#PLEASE ITS SO EARLY INT HE MORNING

[mygloviesme]

cool about it. || myg

no. 4: get out of my head about it

predebut/debut!yoongi x female idol

summary: kanako is an established idol with a growing career and a secret relationship with a producer from her label, haneul. when she’s asked to work with yoongi and rm to create a track for her, she gains unexpected feelings for a certain upcoming rapper. with her increasing fame, her controlling boyfriend, a set of six boys who seem to have grown an attachment to her, and a new boy who’d give her the world, how will she figure out a way to balance it all?

(definitely inspired by boygenius)

word count: 2.6k

genre: ANGST, friends(?) to lovers, slow burn, lots of pining

chapter warnings: toxic relationship (not w/myg), mentions of mental health, grooming (not w/myg), age gap relationship (not w/myg)

inspo song: the bug collector song by haley heynderickx

JANUARY 30th, 2012, 9:14PM

I slump into my bed, my body aching with how much I’ve had to perform and rehearse this week. And I’ll have to persevere through much more. It’s been a great way to distract myself from the breakup, though. If I busy myself with all of these responsibilities then I won’t have any time to think about how me and Haneul have broken up. 

Until night falls, that is. When I come home at the end of the day and lie awake for a good hour more than I should, thinking of everything that I did wrong. Everything that went wrong. The bruise on my wrist hit its peak mid-week, having to lie to my makeup artists, saying it was an accident and to please cover it up. But it’s grown fainter, little by little. One zoom in though, would cause a domino effect of theories with my fans. 

They’re all oblivious to my ex-relationship, given all the times he publicly humiliated me in front of pedestrians and workers. You would think something would have ricocheted and sent my career plummeting at this point, but I could really only thank God I’m still surviving. Or, my long list of events I have to attend this week that make a good distraction for them as well as me. 

Haneul didn’t send one message after our call last week. In fact, he’s blocked me everywhere I could ever contact him. I know that because of my pathetic begging for him to take me back on messages, the hard-hitting red words flashing underneath my message soon after. This message is unable to be sent. It’s so stupid, I know. All he did to me and more, and I still need him back. I haven’t known anything else besides Haneul. He’s my guidance, my angel, my counselor. But to him I’m merely a disobedient dog he likes to cage when need be. He likes seeing me with my head down and my hands by my sides, waiting eagerly for his orders. He liked pointing out everything I did wrong when I finally thought I did something right. He would twist me up in a jumbled-knotted mess and expect me to untangle myself. 

I feel so starved at this moment. The Seoul lights have dimmed from my blackout curtains, the noise of the cars and drunk pedestrians is lackluster. I feel no motivation to continue my success. How can someone like him do this much to me? If only people could see through my  facade and see me crying for help. I’ll never have the strength to do it myself. Even when my fingers are grazing my phone, wanting to click that number that I know belongs to Jungkook, I don’t do it. I just feel like a burden, like a nuisance.

It’s okay to do this all by myself. That’s how it’s been, hasn’t it? It doesn’t have to change. Spare others from seeing the real you, the one who accepts this fucked-up love you think you deserve. It’ll only scare them away to see how rotten you are inside. 

You’re sick, you’re sick, you’re sick. 

JANUARY 31ST, 2012, 7:25AM

In an attempt to escape my brain I take an early morning stroll beside the Han River. With a beanie and glasses and a face mask, of course. There are people on bikes, runners, some with dogs on a leash, just enjoying the crisp winter air. I don’t have many events to attend today, just two interviews and a few promotional videos to make. It’s an awfully quiet morning which most of the time I would consider a nightmare, simply because I get bombarded with my pessimistic thoughts. 

But this morning is different, the quiet is singing and humming. My heart feels heavy but the frozen river is truly a sight to see, so like a warm hand picking up my falling soul,  it holds me carefully. Just like how my mother would when we would visit this same river.  I remember coming back here after she passed, wondering why everything looked the exact same. Why did nothing change? Why isn’t the earth cracking in two, with melting lava burning into the trees and grass? Why isn’t the whole country breaking in a frenzy, running away from this wretched city like there’s been a national alarm set off? I’ve always had a complicated relationship with this place after she died. 

I felt like a ghost floating around, spooking the wayfarers, dogs, the plants. My eyebags had sunken into place and my fingers were defected and dry. Everything was meaningless, pointless. 

Why did I ever choose to come back to the industry?

“Hey.” I hear, looking to my right. My eyes browse to hear where it came, soon seeing a familiar, tall body. I take my glasses off and see him fully, Namjoon. He has one foot on his bike to balance himself, both hands resting on the handle bars. 

“I thought it was you.” He speaks rather quietly.

I nod and give a half-assed smile. It’s no offense to him, I’m just really not feeling like talking right now. I move my hands in my pockets and part them almost sarcastically, “The one and only.” I try to chuckle. I need to try harder.

I look him up and down, seeing him in sweat shorts, high socks and a coat. “Isn't it too cold to be wearing shorts?” I tease him. He shrugs, “The coat balances everything out.” 

Now that’s girl math. 

The quietude envelops the both of us, and we both seem to look over to the river. He doesn’t look at me as he speaks again, “I was hoping you’d stop by again. I mean, all of us hoped.” He says. Our eyes continue to lock afar and I take a small breath. It’s validating to hear him say that, to think that. It opens a door that I want to enter but I’m too scared to. Genuine friendship. There are so many things that could go wrong, but they make me feel safe. Being in that small room, the borrowed clothes, the yogurt. I seem to get caught up in the small motions. I need to slow down. 

“I didn’t think I made much of an impression.” I say honestly. I barely spoke to any of them, why did they want me back?

“Well, we just like your company. We’ve been together in that dorm for a while and it was nice to have someone new.” His head turns to me, and I stare into the frozen body of water. I feel his eyes glaze over my profile, kindly. It’s odd to be looked at this way, like I’m being admired. In a way where there’s no ill intention. Just curiosity. I bite my tongue to stop myself from saying something of substance, instead trailing my eyes back down to my shoes. 

“I’m just, uh, really busy. I’ll let you know when I can.” I say, giving him a smile and wave before turning on my heels and walking away. I put my glasses back on and bite the inside of my cheek, attempting to postpone the tears I feel crawling out of me. Rejection, rejection, rejection. It’s something I don’t do often, but when it happens, it’s never the right thing. I can never accept what’s good for me, only what’s wrong. My morals are screwed and so is my future, I know it. 

I’ve been bound to this deep insecurity for what feels like decades, and the shackles are growing on me. The comfort and security of being six feet under my own personality is more digestible than something I haven’t known in a while, happiness. 

Maybe I’ll just sink lower into my subconscious this time. If someone who knew me, truly, didn’t want me anymore, who would? Everything is so surface level, dinner, games, playful glances. I need to retract from everything that shows an ounce of myself from now. 

Happy, young Kanako. Excited to be here, Kanako. Everyone’s little sister, Kanako. 

Just nothing now. No more of this anymore. I don’t exist off screen. Don’t call me, don’t text me, don’t think of me. I don’t think I can handle it. 

FEBRUARY 10TH, 2012, 11:00AM

After a while of working, sleeping, working, sleeping I now sit in a conference room in the BigHit building. There’s publicists, lawyers, staff, and Bang-PD sitting at the very end of the long table, playing with his steel ink pen. I sit right at the other end as the table stays idle in utter silence. 

I’m not sure why I’ve been called to this meeting, but something stirs inside me. A windstorm, a growing tsunami. Bang hasn’t looked at me once. 

He clears his throat, “There has been something that’s come to our attention, Kanako. Two things.” He says. Everyone takes quick glimpses at me nervously, like they’re about to face the deconstructing of Kanako Fujishima. I nod slowly at him but he keeps his head down. He flips through his binder for a while until he reaches a glossy, zoomed in photo. He turns it over and places his finger under his chin, propping his elbow on the table. 

“Is this you?” He asks, pointing at the photo. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. 

It’s me in one of the halls of this very building. One with Haneul’s tongue down my throat. The photo isn’t of great quality, but that’s me. In front of the studio room. 

“And is that Haneul?” He follows. 

My breath shakes and I gulp quietly, my hand trailing to my mouth. There’s tears. Oh God, there’s tears. They’re running down my face like a landslide. I’m getting overly emotional in front of these very professional people. It’s painful seeing me in the photo in such a compromising position. But it’s me and it’s him. “Kanako-” he starts. 

“It’s me. It’s me and Haneul.” I word vomit, the letters of my sentence feeling like they’ve pooled the table. I tuck my hands between my thighs and look down. The buttoned-up witnesses stay quiet and watch me as I unravel. 

“Kanako…this is…” Bang whispers. 

I nod quickly, “Yes, yes I know. It was a mistake but it’s over between us. I know I’ve compromised my career and I’m so sorry.” I choke out. The man across from me sets down his hand and sighs. 

“You’re right, this is a huge risk. But…that’s not necessarily what’s at hand.” He says lowly. 

I tuck my hair behind my ear and move my head slowly, meeting his eyes. There’s a small string snot that dribbles down, embarrassingly. I wipe it off and sniffle. “What do you mean?” I ask. 

He clasps his hands together and interlaces them, “We spoke to Haneul. He said he started dating you when you were 17. Which would be illegal if…” He motions his hand, not finishing the painful sentence. I swallow, nodding slowly. “It’s my fault. I initiated it first. I take all of the blame, I promise.” I whisper again. Pd-nim shakes his head. 

“You aren’t at fault, Kanako. He was the…adult. He should’ve known better. The question is, are you wanting to..” He coughs and adjusts his papers out of what I assume to be nervousness. 

“-Press charges?” He concludes.  I perk my head in confusion. Press charges? What, like he took advantage of me? Like he should go to prison? I’m not that young and naive. I knew what I was doing. I knew full well.

“No, no. That’s not what I want at all. At all. He didn’t do anything wrong, it was me. I seduced him, I'm the one that wanted this.” I plead. I see a woman in the corner of my eye adjust her glasses. She leans towards me, “Kanako, we need you to know that what he did wasn’t right. You…do know that, right?” Her eyes follow down to my wrist that’s still wrapped with the faintest purple. But it’s there, and she recognizes it. I tuck my hand beneath the table once again. 

I look her in the eyes, “I don’t think he did anything wrong. It would just be pointless drama if I pressed charges. Nothing happened. It was dumb, and I apologize.” I finalize. It seems the table succumbs to my words. The woman gives me a vague smile and leans back into her chair. 

“One other thing, Kanako.” Bang-PD speaks. “We’ve decided to let Haneul go. We thought what he did did not align with our beliefs and core values here at BigHit. For your safety and the safety of other trainees, we made the decision earlier this morning.” He says. 

My ears ring. My head spins. I blink slowly and stare at my hands, “Other trainees?” I say in one breath. I look to the table of staff, seeing some look at me with pity, others staring off. This is…

Bang writes something down on his paper and clicks his pen, setting it down. 

“There were other girls who admitted that he had been involved with them as well. I know it’s hard to hear Kanako, but I assure you…” He continues, but it’s all cloudy. I shut my eyes in an attempt to ward off the thoughts that circle in my head like a rainstorm. I feel I’ve been caught in a forest fire but I don’t want to leave. I want to go down with this ship, I want to be a brave soldier and die valiantly. I want to be here, right where he left me. 

There were others. There were others. There were others. Girls. 

“H-How young?” I mutter. 

PD-nim purses his lips, “I’m unsure if that's necessary for you to know that.” 

I shake my head and laugh quietly, manically. “How young were the others?”

“The youngest was fifteen.” 

His words pierce through me. I’m at fault, I’m sure of it. This suddenly became something bigger than me, and I could’ve stopped it. I was a coward, how could I want him back? How did I not know? How could I be so stupid?

“I’m so stupid.” I speak aloud, unknowing of it. I feel a hand on my arm and it’s the woman with glasses. Her touch is warm even if the tips of her fingers are cold. This touch is caring, it isn’t taking advantage of me. It’s like she’s consoling a child. Like she’s ready to take me in her arms and tuck me into bed. The table seems speechless, like they have been this entire time. My tears pool onto my lap like a deep river, reminding me of the body of water I was at just a while ago, not knowing then that my world could get worse than it already was. I’m alone again, all alone. Nobody is here, not even this woman with her soothing caress or Bang-PD who looks at me like I’m a wounded fawn.

And finally, I succumb to this childish feeling. At last I let myself mourn my innocence and my long-lasting maturity I’d been thrown to after my mother died. I’ve painted a picture for myself, I’ve made my bed and now all I want to do is lie in it. I want to learn what it is to be young and carefree. I want to break free from the iron bars of being a child that’s mentally years beyond her age. 

I place my hand on the woman’s, looking up to Bang-PD. 

“I think I just need…help.” 

His expression softens, “That can be arranged.” 

click here to read more of this story!

[wooahaes]

Hihi! For the ask game -

I was thinking a jun co-workers AU? I'm not sure what kind of workplace -

I'm a sucker for hospital aus and teachers being setup by students -

But I feel like an office AU or something along those lines would be cute too?

💕💕

ok i accidentally left this in my inbox for a few days, my bad!! sorry nonny!! :(

hmm... consider........ professor wen junhui... you and jun are both professors int he same english (lit) department (alongside like. wonwoo and probably hao). honestly a lot of ppl probably notice how ur offices are right next to one another, so whenever you both aren't giving lectures, one of u is sometimes chatting up the other in their office. ppl swear that ur only ever talking abt work, but like... it happens often enough tht ppl start to get suspicious, yknow? esp because both of you pretty much introduced yourselves as unmarried/single when someone asked (nosy freshmen, usually)...

plus if a student has to make up a test for any reason and one of you can't be there, the other is Always the person to go to. jun has straight up emailed his student that something came up but that you've graciously offered to let his student take their make-up test in your office, just please don't bother you too much because you're a busy person who he highly respects.

(jun isnt subtle.)

you're also in charge of like. the study abroad program that usually includes literature majors, history majors, mainly just ppl who are in the humanities, and ppl absolutely notice that (in early spring semester) jun has this fond smile on his face whenever you come around to give your spiel to his students about signing up and where to find your office. or ppl notice the fact that the two of you occasionally eat in the dining hall with other faculty, and that jun is Always listening to you with the exact same 'i am so in love with you rn' smile on his face?? or the way you bring jun coffee in the mornings.

like. its so obvious that the two of u are in love. ppl say theyve seen the way you've interacted w the theatre department!! and the jealous way jun looks at dr choi and dr lee!!!! bc seokmin is always so warm toward you!!! hes obviously jealous!!! why doesnt he just ask u out already!!! or u ask him out!!!!! this is the worst slow burn in the world--

meanwhile ur sitting with a student one day, giving them feedback on their rough draft when jun starts to kind of hover around outside ur office. u finish up w the student and tell them to email you if they need any further assistance (or to go to the writing center, tbh, you are a busy person but you can understand confused freshmen), and jun comes in as you pack your things away. it isnt until you get to the parking lot that he holds your hand, already talking about the new restaurant that seokmin was telling him about downtown. he's heard rly good things and figured maybe the two of you could check it out before maybe celebrating your three-year anniversary there next month...?

idk i just like the idea of 'omg theyre obviously into each other!!! but they deny it :(' while the couple has just been together for a while, they just like their privacy

[irrfahrer]

"It's not that deep? Maybe not originally, but the ground is soft and I'm ready to dig." (From Siri!)

The Tynnan did not manage to swallow her laughter and instead only snorted unladylike into the bed of flowers she was kneeling in, almost choking on the flower sporen she inhaled when taking a breath and then laughing even more because she was wheezing and coughing like an old woman. Teasingly she flicked a pawfull of damp soil atthe other woman: "And here I thought you are a Shadow and yet you talk like kriffing Farmer. Watch your language, pup, or you will end in the AgriCorps just like the sweet, little kriffer that is me. Not that I wouldn´t like that, it can be lonely when you are stuck on a planet you are terraforming on a lonely little enrichment dome and I would totally love having you there, but it would be very kriffing boring for someone used to beeing a kriffing shadow." In theAgriCorps there was a saying that was “Crops did not knew any politics”, whichw as right, yet Crops knew thatthey grew best with properly nutrietious soil and the AgriCorps needed proper donations to archieve that so while Crops did not kenw any politics, the AgriCorps knew that hey needed to crawl up certaine peoples asses to get proper donations to help people who could not donate anything. In this case Ziv was buttering up a senator for a donation to the ServiceCorps by tending to his gardens that he had foolishly set up under the transperisteelroots of one of his penthouses on Coruscant on a planet where there had not been growing a plant naturally since hundreds of years, so Ziv was crawling through the deep balck soil, mixing bacteria in between the earth and planting proper flowers and plants that could build in the garden on a so unliving planet of steel and duracrete as Coruscant. From the penthouses transperisteel roofs she could s the Jedi Temple shimemring white as if made of marble int he early morning.

“But coming back to the original thing- no its not that deep.”, carefully, as if it was made of fragile transperisteel, Ziv cupped the flowerhead of one of the flowers growing in the bed she was weeding through about which they had talked before. Arallutes were not only a symbol of childbirth, but they were tough like weed and could easily grow in such a horrible unliving place as the city-planet that was coruscant : “ Arallutes close into something like a pup-rattle with dry hard leafs closing in the seeds inside and thats why they had been gifted to young parents. And eventually the flowers themself became a symbol of fertility so they were planted into the gardens of those who were couples and on the verge to become a kriffing thing.And since a new generation always is hope, so Arallutes also became a symbol of hope.  Ain´t that deep. No digging on me needed, like you can try to dig me I am all open for that and planting some arallutes with you, but please leave kriffing philosophy out of that, pup.”

[ @memcriaes ]

[wizkiddx]

...surprise

um okay so here I am trying angst again. this is kind of intended to be open ended bcos might have a part two at some point. im also lazy and has a few time jumps. also if someone could pls explain if you just get pics for the top of these off internet or credit on like gifs or something that’d be appreciated.

Summary: Tom comes home and everything is most definitely not the way he left, nor is it healthy

Warnings: please read with caution esp relationship with food / weightloss, but just generally a person in a bad bad head space, lots of self blame - then next parts will carry different warnings too

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

Tom had been away for months. Months and months away from his girlfriend, separated entirely by his filming locations in Europe and America; while you were busy slowly and steadily climbing the ranks of your law firm. Being an intense period for the pair, you hadn’t managed to see each other in 2 and a half months.  Of course, both go you were used to this - 3 years deep into a relationship between an actor and a wanna-be lawyer- this was the name of the game.

But honestly? You both just kept falling deeper and deeper, making the separation harder to deal with - rather than getting used to it as one might hope.

That's why Tom felt such an incredibly overwhelming wave of relief as he dumped his bags just outside his front door. Even though he was exhausted from the travelling, just the mere act of finally phishing out his housekeys brought a massive grin to his face - caused particularly by the sight of his tacky little keyring from a Moroccan market that you’d bought him. That had been your first holiday. There’s that old saying that before you move in with someone go on holiday first - Tom understood it to mean you supposedly see all the bad and ugly stuff people can hide from each other, a prewiring before committing to living in the same space. However that holiday all he’d learned was incredible you are to him. To his dying day, Tom will never forget the moment he looked over to his left when the two of you were on this night time stargaze in the depth of the Moroccan desert. Y/n had never seen stars like it, the skies so incredibly clear and lit up with an array of magical blues and purples and whites on its sark background. The sight, for no unexplainable reason, had you completely opening up to Tom about things she’d never told a single soul. And in that moment he’d had this sort of realisation. Not about how much he loved her - because that is just the cliche thing everyone says… and also just wasn’t true.

In that moment he’d rather realised the potential. The sort of ‘I’m not there yet but I know you could become the centre of my universe’. The sort of ‘I’m not ready to say this yet, but I want to spend my life with you’. The sort of ‘at some point in my life I’m not sure my heart will be able to beat without yours’.

He still hadn’t quite got to explicitly saying all that yet, by asking you for the ultimate commitment. But he planned to now he was coming back to you.

Even with the chill of the early evening winter air, Tom was almost ecstatic as he unlocked the door and let himself in. He hadn’t told you that he was coming home, you thought he had another two weeks on the job, but Tom was a bit of an old romantic - he loved seeing your eyes fill with wonder as he surprised you in whatever way. Sometimes it was as simple as a note on the fridge, or a small bouquet from behind his back or as fancy as a surprise holiday.

However, this time, though it was only 6 in the evening, all the lights of their house were off making Tom raise an eyebrow as he quietly slipped off his shoes - not wanting to scare Y/n just in case.

Tom had sworn when he’d been on the phone with you the previous day, you didn’t have any plans tonight but perhaps maybe a spontaneous pub trip and been offered with work colleagues. The house felt a little cold as he padded through it, poking his head into every room just to check Y/n wasn’t there. His last port of call was the bedroom.

By this point, Tom was pretty resigned on the fact you were out and he’d maybe cook a meal for when you got back or hide about the house or something. But instead, when he poked his head around this door, he sighed in delight at the sight of a still mound under the plush white sheets. For a brief moment, Tom paused, before tiptoeing steadily round to her bedside. The light was still off but the hallway light illuminated the room enough so he could make out your soft features and the messy ball of hair that had been haphazardly thrown in a bun. Furthermore, he could also notice in the light the packet of painkillers and migraine tablets lying opened on the bedside - which made him freeze. Y/n didn’t get migraines often at all, but when she did Tom knew just how bad they could be. That explained the fact you were spark out at six o’clock, making Tom give a sympathetic smile. He crept back out the room with a little spring in his step, deciding that since he had had a long day travelling he'd grab a snack and join you. Unfortunately though, when he enthusiastically yanked the fridge open the sight was a rather depressing one. He didn’t really know what he was craving but the fridge contents were of almost no use to anyone. The place was bloody baron, apart from a tub of butter and of course his special beers that Y/n would never dare touch. With a small huff though, Tom resigned himself to some bread and butter, before getting ready for bed.

It was probably an hour later when Tom was carefully crawling under the duvet to settle in beside Y/n after the disappointing snack and maybe a solitary ‘welcome home beer’ - it would be rude not to. God was he excited to just have his girlfriend in his arms again though. So, Tom naturally reached over and powerfully yet gently pulled you back towards him - making your back flush with his as you mumbled something incoherent. Chuckling slightly at your apparent annoyance of being disturbed, Tom pressed a kiss to her temple before settling down momentarily.

But something wasn’t quite right, making Tom shuffle about a bit - ever adjusting huis grasp on your waist as he attempted to get comfy. With the migraine medications forcing you into a deep deep sleep you barely stirred and that just made the unease increase for Tom. Because you didn’t feel right. This didn’t feel right. Ever so slowly Tom started to peel back the duvet from your body from his now sitting upright position. Typically, Y/n was wearing one of his hoodies, however more concerningly it seemed to pool and collect around your frame more than normal.

Now, Y/n was never the most petite person in the world - by no means overweight, instead of beautiful curves and muscle. To Tom now though, it was as if someone had literally shrunk you - like a picture on a word document you needed to make narrower to fit the margins. Even in the dim light of the bedroom he know realised you looked pale. Honestly, Tom didn’t know how long he just sat there staring at you, until you sighed a little and pulled the duvet back up to just under your chin.

He didn’t know what to think or do. All he knew was you didn’t look well and that you hadn’t said a thing to him. Feeling so very uncomfortable within himself, Tom climbed out the bed and simultaneously grabbed his phone. He knew he had to call someone, to check that you hadn’t been ill - but then who to call? Someone that wouldn’t judge or instantly worry- your mum was completely off the cards. Also, he hadn’t even given you the chance to explain yet, so really he knew there was only a couple of options who were close enough to him too.

“Hey what’s up?” “Um nothing much, back in the UK though so-“ “Oh shit really! Kept that one quite bro” “Yeh well came back to surprise Y/n” “Oh you're soooo whipped” “Fuck off Haz, have you um… have you seen her recently anyway?” “You're asking me if I’ve seen your girl while you’ve been away?” “I’m being serious. You’re pretty much brother and sister and I’m -I’m a bit worried.” “What? You know she wouldn’t cheat especially with me” Haz’s tone turned less serious, using a goofy accent “ I know too much.” Haz still attempted to lighten the mood, this conversation very unexpected and making him grow more and more concerned himself. “Haz quit it. I’m worried she’s been ill. I’ve come in and she’s asleep with a migraine but there’s no food in the fridge and she’s skinny as hell.” “Fuck er sorry I didn’t realise. But um no she’s been cancelling on us for the past like two weeks cos like…I don’t know said she was just snowed under at the firm so” “But before then?” “No yeh she was fine. Went to the pub a couple times and she always drove so didn’t drink but nothing weird - think she wanted to keep a clear head. What are you thinking?” “I don’t know to be honest mate. She seemed fine on the phone but I swear to god she looks half the size  of what she was when I left.” “Just talk to her in the morning? She probably is just stressed if work has been mad busy.” Tom hummed in agreement, half trying to convince himself too. “Yeh yeh, sorry for bothering you.” “Oh shut up mate - I’ll see you both at your parents for the roast tomorrow? Sams got some new recipe I think, he’s been wittering on about it for days.” “Yeh we’ll be there, see you then mate.” 

After signing off to Haz, Tom placed his phone on the little table on the upstairs hallway and sighed. He knew he was being over-protective but he couldn’t help it. Y/n was always the one to care for him, in fact to care for everybody int he room and then some.

He’d get to the bottom of whatever this was tomorrow, and so the rest of the evening Tom spent rather unhappily get ready before bed yet again before climbing back in next to you.

///////////////////////////

Tom woke before you, a combination of jet lag and the worry in the pit of his stomach meaning he stirred awake first. Instinctively he pulled you closer and nuzzled his nose into the side of your neck as he slowly began to wake up properly - shrugging off the grogginess. Tom was still really excited for you to realise he was back, predicting you  to excitedly hug him ever so tight and then spend the morning between the sheets. He knew you found the distance tough, especially when all your closest friends were coupled off, it meant you just didn’t have ‘your person’. It was almost as if you were single again and instead of pining over an ex, hopelessly and completely in love with someone across the globe. But that just made your time together even more invaluable and precious.

So even with his slight unease at your slimmer silhouette, Tom didn't have any control over the loopy grin that came to his face as you started to stir and mumble something incoherent, all the while (and subconsciously) inching closer towards him. By the slight fluttering under your eyelid, Tom knew you were waking up and so took the moment to tuck your frizzy bed hair behind your ear. Sighing contently Y/n’s eyes fluttered completely open and Tom met your gaze with the most gently of smiles.

However, he then watched moment by moment as your expression morphed for one of peacefulness and content, through confusion, and ending at pure terror. He had barely thought of asking you why, before you yelped, throwing yourself up into a sitting position and backing as far away on the bed as you could from Tom. “TOM... I-you can’t be here! YOU’RE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE HERE!” “Y/n hey what’s wrong-“ “GET OUT! G-GET THE FUCK OUT! YOU CAN’T BE HERE” you  yanked the bedsheets to completely cover your huddled up body, as if trying to protect yourself. At this point, tears were streaming down your face and what truly terrified Tom was the expression of horror in your eyes. He threw his hands in the air and unsteadily stumbled to his feet. “O-okay I’m-“ “GET OUT!!! YOU CAN'T SEE ME GET OUT!” Completely bemused and shocked, Tom just nodded jerkily -already halfway out the door and accidentally slamming it in haste.

