#STILL. a fucking scary experience to suddenly see my screen light up and i have to stop fucking around

[automatonknight]

me when i play the class that medics uber and i get. ubered

[sashaisready]

Chapter Nineteen - Best of luck

Bucky Barnes Mob AU x Femme Reader

You're hard at work in Pepper's Bakery when notorious mob boss James 'Bucky' Barnes darkens your doorway one typical afternoon, and life is never the same again

Warning: Dark themes - same warnings as previous chapter, also includes minor injury with mention of blood

18+ - see Masterlist for full list of warnings

Chapter 20

Series Masterlist

Bucky is settling down to go to bed when his phone buzzes. He’s in a bad mood, still furious with how things went down with you earlier.

He takes a sip from this tumbler of whiskey as he picks up his device. He’s very surprised to see your name light up his screen. You’ve sent him a couple of messages. He frowns as he swipes to open his phone.

Sweetie - I’m sorry we fought. Please help!! I’ve been taken somewhere - these men are so scary. Please come help me x love you

Sweetie - here’s my location. Please come soon - I need you. Xx love you so much

The second message included a pin with your live location. You seemed to be somewhere on the outskirts of the city.

He furrows his brow, thinking carefully as he holds the phone against his chin.

After a moment, he opens up your messages again and begins to type a response.

**

Rumlow was holding your phone eagerly as he watched the screen, waiting for Bucky to respond.

You chewed your lip anxiously as you looked around the room. The men all stared back at you. You know pinning all of your hopes on Bucky to save the day is a naïve plan so you’re frantically trying to come up with another idea to get out of here. If you could just be left alone for a moment…

Your phone vibrates and Rumlow laughs excitedly.

“Here’s your boy…” he chuckles.

His thick fingers are smashing at your phone screen as he brings up the message. But his face falls, and he throws the phone over to Pierce who begins to read aloud.

“Doll…sorry to hear you’re in a spot of bother. But I told you I’d leave you alone like you wanted and I’m a man of my word. Best of luck - JBB x”.

Your heart sinks into your stomach and you suddenly feel like you might faint. You go limp in the chair. You didn’t expect Bucky to actually come, but hearing it out loud is still hard to take.

“Aww, well that’s a shame” mutters Pierce sarcastically. “Plenty of fish in the sea though, right honey?”

He taps your cheek roughly and you realise you’re trembling.

“Fuck!!!” Rumlow yells in frustration. “What are we going to do now?

Pierce shushes him soothingly. He seems to be the calm and measured presence alongside Rumlow’s hot-headedness. It strikes you that he’s like Bucky in that way.

Or maybe Bucky is like him. He learnt it all from somewhere.

“Gentlemen….let’s just give this a bit longer huh? We all know from personal experience what Barnes says and does can be two different things…” Pierce muses serenely. “We’ve got time. The girl isn’t going anywhere. We’ll be ready for him if he shows up.”

“So you think he could still come?” Rumlow questions. “I dunno boss, she seems pretty adamant he doesn’t give a fuck…”

Pierce shrugs. “Let’s regroup and discuss.”.

He gestures to them through the double doors. “Follow me, let’s go somewhere a bit more private. Prying eyes and all that” he winks at you.

“Princess, we’ll be right back. Jones here will babysit you for now” he nods his head towards a man holding a large pistol who just blankly stares back at you. He somehow looks like a perfect mix of every bad guy you’ve ever seen in a movie.

“Get comfortable, sweetie” Pierce adds as he leaves the room.

You despise all of the names he gives you...honey...sweetie...princess. Your hatred for him seethes, flowing through your veins.

As the rest of the group head out with a low chatter, Jones moves closer to you. He watches you carefully, circling your chair and pointing his gun at you. It’s just the two of you left in the room now.

You sit up slightly, the beginnings of a plan forming in your head. It’s all you have, so it’s worth a shot.

You purposefully make yourself look as meek as possible, allowing your tears to fall as you flutter your eyelashes. You whimper softly. It’s not too much of a stretch as you’ve been on the verge of crying since they grabbed you.

Jones just watches you silently, seemingly unmoved by your tears.

“I’m sorry, I don’t mean to cry…” you tell him softly.

“I’m just so scared” you sigh. You move your legs apart slightly, moving your cleavage forward just the tiniest bit. You adjust your thighs so that your dress rides up Jones can see a flash of your underwear between your legs, but subtle enough that it doesn’t look like it’s on purpose.

Jones takes the bait, leaning forward and leering at you. You feel dirty. But it’s a means to an end.

Now or never.

“Do…do you think you could get me some water, please? I’m sorry to ask. My throat is just so dry…” you plead to him, slightly pathetically.

He looks at you for a moment, stealing another glance at your breasts and between your legs. Then he nods silently and heads for the doors.

You nearly gasp, amazed that was all it took.

Men, huh?

But you don’t have long. You cast your mind back to a YouTube video you watched in the midst of a late night True Crime binge. It was a tutorial on how to break out of zip ties. HYDRA were sloppy for not using real ropes, no wonder Bucky toppled them so easily - but you supposed they didn’t see you as a real threat. Well, you were happy to be underestimated if it worked to your advantage.

The second the door closed behind Jones you began to raise your arms high above your back and crash them down at full force as you flex your hands. It takes a few tries but you manage it, the pressure snaps the tie and you free yourself. You gasp, momentarily celebrating your win with a muted gleeful screech.

But there’s no time. Jones will be back any second. You spring from the chair and fling off your remaining shoe - it’ll only hold you back. You sprint across the warehouse to the other door you spotted earlier, it’s on the opposite side to where Pierce and his men went so you hope and pray that you won’t bump into them.

The door opens into a labyrinth of corridors. You fling yourself down them, looking for a decent hiding place to give you time to think about your next move. You turn down them almost at random, just desperate to put as much distance between you and HYDRA. Thankfully there are so many routes that it’ll likely create confusion when they come after you. You find yourself praying silently that you don’t encounter anyone, and that they’re all on the other side of the building. You pass lots of rooms, old offices and supply closets. You just need to pick one that they don’t find right away.

Eventually, in the thick of the maze of hallways, you find a door which leads to a stairwell. You run up it, aware they would’ve noticed your absence by now. This building seems to be huge with a lot of ground to cover so you hope the search will keep them occupied for longer. Checking all of the rooms here will take some time at least.

You find yourself in some sort of attic. It’s pitch black but you are too fearful to find the light switch in case it draws attention to you. Your eyes adjust to the darkness as you bump into old boxes and equipment and stumble through the mess. Maybe you can lay low here for a while and think of a new escape plan. If you could just evade them for a bit longer, and then a bit longer after that…Maybe you could flee the building altogether and flag down a passing car once you reach the road.

Your heart is beating so fast that your chest is practically shaking. You’ve never been more frightened.

You think of Bucky briefly. You’re sad that it ended the way it did, regretful that you didn’t get to make peace with him before this. It’s likely that this will be your last day on earth, and even though it’s his fault that you’re here - you feel a pang of regret. You feel anger too, anger for everything he put you through - for leaving you to die here. You think of your final kiss with him instead, the memory sustaining you as you press yourself into a corner, pushing your face against the wall as you manoeuvre into the small space…

You hiss in pain and pull yourself away from the wall as your hand leaps up to your cheek. Something has cut you, a loose nail or bolt or something equally sharp. It’s broken the skin on your face, and you can feel blood gushing down your cheek.

You scoff in disbelief as you clutch at it, annoyed that if you somehow survive the psychopathic crime gang then you’ll end up dying of an infection from an ancient nail instead.

You hold your hand against the wound, then rip a section of your dress off and use it to put pressure on the cut, slowing down the bleeding.

And you wait.

And wait.

[caestoexist]

GOING HOME / TO FEED MY BROTHER

by caeser

after i dropped him off i just drove. i couldn't tell you where i was going, all i know is that i thought i was going home until i realized i wasn't turning into my street.

i kept driving further down main street, turning left at the "keep right" sign, turning onto parkland ave, and then suddenly i was on james street. i drove slow and turned my music down, thinking of young kids in houses trying to sleep. i had been that kid. on this street. as i got a little closer to the yellow house, or the old house, as we call it now, i saw a sign.

"block party!

saturday the 29th

3pm-8pm"

i remembered the block party that made me think all block parties would be live music, scootering with other kids my age, and soda, which was new and exciting at the time. it's not anymore, and the last block party i went to was all old people and food i didn't eat and one person i knew from school but didn't talk to, but i still took a picture of the sign.

i turned around in the driveway of the old house, because the other option means going down to a street that reminds me of him, and fuck him. he doesn't even get to be a part of this story, not anymore. it doesn't matter to me that i blame him for things that aren't even his fault, because i never blamed him for anything when it was his fault, so i have plenty of catching up to do. i drove by the house slower than i'd driven the rest of the way. the door was a different color than it was when we lived there.

as i turned right off of james street, it occurred to me that i always drove home from the old house the same way that we drove to and from the red house, while we were moving. i remember taking that sharp turn onto parkland ave, sitting in the back of the van, on the floor, with all the stuff next to me, and being excited and nervous and so giddy to be allowed to sit on the floor instead of in a seat, just cuz it was different.

of course i still drive that same way. felix had commented on it once, at that very spot, saying how i always took the strangest routes places, but it always worked out. i guess i hadn't thought of it as strange. i guess it hadn't occurred to me that there were other ways to drive.

i got to the cliff and tower overlooking my town, where i guess i had gone to write, with mental images of me looking over the edge and realizing that i don't have a cigarette to smoke, and so simply sitting and typing on my phone until everything internal was external, or at least, on my phone screen. however, my internal images didn't account for other people. i'm always alone in my head, i guess. but now that i'm here, and there are two cars full of teenagers bumping music, i really don't want to get out of the prius.

ever since the incident with alder, where those fucking retards tried to beat us up, i haven't trusted loud teenagers. or any teenagers in a herd. im trusting by nature but i know how dangerous other teenagers can be. i know i was never raised tough enough to deal with them.

instead i pull in next to them, turn off all the lights in my car, pull out my phone, and try to ignore the anxious feeling i get whenever i think i see movement in the corner of my vision. it's always just me, typing on my phone screen, reflected in the window.

i avoid looking at them, as i know from experience that anything, even something as small as eye contact, could set off the type of people who would beat you up. or call you names. like dead squirrel. earlier, the librarian said she liked my email. squirrel, at blankmail dot com. that's me. i guess.

finally the two cars leave, one right after the other, confirming my suspicion that they were together. yikes and double yikes, thank god they left. two seperate cars of teenagers is less scary than two correlated cars of them. at least if they're unrelated, there's a chance that if one car happens to take issue with you, the other car will step in and help.

i contemplate getting out of the car, now, to look over the edge and try to remember what felt so freeing the first time i drove without my parents in the car, the day i came up here and climbed out as far as i could without falling off that cliff, and grabbed the furthest bottle top that i could. i still have that bottle top. maybe i should get out.

but i'm hungry. and i have frozen chicken and vegetable dumplings in the back seat, because i'm sick of the pork ones, and because i finally caved to my impulses and just went to cvs to buy dinner instead of looking thru the fridge again. $5.34 cents poorer, but hey. food is good. i'm good. i'm taking care of myself.

i decide to get out, just to see what happens if i do. after seeing someone walking towards the car door and spooking a little before realizing she's not paying any attention to me, i finally get out, and, dizzy with hunger, stagger towards the guard rail. i hear the flag on top of the tower clapping against itself as it flaps in the wind.

the air smells nice, nothing i can describe but something that's been present in summer air since i was a child, something that makes me feel safe, and remember looking out the window and imagining what it would be like to be outside when i was little and had never really been outside at night before. the streetlights looked so inviting.

i squint at the streetlights down on the street. i can't decide if they look inviting or just like nicotine addiction. everyone always says it, but it's true, things do look so small from up here. toy cars and trees and hospital. almost invisible ant people. lights so bright they'd give me a headache if i didn't already have one. mostly dark though, and outlines of houses that i can just barely make out. i remember coming up here with michael, remarking how i liked the lights, and him saying he liked the dark more. i wonder which kind of person i am tonight. the lights seem too bright but the dark is boring- i like the outlines of the houses. i like the music and talking i can hear. from some house down there, i think.

the whole city- can i really even call it that? i know it's true, but still- is covered in haze, and the lights that are really far in the distance seem to twinkle in it. the smell of fire wafts into my nose, and i have so many thoughts and so little thoughts all at the same time.

i miss something. i've missed something for.... i don't know how long. at least since we moved. but probably longer. probably since i was 9, standing in the driveway, wondering why i'm so sad all the time. probably my whole life.

whatever. whatever. whatever. there's no beast inside of me. there's nothing held in that needs to come out. i'm angry but i'm not angry like i used to be. i've already puked. it's already all over the floor. there's nobody coming to clean it up, and i probably won't either.

there's nobody else living in my brain, keeping track of me, keeping track of the steps it takes to start my car and start driving. it's just me, just me and my body. and you know what? we are going home.

we are going home to make chicken and vegetable dumplings in the microwave, and figure out what it takes to keep us going. at least for today. and it doesn't matter if that involves spending $5.34 at cvs, or crying for an hour, or laying in bed for 6 months, or smoking every day for the rest of my life.

i'm alive. and that's fucking good enough.

~*~

i drove home and ate chicken and vegetable dumplings at the table. while i was eating, felix came in, and asked me if i got him anything from cvs. typical. i said no and tried to tune him out. then he started talking about how he was hungry, and wanted food, but didn't know what to make himself. i almost tried to ignore it.

he put something in the microwave and left the room. i got up and looked- microwave popcorn. i know that's not gonna sustain a 13 year old boy. what the fuck are my parents doing? how come not one goddamn person in this house knows how to make anything edible out of the massive, huge, nuclear war level amounts of food that we have stockpiled in this house?

downstairs: wire shelf full of artichoke hearts, relish, oatmilk, beans. chest freezer full of frozen fruit, frozen vegetables, dead mice. standing fridge and freezer full of butter, old soft apples, potatoes, weed, cream cheese. upstairs: closet full of mac n cheese (the kind we don't like anymore), cheerios, vanilla extract, baking soda. fridge full of leftovers, eggs, vegetables. cupboards full of ramen, crackers, assorted dried fruits, nuts. everything to eat, and somehow, still, nothing to eat.

fuck that- fuck microwave popcorn. felix came back in the room and i asked him if he'd eat eggs, if i made them for him. he said sure. i got out the last three eggs and cooked them, real nice with salt and pepper and garlic powder, how my cousin had taught me to do it. after the eggs, i rummaged through the fridge and found a cheese stick, gave that to him as well.

as he ate the eggs, i decided that he needed a vegetable. i asked if he still liked carrots and peanut butter- he does. as i peeled a carrot, i noticed him get up from the table and walk toward the door. i asked if he'd be back, and he said he might. he noticed me peeling the carrot, and remarked that he liked apples with peanut butter too. noted.

after i finished cutting up the carrot and apple, i got out the peanut butter, and as i did remembered how he'd told our parents they should get jif peanut butter when he was eating it at the cabin. my mom said she wouldn't, and it was only the extra oil and sugar added that made it taste so good. i eyed the peanut oil on the counter.

i brought the plate of apple, carrot, and peanut butter with extra oil and sugar up to his room, along with the uneaten cheese stick and the lemonade i had showed him how to make in the kitchen earlier, both of which he'd left on the table. it felt good to feed him, and he said thank you, of course. he's really not so bad now that he's a little older.

still, i couldn't help but feel a little sad. for myself, i think. i feed him because i know nobody else will. i feed him because i wish someone would feed me. i feed him because i know there's nobody who will feed me. i feed him because i know that by feeding him i feed myself. i feed him because i prove to myself, by feeding him, that i can take care of someone. and that means i can take care of myself. even if i don't want to.

i think, most importantly, i feed him because i know that by feeding him he knows i love him. and i do. i've had so many conversations with my therapist about how food and love are almost the same thing, and how my not being fed in this house feels like a metaphor for something.

and okay, sure, i'm loved. i know i'm loved. i know. i'm told that all the time. by my parents, im told that. but sometimes. sometimes it doesn't matter how many times they say it. sometimes i just want them to feed me.

but they're in their room. and i can hear them listening to music. and not caring that i'm not being fed, not caring that felix wouldn't be fed either if it wasn't for me.

they always told us when we fought that they wanted us to be like the boxcar children, or my mom's friends from high school who were siblings and fiercely protective of each other. they wanted us to take care of each other. they always missed the point that the boxcar children took care of each other because they were orphans and there was nobody else to do it, and my mom's friends took care of each other because their parents were addicts and couldn't do it.

now i guess we are a little like the boxcar children. it's ironic, isn't it? they somehow knew that we would get along better if they were worse parents, to the point of staging a fight in the hallway to try and get us to stop fighting, which didn't work. but now, when we try to stand up to them all together, they don't like that. they don't like being the dead parents of the boxcar children.

but they still don't feed their kids. we're all still wandering around the house, trying to figure out what to make for breakfast lunch or dinner, and forgetting what time it is and whether we're even hungry in the first place. if you go long enough being hungry, it doesn't feel like hunger anymore. if they stay in their room long enough, they don't feel like our parents anymore. sometimes i wonder how long it would take our parents to notice if one of us went missing. sometimes i wonder if i'd even notice, with how big this house is. we all just sit in our rooms. that's what we do here.

well, i noticed that felix was hungry, even when they didn't. i shouldn't be the only one noticing, and i shouldn't have to feed him, but i did. and i'm glad i did. if it wasn't for me all he would have eaten was popcorn. if it wasn't for me.

thank god for me.

[tommyspeakycap]

again, your new john stones fic blew me away!!! Amazing. Please feel free to write about him all day every day!! <3

thank you again!! here’s another sweet one inspired by my own 1am experience tonight :) i wish I had a john stones

My hero

Your heart is quite literally thundering in your chest. There’s no feeling like it, this kind of fear that sticks you to the ground beneath your feet. You honestly feel like you can’t catch your breath, tears streaking down over your flushed cheeks as you hold your phone in your right hand with trembling fingers, one thumb finally letting go of the little microphone shaped drawing in your iMessages app. Even the whooshing sound of the message you knew was about to send to your best friend catches you off guard, making your shoulders clench and raise in fright.

“Are you seriously alright??”

She texts back, her confusion and teasing is something you know is laced into those letters across the screen creating a glow in the dim room. You roll your eyes at her, trying to keep your vision up while sending another voice note back; “No, seriously. Why does this only ever happen when I’m alone??”

“Probably because you live alone?” She replies back, and you curse yourself for a choice of friends who clearly have no empathy for what you consider to be a very serious situation. You know you won’t hear the end of this teasing once it’s all over. But the fear to you is all too real.

“(Y/n) I got your text! Came right here, are you alright?”

The sudden voice makes you literally clench your entire body, nearly shooting off the floor in fright and making one of those internalised fear noises that sounds like you just been attacked with a taser. You hear keys dropping down by the door and then a pause of his footsteps as you try to catch your breath. Your heart swells a little at the thought of him being here.

“John!” You yelp, your voice coming out something more like a strangled cry. The tall defender hears that sound and finds himself in panic, those long legs carrying him quickly and easily up the stairs of your small home until he spots you standing now in the doorway of your bedroom. He rushes towards you, seemingly checking you over for potential injuries the best he can in the darkness only broken by the lowest setting of flashlight on your phone. The first thing he notices when checking over your face with his hands is the wetness still making its way over your cheeks.

“Are you alright? what happened? Is there someone in there? Are you okay? Did someone hurt-“

You cut off his rambling with a finger over his lips, creating even more confusion for the fluffy haired brunette who had very clearly rolled himself out of bed to hurry over here. He was wearing shoes without socks, dirty shorts from training that he’d thrown off before going to bed only to pull back in to come to your, and an old sweater that usually sat somewhere downstairs in the closet closest to the door. It was obvious he had come in a wild rush the second he got your erratic message.

“It’s a wasp, John!” You whisper, as if the little creature that sitting on your lightbulb unwilling to move from the place you couldn’t reach and wouldn’t dare to even if you could, was able to hear you.

“A wasp?” John repeats incredulously. “Seriously?”

You nod vigorously, and and as much as the exhausted footballer wants to complain or even sigh at you, he doesn’t. Maybe he can’t. Because he’s got his arms around you and he definitely can feel you quivering against him. He had expected something more along the lines of a one night stand gone wrong or even someone breaking it, but as his consciousness began to catch back up with his previously very sleepy self, it made a lot more sense. In the event of a break in, you would probably have been bloody calmer than you are now to be honest. John had seen you after a pretty dangerous car crash completely still and relatively calm as you gave statements to police officers with blood still trickling down your face. But put an insect in your path and you scaled the closest thing to you for protection.

It just so happened that closest thing was often John Stones, and he was happy to be that person really.

It has become a norm between the two of you in the years you had been friends. Winter was the worst for spiders, but he generally didn’t mind the mildly irritating insects. He just got rid of them one way or another while you hid as far as you could get and then he’d come get you when the coast was clean. But you hated summer for this particular reason.

Wasps.

They fly in, fly into things and somehow never make it back on the window on their own despite it being the most easy thing one could ever imagine. Then, they try and sting you as if they aren’t in your house. They just creep you out, even the sight of them with their nasty little bodies. Bees aren’t a problem, they’re fuzzy looking and don’t intrude in your home nearly half as much. Also, they don’t try to sting you all the damn time.

“Where abouts?” He asks, his voice showing no hint of any destain or irritation he may harbour. “On the light,” you tell him shakily, following close to him back as you both enter the room. “Right up there- careful!”

John sniggers a little to himself, much to your dismay. He kicks off his shoes by your bedside table and climbs up onto the bed with ease on those ridiculously long legs. By luck, chance or both, he has some toilet paper in his hoodie pocket that he’d probably used to wipe his nose or something like that earlier, he can’t remember. He holds it out at arms length, only inches away form the unsuspecting black and yellow insect. “Where?” He asks again, “I can’t see anything.”

“There!” You insist, pointing up with a shaking finger. “I don’t see anything (y/n).” He repeats, making you whimper slightly, more tears suddenly appearing as you try to come to terms with the fact it might’ve moved while you were outside the room. The thought of having to sleep in your house while not knowing where it was would send you absolutely mental. “It was there I swear, look-“

“Ahhh, I got it. Stand back.”

He leans forward with relative ease, careful with the force he used so close to a live electric source and grips the buzzing creature in his tissue. “There we go,” he hums, stepping down from the bed. “All go-“

As if on cue, it flies out of the paper and you let loose a literal shriek as you dive backwards, crashing into the wall and then jumping forward in fright at that. “Woah!” John calls, “it’s alright, it’s right there. Calm, calm. Take a deep breath. Look,” he tries to calm you. That deep accent with his fatigue coating each word seeps into you, carefully calming your firing heart as he grabs it tighter from the floor, making sure he squashed it this time and immediately takes it to flush it down the toilet. John doesn’t know if you’re supposed to kill them or not, but at this moment in time he genuinely does not care. Was he fuck going to chase a wasp out of a window at half past one in the morning. Not a chance.

When he returns from the bathroom now empty handed, you still seem upset.

“That was scary.” You announce.

John smiles, pearly whites all on display. “I noticed.” He teases, making you scowl tiredly at him.

That scowl falters when his smile breaks into a light, soft laugh and he moves to stand in front of you. You absolutely don’t mind the fact that he’s babying you a little, using the sleeves of his sweater to wipe your cheeks before pressing a gentle kiss to your forehead and taking you into his strong arms. In fact, it’s very much welcomed. His arms are the safest place in the world to you and even the residual discomforted shivers from the concept of a wasp in your bedroom couldn’t get through that defender. He looks after a lot more than just the Manchester City goal line. No, he’s the sole defender of something much more precious that he doesn’t even realise.

Your heart.

“You okay now?” He asks softly, his tired voice rumbling through you. You nod against him, “Feeling a bit better. Thank you Stonesy.” You mumble, words muffled by the muscled chest that your face his resting against. “Anything for you, lovely.” He responds easily, pulling back from you in a way that aches his heart. The sudden lack of your warmth and presence against him is utterly brutal. He loves holding you, but hates it in the same breath. He would love to hold you if it was something he got to do freely instead of fleetingly.

His eyes are stuck watching you sit down on the edge of your bed to grab your phone and check the time with an element of shock rolling through your eyes when you realise it’s nearly two.

“You got training tomorrow?” You ask sweetly, a yawn following the tail end of your words adorable in a way that makes John’s heart flutter like a teenage boy. He nods, “Not till after dinner though, around 5.”

It’s your turn to nod, seeming to be chewing over something in thought as you lie down in the middle of your bed.

“Wanna stay then?”

John has to pretend to think about it at least a little bit so he doesn’t look like he’s jumping right up at the opportunity, which is exactly what he wants to do. “Why not,” he shrugs, chucking off his hoodie to the foot of your bed, “Scoot over.”

He clambers in, long limbs moving nowhere near as coordinated as they are on the pitch as he lays down by your right. It’s like a familiar dance, one you both know so well as you shuffle around so you can lay against his chest, one leg hooked over him as his arm wraps around you to pull you even closer. A silence falls between you as he feels your eyelashes fluttering shut, tickling his chest. He can’t find that same relaxation, can’t seem to shut his eyes for the thoughts flying through his mind all at once.

“I should teach you how to catch them.” John states, rumbling voice interrupting the peaceful quiet in which you had nearly found sleep. “You know, for the future.” He adds almost flippantly. Almost.

“Why?” You hum groggily, sleep croaking your voice ever so slightly. “I got you.”

John has to pretend your half asleep admission doesn’t send his heart flying into his throat. You do always have him, right there in the palm of your hand. Always.

“I don’t think other guys would appreciate me barging into their house in the middle of the night.” He suggests, making you quirk an eyebrow in question, but you still don’t look up at him and he isn’t even sure if you’ve got your eyes fully open. “No other guys here,” you state, “Single, living all alone.” You add lazily. The words almost make John wonder if he has fallen asleep, each one spoke playing straight into the dream he’s had for years for you to be his.

“Yeah, I know but…but there will be, at some point.” He suggests. You give no response for a moment and he briefly thinks you’ve fallen asleep at some point in this conversation.

“Bet those other guys wouldn’t come get rid of wasps for me in the middle of the night like you do.”

“Maybe,” John shrugs, “but I think there’s plenty of guys like that, especially for you.”

He feels you shake your head against him, your words decisive as you speak;

“There are no guys like you, John Stones.”

His words and his breath are caught on his throat, his heart erupting in his chest as he replays those words in his mind, trying to figure out if he had actually just heard them or if his tired mind was playing tricks on him because it was so late and he hadn’t had enough sleep.

But then you look up at him with tired eyes and a sweet smile. You know what you’ve just done, know the bomb you’ve just dropped and you’re hoping with everything crossed that he feels the same way.

“You’re my hero, Stonesy.” You say softly, your voice now a little sheepish and he can barely just make out the flush of your cheeks in the dim room lighting. “And I love you with everything I have.”

He doesn’t know what to say, his eyes wide as his heart beats as erratically as he had felt yours beating when he first arrived with fear coursing through his veins thinking you were in some kind of mortal peril.

“John?” You ask timidly, voice sheepish as you sit up in fear.

“Sorry,” he rumbles, pushing himself to a seated position, allowing him to lean forward and slide his hand around the back of your head to pull you into him, your lips crashing down onto his.

It’s just about everything he’s ever wanted.

“God I love you.” He says against your lips, a groan leaving his throat from pure satisfaction, pure relief of finally getting those words off of his chest. You giggle, resting back against his chest. “Can we sleep now, please?”

He nods, both of you shuffling so you can resume the position you had been in before a life changing confession that had spun you and the Barnsley brunette into the kiss that had been years in waiting. This was the happiest either of you had probably ever been.

“Guess we have the wasps to thank for this eh?” John lulls just as sleep is about to encompass you. He feels you shiver against him, the hairs on your arms immediately raising to attention at the mention of that which you hate so much.

“Don’t say that! That’s basically an invitation for them to invade my house!” You hiss, giving his chest a gentle swat as he pulls you closer to his side.

“Let them come,” he says almost triumphantly, “You got me now, always.”

You cosy yourself against him, a soft sigh of complete content and comfort tickling his chest as it dances across him. He feels that gentle smile that settles onto your gestures as your heavy eyes allow sleep to truly begin to take you.

“Always,” you mumble, words diluted by sleep “My hero.”

[sleepysnk]

hey y'all! i decided to make a fic for our lovely Jean boy. i got this idea after Sunday's episode :(, he deserves so much love right now. this is the longest fic i've written, so i hope you all enjoy! ♡

Close the Gap

Pairings: Jean Kirstein x Fem!Reader

Word Count: 6.8k

Warnings: None just fluff

Long distances relationships were always something many people tended to avoid. 

The idea of a long distance relationship made (Y/N) feel queasy, her stomach would always churn at the idea of dating somebody who was miles away from her. She heard the many scary stories from her friends about these people not being who they said they were, or the horror stories of girls going missing after meeting with these people. 

Not to mention she always binged watched MTV'S Catfish the TV Show at 3 A.M. watching how people would get catfished. The show was another reason why she tended to avoid dating anyone who was pretty far away. Her worst fear was to find that the person she trusted wasn't who they said they were. 

That all changed seven months ago when she met him. 

More specifically, Jean Kirstein.

(Y/N) was feeling pretty lonely, she was desperate for a relationship at the time and her best friend Sasha told her about some dating apps she could use. She wasn't exactly down to set her up with one of her friends. (Y/N) took the offer on the dating app and set up a profile. 

She met a few decent guys, but they always ended up sending the usual "send me some pics" or "u down to hook up?" texts. Most of the guys on the apps were idiots who were looking just for a quick fuck or something short term, which isn't something (Y/N) wanted. 

She complained to Sasha about it and even considered just deleting the apps, but she told her to just give it one more shot. 

She was glad she did. 

(Y/N) was swiping through the different guys on the app. Some caught her eye or some made her face scrunch with disgust. 

Her swiping stopped when her eyes landed on him. She was instantly attracted to him, his sharp jawline, shaggy light brown hair which was a bit long, his golden brown eyes, toned chest and that goddamn smile. He had a sly smile that made her feel butterflies. 

After she looked at his profile she was hooked. He seemed like a really sweet guy based on his description. He knew how to cook, draw, he played sports, worked out, etc. He also seemed really sweet as well. 

She was tempted to text him first, but she decided not to. The few times she did message a guy first it ended with the guy being dry, or sending some gross messages complimenting her body rather than her face. 

She totally forgot that day that she added him until she got the notification. 

Jean: hey! i saw your profile and let me just say you are gorgeous ❤

From that day forward the two talked every night, they spent many nights texting until they both felt tired, exchanging social media as well. She learned a lot about him, Jean was a fitness major at his university and he wanted to be a personal trainer. They connected on a lot of things, they had a lot of the same likes and dislikes which made the conversations they had even greater. 

She told Jean about the many shitty experiences she had with guys and how she was very hesitant to even give him a chance. Jean shared a lot of the same stories, he had gotten cheated on about a year prior before getting the app. (Y/N) felt bad for him, why cheat on a nice guy like Jean?

Facetiming him was definitely one of her favorite things to do, she told him about how freaked out she was about trying online dating due to how easy it was to fake an online personality. Jean assured her that was not the case and he wasn't a fake person at all. 

Seeing his face on facetime made her heart swell, he was 10x more attractive on facetime than his photos. He had this amazing smile that made her feel weak, and whenever he laughed she found herself having butterflies. Jean thought the same about (Y/N), he thought she was absolutely gorgeous and he wanted to see her face a lot more. 

He always threw a flirt her way whenever he could, Jean was smooth like that. He told her if she was ever unsure of an outfit that she was to send him a picture, and when she did, he was absolutely speechless. Sending the usual heart eyes and telling her how beautiful she was. His words always made her smile. 

While things were perfect for them, there was one small issue. 

They both lived very far from each other. 

Opposite coasts to be exact. 

Jean lived on the East coast while (Y/N) lived on the west. They lived miles away from each other, and although it wasn't a huge bother, it always made her feel lonely. 

Jean felt the same way, he felt lonely being so far away from her. Parts of him wished he lived closer so he could just drive and see her, but with how far it is, he knew it would probably be a very long drive and he just didn't have the time for that. Nor did (Y/N).

They spent many nights talking about dates they'd go on, things they'd do, etc. Jean told her how he would so make a meal for her and he'd take her to meet his mom. All those things sounded so nice, she wanted it to happen so bad.

But they just lived too far from one another.

Plus they both had very busy schedules, both were too caught up with assignments and their own personal lives that flying out wouldn't be exactly a good idea. 

It was unfortunate, but that was the reality of the situation. 

Even with all of that, they still held onto one another. For some reason, Jean didn't want to let her slip by. For the first time, she made him genuinely happy. (Y/N) felt the same way towards Jean, she always found herself being excited to see his name pop up in her phone or when he asked to facetime. There was just something about this boy she didn't want to let go of. He was the only guy who saw her for who she was, and not just her body. 

Neither of them wanted to let this opportunity slip by.

-

Here they were, seven months later. They still kept up with each other every day, though having not met yet, the feelings they both had never changed. 

They weren't dating, but they only talked to each other. Neither had wandering eyes. 

It was a usual night for the two of them, (Y/N) and Jean were on facetime while she did homework and Jean sat playing video games. She didn't mind the gaming, it was something he liked to do so why dislike it?

She was copying notes when her eyes averted upwards towards her phone screen which was propped up. Jean was shirtless sitting in his chair, he had his headset on his head with one of the earmuffs behind his ear. He was focused on the game, his brows pinching together a few times as he played. 

A giggle escaped her lips, making Jean look down at his phone with a smile. 

"What are you giggling about?" he asked, bringing his face close to the camera. 

She smiled. "Oh nothin' you just look really cute playing your game," she replied and set her pen down on the desk. 

He licked his lips and leaned back against his chair, eyeing the screen. "I'd say you look pretty damn fine doing homework," he replied, raising his brows.

Heat rushed to her cheeks, rolling her eyes in the process. "Ugh shush! I look like a total mess," she said and looked away from the screen. 

