#I saw the word dough and thought it was literal dough and not money

[theres-whump-in-that-nebula]

[Text ID: “I was clowning in the house of God.” End text ID.]

YOU GUYS! GUESS WHAT BOOK I’M NOT READING for the eighth time in a row

[just-some-random-blogger]

Death By Bagel

NCT Culinary Student!Mark Lee x Fashion Design Student!Reader Summary: Mark makes a cake cause he's realized he can't lose you to some f-boy. Word Count: 3k+ Warnings: Fluff, childhood au, college au, slowish burn, slight cursing, reallllly fluffy, some broksi-dude action, typos sksksksks, etc.

R E Q U E S T my friend: mark lee, slow burn, friends to lovers

A/N: I wrote a fic that already had like 1k+ word then I LOST IT (i think i deleted it) thus this. It took me 10 years to write this msmsmkskskks. PLEASE TUMBLR IS MESSING WITH ME AND MIXED UP THE ORDER OF SOME OF THE DIALOGUE

“As a doctor, I don’t think you should be doing that,” Mark says, not even bothering to look at his patient seated rudely on the floor. Oop, he’s lying down now.

Mark huffs and looks up from the clay block he was molding on his tray, “YOU’RE SO UNPROFESSIONAL!”

Mark’s mother nearly spits out her coffee upon hearing the words of his five-year-old son. Her husband snorts, “He got that from you.”

The woman throws a look at the man and was supposed to give a snarky retort, up until the sound of the doorbell ringing. She grins from ear-to-ear and dashes to get the door.

When she comes back to the living room, she’s accompanies by another woman and a tiny version of her.

“Markie! Say hello to your Auntie!” Mark’s mom calls.

Mark from the carpeted floor looks up and blinks, examining the stranger-woman and its human-ling. Mark turns to his father who was sat on the couch and receives a nod of approval almost. Mark purses his lips and waves at the woman.

The woman waves back and then crouches down to the little girl, “Baby, say hello to Mark.”

Unwilling, she shakes her head.

“Aw come on, baby. Don’t be shy. Mark over there is a really sweet boy. I knew him when he was in his mommy’s tummy, just like Mark’s mom knew you when you were in mine. You’re the same age so you’ll get along just fine.”

With the unnecessary explanation that gave no justification to the scene whatsoever out of the way, the girl was fooled into peeping up, “Hi, Mark.”

“Hello,” Mark says, not particularly interested, as his patient was still in the midst of dying in his office. He turned to his stuffed toy called Mr. Lion and attempted to stand him up once more.

At this point, the girl makes her way to Mark.

“We’ll be back in two hours, honey. Keep an eye on the children,” Mrs. Lee tells his husband who had been occupied with TV the entire time.

“Yeah. I got this,” he smiles to his wife then goes back to watching.

The bumble bee clad figure sat down to Mark in blue and watched him play.

Mark ignored her for a few seconds, needing to assert all efforts on standing that dumb toy up. Once successful, Mark turns to her, “Do you play doctors?”

Mark was then met with the same lack on enthusiasm. She hums, “I like playing baker doctor.”

All at once, Mark gasps, “ME TOO!”

It was unbeknownst to the children it was oddly specific and the chance of this happening was pretty slim.

And in a blink of an eye, excited giggles erupt in the room, as if they had been having so much fun before this scene. It was here and there the two would become best friends to the very end.

... so I guess it means the reckoning is upon us.

“MARK LEE I SWEAR TO THE FU--” “WHAT! WHAT!?” Mark laughs.

"YOU ATE MY BAGEL! AGAIN!" I growl in a loud whisper, throwing the wrapper at him and his flat head before he could think to dodge it while he annoyingly laughs.

"I asked if I could have it though!" he says, fully knowing his sins.

I glared at him and say lowly, "I thought you were referring to my notes, bread for brains."

Mark snorts loud enough for our teacher to wake up from his nap. Once the class notices, we all pretend to be doing something productive and Mark plays it off with a cough.

"Mr. Lee." Mr. Kim says sternly, clicking his tongue, blinking his eyes rapidly.

Mark finishes coughing and turns to our seated professor, "Yes sir."

"Don't go to school if you're sick and going to cause a racket with your coughing."

Mark nods firmly and Mr. Kim closes his eyes again, mumbling, "page 65 is due tomorrow."

The entire class grumbles. Mark beside me scoffs and makes a face, "Yeah, yeah, Doyoung."

I turn to him and elbow his side.

"Whatever," Mark shakes his head, "professor bunny-teeth won't hear me."

Once class ended, we both get our things and head out for lunch. We walk to our canteen, fussing over assignments, deciding we should do it together later in our mutually free period.

I groan and narow your eyes at him as we have an argument over how he hasn't finished the essay for English, "That's not the point."

"Yo Mark!" a voice calls from afar. Mark and I turn, looking for the voice, and I spot the dimpled senior, Jung Jaehyun, in a table with the rest of his squad.

I nudge Mark and point at the pale guy seated by the corner.

Mark throws him a smile and waves. I follow closely behind him as he walks over to the table. "We're going to sit with them?" I say in some sort of gasp.

"Yeah." Mark replies simply, not bothering to turn to me, "they're cool."

I knit my brows at that and nod, "Yeah I know. But I'm not cute today."

Mark stops in his tracks and throws me a confused look, "what?"

"I didn't put any make-up on today, also I'm pretty sure there's a visible stain somewhere on my jacket, I just don't remember where."

Mark scrunches his face up again, even more confused. "What? How do you... forget a stai-- that's not the point. Why do you wanna look cute today?" He scoffs and continues lowly, "hardly as if you ever look cute."

I let out an annoyed groan and punch Mark's shoulder. "Like when you panicked when Seulgi came over and asked for notes."

Mark openes his mouth, "That is so not the same! Jaehyun's a fuck bo-"

"Just shut up already," I snap and shove him forward so he'd continue walking. "Let's not keep him waiting," I add and mumble, "also I know. Dong Sicheng however is very cute."

Mark chuckles, "he's dated every girl on the dance team."

"Okay, maybe not that cute."

"Ya, Mark," Jaehyun grins and greets the said person with a high-five and chest bump. He turns to me and speaks my name with a smile. I smile back politely and wave.

I'm about to sit next to Sicheng, but Mark shoves me and so I end up sitting on the other side of the bench table with Jaehyun. I turn to Jaehyun with a small, non-awkward smile and shoot Mark a glare. He seems unbothered though.

"So, you up for a round later?" Jaehyun asks Mark.

Mark talks over me, "you know it, dude."

Jaehyun flashes his dimple smile all the stupid girls fall for. I'm only half falling for it cause I'm only half stupid. He raises his brows, "you bought the dough, right?"

This makes me knit my brows.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. I really did this time," Mark mumbles quickly. "It's my turn anyway."

Jaehyun gives an off look, "that's literally what you said last time bro."

"Yo, no for real. It's in my bag, if you wanna check."

Jaehyun shakes his head when Mark begins to scramble for it, "no, Lee, it's good. We wouldn't want you friend to get dirty."

Is it just me or do you feel slimey all of a sudden?

Jaehyun then gives me a somewhat, somehow sincere smile, "so. I hear you're in fashion design."

I give a soft chuckle, "yeah. That's me."

"I could tell from a mile away. Mark looks horrible next to your getup."

I look down at my sweater and ripped jeans. Mark exclaims in protest, "shut the hell up, Jae."

I give a soft smile at Jaehyun, "don't know where that comes from but thanks I guess."

Jaehyun chuckles, "I'm kidding," he eyes Mark, "I saw your Fashion Design pin on your bag when you sat down."

"Oooohhhh, haha, okay, that makes sense."

"Ya, Jeff," Sicheng calls for Jaehyun, "it's almost time."

Jaehyun turns to his friend and nods. He turns back to me and Mark, "well, it's nice to meet you. Mark won't put a sock in it even if I beg. See you around, fashionista."

He stands and slaps Mark's back, "see ya later, broski."

"Yeah, bruh," Mark replies.

Once it's just Mark and I, I snap at him and blurt out in a whisper yell, "YOU'RE ON BROSKI LEVEL WITH JUNG JAEHYUN?!"

Mark gives me a weird face, "bruh, I think he calls the principal broski, for real."

I smack Mark, making him whine, "you know what I'm talking about, Mark! And what, are you doing drugs?!?"

He shakes his head in confusion, "Wait, what!? Who the hell told you that?"

"Uhhhhh you were talking about dough and showing up later. Sounds like you owe him money for drugs, Mark."

"??? In what universe did we even mention drugs?? Does this," he slaps his face, "look like a face of a drug addict to you?"

"A gullible idiot maybe."

Mark's jaw drops, "oh wow, okay. I'm done with this conversation." He proceeds to stand attempt to walk away. I scoff, "not on my watch bitch."

Like the true idiot that he is, Mark begins to legit run away from me, like a criminal who stole my cookies. It's embarrassing that he, a man much taller than I, could not even outrun me. I suppose I should be grateful, but this just fortifies my thoughts of him being an idiot even more.

But okay... I wasn't actually expecting this... like... Mark and Jaehyun... like... actually baking bread after school with dough Mark premade at home. Also, uh, Jaehyun looks super cute in an apron that I'm having a mental breakdown. And what's new, so does Mark.

"I can't believe you thought I was a drug dealer," Jaehyun says in a soft pout as he rolls out dough on the marble counter of his friggin large kitchen in his friggin large house. Like dang, I knew he was rich, but he's like Rich™ Rich. Rich with a golden diamond encrusted Rolex watch rich that's in a glass display rich-- wtf.

Mark wheezes in his telltale high pitched laugh as he opens a pack of unsweetened chocolate pellets, "she thought dough was some sort of metaphor or something."

"Cute," they say at the same time. Mark turns to Jaehyun in slight surprise and Jaehyun turns to me. I roll my eyes, though I feel my neck burn. I avert my attention to the scene I was sketching on my pad, Jaehyun and Mark baking croissants. I clear my throat, "I'm just making use of the single braincell between us, cause if he doesn't die falling down the stairs, he's gonna pull some idiotic stuff like baking with Jung Jaehyun."

Oddly, it's Mark that reacts to that with a, "hey!"

Jaehyun rubs his chin on his shoulder, "I also can't believe you think so little of me.'

I break a sweat but decide to answer honestly, "... ... ... You have a reputation."

"Of being a fuck boy?"

Mark loudly transfers the chocolates into a metal bowl, making the two of us snap at him. Mark makes a face, "oh gosh, sorry."

Jaehyun sighs, "well. I admit I get around, but that's only because I get dumped every time."

I raise a brow.

Jaehyun purses his lips, "nah, let's not make this weird. The croissants will be flat."

"Dude," Mark turns to him, "that's literally only because you messed up the recipe."

Jaehyun grits his teeth, "no. It's because Kun's a little teacher's pet and sabotaged me so he could get the best grade."

"No, but like Kun is really nice, he helped me with the fold techinique."

Jaehyun scoffs, "He stole me vanilla extract, Mark. Who does that?!"

"No, listen, he's cool, like, for real--"

"No, you listen, he's a little shit and--"

The two begin to bicker like a married couple, and I begin to draw inspiration form the scene to design some random sketches of wedding dresses.

I look back to the two and still can't get over the fact that I learned Jaehyun was a culinary arts major with my best friend, and that I was currently in the Jung's boojie home because I thought Mark was buying drugs from him. Not what I was expecting at all my day to go like, but I'm not mad this is how it went.

"No, no, no, no," Jaehyun says. He turns to me and points, "let's just get an outside opinion. Babe, what's your favorite color?"

"BABE?!" Mark barks.

I take a moment to reply. I blink slowly, "uhh... pink?"

Jaehyun bites his lower lip and claps his flour covered hands, "Right. Pink croissants it is."

Mark shoots him a glare and turns to me, back to Jaehyun, "she has a name."

Jaehyun nods, "yeah, and she wants pink croissants."

Mark makes a face and Jaehyun examines it, chuckling under his breath. "Wah, you two are something, huh."

No one really responds.

We began to always eat lunch with Jaehyun and his friends. It's funny cause I realized Jaehyun, although I still firmly believed he was out to get nasty with every other girl he sees, he was actually just like Mark. A total loser with a love for cooking.

"Hey," Mark says with a snippy tone.

I give him a look and suddenly receive a paper bag to my face. Mark sits on his chair next to me, as per usual. I smell the thing before I realize what it is. It's a freshly baked bagel. I perk up and smile, "Aw, you baked me a bagel?"

Mark raises his upper lip, "no. Jaehyun did."

I knit my brows, "what? Why?"

Mark narrows his brows, "do you, like, like him?"

I give him a look. I take a bite of the bagel, making Mark look at me in disbelief. I answer, "You do know I only hang with him cause you do, right?"

"Then why'd you eat the bagel then?"

"Uh, a number of reasons. 1) it's a bagel, 2) free food, 3) I'm starving, 4) it smells amazingggg."

Mark does a face, "fair. I've been meaning to ask how he does his seasoning for a while now too." He releases a breath, "and anyway, I'm pretty sure he made a bagel cause I told him you liked them. Never talking about you to him anymore though."

I look at him, "why do you talk about me so much to him anyway?"

"Uh because you're amazing," Mark says instinctively.

I feel my heart skip at that. I coo and place my hands on my chest, "wait that's really sweet."

Mark looks at me. His face begin to shift, "too bad it's a lie- haha."

I give him a look and rebut, "jerk."

"Loser."

As quickly as I found out about Jaehyun being Mark's friend, that's about as quickly as I found out he didn't like hanging out with him anymore. It's kind of a shame I never got to go back to his boojie house.

There was this one encounter I had with Jaehyun though... which was a little weird, not gonna lie.

He was waiting for me outside my Tailoring class, smiling and waving when he saw me. I Reluctantly reciprocated and walked over to him.

He releases a breath, "I've been waiting for about 20 minutes for you. I didn't know when your class would end."

I raise my brows, "you could have asked?"

"Well I would need your number for that, and that would have ruined the surprise," he pulled out a brown paper bag, reminiscing the same one Mark chucked at my face.

"I made you two this time," he smiles.

I take a moment to reply, "you don't have to make me bagels, Jaehyun."

He grabs my hand, "yeah, but I want something out of ya," he places the bagels in my hand. He proceeds to lead us off and we begin to walk down the hall.

Truth be told, it's a little scary that his ulterior motive is up in the air. Jaehyun places his hands in his pockets, "I like your dress, by the way."

I smile, "thanks. I made it."

He smiles and nods, "right. That makes sense as to why it suits you well."

I can't help but blush at that, and simultaneously feel conscious when I realize a bunch of girls in my course are looking at me and Jaehyun as we strut down the hall.

"So, what did you want, Jaehyun?"

"Well, I clearly wanted to ask you out."

"..."

"..."

Jaehyun smiles and give a soft laugh, "is it so ground breaking?"

"... Uh..."

He sniggers, "hey, you can say no. I mean I hope you don't but you can." Jaehyun leans in and raises his hands, "I won't like it, but a man should take rejection from a lady well."

I turn to him as he straightens up. I turn to the bagels he made me and bring it back to him. He laughs, "no, I made them for you really. It's not poisoned, in fact it's made with love."

I visibly react to that, which makes Jaehyun wheeze. I can't help but laugh back, "that was hella tacky."

"Worth a shot though," he says. "Good luck with Mark."

I look at him with silence and he chuckles, "ya, you can't fool me."

I'm about to retort but then Jaehyun gets called by one of the frats dudes I identify as Johnny Seo. Jaehyun does a curtsy and clicks his tongue, "see ya later babez."

"You know, I would have said yes if you didn't do stuff like that."

Jaehyun purses his lips, "no you wouldn't."

I shrug, "worth a shot though."

Jaehyun places a hand on his chest, dramatically calling, "Uh, rejection hurts, man."

Yeah, I never went to Jaehyun's boojie house ever again.

Silver lining though was Mark's dorm smelled equally as nice because of all the food he cooks, although it came with a whiff of axe body spray from his roommate, Lucas. It's cool though, he was almost never around for me to smell it in its whole intensity.

"Aite," Mark calls from his side of the dorm. I perk up from the two seater dining table they had and turn to Mark who was covering the cake he was making for his finals.

"Don't, like, peek, okay. I want you to see the cake all at once and give me your honest reaction to it. Please, like, all my lives kinda depend on it."

"How many lives do you have?"

"9, I'm pretty sure."

I stand from my seat, "not you faking your life as a cat, but get it I guess."

Mark raises a hand at me as I walk over, "can you not, I'm high-key panicking right now."

"Over what? You literally made a box of donuts for your midterms and it looked better than Misty Mreme! I'm sure your cake is hot."

"It was in the minifridge for a day. I mean it barely fit cause of all of Lucas' mountain dew."

I groan, "just show me it, Mark Lee!"

Mark whined and dashes over to me, grabbing my shoulders, "okay, but like, don't be mean about it. I swear, I might cry."

I give a sound and fake cough, "it's ugly."

Mark doesn't respond to that particular jab, "I'm serioussss. Please be kind, okay?"

I look at Mark's nervous face and give a soft pout, "Markie, please, not that I think it would be ugly, but I promise you don't have to be nervous about my reaction."

He isn't soothed by that, but he does release a sigh, "okay. So for context, Mr. Moon wanted the cake to be one or two tiers, but I went with one, cause there aint no way I'm going to the other side of the campus to freeze a two tiered cake. Then, the theme was something from your childhood, so, I, uh, thought this was fitting. The exam is 60 percent decoration, 40 percent taste by the way."

Mark gives me a hesitant look, but steps way for me to see it. I then see a heart shaped, medium sized cake in my favorite pastel pink color. By the top there's a little boy on the floor playing with a toy oven set and little girl in a bumble bee dress, holding a stethoscope. At the bottom of the cake, there were jelly letters spelling out, "I like you."

I cup my cheeks at the sight of it and feel my eyes start to well at the sentiment.

Wait... was this really happening?

Mark heaves in and out, "okay, so like when Jaehyun began to like hit on you, that sucked pretty hard because he's known for getting girls and I thought maybe he'd get you too and I got panicky. Anyway, I....... have liked you since we were kids... And... I know you probably don't feel the same way but I have to try, you know.... Yolo."

My feel my tears retract from what I hear. I rub my eyes. I turn to Mark and find his nervous face. "Did you just say yolo in your confession, Mark?"

He looks like he's about to throw up.

I can't help but chuckle and pout, "dude..."

I prolong the moment. Mark gets even more nervous as he repeats softly, "dude..."

"We could have dated in grade school all this time."

It takes a moment to register in his head.

Like, a really long moment.

I sigh, "Mark! I like you too, dummy."

He freezes and blinks. His face begins to burn. He breaks into a soft smile, "nice."

I break into a laugh.

"... Uh... So... Can I like... Kiss you?"

I snort and feel my own cheeks begin to burn, "I think you should refrigerate your cake first."

Mark snaps out of this trance, "oh shoot, you-" I give him a quick peck on the lips.

He is dumbfounded.

I feel butterflies go wild in my stomach.

"I'll wait over there for when you've fixed that."

Mark watches as I walk away, "yooo.... That's not fair though."

[jtsfavslut]

Fine Line Track 02: WATERMELON SUGAR [G.D]

Description: Two teens spent a hot summer in Hawaii together.

Warnings: Smut!! 

Word Count: 6.2K+

‘Tastes like strawberries, On a summer evening’ - Watermelon Sugar Harry Styles

Her lips wrapped around the small striped straw. Red and white lines swirling throughout the straw as her cherry pink lips stained the paper. A satisfied sigh fell past her lips as the cold drink slid down her warm throat, her lips curling into a small smile as the summer heat got washed away with her juice.

"Are you just going to sit there all summer?" Grayson shouted, shaking her up, not expecting him until later in the day.

"Maybe, maybe not," she smiled, lifting the glasses off her eyes and onto her forehead, in attempts of getting a good look at her best friend who she hadn't seen in months.

"I hope not. There's a lot to do around here," he muttered as he walked towards her, her body laying on one of those deck chairs by the pool, a red, skimpy bikini covered the precious belongings that Grayson tore his eyes off of, not wanting to disrespect her, as he should.

"Gimme a hug Dolan, don't just stand there,"  she smiled up at him, extending her hands as he leaned down, wrapping them around his shoulders, a hint of his cologne bringing nothing but happiness to her nose.

"You've been working out huh?" Her eyes traveled down his large build. It was obvious Grayson had grown over the past months.

"Gotta blow out the steam and stress," he shrugged, sitting on the chair next to her, "How 'bout you?"

"Me? I just meditate or hit the gym when I feel like I need to, you know?" She replied, bringing her glasses back down to her eyes, trying to block out the sun who seemed to be on its highest power that day.

"I get it. Gotta clean the energy 'round you," he mumbled as he closed his eyes, the stress from the past months lifting off his shoulder ever since his plane landed.

"How were your classes?" she yawned, not because she was tired but because of how free she felt.

"Harder than last year. Last week, I thought about dropping out," he chuckled making her laugh.

"The Grayson Dolan considering giving up? Engineering must be fucking hard then," she took another sip from her drink, a teasing scoff coming from Grayson once he saw the 'MelonBerry' bottle in her hands.

"How the fuck did you bring those to Hawaii?"

"Brought em' on the plane. Wrapped them up real nice and put em' in my suitcase," she chuckled, "You want one?"

"I'm good, thanks,"

"Suit yourself," she shrugged before taking another sip, letting out a loud and dramatic 'ahh' to crawl up Grayson's skin.

"You should stop drinking that before you turn into one," Grayson muttered with his eyes closed, a teasing smirk on his lips as a scoff came from Y/N.

"Fuck off, Bailey," she laughed, flipping him off, a content smile on her face, "I missed you," she sighed.

They haven't seen each other since months prior, each going to different colleges, each in a separate and distant state. Grayson came up with the idea to meet in Hawaii, saying it would be a fun experience for her. Y/N argued, claiming it was too expensive, and it wasn't in her budget. But Grayson being Grayson, sent her an email later that day, a round trip to Hawaii from Boston, and pictures of the Air BNB he rented. She called him with tears in her eyes, nagging him about spending an unnecessary amount of money on her, which of course, he simply shrugged off.

"I missed you too, and your annoying voice," Grayson replied, making her scoff, "I'm serious! It gets lonely when you're not around,"

"Boston would be better with you, you know? Life isn't as fun without you," she sighed, placing her bottle of juice down before getting up from her chair, taking her glasses off, carefully placing them down before walking towards the pool, slowly going down the small staircase that led to the water.

Small goosebumps rose through her skin as the feeling of the water and Grayson's eyes made contact with her soft skin. "You coming Gray?" Her voice came out soft and angelic, nothing but innocence within her words.

"I'm good," He never took his eyes off her, eyes being hooked to every inch of her skin, cursing himself out for every blink he made, as if he were to close his eyes for too long she would disappear from his eyes, "for now,"

"Your loss," she shrugged before completely submerging under the water, hair wet and sticking to her skin as she came back up, giggles falling past her lips as she bit them, looking directly towards Grayson, a teasing look on her face as she stared at him.

"Don't do that," he glared, "Don't look at me like that Y/N, come on,"

"Like what? I'm literally just inviting you to swim Grayson, but whatever," she shrugged and went back in the water, causing Grayson to roll his eyes. He forced himself to think about disgusting things, not wanting to feel or look at his best friend the way he was.

. . .

"How many days are we staying here? I forgot," Y/N asked as she walked to the couch, a giant blanket engulfed her body, as she made her way over to the large living room.

"A month," Grayson replied, not looking up from his phone, his thumbs quickly tapping on the screen as he typed something.

"Wow, a month," she whispered before getting up from the couch, not even a minute from when she first sat down, she walked over to the kitchen.

Grabbing a nice bottle of her 'MelonBerry' juice she walked back to the couch, she stood before Grayson, a pout on her lips as she extended her arm to him, "Can you open this for me, please?"

He grabbed the bottle from her hand, fingers touching against each other as he did so, small currents of energy running through each other's skins, Grayson took a rather large sip after opening it, making Y/N send him a glare, "I thought you didn't like these?" She asked, turning her head  to the side, slightly squinting her eyes as she looked at Grayson. 

"Wanna see what you taste like," He smirked, looking at her, trying to see any sort of change in her expression, but nothing. Y/N decided to let the comment remain unheard, "It's sweet, tastes like strawberries,"

"It's called MelonBerry Grayson. Melon for watermelon, berry for strawberry," Y/N replied like it was the most obvious thing in the world, which it sort of was, and Grayson just did it to get under her skin, "Anyways, thank you for drinking half the fucking bottle," she scoffed once she looked inside the red translucent glass bottle, Grayson's sip taking almost half of the bottle.

"Can't help it, it's so, so good," Grayson's voice was deep and rough, a teasing tone to it, making Y/N's skin shiver, the small hairs in the back of her neck standing up with every syllable he spoke.

She shook her head, sitting down on the couch. She no longer felt cold, taking the giant blanket off her body, leaving her in a pair of Pajama shorts, and a small white tank top, "It really is good, 's why I drink it so much,"

Grayson's eyes traveled down her body, her nipples being outlined by the small, and sort of tight white shirt, her thighs were almost bare, and for once Grayson felt like losing it, "You hungry?" He asked, stopping his mind from going to forbidden places.

"Mhm," she hummed with the straw in her mouth, quickly pushing it away from her mouth with her tongue, "I stopped at a grocery store before coming here. I bought pizza dough, we can make it if you want,"

"Let's do it," he got up from the couch, walking to the kitchen as Y/N followed, she got all the ingredients out before washing her hands, she took some flour sprinkling it on the counter before placing the dough on it, carefully and smoothly massaging it with her hands as Grayson watched.

"You wanna try it?" she asked and he nodded his head, before she could move, he locked her in, placing his body behind her's, his hand landing next to hers, "Not what I meant, but okay," she shook her head before she began work with the dough again, Grayson's head landed on her shoulder, his warm, yet cold breath sending shivers down her spine with every breath he took.

"This is fun," he whispered and she nodded her head, Grayson grabbed her hands, tightly holding them in his before moving his hands up to her shoulders, "You're stressed, M' working on your shoulders and you do that," he whispered against her neck as Y/N stayed frozen, she quickly shook her head, her hands started working on the dough as she closed her eyes, Grayson's hands working wonders on her neck.

"Does it feel good, Y/N?" Her name sounding different when it left his mouth, the entire question didn't feel like it was relating to a simple, friendly massage, "Answer the question,"

"Mhm, your hands are good," she nodded her head, opening her eyes, internally shaking off whatever was going on, "Really good,"

"Gray, it's done," she whispered, knowing the pizza was ready for the sauce and the rest of the things, "I'm hungry,"

"Where's the sauce?" He took her hands off her shoulder, Y/N suddenly felt cold and lonely, simply pushing it away she pointed towards the jar filled with the red sauce.

Waiting for the pizza was hell for both Grayson and Y/N. They crossed a line and were now suffering the consequences. Nobody dared to say a word, both purposely lost themselves in their phones until the pizza, where Y/N decided to break the silence, "What are we doing tomorrow?" She asked after swallowing the bite she had taken

"To the beach, and I know about this secret waterfall that we could go the day after," Grayson shrugged, locking his phone and placing it on the table.

"Secret waterfall?"

"Yeah, it's in this creek, but it's hiding away. Ever since I found it, I go there all the time," Grayson explained and Y/N nodded her head, "Come, here you got something," Grayson leaned over the table, placing his thumb on the corner of her mouth.

She didn't actually have anything, he just wanted to touch her, "There, all done,"

"Well, just wake me up tomorrow, you always get up before me, good night," she got up from her chair, throwing her plate in the trash and walking to her room, to shower and try and sleep. Sleep was something that was not in the schedule because it was almost 2 am and she found herself scrolling through TikTok.

"Can't sleep?" Grayson asked, knocking on her door, "Can I come in?"

"Yeah, been up the whole time," She replied as he walked in, sitting down on her bed, "You?"

"Same, too many thoughts," He sighed, laying his head down on a pillow.

"Wanna talk about it?" She asked, extending her blanket over to him.

"I don't know. It's just weird, we haven't seen each other in months, and I don't know it's different," he yawned, taking a look around the room. Her suitcase was neatly placed in the corner of her room, her makeup was spread out on top of the dresser, and her shoes were all laid out in a straight line by a wall.

"Different in what way?" Her eyes were closed, tiredness taking over her body at the wrong time, she wanted to talk to Grayson but she was slowly drifting away with every word he spoke.

"I don't know. Just different,"

"Y/N get up," Grayson groaned for what seemed the millionth time in the morning, forgetting how hard it was to wake her up.

"Shut up, m' trying to sleep" she muttered, nuzzling her face into the pillow, in an attempt to block out the sunlight that was coming from the window.

"And I'm trying to go to the beach, so get your fat ass up," he said, ripping the blanket off her body, causing her to finally wake up.

"My ass is perfect, now get out," She rolled her eyes, putting on her slides before walking towards the bathroom.

"Sure is," shouted walking out of her room.

…

"I know you are not going to sit there all day," Grayson complained as Y/N sat on a beach chair, white, heart-shaped glasses sat over her eyes, a copy of 'In Watermelon Sugar' in her hands

"What is it with you and watermelons?" Grayson scoffed and Y/N rolled her eyes, the attitude filled action not being visible to Grayson due to her sunglasses

"I just like them, and they're good too," she replied back, her tone was monotone, all her emotions being poured into every word she read, "And they're cute,"

"Okay, can you just enjoy the world around you for once?" Grayson was upset that the fact that Y/N hadn't been paying attention to him ever since they arrived at the beach, she had been too busy with the book, a book that she had read more than enough times.

"Fine," she groaned, folding the corner of the page she was at a bit, an annoyed expression on her face, "What do you want to do?"

"Good just follow me," he smirked grabbing her small hand in his hand, he led her down a path, a part of the beach that was secluded away from everything, just a few adults that were laying down a distant couple of feet away, Y/N was glad she left all her important belongings in the car, not trusting a bunch strangers around her stuff.

"Look at the turtles," he smiled pointing over the small turtles that were floating and swimming around near the shore.

Y/N's hand flew to her mouth, a small giggle falling past her lips as she looked at them, "Oh god, they're so cute! I hope no one does anything to them,"

"They can't, people are watching them," Grayson explained and she nodded her head.

"Good. I can't stand people hurting animals," she huffed, she placed her hands on her hips.

Grayson finally caught a good look of her body. A mustard-yellow bandeau and high waisted swimsuit covered the parts of her body she wanted to keep private. The color matching perfectly against her golden skin, something she was thanking the bright sun for. Her hair was a loose and messy bun that sat at the top of her head, and her glasses still covered her eyes, and a small cross necklace adorned her neck, "This is cute'

Y/N took off her glasses, a smirking Grayson was standing before her, his hand slowly reaching to the waistline of her bottoms, his finger grazing the hem of them, "Real cute,"

"Thanks. I got it off Fashion Nova," she gave him an innocent smile, as she internally discombobulated, "Your shorts are cute," she chuckled looking at his shorts, just plain dark blue shorts.

"Thanks, I don't know where I got them from," his hand moved from her waistline to her actual waist, mentally groaning after he got no reaction from her again.

"Last one to get in the water has to give the other a pedicure," Y/N shouted before taking off and running towards the light blue ocean

"You cheated, you know that right?" Grayson glared at Y/N as she placed her legs on top of his.

"No rules were spoken Bailey, now get to it," she said pressing the heel of her foot against his thigh, a soft hiss escaping Grayson before he huffed.

"You don't even need a pedicure," he rolled his eyes after looking at her pedicured feet, her nails were neatly colored with a white polish, and her feet were so soft.

"Don't complain, I could've had crusty musty feet, now get to it," she groaned, she relaxed back into the couch, one he felt Grayson doing what owed her since he lost.

His brain worked rather quickly, coming up with a plan once she closed her eyes. He slowly moved his hand up to her ankle, his finger tracing the small sun tattoo she had gotten done. He remembered it was her first tattoo, getting it done on their senior trip in high school. It was a small tattoo shop in Chicago, they all had gotten tattoos with fake IDs. That day Grayson got a small door behind his knee, they were all meaningless tattoos that sometimes they regretted getting. He was now at her calf, and his plan was not working, he heard a small snore come from her mouth so he gave up before moving to her other leg.

Maybe Y/N was going to be harder to crack than he thought.

Y/N wasn't actually asleep, but knowing that if her eyes were open, they would give away her reaction to his touch, so she closed her eyes, until she actually drifted off.

This time, it wasn't Grayson knocking on her door. It was her knocking on Grayson's, a quiet 'come in' was heard so she opened the door, the sight of a shirtless Grayson in bed making her knees feel like jelly, her panties to dampen, her heart to accelerate, and her body temperature to rise.

Maybe it was the fact that they were spending a month together. Or that they haven't seen each other in months. Or simply because their bodies had changed, matured in a way.

