#again maybe if i could i’d write this out in words in a text post but who wants that anyway

[ilostyou]

i think this is something we should be talking about more

[nevernonline]

✧.* just for one night; yjh

for jeonghan's birthday he teased the gift he wanted wrapped in a pretty bow this time was you. little did he know that his joke would turn into his favorite present.

𐦍 paring: jeonghan x reader.

𐦍 genre: romance, bad humor, fluff, "friendly" date.

𐦍 warnings: drinking,  s3xy times, swearing,  smut, minors dni, reader has female genitalia.

𐦍 word count: 2.0k

𐦍 content: non-idol characters, food/drink, cursing, slightly- suggestive, pet names, afab! reader.

𐦍 note: I meant to post this on 1004 but.. maybe forgot to queue it LMAO. this wasn't intended to go this way and I don't rlly write smut often (or read it often tbh) so pls all my baddies who read and write smut give me feedback. (pls) lolol. anyway!! enjoy kk. ily.

It was that time again, time to find a gift for a friend who had nearly everything. Scouring around shops and market places, trying to find something special that had any meaning to the two of you. Sure, you could buy a lux gift or a fancy dinner, but that was basic and well beyond the things Jeonghan had given you. 

You scroll back through texts and posts over the last few birthdays you had spend celebrating him, stumbling across a photo that gave you a good idea. You were sitting on his lap as he blew out his birthday candle. After that wish was put into the universe you recall his lips coming so close to your ear his lips were almost making contact with your pierced lobes. 

“All I want next year is you wrapped in a pretty bow.” 

Maybe he wouldn’t remember that wish, but you did. It was silly and stupid, but your friend did always know what he wanted and wasn’t shy to ask for it. 

You sprinted to the stationary store in order to find a big pink bow in under thirty minutes, so you could make it back to your apartment where Jeonghan was meeting you before his big night out with all of his friends. The options were endless, a sea of glitter, metallic, curling, satin, but you decided to be simple, just a large bound pink ribbon. 

After an overwhelming time spent pondering over pink fabric, you made it home with ten minutes to spare. Lacing yourself up from your sneakers, to your hair, your bag, even a dainty piece wrapped around your neck as a finishing touch just as the doorbell rang, you told him to open up where he found you laced in pink, wearing a black dress, holding a cupcake flame ablaze. 

“Happy Birthday, Hannie.” 

A smile creeped in as he came close to blow his candle out looking at the pink adorned ribbon tied all over you, he remembered. 

“My present I presume?” 

His fingers pointed towards you, again smiling from ear to ear like he couldn’t believe you remembered his wish. 

“Think I’d forget?” 

“You tend to forget your own name while drinking, so yes. I love it.” 

Jeonghan’s hands reached to run his hands over the ribbon in your hair, pausing before he touched the one on your neck. 

“So this means you’re mine for the night?” 

“Your wish is my command, birthday boy. Should we go?” 

“You know when I wished for you to be my present, I meant much more than you wearing bows right?” 

You huffed, watching his eyes still on your neck. 

“I did. I really will oblige any wish, as long as it’s legal and safe.” 

“No promises, babe. Let’s go.” 

Walking hand in hand into Jeonghan’s not so surprise party was not out of the norm for you, you’ve always been the type of friend that clung to close, even for your own comfort. Something seemed to linger in the air around you as a pair. 

“Mind getting me a cocktail? I’m going to go say hi to the guys and thank them.” 

“Again, here to please. Vodka Cran or G&T?” 

“Gin, please.” 

With a small salute as a send off you walked into a line behind three other partygoers in line. 

“Y/n? I don’t think I’ve ever seen you in pink before?” 

The voice was Joshua’s coming from behind you. He wrapped his right arm around your shoulders in a half hug greeting you hello. 

“Really? Well, it's for Jeonghan’s gift. Last year he wished that I gift him myself, so here I am adorned in pink ribbon.” 

“You really took him up on that? You are one good friend.” 

“I know that you're thinking it's probably a mistake, you’re right.” 

“Na, he’d never hurt you or let anyone else. He likes you far too much.” 

Your eyes rolled now facing the bartender and placing the matching drink order before turning back to Joshua. 

“Come find me later okay? I need a Shua Hong dance for my payment for being Jeonghan’s bitch for the night.” 

“It's the least I can do.” 

Hours passed by just as quickly as alcohol entered your system, you haven’t left the side of your male counterpart for hours, he wouldn’t let you slide away other than grabbing more drinks or running to the ladies room.

Your buzz is far more prominent now. Jeonghan’s hands slid to the lower half of your body, resting between your bare skin and the hem of your dress and your heart followed along to the beat of the edm music playing over the club loudspeakers. 

“Dance with me, pretty?” 

His eyes burning a hole into your head, you obliged, grabbing him by the hand and pulling him into the center of the purple lights and faux fog. 

Jeonghan’s hands found a comfortable spot resting on your hips as you twisted around placing your back onto his chest, grinding slowly to the song. 

This proximity between you has never existed, while you’re touchy or clingy the feeling from the warmth of his pants's friction on your upper thighs made you feel differently about your so called friend. 

Thoughts swirled in your brain as you turned back to be face to face with his plump lips and siren like eyes. A hand, that same hand that was resting comfortably on your lower half snaked its way up to your neck, the ribbon placed there was now further from your skin as his fingers laced their way under it. 

“You want to know what else I wished for?” 

You opened your mouth to speak, no words formed other than some incoherent ones that sounded like soft moaning. 

“I wished that you’d be my present forever, not just for the night. I can’t let anybody else get this gift.” 

Your hands reached from the nape of his neck to the side of his face, trying to give him a clue that you wanted him as badly as he wanted you. 

“Come home with me?” 

He placed a small peck onto your cheek, nearing the site of your lips that so badly wanted to feel the crash of his on them. 

The whole ride back in your taxi, your hands rubbed up his thigh. He knew you looked nervous, but also that you would tell him if anything made you uncomfortable. 

Truth be told he was nervous too. This was a line he never thought would be crossed. Jeonghan knew for years that he wanted you and only you for that matter, but he waited for the perfect moment to be put in your hands. 

Saying a quick thank you to your driver, you basically sprinted into his place, not even having a second to throw your jacket and bag down at his front door before you had your back against his white walls in the dark. 

The sense of urgency to kiss you was obvious. A near feral feeling. He tasted like cherries and gin as he kissed you quickly, helping you out of your outerwear and pulling you into his apartment that was only lit by the beautiful view of the city below. 

“Help me?” 

Your voice came out as a whimper, turning your back to him as an indication you needed help out of your dress. 

His cold hands wrapped around the zipper of your dress running a finger down your spine as it unzipped. 

“Wow.” 

His confidence suddenly washing away as he looked at your semi naked body only wearing a matching pink slip dress to the color of your bows and a pair of matching panties below. 

“Dressed up for me too?” 

“Nope. Just like to match.” 

The ‘P’ of your nope popped onto his face and a devious smile appeared. 

“Don’t be bad, gifts shouldn’t talk back to their owner.” 

His hands found his way to the place they didn’t seem to leave all night, your hips as he placed you down onto his fresh sheets. 

“Sorry, Hannie.” 

“It’s okay, just be a good girl."  

You nodded as he began kissing you starting at your lips and followed a trail all the way down to your sternum. 

“You know the best part about gifts is opening them.” 

Jeonghan’s fingers now wrapped around the waistband of your underwear as he slowly pulled them down below your knees, around your ankles and onto the floor. 

A pause from kissing came as his pointer and middle finger entered into your mouth and prompted you to spit on them so he could rub circles onto your clit before entering another space he had never been to before. His first finger came in slowly penetrating you softly, when he saw you getting needy his second entered and the beats became more rapid as he used his tumb to rub circles around your much more sensitive sweet spot. 

Your moaning became louder, reminding him of your voice yelling over the sound of the music in the club as you reached your first orgasm of the night. 

Sitting up now watching as Jeonghan places the same two fingers that were inside of you into his mouth, savoring every last drop of the finish you had because of him, you crawled onto you knees now prompting him for some pleasure. 

Undoing the button and zipper of his pants, letting him and his cock catch their breath before going down on him. You placed soft kisses along the pale skin of his stomach, making sure to nip his skin in between as you make your way down his torso. Just as you reach the waistband of his boxers, a hand comes to cup the hard thing lying beneath. 

“Wanted me that bad huh?” 

Jeonghan, now dethroned from his previous position of power, just groaned as a beg to have your mouth wrapped around his pulsing cock. 

“I’ve wanted you forever.” 

Hearing his breathless moans you released your hands from his cock and finished unwrapping yourself for him, leaving that small pink ribbon tied around your neck, before going back down to kiss your lips at the tip of his dick. 

As your hands and mouth worked their way around in unison all over his engorged flesh, it takes only a few minutes for him to fill the dirty mouth that was teasing him just before. 

“Didn’t take you for such a lightweight, Yoon.” 

“Shut the fuck up and please get on top of me.” 

Your legs came to straddle around his still sensitive cock as you teased your entrance. 

“Someone’s so needy.”

“Someone is supposed to be doing far less talking and far more fucking.” 

His arms pulled you down fearlessly so your lips could fall back into place and also so he could shut you up while you finally let him inside of you. 

“Fuck, I didn’t expect you to be so tight.” 

Jeonghan knew he wouldn’t last long being inside of you, not because you were tight, but because of the way he felt about you and how much he dreamed about watching your breasts bouncing as they hovered over his face while he fucked you. 

“I- Uh, Fuck.” 

“You what, pretty? Can’t handle me? Can't it last long? Want me to fill you up as you ride me?” 

“Yes, yes, all of it. Please, Hannie.’"

As his hips pounded their way onto yours, both of you running out of stamina maybe due to the alcohol or maybe the adrenaline reached your climax near the same time. 

“Can you come inside me, please?” 

You were practically begging him to mark you and since you looked so pretty he couldn’t say no to you. 

With the two of you now finished, his cock still inside of you. Jeonghan placed soft kisses on your lips. 

“I don’t want this to stop.” 

His hands came to untie the pink fabric now slightly wet from your shared bodily fluids. 

“Me either. I love you, you know?” 

You lifted your body off of him, now under his covers with your hands placed on his chest. 

“I love you too, Happy Birthday.” 

“Be my present forever, okay?” 

“Okay, handsome.” 

And with another year gone, Jeonghan finally got the birthday present he truly wanted. You.

[just-shairahhh]

The Way I Couldn't Love You

~ A "The Way I Loved You" story continuation.

Summary: Will you and Eddie get a second chance at what you lost? Or will the history tear through everything you had once built together?

Note: This post is a continuation of the story, "The Way I Loved You".

"And there you were, years later. Again. Sobs breaking through your chest. Again. Sending tremors in his heart. Again. Except this time, Eddie Diaz knew who they were for. "

Everyday. Every single day of the first year since you moved away, you imagined in your head what it would be like to see Eddie again. A thousand scenarios swirling in your mind, tentacles of the nightmare you had to live through every day, creeping into your broken heart and imprisoning it in a tight grip, as you lay there. In the same dark corner. For hours. Until sleep showed you some mercy and reeled you in. Everyday.

Anger. Hurt. Betray.

You’d imagined it all. It was as if you could picture his stormy, hazel eyes pierce into you, the storm brewing in them upending your life all over again. And then you stopped. Squeezed your eyes tighter and stopped. You could feel the bile rising in your throat at the mere thought of seeing hatred in the eyes that had only ever looked at you with love. Pure, selfless love. No, it was too soon. You can’t see him yet. So you picked up your phone from the corner of the sofa you had slammed it in and replied to your sister’s text in a single word, “No”. And that was the hardest thing you had ever had to write, which was funny because once in a Spell-Bee competition you thought, “Embourgeoisement” was hard.

Your sister’s question did not leave your mind for the rest of the day, though. Or the coming week. Or the months that followed.

“Eddie was here again. Asking for an address or a contact. Said he really needed you. And that everything was falling apart. He looked worse than before, y/n. Should I send him your address?”

What did he mean everything was falling apart? Is he okay? Are his parents hurting him again? You tried to shut the voices out. You'd be back home on the next flight if you let them come in. Plus, he had Shannon now. He would be okay.

"I am sorry, Eddie. There's nothing more I want than to be right next to you. But if I fall again, I won't be able to get up. I can't. I need to heal. I really, really need to heal. I cannot live in this pain anymore. I am so, so sorry". You whisper into the night as you snuggle further into your pillow.

.....

“I don’t want dinner, mom! Leave me alone. Please.” The last word already more breathless and shakier than you’d like.

“That’s too bad. Cause I got you your favourite; that disgustingly sugary sweet abomination in the name of coffee” Eddie said as he entered through the door and made a very disgusted face as if someone had asked him to take Tabasco shots. Someone had once, by the way. It was you. And he had still made a better face. “And Chef Eddie’s personally mastered craft, tacos and enchiladas.” He said, proudly smiling and throwing around chef kisses.

You gave him a blank stare. And a second later, he relented.

“Fine, my abuela made them. God, woman. Lighten up. You broke up with an el tonto. I always warned you he was an el tonto. Not even a real man. Maybe you were a bigger idiot. But eh, what’s done is done. I’d say we celebrate”.

And just like that, at the mention of Josh, fresh tears broke free, replacing the now dried ones.

"Hey, hey, hey. I am sorry. I was kidding. Come here.” Eddie stepped in closer, about to engulf you in a hug.

But you pushed him away. “Go away, Eddie. Seriously. I don’t want to see you right now.”

“I will not, y/n. Not unless you eat. Your mom said you haven’t eaten anything for hours.” His light-hearted banter now long gone, a more assertive voice stepping in. You knew it meant that he was concerned but you hated when he took that voice with you. It was very different than the one he took with Shannon. That concern was always laced with a soft plea at the end or a light kiss behind her ear.

Shannon. Just her name, brought out the anger you’d been trying to hold in.

But you try once more to not let the agony engulf you. To not be the person you are about to become if Eddie does not listen to you. “Go. Away. Eddie. I will have the food when I am hungry.”

Eddie, however, was not having any of it. “Come on, here. Let me get this for you. If you try one –”

And that’s when you lost it and screamed at the last person you ever wanted to raise your voice at. “GO AWAY! WHAT DO YOU NOT UNDERSTAND!” He tried to reach out again but you swatted his arm away. Hitting him on the chest once. Twice. Thrice. So he would just listen to you. Why is he not listening to you? He needs to go.

The long suppressed agony now letting itself out completely. Josh was not a good boyfriend to you. But he was a good friend before that. And when you broke up with him, you knew you’d lost that. This was all Eddie’s fault. He left you. All alone. And he went to Shannon. And you thought maybe, just maybe if you start dating, it will all go away? This... this hurt. All this pain. But it did not. But you knew. In your heart, you knew that it was not Eddie's fault. That he did loved you. He would do anything for you. Just not in the way you wanted. And that tore at you every day but that was not his fault. It couldn’t be.

And then you realise you that you are still hitting him. What are you doing? You stop as soon as you realise that and look up. There he was, your best friend. Taking it all in. Not saying anything. You feel so awful, so absolutely broken. And you feel tired. So very tired. So with a barely held sob, you slump forward, into his arms. Which were waiting for you, as if knowing. Waiting. Understanding.

So, you sob harder. Because that was the first day in all these years it had truly set in that Eddie would never be what you craved in him. You'd always thought one day it would all come back. That he would come back. But now you knew that he won't. He would always be here though. Just never yours.

But what you didn’t realise that day was Eddie’s heart was also breaking. If not more, then just as much as you. That was the first time he felt his best friend was slipping away and he was unaware. So very unaware of how much his best friend had loved this guy who broke her heart. He cursed himself for not understanding the gravity of the situation. What he didn't know was that, the sobs breaking through his chest, causing tremors in his heart were not for Josh but for him.

You didn’t notice the bandage on his knuckles for the next few days. You also didn’t notice that Josh Lawson was gone longer than the bandage had stayed.

And Eddie never told you either.

.....

“y/n?”

“Eddie.” You whisper softly.

You couldn’t recall how long you were spaced out for. When cold, familiar tears slid down your cheeks as easily as they used to, only then did you start to process the situation again.

“I- I... I have a few engine supplies to check. I should...” Buck slowly started.

No! Evan! What must he even be thinking? You slowly raise your eyes up at him. Expecting the worst. But his kind face only held understanding in them. He gave you a tight lipped smile before taking a few steps backward.

“Oh, this” you softly started and he followed your eyes and and looked down at the basket in your hands.

“Right.” He quickly took the box from your hand. “Muffins are my favourite! Ooooh, blueberry!” He gave you one last smile and walked back.

You still hadn’t looked at Eddie but you could feel his eyes follow you. With a deep breath, you somehow muster the courage to look up and nothing would have prepared you for what you saw.

You wished it was what you feared it all those years ago. You truly did. Anger. Fear. Betray. But he wasn’t any of those things. He was simply... lost.

Third Person POV:

There comes a time in everyone’s life when we lose something precious. A person, a memory, an object, a feeling; something we always, effortlessly considered a part of us. We would look everywhere, drive ourselves insane and would not know how to survive without it.

But then we learn. Slowly. Painfully. We grasp on how to survive without it and we start living again. But then one day, it turns up. But by then we don’t know how to feel. We have learnt to live with what we have lost but that doesn’t mean we have not felt incomplete in our existence. And just like that, we are back to the day we lost and we were lost. As clueless now as we were then.

Eddie Diaz was lost. He didn’t know how to take in what he had learnt to let go, now standing right in front of his eyes. The day that y/n left, she didn’t just take away his best friend, she took a part of him with her. A part that he had willingly given away to her to safekeep the first day he saw her across the fence looking at him with eyes that promised him the world. A part that was always meant to be hers.

A soft sob escaped y/n’s lips. Tears now freely slipping down her face. She had run this day through her head uncountable number of times. She thought it would all come back. The ghosts of her night and the nightmares of her day. The girl she used to be. But they didn't.

All that came back were the memories she had long buried down. But this time they didn't strike her like a snake, angry and hissing, it's fangs out, ready to poison her. This time, the memories hugged her like Eddie used to. Soothe her like Eddie used to. Make her feel understood... Like Eddie used to. And in that moment, all her doubts dissolved, and she knew that she had made the right choice when she decided to leave. Had she stayed back, she would have started hating Eddie, every memory she had of him and she knew that she would have started hating herself.

But she had still done Eddie wrong. She knew that. While her heart had healed for her, it also tore through her for what she had broken. There was no escape. Her only escape from everything life threw at her for the longest time, was now standing right in front of her; eyes wide, mouth agape and tears, years worth of tears threatening to spill through the barriers of his eyes behind which Eddie had managed to hide himself for a long time now.

"You're not in uniform" y/n whispered out. Her heart had started to spiral down several dominoes of emotions. And she could no longer think straight. Instead, she decided to focus on the patterns on his mustard yellow shirt.

"Yes, because my uniform totally should be your first concern after you just up and left the night of my wedding. While you're at it, why don't you go inside and check the logs to make sure whether I was on time for my shift or not?" Eddie replied.

What further pushed y/n down the ledge was the fact that Eddie did not shout, or scream or throw the words at her. He simply sounded... Defeated. Long gone was the boy who held fire in his eyes. Standing next to her now was a man who had seen it all fade away.

Soldiers. Friends. Humanity. His best friend. His Marriage. And maybe somewhere, himself. Or atleast the version of him that she used to know. She could not stand there pretending he had changed when she was the one who pulled away first.

So, she kept quiet and focused on the colours running checks on his shirt.

Brown. White. Blue.

