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mischievous-piltovan · 7 months

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Of Atlas and Sisyphus (NSFW)

Part 1 | Part 2

Part 2: Overthinking and Overflowing

Pairing: MiguelO'Hara x afab!Reader

Themes: Romance, Fluff, NSFW, Mutual Pining, Slow Burn.

Word Count: 9.4k words

Synopsis: Reader wakes up at the Spider HQ Med Bay and needs further care. Miguel spends his day watching the recording of their last mission. None of them are ready to face each other. But circumstances and a perky AI assistant say otherwise.

Trigger Warnings/TWs: blood, wound, piercing damage, reader is afab and uses she/her pronouns, miscommunication, emotionally constipated idiots, a bit of power imbalance because boss x underling (but ever so slightly), hand job, oral sex (female and male receiving), very soft femdom.

A/N: sorry for the wait. Life happened but I managed to push this one out! I'm thinking of doing a third part to really solidify the ending of this things. Comments and rebblogs keep me motivated! Have a nice read :)

The very first thing that hit you when you next opened your eyes was a feeling of unfamiliarity. The white ceiling lights buzzed overhead, overwhelming your sight; the mattress and pillow you laid on felt harder than you were used to, there was a distinct antiseptic smell in the air and somewhere in the vicinity a machine beeped. You tried getting up, but your muscles failed you, bringing you right back down. The little ruckus you caused made someone gasp nearby.

"Careful now," a masked nurse hastily came over your bed "We can't have you accidentally unhooking yourself from the IV-drip."

In your daze, it took a few seconds to register that the nurse was a Spider-Woman, a few more seconds to realize it meant you were at HQ's Med Bay and even more for it to click that that's NOT where you were supposed to be. You sat upright suddenly as dread coursed through your body, successfully yanking the needle out of your arm "The Goblin! I gotta- "

With a sigh, the nurse gently pushed you back into the bed with a hush. "It's all right, dear. It's been dealt with," she proceeded to reset the IV needle in your arm "Boss brought both you and the Anomaly back to HQ. Your Universe is safe, you need to rest now."

"Miguel… ?" You croaked, the memories of the missions slowly coming back to you "Is he ok?"

"Yes, he was dismissed not too long ago," she reassured you "He wasn't injected with as much venom as you did, and he's also much bigger than you - it almost didn't affect him."

"Venom…?"

"Oh, right. You wouldn't know," she chirped "The projectile you took was venomous, it did a number to your body and halted your healing. But don't worry, we're working to fix that.You should be right as rain in a day or two!"

"Right…"

"Well, I need to attend to other matters now," she said in a gentle tone "There's a little button on the wall over there, press it if you need anything and I'll come running, ok? Now, get some rest."

You watched the nurse hop out of your room before sinking into the pillow with a heavy exhale. You didn't finish the mission; you couldn't carry your own weight to catch an Anomaly in your own dimension. Miguel had to do it. He caught the Anomaly by himself and had to carry your unconscious body back to HQ. Your only contribution was being dead weight.

To make matters worse, according to the nurse, you'd be stuck in the Med Bay for at least another day. This meant that all the unfinished work you left at your workstation would inevitably get delayed. Consequently, all the new tasks that you'd surely be assigned to will stack up and, thereafter, also get delayed. You shielded your eyes with your forearm as you groaned, the amount of extra hours you'd have to put in to compensate already sent a shiver down your spine; an all-nighter was definitely due. You just hoped no unforeseen crisis strike in the meantime - adding Miguel juggling a million tasks at once to quench a metaphorical fire by himself to the fiasco that your mission with him was just added more weight to your already heavy consciousness (and another jab to your very much hurt pride). You also didn't want to have him going through stress by himself when you could very well be there to share the load - that's precisely what you've been trying to accomplish all this time after all. As capable as he was, he was still just one person - he needed you.

Wait…

He needed you.

"Because I need you."

He… He said that, didn't he? You were not entirely sure, you were in a rather delirious state right before passing out. It could have very well been a fabrication of a blood-deprived (and poisoned, as you just learned) mind that has been yearning for him for far too long. But somehow, it felt real… You've dreamed about Miguel before and it didn't matter which scenario your subconscious made up, waking up always left you with a bittersweet feeling afterwards, like you've been yanked away from your own Garden of Eden. But this particular memory had an intensity behind it, an unrelenting force. Like that first sip of cold water on a very hot summer day.

You swatted that notion away before escalating your swooning any further over a single crumb of hope. 'Because I need you' could mean anything, it didn’t necessarily have to do with romance or lust. If you recalled correctly, you were in the middle of quitting your job, he could very well have meant he needed you working in the lab with him. As in 'You became a valuable asset to the Society, replacing you would be too troublesome. I need you'.

Heh… Despite not being ideally what you wanted it to mean, the thought still amused you. Miguel finally admitted he saw worth in your contributions to the Society, after all these months of getting nothing but criticism and scoldings. And you could hear in his voice how he struggled to let the words out, how strained and a bit desperate he sounded. Like he was running out of choices and just had to use the truth for once.

It really was amusing how much leverage he gave you over him.

Miguel didn't want you to know he needed you and you couldn't wait to rub it in his face.

—--

Miguel didn't want you to know he needed you and he dreaded to see your reaction now that you did.

It had been a full day since he was dismissed from the Med Bay and he couldn't concentrate on anything. And it's not like he wasn't trying; he kept forcing himself to focus - compartmentalizing tasks in more palatable chunks, timing his strides and peppering them with short breaks, and even going as far as vocalizing out loud what he was trying to accomplish step by step - but no matter what he did, his thoughts kept circling back to you and everything that went down in your dimension.

After the ninth time failing to keep a steady flow of work going, Miguel finally gave-up. Among the catalog of yesterday's missions log files, he put up the VOD of the mission at your dimension and silently watched it. He paused the moment before you were hit with the Goblin's javelin and felt his stomach churn; he watched himself curled up on screen, trying to fix his suit, pathetically oblivious to the impending attack coming from behind him. The next second you were lunging at him, getting the Goblin's attention and successfully protecting him at the cost of your wound.

How… Pathetic.

His intention to accompany you on your next few missions was to protect you - he knew you bore a grave injury from a past job, he wanted to aid you until you were fully healed. To watch him be a hindrance that caused you further harm made him feel disgusting; and knowing it was because he didn't have Spider-Sense the same way most (bright and cheerful) Spider-People had just added more insult to the injury.

But the fight with the Goblin wasn't the reason he wanted to watch the Video Log in the first place. He kept watching it until he got to the part he wished to revisit - the moment the argument broke out. Unsurprisingly, he was the one who triggered the conflict.

"Why the shock were you exerting yourself when you should have been resting?"

Miguel groaned at his tone. He didn't have to be an asshole when all he wanted was for you to be more careful with your well-being. But at this point, being a jerk towards you became second nature - a defense mechanism born from the need of keeping you at arm's length; treating you the complete opposite of how he felt about you to ensure you were kept safe from him. If you ended up hating him all the better. But actions have consequences, and tipping you off yet again was just that. He couldn't blame you for snapping, he had been pushing you for a while now - the band was bound to break.

What he didn't foresee was that said reaction encapsulated your sudden decision to quit Spider Society altogether AND your stubborn persistence in flinging yourself back into the mission while gravely injured. His mind went into overdrive trying to salvage the situation while keeping the professional facade. He watched the moment he grabbed your wrist, the same desperation he felt then creeping up all over again. The havoc inside him caused the beast to get set loose and he recalled almost doing something stupid as he gazed into your eyes, like kissing you. It was said thought that jolted him out of his stupor, forcefully yanking the beast's leash back and making him utter the most ridiculous statement in a desperate attempt to bring the conversation back to a professional ground (it didn't).

"You're going to jeopardize this mission in your current condition."

He had to pause the video to take a breath, the surge of shame too much to bear. There were a million other ways to address your relentlessness that would both convey the message and still sound professional, but his thick skull decided to go with the ballistic option. But then again, it was the easier route, par for the course; being as mean as possible to make sure his true intentions and feelings were kept secret. He unpaused the video, and your next words were his undoing.

"I'm DONE being your silly little plaything."

What the shock could you possibly have meant with that? Yes, he had been an asshole to you for the last few months (even if not intentional), but he wasn't toying with you. To make someone a plaything means bestowing them a lesser status; is to perceive them as a mere toy, an unfeeling object undeserving of respect. And that was the last thing Miguel connected you with; to him you were a goddess, worthy of worship and absolutely unattainable. You were his muse and his tormentor, his salvation and his undoing. Far too important to him even consider playing with. The revelation that this is how you felt broke him; destroyed him to the point that made him falter and his next words practically spilled from him.

"Because I need you."

There they were. The words that escaped his lips and which possible repercussions he dreaded. The little confession that's been keeping him from concentrating in anything else. In his desperation to remedy the notion you held, he waned and the beast broke free; it spoke in his stead and revealed more than Miguel was ready to admit. In a (terrible) way, he was lucky you passed out soon after; who knows what else would come into the light had the conversation gone any further.

Yet, even though the words he uttered didn't actually convey much, the implications behind them had the potential to roar. It shouldn't take a genius to logic their way to the truth and you were highly intelligent. And he dreaded how you'd react to it, how disgusted you'd feel upon realizing the beast fell for you. Only he was no prince under a spell, he was just that - a monster.

"Miguel? Heeey, Miguel! Are you listening?"

It took Lyla to pop up in front of his eyes, completely blocking the screen he was looking at, for Miguel to finally notice her. From her frantic gesturing alone, he could tell she had been trying to get his attention for a while.

"Ah, perdón, Lyla. I am now."

"Good grief, Miguel. You are uncharacteristically slow today," she quipped, feigning annoyance. "Did the venom from that Goblin affect your cognition?"

"I–What? No," it took a minute for Miguel to understand Lyla had insulted him "Callaté."

The AI ignored Miguel, opting to scan whatever he was working on. She assumed she'd have more luck understanding her master's plight through any other way than getting him to talk. Upon realizing the video file he was watching, she paused with an oh.

"I'm gonna throw some statements at you, and you're gonna tell me if they are true or not," she said more calmly. Before he could muster anything, she continued "You are worried about what you said during yesterday's mission.'

Miguel took a moment before responding "True."

"You don't want her to know about your feelings."

"...true."

She paused, mulling over her next statement before continuing "You think you're not reciprocated."

Miguel frowned "Fal– No, that's not even– She couldn't possibly–"

The mere thought of you reciprocating his feelings was ludicrous. Of all people, why would you fall for him - a barely human, brutish, hard-headed monstrosity. In the Society alone he could think of a good number of Spiders that you were more likely to fall for; the cheerful, laid-back types who could touch you without fear of accidentally sinking their talons into you. Lyla was delusional to even suggest that.

"Drop it, Lyla."

The AI took a minute to study Miguel, her expression unreadable. The next second, her eyes shifted, unfocused, and a glimpse of a mischievous grin spread across her face before turning to her master again.

"Aye aye, captain, consider it dropped," she said cheerfully. "On other news, you have that immersion treatment scheduled now. You better head to the Med Bay."

"Cancel it," he dismissed, the last thing he needed was to waste more time. But Lyla was having none of it.

"Not happening," she snapped her fingers and suddenly all screens from Miguel's workstation blinked off.

"Que carajo," Miguel spat, frantically trying to undo his assistant's input "Lyla! Restore the power this instant!"

"No can do, Miguel," she said, floating with her legs crossed in the air, while pretending to file her nails. "Even if it was just a little, you still got poisoned with that Goblin's venom. Doctor's orders."

Miguel pinched the bridge of his nose in annoyance, as he groaned. Finally, he dropped his shoulders with a huge exhale as he yielded "Fine…"

"Oh, and do me a favor while you're there, will you?" She added "I've found a strange entry in my command inputs, could you take a look at it?"

—

Miguel spent the whole walk to the Med Bay wondering how his life got to the point his AI assistant had more power over his life decisions than he did.

Once arriving, he was led to a private locker room and instructed to fully strip and enter the immersion pool area through the door on the other side of the room.

"The session should take an hour, give or take," the nurse informed him, "There's a clock in there, so don't worry about bringing any devices with you."

Once the nurse left him, he fully deactivated his suit, the digital material retracting from his head down, and wrapped a towel around his hips. Even if he was supposed to be by himself through the whole process - thus dispensing the need to protect his modesty -, it would be unlike him to not take precaution.

The very first thing that hit him when he opened the door to the pool area was the intense herbal smell that assaulted his sensitive nose. The second thing was how foggy the place was, provided by the temperature of the water. The third thing was a yelp.

"AH! What the– Wait… Miguel?"

You stood immersed in the water, at the far end of the pool. Miguel was stunned, trying to process the situation he walked into, his head working in overdrive: Why were you here? Did he go through the wrong door? No, there was only one door. How did he miss your scent? Oh, the fumes from the concoction must have overpowered it. Should you be here? Should he be here? Once his eyes fell to how your arms hugged your chest in an attempt to maintain some sort of propriety, he promptly turned on his heels as an intense heat flared up on his face.

"Shit! I'm sorry!" He spat. "I don't know what– I should– I'm gonna go."

He frantically tried opening the door back to the locker room, pressing the buttons on the door pad with more force than he should, but it was futile. As he punched the pad in frustration, Lyla popped up beside him.

"You're not leaving until you finish your treatment session," she sang.

"Lyla! Open this door this instant!" Miguel barked. Lyla just clicked her tongue.

"Just get in the water, the pool is big enough for the both of you," she replied "Besides, the mixture of medicines in the water make it very murky, you can barely make out what's under it."

"LYLA! NOW!"

"It's OK, Miguel," you said, your voice instantly starting to subdued Miguel's anger "You need this treatment too, you should get in."

Miguel brushed his hair back with his hand, his fingers running through his thick locks as he tried calming down to assess his situation. You were behind him completely vulnerable in an extreme state of undress, protected only by a thin veil of water. He shuddered at the thought, the image in his head alone sending all the blood in his body directly south. The beast inside of him wanted nothing more than to seize the opportunity to claim you here, shrouded by the vapors and the thick herbal smell. Getting in that water was risky, it would take a lot of him to keep control.

But what other option did he have? Lyla was adamant in making him go through the treatment, blocking the door control altogether. He had the power to just force his way out, tearing a hole in the metal with his talons, but he'd end up not only ruining your session but also exposing you (and the protectiveness in him was vehemently against it). He just had to endure it.

"Fine," he breathed out in defeat. He turned around, eyes down to avoid looking at you. He approached the pool's edge as he tugged on the towel around his hips "I'm gonna lose the towel, you… might want to look away."

You did not want to look away in the slightest, but you closed your eyes nonetheless out of respect. Once you heard the tell-tale splash followed by the ripples of water hitting you, you opened them again.

Neither you or Miguel spoke, the silence being broken only by the gentle humming of the water heater. The tension in the air was almost as palpable as the herbal steam flooding the room. Miguel kept himself on the opposite corner of the pool, as far from you as possible. He leaned back, crossing his arms over his chest and sank as far as he could while resting the back of his head on the edge. His heart was racing, a mixture of arousal and embarrassment overwhelming his senses. He was fighting hard to relax, to be present in the moment and enjoy the break from the ever-present onslaught of responsibilities his life bestowed upon him, but your presence was proving too strong.

The beast inside of him stirred, flooding his mind with obscenities; you bent over at your hip on your belly at the edge of the pool, your ass on full display for him as he plunged his cock between your glistening folds; you sat at the edge with your feet in the water as he savored your nectar with his head between your thighs; him sitting on the shallow part of the pool with you on top of him, bouncing on his cock as he gripped your ass, watching your tits gorgeously jump from the movement. Miguel groaned, fighting to keep the beast on a tight leash as he tried to push the vulgarities away; fuck fuck fuck… What wouldn't he give for a chance to jerk these thoughts out of him, to release the tension just a bit to make this ordeal a bit more bearable. The occasional sigh and shudder you'd let out from the other side of the pool just added to his fantasies, making the effort of keeping his very much hardening cock down that much vexing. At least Lyla was right about the murkiness of the water - the pearlescent shade whatever chemicals granted the liquid made it impossible to distinguish anything immersed in it.

Wait, that's right - Lyla! She did ask him to take a look at a weird entry on her command input history, didn't she. This was perfect, some busy work should keep his mind occupied, if he was lucky it would take the whole treatment session to finish dealing with it. He promptly called Lyla and before long, he was scrolling through her command input history.

To say you were faring any better at the other side of the pool would be a lie. Ever since Miguel walked through that door you became acutely aware of how bare you were - your skin prickled as if more sensitive than before. On top of that, you were fighting for your life not to ogle at the man - the dampness of the ambient clung to him making his bronze skin glisten and tousled his hair, causing some thick locks to fall on his face. You started to question your decision to offer him to partake in the session with you the moment the words left your mouth; you supposed it derived from both the guilt you felt from him getting wounded during the mission and the opportunity your lizard brain saw of being close to a very naked Miguel. Nevertheless, the result was an awkward situation filled to the brim with tension.

Suddenly, you sensed Miguel tense up for a second, meeting his eyes the moment you looked over to see what had spooked him. The workaholic that he was, he had a screen open in front of him and seemed to have seen something that surprised him. You lifted a questioning eyebrow at him, but he didn't respond; instead he returned to the document he had opened as if double-checking something before turning the screen off. He then set his eyes to the water in front of him, but his mind was distant - you could almost hear the gears turning in his head.

The silence stretched on and minutes started feeling like hours. You racked your brain trying to find a topic of discussion, something to fill the silence and loosen the tension if only for a bit. Maybe even something silly, just to share a little amicable laugh, or some kind of teasing, to partake in a familiar friendly jabbing session. And then it hit you, the one thing you were dying to bring up to him - the little confession he let out during the mission. His (work) need of you (in the Spider Society).

"Soooo," you broke the silence in a sing-song voice "Miguel O'Hara finally caved in, huh."

Miguel snapped out of whatever was consuming his mind, clearly taken aback by the tone of your voice "¿Q- que?"

"Because I need you," you mimicked, doing a very bad impression of his voice "Took you long enough to admit it."

Miguel didn't respond right away. You watched him stir, visibly distraught, as he searched your face for something. "... you knew?"

There was a tinge of melancholy behind his question, something even vulnerable. But you kept your smirk, backing down now would just compromise your attempt at alleviating the tension. "I mean, I had a feeling."

Miguel dropped his shoulders in a strong exhale as he scrunched his eyes shut. When he opened them again, his eyebrows furrowed up slightly as he looked at you in desolation "I'm sorry."

Of all things to hear back from him, an apology was not on the list. Something was starting to feel off, but you decided to push it a little more "You should be, it was high time you recognized the work I put in here."

It was Miguel's turn to look confused "... the work?"

"Oh, don't act dumb, O'Hara," you retorted, slightly annoyed. He was not gonna dissuade you from finally getting the praise you rightfully deserved from him. "You couldn't let me quit the Society, you literally said you needed me here. I might have passed out soon after, but I did hear those words coming out of you."

"But that wasn't–," Miguel started frantically, but halted abruptly, seemingly collecting his thoughts. He closed his eyes, taking a deep breath to calm his nerves before continuing. "You are an exceptional member of the Society. Your work at the lab and in the field are crucial and I can admit without problem that I need you at the Society. We all do."

He paused again, contemplating his next words. After a brief second, he resumed his speech. "What I said back then had nothing to do with work."

You frowned in confusion for a moment, but then the other meaning to those words you had first imagined crept up in the forefront of your mind. He couldn't be talking about affection, could he? A yearning for you that matched yours for him? Your chest fluttered in an erratic cadence, but you promptly stomped the elation down. You had to make sure - to hear him say it - before allowing yourself the bliss.

"What did you mean then?" You spoke softly, carefully. Like your tone alone could corner Miguel and cause him to withdraw, putting his walls back up and leaving you with half truths and lies.

But he didn't give you the clarification you desperately craved right away. Instead he shifted, standing a bit taller while still leaning with his back to the pool's edge, arms crossed over his chest and a scowl on his face.

"I'll let you know," he spoke, fiercely gazing into your eyes from under his brow; his voice husky and stern. "But first I need you to explain why you asked Lyla to find a Miguel O'Hara variant in your dimension."

Your heart sank as dread rapidly coursed through your veins. You desperately tried to find a suitable answer, one that could give him a good explanation while omitting the truth from him. But the harder you racked your brain, the clearer it became that there was no way out from the corner Miguel drove you into.

Dread started giving away to anger. How dare he tries to dodge your question by conditioning its answer to an answer from you, one that puts you on the spot. Leave it to control-freak Miguel O'Hara to use sleazy methods to keep himself on top.

"That doesn't concern you," you said between greeted teeth. "Now, answer my question."

Miguel was unphased. "Oh, you think someone looking for a variant of myself using my tech doesn't concern me?"

"It doesn't, that was a matter between me and Lyla about a potential third person," you spat, voice rising a bit. "My question is about clarification on a conversation WE shared. THAT concerns you."

"You can't possibly-"

"FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, O'HARA," you snapped, standing up abruptly, splashing water all around you "STOP DEFLECTING MY QUESTION AND JUST ANSWE-"

You stopped upon noticing the look on Miguel's face. He seemed shocked, eyes wide open, eyebrows knitted together and mouth agape. Then you noticed a tinge of red make an appearance underneath the bronze color of his cheeks. Finally, you watched as he rapidly looked away from you, dramatically turning his head to the side. "SHOCK! ¿PENDEJA, ESTÁS LOCA?!"

Adrenaline ebbed from your body giving room for your other senses to kick in. You shivered from the lack of heat and soon realized your rage had eclipsed you to the fact you were still very much naked and now with your torso (and tits) completely exposed above the water from your outburst. Heat quickly flooded your face as you plunged back into the water, mortified and vulnerable.

Another thick stretch of silence fell between the two of you. You hugged yourself tightly over your breasts under the water as if it somehow could alleviate the intense shame coursing through your body. Miguel tried to compose himself, the image of your tits hanging down your torso as water dripped down in rivulets over your skin carouselled in his mind on loop.

You huffed. Was trying to keep your feelings for him a secret worth it at this point? After sharing a bath with and subsequently flashing your boss, a love confession felt harmless. Might as well rip out that band-aid and live with the consequences of this bundle of awkwardness. You took a deep breath and…

"I asked Lyla to find a Miguel O'Hara variant in my dimension because I wanted to find a version of you with whom I could take out all my pent-up frustrations about you on," you spoke in almost a whisper, eyes away from Miguel. "Because I'm in love with you."

Miguel's eyes widened. He turned to you looking for any sign of mischief - a smirk, a held laugh, a smug stance -, but he found none. You kept your gaze downwards, your arms around you as you tried to withdraw within yourself.

"And… I've been for the longest time, too," you continued, still avoiding his gaze. "And I would be very grateful if we pretended this confession never happened."

"What…?" Miguel croaked, still processing your words.

"Yeah, kinda pathetic, isn't it?" You scoffed, a defeated smile adorning your face. "It was obvious this would go unrequited the moment it started blooming, but I couldn't help it."

As soon as those last words left your mouth, you felt a surge of shame rising up from your very core, begging you to stop talking. But you pushed it down, the cat was already out of the bag and there was no undoing it. Alas, it was better to exhaust everything regarding this topic now than to regret leaving things unsaid later.

"And you know what the worst part is? I've been trying to compensate for my feelings by assisting you the best I can to help lighten your load," you started talking more emphatically, adding speed and volume to your speech in order to drown out the shame. "You're carrying so much responsibility all by yourself, I wanted to make your life easier if only for a fraction."

"Wait, it… its not-" Miguel was having a hard time keeping up with the onslaught you poured on him. There were a lot of conflicting emotions clashing inside him, his mouth couldn't put into words what he was trying to convey. The sudden surge of speed in your speech was not helping him in the slightest.

"Yeah, I know. It's not working, isn't it? I figured as such, you've been really uptight about my performance lately," You spat back, not giving him a chance to talk. You were worried that you'd lose your momentum and never be able to gather it back. You needed to get everything out. "But I'll work harder! Just… Maybe it's best if I quit the Lab Assistant job, I don't want to make you uncomfortable at your own workplace and-"

"¡Por favor, deja de hablar!" Miguel's voice echoed through the chamber, halting your verbosity. "It's not unrequited…" He spoke more quietly, a gentleness in his tone. "Your feelings, that is."

Another stretch of silence took place between you. You slowly uncurled yourself, straightening up your back as you finally looked at Miguel. His stance defied the words he just uttered to the point you wondered if you might have misheard them - he was tense, shoulders slightly up with his hands at his sides in tight fists; he looked down, avoiding your face.

"Wait, you-," your voice failed you. You quickly cleared your throat before resuming. "You feel the same…?"

Miguel relaxed his shoulders a bit as he exhaled, running a hand through his damp hair. He then proceeded to meet your gaze as he rested his hands over his hips. "Yeah…"

"Oh. I… That's perfect! Miguel, I-"

"No, wait," he cut you off. "I owe you an apology and an explanation - yes, I… I realize I have been an asshole to you lately. I'm sorry about that, it's just-," Miguel paused again, collecting his thoughts. He closed his eyes for a second and, when he opened them again, there was nothing but hurt behind them. "I've been trying to distance myself from you, and I know that that's not an excuse to lash out on you, but being near you made that task so much more vexing…"

"... why would you want to distance yourself from me?"

"To protect you." He responded matter-of-factly.

You frowned slightly. "From what??"

"From me." Miguel said, emphatically pointing a finger at his own face.

"Why would I need protection from you??" You asked, lifting an eyebrow at him. "Miguel, don't get me wrong - you are very strong. But not strong enough to be a threat to me."

"I cannot allow myself to partake on more… intimate activities with you," he spat, avoiding your gaze again. "I would ruin you."

"And what if I want to be ruined?" You asked, taking a few careful steps towards him. Miguel swallowed nervously as he felt your words go straight south. He tried to compose himself before responding.

"You don't know what you're talking about," he muttered. "I am a monster and you know that. There ought to be a better suitor for you."

You took another couple of tentative steps towards him. "I decide what's best for me."

