs?" you reach to tickle yoongi's knees and he barely manages to flinch away in time.

"i love my chicken legs the way they are, thanks. can't say the same for your boyfriend though."

you freeze. "i told you to stop saying that, yoongi. you know he hates the b word. one more slip up and you won't ever see me here again. last time he avoided me for two weeks!"

"never see you again? doubt it. your hair clogged the shower drain yesterday so you pretty much owe rent at this point," yoongi keeps flicking through the channels on the television. "besides, i know what a man with a monkey on his back looks like. kookie just doesn't like being reminded of it because unfortunately for him there's no rehab to quit you."

a rush of blood goes straight to your cheeks. yoongi loves to tease you and you know that, second only to jungkook who actually does get off to it, but you still tap nervously on the carpet with your toes while desperately hoping for namjoon to step into the conversation with a weird conspiracy theory or black hole fact he read on an astronomy blog. anything to dig you out of this metaphorical hole you and jungkook are hellbent on ignoring. yoongi sees the way you curl in on yourself slightly, a sensible and collected flower like you reduced to a fidgety school girl. it's cute.

"hyung," namjoon says with his eyes still glued to his book. "stop winding her up or her face'll explode and then jiminie will come for your throat."

yoongi scoffs. "and? what's that short-ass gonna do, cry on me to death?"

"you're like two inches taller than him."

"two and a half, actually."

"so he really was a crybaby?" you scoot to fold your legs under you. "jungkook told me before but i didn't believe him! i've tried everything but i can never get a reaction out of jimin...i mean, if horny isn't an emotion."

"oh yeah, totally," namjoon puts an arm on the back on the back of the sofa behind you when he looks up. his silver hair brings out the beautifully rich undertone of his skin and it's difficult not to stare, being so close. "if the patriarchy hadn't fucked him up he'd be a real tree hugger, i'm sure of it. but the last time i saw him cry was...hmm..."

"five years ago," yoongi chimes. "when jungkookie got caught."

"ooooh yeah," namjoon nods. "but jimin and jungkook were super close back then. he was so protective of him, waited in the custody office for hours until they finally-"

"wait," you look between them. "caught? what do you mean?"

the boys exchange a glance between them. it's not like you didn't know that yoongi sells weed and often with namjoon's help. in fact, they often told you about their wild stories and close calls. but they had never mentioned jungkook being involved with any of that stuff, and neither had he. you always just assumed that he'd kept his head out of it, being a college student and all but yoongi's shrugging and namjoon's pursed lips tell you otherwise.

"jungkook got charged with possession as a minor," yoongi says. "i mean, seventeen but still. too baby-faced."

"jungkook sold for you?" you repeat, not quite believing your ears. he had always been the better off out of his friends that often did shadier things, but the more you got to know him the more you felt like the jungkook you heard about and the jungkook you knew were two different boys. it really shouldn't have come as a surprise, since he had practically grown up with yoongi, namjoon and jimin. his hyungs were his family and he'd do anything for them, there was really no reason he wouldn't take up their trade.

"oh yeah, almost a year. he was good at it too," namjoon laughs. "our kookie's good at everything if you give him enough chances."

"so what happened?" you press. "does he...does he still sell?"

"are you kidding? we got him out of all that shit the second he stepped out the office," yoongi rubs the back of his neck. "jungkook isn't like us. he's a good kid with a lot of talent and he didn't need to be doing all that you know? we convinced him to go to school instead but even then, jimin made us swear to look out for him because he left earlier than kookie."

"wow, jimin really hasn't changed," you lean back. "in like, taking care of people i mean. so is that when jungkook got into photography? he did talk about getting his first camera when he was like eighteen or something..."

namjoon nods happily in recollection. "yup! we were so proud when jungkook got accepted into university, especially after jimin and hobi. people from our town don't usually pursue higher education-"

"especially with kookie's record," yoongi laughs.

"why?" you blink at him.

"the weed was one thing, but jungkook also got a strike for violence."

namjoon winces. "hyung, he's gonna throw a tantrum if you tell her..."

"i don't care. she's fucking him, she has a right to know," yoongi retorts evenly, dark eyes swivelling to meet yours. his light hair is matted from under his beanie, barely missing his lashes. "a few years ago jungkook beat a guy so bad he had to go into emergency. it was pretty gross. broken nose, missing teeth, you name it. he's been on thin ice since but he doesn't act like it."

you take a second to digest the information. "do you...do you know why?" you waver, unable to keep the horror from your voice. "knocking a guy's teeth out? people don't just do that!"

"kookie did," namjoon sighs.

"but why? it's so...i just can't imagine jungkook doing something like that..."

"something like what?"

your head snaps to the doorway where jungkook can be seen only partially when he bends over to unlace his shoes, namjoon and yoongi simultaneously pinching your legs to wipe the wide-eyed look off your face. it was one of the many times when wearing your heart on your sleeve did not do you any favours. you just about manage to look normal enough within the half a second it takes for jungkook to come in, hair mussed from his post-gym shower and tee wrinkled from being stuffed into the bottom of his bag. his eyes look extra big today, nose and knuckles blushed pink from all the lifting. he couldn't look farther from the violent offender yoongi and namjoon described. in fact, the sudden urge to kiss him hello was near suffocating.

"i was telling her about the time you wore hyung's underwear for two weeks," namjoon explains, years of lying paying off with how smoothly he returns to his book.

"what!" yoongi splutters. "are you kidding?! a whole week, jungkook that's disgusting-"

the younger boy winces. "not the same pair!"

"wait. you took more than one?!"

"um..."

"how many. tell me right now you little shit."

"i promise they were clean!" jungkook says defensively, but his buck teeth show in a defensive little grin. it's impossible to be mad at him. "my washing machine broke, remember? and i never have change so i didn't go to the laundrette's and-"

"which ones?" yoongi's voice becomes obnoxiously loud with dismay. "tell me right now so can go upstairs and burn them. jesus jungkook you could have at least asked me, now i have to live with the knowledge that your bollocks is acquainted with mine until i die-"

"hyung they were clean," jungkook insists. "and if i asked i knew you wouldn't have let me borrow them!"

"yeah because it's gross! why didn't you just take joonie's?"

"i did. but he caught me and told me to take yours instead."

you just about manage to insert yourself between yoongi before he can grab a fistful of namjoon's hair while jungkook throws back his head in a loud cackle.

[jimin 7:58pm] you dont mind do u?

it's hard not to roll your eyes at his message, momentarily leaving your phone on the bed while you unclasp your bra. it wasn't the first time jimin had bailed on you last minute because of some girl he'd picked up for longer than expected. you're just thankful that this time he had the courtesy to tell you before you got to his house and burst into his bedroom without knocking only to see areas of your best friend you really did not need to see. even though you shudder at the memories - yes, plural - the sinking feeling of disappointment can't be masked. it's movie night.

[you 8:01pm] yh its fine

[you 8:02pm] but u owe me one i put on a bra for you asshole

[jimin 8:04pm] ofc babe

[jimin 8:04] just skip it next time :)

you snort before locking your phone and throwing it on the bed, padding over the room in your knickers to select some sleeping shorts off the floor. jisoo went home for a family birthday and seulgi had a deadline for monday, so it was safe to say you were alone for the weekend. you were used to being alone but you didn't like it; it was the reason why you'd always trudge to jimin's if the girls weren't home or even yoongi and namjoon's, even if it was just to take a nap on their sofa. you needed the noise, the background bickering. that's why there's only so much paint brush washing and kitchen cleaning you can do before reaching for your phone and messaging jungkook.

or at least that's what you tell yourself when he's in your bed within the hour, head resting on your stomach and his leg thrown over your ankles. you trace along the tattoo on his bicep closest to you, admiring the cohesiveness and line placement while jungkook dozes off, like he often does after sex. he's had a long week so you let him sleep, hair sticking up and mouth open like a toddler, so impossibly cute you can't help combing through his nape. jungkook doesn't often spend the night at yours so this was a rarity, and you had to admit he did look a little out of place in your tiny little room. he was far too big for your bed, one foot already hanging off, clothes and jacket hurled into the corner with only cheap fairy lights to rely on so you don't go tripping over his shoes at the door.

you could draw him like this. jungkook's eyelashes are short and pin-straight, eyebrows angled and distinctive. quick, sharp pencil strokes. he's got the faintest shadow above his top lip from where didn't have time to shave today. you'd use charcoal for his hair, black with a slight wave. a swooping curve for his nose, a more gentle line for his jaw. he looks harmless like this: not at all resembling the boy yoongi described.

"why are you so quiet, noona?" he grumbles into the duvet, eyes still closed. "you should be snoring my ears off by now."

you pout. "i'm too busy wondering how i'm gonna get your river of drool out of my pillow."

he snorts. "throw your sheets in on a fast cycle and voila."

"what fast cycle? i just press every button on the machine until it starts."

he opens his eyes. "you're an animal."

you laugh, tugging on the roots of his hair where your hand is still nestled inside. "how do you know so much about washing machines anyway?"

"my mum worked a lot growing up," jungkook yawns. "hyung did the cooking and i did the laundry."

you freeze. "you have a brother?"

"i swear i told you that," he scoots across your stomach, taking the pillow with him to position it over your hip so he can look at you properly. his eyes look glassy in the lights, lids hooded and hair pushed back. a real dreamboat wrapped in a hello kitty duvet. "two years older, same as jimin."

"no wonder jimin cares about you so much," you keep playing with his hair, watching his eyes droop closed. "he may as well be your brother." jungkook hums in reply, growing more and more drowsy from all the petting. "so...how come your mum worked so much?"

his eyes open to look at you, hesitating. "dad left when we were young. she didn't really have a choice."

"i didn't know that jungkook..." you pause. "that must have been hard."

he rolls to face the ceiling, like he's thinking twice before he answers. "not really. eomma's a badass, there's nothing she can't handle. yeah money and stuff wasn't easy, and it sucked when i was younger and didn't understand why hyung and eomma were so upset after what happened, but it's whatever. the three of us are so good together, you know? i like it like this."

you nod. because you do know. or, did. you wonder now if that's the reason jungkook got involved with yoongi and namjoon in the first place, to help out his family, but even you know some questions are better left unasked. instead, you chip away at jungkook while you can, since you know barely anything about him beyond student life and his friends. who knows when he would be in the mood to open up again. "so what does your brother do?"

"an accountant. for some fancy law firm in the city," he smiles. "hyung is super smart. like you."

you laugh. "you know i didn't finish my first major, right?"

"by choice. not because you weren't capable," he finishes, and to that you have no choice but to shut up. no one had ever put it that way before. "he's super quiet like you too, keeps to himself. gives really good advice. oh my god, and his kimchi pork stew - amazing!" his teeth gleam take up his whole mouth when he smiles, lines creasing around his eyes. "so many times when me and mum would argue, hyung was the reason why we'd stop. guess i got her temper."

you watch him closely. "you argued often?"

"at one point, yeah. not because we didn't like each other or anything, just..." you can see him hesitating again, cheek sucked in from where he chews it while staring up at the ceiling as if the memories are playing back at him on a projector. you keep quiet, let him get there on his own. "mum went through a phase where she dated a lot. felt bad that neither of us had a father figure and all that bullshit. she brought home some real dickheads, some top tier cunts i'm telling you. and i...wasn't exactly nice to them. ever since then i just hate seeing girls be pushed around by assholes, you know? it does something to me, i dunno. here," he lays a hand over his stomach. "i can't just watch. i can't. it's like i'm gonna be sick."

it's hard not to cry listening to him, seeing the lines in his forehead appear along with the crinkle above his nose. it made sense now, what yoongi told you about before. thinking back to the whole escapade with jinyoung in your kitchen, the whole thing hit you differently.

jungkook was exactly the kind of boy your old family would have frowned upon, reckless and thoughtless and emotionally-driven in the face of adversity. absolutely everything you were taught not to be. but you admired him for those very reasons. before you can start crying you sit up, silencing jungkook with a kiss before he can ask you what's wrong. it's firm and deliberate, your hands holding both his cheeks. he's breathless. "you seriously fucking worry me, slick."

"oh?" his eyes stay focused on your lips while he moves to you, positions you underneath him on the foot of the bed, pulling your thighs around his hips so you gasp at the feel of his semi on your soft inner thigh. he dips his head to kiss along your sternum, hand ghosting over your breasts before closing his mouth around your nipple.

"i nev-never know what you're gonna do next," you exhale shakily, arching into him involuntarily at the sensation. jungkook takes the opportunity to rub the pads of his fingers against your cunt, using the remnants of your arousal to help you along. sure enough you accept his fingers greedily, but he takes his time in stretching you out and easing in further, further.

his thumb gently passes over your clit and you shake. "never? not even now?"

you have to forcibly yank his face away from your tits to kiss him, slowly and with passion. his skin grows damp under your hands, muscles rippling under your touch from where he holds himself up on his forearms. he likes feeling the softness of your tummy against his, your thick thighs cushioning him snugly against you. just like always, it's torture having to pull away from you for a brief second to grab a condom, but the familiar chuckle you breathe out to see him speed back into your arms almost makes it worth it. you take the packet from him, about to tear it open before he grabs your hand with a cheeky smile. "in a minute."

before you can question him about it you yelp he tugs you by the hips, sliding up to angle your ass so your knees have no choice but to hook over his shoulders. jungkook's arms wind around the top of your thighs, thick and secure, nails scraping gently through your coarse curls before he pulls your legs apart as wide as they'll go and lowers his mouth onto you. the noise you make is just as embarrassing as always, so loud and uncontrollable, hysterical even. you've gotten used to being jungkook's fourth, fifth and sixth meal of the day but he steals your breath away every time, leaves you squirming and trembling and this instance was no exception. today he was feeling indulgent so he eats you out messily, makes sure he's loud enough for you hear every squelch and slurp. you physically shake when he sucks a gently kiss to your clit, proud of yourself for not screaming. jungkook, however, isn't happy about that and keeps sucking until you do. harder, harder, and then filling you up with his fingers so you have something to clench around when you cum all over him in a rush.

your back is still off the bed when he reaches your eye level again, the family sound of the foil wrapper ripping from the condom packet making you lift your head up to look at him. he's already rolling it down his length when he peer downwards, and even though you only get a glimpse of his blushing head he's sticky and hot with pre-cum. you wiggle in anticipation and jungkook laughs at your cuteness before leaning back down, taking your hands in his for a change. he can see the appeal, interlocking your fingers with his palms against yours and using only his hips as leverage to push into your sopping center, letting you move against him so he's lodged in as deep as he can fit before he starts rocking into you.

your moans are his favourite song, maybe that's why he wants to listen to them all day. he'd like to make you cum again but it's difficult for him once his hips start stuttering uncontrollably, no matter how much he tries to slow his pace. you let go of his hands then to take his face, his eyes closed when he feels you press your smooth lips to his cheekbone; an encouraging kiss. a go on, i want you to kiss. the moan he let's out before giving in is fragile and wispy, nose digging into your neck while he ruts against you to his end. you clench around him harder just to hear jungkook whimper again, pliant and weak in your arms. all of a sudden, out of nowhere you wish you could feel the rush of his cream spilling from you when he pulls out to discard the condom. he nestles back into your breasts afterwards, smelling himself on your skin.

jungkook falls asleep smiling.

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thebluestbluewords · 4 years ago

Text

Something Wicked

Mal/Ben, missing scene from d1, when things were happy and nothing hurt. ~800 words.

For all that Ben is the new king-in-progress of the United States of Auradon, he’s not actually that interesting to most of the students at Auradon Prep. Sure, the party tonight is mostly because of him and the whole coronation business, but after a round of congratulations from the student body at large, and a round of dancing with his friends, he’s pretty much free to wander through the crowd of students as easily as any other member of the royal junior class.

So. Ben is taking a minute. He’s done an awful lot of glad-handing today, and he’s allowed to have a moment to himself, to just sit by the fountain and watch the lights change while he swirls what’s left of his drink around in the tiny fancy cups that got brought out for this whole shebang.

Somebody (it was Ezio. They all know it was Ezio. He’s one of the tourney set, and he’s just daring enough to think that he can get away with anything) spiked one of the punch bowls about an hour into the night, and Ben’s been drinking half-and-half for a while now. Some of the other students have been working from pocket or purse flasks for longer, Ben’s sure, but he doesn’t actually like getting drunk. Just a little bit of a bite is enough for him, something to keep him a little bit warm, maybe a tiny bit bolder than he’d be otherwise.

The thing is--

The thing is, Ben’s more like his dad than he wants to be.

It comes out when his inhibitions are down. When he’s tired, when he’s drunk. He’s been trying, since the first time that he got so mad, as a kid, that he threw one of his mother’s glass figures (the glass figures that granddad makes, that sometimes have things like wires and gears and flowers suspended inside them, that are works of art in their own right and he could sell for a small fortune, if they ever needed another one, but he keeps giving away because he believes that art is something to be shared not sold), to keep it in. Stop the mind-numbing anger that races through his body when he gets mad, to keep the beast that lives in his heart inside. His teachers have called him kind, and steady, a good peacemaker in the classroom, but Ben knows that those aren’t things that come naturally to him, they’re things he works at because he’s got to, because he’s not like other students, and inside he’s somebody who is always going to have something other about him, and that something means he needs to stay in control, to keep from smashing something that’s harder to replace than a glass figure.