"You left me, y/n. Why." He did not ask it as a question. More like a statement. As if he too, had gone through that one moment he found out y/n had left. For a very long. In a never ending loop. And when you do that enough, your mind starts to give you answers. Not the one you necessarily seek but the ones that bring out your worst insecurities. And there he was, her heart's closest confidant doubting all that he was, for himself and for her, on the basis of a single memory that turned both their worlds upside down all those years ago.

Brown. White. Blue.

"You told me you would be there for me forever but you weren't. During the worst trials of my life, you weren't".

She could feel his voice tremor slightly as he slowly stepped closer. A single treacherous tear making its way down his beautiful face.

Y/n's POV:

Brown. White. Blue.

"You told me you'd always be my by side. But maybe you didn't mean those promises enough"

Brown. White. Blue.

"Or maybe I wasn't enough. Your family obviously knew everything. And our friends did too, I'm guessing. Everyone content with your decision, happy for you. I felt it."

Brown. White. Blue.

"And there I was, the only one left in the dark. Driving around like someone took away a part of my soul. And guess what? That is exactly what happened".

Brown. White. Blue.

"And I waited. For the longest time. Because I couldn't have imagined my life without you. Because I loved you. And I thought you did too. So why?"

"It's because I loved you." You scream at him through the tears, each word that he had said, striking all the cords that you had yourself been stricken by before.

You looked up at him through your clouded eyes and knew, that still, he had no idea.

Well, what time like the present? Infront of a firehouse, where he works. Where you'd come to meet one of his colleagues. What would be a better place to share the most vulnerable, sensitive corners of your heart?

"It's because I loved you that I let all the hurtful emotions of a teenage heart tore through me but stayed by you when you needed to talk about your relationships. It's because I loved you that I stood beside you and fought against your family so that you could marry the woman you loved, when all I wanted to do was scream at you, ask you to not marry her. It's because I loved you that I left the people, the home and the family I'd known all my life so that I didn't end up hating you. Everything was always because I loved you. And it was because you couldn't love me back".

You fall apart, sobs wreaking through you but no sound making it out because you were pressed into his comfortable, warm chest. One hand tightly holding you, as if he still couldn't believe you were here, as if you would disappear if he let go. The other weaving through your hair. Like he used to do all those years ago, something he knew would always calm you down.

And there you were, years later. Again. Sobs breaking through your chest. Again. Sending tremors in his heart. Again.

Except this time, Eddie Diaz knew who they were for. As everything started to make sense to him.

"You know I loved you. I always did." He spoke softly into your ear. His voice heavy with emotions, trembling at every pause. His cheek pressed against your hair.

You could feel the realisation coursing through him and the guilt digging in his chest. It was Eddie. You knew him better than yourself on some things. The way he pulled you closer and tightened his arms around you, burying his face into your hair; told you enough.

"Yes, you did. But not the way I loved you. And that is so okay. I couldn't be more at peace. But that's now. That was not what was going on then. I needed to leave, Eddie. I am sorry. I really did. Every corner of that town spoke to me of us. I felt suffocated in my own home. I needed to be there for myself. I never meant to leave you. But if I hadn't, I would not have been able to be there for you either". You whispered back. Putting it all in your words. Hoping he would still get you like he always did.

He nodded. Just once. Softly.

"There's a chinese place down the block. I just got off duty. Wanna get some food? Maybe I will tell you about this y/e/c eyed beauty Buck couldn't stop talking about ever since he met her. I'm guessing that would be you?" Eddie smiled down at you. It wasn't a lot. But it was a beginning. Or the promise and hope of one. But where would you be today, had you not been living for the hope of it all.

"Actually, tell me about you first. And the very handsome Christopher. I know there's a lot to catch up on but spring rolls are a very good place to start. But then we are jumping right back to what Evan said about me." You smiled back as he led you to his car, shaking his head at you.

Things might not be okay for a long time maybe. It will take time and efforts. A lot of both. Some things you've to let time heal, others you have to work on for an even longer time. But it's efforts you're willing to put, maybe more than Eddie this time. And that's okay. Both of you are gonna be okay.

"Oh, you won't believe who I met in LA. And right on my first week. A little piece of shit we went to high school with. It was so annoying. Character development really is not for some people. Also, about Evan.... Uhmmm..."

.

.

.

[impala-dreamer]

Meet Me At The Beach

A Supernatural Story

~ Texting and emails can feel so impersonal. There's nothing quite like exchanging tangible, handwritten letters with someone you love...~

Dean Winchester x F!Reader, Sam Winchester

4,025 Words

Warnings: Bittersweet Angst. SFW. 

A/N: This is for @jacklesversebingo "Writing Letters To Each Other" was the prompt. I hope you enjoy...

June 2

Dear Dean, 

This feels so weird. Do people really write letters anymore? Am I going to get strange looks at the post office when I go to buy a stamp? Will they even know what to do with this tiny envelope and folded piece of loose-leaf paper? I almost don’t know how to write anymore. My script looks kinda like chicken scratch, huh? Hopefully it’ll get better. It is weird not typing though. But emails just seem like work. Impersonal, ya know? Besides, it gives us something to look forward to when we hit the mailbox. Nice to open something that’s not a delinquent credit card bill, huh? 

Speaking of which- how the fuck do you do it? I just got another card canceled. My credit is non-existent. Fuck, I need to get a job. Could you imagine me in an office? High heels and panty hose and my hair tucked into a neat, matronly bun? I shudder to think! 

OK, this is weird. I just wanted to write “LOL” but it’s not an email. Or a text. Why are we doing this again? Oh, yeah, see above. 

Anyhoo- - - - I don’t even know what to say! Umm… I’m in New Orleans for a bit. Not working, just hanging out. My friend Emily from high school tracked me down online and we’ve been chatty. She’s in a band. They’re not bad. Not great, but not bad. So yeah, I took a drive down to see a show and I’m just lingering. Drinking too much, sleeping past noon. It’s fun. Nice little vacation. 

Which - ahem - you should be taking. When are you gonna get your ass out of that dusty old bunker and stick your toes in the sand? I already told you I’d meet you in Pensacola with sunscreen and a cooler of beer. You know you want to. Or are you just scared to show off your ugly toes in flip flops? Your boots might actually cry if you ever took them off, so I guess it’s just as well. 

Hey, do you remember that night in Richmond when it started pouring and your boots sank into the mud puddle? God, that was a mess. We were soaked to the bone. Nice way to warm up, though - cuddled in the back of the Impala. I miss that car. Sometimes, I think I can hear it at night when the world is quiet and the wind is still. It’s like the engine roars in the back of my mind and I start thinking about all our adventures, all the time we spent driving into the sunset. 

I miss you. Is that wrong? I probably shouldn’t. Or at least, I shouldn’t tell you that I do. But I do. I miss you so bad sometimes that it hurts. Like someone has punched me right in the chest. Maybe we can end up in the same town soon. Grab some tacos and sit on the hood. Make a mess. I’d like that. 

OK, before I get too emotional and start asking you to run away with me, I think I’ll end this ranting scribble of horrid handwriting. 

Write me back soon.

Love, Y/N

June 21 

Y/N- 

Your handwriting does not look like chicken scratch. I like it. Mine is like some toddler just learning his letters. Whatever. I never learned that fancy shit. I can sign my name and make a grocery list. That’s all I need. 

This is weird, yeah. But it’s kinda nice. Feels more… like you’re here. Does that make sense? Like seeing your handwriting, the dents in the paper- I don’t know. Just feels more real. Like you’re not just some computer talking back at me. Also there’s something strange about answering questions weeks later. I meant to write this sooner, but I got a little distracted. There was a Kung Fu marathon on and I just lost track of time. Too much pizza, not enough Carradine. Ya know? You know. 

Remember that horrible motel in Raleigh when we both caught that nasty stomach bug and stayed up all night watching old tv shows? Saltines and Little House. I’ll never forget it. You were so sick that day. Shit, I was sure I was gonna end up taking you to the hospital. Sure, I was puking too, but you looked like death. I hated that. Hated that I couldn’t help you, make you feel better. I did cook up a mean chicken noodle soup though, didn’t I? Not that it stayed down for long. 

Thank god for that yellow Gatorade. And yes- it’s fucking yellow. Not green. 

Anyway- I miss you too. I try not to, I really do. Not all the time, no offense, but sometimes I’m just fucking insane with shit going on. But at night, especially, I miss having you beside me. I miss rolling over and seeing you there, or hearing you snore. I miss feeling your freezing feet under the blanket. I don’t know, I just- 

What can I say? I’m sorry. I’m an asshole. I’m the biggest piece of shit in the universe. I shouldn’t have pushed you away. 

Can’t change the past. Just gotta move on. 

Maybe someday you’ll forgive me. I hope so anyway. 

I’m sorry. I shouldn’t dump that all out in a letter. I almost ripped this all up and started over. I actually let it sit for a day before I came back to it. But, fuck it- we said we were gonna write to each other and be honest, and here I am, being honest. 

Fuck, I’m so tired. That kinda tired when sleeping for ten days wouldn’t even put a dent in it. Yeah, OK, so things are getting a little better. Chuck’s gone for good this time. Jack’s got things back in place, even made a few improvements. Sam’s- well, he’s Sam. He’s fine, doing his thing. The dog is- did I tell you we have a dog now? Yeah, I know. Me and a dog- yeah right. But we do. Miracle. He’s a good boy. I’ll send you a picture soon. 

Never thought I could slow down like this. Feels like for the first time we can just - work. I mean, I’m never gonna give up hunting, not totally, but- feels like I could just ease back a bit. Been looking at some jobs in town- nothing crazy, fixing engines and stuff like that. Don’t know if you remember, but I’m pretty good with my hands. 

Did you blush? 

You did. 

OK. I guess- that’s it for now. I have no fucking idea how to end this so - bye?

~ Dean

P.S.  I’ll meet you at the beach soon. I promise.

Fifteenth of July 

To Whom It May Concern:

Re: Beach Vacation

Dear Mr. Winchester, 

I am very pleased to hear that you are agreeable to meeting me at the beach. It should be delightful fun to run through the surf and hunt for sea glass with you.

Oh shit! Do you remember that new age shop in… where the fuck was that? With the sea glass necklaces in the window that I said were so pretty and the witch inside said they were blessed to give the wearer riches or some shit like that. Where was that? Who knows.

Feels like we’ve been all over the world together. Well, this country at least. Lord knows I could never get you on an airplane. If only you could drive to Paris. Did I ever tell you about my trip to France? God, it was beautiful. Rained the whole time, but it was this beautiful, warm spring rain that made everything smell like dust and petals. Not rose petals, but those little white ones that grow on trees, ya know? It was so beautiful. Fuck it. I’m taking you one day. You need to see more than the dash of your car and the backroads of America. Time to travel!

Speaking of- I’m glad you’re slowing down a bit. I know that won’t be easy for you but if you think about it, you’ve spent the last forty years running from problem to problem like a damned bomb-sniffing dog. 

A DOG?! Dean Winchester, I never thought the day would come. I can’t wait to see a picture. Don’t forget it next time. 

I think you’d be a great mechanic. It was always very hot seeing you covered in sweat and grease especially if you had those damned coveralls on. I mean… what? I don’t think about you like that anymore, you know. It’s over and done with and we’re just friends. We are friends, aren’t we? Maybe something more than friends, I guess. Ex lovers? Ew. I hate that word. Lovers. So gross. Well, then what are we? Just two souls swimming in a fish bowl…

Year after year. Day after day. Do you know that I put nearly a hundred thousand miles on my poor truck this year? Back and forth, up and down the country. I don’t have to tell you how exhausting it is. Fun, but exhausting. Rewarding, but not. I wonder how many people remember me after I leave? Does that family in New Haven think about me whenever they go into the basement and it’s no longer haunted? Is there a photo of me on a fridge in Wilmington where I saved that guy’s fiance from the vamp nest? Probably not. I’m sure people remember you - The Great Dean Winchester. The sexy hunter with the green eyes and the giant black car. You’re hard to forget. Also, you hang out with a giant. Tell Sam I said hi. 

I do remember that puke fest! And it’s green. It’s literally neon green. Fight me. 

We could probably write a book, you and me. ‘Winchester & Y/L/N Do America’. It’s a coffee table book with pictures of random diner signs and gas station bathrooms. Maybe a list of the country’s best french fry places. Shit like that. Let’s do it. I’ll call my literary agent in the morning. Ha!

SPARTA!! That’s where that damned sea glass shop was. It just hit me! Stupid brain. I swear, I’ve been hit in the head way too many times. Broken too many bones. I’m getting too old for this shit. Did you know that my left knee pops whenever I stand up now? Like, how old am I?? I can’t stand it. I need a month at a spa somewhere in the desert. That’d be nice. 

Damnit. I just got a call from Vinnie Alverez. Do you know him? Hunter out of Pittsburg. Anyway- he needs help on a job. Guess I’ll cut this letter short. Hopefully I’ll find a box to drop this in on the way to PA! 

Miss you. 

Sincerely yours, 

Y/N

P.S. - I do forgive you, Dean. Of course I do. Things were just too hard back then. Life didn’t want to cooperate for us. It’s not your fault. Not my fault. It just was. Please don’t carry that guilt in your heart. You deserve better than that. 

August 2

Dear Y/N- 

You’re a real character, you know that? Love the corporate letter. I’m in for the book by the way. Could be awesome. We do need a full chapter on onion rings though. Make a note. 

I heard about your hunt in Pittsburgh. Came through the grapevine that you kicked some serious wolf ass. Nice job, kid. Hope you’re being careful. I know how bullheaded and impulsive you can get when you’re in the zone. Just watch your back, OK? Promise me. Last thing I wanna hear is that you got your heart clawed out or you’re walking around with a demon in your ass. 

Demons. Haven’t seen so many running around lately. Queen Rowena’s been keeping them in check. So fucking weird that she’s in charge now. Not that I’m surprised- she’s a badass bitch. If I had a nickel for every ruler of hell I was friends with, I’d have two nickels. Which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it happened twice. The kids still say that, don’t they? See, I’m not old. I keep up with pop culture and shit. Started watching the tik toks. I still don’t get it, but I like the woodturning stuff. Thinking about taking up whittling. Maybe carve you a keychain so you stop losing them. 

I got a call for a job interview. Chickened out though. I don’t know if I’m ready to start all that, ya know? Start a real life in the real world- just seems- I don’t know, scary. Yeah, I’ve faced every deadly thing on this and other worlds but the idea of getting a 9 to 5 civilian job scares me. I’m some kinda fucked up, huh? 

I think about it a lot though. Getting a job, finding a little house somewhere, settling down. A little fenced in yard so Miracle can run around and dig up dirt. Might put a rocking chair on the porch and watch the clouds, some shit like that. Would you come visit me in my Barbie dream house? I’ll cook you breakfast every morning and you can rub my feet at night. Real cozy couple stuff. 

OK, so maybe I’m thinking about you more and more these days. Maybe I’m regretting leaving. Maybe I’m just an idiot daydreaming about meeting you somewhere in the middle and sweeping you off your feet. One of those running hugs that hurts when you collide but ends in a kiss that makes everything feel better. I’m a real romantic fuck, huh? I was digging through my drawers yesterday and I found a pair of your socks. Those tiny ones that barely covered your ankle. I don’t know why they were stuffed in the back of the dresser, but there they were. Dingy white socks with the pink threads on the toes. I’ll bring them to the beach when we meet up. 

Oh, Sam says hi and he hopes you’re good and he wants you to shoot him a text when you can. You can do what you want, but you better not mail him a letter. That’s just for me. God, my hand is cramping up. I’m not used to this. Oh, and you’re not alone. My knee creaks like a haunted house when I go up stairs now. And my right wrist pops, and my neck makes this weird almost squeaking sound, and my ass- well, I could go on, but just know you’re not alone. Kinda weird to think that we lived long enough to be this old, ain’t it? I never thought I’d live to be thirty and here I am staring down 42. Forty Fucking Two. Can you believe that shit? Goddamnit I got old. Let’s go find a nursing home together. Maybe we can get a double room- or a king sized bed?

Think about it. We could be cranky old people together. Losing our memories and shuffling around with walkers and shit. You’d look cute with white hair. And fuck, my beard’s already going gray. Should I grow out my beard? 

Write back soon. I really like seeing your letters in the box. 

Dean  x

My dearest Dean Winchester, it is with great happiness that I write this letter to you and I do hope that it finds you well and happy and all good things and I can’t keep this formal shit up. Ha!

Anyway- but yeah, things are good. I know it’s been a while since I’ve written, but I was on a little trip around the continent. Headed up to Montreal for a bit. Killed some nasties, salted some bones, generally fucked around. My beloved truck crapped out in Burlington, Vermont, so I had to hang out there for a while and gather my resources to get a new vehicle. I think you’d like her. Green Ford Explorer from ‘94. OK, she’s not as sexy as the Impala, but she gets me where I need to go. Which, apparently, was Maine! I met up with some friends in Greenville. Cute little town full of witchcraft. So much fun. Also had a lobster roll on a pier… I swear to god, they plucked this thing right out of the water and slapped it on a buttered roll. You’d LOVE it. I’m gonna take you there someday. 

Speaking of- We need to make plans for Florida. I picked up a little bikini on my travels and I think I really need to show it off. Maybe you could be my bodyguard and keep the creeps away while I’m sunbathing? To repay you for your services, I’ll gladly let you take it off me at night…

Oh, and I’ve thought about this extensively, and I believe that you should, in fact, grow your beard out. Like, full on, bushy lumberjack beard. I can’t wait to see all that gray. You know I have a thing for older men… and you’ll always be older than me, Dean Winchester and don’t you forget it!

And for your information, I don’t lose my keys anymore! I got one of those… apple taggy things. Now I know where they are at all times. Can’t find my phone to find them sometimes, but that’s another issue. 

Two weeks later, I’m picking up my pen again. Sorry this is taking forever. Things are stupid busy. I wish I could just… put this fucking gun down and go live with you on a farm somewhere. Not a working farm, we wouldn’t keep pigs or anything because gross, but a farmhouse in the middle of nowhere. Big white house with a giant tree in the yard and a tire swing and a picket fence and a kid chasing the dog around and - 

Shit. Do you ever think about it? I do. A lot. More than I’d like to and it fucking cuts me up inside every time. I know we could never have kept it, and life- I mean- it just wasn’t meant to be. But I do think about it sometimes. Imagine if we’d just walked away from the life and tried to be a family? Impossible, I know. Maybe in another life. 

Shit, I’m sorry. Fuck. Ignore me. I haven’t slept in a while and I just

I want to see you. Can we meet somewhere? Wherever you want. I’ll come to you. 

~ Y/N 

Dear Dean, 

This is my second attempt at writing this. Crumpled up the first one because I’m an idiot. Am I an idiot? Did I piss you off with the last letter? I honestly didn’t mean to. I just- we said we’d be honest, and you’ve been so open in your letters that I thought it was ok to talk about, but I guess not. I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have dug that stuff up. 

I’m so tired and stressed and I miss you so much. Since we’ve been writing back and forth it’s almost like I can’t stop thinking about you. I get so fucking excited to check the mail whenever I roll back into town. It’s like… I don’t know, it’s like Christmas every time I see your handwriting in my box. Remember the time you wrote your name on my thigh in Sharpie? That stayed on for like a week. I shoulda gotten it inked on. That’d be something, huh? Branded by a Winchester. 

Fuck, Dean, I really hope you’re not mad at me. I really want to call you, but we said we wouldn’t. Just write me back, please. 

I’ll be in your neck of the woods next week. Got turned onto a haunting up in Abilene. Maybe we can meet on the road somewhere? Please? 