He had absolutely zero clue what that was about. But what he knew for a fact? He’d never ever seen you like that… you looked so completely terrified… of him? Tom couldn’t for the life of him work out what the hell was going on, as he paced from the shut door to the hallway wall and back again, running his hand through his hair throughout. He could hear you sobbing and whisper yelling - presumably at yourself. It felt as though his heart was being torn out, seeing you that upset and it appearing as his fault? He was acting on pure instinct and adrenalin because your pain hurt him too. He had no control of the physiological response in his body, making his hands shake and breathing increase in speed as it inversely got shallower too.

And so he took a short inhalation, biting his bottom lip as he knocked on the door. “Y/n?….” He got no response after waiting a couple of seconds so tried again - because he could hear you trying to stifle your sobs. After another two failed attempts he opted for a different approach. “Y/n… I’m worried about you… look, I know your upset right now but I need you to let me know your okay… or I’ll have to come in and…and I don’t want to spook you” “Don’t come in.” It was a sharp reply, with a voice that was cracked and clearly trying to keep It together. “Okay… I-I’m sorry if my surprise of coming home was a dumb idea…I-I’ve missed you.” Tom tried speaking softly, as he knelt down and sat with this back against the wall while nervously fiddling with his watch strap that he’d forgot to take off last night. Again he waited for a response but got nothing, again having to warn you he needed to know you were okay. He heard movements from the other side of the door, making him turn his head to the left, pressing his ear on the cool gloss paint. “I-I’m sorry” You barely were whispering, but Tom could sense you were now sitting in a position mirroring his “You don’t meed to apologise love” Returning her tone, Tom sighed at the end - trying to get his brain to process what was going on.

Y/n wasn’t one to overreact and Tom could count on one hand the number of serious fights they’d had in the three year romance. And even then, he was the one to raise his voice - when she argued it was more reasoned, slow and controlled. Actually it was one of the things that in those moments infuriated him even more - you were just so level headed and sensible. Scratch that, sensible purely in this context - everywhere else you were just as loopy as him. So this situation felt so very alien. He didn’t know how to help you and he bloody hated feeling useless.

After a few moments, you replied to apologise once again, for shouting specifically,  and Tom nodded - not that you could see. But that was one of the things Y/n had taught him, sometimes you just have accept things - no matter the context. Accept he wasn’t actually a superhero and couldn’t do everything, accept that sometimes he could be a dick and out of line or accept an apology.

“Can you.. can you try and tell me why your upset? I want to help.” He was trying to be gentle, non-confrontational. But he knew something was so wrong. He needed to know so he could try and help out. “I…”Y/n began, but quickly trailed off, as if trying to formulate the words properly. “I’ve just been ill and” again another pause “and I haven’t been looking after myself very well. I just planned to be umm- to be better when you got back.”

It wasn’t a lie. It wasn’t really the truth either, at least not the whole truth. But it wasn’t a lie.

“I’m not sure I understand why your so worried about what I think though?” Tom inquired, as he started to fiddle with the door handle in his left hand - as if easing the idea of coming into his girlfriend without scaring you. In reply, you sighed again trying to put the words together without explicitly spelling it out to him. “I don’t- I thought you’d just be disappointed or-or think I’m reliant on you. I’m not and I can handle myself I just…. I don’t know.” “I love you, you idiot.”Tom chuckled at that, while standing up. “Can I come in now please? I promise I’m not disappointed just want to help you feel better.”

The door opened and no sooner could Tom take a step forward than Y/n ran into his chest, wrapping herself tightly around him in apology. He knew that he didn’t have the full story but really didn’t want to push her, more preferring to just love her. So that’s what they spent the rest of the morning doing, in their pyjamas and watching TV. Quite obviously, she wasn’t really making a lot of conversation, Tom filled some gaps with talking about filming - to which she’d hum in agreement or chuckle along. But for the most part Y/n was concentrating on something else.

The all-consuming guilt. That was what was eating away at her.

part 2?

[lots-o-stuff]

okay so i’ve been obsessed with your writing like god damn, save some talent for the rest of us please 😔 but i would like to make a request 😳 headcons of tsuki, sugawara, and daichi with a s/o that sleeps very late. like 3am+ type late, so they’re always on the verge of sleeping during class and usually don’t have breakfast since they wake up last minute n all. stuff like that. thank you 😭💕

EEEEEE oh my god!!! THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!! ahhh I saw this as I was leaving school and I was like trying not to cry happy tears!! Alos this was EXTREMELY self indulgent because, like, who sleeps?? hahah not me thats for sure! This was seriously so much fun so thank you for the request!

Tsukki:

I believe that Tsukki himself is quite the night owl, he will be up till 12 reading, listening to music, maybe studying but he always make sure to be in bed by 12:30

you however can lose track of time VERY VERY easily so before you and tsukki started dating you were up till 3am on a daily maybe even later on a weekend

when you both got together you had offhandedly mentioned to him that you were a bit of a night owl, this prompted him too ask how late you stay up exactly

because well… he was a night owl so you cant be that much worse than him right? WRONG

He was quite surprised on the inside that you stayed up till 3am daily, I mean how did you not fall asleep halfway through the day?

after that he started to notice how much not sleeping and staying up so late actually affected you

you would always complain about missing breakfast from sleeping in late, as well as that he noticed how you would daze out during class and not be paying attention

after that Tsukki made a promise to himself. When he went to sleep he would text or call you and tell you to go too sleep

at first you were very confused because… Tsukki? are you ok? awww you care?

You listened to him after that because he could always tell when you stayed up later… no matter how much you tried to hide it hmph

Suga:

ok so suga is NOT a night owl at all, i firmly believe that he needs, in his words, his "Beauty sleep"

and well… you aren’t exactly the fall asleep at 9pm type person. Your more the "Im going to be in bed by 9:30 tonight" but end up awake till 3 watching a how to play the harmonica video on youtube and no you don’t own a harmonica either

when you both got together sleeping schedules weren’t something mentioned so he never realised that you stayed up so late

when he did find out it was because you sent him a youtube link to a tiktok POV compilation that you somehow had ended up on at 2 in the morning

honestly a first he was annoyed because well if he doesn’t get enough sleep he looks like a walking trashcan whereas you look like an angel and its not fair

but then he realised just how tired you were during the day and decided to put an end to your late night youtube spirals

so he annoyed you… no i’m not joking i personally believe that Suga can be bitchier than Oikawa so yes he ANNOYED YOU into going to bed early

how you ask? well he started with spam messaging you at 9pm to sleep, when that didn’t seem to work he made reasons for you too get up early, like getting you up early so you could get breakfast at a cafe together

and then as a final attempt at getting you to sleep he said that he would stay up as long as you do and obviously your like "No way" because He needs his sleep

well lets just say that you now make sure to go to bed semi early so around 10:30, 11:00.

Daichi:

Daichi is in bed by 8:30pm or on big day maybe 9-9:30, sorry but thats just who he is. He needs his sleep so he can be well rested and ready for school/practice the next day

you? ah what’s wrong with a little sleep deprivation every now and then aka everyday it’s not THAT bad your just a lil tired ya know?

i honest to god feel as though that is how you two met and got together, you fell asleep in your last class of the day and Daichi had come up and woken you

you in your dazed half asleep sort of mumbled out a "sorry i didn’t get much sleep last night" whilst packing up your stuff and leaving the room rubbing your eyes

the next day in that class Daichi comes up to you as it ends you actually stayed awake this time and asked if you got better sleep last night?

you slightly confused realised that this was the same person who woke you up yesterday so you sorta of shyly jus said that you don’t get much sleep any night, thus your friendship and eventual relationship

You can not tell me that Daichi isn’t the person who would go onto your phone with permission of course and secretly set up screen time so you cant be on your phone past say 9:30 except for messages because he still wants you to be able to message him if you need him

at first you were shocked, and then you became really annoyed because, wtf, why? and you would bug him for the password (which he refuses to give you)

….it worked…. somehow this stupid screen time that your very loving boyfriend set for you worked to get you too sleep earlier and on days where you just couldn’t sleep he would be up texting you till 3 am if need be

You are extremely grateful for the day that Daichi saw his classmate sleeping in the corner of the room and decided to be nice and wake you up

Again thank you so much for requesting I loved this. If you have any request please just hop int my ask box and send away because i LOVE writing requests!!!

[harrywritingsbyme]

Self Control

A/N: I almost passed out writing this. Smut from the get-go…you’ve been warned.

It all started the moment you came down the stairs. From the moment he saw you, all he wanted to do was pull you back up the stairs to your bedroom so he could slam his cock into you. The only thing that was holding him back was the fact that you both had committed yourselves to attending your friends party that night. If you didn’t have prior commitments, he’d have you beneath him already. His need to have you only intensified when alcohol was factored in, he had to have you. All he could think about was how your dress cascaded down your body, hugging your curves perfectly, and the way your nipples pebbled against the soft satin fabric. He kept chanting in his head ‘have self control, have self control’.

He watched you dancing with one of your friends and that made him want you even more. Watching your body sway to the music that fueled his carnal desire to be with you, and made his cock stiffen in his pants. He excused himself from the conversation and made his way over to you. Drink in hand, he wraps an arm around your waist and yanks your body against his. “Feel so good baby” his alcohol painted breath fans against your ear. You feel his cock press against your behind and you let out a slight moan. He sways with you to the music and you begin to press against him more. You hear a breathy moan from behind and you feel his hands grip your hips. You feel him grind against you and you get even wetter. Harry abandons his drink and pulls you to an isolated corner in the room. His hands quickly pin your hips against the wall as he grinds his hard cock into your clothed center. You swallow his moans as he licks into your mouth. He slides his hands up your body and fondles your breast through your dress, and you feel him roll your nipples and your head rolls back against the wall. You gasp into his mouth when you feel him hike up your leg against his hip, allowing him to grind into you even more. He immediately attaches his lips to your neck, and you bite your swollen lip as you try to hold back your moans. He sits your leg down and pulls away from your neck. He stares at your frenzied frame. He pulls your body against his and tilts your head up to place a kiss against your puffy lips before pulling you to the exit. Upon leaving the party, you say goodbye to the host before swiftly making your way to the car awaiting the two of you. Harry wanted so badly to press you right against the car and and slam into your warm, tight, and inviting pussy. Once you both stumble into the car, you more gracefully than harry, you’re immediately under his body his body. Your dress is bunched up against your hips as harry thrusts his clothed cock against your damp panties. Your moans increase as his hips press harder into you. “Fuck, harry please” you gasp loudly and he quickly presses his lips against yours. His tongue instantly slides between your parted lips. And glides against yours as he continues to press against you.

Once you arrive home, you quickly make your way int your shared home. As soon as the door is closed you’re pressed against it and harry hoists you up and you wrap your legs around his waist. “Upstairs” you whisper as you slightly pull away from his lips. He shuffles up to your bedroom and he sits you down on the bed, but you have other plans. You immediately get on your knees between his spread legs and you unbuckle and undo his pants. He lifts his hips and you pull his pants down before throwing them somewhere in the room. You pull his boxers off and his cock springs to life and you see his head leaking of precum. “Im going to milk your cock so good baby” you whisper before taking his cock in your mouth. “Fuck” he moans and watches you take him down your throat. He pulls his cock from you wet, heavenly mouth and slaps it against your face before moving up the bed against the headboard. He beckons you up the bed, you get on the bed as well and you put his cock back in your mouth. He then slides the thin straps of your dress down and pulls your breast out of your dress and plays with you while you play with him. “Fuck, im gonna have to film this, you look like a nasty slut right now and I need to keep this image forever. Is that okay baby doll?” He moans as he reaches for his phone. Even though your mouth is completely stuffed with his thick, delicious cock you smile and take him deeper into your throat; giving him all the approval he needed. “Thats my good girl” he moans and gets ready to record you. When he starts recording you pull his wet cock from your mouth, strings of your spit dripping from him and you put his balls in your mouth. His big, cum filled balls rest heavily against your tongue. While you are sucking on his balls you play with his cock. You press your thumb agains the thick vein running up his cock and he harshly thrusts his cock against your hand. You know how much harry loves sloppy blowjobs so you pull his balls out of your mouth you lick the area between his hole and his balls and you’d never heard that loud of a moan from him. “You like that baby” you whisper just loud enough for the mic on his phone to pick it up and you look into the camera. “Oh god…” Is all you hear him whisper before you take his cock back into your mouth. You suck his cock while he cums in your mouth. He spills a large load into your mouth. You slowly pull him out of your mouth and you open it wide for the camera to see how much he came. You swallow all of his delicious cum and open your mouth to show you swallowed it all. “Gonna let me fuck that cunt of yours baby girl” he asks you and cups your cheek. “Mmm im all yours, anything for daddy” you whisper and you bite your lip looking up at him ‘innocently’. “Clean my cock baby” he says and slaps his cock against your lips and you lick all the cum that dripped out of your mouth. “Such a dirty little princess for me” he whispers, still recording you, and pushes some of your hair back. “Fuck baby, I need to fuck that cunt. I bet your dripping for me.” He pants and stops the camera. He quickly pulls you up and flips you over so you’re underneath him. “You want me to keep recording baby doll” he whispers in your ear. You look up at at him and nod sheepishly. “Suck a naughty girl for me” he growls into your ear. He takes his phone and positions it against the bedside lamp to get a good angle of the entire entire bed. He starts the camera and he pulls your thin dress down your body you both notice theres a cum stain on your dress. “Were definitely keeping this” he says and tosses it to the side. Starts to play with you nipples and he sucks one into his mouth. You squirm beneath his body but he gets a firm grip on your hips with his ring clad hands, which will definitely leave bruises tomorrow morning. “Daddy” you whimper and he starts to work on your other nipple.

He then starts to go a bit lower. He looks at your extremely damp panties and his cock gets hard again. He presses his thumb against your barely there thong and he puts it in his mouth to taste you. “Taste so sweet baby” he whispers and pulls your panties off. He smells your panties and moans at the smell. He then leans down and licks a stripe up your pussy. “Sweeter than you smell” he whispers before kissing you deeply so you can taste yourself. He leans back and looks at your glistening cunt. He bites his lip and rubs the head of his cock against your wet folds. “Fuck me daddy” you whine and he slams into you. “So wet and tight for me” he growls and slams his hips against yours. “Fuck” you scream out in pleasure. He hovers over your body and continues to pound into you. You hear his growls above you as his pace quickens before he pulls out of you and flips you on your stomach. He pulls your ass up and quickly fucks into you, at this angle you feel his cock hitting that spot deep inside you. Your head is pressed against the pillow and he pulls your hips into his. You feel his balls slapping against your clit. “Daddy” you whimper as you feel your release nearing. “Cum for me baby” he pants as his own release nears. You both release at the same time. You feel his hot cum spurt inside you and you let out a low moan at the feeling.

You feel harry reach over to grab his phone. He positions the camera at your pussy. He slowly pulls out and records yours and his cum spilling out of you. “So fucking hot, you took my cum like a good girl” he whispers and pushes some of it back inside of you. He turns you on your back and you clean his fingers. By the time the both of you get to sleep its early the next morning. When you wake up that morning, you feel a little soreness between your legs, it was a little reminder of how not having self control…isn’t really a bad thing.

Masterlist

[writingsbychlo]

angel with an accent | thomas

word count; 6428

summary; newt has a friend from england flying out to see him, and thomas is swooning.

notes; soooo, y’all wanted a little fic using british slang, and here it is. it’s totally meant to be a comedy fic, please don’t take it seriously, for the record, ‘pleasure beach’ means ‘blackpool pleasure beach’ and is an amusement park,.

warnings; nope, a few sexual references but that is it.

Being awake at this time in the morning, was not Thomas’ idea of a fun start to the day. Especially not, when every time he almost managed to drift off, he was jerked awake by the overwhelming boom of jets taking off above his head. Twisting uncomfortably in his car seat, he turned to face his friend, eventually giving up on catching up on sleep altogether, and letting his seat move back up to its normal position from the reclined state he’d put it in.

Minho was glancing at his phone, scrolling through instagram, occasionally letting his finger tap down to like a post as he came across them. A whine fell from Thomas’ lips from boredom, his friend glancing up at him with an eyebrow raised. “It’s only been forty minutes.”

“Forty minutes I could’ve still been in bed.” 

“Shut ya’ complaining up. You wanted to come for breakfast, and meet Newt’s friend.” Minho jabbed, the words teasing and Thomas pouted, huffing through his nose but his stomach rumbled at the thoughts of the pancakes he’d soon be stuffing down. 

“That was before I knew their flight landed at seven in th- oh, shit!” Thomas sat up straighter in his seat, leaning forward to look out of the window and the boy beside him looked up, attempting to look past him, but Thomas was practically filling the space.

“What are you mumbling about now?”

“Newt’s friend if fucking hot!” 

A chuckle, more like a cackle, fell from the Asian boy’s mouth as his friend turned to him, an eyebrow raised in question of his laughter. “Didn’t know you swung that way, Thoma- OW!” He rubbed at his arm, Thomas flashing him a sarcastic and toothy grin to follow the punch he’d delivered, but Minho’s eyes widened as he caught a glimpse of you out of the window. “His friend is a fucking chick?! You’d think he’d a’ mentioned that!”

The pair watched in wonder as you made your way over. Your arm was looped through Newt’s, his other hand pulling your suitcase along behind you as you gripped your carry-on tightly. A light sundress brushed at the middle of your thighs, waving lightly in the breeze, shifting with each step you took. A denim jacket was sitting on your shoulders, shiny hair flowing around your shoulders in loose waves. 

You were laughing at something Newt had said, your smile bringing more warmth and light than the early morning sun itself, and though he couldn’t hear it, Thomas already knew the sounds of your laughter was going to be sweeter than honey. The two couldn’t even school their stares as you made it to the car, luckily for them, you were too distracted making your way to the back of the car to place your case int he trunk, but Newt had noticed. He shot them both a glare and a scowl, waiting for Minho to press the button on his driving wheel to open the boot, and the aforementioned boy fumbled to find the button, both Thomas and Minho looking at each other in shock.

Just like that, the morning seemed much more bearable. 

The doors quickly opened once the slam of the trunk had sounded, and finally, the muffled voices and gentle laugh reached his ears as you settled into the car, Newt following on the other side and you dipped your head as you clicked your seatbelt into place. Turning in their seats, both the boys from the front seats were looking at you with wide grins when you looked up and your eyes widened, Thomas’ heart jumping as you gave them a soft smile.

“Let me guess, Minho-” You held your hand out to him, and the boy seemed positively elated that you already knew his name, and hearing your accent up close, Thomas was already swooning. “-and you must be Thomas.” Your hand slipped into his gently, shaking it carefully and he was practically breathless as your attention was now on him, his fingers barely curling around yours. “Newt has been telling me all about you guys.”

“Good things, I hope?” He was honestly surprised by his own ability to form words, and Newt rolled his eyes as Thomas continued to stare at you, Minho turning in his seat and starting the car. 

“Oh, absolutely not. All the fun things.” You shot him a wink and a blush rose to his cheeks. Thomas turned in his chair and sank back into his seat as the car raced, and even over the music of the radio playing his ears were tuning in on the little conversations you were having with Newt, and he ignored the scenery flying past him outside of the window, choosing instead to catch cheeky glimpses of you in the mirror. 

He had barely registered the journey that brought them to the diner they were now at, and he was jerked from his day-dreaming as the car came into a sudden braking thanks to Minho’s awful parking skills. You were shooting from the car fist, happily stretching your arms above your head as you popped and clicked joints, stretching out muscles that had already been cramped from a plane, and re-cramped in the car.

“I’m assuming there’s no chance of a full-English fry up here.” You turned to Newt, a coy grin on your face as he rounded the car, and Newt shook his head.

“Unfortunately not, but I promise I’ll make you one during your trip. I will make you all your favourites from home at some point.” He promised, and your arm linked through your blond friends and Thomas’ brows furrowed. 

“What’s on a ‘full-English fry up’?” He questioned, and you turned to him with a gasp, holding a hand over your heart in mock-offence, a smile pulling at his lips at your antics, and he held the door open for you gently as you stepped inside. 

“Only the best breakfast ever!” You grinned, and his eyebrows raised at your explanation, urging you to explain. “Well, you know, your basics. Eggs, toast, sausage, bacon..” 

“Sounds like an American breakfast to me.” Thomas questioned, and you settled into the booth opposite him, Newt sitting beside you and Thomas reached out a hand idly, pushing Minho up the worn leather of the seat as his attention remained glued on you.

“Yeah, but on an English breakfast, you also get fried mushrooms, grilled half-tomatoes, hashbrowns, bakes beans and black pudding.” You confessed, and he laughed at the sounds of it, taking the menu from the waitress with a smile as she handed them out around the table. Before he had a chance to ask further questions, the server before you was taking orders for drinks, and your attention was gone for a second. Newt ordered first, Minho following, before all eyes were on you. “Can I get a tea?”

“Iced tea with breakfast?” A heat rose to your cheeks, and Newt laughed beside you, looking at the back of the menu before turning to the waitress and ordering you coffee instead, and Thomas thought your blush might be the cutest thing he had ever seen, and you ducked your head to hide it from them all as he gave his own drinks order, hesitantly tearing his gaze from you as not to be rude. 

“Don’t worry love, I bought you teabags in preparation. You can have a proper brew when we get home.” You beamed at Newt, the blush coating your skin finally receding. 

“So, what’s black pudding?” Thomas finally voiced, and you took off into an explanation of anything and everything he could get you to talk about, asking you questions that he knew would earn him long answers, just so he could hear you talk more, the way you happily gestured with your hands and practically bounced in your seat as he asked you about your home. 

When the waitress had come back with your drinks, you hadn’t even looked at the menu to order food, and Thomas took a leap, ordering breakfast for you, a dish he was sure you’d like. And he was right, you had been ecstatic when the food had arrived, and you had enjoyed every bote of it, your plate cleared as you sat with your hands on your stomach, head resting on Newt’s shoulder with a happy smile on your face. 

“That was amazing, but now I need to pee. I am going to the loo.” You hopped up form the booth and Thomas watched as you went, soft cooing falling from his lips as you trailed away, the accents and the words you used were digging a path straight to his heart. He spun back to the table when a harsh slap landed on the back of his head, and Newt settled down into his seat again, a scowl on his face as Thomas whimpered and rubbed at the back of his head, Minho cracking up in laughter beside him. 

“Will you stop drooling all over my mate?” He muttered, and Thomas shrugged, a bashful smile appearing on his lips. 

“I can’t help it!” He took a sip of his coffee, Newt’s eyes sealed on him in a glare. “She’s super pretty and her accent is just.. so cute.” 

“Aye, you twat! I’m pretty! My accent is cute, too!” He muttered, and both of the American boys cracked up at the protest. He shared a look with the dark-haired boy beside him, both of them shaking their heads at the look they shared as Thomas snorted in laughter.

“She makes it work.” Thomas confided, holding his hands up in surrender as Newt only scowled even further, and soon, you were making your way back over to the table, none the wiser of what the three males had been discussing.

“So, what did you want to do today, on your first day in the States?” Minho questioned his arms folding on the table as he leaned forward and you tapped at your chin, humming as you thought it over. 

“You got any roller coasters around here?”

“You remember the last time we went to a theme park together, love?” Newt nudged at your side, and Thomas unscrewed the bottle of water held lifting it to his lips as you grinned, nodding happily in agreement. 

“Pleasure Beach!”

Thomas choked on his water as the words left your mouth, his eyes wide as he looked at you, and it didn’t help when you placed a hand between his shoulder blades rubbing carefully as you looked over at him in concern. Newt, however, had a cheeky grin on his face that was hidden for you view just for Thomas to see. 

“Yeah, Pleasure Beach. You really went hard that day, you were exhausted!” Newt chimed, and Thomas’ face was red as he spluttered, assuring you he was okay through deep breaths as he finally cleared his airways. 

“God, yeah!” Your touch finally left him, and Thomas rubbed at his chest, lungs sore from all the impromptu coughing. “My hips were so sore! I was covered in bruises from being thrown about so rough, but it was so much fun!”

Thomas felt like he was about to hyperventilate, and he was sure it must be showing on his face as you looked at him with concern and Newt was looking like he was going to pass out from choking down his laughter for much longer, and finally, Newt took pity on him. “Theme parks are just so fun! I miss that one!” He shot his blond friend a glare for his antics, and Thomas shuffled awkwardly, the heat covering his body was making him uncomfortable and he was happy to see Minho making his way back over with your access bands to the park, effectively distracted Thomas. 

Pushing his sunglasses down over his nose, Thomas decided that if nobody could see his eyes, then he was free to look at you as much as he liked until he had to take them off for rides. You were already bounding happily forward, Minho leading you all as he held out a park map before him. 

Somehow, he had already managed to Google the rides, and had found a pen from somewhere to circle the rides he wanted or go on. Thomas on one side of you, Newt on the other, and he was certainly unprepared when he felt your hand slip around his arm, fingers resting on the crook of his elbow as you hold yourself between the two boys. You were following their friend, who was bouncing along happily as he guided you toward the first ride, and you turned to Thomas with a grin, his eyes scanning over your face as his brows rose from behind his glasses in question. “So, how does a nice guy like you know a scouser like Newt then, Tommy?”

“A what?” Thomas grinned, his heart skipping in joy at the sound of his nickname falling from your lips but the term you used to refer to his friend was too funny to ignore, and your fingers tightened on his arm as you spoke, his bare skin stretching under your fingers as he flexed slightly. 

“I’m not a scouser, you slapper.” He grumbled, and a loud laugh fell from your lips as you turned to him, removing your hand from his arm and flicking at his ear, to which Newt returned the gesture with a grin. 

“I’m so confused. You’re not even speaking English.” He mumbled under his breath, and though you didn’t bother holding onto Newt again, you turned to Thomas with a sly smile, your arm curling around his a little more as you moved into his side. 

“Actually, we are speaking English. Real English.” You teased, and his head tipped to the side as you came to a halt at the entrance to a queue Minho was standing before, and Thomas dipped his head slightly, lips brushing your ear as Newt was distracted when walking forward toward the crowd of waiting people. 

“I think it’s pretty cute, actually.” 

You raised a brow at him as he pulled back, a smirk on his features as he guided the two of you into the queue, and your hands slipped down from his bicep, both of them now resting on his forearm, the two of you speed-walking to catch up with your friends. The second you arrived, Newt turned to you, subtly pointing out a man standing out in the line of people ahead of you. He had a bad orange spray-tan, his hair slicked back as a pair of oversized and obnoxious sunglasses sat on the bridge of his nose. 