Ben sets down his cup, deliberately. He’s just on the edge of the lights from the party, and the edge of the stone bench he’s on is fading into the dark. He’s pretty sure he’s had enough for tonight.

Somebody slides out of the dark.

“Hey, kingling.” the shadow says, resolving itself into Mal. Of course it’s Mal. Even dressed in a shade of purple so pale it’s practically white, she’s good at blending in with the shadows.

Ben scoots over, letting her slip onto the bench next to him. “I get to be a kingling now?” he asks, teasing. It’s no use trying to be sad around Mal. She’ll steamroll over anything he’s got to say with some argument about how her crew is turning out pretty okay despite their parents, and if they can do it, then Ben’s got nothing to worry about. They haven’t really talked about it yet, but Ben’s starting to pick up the thread of how Mal argues things, and he’s pretty sure he’s got the gist of what she would say if he tries to stay mopey tonight.

“I’ve thought about it.” Mal says, very seriously. It’s possible that she has also discovered the punch bowl since they last talked. “You can be kingling for now. Until you mess something up.”

Ben has to laugh at that. It feels a little bitter, but Mal will understand. “Not very long then,” he admits. “I make mistakes all the time.”

Mal snorts. “You’re telling me. I’ll see you in the common room at curfew tonight?”

“Alright. Not before?”

Mal flashes her fangs at him. “I chose good, not boring.” she says “Midnight on the dot, take it or leave it.”

Ben is taking it. He’s allowed. A leniency, for the king. “It’s a date.” he tells her.

Mal shoots him one of her clever smiles. “Come alone!” she calls sweetly. She’s back on her feet before Ben can think to say anything else, and melted fully back into the shadows before he can get the words out.

“Will--- do?” Ben calls after her anyway.

This girl.

(read the rest on ao3!!)

#my fic #descendants fic #yes this is old but it hasn't made it over to tumblr before and it's a nice little standalone scene #it does go directly into polyamory negotiations after this so if that's ur jam #maybe check out the ao3 link??

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maidenof-thesea · 5 years ago

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Snakes & Butterflies | Part III

Pairing: Jimin x Reader

Genre: Soulmate Au!, Fluff, Angst, Smut (Maybe, still debating)

Words: 3.1k

Warnings: Jimin is sort of mean but that’s just for now! :)

Note: Hi guys! Here’s part 3 of my story and I just wanted to let you know that in this story, all of the boys will be semi-fluent in English, just so that it’s easy for mc to have conversations with them, but I will still keep the language barrier so as to not take away a main aspect of their personalities. Whenever conversations are happening in Korean, this symbol * will be displayed before and after the conversation. Plus the point of view switches from the readers point of view to Jungkook’s.

“Yah Jeon Jungkook!” a deep voice boomed from Jungkook’s phone. The rest of the dialogue was in Korean that I was unable to understand but the voice sounded upset.

“Taetae?” Jungkook questioned in confusion. And once again I was unable to follow along with the conversation. It was evident that this ‘Taetae’ was not Jimin, based on Jungkook’s confusion. I began to pet Yuki absentmindedly as Jungkook continued on with his conversation. Although the conversation from earlier was still running in my mind, and Minho was also still in my mind. Jungkook’s attitude about my lack of a Mark was still quite confusing and so was his anger with Jimin. But Jungkook had a point. I looked at him and he was smiling at whomever he was on the phone with, his dimples on display. His eyes were twinkling. I wonder if Jimin’s smile was still the same, just like Jungkook’s was. At the thought of Jimin, I was reminded of my dream and Miss Cassandra’s knowledge of it.

I felt a slight headache emerging, granted I did have an anxiety attack earlier and my father dropped a bombshell on me today. Yuki was starting to stutter in her constant purring, she must have sensed my fatigue before I did. I went to the kitchen to put my bowl of pasta in the fridge after wrapping it with saran wrap. Jungkook was still immersed in the conversation by the time I made it back to the living room.

“Hello!” the deep voice said with a slight accent, which made me skip a step. It was directed towards me. Jungkook turned around with his eyes wide, almost as if he had forgotten my presence all together. The voice belonged to the most beautiful boy I had ever seen. He had a box smile that adorned his heart shaped face, along with big eyes that were filled with curiosity but had a hint of mischief.

“Noona,” Jungkook said, turning to face me, missing how Taehyung glanced at him in surprise.. “This is Taehyung, one of my hyungs that will be coming next week. Hyung, this is Y/N.”

“Hello,” I said with a slight wave and a smile.

“She cute,” Taehyung said with a wink, causing me to blush for the umpteenth time today.

“Hyung!” Jungkook scolded. “Y/N-”

“It’s okay, Jungkook,” I said, gathering Yuki in my arms to stop the dwindling of my thumbs. “I’m actually gonna head to bed early, I have an early shift tomorrow. Goodnight Taehyung, Jungkook.”

“Goodnight Noona,” Jungkook said with a warm smile. Yuki meows as I start to walk to my room. “Goodnight to you too Yuki!”

Jungkook

The moment Y/N shut the door to her room, Taehyung just about exploded.

“Yah!” Taehyung yelled. “Who was that? She’s super cute! I’m gonna love America! You never said the girls there were that pretty!”

“I just told you her name hyung,” I said with a hint of annoyance. However I could never stay mad at him, I found him too endearing to be annoyed with him for too long. “It’s Y/N.”

“So that’s why you’ve been ignoring my phone calls!” Taehyung ignored what I just said. “Keeping her all to yourself huh? I don’t blame you!”

“I told you I had two finals in the morning,” I said, feeling myself getting a bit hot. “Then I had to go get the list of things Seokjin hyung asked me to get.”

“But you have time to answer Jiminie’s phone call and not mine?” Taehyung all but pouted. “Plus why do you call her ‘Noona’? You just met her today!”

“We are childhood friends,” I said, averting my eyes from the screen.

“WAIT!” Taehyung yelled, causing me to flinch and shush him. “The girl that you and Jimin grew up with?!”

“Yes,” I said, picking up the phone to take outside to the porch before Taehyung woke her up. “The one and only.”

“Jungkook,” Taehyung said, his eyes widening in understanding. “I only heard rumors but is it true that she is Jimin’s-”

“No, those are just rumors” I said, clenching my fists. As much as I hate lying to Taehyung, it wasn’t my story to tell. “I mean she was--is really special to us just promise me you won’t tell Jimin about Y/N.”

“Why?” Taehyung said, confused. “If the rumors aren’t true then it shouldn’t be a big deal.”

“I want to surprise him,” I lied once more. There was no way Jimin would come if it meant reuniting with Y/N. I admit that I hadn’t really thought about it before, but Jimin was the last to agree to the vacation. I have a feeling he only agreed to come after hearing that the beach house was nowhere near the old town we were raised. “Where is hyung?”

“Working out,” He said, stretching, making the phone drop, no longer making him visible to the camera. “He let me use his phone because you were ignoring me.”

“Taetae,” a voice said offscreen. “Were you able to get a hold of Jungkookie?”

“Yea!” Taehyung replied with a hint of mischief that made me nervous. “He was busy all day apparently.”

“Being an international playboy?” Jimin said smiling, picking up the phone. He was freshly showered, with his cheeks red and his skin glowing. “Lots of pretty girls in America right?”

“I wouldn’t know,” I said smiling back. Even though I was upset with him, I couldn’t help but miss him. It had been a while since I last saw him. “I’m here getting an education not dating, besides-”

“Yea, yea” Taehyung laughed, coming back into the screen. “You’re waiting for ‘the one’, the one that rings the bell or whatever. But you really just can’t talk to girls can you?”

“Enough,” I said, yawning. It was only ten o’clock at night but I was also getting tired myself. “I’m gonna sleep now, bye hyungs!”

“Wait!” Jimin said seriously, making me pause. “This is important.”

“What?”

“So..are there pretty girls?” He said seriously but cracked a smile once Taehyung started laughing.

“Ugh,” I said rolling my eyes. “See you guys next week.”

****

I hung up the phone on their laughing faces and almost immediately I got scolding text messages about me hanging up on them first. And I walk back inside the house to see Y/N’s door closed and the light off. After today, I realized that Jimin never fully explained what happened when it came to Y/N. And I have a feeling Jimin has been hiding something from me. I mean I knew the gist of what happened basically through my parents discussing it but growing up, I never questioned the bond between Jimin and Y/N, I mean we were just kids! Then our Grandpa came to visit, and from what I remember that was when everything changed. That was when Jimin changed. His Soulmate mark-

“Jungkook?” Y/N said coming out of her bed, rubbing her eyes. “Why are you just standing there? You should be in bed.”

“Sorry Noona,” I said following her into the kitchen. “Are you thirsty?”

“Yea,” she said as she pulled out a water bottle from the pantry. And she unscrewed the cap and finished the entire bottle, almost choking. I took a step forward to rub her back but she placed her hand up to stop me. “Sorry, I was just so thirsty.”

“Bad dream?”

“Sort of,” She winced as she scratched at her arm. “The henna tattoo is just getting itchy, so I’m gonna put some ointment on and go to sleep. Goodnight Kookie.”

“Goodnight.” I say and I head off to bed. But sleep was almost impossible to achieve whenever I thought about what may happen next week. “I just want you both happy.”

“Hey!” my boss Patricia said as she entered the lobby. “I need you to start at three tomorrow afternoon, Melissa called out again.”

“I’m starting my vacation tomorrow,” I said, as I wiped the counter. “So I can no longer cover for call outs.”

“Crap!” she exclaimed. “I’ll pay you overtime please?”

“No, sorry” I said, no matter how obligated one feels toward their job, one has to remember other responsibilities, plus they just view you as a number, easily replaced by the next number. “You know I need to do this so I could live there for cheap right?”

“I know,” she moans. “You’re just the only reliable employee I have.”

“I know.” I said rubbing her back. “Besides why don’t you just fire Melissa? She only works eight hours a week and yet she still can’t be bothered to come in.”

“Trust me, I’ve been wanting to,” She says leaning on me, like I’m not trying to clean. “But she’s my boyfriend’s cousin and she sort of found out about us so she’s blackmailing us.”

“She found out that you aren’t Soulmates?”

“Yea,” she sighs. “I mean come on, it’s not my fault I haven’t met them yet you know? I love him and I’m not getting any younger, I want kids now, not later.”

“No I get it.” I say. “I’m sorry I can’t help.”

“It’s okay,” she says shrugging. “I’ll probably just get him to do it, to punish him.”

My boss was living proof that love can happen outside of Soulmates. She’s been with her boyfriend for years now, and they want to get married and start a family but the law won’t let them without permission from their actual Soulmates, that is if they are still alive. Which is barbaric and countless people have been boycotting certain laws pertaining to the ideology of Soulmates. Although the whole purpose of the Soulmate principle is pretty much obvious but that is not always the case for certain couples. Take my parents for example, I know my mom wholeheartedly loves my father, and my father loves her as well but it is evident that she loves him a lot more. Which is normal in relationships, not ideal but normal. Relationships fall apart, which is also normal, what’s not normal to a sense is that your freedom to move on from the relationship is determined by your Soulmate.

“Should we just change our names and move to Mexico?” Patricia sighed once more.

“Only the rich can do that.”

“True,” she laughed. “You can go home now, don’t your visitors arrive today?”

“Yea they do,” I said. “Rosa spent the whole day cleaning the house yesterday, even though I told her it wasn’t necessary.”

“Can I hire her to clean my apartment?”

“She’s expensive but I’ll let her know.”

“Ughh.” She moans once more.

“Alright bye! See you in two months!”

“WHY?!”

I was walking home today since I let Jungkook borrow my car to pick up the other guys, although I doubt they will all fit into my jeep, but he said something about them killing him if he didn’t at least greet them at the airport. He initially refused since he didn’t want me walking at night, but I reassured him that it was fairly safe since it was a short fifteen minute walk. The sun was starting to set and I put one headphone in to listen to some music. I was about to exit the property of the hotel, when a tall figure collided with me, knocking me flat on my but.

“Oh! I’m so sorry!” a familiar voice said, reaching down to take my hand. I squinted to see through the sunlight, and Minho’s face was staring back at me in concern. “Y/N?”

“Minho?” I said standing up by myself without accepting his help. “Do you have a tendency to pop up out of nowhere when it’s inconvenient?”

“I deserve that.” he said with an awkward chuckle. “But do you have a tendency to insult people?”

“Only when they wait by my car at night after fraternizing with my father.”

“I deserve that too.” He says not denying the accusation. He takes another look at me and regards my outfit. He points to the hotel and then me. “Do you work here?”

“Why?” I say, feeling my gut clench. My instincts were telling me to lie, but I couldn’t really, my uniform already gave that away.

“I’m staying here!” He said with a wide smile. “Wow what a small world.”

“Huh,” I said nervously, good thing I was now on vacation. “I have to go now, have a nice stay.”

“Wait!” He says trailing after me. “Can we start all over? Will you let me take you to dinner? Or if you aren’t comfortable with that, we can go to the university. There’s summer classes in session and I’m teaching a class.”

“I’m gonna be pretty busy during the summer. So-”

“Please, Y/N.” he says, his eyes wide and his lips were formed into a pout. I never really thought about it, but he was quite handsome, he could be an actor or even a model for that matter. I felt my resolve wavering but my palms were becoming sweaty which has a tendency to happen when I’m nervous. “I really want to show you my work, I know I shouldn’t mention your father, but he did mention that you have a love for history and I believe the past may hold the answers to our mutual dilemma.”

I felt my eyebrows raise at that, my father hated that I chose a major in anthropology. Once I graduated, I was supposed to go study abroad in Mexico in the Maya Temples with a professor but certain complications happened since my father didn’t approve. But does that mean-

“You don’t think we’re Soulmates?” I said before I could stop myself. I felt my face flush with embarrassment. “Cheese and rice, please forget I ever said anything!”

He stammers for a second and starts to laugh which made me blush even more.

“I’m not gonna lie,” He says once he stopped laughing. “When your father told me about you, I initially thought so. But after seeing you and realizing that you are younger than me, it’s sort of impossible for us to be Soulmates. Most Soulmates are born in the same year. It’s very rare for them not to be the same age.”

If it was even possible, I felt my face flush even more.

“Don’t take it the wrong way!” Minho says after realizing I wasn’t responding. “I wouldn’t object to dating an attractive girl like yourself. You are ve-”

“I’m sorry,” I interrupted him. “I feel stupid. Please forget I ever said that.”

“Only if you agree to see my research.”

“Fine!” I said walking away. “But I decide when!”

“Fine!” He replied also with a laugh.

After that, I decided to jog my way home, since it was getting dark fairly quicker than I had anticipated. So focused on getting home on time, I failed to realize that the guests may already be there. By the time I reached the doorstep, the door was already being opened and a very startled familiar figure once again collided with me. However this time instead of falling flat on my butt, strong arms caught me, a shiver erupted in my body as soon as hands made contact with the exposed skin of my waist. I look up to see a very startled Jimin, who looked like he had seen a ghost.

“Jimin?” I whispered and a shiver went through his whole body and all of sudden I’m on the floor and Jimin took a step back, almost as if he recoiled from me. And for some reason that I can’t explain, that hurt more than the bruise forming on my bottom.

“Noona!” Jungkook yelled from the pathway that led to the private beach. He was running towards me followed along by another man. He helped me stand up and the other man picked up my satchel. “Are you okay?”

“Yes,” I said breaking eye contact with Jimin. “I just slipped. Thank you.”

“Hello, Y/N.” The man who picked up my satchel said as he handed it to me. “Nice to meet you, I’m Namjoon. Kim Namjoon.”

“Nice to meet you,” I replied tucking my hair into my ear.

“The others are still at the beach,” He continued with a dimple smile. “Do you want to join us?”

“I would love to, but I think I need to shower and I need to feed my cat.”

“I already took care of that,” a familiar deep voice said. Taehyung appeared behind Jimin, whose expression was emotionless. “She’s a very pretty cat. So you can come swimming with us if you want.”

“Thank you but I really have to shower,” I said with a small smile.

“She doesn’t want to,” Jimin said with a cold tone, and he walked briskly past us, causing me to flinch out of his way. “Let’s go Tae!”

Not only me, but also Taehyung and Namjoon were in shock. Why was he so angry?

“I thought you said he would be happy to see her!” Taehyung said to Jungkook. “It was supposed to be a surprise!”

I walked quickly inside, letting them continue their conversation, but mostly because I felt tears pooling at my eyes. I must be starting my cycle. It has to be that, otherwise why would I be so sensitive?