Hey, did you know there’s a Hunter, Kansas? Wonder why they didn’t build the bunker there. I don’t know, made me laugh when I was looking at the map. 

Anyway- Please write me back. Or call. Or text. Or send a damned pigeon with a tiny letter taped to its foot. I don’t care, how, just do it please. Even if you’re mad at me and don’t want to talk anymore, I get it. But please. Just let me know, OK?

I’m sorry. 

Love, Y/N

Dear Y/N,

I didn’t know you and my brother were writing to each other like this, but I found your last few letters to him in his private P.O. Box. I didn’t even know he had one of his own, but I guess we all keep secrets from those we love. I hope you don’t mind that I read your letters. Not all of them, but the last two that came through. Please know that Dean would have responded if he could have, I know he would have. He talked about you a lot recently. Said you two were in contact and that he was hoping to find some time to meet you for a vacation. I don’t know where you guys were planning on going, but I found a new Hawiian shirt in his closet with the tags still on it. 

I know we spoke on the phone after he passed, but I wanted to send this to you. I was cleaning up his stuff and found his notepad. Looks like he’d started a letter before we left for Canton. I think he’d want you to have it. 

I’m closing up the Bunker soon. I don’t really know where I’ll go, but I can’t be here right now. Not without my brother. 

I’ll always be around if you need anything or want to talk. I’ll always answer the phone for you, Y/N. 

Be well,

Sam Winchester

Y/N/N, 

If I could take it back I would. Every fucking word. I think about it now and I know we made the wrong choice. I know we could have made it work if we tried. But we are both total fuck ups who can’t be normal. We just can’t. 

Forgive me

That’s dog slobber up there, not tears. Just fyi. Definitely not tears. I think I might have been a little drunk when I started writing and then well-

Anyway- Maine sounds awesome. We were there once but no time for lobster rolls. Guess I missed out. 

Not much to report since the last letter. Been kinda quiet here. But… I did apply for a job. Well, I filled out the application. Well, I started filling it out. It’s actually underneath this notepad right now. I’ll get to it. I will. I just need a good kick in the ass. Or maybe a pinch… wink wink

I absolutely think we need to get together. Pick some place stupid like the World’s Largest Frying Pan or South of The Border. I’ll meet you. Just say when. 

Guess this letter will take a little longer to finish. We’re leaving for Ohio in a little bit. There’s a buncha vampire dicks making a mess. Gonna take ‘em to batting practice. Show them my machete swing. I’ll give a full report when we’re back home

Dean Dean, 

I made it to the beach. It’s hot, like stupid hot. Had to stand in the water just to keep my toes from burning. I’ve been sitting here for hours trying to think of something to say, but all I can say is I love you. I miss you. I wish you were here with me. I wish things had been different. I wish and wish and wish. 

If I throw this into the ocean will it get to you somehow or will my words just wash away like the sand? 

I’ll see you again someday. I hope so, anyway. Let’s just pretend I’m destined for Heaven. I know you’re up there. You were too good not to be. You sacrificed so much, cared so much, saved so many people. I know you made it. If there’s any mercy in this universe, I’ll be up there someday too. Just don’t have too much fun without me. 

I love you, Dean. Always. 

Y/N

2024 Forever Tags (Always Open! Send an Ask!)

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[brooooswriting]

Hello, I love your writing so much!

Can I request this prompt with Brie, pretty please?

"Don't go on that date."

"Why?"

"You know why."

"Say it."

Where Brie and R are friends but R is in love with her. Maybe a little angst with a happy ending?

No pressure if you don't feel like it. Thank you 💜

I love this request

“Please, Brie, I promise she's so sweet and nice. Plus, she's hot. You'll like her,” Lizzie tried to convince her as she sat across from her. She and Scarlett had gotten her a blind date. You sat in the kitchen with Tessa, playing some card game that was long abandoned as you listened to their conversation. Your heart broke when you heard Brie say that she'll go.

But this was your own fault. You had gotten friend-zoned a long time ago, as Brie never took your flirting for real. You had flirted too much with too many people in front of her. However, she was the only one who never noticed how different your flirting was when it was with her.

You were so much more truthful, and you always complimented her. It wasn't hard to realize that you were in love with her. They all knew; Scar, Lizzie, Tessa, Robert, and even Chris. At this point, you were sure she knew, too, but she didn't feel the same, so she acted like she didn't know.

Lizzie felt terrible for you, but it was no use. No matter how much she pushed you, you never made a move, and she also didn't wanna see Brie so lonely. So, once she met this girl she immediately thought of her blonde friend.

“Y/n, Tessa. Get over here so we can finally watch a movie,” Scarlett called out once she had decided which movie to watch. With a sigh, you both stood up and made your way to the couch. Unsurprisingly, you had the seat next to Brie, the worst thing that could have happened to you at that moment. She smiled up at you, making your heart beat faster.

“Hey, lovely,” you said with a smile as you sat down. It wasn't unusual for you to call her pet names like that. Another thing that was different from your normal flirting was that you never once called somebody lovely or darling. But it didn't matter now. If Lizzie’s Girl was really that perfect for the blonde, it was over for you.

You had been so in your thoughts that you missed the whole movie. It was impossible to recall even one scene. During the film, the actress decided to cuddle into you, making it even harder to concentrate as you imagined a life where this was normal. “So, how'd you like the film?” she asked once the post-credits rolled, but you only stared at her. “Y/n?” she called out again, making you flinch a bit before focusing on what she said.

“Sorry, what did you say?” you asked once you had collected your thoughts.

“What's wrong?” brie suddenly asked, using her hand to cup your face. At this moment, you realize that you couldn't do this. It was too much, and so you did the only thing you knew how to do. You left.

“I'm sorry, I gotta go. Thanks for hosting Scarlett. Bye, guys.” You rushed the words out as you stood up. Disappearing before anyone could stop you.

Nobody had heard from you in two days, and you hadn't planned on talking to anyone for the next couple of weeks. Today was Bries' blind date, which meant that for the next week or so, everybody was going to talk about it. That was something that you could go without. The only texts you read were the ones from your home screen. Several pictures of the blonde trying on different outfits for tonight. Gosh, how you hated this. There were texts from the other three, hyping her up and telling her which one looked the best.

‘I’d rather stay home in a hoodie and sweatpants, ’ the newest text from Brie read, and again, you looked at the picture. Your heart skipped a beat when you saw that she was wearing your hoodie, the one from high school with your name on the back.

Ten minutes later, you stood in front of Brie’s house. As is trying to remake a disgustingly cheesy movie, it had started pouring halfway to the blonde's house. You looked so out of place, you were wearing sweatpants and a hoodie, and your hair was in a messy bun. For a moment you considered walking back to your apartment, leaving Brie to get with someone else. But now you were here and you had to at least try.

So, like any sane person would, you hammered on the door until she opened it. The second the door was open, you interrupted her. “Don't go on that date,” you got out between rattling teeth, the coldness, and the rain getting to you.

She looked at you for a second. “Why?” her face was stoic, not showing any emotion, making this a living hell for you.

“You know why” you answered, looking at her still wearing your hoodie.

“Say it” Her voice was desperate and her eyes pled you to say something. Anything that she could hold on to.

You mumbled an unsure ‘Brie,’ making her shake her head and take a step back to close the door. “Because I love you, and I have for years. Because I have been flirting with you since forever, and you flirted back, and if you didn't just flirt to play, then that means that you like me too.”

It was silent for a moment as Brie leaned against the door. “You flirt with everyone y/n. That's just your personality.”

“No, it's different with you. Don't you get that? I'm not flirting with you; I'm complimenting you. I'm giving you my heart,” you argued back. Then again, silence followed as both of you were unsure what to say. “One kiss,” you suddenly blurted out. Making yours and Brie’s eyes go wide.

“What?”

“One kiss. If you want me to leave after that, then I will. But please, you have to give me this chance. I know that I came at a shitty time, but I couldn't watch you go out with somebody else. Not again. Not after everybody treated you like so much less than you actually are. If this is-” Before you could finish your monologue, Brie surged forward and pressed her lips to yours. Her hands clasped the back of your neck while yours landed on her waist to pull her closer.

Your heart soared when she suddenly pulled away, her movement hectic, making you flinch. “B-Brie?” you called out quietly and unsure as she looked around frantic.

“My phone, I- I gotta call Lizzie. She has to cancel the date.” She said, walking inside to get her phone, leaving you in front of the door. You were unsure if she wanted you to come inside or not, so you just stood in front of the door. Cuddling Six thirty when he walked by for a moment. “Are you coming?” she called out for you, making you hurry inside and close the door.

“I know, Lizzie, I'm sorry, but,” she looked at you for a moment, trying to figure out what to say. “Y/n is here, and” she was interrupted by Elizabeth rather quickly then.

“I'll tell her. Bye. Have fun. But not too much fun,” and then she already hung up. She discarded her phone on the counter going back to you.

“Sooo, now what?” the blonde asked when she sat next to you on the couch. Out of habit, she scooched closer to you while you wrapped your arm around her.

“How about Star Wars and some hot dogs?” you received a kiss as an answer before she laid her head on your shoulder.

Sometimes, it was worth taking the risk.

[jerzwriter]

New Discoveries

This fic is part of "MOC (Merida, Olivia, Casey) World," but it focuses on the guys! This is a dual ask from @annoyingmillenialnewbie and also prompts provided by @storyofmychoices. I love writing for these three together! Thanks so much for the inspiration!

Book: Open Heart (Post Series) Characters: Ethan Ramsey, Bryce Lahela, Tobias Carrick Rating: Teen Words: 2,099 Trope: There's just one bed.... Summary: A boy's weekend camping takes a few different turns (literally and figuratively), but they endure and make some new discoveries along the way.

A/N: This is part of the Merida, Olivia, and Casey world. Merida belongs to the lovely @lilyoffandoms, and Olivia belongs to our dear @storyofmychoices. The prompts can be found on this list created by @creativepromptsforwriting. (The prompts are bolded in text.) Participating in @choicesjunechallenge2024 - Beginning.

The mountainous road was perilous, to say the least. Yet, if Tobias was fazed by it, it didn't show. The day was beautiful, with a brilliant blue sky stretching endlessly without a cloud in sight. They were the only travelers on the road, and the rugged terrain was no match for his new Range Rover. All in all, it was perfect.

The SUV jolted hard to the right... then to the left...

“Look out!” Ethan shouted.

Then to the right again.

While Tobias was living his best life, Bryce was left to wonder how much life he had left. He had to be cajoled to go camping in the first place, and now he lost hope of arriving at the cabin alive. Tobias glanced at him in the rearview mirror, smiling sardonically when he noticed his friend’s pale, green complexion.

“You all right there, buddy?” he bellowed.

“Of course he’s not all right!” Ethan replied from the passenger’s seat. “We’re both wondering how many more sharp turns you'll take before this tin can goes toppling over the side of the mountain.”

“For fucks sake, Ramsey,” Tobias chuckled. “Grow some hair on them. We’re absolutely fine.”

“We are not fine,” Bryce insisted. “If I don’t make it, please tell Olivia I love her.”

“OK, maybe you are being a tad too dramatic,” Ethan reconsidered, to Tobias’s delight.

“That’s better!”

Nevertheless, two of the three men couldn’t have been more relieved when they pulled up to the rustic cabin that would serve as their home for the weekend. Tobias stepped out of the car with his usual swagger. Black Ray-Bans in place and an Original Gourmet Lollipop in his mouth, he surveyed the land, filled his lungs with the fresh air, and smiled.

“Welcome home, friends!”

Bryce’s exit was a little different. Stumbling out the back door, he looked peaked, but the fear started to vanish from his eyes when he realized they were on solid earth.

“I would lean over and kiss the ground, but I’m pretty sure I’d throw up,” he announced as Ethan mumbled under his breath.

 “What was that, boss?" Tobias called out. "If you have something to say, you really should tell the whole class.”

“I said I don’t know how you convinced me to do this.”

With his hands in his pockets, Tobias rolled back and forth on his feet with a grin. “First, you love us, no matter how much you try to deny it. Second, Merida would have kicked your ass if you backed out.”

“Not to mention you would have never lived down the ribbing we'd give you if you admitted you couldn’t rough it for one weekend.”

“I can rough it, Bryce!” Ethan replied. “Make no mistake about that... I just don’t know if I can rough it with the two of you.”

Tobias clapped his hand against Ethan's shoulder before removing his backpack from the trunk.

“You’re full of shit,” he said, tossing Ethan his bag.

Bryce shielded his eyes to take a better look at the cabin. He had to admit that the bucolic setting was beautiful, ushering in a sense of tranquility that Boston could never deliver.

“The cabin does look really nice,” he observed.

Ethan shrugged with a wrinkled nose. “Looks smaller than I expected.”

Tobias pulled the lollipop out of his mouth, his face glowing like he had just won the jackpot. “Now, there are five words Ramsey has heard repeatedly throughout his life.”

He and Bryce broke into a fit of laughter while Ethan rambled about their juvenile behavior.

“Relax, old man,” Tobias teased. “It is small, but it’s not like we’ll be inside much anyway. Come on, let’s go set up.”  

Ethan and Tobias lingered on the porch as Bryce stepped inside, but he returned in an instant.

“Uh, Tobias, are you sure this is the right cabin?”

“Well, the keys I gave you just opened the door, didn’t they? Of course, it’s the right cabin.” Noting the look on Bryce’s face, he continued. “What’s the matter, Lahela? Did you see a mouse?”

“Oh,” Bryce chuckled. “I wish.”

Ethan raised a brow at Bryce while Tobias stepped inside.

“Wait for it,” Bryce mouthed just before they heard...

“Oh, for fucks sake!!”

Ethan rushed into the cabin with Bryce trailing behind him, and his eyes went wide.

“Are you kidding me?” Ethan scowled. “One bed? What the hell did you do, Carrick? Rent the honeymoon suite?”

Tobias turned to his friend, lips twisted. “Who’d take anyone on a honeymoon here, Ramsey! Even you’re not that clueless.”

“You’re right, and I’m also not clueless enough to get us a cabin with ONE bed.”

Tobias ran his hand over his head with a sigh. “The listing said one single bed and two bunks!”

“Well,” Bryce simpered. “The listing lied.”

“I told you we should have just brought tents and sleeping bags,” Tobias admonished. “But noooo, you two couldn’t rough it!”

“Says the man with the luxury Range Rover,” Ethan smirked.

Ignoring him, Tobias placed his phone back into his pocket. “There’s no service here, but if you want, we can drive back down the to the main road. We passed a Motel 6; we could just stay there tonight if you like.”

“Yeah, I’m not about to head back down that death trap of a road in this weather!” Bryce stated.

“In this weather? It’s beautiful out,” Tobias said just before a loud thunderclap shook them. “Wait! What?” He gasped. “Where the hell did this come from! It was gorgeous out! There was no rain predicted, and... how?”

“What was that you said about not spending much time inside the cabin anyway?” Ethan mocked.

Tobias threw himself back on the bed. “This isn’t happening.”

“It’s all right,” Bryce said, trying to lighten the mood. “ “It’s just for two nights; we can handle that.”

“Maybe you can,” Ethan deadpanned. “I’m not so sure.”

“Well, unless you want to take my keys and drive yourself down the mountain in this monsoon, it doesn’t look like you’ll have much of a choice.”

~~~~~

The afternoon and evening looked different than they had anticipated. Envigorating hikes were replaced by several rounds of poker. An open campfire under the stars turned into hotdogs and baked beans prepared on the hotplate. It was as if a woodland fairy godmother had appeared and reversed her magic.

“I wonder what the girls are doing now,” Bryce asked forlornly.

Ethan pulled a chunk of fat out of the beans with a grimace. “Eating better than we are, that’s for sure!”

“All right!” Tobias snapped. “Enough of this. Hopefully, the rain will pass tonight, and we will have two days to enjoy the great outdoors. But tonight... let's make the best of it. There could be worse things than the three of us stuck in a cabin in the middle of nowhere with copious amounts of beer.”

“The beer will help,” Bryce agreed.

“As long as you two don’t overdo it,” Ethan said, popping a can open. “If either of you falls into a drunken stupor and pees in the bed tonight, we'll be returning to Boston with a lighter load."

“How are we going to sleep?” Bryce asked the question they had all been pondering. “What’s that, a full-size bed? How are the three of us going to fit on that?”

“It’s a queen-size,” Tobias corrected. “We’ll make do.”

“Do you have your sleeping bag, T?” Bryce asked. “Maybe one of us could sleep on the floor.”

“Negative,” he replied. “Once you two overruled tents, I had no reason to pack it.”

“I could just sleep on the floor anyway.”

“Bryce, you’ll freeze,” Ethan pointed out. “The temperature drops significantly during the night in these parts, and this place isn't exactly insulated."

“Yeah, and those cute little shorts and crop tops you bought won’t do a damn thing to keep you warm,” Tobias chortled.

Bryce let out a sigh. “I told you a beach weekend would have been better, but noooo....”

“Weren’t you the one saying it’s just two nights, we’ll survive?” Ethan yawned. “Look, it’s late, I’m exhausted, and I don’t want to freeze, so why don’t we just get this over with?”

“I’m with you,” a weary Tobias replied.

“All right, question. Who sleeps in the middle?”

Bryce's words stopped the other two men in their tracks.

“Well, I hadn’t thought of that,” Tobias snickered.

“This is going to be the longest night of my life,” Ethan groaned.

“Come on, princess,” Tobias winked. “You could do much worse than sharing a bed with two lookers like Lahela and me.”

“I mean, we’re all bi,” Bryce reminded. “It’s not like we’ve never shared a bed with a man before."

“That doesn’t mean I want to be sharing a bed with these two men,” Ethan said, gesturing furiously between his two friends.

“Look, I’m freaking tired,” Tobias interrupted. “I say we pick straws. Short straw gets the middle.”

“Works for me!” Bryce agreed.

No one waited for Ethan to reply, which was unfortunate since he picked the short straw.

“Motherfucker!” he cursed.

“Look,” Tobias pointed out. “None of us are going to sleep well tonight anyway, so what does it really matter.”

“Fine! You want the middle, then?”

“Nope!” Tobias said, claiming his spot against the wall. “I’m good.”

“Wait! That means I’ll be on the edge!” Bryce realized. “I’m going to end up on the floor!”

“Would you like the short stick?” Ethan offered.

“Mmmhh. Nah,” Bryce replied. “Just try not to push me off the bed."

The three men spent the next few minutes squiggling and shifting, doing their best to find a position that would be remotely comfortable for all, and the jokes kept coming, at least from Tobias and Bryce.

“Remember, Ramsey... if your hands get cold during the night, my butt cheeks are not pillows, all right?”

“Jesus Christ!” Ethan groused, rolling to his other side.

“What?” Bryce replied. “Do you think my butt cheeks are available? We can get you some socks for those hands of yours.”

Bryce and Tobias couldn't stop giggling as Ethan seethed between them.

“Come on, Ethan,” Tobias laughed. “You’re amongst friends, and at least you won’t freeze to death.”

“Sure won’t. You’re like a damn furnace! I felt like I needed to remove my clothes.”

“Oh, so you're getting fresh now?” Tobias teased, but Ethan wasn't remotely amused.

“Good night!!” He huffed.

“Sorry,” Bryce yawned. “But you walked right into that one.”

“GOOD NIGHT!”

And then something miraculous occurred; against all odds, the men managed to fall asleep.

~~~

When the sun rose, Bryce was the first to wake. He was already sitting in a folding chair near the window, eating a container of yogurt, when Ethan and Tobias began to stir.

“Good morning!” He chirped, as buoyant as the birds flying around the sunny sky. “It’s about time you're awake.”

