#and he only realizes this fact once someone else very well-acquainted with the cost of war points it out to him

[tovaicas]

some of the threads probably could've been handled better but as a whole I love alphinaud's HW character arc so much

[1kook]

disney+ & bust

this is part of my netflix & chill collection !

summary; There’s a pounding on your door a little past noon, so hard and rough, that you almost think it’s the police finally coming to catch you for all your years of illegally pirating Phineas and Ferb. It’s not. It’s just a really drunk boyfriend wailing for your forgiveness at the door.  warnings; arguments, feelings of insecurity, bit of asshole jk, smut in the forms of degradation, dumbification, choking, fingering, spit kink, self punishment, unprotected but [ passionate ] sex, jk losing his cool, return of mean jk, he is actually an emotional mess in this one wtf miscellaneous; ANGST, anniversaries, the L word😳, app developer kook, rip ‘pretty girl’ </3, we all become phineas and ferb stans word count; 13k !!

notes; me: *writes couple who’s whole arc is being silly* y’all: MAKE THEM SUFFER GIVE US ANGST!! u ask I deliver so now we all suffer 😐 ngl it was hard writing this fic n u might notice there’s some parts that seem weird n that’s bc this was TWO fics w diff wording but I ended up mixing them bc I’m insane. still had a lot of fun! felt like I challenged myself!! not proofread bc when I say we suffer we SUFFER

please let me know what you think!!! a simple ask goes a long way <3

previous part: kissanime & foreplay

Approximately one week after The Bullet Bestie’s rise to prominence, Jungkook grows annoyed with it as his weirdly competitive nature rears its ugly head the more and more orgasms that little vibrator coaxes out of you. It turns on a weird switch in him, something slightly stuck up and snooty that he’ll never admit to out loud but is there nonetheless. By the following Friday, The Bullet Bestie is nestled deep in your garbage can and Jungkook’s back to pleasuring you with his tongue and fingers alone.

He had those moments in him, the ones where he liked to think he was better than any and everyone else, and occasionally they manifested against inanimate objects like a bullet vibrator.

Despite his polite and generally soft exterior, you catch glimpses of that cocky spirit more than anyone else. Over the past year, you’ve come to realize that Jungkook’s personality was like a coin that had been left out in the sun too long. He had this sweet and reserved nature you saw most times, a kindhearted boyfriend who adored you almost as much as you adored him. He was your angel whom you knew had a heart of gold, even if you were slowly bringing out his more childish tendencies. You knew him like the back of your hand, knew what his mom’s favorite color was and how he liked to stack the plates in his cabinet according to size and make. It was a side that was rusted from years of being out in the sun, basking in its adoring warmth, and you loved every inch about it.

And still, there was this other side to him you rarely saw. This cocky asshole who hid beneath the soft smiles and careful hands, making his appearance only through sly smirks and a tongue prodding against the inside of his cheek. He was a braggart, a man who knew his greatness yielded for no one and wanted that fact shoved down everyone’s faces. This Jungkook, this other side that never saw the light of day, was like the Hyde to his Jekyll. An unexpected, almost mean side to him that only dared make his appearance when his exhilaration was at an all-time high. Like when he was fucking you into another dimension, or kicking your ass in Mario Kart, or like now, when he was receiving an award at an annual tech ceremony.

On the eve of your one year anniversary, Jungkook’s company invites him to an awards ceremony for other web and app developers like him. It’s a grand event, filled with all the biggest nerds in the developing industry here to present the baby nerds with awards. Jungkook lies somewhere in the middle of the spectrum, both a seasoned player and a rookie all at once. He spends the night tolling you around in a floor-length gown and fangirling over all the “legends” in the room.

You know next to none of these people and none of their accomplishments but still pretend you respect them to hell and back. By the end of the main dinner, you’re sympathizing with Barbie’s ever-smiling features because your cheeks feel sore.

Towards the end of the night, Jungkook wins that random award— okay, who were you fooling? He wins the Platinum Mobile Standard of Excellence Award, recognizing him for all the hard work you’ve seen him put in this past year. It’s probably the highest recognition he can receive at this point in his career. It was an esteemed award that was bestowed upon only the most innovative developer of the year among tech companies, something Jungkook had briefly mentioned he always wanted. It’s basically the equivalent of placing first place in his field, but given Jungkook’s competitive industry and his young age, you think it’s like telling all these old Facebook lords to suck his big fat cock. (But that was your job when you got home.)

He gives a short little thank you speech, promising to work hard and own up to this title. The people around you are swooning, obviously endeared with his soft puppy dog features and melodic voice. They don’t know him like you do, don’t know that uppity twist to his grin like you do. It doesn’t slip off his face even when he steps down off the stage, arms wide open as he comes barreling towards you. Even with you in his arms, the congratulations that are thrown from every direction ring loudly in his ears and swell that ego of his.

The night goes like that for the most part, Jungkook’s acquaintances approaching him every few minutes to rain down their praises. He goes a little crazy at the open bar after a while, shoving the gold trophy into your arms as his beloved work seniors whisk him off for drinks. You don’t mind because you resigned yourself to a night of playing Jungkook’s perfectly perfect partner anyway, watching him politely mingling with his coworkers. Despite his earlier success, you know he won’t brag about it verbally. No, he’ll wait until the two of you get home—your place or his—and remind you how amazing he is with a quick snap of his hips.

As you said, he’ll never boast aloud.

However, that doesn’t mean you won’t.

“That’s my boyfriend,” you explain to the seventh person that greets you that night, excitedly pointing to where said boyfriend was slowly losing all sense of self by the bar. You don’t know anyone here beside Jungkook, and you’re pretty sure no one in their hammered minds is going to remember who you are anyway, so a little gloating never hurt anyone. “He won the ‘I’m Better Than Everyone Else’ award tonight,” you emphasize to the tipsy woman beside you who only laughs at your exaggeration. You assume she’s like you, accompanying one of the many developers here, because as soon as you finish boasting about Jungkook she moves to brag about someone too.

Truth be told, you spend the whole night re-analyzing the Zootopia movie you saw on Disney+ the other night in your head. So if the little fox fellow didn’t control himself would the city have fallen to ruins? Why was the useless sheep girl so evil and bitter? Why was there an unreal amount of romantic tension between the fox and the rabbit? Whatever, you’ll have to rewatch it some other night, and with your new Disney+ account, you could watch it anywhere you wanted to.

Now, you had never bothered to purchase a Disney+ subscription or even tried to swindle Jungkook for his password before. As far as you know, Disney+ was filled with old tv shows from your childhood, sitcoms that made you laugh when you were ten. There’s nothing wrong with that, but personally, you were a firm believer that that which was perfect should not be touched once finished; in other words, you were utterly terrified you’d rewatch an old episode of The Wizards of Waverly Place, only to find out the same joke you’ve been regurgitating for the past ten years doesn’t actually go that way.

However, the harsh reality was that Disney+ was good for a few things. Ugh, you hate when giant corporations provide decent services. Aside from Zootopia, you’ve watched about every animated media on there as well, all of which you replay in your mind as Jungkook has the time of his life with these nerds, knocking back champagne glass after champagne glass.

Anyway, the night ends a little past midnight, and Jungkook who is buzzed on alcohol and high on exhilaration ends up calling an Uber for the two of you. Your apartment— the new one he had not only helped you hunt for but also helped you move into, greatly cutting the cost of movers out with those glistening biceps and thick thighs —is still going through her rebellious phase where the potted plants are trying to take over, courtesy of Kim Namjoon. So for now, there’s a potted plant in an awkward corner that both of you stub your toe against on your way to your bedroom.

You’re thinking Jungkook is going to go to town tonight, given the fact he’s on Cloud 9 and has had his ego stroked by a bunch of dudes for the past couple hours. Maybe you guys can try out the hot role-playing scenario you saw on GirlsWay a few weeks ago, or the handcuffs you impulsively bought from Amazon one Monday night. Or maybe, and this one really makes you flutter, he’ll let you fully take the reins for once.

All those lewd fantasies end up being for naught because just as you shimmy out of your gown (with the help of his hands, of course) and turn to climb him like a tree, he’s on the other side of the room getting your makeup remover out for you. And also talking. A lot. And way more than usual.

“Did you see him, babe?” he sighs, dare you to say, dreamily, handing you the cotton pads as he begins pulling a million pins out of your hair. Slowly and with a lot of confusion, you pull your fake lashes off and begin cleaning your face. “He was amazing.”

“Uh-huh,” you say, having absolutely no idea who ‘he’ is or why Jungkook is so in love with him and not you at this very moment. “But so were you,” you add. Perfect. Stroke his ego and then stroke his cock.

Jungkook sputters at your praise. He’s carefully placing your hairpins on your thigh, cheeks flaming red every time he leans over you. “Was I?” he murmurs, voice sweet in that cute little way it always gets when he’s downed one too many shots of whiskey, enough to be buzzed but not enough to be wasted.

You turn and the pins clatter to the floor and across the bedsheets. “Yes,” you confirm, ignoring his sad huff at the mess you’ve made. Instead, you grab him by the collar of that pink button-up he taunted you with all night. “You were fucking incredible and I think incredible men deserve to have their dick sucked.”

Jungkook laughs at your vulgar statement, holding you gently by the hips as you climb into his lap. “Is that so?” The soft, shy persona is gone now, replaced by the gentle stirring beneath his dress pants. You nod hurriedly, plopping down on his lap and running your hands through his styled hair.

“Yes,” you confirm, kissing the corner of his mouth. “Luckily for you, I know this nymphomaniac who would gladly gobble up your cock at your every command.”

He snorts just as you push him into his back, nose adorably scrunched up. “First of all, you know I hate that word,” he chuckles, finally gracing you with a sweet peck that only makes you want him to fuck you into the fifth dimension. “Secondly, please don’t ever say you’ll gobble my cock up ever again.”

Something inside of you squeals with excitement as he rolls the two of you over, firm body pressing down on yours. “Oh, baby,” you groan, lazily throwing a leg over his hip. Jungkook grins and then decides to entertain you for a few minutes with a sloppy kiss.

You say a few minutes because just as things are heating up, he pulls away. He smiles apologetically. “As much as I’d love to be here with you, I actually have an early morning tomorrow.”

You frown at the sudden change in events. “Huh? They’re gonna make you work the morning after a Gatsby party?” you gasp, sitting up as he gets off of you. With every step he takes away from the bed your heart breaks a little more. “They can’t do that— that’s illegal!”

From the doorway he levels you with a comically raised brow. “No, it’s not.”

You scamper after him down the hall, watch the muscles in his back flex as he pulls his suit jacket on. “You can’t work on our anniversary— that’s illegal!” you offer instead.

He stops at your front door, feet squeezed back into his shoes. “Baby, it’s not,” he rolls his eyes, leaning down to peck your forehead. “It was either I work in the morning or work at night,” he explains, giving your messy hair a soothing caress. He’s looking at you with those eyes, the ones that make your heart lodge itself into your throat and make life a tightrope experience. There’s a devastatingly lovesick part of you that wants this moment, this kind face, to be engraved into your mind for the rest of your life. You want this to be the first and last thought you have and nothing else: just Jungkook’s adoring gaze on you for the rest of time.

The moment ends too soon when he flutters one last peck against your lips. “I’ll be done in the afternoon, okay?”

You pout. “Okay, your place?” you huff, making sure to get one last octopus squeeze around his waist. He nods. “Promise you won’t be late?”

The corners of his gaze soften. “You know I won’t,” he smiles, leaning down to bump your noses together playfully. “Can’t stay away from my pretty girl too long. Besides, I have a gift for you tomorrow.”

It’s with that sentiment and a hammering heart that you let him go. With Jungkook gone, there’s really nothing for you to do now. You took the next two days off in preparation for your anniversary sex, so you don’t have to head to sleep early like usual.

With nothing else planned, you decide on rewatching that Zootopia movie that had plagued you all night, ready to dissect every plot hole to hell and back. You don’t think Jungkook’s seen this movie yet so you add it to your long list of animated movies you’re forcing him to watch.

Part of you is actually really surprised Jungkook left. Well, kinda sorta, very, but not really. Jungkook was a good boy, that much was obvious. He took his job seriously, and if his job wanted him to come in at the asscrack of dawn, then he’d come in before the sun even rose. He was a goody-two-shoes, but even so, you were occasionally able to bring out that darker side in him.

Jungkook working, like actually working in an office setting, was pretty rare though. The dude had a chill job that let him stay home most of the time, and essentially clock in whenever he wanted. Every now and then you were able to convince him to stay, tucking him beneath your body or the covers, depending on the night, and refusing to let him go the morning after.

