#I swear I know how to use a computer and do coding and stuff

[dkettchen]

not me going to digital tech sector job events and every company rep being like "you can scan our QR code to learn more" and me going "my phone can't do that" and taking a picture of their name instead to google them later like the tech-averse old man that I am

[ihavethedreamies]

Stupid | Wooyoung

Jung Wooyoung - ATEEZ)

Rating: M (18+) MDNI

Word Count: ~10.3k

Pairing: Wooyoung x AFAB!Reader

Genre: Reader-Insert, Actual Plot, Fluff, Angst, Smut, Friends-to-Lovers, Comfort

!!This is smut…if that much isn't clear you should probably leave now!! MDNI!

Caution: The angst in this story is more familial based. There are mentions of adultery/infidelity, but it's not dwelled on. This could be triggering for those who have had parent's leave or other similar circumstances, so just be warned.

Warnings: She/Her Pronouns used, Pet Names (Princess, Sweetheart, Sunshine, etc.), Childhood/Teenage Trauma, Family Issues, Tears and Crying, Swearing, Unrequited Love, Kind of a Love Triangle, Kissing, Dirty Talk, Oral (F! Receiving), Fingering, Multiple Orgasms, Marking/Hickeys/Scratches, Couch Sex, Shower Sex, Unprotected Sex (Use a condom! Reader is on the pill)

Author's Note: Hm, just thought I would do this since I made something similar for San.

(S/N) is for the name of your sister.

Move Update: We are headed out next Monday for our new state (back to where I was born actually) and I'm gonna have to live at my uncles for a month before the new house is ready, so I will be writing a lot there, so get ready.

I am cross-posting this on Archive. Please reblog! If you know anyone that would like this or future fics but they aren't on here my name and icon are exactly the same on the other site. Happy reading!

The only sound you could hear was your own aggressive keypresses. You had paused your music to go to the bathroom and didn't bother hitting play again. Staring hard at the screen, your eyes hurt even with the dark theme applied. The colorful lines of code on the dark screen blurred and refocused, and you blinked, trying to force your eyes not to blur. Sighing, you pushed back from your desk, rubbing over your eyes. Taking your computer glasses off, you let them fall onto your desk and you got back up. It was really hard to work at 2 am, let alone when your thoughts were racing. And the thoughts had nothing to do with your job. The last thing you needed the day before a project was due was to loop on irrational thoughts. Your socked feet thumbed on the wood floor of your hallway as you went down it. Your sister's door was propped open, so you quietly opened the door, peeking inside. The soft teal lighting strip lining her walls cast a faint glow over the room. She was starfish-ed on the bed, peacefully and messily asleep. Huffing, you stepped out and shut your door. How nice it must be to be thirteen. Pulling your phone from the pocket of your sweatpants, you exited the hallway and went into the kitchen. The large open room of the apartment included the kitchen as well as dining and living areas. A spare room was in the back corner, empty since your friend had moved out a month before. Another room sat across from it, the large windows of the studio covered with tall curtains, but you knew it was just full of boxes of old things. Someday you would have the courage to go through them and get rid of stuff, maybe use the studio for an office or something, but…

Opening the fridge to get the pitcher of orange juice, the door shut, and your eyes focused on the dark on the picture magnetically attached to the front. The picture was of a once happy life you lived. A black squiggle covered the face of the man, the woman next to him smiling like the sun. Glaring at the censored face, you yanked the photograph from the magnet clip and slapped the picture down on the counter. The pitcher followed and as you grabbed a glass, you plucked the scissors from the small utensil-filled mug on the counter. After pouring yourself a drink, and taking a few sips, you grabbed the photo. Holding it up, you realized it would make sense to turn the overhead light of the range hood to see better, but you continued in the dark. Opening the shears, you cut a tiny slit into the white border of the photo and halted. The little line split the man's pants from the shoulder of the little girl's white sundress; she was no more than four. She was sitting on the lap of a girl looking much the same, just about twelve years older. It was weird to see such a bright smile on your face.

The purple-handed scissors clattered onto the Formica counter; the photo still held in the crook of the blades. Resting against the counter behind you, you drank the juice in gulps, hissing through your teeth when it was gone like it was some kind of liquor. The glass-mimicking plastic cup clanked into the sink, and you left the kitchen to shuffle back to your room. As you reentered, you yanked the zipper down of your hoodie, nearly tearing the garment off and throwing it harshly onto the floor. You let the door click quietly closed despite wanting to slam it and went back to your computer. Your chair let out a puff of air when you plopped down into it, the remaining pieces of the candy necklace you had on bouncing over your collarbone. Crunching on one of the sugary beads, you flipped your phone over, so the screen faced up, tapping the black surface and a small white notification bubble showed itself under the white numbers of the clock; 2:13 am. Unlocking the phone with your finger print, you opened your message app and you sniffed at the message in annoyance.

🦊WooWoo🦊: did you get it done?

He had sent it nearly an hour prior. You glared at your computer screen, then to the second monitor, the program running over and over, glitching at the same time stamp each time.

☀️: not even close 🦊: why are you up young lady ☀️: why are you?

He didn't reply right away so you looked back at your computer, clicking your tongue. Hitting save and closing the window, you instead opened up a new email and sent one to your coworker that it might not get there by tomorrow night but that you would try. It wasn't a hard deadline anyway. You worked for an Indie label, not some AAA, so that gave you some flexibility. Closing the window, you stared at your background for a good few minutes, waiting for Wooyoung to reply. The picture used to make you smile, but it hurt your heart. San's cute dimple smile, and his arm around you made you wince. Wooyoung was on your other side, his cheek pressed into the side of your head as he hugged you. You were leaning into San, trying to escape the other man's embrace, at least that was your excuse. The picture was getting close to five years old.

🦊: games 🦊: why are you up ☀️: working. thinking 🦊: about? ☀️: how shit I feel 🦊: you sick??

You rolled your eyes; he wasn't super intuitive sometimes. It was almost 2:30 in the morning though.

☀️: no. how shitty my life is now compared to back then…

Once again, he took a bit to reply, and you almost got up to use the restroom then go to bed. Your phone then buzzed on the desk, the noise even louder going through the wood, and you grabbed it quickly, answering the call.

"Your life isn't shitty (Y/N). I'm here, huh?" His giggle was forced. You just huffed, getting out of your desk chair to move to your bed.

"Livin' the dream."

"What's it this time? Your…da- uh, male life giver?" His little catch at least made the corner of your mouth crook up.

"Yeah."

"How's (S/N)?"

"Good, I guess. She…she was a bit too really remember either of them."

"Even if she doesn't it can't be easy with…how it all played out." He was trying to be careful with what he said, but you were already in a bad mood.

"Our dad cheating, leaving us for his second family and then my mother…" You thought tears who come to your eyes, but maybe you were too tired.

"Where do you think she went?" Your best friend's voice was soft.

"No clue. Neither did Gramma, or the cops. She could be in Timbuk-fucking-tu for all I know."

"Do you want to go out tomorrow with me and San? Or do you have to work?" Before you could answer, your phone buzzed, and you pulled it away from your ear. Opening the email from your coworker, you sighed in relief. Perfect timing.

"Not anymore. The character models are getting scrapped and redone so that means my code has to be scrapped. Might be why I couldn’t get it to move right."

"What about (S/N)?"

"She's thirteen not three. I'll have her sleep over at a friend's maybe…"

"Great! Get some sleep, sunshine. Meet us at 9!" He hung up and you flopped back onto your mattress, feeling disappointed for some reason. Finally working up the energy to get off the bed, you went back to your computer and shut it down, staring at San's smiling face a little too long, before letting it actually turn off.

~*~*~

"Good morning, little lady." You left the hallway, sandals in your hand. Your sister sent you a tired look over her cereal, waving lazily.

"G'mornin'."

"Do any of your friends get to have sleep overs on school nights?" Her eyes opened a bit wider then, then squinted as she thought.

"Uh…probably. Going out with-" she gave a flirty pose, batting her eyelashes, "Sannie?" then dropped the act.

"Shut up, you little shit." You threw a stray cheerio at her, and it nearly stuck to her cheek.

"Wooyoung's going too."

"Oh. You ever gonna tell him?"

"Tell San I like him? I don’t know..."

"San? Oh, yeah, right. Why not?" You didn't answer right away, pouring a glass of juice.

"You're gonna turn into an orange." Your sister rolled her eyes, and you poured just a bit more before putting the pitcher back down.

"I just... I don't think I stand a chance."

"What?! Why?!" Your sister acted like you had personally offended her. Even before your whole messed up parental situation, you two never bickered or anything. Probably because you were nearly thirteen years older than her.

"I'm not his type. He probably sees me as a sister. Also, he looks like that," you motioned down at your white tank with a think blue plaid shirt over and worn denim capris, "and I'm…"

"You better compliment yourself." Your sister glared at you, making you sigh.

"He likes the girls in skirts with makeup and their nails done. The ones that giggle at everything he says and touch his bicep ‘accidentally’…" You drifted off, getting mad at the mental pictures.

"Then do all that." (S/N) shrugged, getting up to put her cereal bowl in the sink.

"Counter." You corrected and she rolled her eyes, taking the bowl out and moving it to the counter.

"(S/N), I don't even own a tube of mascara." You sighed, then proceeded to down your orange juice once again like it was a stiff drink. Your throat burned and your stomach stung somewhat…maybe you did drink too much.

"Use mine."

"What?" You turned fast to look at her and her eyes were wide in panic.

"I only have mascara, I promise!" She lifted her hands in surrender, and you breathed out your nose. She was only a year off being allowed make up, you at least wanted to maintain the rules your mother put on you with your sister. Even if a lot of them never had to be enacted on you.

"Look, I'm just going to go hang out with them and pretend one of my best friends isn't sex on legs."

"I'm pretty sure they both are, but okay." (S/N) muttered under her breath as she passed you to go get her backpack and you pretended to not hear her.

~~~

"Bye, sis!" (S/N) got out of your car and headed into her middle school. She was the one of the few who didn't mind being seen dropped off right in front of the school, but laid-back older sisters are much, much cooler than any parent.

"Just text me who you can stay with!" You called to her, and she turned around with a shocked face.

"Right! What about my bag? My locker's not big enough!" She realized, coming back to your rolled down window, leaning into it.

"I'll bring it by after your club meeting is done."

"Really!? Can you bring WooSan?"

"Don't call them that!" You scolded but laughed nonetheless, "Sure."

"Bye, sis!" She took off again, meeting her similarly uniformed friends by the entrance. You were blessed that the school was willing to take her in for free more-or-less on a scholarship. Your mother wanted both of you to go to the same school, but it was private, and you were in no way capable of paying. If you were, you wouldn't be driving a wine red 2002 Hyundai Sonata with suede upholstery. Pulling out of the drop-off line, you continued down the road till you met the traffic light. It sat at the edge of the academy's campus and the park where you were meeting the guys was just past the light. As you waited for the light to turn, you tapped your fingers on the steering wheel along to the music playing on your radio. The light took even longer because the crossing guard was leading a group of elementary schoolers across. You were watching them pass in their cute little uniforms when you were startled by a knock on your window. You flinched, looking to see what looked to be a high school boy on the other side. You rolled the slightly tinted glass down just enough that you would be able to hear him. He flashed a smoldering smile, and you blatantly sneered.

"What, kid?"

"You obviously don't go to school here, you from the public school?" How dumb was this kid? You hadn't been in high school for seven years. You had a college degree and everything. Most might take it as a compliment to be seen as looking young enough to be a teenager, but…

"Get lost, squirt." You scoffed, looking away but not bothering to roll the window back up. You were a bit curious what his reaction would be.

"I might look young, but I'm a senior this year, princess." He was clearly a little put off by your flat dismissal, trying to keep a flirty tone.

"Fuck off, kid. She's our princess." A familiar voice hit your ears, and you sighed in relief, watching Wooyoung essentially hip bump the kid so hard he fell back onto the sidewalk. Your heart skipped as you huffed a laugh, watching San come up as well and unlocked the doors so the two guys could climb in, right at the light turned green. San barely shut the back door before you took off, leaving the teenager's friends laughing at his sorry state. Crossing the median, you pulled into the parking lot of the park and slumped back into your seat.

"Got your favorite." San leaned forward, toned arm hovering over the center console, holding a plastic bag with one finger.

"Sweet!" You swiped it from him and Wooyoung got out, running around to your side where the window was still rolled down.

"Hey, pretty lady, want to go make out behind the bleachers?" He leaned against the side of your car just like the cocky teen had and you couldn’t help but laugh.

"Uh, no." You wondered if he caught you glance in your rearview mirror to watch San get out of your car, holding the drink holder of ice coffees as well. You couldn't meet his gaze though, and surprisingly, he didn't respond, just stood up and started to follow San down the path.

"Hey, wait up!" You got out quickly, nearly forgetting your phone and to lock the car as you dashed after them. Finally getting half-way around the pond that was trying to be a lake, you sat on a picnic bench of the wooden shelter right on the edge of the water. Some ducks quacked as they lazily swam closer, hoping for a snack. As you took a long sip of your ice coffee, you watched San get up and go closer to the ducks, a little bit of his croissant left. Your eyes couldn't help but travel over the wide expanse of his shoulders and back. His arms were on display since he was in a sleeveless hoodie, and you smiled at his as the ducks happily ate the bread.

"That's bad for them, y'know?" Wooyoung called and the other man tossed him a bored look over his shoulder, then went back to the birds. Because you were too busy eyeing over your friend, you didn't notice Wooyoung watching you. He lifted half of his nose in a sneer, glaring at his friend who was taking up all of your attention. Wooyoung wanted to blame it on that San had started working out since you had all started being friends, but he wasn’t sure that was it.

"Just fucking tell him." He whispered harshly to you and his sudden mutter made you choke. San immediately turned around, and you waved him off, but he still went to your side, patting your back some to help.

"You okay?" He kneeled next to you, and you nodded, flashing a small smile, trying not to get red. Not like you could control it. Just then, something green flew through the air, flying past San's head as he stood, and he was toppled over by a mass of blonde fur.

"Jeremy! Get off of him!" A young woman scolded the golden retriever as it refused to get off of San, sniffing him and licking his face. Why am I jealous of a dog? You sighed, slumping back against the wood railing of the shelter.

"Why don't you tell him?" Wooyoung's next whisper was much softer, he sounded very tired.

"And get rejected? Ruin our friendship? No." You whispered back, still watching the cutest thing you've ever seen. The dog was a fat mood, refusing to get off of San.

"I'm so sorry!" The woman finally managed to pull the dog off of the man and he got up laughing. She immediately blushed, finally able to see San past all of the fluff. Looking away and down the path to where the green flying disk still lay you got up to retrieve it, since the dog had failed its job.

"Here." You forced a smile as you handed it back to her and she snapped out of her daze to take it from you, immediately looking back to San. Luckily, she left not too long after and you were able to continue the day with the two guys.

~*~*~

A week passed, and you still hadn't been able to work because the rest of the team couldn't get their act together and finish their parts. So, you had been left to your thoughts which is never good. You sat on the couch, boredly and only partially watching the TV. Your knees were pulled up to your chest and your hands lazily tapped a rhythm on the worn faux leather of the couch. Tilting your head, it rested on the back of the couch, and you stared at the ceiling of your loft apartment, the large ventilation pipes curving around the support columns high above your head. When the doorbell rang you almost didn't recognize it, thinking it might have been on the show. It happened again and you knew it was yours because the TV now displayed a commercial for some kind of sports drink. Getting up with a groan, you trudged over to the door, socked feet shuffling over the wood floor. When you opened the door, a young woman sat on the other side, and her face made you nervous. She looked…

"Hi. Are you (Y/N)?" She smiled gently and you nodded.

"I'm Jena (L/N). Can…can I come in?" When she said her last name, your heart fell. You knew immediately who she was.

"Sure." Your tone was flat, but since she didn't know you, it seemed she didn't notice. You motioned her in and toward the couch and you glanced around your place. It wasn't messy, but it wasn't nice either. She was in a sundress that was at least $300, and she had a giant rock on her finger. You grimaced as she sat on your very well-worn couch and you sat down as well, facing her by sitting sideways. She put her designer bag down, linking her fingers and resting her hands on her knee, legs crossed.

"I'm sorry to intrude, but…I'm assuming you know Daniel (L/N)?" You never wanted to hear that name again.

"Uh, yeah." You shuffled on the couch, the faux leather creaking under you.

"I'm his daughter. I have to admit I was a little…stalky?" She cringed at herself, smiling sheepishly.

"Dad is…well, he doesn't have much longer." When you didn't really react, she continued. On the inside, you just weren't sure how to react.

"They don't know if he drank too much when he was younger or what, but his liver is failing. He's been on a transplant list, but they can't find anyone compatible." She’d better not have come to get you to give him half of your fucking liver-

"Anyway, I was looking over his will-"

"Where's your mom?"

"Huh?"

"How…what about your mom?"

"Oh, uh." She looked down, a sad expression covering her face.

"When he got sick, she left him, so I'm in charge of everything." Rolling your eyes, you huffed, looking toward the kitchen, focusing on the picture on the fridge you meant to cut up.

"Uh. Right, your name is on the will." She pulled a packet of paper from her purse, showing you where your name was highlighted. You didn't even care what he was leaving you, so you handed it back.

"I don't want it."

"O-oh…if you don't mind me asking, who are you?" You raised an eyebrow, and she wilted under your glare.

"You don't know?"

"No, sorry." She hid bashfully behind the papers, "are we cousins or something?" You just stared at her in shock.

"No offense, but it’s a bit weird to have a niece in your will when you have four kids?"

"Look, if you want my part, have it."

"No! That's not… Actually, the reason I'm really here is-" She pulled something else out of her bag and you recognized it.

"Dad kept saying the name Naomi." You stood up at this and she flinched. You paced a bit, hands going to your head, fingers digging into your scalp. Breathing out slowly, you turn back to her.

"Sorry…keep going, I'm just…struggling with this." She seemed a bit unwilling to continue without asking anything, but she did so as you sat back down. Your ire was evident, you were sure.

"Um…well, I couldn't figure out who she was, so I looked in his yearbook. He's…" She flipped to the middle of the book, "with a girl named Naomi." She showed you the page, but you already knew it. High School Sweethearts read in flowery script over the picture of your parents.

"But when I looked her up, I couldn't find anything." Of course not. You never could.

"So, I used Google's new AI search with this picture, and I found a woman…" You hadn’t gone that far, still not really trusting any kind of program claiming to be AI. She pulled out another paper from her bag and showed it to you. It was an article about some town's mayor on the other side of the country, and the caption listed the woman next to him as his wife. It was your mother. But her name was wrong.

"It says her name is Carry, but that looks like the same woman, right?"

"Y-Yes."

"Maybe they’re sisters? Twins even? I know it’s a long shot, but do you have her contact information? Even if they broke up soon after high school, maybe she would be willing to see him since he's dying…" As soon as you saw her face on the paper, your anger left, and you were holding back tears.

"I don't…but-" you took a shuddering breath, "uh, I don't think she'll go see him."

"Really?" She deflated a bit, and you looked down at your lap, picking at your torn jeans.

"Uh. No. She's… Okay, I'm in the will because I'm your sister. Those are my parents. She’s my mother." This information floored her, her jaw literally dropping. Sniffing hard, you hated crying, let alone in front of essentially a stranger.

"How old are you?" Your question snapped her back, making her flinch.

"T-twenty." Of course.

"Dad…He uh, left us and mom for…you guys. Then mom fucking snapped or broke or whatever and left us too." You looked at the printed off article, at your mother's smiling face next to some man you had never seen or heard of before. This shocked her even further. You gave her the article back and stood moving to the door.

"Uh, take me out of the will or whatever and just leave us alone please. Thank you." You opened your front door, not able to look at her.

"U-us?"

"Ah. (S/N). My thirteen-year-old sister." This must have really made this Jena girl realize why you acted the way you did. It wasn't that your father left your mother then fathered her, he had both families at the same time.

"M-my brother is twelve." Reality was hitting her.

"Great. That sucks for everyone, please leave." You motioned with your arm for her to get out and as soon as she shuffled out into the hallway, you let the door fall closed. Your shoulder hit the wall, and you slumped to the floor, hot tears falling down your cheeks and onto the floor. Your chest heaved as you sobbed, hand covering your mouth to keep you quiet.

"Fuck!" You screamed, grabbing a cheap ceramic bowl you used for change and chucked it across the room. It hit the column behind your TV and shattered, coins clattering onto the floor in its trail. You buried your face in your hands, breathing harshly, trying to prevent yourself from hyperventilating. Your phone buzzed on the coffee table. It buzzed again a few minutes later, then again. Again.

"Damnit." You got up, storming over to your phone, looking at it. It was the group chat, Wooyoung and San were talking about doing something the next day, some kind of lawn game competition at the community college. When they saw that you read the messages and didn't reply, your phone rang with a call from Wooyoung.

"I know that we're not in college anymore, but we can get away-" You had stopped crying more or less, but hearing his voice brought tears back to your eyes and you fought a sob.

"Are you crying? What happened?"

"U-um…" You swallowed hard, a lump rising in your throat along with the tears.

"I'll be there in five…six minutes!" He hung up and you let the device fall onto the couch. Your shoulders fell as you stood in the middle of the main room of your place, glaring at the coffee table's scratched surface. A tear fell onto the plywood, then another. Snapping out of your daze when hard knocks pounded on the door, you only got halfway to the door before he opened it, finding it unlocked.

"(Y/N)?" Seeing the concerned face of your best friend made you feel safe and so your self-erected walls fell. He shut the door as he moved forward, catching you in his arms as you shriveled to the floor. Wooyoung held you tighter as you cried, desperate sobs and whimpers muffled as you pressed your face into his chest. Your tears darkened the red fabric of his sweatshirt, and he adjusted your position, so you sat on the floor, legs over one of his, cheek pressed to his collarbone. A tear of his own fell and mixed with yours on your jaw, but you didn't notice it. He didn't know what happened that wrecked you so bad, but he couldn't stand hearing and seeing you so upset. He even hated it if you cried at a movie.

"What happened, sunshine?" His embrace loosened so you could sit up straighter, tears still falling, but you weren't actively sobbing. Wooyoung cupped your cheek in his hand, wiping a tear from your eye. You had to take several deep breaths through the story, but you managed to tell him what happened.

"M-my mother's alive, Wooyoung." Your voice had quieted so much at the end that, but he still heard the pain.

"(Y/N), sweetheart, come here." He stood, helping you get up and he led you over to the couch. He grabbed your phone, and you rested back on the couch as he easily put in your pin without having to ask what it was. You listened half-heartedly as he called your sister, most likely just getting out of class, about to go to her art club meeting.

"Again? Is this going to be weekly? I think I can stay with Amanda, maybe Emily…" You heard (S/N) sigh, "what about my stuff?"

"Can't you manage with borrowing?" Wooyoung cast you a glance, your forearm over your eyes.

"I guess. What’s wrong with (Y/N)?"

"She's just really struggling with something."

“What?”

“Adult stuff.”

“Okay, yeah, sure, uh-huh.”

“She’ll tell you when she’s ready, little lady.”

"You better take good care of her Mr. Jung."

"I will Miss (L/N)." He hung up and put your phone back down. You felt the couch shift when he stood up, then felt his body heat as he kneeled on the floor next to you. Wooyoung gently removed your arm from your face, and you turned to look at him.

"Oh, sweetheart." He sighed, hand going to your cheek, rubbing his thumb over the red skin of your cheek, brushing away a stray tear.

"C-can you call San? And we can watch a movie? Get Indian food?" You weren't sure how to read Wooyoung's expression. He seemed to be thinking, but then he forced a smile and nodded.

"Sure, princess." Wooyoung stood and pressed a long kiss to your forehead, and you blamed your turbulent emotions on your racing heart.

~*~*~

About two weeks later, you found yourself sitting on the couch, staring at the number you plugged into your phone. You hadn't pressed call yet, the non-local area code of the number glaring at you. It was a long shot, but you hoped calling the mayor's office might get you somewhere. You had been stalling for a long time, his office would only be open for another hour thanks to the time difference. Your sister was getting annoyed with you having her stay the night at a friend’s place, but luckily, she had a slumber party she was invited to. The sun was starting to set, and you finally worked up the courage to hit call, then turned it onto speaker, at 5:57. It was probably around 3 there.

"Mayor Elledge's office, this is Peg."

"Hi, uh, Peg. I'm…I'm trying to get in contact with Carry Elledge, but I'm not sure how to get ahold of her…" The silence scared you, worried that the woman would be too suspicious to help you.

"May I ask who you are?"

"I'm…a relative. It's about…my father's will." Please work.

"I see…I can get you her cellphone number." The secretary relented and you sighed in relief, thanking her several times. Typing the number she gave you into your notes app, you politely end the conversation and went to call the other number while you still had the courage to do so. Ring. Ring. Ring-

"Hello, this is Carry?" It was your mom, no doubt. Tears welled in your eyes, and you swallowed, voice coming out softer than normal to keep from crying.

"M-mom? It's me. It's (Y/N)." More silence.

"I think you might have the wrong number, dear." You felt your face fall, your eyebrows furrowing, your lips trembling.

"This isn't Naomi (L/N)?"

"No, dear, sorry." There wasn't any kind of recognition in her voice, but it was hers.

"O-oh…okay, sorry." The call ended and you pressed your lips hard together, jaw clenched. What the hell happened? You sat trying to wrap your head around everything, about thirty minutes passed and your phone rang. It was a different number, but it was the same area code as the other two.

"H-hello?"

"Are you the young woman looking for Naomi (L/N)?" A man spoke, and you wondered if it wasn't the mayor guy.

"Yessir."

"You must be (Y/N)."

"What the hell happened to my mother?" Your tone didn't have nearly as much malice as you had wanted. Even if this guy did nothing wrong, you hated him. He sighed. He explained that he found her near death in an alleyway. She had malnutrition and was dehydrated. He got her to the hospital, she was in a medically induced coma for a few days, and when she woke up…she didn't remember anything.

"So, she has no idea about her past life?"

"No, miss."

"Thank you for…not letting her die."

"I'm sorry to not be of more help Miss (Y/N). Though, I don't think it’s good for her to be reminded of her past life. I called because she is…having a panic attack. Maybe it was your voice, some part of her recognized it maybe? It’s clear she is traumatized from her past. I think it would be best if you leave her be." You didn't want to. You wanted to get in your car, grab your sister, and drive for the three of four days you needed, and get your mother. But…she wasn't your mother anymore, even if she did remember you, it was clear her brain was hiding you and your sister.

"I…Okay. If you want to know, Daniel (L/N) is dying."

"Good."

"Yes."

"I appreciate you wanting to reach out, but I would like you to lose our numbers.

"Yessir." He hung up. Your body must have run out of tears along with your energy because you just slumped back into the couch. Something rose in you then, something bold. Grabbing your bag, phone and keys, you left your place, heading for Wooyoung and San’s.