"No, you don't understand," he spat, his gaze towards the water. "You are amazing. You are.. strong, smart, have an intellect to die for and so, so kind. While I have to live in isolation, in a dim-lit Lab, taking shots to keep a semblance of humanity because my powers make me a monster and you don't deserve tha-"

He stopped upon feeling your hand reaching for his. He was so lost in his rant that he failed to notice your approach. He flinched at your proximity but didn't pull away from your touch.

You took his hand in both of yours, slowly kneading his palm with your thumbs. "Do you trust me?"

"...What do you mean?" Miguel answered, watching your hands work his. At this distance he could finally feel your scent alongside the concoction herb-y smell.

"Just in general."

"Of course I do," he responded softly. "I trust you with my life."

"Then trust me when I say I want to be with you," You said, bringing his hand over your chest, right above your heart. He inhaled sharply at the contact, realizing the softness of the tissue below was the top portion of your breast. He finally met your eyes to prevent him from dwelling on the thought. "Trust me that I will tell you if, like you fear, it becomes too much for me."

"I… " He let your words sink in. He really was deciding he was no good for you, robbing you of your own agency on the matter, wasn't he? But something tugged at him in the back of his mind, something that wasn't adding up - a fear that prevented him from just letting go.

Then it clicked.

He set the hand you held free, cupping your jaw with it. You closed your eyes, leaning into his touch. Miguel's heart fluttered at the sight, but he quickly composed himself - he had a point to make.

"You have to promise me you will actually tell me if something becomes too much for you. That you won't push yourself past your limit for my sake," he started, capturing your attention again. "I watched the video of our last mission and you put yourself in harm's way to protect me and you almost died. Add that to what you just told me about putting a lot of effort in the Society for my sake, it worries me you'd favor me in detriment of your own well-being."

"I…," you started.

"That first injury you sustained, it was also a ramification of that dynamic, wasn't it?"

There was no way around that, you figured. Closing your eyes, you rested your own hand atop Miguel's hand on your face. "Yeah… "

With a resolute exhale, you locked eyes with Miguel once more. "I guess we both have things to work on."

A hint of a smile tugged at the corner of Miguel's mouth. "Yeah…"

"So…," you said after a pause. "Can we kiss?"

Miguel chuckled. "There's nothing I'd like more, hermosa."

He cupped your face with both hands, craning down to face you. He opened his mouth slightly, ghosting your lips for a moment as he took in your scent before colliding into your mouth. The kiss was gentle at first, chaste even; as if Miguel was still not entirely sure it was happening and he was under some hallucinogenic side-effect from the fumes of the concoction. But then he heard you whimper into his mouth - it was a silent thing, almost a whisper -, but it was enough for his heightened hearing to pick-up.

And then somewhere inside Miguel a switch flipped.

His tongue breached your lips, hungrily tracing the inside of your mouth. You gasped at the sudden intrusion, giving Miguel the leverage he needed to slide his hands down your sides, gripping your hips and bringing your body flushed to his. Like everything in his life, Miguel needed to take control and… it didn't feel unwelcome this time. In fact, the heat emanating from his body against yours paired with the oily dampness the concoction provided and his ministrations in your mouth was making you dizzy - your heart drummed in your ears and you could feel arousal starting to build up in your core.

You instinctively brought your hands to his hair, raking your nails through his scalp. He grunted in response, the sound going straight to your clit. You instantly got addicted, suddenly you needed to hear more; to learn all the pretty sounds Miguel could make. So in between kisses you sank your teeth into his lower lip, earning the groffiest moan you ever heard. Spurred further, Miguel descended to your jaw, nibbling his way to your neck. He nuzzled into the crook of it, inhaling hard to bask in your intoxicating scent, before sinking his teeth into your pulse point.

You moaned shamelessly, the mixture of pain and pleasure only adding to the pressure in your core. His erection pressed against you, twitching at every sound that escaped your lips. Your head spinned as if you were drunk, any reservation you formerly had dissolved.

"Fuck, Miguel," you mewled near his ear and you could sense him tensing up in response; he hardened his grip on your hips and you could feel his talons starting to pierce your skin. A gasp of primal ecstasy from deep within you escaped your lips as his talons extended, sinking further into your flesh. Miguel flooded all your senses, yet you yearned for more.

But suddenly he stopped.

He grabbed your shoulders, pushing your body back and away from him. His head hung between his shoulders as he fought to catch his breath, keeping his arms extended to maintain the distance between you.

"Miguel, is everything okay?" You asked, worry lacing your words.

After a moment, he took a deep breath and turned his head up to face you. His skin still flustered from the kiss. "I'm so sorry…"

You frowned slightly. "What for?"

"I lost control, I-," he stuttered anxiously. "I hurt you. I could smell your blood."

"But-," you tried speaking, but Miguel continued.

"Shit, you aren't even fully healed yet," he scrunched up his face, spiraling on. "Fuck, this is a treatment. We're in the middle of your treatment, I-. I'm an idiot."

"Shut-up, O'Hara," you spat, trying to break him from the guilt pit he started sinking in. "I'm practically 100% already from that injury and…"

Your pause brought his attention back to you. You gathered courage to continue.

"...and I rather enjoyed getting rougher a second ago." You finished, avoiding his gaze.

Miguel relaxed a bit, enthralled by your bashful display. "But still I… I'd prefer if we didn't do anything too rough today."

"Oh c'mon, man," you scoffed, very much annoyed. "Don't treat me as an invalid."

"I'm not," he responded. "I'm just not comfortable escalating this when you still have some healing to do."

"But-,"

"Please," Miguel pleaded. The raw vulnerability behind it spoke of the guilt he still felt for your injury. It faltered your resolve.

"Alright…," you pouted. "Not easy after all that, but fine."

"Don't even get me started, hermosa," Miguel responded, letting go of your shoulders. "Although…," he said, scanning the area around the pool. "I think there's something we could do."

"Hm?"

"Sit on the edge of the pool," Miguel said curtly, the change of tone catching you off-guard.

"What?"

"You heard me, princesa," he spoke again in a more sultry voice, half-lidded scarlet eyes meeting yours. "Let me see you."

"I-," you suddenly felt very shy at his request, the small break from the heated kiss you two shared seemed to have cooled you down enough to bring back your self-awareness. Sitting on the edge of the pool meant being on full-display for Miguel, way more exposed than the seconds of accidentally flashing him from before.

Your eyes shifted back and forth from the edge to Miguel, unsure of what to do. But he was having none of it; he cupped your jaw again, his touch enough to ground you a bit, bringing your attention back to him. "I need to see you, chiquita. All of you."

"Okay," you blurted out in a resolute exhale. You turned towards the edge and paused before moving forward. "Prepare to be disappointed."

"I could never."

Miguel watched you with bated breath as you hoisted your body up the edge of the pool with your arms. Your plump ass emerged next, droplets of water running down its surface as you finally brought your legs up and onto the hard floor. If he died now, he would have died happy. You sat with your back turned to him and your legs to the side, as you held your torso up with your arms. That scene, paired with the rivulets of pearlescent water running down your body and the vapors from the pool painted an image Miguel could only describe as divine. You were his goddess and he wished for nothing more than to be your most adulant devotee.

Finally, you slowly turned around, bringing your legs back in the water as you scooted your hips to the edge of the pool. You kept your hands on your lap and your legs pressed together; subconsciously trying to hide yourself from Miguel's gaze.

But Miguel was nothing but awestruck, trying to formulate a proper reaction. He moved towards you, placing a hand on each of your knees. "Not once in my wildest fantasies I could attain the perfection that is your body."

You inhaled sharply at his earnest words, heat blooming across your face. His hold on your knees sent shivers down your spine, beginning to fan your embers back to flames. His thumbs caressed the inner side of your knees, a silent plea to let him pry them apart. His crimson eyes devoured you wholly, his gaze searing your skin.

"Let me make you feel good, mi preciosa," Miguel husked, as his eyes met yours from under his brow. His hands guided your knees apart and you followed, exposing your innermost self to him. You watched his gaze falling to your cunt and his chest heaving in response. He proceeded to hover his mouth over your inner thigh - the contrast of his hot breath against your wet skin driving you insane -, before planting a kiss on the soft surface. He kept kissing you agonizingly slow, teasingly making his way to your center; each of his ministrations eliciting a gaspy moan from within you. Finally, he pressed a kiss directly on your engorged clit, keeping his lips on it in the longest iteration of a kiss you ever witnessed, drawing out his teasing for as long as possible.

"M-Miguel, for the love of-."

You never finished your sentence. He hooked his hands under your hips, tilting your pelvis up and licked a fat stripe with the flat of his tongue up your slit and you whimpered. With his grip on your hips giving him leverage, he began eating you out like a man starved, flicking his tongue on your clit, kneading your outer lips with the pad of his thumbs and lapping up your essence like he needed it to stay alive. You instinctively gripped his hair for purchase, his relentlessness robbing you of your breath.

"Don't hold back, hermosa," he said, coming up for air. " Show me all the pretty sounds you can make."

He let go of your hips with one of his hands before plunging a finger between your folds and into your velvety insides. You moaned at the intrusion as he deliciously rotated his finger, massaging your inner walls, before settling his pad on the sensitive spongy spot directly behind your clit. You buckled involuntarily into his mouth as he curled his fingers and he chuckled against your cunt, the vibration adding to the pressure building up in your core.

Miguel dove a second finger inside you and began pumping them in and out while rotating his wrist. A cry fell from your lips at the new pace, the obscene squelching sounds of your arousal permeating the air further compressing the coil inside you. A part of you didn't want to cum yet, didn't want your first orgasm with Miguel to be with his mouth when his cock was right there.

"M-Miguel, ple- ah! Please," you managed to blurt out. "I need you inside me."

Miguel planted a kiss on your cunt before responding. "I'll use my cock if you can refrain from cumming for the next… 5 minutes."

He resumed his assault right after with a renewed vigor and you mewled. There was no way you were gonna last five minutes.

To say Miguel was faring any better was a lie. Despite his facade, his whole body screamed for release. He had his lower half pressed to the wall of the pool, lightly humping into it to get some form of relief. It was taking all of his self control not to give into your plea and plow into you then and there, to feel your warm walls around his cock instead of the cold tiles of the pool.

But you were still hurt, your wound was still healing; he couldn't risk bringing more harm upon you.

With a final barrage to your hole and a long suck on your clit your band finally snapped. Your climax hit you like a supernova, white hot and powerful; you buckled into Miguel's face until it died down and he promptly provided the guidance you needed through it. When you finally came back from your high and managed to catch your breath, you turned to Miguel.

"You bastard." You spat feigning annoyance. He chuckled as he wiped your juices from his chin.

"Didn't see you complaining when you came." He teased, licking his fingers clean.

"You know what I meant," you retorted. "Miguel, please, just-... Just pound me. I need you to fill me up so fucking bad."

Miguel's cock twitched at your words, still painfully hard underneath the water. He was fighting hard to keep his head cool and not just give in, to throw caution to the wind and just slam into you like you wanted. To make matters worse, you never moved after you came, still in its afterglow, blissfully unaware you kept your lower-half very much on display to him - your glistening hole practically welcoming him. He forced himself to look away before his resolve faltered.

"Next time, Chiquita," he said softly. "I promise."

"What about you, though?" You asked, hoisting yourself up on your elbows.

"I can take care of myself later."

You groaned in response. You hated when Miguel got like that, so focused on an emotionally charged aspect he couldn't fathom considering other takes. There was no need to forgo all sexual activity if he was worried about your healing, especially after eating you out (so fucking well). With a huff, you got back in the water - if there was something you learned working in his Lab all this time is that Miguel needed help seeing other points of views sometimes.

You gently pressed your torso to Miguel's back, tenderly enveloping your arms around his middle in a hug. He flinched under your touch at first, but relaxed soon after. You proceeded to run your fingers on his abs, slowly massaging the taut muscle.

"I could take care of you, you know," you whispered.

Miguel felt his heart race at your words. He was already getting lost with the way your body pressed against his, the heat emanating from you paired with your scent causing him to walk the edge between lunacy and prudence. Looking down, he could see your delicate hands working his muscles - every little press of your fingers sent electric bolts downwards, where he yearned for your touch the most. Would it be so bad to indulge…?

"Y-your wound…"

"I'm sure using my hands wouldn't compromise my healing," you responded, trying to sound alluring. You tentatively slid your fingers down his lower belly, stopping just below his hips and Miguel hissed. You drew circles on the region slowly, feeling him shudder against you. "Let me make you feel good, Miggy."

"I-," Miguel tried speaking, but the little brain power he still had was having a hard time fighting against the sensation of your dainty fingers so close to his cock. The fact the whole massage was now happening hidden from his eyes under the water only made each touch feel searing hot.

He desperately needed release.

"... Yeah," he husked. "Just… don't overdo yourself."

You grinned behind him before finally sliding a hand to his cock, enveloping your fingers around his shaft. He hissed at the touch, getting so wound up had made him a lot more sensitive. You glided your hand along his cock, feeling his veins against the pads of your fingers before reaching his tip. You pulled back his hood, circling your thumb around the gland before gently rubbing the slit; Miguel hitched a breath.

"Does it feel good?" You asked, feigning innocence. Having control over him, knowing he could turn the tides easily if he so wished, felt oddly good.

"Y-yeah," he managed to huff out.

Pleased with his response, you started languidly pumping his cock and Miguel let out a strangled moan. You slid your body to his side to gain more range of motion while gently bringing your other hand to his ass.

The pace of your hand was slowly depleting Miguel of his remaining sanity. With his heightened sensitivity, the movement alone was both a lot and not enough. Your other hand kneaded his ass gently, occasionally prodding the rim of his hole, putting him in a position of vulnerability unfamiliar to him, yet not unwelcome. It felt good to relinquish control, especially with you at the helm.

But he needed more.

"Please…," he whispered. You lifted an eyebrow at his tone.

"Please what, handsome?" You teased.

"I… I need more."

"You need to speak more clearly, big guy."

"Mierda," he cussed. "I need you to stroke me faster."

"Atta, boy".

You increase your pace, gently rotating your wrist as you pumped him. Miguel groaned, throwing his head back. He instinctively brought an arm over your shoulders for purchase, holding you against his body. He could feel the pressure in his abdomen growing, his release getting dangerously close.

"Y-yo voy a, yo voy a…, (I-I'm gonna, I'm gonna…)" he groaned, his peak hastily approaching.

And then you stopped. And he hissed.

"N-no no no, please…," he cried out, desperately trying to rut in your hand. But it was no use.

You had the audacity to chuckle.

You cupped his jaw, bringing his attention down to you. You guided his head down, hungrily taking his lips with your own. He moaned in your mouth, frustration and arousal blending together, flooding all of his senses.

You both parted for air, a string of saliva connecting your lips to his. He looked at you with half-lidded drunken eyes, a gentle giant tamed by lust.

"C'mon, big guy. Let's get you sat at the edge," you whispered in his ear. "I want to taste you."

There wasn't a fiber in Miguel's body capable of denying you at this point.

With his back to the wall of the pool, Miguel hoisted his torso up by his arms, plopping himself down at pool's edge with his lower legs in the water. His heavy cock throbbed, thick and dark red, covered in droplets of a mixture of precum and the oily pearlescent concoction; a sight that had you salivating.

Miguel watched you approach him, slotting yourself between his thighs. You gently pulled his hood back, revealing the gland to the thick air of the chamber, before pressing your tongue flat to the underside of it and locking eyes with him.

"Fuck," was all he could muster. There was no way he would last much longer inside your warm mouth after getting edged. In fact, he was afraid a couple more kitten licks would be enough to finish him off. But he wanted to endure a little more, to enjoy you for as long as he could.

You rotated your tongue around his head a few times, catching as much precum as you could, before enveloping him with your mouth. Miguel hissed, instinctively bringing a hand to your hair for purchase. You bobbed your head slowly, swirling your tongue around his shaft in the process.

"Nena, I won't last," he warned you.

You hummed around his cock in response, bringing your hand up to him with your pointer finger pressed against your thumb, asking him for 'just a little longer'.

Miguel groaned. He would try. For you, he would try.

You started to slowly increase your pace, taking him deeper with each movement. Miguel could feel the pressure in his abdomen building up again faster. He tensed his muscles and gripped the edge of the pool with his other hand in an attempt to sooth it, to prolong the pleasure you provided for as long as possible.

But you weren't planning to play fair. You enveloped the remainder of his shaft you couldn't mouth with one hand, stroking him alongside the movement of your head, and used your other hand to reach his neglected balls, fondling them in tandem to your ministrations. It was all too much, Miguel threw his head back and could only tighten his hold on your hair in warning before spilling into your mouth hard, completely emptying his seed in you in a fervent release.

You soothed him through it, until his first wince of over-stimulation. You then gently pulled yourself back, letting go of his softening cock, before lifting your chin up to him and making a show of swallowing his spent and opening your mouth to present your clean tongue to him. Miguel shuddered.

"No me hagas esto," he said, still catching his breath. "You'll be the death of me."

"A good way to go, I hope?" You jested.

"I wouldn't have it any other way," Miguel chuckled.

You two sat in comfortable silence, basking in the afterglow. You rested your head on his thigh, drawing lazy circles on his other's quads while Miguel gently rubbed your scalp, admiring the peace in your countenance.

"We should probably leave soon, I'm getting all pruny," you broke the silence.

"I do so love raisins," Miguel joked. You huffed in return.

"Shut-up, O'Hara," you spat back, feigning annoyance. You paused before continuing. "I'm gonna hold you accountable, you know."

"Hm?"

"To that promise," you clarified. "About pounding me next time."

Miguel chuckled before responding.

"It's a deal."

248 notes · View notes

daceydeath · 1 year

Text

Hierarchy (Part 13 - Finale)

Heirachy: a system, especially in a society or organization, in which people are organized into different levels of importance from highest to lowest.

Pairing: Mafia Changbin x Reader

Word Count: 9.2k

Genre: Mafia Au, slow burn romance, friends to lovers

Warnings: 18+, minors DNI, swearing, violence, guns, kidnapping, torture, murder, death, blood, gore, medical terms, drinking, unprotected sex (don't be dumb), oral sex (f receiving), fingering, creampie,

You have always been utterly uninteresting, safely boring as close. You had a normal job, normal friends and the sweetest bestie on the planet but now everything is upside down and that best friend of yours is far more dangerous than you could have ever imagined.

You stopped in the open doorway feeling like your feet were stuck in wet cement, no matter how much you wanted to move in either direction you couldn't, intense fear fell over you again and it felt like it was an hour before Binnie noticed your hesitation and closed the door quickly engulfing you in a hug.

"I told you you don't need to prove a thing to any of us" he spoke soothingly into the crown of your head his words muffled by the blood rushing to your ears as your mind replayed the last time you were in a room with the man who used to be your boss "We all know how brave you are you have proved it again and again, you don't have to do this". Tears were making your vision blurry as you began gasping for breathe the world disappearing to be replaced with the memories of the gut wrenching fear that they would hurt you, that Mingi would catch you, that Changbin wouldn't be fast enough to save you.

"Alright baby we're going and Hannie is going to make sure he hurts no one again" he continued his fingers rubbing small circles into your back as your knees almost gave way. Bin swallowed hard and moved to bring your arms around his neck which you allowed even though you couldn't really register his words. "I'm going to carry you baby I need you to hold on to me, can you do that".

When nothing but a whimper crossed your lips Bin held your back and swung your legs up his arms holding you safely against his chest as he turned back towards the other two who looked agonizingly at how terrified and pained you looked.

"I'm going to destroy him for you princess" Han almost snarled his eyes going cold as a switch flick inside his head, you heard him speak but could only blink continual fat tears down your face.

"You go with Bin princess" Hyunjin smiled softly his hand reaching out and petting your heair "we will do the rest".

"As long as it's drawn out" Bin muttered to them both above your head "I don't need to finish it".

"You sure?" Hyunjin asked slightly suspicious but aware that it could be a whole day before you were alright again.

"Yeah let Han do his thing, he will get it done" he nodded moving you back up the corridor and out of the vault without a word to anyone.

"'Sorry" you mumbled as he sat finally sat you on his bed your eyes a tear falling from you eyes as you looked up at him, he wiped it away with his thumb looking at you softly. You opened your mouth to say more but only a strangled noise emitted from your throat, making him sigh heavily.

"You never need to apologize for not being able to do something I should have fought harder against you doing in the first place" he whispered gently leaning down to kiss your forehead as he continued to hold you tightly against him.

"I let you down" you hiccupped trying to calm your breathing down but you were still to freaked out to make your body cooperate.

"You have never and will never let me, Lix, Han or the others down doll" he gently rocked you back and forth loosening your grip around his neck as he started to slide you onto the bed beside him.

"Now I'm going to lay you right here and then I will lock the door and comeback to hold you" he told you carefully as you nodded through the tears still running down your face. Binnie got up and moved across the room to lock the door while you laid on your side in the fetal position watching him, undoing his belt and letting his pants fall to the floor with a soft thud he pulled the covers down and picked you up again laying you facing him as he covered the both of you with his quilt and pulled you to his chest. He rubbed his hands up and down your back not saying a word, just waiting for you to go through the emotions you needed to until you were either able to speak to him properly or you fell asleep from emotional exhaustion. When your sniffling and tears finally stopped you were still clinging to his shirt with a strong grip, he carefully opened each finger massaging your hands and forearms before pulling you tighter against him your nose nuzzled in against his throat so you could feel his heartbeat under your cheek and hear his breathing.

"You still with me baby doll" he murmured buy your eyes were too heavy to answer your whole body felt like lead but you knew you were safe so you just sighed softly as he hummed quietly to help you fall properly to sleep feeling you relax into his arms.

Stepping back into the vault Changbin's blood was colder than ice he wanted nothing more than to make both of them suffer even more for how broken you had looked in the moment he met your eyes back at your office and again when he had opened that door for you to enter behind him. He was also furious at himself he had let you get in that position and he would take that anger out on them as well, stalking down the hallway even Chan gave him a wide birth as he passed towards the room where he know Han wouldn't have killed Kim yet since he was so set on making him suffer for as long as phyically possible. Knocking the screams because cries of pain as Hyunjin opened the door blood dripping from his safety goggles before he instantly stepped aside for him to enter Han stopping mid cut with his scalpel as he caught sight of him.

"Hey big guy" Han grinned his eyes sparkling "Where's your pretty little wifey?"

"Upstairs she needs rest" he growled back terrifyingly, with even Han's eyes widening slightly at the sight of how dangerous he must have looked.

"m' pet still here" Kim gurgled faintly blood dripping from his lips from the injuries that he had already suffered.

"My wife" he snarled ferally pulling Kim's head back viciously by the hair to show him the venom that he put into his words "is not your fucking anything".

Circling round the front on the chair Kim was still strapped to he could see the damage that Han had inflicted in all it's glory, eyes held open with wire speculums, shirt cut away but still blood soaked and his abdomen sliced open in several places, organs dangling from the large wounds clipped with surgical clamps to stop the possibility of him bleeding on before they wanted him too.

"What do you think?" Hyunjin asked proudly "Think Hannie's really outdone himself here"

"He has, but are you done? because I can wait until you have finished up whatever you have decided to do" Changbin smirked taking in the surprisingly small pool of blood and surgical tools littering the floor.

"Oh the only thing left is to let the clamps out for him to bleed out? but I was waiting for the morphine to wear off so he can feel everything" Han cackled his eyes truly deranged.

"We didn't want him dying halfway through so he's had enough to make it painful but bearable, letting him watch up cut him open" Hyunjin smiled wickedly gesturing to the large blood splattered mirror behind them.

"Well then I guess we have some time to kill" Changbin laughed darkly watching Kim closely his expression growing even darker as Kim tried to speak.

"I was thinking maybe we could actually remove the organs and see how long it takes for him to die?" Han suggested suddenly "your goddess of a wife did say eyeballs, skin and spleens after all". Hyunjin laughed darkly as he watched the two of them continue to torture Kim until his phone vibrated, pulling it from his pocket he saw a text from Felix letting him know that he was distracting you by taking you out with most of the others.

You woke up wrapped tightly in a quilt the late afternoon sun streaming through the windows and no Changbin, blinking you lifted your head a little shuffling the quilt down to your shoulders you found yourself looking at Felix sitting on the couch across the room playing on his phone quietly when he looked up at your puffy face he frowned sympathetically and stood beginning to make his way over to you before he stopped.

"Am I allowed to come sit with you bubs? I know you have been through so much today" he asked sounding and looking worried.

"Can I have a cuddle" you croaked your throat dry from crying.

"Of course you can bubs" Felix breathed looking relieved as he slipped under the covers with you and snuggled into you. "I was so worried when Bin appeared downstairs looking like he was going to burn the whole city to the ground".

"I'm sorry, I disappointed him" you sighed sadly.

"Absolutely not bubs, you would never let him down" Felix soothed stroking your hair "He was angry with himself".

"I don't want him to be angry Lix" you pouted feeling stupid that you caused such a scene and had taken Binnie away from his work.

"It's good he angry now bubs he's down with Han and Hyunjin working so anger is helpful there" Felix tried to lift your mood slightly.

"I disappointed all of you" you sighed continuing to pout.

"You didn't do that either, how about you go take a nice hot shower and I will take you somewhere nice to take your mind off everything?" Felix smiled hopefully squeezing you slightly to make you look up at him. He gave you his normal dazzlingly sweet smile that he knew would make you agree to just about anything.

"Would that be safe Lix?" you asked slowly mulling the idea over.

"Of course bubs, you would be with me and also nearly all of the Ateez crew are either dead or downstairs waiting to get extra dead" Felix squeezed you again.

"Alright" you smiled softly thinking it would be nice to go out even if it was only for a little while, you were dreading the first time you would leave the company since the last time had been traumatic and horrendous but if Felix was beside you the whole time you would definitely be safe.

"I can see those cogs spinning, we can ask Jeongin and Seungmin to come too if you like or Chan and Minho or all of them" Felix beamed "but first shower and outfit, you need to look like a billion dollars". He pulled you up out of the bed and led you into the bathroom turning on the water and then turning to leave with a mumble about if they had anything in your size. Felix had reappeared as you were brushing your hair out, still dressed in Binnie's robe, his arms holding two different garment bags and a plain white gift bag.