Once he had eaten you out until the wee hours of the day, ravenous between your thighs, and then went to work the next morning like he hadn’t broken you. Another time you had persuaded him into watching every season of the 2017 DuckTales reboot through the night. When the alarm had rung in the middle of the season finale, he had simply gotten into your shower and gone off to work.

So maybe you were a little confident in your skills, and Jungkook slipping between your fingers tonight was a huge bummer. But there was no use crying over spilled milk, you tell yourself, flinging your bra off somewhere in the corner as you snuggle back into your sheets. You’re ready to tear this Zootopia movie apart, scene by scene.

Even though your apartment is a little cold, you’re comforted by the fact Jungkook will be here to keep you warm all day tomorrow.

All men do is lie.

Despite his promise to come home early the next day, Jungkook ends up lying. The meeting he had been in all morning— the same one that had stopped you from getting bent like a pretzel the night before —drags on well past noon. Then, Kim Namjoon, AKA Jungkook’s favorite senpai in the entire world, catches wind of Jungkook’s success last night and absolutely has to take him out to lunch to celebrate.

You scoff, glaring down at your phone and the impulsive messages you’d sent out an hour ago when Jungkook had first texted you telling you he would be late.

You whirl around to stomp off in the direction of his living room, where all of yours and Jungkook’s favorite foods were growing colder by the minute. You had spent the longest time carefully laying them out, making sure the fried chicken was closer than the pizza but not closer than the breadsticks. Truthfully it’s a nightmare. There are about eight stomach aches worth of food sitting on his coffee table, the greasy stench makes you gag and will certainly stick to your hair for weeks, but none of that mattered because it was all for your beau.

Your very late beau who was making you grow more and more agitated with each minute that passed. Ugh! How inconsiderate of him to test your patience on a day like this. You didn’t want to be upset with him, but this was your first, real milestone as a couple with him. You had wanted to spend the whole day cuddled up, maybe finally tell him how much he really meant to you— definitely not waking up alone with eyeliner crusted eyes and an aching heart.

Deciding you’re being a little too dramatic, you head into the bedroom to calm down. This was fine, you tell yourself, carefully laying out the damn near harlotrous lingerie you had yet to put on. Jungkook would come over soon and everything would be A-okay.

Except for the part it’s actually F-not okay because soon it’s nearing sunset and the food has gone cold so you’ve stocked it into the fridge, and the pretty sheer bra has a wonky wire that’s two seconds away from piercing through your heart, but that doesn’t even matter because Jungkook being late for your all-day anniversary celebration has already ripped it to shreds anyway.  

You plop down on the couch in defeat, impulsively opening up the Disney+ app to cry through another episode of Phineas and Ferb. You’ve abandoned the satin robe that came with the lingerie in favor of donning a big t-shirt that smells like him and makes your heart hurt even more. The setting sun paints the living room in muted oranges, the chirping of birds outside the soundtrack to your lonely day.

You end up watching some other cartoon on Disney+, avoiding the Marvel section because you had promised Jungkook he could be there when you lost your Marvel virginity. Well, at least one of you was good at keeping promises, you think bitterly. For a second, you think about randomly watching one of the infamous MCU films out of order just to spite him. But then you think of that soft puppy gaze and how disappointed he’d be in you.

Whatever! It wouldn’t ever match up to the way you felt now.

Anyway, you circle back. When you’re five episodes into Phineas and Ferb you hear the doorknob rattle.

You sit up just as the door swings open, visible from your spot on the couch. He meets your gaze almost immediately, big doe eyes caught in the act. What act? You’re not really sure. In fact, you don’t even know what you’re looking at when he walks in because he’s drowning in shopping bags. His lips twist into a grin. “Honey, I’m home,” he says playfully.

You don’t laugh.

Jungkook frowns, dumping all his bags down at the entrance before waddling over towards you. “Hey, what’s wrong?” he asks, coming to stand before you and cupping your face in his hands. He’s towering over you, so tall and gorgeous but for the first time, you’re not dazed by his beauty.

“Kook, you said you’d be back hours ago,” you say slowly, avoiding his gaze. You try to keep the frustration out of your voice, but you’ve had hours to dwell on it now, and those annoying cartoon characters, though charming at first, had only served to multiply your annoyance.  

Jungkook blinks, tucking a strand of hair behind your ear. “I mean… yeah. But I got you presents?” he beams, glancing back at the mountainous pile he made by the door. You look over too. There are some luxury bags squeezed in between other shops you like, the occasional jewelers' logo on the side.

You stand with a sigh, sauntering off into the kitchen with him on your tail. “I don’t want presents,” you mumble, reaching to pour yourself a glass of water. You’re briefly aware of how childish you must seem. Jungkook hovers behind you.

“What? Yes, you do,” he says. “You had an entire wishlist on my Amazon of things you wanted.” It’s his turn to level you with an unreadable expression, slowly crossing his arms over his chest.

Your frown only deepens as you turn to match his stance against the counter. While it may be true that you did indeed have an entire list of impulsive items on his Amazon, that didn’t necessarily mean you wanted them all. Sometimes you just wanted to stare longingly at a pair of satin gloves without actually buying them. You don’t know how to explain this much to him. “They’re not…” you stop with another deep breath. “Forget it. Thank you for the presents.”

Now it’s Jungkook’s turn to question you. “What,” he says in an unimpressed tone, padding over to you before you can escape back into the living room to watch the entire princess movie collection on Disney+. “No, tell me what’s wrong.”

For some reason, that’s exactly what you don’t want to hear. “Jungkook,” you say flatly, narrowing your eyes at him. “You come home six hours after you said you would without telling me why, and normally I wouldn’t care, but today was supposed to be a special day for us.”

Jungkook reels at your bluntness. “Babe, I was out getting stuff for you. I know it’s our anniversary— that’s why I wanted to treat you,” he responds, oddly condescendingly like you’re a child who doesn’t understand what exactly he was doing.

You brush his hands away from your shoulders. “Yeah,” you huff. “Now I know that. But I spent all day waiting for you,” you stress, chest puffing as you grow more and more agitated by his inability to understand you. God, can he let you go now? At least a bunch of animated, geometrically drawn cartoons won’t question you like this and make you feel as childish as he was.

When he doesn’t say anything else you stomp back into the living room, snatching up your phone from its forgotten spot against the couch. “I’m going to bed.”

At that Jungkook seems to kickstart back to life. “What? ___, it’s barely six,” he says as he follows after you into your bedroom. You ignore him, shuffling beneath the covers. In all actuality, you’re going to bed to mope and watch more animated family shows, maybe cry under the guise of the plot just being so sad. Jungkook sits beside you just as you click back on to finish off your episode. “Baby, I don’t get it,” he sighs. “You’re always talking about how much you want this or that, and I go out and get you it all but now you’re mad?”

You bite down on your lip, eyes lasered in on the pictures moving before you. “Jungkook, just forget it.”

“No,” he says, more sternly than he’s ever been with you before. “If there’s a problem, tell me.” There’s a heavy pause, and then he says, “don’t make me waste my time guessing what’s wrong, okay?” 

“Waste your time?” you scoff, sitting up with pinched brows that you find match his. “I’m not trying to waste anyone’s time— in fact, that’s hot coming from you, Jungkook.”

He rolls his eyes. “What are you even saying? You’re mad because I took a little long getting presents, for you, might I add,” he huffs, plopping down on the edge of the mattress beside your knee. “You’re always saying you want this and that, but you can’t handle me going out to get those things? Do you hear how weird you sound?”

You whip the covers off of you. “Me talking about things doesn’t always mean I want them,” you defend.

Jungkook snorts. “Yes, it does,” he says. “Anytime you ramble about stuff for minutes like a little kid it’s because you want me to buy it for you.”

You blink. “Like a little kid?” you repeat, stunned by his comparison. Granted, you always knew you were the more childish of the two, but you never thought that would equate Jungkook thinking of you as a child. Something red and nasty flares in your chest. “Well sorry,” you spit, crossing your arms over your chest defensively, “sorry we all can’t be perfectly mature golden boys who would never see the light of day if I constantly wasn’t dragging them out.” You know it’s a somewhat low blow, especially because Jungkook’s told you before how his introverted tendencies were a sensitive issue growing up, but you can’t help it.

Jungkook groans, dropping his head into his hands. “Baby, don’t do this now,” he warns, digging the heels of his palms into his eyes. “Stop acting like this.”

“Like how?” you spit, “like a kid?” Jungkook says nothing, leveling you with a blank stare from the corner of his eye. You roll your eyes, phone falling off your lap. Another episode of Phineas and Ferb had started, the corny opening tune filling the space between the two of you. “At least now I know what you think of me,” you mutter over the guitar riff.

“Oh my god,” Jungkook blurts, sitting up wildly. “Of course I’m gonna think of you as a stupid little kid, look at you,” he seethes, gesturing at the phone beside you. You flinch. “All you do is watch kids shows and whine whenever I wanna watch anything normal adults watch. You complain every single day about the most normal things, like your job? Why should I fucking care that you’re working a dead-end office job in a field you didn’t even study for— that’s not my problem, __!” he snaps, eyes narrowed into little slits. “I just won an award last night,” he says suddenly, voice back to its regular volume. “I’m at the height of my career and I’m only going up, but I can’t even enjoy that because I have to come home and cater to you,” he finishes, a loud scoff punctuating the final word.

You had never imagined Jungkook finally bragging about himself would be at your expense.

A beat of silence passes, the angry glint in his eyes quickly fading away the longer you don’t say anything. You sniff once, turning your head idly to the side where Phineas and Ferb is still blaring loudly from your phone speaker. Picking up the device, you throw it across the room where it hits his closet door with a terrifying bang the breaks the silence.

The sound snaps Jungkook out of whatever shock he’d been in. “Baby…” he says slowly, carefully, like you’re a caged animal that’s just escaped the zoo.

“I’m going home,” you say, also a little too calmly. You saunter over towards his closet where your shattered phone screen glares up at you as you yank a pair of sweats off a hanger. Jungkook is still frozen on the edge of the bed, watching you with wide eyes as you move about the room.

It’s when you’re in the hallway leading downstairs that Jungkook finally snaps out of his daze, scampering behind you as you descend the stairs. “Baby,” he rushes out, loudly bounding down after you, “___, wait,” he gasps, catching you by the kitchen counter collecting your keys. “I-I didn't mean that,” he rushes out, eyes wide and frantic as they flicker over your expression. “I don’t think that—I don’t, baby, please, just… let me explain, please.”

“Jungkook, let go of me,” you respond, shaking your wrist in an attempt to release yourself. He’s not even holding you tightly— he never would—but the sound of your heart pounding in your ears makes your movements jerky and erratic. “I wanna go home.”

“No,” he chokes, cornering you against the counter. “No, baby, please just listen to me, I-I—“

“You what, Jungkook?” you snap, placing a hand on his chest and forcefully pushing him away. He lets you, stepping back with a wobbly bottom lip. “You need to tell me how you’re too good for me? How much I hold you down because I wasn’t lucky enough to get a job like yours straight out of college?” He says nothing, swallowing roughly as you jab a finger into his chest. “Well let me tell you something,” you snarl, chest heaving, “I may be childish and a huge complainer, but I’m not stupid enough to let someone walk all over me like this.”

With that, you make your great escape. Truthfully, you don’t want him to see the tears in your eyes as you yank his door open, stomping down his steps and in the direction of the nearest bus stop. The door opens right after you tug it shut, painting your shadow across the sidewalk. There’s the scrambled sound of house slippers against the concrete that follows you down. “Go the fuck back inside,” you snap without missing a beat.

Sensing your obvious anger, he pauses before he can reach you. “Text me when you get home?” he calls out quietly.

“No,” you respond.

You would never admit to anyone that you spend the entire night eating a tub of mint chocolate ice cream. It’s disgusting and makes you gag, but it’s the only one you have in your apartment. And of course, it was brought over by none other than Jeon Jungkook himself a few days ago. Even when you’re trying to comfort yourself over how mean he was, on your anniversary night no less, you’re plagued by thoughts of him everywhere.

As much as you want to brush his words off, put on that cool girl exterior you’ve maintained since high school, there’s something different about this situation. You guess it’s impossible to brush off such hateful words when they come from someone you love and adore so much.

Were you too childish? You had always believed that side of you was what made your relationship with Jungkook so perfect. The two of you meshed well because of your differences, like yin and yang. So how had he been able to so easily deconstruct every inch of that balance in a matter of a few seconds? Was this perfect reality all in your head this whole time?