Jungkook

I wanted to follow Y/N inside, to see if she was alright but from the trembling in her shoulders, I felt like she needed space, especially after Jimin dropping her and being cold to her. This was not how I expected this to go.

“What was that about?” Namjoon asked me. “Taehyung said you guys were childhood friends, or at least that’s what you told him.”

Taehyung had already trailed after Jimin, who was already deep in the trail. Their voices morphing with the waves. I shrugged and started on the trail, I had to come up with a plan or else things would just get worse from now on.

“Hyung,” I said stopping in my tracks and Namjoon faced me. “I think Jimin is hiding something from us, I think he’s been lying to me this whole time.”

“About what?” Namjoon asked.

“About his Soulmate.”

“His mark is jagged which indicates that he was rejected. According to our history, we Neanderthals-”

“I know, we can choose to reject and accept it,” I said with my fists clenched. “But I don’t think that’s what happened here.”

“What do you mean here?” Namjoon said, confused. “Are you saying there is a connection between Jimin and that human?”

“That’s exactly what I’m saying”

Prev / Next

Masterlist

#jimin #parkjimin #bts #jimin x reader #reader insert #soulmate au #soulmate!au #bts soulmate au #my work #kpop scenarios #kpop oneshots #bts fluff #bts angst #jimin angst #bts smut

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bobby-hockey · 5 years ago

Text

CHERRY TREE

arc: gongshow (arc introduction here) tws: vehicle accident, death. length: 2k. summary: in which i incontrovertibly hurt the capitals. also, sasha “ghost” molchalin gets an unwilling new roommate. taglist: @kidsarentallwrite

Philadelphia Flyers @NHLFlyers - Nov. 4 They may be from Washington DC, but this is the City of Brotherly Love! Bring it on, Capitals!

Philadelphia Flyers @NHLFlyers - Nov. 4 Mitty, Martin, and Molchalin start tonight. Retweet for a chance to win five gallons of Flyers-themed M&M(&M)s!

Clarence Taylor. Even the mention of his name is enough to make Sasha break out in annoyed hives—no defenseman has ever been able to read Sasha like Taylor does, and it’s literally the most aggravating thing. Like—yes, okay, Taylor is the captain of the Washington Capitals, was the first overall pick in 2012, got the Calder his rookie year and the Norris last year, has been to the All-Stars more times than Sasha cares to count. That doesn’t mean everyone needs to jump on Taylor’s dick. The guy is fucking irritating.

“Calm down,” Marty says during warm-ups, spotting the look on Sasha’s face when Taylor skates by with a snide little comment lobbed in Sasha’s direction. “I can see your blood pressure rising.”

“He’s a bastard,” Sasha says. He wants to snap his stick in half and maybe use the pointy ends to commit a homicide. Marty’d scruff him like a little cat and Sasha wouldn’t get more than a few strides before his feet cartoonishly skated out from underneath him. But it’s the thought that counts.

“You’re giving him exactly the reaction he wants,” Marty says. “And you’re not special, Ghost, he does that to everyone.”

Sasha does not snap his stick in half, but it takes a Herculean effort. “Don’t bother trying your hippie elementary school teacher horseshit on me,” he says. “I hate him.”

Marty sighs. “Just don’t let him get in your head,” he says, sounding resigned.

Too late. Sasha takes a wild shot at the empty goal and misses—the puck ricochets off the crossbar. Goddammit.

The Washington Capitals are a well-oiled machine: a steady, productive offense backstopped by a tenacious, elite defense and an almost jaw-droppingly good goaltender, and Sasha hates playing against them, mostly because they never fall for Mitty and Marty’s fakeouts. By second intermission they’re still deadlocked at 0-0, and the game—already ugly—is starting to get nasty. While there haven’t been any fights yet, Sasha can feel the tension in the air, a heavy weight like a storm brewing on the horizon.

So maybe Sasha curses at Taylor a little more thoroughly than is strictly warranted when he shoves Sasha into the boards. Sasha hates the guy. It’s been a hard, awful game. He’s allowed.

“Your mother must be so ashamed of you,” Taylor says as the referee whistles the first play of the third period dead, black mouth-guard half-hanging out of his mouth. He’s Canadian, Taylor is, and so is Marty, and while they have the same kind of soft, shallow vowels, Marty is fun and easy to listen to but Taylor’s voice grates against Sasha’s nerves. Sasha’s not a fighter—why would he be, when Marty is 6’10” and impossible to take down—but a single word out of Taylor’s mouth makes Sasha want to drop his gloves and start swinging.

“Go fuck yourself,” Sasha says, scowling.

Taylor grins and, in a bad imitation of Sasha’s Russian accent and a worse imitation of Sasha’s voice, says “Go fuck yourself,” all mocking like. “Come on, Molchalin, what’re you gonna do? Frown at me some more? Y’know your face could get stuck like that.”

Sasha sneers. His shift is up and he’s supposed to be getting off ice—Hartsy’s half over the boards, looking at him expectantly—and Taylor’s heading back to the Capitals bench, this grin on his face like he’s pleased with himself at getting the last word. Sasha doesn’t care for it. At all.

He drops his shoulder and half-checks Taylor as he leaves the ice, sending the defenseman reeling, and when Taylor regains his footing and turns around the grin’s gone, replaced by an annoyed stare.

“Three months and four days,” Sasha says, although if asked he wouldn’t be able to say why: the number just pops into his head, trips off his tongue. “Keep an eye out.”

“What the fuck, Molchalin?” Taylor shouts after him.

Hah, Sasha thinks, and skates back to the Flyers bench.

The Flyers lose—one of the Capitals manages a nasty goal forty seconds before the final buzzer, and the Flyers make an ignominious retreat into the locker room. But that’s fine. Sasha doesn’t mind. It wasn’t Taylor who scored the goal, and Sasha played well. That’s all that he cares about.

Washington Capitals @Capitals - Feb. 8 Just try to beat us at home, @PSSkimmers.

Port Sterling Skimmers @PSSkimmers - Feb. 8 We’re setting sail for Washington DC… time to tackle the Capital!

Washington Capitals @Capitals - Feb. 8 Team bus has been involved in a collision on the I-50E returning from Delaware. Updates will be posted as they come in.

Of course, Sasha thinks to himself, staring up at the floating, incorporeal form of Clarence Taylor hovering over him, Taylor always did have a way to make him regret literally every decision he’d ever made in his life.

“What the fuck,” Taylor howls in his face. “Three months and four days. That’s what you said. You motherfucker. What, you some fucking psychic or something? What kind of sick freak does that and doesn’t give any context? Jesus Christ. You’re an asshole.”

Literally five seconds ago Sasha was sleeping. Why is this happening. He’s not awake enough for this.

“What?” Sasha says, when Taylor seems to break off, and then he remembers their last meeting, back in November: Taylor’s shocked green eyes peering at him over the Capitals bench, blond eyebrows furrowed as he gaped at Sasha. He rubs his eyes, sits up, and then, around a yawn, says “You were counting?”

“Wh—Of course I was counting,” Taylor says, floating backwards. Maybe he’d think it weirder, Clarence Taylor literally floating in Sasha’s bedroom wearing a Capitals shirt and sweatpants, but then again, Sasha’s seen weird, and this is not that. No offense to Mitty, but Mitty kind of breaks the scale of weird shit all on his own. “You mean to tell me that if some asshole came at you with some ominously specific date you’d just, I don’t know, write it off, or whatever? Of course not! I thought you were just gonna play some, some stupid prank on me or something, some bullshit like that, and then—”

His form flickers out, the space he had been occupying suddenly empty. Sasha blinks.

“And then what?” Sasha says. Silence. “For the record, I would definitely ignore it, because it would be bullshit and wouldn’t matter anyways.”

Except Taylor clearly hadn’t let it go.

There’s no response. Sasha reaches for his phone on his bedside table, and blinks again when he turns it on and it starts buzzing almost incessantly with incoming texts. They’d just finished a long roadie through Canada, and they didn’t have anything except practice later today, so the fact that the group chat is absolutely lighting up is something of a surprise.

Sasha scrolls through quickly, not bothering to try and decipher most of the texts, but he more or less gets the gist of it: some shit happened with the Capitals. Something big. Maybe Taylor did something stupid.

He rolls out of bed. Shuffles into his living room, scratching his stomach. Light slants in through the window, and Sasha squints at the sun peeking in through the blinds—it’s earlier than he thought it was. Fumbles for the remote, turns on the TV, switches it to the news—

“Oh, fuck,” Sasha says, suddenly wide awake. His stomach churns.

It wasn’t Taylor doing something stupid. Not even close. They’re playing footage: a nighttime aerial shot of a charter bus, a tipped-over semi-truck plowed into the side like a beached whale. Streetlights and ambulance strobes and spotlights from helicopters illuminate firefighters and EMTs carting out hockey player after hockey player and bundling them into ambulances.

“It looks better like this,” Taylor says, his detached, oddly clinical voice coming from somewhere over Sasha’s shoulder, and Sasha almost trips over his coffee table and goes headfirst into his TV. “Not as much blood.”

God. That’s a horrifying thought. Sasha lets out a string of foul curses, running a hand through his hair. If they had heard, all of the generations of women who came before him would have either given him an ass beating into next year or washed his mouth out with soap. Since he’s in America and they’re buried in Russia, they’ll have to settle for turning in their graves.

“I only caught about three words of whatever you just said,” Taylor says, “but yeah. That.”

Sasha looks at him—properly looks at him. Taylor looks mostly exactly like how Sasha saw him last, back in December: blond hair spiked up, red Capitals long-sleeved shirt, sweatpants from some brand Sasha doesn’t recognize, a pair of Ugg boots because apparently Taylor is a teenage girl. He’s dressed down, and he’s see-through, but other than that he looks pretty much like Sasha would expect Taylor to look, even if he wasn’t anticipating the boots.

“You’re dead,” he says, almost a question.

“I think so,” Taylor says. His voice is odd, too, echoing and faintly staticky, like he’s standing in an empty room and Sasha is hearing his voice over the phone from far away.

Clarence Taylor, dead. It doesn’t seem possible. Sits wrong. Sasha presses his mouth into a thin line to avoid admitting that, because he would never. “And you’re stuck with me.”

Taylor almost laughs. His chest expands and deflates like he’s actually breathing. Do ghosts breathe? Sasha’s nickname might be ‘Ghost,’ but somehow he doesn’t think he’s an authority on whether spirits need lungs or not. “You think that if I could be anywhere in the world, I’d be hanging out with you?”

“Nope,” Sasha says, “which means you’re definitely stuck with me.”

“Just what I always wanted,” Taylor mutters, in a way that means this is absolutely not what he wanted, in any sort of way, at all.

Sasha would agree, but that would mean agreeing with Clarence fucking Taylor, and he has absolutely no urge to do so at any costs. “You don’t have to sound so thrilled about it,” Sasha says.

“Trust me, I’m not,” Taylor says, and then he fades out of existence, like he was never there to begin with.

If Clarence Taylor simply didn’t exist, Sasha’s life would have been so much easier.

But now the guy’s dead, and Sasha doesn’t know what to think.

Washington Capitals @Capitals - Feb. 9 We’ve received word that several players have passed away, including associate captain RJ Radulov and Jean-Sebastien Fontaine. We ask that you keep their families in mind during this trying time. Stay strong.

Philadelphia Flyers @NHLFlyers - Feb. 9 Our hearts go out to our friends the @Capitals, their families, and everyone affected by the I-50E tragedy. We’re here for you. #CapsStrong

Washington Capitals @Capitals - Feb. 9 Capitals captain Clarence Taylor remains in critical condition at Pennsylvania Hospital.

#my writing #writeblr #the hockey project #arc: gongshow #char: sasha molchalin #char: clarence taylor

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luvknow · 6 years ago

Text

hero’s soup for the weak soul | lee felix

genre: superhero!felix x civilian!reader | superhero au ; friends-to-lovers au ; college au ; fluff ; light humor ; light angst ; swearing ; alcohol consumption summary: you find yourself stuck trying to get your friendship with a flaky felix back to what it used to be. on the way, you meet a strange and familiar friend who happens to be a superhero. did I mention he's kind of hot? wc: 11.8k

“Hey,” you said, shaking an incredibly unconscious Felix. “Wake up.”

He was so knocked out that his body moved as if he were dead, and honestly, he might as well have been - he looked all beat up from God knows what. There were always small cuts and bruises on exposed parts of his skin that either seemed to never heal or he just kept on getting injured in those places, but they were never too major for you to ever worry about. After he kept on giving you the same excuse of saying how he’s just really clumsy, you truly believed it. By now, you couldn’t keep count of how many times he’s tripped and broken your coffee mugs.

A tired, barely-audible groan came from the boy as he pulled his blanket over his head.

“I’m not here,” he muttered. “How did you even get in?”

“Bro, we have midterms in a couple of weeks and you’ve been to like, five lectures! I bet you haven’t even started studying yet. And Jisung never locks the door.”

“You have my iClicker. You know what to do.”

“iClickers won’t save you from an F on the midterm.”

“Ugh, why do you have to be such an honor student?”

“To make up for your lack of diligence. Now come on ~” you whined, pulling on his arm gently.

With an unfamiliar strong force, Felix tugged you down so hard that you fell on top of him in his twin-sized bed. Was he always this strong!? Maybe he wasn’t kidding when he said he’s been going to the gym. He held your arm close to his chest, like a child to his teddy bear, and if Jisung were to walk in on you two right at this moment, it would look like you were the big spoon. Felix knew how awkward you could get with skinship, no matter how long you both knew each other, and he hoped you’d get flustered enough that you’d forget the whole reason you came here.

“L-Let go, you weirdo,” you stuttered nervously.

“No, I’m cold and you’re warm.”

“Then turn on your heat for once!”

“Does it look like Jisung and I can afford that? C’mon, you never wanna cuddle ~”

With a heavy sigh and a bright blush on your cheeks, you pulled yourself free from Felix and headed towards the front door feeling defeated. At least you tried to get him to go to class, right? Hopefully today’s lecture wouldn’t be so bad or information-heavy, but the last few times were and you can confidently say that you’ve never wrote down so many notes in your entire college career until now.

After leaving his and Jisung’s bedroom, you heard a heavy thud come from said-room which you assumed was Felix stumbling and falling out of bed to catch you before you left.

“Wait, I was kidding! I’m coming, let me just put some pants on…”

“You pulled me in your bed and you weren’t wearing pants!?” you shrieked, completely appalled and embarrassed.

“Relax, I had my boxers on.”

Felix came out of his room wearing his favorite black hoodie that covered his unruly bedhead with his favorite sweatpants. It was his go-to look whenever he wasn’t feeling like he was on top of the world, and lately it seemed like he wasn’t because you saw this outfit way too often for it to be hygienic. At first you thought his repeat of this specific outfit was just plain disgusting and lazy and you refused to wear the hoodie anytime he offered it to you whenever you were cold, but on one unbearable night, while walking home from your favorite place to eat on the other side of town, you took the hoodie to wear. You remembered how soft and warm it was and how it was doused in Felix’s cologne that only added to the boyishness of it. You almost didn’t give him back his hoodie.

“Listen, I know I look good, but you don’t need to stare,” Felix teased, walking past you to the door.

“I’m only staring because I’m wondering when was the last time you washed your clothes.”

“Not that it’s any of your business, but two days ago, thank you very much.”

“Wow, I’m impressed - you’re really sticking to your word. Now only if you did the same whenever you talked about studying.”

“Me staying true to my word about my outfits versus my studying habits are totally independent of each other! One gives me clout and the other just reminds me about my crippling student debt.”

“How did you get admitted into college…”

“You did my essays, remember?”

Class was no different than if you just left Felix behind at his place. He covered his face with his hood, pulled the strings, and went right back to sleep, leaving you to take responsibility for his iClicker and notes for re-teaching him later. You always knew Felix was one to stay up late to play video games or watch his nerd shows and it never worried you before, but now you can’t remember the last time you’ve been with him and he’s been conscious for more than four hours at a time. It was like he completely flipped his sleep schedule and there was no way that he did that just by playing games, right? But who knows, Felix was a special kind of nerd.

During your lunch break with Felix, you noticed how he struggled to keep his eyes open even after his third cup of coffee. He looked like a little kid who insisted he wasn’t tired even when his head was bobbing back and forth. You felt like his babysitter, but if you had to describe your relationship in a nutshell, ‘baby and babysitter’ was the gist of it.

“What is up with you lately?” you asked after flicking his forehead.

“What do you mean?” he muttered.

“You’re up really late, you’re always tired, and you have all of these cuts and bruises on your arms, like what the hell is this?”

Gently, your hand took the arm he used to support his head and pulled the sleeves of his hoodie down, exposing the browning spots and healing gashes. You may not have been one for skinship, but when it came to something as serious as this, of course you would show some concern and want to take a closer look. Felix shivered when your thumbs grazed over the tender spots and yanked his arm away.