“Why are you already up?” Tobias said, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

Ethan groaned as he threw his legs over the edge of the bed, attempting to stretch his sore muscles. “And how the hell are you not in pain!”

“The benefits of youth, old men!” Bryce laughed. “I really do need to get some friends my own age.”

“Yeah, screw you!” Tobias said, vaulting out of bed to prove a point, but he couldn't hold back an ouch moments later.

“You were saying?” Ethan mocked.

“Of course, I’m in pain!” Tobias shot back. “I can’t barely feel my arm anymore; you were lying on it all night.”

“Are you aware that you talk in your sleep?” Ethan snickered, completely changing the course of conversation.

"Wait... what?" Tobias turned around, the blood rushing from his face. “What...what did I say?”

“I don’t remember everything,” Ethan smirked. “But I’m pretty confident you proposed to me.”

“Yeah, right!” Tobias laughed nervously.

Bryce mindlessly scraped his yogurt container with his spoon. “Honestly, he’s not joking. You were going on and on about getting married.”

“Do you have something to share?” Ethan grinned.

“Well,” Tobias hesitated. “I guess if the cat’s out of the bag. I'm planning on proposing soon, just not to either of you fuckers.”

“You’re proposing to Casey,” Bryce gasped. “Oh my God, Olivia is going to lose her mind!”

“Yeah,” Ethan ran a hand down his neck. “Merida will probably be all over this, too.”

"If you wouldn't mind keeping this from them for the time being," Tobias pled. "It's not that I don't trust them, but..."

"No need to ask," Ethan smiled, shaking his friend's hand. "Congratulations, buddy. All joking aside, I couldn’t be happier for you.”

“Yeah,” Bryce agreed. “This is great news! When are you planning on doing it?”

“Next week, it’s the anniversary of the day we met. I don’t know if she remembers, but I do, so....”

“Do you think she knows?” Bryce asked.

“Nah,” Tobias smiled. “She doesn’t have a clue.”

“You're sure about that?” Ethan asked, preparing a cup of coffee.

“Pretty sure.... why?”

Ethan handed the steaming cup to Tobias with a wink. “Because, apparently.... you talk in your sleep.”

@choicesficwriterscreations @openheartfanfics

Tagging others separately.

[pakhnokh]

I was unable to comment on your posts on patreon, but saw your question in the reading commentary:

Ok so which one is it!? I feel confused because I know ExR makes the difference between Gui and Mo. I went to the official 7seas translation and in both cases they write "demonic"! (Vol.4 Page 83) which is unbelievable cause Wei Wuxian would never say that his path is the Mo Dao. I really wonder what the original text says.

I'd like to explain this! I think this is a translation inconsistency. In the original CN, Gui is a subset of Mo. Everyone including WWX refers only to Mo Dao in terms of the cultivation path. It's the Dark Path in contrast to the mainstream, "righteous" Bright Path.

There's four types of evil beings in MDZS:

妖 yao: made from living non-human beings. The living Goddess Statue, Tortoise Xuanwu, both count in this category

魔 mo: made from living humans (living puppets). There aren't any examples I can think of in MDZS (Song Lan wasn't puppeted until after he's dead, right?) but, this is the word most commonly translated as "demon".

鬼 gui: made from dead humans. This is the classic WWX stuff like Wen corpse army etc. Translated as "ghost" usually

怪 guai: made from dead non-humans. I also don't think there's any examples in MDZS.

But importantly, WWX listed all these in Cloud Recesses under the same cultivation path, 魔道 Mo Dao. All are subcategories of Mo Dao. So he is indeed cultivating Mo Dao knowingly. It's up to interpretation, but personally I think that makes his moral character very interesting OvO

Ok thank you so much! With your permission I'll give an introduction to those who don't know what this is all about.

I'm reading Mo Dao Zu Shi again and making a commentary on my Patreon page. (It is public by the way, so everybody can see it)

The quoted part in this ask refers to my question regarding the things Wei Wuxian says to Lan Wangji when the latter visits him on Burial Mounds and they part:

A moment later, Wei WuXian spoke up, “Lan Zhan, you asked me if I intended on staying like this from now on. To be honest, I’d like to ask something as well. What can I do apart from this?”

He continued, “Give up the demonic path? Then what about the people on this mountain?

“Give them up? I won’t be able to do it. I believe that if you were I, you wouldn’t be able to do it either.”

He continued, “Nobody can give me a nice, broad road to walk on. A road where I could protect those I want to protect without having to cultivate the ghostly path.”

(This is ExR translation version. The official 7seas uses "demonic" in both cases. Reading the ExR translation, the difference between demonic and ghostly path has been made by the translators in other parts of the text. For example, Wei Wuxuan saying that he never practiced the demonic path, or Lan Wangji telling Wei Wuxian that the ghostly path harms body and soul etc. So I was confused - why would Wei Wuxian himself call the methods he used as demonic? I was sure that this is a fault in the translation or maybe me not understanding something in Chinese culture)

So back to the things you wrote, fist of all thank you so much for finding the time to answer me! I really wonder why you couldn't comment on Patreon itself? Public posts are available to comments both for paid and free members.

Now, if I understand correctly what you say, "Mo Dao" is a large umbrella term containing all types of "dark" cultivation that are not the "righteous" canon cultivation method practiced by all sects? Meaning that both what Wei Wuxian does (Gui Dao) and what Xue Yang did (Mo Dao) can be considered "Mo Dao"?

Then, in this case, how does using this term works for Wei Wuxian's benefit if he wants to stress out that he uses the ghost path and not the demon path (meaning that he specifically uses dead corpses and not living humans?) isn't it also justifies the false rumors spread about him as being the "mo dao zu shi?" I remember reading in other explanations that the whole thing of him being called this way was the misunderstanding and the spread of false info about what Wei Wuxian actually practiced.

So now I'm even more confused hahahaha if you have a further explanation I'd be so grateful!! <33

I'd really just prefer if all the translation left the terms in pinyin. (yao, mo, gui and guai) so that this confusion wouldn't exist :(

Btw, I think that what Xue Yang did to the townspeople in Yi City was considered mo dao, right? He sprinkled the corpse poisoning powder on them making them into living corpses for Xiao Xingchen to kill.

"guai: made from dead non-humans. I also don't think there's any examples in MDZS." - does it only include animals and plants, or objects as well? Does what Wei Wuxian did to the paper puppets in Yi City count in this category?

[forest-hashira]

Princess

idk if anyone else is interested in this but i'm posting it anyways bc transfem gojo has been eating me up for days now djfhgkdhf. hope you guys enjoy this either way!

also, just a note: i'm doing my absolute best to be respectful writing this bc i am not transfem so i have no lived experience in this. please keep that in mind when reading!

pairing: gojo/reader

wc: 1.8k

read it on ao3

warnings: gn reader, transfem!gojo, angst, fluff, idk if it counts as hurt/comfort but there's definitely comfort, nothing explicit but implied/referenced smut so,,, be aware

You couldn’t remember the last time you’d seen Satoru so nervous. He’d been fidgety as hell around you the last few days, jumping any time you would touch him, needing you to repeat almost anything you said to him, as if he hadn’t heard you the first time; he was so skittish it was concerning you. So when he texted you while he was at work one day, asking if you could talk when he got home, you instantly agreed. Even if it was bad news – even if he was breaking up with you – all you wanted to do was ease his mind. 

You got home a little bit later than he did, after deciding last minute to stop and get him some of the kikufuku he loved so much on your way home. 

“Toru?” you called out gently as you toed off your shoes in the genkan, carefully tucking them off to the side. 

“In here,” he replied from the living room. Though he tried to hide it, you could still hear the undercurrent of anxiety in his voice, and it broke your heart; whatever it was he wanted to talk about must have seriously been eating him. 

The first thing you noticed when you stepped into the living room was that he was still wearing his blindfold, something he almost never did when he was home. The sight caused a frown to tug at your lips, but you opted not to comment on it as you joined him on the couch, setting the bag of treats on the coffee table in front of you. “You said you wanted to talk,” you murmured, sitting sideways on the cushion to face him completely. “What’s going on?” 

He hesitated at your words, and he didn’t turn to face you, which wouldn’t necessarily have worried you on its own, but the slight bouncing of his leg did. “I don’t know,” he said eventually, voice uncharacteristically small. “I don’t… I don’t know what’s happening to me.”

His words caused your heart to stutter, then start pounding. “What do you mean? Did you get hurt?” The notion that something could possibly hurt the Gojo Satoru seemed utterly ludicrous, but you couldn’t think of anything else that would have him so shaken like this. 

He shook his head immediately at your question. “No, no, I’m not hurt. Not… not physically, at least.”

Not physically hurt. You mulled the words over for a moment, then frowned a bit deeper. “Did I say something?” you asked tentatively. “I’m sorry if I did. You know I’d never want to hurt you.”

“I know,” he assured you. “And you didn’t hurt me. It was something you said, but it didn’t hurt. I’m just… I’m just so confused.” The slight crack in his voice on the last word absolutely shattered you, and you reached out to take his hand. 

Satoru startled slightly at the contact, but he laced his fingers with yours right away, clearly wanting the contact. 

“What was it that I said that got you so confused?” you asked, tilting your head slightly as you looked at him. “Maybe I can help you figure it out.”

He hesitated again, biting his lip for a moment before he spoke. “Do you remember the other night? When you called me princess?”

You felt your face grow warm at the question; it was a difficult thing to forget. It had been a slip up – you weren’t entirely sure where the pet name had come from in the first place – but before you could apologize, he’d let out a practically pornographic moan before fucking you so hard he’d had to carry you to the bathroom afterwards, your legs too wobbly to support you. Based on his reaction, you’d assumed it hadn’t bothered him, but maybe you were wrong. 

“Yeah,” you agreed, somewhat sheepishly. “I remember.” After a beat, you added, “Did you not like it?”

“No, I really liked it, that’s what’s confusing me.”

“It’s nothing to be embarrassed about,” you soothed. You weren’t even entirely sure if he was embarrassed, but you wanted to make sure he knew that either way. “I’d never judge you for something like that.”

“It wasn’t just that, though,” he said, and you could tell he was beginning to grow frustrated. “It’s all the times you tell me I’m pretty, too.”

You resisted the urge to cut in with a Because you are pretty; he was clearly struggling to articulate his feelings, and you didn’t want to interrupt him. 

“Even when you say you love how soft I am with you, it feels good. I like when you call me those things, but I feel like I shouldn’t. I’m Gojo Satoru, the strongest sorcerer to ever live. A man above everyone else.” He let out a bitter laugh, shaking his head almost to himself. “I’m not supposed to be those things, to want those things.”

Something seemed to click in your mind then, with the way he practically spat the word “man” when describing himself, with such derision and disgust, as if it were the root of all his problems. 

“Toru,” you said gently, squeezing his hand to get his attention. He still didn’t change his position, but you could feel the weight of his gaze on you. “Are you saying you don’t want to be a man?”

The white haired sorcerer jerked as if you’d struck him, but he gripped your hand tighter, as if it were the only thing keeping him tethered to his sanity. 

When he didn’t answer, you pushed yourself up onto your knees, shuffling closer until you could cradle his cheek in your palm. The way he immediately leaned into your touch had a lump forming in your throat, and you stroked your thumb lightly across his cheekbone a few times as you collected yourself. 

“Can I take this off, baby?” you asked, the tip of your thumb slipping under his blindfold ever so slightly. You wouldn’t remove it if he denied the request, but you really would prefer to be able to look him in the eye for the rest of the conversation. 

There was a moment of pause, so fleeting you wouldn’t have caught it if you weren’t so in tune with your partner, before he nodded. 

You offered him a small smile then, carefully removing your hand from his, using both of your hands to push the fabric up and off his head, setting it on the coffee table before turning back to him. Your touch was gentle as you cradled his face once again, just taking a moment to admire his eyes, so pure blue and sparkling it was like looking into a pool of water, framed perfectly by his thick white lashes. Even the way his frosty hair fell into his eyes was perfect to you. 

“You’re staring,” he said quietly, and you could tell he was doing his best not to squirm under your attention. 

“Just admiring how beautiful you are,” you murmured. Normally, you would have thought using a more feminine compliment would be a gamble, but you were feeling more confident about it now. With the way a blush instantly filled his cheeks, you knew you were right. 

“Men aren’t supposed to be beautiful,” he protested weakly, though you could tell his heart wasn’t really in it. 

“Well, are you a man?” You stared into his eyes as you spoke, the question completely genuine. Your thumbs continued to stroke his cheekbones as you sat there, patiently awaiting his response. 

Satoru’s eyes filled with tears then, and he almost seemed to choke on them as he answered. “It’s all I’ve ever been allowed to be,” he whispered, his eyes fluttering shut, causing a few tears to roll down his cheeks. He sounded so defeated, so broken it filled you with rage, but you shoved it down; right now Satoru needed your love, not your anger. 

“You’re allowed to be anything you want with me, baby,” you murmured. “You’re allowed to be yourself. The real you.”

The words seemed to break something inside of Satoru then, sobs bursting out of him as he wrapped his arms around you, hugging you tightly to himself. 

You wrapped your arms gently around his head and neck as he buried his face in your chest, soaking your shirt with tears. As much as it hurt you to see him in such a state, you didn’t push him, didn’t try to urge him to stop crying. Instead, you pressed your lips to the top of his head, running your nails lightly along his undercut. 

It was several minutes before his sobs calmed down to quieter cries, and another several before those calmed down into soft sniffling. “What if…” his voice cracked as he began to speak, and he cleared his throat before trying again. “What if the real me isn’t the man you fell in love with?”

The fear in his voice was almost tangible, and it was emphasized by the way he kept his face hidden in your chest, refusing to meet your gaze as he spoke. 

“Oh, love,” you murmured, shifting just enough to brush his bangs from his face and place a gentle kiss on his forehead. “I fell in love with you, your heart and your soul, not your body. I could never stop loving the real you.”

Satoru lifted his head then, eyes watery and hopeful as they locked with yours. “Even… even if the real me isn’t a man at all?”

“Even then,” you promised, offering him a gentle smile. “Man, woman, both, neither, something in between, it doesn’t matter to me, Toru. I just love you.”

The tension bled from Satoru’s body almost instantly at your words, and the sorcerer smiled a bit bashfully up at you. “I think I’d like to be your girlfriend now, if that’s alright.”

Your smile brightened as you gazed down at her, and you nodded easily. “That’s more than alright, my love. I’d love to have you as my girlfriend.”

She perked up even more at the assurance. “Can I be your princess, too?”

“Anything you want. Anything for my gorgeous, perfect princess.”

A laugh burst out of her then, and the sound made your heart soar. You didn’t dream of protesting as her hands trailed up from your waist to cradle your head the same way you cradled hers, and you melted into her kiss, eyes slipping closed at the contact. They stayed closed as her lips parted from yours, only to begin showering your face with kisses, the touch so light and fluttery it caused you to giggle. 

“Baby, that tickles!” you protested, but you made no move to push her away. 

“Sorry, sorry,” Satoru murmured, not sounding very sorry at all as she finally relented, grinning at you when you opened your eyes to look at her again. “Just love you so much. Can’t help but kiss you.”

“I love you too, Toru,” you replied, voice hushed and reverent as you kissed her once again. “Always will.”

i'm already writing more for her so there will be more to follow this!!! once again this is super self indulgent & i'm not sorry!!!

dividers by @/cafekitsune

[capturethechaos]

Masterlist

Previous chapter

Sam Kiszka x Reader

Words - 8k

Warnings - Swearing, drinking, use of marijuana, I think that's it, let me know if I missed anything!

♫ Skeptical Playlist ♫

a/n - Oops, I disappeared again. I have been struggling so bad with having any motivation to write, but here we are... Hope you enjoy this chapter, just writing it gave me butterflies ♡ (disclaimer, I am making this a scheduled post, so the rest of the taglist will be posted when I eventually wake up ♡)

There’s something truly liminal about a grocery store when it is, for the most part, unoccupied.

You stood alone, listening to the quiet music playing over the speakers as you deliberated on which cereal you wanted.

“You know, personally I’d go with the Count Chocula, or Apple Jacks, but maybe that’s just me.”

The sudden voice next to you caused your body to tense up, and you whipped around, coming face to face with Sam as he stood with his usual goofy ass grin plastered on his face.

Your eyes rolled, but a smile quickly formed on your lips. “You know, a hello would have sufficed, rather than scaring the shit out of me.”

He shrugged, and reached past you to grab a box of the aforementioned Count Chocula cereal. “Maybe, but where’s the fun in that?”

It had been a couple weeks since you last saw him, since the night at the pub… and since you woke up the morning after having dreamed about him all night, about how his lips felt against your own, how gentle he was as he held you close to him… It was a lot to grapple with, and it left you in desperate need of a cold shower and a strong cup of coffee.

But there he stood, leaning against the handle of your cart as he watched you pick out cereal.

“You know, it’s funny I ran into you actually.”

You turned to him as you reached for a box of Apple Jacks, a curious look on your face urging him to continue speaking.

“I was gonna text you to see if you were free tonight. I’m having some friends over for a game night, gonna get some pizza, have some drinks, if you’d like to come.”

Your eyes caught something, well someone walking past the end of the aisle, and your focus drifted from Sam. He quickly noticed the change in focus, and turned to see what you were looking at.

“You alright, Y/n? Is that the uh… the dreaded ex?”

You slowly nodded, continuing to watch as he walked around with his new girlfriend on his arm.

“What’s his name?”

“Adam”

“Well, Adam is a loser, and what he did to you is fucking awful.”

You turned to him, confused as to how he knew about what happened between you and your ex, but he was still looking down the aisle at Adam. “How do you know what happened?”

He turned back to you, shaking off the sour look he had been directing at your ex before speaking. “Eleanor gets chatty after a few drinks.”

You nodded in agreement, but stayed quiet, peeking over his shoulder again to see Adam looking back at you, and you froze.

“Hey.” The feeling of Sam’s hand on your arm calmed your nerves, and his voice brought your attention back to him. “I mean what I said, he’s a fucking loser, and you’re way out of his league. Pay him no mind, he doesn’t deserve your attention.”

You nodded, and looked down at your shoes for a moment before you felt the gentle pressure of Sam’s finger beneath your chin, lifting your face to look at him. “Can you repeat that back to me? He’s a loser…”

“He’s a loser.”

“You’re out of his league.”

You stared blankly at him for a moment, and he sighed. “Come on, say it for me.”

“I’m out of his league.”

“Yes you are, and he doesn’t deserve your attention.”

“He doesn’t deserve my attention.”

“Atta girl.” You watched a smirk form on his lips as his finger dropped from your chin. “Now, would you like to continue shopping together? I could use a second opinion on what snacks to get for tonight.”

The simple nod you gave him was enough for the smirk to turn into a wide grin, and you turned back to lean against the handle of your cart. “So, what kind of games should I be preparing to play tonight?”

“So you are gonna come?”

“Of course, I wouldn’t miss it.”

The two of you made your way to the end of the aisle, and you turned to Sam. “Where to next?”

“Deli, need to pick out some meat and cheese.”

Your gaze dropped to the small basket he was carrying before lifting back up to look at him. “There’s no way you’re going to fit everything you need in that basket.”

He looked down at his basket, then at your cart before looking at you. “Would you mind if I put my stuff in your cart?”

You shook your head, and gestured for him to add his stuff into the cart. “Of course not, go ahead.”