You want to tell yourself it was just a heat of the moment outburst from Jungkook, give him the benefit of the doubt because he’s never snapped at you like this before. Of course you’ve fought a couple of times in the past year, but neither of you had ever stooped as low as you did yesterday. Furthermore, the insecure part of your brain says he obviously felt this somewhere in his heart to bring it up at all. What he had said to you wasn’t something someone could make up on the spot.

You don’t text him when you get home, partly to spite him, but mainly because you had left your phone at his place anyway. You know he tried calling you last night because the call log is synced up to your laptop. He called on and off for about thirty minutes before he probably found your phone in his room. Whatever, he can mope in his regret for all you care

—is what you wanna say, but the longer he goes without showing himself to you the more your insecurities and hurt fester. Was this it? Was this the end of what was probably the best year of your life? It’s too painful to think about, to even consider the possibility that Jungkook might have gained a new insight last night and decided, hey, maybe this is for the best after all.

You drown yourself in an ungodly amount of sugar for breakfast, your laptop blaring yet another episode of Phineas and Ferb on the dining table. Muscle memory has you making Jungkook’s favorite pancakes before you can stop yourself, and by the time you do realize, you’ve resigned yourself to the blueberry smell anyway.

There’s a pounding on your door a little past noon, so hard and rough, that you almost think it’s the police finally coming to catch you for all your years of illegally pirating Phineas and Ferb.

It’s not.

It’s just a really drunk boyfriend wailing for your forgiveness at the door. You open the door with a fright, jumping back when he slumps forward and almost crashes face-first into the floor. “You didn’t call,” Jungkook cries, leaning a little too much of his weight onto you when you reach out to steady him.

The thundering of your heart slows upon registering it’s him. “Kook?” you frown, nose pinched at the ungodly stench of alcohol wafting off his clothes. “Have you been drinking?” you ask even though the answer is staring you right in the face (and in the nose).

He groans, staggering deeper into your arms. You blindly push the door shut behind him, resigning yourself to this new situation while your pancakes grow cold in the other room. “Baaaby,” he slurs, letting you guide him into the living space. He’s unceremoniously dumped onto the couch, half-opened eyes gazing up at you. “Let me,” a hiccup, “explain.”

You won’t lie. There’s a very obvious sense of discomfort sitting in your chest, torn between two paths that you don’t wish to choose between. His skin is warm and flushed like he’s just walked all the way here in this morning sun. You step over to the window that faces down onto the street below. There’s no sign of his car; you would have killed him if he ever tried to drive in this state.

“Did you walk here?” you ask instead, deciding there’s no need for one singular path, not when you can walk straight down the middle, both cleaning him and grilling him at the same time.

Jungkook’s response is delayed, head lolling from side to side as you help him out of his sweater. His skin is sweaty beneath, scorching to the touch. “Uh-huh,” he groans. Jesus, you sort of assumed but him confirming it really set things into perspective.

By no means did you and Jungkook live on opposite ends of the earth. On a good day, a drive from your place to his took about ten minutes. But walking? Easily an hour. Had he walked all the way from his place, drunk on top of that?

You brush his hair away from his face, his eyes fluttering shut at your touch. His lips are pouty yet chapped, dehydrated from the sun and the alcohol he reeks of. “Sit up for me,” you instruct, scampering off to your room for chapstick and water.

“Anything for you,” Jungkook wheezes, throat probably dryer than a desert. When you return, he’s two seconds from face planting into the coffee table and breaking that pretty face of his. You catch him with a hand on his shoulder, keeping him balanced. “Tell me what to do,” he chokes out, voice hoarse.

“Just need you to drink some water,” you say, pressing a cup against his lips. He drinks it, but a drop still dribbles down his chin.

“No,” he groans, catching your wrist in his hand when you reach up to apply some chapstick on him. “Tell me what to do,” he stresses, “to fix this. Fix us.”

His words make you pause, the tube of chapstick hovering over his plush lips. “You don’t have to do anything,” you respond quietly, trying to finish the application so you can pull away.

Jungkook doesn’t let you go. You try to look away, but there’s something about him that looks off. Maybe it’s the raw skin under his eyes, red and swollen. Or the sad droop to those same eyes that hold you captive. Or maybe it’s the subtle tremble in his hands, the fingers that hold tightly to your wrist, not to keep you there but to ground himself. “I don’t wanna lose you,” he rasps out, shakily bringing your hand to his mouth, where he presses one airy kiss to your knuckles. “Tell me ho-how to fix this and I’ll do it,” he pleads, a vulnerable look in his eyes.

Unable to withstand the sheer amount of agony on his expression, you look away. “___, please,” he chokes out, stumbling off the couch in his drunk and desperate haze until he’s kneeling in front of you. “I can’t… I can’t,” he sniffles, tears clouding those pretty eyes you’ve come to love so much. “I don’t know who I am without you.”

You clench your jaw. “You’re Jeon Jungkook,” you murmur, slipping your hand out of his hold to run through his hair. It’s knotted and a little too greasy, two things Jungkook would usually never allow. “This year’s Platinum Mobile Standard of Excellence Award recipient,” you remind him, trailing your thumb across his cheekbone when he turns to look up at you with those big Bambi eyes. “Sweet and shy, but you love being rowdy with your friends. You love movies and TV and organizing your shirts according to fabric type. You work harder than anyone I know and never complain. You date me, even though I’m a huge child,” you smile sadly.

“No!” he jumps, turning that frantic stare back into you. “Y-You’re not— it’s not,” he stammers, words still slurring together. “I’m a liar,” he cries, resting his forehead on your knees. His shoulders shake. “I don’t deserve you,” he weeps quietly. You place a hand on his shoulder. “Y-Y-You make my life so much better, ___, so colorful and fun. I-I wish I knew you in high school,” he admits, “maybe I wouldn’t have been so emotionally constipated now.”

“You’re not,” you reassure him softly.

He disagrees. “You bring out the best,” he hiccups, “the best in me.” Your heart skips in your chest. “I-I love you, you know that?”

You sputter, eyes wide at his sudden confession. “I… love you so much, y’know? I think about you ev-every night, ___,” he rambles, eyes dreamily gazing off into some miscellaneous spot on the wall behind you. “I can’t get you out of my head. Like you're a song, o-on repeat but it’s not annoying because it’s my favorite song, and I could listen to it for the rest of my life, y’know? My favorite song, I know all the words b-because it’s all I think about! I love... My love… I love you so much.”

“Kook,” you rush out, cheeks flaming as you try to pull him away from where he’s slumped over your legs. His passionate speech has you abuzz, body tingling everywhere until you feel overwhelmed, head spinning like you’re on a rollercoaster. “Let’s get you to bed.”

He nods sleepily, seemingly coming down from whatever alcohol induced rampage has allowed him to walk for an hour straight in this searing heat just to confess to you. “Y-You don’t have to say it back,” he continues to stutter as you guide him through the living room on wobbly legs. “I just-I just— can I?” he babbles. “Can I love you, ___?”

You pass through the kitchen space, where whatever you were watching on Disney+ is blaring loudly. It distracts Jungkook for about two seconds before his attention returns to you. When you don’t answer, he presses on. “Is that okay?” he asks, whirling around to face you, catching your shoulders in his hands. He towers over you by the entrance to your bedroom, dark curls tickling your forehead. His eyes are dark and glazed over, both in tears and an emotion so raw and unfiltered it squeezes around your chest until you can’t breathe. “Is it okay for me to love you?” he murmurs softly, knocking his nose against yours.

Your cheeks blaze. “Yes, th-that’s fine, Kook,” you blubber, placing a hand over his chest, where his heart is also hammering away. “Just need you to go rest now, okay?”

He nods sleepily, nudging your nose with his one last time, like a soft almost-kiss, before letting you push him into the room. “Yes, yes,” he breathes, his body finally crashing from his adrenaline spike. He flops down onto the bed unceremoniously, dark waves fanning across your pillows. You try to wiggle him out of his shirt, but it only gets about halfway up his chest before he blindly reaches for the covers. His legs stick out awkwardly, clad in the sweatpants you’ve come to associate with him.

When he’s all swaddled up in your blanket he finally goes limp, tiny snores leaving his lips as he dozes away from reality. You sigh, pressing a palm to his forehead. He’s still warm and clammy, but at this point, there’s nothing you can do but wait for him to sober up.

With a final kiss to his forehead, you leave the room, closing the door behind you before sliding against the wooden surface. There’s a trapped bird in your chest, wildly flapping its wings in an effort to get out, and it’s all stupid Jungkook’s fault in the next room. Stupid Jungkook who demolished and remodeled your heart all in less than twenty-four hours. It doesn’t calm down, even when you rush off into the kitchen for a glass of water, or when you try to immerse yourself in some other show on Disney+. It stays beating against your ribs and your chest until you’re forcing yourself to sit down on the couch and process.

He wakes up a little before dinner. You hear him from the living room, where you’re flicking through the options on Disney+ for the nth time that day. You’ve seen the first fifteen minutes of about twenty different series and movies by now, always growing antsy and abandoning them early on. The only reason you know he’s awake is because the shower turns on for a few minutes, and then his bare feet are heard padding across the hallway back into your room.

By the time he resurfaces in the living room, you’ve resigned yourself to just more Phineas and Ferb, nonchalantly watching the silly cartoon. (Except you’re anything but nonchalant, and your heartbeat rings in your ears.)

Jungkook hovers by the door, clad in a pair of shorts he’s left here before, and a t-shirt you stole from him. “Hey,” he says quietly, lingering by the doorframe. You nod back in response. “Can I watch with you?” Again, another nod.  

Slinking over to the couch, he’s rather careful as he sits down, leaving a few inches of space between the two of you. You don’t even think he can see the screen of your laptop until he murmurs, “he’s my favorite character,” when Perry the Platypus appears on the screen.

You hum. “Thought you didn’t like these kids shows?” you ask. You don’t mean it to sound as petty and backhanded as it comes out, but that’s really no one's fault but his own.

Jungkook’s breathing tightens beside you. “No,” he admits, “I don’t. Only watch them because I know you like them.” You contemplate pausing the episode and engaging in a real conversation with him, but at this point, you’re very tired from the events of the last day. Jungkook doesn’t press either, just shuffles more comfortably beside you.

You get about five minutes in, quiet chuckles shared between the two of you, before he strikes. “I’m sorry about yesterday,” he says, so hushed you almost don’t hear it. His hand is resting in the space between you, pinky brushing against yours. “About… being late. And the presents.”

You inspire slowly. “That wasn't even the problem, silly,” you brush off. From your peripheral, you see Jungkook’s slow nod. “I didn’t want any presents,” you mention, “I just wanted you.” You look away from the screen immediately after, pretending like the spot on the ceiling is actually really interesting.

The two of you fall into silence, the animated characters on your screen rapidly chattering away. “Oh,” Jungkook says after a moment.

You roll your eyes. They’re moist but you don’t want him to see. “Yeah, oh,” you parrot back softly, relaxing into the couch again. “Did you eat the food I left out?”

Jungkook shuffles beside you, the soft lull of the speakers soon being cut as he reaches over to pause Phineas and Ferb. A couple of seconds pass and then he’s leaning into you, head resting on your shoulder. “I’m sorry,” he apologizes again, placing a palm over the hand he had been teasing for the past few minutes. “I thought I knew what I was doing but I was wrong.”

His voice is so soft and sincere, it makes your chest ache. You try to burrow your face against your opposite shoulder, try to hide the stray tear that escapes out of the corner of your eye. “It’s fine,” you brush off, voice choked off and hoarse.

Jungkook leans up, pecks your cheek so tenderly it makes you go mushy. “No, it’s not fine. I acted like a know-it-all and said something way out of line,” he murmurs, raising his head to look at you. His hand feels warm over yours. It’s the touch you craved all day and yesterday, the warm feel of his body against yours. You’re embarrassed at how easily you melt into it. “You’re the best thing that has happened to me in a long time,” he tells you, holding your hand close to his chest. “I had no right to say those things to you.”

You sniffle, resting your head against his shoulder now. His heart beats loud enough for you to hear. “Was it true?” you mumble. “Do you really think of me like that?”

He shakes his head, his soft breaths fanning across your forehead. “No, never,” he answers. “I think you’re incredible. My brain was just trying to justify my dumb anger.”

You nod, even if you don’t believe it just yet. But that was a conversation for later, you suppose, sometime in the future when you aren’t on the verge of tears and threatening to crumble apart at the simplest word that leaves his mouth.

“I should have come home like you wanted, thought about my words before saying them,” he says, snuggling closer to you. “I’m sorry.”