“For the last time, there’s no need to worry, ok ~?” he sang lightly, hopefully it would ease your mind even just a little. Worried that you might suspect something, he pulled his arm back to his chest. “Who even are you, my mom?”

“I might as well be. You can’t cook for shit.”

“I cook sometimes!”

“Name one thing.”

“Rice!”

“Anyone can make rice! A toddler could make rice!!”

“Hey, there’s a lot of factors that play into making rice! Like grain-to-water ratio, what kind of brand, the species - it’s not easy stuff.”

“That’s what the instructions on the bag are for.”

“Wait… there’s instructions?”

“It’s amazing how natural selection takes its time on some species.”

Felix’s phone buzzed for the hundredth time within that hour. You’re not sure what it’s about or who he’s talking to, but this was happening too often lately that you were dying to know what the deal was. At first you suspected it was his parents, but they were chill and they usually left him alone to make and figure out his own mistakes in college, so they couldn’t have been bothering him, especially at this early hour. Maybe he was talking to someone, like someone he met at a party or one of the guys hooked him up, but that couldn’t be it, either - he would have told you right away and proceeded to tell you way too many details about what went down that night. Or who knows, maybe he is hiding someone from you, but you couldn’t figure out what the reason would be.

Either way, this person was really cutting into your Felix time for the past month or so and you were beginning to feel irritated.

“Hi hello, I’m still here,” you pouted, waving a hand in front of his strained face.

Almost immediately, he put his phone down and covered his scowl with his loving smile. “Ah, sorry, this person has been bothering me all day.”

“Who is it?”

“My boss.”

“Your boss? You have a job?!”

“Oh, I didn’t tell you? Yeah, I got that internship like a month ago. That’s why I’ve been so sleepy lately, I work really late and underpaid hours.”

“Why didn’t you tell me? I thought you found someone to replace me, or something.”

“Aw, do you miss hanging out with me twenty-four seven ~?” he teased while his fingers danced on your arms. “_____ misses me ~”

“Shut up, I do not.”

“You know, you’ll never have to worry about that kind of stuff.”

“Oh, yeah? Why’s that.”

“Because no one could ever replace you,” he said sincerely.

Another blush crept up on your cheeks. “I guess I’m stuck with you, huh?”

“Yup! You’re stuck with me forever, my love.”

“Gross, don’t say that…”

“My little cupcake.”

“Stop.”

“My strawberry-flavored Poptart -”

“Ok, bye,” you gagged, getting up from your seat.

“Wait, come back! We didn’t plan what we’re doing for dinner yet!”

“We literally just ate lunch, you fatass, how can you even think about dinner? Besides, don’t you have some matters to attend to?” you asked while pointing at the glowing cellphone in his hands.

“Oh right, that…” For a few moments, you watched him bite his lip and consider his options. He could report to Woojin now like he was asked, but moments with you were rare these days. He’s been so busy working lately that it’s a wonder why you’re not more upset about it. You were always so patient with him, and for that, he was grateful. He shook his head. “It’s ok, he’ll understand.”

“No come on, dude, don’t get on his bad side so soon.”

“No, he’s cool! He’s texting me so much because we just started playing this really cool game and we’ve been giving each other tips and tricks and stuff. He’s really into it right now, so he’s texting nonstop. I promise you, it’s fine,” he reassured, swinging his arm around your shoulder, hoping you’d believe the lie. “Right now is _____ time and it’s precious time that shouldn’t be wasted.”

“If you say so. You’re so soft, it’s disgusting.”

“Only for you, sugarplum.”

“You’re late. Again.”

It’s now midnight, hours after Felix dropped you home and just after he woke up from a nap to recharge. He was as awake as he would be if he were operating on a regular sleep schedule like a regular person, but he was a superhero college kid, so regular and normal were not words in his vocabulary.

Felix walked into Woojin’s apartment not bothered by his scolding from his fancy leather couch. He was doing HIM a favor, why was he always so grumpy and needy of his time? It wasn’t like they had any deadlines to meet or anything.

“Well, I’m here, right?”

“Just put on the suit,” Woojin said, tossing Felix the newest version of his suit.

“Ooh, it’s all black? What happened to the blue?”

“You looked like Sharkboy last time, so I figured you’d look cooler in all black.” Woojin looked up and down at his loyal test subject. “I’m not so sure it’ll work, though.”

“You’re so funny, Hyung...”

Felix wasted no time putting on his new aerodynamic form-fitting suit. In the mirror, there’s a mask that wrapped around and outlined his eyes, barely covering half of his face. It was like their only function was to hide his freckles. Really, it was crazy how no one recognized him in the streets before, but now there was absolutely no way anyone could because this new suit changed every strand of hair on his head to black.

“Whoa, this is new! How does this work?” Felix asked, pointing to his hair.

“They’re the same fibers in your suit, but they wrap around your hair strands,” Woojin smirked, satisfied with his creation. “Cool, huh? That took me DAYS to figure out. I even called Jeongin for help. They pretty much serve the same functions - it’s waterproof, fireproof, and bulletproof.”

“So…it’s a helmet?”

“Yup.”

“Cool!” he squealed. Then he began turning and getting all the good angle views in one of the huge mirrors. “Bro, I look so sexy. I’m diggin’ this for real, I’m gonna be the flyest superhero on campus!”

“But don’t all superheroes fly…?”

“No, that’s not what I - forget it, you’re too old.” Woojin chucked one of his very expensive silk pillows at a very poor Felix. He’ll never get over how rich that man was, spending it on pillows more expensive than Felix’s rent. He was at least smart to spend it on projects like these rather than nights out at the club, but Woojin always had some questionable purchases.

“So is this what I’m testing tonight?” Felix asked while closely examining the technology of his suit.

“Yup. Just fly around, press buttons, save a stolen purse - you know the drill. How does it fit?”

“Honestly, it’s like I’m naked. Fits like a glove! It’s form-fitting, insulating, and my butt looks absolutely fantastic! I swear, you outdo yourself every time.”

“That’s just what geniuses with a lot of money do. I’m like Tony Stark, right?”

“Ha! Good one.”

“Just get to work, you’re not getting paid to look at yourself.”

“If only, huh?” Felix joked, but Woojin was having none of it. “All right, I’m going! Just open your balcony.”

Woojin slid open the door to his balcony on the thirty-second floor. It was no wonder Minho wouldn’t partake in the testing - Felix couldn’t even see the floor below! Luckily he had like, zero fear, anyways. Well, zero fear of heights.

With one leg over the fence, he waved to his boss. “If I die, delete my browser history.”

“I’ll think about it.”

Felix rolled his eyes before he tipped over the edge, falling into what seemed like oblivion. No matter how many times he falls, he doesn’t think he’ll ever tire of the feeling of falling freely. It was an adrenaline high he was addicted to, which was one of the reasons why Woojin wanted Felix to be his test subject.

“Whoo hoo!!!” Felix screamed as he activated the flight function. “New software update?”

“Yeah. Does it fly smoothly? There were some glitches the other day.” Woojin asked through their connected ear pieces.

“Glitches!? Like, it could shut down on me at anytime!?”

“Relax, I fixed them! I think...” Woojin chuckled. “You should be fine, though. All of your stats look good so far.”

Felix flew in between the city buildings, over cars, near the ocean, through the night market to snatch up some snacks - you name it, he probably already flew through it in a matter of seconds. Tonight it was Felix’s job to keep watch over the city for any robberies, assaults, or drug busts. He secretly always hoped to catch some mafia smuggling drugs on one of those cargo ships by the pier, but alas, this city was too nice to have something that exciting ever happen. As a result, he was always stuck with the robberies and a handful of assault situations.

“See anything?” Woojin asked.

“Not really,” he replied, cheeks full of street food. “Seems like a rather quiet night.”

“I hope you find something. We have a quota to meet to report to the police. We’re one short.”

“Hey, give that back!!” Felix heard from below.

“Looks like I found the one,” Felix grinned.

Immediately, he took action and flew to the source of the call. Before doing anything risky, he decided to watch closely from the roof of a building. He learned the hard way the first time when his head got too big and he jumped right in the middle of everything only to get his ass beat and let the robber get away. From on top of the building, he saw the robber dressed in all black sprinting down the street with someone following him.

Wait a minute, was that -

“Get back here, you dick!” he heard you scream.

With a dropped jaw, Felix watched you chase after the culprit, keeping a steady pace but he doesn’t think you’ll last very long. He knows how you are when it comes to physical activity. He’d have to figure out a way to scold you for this later without revealing his identity to you because this had to be dumbest thing you’ve ever done in your entire life.

“_____, you idiot, what if he has a gun!” Felix said to no one in particular.

“You know that person?” Woojin asked.

“Yeah, we’re close friends.”

“Are they the reason why you’re so late all the time?”

“Ah, don’t blame them ~ Me being late every time is my decision.”

“You’re not going to follow them, are you?”

“Are you kidding me? Of course I am! What kind of superhero slash friend would I be to leave them chasing after someone who could have a concealed weapon!?”

“You might blow your cover! Wouldn’t your closest friends recognize you right off the bat?”

“I don’t know, _____ isn’t the brightest light bulb in the box,” he lied. You definitely weren’t dumb, and the chances of you realizing it was Felix when you saw him were quite high, but he couldn’t just leave you to your own devices! You were terrifying and lost all control of yourself whenever you got mad, so anything goes in your current situation. “I think I should follow - at least until I know they’re safe.”

“Just don’t be stupid.”

“Roger that.”

Before you were too far, Felix followed you, jumping from rooftop to rooftop block after block. How you were able to keep up with this guy was beyond him because he could so clearly remember how horribly you did on both the pacer test and the mile run back in high school. Even Felix was beginning to tire after chasing you, but still, he kept a close eye on you.

The robber rounded the corner and took advantage of the dark alley and there was when you halted, afraid of what might happen if you continued. So Felix took it upon him to help you out. Before the robber could reach the other side of the alley, he jumped down from the rooftop in front of him, causing the guy to stumble backwards and fall on his ass in fright.

“What the fuck?” he heard both you and the robber say simultaneously.

“Sup,” Felix greeted. “I think you have something there that doesn’t belong to you, friend.”

“Oh, yeah? And what are you gonna do about it?” the robber threatened.

“Guess I’ll have to take it from ya.”

Your eyes could barely follow the last three seconds. The first second, this figure skater-looking dude snatched your bag back from the robber, the second he’s at your side handing it to you, and the third he scooped you up in his arms and flew you away to God only knows where with the sound of firing gunshots echoing below.

How do you tell a superhero that you’re deathly afraid of heights without shattering his eardrums? You cling onto him for life, of course. Felix completely forgot about your huge fear of heights until he was already in the air flying you back to campus near your apartment. Looking down at you, Felix saw you had your eyes shut tight and your face buried in his shoulder hoping that would help you forget how high off of the ground you were.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the superhero landed smoothly in the middle of the empty Quad and set you down gently. Your legs felt like jelly from all of the running and fear of flying, so you fell to the ground and hugged the grass beneath you.

“Land… Good, sturdy, solid dirt…” you muttered to no one, though Felix couldn’t help but chuckle above you.

“Are you ok?” the boy asked, hovering over your seemingly-dead body.

“I feel like I died and been reborn at least ten times today…”

“At least you ended up reborn and alive, huh?”

“Yeah… Hey, wait a minute.”

You sat up from your limp state to get a good look at the boy who saved you. He was wearing all black - some parts were shiny and reflected the colors of the moon, some parts were matte, mimicking the dark negative space of the sky. His eye mask and dark hair matched the rest of his suit well, though you couldn’t get over the fact that he kind of looked like some gothy-vampire-greaser hybrid. He was cute, though, if you had to generalize, especially his eyes, which were big and wide staring into your soul (due to the fact that he was terrified that you might have found out who he really was).

“What are you, exactly?” you asked, unsure if that was the correct way to word such a question.

“Well, I identify as a dude, so I use he/him pronouns -”

“No, not that! Like, what’s with the whole tight suit get-up? Are you some kind of superhero, or…?”

“Eh, I wouldn’t go as far as calling me a superhero. I don’t really save the world from destruction - at least not yet, I think I have to wait until I’m promoted to do that.”

“So what, you’re like a vigilante?”

“Ugh, I hate that word, it’s so derogatory and incorrect. Why even bother with labels, anyways!?”

“You don’t even know what you are, do you?”

“Not a clue,” the boy admitted, taking a seat beside you. “I just started this gig, I don’t think I have a right to call myself anything at the moment.”

“Maybe not a superhero, but a hero would be appropriate.”

“You think so?” he beamed cutely.

“You sure saved my ass from having to purchase a new laptop and textbooks. That’s a hero in my book.”

“Ah, you flatter me. If I can ask, what at are you doing out so late? It’s dangerous for you to be walking home at this time.”

“I was working on a paper in the library that I totally forgot about, so I had to cram it in after dinner. I ended up finishing it, though! So this was all worth it in the end.”

“Ah yes, risking your health and life for school - typical you move.”

“How would you know that’s a typical me move?”

Shit. Felix knew he was bound to slip up some time the longer he talked to you. “B-Because you’re a student? I don’t know, aren’t all students like that?”

“There are a few that aren’t,” you said, and Felix knew you were talking about him. You stood up and dusted the dirt off of your pants. “I’ll leave you to your job then.”

“Oh no, I’m not letting you walk home alone again after what just happened.”

“What do you mean, I’ll be fine! What are the chances that I’ll get robbed twice?”

“More likely than you think. Come on, I’ll take you home.”

“We’re not gonna fly, are we - wait, hey!!”

With a mischievous grin that flashed before your tired eyes, the boy scooped you up again in his arms and flew high up in the air. Felix was about to go straight to your apartment, but that would be terrifying if a ‘stranger’ knew where you lived, right? So he hovered high over the Quad with you in his arms, keeping you safe and sound.

“Where do you live?” he asked, holding in his laugh as he saw your eyes shut tight again.

“O-On the corner of f-first and north.”

“Gotcha.” And so he began to fly once more. “You should open your eyes. The view’s great.”

“No, thank you.”

“C’mon! The stars are twinkling, the city lights are glorious - this is a once in a lifetime opportunity ~” the boy sang.

“Really?” Cautiously, you opened one eye and took a peak at the horizon. The city lights created a light halo over the city, like it was covered in a warm blanket. The halo was so bright that it was hard to see the stars, but they promised you their presence. “Wow… even in the tallest building in the country, I could never get a view this beautiful.”

“Breathtaking, huh?” Felix grinned. “I’m glad you’ve overcome your fear and opened your eyes.”

“Oh no, I’m still incredibly terrified,” you said, clinging onto him more. “But I’m still glad I opened my eyes.”

“Are you going to keep them open?”

“Of course I am! Who knows if you’re actually taking me to my apartment.”

“Even if I wanted to kidnap you, I know where you live now so realistically, I could snatch you up at any time.”

“Now I definitely feel safe that the fate of this country is in your hands...”

It didn’t take long for your mysterious flying knight in black armour to drop you off at your apartment doorstep. He gently settled you on your clumsy feet and his original plan was to just fly away without a goodbye, but how could he when you looked at him with your eyes so wide and cute? Your eyes were only ever this big when you saw a dog or food, so Felix must have been looking pretty good for you to look at him that way.

“Be more careful next time,” he scolded gently. “There are some strange guys out there.”

“Stranger than a superhero who flies and knows where I live?”

“Much stranger, I promise you.”

“Well, thank you for saving me. I guess I owe you one.”

“You don’t owe me anything other than promising you’ll be more careful.”

“Ok, I promise ~ Where are you going now?”

“To save some other beautiful soul, I guess,” he winked. “So goodnight, love. Duty calls.”

“W-Wait!” you blushed. “What’s your name?”

“My name?” Well, shoot… Did he ever think of a pseudonym? “I ~ don’t have one.”

“Wow, mysterious,” you teased. “An unnamed superhero? That’s pretty unique, I guess. At least it’s not something cheesy.”

“I’m glad you think so.”

“Can I give you a nickname for myself?”

“Depends - is it ‘My Knight in Shining Armor’? Or ‘The Handsome Hero’?” Felix smirked, flexing his muscles a bit.

“Ha! Quite full of yourself for a superhero.”

“Aren’t we all?”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right. But actually, you were very close the first time. Can I nickname you Lancelot?”

“Lancelot? Like that one Knight dude?”

“Exactly like that one knight dude.”

“Why him?”

“Well, as you said, you were my knight in shining black armor. I could’ve been seriously injured if it wasn’t for you. And Lancelot also had a famous affair with the King’s wife, and I don’t know what it is about you, but I could totally see you doing that.”

“Thanks, I think… Lancelot it is. Can I give you a nickname, too?”

“Do I have a choice?”

“Not really. How about Fearless Kitten?” Felix giggled.

“Oh come on, at least the one I gave you was cool! This one is totally lame!!” you pouted sourly.