You stayed stationary while Sam placed the basket of his groceries into the cart, and waited for him to take the lead, but he simply made his way back to the space beside you. You turned to look at him, and were met with movement as he tucked himself closer behind you and placed a hand over each of your own on the handle of the cart before slowly pushing it, and in turn, you forward. “Lead the way, gorgeous. I’m perfectly content following you around.”

There was an undeniable feeling in you that your brain short circuited the moment he touched you, but his words brought a blush to your cheeks that would make a rose jealous. He stuck to you for the first few steps before he let his hands slip from yours and he fell into step with you.

You could imagine the smug look on his face without having to look at him, but what you didn’t see was the way Adam watched you turn into a flustered mess at Sam’s proximity and words, or the way Sam made a show of holding back to watch you walk away for a few seconds before making a move to catch up with you.

The two of you made your way around the store, slowly filling the cart with whatever you chose before you finally ended up in the produce section. You watched as Sam sped ahead of you a little, making a b-line for the assortment of melons on display. He pondered over the pile for a moment before he picked up two cantaloupes and turned to you. “Which one looks better?”

Your eyes dropped to the melons in his hands, and you couldn’t help but giggle at the way he had them held against his chest. He seemed to catch the small laugh as it escaped you, and his eyes dropped to look at what you were seeing. An airy chuckle came from Sam as he looked back up at you. “My eyes are up here you know.”

You rolled your eyes and stepped away from your cart to take one of the cantaloupes from his hand and place it in the cart. “Get your mind out of the gutter, Sam.”

“I could say the same to you, dear.”

When you turned to look back at him, somewhat taken aback by what he had called you, he had already walked away, looking instead at the array of different peppers.

You were only in the store for another ten minutes before you and Sam walked out into the parking lot.

“Where are you parked?”

You turned to look at him quickly before swiveling to find your car and point at it. He hummed and stepped away from you and the cart. “Why don’t you head over to your car, I can see an empty spot next to you. I’ll grab my car and make my way over.”

You gave him a quick nod and began to walk over to your car, trying your best not to get hit by the idiots who don’t know how to drive in a parking lot. Your head was hung as you searched through your bag for your car keys, leaving you unsuspecting of someone walking up to you.

“What happened to your little boyfriend? Did he get sick of you already?”

You knew exactly who the voice belonged to as it invaded your ears, but you kept your gaze focused on your task as you pulled your keys from your bag and popped the trunk of your car.

“If that was some attempt to make me jealous, that’s kind of-”

Before you had the chance to turn around and snap at him, the sound of a car horn cut him off, and you turned instead to see Sam’s car idling as he waited to get into the empty parking spot that Adam was standing in.

You watched as the window rolled down and Sam turned to look at Adam. “Hey asshole, the brakes in this car are on the fritz, so I can’t promise that it won’t run you over if you don’t leave her alone and move the fuck out of the way.”

Adam scrambled out of the way, looking over at you one last time, seeing the shocked look on your face, and the fresh blush creeping up onto your cheeks as you looked at Sam, before walking back to his car. Sam pulled into the spot and got out of the driver's side before making his way back to you, popping his truck as he walked.

“Are your brakes actually broken, Sam?”

He turned to you and chuckled, shaking his head as he gave the car a soft pat. “God no, I just bought this car, if the brakes were broken I would cry.”

“So you just-”

“Lied to get your jackass ex to move, yeah. Why? Did you not want me to? I can call him back over” his voice was teasing as he slowly turned and lifted his hand.

You quickly closed the distance between you and Sam, grabbing his arm and lowering it back to his side. “Please, god, no.”

He chuckled and lifted his free hand to your arm. “I would never, I’m just teasing.”

Your hands loosened from around his arm, falling back to your side as Sam turned to grab his groceries from the cart. “So… when should I make my way to your place?”

“Well.” He placed two bags into the trunk of his car before turning to you. “I know you���ve got lots to put away when you get home, so I won’t say right now, but whenever you’d like to make your way over the door will be open. Be warned though, I may put you to work helping me out with plating all this food if you come over too early.”

You rolled your eyes playfully, and stepped back to close the trunk of your own car. “Well, we’ll just have to see then won’t we?”

His lips turned into a small smirk as he watched you slowly back up toward the driver's side door of your car. “I guess so.”

You pulled open the car door and tossed your bag into the passenger's seat before turning back to him. “I’ll see you soon then.”

The smirk on his face grew to a smile, and he gave you a soft nod. “See you soon.”

The second you closed the car door you leaned over to your purse to grab your phone.

Your fingers hovered over the keyboard for a few seconds, but before you could begin to type a knock on your window scared you back into paying attention to your surroundings. Sam was leaning toward your window before you could even roll it down, his knuckle still resting in the spot it had been even after the glass had lowered.

“Figured you might need these.” His hand opened, revealing your keys. “You know, for driving and getting back into your apartment.”

Slowly, you lifted your hand to pluck the ring of keys from his palm, retracting your hand back through the window before you chanced a glance at him. “Thanks, I must have dropped them while I was packing the trunk.”

“Guess you’re lucky I noticed them.” He straightened himself out and slowly began turning back to his car. “I’ll see you later, Y/n. Don’t miss me too much.”

There weren’t many times that you felt as frantic as you did walking into your apartment, grocery bags hung from each arm as you kicked the door shut and shuffled into the kitchen. If there were an olympic category for putting away groceries, you would have won gold, and only once you were sure that everything had been placed in the correct spots did you pick up your phone. You spend the short walk to the bathroom staring at your screen as you typed out a detailed account of what happened at the grocery store to send to your friends.

The realization dawned on you as you walked into the bathroom that you hadn’t put much effort into how you looked before going to the store. You looked in the mirror, noting the fact that your hair hadn’t been washed in a few days, which you had attempted to hide with a bit of dry shampoo and a claw clip, and the clothing you had plucked from your “chair pile” of clean clothes that you had yet to fold and put away.

A shower was exactly what you needed, and you spent ample time beneath the blistering heat of the water before you stepped out and back into your bedroom.

After spending almost an hour just laying on your bed scrolling through a variety of apps, and some much needed deliberation over FaceTime with your friends, you were finally dressed and ready to go. You were thankful for Nadine, who had informed you that she would be joining in on the fun as a fellow friend… and plus one to Danny.

You hadn’t realized just how badly you had been fidgeting in the back seat of the car until the sound of the driver's voice pulled you from your own thoughts.

“You alright back there? You seem nervous.”

A nervous chuckle bubbled out of you, and you looked down at your hands as you twiddled your thumbs. “That obvious, huh?”

“Just a tad.” The chuckle that came from the older man in the front seat was much lighter than yours, and when your gaze lifted, you were quickly met by his warm smile and kind eyes in the rear view mirror. “So what’s got you feeling so nervous, first date?”

You choked on your own spit at the thought, immediately even more flustered than you were before. “No… no nothing like that, just going to hang out with some friends.”

“Just hanging out with friends… hm. Am I correct in assuming that you have feelings for one of these friends of yours.”

“Yeah…”

“And do you know if this friend has feelings for you as well?”

“I… I don’t really know.”

“Why is that?”

“Well, the last time we hung out we shared an Uber to go back to our respective houses… and when we arrived at my place he got out to say goodnight, which isn’t unusual… but then we kissed.”

“Well that’s a great sign!”

You could still see the soft expression that crossed Sam’s features as he looked at you that night. You could feel the weight of his gaze as his eyes took in every little detail on your face, and the way his lips pressed against your own.

“Sure, except that immediately after he muttered goodnight and scurried back into the car.”

“Well that just sounds like the poor boy was just as nervous as you are now.” His eyes flickered back to the rear view mirror as he pulled up to the curb outside of what you assumed to be your destination, and when he saw the skeptical look on your face he made the effort to turn and look at you properly. “Let yourself relax, darling. The longer you get stuck in that head of yours, the worse it’s gonna be.”

You nodded and looked back down at your hands.

“I was the same as him at some point in the distant past. Just a nervous, idiotic young man that would forget how to function around a girl that I had feelings for. Let yourself relax, if it’s meant to happen, it will happen.”

You looked up at him, offering a small smile to match his, and he gave you a reassuring nod. “My late wife, the love of my life, used to tell me that fate always meant for the two of us to end up together, we just had to allow ourselves to believe that love would find us when we were ready.”

Something caught his attention, causing him to turn away from you and look out the window. “Is this the guy?”

You turned and followed his gaze, finding Sam as he walked curiously down the driveway of the house. “Yeah, that’s the one.”

Sam’s eyes squinted in an attempt to figure out who was on the backseat, and you watched a wide grin break out on his face when you lifted your hand to offer a small wave.

The moment he stopped at the side of the car, your door was opened, and Sam offered a hand to help you out. “I was beginning to think you had taken a wrong turn.”

You thanked the driver as you stepped out of the car, and watched as Sam dipped his head down to look into the car. “Thank you for getting her here safe.”

“Any time, kid. It was a pleasure, she was the best passenger I’ve had in a long while. You two have a good night.”

“That’s the plan.” Sam stood up straight once again, giving the driver a wave as he shut the car door. “Have a good one.”

“Well.” Sam turned to you, and the intoxicating smile on his face caused a flurry of butterflies to erupt within you. “Come on then, I’ve got to give you the grand tour.”

You followed closely behind him and as the two of two walked through the front door, you immediately felt some of the anxiety you had been carrying fall away. Sam continued to walk as you shrugged your coat from your shoulders and bent over to untie your shoes.

“Where’d you go?”

His voice had become distant, having passed through what you had suspected to be at least one hallway of sorts before he finally noticed that you weren’t following behind him. “Taking my shoes off.”

He came shuffling back into the entryway within seconds, standing and watching as you pulled your shoes off and straightened up. “Sorry, I got a little ahead of myself there.”

You chuckled and stepped closer to him, your lips curling into a smile that you couldn’t fight, not in his presence at least. “No need to apologize, now show me around.”

A giddy energy blanketed the two of you as Sam reached for your hand, wrapping it within his own before dragging you along behind him further into the house.

After painstakingly showing you every inch of the main floor, Sam ran ahead of you and beckoned you up the stairs. “Alright, so we’ve got another bathroom here.”

His hand brushed along a closed door, and continued along the wall. Your gaze travelled along the decorated hall, pictures of family and friends leaving little room in the space between door frames.

“And this…” The soft tapping of his fingers against the dark wooden door brought your attention back to him. “Is where the magic happens. Also known as my bedroom.”

A playful smirk crept its way onto your lips as you turned your attention to the way he continued staring down the hall. “Where the magic happens, huh?”

His head whipped around to look at you, and he quickly mirrored your smirk. “Do you doubt me?”

And just like that, any thoughts that may have crossed your mind were washed away into the gutter. You wanted to say no, you didn’t doubt him, in fact you wanted him to prove it, but instead the two of you simply stood staring at one another until he chuckled and broke the silence. “Do you want to see the music room?”

You shook from your trance and gave him a small nod. “You have a music room?”

He beamed and nodded, waving for you to follow him as he turned and walked to the end of the hallway. He opened the door and made a dramatic show of displaying the now open room to you as you walked up to the doorway. “Holy shit. I knew you liked to play guitar, but I wasn’t expecting this.”

It was beautiful, a comfortable couch resting against the wall beneath a cascading display of various guitars. Across the room was a standing desk with a keyboard resting beneath the main deskspace. You watched as he made his way toward the couch, letting himself freefall into the cushions before looking back at you. “Kind of comes with the job I do, I guess.”

“You know, we never really talk about your job.” You were still leaning against the door frame, your eyes taking in all the small details of the room.

“There’s more interesting things to talk about.”

You turned back to him, your eyes locking with his as a small smile pulled at the corner of your lips. “Well I’d like to know more about it than you just ‘working in a music store with your brothers.’ Seems like it would be fun.”

His smile returned, and one of his hands dropped from behind his head to pat the empty space beside him on the couch. “Well come on over then, I’ll tell you all about it.”

You shuffled across the room, lowering yourself into the seat across the couch from him and turning to give him your full attention. “Go on.”

He turned himself to face you, readjusting himself to get comfortable. “It’s nothing overly special. I work with my brothers, and Danny. The store is owned by an old family friend, but the four of us have been keeping the place going now that he is getting a bit too old to manage it on his own.”

You pulled your legs onto the cushion to sit cross legged as you listened to him talk, nodding along, but when he paused, you worried that’s all he was going to say. “Well that can’t be all of it. What do you do?”

He looked somewhat surprised by your genuine interest, but quickly picked up where he left off. “Well, Josh pretty much runs the place. Danny helps with customer service and most of the heavy lifting. Jake does maintenance, he’ll fix pretty much whatever instrument someone brings in, he’s kind of a whiz with that stuff. He also does guitar lessons.”

“And you?”

He smiled and watched you sink further into the cushions, getting comfortable as you listened to him. “I mostly do customer service, but I also give guitar and piano lessons.”

“It’s nothing special… Sam, that’s such a cool job, you’re teaching people to play music, that’s so special.”

He seemed taken aback by what you said, and you watched him stare down at his hands as a light blush blossomed across his cheeks. “You think so?”

“I know so.”

There was a moment of quiet before Sam looked back up at you. “Do you play any instruments?”

“Not really, no. I wanted to learn how to play guitar in high school, but I never really got the hang of it so I just gave up.”

The smile on his face fell to a small frown, and you watched the cogs turn in his brain for a moment before his eyes locked on yours once again. “Would you let me try.”

Your eyebrows furrowed slightly in confusion as you looked back at him. “Let you try?”

“To teach you.”

“You’d really do that?”

Sam became somewhat sheepish at the question, but held eye contact with you. “Only if you want to. I’m not going to force you to learn.”

“No, I uh… I’d like that.” His smile returned, bright and warm at your words, and this time he got to watch as a blush rose to your cheeks. “I’d like that a lot actually. Maybe this time it’ll stick.”

The two of you fell into a comfortable quiet for a few minutes until Sam groaned and stretched before standing from the couch. You watched as he made his way to your side of the couch, and he made a show of offering a hand to you with a dramatic bow. “Shall we make our way downstairs to get the food plated?”

You giggled, nodding as you placed your hand in his and felt him pull you from the cushions. The two of you made your way downstairs, and Sam took the time to show you where all of the food was before he ran into the living room to turn on some music.

“We can’t be working in silence, that’s insane.”

Within an hour the two of you managed to put together a table full of various snacks. Bowls full of different flavors of chips, and platters covered in various meats and cheeses laid before you, organized to perfection along the length of his dining room table.

A low whistle passed through Sam’s lips as you made the final adjustments to the display, and you turned to see him staring at all of the food. “You think there’s enough?”

You shrugged and straightened up, turning properly toward him. “Good question, I don’t know how many people are going to be here, so you’d know better than me.”

His eyes flickered up from the table, meeting your eyes as the music kept the room from falling into silence. Sam pulled his hand from the pocket of his jeans and lifted it towards you. “Come here.”

You looked at his hand, then back up to his face, a curious look crossing your features as your hand slowly lifted away from the table you had been leaning against. He caught the look and chuckled. “Come on, let’s dance.”

“But—”

His hand breached the gap, wrapping around your own. “Nope. No excuses.”

“Seriously, Sam?” You relaxed into the gentle pull of his hand, making a show of dramatically rolling your eyes. “Don’t you remember the wedding?”

“Very well, yeah.” When your eyes landed back on Sam, you felt a flash of something you hadn’t felt in a while, bliss. Something in the way he smiled at you released the tension in your body, you felt relaxed with him.

You stepped forward, planting yourself in front of Sam, keeping your eyes “So you remember what I said?”

Your gaze fell to the hand enclosed within Sam’s, watching the way he readjusted his hold to be more comfortable for the both of you as he spoke. “I remember you enjoying yourself until what’s his name interrupted us.”

“Oh, I was enjoying myself was I?” Your words were accompanied by a small smirk and a quirk of your brow as your eyes once again found his.

“Sure seemed that way” Sam gently pulled you closer, and you could feel the tingle of his touch as his free hand ghosted over your waist, as if giving you an out of you genuinely didn’t want to dance. “Of course you’re free to tell me otherwise.”

You hummed as your free hand came to rest on his bicep. “As fun as it is to bicker with you, I agree. I did enjoy myself, quite a lot, actually.”

Sam’s smile widened, and his lips parted, but before he could speak the sound of the door opening and closing stole the attention of the both of you.

“Honey, I’m home.”

You and Sam separated when the sound of Danny’s voice echoed through the house, instead you watched as Sam popped his head into the living room. Sam was the first to speak as he took a large step out of the dining room. “You’re back early.”

“No… not really. It's actually later than I planned to get home.”

There was a beat of silence before Danny spoke up. “It’s quiet in here, where’s Rose?”

“Shit. I put her in her crate earlier and meant to let her outside before everyone showed up.”

“And have you?”

“Clearly not, I’ve been a bit distracted.”

“Distracted, what could have distracted you from your dog?”

Nadine popped out from around the corner, and as quickly as she found you, she was back out of the dining room with you in tow. “I think I know.”

Danny turned at the sound of her voice, and a smile quickly formed on his face when he caught sight of the two of you. “Well hello, stranger. Where were you hiding?”

“She wasn’t hiding, she’s been here for a while.”

Everyone turned to see Sam standing at the base of the staircase, and in his arms was the cutest puppy you had ever laid eyes on. “She was passed out when I walked into my room.”

Your gaze lifted and locked with Sam’s, earning a small smile and wave from him, beckoning you towards him. Rose was eagerly wiggling in Sam’s grasp when you walked over to them, her little tail thumping against his side. “Well hello, Rose. You are so cute.”

Rose gave your hand a brief sniff before lowering her head as if to ask for you to pet her, which you gladly did, running your fingers along the soft fur between her ears.

“I’m gonna take her out for a bit before everyone gets here. Might smoke a joint as well, care to join?” Sam’s voice pulled your attention from the puppy, though your hand remained scratching a spot beneath her chin as you looked up at him and nodded.

Sam’s head briefly lifted to look toward the others, but your attention remained on him and Rose as he spoke. “Danny, Nadine, you two coming along?”

You turned then to look at them, and found both shaking their heads. Nadine spoke up when her eyes locked with yours. “Gonna wait till later, don’t want to get tired super early.”

“Alright, well looks like it’s just gonna be you and me.” You turned back to Sam and found him already staring back at you with a small smirk pulling at the corner of his lips.

“Lead the way.”

The two of you got to the sliding glass door, and Sam opened it. He looked down, and your eyes followed, watching as he slipped on a pair of shoes and looked back up at you. “Hold on a second, I’ll be right back.”

He turned and sped off, leaving you watching and wondering what on earth he was doing, until he came back holding your shoes. “Figured you wouldn’t want to go outside in your socks.”

You looked back down at your feet, eyeing the mismatched socks you had pulled from your pile of clean laundry in a hurry before your gaze found him again. “Honestly, I hadn't even realized, thank you.”

He placed your shoes on the floor and straightened back up before sliding open the door and stepping outside with Rose in tow. You slid your shoes on as quickly as you could and stumbled behind him onto the patio as Rose barrelled ahead into the large backyard.

It took a few steps to catch up to Sam as he leaned against the railing. “This house is amazing, how did you two manage to find such a nice place?”

Sam turned to you, body still leaning against the wooden railing, with a joint between his lips and his hand lifting to light the end. He took a long drag, clearly enjoying the way you were simply watching him, before blowing the smoke from between his lips. “We got lucky.”

He took another drag before holding the joint out for you to take, and watched as you plucked it from between his fingers. “Elaborate.”

“The owners are friends of Danny’s grandparents. When they retired they bought an R.V. to travel, and offered to give us cheap rent if we helped fix the place up.” He watched you intently as you breathed in the wondrous substance within the perfectly rolled joint, and his attention only broke when Rose let out a hushed bark from across the yard.