“Stop,” you sniffle, covering your face with your free hand as he presses a kiss to the vein that runs over the back of the hand he’s holding captive. “Now it just sounds like I'm just being inconsiderate of your gifts and a crybaby.”

Jungkook kisses your temple softly, gently. “Don’t think about the gifts,” he says. “Just tell me what you wanted to do, doll.”

His voice calms you, has you like putty in his arms. “Watch movies,” you mumble, toying with a thread on your couch cushion. “Be with you.”

He hums. “Then we’ll do that,” he says, reaching for your laptop again. The screen nearly blinds you when it flickers back to life before you, Jungkook’s low breaths against your ear making it near impossible for you to process the titles on the screen. “You liked Disney+?”

Belatedly, you nod. “I like the animated movies,” you admit quietly, the anxieties of before slowly melting away, even more so when he slides his arm around you, pulling you close against his chest.

Unlike other times where he’ll critique the hell out of such childish films, Jungkook says nothing as he starts up the Zootopia movie instead, the same one you had wanted to show him before, right from the beginning. “That bunny looks like you,” you murmur when Judy Hopps first appears on the screen.

Jungkook snorts. “You say that about every cartoon bunny.”

You turn your head to glance at him over your shoulder. He meets your gaze with a small smile you return. “It’s because you’re so cute,” you say softly, lips twisting playfully when his cheeks grow scarlet.

He knocks his forehead against yours, eyes fluttering shut. “Not cute, just lucky,” he chuckles. “Lucky enough to have you.” Your heart turns over in your chest, threatening to burst out of your rib cage at his words. You try to turn in his arms. Before you can say the words that have been sitting on the tip of your tongue for months now, he’s beating you to it once again. “I love you,” he confesses in a hushed whisper, no alcoholic influence. 

Something inside of you blossoms, eyes wide as he chastely kisses you. He pulls away without you ever reacting, too caught up in surprise to kiss him back properly. He stays close, curls tickling your forehead as he leans over you. “You don’t have to say it back, I just wanted you to know. I love you,” he says again, long lashes blinking down at you. “So much. It makes me feel like a stupid teenager again, going to the mall to buy a gift for my crush.” He laughs sheepishly, reaching down to tangle your fingers together. “Is that okay?” he asks quietly, pressing a kiss to your knuckles.

It mirrors the confession he’d given you that morning, those slurred words and teary eyes. It had been difficult to pinpoint the legitimacy of it before, the meaning scrambled by his hazy mind. But with him staring at you like this now, like you single-handedly plucked the stars from the sky to put them in those sparkly eyes of his, it makes something inside you ache.

Still, you choke on your own spit. “I-Is it okay for you to love me?” you sputter incredulously, realizing the oddity of the same question he’d thrown at you earlier. But now, you’re both sober and you can really tear apart that sentence. Jungkook nods a little too seriously for your liking. “Are you crazy?” He blinks in confusion, brows pulling together as you slowly but surely lose the last bits of your sanity. “You’re an idiot, Jeon Jungkook,” you huff, “a stupidly handsome, rich, walking dream, idiot who goes out with stupid girls like me.”

“Not stupid,” he murmurs, closing in on you again as he finally understands the truth behind your masked insults. He smells minty and like his favorite body wash of yours.

“No,” you deny. “You’re actually, like, insane. You have a bachelor pad, make enough money to sustain an entire litter of kittens, look and talk like every teenage girl’s dream boyfriend— but you mess it all up by dating evil, conniving hoes like me who lose their shit over Disney cartoons.” He says nothing, watching you with an amused grin as you talk over yourself, basically regurgitating his statement from yesterday except it kinda seems plausible now that you’re over it. “It’s stupid. No, you’re stupid. No— I’m stupid.”

Jungkook chuckles, kissing the corner of your mouth gently. “Done?” he says, a dimple appearing on his cheek. You could kiss it away, but you need him to know the amount of stupidity in this room was astronomically high. “You’re not stupid, baby,” he says. You level him with a look. “Well. You have your moments.”

“Moments?” you repeat, standing up in a hurry that has him flopping down beside you. Your laptop is lost somewhere on the cushions, the voices faded as they grow farther away. “I am so stupid. I called Namjoon a whore for taking you out for lunch!” you cry. “I am the stupidest person in the world.”

Jungkook cackles, standing up beside you. “Yes, yes, you’re my stupid girl,” he teases, tapping the pout on your lips playfully. “So stupid she slanders herself instead of just telling me she loves me too.” He bumps your noses together, dark eyes staring at you almost daringly after his claim.

You fold soon enough. “I love you,” you mumble, “even if I’m too stupid to say it.”

He rewards your confession with a kiss, pulling you into his arms soon after. He sighs, almost wistfully. “Whatever shall I do with my very stupid girl?”

After exactly three minutes of feeling safe and loved in his arms, he abandons the living room in favor of leading you back to your room, where he pushes you down against your mattress. You cling to him, leaving him positioned over you at an angle. His chest presses against yours, arm curled around the back of your head. “Gotta get up, baby,” he laughs.

You shake your head, caging him in your arms. “Nuh-uh,” you murmur, legs wiggling when he places a hand on your hip.

Jungkook chuckles, pressing a kiss against the side of your ear. “Your movie is still playing in the other room,” he reminds you, thumb drawing soothing circles on your hip. You don’t release him, his mindless touch only encouraging you to keep him close. “Babe?”

You say nothing, relishing in the comfort of Jungkook’s presence. His hair smells good and feels even softer against the side of your face. The cotton shirt he found is crumpled beneath your fists, dark blue pattern wrinkling. Finally coming to terms with his new home, Jungkook eventually relaxes into your hold with a sigh.

“Alright,” he hums, patting your hip as he repositions himself more comfortably. “I get it. My pretty girl must’ve missed me, huh?” You nod, soaking in every detail about him in this moment. Jungkook shifts, the hand on your hip suddenly falling over your thigh instead. “Or should I say my stupid girl?” he purrs, hand slipping between your thighs. “My stupid, little girl?”

A gasp catches in your throat when he runs his fingers over the front of your panties. Your legs kick out wildly at the sudden touch, toes curling at the hands you dreamt about all day and night. “Oh,” you pant, each brush of his fingers feeling better than the last.

“What?” he says, mouthing against the side of your neck. His tongue feels warm, but the trails of saliva he leaves have you shivering. “Too dumb to speak?” he scoffs, biting down against a particular spot on your neck. You whimper, unsure if it’s because of his hands or his mouth.

“N-No,” you try to sneer back, fingernails digging into his skin through his shirt. His hands are getting braver now, the pad of his pointer finger dancing over your engorged clit. The sheer material of your panties certainly doesn’t help, each touch feeling like it’s being magnified three times over. And if it felt this good with underwear, you can’t even begin to imagine how it’d feel without.

You don’t have to ponder for long, because soon after Jungkook is slipping his hand beneath your waistband, touching your sensitive pussy head-on. “Kook.”

He uses your momentary vulnerability to ease himself from your hold, finally recoiling enough to smother your mouth with his. You moan in surprise, thighs quivering as he gets to work circling your hardened bud sans your panties. Jungkook isn’t the least bit kind as he kisses you ruthlessly, likes he’s trying to compensate for something with his movements. When he finally pulls away it’s with an obnoxious pop and cherry red lips. He huffs, glancing down to see where he’s got his fingers pleasuring you.

Your thighs are squirming back and forth, closing around his hand every few seconds. Jungkook snorts. “Huh, look at that,” he mutters, trailing down until his fingers are gliding over your quickly sopping folds. “Stupid girl is good for something.”

Your cheeks burn. “Kook, I’m not—“

Jungkook levels you with an unimpressed glare. “Not what? Not stupid? But I could’ve sworn you just spent the last few minutes saying you were,” he drones meanly, landing one light slap against your cunt that makes your hips buck.

You bite down a whimper. “I was just…” you trail off, eyes rolling back when he teases one finger against your opening.

“Kidding?” he supplies. “Well, I wasn’t.” Your heart stutters in your chest, eyes growing wide as he finally pushes himself off of you, propping himself up with an elbow beside your head. His gaze is dark and unrecognizable. “I think you’re so fucking stupid, doll,” he sneers. “And what are you gonna do about it?”

You should have seen this moment coming, the manifestation of that shiny side of the coin finally reaching its full potential.

While Jungkook wasn’t exactly shy about his interests, he certainly wasn’t tripping over himself to tell you every new kinky thing he wanted to try. You sort of guessed he had some interest in this sort of play a few weeks ago when you watched the Barbie movie at his place. A lot of that night had branded itself into your three am wet dreams, but there was one particular moment that stood out to you. That was you, on your knees, with him condescendingly patting your head. Or just last week, you vaguely remember the term slipping through his lips as he pleasured you with The Bullet Bestie.

The thing about Jungkook was that, until last night, he would have never admitted, or so much as even thought, that he was better than you. That was fine because you would say it enough for the both of you anyway. Did you think Jungkook was amazing, an absolute diamond among these measly rocks? Absolutely. (Were you slightly biased because you were his girlfriend? Skip.) However, you also had this insane evil villain complex that made you want to brag about everything you possibly could, especially if that meant bragging about your boyfriend.

Realistically speaking, he was better than you, that much you could look past yesterday’s anger to admit, and not even in a stuck-up, conceited way; he had a really good job, an architecturally amazing house, and a hot girlfriend. Meanwhile, you had a mediocre job, an okay apartment, and an insanely sexy Calvin Klein boyfriend, half of which he had pointed out yesterday. Regardless of how powerful that third factor was, he still outnumbered you three to one.

Sue you, Jungkook was amazing. Anyone could see that! Except, maybe, himself.

And if the only time Jungkook would openly brag about his greatness or establish how much better than you he was, was in a post-fight, sex-induced setting, then you were more than happy to be his punching bag. So long as it was on your terms, and not as a result of his weirdly bottled up feelings.

(Yeah, you would have a long talk about that tomorrow.)

But for now, you pout up at him, clamping your thighs shut purposefully. “You’re stupid too,” you defend, “stupid and mean.”

Something in his expression changes. Suddenly, he’s moving at superhuman speed as he snatches his hand out from where you had previously trapped him between your legs, yanking you up by the front of your shirt. “Mean?” he mocks. “Isn’t that what you always wanted?” You shiver, fingers wrapping around the wrist that holds your sweater. “Wanted me to be mean and push you around like a little rag doll?”

Jungkook looks at you for another two seconds, before he’s slowly pulling away from you, leaning back on his knees. His tongue is pressing against the inside of his cheek, jaw tightening from the movement. “Baby,” he says so quietly it instills a prickle of fear in you, tainted with delicious excitement.

“Yeah?” you whisper, sitting up tentatively as you watch him, He was a bit frightening, like a wild animal about to devour you whole.

Jungkook rolls his neck, the joints in his spine cracking as he begins tugging off his shirt. You salivate at the sight, too focused on the sinewy muscles of his body to catch the dark gaze he levels your way. He throws it off to the side, his sleeve of tattoos that wraps around his bicep and begins to crawl down his chest wonderfully unobstructed now. “Eyes up here,” he says and you quickly meet his gaze. He leans forward, muscled arms coming to cage you against the headboard. “Stupid little sluts don’t have the room to make such comments,” he rasps out, unamused expression adorning his normally soft features. “Don’t you think so?”

“I-I don’t know,” you stammer, leaning away as he comes closer and closer, eventually just turning your head to the side to avoid that emotionless look. It’s the wrong move, and Jungkook lets you know as much by forcefully digging his fingers into your cheeks and turning your face back around to meet his gaze.

A hand grabs beneath your knee, tugging harshly until you’re flopping down onto your back with a squeal. You settle with his knee pressed hotly against your core. Jungkook stays towering over you. “Dumb little girls who make me watch cartoons,” he spits, tracing a hand over your chest, molding your breasts beneath his hands roughly enough to make you gasp. “And watch little animal movies on Disney+. Aren’t they just so stupid?”

“So stupid,” you concede, subtly shifting your hips for some desperately needed friction. Jungkook snorts, finally granting you your wish with one rough slide of his thigh against your core.

“I agree,” he says, and surprises you with a hand around your throat as he leans in to properly grind his thigh into you. “All they’re good for is being dumb little sluts with good pussy,” he murmurs darkly, thumb pressing into the side of your neck forcefully. “Sometimes, they don’t even do anything,” Jungkook continues, his other hand on your hip hauling you higher up his thigh. You mewl, soaked panties rubbing roughly against your folds. You miss the soft swirl of his thumb, the gentle prod of his fingers. Even so, you can’t deny this change in Jungkook is doing something to you, riling up a part of you that you hadn’t known existed. Maybe it’s the horniness from yesterday that was left unfulfilled, the one year anniversary sex that was put on pause. “Just lay there and take it, too fucked out and dumb to say anything.”