Jean chuckled and ran his fingers through his hair. "Nah.. you look like the girl who's gonna have my last name," he replied, smirking. 

Her jaw dropped from his comment, a smile grew onto her lips as her cheeks felt hot. He was smooth like that. 

"You are quite smooth," she said, crossing her arms over her chest. 

Another chuckle escaped his throat. "Yeah I'm smooth.. only for you though," he said, winking at the camera. 

"You're adorable.. I wish you were here so I could squeeze your cheeks," she said and played with her pen. 

Jean nodded. "I wish I was there with you too.." he said, looking down at the ground. "I'd like my cheeks squeezed but I'd want to squeeze yours.. if you know what I mean," he added. 

She started laughing a bit. "Ugh Jean I never get tired of you," she replied, looking at her phone screen. "Will you ever be here?" she asked.

Jean fell silent and leaned back against the chair. A sigh escaping his lips. "I have no idea (Y/N).. my schedule has been busy lately, plus I don't really have the funds to fly out anytime soon." he replied, his voice filled with disappointment.

She felt a slight tug at her heart, she knew they probably wouldn't meet for a long time. Many of her friends told her that Jean wasn't worth her time at all and that she needed someone who could come see her. Her friends also said it's not worth it at all and that he'd probably end up hooking up with some girl, and totally forgetting about her. That's something she absolutely didn't want to think about.

"(Y/N)? You alright?" Jean asked, breaking her out of her thoughts.

She shook her head, blinking a few times. "Y-Yeah! Sorry, I zoned out.." she replied and smiled a bit.

He put his controller on his desk, he stared at the screen for a few moments. "You know (Y/N) I really want to meet you, trust me I do. I know how much it bothers you that we can't at the moment, but I promise you, we will meet some day." he said with a serious expression. 

She felt her heart swell at his words, Jean always knew what to say to make her feel like a princess. Jean always said from day one that they would meet, it was a promise he had yet to fulfill, but he told her to never worry and that he'll make it happen. She just has to believe him. 

"I trust your words Jean," she said, smiling a bit.

A grin grew onto his face. "Ugh.. this is why I want to meet you so bad. I wanna see that pretty smile in person," he said and leaned against his desk. 

Her cheeks felt hot from his words. "You're too sweet," she replied, rolling her eyes playfully. 

Jean chuckled. "Sweet enough for you,"

Suddenly, (Y/N) heard her bedroom door fly open. 

"Hey (Y/N)!- Oh crap.. did I interrupt something?" 

Her head snapped back to see her best friend Sasha standing in the doorway. 

"Oh not at all Sash, I was just talking to Jean." (Y/N) replied, looking back at the camera. 

Sasha grinned widely, she knew who he was ever since they started talking. Jean was cool with her, he felt like first impressions with friends are always important. 

"Hey Jean!" Sasha yelled, coming down to her phone. "Ooo.. (Y/N) he's shirtless for you," she teased, elbowing her side. 

Her jaw dropped as her cheeks grew hot again. "Can you not! Why are you even here anyway?" she asked, looking up at her friend. 

"Uh duh, I'm here to discuss Valentine's Day plans! You know.. Connie and stuff," she replied in a whisper. 

(Y/N) rolled her eyes playfully. "Ugh fine! Hey Jean, is it cool if I call you back later? Sash here needs boy advice," she asked, grabbing her phone. 

Jean smiled. "Yeah totally.. text me okay? Be safe." he replied. 

She felt a wide smile grow onto her cheeks. "I most definitely will!" she said, hanging up the call. 

Sasha leaned against the wall with a giant smirk on her face. (Y/N) looked up, her head nodding as she was confused as to why she was acting like that. 

"What?" she asked, furrowing her brows. 

A giggle escaped Sasha's lips. "Oh nothing! Ugh (Y/N)! When are you finally going to meet Jean? Have you guys even made it official yet?" she asked. 

She looked down. "No.. we haven't made it official. We aren't dating Sasha, we're just talking and stuff." she replied, shrugging her shoulders. 

Sasha crossed her arms over her chest. "Maybe it's time you do it! You've been talking for months, and I feel like it's a good time. Especially with Valentine's Day and all," she said. 

(Y/N) wasn't sure if what Sasha was saying was a good idea. How the hell would she even ask out Jean? Over a facetime call? That sounded boring. It also sounded too cliche and not special at all. 

"I would Sash but asking him out over a phone just sounds so.. middle school," she replied and stood up. "It's not like I can fly out and ask him out or whatever," she added. 

A grin was displayed onto Sasha's face. "I guess you're right," she said and shrugged her shoulders. 

"Now come on… let's go discuss things for Connie," (Y/N) said, pushing past her. 

Sasha grinned again, following her friend. 

-

(Y/N) spent most of the week helping Sasha with her Valentine's Day gift for Connie. Sasha had some odd ideas, but eventually they came to an agreement on a decent idea. 

For some reason, things felt off with Jean.

The past few days she noticed a change in his behavior, he became a little less interested in their conversations and his replies were a bit dry. Of course she blamed it on him maybe being tired from classes or working out, but she wasn't exactly sure if that was the reason. She questioned it a few times, but Jean usually replied with a 'wym?'.

"(Y/N)!? Hello? Come on help me finish this," 

Sasha's voice broke her out of the thoughts she was having. "Sorry! What's up?" she asked, blinking a bit. 

Sasha put the bag of snacks down. "Are you sure you're alright? You've been acting weird all day," she said and crossed her arms. 

(Y/N) sighed. "Yes I'm fine Sasha," she replied and leaned back in her chair.

She nodded her head and sat back down in front of her. "Alright.. can you just organize this for me?" she asked, tossing the bag towards her. 

(Y/N) grabbed the stuff and began to sort through the items Sasha bought Connie. She wasn't exactly alright, she was feeling lonely the past few days. She saw all of her friends getting ready for Valentine's Day with their significant others, while she didn't have anybody. The pink and red boxes of chocolates, the teddy bears, roses, everything! It made her feel lonely and with Jean's behavior… it didn't exactly make it better.

She looked at her phone which displayed no messages from Jean. For some reason he hasn't been messaging her a lot lately. 

2:31 P.M.<- (Y/N): hey :)) 

4:23 P.M.<- (Y/N): i hope your day is going well! ♡

She sighed and went back to the gift for Connie. 

"What are you doing for Valentine's Day, (Y/N)?" Sasha asked and looked up at her. 

She shrugged her shoulders. "Probably just watching Netflix movies," she replied with disappointment in her voice. 

She nodded her head. "What!? No! You're not gonna do that on my watch. Why don't you come hangout with Connie and I?" she asked. 

A laugh escaped her lips. "Yeah I so wanna do that. Watching you two make out and eat is so much fun," she replied in a teasing voice. 

Sasha blushed. "Oh shut up! Come on.. I know you won't have anyone to hang with," she said and pouted a bit. 

She rolled her eyes playfully. "I can always call up Eren or something," she said and laughed a bit. 

Sasha hit her arm. "No! You're hanging with me and that's final! Plus why would you wanna hangout with Eren? He'd probably take you to some party," she said. 

"Yeah you're probably right," (Y/N) replied, chewing her lip. 

She threw her a smile. "Exactly!" she said and went to go look at her phone. 

(Y/N) looked on her own phone as she felt disappointed seeing no messages from Jean. She hated double texting him, she felt like she was a bother and that she was annoying him. Maybe he just didn't have his phone on him. 

A sudden squeal came from Sasha, which made (Y/N) look up in surprise.

"Uh.. are you okay?" she asked and blinked a bit. 

Sasha looked at her, composing herself. "Oh- u-um! Yeah totally, Connie was just telling me something. That's all," she replied and looked down at her phone. 

She rolled her eyes playfully. "Ugh Connie.." she said, shaking her head. 

-

The next two days were kind of difficult for (Y/N). Jean had totally changed his behavior, he was more dry, took longer to respond, and even on their facetime call he didn't seem very interested. If she did want to facetime, he would claim he was busy or he didn't exactly seem to pay attention. 

Her mind raced with different thoughts about the situation. What if Jean was getting tired of her? What if this was the situation all of her friends told her about? How guys who live far end up leaving you for someone who lives near them. It hurt to think about. 

"I don't know his behavior just changed!" 

She was currently ranting to Sasha who came over for a bit. "He's been dry? I mean.. Connie can be dry," she replied, playing with her pillow. 

"No like overly dry, Jean is never dry! He always keeps the conversation going, he doesn't even send me good morning texts anymore either!" she said and sat up. 

Sasha nodded as she listened to her words. "Have you tried asking at all?" she asked. 

(Y/N) sighed. "I did on facetime and he sort of dodged the question," she replied. 

"I dunno (Y/N).. maybe just see what happens? Maybe he's got some personal stuff going on" Sasha said. 

(Y/N) shrugged. "Couldn't say.." 

A sudden ping from Sasha's phone made her ears chirp, she reached over and looked at her phone. She started jumping around excitedly. 

"What? What happened?" (Y/N) asked, furrowing her brows. 

Sasha looked at her. "I gotta go! Connie texted me about something.. I'll see you tomorrow, okay?" she said, shoving her phone in her pocket. 

She felt confused as to why Sasha was leaving. "Uh.. yeah, okay. See you later," she replied and watched as Sasha exited her room and out the front door. 

She flopped onto her bed, staring up at the ceiling as her mind clouded with thoughts about Jean. Her mind was playing scenarios she didn't want to see, Jean finding someone else would absolutely crush her. In a way, it would be for the best, considering they haven't even met, but she was in too deep with feelings. She didn't want anybody else. 

She grabbed her phone, she opened their messages and scrolled to see if there was anything she could have said to make him upset. Jean was always one to communicate with her, he'd always tell her if he was having a bad day or someone pissed him off. Why wasn't he doing that now? Her eyes scanned over the most recent message she sent.

7:21 P.M.<- (Y/N): did you go working out? i bet you're getting those gains! <3 lol.

Another sigh escaped her lips reading the words 'delivered'. What was going with him? 

-

It was Valentine's Day. 

(Y/N) wasn't exactly in the best mood today, that feeling of loneliness lingered in her mind as she scrolled through different couples getting gifts and going on special dates. All the things she yearned for. 

She sent Jean a message that morning and of course, he didn't respond. He read her messages from the previous night, but he never sent a genuine response. It made her heart feel heavy, maybe this was it. Maybe Jean just got tired of waiting around for her and found someone better. 

She shoved her phone into her pocket as she knocked on the door of Sasha's apartment. She looked around as many people exited their apartments. 

"Hey! You made it! We have all kinds of snacks!" Sasha yelled, opening the door so she could come inside. 

(Y/N) smiled and stepped in. The aroma of food filled her nose. "Wow Sasha.. this smells great," she said, taking off her shoes. 

Connie came in from the living room holding a plate. "Hey (Y/N)! Good to see you," he said and waved at her. 

She smiled as she plopped down at the kitchen table, she grabbed a few pieces of candy and tossed them into her mouth. She tried to forget the upsetting thoughts for the night. 

"You want something to eat?" Sasha asked as she came over with a plate of food. 

(Y/N) shook her head. "I'm fine.. thank you Sasha," she replied, looking down at the table. 

Connie came over and set a cup of soda in front of her. "Have something to drink at least," he said and sat next to Sasha. 

She swirled around the soda that bubbled towards the top. "Thanks.." she replied and took a sip of the lemon flavored soda. 

The two started eating and (Y/N) sat there looking at her phone, she silently hoped that Jean would message her back. It had been a few hours since she sent her last message, she felt disappointment going through her veins. She guessed that Jean was ghosting her, it hurt a ton, but there wasn't much she could do. 

"(Y/N)! Connie loved the gift!" Sasha said and wiped her mouth with the napkin. 

She nodded and gave a small smile. "Oh that's cool! I'm glad you liked it," she replied and looked towards Connie. 

He smiled. "Yeah it was dope! It had all my favorite snacks," he said, looking at Sasha with a grin.

(Y/N) felt the heaviness in her heart, she wished someone would look at her the way Connie looked at Sasha. 

"Hey what about that Jean guy you were talking to? I meant to ask," Connie asked and looked at her. 

She laughed a bit. "Uh.. well I don't know what's going on with that. He's been kind of distant lately so I guess he's getting tired of me. It's understandable I guess.." she replied, looking down at the floor. 

They could hear the sorrow in her voice. "I'm sorry (Y/N).. you'll find someone, I know you will." Sasha said.

She shrugged and leaned back in her chair. "I don't know guys.. I feel like after this I just wanna focus on me," she said, taking out her phone.

Connie looked over at her. "Don't say that now.. come on, have some hope." he said and gave a playful smile. 

She rolled her eyes playfully. "I'll try," she replied. 

Sasha and Connie finished up their food and cleaned the dishes, (Y/N) sat on the couch as the movie played on the tv. It was some romantic movie which she didn't even bother to pay attention to, she didn't exactly want to watch one at the moment. 

Sasha appeared in the living room, she had her phone in her hand. "Hey whatcha doing?" she asked, leaning over to look at her phone. 

"Oh nothing, just scrolling through Instagram," (Y/N) replied and clicked her phone off. 

A ping went off as Sasha got a notification, she looked at her phone as a grin displayed on her features making (Y/N) curious. 

"Did Connie send you nudes in the bathroom or something?" she asked and began to laugh.

A blush crept onto Sasha's cheeks. "What!? Absolutely not! You're so gross (Y/N)!" she yelled, hitting her arm. "Let's play a game, I'm bored." she added and stood up.

(Y/N) nodded. "A game? Sasha I'm not twelve.." she said and leaned against the couch. 

Sasha came in with what seemed to be a blindfold. "Come on! It's fun okay? You just have to feel something and guess what it is," she said, crossing her arms. 

"A blindfold? Jeez Sash.. didn't know you and Connie were into blindfolds," she said, starting to laugh. 

Sasha hit her arm playfully. "Shut up! No I'm not into blindfolds.. you're gross! Just come here," she said and waved her over.

(Y/N) stood up and tossed her phone onto the couch. She walked over to Sasha who seemed excited to play, she hoped that this game wouldn't be weird.

"Alright.. let's get started," Sasha said, going behind her to tie the blindfold over her eyes. 

She faintly heard the sound of the front door opening, she was confused as to who came in. Then she remembered Connie went to go throw out the garbage, so she figured it was Connie coming back in. 

"Okay first thing!" Sasha said and held out the item for her to touch. 

(Y/N)'s fingers brushed over the item, it felt cold. It felt like plastic too, was it a box? It felt smooth.

"Is this like.. a box or something?" she asked, looking around with the blindfold on. 

She heard giggles and laughs coming from Connie and Sasha. "Yeah it's a box! Here's the next item," Sasha said.

Her fingers brushed over the soft material, it felt velvety and smooth. It felt like petals from a flower. 

"Are these flowers?" she asked. 

"Damn (Y/N)! You're good at this! Here's the last thing," Connie said, his voice sounding faded. 

She furrowed her brows as she heard whispering and shuffling, she was tempted to remove the blindfold to see if they were playing a prank.

"Okay here," Sasha said. 

She reached out feeling something hard, it felt like.. a chest? Her brows furrowed again as she ran her fingers along it. 

"Sasha is this your chest? Connie is definitely not this muscular," (Y/N) asked, looking around for their voices. 

Sasha giggled. "No it's not me! You can take your blindfold off in a sec," she said, taking out her phone. 

(Y/N) felt nervous as she kept her hands on the person's chest, they felt warm and she could feel their heart racing against her skin. 

"Okay now!" Sasha yelled. 

(Y/N) removed her blindfold, letting her eyes adjust. When she looked up she was faced with the honey eyes of the person she least expected. 

It was Jean.

Her jaw dropped as her hands slapped over her mouth, she couldn't believe it. He held in his hands flowers and a box of chocolate, the flowers being her favorite. Roses. He stood there smiling at her reaction, she looked back seeing Sasha recording and Connie laughing.

"You're real.." (Y/N) said, looking at Jean with wide eyes. 

He smiled. "I'm real," he replied, opening his arms for her. 

She tackled him with a bone crushing hug, his arms wrapping around her waist surrounding her in his embrace. She inhaled his scent and let his warmth engulf her. 

Tears welled in her hues as she put her hands onto his face. "Pinch me please.." she said and laughed a bit. 

Jean chuckled, cupping her cheek. "I don't think you're dreaming," he replied, pulling her closer. 

"This is so cute I feel like a proud mom," Sasha said as she kept recording. 

(Y/N) looked back. "H-How? How did you get him here?" she asked and nodded. 

Connie rubbed the back of his neck. "We actually were both in on it, we paid for his ticket and everything. He's staying at my place actually," he said, smiling at her. 

"Sasha planned the game too," Jean added and looked towards the brunette. 

(Y/N) pulled Sasha into a tight hug. "I literally love you right now," she said as a few tears escaped down her cheeks. 

"Uh (Y/N)! I think you should be the one telling him that," Sasha said, pointing at Jean. 

She came back over to Jean who handed her the flowers. "Someone as beautiful as you are deserves these in person. Happy Valentine's Day beautiful," he said, smiling down at her. 

She laughed as she took the flowers, her heart swelling. "Thank you really.." she replied, pulling him into another hug. 

He put his arms around her, he felt his heart flutter as he felt her touch. "Do you want to..?" 

"Get out of here?" she asked, nodding. 

The two looked back at Sasha and Connie. "Knock yourselves out! Don't have too much fun (Y/N).." Connie said and smirked devilishly.

Heat rushed onto her cheeks. "I'd like to say the same to you both," Jean said, putting his arm around her shoulder. 

Connie and Sasha both turned red. "Okay! Bye Jean and (Y/N)! Have fun!" Sasha said and ran out of the room. 

They both turned to one another, laughs escaping both of their lips. "Let's go," she said, fishing around her pockets for her car keys. 

Jean followed her out of Sasha's apartment building to her car, his hands brushing over her fingers a few times making her cheeks hot. 

Once in the car, she began the drive back to her apartment. She couldn't keep her eyes off Jean, he looked so much better in person. All of his features stood out, his jawline, his hair, and his amazing eyes. 

"You know.. you're 100x more beautiful in person," Jean said, breaking the silence between them. 

She smiled. "Thank you… you're 100x more handsome," she replied and looked over at the passenger side. 

Jean felt his cheeks grow red from her words. "I never thought in a million years I'd meet you this soon," he said and leaned back in his seat. 

She laughed a bit. "I could say the same.. Sasha told me nothing about this," she replied, turning the steering wheel.

A chuckle erupted in his throat. "It was meant to be kept secret. Connie and Sasha both messaged me about it and I was in," he said.

"I thought you were ghosting me at first.. I was so bummed at her house,"

Jean looked over at her. "Oh never.. I'd never ghost you. Connie told me to just put distance so it wouldn't seem weird," he said, brushing his fingers over her arm.

Tingles ran around her body as he touched her. "I should have known something was up," she said and shook her head. "Anyway, we're here." she added, taking off her seatbelt. 

Jean exited the car with her. He followed her up the stairs to her apartment. She opened the door and removed her shoes, Jean stepped in and eyed the room. She kept it clean and organized. 

"Nice place," Jean said and smiled at her. 

She looked back at him. "Oh thank you.. it means a lot," she replied, placing his gifts on the counter. 

The two stood there for a moment just taking in their appearances. She felt her heart racing as Jean stood there eyeing her. 

"So um.. what do you wanna do?" Jean asked, looking down at her. 

She leaned against the wall. "I dunno.. maybe we can watch a movie in bed?" she asked, nodding.

"Sounds like a plan.. I gotta call Connie. He needs to drop my shit off in the morning if I'm sleeping here," he said and took out his phone. 

(Y/N) rocked on her heels. "Sounds good! Um.. I'll be right back, I'm gonna change." she replied and made her way to her room.

Jean texted Connie and within seconds he responded with an 'ok'. He walked towards the room where (Y/N) was, her room was decorated nicely. She knew how to keep it clean. He noticed the familiar sights he used to see on facetime. 

She came from the bathroom wearing shorts and a t-shirt. "Come sit," she said and hopped on her bed. 

Jean felt stiff, he didn't want to make her uncomfortable or make any moves that were too quick. 

"So uh… what kind of movie do you wanna watch?" he asked, looking at her nervously. 

"Hmm.. horror?" she replied, looking back at him as she turned on the tv. 

He nodded. "Sounds like a plan," he said and leaned back against the pillows on her bed. 

She put on one of the horror movies and lied down next to him, her hands brushed over his arm veins. She traced lines where his muscles were. Goosebumps littered onto his skin feeling her touch. 

"Don't be so stiff.. you aren't going to hurt me," (Y/N) said leaning up a bit. 

He felt his nerves loosen up at her words. "Sorry.. I just don't wanna come off as a creep," he replied, rubbing the back of his neck. 

She giggled, moving his arm so it was now around her waist. "You aren't a creep to me at all," she said, laying her head on his chest. 

Jean's grip on her waist tightened as he brought her body closer to his. He imagined nights like these for so long, his arms around her holding her close so she never slips away. 

She felt so warm next to him. 

As the night went on, (Y/N) felt her eyes become droopy. She started to snooze against his chest, Jean smiled hearing her small snores and the way she twitched. He turned off the lamp and pulled the covers over the two of them. 

-

The next morning Jean was awoken by (Y/N) moving out of his embrace. Her eyes trying to get used to the light that shone into her room, she grabbed her phone, the time reading 10:12 A.M. 

She turned over to look at Jean who was awake. A giggle escaped her lips as she cuddled back into him. 

"I didn't mean to fall asleep," she said and traced his muscles with her fingers. 

He squeezed the flesh of her waist. "Don't worry about it," he replied and lied his chin onto her head. "What do you wanna do today, beautiful?" he asked.

She sighed. "Do you wanna just relax and chill? We don't have to go anywhere," she replied, looking up at him. 

"Sounds fine by me," Jean said, staring up at the ceiling. 

The two lied there for a few minutes before deciding to get dressed and ready for the day, Jean noticed his suitcases were at the front door. (Y/N) told him that Sasha had a spare key so she most likely stopped by while they were asleep. It made him laugh but also a little weirded out. 

They both changed and lied around (Y/N)'s place, they took many photos together and goofed off. She never felt happier than she did in those moments, Jean didn't want to stop touching her. He loved feeling her smooth skin against his, he held her hand or brushed against her arm. Not in a creepy way of course. 

It was around 6:30 in the afternoon, Jean and (Y/N) messed around in her apartment for most of the day. Watching movies, ordering food, taking photos, etc. It had been an amazing day. 

"Hey Jean.." (Y/N) said, reaching up to play with the strands of his hair. 

He looked down at her. "What's up?" he asked. 

She smiled. "Do you wanna go to the pier near my house? We can watch the sunset," she asked, nodding her head. 

His face lit up with excitement. "Hell yes! Let's go right now," he replied. 

The two rushed out of the apartment and went to her car, the sun was going to set pretty soon, so they wanted to get to the pier at a decent time to see it all. 

The car ride was fun, the two blasted music and sang along with the words. 

Eventually, the two arrived at the pier. Many people walked along the sidewalks with each other, the summer air felt nice. Jean held her hand as they made their way up to the dock, some people leaned along the sides talking with one another. 

The sun shined onto their faces, Jean's honey eyes looked like pure gold as the sun passed through them. 

The tide from the waves crashed below them the seagulls flew in the sky or onto the ground. 

"It's so pretty.." (Y/N) said, smiling as she leaned against the railing staring at the setting sun.

Jean admired the sky as it was painted with purples and oranges. "Yeah.. but not as pretty as you are," he said and held her hand in his. 

She looked absolutely stunning to him. The way the sun shined over her skin and the way the wind lightly blew along her hair made his heart swell. 

She was truly the most beautiful girl he ever laid his eyes on. 

"I always imagined coming here with you.. it was my dream date," she said and smiled.

Jean took her hand into his. "Can I ask you something?" he asked. 

She looked up at him. "Of course Jean," she replied and brushed a few strands of hair out of his face. 

He let out a shaky breath. "(Y/N)... I never thought I'd ever get to meet you, but now that I have I realized how amazing you are. You're so beautiful.. don't even get me started on your smile either. You've made today so great and I've been meaning to ask you this question for so long. My feelings for you are strong and I can't imagine my life without you by my side," he said. "Will you be my girlfriend?" 

She felt her heart burst at his words, she couldn't deny what she felt for Jean. "Yes! Yes!" she replied, putting her arms around his neck. 

He smiled as he put his arms around her waist. "I love you.." he whispered. 

Her eyes went wide. "I love you too.." she said, leaning into his face and pressing her lips onto his. 

The kiss was passionate, his lips felt smooth and soft. It took her breath away. 

"I promise I'll make you feel like a princess," Jean said and cupped her cheek. "I'll never let you go," he added. 

She felt small tears form into her eyes. "I'll never let you go either," she said and smiled at him.

They stood there for awhile watching as the sun slowly disappeared behind the clouds, the sky painted in bright oranges and dark blues. 

Arriving back home they both rushed up the stairs to her apartment. She unlocked it and pulled him into a heated kiss, the kiss feeling hot.

Jean made his way to the couch, his hands on her hips. "I didn't know you were this good of a kisser.." he whispered, smirking as he kissed her. 

"I guess we're both full of surprises," she replied and put her arms around his neck.

He sat down on the couch, her thighs on either side of his legs. "Wait.." Jean said, breaking the kiss between them. "I need to mention one more thing," he added, looking up at her. 

She nodded. "What's up?" she asked. 

He felt a smile grow onto his lips. "I know I leave in two days but.. I wanted to let you know that I was pricing apartments around here as well as schooling.. and I found out I got accepted," he said. 

Her jaw dropped hearing the news. "What!? No way! You're lying! Does that mean.." she said. 

"I won't be far away anymore my love," he replied, cupping her cheek. "It's gonna take awhile for me to move in, but I should be here by the end of next month." 

She felt excitement coursing through her. "That's great!" she said. 

"I mean it when I say it that I do love you (Y/N).. it's not me saying that to impress you, I truly do." he said, smiling at her. "I can't imagine myself with anyone else. I want a future with you," he added. 

She felt a smile grow onto her cheeks. "I love you too Jean… I want you with me forever," she said, running her fingers along his face. 

He smiled and leaned in to kiss her lips. "Your wish is granted baby," he said and pressed his lips against hers. 

She giggled, leaning down towards him. "What do you say we celebrate?" she asked, smirking. 

He eyed her hungrily. "Oh you wanna be like that huh? Consider it your special Valentine's Day treat," he replied, bringing her body close to his.

[missinghan]

to my youth ⤖ lee felix

❖ genre : summer au; high school au; fluff

❖ word count : 11,6k.

❖ warning : explicit language, slow burn

❖ summary : it is official that life hates you because not only was your first few days of summer ruined by a stupid field trip, but things also got somewhat freaky… whatever kind of ‘freaky’ you’re thinking about.

❖ note : i know i said i’m ‘experimenting’ with new stuff but guess who’s back with another mediocre, not-that-well-written mess of a domestic au; please (kindly) yell at me to dabble into a new genre after bearing through this fic- happy reading!

one.

The echoes of your summer days remain as flowers immune to the winter chill, they say.

You’re not entirely sure who even fathomed their time and effort to come up with that statement but from your point of view, those flowers would most likely have either died out from the summer heat or withered horrendously because of the arbitrary showers of rain. Or you’re the only one who doesn’t have the luxury to see life through a rose-colored lens.

Because the first thing that comes to mind for you is the bucket of ice-cream and a YouTube OG that you’ve ceased to finish since finals started two weeks ago. The bell rings, pens down, everyone pours out of the classroom after handing in their exam papers. No one really bothers to check up on each other’s answers anymore; the last subject for today was AP Psych and you don’t know about them but you honestly can’t care any less thereafter cramming the entirety of five chapters. 

Sprinting down the staircase, you easily spot Felix amongst the midst of drowsy high school students for the bright color of his hair. He truly believes that if he slaps enough hair essence and coconut oil on his head four times a week, his hair won’t feel like straws when he changes it every other three weeks. But it’s only a matter of time before balding catches up to him, he’ll learn eventually.

“Please don’t tell me that you left your keys in class,” you sigh upon the sight of him fumbling with his folders and textbooks while trying to open his locker in vain. Just thinking about walking all the way back to the third floor makes you want to use your backpack as a pillow and take a nice nap in the middle of the hallway.

“Gee, Y/N,” Felix makes a face to not show the sense of relief washing over him when he locks eyes with you. “Who do you take me as? A clumsy person?”

“No, just a dumbass.” You coldly snatch a slipping book from his arms before turning to twist the disc in the combination of your birthday until the lock clicks, shaking the shackle off to swing his locker open. It’s a silent tradition that you both set each other’s birthday as your locker’s combination since elementary school; it started out as a stupid joke at first but neither of you really bothered to change it. 

“Why the hell would you put your keys in the locker?” you widen your eyes in disbelief as he grabs the bright yellow Spongebob plushie to collect his keys with a shit-eating grin

“My alarm didn’t go off today, so I was running a little late,” he defends himself while dumping everything out of his backpack, hugging an empty water bottle to his side. 

You throw a wave at a very tired Hyunjin walking side by side with Seungmin on his right and Jisung skipping happily towards your direction. Seungmin looks exceptionally moody today, you pray he didn’t mess up an easy question to take it out on all of you later in the car. “Bet you were staying up late to play Overwatch with Chan.” 

Felix manages to grin stiffly at your comment, turning on his heels and trudges onto the school’s parking lot. “Fine, walk home.” 

“Hey, you forgot to lock this!” you pull his steps into a halt by making a grab for his hand, utterly oblivious at how his cheeks flare up with a bright shade of red at your touch. Or out of embarrassment. Whatever, same thing. 

Felix might be a better driver than you, but he’d be fired ten seconds into the job of a babysitter.

With that being said, when Jeongin decides it’s a good idea to cheer a passive-aggressive, post-exams Seungmin up with a carton of strawberry milk and then proceeds to get lost in his own school, the very same school he’s been attending for who knows how long, you’re the one who manually pulls his ass back into Mrs. Lee’s Jeep within ten minutes. 

And Seungmin has already fallen asleep by the time Jeongin’s back, so now he’s the passive-aggressive one while sipping on the milk bitterly. Either way, this is why you headcount although there are only six of you after Changbin starts getting busy with his college applications. 

“What took you so long?” Jisung looks up from his phone the moment you climb into the passenger’s seat, clicking in your seatbelt (drive safe, kids). 

You immediately feel the need to snap a photo of Jeongin accidentally breaking the cafeteria’s door with the staff running towards him in a panic. They’re more scared for his life than the door itself and that’s… sweet to say the least but with the way that the embarrassed boy is glaring at you through the rear-view mirror, you decide to keep your lips sealed. 

“It’s getting dark so all hallways start to look the same, you genius.”

Jisung momentarily sticks his tongue out at you. “God, you’re so rude to me. You’d never talk to Felix like that.”

“Because,” you drawl. “Lix is a pure-hearted angel descended from the realms of Heaven. Whereas, even Lucifer would see you as an eyesore in hell.”

“See! You’re doing it again!” Jisung points a finger at you in accusation, jumping up and down in his seat but no one really cares. It’s not like you’re speaking any false facts. “Stop bullying me!”

Seungmin shifts his body a little, nose scrunched up at the noises that wake him right up. “Jisung,” he warns his friend without opening his eyes. “Sit the fuck down, you have five seconds.”

Felix smirks when Jisung immediately cowers, slumping and leaning himself against Hyunjin in utter defeat. He learned not to mess with Seungmin after throwing a wallet at him on impulse. “Jealous much, Han?” 

“Nah, she’s all yours bro,” Jisung waves it off tiredly; bickering and making fun of Felix’s gigantic crush on you is too much for his brain to process today. He can really use a long, solid twelve-hour summer hibernation after getting home. 

The statement prompts Felix to look over at you when there’s a red light—the same exact moment as you stop staring at the bakery from across the road to lock eyes with him. There’s a little spark igniting at the pit of his stomach, stirring up butterflies inside his rib cage. But he snaps out of it after seeing you raise a brow at him, implying a silent ‘what?’ before turning away again. Felix has always been the type to stare so you don’t bother to think about it too much. 

The problem is: he only stares at you that way. 

A shade of coral creeps its way up to his cheeks, his gaze averting back on the roads when the light turns green. As Felix tries to calm the erratic tempo of his heartbeat, he also thinks about how much time he’d have left to confess before high school is over and everyone takes their own different paths. Then again, the future is far too blurry for him to make out anything and the thought of changes petrifies him a bit too much. 

Felix wishes to hold your hand until the very end but he’s a little scared...because what if you never wanted to be with him in the first place?

two.

Your brother has one talent, and that’s his ability to irritate the living daylight out of you even when he’s practically on the other side of the planet.

Minho (un)fortunately finished his finals with flying colors, and inevitably, you’re the first victim to receive a series of texts that consisted of nothing but self-indulgent, excessive bragging. Basically, he’s allowed to do whatever slash go wherever for a good three weeks before his summer internship begins, dragging his dumb ass back to hell—where he rightfully belongs. 

He’s probably chomping on a terribly unhealthy amount of pizza, pretzels, and any type of New York street food that you can name from the top of your head. It’s not like he’s paying for them anyway since Chan doesn’t allow people to touch their wallets if they happen to eat out with him. 

Your phone vibrates obnoxiously on your desk, the judder slightly muffled because it’s lying on top of your wide-open psych textbook. You haven’t bothered with cleaning up yet; finals only ended yesterday and you decide that you won’t touch anything until the disarray starts to scrape against your nerves. 

Side note: you’ve specifically told everyone not to call you three consecutive days after finals because yes, you’re that much of a loner, and yes, your stamina level for tolerating human interaction is awfully low. 

Second side note: no one ever listens. 

“Good morning, this is Lee Minho’s personal bullshit pail,” you mumble after your thumb swipes against the screen to pick up, your limbs curled up on the floor. “How can I possibly help you today?” Your morning voice isn’t necessarily threatening but rather scary; according to what Minho claimed, it sounds identical to that creepy girl from The Grudge so he groans aloud, his voice suddenly going out of focus on the other line from pulling his phone away.