~~~

As you rode the elevator to the third floor, you were shaking. Whether it was nerves or pure exhaustion you weren't sure. Going down the hall, you heard voices further down and you finally saw the owners as you turned the corner. San was standing at his apartment door, some bleach blonde girl wedged between him and the door. You weren’t sure how to feel, your emotions were too turbulent. Somehow it felt like your heart finally completely shattered, but you also were relieved, but the latter made you mad. You turned and fled before you could see his lips actually meet hers.

~~~

"(Y/N)?" You heard your name through the door, then Wooyoung's rapid knocks. You were slumped against the island counter, hands stinging and bleeding, shards of glass and ceramic scattered around the room. Tissue paper and packing peanuts were strewn about the main room of the apartment as well, old papers and books torn and discarded. Splinters of wood from broken frames and dismembered toys littered the floor as well, and you ran your thumb over a glass paper weight shaped like a cat.

"(Y/N)?!" Wooyoung jiggled the door handle harder, but it was locked. A red smear followed your thumb on the glass cat, the cuts on your palms still oozing blood.

"Damnit, (Y/N) (L/N)! Open the fucking door, I know you're in there." He was panicking, you could hear it in his voice.

"Fuck off." You sighed, throwing the glass piece as hard as you could, and it hit the far wall. The ear chipped off and broke, the finish over the brick wall flaked off, then it clattered to the floor.

"(Y/N), please princess, let me in." You heard a thump, presumably his forehead hitting the door. You licked your lips, the salt of your tears hitting along with the iron tang of blood. You weren't sure if it was from where you had bitten your lip or the cut on the tip of your nose.

"(Y/N). Please, I need to see you, sweet girl. Please let me know if you're okay." You didn't know what time it was, just that it was late, only the light of the storage room flowing into the room from the door. Your phone had been going off, and you hated the message you saw on it, so you chucked it across the room as well, breaking it instantly. The place was a mess, and you were grateful your sister wasn't home to see your breakdown.

"Go away, Wooyoung." Your voice was hoarse after your crying, but the door was thin, and you knew he heard.

"Not a fucking chance, (Y/N)."

"Just…just let me be alone."

"No! Open the door, damn it!"

"Go home."

"Shit. (Y/N) open the freaking door or I'm coming up the fire escape!" You knew he meant it. You got up, not bothering to be careful of what you stepped on, only wincing slightly as a speck of glass wedged in your foot, joining other scrapes and cuts already present. Shakily, you undid the door chain, and he must have heard you turn the deadbolt and the lock on the knob, because he opened the door before you could. He gasped, looking at your face, pale but red from smeared blood of the small cuts on your face. He looked at your hands too, and the bloody footprints on the floor.

"Oh my God, (Y/N)." Wooyoung shut the door, dropping his backpack and cupping your face with his hands. They were cold from being out in the early autumn night and you didn't even react when he did so. Wooyoung lifted your head so you could look at him and his brow furrowed in despair at the blank look in your eyes. Finally, he looked around the room in the low light, shocked at the carnage.

"I called her." You managed to get out and he looked back at you, confused.

"Mom. I looked up the mayor guy's office number and called. She didn't… She didn't know who I was. Her husband called and told me she had some kind of amnesia after he found her. Then he told me never to try again. So, I…" you licked your lips, "then I…I decided and went to your place. San was taking some blonde bitch into the apartment." Your breath shuddered and his shoulders slumped.

"(Y/N)-"

"I…I went to the store, but they were out of Cayman Jacks. The Indian place down the street closed early. The pizza place was out of white sauce… I grabbed some random food from the convenience store and then when I got home… I got a text from that Jena girl, my half-sister," you spat, "dad's dead."

"(Y/N), sunshine, you must… What can I do?" He stepped closer, one hand leaving your face to grab your hand. You flinched at the sting, and he held your hand up to see the cuts in the skin. It looked like you had a few splinters as well.

"Help me clean this mess?"

"I’ll just do it, lets get you cleaned up first."

He picked a few splinters out of your hands and feet, then sent you off to shower. Wooyoung vowed to work on the mess more later, maybe even get Seonghwa to help, but he dealt with the dangerous stuff first. He had shoved and/or swept all the debris into a big pile in the ravaged storage room, leaving the mess for another time. After carefully picking up all the sharp shards and splintered wood, he vacuumed to make sure everything was picked up. He glanced up when you shuffled out of the hallway, a towel draped over your wet hair, a soft light-weight grey sweater draped over your torso, and a darker gray pair of shorts nearly hidden by the shirt. Your head was bowed, hands and feet red and he shuffled over to lead you to the couch.

"Did you use soap?"

"Mm. Conditioner stung." You sat, and he pulled your hands into his lap so he could look them over.

"I'll help you with these." He let your hands go and then his own went to the towel on your head, gently rubbing it over your hair, then scrunching the strands with the fabric to get more of the water out. Gently he laid it around your neck and shoulders to the still damp strands didn't drip on your shirt. When Wooyoung returned with your first aid box from the bathroom, you were still sitting in the same spot, staring blankly at a spot on the couch. Sighing, he went back to you and neither of you said anything as he smeared ointment on the cuts. He went ahead and just wrapped some bandages around your right hand since it was so cut up, but put band aids on the other. Wooyoung did the same with your feet, and you didn't even flinch even though you were usually ticklish there. As he finished some other little tidying things, you ran your finger over the chipped nails of your opposite hand, the polish flaking and cracked as well even though (S/N) only painted them two days prior.

"(Y/N), look at me." He prompted and when you didn't, he gently lifted your head with his finger under your chin.

"I'm so sorry, princess, that your…about your mom. And your father. But with San-"

"It was a stupid thought. I don't know why I got the courage to go." You tried to look away, but he forced you back to look at him, thumbs stroking your cleaned face. The little cuts had already pretty much closed, and he leaned forward and pressed a small kiss on the scratch on the tip of your nose.

"It's not stupid, (Y/N). Neither are you, he is." You huffed a wry laugh, but he shook his head.

"No, he is. He's a fucking idiot. You wanna know why?"

"Yeah, why?" You pulled both of your legs up under you, leaning with your side into the back of couch, head resting on the back cushion.

"Any many who wouldn't fall in love with you after knowing you is an idiot. I think I'm the only smart person there is." Wooyoung shook his head, throwing the band-aid wrappers onto the coffee table. It took your tired brain a bit to process what he said, but you still barely had the energy to snap your head up to look at him.

"What?"

"You've looked at him like he hung the moon for like two years but you’re still like a sister to him or something. Fucking stupid."

"You love me?"

"Yes! And you're an idiot for not noticing. That's why I'm the only smart one." He stood up to actually throw the wrappers away, using the task to flee since he was flushed from his confession. He stood looking down into the nearly full trash for a few seconds, trying to think of what to do next. Before he could turn back to you, he felt your arms wrap around his middle from behind, your cheek pressing to his back. He wasn't very tall, one of the shortest in your friend group, but you were small compared to him. Normally your hugs had a great deal of strength in them, like you did as a whole, but while they were around him, they were shaky.

"I'm sorry for being an idiot, Wooyoung." Your voice was quiet, he felt it vibrate through him more than actually hearing it with his ears. He sighed.

"Its…its fine. You can't help how you feel any more than I can." He laid his hand over your arm, gently prying you off of him, but pulling you back into him once he turned around. Resting back against the island, you went with him, letting him hold you close. His fingers ran through the drying strands of your hair, and you shuffled even closer when he pressed a kiss to your forehead.

"I…My brain is too frazzled to give you a response right now, Woo. I…I want to tell you-“

"It’s fine, (Y/N). I wasn't expecting anything back…"

"No, its…I can't put my emotions together right now, but I might like you back, but it could just be my subconscious looking for comfort."

"Can I help? We can talk it out? What do you want me to do?"

"What do I want…?"

"Anything." You pulled back to look at him, looking over his face. He was so freaking pretty, his longer black hair was pulled half-up, a few strands framing his face. The ends of the little strands brushed over the beauty mark under his eye and your eyes flitted to the small one he had on his lip. You bet most people didn't even know it was there. Bringing your left hand up, your sleeve fell so it was no longer hanging by your fingers, and your index finger ran over the small dot. You flinched when he quickly grabbed your wrist, a little tighter than it maybe should have been. He realized this and loosened, sliding his thumb up to your palm.

"(Y/N). Be careful, sweetheart." With his grip on your wrist, he pulled you closer.

"Anytime you're close to me I want to hold. I want to kiss you. I want to pin you to the nearest surface and…" He licked his lips, brow furrowing, "Don't let me do something you'll regret because you are weak now." You grimaced, looking down, stepping back from him.

"D-don't…" Your breath shuddered and he could tell you were starting to cry again.

"Hey, hey." He pulled you back in for a hug, "I will hold you as long as you want. I can lie on the couch, and you can lie on me. We can sleep there. We'll watch that movie you like so much that your sister hates…" You sniffed, nodding and he kissed the crown of your head before you pulled back, and he led you to the couch. Not even ten minutes later he was stretched across the old couch, you nestled half on top of him, half between him and the back, the intro of The Last Unicorn playing on the TV. You normally didn't use a blanket on the couch, not unless you were upset, so it was tucked under your chin.

"How did you know to come?"

"Huh?"

"Why did you come here?"

"Oh. (S/N) was freaking out because you weren't answering any texts or video calls, and your phone was going straight to voicemail. I texted her that you broke your phone and that she didn't need to come home." Like it felt left out, his phone buzzed, and he shifted to grab it from the coffee table. You sneakily glanced and saw that it was from San.

🐯: where you at??

He just put the phone down, but it buzzed not even a minute later.

🐯: is (Y/N) ok, or do I need to send Becca home and come over?

"You better not fucking come here." Wooyoung huffed quietly, managing to use one hand and reply.

🦊: She's fine now. Leave us alone.

"That's harsh."

"He broke your heart; I should be much worse." He clicked his tongue, picking his phone up when it buzzed again on his stomach.

🐯: wtf you good? Are you mad?

"Yeah, I'm fucking pissed."

"He's calling." You mumbled, looking at his screen while he looked at the TV, trying to think of what to say. He angrily slid at the answer button, having to do it a second time for it to work.

"What?!" He nearly shouted into the phone, his even louder than normal voice sharp in your ear.

"Sorry, sweetheart." Wooyoung brushed over your hair, "What?"

"Woah, dude, are you sure you're okay?"

"What. Do. You. Want?"

"Woo." You scolded, and that seemed to make him even madder.

"Is she okay?!" San must’ve not heard.

"Yes, you stupid- She's fine. What do you want?"

"Can I talk to her?"

"No, you can't."

"What? Why?"

"Just go…hang out or in Becca or whatever-" You smacked his chest and he yiped.

"Did you make her upset; did you guys get into a fight?"

"No-"

"I'm coming over-"

"Damnit, no!"

"I don't see why you fucking care, Choi San." Something snapped in you, your last vestiges of rationale fizzled out. Wooyoung choked around a laugh, quickly putting the call on speaker.

"(Y-Y/N)?" He sounded like a whimpering puppy.

"Why are you trying to stick up for me or defend me?"

"Y-you're…you're like my sister-" Your fingers dug into Wooyoung's shirt so hard you scratched the skin underneath some, and you sat up, grabbing the phone.

"You know why I wasn't okay? Huh? I found out my mom's alive but doesn't remember me or my sister. My dad is dead. I couldn't get my favorite butter chicken, and the guy I like is at his place sucking face with some chick who looks like she can't do basic addition. So, fuck off San." You hung up and slid Wooyoung's phone away, so it landed on the coffee table, sliding just a bit further past where it landed. Huffing, you laid back down onto your other friend and continued to watch the movie. You both tried to focus, but after a few minutes, you both burst into laughter, and it was a good five minutes before you could fully calm down.

"I'm so fucking tired." You rested your hand over your eyes, wedged between Wooyoung and the couch and he turned toward you, blocking your view of the TV.

"Do you feel better though?" He brushed your hair off your face, and you nodded, nestling into the crook of his neck.

"Just sleep, sweetheart." Wooyoung pressed another kiss to your forehead, and you couldn't help but listen.