His fingers loosen for the briefest of seconds and you gasp for breath. “That’s terrible,” you whimper, rolling your hips up into his thigh, so close to his swollen cock.

Jungkook chuckles without an ounce of humor, pressing your foreheads together as he helps grind you to completion. “Isn’t it? I think that stupid little girl is cute though.”

“I’m sorry,” you blurt, vision spotting as he tightens his hand back around your throat. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” you moan, stomach tight from all the stimulation.

Jungkook hums, slowing you down with a tight grip on your waist. “Hm, what are you sorry for?” he croons, pink lips pulling into an evil smile. “You said you weren’t that stupid girl, __.”

You shake your head, trying to roll your hips up again but he’s holding you too tightly now, rendering you immobile beneath him. “I am,” you choke out shamefully, grabbing at the hand on your hip in a feeble attempt to remove it. “I am a stupid little girl.”

Jungkook smirks, leaning down to slot his mouth over yours. “That’s right,” he murmurs, “nothing but a dumb little slut.”

You shiver, opening your mouth when he slides his tongue against your bottom lip. He’s not the slightest bit nice, and more messy than usual. He pulls away with a bite to your lower lip, meeting your trembling gaze with that same unrecognizable glint in his eyes. “Come on, dummy, keep up,” he snarks before devouring you again. You try to, you really do, but he’s moving like an animal today, despite his slow and drunken movements from that morning. So you end up with his saliva dripping down your throat, clinging to the corners of your lips as he begins slowly grinding you against his thigh again. He flashes you a wicked smile, pearly teeth on display for you as he glances down at your messy appearance.

“Are you gonna touch me?” you ask, lower lip trembling at the thought after your desperate rutting. Jungkook purses his lips together in thought.

“Mmm,” he hums. “Don’t know yet.”

You whine. “Jungkook, please,” you whimper, wrapping your legs around his waist. “I need you.”

Jungkook chuckles, running his hand up your waist and taking your shirt with him. He slips his fingers beneath your bra, pushing the wire over your chest as he mouths at your neck. “Cute,” he says. “Can’t do it yourself?”

You tremble, chest arching into him as he rolls your nipple between his fingers. “I-I can,” you gasp. “Just feels better with you.”

Jungkook follows your statement with a nip against your skin, tongue soothing over it right after. “Why? Because I do everything better than you? Even make you cum better than you?”

Your cheeks heat up at his blatant ego rearing its head, hands carding through the hair at the nape of his neck. You say nothing, and that only eggs Jungkook on. “Come onnn,” he teases, finally, finally rolling his hips down onto your core. You squeak, head falling back against the pillows as you’re granted the one thing you’d been chasing. “Say it.”

“Say what?” you ask, voice wobbly as he continues to slowly rut against you, the front of his shorts pressing against the soaked crotch area of your panties. “Oh, oh, Jungkook,” you whine.

Suddenly he bites down harshly, teeth digging painfully into your skin. You yelp in surprise, pussy throbbing at the pain that shoots throughout your body. Jungkook pulls away and doesn’t bother soothing over it as he leans up to capture your jaw this time. “Say you’re a stupid little slut who can’t do anything without me,” he purrs, kisses too soft for the words he says.

Your mind blanks, torn between the humiliating phrase he wants you to say and properly checking him in his place. In the end, it’s with a twisted need to please him that you’re repeating the words back to him. “I-I’m a stupid slut,” you whimper, fingers digging into his shoulder blades as he continues pushing you right along the edge. The rope pulled tightly in your core is slowly being pulled apart, threads hanging on for dear life. “Can’t... can't do anything without...”

“Without who?” he asks, reaching down and untying the front of his shorts. “Can’t do anything without who, baby?”

“Without you, without you,” you cry, bucking your hips up against his, the combined movements of both your bodies making you shake like a leaf. “Ah, K-Kook,” you wail, hips stuttering as your orgasm finally swallows you up. Your panties quickly grow wet and icky from your own arousal that pools between your thighs. Jungkook lets you writhe beneath him as you chase your high, mouth sucking a pretty blossom against your jaw.

You know better than to expect the night to end here, especially after seeing the glint that had been in his eyes as he watched you unravel.

He leans close, let’s his nose brush against yours as you catch your breath. “So perfect for me,” he groans, slotting his lips against yours. You can barely keep up with him, languidly going along with his hot tongue. “Perfect, perfect girl,” he murmurs, a stark change from the less than friendly adjectives he used just moments before. “Tell me you love me?” he says softly.

You nod, mind fuzzy as you wrap your arms around his neck. “Love you,” you exhale, letting your fingers knot in his hair. Your proclamation does something to him, makes him grind the front of his cotton shorts hard against you. For someone that was often rough and brutal with you in bed, he sure was sensitive to the mushiest of things.

“Don’t deserve you,” he huffs, hot breath fanning across your skin. He switches gears fairly quickly. “Tell me you hate me,” he begs hoarsely, rutting against your soiled panties. “Tell me I’m a piece of shit and you could do better without me,” he pleads, voice too airy to be another one of his usual sex-induced thoughts.

You shake your head, pressing a kiss to his cheek as he rolls his hips. “It’s not true,” you whisper, “I love you more than you’ll ever understand.”

Jungkook groans, suddenly winding back and tearing your ruined panties down your legs. You gasp in surprise, letting him haul you about in his blind, self-inflicted rage. “Stupid, stupid,” he huffs, though at this point you can’t tell who it’s directed at. With your underwear out of the way, he wastes no time plunging his fingers back into your cunt, bypassing the tight ring of muscle around it without any of his usual care. “You should hate me,” he snarls, lips pressed against your ear.

You moan, back arching at the sudden pleasure that blossoms between your thighs. “I-I don’t,” you gasp, toes curling.

Jungkook groans, the sound traveling down your spine and straight into your pussy. “Stupid girl,” he huffs, slipping an arm around you to pull you so close until you can’t breathe, chests lined up together. His skin is warm to the touch, scorching almost. “Fuck,” he groans, curling his fingers inside of you. You whimper and moan, incapable of staying still beneath him as he tortures you with a thumb to your clit. “Tell me you hate me,” he seethes again.

Despite the fog that’s settled over your mind, you still manage a resolute shake of your head. “N-no,” you cry, digging your nails into his back. They run dark red lines over his skin, making him hiss at the sting.

Whatever punishment he’s trying to put himself through is falling through with your refusal to admit such a thing. It aggravates him even more, your adamant stance on loving him so, and he’s retracting his fingers before you can cum again. “Please,” he chokes, face tucked into your neck. He’s sloppy with his movements; as he pulls his shorts down and kicks them away, he nearly suffocates you with his weight. “I don’t deserve you, ___, please.”

“I love you,” you whimper for lack of explanation. Jungkook leans back, that same madman gaze in his glossy eyes. He’s looking at you in disbelief almost, pouty lips puckered and swollen. Your hands slip from around him, falling on either side of your head.

Like a cobra he strikes, collecting your wrists in one hand he pins above your head. The sudden movement has him leaning in close, lips brushing over yours. His lashes are coated in a wetness he refuses to acknowledge, looking at you like you drive him insane. “If you ever try to leave me,” he whispers, jerky breath fanning over your skin, “I’ll lose my mind.”

He loves you so much it aches.

“I won’t,” you whimper, feeling your own eyes well up with an emotion that consumes every inch of your being. “I’ll never leave you, you stupid, stupid boy.”

A faint smile crosses his features at your words, lips quirking to the side. You relish in it for all of two seconds before he’s ramming his cock into you, your sensitive walls spawning around him. You sob loudly, eyes rolling back into your head. Your legs instinctively hook themselves around his waist, digging into the base of his spine as he rolls his hips into you.

You feel full and complete like he belongs there in this moment and every moment after this. It makes your heart constrict painfully. Jungkook’s soft groans follow your more unraveled noises, the vulgar slapping of skin on skin the underlying melody to it all. “Ffffuck,” he spits, greedily swallowing your moans up. You whine, arms bucking in an effort to hold him close. But he’s determined in his act of restraining you, long fingers tightening around your wrists until they hurt. “I warned you, didn’t I?” he huffs, snapping his hips into you.

Your walls clench around his hard cock, the drag as he exits sending shivers throughout your body. Jungkook’s body towers over you, glistening in sweat as he nails you into your mattress. “Remember what I said?” he asks, voice but a shuddery exhale. You shake your head numbly, overwhelmed by the rough drag across your walls. “All those months ago, when you first came over,” he adds. The hand on your hip abandons its post to cup you beneath the jaw, palm pressing sinfully against your throat enough to block the tiniest of airflow. “I’ll fuck you and keep you forever,” he murmurs, voice deeper than the pits of hell. He licks a fat stripe over your cheek like you’re nothing but a sweet for him to devour. “Do you remember that, pretty girl?”

You nod jerkily, hips arching up into him when he thrusts into you again. It’s a memory that replays in your mind every so often, your first night with the man you had planned to humiliate over a mere misunderstanding, now your boyfriend of one year. “Want that,” you gasp, tears blurring your vision when he begins picking up the pace. “Wanna be y-your pretty girl forever.”

Jungkook groans, kissing the corner of your mouth. His thighs are some magnificent beings, keeping his pace consistent even as he loses himself in his overwhelming need to kiss you. “Always,” he manages, soft lips pressed against yours. “I won’t ever let you leave.”

A shriek tears itself from your lips as he picks up that harsh piston, releasing your jaw to hold both wrists above your head. It makes his curls dangle in front of his eyes, covering that beautiful dark gaze. It makes his thin little necklace swing back and forth too, though it’s too small to actually touch your face. The rhythmic swing has you hypnotized, just like everything else about Jungkook.

With the length of his hair, you’re left staring at his lips, pulled taut between his pearly white teeth. The word from before sits heavy in your chest, begs to drip from the tip of your tongue. But he’s moving too fast and too hard, scrambling your thoughts until all you can think about is the cock plunging into your heat. His name falls from your mouth like mindless blubber instead, arms thrashing as your second orgasm swallows you up. It sends you crashing, body spasming as the sheer euphoria waves over you slowly and then all at once.

“Perfect,” he grunts, leaning down to slot his mouth against yours, “my perfect girl.” Your cum makes the sound of his hips erotic, the loud squelching following your panting. Still sensitive from your high, your body unconsciously tightens around him, keeps his cock from fully leaving. It brings a soft whine out of Jungkook, one he tries to muffle against the side of your face.

“Inside,” you whimper, even though your body feels like jelly beneath him. “Cum inside, Kook, please,” you beg.

It only takes a few more thrusts into your leaking hole for him to finally reach paradise, hips stuttering when that first shot of pleasure hits him. “Fuck, fuck,” he growls, wildly snapping his hips into your achy cunt. You moan, feeling just about brainless at the overstimulation. His cum leaves you full, almost makes your belly bulge from it. When he’s done he doesn’t bother pulling away, simply slumping into your limp form. His cock, though quickly softening, serves as a plug for the cum threatening to spill out of you.

There’s a muted noise coming from the other room, the faint sound of the mail slipping through your letterbox, the quiet chattering of the street outside. And of course, the loud blaring of your laptop playing the Phineas and Ferb theme song. Jungkook registers it at about the same time as you, a soft chuckle leaving his lips.

He pushes off of you soon after, leaning on his palms over you. He’s got that molten look on his eyes, the heat of a thousand suns burning behind those irises as he looks at you. Like he can’t get enough, even though he’s just about taken everything there is to take. “Love you,” he murmurs quietly.

A drop of sweat rolls over his forehead, clinging to the end of his eyebrow. You reach up and brush it away, let your hand trail down his face to cup his cheek. Immediately he leans into the touch, eyes falling half shut. “Love you more,” you respond.

“Impossible,” he scoffs.

Soon after you’re both stumbling out of bed, clothes haphazardly shrugged back on as you drift through the living room. There’s a thin, hot pink package sitting at the door, just having slipped through the letterbox; the stark Sexuality Unleashed logo is printed on the visible side, so you have to wonder what Doyeon could have possibly ordered this time that could be so thin. The laptop is awkwardly sandwiched next to a throw pillow, barely open a crack. Jungkook retrieves it, sets it on his lap as you scamper over to the couch.

“More Phineas and Ferb?” he asks quietly. He hates it, you know he does. And still, he wants to watch it with you.

You nod. “Please.”