Grayson took notice of how her tits were bigger than last time, and so was her ass. Her face was different, her lips were plump and pinker from her gloss, her lashes were longer, and her hair stopped right before her shoulders making her jawline more defined, her eyes were shiny, with a hint of something Grayson still hasn't been able to determine.

Grayson's body was buff, his biceps and every muscle defined. His hair was long, and Y/N had to say it was her favorite so far. His hands were bigger, His back had grown, but in a good way, he was taller. His body was perfectly proportioned. Not to mention that in the past two days Y/N noticed that his sense of fashion was better, wearing something other than a black t-shirt with grey boxer shorts.

"You okay? You look sick," Grayson's face filled with concern, her face flushed, a hint of embarrassment flashed in her eyes for a slight second before she shook it off.

"Yeah, my room's just really hot right now," it wasn't, it was cold, colder than his at that.

"Do you wanna stay here? With me?" she nodded her head, slipping under the covers in the space he made for her. Her body's temperature finally stabilized.

Her head subconsciously landed on Grayson's chest. His heartbeat being some sort of lullaby causing her eyes to slowly close as a wave of tiredness consumed her, "Night Gray"

"Night Y/N" he repeated before she slowly drifted off, her mind making up inappropriate and forbidden scenarios as she slept.

…

"Is it far away?" Y/N asked as Grayson drove away.

They were headed towards the secret waterfall Grayson acclaimed so much. Y/N had woken up in an annoyed mood, every single little thing bothering her right into her soul. And Grayson was not dealing so well with it, not after she glared at him for asking a simple question.

"An hour and a half," he answered and a loud groan came from Y/N, making Grayson roll his eyes.

Y/N spent the hour and a half long drive sleeping, coming in and out of her daze. Unfortunately, she was as Grayson would call it 'bitchier', after her small nap.

"Can you drop the attitude for like one second?" Grayson asked and she did nothing but send him a glare, deciding to stay quiet instead of saying something she might regret, she walked away laying her towel on the ground, sitting down, and admiring the view.

Medium sized waterfalls surrounded a small body of water at the bottom, they weren't as tall as she thought they would be, so she considered maybe jumping in them once or twice.

"Let's skinny dip," Grayson suggested standing in front of Y/N, a loud laugh coming from her throat.

"Are you crazy? Out of your mind much," She shook her head, leaning down on her towel.

"There's no one around, so why not," Grayson shrugged, she turned her head to look around.

There wasn't a single soul there, except theirs of course, "Fine. But turn around, no peeking," she finally gave in.

There was nothing to lose, well only if someone decided to go to the waterfall, at the same time.

She slowly peeled her yellow bottoms off, followed by the top part of her bathing suit, and if anyone was secretly watching, her body would be fully exposed to them, "Okay, your turn," her shyness suddenly went a wave.

She was starting to crave pleasure. Things she was sure only Grayson could give her, or what she thought he could, "You could peek now," Grayson turned around, jaw slightly dropping at the sight of his naked best friend.

"Hello? We don't have all day," she snapped her fingers in his face, a small smirk on her face, "Okay never mind," she began to turn around before a pair of arms scooped her up.

The skin on skin contact sent shivers through her body as a squeal left her throat, "Grayson don't you fucking dare," she shouted.

It was too late, before she knew it she was being carried up to the surface, a loud gasp left her lips once she was able to breathe, "What the fuck is wrong with you," she shouted, smacking his chest softly.

Grayson's eyes changed. His honey-colored eyes no longer being present, a pair of dark, lust-filled eyes replacing them instead. In a matter of seconds his hand lightly wrapped against her throat, and her back was placed against a soft rock, "I'm fed up of all your attitude, and of your fucking teasing," his voice was rough and deep.

Deeper than she's ever heard before, and Grayson's voice sure got deep when he was upset.

"Mhm," she nodded her head, a hint of curiosity in her eyes. Bubbles filled her stomach as she wondered what would happen next.

"Words baby, I need words," he muttered against her neck, a small and quiet moan came from the feeling of his big, and rough hands traveling around her bare body.

"I wanted your attention, like the whore I am," she pouted, his lips placed slow and sloppy kisses around her neck and shoulders, his hands squeezing her ass making her head drop back in response.

"You're a whore for me, aren't you?" His voice was teasing-, almost mocking her. Mocking her for being such a whore for him, "What do you want Y/N?"

It was the way he said her name again. Everything but innocence was found within his voice, what did she want? She didn't know. Not being in the right headspace to make a decision as to what she wanted Grayson to do for her, she shrugged, letting out a quiet 'don't know'.

"I guess we'll just go with what I want then," he shrugged before wrapping his arms under her knees, lifting her up so that her lower half was above the water and her ass was sitting on the rock, right in front of his face, he looked up at her, eyes filled with hunger and lust, he turned his head to the side, a nod coming from her to let him know she wanted it too.

"You don't know how long I waited for this," he wrapped his arms around her waist, bringing her pussy closer to his face, his finger slowly rubbed against her skin, grazing past the are where she needed him and wanted him the most, "Gray-,"

He cut her off by pressing his thumb softly against her clit, "Shhh," he switched his thumb for his index finger that he previously had in his move, he rubbed it in small circles, small whimpers and breath falling past Y/N's lips.

He placed a small kiss on her clit, receiving a gasp in response. Her pussy ached with want, want for some sort of touch, "Don't make a sound," he instructed before licking a bold stripe up her folds, he slowly inserted a finger, her hand clutching onto his bicep as she bit her lip, holding back any sounds that tried to escape.

He licked his lips before slowly flicking his tongue against her clit, he inserted another finger, and this time Y/N wasn't so good at holding a moan back, the pleasure she was getting from his fingers slowly moving in and out of her, while his tongue worked wonder on her was more than enough to make her let out a loud moan that earned her a smack to her thigh.

Not getting what she wanted, she pushed her body down, only for Grayson to push his face back, a smirk on his face as she sent him a glare, she leaned down, small hand grabbing his jaw, her thumb slowly pulled his bottom lip down until it popped back up, "Stop moving and just eat me, please?" She asked, an innocent pout on her face as her acrylics slowly scratched his jaw.

Grayson didn't say anything, a determined look on his face, and Y/N knew she was done for, he slowly took his fingers out of her before quickly slipping them back in with no warning, his speed faster than before he leaned his head down, her hand moved to his hair, pulling it away for his face as a gathered up enough spit before slowly spitting it all over her cunt, his lips latched onto her clit with no mercy, tongue circling it, as loud moans left her lips, "Gray, Gray, more," she chanted his name as she pulled on his brown locks, her legs trying close but he pushed them away, fingers digging into her soft skin as he devoured her pussy.

"More?" he asked, he slipped a third finger in, and a loud scream came from her throat. His fingers slipped in and out of her at a fast pace, he pulled his tongue and fingers away, moving his fingers up to her clit before quickly running it, "look at you, all fucked out and I haven't even gotten started yet," he chuckled, a cocky look on his face, before she could respond he replaced his fingers with his tongue, moaning at her sweet taste sending vibrations through her body.

Her stomach began to tighten and her breaths became short. Moans turned into a loud pornographic scream as her toes curled, squirting all over his face, her vision turned white, he body trying to pull away but he locked her in with his hands behind his knees

"Grayson, Grayson fuck, fuck," the number of times she said fuck was more than what Grayson could count. Once she caught her breath she sat up, his head was between her thigh so she pulled him up, a loud and rough giggle escaping her as she pressed her lips against his lips, tasting herself, "Just wanna taste it," she muttered and he nodded his head.

"Tastes like strawberries," he mumbled before fueling pulling himself on top of her, "Wanna fuck you on this rock," he peppered kisses on her neck, long enough to leave marks on her skin, her nails scratched his back

"Do it," she whispered, she brought her hand up to her mouth, spitting in it before bringing it down to his dick. Her hand wrapped around it, slowly pumping causing small and quiet whimpers to come from Grayson's lips.

"Y/N, don't you dare," he groaned as she took her hand away, a small smile on her lips.

"Don't dare what?" She asked,  in a swift motion she flipped them over, surprising herself and Grayson on how they didn't slip off of the rock, "Actually, I just wanna swim," she shrugged, getting off of him and jumping into the water, leaving a frustrated, and angry Grayson laying naked on a wet rock.

"You coming?"  She asked before Grayson jumped in the water,  one she saw the look on Grayson's face, she took off, swimming as fast as she could, until he caught up to her, his long arms making catching her easier.

"Where were you exactly planning to go Y/N?" Grayson asked with a smirk on his face, Y/N turned her face, getting a good look around the area, noticing there was nowhere she could exactly go.

"Somewhere," She shrugged, turning back around to face him, her arms wrapped around his neck, fingers playing with the small hairs at the back of his head, his hands were right above her waist, his thumb rubbing small circles on her soft skin.

Grayson leaned his head down, pressing a small kiss below her ear, "I don't like that stunt you pulled," his teeth softly pressed down on her earlobe before he pulled away, "It wasn't very nice,"

"Too bad," She shrugged against his arms, a soft smile on her lips.

….

Y/N was in it for the night. Purposely brushing past Grayson on accident all day, saying comments that were innocent but in a way that they no longer were, looking up at Grayson will big eyes, Grayson was regretting suggesting skinny dipping, because he simply couldn't contain himself, and he could no longer do anything because people were starting to appear so they both rushed up the cliff, slipping on their bathing suits before anyone could see them.

"I had fun," Y/N smiled as she placed her bag in the trunk, they were now completely dressed, black joggers and white t-shirts hugged both of their bodies, and dirty white vans covered their feet.

"Me too, except for the part where you left me on the rock," Grayson playfully shook his head, sending her a half serious glare.

"Oh come on, the day isn't over yet," she smiled, taking a step closer to him, her hand went up to his jaw, caressing the soft skin, "Let's go home yeah,"

An hour has never gone by so slow for Grayson. Every traffic light turned red once it was his turn to go, cars kept crossing, he was letting out loud frustrated groans, nearly jumping out the car once he turned it off in the driveway, Y/N was slowly walking towards the front door until he came up behind her, hand wrapping around her neck as he turned her around, lips devouring hers as they made out against the door.

He lifted up her legs, wrapping them around his waist as he tried to unlock the door without a sight, after many attempts, he finally got the right key, unlocking the door and carrying her inside, slamming the door with his foot as he pressed her back against it, a load moan fell past her lips as he slipped his hand inside her joggers, rubbing her through her underwear.

He wrapped his arms behind her knees once again, carrying her up the stairs, loud and desperate breath coming from both of them, once Grayson reached his room he threw her on the bed, carefully climbing above her body with a hungry look on his eyes. In a swift motion he had her bottoms pulled off, "Shirt," his voice was rough as she raised her arms off, the feeling of his fingers against her stomach tickled as he took her shirt off, he sat up for a quick moment, removing his clothes faster than he's ever done before.

Y/N quickly took the opportunity to turn their body around, getting off the bed and sitting on her knees, once Grayson caught up to what she was doing he got off the bed, his hand reaching down to her jaw, thumb dragging on her bottom lip before she took it in her mouth, swirling her tongue around it, letting out a muffled moan, his grip around her jaw tightener, making her open her mouth, "Swallow it," he muttered after spitting in her mouth, she obliged, no questions asked.

She grabbed his dick in her hands, leaning her down and placing a small kiss on his tip causing Grayson's body to jerk, "Sorry," She giggled before spitting on it. She pumped her hand in a slow motion, slowly jerking him off, trying to get him harder before she put him in her mouth, she maintained eye contact while doing it, letting out a small giggle as Grayson internally almost lost it.

He let out a groan as she finally brought him in, the warmth from her mouth making his eyes roll back, she slowly took him in, bopping her head slightly before he took control.

He grabbed a fistful of his hair, taking a step back, his dick falling from her mouth as a line of spit connected the two, he pulled her head back so that she directly looking at him, "I'm gonna fuck the shit out of you," he muttered before grabbing his dick in his hands, bringing it up to her mouth before slamming his hips against her, loud gags coming from the back of her throat, she moaned around him, making him let out a grunt.

"Fucking teasing me all day, fucking whore," he moaned as he fucked her mouth, tears forming in her eyes from the filling of his dick touching the back of her throat, he stepped back for a bit, stroking his cock with his hands to allow her to breath. Her hands reached for him, thumb rubbing over his tip before she took him back in her mouth, she had a rhythm. Take him halfway in for a couple of times before deepthroating him for a few seconds, then jerking him off with his hands. After a few minutes, Grayson was sent into oblivion, eyes closing as he came in her mouth, "Shit, fuck," fell past his lips as she giggled. He looked down at her, his cum slightly dripping from her lips before she wiped it away with her thumb, slipping it into her mouth, moaning at his taste.

"Gray?"

"Hmh," he blinked his distraction away, his mind still stuck on what only happened a few seconds ago.

"Are you finally gonna fuck me or-," her question was cut short, his hand wrapping around her neck as he slammed her on the bed. He slammed himself into her with no warning, a loud moan mixed with a gasp was her reaction.

"That mouth of yours is gonna get you in trouble someday," he grunted as he thrusted in and out of her, her tits bouncing with every thrust he made.

"Well, until then, I'll wait," she spoke, followed by a moan, "Fuck," her eyes paid a visit to her brain as she clawed on his back, her nails scratching the soft skin as he placed sloppy kisses along her neck and collarbone.

"Keep talking," he muttered against his skin, he brought one of his hands down to her clit making her head fall back as she let out a string of curse words.

He flipped their bodies around, her hands falling to his shoulders for support as he grabbed onto her waist, "Ride me like the good girl I know you are," his eyes stared into hers.

She grabbed onto his shoulders before she began bouncing on him, her legs feeling broken as she did so, head was thrown back, her hands moved from his shoulder to his chest, as a chuckle left Grayson's lips, he muttered some curse words that were almost inaudible as one of his hand reached for the headboard. He stared at her licking his lips before letting out a moan, "Shit Y/N, the condom," he panted and she shook her head.

"I'm on the pill," she breathed, feeling close to herself. The knot on her stomach began to tighten, 'Gray, Gray, I'm gonna cum,"

"Do it. Cu for me angel," his voice was light and airy, almost as if he was a peace.

She threw her head back before cumming around his dick, Grayson following her actions a few seconds later, they let out loud deep breaths as they came down from their highs.

Small beads of sweat formed around her forehead that wiped off her hand, she dropped down next to Grayson on the mattress, "Holyshit," she turned her head to look at him, "Please tell me we're gonna do that more often?"

"We can't stop now, we just started,"

Tag List: @blazedgraysons @evergreendolan @simplyxdolxstyles @rhyrhy462 @resilientdolan​ @guiltydols​ @onlyyyariii​ @blindedbythelightt​ @ydolanssss​ @finelinedolans​ @babey-gray​ @prettyboydolan​ @deeperdolan​ @lovingdolans​@strawberryystyles​ @grantzarrr​ {if you wanna be added just lmk :)}

A/N: I’m pretty sure this is by far, the most horrifyingly bad thing I’ve ever written. Please I haven’t written smut in over a month, I’m SORYY!!!! I hate this SO SO SO SO MUCH bye-

[sup-hoes-its-me]

Adore You (Yamato x Reader)

A/N: hi guys. Yamato is your secret admirer and you are desperate to find out who's been leaving all these gifts at your doorstep. Civilian reader. Will be two parts, and since i just found out i have the coronavirus and cant leave the house, i’ll be putting out the second part very soon.

Ps i headcanon that yamato would be very shy and awkward with his crush. i also think that when he is nervous he definitely has really sweaty hands. idk thats just the vibe i get from him lol. please enjoy.

Word count: 4500

Y/N walked down the street after a long day of working in the bakery, kneading dough and icing cakes and sweets. It was a great job, and she really enjoyed the company of the two elderly owners. In her arms was another small picnic basket filled with sourdoughs and garlic loaves and cinnamon raisin buns. Those leftovers served as her breakfast, lunch, and dinner most days and it saved a lot of money on groceries.

Sometimes, she gifted the bread to friends and family though, like tonight.

As she walked the bustling streets, people walking home from work for the night, she noticed a couple of familiar faces sitting in the windows of a nearby restaurant. Feeling a little social, she walked into the restaurant and turned the corner, walking through the tables and past other booths full of people talking and drinking. It was busy tonight in Konoha, everyone getting ready for the weekend.

She came to a stop beside their table, and shifted so her basket rested in the slight curve of her hip. With her free hand she waved to the men, a small smile gracing her lips.

“Kakashi, Yamato,” she chirped, “I saw you guys in the window on my way home from work and thought I’d stop in to say hello.”

“Y/N. What a pleasant surprise.” Kakashi hummed, peering over his glass of golden liquid at his friend, who he could tell was struggling to figure out what to say or do. Yamato wasn’t normally nervous; he was very cool headed. How else would he become such an important Anbu member? But around Y/N, this woman with flour dusted in her hair and the smell of cinnamon and chocolate on her clothes, he crumbled. Just that smell alone could make Yamato lose his composure. And Kakashi knew that very well. “As a matter of fact, we were just talking about you.”

Yamato coughed on his drink, covering his mouth with his arm to keep from spitting up on the table. Even if they were just talking about her, it was completely uncalled for for Kakashi to stab him in the back like that. He turned to face the young woman who looked down at him with curiosity in her eyes.

“Really? What about?” she questioned, raising a brow.

He averted his eyes to the table again where his hand rested clutching at the glass. “We were just discussing the bakery,” he explained sheepishly, a hand going to rub the back of his neck. He felt the stress coming on, and sweat was beginning to gather on his palms. He felt ill, and more importantly, upset with the friend sitting directly across from him, smirking under that damn mask.

What an evil bastard.

“Mind if I join you guys? I could definitely use a drink.” She motioned to the seat next to Yamato, and he scooted closer to the wall to make room for her. She made sure her basket was sealed and secure before reaching over the table to Kakashi. “Can you sit this next to you? I don’t wanna take up the whole table.”

“No problem.”

She slid into the seat beside Yamato, and he realized just how small their table really was. The chair was clearly made for one person, or maybe two small people. They were just inches away. He could literally feel the heat of her thigh beside his. He was losing his mind, he was sure of it. There was absolutely no reason to act or think this way just because of a woman, a little baker from the village. No reason. It was inappropriate.

He took a deep breath and sipped on his drink. Everything was cool. Y/N L/N was cool.

“What kind of goods are you bringing home tonight?” Yamato asked calmly.

“Uh, lets see. A sourdough loaf and a garlic rosemary loaf. Also, I have about eight cinnamon buns in there,” she listed off the top of her head, “Why? You wanna take some home with you, because that’s fine. I’m not gonna eat all of it.”

“No, not this time.”

“You, Kakashi?”

“Yeah, I’ll take whatever.” It was a free meal for the next day? How could he say no to that?

The waitress came around, and Y/N ordered a tall glass of some sweet drink, something she knew wouldn’t taste like shit but would get her all warm and cozy quick, fruit juice covering up the taste of poison. “So, what were you guys talking about before I came around? I didn’t mean to interrupt you.”

“It’s good you came around, actually. We could use a woman’s opinion here.” Yamato glared at Kakashi, pleading with everything he had for the copy nin to just leave it alone. Kakashi was set in his goals though, and pushed forward with what he was saying. “It’s about Tenzo.”

An even brighter smile grew on her lips, one full of mischief and curiosity. “Oohoho? I see. What’s got you men stuck?” She loved to gossip, it was just something so interesting in her mundane life. Surely, it wasn’t as interesting to shinobi who almost die all the time and always have something to do, but for a village girl who goes home every night to read and eat bread, and then go to work where she just makes and sells said bread, a bit of juicy personal information really intrigued her.

“It’s honestly not a big deal-”

“Our boy here, he’s got a crush.”

Her eyes widened and suddenly, she felt the urge to down even more of her drink. He was interested in someone? She never expected that. He was always so quiet and calm, and kept to himself. He didn’t seem like the type to ever care about someone in that way. She sighed, taking a long sip on her drink, which tasted like peaches and oranges. At least it was sweet enough to help her curb the impending sadness.

Maybe she was stupid for it, but she cared for Yamato. He was such a sweet and kind man, so earnest and gentle. He was everything good about her mornings, when he would walk in and ask for the same hot cross bun to start his day. He would smile and compliment the cake decorating she was working on, and tell her about his missions and what he had to do for the day.

Perhaps Y/N had the tiniest of crushes on Yamato. It was something she would never reveal to anyone else, but it was true. She couldn’t deny herself that fact.

Kakashi stared at the woman, gauging her reaction to the statement. From the way she immediately went to sip away half of the drink in her glass, and the way her shoulders curled in on themselves, he could guess how she was feeling. He wasn’t usually a fan of meddling in other people’s business, but he was beginning to feel tired of Yamato complaining day in and day out about how he could never get the girl or express his feelings. He was afraid of rejection, as sad as that might be.

He was just there to give them a push in the right direction.

“I see.”

“What do you think he should do? What do the civilian girls like?”

This crush was just another civilian. It would be one thing if he fell in love with a kunoichi, someone she would never be able to compete with, but the thought of him choosing another normal woman over her, the envy practically oozed from her pores. What did this other girl have that Y/N didn’t?

Y/N ordered another drink when the waitress walked by. And then another after she drank the second one. Might as well get more down and drown out these jealous thoughts.

Meanwhile, she listed off things that random women normally like when men do for them, things she didn't really care about like chocolates and asking them out to dinner and giving them stuffed animals. Boring things. Things they all already knew. Kakashi agreed that the advice was kinda bland, and he could have come up with that easily.

Yamato eyed her down nervously as she practically chugged the rest of her drink. The woman wasn’t a big drinker, just a couple innocent cocktails here or there, never with the intention of getting drunk.

“You okay, Y/N?”

“Yes, I’m perfectly fine,” she told him smoothly. “Anyway, I’m not done telling you all about us village girls.”

The third drink came by and she sighed, taking another long sip. At least it tasted good, that made it easy to drink and drink and drink.

“Maybe you should slow down.”

“Maybe you should worry about yourself. I’m grown. I can handle myself, Yamato.” He felt a pang in his chest at her sharp words, ones that he’d never really heard directed toward him. She scolded Kakashi on the daily for being a pervert, but only kind words met Yamato’s ears previously. “Anyway, about this girl. Have you tried getting her anything as a gift? The things I listed before? Love notes? That sorta thing?”

He shook his head. “Well, no. I haven’t tried anything yet.”

“That’s the thing about you, Tenzo. You’re so modest. If you want the girl, you need to go in and get her. You need to show her what she means to you, since you can’t bring yourself to just outright tell her.”

“The whole bold displays of affection aren’t my thing.”

She hummed, her head lolling from side to side as she twirled the straw of her drink in between her fingers. “Maybe you should try some roundabout approach since you’re so scared of rejection. Send her anonymous letters and gifts, give her little clues that it’s you and see how she reacts.”

“Like a secret admirer?"

“Exactly! That’s sooo romantic. I wish some guy would do that shit for me.”

Kakashi raised a brow. “Oh, really?”

“Of course. I’m almost 27 and I’ve never had a long lasting relationship. I just want some guy to really, I don’t know, just love me. Love who I am, not hook up with me for my body or-or only pretend to like me for coupons on bread,” she complained, quite loudly as well. “Fuck those guys and their bread discounts...”

“Y/N-”

“I’d suggest you do something like that for your crush. Make her feel like you really care about her mind and soul.” Y/N clutched her hand over her heart and squeezed the front of her dress. “So many men nowadays act like horny teenagers, and us ladies are sick of it.”

She really did not need to go into such detail, and Yamato could tell she was drinking too much. Y/N would never say these things aloud if she were completely in her right mind. He felt rude just sitting there letting her rant on and on, exposing her own feelings to the table. But at the same time, he was grateful to know what she wanted in a lover. She never really let on what her romantic life was like, other than single for the most part.

That is what he and Kakashi were discussing before she came around. He was desperate to sweep her off her feet and woo her, to make revealing his feelings easier. Kakashi told him to just go to the bakery and tell her right then and there, but that was just too bold. He wasn’t going to go in without a plan, it was irrational.

“Yamato, I’m telling you, if this woman rejects you, she’s fucking stupid. You’re a catch. You and Kashi over there, both of you could get any woman you want, and that’s a fact.” the woman waved her hand to emphasize her point, only to knock the rest of her fourth drink over into her lap, sticky syrup soaking into her apron and through to her skirt. “Oh man.”

“I think it’s time for you to head home, little miss Y/N,” Kakashi chimed in, “This is exactly why we don’t bring you to bars, you know.”

“Shush. I am fine.”

Yamato sighed, motioning with his hands for her to move to the edge of the seat. He rolled his eyes at her words, knowing she was talking out the ass. “Yeah, yeah. Just get up, Y/N. I’m taking you home.”

Both men were surprised when she lifted her hand and pushed him away from her. Her glare was intense, anger behind those eyes. “No! Not you. I want Kakashi to walk me home.” The man was taken aback by the harshness in her tone. She was normally calm tempered, but her head was spinning and she was obviously growing moody.

“That’s fine by me. Yamato, you’ll pick up the bill for us and uh, clean this mess, right?” Kakashi smirked as he slid out from the booth and picked up her bag of baked goods. She followed suit, climbing out of her seat and grabbing onto the shinobi’s arm tightly. He really couldn’t care any less about her nonsense. It had been so long since they became friends, he’d seen her in every mood imaginable, and much drunker than this. He’s walked her home more than a few times in their past years.

“Curse you, cheap-ass.”

“Gotta go.”

With that, the white haired man walked out the restaurant with a woman in tow. They lived in the same direction, so he started down the street as she stumbled after him, tripping occasionally on pebbles. He felt bad for his friend, really. But the answer was clear as day now. Y/N cared for Yamato a lot more than she let on. It was just up to one of them to make a move. He couldn't do everything for them.

She tripped along beside him, letting her head fall against his shoulder a few times. Her eyes slid up to the man’s masked face, and he felt her hands begin to quiver a bit around his arm, just a tiny bit, but it was still there. Those little, very-telling, tremors.

“What’s wrong, Y/N?” he asked gently, knowing she would immediately spill whatever was stuck on her mind.

“Kashi, why does Tenzo want some other village girl?” she questioned, her cheeks puffing out and her eyes getting watery with tears. “Why doesn’t he want me? I want him so badly, it hurts right here.” she placed her free hand over her stomach and gagged. “I might throw up, it hurts so much.”

“Trust me, it’s gonna be okay,” he hushed, a tiny smile on his lips. He didn’t want to reveal too much to her, but it was just so amusing pulling the strings like this. Two of his friends, one a subordinate and the other a sneaky baker, falling for each other right in front of him. With all the work piling up, this was definitely a refreshing take.

“Also, you shouldn't throw up. It'll burn your throat, you know.”

She nodded, and just clutched onto her stomach as they made their way down the narrow alleyways toward her small apartment. He unlocked the door for her when she struggled to fit the key into the tiny hole that blurred together with everything else. He was a good friend, she thought, and made a mental note to thank him next time she saw him. Well, she tried to make a mental note, but when her body hit the mattress in the corner of her small studio, she found herself drifting away.

__________

God, her head hurt so badly she thought her skull was cracking open right then and there, as she lifted her head from her pillow. Light shined in through the window only to make things worse than before. She looked around the room and noticed that her coat was hung up properly on the hook and her shoes were sitting by the door. Her basket rested atop her counter.

Most importantly, on her nightstand sat a glass of water and a couple pills, ready for her to take the moment she woke up. Kakashi or Yamato must have walked her home and put her to bed. They were very nice men, she enjoyed having them as friends, she just worried she had made a drunken fool of herself last night in front of them. She rarely drank heavily, for that reason. She couldn’t even remember what happened, just that she met them at the restaurant and then the rest fell empty in her mind, little images blending together until she couldn’t decipher a thing that happened. She was more than ashamed.

How could she lose control of herself so casually, she wondered. She never even wanted to drink, much less enough to give her this searing headache. Something must have happened last night that influenced her decisions. Maybe she had a drinking contest with Kakashi like that one time before. If so, that was completely uncalled for on the man’s part. He knew her tolerance.

Nevertheless, she needed to get ready for work. A hangover wasn’t enough to heed the workings of the bakery.

She took the pills, and threw off her covers, walking over to her counter to take out one of the cinnamon rolls, taking a big bite to curb her hunger pains. After taking a moment to compose herself, she got ready for work. If she was late, she knew the owners would be forgiving, but she still felt bad regardless. She was going to walk in looking like a complete disaster.

As she headed out her door that morning, she stumbled on something sitting right at the foot of her doorstep on the welcome mat. Resting there, in a tiny little ceramic pot, stood a bonsai tree, trimmed and cared for perfectly. Her eyes scanned the area for who could have set it there, but met only empty space.

Hesitantly, she picked it up and brought it into her home. There was no note attached, nothing to signal who’d given it to her. Just a little tree that she would put on her window sill. It was strange, she had to admit that, to receive an anonymous gift at such an hour. She’d have to ask her friends about it later on to see if one of them had given it to her, for reasons she didn’t know.

But as the days went by, and those days turned into weeks, she continued to receive gifts every few days. More tiny trees in pots, sometimes flowers in little glass vases. None of them at first had anything attached until the most recent piece which when she picked it up to take into her home, a folded piece of paper sat beneath the vase. She made sure to pick it and put it in her apron to read on her break when she went to work. She didn’t have the time when she woke up only about 20 minutes before she was due at her job.

She was more than grateful for the little garden she was accumulating on her window sill, the beautiful flowers and trees somehow surviving despite her little knowledge of taking care of them. She stopped by a flower store in town to get some fertilizer just to keep them alive. It would be a shame if they died since someone was being so kind as to give them to her.

With her boring life, the flowers brought a smile to her face and a warmth in her heart that she hadn’t felt before. Regardless of who was leaving the items there, she felt like she was important to someone. Some person was taking time out of their day to show they cared about her.

Truthfully, she’d be lying if she said she hadn’t wished it was Yamato leaving her gifts. She’d been attracted to the man for quite some time, ever since they met really. He was just so strong and brave, and awkward in a cute kind of way. He was truly the only man of her affections, and she could only dream she was the object of his as well.

It was more than unlikely though. He was a strong ninja of the leaf. The chances of someone that amazing wanting to be with someone as simple as the town baker were lower than she wanted to admit. He most likely had his eyes set on some gorgeous kunoichi like Shizune or Kurenai. Someone he could relate to, really.

It was embarrassing to even admit she had a crush on him. It made her feel so tiny and weak, knowing that she wasn’t his ideal.

So she pushed that thought from her mind. Yamato would never be interested in her, and he most certainly not the one leaving her little notes and plants.

What she did know was that this person was a shinobi. Maybe not Yamato, but they were definitely a shinobi. She set up a trap, at least one she thought a normal person would fall for. Right before her door, she set up a tiny trip wire made of floss at the perfect level for someone to pull loose when they walked up to leave a gift on her welcome mat. Her room was at the very end of the hallway, so there was no way anyone else except her secret admirer was the one to set off the trap. Any normal person without the high perception of a shinobi would set off the trap and she would be able to narrow down the results to a civilian.

Only, the morning after she set up the trip wire, when she opened her door, there sat another bouquet of flowers, as well as an untripped strip of floss.

This person had to be a shinobi. She concluded. It was the only explanation in her mind, desperate to find out who the mystery person was all this time.

As she walked the streets that afternoon after the store had closed, her eyes honed in on Yamato, who stood next to a vegetable stand picking up some groceries. Immediately, she turned on her heel and cornered him between the squash and the sweet potatoes.

“Yamato, I need to talk to you. It’s urgent. Do you mind?” she practically demanded, and his eyes widened. He did not expect such an abrupt conversation between them. He shifted awkwardly to rest his grocery bag in the crook of his elbow and lean on his left side, arms crossed over his chest.

He knew what she wanted to talk about. It was about those gifts that he had been giving her. It was just a matter of whether she had figured out it was him or not, that was the question. He was kinda hoping she didn’t know yet. He was not ready to face what came after the reveal, rejection or otherwise. He really hadn’t thought it that far out yet. How could he. Just thinking up love notes and what plants to give her next was more than enough to worry about.

But damn, when he looked down at her, hair dusted with flour from a days work, a smudge of cake batter still on her forearm, apron a complete mess, he wanted to cave and tell her everything. She was just so beautiful, so clumsily perfect he couldn’t help but lose his train of thought. He swore he’d never seen a woman more perfect than her, not even Naruto’s sexy jutsu could come close to this girl.

He found his ears heating up and no doubt turning red at the thoughts running through his mind, and he was quick to smother them down. He was not irrationally emotional. Hell, he was ANBU, he should be able to control his emotions down to a tee.

“Yes, Y/N?”

“I have a secret admirer, and I know they are a shinobi.”