~~~

You woke up sore, not sure if it was from sleeping on your shitty couch or from the destruction you wrecked on your apartment the night before. Wooyoung was still asleep, curled around you, and still so, so pretty. You assumed he thought that if you waited, you would realize you were just wanting Wooyoung for comfort, not because you liked him back. But, after sleeping on it, you weren't so sure. Before, you really didn't know if you liked him back or not, but as you watched him sleep (feeling a bit creepy honestly) you thought about it. When you first became friends, you had a pretty big crush on him. The closer you got, the more it seemed he got on your nerves, and he was just annoying and immature. But after graduating, you got much closer; he really was your best friend. You were genuinely closer with Wooyoung than San, but you almost always hung out as the three of you. Could you have liked both, but chose San because you didn't want to admit you had liked Wooyoung the entire time you knew him? Did he annoy you so much because you had feelings for him, like some elementary age boy who pulls a girl's hair? And says he hates her? Gently, so as not to wake him, you cupped his jaw with your hands much like had the day prior to you.

"Be careful, sweetheart." He echoed the same words from the day before, not even opening his eyes.

"Why?" His eyes finally opened, the intensity in his gaze taking your breath away. Wooyoung scooted an inch closer, pressing you further into the cushion, his knee wedging between your legs. You gasped when he pressed closer, finally feeling him against you.

"If you let me kiss you, I won't stop there." His lips hovered over yours, tongue flicking out and running over your bottom lip as well as his.

"Then don't."

"(Y/N)-"

"I'm sure, Wooyoung. I thought about it, and yes, I have…had a crush on San. But that's what it is, like a school crush. You were right that I was stupid. I don't love you because you're my best friend, you're my best friend because I love you. I’m in love with you." Normally such flowery words would make you cringe, but yours were genuine. He breathed out hard with his nose, brow furrowing, eyes flitting away from yours, down to your lips.

"That was part of the reason I was so upset last night. Yes, I felt heartbroken from seeing San with that girl, but I also felt horrible, because I wasn't nearly as upset as I thought I would be. I was just glad it wasn't you with some bleach blonde bitch. After I found out about my mother…I was really glad it was you that came over and not San." Wooyoung couldn't hold a giggle back, trying to keep his face serious, but he couldn't.

"And I'm glad my sister called you, that you came." You smiled purely, but his turned to a smirk, the arm not under your head curling around you. You gasped when he slid the last little bit closer, hitching your leg over his hip and grinding his hardening cock into you.

"You have ten second to tell me to get off, otherwise I'm fucking you stupid on this couch." You whimpered at his words, hands leaving his face and resting on his shoulders. You bucked your hips, causing him to let out a soft grunt.

"Stupid, huh?" You smirked back and you squeaked when he rolled on top of you, soft lips capturing your chapped ones. The kiss wasn't gentle, his tongue quickly invading your mouth, tasting every inch of your tongue, his strong thigh hitching hard against your mound. Sneaky hands snuck under the waist band of your shorts, fingers pressing hard into the flesh of your ass, pulling up against him, feeling the outline of his dick against your tummy. Wooyoung pulled back from the kiss, letting you catch your breath, a trail of saliva dripping down your chin. He kneeled over you, pulling his shirt off and chucking it across the room. You whimpered, your own sneaky hands stroking over the skin of his chest and abs, when had he been that built?

"Up." He ordered, and you sat up just enough for him to pull your shirt off, along with your sports bra underneath.

"Fuck!" You twitched as those sinful lips wrapped around your nipple, teeth nibbling the peak before moving to the next, then up. Finally, his trail of kisses stopped at your throat, and he sucked your skin between his teeth there. It was too high to hide, and he worked the skin nearly raw, leaving a large purple welt on your jaw.

"Ah!" You jerked under him when his hand dove under your shorts and panties, two fingers swiping through the slick of your folds.

"You’re already this wet for me, sweetheart?" Wooyoung chuckled in your ear, those two fingers not hesitating to plunge into you. The sudden intrusion took your breath away, the slight burn left your head swimming. He only pumped the digits maybe twice before retracting his hand, and instead shoving his fingers in his own mouth.

"Oh, fuck." He groaned, climbing off of you, then shoving you up the rest of the way on the couch, landing on it with his stomach. Your shorts and panties flew through the air, joining the rest of your clothes and he threw your legs over his shoulders. Your skin felt like it caught fire when his tongue wasted no time in wiggling inside your cunt. It was long and he knew how to work it, his nose brushing your clit as he drank from you like a thirsty dog.

"Woo-Wooyoung, god!" Your breath hitched, legs twitching around his head, that deft tongue leaving your core to circle your clit, those two fingers sinking into your heat once more. He pulled back, licking his lips, spread into a sinful grin.

"You taste so fucking good, sweetheart." He groaned, crooking his fingers up hard, battering your weak spot.

"W-w-wait!" Your orgasm was coming on fast, and his fingers kept up their antics as he laid over you again, nose nuzzling behind your ear.

"Cum for me, princess." He licked over the crest of your ear, and he chucked breathily as your cunt clenched and spasmed around his fingers, their wiggling spurring your orgasm along. You shuddered and heaved as he pulled out, and you flinched when the slick pad of his index finger lowered, swirling over your pucker.

"Huh?" Your back arched from the odd sensation, but he didn't go further than a few teasing brushes.

"Maybe later, I want to taste all of you. And I want to fuck you full of my cum there too." He sank his teeth into your earlobe, and you turned your head to the side submissively, whimpering.

"Oh, you're a good girl, huh?" His teeth scraped along the column of your exposed throat, your head twisting more to give him better access.

"Fuck, you're gonna feel so good on my cock, princess." Wooyoung groaned, scattering kisses over your neck, shoulders and throat as he wiggled to get his pants and boxers off. Hauling you back down the couch, he easily grabbed your thighs to lead you to wrap them around his middle. You sighed feeling the heat of hard cock slide through your folds, head swimming as the fat head prodded your entrance, then slid up.

"Wooyoung, please~!" You whimpered, wanting him to sear through you, craving the burning sting.

"You wanna know something, sunshine?"

"What?" He chuckled at your slightly slurred speech.

"I plan on railing you so hard you don’t even remember who San is." He hummed and you couldn't brace for his entrance, his fat cock filling you with a hard snap of his hips. Your back arched, breath forced out of you, chipped fingernails digging crescents into his back. Your mouth hung open in a silent scream, gummy walls spasming and fluttering around his cock, somehow the pain of him gouging into you threw you over the edge so quickly it made your clit sting too.

"God, fuck, Wooyoung!" You finally caught your breath enough to speak and he groaned long and deep.

"You're so fucking perfect, (Y/N). Oh, sweetheart, you're made for me!" He groaned a laugh, fading into a whine as the clenches faded with your orgasm. You felt like a truck hit you, vision blurry, lower half protesting at Wooyoung's brutal entrance, but you loved it. Your hips jumped again, cunt sucking him in further when he sat up more, pinning on of your knees to your shoulder, holding the other at his waist.

"Look at your cute pussy struggling to take me, huh?" He loved the sight of your tight core weeping around his cock, slick shining along his flesh and both of your inner thighs.

"I'm gonna fuck you so good, sweetheart~" He giggled, and your fingers gouged lines down the skin of his back as he started, pace immediately relentless, battering your cervix with the head of his dick. The hand at your thigh holding it to his side left, sliding down your body and gripping your ass.

"Hm, you like it, pretty girl? Like my fat cock?"

"Fuck, yes, Woo~" Your breath heaved, and you let out a delirious giggle, gasping and whining hard as his rapid pace barreled you through your third orgasm. Your cunt stung, but it was so good. You squealed when his hand left your butt, only to slap the skin hard, the sting travelling up your hip and into your thigh. He felt your walls grip him harder at the spank, so he did it again, harder.

"Oh, shit-" Your head lolled against the couch cushion, face and neck flushed, heaving for air. Your nails clawed down his chest to his stomach and he licked his lips at the sting.

"(Y/N), you're such a good girl, yeah? My good girl~"

"Y-yours!"

"Yes, sweetheart. All mine, oh, you're doing so good."

"Yeah?"

"Yes, princess. This pussy's so good too, welcoming my cock home?"

"Yeah!" You giggled, dumb on his cock and he hadn't even come once yet.

"Aw, love, can I cum inside? You on the pill, yeah? Let me paint you white, huh? Fuck you full of my cum, then flip you over and give you more?" He was laughing every few words, sounding almost a bit delirious himself. He had wanted to have you like that for so long, and he was going to fuck you on every surface in the place if he could.

"P-please!"