"Lixie, what are those?" you almost laughed as he laid them on Binnie's bed.

"What would you rather floor length or mini? You will look incredible in both but it's up to is you want to show your arms or your legs" he explained.

"I guess it would be better not to show my arms since my wrists are still bruised" you mumbled.

"Fucking cunts" Felix growled lowly before he handed you one of the bags "put that on and I will find you some shoes then I will be back".

"Lix I have shoes!" you yelled after him as he made a speedy exit from the room allowing you to unzip the garment bag and reveal a navy blue mini dress with long sleeves which would cover your wrists so no one would be the wiser but you were a little concerned about the length of the skirt. You decided to put it on anyway slipping the dress over your head and doing up the zipper as best you could knowing that Lix could help you get it done up for you.

"You decent?" he called through the door knocking against it.

"Yes, but I need help with the zipper" you called back as he came in holding a shoe box, his eyes widening with joy as he took in how you looked. You turned to let him finish zipping you up before you turned back to give him an inquisitive look "Why do you have garment bags full of dresses and women's shoes in sizes that none of you could wear?"

"Well sometimes we have guests that need a change of clothes and sometimes they need replacements... you know what you can ask Chan why I'm sure he would love to explain it" Lix blushed pink before opening the shoebox to give you a pair of silver crystal covered high heels.

"Lee Felix, these shoes cost a fortune I can't wear these!" you balked at the designer shoes he had placed in your hands.

"Well unless you are going shoe less I would say you are bubs" he replied cheekily looking you over "You look amazing bubs, truly beautiful".

"Is it just us going to this mystery place? you asked softly the compliment making your heart flutter while he picked up the gift bag he dropped onto the bed earlier.

"No I have roped in Chan, Minho and Seungmin. Jeongin still has some work he needs to get done for Han and Hyunjin so there will be the four of us to keep you safe, including the biggest scariest boss of them all" he teased to keep you smiling.

"Channie isn't scary" you laughed as he offered you his arm to led you from the room.

"Channie isn't scary to you but fucking Bang Chan is bubs" he laughed loudly leading you down to the meeting room where the others were sitting around and Jeongin was hunched over his laptop until the door opened and he saw you walk in.

"Woah noona" Jeongin whooped making the others turn to you, they had seen you in plenty of dresses in the time that you had casually seen them over the last few years so you weren't sure what the big deal was.

"Noona? when did that happen?" Seungmin waggled his eyebrows playfully at Jeongin who just shrugged.

"Wow you look incredible kitten" Minho whistled making your face heat up.

"You have all seen me in dresses before" you sassed trying to not show the effect the compliments were having on you.

"True but none have looked that good" Chan smiled "Bin was smart to keep you hidden from the rest of us".

"Stop, stop, stop" you mumbled waved your hands "too much, I'll get all shy and stuff".

"Last thing is jewelry bubs" Lix grinned sitting you on the end of the couch beside Seungmin as he began pulling boxed from the gift bag. You hadn't noticed that they were all dressed in nicer suits than they normally wore which made you feel even more shy about how you looked since they all looked gorgeous.

"Let me guess this another of those we keep spares like the clothes thing?" you raised your eyebrows at him.

"No this is a money is easier to hide in jewels than in banks kind of thing" he smirked as you rolled your eyes "Here put this on your ring finger and let me put this necklace on you". Lix handed you a stupidly big diamond ring to wear that when you slid it onto your ring finger was a little loose before he stood to clasp the fine chain around your neck.

"This ring is too loose Felix, I'll lose it" you carefully took it from your finger to give it back.

"Oh yeah I'll give you a smaller one then" he said casually digging through boxes until he found another diamond solitaire that fit you better.

"Lix this ring is ridiculous" you stared at it dumbfounded.

"That's the point bubs have to make it look like you really are a mafia wife" Lix snickered.

"Where are we going anyway?" Seungmin asked looking between the guys.

"I was thinking of the rooftop at Victory but I will take suggestions" Felix shrugged putting his hand out for you to help you stand.

"How about Novel?" Minho asked "None of us have been there for a while, its smack bang in the middle of our territory and its elite so none of the people that we don't want to see will be there"

"Sounds good" Felix smiled "I'm going to text Changbin to tell him where we're going so he doesn't worry".

"Come on little one" Chan offered his arm as he led the way to the garage letting you slip your shoes on before you made your way into the stairwell.

"You sure Binnie won't mind Lix?" you asked one last time feeling a little nervous.

"Nope he won't mind at all, we will take good care of you" he assured you happily.

"I know Lix that's not the bit he will get mad about" you rolled your eyes again as Chan helped you get into one of the black sedans watching as Felix ignored your statement completely.

"Why don't you just call him" Chan suggested softly making you feel stupid for not thinking of that yourself.

"I'm not sure why I didn't think of that Channie" you frowned pulling your phone from your bag

"Because it has been a hard day for you" Chan smiled at fondly.

"This is why we are taking you out to get you completely shitfaced and have fun" Minho chuckled slipping in the other side of the car from you. Pulling your phone out you dialed Binnie not sure he would even be able to answer if he was working.

Changbin smirked as your name popped up on his screen interrupting the discussion of which organs have the least use in the body and could be pulled out first which was getting narrowed down to spleen, stomach, liver, intestines and kidneys.

"Hey baby doll, are you feeling better?" he smiled into the phone as he watched Kim try his hardest to listen in as you told him where you were going.

"Yes Lix is taking me out somewhere, well Lix, Channie, Mino and Minnie are taking me somewhere" you clarified "I just wanted you to know where I was"

"You are allowed to do anything in the world you want to baby?" He purred almost suggestively as Han and Hyunjin both smiled sadistically as their victim.

"Binnie!" you giggled trying not to get embarrassed.

"I have a little more work with Han and Hyunjin to get done but let me know when you get back alright" He turned to watch Kim through the mirror as though he was not trying to add to his mental torture.

"Oh you're with them now?" you nervously asked making him know you were happy to play along if he wanted you too while Han waved at the phone.

"I am, Han is waving" he chuckled dangerously "Did you want me to put you on speaker?". You hummed in a way he knew you weren't totally alright before he let you speak again.

"Say hi to Hannie for me" you mumbled "I don't want him to hear me".

"That is absolutely fine baby, you have already been so brave, you deserves to go out and have fun" he smirked again watching Kim try desperately to make any sort of noise loud enough for you to acknowledge.

"Love you Binnie" you smiled hearing his breath hitch as her heard your words

"I love you baby" he grinned watching Kim's face fall looking even more destroyed than before pressing the call end button his eyes meeting Han's in the mirror who looked so pleased with himself he might combust.

"I think he's feeling it now" Hyunjin snarked lifting Kim's head to watch his expression.

"Give him another half an hour I reckon" Han's eyes glinted manically just to be sure.

You really did feel like a mafia queen as Chan opened the car door for you and helped you to step out of the car offering you his arm, as the security and people outside the bar noticed them and therefore you instantly. You seemed to be grabbing attention with every step you took from the car, the staff ushered the group of you inside and towards the VIP elevator to take you to the top floor, when the elevator doors opened the whole bar seemed to stop as Chan stepped out with you holding his arm and Minho, Felix and Seungmin behind you. Felix helped you into the booth making sure you were in the middle of all of them so you would feel safe and Minho ordered a round of drinks and a bottle of champagne as soon as a waiter appeared as you looked around the room at the beautiful art that decorated the walls.

"This place isn't owned by any of the crews, its neutral ground you could say" Seungmin smiled as you looked in awe at the view that was behind you.

"Well it's beautiful regardless" you smiled brightly.

"We thank you sincerely for the compliment Mrs Bang" a plump man who you hadn't noticed before said making you almost flinch as Felix squeezed your knee under the table.

"Not Mrs Bang" Chan corrected easily "Mrs Seo".

"My deepest apologies Mrs Seo, I would not seek to cause any offence to you or your husband" he bowed his head.

"None taken" you smiled softly as the waiter returned with a bottle of champagne and five glasses.

"As you know Mr Bang, we are grateful for your patronage as always and hope that tonight will be enjoyed without any unnecessary distractions" he murmured quietly.

"We are here to enjoy ourselves and keep Mrs Seo entertained there is nothing to be concerned about" Chan chuckled as he bowed again and scuttled away.

"Like I said neutral, we all behave while we are here since its owned by several politicians who could make our lives harder if they wanted to" Seungmin finished his explanation to you as Lix handed you a glass of champagne.

"So when should we start planning the wedding" Minho joked just about making you drop the glass.

"Mino" you snapped softly "We haven't even been whatever we are for a month yet".

"Yeah, Minho it's more likely she's going to get knocked up first" Seungmin drawled.

"Well they have been going at it like rabbits" Minho teased you further making you flustered at the memory that they had all heard you earlier.

"You two are just jealous" Lix laughed as you squirmed in your seat.

"No way I couldn't think of anything worse that fucking Changbin" Seungmin shot back making a face as you dissolved into a fit of laughter.

"No but Minho here is deffinatly annoyed it's not him getting laid" Chan shrugged his dimples showing as he picked on his second.

"We are all are pissed about that, fucking hell how irritating is it that Seo is the one who got a wife first" Minho dramatically sighed making you laugh even harder.

"I'm sure you guys struggle so much in the getting laid department" you sassed between giggles "Seeing how you are so wildly unattractive".

"Hey, it is a struggle sometimes" Seungmin countered his smile telling you the exact opposite of his words.

"Yeah it must be hard for you to have to turn down women all the damn time" you smirked as they laughed "is that why you have stashes of women's clothes at the company?.

"Um, sort of" Chan chuckled not elaborating further than that.

"So now this is all over, I guess we need to find you another job huh?" Lix asked bumping his shoulder against yours.

"Yeah I almost forgot about that" you paused sipping your drink.

"Jeongin and I have found a few options for you that are similar to what you already did" Seungmin grinned as you looked at him fondly.

"Is each of those outside of the... um company?" you questioned hoping that you would be able to go back to some sort of routine fairly quickly.

"Yeah each of them is offsite" Seungmin winked playfully making you giggle again as the wine began going straight to your head.

"Good, I can be a useful person again" you continued smiling brightly.

"Right we are going to need to order some food or she is going to be drunk in five minutes flat" Felix laughed gesturing for the waiter who was beside him instantly to provide whatever he asked for.

"Shut up will not" you pouted proving his point as they all laughed at you.

"But on a serious note you will stay with Bin now that this is over" Minho asked looking at you with more intensity "we need to know if we need to prepare"

"I want to be with him regardless of anything that you guys do, I don't think I could ever be without him" you replied honestly.

"Well fuck there goes your shot up in flames" Chan smirked making Minho narrow his eyes at him.

"Well a toast is in order then" Felix smiled happily "To our queen who will stay with us until the end" their glasses all clinked against yours as you took another mouthful of wine, your eyes brightening as food started making its way towards the table.

While waiting for the morphine to wear off enough for Han's liking Hyunjin had brought Changbin in to finish up Mingi, both Han and Hyunjin had agreed very early on that although they were the ones who would make them suffer he was the one to finish it. Mingi was being kept in of of the smaller 'medical' rooms which they had in the vault in case people needed proper patching up between rounds of questioning, he hadn't asked why because he didn't care why but when Hyunjin lead him in he was thrilled with their work.

"Just kill me already" Mingi groaned from the gurney he was partially strapped to, tubes and drip lines hooked up all over his body.

"That's why Changbin's here Mingi, you get to die now just like the rest of your crew" Hyunjin replied a little too happily for it to appear natural.

"Where's my uncle, my cousin?" he demanded albeit weakly.

"Cousin is dead" Hyunjin shrugged "Your uncle is currently bleeding to death very very slowly".

"You're a bunch of psycho cunts to you know that. All this for one little cunt, and not even a pretty cunt at that?" he grimaced as he tried to sit up a bit.

"Stop moving you should know you cant by now" Hyunjin rolled his eyes exasperatedly "You are up Changbin".

Mingi was strapped across his shoulders not to keep his from causing problems but to keep him upright, Han had done an excellent job in removing both of Mingi's hands and forearms, amputating them through his elbow joint, an procedure that was obviously related to the bruising you had shown them on your wrists. Smirking to himself he pulled the hand gun he always carried out and flicked the safety off.

"Any last words not that any one will give a fuck" he growled aiming between his eyes, trying not to show how angry Mingi's words made him.

"Fuck you and that cunt of a wife" Mingi spat glaring up at him.

"Well I am going to fuck her after this but thanks for your concern about my wife's pretty little cunt" Changbin smirked pulling the trigger and putting Mingi down like a rabid animal.

"One down, one to go" Hyunjin sang amused as his associates came in to get rid of Mingi's corpse.

"What did you do with his arms?" he asked as the pair walked back to the observation room.

"Oh we kept them, were going to use them when we put the bodies out Han took great pleasure in totally skinning them while Mingi watched" Hyunjin replied "I think they are in the freezer".

"I love that you don't really know where we are keeping random body parts" he chuckled as Hyunjin scratched the back of his neck looking sheepish. Opening the door they found Han once again spewing bullshit to make Kim's end a little bit worse.

"So I understand the appeal believe me she is beautiful and so sweet but the thing that I like the best is how fucking hot she sounds when she cums. This morning the big guys was railing her into the mattress and she made the sweetest noises" Han babbled holding up Kim's head so he could see his mutilated body in the mirror.

"What are you blabbering about now?" Hyunjin sighed pretending he was bored as the pair of them walked back into the room.

"Just telling our guest about how good the big guy's wife sounds when she cums on his cock" He giggled letting Kim's head fall as he let go of the grip he had on his hair. "How's Mingi, happy as ever?"

"Dead" Hyunjin shrugged "Changbin put him down like the piece of shit he was, but not before he insulted our princess again".

"Fucking maggot, whole bloodline has no manners then" Han spat looking at Kim's barely conscious form "I say we do it now before he goes into shock. I want him to see himself die".

"How do you want to do this then?" He asked still watching Kim as his head lolled almost lifelessly against his chest.

"I'm thinking spleen, intestines, liver then we just start taking off the clamps? I don't want to have to get the bolt cutters to crack open his rib cage It's too much work for too little fun" Han explained as though dissecting a live person was a totally normal and mundane thing to do.

"Sure Han, you do you" he shrugged still looking at Kim before turning back to Hyunjin "any objections?"

"Nah, but let me get some buckets before Minho loses his shit again about the cleaning up" Hyunjin smiled grabbing buckets from the corner of the room and placing them under the chair. "If you could at least pretend to aim for the buckets Han"

"I can do that" He smiled toothily picking up his scalpel again before making a few fast cuts and holding up Kim's spleen triumphantly before chucking it unceremoniously into one of the buckets.

The painful wheezes and whimpers that were starting to cease escaping Kim's mouth as him blood ran freely into the buckets that Hyunjin had placed under the chair. He had been watching Kim for the past almost hour but as soon as the surgical clamps were released properly he knew it was going to be a short but painful show. Han had already called his guys about getting the other corpses off ice and back into the fridge unit so they could prepare their little spectacle for that night.

"I thought it would be done in like thirty seconds" Han frowned impressed.

"Same but I guess you did miss the femoral for a reason" Hyunjin nodded sagely.

'I think he will be gone in another fifteen max" He chuckled watching Kim finally go limp the blood still draining out of him just slower now that his heart had stopped.

"So between this and what we did to Mingi for you it should show the whole fucking planet not to fuck with you and princess" Han snickered poking Kim in the eye to test if he was really dead for good measure.

"Dude" Hyunjin laughed "This is why people think your a psycho"

"I gotta say I think all the murder doesn't really help" he added watching Han and Hyunjin release the bindings on Kim and let him slump to the floor with a heavy wet thud. "I'm going back up to see if Chan and the others are back yet you guys have fun".

"Oh we fucking will" Hyunjin grinned helping Han drag Kim towards the the edge of the tarp to roll him up for transport.

When you returned to the company you were feeling lighter than you had since the whole mess had begun, you were going to be safe and you were going to be with Changbin it was everything you could have wanted. Well it was everything you could have wanted aside from the murder, mayhem, crime syndicate, potential complications of said crime syndicate an the fact that the love language of the whole group seemed to be loyalty and taking the piss out of each other. But it made you feel strangely at home although you weren't entirely sure that wasn't the alcohol buzzing through your system. Heading back into the meeting room you made a bee line for one of the couches plopping yourself down while Felix and Seungmin went back to work.

"I'm going to make you a coffee kitten" Minho sighed looking at your lounged figure on the couch.

"Thank you Minooo" you sang back to him.

"Noona's tipsy or actually drunk" Jeongin asked quietly leaning towards Felix.

"Tipsy if she was drunk she would be telling you how cute you are and that she loves you" Felix smirked as you sat back up to pull the large ring off and the necklace that Felix had put on you earlier and dropping them onto the table with a clatter.

"I'm not even that tipsy" you pouted as Felix rolled his eyes.

"Did you or did you not say that out of the rest of us me and Chan are the most fuckable?" Felix teased.

"No comment" you sighed tucking your legs under you so you could lean against the arm of the couch making Chan strip out of his jacket and drape it across your lower half.

"Here drink think and lets get you a little more sober before Changbin gets made at us" Minho sighed with faux annoyance.

"Well that's no fun" you teased sticking your tongue out at him while he tried to hide his smile.

Changbin returned to the meeting room to find Felix and the others looking into police routes and officers they could pay to not be in the dump site location at the time that Han and Hyunjin's guys would need to be there and for at least and hour to get all of the bodies off loaded and dealt with. Felix was looking into street camera locations so he could successfully have them all disabled when he needed to and Seungmin was looking into ways to have disturbances cause in other parts of the city to divert man power towards further away locations. You however were laying on your side on the couch Chan's jacket draped over your legs as he and Minho discussed the job opportunities that you could have both within the syndicate and outside.

"Did you have fun baby?" he interrupted enjoying the excited look on you face when you turned to him.

"Binnie" you got up immediately and threw your arms around him.

"Where did this dress come from?" he chuckled as you let him spin you around.

"Felix" you grinned "do you like it?".

"I like anything you wear, I prefer taking off what you are wearing" He smirked as you smacked his arm and glared "Can you give us a minute baby, I don't want you hearing the details this time? Give us maybe 10 minutes".

"Sure, I'll be in the kitchen then" you nodded leaving the room quickly.

"Everything tied up down stairs? no loose ends" Chan turned to him expectantly.

"I dealt with Mingi, Han had created his own masterpiece with Kim" he answered darkly "Have to admit this is probably his most vicious work yet".

"How do you mean?" Minho queried a small smirk on his face.

"He cut Mingi's arms off" he shrugged as the entire room just stopped to stare at him "I'm not sure Felix wants to know what he did to Kim but it was like I said a masterpiece".

"Holy fucking shit" Minho barked in surprise.

"Fucker deserved it" Jeongin shrugged "I treated and bandaged her arms when you guys were out and they looked terrible".

"Should have cut his dick off while they were at it" Felix muttered bitterly making Chan laugh loudly.

"What's funny?" Han announced walking in behind Hyunjin both cleaned up and in sweats.

"Bin was telling us one of our guest lost an arm or two" Chan sniggered.

"Oh yeah fucker was lucky I didn't skin him instead of just his arms but I knew the big guy needed to end it" Han grinned flopping himself down beside Minho as Hyunjin say himself beside Seungmin.

"Mingi was excellent but Kim, that was a level of pain I have never seen you do" Hyunjin smiled proudly.

"Oh yeah so what I did was..." Han started excitedly gesturing to his own face.

"Nope, nope, nope where are my headphones" Felix yelped loudly as Jeongin chucked them across the table while Han whined, sliding them him place on his head Felix went back to work allowing Han to proceed.

"I got some of those eye clamps from the doctor and I pinned his eyes open while I made him watch me pull his organs out!" Han's toothy grin was a stark contrast to the words he had just uttered making even Chan look concerned.

"You pulled his organs out?" Seungmin clarified.

"Well not totally to begin with I didn't want him dying until I was sure that Bin was going to be happy about his level of suffering but after that I cut out his spleen, liver and part of his intestines they are all in buckets so clean up won't be too hard" He explained looking at them happily "Where is princess?".

"She is in the kitchen and how do you go from organs to noona in a single breath?" Jeongin asked looking concerned still.

"It's not important they are dead and my princess is safe and in a couple of hours were done and dusted" Han shrugged.

"You didn't want her knowing the gory details?" Hyunjin asked tilting his head

"We took her out and she is happy and you want her to hear about organs and amputations" Minho laughed.

"That is true, it would be better to keep her happy this morning she looked almost as scared as when I found her" Hyunjin frowned as Felix slowly lowered his headphones to check if it was safe.

"The declarations of love worked a treat though" Han joked "Kim looked shattered".

"She thought she had let us all down and was scared of what had happened and also that we were disappointed" Felix chimed seeing that they were past the gore and back into the normal.

"She is never going to disappoint us, she's too loyal for that" Seungmin added.

"I'm glad you all seem to trust her because I need to clear something with you all" he cleared his throat "I asked her to stay".

"We all pretty much knew that mate" Chan chuckled.

"I know but I still want you to have a say over it, we always do everything by vote and this isn't different" he sighed.

"I'm not even guessing when I say all of us are happy for her to move in, stay for as long as she wants and if things change we can just add another wing" Chan shrugged easily.

"Is this because she calls you Channie now" Minho waggled his eyebrows at Chan.

"No you fucking twat it's not" Chan replied deadpanned.

"Oh it so is! better add our fearless leader to the list of replacements" Han chirped.

"Fuck off you psycho what did I say about telling me what order you guys want to fuck her in?" he groaned.

Having played around on your phone and looked through your socials you figured it was safe to head back into the meeting room now so you headed back towards the room opening the large doors without even knocking and walking in. You smiled seeing all of them there laughing at something Binnie was being dramatic over, but you noticed Innie was still working and so was Lix as the others sat around.

"Hold up there is an order?" Hyunjin laughed while Han pouted about whatever had just been said.

"Yeah Lix first, then I still reckon Minho, me, you, Seungmin, Chan and finally Jeongin" Han cackled not even noticing you in the room let alone that you had wandered over beside Jeongin to check out what he was doing.

"Nope, Hannie your on the end of that list not the middle, sorry" you shrugged making Jeongin snort as Han whipped his head towards your voice.

"What? Why? You love me!" Han protested pouting cutely.

"I love you to little bits and pieces but that doesn't mean I would ever fuck you" you smirked not looking up at him which set of a chorus of loud laughter. Jeongin had scribbled a bunch of haphazard, times, names and streets on a piece of paper which you could clearly see was meant to be plans for tonight so without making a sound you reached over to grab the note book you had been working in earlier and flipped it open writing the notes in a clearer to understand way.

"Innie is this a three or a five?" you pointed to the paper sitting in the chair beside him.

"Hmm? a five" he nodded flicking his eyes between his laptop and the paper.

"The you are missing a window of 20 minutes between 2:40 and 3:00" you frowned looking over the times again to make sure you had written them all correctly "See if there is a patrol on the Southern side at 2:30 then there should be an overlapping one on the Eastern side since all the others do". You pointed to the map he was looking at and put the times beside him.

"Are you totally sure you want an outside job?" Seungmin asked smiling widely "You potentially saved our arses there and you don't even realize it".

"Innie would have seen it" you clicked your tongue as Jeongin looked back at his laptop calculating quickly.

"I mean yeah but you saw it first and you are a natural" Seungmin continued.

"No offence but I would prefer not to work for you" you sighed "it's easier to feel like I have a tiny semblance of normal if I work in a normal office doing just normal office things".

"You don't need to justify yourself little one" Chan reassured you as your eyes flicked down to the notepad again as Jeongin scribbled times again.

"Thanks noona" Jeongin murmured making you smile and make your way over to Binnie who was more than happy to pull you into his side his fingers marking the velvet as he gripped your hips.

"Binnie, be careful of your arm" you whispered.

"It's fine, but you can play nurse later and check it if that will make you happy" he groaned playfully.

"Changbin says he has asked you to stay" Chan interrupted looking to you as you whipped your head to look at him wide eyed. You knew Binnie would mention it to the rest of them but you didn't think it would be quite that fast.

"Yeah he did" you confirmed as nerves erupted in your stomach.

"Have you agreed? Because we will need to organize getting all of the non-damaged stuff from your apartment and severing your lease if you are" Chan smiled making you let go of the breathe you were unaware you were holding.

"If none of you mind I would like to stay" you smiled hopefully.

"At this point I would be worried that certain people wouldn't let you leave" Chan chuckled gesturing towards Han and Felix . You smiled fondly at the guys who had so quickly gone from strangers to total family, their frightening outer layers that they displayed to the rest of the world completely shed in front of you.

"Next step would be picking which job you want, if you want one that is" Bin sighed kissing your earlobe.

"What do you mean if? I need a job Binnie" you scoffed.

"Well you don't really, not if you don't want one" he shrugged his non injured arm trailing up and down your side.

"Because that is practical how would I buy the things I need?" you sighed looking at the ceiling.

"I'll buy everything you could ever want or need, that's my job now anyway providing for you" he chuckled the others watching you curiously.

"I'm sorry I thought you were my boyfriend not my father or my husband" you sarcastically shot back moving from his lap to stand up.

"Well not your father, but marry me and then I would be your husband and I could give you everything you wanted" he smirked as your eyes widened and the noise in the room stopped completely.

"Binnie I was being serious" you sighed rolling your eyes.

"So was I baby" his smirk grew as you realized he was being serious before you pursed your lips your eyes narrowing.

"Hmm no" you smiled sarcastically before you turned walking from the room to go and find coffee and perhaps Mrs Choi so you could have an actual conversation without any sort of stupidity.

"Nice job big guy!" Han garbled through his mouthful of snack that he had found somewhere.

"You're an idiot" Felix rolled his eyes looking between the two of them.

Back in Changbin's room you started going through the things that you would need to bring from your old apartment, obvious things like your clothes were easy but your furniture and other things were harder. There was nothing you actually needed to bring, you had been given a room that was fully furnished and you spent a huge amount of time in Binnie's room anyway. You also had full use of the kitchen and although there were staff that they guys employed and you still cleaned up after yourself there was nothing in your apartment that you needed to bring for the kitchen either. The whole thing was feeling more stressful than you thought it would be moving into a place that you couldn't actually contribute to. When Binnie finally returned it was late and you were still writing lists of things you would need to replace, donate or throw away.