He felt himself growing nervous. How had she deduced that? “Ah, that’s definitely exciting for you. How do you know it’s a shinobi?”

“I know because I set up a tripwire last night and the person didn’t set it off, so I know they are coordinated enough to avoid it. This isn’t just some random village boy. This is someone skilled.”

“Y/N, he could have very well just avoided the trap with his natural gait, don’t you think?” he tried to reason with her, try to get her off his trail. Admittedly, he thought she was quite clever for setting up the trap. When he walked over it the night before, he swore it was just a spider web. He didn’t even consider the possibility of a trap in his way.

If only he could throw her off his scent. He needed more time. He couldn’t confess to her now. It was too abrupt, too sudden. He would probably die.

“No, I’m convinced it’s a shinobi.”

Shit. “Well, what are you going to do now?”

She thought for a short moment on what she was going to say, tapping her foot on the ground beside her. Her eyes widened and she smiled at the thought that ran through her mind. Of course, it was so obvious. “The gifts come sporadically, so I know that the shinobi can’t leave gifts when they are on missions. Next time there is a long break in gifts, I will just ask around to figure out who has been on a mission for a while. Bam, I’ve got my answer. It’s foolproof.”

She really had thought this through more than him. She was too good, and he felt himself panicking. He had a weeklong mission in 3 days, and if she asked anyone, they would tell her it was him. He felt moisture gather up at his brow, and he internally cursed his situation. He had to find some way out of this mess without her figuring out it was him.

“Yeah, that could definitely work. I hope it all works out for you, Y/N,” he lied through his teeth.

“I know. I’m just smart like that, aren’t I?”

“You sure are,” he muttered, but honestly, he just wanted to go off and find Kakashi. He needed to talk to him. His eyes slid away from Y/N and he sighed. “I’ve got to go, but I’ll see you around, yeah?”

“Yeah, of course. Don’t forget to stop by before your next mission to get some of our special food pills, okay? I just made a new batch and you can try them free of charge. Anything for a fella as handsome as yourself.” She laughed, shifting her weight to press a hand to her hip.

Jeez. There was no good reason for her looking so adorable. Calling him handsome as well? It was all too much for his heart to handle. Needless to say, he felt like he was going to explode if he didn’t walk away right then. With that, he simply nodded before patting her shoulder. “Like I said, gotta go.”

“Oh, okay. See you around.”

“See you.”

He walked away quickly, heading in the direction of Kakashi’s apartment, knowing he just had to do something about the mess he was currently in, and ways to avoid the inevitable. His heart was racing so fast he thought he might be having a heart attack. How could he be swayed so easily by a pretty face. He had no idea, but he really wanted it to stop. For the sake of his sanity, he needed to learn to be calm around her.

He would tell her soon, get all this off his chest and share his true feelings. He just needed a bit more time.

[imaginesbymk]

“Melting.”

Stranger Things One Shot

Summary: Robin thinks you’re crushing on your best friend Steve, but little did she know...

Pairing: Robin Buckley x Reader

Requester: @fangirlsarah16 “Congrats on 1k lovely!!! 😄💗🎉 that’s so freaking amazing and you deserve it! For your 1k celebration, could I please request a one shot with Robin Buckley where the reader is best friends with Steve and Robin has a crush on the reader but thinks they are into Steve so Robin is upset by it and when they hang out, Robin accidentally confesses and the reader kisses her to proves they like her? Thanks love! 💖”

Tags: swearing

Word Count: 1,241

Author’s Note: sooooo sorry for the huge delay, sarah!! but enjoy!!! song inspiration is melting by kali uchis <333 pls leave a like/reblog + feedback :))

STEVE slumped his way to the front counter to serve a new customer. “Welcome to Scoops, what can I get you?”

You watched him from the window, Robin was watching you watching him - a chain, really. It came to her and she wished to look away. The first time Robin saw you as Steve’s best friend (who is technically her best friend from now on - she doesn’t make the rules), she naturally assumed the obvious: you have a crush on your best friend, the one that’s friends with children. 

Now that you’ve been staring at Steve for nearly a minute, that sort of proved her point.

You turned your head around and noticed she was staring at you. “What?”

“Huh, what? Nothing, it’s just uh-” she stammered. “It’s freakin’ hot in here, I’m melting.”

The fact that you were always able to walk in the back and chill at one of the tables with Robin and Steve was beyond either of you three, but neither of you cared - but there wouldn’t be a reason for it to be hot inside an ice cream shop.

“Um, we’re literally right beside the freezer, it’s like minus a thousand degrees.” You popped a piece of gum in your mouth. “Dunno, it could be that cheap uniform your boss made you wear,” you teased.

“Robin, the cash register is broken!” Steve hollers from the other side. That queued Robin to not sit on the job, and she quickly left the back room.

She had this sibling kind of friendship with Steve, and she most certainly couldn’t hate him for being the person you’re crushing on, it wasn’t his fault, the poor kid.

The gentleman who ordered a five dollar vanilla cone stood there as Robin began slamming the side of the register (as if that was gonna get it to work and not break it even more), the thought of an outrage from their boss due to the cost of repair or even buying a new one was out of her mind.

Steve offers the customer a smile.

The door swung open like a saloon, and out you came to see the commotion. You smiled at Robin after noticing what she was doing. Robin’s heart melts like an ice cream faster than the ice cream she serves to customers at Scoops Ahoy whenever you smile at her. For someone who’s miserable and sarcastic eighty-percent of the time, she developed a soft side she never knew she even had. The problem was, she wished you knew that.

After multiple slams, the register let out a sound and the tray pulled out, sending coins flying to the ground.

“Nice. Our boss is gonna pop a vein when he sees this,” Steve says, bending down to the pick up the coins off the floor. You and Robin helped. 

Steve starts with one side, you and Robin collected the dimes and pennies. One last dime was spotted, so you reached your hand over to grab it... as did Robin. Her hand was greeted with yours, barely even touching the coin. The both of you shot looks at each other, blushing like hell. Robin’s melting heart solidified back to normal just for it to hammer.

“Ahem,” Steve cleared his throat, breaking the silence. “You two wanna fight over the dime?”

The two of you quickly got up and smiled at the customer who just wanted their cone.

“Y/N?” It was hard to resist going on those coin slot horse rides in the middle of the mall, especially when the mall was closed and it was the three of you, plus Dustin and some old sanitation worker cleaning the ground floors, you wasted no time goofing around.

“Yeah?”

“While you were getting hot dogs, my boss threw a fit earlier."

“Oh, crap.” You swung your leg off the horse and hopped off. “Did you tell him you slammed the cash register like dough? That seemed to get it work.”

“That wasn’t what he was pissed at me for,” Robin shook her head.

“Then what is it?”

“He noticed you’ve been entering the back room. You’re not an employee.”

You nodded. “I know I’m not allowed to do that, no one’s allowed unless they’re wearing that stupid sailor’s uniform.”

“Y/N, I got blamed for that but Steve always leaves the door unlocked from the back hallways because he knows you come from there. If the boss sees you there one more time, we’re done. I’ll get fired.”

“So will Steve, he’ll be in hot water, for sure. He’s the one who keeps the door-”

“Forget about Steve, dude!” She snaps.

You chuckle. “Okay! What’s your deal, Robin?”

“Y/N...” Robin sighs, walking towards you. “If you like Steve so much that you’re willing to go inside Scoops and risk his job just to be with him, and then I’m the one taking the blame for it, then that’s kinda shitty.”

“What?” you said. “Whoa, whoa, whoa! You think I like Steve?”

“Hey, don’t drag me into this!” Steve calls from the front of the shop, locking the gates with the keys.

“Shut up Steve!” you both yell.

You both turn to each other. “Hold on, you don’t like Steve?” Robin asks, hoping to confirm it to be a no from you.

“Why would I ever like Steve that way? He’s a friend,” you say.

“Because I see the way you look at him and you laugh the hardest when he falls down like an idiot, it seemed very obvious,” Robin explained.

“Why would you even care about that?”

“Because I like you!” Robin’s voice echoed in the empty shopping mall. Steve stops jiggling the keys inside the locked gates, eyes bulging wide at Robin. Perhaps all three of you had turned red, and froze all together like mannequins on display.

Dustin walks in from the back hallways, managing to sneak out a bowl of dessert, unpaid. “Who wants to take the first bite - too bad it’s me!” he ignores the awkward silence unbeknownst the argument and Robin’s confession.

“Wait, you... like me?” you said softly. Dustin stares at the two teenagers, slowly savoring the taste of the treat as if he was watching a movie in the theater. “Why didn’t you say something?”

“Do you know how hard it is to confess something like that to someone?” Robin’s voice cracks. “Especially when you’re convinced that the person you like - likes someone else.”

“Robin, did all of that ice cream make your brain freeze for good? I don’t like Steve,” you shook your head. “I like you. It’s been you this whole time.”

“Are you freaking kidding me right now?” Robin raised a brow. “You never showed it, I never took the slightest hint, like at all.”

Then why else would you convince Steve to unlock the back doors, and let Robin be the first person you see when you enter, just to brighten her dull day on the job? All that for her. You wished there were better ways, and you wished and wished nothing but the best for her than making money serving ice cream at Starcourt. 

You rushed towards her, your cold hands from the free ice cream pressing on her shoulders. You leaned in, and did the thing that Robin had been wanting to do since the very beginning. 

Steve began to cover Dustin’s eyes. 

“How's that for a hint?” you smile at her after pulling away.

_

taglist: @fangirlsarah16 @moonlit-imagines @captainshazamerica @always-imagine-a-dream @randomfandomimagine @locke-writes

[satorinni]

𝕞𝕦𝕥𝕖

track 18: feelings?

Kenma has never really been a people person. Yeah, over the years he’s gotten better with ‘human interaction’ , but he would still prefer to be alone. There were very few people whose company he didn’t mind, and recently he had been contemplating whether you should be added to the list. Though that idea has been teetering in and out of his mind given the fact you two hadn’t actually hung out in person.  Actually, save for the one pants-less interaction, neither of you had ever been in the same room together. But still, he kinda likes you. More than a friend, he’d like to think. Though the idea scared the fuck out of him, he would actually like to take you on a real date. One that didn’t result in your dinner being up in flames. 

Maybe he’d even take you to a cutesy café in Tokyo. Like the one he was currently sitting in. Eating apple pie. Across from a girl. A girl who definitely wasn’t you. 

“Honestly, I don’t know why you didn’t just become a model.” After the photoshoot, Etsuko insisted on getting a bite to eat. Something about wanting to catch up because it’s been a whole year. He didn’t really understand why, he knew for a fact Kuroo called her every time something juicy happened to him. Whatever that meant. Besides, he couldn’t turn down a slice of his favorite food.

“Because wearing stupid clothes and standing in front of a camera for hours is not my ideal career, ‘Tsuko.” He took another bite of what was left of his slice. He’s glad he chose to sit in a booth away from the windows, he had already been recognized twice on the way here. It’s why he did his best to avoid walking through the city. Especially dressed like this.

“C’mon, Kenmaaaa, the button up is cute. You look like a businessman.” She snorts through her smoothie straw. 

“I am a businessman. I’m quite literally a CEO.” He gives her a deadpan stare before taking a sip from his own milkshake. “I don’t know how your rooster boy manages to wear this stupid getup 24/7. I’m suffocating in these slacks.” He’d been pulling at the tight-fitting pants all day, but the magazine suggested he look professional for the shoot.

“What’s the matter, Kenma? Too much junk in the front?” Etsuko wiggles her eyebrows at him. She always did have the dirtiest mind. 

“Gross, ‘tsuko.” He squints at her and shakes his head. 

“Speaking of your little fella, when was the last time you got laid, baby boy?” Despite her suggestive tone, Kenma knew she was genuinely curious. She was the one who told him what sex was anyway. Gross, he shudders at the memory. 

“Is that an offer, ‘Tsuko?” He knew it wasn’t, and he knew even if it was the answer would be no, but he was deflecting. 

“Only if you let me post it on the hub.” She winks at him and slurps at her empty cup for emphasis. “Quit deflecting, Kenma, I heard about your lil boo thang.” She cracks up at her own joke and asks the waiter for a refill. 

Kenma scrunches his nose in disgust. “Don’t call her that.” Yeah, you guys weren’t dating, and yeah, you probably didn’t even know he liked you, but still. 

“Look at you, defending her honor, how sweet.” She mockingly shakes her head at every word. “I heard you stole her from little rooster boy.” She leans in towards him, like it was some big secret.

“Of course he exaggerated that, he’s the one who set her food on fire. Besides, she texted me first.” He recounts the way he freaked the fuck out when he saw you texted him. His demeanor was always more calm over the internet, probably why he had millions of fans, but he was still an antisocial wreck IRL.

“Ahh, so she’s ballsy, huh. Who knew little Kenma liked bold girls? Tell me about her.” She leans her head into her palm. To anyone else she would’ve dropped it already, losing interest. But this was Kenma, she was always poking her nose into his business. 

“She’s a med student, same age as me. Friend of a friend, I guess. “ He shrugs. He figured that would keep her dormant enough to change the subject. 

“You got yourself a smarty pants. Cute, but that’s not what I wanted to know.” She raises her eyebrow at him. “Do you like her? Is this just a hump and dump? You gonna marry her?” Her eyes got wider with every question, it kinda freaked him out. 

Damn, he thought he could dodge it, but Etsie has always been super pushy. “I don’t know. I mean I'm definitely not gonna hit it & quit it. I haven’t even hung out with her for real.  And dude, I’m 23, m’not thinking about marrying anyone at the moment.” He held his breath and figured that was enough. He was not ready to admit it out loud yet.

“Ah ah ah, you skipped a question, baby boy.” She gives him a devilish grin and leans in even closer. “I won’t tell a soul.”

Okay, even if she was a bit much, Etsuko never spilled Kenma’s secrets. To anyone. Not even Kuroo. But it wasn’t that he didn’t trust her. It was just... Was he ready to admit he had feelings? It's only been a few months, and he hadn’t even spoken to you in person. So what if he texted and called you 24/7? Wouldn’t it be too early? You’d probably be freaked out if he went ahead and confessed his feelings so early on. 

Ah, fuck it. 

“Yeah, ‘Tsuko. I like her. Like a lot. She’s funny as hell, smart as shit, and she gets me. Plus she’s the prettiest girl I’ve ever met. Like, prettier than you.” He knows that would probably offend any other girl, but he was only ever straight up with ‘Tsuko.

“EEK!” Etsuko lets out a pig squeal that has other customers staring in confusion. She balls her fists up and starts shaking aggressively. “My baby boy has a crush! EEK! I’m so proud of you.” She leans over the whole table and grabs Kenma’s face, placing a loud kiss on his forehead. 

He flicks her forehead and smiles. “Shut up, it’s not like this is the first crush I’ve ever had.”

“I take pride in being your first crush, little bro.” She places her hand on her chest in mock pain, but the grin on her face exposes itself. 

“When you put it like that it sounds like incest. I was 8, you weirdo. ” Both were true, when Kenma first met Etsuko he developed a crush on her. (Mostly because she was the only girl who he’d ever interacted with.) It only lasted a month anyway; he eventually got annoyed with how much her and her brother were at his house. Now, after 15 years of being stuck with Kuroo, Kenma could only ever see them both as the siblings he never had. 

“Still, I was your first love, Kenma.” She looks off dramatically into the distance, as if she was having a flashback.

“You’re gay.” The smirk on his face gives off his slight amusement with her stupidly dramatic antics. 

“Now, “ She slams her hands on the table, causing more people to stare and the silverware to rattle, “Aren’t you going to ask me about my lovelife?” 

“No, I don’t care.” He snorts at the hurt look on her face. 

“Well, my girlfriend is doing WONDERFUL, Kozume Kenma, thanks for asking.” She crosses her arms and sticks her nose in the air.

“Yeah, whatever, you’re paying.” He pulls out his phone to see if there are any texts from you. On cue, the notification on his phone displays your name. He grins down at the unopened text, not even bothering to hide his happiness from Etsuko. 

Mid-rant about how he should pay because he’s got all the money, she stops and stares at him. A soft smile appears on her face, a swell of pride shoots through her. She only ever saw Kenma as a baby brother, and was genuinely happy for his growth over the years. 

Suddenly, Kenma’s phone flashes with your contact, a facetime call from you. 

“I gotta take this.” He moves to sit up, but looks up at Etsuko at the last second. 

She grins and nods towards the door. 

“Go get em, tiger.”

𝕡𝕒𝕚𝕣𝕚𝕟𝕘: kozume kenma x medstudent!f!reader

𝕥𝕒𝕘𝕝𝕚𝕤𝕥: send an ask to be added!

𝕤𝕪𝕟𝕠𝕡𝕤𝕚𝕤: enroute to being a neurosurgeon, y/n l/n doesn’t have time for fun, let alone dating. after her friends set her up on a blind date gone wrong, she comes face 2 face with none other than her date’s best friend. her world flips on axis, and suddenly she has no idea how her brain works, or love-at-first-sight.

𝕒/𝕟: this was probably rlly poorly written LMFOAD

taglist!

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[springday-aus]

Disney Prince!AU with Seonghwa

★ Seonghwa as Disney’s Prince Charming ★

moodboard link

Group: ATEEZ 

Member: Park Seonghwa

Genre: fluff, romance, hints of angst 

part of the Disney Prince Series - could also be a prince!au

Type: Bulletpoint AU 

Word Count: approx. 3k

A/N: I had to spice things up a bit bc after a rewatch of Cinderella, I have realized they have no flavor and got a bit carried away—so enjoy! 

Warnings: family death + mentions of abusive family - you know the classic princess storyline. 

Seonghwa….. is not your average prince

but it’s not depicted in a negative light

so, he’s the prince other nations wished they had

he’s very involved with the state of affairs, often spends time in the villages and conversing with the townsfolk, and often visits schools to read to them or just watch them and it’s so……...wholesome

*cut to him struggling to sit on the carpet with the kids bc his legs can’t fold*

basically everyone loves him because he’s got this angelic aura around him that just makes you feel like you can trust him with anything

and I mean anything

mothers would probably offer him their babies if that was appropriate

he’s just super sweet and tries to remember what he learns in order to take it back and make use of it with the current policies that the parliament is trying to endorse or something

obviously, this is the main image of him to the public

and it’s not fake

but those in the palace know he can get a bit mischievous and sassy

it’s only really seen by those who are close with him, or have been around for a longer time

like assistant!Hongjoong and head butler!Wooyoung

since they’re all close in age and grew up together too, they’re much more comfortable with one another

Hongjoong: *hits his head on a doorway*

Seonghwa: “......... are you an idiot?”

guard!Yeosang and butler-in-training!San: laughing

no, but for real, all of them know he’s basically an angel

the amount of shit he’s putting up with them, but like they make for great entertainment lmao

anyways

the older workers at the palace find him adorable

like when Seonghwa tried to sneak-eat the freshly picked strawberries

“my prince, did you just eat a strawberry?”

Seonghwa with a mouthful of them: “no”

he’s like the grandson they all want (and are trying to get, but we’ll get to that later)

other than his charities and visits and public outings, he’s also known to be a good horseback rider

like real good

Wooyoung: “this is the most princely we’ll ever see him”

he’s kidding, but he’s also not kidding

bc lbr: Seonghwa in a horseback riding fit with the shoulder pads and the helmet and the wind and

Wow

many gather to see him in his glorious, sweaty state afterwards

it’s funny bc he’s so handsome and there are times when he’ll acknowledge it and other times when he doesn’t

especially since the ateez boys just ignore him or tease him

now it just depends on how he feels that day as to how he’d react

since he’s got such a good reputation, you know what that means?

lots of treaties and lots of marriage proposals

on one hand, many nearby countries know how nice Prince Seonghwa is—and some thought he was naive enough to be deceived by them

and that led to a few wars, but they lost real bad bc they assumed he was too nice

when, in actuality, he’s very knowledgeable since he takes a lot after the king and the queen

that allowed much more respect for the kingdom, especially since he’s the first in line for the throne once he’s married

which leads to the second thing: he gets lots and lots of marriage proposals

have you SEEN him?????

do you know how CAPABLE he is????

helloo?????

anyways

the royal family kind of milks this—not in that way tho

it’s in the sense that it’s because they want him to find someone soon and there’s more time for them to learn the ropes about ruling a kingdom

that means lots of balls are thrown in hopes of Seonghwa finding someone to ~catch his eye~ and whatnot

but Seonghwa just uses this as a diplomatic advantage, you know? like a chance for him to meet other royals and build these relationships

and while he has good intentions, the rejected royals are kind of bitter, but they know better than to mess with the Royal Family

meanwhile, party planner!Yunho is lowkey racking in the dough from these events, so he’s fine throwing all these balls lmao

this is where you come in

but, it’s not how others might think

so, you used to be the daughter of a well-of-ish family—you had money for a house and caretakers who adored you and you with parents who loved you dearly

you lived in your own little bubble of love

but then your mother died

when she died, it was almost as if she had taken the lively atmosphere of the household with her

your father buried himself into his work, rarely making time for you anymore and…. there was a drift

one day he came home with a mysterious woman, proclaiming her as your stepmother

along with her came her two daughters, who were as ugly outside as they were on the inside

while you could have done without her passive-aggressiveness, it was nice to see your father happy

but lo-and-behold, you lucked out and he died on a business trip, leaving you alone with strangers to become your only family

it only got worse from there as they openly started to mock you, shame you and push you beyond your boundaries

as they could no longer pay for the staff, they also forced you to clean after them, cook for them, and make all the arrangements that they demanded

or, as your oh-so-lovely stepmother said “you’re below us and you will always be below us”

at first, you put up with it because there’s nowhere else for you

but, slowly, the idea of running away was starting to sound better

and the opportunity came as the palace was starting to look for more servants who would stay in the servants’ quarters

you immediately packed away your things, which wasn’t much to begin with—your mother’s locket being the major trinket you possessed

and ran off to work as a housekeeper, who hid away behind the palace walls and the public eye

since you clean for the palace, it also means cleaning after the balls

other than television appearances, you never really saw the royal family

even as you did work in the palace because……………. they’re running a goddamned country

but, of course, there are rumors and gossip with the other housekeepers which all come from reliable resources

**cough cough definitely Wooyoung cough cough**

so there’s a lot of what you heard, not really from what you’ve seen, despite what some might think when working in the palace

that was until you were called to work at your first ball

which meant you were cleaning after the tables and in the kitchens, going in and out of the ballroom and between dinner tables

getting glimpses of some of the royals

and picking up on some of their juicy conversations

(apparently this one duke almost had an affair with this king’s secret mistress… all the tea)

anyways

you get the point

every once in a while you have to work at the balls when they need the extra help

but, there was one that was…………. different

a lot of the balls are for the royals to take and engage and whatever, but there have been so many and Seonghwa………….

Seonghwa hasn’t been interested in a single one despite the purpose being to help him find someone

Hongjoong: “what’s wrong with them?”

Seonghwa: “there’s nothing wrong with them, I don’t want just someone”

Seonghwa: “I want it to happen naturally—call me old fashioned but if this is someone I want to spend the rest of my life with, it has to be someone who knows me”

Wooyoung, in the corner: “that is old fashioned, hasn’t he heard of tinder?”

advisor!Mingi: “I don’t think it would be a good look for the country if the prince is on tinder”

guard!Yeosang: “we should test it out”

butler-in-training!San: “omg reverse pretty woman”

Hongjoong: “everyone get out, you’re all useless”

okay, but like real talk: he’s such a romantic and the whole unofficial arranged marriage is just………. too much

so, his parents were like: so, you want more options?

Seonghwa: “not what I said”

and they expanded the invitation list for one night, meaning ANYONE had a shot with Seonghwa and

well

he is very popular, so you can imagine how many people were planning on coming and the staff (i.e. you) had to prepare for everything

for the week, the castle was bustling and you were running around to help out and it……. it was all so insane

and then it happens

you’re minding your own business and working and eavesdropping as one does when one works

because everyone is there and who doesn’t love listening to drama that isn’t just from fancy people

but since everyone is here

you failed to remember that a certain group of people were also there

the group of people being your step-mother and step sisters

instinctively, you ducked and hid, moving away from the main room that was swarmed with people who were all trying to obtain Seonghwa’s attention

(who was also trying to hide from everyone else and instinctively failing)

eventually, you found yourself in the gardens, where you tried to make yourself busy

but it ended up being a small walk through the gardens, picking up the occasional liter and small talk with the gardeners

the garden is huge, so you get a bit lost as you wander—physically and emotionally

meanwhile, Seonghwa managed to escape from the others with the help of the other ateez boys

major shoutout to Yunho and Jongho, who insisted on leading the cupid shuffle and cha cha slide

also Yeosang for blocking off people who were trying to shoot their shot with a tired Seonghwa who did not want any of this

he ended up in the gardens as well, walking down a small path with Yeosang trailing a bit farther behind

he spots you on a bench, admiring the flowers under the bright moonlight

and you were absolutely breath-taking

not wanting to disturb your peace, he tried to leave

only to knock into a garden gnome and catch your attention as he tries to not break it

You: “um”

Seonghwa: “I’m so sorry, I was just going to leave, I didn’t mean to disturb you”

You: he looks familiar

You: “I know you from somewhere”

Seonghwa: literally in the most extravagant suit and sparkle make-up as he’s still crouched on the ground trying not to break a gnome that cost like $5 at a Target

also Seonghwa: “have we met before?”

you exchange names and that’s when it clicks

You: “OH MY GOD. MY PRINCE.”

immediately, you try to curtsy or bow or whatever the royals make you do to the ground bc Seonghwa’s still at ground level

and Seonghwa’s just…………. scrambling to try to get you off the ground with flushed ears at you calling him your prince

Seonghwa: “please, you literally do not have to”

You: “I don’t want to be beheaded”

You: “plus, isn’t it like, illegal for me not to?”

Seonghwa: “well, I’m technically giving you orders not to…..”

You: well, can’t argue with that

you slowly get up and dust yourself off, unable to look at him in the eye

even from the corner of your eyes tho, you can see what the fuss is about

bc Seonghwa in that suit and hair swept back is hot™

You: “Prince,  I apologize if I’m speaking out of line, but shouldn’t you be inside?”

Seonghwa: “couldn’t I ask you the same thing?”

You: “but this is in your honor, not mine”

Seonghwa: “is it tho?”

Seonghwa: “I keep telling everyone I would like to fall in love on my own and yet………. everyone keeps meddling and making plans and now everyone in the kingdom is after me when I’m just trying to do my best for our citizens”

you’re a bit silent, unsure as to how to respond

Seonghwa: “I’m sorry for just dumping this on you, but, everyone keeps telling me I shouldn’t be so worried”

You: “well, Prince, I think what you need to hear is that your feelings are valid”

You: “it’s only natural for you to want to find someone on your own—freedom is something everyone wants, which is why it’s so hard to obtain”

there’s a bit of an awkward silence

for one bc you didn’t know what he was really like and if you were allowed to say something like that

two being that you didn’t know if you should leave

but he speaks up

Seonghwa: “you’re right—I did need that”

the air loosens a bit between the two of you

Seonghwa: “so, are you also hiding from an influx of suitors?”

you laugh a little, playing like a twinkling melody to Seonghwa’s ears

You: “no, but I am hiding from people”

Seonghwa: “it’s okay, you don’t have to share if you don’t want to”

you two get to spend a bit more time together, just chatting and getting to know one another

he’s really sweet, but also kind of goofy with a handful of cheesy pickup lines that definitely comes from spending too much time on the internet but also Wooyoung

the time is short but sweet

bc, before you know it, it strikes 12 and Hongjoong has a hold on him by bulldozing past Yeosang who just blinks at the small gust of wind

Hongjoong: “Seonghwa! your parents are looking for you! we gotta go!”

he greets you hastily, before grabbing a hold of Seonghwa and dragging him away—in which Seonghwa is still trying to get one last look at you before you disappear off into the night

or, in your case, back to the kitchen to avoid your stepfamily

the rest of the night passes as expected, at least for you as you busy yourself with washing dishes in the kitchen

but Seonghwa found himself like a mercat, poking his head around trying to find you every once in a while

the time you’d spent together was short, but it was the most fun he’s had at these balls

and it showed, as noted by Hongjoong and Wooyoung with the week that followed after

he was spacing out, wondering what could have been if things were different

basically, homeboy was sulking bc he didn’t know when he could see you again or if you had someone or if you were even interested

Hongjoong: “how are we supposed to help him when we don’t even know who it is?”

Mingi: “didn’t you get a glimpse?”

Hongjoong: “I was busy with other things”

Wooyoung: “so you didn’t even ask for a name?”

Yeosang: “it’s (Y/N)”

all the boys:

Hongjoong: “how do you know that?”

Yeosang: “I was eavesdropping”

San: “um—”

Wooyoung: “wait, we know (Y/N)”

Yunho: “so am I throwing another party or?”

Wooyoung: “we can find (Y/N) first and then throw a party”

so, they kind of hunt you down to where you’re cleaning for the day

and Wooyoung asks you about Seonghwa

lowkey bc he wants the tea but also bc he wanted to make sure you’re not one of those insane people that are completely obsessed with him

(considering what he had to witness during that last ball)

and after passing his vibe check

he sends you to the library “to clean”

which is odd because you already cleaned it for the week but

Wooyoung: “I’m technically your boss, so go”

You: weirded out

also you: “okay”

little did you know, Seonghwa was already there, occupying himself with some new books while Hongjoong and Yeosang were keeping an eye out for you

who was lowkey trying to hide in the shadows and failing miserably bc of all the goddamned windows

Seonghwa spots your shadow, quickly getting up and following you

Seonghwa: “wait! (Y/N)?”

you turn around, a bit startled from the call out

Seonghwa: “I thought it was you”

you give a small bow to greet him

You: “my prince”

Seonghwa: “you can just call me Seonghwa”

Seonghwa: “I didn’t know you were here”

You: “I didn’t know you were here either”

he lets out a small chuckle

Seonghwa: “I meant I didn’t know you were staying in the castle”

You: “I’m not just staying here, I work here prin—Seonghwa”

Seonghwa: “well I guess that makes finding you a bit easier around here”

You: “you were looking for me?”

Seonghwa: “well, I like your company”

You: flushed

Seonghwa: “do you enjoy mine?”

You: “I’d be glad to bask in your presence”

and for a moment, it’s just the two of you

*cut to Hongjoong and Yeosang high-fiving in the back*

after that, the two of you spend more time together

it’s cute bc Seonghwa also likes to clean (which explains why there were never housekeepers needed for him)

so it means he also helps you clean and still have fun doing it

speaking of which, you got to find out how domestic he is and it melts your heart every time

especially when he’s interacting with children who visit the castle

so you can tell he really wants a family

bc he’s so good with kids and knows how to take care of people and what more can you really ask for

he’s also a great listener 

like he really knows what you need based on what you tell him

and when you opened up to him about what happened at home

he was just such a big sweetheart about it, asking if you’re okay and checking with you emotionally and it 

I LOVE PARK SEONGHWA SO MUCH 

anyways

so his parents did find out bc Wooyoung has a big mouth and def blabbed to San and everyone else in the goddamned kingdom who knows Wooyoung

rip Seonghwa

also rip everyone in the kingdom who found out bc again

Seonghwa is very desired amongst many

which also led to a lot of jealous people who gossiped about you but jokes on them bc you still have Seonghwa at the end of the day and they have jack shit :) 

back to what I was saying 

when his parents found out, they were totally accepting of it considering how happy the two of you are

(also you were lowkey fearful they were just gonna straight up kill you bc you aren’t royal, but also, they’re good rulers who care about people) 

which also meant they wanted to train you to help him run the kingdom but that’s a different story

anyways, prince charming!Seonghwa is indeed very charming

and gentlemanly and all that other good stuff

[invisibleimages]

expensive ferret boy

draco malfoy x gn!reader

words: 1,298

a/n: hi again! this is the third installment of my christmas writing challenge! i actually really like this one shot, it's a bit cRackY but it was really fun to write. thank you all so much for the notes and the follows, i really appreciate it! i literally logged on and found like thirty+ notes on my last one shot! like and follow if you enjoyed!♡

summary: draco loves to spoil his s/o.

warnings: swearing, illudes to the reader coming from a low income household, money anxiety, draco being a little BITCH!

“Draco! Put that back my brother does not need another race car set you got him one last year! And don't even think about buying that dollhouse for my sister, you got her two for her birthday last month.” Y/n couldn't help but rub their temples like a tired mother as they watched Draco stock up on overpriced and flashing gifts for their family. Ever since they started being friends, Draco had always had a thing for buying them large and unnecessary gifts. A gold bracelet for their one month anniversary, a pair of diamond earrings for when they passed their owls, hell he even got them a pony for Christmas in their 2nd year way before they started going out!

Draco never seemed to mind it, saying his family had more money than they needed. Y/n never denounced that, they knew the Malfoy's were filthy rich, but they had always had trouble staying comfortable while being spoiled.