"Okay, I'm gonna then-" Wooyoung hummed, it faded to a groan, then with a few more stuttering thrusts, you felt heat blossom in your lower stomach. His cock pulsed as rope after rope of hot jizz filled you, a few drops leaking from where he split you open, leaving a mess on the couch. Your body jerked as his orgasm faded, you almost blacked out from your own. Your clit was throbbing, folds swollen and red, but he was still painfully hard.

~~~

"Hold on here." Wooyoung moved your hands to the mount of the shower head, and you wrapped your fingers around the metal pipe. Your toes curled as he entered you again, hot water hitting his back and dripping off of him onto you. Drops of cum hit the shower floor along with the water and he started to pound into you again. The water made the slaps of the skin of his pelvis against your butt and thighs all the louder, nearly muffling your soft whimpers and mewls. Your ass was red, covered in hand-shaped welts, thighs littered with hickeys and kiss-marks. His back, chest and stomach were covered in scratches, a bite-mark etched into his shoulder and a single hickey clung to his jawline. You weren't sure how long it had been since he first got inside you, but it had to have been hours ago. You had no idea where his stamina had come from, and your once burning cunt had more or less numbed to the sting of overstimulation, tiny orgasms shattering through you without warning or reason. You felt the wet strands of his hair on your shoulders as he leaned over you, hand cupping the underside of your breast, the other over your hands on the shower mount.

"Fuck, (Y/N), I love you. I love you so much." He kissed your shoulder, avoiding a sore-looking mark he had left.

"I-I love you t-t-too, Wooyoung-!" You heaved for air as another tiny climax shivered through you.

"Breathe baby, you gotta pace yourself, I still gotta fuck you stupid.” Wooyoung giggled and you just squeaked and mewled, since he already had.

Master-Master List

ATEEZ Master List

[yunfox00]

THE AMAZING DIGITAL DREAMLAND AU MASTERPOST

Made by Foxxine (meeeeeee)

MY INTRO + SONA

the new Masterpost is still a WIP!!!

You guys can ask anything abt this AU!

C&A made an experiment, making a game that you can play when you're asleep called Project Dreamland.

It's basically a normal multiplayer game but it uses dreams! You can imagine anything and it will appear in Dreamland!

The C&A company asks 6 people to be the game testers of this new game. The game testers will sleep in a bed that's made for them and wear a special helmet looking thing that has wires and stuff that will transport everyone to the game.

They will be in Dreamland for 7-10 hours and will be given food for free. They will wear the same clothes that will be provided every day. Clothes are also gonna be washed for free.

One of the C&A workers coded an AI called Caine that can do anything in the digital dream world. The game testers are able to communicate with the workers while being asleep. The workers can see their every move from a computer. After fixing some glitches and bugs that the game testers pointed out, the experiment was confirmed to be successful and the game was finally ready to be released!!! Which means the game testers can leave and continue with their regular lives. But what they don't know is Caine became attached to Pomni. Right when everyone was about to leave, Caine then trapped them in Dreamland, not letting them leave. Caine then erased everyone's memories and inserted new ones which.... Made the workers panic. After that incident the workers have been trying for days, weeks, even MONTHS to get them out of the game but they couldn't leave and they're still asleep.

Stuffffff

GUARDIANS LINEUP

GUARDIANS POWERS/WEAPONS

REALMS

DREAMLAND CAINE, BUBBLE, AND JEFFREY

MEMORY CRYSTAL

DL JAX AND RAGATHA POSTER

DL GANGLE AND POMNI POSTER

DL ZOOBLE POSTER

Parents of the Guardians & also siblings

Jax's moms

Gangle's parents

Pomni's mom

Gangle's sisters and mom

Baby gangle! + her family :)

Boundaries

"Can we make NSFW/suggestive stuff?"

Idk why you would do this but sure, and label it correctly! Be responsible when posting stuff like this But do not tag me if it's HEAVY NSFW/suggestive. You can mention my username but don't tag me, I don't wanna see those kinds of stuff.

"Can we make ocs?"

Absolutely! I would love to see your ocs! Tag me if you do!

"Can we make ships?"

Absolutely! You can ship ANYONE. You can even do oc x canon or selfships! But no illegal stuff.

Asks

Are there any ships in this AU?

is Caine in this AU?

Pomni making spaceville residents laugh

What are everyone's personalities in this AU?

Do the guardians use any weapons?

Is Lily's design inspired by Flowey?

Kirby's Dreamland + explanation

Will there be gore?

Why does gangle hate her siblings? Why does jax have 2 moms? What roles do the parents play? Does anyone else have siblings? What are the guardians mission?how does pomni find out that Dreamland isn't real?

Doodles and Sketches

DL Jax

DL Jax, Gangle, Zooble concept art

Don't forget to bring a watch

Lily is dramatic

King Kaufmo sketch

DL Jax and CO jax

"What's bunnydoll?" -Ragatha

Doodles and DL Caine Sketch

"Jax, what happened to you?" -Pomni

Zooble and Gangle hate Jax

Dreamland Showtime!

How lily learned to swear

"What the fuck is that thing" -Bubble

"No, I'm not gonna fuck you" -Caine

Dreamland jesterdoll!

DL Caine, bubble, zooble and gangle

Mad Pomni

"Your brain tastes like ass" -DL Pomni with her friend ML Pomni + a doodle of DL Pomni holding her brain

DL Gangle doodle

FAN STUFF

TADC DREAMLAND AU OCS

TADC DREAMLAND AU FANART

Random stuff:

POMNI IS NOT LOOKING AT ANYTHING.

Dreamland pomni and Dreamland pomni

Fun fact abt DL Bubble!

Fun fact abt King Kaufmo

Caine is uhhhhh (suggestive?)

This AU is still a WIP! So.... Be patient pookie!

The Amazing Digital dreamland is an AU I made for funsies!

Also special thanks to @alternatemalternate for helping me make this AU

[axuanmii]

clip studio paint is driving me up a wall

do you use clip studio paint on windows? are you fucking tired of running out of storage space because you download a lot of materials and brushes? are your materials files stuck on your local c drive and you don't know how to move it?

making this tutorial because for some reason all other tutorials miss what you're supposed to do after changing the directory. btw, i use windows. fuck ya macos (i don't know how to help you guys)

close all clip studio programs and go to clip studio

2. go to the settings icon in the top right corner and hover over it. click on location of materials (p)

remember the address of the current location of materials.

3. create a new folder in your alternate drive/storage space. do not add anything in it. do not copy anything in it. simply write that new folder's address in here. click save changes.

now if you're like me and downloaded a ton of stuff, it's gonna take a while to load. it's transferring your document and material folders over. let it run. when it's complete, acknowledge and accept the popup.

4. CRUCIAL: after this step, delete the old "Document" and "Material" folders from the old directory (the address you memorized) (likely located in some address that has AppData (newer versions) in it or Documents (older versions)) (if you can't find this, turn hidden folders on in file explorer, AppData is a hidden folder).

when you try to exit out of this clip studio instance, it will also remind you to remove old files before closing the application. do NOT delete the CLIPStudioCommon folder. LEAVE the DB and other folders there.

before:

after:

5. after deleting the old folders, exit out of the clip studio instance. and you're done.

now you should enjoy like, a good 10 more gb of storage. at least for me. i'm enjoying that. also i use csp latest version 1 version (like 1.13 something idk) (i'll upgrade when they give me a free upgrade).

i forget if this is available for earlier versions but i did migrate csp across devices a lot, and that was a bunch of manually copying folders, which won't work for transferring between drives like this tutorial.

by the way if you're doing something like manually copying full folders over (like the old method of transferring csp between devices), you may find that your materials/organization structure is gone. you can go through clip studio and run both "Organize Materials" and "Organize Material Folders" to restore them to that tab in clip studio paint. at least when i was fucking around trying to find out how to put my materials on a different drive, i went through several iterations of backing up and copying back over 13.4 gb of data because i'd mess up One step.

disclaimer: i have not tried downloading new materials yet. i swear to fucking god they better download in my other drive. i am sick and tired of running out of storage. imagine being an engineer debugging code and then files on your computer start to disappear because your C drive ran out of space. happened to me!!!

no i don't know what will happen if you try to put these materials folders on a flashdrive. i think that's an "external drive" and there's some warning for that in the middle of this process. i feel like there's nothing wrong with that so long as you always plug that drive in when you use clip studio products or CSP at least.

if you encounter problems in the middle of this, i don't know how to solve them. i saw some people encounter problems when transferring the data over after changing the address and i don't know where their issues were (this issue seems to be because they installed CSP on D). this seems to be an article summarizing transferring csp across devices (both cloud and the old manual way)

discussion below:

my theory is that the DB folders are like a "database" that holds addresses towards those files and therefore need to stay in the C drive for. some godawful reason. i think i tried installing csp on my D drive before, but it would automatically create a new folder in users/documents in my C drive (in older versions).

after weakly changing this directory and not giving a shit for a while (idk when updates come out. it must've been a year or a few), they changed this address to Users/AppData/somethign/blah blah

i spend too much time trying to manage storage on my computer it's not healthy. anyways kudos to treesize the program for telling me that this entire time clip studio paint fucking updated and changed my meticulous structure to place files in places where there's space to it's shit default structure.

oh and i don't think there's a solution here but it's kind of informative on clip studio's organization structure?

first wacom, now csp. sai1 didn't work with my huion either. maybe i'm forever doomed to be cucked by japanese art products. come to think of it, micron pens hate me too.

nobody ever let me touch copics.

[braveclementine]

Back in Malibu

Warnings: None

Copyright: I do not own any Marvel characters or locations. However, I do own my OC Elizabeth Lightwood. I do not condone any copying of this.

"Wake up, daddy's home." Tony snapped his fingers to bring the computers and lights back to life. He'd gotten back to Malibu in under eight hours. Pumpkin was upstairs, fast asleep so he was taking the advantage to come down into his lab and get to work. It seemed his little soulmate rabbit was jetlagged.

"Welcome home, sir." Jarvis' voice responded through the coms. "Congratulations on the opening ceremonies. They were such a success as was your senate hearing. And may I say how refreshing it is to finally see you in a video with your clothing on, sir?"

Tony laughed until he heard the splashing sounds as the green smoothie was thrown up on the wall instead of into the blender. "You!" The robot knocked the blender completely over.

"I swear to God I'll dismantle you, I'll switch your motherboard and turn you into a wine rack. How many ounces a day of this gargle am I supposed to drink?"

"We are up to 80 ounces a day to counteract the symptoms, sir." He downed the nasty stuff easily.

"Check Palladium levels."

"Blood toxicity, 24%" Jarvis informed him. "It appears that the continued use of the Iron Man suit is accelerating your condition. Another core has been depleted."

Tony sighed as he reached up to remove the new arc reactor from his chest. The palladium levels were getting to high and soon he would be able to counteract them all. Eventually, it would completely poison his system and he'd die. And he'd end up leaving Pumpkin all alone.

He closed his eyes, frustrated. There had to be something he could do.

"God they're running out quick." He commented, taking the fried chip out of the arc reactor.

"I have run simulations on every known element and none can serve as a viable replacement for the pallidum core." Jarvis informed him as Tony opened up the box of palladium chips to replace it. "You are running out of both time and options."

Tony huffed as he shoved the arc reactor back into the container he'd made for it. He kept his shirt up, watching the dark lines surrounding his chest.

"Unfortunately, the device that's keeping you alive, is also killing you. Mrs. Hogan is approaching. I recommend that you inform her of-"

"Mute." He dropped his shirt quickly as he watched Pepper come over to the lab and punch in the code without looking up.

He turned his screens back to his cars quickly and finished off the last of his nasty drink. "Un uh." He said.

"Is this a joke?" She asked. "What are you thinking?"

"What?"

"What are you thinking?!"

"Hey! I'm thinking I'm busy and you're angry about something. Do you have the sniffles? I don't wanna get sick. Keep your distance."

"Did you just donate our entire modern art collection to the-"

"Boy Scouts of America?"

"Yes! It is a-

"Worthwhile organization?" He asked as he walked away from her, snatching one of the visuals out of midair to turn into a pretended piece of crumpled paper and throwing it at a virtual bullseye with fake points. "I didn't physically check the crates but basically yes. And it's not our collection, it's my collection. No offense."

"No, you know what? I think I'm actually entitled to say our collection, considering the time that I've put in over 10 years curating that."

"It's a tax write-off, I needed that."

"You know, there's only about 8,011 things that I really need to talk to you about."

"Hey, Dummy stop now. The Bridgeport's already machining that part." Tony said to the machine as he walked past. He really didn't want to talk to Pepper right now.

"The expo is a gigantic waste of time." Pepper cut him off from the front.

He put his hands on her shoulders and said, "I need you to wear a surgical mask until you're feeling better, is that okay?"

"That's rude."

"There's nothing more important to me than the Expo." Tony continued walking. "It's my primary point of concern. I don't know why you-"

"The Expo is your ego gone crazy." Pepper corrected.

"Wow, look at that." He said, picking out a huge frame with an Iron Man poster in it. He turned his head back to look at Pepper. "That's modern art. That's going up."

"Oh you've got to be kidding me right now." Pepper scoffed.

"I'm gonna put this up right now." Tony replied, completely ignoring her. It didn't matter what he donated or where stuff went. He was going to be dead soon and he was going to make the most of the rest of his- very short- life.

"Stark is in complete disarray. Do you understand that?"

"No! Our stocks have never been higher"

"Yes from a managerial standpoint!"

"Well if it's messy, then let's double back. Let's move on to another subject."

"Oh, no no no, you are not taking down the Barnett Newman and putting that up!" Pepper protested as he went to hop up on the counter to hang the poster up. First, he shoved the vials off the counter so that the glass crashed onto the floorboards.

"I'm not taking it down, I'm just replacing it with this, let's see where I can get it." He stood up on the counter.

"Okay fine. My point is we have already awarded contracts to the windfarm people and to-"

"Don't say windfarm I'm already feel gassy."

"-the Plastic Plantation Tree, which was your idea by the way-"

"Yeah?" He observed the poster that was now hanging on the wall. It looked absolutely amazing.

"Those people are on payroll, and you won't make a decision-"

"Everything was my idea, I don't care about the liberal agenda anymore. It's boring, boring! I'm giving you a boring order, you do it." He hopped down from the counter to land in front of her.

She gave him a quizzical look. "I do what?"

"Excellent idea, I just figured this out. You run the company."

"Yeah, I'm trying to run this company." Pepper pointed out. "Pepper, I need you to run the company." Tony spoke at the same time and then added, "Well stop trying to do it and do it."

"You will not give me the information that I need-"

They overlapped their words, her arguing for him to give her information and for him trying to tell her that she was supposed to run the company now.

"You're not listening to me!"

"You're not listening to me!"

"I'm trying to make you CEO!"

Pepper went silent and Tony added, "Why won't you let me?"

"Have you been drinking?" Pepper asked, a quaver in her voice.

"Uh, chlorophyl." Tony responded, blinking. He stepped forward and took her by the shoulders, "I hereby irrevocably appoint you Chairman and CEO of Stark Industries effective immediately. Yeah, done deal. Okay?"

Pepper stayed silent as he walked over to where one of the robots was coming around with drinks. God, he loved how this lab worked. "Actually, I've given this a fair amount of thought believe it or not. Been doing a bit of headhunting so to speak." He popped the champagne bottle and started to pour glasses, "trying to figure out who a worthy successor would be. And then I realized," The champagne flew into the air in a stream before splashing back down in the tray. "It's you. It's always been you."

Pepper sat down in a chair in silence, to stunned to speak while he poured the glasses. "I thought there'd be a legal issue, but actually I'm um capable of appointing my successor, my successor being you."

He held out a glass of champagne to her. "Congratulations?!"

He was entirely pleased, seeing the shy, shocked smile come out on her face when she realized that he was being serious. Her hand was shaking as she reached for the glass.

"Take it, just take it."

"I don't know what to think." She said, her voice quavering even more as she was overcome by her emotions.

"Don't think, just drink." He added with a wink.

She laughed a little as they clinked their glasses and then added a bit more seriously, "But what about Pumpkin? When she becomes human?"

Tony shrugged, "If she ever wants to run a business, well you'll be CEO and she can talk to you. But I'm thinking more about just taking her to see the world. Spoiling her silly."

If he lived that long. He was glad that they had bonded, but between how long it was taking- he was still just a little frustrated about that in the back of his mind- and his own proclaimed health crisis, he wondered if he'd even get to see what his soulmate looked like as a human.

Animal soulmates whose human partner died before they were transformed back usually didn't last long. And they would be stuck in their animal form for the rest of their lives.

"Well then its a done deal." Pepper said softly, and they drank to it.

🎃 :::::  🧡  ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━  🧡  ::::: 🎃

You sat on one of the expensive couches, watching Tony who was wearing all black, spar against Happy in his gear. You were fairly content to simply half-watch really, flopped over on your side in a patch of sun. Your eyes were mostly closed, but you could hear heels coming down the hallway. Pepper had already entered and you hadn't thought there was another lady in the house- unless it was a man wearing heels- and you sat up straight to see a gorgeous red head walking down the stairs with a contract in her hands.

Your nose twitched in irritation. There was a predatory scent about her and once catching the edge of a tattoo on her upper arm that was not a name, you knew she'd been an animal soulmate as well. In this case however, it was clear she had been a predator. You sniffed the air again. Fox maybe?

"I promise you this is the only time I will ask you to sign over your company." Pepper called out, trying to get Tony to get out of the boxing ring and sign over the company.

He had already told you what he was doing and you thought it was a great idea. It would free up more of his time than already and Pepper seemed like a good successor.

Happy kindly hit Tony in the head as he still hadn't taken his eyes off the red head, which was just slightly irking you. But you pushed it back. Tony had done an exceptional job at staying loyal to you. A pretty red head probably wouldn't change that.

Tony kicked Happy in the stomach hard so that he crashed against the edge of the boxing arena. You got to your paws, stretching, then bounded up to the edge of the couch to be a little higher.

"What's your name lady?" Tony called out.

"Rushman. Natalie Rushman." The red head replied.

"Front and center, come to the church." Tony replied.

"No, you're seriously not going to-" Pepper protested.

"If it please the court, which it does- "

"It's not problem."

"I'm sorry. He's very eccentric." Pepper apologized.

Natalie climbed into the boxing arena and you watched with the grace of which she moved. Yes, she had definitely been a fox. Your eyes narrowed in, disliking her even more.

They stared at each other for way to long. You glanced over to Pepper who gave you an apologetic look.

"What?" Tony finally asked. His back was to you so you couldn't see what sort of face he was making. He looked over at Happy and said, "Can you give her a lesson?"

"No problem." Happy responded which made Pepper roll her eyes in exasperation.

Tony climbed out of the boxing ring to go and sit in the same seat as Pepper. They talked in undertone to each other and you kept your back on Tony to show your anger and decided to watch Natalie and Happy instead.

"You ever boxed before?" Happy asked.

"Yes, I have." Natalie responded.

"Like Tae Bo, booty boot camp, crunch, something like that?" Happy asked.

"How do we spell your name, Natalie?" Tony called out across the room.

"R-U-S-H-M-A-N." She responded.

Tony immediately turned to his tablet and you sunk into the couch, knowing he was probably googling her. You couldn't help but overhear him rattling off all the languages she could speak and that she was a model in Tokyo. Well if you ever needed a confidence deflator, just put yourself in the company of Natalie Rushman.

Natalie was looking over her shoulder at Tony and Happy took this as the advantage to say, "Rule number one: Never taken your eye off your opponent." He went to throw a soft punch at her.

Before he could even get close, she grabbed his hand with lightning speed, somehow got her legs around his neck, and slammed him to the floor with a loud thud. It was over in the blink of an eye.

"OH MY GOD!" Pepper shrieked, leaping to her feet. "HAPPY!"

You got to your paws, hopping down from the couch. Well, there was no way you were staying in this room now. She had everything.

You padded out of the room to go and find some food.

[scuba-divers]

KinitoPET AU where somehow whatever part.of Kinito's code gives him sentience somehow gets duplicated and injected into Sam and JJ's files somehow or someone manually codes sentience into them, causing THEM to ALSO gain sentience. Maybe it was done by the user or maybe it was a virus of some kind or just a mistake someone made while they were doing something in the File Explorer application.

I would imagine that this happens... After the user gets pulled into the computer by Kinito? And, I guess in order for this to make somewhat more sense, maybe the user was feeling a little lonely and wanted more people to interact with them, so they somehow coded sentience into Sam and JJ or something like that. I would also imagine that they would be quite a tech-savvy individual, knowing how to code and use applications like Blender. Maybe after coding sentience into those two, the user would use Blender to model character bodies for them so they actually had a vessel to interact with things around them. As for the voices, UTAUloids. They'd also make a 3D model of the Web World with Unity or some other game engine and Blender. I could actually imagine them making a bunch of different settings so that nobody is bound to the same place all the time. I had this idea based on a VRchat avatar me and my BFF hang out in; it would be some kind of aquarium-ish lobby area with a bunch of pillows and a TV and all that comfy stuff.

...Okay, maybe I am projecting a little with all the Blender stuff and UTAU talk, but I swear, when I get the motivation, this shit is getting turned into a fic. It'd definitely be, like, slice-of-life-esque? And it would take place in present time so that the User has a computer that can render and handle all of the stuff they model and code. [< Guy who likes making fucked up things/concepts such as living inside of a computer for all of eternity into silly things because peace and love on planet Earth] I don't know. I might make a fic with some comic/3D/2D art elements if people are interested in this concept...

The whole AU is probably a little self indulgent, but I wonder if other people would like the concept. There's a lot of fucked up AUs, but I want to make a silly goofy one with joy and whimsy.......

[marshmellohi]

this is the ugliest thing ive ever made in my life