“Jesus Christ are you still in your hermit phase after finals?” he questions callously, sounding not at all pleased with the way you greeted him. “Where’s mom and dad? Usually, they would have slammed your ass by now for staying inside like a vampire.”

“Don’t be insufferable, it’s only like…” you trail off while bending forward to take a good look at the little Sumiko Gurashi alarm on your bookshelf that Felix gave you during middle school. “Nine thirty-something and they’re at the park to exercise, duh- why do you care?”

Your brother almost sings on the phone, “Because you’re my little baby sister-” And this prompts you to pull the device away for the sake of your poor ear. It doesn’t help when you’re already surrounded by a group full of obnoxiously loud individuals on a daily basis. Not trying to call anyone out but Han Jisung is at the top of the list, his name in bold, capital letters being circled and underlined multiple times with a red marker.

“Who do I gotta kill to sleep in on a dreadful Sunday morning as any normal, cranky, antisocial high school student would?” you deadpan and rub the bridge of your nose dreadfully. 

“I don’t know, go murder Jisung or something.” Honestly, that’s tempting… but no.

You can physically see the smug smile on his face right now, simpering in delight at your imminent misery. He knows goddamn well about your relationship with sleeping schedules and that’s the perfect excuse for him to ruin those little specks of time when your brain cells are getting an actual break. 

These are also the times when you wish phones don’t fucking exist. 

“By the way, are you gonna go on the field trip tomorrow?” 

This question wakes you up almost completely because your eyes are now wide as a fish’s out of water, your hand automatically putting him on speaker before digging through the folders inside your backpack. What field trip? No one said anything about a field trip. And who thought it’s a good idea to force some worn-out, post-exams, sleep-deprived students into a field trip right after finals?

Minho hums coyly when the only response he’s getting is the rustling sound from your backpack, “Hmm, see what I meant there, little sis? Oh, the downside of living under a rock at its finest.” He doesn’t have to be here for you to fully picture the way that his lips curl up, dark brows wiggling whenever he’s right about something. Your brother wins most of the time against other people but overtaking you is an entirely different story.

“Oh screw off and go buy yourself a sense of humor.”

“Don’t be so mopey, isn’t Felix gonna be there?”

“What does Felix have to do with this?” you grit after managing to pull out a piece of paper from the very back, buried under countless of your essays. And it reads ‘field trip’ in caps at the top with tomorrow’s date right beneath. The trip lasts for three days, you’re going camping with the grizzly bears for three days—a total nightmare, basically. 

“Pfft, you’re actually dense for someone with a sparkly report card,” he sneers. “That kid has been crushing on you since elementary school. Are the signals that fucked up?”

“You mean when I accidentally spilled orange juice over his head? Sure, bet that’s why he’s so head over heels for me,” you snicker, unfazed by these kinds of statements. Minho only knows Felix because he was the president of your school's dance club and you fully believe that your brother is simply trying to mess with your malfunctioning, cranky mindset. 

“I fucking beg to differ, he always stares at you like you’re the love of his life, even when you stupidly poked yourself with a needle,” Minho announces as if he’s a love expert, tsk, amateur. “He might just confess during the trip, who knows? Campfire flickering. Sharing the same s’mores. Surrounded by nature. That sounds romantically ideal to me for a confession.”

He’s visioning everything like a terrible cliché film where two high schoolers stubbornly deny their feelings for each other until they start noticing how cute the other person is while magically being forced to be alone together. The worst kind of high school movie—which is also almost every high school movie. And you best believe that you’d a hundred percent kick your brother’s ass off that director’s chair because people live and breathe for this kind of overused entertainment. Tragic. 

“Alright, fuck this, I’m out-“

“Wait!” Minho exclaims out of nowhere, almost blowing up your eardrums. “Are you trying to get rid of me?”

You swear you’re rolling your eyes so hard, they’re about to fall out of their respective sockets. “Well, obviously,” you put the piece of paper down with a sigh, contemplating ways to minimize the amount of socializing in the upcoming three days. “Haven’t you bothered me enough? No?”

“You can’t leave me like this,” he whines in an annoyingly high-pitched voice that sends chills down your spine. 

“You need me, we’re connected.” 

He sounds like a whack version of Minnie Mouse for a second there, the kind of plushie that looks cute but with disturbingly creepy voice audio; no parents would let their children go near that aisle. 

You yawn as if there’s no tomorrow, stretching your limbs tiredly. “What I need is for you to shut the fuck up and leave me alone so I can go on my merry way to pick up snacks for this stupid field trip,” you utter lifelessly. 

“You hurt my feelings,” Minho pretends to clutch onto his chest and lets out a dramatic gasp, his voice doused in pure sarcasm. “What a heartbreaker, Y/N.” Said the one who always keeps his apathetic front up like a fortress’ wall and tosses every single love letter on Valentine’s Day into the recycling bin, handing the chocolate out to his classmates like he’s giving leftover vegetables to his least favorite relatives.

“Oh, I can tell,” you reply with fake enthusiasm and mock empathy. “You know how I can tell?”

“Do not finish th-”

“Cause we’re connected.” With that you hang up, slamming your phone harshly onto the surface of your textbook. 

three. 

You might love your room a little too much, it’s getting somewhat unhealthy.

It was furnished with a rather meager budget after your family moved out of your hometown when you stepped into elementary school. Things stay the same, well, most of it as time passes by you unknowingly. Your sad bookcase used to exist for one sole purpose—carrying countless books and plushies has now been upgraded with too many polaroids of your dumb group of friends, a neatly framed photo of Class of 2020 and two trophies that don’t even belong to you since Minho ran out of space as he kept participating in random dance competitions. 

The morning beams find their way through your white curtains and stain your walls with patches of yellow, eventually bugging your vision until you successfully convince yourself to either 1) wake up and get ready for school or 2) lazily stride across your room to shut the blinds completely so you can head back to bed. It’s summer… so option one is temporarily non-existent for a solid three months. 

Hey, you’re just simply making up for those all-nighters with a new cup of coffee every two hours.

Speaking of your bed, it’s soft but takes up so much space to the point that Hyunjin keeps complaining about not having enough room for his legs when he’s sprawled across the floor with Jisung, vigorously focusing on a presentation’s outline. Seungmin calls you lame for not throwing away your childhood plushies and letting them hog at least one-third of your bed, but Felix doesn’t mind since he always needs something to hug. All the more reasons why you can only trust Felix.

You might miss having those idiots being loud and invading your personal space...maybe.

Your phone rings for the second time that morning when you’re walking downstairs, shoving your keys into your pocket and grabbing a protein bar on the counter. “I’m not in the mood for your bullshit right now, Minho,” you bark into the device, chewing on your breakfast aggressively, not bothering to look at the caller’s ID.

The closest convenience store is only twenty minutes away from your house but there’s a sticky note on the fridge from your mom, reminding you that she needs eggs to bake cupcakes for her company’s twentieth anniversary while your dad is running low on his Red Bulls. Basically, you’re in distress. It’s not like your dad should be inhaling those sugary drinks on a daily basis and your mom can just buy premade goods from the bakery. But there are more options for snacks at the supermarket…

“Y/N, the fuck?” The response of a voice as deep as the Pacific ocean almost makes you choke on air. “Did I wake you up or something?” Felix sounds flabbergasted on the other line, slightly taken aback. You almost feel bad because he’s the only sweetheart in your chaotic squad (besides Chan, obvi) except when he stays up late gaming with Hyunjin, pleading for your notes the next morning with puppy eyes.

“No, Minho did,” you grumble before tossing the wrapping into a bin.

“You don’t say,” Felix replies flatly, but his voice soon grows merry again after pushing the topic of your brother aside. “Oh, and I’m coming over to return your earphones, wanna grab breakfast?”

He practically lives ten minutes away from you, sees you almost every day even if it’s the weekend since he can’t stay in the same house with his sisters for too long and puts you on FaceTime every night to prevent himself from slacking off on assignments. The only time he didn’t get to see you for a week straight was when he visited Australia and accidentally dropped his phone into the ocean. It was a rough week without you nagging him for doing something stupid. Fundamentally, he’s merely making up more excuses to spend time with you after finals.

Chuckling, “Only if you’re treating me, I’m about to go broke from buying snacks for our field trip tomorrow.” you say breezily. 

And you’re only telling him that because he might just pay for your snacks as well since Felix Lee eats freshly grilled steak and mashed potato for breakfast. Baffling, absolutely. Plus, he works at a boba shop every summer either way and he would never hesitate to spend the entirety of his paycheck on any of his close friends. Irrelevant but the point is: you kinda don’t wanna go out alone today.

Or you’re just in the mood to go with Felix. That’s a useless statement since you both see each other at least ten out of twenty-four hours per day. 

“By the way, you know what I just realized?” Felix smacks his palm on his forehead. “This is our last field trip, like ever.”

Walking over to the rack of shoes down the hallway, you let out a large exhale. “That’s unfortunate on your behalf. I, on the other hand, don’t have a problem with that,” you tell him with zero consideration, your brain cells too busy picking out a pair of shoes to process the five basic steps to empathize with another human being. 

“No,” he emphasizes helplessly. “I meant, it’s like our last high school field trip. We’re graduating next year, no time to sleep with the grizzly bears again.”

You can only manage to utter, “Oh.” Shit, college is right around the corners. 

“Jesus fucking Christ what the hell am I supposed to do after high school? Stay here? Go abroad? Wait, aren’t applications for going abroad supposed to be turned in a year beforehand? Why are you only telling me this now!?” 

Felix laughs wholeheartedly through the phone, amused at your sudden outburst. “Y/N, calm down. You’re going to college, not prison,” he brushes it off casually but in a way, college is technically prison. Slaving over a degree while working part-time jobs, chasing time relentlessly like you’re driving in the middle of a foggy night with one headlight out. And you’re forced to open up with more strangers. It’s terrifying, actually terrifying. And you’re not the type to be easily terrified. 

Now come to think about it, you don’t get why you were so pressed about it five seconds ago. It’s a good opportunity not to leech off your parents as much, like dabbling, taking one baby step at a time into adulthood. After that, you’ll graduate again, probably settle somewhere with an adequate job and find someone, starting to think about having ki-

Hold up, you’re going too far. You’re barely a senior. 

“I guess we’ll just have to make the most out of this summer,” Felix’s voice snaps you back to the surface of Earth faster than a tick of a clock. “We’re outside, by the way. Open up.”

That fast? Furrowing your brows, you hang up to slip into a pair of sneakers before sprinting to the front door. Wait, your hand freezes as it grazes the doorknob. We?

Not again. 

“Why the fuck..” you cracks a lifelessly crooked smile after pushing the door wide open. “..are you here?” It’s only ten in the morning, and you don’t think you should be screaming at the top of your lungs to be jumped on by the whole neighborhood.

Felix takes a step back, a little scared for his life. “Uhh, to return your earphones?”

“No, no,” you run a hand through your hair tiredly. Just when you thought this day was gonna be peaceful. “I’m not talking about you, I’m talking about them. Since when was this an agreement? How dare-“

“Why yes, I missed you too!” Jisung exclaims like the little shit he is, throwing an arm over your neck to ruffle your hair. No one ruffles your hair without getting their ass slammed- except for Minho. “Why the long face? Let me guess, until this exact second, you thought there’s a fucking squirrel, a lama, a dog, and a kitten standing at your front porch? No, it’s us, your Forever BFFs.” He’s one of the reasons why you refuse to understand the humans’ language sometimes.

With a harsh shove from you, Jisung staggers backward only for Hyunjin to prevent him from rolling like a ball in the middle of your neighborhood. “One more word and I’m telling the whole class who your crush is,” you threaten, earning an involuntary snort from Seungmin. 

“I hate to admit this, but she might actually say yes if he makes the first move.”

Hyunjin supplies unconstructively, “That’s why he didn’t ask.”

“You know what, Hwang,” Felix says with a smirk tugging at his lips, bumping his fist against Hyunjin’s without turning his head. 

“Oh screw all of you.” Jisung’s getting all the attention he wanted this early in the morning yet he still feels like a loser. Perhaps he should try shutting up once in a while. 

four.

“Thanks for giving me a ride, uncle, you really didn’t have to,” Felix says generously from your dad’s back seats, scratching the nape of his neck as though this is the first time he’s ever shared a ride with you. 

He’s too humble sometimes you just want to smack him across the face with a pillow to stop being so formal with your dad. Heck, Felix downright called him ‘dad’ by accident once during a Christmas dinner back in middle school and your dad even encouraged him to keep addressing him like that. 

Not to mention, Felix is chomping on a turkey sandwich that your mom made this morning specifically for him after finding out that his parents are currently out of town and there's nothing but ramen in the cabinet. God forbids her to starve the same kid who helped your dad fix his bumper. So really, he should be expecting these things by now. 

“Oh it’s not a big deal, you’re too nice,” your dad laughs as he pulls over to your school’s front gate, careful not to run into that one really tall, ugly tree. You’re lowkey paranoid that people might die if it collapses during a storm or something. “Perhaps you can return the favor by getting a drink with me sometimes.”

Felix blinks numerous times, slightly gobsmacked. “...but I’m not old enough to drink yet.”

“Correct answer.” And you snicker when your dad turns around to toss a wink at your friend’s direction. “Doesn’t mean that I’m forbidding you kids have fun,” he clarifies upon the baffled expression on Felix’s face. “But not too much fun, got it?”

“Okay, okay dad, I’ll see you in three days,” you shake your head before climbing out of the car. “Don’t starve the cats while I’m gone. Oh! And Soonie still needs his lactobacillus-“

Your dad brushes it off with a sheepish smile, “I’ll leave it to your mom, muffin, I can’t even remember which dry food is for which cat. I also don’t think they’ll be starving anytime soon, those little demons are getting quite fat actually since your brother spoils them all the time.” You can only give him a mere eye-roll because as much as he claims to hate having pets, there have been countless times when you caught your dad red-handed trying to tuck the cats into bed in the middle of the night. 

Felix soon catches up with your steps after bidding him farewell, crumpling the sandwich wrapper in his palm. “Wait up, muffin,” he says breathlessly with a few skips, starting to think about not skipping dance practice again this summer before his body gets out of shape. 

“Shut up,” you grumble, followed by a harsh elbow jabbed into his side. Felix grunts in pain, slowing down a little but still tries to walk side by side with you nonetheless. “You don’t deserve that complimentary breakfast, I’m telling mom to cut your portion off next time.” 

“Ah! Come on, muffin! You’re being mean.”

Your biggest fear has inevitably come true—after all those years of erratic mood swings and other weird things puberty puts you through, Felix still makes fun of you for the nickname that your parents came up with on your first day of school. It doesn’t help with the fact that he meets them quite often too. Like four out of seven days a week since your parents love coming over to each other’s house for dinner. 

“Flip that scowl upside down now, will you?” Felix cups your cheeks and squishes them together, attempting to make your smile by tugging at the corners of your lips. “Aren’t you excited about the trip?”

You scoff at him, “Are you even hearing yourself? My entire existence reeks off ‘excitement’ 24/7.” 

“That’s bullshit.”

“I’m not responsible for whatever happens next to your face.”

But when you reach up to peel his hands away, you’re bound to make a grave mistake by looking straight into his eyes. The morning light hits his face at the right angle and it makes him look like a puppy—which you wouldn't mind starting at all day. Although it’s not like you haven’t got a good look at him before, something’s different today. From the way his irises twinkle gently like thousands of celestial bodies to how his freckles scattered across his cheekbones like the remaining bits from a supernova, his full lips with a prominent Cupid’s bow and his cute crooked teeth. 

You know all of these things; perhaps you’ve never put too much thought into them before. Not when you’re constantly facepalming at him for doing stupid TikTok dances and trying to eat a banana with its peel on. But now when you actually acknowledge them, your heart momentarily skips a beat. Or two. 

Doesn’t matter, you hate this feeling either way. 

“Get a room, this is disgusting to watch.” 

Seungmin steps in between you two with his backpack slung over his shoulders, hands resting on his hip like he’s babysitting you and your biological parents don’t pay him enough for this tedious job. But Felix is too busy making sure that his eyes aren’t malfunctioning when he sees a pink tint on your cheeks to focus on whatever nonsense Seungmin is spewing at him. 

“Get on the bus, losers! Y’all are embarrassing me!” Hyunjin yells as he plants a foot onto the bus, trying his best not to be subtle about the fact that all of your classmates have already been seated. 

You can practically see Jisung making weird faces from the window and next to him is a very cranky-looking Jeongin with his earbuds plugged in, deciding not to tolerate any chit-chatting this morning. It’s a shame how the school’s always on a low budget when it comes to transportation; consequently, some random freshmen got squeezed in with your class. 

So you elect to ignore your friend’s questionable behaviors (sometimes you wonder what he’s on to be this zealous at six in the morning) and grabs Felix's hand to climb onto the vehicle before coach Kim kicks your ass for slowing the schedule down. 

As you shuffle down the narrow aisle, you quickly realize there are only two seats left at the very back—basically, you feel a little guilty for not getting a good spot for Felix but he doesn’t seem to mind because he taps you on the shoulder lightly, signaling for you to move.

“Ugh, I wanna go home,” you sigh, slumping into your seat after tucking your backpack neatly on the small compartment above. 

“You’re boring,” Felix comments flatly but he’s partially glad that he got to sit with you instead of some blabberer. “Need this?” Fishing his earphones out of his backpack, he wiggles the banana milk case in front of your face. 

You only nod lazily at the offer, causing him to huff in disbelief before slipping in a side of his AirPods into your ear. You both have pretty similar taste in music so you don’t mind when he puts one of his playlists on random and Fly Me to the Moon bleeds into your eardrums. The soft melody makes you yawn a little, eyelids getting droopy. 

“Tired.” Is the only warning Felix gets before you decide to drop your head onto his shoulders, slipping your arm around his torso comfortably like it’s a pillow. You personally don’t do cuddles but since he’s into those things and smells nice—very fruity, somewhat musky too, you might as well take advantage of that with the hope of sleeping throughout the entire ride. 

“What is wrong with you today?” he asks with glowing cheeks. 

“Shh shh, I’m recharging my battery.”

Felix is a little flustered, to say the least. But instead of complaining about your sudden clinginess, he rests his head on top of yours like second nature, allowing his childhood song to drown out some of the background chatters. 

You should really be clingy more often… though he’s not gonna risk his pearly white teeth by telling you that. 

five. 

Your school actually knows how to manage money in a smart way. Shocker, you know. 

You are thrown off upon hearing that no one needs to worry about the grizzly bears, or wolves (hey, one can never be too careful) because everyone gets to share a log cabin with a maximum of three other people. 

In fact, the camp counselors have confirmed that even though they’re throwing a bunch of inexperienced, dumb high schoolers smacked in the middle of the wilderness, there’s really nothing to do other than boring team-building exercises...and fishing. In other words, the only creature that can somewhat do harm to you is mosquitoes. 

It’s been pouring nonstop when your classmates tried to set up the campfire with coach Kim screaming into their eardrums last night, no wonder those little shit are thriving to make your life more miserable—they’re in their element, reproducing at a terrifying pace. 

“Jesus Christ, Y/N!” 

Hyunjin clutches a hand to his chest in both relief and terror after realizing the curled up figure sitting by the window is just you. He steps inside the cabin completely and flings his wet bangs away from his face, shoving the umbrella in his hand into a stand by the shoe rack. “You look like shit, are you okay?” he furrows his brows, slightly concerned about your eyebags and the way your lips crack from dehydration.

A soulless smile finds its way to your face. “I’m pretty sure ‘shit’ and ‘okay’ aren’t supposed to be in the same sentence but thank you for asking, I appreciate it.”

Here’s another downside to being a homebody: you can’t fucking sleep on any other beds that aren’t yours. And surprisingly that two-hour nap on the bus wasn’t enough to fuel you for the rest of the trip. But lucky you, it’s most likely going to keep raining cats and dogs and trash pandas for the rest of the day. Outdoor activities are no longer mandatory and you can almost hear your non-existent muscles crying in sheer joy. 

“Drink,” Hyunjin sighs at your pathetic state and decides to toss a water bottle in your direction. 

However, all you do is retrieve your limbs deeper into Felix’s fluffy blanket since he refused to use the grey one that’s draped over every bed beforehand. You’re far beyond grateful for that because those fading, questionable-looking stains just scare the crap out of you. And also because the fluffy blanket smells like him; you rest your case.

“You were knocked out for the entire bus ride, so why the hell can’t you fall asleep on a decent bed?” Shaking his head, Hyunjin plops himself onto Jisung’s bed like a potato, accidentally knocking over the neatly folded pile of clothes. He really doesn’t give two flying fucks about the fact that his friend spent an excessive ten minutes to organize his stuff so coach Kim won’t be barging into their cabin with a megaphone at five in the morning again. 

“She can only fall asleep on Felix, that’s why.” You roll your eyes in the bitchiest way possible, not bothering to chuck the abandoned water bottle at the unwanted guest of this terrific conversation. 

Hyunjin almost lets out a shriek when Seungmin jolts up from his bed, hair messy, a leg sticking out from his comforter. “You know, until this exact moment, I thought that you were dead or something.”

“What I’m trying to say is,” Seungmin elaborates as he bends over to reach for his glasses with squinted eyes. “There’s a 99,9% that Felix will make the first move but at the same time, it doesn’t mean the other 0,01% won’t happen so you,” he jabs his index finger towards you. “Better be doing something other than walking around camp like a zombie.”

Hyunjin tilts his head in confusion. “Since when was this even a thing?” You’re this close to have a permanent hand imprint on your forehead for facepalming every two seconds with your idiotic friends around. 

“Uhh, since forever?” Seungmin feels the need to voice out. “Listen, since the day Y/N spilled orange juice on Felix’s favorite shirt, the amount of times they’re forced to be together has risen tremendously. And when their parents found out their families live like ten minutes away from each other, they practically see each other every single day. Even outside of school. They tolerate each other, meaning the dynamic is long-lasting. Their bonding encouraged friendship.” 

“But we’re her friends too?”

A deep breath. “No, their friendship was incited to grow into something bigger, more profound because Felix has a special ‘click’ with Y/N that he doesn’t with us. God, Hyunjin, it’s been what, almost a decade! How could you not see it?” Seungmin says with expressive hands, almost yanking every strand of hair off of his head. It’s too early for this, his brain is about to implode. Hwang Hyunjin being dense just feels like a metaphoric chokehold to him. 

“Y/N,” Hyunjin simply ignores his frustrated friend to look over at you slipping into your sneakers. “You’re being uncharacteristically non-hyperverbal.”

“That’s because she’s about to either shut the door in my face then find Felix or kick my ass and then find Felix,” Seungmin informs with a yawn, and this prompts you to muster a fake smile. 

Oh, I’m fucking livid. 

“You know me too well.”

He questions with heavy irony, “I’m sorry did you just agree with me?”

“Oh no, no, I take that back,” you brush him off. “Is Felix still outside fishing?”

“I think so?” Hyunjin replies while running a hand through his hair in mere distress; Felix’s competitiveness goes a little mayhem sometimes when it comes to Jisung being better than him at something since they’re so close. That’s one of the sole reasons why Felix always manages to maintain his flying GPA because Han Jisung procrastinates like no other but still tops his class every single semester. 

“I didn’t find him at the lake, though, wonder where he went.”

You widen your eyes, somewhat alarmed since it’s almost lunchtime, and Felix Lee never, and you mean never, ever let himself skip a meal. He always gets a nice nap after stuffing his face with enough good food too, so that’s a bonus. But that’s not the point, the point is: you’re starting to get a little worried because he’s been fishing all morning, wandering alone in the wilderness without a camp counselor. 

You’d better not find him sleeping with the fishes. 

six.

Maybe you were right, maybe Felix is a dumbass.

Because listening to his ego and coming back to the lake after breakfast was a horrendous idea. 

It’s such a pity how those weird-looking vehicles have stopped driving around camp the moment it started pouring outside. Heck, he didn’t even bring an umbrella after asking the coach to check today's forecast. 

So tragically, he’s now stuck underneath the canopy of a cafe ensuing coursing his way through the water blizzard and seeking refuge but can’t walk back to his cabin where his cabin-mates are probably having the time of their life drinking hot chocolate and nibbling on hand-picked fruits.

Felix exhales in torment while gazing outside, everything’s completely white-out thanks to droplets of raining streaking the horizon. Perhaps dashing back might be his one solitary option, but shivers soon run up his spine again, reminding him that he’s probably looking like a wet rat—his black Converse sodden, water seeping through the thin fabric of his uniform, numbing his skin. 

Ruffling his wet fringe, Felix’s hand fishes inside his pocket to look for his phone only to realize that it’s not there. “Shit...great..just great, today is my lucky day.” Even if the camp counselors didn’t confiscate all the electronic devices, there wouldn’t be any service in the middle of the woods either. Splendid. 

“Ugh, Y/N,” he groans under his breath. “Why did you let me do this?”

“Shit.”

 “AHH!”

Felix shrieks upon the tiny voice squeaking out from behind him. And he sighs in pure relief to see a little girl standing mere inches away, looking no more than a seven-year-old dressed in a yellow raincoat. “Hey kid,” he chuckles and crouches down to her eye level. “Where are your parents? You’re not supposed to be out here alone when it’s pouring like crazy.” 

And to his dismay, “Shit,” the little girl giggles, finding a new profound interest in the curse word that he accidentally spewed out seconds ago. 

“Shh shh,” Felix frantically places an index finger on his lips while darting his eyes around in terror—he might be sued if her parents found out how their daughter picked up a bad word from some random high schooler. Suddenly he feels bad for his future kids. “No, no, we can’t say that. It’s forbidden. What’s your name?”

“Mina,” she answers cutely and fiddles with the ends of her braids. “Who’s Y/N? Is she your girlfriend?”

Felix chokes on his own saliva. “...no, why would you say that?”

“I don’t know, my dad always calls my mom’s name when he messes things up.”

“What does that have to do with- oh, shit,” he facepalms himself. This kid is going to give him a cardiac arrest any second now. “It doesn’t matter if she’s my girlfriend or not, what matters is I need to get you back to your parents. Do you know where they are right now?”

Mina simply shakes her head with a pout. “Okay, let’s go find them then,” he can’t help but cracks a smile, ruffling her hair endearingly. Most kids would be bawling their eyes out by now knowing that they’ve strayed from their parents; she’s a tough one. 

Felix gently grabs Mina’s hand, biting down on his lower lip as he prays that a cold doesn’t catch up to him tomorrow and ready to dash out of the canopy that’s been keeping him dry for the last hour or two. But then a figure comes into view from afar, holding an umbrella while squinting their eyes through the thick streaks of rain. 

“Y/N..?” he mutters to himself in disbelief when you quickly skip underneath the canopy, collapsing the red umbrella in your hands. Felix recognizes that umbrella anywhere—isn’t that Hyunjin’s? Have you been looking for him? And for how long too?

“Didn’t even think about bringing an umbrella, smartass,” you say with a raised eyebrow. “Oh dear, who do we have here?” Before Felix can defend himself in vain with lame excuses, you’ve already taken your attention off him to stare at the unfamiliar presence. Your intense gaze scares Mina a little, causing the little girl to squeeze Felix’s hand, hiding behind his leg. 

Your friend laughs, patting her little head in reassurance. “Mina, this is Y/N, my classmate. Don’t let her intimidate you.”

“Are you really going to bother with this little one?” you scrunch your nose a bit. “We’re having pork rib soup, by the way, better hurry if you don’t want Han to hog your portion all to himself.”

Felix rolls his eyes at how utterly apathetic you are towards children. If you can get a perfect A in calc then why is it so hard to simply comprehend that every twelve-year-old needs to be returned to their hypothetical parents safely? “What part of ‘a common sense of morality’ can’t you understand?” 

“I don’t want to, actually, sounds like a lot of work,” you hum sarcastically. 

“Your girlfriend is scary,” Mina ensconces herself further behind your friend, officially detecting you as a threat rather than someone who will potentially bring her back to the cabin where her parents are probably flipping the whole place upside down in a panic—which is exactly what you’re planning to do. 

In your defense, you don’t detest kids in general. Only the bratty ones. And Mina is borderline bratty. 

“You know, I can spare her some time, Lost and Found is like..ten minutes away from here.”

“Y/N-” Felix wants to scream at you, rubbing the side of his temple in distress. Imagining you babysitting your neighbor’s newborn last summer with nine bucks per hour, ten hours per day, and five out of seven days per week is one of the few things that constantly keeps him from having a good night's sleep. It baffles him how you haven’t accidentally drowned the infant while giving her a bath. 

Mina gives the side of his jeans a tug, round eyes staring up at him expectantly. “Or we can get juice pops!” she exclaims happily and looks over to you, mustering her best puppy eyes. “Please? I don’t want to be alone..” 

“Twenty seconds ago, you called me scary and now you’re guilt-tripping me?” you crouch down to get a good look at the kid. Bright, innocent brown eyes, cute button nose, and a chipped front tooth—perhaps she’s a little too cute to not get her juice pops. 

Then, “And juice pops too? You evil mad mind genius,” you say after standing up to unfold Hyunjin’s umbrella, swinging it over the top of your head. “That’s extortion, kid, you’re too young for that.”

Felix breaks into a fit of giggles upon seeing you failing at trying to keep a straight face and steps in beside you under the umbrella. His next problem just pops up right then and there—Mina can’t squeeze in considering the umbrella that Hyunjin gave you is solely used for one person. 

“Mina, hop on here,” he decides to get on his knees, permitting the little girl to clumsily climb on his back and eventually plopping herself onto his shoulders. 

“Oh, oh, oh, can you two hold hands?” Mina suggests with a shit-eating grin on her face. This causes Felix’s cheeks to burn with a bright shade of red while you’re too busy throwing daggers at her with your eyes to notice. “My family does this all the time, my dad would carry me on his shoulders and my mom would hold his hand as we walk home after going to the park.”

You and Felix yell simultaneously, “We’re not your parents!!” But that doesn’t seem to scare the little girl. You’re both just encouraging her. 

“Yip yip, horsey, don’t be disobedient now,” she giggles to herself and pulls at a solid patch of Felix’s hair, making you cringe because his hair and scalp have already had enough from his questionable obsession with bright hair colors. 

“Ow! Mina! Stop it! Ow!”

“Okay quit torturing my friend,” you tell her and decide to slip your hand in with Felix’s, intertwining your fingers to secure the grip before showing it to Mina so that she’ll stop before any blood is drawn. “There, we’re holding hands just like your mommy and daddy, you happy?” 

Felix doesn’t say anything even when Mina nods happily, releasing her monstrous grip off his poor scalp. He only lets you tug him away from the canopy of the cafe as he gazes downward, eyes glued to how your hand fits into his perfectly. The sound of rain tapping against the umbrella suddenly bugs him, suffocating him in a way. In other words, it’s really unnatural to think this way about his best friend but he doesn't want you to let go at all. 

Everything seems to move faster when you’re holding onto his hand so certainly. Felix thinks you’re fully aware but try to fight off the voices that are taunting you to just drop it. And truth is, you can care less because your head is now far too fuzzy to focus on anything but the road ahead. 

You pray he doesn’t feel the pounding rhythm from your veins. If your red ears haven’t given it away already. 

seven.

Jisung has weird friends, that’s a fact. And no, you’re not talking about the gang that saved his ass every time he got into trouble aka you plus JeongMinLixJin. You’re talking about those kids from Class 2C that are mutual friends with Changbin.

Because the moment Jisung barges into the cabin and starts babbling nonsense that you can’t comprehend (not that you can comprehend any of his shit on the daily), you know that he just came back from a get together with those sketchy dudes who managed to sneak some booze inside a shampoo bottle.

“Uhm okay, who gave Felix alcohol?” he squints his eyes hard. 

You are more than aware that Jisung is mildly smashed by the way that his cheeks are tinted with a light shade of coral, hiccupping every ten seconds and slightly more clumsy with his feet. He almost tripped over the rug at the front door if it weren’t for Hyunjin who caught him in time so that he wouldn’t break one of his precious teeth. Those painful years of constantly slurping on watery porridge after every dentist appointment to tighten his braces shouldn’t be going down the drain. 

Speaking of bland rice water, that’s all Felix has been fed with after returning to camp because he has no choice. The sickness finally caught up to him as a result of staying outside for too long while still dressed in his rain-soaked uniform. Even under the cotton comforter, he’s radiating heat on the outside but stoically shivering on the inside, his energy level is as diminished as his appetite. 

The nurse said there’s really nothing that can be done but give him some pills and let him ride it out so now Felix’s all curled up in a corner of his bed, cheeks burning flush of fever, coughing and sneezing occasionally. He refuses to be moved to a completely separate cabin because sleeping alone in a confined place knowing that the grizzly bears might be roaming outside your door is quite frightening for a junior in high school. 

“God, what makes you think I’m the batshit drunk one here?” Felix croaks, his voice more hoarse and gruff than usual because every word pains him, his vocal cords pulse in agony at each syllable. And that sentence was probably the longest thing you’ve heard from him since dinner. 

Jisung lets Hyunjin toss him onto his bed, face down, and props himself up on his forearms. “Uhh, have you checked yourself the mirror?” he hiccups, words a bit slurred, palms outstretched in a grabby motion. “Seungmin, water- ow! What the fuck was that!?” 

He rubs the side of his head while babbling incoherently like a fucking five-year-old because Seungmin decided to chuck a water bottle at him. Those years of playing baseball during retreats indeed paid off. 

“I went for the head,” Seungmin looks up from his book calmly, acting innocent. 

Jisung whines and turns to his side, watching as the water bottle rolls back towards him after coming in contact with the wall. “God, I miss Minho. You guys suck,” he takes it before sitting right up but flops himself back down when a pang of pain claws at his temple. Who even allowed him to drink?

“Didn’t he make your high school experience miserable?” Hyunjin laughs, sitting down on the corner of his bed, legs curled into his chest. 

“Hello? That was me,” Seungmin clarifies, he sounds a little offended. “He called me a nerd for studying late at the library for our finals! Our fucking finals! Do you know how insecure my freshman self was? I was so hurt!” 