When they first started going out, they decided to tell Draco that they had come from a lower income household despite having wizard parents and since they never had much they weren't used to huge surprises or big amounts of money being spent on them. He had seemed to understand, cutting down on buying them things that they deemed overpriced, until Christmas hit.

Y/n's parents had invited Draco over for the break, just to get to know the rest of the family. And the minute the two had got off the train to make there way to the L/n's residence, Draco had set Y/n off before him in a act to surprise her family. They didn't think much, Draco always seemed to like dramatic entrances, but they never thought he would walk through the door with big presents for their whole family.

Of course their younger siblings loved it, flocking to him to get whatever he had gotten them. And their parents were flattered, thanking the boy for his gifts and welcoming him with open arms. “Oh god Malfoy, now I definitely have to marry you.” That night Draco had gifted them a night of cuddles, they only gift they had wanted.

Now it was basically a tradition, Malfoy buying their siblings and family huge gifts and giving them a night alone just to lay back and bask in each other. But for some reason, this year felt different. Y/n had yet to put their finger on why, they just knew something was off. Deciding to come out of their own head, they focused on Draco who was putting in multiple doll sets for her younger siblings. Oh this was going to be a long day.

Getting home the two were holding multiple bags, all of them either groceries or presents for the family. The others were out, visiting a family friend for the evening so Draco and Y/n had plenty of time to wrap gifts and get dinner started. Draco moved all the gifts to Y/n's bedroom while they started to tidy up the kitchen before prepping the food.

“Hey ferret boy! Come down and help me cut these onions!” After hearing him audibly grimace at the nickname, Y/n couldn't help but smirk. Teasing the bleach blonde boy was their favorite pastime, seeing him get all flustered and annoyed was absolutely adorable seeing as he was scrunch his face up in a way to imitate a ferret. “Beloved, I thought I asked you to stop calling me that.” Y/n almost there dropped the kitchen knife they were holding when they felt Draco's arms around their waist. “You little rodent, I almost stabbed one of us!” Y/n complained, attempting to detach Draco's arms from their body. For a seemingly skinny boy, Draco had a really strong grip.

“Ewwwww Draco is kissing Y/n!” Y/n's family came through the door, their little brother running up to Draco, attempting to pull him off of Y/n. He had always preferred playing with Draco ever since they first met. “Go away you little Doxy, get your own boyfriend.” Y/n said finally breaking out of Draco's iron grip and ruffled their younger brothers hair, much to his displeasure. “Y/n, don't be mean to your brother.” Y/n's mother came through the kitchen, giving Y/n a kiss on the cheek and Draco a small hug before going immediately to finish the small amount of work they did in the kitchen. “Don't worry YB/n, I would never kiss them, they have cooties.” Picking up YB/n, Draco and him continued to joke around, teasing you in the process. “You weren't saying that when you were kissing my a-” Getting cut off with the smack of a spoon on the head, Y/n turned towards their agitated mother. “Language Y/n! Not in front of the young ones!” mumbling off an apology, Y/n walked into the living quarters past a snickering Draco.

“Draco, do you wanna play with me?” Looking down, Y/n saw her dough eyed sister staring up at them and their boyfriend. Even though Y/n's brother played with Draco most of the time, he never turned down playing with Y/n's little sister. They were both pretty sure she had a crush on him, saying that he was the real life prince charming when he was out of earshot and always forcing him to carry her around like a princess. “Don't feed into the fantasy son, we spoil her enough.” Y/n's father always said.

Draco spent the rest of the afternoon playing with Y/n's siblings while they helped their parents in the kitchen. They ate dinner, the two younger kids messily playing with the toy cars they were gifted the year prior. Kissing everyone goodnight, Draco and Y/n made their way upstairs into Y/n's room.

“Sit beloved.” Y/n suddenly turned to look at Draco, his serious voice surprising them. They crawled in bed with him, looking at him fiddle with his fingers. Something he had never done. Y/n's mind immediately went to the worst. Was he cheating? Breaking up with them? They could help the feeling of dread form in the pit of their stomach.

“Beloved, do you think we should take our relationship to the next level?” Shocked and a bit confused Y/n replied, “What's the next level, like sex? Draco we do that like 3 times a week.” Draco's face contorted into his famous frustrated ferret face. “No no you plonker, I mean marriage! A family, adoption, maybe get a cat! I want a family with you Y/n, one way or another.”

“Oh… I mean of course I want to marry you, you're partially my husband anyway!” With that, Draco reached into his pants pocket, pulling out a small black box. “Wait, when did you?” Sliding closer on the bed, Y/n almost passed out seeing Draco open the box. Draco grabbed Y/n's left hand, sliding it on their ring finger. “I-Draco it's gorgeous!” It was simple, a silver wedding band with small diamonds scattered across it, but it was gorgeous.

“Well, I know it's not a real engagement ring, but I at least want you to have it if things go south.” Frowning, Y/n leaned into Draco. Shifting all of their weight so they could lay down on him. “Let's not think about that right now, and think about how much our family is going to freak in the morning, should I say it's a Christmas present for them?” Smiling at his now(kinda) fiance, he kissed their head lovingly. “Yeah, I guess so. I love you, Y/n” Smiled at him, Y/n snuggled into him. “I love you too ferret boy.”

[viastro]

three times a charm | lee jihoon

ミ★ synopsis: in which it takes three attempts for jihoon to finally tell you he loves you.

ミ★ genre: fluff, humor, first confessions!

ミ★ warnings: none!

ミ★ word count: 3,713

ミ★ pairings: jihoon x female reader

ミ★ notes: hi! finally wrote something for my love woozi! i wrote this while sobbing listening to sweet night on repeat so I hope you enjoy it LMAFKPWNG also! change up woozi,,, truly a cultural reset luv x

You know how they say three times a charm? Well, I suppose you could say that in this circumstance, it wasn’t true at all. It took three attempts for Jihoon to finally confess and tell you that he loves you. Yes, that’s right.

Three attempts.

Three. Fucking. Attempts.

You and Jihoon have been friends for a while, both having an intense love for music. You actually met through a performance class you each had to take due to your major. You noticed how serious he was when it came to his work, and how much passion and energy he put into each performance. It truly amazed you.

Unlike Jihoon, who didn’t notice you until you sang for your performance test. He could say that right then and there, is when he first fell in love with something about you. He fell in love with your voice that day, and that’s when his interest in you began. You both didn’t speak until a few weeks later when you mustered up the courage to ask him to go get a coffee with you. That day, you discussed your passions, what inspires you, why you both chose Seoul University. A beautiful friendship began that day.

However, Jihoon was slowly falling in love with you the closer you both got. He would take notice in the way you’d cover your mouth as you’d laugh, afraid that there’s food in your teeth. The way you’d continuously run your hand through your hair when it’d fall in your face rather than put it in a ponytail. The way you’d offer him the first bite of whatever food you guys would order, or how you would always give him small gifts simply because you thought he’d like it.

Lee Jihoon, the man who rejects hugs when he doesn't initiate them, the man who hates skinship in general, would let you cling to him like a small koala. Whenever you two were together, you’re either holding his arm, squishing his face in your hands, or wrapping your arms around him from behind. There is no in between. 

The moment he knew he was in love with you was the day you cried on his lap at three in the morning. You were crying over a dog dying in the movie you both watched. Earlier in your guys’ friendship, he would’ve laughed at you. However, he just pat your head, giving you a small smile, but his heart was pounding against his chest. It was when you wiped your tears away and rolled over so that you were looking up at him, that he took notice of the way your eyes were sparkling. 

Jihoon fell in love with you that night because you held the whole galaxy in your eyes.

Here comes the mentally and physically exhausting part to this. Jihoon’s confession of his love for you. The first attempt was the most casual out of the three, but it failed rather horribly.

━━━━━━ ☁️━━━━━━

“You’re crazy.” You giggle as you fold the chocolate chips into the batter. Jihoon rolls his eyes playfully, feeling his heart twinge at the thought of what he’s planning to tell you today.

Jihoon is gonna tell you he loves you today. He’s gonna fucking do it. 

“Oh yeah? Says the one who thinks it’d be cool to conduct a heist.” He retaliates, making you nudge him with your shoulder.

“And what of it? It’d be pretty epic. I watched Buzzfeed Unsolved’s episode on the museum heist, and I’ve watched plenty of the show Money Heist.” You explain, stealing a chocolate chip and placing it into your mouth. You take out another one, poking Jihoon so that he’d look at you. Jihoon looks up from rolling the second batch of cookies, glancing at you.

“Aahh..” You sound out, opening your mouth for Jihoon to copy. He rolls his eyes, opening his mouth for you to place a chocolate chip right on his tongue. 

“You watched like, one episode of Money Heist, and you fell asleep in the second half of that episode. I wouldn’t say you’ve watched plenty.” Jihoon tells you as he gets back to placing the balls of cookie dough onto the greased pan. 

“Okay first of all, I watched three episodes. Second of all, I was really tired that day cause you made me go on a run at six am.” Jihoon giggles at the memory, making you giggle back at him. He turns so that he’s facing you, and you look at him. His expression is a bit serious now, making you raise an eyebrow.

Now’s the time. Tell her you love her. 

“Yn, I l-”

“What’s that smell?” You interrupt, sniffing the air as you smell something… burning?

“Oh my god yn, the COOKIES ARE BURNING!” Jihoon shouts, turning off the oven immediately. You screech, grabbing the oven mitts and taking out your first batch of now black chocolate chip cookies that are emitting smoke. Jihoon grabs the other set of oven mitts, taking the pan out of your hands and rushing to your balcony and leaving it on the ground. 

He lets out a small sigh, now unable to go through with his plan because your house smells like smoke. 

“Sorry Ji, forgot to set a timer.” You apologize, poking your head out the balcony door. Jihoon looks up at you, feeling himself calm down at the sight of your smile.

“Just make sure to set the timer for the two other batches or else we won’t have a movie night snack.” He responds, stepping back into your apartment to roll the other batches.

Safe to say, he did not end up confessing to you that night. With your apartment smelling like burnt chocolate chips, he decided it’s best to do it another day with a set plan. You both just watched Itaewon Class for the rest of the night, snacking on the two successful batches of cookies.

The second time Jihoon tried to confess, he had a plan. It was a simple plan, but he couldn’t see where it could fail. Alas, we must remember that it took three tries before he finally was able to tell you his true feelings. 

━━━━━━ ☁️━━━━━━

“Where did Hoshi go?” You ask Jihoon as you walk around the mall, looking through shop windows to see what could potentially be a good gift. The three of you planned to go to the mall to go Christmas shopping, but what you don’t know is that Jihoon secretly planned to confess to you today. 

“He told me he had to go to the restroom and will catch up with us later. You know how his stomach gets when he eats pretzels.” Jihoon responds, making you giggle at the thought. You fail to notice the affectionate look in your best friend’s eyes as he watches you smile, but you’ve always been incredibly oblivious.

In reality, Hoshi ran off to go and pick up the bouquet of chrysanthemums at the flower shop, but of course you don’t know that. Jihoon’s plan is to go to the section of the mall where the christmas lights are up, and tell you he loves you, holding out the chrysanthemums to you. You’re both almost to the Christmas lights, when Jihoon’s phone rings. 

“Ah, give me a sec yn.” Jihoon tells you and you nod, waiting by the wall as he walks off to answer his phone. You look into the shopping bag you’re holding, taking a glance at Jihoon’s gift you sneakily picked up. You ordered it a week earlier, deciding that today was a good day to get it since the three of you were going to the mall. It’s a silver band with his initials in it, you knew how much he loved rings so you decided to get him a special one. 

“What do you mean the flower shop is closed?” Jihoon whisper-shouts into the phone, to which Soonyoung flinches on the other end.

“They’re not open! They closed at 12 in the afternoon.” Soonyoung says, and Jihoon lets out a loud sigh. He checks his watch, seeing that it’s literally 8:00 at night. 

“I fucking hate it here, okay. I’ll just confess without the flowers and give her them tomorrow or something.” Jihoon says, and Soonyoung agrees on the other end. Only for all the lights to shut off a second later. Those in the mall let out a loud scream, making Jihoon cringe.

“EEK! There’s a blackout!” Soonyoung yells, and Jihoon’s eyes widen once he remembers that he left you alone.

You’re scared of being alone in the dark.

“I need to go back to yn, turn on your flashlight. I’ll find you in a sec.” Jihoon says quickly, ending the call and turning on his flashlight. He walks over to where he last saw you, only for you to not be there. His eyes widen, not caring about the chaos that’s going on around him. He walks a bit further, only to see you sitting in the corner, face hidden in your arms. You’re not moving or flinching at the sound of those freaking out around you, but he can see the way your shoulders are shaking that you’re crying.

“Yn.” Jihoon breathes out, and you look up at the sound of his voice.

“Ji.” You mutter, standing up and running to him, wrapping your arms around his middle.

“You stinky bitch, how could you leave me alone like that.” You cry, making him tighten his hold around you.

“I’m sorry, I won’t do it again. It’s okay, I’m here.” Jihoon reassures you, making you squeeze him tighter, shutting your eyes and breathing him in, letting his presence calm you down.

Jihoon did not confess that night either, knowing you were too frightened by the mall blackout. Instead, you both found Soonyoung when the lights turned back on, and went and got boba. Jihoon was feeling discouraged at this point, but he knew the third try would work. As the saying goes, three times a charm! Incorrect lee jihoon.

Incorrect.

━━━━━━ ☁️━━━━━━

Jihoon had your favorite boba in hand, along with a bouquet of strawberries that he spent the time making with Soonyoung and Seokmin. He knows how much you love strawberries, and he saw the idea on Instagram, so he thought this was the move. It took one day to complete, but it looks great now. Today is the day he will tell you he loves you, today is the goddamn motherfucking DAY.

There’s no way I’ll fail a third time, three times a charm bitch! Jihoon tells himself as he enters the elevator of your apartment building. His hands are shaking as the elevator climbs up to the eighth floor. Once the elevator makes it to your floor, he steps out, making his way to your apartment only to freeze. There’s a man standing in front of your door, handing you a bouquet of pink roses. You smile widely, accepting them with a bow. 

The man is tall, much taller than Jihoon. He’s also handsome, hair slicked back, showing off his perfect eyebrows god damn it. Jihoon feels his heart sink, realizing that he’s too late. He slowly inches back, walking towards the elevator with a broken heart and a stupid strawberry bouquet that he’s gonna force Soonyoung to eat. 

What he fails to hear though, is you thanking your neighbor for bringing you the roses you ordered for your sister’s birthday. “Thank you so much for bringing them to me Mingyu! You know I could’ve just gone and picked them up at your shop.” You tell him, smiling widely at the flowers you bought.

“It’s no biggie, you’re my neighbor anyways. I don’t have a problem with it, it’s easier this way. I hope your sister likes them by the way! Make sure to keep them in your fridge until the day you drop them off.” He instructs and you nod, waving bye happily as he walks off in the direction of his apartment.

“These are so pretty, she’s gonna love them.” You mutter as you close the door, letting out a smile. You take a photo of the flowers, sending them to Jihoon.

✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿

“Hey! How’d it go-” Soonyoung stops once he sees Jihoon slouching as he steps through the door. He places the strawberry bouquet on the table, along with the now half-empty boba. He walks into his room, locking the door behind him. 

“Awe man..” Soonyoung says disappointedly, sitting back down at the dining table. 

Jihoon belly flops onto his bed, curling up and forcing himself to fall asleep.

Now obviously, the third attempt did not work because Jihoon is stupid and just assumed what the situation was without asking. It could’ve worked out if he stayed for a second longer, but he didn’t. Instead, he spent the rest of his day taking a depression nap, with Soonyoung peeking his head in to place food inside.

The fourth, and final attempt, was successful.

━━━━━━ ☁️━━━━━━

Jihoon wakes up the next day, groaning at the light pouring in through his curtains. He reaches out, grabbing his phone from his dresser. He sees the unread message you left him the day before, feeling his heart break a little more once he realizes there’s an image attached. He opens the message, seeing the pink bouquet in a vase in your fridge. 

“She doesn’t have to rub it in my face-”

Yn: look how pretty the roses are! Mina is gonna love them!! If you’re ever gonna buy flowers, go and check out Mingyu’s flower shop, he’s my neighbor! 

Jihoon sits up in bed immediately, eyes widening at the message, heart filling up with hope.

“Oh my fucking God. They’re for her sister.” Jihoon mutters, getting out of bed and walking out of his room.

“Hey Ji, I’m sorry about-”

“The flowers weren’t for her, they’re for her sister. I forgot she buys her flowers every Christmas.” Jihoon mumbles quickly, currently preoccupied with the fact that he no longer has boba for you and the strawberries are already turning bad. Well he did leave the strawberry bouquet on the table. 

“Fuck. How am I supposed to give her this?!” Jihoon yells, running a hand frustratedly through his hair. 

“I mean, you don’t have to? You can just give her that bracelet you bought-” Jihoon shoots Soonyoung a death glare, making him stop.

“Or not.” He says, slowly retracting himself from the situation. Jihoon’s phone rings, and he reaches into his pocket, taking it out to see you’re calling him.

“Hey yn.” Jihoon greets into the phone, and he hears you giggle excitedly.

“Let’s hangout! I have a gift for you.” You say, staring at the small box you wrapped. Jihoon feels himself freeze once he realizes he’ll have to give you the bracelet he got for you earlier than expected.

He was hoping to give you the bracelet on your birthday, which is in a couple weeks, but this will have to do.

“Me too, I’ll head over after my shower.” Jihoon motions for Soonyoung to go and grab the bracelet from his room. Soonyoung nods, rushing over into Jihoon’s room to snatch the gift.

“Okey! Be safe Ji.” You end the call, heading over to take out the brownies you made in the oven.

✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿

“Merry Christmas!” You squeal once Jihoon enters your apartment, making him laugh.

“Merry Christmas Eve yn.” Jihoon corrects, giving you a pat on the head. He sniffs the air, heading straight to your kitchen once the scent of brownies hits his nostrils. He takes the corner piece, shoving it into his mouth.

“Hey! I wanted to have that one.” You pout, hitting his shoulder. Jihoon chuckles, taking the other corner piece and placing it in your hand.

“That’s why there’s four corner pieces, duh.” You roll your eyes, eating the brownie in one bite. 

“You wanna order chicken for dinner?” You ask as you and Jihoon head over to your living room, sitting down by your small christmas tree.

“Chicken and beer? The classic duo.” Jihoon says, which you take as a yes, I would like fried chicken for dinner. 

You fail to notice how nervous Jihoon is, but he’s currently shitting fucking bricks right now. He’s fumbling with the small box in the pocket of his sweatshirt, wondering when would be a good time to give it to you.

“Alright! The food is ordered, let’s watch Christmas movies until it arrives.” You take the remote, turning on the TV and going onto Netflix. 

I’ll do it after we eat, Jihoon thinks to himself.

✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿

“Ah, I’m full.” You mumble, letting a burp escape your mouth as you lean back into the couch. Jihoon chuckles, letting out a small burp himself. 

“Okay so Ji, I have a gift for you.” You tell him after a beat of silence. You walk over to your small christmas tree and pick up the tiny box. You sit back down on the couch, and turn towards Jihoon.

His black hair is a bit messy, and his cheeks are tinged a pretty shade of pink. You’re curious as to whether he’s tipsy already, but he only had a sip of his beer. His mouth is partially open, and you glance down at your hands once you realize you’ve been staring for too long.

“I have a gift for you too yn.” Jihoon tells you and you look back up to see him reach into his sweatshirt pocket, now holding a small box in his hand. You both look into each other's eyes, and smile, handing each other your gifts.

“I have to tell you something-” You both start, bursting out into a fit of giggles after.

“You go first.” You say, pretending to pass him the mic. 

“I’ve tried to tell you this three times already.” Jihoon says with a nervous laugh, refusing to look into your eyes. You cock your head to the side, a small smile popping up on your face.

“Yn, you’re so precious to me.” You bite the inside of your cheek to try and stop yourself from audibly awe-ing out loud. 

“I uh, oh God I’m so nervous.” Jihoon laughs, looking up into your eyes. Your cheeks turn red at the intense stare he gives you, and he wants to reach up and cup your face, but he holds back.

“I love you yn, I really do.” Jihoon confesses, and you smile.

“I know, I love you too Ji.” You say casually, glancing back down at your hands, and Jihoon almost slaps himself in the face at the realization that you thought it was just him saying it in a friendly way.

“No, yn.” Jihoon reaches up and rests his hand on your cheek, making you suck in a breath. “Look at me, please?” You look back up into his eyes to see him staring at you with an expression you’ve seen before, but never was able to tell what it meant. 

It’s the look he’d give you when he thought you weren’t looking. The way he stares at you when you dance in the kitchen as you wait for the food to bake. The one he’d give you when you laugh and turn to glance at him.

“I’m in love with you, yn. I’ve been trying to tell you this for a month.” Jihoon says quietly, and you look down at your hands. You remove his hand from your cheek, picking up the gift from your lap and his, placing it onto the coffee table so that you don’t ruin it with what you’re about to do next. 

“Excuse me.” You mumble, cheeks burning with warmth, you climb onto his lap. Jihoon stares at you with wide eyes, leaving his hands resting by his sides, he notes the incredibly close proximity between you two.

“I never thought you’d finally confess.” You mutter, leaning in and pressing a short kiss to his lips. It’s like a switch goes off, and Jihoon finally wraps his arms around your waist, returning the kiss gratefully. You feel your stomach flip because woah. You end up smiling during the kiss, making Jihoon giggle against your lips. He pulls away to look at you with a big silly smile.

“Does that mean you feel the same way? I mean, you are on my lap right now.” Jihoon teases and you feel your cheeks turn bright red again, choosing to slap his shoulder as your answer. 

“Open your gift Ji, I think you’ll like it.” You whisper, getting ready to move off his lap, only for him to pull you closer with one arm as he reaches over to grab his gift off the coffee table with the other. 

“Small box, did you get me another flash drive for my songs again?” He asks and you giggle, shaking your head no. He opens the box, his eyes widening as the silver band reflects back at him. 

“I know how much you like rings, so I got this for you. It has your initials on the inside.” You explain as he lifts the ring carefully out of the box. Jihoon smiles at you, placing the ring on his pointer finger. 

“I love it, thank you yn.” He says, pressing a quick kiss to your cheek. You squeak, feeling shy all of a sudden and he laughs.

“You’re the one who climbed onto my lap after my confession!” He exclaims and you laugh, hitting his shoulder again. “Stop, I’m shy now.” You tell him, reaching over and grabbing his gift. 

He watches you as you open it, and you let out a small gasp. It’s a silver bracelet with a heart charm in the middle. It also has your initials in it, and you smile widely. “So you copied my gift, huh?” You ask and he gasps.

“How dare you! I ordered that gift for you last month so technically, you copied me.” Jihoon fake argues with you, and you roll your eyes. 

“I love you, even though you did copy me.” Jihoon says and you giggle, nuzzling your head into his neck. 

“I love you too Ji, I’ve loved you for a long time.”

━━━━━━ ☁️━━━━━━

And that is how our dear Lee Jihoon finally confessed his love for you after three attempts. I guess we could say...

third time’s the charm ?

eh.

[7wanderingpaws]

Simply, yours (12)

Pairing: Baekhyun x reader

Genre: family AU, hapkido teacher AU, PhD AU

Word count: 3.5K

Warnings: mentions of death, cursing

A/N: a moodboard! Yay! Finally some face to the story ^^ in my head baek looks like on the pics in this one hihi. Couple of more interesting things will happen! Aaaand this series will finish by 15th chapter. Or less. I will see how much time I will have. :( Anyway, thank you all sososososooo much for the support and comments, it means THE WORLD! ❤

tags:  @milky-baek @itsbaekhyunsbutt @luvhtears @shesdreaminginoverdose @cynthbee @jummyjammy @junmyeonnoona @littleflowercrown13 @sebootyforlife​ (if you want to be tagged/untagged please let me know!)

MASTERLIST

1 . 2 . 3 . 4 . 5 . 6 . 7 . 8 . 9 . 10 . 11 . 12

Baekhyun was stressed. That much you could tell.

The competition between the universities was in couple of days and he-

“Chanyeol, I can't hang out! I still didn't hand in my paper on the sports psychology thing and I have to head to uni in a couple for the training!”

You were in the kitchen, trying to bake some muffins since you were craving like a mad man, and you could hear him pacing around the bedroom where he bunked the whole day to finish off the mentioned paper. He had been a bit distant since the past three-four days, and you gave him his space, knowing he wasn't taking any silly things from anyone right now. He was full on focused and, well, quite biting to whomever tried to help.

He sighed again. “Listen, I know we still have time to hand it in, but I am so busy with the university team that I need to finish it earlier. Fuck, the assistant master is also breathing on my neck. You need to understa-”

He went quiet when Chanyeol interrupted him, and you silently continued separating the dough to the empty holes on the baking pan.

It had now been two weeks since the Korean New Year and another check-up at the clinic, after which you started to attend pilates classes for the expecting women. You had classes two times per week in the evening hours and one of them clashed with Baekhyun's hapkido class at the university, so you weren't accompanying him that often anymore, which was also a small relief for you. As much as your presence there didn't change matters, you felt like a bothersome girlfriend that needed to keep an eye on him, which was not true. Let alone Jiyoung, although had not necessarily done anything, still made you uneasy with her straight-forward behaviour with Baekhyun. You trusted him, though. After the Korean New Year, you got rid of the whole jealousy nonsense and focused solely on yourself and your own peace of mind. After all, it was literally a matter of a few months and your life would become loud, tiring and just overall turnt upside down.

“And you know I've got other stuff to get taken care of.” Silence. “You know what I'm talking about.” You giggled to yourself, liking how Baekhyun was losing his cool with his best friend, not paying attention to the meaning of his words.

You placed the baking pan in the oven and set up the temperature and timer, finally standing up properly, and hissing at the pain in your lower back. 

These days, whenever you looked in the mirror at your tummy and the dark stretch marks, you couldn't help but wonder how was this humanly possible; to bear three kids in your own body, in that little place under your heart. It blew your mind, and usually you would end up talking about this with Baekhyun just before sleeping when the lights were out and you were curled up at his side.

“Just proves how fucking amazing you are, my love,” he would murmur in your ear.

You smiled to yourself, your heart fluttering at the recollection and you sat down, checking your phone. A new customer who was buying your knitted clothings, was supposed to come by any minute now, so you might as well rest till she arrived, and let Baekhyun deal with his own issues.

You found a message from the lady waiting for you, so you opened it quickly, thinking she might have cancelled on you.

Hello! I was supposed to pick up the ordered knits today, but I can't make it unfortunately, so my husband will come at the promised time instead! Thank you!

Okay, at least she didn't cancel. You didn't care who would come for them as long as they were taken and paid for.

“Okay, Chanyeol, I will meet you tomorrow,” Baekhyun finally ended the call after more discussion and then you heard another heavy sigh. It caused pain for you too, knowing you couldn't help and you also didn't have a constant, stable pay so that you could ease it up for him just a little bit. Great at uselessne- no. You wouldn't allow yourself those thoughts anymore.

“Babe, you good?” you shouted.

“Yeah.”

“Doesn't sound very convincing,” you muttered to yourself, just when the doorbell rang. You struggled up to your feet and headed for the intercom, letting the person in.

“That's the customer, right?” asked Baekhyun from the bedroom.

You made your way to the door, the little bag with necessary clothes prepared, as you shouted back a yes before sliding the door open and waiting for the person to leave the elevator.

You were excited to earn money like this, even if it was just a little bit. You could shop groceries with it and Korea did have expensive fruit and veggies, unfortunately, so this came extremely handy to you.

Quickly shooting a look behind you, you double-checked if everything looked decent and clean in the apartment before turning back just to get the biggest shock.

Without even thinking, you had the urge to slam the door shut in his face before he could properly orient himself on the new floor of apartments, but you didn't do it. Instead, you ran your tongue over your teeth, preparing for a painful smile.

He turned and he spotted you - he just looked at your stomach - standing in the doorway, ready to walk to you resolutely before he actually brought his eyes up to yours. And he momentarily froze, stopping on the spot.

Silence overtook the cold corridor, and you felt the stress creeping up in your stomach, except you had nothing to fear this time. It was him who wanted something. And Baekhyun was right in the apartment in case anything happened.

“I believe you came to pick up the knits?” Your voice was almost foreign to you, it was strained so much.

His eyes fell lower, seeing just how pregnant you were; your body a far cry from when he last saw you. Clearing his throat, he replied: “Yes, I am.”

Slowly, he walked over and you pushed your hand with the bag out for him to take, wanting him to just leave. “Here. That will be 120.000 won, please.”

Your ex-boss stared at you, not taking the bag for a couple of heartbeats. He monitored your face before his eyes looked behind you at the humble apartment. Only after that, he took it while with his other hand he reached behind taking out his wallet probably from the pockets of his trousers. “Yes, I have the exact amount.”

“Good.”

He snapped his eyes back to you, as he took out the necessary cash before handing it to you. “How are you?”

Oh, dear lord. Not the small talk, please.

“I mean, are you doing well and healthy?”

You stared at him, hoping the negative emotions didn't mirror in your eyes too much, as you didnt want to become someone like him. “I'm fine and healthy, thank you for asking.”

“That's a relief.”

Suppressing a scoff, you were about to put an end to this fruitless conversation when you heard shuffling from behind, and Baekhyun's voice. “Is everything alright?” And he appeared.

He walked to your side, shock evident on his face. “You?”

You felt a protective hand around your waist, your boyfriend pushing you further inside the house, not liking an inch your evil boss being near your vicinity.

Your boss, Mr Kim, gave him a tight lipped smile. “Hello, Mr Byun. My wife is the one buying the knits from your wif- girlfriend.”

“Really?”

You nodded. “She wrote me just a couple of minutes ago that her husband would pick them up instead of her,” you explained to Baekhyun, who didn't even look at you, his strict gaze focused on your boss, “and it turns out to be Mr Kim. There are too many Kims in this country, for sure.”

“Well, we hope your wife will enjoy them,” said Baekhyun coldly. “Have a good evening.”

He was about to push both of you back inside to close the door, but your boss surprised you. Again. “I just wanted to… wish you all the best. I hope you will continue having a safe pregnancy and birth.”

You frowned, but nodded nonetheless. “Thank you.”

“And… I apologise.”

Baekhyun's grip on you tightened. “For what exactly?”

Mr Kim looked in your eyes as he seemed to think over his words. “I was acting unprofessional and it was not acceptable. Me sacking you due to your state was not justifiable, and I realize that I probably created even bigger financial difficulties for you. You always mentioned how money comes in handy and yet…” he shook his head, scrunching his eyebrows, “it was all a terrible mistake. I was insensitive. I apologise.”

You took in a shaky breath, your palms sweaty with anxiety as you let his words properly sink in. He actually uttered those words. Those apologetic words. The words you never imagined he would say, because you believed he was incapable of feeling anything close to regret and sorrow.

Sensing your hesitation, Baekhyun spoke up. “I think it's too late for that. But thank you. I bet my girlfriend appreciates your realizations.”

“Why suddenly?” You asked before Baekhyun could push you further inside the apartment. “I worked so hard for you. I always tried to please you yet I received hate.”

Something flashed in his eyes, something you couldn’t quite name. Was it hurt? Was it sorrow? Pain? “I don’t expect you to forgive me. I was ruthless, but just know that I am sorry.” He looked at Baekhyun now. “I deserved the punch.” With a sad smile, he raised and dangled the bag in front of him as he took a step back. “I’m sure my grandchildren will love this. And my wife too. All the best,” he said and turned around, not letting you and Baekhyun speak.

And you wouldn’t even be able to, because Baekhyun closed the door right after muttering: “Get home safely.”

“What was that?” You asked, shell-shocked at the sudden turn of events. “Did this really happen?”

You were still squeezing the bank notes in your sweaty palms and you moved to put them on the dining table, Baekhyun hot on your heels. “He is crazy. One moment he is shouting at you, calling you all kinds of things and the next he is sorry and acts like…whatever” he trailed off, in the heat of a moment unable to think of a proper word.

You shot him a look, amused. “I know. But at least he realized his mistake.”

Baekhyun pursed his lips, not fully convinced with your words but eventually he murmured: “At least if some other employee gets pregnant he won’t throw her out.”

You smiled, satisfied with his way of thinking. “Exactly.”

“And you earned yourself some money,” he reciprocated the smile and he came to you to give you a kiss on the cheek. “Well done.”

“I’ve been earning money through this for some time now,” you reminded him.

“I know but it’s his money.”

“Oh.”

“Exactly.”