Both of you turned, watching as she stared back at the two of you, lowering the front of her body onto the grass, but keeping her rear end, and wagging tail off of the ground.

“What is it Rose? Do you want to show Y/n the garden, is that it?”

She hopped from her spot, her small body swaying from the force of her tail wagging, and you turned to Sam. “You have a garden?”

He eagerly nodded, and accepted the joint as you offered it back to him. “I do.”

Sam passed the joint back to you on the walk over to the garden, and Rose happily trotted along behind the two of you. The two of you made your way over to an area off to the side of the patio and you were honestly a bit surprised at what you found. A long garden bed spanned the gap between fence posts, filled to the brim with flowers of every color, shape and size you could imagine. Across from it stood multiple raised garden beds, each with a different cluster of fruits and vegetables growing within them.

“So…” Sam turned to look at the sound of your voice, and watched as you took another drag of the joint before holding it out for him to take. “What do you have growing in this garden of yours?”

He plucked the joint from between your fingers and carefully tapped the side until the ash scattered to the ground. “You really want to know?”

His question was followed by a deep drag of the joint as he looked to you for an answer. What he found was a soft smile across your lips as you nodded encouragingly for him to tell you. “Yeah, I really do.”

“Well, uh…” You watched Sam look between all of the planters, eventually stopping at the one at the end of the row. “This one has beets and carrots in it.”

“That one.” He pointed to the next box, and you followed his movement. “Has a few kinds of lettuce, and green beans growing up the lattice.”

A quiet bark sounded from between the two of you, and you looked down to see Rose sitting next to you, wagging her tail as she looked back up at you.

“I think she wants a green bean, she loves them.”

You quirked an eyebrow, and kneeled to pet Rose. “You like green beans, Rose?”

She yipped, and pressed her head into your hand.

“Here.” You looked up and found Sam holding out a green bean for you to take. “Give her one, she’ll love you forever.”

You took the small green vegetable from his hand and looked back at the small puppy that was damn near vibrating with excitement at your feet. “Does she know any tricks?”

“I’ve been teaching her how to shake, but she’s still learning.”

“Rose, would you like a green bean?” Her tail was whipping back and forth as she continued to stare at you. “Can you shake a paw for me?”

You offered your free hand to her, and watched as she stared blankly at you for a moment before she lifted a paw and placed it in your palm.

You lit up, and gently shook her paw before letting it slip from your grasp, instead you held the green bean out for her and watched as she gently took it between her teeth, bolted up onto the patio and jumped up onto one of the chairs to lay down as she ate her treat.

“That was impressive.” You straightened up and looked back at Sam, who was beaming as he continued to look at Rose. “She doesn’t usually listen that well to new people.”

“I guess she just really likes me.” It was a cheeky comment, paired with a goofy grin as you continued to look at him.

“She’s not the only one.”

He still wasn’t looking at you, and for a moment you wondered if you had misheard him, but before you could respond another voice echoed into the backyard. “Now what on earth is going on out here?”

You turned to follow the sound of the voice and found the twins leaning against the railing. Josh’s eyes found yours, and seeing his bright smile, you couldn’t help but smile yourself. “Sam was just showing me his garden.”

“You don’t say. You know, usually Sam waits until the third date to show a girl his cucumber.”

Jake’s comment was followed closely by a booming laugh from Josh, and a scoff from Sam. After a few seconds of tense silence, Rose broke through the quiet by barking and scratching at the sliding glass door.

“Well, didn’t mean to interrupt your tour, just wanted to let you two know that we had arrived.” Josh’s words were quickly followed by him dragging Jake back into the house, leaving you and Sam alone in the garden once again.

“We should probably head inside if people are starting to show up.”

“What, you’re not going to tell me about each and every one of the flowers you have in this garden bed?”

He chuckled, and shook his head and he began walking back towards the patio. “There’s too many to list, plus it’s not that interesting.”

“I beg to differ.” You followed closely behind him, falling into step as you made your way toward the door.

You were startled when he suddenly came to a stop, which caused you to bump into him as he turned to you. “Maybe next time.”

His gaze dropped to watch as you lifted your hand into the small gap between the two of you, with all of your fingers tucked away, except for your pinkie. “Promise?”

He chuckled and lifted his own hand, looking back into your eyes as he wrapped his pinky around your own. “Promise.”

You followed Sam into the house and quickly found both the twins settled into the living room with Danny and Nadine.

“So, has Sam told you that he makes pickles?”

You made your way over to one of the remaining empty spaces on the loveseat being occupied by Danny and Nadine. “He did not, but I am eager to hear about it whenever he chooses to share.”

The remaining guests slowly trickled into the house, and suddenly the space was filled with boisterous laughter and conversation. Everyone dug into the food as they talked, and you found yourself comfortably conversing with Sam’s friends, listening as he made jokes with them, and joining in as they asked questions to get to know you.

“Who’s up for some drunk uno?”

You leaned over to Sam, who had made himself comfortable leaning against the table next to you, close enough to warm his body with the heat radiating off of you. “What is drunk uno?”

Sam let out a quiet chuckle before turning to Jake, who had brought up the idea. “I’ll go grab the cards, you guys will have to explain the rules to Y/n and Nadine, I don’t know if they’ve ever played, and it never hurts to refresh everyone on how to play.”

Sam scurried off to find the game as the rest of you made you way into the living room and settled into spots around the coffee table as Jake explained the rules, they were as follows;

If you forget the rules, or you must ask a question, you take one drink.

If you lose a turn because of a skip card, or miss a turn, you take one drink.

+2 cards = two drinks

+4 cards = four drinks

If you don’t have a matching card and have to pick up from the deck, you take one drink.

If you forget to say Uno on your last card, take four drinks.

If you play an identical card (same color and action/number), everyone takes one drink.

The player with the most cards at the end of the game must finish their drink. In the event that their drink is less than half full, they must get a fresh drink to finish.

Sam returned with the game in his hand, and he quickly maneuvered his way around his seated friends to lower himself into the empty spot beside you.

You listened to the small conversations that had sparked up in the time since you all sat down, but your attention had been stolen by Sam the moment he sat beside you. You watched as he sat quietly, pulling the cards from their box and checking to make sure that they were all facing the same way before he began to shuffle them.

It wasn’t hard to become transfixed, watching the way his nimble fingers handled each card with such care, you had tuned out your surroundings, and figured that the weed was finally settling in your brain, bringing with it a serene sense of calm.

“So, did Jake confuse you enough with the rules?” Your eyes flickered up to see Sam still concentrated on the cards as he dealt the hands for each player.

“Might take me a round to get used to, but I’m a quick learner so I’m sure I’ll be able to figure it out.”

His eyes left the cards, and he caught the way your gaze lingered on his lips as he ran his tongue along his bottom lip. A smirk quickly formed as he leaned towards you to nudge his shoulder against your own. “Well if you have any questions, ask me, I won’t make you drink.”

—

“Dickhead!”

Sam’s boisterous laugh filled the room as he dramatically tossed his final card onto the pile. “Sorry baby, it was all I could play.”

Your cheeks flushed pink at his words, and he watched you pick up four cards from the deck, and when you lifted your drink to your lips, he kept eye contact with your icy gaze, watching intently as you took four sips of your drink.

Thankfully, even with the addition of the cards at the last second, you still weren’t holding as many as Josh, who made a show of standing for everyone to watch as he downed his drink.

The group was in the fourth round… or was it the fifth? Of uno, and you were finally on your last card. At least you were until Sam played that damned plus four. You weren’t sure how much time had passed, as breaks had been taken between each round to eat, go pee, or smoke.

“Alright, someone has to open the store tomorrow, so I’m going to head out.”

Josh’s statement was followed by a chorus of boos from those still sitting on the floor, but once it had quieted down, Jake piped up with a loud groan as he stood and stretched. “Josh is right, gotta have a couple people capable of working tomorrow morning, so you two-” He turned to Danny and Sam, waggling his finger at them briefly “-are off the hook, but you’ll have to be in to close tomorrow.”

Slowly people began making their way around the house, cleaning up and collecting their belongings before bidding farewell and heading out. Danny and Nadine said goodnight as they made their way towards Danny’s room, and soon enough you were left in a quiet house with Sam.

One of his friends had passed out on the couch, so the two of you kept your voices low as you followed close behind him, helping to clean up what remained of the food.

You took the liberty of filling the sink with warm soapy water to do the dishes while Sam packed up whatever food had to be refrigerated, music playing quietly from his phone on the counter.

“You know.” The ghost of his touch on your waist jolted you from your own thoughts. “You don’t have to do the dishes, it was more than enough that you hung around to help me clean up the food.”

You reached for the drying towel beside the sink to wipe your hands as you slowly spun around to face him, and found yourself within inches of the man that had been invading your every sense since you came to realize the depth of your feelings for him.

You swallowed the lump in your throat as you looked up into the warmth of his deep brown eyes. The majority of the lights in the house had either been dimmed, or turned off, so the two of you stood in the dim orange light of the kitchen, staring at one another and waiting to see who would break the silence.

“It’s the least I could do, really.”

He hummed, dropping one of his hands from your waist, but before you could mourn the loss of his touch, his fingers brushed your own. “Could I ask one more thing of you?”

You nodded, looking down to where the tips of his fingers danced with yours as you awaited his request.

“Dance with me?”

A smile graced your lips and you nodded once again, and you felt the pressure of his skin against yours as he took your hand in his own, and pulled you closer with the one that remained on your waist. The song changed, and the dulcet voice of Nat King Cole graced your ears as Sam began to sway with you.

You weren’t sure whether to credit the weed, alcohol, or Sam’s presence for the drowsiness that overcame you, though it was a safe bet that all of the above had a part to play in it.

You could feel the steady beating of his heart as your head rested against his chest. “Hey, Sam… can I tell you a secret?”

“Of course.” His voice is hushed, much like your own, as if despite everyone else either having left or gone to sleep, you were making an effort for only one another to hear what was being said.

There was a beat of silence as your brain tried to comprehend what you were going to say. Eventually a soft sigh escaped from your lips, and you finally said it. “I think I’ve fallen for you.”

You could have sworn you felt his heart skip, and though you couldn’t see it, Sam’s smile was as dopey as ever as he took in what you said. “Is that so?”

You nodded as best as you could with your head still against his chest, and it once again fell quiet as you relaxed further into his hold.

Your eyes had fallen closed not long after you began to sway with him, so the feeling of his breath suddenly tickling the shell of your ear sent a shiver running down your spine. “I think I’ve fallen for you too.”

He was still wearing the goofy grin when you leaned back, looking up at him with dreamy eyes. “Really?”

He simply nodded, lifting the hand from your waist to move a stray hair from your face. Your eyes were growing heavier with each passing moment, and Sam clued in before you could try to fight it. “You tired?”

You nodded, and Sam’s smile softened. “Alright, let’s get you to bed. We can talk more when we’re both sober, but for now you need to rest.”

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[dickarchivist]

Hello dear Archivist! 

I’m quickly falling in love with your boys, and I love everything you’ve written for Ghost & Banshee 💜 But after reading your NSFW ALPHABET post for the squad, I can’t stop thinking about Specter…  

If you’re feeling up for it, I’d love to request a little fic for him (SFW or NSFW… which ever feels right 🥰)

Since he seems a bit more guarded than his brothers, what would falling in love look like for him? You mentioned he loves photography & is known for taking pictures of everything, so would his artistic hobbies be influenced by the person he’s falling for? Would he know right away, or would the feelings sneak up on him? 

Thank you 💜 (@wings-and-beskar)

Vermillion

Clone oc Specter x fem!Reader

Word Count: 1305

Prompt: How does Specter fall in love?

Rating: PG-14 for swearing, but minors DNI as always 🔞

Contents and Warnings: swearing, Specter being broody and jealous, a break up (not with Specs), laughing, being silly together, passionate kiss, split lip (not graphic)

Summary: Specter's in love with you, every little bit. He'd do anything for you, say the word... but he wants to make sure you're not going to break his heart.

Author's Notes: Specter's POV!!!! He's so rude, I love him!!

Thanks to @wings-and-beskar for being so patient on this one!! You are a kindness unto my life♡

This one is left open ended on purpose, I'm thinking about writing a sequel so we shall see 👀

This fic doesn't hit on everything asked I'm so sorry weh. But!! I do feel like it answers the question "How does Specter fall in love?" On purpose.

Look at you. Hair's all messy, but I know you styled it that way. You make that stuffy GAR uniform look good, even sexy with how it hugs your curves. I'm glad you never wear that dumb little hat, I think it'd ruin your look... or maybe it'd just make you so tantalizing that I wouldn't be able to help myself. I click a few pictures of you, and I hope you don't mind or notice, but just...

Fuck you. Fuck you just standing there, chewing your stylus, looking down at your data pad with a scrunched brow and squinted eyes. Like it's the most important thing in the world, whatever's on there. We're supposed to be together right now, you called me. You asked me to tail it down here to keep you company and of course I did. I'd do anything you kriffin' ask. I want you lookin' at me so focused. Lookin' at me like I'm more important. What does it have that's keeping your attention so-- holy shit.

"OH FUCK OFF!!!!" You fling that stupid pad so hard and so far it shatters on impact when it hits your wall, and I can't stop myself from laughing. "SPECTER SHUT IT!!"

"What the kriff was on there that made you so mad? You were laser focus unti-- hey. Hey what's wrong? Why the tears?" I close my camera and come over so fast I can't blame you for jumping back. Didn't mean to come on so hard, I'd say sorry but your arms are around my waist so quick my words just leave my head.

"My boyfriend just dumped me, over a text..." my anger overthrows my joy.

"I was hoping so hard that you'd leave him, not for that skug to dump you and not even in person. I'll kill him. I could do it. It wouldn't even be that hard, I'm trained, he's a kriffing bar tender and not even a good one. Half his shit is just water and food color, I hate him so much, he was never any good to you... why are you crying harder? Shit shit shit, how do I make it better, shit-- no- oh... oh you're laughing! Why are you laughing?"

"Specs, you know you're talking out loud, right?"

My face in on FIRE. "Uh-- nope. Fuck... forget I said that, yeah?"

"Not a chance," You're smiling... maker I adore that smile. I move my hands to your face and brush my thumbs over your cheeks, "Specter, do you really feel like that?"

I look away from you, my eyebrows raised, a tall frown on my lips as if to shrug them, "I mean... yeah? That smug son of a--" I catch my temper, and sigh, arms around your shoulders again, "He wasn't good for you. Been sayin' that from the get, but did you listen? Nooooooo," You're laughing more, so I keep it up. I mimic your voice, very poorly, "Oh Specs! He's soooo dreamy!"

"Oh knock it off, I don't sound like that!" You push me, making me stagger a little, your cheeks red from laughing. Maker that laugh, I love it so much.

"Specs, he's so beautiful! He says he's in a band! Oh I can't wait to have his babies!"

"SPECTER! MY SIDES, PLEASE!" You're laughing so hard those tears down your cheeks aren't sad anymore, and I'm over the moons about that.

I put my arm around your shoulders, giving you a little shake and a squeeze, my voice back to my own, "I mean it, though... say the word and he'll disappear. Or say another word, and he'll turn into a toad. You know, like he already is."

I love it when you laugh so hard you snort. I know you hate it, you always apologize and cover your face. But I love it. Even Phantom can't get you to laugh like that... "Specs what're you smiling at me like that for?"

It's my turn to laugh. I chuckle a little, give you another squeeze, "What? I can't enjoy you laughing without getting the 3rd degree?"

You roll your eyes, knocking into me harder and giving me a tight squeeze of a hug. I'm all too happy to return it. "Thanks Specs, I don't know what I'd do without a good man like you by my side."

"You'd be a lot more sad over losers who don't deserve your tears, that's for sure," you don't have any idea what I'd do for you, how much you mean to me... how much I love you...

"Specter, new orders from the council. We're headed out in 15, get your ass over here." Ghost doesn't sound to pleased from the way his voice barks from the commlink.

I groan, roll my eyes with my whole body just to get you to giggle again, and then lift the comm, "I'm in the lower levels, it'll take more than 15 minutes."

"Then you'd better hurry."

Ghost's been a hard ass lately, but I can't blame him, I've been blowing him off to spend time with you. Who needs extra training? Not an ARC trooper... probably. Might have to be better about that...

Since I know I'll be late anyway, I take my time finding my boots in your flat. I know where they are, you know I know, but we still take the time to "look". Before I'm out the door, I hold your cheek again, "He didn't deserve you, you know that, right?"

"Yeah... sorry for being so distracted today, make it up to you next time?" When you bite your lip like that, do you have any idea what it does to me?

I don't know if there's gonna be a next time. I think that's why I keep blowing off drills, because I want you, not a war. I want life, with you, always, infinitely more than running laps and fire practice... I lean forward and press my lips to your forehead, taking a deep breath, just to remember you by.

Just in case.

"Next time, I'm asking you out. Don't go falling for anymore shitty bar tenders, okay? If I'm getting one up'd, he'd gotta have quality, and-" Oh fuck me.

I hold you up as you jump onto me. My arms go under your legs and up your back as your lips crash into mine, our teeth knocking together. You split my lip, it stings, but getting to taste your chapstick is more than reward enough.

"Why'd-- mmm-- why'd you--" I can't get a word in, your kisses are feverish in their quickness, I don't want to stop, but-- but it's not right. It's not for me. It's to drown your sorrow and I can't be that for you, I don't want to be, "Stop."

I set you down gentle, you look so dejected, darlin' you're breaking my heart... "You mean the galaxy to me, you know that? But I can't... I won't be your rebound. I'm not going to be a one and done for you, got that? So when I get back, I'm askin' you on a date. I-- fuck this, I love you, I want you to love me too, so just... process, get over that idiot, and then wear red for me when I'm back so I know it's okay..."

Oh maker you're angry- no? That's- okay not crying, not confused I know your confused face... what the hell are you thinking right now? "I don't own anything red... I um... I'll get something, do you have a preference?"

My eyes soften, and yours do too, and I know... I know I won't have to wait, but I do anyway. I want to make sure you love me back... I can't be your rebound. I need to be your last.

"Vermillion is my favorite."

×××××××××××××

Taglist: @anxiouspineapple99 @wolffegirlsunite @wizardofrozz @eclec-tech @dystopicjumpsuit @clonethirstingisreal @wings-and-beskar @sunshinesdaydream @multi-fan-dom-madness @starrylothcat @n0vqni @sev-on-kamino @mythical-illustrator @523rdrebel @littlemissmanga

[nevernonline]

✧.* grow as we go; svt smau.

entry #16; the part we play.

synopsis: over the past ten years you’ve fallen in love many times. one day someone happens to stumble across your journal sitting out on your nightstand and started posting your entries online. after all of your secrets are leaked it’s clear things would ever be the same again.

𐦍 paring: svt members x afab! reader.

𐦍 feat: non-idol! svt

𐦍 genre/s: reader is super angsty low-key, fluffy, sexual themes.

𐦍 content: swearing, bullying, crazy ex’s, mentions of sexual relations, some drinking& mary jane 🍃

word count: 1.5k

note: in-between photo sets is some writing!! xo

masterlist ▸ 015 leave it to the cullens (part 2). ▸ 017 happy trails.

Jumping out of bed and throwing on a random pair of sweatpants scattered on her floor in what y/n referred to as her “stress pile” of clothes, she ran down the hallway to the front door to check who she had kept waiting for over ten minutes. 

Much to her surprise it wasn’t one of her obnoxious friends waking her and her overnight guest up so early, but a shady one. Joshua. 