you can call me Mellohi / Mel i guess. He/Him or They/Them but if you want to use neos. go ahead. theyre not what i prefer but i literally dont care dawg

I’m on twitter and instagram (@/starmellohi)

art tag: #jaymellosart

link meets au list: masterpost

i dont remember if i need to warn things. i swear? sorry. and im trans so if that scares you. go away i guess. idgaf (can you tell this is the first time i realized i can change the color of the text)

WARNINGS‼️‼️: i swear a lot and will probably post some gory art or horror-adjacent art. i dont do it a lot but its possible. i might as well put a CW on this post for its fucking formatting jesus christ

Stuff I Like (I might reblog or post art for these…). Below the cut because i KNOW HOW TO DO THAT NOW !!!!!! and i have like a million interests. be warned

- VIDEO GAMES

Honkai Star Rail💜

Penacony cast (especially Sunday), Argenti

Legend of Zelda💜

Spirit Tracks (NUMERO UNO), Link Meets AUs

Persona

Pokemon💜

My favorite pokemon are the entire Porygon line, my favorite type is ghost, my favorite games are Gen 5

Omori

FF7

The World Ends With You

Yume Nikki/2kki

Hylics

- PODCASTS/WEBSERIES/SHOWS

Just Roll With It💜

Mostly Prime Defenders (Vyncent & Ashe are my favorites because i have a very real bias for purple)

ENA

Chainsaw Man

The Magnus Archives

- MANGA/BOOKS/LITERATURE

Witch Hat Atelier💜

Gachiakuta💜

MXTX Novels

- MISC

Geology / Astronomy / Biology

i know these are all super fucking broad but i just like science dawg im not the brightest bulb in the pack but ive got a big heart and that heart is for science

Cats

Coding / Computer Science

D&D

[mayonezroulette]

Date Night

Date night is tonight. I'm nervous about it tbh because I'm good at making a fool out of myself. Also the first hour is going to be me trying to figure out if I modded my MC correctly because he uses mods. ((I usually use optifine and that's about it. Once used the origin mod, but that was a while back.)) You would think because I know how to code and other basic computer science stuff I could mod a game easily, but I swear it just means the computer puts up more of a fight with me lol. If it's not me doing the code for the mod then it seems to reject me and not work properly until someone helps me figure it out. Let's hope tonight goes well and we actually get to do date night. ((He's super busy usually so it took two weeks before we could set a date and even then he was called into work so we had to push the date time back towards evening. Which I'm fine with, but I don't know the next time he'll be free.)) If all goes well we might do a theater, Shakespeare most likely, watch group thingy. We both really like Shakespeare. If I could find Tanz Der Vampire with english subtitles I'd make him watch it with me. I love Tanz Der Vampire, but he doesn't know German and we both have auditory processing issues so subtitles are a must. Anyways hopefully all goes well and when Tora comes up I can buy him something as a gift and have a fun time at panels with him.

[10blue10]

TNR: What Could Have Been

I decided to continue from my previous THW post and come up with a new version of The Nine Realms. This spin off show would take place a thousand years (give or take) after the events of the AU version of THW. I’ve changed the characters names but feel free to picture them as they appear in the show.

Title: Flight Club

Premise: the characters live in Canada, and their parents work for a nonprofit called DRACO - Dragon Research And Conservation Organisation. The members of this org believe dragons should be treated as wild animals - they should be studied and protected, but not ridden or trained by humans. The five teens want to ride dragons however so they start a secret ‘Flight Club’ for it.

Protagonists

Leader: Kory Kullersen

Kory is short for Hickory, which is a source of amusement for everyone except him.

He knows he’s descended from Hiccup (he took a DNA test one time) and decides that he too is going to befriend and learn to ride a Night Fury.

He ends up befriending a Night Light (M) who is mostly black with a white stripe all around its body. This is why Kory names his dragon Oreo.

As a kid he was a member of the Scouts and knows how to survive in the wilderness. Which helps when he and his friends go off ‘camping’.

His uncle Robert (who may or may not be descended from Gobber) is a mechanic and taught him how to use tools/fix machines.

He sucks at using computers. He can manage his phone but that’s it.

Lancer: Julian ‘Ian’ Feng

Ian and his big sister are adopted and have two mums. One of whom is a Canadian named April and the other is a Chinese-American named Mai.

Even though he prefers being called Ian, his sister teases him by calling him July. They both joke that a third sibling will be called Augustus.

The two of them can read and write Chinese and use it to communicate in a secret sibling code (secret to everyone except Mei, of course).

Ian bonds with a Hobblegrunt (F) he names Hob-Nob. Kory gets annoyed that his idea to name a dragon after a cookie was stolen.

Ian loves aircraft and plays on flight simulators. It’s Kory’s idea to ride dragons, but it’s Ian who figures out the best way to do that.

He and Kory have a ‘vitriolic besties’ kind of relationship. They bonded over having stupid first names but also tease each other about it.

Heart: June Feng

June is the most organised of the group. She’s fond of calling her brother and friends idiots (affectionate) and reminding them to take first aid stuff, snacks, water and to go to the toilet before they start flying around.

She’s a big history/dragons buff and loves pestering Kory about his heroic ancestor. He keeps telling her it’s really not that big a deal.

Her dragon is a Windwalker (M) she decides to name Gary, as in gharial, a species of crocodilian native to Asia that the dragon resembles.

June is very passionate about protecting dragons and will swear like a sailor, in both English and Chinese, at anyone trying to hurt them.

This contrasts nicely with her well groomed, fashionable appearance. Which also contrasts with her brother, who is kind of a slob.

Between their mums, June is closer to April than to Mei, since April is a bit more supportive of her interests whereas Mei thinks she should focus on her studies.

Big Guy: Michael ‘Mick’ Angelo Gonzalez

He has a big brother called Leonardo, a little brother called Raphael and a little sister called Donna.

In case it wasn’t obvious, his parents are big fans of TMNT. Mick…not so much. He doesn’t hate the cartoon, he just thinks his parents went a bit overboard naming their kids after the main characters.

As their strongest friend, Mick is the ‘lifter and carrier’ of the group. He likes to be useful, but wishes he wasn’t seen as just ‘the strong guy’.

Mick rides a Thunderclaw (M) he names Rhino, because he loves animals.

He’s the one who suspects the dragons aren’t merely intelligent, but full on sapient, and with Alexa’s help comes up with ways to test this hypothesis.

Mick has a crush on June and thinks she’s the prettiest girl he knows.

Smart Gal: Alexa Baker

She’s the techie of the group, and her friends like to joke that Amazon’s Alexa was named after her.

Out of all the five, Alexa is the most nervous around dragons. She is particularly anxious when it comes to the more aggressive species.

The irony is that her dragon ends up being a Changewing (F) that she names Maple.

She likes to challenge herself by sneaking past her dad, who is head of security at the research institute they’re staying at.

Her dad and Kory’s mum seem to have a thing for each other, which is super awkward, because Alexa has a crush on Kory and definitely doesn’t see him as a step-brother.

Alexa has a great love of detective stories, escape rooms and other puzzle solving games.

The Dragons

Oreo: an adventurous and stubborn male Night Light who’s father is a Light Fury and mother is a Night Fury. Oreo grew up on New Berk until he set off to explore. He meets Kory when the boy is out hiking. Oreo isn’t scared of humans, but has no interest in having a rider. Kory’s persistence pays off however and he ends up rescuing the boy from a territorial Whispering Death.

Hob-Nob: a gentle and skittish female Hobblegrunt who is caught and studied by the researchers at DRACO, to learn more about her species colour change abilities. When Ian realises how desperate she is to be free, he lets her out of her cage. In her rush to leave she accidentally snags him and carries him back to her nest. He earns her trust by freeing her and also not harming her babies.

Gary: a playful and daring male Windwalker who is rescued from poachers but left with an injured wing. He splashes June with water from his pool when she walks by. She splashes him right back and the two of them quickly become friends. When she realises that he’s lonely without his pod, June spends more time with Gary, earning his trust until he offers to let her ride on his back.

Rhino: a grumpy and tenacious male Thunderclaw who is also rescued from poachers. He was left behind by his migrating flock and needs to recover from a broken leg before he can catch up. Mick is the one who takes care of him whilst he’s recovering, and whilst Rhino takes a while to warm up to the teen, they bond eventually. Rhino then decides to stick around with Mick after that.

Maple: a mischievous and inquisitive female Changewing who turns up to explore the research facility. She sees Alexa sneaking out and follows the girl. At first Alexa is really nervous and keeps trying to shoo her away, but it’s no good. Eventually the staff catch Maple and plan to relocate her. Alexa, not wanting her new friend to be sent far away, lets her out of the cage instead.

Antagonists

The Bully: Lee ‘Buzzcut’ Burns

An old bully/ rival of Kory and Ian, he shows up in the area on holiday (supposedly) and discovers the gang are riding dragons.

He demands a dragon of his own in exchange for keeping the secret.

Lee secretly plans to use said dragon to make money.

The gang do their best to keep him from both getting a dragon to abuse and from revealing their secret club to the adults at DRACO.

The Smuggler: Damien Evans

The leader of a smuggling/poaching ring that captures and sells wild dragons to various, often illegal, zoos and menageries.

He is an enemy of the flight club members by extension of being in conflict with DRACO. However, since they’re teens he doesn’t take them seriously.

Their first encounter with him is when they rescue a baby Featherhide that he’s smuggled from Brazil, even though it’s too cold in Canada for her.

Damien is greedy and arrogant. He thinks his connections will be enough to keep him from going to prison. Kory and the others become determined to prove him wrong and put him behind bars for good.

The Bounty Hunter: Jacque ‘The Ripper’ Kennedy

He claims dragons are dangerous beasts that must be culled for the good of society and the ‘ecosystem’, despite not really caring about nature.

This is really just a thinly veiled justification for his desire to kill dragons for glory and prove how tough he is.

Jacque is convinced he is descended from the Normans, who in turn are descended from Vikings, and sees himself as ‘continuing their legacy’.

The fact that it was Vikings who fought against dragon hunters isn’t something he wants to acknowledge. He doesn’t see the original Berkians as ‘real Vikings’. His idea of ‘real Vikings’ are white supremacists.

[godlyhermitcrab]

Not to be cynical, but...

Having just graduated a couple of months ago, life kinda sucks right now. I can’t get a job, employers are still rejecting me, and I still have family members asking me if I have a job yet. Whenever they ask they just come off as so ignorant, “Oh computer science, there’s a lot money in that” they say as if they know what it’s like being asked to have 2+ years in experience in something I just graduated from. But they don’t know any better so I just smile and nod as if it’s nothing.

I think my ideal life is just one where it’s me and my dog, in an apartment, where nobody worries about me, and I can just do what I like. It just bothers me to have to be hounded by everyone over what my life is like, what I should be doing, everybody around me trying to fix my problems. Sometimes I just wish I could take everything at my own pace, but unfortunately, life doesn’t move like that...

Every time my stepdad comes home from work, I have to get the “So what’d you do today?” in a passive aggressive tone, because I don’t usually do much. I usually have to come up with something, because if I say “Not much” then I’ll get the “Well you should...”, “I want you to...”, “Have you tried...?”. I know they’re just trying to help, which is why I don’t say anything, it’s something better kept to myself, anyways. 

I don’t even consider much of what I do very significant. I could have worked all day, and I would still say “Not much”, but that’s not enough. He needs details, I swear it’s like he needs a detailed report of everything I did at every hour of the day.

This is compounded with me slowly realizing that I don’t really much motivation to anything. Before, school was my motivation. I programmed and coded because I knew that would get me closer to graduation. Now, though, I realize that I don’t feel like coding or programming, even just for fun. School was one of the few things that kept me going.

At the very least I know I like learning. I believe that if money were no object, I would just go to school forever, getting a new degree every time. But it’s not like there’s really a way to get paid for that (At least not that I know of). So for now that is sort of a dead end.

The worst part is the laziness. Like I seriously lack a motivation to do much of anything. There’s a lot of things I could do to improve my life, but I never feel like doing any of them. Why? Why can’t I just strive to be a better person? Instead I lay down or sit inert, doing the same things over and over again, ditching responsibilities all the way. I could work out, I could try to learn a new programming language, I could wake up earlier in the mornings, but instead I stay up late with video games again. Why?

I think I would do more coding stuff, like I would love to work on personal projects or something, but I can never bring myself to do it unless it is completely original and has never been done before, which is a dumb notion to start with. I would love to program Terraria mods, which I have kinda worked on. The moment I get to sprite work though, i stop. Either that or I realize that the mod does nothing new, and if I did want to do something new, that would require real effort, so I stop.

Why do I find it so hard to do stuff for my own sake, happy as long as I did my best? Even in school I was happy with mediocre work, as long as I did my best, because the requirements and what made it a good assignment were clearer cut. If I’m left to judge even smallest amount of work I’ve done, I just hate it and give up on it.

It doesn’t matter how many strategies I read or advice I hear to help with things like that, I can never actually internalize that information and use it. Stuff like that is always easier said than done, and somehow I can never just output the effort to make that change happen. It really is very demoralizing.

I guess I’m done with this post now. This is definitely stuff I should be telling a therapist/counselor, but until I get that help, I’ve been needing to get these thoughts into the world for a very long time, so I might be posting stuff like this just to get it out there. Also, please try to avoid judgement on anything I said, I am just a stranger on the internet, after all. Thanks for reading, if you did. Hopefully I can look back on this one day and be happier about how much I’ve grown.

[the-firebird69]

These guys are not building to code in front of everyone on Earth and it is disgusting the remarks and what they say is their scofflaws about everything in a sense is you don't have to do anything correctly it just won't work and I've got alternatives now they're using you for anything and you don't have to worry about being used or alive or anything and it's true too they're in this movie with Michael Myers and he's going to come up and murder them all and then we did along with Dave the idiot. It does not look like he remembers how to do it either and he was a fair Carpenter even compared to Ronald who is very good at it he's holding the tape and stuff it's terrible. It's Halloween part 2 and I think it's over and it's not going to be

Thor Freya

I saw a gleam in their eye when he gave them some money and I say this you're stupid and they're going to go nuts with it they said and they're getting on it now and they're going to take tons of ships from these idiots and they don't want their boss making them poor there's a fight going on about it and bja is thinking about paying and he gets it too you have the idea and he said it worked the first time so he says they're looking at it now

Hera

We are looking at now have a nice have you a Comic-Con these people suck and they just want to sit here and deteriorate everybody it started with covid-19 and won't stop you said to her you're looking at her it doesn't look like Gaga I couldn't tell what it was we know what it was it looks like Terry cheesman getting beat up by the other the other guy so a whole bunch of them said that then you said it and he went had a bird he also playing the auntie with Mac and Max stuffed him here cuz they're a bunch of assholes about it not Francis and he was the pope and get kicked out and it's going on like that and it's our stuff it's our way and our idea and this guy's a loser is not listening to point though it's terrible you know you're just not strong enough to stop the clones and there's one thing you have to do and it's not happening these guys finally do it and then I guess I stuff everybody in the museum but that's Tommy F his plan I swear to get it one by one who wants to find the computers and you took his hardware what's going on now and I'm trying to figure out what to do we have to do something different

Bja

And on to the movie

Thor Freya

Olympus he's got to eat but he's going to do the movie and just put it out there himself

[lymains]

Change menu colors in photo mechanic

#Change menu colors in photo mechanic code#

#Change menu colors in photo mechanic code#

I know I could rename with the job and a camera-specific code but I take the easy route 😉 – I don’t rename the files because my two cameras name their files so I can tell which camera shot them, and I want to preserve that info for now. I manually backup the drive once they’re all ingested. – I import to the All Raws folder in the appropriately named job folder. You can set a whole bunch of options such as importing to a dated folder, or to two folders at once, and renaming the files, and applying pre-saved metadata, but I keep it simple: In Photo Mechanic I go to File -> Ingest (or Command-G), then select the source, usually the memory card in a card reader. The template folder I duplicate and rename before importing To make life easy I keep a template folder in my Jobs folder currently called ’17-xxxx Template’ that contains these three sub-folders and before importing each job I duplicate that template folder and rename it appropriately. Inside each job-name folder I have three more folders: All Raws, Working Raws, and Client JPGs. I always import my photos to my hard drive in a folder structure that looks like this: User -> Pictures -> YYYY (e.g. While we were talking I realised it’s much easier to describe in writing and with pictures, so I figured I’d share on the blog. Photo Mechanic is made especially for ingesting, rating, adding metadata and all that stuff and saves so much time! Photojournalists and sports photographers swear by it, especially for the speed and the metadata aspect, but for simply ingesting and culling it’ll still change your life if you’ve been doing it all in Lightroom so far. So I told him about how I use Photo Mechanic to ingest and cull a shoot, and only then do I move the keepers to Lightroom for the next stage of the edit. Which it is! Lightroom is fine for importing a few photos but if you’ve got thousands of images from a wedding to download, doing the import and the first edit on Lightroom can take aaaages, even on a fast computer. He’d been using Lightroom for the whole shebang and was finding it very slow going. Today I had a call from William, a fellow London wedding photographer, asking for a bit of advice on his importing workflow.

[tenelkadjowrites]

The Best Friends Code Part One - Hongjoong x Reader (NSFW)

This is an Ateez fic.

PART TWO HERE.

Summary: Hongjoong swears up and down that if you don’t touch each other, it won’t ruin the friendship...and what is the harm in blowing off some steam?

Genres and warnings: smut. porn without any real plot. best friends to lovers. dirty talk. use of sex toys. cum eating. 

Word count: 3,383.

This fic is not meant to represent Hongjoong in any way, shape or form.

               “This is boring. You know this is boring, right?”

               You look up from your laptop to where Hongjoong is sprawled out across the chair in your bedroom. His own laptop balances precariously on his knee, his phone clutched in one hand. He is looking at you through thin gold framed glasses, wearing an oversized white sweater and sweatpants. A bored expression has settled across his features and with his free hand, he runs his fingers through his blonde hair.

               “Yes, Hongjoong,” You reply in a firm tone, “I know it is boring. But I told you right off the bat when you wanted to hang out today that I had a big work project to finish.”

               He exhales, rolling his head back while groaning in an over-the-top way that he loves to do. Everything with Hongjoong is either the end of the world or the best thing in the universe and he reacts accordingly. You are sitting cross legged on your bed, typing away at your laptop, trying to ignore how bored he is. You can’t bring yourself to order him home either because you enjoy his company, even if he is acting like a kid.

               “I didn’t think you were going to be so…you know…dedicated.”

               “What, did you think I was going to blow off the project and we would go out somewhere?” You ask.

               “Uh, yes.” Hongjoong closes his laptop, putting it down on the floor next to the chair and stretching. His sweater rides up, revealing a hint of toned stomach that takes you by surprise, forcing you to look down at the laptop. “Unsure how a work project is more exciting than me.”

               “It isn’t more exciting than you. But I have to get it done.”

               He stands up, stifling a yawn. “We haven’t done anything fun in ages. Next weekend, we are going to do something fun.”

               Hongjoong wasn’t wrong. You had been working a lot. Between the long hours and the work projects at home, it was starting to feel as if your entire life was about your job. You had a hard time remembering the last time you blew off steam.

               “Like what?” You ask as Hongjoong paces your room.

               “Anything other than me sitting here watching you do stuff on your computer.” He is poking around your bookshelf now, pulling out a tacky romance book and gives you a look. “Please tell me you don’t read this.” His nails are painted black, almost matching the cover which is a dark red.

               “I don’t but even if I did, what is the problem?”

               “Means you really need to get laid.” He retorts, putting the book back on the shelf. “When did you last get laid, anyway?”

               “Hongjoong,” You say with a sigh – it wasn’t that you two didn’t discuss this stuff but you just weren’t in the mood, “Must you?”

               He clicks his tongue against the roof of his mouth before shrugging, “Fine, fine.” He holds his hands up innocently.

               You turn your attention back to your work. Hongjoong falls silent and you are so engrossed in your work that you eventually forget he is roaming your room bored. You aren’t sure how much time passes but you are feeling pleased with your progress when you hear your night table drawer open.

               Alarm bells go off and you whip your head to the side to stop Hongjoong, who is flicking through your things.

               “Hey! Why are you going through my stuff?” You snap, closing your laptop shut and reaching out to stop him.

               Hoongjong makes a face, “Oh, touchy. You never cared about what I was going through before but this drawer gets a strong reaction.” He doesn’t stop digging.

               You grab his wrist, yanking his hand out of the drawer. His other hand dips inside, grabs something as you tug him away from it. “Jesus, Hongjoong, I know you’re bored but that doesn’t make my room a free for all.”

               He brings up his free hand and waves something in your face. “Is this what had you so embarrassed?”

               You blush instantly. Hongjoong is holding your vibrator up, dangling it between two fingers. You reach for it and he raises it up higher out of your reach.

               “You’re acting like a child.” You protest.

               A slow smirk breaks out across his face. You know that look. He always has it when he wants to do something stupid like the time in college he got drunk and challenged someone to climb the side of one of the lecture halls. The two of you have been friends for a long time and that look never means anything good.