-

Once the muffins were out of the oven, you decided to call Sukyeong. Baekhyun retrieved to your shared bedroom to continue his studying. He needed the peace anyway, and you really wanted to chat to your good friend because you had way too many thoughts and questions about your ex-boss’s well being. The way he acted was so unlike him.

Sukyeong thankfully picked up after the third ring and she squealed into the phone upon seeing your name. “Finally! I thought you would never call! We saw each other two weeks ago, don't tell me you got suddenly busy!”

You let out a breathy laugh. “No, I became lazy and almost immobile by now, thank you for the concerns.”

“I think I will have to drop by more often,” she thought out loud. “Besides, I also want to talk about something!”

“Eh? What is it?”

“Nah, this needs to be told face to face.”

Since your topic seemed to be just a little bit more intriguing than Sukyeong’s secretiveness, you decided to go with it and spill the beans. You quickly explained to her what just happened, feeling more encouraged by her gasps.

“Well, there is something that happened actually,” she said after a bit of silence. After you left your job, you and Sukyeong rarely ever talked about the workplace, Sukyeong only complaining about the workload and whatnot. She was such a kind-hearted, considerate friend to you; she knew by default the last person you want to talk about was your screwed up boss. “I just didn't know if I should tell you or not, since it doesn't really include you anymore and also…” she trailed off, “it might scare you.”

You frowned, fingering the little whole in the pillow you were hugging to yourself. “Scare me? What are you talking about?” you let out a doubtful laugh.

Sukyeon sighed and you imagined her playing with her fringe to ease up the nerves. “You know his son is married, right?”

“Mhm.” You rarely paid attention to your boss's private life but you were aware of that fact.

“So, anyway, Mr Kim's daughter-in-law was pregnant and she was supposed to give birth just one month after you left,” she continued on, her words still not bearing an ounce of confidence.

You interrupted her, though. “Oh, really? So why didn't he fire his daughter-in-law, huh?! How dare she be pregnant?! God, that man is ridiculous, I swear. Poor daughter-in-law! How difficult it must be for her to live with him!”

“Erm,” Sukyeong gently called out your name, trying to get your attention, which she did but you wished she didn't as her next words gave you the nausea you had been dreading to have your entire pregnancy. “She died giving birth.”

You went completely silent at that, your mind empty and busy all at the same time. His daughter-in-law died giving birth to his grandchild. She died. Giving birth. “How did that happen?” you breathed out.

“Complications during birth. Unexpected high blood pressure, high sugar levels and many other factors,” she replied, her voice sad.

“Jesus,” you breathed out again, “I had no clue.”

“You couldn't have known, dear.”

Tears burned in your eyes at the thought of how tragic the whole story is. So this was why he was apologetic. “But still… I'm so sorry. To her, and even to him - Mr Kim.”

Sukyeong heaved out a heavy sigh. “Don't cry, I cannot comfort you over the phone like this. You wouldn't know!”

“What if I will die?”

“You won't,” she snapped right away. “You are a healthy woman.”

“You know my blood-pressure is also dangerously high at times.”

“But that doesn't change the fact that you are healthy. You don't have problems with your sugar levels, nor is your entire pregnancy problematic.” She paused, before she continued. “Listen, this is why I was reluctant to tell you. I didn't want to trigger any fear in you. Just don't think about it.”

You felt your chin quiver, but you pushed it down. Sukyeong was right. Plus, Baekhyun really didn't need this kind of stress when he already had too much on his plate right now. Having to suck it up and be brave for your own self for once was something you should have started doing a while ago. You always knew pregnancy was a risk. But you wanted to show everyone that not having enough money and still bearing three healthy babies and eventually giving them birth was something more valuable than any monetary aspect of this world.

“You are right, Sukyeonga. I won't. But you owe me a hot chocolate.”

-

It was around 1am. You were lying on your side, naked back facing Baekhyun as he absentmindedly traced his fingertips over the imprints on your back, left there by your bra. He was shuffling around more, until he resolved to skinship in hopes to ease his mind.

“What's on your mind?” you asked quietly out of nowhere, startling him for a second. He thought you would be asleep by now.

You turned around to your other side, curling up against his chest and he gladly opened his arms for you, missing your presence. It was common that you two would naturally shift apart during the night, both of you deep in sleep, but because of your pregnancy you also felt many times boiling hot which resulted in you scooting as far away from his body heat as the mattress allowed. This time though, the night was exceptionally cold and you knew he needed you.

“Baby, you should be resting,” he rasped quietly.

You held his cheek gently, looking up at him, although he couldn't see you properly in the darkness. “There is something bothering my man,” you whispered, “and I can't sleep when I know you are this troubled.”

He sighed, and you could feel the heaviness of it, the worries somehow too difficult to bear. “It's just a lot on my plate,” he admitted, though very reluctantly. “I want our team to win or at least make it very far but I'm worried I am asking for too much.” His hand was caressing your back, enjoying the hot skin covering it.

“What makes you think that?”

He went silent, contemplating your question and his answer to it. The truth was, Baekhyun's head was very chaotic which rarely happened. Him, who always had a goal clearly set in his mind, never got this worried. “I don't even know. It's the PhD stuff together with this Universiad competition… both require my full attention and even though I am doing my best, I feel like I could still do better.”

It meant a lot that he was this outspoken. He shared his daily issues with you, however only the heavy ones he would let pile up and mull over them until he couldn't bear it anymore.

“My perfectionist boy,” you cooed. “Everything is created in your mind, darling. Everything is still the same as before - you are a student and as your side job you teach kids. Your team was always doing well and that's why you got this opportunity. In fact, you don't need to change anything. You have addition of Jiyoung and her team, that's true, but that still doesn't change the fact that what you did until now is enough. It is all valuable. You're not asking for too much, Baekhyun.”

A couple of heartbeats later you heard him sigh again as he squeezed your body to his, your tummy pressing to his side. “Thank you,” he murmured into your hair.

“Don't keep it in. I know it's difficult. I know, honey.”

“I just want to do well, you know? Do well in my professional life. And I want to do everything in my power to make you and our kids live comfortably.”

You felt stinging behind your eyes, touched and overwhelmed with emotions. “You are doing more than enough, Baekhyun. I'm comfortable and happy because I have you. Out of our entire village, you are the superstar. You are the one who made it. Don't doubt yourself for one second, because I will love you no matter what. You are doing already more than enough, so relax.”

He chuckled lowly. “What would I do without you, hm?” he whispered and he moved to bury his face in your neck, slowly kissing down to your chest where he rested his head under your collarbones. His arm around you was now caressing the bump, his thumb running over the stretched out belly. “Thank you, sweetheart.”

“Don't thank me.That's what I'm here for. For you. In good and in bad,” you replied as you played with his messy hair.

“Already doing the wedding vows?”

You grew hot, the sudden images of a wedding ceremony with Baekhyun warming your heart. “Not yet.”

He hummed. “But soon.”

“After the kids are born.”

“Where do you want to leave them for our honeymoon? They would be always tied to your boobs. That way I can't have them just for myself.”

That made you laugh out loud, and you pulled on his hair gently, making him chuckle. He raised his head and you felt his breath on your smiling lips. “Then you better enjoy them until you can.”

He kissed you slowly, languidly, humming in the process while dragging his hand over your bump and chest until he was cupping your cheek. “I should, huh,” he murmured into your open mouth. “Though I beg for priority. I was the first to claim them.”

You laughed again and Baekhyun felt extremely satisfied, his worries settled for now. He brought you in for another sensual kiss until both of your eyes were droopy enough to pull to sleep.

[bitchloveskcbaseball]

Stitches

Pairing: Logan x OC (Charlotte Wheeler)

Summary: Charlotte is surprised by a face from her past and doesn’t know what to do about it.

Warnings: Really really strong language (my girl has a filthy mouth lol), car accident and a flash back to Detective Wheeler holding a gun at Logan.

Word Count: 7822 (this is literally the longest single piece I’ve ever finished)

Disclaimer: Logan and Detective Wheeler belong to Pixelberry and Charlotte is based off of the RoD MC

A/N: This is my contribution to @rodappreciationweek for Logan (obviously lol). The name comes from Shawn Mendes’s Stitches, mostly because I got some serious inspiration of how I wanted this to go when I was really really stuck from listening to it. Also, there are parts of that song that seem really relevant to this story. 

Also, I borrowed the names of a few characters from the Fast and Furious franchise, but they appear in name only.

How soon can you get here?

Rolling her eyes at the text despite the fact that he'd never see it, Charlotte typed out a quick response. Told you earlier…not coming tonite

I need you here.

I am not comin all the way down there just to fill out your field.

Seconds later, her phone started to ring and she debated letting it go to voicemail, but knew she'd never hear the end of it if she did. Swiping across the screen to answer, Charlotte snipped, "Seriously, Paul?"

"Hear me out, Lottie. There's fresh blood here tonight and he's lookin’ for a race."

"You know I don't -- "

"He's talkin’ 10k."

She was so stunned that it took her several beats before she muttered, "You shittin' me?"

Paul let out a humorless laugh and replied, "Not in the slightest. But he says he'll only race you."

"Me? How the fuck does he even know who I am if he's new?"

"Well he didn't ask for you by name or anything. He just told me he heard about this girl that hasn't lost a race in the past year. Said if I could set up a race with her he'd put down the 10k."

"Shit. Um…can you buy me like twenty minutes?"

"Anything for you, Lottie. And that 10k, of course."

After hanging up without so much as a goodbye to Paul, Charlotte raced around, grabbing her keys and wallet before running out to her most prized and precious possession. It was one of the very few items she still had left from Los Angeles, but even it had changed since then. The 2015 Stuttgart 999 Widow that had once been a bold blue was now painted in a deep royal purple with lime green accenting the sleek lines she loved so much. She took a few extra minutes in the garage, quickly running through her pre-race checklist before sliding behind the steering wheel.

Eighteen minutes after her call with Paul ended, Charlotte was pulling up to the starting line. The crowd, which was always large, loud and intense for Paul's races, was even more electric than normal as everyone buzzed over the unusually high stakes that had been thrown down by the newcomer. The fact that he was driving a Devore GT probably didn't hurt either.

Shoving away the sharp pang she felt deep in her gut every time she saw one of those cars, she cut the engine off and climbed out to go greet Paul. Since there were literally hundreds, if not over a thousand, pairs of eyes on them, Charlotte just gave him a fist bump in greeting, knowing she couldn’t afford to have anyone there thinking she got special treatment just because of their close friendship.

"There's my girl!"

“Oh shove it Paul. You know I hate it when you call me that.”

“Why do you think I still do it? Especially before a race?” When she only narrowed her eyes at him, Paul took the hint and got down to business. "You got the dough?"

Charlotte scoffed, "When do I not?"

"Hey, you know I gotta ask." Holding his hand out, Paul just smirked as she laid the thick envelope in his hand.

"Don't get too used to that feeling. You know you gonna be handing all that plus another stack back to me in a few."

Despite the way his brows knitted together and he shook his head in her direction, Paul didn't say anything in response, much to her surprise, as he made his way over to her competitor. Usually she got at least one reminder to not get ahead of herself or get over confident, but she couldn't say she was disappointed to miss out on that.

Rolling her shoulders to release the last of the tension her rushed departure and drive had caused, she turned around to return to her car and felt her breath catch as her eyes landed on the stranger. Not that he was actually a stranger. At least not in the purest sense of the word. What in the hell is he doing here?  Charlotte stood, frozen, for what felt like hours but was really only a few seconds before her brain finally jump-started itself. Pulling her gaze away from the all-too familiar face, she forced herself to focus on steadying her breathing and mentally running through the course pattern - basically anything she could do to keep her mind off of him.

"Hey, Lottie! You ready girl?"

Bristling, she barely bit back the string of curse words she wanted to unleash on Paul as she plastered on her fakest smile and eased down into the driver's seat. Voice dripping with sugar, she answered, "Always."

Devilish grin breaking out across his face, Paul turned his attention back to the Devore and hollered, "How 'bout you, new guy?"

Shit. Realizing the last thing she needed before a twenty thousand dollar race was his voice haunting her, Charlotte hastily reached up to turn the keys but ended up almost knocking them out of the ignition. Double shit. The second attempt was slightly better, her fingers actually closing around the keys this time, but her hand was shaking so bad that she couldn't get them to turn. For fuck's sake, Charlotte. Get your shit together and calm the fuck down! After taking a deep breath to center herself, the third attempt was successful and she let out a sigh of relief as the loud roar of the performance engine surrounded her.

"Ok y'all! One minute 'til that flag drops!"

Charlotte released a shaky breath and tightened her hands around the steering wheel. Normally, this minute was Charlotte’s favorite with the delicious anticipation thrumming through her veins and the deep rumble of the powerful engine beneath her finding perfect synchronicity. But this time it was torture. It was taking every single ounce of self-control she possessed to keep her focus on the street ahead of her, on the task in front of her. She shook herself, trying to ease the tension in her body. She’d never be able to beat him if she didn’t loosen up, and she sure as hell was not losing to that fucker. Never again.

After what seemed like an eternity, Paul was stepping back up to the line, flag in hand. Taking one last, deep-cleansing breath, she felt everything but the road melt away as his hand went in the air. This was the one thing she could always count on. This was her one, true escape and she would not let him ruin it.

Just like the hundreds of times before over the past year, as soon as the flag dropped, Charlotte effortlessly worked her way up the gears, shooting out to the lead. If she had been in tune with her beautiful beast before leaving L.A., then they were basically one being – one machine – now. This track was a set up that Paul hadn’t used since her very first race out here, and the irony didn’t escape her. Knock it the fuck off, Charlotte. Focus. You have to win this race.

Throughout the whole race, there he was, right off her back bumper, his Devore GT – now a deep blue – haunting her, much like his memory had since he’d left her crying on her dad’s front lawn. A couple of times he even inched ahead, but these were her streets and she instinctively knew the perfect places to use to regain her advantage. Even with that knowledge, they were so close together when they crossed the line that she wasn’t actually sure which one of them won until Paul came up and pulled her into a tight hug with a huge smile on his face.

“Damn, Troublem -- ”

Pulling away from Paul, Charlotte whirled around, eyes shooting icy daggers. “Don’t you fucking dare! You do not get to fucking call me that anymore, asshole.”

“Whoa… Char --”

“Not that either, Logan. You don’t get to call me anything. I don’t even know why you think you get to talk to me.”

“C’mon now. Don’t be like this.” If Charlotte hadn’t known better, she’d have thought Logan was actually begging her.

“Don’t be like what? You made your choice and this is mine! I dunno what the hell you’re doing here and I honestly don’t give a fuck. Unless you are looking for a free facial arrangement, I’d suggest you keep yourself far out of my sight until you leave.”

Without giving him a chance to respond, she turned back to Paul and, ignoring the questions swirling in his eyes, held out her hand. Forcing a calm she didn’t quite feel into her voice, she arched an eyebrow and sassed, “I think you owe me a huge stack of cash, mister. And at least a couple of milkshakes.”

Scrunching up his face as he placed the money in her hand, he parroted, “Milkshakes?”

“It’s the least you can do after calling me ‘girl’ twice tonight.”

Hands up in surrender, Paul conceded, “Milkshakes it is.”

After a half an hour of avoiding Logan while Paul finished up for the night and then another half an hour of racing across the city towards Charlotte’s favorite all-night diner, the pair was finally settling into her favorite booth across from each other. Before she could really get comfortable, however, he started hurtling questions at her. “So that was the Logan? What’s he doin’ here? Why didn’t you tell me he was here? How -- “

“Paul!” His rambling having ceased, Charlotte raised an eyebrow and asked, “You do realize I can only answer your questions if you actually let me talk, right?”

“Yeah, yeah...Technicalities.”

Rolling her eyes, she sighed, “Well, which one do you want me to answer first?”

“Was that really…”

“Yes. That was the Logan, as you put it. And in answer to the follow up, I have no idea why he’s here. I wouldn’t have even known he was in town if you hadn’t called me down for that friggin’ race.”

“Hon, I’m so sor -- “

Waving his apology off, Charlotte reassured, “I’m fine, Paul. Really. Sure it threw me a little bit when I first saw him, but beating his ass like that sure helped. Yelling at him didn’t hurt either.”

As Paul’s brows furrowed, she could tell that he didn’t believe her even before he asked, “You sure?”

Ignoring the way her chest still felt like someone had tied a rope around her heart, she smiled. “Absolutely. Plus I’m ten grand richer for it.” She waited until his expression had relaxed slightly before changing the subject by prodding, “You gonna order my milkshake or do I hafta revoke your best friend card for leaving me hanging like this?”

With a chuckle and a shake of his head, Paul stuck his hand up in the air to call the waitress over to their table. Taking advantage of his distraction, Charlotte let out a quiet sigh. If only she could convince herself as easily as she did him that Logan’s appearance hadn’t affected her.

~-~-~-~-~-~-

"Be the real you. The one that was always waiting to come out."

Choked by the tears she was trying to hold back, Charlotte whispered, "I don't know how to be her without you."

Reaching up to run his fingers through the hair at her temple, Logan insisted, "Yes, you do. You've always had this strength inside of you. I saw it that very first time we met. You just needed a little help finding it."

"No, I don’t! I need you. I need you to stay!"

"You know I can't stay, Charlotte. No matter how much I wish I could, I can't put you at risk like that."

"Then take me with you!"

"Baby... That's not the life for you."

"The only life I need is with you!"

He pulled her against his chest and Charlotte instinctively tucked her face into the crook of his neck, fisting her hands in the front of his shirt. Dropping his head so his lips were brushing over her ear, he whispered, "No. You deserve so much more. You deserve a real life and that can't include me. I was just a rock in space lucky enough to burn up in your atmosphere for a moment."

"No. You are so much more than that!"

"No, I'm not, Troublemaker. Not really. But I'll never regret a single second I spent with you. Even if I hate how it all started -- how I lied to you -- it gave me all of this precious time. I'd never trade that for anything."

While she was desperately searching for something, anything she could say to change his mind, to convince him to take her with him, Logan pressed a kiss to her temple. "I love you, Charlotte. So much."

"Then take me - " Senses on high alert after all of the drama of the night, Charlotte froze when she heard a slight rustling coming from behind Logan. Raising her head to look over his shoulder, Charlotte locked eyes with her father who was standing there with his gun trained on Logan's back. "Dad! Don't!"

"Shut up, Charlotte. This is between me and the thug."

"No, Dad! It's not - "

"Shh, baby. It's ok." Gently pushing against her shoulders, Logan separated himself from her before turning to face her father. Even without being able to see his face, she could feel the resignation rolling off of him.

"Logan...Don’t..."

"Charlotte, go inside. Now."

"Not until you put that fucking gun away. You don’t fucking need it. He isn’t a threat. To you and especially not to me."

His eyes flicking back to hers for the briefest of seconds, she saw her father's shoulders slump with his silent sigh as he dropped his arms to his side. His gaze hardened as he hissed, "You have ten seconds."

"Dad!"

Logan turned back to her, cupping her cheek to force her gaze back to his own. Running his thumb underneath her eye to catch the stray tear that had escaped, he leaned down and brushed a ghost of a kiss across her lips. He gave her hip a gentle squeeze before pulling away from her and walking back to his Devore GT. There was a moment of total quiet after he slid inside it and hope sparked within Charlotte. He’s waiting for me. But before she could take a step in that direction, the engine roared to life and he peeled off down the street. The tears she'd been fighting all night finally broke free, pouring down her face and tearing sobs from her chest, as she stared after the man and machine she'd come to love with her entire heart until she couldn't see the taillights any more.

Despite the agony ripping through her heart, an intense fury flooded her veins and she whirled around on her father.

"What the actual fuck is wrong with you?"

"With me? You better watch your tone, girl."

No longer giving a shit about who heard or saw them, Charlotte shrieked, "Yes, with you! He was already leaving! You'd gotten your goddamn wish already! Why? Why did you have to pull a fucking gun on him? Why couldn't you just let me say goodbye?"

"He's a goddamn criminal, Charlotte! You don't need to say goodbye to him. You should never have been spending time with him in the first place. I raised you better than that!"

"No. You didn't raise me. You tried to control me. You tried to keep me in a little box. To keep me from ever growing up. From ever making one goddamn decision on my own. You never gave a shit about what I wanted. Never even fucking listened to me."

"Don't you dare - "

"Oh shut up! I'm done. I'm done with you treating me like a fucking puppet. I'm done with you trying to control everything I do. I'm fucking done with you."

"If you are going to live under my roof -- "

"God, don't you get it? I'm not. I'm not going to spend time with you. I'm not going to live with you. I'm not going to talk to you. I'm done with you. For good."

Charlotte bolted upright as she tore herself from the dream, tears streaming down her face. It had been over six months since she’d last been forced to face that memory by her subconscious and she’d foolishly believed it wouldn’t happen again. Of course, she also hadn’t anticipated finding herself face to face with Logan ever again, so it was really just a series of miscalculations that had led her to this point.

She took a shuddering breath as she tried to stem the flow of tears, unwelcome flashes of that day still rolling through her mind. True to her word, it had been the last time she’d spoken to her father -- she’d stayed with Riya while she waited for her car’s repairs to be finished so she could head east -- and she couldn’t say that she regretted it at all. 

Logan, on the other hand, was a much more painful subject. All she had wanted those first few months after he’d raced out of her life was to chase him down. To convince him that being with him wasn’t ruining her life, but rather giving her everything she’d never known she’d needed. But she had no idea where he’d gone and didn’t have a damned clue as to how she would go about finding out. So she forced her way into the racing scene out here instead, using the time behind the wheel and under the hood to give herself an escape from all the thoughts and emotions swirling within her. 

All of her time spent begging her way into races also meant she ended up spending a lot of time around Paul, which was how they ended up forming such a tight bond. Even still, she couldn’t seem to really let him in, only telling him the bits and pieces he needed to understand why she was the way she was. By some miracle, that was enough for him, and he’d been there for her ever since, putting her back together when she shattered, talking her down when she raged. Despite the walls she kept between them, somehow this friendship had become even deeper than the one she’d once shared for so long with Riya.

Reaching a shaking hand out towards her nightstand, she grabbed her phone to call Paul. Despite how late it was, it only took two rings before she heard his voice, thick with sleep, rumbling in her ear. “‘S wrong, hon?”

Throat clogged by tears, Charlotte’s voice was wobbly as she only managed to force out, “It -- it was that dream.”

“I’m on my way.”

“No...no...don’t do that.”

“Lottie -- “

“Paul. I “ -- Charlotte let out a deep sigh -- “I don’t need you to come over. Just...just talk to me for a bit. Take my mind off of it.”

Not bothering to disguise his doubt, Paul asked, “You sure? I can be there in like fifteen minutes this time of night.”

“I’m sure. I just need a distraction.”

“So, you weren’t really okay with him just showing up like that, huh?”

“Paul.”

“What?”

“That isn’t distracting me.”

“Answer the question first.”

Groaning with frustration, she huffed, “Fine. I’m not okay. It threw me for a goddamn loop to see him there. Stole my fucking breath. Broke my heart all over again. Happy now?”

“Fuck, Lottie. Of course, I’m not happy! I just...I wish you wouldn’t shut me out all the damn time. I’d never left you alone tonight if I’d known.”

“I wasn’t trying to shut you out. I just hated the idea that he still has such a damn hold over me. I couldn’t stand admitting that I am that weak.”

“Hon, that doesn’t make you weak. That makes you human.”

“But how? How does he still have this power over me? After all this time? After the way he -- “

“Because that’s love. It’s never easy. It’s almost always messy. And when it is really real, it doesn’t let go, even when you desperately want it to.”

“But it wasn’t real! He wouldn’t have left me if it was real!”

“Shit.” Paul made an almost strangled noise before muttering, “I’m not trying to upset you more, Lottie. But I need you to do something you have refused to do all this time. I need you to look at it from his perspective.” Charlotte scoffed derisively, but Paul ignored it. “He didn’t leave you because he didn’t love you. He left you because he did. He wanted you to have the life that you had planned before he came bursting into it. And he knew that wasn’t possible if you were with him.”

“But -- “

“Dammit, Charlotte, no. You are gonna fucking listen to me this time. I understand that that wasn’t the life you wanted anymore, but look at it from his perspective. Going to college, going to Langston, had been your plan for years. You had known him for what? A couple months? Of course, it was gonna seem to him like you weren’t thinking it through. That you were making a rash decision. He didn’t want to be the reason you had regrets.”

Charlotte sat, stunned, in silence for several moments, trying desperately to find fault in Paul’s argument. Because he couldn’t be right. The only way she’d even started to put herself back together was by holding onto the anger she felt at how Logan had toyed with her, lied to her. If Paul was right and Logan had actually done it out of love? It would destroy her.

“Lottie?”

“Whatever. I don’t need this bullshit. Thanks for nothing.” For the second time that day, she hung up on him without a goodbye.

~-~-~-~-~-

Paul’s eyebrows shot clear up to his hairline when he locked eyes with her, and Charlotte couldn’t hold back her laugh. “You look as though you’ve never seen a badass bitch like me here before.”

Surprise coloring his tone, Paul stammered, “I, uh… I didn’t expect to see you tonight. Especially after I told you he was here.”

“Fuck him. I’m not gonna hide like some scared little bitch just because of him. I’m not gonna let him win like that.”

Paul’s lips pursed and his nose scrunched up as he opened his mouth to say something, but apparently the sharp look she shot him had him reconsidering because he just shook his head at her instead.

Satisfied that he was going to let the subject drop, at least for the moment, Charlotte asked, “You got any open slots tonight?”

“What happened to not runnin’ in my races? To worrying about people thinkin’ I’m playin’ favorites?”

Ignoring the derision in his voice, she shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t really care tonight. I’m just looking for a thrill ride, to be honest.” I’m looking for a goddamn escape from this endless loop of loss and pain I’ve been in since my eyes landed on him yesterday.

“Do you really think this is a good idea?”

“Do you really think questioning me is a good idea? Or turning me down, for that matter? We both know how well I draw a crowd.”

His eyes were conflicted as he studied her, clearly torn between what was good for business and what he thought was good for his friend. Eyes narrowing in impatience, she prodded, “Well, you got room for me or not? It’s not that hard of a fucking question, Paul.”

His shoulders fell and she let a smug smirk spread across her face. “Fine. Yes, I need a fourth in the last race tonight.”

“I knew you wouldn’t let me down, lover.”

“Yet that’s what I feel like I just did.”

Brushing his concern off with a wave of her hand, she couldn’t resist asking, “Is he set to race at all tonight?”

“He actually already did a run. Totally demolished Hector, Suki and Tej.”

“Not surprised. Those three are good, but they aren’t smooth enough to out-maneuver Logan.”

Paul chuckled, “Yeah, I think they’ve got that figured out now.”

Longing over what could have been threatened to suffocate her, so she shook her head in an attempt to clear her mind and changed the subject back to a safer area by asking, “Okay, so how long ‘til I’m up?”

“Well, lucky for your late-arrivin’ ass, you only have about half an hour til I’m gonna call y’all to the line.”

“Perfect. I’m gonna go do a quick once-over on Eva then.”

“Like that car actually needs it. It’s more perfect now than it ever would have been comin’ off the line.”

Charlotte shot him a wink over her shoulder as she headed back towards her car. “You know me, lover. I’m all about thorough perfection.”

Approximately thirty-four minutes later, Charlotte was cursing herself as she slipped back to fourth after taking the hairpin corner too fast and too wide. She hadn’t driven this badly since she’d been back in L.A. and, if she were being honest with herself, it was because her concentration was absolute shit. Snippets of memories kept flashing across her mind: her first driving lesson with Logan, picking out her car at the garage, her first job with the crew. As if she could banish the thoughts by driving faster, she pressed the throttle down a little harder. It was something she would never do under normal conditions, knowing that keeping control was her only shot at regaining her lost position, but nothing had been normal in over twenty-four hours. I have to fucking win this. He can’t know how bad he’s rattled me.

Through the next few turns, she could feel the razor’s edge she was balanced on, the tires squealing as they fought to maintain their hold on the pavement, but that only spurred her on as she retook third and then second place. Coming up on the next to last corner, a hard right hander, she was back on the bumper of the car in first. She knew that this was her best shot at getting an edge on him, so she dove deep into the turn, but memories of Logan walking away from her popped into her head, shattering what was left of her focus.

Charlotte recognized the tell-tale silence of the tires leaving the pavement before she felt the car start to tilt. Focus snapping back into place, she tried steering into it, hoping she could correct her mistake and even out, but it was too late. Time seemed to slow as her car started tumbling, her heart aching over how much damage the bridge support she knew she was hurtling towards was going to do to her beloved car. As the sickening crunch of metal meeting concrete overwhelmed her senses, Logan’s face filled her mind until everything went black.

~-~-~-~-~-

The first thing that Charlotte recognized as she started to regain consciousness was the tight grip on her left hand. The second was the beeping that was sending piercing pain through her head. She tried to peel her eyes open, but the smallest sliver of light was so excruciating that she instantly clamped them closed again. Where am I?

“Logan?” Charlotte groaned. Even the sound of her own voice hurt. Why am I in so much pain?

“No, sweetheart.” The hand holding her own squeezed gently. “It’s Paul.”

Her face scrunched up but she quickly tried to relax when the movement sent sharp pricks of pain through it. “Paul?” I know that name. How do I know that name?

“Yeah, uh… You know, Paul, your best friend?” Even through her haze she could hear the concern ratchet up in her companion’s voice.

Suddenly, as if someone had pulled open the curtains in her mind, the fog within it lifted and pieces started clicking into place. The dream, the memories, the accident -all playing through her mind like a movie. Her eyes flew open as she tried to turn towards Paul, whimpering pathetically as her body protested the movement.

Free hand coming up to run soothingly along her temple, Paul murmured, “Easy, sweetheart. Easy. You really did a number on yourself.”

“How bad…”

“You’ve gotta really bad concussion, a broken arm, some bruised ribs and quite a few cuts and scrapes. Your spleen ruptured so they had to take that out. Plus, I’m guessing you are basically one huge bruise right now.” When his grip tightened this time, she could feel how terrified he’d been.

Desperate to reassure him she was okay and lighten his mood, Charlotte smiled as best she could with a split lip and playfully chided, “I meant Eva, ya goofball.”

Paul’s eyes narrowed and she sucked in a breath. Maybe that wasn’t a good idea.

“Are you serious right now?”

What started as a joke quickly turned serious when she didn’t get an answer. Her car had to be in pretty bad shape if he wasn’t even going to brush her off with a reassurance that it would be fine. “Well, sorta? I mean, you know what she means to me. I need to know how bad I messed her up.”

“I… I can’t fuckin’ believe you.” Dropping her hand as if it was burning his skin, he pushed out of his chair and paced over to look out the window.

“Paul. C’mon. You had to know I was gonna ask.”

“You could have fuckin’ died, Charlotte.” His voice was so quiet she almost couldn’t hear him from the bed even though he was only two feet away.

Ignoring her impulse to snap at him for using her full name, she kept her tone gentle as she reminded him, “But I didn’t.”

Whirling on her, his eyes held a fire she’d never seen before. “I don’t even know why I fuckin’ bother. You wake up after bein’ out for three friggin’ days and the first person you ask for is that goddamn asshole? And then your next question is about the car?”

“Paul -- “

“Whatever. So glad you’re still alive.” Before Charlotte could even open her mouth to reply, Paul was already storming out of her room.

Hours later, she was still staring at the ceiling, wondering how things had escalated so quickly. Why she’d been such a bitch to the only person who seemed to give a damn about her. How her heart seemed to hurt even worse than her battered body did. Everything seemed to circle back to one central thought. Everything was fine until Logan showed up. Why did he always have to ruin her life?

~-~-~-~-~-

A little over a week later, Charlotte was going out of her mind with boredom at home. She’d been released a few days after she’d woken up, but she hadn’t heard from Paul since he’d stormed out. And seeing as how he was the only friend she’d made here, it left her feeling extremely isolated and with too much time to think. She’d run through her mistakes leading up to the accident at least a hundred times. The fight with Paul had circulated through her mind a few hundred more times than that. 

But the thing that she couldn’t escape at all was her run in with Logan, her brain constantly firing questions about it. How did he find me? Why did he find me? Did he ever really love me? Should I have listened to him when he wanted to talk?

Letting out a groan of frustration, she tried to bury the thoughts as she grabbed her phone off of her chair’s armrest. Pulling up Paul’s number, she was about to hit send to try calling him for the thirty-seventh time when her doorbell rang. Damn, does he have ESP or something?

“It’s open!” As soon as the words left her mouth, Charlotte cringed, knowing she was in for one hell of a lecture about leaving her door unlocked.

“You know, considering you’re the daughter of a cop, you aren’t very smart about security sometimes.”

The sound of Logan’s voice had her flinching so hard that she had to bite back a groan as her hand instinctively came up to cradle her ribs. Her voice was still a little breathless as Logan came around the corner into her living room and she seethed, “The fuck you doin’ here?”