"What are you doing that has you frowning so much?" he asked as he paused in the doorway.

"I just realized how little I actually need to bring with me and it feels like I am taking advantage" you mutter as you squint at the words you just wrote.

"How are you taking advantage? Is this because I said I would buy everything because I won't if that makes you feel bad" you walked to the desk where you were sitting still wearing the dress you had borrowed from Felix. You felt him lean on the back of the chair tipping you slightly backwards as he looked at the various lists you had written.

"All I actually need to bring is my wardrobe and my personal stuff, all my furniture and other stuff is already here and I didn't even think about how I am going to get rid of it all or anything like that" you began to babble making him slide his hands to your shoulders to squeeze them softly to try to soothe your tensed up muscles.

"Is this actually about your stuff or is this about you thinking things are changing too fast?" He murmured kissing the top of your head.

"I agreed to live here with you, but maybe not for the right reasons" you whispered hoping he wouldn't take it the wrong way.

"What do you mean doll?" he kissed your hair again continuing his hands squeezing and massaging your shoulders.

"I want to stay because I'm safe here with you" you admitted swallowing hard "I am pretty sure now that I have fallen in love with you, no I'm sure I have. I think I fell for you ages ago and just never realized. But this, us, we have only been a thing for a few weeks and I'm moving in with you, doesn't that scare you?" once you started you couldn't stop yourself from telling him what you were feeling it was as though the need for honesty between you had smashed away any sort of filter that had once been in place.

"Honestly? no it doesn't scare me because I have been waiting for it for so long but if you don't really want this I'm not going to make you baby" he soothed his voice soft and low as he moved to bring his lips to your ear. "I only want you baby, I don't mind waiting a bit longer if that is what you want". You shivered as his breath caressed your ear and neck his lips almost brushing your earlobe.

"I want this Binnie" you almost gasped your voice breathy.

"What 'this' is it you want baby?" he continued to cause goosebumps to erupt across your body his lips moving lower to almost brush against your jawbone.

"I want you Changbin, I want to be with you" you cleared your throat trying to get your mind to clear from the desire that was beginning to build inside you.

"Do you want to just go back to being what we were before all of this?" his lips grazing the skin of your jaw and his hands sliding down your arms.

"No, I don't want that" you blurted quickly "I want us together, I want you to love me exactly like you do".

"So you want me to worship and love you forever then?" he teased sensually his hands moving to carefully cup your breasts his thumbs brushing across your nipples through the plush fabric.

"Yes, I want that. I want that so much" you whimpered as his fingers moved to pinch and tug at your sensitive buds.

"Then you want to stay with me?" he retracted his hands from your chest moving to place them back on the back on the chair spinning it so you were now facing him.

"Yes Binnie I want to stay with you" you nodded trying to not rub your thighs together under his intensity of his gaze.

"Then stay" he whispered lowering himself to his knees in front of you, pushing your knees apart easily he pulled you slightly down the chair before rolling it closer to him.

"Binnie" you whimpered softly his hands sliding up your thighs pushing the fabric of the mini shirt higher up your legs until it circled your hips.

"It's ok baby, I'm going to take care of you" he smirked slowly tugging your underwear down your legs "I'm going to take the best care of you baby".

Spreading your thighs further apart he kept eye contact with you until the moment he licked a fast hard stripe through your folds making you cry out, your fingers sliding into his hair and grasping at his roots to ground yourself from the intense pleasure his tongue was giving you.

"Binnie" you moaned lewdly as his tongue circled your clit roughly repeating the action each time you tugged on his hair. His fingers moving to push your folds apart so he could thrust his tongue inside you tasting you fully and groaning against you, your head fell back when he pushed those fingers into teasingly slowly compared to how his tongue was ravaging your clit. Feeling you getting closer as you began clenching around his fingers he pulled away from you kissing his way along your inner thighs giving you time to come down before nipping and sucking at the skin leaving a trail of marks that only he could ever leave on you.

"Lets get you undressed before I ruin that pretty little dress" he smirked pulling you to your feet and moving behind you to pull the zipper down kissing his way down your back as the fabric fell away from your skin.

"Need you so bad Bin" you whined you hands blindly grabbing behind you to touch him anyway you could, but he just continued undressing you slipping the dress off your shoulders to let it fall to the floor.

"Patience baby" he smirked kissing his way along your shoulders as he slipped your bra straps from them to let it too fall from you, guiding you towards the bed you let him position you so you were sitting facing him as he began to undress, when he let his pants and boxes fall you leaned forward to take the tip of his cock between your lips swirling your tongue around him as he let you pull him closer to you sliding himself between your waiting lips until he hit the back of your throat.

"Fuck you are too good to be true baby" he groaned letting you suck him off exactly how you wanted to you hummed as you let the praise make you work harder to please him until he pulled himself from your mouth with a lewd wet pop.

"Turn around baby" he smirked helping you get on your hands and knees.

"Please Binnie I need you inside me" you whimpered wiggling your arse at him as he lined himself up and pushed himself into you slowly stretching your plush walls until he bottomed out making you whine.

"Show me how much you want it baby, fuck yourself on my cock like a good girl" he growled through clenched teeth. Mewling softly you rocked yourself up and down his length feeling every ridge and vein of his cock as he held your hips to steady you.

"Feels so good Binnie, feel so full" you gasped moving yourself faster chasing your own pleasure as sparks of your orgasm set fire to heat in your belly.

"Fuck look at you being such a good girl" he groaned as you started tightening around him as you continued to do just as he told you, his hands caressing your hips and he helped you keep the rhythm you needed to reach your high.

"Changbin, fuck, Changbin" you cried out your walls convulsing around him as your orgasm hit you hard your arms collapsing under you.

"Shit so good baby" he groaned taking over from you to fuck himself even further into your fluttering walls making you moan pornographically as he began pounding into you with enough force that you would have collapsed under him if he hadn't been holding you "let them all hear you baby, let them hear that only I get to knock you up".

"Changbin" you cried again as a second far harsher orgasm crashed over you your voice strained from all your moans and cries.

"Fuck that's my good girl" he grunted filling you with ropes of his thick cum continuing to shallowly thrust to fuck it further into you. Letting you slowly crumple to the bed he went to grab a wet cloth to clean you both up the rough fabric making you shiver in sensitivity even though he was trying his hardest to be gentle with you.

"That's the second time you have said that Binnie" you softly panted as he scooped you up to cuddle up to his chest.

"That I've said what baby?" he he licked his lips.

"That you want to get me pregnant" you murmured looking up at him "Is that because you want that or because you like the idea of it?"

"Ah you noticed that" he blushed slightly looking sheepish "I know it's fast, I know that normally couples don't talk about moving in, getting married and having kids before the month mark but I want that. I want that with you" he slowly admitted.

"You really want that?" you whispered.

"I've never been more sure of what I want when it comes to you baby" he smiled his fingers trailing up and down your bare skin.

"I guess we better practice then" you bit your lip looking up at him through your lashes.

"Fuck I love you" he beamed capturing your lips in a tender kiss.

"I love you too Changbin" you breathed against his lips.

FIN

a/n: So that is the end of Hierarchy thank you so much to everyone who read, reblogged, commented or even just liked this story. You all mean the world to me and I adore you xx

Taglist (open): @christopher-bangnaldoskzz, @3sriracha, @deakyspuff, @symptoms-of-moonlight, @yoonguurt, @shownus-bebe, @ateexyz, @oiphoebe, @leanimal90, @armystay89,@tangerminie, @septicrebel, @damnyouficc, @roamingpolar, @bakedlilgoonie, @ahhhhhhhhhghh, @animehideout, @mrsseals16,

#seo changbin x reader #changbin x reader #mafia changbin x reader #skz mafia au #stray kids imagines #skz imagines #stray kids mafia au #seo changbin smut #stray kids fanfic #skz fanfic #hierarchy #skz scenarios #stray kids scenarios #daceydeath writes #18+ content #18+ minors dni #friends to lovers #slow burn fanfic #slow burn romance

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deception-united · 2 months

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The WIP Questionnaire

Thanks to @modernwritercraft for tagging me! Filling this out for my current WIP, cowriting with @leisureflame.

1. What was the first part of your WIP that you created?

The plot and worldbuilding drastically evolved in leaps and bounds quite a few times. The first part of the first version of this WIP that we wrote was an excerpt from somewhere near the end—but for the current version, we started with the initial meeting of the MC and the future love interest.

2. If your story was a TV show, what would the theme song/intro be?

Runaway by AURORA—the lyrics about escape and freedom fit well with the theme.

3. Who are your favourite characters you've made? Why?

Blad. He's a bald black chicken and the MC's brother's adopted son. He is majestic. You wish you were him.

Another favourite is Finneas, the MC's love interest. He's tall and blond and a loser, and we love him.

4. What other pieces of media do you think would share a fan base for your story?

Fans of novels similar to Red Queen, or really any other dystopian novel, would likely (hopefully) enjoy it.

5. What has been your biggest struggle with your WIP?

The chapter outline. We've been stuck on it for the longest time—we know a number of plot points, but really fleshing it out and figuring out every little detail has been challenging.

6. Are there any animals in your story? Talk about them!

Yes. Blad.

7. How do your characters get around? (e.g., trains, horses, cars, dragons, etc.)

We haven't put too much thought into this just yet, but seeing as the novel is dystopian and set in the future, the methods of transport are likely futuristic as well. I'll update once we figure that out.

8. What part of your WIP are you working on rn?

Like I said, the chapter outline. We're struggling.

Aside from that, there are a couple characters we have to finish developing, and a few others whose exact role we've yet to ascertain.

9. What aspects (tropes, maybe?) of your WIP do you think will draw people in?

Betrayal, opposites attract, slow burn romance, reluctant acquaintances to friends to ALMOST LOVERS to enemies, grumpy x sunshine, lovers in denial, love/hate.

10. What are your hopes for your WIP?

Getting it published. And assembling a fandom. Every writer's dream, isn't it?

Tagging @paranoia-art, @replayjay, @writingwithfolklore, and @celestialwrites. (Accidentally posted this once before I finished editing; ignore previous mention)

#writeblr #writing #wip questionnaire #wip ask game #writer games #tag game #creative writing #deception-united

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deaths-presence · 4 months

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Two of a Kind || Dazai x Reader Part 4: Woven Threads

Story Summary: The search for your brother has led you into conflict between the Armed Detective Agency of Yokohama and the Guild. Fitzgerald keeps you involuntarily, that is until you finally find your chance of escape. Will you find strength within the ADA, or will you only become more astray? Word Count: 2.2k Characters Featured: F. Scott Fitzgerald, Atsushi Nakajima, Lucy Montgomery Warnings: afab!reader, slowburn, plot heavy to build up romance, very tiny small mention of Atsushi's abuse, lmk if I happened to miss anything please! Tag List: @decaf-nosebleed @isa-ghost @xakumi @bunchofdoodlesinspace A/N: If you want to be added to the tag list, feel free to let me know! Psssst, guess who's finally showing up next chapter now that we're done building the beginning plot? :)

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

Time was a blur as you ran. Your lungs were on fire and your feet slapped against the hard pavement in a steady rhythm. You ignored the curious stares that followed you, and you attempted to stay close to the docks. You didn’t know where to go. You were in an unfamiliar city in a foreign country. You had nobody to rely on, and every thought swarming through your head about the Guild and the Port Mafia was only creating more anxiety. You had to leave, and you didn’t know how. You wish you had just found Roberte already. There was no calling for help unless you went through the Guild, and you did not want to resort to crawling back into Fitzgerald’s clutches. Your freedom was right in front of you, and you were going to steal it back.

You were forced to catch your breath, the air in your chest circulating in and out in desperate wheezes as you leaned against the nearest wall. You doubled over and closed your eyes as you focused on taking a slow, deep inhale and letting it out slowly. You repeated this several times, and not only did it help with feeling like you were no longer suffocating, but also helped in regaining awareness of your situation.

The relaxing silence was interrupted with a small commotion that sounded close. You instinctively made yourself small and proceeded with silent footsteps to investigate. The voice inside your head screamed at you to keep running and find a ship that was heading back to America, but your curiosity was winning.

As you turned one of the corners, you gasped before slapping a hand over your mouth to keep quiet. You silently prayed while you hid yourself behind the corner of the building again, hoping that Fitzgerald did not spot you. With no footsteps hurrying toward you, you gave a sigh of relief and cautiously allowed yourself to evaluate the scene.

Your eyes were stuck on one individual, and it wasn’t Fitzgerald. Despite your captor and Melville being present, the boy with white choppy hair that you thought dead was standing right before your eyes. He was accompanied by a small girl in a red kimono, her black hair pulled into two twin-tails. You remember seeing a glimpse of her when you had landed with Hawthorne and the others, but she had seemingly run off while no one noticed.

The growing burning sensation in your chest was not from lack of oxygen this time, and it was with surprise that you recognized it as anger. You noticed that the boy was already disheveled and bleeding, whether it was by Fitzgerald’s hands or not, it didn’t matter. You decided not to make the same mistake again.

A brave step out was met with the sight of the boy’s hand turning into the claws of a tiger, but before he could attack the two Guild members, a bullet shot across and met with his head to render him unconscious. The girl had started to reveal her short sword before a bullet contacted her hand, leaving it instantaneously bleeding and bruised red. You realized with horror just who was shooting these bullets. Though they were made of rubber, only one person could be so skilled.

The knowing laugh made you nauseated, your eyes finally looking at Fitzgerald as he smiled at you. Your freedom was a sick joke. You were never unshackled, and what Fitzgerald said next only confirmed it.

“Miss Louisa’s strategies are always so perfect.”

Your dreadful world turned black after you heard the next and final shot.

⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘

Waking up was a chore for once. The adrenaline in your body had finally worn off, and the soreness in your muscles made you want to cry out pathetically. You nearly sobbed for another reason. Your surroundings were all too familiar. You were back on the Moby Dick; in the very same room you were previously using. The frustrated scream that was torn from your chest shocked you, but you couldn’t stop it. It felt like minutes before it finally cut off with choppy breath, slamming your fist against one of the walls. You would never escape.

You stood up carefully and shuffled over to the nearest corner, hugging your knees to your chest and hiding your face. Later, the door opened and the voice of a boy yelling to be let go entered your ears. You were startled enough to finally look up when he attempted to hit the walls and look out the compact window. At the same time, he noticed you. It was the tiger boy.

“I have to get out of here. Yokohama is in danger,” he said weakly, realizing his defeat being encased in the room; just as you already had for months. You shook your head quietly at him, and it pained you to see him look forlorn and broken.

“I’m afraid that this aircraft is meant to keep us inside,” you murmured in a horrible attempt at comfort. “It is good to at least see you alive, minus the circumstances.”

It was quiet for a long moment, and you nearly assumed he wouldn’t remember you before you felt a presence beside you. Your eyes flickered to the left of where you were sitting to see him joined with you on the floor. This close, you saw more details of him. Whoever had cut his bangs must have been scared by something while they had the scissors in their hands. Out of all the hair that was white, there was one strip of it that was black. His eyes still reminded you of the late summer sunsets, warm and innocent as they watched you.

“I’m Atsushi,” he introduced himself with a gentle smile. Such a warm welcome nearly brought tears to your eyes, and you looked away before he could see. You saw the way his smile began to fade at your reaction, but you offered your own name quietly and the smile returned.

“I’ve never wanted to hurt people,” you began to explain. “I simply ended up in the wrong hands, and now I am paying the price for my own trusting nature. I haven’t had free will for months. I’ve been forced to follow and stay silent unless spoken to. It’s safer that way. I came here to reunite with my brother, but instead I am finding myself a bird in a luxurious cage and my ability to be used until I am disposed of.”

Atsushi’s sympathetic expression lifted a weight off your shoulders. For the first time in a long while, you felt heard and seen by someone who felt more like a friend than a superior. The words you had spoken were probably the most you had heard from yourself in several weeks, and it certainly made you emotional. You felt on the verge of finally breaking, but you wouldn’t leave Atsushi to deal with that uncomfortable situation. You pushed back the threat of tears pricking at your eyes and focused on him.

“I didn’t even know you were the weretiger Lord Francis was looking for,” you mentioned with a clear grimace. “That’s how uninvolved I am. I have only heard mentions of you in passing between other Guild members, and I always wondered what was so special that he placed a bounty on your head. I was the one that hesitated to hurt you in that fight by the fountain; the one with the water ability. I can take on other appearances, and with them their abilities if the person harbors one.”

Something in your words made Atsushi frown, and for a moment you were terrified that you had offended him, or worse scared him with the mention of what you could do. The one person who you were managing to befriend, and you could easily tarnish it and have it pulled out of your grasp. Thankfully, he reassured you with his reply. “I would like to thank you for sparing me that day. Many say that hesitation is weak, but you have a sense of mercy. I could see in your eyes,” he stated with a little smile “As for Fitzgerald, he said something about me being a key of some sort. A ‘tiger beetle.’ I have no idea what he’s talking about,” he recalled. You nodded, not out of understanding, but to let Atsushi know that he had your attention.

“You said that Yokohama was in danger?” you timidly questioned. You felt the urge to hug the poor boy as he was pulled back into the current dilemma, his expression changing from confusion to the dawning apprehension that his city was being threatened.

“Fitzgerald plans to burn it all to the ground, the Agency and the Port Mafia along with it. He said it was some sort of incineration operation. I have to warn everyone. I have to get the doll to Dazai.”

You were about to interject his panicked rambling when you both were interrupted by another outside source.

“You two sure do look cozy in there. I just came to check on you when I was taking out the garbage,” Lucy said, her tone dripping with smugness. Her voice prompted Atsushi to leave your side and attempt to convince her to let him out. Normally you would be comforted by Lucy’s presence, but your thoughts went elsewhere while they conversed. You were able to pick up on their conversation when they both showed their burn scars from a hot iron poker. Your heart ached with sympathy for each of them, and you saw the gears of similarity clicking together and turning.

One moment you were in the locked room, but in the blink of an eye you found yourself with Atsushi in Lucy’s room. Her ability allowed her to create a personal space for her and the giant ragdoll called Anne, time and space warping to create such an idea. It had been the first time she had allowed you in, and you could see why she would want to use it as her own escape where no one could reach her. It was then you noticed that in one of her hands was the doll that Atsushi must have referenced earlier.

“Dazai only needs to be able to touch the doll in order to stop the curse,” he guaranteed Lucy when she said it would be too late.

“We are high in the air and unlikely to come down any time soon. What are you planning—?" you began to question, but the look on Atsushi’s face told you and Lucy that he would risk his own life to get the doll to whoever Dazai was.

“Atsushi, you can’t—” you started while shaking your head. “You’ll die.”

There was a moment of silence before Lucy spoke. “So, if you’re serious, then you’ll probably get shot and killed in the air or get cut up by the mad men down there. You know that already, and you’re still going to do it.”

“There was an old book I read back at the orphanage,” Atsushi replied. “One of the passages stood out to me. It read, ‘I’ve never regretted any of the things I’ve done. I’ve only regretted the things that I didn’t do.’”

Atsushi was pulled out of his thoughts when Anne loomed over him to offer a parachute bag. The boy’s sunset eyes observed it in confusion before Lucy explained that she had kept it in case she needed to escape.

“I only have one, so if you would like to stay with me in Anne’s room,” she offered to you, but you watched the surprise take over her expression further when you shook your head.

“I can’t stay here any longer, Lucy. I have to find Roberte even if he isn’t here, and I realize how much of my life I’m beginning to miss being trapped in this aircraft forever in Fitzgerald’s hands. I’ll come back for you.” You offered her a smile which she returned.

“We both will,” Atsushi added with determination.

“How will you get down? I only have one parachute and it’s Atsushi’s,” Lucy inquired with a frown. “You’ll die instead of him.”

“Don’t forget why I was captured to begin with. I have several cards up my sleeve,” you answered.

The door in Anne’s Room opened to show the exterior of the Moby Dick, the wind coursing through your hair. Your body tensed at the idea of how high up in the atmosphere you were, the clouds just below you and the city of Yokohama so small beyond them. You could see pillars of smoke from several directions, a heavy feeling in your stomach as you realized Fitzgerald already put his plan in motion.

You took a deep breath and focused on using your ability. You took on the Change that you used to escape the Zelda when it was set aflame with explosions, the wings protruding from your back and your blonde hair glowing orange in the setting sun. Your eyes didn’t have to adjust as harshly as before once the Change was completed.

You barely registered having time to brace yourself for the big drop down as Atsushi gave you a determined nod, then bravely jumped without hesitation. You glanced back at Lucy one last time, nodding your thanks before leaping after Atsushi. You were airborne.

#dazai osamu #bungou stray dogs #bsd #bungo stray dogs #bsd dazai osamu #dazai osamu x reader #dazai x reader #bsd x reader #bsd x female reader #dazai imagines #dazai x y/n

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mirai-desu · 3 months

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I agree with this article 💯, as Rachael New et al. are now undermining the entire premise of the show, and I want to highlight and comment on a few parts of this excellent take:

We're losing a central character whose emotional journey we were invested in and a vital piece of the primary reason we were told to watch Miss Scarlet & The Duke in the first place. Whether you want William and Eliza together romantically or not, the show was always predicated on and grounded in their relationship, and to pretend otherwise is to deny the original premise behind its very existence.

Exactly this. "Miss Scarlet" might be considered more lead than him, but he was still a titular character, and we were invested in his journey as well as hers. Their bond is the foundation of the show. The teenage flashback episode in particular proves this to us--and proves William’s importance to the greater story. But even before that, it's been there all along:

And, honestly, the official description of Season 1 is blunt about what’s happening: “Eliza and The Duke strike up a mismatched, fiery relationship that will crackle and smolder with sexual tension as they team up to solve crime in the murkiest depths of 1880’s London.” So let’s say it as plainly as possible: No one planned to tune in to this new program simply because it promised a crime drama in period dress. The series’ hook, apparent from its first marketing materials, was this unique relationship at the show’s center. The real story of Miss Scarlet and the Duke has always been just that: Miss Scarlet and the Duke.

While RN et al. can dig in their heels and claim that the story has always just been Eliza's, but we know better than that. Since Day 1, the promotion and the interviews all catered towards the UST. As time wore on, Stuart really began championing the romance in earnest, and it was a logical next step. He was not wrong to do so. What was actually happening on screen was heading that way, as part of a beautiful slow burn.

After literally years of dancing around the rarely mentioned but blatantly obvious feelings between them, this season finally pushed their relationship forward. We got a whole flashback episode dedicated to how they first met! There was a kiss! William said the L-word! The genuine forward relationship progress that so many fans had been waiting for was finally happening! [...] What makes this even more painful is that Season 4 finally felt like the show was moving forward, at last, at least where its central relationship was concerned. Yes, William left, but it was for a good reason: to give Eliza the space and opportunity to decide what she wanted from their relationship on her own terms. (That, as the kids say, is growth.) But if he was never coming back, why bother with most of Season 4?

While we know that in part we got some of the romantic moments in S4 due to Stuart's requests, but I think ultimately, RN's reluctance to move things forward with Wiliza is what put Stuart at odds with her, as she likely did not take too kindly to him suggesting his own input (even when he became an EP) and perhaps felt like he was telling her what to do with her own show. And her goal is to keep it stuck in a cynical pattern; one that William wanted to resolve, and one that Stuart had to remove himself from, because RN favors rinsing and repeating, versus actually diving deep into longer character arcs. That's how she think she can keep the "longevity" of her show, or so she thinks.

Because look, I love Eliza. But I realize it's really because of the potential of who she could be. William never returning prolongs her characterization being stuck. She was supposed to spend the year thinking about what changes she needs to make so they could be together. If he never returns, then what's the point? The catalyst for change is gone. William staying on the show should have actually forced her to grow, not kept her stuck. Removing William entirely reinforces the patterns versus ending the cycle. Especially if he is just replaced with a new love interest, who just flirts with Eliza to keep a "will they / won't they angle" that's never moved forward.

Any writer worth their salt would have Eliza grow in interim and have major development upon William return. But that would end the "put them together / pull them apart." Which is not what RN wants, hence why she refused to put them together. She thinks these patterns are what maintains the show vs spending time on actual storytelling. And this is also why I cannot believe the party line, and truly feel that we haven't gotten the whole truth on why Stuart's exiting.

Thinking about the scenes in the flashback episode of William and Henry, and how important they were, it makes me sad that apparently in the grand scheme of things, it doesn't matter to RN. And it's sad they keep trying to paint it that the two most important people to Eliza were “overshadowing” her all the time.

I fear is that this new retooled version will just ignore and erase the importance that William has had on her life. At least in the S4 finale we saw how his words still affected her, even when he wasn’t there, encouraging to reopen her own agency. But I can’t see them continuing that, when clearly they want to reboot the show without him.

I had been working on my post S4 fanfic before the news of Stuart's departure hit, and I looked back on how I was developing Eliza from where we left off and how I wrote William's return. When I was outlining it, I was thinking about how RN only just barely has touched the surface of Eliza's psyche. I wrote her as torn up about William leaving--and how he left not long after he almost died. Eliza should have grown from the trauma of almost losing him and we seemed to be on that path in the show, with her at his bedside, and having him recover in her home. We could have dived into how the lost of her mother at a young age affected her, and how Henry's death still was painful. At her father's funeral (which mind you, is in the very first episode) she talked about being alone, and William wiped her tears away. And now... Eliza has lost another person close to her. Literally, it's not William's existence stopping Eliza's development--it's RN's lack of talent, I'm afraid. And who knows, maybe that statement that she cannot be developed while he is around is just a cover to explain his exit, as it's clearly not an actual reason.