You cross your arms and mumble, “He’s the same guy who treated you ice-cream after finding out you got a B in physics.”

Hyunjin hums, butting into the topic, “And he made me do fifty push-ups because I unintentionally skipped a day at practice. Our Dance Club really didn’t need a president who effortlessly snatches the Asshole of the Year Award like he’s stealing candies from a kid.”

“Please, you’re practically buddies now,” you scoff. “You always play Mario Kart and rewatch the Avatar series with him, even during midterms!”

“Oh! Oh! Oh!” Jisung suddenly gets on his feet, jumping up and down like a maniac. You’re highly concerned for the bed by the creaking sound that it’s making—sounds just like something straight out of a horror film. “He almost threw a knife at me!”

You’re running out of excuses to defend your stupid brother at this rate. What’s the point in trying anyway? “Han, it was a plastic knife, chill.”

Jisung crawls off his bed to approach you, pinching his thumb and index finger together before shoving them to your face. “I was this close to dying! You try having someone threaten to throw a knife at you during lunch break,” he complains like it’s the end of the world. Truth is, you’ve seen (and experienced) worse things. 

“Minho’s still my brother.”

Staring at you, Jisung looks unimpressed. “He wanted to kill me because I commented on his puffy cheeks that day.”

“He’s adopted.”

The conversation is pulled to a halt right there when Felix does a full-body groan, his head spinning and sweats starting to collect at his hairline. With his mind buzzed like he’s floating, the bickering only adds to the pressure that’s squeezing each of his functioning brain cells. In other words, it feels as though Han Jisung is a fucking hamster going on a marathon across his body, nibbling on his limbs and ears as he’s going through a hangover, his immune system going on a rampage. 

Felix doesn’t even drink. 

“That’s my call for a bedtime story.” You glare at Jisung when he clears his throat while you’re attempting to tuck Felix into bed, pressing your palm against his forehead to check his temperature. It’s not climbing anymore, he should be okay after sweating everything out. 

Hyunjin pulls his friend back onto his bed, locking his limbs in tight before he waddles around and potentially breaks one of those decorative pieces on the bookshelf. “Not to burst your ego, but I don’t think you’re sober enough to give us a good story,” he says unapologetically. 

“Puh-lease,” Jisung lets out the weirdest chuckle at that, wagging his forearm like those Japanese ceramic cat figures that are supposed to bring people good fortune; and Han Jisung is notorious for bringing people anything but good fortune. “They didn’t even have vodka, only Strongbow. That shit is too weak for me.”

You snort involuntarily, “Actually, I think you meant you’re too weak for those bottles of cider.”

“Wow, Y/N, what a snake.”

eight.

The bonfire crackles, flaring up to life when coach Kim tosses a lit matchstick into the pyramid pile of branches and woods. The flame projects long shadows of the trees all round along, swirling and curling in obscure shapes with the high schoolers that each hugs their own cup of hot cocoa, chomping on their marshmallows of choice. 

Glowing embers beneath are colored by the inferno that seems to be moving with the rhythm and melody of the song that they’re all singing along, drumming their feet and bobbing their heads simultaneously. 

“Are you guys sure you don’t want to join them?” Felix says apologetically after sneezing into a piece of tissue, his nose all red and swollen. “I can just… I don’t know, read a book or something.”

When he refers to those oddly colorful and rather bulky-looking books on the shelves, Seungmin immediately stops putting a cookie inside his mouth midway. “Those are called ‘aesthetically useless interior decoration’, Lix. Good luck trying to open those plastic blocks,” he expresses with his hands after stuffing the cookie into his mouth, chewing rather aggressively. 

Felix feels quite bad because, for all he knows, Hyunjin and Seungmin have been planning on going kayaking today and trying out volleyball tomorrow. You’re all going home in two days yet they’ve done nothing but pigging out in pure distress. “Still, it’s a summer camp, you all should be out there having fun, not stuck inside to look after me while tolerating...that,” he quietly looks over at Jisung who just exited the bathroom after splashing his face with some water. 

At least he doesn’t look crazy and homeless now. 

“How are they doing that again?” you join Hyunjin as he rests his head lazily on his forearms, staring outside from the cabin’s window like Rapunzel in an alternative universe where Flynn Rider managed to escape the tower with the crown, leaving her behind longing for civil human interactions in vain. 

“They sing..” he drawls. “And turn their heads to look at each other in the eye.”

You wave it off absentmindedly, falling on your back so now your head is hung upside down from the bed, your arms dangling midair. “Well, that sounds exhausting,” you mumble, ignoring the way that Seungmin is internally judging you. 

Hyunjin sighs, “Never one for sentiment, are you?”

“Easier to let it burn,” you answer flatly, sitting upright when blood starts rushing to your head. 

“Don’t feel bad,” Seungmin immediately forces a smile at Felix. “We’re not really into sitting with a bunch of idiots just to enjoy a mildly decent hot cocoa either way.”

Suddenly the lights go out, and Felix immediately curls himself further into the blanket, a little thrown off. Jisung’s face comes into view out of nowhere when he makes a grab for the oil lamp that no one seems to take notice of, lighting it up with a single match. “C’mon, kids, no bonfire is complete without a good ghost story,” he crosses his legs on the floor happily, still somewhat tipsy so his body is bouncing in excitement with occasional hiccups. 

Hyunjin and Seungmin exchange questionable looks before scrambling to the floor, settling themselves a few solid inches in front of the oil lamp with a sigh while you only shrug at Felix, propping your head onto your hands. Laziness is starting to hold you hostage on Hyunjin’s bed at this rate. 

Seungmin spares Jisung a slight glare, “Better not bullshit us with the same one that you heard at school-”

“No,” Jisung’s lips morph into something similar to a smirk, he looks concerningly confident for someone who’s utterly terrified after watching IT. And now he’s attempting to give his bros who are equally jumpy about everything and anything, you’re excited to see how this goes. “I heard this one from a camp counselor, true story.” You definitely don’t like the sound of that.

At first, the ghost was no more than a chill in the air, a shimmer of mist to the common eyes. Through the heavy rain and fog that seeps through people’s skin, chilling the core of their bones, it slowly came into focus. It wasn’t until the camper found refuge under a canopy of an abandoned café that it congealed into a form—a small child with brilliant round eyes, dressed in white clothing. 

For a moment, all was silent and still. It was as though the camper got hypnotized, feet planted to the ground. Then, he could hear a small lullaby in a cheerful voice. 

“Oranges and Lemons say the bells of St.Clements…” They know how that one ended. 

Suddenly someone blows out the candle, but Jisung’s voice still rings in your eardrums. “When the camper took a step back, the ghost spoke again, this time with the voice almost of a smoker and grin…” You can feel Hyunjin hop back to bed with you in a tick of a clock, holding onto you for dear life with the infrequent whimpers of fear. 

Jisung proceeds to continue, “The grin soon became a snarl, baring teeth like a wolf when it finished the lullaby…”

A muffled silence descends. And, “Have you come to play…?”

“AHHH!!” Felix lets out a petrified shriek, but what confuses you is the sound of Jisung grunting rather in pain. Seungmin sighs in disapproval, flickering the lights on while leaning back against the wall. 

And now before your eyes is a slightly traumatized, feverish Felix with clattering teeth, quivering inside his blanket. Whereas, Jisung is sprawled across the floor, hugging his poor stomach, hacking up lungs. Deserve.

“This is why you don’t give people who can high-kick jump scares, dumbass,” Seungmin comments and crouches down in front of Jisung like his knight in shiny armors, letting a bottle of ointment dangle between his fingers. “Put this on, bet it’s already bruising.”

Hyunjin releases his arms around you and walks towards the freckled boy who looks like he’s about to slip into a coma. “Lix, are you okay?” he knits his brows together, starting to feel somewhat concerned. 

Felix only waves it off with a raspy laugh, standing on wobbly legs with his blanket still wrapped around his figure. “I’m fine, I’ll just go wash my face.” Truth is, he’s anything but fine. And it doesn’t help when he accidentally has a glance of his own reflection in the body-length mirror from across the cabin—his hair is sticking to his forehead, his face is slightly more puffy than usual, and his eyebags look like he hasn’t slept in decades—he looks worse than a trash can, basically. 

“Hyunjin,” you raise a brow at your friend’s current state.

“What?”

“Catch him.”

“Huh-” Hyunjin snaps his head back when a loud thud is heard, eyes growing twice as big in sheer panic upon the sight of Felix laying on his stomach, mere inches away from his feet. “Felix!!” Your friends rush to his side while you’re too busy checking the thermometer by his nightstand. The temperature doesn’t seem to be too alarming, he should be fine after sleeping and sweating it out. But really, Felix looks more like he’s having the nap of a lifetime rather than passing out from the worst fever of the century. That doesn’t stop everyone from freaking out, unfortunately. 

Also, everyone can agree that this is the first and last storytime to ever happen.

nine.

Felix sits on the beach, eyes moving from sand to stone, from rock pools to breaking waves. He lets out a sigh, an exhale of relief when a breeze passes by him, tousling his hair as he buries his feet deeper into the primrose-colored grains. The briny aroma that exists in every fiber of air makes him feel at ease, as though unknotting all his angsty-teenager worries with grace. He feels a bit better, partially because his fever has already gone down when he shook you out of your half-asleep state at four in the morning. 

“Why?” you ask without turning your head after sensing his tense posture.

Felix looks confused, a little startled when you break the silence. “Why what?”

“Why the long face?” you unknowingly exhale too, stubbornly gazing forward. “Thinking about something?” For some reason, you’re too...scared to even spare him a small glance. This isn’t you, did his fever rub off on you or something?

To your dismay, his sudden inquiry catches you off guard. “High school is going to be over in a year, have you thought about what to do?” 

You open your mouth to protest with something along the line of he’s overthinking again and there’s still an entire year ahead to make new memories but when you’re about to utter the first word, your mouth automatically snaps itself close. It’s like you have an entire masterpiece planned out in your mind but when someone tosses you a blank canvas, you’re standing there in defeat like the biggest idiot. Felix is serious this time, you know it’s not because he’s lightheaded after riding out the fever. 

“Honestly?” you breathe out. “No, I haven’t. God, I don’t even want to think about it, the future scares me a little.”

Upon the mossed rock and vibrant horizon, comes the sun rays that are promised by the starlit sky. It makes you both a little breathless, not exchanging a single word nor moving a muscle for a while. 

Until, “Fine, it scares me a whole lot,” you confess, gaze cast downward as you hug your legs closer to your chest. “It sucks because everyone seems to have their lives together, Jisung is finally taking his interest in music seriously, Hyunjin is planning on being an actual theater kid, and Seungmin is...I don’t know, but he’s definitely onto something. Point is, everyone is already one too many steps ahead of me, I’m just..here, stuck. And I don’t feel like I have-”

“A lot of time left.” Felix finishes your sentence, prompting you to look at him this time. His delicate features shine under the cracking lights of dawn, starry eyes twinkling and lips outstretched into the smile that you absolutely adore. He has such a contagious type of smile that it makes you feel a little less dead inside whenever you see it. But your heartbeat also grows a little more ecstatic. 

A hearty chuckle. “You’re not alone, you know,” he says while not breaking away from the eye contact, this makes your throat grow dry. “I still have so much to do, so much to...say yet too little time. So yeah, don’t think about it too much, I’m never gonna leave you behind no matter what.”

You have to hold back a playful scoff at that; and to think he was the one who brought up this sappy topic. “If anything, you’re the overthinker in this relationship,” you tell him with a nudge on his rib. “But if you’ve already had my back, then you should know that I’ll always have yours too.”

Because what would you do without an overthinker like Felix? Drowning your sorrow by stress-eating in the middle of the night? Bottoming out on questionable drinks to end up like Han Jisung? Winging every single important choice that can potentially flip your life upside down in either a good or bad way? Not in a million years. He knows that you need him as much as he needs you, harsh truth but you still hate it either way.

You both don’t look forward to the future, like at all. 

You’re too apathetic and overall just a big ‘meh’ about it. You’re the type of person that goes with the flow, letting life toss you around like a ragdoll until you finally snap at some point to fight back because you know where the line between giving up and knowing that you’ve had enough is. Meanwhile, Felix is rather anxious about things. If a piece of paper with a pencil can draw out the map of his entire destiny ahead then he’ll have it finished in one night. But he’s grown out of his middle school self to know that things don’t always go as planned.

Guess if things turn out to be shit, you’ll still have him.

“Does that mean if we’re still single in our thirties, you’ll marry me like how our parents always joke about?” Felix cracks a shit-eating grin this time, one that makes your heart swell but for the most part, you wanna whack him unconscious with a pillow. 

You sneer in return, “Sure, but you’ll have to fall for me first.”

There’s a pang in Felix’s chest, it’s so loud and evident that he’s afraid you might hear it. You really didn’t have to slap him in the face with that seemingly harmless statement. “Hmm, who would even fall for a stubborn hermit crab like you?” he jokes to hide the nervousness that’s crawling upon his spine. His ears are probably bright red right now. “Although...that wouldn’t be a problem with me.” Because he’s already fallen for you, a little too hard actually.

“What does that even mean?” you only hum after questioning his statement, nothing makes sense right now since you’re getting a little sleepy because a certain someone wanted to watch the sunrise which simply lasted for about two minutes after two(ish) hours of waiting.

“I don’t know,” Felix laughs before standing up, dusting the sand off of his jeans. “You go figure it out, smartass.” With that, he runs off with his Converses dangling between his fingers, leaving you dumbfounded in the middle of the beach like a total dimwit. Slowly, within those five seconds of making eye contact with your best friend again, his words zero in on you like a wakeup call. 

Urgently grabbing your sneakers, you chase after him. “Hey- wait! GET BACK HERE!” By looks of it, you’ve probably figured it out now. It’s not like he’s trying to be subtle either.

Felix feels like he just gained strength from spewing out that indirect confession, and it gives him a tiny ray of hope that he still has his entire youth before his eyes to tell you how he really feels. Or his whole life if you don’t start resenting him for crossing the line that no one dares talk about when they have a thing for their best friend. 

Either way, as long as Felix sees your presence side by side with him at every ups and downs, he’s home. 

[fanficshiddles]

Loki’s Scream House, One Shot

Casey goes to Loki’s Scream House, not expecting to actually scream. But Loki likes to play and torture. 

Warnings: Rape/non-con, forced orgasms, douching, enema, pain, trapping, restraints, double penetration.

- Casey was so annoyed that her friends had all bailed on her. On Halloween, no less.

They said they’d heard rumours about Loki’s Scream house being far too scary, so had cancelled on her. Instead deciding to go to a party instead.

‘Bunch of chickens.’ Casey muttered as she made her way up the hill to where the Scream house sat. She would go to this haunted house and then turn up at the party, telling them all about her scary experience.

She snorted to herself at the thought. How scary could a haunted house be? Apparently this one was aptly named and would make her scream. But she doubted that.

As she got closer, she could indeed hear screaming from inside. But she was almost certain it was fake, she didn’t see any cars around. She doubted there was even anyone else inside. But since she had already bought a ticket, she wasn’t letting ten quid go to waste. She at least wanted to get her money’s worth with a laugh at how bad it was.

Upon reaching the door, she went to knock but the door slowly swung open. Revealing a tall man in an all-black suit. Matching his long black hair. His face was quite pale, but he had striking features. The smirk that crossed his face was slightly terrifying. But Casey smiled.

‘Welcome, to my Scream house.’ His smirk grew even larger as he put his arms out to the side and motioned for her to come in.

She stepped inside, looking around her. It was more like an abandoned house than a haunted one.

‘So… what’s the deal?’ Casey asked, stopping a few feet from Loki.

‘You know the deal. You bought a ticket for a tour around my Scream house. If you don’t scream, you get a refund. Well, I say tour. It’s more a walk around, I shall not be guiding you. Feel free to check out all the rooms. But do not, and I repeat, do NOT go into the basement. It is off limits.’ He said firmly.

Casey raised an eyebrow. ‘Okayyy…’

‘Enjoy!’ Loki bowed and then suddenly disappeared in a green haze and the door behind her slammed shut, making her jump slightly.

‘Must be on some sort of timer. It’s all just magic tricks.’ She said to herself.

Deciding to get this over with, she went down the corridor and into the first room she came across. It was a normal living room. But as she stepped inside, a web came down over her and a huge mechanical spider came flying out of the wall towards her, before then disappearing back inside. It did make her squeal, so she would give him that one. But it wasn’t a scream.

Fighting the web off, she looked around the room and wandered over to the fire place. There was a large cauldron on the fire, something was bubbling inside. She peeked in and saw some bones in there and a skull floated to the top. She rolled her eyes and moved on to another room.

She found all the rooms to be rather boring. She jumped once or twice, but it was nothing spectacular. Fake mechanical robots as witches and werewolves, vampires and ghouls.

Casey made her way to the last room, but it was just as dull. When she exited it, she was faced with the door that led down to the basement. But it was locked when she tried the handle.

Curiosity took over her though, so she had a quick search for the key. It was in the most obvious of places for hiding a key, on top of the door frame.

‘Typical.’ She huffed as she put it in the lock and turned.

She knew Loki had warned her not to go down there, but it’s like when you see a wet paint sign. You can’t help but touch it to see if it’s actually wet.

It was dark as she made her way down the steps, but once she reached the bottom automatic lights came on. There was another door just a few feet on front of her. There was no lock on it, so she was able to just push it open. But once she stepped inside, before she even had a chance to take in the room, the large door swung shut behind her.

She turned around and tried to open it again, but it was locked. She frantically looked around for a key but there wasn’t even a door handle.

‘What the fuck?’ She panicked, eyes wide. But then she noticed a small screen to the left of the door. She tried pushing on it, and to her relief it came to life.

But her heart sank when she read what it said.

Complete all tasks to unlock the door.

Power wash – not completed

Clean out – not completed

Rope walk – not completed

Stuffed – not completed

‘What the actual fuck?’ She gasped, eyes wide.

That’s when she turned around to see what she was dealing with.

There was a brick wall opposite her, but there was nothing else there. It just seemed like an empty room. But she heard a beeping noise before Loki’s voice filled the room.

‘Naught girl, disobeying my orders.’ But he sounded delighted at the fact. ‘Unfortunately for you, you’ve stumbled into my unfinished play room. You see, I built this for an ex to have some fun in. She enjoyed some challenges. But there were a few… teething issues that I have yet to fix. There is no escaping the room, unless you follow through the entire programme. You need to start by removing all your clothes and going over to the brick wall.’

‘What the hell? Get me out of here! You perv, I’m not doing that!’ Casey stared banging on the door.

‘You can tire yourself out as much as you wish, pet. But until you do as you’re told and complete each task, you will be stuck there. As much as I would like to come and let you out, I can’t. There is no other way. And I did warn you not to enter.’

Casey checked every nook and cranny for a way out, but there was nothing. She tried pressing more buttons on the screen but nothing worked.

Loki watched in amusement from his room, the camera directly at her. It would follow her every movement and she had no idea it was there.

He smirked when he saw she finally gave in. Two hours later. Knowing and accepting there was just one way out.

Casey whined in defeat. She started to remove her clothes, feeling extremely vulnerable. Even more so when she heard his voice again.

‘That’s a good girl. The sooner you get through the tasks, the sooner you will be out of here.’

‘You creep! You’re watching?’ She gasped, trying to hide her breasts.

Loki chuckled. ‘I am. How else am I supposed to make sure you’re safe?’

Casey gritted her teeth but carried on with removing her knickers. She shivered slightly as the floor was stone cold.

‘Now, get over to the wall so we can begin.’ Loki purred.

Casey closed her eyes and tried not to cry. She had to remain calm and composed to get through this. Then as soon as she was out, she was calling the police on his freaky ass for sure. She wasn’t going to let this sick freak get away with it.

She walked hesitantly over to the wall. As soon as she was within two feet of it, holes in the wall suddenly opened up and four mechanical arms came flying out. Before she could react, they grabbed her wrists and ankles, holding her just above the floor in a spread-eagle position. She cried out and tried to struggle, but the arms were too strong.

‘Beautiful. As I said before, I wouldn’t bother trying to fight it, pet. You will only tire yourself out.’

Casey whimpered as she heard another bit on the wall opening up. But she relaxed a tiny bit when she saw it was a shower head. She was super confused.

‘Ah, power wash. The first task for you to endure.’ Loki hummed.

He watched in absolute delight from the comfort of his room. A glass of wine at hand and some grapes. His belt was unbuckled and his zipper open, because he knew it wouldn’t be long before he would need easy access.

Casey’s moment of relaxation was over very quickly. There was a whirring noise and suddenly the shower head started spraying water. But the force was very strong, more than the average shower head.

It hit her stomach first. The water was warm though, which she was glad of. It soaked her entire body first, then focused in on her breasts. But that wasn’t the worst part.

The shower head moved down between her legs and aimed directly up against her cunt. She cried out as the pressure hit her so forcefully, she thought she was going to pass out. It moved in a little closer, making her howl as it then hit her clit. Which she was ashamed to realise was throbbing in pleasure.

Her head flew backwards as she tightened her hands into fists and cried out as she came hard. It wasn’t a nice orgasm though, it was a forced one. So quick, she hadn’t been able to fully enjoy it. To her horror, the shower head remained in place, aiming directly at her sensitive little clit. Forcing her into another painful orgasm.

‘Ooo, so delightful to watch, pet. I think you enjoyed that much more than you are willing to admit.’ He growled.

After twenty minutes, but felt like a life-time to Casey, the shower head stopped and she was lowered to the ground. Her legs were like jelly and she fell to her knees as the mechanical arms were retracted into the wall.

She crawled away from the wall, near the door. Panting and exhausted already. She heard a pinging noise and looked up at the screen by the door.

Complete all tasks to unlock the door.

Power wash – completed

Clean out – not completed

Rope walk – not completed

Stuffed – not completed

‘Well done for completing the first task. I wonder how you will fair with the second.’

Casey took a while to get her breath back. Then Loki coaxed her to go back to the wall for the second one. She dreaded to think what it was going to be.

Her body was still a bit weak, but she managed to get to her feet and walked over to the wall again. The same parts in the wall opened up and the same mechanical arms came out and restrained her in a spread-eagle position once more.

‘This is my favourite task, I must say.’ Loki’s sinful voice said across the speaker, making Casey bite her tongue to refrain from saying anything smart. Considering the position she was in, she knew it was best to keep quiet.

This time, instead of a shower head coming out of the wall, two lubricated tubes came out. What was contained within them Casey had no idea. But she knew she was about to find out pretty soon.

She started whining when the tubes moved down between her legs. One positioned at her pussy, the other at her anus. And they seemed to just hover there for a moment, as if dragging out her expected torture.

Loki smirked and started stroking his cock languidly. He flicked his wrist and moaned as the tubes thrust into both of Casey’s holes.

Casey bit down on her tongue hard to keep herself from screaming as she was violated in both holes. The lube made them slip in easier and the tubes weren’t too wide, but it was still uncomfortable. Especially the one in her anus, she had never put anything up there before.

But it got a lot worse for the poor girl.

Water started shooting into her, from both tubes.

‘Oh no… NO! PLEASE NO! STOP!’ She started crying out, but all she heard was Loki chuckling in return.

The enema in her ass felt so uncomfortable as she was filled with the warm water. It made her feel so heavy and bloated. The douching felt the same, very uncomfortable. The water kept pumping into her from both tubes until she felt like she was going to explode.

Suddenly the tubes popped out of her and she gasped as the water rushed out of her. Giving her such a strange feeling, a rather erotic feeling. But she pushed that thought out of her mind, she wasn’t going to give Loki the satisfaction.

But the tubes were replaced, not just twice but three times. Making sure she was thoroughly cleaned out.

‘Excellent, that’s you sparkling clean. Inside and out.’ Loki chuckled.

He wiped his own cum up with a tissue, he never did last long when watching a clean out.

Casey was once again released from the mechanical arms. She managed to stumble back over towards the door. Looking at the screen when it pinged.

Complete all tasks to unlock the door.

Power wash – completed

Clean out – completed

Rope walk – not completed

Stuffed – not completed

‘Oh god. What the hell is rope walk?’ She asked, looking around the room.

‘You will find out soon enough.’ Loki purred.

Casey just wanted this to be over with now. So she went back over to the wall, wanting it to hurry up. Expecting the same arms to appear, she was surprised when this time it was different.

One large hole opened up and a huge mechanical arm with one clamp came out. It reached straight for her and snapped around her middle, locking her in tightly with her arms trapped down at her sides. She squeaked and tried to kick out as it lifted her up in the air.

The floor then changed and there was a long treadmill appeared beneath her. Then a long rope was pulled from one side of the room to the other, going above the treadmill. But there were many knots along the rope.

‘What the…’ Casey trailed off when she was lowered down onto the rope. She cried out and tried going up on her tiptoes to avoid it. But the rope was just the right height, snugly fitting between her pussy lips and directly on her clit. She was on her tiptoes already and it was painful, so she knew if she let her feet go flat that would be the end of her.

‘I suggest you start walking, pet.’ Loki demanded.

‘Wh… what the hell? No way!’ She cried out, knowing those knots would be painful on her. Hell, even just the rope alone would be.

‘Don’t say I didn’t warn you. You have to reach the other end to complete this task. If you don’t get moving, the treadmill will start. Making it so much more difficult for yourself.’

Loki was hard and throbbing once more. This task was always a delight to watch too, so much fun seeing his victims in pain.

Casey knew he wouldn’t be lying. So to try and get it over with, she started walking forward. But the drag of the rope on her clit burned and was so painful. When she reached the first knot, she struggled. It was quite a large knot and when she tried to pass it, it hit her clit and made her cry out in pain.

‘I can’t do it!’ She cried out, tears spilling down her cheeks.

‘You will be stuck forever on there if you don’t. The tasks don’t stop, another fault I need to fix.’

She soon learned how difficult it could get. The treadmill beneath her started to move very slowly in the opposite direction to where she was wanting to go, so she had no option but to walk. Not only making her tire quicker, but the movement was hurting.

To keep up and get past the knot, she had to walk even quicker on her tiptoes to beat the treadmill. She closed her eyes and took a big deep breath, then just went for it and forced herself to walk forward as quickly and forcefully as possible, getting over the knot with a scream.

Loki was jerking another one off rapidly as he watched her force herself across the rope. Crying and screaming in pain, especially when she came to another knot. But she was getting on far too easily, so to make it difficult and more of a challenge, he spun his finger around.

To Casey’s horror, the treadmill started to speed up a bit more. She couldn’t keep up, and was dragged backwards on the rope. The treadmill forced her back over a few knots, her screams of pain echoed around the room each time.

‘NO, YOU BASTARD!’ She howled loudly.

Loki laughed wickedly as he had another orgasm, making a mess of himself again.

It took three hours, three hours of absolute agony and torture before Casey managed to get across the other side of the rope. She was completely exhausted, broken. Her poor clit was battered and bruised. She was sure there were no nerve endings left.

She had never felt more relieved as she was in that moment when she was lifted from the rope and the treadmill. She collapsed in the middle of the room, unable to move. Her body so tired, she passed out from sheer exhaustion.

-

When she came to four hours later, she sobbed as she realised she was still in that room. It hadn’t been a nightmare.

But there was a tiny glimmer of hope when she looked at the screen.

Complete all tasks to unlock the door.

Power wash – completed

Clean out – completed

Rope walk – completed

Stuffed – not completed

One more to go. She dreaded to think what it was, but surely it wouldn’t be worse than what she had just endured. It couldn’t be.

‘Glad to see you are awake, pet. One more task to go.’

‘Ok… Let’s get it over with.’ She made her way over to the wall.

Again, mechanical arms came out. This time the floor opened up to reveal a large metal table that came up and she was laid upon. The mechanical arms were replaced by leather straps. But her feet were raised up and spread wide apart, her bum just over the edge of the table.

She closed her eyes and waited, while nothing happened. Part of her thought maybe the next machine was broken, whatever it would be. How Loki had made all of these tasks, she had no idea. He must be some evil genius or something.

Fear ran through her veins when she heard heavy footsteps walking towards her. She looked down, but her head was quickly forced back down when a large strap came up from the table and wrapped around her neck, holding her down.

She was trembling badly when Loki approached her between her legs. She was startled when she felt his cool hands stroke her thighs. She could just see Loki in her view, looming over her.

‘Well, well, well. Ready for the final task, are we?’ He grinned.

‘I… I thought you couldn’t get in?’ She whimpered.

Loki chuckled and leaned down, biting into her inner thigh that made her cry out. ‘I am the god of lies, pet. And I can get in wherever I want to. Including your lovely body that has been prepared so nicely for me and my friend.’

That made her eyes widen. His friend? What?

She wasn’t left wondering for long. Another being walked over to her, but she was shocked and confused to see it was another Loki.

‘What… What the heck is going on?’

‘Shhh. Just enjoy the last ride. I know I certainly will.’ He said wickedly as he then prised her bum cheeks wide apart, revealing her puckered asshole to him. Without any warning or preparation, he rammed his cock into her, making her scream.

‘Ohh and look at that. You’ve screamed. Not for the first time either.’ He laughed as he started thrusting into her.

The second Loki walked up to her head, he stroked her cheek softly at first. Then he waved his hand over the table and had part of it disappear so her head was over the edge. He moved in and pinched her nose, forcing her mouth to open. He then forced his cock into her mouth and down her throat as far as he could, releasing her nose so she could breathe through that instead. She had no option but to do so.

The original Loki that was plundering her ass, had a large dildo form in his hand. It was a clone of his own cock. He winked at her, his hips still moving at a ruthless pace, and he pressed the dildo into her. Moving it in time with his own thrusting in her ass.

Casey was sobbing around the cock in her mouth, drooling everywhere. She couldn’t take it, feeling so full from being filled in every hole.

But what made her feel worse, was she was starting to enjoy it. Her body was starting to respond well to the violation, no matter how much she cried.

From the width of the dildo in her pussy, it was rubbing against her clit with each and every thrust. At least the nerves weren’t completely damaged, she thought. That was a plus. She just had to keep calm and ride this out, then she would be free.

Loki grunted and groaned above her, both of them did. And Casey moaned around his cock as she came, squeezing the dildo in her pussy. Loki could feel that too. He thrust into her once more, both of them did. Then he came, in every hole. Even the dildo came too, how that happened she had no idea.

But she started to feel really full again, like she had with the clean out task. But at least this time she felt fluttery and high, having came too. And at the relief of knowing it was finally over…

‘Ohhhhh now, pet. That was so much fun, I must say.’ Loki chuckled. The dildo and second Loki vanished right on front of her eyes.

Casey still had no idea how he did that. But she knew it must’ve been trickery of some sorts.

The ping from the screen made her turn her head to take a look.

Complete all tasks to unlock the door.

Power wash – completed

Clean out – completed

Rope walk – completed

Stuffed – completed

She almost cried in relief when the door swung open.

Loki stepped back and watched as she slid off the table when the restraints let her go. She was like a baby deer taking her first steps as she rushed towards the door, grabbing her clothes on the way. Loki’s cum was leaking down her thighs and she still had plenty dribbling down her chin.

Without looking back, she stumbled up the steps and down the corridor towards the front door. It was open and she was about there when it slammed shut and Loki smoothly slid into her view on front of her. Fully clothed in his suit, not looking ruffled up at all.

‘Well, did you enjoy my Scream house?’ He smirked, folding his arms over his chest.

‘No! It was disgusting!’ She snarled at him, using her clothes to shield herself as best she could. She hadn’t even put them on yet, she just wanted out of there.

Loki chuckled, his eyes were twinkling mischievously. ‘You screamed. So no refund.’

‘Stuff your refund!’ She snapped and pushed past him, hauling the door open.

‘Oh I know. But it means I win and get my reward for you screaming.’

She paused with a foot out the door. She looked over her shoulder, shaking slightly. ‘What?’

Loki raised his eyebrows as he put his hands behind his back, looking innocent. ‘Oh dear. Did you not read the small print before accepting the terms and conditions when you booked your ticket?’

The look on her face told him that answer.

‘I suggest you take a look, pet. Before you do anything stupid.’

Casey ran out of the house and down the hill to safety. Once she was sure she was far enough away from that mad man, she stopped and put on her clothes. She pulled her phone out and was about to dial for the police, when she decided for some reason to quickly check her email confirmation.

She almost puked when she read what she had actually agreed to.

If you don’t scream in my Scream house, you get a full refund. However, if you scream, you waive all rights to contacting the police for anything that goes on within my house. You also agree to return to me every Halloween. Or I reserve the rights to come after you for a breach of terms and conditions.

Happy spooking!

[imagine-loki]

Loki's Scream House (READ THE WARNINGS) trigger warning- Rape

TITLE: Loki’s Scream House CHAPTER NO./ONE SHOT: One shot AUTHOR: fanficshiddles ORIGINAL IMAGINE: Imagine going to ‘Loki’s Scream house’ on Halloween RATING: M NOTES: Very late Halloween one shot! 

WARNINGS: Rape/Non-con, forced orgasms, trapping, douching, enema, pain play, Loki’s a sadist! 

Casey was so annoyed that her friends had all bailed on her. On Halloween, no less.

They said they’d heard rumours about Loki’s Scream house being far too scary, so had cancelled on her. Instead deciding to go to a party instead.

‘Bunch of chickens.’ Casey muttered as she made her way up the hill to where the Scream house sat. She would go to this haunted house and then turn up at the party, telling them all about her scary experience.

She snorted to herself at the thought. How scary could a haunted house be? Apparently this one was aptly named and would make her scream. But she doubted that.

As she got closer, she could indeed hear screaming from inside. But she was almost certain it was fake, she didn’t see any cars around. She doubted there was even anyone else inside. But since she had already bought a ticket, she wasn’t letting ten quid go to waste. She at least wanted to get her money’s worth with a laugh at how bad it was.

Upon reaching the door, she went to knock but the door slowly swung open. Revealing a tall man in an all-black suit. Matching his long black hair. His face was quite pale, but he had striking features. The smirk that crossed his face was slightly terrifying. But Casey smiled.

‘Welcome, to my Scream house.’ His smirk grew even larger as he put his arms out to the side and motioned for her to come in.