He looked like he was wearing the wardrobe of a spring-breaker that would roofie a girl’s drink, and you scoffed at his attire, your eyes glistening when you glanced up at Thomas. “My man over there looks like a right roadman. The sort who’s bird calls everyone ‘babes’ and has a lot of grow-out on her falsies, and they probably argue over whether they’re gonna’ watch the footy or corrie every night.” 

Newt burst out in laughter at your words, and both Thomas and Minho’s eyebrows furrowed at your words, jaw hung as the two of you cracked up, watching as you doubled over, clutching at your bellies. “I bet you a tenner his name is either John, Colin or Scott.”

“I’d take that deal!” You joked, the group shuffling forward, and though he hadn’t understood a single word you had said, Thomas was beaming just hearing the sounds coming from your mouth. 

As you progressed, you had sat next to him on most of the rides you encountered, and as you had been walking around, you had ended up pressed closer and closer to Thomas, the park getting bigger and crowds getting tighter. You were pressed up against him in the queues, your front up to his and his arm wrapped around your shoulders, questions flying from each of your mouths as you got to know one another. 

You screamed with joy each time the coasters went over a loop, your fingers looping through Thomas’ and squeezing tightly anytime you when over a steep drop, your eyes closed as your giggles were lost on the rush of air but he still heard them, and he wasn’t sure if his stomach was clenching from riding all the coasters or whether it was simply from your flushed cheeks, slightly messy hair and wide grin. 

Minho was surprisingly the first to cave, the athlete deciding that it was definitely time to eat, and nobody had disagreed. You had found a place to eat, different places to buy food lining the large outdoor seating area, like an outdoor food-court, and you quickly settled on where you wanted to buy your food from. 

Minho had gone first, ordering such a large amount of food your eyes had widened and Thomas laughed at your shock, because it was shocking, and yet or was even more shocking that the boy would eat it all and still be hungry in time for an evening meal. Newt followed him up, the two decided they were going to go and find a table and you were up next. You smiled at the person behind the counter, leaning up to speak your order.

“Can I get a hotdog - just ketchup, chips and a lemonade?” The person’s brows furrowed at your request, and Thomas opened his mouth to correct you, but the person had already left to assemble your order and his jaw clamped shut, perhaps it wouldn’t turn out so bad. 

He was wrong.

You were given your hotdog, but you had been a little thrown when you were handed the bag of chips and the plastic bottle of lemonade, and Thomas saw the disappointment flicker over your face, cursing at yourself under your breath and he frowned, watching as you just handed over your money and took the food, telling Thomas you’d meet him at the table. He was next up, and his eyes scanned over the menu, settling on making this right. 

“One hotdog, two fries and two sodas, thanks.” The person hurried away, and he watched as you settled down beside Newt, huffing as the boy laughed at your bitter drink and a bag of ‘crisps’, clearly not the meal you had been intending to get. He struggled to balance the food in your arms, and he collapsed down into the last uncomfortable metal seat left, pushing a cardboard-cup of soda and a portion of fries across to you, your eyes flicking from the food to him. 

“For me?”

“I saw you order the wrong stuff, and then you were all disappointed. You’re too cute to frown.” He teased, and Newt scoffed, rolling his eyes as Minho gagged.

“Hey! When I ordered the wrong things for months when I first arrived you never bought me food!” Newt mumbled, and you laughed, awwing at him and pinching his cheek. 

“Guess you’re just not as cute as me, g. Better luck next time.” You joked, and he slapped at your hand, smirking at you as he reached over and took a handful of your fries, at least half, your eyes widening as he dropped them onto the plate beside his cheeseburger. “Oi, you gypsy bastard! Those were mine!” 

You scowled, shaking your head and Minho shoved a mouthful of his first hotdog into his mouth as he watched the exchange. “You two should come with subtitles.”

Thomas wasn’t paying attention to Minho, instead, he tipped some of his portion of fries into yours, evening the amounts up and you caught him at the last moment, turning to him as Newt began to try and translate some of the slang to Minho. “You’re so cute.”

Thomas’ cheeks flushed at your words, and he adjusted the sunglasses on his nose to try and hide it, but you reached out carefully to pull them from his face, your eyes sparkling in the sunlight as you looked at him. Leaning forward, you pressed your lips to his cheek, your touch lingering there and he only reddened further at the touch. With a wink, you pushed his sunglasses onto your own face, a small smirk tugging at his features. 

You finally lifted your hotdog, biting into it carefully and licking the ketchup from the edge of your mouth, his eyes glued to the way your tongue moved to flick over the sauce, and you moaned happily as you ate the food. “Oh my God, this is peng.”

“Told you that you’d like the food here. Even if it is street vendors.” Newt chuckled, and you nodded happily. 

“So much better than the crap served from carts on the Manc streets. Reminds me of the home-cooked food you get at the street markets at Christmas.” You muttered, gleefully tucking into your food. Surprisingly, Minho had finished before any of you, and was raring to get back out there, he had been waiting to go on the water slide rides, and you finally agreed. You spent the afternoon drenched, water dripping from the tips of your hair as you went on every water-themed ride there was, sending the afternoons wandering the park in the sun to dry out, until eventually you had been removed when the gates were closing. 

You had all collapsed back into Minho’s car, heading over to the hotel in which you would be staying. As you pulled up, you had noticed an arcade across the road, and you’d turned to the boys excitedly, your eyes glistening as you silently pleaded with them and Thomas had to resist the urge to turn to you, deciding to make you wait for a moment as he watched you practically bounce in your seat.

Pulling into the hotel car park, Minho turned off the car and finally, he let himself turn to look at you, your lip clamped between your teeth and Newt finally turned off his phone, tucking it into his pocket as he looked up at you, brows raised.

“What’s got you looking like an eight year old on Halloween night?” He questioned, a pout forming on your lips at his insult but you never dulled your excitement. 

“There’s an arcade across the road.” Newt hummed in false disinterest, his arm stretching out across the back of the seat behind you, and he hummed casually, a small smirk on his face as you whined. “I really want to go. Can we please?”

“Not me you have to convince, love.” Newt gestured to Thomas and Minho in the front seat, and he caught your eyes, watching as you smiled at them softly. 

“Minho I bet they have lots of cheap food and bumper-cars so you can drag Newt onto them and give him whiplash.” You tried, the boy agreeing immediately, while the grumbling blond beside you pinched your arm lightly. Your gaze finally met his, your eyelashes fluttering as you leaned forward, smiling at him sweetly and he was already breaking. “Tommy, will you pretty please come to the arcade with me?” 

He huffed out at your statement, you must know exactly what you were doing to him because he struggled to hold his gaze with yours and not let his eyes flick down to your lips, a blush crawling along his cheekbones and he nodded gently. Licking over dry lips, he let them tilt up in a lop-sided smile. “Sure, sweetheart.”

You had been thrilled when he agreed, a toothy smile revealed as you cheered happily, hands immediately going to find the clip for your seatbelt as you freed yourself from the car, your feet hitting the tarmac lightly. You were practically skipping, but you didn’t rush the boys, instead choosing to wait patiently as they freed themselves from the vehicle, discussing the plans for the evening and how long they would stay. 

Rounding toward them, Thomas watched as you sidled up behind their little cluster, his fingers twitching in surprise when the tips of yours skimmed across his palm, your fingers lacing through his as your other arm wrapped around his bicep, and he turned to look down at you carefully as he wove his fingers with yours. 

“It’s cold.” You whispered the explanation and he smirked, tugging you around to his front to stand closer to his chest. 

“I got you, sweetheart, we’ll be inside soon, anyway.” He grinned, dipping his head to brush his lips against your forehead before Newt cleared his throat, and he snapped back up to his full height, his body stiffening as he blushes and looked at his less than amused friend, and a chuckle left your lips as your hand tightened around his own.

“Can we please go to the arcade now?” You questioned, and Newt reached out a hand to ruffle at your hair as he laughed teasingly, nodding his head as you set off on the journey to cross the road. 

Thomas was right, it was warm when you stepped into the loud arcade, the warmth washing over his skin and he shivered happily as he was embraced in the atmosphere. Lights flashed brightly from all the different games while the tunes and jingles to attract you to each machine melded in the air, sounds of winning and losing complimenting them, and the music playing from the speakers was barely audible.

Clasping a hand down on the fabric of Newt’s shoulder, Minho marched him towards the foot stand he’d just spotted. “Loser is buying the food!” He announced, the blond complaining as he asked Minho how he could possibly still be hungry as their bodies slipped away into the crowds. 

Your face pushed into his bicep, and Thomas looked down at you gently as you muffled your laughs. “The real question is, how does someone lose at bumper cars?” You asked, and Thomas let his own chuckles mix with yours as he thought it over, eventually shrugging at you as he looked around the place. “So, what first?”

“You wanted to come here, it’s your choice, sweetheart.” He beamed, and you shook your head at him, nibbling on your bottom lip as you spied an empty game, and your grip on his arm tightened as you drew his attention to it, his brows furrowing. “The basketball one?” You nodded, dragging him over to a change machine as you fished through your bag for your purse, and he closed his hand over yours gently. “I got us.”

Pushing a note into the machine, he grabbed one of the paper tubs and placed it under the dispenser as coins began to jingle and fall free from the metal box. Your lips pressed to his cheek, a bashful grin taking over his features as he looked at you. The minute the coins had stopped falling, he snatched the little cardboard pot, holding it out to you as you took in your hands happily. 

Guiding him over to the game, you pushed the coins into the slots, the game lighting up with flashing colours as instructions appeared on the screen, and the first ball came rolling down the ramp toward you. The basket soon started sliding back and forth, and you aimed carefully, the speed picking up as more balls rolled down the ramp toward you, gathering up as you still tried to aim, shooting the first ball and it bounced off of the rim, bouncing back toward you and landing on the metal slab. 

Before you could pick up another one, however, the sound of a horn blaring echoed through the room, and all the balls slid away as red flashed along the sides, flashing and taunting you for your loss and you pouted at the machine as it red a score of zero. A total of no tickets coming from the machine for your pitiful attempt made you turn toward him with a pout and he tried to suppress his laugh at your sad attempt.

“Here, why don’t you try again.” He pushed another coin into the machine as he moved to stand behind you, sliding his hands down your arms as he pressed his front flush up to your back. His hands closed over yours, guiding you to pick up the first ball that was rolling toward you and he pulled your arms back, leaning your bodies before shooting it perfectly, your hands clasped in his as it sank straight through the hoop, and you cheered happily.

The movements of the hoop sliding back and forth began to speed up and you reached for another basketball, his hands once again guiding yours as the ball flew forward, once again going through the hoop and you cheered in his grasp as you settled further into him. You didn’t achieve every shot, but you got almost all of them, and he was thrilled watching you excitedly wait for the tickets to dispense themselves from the machine for your taking. “You’re fantastic.”

He smiled, your hand finding home with his again and he looked down at your intertwined hands, before dragging his gaze back up to yours, the lights in the room flashing on your skin and lighting you up beautifully. “Nah, that was all you. You just had a bad first try.”

You gave him a gentle smile as you shook your head at him, before insisting that he choose the next game. 

After that, you had continued to take turns, the collection of tickets gathering up in your arms as you moved from console to console, trying everything. You had even managed to drag him onto one of the dance machines, his feet getting tangled at he tried to move. It wasn’t his fault he was distracted as he watched you jump out, singing the lyrics and losing yourself in the moment as you beat him with no struggle. 

By the time Newt and Minho had found you, the two of you were leaning against a claw game giggling as his hand over yours tried to snatch a teddy bear from a machine, his other arm sealed tightly around your waist, fingers splayed across your stomach and his chin balanced on your shoulder. 

“What are you two up to, then?” The British voice rang out, and you both turned to him, briefly, noises of complaints leaving you when the toy you had grasped slipped from the claws just before falling to the door where you could retrieve it. 

“Damn, Newt! I almost had one of these shite little bastards, you ruined it!” You muttered, and the blond laughed as he looked at the both of you. 

“How much money have you spent on the claw machine?” He shrugged, neither of you wanting to divulge how much your pride had really cost you as you’d insisted you would get it. With a shake of his head, he told you that it was time to go, and to Thomas’ surprise, you haven't argued. 

“Can we go exchange our tickets first?” You questioned him, and Newt glanced down at the handful of red tokens in reams that you held up to show him. With a nod, you were quickly bounding away, and Newt’s eyes narrowed at Thomas once you had left. 

“You seemed cosy.” He questioned, and Thomas’ mouth dry as he searched for words to use in response to his friend, but all that left his lips was a grunt, everything seeming to slip away from him in that moment. “Just don’t be a twat about it, alright? She deserves a nice guy.”

“I am a nice guy..” Thomas muttered, his frown turned into a scowl as the Brit finally smiled at him, shoving his shoulder lightly. 

“Well, are you going to go and help her pick out her prizes or not? If someone doesn’t monitor her then she’ll buy a lot of candy and be up all night.” With a roll of the eyes, Thomas suppressed his smile until he had turned away from the two boys, Newt’s approval ringing in his head as he made his way to find you. By the time he reached you, you were already accepting the paper bag with your rewards in, and he raised his eyebrows as you balanced it in your arm.

“Look what I got us!” You fished out two keychains, both with a globe sitting on the bottom and his eyebrows raised. “We can have matching keychains, so even when I’m on the other side of the globe, you can still think of me. Newt’s crazy friend.” You chuckled, holding one out to him and he took it in his fingers, twirling it softly in his palm.

“Crazy cute friend.” He muttered, dipping his nose to bump the tip against yours in thanks for your gift and you smiled, nuzzling your own back against him. 

“I got Newt this crappy union jack keychain, so he remembers his roots. Very important. And I got Minho this hotdog keychain. I don’t think that needs much of an explanation.” You showed him each of the items before dropping them back into the bag, and his arm looped around your shoulder as he guided you back to the other two so you could give them the trinkets you had won for them, both of whom were more than happy with their gifts.

The walk across the road was quick but cold, and Minho was jingling his car keys in his fingers, trying to put the hotdog, which he had promptly name ‘Harry’ onto the objects, before Newt had told him to hurry up so they could get your bags from the car and not have to wait in the cold anymore. 

You were left standing on the concrete outside of the hotel with Thomas, and he ran his hands up and down your arms in a bid to keep you slightly warmer as the other boy’s disappeared from view. He wasn’t sure how, but in the mere half a day you had been here, you had already managed to find your way straight to his heart, and he didn’t even care. He hated the sinking feeling in his stomach about the fact that in a month you would be leaving him again, but he was damned if he wasn’t going to make the absolute most of the month he would get to spend with you. 

He was too busy admiring you to notice that your attention had turned from your friends to him, until your voice calling out to him had snapped him from his dazing, and heat crawled up his cheeks as he grinned. 

His hands slowed their movements, slipping under the denim of your jacket to sit on the thin material of your dress, the heat from your skin radiating out into his palms, and your own arms looped around his neck, pulling yourself closer to him until your fronts were pressed together. He was nervous, his heart racing, until suddenly you pushed up onto your tiptoes, your lips meeting his softly and he let out a sighed-moan against your lips as the action he had been wanting to do with you for the past six hours at least, finally became a reality.

Your movements were slow and cautious at first, lips pressing subtle pecks to his own as you both grew bolder, his hands sliding around to sit on your back under your jacket, pulling you tighter to his body as your head tilted to the side. Your fingers found their way to scratching and playing with the shorter hairs on the back of his neck as the tips of his own dug into your skin, a needy whine falling from him. 

Tracing your tongue along the seam of his lips he had happily parted them for you, the muscles sliding and dragging together as you swallowed the gentle moan the other released the air around you both seeming to crackle and tingle with energy, and it was like the cold no longer mattered, or even existed. You hummed happily against him, letting him explore between your cheeks with his tongue as you did the same to him, and his lips slid wetly over yours as he pulled back, panting and flushed from the exchange. 

Your lips were red and swollen, parted slightly as you sucked in ragged breaths like he did, and he smiled, his eyes sliding shut as he leaned down to rest his forehead against yours. 

“Why is all the emphasis on french-kissing when British girls kiss like that?” He was breathless as he spoke, and you giggled at his words, shaking your head fondly and pecking his lips, a groan falling from him at the small exchange.

“I think this is going to be a great vacation.” He smirked at your words, one of his hands sliding down until the tips of his fingers were brushing against your ass, nodding slightly and he dragged his lips against yours again, just enough to tease.

“Yeah, it is. I promise.” With that, his lips sealed over yours again, his tongue pushing past your lips to play with your own again and something between a squeak and a moan in surprise left you, and Thomas decided he loved that sound. Relaxing into him again, he held you tightly, willing himself to build up the courage to full slip his hand down onto your ass, but a familiar voice shouting at him snapped you both apart in a startled jump, your lips smacking at the parted.

“She’s been here fourteen bloody hours, get your hand off her ass and your tongue outta’ her mouth!” Thomas held his hands up, beaming cheekily at his friend before shrugging. 

“Dude, she is hot. I can be held accountable.” He joked, the look dropping from his face as Newt made to dash towards him, and he placed a quick peck to your lips before bolting away from the blond who was now chasing him.

“Come back here, you wanker!” You turned to Minho, who was standing with your bags, and still struggling to get the hotdog charm into his kets, and you held your hand out for him to give it to you, and you slipped it on in moments, his jaw gaping as you did.

“You’re more useful than Newt, can we keep you instead?” He joked, and you laughed lightly, watching the two boys chase one another around the car park. 

“You know, I might just stick around for a while.”

[tealin]

Scene 1: Int. Cape Evans, Men's Quarters

Hi Tumblr! If you want to see this post with all the photos properly embedded, please visit the original. Reformatting on this site has made it difficult to get the images to show up.

It’s time to step into the Terra Nova hut. Look, the door is already open.

It’s open because the Antarctic Heritage Trust is here doing their annual check-up. Just because they’re here, though, doesn’t mean you don’t have to do the same boot-brush-and-sign-in routine that you do at Hut Point, so you do that. Here’s the guestbook. Have a go.

Since we’ve got a moment here, allow me to draw your attention to the cloth hanging above the wood plaque. It’s a plankton net, probably one of the ones Nelson used as he studied the biology of the sea over which we’ve parked our snowmobiles. At our feet is an enormous bright red fire extinguisher, which is very important – ironically, on this continent of ice, the greatest threat to the historic sites is fire. We do not want this hut to burn down. No, no.

Between the sign-in table and the fire extinguisher is a stack of skis, and I’d like to draw your attention to one in particular.

This ski (and its partner, not pictured) belonged to Edward Leicester Atkinson, expedition surgeon and commander during the second winter, after Scott had died. They were returned to the Antarctic Heritage Trust 100 years after Atkinson left Cape Evans and are now back home. It’s good to see them here.

Now we can step inside, through the small vestibule which had been the original entrance to the hut, before the porch was built. The cylindrical device for generating acetylene gas from calcium carbide should be here, but the AHT is conserving or photographing it or something, so it’s in pieces somewhere else. That’s fine, because what we really want to see is this:

We are standing in the mens’ quarters – the hut is arranged like a Naval ship, with the officers at one end and the ‘men’ – the ordinary sailors – at the other. As the men’s quarters on a ship tend to be at the front end, we can call this area ‘forward’ and the officers’ area (which you can see down the passageway) ‘aft’, and therefore the sides of the hut are ‘port’ and ‘starboard.’ I will use these terms to describe where we are because they don’t change relative to which direction you’re facing, as left and right do. In this picture, port is to the right and starboard to the left. To orient yourself with the outdoor photos, the sea, from this viewpoint, is to starboard (left), where the sun is coming in, and Wind Vane Hill is a little forward (behind us) to port (right).

Everything is easier with some visuals!

This post, I’m just going to be showing you around the forward part. Future ones will cover the officers’ quarters, in sections, because there’s a lot to see and I have so many stories to tell you.

Right, clear as mud? Let’s continue!

I have walked around this hut many, many times in my mind, aided by historical photos and some modern ones, so actually stepping through that door and seeing it for myself was a very emotional experience. The wash of feelings was cut short, though, by noticing this object on the mens’ table:

It was so exciting I put aside my feelings entirely, because I didn’t know this thing still existed! It doesn’t look like much, but it was a tabletop game that might possibly have saved the mental health of the expedition, their second winter. Silas Wright can explain:

I do not think any chess games or indeed card games were at all common, but someone in the party had received a toy which proved to be most popular with all. I think it may have been called bagatelle; at any rate there was a wooden board about 4 feet by 5 feet, with a number of wooden balls, approximately spherical, a miniature billiard cue and a bridge across one end of the board with a number of arches which were wide enough to permit the passage of the balls. Of course all the balls did not long retain their original spherical shape and there was one which had early lost an appreciable amount of wood to which Demetri (I think it was) gave the name "British Pluck." Its movements when struck by the cue were extremely erratic. I mention this childish game we all played. It may surprise my readers (if any), but it does give me a chance to say that the reversion to childish games was of real value in holding the party together. So firmly do I believe this that I would suggest that no small party such as ours should be without the wherewithal to play "darts" and "shove ha’penny" which do not really demand the surroundings of a bar as in the old English village "pub.” (Silas, pp.281-2)

They set up weekly bagatelle tournaments, where the winner would get a ‘medal’ and the lowest scorer would be ‘the Jonah’ for a week. That this vital piece of equipment should have survived to the modern day, and be displayed so prominently, was a tremendous joy. It may have lost its broad base board, but it’s far better than not existing at all.

Anyway. The wall behind the table, continuing the nautical tradition, was known as the ‘bulkhead’, and was made of packing crates full of food, stacked on their sides so they could be opened and their contents removed as necessary, then the empty crates used as shelving. In the most recent photograph I had seen of the restored hut, the bulkhead was largely missing, so I was glad to see it back. It looked like it had been largely reconstructed out of crates from outside, as the paint had prevented some weathering before finally weathering away itself.

Here is a historical photo of Tom Crean and Taff Evans mending sleeping bags against the bulkhead. You can see the shelving unit behind them, though back then it stood in front of the bulkhead rather than forming a part of it.

This bulkhead is the source of much criticism of Scott’s leadership style in modern times, dividing the officers and men into two units. I am not here to pass judgement, but I do invite you to consider the following question for yourself: If you were at a work retreat that was going to last for two years, would you want to sleep in the same room as your boss? Call me ‘not a team player’ but that wall would have been my favourite thing in the hut.

OK, to get your bearings, turn around, and here is the door we came in:

If you keep turning, you will be facing the galley, which is to port of the door. Nearest the door is the cook’s table, strewn with things useful to the preparation of food.

Turn slightly further, and you can see the cook’s bunk. For the first winter, Thomas Clissold (pictured above) slept here. He was first and foremost an artificer – like a machinist – and found novel ways to advance his culinary arts through metalwork, including, quite possibly, that tray on the table, which might have been used to make sausage rolls. His most cunning invention was a rising bread alarm: he would wake up early, get the dough going for the morning bread, then put it under his device. Once the dough rose to the desired height, it would trigger a bell and a flashing red light, which would wake him from the couple hours’ extra sleep which his ingenuity had earned.

Our tour will continue next week with the starboard side of the officers’ quarters, the section historically known as ‘The Tenements.’

[builder051]

Whumptober 2020 day 19: grief

Pantherverse 2.0

TW: contains non-canonical major character death

When a blocked number appears on the display of Bucky’s phone, he expects int to be Nat.  This time, though, it’s Shuri.

“Can you come?” she asks.  “Please?”

Bucky knows she wouldn’t ask without good reason.  “Ok,” he says softly.  He’s afraid to push for more information.

“It’s my brother.  I’m afraid he’s not long for this world.”

Bucky and Steve take the quinjet and arrive in Wakanda early the next morning.  Shuri meets them on the tarmac and leads them into the palace.

“You know T’Challa’s always had stomach problems.  He dismissed them as nothing and would never let me treat them with anything but antacids.”  Shuri sadly shakes her head.  “Now the cancer’s so advanced that even with vibranium nanobots targeting the intrusive cells, it’s metastasizing too quickly for me to keep up.”

They step out of the elevator on the level for Shuri’s lab.  There’s a hospital bed in the center of the large space, and T’Challa lies under a mountain of blankets.  Dr. Cho hangs a bag of IV fluids on a pole at the head of the bed, and the Queen Mother sits in a cushioned chair by its foot.  Nakia and Okoye stand like statues behind her.

“She has him on the more traditional chemotherapy and radiation,” Shuri says, indicating Dr. Cho, “While I’m working on the experimental methods.”

T’Challa’s eyes are closed and his breathing is measured, but he seems to have twitched slightly at the sound of the elevator door closing.  “Is he--”  Bucky takes a step forward.

“Resting,” T’Challa whispers without opening his eyes.  “Not sleeping.”

Bucky lets out a shaky breath, then smiles.  “How are you, pal?”

“Could be better...”  T’Challa shifts, his bald head sliding across his pillow as he turns to face Bucky and Steve.  “But still here yet.”

“Eh, you’re not going anywhere,” Bucky says, though tears prickle at the corners of his eyes.  Steve reaches for Bucky’s hand and squeezes it tightly.

“Not yet.”  T’Challa coughs.  “Soon, though.  I’ll be going on to the land of my father.  And my father’s father...”

They stay at his bedside till well after midnight.  When T’Challa’s breathing goes shallow, he graciously asks for a moment alone with his family.  

Okoye shows Bucky and Steve to a gorgeously appointed bedroom on the floor above.  She bows her head and starts to leave, but Bucky quickly says, “No, stay.”  

The three of them sit on the bed, fully clothed and arms intertwined, until dawn light begins to break through the curtains.  

There’s a soft knock on the door, then it opens a crack.  It’s Nakia steps inside, her cheeks tearstained.  She slowly shakes her head, and they all know what it means.

Bucky’s heart sinks.  He turns his face into Steve’s shoulder and begins to weep, his chest heaving as silent sobs rise out of him.  Okoye pats him on the back, her eyes glistening with her own quiet show of emotion.

Bucky slowly exhausts himself, his eyes gritty and his stomach churning.  He lies back on the bed and shuts his eyes.  He doesn’t know if he’ll ever have such another good friend as he had in T’Challa.  Such an honorable man. He just knows that he can say with reverence long live the king.    

[gingerpeachtae]

Concentric [15]

masterlist

Words: 13.3k 😅

Genres: fantasy!AU, angst, fluff, enemies to lovers, eventual smut (?)

Warnings: some brief smexi and violent blurbs (death)

Summary: You had been ready for the end of the semester. You had been ready to spend time away from your best friend, Jimin, and finally move on from the feelings you harbored. Yet, after your friend was forced to reveal a secret, you found yourself in a new world that was chock full of magic, war, and wonder. So, here you were, basically thrown into your own fantasy novel, with your best friend on one side, and six male warriors on the other.

A/N: I would like to thank the song Different by Woodz for helping me power through this long ass update. Thank you everyone for waiting so patiently!!! Engoy! 💙

“You need to raise your elbow.”

Arms straining against the draw-weight, you struggled a bit to comply, but you managed to lift your elbow just an inch higher.