“No, think about it! You were totally fearless running after the sicko who stole your bag, but you’re completely helpless when you’re two feet off of the ground! A very fearless kitten! You’re also very cute ~”

“Don’t try to flirt with me just so you could have your way with a nickname for me!”

“Too late, I spoke it into existence and now I like it too much.”

There’s something about the way you bickered with your hero that made you think you knew him somehow. Maybe he was an old childhood classmate? Some random kid in one of your lectures? A customer that came into your cafe one evening? You’re not so sure, but there’s something about him and the back-and-forth banter that you can’t seem to put your finger on…

“Hey, Lancelot,” you began. “Do I know you from somewhere?”

Looks like that’s Felix’s cue to leave. “Nope, I highly doubt it. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some chivalrous duties to attend to -”

“Wait wait, one last thing, I promise!” you begged shamelessly.

“Yeah?”

“Will I see you again?”

Felix dropped his eyes down to your hands. Your fingers toyed with nothing but themselves and it was a nervous habit you developed sometime around second year of high school when you asked out some poor sucker to Homecoming and he rejected you on the spot. You picked at your hands for weeks after that, so humiliated that you dared to ask such a stupid question and it was pretty much Felix’s responsibility to make sure you didn’t peel off your dermis. Of course over time, the habit’s not that bad on your skin anymore, but you still twiddled your fingers here and there. Never in Felix’s time of knowing you did he think you’d ever do that because of him.

“Why? Will you miss me that much?” Felix teased, unable to bring his ego down from space.

“No, it’s just… I don’t know, you seem cool…” you said shyly. You felt like you were confessing to that one guy your second year of high school all over again. Toughen up, _____! It’s not like you’re asking him out on a date! “J-Just don’t be a stranger.”

“Don’t worry, I know we’ll see each other again soon, whether it be in passing or you got robbed again.”

“Promise?”

“Pinky promise,” he said holding out his pinky. “Knights always keep their promises.”

“If you say so,” you replied, hooking your pinkies together. “Stay safe saving the country, Lancelot.”

“For you, Fearless Kitten, I will.”

With that, he jumped into the air and flew away faster than your eyes could comprehend. Were you two really flying that fast!? Ugh, you had to lie down for a minute or thirty to process what just happened.

“Oh, my God, you two could not have been more obvious,” Woojin tisked in Felix’s ear.

“What do you mean?”

“It’s like the only language you both speak is flirt! ‘Ooh, Lancelot ~’ ‘Ooh, Fearless Kitten ~’ ‘Promise ~?’ ‘Pinky promise -”

“Ok, I get it! But we were totally not flirting! Well ok, maybe I was, but they weren’t! That’s not how _____ flirts anyways, they’re usually more awkward than that.”

“Well, if you ask me, you’re lucky they don’t know Lancelot is you.”

“Why’s that?”

“Because I think they like you.”

“What? No way… You think?”

As if on cue, Felix’s phone buzzed in his pocket. He paused in mid-flight to pull it out and take a look. In a long stream of many heart emojis and caps-locked words, you sent him a text message.

y/n [00:54]: YOU’LL NEVER GUESS WTF JUST HAPPENED!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!

“Told you ~” Woojin sang.

“Shut up…”

feelslix [00:56]: tell me all about it.

“Hey Felix, why do men suck?”

On a boring Sunday at your apartment, you and Felix spent the whole day together. Today was his day off and you had him all to yourself, but all you did was sulk about your precious Lancelot. It’s been almost a month since you told Felix about your fateful encounter, and even when Lancelot promised you he wouldn’t be a stranger, you hadn’t seen him since. You thought that you’d be able to pick his brain and get to know him more and who knows, maybe he’d reveal his identity to you and you’d fall in love and get married and have two beautiful children together, but maybe he could read minds and saw you think those creepy things and had avoided you ever since. And oh, poor Felix, who has been listening to you whine about him the entire month.

“Because men are incapable of having feelings?” Felix replied mindlessly next to you on your couch.

“Exactly!”

“You’re just mad because he’s not real.”

“But he is real!”

“It’s a shame you can’t prove it ~”

“Ugh!” You hated it when he was right, that you couldn’t prove your point to Felix, at least not yet. Until you had proof, he’d milk being right until he got bored, but for now he liked seeing your brows furrowed and your lips pout. It was cute.

“What’s so special about him, anyway?”

“I don’t know… He was just so charming and nice, you know? It was easy to be myself around him, even if he was a complete stranger. It was so weird, it’s like I’ve known him my entire life,” you sighed dreamily.

“Sounds like a cool dude.”

“Yeah. He’s also super hot.”

Mid-sip, Felix choked on his soda and went through a painful coughing fit while you patted his back to help ease the pain. Did he hear that right? Did you just call him hot? Well, not him, but you know… him?

“Are you ok?” you asked.

“Y-Yeah, just went down the wrong pipe…!” He coughed one last time. “So he’s charming, nice, and hot, huh? Sounds like me ~”

“Ha!” you scoffed insultingly loudly. “Far from it!”

“What!? C’mon, at least I’m nice, right!?”

“Only sometimes.”

“When am I not nice!?”

“You eat and drink all of my groceries, you leave a mess in my apartment all the time, you make me take your notes and do your homework -”

“Hey, that last one’s all your decision!”

“Yeah, ‘cuz I’m nice.”

“Ok, but what about the time when you got stood up on your date and I took you out instead? Or when I bought you three different pints of ice cream when your wisdom teeth got taken out? And I let you use my free laundry!”

“That’s why I said sometimes.”

“So ungrateful…”

You pulled a pouting Felix into a light headlock and ruffled his strawberry blond head. “Quit being jealous! You know I love you, right?”

“Barely. But I love you, too. And I’m not jealous!”

“Uh-huh ~”

Felix got up to get himself another soda and something to clean up the mess he made from coughing. “So what we doing for your birthday?”

“My birthday?” you asked, completely forgetting that it was coming up. “Oh, that’s next Saturday, huh?”

“Yup. Another year closer to death.”

“Eh, I don’t know. Can we just go out to eat?”

“That’s it? You don’t want to hit some nerdy museum, or bookstore, or some artsy fartsy store?”

“Maybe we can, but I don’t know, my birthday gets less and less special every year,” you shrugged, not really caring.

“C’mon, it was the day you were born! It’s a special day to celebrate!”

“I don’t know, now that I’m legal and can drink, there’s no point. That is, until I can rent a car.”

“Well, we’re doing something on your birthday and that’s that,” Felix said sternly.

“Why, do you have a plan?”

“Not at all, but I’ll figure it out.”

“Wow, you must really like me.”

“Yeah… only sometimes,” he teased, giving you the bright smile your heart was so used to.

You two locked eyes for a moment. Your cheeks began to flare, warming up your entire body, unsure of why you were reacting this way all because of Felix. You’ve been around each other for years - since middle school, to be exact - and yet you’ve never shared a moment quite like this, staring into each other’s eyes and being pulled into each other like a magnet. And you know what’s crazy? It was exactly like in the movies! That’s how your life has felt like lately, like think about it - a month ago you met a hot superhero that saved your life, your birthday’s conveniently coming up, there’s a weird spark between you and your best friend, your lips are centimeters apart, and you so wished whatever omniscient being that was controlling your life would just hit the pause button really quick so you could process everything and -!

To your… relief? Dismay? You’re not sure how you felt when Felix jumped up quickly to reach for his ringing phone.

“Y-Yes, hello…!?” Felix stuttered.

“Uh, did I interrupt something…?” Woojin asked.

“No! No, I’m just with a friend. You just startled me.”

“Whatever you say. Anyways, I called because I need you for tonight.”

“What? But it’s my day off.”

“I know, I’m sorry, but there’s a lead on some drug pushing that I thought you’d be excited about. Please come, I’ll pay you double.”

“Uh…” Felix looked back at you sitting on the couch, touching your cheeks and checking how hot you must be after what just happened. You were so cute, and God, there was nothing more that Felix wanted to do than to continue where you left off, but the money was too good for him to pass up. Until next time. “Ok, I’ll be there soon.”

“Great, I’ll see you soon.”

Felix sighed loudly after hanging up the phone and turned to look at you with a sorry look on his face. “I got called in to work just now.”

“On a Sunday?”

“Yeah. You know how interns are treated - like shit.”

“To think I’d have you all to myself for once,” you frowned.

“I’ll make it up to you on your birthday, I pinky promise.” Felix leaned down and pressed a light kiss on top of your head, a mutually, totally, exclusively platonic gesture you were both used to. “I’ll see you tomorrow in class?”

“Ok, bet.”

“Yeah, you’re right… See you at lunch?”

“Definitely.”

The charming boy left you alone for your confusion to brew into some concoction you’d think about all night or until you push it to the back of your mind. You’re still unsure of how to feel… or what to feel, other than confused. You’re not mad at yourself for leaning into what would have been a kiss because it’s not like you did out of loneliness or for the sake of your own selfishness. You’ve always been kind of curious what it’d be like to kiss Felix, and it was crystal clear that he felt the same way, right? Or was he just lured in by the force of the magnet and had no control over it? After all, he did jump up for his phone very quickly.

You may not have been sure of how to feel or how Felix felt about it, and he saw it in your face, but oh, how sure was he about it. The moment you were caught in each other’s pull, he took it upon himself to take advantage of it and lean in because he’d have to be an idiot to pass this up. But midway, he started thinking about how you must be feeling. He thought the same thing you did about him - that you were simply caught up and had no control of yourself. And so he was thankful that Woojin called because if your first kiss together wasn’t mutual, then what was the point?

What if he was just overthinking it though? That’s extremely likely, considering you were leaning in, too, right? And when your eyes fluttered closed… and when you puckered your cute lips… God, out of all times, Woojin had to call now!?

The longer you stayed in your apartment, the more you were overthinking those short ten or so seconds. Even the television couldn’t drown out your thoughts. So rather than sulking under your fuzzy blankets, you decided to take a walk to the grocery store because your pantry and refrigerator were depressingly empty.

The market wasn’t going to close anytime soon, so you took advantage of taking the long way, immersing yourself with your music and trying to drown out anything that had to do with Felix. But that didn’t work because every other song that came on was a song that either you and him listened to on repeat many times before or he showed it to you (“You have to thank me whenever you listen to this song because I showed it to you.” “Never in my life would I credit you for something so prestigious.”). After skipping twenty songs in a row, you decided tonight would be a night without music.

At the grocery store, you picked up the essentials, like snacks, instant noodles, drinks, and a carton of eggs. Since Felix wasn’t here to help you carry things, you couldn’t purchase a lot, and yet again have you come full circle thinking how much fun it was whenever you were with him doing simple tasks like this. You sighed deeply, daydreaming about those fun times. Maybe a snack from the night market would distract you -

“Hey, stranger!”

Sir Lancelot, in all his spandex glory, jumped right in front of you, startling you and causing you to fall flat on your ass on the hard cement with a loud scream. Felix had finished his job with the drug cartel Woojin assigned him to and on his way back home, he saw you walking with that dreamy look on your face that clearly meant you weren’t paying attention.

“Bro, what the hell!” you cried out. “Aren’t you supposed to protect civilians, not scare them!?”

“I thought this would be more fun.” Which it was. Felix always had fun startling you.

“My eggs!” you whined, seeing how every single one cracked and leaked with yolk. “These were cage free eggs, you monster!”

“All right, I’m sorry! How about I buy you something to eat. Will that make up for it?”

“Fine… I want that fish-shaped bread with chocolate from the market.”

“You got it, Fearless Kitten.” Felix took a handful of your groceries and led the way to the night market.

“You’re just going to wear that there?” you asked.

“Of course. I can’t have people knowing my real identity. I have a lot of enemies, you know.”

“But still, you’re out in the open and everything.”

“Maybe my enemies will be scared off with my presence. I’m very much not in the mood for anything tonight, so let’s hope for that.”

“Oh? A hero not in the mood to save the world?”

“Hey, I just busted a huge drug cartel right before I found you! I deserve a break.”

“I’ll believe it when I see it on the news.”

A pouty Lancelot walked beside you as you both entered the night market. Sundays were always one of the busiest nights, as tons of local places came here to purchase fresh ingredients and the tourists came to buy cheap souvenirs. Your hero gained a ton of stares and gasps from all the tourists, though the locals and the shop owners seemed to already know of his existence, including the bakery that sold the fish-shaped bread.

“Wow, free snacks? The privilege,” you noted.

“Free snacks in exchange for safety. Not sure if risking my life over it is equivalent, but it helps when I’m paying back my favorite civilian for breaking their eggs.”

“Cage free eggs.”

The biggest and most important downside to this whole superhero gig was that Felix missed spending all of his free time with you, but at least he could kind of make up for it this way. Although you might never find out that he was your Lancelot, the little moments together patched up his heart just a little. But was it possible to be jealous of his own self? There was a certain twinkle in your eyes and your smile was always shy whenever he caught you looking at him and he’d never seen you look that way towards anyone before. He’d always hoped that one day you’d look at him like that - Felix, not the superhero. It made him wonder if he had kissed you earlier, would you not be looking at Lancelot this way? Would you look at Felix like this instead?

Felix had offered to take you home once again and this time you insisted on just walking because you could really use the time and the company right now. He happily obliged.

“So tell me about yourself, Fearless Kitten.”

“For starters, my name is _____, not Kitten.”

“_____, huh? I like it.”

“Thanks,” you blushed. “I’m a student, I’m clumsy, and I like dessert.”

“That’s not fair, I knew all of those things already! Get a little extreme on me.”

“I’m incapable of love.” Whoa. Felix hadn’t heard that one before. He wondered where this was coming from all of a sudden. “Too extreme?”

“Not at all. What makes you think you’re incapable?”

“I don’t know… This always happens around my birthday. I get kind of lonely that I don’t get to spend it with anyone special.”

“I mean, I’m sure you have friends to celebrate with, right?” Felix asked, quite insulted that you would say something like that right in front of him, even if you didn’t know he was Lancelot.

“I do, but… See, I have this friend. He’s my best friend, we’ve known each other since we were awkward and going through puberty. We’ve spent a lot of time together since then, but recently he just landed this internship and it’s taking up a lot of his time. Of course, I’m super stoked for him, you know, but I can’t help but feel bitter that he’s no longer spending his free time with me. We’re supposed to hang out this Saturday for my birthday, but I’m worried he’ll have to work or something. Am I being selfish?”

Your hero held a soft smile on his lips. Felix had no idea that you felt this way and he wish he could tell you himself that you weren’t selfish at all and that he’d promise to be with you more often, but for now, only Lancelot could reassure you.

“I don’t think you’re being selfish at all. You just miss your friend, right?” You nodded as a response. “I don’t think you have anything to worry about.”

“Really?”

“Really. He’ll make time for you because he cares.”

“I know you have no idea who this guy is and you’re just saying words, but God, do I feel relieved.”

“I’m glad,” the hero cutely chuckled. His laugh sounded familiar. “So do you two like… have a thing going on, or…?”

“A thing? Like do we like each other? I don’t think so.” Felix dropped his head slightly. So you didn’t think anything of what happened then. “Although that’s funny that you mentioned it.”

“Why? Did something happen?” he asked almost too eagerly.

“Yeah, we almost kissed earlier.”

“Ooh, do I hear sparks?”

“I don’t think sparks is the right word. I can’t even remember how it got to that point in the first place, but I just remember being pulled in like… like…”

“Like two polar magnets?”

“Yeah!”

“And time was moving so slowly. Like no matter how close your lips were, it was like the universe made sure they wouldn’t touch?”

“Yeah… wow, hey that’s pretty good.”

“Thanks, I uh, took a poetry class once,” Felix lied, clearing his throat. “Did you feel anything?”

“I think I did. I mean, I’ve always been curious about us, like what if we actually dated. Typical best friends-to-lovers trope, you know? But then he jumped up so fast to get his phone when it rang and I think I scared him away…”

No! That’s not what happened at all! “What if he just thought it was an urgent call?”

“Nah, you should have seen the way he jumped up. No way he wanted to kiss me.”

“Who wouldn’t want to kiss you?” Felix said without thinking.

“Oh?”

Fuck. Maybe he could play it off as Lancelot just being flirty. “C’mon, Fearless Lover, look at you. Any guy would be lucky to kiss you.”

“Except him, apparently. But now that I think about it, maybe it’s for the better -”

“I think you should try again.”

“Are you crazy!? That’s friendship suicide! Kissing is like the number one thing that’s off-limits!”

“You were making it seem like you wanted it to happen!”

“Yeah, maybe in that moment! But can you imagine if I actually went through with it!? I don’t think our friendship would last long after that.”

“But what if it’s the best thing that could happen between the two of you?”

“I’m all for if it’s meant to be, then it’ll happen. So if he wants to kiss me, then he’ll kiss me. But my expectations could not get any lower.”

“God, are you always this stubborn?”

“Depends on the day.”

You and Lancelot arrived back to your apartment just as the conversation ended. You didn’t realize how long you’ve been talking to him this whole time. It was crazy how incredibly easy it was to open up to him and talk. In a way, he reminded you of Felix - a hotter, suaver Felix.