He isn’t so concerned with the plot as you, clicking some random episode to start. You snuggle into his side, quietly singing along to the opening. After a moment, Jungkook speaks again. “Phineas and Flirt?” he offers cheekily.

You roll your eyes. “That might’ve been your worst one yet,” you sigh, trying to drown out his indignant huff by focusing on the screen.

“I don’t exactly see you coming up with these,” he points out, obviously feeling wronged.

Without missing a beat you say, “Disney+ and bust.”

epilogue

commercial break one ; the resolution

Copyright © 2020, 1kook on tumblr. absolutely NO reposts allowed.

[justwonder113]

I saw that you're gonna start writing haikyuu fanfic and !!! I have a request if you don't mind. Daichi with a girlfriend (or partner if you prefer writing gn) who is usually very tough (not necessarily stoic or mean) they're pretty physically strong and generally have spent their lives looking out for themselves and everyone else(v self sacrificial... probably to an unhealthy degree) and daichi and them have a fight and they just sorta break down about how they always have to look after themselves and everyone else and how no one's ever been the one to protect them and they just want a moment where they don't feel like they have to fight all the time, perhaps ends in fluff? Idk if you like the idea I would love to read your take on it but if not that's totally cool!:)

Hi there, thank you so much for an amazing request like this it was an amazing challenge for me and I really hope you like it, I'm really sorry I haven't been able to update it earlier, it's just it turned out harder than I imagined, but I'm really glad I finished it, I really enjoyed writing it maybe it's because I know the feeling but i don't know, I hope this is what you had in mind and I hope you will like it too.

Daichi x ( f)Reader (but nothing's really implied so basically I think it's gn, have to proof read it again.)

WARNINGS:Angst to fluff, mental breakdown and anxiety attack, also a reader who isn't somfortable showing their emotional side and is more of a lone wolfs who can take care of everything by themselves.

Word cound; around 3k

You didn't even know when you started shielding yourself from everyone and everything or when was the first time you thought that you had to be the one in control of everything all strong and all, but it was part of you now definitely. You didn't think of it as something bad and you certainly didn't expect that your timidness could lead you to having an argument with your boyfriend.

For as long as you knew you were the one taking care of everything, you dealt with your own stuff and sometimes even helped others with theirs. It was always like that and at this point you just got used to it.

You liked the fact that you were this reliable, strong and independent person in the other's eyes. It made you feel better about yourself. Just knowing that people felt like they could trust you and come up to you was kind of ego boosting. It was also good knowing that there were people who looked up to you and admired you.

You were fine with keeping up this image if you knew that you made others feel at least somewhat better with your words of advice.

You knew how important it was sometimes to just let everything out but you were not like so many of your acquaintances, you couldn't just go to someone and vent out everything you had in you no matter howuch you trusted them or how approachable they were. Firstly, if you were to open up to someone you would need to have really deep trust to the said person, and secondly you just couldn't vent out because you knew how it felt like to be on the receiving end.

You loved your friends and you would move mountains for them, you really appreciated that they felt safe with you and trusted you, but sometimes being on the receiving end all the time and taking all this negativity away from them was really emotionally draining. Like some people would come up to you whining about all the drama in their lives and how miserable they were, they would let out everything and then would just leave without even asking how you were doing. You just couldn't do the same to the others no matter how much you were going through, you wouldn't burden them with your problems and all your drama. Even if it meant storing everything inside for all eternity.

Well it wasn't like you didn't want to let your emotions out and vent out everything to everyone, to let someone else help you bear this burden at least once, especially at times when you felt most vulnerable, then dealing with all this seemed impossible, whenever you were so stressed that it was affecting your lifestyle, you couldn't eat drink or sleep normally. Or whenever everything seemed to pile to the point that you felt this horrible tightness in your chest area, when your stomach was swirling nonstop and you felt claustrophobic, when your breathing was shaggy and your mind was foggy yet wouldn't stop working and kept coming up with all those unnecessary thoughts. Those were the times when you truly felt that no matter how strong and capable you were you didn't want to be alone. You didn't want to be this strong person for just this moment, you didn't want to be the one in control you wanted to be the one taking cared of and being pampered. You wanted to just let go knowing that someone was there to listen to you, to hold you when you finally fell apart.

You thought that maybe you were shielding everyone from this side of you, you didn't want to burden them, you didn't want to come as overbearing and maybe you were shielding yourself from them too, because what if others found you annoying, too weak, fragile and unable to take care of everything. Maybe they would find out that, in the end, you were nothing special, you were too pain and just not worth it, so it was a perfect defence mechanism.

You weren't doing anything wrong right? So then why was it the reason you got in the fight with your boyfriend? Why was something that was meant to protect you this much pain? And why couldn't you say anything even after this? Why were you still terrified of speaking up? You were talking about Daichi whom you trusted with your whole life. A man who was willing to be with you trhough thick and thin. You didn't know anyone else who was more reliable and kind or sweet like him. You felt thankful everyday that you had him by yourside, he made almost everyday better for you.

Maybe that's why you were so afraid to speak up? That he was so perfect? Maybe after seeing this side of yours he would realize how much more he deserved. He would realize how flawed you actually were and that you were not worth all this trouble and that terrified you. You were most definitely not ready to end things with him, not that you were thinking that you would ever be. Daichi was the one thing you wanted constantly in your life, you were hundred percent sure of it. He was really precious and dear to you even though he didn't really believe you now.

You felt that you were slowly losing control over yourself and gripped yourself tighter, to make you feel more safe. It felt like the walls were closing down on you and you felt claustrophobic even though you were on the balcony and the chilly wind was hitting you in the face. Your whole body was trembling but not from the cold weather or your chilly out of place attire. You felt numb like there was nothing inside you, only this heavy thing on your chest and all this thoughts that were only making things worse.

What was the time even? You lost track of it trying to regain yourself, it had to be really late, as you watched horizon you noticed that sun would soon start to rise, you stayed up all night huh? Daichi would wake up soon too to go to work too, how could you avoid him then? You didn't know what to tell him, what to do. You coudln't even go to bed, to lay next to him, you felt guilty because you knew that as much as you had your reasons to act this way he had them too and he also was in pain because of you, because he thought that you didn't trust him and didn't love him enough. You felt terribly guilty because you couldn't even manage to say anythin after he opened up to you, after he showed you his vulnerable side. Daichi wasn't the one to openly talk about his emotions so you knew what it cost him too. You hated yourself so much for it.

You couldn't really stop the tears at this point, any second now you would fall apart and you didn't even know if you would be able to pick yourself up before he woke up.

"Y/N?" You heard a deep grumble making you jump. You looked back to see your boyfriend looking at you with wide eyes. In seconds he was next to you wiping your tears away, scanning your face carefully. "You're freezing! What are you doing here? Didn't you go to sleep? What about your clothes? Where is your robe? You will catch a cold!" He kept mumbling to himself while rubbing your cheeks gently, he looked completely awake now. How did he care about you so much after you hurt him this bad, how did he not leave? Why was he so worried about you? Were you really worth it? Why did he really love you? So many whys were piling up in your head.

You felt this tightness against your heart and you doubled over holding your chest tightly. The sobs kept breaking our from your mouth and your whole body was shaking uncontrollably. Daichi immediately took you in his arms and took you inside sitting you both on the bed and wrapping a blanket around you to at least somehow warm your freezing body. His large hands immediately found their place around you as he helped you sit on his lap, rubbing soothing circles there and there to help you calm down whilest murmuring against your neck to just keep breathing.

"I'm here love, you're safe, you can let it all out." He mumbled and placed a kiss on your shoulder. "I'm not going anywhere... You're safe, I'm here with you." You continued sobbing you couldn't really stop now, it was as if the dam was finally broken, you couldn't really hold anything in even if your life was on the line Daichi was the only one grounding you. Thankfully Daichi didn't even think of letting go, he held you in his arms and let you let everything out. It felt like you've been crying for hours, eventually fatigue must have taken over because the next thing you saw was total darkness.

When you opened up your eyes the first thing you noticed was the brightness, it must have been at least noon now. The next thing was two arms still being tight around your frame.  Your head was still on Daichi's  shoulder. He must have moved you both because both of you were under a blanket now, still in yesterday's attire. You felt a bit sore, but that must have been from sitting for hours on the balcony. Your head hurt like crazy, it felt like you had one of the worst hangovers, you could swear you could hear slight ringing.

"Are you awake love?" Daichi asked quietly to check if you were really awake, he shifted slightly groaning quietly, it made you jolt up which was a bad decision because your head hurt even more now.

"Were you like this all night? God I'm sorry it must have been so uncomfortable!" You felt guilty seeing that he spent all night sitting against bed frame having you in his lap. It must have been really uncomfortable.

"It's fine, I didn't really want to let you go. How could I, I think it was the first time I have ever seen you cry. It scared the hell out of me when I saw that you were not in the bed and then it scared me even more when I saw that you were on the verge of breaking down on the balcony at 4am. How are you feeling now?" He took your hand in his and looked at you expectantly.  You froze, it was what you were afraid of, you made him worry so much and he saw how pathetic you could get, on top of it you made him spend whole night like that just because he felt responsible of you. "Okay I can hear gears in your head shifting and based on your look right now I'm pretty sure you're thinking unnecessary stuff. Just don't hold back talk to me, please?" He looked at you with pleading eyes, squeezing your hand tighter.

"I made you worry, and you spent the whole night holding me in that uncomfortable position all because I couldn't hold it in and was weak." You mumbled in shame.

"Who said that I thought you were weak?" Daichi asked and he honestly looked dumbfounded.

You took a deep breath and looked away. "I'm saying it, I hate it when I can't control my emotions and act like a whiny crybaby. I hate whenever it happens, and everything seems out of my control, and I especially hate it there's another one to witness it. I don't want people to see how weak I am." You finally said it and looked down in shame wrapping your hands tighter around your frame. You looked up when Daichi pinched both of your cheeks and inspected your face again. "Ow Dai what are you doing?" You whined.

"Had to make sure you were human and not a robot." He smiled at you and kissed your hand. " I will tell you a secret, I have never thought that you were at least somewhat close to being weak, in fact you're probably one of the strongest people I have ever met. I admire you, I really do.  You're so strong, confident, this powerful person whom everyone loves and admires including me." He placed another kiss on your temple, "you don't know how proud I am to be called your boyfriend! And I don't see this habit of yours as something bad, I was out of line yesterday and I really hurt you saying that you don't trust me or love me, it was never my intention to make you worry this much and seeing you in that shape because of me really broke my heart. I know you trust me and I know you love me, you never fail to make me realize it. You're always there for me whenever I need it, through thick and thin, you always know what goes in my mind and always help me with whatever you can, I can't really count how many times you have helped me. You make every day brighter for me and I can't help but feel thankful that I have you. You don't have to worry about it okay? It's just that I got insecure and it really got to me that's why I was on edge yesterday and provoked an argument." He rubbed his neck  sheepishly when he noticed that you were dumbfounded, he took a deep breath to continue. " It's just that seeing you being all reliable and approachable made me question if I was doing at least remotely good job being there for you too, you're always doing everything on your own like you don't need anyone else to do what's needed and I was worried that you would realize that you didn't really need me. I guess it was my own way of saying that I needed some sort of confirmation." He rubbed his neck looking away from you, "I know you're capable of taking care of yourself and that you don't like showing your vulnerable side, that's completely understandable but you're a human too. You shouldn't just hold everything in, you have to let it out at some point and I want to be there for you when that happens. I like that you're always there for others, for me but I don't want you to forget about yourself, I want you to think about yourself more. You're amazing, the most amazing human being and I thank the stars everyday that I met you. But when I see you struggling hut still trying to shrug it off to play it off because you don't want to burden anyone or just because you're not used to asking for help really breaks my heart. I can't bear to imagine that something like yesterday can happen again. I've known you for years and no matter how much you try to hold it in I notice when you're struggling. I know you have been stressed a lot these days, you don't eat nor sleep like you used too and there's also some other signs. I wanted to give you time, you would approach me when you felt like it but when you never did I started questioning whether or not was I a reliable partner for you. Now I realize I was just feeling pretty and how much my words actually hurt you." He leaned his forehead on yours, "I'm sorry love." Listening to all this you could feel your your eyes start to water up but somehow you didn't really feel the urge to bring yourself together asap, you felt oddly comfortable.

"Have I ever told you that even tears look best on you? God how am I so lucky?" Daichi teased you and started littering your face with kisses making a smile break from you. You smiled fondly as you started to play with his hair, Daichi only hummed in appreciation. "Man, how am I so lucky?"