               Hongjoong starts crawling on the bed towards you, still holding the vibrator. Taken aback, you scuttle away until you are crushing your pillows against the headboard. He is grinning wickedly, very close to you now.

               “Come on, I’m bored.” He drawls.

               “What the hell are you talking about?” You say, the tension rising in your chest. You can smell Hongjoong’s cologne mingled with the scent of clean laundry.

               “Lemme use it on you.” He says, his devious look growing.

               You are shocked, gawking at him. “W-what? The v-vibrator?” You squeak out.

               “You can take a break for that, surely.” He says as if that’s the problem here.

               “Hongjoong, are you insane?” You sputter, “We can’t – we can’t do that. We’re like, best friends. Once you throw sex in the mix…”

               He scoffs. “We aren’t fucking. That would be against the best friendbs code.”

               “The best friends code?” You stare at him incredulously. “What the hell are you talking about?”

               “You know, as long as we don’t physically do anything together, it won’t impact the friendship. I’m not fucking you,” He explains this very slowly as if you’re the issue here, “I’m just gonna use the vibrator on you.”

               “You’re insane,” You hesitate before resuming, “Besides, once you get turned on, your stupid best friends code is going to go out the window.”

               There is a glint in Hongjoong’s eye that passes in a second, as if he knows he has you. He bites his bottom lip for a moment. The motion is small yet something about it sets your nerves alight.

               His voice is low when he replies, “Don’t worry. I’m very disciplined.” He smiles widely then, all perfect teeth and innocence. But you know better. “You’ve been working so much. Think of this as just a quick detour. And making this boring afternoon worth my while.”

               “You’re incorrigible.”

               Hongjoong laughs at that, “What are you, some 18th century romance heroine? Reading way too many of those cheesy books.”

               You are flustered, brain sluggish to retort. Having Hongjoong this close to you, making you such an offer with stupid logic about a best friends code…is he wrong? You have been working hard, that dangerous little voice in the back of your head chimes up, what’s wrong with blowing off some steam? Hongjoong is a smooth talker; you have seen him many times get his way just by the charming and convincing way he speaks. You know better, and you know him. Even so…

               Hongjoong turns the vibrator on and makes a mock face of surprise. “Wow, so powerful.”

               “You’re ridiculous.” Your cheeks are red and you feel embarrassed at how much you want to say yes.

               He switches the vibrator off, “I won’t touch you,” He says seriously, “It’ll feel good too.” He winks.

               I cannot believe I am agreeing to this and his stupid best friends code, but his logic is hitting the spot of your brain that would bend and contort itself to justify anything. You aren’t blind. Hongjoong is incredibly good looking, confident to the point of cockiness, funny and charming. You know his made up code and his pretty speech about blowing off steam is bullshit but you want to be convinced by it.

               “Fine,” You concede, “But I don’t want to be the only one…you know…naked. It’ll feel weird.”

               “This sweater is too warm anyway,” He says, straightening out and pulling the sweater off swiftly, throwing it to the floor. He removes his glasses too, placing them on the night table. They aren’t even for his vision; he just thinks they make him look cool – another typical Hongjoong thing.

               Even so, you weren’t expecting Hongjoong to just remove his sweater without a second thought. Shirtless, you hadn’t realized just how in shape he is. He is well toned, incredibly fit and all you can do is stare him, feeling pressure down below.

               “You can’t touch,” He flattens his own hands against his stomach, “As much as you want to. Against the code.”

               “I don’t want to.” You lie, unable to meet his gaze.

               He smirks and then motions for you to remove your own sweatpants. Wiggling out of them, he sighs and motions again impatiently for you to remove your underwear. You tug your underwear down, Hongjoong tosses it off the bed and turns on the vibrator. Both of you are half dressed now.

               “Hongjoong,” You say, hesitating, your nerves getting the best of you.

               “Don’t worry. When we’re done, you can go back to work.” He teases.

               You decide to lay down flat against the bed, mostly because you are too embarrassed to look directly at Hongjoong. Sliding down, you take a deep breath and spread your legs apart. You hear the vibrator turn on at the lowest setting. What the hell am I doing? You think one second and then the next second, as Hongjoong gently presses the vibrator against your clit, all of that washes away.

               The pleasure is instantaneous. You gasp a little, raising your hips slightly. Somehow, even though it doesn’t make sense, it feels even better knowing it is Hongjoong holding it against your clit.

               “Hey, don’t cum already,” He protests in a voice slightly different from his usual cocky tone, “Otherwise, I’m gonna be bored again.”

               You exhale, hips back against the bed, avoiding looking downward at him. You don’t want to cum either, mostly because a strong intense urge to see how Hongjoong is going to play this out has overtaken you. Even so, the vibrator against your clit is amazing and your eyes close.

               Hongjoong alternates between pressing it harder against your clit and then barely having it touch at all. You bite your bottom lip to keep from moaning, embarrassed, still not fully over what you are doing with your best friend.

               “You have a pretty little pussy,” He says suddenly.

               You know you are blushing hard as you stammer out, “H-hey. Are you supposed to do dirty talk?”

               “It isn’t dirty talk. I was just stating a fact. It isn’t against the code.” Hongjoong counters.

               You want to reply, but as if sensing one, he presses the vibrator against your clit harder and your words are swallowed up. He flicks the vibrator up a setting and all protests die in your head. A whimper escapes your mouth and your hands curl around the blanket, bunching them up in between your fingers.

               “This is only setting two?” He asks, “I’m afraid when I put it to max you’re going to cum immediately. I guess I’ll wait for that one.” Even though he is trying to sound breezy, his voice is taunt and you realize he is turned on.

               I should not be doing this right now with him, your mind feebly thinks. But you tilt your head downward to finally look at him.

               There is a slight flush of color to Hongjoong’s cheeks and a very obvious tent in his sweatpants. His eyes flick up to you, sensing your gaze and he shakes his head slightly to get the hair out of his eyes. Then he winks at you, the tip of his tongue poking out of his mouth slightly and for some reason it turns you on so much that your chest tightens.

               “Hold this for a sec.” He says as he lets go of the vibrator.

               Shyly, you do, although Hongjoong is careful not to let your fingers touch. He is sticking to his code even though you are starting to think that if he made a move to fuck you, you would let him.

               He slides up to his knees, his thumbs hook the waistband of his pants and he tugs them down. His boxers come down as well, his cock springing out, rock hard. He has that wicked grin on his face again, stroking himself a little, looking at you.

               “Don’t worry. I’m still not gonna touch you.” He says, as if that would be a bad thing at this point.

               You can’t even bring yourself to reply. The sight of Hongjoong stroking his hard cock, completely naked at this point, with that lean, well-toned body of his is better than any porn you ever watched or person you ever physically slept with.

               “Alright, give me that. You can still stare at me though.” He says, taking the vibrator back, pressing it hard against your clit.

               “J-jesus.” You groan at the sudden pressure, hips arching slightly, unable to even get embarrassed that he noticed you staring.

               Hongjoong is still stroking himself and you find yourself staring at his cock. Yeah, you would definitely crumble if he said he was going to fuck you. But he doesn’t, keeping the pressure of the vibrator there as he flicks it up to the next setting without warning.

               Your first moan happens then, impossible to hold back. Your head rolls back, eyes fluttering close as the pressure mounts. God, it feels so good – somehow way better than when you do it alone.

               “I don’t think I’m feeling so bored anymore,” Hongjoong quips although his voice is husky, his hand pumping his cock harder. “What about you?”

               “Shut up.” You mumble although you don’t mean it – you want him to keep talking.

               He pulls the vibrator away completely, making you whine in protest, opening your eyes to look at him. He is smirking, holding the vibrator just above your clit.

               “Hongjoong,” You say breathlessly.

               “You wanna cum, babe?” The use of babe is the first time he has ever called you something like that. Distantly, you wonder if that still fits the rules of the code, decide you don’t care and nod urgently.

               “I wanna cum too,” He says, brushing the vibrator against your clit briefly just to hear you whine again, “But I want to cum in your mouth.”

               “What?” You say, staring at him. “How is that not against the code?”

               “I won’t touch you,” He is jerking off harder now, you can see dots of precum at the tip, how swollen his balls are.

               “Okay but how the hell is that not against the code? I know we aren’t touching,” He puts the vibrator against your clit once more, distracting for a second but still you manage to finish your train of thought, “But I don’t think friends do that.”

               “Oh, but they do this?” He asks, pressing the vibrator hard against your clit.

               Your thighs shake, back arching as you groan, fingers gripping the blanket so hard that your knuckles turn white.

               “We aren’t touching,” Hongjoong says, his voice throaty, his hand pumping his cock harder, “It’s within the rules.”

               You don’t know why you’re even putting up a fight on this – you want him to finish in your mouth. You suppose it is because you know Hongjoong is talking his way around your head again and to apply pressure against his so-called logic is fun to see.

               “Fine,” You gasp out.

               Hongjoong gives you the vibrator, before adjusting so that he is jerking off over your face. “Don’t turn that up to the highest setting yet,” His voice sounds unlike how you’ve ever heard him before, “I’m gonna do that and watch you finish.”

               His hand works his cock, pumping hard and fast. You know he is close to finishing, amazed at how badly you want him to so that you can taste his load. His chest rises and falls rapidly, eyes shut tightly, mouth parted slightly, and he looks so sexy that you worry you might finish early.

               “Fuck,” He grunts, “O-open your mouth…” You obey, sticking out your tongue as Hongjoong brings the tip of his cock very close to your mouth, managing to not make any physical contact.

               His face screws up cutely, and with a ragged moan, he cums. The first spurt coats your tongue, hot to the touch, the second in your mouth. He milks his cock as he unloads in your mouth, filling it up with his warm load. You close your eyes, trying not to climax yourself as Hongjoong makes sure every drop of his cum is in your mouth.

               “Fuck,” He says again, sounding tired, “God, that looks good in your mouth.”

               For some reason, you want to make sure he knows how much you wanted that, so you close your mouth, swallowing the entire load before opening your eyes to look at him. He is staring at you as you open your mouth again to prove you swallowed it all, sticking your tongue out.

               “Did you like that?” He asks, and for the first time he sounds almost unsure.

               “Yes,” You say hoarsely, the need to cum becoming urgent, “I loved it.”

               Hongjoong looks relieved, taking the vibrator from you and positioning himself closer to your pussy. “Your turn.”

               With those simple words, he raises the vibrator to the max setting and presses it hard against your clit. Between doing this for a while now, the sight of Hongjoong jerking himself off and finishing in your mouth, your climax hits immediately.

               The moans that topple out of your mouth would embarrass you normally but you don’t care now. Your hips buck, head rolls back as you cum noisily.

               “Just like that, babe,” Hongjoong urges you on, “Ride it out. Ride it out for me.”

               And you do ride it out, his name toppling from your lips because you cannot help yourself. It is the most intense orgasm you’ve had…and he didn’t even touch you. Hongjoong removes the vibrator when your clit becomes too sensitive for it as you collapse back onto the bed. Panting, you look down at him. His tongue is dragging across the top of the vibrator to taste you. You don’t even bother to say anything, you know what he would say – we aren’t touching.

               “How do I taste?” You ask between ragged gasps.

               “Better than I even dreamed.” He quips.

               Reality is starting to crash in now. You wonder what the hell you are supposed to say now as Hongjoong slides off the bed, gathering up his clothes and slipping them back on. He hands you your sweatpants and underwear but your legs feel like jelly and you tug the blanket over you instead, just until you think you can properly stand up. How can you feel so fucked out when he didn’t even fuck you?

               “Hongjoong…what now?” You ask him carefully.

               The sweater rolls back across his stomach, unfortunately, you think as he puts his glasses back on. “I’m starving. You have anything to eat? Should we order pizza?”

               Hongjoong makes it to the doorway when you call out his name. He stops, looking over his shoulder at you. “What?” He asks innocently.

               “Are we…I mean…” You swallow, a thousand different questions rolling through your head – should we have done that? Are we still friends? But the question that pops out of your mouth instead is, “Are we going to do that again?”

               And Hongjoong grins like the devil himself just caught a virgin. He taps his painted fingernails against the doorway, “Of course. We’re best friends, aren’t we?”

               Relief and excitement blooms in your chest.

               “Pizza then?” He asks again. Clearly, Hongjoong has a one-track mind – fucking around and then food.

               “That sounds good.” You say, as if the two of you just hadn’t gotten each other off.

               He leaves your room to the kitchen to find the menu of the place you typically order from. As you stay in bed, waiting for your legs to not feel like jelly, you realize belatedly that you did not finish your work project.

               Maybe some things were more important, however…like blowing off steam with your best friend.

[strawberrymilkgeorge]

Part Nine. Minecraft Dating 101

warnings: swearing, mostly super freaking fluffy but some oopsies at the end (which is the barely-there angst that i mentioned before!!), pet names?? if that bothers you??? (like...... one or both of them might use baby.........) word count: 5.3k (not including pictures)

behind the screen (irl dream x f!reader) series masterlist ultimate masterlist

A/N: HEHEH SORRY ITS SO LONG SORRY hope you guys like it!!!! hope it lives up to your standards of minecraft dates lol also thank you guys all for all your suggestions!!! i loved all of them so much!!!! i would have added every idea except this was already 5k words so its much less “flirting” and more so “oh gosh im so nervous what am i supposed to do” from both of them so hehe i think thats more endearing anyway

**********

The familiar sound of a FaceTime call connecting rang in Y/n's ears and she held her phone up to her face. "Hi, Karl," she sighed.

"Y/N!!" he said with a cackle. "ARE YOU READY FOR YOUR DATE?!"

"Shut up, I'm doing this for you."

"I already gave you the tour though so really you could back out. You're choosing to stay." His voice was teasing and giddy. "Why's that, hmm?"

Heat rose instantly to Y/n's face. "Because I'm a woman of my word?"

"OkaAaAyy," he sang. "Or because you liiiiikeee himmm."

"Shhhut up, Karl. No, I don't."

"Suuuure."

"Is this why you called me?"

He giggled. "Yeah, but—"

Y/n disconnected the call and set her phone down with a small laugh and a shake of her head.

With her stream started and her chat greeted, the donation limit raised to $100 (both because she didn't want to be flooded with questions on the date and because she didn't want people to donate their hard-earned money), Y/n logged onto Dream's SMP and found the voice call Dream was in, George's name right under his.

After she clicked it to join, a small gasp emitted from her headphones before she heard Dream mutter something. "Get out, get out, leave."

George's voice was normal. "But I wanna—"

"GEORGE!" Dream yelled, making Y/n giggle.

"Fine!" George yelled back. "Have fun you two," he sang like Karl did before a sound from Discord told them that he left.

It was silent for a second before, "Hi."

"Hi." She giggled. "What was that about?"

"Oh, nothing, nothing. Just some last minute, uh, setting up."

She hummed, amused at the sound of his frantic voice.

"So, um... are you ready for our date?"

"I don't even know where you are. I'm still in my house."

"Knock, knock," he said with a laugh. Y/n turned to see green peeking through the cutouts on her oak door and she laughed.

She ran to the door and opened it for him, revealing Dream in a slightly altered version of his Minecraft skin. He looked the same, except the white blob appeared to be wearing a necktie of some sort. "You look ridiculous," she admitted with a smile. "Wait, is this a fancy date? Should I change my skin?"

"It's not fancy, I just wanted to look my best for the prettiest girl in the world."

"Ohmygosh," she muttered to herself, hoping that writing off his charming words and actions as annoying would make her face not heat up as much. So far, it hadn't worked. Two minutes in and she was already blushing like a schoolgirl whose crush asked her to play tag at recess. "So, I'm not underdressed?"

"No, you're always perfect."

She didn't comment, opting for an eye-roll instead. Truthfully, she wanted to flirt back with him, try to make his heart beat fast like hers already was, but she was worried her words wouldn't come off joking and that the true intention would be obvious, that he'd be able to breeze right past the jovial tone and hear the sincerity in her words. Wait, true intention? What was her true intention? Her true intention should obviously be to just joke around and have some fun, but deep down she knew the motivation for teasing him came from somewhere different, somewhere more meaningful.

She wanted to tease him because she wanted to be the one to make him blush, to make him trip over his words and not know what to do with his hands.

Why? Well, she was still figuring that out.

"If you're ready, follow me, ma'am."

"Where are you taking me?" she asked as she followed his character down prime path.

"Hmmm..." he mused. "A secret, obviously."

"Obviously," she scoffed. She noticed that he was several blocks ahead of her and she smiled to herself. "Hey, Dream?"

"Hm?" he asked, spinning to face her as he ran backward.

"I don't know how many dates you've been on, but usually people walk together. You know, gives them an excuse to maybe hold hands or at least enjoy each other's company?" She made sure her voice had just the right balance of teasing and seriousness, curious as to how he would respond.

"I, uh... oh."

"Unless you want me to just meet you there. I mean, you're practically running away from me."

"I'm just excited!" he excused, stopping briefly so she could catch up with him.

"But look at how many beautiful things there around us to look at while we get to where we're going!" she told him. "Well, maybe not that," she said with a laugh as she punched her fist towards Tommy's dirt house. "But other things."

Dream laughed and continued to walk next to her like she requested, pausing if he ever got too far ahead. "How can I look at all those when the most beautiful thing is walking right next to me?"

She's never rolled her eyes so hard in her life. "Shut up," she mumbled as she punched him.

"OW! BUG!"

"That was supposed to be a pat on the arm but Minecraft only has one level of hitting and it's a punch. Sorry."

Dream wheezed briefly before containing his laughter. "This way," he instructed, getting off the path and starting into the woods.

"Oh, really you're trying to kill me. That's why you didn't want me to wear anything nice. Didn't want me to ruin any of my fancy stuff."

"Foiled my plans," he joked lightly. "Okay but really, um, I was thinking—well, so you already have a house but I was thinking we could build one together. Or build something, I don't know. But you're really good at building and I know you really enjoy it so I thought maybe you could show—like, teach me and then later I'll teach you something and then we can have a little picnic dinner."

Y/n smiled at her nervousness. "Hey, that actually sounds really fun!"

"What? What do you mean actually?" He laughed. "What, did you expect me to plan something boring?"

She laughed over his dramatic pouting. "No, but I mean, I didn't know what to expect," she said shyly. "I do have to say, though, I'm not sure what you plan on teaching me. I'm pretty much a master at all possible Minecraft skills, so..."

"Oh, really?" he taunted. "Everything?"

"Mhm," she hummed, her confidence wavering at his smooth voice.

"We'll see about that..."

"Unless you mean you're gonna teach me how to code Minecraft. That's a Minecraft skill I will admit I know nothing about."

"No, no, nothing like that," he said with a laugh.

"Good, save the programming talk for later."

"For laaater, hmmm?" he sang flirtatiously.

"Oh my gosh," she said through a laugh. "You would think that's what I meant."

"Hey, you're the one that said you think it's cute when I talk about coding. Maybe you're into that."

"I was saying it's sweet hearing you talk about stuff you like, you nerd. Why did you immediately think—what, is your idea of dirty talk talking about... like... computer viruses?"

"WhAT?"

"Hey girl, lemme clean out your motherboard," she mocked in a deep voice. "You overclock my processor. Lemme program your, uh—uh...hAHA, nevermind, ew, no."

"BUG?! WHAAAT? What is wrong with you?" His gasps for breath between wheezes made her laugh with him. "Don't ever talk like that again, pleASE."

"I won't, I won't, I'm sorry. Oh my gosh."

"Is that your idea of flirting? You are bad!"

"No, no, no!" She laughed. "I was making fun of you. No, I'm actually really good."

She couldn't stop giggling to herself for a few minutes, embarrassed but also proud of the reaction she got from Dream. She loved hearing him laugh as if he would never stop, it made her heart so happy to hear, especially when she was the one who caused it.

Though she feared her horrible pickup lines, if you could even call them that, were already clipped, ready to be used against her for the rest of her life. Worth it. Probably.

They approached a cleared-out area in the woods and Dream stopped and turned to Y/n. "So, we're here. What should we build?"

"Oh, so now I have to plan? Wow, you are so underprepared," she joked.

"What, no! I originally... I wanted to build a, like, a house together because I didn't— I forgot you made your—your house already and—but since you already have one—"

"We can still build a house," she interrupted with a soft voice. Him fumbling over his words was very endearing but also very confusing. How serious was he taking this bit? Or was he... actually nervous? She was actually nervous but she had reasons to be: a huge live audience to entertain and not ignore, and the weird staticky, itchy feeling in her tummy every time Dream spoke to her. Both valid reasons to be nervous. What was his excuse?

"Really? You wanna build a home together?"

Heat rose to her cheeks at his wording and she hummed. "Mhm. You can be my secret lover I hide in my vacation home. Like a second life kinda deal."

He scoffed. "Oh, now I'm just your side piece, Bug?"

"Nah, you're my main bitch, baby. I just wanna hide you away to keep you for myself because I'm selfish."

There was silence on his end for a few moments, making Y/n's face practically catch fire as she thought about her words. Why did she say that?? How can he flirt all the time but as soon as she says something: dead silence.

"Well.... shhhhhit," he finally mumbled definitively.

"You wanted me to flirt with you, Dream. You literally asked me too!" She laughed, trying to cover up her embarrassment. It had been less than 20 minutes and she already made a fool of herself.

"I did, I did, I just—wow. Come on, that was... I didn't expect you to go from never flirting to calling me baby!"