Likewise with William, in addition to dealing with his feelings for Eliza, there's so much they could done with him leaving Scotland Yard and the trauma he survived. He didn't have to have PTSD, but he's already had a pretty traumatic life and survived so much (which again… why show all that in the flashback if they were ditching his character - Ben, not RN, wrote that episode so maybe that was a sign). But he held onto the identity of being part of the police, because of how he came get that job (i.e. Henry) and get off the street, and they could have explored what would it be like to shift away from that identity. There just was so much potential and so much richness that could have been written, for a man who came from nothing, but wanted to belong, and wanted to be loved. And maybe Stuart was just so very aware that the show was refusing it take it there. He took William as far he was allowed to, but not as far as the character could have gone, if written by the right people.

Frankly, both William and Eliza deserve better. Stuart deserves better, and we the Wiliza fans do as well. Ultimately, regardless of what (and at what point in time it) really went down between Stuart and RN, the series should have ended with S4, but with a happy conclusion. All signs pointed to William joining Eliza at her detective agency, but now we just have to imagine them there, working together as equals and in love.

#this got way longer than I planned but at least read the link if not all my ramblings #miss scarlet and the duke #msatd spoilers #mirai's text posts #(also for those of your on other platforms yes I did borrow some of my own wording elsewhere to share here lol)#edit: I'll add a caveat that they simply could just straight up change Eliza's characterization in S5 - been there seen that.#anyway remains to be seen but not by me bc I'm out

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latenightsimping · 1 year

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THE EDGE

“...There is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who’ve gone over.” - Hunter S. Thompson, Hell’s Angels

Summary: A part of the deal to freedom included a stay at Pennhurst. It’ll take everything to keep the hope that one day the locked doors will open, the windows will no longer have bars that block the view, and that one day, the name Eddie Munson will be synonymous with the word ‘innocent’. The hope, he never realised, would also come to be synonymous with your name.

Chapter: 1 / 2 / 3 / 4

Pairing: Eddie Munson x reader

Word count: 3.9k

Warnings: angst, heavy themes of inpatient treatment/hospitalisation, heavy themes of mental health, institutional deprivation of liberties, body injuries, mentions of suicidal ideation, themes of institutional abuse, can be a dark read (continue with that in mind, look after yourselves), canon divergence, Eddie survives the demobat attack, post-S4 timeline, slow burn romance, eventual smut, 18+, eventual fluff, there will be a happy ending

AN: Chapter three is finally here! Many thanks to my lovely boyfriend @mantorokk-writes for test reading and making the header, I'm forever in love with you <3 This series is gonna be a slow work in progress, but thank you for reading so far! Really excited to see where it's gonna go, and how we're gonna get these two out of this pickle. Enjoy!

Taglist: @edsforehead, @idkidknemore, @harrys-tittie, @gaysludge, @smileygoth

A congealed lump of what was apparently mac and cheese, boiled to death vegetables and bitter orange juice. Eddie had become used to shit food long ago, thanks to a lifetime of only buying the cheapest non-brand groceries to try and save costs. But this… This was something else. Fuck, he was surprised it even passed the mark for being fit for human consumption. It reminded him of the stories his old man used to tell about prison food, about how the trick was to eat it without thinking too much, barely savouring the taste before you swallowed. The similarity getting stuck in his throat.

But at least he wasn’t eating his meals in silence anymore. With you sitting opposite him, filling any dead air with talking about the hospital gossip, though he’d given up on trying to follow along after the first apparent affair taking place. But the content didn’t matter. For the first time in so long, maybe even longer than he realised, you had offered him a seat to get out of trouble with no motive behind the action. Had given him his own pack of cigarettes after swindling one from an orderly just before lunch started, the one that seemed to stare at your chest more than your eyes, putting yourself at risk for no gain of your own. It was exceedingly rare to find people that would do something out of the goodness of their hearts, and the question was rattling around his head with such a velocity that it tumbled from his lips before he even realised.

“Why are you doing this?”

Even he internally winced at the lack of warmth in his tone, making it sound more like an accusation than a question. But if it offended you, you didn’t act as if it bothered you. Instead, the corners of your lips twitched upwards, eyes drifting from your tray to his own as you tilted your head.

“What’dya mean?”

Giving himself a few needed seconds to reframe the words in his head with taking a sip of his drink, he swirled the contents of the paper cup, deciding to stare down into it rather than look up. “I mean, why are you helping me? You don’t know me.”

From the very quick glance upwards he chanced, there seemed to be something there that was bittersweet. Eyes slightly widened, mouth downturned, yet an ever so slight huff of a laugh as you balled up a serviette in your hands. “Trust me, I know how it feels to be the new guy on the wing. The way the others look at you like you’re a fuckin’ chew toy?”

He’d noticed the way the other patients stared, when the steel door behind him slammed shut. Some didn’t even look over, too caught up in their own internal world. But there’s a certain feeling that can overcome a person when they’re accustomed to having to be on high alert at all times. A certain flash of the eyes that makes your stomach churn, blood pooling to your feet and your mind telling you to run. You studied his face for a moment, a sympathetic smile briefly twitching at your lips.

“I had someone look out for me too, when I first got here,” you explained, the paper in your hand now being twisted and toyed with as you spoke. “She uh… Her name was Patty. She was this take no shit kinda woman. Taught me the best way to curb the hunger was smoking cigarettes, which orderlies would give pretty girls special treatment, which patients to never go near. That sorta useful shit.”

Though you smiled, it didn’t reach your downcast eyes. “She got sick last year. Didn’t say much about it, but it took a toll on her. It finally got her a couple of months back. And you know what the worst thing was about it?”

Plenty of what you were saying was ‘the worst thing’. Being caught on the wrong side of a power dynamic, having to go hungry because nobody cared, patients having to be caregivers because God forbid those that actually got paid to do it actually did their fucking jobs for once. All of those answers dying on his tongue, replaced with a slow shake of his head.

“Nobody came to see her in the end,” you muttered, brows furrowing as your voice cracked. “She told me she had a son, told me the doctors called him and told him, but he never came. I get it, I mean, not many of us have the luxury of seeing people from the outside… But she was on her fucking deathbed, y’know?”

When your eyes finally met his, glossy with unshed tears that you seemed so determined to never let overspill, there was a look to you that made all the pieces click together. Made the parts of him that he’d kept buried away for self preservation start to rise back to the surface. Taking a firm grasp of his heart and squeezing for good measure.

The look of pure fear.

The fear that one day, both of you would end up like Patty. Untethered to the world outside, cast adrift with the other lost souls. Taking the last few rattled breaths with nobody around to hear them, looking up to the sky and the view still blocked with bars. Nobody with spare change for the ferryman, forever stuck.

“I’m sorry.” It was all he could think to say, no other words seeming quite right. The tone as hollow as he felt, as shaky as the tremors in his hands that never quite seemed to go away. All he could think to say, but the truth. He was sorry you were here, if your proclaimed innocence was to be believed. He was sorry for himself too, deep down.

“It’s whatever,” you replied, clearing your throat as you tried and failed to staple the look of nonchalance back on your face with a half decent result. “Anyway, don’t worry about your first therapy session, alright? I got it covered.”

He shot you a small look of incredulity, head tilted to the side as he followed your lead in piling used napkins and cutlery onto his meal tray. “What’dya mean?”

The smile you gave him next was finally a genuine one, a glimmer in your eye that could only mean mischief.

“You’ll see.”

You could see the stress levels that you tried so desperately to lower over lunch to begin raising as you and Eddie filed into the day room for group therapy. How his jaw clenched so hard you were surprised he didn’t break enamel, a shortening fuse near a naked flame as he took his seat next to you. Leg bouncing with beats akin to a hummingbird’s heart, chewing at the skin around his ruined nails with eyesight dancing around the room to end up on the tile right in front of him. You couldn’t blame him; he was walking into the unknown, with no idea where the hell he would end up. You remembered the feeling well.

Others clad in the same off white uniform as you took their respective seats around you, the energy in the room a palpable, frantic buzz. Nerves, apathy, distaste and mocking. You could feel it all, see it in the faces around you that you’d come to know in the years that you’d been imprisoned. Small naked flames, that could be as harmless as a match or as intense as thermite. The day could go either way. And it would depend on the questions posed to them.

Dr. Madden made his way through the doors, adjusting the thick horned rimmed glasses that permanently perched on his beak-like nose as he took his seat. You’d never liked him; he was nosy, even for a psychiatrist, always putting two and two together to end up with an equation that made no fucking sense. Nothing could ever be simple, in his eyes. Someone’s violent outburst had some convoluted reasoning to do with Daddy issues and not being hugged enough as a child, rather than someone just needing a fucking cigarette and not being given one. It took everything within you not to roll your eyes into the back of your skull as he cleared his throat to begin.

“Good afternoon everyone,” he began, eyes settling over each patient for a brief second before focusing on Eddie. “We’re welcoming a new person into the wing today. Have you had any sort of therapy like this before, Mr. Munson?”

Eddie’s reply was a brief shake of his head, glance not leaving the cracks of the floor as he fiddled with the split ends of his hair. Madden’s bushy eyebrow raised a fraction as he sat himself slightly forward. “Well, we start with a brief check in. How we’re feeling, what we’d like to talk about in today’s session. Perhaps you could start us off? You seem nervous today.”

You couldn’t hold back a scoff, the psychiatrist’s beady eyes narrowing on you as you fished through your pockets for your pack of cigarettes. The look on his face evident that he wasn’t amused at your perceived insolence to his ‘therapeutic process’. He could shove that process where the sun didn’t shine, as far as you were concerned.

“He’s a newbie, of course he’s gonna be nervous,” you shrugged, waving over an orderly with a lighter, who seemed to be watching you with ever so slight trepidation as he ignited the flame that you used to puff life into your cigarette. Huffing out an exhale of smoke that was aimed in his direction. “Bit of a redundant question, isn’t it?”

Madden was a tough nut to crack, but you’d managed to get the veins in his neck bulging a couple of times. You just needed to know which buttons to press, and it seemed you hit one with a jab to his reasoning. “I don’t find it redundant at all,” he answered with a smile slightly too smug for your liking. “But if you think that an example of a check in could help, maybe you could go first instead?”

You took a sharp inhale as you gave a grimace of indifference, face scrunched up as you jerked your head towards an older lady that seemed on the edge of her seat to talk. “Why don’t you get Miriam to do it? From what I remember, she was just starting to open up about her fucker of an ex husband.”

Was using another patient’s anger, something you knew got them started into an hour long tangent until they were red in the face unethical? Maybe. But it was every man for himself out here, and you didn’t have anything akin to backup in the process. As expected, the woman launched into a tirade, screechings which contained the words “useless bastard” and “should have divorced him before he did it to me!” melding into the background as you shot a smug smirk in Madden’s direction. To his credit, he was hiding his distaste well, his only giveaway the slight flush creeping above his collar.

For most of the session, you managed to evade the heat from coming towards you and Eddie. A few more prods to Miriam, staying silent when the psychiatrist asked if anyone else had anything to add. A question to old man Hardy about the house he got kicked out from before being transferred, each person being used like a shield to hide from the questions you knew Madden had for you. You knew you were fucked from the moment he put his hand up to cut off Duane about his teenage trauma prematurely, eyes fixed on you as he sat back in his chair.

“Does Duane’s story resonate with you?” he asked with a heightened pitch of voice, head slightly tilted as his lips twitched upwards. It caused your back to straighten, knowing full well where he was going with this. Somewhere you swore never to go back to, ever since the nightmares ever so slightly decreased and the flashing images weren’t permanently burned into the back of your eyelids.

“No.”

The words reverberated around clenched teeth, knuckles turned white as you gripped the cracked pleather of the cushion you sat on. Out of your peripheral vision, you saw Eddie staring at you with a slight questioning to his glance, and it made your gut twist even more. You hated how suddenly the tentative power dynamic had switched. How your already lacking control was going to spiral even further, if Madden willed it.

“I think it might, though,” the good doctor continued, the slight smirk being poorly hidden as his head tilted to the side. “You had a lot happen when you were eighteen, didn’t you? When you made the choice to-”

“I’m not going to talk about it,” you snapped back, folding your arms as a poorly constructed buffer between you and the man opposite. Your eyes glanced at the clock on the wall, a slight ease of tension as you realised the time. “Not with only five minutes left of the session.”

“But you’re going to have to talk about it sooner or later,” he countered, daring to look slightly sympathetic as he regarded you. “You’ve been here two years, and you’ve never talked about that night. It doesn’t show much progress, now does it?”

You wanted to stand up, pick up your chair, and crash it over the top of his head. How the fuck would he know what ‘progress’ you’d been making? How much work you’d had to put into yourself, rationalising and justifying everything about the night that changed the path of your life, so much that you probably could never step foot on the original trail if you tried. How you still tortured yourself with what you could have done differently, the actions that you did take haunting you like spectres? Madden knew nothing of how often you’d dragged yourself off the precipice time and time again, nothing but bloody fingernails and a quickly ebbing will to live, as you weighed up the decisions of falling asleep to never wake up again against staying alive to do everything in your power to clear the stain on your name.

To Madden’s credit, he didn’t push further. Letting the silence hang in the air, perhaps a non-verbal push that might get you talking. It might have worked, once upon a time. When you had no secrets to hide, too worried about what others thought, wanting to please people so much that it deprived you of happiness. But that was before you were branded a psycho, tossed into this place with the key thrown away. Now, you couldn’t give a shit about what others thought.

Except, there was a way your stomach dropped when you looked over to see the way Eddie looked at you. Not with disgust or horror, which you were used to by now. There was slight concern in his eyes, mixed with empathy, the combination making you want to squirm in your seat. You didn’t even know each other, yet his humanity seemed to still be intact for now, seeing another person clearly struggling and not being able to do anything about it.

You decided to stare at the clock on the wall for the rest of the session, filtering out all other noises and focusing on watching the minute hand strike closer and closer until time was up.

As you put away chairs, you expected Eddie to ask you about it. Maybe try to pry, or get answers for questions that could be in his own mind. But he didn’t. He stayed silent as you both wandered back to the table you met at, sitting down with him wordlessly reaching for the deck of cards in the middle and starting to shuffle. And silent you stayed. Going through the motions of a routine you knew too well; free time, ‘music’ therapy - as if listening to the same vinyl of Bach twice a week for two years would do anything other than make you want to smash your head against the chipped white walls. Dinner consisting of a brick of so-called ‘meatloaf’ that you knew well enough to avoid even attempting to eat, settling for tasteless vegetables and vaguely lime flavoured Jell-o instead.

Even silent when the orderly Nguyen told you to haul ass to the laundry room for work placement, and to take your new ‘friend’ with you. You were brought out of the routine of folding sheets when you heard Eddie clear his throat, looking up to see him slightly rattled as he sorted various clothing into separate piles.

“Hey uh… You don’t have to say anything if you don’t wanna, but… Thanks. For today.” You saw the corners of his lips twitch upwards, a ghost of a smile as his eyeline landed on the messy stack of undershirts. “Didn’t have to stick your neck out of me, but you did. Appreciate it.”

You mustered the leftover social energy you had to lift your shoulders into a slight shrug, rubbing the back of your head whilst the other hand took your weight as you leaned slightly on the table. “It’s nothing. Sorry for not being so talkative I just… Still don’t wanna talk about why I’m here, y’know?”

A curt nod was his reply at first, lips a narrow line and eyes darting around as if he was thinking hard about something. Finally glancing towards the door, then around the room, as if to make double sure that what he was about to say wouldn’t be overheard. He looked panicked; either a deer in the headlights or a lion ready to defend itself, you weren’t sure.

“They said I killed people.”

It was so quiet you barely picked up on it, and you had to admit, it took you aback. There was an initial flight or flight reaction that doused your autonomic system, as if his words set off a red light in your head and you had to start looking for an improvised weapon. However, that was pure instinct, only for a second before logic took over. For someone who was apparently a killer, he certainly did look hollow about it all. Besides. Those in glass houses…

“Did you do it?” you mumbled back, eyes leaving his to take the pressure of both of you, hands busying themselves with folding the now grey sheet in front of you, toying with the frayed corner to try and conceal it in the fold somehow.

“No.”

You found yourself at a precipice. He had stuck his neck out to tell you his charge, not knowing if you’d stick around or bolt and leave him on his own again. It was a sign of trust; an olive branch, that you could either accept or leave hanging between you. You had only known Eddie a day. Less than that, maybe seven hours, tops. But so far, he seemed to have his wits about him. He didn’t strike you as the judgemental type. He didn’t pry, and he tried to distract you when you were at your lowest, instead of offering useless advice or forcing you to open up. When you looked up at him, there was no hint of deceit that you could tell. He was staring at you with those intense eyes of his, an expression reading both ‘I’m telling the truth’ and ‘dear God, I hope you fucking believe me’.

For so long, you had wanted reinforcements in this place so badly. To not fight alone, to have backup. In the outside world, no way would you trust someone this fast. But this was Pennhearst. A place with different rule sets. You needed to take the help wherever it came from, and hope it didn’t blow back in your face later.

You needed to give him something in return.

You didn’t falter with eye contact as you said the words you thought you’d never say. The words that made your stomach churn, made you want to flinch as you said them. “They said I killed people, too.”

You saw the look on his face to be one of bewilderment, eyes scanning you up and down as if he’d never seen you before. You wondered if that’s what you’d looked like not five seconds ago, mirroring each other as you confessed your sins. “Did you do it?”

“No.”

The crease between his eyebrows seemed to smooth, after what felt like hours of staring at each other, the only other sounds the rhythmic knocking of the decrepit industrial dryers. It was you who finally broke the silence, busying yourself again with grabbing the pile of undershirts near you by the bottom and pulling it towards you to begin folding. “I don’t expect you to believe me. And if you don’t want me to know about what happened, I’m not gonna push it.” You shook your head as you frowned at the fabric in your hands.

“Why do you believe me? When I say I didn’t do it?”

You glanced back up at him to find a worried expression on his face, staring at you like he couldn’t quite believe you. As if it was too good to be true, to finally be believed. You wracked your brain for an answer, only to shrug and say the first thing on your mind. “Because guilty people don’t look so frightened of their consequences. I suppose on a subconscious level, they know they deserve the hell they created for themselves.”

You heard a sound which you figured to be a sharp exhale of air through his nose, most likely an attempt at a wry laugh. “You don’t look frightened.”

Your lips turned downward as you frowned again. “You get good at hiding it after a while, I guess.”

You heard your name being called, so softly that your heart nearly shattered. Not your last name being barked out with disdain, or in a patronising tone like a shrink would. It was said like somebody actually gave a shit. You looked up to be met with a look that was one of genuine concern, his eyebrows furrowed and lips slightly parted as if he was wondering what to say.

It was getting too intense for your liking.

Shaking your head as you cleared your throat, you flashed a tight smile as your folding became hurried. “Finish that pile quick, yeah? Orderlies hit the roof when you don’t finish your chores on time.”

To his credit, Eddie didn’t push it. The rest of the time being filled with small talk and comfortable silences, until your names were called to be taken back to your room for the night. The motions of getting ready to bed had become mechanical a long time ago, on autopilot as you brushed your teeth and changed clothes. Hearing the call for lights out, and getting plunged into darkness against your will. You knew that first checks were in an hour.

You had sixty minutes to cry to yourself about finally being seen, about not being treated like a criminal that deserved the way you were being treated. Hugging the pillow to your face and willing yourself not to be making a sound, clutching the cheap cotton between your fingers as if your life depended on it. Sixty minutes until you needed to shove the emotions back down, and face tomorrow, same as you always did.

Same as you always did, but at least you had someone on your side.

#eddie munson x reader #eddie munson x you #eddie munson fanfiction #eddie munson imagine #stranger things fanfiction #stranger things imagine #stranger things x you #eddie munson self insert #stranger things self insert

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eclipsebyler · 2 years

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BYLER FIC RECS PT 2

Okay, so I'm here with another part! Compiling all my recent favorite reads (with commentary this time because I'm very normal about byler fics...) Anyway, sharing is caring because my bookmarks are becoming longer. So here you go.

• We Will All Go Together When We Go by perexcri

The Apocalypse, romcom Byler fic! Ongoing, chaptered, 30k words so far. I know I've rec this in a recent post but I'm including it here again because I LOVE and enjoyed everything in this fic, down to Byler's characterisation, esp Mike's, and their playful yet tensioned dynamics. It's so chefs kiss. There's enough amount of they-get-stuck-in-the-upside-down suspense, comedy, and slow burn fluff. Highlight of this fic is that Will has a gun and Mike has a flashlight. That's all you have to know to give it a read.

baby, we're perfect by bookinit

A fresh take on established byler relationship! Oneshot, 16k words. I don't know how to describe this glorious fic without it being a spoiler so you just have to read it. The Fluff and Angst are both in extremes, you've been warned. It made me cry, for real. Had to stare at a wall for a few moments because of some scenes. Like the title says, it was PERFECT. A devastatingly beautifully written work I owe this author my life for what they did in this fic.

i'd make a deal with god by smoosnoom

A fix-it fic for vol2 featuring Castle Byers and Rain kiss. Will attempting to rip the bandaid off and Mike not letting him. Oneshot, 15k words. Anything by this author has me in a chokehold and a puddle of feelings, seriously. Their fix it series is a MASTERPIECE. The way they write Will's POV here absolutely destroyed me. It encompasses his story so painfully and beautifully and just everything about him is so— I badly want it to be canon he deserves the BEST. And might I add that the way they showcased the Byers-Hopper family bond here is everything I adore. Please if you haven't read this, you should.

make me your future history by andiwriteordie

Byler through the years, childhood friends to lovers fic! Oneshot, 10.9k words. I am absolutely a sucker for childhood promises being fulfilled (and broken) till they grow up so I ADORE this fic so much. Not to mention this author is one of my favorites and they carry the byler ao3 tag on their back and always deliver the BEST fics. There's a lot of angst and also a lot of fluff and it's something I can just reread again and again and again and won't get tired of it. It deserves more reads and love!

Gotta Be A Strange Twist of Fate by PoeticPatron

The fantasy D&D Byler fic! Oneshot, 26k words. Another fic I'm rec-ing again because it deserves more recognition. I really, really enjoyed and adored reading the adventures of the party in a fantasy action setting and the way the author incorporated the D&D lore here was so good. This fic was so wonderfully written and sweet in all the right amounts for friendships and romance. The Paladin and the Cleric being soulmates against all odds and prophecies? Say no more!

A Darker Timeline by egg98

The au where everyone stopped believing Will was alive and he was stuck in the Upside Down for three years and only came back to the real world in Season 4 timeline. Ongoing, chaptered, 24k words so far. Like the title says, it's A Darker Timeline, can't emphasize that enough, so much trauma and horror is delved in this work especially for Will, but also the party. The author's writing style is so hauntingly captivating- every chapter leaves me at the edge of my seat. I am so hooked with this 'what if' scenario and this unique, creative concept because it opens a lot of possibilities and changes to the characters and the plot! Will especially with his UD abilities and his personality.. beware of a grim and more badass Will plus emotionally scarred party. It's written so WELL so you should give it a try! (It's more on the psychological horror side though, the romance aspect is very slow burn.)

the boyfriend problem by RomeoWrites

The fic where the Wheelers (especially Ted) thinks Mike and Will have been boyfriends since forever. Oneshot, 15k words. Who would've thought I'd read a fic where Ted of all people don't have a heteronormative view of romance? I very much enjoyed reading him embarrassing Mike every chance he gets, this fic gave me so much JOY it was such a funny and sweet and fluffy read! If you're looking for some lighthearted, family dynamics and eventual getting together of two oblivious gay teenagers— this is the fic!

The Dad Who Stepped Up by MagikMask

Hopper and Will bonding fic (and of course, Hopper being protective of Will especially when it comes to one Michael Wheeler). Oneshot, 7.8k words. I've been enjoying every Byers-Hopper or Wheeler family dynamics fic there is and it's even more enjoyable if Byler gets tangled up in it. This fic focuses more on Hopper trying his best to be a good dad to Will, but the Byler and Hopper parts of this fic gave me healing, so I have to rec it!

r/byler by danteapot

Mike Wheeler if he's on reddit, social media fic. Oneshot, 5k words. This fic was so fun and amusing to read and the social media aspect fitted so well, I could totally imagine Mike oversharing his problems online and asking for advices lmfao. Trust him to always talk about Will on every spaces and still not realize he's in love with him. He's just so oblivious and I love him for it.

i hate accidents (except when we went from friends to this). by blackdeathmamba

Post S4 college roommates Byler and miscommunication trope fic! The miscommunication in question is just them accidentally kissing all the time and having different thoughts on it. Three chapters, completed, 16.8k words. I've said it before and I'll say it again: it's one of the best and funniest work I've ever read. Byler are so disgustingly in love but they are also painfully oblivious about it. It's a competition on who's more of an idiot between them while you read through their POVs and it gave me immense joy and pain reading through it. I swear to God, these bitches are so gay, and this fic just showcased that. Please read it to brighten your day.

i need you more than anyone darling (you know that i have from the start) by friendstolovers

Instead of Byler getting murrayed, this is Byler getting Jonathaned fic (In a gentler and more subtle way as the tags says). Oneshot, 5.7k words. Mike finally comes to his overdue realisations (thanks to Jonathan) and attempts to climb bedroom windows to be romantic. They finally talk and confess and it's just the cutest and sweetest thing ever I swear.

without heart by aceoflanterns

Will Byers and the Upside Down (the mysteries between his connection to Vecna and his powers) fic. Completed, chaptered, 31k words. I am once again rec-ing this because I can't help go back to this fic when I need to read complex takes on Will surrounding vol2 and possible S5 plot! The author's writing style is one of the best and my personal favorites. It's art, a masterpiece, everything about it — down to the plot, the conversations, the characterisations, the family and friendship and romance dynamics. Even the Upside Down horrors with Vecna and the Mind Flayer and Will. How much Will's love for Mike and his love for everyone helped him (and their love for him, too.) Personally think this had lots of fresh creative takes, an interesting theory written in a fic. It's long and a worth it read! Totally in awe of this work.

i’d love to see me from your point of view by unidentifiedblackthorn

The fic where Byler gets high together and they let loose their disaster gay feelings. Oneshot, 8k words. Got me giggling, blushing, kicking my feet in the air, for real. The amount of cuddling, flirting and kissing this fic had made me sick (in the best way). I think Byler in Season 5 deserves a moment like this because of their decade long pent up feelings and pining, these gays deserve a break and just... be gay together. Anyways this fic was such a wonderful read! If you want to drown in fluff read this. (Also brb this author just posted a sequel to this fic, gotta read 🏃Probably gonna be a part of my next fic rec thread lol).