“Y/n? I know you’re here, I asked the front door man if he had seen you leave yet this morning? Hello?” 

And with a couple more knocks pounding in her brain, she swung the door open to reveal a smiling old friend holding a bouquet of wild flowers and a box of pastries. 

“Sorry. Hangover. Why are you here?” 

“Tomorrow is your birthday?” 

“Right. But, it's also 7:30 in the morning?” 

“I thought I’d come by today so I didn’t disrupt whatever plans you have tomorrow with Seokmin and Jun. That’s okay?” 

“Yeah.” 

“So.. Can I come in? Or do you not want to have a chocolate croissant?” 

“I do, but coffee! I’m out of coffee. Can we go get some? I can’t possibly have a pastry without it, silly.” 

“Yeah, of course. Mind if I use the bathroom?” 

“Why don’t you just use the-” 

In all of her attempts at protesting Joshua walking through her apartment and finding the boy hidden in the guest room, he still managed to somehow find a way in. Just like he was doing to her heart. She knew she shouldn’t even entertain the idea of spending a day with him and pretend that she has no idea the amount of blackmail he had a hand in, but a part of her couldn’t help it. 

In all her daze of thinking of the moral repercussions of his and her own actions. She didn’t even notice him slipping back by her side. As she rapidly texted the man she unnoticeably had hidden in the room down the hall it was his time to sneak out like a secret to be kept. 

“Ready?” 

“Uh, yeah. Let’s go.” 

“So, how was Wonwoo’s event?” 

“Well for starters I had no idea that gamers drank so hard, I felt like I was back in freshman year of college trying to keep up with drunk Soonyoung and you at those dumb ass Dream Boy parties you used to take me to.” 

“That hard, huh?” 

“Yeah, I haven’t drank like that in so long. It’s fun once and a while I guess.” 

Walking into the white walled coffee shop with Joshua felt like some sort of omen, but y/n couldn’t decide if it was a good one or a bad one just yet. 

If Joshua was honest about his play in the game with Mimi, maybe someday down the road she could forgive him and patch up their friendship one last time. But, the more he waited to say anything, the more he lied and kept his secret the less she even believed he’d own up to his actions. 

“What would you like?”

“Just a drip coffee please, large, no sugar or milk.” 

“Okay, I’ll pay.” 

“Wow. Thank you so much.” 

Sensing y/n’s sarcasm, he smiled and turned towards the register placing their matching order and grabbing the cups as he handed her the steaming cup of fresh coffee and made their way back to her apartment. 

Waiting to cross the street her front door opened, walking out was Minghao dressed in his same outfit from the night before, catching y/n’s eyes, as she quickly turned Joshua around to look at a dog passing by so Minghao could make his quick exit without any suspicion. 

When she was sure he made his exit and got out of the line of sight, with Joshua by her side they headed back up to her apartment, announcing she needed to go use the restroom fast and search the bedroom that once belonged to another untrustworthy friend. 

Under her laptop sitting on the desk, a small note was placed with just the corner of the purple sticky note sticking to the side. 

‘Swan, by midnight tonight you’ll be one year older. I hope another trip around the sun brings you peace of mind and the happiness you truly deserve. See you tomorrow, MH.” 

Placing the note under the cover of her laptop, she smiled to herself and decided now was the time to confront an elephant in the room. 

She walked back up to Joshua sitting on her couch, the plate of chocolate croissants placed on the glass coffee table, two cups of coffee on either side. 

“You okay?” 

“Yeah. Can I talk to you about something?” 

“Of course.” 

“I need you to listen to me, like really listen and don’t deflect. I need you to tell me how you got my journal to Mimi.” 

“I didn-”

“You did. I know it was you who took it, I just want to know why?” 

“Just listen. I didn’t take it to give it to Mimi. I actually took it before she even got back in touch with me. And I didn’t just stumble upon it on my own time. Minnie showed me it, she wanted me to know how much I hurt you and how you felt about me because you never told me. You kept all those cards so close to your chest, I felt like I had to read more. So, the night of Mingyu’s bar opening, I had Mimi over at my house after, we were just catching up, talking, nothing too serious, she had just moved back and needed somewhere to stay for the night. She was the one who found your journal and took it and concocted the entire plan.” 

“Why?” 

“Why what?” 

“I guess why didn’t you just tell me all of this at the beginning?” 

“I was just going to bring you your diary back and ask you out, I had feelings for you too. I still do. I eventually was going to tell you everything. But, it just got so complicated and the day I came over and saw Minghao here, I got so pissed off at you for trusting him after he hurt me, I figured he’d hurt you too.” 

“But he didn’t. You did.” 

“I know. I should’ve just told you the truth from the beginning, but I was scared to lose you.” 

“You already had lost me. How am I supposed to even believe a word you’re telling me right now?” 

“Because, I have proof. The only reason I even still talk to Mimi is to make sure she doesn’t go too far.” 

“Why did you fight with Minghao then?” 

“He pisses me off. Simple as that. I knew he had helped Mimi. I knew he was being deceitful to you as well, but so was I. It was just a matter of who owned up to it first.” 

“Alright. What else do you know?” 

“I know that Minnie is helping Mimi. They’ve been in contact with each other for quite some time, even before Mimi moved back. I can’t tell you why only because I genuinely have no clue. But, I have a feeling she's trying to hide something about herself and not exposing you.” 

“And Mingyu?” 

“No. He has nothing to do with it.” 

“Okay.” 

“Can I ask you something?” 

“Mhm, sure.” 

“Do you think we can ever get past this? Even if we just stay friends or see each other once and a while?” 

“If what you’re telling me is a hundred percent true, then I think we can. But, if I find out you’re lying to me, I will never speak to you again.” 

“I can show you the texts. Between me and Mimi, Minnie, Minghao. Anyone involved.” 

“Who sent me the bouquet? You right?” 

“Yeah. It was just a warning to be careful about the people around you.” 

“Okay. Well. Thanks for telling me, I guess.” 

“There’s something else.” 

“Uh, alright?” 

“Tonight. There’s a party at Mingyu’s bar that Minnie was throwing for your birthday. I came over here initially to invite you. They told me only you’re invited. No Seokmin, Jun, or anyone else.” 

“Why?” 

“They wanted me to take you as a surprise.” 

“My party is supposed to be tomorrow night?” 

“Yeah.” 

“So they have something planned for me and I feel like it’s safe to say it’s not good.” 

“I don’t know what it is, but it’s safe to assume that yeah.” 

“Okay, if you want to make it up to me. You’ll help me sneak Minghao and the dorks into the back of his restaurant.” 

“Yes.” 

“Call Jeonghan, tell him everything. Get him to cause a distraction so they can come inside. Text Minnie and ask if it’s okay you invite Seokmin to come with you and I. It's believable I wouldn’t go anywhere on my own without him and I’ll handle the rest.” 

“Are you going to tell me what the rest is?” 

“Yes, eventually.” 

“Okay, let’s hurry, we have about three hours until I’m supposed to bring you.” 

“What’s the dress code?” 

“Formal. It's some sort of mask party.” 

“Fuck.” 

“So you’re still friends with Hao?” 

“Yes, idiot. I heard you jiggle the doorknob this morning. Come on.” 

taglist: @sun-daddy-yoriichi @hipsdofangirl@kissesfrmwonwoo@minhui896@wonwooz1@porridgesblog@jasssy051@soonyoungblr@saucegirlreads@musingsofananxiouspotato@young-adult-summer@punkhazardlaw@bibs-world@the-swageyama-tobiyolo@wonuulvr@woozixo@k-drama-adict@90s-belladonna@blaycke@dnylwoo@to-mi-yo, @nonononranghaee

note: hi me again!! lol. I hope you enjoy this messy lil installment. not my favorite (everyone says this sometimes ik ik) let me know what you think our resident traitor mimi is up too 👀

[evermoresilk]

Hey, i’ve just came across your acc and your smau’s are so cute! would you do a tom holland blurb with the college reader again, not a smau tho just a fic of whatever you like.

author’s note; OMGGG MY FIRST EVER REQUEST! Sorry this took so long I was coplemanting to even post this or not 😧 Please give your honest remark !!

warnings; none, lmk if there is !

word count; 400

summary; aftermath of the exposure of thier private relationship could be read as a part 2 to this fic

Tom and you continue to keep your relationship private after the little exposion of it by a fanpage. It was overwhelming at first. The amount of follwers you were gaining, the weird dm’s, people asking you about Tom during classes or lectures. You didn’t mind some questions but some were really weird questions but you just move the subject away from the conversation. 

Tom visitations were also the same as before sure people come up during dates asking for pictures or for him to sign something if he was feeling it he would gladly do it or if he is not he just politely say no, they understand.

As for today, you weren’t really feeling to be going out. You’ve just finish your 3 reading assigments that came with 6 pages of paper to write as you literature assigment. Sometimes you question yourself for taking Advance Literature, well to late to back out now. Tom was suppose to come over half an hour ago. 

You check your phone for any text message or missed phone call from your boyfriend but nothing came up. You just thought maybe he’s running a bit late and got back to typing your assignment.

Just as you were going to put your phone down there was a knock at your dorm room door. You got up from your bed where papers and books where sprawled on. 

As you open the door you were greeted with a certian british burnette that had  an adorable smiled plasted on his face.

“Hey love, sorry I was late. I picked up the strawberries you wanted from the farmers market a couple blocks away.”

You wrap you arms around him and buried you face in the crook of his neck.

“I was going to call you” you said while your cheek is pressed again his shoulder you moved a bit backwards so he can come in but still stayed in the same position you didn’t want to let him go.

he shut the door with his foot and still had you in his embrace.

“I knew you’ve been working for the past 6 hours. I didn’t want to bother you so I just thought maybe I just dropped by, since you knew I was coming anyways.”

“You are literally a life saver Tom” you just stayed in his arms. You didn't want to think or do anything you just want to stay like this. You felt safe and all the stress washed away.

“Hey, how about you clean up your bed and I make you some tea. We could put on a show on the television and just cuddle and you can eat the strawberries I just bought?” he suggested while kissing the top of your head.

“Yeah, I’d like that”

This is all you need after writing for 6 hours a moment to snuggle with your boyfriend while munching on some strawberries and drinking hot tea on an evening.

likes, reblogs and comments are so appreciated <3

© evermoresilk

[underacalicosky]

20 Question Fic Writer Tag

Yayyy! Thanks for tagging me @grapenehifics 😁 And thanks to @ineffable-snowman for tagging me too! ❤️

How many works do you have on ao3?

I only have six Obikin fics on AO3, which isn’t a lot, but I’m hoping to write more! I’ve posted fics for a different fandom that I’m no longer active in, but that was a lifetime ago and I don’t monitor those fics anymore.

2.) What's your ao3 word count? 

AO3 says 107,086. I know that’s not a lot compared to some folks, but it’s more than I thought I’d get to when I started writing again a few months ago.

3.) What fandoms do you write for? 

Right now, only Prequels/Clone Wars Star Wars, and only Obikin because they’ve taken over my brain. And mainly modern AUs, but I have couple ideas that are in the Star Wars universe.

4.) What are your top five fics by kudos?

Cruel Summer (Intern AU) - 175

Edge of Greatness (Figure skating AU) - 132

The Next Model (Top Model AU) - 125

Heartbreak Prince (Same age HS AU) - 70

In Good Hands (Hairstylist AU) - 69

5.) Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Yes, I always respond to comments! I try to respond within a few days. But yes, I love comments. I’m grateful that someone would take the time to not only read my fics, but to also leave a note or an emoji or wall of text 😭 so I try to show my appreciation by responding. Sometimes I’ll get a comment that’s really touching and I’ll reread it when I’m having a bad day. I love when I get into little side convos or hearing about headcanons in the comments!

6.) What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

I’m incapable of writing anything but a happy ending for Obikin. I want so badly for them to find peace and joy together, whether that’s through lots of cuddles and sex or a platonic life-long friendship.

7.) What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

All of them? 😁 I like to end my fics in a way where they’re at a good place, and afterward they run off and have more adventures and I might not know exactly what they’re up to, but I know they’re happy.

8.) Do you get hate on fics?

Not since I’ve written for the SW and Obikin fandom. Everyone here has been wonderful and encouraging and kind of feral in the most amazing way. I can’t tell you how much I love love love the positive vibes.

It wasn’t always like that in my previous fandom and I eventually left. Although, it wasn’t really hate. I started getting comments about how I wasn’t incorporating certain extreme kinks (which I didn’t know how to write), sort of suggesting that what I wrote wasn’t interesting. And there were plenty of writers who did write those kinks so it was a little baffling. I’m a firm believer that everyone should be able to read or write whatever they like without judgment or shame, but it got to the point where my confidence took a huge hit and I wasn’t having fun anymore.

9.) Do you write smut? If so what kind?

I do write smut! Soft, fluffy, vanilla smut where they look at each other with hearts in their eyes. If my smut were a cake, it would be funfetti.

10.) Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?

No, but I like putting them modern AUs so maybe the Top Model fic is kind of a crossover?

11.) Have you ever had a fic stolen?

I didn’t realize this was a thing. How do I know if a fic has been stolen?

12.) Have you ever had a fic translated?

A couple years after I left my previous fandom, someone reached out and asked if they could translate one of my fics into a different language. It was really heartwarming and humbling to hear that something I wrote resonated with someone enough to make them want to translate it and share it. I said yes, but I’m not sure I ever got the link to the translated version.

13.) Have you ever cowritten a fic before?

I co-wrote a big bang with another author for my previous fandom. It was a lot of fun and someone made a playlist to go with our fic. We had similar writing styles, to the point that our betas got confused over who wrote which chapters.

14.) What's your all time favorite ship?

Probably Obikin. Their dynamic is so intriguing to me. There’s endless possibilities. Plus, the authors in this fandom are so freaking talented and creative and that fuels my love for them.

15.) What's a WIP you'd like to finish, but doubt you ever will?

I don’t have too many WIP at the moment. I only have two that have actual words, the rest are ideas that haven’t solidified yet. But I plan to finish the ones I’ve started writing.

16.) What are your writing strengths?

I’m terrible at self-assessments. I like to think that I can create a feeling of longing or pining. I love a slow burn, especially a friends to lovers type relationship, and that’s where I like to live with the things I write. There’s that phase where they’re both too afraid to tell the other how they feel. But they stare longingly and wonder if the other’s thinking of them too. And maybe there’s miscommunication or an ill-conceived reason for why they can’t be together that leads to some mild angst before they confess their love and fuck all gentle and sweet.

17.) What are your writing weaknesses?

Writing anything that has a complex plot or interwoven side plots. I’m very linear and simplistic. I’m always so impressed when I read something and the plot has been intricately planned and the little details tie together in the end. These are truly talented writers. Like, you should be publishing novels and getting paid. If I had more time and brain space, I’d love to try planning something more complex someday.

18.) Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

I’m not against it, but I can barely post anything without typos in English so I wouldn’t trust myself to include dialogue in another language.

19.) First fandom you wrote for?

X-files, Mulder/Scully. I didn’t post it to gossamer. I just had it on my computer and was too scared to show it to anyone.

20.) Favorite fic you've ever written?

This is tough, and it’s going to be a long and rambly answer.

Definitely the fics I’ve written for Obikin are my favorites. And if I had to pick one of them, it would probably be Edge of Greatness, only because it was the first thing I posted to AO3 in about 12 years.

I started writing fics again a few months ago as a way to do something for myself because most of my life revolves around taking care of my family. I had the idea in my head for about a month before I finally dusted off my old 2008 Macbook and wrote the whole thing in about three weeks. It was such a freeing feeling to be writing again, but I still had that criticism in my head. At that time, I wasn’t sure I wanted to share it once I finished it, but I also was trying to challenge myself.

I took baby steps. I got a new AO3 account and sat on it for a week before I began uploading the first few chapters. It was exciting and terrifying at the same time. My hands were shaking when I posted the first four chapters knowing that they would be out there in the world. I was convinced that no one would read them and I was okay with that because the goal I set for myself was to post and not care what other people thought. But the next morning I saw that I had kudos and comments and had a nice little cry. Some people, like @grapenehifics left comments in every chapter and I can’t put into words what that meant to me. So I’m not sure that it’s my best fic, but it holds special meaning to me and I’ll always love it for that reason.

I’m tagging anyone who writes fics and wants to share! I love reading these types of responses! ❤️

[wooahaes]

Hi, hope you’re doing well. If possible, I’d like to request #1 “I’ll be there in 10” and #6 “Be more careful” with Seungcheol, please and thank you! I hope this prompt list helps you get out of your funk. Take care! ❤️

stormy weather

pairing: non-idol!s coups x gn!reader

prompt: 1 + 6 from these prompts   

word count: 0.7k

warnings: storm w heavy rain mention!! worried cheol. implied shower together post-fic but its not rly written to be sexual. intentional lowercase + no proofreading!

daisy’s notes: im doing ok!! kinda trying to fix my sleep schedule a lil rn since i can afford to now lol its been helping a lil when i can sit down and write! you take care as well <3

seungcheol had reread your last text to him about twenty times over the past half-hour: i’ll be there in 10!!!

of course, that was sent almost thirty-five minutes ago, and seungcheol was starting to worry. it was raining hard outside, so he’d eased off at first since public transit could take longer when the weather was bad. he texted you a few minutes after your estimated arrival time to ensure that you were in your bus to zero response. seungcheol had started pacing near the entryway to your apartment, eyeing up his own raincoat. he knew where your stop got off... he could at least go wait for you so he knew you came home safely.

seungcheol let out a long sigh and could already hear your playful nagging. that you’d be home soon enough, that he worried too much over you (he never saw it that way: it was dark, the weather was awful, he worried the right amount about you getting home safely), that it was just “a little rain” and that you wouldn’t melt from it. the elevator ride down to the lobby of your building was enough for him to start planning: he’d just go to your stop. if he found you walking home, then that was fine. either way, he’d be there waiting for you.

except he took maybe three steps into the lobby before he watched you talk in through the front door and immediately slip upon trying to dry off before you trekked too much water into the building. seungcheol quickly made his way over to you to steady you.

he’d already begun scolding you for not texting back, and then frowned when you fumbled with your umbrella. “be more careful,” he said, fingers fiddling with the buttons on your raincoat. “i was about to go looking for you--why didn’t you answer me?”

“my phone died,” you looked up, “and you took my portable charger.”

that he did. he frowned again, wiping away a drop of water from your face. he took your hand, holding it tight within his own to keep you steady as he guided you back to the elevator. soon enough, he’d leave you within the front door of your apartment to find towels for you. when he came back, you were pulling off your soaking wet shoes to put them away. he merely threw a towel over your still-wet head, beginning to dry you off despite your whine.

“i can do it myself, you know,” you reached blindly for his hands, pulling them away. he watched as you pulled the towel back, leaning in for a kiss that he dodged. “cheollie....” you pouted, “i didn’t mean to scare you.”

“what happened?” he took your hands, guiding you with him. “was your bus late?”

“the traffic was bad so i got off early and decided to walk,” you said with a shrug. “the street was empty, it didn’t take that long. i was only off the bus for maybe ten minutes. the traffic was bad.”

“how long after did you regret it?”

he watched the way you sucked in your lips, fully caught in your regrets. “like. three minutes later, but the bus was already gone so i decided to commit.”

“i would have paid for your taxi,” he pouted, before leaning in to press a kiss to your temple. “go take a shower or you’ll get sick.” 