“Okay, better, but now you’re leaning forward.” Jungkook critiqued as he peered at you.

Sighing, you relaxed your draw and allowed your arms to drop. Holding your bow in one hand and the arrow in the other, you began to shake your limbs out and roll your shoulders; trying to loosen up and get rid of the tension in your body. Though it was a little difficult to accomplish when a certain someone was right there.

Does he have to stand so close?

“Try again.”

Think about the target, not him.

Nodding, you nocked the arrow before inhaling and raising your bow. Breathing slowly and steadily, you took aim and waited for Jungkook’s assessment. Though as you waited, you did your best to ignore his distracting presence. You focused your eyes on the target carved in to the tree. Not the simultaneously cute, hot, and concentrated look on his handsome face. You listened to the chatter of birds and the whoosh of wind through the leaves. Not the song he hummed in an alluring voice as he inspected your form and circled around to your back. You breathed in the fragrance of damp earth and soggy wood caused by last night’s rain. Not the intoxicating and comforting scent of steel and florets that followed his body like candle smoke

Nope, definitely not focusing on any of those.

A warm touch under your elbow made you flinch.

“Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you.” He murmured as he adjusted your arm to his liking. “There. Much better.”

You swallowed hard and let him manipulate you as he pleased. You weren’t even paying attention to the way he maneuvered your form. All you could think of was that he was right behind you.

Right.

Behind.

You.

Oh my-fuck-okay. This is fine. Everything’s fine.

He moved his other hand down to your tummy, stepping closer to you to balance himself as he did so. Pressing against your belly slightly, he forced your spine to straighten. The action caused your back to brush against his chest and your lungs to harshly suck in air.

“Keep your posture or your back will hate you.”

This is not fine. This is not fine. Holy fuck. Everything is most definitely not fine!

The early morning chill in your bones began evaporating as his body heat enveloped you, but despite the warmth now flowing into you, goosebumps started to develop along your skin. Originating at the source of his contact, you felt them follow the tingles surging through you and you shivered at their sensations. Overwhelmed by his proximity, you didn’t know what to do. Your entire body was frozen. Your entire self was burning.

“You good? You just stiffened all of the sudden.” Jungkook noted as he felt your body tense beneath his hands.

Your eyes widened and you thanked the gods of Illain that he couldn’t see them expand in panic. Hastily, you released the bowstring and the arrow thumped into the tree just shy of the center of the target. As soon as the arrow hit, you stepped forward and away from Jungkook. Immediately, you missed his warmth. At the same time, you felt like you could breathe again.

Pivoting to face the male, you saw him smiling proudly at your shot.

“I’m good. Totally good. Fantastic you could say, as you can see.” You gestured to the arrow before bringing your hand to rub up and down the arm that held the bow.

Jungkook’s smile morphed int a smirk as he turned his eyes to you and crossed his arms. “I wouldn’t say fantastic… but it’s pretty great, I’ll give you that.”

You felt the corner of your mouth upturn slightly at his praise and you looked down to hide the delicate grin.

You heard him chuckle lightly. “Let’s do it again.”

Only if you help agai-wait no. NO. No closeness. No touchy. Get some distance.

Lifting your head to look at him, you didn’t make any moves to step forward as you raked your brain for alternative things to do. Your obvious hesitation made him raise an eyebrow at you. Pursing your lips, you shifted your gaze to the tress beside him as you pleaded with your chickpea brain to come up with something. Anything. But when you still didn’t move or say a word, his eyes narrowed, and he took a step toward you.

As he advanced, you lurched backward; desperate to keep space between you as you suddenly exclaimed, “Meditation!”

Jungkook stopped and looked at you in both a curious and confused manner. “Medi…tation…?”

“Oh, uh… yes! Meditation!” You rapidly nodded and went ahead and sat on the ground. “I feel a little disorganized today mentally, so I think it would be more beneficial.”

Not to mention it’ll keep you away because you’re the reason my mind is a fucking mess.

“O-Okay?” He blinked at your strange behavior.

“Great!” You laid back and rested your hands on your stomach while closing your eyes. “Now sit your ass down and don’t move and don’t say anything.”

You heard him huff and move before plopping down. Of course, right next to you.

Can he not!? Ugh, okay, whatever. Just focus on your breathing and ignore him.

It seemed like several minutes went by of trying to imagine a lotus flower expanding and collapsing in your mind to time your breaths to. Those minutes, which in actuality were probably only mere seconds, were constantly interrupted by the feeling of being watched. It started weighing down on you, making it damn near impossible to conjure that imaginary lotus flower.

A few more minutes seconds went by, and that feeling grew heavier and heavier. Finally, you opened your lids ever so slightly and peeked a Jungkook.

Who was staring straight at you with soft, peridot eyes.

Spasming internally, you sat up and smacked his arm, which startled him. “Meditating doesn’t mean watching me like a creeper!”

He just laughed and shrugged as he made a remark about how he couldn’t help himself. Apparently, you had just looked too adorable all relaxed and breathing slowly while your body occasionally twitched.

All the air in your lungs magically vanished as your jaw dropped.

A-Adorable? Why does he have to say stuff like that!?

His smile doubled at your dumbfounded and shocked appearance. “You going to continue…?”

Cute smile. Cute face. I wanna smoosh in my hands. I wanna-okay, nope nope nope. This isn’t working. Time to abort.

“You know what? I feel way better already. I feel so organized. Like I got shelves in my head type of organized and-” You gasped, though it was a little too aggressive to possibly sound legit and scrambled to your feet. “Oh my goodness, I just remembered I promised Tae I’d help him catch a… a duck! I promised him I’d help catch a duck this morning. So, um, I gotta leave… to go catch a… duck…”

Bending down, you quickly snatched up your bow as a baffled, yet intrigued, Jungkook probed, “Why does Tae want a duck?”

“Uh… he, uh, said he wanted it for dinner and Jin said he’d cook it fi he got one?”

You jogged over to where your quiver was resting against the base of a tree and picked it up by the strap. You stilled briefly as you realized almost a third of your arrows were implanted in various trees, but you ultimately decided you didn’t necessarily need them.

“Duck is pretty tasty…” Jungkook muttered to himself before snapping back to attention. “Hey, wait, we aren’t done with training yet!”

That was true. You probably still had a good twenty-five minutes left in the session, but you didn’t think twice about ditching early as you sped-walked out of there. All you could think of was getting away from Jungkook’s cute, stupid face and his cute, stupid remarks that didn’t mean what you wanted them to mean. Said male, taken aback by your rapid departure, simply stared at your retreating back.

As you finally put some distance between you and Jungkook you head him shout after you. “Where the Illai’s name are you going to find a duck in the middle of the forest!?”

As the sun reached its highest point later that same day, you found yourself firmly slapping a hand over Tae’s mouth. You had just told him about your possible feelings toward his brother that may or may not be developing into a full-blown crush. At first, he pouted, thinking you were teasing him and dangling his “ship” in front of his face. As weird as that sounded, you didn’t crack a smile or even giggle. This was some serious shit, dammit. Once he realized you weren’t joking around, the Saeni gradually started hyperventilating and buzzing in excitement. Which led you to your current position: hand smacked over his mouth to conceal any squeal that threatened to escape. His blue eyes locked with yours and you sighed at the utter elation swimming in them.

He pushed your arm away, freeing his mouth, and whisper-yelled, “You’re serious!? Oh my goddess, yes yes yes!”

Although he wasn’t being very loud, your eyes still darted around to check if anyone was listening. “Can you keep it down?”

Your eyes continued to frantically sweep over the other Saeni, but when you realized none of them had heard, you released some of the tension in your body. As you let out your relieved exhale, your gaze fell on the burgundy head that was walking alongside your best friend. Smiling, you raised a hand and let your fingertips brush against the quiver strap crossing your chest.

You were all gearing up to leave, just double-checking to make sure you had all your things. It had been about forty minutes since you dipped from training, and Namjoon wanted to roll out within the next five. Satisfied all your belongings were safely tucked away, you zipped up your backpack and rose from your crouch while continuing to explain to Tae how frustrating it was when books change their covers halfway through a series.

“Like you have the first two books with the original cover and out of nowhere they just change to a new edition for the third book! So, you either have to deal with mismatched covers or spend the money to replace the first two books! Ugh! It gives me a headache.”

“Is it really that big of a deal?” Tae inquired as he adjusted his headband. “I mean, you’re still reading the same story, right?”

“Yes, it’s a big deal! A huge deal! And don’t even get me started on when they change the cover to the movie poster.” You fake gagged at the thought, causing Tae to giggle.

“What’s a movi-”

He was interrupted by someone clearing their throat and you looked over your shoulder to see Jungkook standing there with one of his hands behind his back.

“Hey, Kookie! What’s up?” Tae asked while you just smiled at the green-eyed male and tried to ignore your quickening heartbeat.

Bringing his visible hand up to rub the back of his neck, he said, “H-Here,” while removing his other hand from behind his back and thrusting it toward you.

In his grasp was a bundle of arrows.

All the ones you had left behind this morning.

You moved your eyes from the arrows to his face and saw that he was still rubbing his neck while avoiding looking at you. Smiling to yourself, you thanked him before gently grabbing the arrows and tucking them into their rightful home.

“Hey!”

You beamed yourself out of the memory and back to reality at the sound of Tae excitedly addressing someone. Focusing your eyes back on your surroundings, you registered that both Yoongi and Hobi were now walking with you. He must have called them over while you were lost in your thoughts.

“Guess what, hyungs!?”

Hold up. Guess what!? Oh hell no. He better not be talking about what I think he’s talking about. I swear if he is…

“Tae…” You warned the Saeni as you carefully walked down an incline.

Dismissing you, he joyously leaned in close to the two older Saeni and whispered, “She has a crush on Kookie!”

“Tae!”

As Hobi gasped at the news, Yoongi glanced between you and his practically vibrating brother. “Am I supposed to act surprised or…?”

“Excuse me?” You scoffed at the magic user’s dry tone.

“Please, it’s quite obvious, Y/N.” He rolled his petal pink eyes and squatted underneath a fallen tree before smirking. “Looks like you got over Chim pretty fast though.”

“Whoa, you liked Chim?” Hobi covered his mouth in astonishment as he braced one hand on the same tree and leapt over it.

While you and Tae ducked and shuffled below it, his question made you groan.

For fuck’s sake, is it Expose Y/N Day?

“Does Chim even know?” Tae poked you.

“Know what?” You asked in an exasperated tone and almost releasing a hysterical chuckle. “That I thought I was in love with him or that I possibly like his brother now?”

“Oh my goddess, you were in love with Chim!?”

“Girl, you like him. Stop dancing around it. And no Hobi, she thought she was.”

You gave the magic user a pointed glare while angrily waving your arm around your head to ward off a pesky bug that kept bothering you. “I don’t think you have any room to talk, Mr. Sparkle Hands.”

His eyes briefly glanced at Hobi before narrowing at you menacingly. You gulped when you saw his hand twitch and a couple of mint-blue sparks fell the forest floor. Laughing nervously, you tiptoed your way to Hobi’s other side, effectively putting him between you and Yoongi like a shield.

The white-haired Saeni sighed contently and wrapped an arm around your shoulders, murmuring wistfully about young love as Tae elaborated on whether your best friend knew of your current crush.

You mumbled back that he didn’t.

“Well, why not?” Tae asked with an innocent tilt of his head. “I’m not complaining, but isn’t it sort of odd you told me before him?”

Yoongi rapped his knuckles on an adolescent tree he was passing while he snickered. “She’s probably too embarrassed to.”

“I am not!” You protested as Hobi frowned and told the magic user not to be mean.

The mint-haired Saeni just looked you up and down. “Mhmm. Sure.”

You released an offended noise and stepped out from underneath Hobi’s arm to glare at Yoongi.

“I’ll do it right now.” You raised a confident brow at him before yelling, “Slim Jim! Get your ass over here!”

Your smug expression steadily fell, though, as your best friend said a quick goodbye to Jungkook and jogged back to meet you.

Am I really about to tell my old crush about my new crush? I mean, he didn’t know he was my crush and maybe he wasn’t even an actual crush when I think about it now, but he is my best friend. He should know. But it’s still a bit weird an-

You jumped as Jimin tackled you into a big hug.

“What’s up, squirt?”

“Squirt?” You laughed a little too loud and a little too long. “That’s new! Ha ha! When did you come up with that one? It’s kinda too ‘Finding Nemo’ if you ask me, but I mean, you do you, you know? New nicknames… man, aren’t they jus…”

To the side, you saw Yoongi giving you an “I told you so” look, so you let your words trail off into silence. Jimin gave you a majorly confused face as you laughed to distract both him and you from your nerves, but you took a deep breath and managed to look him straight in the eye.

“Okay, so, um… I knda sort of maybe, uh… like somone?”

Jimin grinned at you, his eyes squishing closed. “Kookie, right? You guys would be cute together.”

Your jaw dropped and you tripped over a tree root.

“Why are you so shocked?” He asked with a laugh as he nudged you. “I’m your best friend, doofus. I’ve known you for so long and you’ve never looked at someone the way you look at him.”

You looked down at your hands and began toying with your fingers.

“I probably looked at you like that, you just never noticed…” You muttered under your breath, forgetting that his hearing now matched his brothers.

“Wait, what?”

You immediately stopped walking and stiffened. Oh, fuck.

You shot your head up and your wide eyes met his, but no sound came out of your mouth. You just parted and closed your lips repeatedly, not knowing what to do or say. As you desperately tried to figure out what you should do, you saw the others step back slightly and look away.

“You… you liked me?”

“Wow, I think I dropped my, uh, dignity back there so I’m just gonna go spend the rest of my life looking for it a-”

“Y/N…”

“-nd never show my face to anyone ever again. See ya!” With a panicked salute, you swiveled around and went to go find a ditch to lay down in for the remainder of eternity.

He stopped you by gently grabbing your wrist and saying your name desperately. “Y/N…”

Letting out a defeated sigh, you turned back to him. “Fine… yes, I liked you. Er, I thought I did. I’m honestly not quite sure what I really felt for you anymore.”

“Shit, Y/N, I… I’m so sorry. I didn’t know, and fuck, I would go out with all those girls right in front of you and…” He released your wrist to run a hand through his hair. “Fuck. I’m such a-I didn’t-holy shit.”

You sent him a soft grin and pushed his shoulder playfully. “Of course you didn’t know. I know you didn’t because I made sure you didn’t. And you don’t need to apologize. Besides, like I said, I’ve moved on from your sorry ass.”

“Yeah, for my own brother.” Jimin teased you but his smile quickly fell, and he continued with a strained voice. “I just… fuck, I feel like the biggest asshole. I literally just talked about knowing you for so long and I didn’t even… I didn’t even realize I was hurting you.”

Both his hands went to his hair and he tugged on it stressfully.

“Hey hey hey.” You detangled his fingers from his apricot locks and held his hands. “It’s okay. I’m good. You’re good. We’re good. I swear.”

You dropped his hands and then held your arms out with a hesitant smile, hoping that he still felt comfortable around you. To your relief, he immediately entered your embrace and held you tightly. You clung to each other for several seconds until, with one last squeeze, you stepped back. You saw he was lightly beaming at you and he reached out to ruffle your hair.

Seeing that your “private” moment was over, the others joined once more and began teasing you for how awkward that whole conversation was. You mildly shoved a laughing Yoongi away, but you were giggling as well because they weren’t wrong.

Awkward? Absolutely. But I feel… better?

“What are you guys talking about?” A new voice popped up. “You’re making me feel left out.”

Your giggles faded as you noticed Jungkook standing on the outskirts of your little gossip group, a pout evident on his face.

Your eyes bugged out. “N-Nothing! Nothing at all!”

Tae’s eyes, on the other hand, brightened and he began saying, “Actually, we were talking about-”

“Oh, just stupid stuff like, uh… if we prefer waffles or pancakes and our favorite sex positions!” You hastily spoke over the grey-haired Saeni, but as soon as your words left your mouth you wanted to mentally smack yourself to oblivion.

Favorite sex positions? Really, Y/N? REALLY!?

Jungkook coughed while the other three males did their best to contain their snorts and snickers.

Jimin’s face suddenly turned a little evil and you swallowed hard, just dreading his next statement and praying it wouldn’t be too detrimental to your soul.

“You came just in time, Kook. Y/N was just about to share hers.”

WHAT!?

You forced out a threatening laugh before saying through your gritted teeth, “But I already went, remember?”

You glared daggers at your so-called best friend.

He better not…

“I forget what you said,” Yoongi spoke up.

You blinked several times and raised your brows in incredulity.

Tae joined in. “Me too. I mean, there were just so many.”

You choked on your own spit and began hacking up a lung to try to clear your airway.

“Plus, I’m sure Kookie’s curious,” Hobi concluded.

You stumbled over your feet as your eyes expanded to comical proportions. After regaining your balance, you looked at the Saeni in absolute betrayal.

Sputtering, you began to deny their words. As you firmly protested how you only had one favorite position, thank you very much, you realized you were not helping your situation. At all. The three boys were wheezing and barely containing their outbursts. With a fed-up huff, you stomped over to Jungkook and as you passed his stiff form and strangely blank face, you grabbed his hand and dragged him after you. You were abandoning these disloyal hooligans right now and you sure as heck were not leaving Jungkook with them. Who knows what they would tell him!?

Probably that I basically have a big, fat crush on him and that it freaking hurts how I know he’ll never feel the same way about me.

Fuck, that’s so pathetic.

Tae, wanting to make his stupid ship a reality, would probably be the one to blurt it out. Curse his damn blabber mouth and his inability to keep a fucking secret. You undoubtedly trusted the blue-eyed male with your life… but you didn’t trust him with this. Not after he went ahead and spilled to Yoongi and Hobi not even five minutes later.

As a result, you were taking Jungkook with you.

They’re all traitors. Every single one of them. They can roast like marshmallows in the bonfires of hell for all I care now.

“Goodbye, everyone.” You called over your shoulder as you gave them a crisp middle finger without looking back. “I’ll remember you all in therapy!”

They all finally let out their rambunctious laughter as you marched away and towed the burgundy-haired Saeni behind you. Though, in your complete mortification and desire to get away, you didn’t register the fact that Jungkook hadn’t made a single peep during the entire exchange.

A little while later you were hopping from rock to rock as you crossed a shallow, but wide creek. Sure, your shoes were waterproof, so you could have just trudged through the tinkling water like everyone else, but it was more enjoyable this way. Plus, ten minutes ago, Jimin yelled out that he thought his father’s draeva was really close. The energy he was receiving from it had started palpitating and growing even stronger. Because of that, you were going to have as much fun as possible before shit got real again.

You peeked to your left to where Jungkook was making his way through the water beside you. You jolted as you realized he was already looking at you and right as you met his peridot gaze, you instantly returned your sight to the rocks in front of you. You did your best to keep your focus on the stones, but all you could feel were his eyes lingering on you now that you were aware of it. Huffing a bit, you tiptoed to the next available footing and wobbled slightly as the slab tilted under your weight. After steadying yourself, you leapt to the next rock, and the next, and the next. But as you landed on the last one, holding your breath for a second as you edged around the algae sludge covering it, you frowned as you saw a giant gap between you and the nearest rock. You narrowed your eyes at the distance, mentally trying to calculate if you would be able to jump that far when you heard a low chuckle next to you.

“I don’t think you can make that, little human.”

His voice held a tremendous teasing lilt; something that made you even more determined to successfully cross the distance. You wanted to prove him wrong. You could definitely make it. One hundred percent. Ten feet had nothing on you.

“Pffft. Of course I can, just watch me.” You shifted your feet and bent your knees a bit, readying your muscles as you zeroed in on your destination.

Your resolve strengthened as you saw Jungkook cross his arms with an expectant look gracing his face, as if he was waiting for you to fail. With a deep breath, you brought your weight back as you swung your arms behind you. Then, with a tiny, defiant grunt, you threw your weight forward and propelled your body through the air.

Well, you would have.

If your shoe hadn’t slipped on the slimy algae.

Your grunt quickly changed into a surprised screech as you felt yourself go down and not forward. You fell straight into the water with one leg splayed out, a knee tucked underneath you, a hand palming the sandy and pebble-ridden creek bottom, and a forearm somewhat bracing yourself. Of course, since you caught yourself partially on your forearm, half your face was also dunked below the surface.

You shoved yourself up, sputtering as you spat water out of your mouth and pushed your half-wet hair out of your face. As your eyes and ears were cleared of creek water, the first that and sound that met you was Jungkook doubled over from laughter. He kept alternating between pointing at you and clapping his hands as he tried his damned hardest to form words but would lose himself to hysterics every time he took in your now soggy state. His nose was scrunching up, his head thrown back, and the tips of his pointy ears were turning red from the sheer force of his laughter.

Sulking, you raised yourself to both knees and inspected your palm as Jungkook’s boisterous sounds continued to fill the atmosphere. Glad to see that you hadn’t cut your hand, you glared up at the Saeni before looking back down at the water.

“You can stop laughing now, geez,” you mumbled in pout.

But the boy just kept at it. Between his cackles, he made sure to point out how he had “told you” you wouldn’t be able to make it. As if your embarrassment and water-logged self didn’t make that clear enough for you.

He’s such a little shit.

You splashed your hand through the creek, catapulting water at the green-eyed male. It hit him at his upper legs and lower torso, slightly dampening the fabric. Instantly, Jungkook stopped laughing and stared at you with a blank face. You lifted an eyebrow and stared back, your stubbornness and pettiness rising to the surface. A few seconds of your impromptu staring match went by, then Jungkook’s eyes grew devious while he stepped closer to you. Before you could even blink, he placed his hands on your shoulders and shoved.

With a curse, you immediately lost your balance and fell backwards until you landed on your ass. You whimpered as the water seeped into your clothes and completely drenched the rest of your body. Glowering up at the male, you wanted to throw a tantrum at the smirk plastered to his face.

“Don’t start something you can’t finish, sweetheart.” He winked, and with one last chuckle, began making his way across the creek once more.

You smacked the water with your fists before bringing your dripping self to your feet. “GET BACK HERE, YOU INSUFFERABLE COCONUT!”

He just laughed at your outburst and kept walking, so you took off after him. When he heard your feet stomping through the water, he started running away with a grin on his face. You chased after him, screaming obscenities, but you couldn’t help but start laughing too. You probably looked like an idiotic fool to all the other Saeni who were watching your antics unfold.

Jungkook reached the opposite side of the creek and sprinted away into the trees. He must have been “jogging,” though, because you were right on his heels. You both crashed through the forest, yelling and taunting each other. Momentarily, you lost sight of the Saeni through the thick greenery but continued running after him in the direction you believed he went.   When you broke through a cluster of leaves, you saw him standing still with his back to you. Snickering, you snuck up to him as quietly as you could and was about to jump on his back… but you stopped. You had finally looked beyond his shoulders, albeit just for a moment, but the scene made your steps falter.

“Whoa.”

In front of you was a slightly crumpled, but mostly intact, stone construction tucked between the trees. The parts that were still solid were innately carved, so it looked like it must have been something important back in the day. Random trees were growing up and out of the sections of the collapsed stonework, their roots stretching over the structure like lacework. Vines crept over the entire thing as well, and little white flowers were bursting along the climbing plants. Their scent drifted over to you, and you inhaled their floral sweetness. The familiarity of the smell made you think it might be wild honeysuckle. At the center of the building, a detailed spire rose toward the sky. It wasn’t a skinny, needle-esque tower, but rather it was a fat and almost cone-shaped thing that extended to a round point at the top. The carvings were delicate and intricate, and icicles of stonework spiraled around it, creating an interesting contrast to the upward direction of the spire.

As you absorbed the old, yet exceptionally beautiful structure before you in awe, Jungkook let out a breath and whispered, “Juufa.”

It turned out the building was an ancient temple dedicated to Juufa, the god of harmony. Jungkook was in the process of explaining that when the rest of the Saeni caught up with you. All their eyes went wide and they each fell into silent awe as they saw it.

Jungkook continued murmuring to you, “It’s rare to see a temple for the harmony.”

“Huh? Why?”

“It’s said that he doesn’t like to be worshipped because it’s distracting. He prefers to keep to himself and just focus on his duties.” He gestured to the slightly dilapidated structure. “Because of that, most who had temples for Juufa ended up heading his desire and allowing nature to retake them.”

That… is very unconventional of a god. I like him already.

As you continued gawking at the impressive sight before you, you saw Jimin run a hand through his apricot locks and inspect the area in your peripherals. He shuddered suddenly and locked his eyes on one spot to the right of the temple. Following his gaze, it led you to a gathering of trees displayed in a bright beam of sunlight.

“That’s it…” he whispered, making you gasp.

Oh my gosh, is his father’s draeva over there!? Talk about nice real estate.

As if in a trance, Jimin began walking over and you all trailed after him. Along the way, Yoongi silently waved his sparkling hands at you to magically dry you and your clothes off. You sent him a small nod in thanks, pleased to no longer be cold and dripping. As you neared the trees, you could see that Jimin was moving toward the one with the thickest trunk. You didn’t know what type of tree it was, but it was tall and sturdy with a vast network of limbs stretching up and out.

“That’s it,” he whispered again while stepping into sun patch.

You and the other Saeni stopped about ten feet away and spread out in a sloppy semi-circle as Jimin kept advancing.

You held your breath as your best friend hesitantly approached the tree. Slowly, he lifted his hand and placed it against the trunk. But nothing happened.

“Find his handprint,” Jiae suggested with a smile as her lilac hair fluttered in the wind.

Jimin nodded and began stalking around the tree, looking around the trunk and up into the limbs.

“I think I see it,” he said as he began climbing.

As he ascended, you tilted your head toward Tae and asked, “What’s gonna happen when he unlocks the secret?”

He shook his head, causing his feather earring to jingle against his other piercings, and replied that he had no idea.

Blowing out a raspberry, you returned your eyes to Jimin, who exclaimed that he found his father’s mark.

One again, you held your breath and leaned forward in anticipation. Jungkook, though, went to stand underneath his brother. Probably in case the half-Saeni fell from whatever was about to occur.

A crisp breeze ruffled the leaves and Jimin’s hair, and you saw the branch he was leaning against sway in the air. And after taking a deep breath to steel himself, Jimin gently allowed his hand to rest against the bark, in the place you assumed his father’s handprint was located.

And yet, nothing happened.

Jimin’s brows furrowed and he removed his hand before placing it back.

Still, nothing happened.

All of you on the ground pursed your lips and looked at each other in befuddlement before returning your eyes to the apricot head who was now repeatedly slamming his hand into the tree. You blinked at him while he began huffing and puffing in frustration.

Geez, Slim Jim. It’s a tree, not a frozen computer.

“Why-” Slam. “-won’t-” Slam. “-you-” Slam. “-work!?” Slam.

He really emphasized the last one by grinding and smooshing his hand into the bark.

“Uh, maybe give it a moment Chim.” Namjoon called up to him.