“Thank you for not only breaking my eggs, but for being my love consultant, too,” you said.

“I find that it’ll always be a pleasure whenever I’m with you, _____,” he bowed teasingly, as if he were a real knight.

“Will you ever tell me who you are?”

“One day.”

“Promise?”

Felix sighed. Should he really commit to a promise like this? If you somehow find out before he tells you, or even if he is the one to tell you, you might not ever trust him again. But you deserved to know who he really was, right? And how could he say now when you held your pinky out to him and held a pout on your cute, pink lips.

“Pinky promise,” he said, wrapping his pinky around yours once again.

“Just a reminder, my birthday is Saturday, so you better say happy birthday to me.”

He chuckled in his cute, boyish way that sounded too familiar. “Will do, love.”

“Stay safe saving the country!” You waved him off as he flew among the clouds and the stars off to God only knows where.

After putting your groceries away, you were completely exhausted from today’s events. From almost kissing your best friend to meeting up with your super cool superhero friend, your life really was like a movie. To be completely honest, you had no idea what you were going to do about your feelings for Felix or the weird flutter in your heart whenever you thought about Lancelot, but you figured that this was going to be a tomorrow problem and you’d figure it out after you slept on it.

Your week went by incredibly slow. It was a weird week, to say the least. Not only had Felix been coming to class more, but he’s been going out of his way to spend time with you every chance he got, as if you both were in high school again. You weren’t complaining or anything, it was just weird that you were talking about this to Lancelot on Sunday. It was like Felix was listening, or something.

Oddly enough, you didn’t see Lancelot at all that week. You’d take frequent peaks out your balcony window, even go on walks to random places at night while Felix accompanied you, but Lancelot never showed up even for a second. It was upsetting, really, because not only did you want to prove Felix that you were right, but you kind of missed him. That’s when Felix started to get jealous again because now that he was here with you more, just like you asked, you still ended up looking for Lancelot. So what was the truth - did you like Felix and wanted to kiss him or did you fall for Lancelot already and it was too late?

He had to make sure that wouldn’t be the case. On your birthday, he made it clear to Woojin that he could not and would not work at all that day just so he could spend your birthday with you. He had this huge plan set and ready. He was going to throw a huge surprise party for you at his and Jisung’s apartment with all of your friends and you would spend the night together drinking and dancing and having the time of your lives. He’d hold you in his arms on the dance floor, keeping you close so that no one else could snatch you up, dancing to your favorite songs all night until your feet could no longer move. Then towards the end of the night, when not many people were left, he’d take you to the roof to get some air. He’d tell you to close your eyes because he has your present behind his back. Then he’d kiss you. And in a perfect world, you’d kiss him back and you two would live happily ever after together.

That was Plan A. Don’t ask about Plan B because he doesn’t have one.

Saturday finally came around Felix promised you a whole day of hanging out. While you two had lunch, went to your favorite stores and museums, and ate dinner, Jisung was busy setting up his apartment for the party.

“You totally owe me if this works out,” Jisung pouted after reluctantly agreeing to such an effort-full task.

“I do, but if you end up hooking up with some poor sucker, that’s my payment.”

“... Fine…”

From lunch until dinner, everything went exactly how you wanted to spend your birthday - doing normal things with Felix. But after grabbing dessert, he put a blindfold on you and said he had one last place to take you.

“If you like ditch me at the park or something, I’m gonna kill you,” you threatened, keeping a tight hold of Felix’s hands on your shoulders.

“I would never do that to you! How mean do you think I am!?”

“I don’t know, blindfolds make me nervous!”

You heard a key fit into a lock and the door opened. You couldn’t hear anything, so maybe his last surprise was just taking you home and enjoying a relaxing night in -

“Surprise!!” When Felix took off your blindfold, all of your mutual friends and then some greeted you with a big smile and tons of party toys. Jisung decorated the place quite nicely, with the drinks and games in one section and the dance floor in another.

You couldn’t stop your grin from growing. Oh yeah, this was ten times better than just staying in.

“Did you plan all of this?” you asked Felix, who quickly became shy after.

“I thought we could celebrate with more people this time. Happy birthday, _____.”

“You’re so sweet. Thank you.”

“Ok, let the party begin!” Dj Jisung cheered as he turned up the music.

The apartment was packed, mostly with people you knew, but there were a few you didn’t recognize though you didn’t really care. It’s been awhile since you had fun at a party and what better way to celebrate it with these people on your birthday? You needed a distraction from all your thoughts about Felix and Lancelot anyways, but it was hard when Felix followed you around. Not that you didn’t mind taking shot after shot with your best friend, but in your tipsy state, you let things slip without thinking - holding his hand as you walked through the crowds, lips lingering near your ear just a moment longer whenever he had something to tell you, and having him hold you close on the dance floor were just a few examples of skinship you didn’t mind for once. You were much too tipsy to care and now you knew what all of those things felt like.

Needless to say, you really liked it.

Maybe you should tell Felix how you felt. You were high above the clouds the whole day and there’s nothing that could bring you down, even rejection. You had to take your chance, because the way he responded and reciprocated your little gestures, it was now or never. Luck was on your side tonight.

Hours later, though seemingly felt like short minutes, guests began to file out as it was already late. Only your closest friends stayed behind to catch up and clean up a bit.

“Wanna get some air?” Felix asked, tilting his head towards the balcony.

“That sounds great, I feel really gross in here.”

The fresh air felt cool against the bare parts of your skin. You and Felix leaned on the railing, enjoying each other’s company and the halo of light the city made over itself. It reminded you both of the time Felix held you in his arms and flew you home the first night he met you as your knight in black spandex.

“Did you enjoy the party?” Felix asked awkwardly, unsure of how to lead the conversation to a confession.

“I loved it. You really didn’t have to.”

“But I wanted to.”

“I know, and I love you for it. I would have been equally as happy if it was just you and I for the whole day.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

“Man, I wish I knew this earlier! I wouldn’t have gone through all this trouble.”

“Too late!” you giggled. “I had lots of fun. Today was the best birthday I’ve had in a long time. And who knew you were such a good dancer.”

“What, you always knew that!”

“Yeah, for a set choreography. I must say your freestyle isn’t one to be reckoned with.”

“I am the best, aren’t I?” he smirked. “I like dancing with you.”

“You do?”

“Yeah,” Felix blushed. “We should do that again sometime.”

“I’d like that.”

“I have one more thing I want to give you.”

“Felix, you’ve already done a lot -!”

“It’s the last one, I promise. Close your eyes for me.”

Though you were reluctant, you did as you were told and you couldn’t control the rate of your heart. You had a feeling of what he wanted to give you, yet you were still so nervous and unsure of yourself. Felix was feeling the same way, but he figured after tonight, his chances were looking pretty good.

As he leaned in, his phone rang.

“Shit,” he muttered, looking at the caller ID.

You opened your eyes. “Is everything all right?”

“Yeah, um, give me a sec.” Felix went inside and talked to an unoccupied corner in the living room. “What?” he sneered into the receiver.

“I need you to come over,” Woojin said in a shaky voice.

“I told you today is the one day I can’t!”

“I know, but I really need your help. I’m a bit tied up at the moment - ow!”

Felix sensed the tone in Woojin’s voice and a hard slap that followed. He was in trouble and the only one who could get him out was Felix.

“Fuck,” he cursed to no one in particular. “I’m on my way.”

“Thank you I owe you -!” The phone cut out.

From inside the apartment, Felix saw you patiently waiting on the balcony. God, did you look so heavenly in the moonlight. He didn’t want to leave you.

He opened the door and you can already tell he had bad news.

“Duty calls?” you asked bitterly.

“Yeah,” he sighed.

“At one in the morning?”

“I know, it’s ridiculous, right?”

“I don’t even know what you do.”

“I can’t tell you that. At least not now.”

“Seriously?”

“I’ll tell you when I get back. I promise you.”

This was your cue to say ‘pinky promise?’ but you’re so upset that not only do you not ask, you can’t even look at him, either. All you wanted was to spend your birthday with him, and granted it was already late and you were being selfish, but you were tired of him putting whatever internship this was before you. Felix hated your silent treatment, and if he could confess everything up to this point he would, but he has a boss in trouble waiting to be saved. He’d come back and save you later.

He put his hand on top of yours. “I’ll see you tomorrow…?”

You move your hand away from his and turn your head so he doesn’t see the tears well in your eyes. “I’m busy,” you lied.

“Then I’ll see you soon.” You only nod in response, still not turning to look at him, and it breaks his heart. “Happy birthday, _____.”

Before walking out the main door, Felix looked back at you. You were still facing the glorious city, but your hands were covering your face and your shoulders were shaking and he figured that you must have been crying all because of him. He so badly wanted to run back to you and hold you in his arms and press soft kisses all over your head until you stopped crying, but life had a funny way with screwing with him.

On his way to Woojin’s, the only thing that ran through Felix’s mind was how this was exactly what you meant when you told Lancelot that you felt lonely after he took up this ‘internship’. As Lancelot, he told you that he’d make time for you because he wanted to, and even when he tried, duty called and bit him in the ass.

He’d just have to make more time for you next time. If there was a next time, that is.

Despite Jisung and Changbin’s begging for you to stay, you insisted that you were tired and they let you go. You were tired of everything that had to do with boys and all you wanted was to bury yourself beneath your covers and never think about a boy ever again, or at least for as long as you could avoid them because Felix would catch you sooner or later. On the way home, you kind of felt guilty for leaving things on such a bitter note, but it was your birthday, dammit! Was it that hard for Felix to keep his attention on you for the entirety of your birthday!?

… So maybe you were asking too much, but to leave you for his job on your birthday!?

… So maybe he was just being a good intern…

Ugh, whatever! It’s your birthday, dammit! You were allowed to be a brat!

The distance between your apartment and Felix’s was quite a bit, as it was on opposite sides of the campus. You were only halfway home when someone grabbed you and held a knife to your neck and you swear you blacked out those last two seconds. The man was behind you holding the knife unsteadily and in front of you was your wide-eyed hero, stopped dead in his tracks when he saw it was you. What the hell was happening!?

You were the last person Felix though he’d be seeing tonight. Why the fuck were you walking home alone!? He couldn’t get mad at you now, not when your breathing was uneven and tears were streaming down your face. He just had to make sure you were safe and sound.

“Come any closer and their head is off,” the strange man threatened.

Felix raised his hands in the air as a surrender. “I’ll give you what you want. Just let them go.”

“Give me the suit first.”

Fuck. If Felix took off his suit, you’d know it was him all along. And Woojin would kill him! This project was his baby, after all.

The man pressed the knife into your neck, causing you to yelp out in pain, but no cuts were made. Fuck, what should he do!? “Give. Me. The suit -”

From behind, Woojin knocked out the man behind you by hitting the sweet spot on his head with the handle of his gun. He fell to the ground with a loud thud and you sprinted into the arms of your Lancelot who held you close and stroked your hair comfortingly.

“It’s ok, I’m here,” he whispered. “Thanks, Hyung.”

“You’re welcome. Take them home, I’ll take over from here,” he said, tying up the man below him.

Felix nodded, wasting no time taking you up in the air and flying you home. You must have been so exhausted from today because you fell asleep in his arms and couldn’t enjoy the view of the stars with him. But that’s ok because you looked so peaceful when you were asleep. If only he could hold you in your sleep all the time.

You woke up just as your hero was about to settle you down on your balcony. You were much too tired to care how he knew this one was yours, so you just let it be. You gestured him to join you and you’re glad he did because you don’t think you can be alone right now.

“This was not what I had in mind when I wanted to tell you happy birthday,” Felix sighed tiredly. “Are you ok?”

“Yeah, I think so. Just... A little shocked, that’s all...”

“I never wanted you to get involved with the dirty work. I’m so sorry.”

“Not like my birthday could get any worse, right?”

“Did you at least enjoy today?”

“I almost got my head sliced off.”

“You know I meant before that ~”

“I know, I know. It was ok.”

“Just ok?”

“I mean, it was great until my friend had to leave.”

“The same friend from last time?”

“Yeah,” you sighed. “He put work over me again.”

“I’m sure he had a reason,” Felix mumbled shamefully.

“I’m sure he did, too, but I just wish I knew what it was! I’m tired of being left behind for something I don’t even know about. And I’m so confused! Does he like me or not? It’s like I don’t know who he is anymore…”

His heart dropped to the pit of his stomach when you thought you were being left behind. Was that really how you felt?

“I’m tired of waiting for something to happen. Maybe I should just forget about it. It’s clear he doesn’t feel the same way.”

Here goes nothing. “I have a present for you,” he said.

“Really? You didn’t have to do that.”

“But I wanted to. Close your eyes.”

“The last time someone told me to close my eyes, they left me.”

“Please just do it,” he whined. “I pinky promise I won’t leave.”

Reluctantly, you did as you were told, expecting something to interrupt like his phone ringing or another mob boss was on the loose. But that wasn’t it at all. Felix did not want to waste a single second in case something did interrupt, so he cupped your face in his hands and stopped time when he kissed you.

Lancelot was kissing you. A strange boy dressed in all black was kissing you. His lips were soft and plush and you felt like you could kiss him for hours. You melted under his touch, unaware of how slowly time was passing and you only wished it passed by slower. He began to pull away, but oh no, you would not let that happen and pulled him back in for a deeper kiss, causing the boy to smile against your lips. Jeez, were you always this good of a kisser? Felix should have done this a long time ago.

But he wasn’t Felix right now. He was Lancelot. Would you still want to kiss him like this when he revealed himself to you?

With your hands in his hair and his around your waist, he had to pull you away and take a breather.

“Wow…” he sighed. “I did not expect you to react like that.”

“That’s your fault,” you blushed deeply.

“I, uh, have another gift to show you. Sort of. But you have to promise me something.”

“Which is…?”

“That you won’t get mad.”

“See, now that you said that, I’m gonna be mad.”

“Ugh, I’ll never win with you. Fuck it, I’m gonna do it anyways.”

“Do what -!?”

Stopping you mid-sentence, Lancelot took a step back and removed his eye mask. Soon after, the hairs on his head were no longer black, but the strawberry blond color you missed so much. Felix waited for your reaction and he couldn’t gauge if you were angry, confused, glad, or all of the above. Minutes passed and he still couldn’t tell how you were feeling.

You should be angry. You should be furious that Felix ditched you for such a dangerous job. You should be furious that even after you confessed your feelings about him to him that he didn’t reveal himself right then and there. And you should be furious that he just straight up lied to you these past couple of months! But you’re not.

“You’re my unnamed hero?” you finally asked Felix.

“Unfortunately. Are you mad?”

“Yeah, what the hell, man!” you screamed while hitting him. “How could you lie to me!?”

“You were a completely different person whenever I looked like this and told me things that you would never tell me when I’m Felix. I didn’t want to ruin that for you…” It was only now that Felix realized how stupid his reason sounded. “Are you really mad at me?”

“Kind of, you idiot. I’m embarrassed, if anything.”

“What, why?”

“I totally confessed to you last week and like five minutes ago!”

“So?”

“And you told me to try again, you sneaky bastard!” You threw another hit to his chest.

“Ow, ok I’m sorry!”

“My feelings about you and the other you were all jumbled up, I couldn’t think properly for weeks! This is why I hate boys like you.”

“But you don’t hate me, do you?” Felix teased, poking your arm annoyingly. “You like me ~”

“Shut up.”

“You like dancing with me, holding my hand, kissing me -”

“Shut uuuup!” you blushed deeply.

A laughing Felix wrapped his arms around your waist and you can’t deny a gesture you’ve been waiting a long time for. “Ok ok, I’ll stop. You’re really not mad at me?”

“If you keep asking me, I will be. But for now, I pinky promise you I’m not. In fact, this makes everything a lot easier for me.”

“Oh?”

“Mhm, because I get both of you and now I don’t have to choose.”

“Well, that’s one way to look at it… You know I was so jealous of Lancelot? You looked at me in a way I’ve never seen you be before. I couldn’t believe I was jealous of myself.”

“Good.”

“Yeah, I deserve that.”

“Can I ask something of you? Since you kind of owe me for a whole month of neglect?”

“Anything for you, love.”

“Kiss me again.”

And so he did by pulling his body close to yours and pressing his lips against yours with full force, causing you to laugh and smile against his lips. Your beautiful laugh was so contagious that he couldn’t help but laugh with you. For the rest of the night until the early morning, you spent your time in Felix’s arms simply kissing, with laughing in between each breath until you both realized it was too late to fall asleep without wasting the day. From when your lips needed a break, Felix would show you the mechanics behind the spandex.

It was a lazy evening and morning spent together, tangled beneath the sheets. The perfect way to end your birthday.

Felix’s arm was lazily wrapped around you as you both laid in your bed.

“What do you have going on today that you’re busy?” he mumbled lazily.

“Oh, that? I lied.”

“What!?”

“Yeah, I was just angry at you.”