So that's it for now. Enjoy reading, everyone. And please if you guys have some recs feel free to drop me some, too! I need more fics to read.

#byler #byler fics #byler fic recs #pt 2 #feel free to send me recs too #to the authors of these fics ilysm

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i-am-baechu · 1 year

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Chapter Four The One About The Wedding

Summary: “Did you just ask me if I sell coffee in a fucking coffee shop?” And with that, Taehyung was smitten by the Barista in the crazy flower sweater vest. Friendships will form but most importantly Taehyung will finally meet his soulmate.

•——————•°•✿•°•——————•°•✿•°•———•

Genre: Idol au, strangers to lovers au, barista reader!, slow burn (friends with benefits to lovers kind of), semi-short storyish format, friendships, romance, angst, comedy, and smut

Main pairing: Idol! Taehyung x Barista! Reader

Side ships: Hoseok x OC

Warnings: Explicit language, smut, mature themes, homophobia, smoking cigarettes, drugs and alcohol usage

⇜ Masterlist ⇝

•——————•°•✿•°•——————•°•✿•°•———•

The girls stood in the small bathroom stall with a mixture of annoyance and ignorance (Julia). Y/N tilted her head at Nikki as the older girl looked away from her glare, “You know the more you glare, the more wrinkles you get.”

“I should kill you right now.”

“How was I supposed to know the door was going to break?”

Nikki took out a pack of cigarettes and Y/N slapped the small white box out of her hands, “You're not going to smoke when we're stuck together. This whole place says no smoking.”

“If I turn my head, I don’t see the sign anymore. Which means I can smoke.”

“Guys, I need to go to the bathroom.”

The two girls looked at Julia and then back at each other, “Fuck.”

An hour ago

The organ started playing the famous song that brought two souls together. The soft melody played through the church as everyone stood up to see the bride. It was Nikki’s cousin's wedding and she begged her roommates to come with her. Nikki hated her cousins (well she hated her whole family). They always acted like they were better than her because they were doctors and CEO’s. She only went when her mom bribed her with paying rent for three months for the girls, why would she say no to that?

Y/N looked down the aisle with an excited look but it dropped when she saw Julia...dressed in all white. Julia was in a white satin floral dress and a white pearl clip in her hair. Y/N looked away and looked at Nikki who was already looking at her, “Is she wearing white?”

“I’m sure she has a reason...”

“Y/N, who the fuck wears white to a wedding if you’re not the bride.”

“I mean there's colored flowers on it...”

As Julia walked down, everyone stared at her disgustedly but she didn’t seem bothered with the looks. She saw her roommates and waved at them with a wide smile. Y/N closed her eyes as she glanced up with a frown to whisper to herself, “Please give me strength.”

Julia stood next to Y/N with an excited look, “The uber took forever to get here. Did the bride already walk out?”

Y/N sighed and looked down the aisle to see the bride glaring at them. She nodded her head and looked at Julia with a stern look, “Yeah, she did.”

Julia turned her head away from Y/N to look at the bride with a wide smile, “She looks so beautiful. I love the lace work on the skirt.”

When the Ceremony ended, the girls stood in the waiting room with drinks in their hands. Every time a person walked past them, she overheard their whispears and wanted to hide from everyone. If she was them, she would talk bad about them too but that didn’t make it easier. Julia didn’t seem to be bothered by anything as she continued to drink her champagne, “I met someone.”

Nikki raised her eyebrow at her, “You met someone? Who?”

“It was someone from Bts, Hoseok I think... He was very sweet, we got drunk and fucked but he wants to hang out again.”

Y/N’s eyes widen and her mouth dropped, “You had sex with Hoseok?”

Julia nodded her head and shrugged her shoulders, “I told him I wasn’t looking for a relationship and he said that was perfect for him.”

“So friends with benefits?”

“Acquaintances with benefits.”

Nikki nodded her head and turned towards Y/N with a small smirk (something that made her nervous to see), “What about you Y/N? You were with Taehyung last night...did you get dick down?”

Y/N slapped her arm and looked around to see if anyone heard them, “Don’t say that...and no I told you it wasn’t happening any time soon.” For now...

“How can you keep your hands to yourself? It's clear he likes you.”

“Nikki, you don’t always have to have sex to make it known that you like each other. You can go on dates and that's what I want with him.”

Nikki raised her eyebrow and took a sip of her drink, “So you really like him?”

“Yes...I do.”

Julia smiled at this and brought her glass up to her confession, “That’s good Y/N. I’m happy for you.”

“Julia put your glass down.”

A group of older women walked past Y/N but stopped to look Julia up and down with disgust, “You should be ashamed of yourself.”

They walked off and Julia looked at Y/N with a frown, “I don’t think your dress is that bad.”

“You think they were talking about me?”

“It's probably too colorful.”

Y/N glanced down at her blue dress and then back at Julia’s dress, “Julia have you seen what you're wearing?”

“A floral dress? It's great for spring”

“The dance floor is now open! Let’s welcome the new married couple!”

Julia smiled at this and downed her drink before placing the glass on a table. She clapped her hands excitedly and looked at the two girls, “Let’s go! This is going to be fun!”

Y/N watched Julia run into the ballroom, pushing others to get there (making more people talk bad about them). She glanced down at her dress with a frown and then back at Nikki, “I thought this dress was cute...”

“It is cute, Julia is just...Julia.”

The two girls went into the ballroom when the crowd went down but they still overheard some of the gossip, “They’re probably going to last for a month before they divorce...”

“She’s a doctor, why would she go for some office worker? What a stupid choice...”

Y/N glanced towards Nikki who seemed unfazed by the older women gossiping. Y/N frowned at this and she intertwined their fingers together. She rubbed her knuckles with her thumb as Nikki sent her a small smile, grateful that someone cared for her. As soon as they entered the ball room, Nikki dragged her away from everyone and went to the bar. Sitting away from everyone. Nikki looked around and then back at Y/N, “My family are evil and leeches...that’s all they are.”

“Let's not think about them tonight. We can still try and have a good time.”

Nikki looked at the bartender and nodded her head, “I need more alcohol to deal with these people.”

“Just be careful...I don’t want you getting sick because of people you hate. They don’t deserve your health.”

“Yeah, yeah...so, are you ever going to tell me about last night?”

Y/N glanced at Nikki and then at the dark wood beneath her fingertips, “T-There’s nothing to say.”

“Bullshit, now tell me what happened.”

And Y/N did just that with wine in her hand. She talked about how they ate together and afterwards watched a movie. She didn’t remember the movie because she was too busy kissing Taehyung (and doing other things). She was going to stay the night but remember the wedding so she opted to leave to make things easier. He had his manager drive her to her apartment as they sat in the back sharing laughs and kisses. Nikki smiled at this, “Wow, you really like him. Do you see yourself dating him?”

“I mean I would want that but I like the pace we're out right now. I like texting or facetiming him, maybe it can be upgraded to a date soon.”

“He better ask you out. With the way he grabbed your ass, that means he wants you.”

“Nikki stop.”

Nikki let out a laugh and she looked at the bartender to order another drink but stopped. She grabbed Y/N’s wrist harshly, making Y/N confused. Nikki quickly left the bar with Y/N behind her confused, “Yah! Nikki, what the hell are you doing?”

“Gotta go...” Y/N rolled her eyes and stopped walking to rip her hand out of her grasp. Nikki sighed and looked at her with a frown, “What!?”

“What’s wrong?”

Nikki sighed at her and placed her hands on her hips, “I saw my ex...”

“Oh...Catherine.”

“No, the other one.”

“Megan?”

“Ding ding. She’s been texting me lately about getting back together but she only wants to be with me to get money from my parents. Now let's find Julia and get the hell out of here.”

Y/N nodded her head at this and followed Nikki through the “dancers”. Their eyes landed on Julia who was talking to one of Nikki’s aunts. The only thing that Y/N heard from the conversation was “Always wrap it before you do it.” She had many questions but she didn’t want any answers. Nikki ripped Julia out of the conversation, not bothering to say anything to her aunt. The roommates quickly made their way to the exit but stopped when Nikki heard her grandmother’s voice echoed in the lobby.

“Fuck, fuck...to the bathroom.”

No one questioned the decision, they knew her grandmother could be...too much. They went inside the furthest stall, locking it tight. When Y/N looked around the stall she raised her eyebrow, this stall was different. It didn’t have any gaps underneath and was rather like another room (a very small room) rather than a stall. Nikki sighed and leaned against the wall, “I fucking hate this family so much.”

Y/N nodded her head at this and patted the top of her head, “I know...we should stay here for ten minutes and then leave. I’m sure your grandmother will be gone by then.”

“Oh she will. I’ve heard she was the one that planned dinner so I know she'll be there to watch those poor workers.”

The girls sat on the floor (the best they could) and played uno on their cellphones to have the time go past faster. It was an intense game between Nikki and Julia while there was no way for Y/N to win at this point, “Nikki, just let me win. I never win.”

“That sucks for you.”

Y/N rolled her eyes and opened her text message from Taehyung with a smile on her face. Ignoring the yelling between the two, even though it was funny.

Taehyung:

So...you're playing uno in the bathroom?

Y/N:

Yes...well losing at it

Taehyung:

Well, I was wondering if next week you would want to go on a date with me? Jin showed me this private restaurant and I thought...it was perfect for us

Y/N:

Ohhh! I would love to go on the date...if you want lol

Taehyung:

Maybe we can dance on the rooftop or you can let me eat you out with the sunset on us

Y/N:

I-I...

“I WON!!”

The yell from Julia scared Y/N and she dropped her phone in her lap. She couldn’t tell if her heart was beating fast from Taehyung or Julia. Nikki glared at her and crossed her arms over her chest with a pout, “Lucky, anyways. We should go, I’m sure the witch is gone.”

Nikki was the first to stand and walked over to unlock the door but there was a long pause. Y/N and Julia looked at each other with blank faces as Nikki stood there. She turned around and gave Y/N a fake smile, “What would you do if I told you that the door won’t open...”

“The fuck you mean the door won’t open.”

“The door won’t Y/N, like I unlocked it but it won’t open...”

Y/N blinked her eyes at this and pushed Nikki out of the way. She pushed and pushed but the door didn’t budge. She quickly turned around with her back against the door, “It won’t open.”

“Yeah, tell me something I don’t know.”

“What the hell are we going to do?”

Julia raised her hand and Y/N looked down at the tiling before looking back at Julia, “Yes Julia?”

“We can die here.”

“We’re not dying...we can’t afford funerals.”

“I should kill you right now.”

“How was I supposed to know the door was going to break?”

Nikki took out a pack of cigarettes and Y/N slapped the small white box out of her hands, “You're not going to smoke when we're stuck together. This whole place says no smoking.”

“If I turn my head, I don’t see the sign anymore. Which means I can smoke.”

“Guys, I need to go to the bathroom.”

The two girls looked at Julia and then back at each other, “Fuck.”

Y/N tried kicking the door but it still didn’t move. Nikki stood in the corner with her hands in her hair, “Julia I swear to god you better clench.”

“I can't! I need to go now!”

Y/N kept kicking at the door but stopped as she let out a loud groan. She turned towards Nikki and then looked at the small gap at the top, “Get on your knees, Nikki.”

“Oh, kinky.”

“Shut the fuck up and do it.”

Julia started to jump a little as she looked at the ceiling with sweat starting to form on her face. Nikki let out a groan when she felt Y/N’s flats hit her back harshly, “Fuck can you be nicer?”

“No, because we’re locked in here because of you. Now push up.”

Nikki raised up slowly as Y/N started to climb over the stall but stopped when she saw Nikki's grandmother on the toilet. Her eyes widened at this and slowly moved back down. She looked at Nikki with a scared look, “Nikki...your grandmother has a hearing aid right?”

“Yeah? She usually keeps it off because she doesn’t want to hear anything, why?”

“Your grandma is next to us.”

“Fuck.”

Extended ending:

Y/N and Nikki stared at the wall with blank looks. Y/N glanced at Nikki and shook her head, “Next time we should hide our faces.”

“Listen, I didn’t think about that...Julia are you done?”

“Almost~”

Y/N sighed and shook her head, “You owe us pizza...shit you owe us lunch and dinner for the next week.”

“That’s fair.”

There was a long pause in the stall and a sigh behind them. Y/N raised her eyebrow at the sigh, “Julia, is everything okay?”

“I need to shit...”

“Oh fucking hell.”

#bts reactions #bts scenarios #bts imagines #bts jungkook #bts namjoon #bts seokjin #bts taehyung #bts jimin #bts yoongi #bts x reader #bts hosoek #Bts #bts series #kim taehyung #taehyung x reader #that irish barista #hoseok x oc #bts fluff

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houkagokappa · 7 months

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I stayed to watch anime because I have zero desire to watch anything on my own these days lmao, and I'm glad I did because we saw some good episodes!!

We watched the gacha episode of Odd Taxi. I've seen clips from it, so I knew what was coming with the dodo, but I was not expecting the YJA bidding bit. It killed me, because I too have gotten stuck in bidding wars (last spring I spent more than twice over my limit on a gorgeous fukuro obi ahahaha rip me altho it was worth it in the end).

I'm really liking Odd Taxi, I love how contemporary and human it is (despite the animal characters heh), especially how they've managed to include social media in a way that feels real and not overly forced or ridiculed. I'm also a huge fan of stories with a big cast of characters with their own separate story lines that eventually mix. I think it's very neat and cool to see how one seemingly small action ends up being significant for someone or something else. The only problem with this is, that because I watch this show with two weeks between each episode, it's a bit difficult to remember everything that might be of importance, or how one thing came to be. It definitely feels like a show with a lot of rewatch value to catch all the connections and foreshadowing.

I was also very happy to stay and watch more Gankutsuou. We're only on episode 3, but so far I've loved every single minute of it. I can't wait to see where this goes, because I can tell that the tension and drama will be delicious and heart wrenching.

Great Pretender was a lot of fun as well. It's cool to see characters outsmart each other and satisfying when it looks like they're about to get caught, but it turns out that they've thought and prepared for everything in advance. I don't know how Edamura will get out of preparing sakura magic in front of the director, but I'm sure he'll find a way.

I did sneak out a bit during Kamichu! to see the final minutes of TRHPS, because I had to see what kind of vibe they were having. I could barely hear anything from them, so at times I questioned if they were even watching it?? But they were, just in complete silence. I guess that's one way to do it.

Earlier I talked about not liking Kamichu! a whole lot, and while it's certainly not a favourite of mine, some episodes have been decent. The episode I missed half of had Yurie negotiate with a martian on behalf of the prime minister which was/seemed fun! The second episode we watched had her be sick and lonely for a few days, which felt incredibly pointless and boring to me, although I get how it might feel significant for someone in middle school.

Then we watched episode 4 of Bokurano where the kids finally learn that Zearth runs on their life forces. I liked this episode, and I'm glad to see how Kodama got to learn his lesson and then die. I'm curious to see what will happen next and how the whole series will end.

Finally, we watched two episodes of Tomo-chan wa Onnanoko! In my last post I was cautiously optimistic about it, and now I can confirm that it's a good show! It's funny, the bits are short enough not to get overplayed, it has very nice character dynamics and interactions and it doesn't solely focus on the romance, so that part hasn't gotten stale in any way. It really helps that Tomo and Jun are best friends, so they bounce back from all the misunderstandings and awkwardness without it becoming a huge deal. It's also sweet to see how clearly Jun likes her back, making the show a wholesome slow-burn. Also, it's really cool to see a tomboyish lead who's very comfortable with themselves and their style, and how whenever she does try to be more feminine (to catch Jun's attention as per the premise of the show) she tends to do it on her terms.

Overall I'm happy with what we're watching (except for Kamichu! which I could live without).

#my nonsense #ella watches anime #odd taxi #gankutsuou #great pretender #kamichu!#bokurano #tomo chan wa onnanoko!

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cannibalisticskittles · 8 months

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General 2-4; Story 5, 10, 11, 14, and 17; Romance 1, 3, and 9; and 12 free space: a field banter with a character of your choice (hard(?) mode: not Astarion) for Amity!! (You can...pick and choose from these if that's too many, lmao)

under a cut because long

General 2. Do the other companions have special comments or reactions upon recruiting your Tav? i imagine she's recruited doing something silly/is at least somewhat in peril – stuck on the edges of the swamp behind some traps that seem to keep popping back up whenever she turns around (the redcaps are fucking with her), or caught in a web under the goblin village bc her pod crashed nearby and in her haste to not be seen, she fell thru the rotting floorboards and now she's stuck and she could burn the webs away but honestly it's a miracle that the bigger spiders haven't been drawn to her yet and that seems like a recipe for disaster, so uh, help please?

so i think more practically-minded companions – lae'zel for sure, astarion, maybe shadowheart – wonder aloud about how useful she could be, given how they've found her; the first two maybe remark that it would've been better to leave her there to figure it out for herself, lmao.

wyll, karlach, and gale are a bit more sympathetic, and karlach just wants to pick her up and squeeze her like a lil teddy bear.

3. Does your Tav have any comments or advice when you recruit other companions? if you recruit her before astarion, she is livid on your behalf if you fail the perception roll and end up with a knife at your neck. she has incineration on her mind, like gale; unlike gale, she's too mad to be articulate: "if they don't walk away from this, neither will you."

she loves karlach right away. tiefling solidary is strong, and she knows devils well, and this is definitely a (pretty) tiefling and not a devil. she strongly advises hearing karlach out and helping her; she's extremely sad if you choose to fight and kill karlach instead. big disapproval hit there. don't fuck with tieflings.

if she's in your party when you recruit gale, she doesn't say anything, but you quietly get a few points of approval if you slap his hand before rescuing him

actually wait there would be one reaction. if your party is full when you reboot Gail and he says he'll go back to camp and get started on stew, amity goes "fuck yeah, stew!!!"

4. What sort of general actions raise or lower their approval?

goody-two-shoes choices tend to net approval with her, no surprise there. tho honestly i think with amity, you'd be getting little 'amity approves!' notifications all the time, but then find out that they're mostly just +1s so even tho they can trigger often, it's hard to build high approval just with that. you get bigger approval for harder choices, naturally, and she does favor being good and kind, but it happens a bit less often.

you can talk her into giving approval even if you decline the Extra Good and Generous option, as long as you present some logical/practical reason for it – sorry amity, helping tieflings is nice, but think about how many of them will die if we're too slow to remove our tadpoles and we all transform into mindflayers; greater good and all that, right?

…and you get approval when you do dumb, chaotic, fun things. like. you jump down the pit in the spider cavern without feather fall, and after withers revives you, amity says "that was very ill-advised, but in the moments before you splattered on the ground, it looked like a lot of fun!" and you get +10 approval.

you also get approval points when you're rude to/make fun of raphael or mizora, lmao. amity blatantly disrespects any devil lower than, like, a kyton in the hierarchy of devils.

for specific actions, you get +10 approval for killing aunty ethel, even if you fuck up saving mayrina. fuck hags, all amity's homies hate hags. and also i think every single companion disapproves if you smear shit on your face when trying to get into the goblin camp, but y'know what? amity thinks that's very practical. fuck dignity, it avoided a fight, and she respects that. now hold still, she'll prestidigitate that off of you as soon as you turn the corner.

Story 5. How do they react to the Player Character taking their first tadpole power? she's a little horrified, but primarily at the idea that you willingly put that in your eye?? ouch?? and are you sure there's enough room in your cranium for another one of those suckers?? she does, however, ask that if you plan to do it again – not that she advises that, mind you! – that you let her watch and take notes. she promises to do her very best to suppress her gag reflex if you do.

10. How do they react if the PC licks the dead spider in the Gauntlet of Shar? "oh! wow! that's – um. was that… good?" devnote: no part of her believes that could've been good.

in response to a second lick: "oh, wow. are you okay? blink twice if you're ensorcelled and need help. no? it couldn't have been good enough to be worth it. …could it?" devnote: said in a tone which indicates almost enough curiosity to try it for herself.

11. What do they say if the PC tries to force them to go up on stage with Dribbles the Clown? honestly, she's fucking delighted, she loves circuses and clowns.

"really? me? are you sure you don't want to go up there instead? dribbles really knows his stuff, you'll be missing out! but okay, if you're sure!"

she's so excited that she's wiggling the whole time she's on stage. +5 approval at least.

14. How does Tav react to the PC becoming a mind flayer? Can they offer to become one themselves? Does their reaction change if they’re romanced? the theological implications of the soul being destroyed in the process of becoming a mind flayer are… concerning – if the soul is gone, how can one ever be sure that the person isn't gone, and that the tadpole isn't just assuming the memories and characteristics of its former host?

but. the player character is her friend! (and maybe her partner, but either way – her friend!) and friendship is sacred! she's not going to let some tentacles get in the way of that!!! she's just sorry that you had to go through this, but you're so brave and kind for doing it – you've done the hard part, leave it to her to support you through this!

(a later bit of dialogue you might get is "hey, we match now – we're both purple! c:" )

as for herself – she'd want to take some time to think about it bc it is Not a decision that she'd be excited to make, but… honestly, what's lil' ol' her worth when compared to the entirety of the sword coast? so yeah, she'd volunteer herself, if need be.

hey, don't feel too bad – she was only gonna make it maybe 40 if she's lucky, the way she keeps throwing herself into danger. hell, she's technically already died once already! and her soul was likely bound for the wall of the faithless when she died, so what's it matter if this destroys her soul now, right?

(this is not going to help her self-esteem issues AT ALL – people might distrust tieflings, but they REALLY distrust mindflayers – but She Will Do It)

((if you're romancing her and ask her to become a mindflayer and break up with her, she isn't even mad. she gets it. if you still want to be with her, she full on cries. says you don't have to do that, there's a better path for you out there; it's a whole thing.))

17. If romanced, how do they react to the Dark Urge trying to kill them in Act 2? i will be fully honest here: despite only doing like 10 minutes of a dark urge run so far, i get the impression that most companions… do not take the dark urge particularly seriously. even if the dark urge is upfront about everything and full on confesses "hey, i crave murder, i'm pretty sure i've done lots of murder before, and i want to do more murder."

amity would. she'd be tossing out suggestions on what to do and trying to get everyone on board – and if she couldn't sway anyone pre-alfira, she gets very serious about it post-alfira. everyone takes turns being on watch? they set up the alarm spell around the dark urge? …little bells on their ankles?

so i think in a sense she'd be prepared. she'd have to believe that the dark urge isn't in control of themselves in order to keep going after alfira, so therefore, she believes that whatever urge is driving them is both very powerful and likely to crop up again.

…unfortunately, amity Needs Sleep. she functions poorly on less than optimal sleep, and once she IS asleep, it's very difficult to wake her up and she gets combative if you try. if the dark urge tries to wake her up to warn her, they need to make a dex save to avoid either a fire bolt or a stray fist thrown their way. (it's okay if they fail tho, her aim isn't great when she's sleepy and she only has 9 strength.)

dark urge has gotta get thru her grumpy-at-being-woken up phase before she's even close to coherent enough to understand what's going on, but when they do – she's ready. as ready as you can be for something like that, anyway.

"you – now? shit. okay, we can handle this, we can – hand me my bag, i've got materials for a warding spell in there. you good long enough to find somewhere private, or does it need to be now-now? –shit, clearly it's now-now, okay–"

dark urge wakes up and she's all smiles. "hello, dear heart! you went down pretty quick, had me worried! slipped a pillow under your head, but your noggin might still be sore in the morning sorry. oh, not up for a chat? that's alright! i'm here anyway! :)"

i think some of her encouragement would be drawing on gleeful spite –like "hey, think about how pissed off this urge is gonna be that you've managed to fight it so far – i bet it's livid, haha. and look at you, you're managing it anyway! i knew you could do it; you're doing so well!"

and then she sits at the ready, telling silly stories of ways she's fucked up on adventures or of neat things she's seen until the dark urge is able to sleep

she's lightly dozing when they wake up but she's mostly sitting up – it's clear she's tried to stay up and keep watch all night.

as she dismisses the wards, she throws some suggestions at them – consistent alarm spells around their cot at night? her knot-tying is pretty good, they could rely on that each night if spells don't seem like enough? well – no, that's not how she meant if, but if that's how you take it, she's not necessarily opposed to… wait, we're discussing important business here, save that for later!

and she passes them something from her bag and it's a sending stone. "annnnnd if you feel like there's something you need to tell me but you can't say it out loud for whatever reason, or if I'm not there, though honestly how often does that happen – well! this'll give you a direct line to me, even without the tadpoles :)"

sending stones as a gesture of love yet again (also she never travels anywhere without at least one set of sending stones on her. she has learned how valuable they can be)

Romance 1. Is your Tav a romanceable character? Are there any specific requirements to romancing them? i think she would be, but it would be sloooooow going. so slow that players aren't always certain that they're correctly triggering it at all, damn it, where'd that guide go?

you've got to get her to be genuinely vulnerable with you, which is. difficult! she has self-esteem issues. and self-image issues. and she has issues with touch – simultaneously touch-starved and touch-repulsed (thanks a lot, hag curse, for fucking up the progress she'd made on that). she wants to be with someone, but oh, gods, is that frightening.

you have to tread carefully with her. lay it on too thick, and she thinks you're fucking with her (or just being nice, but either way, she believes 0% of it). gotta build a LOT of trust first. honestly, her friendship path and her romance path would be absolutely identical for at least the first act. sleeping with someone at the party wouldn't lock you out of that – you go have your fun! she's going to creep away soon for some air. it's lovely that everyone is having fun, but it is a bit overwhelming. but no, don't worry about her! …no really, don't worry about her, haha, she's definitely not going to slip away while you're not looking because she's having another bout of insecurity.

you just have to talk to her a lot, and not be too mean – it doesn't even put an end to things if you're a little mean, bc hey, that can be kind of funny. but, y'know. don't shut her down. she warms up to you fast on a surface level, but you have to give her time to actually open up and not be so skittish.