You snorted to yourself before adding, “Yeah, maybe it’s just thinking!”

Jimin took his hand off and let out an aggravated noise while pushing his hair back. “It’s not working!”

Tae then proposed that maybe he had the wrong draeva. Yoongi, Jin, and Mingi voiced their agreement and Hobi even started inspecting other trees nearby. As both Jimin and Jiae argued that it was definitely the right one, you sat down with a sigh and rested your chin on your palm. Jungkook saw you and gave you a lopsided smile while rolling his eyes playfully at everyone else.

You grinned back at him but hoped he couldn’t see the heat rising to your cheeks due to how handsome he looked standing in the sunlight. Looking away from him, you leaned back on your hands as you let the Saeni figure out the issue at hand. This wasn’t your area of expertise, so you were just going to sit back and offer occasional moral support.

And that’s exactly what you did and have been doing for the past thirty minutes or so.

“You can do it Jimin! Anything is possible is you just believe,” you shouted at your best friend in a sweet voice while sending him two encouraging thumbs up.

He just groaned and tugged on his hair for the umpteenth time.

Shrugging, you went back to drawing in the dirt with a stick. You would throw out another great, motivational quote in maybe… two minutes?

I feel like that kid in a group project who shows up to meetings and offers their opinion but doesn’t actually do anything.

Another fifteen minutes and numerous uplifting sayings went by and it was safe to say that you were bored out of your mind. Throwing your stick aside, you stood up and wiped your bum off before clearing your throat to gain the attention of the Saeni.

“Welp, as invigorating as this is, I’m gonna go explore the temple.” You went to pivot on your feet but paused and sheepishly looked at Namjoon. “Oh, um, is that allowed? Like am I not supposed to go in there since I’m not Saeni?”

The leader of the kiela contemplated for a moment before showing off his dimpled smile and waving you on. “Ah, no, it should be fine.”

You clapped your hands together in satisfaction. “Fantastic… well, scream if you figure it out or need me!”

You fully swiveled around and began strutting off toward the entrance of the semi-collapsed structure, eager to see it up close and what it looked like on the inside.

“Y/N!”

You stopped your leg in midair and pursed your lips as you looked over your shoulder. “Damn, ya’ll need me already?”

Jungkook jogged over to you, the top of his burgundy hair bouncing slightly. The corner of your lip quirked up at the sight, but you quickly forced your mouth back to a neutral position.

“No, I just, um, I-I’ll come with you. You know, since it’ll be dark, and you might not be able to see.”

You placed your foot down, teetering a bit since it landed partially in a hole in the ground, and rolled your eyes. “There you go yet again with that superior senses bullshit. But sure, fine, whatever, come on. At least I can push you in front of me if there’s booby traps.”

His steps slowed down, and he furrowed his brows. “Why would there be something to trap your boobs?”

You heard Jimin snort while he continued scrutinizing the draeva.

“Ya! Refer to them respectfully as breasts, you sprout!” Jin hollored.

“Personally, that’s worse because it makes me feel like a chicken,” Jiae replied to the eldest before meeting your pained eyes. “What about you, Y/N?”

I can never win, can I?

You closed your eyes and sighed in defeat as you pressed your fingers onto your lids. “Just… forget it. Let’s go, Coco.”

I’m totally sacrificing him if I have to.

By the time you and Jungkook emerged from the temple, the sun was starting to descend in the horizon. You breathed in the sweet air of Illain and the honeysuckle, happy to no longer be inhaling the dusty stuffiness from the depths of the temple.

The innards of the structure had been just as beautifully broken as the outside. Ornate sculptures and detailed artwork filled the passageways and rooms, and you had eagerly explored the many corridors with Jungkook by your side. Luckily, you had been able to see a majority of it due to the numerous tiny windows carved into the walls and ceilings. It hadn’t provided the best light, but it had been enough to make do.

In some parts of the temple, the halls were completely collapsed in, or tree roots and thick honeysuckle vines blocked the way like a filigree wall. But there had been no booby traps, much to your dismay. As terrifying as they would have been, it was would have been a little exciting. And with Jungkook with you, you knew nothing bad would have happened.

Your favorite part was probably the room on the highest floor that was filled with hundreds of tiny bells strung on chains hanging from the ceiling. Sure, there had been the slightly creepy, but very detailed painting on the back wall depicting a female clawing out a male’s heart with her hand. The female had a sun hovering above her head and a sad look to her face while the male had a crescent moon floating above his painfully contorted face. But as gruesome as the picture was, it was strangely beautiful and alluring. Maybe the underlying concept of female empowerment made you cheer internally. You didn’t really know for sure.

You had admired the image underneath the singing bells for a couple minutes until Jungkook came to stand next to you. You remembered him frowning as he stared at it. When you asked him what that look was for, he had explained that the sun was the symbol for Illai. He didn’t understand why the artwork showed her killing someone. She was a kind and benevolent goddess. Someone who brought life, not death. You had pondered his words, before shrugging and suggesting that maybe it was just a metaphor for the morning sun “killing” nighttime.

Whatever it was, you still liked it.

Skipping over a bundle of roots in front of the temple entryway, you saw that everyone except for Jimin, Jiae, and Chungha were sitting in a small circle around a fire. Hobi was picking at the dirt under his nails with one of his blades and Yoongi was curled up next to him with his eyes closed. Tae and Mingi were throwing a rock back and forth through the flames, and Jin and Namjoon were speaking quietly to each other as the former nudged the fire with a stick. You and Jungkook made your way over to them, and as you approached, they ceased their respective activities (minus Yoongi) and greeted you both.

After sending everyone a tiny wave, you sat down beside Tae. Jungkook followed suit, sitting down beside you and resting his forearms on his knees.

“Seeing as Jimin isn’t here, I’m guessing he still hasn’t had any luck?”

Namjoon sighed and ran a hand down his face. “Nope. Nothing’s working.”

“Well… that’s not good.”

“You could say that again.” Jin snorted as he poked the edge of the fire.

Doing so made a plume of smoke rise from the embers and a sudden draft of wind sent it directly into Mingi, who began coughing and waving hand in front of his face.

While the guard combatted the smoke, Tae flopped to his back and whined about how bored he was.

Hearing the archer’s complaint, Hobi sheathed his blade and offered playing a game of keumbak, making Tae perk up in interest.

“What’s that?” You asked Jungkook in a whisper while Namjoon began protesting Hobi’s suggestion.

“Basically, you spin a knife and whoever it lands on has to stand against a tree and let everyone else throw a knife at him.” Your eyes widened in fear but Jungkook kept going. “Whoever’s knife gets closest without hitting the person wins and they don’t partake in sequential rounds. You keep going until someone either loses or gets hit. Oh, and you get bonus points of style and throw difficulty.”

What kind of fatal, wack- ass game is this?

You gulped and wondered how you could get yourself out of playing. You weren’t too keen on having knives thrown at you today. Or throwing them at your friends and possibly hurting them. Seeing your freaked-out expression, Jungkook chuckled but voiced that he didn’t think keumbak was a good idea.

Hobi huffed and inquired what Jungkook would deem a better game to play. The burgundy head nudged you, silently telling you to say something.

“Uh… what about Truth or Dare?”

Tae gasped excitedly. “Oh, Chim’s had us play that before! It was fun!”

“Wait, what’s Truth or Dare?” Mingi questioned with curious hazel eyes.

As you explained the basic rules to the guard, you saw Hobi gently shake Yoongi awake. The magic user cursed and went to shout at who woke him up but stopped when he saw it was the white-haired Saeni. Smiling softly because of them, you asked if everyone was okay with playing.

Almost everyone nodded, but Mingi quickly asked one more question. “What if someone doesn’t want to answer or do the dare?”

“Uhhh…”

“If they want to be a little bitch, they have to take something off. Shirt first, though,” Yoongi groggily said as he sat up with Hobi’s help.

Oh, that’s a good one. I’ll get a nice, free show of all these attractive guys and it’s pretty harmless too since-WAIT. No, that means Jungkook might take stuff off. Oh fuck, I don’t think I can handle that. Though I kinda really want him to… but it won’t help my situation… but he has such a good body… fuck what am I going to do!?

You bit your lip as everyone murmured their agreement to his rule. After contemplating and telling yourself not to be a weenie, you agreed as well, which caused Yoongi to smirk in your direction.

Hobi, you better get your guy under control before I sit on him!

Tae began bouncing up and down, asking who was going to go first. You all looked at each other, wondering the same thing until you made a decision.

“Papa Jin! Why don’t you go since you’re the oldest?”

The raven-haired Saeni placed a hand over his heart. “It would truly be my honor, little scorja.”

Everyone fell quiet as you waited for Jin to pick out his victim.

“Mingi!” He suddenly shouted, causing Namjoon to jump in surprise next to him. “Truth or dare?”

“Truth,” Mingi responded without pause.

“What do you think of my cooking?”

Oh my fucking god, he’s fucking dead if he doesn’t answer this to Jin’s liking.

The hazel-eyed male shrugged. “Eh, it’s pretty good. Could honestly use some more heat in my opinion, but I can understand that ingredients are a bit… limited right now.”

You gaped at Mingi’s bold words then peeked at Jin to see his reaction. The eldest just laughed loudly but briefly before humming in response.

Frick. That’s sort of terrifying.

“Alright, um… Hoseok, truth or dare?”

The kiela’s spy danced his hand over his tucked away blades and after a few seconds of thinking he replied, “Dare.”

Mingi looked into the fire as if searching for inspiration, then suddenly snapped his fingers and announced, “Choose someone in the group to spank you.”

You brought a hand up to cover your mouth as you saw Hobi’s eyes flicker to Yoongi for a split-second before blurting out, “Kookie!”

You couldn’t conceal your laughter anymore, though, when a look of pure regret overtook his features afterwards.

Jungkook stood up with an evil glint in his eyes while cracking his knuckles, and you heard Namjoon whisper his sorrows for Hobi’s ass. You watched Jungkook rub his hands together as Hobi reluctantly got to his feet, turned around, and braced his hands on his knees. You could literally see the apprehension, fear, and tension coursing through him, making you laugh again.

But your laughter died when a powerful, loud smack reverberated into the air.

Ho-Holy shit. He just flat-out destroyed Hobi’s ass.

Said Saeni collapsed to the ground, clutching his butt cheeks as Jungkook breathed out easily and returned to his seat. The green-eyed male caught your look of horror and assured you that he didn’t actually hit him that hard.

“Hyung is just being dramatic.”

“I don’t know Coco. That looked fucking rough to me.”

His eyes darkened and he leaned in closer to murmur, “If that’s your version of rough, you don’t want to see mine.”

Oh fuck. Oh fuck. Oh fuck.

His intense gaze bore into you for a couple more moments before he pulled back and reset his expression, leaving you gawking at him. Not to mention, a little turned on too.

What the hell is he doing to me?

You did your best to ignore Jungkook and the dirty thoughts he caused you to have as Hobi finally settled down and let his light brown eyes pass over the group. He paused on Tae, who straightened at the possibility of it being his turn.

“Tae, truth or-”

“Truth!”

You grinned and shook your head fondly at his eagerness. Looking back at Hobi, you saw him exchange a silent conversation with Yoongi and nod subtly. The spy’s eyes flashed with mischief and you pursed your lips together as you wondered what that was all about.

Hobi cleared his throat before folding his hands together and addressing Tae. “You and Y/N are really close… would you ever consider dating her?”

You let out a confused hum as your eyebrows shot up. On the opposite side of the fire, Namjoon and Jin mentioned their agreement that the two of us did get along very well at his question.

What the? Why would he ask that? He knows Tae and I are just friends.

Beside you, you heard Jungkook’s breathing slow down and you glanced at him. He looked entirely normal, well, except for how he was sending a piercing glare at his blue-eyed brother.

Tae, giving a relaxed shake of his head, denied he would date you and then blew a kiss your way.

You stuck our tongue out at him but sent him a kiss back while giggling.

“Okay, now I get to pick!” Tae proclaimed while showcasing his boxy grin. “Joon hyung!”

“Dare,” the yellow-eyed Saeni said with a sigh.

Tae thought long and hard, then began searching the ground before picking something up and holding it proudly above his head. “You must wear this as a mustache until your next turn!”

It was a twig.

You all silently shook with laughter as Namjoon trudged over to grab the twig and position it above his top lip. He had to pucker a bit to make sure it didn’t fall, and you had to admit that he looked but insanely cute and extremely funny.

As he sat down slowly to make sure the twig didn’t become dislodged, he caught Jungkook’s eye.

“Dare,” Jungkook said immediately.

“Of course. Um…” Namjoon’s yellow eyes darted around, looking for inspiration. “Aish, I’m bad at this stuff. Um… jump over the fire? While holding my mace over your head?”

Jungkook once again rose to his feet while scoffing. “This will be too easy, hyung.”

“Easy!? That thing weighs a ton!” You said bewildered at his unconcerned tone.

“Nah, it’s basically nothing for him, just watch,” Tae told you as he cradled his face between his palms.

You knew how strong Jungkook was, but you were still a little skeptical it would be nothing. But your doubts were quickly proven wrong as Namjoon held his heavy weapon out to Jungkook, who grabbed it with one hand without so much as a grunt. The green-eyed male shifted so the mace was in both his hands then easily hefted it over his head and leapt over the fire. Landing softly, he rolled his eyes and returned the weapon to its owner as you gawked at how nonchalant he was acting.

“See?” Tae addressed you while your shocked gaze followed Jungkook. “Nothing.”

You inhaled deeply through your nose, still trying to wrap your head around how Jungkook just did that without even a gasp as the male sat back down and smirked at you.

“Sweetheart, it’s your turn.”

To what? Get lugged over your head like sack of rice?

Oh, no… the game.

“Um…”

What will bring the least amount of damage? Probably a dare, so I shouldn’t pick truth.

Without meaning to, you said “truth” out loud and you blanched at your mistake. “Wait, no! I mean-”

His smirk transformed into a grin, but not one that settled your nerves. “Nope. Sorry, but you already said it, it’s locked it.”

Shit. Stupid stupid stupid.

Jungkook shifted closer to you, making your breath hitch.

“You never did say what your favorite sex position was, so now’s the time.”

All the air in your lungs disappeared as you stared at him, wondering if he was being serious as Yoongi, Hobi, and Tae erupted into rowdy laughter. The remaining Saeni had looked at you two in complete confusion, obviously not understanding where the question came from.

I am not telling him that!

“Come on, sweetheart, I’m waiting.” He teased as his cocky expression expanded. “It’s either tell me or take the shirt off.”

You usually didn’t give a shit about being shirtless in front of anyone. Like, if you still had a bra on, then what did it matter? But for some reason, you found yourself not wanting to remove your shirt.

Fucking hell, I guess I have to then…

You closed your eyes and hid yourself behind your hadns before mumbling, “Doggystyle.”

You didn’t bother speaking up because you knew all of them would be able to hear you clear as day. The three laughing Saeni grew even more unruly at your answer, so you buried your head in your arms to hide your flushing face. You stayed that way, refusing to lift your head, until they calmed down. Then, you raised your head, and against your better judgement, allowed yourself to glance at Jungkook. You stilled as you realized he was staring at you. Not doing anything. Not saying anything. Just staring. With a clenched jaw and hazy green eyes.

It made you uneasy… in a good way.

Stop it! He’s probably staring because he thinks that was a vanilla answer, not because he’s imagining fucking you like you want him to. Ah, shit… don’t think of him fucking into you from behind.

But, of course, your mind didn’t want to listen to reason. Thoughts of the strong male wrecking you, no, ruining you from behind began invading your head. You imagined the symphony of grunts, whimpers, and slapping of skin on skin. The way he would command your body to his pleasure. Hoe utterly rough he would handle you.

Stop it! Um… wrinkly, old balls! Smudging your nail polish! Eating bad Mexican food! Bad things! Yucky things!

With a shaky breath, you squeezed your hands into fists and averted your eyes. Taking another deep breath, you collected yourself and continued the game as you tried not to focus on the weight of Jungkook’s eyes still boring into your profile.

The sun had almost gone to sleep for the day, just a small sliver of light was still visible in the distance. You trained your eyes on the colorful sunset, observing as the pastels slowly darkened into the night sky. You smiled at its beauty while listening to the crackling of the fire. You were so transfixed, you didn’t even realize Yoongi had been calling your name until Tae waved a hand in front of your eyes. Jumping a bit, you brought your attention back to the game that was still going strong.

Not a whole lot has happened, besides Namjoon attempting a full split (he did not succeed and was still complaining about a pulled groin), Tae admitting that he was the person who lost Hobi’s favorite dagger a year ago (the spy once again lived up to his NSFW outfit with the bloodcurdling glower he sent Tae’s way), Jin being dared to let you cook one meal entirely by yourself (the male took one look at you before yanking his shirt over his head), and other dumb, reckless, and funny things.

Blinking rapidly, you met Yoongi’s eyes and sighed internally when you saw the playfulness lurking behind them.

Not wanting to even consider the type of shit he would have you reveal if you picked truth, you ultimately decided to go with dare for this round.

He glanced at Tae and Hobi, which made your palms sweat, before looking straight into your eyes. “Mingi’s lap seems a little lonely over there, so you have to sit on it until your next turn.”

Oh… that’s not that bad. I thought it would be giving Jungkook a lap dance or something. Whew.

Meeting Mingi’s hazel gaze, you shrugged at each other, then heaved yourself to your feet and walked over to the guard, who stretched his legs out in front of him.

“Hello, my good sir.” You greeted him verbally with a laugh before gently easing yourself down onto his lap.

“Hell there, Y/N.” Mingi laughed too while leaning back on his hands to balance himself.

Once you were positioned successfully and somewhat comfortably on the male’s lap, you looked over to give Yoongi a “so what?” face, but found his gaze focused somewhere else. He snickered to Hobi and had a knowing smile teasing his lips. Furrowing your brows, you turned to see what he was looking at.

Jungkook.

The burgundy head was glaring into the fire. His entire body was stiff, his hand edging down toward his dagger, and you could see his chest rising and falling heavily with his breaths. After looking at him in concern for a few seconds, he lifted his head to look directly at you with heated eyes. You were taken back by how aggravated he appeared, but before you could say anything, he brought his eyes back to the fire.

The heck is his problem?

“You good, Kook?” You heard Yoongi ask in a not-so-innocent tone.

The youngest member of the kiela didn’t respond, but you saw his jaw shift in annoyance.

Well, he obviously doesn’t want to disclose what his problem is, so looks like I’ll ask when his panties aren’t in a twist.

And so, the game continued, though you kept sneaking glances at Jungkook as others answered their truths or completed their dares. Not once did he meet your eyes. And he only really moved or spoke when he had to.

You had to admit it was bothering you.

Then, it was your turn once more and Jin asked you if you regret coming to Illain. When Jin concluded his question, Jungkook finally brought his eyes back to you. As if he actually wanted to hear your answer. You flinched a bit when you thought you saw a flash of worry appear on his face, but it was gone so quickly you weren’t sure if it had even been there to begin with. By now, the sunlight was completely gone and only the fire and moon provided light so it could have just been the flickering orange flames playing tricks on you.

Tearing your gaze away from Jungkook’s face, you addressed Jin and truthfully told him that you were really happy to be in the new world. That you were glad to have met everyone and now call them your friends.

All the Saeni smiled at your answer, even Jungkook’s mouth tilted up slightly, and they were grateful you felt that way even though the journey had been quite crazy and violent.

You beamed back at everyone and with a pat to Mingi’s knee, rose from his lap and trudged back to your original spot. Through, as you left the guard behind and walked past the fire, you shivered at how chilly it had gotten. Without realizing it, Mingi had been keeping you toasty and your backside was already missing it.

As you squatted then let your butt fall to the cool ground, you wiggled your fingers at Tae. But when the breeze picked up, you shivered and wrapped your arms around your middle.

Noting your state, Jungkook sighed and shifted a it before leaning over to poke your thigh. “C’mere.”

Peeking over at him, you saw he was inviting you to sit between his legs.

Well, looks like someone is finally over his random temper tantrum.

As confused as you were regarding his attitude, you couldn’t help but be tempted by his offer. It would be so warm and cozy. Not to mention, you would be close to him. Like really close.

Your decision was ultimately made by another cold gust of air attacking your body. With a nod, you crawled over to Jungkook and positioned yourself between his legs. You hummed as his body immediately protected you from the wind and his warmth fought off the chill. Settling into your new spot, you gasped when his hands found purchase at your waist and he dragged you backwards into his chest. Then, he hugged you close and placed his chin on the junction of your shoulder and neck. Flinching a bit as his hot breath hit your bare skin, you forced yourself to relax and ease against him although you were screaming on the inside. His intoxicating scent began floating around you as you rested your hands on his arms and leaned into him.

“Better?” He murmured against your neck.

You nodded and whispered a thanks while your heart threatened to leap out of your chest.

Satisfied you were warm, he then reminded you that you needed to ask someone truth or dare.

“Oh, r-right…” You caught Yoongi and Hobi smiling slyly at you and you narrowed your eyes at them. “Hobi.”

The white-haired male clapped his hands together and said, “I choose dare, little scorja.”

Careful not to bump into Jungkook, you tilted your head to the side and gauged the distance between him and Yoongi versus him and Namjoon and chortled when you saw what you were hoping for. “I dare you to hold hands with the person closest to you for the remainder of the game. You can only let go if you or the other person need to do so for a dare.”

Both his and Yoongi’s eyes widened comically as they looked between them and realized they would have to hold hands. There was no fighting it either because their hips were basically touching from how close they sat to each other. It was your turn to snicker at their expressions and how they started fidgeting. Slowly and without looking at each other, they intertwined their hands as a faint blush dusted both their cheeks. Cooing internally, you smirked and basked in their cuteness.

The game went on after that. Mingi took his shirt off because he refused to steal a piece of rubble from the temple (you had to admit that he had a very nice body, but it was nothing compared to the one holding you), Tae ate a weird looking bug (he gagged and you thought he was going to lose it, but he made you proud by holding on and swallowing the creature), and Namjoon confessed he broke their instructor’s prized sword during their trainee days (apparently, the instructor had loved the weapon dearly and cried for weeks when he found the blade shattered one day).

Then, Jin asked Jungkook who he would have sex with if he could choose anyone in the world. Your heart spasmed at the questioned and you held your breath while waiting for Jungkook’s answer.

Fuck, you wanted him to say it was you. But you knew he wouldn’t. It would probably be some girl he’s trained with or someone he’s seen in passing that caught his eye. Your ears were filled with the snapping of burning wood as the male stayed silent and debated his answer. Sadness cascaded into you as you realized he was most likely thinking of all the beautiful Saeni he’s encountered in his lifetime; filtering them out until one gorgeous, sexy female remained.

As your chest tightened and you fought to keep your face impassive, Jungkook suddenly removed his arms from around you. Preparing yourself to hear some other girl’s name, you inhaled sharply when his arms snuck around you and pulled you against him once more. With a jolt, you realized…

He.

Took.

Off.

His.

Shirt.

And was no holding you against his bare chest. You felt heat flood to your face, and you tried to control your breathing as he dropped his chin onto your shoulder again. Peeking to the sides, you saw Tae squeezing his lips together while looking at you with wide blue eyes and waggling brows. On the other side, Hobi and Yoongi, hands still waffled, were chuckling at you quietly. Namjoon and Jin, bless their oblivious hearts, didn’t seem to notice your internal screeching. The final Saeni just raised a single eyebrow amusedly at you.

Humming contently and adjusting his grip on you so that you were tucked even further against him, Jungkook called out Yoongi’s name to proceed with the game.

And yet again, you all continued playing. You were surprised everyone was still participating, but you figured it was because there really wasn’t anything better to do while waiting for Jimin to unlock the draeva.

You had your turn again, which included Mingi asking how you met Jimin and why you tagged along to Illain. You fondly retold the story of a little Jimin trying to scare you with a spider and you consequently punching him with your tiny fist. Then, you shrugged and explained how he was your best friend and there was no way you were going to let him go on an adventure like this alone.

Jungkook laughed in your ear as you spoke and when you finished, he whispered, “Such a feisty little human.”

You shivered at his breath dancing along your skin but managed to retort in a teasing tone, “Such an annoying little shit.”

Then, you asked Tae about what eye color he wished he could change to (he firmly said he wouldn’t change it because he likes his blue), and he won’t on to challenge Namjoon to a dare. You sort of zoned out after that, leaning your head back onto Jungkook’s shoulder and looking up at the twinkling stars. The smoke from the fire swirled up and partially obstructed your view, but the white-grey wisps just added to the enchanting sight above you.

You inhaled the sweet air and scene of flowers and metal, listened to the sound of rustling leaves and crackling fire, absorbed the soft vibrations of Jungkook’s heartbeat, and sighed up at the sky. “It’s so pretty.”

You felt Jungkook’s head shift and he softly agreed, “Yeah… really pretty.”

The abrupt shout of Jungkook’s name by Hobi brought your eyes back to the Saeni and you saw him draw a knife out to play with.

The male behind you let out a groan and he mumbled,” For Exia’s sake, this game never ends.”

“Truth or dare?” Hobi asked his youngest brother as he twirled his knife in his hand.

Jungkook chose dare, making Hobi smile at his blade.

“I dare you to kiss one of the females here.”

You felt Jungkook stiffen just as you did at Hobi’s words. The older Saeni winked at you subtly and your mind began losing it.

All the various possibilities ran through your head, but you knew all of them would suck. Sure, you wanted Jungkook to kiss you, but… not if it was because he had to. Not if it didn’t mean anything to him. And if he didn’t kiss you then he would kiss Jiae or Chungha. You swallowed as you thought of his lips against someone else’s. Biting your bottom lip, you looked down.

And if he refuses the dare and takes something off, then he’s still rejecting me. Fuck, Hobi… what were you thinking?

“Hurry up, Kook!” Namjoon joked. “We don’t have all night.”

Jungkook grumbled while removing his arms from your middle and standing up, allowing the heat that cocooned you to slowly evaporate. With a smirk directed at nobody in particular, he began walking off into the trees toward the three people not a part of your game. Leaving you cold and alone.

Tucking in your knees, you nodded to yourself and wrapped your own arms around your body as Tae, Yoongi, and Hobi all looked at you in concern. Even Mingi frowned in your direction.

Of course, he’s gonna kiss one of the other girls. Probably Chungha since Jiae is with Jimin. And I’m not surprised he didn’t take off something. His competitive ego had already been wounded when he took his shirt off earlier.

You sniffled and blinked a few times as you scolded yourself for getting upset.

“Y-Y/N…” Hobi quietly said in a pained voice. “I… I didn’t think he-”

You sighed pitifully and looked over to the Saeni and forced a smile. “There’s nothing to be sorry about.”

“Little scorja…?” Tae reached out and gently placed a hand on your shoulder.

“What?” You asked and laughed in a weak manner. “He can do whatever he wants.”

“Are you okay? What’s wrong?” Jin inquired, not understanding what was happening.

Not understanding that disappointment was crashing you over and filling your heart.