“... I deserve that. Good, ‘cuz now I have you all to myself.”

And you wouldn’t have it any other way.

#felix #lee felix #skz #stray kids #skz felix #stray kids felix #skz imagines #stray kids imagines #skz scenarios #stray kids scenarios #college au #superhero au #AH I FIXED IT DKLJSLKFJSL #i had so much fun writing this #i hope you guys enjoy it!! please let me knw what you think #the ending is so ehhh with me #and im sorry i didn't expand more on the superhero part esp that one scene fml #i'll try that nexttime!!

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icanseeyoufromhere · 6 years ago

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On lists and lessons

March 26, 2018.

December 10, 2018.

January 14, 2019.

February 26, 2019.

April 24, 2019.

June 20, 2019.

These are dates that I’d like to say I’ll always remember, but I probably won’t. I mean, I am terrible with names, dates, all that good stuff.

For example, I often confuse my kids’ birthdays.

This gaffe is not totally unreasonable. Camilo was born on 9/18/15, and Magdalena was born on 9/14/17. Both are September babies, and all the other numbers in their birthdates sit in the ‘teens, really close to each other. But I’ve had people look at me twice, because I get the dates wrong. You do not want the receptionist at the ER questioning your maternity in the middle of the night when your kid has got croup.

So I’d like to say I will remember the dates of my six surgeries, but I am just not sure.

Happily, I have this little blog, and now the dates are forever archived somewhere in the ether, for generations to come:

1. March 26, 2018. First (unilateral) mastectomy on left side, to remove cancerous tumor, with removal of lymph nodes and insertion of expander.

2. December 10, 2018. Emergency replacement of expander with silicone implant so that I could have an MRI of my ovaries. Fat grafting to help fill out the implant so it would look more natural.

3. January 14, 2019. Second (unilateral) mastectomy (prophylactic this time) on the right side, with insertion of expander. Excision on the left side to scrape out some remaining tissue that wasn’t fully cancer free and also to remove a patch of skin that was dangerously thin.

4. February 26, 2019. Total hysterectomy, including removal of tubes and ovaries.

5. April 24, 2019. Emergency replacement of expander on the right side because skin had become blistered and eventually ruptured.

6. June 20, 2019. Replacement of expander with silicone implant on the right side. Fat grafting on both sides to help fill out the implants.

My kids’ grandkids didn’t even know they wanted this list! And now they have it. You’re (all) welcome.

Anyway, I have had six surgeries in just over 15 months. Four were planned. Two were not. My body has been through the ringer. I’ve taken so many drugs of so many kinds--antibiotics, opioids, acetaminophen, stool softeners, even a bit of valium; had lots of JP drains (including one currently); and have so many scars all over my torso, my breasts, and between my legs.

It shouldn’t surprise that, over the course of these medical procedures, I’ve learned quite a bit about myself. I thought I’d list a few of those lessons here, alongside (or just below, really) the list of dates of the surgical interventions that have marked my life (and my family’s life) since I had my first mastectomy last March 26.

A short-term thing (god, I hope it’s short-term):

1. I now go to bed with the reasonable expectation that I will be up for at least half the night (often more), unable to sleep.

Early menopause has not been completely unkind to me. The hot flashes are hot, but they’re manageable. I’m feeling generally pretty good emotionally, although now when I get mad (not an uncommon thing, heh) I tend to get really mad, really fast.

But I don’t sleep. I mean, sure, I will fall asleep, often as early as 8:30 (because I’m so damn tired). But I will quite reliably be up again, sometimes at 10, sometimes at midnight, but always before 2 am. And then I’m up. Like, really up, often for a really long time. Hours and hours. With phone, without the phone (I know the screen messes with our sleep cycle), it doesn’t matter. And I am so fucking tired.

During those sleepless hours, I spend a lot of time wondering. I wonder how long one can function with so little sleep. I wonder if lack of sleep can cause cancer. I wonder if this world will be around long enough for my kids to have grandkids. I wonder about concentration camps and my kids drowning in pools and if I passed along my genetic mutation to either (or both) of them. You get the gist. These are not pleasant musings. I try to shift course, meditate, play Wordscapes on my phone. I run through my old high school balance beam routine, over and over in my head. I get up, kiss my kids, drink water...I NEED TO SLEEP. So, so desperately.

I’ve learned, in short, that early menopause for me means coping with temporary insomnia.

Other, longer-term lessons:

2. Each surgery has required at least a couple days of repose. I have learned, however, that I. Cannot. Just. Sit. Still. Four hours after my total hysterectomy I was picking up toys and sweeping the floor. You know, just some light housework after having a few reproductive organs removed. It’s rather sick. I’m not proud of this. My inability to lie in bed probably helped produce some of the physical setbacks and at least one of the emergency surgeries (#5. April 24, 2019). It has not, however, produced ANY FUCKING SLEEP. So go figure.

3. I am a lazy medicator. I mean, I took my antibiotics every six hours for seven days, as per doctor’s orders. But I’m really bad with pain management. To wit: I still haven’t taken the 500 grams of acetaminophen that I was supposed to take two hours ago, even though I feel quite a bit of pain under my right armpit, where the scar is healing and the JP drain is protruding from my skin. It’s the same when I have a headache, or when I used to have menstrual cramping. I just ride out the discomfort, as if science hadn’t created tiny, magical pills to take away the pain. I don’t know why I am like this. I literally just typed about my need for acetaminophen. I have the acetaminophen right next to me, as well as a glass of water. And I still haven’t taken it! What is wrong with me?

(I just took the acetaminophen.)

4. When I woke up this morning (after falling asleep some time around 4 am), my feet were where my head should be. As in, I decided to flip around and put my pillow at the foot of the bed. As a long-time poor sleeper, I, at some point along the way, realized that this shift in perspective could at times help me fall asleep.

Matias mocked me earlier today about this, saying something to the effect of: “What do you think that does for you? It’s ridiculous.”

(Oh, the hormonal-induced RAGE.)

Setting aside my offense for a moment, let me put on my social scientist hat. There could be science at play here. Flipping the person is not unlike flipping the mattress, right? And there is loads and loads of research (read: un-verified websites like this one) on the benefits of a flipped mattress! So, yeah, when I cannot sleep, I have learned that turning around at night can help. Insomniacs, take note.

5. Finally, and perhaps rather cheesily, my body is fragile and also fierce.

When I had the emergency expander replacement (again, surgery #5, April 24, 2019), my plastic surgeon used both stitches and staples to close up the space where the bad skin used to be. It was the most Edward Scissorhands-y of all of my surgeries. The suture crossed my breast, from about 2:00 to 8:00, just missing the nipple. It was creepy. I couldn’t look at it. I didn’t even document it with a photo, so I can’t share the evidence with you here. (Sorry...or, perhaps, you’re welcome?)

In the matter of a 1.5 hour surgery, my body had been opened and then sealed shut, with metal and twine and glue. For weeks after, I looked like a sewed up ragdoll from the stories (and nightmares) of my childhood.

My skin, so delicate and yet so robust. Today, you can barely see the scar.

When I look at my JP drain, my scars, my new breasts, my newly curly hair (it’s called “chemo curl”), I think that we, as humans, are simultaneously strong and weak. So prone to damage, and also so highly resilient. Vulnerable to illness and yet up to the challenge of fighting it.

I don’t seek to resolve this paradox. I marvel at it sometimes. I cry about it too. I’ve lived with it for months and think it probably best to simply describe rather than explain its existence.

I will say this. The duality of our physical reality (its fragility and its ferocity) does give me hope, for my kids and for us as a society. (When I get real dramatic I extrapolate all the way out to humankind as a whole.)

We impart pain, we receive it, we recover. We hurt and we heal. Hopefully, we learn at least something from the process.

It’s been seven days since my last surgery, and I’m still spending a lot of time in bed, despite a (growing) list of work to do, an impending move to another country, and a house that is just begging to be cleaned. It took six surgeries, but I now know that rest is important--indeed, necessary--for our fragile bodies to recover their strength.

Add that to my list of lessons learned.

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afteriwake · 6 years ago

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Alternate Beginnings, Alternate Endings, Alternate Universes (3/5 - An “Adventures In Unexpected Places” Story)

we’re winding down on kid!Amy and kid!Rory for a bit, but they’ll come back in flashbacks in other fics, I swear! But here’s another old chapter of @fadeddreaming‘s crossover story…

Alternate Beginnings, Alternate Endings, Alternate Universes - After being sent to the worst school in the whole of England, Amy meets up with the man whose fault it is that she’s there, and things go vastly more differently than anyone expected.

Valentine’s Day went well. The girls at school had had a blow-out party while Amy and Rory went to New York City to sightsee with the Doctor. It wasn’t as though he was really chaperoning them, but was there with his sonic if they needed it. They went to a museum of art and then a concert of Amy’s favorite band. Rory didn’t set foot on the school grounds at all, and the next day she acted as though everything was normal and not that she’d had the best first date ever.

But her life went back to normal. Mels had found the person the Doctor suggested, and they were hatching up all sorts of schemes, and Amy watched on with amusement. It was clear that Mels really was a criminal mastermind, and while it was nice to see her excel Amy also hoped she knew when to get out before it was too late.

Winter ended and spring arrived, and soon it was time for Easter break. Rory’s parents had accepted that their son was in a long distance relationship with Amelia and invited her to stay with them, and Mels had gotten her parents to offer the same, but Aunt Sharon had finally decided that maybe she should see how her niece was, so she was going home for the break.

Home…it seemed strange to her, but now St. Trinian’s was home, and the only thing Leadworth had to offer was Rory. It would be very strange to be back for two weeks, but the Doctor had promised he would try and visit, make things a bit lively, and she knew she could trust him to do just that. As she set her duffel bag on the floor of her old room she looked around. Aunt Sharon had come in to dust, but everything had been left more or less as she had left it. It saddened her a bit, to think that her aunt missed her so little that she hadn’t spent time among her old things.

Their first dinner together was awkward. There was so much going on that Amy simply couldn’t tell her about, like the trips with the Doctor or Mels zany schemes or the times she actually got to see her boyfriend out of the blue. So she stuck to the simple stuff, and Aunt Sharon tried to fill in the gaps with what had been going on since she had left. It was with relief that Amy went outside to the old swing set that was still standing back there, and sat down on the swing.

It was times like today she wondered what had happened to her parents. She had bare memories of them, but nothing concrete. She remembered her mum was thin, and her dad was on the fat side. She remembered hazy smiles, but that was it. There were no pictures of them around the house, and when asked her Aunt Sharon always changed the subject, as if she didn’t want to talk about them, and didn’t want her talking about them, either. Would her parents have sent her to St. Trinian’s? Would they have just believed her about what she knew now was the truth, that he was real and that she could travel through time and space when she was with them? Or would it be exactly the same as it was now?

The familiar vworp-vworp-vworp of the TARDIS materializing got her attention, shaking off the melancholy thoughts. Sometimes, she swore, she just had to think and her Doctor would make himself known. The doors swung open and she jumped off the seat and ran in, throwing her arms around the surprised man’s chest. “It’s only been three weeks, Pond,” he replied, still giving her a hug.

“It’s like you just know when I need you,” she said, letting go.

“But haven’t you figured out yet that I do?” he said, grinning at her. She grinned back, and he clapped his hands together. “So! What do you want to do today?”

“I want to see my mum and dad,” she replied.

He frowned. “I’m afraid that’s not possible, Amelia.”

“Why not? We can go in the past, right?” She walked over to the console. “Shouldn’t be hard.”

“Amelia,” he said quietly. “I have looked. God knows, I have looked. And I simply can’t find them. They’ve never existed.”

“Then how am I here?” she asked, confused.

“I don’t know, but I have a theory.” He looked at her, then moved her towards the chair near the console. She sat down and looked up at him. “The crack in your wall…I’ve seen others like it, all over the universe. I watched someone touch it, then disappear in a bright light, and then no one remembered him. There was no record of him. I think, perhaps, that your parents…the same thing may have happened to them.”

The crack. It still gave her nightmares, even now that it was sealed. And to think that it swallowed up her parents… “I don’t understand,” she said.

“I don’t either, not entirely, but I’m doing everything I can to figure it out. I promise, if I can bring your parents back I will.” He knelt down in front of her and grasped her hands in his, squeezing. She looked him full on in the face, knowing he was being earnest and truthful. But…she liked her life as it was now. How drastically would it all change if her parents were back? Would she still have Mels as a friend? Rory as a boyfriend? Would she still go to St. Trinian’s? Most of all, would she still have met the Doctor and had the wonderful, brilliant maddening adventures she’d had with them.

“I don’t want things to change,” she said, shaking her head.

“But if it would fix things, it’s what I should do,” he said.

She pulled her hands away and stood up. “No. I like this life. I have a home, I have friends, I feel like I belong somewhere. If you bring them back, what happens then? Do I lose all this? Does it never take place, and I’m different? I don’t want to be different.”

“But maybe it will be better,” he replied.

“And maybe it won’t!” she said. She could feel tears slipping down her cheeks. He didn’t care if it hurt her, he was going to do it anyway. He was her friend, and he was going to hurt her. “Maybe everything will be horrible! Maybe Mels will never come to Leaadworth and Rory won’t like me and I’ll never meet you and I’ll be boring and ordinary and I won’t…I won’t…” She couldn’t get anymore out.

He came up to her and wrapped his arms around her. She pounded at his chest slightly, but he didn’t let go. “I can’t imagine to know how you feel, Amelia,” he said quietly. “But if this is a mistake, if this is something I can fix, then I must fix it.”

She stopped fighting and instead cried, her face buried in his shirt until there were no more tears left. She pulled away, wiping her still moist eyes with the back of her hand. She looked at him closely, and knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that he was going to do this. She had no say in it. She turned around so she wouldn’t have to look at him. “Please don’t come back for me.”

“Amelia…” he said quietly.

“If it all changes, don’t come into my life, okay? Just leave me be.” She started walking to the door. Her life was going to change. Someday, she was going to wake up and it would be different. And she had the gut feeling only she would remember. And she would be looked at as the weird little girl in Leadworth who talked of things no one else could understand all over again.

“I’ve seen your future. Your correct future,” he called out as she had her hand on the handle. “Do you want to know what happens? I hadn’t planned on telling you. I perhaps would have, later, when you were older.”

She lowered her hand and turned around. “Tell me.”

“I show up again when you’re nineteen, not twelve. We save the world from Prisoner Zero, and then I disappear again for two years. I come back the night before you marry Rory, and you run away with me. Then you try and kiss me, and it’s a mess, so I go pick up Rory, and…he dies. But he comes back, and then you die, and then we seal you up and wait nearly two thousand years for you to wake up. But the universe stopped existing, and an exploding TARDIS is the only thing warming the Earth. But then I fix things, and disappear, but you bring me back. But you also bring back your parents, and you seem happy when I drop in on your and Rory’s wedding.”

She stumbles a bit at the weight of the information. That’s what’s supposed to happen to her? That’s her life? A life of waiting, to be replaced with a life with her parents? “And what happens to this life?” she asked.

“It’s like the others. You remember it in your head. Rory will probably remember it, too, with enough prompting,” he said as he walked towards her. “But the life with your parents…you seem better in that life. More fulfilled. Happier.”

“But I wouldn’t see you again until I was twenty-one,” she said. “And Rory is going to die? And I’m going to die?”

“But you come back,” he said. “Of course, that life may never happen. After all, it’s nine more years until my enemies set the trap. And I know about it now.”

“How did you find out about it?” she aasked.

“My friend River, I’ve mentioned her before?” She nodded. “She’s a time traveler, going in the wrong order. The first time I meet her is the last time she sees me. She got a hold of me not long after I met you in Camilla’s office. She has a book where she records her adventures, and said suddenly she was remembering different events then were in her book. We had a long talk and that’s when I got the gist of everything that changed.”

“I had no idea,” she said quietly.

“And I didn’t want to tell you until you were older, until I learned more. No one should know more of their own future than absolutely necessary, especially in your case where it’s so drastic of a change. Even my records have you with a different future then the one I just told you. About the only thing that remains the same is that you have Rory to help guide you through things.”

“Should you tell him?” she asked.

“Yes, perhaps I should,” he replied. “It wouldn’t be good for you to have to keep such a heavy burden to yourself, and he would understand.”

“What about Mels?”

He paused. “The less she knows, the better,” he said after a moment. “Her future is…complicated. And the less you know of it, the better. I already made a hash of things, and it may turn out differently in the long run anyway.”

“I don’t like keeping secrets.”

“Let’s just say she’s got one of her own and leave it at that, shall we?” He put a hand on each shoulder and looked at her intently. “Should we go find Rory?”

“Yeah, probably,” she said with a sigh, looking down.

“Amelia.” She looked back up. “Before I go fix this problem, if I can fix it at all, I will tell you. I will have you be as prepared as I can for the changes that are going to come, whatever they might be. I will not leave you to face it all alone.”