She stepped inside, looking around her. It was more like an abandoned house than a haunted one.

‘So… what’s the deal?’ Casey asked, stopping a few feet from Loki.

‘You know the deal. You bought a ticket for a tour around my Scream house. If you don’t scream, you get a refund. Well, I say tour. It’s more a walk around, I shall not be guiding you. Feel free to check out all the rooms. But do not, and I repeat, do NOT go into the basement. It is off limits.’ He said firmly.

Casey raised an eyebrow. ‘Okayyy…’

‘Enjoy!’ Loki bowed and then suddenly disappeared in a green haze and the door behind her slammed shut, making her jump slightly.

‘Must be on some sort of timer. It’s all just magic tricks.’ She said to herself.

Deciding to get this over with, she went down the corridor and into the first room she came across. It was a normal living room. But as she stepped inside, a web came down over her and a huge mechanical spider came flying out of the wall towards her, before then disappearing back inside. It did make her squeal, so she would give him that one. But it wasn’t a scream.

Fighting the web off, she looked around the room and wandered over to the fire place. There was a large cauldron on the fire, something was bubbling inside. She peeked in and saw some bones in there and a skull floated to the top. She rolled her eyes and moved on to another room.

She found all the rooms to be rather boring. She jumped once or twice, but it was nothing spectacular. Fake mechanical robots as witches and werewolves, vampires and ghouls.

Casey made her way to the last room, but it was just as dull. When she exited it, she was faced with the door that led down to the basement. But it was locked when she tried the handle.

Curiosity took over her though, so she had a quick search for the key. It was in the most obvious of places for hiding a key, on top of the door frame.

‘Typical.’ She huffed as she put it in the lock and turned.

She knew Loki had warned her not to go down there, but it’s like when you see a wet paint sign. You can’t help but touch it to see if it’s actually wet.

It was dark as she made her way down the steps, but once she reached the bottom automatic lights came on. There was another door just a few feet on front of her. There was no lock on it, so she was able to just push it open. But once she stepped inside, before she even had a chance to take in the room, the large door swung shut behind her.

She turned around and tried to open it again, but it was locked. She frantically looked around for a key but there wasn’t even a door handle.

‘What the fuck?’ She panicked, eyes wide. But then she noticed a small screen to the left of the door. She tried pushing on it, and to her relief it came to life.

But her heart sank when she read what it said.

Complete all tasks to unlock the door.

Power wash – not completed

Clean out – not completed

Rope walk – not completed

Stuffed – not completed

‘What the actual fuck?’ She gasped, eyes wide.

That’s when she turned around to see what she was dealing with.

There was a brick wall opposite her, but there was nothing else there. It just seemed like an empty room. But she heard a beeping noise before Loki’s voice filled the room.

‘Naught girl, disobeying my orders.’ But he sounded delighted at the fact. ‘Unfortunately for you, you’ve stumbled into my unfinished play room. You see, I built this for an ex to have some fun in. She enjoyed some challenges. But there were a few… teething issues that I have yet to fix. There is no escaping the room, unless you follow through the entire programme. You need to start by removing all your clothes and going over to the brick wall.’

‘What the hell? Get me out of here! You perv, I’m not doing that!’ Casey stared banging on the door.

‘You can tire yourself out as much as you wish, pet. But until you do as you’re told and complete each task, you will be stuck there. As much as I would like to come and let you out, I can’t. There is no other way. And I did warn you not to enter.’

Casey checked every nook and cranny for a way out, but there was nothing. She tried pressing more buttons on the screen but nothing worked.

Loki watched in amusement from his room, the camera directly at her. It would follow her every movement and she had no idea it was there.

He smirked when he saw she finally gave in. Two hours later. Knowing and accepting there was just one way out.

Casey whined in defeat. She started to remove her clothes, feeling extremely vulnerable. Even more so when she heard his voice again.

‘That’s a good girl. The sooner you get through the tasks, the sooner you will be out of here.’

‘You creep! You’re watching?’ She gasped, trying to hide her breasts.

Loki chuckled. ‘I am. How else am I supposed to make sure you’re safe?’

Casey gritted her teeth but carried on with removing her knickers. She shivered slightly as the floor was stone cold.

‘Now, get over to the wall so we can begin.’ Loki purred.

Casey closed her eyes and tried not to cry. She had to remain calm and composed to get through this. Then as soon as she was out, she was calling the police on his freaky ass for sure. She wasn’t going to let this sick freak get away with it.

She walked hesitantly over to the wall. As soon as she was within two feet of it, holes in the wall suddenly opened up and four mechanical arms came flying out. Before she could react, they grabbed her wrists and ankles, holding her just above the floor in a spread-eagle position. She cried out and tried to struggle, but the arms were too strong.

‘Beautiful. As I said before, I wouldn’t bother trying to fight it, pet. You will only tire yourself out.’

Casey whimpered as she heard another bit on the wall opening up. But she relaxed a tiny bit when she saw it was a shower head. She was super confused.

‘Ah, power wash. The first task for you to endure.’ Loki hummed.

He watched in absolute delight from the comfort of his room. A glass of wine at hand and some grapes. His belt was unbuckled and his zipper open, because he knew it wouldn’t be long before he would need easy access.

Casey’s moment of relaxation was over very quickly. There was a whirring noise and suddenly the shower head started spraying water. But the force was very strong, more than the average shower head.

It hit her stomach first. The water was warm though, which she was glad of. It soaked her entire body first, then focused in on her breasts. But that wasn’t the worst part.

The shower head moved down between her legs and aimed directly up against her cunt. She cried out as the pressure hit her so forcefully, she thought she was going to pass out. It moved in a little closer, making her howl as it then hit her clit. Which she was ashamed to realise was throbbing in pleasure.

Her head flew backwards as she tightened her hands into fists and cried out as she came hard. It wasn’t a nice orgasm though, it was a forced one. So quick, she hadn’t been able to fully enjoy it. To her horror, the shower head remained in place, aiming directly at her sensitive little clit. Forcing her into another painful orgasm.

‘Ooo, so delightful to watch, pet. I think you enjoyed that much more than you are willing to admit.’ He growled.

After twenty minutes, but felt like a life-time to Casey, the shower head stopped and she was lowered to the ground. Her legs were like jelly and she fell to her knees as the mechanical arms were retracted into the wall.

She crawled away from the wall, near the door. Panting and exhausted already. She heard a pinging noise and looked up at the screen by the door.

Complete all tasks to unlock the door.

Power wash – completed

Clean out – not completed

Rope walk – not completed

Stuffed – not completed

‘Well done for completing the first task. I wonder how you will fair with the second.’

Casey took a while to get her breath back. Then Loki coaxed her to go back to the wall for the second one. She dreaded to think what it was going to be.

Her body was still a bit weak, but she managed to get to her feet and walked over to the wall again. The same parts in the wall opened up and the same mechanical arms came out and restrained her in a spread-eagle position once more.

‘This is my favourite task, I must say.’ Loki’s sinful voice said across the speaker, making Casey bite her tongue to refrain from saying anything smart. Considering the position she was in, she knew it was best to keep quiet.

This time, instead of a shower head coming out of the wall, two lubricated tubes came out. What was contained within them Casey had no idea. But she knew she was about to find out pretty soon.

She started whining when the tubes moved down between her legs. One positioned at her pussy, the other at her anus. And they seemed to just hover there for a moment, as if dragging out her expected torture.

Loki smirked and started stroking his cock languidly. He flicked his wrist and moaned as the tubes thrust into both of Casey’s holes.

Casey bit down on her tongue hard to keep herself from screaming as she was violated in both holes. The lube made them slip in easier and the tubes weren’t too wide, but it was still uncomfortable. Especially the one in her anus, she had never put anything up there before.

But it got a lot worse for the poor girl.

Water started shooting into her, from both tubes.

‘Oh no… NO! PLEASE NO! STOP!’ She started crying out, but all she heard was Loki chuckling in return.

The enema in her ass felt so uncomfortable as she was filled with the warm water. It made her feel so heavy and bloated. The douching felt the same, very uncomfortable. The water kept pumping into her from both tubes until she felt like she was going to explode.

Suddenly the tubes popped out of her and she gasped as the water rushed out of her. Giving her such a strange feeling, a rather erotic feeling. But she pushed that thought out of her mind, she wasn’t going to give Loki the satisfaction.

But the tubes were replaced, not just twice but three times. Making sure she was thoroughly cleaned out.

‘Excellent, that’s you sparkling clean. Inside and out.’ Loki chuckled.

He wiped his own cum up with a tissue, he never did last long when watching a clean out.

Casey was once again released from the mechanical arms. She managed to stumble back over towards the door. Looking at the screen when it pinged.

Complete all tasks to unlock the door.

Power wash – completed

Clean out – completed

Rope walk – not completed

Stuffed – not completed

‘Oh god. What the hell is rope walk?’ She asked, looking around the room.

‘You will find out soon enough.’ Loki purred.

Casey just wanted this to be over with now. So she went back over to the wall, wanting it to hurry up. Expecting the same arms to appear, she was surprised when this time it was different.

One large hole opened up and a huge mechanical arm with one clamp came out. It reached straight for her and snapped around her middle, locking her in tightly with her arms trapped down at her sides. She squeaked and tried to kick out as it lifted her up in the air.

The floor then changed and there was a long treadmill appeared beneath her. Then a long rope was pulled from one side of the room to the other, going above the treadmill. But there were many knots along the rope.

‘What the…’ Casey trailed off when she was lowered down onto the rope. She cried out and tried going up on her tiptoes to avoid it. But the rope was just the right height, snugly fitting between her pussy lips and directly on her clit. She was on her tiptoes already and it was painful, so she knew if she let her feet go flat that would be the end of her.

‘I suggest you start walking, pet.’ Loki demanded.

‘Wh… what the hell? No way!’ She cried out, knowing those knots would be painful on her. Hell, even just the rope alone would be.

‘Don’t say I didn’t warn you. You have to reach the other end to complete this task. If you don’t get moving, the treadmill will start. Making it so much more difficult for yourself.’

Loki was hard and throbbing once more. This task was always a delight to watch too, so much fun seeing his victims in pain.

Casey knew he wouldn’t be lying. So to try and get it over with, she started walking forward. But the drag of the rope on her clit burned and was so painful. When she reached the first knot, she struggled. It was quite a large knot and when she tried to pass it, it hit her clit and made her cry out in pain.

‘I can’t do it!’ She cried out, tears spilling down her cheeks.

‘You will be stuck forever on there if you don’t. The tasks don’t stop, another fault I need to fix.’

She soon learned how difficult it could get. The treadmill beneath her started to move very slowly in the opposite direction to where she was wanting to go, so she had no option but to walk. Not only making her tire quicker, but the movement was hurting.

To keep up and get past the knot, she had to walk even quicker on her tiptoes to beat the treadmill. She closed her eyes and took a big deep breath, then just went for it and forced herself to walk forward as quickly and forcefully as possible, getting over the knot with a scream.

Loki was jerking another one off rapidly as he watched her force herself across the rope. Crying and screaming in pain, especially when she came to another knot. But she was getting on far too easily, so to make it difficult and more of a challenge, he spun his finger around.

To Casey’s horror, the treadmill started to speed up a bit more. She couldn’t keep up, and was dragged backwards on the rope. The treadmill forced her back over a few knots, her screams of pain echoed around the room each time.

‘NO, YOU BASTARD!’ She howled loudly.

Loki laughed wickedly as he had another orgasm, making a mess of himself again.

It took three hours, three hours of absolute agony and torture before Casey managed to get across the other side of the rope. She was completely exhausted, broken. Her poor clit was battered and bruised. She was sure there were no nerve endings left.

She had never felt more relieved as she was in that moment when she was lifted from the rope and the treadmill. She collapsed in the middle of the room, unable to move. Her body so tired, she passed out from sheer exhaustion.

-

When she came to four hours later, she sobbed as she realised she was still in that room. It hadn’t been a nightmare.

But there was a tiny glimmer of hope when she looked at the screen.

Complete all tasks to unlock the door.

Power wash – completed

Clean out – completed

Rope walk – completed

Stuffed – not completed

One more to go. She dreaded to think what it was, but surely it wouldn’t be worse than what she had just endured. It couldn’t be.

‘Glad to see you are awake, pet. One more task to go.’

‘Ok… Let’s get it over with.’ She made her way over to the wall.

Again, mechanical arms came out. This time the floor opened up to reveal a large metal table that came up and she was laid upon. The mechanical arms were replaced by leather straps. But her feet were raised up and spread wide apart, her bum just over the edge of the table.

She closed her eyes and waited, while nothing happened. Part of her thought maybe the next machine was broken, whatever it would be. How Loki had made all of these tasks, she had no idea. He must be some evil genius or something.

Fear ran through her veins when she heard heavy footsteps walking towards her. She looked down, but her head was quickly forced back down when a large strap came up from the table and wrapped around her neck, holding her down.

She was trembling badly when Loki approached her between her legs. She was startled when she felt his cool hands stroke her thighs. She could just see Loki in her view, looming over her.

‘Well, well, well. Ready for the final task, are we?’ He grinned.

‘I… I thought you couldn’t get in?’ She whimpered.

Loki chuckled and leaned down, biting into her inner thigh that made her cry out. ‘I am the god of lies, pet. And I can get in wherever I want to. Including your lovely body that has been prepared so nicely for me and my friend.’

That made her eyes widen. His friend? What?

She wasn’t left wondering for long. Another being walked over to her, but she was shocked and confused to see it was another Loki.

‘What… What the heck is going on?’

‘Shhh. Just enjoy the last ride. I know I certainly will.’ He said wickedly as he then prised her bum cheeks wide apart, revealing her puckered asshole to him. Without any warning or preparation, he rammed his cock into her, making her scream.

‘Ohh and look at that. You’ve screamed. Not for the first time either.’ He laughed as he started thrusting into her.

The second Loki walked up to her head, he stroked her cheek softly at first. Then he waved his hand over the table and had part of it disappear so her head was over the edge. He moved in and pinched her nose, forcing her mouth to open. He then forced his cock into her mouth and down her throat as far as he could, releasing her nose so she could breathe through that instead. She had no option but to do so.

The original Loki that was plundering her ass, had a large dildo form in his hand. It was a clone of his own cock. He winked at her, his hips still moving at a ruthless pace, and he pressed the dildo into her. Moving it in time with his own thrusting in her ass.

Casey was sobbing around the cock in her mouth, drooling everywhere. She couldn’t take it, feeling so full from being filled in every hole.

But what made her feel worse, was she was starting to enjoy it. Her body was starting to respond well to the violation, no matter how much she cried.

From the width of the dildo in her pussy, it was rubbing against her clit with each and every thrust. At least the nerves weren’t completely damaged, she thought. That was a plus. She just had to keep calm and ride this out, then she would be free.

Loki grunted and groaned above her, both of them did. And Casey moaned around his cock as she came, squeezing the dildo in her pussy. Loki could feel that too. He thrust into her once more, both of them did. Then he came, in every hole. Even the dildo came too, how that happened she had no idea.

But she started to feel really full again, like she had with the clean out task. But at least this time she felt fluttery and high, having came too. And at the relief of knowing it was finally over…

‘Ohhhhh now, pet. That was so much fun, I must say.’ Loki chuckled. The dildo and second Loki vanished right on front of her eyes.

Casey still had no idea how he did that. But she knew it must’ve been trickery of some sorts.

The ping from the screen made her turn her head to take a look.

Complete all tasks to unlock the door.

Power wash – completed

Clean out – completed

Rope walk – completed

Stuffed – completed

She almost cried in relief when the door swung open.

Loki stepped back and watched as she slid off the table when the restraints let her go. She was like a baby deer taking her first steps as she rushed towards the door, grabbing her clothes on the way. Loki’s cum was leaking down her thighs and she still had plenty dribbling down her chin.

Without looking back, she stumbled up the steps and down the corridor towards the front door. It was open and she was about there when it slammed shut and Loki smoothly slid into her view on front of her. Fully clothed in his suit, not looking ruffled up at all.

‘Well, did you enjoy my Scream house?’ He smirked, folding his arms over his chest.

‘No! It was disgusting!’ She snarled at him, using her clothes to shield herself as best she could. She hadn’t even put them on yet, she just wanted out of there.

Loki chuckled, his eyes were twinkling mischievously. ‘You screamed. So no refund.’

‘Stuff your refund!’ She snapped and pushed past him, hauling the door open.

‘Oh I know. But it means I win and get my reward for you screaming.’

She paused with a foot out the door. She looked over her shoulder, shaking slightly. ‘What?’

Loki raised his eyebrows as he put his hands behind his back, looking innocent. ‘Oh dear. Did you not read the small print before accepting the terms and conditions when you booked your ticket?’

The look on her face told him that answer.

‘I suggest you take a look, pet. Before you do anything stupid.’

Casey ran out of the house and down the hill to safety. Once she was sure she was far enough away from that mad man, she stopped and put on her clothes. She pulled her phone out and was about to dial for the police, when she decided for some reason to quickly check her email confirmation.

She almost puked when she read what she had actually agreed to.

If you don’t scream in my Scream house, you get a full refund. However, if you scream, you waive all rights to contacting the police for anything that goes on within my house. You also agree to return to me every Halloween. Or I reserve the rights to come after you for a breach of terms and conditions.

Happy spooking!

[zabdidaddi]

zabdiel de jesús - de verdad

A/N: hey yall, this is my submission for @papichriscnco ’s writing challenge!! this sweet girl just hit 2.4k followers on tumblr and no one deserves it more :)) also i thought of that tweet that zabdiel posted a while ago so that kinda served as some inspiration for this fic (and maybe some real life experiences as well whoops)

prompt: “I’m sorry for bothering you”

warnings: FLUFF

word count: 1.4k

You cast a glance at Zabdiel as he stares at the TV screen with a tired frown on his face. For the past hour or so, you and the boys had been watching a horror movie in Richard’s hotel room, but Zabdiel’s mind seems to be elsewhere.

Suddenly, you feel a hand on your shoulder as Erick yells, “BOO!” Letting out a yelp, you lean away from him instinctively and crash into Zabdiel. Erick bursts out laughing at your reaction, but Zabdiel, on the other hand, doesn’t seem too amused.

“Que estás haciendo?” He snaps at Erick crankily. Erick quickly turns his attention back to the screen, mumbling an apology. Turning to you, Zabdiel quietly asks ,“You okay?” to which you respond with a nod. Your heart skips a beat as he wraps an arm around your shoulder to pull you away from Erick and closer to him. Having been friends with the boys for years, you’re pretty close to all of them, especially Zabdiel; you’ve liked him for a while but too scared to tell him.

“You?” you ask tentatively. He nods as well, but you can sense that something’s off about him. You decide not to push it for now, though. For the remainder of the movie, you just sit there with Zabdiel’s arm around you as he falls asleep. Meanwhile, you continue to watch the screen in terror and will yourself not to scream so as not to wake the sleeping boy next to you.

When the movie finally ends, the illuminated screen flickers off, leaving the six of you in near-total darkness. Your heart hammers so loudly in your chest you’re nearly certain the other boys can hear it. But when you glance around at their faces in the dimness, you can tell that they’re probably just as scared. The only person who doesn’t seem affected at all is Zabdiel who is still sleeping.

“Shows over Zabdi,” Joel says from his other side, nudging him. “Wake up.” Zabdiel merely grunts in response, but reluctantly gets to his feet when you untangle yourself from him.  As everyone except Richard walks back, you slow down a little to walk next to Zabdiel. He gives you a small smile and wraps an arm around your shoulder as the five of you are walking. You press your body against his side, the movie seeming less scary than it was a few seconds ago.

Unfortunately, Zabdiel gets to his room first and he mutters a quick “Goodnight” to everyone as he gives you a brief hug before slipping inside.

Suddenly, with the absence of Zabdiel’s arm around you, the dark shadows in the hall seem to become more pronounced. Shivering, you wrap your arms around yourself and shuffle forward quickly to get to your room. You bid the other boys goodnight as well then unlock your door and dart inside before closing the door. Kicking your shoes off, you quickly turn the lights off then throw yourself onto your bed and crawl under the sheets. For a few moments, you just lay there with your eyes squeezed shut. You try to calm your racing heart down, but your imagination is running way too wild for that. After twenty long minutes, you bolt upright and decide that you can’t stay in your room any longer. Without quite knowing what you’re doing, you slide off your bed and out your door. Somehow, you find yourself in front of Zabdiel’s door and knock on it a few times. To your surprise, it swings open a few seconds later to reveal Zabdiel blearily rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. When he sees you standing at his door, he freezes for a split second.

“(Y/N)?” He asks, stifling a yawn. “Que pasa?”

“I just…” You trail off, not knowing how to explain to Zabdiel that the movie is still haunting you and you specifically want his company. In the end, you mutter, “I’m scared.”

Without saying anything, he pulls you towards him for a hug, then guides you to his bed. “You want to stay here tonight?” He asks you gently, still keeping an arm around your shoulder. You nod silently, already embarrassed enough that you can’t sleep on your own. He gestures for you to lie down on his bed and you move to the other side of it before doing so. He stands up to turn the light off and you feel the bed dip a little when he lies down beside you.

For a moment, neither of you say anything. Then, you ask, “Are you sure you’re okay Zabdi?”

He doesn’t reply for a while, then says, “Sí, pero I’m just a bit stressed. And tired.”
 “Stressed?” you ask, turning your head towards him in the darkness. “About what?”

“No sé,” he sighs. Something in his voice makes your heart ache, and you reach out to brush your fingers against his. Then, he grasps your hand gently in his and says, “Está bien, nena.” Your heart flutters at his little nickname, but that feeling only lasts for a moment before the sudden thud of something falling on the floor makes your heart leap in terror. You retract your hand from Zabdiel’s and curl up into a ball with your hands pressed against your ears. A moment later, you feel his hands gently prying yours away from your head. “Was the movie that scary?” He asks with a slight chuckle, still holding onto your hands. When you don’t respond, he wraps an arm around your waist to pull you closer to him. The terror that had gripped you gradually ebbs away as Zabdiel rubs circles on your back, calming you down.

“I’m sorry for bothering you,” you mutter after a while. His hand stops in the middle of your back in surprise.

“What are you saying?” Zabdiel asks in confusion.

“I mean… it’s late and I literally just barged into your room,” you state the obvious with a shrug. “Sorry Zabdi.” He lets out a little sound that sounds like “ahh” and your eyes have adjusted to the darkness just enough to see the smile on his face. Then, it slowly disappears, and you hear him let out a small sigh.

“(Y/N),” he starts slowly, his fingers toying with the hem of your shirt. “You’re my best friend.”

“I know,” you reply with a small frown, the word “friend” making you feel a little disappointed for some reason. But you know that that’s what all the boys have ever seen you as - their best friend. He doesn’t say anything for a few minutes, and you’re starting to think that he’s fallen asleep when he starts to speak again.

“I don’t know how to say this,” he sighs, then mumbles something in Spanish and groans.

“Zabdi?” you say uncertainly, not quite knowing where this is going. “You okay?”

“Te amo,” he blurts out. “Te fucking amo.”

“Huh?” you whisper in a croak. What did he just say? Suddenly, you can’t think and your heart is beating a hundred miles an hour, your throat is dry, you feel like you can’t breathe, and —

“I wasn’t stressed,” Zabdiel says quietly. “I just wanted to tell you a long time ago but I didn’t know how. And… I’ve never said that to anyone before.”

You gulp when you realize that he’s probably telling the truth; never in a million years would you have thought that Zabdiel of all people would be the one to confess their love to you, especially when he always tells everyone he’s never been in love before. Zabdiel himself never thought those words would ever leave his lips either, but here he is, feeling more vulnerable than he’s ever felt in his entire life. 
“Well,” you begin, taking a deep breath. Before you can stop yourself, you tell him, “Tambien te amo.”

“De verdad?” he breathes, as if not daring to believe it. 

“De verdad verdad,” you giggle, the sound of your laughter making Zabdiel’s heart melt. He reaches out to brush his fingers against your cheek.

“You still scared?” he asks with a grin. The movie had faded to the back of your mind, but you can’t help but feel a little twinge of fear when he mentions it.

“Thanks for reminding me,” you mutter, eliciting a quiet chuckle from him.

“It’s okay, I’ll protect you,” he says, wrapping his arms around you even tighter. You raise an eyebrow dubiously, not sure if he can even see your face clearly, but he laughs again. Then, he places his lips on your forehead and whispers, “De verdad, nena.”

[drabblesaf]

Watermelon Sugar - Mieczysław Stilinski Imagine

REQUESTED: No, but I haven’t written for a while and I wanted to get back into it - and what better way to do so than combine two of my faves?

WARNINGS: Mentions of smut (implied), alcohol (they’re about 19/20 in this one - don’t drink underage kids!)

SUMMARY: After a one night stand with Stiles turns into many one night stands in a row, you begin to question your relationship with Stiles, and the euphoric high he puts you on.

NOTES: Whoaaaa, she’s back!

Yes, finally I’ve gained the motivation to write again, after being back at uni for about 4 months or so. Semester 1 of my second year has absolutely flown by, but I still missed Stiles throughout all of that.

Also, Harry Styles released new music, and I got inspired by that! (As well as a scenario that legitimately happened while I was at uni - we love drawing on IRL experiences for our writing! <3)

Anyways, thank you guys for sticking with me even though I haven’t been writing any new content for a while, I love getting notifications from you all still about new likes and reblogs on my stories! Hope you enjoy this one <3

Tastes like strawberries on a summer evenin' And it sounds just like a song I want more berries and that summer feelin' It's so wonderful and warm

His lips on mine, heavy breathing. This had become standard practice for me and Stiles at any event we’d go to together with our friends, which would usually end up at a local club as we had grown up and started attending college. The first time was completely unexpected, happening just as we were drunkenly walking home together. His lips tasted like the whiskey he had been consuming that evening, and his honey brown eyes fought to remain locked on mine as we got to my door, him steadying my hand as I unlock my door.

“God, you’re so fucking hot,” he exhaled, lips smashing into my own once more as soon as the door was open.

“Says you, deciding to make out with me completely out of the blue Stilinski. Fuck, didn’t realise you ever wanted me in that way,” I mumbled as he pinned me back to my door, kissing me passionately as he did so.

We broke apart momentarily, and he moved some hair out of my face, looking at me softly before he said, “Mind if I stay the night?”

Breathe me in, breathe me out I don't know if I could ever go without I'm just thinking out loud I don't know if I could ever go without

That was a few months ago, and only a month or so after we’d met for the first time. We’d spent a couple of nights together as students usually tend to do when they’ve had something to drink…or rather, a few too many to drink. Somehow though, when in lectures together, we would never act as though we were secretly fucking behind everyone’s backs.

And it continued on like that up until the summertime, just before we all broke up for the summer holidays. One night, Stiles and I had just finished one of our sessions, and were laying in bed together, him running his fingers through my hair as I traced lazy circles on his forearms. “What are we doing, (Y/N)?” He asked quietly, and I shifted in the bed to look up at him.

“I mean, right now we’re sat in bed together after an amazing session,” I smirked, and he chuckled, shaking his head. “I don’t know, and I was thinking we’d never get to that point in all honesty Stiles.”

“Why not?”

“I just…I don’t know. Something just scares me on the inside and I don’t know if I can bring myself to talk about it just yet.” He nodded, and pressed his lips to my forehead. 

“Well, just know that whenever you do want to talk about it all, I’ll be right here, listening.” And with that, we both settled again, falling asleep on each other and waking up to another day of not talking about that moment.

Strawberries on a summer evenin' Baby, you're the end of June I want your belly and that summer feelin' Getting washed away in you

The next evening was a night where none of us were planning on doing anything besides a chilled film night together. For some reason though, after the night before, I felt butterflies at the slightest thought of seeing Stiles again. It wasn’t like him and I had done anything besides have sex for the past few months, but then the minute he called our relationship into question, there was a shift in my emotions.

Suddenly, everything seemed to revolve around him. I couldn’t properly be near him without thoughts playing on my mind of what it would be like to just be with him, as a proper couple. Stiles and (Y/N), out in public as an actual couple, not hidden away from prying eyes. Maybe I could discuss it all with him at the movie night, if we could even get the chance to find ourselves alone together. 

There was something about him that drew me into him, washing me away with the tides of the ocean as soon as he left me - leaving me clean, but lost within the depths of my own emotions. It kept me up at night sometimes, when I wasn’t with him I just needed something, something that I didn’t realise I truly needed until he said those fateful words last night.

“What are we doing?” I didn’t know about what he was doing, but for me I was slowly growing more and more in need of something - anything - remotely affectionate from the guy, and it seemed like the movie was that opportunity to get what I wanted.

Sitting together as the movie played (a scary one, nonetheless) I felt his hand grip mine as if to comfort me in some way. Whether or not he realised he was doing it was another matter, and it wasn’t until the big bad truly leapt onto the screen that I tested this theory of conscious decision making, burying my head into his shoulder to hide from the screams that erupted on screen. Almost instinctively, his hand flew up to my back to rub comforting circles into it, and I felt his lips pressed against the top of my head.

We stayed like that for at least 5 minutes, before I looked up at him once more. Fuck it.

I just wanna taste it, I just wanna taste it Watermelon sugar high

My lips pressed against his, I did the one impulsive thing I never thought I would be finding myself doing in front of anyone, let alone my friends who didn’t even know we’d been together at all. Initially, he froze up, then he moved his hands to pull me closer into him, continuing on the kiss with a slight smile against my lips as he did so. This made me smile too into the kiss, which tasted like the strawberry and watermelon gummy sweets he’d been consuming during the movie session.

We broke away, slightly out of breath, and our eyes met, golden brown and (Y/E/C) in the flickering light of the television screen. Or at least, normally it would be flickering, except the movie had been paused and wolf whistles were replacing the dialogue.

“Wanna know what we’re doing, Stiles?” I smiled, and he grinned back.

“Hopefully making it official with each other and all our friends after that?” 

“Thought you’d never ask.”

[sareyen]

Let Me Whisper In Your Ear, Darling (Cherik)

Read on ao3

Basically, Erik is an angry, horny college student who discovers audio porn made by one ProfessorXXX and becomes his #1 fan.

Erik was sitting in the library glaring at the screen of his old and beaten laptop, absent-mindedly twisting a paper clip hovering over the palm of his open hand. He had read and re-read his assignment ten times already, and he was still wondering why Professor Shaw had marked him down by eight marks.

Erik knew that his paper on mutant disadvantage in the female workforce had been good - good enough that he was sure that he shouldn’t have been docked eight marks. His asshole of a professor hadn’t even told him why he had been marked down, merely giving him a 42/50 and calling it a day.

“Sugar, glaring at your computer isn’t going to get Shaw to change your grade,” Emma said as she chewed on her spearmint gum behind her cool smile. Erik didn’t stop staring at his paper, flipping his friend off as he mouthed out the concluding sentences of his paper, still no closer to finding out ‘why the hell Shaw marked me down eight marks’.

“He’s a misogynistic piece of shit, Emma,” Erik gritted out, his friend letting out an amused huff, manicured nails clacking on her own computer.

“Not really. He gave me a pretty decent mark on my essay on the female mutant experience,” Emma said, flicking her immaculately curled blonde hair behind her shoulder, Erik finally peeling his eyes from his laptop to give her a seething look.

“That’s because he’s a misogynistic pervert who’s trying to pull sexual favours out of you by meddling with your grades,” Erik countered, Emma laughing.

“Oh, Sugar. You know he’d never try, not when I could just…” Emma vaguely gestured towards her head, corner of her mouth curled upwards. “And your grade isn’t even that bad by Shaw’s standards, so why are you so riled up?” Erik glared at Emma, who had plucked out his mark from inside his head. Emma looked thoughtful again, and Erik could feel her rifling through his brain with her ice-cold touch, making him growl and slap his mental shields over the things he really didn’t want her to see.

“Your boss is an asshole, Erik. Why don’t you just quit already?” Emma sighed, having seen how Erik’s boss at the coffee shop hadn’t paid him for the last week because he ‘forgot’ - for the second week in a row.

“Unlike you, I don’t have my daddy’s money to support me,” Erik snapped, Emma just raising an eyebrow, not fazed by Erik’s temper in the slightest; Emma was, perhaps, the only person who could deal with Erik’s moods.

Everyone knew that Erik Lehnsherr was an antagonistic, combative and downright scary person. On the first day of college, he had alienated the entire class by getting into it with a mutantphobic prick, pinning him to the wall by using all of the metal on his body. After that, no one tried to talk to him, ever. Only Emma, who was equally as intimidating (though for an entirely different reason), had been able to talk to him without shitting herself.

“Snappy. And it’s not just the fact that you’ve been eating cup ramen for two weeks and Shaw’s marking that’s pissing you off either, is it? Erik, you’re frustrated. If you’re so horny, come to the bar with the rest of us after class on Friday and just find someone and get laid,” Emma said casually, Erik flipping her off again. “Hey, I’m not judging, Sugar. Just concerned about a friend.”

“Well, you can go and shove your concern up your-”

Erik’s words cut off the moment he felt his phone buzz on the table in that particular tone. Erik knew that tone. He had set that singular bzz-bzz…bzz-bzz-bzz rhythm for one thing, and one thing only, different to the vibration pattern of text messages (that he really only got from Emma and his mother) or college email notifications (about how his requests for remarks have been denied for the fiftieth time).

Erik didn’t say anything else to Emma as he hastily slammed his ratty laptop screen down, stuffing it into his bag alongside his notes and phone, before quickly leaving the library. Emma was just looking at him with amusement as he left, and Erik knew that she would have sensed his mood suddenly change from angry/frustrated/tired to excited/horny/joyful.

It was only just past midday on a regular Wednesday, but Erik was done with classes and had only planned to study with Emma in the library until she went out on a dinner date with Scott, and he went to work his shift at the late-night coffee shop.

But then he had felt that particular bzz-bzz…bzz-bzz-bzz, and threw his plans straight out the window.

By the time he had unlocked the door to his apartment with his powers and hightailed it into his room, locking the door behind him with another flick of his wrist, Erik was already thrumming with anticipation, his cock stirring. This far into the game, just hearing the particular bzz-bzz…bzz-bzz-bzz rhythm gave Erik’s cock some sort of Pavlovian response, and Erik knew he was fucked.