"Shut up, you're being sappy." You tested, Daichi grinned.

"I'm not the one in love with a sappy person," his eyes tingled with mischief.

"Well, I can't deny that, it's very much true." You purred and gave him a kiss, "I'm helplessly in love with a sap, who is the most amazing boyfriend, he's the most loyal, kind, dependable and amazing person, who makes me happy every day. I trust you the most and I know that I can count on you any time of any day. I didn't approach you because I didn't want to affect the mood, your life has been going on great and I didn't want ro ruin your good mood. I also knew that part of my problems were caused by me so I wasn't really in the mood to talk about it and I knew I had to be one to take care of everything, well I thought I could. Mostly I didn't want you to think I'm weak, I'm not that confident and powerful and I have many flaws I was kind of afraid you would see it and realize that you deserve better" you sniffed and rubbed You nose, you felt vulnerable, it felt as if you were naked and were showing yourself to Daichi, every word was stained and forced and it made you really uncomfortable but you wanted him to know everything, he deserved it. Daichi gripped your hand tighter to encourage you. "It's just I've been dealing with everything on my own since I remember, it was always me, at first it was really lonely but when people started noticing my independence and resourcefulness I kinda grew into it, it was like a confidence booster, but after that when I really needed help, when I was unable to come up with solutions I found it impossible to ask for help. I'm supposed to be strong I'm supposed to be smart so why am I asking for help to others? Can't I deal with this? I just can't find the power to go up to others even when I know that it's most reasonable thing. I know I can rely on you and you don't realize how much of a breather it's for me, and you help me in so many ways and I think you don't even realize that. I'm trying to say that I will try better and I will make sure to get over this problem but I will need time, but please remember that I really love you and I trust you with my life and I will do my best to make sure you know it okay?" You were amazed, it felt like something lifted of your chest and Daichis smiling face only made the feeling stronger. Tears were still streaming down your face but you didn't really care, this was who you were and you wanted to show it to him.

"You're not perfect love and you will never be" your heart skipped a beat at Daichi's serious tone, you felt terrified because it felt like the moment you dreaded the most, you knew he loved you but you also knew he was one of the reasonable guys, "the word is already flawed because nothing in this world is perfect, not you, not me and not everyone and not everything. Everything has it's flaws I have them as much as you do. You don't need to be perfect and you don't need to work yourself to fix your flaws. You are who you are and that's why I love you, I love everything about you including this so called weak side of yours. I love that you strive to be the best but I don't like that you're bringing yourself down to achieve it. You're amazing, you're capable, you're kind and you're smart and god you're so beautiful both on the inside and outside. I think I'm lucky I'm even breathing the same air as you, " he smiled cheekily at you making you giggle. "I want to say that you don't need to fix anything this is who you are and I love and support you, but if you want to improve I'm here and I will help you every step of the way. I will be always there for you, you don't even have to tell me anything just somehow point to me that you need me and I will do my best, we can talk about it for hours or we can just sit in silence for the whole night but you will know that I'm with you, just please don't be afraid to approach me, I will never judge you and I will never turn my back on you. In fact" Daichi got up and went to one of the drawers only to take out small box and return to you. You looked up at him with wide eyes. " I didn't plan on giving you this het because I wanted to plan this romantic evening but I think it's a good idea to give it to you now. Y/n you're the love of my life, and as cheesy as it sounds you're my sun, my moon and my stars, you make me feel more alive than I ever was and you just make everything better. I can't promise you a wedding or something in the near future but I want to give you this to let you know how serious I am about you and this relationship. I want to give you this as a sign that I will be there for you and I will love you till the rest of my days. I love every part of you and I want to help to teach you how to love them too." He put the box on your palm after he finished speaking, you were speechless, and torn between wanting to jump on him and drown him with kisses and proclamations of your love and curiosity of the box. You opened the box to find that beautiful ring you were eyeing few weeks ago when you went out with Daichi.

"I think I fell for you harder." You mumbled still in shock, you stared ar your new ring with lovesick eyes, which by the way sat perfectly on your fingers.

"well look who's being a sap now," Daichi grinned and kissed the hand you put your ring on. "But either way it's good because since I didn't go to work today I demand my cuddles now and I expect to be given them now, few kisses would be nice too." You giggles and got closer to him.

"Aww is my babyboy feeling needy?"You teased but still started kissing his face, Daichi smiled and nodded his head, holding you by the waist tightly. You smiled and got closer to him, everything felt just perfect. He really was your safe heaven.

[bonecorn]

I love your anatomy/references posts & I love skulls and skeletons & I would love to know how you convince people to give you their animal heads to clean. Also any bone cleaning tips for suburban areas?? When I was living on a farm it was easy to leave stuff out and let the bugs take care of it but my parents said hard no to dead things bleaching on the porch

Oh this is very easy!

Find a friend or acquaintance with land and leave your stuff there. Bug cleaning and tub maceration don't need a lot of hands-on attendance so you can check in however often you like.

There's also "hot water maceration" where you simmer (dont boil!) fresh heads in hot water and remove the cooked meat by hand. Make sure you scramble the brains first and then cook away inside or with a camping stove on the porch. And "bleaching" which is done with hydrogen peroxide can be done inside since the skulls are already clean by then anyway.

I don't actually convince people to give me their pets. For livestock, I ask because most people aren't emotionally attached to their livestock.

For pets, I wait to be offered the remains. More on that under the cut.

TLDR: Know the pet owner, wait to be offered bodies rather than asking. Make sure they are always in control. Ask for livestock no problem. Don't let scavengers eat euthanized meat.

holy crap lol

I don't ask for pet bodies. The trick is to be very open and excited about what you do so that people who know you know about bones and know that you are respectful of animal remains. Then, when a beloved pet dies, they might think about you.

Open up the conversation on death before it's relevant

You can also plant the seed ahead of time during a conversation about bones while the pet in question is alive and healthy. "Sometimes I do pets if their owner is ok with it, though most want to bury. Have you ever thought about that for Baxter?" It's in SUPER poor taste to do this while an animal is dying, when you'll need to be way more tactful.

Know your friend well enough to guess their feelings on it

It SUPER depends on the person and how they view bodies and death. My ex's dog passed away and he was always queasy about corpses. I comforted him and cried with him while his beloved 15 year old dog declined and passed. I didn't ask or even mention it because I knew him enough to know that he would say no, and that asking would be painful and upsetting for him to think about. Same with my dear friend and her 20 year old cat. She had a beautiful pet graveyard with headstones and everything. You just know not to ask some people because traditionally laying bodies to rest is important to them.

Other pet owners are chill about it, ESPECIALLY if they come from a livestock background. Livestock people are used to sending their animals to be recycled into glue and wax when they die, because it's generally not feasible to bury or cremate a horse. If someone does plan to take that on, you know they are absolutely dedicated to traditional burial and won't give you anything.

Make it their choice to offer, rather than it being your request

Anyway. If you know the person, and you know they might be ok with giving up their pet's body due to how they view bodies and death, then you work on making them think about you. First, you comfort and do everything you can to help the person through their grief. If you weren't already planning on doing that, then you have no business asking for their pet. Do not comfort someone in order to get something out of them. That's disgusting. Just straight up ask them for their pet and know that they will view you as tactless and rude, but its better than manipulating them.

What I do is not manipulation, it's reminding people what you do and then letting them make their own decisions. When your friend is feeling a little better and is not crying, you can ask about logistics. I ask "What do you plan to do for burial/with the body?" and that usually makes them think about me and what I do with bodies. If they already have a meaningful spot picked out to bury or scatter/keep ashes, then that means the body is important to them and I shouldn't ask further.

At this point, they should realize what you could use the body for and think about how they feel about that. This is when my sister (who has a livestock background) offered her dog to me. We talked about how she thought of bodies, and she thought that the soul is the only thing that matters and once her dog passes there's nothing important left. I did not say anything to convince her, these were all her own thoughts.

It's very VERY important to respect and love the pet owner because they're extremely vulnerable and emotionally raw. That's why I don't straight up ask, because when you're losing a pet, you don't want to feel like someone is trying to gain something from you.

If your friend says they don't know or haven't decided what to do for the body, you can gently say "Let me know if you want me to help bury it, to take it with me, or to just be there for you." This is a close-ended statement and not a question. A question means that your friend has to come up with an answer right there and then, while an offer is actionable. This puts the power and autonomy in your friend's hands, so that when they make a decision it comes fully from their wants and needs and is not about you and what you want.

Be there for them even if you get nothing out of it

If they don't offer at this point, they're not going to. Now hold up your end of the bargain and continue to comfort and help through the grieving process. Again, if you aren't already invested in this person enough to want to soothe and comfort and be there for the human person in the equation, then you have no business asking for their pet. When a pet dies, your first concern should be to the person. If it's not, then you aren't close enough to ask for goodies.

Helping someone grieve is not payment for their pet's body. If you realize they aren't going to give you something in return for your comfort and so you abandon them, you're a terrible person using their grief to manipulate them for your own gain. Comfort is not payment. Closeness in grief is a metric by which you measure "Do I have any business to ask?"

The pet owner runs the show, not you

Throughout this process, stress that the owner can change their mind at any time. You don't want the owner to think "I hate this but I can't back out now because I promised..." Even when they animal is all wrapped up an in your vehicle and ready to go, quietly tell the owner that they can still choose what happens and if they have second thoughts, that's ok and you won't be mad.

My sister let me be there for putting her dog down and it was all about her and her love for her dog. She carried him out and laid him in my trunk and we stood in the rain and talked and hugged. She then told me she was happy that he could bring happiness to someone in life and now still in death, but that she didn't want to know anything. I agreed not to tell her or post anything about processing her dog, so for her it would be like burial. The same thing happened with my other friend's horse. She spent some time with him and then as soon as he passed she drove away and let me do what I wanted. She didn't want to hear Any of it. Again, I didn't ask or even offer, she came up with the idea of giving me the body all on her own even before I knew he was dying.

Horse people are much closer to pet owners than livestock owners, but they are used to sending their friend's bodies off to a different kind of processing (at Tallow factories, livestock remains are ground up, cut apart, cooked, and spun around to extract various substances that become soap, glue, candles, etc) so they know not to think about what happens after death. It still depends on how well you know the owner and know how they think about death, but if you offer to handle logistics like dealing with the tallow guy, they can actually save money by letting you have it.

You're actually doing livestock a favor

Livestock people are generally chill and have a much more utility/asset view of their animals. If the animal doesn't even have a name they probably don't care what happens when it's dead. In fact, most farmers will jump at the chance to give you their animal for free because calling the tallow company to haul it away costs them money. This is also why in areas with lots of livestock, you sometimes find bodies dumped in ditches or left on the side of the road, because the farmer didn't want to pay to get rid of it so they made it everyone else's problem. Even pet animals like dogs and cats are more Utility than pure companions on a farm, so you might have a better chance of getting remains from a farmer than a neighbor.

One more thing about pets and livestock.

When I find a dead deer, I flay it open and let the vultures eat it. For domestic animals, they are often put to sleep via chemical/drug.

THIS IS POISONOUS TO SCAVENGERS.

DO NOT LET SCAVENGERS EAT EUTHANIZED ANIMALS

Seriously. If you like nature, you need to protect it. Deflesh it yourself, throw all the meat/blood/offal away or bury it 6 feet down. Idk what it does to the environment so I always freeze it and then throw it away on garbage day.

Rot bacteria and beetle larvae dermestids don't mind. In fact, dermestid droppings and pupa shells can be analyzed for toxins by forensic scientists to determine cause of death. Neat! Just make sure that if you process outdoors, the remains are EXTREMELY SECURE and cannot be opened by vultures, coyotes, or wild pigs.

Remember the living, human person

I know I look very clinical by picking apart human emotions, but I respond, feel, love, and grieve just like everyone else. I didn't plan how to get any of the animals in the above stories, I just acted on instinct and these are the ones where that paid off well.

Most of the time if I go "huh. I feel that may not go over well" I can then take that feeling apart and figure out why. So hopefully explaining how my feelings work it can help you listen to your most useful and most compassionate ones.

The living person is always more important than a dead pet. Sometimes you can get the dead pet without distressing your friend, sometimes you shouldn't even try.

Respecting the dead

A final note on working with pets vs wild animals. This is someone's family member, so don't play puppet with it like you might with a skunk skin. Don't take pictures of any part of the process until they are rendered to bones. Pictures of dead pet species are even more distressing to the general public than wild animals, and sick freaks might take your photos and send them to people for kicks or attention. Better to just not have photos than for that to happen.