3. Are they a polyamorous or a monogamous option? she'd happily agree to either, honestly! she has Experienced Love for more than one person at once, before, but she feels no pressing need to seek that out for herself; as for the player character, i think she'd want a bit of reassurance that anything else they seek isn't bc of dissatisfaction with her, but then she's open to it, whether or not she herself is involved!

bonus; a field banter with a character of your choice post-waukeen's rest –

amity: wyll! wyll ravengard! wyll: that is what I've been called a time or two, yes. why? amity: i can't believe i didn't recognize you before! you've changed some, sure, but even still! wyll: had we met before? i'm sure i would have remembered you. amity: not exactly! more like… occupied the same circles? i was too shy to go to all those fancy parties as myself; once we'd made it past the entryways, i usually hid away, or disguised myself with a spell, if i couldn't find anywhere secluded. wyll: ah, a shame – i think we would've gotten along famously, you and i. amity: i'd like to think so! anyway, i got myself… banned from all of those events after some particularly unwelcome hijinks, so it only lasted a little while. wyll: banned? there was a time when little wyll would have been dying to know how to do the same; i never could manage it. always dragged along to every meeting and soiree father had to attend. what exactly did you do? amity: ah – a lady doesn't kiss and tell! they may consider me too uncouth and unkempt to be much of a lady, but even i know that! wyll: now i must know.

and later –

wyll: potions of fire breath in lady edmonton’s mead. amity: uh-uh. wyll: frogs in the central fountain. amity: not me. wyll: otto's irresistible dance on the younger lord laurier? amity: gods, i wish, he was always such a prick – but no. wyll: it was quite funny to see him flop about. let's see… replacing lady belmont's prized panther with a displacer beast? amity: did someone do that? really? i missed that one. and i'm pleased you think i would have been able to manage that. wyll: stealing the left shoes of all attendees while they say for a feast? amity: no – well. i don't think so, anyway? sounds like something i would've done. so maybe. possibly. probably? but that's not what did me in. wyll: hmm… [snaps fingers] the chandelier! amity: yes, you've got it! wyll: ha, i knew i would, eventually. amity: ...i do feel bad about that one, honestly, i really thought it was going to hold up against a few swings. wyll: from what i'd heard, it did not. amity: it did not.

#amity tag #bg3 blogging #thank youuuuuu #also i swear i started drafting up something like this days ago bc of your post #but then it got long. like really long. so.

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soapofbar · 1 year

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I'm a Bumblebee shipper in the sense that I really enjoy the concept of it but am very disappointed with how the show portrays it because the actual depiction is a really amateur depiction of a slow burn relationship.

Like, when there's a slow burn romance, there's usually a reason neither party is spilling out their feelings for her and the journey of the romance is dissecting those reasons and how both parties overcome to finally admit their feelings and start a relationship. And Blake and Yang do not lack for reasons as to why they wouldn't want to devulge their feelings to one another.

Take Blake "I'm don't want to make sure my friends get hurt because of me so I'll isolate myself from all of them" Belladonna. You could explore how Blake is afraid of entering a relationship with Yang because she knows that dating Yang means drawing her into the line of fire. That dating a human woman would bring untold amounts of vitriol onto both of them from both racist humans and extremist faunas alike, and she's unsure if Yang could take it. Sure, she projects an image of toughness, but will that hold up against a crushing wave of racism, that she, as a human, has never had to deal with before? Not to mention the fear of anything getting violent, Faunas hate mobs, WF splinters, etc. going after her.

Or Yang, who's abandonment issues are hugely under-explored I feel, and which could be in this relationship. Not just a fear of Blake running away from her again, but a fear of commitment. Yang in V2 says she just wants to go wherever the wind takes her, and you can spin this as Yang being afraid of commitment, can't be abandoned again if you didn't have any big stake in it in the first place? But not just that, Yang could be afraid of having to actually sit down and be an ally. Dating Blake means you're going to become a figure in the racial tensions between human and faunas, whether you like it or not, and Yang isn't sure if she's ready for that kind of responsibility. Yeah, she feels the plight of the Faunas, but she's never really been one for the whole activism thing, y'know?

And you can also reverse all of these things. Blake unsure of Yang's commitment to activism, Yang unsure of whether Blake's opinion on her because she hasn't really stuck up for the Faunas before, both questioning if the other person even feels the same way because of the aforementioned reasons. "Does she think I'm some preachy slacktivist who's married to the cause?" "Does she think I'm some ignorant human who isn't willing to take a stand against injustice?" Explore that self-doubt.

These are all things to explore, and all of which could make for a really great slow burn romance that actually feels earned, because it would be the characters actually dissecting their fears for this relationship, changing how they need to, and discovering the other person before we jump straight to "I love you."

In fact to give like, an outline of sorts:

A) Before dating/self-doubt stage ("We're friends and teammates but what does she really think of me?")

B) Dating/Discovery stage ("We've gotten past our self-doubts and now it's time to really explore each other")

C) Doubts about the relationship ("Do I really want Yang to be in the line of fire like this/My anger and my abandonment issues, am I really the right person for Blake?")

D) Development ("I need to trust that Yang's strong enough, that she'll tell me when it's too much/I'm not going to be afraid anymore, I'm going to stand my ground and be an ally to Blake and the faunas")

E) Final commitment ("I love you.")

And you can argue that perhaps this would all take too much time, that RWBY isn't a romance show and all this dating and self-discovery stuff would hog the spotlight away from the plot and other characters and, like, fair! But the point of this is to show there's a lot of stuff related to both these characters and the world surrounding them, such as the fact that it's an interracial relationship in an world intolerant of one of the parties, that just isn't given any attention whatsoever. In it's place are simply dove-eyed looks and forehead touches that are there in place of an actual romance being explored and developed. You can skip some of it and it'd still be alright, but RWBY skips *all of it*. Hell, even *I* haven't listed everything you could explore here, such as the parallels between Adam and Raven that many critics draw (often in a derogatory way towards the relationship, but I think the parallels could be used towards the development of both characters as long as the show simply *acknowledged them*, which, it doesn't.)

I think the romance of a carefree human girl with who struggles with feelings of abandonment after her mother having left her, having to care for her little sister due to an emotionally unavailable father (as dubious as the canon status of that whole shebang is, an argument I really do not want to get into.) and a fiery but conflicted activist Faunas who struggles with past emotional abuse from a man who himself was the victim of horrific racial violence, has a lot more to explore than what the show depicted, and I would've *loved* a version of the show where we actually see Yang's love for Blake leads into her growing into an ally for the faunas (and the word Ally should be emphasized here as we definitely want to avoid the white savior/white guilt stuff that often plagues this kind of writing), standing alongside her love as Blake leads a charge for racial equality, but it would require a show that was willing to engage with these topics with appropriate amount of gravitas and respect.

#crtq #rwde #my rambles #i wrote this post in one hour because the adhd won #it's something I've wanted to talk about for a while because like #i really do like bumblebee #i think they're cute together and I like both their characters but their should also be way more to them than just that #also an indirect critique of the WF plotline because hoo boy #rwby #bumbleebee

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hogarthwrites · 2 years

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one thing leads to another chapter 3

pairing: samuel drake/femme!reader (m/f)

genre: romance, smut, slow burn

words: 736

summary:

You and Sam get to know each other and he begins to feel things he hasn't felt in a while.

chapters: 1 2

You rubbed your eyes as you read the passage in front of you over and over. It was way past 5 PM, and you chose to work overtime to avoid thinking about how lonely you were.

Sam had stayed as well, reading at his desk, but as he watched you struggle to focus, he got up to make coffee.

“Here,” he placed the mug on the coaster on your desk.

“Thanks,” you gave him a small smile as you sipped the hot drink. “I needed that.”

Sam grinned as he pulled a chair up to your desk. “Don't work yourself too hard, kid. We don't have a due date.”

“Holden’s not gonna ask about it?”

“Eh, Victor will deal with him,” Sam shrugged. “Trust me I've worked with worse rich assholes before. At least I know Holden doesn't know how to use a gun or a sword.”

“Weirdly specific, but okay,” you chuckled. “How long have you been doing all this, Sam?”

“Hm,” he sighed as he looked up. “Since I was a kid. Had a long stint in jail, but it hasn't stopped me.”

“Jail?” You raised an eyebrow and you leaned closer. “What the hell did you do?”

“It's a long story.”

“I've got time,” you said a little too enthusiastically. Truth was, you liked being around Sam and you really didn't want to go home yet. “It's just 7 PM.”

“Guess it won't hurt to give you a recap,” Sam chuckled. “Buckle down, it's quite a ride.”

You faked putting on a seatbelt, making Sam laugh before he started. That's how you learned about how he “died” in Panama, and that his brother has been doing treasure hunting gigs with Sully while Sam was stuck.

You listened in awe as Sam told stories of Henry Avery and the adventures he had with his brother in Scotland and Madagascar. It was almost hard to believe.

“Hard to believe, huh?” Sam read your mind.

“A little…” Your eyebrows furrowed. “So all that treasure is just gone?”

“Not exactly.”

Sam stood up and you watched as he walked to his desk. He kneeled next to you.

“Hold out your hand.”

You held it out and he placed a few doubloons on your palm. They shined in the dim light.

“No way,” your mouth dropped. “You're telling me these are actual pirate doubloons?”

He just smiled and shrugged simply.

“It helps keep the business afloat when times are bad,” he took them in his hands again. “This is our little secret, okay?”

You nodded, feeling proud to share something with Sam.

“Good girl,” he winked before he hid the doubloons again.

“Shouldn't you keep those in a bank or something?”

“Don't trust ‘em,” Sam sat back in his seat. “Don't worry I hid the rest somewhere else.”

“Thank you for sharing that with me,” you said softly. “Promise I won't tell anyone.”

“I hope so,” he laughed.

“But also, you can talk to me, Sam,” you added and he gave you a different look. An almost curious look. “I know it must've been difficult all those years locked away.”

“Thank you.”

Sam felt a warmth in his chest. When was the last time anyone talked to him like that?

“Oh, right,” he stood up again and walked to your desk. “My birthday's next weekend. It's not exactly a party, but we're gonna have a get-together at my place.”

“I’ll bring a present.”

“If you must know, I enjoy motorcycles,” Sam smiled. “But seriously, you don't have to.”

“Come on,” you nudged him with your foot. “It's your birthday. It should be special.”

“Well, here's my address, may I?” He picked up your pen and your sticky note pad and scribbled away. “It's gonna be at 8.”

“Can't wait,” you took the paper back. Sam’s handwriting was loopy like a doctor’s, and he drew a little heart on the bottom.

“And with that,” Sam put his hands on his hips. “I must ask you to please go home and rest.”

You chuckled and glanced at your watch. 10 PM. Darn it. You gathered all your stuff and stood in front of Sam.

“Well, this is goodbye.”

“Message me when you're home safe, alright?” His eyes were soft as he looked at you.

“I will,” you smiled at him before turning to the door. “Goodnight, Sam.”

“Goodnight,” he replied softly as you closed the door.

He really liked you.

#sam drake #sam drake x reader #sam drake fanfiction #uncharted fanfiction

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stayarmytinyzenmoa-l · 2 years

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Dinner for Two [Ch. 4]

Non-Idol AU, Chef AU

TW: Language, Descriptions of a Chronic Illness

CW: Food

Genre: Slow Burn Romance, Drama, Light Comedy

Pairing: Chef!Na Jaemin x Reader

YN Pronouns: Not Specified

(4/?) [First] | [Previous] | [Next]

[Main Masterlist] | [Dinner for Two Masterlist]

Word Count: 8.5K

Notes: Sorry for the sudden jump in word count, we're really getting into the plot now!

Disclaimer: Please remember that this is an AU and a work of fiction, obviously the idols mentioned/written about in this story would never partake in these actions. The idols mentioned in this work are meant to be seen more as face claims rather than the actual idols themselves.

IV. Salad Platter

Commonly served after the appetizers, the salads are a wolf in sheep's clothing. They are typically served in large quantities, but due to their lightweight, it's easy to finish them without another thought until the main dish comes in. But, it is important to note this, they are often used as a chance to cleanse one's palate prior to the heavier main dish, they are, therefore, as necessary as the rest. Our Chef tends to deem it unnecessary, typically overlooking this unless instructed otherwise.

It was when he followed you and Jeno to what he assumed to be your home that he stopped in place. He even double checked the address just in case, and it was true. You and your brother disappeared into the house, the very same one he once called home. So you were the family that moved in, the family of “vices” as Mr. Kim put it. What could you all have done to deserve such a title? Jaemin was never a gossip himself, it was a waste of time, but he had to say that this family intrigued him, most notably the relation to his mother.

“Oh, hey, that kid’s weird gadget thing came in,” you pointed at the box.

“What the hell? That thing’s like weeks late,” Jeno easily heaves it under his arm and you open the door for him, walking in without another word. Jaemin scrambled to the door and rang the bell, waiting for it to open. It did, soon enough, and you stared at him with confused eyes before narrowing them and shutting the door.

“Hey! Come on! Just let me cook!” Jaemin shouts. What the hell was he doing? Following someone home just to cook a simple dish? He had already lost his dignity, this was just stubbornness at this rate. He knocks on the door harshly. This time, your brother opens it.

“Dude… why are you like obsessed?” He asks. “Just go home, man, you’re really starting to freak us out,” Jeno shuts the door again and Jaemin steps back off of the porch and onto the dirt ground. He scoffs and turns around, promptly sitting on the porch boards and just buries his face in his hands.

What the hell was wrong with him? That damn dish is haunting him at this point. No, it had to be taunting him if anything. It would seem that this failure would follow him forever, and being stuck in this never ending guilt and disturbance was driving him to insanity. Hell, he just stalked two people to their home just to make this dish again when he could easily just buy the ingredients himself to experiment with it. Jaemin knocked his head against the wooden pillar, the old thing creaking as soon as he did it. He needs to get out of this damn town, it was draining him.

The door opened behind him again and Jaemin scrambled to his feet. It was someone he didn’t recognize. Wearing simple lounge wear with headphones around his neck, he leaned on one leg and crossed his arms. He looked like he was scanning Jaemin, as if trying to get a good gauge of his character. Jaemin could only stare in mild confusion as they stood in silence. The stranger looked over his shoulder and made a face, likely towards one of the other siblings, before turning back. That’s right, Mr. Kim mentioned four younger siblings alongside the oldest. If the oldest was Taeyong, another mentioned was Ten, and he met you and Jeno, that would mean that this must be the last one.

Strange, none of you look alike, at all. Usually siblings bore some resemblance to each other, but it looked like they were all from a different family. Ah, maybe that’s what Mr. Kim meant. Perhaps they were all adoptees, maybe? If they’re a family of vices, that opened the door to many possibilities. Before Jaemin could ponder any further, the stranger seemed to finish his analysis.

“You said you knew how to cook?” He asks.

“Yeah, I do.” Jaemin was slightly taken aback by the sudden question.

“Come on in, people are gonna talk if they see you sitting out there,” he steps aside, making room for Jaemin. Jaemin walked in slowly, nostalgia hitting him as soon as he walked into the main room. He slipped his shoes off and placed them to the side, the cold hard wood floors were easily felt despite his thick socks. The walls were painted over with new colors, hiding the mess underneath it from when he lived there no doubt, and the furniture was obviously different, but the fact still stood.

This was once his home.

“I’m Donghyuck, by the way,” he introduces himself. “But everyone just calls me Haechan, whichever one you’re comfortable with, I guess,” he shrugs. They pass by the arch leading into the kitchen, and Jaemin couldn’t help but sneak a glance at the side of it where his penciled heights used to be. They were painted over, but he could still clearly remember the details of them down to his mother’s handwriting.

The kitchen was a splendor.

Gone were the old burner stoves, the retro fridge, and the aged wooden cabinets. In its stead was a kitchen of more modern design, with an induction stovetop, a much larger fridge, and marble cabinets. It looked straight out of a magazine, almost. Even the old kitchen island was replaced with a more efficient one. The stovetop was on the counter while the sink was where the old gas burner used to be, the switch, although to some would be minimal, was a huge change in Jaemin’s eyes. All of the prep and the cooking is done in one area was one way to maximize efficiency. Even the countertop was arranged with such meticulousness. The spice rack had all he could think of, the appliances were laid out in an understandable and pleasing way, and of course the staple of a kitchen, the wonderous toaster. It stood on its own with four slots for maximum efficiency. If Jaemin didn't know any better, he'd have thought that his mentor was the one who laid it all out. Even this jar off to the side fit in perfectly. A jar of what looked to be funds, likely for a rainy day. It was filled with bills and coins alike, and scrawled in the front in children's writing was the simple phrase 'For the Moon.' Charming, sure. It looks like it's been repurposed for something relating to the kitchen, grocery funds maybe.

But Jaemin couldn’t ignore the pang in his heart, the old kitchen was a part of the whole rustic charm anyway.

“I know, I know, a bit of a shock compared to the rest of the house,” Haechan shrugs. “My dad wants to remodel the whole place, but my step mother liked the country style, so now it’s a weird mix of both so… oh well.”

“Oh, god, Hyuck! Why did you let the stalker in?!” You walked into the kitchen with an exasperated look on your face. You dropped the ingredients on the counter and rested one hand next to them and the other one on your hip. “This guy was trailing Jeno and I the entire time we were at the market, kept insisting that he’d cook for us or something weird like that.”

“(Y/N) I will literally cut off my right foot if I have to eat your cooking again.”

“You little shit!”

“Okay! Okay, calm down!” Jeno was quick to run in when he heard the commotion. “Dad’s gonna kill us if we break anything again,” he shivers. Jaemin’s eyes widened slightly in alert. It had to have been just a coincidence, right? Were you and your siblings in danger? He swallowed harshly, he shouldn’t let it get to him, but he couldn’t stop thinking about it. You and your siblings were all on edge, that had to mean something. He told himself to ignore it, sticking true to his belief that rumors were just that. Jeno spots Jaemin and sighs. “I guess he’s already in here, so why not?” He shakes your shoulder.

“You guys are fucking weird… what if he like poisons our food and steals all our things?” You snarked.

“I won’t do that,” Jaemin shook his head. Haechan narrowed his eyes.

“That’s exactly what someone who would poison us would say,” he says in a low voice. Jaemin clenches his jaw. “You can all relax, this guy passed my vibe check,” Haechan laughs.

“He did?!” Your jaw drops. “You should’ve seen him earlier, he was so creepy.” “You think everyone’s creepy, (Y/N),” Haechan rolls his eyes.

“What, so we give him a chance then?” You asked Haechan while momentarily looking at Jaemin. He could obviously tell he wasn’t wanted by you at least, but whatever “vibe check” your brother referred to seemed to be counteracting your initial observations. “Fine, fine, I’ll trust you since it hasn’t failed us yet.”

“That’s the spirit,” Jeno claps the back of your shoulder and you shuddered. “So who are you anyway?” Jeno asks with a wide smile.

“Na Jaemin,” he introduces himself. He held his hand out for Jeno to shake it, but the other boy just high fived it. Jaemin withdrew his hand and crossed his arms once again. Haechan soon gasped and held his phone up.

“Apparently he’s like a famous chef or something,” Haechan answers for him. “I googled your name, I hope you don’t mind,” he gestures to Jaemin with his phone. Well, what could he do? Not like he could protest at this point. A family of vices? More like a family of trust issues.

“Famous chef, huh? Well, now I’m curious,” you leaned against the counter. You leaned towards Hyuck to read off his phone. “What’s the worst that could happen, anyway? He burns down our kitchen?”

“I find that mildly offensive, actually,” Jaemin furrows his eyebrows. They already know he’s a professional, why would you imply he’d be so careless? He didn’t think he’d ever meet such a crass person.

“Whatever, whatever. Ten and Taeyong will be home in like half an hour so we’ll explain why a complete stranger is in our house,” Haechan waves his hand in the air. “Go ham then, Jaemin. We have high expectations now,” he says.

“Sure,” Jaemin rolls his sleeves up. “Agujjim’s on the menu,” he walks towards the counter and the siblings watched with expectation. “Are you sure you all want to watch?”

“I have nothing better to do,” Jeno said as you sat down on one of the counter’s stools.

“I should probably be studying but considering I’m the only one who knows how to work the oven here I feel obligated to watch,” you added.

“And I’m bored,” Haechan raises his hand.

“Well, and audience is fine, I guess,” Jaemin says. Maybe it was the crowd that got to him that day, there shouldn’t be any harm in having these three watch, right? It’s practice, if anything. If he did it in front of the cameras that broadcast his failure to the world then he should be able to handle a group of rowdy siblings. He looked at the ingredients in front of him, they were quite literally strewn across the counter with no rhyme or reason, it was a stark difference in comparison to how he normally worked, but it was still doable. He scanned them, making sure everything was in order.

“Do you have rice wine?” He asks. He looks around and spots a door in the corner. It wasn’t there before when he used to live here, it must be a pantry of sorts. He makes a move to walk towards it.

“Oh! It’s right here!” You spoke quickly, pulling the bottle out of a cabinet and handing it to him. Jaemin glanced at the door, then to you.

“Thank you,” he leaves it alone. If he has no business in there then he shouldn’t waste his time with it.

The first step then, preparing the monkfish. He took the fresh caught fish and cubed it, he placed it into a bowl and sprinkled salt and drizzled rice wine over it. While that stands, he is to prepare the seasoning next. A tablespoon of minced garlic, a teaspoon of finely grated ginger, three tablespoons of gochucaru, a teaspoon of sugar, two tablespoons of water, pepper to taste, and…

“Pardon me, where’s your soy sauce?” Jaemin looks around the counter first before looking around the kitchen.

“We try to stay away from sodium heavy things in this house,” you shook your head. Jeno reached into the cabinet behind him and placed a container with a dark liquid inside of it.

“Coconut aminos, next best thing,” Jeno says. Jaemin just shrugs and takes it.

“What’s the conversion? One tablespoon of soy sauce becomes…?”

“It’s 1:1,” you answer.

“Perfect then,” Jaemin tries a bit of it first. It did have a similar taste to soy sauce save for the slightly sweet aftertaste it left. Good enough. He placed a tablespoon into the mixture and combined them well. He grabbed one of the bowls from the counter and filled it with water before pulling out the freezer drawer and obtaining an ice tray. He emptied it into the bowl and began to boil another pot of water over high heat. He took the soybean sprouts and plunged them into the boiling water, covering it and setting the timer to two minutes on his watch. Meanwhile, on the area next to it, he began heating a deep skillet over medium heat. Then he added half a cup of water, moving back slightly as it began to sizzle and pop, then promptly added the fish into it, quickly covering it afterwards and there goes his timer. He resets it to two minutes once again and grabs the previous pot, draining the water and placing the sprouts into the ice bath. He took this time to prepare the watercress and scallions, both of which he’d add in at the very end to maintain their crunch. Then, once again, his timer. He flips the fish and sets the timer to two minutes. He takes the ice bath and ensures all of the sprouts were well submerged and then went off his timer. He silences it and removes the cover over the fish. He evenly distributes the seasoning over it and…

“Do you have any other seafoods? Shrimp? Scallops? Anything like that?”

“We do have shrimp,” Jeno snaps his fingers and walks over to the fridge, producing the bag of shrimp and handing it to Jaemin.

“Yup, this’ll do,” he dumps them into a strainer and rinses them quickly before adding them to the skillet. Jaemin covers it once again, setting his timer to three minutes. He takes a small bowl and combines a tablespoon of potato starch and two tablespoons of water, mixing them until smooth, and then measures out the appropriate sesame oil and sesame seeds. His timer went off and he silenced it, removing the cover and adding the starch slurry, he mixed it slowly until the sauce thickened. He then added the vegetables, tossing them until evenly coated, then pouring in the oil and seeds as he slowly stirred. “Et voilà.”

“Wow,” you whistled. “Looks exactly like something I’d make,” you glared at Hyuck. Who looked up from his phone and shrugged. Jaemin’s expression tensed briefly before he caught himself, you had to have some nerve saying that to him.

“So, who’s going to be our official taste tester?” Jeno asks.

“I’ll do it,” you rose your hand. “I grew up eating this, so I have high expectations,” you said to Jaemin. He only rose an eyebrow before handing you a bowl of rice. Then he placed the well plated agujjim next to it. It was fitting for a Michelin restaurant, all for a random person he had met in an open air market.

“Enjoy your meal,” he says. He takes a step back, placing all the utensils and equipment he’d used in the sink behind him.

“We’ll see about that,” you took a bit of rice and a spoonful of the fish into your plate, making sure it was well coated and even spread before raising the spoon into your mouth. Jaemin waiting in silent anticipation, studying your expressions and your movements. He could tell that you were still skeptical of his skills, and rightfully so. He could tell from how you prepared to eat that you weren’t used to a refined palette, rather a casual one. Perhaps this preparation of the dish will be too much for you? You’d surely be blown away by it. But you chewed so slowly, he was starting to get impatient. He was leaning on the counter now, both palms supporting him while he awaited your response. Meanwhile, your brothers had moved closer to you, looking between you, the food, and Jaemin.

“Well?”

“This is the most disgusting thing I’ve ever eaten.”

“I’m glad you- Wait, what?” Jaemin’s jaw dropped and his brows furrowed. Did he hear you correctly?!

“Wait, let me try some of that, you can be a little too harsh sometimes, (Y/N),” Jeno says. He tries a bit himself, except this time his face completely contorted. At least you were blunt about it, Jeno was rather expressive. “Dude… we watched you the whole time, what did you do to it?” He asks after swallowing harshly. Without a word and with a face of curiosity, Haechan took a spoonful into his mouth and swallowed it as soon as it entered.

“Holy shit, that’s really fucking bad,” Haechan laughs. “I thought you were a five star chef, or something? Even (Y/N) cooks better than this.”

“Hey!” Both you and Jaemin exclaimed at the same time your piercing glares moving towards each other before directly to Haechan, who just held his hands up and shrugged, shaking his head in the process.

“I find this rather rude,” Jaemin states it strictly.

“Almost as rude as talking big game about being the best chef and screwing up on a dish as simple as agujjim,” Haechan fires back. “Dude, we can’t give him this,” Haechan’s expression was temporarily worried while he turned to you.