Seemingly unfazed by her hostility, he shot her a grin. “Checking up on my Troublemaker.” Ignoring her protest of his use of the nickname, he added, “You know there are a lot less dramatic ways of getting my attention, don’t you?”

“Screw you, Logan. I wasn’t trying to get your attention and you know it.”

“You sure about that?”

“Pretty fuckin’ sure.”

Pulling his hand out from behind his back, he opened it up and let something dangle from his fingers. Her breath caught when she realized what he was holding. “Where...Where did you get that?”

“Found it after the accident. Must have flown out while you were trying out your new stunt routine. Needs some work, by the way.”

Biting back the snide remark that she knew would only spur him on further, she asked hotly, “So what?”

“If you really wanted nothing to do with me, why do you still have my necklace?”

“To remind me not to make the same horrible mistake twice.” When Logan’s eyes widened, she knew she’d hit her mark.

His lips pursed briefly before he let out a deep breath and asked, “Seriously, Charlotte. How are you?”

“None of your goddamn business, Logan.”

“Char -- “

“No. You lost the right to ask me that when you drove off and left me behind.” Thirteen months, two weeks and six days ago, to be exact. Not that she’d been counting. “You can get the fuck out of my apartment though.”

“But -- “

“No, Logan. Whatever it is you think you need to say to me? You can shove it. Better yet, choke on it and die. Because as far as I’m concerned? You’re already dead.”

“Please, Char. Please.”

Rolling her eyes at the desperation in his tone, even as it tugged painfully at her heart, she taunted, “Fine. What’s so damned important? How did you end up in the same city as me?”

“I, uh…um…”

Realization dawned and her fury hit a level she’d never experienced before. “Are you fucking kidding me? You came here looking for me, didn’t you?” She waited, refusing to continue until he admitted it. When he finally nodded his head, she seethed, “How fucking dare you? Who the fuck do you think you are? Why now?”

“I…” he trailed off into a sigh as he stared at the plush carpet beneath his feet.

Her fury building with each second he spent not talking, Charlotte waited for several long moments before she hissed, “Spit it out, Logan. You came here, looking for me. You found me. Now fucking talk so I can be done with your sorry, pathetic excuse of a being for good.”

“I heard rumblings about this girl out here. Hadn’t lost a race since she’d shown up on the scene around a year ago.” He finally lifted his gaze back up to meet her own and there was so much pain in his eyes that it almost broke through her anger. “I…it felt like a sign. I knew it had to be you. It was too much of a coincidence – the timing lined up and god knows you have the skills and the brains.”

Charlotte let out a harsh scoff, “It’s not like you didn’t know where I was before that. You knew I was coming out here for college.”

“But you never made it there.”

Shock reverberated through her entire body and she fought to keep her furious expression in place. How does he know that?

As if he was reading her mind, he added, “I only made it about two weeks before I broke down and drove out here. I went straight to the college, to the main office, and asked if there was a way they could help me find you. I told them as much of the truth as I could – that I wanted to surprise you, so I didn’t know which dorm you were in. Somehow, I convinced them to help me but when they looked you up in the system, it said you’d withdrawn before your first class.”

He came for me?

Fighting off the surge of hope threatening to overwhelm her, she mocked, “So what? Am I just supposed to fall at your feet now? You tried once, over a year ago no less, to find me, so that makes everything all better, right?”

“It wasn’t just once.” She raised a skeptical eyebrow so he pressed on, “When I struck out at the school, I tried to figure out where you might have gone. I chased down every single idea I had, no matter how crazy or far-fetched it was. Still, I couldn’t find you. So after about a month and half, I broke down and went to your dad’s.”

Charlotte gasped, “You didn’t.”

“I did. I knew it was a long shot. Stupid as hell, too. But I was desperate and hoping that his law-abiding nature would force him to tell me the truth. And maybe a part of me was hoping that it would be simple and you’d just be there. Of course, you weren’t and your dad told me he had no idea where you were and to go fuck myself. As irritated as I was, I wasn’t surprised that he wouldn’t tell me the truth.”

“He did.”

“What?”

Dropping her gaze to where her hands were folded so tightly in her lap that her fingers had turned white, she whispered, “He did tell you the truth. He had no idea where I was. Still doesn’t.”

“I don’t…”

Shrugging her shoulders, Charlotte told him, “I haven’t talked to him since right after you left. So I guess you were right about one thing. I didn’t need you to be strong.”

She didn’t miss his wince at her words, but he only shook his head before continuing his tale, “When I didn’t get anything out of him, I’d officially run out of leads. From that point on, I tried like hell to push you out of my head and my heart. But I couldn’t. So when I heard all that, I had to come find out for myself whether or not it was really you.”

Charlotte’s eyes had slid closed as Logan admitted that he hadn’t been any more successful at forgetting her than she was at forgetting him. She had to. If she kept looking at that pitiful look on his face while he was saying all the things she’d longed for him to say, she was going to give in. She was going to forgive him and give him back her heart. But she couldn’t. She’d never survive him pulverizing it again.

Forcing more heat into her words than she really felt, she smarted off, “Well, now you know. So if you’d kindly see yourself out, I’d really appreciate it.”

Instead of turning towards her front door, he walked even closer until he was able to kneel so closely beside her that she could feel the heat rolling off his body. “I can’t do that, Troublemaker.”

“Why not?” Lord, she hoped her voice didn’t sound as whiney to him as it did to her own ears. Judging by his smirk, she definitely wasn’t that lucky.

“For one, you still haven’t answered my question.”

It took her a second to remember what his question was. “Fine. I’m fine. Now will you go?”

“Nope. Because I need one more thing from you before I do.”

Desperate to get him out of her space, she instantly told him, “Anything. I’ll do anything.”

“Tell me you don’t still love me.”

She inhaled so sharply that her body screamed in protest. “What?”

She fought to keep her eyes from closing after he raised his right hand so that his fingers could run gently through the hair at the side of her face. She’d been so distracted that she didn’t even realize he had leaned closer until she felt his breath hot against her ear as he murmured, “Tell me you don’t love me and I’ll go. You’ll never hear from me again.”

“I don’t… I don’t…”

“Yes?”

“Dammit, Logan.” She’d swear her face leaned into his touch all on its own. “Why?”

“Why what?”

“Why are you doing this? Why are you torturing me?”

Startled, he pulled away from her and she felt the loss all the way to her toes. His voice was rough as he muttered, “I’m not trying to.”

“But you are. You show up after all this time, when I’m finally starting to put the pieces of my shattered heart back together. You weave this story of how you love me, how you never stopped -- “

“It’s not a story!”

She kept talking as if she hadn’t heard him, “Then you beg me to tell you I don’t love you, as if you already know the answer. Like if I tell you that I do still love you, you’re going to stay. That we’ll suddenly have this happily ever after.”

“What’s so wro -- “

“And then when things get tough again, you’ll bolt. And I’ll be left here, probably broken beyond repair this time. So, no, I won’t play this game with you.”

“Babe. I swear. I learned my lesson. I’m not goin’ anywhere this time.”

“Where have I heard that before?”

Dropping his head, Logan whispered, “I know I promised before. But, I swear, I thought I was doing what was best for you. You had college, your whole life ahead of you. I was a fugitive. I didn’t see how all of that could work together.”

“Because you never even asked me! Not once did you even think to ask if that was still the life I wanted! If you had, you’d have known, I didn’t give a fuck about Langston anymore!”

“But I -- “

“No, Logan. It’s your turn to listen. Being with you did more than just show me how to stand up for myself, how to be strong. I learned who I really was -- am. And I learned what I really want out of life. None of which had anything to do with that stuffy college.”

Looking at her through his lashes, he asked tentatively, “So what do you want?”

“I want to work with cars. I want to race them. Maybe I don’t want to be a part of a criminal enterprise like Kaneko’s crew, but I love the street racing life. So that’s what I’ve spent the last year doing.”

Instead of the look of disapproval or disappointment she expected to see on Logan’s face, all she could find was admiration. “So what did you do about it?”

“I dropped out of Langston, which you apparently already knew. Then I enrolled at the city’s technical college in their automotive mechanic program. In my spare time, I rode around the city streets, learning their characteristics as I honed my skills.”

“Still, it isn’t easy to work your way onto a scene like this.”

“No, it isn’t. But I pestered Paul enough until he fell in love with me and took pity on me.” A small wave of satisfaction washed over her when Logan’s face morphed into a scowl. “After that first race, he, and all the regulars, realized how much skill I had. Finding races got a lot easier after that. Plus, Paul hooked me up with a shop that works with performance cars, so I’m interning there when I’m not in class.”

“Damn, Char” -- his face fell as she flinched involuntarily. “I’m sorry, is it Lottie now?”

“No, it’s fine. I just...I haven’t...I don’t…”

“Hey, I get it. I’m not asking you to just jump right back into where we left off, ya know. I just want another chance.”

“I know, Logan. I…” Charlotte let out a sigh. She wanted, so badly, to give him that. But how could she trust this time would be different? She’d watched him walk away from her two times already. She knew she wouldn’t survive a third. Choosing to be honest, with him and herself, she asked, “How do I know I can trust you?”

“Know? You don’t. But I think me showing up here has to count for something, doesn’t it?”

Brow furrowing, she realized there was still an important piece to this puzzle she was missing, “How are you here, anyway? I know I sure as hell didn’t tell you where I live.”

The left corner of his mouth twitched up, “Paul told me.”

“No, seriously. How’d you find me?”

“Paul.” Reading the confusion on her face, he continued, “He wasn’t happy about it, but he made some comment about you needing to talk to me and you asking for me in the hospital and then wrote your address down for me. Confused the hell outta me, but I wasn’t gonna question it.”

Charlotte made a mental note to call Paul soon, both to rip him a new one and also thank him profusely. Pushing that from her mind, she took a deep breath and, for the first time in over a year, she listened to her heart. Holding her hand out to Logan, she waited until he laced his fingers with hers before whispering, “I can’t.”

Looking stricken, Logan tried to pull his hand out of hers. “Oh...okay…”

“Logan. Look at me.” He hesitated, but when she squeezed his fingers, his eyes finally met hers and she smiled even as her tears started to fall. “I can’t tell you I don’t love you. Because no matter how fucking hard I tried, I couldn’t push you out of my heart.”

A sharp gasp slipped past his lips as he searched her face, as if he couldn’t quite believe what she was telling him. When his fingers tightened around hers even more, her smile grew even bigger. “You mean…?”

“Yeah, baby. I...I’m willing to try this again. But -- “ Logan surged off the floor, wrapping her gently in his arms and for the first time in a long, long time, she felt whole again.

Face buried in her hair, he promised, “Anything, Charlotte. I’ll do anything you want. Anything you need.”

“I just need to take this slow, okay?”

“Done. You set the pace. All the way.”

She couldn’t help but let out a soft chuckle at the wonder in his voice. “Hey, Logan?”

“Yeah?”

“Kiss me.”

 Tags:@burnsoslow @anotherbeingsworld

A/N: This was my first ever attempt at writing for Logan. I really hope I did this sweet, amazing boy justice. For the record, I completely understood his reasons for walking away at the end of RoD - even respected him for it - but I also know that it wouldn’t have set well with my girl, which is how this idea came to be. Thank you all so much for reading!!

[defkooka]

until i see you again [pt.1] I na jaemin

pairing: na jaemin x reader

genre: collegeau!, summerau!, friends to lovers!, angst, romance

word count: 11.4K

summary: na jaemin was the boy who made you fall for him the summer of your sophomore year of high school. na jaemin was also the boy who unintentionally broke your heart that same summer, leaving and never returning again. now he’s back, ironically during the summer of your sophomore year of college. some things never seem to change huh?

a/n: i love dreams new comeback! chenle was looking *chefs kiss*. anyways, a small series on our flirt jaemin. i’m stuck at home doing school work and nothing to do but to write so i couldn't help myself when the concept video for puzzle piece came out, like jaemin looks soooo cute! hope you enjoy :) PS: REQUEST ARE OPEN

the soles of your feet were burning and you were sweating like crazy at this point. you could even feel the sweat begin to drop from between your boobs which was never a good sign, the only thing keeping you from melting into the tile floors was the hot breeze coming from the fan sitting on the far corner of the pink marble counter. 

“why the fuck is it so hot right now?!” eunjung came walking from the back room, two big tubs of chocolate ice cream on each of her sides and a big pouty look decorated her face.

“you would think that working at an ice cream shop all summer would mean we would at least not sweat gallons a day. but look at us now, who would have thought? not me!” ellie sarcastically commented and turned to lean against the metal counter to look at you. you rolled your eyes and fanned yourself with the rag on your shoulder avoiding her ‘i told you so’ gaze.

“better than making 8 dollars an hour watching mean devil children all summer,” you said while you played with the bright pink and neon green cups that sat on the dispenser, “scholarships and financial aid can only get you so far”.

summer had come faster than you had anticipated this year. you went from stressing over big tests, homework, and maintaining a job all at once, to dying in the scorching heat of an ice cream shop. you and your friends planned to make this the best summer, but you couldn't really do that with an empty bank account. so when eunjung saw a ‘help wanted’ sign from your local ice cream shop hanging on the front door, she couldn't pass on the opportunity of bringing you and ellie along. 

“come on guys, cheer up! at least we get all the free ice cream we want.” she shrugged her shoulder and smiled down at the large cookie dough cone she had prepared for herself.

“i would much rather be taking care of ms. jacksons kids than sitting in here in this heat. like literally it’s a fucking ice cream shop, shouldn't all this ice cream be melted by now?” ellie dropped her head back and whined. “well you said yes to working with us, so suck it up bitch!” eunjung kicked ellie’s shin and once again for the tenth time that day they began bickering.

“guys! chill out. and she’s right ellie, this isn’t so bad. at least better than us sitting on eunjungs couch all summer with no money whatsoever.” you laughed and turned towards the door to gaze outside at the empty streets. it’s been a pretty slow day, only a few people here and there. you even had a few some older couples coming in and sitting down for a while, before leaving right out the door again.

“i wouldn’t mind if it wasn’t so empty! everyone's either at the carnival or getting ready for that stupid lake party.” ellie crossed her arms on the marble top next to you and grouched.

“didn't you say you wanted to go to said ‘stupid lake party’?” eunjung looked at her in confusion, “i know!” ellie threw her hands up in frustration and walked out from behind the counter to sit at one of the tables in front of the big glass window, you and eunjung following behind. 

“don’t worry! we have like 2 more hours until our shifts are over so we can just head home, get into cute little bikinis, and go have fun and get drunk at the lake. but i am NOT carrying your ass home drunk again.” you squeezed her shoulders in reassurance before taking a seat with your back facing the door.

“ugh i can’t wait! all the hot guys, the music. i heard jisung was going to be there with the guys.” eunjung smiled and blushed while licking away the ice cream that had dripped onto her hand.

“uhhhh you mean your boyfriend?” ellie mocked her by making kissy noises and poking her sides. “he’s not my boyfriend, stop it.” she swatted away her hands and you laughed.

“yeah right, you have been flirting and all over each other since literally our freshman year of high school!” you crossed your arms on the metal table in front of you, feeling the icy cold metal against your burning skin.

“i like to take my time with things thank you very much.” she stuck her tongue out at you guys and ellie and you shook your heads in laughter.

you all kept small conversation on silly things that happened during your weeks when all of the sudden you heard the bell of the front door ding, and then male laughs follow along, making you three look up.

“um excuse me, aren’t you guys supposed to be working?” you turned around at the familiar voice and saw chenle and jeno walking towards your table. you saw another head of ashy blue hair walking behind them but didn't recognize them since you couldn’t really see their face with chenle’s head in the way, so you didn't pay much attention to it.

“look what the cat dragged in.” ellie flipped off chenle with a teasing tone and a smile, he mimicked her words and flipped her off as well before giving you a high five and waving at eunjung who sat across from you.

“awe don’t be so bitter ellie, i know you miss us even though you saw us like two days ago.” jeno began poking the side of her neck constantly making her squirm under his touch. “don’t touch me like that!” she punched his buff upper arm, but not strong enough to the point where it would actually hurt him, not like it would anyway. jeno was somehow built like a ken doll. literally any time any of you would try and inflict any sort of pain towards him, he wouldn't even as much as flinch, god does love to play favorites. 

jeno frowned and rubbed the part up and down jokingly and continued to tease the black haired girl sitting in front of him.

“technically we areee supposed to be working, but it’s been dead all day so we’re just killing time until we leave.” eunjung shoved the last of her ice cream into her mouth and discreetly wiped her hands on ellies shoulder while she continued to fight off jenos mocking hands.

“you guys coming to the lake later?” chenle played with a few strands of your hair in attempt to braid it, but failing miserably at it too.

“fuck yeah we’re going, i refuse to let summer slip away before i go back to sitting in lectures all day. anyway who’s even dow-” she stopped mid sentence after she finally noticed the third head with jeno and chenle. she had a shocked yet amused expression on her face and she stayed like that for a few seconds in complete silence. jeno seemed to noticed her behavior and snapped his head towards the person who still remained unknown. he walked behind you to grab their arm before finally introducing them.

“shit i forgot, you guys remember jaemin right? he moved away 3-4 years ago, we were all like best friends back in school.” your body went stiff at the mention of that name. you haven't heard of it in a long time, not after spending months brokenhearted when he first left and slowly seeming to forget about him over the years, well. until now.

 jeno dragged jaemin forward where he stood at the front of the table and smiled at ellie and eunjung.

“of course i remember jaemin. where the hell have you been all this time kid?” ellie stood up with a smile to give him a tight hug before she pulled back, and let eunjung hug him too. 

“college.” he laughed with a straight set of teeth, making you reminisce of the small, wimpy black haired boy with braces that would run around with you guys back in grade school all throughout high school, before he had to move away. he was older now. way older, and definitely not a boy anymore. his ashy blue hair was the thing that stood out the most, he wore it with confidence. jaemin back in high school wasn’t much of a person who liked attention, he loved having friends and was a very friendly person, but never bold enough to something like dye his entire head blue. you also didn’t miss that his height had skyrocketed, now he stood a solid 4-5 inches taller than you. even though he didn't look anything like the way he had left, he somehow still acted like the same jaemin you crushed on back in freshman year and all through that summer. his warm, wide smile was the same, his bright black eyes were the same, and the happy aura around him was still the same.

“you just came down for the summer or something?” eunjung pulled away from the hug and widely smiled at him.

“sadly, yes. my mom wanted to spend a summer back home for a while so she dragged us to come down.” he sadly nodded along with his words and pushed his large hands into his shorts pockets.

“well, i guess that means we have to make the most of it right? you’re gonna be hanging out with us all summer long from now on, just like old times. dude we’re getting the old crew back!” ellie excitedly hugged eunjung before turning to you. once she saw the look of pure and utter shock in your face her smile slowly dropped but soon turned into a knowing smirk.

“jaemin, you remember y/n right?” your eyes went wide and everyone’s attention shifted towards you where you still sat on the chair. jaemins smile dropped a little bit at the sound of your name before turning to look at you, then he broke out into the biggest grin you’ve seen on him yet.

“holy shit. hey y/n, long time no see.” his eyes roamed up and down your body before meeting your gaze once again. not in one of those weird perverted ways, but in a ‘holy shit, i cant believe it’s actually you!’ way. he hadn’t seen you in years nor heard your name in a while, just from time to time when he would speak to the guys and they would talk about where they were hanging out and who was coming along. every time he heard it, it made him think about you and all those past memories back in high school, especially making those old feelings bubble up in his stomach, but he never lodged on them for long since he truly believed he would never see your face ever again.

“yeah, long time huh?” you smiled at him and you both didn’t say anything after that. you guys just stood there taking each others appearances in.

jaemin noticed the way your hair got shorter, you had probably cut it from the way it used to flow down your back when you were kids. you definitely didn’t look like the little girl he would tease, you looked grown. like a woman. your breast had gotten bigger and peeked out from the tight black work shirt you had picked out that morning in a rush. your legs were longer and thicker, and your skin glowed from the way the sun was hitting it just right from the window in front of you. jaemin always thought you were pretty when you were kids, but you were stunning now. all those past memories hitting him like a truck while he stared at you in awe.

“okayyy. why don’t weee, go get you guys some ice cream, shall we?” eunjung pushed jeno and chenle towards the glass display once she saw you and jaemin get into an intense stare down and the atmosphere had gone silent.

“we have to bring enough for everyone. renjun wants milk flavored!” chenle screamed while jeno followed behind him. ellie gave you a look before she walked away with another smirk. “what the fuck is even milk flavored?” you heard eunjung say before jaemin took a seat on the chair in front of you, leaning back into it with his hands in front of him on the shiny metal table.

“how you've been?” he looked at you with that fondness he used to look at you with back in that summer, which was one of the reasons you fell so hard for the guy. you couldn't help the pink blush that began creeping onto your cheeks and your head shot down towards your lap for a few seconds before looking back up at him.

“i’m doing good. besides spending thousands on college, could be worse-“ you shrugged your shoulder and you both laughed. “so, how’s your life back at home?” you tilted your head sideways and watched his eyes.

“it’s going great. it was hard settling in at first. you know, making new friends in an entire new country. it was rough, i missed you guys like crazy. but i’m glad that coming back; nothing really seemed to change with you all. renjun and donghyuck still fight over everything, chenle and jisung still have that bromance thing going, jeno and ellie still act like an old married couple, eunjung is still somehow the sweetest person for no apparent reason,” he turned around and looked at jeno and eunjung trying to pull ellie off of chenle after he tried to stick his hand inside of the display and steal a free sample and you both chuckled.

“and you,” he turned back around and met your eyes. suddenly you felt nerves shoot through your entire body and felt like shrinking into yourself from the intense stare of his dark brown eyes, “you’re still you.” he finally cracked a smile and you felt your chest tighten a little.

“yeah, it was pretty hard after you moved away. everyone kinda didn’t know how to act around each other for a few months but we learned how to adjust. perfect example right there.” you quickly pointed towards the scene happening in front of you to try and cover up your flustered state before he seemed to noticed. you both laughed once again but that still didn't calm the nerves bubbling inside of you.

 jaemin turned and looked up to meet your eyes for what felt like the hundredth time. nope, that thing he did with his eyes where he would stare at you and make you feel like he was looking right inside of you and feel everything you would be feeling still hadn’t change at all, yet all you could do was smile back at the silver haired boy and look down at your clasped hands in front of you.

“i missed you like crazy you know.” your eyes shot up to meet his and his smile dropped a little as his eyes sincerely watched you.

“uh yeah. we all missed you.” you uncomfortably shifted in your seat. you didn’t really want talk about this subject to the boy that you had spent most of your weeks crying over in your bed because you were never seeing him away. nothing better than teenage heartbreak.

jaemin caught onto the mood change in the air but didn’t continue to push the subject, not wanting to make you even more uncomfortable.

“alright. i think that’s enough ice cream. we should head back to the lake and start setting up our spot, jaemin let’s go!” jeno grabbed the boys shoulder and pulled him up to his feet. jaemin nodded and turned back towards you but saw that you refused to meet his nervous gaze.

“we’ll see you guys there?” chenle turned around to talk to the three of you with one hand on the door.

“yeah, we have to head home and change but we’ll be there by 6.” eunjung nodded and ellie and you agreed.

“so, i guess i’ll talk to you later at the lake?” jaemins voice sounded hopeful, you felt guilt so you finally looked back up at him and forced a smile, “yeah, i’ll see you there.” you nodded and he gave you a grin with a wink of one eye which made you feel all flustered all of the sudden. and he got smooth too?

“cool” he teased and walked behind jeno and chenle after saying his goodbye to the girls.

“no fucking way na freaking jaemin is back in town looking that hot.” ellie announced once she saw the guys were a safe distance far away before rushing back over to where you were sitting in excitement.

“i haven’t heard from that kid since like a few months after he had moved. i didn’t know the guys still talked to him.” eunjung stayed behind the counter and looked at you both with confusion.

“i guess they did. y/n, you okay?” ellie looked at you in concern after you had stayed silent and looked totally spaced out from the conversation. you didn't really know how you were feeling, you never expected to see his face ever again after he had left. he was just some memory you managed to push to the back of your head ever since he left and never dug out of thought of ever again. so why did you feel those stupid butterflies in your stomach? it was high school. FUCKING HIGH SCHOOL. you should NOT be feeling butterflies over a boy you liked back in high school, that’s like rule #1 in the ‘how to live a normal life’ handbook, women edition. high school boys are stupid and should never be brought up again after graduation. well, jaemin wasn’t just any high school boy. he was the high school boy who showed you how to fall in love and live a little more.

“yeah i’m fine. just kinda shocked, i never thought i’d see him ever again.” you looked back down at your hands as you played with them to try and keep yourself calm from all the different thoughts and emotions that were rushing through your body right now.

“yeah i thought so too. considering how things ended.” she patted you on your back in comfort with a half smile.

“where the hell are they?” ellie sat on the side of the curve tying her high top converses with frustration, her bangs falling on her eyes as she forcefully blew them away from her face with puffs of air. “they said they weren’t going to take more than 10 minutes. i’m gonna rip donghyuck a new one when i lay my eyes on him.” she stood up and kicked a pebble down the street as you and eunjung watched it roll into the road.

“they’ll probably be here any second. relax.” you pulled on ellie’s bra strap and yanked her back before she could furiously kick another rock.

“we have things to do! it’s not the last day of summer for nothing!” she threw her arms in the air before lazily sitting on the curb again.

“exactly why we SHOULDN'T be stressing out el! the guys said they were going to be here, so we just need to wait.” eunjung sat down next to her and you soon joined them.

today was the last day of summer before you entered into your sophomore year.

you had spent the entire summer with your friends running around town down crazy and stupid things. late nights by the lake, climbing up the hill just outside of town to watch the sunset, swimming in chenles pool every time the heat began to become too much. this was truly THE best summer of your life, you had spent it all with your amazing group of friends and nothing in life seemed to could ever top this.

your heard a stampede of footsteps coming around the corner and all three of you quickly turned to witness the 5 boys sprinting towards you guys almost tripping over each other.

“fucking finally! where the hell were you guys?!” ellie abruptly stood and dusted the dirt from her neon pink shorts, moving away some of the bangs that had fell onto her face.

“we just out ran the kim’s dog, how can a 1 foot dog run so freaking fast?” chenle tumbled onto the curb and laid on the grass trying to catch his breath.

“coco?! seriously?! the dog is literally a chihuahua! what was he going to do to 7 grown teenagers?!” eunjung looked at them like they were the dumbest people she’s ever met. you and ellie laughed and you sat up and dusted your pants while coming closer towards the group of boys getting scolded by the slim girl.

“evil things. very evil things.” renjun wiped the sweat from his brow and nodded knowingly.

“whatever. so, did you get the stuff?” ellie smirked.

“why are you making it sound like a drug deal, jesus. but yes, we got it.” donghyuck pulled the brown cardboard box in front of him out towards you and opened it, revealing all kinds of multicolored fireworks inside.

“we’re gonna go crazy with these!” jisung pulled a firecracker from the box and examined the package carefully before throwing it back in the mix.

“where did you even get these?” you shifted your head closer to the box taking a good look at the fireworks that filled the it.

“jeno knows a guy.” donghyuck yanked the box away from you before closing the lid and giving you a sickening smirk.

“i do?” jenos head snapped up in confusion and looked at hyuck with knitted eyebrows. “yes! you do!” hyuck hissed at him and came closer to his ear.

“dude! we can’t let the women know our secrets!” he said before jeno mouthed an “oh” and nodded in understanding.

“we’re literally right here dumbass” ellie raised her eyebrow at him. they mocked each other with faces as chenle stood up from the ground before speaking up.

“where are we even going to light these anyway?”

everyone looked at each other waiting for the other to speak up with some sort of idea.

“how about the top of the hill? it’s a good view of the town and it’s not far.” jeno shrugged and everyone broke into loud “oohs”.

“wow! lee jeno is the man today!” renjun patted his back teasingly and soon the other boys joined in. jeno broke into a flustered smile while shooing the boys away from him.

“we should get going then. suns almost about to go down.” eunjung said and everyone agreed and began walking towards the hill just outside of your town. you looked around the group and began to count heads; a habit you have obtained due to hanging out with such a large group of friends overtime.

“hold up, wheres jaemin?” you stopped in your tracks and everyone turned back to look at you.

“he said his parents had to talk to him, so he’ll be a little late. i’ll text him where to meet us.” jisung pulled out his phone to shoot a quick text to jaemin and you all began your walk once again.

all you managed to say was ‘oh’ and continued to walk with the group with a frown while they held conversations with each other. 

you and jaemin have stuck like glue this entire summer. he tells you everything like you’re his psychologist or something, with you doing the same. he would’ve definitely told you something about meeting his parents today. maybe it was a last minute thing? you decided not to stress about it and just let it go as you followed behind the group trying to keep up with their speedy steps.

after you guys walked and climbed the hill for a solid 15 minutes, your legs ached as you finally reached the top. it gave you a perfect overlook of your town, the sun setting behind the tall buildings and puffy clouds graced the orange sky. you walked towards the giant walnut tree to rest that you’ve sat under countless nights this summer; jaemin usually by your side.

you guys would come here and talk all the time about random things and would just let the hours run by as you sat on the soft grass. sometimes you would come alone; just the two of you and watch the sunset, he would slowly slide himself now and then closer to you and push your head down on his shoulder and wrap an arm around your smaller figure and just sit there in silence. you would never object to this gesture; finding it adorable how he would nuzzle his head on your hair and run his hand up and down your arm when the wind blew too hard. you sometimes would find yourself yearning for his touch or his presence when he wasn’t around, and even times when he was.

over time you developed some kind of fondness for the black haired boy; soon fondness turning into real feelings. of course you never acted upon these feelings, it’s probably some stupid 15 year old girl crush, maybe just a little summer thing that would end up disappearing over time. so why stress about it? might as well actually enjoy it while it lasts.

“where should we light these?” jeno pulled a lighter from his back pocket and crouched down to open the brown box.

“away from the tree please, last thing we need is causing a forest fire on the last day of summer.” renjun said with hands on his hips.

“let’s do this one first.” jisung pulled a small red and blue box from inside, little yellow and gold designs covered the paper that covered it with a long candle wick coming from the middle.

“it says to set on the ground, and light it with a match. remain 10 feet away from the box to avoid injuries.”

“can i just hold it in my hand while you guys light it and wait for it to explode?” ellie jokingly said. “yes please.” donghyuck whispered before his eyes bursted open as an angry ellie approached him; fist already clenched in the air to punch the air out of him,

“i was kidding!” he laughed and grabbed her wrist before she could get a clean hit of his face, gently pushing her away from him. “i’m going to throw you down this fucking hill, watch.” she teasingly warned him with her index finger.

“alright, alright kids. gather around please.” hyuck grabbed the match from jenos hand and jisung placed the small box on the dirt ground.

“watch the master do-“

“WAIT! let us get away first. better you going down than us.” renjun interrupted while you all ran a safe distance away from the explosion that was about to unleash.

“oh wow. nice, sacrifice the cute one.” hyuck threw his arms up and argued.

“just go!” eunjung laughed and hyuck turned back around with a roll of his eyes.

“here goes nothing.” he quickly lit the match, making a fast 180 turn and sprinting towards where you all stood. you all turned to the box with huge smiles on your faces and waited for a few seconds. you heard an ear screeching sound before loud bangs were going off into the air, the fireworks exploded into all different colors, decorating the low lit sky. you all awed at the colors and cheered until they all died down after about thirty second.

“holy shit! my turn!” chenle screeched before he grabbed another one and set it down on the ground, quickly lighting the match and doing the dash to your spot before the explosion went off with a loud ‘bang!’.

you all laughed and watched the different flashes of colors jump into the air before banishing with a loud rain-like sound once again as you took turns lighting them all. all the smiles on your faces displayed straight joy as you spent the rest of the night setting off every firework inside the box, and slamming firecrackers on the ground and enjoying the loud booms they created echo through the night air.

“you know you all look insane, right?” you heard a a familiar voice coming from the bottom of the hill, before you saw jaemins face come into view.

“where the hell have you been?” you ran towards him before jumping into his arms, he effortlessly caught you before you pulled away with a smile. you could see that something was wrong with him from the moment you pulled away from his hug, he tried his hardest to smile his usual big toothy grin, but it was only met halfway and insincerely.

“i had to talk to my parents for a while. but i’m here now, that’s all that matters.” he tried to look happy, he tried to be okay in that moment, but seeing the worried look on your face while you tried to decipher what was wrong crushed him and made his heart ache a little. for the past summer, jaemins entire world revolved around you. he always had some sort of small crush towards since that day he accidentally pushed you in the lunch line back in 4th grade. but never really did anything about it, i mean you've been in the same group of friends forever and you were like what, 12? he hadn't even hit puberty yet in middle school. but when freshman year of high school ended and summer started rolling around, your skin seemed to glow, your eyes sparkled a little more than usual every time you talked to him, and your smile would pull at the strings of his heart making him feel giddy inside. you've been friends since grade school, but he made it his mission to win you over that summer. spending every second of the day around you and watching you becoming more and more pretty right before his eyes.