Before you could answer, Jungkook came strutting back to the group with a smug expression on his face. You averted your eyes while the three Saeni who knew of your crush glared at him.

The burgundy-haired male stopped, questioning why they were looking at him like that when he completed the dare. But they said nothing to explain, not wanting you to feel any worse.

“Who?” asked Namjoon.

Jungkook cleared his throat before walking around the fire. “Ch-Chungha.”

You sucked in a breath as he sat down behind you and caged you in with his legs again.

The audacity of this fucker!

But you couldn’t bring yourself to stay mad. You were just… sad and hurt and wondering why you always had to like the guys that never showed a speck on interest in you. Maybe you were cursed. Or maybe you were subconsciously addicted to the ache it caused in your heart.

Jungkook didn’t wrap his arms around you again, thankfully. Instead, he leaned back on his hands. Fuck, all you wanted to do was get away from him and let Tae hold you. But you couldn’t. It would look weird and suspicious if you got up and left his leggy embrace now, so you just sat there in discomfort. Shrinking yourself as much as possible, you tried to allow only the barest amounts of your body to touch him.

Unaware of the heaviness inside your chest and the small feeling crowding in your mind, Jungkook smack his lips together once before calling Tae’s name to continue the shitty game.

The next morning you were finishing up your training session with fatigued energy. You had barely slept a wink last night. Not with Jungkook sleeping peacefully next to you as if he hadn’t just stomped your heart into a pulpy mess. After tossing and turning for several hours and resisting the urge to look at the snoozing burgundy head beside you, you had given up and just stared at the stars and moon blankly.

You had remained that way, basically motionless and letting your feelings eat away at you, until you somehow fell asleep. When Tae woke you up a couple hours later, he informed you that Jungkook asked Yoongi to train you today since he wanted to get some of his own training in with the kiela. You had breathed out a relieved sigh and nodded since that meant you didn’t have to look at or deal with Jungkook until later.

But that didn’t mean you were entirely focused or particularly spritely during training.

Fortunately, Yoongi seemed to understand and didn’t berate you for your poor performance. You were also grateful he didn’t ask how you were doing since you weren’t in the mood to talk about it. Instead, he just did his best to distract you with training and keep your mind preoccupied for a short while.

He even ended the session a bit early, telling you to go wash up in the creek and try to get some rest before Jimin began tackling the draeva again. With a tiny, tired smile, you thanked him and dropped your bow and quiver off with the rest of your stuff before grabbing the towel you had stuffed in your backpack. Throwing it over your shoulder, you made your way through the foliage toward the creek.

Muttering to yourself about dumb boys and dumb feelings, you brushed past the small, leafy limbs and shuffled through the shrubs. The sound of soft rapids began to reach your ears and you groaned in pleasure at the thought of cleaning the dirt off your skin.

The calming sound of flowing water grew louder and louder, and you smiled to yourself as you ducked under and around the last set of branches before the creek beach. Though it turned into a frown as you saw a shirtless Jungkook bending down to retrieve his shirt from a rock.

One morning… is one morning without him too much to ask?

You stilled as he straightened, showcasing the hard ridges of his muscular back as well as the rings of his draeva mark. Water dripped off the wet strands of his hair, beaded on his skin, and trailed down the curve of his spine. Your eyes followed the drops’ descent to his slim waist until they reached the waistband of his pants, but then your eyes went even further and snuck a look at his round, firm booty. Continuing down, you took in the bulging outline of his thighs and the-

Oh shit, he’s turning around! Act casual!

You went to move your hands behind your back, then brought them to your front, then clasped them together, then tried crossing them all in a span of a second. None of them felt normal so you just awkwardly hung them at your sides as your eyes went wide with panic and he fully turned around.

Your plan had been to gruff out a simple hello and walk past him.

Unsurprisingly, that all flew out the goddamn window as soon as you were presented with the snack that was Jeon Jungkook’s abdominal muscles. You swallowed hard as you tried to peel your eyes away from his lean torso and his drool-worthy v line.

You finally managed to bring your gaze up to his face and mentally cursed when you saw him smirking at you.

“Like what you see, sweetheart?”

The nickname made you blood boil and you made your eyes harden while anchoring your arms across your chest.

“For Exia’s sake, are you mad at me or something?” He rolled his green eyes and went to tug his shirt n over his head but paused and suddenly looked at you seriously. “Did hyung do something to you at training?”

“Mr. Sparkle Hands?” You scoffed and began marching forward. “No. He didn’t do anything.”

He pulled his shirt on all the way. “Okay, well why are you so grouchy?”

Now just a couple of feet away from the male, you raised your hand and poked him forcefully. “I am not grouchy. Or mad. Why would I be mad? There’s nothing to be mad about.”

He frowned at you jabbing your finger into him. “Alright, so you’re definitely mad, and I presume at me, but wha-” He stopped as he realized something, then chuckled and smirked again. “Oh my goddess, don’t tell me you’re jealous.”

I want to punch him so fucking badly in his perfect fucking face.

“Why the hell would I be jealous?” You lifted your chin and did your best to not give away your actual feelings.

Yes. I’m fucking jealous. And hurt. And embarrassed. And a whole lot of other shit.

He stepped closer to you and lowly said, “Because I said I kissed Chungha last night.”

You unwillingly winced slightly, and you moved away from him as your eyes began to sting.

Inhaling, you looked past him at the flowing creek. “So?”

Maybe if you just ignored him, he would leave and let you mask your tears with creek water in peace.

“Sweetheart.”

Just ignore him and he’ll leave.

“Look at me.”

Ignore him and he’ll leave. Ignore him and he’ll leave. Ignore him and he’ll leave.

“Please.”

You still didn’t, so he took matters into his own hands. Literally.

Reaching out, he grabbed your chin and forced you to face him. He no longer had that cocky grin on his face, but was looking at you with soft, worried eyes.

You stared at him, tired and borderline limp. You didn’t have the energy to fight him anymore.

Gently, he tucked some of your hair behind your ear with his free hand before holding the side of your face. His thumb caressed your cheek and you let him. You shouldn’t have, but you did.

“I didn’t kiss her.” He gazed at you with sincerity.

Huh?

Seeing your confusion, he continued. “I only said I did. I didn’t want hyungs thinking I bitched out again, so I took off my sock, put my shoe back on, and walked back. That’s it.”

I’m sorry, WHAT!?

You shoved him away, yelling and cursing his ridiculous, unbelievable ego. He looked at you in shock as you put your palms against his firm chest and pushed him again. And again. And again.

This motherfucker hurts me and now tells me that pain was because his fucking ego was too sensitive to not do a dare!?

“You’re the biggest, most annoying, frustrating, immature… jackass I’ve ever met in my life! AND I’VE MET A LOT OF JACKASSES!”

As you barely controlled yourself not to wring the living daylights out of him, you noticed his head jerk to the side suddenly. His silver earrings flashed in the morning light. Then, he had the nerve to shush you.

Maybe, a nice, early morning strangulation won’t be a bad way to start the day.

Fuming, you clenched your hands and was about to start going off again, but he whipped his head back to you in alarm and quickly smacked a hand over your mouth while gripping your upper arm in his other. You struggled against him and proceeded to scream vulgarities at him through his palm.

“Y/N. Shut. Up,” he whispered in a dark, serious tone.

And shut up you did. You glared at him with mad, yet perplexed eyes as you breathed heavily into his hand.

He held your gaze as his head tilted to the side once more. As if he was listening for something.

Out of the corner of your eyes, you saw something shine brightly and briefly and you yelped as Jungkook forcefully yanked you down to the ground. You hit the rocky beach with a harsh grunt and above your heads, you glimpsed a decently sized dagger fly though the air where your bodies had just been. You strained your neck to follow its path and watched as it clattered against a lone rock and ricocheted out of sight.

What the fuck!?

Next, came a small party of three unknown Saeni charging through the trees at you from the opposite side of the creek. Cursing, Jungkook rolled into a crouch while throwing a rock at one of them. The projectile hit the male dead in the face, causing him to fall to the side. Instinctively, you also rose to a crouch and reached over your shoulder for an arrow but froze when you remembered you left your bow and quiver at camp.

Shit.

You picked up a rock too, and readied to throw it, but realized it was completely unnecessary. Jungkook had already snapped the neck of the first Saeni who reached him, his teeth gritted in anger as he did so. As the now dead female collapsed, he snatched up the knife at her waist and spun once before throwing it at the final opponent. The blade rotated once in the air and embedded itself into the skull of its target.

Whistling at his display of abilities, you tossed the rock aside and fully stood. “Are they-”

He nodded. “Draikensu.”

Double shit.

He leaned down to wrench out the blade from the Saeni’s face, blood erupting out and drenching the draikensu’s head once it was removed. With a clenched jaw, he made his way over to the male he had hit with a rock, but before Jungkook was able to reach him, more draikensu began pouring out from the tree line across from you.

“Oh, fuck. Run!” He swiveled and began coming back to you as he yelled. “Go! Go! Go!”

With a curse, you turned and began sprinting.

The two of you crashed through the forest. Branches whipping against your face, thorns scratching against your skin and clothes, and frenzied energy thrumming through your veins. Jungkook was behind you, urging you to move faster as arrows began thumping into trees and whistling past your heads. Sucking in air, you did just that. You ran and ran and ran. Away from the draikensu. Toward camp and your weapons. Into the rising sun and what you were sure would be a bloody, death-bringing day.

previous [14] — next [16]

[kilyra]

You a Fangbanger Now?

Eric Northman (True Blood) One-Shot

A/N:  Well, absolutely no one directly requested this, but I’m carrying on with the Eric Northman arc because I love him, I’m trash, and this is my slop offering - so this is following “You Will” and “You Did, Sweetheart”. 

Defending Eric Northman to your raging roommate is the last thing you thought you’d ever find yourself doing, and Eric seems equally surprised.

Warnings:  Swearing. Like the eff word on repeat. No spoilers though (I myself am only on S3 or 4, so this is an early Eric style fic…also, please don’t send me any spoilers).

If you want to be on my tag lists, (all or just a character) just let me know! (Credit for this amazing gif goes to @bonniebird​. Thank you SO much!)

The shrill, echoing shriek woke you from a dead sleep. Sitting bolt upright, you were already fighting to get free from your sheets before you could understand why you were even awake.

A crash in the kitchen jolted you to your feet, sending you scrambling for your bedroom door. Adrenaline flooded your veins as you raced down the stairs, your bare feet thudding on the hardwood.

Tearing around the corner into the kitchen, you skidded to a stop, squinting at the brightly lit room. Your roommate was holding a knife but was shaking too hard to keep it still. Coming far enough into the room to see what she had cornered, your heart pounded harder.

Fear melted to a heavy feeling in your stomach as you spotted him. Eric fucking Northman.

Casually leaning against the counter, a faint grin played on his lips as he watched your roommate uselessly wave the knife his direction. Raising his eyebrow, his eyes briefly darted to yours, twinkling with amusement.

“Who the fuck are you?” She was boarding on hysterical.

Rubbing your eyes, you tried to keep the sleepy groan from your voice. “Amy...Ams, what's going on?”

“This creepy fucker broke into our house. I came into the kitchen and he was just...just...here!”

Reaching over, you squeezed her shoulder. She tilted her head towards you but kept her eyes on him. "Whoa, whoa...hey, hey. That's just Eric, he's a fr-."

His eyes found their way back to yours as you stopped short. There was hardly a shift in his bemused expression, but you thought you saw the corner of his mouth twitch at your sudden discomfort.

Friend? Seriously?

“He's...Eric. It's fine...”

Pulling away from you, Amy shot you an incredulous look as she backed up enough to keep on eye on you both. “Fine?! It's...it's not fine!”

The alcohol on her breath hit your nostrils, and you were suddenly very aware that she was practically waving the knife at you. Facing your palms towards her, you took a careful step back. Eric's face clouded slightly as he pushed himself from the counter, but your roommate seemed oblivious to the shift in her situation as she continued.

“Y/n! He...he appeared...like some goddam ghost or something.... T-that's not fine.”

Her wrist flicked to drive home her point when suddenly Eric was beside you. The knife clattered to the floor as Amy half-screeched and backed into the wall behind her. Ice rushed through you, but you somehow managed to stop from jumping as he rushed close.

Standing at your elbow, his low tone was steady and calm. “It's late. I was making sure you weren't an intruder.”

But why was he already in the house?

Amy's hands visibly trembled as she clamped them over her mouth. Slowly pulling them away, she looked from Eric to you. “S-so w-what? You a...a fangbanger now?”

Letting out a soft snort, Eric's lips pressed together as he gave you a sidelong glance.

You didn't see the humour. “Seriously? He's only here because of you.”

Her hands dropped lower, hovering awkwardly without her knife to grip. As you watched, her face briefly fell as though she knew exactly what you meant. But it was quickly hidden by a glare. “What's that supposed to mean?”

The fact she was drunk did nothing to stop your irritation from exploding into burning anger. “What do you think, Ams? Do you have any idea what your disappearing act did to Sookie? Strange vampires show up, there was practically a new murder each week, and you just leave without saying anything?”

Clenching her jaw, Amy crossed her arms. Her narrowed eyes flickered to Eric as he tilted his head, but they both stayed quiet.

“She thought those vampires had you. Or worse. That girl called in all the favours she had to look for you, and even got Eric to watch over me and our place, alright? None of that would have happened if you hadn't taken off with your loser boyfriend to go get high for two weeks.”

"Yeah? Well, I'm back now! And it had nothing to do with fangers or any of the other bullshit Sookie got herself into, so there's no reason for him to even be here. Besides...don't I have to invite him in or some shit? Couldn't I just revoke-”

“Watch it.”

Even Eric's eyebrows shot up as you growled.

“The whole time you were off with those assholes, he was here for me. He went above and beyond to keep track of my safety and, frankly, the only sleep I got was when I knew he was around. Sookie wasn't the only one spooked when you disappeared, you know. Have a little respect.”

In truth, you still weren’t sure why Eric gave you his blood but you were positive it wasn’t to help keep you safe. And it was next to impossible to sleep when he paid you a visit. But you were way too pissed to care that much about the truth. 

Shifting between her feet, Amy's lip curled. “And I wonder what Sam'll think about all this.”

Curiously watching your argument unfold, Eric didn't seem bothered by her threats. But you were finding it hard to think over the pounding in your ears. Leaning forward, you jabbed your finger at her as she flattened against the wall. "I'm the leaseholder so go ahead and play that game...see what happens. But for fuck sakes, I'm literally the only bridge you haven't burned yet, do you really want to go there?"

Everything seemed to stand still as your final blow of words landed on your roommate. Finally, her eyes darted between you and Eric before she started blinking rapidly. A small drop of pity formed in your chest and you knew you'd be having a gentler talk with her in the morning.

Throwing back her shoulders, she stormed past you without another word. Maybe the gentler talk wouldn't exactly be in the morning...

Turning slightly, you watched her leave, making sure she didn't try anything on her way out. It was Eric's soft chuckle that drew your attention back.

“Mmm, I'm impressed.” His cool voice contrasted the fire still running through your veins. But when you turned back, his eyebrows were drawn together as his gaze swept over you.

It felt like he was taking you in for the first time since you stumbled into the room. Your skin prickled at his confused stare as it lingered over you. Memories of all your heated dreams with him edged into your mind and you realized how little space was between you.

Running your hand over your hair, you lightly scratched at your scalp before you shrugged. It took effort, but you managed to keep your tone flat. “Yeah?”

As he cocked his head to the side, you realized he wasn't wearing his usual smug expression. The former amusement had also drained away leaving a serious look in its wake. “You stood up for me.”

Taking a step back, you crossed your arms and took a moment to study him for once. The statement was simple, but you could hear the question in his tone. Pressing your lips together in a light frown, you weren't sure what to say.

His eyes stayed trained on yours and, for a moment, you were worried he was going to glamour you. Just as your stomach started to flutter, he continued. “I've never had someone do that before. Not like that, at least.”

Swallowing back the nervousness that formed a thick lump in your throat, you took a sharp breath. "Yeah? Well, you're not off the hook."

That seemed to snap him back into his usual self as he scoffed. “Excuse me?”

“What are you doing here?”

Stilling again, he lifted a shoulder in a casual shrug. “I already told you, it's the middle of the night and I thought she was an intruder. A loud, clumsy int-”

Waving him into silence, you were mildly surprised when the gesture worked. “No, I mean why were you here? You were already in the house when she came home...Why? What were you doing here?”

The brief glimpse at the Eric you knew grew stony as his features relaxed and his lips drew into a straight line. His pale blue eyes stared at you from behind the mask of his blank expression. He stayed silent.

Your sense of power grew as the vampire seemed to quietly recede at your question. “Okay, then. Do you do this often? Because, Amy's right, you know. Now that we know what happened, you don't need to keep watch anymore.”

His throat worked as he let his focus trail to the side. He seemed to hear what you were saying, but there was no reply. It was unnerving.

“So? Are you here a lot?”

Snapping his eyes back to yours, the muscles in his jaw flexed before his glare softened. “I stop in sometimes.”

Since you woke up, your racing heart hadn't slowed, but with his admission, it tried to hammer out of your rib cage. In a rush, your cheeks grew warm. Eric Northman. In your room. While you were sleeping. 

The worst part was, you weren't sure if that was upsetting or exciting.

Chewing the corner of your mouth, you noticed his eyes flash to your lips. But still, his expression was unreadable.

“Why?” You practically whispered the question.

Blinking slowly, his gaze lowered before his eyebrow arched in a quick twitch. Looking to the side again, he avoided your stare when he finally answered. “I don't...have an answer for that.”

Your lips parted in a wordless reply as you watched him. The quietness in his tone was as surprising as his answer, and you weren't sure what either meant.

Not that he gave you long to think about it.

In a sudden moment of decisiveness, his head jerked towards the door. “I should go.”

Wait.

The plea was on your lips, but with a soft breeze skimming across your skin, he was gone.

Taglist:  @foreverfaeries  @flower-two  @getlostinyourparadise   @selfishkiddo @angelicshinigami @pansmexualparker   @thatchampagnebitch @mysteryoflovve  @edweirdoddlepot  @divadinag @crazy-fandom-girl1 @givemeabite @breanime  

(Guys, please let me know if you want to be removed from this taglist! I have some of you on here because you encouraged this rabbit hole a while back and this is your fault - but I can take you off the list if you want LOL)

[zen3to5]

J/H 3-09: Ice Shack

I decided to set up shop for this project on a side blog.

Originally, this was a one-shot done on the spur of the moment on my main blog after going through the entire series for the first time (well, the entire series up to Season 6). But, now that I'm watching it again from start to finish, I've decided to dip my toe into T7S writing again. And I decided to continue on from my original premise: if Jackie and Hyde's relationship up to "Jackie Bags Hyde" had follow-up in in the rest of Season 3 and Season 4.

I'm well aware I'm not the first person to have that idea, though I can't claim to have read many other examples out there. This is just something I'm doing for fun, and to loosen up my chops writing dialogue and structuring plots. I'm not aiming to "correct" anything in the show as it is. The goal here is to produce something that could realistically have been of the show, given its genre, time period, and time limitations, with just one major aspect (and the resulting ripple effects) changed. Not every episode is getting re-written, and some episodes will only have "B" stories, or even one or two scenes, changed (though the unaltered material will usually be included, for context.) I'm also aiming to reconnect with canon by early Season 5 and end this project there, with the (very slim) possibility of doing an alternate Season 7 finale.

First up: the germ of this idea, my original re-write of 3-09, "Ice Shack." It's been slightly altered from what I originally wrote, partially due to reconsidering dialogue, partially due to trying to adhere to restrictions of time and structure, and partially because, now that this is an ongoing project, certain things are best saved for later.

FF.Net AO3

---

SHOW TITLE   INT. FORMAN BASEMENT - NIGHT   The gang has just finished a round of poker. HYDE is in his chair, ERIC, DONNA, and JACKIE share the couch, KELSO is in the lawn chair, and FEZ is in the hoppity hop. Everyone else groans as HYDE laughs triumphantly and scoops the pot up into his arms.   Kelso and Fez exit out the basement door, grumbling. Jackie rises and gathers up her coat.   JACKIE: Goodnight, Steven.   HYDE: Whatever.   Jackie stares at Hyde for a moment as he counts his money, then exits. On the couch, Eric and Donna watch Hyde and trade whispers with one another.   Hyde rises, gathers his coat, and makes for the door.   HYDE (cont’d): Alright, I’ll see you later.   Donna nudges Eric lightly. He nods and looks up to face Hyde.   ERIC: Hey, why don’t you go ahead and sit back down there, Hyde? We’ve gotta have a little talk with you, mister.   He points to Hyde’s chair, and Donna nods. Hyde gives them a long look, and Eric gives an insistent look back. Hyde shrugs and sits down. Eric and Donna inch across the couch to get closer to him, and Donna reaches a hand out and places it on Hyde’s knee.   DONNA: Okay, Hyde...is there anything you want to tell us about your date with Jackie on Veteran’s Day?   HYDE: (beat) Okay, bye-bye.   He stands again, but Eric and Donna stand too, and push him back into his chair.   HYDE (cont’d): Whatever, man. So we went on a date. So?   DONNA: “So?” Hyde, she stalked you for weeks, you went to jail for her, and when you two finally went out, neither of you said anything about it.   HYDE: (shrugs) Nothing to say.   DONNA: But Hyde, if anything happened, then the whole group is -   HYDE: Nothing happened. (they stare) Nothing happened.   DONNA: Okay, so, that’s it? It was a dud date, and it’s all over?   HYDE: Yeah. I mean... yeah. Well... yeah.   ERIC: (beat)  Hyde...   HYDE: What? She said she didn’t feel anything, so -   DONNA: Wait - she said she didn’t feel anything?   Donna and Eric both break into matching grins and lean in. Hyde shifts in his chair.   HYDE: (beat) Oh, no. You got it all wrong, man. So she thought the kiss was -   DONNA: Oh my god, you kissed?   ERIC: The horror!   Donna and Eric gape at Hyde, who jumps to his feet.   HYDE: Hey! Listen to me - I don’t like Jackie! I only took her on that date to shut her up about all this fantasy hero-worship crap she’s been on! Nothing happened, and there’s nothing to say about it!   ERIC: Oh...well, you know... (reaches out to take Hyde’s hand) In Point Place, they say that Steven Hyde's heart grew three sizes that day.   Hyde yanks his hand free and storms out of the basement, while Eric and Donna fall against each other, laughing.