“Okay,” she said. “Let’s go get Rory.”

“All right then. Off to go fetch Rory.” He put an arm around her shoulders and guided her to the console. A small but heavy weight was lifted from her shoulders. At least she would have warning. At least she could prepare herself. Or at least try. But she knew at the core of her being that things would never be the same again.

#doctor who #st trinians #amy x rory #fanfic #fanfiction #amy pond #the doctor #eleventh doctor #multipart: alternate beginnings alternate endings alternate universes #my au: adventures in unexpected places

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katoktm6 · 3 years ago

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Wine tasting in France

Woke up to a beautiful cloudy, Chilly, windy morning…. With no Internet. I messaged my best friend using Data 🤬Eve, and she did not respond to me for over an hour…then she said, “ I thought Bernard sent you the password” sigh…I gave up waiting and sent a message to Bernard the Airbnb owner and he told me where the modem was and I simply restarted it. meandered about town watching fishermen clean up, cafe au lait replaces cafe con leche…met a man who I had a 30 minute conversation with..understanding none of it except he has a sister in the next town.. but I only understood that because we tried Spanish. I can’t even say what the gist of the conversation was except he pointed me to the supermarket. Spent an hour there figuring out what to buy. Went back out organized and decided to finish the Costa Brava Trail.

It was only 3 km to the end of the trail….kind of…Took the road’s bike path and walked to Collioure… now THAT was a town! I wish Elyse and I had started there or finished there…The wind and waves were rough today battering the shore. I see a castle in every direction. And a castle is in the center of the town. The town is filled with tourists and tourist shops and artisans. Almost every other storefront had an artist working on paintings or sculptures or fabric or other things. I tasted cheese and compared Spanish “ham” to French ham…Spanish is better… and biscotti types and nougat. Everyone was out and about. Where have all these people been? It was so crowded I almost had reverse culture shock. I haven’t been around people/crowds for so long. One of those days where I could have spent a lot of money…but fortunately, I have the weight of my backpack to consider. Everyone eating ice cream cones…everyone! Toured the medieval castle for over an hour…my pictures turned out horribly…but apparently the castle in my town attacked the castle I was touring… also this is where the French navy trains…you can see them packed On the boat in the harbor…they were climbing up the ropes carrying tons of weight. I had an awful thought that they were preparing rather than training…

Politics, war, and protesting seems a lifetime away, and yet it is right back around the corner waiting for me…

Oh! I performed a little miracle today thanks to Elyse needing to get her Catholic cathedral fix…I walked into medieval Notre Dame Cathedral…very dark and grand…but could not see anything as it is lit with only candles. There were about 50 people in there fumbling about..I walked up to the altar and off to the side was the little coin box…in the shadows. I dropped in one euro and Whallah! Lit up like the Star of Bethlehem was shining down…People looked at me like I was the Virgin Mary! I turned to the two older women in front of the altar who were staring at me in wonder, and I said… “Un Euro, Un Minute” I took a photo of the golden Baby Jesus scene(just kidding, it’s a thing I say in class) and I walked out…should have taken a bow.

Walked back after about 4 hours and stopped at a “wine cave” in town…apparently the same as a wine store. My best friend Eve told me that in France you taste the wine before you buy it…so in I walk…the two owners knew zero English. I thought I was getting or asked for a tasting and he went over to one of several barrels lining the wall, and poured a full glass of red wine. Other customers came in and There was laughing and cheersing and I was hiding in the back corner trying to drink the wine looking interested in the bottles. The woman must have noticed how awkward I was because she came back and tried to show me some wines from the region that were cheap. I don’t know why she would think I would want a cheap bottle of wine.???? Then the man/owner dropped a full bottle of white wine on the floor and everyone laughed. I felt an obligation to buy a bottle of wine for nine euros and he didn’t charge me for the big glass he gave me…he was shocked I tried to pay for it…Se La Vie

Dropped off wine, grabbed IPad, walked about 20 minutes to this hidden cove to read…6:30 -7:00…only two restaurants open tonight, so I am back at the same one…because they were nice to me.

Random Photos:

Fishing nets

Mary with an anchor (she really does it all)

French Navy training

Waves

Fishermen and dogs doing shit

Dogs on the balcony checking shit out

Catapults

Tunnels under castle that archeologists are still workin on digging out

The painted ceiling room is original paint and it was the dungeon!? That’s what brochure says…

Castle Grand Hall is the white room

Ang royal courtyard for greeting VIPs is the ivy covered walls

Tapas plate…I got nervous trying to order because my waitress was jerky so this is what I ended up with…

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wanna-one-imagine · 8 years ago

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Wanna One Kang Daniel Prince! AU (Part 2)

Here’s the second part of the Prince AU. You can find part 1 here and part 3 here; enjoy! (You + Kang Daniel)

School started up again soon after the holidays, and you were all ball of nerves about seeing Daniel again

You weren’t sure how you two would act together at school, if there would be any difference

If you two talked, the entire female population would attack you; and if your friendship had to be kept a secret, you would be disappointed

On the first day back, you could hardly focus in any of your classes before math

When the bell rang for you to leave your previous period, you ran to the bathroom and checked yourself out in the mirror, simultaneously scolding yourself

why am I this shaken up over him Jesus christ (Y/N) get it together

You shook your head in disbelief at yourself as you finally just sucked it up and walked to math

You trudged in the room, sketchily looking around with your head down, before you heard someone call out to you

“Hey (Y/N), we are switching seats this semester, come sit here!! Let’s be seat partners!” Daniel called out to you, a huge smile on his face, patting the seat next to him

He… he really just lives freely, doesn’t he? Take a lesson from him, (Y/N).

You couldn’t hide your happiness as you sat down next to him, right in the front of the class

“You’re good at math, right, (Y/N)? I’m totally going to cheat off you now!!” Daniel exclaimed, relentlessly poking your arm

The class soon started, and you both just played hangman and tictactoe and chatted over a piece of notebook paper, the teacher rolling her eyes at the both of you

You two weren’t disturbing anyone, and the teacher knew that 1. Daniel wouldn’t pay attention either way, and 2. you would do well on your tests/quizzes anyway

Suddenly, school had become a lot more fun

Word spread quickly around the school, that Daniel had a new friend… a new girl friend.

Suddenly you started getting weird looks from people, and sudden requests to become your friend

You were taken aback by the sudden attention, but didn’t do anything about it

You just hung out with a couple of your old friends, who thankfully didn’t even bother questioning you about Daniel at all; they seemed to know you would tell them when you were ready

They had already known about your childhood friendship with Daniel, anyway

Ong and Jaehwan, though, got all the information they needed from Daniel

They learned the entire story, and they had also known that you were Daniel’s old friend

Anyway you didn’t see Daniel really for the rest of the school day, because you two were in different classes/years, so it wasn’t a surprise when you didn’t meet him again

This pattern continued throughout the week: having fun with Daniel in math, only for him to be whisked off to the palace by his bodyguards as soon as school ended every day

But something different happened on the Friday of that week

As you walked out of school ready to bike home, but your bike was nowhere to be found

Instead, you saw two men in black suits standing near the racks

“Please come with us, Miss (Y/L/N). Your bike is in the car,” one said, pointing at a sleek black car parked in front of the school. “The Royal Family requests your presence at the palace.”

“Uhhh what nobody told me about this,” you mumbled, as the men leaded you towards the car

You entered the car, to find Daniel in the seat next to you

“What’s up?”

“As if I would know, dumbass,” you rolled your eyes, punching his arm

For the car ride to the palace, you and Daniel just theorized about various reasons that the King and Queen would want to talk to you

“Maybe you clogged one of the toilets at the party”

“What the hell, man”

“Or you fell asleep on the couch in that room and drooled on it and now you have to replace it hA”

“jesus fuck Dan just shut up”

ET CETERA

When you two finally arrived at the palace, you two got out of the car, Daniel slamming the door behind him as you tried to exit from his side after him

“Prince. Please don’t delay us, we need to meet the Queen and King.” a stern voice called (probably one of the bodyguards), shutting up Daniel’s weird laughter (you know what I'm talking about)

“Ha, take that loser,” you called back at him, exiting the car

“You’re the loser, have fun with whatever my parents want you for,” Daniel said, playfully shoving you, walking away from you and the guards, probably to his own room

“Prince, you also have to come along, the King and Queen also want to see you.” A guard said, confusing the both of you

What matter could concern the both of you? Another party? What is going on

You and Daniel were both sat down in a very fancy looking room, with multiple seats arranged around a round table

You two whispered to each other, before the King and Queen entered, sitting down across from you both

“Daniel! (Y/N)! How are you both? How was your day at school today?” The Queen excitedly asked

You both looked at each other in confusion, before saying what you had “learned” in math today, Daniel revealing that you were now seat mates with one another

“Oh, well that’s just great! Glad to see you two are getting along so well, it looks like you two should be able to settle down together very well in the future,” The King said, bobbing his head in an approving nod

You and Daniel were in complete confusion, staring at Daniel’s parents as they both beamed at you two

“Ah, well I guess we haven’t really explained this properly, but you two get the gist, no?” The Queen said, catching sight of your confused gazes. “Well it’s obvious that (Y/N) here is the most reasonable choice for the Princess; out of all the women we have seen for the past couple of years have not even come close to the bright and genuine aura (Y/N) exudes! You two are perfect together!”

Your mouth had dropped open, blankly staring at the King and Queen, who were just excitedly giggling to themselves

You turned your eyes to Daniel, his eyes narrowed at his parents

“You two can’t be serious. How can you force her to get married at such a young age? Shouldn’t she have input in this matter?”

You blankly nodded. Marriage? What the hell?

You had wanted to get closer to Daniel, but marriage? That was a rest of life thing here, and you were perfectly content with your crush on him; being the Princess would make your life so unbelievably complicated

“Oh, well we don’t want you two to get married now, at least finish your college first, we just thought that you should both just be aware of this arrangement,” The King clarified

“Still! How can you expect to even want to commit to this now?” Daniel stood up, his hands on the table, as you nodded along

You didn’t dare speak out against the King and Queen, so you were thankful at least Daniel was being sane here

“Oh, well (Y/N) technically doesn’t have to commit to the marriage now, we just at least want the both of you to give a shot at a relationship and living together. We aren’t letting (Y/N) pass by, she is the first girl we have approved of in the years we have been looking for someone. Don’t take this as a joke, Daniel. You know the legacy of the family name is very important to the establishment of our rule.” The Queen said

“Yes, and if it happens that after trying with one another that (Y/N) or you do not feel like this is the best arrangement, then we will not have to continue with the marriage. What we are asking is very reasonable in our opinion; we aren’t forcing anything onto you in the long term. We are just kindly requesting that you will both make an attempt. This is a very serious matter.” The King continued

Well, that didn’t sound so bad. You two could just hang out for sometime, and then say that you two just want to remain as friends in the end.

You looked at Daniel and shrugged, signaling that this was fine with you

Daniel sighed, and nodded at his parents, grabbing your hand and leading you out of the room

You forgot sometimes, but Daniel was really a Prince, he really was royalty. For fuck’s sake, he was Prince of the entire country

For how down-to-earth he is, you sometimes forgot that you two really had completely different lives.

Daniel silently dragged you to a flight of stairs, leading you up to the second floor. You hadn’t been up there since you were like five

Happy memories flooded you as you stared down the huge hallways, remembering the old times where you, Daniel and Jisung used to race down the corridors

You were caught up in your own thoughts, not noticing that Daniel had led you into a huge bedroom

Daniel finally said something

Well, it was not really a coherent word

More like a primal scream, as he jumped face first onto a humongous bed that looked really fluffy

He let out really weird sounds into his pillow, slamming his legs repeatedly into the mattress

You walked up to him, poking his shoulder, making Daniel stop and stare at you through half-lidded eyes

“Try it, (Y/N). It’s therapeutic.” Daniel said, turning his face back into the white bedsheets, scooting over to make room for you

You weren’t even skeptical; you plunged onto the bed, both of you acting like deranged demonic toddlers

The both of you, at the moment, had nothing to say to one another – you both were equally taken aback at this sudden news, and for the time being, this was all you two could do

After a couple minutes of this… exorcism or whatever it was, your cries of the both of you just turned into tired sighs, once in a while kicking the bed

And without realizing it, you just fell asleep in Daniel’s super comfortable bed

“Do you want to stay for dinner today? It’s already evening,” Daniel called to you from the other side of the bed, facing away from you

He was met with silence, and crawled over to you in response, pulling your hair

Still receiving no reaction from you, he peered over your motionless body to see your eyes shut, deeply asleep

“That fast? Stupid,” Daniel laughed, about to pinch your nose to stop you from breathing, before his hand stopped in front of your face

He looked at you, unable to stop his concerns from popping into his mind

Wife? Princess? (Y/N)? We just reunited as friends, and now that has to change?

He breathed out, moving his hand back and plopping back on the bed next to you

Not that I would mind (Y/N) as the princess, he thought, staring at the back of your head

Pretty funny that this is even happening, I used to joke about marrying her when we were kids…

Daniel knew that for royal families, marrying someone you truly love is a very rare occurrence, and most marriages are completely arranged

I’m lucky enough Mom and Dad are trying to find someone who is more than a business deal, but that would mean (Y/N) would have to be cooped up in the palace for the rest of her life, and live completely in the public’s eye…

Daniel deeply sighed and smothered his face in his pillow again, pushing all the thoughts that were consuming him out of his mind

Ah whatever, this is so confusing, let’s just forget about all of this now

He forgot all about bugging you for dinner, and fell into sleep next to you

zzzzzzzzz….

You two slept peacefully for around an hour before a sharp noise blared into Daniel’s room

“Prince? Miss (Y/L/N)? Dinner is ready. Please come to the dining room,” a voice called through an intercom, waking the both of you up

You opened you eyes, and rolled around in the bed, only to come face to face with Daniel

You were about to scream, slapping your hand over your mouth, your heart rapidly picking up pace

jesus christ could I get a warning here?

You stared at Daniel’s face, his teeth gritting together once in a while as he slept – the intercom failed to wake him up

I can’t believe this is happening, getting to spend time with him… but marriage? Isn’t that a bit much…

You were deep in thought, before the voice from the speakers blared again, asking you two to immediately come down

“Daniel, Daniel wake up,” you said, gently shaking him so that he would wake up

“Stopppp ittttt,” Daniel whined, pulling the blanket to cover him face

You couldn’t help but laugh at his sudden burst of cuteness, seeming like a little kid, making you think of similar situations when you two were younger

Jisung and you would always team up and torture Daniel with tickle fights (he was super sensitive) when he was sleeping

Without realizing, your hands had slid under the blanket, grabbing Daniel’s torso and evilly giggling before you started violently tickling him

“(Y/N)!!!!!! YOU BETTER STOP THIS!!!”

“nEVER!!!!” (lmao never) you screamed back at him, before he grabbed you and started tickling you back

“wha- NO NO NO NO NO NO NO STOP NO” you gasped, out of breath, as you writhed under his grasp, unable to fight back

“HA, take THAT” Daniel yelled, tackling you and flipping you over in bed, pinning both your hands with one arm while tickling you with the other

“DANIEL STOP YOU’RE SO FUCKING HEAVY GET OFF ME”

“YOU SHOULD HAVE THOUGHT ABOUT THAT BEFORE YOU ATTACKED ME BITCH”

“Looks like you two are getting along quite well.” a different voice called out to you, making both you and Daniel freeze in place, you pinned under him, the both of you realizing just how close to one another you two were

You both looked up in unison, finding a bodyguard dude at the door with his arms crossed, the King and Queen behind him

You and Daniel sprang apart, desperately claiming to all three that it wasn’t what they were thinking, still breathing heavily from the tickling

“I knew something was going on; Daniel’s never late for dinner,” the Queen snickered, dragging the King and the bodyguard out of the room, saying that they should “let you two do what you needed”

There was no point in arguing with the King and Queen, after all they were the ones who wanted you two to get married

You and Daniel stood there in his room, quiet once again, your face heating up in embarrassment

You looked up at Daniel, his own eyes darting shyly around the room to avoid your gaze, his own cheeks tinged with a pink blush

You two just stood there like the awkward people you are, until your stomach growled, the weird atmosphere between the two of you instantly clearing

“Okay, (Y/N), we’ll go eat now, whatever you say,” Daniel said, patting your stomach, making you jerk back in response, still sensitive from the tickle fight but mostly shocked from the sudden contact

“Too soon, man, too soon,” you managed to blurt out, kicking him, running out of his room to the dining room, to escape from Daniel

Daniel… he still acts like the kid he used to be… but it feels so different now…

Do I like him for real?

Part 1, Part 3

A/N: Sorry for that kinda sudden ending, lmao. This was getting kinda long and I wanted to post for y’all :) I guess this AU isn’t wrapping up yet, wanted the progression to be ~natural~ so looks like there will be another part of this, at the least.

Thanks for your patience and sorry for not updating in the past few days!

Also thanks for 600 followers!

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