“jaemin, what’s wrong?” you grabbed his sweaters sleeve and examined his face.

“nothing. just tired.” he shook the thoughts out of his head and tried to walk towards everyone else, you stopped him before he could even take another step by gripping his sweater even tighter.

“jaemin...” you looked him dead in the eye with a serious look.

“i’ll be okay, don’t worry.” he grabbed the hand that was gripping his sweater before interlacing your fingers with his, giving you a half smile before pulling you along with him towards the rest of your friends.

“jaemin!” jeno called out once he saw the boy walking towards them and you right behind him. all your friends knew that jaemin had a little thing for you, so it didn't come as a surprise to them when he finally decided to make moves. 

“you missed the show bro, jisung almost lit his shoe on fire.” renjun held his stomach in a fit of cackles while jisung nervously laughed and scratched the back of his neck.

“fuck, i cant believe i missed that.” jaemin smiled at the group in front of him.

“where the hell were you the whole time?” eunjung subconsciously ran a hand through her hair, licking her lips trying to add moisture onto them. from the corner of your eye you could see the blush creep on jisungs face as he quickly looked away and distracted himself with the now half burnt shoelace of his right foot. he’s totally crushing on her.

“uhh i got caught up with my parents about something. don’t worry about it.” he simply said and shrugged. everyone gave him a knowing look and shifted their eyes towards you but you didn't notice the sad stares directed at you with pity from your friends, too distracted staring up at the pretty stars.

“it’s whatever, at least you made it in time for the big one.” hyuck pulled a box from the ground, it was bigger than the other fireworks you’ve been setting off throughout the night, this one had yellow and orange sparkles all over its purple exterior with little cartoons decorating the front of it. hyuck places it down on the dirt ground before handing the red lighter to jaemin.

“would you like to do the honors?” he smirked with a raised eyebrow. jaemin laughed before grabbing the lighter into his large hands. you all laughed and cheered before backing up a few feet away from him.

“speech! speech! speech! speech!” chenle began to chant and soon you were all joining.

“what kind of cult is this?” ellie said before chenle looked at her with crazy eyes.

“cult? this is the jaemin love club sweety, get it right.” he jokingly said before you all bursted into laughter. literally all you've guys been doing all night is laughing and setting off explosives on top of  hill, maybe you were a cult.

“shut up! let our club president speak! na jaemin i love you!” renjun yelled before turning his attention back to jaemin with a proud smile, throwing finger hearts at him which caused the younger boy to laugh.

jaemin stood there a few seconds trying to collect his thoughts, switching the lighter from one hand to the other and running his fingers up and down the bright red plastic. he felt his mind racing through all the amazing memories you guys created this summer, like getting jisungs foot somehow stuck in a chair in eunjungs backyard, or accidentally locking jeno outside on the porch as a joke, but later forgetting about him until 3 in the morning when you were all having a sleepover. poor guy was sleeping next to the plants and using the fertilizer as a pillow. he smiled at all your silly arguments like the one where you all fought over whether if pineapple belonged on pizza or not, which ellie didn’t give up on until she proved her point that it was a creation sent from heaven. also the stupid choices you had made all summer like peer pressuring mark into driving you all down to the beach a few hours from here and getting lost for 4 hours getting back home. your parents never let you live that one down. but his favorite memory of all; was you. like the time you sat with him all night on his roof watching the stars and playing slow r&b songs through his phone while you horribly tried to sing along and told each other childhood stories. or the time where you guys were walking along side of the lake one afternoon and he had the bright idea to start bothering the ducks, which only resulted in him making them angry and you guys getting chased all the way to the main road. you were always there for him, the good and bad. he never really cared about a girl the way he cared for you, yeah he’s had crushes here and there throughout his life but never like this. he didn’t think you were just pretty, he thought you were intelligent, confident, hardworking, and open minded about everything you did. but could he really call that love? he was so young. what the fuck does he know about love?

“i don’t really know what to say, there’s so much shit yet so little words to explain it. spending every second up each others ass is not easy” he joked and you all laughed in agreement.

“We made some amazing memories, some pretty stupid ones too. i’m still sorry about pushing you into the lake eunjung.” he apologetically looked at eunjung and she laughed before giving him a reassuring smile. “today is the last night we get to do things like this y’know, before going back and cheating our way through sophomore year like we did freshman.” another set of laughs filled the night air.

“um excuse me, not i. this is a brain of gold.” renjun confidently said before jisung and chenle looked at each other.

“who’s gonna tell him?” jisung said before an angry renjun ran towards him.

“ya!” he grabbed him by the collar and shook him. “okay! okay!” jisung said in a fit of giggles trying to push the older boy off of him.

“can you please get to the sentimental part please” ellie crossed her arms impatiently.

“jeez fine. moral of the story, i just want to say thank you to all of you. we’ve been friends for so long that I've even lost track of the years. every memory i can possibly think of right now, somehow involves every single one of your dumbasses. we’ve been there for each every time something big or minor happens and i just want to appreciate that. were standing here on our last day of summer for a reason, so i just want to say...thank you. for making my life so great up to this point.” he finally looked up from the rock under his foot that he’s been staring at for the last minute while he gave his little speech.

you heard a soft sniffle next to you and turned to witness tears rolling down eunjungs face. 

“oh god, here comes the waterworks-”

“that was so beautiful? and heartfelt? why would you think this is okay to do to me jaemin?!” eunjung dug her head into jenos side while he cradled her in his arms with a roll of his eyes. “there, there little one. shut up now” he patted the top of her head like a little puppy.

“that was deep bro” donghyuck took large strides towards him and embraced him into a tight hug sending the stumbling back a little, loud fake sobs leaked of his mouth before jaemin began to squirm and whine before pushing hyuck away successfully.

“jaemin that was so sweet” you pouted your lips and clasped your hands in front of you. his eyes locked with yours and he blushed at your comment, shyly looking away with smile.

“well, enough of that sentimental shit. let’s end this summer with a bang, shall we?” ellie announced before you all began to cheer once again with loud screams and claps.

“here’s to the best summer ever with the greatest people.” jaemin yelled before flicking the lighter a few times until a spark of fire emerged, he lit the box and swiftly raced back to you, he crashed into your arms and you both stumbled back a bit in laughter, before gaining your balance and waiting for the small colorful box to explode.

you all watched it intensively before you heard a loud whistle resonate through the night air, and all the sudden two sparks of lights shot into the night sky, before they exploded into an eruption of colors. you all watched the light show above you in a awe for a few minutes until the last bit of light left the sky, only leaving the far away stars to look down at you. 

no one said anything. you all just stood there in silence enjoying each others presence, it’s like no one needed to say anything for you all to understand each others thoughts and feelings right in that moment. 

this is it. this was when it hit you that these people standing with you in that second, were people you wanted forever in your life. this summer showed you how important it is to have people you value with you, those you can share a life with and connect with on an emotional level. the ones that you can laugh with, cry with, and argue with. bonds that are made for life.

you looked over to jaemin who was standing next to you. his head was directed up towards the stars and his eyes were twinkling a little different than usual, his expression was almost sad like. but the juxtaposition of the chilly breeze blew his hair back making him look like some kind of angel. he slightly parted his lips and closed his eyes for a second, taking in the silence. 

your eyes drew in the shape of him in your mind, engraving it into the deepest parts of your conscious and keeping it there forever. but you couldn’t restrain yourself any longer. your fingertips touched his before you fully wrapped your hand with his, jaemins eyes shot open before they landed on you, looking a little taken aback. he began to relax his hand and finished interlacing your fingers together sloppily. his eyes scanned over your face before breaking into a sweet grin replacing his former pained expression.

“we should get going. it’s getting late and i don’t feel like being late for school in the morning.” renjun spoke first and made everyone snap back into reality.

“i already picked out my outfit, it’s laying next to my pillow.” jeno proudly smiled before he started to make his way down the semi-steep hill. “me too!” jisung ran down after him before jumping on his back and wrapping an arm around his shoulder.

“that was fun.” jaemin said next to you, your hand still holding his, “yeah, it was fun spending our last night like this.” you looked down with a blush.

“i’m going to miss nights like these” ellie wrapped her arms around renjuns shoulders, with a pout.

“you do realize that we’re literally gonna still be around each other every single day, just with school thrown into the mix, right?” jeno turned around towards the short girl with a raised brow.

“shut up jeno! it’s not the fucking same and you know it” ellie argued shooting a death glare to the side of jenos head. he threw his hands in the air in defeat with a teasing grin.

you all walked and buzzed with conversation for the rest of the way, teasingly pushing and shoving each other and cracking jokes. this was your last summer night after all, it wouldn't be a good one if someone didn't almost get hit by a car. you continued to mess around until you all came to a stop on the corner of the street where you all had met that same afternoon.

“i should head home before my mom starts throwing my stuff out of the window. see you guys tomorrow at school.” jisung began to walk backwards while throwing a peace sign in the air.

“wait—i’ll walk with you! see you guys!” chenle quickly ran after him and waved at you with a big smile. you all waved bye to them as they walked down the quiet street and rounded a corner.

“i’m gonna head out too. see you scumbags tomorrow” renjun ran a hand through his hair and half smiled.

“i’ll come with you baby” donghyuck followed behind him and jokingly smacked his butt. renjun turned around so quick with a horrified look with both hands on his ass.

“i’m telling mark!” he ushered out and punched hyucks shoulder, sending him stumbling back a little while holding it, but that stupid smirk never left his face.

“he doesn’t have to know about us.” he jumped on renjuns back while he whined loudly.

“so embarrassing. anyways, the throuple is out. jeno be a doll and walk us home.” ellie said while she hooked her arms with jenos and eunjungs and pulled them down the street with a smirk and a wink.

“and then there were two.” you dramatically said in a movie narrative voice making jaemin chuckle.

“let me walk you home.” he slid an arm around you and pulled you closer as he began walking you to the direction of your house.

“you know what, i’m actually cheering for team throuple.” you commented while you played with the sleeve of his navy blue hoodie that was tossed over your shoulder.

“oh please, eunjung and jisung are practically in love. i bet they’ll get together by the end of the year.” he dared with a smirk.

“i hate it when you’re right.” you looked away distastefully and he laughed finally unwrapping himself from you. you felt a breeze blow by and a shiver run down your body, you swaddled yourself in your arms missing the way jaemin held you but not saying anything; you just continued walking.

“did you have fun this summer?” he asked out of nowhere tucking in his hands into his pocket.

“are you kidding? this summer couldn’t be topped. we did the craziest shit and somehow managed to make it out alive.” you looked up with an enormous smile to see jaemin looking down at you after those words left your mouth, he had that same pained expression he’s been wearing all night and the question came to your mind once again; why is he so sad?

“i’m glad that you’re happy. that you've been happy this summer and that i was a part of that.” he teared his eyes away from you and continued to look straight ahead. you looked at him oddly with a raised eyebrow. where the hell did that come from? jaemin was never shy about his feelings but never in your entire life of knowing him has he burbled something out of nowhere like that.

“alright, I've been biting my tongue all fucking night but i’m getting kinda sick of looking at you with that depressed face, what’s up?” you looked at him with worry once again. his eyes quickly landed on you and he looked shocked for a second over the fact that you even noticed it, he thought he was doing a pretty good job at keeping his facial expressions under control all night.

“wh-what? i’m fine, what are you talking about?” he stuttered out nervously and came to a stop once he saw that you were at the front of your house.

“and i shit gold out of my ass, now stop lying to me. seriously jaemin, what’s wrong?” you pushed the subject and once again he refused to make eye contact with you.

“i don’t feel like talking about it y/n” he uttered out to get you to shut up about it but you weren’t giving up so easily.

“jaemin. tell me. i’m not asking out of courtesy, i’m asking as your friend. now spit it out or i’m never giving back that pink sweater.” you threatened and he looked at you in disbelief.

“you fucking wouldn’t.” he glared daggers at you and you felt accomplished. “i’ll set it on fire if you don’t tell me in the next 10 seconds.” you crossed yours arms and puffed out your chest in victory which made him roll his eyes at you.

“fine” he finally said and you punched the air with a whispered ‘yesss’. you took a seat on your curb and patted the spot next to you, “please step into my office.” you placed your clasped hands on your lap and watched him sit down next to you. he placed his elbows on his knees and looked straight ahead into the choi’s front yard with furrowed brows.

“ready when you are.” you patted his back and waited patiently for him to gather his thoughts.

“i wasn’t really planning on saying anything about this. well, not now at least. i thought i could buy myself some time.” he chuckled and looked down at the floor.

“what are you talking about?” you looked at him puzzled.

“my dads doing pretty good at work, even thought he was probably gonna get a promotion. he’s been so excited about it ever since he mentioned it a few months ago. i didn’t think much of it, of course i was happy. he’s my dad, why wouldn’t i? i just thought he’d probably get a pretty large raise, that’s about it.” he paused and played with the grass that peeked out from the cracks on the concrete, he ran his fingers over the top of it before pulling it out strand by strand in frustration.

“i was excited about today actually. i knew donghyuck must’ve had something pretty good planned for the last day of summer. all the guys were excited, the girls too. i was just happy to get to spend the day with them. with you.” he finally looked at you with sad eyes. your heart clenched when he looked at you like that, you wanted to hug and kiss him until he smiled again and little bells would go off like they always did; at least in your head.

“this was not how this summer was supposed to end.” he bitterly laughed and threw the last few pieces of grass in his palm into the street before dusting his hands. you looked at him confused trying your best to piece what he was saying together but coming to no conclusion.

“i still don’t understand why you’re so upset jaemin. i mean, isn’t that a good thing? your dad is getting a promotion.” you raised an eyebrow and hugged your knees to your chest and looked at the side of his face for answers.

“my dad had mentioned something about moving to the other firm of the company too, which would require us to move. to a whole different country. “ you looked at him taken aback but allowed him to continue.

“of course i didn’t really pay attention to him since he never confirmed it. so i didn't really stress about it much, i just wanted to enjoy my summer.” he now took up playing with his fingers to keep his hands busy.

you felt your heart begin to race faster and faster and your palms beginning to feel sweaty against your skin. you prayed to yourself that this conversation wasn’t going to where you thought it was going.

“i was about to leave my house to meet you guys on the corner but my parents said they had to talk to me about something today. so i just texted jeno that i’ll meet you guys wherever,” he shrugged his shoulders and continued, “apparently, my dad did get that promotion. i was happy as fuck for him, but then he started to speak about that new firm again. he told me that he’ll be getting his own office, his job would cover an entire brand new house for us, that i would get to go to a new school, a private one, and make a bunch of new friends. i prayed that he said no. i felt like a horrible son but, i kept on wishing and wishing for him to just say that we didn't have to go, that we get to stay but,” he took a long pause and caught his breath, almost like preparing himself for what he was about to say next.

“he took the job.”

 it seemed like time stopped once those words left his mouth. you felt your heart drop to the other end of the world. you looked away from him and swallowed the lump of spit that had seemed to form in your throat and tried your hardest to blink away the tears that were welding on the verges of your eyes.

“oh” you sensed his eyes on the side of your head but you refused to look at him. you felt your heart ache in your rib cage and literal physical pain every time you tried to breathe and you didn’t want to know what would happen if you mad eye contact with him.

“so, you’re leaving.” you said and quickly closed your mouth again to try and stop the tears from flowing down like a stream on your face.

“i was going to tell you eventually y/n i swea-“

“do the others know?” you asked and heard your voice crack in the process. jaemin didn’t say anything and looked away from you. you felt his body stiffen next to you and you turned to glare at the side of his head due to the silence as he refused to meet your eyes.

“jaemin, do the others know?” you began to feel anger brew in your system and your body progressively begin to feel hotter.

he stayed silent a few more seconds before looking down and finally speaking,

“yes. i told them a couple of weeks ago.” he whispered and you felt the last huff of air leave your body like somebody had just sat on your chest.

you felt a warm tear slip down your cheek before you swiftly wiped it away. you stood up from the curb and turned to walk back towards your home in hurried steps.

“y/n! stop please, i was going to tell you—“ he chased after you as soon as your body stood from next yo him. he wrapped his hands around your forearms before yanking you back to halt your movements.

“when jaemin?! huh?! everyone else knew weeks before that you were going to leave except me?! you had me looking like an idiot the whole summer for your ass! you knew about the fact that there was possibility of you moving away months ago, MONTHS AGO, and continued to play me like some idiot?!” you shoved his chest a few times, harder with every word that left your mouth, and he stumbled back before grabbing your wrist and holding them in place.

“no i didn’t y/n i swear! everything that I've said, everything that we’ve done, was real! you think i would be acting like that around you and make myself miserable knowing that i would eventually be leaving if i wasn’t completely head over heels for you?! the reason i didn't tell you sooner was because i didn't know how to. how exactly do you tell the girl you've been obsessing over since you were 9, that you've finally had the courage to make a move on, that you would be leaving in a few weeks after spending all summer long falling for her?!” he tried to reason with you but you couldn’t process the words leaving his lips right now. your eyes felt sore already from the hot tears that ran down your cheeks. all you just wanted was to crash through that door and lock yourself in your room for weeks. you didn’t want to look at his face. the face that you've memorized all the details of, the face of the boy who made you believe in those stupid high school love stories that last forever. what stupid lies.

“how could you do this jaemin?” you whispered in between quiet sobs and finally stopped fighting against him, he took his chance and pulled you into his chest, wrapping both arms around your shaking body and you sobbed into him. he buried his face in between your neck and slowly rocked you side to side until you’ve calmed down.

“i’m so sorry y/n, but there’s nothing i can do.” he whispered into you before you pulled away from him, wiping the wet stains from your face after a few seconds.

“yeah i know.” you took a few steps away from him but he seemed to notice and that made his heart ache a little.

“don’t do that, you’re closing off. please y/n, don’t do this to me right now.” jaemin felt tears come to his eyes and he tried his hardest to hold them back for as long as he could, but not being able to stop that single tear that escaped rolling down his cheek and dripping onto his hoodie.

“what else am i supposed to do jaemin? you’re moving away, you’re leaving us. and you didn’t even tell me.” you felt like bawling again but stopped yourself.

“we can still all talk. i’ll try and come down a few times a year—“

“jae. you’re moving to a whole different country.” you said and he slouched his shoulders in defeat at your words as the realization hit him.

“when are you leaving?” you finally spoke after a long pause.

“two weeks.” he lowly said and you scoffed.

“two weeks? how could you not tell me?!” you felt anger begin to bubble inside you again but checked yourself. you weren’t the only one who was hurting right now, jaemin was too. he had to leave everything he knew behind, his house, his family, his friends. you couldn't possibly imagine what he must be feeling.

“i’m sorry” was all he could say when he looked you in the eyes and a few more tears escaped.

“yeah, me too” you approached him once again and closed the distance between you in a tight hug. this took jaemin by surprise before he gave in and safely wrapped his arms around you and just held you there in silence.

“let me just do this one thing, please.” he pulled away and placed a hand on your jaw, you leaned into his touch and saw him come in closer to your face.

he stopped right before his lips touched yours and you felt his breath on them, you both looked at each other before he looked back down and finally closed the distance.

your first kiss. your first kiss was with the boy you fell for that summer. for a boy you were probably never seeing again. it was a short kiss, short but sweet. neither of you knew much of what you were doing so you didn’t really push it past what it was.

he pulled away and looked at you again before smiling sweetly down at you.

“we still have a week. so let’s make it last, okay?” he nodded his head up and down and you mimicked him with a reciprocated smile.

“okay” you placed your head back on his chest and stayed there a little longer with arms tightly wrapped around him. like he was going to dissapear any second.

“jaemin?” you whispered and he hummed, feeling his chest vibrate against your ear in acknowledgement.

“what if i never see you again?” you gripped his back a little tighter. he stayed silent for a while before bringing his hands to cup both sides of your face and cradle it in front of his.

“the universe works in funny ways you know. we will see each other again one day. i promise.” he kissed your forehead and you closed your eyes and allowed another fresh tear to slip down your cheek. you finally pulled away from the hug and he stared at you for a little while before whipping away the tears from his and yours face with a laugh.

“go inside. it’s late, i’ll see you tomorrow at school.” his eyes held adoration as he watched you nod again and start walking towards your door after whispering a ‘goodnight jaemin’ to him with a closed lip smile. when you closed the door behind you, you couldn’t help the pain you felt between your chest, it felt like your entire body was being drained and you dropped to you knees, covering your mouth from the loud sobs as you cried on your front door.

you both spent those entire two weeks with each other. you went everywhere that brought the smallest memory of your lives together, almost like you were trying to engrave it all into jaemin head so he never forgets. but trust, he never would.

you and your friends threw him a little goodbye party the night before his flight, there was a lot of tears and hugging. a few dramatic falls and cries from chenle, donghyuck and ellie, but you all had fun. you spent it like you needed too. together.

you didn’t send him off the morning of his flight, too scared that you would break down in front of his parents and more embarrassingly your friends. he was disapointed when he walked outside of his house and saw all his friends standing next to his dads car with balloons in their hands yet you were no where to be seen. but he still smiled and hugged every single one of them goodbye and promised to keep in touch.

ellie and eunjung came by later that day to check in on you. as soon as they walked through your bedroom door and made eye contact with you, witnessing the hurt expression on your face, you couldn't help the hot tears that started flowing uncontrollably. they comforted you while you cried the whole night, feeling like your body was floating until you finally fell asleep with dried tears on your pillow.

the crying continued for another 6 weeks before you learned to cope. you started hanging out with your friends again and going out more often. you and jaemin still stayed in contact, texting and calling as much as you could trying to keep each other up to date with what’s happening, him on settling into his new school, making new friends, and you on how ellie and donghyuck tried to get jisung to go through the basketball hoop and proceeded to get him stuck. it took almost 2 hours getting him out.

slowly you began to stop talking less and less, texts became shorter, and calls weren’t made as often. until one day, they stopped. you believed that it was just a tough lesson the world just wanted you to learn at an early age. you had moved on and it was all just some stupid summer crush on a friend.

 life goes on. and it did.

“finally! fucking turtles!” ellie shouted once she saw the two familiar faces that were seungjun and chan walk through the glass door. she quickly pushed them out of the way and exited the shop in a rush.

“what’s with her?” chan looked over his shoulder before making his way over to the counter.

“she wants to go to the lake. badly” eunjung grabbed her bag and began walking towards the door.

“alright, guard the fortress freshies!” you held a L to your forehead and stuck out your tongue to the two younger boys, catching them roll their eyes before you chased behind your friends.

you followed the two girls to the parking lot where your car sat under the boiling summer heat.

“can you walk any slower?!” ellie stomped her foot on the ground while she waited for you to open the doors.

“actually, i can.” you slowed your steps like you were stuck in slow motion which only made ellie groan loudly in annoyance and a laugh to leave eunjungs lips.

“y/n please! i’m trying to have a hot girl summer again!” she begged before you finally gave in and unlocked the doors. she smiled brightly before climbing into the passenger seat and tossing her bag somewhere in the chaotically packed backseat.

“what do you mean ‘again’?” eunjung pushed over some of the jackets scattered on the seat to make space for herself before climbing in and closing the door behind her.

“well, last year i barely got to enjoy the thottivities because i was taking care of devil children the whole time. but this year? i’m not letting this heat slip away so easily baby.” ellie twisted her body in the seat to talk to the taller brunette behind her.

“didn’t you have a thing with hyunjin all of last summer?” you looked at her in confusion before starting the car and driving out of the parking lot into the streets.

“we did not have such thing!” she barked at you with crossed arms.

“yes you did.” eunjung uttered out not taking her eyes off her phone.

“shut up eunjung! like i haven’t caught you and jisung in our dorm before!” ellie fought back with knitted eyebrows.

“at least i own up to it!” eunjung stuck her tongue out before going back to her phone. you all laughed after a few seconds of realizing how stupid you all probably looked to passing vehicles as you screamed in the car.

“why don’t you guys just make it official anyway, i’m tired of watching you two sneak off somewhere every time we all try and hang out together. just say that you’re dating and call it a day.” you blasted your ac to try and somewhat control the sweat threatening to drip from your forehead.

“we’re taking our time! we don’t want to rush things.” she finally placed the device on her lap and pouted, eyes gazing out of the window to all the passing buildings.

“eunjung sweetheart, it’s been almost 5 years. i think we’re past the rushing part,” ellie snickered in her seat, “very very past actually.” you added in and you all shared a laugh.

“i’m just nervous, what if he doesn’t like me enough to you know, actually make things official?” she nervously made eye contact with you through the rear view mirror and bit her bottom lip; an adorable habit she’s collected through the years.

you and ellie turned to look at each other with knowing looks before shaking your heads in unison.

“girl, that boy is obsessed with your ass. do you see the way he looks at you? you basically have him wrapped around your finger. plus, why wouldn’t he want to be with you? you’re fucking banging. i’d be gay for you” ellie shrugged her shoulders and slouched in her seat. eunjung smiled and blushed from the backseat before abruptly sitting up and smooching ellies cheek. ellie squirmed under her touch and whined loudly before finally shoving the taller girl back into her seat.

“gay moment? i’m here for it.” you laughed and turned in your street before speeding a little to make the ride shorter.

the car fell into comfortable silence for a few minutes. you focused on the road while tapping the steering wheel to the random song playing from the radio. but not og after the peaceful silence was interrupted by ellies loud voice booming through the car.

“i’m sorry, but can we please talk about how jaemin is back in town.” ellie burbled out before eunjung gave her a wide eye death stare. your grip tightened on the steering wheel and you swallowed the lump of saliva that had formed in your throat before concentrating back on the road in front of you.

“ellie. we’re not-“

“no it’s fine, don’t worry about me.” you shook your head and relaxed your tense shoulders.

“i’m sorry y/n, but like what the fuck. that was so random just seeing him again after such a long time.”

“yeah i guess. it’s been so long i kinda forgot he existed.” you commented before pulling into your apartment complex and smoothly parking in your spot.

“you sure you ‘forgot he existed’? you don’t look at people you forget exist the way you were looking at him.” ellie unbuckled her seat belt and exited out of the hot vehicle.

“ellie!” eunjung shoved her shoulder and raised her arms in the air, her way of basically saying ‘what the fuck is wrong with you?’.

“i mean you can say that. i don’t know what i felt, everything just kinda came rushing back to me when i saw him. i didn’t really know what to do with myself except stare.” you shrugged your shoulders and began to walk towards your front entrance.

“i mean you were depressed for half of sophomore year over the guy. i would’ve reacted the same way love.” ellie hooked your arms together as eunjung unlocked the front door and holding it open for the two of you to enter, you murmured quiet ‘thank you’s before making your way over to the elevator and pressing the up arrow.

“i know. don’t even remind me.” you shook your head and closed your eyes for a few seconds.

“are you sure you’re gonna be okay tonight?” eunjung placed a comforting hand on your shoulder and gave you a sympathetic look.

“of course i will. it’s been almost five years, i’m fine. it was just a stupid high school crush anyway.” eunjung and ellie shared a look before you stepped into the elevator with them following behind a few seconds later.

“i’m glad. don’t let it ruin your night. besides, we’ll be there the whole time along with the guys. just think of it as us normally hanging out. anyway, it’s summer time bitches!” eunjung screamed into the elevator with a loud echo left behind making you and ellie cringe at the sound.

“let’s just hurry the fuck up and get ready. i want to go get drunk and try and talk jeno into a threesome. you know what they say, third times the charm.” ellie smirked and pressed the button and watched the doors close in front of her.

this night should be very interesting.

an: i’m going to try and begin writing part 2 as soon as possible! knowing me it’ll probably take a while lol. i also a few other stories i’m working on so bare with me

[ninjakitty15]

Chapter 15: Trickster Treats (Loki X OFC Pairing)

"You know, not that I'm complaining here, but you don't have to bribe me with chocolate chip pumpkin pancakes and pumpkin spice latte, as much as I missed those breakfast foods this time of year," I assured my best friend in the whole fucking multiverse.

"You have no idea how fucking bored I've been since you went MIA, I tried making new friends honest, but you of all people know how hard that is."

"Even in Salem where the weird are welcomed?" I asked.

Zari just nodded while shoveling crispy strips of freshly made bacon onto my already full plate. "I also think you need this, I know you don't extensively need to eat being dead and all but how the hell else do you recharge after kicking terrorist ass?"

"Mischievous magical sex certainly helps," I chirped.

"Is that why he hasn't come down for food like you did?" she asked, jerking her head toward the guest room we stayed in.

"Not as much as usual actually, we were both just tired and needed company over intimacy. Asgardians are fucking addicting, pun intended."

"Let's hope he doesn't wish he knew how to quit you," she teased.

I scoffed and shoveled more food into my mouth. "He aint never had it this good, the best thing about necrophilia is the dead can't say no."

"Jesus, woman, still with the dead jokes after all this time?"

"Always," I replied smoothly.

"So what should we do today while I got you?" she asked excitedly.

"Like you said, I gotta recharge and then I gotta celebrate properly since I missed out so many times, too many really, it's a good thing I got out before I missed it this year or I'd be seriously depressed."

"You're only really alive during this time of the year despite the veil between worlds being so thin and your death powers being strongest then, irony that is. So what was it like being in the Avengers company?"

"Kinda boring when I wasn't actively shagging the only other person on house arrest there, I'm not terribly into new state of the art tech Tony's all about. I mean yeah it looks cool and shit but like I've no idea how to use the majority of it."

"It did take forever for you to get a smartphone when the rest of the first world had been through like 5 at least."

"That was partially because I was under the impression I couldn't afford one or didn't need that much stuff just to contact people."

She rolled her eyes at me and scoffed. "Whatever, Ms. Slide to Text Not Smart Phone."

"Call me what you want but whenever I dropped that phone, the worst that happened was the battery popping out, let's see you drop a smartphone any height without a protective cover and see if it even works after that."

"Get with the times, woman!"

"Don't wanna!" I retorted and crossed my arms in a pretend pout.

"How the hell does Loki put up with you really?"

"I already told you, copious amounts of kinky and experimental sex, keep up."

"What about sex?" a familiar smooth accented voice interrupted.

We both turned to see a groggy looking Loki that shifted into his mortal form Tom seamlessly, a hand combing through his short sandy curls and a lazy smile tugging at his lips upon setting his eyes on me. "Zari wants to know why you put up with me."

"Put up with? Why would it be a chore to be with you?"

"My thoughts exactly. See, Zari, it's not me, it's you," I taunted.

"Shut up and eat your damn pancakes," she demanded.

"So orange is for the pumpkins everyone picks and carves into what you then call Jacko Lanterns, black is for the night of the holiday and the darkness and death that comes after the season more or less, white is for the spirits free to roam about, what about purple, I know I've seen some of that mixed in as well as green," Loki commented while we raided some more tourist stores full of holiday goodies.

"Purple seems to come out more in kid friendly type decor or even dare I say glitsy stuff I'd rather not. Green's also a bit kiddish but it also goes with the monsters and other characters people tend to dress as for the occasion," I explained, sifting through the sweatshirts that all had Salem something or other on it.

"And what's the most common costumes?"

"Well I mean every year there's always a select group of costumes that's all the rage of that year, like maybe Tony did something wicked awesome the world knows about so everyone's gotta be Iron Man that year, but then there's also something for the girls that's excessively popular but at a certain age or older it's gotta be either slutty or some other form of sexy because that's society in a nutshell. Dudes can be anything but chicks are just breathing sex dolls."

"That's disgusting, why didn't you people let me destroy New York when I had the chance?"

"What do you mean 'you people'?" I asked suspiciously. "You know how I feel about that city."

Loki picked up a rather cute looking scarf that of course was green and wrapped it around his neck then turned to me. "What do you think?"

"Lay off the green or go back to your real form, you can't have it both ways, even I know that and I never go undercover."

He scowled at my logic as he had made a habit of by now but put it back all the same and chose an orange one with black skulls instead. "As a child then, to your knowledge and not society's, what were the most popular costumes of choice?"

"I think even before I came into existence, the classic ones were: witch, ghost, devil, clown, cat, skeleton...those ones at least. They were the easiest to make as well if you didn't have the money or time to buy one and the economy has always been shit. Oh and there was the Grim Reaper of course, how could I forget that?"

"That was your first costume, wasn't it?"

"Nah." I smiled. "I don't remember much before I died, no faces or names or anyone really but I do know I was a witch...glad I can remember that much of my childhood. Ghost was the absolute easiest fucking costume to make but witch was the bees knees for me."

"What made a ghost costume?"