“then join me and i will,” you teased. you looked up to see seungcheol, unimpressed, and staring back at you. “oh. cheol,” you frowned, the weight of his worries finally hitting you. “i’m sorry--”

“it’s not your fault--” he immediately said, pulling you in to rest against him, “i just want you to be safe. okay? it’s my fault for taking your charger, too,” he shut his eyes.

you reached up for one of his hands, just to curl your fingers around it. “i’m home now. and you saved me from busting my ass downstairs--”

he chuckled softly. “go turn on the water,” he said, letting you go. “i’ll be there in a moment.”

you’d laughed after saying something that, on a good day, would have made him blush and whine at you. the idea of cuddling with you in the shower (and, maybe, cuddling with you in bed, too) felt better once he let go of the worries he’d been carrying still. you were home now, after all. now it was his turn to make sure you didn’t get sick after your rainy adventure home.

if that meant staying in the warm water with you for a few extra minutes, just to hold you close? then so be it.

taglist: @twancingyunhao @wonuziex @synthetickitsune

[ageofbajabule]

Tequila Sunrise

Sam x F! reader

Word Count: 2.7k

SMUT 18+ MINOR'S DNI

Warnings: alcohol, oral (m and f receiving), rough sex, unprotected sex (WRAP IT UP)

Author's Note: This was a bit shorter than the other ones I have posted so far. So sorry to those that may have wanted a longer fic. I'm stilling learning as I go, and I'm trying to be more confident in my writing so I do hope you enjoy the content I have so far! Hoping you Sammy girls enjoy this content.

Summary: You work at a bar that just so happens to be near the venue that Greta Van Fleet is performing at... Sam is particularly interested in you.

Masterlist: 🤍

Taglist: @yellowroses-world @kassiekolchek22

You were working the bar tonight covering a shift. It was busy as hell, music was so loud your ears could probably bleed out. But you didn’t care as long as the tips were good. You normally had the weekend off, but your friend Jess had the flu and no one else could cover her shift Friday night.

You felt your phone vibrate indicating a message

Jess: Sorry again for you having to cover my shift… :(

You: It’s okay, luckily it's pretty busy tonight. So it’s keeping me busy. :) Hope you’re feeling better.

Jess: I’m still dying over here. But hey! I heard Greta Van Fleet was playing in town tonight, so maybe they’ll pop in for drinks! And maybe you’ll hit it off with one of them ;)

You: Yeah right! A rockstar getting with me?? You’re nuts

Jess: You never know! Keep me posted <3

You slid your phone back into your pocket and shook the thought off, continuing to serve drinks to the happy customers. The most popular drink tonight was Miller Lite from the draft and for a cocktail was Long Island Iced Tea. The bar had good specials for the weekends, and normally had a DJ or a live local band playing. But tonight it was just the DJ, you made sure the DJ stayed hydrated getting him water every half an hour while tending your customers. 

It was now around midnight, the younger crowds poured in as some of the older ones left. You made sure that everyone was ID’d and stamped so there would be no troubles for most of the evening. Not like there was ever any problems here this bar normally had easy going crowds. That was until you heard some girls screaming outside, ‘What the hell could that be?’ Then it clicked in your head that the band was probably heading in. You overheard another bartender talking “There some girls out there freaking because they can’t get in. Like you have to be twenty-one or older to get in…” She giggled going back to doing her job. Well that answers your question as to what the commotion was, you just shook your head walking back behind the bar cleaning up a bit before the next customer came up. 

“Hi, I’d like a Tequila Sunrise double please?” It was a rather angelic voice, you looked over seeing a man with some facial hair and long locks of brown hair. He was quite cute, “I need your ID, along with your friends here…” You smiled politely motioning towards the three other guys with him. “Not a problem.” They all put their ID’s on the bar, you checked them and stamped their hands. “Thank you all!” You went to make his drink and get the rest of the guys their beers and shots of tequila. Your co-worker Greg came up to you right after the guys went and sat down at a table, “Do you know who you just served?” He had a big smile on his face, “Honestly Greg I’ve served so many people tonight I could care less…” You giggled, tucking a piece of your hair behind your ear. “That was Greta Van Fleet!” He quietly yelled to you, you felt your heart drop to your ass, “Oh my god…” You let out quietly. You texted Jess letting her know that they were in fact here, at the bar you were working at. 

‘Somebody better fucking pinch me.’ You thought to yourself, the guys were just like any other normal human being. Just out enjoying the evening after a hard day’s work. You glanced over seeing them laughing with one another as they played over a game of pool. You smiled happy that they could do this in peace without some obnoxious fans trying to ruin their down time. After about another hour the same gentlemen from before came up to order another round for himself and the guys, “What’s your name beautiful?” He smiled while laying money on the counter. “It’s Y/N!” You yelled over the loud music, “And yours?” He smiled, “It’s Sam! And that’s Josh, Danny and Jake.” He pointed out each of the guys as they waved back, “We’re Greta Van Fleet as I'm sure you’ve heard throughout the night.” You nodded your head, “Yeah I heard from my friend I’m covering tonight that y’all were in the area. How was your show?” You finished up the drinks placing them on a small tray. “It was amazing, it’s always a good time no matter where the show is. But I must say tonight was the most fun.” He chuckled, grabbing the tray, “I’ll see you around…” He winked before walking back to the guys. 

Before leaving the bar you asked one of the bartenders to take over while you left to go to the bathroom. While you took a break you decided to text Jess.

You: GIRL! He fucking made small talk and winked at me! His name is Sam. I don’t know what to do! w.w

Jess: Flirt back with him! Make yourself look presentable and available! Show some skin if you have to ;) Just keep me posted!

You: Okay!! I’m freaking! u.u

After that, you adjusted your shirt to show a little more cleavage and fixed your hair to make yourself look pretty much fuckable. I mean after all it would only be a one night stand if it actually even happens. You headed back out to see the guys still playing pool, and you brought it upon yourself to get them another round on the house. You walked over to them handing them their drinks, it was about 2:30 in the morning by now. “This one’s on the house guys! But I'm also here to inform y’all that last call is at 3:30.” You smiled looking at them then turning to wink at Sam. You caught him biting his lip before you walked away to close out some tabs for most of the regulars. As doing so you caught Sam glancing over at you a couple of times throughout the last hour.

Everyone was pretty much out of the building besides the guys. They were gathering their stuff together as you finished counting your tips for the tabs that had closed out and left for the evening. “Thank you guys for coming in tonight. I hope you all enjoyed yourselves after a great show.” They all smiled saying their ‘Thank you’s’ Sam had told them to make their way back to their hotel and he stayed behind to pay the bill and leave a generous tip for you. “Oh, t-thank you… You really don’t have to leave one…” He was handing you almost a $200 tip. “Please, you were kicking ass tonight here. I’m impressed.” He chuckled, scratching the back of his neck. “So, what do you normally do after your shift ends?” He smiled making the conversation continue, “Well I normally head over to Waffle House and get some food… If you want, you can join me?” You smiled softly at him, locking everything up and turning the lights off. “I’d love to, I'm actually starving.” He smiled, “Great! Let me grab my purse and we can get out of here!” You grab the rest of your belongings walking out the bar with him locking it up before heading over to your car. 

On the way over to the waffle house you got to learn a little bit more about Sam and his brothers. Yes even Danny, he’s like a brother to him as well, after all they’ve been best friends for years! You finally arrived at the restaurant getting out of your car Sam followed behind you. “Table for two please.” You ask nicely to the hostess who then guided you two over to your table. Assigned to a booth you sat across from one another. “This is my favorite place to eat.” You giggled softly opening the menu. “So are their waffles any good?” He asked while looking at the menu. “Yes! It’s a must to get! I always get two waffles with strawberries and whipped cream.” You smile brightly, “But get whatever your heart desires.” Sam nodded to your response, the waitress then came over taking your guys order and putting it in.

After about 20 minutes the waitress came back with your order. You clapped your hands together in happiness, Sam smiled at your reaction. You practically dove right into your meal, not eating like an animal of course. After all, you were eating in front of an attractive man. Sam dove into his food as well, you could hear him let out a groan. Assuming he must enjoy the waffles, “I’m guessing they are good?” You giggled, Sam just nodded his head continuing to eat his food. Once you both were full the waitress had come over with the check. The both of you immediately went to grab it, you grabbed it before Sam could. “Y/N!” He looked at you with whiney eyes, “Sam! You did more than enough tonight. Besides, I can pay for it.” You stuck your tongue out at him leaving cash for the bill and tip. “Come on, let’s get out of here.” Sam smiled and got up walking out to your car with you getting in. “Want to come back to the hotel with me?” He smiled at you, “Sure, will the guys mind?” You asked nervously. “The guys and I have separate rooms. So they won’t know.” He smiled, grabbed your hand and squeezed it softly. “Okay, sure!” You smiled driving over to the hotel they were staying at.

After a 10 minute drive you arrive at the hotel they were staying at. It was huge! The only hotels you stayed at were small family owned ones. “This is nice…” You stated getting out of the car following him inside the building. “Just wait till you see the view from the balcony.” He chuckled, pressing the button on the elevator taking you all the way to floor 55. Once the elevator doors opened he let you get in first and walked behind you. As soon as the elevator doors closed Sam pressed his lips against yours. You were taken by surprise at first but then went with it, running your hands through his hair.

He moved his lips to your neck kissing it softly, leaving a trail of marks. A moan escaped from your lips, “You’re so hot…” Feeling his breath on your neck made you crave him even more. “You’ve been driving me wild all night…” You giggled rubbing his bulge through his pants, a moan slipping out. As you heard the elevator ding you both stopped what you were doing, grabbing your hand he led you to his room unlocking the door pulling you in.

You smiled, pulling your shirt off as he locked the door behind. Sam took his shirt off pulling you into him, he kissed you again nibbling on your bottom lip as he slipped his tongue in. You happily accepted as your tongues danced with one another, placing your hands on the waistline of his pants. He moved his hands up your body, grabbing your breasts playing with them.

“Oh fuck…” You moaned out, as you unbuttoned his pants, slipping your hand into his briefs feeling his cock. “Fuck…” He moaned, his eyes filled with lust as he looked at you removing your bra. He kissed your breasts, taking one into his mouth moving his tongue over your nipple. “Sam…” Your breath hitched as he kept flicking his tongue while sucking on your nipple and playing with your other with his hand. You pulled his pants down along with his briefs, you got down on your knees in front of him taking his cock into your hands. Sam looked down at you placing his hand on your cheek, then pulled your hair back. As soon as he did you licked the tip slowly driving him wild he whimpered. “Don’t tease me…” He growled pulling on your hair, you smirked and took him into your mouth. 

Sam tilted his head back moaning, you smirked bobbing your head up and down taking his whole length in. He was bigger than what you were used to.

“Oh fuck.” He moaned pulling on your hair more, you took him as far as you could, letting a quiet gagging noise come from your throat before you pulled off of him, grasping his cock and flicking your tongue under the tip before going right back, broader strokes with your mouth, hollowing out your cheeks. The sucking and slurping noises coming from you filled the room, along with Sam’s moans and panting. You felt him begin to twitch in your mouth and you pulled him from your mouth with a popping sound. 

Sam pulled you up off of your knees picking you up as he kissed your lips roughly, laying you down on the bed. You felt the tightening in your core, aching for his touch. You broke away from the kiss, “Please Sam… I need you…” You panted out rolling your hips up. “Hold on baby…” He smiled going down your body pulling your jeans down along with your underwear. He used his hands to push your legs apart, placing his one hand on your core rubbing slowly. “You’re so wet…” He bit his lip looking at you, “P-please…” You whined out for him, Sam placed his lips on your bud kissing it slowly and licking it. Your hands gripped the sheets of the bed, as you fell into bliss. Sam flicked his tongue in a rather impressive way, making your body feel as waves were crashing. “Oh fuck, fuck Sam…” He gripped onto your thighs to hold you down as you started squirming, “Not. Yet.” He growled and continued to flick his tongue, it was like he was writing in cursive. “Sam… I-i’m gonna cum…” You could feel your core tightening wanting to release. “Go ahead baby, show me how bad you wanted this.” He smirked as he continued what he was doing, those last few words sent you over the edge. You felt your legs tremble beneath you as you came down as of what felt like cloud nine. 

After you came down from your climax, Sam started to pump himself, positioning himself in front of you rubbing his tip against your core. “Sam…” You moaned his name out, grabbing his hips with your hands to pull him closer. “Fuck. Me.” You looked at him with lust filled eyes, Sam obeyed and slammed right into you not giving you the chance to adjust to him. “Oh, shit…” You wrapped your arms around his back pulling him closer to you, faces inches away from one another. Sam attacked your lips kissing them roughly and biting your bottom lip, slightly pulling on his as he slipped his tongue into your mouth moving your tongues together again. His thrusts became harder and deeper making you moan into the kiss, while dragging your nails down his back definitely leaving marks there that he may want to wear his jacket at the next few shows. “Fuck.” Sam moaned, pulling away from the kiss, putting your one leg over his shoulder so he could get a better angle to get deeper. “Sam! I-i’m close a-again…” You cried out in pleasure, Sam kept fucking you this time he picked up the pace. “Oh baby… You. Feel. So. Good…” He kissed your leg as he kept thrusting into you deeper each time hitting your g-spot. “You cum when you're ready baby…” He looked at you smiling, you nodded feeling the next orgasm coming to take over you. 

His next thrust sent you into overdrive making you cum again. “Sam!!!” You moaned out his name, Sam threw your other leg over his shoulder as he started pounding into you. You could hear him panting, meaning he was close, “Give it to me…” You cried out to him, he nodded thrusting deeper at a slower pace feeling him twitch. “Oh fuck Y/N!” He moaned out as he trembled against you, coming undone. He pulled out and laid next to you, the both of you panting as you came down from that lust filled drive. 

“Perhaps I’ll have a reason for coming back here…” He looked over at your laughing softly, “You know where I work…” You smirked at him, “Did you want to shower?” He smirked, you knew exactly where this was going. You stood up standing against the door to the bathroom, “Round 2?” You giggled as Sam ran to you, attacking your lips again.

[sam-glade]

Ctrl+F'ing the Document

Part 2/3 of my editing process. Part 1 link.

This is what I do to a novel or a novella before showing it to anyone (including beta readers). I’m posting it in hopes that it will help someone, and I’m not expecting it to work for everyone. Take any parts that help you!

The goal of this step is to reduce word count by removing redundant and filtering words, and make the text more crisp and direct.

Two things up front:

‘Imperfect’ doesn’t mean ‘bad’. Good writing can have imperfections.

The goal is to get the manuscript to a stage where the imperfections won’t be distracting to beta readers.

Remove filtering and padding words

(With examples from my current editing pass of Gifts of Fate)

Search the manuscript – literally, with ctrl+F – for the following words. Try to remove especially those outside of dialogue. I allow more padding in dialogue to help differentiate character voices. 

Most of these words can be removed within the context of the single sentence, maybe with a glance at the previous or the next one, for repetitions.

Suddenly – can be removed in 99% of the cases. In 109k words of GoF, I’m left with 5 occurrences, 3 of which are in dialogue. E.g. ‘He laughed suddenly.’ → ‘He burst out laughing.’

Then – as above. E.g. ‘He blushed then and looked to the side.’ → straight up remove ‘then’. What do you add to the sentence, little word?

‘In order to’ – can almost always be replaced with just ‘to’, but see a note below on using ‘to’ to indicate intent.

‘At that’, ‘at him’ in phrases like ‘was surprised by that’, ‘smiled at him’. E.g. ‘Ianim smiled at him with a mischievous twinkle in his eyes.’ → Just remove ‘at him’ 

Something – can usually be replaced with 1-2 more specific words, which will pack a sentence with more information. E.g. ‘It was something he could trust, and so he did.’ → ‘It was an instinct he could trust, and so he did.’

And on that note…

Turn intent into action

Don’t tell me what the character’s immediate plan is; show them doing it. This makes the action more direct, since we spend less time in the character’s head, and more watching the events unfold.

The first words to search for here are: could, would, should.

E.g. second pass of the last example: ‘It was an instinct he could trust, and so he did.’ → ‘It was an instinct he trusted.’

E.g. 'He could understand where they were coming from' → 'He understood where…'

I’m not that aggressive with removing the latter two.

Similarly ‘to’. Searching for it with ctrl+F produces a lot of false positives, but the instances I’m looking for are ‘they did X in order to do Y’.

E.g. ‘She slowly reached out her hand to touch the blade.’ → ‘She reached out slowly and touched the blade with a shaking hand.’

E.g. ‘The animals began to scuttle away.’ → ‘The animals scuttled away.’

E.g. ‘He sat straddling the bench to look directly at Lissan.’ → ‘... and looked …’

Yes, the meaning changes a tiny bit, but is the distinction crucial? In my case, the answer is almost always: it’s not.

Other padding words, often included in writing advice, are ‘that’, ‘almost’, ‘still, ‘quite’, and ‘very’, and again, they can be either removed or replaced with a stronger/weaker word.

E.g. ‘The wall to the right was almost entirely covered by a detailed map of the Five Princedoms.’ → ‘The wall to the right was covered by a detailed map of the Five Princedoms.’

E.g. ‘It even glowed very faintly in the dark.’ → just remove ‘very’.

Filtering words

Heard, smelled, felt, saw – they’re the filtering words, ok, but what does that mean? They distance the reader from the events, like observing them through a window. They also shift the focus from the events, onto the characters – so yes, I’d leave the words in when I want to stress that the character managed to see/hear something, despite it pushing the limits on their senses, but in most cases, they can go.

Each one of them is a little different, and I’ll order them from the most straightforward to most nuanced.

‘Heard’ is probably the easiest, and the only times I’d leave it in is when someone is eavesdropping (with description of how clearly they can hear a conversation) or to highlight that someone has exceptional hearing (with a note on the distance). Other than that, remove. E.g. ‘He heard his own voice falter.’ → ‘His voice faltered.’

‘Smelled’ – I try to remove it in sentences of the form ‘they smelled apple pies’, not ‘the apple pies smelled delicious.’ I’m also less aggressive about this one, and again leave it when it highlights someone’s super-senses. And! I never remove it at the cost of not describing a smell – include all senses. E.g. ‘Lissan smelled a rejuvenating, not quite minty aroma.’ → ‘A rejuvenating, not quite minty aroma drifted towards Lissan.’

‘Felt’ – there are at least two reasons why I’d want to remove it. First is that it’s telling emotions, in sentences like ‘He felt embarrassed.’ and I’ll get to these in the next part. The second thing is strictly filtering, describing what a character noticed about the environment. E.g. ‘It was black and it felt oily.’ → ‘It was black and oily, leaving unpleasant smudges on his fingers.’ E.g. ‘He felt a gust of wind at the back of his head.’ → ‘A gust of wind ruffled the hair at the back of his head.’

‘Saw’ – again, there are two ways in which I see this word pop up in my draft, which I want to cut down on. One is describing the action of watching, noticing, or spotting, and in most cases it can be replaced with a more specific word, like the ones above. E.g. ‘She’d seen Barran sew a cut like this once.’ → ‘She’d watched Barran…’ The other way it comes up is the typical filtering: E.g. ‘He saw Lissan tense up.’ → ‘Lissan tensed up.’

One exception to this rule is when removing them makes you ask how the POV character saw it, e.g. when they’re facing a different direction. E.g. ‘They saw a glint of steel out of the corner of their eye. They pivoted on their heel and raised their Sabre to meet the falling blade.’ → leave as is. Note to self: ‘Out of a corner of their eye’ is not a get out of jail free card for using ‘saw’. I definitely use it too often.

Oof that’s all I the words I ctrl+F for…

As I write more, I start forming sentences without these words by habit, and I find fewer and fewer ctrl+f’able words to remove.

Part 3 to come soon.

Requested tag: @galactic-mystics-writes