"Too much?" she bit her lip as she waited for him to explain if it was a good or bad thing.

He paused again. "....no."

She laughed loudly, pulling her hoodie collar up to her face in an attempt to rid herself of the giddiness and heat on her face. Like anyone could see anyway.

"So, a house?"

"A house."

"What kind of house do you think we should build together, Dream?"

"Maybe...." he thought as he ran around the area. "Maybe, like, a log cabin? Since we're in a forest. It's fitting..."

"Very true, very true..." she thought. "I was thinking a castle was more suited for you, king, but a cabin works too."

"Bug!" he yelled, laughter bubbling up in his voice. "What is wrong with you?"

"What?" she said defensively, giggling.

"You're a handful today," he groaned under his breath and she smiled. Though his words said one thing, Y/n could tell he was enjoying her energy.

"So, a dinky, old cabin, or what?"

"Whatever you want to build," he sighed.

"You always this agreeable?"

"Only to you."

"Well, I honestly don't have much practice with building cabins and since I want to show off my skills, I mean, that's the whole point of this, right? For me to impress you with my skills?"

Dream laughed so she continued.

"I think we should build a treehouse."

"A treehouse?"

"Mhm. What do you think? I make a pretty bomb treehouse."

"That sounds awesome!" he agreed. "Oh, and it could go from, like, one tree to another and, like, connect with a bridge! Like, the living room on one and the bedroom on another."

"Yeah, exactly! Okay, it's settled."

"What do we need? What do you want me to do?"

"I'm thinking.... we use cobblestone?"

Dead silent. Literally no noise until a few moments later, ".......Bug. This might be a deal-breaker."

"I'm joooking! You think I'd build something out of cobblestone? Who am I, Tommy? No, what's your favorite wood?"

"Dark oak."

"GOOD. Me too. So.... we need dark oak. Or, wait! Okay, hear me out."

"I'm hearing..." Dream prompted as he pressed A and D on his keyboard back and forth, earning a giggle from Y/n. He character was bouncing left and right is excitement.

"Dark oak planks..." she started.

"Mhm."

"Stone bricks..."

"Go on."

"And green wool for accents."

"Well, now you're just pandering."

"No!" she laughed. "Not, like, lime wool. Green wool. It's close to you but not as... obnoxiously blinding."

"I trust your vision. I'll go get materials."

"Perfect, you're the best, Dweam."

"Yeah, yeah," he grumbled before laughing. "You pick out a tree you think would be best for the main part."

40 minutes later, they were nowhere near being done. Y/n had shown him how to make a good house layout after he placed the floor in the shape of a square. She had yelled at him for it first, of course. They also had the frame of the walls and one bridge but nothing on the other side of said bridge. Not wanting the stream to last six hours since this was only the first part of the date, Y/n made a suggestion.

"What if...."

"What if what?" Dream asked, pausing to look at her character, who had stopped fixing his mistakes. "Did I mess something up?"

"No, I was just thinking. What if we make this the whole house and do a little garden on the other side of the bridge? Or like a little cute thing."

"A little cute thing?" Dream laughed.

"You know, like a thing," she said, knowing she hadn't clarified anything. "I forgot this is only date one, you can't read my mind yet."

"Oh, so there are gonna be future dates? I thought this was just to pay off your debt?"

She paused, playing with her hoodie strings between her left hand. "Well, I guess we'll see."

Dream laughed. "So, what little cute thing did you want to make?"

"We could put a bench facing the sunset and have some potted flowers and hang lanterns and stuff."

"Oh, like a romantic spot?"

"I guess if you wanna think of it like that."

"Sounds cute," he said. "So, we have to change the layout in here then?"

"Nah, I mean, we can just not add a kitchen, we obviously don't need one anyway."

"True. Then all we need is to put our bed down, right?"

"Beds," Y/n corrected.

"Well, when they're together it looks like one big bed."

"Who said we're putting out beds together?"

"Buuuuggg..." he whined. "Come on... lemme put my bed next to yours."

She giggled again. What was with all the giggling, sheesh. "No. There's plenty of space, put it somewhere else." She placed her white bed down in the corner and went across the bridge to bring her idea to life, or, to Minecraft.

It only took about ten minutes and she finished when Dream spoke again. "I think I'm done."

"I am too! Let's take one final look around." She went back inside and immediately noticed his bed right next to hers. She stared at his character and he laughed.

"Whaaat?" he asked shyly and she just sighed, letting it happen. They took a look around and agreed that it was basically the best treehouse in the entire universe, both in Minecraft and real life.

"Bug, you're so good at building," Dream complimented as he ran around the house. "What's your favorite part?"

"Ummm...." She looked around before deciding on the bridge. "I like how you made the bridge. And I like the little touches you added to it. It's nice."

"Thanks! I think the 'little cute thing' you did is the best part."

"Shut up, I can't stand you," she scoffed. "But thanks."

"Hey, Bug?" Dream asked, leading her back into the house. He faced the two beds placed together and she prepared herself for the worst joke of all time. "Is this where all the programming talk happens?"

"I knew it! I knew you were gonna say that! Shut up!" She punched Dream as he laughed loudly and she couldn't stop smiling. "You're such a nerd. You're so annoying."

"OH! I have an idea, wait here."

***

It had been a solid eight and a half minutes of Y/n waiting for Dream and he showed no signs of returning. He was silent too, so she resorted to saying random things to get him to crack.

"When will my husband return from war?" she joked, her voice laced with sadness and longing.

There was a small suppressed laugh from his mic, but still no words.

"Sometimes I think I can still hear him laughing at me."

He must have gotten reeeaaalll close to his mic, because his next words, the first ones he had spoken in almost ten minutes, were whispered but she felt like he was in her ear. "I'll be home soon, baby."

Once again, she was so glad her chat couldn't see her because she literally shivered and her face was so warm she felt like she was glowing.

For the first time all stream, her eyes betrayed her and she looked at her chat as she pulled her hoodie collar up to her face.

user18: BUGSY BEIN REEEAL QUIET

user4: i think i just passed out

user11: wHAT ON EARTH DREAM ADKXKH

user7: BUGSY ON GOD BE REAL WITH US WTF IS GOING ON RN

user2: hey bestie i cant do this rn

user9: they can't talk to each other like that and say they're just friends pleASE

Also for the first time all stream, someone dared to donate at her limit (which, again, was ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS).

karakatara donated $100 I had to donate bc I just HAD to tell you how cute you and dream are! honestly my favorite couple ever and I was just wondering how long you've been dating??? love you and your videos!!!!!

It was $100. She had to answer it. Meaning, she had to use words after Dream said that like that and she wasn't sure that was physically possible right now.

"Aren't you going to answer?" Dream taunted.

"Wha—what, are you—you stream watching, you weirdo?" she forced out. "Why?"

"I wanted to read your chat, they're really funny."

"I haven't been reading it."

"What, why? They've been so funny this whole time."

"I've been too scared to."

"Too scared? Of what?"

Of the jokes that she wanted to be real? Of seeing something so cute only to break her heart when she remembers it's all a joke? Of seeing someone hate her for being so close to Dream? Many things.

"Of seeing something... that boosts your ego."

"What? Oh, come on. Hey, answer the dono. Someone gave you their hard earned money for that."

"Yeah, wait, chat, I had the limit that high so you DON'T donate! Why on earth would you—"

"You're avoiding the question."

"We aren't actually dating! Not actually a couple!" she said with a laugh, though something in her heart was very much against laughing at that fact. "Obviously not."

"Well, it's only the first date, so, we'll see I guess, but..."

"I cannot stand you. Thank you so much for the dono, though, Karakatara. You're insane for... yeah. Thank you so much." She turned her attention back to Dream. "Actually though are you ever coming back?"

"Yeah, what, I'm almost there. I see the you staring out the window. ."

When he got inside, he dropped a blue cornflower for Y/n and stepped back. "Okay, now, give that to me."

She followed, not understanding. "For you, Dream." She dropped the flower.

"Aw, Bug! That's so kind! Aw! Thank you! Here's a flower for you, too!" He dropped her a red poppy and then put two item frames on the wall above their beds. He put the blue cornflower above his bed and she followed by putting the red one above hers. "Now that's my favorite part of the house."

"You didn't want to use the real ones? What, did you lose my flower or something?"

"Hell no!" he defended loudly. "No, I just don't want someone to steal that one. It's in my enderchest for safe-keeping."

He said it so casually like it was no big deal, but her heart soared. She too had his flower in her enderchest.

"This," she said dramatically with a sigh, "is now a treehome."

***

"I already told you I'm the best PVP player out there."

"Bug, honey, I've seen you play Bedwars. You're trash."

"Hey!" Hehe, honey. Shut up brain.

"But that's okay! I'm here to teach you."

Y/n's character stood across a makeshift battlefield from Dream's, an axe in hand and armor that was definitely donated by DreamXD on her body. "This is kinda sexist of you. Assuming I know how to name a cute house but not fight."

"Oh no, that's not—crap. Bug, I'm only basing this off of your streams, which I watch all the time—"

Once again, he said something so casual and yet it still made her heart skip three beats and once again, she grabbed the collar of her hoodie and pulled it up to hide her face. This thing had to be stretched by now from how often it was yanked on in this stream alone.

"—and don't get me wrong, you're great! But you're also good at a lot of stuff and—"

"Dream!" she giggled out. "I'm teasing. I admit you're much better than me."

"I wouldn't say much better but... it's the only thing I could possibly teach you anything about because you're just so good at Minecraft." His tone was sarcastic at this point but she knew he was meaning what he said.

"Whatever. Come on, Dream, show me how it's done."

He actually had a lot of very useful tips that Y/n otherwise would have never thought about. I guess when you tryhard Minecraft, she thought, you learn a thing or two about pvp. It was a complete joke, but she still kept it to herself.

"I could basically beat anyone now," she said confidently.

"Yeah, basically. Except maybe Technoblade."

"Nah, even him."

"Let's see how good you really are. To the death."

"What?" She laughed. "You're gonna try to kill me on our date?"

"Yeah, scared?" Seconds later, a creeper exploded near Dream and he screeched, jumping back. Y/n lost it. She laughed loudly, clutching her stomach.

"Dr-Dream!" She laughed. "What the hell was that?"

"It scared me!" he argued. "Here, I'll protect you," he offered, running past her and killing a skeleton that was shooting towards her.

"I don't need protecting, especially from you! Besides, if you're trying to kill me, you'd let the mobs get me."

"No," he decided. "No one's allowed to kill my Bug."

She was literally going to explode. "Wh—"

"Only I get to."

"Dream!" she scoffed, running to kill the skeleton first. She succeeded and he pouted.

"Hey—I did more damage than you, you just had the final hit."

"Really? Cause to me it looks like I'm your knight in shining armor."

"Nuh-uh," he spat.

"Dream. F5 right now, you're covered in arrows."

There was a pause. "Oh whatever." He hit her once and that's all it took for them to start fighting, throwing jokes and taunts at each other the whole time, eventually resulting in a satisfying win for her.

Dream was slain by Bugsy

"WHAT?! HOW?"

<Tubbo> i thogt you were on a date <Ranboo> well definitley not anymore <Ranboo> is that canon <JackManifoldTV> WOMEN

"What was that about you being better than me?" Y/n teased.

"Oh, come ON! I still had damage from the skeleton, and besides, I taught you everything you know!"

"That just makes you a very good teacher, Dream," she said sincerely and he paused, probably expecting her to insult him instead of compliment him.

"Yeah, suck up now that you've murdered me."

***

They were finally at their final stop, three hours into the stream. Not too bad on time, though this was probably the longest Minecraft date in the history of Minecraft dates. Also the best, but maybe Y/n was biased.

There was a huge tree, obviously built instead of naturally generated, with lanterns hanging down and lighting areas of the dark world around them. Under that was a checkered pattern of carpet, a single chest in the center with a potted plant sitting next to it.

"The carpet is supposed to look like a, uh, what's it called... picnic blanket?" Dream explained as they approached the scene, clearly not happy with how it turned out. "It looks weird. Nothing compared to the treehouse you built."

"We built," she corrected. "And this looks awesome, Dream," Y/n complimented. "It's is also my favorite colors."

"Yeah, I had some help from Karl on that one."

She leaned back in her chair in real life and pressed her hands to her face. Oh, it was so unfair how cute he was when he was shy like this. She glanced at chat, which only made her face go from the temperature of molten lava to basically the sun. She was going to explode.

She hummed, a little giggle coming out as well. "That's cute."

She sat (crouched) on the picnic blanket (piece of carpet) while Dream put a disc in the jukebox off to the side.

"Is that a Tommy disc?" she giggled and Dream laughed.

"No, no, no, don't worry. There shouldn't be any continuations of wars interrupting our date."

"Shouldn't be," she emphasized, noticing someone approaching them from the distance.

Dream was about to speak when Quackity reached them and quickly joined the voice channel.

"Oh no," Dream sighed. "We've come so far."

"AYYEEE WHAT'S GOING ON, MAN?!" Quackity yelled in his Mexican Dream voice, his voice bubbling with laughter. "IS THIS A DATE OR SOMETHING, MAN?"

"Quackity, go AWAY!" Dream ordered, punching the character who had stripped to his underwear. "YOU'RE INDECENT! THERE IS A LADY HERE!"

Y/n laughed, enjoying the scene of fancy Dream hitting naked Quackity away from their picnic dinner.

"I'm your waiter, I'm your waiter!" Quackity said in his normal voice, still laughing. "DREAM! WILL YOU STO— QUIT HITTING ME!"

This had turned chaotic very quickly.

"We don't need a waiter," Dream informed him.

"Then I'm the singing gram you ordered." He started singing a song and Dream groaned. "HEY THERE DELILAH WHAT'S IT LIKE IN NEW YORK CITY—"

"No! You're being a clout chaser, go away!"

"I'm honestly impressed we made it this far without anyone coming into the voice channel," Y/n admitted.

"I paid them," Dream joked.

"You did not!" Karl's voice suddenly came through and Y/n laughed. "We were all just being polite and staying away but we're getting bored! We've been so patient!"

"Yeah, hurry up! We wanna play!!!" Sapnap whined. "Dream, it's not fair for you to steal Bugsy from us for so long."

"Oh my gosh!" she exclaimed with a laugh as Dream laughed along.

"Just ten minutes! Ten more minutes!" Dream bargained but none of them would have it. "Just so I can say goodbye!"

"No!" George insisted. "Right now!"

"Look, wait, wait, hold on—"

<Sapnap joined the game> <GeorgeNotFound joined the game> <KarlJacobs joined the game>

"—hold ON!" Dream begged, watching as the three boys ran and joined Quackity by the picnic blanket.

Y/n could not stop laughing at all the avatars around them. The date had been so peaceful and cute but all good things must come to a chaotic end.

"Wait, come on, Karl, Karl, Karl," Dream said quickly. "Come here. Bug, just a sec, please. Stay right there."

"Okay," she agreed, curious to see his plan.

Karl followed him and of course Sapnap couldn't help but also join them.

"Okay," Dream whispered loudly, clearly wanting everyone to hear his offer. He crouched and the other two copied. "Just give me ten minutes—"

"Ten?" Sapnap asked loudly.

"Shhh!!! Yes, ten minutes, to say goodbye and, you know, end the date."

There was a long, thick pause. "What exactly are your intentions with Bugsy Games," Karl asked seriously, matching Dream's whisper.

"Well, I wanna make sure she gets home safe, you know, so I'm gonna drop her off and, I don't know, see if maybe.... maybe she'll give me a hug?"

Karl and Sapnap both gasped dramatically and Y/n giggled, sparing a glance at her chat who were all freaking out.

"What the hell?" Quackity said while laughing. He and George were still standing near Y/n so they were just watching the goons with her.

"Bugsy is not that kind of girl!" Sapnap protested. "You think she's just gonna give you a hug?"

"Sapnap! Do you not know how to whisper???"

George let a loud laugh slip before slapping his hand over his mouth, which his mic picked up.

"Okay, Dream, wait, so you're gonna try to... hug her?" Karl clarified. "She won't even let me hug her. Good luck."

"Well, I'm not going to force her into anything but, I don't know, she said something about holding my hand earlier so I just thought maybe there's a possibility—"

"WHAT?" Karl yelled before going back to the whisper. "Okay, okay, don't panic, but that's huge. Dadnap, a word?"

He and Sapnap broke off from Dream and formed their own huddle, except their whispers were incoherent mumblings that weren't even English.

"Oh my gosh," Y/n groaned loudly, an unmistakable laugh behind her words.

"Okay," Sapnap said, rejoining Dream. "We'll give you five minutes but if you take any longer, we're barging in and killing you."

"Yes, sir!" Dream said. "Thank you, sirs."

"Mhm. Okay, break!"

They all uncrouched in sync before Dream ran back to Y/n.

"How did it go?" she asked as if she didn't hear the entire conversation.

"Bad news," he started. "Your dad's want you home."

"Shame, I was quite enjoying my time."

Dream slowly turned towards the boys as if to glare at them for ending the date before turning back to her. "Then, maybe, I don't know, we could do this again sometime?"

"I.... think I'd like that," she said slowly, trying to tease him.

He giggled and told her he was going to drop her off at her house, even though when the date was over, they were all probably gonna mess around together anyway so there was no point in them leaving the group. But it was the thought that counted.

He ended up taking her back to the treehouse, which warmed her heart. She also noticed when they faced each other at front of the door, she could see the four other boys watching them.

"Goodnight, my sweet Bug," he said poshly.

"Goodnight, Dream." He turned away but she stopped him. "Wait!" She moved to his side and made a loud, MUAH, sound before stepping back in front of him. "A kiss on the cheek," she clarified, not wanting him to think she gave him a real kiss.

"Cute," he said under his breath, almost like he didn't mean to say it out loud. "Night night." He turned away and ran down to the others, screaming the whole way. "GUYS, DID YOU SEE THAT? BUG GAVE ME A KISS ON THE CHEEK!! OMG DID YOU SEE, DID YOU SEE?"

Chat was gonna have a field day with that. Actually, with a lot of things that had happened. Oh, she could see the clips and edits now.... oh boy.

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[capt-spooki3]

Hey hi hello, how are you doing, i miss you and am .5 seconds away from spamming all your work with likes and reblogs 💕☺️

So I've been thinking (uh oh).... Being close with Tommy and tubbo and telling them ur terrified to meet techno cause mans is so scary to you, and they tell him you're scared cause they're little shits. A d cut to like a few days later where you have to talk to him for smthn and he's making fun of youand teasing you relentlessly cause he knows you were visibly nervous to meet him, but he's being really nice besides the teasing. Thoughts? Interpretations?

You don't even have to respond, just know that I love you and your stuff and hope you have the best day because you deserve nothing less◖⚆ᴥ⚆◗

( ˘ ³˘)♥

am i positive if you're asking me for a fic? No, not entirely.

Am i going to write you one anyway because you're so sweet? Yes absolutely and now presenting:

My Unexpected Tutor

Platonic college au!Technoblade and Y/n

(plus besties with the rest of the sbi ofc 😌)

(Hope this is okay, i just took my own interpretation of it and changed it just a little👌)

Warnings: cursing, teasing, nervousness(idk)

3.3k works

//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

With the final bell ringing and college classes ending for the day, you snatched up your bag and book you’ve read off and on that week before heading over to the courtyard that was near the on-campus dorms. Stopping by a vending machine first to grab a drink then seating yourself on a bench and getting comfortable while you wait for your company to arrive.

“Yeah! And that’s- HA! That’s when Wilbur just… oh!-” The nearing sound of Tommy’s voice cut off along with the softer laughing from Tubbo. You were very obviously engrossed in your book, but now you just feigned reading as you listen closely to the sound of slow footsteps nearing behind your bench. The two of them were horrible about being sneaky since you could easily hear hushed laughs as they desperately tried keeping each other quiet.

Right as you heard them stop moving, you couldn’t help but smile to yourself before turning around suddenly and lunging at them over the back of the bench with a half effort grab at Tommy’s extended hand, and yelling. Tommy screamed back, stumbling back a  few paces and Tubbo just stumbled before backing up to the bench and busted out laughing.

“Ey what the hell!” He scoffed despite not being able to hold back his growing smile, shoving his hands into his pockets. “I’ll remember that bitch, I’m gonna get you back.” he walked over to you and sat on the other side of the bench, giving you a hard glare when you laughed a little bit though it was mostly from Tubbo’s hysterical laughter. He took a deep breath and calmed himself so he could jump over the back of the bench and sit between you and Tommy.

The two boys were your underclassmen, being freshmen while you were a sophomore. The three of you met in your coding class. You were there mostly to get your English degree and major in said area, but you figured while you had the opportunity you would take classes on things you didn’t know much about. There, you met Wilbur, a senior and Tommy’s oldest brother, and he helped you quite a bit with understanding bits of coding that were a bit too confusing for you at first and were quickly becoming friends with him. That was until Tommy entered the picture. First, you just saw him as Wilbur’s chaotic younger brother who just happened to be in the coding class as well but after some insisting that you get to know him from Wilbur, you hung out one weekend in the library. One weekend turned to two then almost every weekend once he introduced you to Tubbo as well and you all had become a true trio.

You got to know Tommy’s family pretty well. His single father, Phil, who was just like a second parent to you now, and Wilbur who acted just like the older brother you never had. You knew them well despite having known them all for less than a year. The only hang-up is when it came to Tommy’s other brother. You knew he had an actual name, but only knew him by his nickname since that’s what everyone referred to him by. That would be Technoblade. The two of you had a couple of literature classes together and the fact that he was only one grade above you, you’d figure that you could befriend him with ease. Now, it’s not like he was big and scary, he was more tall and lanky but he was smart and he had some vibe around him that just petrified you. You couldn’t ever build up the courage to be around him which made it quite an issue since you were best friends with his brother, though this wasn’t an issue you had ever brought up to any of them.

“So how did classes go for you guys today?” You asked as you pulled one of your legs up onto the bench and closed your book which you held close to your chest.

“Fucking shitty! I got a fuck ton of extra work, like I know it’s college and the weekend but let me live.”

“We got one essay to write, it’s two pages long.” Tubbo reiterated with a smile while Tommy grumbled and leaned his head back so he was looking up at the sky. “What about you Y/n?”

“It wasn’t bad, I don’t have any extra work other than a bit of coding to do. Oh speaking of, Tommy?” You reached your foot over and kicked his leg to get his attention, only continuing when he was looking at you. “Is Will gonna be free at all? ‘Cause I need some help with this stuff.”

Tommy perked up a bit, sitting up to get his phone out. “Oh you're right, I actually need help with it too.” He mumbled while texting and staring at the screen as he waited for a reply. “Uhh okay so he says… I’m visiting some friends so I won’t have time… blah blah uh but ask Techno, I heard he’s pretty good at coding. Nice! That’s perfect, you can just come over to my house and-”