"Oh just find any old white or offwhite bedsheet that didn't drag too much on the ground or you'd probably trip over it half the time you're trick or treating, cut two holes for your eyes, boom done, you're a ghost, I sheet you not."

"Zari warned me you were fond of bad jokes and puns, I found them amusing but now I'm sort of wary."

It was my turn to scowl at this, he seemed to enjoy my wordplay till she had to ruin it. "She and I are gonna have words later about that, ruining my fun when I just got here." I snagged a comfy looking black and orange hoodie with a cute witch pun on it to purchase and snagged Loki's scarf as well to pay myself despite his protests. "Shush, Zari gave us spending cash since we want to stay under the radar and cards will fuck us over that way."

"I know but I wanted to pay for it myself," he insisted.

"Listen, this city is all about my favorite holiday and said holiday only has one law, trick or treat and since you are the master of tricks here, if you want anything in this city, it'll be my treat."

He opened his mouth to argue a few times before deciding he wasn't going to win what I thought was a smooth as fuck reply that should also be bulletproof too. "Fine. Well played."

"Jolly good, and thanks, been known to happen. How long do you think we'll have before we're found by either party?"

"Stark will hopefully find us first, I'd rather not be locked up again, I'm sure you agree there. As to how long...a few days give or take with his resources. Worried, love?"

"Something occurred to me just now. While this is my turf and I'm nigh unstoppable here, I don't want the other agents coming here and sullying my slice of heaven or Valhalla in your case and that's what they'll do, they're a plague, spreading and destroying everything they come in contact with."

"I can understand that, that's what I felt with Asgard before it went down in flames. What would you have us do then?"

"I don't want them here, but I still need to sort out the traitors, there's gotta be more than the two I saw there at the base. I'm also tired of being targetted, that's the reason I left the country in the first place and literally the second I come back before I can even touch native soil, I'm back to being wanted by the wrong people. This country sucks."

"The Avengers have already tried many times to nip it in the bud as you Midgardians would say. I'm willing to bet there's several more hidden bases off the radar we won't be able to find ourselves unless they want us too."

"What are you saying?"

"We won't be able to rid them of the world unfortunately, they've been around since 1940s at least and don't plan on retiring despite their old age. Although...what did you say about getting rid of certain household arachnids earlier on?"

I blinked and wracked my memory, wondering where he was going with his musings before it dawned on me and a wide wicked grin spread across my face. "If you can't kill em, make em wish they never came in. What do you know, you can teach an old god new tricks."

His smirk from pulling a page out of my own book went back into an unamused though half hearted glare at my last bit. "You're lucky I don't know how to quit you."

And once more I was the one scowling again. "You wouldn't survive the withdrawals, I'm a fever you can't sweat out. Also, it's rude to spy on other people's conversations. That's classified information you don't have clearance for."

"I'm a god, I have clearance for everything, silly woman."

"Eventually that card will expire that you keep pulling," I muttered, tugging him out of the shop and onto another while pulling on my new hoodie.

Outside in the heart of Salem, the cobblestone streets were damn near packed like Mardi Gras  in the South, street vendors everywhere, tourists and people that just bloody love the upcoming holiday getting it while it was there. The park across the street from all the chaos was busy with fair rides and games for the kiddos, fried dough, candy apples and fresh apple cider as fair food. This was my home, my heaven, if I died for good then and there, I'd regret nothing because I'd already be in heaven and there was no telling what kind of afterlife I was in for. The air was crisp and smelled of hay rides and apples and I couldn't remember a time I was more in love than I was then. I pulled Loki out of the crowded street and into a side alley between shops, grabbed him by his cute new scarf and snogged him passionately. Even in human form I couldn't get enough of him, would you blame me? He cupped the side of my face once we pulled away and studied me almost tenderly.

"This will be our place," he murmured. "Not Stark's, not the Avengers, not Hydra's. I've already watched one place I love go down in flames and I've already lost one woman I love fall before that even happened, I won't let either of which happen again, not while I'm still breathing. I swear it on my life. We can't let them near this but we can't run from them either, so we'll take the fight to them or die trying."

"Well, you might die, I'm already there but yes, I concur. First we enjoy our mini vacation, then we raise some hell and all the damned that comes with it. To mischief, to merriment, to manslaughter!"

[calamariimpossible]

Magicians on the internet, crypto, and the email that broke me.

This is a continuation of a twitter thread that Muz (@mzkrx) started to write out in his car but then when he plotted out his thoughts, it made more sense to him to put it down in a blog format rather than a thread. You'll find out why as you read through.

Stuck in the car for half an hour so I'm gonna do a thread (Editor's note: Now a whole-ass blog post) about a strange email I got recently.

So I was casually watching magic tricks on YouTube. the funnest part of which to me is reading the comments. YouTube commenters love explaining how they think the trick is done and it's fun to read through their theories and connect dots between similar tricks, etc.

And then one time as I was scrolling I noticed a comment that didn't make sense. It was a string of an almost sentence. Intelligible enough to not be random words but odd enough to read like a trigger phrase for something.

The closest I can describe it as is like the string Zemo used to wake up the Winter Soldier, but with some syntax to it. Like "many thermos wiggle throughout exotic harbinger of circle ascending fuchsia entrapment".

Initially I thought nothing of it, but then I kept seeing them in these magic trick video comment sections. They're never the same string, and it's always under magic trick videos. from different channels even.

Hmmm.

The profiles that posted these comments are also always blank accounts with zero videos and no profile pic. Just their name. I felt like it was too much of a coincidence for these comments to only be under magic trick videos.

I also knew that the world of performance magic is thick with secrets. That is to say, there is deliberate obfuscation of information whenever you try to go online to find out how a trick works.

Magicians get together online and share information with each other just like performers of every other sort as well but the amount of code and doublespeak they use is an order of magnitude more annoying to decipher compared to say, an engineering message board or a gamedev forum.

Knowing that, I thought maybe this almost parsable gibberish I keep seeing everywhere was also some kind of code these people were using to talk to each other.

So I started investigating.

First things first, let's just Google one of the phrases. Maybe that's enough?

And it sorta was.

Pasting them onto the search bar lent me to only 1 result (wild!) and it was a website that looked really dank. Like geocities dank. Annoying neon colours and badly margined jpegs of tarot card images everywhere and a big bold header text that said something to the effect of:

"Congratulations, you've found our hidden message. This portal is only for those seeking knowledge beyond what is on the surface. Continue below."

* * *

I haven't been doing well. I feel like I say that too much. I say it on Patreon, on my personal podcast, whenever any of my friends ask me how I'm doing, pretty much everywhere. I feel very heavy. I understand I'm not the only one feeling like this during a pandemic.

Duh.

But I have this other version of worry that I can't quite articulate until right now: I'm scared I won't be funny anymore. Anwar and Farid can attest that even during our recordings I don't feel up to being funny. I question my jokes a lot. I barely enjoy telling them. I'm worried I'm letting everyone down.

To me, silliness and absurdism as virtues only make sense when the world has trace amounts of injustice and wrongness that training ourselves to see it in our everyday helps us remind ourselves of what is just and fair. The more we consume silliness, the more we are able to recognize silly and point it out. So we don't ignore it when things go wrong, so we talk about it, manage it. So we can take care of each other.

Maybe I can't be sure if we're all up for taking care of each other right now.

* * *

"Continue below" seems instructive, but it wasn't. Like I mentioned, the margins were haphazard and the CSS was all over the place. Some jpegs were straight up cropped off.

Meaning I can't be sure what "below" meant. But there were clickable images and text so I was readily intrigued.

It was tantalizing. Did I stumble into some secret order of Extremely Online Magicians? Maybe I'll finally find out why there aren't many female magicians out there. Maybe it's some sort of secret initiation to a secret message board full of secrety secrets. Secretly.

Y'all.

I didn't click on any of the linked images or anything. I closed the tab. That was the end of that.

An earlier version of myself would gladly run headlong into this rabbit hole to find out more and sink hours into some goddessforsaken labyrinth of links. But the current version of me recognizes this for what it almost certainly is: an abandoned roleplaying game.

Back in the early 00s when the internet was the realm of nerds and nerds only, it was full of people who loved sharing things for sharing's sake. It used to be punk rock to maintain a blog that only talked about snails or have a lo-fi YouTube channel that uploads biweekly 3-minute news about your house, or manage a little message board where people roleplay as wizards who rummage around the net looking for clues.

That last part was a thing I remember being actively involved in. In '03, a group of online friends and I wrote up a scavenger hunt of sorts where we sent people through various blog pages that we have where the goal is to just dick around and have fun. We wasted each other's time for sure. Hundreds of hours of it for literally no gain at all but for some laughs and fun memories.

The internet isn't like that anymore. People don't share something online for sharing anymore. Not really. There's this idea that if you put stuff out there, you want people's attention because numbers are good. You get a lotta reblogs and RTs and Likes which means people Like you.

If you don't have a lotta numbers, you don't matter. If you do, everyone has to talk about what you said or did because it's 'News' now.

Isn't that kinda gross, you think? That we need people to interact through an app to be sure that we're Liked? I say "we" but I mean me. I've successfully poisoned my brain to believe this to a certain extent too and it's not good.

I felt myself physically react when I closed that geocities magician website tab. I shuddered because my brain went from "this is cool" to "I gotta let people know I found this" to "this'll get me hella RTs" to "ew Muz why did you think that" within 3 seconds and I was disgusted with myself.

As a dude who started my online presence on YouTube and parlayed it into my real life comedy/writing career, I've believed for a long time that doing good work and putting it out there is what it takes for a working creative to make it because that's what I did. So there's this idea that making stuff and having it be seen is some kind of virtuous.

But it's not anymore. People pick fights with children for clout. Newspapers post about people's tweets as if its important. People are investing in crypto, a thing that literally only exists as electrical waste on a grand scale. We're boiling the oceans to yell at each other over nothing and exchange bits of code everyone agrees has ever-rising value but doesn't. Everyone is making and eating junk, it feels like.

So am I making junk? Have I just been making useless junk for literally over a decade now? Is that what I've been good for this entire time?

* * *

So the email.

It was a response from a company I applied to for a job. I applied as a creative writer and they're an advertising agency.

Receiving emails from a prospective employer when you're in need of a job is exciting! So soon after I applied, too. Wonderful. Here's what it said:

We just received your application today but would love to extend the opportunity for you to participate in the Case Competition as a prerequisite of your job application for Creative Writer position with [REDACTED] and stand a chance to be a winner for cash awards up to a total worth of RM1,800.

Yea.

They want me to enter a competition where I compete with other candidates to get a chance of being hired.

This company saw how many people applied for a job with them, and decided to dangle some cash and throw it over the fence to see which candidate will fight for it the most.

I didn't expect to feel vomitous after reading an email but that did it. I almost dry heaved. That's where we are now.

Recruiters see a glut of applicants and decided to play Fall Guys. These people watch Istana Takeshi and think Takeshi is the good guy. It hurts. It hurt me. That email caused me pain.

I can't at all empathise with recruiters who think this was okay to do. They really believed that creative writers will do a little dance for them just for money.

Look, I know we all need to eat. But I can also hate that people undervalue the work of creatives to this painful extent.

I don't give a shit about earning a lot of dough. I just wanna make things that tickle people. I want you to smile more.

That's the whole point of that weird little YouTube comment that led to the quirky website. That's the whole idea of making silly videos and dumb tweets and memes. We just want you to laugh.

But it seems people think so little of joy that they'll do whatever they can to avoid legitimately supporting and paying for stuff that gets them through the day. So much so that they want free work from us for the potential of maybe being able to get paid for more work. It breaks me, man.

I hate that I cannot make a living just trying my best to make people happy.

That's the best way I know to take care of you.

I know I don't just 'make junk' for a living. People have messaged me personally that my work has helped them get through tough times in school, in their relationships, at the office and I am eternally grateful that they took the time to tell me that.

I just also wish my feelings about my work aren't easily brought down by the majority of people who insist its worthless. Even if sometimes those people is me.

So forgive me if I won't be funny for a while. I'm gonna need some time to process this. Thank you for reading. I love you.

[purplesurveys]

1034

survey by tater-tots What is a fruit that you might eat in the morning? Hahahaha. That’s a pass for me; I can’t imagine regularly eating fruit at any set time of the day.

Do you enjoy any food combinations that others might consider to be weird? I like to eat fish with mayonnaise, which was always normal in our household but I realized was weird when I first saw the horrified expressions on my friends’ faces when they saw me use the combination. I like mayonnaise with a lot of other foods as well, which a lot of people generally find weird.

What is a green vegetable that you enjoy eating? Broccoli and asparagus.

Name something you might find in a salad. In my salad, you’ll always find tuna sashimi in it heh.

What is your favorite type of sandwich? Anything that’s like an Eggs Benedict or Monte Cristo. 

Which condiment do you use the most often? Mayo, for sure. Banana ketchup too. I also like sriracha sauce but my dad hasn’t been buying a new bottle of it for a while. 

Name a chocolate bar that you enjoy eating. It’s called Whittaker’s - just not sure what country it hails from; maybe Australia? - and I like their peanut butter variant. Google also told me it’s a New Zealander brand.

What is a meat that you do not eat - ever. Dog or cat.

Are you lactose intolerant, or have any other sort of food allergies? I’m mildly lactose intolerant but I ignore it because a lot of my favorite foods use dairy. Other than that, no food allergies.

What was the last food that you burnt your mouth on? Just plain rice, haha. I had been extremely hungry and I just wanted to dig in; but I ended up spitting it back out.

Which brand of soup do you eat? I don’t regularly have soup, much less buy canned brands of it. 

What are some flavors of ice cream that your enjoy? Cookies and cream, mint chocolate, coffee, chocolate chip cookie dough, queso real.

What is the best type of cookie, in your opinion? I like keeping things classic when it comes to cookies, and I’ve always been perfectly happy with chocolate chip cookies :)

Would you rather have popcorn, pretzels, or chips as your salty snack? Chips. I dislike the other two as I only like the softer, doughy version of pretzels.

Have you thought about going on a diet & actually went through with it? No.

--

survey by pinkchocolate

When you woke up today, was there anything on your mind? Kinda. I felt sad and I was aware of it instantly, compared to most days where the sadness will take a while to build.

Who was the last person you interacted with for the first time? Literally speaking, maybe the barista at Starbucks who took my temperature at the entrance before I was let in the store. I interacted with her yesterday.

What colour was the wrapper of the last snack you ate? White. It’s more of a tiny bag than a wrapper, though.

Do you have a favourite mug to drink from? What does it look like? Yeah, I’ve since claimed my mom’s mug for myself. It’s a copper mug with the Starbucks label on it. It looks super minimalist which I appreciate.

What was the last thing you used, that came in a spray can? It was a Lysol spray.

What colour is your favourite bra? Don’t really have one.

Who was the last person you went to for advice about something? I think it was Andi. I’ve been going to them a lot for help, advice, extra sanity, etc. lately. If it hasn’t been for them I probably would’ve left a few months back.

Have you had a deep conversation with anyone lately? Yes. I finally met up with Gab yesterday to discuss a lot things, iron some stuff out, figure out where to go from here.

What was the last compliment you recall receiving from someone? I’m not sure, I haven’t been receiving any.

And the last compliment you gave to someone else? It was most likely a compliment for Andi on how helpful they’ve been to me.

What kind of bread did you eat most recently? Flatbread.

What was the last sound you heard, that you found pleasant? We were watching a mass livestream earlier and I was delighted when they played the closing song.

How many books do you think there are in your house? Take a rough guess. I would guess around 60, the overwhelming bulk of them mine.

Of all the books you own, which do you think has the most pages in it? It would definitely either be Gone with the Wind or Les Miserables, but I’m not sure which one is thicker.

^ And how many pages is that? I checked both of my copies and they’re soooo close – GWTW has 1,440 pages while Les Mis has 1,463.

What was the last film you saw at the cinema? What did you think of it? Knives Out. I went to the mall yesterday and the cinemas were still closed, so it’s not like I’d be able to watch new movies at theatres anyway. Anyway, I’ve been vocal about the movie enough times on my surveys but I didn’t enjoy it. Whodunnits were never my cup of tea, but Gab had wanted to see it and I didn’t want to make her watch the film alone.

In the last book you read, what was the main character's name? Haven’t been reading.

What was the last song you heard, that meant something to you? Lose by Niki.

How many people do you know whose name begins with Z? I can only recall one such person at the moment; it’s one of my mom’s aunts who also doubled as a principal sponsor for my mom and dad’s wedding.

What do you expect to be doing at this time tomorrow? Maybe doing my embroidery (my package finally arrived!!) or surveys or watching Start-Up, because tomorrow will be a holiday :)

--

survey by luckforlemmy

Did you start listening to more Michael Jackson after his death? I can remember that there was definitely a brief period after his death that I caught up with his discography and listened to MJ nearly everyday; I read up on him and his life as well. 11 year old me figured he must’ve been an interesting figure because of the big reception around his death, so I wanted to know the reasons behind it.

When was the last time that you played hide and seek? I can vividly remember the day when Nina and I played hide and seek when the house was newly-built and still devoid of furniture, back in maybe ‘07 or ‘08. I’m fairly certain that was the last time I played hide and seek.

Who was your first celebrity crush, if you can remember? It was a tie between Ashley Tisdale and Zac Efron, though the older I get the more I’ve been convinced that I ‘crushed’ on Zac only because I was surrounded by girls who went crazy over him in school. I’m pretty sure my first real celebrity crush was Ashley, hahaha.

Do you worry about money? Yeah, especially now. I can’t even enjoy my first paycheck because most of it’s gonna go to Christmas presents, but oh well; at least I can finally buy gifts for my loved ones who’ve always gotten me presents.

Have you ever had to beg for a second chance? Kind of, when I was trying to convince Gab to let our relationship have another shot four years ago. Beg is a strong word for what I actually did, though. It was more of me pitching the idea, not begging.

When was the last time that you sent an actual letter through the mail? I don’t think I even ever did that, not even when I was younger and snail mail was still kind of a thing.

Are you excited to return to school? There’s nothing to return to anymore. Unless I decided to take up a post-grad course in the future, I’m done with school.

Do you hate Internet abbreviations? It can just feel a bit jarring when they’re used excessively in a single sentence, but I honestly don’t mind it for the most part. It’s understandable especially now that most, if not all, of my interactions whether personal or for work happen online.

What was the last insult you gave out? I was never really the roasting type of person, not even towards my friends.

What'd you last look up on YouTube? Hahaha I looked up ‘skynwallz.’ I was looking for the episode of Rhett and Link’s vlogs where they painted the rooms of their offices in the color of their entire person – hair, eyes, and skin. They were joking about starting a new business for it called Skynwallz, so that’s what I looked up.

Are you texting someone really awesome right now? No, I prefer to be alone today.

Do you know when to be serious and when you shouldn't be? Er sure, it’s not that hard.

Do you think that you're funny? I like my sense of humor, yeah, but I know it’s not always going to translate to everybody’s tastes. For example, I’m still figuring out the dynamic in the team I was put in at work, so I can’t make the same jokes that I would normally say with my co-interns with whom I have a more comfortable relationship.

Have you ever sent a secret to Post Secret? I don’t know what this is, so no.

What movie do you really want to see in theatres right now? They aren’t showing anything at the moment. A movie I want to see badly, though, is Ammonite.

Have either of your parents shown affection for you today? My mom made breakfast for us, if it counts. She also gives each of her kids a kiss during the peace-giving portion at mass, so there’s that as well.

What's the last thing that you sang out loud? I watched Start Up before this survey and was humming to the song that was being played at the end of the episode. I couldn’t sing along to it because it was in Korean, but I knew the melody so I hummed.

Is there a word that you always misspell? Rhythm is one of my worst enemies for sure. I also have a love-hate relationship with accommodate.

What was the last thing that you bought that someone else benefited from? I met up with Gabie yesterday and bought her her favorite meal from Yabu to break the ice – menchi katsu with brown rice. I originally got mozzarella sticks for myself but when we got to talking, she mentioned her sisters at one point; I remembered how much I miss them, so I gave up my food and told her to just give my food to her sisters since I hadn’t touched it yet anyway.

Has someone ever made you a really great mix CD? Andi gave me one before she made the flight to New Zealand 10 years ago to permanently live there. I believe I still have it, but I’m just not sure where it currently is.

Have you ever been on Omegle.com? Yes, when I was a teenager and it was new.

Did you talk to someone cool there? Not really; most seem to exit our chat after we did the whole asl thing. I also avoided the webcam option because my anxiety for video calls has always been present.

What song reminds you of your best friend? Any song by The Maine.

Who was the last person to hit on you? Some creep on Facebook.

What's on the paper nearest you? It’s the guide for my embroidery kit. It tells me what stitches to do and the colors of thread to use for the different parts of the template I was provided with.

Do you have a set of lyrics that you really love? From Paramore’s Pool: “As if the first cut wasn’t deep enough, I dove in again ‘cause I’m not into giving up Could’ve gotten the same rush from any lover’s touch, But why get used to something new When no one breaks my heart like you” I scream those lyrics every time they come on. I know I often showed the good, shiny side of my relationship on these surveys; but it was very much toxic at a lot of points and those lyrics - and that song - served as a nest for me, something that told me someone understands how I sometimes felt about my own relationship.

Did you get an A in your last English class? I got a 1.25 instead of a perfect 1.00, but I think that’s still equivalent to an A so yes.

What did you last use scissors for? Cutting thread.

Did you ever secretly hate a friend of yours that thought you liked them? That makes me sound shitty lol, but yeah I’ve acted nicely to people I don’t particularly like.

What do you think of when I say "boat"? That episode of Friends where Joey bought himself a boat at an auction; and Canadian accents.

Would you ever get a tattoo sleeve? Nope. I planned on getting one as a teenager, but I grew out of that phase.

Do you know any really fake people? Yep. I think everyone’s got to be at some point.

What does the last blanket you used look like? It’s pink and has multi-colored polka dots on it.

Do you have appreciation for graffiti? Sure, especially if it’s for political purposes (that I agree with).

Why don't you drive? I do. I just have done it a lot less because I have had little need for driving and traveling to places throughout the pandemic.

Does it annoy you when your printer runs out of ink? I think we have the kind of printer that never runs out of ink, but I’m not exactly sure about the terminologies or how the technology works. I let my sister do the printing hahaha.

Have you ever drank anything from a thermos? Yes, mostly water and coffee.

When was the last time you played in the snow? Never.

Do you know any ignorant people? Sure, mostly Gen X-ers and Boomers.

What is the coolest name you've ever heard? Thylane.

What did you last argue with someone about? Relationship stuff. It wasn’t a full-blown argument, but when Gab and I talked yesterday it was natural for us to disagree on a few points.

Is there anyone that you dislike for no real reason? Hmm, I don’t think so. If I feel that strongly about someone, I usually have a reason otherwise it wouldn’t be fair to them.

Have you had a good day? It was okay; it was nice. I got to do my embroidery hoop art thing, got to watch a couple episodes of Start Up, played with Cooper, and now I’m doing these surveys and am planning to continue my embroidery later. It’s nice to feel productive about non-work things :)

Are you going to have a good night? I hope.

[fmjoanna]

hola , mamakeishas ! 😍 i’m claire, and we love a good repurposing of intro posts. no but seriously, i’m really excited that this is finally open. i’m also really excited to meet all of your muses & write with youuuu. so without further ado, lemme introduce you to jo. aka my stupid, stubborn child who i love so much.  like this & i’ll swoop into your dms for some plots. 👉👈

☆ . · . cindy kimberly, twenty-one, cisfemale, she/her . · . ☆ JOANNA “JO” VASQUEZ lives in that huge mansion over there! no, not that one. look for PERFECTLY TRIMMED HEDGES and that’ll be it. the ACTRESS has offered occasional glimpses of MAROON walls and an impressive collection of WINE in the background of social media posts, but all of that is nothing compared to seeing the opulence in person. they’ve remained DILIGENT as ever since moving to tercet court FOUR MONTHS AGO, but it seems like they might’ve gotten a little more RESERVED too. maybe that’s why they’re rumored to have such a CAUTIOUS relationship with everyone else who lives on this street.

* BACKSTORY .

tw. mentions of drugs & death.

from  the  beginning  ,  it  was  never  jo’s  dream  to  be  famous.  while  most  girls  were  at  home  playing  with  toys,  jo  was  getting  prepped  for  auditions  by  her  parents.  they  had  ambitions   ————  to  get  filthy  stinkin’  rich  off  the  back  of  their  daughter,  and  for  the  most  part,  it  worked.

jo  landed  a  major  role  in  a  disney  show  (  think  like  hannah  montanna  or  wizards  of  waverly  place,  that  kinda  cultural  impact  ),  and  quickly,  she  became  one  of  america’s  sweethearts.  that  was  a  lot  for  one  kid  to  handle, with  all  the  filming,  press,  etc.  her  parents,  of  course,  ate  up  the  attention  and  capitalized  off  it  fairly  quickly.  brand  deals,  interviews,  anything  you  could  find  a  child  star  on  at  that  time.  it  pretty  quickly  became  overwhelming,  but  she  was  definitely  raking  in  the  dough.  that  meant  she  was  to  continue,  no  matter  how  tired  of  it  she  was.

which  is  where  her  perfectionism  comes  in  to  play,  she  had  a  lot  of  people  relying  on  her  ————  her  parents,  who  she  loved  regardless  of  the  stress  they  put  her  through,  director,  costars,  company,  etc.  jo  was  definitely  a  natural  when  it  came  to  acting.  she  knew  how  deliver  line  after  line,  emote,  and  successfully  pull  off   a  comedic  moment.  on  screen,  she  played  a  charismatic,  social butterfly,  which  was  the  exact  opposite  of  who  she  really was,  a  quiet,  nervous  girl  who  valued  her  privacy  and  just  wanted  to  live  a  normal  life.

which  began  to  take  it’s  toll  on  her.  the  older  the  she  became,  the  less  she  liked  being  seen  as  the  sweet  girl  next  door,  so  she  completely  had  a  breaking  out  of  that  mold  phase ( ala  like  miley  cyrus  or  britney  spears )  around  the  time  her  disney  show  came  to  an  end.  much  to  her  parents  dismay,  she  became  known  more  for  her  off-screen  antics  than  her  onscreen  one  &  definitely  kept  the  paparazzi’s  pockets  fat.  “jo  vasquez  spotted  (fill  in  the  blank  with  something  controversial)”  filled  the  pages  of  magazines  for  a  lot  of  her  17-18  years,  and  she  went  from  america’s  sweetheart  to  probably  one  of  america’s  most  hated lol.  it  had  a  negative  impact  on  her  career  as  well,  which  she  was  happy  about  for  awhile.  that  is,  until  she  realized  that  most  of the  money  she  made  as  a  child  was  collected  by  her  parents  &  not  her.

with  no  money  coming  in  &  the  relationship  with  her  parents  souring,  she  left  home  &  avoided  the  spotlight  for  around  three  years.  probably  lost  contact  with  a  lot  of  people  then  too.  she  thought  a  nice,  quiet  time  by  herself  &  without  paparazzi  following  her  24/7  would  be  healthy.  

&  it  was.  jo  used  the  last  bit  of  her  childhood  savings  to  fund  her  time  away,  but  with  money  tight ,  she  was  a  bit  unsure  of  what  was  left  to  do.  that’s  where  her  great  aunt  came  in.  her  great  aunt  had  gotten  rich  of  her  stocks  in  a  successful  makeup  line  when  she  was  in  her  late  30′s  ( something  that  joanna’s  parents  were  super  jealous  of ).  with  that  kind  of  money,  she  was  able  to  move  to  the  hills  and  purchase  a  beautiful  home.  joanna  had  met  her  only  once  or  twice,  but  there  was  definite  tension  between  her  parents  and  her  aunt.  the  only  thing  she  really knew  about  her  was  that  she  was  wealthy  and  lived  alone,  no  kids  or  significant  other. 

unexpectedly,  her  great  aunt  passed  away,  news  that  didn’t  reach  jo  until  she  got  a  letter  from  her  aunt’s  lawyer,  saying  that  since  her  great  aunt  didn’t  have  kids  &  didn’t  want  to  leave  her  belongings  to  her  niece  (  jo’s  mother  ),  she  had  left  everything  to  jo.  it  completely  caught  her  off  guard,  and  she  considers  herself  pretty  lucky.  

she  knew  that  she  couldn’t  stay  in  the  hills  forever  without  some  income,  and  because  she  feels  like  acting  is  what  she’s  best  at,  she  decided  to  contact  her  old  manager,  and  together,  they  came  up  with  a  plan  to  revive  her  career.

sooooo ,  now  she’s  back  in  los  angeles.  media  has  def  heard  of  her  return  (  apart  of  her  manager’s  plan  )  &  there’s  been  a  small  amount  of  buzz  around  it.  she’s  more  of  a  former  a-list,  so  she’s  really  not  that  in  demand.  however,  she  did  manage  to  land  a  supporting  role  in  a  major  blockbuster  (   something  like  a  marvel  movie  probs  )  so  she’s  hoping  that’ll  change  fairly  soon.

* PERSONALITY .

probably  fake  lol.  let’s  just  be  honest.  kinda  hates  the  celebrity  lifestyle  &  is  cautious  when  it  comes  to  other people  in  the  industry  so  yeah,  she’s  the  type  to  smile  in  your  face  and  then  glare  when  your  backs  turned.  she  knows  how  important  connections  are  in  this  business  &  word  travels  fast  so  she’s  probably  not  “real”  except  with  the  people  she’s  closest  to.  also  the  type  to  be  like  “OMG ofc  i  know  what  that  is. 😍  it’s  my  fave”  but  then  have  absolutely  no  clue  what  the  fuck  it  is  lmaoo  a  tragedy

she’s  a  hard  worker  &  def  a  perfectionist.  everything  has  to  be  perfect,  and  she’ll  do  as  much  as  she  can  to  get  it  right.  it’s  probs  the  reason  she  stuck  with  acting  b/c  the  trial  and  error  of  learning  something  new  would  be  way  too  much  for  her  lol.

but  also  enjoys  time  out  a  lil  too  much  prolly.  is  a  regular  to  night  life  &  partying  (  more  under  wraps  now  than  back  in  the  day  )  &  will  out  drink  just  about  anyone  you  know.  it  makes  her  a  bit  more  brave  &  she  believes   ppl  bare  their  souls  when  they’re  inebriated  so  it’s  easier  to  get  to  know  ppl.  what  a  weirdo.  also  partakes  in  her  fair  share  of  prolly  just  weed.  no  hard  drugs  tbh  she’s  not  the  one

your  average  gal  just  looking  to  have  fun ,  but  could  def  potentially  catch  feelings  that  she  would  deny  til  she  can’t  anymore  or  until  it’s  too late. 🤪  lowkey  wants  someone  to  just  sweep  her  off  her  feet,  but  she’s  blind  to  the  reality  that  she  always  be  making  things  complicated.

behind  the  facade,  she’s  a  bit  stubborn.  probably  also  a  side  effect  of  being  a  perfectionist  &  also  her  need  for  control  ( since  she  lacked  that  when  she  was  young )  so  be  prepared  for  that

* WANTED CONNECTIONS .

ok  but  plots  really  do  be  making  my  world  go  ‘round. 😳 i  love  em,  so  literally  hmu  with  anything  you’re  feeling,  and  i’ll  be  down.  just  wanna  plot  &  write  with  everyone 💕  but  here’s  a  couple  of  wanted  connections  for  y’all.  i’ll prolly  have  a  most  wanted  tag  sooner  or  later  &  i’ma  be  make  a  plot  page  soon.  

best  friend  /  friend  group:  there’s  no  way  jo  could  function  without  friends,  so  pls  give  her  some  good  ass  platonic  tingz.  these  are  the  people  she  can  be  herself  around,  so  she  holds  them  really  dear.

people  from  the  past:  someone  she  knew  from  the  past.  could  be  friends,  enemies,  lovers,  costars,  etc.  she  didn’t  really  let  that  many  people  know  that  she  was  leaving  so  now  that  she’s  back  it  could  be  like  👀  dramatic.

unrequited love / crush:  these  are  fun.  joanna  doesn’t  really  know  how  to  handle  her  romantic  feelings  so  it’d  probably  be  her  getting  the  cold  shoulder .

hookups / fwb:  past,  present,  future.  fwb  would  probs  get  messy.  maybe  she  caught  feelings  or  sumn.

former  friends:  something  happened  &  they’re  no  longer  friends.  we  can  plot  it  all  out . :^)

childhood  friends  to  lovers  to  exes  that  ended  on  bad  terms:  saw  this  on  a  plot  masterlist  &  it  sounds  fun  so  i  thought  i’d  put  it  here lol.

literally anything  your  heart  desires: a  lot  could  work.  we  could  even  just  start  from  nowhere  &  have  them  meet  for  the  first  time  b/c  jo’s  only  been  back  for  a  couple  of  months.