Erik tugged his fraying earphones out from his bag that he had thrown haphazardly on the floor, arranging himself comfortably on his bed before jamming the buds into his ears and connecting them to his phone. Erik’s fingers tapped impatiently, opening the app hidden away in his guilty pleasures folder.

(1)New post from creator ProfessorXXX

The newly uploaded audio clip was titled “[M4M] I’ve had a hard day and need your big cock to fuck the stress out of me”. Erik almost groaned just reading the title, thinking ‘fuck, yes, okay, I need this too, I can do that for you’. He quickly skimmed the tags (which included BFE, massage and begging), his cock twitching in his jeans which were becoming a little tighter already.

Erik’s fingers tapped on a few things quickly, before jerking up the media volume and licking his lips.

There was a little crackling as the audio started, Erik slowly flattening his hands atop his thighs, closing his eyes. There was a sound of a door opening and closing, quiet and muffled, like it had been recorded from a distance. Erik’s breath hitched when heard the sound of clothes rustling, footsteps, and then another click of a door, but closer this time.

Before now, Erik never would have thought that hearing the sound of a door opening and closing could be considered foreplay, but the suspense was doing things to him, and he cursed silently, fighting back the urge to skip through the audio to get to the stuff that was beyond foreplay.

He didn’t have to wait long, though, when the reason he ditched Emma in the library without a second thought began to speak. The ridiculously hot voice curled with the lilt of a posh English accent, filtering through his ears and straight to his dick.

“Mm, darling, I’ve just had the worst day at work,” the voice groaned, taking on the role of a tired, overworked boyfriend. Erik would have been embarrassed at the fact that his heart was rabbiting in his chest over a boyfriend roleplay, because Gott, he was not that desperate for a boyfriend. No way. Nope. Erik definitely wasn’t desperate enough, even though he enabled push notifications on his phone to tell him the exact moment ProfessorXXX uploaded a new audio.

Definitely not desperate.

Erik pushed the errant thoughts from his head and focused on ProfessorXXX’s voice, slowly stroking his hands up and down his thighs. He wasn’t going near his twitching member just yet, though he could feel it begin to swell in his pants, uncomfortable.

“Mm, yes. You know my boss, his head is stuffed all the way up his arse. Oh, you know, the usual. He made me rewrite the entire presentation just a few hours before we had to present it so I missed my lunch break. Ugh, yes, a massage would be lovely, darling. Mmhmm, let me lie down on the bed first, and take off my jacket. It’s bloody hot in here, darling, let me take off my shirt too,” ProfessorXXX said, followed by the sound of more fabric rustling.

Erik could picture it in his mind; a soft and pliable body shrugging off a black suit jacket, dropping it onto the floor. He imagined phantom hands unbuttoning a crisp shirt, revealing perky pink nipples and soft skin. He could imagine watching the faceless man with the addictive voice and posh accent crawling onto his bed on all fours, moaning when Erik hovered above him, straddling the backs of his thighs and squeezing out the knots in the man’s strong muscles.

Erik licked his lips again, flicking his fingers and undoing his pants with practised finesse by tugging on the metal button and zipper. Erik moaned quietly as he lifted his hips slightly to pull down his jeans, leaving his briefs on which were sporting a little patch of dampness where his leaking head poked at the stretchy fabric.

“Mmm, darling. Your hands feel so good,” ProfessorXXX purred, and Erik swallowed, fisting his hands where they sat on his thighs, not touching his cock yet. He wouldn’t, not until ProfessorXXX mentioned it.

“Mm, yes, touch my lower back too. Nngh, God, yes. Feels so good.”

Erik imagined sliding his hands down the mystery back, one that he has never seen but imagined in great detail. As Erik’s imagined hands slid down and began to slip beneath the waistband of the imaginary man’s slacks, so did ProfessorXXX’s hopefully fake boyfriend, which coaxed a bubbling laugh from ProfessorXXX, one that was so endearing that Erik’s heart clenched.

Verdammt.

“No need to be so smug, darling. Of course I’m going to get hard if you’re touching me like that,” ProfessorXXX said, voice light but with a slight edge of arousal. Erik heard him breathe a little more heavily, and the sound of bed sheets rustling made Erik imagine the man turning onto his back, bulge evident in his work slacks.

“Mm, yeah, I was actually already getting hard on the train ride home,” ProfessorXXX panted, and Erik’s mouth went dry when he heard the sound of a zip being pulled down in his ears, and he wished that he would be there to pull it down with his powers, feel the slide of the zipper straining to contain the bulge of ProfessorXXX’s cock. He didn’t know what that cock looked like, but considering ProfessorXXX had a pretty voice, Erik knew that he would have a very, very pretty cock.

“You won’t let me touch it? Nngh, okay. Okay. You can tie my arms up with my tie, yes, I’ll do anything. Please, please just touch me.”

“Oh, Gott,” Erik breathed out through his flared nostrils, now beginning to palm his own cock through his briefs, moaning at the friction and the sharp inhaled breath ProfessorXXX took, as if Erik had just touched his cock.

Alongside the Englishman’s breathy moans and occasional long mewl, Erik could hear the overlying noise of some slick, wet stroking. For a moment, Erik wondered how ProfessorXXX made those noises; was he actually jerking himself off while he made this audio (which was hot as fuck), or did he use something else, like a mayonnaise-coated banana (slightly less hot). Erik didn’t ruminate much longer on that, though, not when ProfessorXXX began begging again.

“Darling, I need your big, hot cock inside me. Please, I’ve been thinking about it all day. When my boss was yelling at me, all I could think about was how I wanted to get home and let you bury your cock inside me and fuck me hard and fast,” ProfessorXXX whimpered, words punctuated by a squelching sound that, really, should not have been sexy. But when the Englishman suddenly said “God, your fingers feel so good inside me,” Erik didn’t mind the wet noises that really did begin to sound like a lubed-up asshole taking in Erik’s fingers greedily, sucking them in and begging for more.

Erik couldn’t wait any longer, tugging out his leaking member from inside his briefs, wrapping a big hand around his length and beginning to stroke. He matched his pumps with ProfessorXXX’s moans and cries as he verbally described how his (fake, please be fake) boyfriend’s cock felt as he thrust deep inside him.

Erik stripped his cock to the sound of a faceless, posh-sounding audio porn star whose potentially-real-but-hopefully-not boyfriend was burying his cock inside him. Erik only let himself orgasm when ProfessorXXX did. Erik knew when the voice would come, he had listened to so many of his audios before that he could identify the change in the man’s breathing, the way his words would begin to slur, and how he would begin to cry out ‘Oh, God, yes, God, yes’ as he came. 

Erik spilled himself over his hand with a choked cry, mind searing with white as he shook, the orgasm ripping through him.

When Erik came down from his high, some cum dribbling onto his T-shirt, he heard ProfessorXXX laugh softly with a low, throaty moan.

“Mm, thank you, darling. I really needed that.”

‘I really did too,’ Erik mused, the audio clip ending, leaving Erik in silence with his heart beating rapidly and cum pooling in his hand. He tried to ignore the way his heart ached a little when the clip ended, as if he’d just found out that his faceless and English boyfriend had to go home after a long session of hot, tender love-making.

But deep down, Erik knew that he was fucked.

***

Charles listened to his latest audio recording, making sure that everything was fine; the volume was even, his Foley-esque squelching noises popped in at the right times and the slapping sounds perfectly matched his sharp gasps.

Satisfied, Charles set the upload time for Wednesday 12:00pm like always, adding a short comment:

Hope you enjoyed this week’s audio, darlings, because I definitely enjoyed making it ;) Next week’s audio is something that many of you have been requesting – you’re all a little freaky, aren’t you?

Charles checked over everything one last time before submitting it, groaning as he stretched his arms and back, neck cracking after sitting at his computer editing the audio for so long. Just as he shut down his computer, Raven walked in wearing her favoured blonde hair and blue-eyed appearance, opting to wear a slouchy T-shirt and cotton shorts. In her hands was a plate with a disassembled sandwich on it.

“Finished making fingering noises with the mayo?” Raven teased her brother, who rolled his eyes and wheeled to the end of his desk to grab the bottle of mayo. He threw it to Raven who caught it deftly, squirting some onto her sandwich before assembling it and taking a bite, moaning loudly just to make her brother roll his eyes at her.

“Oh, stop it, Raven,” Charles huffed, not embarrassed about his side job, but tired of Raven taking the piss out of it every moment she could. He had been making (excellent quality) audio porn for almost a year-and-a-half, and if he was still embarrassed about it by now, then he clearly chose the wrong job.

“Did you just finish editing the punishment audio?” Raven asked while chewing, looking so casual she might as well have been talking about how cup noodles were on sale at the supermarket today.

“Yes, I have just set it up to be posted at 12,” Charles replied, wheeling out of his cramped bedroom, which was only just big enough to fit his bed, wardrobe and desk. It only just managed to allow his wheelchair to manoeuvre through.

“Sweet. You always get lots of hits on the ones where you’re getting thrown around,” Raven said, smirking around a mouthful of chicken, bread and mayo. “Your fans want to spank the shit out of you, Charles.”

“I don’t need my sister keeping tabs on how many hits my porn clips get, thank you very much,” Charles said, holding his hand out to stop Raven, who just snickered at his expense. “But yes, if this audio does well, then we might have enough money to get someone to come and fix the blasted heater.”

“Yes!” Raven cheered, fist pumping the air while still holding her sandwich. Charles laughed at that, wheeling past his sister and into the lounge room to make himself some lunch as well.

Charles hadn’t started making audio porn because he wanted to – it had been a moment of desperation when he and Raven needed cash. Things had never been easy after they were cut off from the Xavier fortune, and though they never regretted it, they did struggle at first. Raven’s part-time job as a waitress only paid so much, and Charles found it difficult to find jobs suitable for him because of his chair.

One day, Charles had stumbled on an online article about a new surge in the popularity of audio porn, and it had piqued his interest. Charles knew that people made a lot of cash by making standard porn, but he had never wanted to become known as ‘That Paraplegic Pornstar’ (of ‘The Paraplegic Penis’, as Raven unhelpfully quipped, once), or fulfil the unsettling disability kink some people had.

Audio porn, on the other hand, bypassed that. Charles could be whoever he wanted to be, acting out whatever scenarios he wanted without having to show his body. It was a bonus, really, that he had a natural English accent, which was very, very popular online.

Charles’s first audio had been a very basic, very vanilla JOI clip, which had done moderately well, enough to encourage Charles to keep going. His next one had incorporated some more roleplay, and his role as an office employee who got caught masturbating in his office (and subsequently getting bent over a desk and thoroughly fucked) had immediately made his new career take off.

Even though he had fallen into it somewhat accidentally, Charles did not mind it. It was creatively liberating, brought in more cash than he and Raven were making through conventional means, and was sometimes extremely convenient. Even as a paraplegic, Charles had needs. Charles, unfortunately, hadn’t been in a relationship for a long, long time, so he had to make do with pleasuring himself whenever he was feeling frisky. This was hard to achieve, considering the sensation in his cock was iffy even on a good day, but he had worked out with practise how to bring himself over the edge. It was easy money to just record himself getting off, considering he was going to do it anyway.

That didn’t mean Charles that was 100% satisfied. Sure, his toys were fun, but he missed being with someone. It was a shame that he hadn’t met anyone who was truly fine with him being a paraplegic that couldn’t have a reliable erection, even if they pretended they were okay with it.

Downside of being a telepath.

“You’re pulling your lonely face again, Charles,” Raven suddenly said, snapping her brother out of his momentary daze. Charles was suddenly very aware of his face, frowning at Raven.

“I’m not making a ‘lonely face’,” Charles said, Raven snorting.

“Don’t lie to me, Charles.”

‘You’re obviously wishing that you’re actually getting some real dick instead of pretending to get it by slapping two pieces of steak together,’ Raven added mentally when Charles ignored her, pulling out some bread to make himself a sandwich. Raven didn’t want to drop the conversation though, and sidled up beside Charles, leaning on the edge of the low kitchen counter.

“Chaaaarles,” Raven dragged out, her brother ignoring her as he squelched mayo onto the bread. “Charles, what if I set you up with someone?”

Charles glanced at his sister at that, eyes narrowed.

“No,” Charles responded flatly. “The last time you tried to set me up with someone, he ended up ditching me half way through dinner by pretending to pick up a phone call. I knew he was going to, of course, but that doesn’t mean it hurt any less.”

“Okay, that was my bad. But I can properly vouch for the guy this time. He’s Emma’s friend, and Charles, he’s the definition of your type.”

“I don’t have a ‘type’,” Charles said, tearing up some chicken and throwing it onto his mayo covered bread.

‘Where’s that photo of Erik I have, no, no, no, hot, but no, no – ah! There he is,’ Charles caught Raven thinking, and soon her phone was thrust in front of his face, revealing the most ridiculously handsome man Charles had ever seen.

Brown-ish hair, light ginger scruff, angular face, pale blue-grey eyes, lean body, broad shoulders and narrow waist, long legs and – Christ – Charles could see the outline of his cock against his thigh and the man was packing.

Charles’s mouth was hanging open, and he was sure he would have started drooling if Raven hadn’t started cackling.

“He’s totally your type,” Raven said smugly, Charles unable to deny her because that man was definitely Charles’s type, at least physically. Good God. “And, to sweeten the deal, he’s a metallokinetic, can dirty talk to you in German and is passionate – maybe overly so – about mutant rights. Uh, he’s a separatist, but you did say that some of the best sex you’ve had is with people you wanted to punch, so I’d say that’s a positive. Oh, and he’s single.”

That was a very sweet deal indeed.

But Charles was hesitant – a man like that, he could have any one he wanted. Why would he want someone like Charles?

***

Erik never came harder than he did when he jerked off to ProfessorXXX’s voice, and he didn’t want to think about what that meant. Erik had never been that guy who had a thing for porn with storylines, usually skipping the terribly cheesy opening scenes and going straight to the parts where someone was getting their cock sucked down by red lips, getting himself off quickly and efficiently.

For Erik, jerking off was just a thing he did when he was feeling horny. It was honestly so impersonal that was almost clinical. It had been a long time since he had time to go out and actually find someone to help him relieve his sexual frustration, but he was deep into an assessment heavy part of the year and had no time to go out, so for the past few weeks it’s just been him and his hand.

He had come across ProfessorXXX’s audios by accident; he had been trying to click on another video of some pretty basic porn, but his laptop had slid off his lap slightly and he had clicked on something else instead, leading him to ProfessorXXX’s PornHub page.

Erik had never been interested in audio porn, even though it had come up every now and then when he was ten pages deep in the #mutant porn tag. Erik would have just clicked back straight away, but his eye caught a few comments on ProfessorXXX’s page gushing about how his voice gave them the most soul-shattering orgasm they had ever had in their life. Erik had just snorted, wondering what desperate soul could get off with just the sound of someone’s voice, and curiosity had gotten the better of him.

He had clicked one of the latest audios that had been posted, skipping a pretty basic-sounding title for one labelled “[M4A] I get horny making pancakes and jerk myself off in the kitchen”, not expecting to be turned on in the slightest, but at least hoping that it would be a mildly entertaining clip.

But the moment Erik heard ProfessorXXX’s voice, with his stupid accent and slight rasp when he became aroused, Erik was gone. He had jerked off at 3am after finishing his mutant studies essay to the sound of a man talking about how his cock was sticky with syrup and how filling his hole with his fingers was worth burning his pancakes for.

Erik had been mortified at himself in the privacy of his room, throwing his phone across the room but growing a mind and catching it with his powers before it smashed against the wall.

Erik hadn’t jerked off for a week after that, almost embarrassed that something like that had given him what was, arguably, the best masturbatory orgasm of his life. But, he was a young and healthy man, and it was late on a Friday night that Erik had accepted the fact that he hadn’t stopped thinking about ProfessorXXX’s voice during the entirety of his week of abstinence.

Erik just figured that he would jerk off to a few more of ProfessorXXX’s audios, get it out of his system and move back to safer, greener pastures.

He did not.

Erik knew he had a problem when he had downloaded a whole app dedicated to audio porn, ignoring all other creators and simply worked his way down every single one of ProfessorXXX’s audios. Erik had his rock bottom the moment he attempted to scroll down further after coming for the second time to the sound nothing more than ProfessorXXX jerking himself off – no roleplaying, no context, just a file aptly titled “Edging myself for forty minutes straight and cumming so hard I pass out”.

 After exhausting every single one of ProfessorXXX’s audio clips, Erik ended up paying to access VIP audios on the man’s Patreon page (ones that the creator had clearly spent more time on, since the quality of the paid audios were even better than the free ones). When he exhausted even those, Erik had to settle on revisiting his favourites to get himself off while waiting for new uploads. ProfessorXXX was, at least, a man that adhered to a schedule, something Erik liked.

Every Wednesday, at 12:00pm GMT-4 sharp, ProfessorXXX uploaded a new audio. And, every Wednesday at 12:00pm GMT-4, Erik’s cock would know that it was time to start getting interested.

Erik decided that he needed to compartmentalise things. ProfessorXXX’s roleplaying scenarios maybe confused Erik’s mind a bit, the Englishman’s acting somehow too believable. That was one of the things that set ProfessorXXX apart from regular porn – porn plots were always terrible, but ProfessorXXX really sold whatever he was trying to pass off as. Actual professor in a student/teacher scenario? Yes. An employee performing sexual favours for his hot boss? Perfection. Needy brat in need of a spanking? Fuck yes.

ProfessorXXX was so versatile in his repertoire that Erik was beginning to get confused. He needed to just push ProfessorXXX and all of his personas into a box labelled WANK MATERIAL, and keep it far away from the other, dismally empty box labelled FEELINGS.

Erik did not need to start feeling things for a man who makes (really good quality) audio porn.

One thing that helped was that when Erik’s heart began to itch, he would just think to himself ‘ProfessorXXX is probably a middle-aged lecher with a beer gut and receding hairline who makes these audios wearing a ratty wife beater and adult diaper’. That would work for a bit, but then Erik would hear his voice, and someone that sounded that posh, that gentle (unless he was begging to be choked) and that lovely (because his flirtatious laugh was beyond lovely), Erik couldn’t picture him as someone that visually abhorrent.

Erik had no idea what ProfessorXXX looked like, but for some reason he thinks that if he ever met him, he’d think he was gorgeous no matter what he looked like.

‘Gott, Erik, stop,’ Erik growled to himself, pushing away the traitorous thoughts by focusing on feeling the metal around him, tugging on the barista’s coffee machine, the tacky hipster light fixtures, the legs of the glossy chairs.

It was just past 11:30 on the Wednesday after Erik had wanked to ProfessorXXX getting pounded by his boyfriend after a bad day at work. Instead of being at the library, Erik had been dragged to a café around the corner from campus by Emma and her friend, Raven.

Erik didn’t know Raven well since she wasn’t undertaking the same degree as him, but Emma had apparently known her and her brother for ages, their old-money families running in the same circles. Erik had really only spoken to Raven a handful of times, but from what he’d seen, he didn’t mind the girl; she was straightforward and borderline brash, but she wore her blue skin, yellow eyes and shock red hair with such confidence that even Erik was impressed. Erik had always been biased towards mutants with visible mutations.

Erik hadn’t felt particularly hungry, and just ordered a coffee and guarded their table from being snagged by a haughty-looking woman, spreading his long limbs across the plush wall seating. The woman glared at him, and he smiled with all his teeth, sending her scuttling off to try and find a table at the back of the café.

Erik’s coffee came as Emma and Raven sauntered back to their squeezy table in the corner, and he sipped on it while they waited for their food, continuing to chat about whatever they had been talking about at the counter.

“I wasn’t aware that it pays so well,” Emma said to Raven, leaning forward, genuinely interested in whatever they were talking about. Erik was only half listening, his finger tapping on the rim of his coffee cup, letting his powers linger on the hands of a wall clock above the café counter.

11:43am.

“Yeah, it’s because he’s surprisingly really popular on the forum. Which is great, because it means he gets paid more, but I mean… it’s gross,” Raven said, shivering, Emma letting out an amused laugh.

“Only because he’s your brother,” Emma said as a waiter came by with their food, eyeing Raven in her natural blue form warily. Erik sent him a cold look, tripping him up by the metal eyelets on his boots.

“Come on, Emma. If your brother was popular like that, you’d be grossed out too,” Raven said, rolling her eyes. “Anyway, he’s thinking about branching out. He’s not gonna stop that part of his job because it pays well, but he’s thinking of creating other things. You know, like podcasts.”

“Is he going to stop once he starts his TA job? This is only a temporary thing, right?”

“I don’t know. I asked him, and he said that he’ll definitely cut back since he’ll have less time, but I honestly think he kind of likes it. Which, I mean, good for him, because you know… but as his sister, it’s still gross,” Raven said, before they started taking hefty bites into the food while Erik sipped on his coffee.

11:50am.

Erik’s leg began to bob up and down, Raven turning to him mid-way through taking a large bite from her large pulled pork sub.

“What’s got you so antsy?” Raven asked, Erik huffing and rolling his eyes. Emma smirked, eyeing Erik with amusement.

“He’s probably waiting for his regular midday text from his boyfriend,” Emma said, Erik whirling to look at her, face a comical picture of genuine shock. Emma and Raven both burst out laughing at his reaction, the man schooling his expression back to its usual one of blatant disgust, cursing at both Raven and Emma and making sure that his mental shields were solid. Emma picked up on his immediate padding of his shields, only smiling wider.

“Boyfriend? Erik? A boyfriend? That’s hilarious,” Raven snickered, Erik glaring at her while Emma just grinned.

“Oh, but is it? Erik has been acting awfully suspicious lately,” Emma said easily, waving her hand around as if she were talking about the weather.

“Shut it, Emma,” Erik growled, Emma ignoring him and turning to Raven conspiratorially.

“He always turns down invitations to go out, and I’ve caught him looking at his phone with a gooey expression on his face. And sometimes, he’ll be looking at his phone and get all aroused,” Emma said, and Erik contemplated ripping the white pearl and silver barrette out of her blonde hair and slapping her in the face with it. Emma seemed to catch that thought since it was directed at her, and she just laughed lightly. “Oh, Sugar. You think you’ve been so discreet. Look at you, blocking me out. Trying to hide the identity of your mystery boy?”

11:57am.

“Verpiss dich, I don’t have a boyfriend,” Erik churned out, cheeks heating a little despite himself. He definitely did not have a boyfriend. Nope, not at all. Instead, he had a complicated relationship with the voice of a man who could wring out an orgasm from him like no other person ever before. Verdammt.

“Wait, you actually have a boyfriend?” Raven asked, ignoring everything Erik said and scrunching her nose up. “Damn, I was going to try and set you up with my brother. You’re exactly his type.”

“Charles likes the moody, unapproachable type?” Emma asked, Raven snorting.

“He likes the tall, European, huge dick and ‘groovy mutation’ type,” Raven replied, Emma snickering as Erik glared at the both of them.

“Thanks for the concern, Raven, but I don’t want you to set me up with your brother,” Erik said, pretending that the voice in his head did not just say that was because he was interested in someone else. Someone with an English accent and a filthy mouth that was sometimes ridiculously sweet.

“Because you have a boyfriend,” Emma replied, Erik wanting to rip his own hair out at the circular conversation that was going nowhere.

“I already told you that I don’t ha-”

12:00pm.

Bzz-bzz…bzz-bzz-bzz.

Erik’s cock twitched right on cue.

Emma laughed, Raven raised a brow, and Erik just flipped them both off and drained the rest of his coffee, briskly walking home to lock himself in his room and jerk off to ProfessorXXX’s new audio.

***

Even though Charles’s audios were very successful and he had cultivated quite a dedicated fanbase, that didn’t mean he wasn’t free from the occasional negative comment. Most of them were ridiculous and speculative, saying that Charles was probably a balding, overweight 50-year-old man with a pedo stache and BO that would be a natural mosquito repellent. Charles found these kind of hate comments hilarious, and often replied to them jokingly, saying that was why he was making audio porn and not visual porn.

His fans said that only someone who wasn’t completely butt ugly would be able to joke about that.

Charles wasn’t ugly – in fact, he would consider himself quite handsome, even if he had developed a bit of a paunch because of his paraplegia, and his legs were atrophied and frail. Even with that, Charles’s upper body had become broad and leanly muscled, though he usually covered himself up with the frumpy sweaters that he loved, but Raven hated.

Charles was reading through the comments on one of his latest audios, which he made for people with visible mutations. It involved a lot of body worship (though he had to make it vague because visible mutations came in all shapes, colours and forms) and mutant positivity, and Charles had actually thought that it was one of his better audios, but apparently it brought a lot of mutantphobic bigots out of the woodwork.

cumbot2000 : ProfXXX is a mutant fucker? go to hell

diiickya188 : i came here to cum, not get turned off by this fucking mutie shit

mayhem2928 : well my dick is soft now

dl8191398 : profxxx is probs a fkn mutie himself fking disgusting

Charles sighed, quickly working his way to report the comments, but stopping when he saw that lots of the earlier mutantphobic comments on the audio had replies to them. One of them even looked like it had turned into a full-blown argument lasting 20+ responses, all of them from the same person – magneto22.

jayybee : profxxx is a mutie fucker im never listening to his shit again

magneto22 : Good riddance. This was a very well thought-out and executed audio that respected mutants with visible mutations while still being sexy and fun. You evidently can’t understand the quality of ProfessorXXX’s craft, and are a mutantphobic piece of shit, so go right ahead and fuck off and leave ProfessorXXX alone.

Charles read through a few more of magneto22’s replies, some ranging from polite and measured, and others devolving into utter swear-fests. All of them, though, defended Charles with a surprising amount of passion.

It probably wasn’t a great idea for Charles to feel so touched by someone who pays money to listen to Charles orgasm (because magneto22 did pay for Charles’s exclusive Patreon audios, he checked), but he was. There was something about the honesty in magneto22’s words, and even if Charles couldn’t hear his voice or see his face, everything the man (he assumed he was a man, considering Charles’s audios were aimed at men) said seemed genuine.

Charles ended up sending a private message to magneto22 through the audio porn app, even though that was probably a very, very stupid thing to do. This was a man paying for Charles’s porn, and Charles was what, sliding into his DMs?

‘God, I need to get laid, properly. Now I’m even catching feeling for people paying for my porn, good Lord.’

Still, Charles had sent magneto22 a message, keeping it light and somewhat formal.

ProfessorXXX : Hello. I know this might seem very strange, but I saw your very supportive and very kind comments on one of my audios ([M4M] You’re beautiful, darling [mutantandproud] [bodyworship] [visiblemutations]), and I just wanted to say thank you for your help with addressing the mutantphobic bigots. It really means a lot to me, as a mutant myself. Your words were also very flattering, and I am glad that you found the audio to be respectful – I tried to take great care in ensuring that I wasn’t playing into a mutant fetish like some people tend to do. Thank you, once again, my friend. Yours, ProfessorXXX

Charles pushed his mind off magneto22 after sending the message, focusing on editing a new audio. He was in the middle of syncing the squelching mayo noises when his email pinged, signifying that his message to magneto22 had been replied to. Charles’s stomach flipped and his heart thumped, suddenly far too giddy to be healthy.

Charles quickly clicked onto the new message, not even caring that he may seem desperate.

magneto22 : Hello ProfessorXXX. Receiving a message from you was surprising, but not strange at all. In fact, I am very glad to hear that my comments were well-received. I am very pleased to find out that you are also a mutant (I am as well). It is very refreshing to find such tastefully made adult content for mutants, especially those with visible mutations. I enjoyed your other audios, but this one made me a great fan of your work. I hope that you create more audios targeted towards those with visible mutations, but I will look forward to all of your future work nonetheless. Regards, magneto22

Charles was smiling widely at the message, endeared by the slightly awkward and stiff tone throughout it. Even though it was awkward, magneto22 sounded genuine, like he was speaking from the heart. Charles was glad that magneto22, who was a mutant (likely with a visible mutation considering he seemed very hung up on support for such mutants in particular), had enjoyed the audio.

Charles replied again swiftly, saying that he would definitely be making more mutant-centric works, adding that he would dedicate the next one to magneto22. Charles had already sent the message when he realised he had just dedicated his porn to a random man on the internet.

Charles groaned and chastised himself, closing down the app and putting his phone on do not disturb, focusing on editing the audio so he could move on to some of his college assignments.

But Charles itched to see if magneto22 had responded, and the distraction made him take much longer than usual to edit his audio clip.

***

If Emma and Raven had thought that Erik had a boyfriend because he had been hung up on notifications that ProfessorXXX had released a new audio, the fact that he was now messaging the man was icing on the cake.

When Erik had received the private message from ProfessorXXX, he had nearly dropped his phone mid-wank; the man was moaning in his ear and whispering about how he wanted to choke on Erik’s cock, but the message he had sent to Erik was well-written and friendly, and the juxtaposition of the two made Erik’s head implode.

It had taken him a while to reply, having to quickly get himself off before he could think straight. Erik had responded awkwardly, and had berated himself for sounding like a fucking tool, but ProfessorXXX had replied swiftly, sounding as jovial as he had in the first message. Erik naturally replied again, and he was waiting for ProfessorXXX to just… stop replying. But he hadn’t.

Their conversation, which had started off formal, had progressed into a mixture of heated debates about mutant rights (and Gott, now that Erik knew ProfessorXXX was a mutant made him orgasm twice as hard) and about more mundane things, like terrible college professors and trying to make a living while juggling three assignments and exam preparation.

Erik had originally thought that ProfessorXXX lived in England because of his thick accent, but when Erik had slyly asked him where the accent was from, the other man had said that the accent was from Oxford, but he was actually born and raised in New York. Erik’s brain had short-circuited again with the knowledge that ProfessorXXX lived in the same city as him.

Erik began to imagine scenarios where he would spontaneously ‘bump’ into ProfessorXXX. On the train, at a café, or just on the street. Erik thought that he would be able to recognise ProfessorXXX’s voice anywhere.

Somewhere along the way, Erik had stopped thinking of ProfessorXXX as ‘that guy I sometimes masturbate to’ to ‘the guy that is an infuriating pacifist but actually argues his case really well and is also a broke-as-fuck college student like me and Gott he’s funny and nice and-’

Erik could go on forever about ProfessorXXX, and that was the problem. Even though his compartmentalisation had been pretty shoddy to begin with, now it was just non-existent. Erik, to his mortification, liked ProfessorXXX. Really liked him. He didn’t just like how his voice could draw out the most delicious orgasms from Erik’s dick, but he liked him as a person.

Erik couldn’t even pretend that ProfessorXXX was just jerk-off material any more. No, he was too far gone for the person behind the sexy voice and dirty fantasies to pretend he wasn’t something more.

Erik and ProfessorXXX had been messaging for almost three weeks now, and Erik wanted to meet the man terribly. But he doubted ProfessorXXX would want that; in the end, Erik was his fan, and the fact that ProfessorXXX never said anything personal about himself, not even about his appearance, in his description or audios, Erik figured that he wanted to remain anonymous.

It came as a shock to Erik one day during his exams to receive a message from ProfessorXXX asking if Erik would like to meet. In person.

“Oh, fuck!” Erik yelled, the metal in his room rattling as he nearly dropped his phone on his face from where he was lying in bed. Erik was still freaking out when his roommate banged on his door, yelling at him to fix the bloody shower head, his powers running so amok that he had been twisting the metal in the bathroom into misshapen lumps. Erik apologised quickly and straightened all of the pipes out, before turning back to the message.

magneto22 : Yes, I would love to meet in person. Were you thinking sometime after exams? I finish on Wednesday this week.

ProfessorXXX : Oh, excellent! I finish this week as well – Thursday, to be exact. We could maybe grab coffee some time? Is there a time and day that would work best for you? I’m flexible.

“I’m sure you are flexible,” Erik mumbled to himself, cursing at the way his cock twitched at the unintentionally suggestive words.

magneto22 : Friday around midday?

ProfessorXXX : Oh, I’m sorry, my friend. Unfortunately I have a prior engagement at that time. I am free all of Saturday, though.

If he’s free all of Saturday, that means he’s free at night and maybe- Erik, Gott, stop.

magneto22 : Saturday works for me as well. Should we say 11am? We can choose a coffee shop somewhere between the both of us.

ProfessorXXX : Excellent! I live near Columbia. I recall you mentioning that you go to NYU? I know of a fantastic coffee shop right between them. I can send you the details.

magneto22 : Looking forward to it.

ProfessorXXX : As am I, my friend.

Erik stared at his phone with giddy anticipation, his grin almost splitting his face in two.

Saturday couldn’t come soon enough.

***

It was 11am on Friday, the day after Charles had his last exam. The telepath watched Raven try on outfits for Emma’s birthday brunch in the mirror, waiting a little impatiently since he had been ready for 45 minutes already, while Raven had only just decided how she wanted to style her natural red hair. Emma’s brunch started in 30 minutes, and on the subway it took at least 20 minutes to get to the ritzy brunch house, and Charles hated being late. He also wasn’t looking forward to having to squeeze onto the subway to get to the restaurant, but what could he do. He and Raven couldn’t afford a cab, let alone a car.

“You’re telling me you’re not interested in Erik anymore? Mr ‘Exactly My Type’?” Raven asked incredulously as her blue skin rippled into a tight red dress that matched her hair. Clicking her tongue as she spun in the mirror, she changed it to a sleek white jumpsuit, nodding thoughtfully.

“I am sure that he’s lovely, but no, I am no longer interested,” Charles said, fighting the smile on his face as he remembered magneto22’s messages to him. Charles had thought that asking the man on a date – because this was a date, right? – would have ended in immediate failure, but he had seemed excited. Almost as excited as Charles, but Charles was beyond the realm of excited and was bordering on manic.

“Oh my God, did you meet someone?!” Raven exclaimed, eyeing her brother’s expression with shock. Charles just shrugged, Raven squealing. “You so did! When the hell did this happen? How did this happen? You’ve been so busy with your TA job and the audios, not to mention exams. Just when? What? How? Spill, now.”