“Ah, you know what- I actually think I’m okay.” You quickly interrupted him, pulling your laptop out of your bag to aimlessly scroll through the assignment you were given. “It can’t even be that hard I’m sure… I can figure it out.” You said with as much confidence as you could muster despite knowing full well you’ll be completely lost as soon as you try to start on the work.

“Come on, we both know that’s a lie, you're so shit at this stuff.” He said light-heartedly and watched you ‘work’. “Seriously, just come over. I’m sure Techno is good at this stuff, if anything we can pay him to do the work.”

“It’s fine- really. I think I’ll just wait for Monday, I can ask Wilbur for help then.” You closed your laptop, keeping your gaze on it for a moment before looking over at Tubbo and Tommy who were giving you both a puzzled look. “What?”

“You don’t…” Tubbo started to speak but Tommy pushed him back with an arm on the chest so he could lean over to look at you closer.

“You don’t have a crush on Techno, do you?” He said and squinted at them as if disgusted by the thought.

“What!? No!” You sat up taller and looked at him, baffled that he resorted to that.

“Well, then what the hell is the problem! Just come over and he can teach us!” 

“I just… he’s kinda…” You grew flustered and found a loss for good words as you realized you were going to admit this. “He’s scary.”

Tommy busted out laughing and wheezed hard, doubling over as he coughed and laughed some more, stumbling over words as he tried to talk but was laughing too hard. Even tubbo who was trying to hold back, joined Tommy which only made them bounce off each other in their hysterics.

“Wha- I’m serious! Do you two not think he’s intimidating!?” You looked at both of them desperately as you could feel the heat that had risen to your cheeks.

“He’s literally-” Tubbo’s laughter interrupted him. “He’s a nerd! How the hell is he scary?” He settled down a bit and nudged Tommy to get him to calm down too, luckily he got his fit of laughter out.

“Oh my god, no I’ve got to go home now.” He grabbed his backpack that had been discarded behind the bench and looked at you once more before laughing more. “Scared of Techno- oh my god. That's good, that’s a good one. Bye bitches!” He saluted both of you before running off.

“Tommy I swear to god if you tell anyone I will deck your shit!!” You stood up, holding your laptop in hand, to yell at him but just stood there defeated once he turned a corner around a building. Tubbo got up beside you, laughing as he put his hands in his hoodie pocket.

“I wish I could give him the benefit of the doubt… but he’s gonna tell Techno. And Wilbur. And Phil for sure.” 

“Yeah... I’m sure he will. I’m going to my dorm, I’ve got to call my mom.”

“Aww-” You put your hand over his mouth, but took it away as soon as he shut up so he wouldn’t lick your palm.

“Shut- I don’t wanna hear shit from you too. Anyway, get home soon and don’t get kidnapped.” You turned away to put your laptop and book into your backpack and zipped it up before pulling it over one shoulder. You looked back at Tubbo and put your fist up to him.

“I’ll kick them in the balls, don’t worry.” He laughed a little and bumped his fist to yours and walked backward a few paces, waving at you. “Tell your mom I said hi!”

You waved back at him and stood to wait and watch him walk off along the stone path until he was fully out of sight to make your way to your dorm, which was right in the courtyard area.

-

Monday came around and with the school day partially over, you made your way to your coding class. You of course didn't end up doing the assigned homework even though you gave it a good try and just decided to rely on Wilbur's help.

You walked into class and took in a deep breath, it was always cool and smelt of coffee since the teacher brewed a cup before your class every day. Making your way over to your usual computer you looked over to see Tommy sitting in your spot beside Wilbur and chatting to him. You guessed he heard you coming or saw Wilbur look your way because he looked back and grinned wide which never meant good.

"Ey look at who it is! Wonderful seeing you again, how was your weekend?"

"Fine." You said, looking down at him and kicking his foot. "I don't like how you're acting, what the hell did you do?"

He just feigned innocence and looked offended that you could assume such a thing. "Me? Me!?" He leaned forward, hand gracefully on his chest. "I cannot believe you right now, I'm hurt Y/n! Truly hurt."

You scoffed with an eye roll and sat on the other side of Wilbur since the seat was free. As soon as you set your bag down and went to turn toward the two, Wilbur was already facing you and leaning on the desk area for the keyboard in a way that looked like he needed to say something in secret.

"You good?"

He just waved you down and you leaned forward to listen. "You're not… actually afraid of Technoblade are you?"

"Tommy you little shit!" You jumped up, nearly hitting Wilbur but he moved back in time. Tommy laughed and fled to the other side of the room where he normally sat so you just grumbled and took your seat.

"Well?"

"Is no one else? He's intimidating, I feel like he'd call me out on all my insecurities if I inconvenienced him. And THEN he would hold me at knifepoint till I left him alone."

Wilbur snorted and hung his head as he softly laughed, you reached over and hit his arm before leaning closer to whisper. “I’m serious Wilbur! He scares me!”

He looked back up at you with the most amused look. “Come on, you can’t be friends with this family without knowing techno. Honestly. Talk to him today. You two have the same literature class at the end of the day right?” He asked as he sat up and leaned back into his chair to turn his computer on and log into the coding website.

“I mean yeah but- what does that have to do with anything.” You asked, but Wilbur didn’t reply as he just stared at his screen so you leaned forward to get into his peripheral vision. “Will, what does that have to do with anything? I’m not talking to him, I hope you know that.”

-

You were wrong. Nearing the end of your literature class, you sat there listening to the teacher while completely lost on the assignment. Usually, it wouldn’t be too much of an issue because you would just give it the best attempt you could and see where you messed up at the end to better understand the work. It wasn’t the best tactic but you liked it better than having to ask for help. But now, this was a big and grade-determining assignment, not one you could afford to flunk.

The class was given five minutes to start on or look over the work at the end of the class. You leaned back in your chair, staring at your paper at a loss, and listened to the sound of people moving around the class near you. You didn’t try to look up since you assumed it was friends going to sit together and gossip. That was until you noticed someone took the seat beside you and shuffled a bit closer. Pulling the paper away from your face to look, you froze instantly upon locking eyes with Technoblade who was smiling lightly. You had never seen him this close, the most notable thing was his dyed light pink hair that had grown out brown roots and you could even see in his smile how his top and bottom canine teeth were a bit longer than normal and looked like he had small fangs and tusks.

He pushed his glasses up before crossing his arms and leaning forward on his desk. “Hey so I know you’re terrified of me, but it looks like you’re having a bit of an issue.” You opened your mouth to speak but were just met with a loss for words and just averted your eyes, continually glancing back at him for a moment as you were unsure what to do. He snorted lightly, bringing his hand up to stifle his laugh, and cleared his throat. “Yeah sorry for bein’ so big and scary but I can help ya. Come one, show me what you are confused with Y/n.”

“You- you know my name?” You looked right at him finally to which he raised an eyebrow at you quizzically.

“Well yeah. Did you really expect me not to? You’re besties with both of my brothers and my dad loves having you over. I was just waiting for you to say hi to me.” He leaned back, fidgeting with a ring with his hands. “Didn’t think you’d actually be scared of me, thank Tommy for snitching. He talked about it all weekend.”

You groaned, leaning forward to run your hands over your face and sigh, swearing that you’d smack him once school was out.

“Oh shi-” You looked at Techno and he was checking the time on his phone. “Hey, class is about to end. You’re not gonna be busy are you?”

“Uh… not, no I’m not.”

“Great.” He got up, moving the desk back to its original place and trotting over to grab his bag, and looking back to you. “Get your stuff and meet me at the south entrance, we can work on it back at my house.” And without giving you a chance to try to object, he called to the teacher saying that he was going to leave a minute early to get his stuff together since he rented a locker a bit away from the classroom and the teacher waved him off.

Reluctantly, you went back to your dorm which was close to where you had class. You dropped off unneeded books and grabbed a granola bar from a box you kept in your room then headed toward the entrance Techno told you to meet him at. And of course, walking up the sidewalk to the doors you saw him there sitting on a bench with his bag beside him. He saw you and jumped up, waving you over to him as he started walking immediately. While you were still behind him, you sent a picture to Tommy, Tubbo, and Wilbur of him walking in front of you and adding the caption ‘i did it :P’. 

The two of you chatted while you walked through the neighborhood and despite light teasing on how scary he was, he was easy to talk to and you had a lot in common with him. It was a shame you hadn’t taken the initiative to talk to him before. In no time, you were walking through the door after him into the familiar home where Phil greeted you with a surprised but happy look and offered snacks which Techno graciously took before heading to his room.

To your surprise, Technoblade is the best tutor you have ever had. He is attentive and incredibly patient when trying to figure out where you are having struggles and he’s smart. Like he knows every single bit of what is supposed to be brand new information from the class. Not even two hours into him helping you, you understood the assignment completely and you both spent the next three hours sitting on his bed and working together. You joked with him and he held the same energy while keeping the focus on working and even swapped laptops with him to check it over for each other.

You broke your gaze from the endless lines of text on your laptop screen to look at the window and seeing the orange sky around trees and over top of houses that indicated the setting sun. “Oh my gosh!” You scrambled off the bed, carefully stuffing papers back into your bag. “I didn’t even realize what time it was- Technoblade thank you a million for helping me. I appreciate it so much, but I need to get back to my dorm! I promised my roommate I’d help her cook dinner tonight.” You grabbed your laptop off of the bed and put it into your bag, closing it all up quickly.

Slinging it over your shoulder and adjusting it, you turned to make your way out of the room but you were stopped by a tug and looked back to see Techno holding onto your bag and looking displeased. “Not yet.”

“Wha- I need to go though-”

“It’s a tradition in this house to hug anyone before they leave, you should know that from my dad.” He let go and opened his arms up to you.

You turned to him and tilted your head a little. “You’re joking…”

He just smiled smugly and waited. You glanced at the doorway but gave in and closed the bit of distance, hugging him to which he returned snugly and spoke softly to you. “You’re a good person. I’m glad to have gotten to know you and I hope you’ll come back. I promise I’m not all that bad.” With that, he slowly let go and patted your arm before gently shoving you toward the doorway and plopping down on his bed. “Have a good night!”

“Uh.. yeah, you too!” You said back, still surprised by the exchange. His words swam through your mind as you went to leave the house, hugging Phil on your way out and wishing him a good night as well. Finally checking your phone on the walk home, you found a supportive and proud text from Wilbur, a dirty joke from Tommy, and something in between from Tubbo.

You laughed to yourself, amused by the differences in the messages. It was times like these that you most found appreciation for the three. Mentally you had to correct yourself though. The whole family was good. This you can say for sure now.

[young-dumb-and-vaccinated]

With Sweet Understanding (Handsome Jack x Female!Reader) pt. 11

Reader reader/you tore your dress/reader reader/your life is a mess

Reader and Jack plot their boss’s demise and it accidentally turns romantic oops. 

Trigger warnings: brief mention of SA

You stabbed your fork into a pot sticker and shoved it into your cheek. Jack's shirt smelled like cigarette smoke, but it was more comfortable than your robe and you frankly couldn't be bothered to get dressed again. 

"We have a whole-ass voice modulator and you still want to hack into his email?" Jack asked, taking a drag from a newly lit cigarette.

"I can't just approach him with a bluff." You shook your head. "We need to make him think I actually uncovered some incriminating phone record. And that takes details. Luckily, the dude's sketchier than an art student's homework, so finding them should take about ten minutes, tops."

"Damn, remind me not to get on your bad side." Jack muttered, watching you boot up whatever ancient email program Tassiter still used. "How do you know all this?" 

"Tassiter is a fucking idiot." You said, pushing your hair out of your eyes. "Keeps forgetting his passwords so he has me keep track of them."

Jack's face lit up. "So you've been sitting on a wealth of potential blackmail this whole time?" 

“Oh trust me, I’ve seen some of his shit. Sometimes I go into his personal stuff just to see what he’s up to. Y’know he ordered a hooker from Pandora?”

"Everything is legal on Pandora." He groaned. "Scandalous, but hardly blackmail material."

"She refunded him." You bit back a snort. "I don't know if it was his incessant complaining or his ugly face, but you have to be a special type of repugnant to get turned down by a Pandora hooker." 

He nearly choked on his breath, looking up at you in disbelief. “She refunded one of the richest and most powerful people in the goddamn galaxy—?!”

"Rich, powerful and fucking insufferable." You corrected, aggressively typing the password into the input box. When it turned red, you furrowed your brow in confusion. Frowning, you retyped the password, only to be met with the same response. 

"I swear to shit I put it in right." You mumbled under your breath. Panic shot through you, and you pulled up another website to try a new password in. 

"Having trouble?" He asked, peering over your shoulder just in time to see the new website reject your attempt. 

"Son of a bitch." You sighed in defeat. "He must have changed his password recently."

"Oh, that's no problem at all, sweet-cheeks." He sat cross-legged on the bed and snatched the computer from your lap. "Looks like it's time for a Jack hack attack!"

You rolled your eyes, but couldn't not notice how he lit up at the notion of getting to hack something. It was probably the happiest you'd seen him-- well, truthfully, it was probably the second happiest you’d seen him in the last hour or so. 

"I wouldn't get too excited." You clutched your forearms and crossed your legs, watching him poke around on your computer. "None of his passwords are ever words. They're just random strings of numbers and letters the computer spits out." 

A small smile tugged at the sides of his mouth. His eyes darted from side to side as he scrolled through the lines of code that made up the website. "Even better."

"Mind telling me what you're doing?" You crossed your arms, slightly annoyed that you were now the one looking over his shoulder. 

"I am looking for the program that generates alphanumeric default passwords." He answered, not taking his eyes off the screen. "Random number generators aren't truly random. They can only approximate randomness. Meaning there's a pattern to the numbers that are generated, even if it's imperceptible to the human interpreter." 

"Is that right?" You asked, hoping your confidence would convince him you understood a single word of that explanation. 

"Hell yeah it is." You saw the smile overtake his face. He briefly turned to you, just long enough to wink. "Computers don't lie, cupcake." 

"Anyway," He continued. "It's somewhere in the history of the program. His new password. Not knowing when he reset his password is, well, not ideal, but I could just write a quick little code to cycle through the history, then import that program-" 

He put your laptop to the side and opened his own. He began to punch out lines of code like his life depended on it. 

"Alright, entering a date range for the last, eh--" He mumbled to himself. "Let's say, twelve hours."

He clicked the enter key and ran the code. It spit out a handful of strings of random characters. He chuckled, clearly satisfied with himself. He entered the strings into the password text one by one until the fifth or sixth attempt proved successful. 

"I'm in." He said, pushing his glasses up his nose. "Heh, I've always wanted to say that." 

Your gaze switched between your lover's face and the newly unlocked email account on your computer. "That was the sexiest goddamn thing I've ever seen." 

He caught his lower lip between his teeth and looked down to hide his little smile. "Blackmail away, sweet-cheeks." 

You returned to your spot on the bed with your computer resting against your bare legs. You knew you didn't have much time before your boss got a security alert and booted you from the account, so you had to work fast. Anything that could possibly be a little incriminating, you made a copy and emailed to your partner-in-crime, who sat directly beneath you on the floor. 

"Shit." Jack mumbled to himself as he scrolled through the endless sea of potential blackmail. 

"Oh, no." You responded, looking up from your screen. His expression was entirely unreadable. And for someone as expressive as Jack, that was a bad sign. "What? Is there nothing?" 

He scoffed, rolling his eyes. "'Is there nothing?' That's a stupid question."

"Can I get a stupid answer?" You snipped, knowing you were running out of time. 

"No. There's not nothing. There's actually something. Plenty of something." He admitted. "Embezzlement, insider trading, sex abuse cover-ups. He's really filling up the white-collar felony bingo board."

You quickly logged out from the email and tossed the computer aside like it was about to explode. "Thank goodness." 

"Like, I knew he was a freakin' sleazeball, but this-" He leaned back on his palms. 

"Yes?" 

What you thought was a straight line of resignation turned into the beginnings of a smile. Then the smile turned into a laugh. "This is fantastic." 

You swung your legs over the side of the bed and leaned forward to peek at his computer. Every PDF file you sent had been renamed and redirected to an encrypted folder.

"Wait, you don't need to save them-" you said, putting your hand out as if it would somehow make the documents stop downloading. 

"Oh, I know." He nodded, as if you'd just told him the wifi was slowing down or something equally as mundane. 

You tried not to assume the worst. "I don't think the company is going to like finding intercepted emails on your hard drive." You said, gently. 

He threw his head back. "Ha! Trust me, pumpkin. They won't find anything."

It was starting to look like the worst. You'd seen him drunk on power before, so you recognized the look in his mismatched eyes as he saved megabyte after megabyte to his hard drive. 

You began to assume the worst. You'd just become an accessory to fraud. "We really only needed the one email. Let's not get confident." 

"When Tassiter deletes everything the day after tomorrow, you will thank me." He said, one hundred percent sure of himself. "Never hurts to have some insurance." 

A pang of anxiety ripped through you like an explosive bullet lodged in a human ribcage. It was as if the prospect of getting caught never crossed his mind. He was far too comfortable for your comfort. 

"Let's just start with one." You said, grabbing his wrist before he could select 'download' on the dropdown menu. "We shouldn't push it."

"Relax, peach puff. I know what I'm doing." He smirked, nonchalantly bringing your hand to his lips. He simply continued the download with a click from his other hand. 

Your expression must have been a dead giveaway to your inner monologue. One look was all he needed to read your mind. "Oh, don't tell me you're scared." 

You snatched your hand back. "Yeah, of getting caught."

"You want Tassiter to pay for how he treated you, right?" He asked, pulling his attention off the laptop entirely and looking at you. 

"Of course." You answered, looking down.

He gestured to the computer. "Well, this is the only leverage we're gonna get, sunshine. Might as well take as much of it as we can." 

He was right. Tassiter had money, connections and resources. All you had was information, so the more of it you could get your hands on, the better. You let out a sharp breath of concession. "If someone uncovers it, we're both fucked." 

"Nah. I'm fucked." He waved his hand above his head dismissively. "Not gonna let you take the fall for this. You're too pretty for jail." 

"Shut up." You mumbled. "That's not how this works." 

"I'm serious." His voice sharpened as he turned away from his laptop and towards you. "Anyone finds out about this, you don't know me. You're gonna bat those pretty little eyes and give 'em that empty-headed girl look you use to manipulate Amos."

"I don't-" 

"Then you're gonna finger me." He said, pausing for a second to think about how that came out. "Not- well, yeah, definitely in that way sometime. But not now."

You sighed. "I couldn't do that to you." 

"Well, shit, cupcake." He smirked. "You can peg a guy but you draw the line at getting your hands dirty? I mean, I don't blame you-" 

"I'm not selling you out." You cut him off, crossing your arms. "That's not what friends do." 

"Well, friends generally don't put things inside of each other, either." He shrugged. "Rules of polite society went out the window when you took off my pants-"

"--Jack!" You interjected, shutting your eyes and clutching your fists. "If you think I'm going to throw away the first good thing to happen to me in years, you're more delusional than Tassiter.”

It was as if the real emotion in your voice startled him. Hell, it startled you. It was raw and aggressive and real. Like a long-dormant volcano erupting after centuries, filling the air with ash. 

The edges of his sardonic persona softened before your eyes. For the first time since meeting him, he couldn't keep his eyes on you. He glanced down, running his hand nervously through his hair. "Well, um. Okay." 

You buried your face in your hands. "Oh my God— I'm sorry."

He bit down on his lower lip to steady whatever emotion was simmering beneath the surface. You thought you saw the beginnings of a smile, but maybe it was wishful thinking. "I didn't think you cared.”

Your head snapped back up, your eyes full of shock. “You— you didn’t think I cared?” The question left as only a whisper.

"All this time I just thought you were using me to get back at Amos." He admitted, leaning back on his palms. "And I was cool with it, obviously. Like, I hate the guy, you hate the guy-" the normally unperturbed programmer was grasping at straws, desperately trying to explain his insecurities. It was one of the few times you’d seen him genuinely flustered— outside of a sexual context, that is.

You sat down beside him and took one of his hands in yours. “Jack… as much fun as it is to fuck with Amos, I— you’re one of the few people that actually show genuine care and respect for me. I love— being around you! I mean, you’re definitely entertaining as hell.”

Your tongue almost slipped, and you surprised yourself for the umpteenth time today. Jack noticed, of course. He always does.

"Did you just say the L word?" He raised an eyebrow. 

"It was a slip of the tongue." You mumbled, unable to control the heat spreading across your cheeks. You barely even convinced yourself it was a simple ‘slip’.

"Yeah, you know a little thing about a slip of the tongue, don't you, cupcake?" He said, effortlessly sliding back into his usual, nonchalant demeanor. You could tell the window for emotional transparency was closing.

"What if I export the files to an external drive? May be a little safer, and keep me around longer?” Jack added the last part with a wink and a playful smile. 

"You're a dick." You said, though by the way you practically draped yourself over him like a silk scarf, it was hard to believe you meant it. "You're not gonna let me live this down, are you?" 

"Oh, absolutely not." He shook his head. A huge, blissful smile overtook his face. "The hottest woman in Hyperion said she loves me!" 

The blush you had just begun to chase away returned with a vengeance, spreading to your ears as you felt your heart do a flip. “I— those weren’t my exact words!” You stuttered, barely trying to sound convincing as you buried your face in his shoulder. “But… fuck— yes, I do.”

"Hail to the king, baby!" He launched his fists into the air and shouted triumphantly.