MAIN CREDITS   BUMPER   INT. FORMAN BASEMENT - DAY   The next morning. Hyde sits in his chair eating oatmeal. Eric and Donna, dressed for winter, sit on the couch. They stare at Hyde and grin. As Hyde raises a spoonful toward his mouth, he stops, but doesn’t turn to face Eric and Donna. They keep staring. Hyde resumes eating but pauses again with the next spoonful. Eric and Donna keep grinning at him. Hyde finishes his bite, but when they still won’t stop, he shoves his spoon into his oatmeal and turns to face them.   HYDE: This is going in both your faces. I swear to God.   DONNA: I can’t believe it. Tough, trouble-making Steven Hyde - no ties, no girlfriends - gets a crush on Jackie Burkhart.   She cracks up as she says the name, and she and Eric lean their heads against each other as they laugh.   HYDE: Get bent, I do not.   ERIC: Yeah, Donna, ease up. It’s gotta be a tough time for our boy here. What with the broken heart, because... Jackie didn’t feel anything.   Donna starts laughing again. Hyde flings some oatmeal Eric’s way, and he dodges it.   ERIC (cont’d): I dunno, Donna. Someone might have beat us to the draw on the bedroom this weekend.   HYDE: What are you talking about?   DONNA: The trip to Kelso’s uncle’s cabin. Didn’t he tell you? We’re leaving any minute.   A horn honks off-screen. The three share looks and head upstairs.   CUT TO:   EXT. FORMAN DRIVEWAY - DAY   Kelso is standing in front of his van, parked with its back facing the road. He paces and rubs his hands together. Hyde, Eric, and Donna come outside through the kitchen.   KELSO: (to Eric, Donna) Hey. So, you guys ready to go?   HYDE: Kelso, man, what the hell? You didn’t tell me about this trip?   Kelso looks as if he just noticed Hyde was there.   KELSO: Oh. I’m sorry, Hyde. I forgot.   HYDE: Well, so long as there’s beer, I forgive you. (claps Kelso’s shoulder) Let’s go.   KELSO: Wait, Hyde. You can’t come.   HYDE: Why not?   Kelso hesitates, then steps around Hyde to reach Eric and Donna.   KELSO: Okay, I might as well let you in on my master plan here. See, what this whole trip is about is a romantic double date, with you two, me, and Jackie.   ERIC: Okay, see, Kelso - double dates usually work better when the second couple are actually dating.   KELSO: So, it’s a secret double date. I told Jackie the whole gang was coming, but I didn’t invite Hyde or Fez. (to Hyde) No offense.   DONNA: I’m out.   She and Eric both turn to head back inside, but Kelso moves to block their way.   KELSO: No, I need you guys! Look - I wanna win Jackie back. I love her, I miss her...and I’ve been getting, like, nothing from Laurie lately.   Donna rolls her eyes, Eric grins, and Hyde fumes. Kelso ignores them all.   KELSO (cont’d): And, Eric and Donna, you guys are, like, the perfect couple, so if you’re there, I can just copy all the sissy, loser things that Eric does, and I’m gold!   ERIC: (to Donna) I mean - he asks so nicely, how could we refuse?   DONNA: Kelso, I am not doing this!   KELSO: Oh, come on! You guys get a romantic weekend out of it, and I’ll have tons of beer! We won’t even need a refrigerator 'cause it’s so freaking cold! (crosses to Hyde) Oh, but I need to grab the beer and gas on the way, so... I kinda need it back.   He holds out his hand.   HYDE: You need what back?   KELSO: You know...my money.   HYDE: What money?   KELSO: My money from the poker game last night.   HYDE: Kelso, that’s my money.   KELSO: No, it’s mine! I brought it!   HYDE: And you lost it!   KELSO: Well, since when does losing it to you in a poker game make it your money?   Hyde stares, and Eric and Donna roll their eyes.   HYDE: Okay - fine, Kelso. I’ll pay for this trip - with my money - on one condition: I come too.   KELSO: What? No, Hyde! That throws off my whole plan! Why do you want to come anyway?   ERIC: Yes, Hyde - why do you want to come?   HYDE: (beat) Kelso, all your master plans are stupid and blow up in your face. I could spend my poker winnings on beer and Playboys, but those are there every weekend. Watching you crash and burn - that’s something special, man. And I don’t wanna miss it.   KELSO: (beat) Alright, you’re in.   Kelso, laughing, moves to the front of the van, with Eric following. Hyde and Donna linger by the back. Donna takes a few steps toward Hyde.   DONNA: Hyde - you really do care about her, don’t you?   Hyde shifts on his feet.   HYDE: No... but do you wanna go through all that again? (doing Jackie) “Oh my god, you’re so beautiful, Michael!” (doing Kelso) “Oh my god, you’re so beautiful, Jackie!” (doing Jackie) “But you cheated with Laurie and Pam Macy - you’re such a dirty dog!” (doing Kelso) “Well damn, Jackie! What do you expect from a shallow, stupid man-whore?”   DONNA: (laughing) Well, deny it all you want - this is the sweetest I think I’ve ever seen you. But I think it’s good for Jackie that she’s on her own right now. So please tell me you’re not gonna use this trip to crawl all over her too.   HYDE: I told you - she didn’t feel anything.   Donna sighs and reaches out to rub Hyde’s shoulder.   DONNA: Ugh, I can’t believe Kelso. And what about poor Fez? We’re leaving him all alone this whole weekend.   HYDE: Actually, I think he’ll be fine. He had some plans.   CUT TO:   INT. MOVIE THEATER - DAY   A packed theater sits back to enjoy a special screening of WILLY WONKA AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY. Pan across the first row until we arrive on FEZ, munching away at popcorn and chocolate. His eyes are wide and his mouth hangs open.   FILM (aud. only):  Who can take a sunrise (who can take a sunrise) Sprinkle it with dew (sprinkle it with dew) Cover it with choc'late and a miracle or two...   Fez sits up straight and sings out, as loud as he can...   FEZ & FILM:  The Candy Man! Oh, the Candy Man can!   Everyone sitting around Fez glares at him. He smiles apologetically and slumps back down into his seat.   CUT TO:   INT. FORMAN LIVING ROOM - DAY   LAURIE sits on the couch in her bathrobe. She watches TV and sips at a mug of coffee. KITTY enters through the kitchen door. Seeing Laurie, she sucks in a deep breath and puts on a hard smile.   KITTY: Good afternoon, sunshine. We missed you at lunch. And breakfast. And dinner last night.   LAURIE: Yeah...I would’ve made it, but it interfered with my plans to not spend more time in this dump than I have to.   KITTY: (laughs) So, ah - what do you have planned for the day?   LAURIE: Same as every day. Lie here, do my nails, avoid talking to you. It’s not going that well so far.   Kitty crosses to turn off the TV. Laurie makes a hollow gesture of protest, but doesn’t stir from her spot as Kitty joins her on the couch.   KITTY: Honey, you’ve done nothing but party all night and sleep all day for months.   LAURIE: Oh, come on, Mom.   KITTY: Oh, not “come on.” Sweetie, I’m worried about you. The way you’re going, you’re going to end up like...like Aunt Martha.   Laurie sits up straight.   LAURIE: You think I’ll end up like Fat Martha? With the beer gut?   KITTY: The poor woman couldn’t even play putt-putt.   Laurie stands.   LAURIE: I can’t believe you’d say that about your own daughter! And I can’t play putt-putt either, but only because it’s really hard to get it in the hole!   She storms upstairs. Kitty picks up the coffee mug she left behind.   KITTY: Not a problem anyone’s ever had with you, I’m sure.   CUT TO:   EXT. LAKESIDE - DAY   Hyde and Eric unload the van as Donna, Kelso, and JACKIE stand back and take in the small, rickety ICE SHACK sitting on top of the frozen lake. Kelso grins, while the girls look incredulous.   DONNA:  This is your uncle’s cabin?   KELSO: Yeah...now that we’re here, I guess I can tell you that part too. It’s more of an ice shack.   JACKIE: It’s an outhouse!   Kelso crosses over to a large metal barrel just outside the shack.   KELSO: No, this is the outhouse. And the hot tub.   The girls glare. They join Eric and Hyde on their way back to the van, but Kelso walks after them.   KELSO (con’d): It’s for fishing. My uncle comes out here all the time! It’s gonna be a blast. Just us, in this beautiful snow. And we can catch all the fish we want!   HYDE: So, on the ride back from this weekend in Hell, we can enjoy the smell of dead fish the whole way home? Oh, boy!   Jackie moves to Hyde’s left, as far from Kelso as she can get. Donna takes a step closer to Eric.   DONNA: It’s kind of cold.   ERIC: Oh, here - take my jacket.   He shrugs his jacket off and drapes it over Donna’s shoulders.   DONNA: I love you!   ERIC: God, were are such the...   They both turn to look at Kelso.   ERIC (cont’d): ...Perfect couple.   Kelso rolls his eyes. Jackie shivers.   JACKIE: I’m cold, too.   KELSO: Well, damn, Jackie, I can’t control the weather!   He notices Eric and Donna glaring at him, and the lights click on. He makes a big show of taking his jacket off and presenting it to Jackie. It is now her turn to roll her eyes.   JACKIE: Forget it. Donna, let’s go inside.   DONNA: (to Eric) How does that sound to you, honey?   ERIC: I think that sounds like a great idea, sweetie.   DONNA: Oh my God, let’s go!   The two of them link hands and follow Jackie towards the ice shack. Kelso starts to follow, but Jackie holds up a hand to stop him.   JACKIE: You’re not coming in.   KELSO: What? Jackie, it’s freezing out here!   ERIC: Well, Kelso, you can always warm yourself up in the hot tub toilet.   He drums lightly on the rim of the barrel. He disappears inside the shack with Donna. Jackie lingers in the doorway and looks at Hyde, still by the van.   JACKIE: Steven, are you coming?   HYDE: In a bit. Think I’ll fumigate the van for a little while first.   JACKIE: Won’t you be cold?   HYDE: I don’t feel anything.   He and Jackie look at each other. Jackie breaks away first, disappearing inside the shack and closing the door behind her. Kelso crosses over to Hyde and scoffs.   KELSO: Man, can you believe this? I mean, what’s the point of bringing Eric and Donna along if copying all his dorky moves doesn’t work?   HYDE: Yeah, man. It’s almost as if pretending to be someone you’re not is a bad idea.   KELSO: I know, right? I mean, that’s impossible, but it’s so close to what’s happening here.   Hyde sighs, claps Kelso on the shoulder, and pulls him along as he steps into the van.   BUMPER   INT. MOVIE THEATER - DAY   WILLY WONKA continues. The “PURE IMAGINATION” song plays off-screen. Fez is now chewing a piece of bubble gum. As the song’s first three chimes sound, he blows a bubble. On the second three chimes, he sucks the bubble back in his mouth. He repeats this pattern two more times, the bubble getting larger and larger each time, until...   CUT TO:   The bubble blows up, becoming a pink BUMPER.   FEZ (v.o.): Ai!   FADE TO:   INT. ICE SHACK - EVENING   The shack is even dirtier looking on the inside, with various pieces of fishing gear and winter clothing adorning the rough walls. Benches surround three sides of a square cut in the ice. Eric and Donna share the right bench, while Jackie sits on the center one. Eric has a fishing line in the water.   ERIC: (flat) Boy, ice fishing’s fun. Don’t you just love it here, Donna?   DONNA: Oh, Eric... it doesn’t matter where we are. It’s being together that makes it fun.   ERIC: You’d rather be anywhere else, wouldn’t you?   DONNA: Literally anywhere. You know me so well.   ERIC: Eskimo kiss!   They start nuzzling noses. Jackie looks on in disgust.   JACKIE: What the hell is with you two today?   Eric drapes an arm around Donna, and they both smile at Jackie.   ERIC: Oh, didn’t Kelso tell you? We’re the... (with Donna) Perfect couple.   JACKIE: Yeah - perfectly nauseating!   ERIC: Well, if you don’t like what you see in here, missy, there’s some beautiful scenery and a wind chill near 10 just waiting for you outside.   JACKIE: At least you’re better company than Michael. God, can you believe that idiot? Who drags all their friends to small, smelly shack like this? I don’t even think we can fit everyone in here!   ERIC: (flat) Oh, no. How could Kelso make such a terrible mistake?   Jackie pouts and looks at the door.   JACKIE: What’s keeping Steven?   ERIC: Oh, a little worried about “Steven,” are we?   Donna swats his chest playfully, and he withdraws his arm from her shoulder.   DONNA: Jackie, we were talking earlier how it’s a little strange you didn’t have anything to say after your date with Hyde.   JACKIE: I didn’t think there was anything to say. I mean, at the time, I thought it was the most romantic moment of my life. Steven was jealous, he defended my honor, he took me out... but when we got to the kiss, there just wasn’t anything there.   ERIC: Wait, so - Hyde can’t french? Well, that is just so good to know.   JACKIE: It wasn’t that, idiot. Steven said he didn’t feel anything either... but only after I said I didn’t feel anything. And just now, when I asked him if he was cold, he said it again. But not like he really didn’t feel anything. More like he was upset.   ERIC: Jackie, to be fair, we’re sitting in a shack we were told was a cabin, with a trash can just outside that’s going to be our toilet and bath for the whole weekend. “Upset” covers pretty much everyone right now.   JACKIE: Oh my God... oh my God, Donna! What if Steven did feel something? And he just covered it up because he’s vulnerable and afraid and thinks no one would ever love him because he’s so poor? Steven!   She rises and starts for the door, but Donna reaches out to take her sleeve. Jackie sits back down.   DONNA: Okay, Jackie, slow down. Ever since you and Kelso broke up, you’ve been all over the place with guys.   JACKIE: But Donna, I have to talk to Steven. What if -   DONNA: Listen, Jackie. Okay, so maybe you go talk to him, but I’m just saying – maybe some time alone would be good for you.   ERIC: Yeah, Jackie. At least until you find your... (puts his arm back around Donna) Perfect couple.   DONNA: (laughs) Yeah. (beat) And, you know. After that, too. Sometimes.   ERIC: What do you mean?   DONNA: Well, Eric, I love you, but I need some time for me too.   ERIC: Yeah, but that’s not what you’re talking about. You’re talking about time to yourself as in, not being with anyone. Are you saying you’d want a break from... from us?   DONNA: Eric, it’s not a big deal. I mean, you need some time to yourself too. It’s not like we go everywhere together. We don’t go to the bathroom together.   ERIC: (voice breaking) Well, we’ll have to up here, lady! We don’t have a choice!   CUT TO:   INT. VAN - EVENING   Concurrent with the previous scene. A CIRCLE is in progress, starting on Hyde.   HYDE: Man, Kelso, I am so happy I’m not in your shoes right now. Every part of your plan - the trip, the cabin, copying Forman - has backfired. This was such a good way to blow that poker money!   Pan to Kelso.   KELSO: Jackie just doesn’t know how much fun ice fishing is. I was out here for four days with my uncle once. He fell in the ice, lost all his fish, and woke up a hibernating bear. I laughed my ass off! And I’m tired of everyone ragging on the shack. It’s cozy.   Pan to Hyde.   HYDE: Kelso, “cozy” is sharing a bed, or a couch, or the back seat of a Lincoln. If you want to get down and dirty in a place that’s down and dirty, you gotta be up-front about it.   Pan to Kelso.   KELSO: You’re just not thinking about what you can do when you throw a cot over the ice hole and... wait. Jackie drives her dad’s Lincoln...   Pan to Hyde.   HYDE: Yeah, well, that’s... whatever. Look, Kelso - why do you even wanna do this, man? You’re still with Laurie, and Jackie’s moving on. Seeing other people. And some of them are pretty cool. Can’t you just give her a break?   Pan to Kelso.   KELSO: Man, it’s just not the same with Laurie. I mean, I know Jackie. I understand Jackie. And... wait. You’re one of the cool guys who saw Jackie!   The Circle is broken. Hyde and Kelso stare at each other from opposite ends of the back of the van.   HYDE: What?   KELSO: Yeah, you took her on that date on Veteran’s Day!   HYDE: No I didn’t.   KELSO: You so did! And you’re keeping me in here, when I could be in there doing it!   HYDE: You moron! Did you forget Forman and Donna are in there?   KELSO: You did it with her in the Lincoln, didn’t you? Man, you don’t do that with another guy’s girl! That was where we used to do it!   HYDE: We didn’t do it! And Jackie’s not “your girl” anymore!   KELSO: Well, is she yours?   HYDE: She’s nobody’s, man! She said it herself, the kiss meant nothing!   KELSO: (gasps)  You’re dead, Hyde!   Kelso launches himself across the van at Hyde, and the two begin wrestling. Hyde strikes Kelso in the head right as the van begins to rock violently. The boys stop their fight, look at each other, and bolt for the exit.   CUT TO:   EXT. ICE SHACK - EVENING   The door to the shack opens, and Eric, Donna, and Jackie spill out just as Hyde and Kelso leap out of the back of the van. Hyde’s sunglasses are crooked and he holds his right hand in his left. Kelso has his right hand over his right eye. The cracking sound continues.   ERIC: You guys, what happened?   KELSO: I don’t know. All of a sudden, the van just started shaking!   HYDE:  “All of a sudden?” You jumped me, you tool!   DONNA: Uh...guys?   Everyone turns to watch as Kelso’s van slowly sinks into the ice. Kelso looks horrified, while the others seem torn between anger and schadenfreude.   A splash of water shoots up as the van begins sinking quicker. Everyone takes a step back. Kelso looks around pleadingly, to no avail. The van disappears beneath the water.   HYDE: Man, this master plan just keeps getting better and better. For me.   JACKIE: (to Kelso) Michael, what “master plan?”   KELSO: Who cares, Jackie? I’m losing my van!   Jackie pouts at Kelso as he stares at the hole where his van used to be. Hyde rubs his right hand, and Eric and Donna glare at each other.   FADE TO BLACK   COMMERCIAL   BUMPER   INT. ICE SHACK - NIGHT   Later that night. Donna sits on the right bench alone, while Jackie and Hyde share the left bench. Donna has her arms crossed, and Jackie watches while Hyde holds a cold beer can to the knuckles of his right hand.   Someone bangs on the door.   KELSO (v.o.): Okay guys, I’m getting really tired of being kicked out of my shack!   No one even looks up.   ERIC (v.o.): Donna? Honey? I think this is enough alone time for one night, okay?   DONNA: (stands) Can it, you dill holes!   She sits back down.   JACKIE: God, how could Michael think this would win me back? After all the crap he did, it’d take a ski trip to Aspen before I’d even consider letting him touch me again.   HYDE: You mean you’d consider it at all?   JACKIE: (beat) No. Why, do you care?   HYDE: Whatever.   They look away from each other. Another knock comes to the door.   ERIC (v.o.): Okay, we’re gonna go for help, but just so you know - Kelso’s already talking about sharing warmth, and I don’t know how long this walk is, so you just think about that during your alone time, missy!   Donna, Jackie, and Hyde all share looks of disgust.   CUT TO:   INT. FORMAN LIVING ROOM - NIGHT   Kitty paces behind the couch nervously while RED sits in his chair, reading the paper. Laurie enters from the stairs.   LAURIE: Alright, I’m here. Let’s get this over with.   She throws herself down on the couch.   KITTY: Good evening to you too. Honey, we feel that you need some direction in your life.   RED: (not looking up) And by we, she means her.   Kitty scowls at Red before turning back to Laurie.   KITTY: Laurie, you have no future ahead of you, and you have nothing in your life right now. Just look at how you spent today. You sat around, watched TV, and drank all your father’s beer.   RED: (looks up) And in the future, Laurie - always save one beer for Daddy.   LAURIE: (to Kitty) Look, will you get off my back? I have a plan for my future, all right? Find a guy who’s loaded and get married.   KITTY: You? Married? I think you left out the part about the unexpected pregnancy and the quickie divorce for your fiancé!   RED: See, Kitty? She has it all worked out. She’ll find someone who’s nice, and... not Kelso. Someone who can take care of her.   LAURIE: Exactly! (beat) But - Daddy, I could have a career of my own if I wanted, right?   RED: (beat) Well, sure. I just don’t want you to set yourself up for... like what happened at the college. If you set the bar too high, the fall might be... you’re just so pretty!   KITTY: Oh, I give up.   She storms upstairs. Red stands.   RED: Kitty, wait! (to Laurie) Here’s five dollars.   He slips her a five and runs after his wife. Laurie stares at the money and sighs.   The doorbell rings. Laurie stands and crosses to the door. She opens it to reveal Fez, his face and hair a sticky pink mess of bubble gum.   LAURIE: What the hell happened to you?   FEZ: Please don’t laugh. They all laughed. The audience, the usher, the ticket boy... even the Oompa-Loompas seemed to mock me with their doompaty-doo-doo.   Laurie bites her finger to keep back a laugh.   FEZ (cont’d): I cannot get the sticky out! Help me, please?   LAURIE: (shrugs) Well, at least someone’s day sucks worse than mine. Get in here.   She takes Fez by the shoulder and pulls him inside. She struggles to get her hand free. Once she does, she lightly pokes him in the back with one finger to guide him into the kitchen.   CUT TO:   INT. ICE SHACK - NIGHT   Donna stands and looks out the window. Hyde and Jackie still share the left bench. Hyde now drinks his beer, while Jackie holds his right hand and examines his knuckles.   JACKIE: What I don’t understand, Steven, is why you’d even come on this stupid trip if you didn’t care about what Michael was up to.   HYDE: Have you been sleeping? Gilligan screws up less than Kelso. This is prime-time entertainment here - with beer.   He holds up his can and takes a sip.   JACKIE: Then why did you keep Michael outside instead of watching him try something with me? And – (holds up Hyde’s hand) What were you two fighting about in the van?   HYDE: (beat) Boy, Forman’s sure been gone a long time, huh, Donna?   DONNA: Yeah. I hope he’s okay. But what did he have to get so worked up for? I’m with him. I love him. Why can’t he see that “time alone” for me doesn’t mean “time broken up from him?”   HYDE: Come on, Donna. Give him a break. Forman’s still in shock you’re even with him. So just ‘cause he’s a little insecure, you leave him out there with Kelso? I don’t know what that guy meant by “sharing warmth,” but whatever it is, Forman’s not gonna like it.   DONNA: (laughs) Okay, maybe that was a little much. (looks back to window) I wish they’d get back soon.   JACKIE: (to Hyde) And what about your insecurities, Steven? Did you or did you not feel something after our date?   HYDE: Does it matter? You didn’t feel anything.   JACKIE: Well...   HYDE: 'Well?' What do you mean, 'well?' You're gonna tell me you did feel something now?   JACKIE: (beat) Ugh, I don’t know anymore! Everything is a mess! Michael’s still after me, Fez was after me, I was after you but you didn’t want me, then I thought I didn’t feel anything with you and you said you didn’t either but I think you did, and Donna says I should take a break and be alone even though I don’t want to be, and I’m wet and hungry and I hate the smell of dead fish!   Jackie throws Hyde’s hand away, screams, and buries her face in her hands. Hyde turns to look at her.   HYDE: All right, fine, Jackie. You wanna know? I feel...   He looks to Donna, who shakes her head.   HYDE (cont’d): I feel... I feel like Donna’s right, man. All this crap with Kelso and Fez and... forget it, man. Take some time for yourself.   Donna gives a small nod. Jackie looks to Hyde.   JACKIE: Is that all you feel?   HYDE: No... I feel like I busted my hand on Kelso’s head.   Donna laughs as Hyde bends down to put his hand on the ice.   CUT TO:   INT. FORMAN LIVING ROOM - NIGHT   Red leads Kitty back down the stairs.   RED: Now, try not to worry so much, Kitty. Laurie’s just our little girl, after all.   KITTY: She was a little girl ten years ago, Red. She is a woman, and that woman is going to end up with a beer gut and gout.   Red sighs. He takes Kitty over to the couch, and they both sit down.   Laurie bursts in from the kitchen.   LAURIE: (to Kitty) Okay, look. The reason I haven’t done anything with my life is because I didn’t know what I wanted to do.   KITTY: Well, sweetie, the post office has a dental plan that’s -   LAURIE: Shhh! But earlier tonight, something happened that made me realize my passion: hair!   KITTY: (beat) The musical?   LAURIE: No! (she tugs on her hair) Hair! Look!   She steps to the right of the kitchen door and holds out her hands in presentation. Fez steps out, with a short, closely-cropped hairstyle. All trace of gum is gone. He stands with his hands on his hips and a very satisfied expression.   LAURIE (cont’d): Fez had an accident, and I fixed it! And when I thought about it, I could see that this is where all my talents were! Mom, Daddy - I’m going to beauty school!   KITTY: This isn’t something you do through the mail, is it?   LAURIE: No. It’s a real school!   KITTY: Oh. Well... yay!   She starts applauding.   RED: Congratulations, sweetheart!   LAURIE: Thanks, Daddy! (to Fez) Come on, Fez. Let me practice a manicure on you, and I’ll introduce you to my easy friend Susanne.   Fez grins, and lets Laurie usher him back into the kitchen.   RED: So, Kitty, what do you think?   KITTY: Eh.   RED: Yeah.   He turns on the TV, and they settle down on the couch.   CUT TO:   INT. ICE SHACK - NIGHT   Everyone is still in their same places. A knock sounds at the door. Donna hurries to unlock it. Eric is waiting outside, his cheeks and nose red with the cold and frost caked in his hair.   DONNA: Oh my God. Are you all right?   ERIC: Oh, yeah. Three-mile walk to the nearest rest stop, three miles back, snow, wind chill, Kelso trying to cuddle the whole way. No big deal.   Donna cups his head in her hands and kisses him.   DONNA: Eric, I’m sorry.   ERIC: (beat) Me too. (gestures over his shoulder) One of the truckers offered us a ride. He’s waiting outside.   DONNA: My hero.   ERIC: Perfect couple?   They share another Eskimo kiss, gather up their things, and head outside. Jackie and Hyde stand. As Jackie collects her bag, Hyde takes his jacket off and puts it around her. She looks at him.   HYDE: (shrugs) You looked kind of cold.   JACKIE: Thank you.   She briefly places a hand on his cheek. They get their things and head outside.   CUT TO:   EXT. ICE SHACK - NIGHT   Kelso is standing right by the doorway of the shack as Hyde and Jackie leave. He notices Hyde’s coat around Jackie, and that the two are walking closely together and smiling at one another. He gasps in shock.   FADE TO BLACK   CREDITS   INT. FORMAN BASEMENT - NIGHT   Fez, in his new haircut with Eric’s bathrobe over his clothes and Red’s hat in his hands, dances around the basement while “I’VE GOT A GOLDEN TICKET” plays on the record player. He uses a pool cue as a cane.   RECORD (aud. only): I never dreamed that I would climb Over the moon in ecstasy But nevertheless, it’s there that I’m shortly about to be   ‘Cause I’ve got a golden ticket I’ve got a golden chance to make my way And with a golden ticket, it’s a golden day!   END.

[winterisakiller]

Perfectly Imperfect

Title: Perfectly Imperfect

One Shot: 1/1

Character: Tom Hiddleston/Allie Thompson (OFC)

Genre: romance/ realistic fluff(?)

Rating: G

Summary:  Allie hadn’t expected anything when she’d handed him her number that night…She wasn’t even sure why she’d done it. After all she’d known the chances of him actually calling were slim to none, and that was being generous. But Allie had known she would have regretted not taking the chance so she’d handed him the napkin and climbed into her car, forcing herself not to look back.

Authors Notes/Warnings: This was written for @babylevines 4k challenge. My prompt was the line: “Stay here tonight”. Thanks to @redfoxwritesstuff for letting me continually throw ideas off and at you. I still can’t fathom why you put up with it, but I am eternally grateful you do. And thank you to @theheartofpenelope for letting me pester you with this and giving your feedback, you are awesome!

I was going to wait until next Tuesday to post this, but decided why not and here we are. 

Tag list: @tinchentitri @theheartofpenelope @blacksuitofdoom @messy-insomniac-bookgirl @noplacelikehome77

The evening had been nothing short of fantastic and Allie Thompson found herself wondering just when the other shoe was going to drop. Tom had been nothing short of a gentleman in the five weeks since they’d started seeing one another. He was attentive, thoughtful, and, while his schedule was erratic at best, he’d done his utmost to make his interest in her clear. The old adage ‘if it seems too good to be true, it probably is’ had been echoing around her mind, growing steadily louder with each passing week.  

 She let her eyes roam over his profile as they sat, curled on his couch, watching a movie with the lights dimmed. He was gorgeous; hair slightly tousled, clad in dark jeans and thin, blue t-shirt, glasses perched on his long, straight nose. Gorgeous and smart and god she was so out of her depth here.

 Allie hadn’t expected anything when she’d handed him her number that night…God was it really over a month ago? She wasn’t even sure why she’d done it. After all she’d known the chances of him actually calling were slim to none, and that was being generous. But Allie had known she would have regretted not taking the chance so she’d handed him the napkin and climbed into her car, forcing herself not to look back. And, looking back, she couldn’t believe things had actually worked out as well as they had.

                                                            —

 It had been a shit day; she’d been late for work that morning, dropped her coffee as she’d run into the office ruining her new blouse (thank god she’d had a spare in her office for emergencies; the only good thing it seemed was going to come of the day), and to top it all off her blind date hadn’t bothered to show up. Allie stirred her second drink of the night, the ice having nearly melted, watering down the fruity alcoholic concoction significantly. Why she let herself get talked into accepting this farce of a date, she still couldn’t understand. Hell, she didn’t even know why she was still sitting in the bar in the first place. Not when she could have been at home, curled up on her couch with a book and a glass of wine.

 “I don’t mean to sound forward but you look like you’ve had a rough night.” Her eyes snapped up at the horribly familiar voice. It couldn’t be…

 Allie forced herself to close her mouth as she took in the smiling form of Tom Hiddleston standing before her. She blinked in confusion, wondering if the barkeep had doubled the liquor in her drink. Because clearly she was hallucinating. But, she admitted to herself, as hallucinations go this one isn’t so bad.

 It wasn’t that she fantasied about the man standing before her…Or at least not frequently. But she would have to have been living under a rock not to recognize him. Allie has seen several of his films, mostly at Gilly’s behest. Her best friend was…Quite taken with the man, to point it mildly. And she’d dragged Allie along for the ride, whether she’d wanted to go or not.

 Tom was undoubtedly talented and certainly not someone you’d kick out of bed. And yes…Technically, Allie may have googled a few pictures of him in her spare time, especially after that asshole Mark had decided he was more interested in screwing other women than trying to make things work with her. He was a harmless idea that she’d known would never exist outside of her head. And yet, somehow he was standing before her with his blindingly sincere smile.

 It took her a few moments to find her voice. “You could certainly say that.”

 Tom smiled and gestured at her half melted glass. “Would you like another?”

 She chuckled and shook her head. “Probably not the best idea. I do have to drive myself home.”  

 He nodded. “Fair point.” She watched as he appeared to weigh something in his mind. “Would you mind if I joined you?”

 Allie blinked in confusion again and stuttered out a confused, “Why?”

 Tom shrugged. “You look like you could use the company.” He smiled at her gently and quiet without meaning to, Allie returned the smile. Her hesitance, however, must have been clear on her face. “…But please, feel free to tell me to piss off if I’m being too forward.”