“I know,” your voice was downtrodden. “I’m heading back to the market really quick, I’ll just make it again,” you stood up from the table and grabbed your wallet.

“Wait, wait, Ten and Taeyong will be home soon though!” Jeno grabs your wrist to stop you. “We’ll just make it again tomorrow, I’ll go looking around for mom’s recipe,” Jeno says. “It’s gotta be around here somewhere… I don’t think Dad would’ve thrown it out,” he adds quietly. Ten and Taeyong, one of those two must have been who requested the dish based off of what he’s seen and learned about the other siblings. They seem to hold them to a high regard, this dish must have meant a lot to which ever one chose it. Jaemin took the dish and tried it himself. The siblings were correct, it tasted nothing like the traditional agujjim dish he had grown up eating. It tasted like a complete failure.

And with his own taste test, he was left speechless. How the fuck did he screw it up so much? Jaemin shook his head. This was embarrassing to say the least, and to be so ruthlessly torn apart by plebians to the culinary arts was even worse. Was this what he served to the judges that day? This monstrosity? He’s a disgrace. How did it even happen? He went strictly by the book this time, taking care not to add too much fanciful flares to the recipe. He didn’t understand. But, apparently, his mental breakdown must have been noticeable.

“Look, Jaemin, if you want to learn how to cook it properly, we can just teach you,” your voice had concern in it. “No need to get so upset about it, it’s just a simple dish. It’s easy to make mistakes when it’s too simple. I’m going to make it again tomorrow so you can give it a shot then,” you told him.

“Yeah, dude, you don’t have to be so hard on yourself,” Jeno says.

“Jeno, lying doesn’t make the situation better,” Haechan sighs.

“Well someone’s gotta eat it, we’re not throwing the whole thing away,” he says.

“I’m sorry, I’m just trying to fathom how it turned out that way,” Jaemin shakes his head. “You all watched me the whole time, was there something I did wrong?”

“Hey, you’re the master chef here,” Haechan says.

“The fish was fresh, right?”

“Well you watched us buy it, so I’d say so,” you crossed your arms over the counter.

“And the seasonings aren’t expired?”

“Nope.”

“Then how?” Jaemin turns around and rubs the back of his head harshly. Everything should’ve turned out perfectly, and yet here he was with a failure of a dish.

“At least it looks pretty,” Jeno sighs. The sound of keys jangling and a door opening drew the attention of the siblings. “Oh, they’re home.” The fabled elder brothers.

“We're home!” Jaemin assumed it was Taeyong’s voice. “Where is everyone?”

“We’re in the kitchen,” Jeno answers. Soon, two people enter the kitchen. One was wearing tattered clothes under overalls and dirtied boots, this man has seen better days. With scratches on his arms and dirt on his face, it was a wonder how he could walk in with such a warm smile as that. The other was wearing a pressed suit, Jaemin could tell that he wore a think layer of makeup, and not a single scratch was seen on his skin. The first one’s eyes darted around the kitchen, before settling on Jaemin.

“Oh, did you all make a new friend?” His eyes were soft despite the rough exterior. “That’s good, I was afraid you’d all stay in your little bubble forever,” he says with a joking tone.

“Hey! I have friends,” you defended. “They’re just… in the city.”

“Exactly my point,” he says as he removes his gloves, shoving them into his pocket while he approaches Jaemin. On his way, he pulls out a few bills from his pocket, dropping them into the aforementioned jar. The loose change made muted clinks as they slipped down the existing bills and onto the glass that contained them. “I’m Taeyong,” he introduces himself. The other man follows suit, dropping a noticeably larger amount of money into the jar as he approached.

“You can just call me Ten,” he says with his back turned. He was much more well kept as opposed to Taeyong. Ten looked like someone who Jaemin would’ve served at the Morning Dew. Everything about him screamed regal, while Taeyong was his exact opposite. Jaemin couldn’t help but wonder what Ten did as a living.

“You’ll have to forgive the way I look, I wasn’t expecting company,” Taeyong apologizes.

“Neither were we,” you said under your breath. “This is Na Jaemin, by the way.”

“Na Jaemin? Huh, him and his mom used to live here,” Taeyong holds his hand out to shake Jaemin’s. Jaemin looked down at it. Rough, calloused, and red, the tell tale signs of hard manual labor. Come to think of it, he heard you mention that he worked in the farms. Jaemin shook Taeyong’s hand, and the eldest brother nodded.

“What?!” His younger siblings shouted in chorus.

“Did you not make the connection? We always help out Ms. Na and she’s always talking about her son who’s working hard in the big city, I’m surprised you didn’t put two and two together,” Taeyong says. His eyes were noticeably softer, they were rounder in that regard and everything about him felt comforting.

“The lot of you have always been dense in that,” Ten chuckles. “He even looks like his mother,” Ten nods in Jaemin’s direction. Contrasting Taeyong, Ten’s eyes were sharp and almost studious. It was like he was analyzing Jaemin’s every move.

“What the heck?! Yeah, how didn’t we do that?” You looked at Jeno, who just shrugged. “Shoot, dude, I’m sorry. We always help your mom out, and here we are being super rude to you.”

“Apology accepted,” Jaemin shifts his weight onto one leg. “I assume you’re the one who wanted agujjim?” Jaemin looks to Taeyong, who was looking at you. “Or was it you?” He looked at Ten, who was also looking at you. After a moment Taeyong answered.

“Yes, that’s me. My stepmother used to make it rather often and it’s become a favorite food of mine,” Taeyong answers. “Is this it then?” He gestures to the dish with an open hand.

“Well, yes, but—”

“Let’s give it a try then,” he reaches out to grab it, and you pull it away from him.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea, bro,” you shook your head slowly. Taeyong looks at everyone’s expressions, and Jaemin followed suit. Jeno’s was concerned and Haechan’s was subtly amused. This piqued Ten’s interest, who joined the siblings and stared at the dish.

“Well, at this rate I could eat an entire cow, so regardless of how it tastes I’m going to eat it,” Taeyong takes the plate and tries it. Jaemin walked around the island to see Taeyong’s expression. Contrasting all of the others, his was held straight while he chewed. He took a portion of the dish. “It’s not… horrible.”

“Let me give it a taste,” Ten grabbed a spare spoon from the drawer and took a generous amount from the bowl. He ate it in one go and chewed it delicately. “Hm… it’s bitter and rather bland,” Ten shakes his head. Even his palate was similar to those who frequented the Morning Dew.

“(Y/N), get me a container to put the rest in, please,” Taeyong looks to you.

“Oh, yeah, sure,” you grabbed what he requested and transferred the dish into its new container. Taeyong places his hand on your shoulder and whispered something to you, your eyebrows scrunched together and you looked at him as if to say ‘are you sure?’ and to this Taeyong simply nodded. Your eyes downcast for a moment before turning to Jaemin. Taeyong shook his head and you nodded again, closing the container and walking to the fridge to store it.

All the while Jaemin observed the interaction. What did he tell you? What did you agree to? And what did he have to do with it? Based off of what has happened so far, Jaemin could only infer that it has something to do with how you treated him given your apparent relations with his mother. He’d have to ask her about it later, he only remembered hearing that you and your siblings helped her move out and into her new residence. But from what Taeyong said, it seemed that they met up rather often. His mother did mention that she was friends with your mother, or step-mother in accordance to what the brothers have been saying. It was curious though, with the context of the family of vices, everything must be read through with a magnifying glass.

“Well, thank you for coming over, Jaemin. You’re welcome any time, I understand that you have a lot of memories in this home,” Taeyong says. “And I’d like to apologize for my sibling’s behavior, I promise they’re usually much more polite,” he says the last word with a tone that warned the siblings of a future scolding. “We’ve just been… having a hard time lately,” he says.

“It’s fine, really,” Jaemin waves his hand. “I just needed to give the dish a shot.”

“Why were you so pushy on cooking anyway?” You asked.

“Because he failed a cooking competition,” Haechan scoffs. Jaemin’s breath caught in his throat. He would’ve asked how he knew, but the failure was on the news everywhere, it was the first thing that came up when you googled his name, there would be no point in worrying over it. “At the Culinary Olympics, he cooked two dishes, the meat dish was Galbijjim and the fish dish was, you can probably guess,” Haechan says.

“He’s right, the meat dish was perfect save for some mistakes made by my partner,” Jaemin explains. “The agujjim, however, was where mistakes were made. It was a scathing loss, I don’t think I’d ever been picked apart that harshly,” Jaemin’s voice dripped with disappointment. It was truly a devastating moment for his career.

“Huh, so you wanted to know what you did wrong?” You pieced it together. “Well, what did you find out from making it for us?”

“I’m not so sure… I did everything by the book.”

“Maybe that’s it then, you did it the way everyone does it,” Taeyong says. “What can be done? At that rate it’s just comfort.”

“He’s right,” you say. “Like I said earlier, easy dishes are easy to make mistakes on, don’t overthink it and do it to your comfort level, or at least that’s what I do and I think my cooking is pretty good,” you folded your hands together. “I mean, I’m not five star chef,” neither is he, “but I can make it tomorrow and you could try it, maybe you just haven’t had some good home cooked agujjim in a while,” you say. Again, he was nearly offended, but you had a point. He’d been living in the big city so long that he hasn’t properly had home-cooked meals. It’s one thing to cook for yourself, it’s another thing to have someone cook for you.

Where’s the shame? He’d might as well do it.

“Sure, why not?”

“There you go!” Jeno smiles. “We’ll see you tomorrow then.”

“Thank you for allowing me to cook,” Jaemin finally says, realizing he hadn’t said any such thing yet.

“Sure thing, just next time don’t be so weird about it,” you advised him.

“Right, I’m sorry about my pushy behavior, I don’t know what came over me,” Jaemin apologizes, the rush of everything finally subsiding and his actions becoming more clear in his head. “I should leave before it gets too late,” he says, looking at the clock above the oven. It was eight in the evening, he didn’t even realize he had been here that long.

“Sure, yeah, drop by any time, I’ll probably go to the market around eight in the morning so I should be back before nine,” you say. You were rather interesting, Jaemin had to admit. Your attitude did a complete 180 after Taeyong arrived, and it stayed that way when you found out about his mother. You were guarded at first, but now you appeared to be indifferent. What was it that kept you on your toes, then?

“Of course, I’ll head out then, thank you for allowing me into your home,” Jaemin waves farewell and leaves the kitchen.

“I’ll walk you out,” you called behind him, catching up quickly. “Seriously, though, I’m sorry for being such a bitch, I’ve been so stressed out lately,” you shook your head. “But that shouldn’t be a reason to take it out on a stranger, you were just being polite.”

“No worries, I understand where you’re coming from,” he says to you. “I appreciate your blatant honesty, though, I’ve gotten too used to being coddled,” Jaemin admits while he pulls his shoes on.

“Coddled, huh? Prepare for me to rip you apart tomorrow then. I have high expectations from a chef like you,” you said with a joking tone. You opened the door for him. “Get home safe and tell you mom that the Lees said ‘hello,’” you added with a smile.

“I will,” Jaemin offers the same smile and walks off. You shut the door behind him.

Jaemin takes his time walking home, it’s actually quite a distance away. The sun had set long ago and the loosely paved roads were illuminated by dated street lights that would buzz and flicker. He was sure he was making progress towards his goal, now. Finding out what went wrong in that damn competition. He had a clear goal set in his head and all he had to do was strive towards it.

Ah, he should tell Taeil about this development, all within his first day back, it was wondrous. He reached into his pocket, only to find it empty. He checked his other pocket, it wasn’t in there either. Then, he remembered, he’d left it on the counter in the Lee’s house. He looked forward, there was still a ways to go to reach his new home. Next was his watch, it wasn’t too late yet. Where was the harm in going back? He turned around and walked a bit faster back to the house. It wasn’t too far away from this point, he’d only been walking say twenty or so minutes before he realized he was without his phone.

When he got back, the front door was slightly ajar. That’s strange, and rather dangerous. Jaemin, against his better judgement, pushes it open.

“(Y/N)? Jeno?” He called out the two names he remembered first. No response. He let himself in, he’d be in and out quickly, he shouldn’t disturb you. He checked his watch, it was around nine in the evening now.

“You will not believe the client I had today, good god, I was about to lose my patience with her!” Jaemin recognized it to be Ten’s voice. He originally chalked up that sibling to be more reserved, but based on the way he was talking now, Jaemin realized that he had it the other way around. Despite Ten’s voice, the house was dark and quiet. He removed his shoes and approached the kitchen, it was then he heard rustling inside. That mixed with the lack of reactions and the opened door raised alarms in his head. He quickly walked into the kitchen. “Who’s there?!”

“Huh?!” A stranger sat at the counter, wide eyed and about to eat, he was clearly startled. He dropped his spoon and it clattered against the plate. Jaemin grabbed his phone from the shelf next to him.

“I’ll call the cops!”

“What? Why? If anything I should call the cops!” The other boy says. “How’d you get inside?!”

“I should be asking you that!”

“Mark, this shit isn’t coming together,” you stuck your head outside the pantry and spotted Jaemin. “Oh, shit…” Your shoulders hung low. “Well, cat’s out of the bag, I guess.” You placed the strange contraption on the counter next to Mark.

“Hi, I’m Mark,” the boy at the counter waved his hand. Jaemin looked at him, he was ghostly, almost. He couldn’t tell if his face was concerned or just sunken. His posture wasn’t best and he moved rather slowly. He seemed frail, like a gust of wind could blow him over. But, and probably the most notable, there was an IV drip next to him and hooked up to his left arm. His countenance was oddly bright. It was like he was used to it. Used to being in a state like this, and part of that seemed to weigh down on Jaemin’s heart despite this being the first time he’s met him.

“Mark, your weird tech thing isn’t turning on, and I’m going to lose my shit if I have to hear Ten complain about his clients anymore,” Haechan was next to emerge. “Oh, Iron Chef is here. Jeno, look who’s back so soon! Told you he had a crush on me,” he laughs.

“Iron what?” Jaemin asks.

“It’s an American TV show,” Haechan waves his hand. Jeno emerges from the room and waves hello.

“You guys are my only outlet who else am I going to tell about my exploits?!” Ten exits the room now, his tie undone and the top two buttons opened. His hair was now messier with his glasses sitting over them. “Oh, hello,” he spots Jaemin and moves his glasses back down to the bridge of his nose. Mark makes a move to stand up to greet Jaemin, but you push him gently back down.

“I can still walk, you know, I’m not that much of a cripple,” Mark groans and rolls his eyes. He had to be used to this based off of that response.

“Yet,” Haechan scoffs.

“Lee Donghyuck!” You gasped.

“Oh, shit, (Y/N) full named you,” Jeno laughs.

“But seriously, the doctor said to minimize the time you’re on your feet,” you crossed your arms. “Geez, it’s like you’re asking to get hurt, Mark. We’re making progress, we just have to be patient,” your voice was laced with concern, one that Jaemin hadn’t expected to come from you.

“I’m fine, really, I just hate being idle all day,” Mark frowns. “Don’t worry about me,” he shakes his head.

“I’m more worried about what Taeyong would say,” you muttered. Mark looked down at the table.

“Mark, this is Jaemin, by the way,” Jeno introduces Jaemin once again. “He stalked us around the market area and he’s the one who cooked the agujjim for you.” Jaemin notices the familiar container on the counter. Mark blinks and looks between Jeno and Jaemin with a confused expression.

“You let a stalker into our house?” He asks.

“That’s what I said!” You threw your hands up in the air. “Haechan did it, for the record.”

“Yeah, and the agujjim’s not even that good,” Haechan groans.

“Oh my god, you guys are so mean. It’s not even that bad!” Mark exasperates. “It’s just… how is it both salty and bitter? Did you put any bitter ingredients in there? There’s like… there’s no sweetness, and the fish is pretty dry… kinda chewy, which doesn’t make sense but it’s like that.” That was probably the most constructive piece of criticism that Jaemin had ever received today. And one that was wholly accurate, Jaemin couldn’t get that horrid thing out of his mouth.

“Wait, wait, how’d you even get in?” You asked.

“Oh, the door was open,” Jaemin points behind him.

“It was? Great, Taeyong must’ve left it open on accident again,” Ten frowned. “He always forgets when he has to leave on a long commute,” he shook his head. “I’ll call him after he arrives in the city, I guess, there’s not good reception on the trains.”

“I don’t know if they properly introduced him,” Jeno says to Jaemin, he spoke in a voice that was just below a whisper, “that’s Mark. He’s our older brother. In order, it’s Taeyong, Ten, Mark, Me, Haechan, then (Y/N),” he explains. “He, um… he’s sick right now, well, he’s always sick, so he’s not allowed to leave the house on doctor’s orders. I don’t know what Mr. Kim told you, but he’s lying,” Jeno adds in an even quieter voice. “I just don’t want you to get the wrong idea, you know? We’re not bad people.”

It clicked right then. The ghostly figure Mr. Kim was referring to must have been Mark, another child that Mr. Lee apparently had that no one knew much of, it made sense now. He wasn’t dead, no, just house ridden. What an unfortunate way to spend time, to have rumors circulating around about you and not being able to do anything about it. Jaemin ran through all the gossip the other man spilled to him earlier and, now knowing the truth, he could understand where all the rumors started. All the rumors save for the one that your father apparently killed Mark, and it was that one that concerned him the most. It meant that, at one point, everyone knew that the five siblings were actually six.

“So… why keep him a secret?” Another thing that bothered him. Sure, Mark’s essentially under house arrest, but even so it’s not like it was impossible for him to say hello to a few people here and there or, at the very least, sit outdoors.

“It’s my choice, really,” Mark says. “It’s kind of a hassle, having so many people worrying about me, I’m not to happy about the idea of people just constantly pitying me. It’s bad enough I have these four and I’m basically stuck at home, more people would just make me feel depressed about it,” Mark frowns and hangs his head.

“Plus, we don’t want trouble,” you shrugged. “People already say so much shit about us, it’s better if he doesn’t have to deal with it. It’s not good for his heart. We can’t have too many people crowding the area, you know?” Right, reduced sodium in this household. Now that made sense. Heart problems, was it? Then this town was a good place to live and with such an open floor plan in this house it didn’t require much maneuvering to get to one room or the other.

“If you don’t mind me asking-”

“Idiopathic Osteoporosis,” Mark answers. He didn’t hesitate, it must be something he was used to explaining or something he’d largely accepted at this rate. But, from the expressions on his siblings’ faces, he could tell that this was a rather new development. He looks from the table to Jaemin. “Diagnosed when I was five, we knew early on that it was a pretty rare case of it, it's pretty... pretty bad, actually. I’m twenty-two now. Hypertension as a result too, fun,” he nods. “You can ignore this thing though, that’s what I do.” He points to the drip next to him. He sighs and pushes his food aside. “I’m going back to bed, not much to do anyway. It was nice meeting you, Jaemin, these guys said really nice things about you,” Mark stands up. When you reached to help him up, he moves his hand away from you and held, or more accurately leaned, onto the IV drip with both hands, disappearing into the room that Jaemin had previously mistaken for a pantry.

“Yup, there he goes,” Jeno sighs. Money grabbers, that’s what Mr. Kim called them, but that wasn’t the case was it? To have gotten such a huge house at a discounted price, to have had only the kitchen remodeled and nothing else, and to have parents working abroad and the eldest working what was apparently two jobs while the others go to school, and now a brother with a chronic illness. It’s not that they’re stingy, they’re in debt. Jaemin's eyes drifted to the jar on the counter, now much more aware of it. It was a lot larger than he initially realized, and it was full save for some empty space between the crumpled bills. “He’s been kind of in a mood lately, don’t let him bring you down. Did you get everything you needed?”

“Oh, yeah, just my phone,” Jaemin holds it up.

“That’s good, we’ll see you tomorrow then. Be careful on your way back,” you picked up the contraption in the table. “Hyuck, grab the manual on your way back in,” you entered Mark’s room.

“Yeah, yeah,” Haechan grabs a booklet on the table and follows you.

“Sorry about them, they’re all tired right now,” Ten waves his hand and follows Haechan.

“I’ll see you out,” Jeno nods and follows the boy. Jaemin had much to think about, just what had he gotten himself into? All he initially cared about was making the agujjim and…

“The agujjim was for Mark, wasn’t it?” A twang of guilt pulled at Jaemin’s heart, to have screwed up so badly and still had Mark somewhat compliment it was something that surprised him.

“Yeah…” Jeno answers with a dragged out sigh. “It was his favorite food his mom made when she was around. Thing is, it’s probably the worst thing he could possibly eat with his condition. Our dad used to make it a lot too before Mark’s hypertension got really bad, so he stopped, and now whenever dad’s around we can’t make it, but once he heads off (Y/N)’s already in the market looking for the ingredients. We were never able to find her recipe, though, so we’ve just been going off of random blog posts we find on the Internet and hoping it’d be close but nope, we’ve yet to get it right once,” Jeno shakes his head. He opens the door for Jaemin. “I’ll see you tomorrow then, right?”

“Right,” Jaemin steps out of the home, glancing behind Jeno. “Can I ask you something?”

“Sure.”

“Why help me?” Suspicions rose in Jaemin’s head. He wasn’t rich, to put it bluntly, but he wasn’t poor either.

“Relax, we’re not going to extort you or something,” Jeno shakes his head once he realized what Jaemin was implying. “We just want to help. Besides, it’s not like we have anything better to do anyway.”

“That simple, huh?” Jaemin looks back at the room, hearing three voices beyond it but not exactly understanding what they were saying.

“Yup, that simple,” Jeno nods. “You know what? I’ll walk with you,” Jeno grabs his jacket. “I need some fresh air anyway,” he takes the keys from one of many hooks on the wall and walks next to Jaemin. Well, if he’s ready, there’s no point in saying ‘no’ to him. Jaemin only nodded while he made his way back to the front door.

They took the road in silence, Jeno easily matching Jaemin’s pace as they walked. The night was silent and beautiful, the temperature just right and the breeze slow. Jeno was kicking rocks on the road next to Jaemin, lost in thought. Jaemin was in a similar position. To get involved so suddenly in another family’s affairs, he feels like he’s intruding, almost.

“Hey, I’m sorry about (Y/N),” Jeno broke the silence first. “It’s been stressful, (Y/N) is the only one who’s home enough to take care of Mark, and Mark’s been in a mood lately because of…” Jeno stops himself, “because of reasons. And out of all of us those two are the closest so (Y/N)’s been in a mood too and it’s just… I’m sorry, we shouldn’t have taken out our anger on you. You’re just trying to be a good guy, and trying to find out how to cook good food,” Jeno nods. “We’re all just tired. (Y/N) and I both got laid off, Taeyong took on another job, Ten’s clients are getting more demanding, and Haechan’s busy scamming people or something like that, it’s just not a good time.”

“I understand, really, I do,” Jaemin rubs his hands together, warming them up in the cold breeze. Jaemin couldn’t imagine himself in either of the sibling’s positions, actually. He’d grown up with the privilege of getting what he wanted and having access to the resources he needed. But, what he did understand, was that he’d never wish this position on anyone, he knew well enough that he wouldn’t be able to handle it himself, and he found it miraculous that you handled it based off of what he knew. The small bouts of kindness showed him enough about who you were.

The two fell into silence again. Jaemin didn’t want to say anything that overstepped at all. It was true that he’d like to hear Jeno debunking the multitude of rumors from Mr. Kim, but he knew well enough that now wasn’t the time for that. Jeno must know to some extent what they are, at least, if he had told Jaemin to disregard them. He felt bad, almost. He screwed up Mark’s favorite dish, he intruded on a family’s business, and he had the audacity to think that his problems could be held up with theirs. Jaemin couldn’t look at Jeno, he felt ashamed to.

“You know, it’s Mark’s mom that your mom went to school with, they were best friends apparently,” Jeno says, no doubt trying to fill in the awkward spaces. “I only knew her for a little while, but she was always really nice to me,” he continues. “The only thing everyone gets right about us is that our mom’s are all different. It kind of sucks, actually,” Jeno sighs. “I figured you should know.”

“Mom’s never mentioned her.”

“That’s what I heard too,” Jeno huffs. “Don’t pity us, okay?”

“Sorry?”

“Just, don’t. We’ve always been like this, we’re used to it. We grew up together and we really do care a lot about each other,” Jeno says. “I know it’s hard to believe because of how we act with one another, and the way Mark is too… it’s just normal for us,” he continues. “Your mom offered for us to move into that house when she found out that Mark’s been getting worse, she says he needs a bigger place to stay with cleaner air, you know? Before that we were going back and forth here because dad was scoping the place out, we used to come here a lot on vacation because (Y/N)’s mom loved to see the ocean. He’s off in Singapore on a business trip right now, says he could get a huge raise for it, should be enough for Mark’s medical bills and all,” Jeno continues.

Jaemin only listened in silence, he didn’t really know how to respond. How does one properly respond to a trauma dump as such? He came here to remember how to cook, not to deal with some family’s problems. To put it bluntly, he had other priorities. But he couldn’t deny that he did feel some sort of care. Maybe it was because his mother was close with them, maybe it was because they lived in his old house, who knows? But, he had to admit, he wouldn’t know what to do in this kind of situation. So, instead, he listened.

“Sorry for saying all this to you, I’ve never had a chance to tell anyone, so it’s just… it’s nice that someone else knows aside from us,” he says. “You came back here because you failed a competition, right? Honestly, whatever it was the docked you points on, I’m sure you’ll figure it out and do better. Maybe you losing was supposed to be some divine interference, you know? Someone’s trying to tell you something.”

“I highly doubt that,” Jaemin shifts his eyes towards Jeno, who only shrugs. “I’m here only for a week. After a week I have to prove to my boss that I’ve figured out why I started cooking in the first place otherwise I’m fired.”

“Fired? That’s harsh.”

“Talk about it, I don’t know where to start, even,” Jaemin says. Talking about his problems seemed to be nothing compared to what Jeno was going through, though. He almost felt narcissistic doing it. But, with his career on the line, he thought that maybe his worries were a little justified.

“Maybe just start from the beginning, that’s what my dad always says. If you don’t know where to begin, start from square one,” he says. “That’s probably why he got remarried so many times,” he adds with a quick laugh.

Start from square one? What would square one even be?

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