“Okay, don’t… freak out,” Charles said, trying to figure out how to explain things. Even though Charles felt like he knew magneto22, they hadn’t revealed their true names to each other, or their faces. Charles thought there was this tiny barrier hanging over their heads, a barrier that stemmed from the fact that they only began talking to each other because Charles made porn, and magneto22 was a fan of said porn. Things started off in an odd place, and even though Charles liked magneto22 – really liked him – it was still this thing hanging over his head like a storm cloud.

Charles hoped that meeting magneto22 in person would get rid of that last little barrier between them.

“Don’t freak out? I’m already freaking out,” Raven said, turning away from her figure in the mirror after changing into a floral sundress. “Spill, Charles.”

Charles quickly told her what had happened, and by the end of it, Raven was staring at her brother with a blank expression.

“You’re meeting up with a guy who’s a fan of your porn?” Raven paraphrased, blinking rapidly like she was still trying to process everything.

“That’s the short of it, yes.”

“Charles, I get that you’re desperate, but… That’s desperate,” Raven said, Charles giving her a look. “Oh, come on! You’re meeting up with a guy who pays you to help get him off! What if he’s a creep?!”

“People who watch porn aren’t all creeps, Raven. I watch porn, you watch porn – heck, even Hank watches porn,” Charles said, throwing up his hands. “And it’s not like I haven’t spoken to him. We’ve messaged. A lot.” Charles grew a little quiet then, nervously knotting his hands together.

“I… I really like him, Raven,” Charles whispered, peeking up at his sister, whose expression softened.

“Oh, Charles,” Raven sighed, walking over to him and wrapping him in a tight hug. “Fine, I’ll accept this for now, and only because I know you can use your mind voodoo to make him start dancing the macarena if he turns out to be a creep.”

“Oh, I can make him do more than just  that,” Charles said, smirking a little, Raven laughing.

“Damn it, now I’m more worried about the other guy, Charles!”

***

Erik glared at Emma from where he stood on the sidelines after being forced to attend her birthday brunch. Erik hadn’t wanted to come at all, which is why he had asked to meet ProfessorXXX on the day of the event. He hadn’t asked to meet up on Friday just because he wanted an excuse to miss Emma’s obnoxious brunch though – he asked because he also because he didn’t know if he could wait any longer, knowing that he was going to meet ProfessorXXX.

Erik was already head over heels for the man, even though he didn’t know anything about him other than the things the porn creator told him through their messages, and the sound of his voice. He also knew how ProfessorXXX sounded when he had a real orgasm, one that wasn’t put on for the sake of an audio (ProfessorXXX had told him, a little shyly, which audios were authentic and now Erik believed he could tell the difference between the man’s real and fake orgasms).

Erik refused to let his good mood from securing a date with ProfessorXXX be dampened by Emma and her stupid brunch, but it was becoming hard to not rip up the metal pipes to flood out the whole restaurant and force the party to end.

Erik never liked events with lots of people, and this was one such event. Emma had a wide social circle. The Summers brothers were chatting with Armando and Sean while waiting for drinks from the open bar Emma hired, and Angel was busy helping the birthday girl arrange a balloon arch set up at the photo area. Emma had even invited Hank McCoy, whom she had only met once through Raven and her brother, but had decided to invite him anyway.

Speaking of Raven, she was still not here yet. The party was scheduled to start at 11:30, and it was already 11:40. Erik had never met Raven’s brother before, but Raven and Emma had mentioned him in front of Erik enough times to know enough about the man. Charles was apparently ridiculously intelligent, and though he was born into privilege he had a solid work ethic and never complained about having to work two jobs to support him and Raven. Raven said that he was a TA, but never mentioned what his second job was. Erik wasn’t the type to be curious anyway, so he never found out.

Erik also knew that Raven’s brother was involved in a horrific car accident when he was nineteen, leaving him wheelchair-bound. Erik wondered if that was why they were late – public transport could be hell for most people, but even more so than people who used wheelchairs. Erik sometimes used his powers to shove people out of the way when they were being assholes and inconsiderate to people trying desperately to get through on their wheelchairs, even giving the chairs themselves a helpful nudge if they got snagged.

Just as Erik was thinking about the siblings, the door to the restaurant opened, revealing Raven in a tight white dress. She had decided to make her red hair long and wavy, but retained her yellow eyes and blue scale-like skin. She looked fantastic, and Erik always preferred her when she was wearing her natural appearance.

‘ProfessorXXX’s visible mutation audios would make more people feel comfortable in their own skin like Raven,’ Erik thought to himself, heart-warming at the thought of the man.

Erik admired Raven’s appearance for one second longer, before turning his gaze to her brother.

And, mein Gott, when Raven and Emma talked about him, they seemed to forget to mention that he was fucking beautiful. Fluffy brown hair that was a little too long to be fashionable but worked for him, eyes that were so blue they looked supernatural and lips that were so red that he perpetually looked like someone who had been snogged within an inch of his life just seconds prior. His shoulders were strong, biceps flexing as he wheeled himself into the room, visible through the crisp white shirt he was wearing.

Raven’s brother – Charles – wheeled towards Emma with a wide smile on his face, corner of his eyes crinkling.

Then, Erik remembered that he was a telepath – and a powerful one, too – and quickly clamped down on his errant thoughts. He also remembered that he was going on a date with ProfessorXXX tomorrow. Even though Charles was extremely attractive – anyone with eyes could see that – he didn’t make Erik’s heart go mushy like ProfessorXXX did when he talked about wanting to create an audio specifically for mutants with tails.

ProfessorXXX could look nothing like Charles, and Erik would still be ridiculously attracted to him.

Emma’s eyes turned from Charles to meet Erik’s, and she smiled a little, flashing her white teeth.

‘Don’t be such a party-pooper, Erik. Come and mingle,’ Emma sent him telepathically, Erik projecting an emphatic ‘No, thank you,’ back at her.

‘Oh, please, Sugar. I could hear you undressing Charles with your eyes before. It’s lucky that he has a stronger moral code than me and actively blocks out your thoughts, otherwise he’d know exactly how his biceps make you feel,’ Emma continued, Erik gritting his teeth.

‘I am not interested, Emma,’ Erik shot back, the woman laughing inside his head.

‘Yes, because of your secret boyfriend. Very well, Sugar. I’ll let you off the hook – but only if you come and talk to people, they’re thinking that you’re dampening the mood by being all doom and gloom over there.’

Erik glared at Emma, but trudged over to the group of people, heading directly over to Raven. She was the person he could stand the most out of the lot of them, even if her ridiculously attractive brother was hanging around by her side.

Raven spotted him as he stalked over, waving him over with an excited “Erik! Come and meet my brother”. Erik sighed, figuring that it was about time he met the brother his friend always gushed about.

“Charles, this is Erik. Erik, Charles,” Raven said as the men shook hands, Charles doing so with a wide and friendly smile, Erik just grunting.

Just before they moved to drop their clasped hands, Charles spoke.

“Hello, Erik. It’s lovely to meet you. Raven’s told me a lot about you.”

What.

“Oh my fucking God,” Erik choked out, body freezing as his eyes nearly bugged out of his head. Raven stared at Erik like he had grown two heads while Charles’s brow furrowed in concern at Erik’s strange reaction. But how else could Erik react, when he had instantly recognised Charles’s voice, clear as day.

It was a voice that has been whispering obscenities into Erik’s ears for months, the voice belonging to the man Erik has been crushing on for just less that.

‘CHARLES IS PROFESSORXXX HOLY SHIT,’ Erik’s mind screamed, and Charles’s eyes widened then, no doubt hearing the screaming words despite his shields, especially since their hands were still clasped tightly together.

Erik felt an unfamiliar but not unpleasant sensation tickle at the edge of his mind, a spreading warmth that almost felt like a gentle knock on the door. It was Charles, it had to be – he was the only other telepath here apart from Emma, and Erik knew what Emma’s telepathy felt like. He also knew that she would never ‘knock’ and just barge on in without hesitation.

‘Erik, you wouldn’t happen to be magneto22, would you?’ Erik heard in his mind, ProfessorXXX’s voice – Charles’s voice – a little hesitant and nervous. Erik did not have to respond, Charles feeling the flood of embarrassment/attraction/affection pouring from Erik. Charles’s face then flashed with shock, happiness and something much more.

“So this is what you meant when you said you had a prior engagement,” Erik suddenly blurted out, Raven looking even more confused while Charles just laughed, the sound so beautiful and familiar that Erik fell for him even further, right then and there.

“And you said you were free,” Charles replied teasingly, red lips curving upwards. ‘Would you happen to still be free, ah, after brunch?’ Charles asked in Erik’s mind, the metallokinetic nodding furiously.

‘I’m free all day. I could even free myself up right now, if that works for you?’ Erik pushed into the telepath’s head, the man’s blue eyes twinkling with excitement.

“That definitely works for me, my friend.”

[ceasarslegion]

I've seen a lot of resources that people pass around for when you drink a little too much but I feel like there aren't enough for when you accidentally green out, which is a shame, because it's a horrifying experience that's only worsened when you don't know what's happening to you/don't know how to mitigate it.

This is mostly anecdotal from me, but here's what's helped me out during a really shitty time, and everyone who has more advice please add on:

-your heart rate's gonna pick up. A lot. And you're going to hear it, and feel it more than you've felt it before. You might get a thought like "my heart's going to explode" but if you can, remind yourself that it's just the weed making you hyper-aware of everything happening. Weed makes your heartrate go up, and now you're just aware of it. You'll be okay.

-if you feel woozy or dizzy, sit down and put your head down on a table if it's available to you, in your hands with your elbows propped up nice and sturdy if it's not, or lay down in the fetal position on a soft surface like a bed or couch, slowly. Close your eyes, and reject your first instinct to fight it. Just let the feelings happen. You'll go into a sort of trance-like state where you feel heavy and boneless and for me it felt like waves pouring over me, but it will help you relax, which lessens the nausea. Make sure nothing's around that can startle you, and don't open your eyes quickly if the room is brightly-lit, because your reaction to it will be full-blown fight-or-flight to the smallest amount of stimuli.

-don't look at screens. You'll have an urge to zone out on your phone or laptop to pass the time faster and focus on something other than how you're feeling, but blue light is the LAST THING you need. Remember, everything you feel is amplified by a thousand, and blue light strains the muscles in your eyes. I watch the Plague Dogs when I'm coming down from a regular-calibre high because the sombre mood calms me down and hits a reset button in my brain that kind of flushes out the psychological effects that stick around for a bit after the canabinoids have worn off, but when I tried to do that as a lifeline when I was greened out for the first time in my life, I got to the log in screen on my laptop before I had to rapidly slam it shut because of how much it burned my eyes and made my nausea worse.

-you might have to vomit. If you took edibles, don't fight it. That's your body trying to make it stop by getting rid of what you ate. It fucking sucks while it's happening, but you'll expell a lot of canabinoids that are lingering in your digestive tract and feel much better after.

-If you're paranoid, and think you're going to die, remind yourself that not a single person has ever died of a cannabis overdose, and you're not going to be the first.

-If you smoked, it's often extremely temporary even when time dilation is taken into consideration. It may feel like it'll take forever, but just sit down and put your head down for a bit. After 20 minutes or so, ease yourself into looking up again. Rinse and repeat until it's gone. It doesn't take very long for that to subside when you smoked.

-if you start to shake uncontrollably, it might freak you out, but you're still okay and there's nothing wrong. It's called the cannabis shakes for a reason, and they typically subside after an hour or so, often less.

-DRINK. WATER. You'll get cotton mouth like you wouldn't believe, and dehydration is a real threat in this case. Drink as much water as you can manage to, but not all at once. Sip on it over time, and you'll yield the best results.

-if you get a sudden violent burst of energy and need to move RIGHT NOW, get up slowly, don't jangle your head around, and pace in a circle while taking long, deep breaths and shake your hands in a corkscrew-like motion at your sides. Don't leave the safe area you're in, and keep close to where you were sitting/lying down before just in case you need to go back down suddenly.

-If it hits too hard while you're out somewhere and you need some form of navigational skills to get to quiet and safety, it can be extremely difficult. I lose all sense of direction when I'm high, and I once had to walk 2km home in the pouring rain at night in the downtown core, so I know how scary that can be. DO NOT PANIC. Do anything you can to calm yourself down, no matter what the public might think of you. Sing, whistle, do something that grounds you and is extremely familiar to your subconscious. I pretended I was in a first-person open-world game, so I put my hands out at the same distance I'd see in a game like Skyrim and walked like that, imagining quest markers in the forms of certain street names and familiar landmarks. I was still speed-walking at an unnatural pace, and paranoid about how loud the rain was all of a sudden, but I know my way around a video game, so I was able to trick my subconscious into thinking it was something we had been dealing with all our life and knew how to handle.

-THAT BEING SAID, if you really, really can't get ahold of yourself enough to get home safely, walk into the nearest public service building whether it be a store, a restaurant, a bank, what have you, and ask them to call the paramedics for you, because you are not in a position to accurately describe what's happening if you're that paranoid or off-kilter. Don't ask them to take you to the hospital, because you are not in a position to defend yourself if this stranger has ulterior motives, but in a public space, there are witnesses. And by god, PLEASE tell them it's marijuana. They're just trying to do their jobs, and need accurate information to help you calm down and ride it out in a safe place with medical help if necessary. They will not contact the authorities if weed isn't legalized in your area.

It's going to feel like an eternity, especially if you took edibles, and you're going to have some scary thoughts pop up, but you can get through it with certain strategies. The most important thing to remind yourself is that you WILL get through it.

[cyberneticlagomorph]

> 🔴 cyberneticlagomorph is live on caster

Music plays over a cute screen of a cute doodle of Jack sitting on an upturned teacup, kicking his legs peacefully. His eyes are closed, tail thumping contentedly.

Jack's voice comes in clear over the music as the chat in the corner of the screen starts to become lively as people log in, "Right, ok so... I'm doing things a little-- well, a lot different tonight."

A pause, and the cheerful music stops.

The stream changes then, to Jack sitting in a very lush vivarium with plenty of climbing trees and ledges and places to hide, Jack himself is sitting on a lush cushion on the ground, a long cord snaking away from his back and curling around to the monitors in front of him. He's got a handheld camera, that much is obvious at least.

"Tonight's stream is sponsored by the Lobotomy Corporation! These guys are doing me a solid and keeping me under close observation while I game tonight, so hopefully nothing horrible will happen this time... god I hope I didn't just jinx myself." He makes a sour face, after a beat he clears his throat, "Anyway... let's get this started, yeah? The site went down for maintenance last night, so we probably won't have any problems this time... hopefully."

He's visibly uncomfortable, maybe even afraid. The camera cuts off and we are met with that familiar splash screen. Jack logs in, the loading screen that follows is a sketchy drawing of something vast and terrible reaching up and up and up in order to devour the sun, Jack finds himself reading the tooltip text aloud, "Sand fallen, sun consumed, the War was all for nothing, our stuffing is the only softness left in this world - Stitches 5:24"

A shudder seems to rip through the entire stream, a concentrated wave of unease.

For a lot while there is only a heavy silence until the game finally loads in.

Jack's avatar is outside the doll hospital again, rocking back and forth in a cute idle animation. He can finally see the town around him, brightly lit by lanterns full of green fireflies. The streets are made of obnoxious bowling alley carpet, and the grass is an assortment of fluffy shag rugs.

The town itself is full of players wandering here and there, going into shops, and chatting with each other. Someone flying on an obnoxiously pink cloud swoops low enough to nearly decapitate Jack, he barely has time to duck. The sky is normal again, dark purple with green stars, and that sad, jagged moon hanging limply in the sky.

For the first time, he can hear the background music and it sets him at ease. He wanders away from the hospital, looking for something to do.

The cloud flyer swoops back around and coasts next to Jack, low enough to make polite conversation, "Sorry about almost running you over like that, I just got this thing and I'm still learning how to drive it..." her avatar is almost as pink as her cloud, some sort of frilly undead opossum with a skeletal tail and toothy mouth where her sternum should be, "You ok? You look kind of lost."

"Oh, uh, it's fine!" Jack stops, unsure of where he even wants to go, "I'm new, I just got past the weird door tunnel monster like, yesterday."

"The Snarl, you mean?" The possum tilts her head, "I'm Keerah by the way, but yeah the big scary boss thing at the start of the game is called the Snarl, you're supposed to try and run from it but it always catches you and you end up in this damsel in distress situation and black out it's An Ordeal!"

Silence, "I just sorta... ran straight at it?" Jack laughs awkwardly and fiddles with his claws. Keerah gawks.

"No way?? No... way??? You can DO that??" She makes a disbelieving noise in the back of her throat, "Jeeze, that's probably what broke the game last night, you went full hero and confused it."

His head snaps up, "That can happen!?"

"No! No, I was just teasing, sorry." Keerah reaches over and pats Jack's paws, "The glitches have been a thing for awhile but they've never been this bad before, like sure sometimes an npc would lag out or something but never whatever the hell last night was." She shivers, "Hopefully maintenance fixed everything... so, where ya headed if you don't mind me asking?"

Jack just shrugs, trying to keep his mind off of the... everything, "Dunno, I'm like brand spanking new at all this, I don't even know what the main storyline is..."

"Oh that's because there really isn't one! Quests, plots, and character motivations all vary by server, so players have complete control over their play experience," she grins in a wistful kind of way, "Isn't it great?"

"Yeah... great... uh, where do I want to go if I want to take up a quest?" Might as well actually play the game instead of standing around, waiting to get spooked

Keerah points towards the massive Lego brick wall that seems to wrap around the entire town, "Head back towards the doll hospital and go north until you hit the barracks, you can't take any real quests until you learn how to fight, y'know how it is with these kinds of games..." she looks like she's turning to go at first but stops herself, "Oh! Before I forget, let's add each other as friends!"

She produces a cute pink coffin shaped smartphone and holds it out for Jack to take. There's a moment of awkward silence, "I don't... know how to do that yet."

"Just check your pockets, it's ok, this game really hates holding your hand when it comes to mechanics, everyone was a confused noob once in their life!" Keerah smiles again and the caster chat fills with heart emojis. Jack will now die for this complete stranger.

He finds his pockets, and his phone, along with the prescription bag he got from Ribbon. He hands it to Keerah and watches her enter her information into his contacts the same way one would do a normal phone.

Cool, not everything in here is ridiculous then.

The phones are swapped back and the two part ways.

The barracks aren't hard to find, a squat Lego brick building sprouting from the inside of the huge wall like a tumor.

It's dim inside, and crowded with new players sparring against each other. Some with swords, some with magic.

Others seem to bend the darkness to their will.

Another player let's out an ear splitting cry and sends their sparring partner flying through a nearby wall.

"Well... looks like I'm in the right place..." Jack muses. A mangled looking stuffed dog strides up to him, missing an eye and more patches than plush, his fur has been stained camo print and he looks deeply unpleasant to be around.

"You there!" He barks, the remaining fluff on his top lip looks like a droopy mustache, "What's your business here?"

"I came to train!" Jack barks right back, the old dog looks taken aback but just starts to laugh heartily.

"Well then, why didn't you say so! Welcome, new recruit to the first day of your new life in service to Haven and all those who live safe within her walls, my name is Sargent Barker and it's my job to whip limp ragdolls like you into shape!" Barker turns quick on his heel and marches away, "Come along now, we don't have all night."

Jack follows, his excitement evident in the way he wiggles, bouncing up into a rare binky. Barker stands before a wall covered in weapons, each polished so bright that Jack can see his reflection.

"Now then, I can't train you until I know what you want to be, so go ahead and pick whatever speaks to you, and we'll go from there." The old army dog stands aside, hands behind his back. He's wearing little polished black boots on his feet, that's not entirely important to the situation right now, but Jack things it's awful cute...

The wall glimmers with promise and dulls with the dust of heros past. Jack stands there, trying to decide, while the chat loses its entire mind trying to get him to pick the sick looking anime sword in the top right. His hand ghosts over the one thing that looks out of place, a bandaid with a smeared lipstick print on it. He looks at Barker, and the Sargent tilts his head, "Ah... the Ragged, toys that have been loved to death by their humans and are now more patches than fluff..." he clears his throat, "Not that I'd know anything about that! They're a peculiar class of folk, can heal themselves as well as their friends on the field of battle, and they know more than anyone how to strike down the Fears that plague mankind, would you like to be one of them?"

A pause. That didn't sound like him at all, he broke things, he didn't fix them! He was a manmade monster, not fucking Mercy! He opened his mouth to reply to Barker when the cheerful background music slammed to a literal screeching halt. The entire world seemed to bend and slant, like a cardboard box in a trash compactor. The npcs lost their textures, t-posing brokenly as their heads twitched and snapped back in ways that shouldn't be possible.

"Another glitch, hopefully it will pass." The fear in Jack's voice is evident, he can taste his own lies.

None of the players seem to be able to move, just standing there, helplessly watching as the world becomes flat and colorless. Textures and lighting melting away until there is nothing but the bare framework of the game all around them. Escape is impossible, any attempts to log out fills the screen with endless error messages.

Jack swore and screamed, but made no sound.

The ground beneath them all became a chasm yet again. That same impossibly black pit that stretched forever and ever.

Hands snaking up through the emptiness, grabbing players the way one plucks fruits from the vine.

Long and disfigured fingers with far too many joints wrapped around Jack, leaving him only slivers to see through.

Down.

Down.

Down.

The darkness swallowed him whole and the entire stream suddenly goes dark.

[x-spooks]

Just Right. (Got7 AU) Ep. 3

We’re skipping back to your POV. You’re getting ready for your performance.

A phone screen was shoved in your face, "Dad wants to talk to you." Gun said with a pleased tone. You glanced to the make-up artist who was hiding the pink in your skin with blueish grey, "One moment please," you asked as you took the phone. He nodded and stepped away to give you a little privacy. "Dad?" You asked politely while taking in your transformation. You looked like you had just stepped out of a warring fairy vs. demon manga. Your navy hair was styled in soft beach waves with random braids through out. It was tugged into a half up, half down situation. The purple circle lens weren't only making your eyes itch. They were freaking you out. Your dad's voice ripped you out of your thoughts. "Inez-Mi," his dad tone gave away everything. 1.) He was livid. 2.) He was about to pull out his I'm-in-charge card. 3.) You were fucked. "You are going to do as I say without complain and without faltering even a step." You looked away from your reflection and up to Gun's satisfied face, annoyed. "It wasn't as horrific as Gun had explained." You offered in your defense. "Do not interrupt me!" He yelled. You narrowed your new creepy eyes on Gun and mouthed I'm going to kill you. He got the messaged and took a half step back. "You will offer your gold cuff while making a promise of protection from yourself and others. You will extend your hand and kiss the palm while bowing deeply to JB." "What!" You leapt out of the make-up chair keeping your eyes fixed on Gun, "No." You snapped in English. "The reverse offering is for a Temple not some prick I already said sorry too." "You will do as you are told." He growled in Hangul. "It is arranged." Click. You briefly glanced at the screen to see if he had really hung up on you. Yep. Your eyes returned to Gun. Tears of rage threatened to ruin your make-up. You looked up to the ceiling while extending your hand with his phone in it. He reached out to grab it but You let it slip from your fingers. The loud hollow crunch of metal and cracking of glass might've made you smile in any other situation. "Was that necessary?" Song-I annoyingly high voice demanded. She walked further into the green room tent in her modern take of the Korean Goddess, Hae-Soo. She gracefully sat herself in a chair. You were about to comment on Song-I existence not being necessary when Gun spoke up, "Nyx's eyes aren't used to her contacts." He knelt and snatched his phone off the floor. He expected it carefully as he rose. "It'll take time." "Like everything else," Song-I huffed. Her honey brown eyes fixed on You. Ignoring her, You finally looked at your reflection. Everything was still in place. You sat back in the chair. The make-up artist came back over to finish his masterpiece. It only took another twenty minutes before he was done. He slid the last layer of black liquid lipstick across your pouters lips. "Try not to smile or bump your lips together until it dries," he advised with a smile. You bowed to him in thanks. "Goddess's don't bow to mere mortals," he joked as he stepped aside so You could see your reflection. You completely forgot what he had told you as you took yourself in. Your mouth dropped open. You were unrecognizable. You looked like one of those gorgeous slightly scary fae warriors. The shire navy/purple fabrics which cuffed your wrists and draped up to your shoulders of your Greek Goddess costume caught the light beautifully. Your costume played with the fine line of feminine and warrior. If Xena and Disneys Hades had a baby, it would look just like you. All the gold accents were silver expect the wide hammered cuff arm bracelet. A crescent moon was engraved in its center. You tilted your head side to side to take it all in. Your smile was so white compared to your skin. You suddenly wished you had snap in fangs. Maybe next time. "Don't forget this." You turned to see Minyoung in her Eopsin costume with Nyx's crown in her gold painted hands. Her red gown and hair pin were far more traditional than Song-I’s Hae-Soo. You bent low at the knees to help Eopsin place the crown on your head. It was less of a laurel wreath and more of a delicate silver tiara with a crescent moon dangling just above the middle of your brows. There were deep sapphires and obsidian placed in all the right places. Once it was clipped in, You rose with a soft smile touching your lips, "Thank you." "Five minutes!" A random staff member called. Your purple gaze glanced around the room, "Sayuri (Venus) and Suelin (Mazu) where are you?" Authority deepened your voice. The two missing goddesses rushed into the tent. They exchanged an odd look with Hea-Soo (Song-I). "Please." You motioned for everyone to come to the middle of the tent. "Even staff." Your black gladiator sandals walked to the center of the forming crowd. You couldn’t help rolling her eyes at Hea-Soo (song-i) and a few staff members who stayed where they were. "I want to thank you all so much for your time and energy. Goddess wouldn't exist without your determination, patience, and kindness. I will not let you down!" You called over the hum of excitement forming in the tent. Hea-soo (song-i) stood saying something under her breath and left. You arched a well manicured navy brow in suspicion. But the excitement of the tent spilled over you. "Fighting!" You wrapped your right arm around Mazu (Suelin) shoulders, who grabbed Venus's (Sayuri), who motioned for Eopsin (Minyoung). Eopsin (minyoung) came through the crowd to the center. She let Venus (sayuri) captured her with one arm while the other caught hold of your waist. You bowed forward, "Thank you." You whispered to your members. "Mazu remember to take a long breath on the second chorus." Mazu nodded. Your eyes moved to Venus, "Don't let Hae-soo steal your light." You tried to be firm, but causal. "She isn't our sun." "Two minutes!" You smiled to Eopsin, "Fighting?" "Fighting." They broke the circle with a loud fighting. You led the way out of the tent. The stylist team tweaked all of your costumes as Goddess approached the stage. Hae-soo fell into line at the last possible second. You narrowed your eyes on her. She was going to have to be put in her place. So Stupid, you thought annoyed.   JYP walked past Goddess with a nod of approval. Everyone bowed deeply. He stopped just in front of you. He took in your revealing costume with greedy eyes, "Ready?" He asked plainly. You rose from your bow and met his eyes, "We shall do our best." "Let's hope so." He commented dryly as he scaled the steps and found his mark on the stage. The spot light followed him to where he was standing, "Hello everyone," he smiled. The buzz of the crowd turned into a roar. You looked to Hae-Soo making sure she hadn't run off again. She was still there. "Oh...the sun is setting." JYP's voice took on an awed tone. What an actor, You thought sarcastically as he continued to introduce them. Eopsin, Hae-soo, Mazu then Venus flowed to the stage with a calmness that only experience offered. They spoke to Temple and the press. The staff ushered you to a platform under the stage that would spring you up and out from the darkest part. You were to land in the middle under a beam of purple light. The sun was just dipping under the Han river when a random staff member cued you. A smile took over your features while you crouched down. The mechanics let loose, jolting you up and out. You landed in a super hero stance a few centimeters from the edge of the stage as if the platform was wired to fling you into the crowd.

The crowd screamed with excitement.

You slowly rose to your full height. The purple beam rushed to light your silhouette. You tried to be un-faze, but your heart was suddenly sputtering from fear. "Who dare summon the Goddess of Night and Mother of the most gruesome Monsters?!" You yelled in Hangul to the crowd and whipped around to your fellow members. Venus was under a pink light and Hae-soo was under yellow. They both flinched back scared while Mazu under white stepped forward, "Sister," she slightly bowed, "we summoned you." The other Goddesses followed suit. "Why?" you growled low into your mic. Eopsin's red beam of light shifted as she rose from her bow with a sad expression, "We need you. We need guidance and protection." She stepped forward. "We lost Hera." Venus offered remembering her line. Venus refused to look at you. You walked towards Hae-Soo and stopped just before your beam of light touched Hers. You cocked your head to the side. "A Goddess of the Sun, of Love, of Wealth, and a Queen of the Heavens."  You looked to all the Goddesses with little interest. You turned to the crowd and slowly strolled to the spot where you were supposed to land. "Shall I aid them?" You asked sincerely. "Do they deserve my protection?" You crouched down towards the crowd whispering into your mic. You looked over your shoulder suspiciously to the Goddesses. Temple was cheering yes. ”They do...?" You asked doubtful. Your eyes moved back to the crowd, "What of my Guidance? Do they deserve it?" Temple screamed yes. "As you wish my Temple." You said reluctantly and with such disdain. The music was cued. The five beams of light shot out to the crowd. They landed on random Temples expect Yours. Yours was bulls eyed on JB’s chest who was of course at the back. Luckily the beams were scattered so it didn't look like yours was too deliberate. The stage lights were switched off. You slowly stood up. The other Goddesses exited the stage the way they had entered. The lights were flicked back to life. To an empty stage besides you. You walked to the edge of the stage and did a front flip off. You landed just in front of the barrier. Temple gasped and awed at your little trick. You hopped over the metal barrier with four body guard in tow. They were dress as monsters with gore prostatic and black cloaks covering their clothes. The crowd gladly parted for you, the other Goddess's and their guards on their way to their randomly picked Temples.

[dvp95]

quiet on widow’s peak (5)

pairing: dan howell/phil lester, pj liguori/sophie newton/chris kendall rating: teen & up tags: paranormal investigator, mystery, online friendship, slow burn, strangers to lovers, nonbinary character, trans character, background poly, phil does some buzzfeed unsolved shit and dan is a fan word count: 3.3k (this chapter), 16.8k (total) summary: Phil’s got a list of paranormal experiences a mile long that he likes to share with the world. Abandoned buildings, cemeteries, and ghost stories have always called his name, and a particular fan of his has a really, really good ghost story.

read this chapter on ao3 or here!

"I don't know what I'm supposed to be looking at."

"Oh, for the love of - you're holding it upside down, Christopher, that's why you -"

"How is this my fault? Why don't you have your screen rotation enabled? ...I still don't know what the fuck this is a picture of."

"You are so - Phil. Hey, Phil? Hello?"

Long fingers snap in front of Phil's nose and he startles a bit, almost upending his hot chocolate all over the table. He gives PJ a reproachful sort of look, embarrassed about being caught zoning out.

"Hi, what," says Phil.

PJ glowers at him. "You can get his number later. Pay attention, you lump, this is your job."

"I wasn't," Phil starts to protest, but there's no real use in lying to PJ. He sighs and takes PJ's phone from Chris. "What are we arguing about? You got some photos?"

"Yes," PJ says. In his exasperation, he looks and sounds uncannily like a substitute teacher dealing with a group of kids that are being difficult on purpose. It's a little funny, but - PJ drove them here. Phil isn't going to risk getting abandoned for laughing at him.

Phil squints at the screen. He tilts his head to the side. He tilts the phone to the other side.

"I don't know what I'm looking at," he admits. "It just looks like graffiti to me, Peej, and that's not exactly unusual."

"Graffiti of what?" PJ presses.

"Geometry homework?"

Before PJ can scold him for not taking this seriously enough, Phil gets distracted by Winnie's sudden cackle. His head turns in the direction of the noise like a dog hearing a whistle, and PJ kicks him.

"I swear," PJ starts.

"Sorry," Phil says quickly, "it's just that - that's the person who sent us the essay on this place."

He doesn't expect subtlety from his friends, because he knows better, but he does have some hope in the back of his mind that immediately gets dashed when Chris claps his hands together excitedly, Sophie almost leans right off her chair trying to get a look at Winnie, and PJ stands up.

"What are you doing?" Sophie asks, but PJ is already taking his phone out of Phil's hand and walking to the counter.

Phil buries his face in his hands and watches through his fingers as PJ slides his phone over the counter and says, "Hey, uh - it’s Dan, right? Will you take a look at this for me?"

Winnie glances up from where they're wiping down the espresso machine and makes eye contact with Phil before they look at PJ. They smile, a little bemused, and pick up PJ's offered phone. They tilt it a couple of different angles with a frown. Phil can't help but notice how their hand covers the large phone with ease.

"See, Peej," Chris calls over. Their table isn’t far enough from the counter to justify the way he practically shouts it, but Phil has already given up on looking normal in front of Winnie. "None of us know what the bloody hell it is, just tell us!"

"They look like," Winnie says slowly, "sigils."

"That's exactly what they are," says PJ. He shoots a triumphant sort of look over his shoulder. Phil rolls his eyes. He doesn't understand why PJ had to make a whole production out of something that he could have texted them when they were still in the house.

With another little smile, Winnie hands PJ's phone back over. "Guessing that was in the Wilkins place?"

"It was," PJ says, sounding a bit distracted all of a sudden. "Sidebar, I really like your nails."

PJ wiggles the fingers on his left hand to show off his own gaudy, bright blue polish, and Winnie's smile widens. They've got such soft cheeks, indented with dimples that Phil wants to poke at.

As if they can hear Phil's thoughts, Winnie's eyes flicker over to him again.

They’re talking to PJ, and the conversation is loud enough for Phil to hear - in theory. The problem, of course, is that he keeps zoning out completely when the soft lighting catches the glitter high on Winnie’s cheeks or they gesture with their big, distracting hands. Phil could honestly not figure out if PJ and Winnie are talking about nail polish or the Wilkins house or some other topic entirely, because he’s too busy watching Winnie laugh.