 “Oh…Oh, its fine…I just…No, no please sit.” Allie gestured to the opened seat across from her. “You honestly don’t have to though. I’ll be fine, you must have someone waiting on you…” She wanted to slap herself for her own forwardness. It was obvious that Tom knew that she knew who he was. But knowing of him and his work didn’t in anyway mean that she knew him as a person. What he was doing and who he was with was absolutely none of his business.  

 He shook his head and settled into the open seat, smile still spread across his face. “Nah. Was out with a few mates but they had to call it an early night, I have nowhere in particular I have to be tomorrow and decided to stick around.”

 “Oh.”

 Tom quirked an eyebrow, “Oh?”

 Allie shook her head, “Nothing. Just…Nothing.” She played with the straw in her drink before giving in and taking a swallow then grimacing. God, it really was watered down. “So,” she started, trying desperately to think of some way to steer the conversation back to less potentially embarrassing topics. “I haven’t seen you around here before.” Well that certainly isn’t a leading question at all, Allie you utter, utter moron!

 The smile on his face grew and he rubbed his slightly stubbly chin with his free hand. “Come here often then?”

 She felt the blood rush to her face. “Sort of. This place isn’t too terribly far from work for me.” Allie took a deep breath. In for a penny, in for a pound. “I certainly would remember a face like yours.”

 It was Tom’s turn to blush, the color rising quickly to his cheeks as he ducked his head. Some part of her, admittedly impaired, brain quickly filed that image away for later processing. I made Tom Hiddleston blush! He shook his head. “No, I’m getting ready to start a play in the area and this was the closest pub to the rehearsal space.”

 Allie nodded. She’d heard, again through Gilly, that Tom was gearing up for the theatre again. But with all that had been going on in her life, she hadn’t paid much, if any, attention to the details. “Very nice. Well welcome. I’m Allie.” She held out her hand him and he took it firmly in his.

 “Thank you, Allie. I’m Tom.” They sat in silence for several minutes before Tom cleared his throat and spoke once more. “Who were you waiting for, if I may ask?” He looked less than sure of himself

 “Blind date.”

 Tom’s brow wrinkled in confusion and then astonishment, “And he didn’t bother to show?”

 “Obviously.” Allie turned her attention back to her drink.

 “Well bully for him then,” Tom mused, taking a quick sip of his drink. “And all the better for me.”

 Allie quirked her brow at him. “Do you use that line with all the girls, or am I special?”

 Tom let out an awkward laugh, rubbing the back of his neck with his hand. “Um…God, no matter how I answer that I’m going to come off sounding like a gigantic ass.”

 She snorted a laugh. “But it’s a nice ass.”

 His laugh this time was genuine. “You think so?”

 Allie blushed. “Well…”

 Tom waggled his eyebrows at her and they both broke into fits of laughter. Allie was surprised at how comfortable she felt around the man sitting before her. It was surreal, sitting here talking with a man she had only ever seen on screen. Surreal but wonderful all at once. Allie found him incredibly easy to talk to and, quite honestly, a fantastic flirt.

 She sighed and slowly sipped her drink; finding flirting so much easier knowing that in the end it most likely wouldn’t matter. Tom, while clearly every bit as charming and genuine as he’d appeared on screen, was most likely never going to see her again once they parted ways. Knowing there was a time limit, a definite end, made it safer for Allie to put herself out there. After all, what did she have to lose?

 Tom did talk his way into buying her another drink, a lemonade this time, “I know you said you need to be able to drive home tonight.” And she sipped it gratefully, wondering just how her night had turned from disaster to something altogether enjoyable. It surprised her when she’d next glanced at her watch that it was nearing midnight. How the bloody hell had that happened?

 Ignoring thoughts of glass slippers and carriages turning back into pumpkins, Allie pushed herself from the bench and smiled warmly at Tom.

 “Leaving so soon?” He asked before his eyes fell to his own watch. “Or not so soon. I can’t believe it’s that late already.”

 She shrugged. “They say time flies when you’re having fun. But I do need to be off. I have work in the morning.” Allie could have sworn she’d seen a flash of disappointment in his eyes but dismissed it as a trick of the lighting.

 “Could I at least walk you to your car?” She hesitated for a moment before nodding. If he was going to prolong the evening, if only for a few moments, then who was she to interfere?

 They walked silently from the warmth of the pub out into the cool night air. Her car, a light blue compact, was parked on a side street not too far from the main entrance and they made it there in less time than Allie had hoped. She smiled sheepishly as she turned to face him. “Well this is me.”

 Tom returned her smile and, after a brief paused, leaned in and kissed her gently on the lips. He tasted of whiskey and warmth and Allie felt her head swim. They were both slightly breathless when he pulled back. “It’s been lovely, Allie.”

 “It has.”

 Allie wasn’t sure what made her do it, bold was the absolute last word anyone would use to describe her, she pulled a napkin and pen from her purse and quickly scribbled her name and mobile number on it. Without giving herself time to think, she pushed it into Tom’s hand, smiled softly, and climbed into her car.

 She hadn’t expected anything to come of it. Had done her utmost best to push the thought of him actually using the number from her mind as she drove home. So the soft ping of an incoming text message as she fought to undo the deadbolt of her main door caught Allie by surprise.

 ‘It’s Tom, from the pub. Just wanted to make sure you made it home safe. And to say once more that I had a lovely time.’

 Allie blinked at her screen in confusion; torn between flattery and disbelief. “Well fuck me sideways.”

 The phone pinged again as another text arrived.

 ‘And to say I would very much like to see you again.’

                                                             —

 Tom chuckled, turning his eyes briefly from the screen toward her. “Something on your mind?” His smooth voice danced with mirth and Allie felt her face flush in embarrassment at being caught staring

 “Yes…No…Sorry.” She cursed a blue streak in her mind. What the fuck was wrong with her?

 He picked up the remote and hit pause, turning his full attention on Allie. “What’s going on in that head of yours?”

 Allie shrugged, not quite sure how to put the thoughts swirling through her mind into words that might actually make sense.

 “You can talk to me,” he assured her. “Whatever it is, I promise not to judge.” Tom reaches out and cupped her cheek with his hand.

 She let out a nervous laugh. “This.”

 Confusion spread across his features. “I’m afraid you’ve lost me.”

 Allie swallowed, trying to gather her wits. She leaned back, breaking their contact, and gestured between them. “This. You…You are wonderful and kind and ridiculously amazing…”

 “And…” He trailed off, a look of apprehension in his blue eyes.

 “And I’ve not been this happy in a very, very long time. That scares me, Tom. You are almost too good to be true and I keep waiting for…” Allie stopped, turning away from his intense gaze, feeling so incredibly stupid for saying anything in the first place. “It’s stupid.”

 Tom’s hand came to rest on her shoulder and slowly moved until it rested beneath her chin. Gently, he turned Allie’s face back towards him and locked his eyes with her bright green ones. “It’s not stupid.” A warm smile spread across his face. “If you are feeling it, Allie, it isn’t stupid. I’m not…” He paused, searching for the right words. “I’m not an easy person to be with. My life is chaos at the best of times and no matter how hard I try, I am so very far from perfect. I can be obsessive with my work and I’ve been accused, and not unfairly, of being distant and hard to reach when I get wrapped up in a project.”

 Allie opened her mouth to protest but was quickly silenced by the look in Tom’s eye.

 “I’m not perfect, Allie, and at some point I will do something to let you down even though it’s the last thing I want to do.” He paused again, dropping his hands to his lap. “This scares me too. I’ve not had an excellent track record when it comes to successful relationships and I don’t want this…Us, to be a part of that. But that is part of the risk of a relationship and I think…I hope it’s worth it. That we are worth it. That I want us to be. And I know it’s early days yet and even bring this up is probably way too much, way too quickly…But I want you to know…I want you to see that I am not taking any of this lightly.”

 “I swear to god, Hiddleston!” A choked sob slipped from Allie’s lips and she pushed her hand against Tom’s shoulder. “How is it you always seem to know what to say?” She sighed. “It’s getting a bit intimidating.”

 Tom reached up to clasp her hand in his own, “Give me time, I’m almost positive I’ll say something stupid sooner or later. Just ask my sisters, I’m sure they have plenty of stories that would highlight my less than stellar side.” They both laughed softly at that. “I’m not perfect, Allie. I’m just me. And I have come to care a great deal about you. I don’t know if this will work but I want to do my best so that it does.”

 She sat in silence for a few moments before bringing herself to speak. “I want it to work too. I just…This is new for me and I don’t know exactly what I’m doing here.”

 Tom laughed softly. “That makes two of us.” He pulled her against his side, kissing the side of her head. The small gesture sent a shiver through her. It was far from the most intimate thing they had done (not that they had done a great deal, physically), but something about the innocence of the act that struck her. “We’ll figure it out as we go.”

 Allie nodded, settling gratefully into Tom’s embrace. He un-paused the film and they settled back into the quiet comfort of the evening. By the time the credits began to roll, Allie had fallen asleep against his shoulder. He smiled, watching her face relaxed and serene in sleep.  

 “Wake up, sleeping beauty,” he whispered, gently shaking her shoulder. She stirred, her face scrunching first in confusion then in annoyance. “Allie, darling. It’s late. The film’s over.”

 Allie cracked her eyes open, blinking in the dim light. “Wastime it?”

 Tom laughed. “It’s half eleven.”

 “Five more minutes,” she slurred, burying her head farther into his chest. Allie was warm and he was ever so comfortable. The idea of forcing herself to get up and make the trek back across the city to her small flat seemed unbearable.

 He took a deep breath, running his thumb across her cheek, smiling as Allie leaned into his touch. “Why…Why don’t you stay here tonight?”

 She pushed herself up, staring at Tom in confusion. “What?”

 Tom took another deep breath and continued with more confidence. “Stay here tonight. With me.” He leaned in, his blue eyes locking on hers, and kissed her gently.

 Allie pulled back studying his expression before smiling softly up at him. Maybe this was a mistake, maybe it wasn’t. The only way to know was simply to take that leap. “Okay,” She whispered, wrapping her arms around his neck and returned the kiss. She reluctantly pulled back and nodded. “Okay, I’ll stay.”

[sswwimagine]

A Baby? || George Weasley

Original Post: on ssimagines

Pairing: George Weasley x Reader

Word Count: 1523

Warnings: swearing, unplanned (teen) pregnancy, No editing really.

Request:  Can I get 43, 50, and 101 for pre-war George Weasley please? Thank You! Love your writing❤

Prompts:  43. “Do you think it’s possible that I…might be… pregnant? ”

                 50. “You got her pregnant?! What were you thinking?”

                 101. “Fuck…I feel I’ve been hit by a car.”

Note: I didn’t want them to still be at hogwarts so its like just after the war has started takes place just after the start of the sixth book when everyone else had already gone back to hogwarts. They are still living at the burrow and are 17. You are also a halfblood with your mother being a muggle.  

This would have been a great howler prompt, but I honestly didn’t feel very comfortable putting them at hogwarts for this one.

This is obviously already been posted, but since I started my smaller blogs, I wanted all my work for each fandom in one place. Instead of just reblogging everything I figured that I would repost it.

Request/Taglist

Masterlist

You finished emptying the contents of your stomach into the toilet bowl. You had puked at least once every day of the past two week with no real explanation. You were starting to get sick of it, no pun intended. 

“Fuck…I feel I’ve been hit by a car,” you said as you stood up off the floor and flushed the toilet moving to the sink. George, your fiancé, moved to stand in the doorway of the bathroom.  The look on his face said it all. Keeping your eye on him, you prepared to brush the acidic vomit taste out of your mouth. 

“I’m sorry you haven’t been feeling well lately,” he said as came in and wrapped his arms around your waist. 

You responded with a grunt with a toothbrush in your mouth. George nuzzled his nose into your neck as he just stood behind you watching. It was comforting being so close to him. He had this way of just setting you at ease. 

“Do you have any plans today?” you said. Leaning forward out of his grasp, you spit into the sink.

“Just working,” he said with a sigh. “Fred was talking about staying late to work on some new product, but I told him I’d have to check with you first.”

“You should. I’m busy today anyway. Molly and I have an exciting day planned where she’s going to teach me how to make a sweater” You rinsed your toothbrush off and placed it back were you kept it next to George’s. 

You loved Molly; she was like a (second) mother to you and had been since you and George started dating your fifth year. When you graduated from Hogwarts, George had proposed to you, and with the war looming so close to your home in London, the two of you thought it best you moved into the burrow with them and spent your days with her. Spending so much time together had just made you closer to her. 

Turning around in his arms you looked at the face of the man you loved. He had opened the joke shop just a few months ago, and it was doing so well. The more products meant more variety and more customers which was great for the both of you. It meant that you would be able to get married sooner and get your own place and eventually have kids. That was the future you wanted with George, but it was something that you had decided to wait on for a better time. One without a war where you were financially stable. 

“Let me get dressed and then let’s go down to breakfast,” you said pulling him out of the bathroom and down the hall to the Percy’s old room which you had commandeered since moving in. A small smile came to his face as he followed behind you. 

George closed the door behind him and sat on your bed as you dug around in the dresser for a shirt and pants to wear. After finding something that sort of matched, you moved to the mirror that you had propped up against the wall. You quickly changed your pants hoping that George’s attention was elsewhere. Every time George was in your room when you changed, he would get a but distracted. It often times ended with you both your bed, and currently, you were trying to avoid that. 

In the mirrors reflection you could see George’s nose buried in a book that your muggle mother had sent you. You let out a soft chuckle at your fiancé before taking off your shirt. You couldn’t help but let your eyes wander over your stomach. You had a thought over the past two week that kept coming back to you. 

“Do you think it’s possible that I…might be… pregnant?” your voice was barely above a whisper. George wasn’t meant to hear it, but from the way his head shot up from his book to you, you could tell that he had.

“Are you serious?” he asked. George closed the book and stood up from the bed. He rushed to stand behind you and placed a hand on your exposed stomach.

“I don’t know, maybe,” you said lacing your fingers in his. 

He placed a kiss on your shoulder and moved his way up your neck. Before he could take it any further, you pulled away. Another chuckle came out of your mouth at the drop of the goofy smile that was painted on his face. You pulled the shirt you had picked out over your head.

George had a gleam in his eye as he snuck up behind him and wrapped his arms around your waist. He picked you up and threw you onto the bed. Laughter poured out of both of you as George landed on you. 

He plastered your face with small kisses and tickled you. You called out for him to stop, but he persisted. After a minute, he fell down beside you, and you settled into his arms. His hand came to rest over your stomach. There was a look in his eyes that you had never seen before. It was soft and full of hope. “Would you want that?” you asked him.

“What, a baby?” George said. “With you, of course.”

You smiled and pressed a kiss to his lips. George’s stomach rumbled. For the fourth time that morning you let a giggle escape your lips.

“Come on,” you said standing up and pulling him with you. “Let’s go eat.”

The two of you sat at the table with Fred and their parents. Everyone else was away at school leaving the house quite empty during the day. You weren’t sure how Molly did it without you. 

“How you’d you sleep, Y/N?” Arthur asked as he shoveled eggs int his house. “Pretty good,” you said.

“Are you still having stomach issues?” Arthur followed up. Molly’s ears perked up awaiting your answer. 

“Yea, I found her puking again this morning,” George said rubbing circles into your back. You gave his father a small smile as you brought a piece of toast to your lips and nibbled a bit off it.

“Maybe you should go to St. Mungo’s,” Fred offered.  You looked to your fiancé and to his twin trying to gauge if he was joking or not, but the impassive look gave you nothing. Molly cleared her throat as she set her cu of orange juice down on the table. 

“That wouldn’t be necessary,” Molly said with a sweet smile. “It’s just morning sickness. It will pass.”

Your eyes widened at the words that just slipped past Molly’s lips. Beside you, George choked on his toast and Fred coughed up some of his orange juice. You laid your hands palm down on table as if to ground you. George’s hand still sat on your back, but it was no longer rubbing circles there. 

No one spoke for a long time as you just shifted your eye line around to see everyone’s shocked expressions. There was a small smug smile on Molly’s face. “What?” Arthur said at last.

“Y/N is pregnant,” Molly said returning to her food. 

“How do you know?” Fred was baffled at his mother’s statement. You could see the wheels turning in his said. 

“A mother just knows,” she said offering you a smile. She placed her hand over yours. There was another moment of silence.

Arthur pushed his chair away from the table letting the screech of the chair against the floor echo around the room. He stood up and looked at George. 

“George, a word,” his words were tight and hard, something you had never heard from him before. 

Your gaze snapped to George who stood up. He nervously rubbed his hands against his pants and followed his father out of the house. You could still see them from the window. Arthur didn’t look happy, and the look on George’s face told you he knew it. 

“Well, this should be interesting,” Fred said with a smile as he leaned over to hit your arm lightly.

Molly smiled before turning around in her seat to watch as well. 

“You got her pregnant?! What were you thinking?” Arthur yelled at his son. At first George slunk back, but after a moment, his shoulders rolled back and he stood tall in front of his father. 

“I love her,” his voice was confident, “this doesn’t change that.”

Arthur took a deep breath. He held his face in his hands. It was clear that he was trying to gather his thoughts. 

“George, I know how you feel about her,” Arthur was calmer this time. “You know how much your mother and I love her, but George this is the worst possible time. There is a war on the horizon. You are just children. There is so much against you. Are you ready for that?”

“Of course,” George didn’t even waste a beat. “She is my whole world. I want this with her. Even if it’s a little early.”

Those words were enough for you. They were everything you could ever hope for.  

[hope-and-soap]

(hypothetical) Young Avengers film trailer

I’ve spent Several Showers obsessively putting together a mental trailer for a Young Avengers film adaptation (please marvel please) so figured I’d write it down to clear space for other Shower Thoughts. Enjoy?

*******

INT: APARTMENT, DAY

We open in the kitchen of a small, cluttered apartment - the kind of crappy-but-cheerful, barely-adulting place known to students and other young urban people everywhere. It’s early morning. 

Four young people are gathered around the kitchen table: CASSIE LANG, legs tucked up under her, a newspaper spread out in front of her as she works on the crossword; TEDDY ALTMAN, digging in to a large pile of toast and looking sappily down at BILLY KAPLAN, who’s nursing a mug of coffee and half-napping on TEDDY’s shoulder; and KATE BISHOP, face pressed into the table in front of an empty coffee mug.

Kate: Ugh, morning, why.

BILLY hums in sympathy, flicking his fingers; a pot of coffee floats over the table, tipping its contents into KATE’s mug. CASSIE glances over at this, and five sugar cubes are dropped into the mug by a line of ants. KATE groans, but with gratitude.

Silence for a moment as we dwell on this scene of loving domesticity, and then the doorbell rings.  

CUT TO:

INT: HALLWAY, DAY

BILLY stands in the apartment’s open front door, looking up at an imposing stranger in hot pants and combat boots: AMERICA CHAVEZ, extremely cool and mildly unimpressed.

America: Billy Kaplan?

Billy: Um. Yeah?

America: The world’s ending. I need you to come with me.

Beat as BILLY takes this in. Then a smile of (mistaken) realisation:

Billy: Oh! No, you’re looking for the Avengers - that’s three blocks down, make a right, it’s a big tower, you can’t miss it -

AMERICA shoots him a disdainful look halfway through this speech and turns, walking away down the hall.

America: Come on.

Billy: Wait, where are you -

America: (calling over her shoulder) Bring your friends.

Billy: I - (beat) Sorry, wait, hang on - the world’s what now?

CUT TO:

A montage of images, with AMERICA providing voiceover.

America, v/o: There’s something coming.

A suburban living room: television, sofa, armchairs. A family sitting together, two parents and two kids, watching TV. In a corner by the sofa we see: a patch of whiteness, flat blank-paper white, like a total absence of colour and texture. As we watch, it spreads, eating its way over carpeted floor. Erasing it.

America, v/o: Something bigger than an invasion. Bigger than a war. 

The whiteness begins to climb the arm of the sofa, creeping towards a young girl’s arm.

America, v/o: It doesn’t just take lives - it eats futures. Steals potential.

The whiteness touches the girl, and she stares at it in horror as it climbs her arm, whiting it out. She opens her mouth as if to scream -

America, v/o: And they called it here, the ones in charge, but they can’t see it. It doesn’t touch them.

The living room again, engulfed in white: the two kids like flat white silhouettes, paper cut-outs with no faces, featureless. The walls and floor and furniture all the same white, looking like line drawings on paper. But the TV is still on - and the parents are all in colour, as per normal, still watching. Oblivious.

America, v/o: So we’ve got no backup.

The whiteness flowing over a college campus, whiting out the students and leaving lecturers speaking to an empty room.

America, v/o: No world leaders, no Avengers, no Sorcerer Supreme. 

Hard cuts now: the whiteness creeping through the halls of a government building, whiting out the walls and floor but leaving important-looking people still walking up and down, files clutched to their chests. Whiting out a police station, but leaving the officers untouched and oblivious. Spreading through the Avengers compound as even the Avengers fail to notice.

America, v/o: We’re on our own. We’re all we’ve got.

Cut to a warehouse, where AMERICA stands, addressing the others, who stand around her in a loose semi-circle. They are quiet for a moment, processing her speech; all stunned, except CASSIE, who tilts her head slightly, considering.

Cassie: So what do we do?

Beat. AMERICA raises an eyebrow: isn’t it obvious?

America: We punch it in the face.

CUT TO:

Another montage, but brighter this time: shots filled with dazzling, pop-y colour, set to Kesha’s We R Who We R (hot! and dangerous!) or similar dance anthem. The gang being shot at by some unseen assailant, dodging neon-coloured beams of light. Having coffee in a diner, laughing silently at a shared joke. Flashing lights like they’re in a club or at a rave, as KATE backflips over someone on what looks like a dance floor, kicking them in the face. The gang in a convertible with the top down, speeding urgently down a highway, TEDDY in the backseat throwing his arms in the air.

Kate, v/o: You know how when you’re really little,

CASSIE alone, in what looks like her bedroom, staring hard at her father’s suit, hung on the back of her door.

Kate, v/o: and they tell you you can be whatever you want to be?

CASSIE in the same place, suited up now, glancing left at a full-length mirror. Looking at herself. She presses a button near her temple and her helmet forms around her face.

Kate, v/o: But then you grow up a bit - 

KATE outdoors, at night, on the side of a hill somewhere - she’s looking into the distance, at far-away city lights. AMERICA walks up to her, settles herself beside her.

Kate, v/o: - and then they’re like, nah.

Same scene: AMERICA tilts her head back, looks up at the stars, pensive and uncharacteristically vulnerable.

Kate, v/o: You’ve got no power.

BILLY, in battle: close-up on his hand as he flexes his fingers and the air around them lights up blue.

Kate, v/o: You’ve got no training.

BILLY and TEDDY fighting back to back, in mid-air, TEDDY flying on newly-sprouted wings and BILLY’s whole body haloed in blue light.

Kate, v/o: You know - basically nothing.

Team shot: the gang in a circle, surrounded by enemies, in battle stances - the tension of the last seconds before a fight.

Kate, v/o: And maybe they’re right.

Cut to black.

Kate, v/o: But you know what?

Slow fade in on a close-up on AMERICA, her arms outstretched, stars glowing on both of her wrists. A glowing star on the ground beneath her feet. Her eyes glow, too, and she’s grinning. 

She lifts a foot and stomps down with a sound like glass shattering, as KATE says -

Kate, v/o: Fuck that.

Cut to black again. The music cuts out. Silence for a second.

Then another slow fade-in, as we hear the first few strains of orchestral music, something familiar -

Kate, v/o: Being a superhero is awesome.

And we’re in the middle of a wide street now - a street packed with young people, teens and twenty-somethings: some armed, some not; some obviously powered, others looking like civilians in ragged jeans and charcoal-smudged faces. All standing tall, facing front, ready to fight. 

Pan over the assembled army to the front of the column, where the YOUNG AVENGERS stand, suited up and battle-ready: BILLY and TEDDY shoulder-to-shoulder on the left, CASSIE on the right, helmet snapping shut as she grows another foot. And in the centre: AMERICA, expression fierce, raising her fists; and KATE, bow in hand, arrow on her string. 

Close-up on KATE as the music swells, and resolves into - what else? - the Avengers theme, in bright new remixed arrangement. KATE takes aim. She’s smiling.

Kate, v/o: Everyone should try it.

KATE lets the arrow fly.

Cut to black.

TITLE CARD, then:

Tag: INT: APARTMENT, DAY

The gang’s gathered around the kitchen table again, leaning over it towards each other like they’re making a plan, when there’s a sound from a nearby cupboard: a shuffle, a thump, a muffled yelp of pain.

AMERICA strides over and yanks the cupboard door open to reveal -

KID LOKI, looking shocked then sheepish then scared as AMERICA hauls him out by the front of his shirt, holding him half a foot off the floor.

The others stare. A beat.

Kate: Loki?

America: You know this guy?

Kate: Yeah, he’s a total prick, Clint says he -

Teddy: (over her) He tried to invade the planet once, you know, aliens, magic portal, it was a whole thing -

Cassie: (after a moment) How did you end up -

Billy: - in the body of a twelve-year-old?

Cassie: (shooting BILLY a look) - in our pantry?

Pause. Everyone looks at each other, taking this all in.

Loki: It’s a long story, but I’d be happy to explain. If, um.

He looks up at AMERICA, who’s still glowering at him. LOKI visibly gulps.

Loki: If you could maybe - could you maybe put me down?

[sharp-teeth-and-archived]

lusus--naturae asked : Send for your muse to do one of the following to mine. Protects.  For Sean please?

Lost the meme / @the-hukkaranta-homestead​​​ -- always accepting

                              ❝ Step away from the girl. ❞ The hammer was pulled back on Sean’s gun, having a low, threatening, even tone as he held up his gun at the other man.

                              ❝ And what of it? ❞

                              ❝ I’m talking sense here. Get your hands off her and I won’t blow your brains out, ❞ Sean warned. He would’ve shot the man already, but the man had a gun to the woman’s head. Sean was a shoot first, ask questions later type of man, but the man could easily press down on the trigger and shoot her when Sean would land a bullet in him.

                              Sean got in this predicament when he took a shortcut out of Saint Denis. It was already night and stars dotted the skies. Going back home in the middle of the night would be dangerous, Lemoyne Raiders could be around any rock, behind any tree. They could ambush him whenever. It would be smart to sneak out int he early morning, so he rented a hotel room for the night.

                              The man let go of the girl, pushing her to the side, but aimed his gun at her. Sean heard the bullet fly from the gun and he was quick to fire, hitting the man in the chest. The men fell over immediately and Sean made sure to fire another shot from his iron, to make sure the man laid there dead.

                              Sean ran over to the woman, cursing under his breath. He knew any policeman would be running towards their location at any moment and wouldn't believe his argument for self-defense. 

                              ❝ Jesus, ❞ he muttered under her breath and placed a hand on her arm, lifting her up onto her feet. ❝ Did he hit you? ❞ he didn’t know if the shot missed her entirely or made its mark. He wouldn’t admit that his heart was racing just then.