This is definitely going to be a problem. Winnie isn’t a pretty boy, and Phil knows that, whatever his stupid gay monkey brain says when he looks at them. He can unpack whatever this pull of attraction means when he isn’t, technically, working.

“Why would there be sigils on the attic floor?” Phil asks, more to get his own brain on track than to interrupt whatever’s going on at the counter. He turns to Chris and Sophie, who shrug in eerie unison. “That’s weird, right? Maybe people are just bored and trying to scare the locals.”

“Or people are summoning spooky, scary things,” Chris suggests. He’s grinning wide and wiggling his fingers, so Phil has no idea if he’s being serious. Chris is always like that, riding the edge of sarcasm so far that Phil has known him for two years and yet doesn’t know for sure if the guy believes in ghosts or not.

PJ does. He doesn’t even pretend to be down to earth at the best of times, and listening to weird noises on Phil’s computer always gets him in peak conspiracy form.

“I think the better question is why did we have to leave right away?” Sophie hums, stirring her drink. She’s long since shucked off her jacket and curled up on the chair like she’s at home, firelight reflecting off her eyes and earrings. “Did he recognise them?”

“Bet he just freaked,” says Chris.

“Peej doesn’t freak.”

“Bet he did this time. Bet he went up into the attic and it was all spider-y and creepy and he freaked at the first sign of prior human life.”

“Sigils mean things,” Phil says, pulling out his laptop. “They’re not just random shapes.”

“They do, but they also are.”

Phil’s head jerks up at the sound of Winnie’s voice, suddenly so much closer. Winnie is standing awkwardly beside their table, in the process of taking Chris’ empty mug away, and their cheeks flush a soft rosy colour when they make eye contact with Phil.

“What do you know about them?” Chris asks, leaning forward in clear interest.

It takes a beat for Winnie’s eyes to leave Phil’s. “A bit,” they say.

PJ sets a new drink in front of Chris and ruffles Sophie’s curls as he sits down, and Phil wonders what they look like to a complete outsider. He’ll have to message Winnie later and ask what they think is going on here.

Maybe it’s easier if you don’t know them, actually. Maybe there’s a very simple answer that Phil is unable to see past all the strange noises he’s heard through the thin walls of the Brighton house and the cuddle piles he’s walked in on and the way Chris openly flirts with him at any given opportunity.

Phil doesn’t understand the look that passes between Chris and PJ. That’s nothing new, really, but something about this one unsettles him. He wants to know what they’re thinking, because if it’s something to do with Winnie, it feels like Phil has the right to know.

“Right,” says Chris. He’s got the sort of dubious expression that he usually reserves for when he’s asking if Phil ate the rest of the biscuits.

“What?” Phil asks.

“Nothing,” Chris says convincingly, giving Phil a winning smile. It’s always a little disconcerting to watch Chris pull up and discard personas as easily as if he were changing scarves. Something about it feels different to the way Phil gets when he retreats into himself and puts up his walls, because all Phil is ever trying to do is deflect, deflect, deflect, but Chris is more of an actor, and a good one at that. Phil doesn’t think he’s ever seen a side of Chris that wasn’t intentionally put there.

Sometimes he wonders how well he knows these people that he shares so much of his life with. He wonders how well they know him.

Phil turns back to Winnie to see if anything about the exchange made them uncomfortable, but they’ve gotten sufficiently distracted by Phil’s laptop screen. They snort and give Phil a sideways sort of glance.

“I don’t think that’ll get you very far, mate,” they say.

The Google search in front of Phil simply says ‘what sigils’.

“I wasn’t finished,” Phil huffs. He backspaces the question entirely and taps his fingers on the edge of his keyboard.

“Hi, I’m Sophie,” Sophie says in that soft, soothing voice of hers. She smiles up at Winnie. “The drink is delicious, thank you.”

“Oh, er,” Winnie says, clearly caught off-guard by the unexpected politeness. They bite their lower lip and shift from one foot to the other, still holding an empty mug to their chest. “You’re welcome. Had a lot of practice. You can call me Dan, if you like.”

They look to Phil when they say that, and Phil has to look away before those brown eyes draw him in again.

“Dan,” Phil says, because he can’t help himself. He wants to know how the name feels in his mouth and it’s a little strange, actually, how well it seems to fit there. He gestures across the table before he can start to overthink in public again. “Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dum over here are Chris and PJ. And you know my name.”

“You’re Tweedle-Dum,” Chris informs PJ solemnly.

“Hi,” Dan says, giving them an awkward little salute.

“You seem to know more about this than we do,” Sophie says, gesturing at the empty chair at the head of the table. “Care to talk us through it? If you’re not too busy, that is.”

Dan raises their eyebrows and pointedly looks around the quiet, empty coffee shop. Their coworker has her headphones in and looks like she’s in danger of falling asleep against the cash register.

“I think I’ve got some time,” they say, dry, and set the empty mug down as they sit.

--

Twenty minutes later, and Phil is no closer to understanding the symbols scratched into the Wilkins attic floorboards. He learns several other things, like the theory behind chaos magic, the etymology of the word ‘sigil’, and, inexplicably, Dan’s opinion on impressionist art, but he doesn’t follow half of the paths that Dan’s rambling wanders down.

It’s cute to watch, at least. They get so worked up and gesticulate wildly, and it makes Phil wonder if they have any idea what they look like when they do that. He has to hold onto his mug to stop himself from mirroring the gestures.

Phil glances around at his friends to see if anyone is following this ‘explanation.’ Sophie’s got a little crease between her eyebrows and Chris is just looking at Dan, a little slack-jawed, but PJ is nodding along.

“Exactly,” PJ says when Dan pauses to take a breath.

“Fucking what?” Chris asks. Phil is unreasonably glad that he doesn’t have to be the one to say something. He’s just as lost as Chris is. “Sorry, but what the fuck? What did any of that even mean? Did I have a stroke halfway through that?”

Dan looks sheepish, the rosy patch on their cheek deepening and spreading until their whole face is pink. Phil finds himself fascinated by it, but he really doesn’t want Dan to feel like they’re being annoying or anything when they’re just being kind of helpful and very cute. Their teeth dig into their lower lip again, and Phil idly wonders if Dan has ever heard of chapstick. The shiny lip product they’re wearing doesn’t seem to be helping with the dryness the way Phil would have expected it to.

“Sorry,” they say, suddenly much quieter. They link their fingers together like they’re stopping themself from talking with them again. “So, it’s like… you can’t really look up what these mean, because that’s not how sigils work. They’re not runes or, like, Gallifreyan, there’s no dictionary out there telling you what every sigil ever means. The person who creates them is the one who makes them up, like…”

They pull a small notebook out of their apron and Phil hands over a pen from his bag without thinking twice. Dan gives him a small smile, still seeming embarrassed now that they’ve been confronted with Chris’ blunt confusion.

The notebook is full of small doodles and indecipherable bullet points when Dan flips through it to find an empty page. Phil is surprised by how much he wants to look closer, but he’s got this pull in his stomach that he’s pretty sure has been there since he first heard Dan laugh. He wants to know Dan better. It’s been a long time since he wanted to know anyone at all, because, well, Phil and new people are very un-mixy things.

Phil and his friends all lean closer to watch as Dan taps the pen against the page thoughtfully. “Okay,” they say, “one of you, tell me something you want in your own life.”

“I want a dog,” Sophie says immediately.

“Me too,” Dan grins, their dimples on full display. “What kind of dog?”

“Small. Definitely fluffy. I don’t really mind about different breeds or anything.”

“Okay,” says Dan. They write SOPHIE HAS A SMALL FLUFFY DOG THAT SHE LOVES at the top of the page in block letters. “You don’t say you want something, you say you have it already. I’m guessing you guys have heard about speaking things into existence? It’s kind of like that.”

This whole system is foreign to Phil, but having a visual is helping a lot. “How does that become what PJ found in the attic?” Phil asks, curious.

“First, you take out the vowels,” PJ is the one to say. Dan gives PJ a bright smile that has Phil feeling a pang of something he doesn’t have a name for. “Then all the double letters. It breaks the sentence down into just a few consonants, right? That way you can use them as a kind of base, I think.”

“That’s exactly right,” says Dan. “At least, as far as I know? Like, I don’t know every type of sigil and method of creating them that’s ever existed or anything, I just get lost in Wikipedia sometimes.”

Underneath the first sentence, they write SPH HS SMLL FLFFY DG THT SH LVS, and then S P H M L F Y D G T V under that. The breakdown is a lot easier for Phil to follow than just listening to Dan ramble, as long as he doesn’t get too distracted by Dan’s long fingers around the pen.

“‘Y’ is a vowel,” says Chris.

Dan shrugs. “This is just an example, anyway. So then you’re supposed to make the sigil out of the base letters, like -”

They sketch out a couple of messy attempts, their tongue poking between their teeth in concentration, and Phil is fascinated by watching the letters get more and more abstract until they resemble something like a single image.

It doesn’t look exactly like the ones on the floorboards, but Phil thinks that’s probably some combination of artistic liberty and individual thought patterns on how letters can fit together into a single symbol. PJ holds his hand out for the pen and draws his own take on the same sigil, and the rounded preciseness of his lettering next to Dan’s spiky, symmetrical finished product is really interesting to look at.

“Then you’re supposed to forget it and activate it,” PJ informs the table. “Although that order doesn’t make much sense to me.”

“That’s really cool,” Sophie says softly, reaching out to press her fingers against PJ’s sigil.

“It is cool,” Dan agrees. “But that’s what I mean - they are random, in a way. You’re never going to be able to look at those sigils and, like, reverse-engineer them until they have a meaning.”

“Which is exactly why I needed to get out of there,” PJ says, more triumphantly than Phil thinks he has any right to. Yeah, this is interesting and everything, but Phil doesn’t think it proves anything at all. “Because who knows what someone summoned into that place!”

Dan snorts. They look up at PJ through those long, dark eyelashes and give him such a skeptical look that Phil has to hold back laughter. “Nobody summoned anything, mate,” they say. “This is a load of rubbish, same as any other type of ‘magic’. I just think it’s fun to read about when I can’t sleep.”

The look of absolute betrayal on PJ’s face sends Phil over the edge, and he’s laughing before he can stop himself.

“Okay, okay,” Phil says between giggles. “This isn’t a debate forum. You two can argue about this later. So we kind of know what the symbols are but also we don’t, and they’re more or less a dead lead. What I am hearing is that PJ did, in fact, get freaked.”

“Ha!” Chris crows. He sticks his palm out towards Sophie, leaning into PJ’s personal space to do so. “Pay up, Newts.”

“I didn’t make a bet. You did.”

“Still! I won!”

PJ smacks at Chris’ hand and scowls around the table. “I didn’t freak. I don’t freak. I just think we should be on alert in a place that is covered in creepy sigils that could do anything at all to us and our environment.”

“There’s nothing they could do,” Dan says, seemingly unable to help themself. “They’re doodles.”

“We shouldn’t be there without some kind of protection,” PJ insists.

“What d’you suggest?” Phil hums, already typing up some notes for future Phil to look at later. He knows he’ll forget something core if he doesn’t do it now. “Holy water? I don’t know any priests.”

He’s teasing, just a little bit, because PJ’s steadfast determination to live on a planet where impossible things happen every day is very funny.

“No, that’s for demons,” Chris pipes up, cheerful and half-sarcastic as always. “These are witches!”

“You’re the demons,” PJ says flatly.

Phil reaches across the table and pats PJ’s hand without looking away from his screen. “If it’ll make you feel better, you can Sharpie some protection sigils on us before we go in next time. I need to see the attic for myself, but I definitely got a weird vibe just being in that place.”

“Dan,” the girl behind the counter calls over. She’s long given up on pretending to work at all, and has been watching something on her phone the entire time that Dan’s been talking to them, but Dan still startles like they’ve been caught out doing something they shouldn’t. “Sorry, but it’s quarter to. We gotta start closing up.”

“Right, yeah,” Dan says, sounding a little flustered. They stand up and start collecting all the empty mugs on the table. When they reach Phil’s mostly-full hot chocolate, they raise an eyebrow.

“I don’t really like hot chocolate,” Phil admits. He gives Dan a little grin. “Maybe I’ll come back tomorrow and try the coffee?”

He can only imagine what his friends’ expressions look like right now. He doesn’t bother checking, even when Dan’s pretty eyes flick over to them momentarily.

“Okay,” says Dan. Their shiny, chapped lips stretch into a wide smile. “I won’t be working, actually, but… I can stop by if you guys - I dunno. Want another set of eyes? Ones that don’t jump immediately to ghosts and witches, perhaps?”

“Sure,” Phil agrees before his friends can give their input on the matter. “I’ll message you.”

Dan ducks their head in a surprisingly shy gesture for a person who takes up so much physical space. Their eyelids glitter like their cheeks, their nails, their lovely eyes, and Phil might be a little screwed, here.

[tommybaholland]

Far From You | Peter Parker x reader

(:((( gif is not mine)

READ “After Ashes” FIRST 

Summary: what happens after defeating Thanos?

Word Count: 4K+

warnings: angst, swearing, post-Endgame, ffh spoilers 

a/n: phewww finally got this donE...i’ve been thinking about it ever since i saw ffh so im real excited to finally have written it and am now sharing it w you :’). this is also for @plushparker ‘s 2K writing challenge congrats bby!! 

Prompt: “I’d never forgive myself if anything happened to you.” 

––––––––––––––––––––

“We wait for Mr. Stark to save us.” 

And so you waited, you and Peter. 

It was pretty agonizing, to say the least. There was nothing to do but wait. You and Peter were completely alone, surrounded by orange. 

“How many people do you think are also trapped here?” You asked as you cradled Peter’s head in your lap.

“Thanos said he’d wipe out half of Earth’s population, so a lot,” Peter responded with his eyes shut, enjoying the sensation of your hand playing with his hair mindlessly. 

You looked up, scanning the orange horizon, still seeing nothing. 

“Where is everyone? It’s just us here,” You noted.

“I’m not sure. Maybe everyone has their own section of the stone,” Peter proposed, opening his eyes to see your reaction. 

You smiled, chuckling. “Then it’s kind of a miracle that we got to have our own little section together.”

Peter smiled back, sitting up and turning to lean towards you. 

“Yeah, it kind of is,” he agrees.

He leans in slightly to give you a small kiss, with his suit-covered hand on you shoulder while yours came up to cradle the back of his neck. 

It was scary, that unknown feeling. You might be gone forever, and never see Ned or MJ or your parents again. Peter may never see May or Tony again. You may never get to experience life, or living, ever again. 

It was a hard pill you might have to swallow. 

But being alone Peter was enough to get you through it, for now. 

Pulling back slowly, you opened your eyes to admire your whole world, smiling at the tiny details around his eyes as you stayed close to one another. 

Suddenly Peter looked behind him, as if he were anticipating something. 

“Peter? What is it?”

He looked around the orange space, searching for the threat that triggered his senses, the little pulses vibrating throughout his body. 

“Something’s...happening,” he voiced before lowering his eyes back to you, making sure you were okay. 

You felt something on your hands, tickling in between your fingers. Looking down, your eyes widened as you saw your hands begin to crumble into dust.

“Peter! Wha—what’s—” 

Your breaths became heavy as you tried to reach out to him, frantic that you would lose him again. 

“I—I,” Peter didn’t know how to respond to what was happening. He watched as tears fell from your eyes, his heart breaking at the sight. 

But he wanted to remain calm for you.

“I’ll find you, babe, okay? It’ll be okay. It’s going to be okay. You’re alright,” he soothed, his arms enclosing around you as you nodded.

“Peter,” you sobbed before the remaining parts of you blew away, reduced to nothing but dust. 

Peter’s senses continued to pulsate through him, and he waited for something to strike, to explode, to end. 

He assumed his attack position, crouched down with a fist pulled back, ready to strike whatever was coming. 

“C’mon, Mr. Stark.” 

The orange soon began to fade, and Peter let out several short breaths, hyping himself up for the finishing fight with Thanos. 

“This is it.”

��

You woke up in a startled panic. Sitting up moments after you opened your eyes, your saw that you were back in your room, laying on your bed. 

You surveyed the space, seeing that not much had changed physically, but the atmosphere was almost haunting. All of your belongings were left untouched, unmoved, unloved. Everything seemed normal, but a dull normal. 

Getting up from your spot on the bed, you went over to the window to look out at the city. Lights in apartment buildings were on, cars were moving, and the night was still young. It was almost as if you dreamt the whole thing, and at this point you were considering it. 

You felt uneasy.

After everything that happened, everything that Peter told you happened, something had to be different. Walking over to your desk, you looked at your pictures on the wall. Pictures of you and your friends, pretty places, you and Peter. 

Was Peter any different? Did they actually do it? 

Turning back to your bed, you reached over the mattress with haste to grab your phone, the screen lighting up to show the current date. 

April 27, 2023 

You eyes widened as you clapped a hand on your forehead. 

You were gone for five years??!

It seemed like only hours, a school day at most, in the soul stone. 

You unlocked your phone, clicking your way to call the last person you saw. 

“Please, please, c’mon..”

“Hey, this is Peter! Leav-“ 

“Fuck,” you swore as you pulled the phone away from your ear, the call disconnecting, your phone shutting off from low battery. 

Talk about major deja vu. Except maybe Peter would come back this time. Or maybe you wouldn’t find him in some unfamiliar place as a prisoner to an alien who wanted half of humanity dead only to come back finding out that you’d been gone five years. 

You sat on the edge of the bed, staring back up at the wall of photos. You weren’t even looking at them, just staring. You didn’t know what to do with yourself. The desensitization kicking in, you passed time easily and quietly. 

You eventually decided to exit your room to see if your parents were there or not. You didn’t even know if they had been in the stone with you. You had no way of knowing who was there with you. Turns out they had been snapped too, leading to you explaining everything you knew about what happened. 

After catching up with your parents, you went back in to your room, you intentions set on sleeping on it. Upon opening your door, you flinched as you discovered Peter, who was sitting on the edge of your bed just as you had done earlier. 

“Peter!” 

You exclaimed as he stood up quickly and taking a few steps to meet your embrace, tightly hugging you around the waist. Your cheek felt cool against the surface of his iron suit as you leaned your head on his shoulder. 

“Oh my god, what happened? Did you win? Is Thanos gone? Is everyone okay?? Did you know that we were gone for five years?” You threw out a bunch of questions as you released him, getting a good look at him for the first time since he showed up in your room. 

He looked like he had just stepped off the battlefield. Messy hair, dirt-smudged face, and glossy eyes adorned his features. He didn’t respond for a few moments, just looking as you as if he was trying to conjure the right words. 

“Yeah,” he finally replied, stepping back to reclaim his position on your bed.

“We won. He’s gone.” 

You followed his lead, sitting next to him, turning towards him with one knee up on the mattress. 

“You don’t...seem too happy about it,” you commented on his forlorn tone. 

You placed a hand on his shoulder, trying to get his attention. 

“How does it feel to win your first fight as an Avenger?” 

You tried to perk him up, not understanding what was causing him so much...anguish. 

He turned his head towards, reluctant to meet your eyes. 

“He’s gone.” 

“Yeah, P, Thanos is gone–“ 

“No,” he cut you off. You noticed tears surfacing in his eyes, darkening the chocolate brown color of the iris. Fear struck your heart trying to guess what he would say next. 

“Mr. Stark is gone.” 

You shook your head slightly, somewhat in disbelief. 

“Wha-“

“He’s gone, y/n! Mr. Stark is gone. He’s dead! And I-I didn’t–I didn’t—“ 

“Shh, Peter. It’s okay.” You shushed him, pulling his head down for him to cry into your shoulder. 

You smoothed down the hair in the back of his head, your other hand rubbing his back comfortingly.

“It shouldn’t have been him. I should’ve saved him, I should’ve–“ 

“Shh, it’s okay, babe. I’m sure you did everything you could to help,” you comforted. 

It was hard to see him like this, especially when you didn’t know exactly what went down during the final battle with Thanos. 

“Baby, let’s clean you up, get you out of this suit and lay down,” you offered, starting to move away from him. 

“Noooo,” he whimpered, pulling you closer to him, pressing his face deeper into your shoulder. 

“I just want you to hold me.” 

“Peter, let’s just lay you down so you can rest, okay?” 

Peter nodded into your shoulder, leaning his head up to let you move back to the head of your bed. Peter followed suit, crawling up to the other side of the bed beside you, wrapping your arms around him. You guided him to lay his head down on your chest, right over your heart. His arm was thrown over your waist, the cool metal of his fingers brushing over your hip. 

He relaxed, closing his eyes as he listened to the loud thump of your heart, feeling you fingers in his hair once again. You laid there, letting everything sink in, again. 

“Dr. Strange said there was only one chance for us to win,” Peter spoke up, his voice hoarse from crying. 

“Why did that one chance have to be the one that killed him?” 

It broke your heart that Peter watched the person he looked up to the most die. It wasn’t meant to be like this, or maybe it was. 

You didn’t know what to say or how to help him. You wish you had powers, and could take away his pain. But for now, all you could do was remain calm for him. 

“It’s going to be okay, P.” 

—

The next eight months would prove to be tough. On everyone. And starting over the school year after the Snap didn’t help. 

However, everyone who was gone adapted rather quickly once they came back. It was weird seeing people, friends and teachers, who survived the Snap and are now five years older. But you and everyone else soon returned to your day-to-day routines, acting almost like nothing happened. 

Peter had it the worst. 

You didn’t want to go with him to the funeral, wanting to spare yourself of the pain, but he wanted you to be there with him. He held onto your hand throughout the entire service, squeezing it every now and then to make sure you were still there. 

You didn’t know Tony too well, only having seen him a few times since he gave Peter the suit he made for him after Peter went to Germany. That was even before you knew he was Spider-Man, before you were dating. You though he was just a regular, nerdy cutie who liked to play with Legos and eat smushed sub sandwiches. 

And you still loved all that about him. 

But he was gone way too often and you were in way too deep to not figure it out, with the help of MJ. 

In a way, Tony brought you two together. Peter would always mention the “Stark Internship” and vaguely how he was working right alongside Tony and the Avengers. And even when his cover was blown, and that ended up to be mostly not true, Peter would still take every chance he could to impress Mr. Stark and protect the city. 

Peter was Spider-Man all on his own but meeting the high expectations of Tony Stark was what, he thought, made Spider-Man great and amazing. 

For the first few months, Peter was mopey and sad. You didn’t see him as much as you used to, even when you wanted to help him. But you had to admit, it took up a lot of your own energy to see him sad and trying to help him through it. 

You really didn’t feel like you were helping at all, and felt more like a burden to him, if anything. 

But for the last few months, he had gotten better. That spark in his eyes and the pep in his, now deeper, voice was coming back. He went out to patrol the city more and even made appearances at FEAST shelter charity events that Aunt May hosted. 

You knew he was still hurting. 

You knew he was trying to distract himself from the unfortunate end for Tony, those images of him dying right before Peter’s eyes. 

The school year was ending and the school science trip to Europe was coming up, and Peter couldn’t be more relieved. 

“We’re going to have so much fun and see all the famous parts of the world!” He beamed laying next to you one night after going out on his nightly patrols. 

You hated to mention it but it was itching at your mind. 

“What if someone here needs help while we’re gone, or while we’re on the trip?” 

Peter picked his head up off your shoulder, leaning on his elbow to look at you. 

“Well...I was thinking…” he began, his eyes shifting from yours. “I’m not gonna take the suit.” 

You knew he had been through a rough spot, but you thought he was starting to enjoy having these abilities and using them for good again. 

“But you love being Spider-Man.” 

“Yeah, I do, babe, but I just need a break. I just want to be Peter Parker, going on vacation and enjoying it with my friends and making out with my beautiful girlfriend at the top of the Eiffel Tower.”

You giggled as he got closer to you, hovering over to bring his lips to yours for a few sweet kisses. 

“You’ll always be Peter Parker to me,” you replied, pulling back slightly but still close enough to see the small, minute details of his pretty face. 

He smiled and continued to kiss you, enjoying hearing your laugh as his lips tickled your cheek and neck. He thought about all the plans he had for you on this trip, some of which you knew nothing about.

He sold all his Star Wars figurines and memorabilia to make money and buy you a glass blown necklace in Venice with an orchid charm, your favorite flower. He wanted to give it to you in Paris, at the top of the Eiffel Tower, the most romantic spot in the world.  

He’s told you ‘I love you’ before but he wanted this time to be special. 

Truthfully, he felt like he had neglected you. You were there for him through it all and he wanted you to know that he appreciated that. He really loved you, everything about you. 

—

The trip was not going well for Peter. 

The first day in Venice was alright and he was somehow able to sneak away for a moment to get the necklace for you. It was prettier than he imagined and it would look even better when he’d put it on you. 

So it was going well, until that water monster thing showed up. And if it weren’t for Mysterio, he probably wouldn’t have been able to control the situation without his suit, which May packed, much to his dismay. 

Mysterio, or Beck, as Peter knew him, was the only good thing about Nick Fury inserting himself into the vacation. 

He understood and praised Peter for being a smart kid who was being bogged down a big responsibility. And you were happy listening to Peter talk about him as you walked together through the streets of Prague, making up for lost time. 

“So he had me try on the Edith glasses, right? And he was like ‘They look stupid’ so then I passed them over to him and he put them on and oh my god, y/n! He looked just like him,” Peter exclaimed.

You smiled at his beaming tone, enjoying that he was obviously excited to have another ‘super person’ he could be friends with.

“So then I thought, ‘It’s him’ and I gave Edith the confirmation to let Beck have command of the glasses. Isn’t that great, babe?”

You frowned slightly at the last part. “Why did you give Edith to him, again?”

“Because this is what Mr. Stark wanted me to do! He gave me the glasses so I could find the next Tony Stark. Don’t you see?”

“Peter, I think he gave you the glasses because he wanted you to have them,” you responded. 

He seemed to be overthinking it. Why wouldn’t he cherish something that was given to him by someone he cared for a lot?

“I’m not the next Iron Man, y/n, Beck is. He’s the only one who knows how to beat the Elementals, Nick Fury trusts him, he fits the Avengers to a T; he’s perfect!”

You shook your head. “I just, I don’t know about this, P. You haven’t known him for very long and since when does Nick Fury trust anyone?” 

“Listen, babe,” he answered, putting his hands on your shoulders. “It’s going to be okay, I have a good feeling about this. And if I didn’t, I would feel it.” 

You sighed. “I have something to show you.”

Taking off your backpack that you’d brought, you pulled out a small metal device that had some of Peter’s webs hanging off of it. 

You handed it to Peter as you began to explain. “I found it after you knocked it off of that fire thing. I don’t know what it is, but it seems...strange.”

Peter looked at it, thinking it looked like a light or something before it sparked, causing him to drop it. Hitting the ground, the device projected a cloudy, ghost looking monster, similar to the other Elementals. 

Peter was confused, trying to put it together in his head. 

“I-I don’t understand…”

“Peter...I think all those fights, the Elementals….” you started, getting his attention. “They were fake.” 

How could that be? Peter fought them himself, they seemed so real. 

“No, no. That can’t be true,” he denied, shaking his head.

“It has to be,” you corroborated. “Why are there projectors falling off of the Elementals? Why do they suddenly surrender when Mysterio shows up? It all makes sense, Peter!” 

He didn’t want to believe you, but everything you were saying didn’t make Beck look good. And what made it worse was—

“Oh god.” 

Peter trusted him. 

—

Peter was left alone, again. But this time he was betrayed by someone he thought he could trust to be like Mr. Stark. 

“I’ve gotta get to Berlin,” Peter voiced, frantically tearing his clothes off to put on the ‘night monkey’ suit. 

You just stood there in your room, not knowing what to say. 

“You were right, y/n,” he admitted as he finished putting on the suit, holding the mask in his hand. 

“I shouldn’t have given him the glasses. I’m sorry I doubted you.”

He was closer to you now, a hand caressing the side of your head, brushing some of your hair back. 

“It’s okay,” you accepted, grabbing his forearm. “What are you gonna do?”

Peter shrugged slightly. “Try to stop him, I guess? I’ll figure it out once I find Mr. Fury.”

You nodded, not wanting to say goodbye. 

“Cover for me and warn the others. I’ll try to get in touch with Happy. I’ll see you soon, okay?”

You nodded again, a quiet confirmation just barely passing your lips. You squeezed his forearm as he leaned in to place a small kiss on your forehead. 

He put the mask on, turned and went to the window to jump out of the hotel, taking all your hope with him. 

Going to London didn’t feel right. You didn’t know what was going to happen or what was currently happening, but you didn’t feel very good about it. No one really noticed that Peter was gone, excluding Ned and MJ, not even Flash, who was too busy vlogging for his Spider-Man fan account. 

It was very cloudy and overcast in the city, looking like a storm was coming. It was getting windier by the second and it wasn’t just because you were on top of a double decker bus. Ned and MJ looked out at Tower Bridge with you, seeing a big cloud start to take shape. 

“Is this Mysterio?” Ned asked. 

“It must be, but it’s not real.”

You had told them about Mysterio and how he was using drone tech to fake the Elemental attacks. 

“Where’s Peter?” MJ questioned. 

You looked around the sky, hoping that he would swoop in soon to stop this. 

“I don’t know.”

The next ten minutes became increasingly intense as the storm escalated, causing the entire class to exit the bus and run in the opposite direction of the chaos. You looked back as you ran, seeing a small figure fly right into the cloud of drones disguised as an Elemental. 

Peter glided into the scene, closing his eyes as he entered the cloud, finding hundreds of drones projecting the illusion. He used the taser webs he built into his custom-made suit to short-circuit the group, effectively stopping the projections. 

Peter fought for his life once he found Beck on the bridge. Destroying all his drones in a matter of seconds and stopping a gunshot to his head proved to be a moment of clarity for Peter. 

He could trust himself when it came to danger. 

“You can’t trick me anymore,” he announced before ripping the glasses off of Beck, putting them on to order Edith to turn off the drones. 

He watched as the drones retreated, flying back to wherever they came from. He sighed, finally able to take a breath and feeling exhausted after actually fighting something. Looking out at the real damage on the bridge he noticed a person standing in the middle of all the debris. He made the figure out to be you, seemingly looking around for him. 

“y/n…”

He was about to make his way down when he noticed two drones flying towards you from both sides. His eyes widened as he saw they were going to meet in the middle right where you were standing. 

“Y/N!” 

He jumped on top of the handrail in front of a broken window. He didn’t have any web fluid left in his web shooters as he flung himself from the window, trying to glide down to grab you. 

He screamed out for you, trying to get your attention to move. He didn’t want to accept that he wasn’t going to make it in time. The drones collided with each other, causing a big explosion that threw him back further down the bridge. 

He landed in some debris, coughing to quickly get up and see the aftermath. Once the smoke had cleared, he saw your body on the ground, not moving. 

“Oh no, y/n!” 

He ran as fast as he could over to you, punching his way through anything that was in his way. 

“Oh my god, y/n.”

He reached you, dropping to his knees as you coughed, barely conscious. There was a large gash on the side of your head, blood flowing out. Peter cradled your head as you spoke hoarsely. 

“Peter…”

“No, y/n, no, no, no.”

Tears filled up in his eyes, getting more hysterical as your eyes started to droop closed. 

“Babe, no. You’re-You’re alright, it’s going to be okay,” he sniffled. “No, y/n, please. You’re okay, just, p-please.”

He was fully crying now, leaning down to cry over your lifeless body. 

“Peter?”

His ears perked up as he straightened up, looking back to see you walking towards him. 

“y/n?”

“No, no, no. Stop,” Peter held his hand up at you. 

“This is another trick. You’re not real, you’re-you’re dead!” Peter acknowledged, gesturing to your body laying on the pavement. 

“Peter, this isn’t a trick, it’s really me,” you spoke. 

“Prove it. Tell me something only you would know,” he whimpered, distressed. 

You held out your hand, opening up your palm to reveal the necklace. 

“Happy gave this to me,” you explained. “He said that you were going to give it to me. Is that true?”

Peter was breathing heavily and nodded, too tired to speak. 

“It is you…”

He looked back to find the dead you gone, confirming that was the illusion. He looked back to you, who stepped closer to him, wrapping your arms around his neck. 

He pulled you into his arms, burying his bloody and tear-stained face into your shoulder. 

“I love you, y/n,” he spoke into your shoulder, words coming out muffled. 

“I’d never forgive myself if anything happened to you.”

You pulled away from him, about to respond when he kept talking. 

“I had this whole plan to give you that at the top of the Eiffel Tower but that didn’t happen because of….everything and I wanted to show how much I love you and appreciate you. I’m sorry it was ruined, guess I can’t just be Peter Parker…” He trailed off, lowering his eyes from your expression. 

“No, you can’t,” you replied, meeting his eyes. “I told you, you’re always going to be Peter Parker to me, and that includes Spider-Man. I love you, Peter, all of you.” 

He smiled at your response, his eyes still slightly glossy from crying. He leaned in, holding you close to him as you shared a short but passionate kiss with enough love to last a lifetime. 

—

And that all happened about a week ago. 

Now you stood outside of your apartment, waiting for Peter to come get you so you could have date night. You figured you both deserved it, given what a disaster the trip came to. 

You phone suddenly vibrated in your hand, signaling a call from Peter, which was odd considering you had just been texting him. 

“Hey, babe. Are you coming?”

“Y/N! Ohmygod…”

“Peter, what’s wrong?” You questioned his frantic tone. 

“I was swinging through the neighborhood to come get you when...Beck—”

“Mysterio? I thought he was dead!” You interrupted.

“So did I!” Peter agreed. “But he filmed a video of himself before I got to him on the bridge..or somethings, accusing me of all these bad things…”

“Oh, Peter…”

“And then he-he…” Peter paused, in disbelief that he was going to say it aloud.

“What did he do, P?” 

“Revealed my identity.”

“He wHAT?!!?” you exclaimed, clapping a hand to your forehead. 

“The whole world knows I’m Spider-Man.” 

You and Peter really can’t seem to catch a break.

—

A/N: should i write another part and make some shit up or shall we wait two more years so i can write something based off what they do next with our sticky boi??

<3 tommybaholland

what will happen to peter and y/n?? (feedback much appreciated)

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