What processing a pet feels like

Working on a pet is always going to be different for you, the vulture, than a wild animal. Everything you see is touched by human hands. My sister's dog was... beautiful. You don't really realize how moved you're going to be by seeing the perfect amount of healthy fat covering, or beautiful muscles that speak of exercise and attention. She rescued this starving pup and turned him into the healthiest animal I have ever seen. She's a vet assistant and the care and love she put into this dog had me sitting there crying while I held his paws; with their perfectly maintained clipped and sanded nails. I'd only met the dog once for a few minutes when he was alive, but his body was a canvas and every inch was painted with layers and layers of love. It made me so, so sad that his neurological issues couldn't be helped because his body was proof of someone who would stop at nothing to cure what could be cured, and that the last months of his life were happier than he ever imagined.

On the flip side, pets whose bodies show signs of neglect and abuse are going to hit you harder than any deer could. The dog I found discarded in a garbage bag on the side of the road had rotten teeth and nails so long they curled over themselves into hoops. An overgrown and suffering deer is just the sign of nature taking its course. An overgrown and suffering dog is the sign of human cruelty, of shirked responsibility.

Most pets you get will between these two dogs. No owner is perfect. Most old dogs have lost teeth to rot, sick cats too weak to scratch properly may have overgrown nails.

Death as beauty

A pet's body usually a beautiful story full of ups and downs; of owners doing things wrong and then doing things right. A vulture or an artist can read a body like rings on a tree and feel the heart beat in their chest that tells them how strong and full of love this life had been. You need to be ready for this part. Every detail is a message from your fellow human and even though we are all animals and we decompose into the same dirt, we're meant to connect to each other here and now.

Keep your emotions open when working with remains.

Listen to what they have to teach you.

[doitwritenow]

IronStrange Starter Kit - Master Fic Rec List for all Y’all Because You’ve been Asking and I’ve been Avoiding

Hi! All you anons and askers, I made a list!!! Hopefully some of these are what you’ve been after. :D

(Please reblog this, lol, I spent too much time on it...) 

General rules: These are complete unless indicated otherwise, and end happily unless indicated otherwise. There’s a variety of ratings, as I have no qualms against smut, but I don’t usually read it outside of a larger plot. So I don’t think there’ll be many explicit stories on here. Word counts vary; I indicate general length but don’t go into specifics. What else, uh... Bold stuff is the headers and general subjects. I link the titles. Block quotes are author summaries. Enjoy!!

- 

Okay so first off, there are a couple of Fandom Staples who just have leagues worth of good short stories, and if you haven’t read them, then definitely treat yourself to the array:

A Thousand Futures of Me and You - VisionaryGalaxy (Vishanti, what a legend, ily so much). This is a series of unconnected one-shots, each their own and covering a variety of tropes and moments and themes and AUs. They’re so fun (and/or painful and/or thought-provoking and/or tense and/or sexy)! In-character and amazing, consistantly. 

Prompt Collection -  amethyst-noir (Arbonne). (Also a legendary human). This is exactly what it sounds like: a series of prompt fills in all sorts of tones. You’ll almost certainly find something here that feels like it was just made for you!

Alright, onto the individual stories and series!

Long fics/series:

The of overqualified hands and pi figures series - lantia4ever. (This was my first Ironstrange story, and it is no less magical now.)

A series of one-shots, all set in the same alternate verse in which Tony and Stephen first meet following the events of the first Avengers and then continue to meet after that throughout the canon up until Infinity War and eventually beyond it. Becoming friends - and more along the way.

Time After Time - fancylances. (I love love LOVE this one. Highly recommended.) 

Tony Stark is unstuck in time. Stephen Strange might just be the only person in the universe qualified enough to help.

Citizen Erased - Imagined. (This author. Just... such a wonderful, talented, stunning person who makes wonderful, talented, stunning works. This story is masterful.)

What do you do when no one in the world ever manages to remember you?

Anyone who sees Tony Stark promptly forgets he ever existed after mere seconds. When everyone he has ever cared about has lost their memories of him, he goes to Stephen Strange, possibly the only one who can help him lift the curse. But a terrifying danger is coming, and saving the world isn’t an easy job to do when no one can remember who you are.

if only the gods had mercy on us and it’s sequel a soul too deep - orphan_account. (Vishanti, this series...  It’s so beautiful and emotional and heart-breaking and heart-warming. And it has so few views for so many words! One of my absolute favorites, VERY highly recommended.) 

Tony Stark loved Stephen Strange. He loved him more than anyone could ever imagine. But then a terrorist group attacked the convoy. Then there was a car accident. In the middle of it all, there is tired, battered love. (And, maybe, a little bit of genius)

From the Top - lucifersfavoritechild. (Everyone reads this fic. Written by the blogger Monarch Of The Ironstrange Ship, it’s an MCU rewrite around the relationship. Very fun.) 

“Stephen, if you’re . . . there somewhere . . . when I drift off, I’ll be with you again. I can’t wait.”

|| Personally, I think the MCU would be much better as a love story between Stephen Strange and Tony Stark. Don't you?

Starting from Iron Man, and going all the way to Endgame, with all the appropriate stops in between. Let's take it from the top.

UNFINISHED: Skin Deep - Mystical_Magician. (Super cool premise, and super interesting to read! The dynamic here is very fun.)

A battle that should have finally killed Stephen instead launches him into a parallel universe. Exhausted from centuries as Sorcerer Supreme, he chooses instead to explore this new world in any animal form except human. Having hoped for peace at last, he can't stand to be looked up to, to be responsible for others, to have the world on his shoulders.

If he'd hoped to avoid excitement, however, he really should have stayed away when he noticed an enormous explosion and a falling metal suit of armor as he passed through Afghanistan.

UNFINISHED: The End of Infinity - FriendlyNeighborhoodFangirls. (Self rec. Very long, very slow-burn. Canon-compliant Endgame fix-it. I’m trying so hard, lol.)

In 2023, the battle for the universe has been won. At a cost no one can forget, the fight is over—for all but one. Stephen Strange has an idea. An impossible idea spanning dimensions and timelines, life and death, and the lines of good and evil. But he's played impossible odds before—perhaps he never stopped.

All that Loki wanted was to fight, one last time, for the fate of his universe. So when he finds himself fighting for another, crashing into the past, he has a few intended words for the wizard that forced him there. But not before he finds a boy. Or, more accurately, before the boy finds him.

Peter Parker had been waiting for the next mission. He just doesn't expect it to come from the future, armed with a ridiculous story demanding a ridiculous quest. And he doesn't expect not to be able to tell Mr. Stark.

Tony Stark is trying to rebuild from the Civil War, knowing that someday, something will come that he needs to be ready for. And he doesn't know it yet, but two universes are trying to rebuild around him, and that something is already here.

Seven Stones. Five dead. Two universes. And one impossible quest to tie it all back together.

UNFINISHED: Sunrise in Exile - Ragdoll (Keshka). (Another fandom favorite! And for good reason. This is really really good!) 

Tony does the math and realizes their best chance to save the universe is by... not confronting Thanos on his own turf.

So he steals a wizard and a spider and a space ship. And he runs.

(Three humans and an A.I in space, the alien friendships they make along the way, and discovering how science and magic might coexist in a universe where they can be one and the same.)

Shorter plotty ones: 

Out of Suffering - Mystical_Magician. (So this author??? THIS AUTHOR??? Very very good, much yes, very good.) 

Stephen Strange does not like people, but 14,000,605 lifetimes of fighting and dying alongside this small group have worn down his walls. He likes them, gods help him. He might even consider them friends. It’s really for the best that they all go their separate ways once Thanos has been defeated. In their eyes, he’s barely even an acquaintance.

Now if only Tony and Peter would stop surprising him.

moros - spookykingdomstarlight. (Almost got a spot in the angst section. Very good). 

There were fourteen million universes Stephen had birthed into existence and let die and, in far more than he cared to count, the visitor standing before him had become something… dear.

Shaking is Caring - mariadperiad20. (This is just STUNNING. Highly loved.)

5 times Stephen's hands would shake, +1 time they didn't.

It's Kinda Chalky - DestielsDestiny. (This one’s pretty short, but definitely worth it.) 

You can live an entire lifetime by looking into someone’s eyes. His sister used to say that all the time. Stephen never gave it much thought back then. These days, he can think of little else.

Something Magic - Imagined. (Beautiful!)

There is only ever one rule that matters:

do not fall in love with the enemy.

An Idiotic Theory - FriendlyNeighborhoodFangirls. (Self rec! I tried to be funny.)

His wizard has been cursed, again, and Tony's already used up his luck for the day.

(Stephen says it's not a curse. He says Tony's whole daily-allotted karma-based luck theory has minimal merit, citing the fact that Tony had come up with it while he was drunk.)

Tony really should have saved his miracle.

Love Through Time - babywarg (morphaileffect). (I love this one. It sticks with you.) 

Tony discovers an old drawing of, and finally remembers, his invisible friend Stephen from when he was a child.

Alternates - doobler. (Super cool!)

After being punked by a lowbrow magician, Stephen finds himself falling through doors to otherwordly dimensions. How will he ever get home?

132 - 28ghosts. (Soulmate AU! Very fun, incorporates Stephen’s time-loop with Dormammu.)

Ninety-nine point eight percent of humans have a soulmate mark that tells them the age their soulmate will be when they meet them. Tony Stark has a mark. It's just that his is...different than most people's.

(Or: six people who aren't Tony Stark's soulmate, and one who is.)

and when the world falls (I will fall with it) - HeavenChild. (Another multichap soulmate AU. Absolutely lovely.)

Tony will give anything to those he loves.

People will take everything he gives before leaving him in shambles.

Rhodhey, Pepper and Vision have had enough.

Or the five times Tony had his heart broken and the one time he didn't.

i saw the end of the world - JumpToConclusions. (Why has no one read this fic??? It’s so good!!! Stephen knows the future since he saw it on Titan, and things grow more complex from there.)

Tony and Strange are trying to make this work, this being remaking The Avengers. ...And maybe they'll stumble into something else along the way.

Tiresome heart, forever living and dying - Mystical_Magician. (R e a d  t h i s  p l e a s e. The mythology is so cool and the symbolism is so beautiful and the prose is so satisfying. One of my absolute faves.) 

As a fledgling crane, Stephen was too curious for his own good, and it was this curiosity that led to Eugene Strange finding and stealing away his feather robe. Trapped in human form, cruelly forged into the perfect son, not even his father's death freed him when his robe was so well hidden. He only managed to break his father's mold after breaking completely in the aftermath of his accident, and slowly gluing those broken pieces back together at Kamar-Taj, but not even magic could find what had been hidden. Enter Tony, after the defeat of Thanos.

Fluffy ones:

From The Outside - Live. (Hilarious.) 

Being a sentient life-form surrounded by humanity can be hard. Especially when said humans just can't admit their feelings for each other.

Sleeping Iron Man - Golden_Asp. (Another fun one. Perfect balance of ridiculousness with a touch of angst to make it interesting.) 

Stephen Strange stared at the Avengers on his doorstep, Tony Stark flung over Steve Rogers' shoulder like a sack of potatoes. "He touched something, didn't he?" "Yuup." or The one where Tony touches Sleeping Beauty's spindle, is put into an enchanted sleep, and everyone, even Rocket Raccoon, take their turn kissing him. But Tony only has one prince charming.

Doctor Ob(li)vious - lantia4ever. (One of my very favorites. So cute.) 

Stephen starts getting some weird looks from the Avengers, spanning across disturbed, confused and even scared all the way to curious. He dismisses it at first until weird turns into knowing.

And knowing turns into realizing...even if the scheming teenagers had to all but paint it on the walls for him to do so. Oh wait...

Applied Combinatorics in Two-Player Games - 28ghosts. (Short and fun and full of snark.)

After a battle, Tony Stark and Stephen Strange argue about games.

-

“Chess is not a solved problem.”

“Has been since ‘97, Kasparov versus Deep Blue. Kasparov, 1; Deep Blue, 2; three draws.”

“Chess is a game, not a problem.”

The Courtship of Peter Parker's Father (Figures) - flyingonfeatherlesswings. (Peter plays matchmaker! Adorable.)

Peter couldn't stand to sit by while Tony and Stephen danced around each other any longer. Something had to be done.

Speaking Eyes - Vrishchika. (Not Steve Friendly. Tony is amazing in this. And Stephen is so fantastically dramatic.)

Tony has always had expressive eyes.

The Signs of Sleep Deprivation - FriendlyNeighborhoodFangirls. (Another self-rec. <3)

"Tony said to put the potato in the dishwasher, so that's what I did."

Sometimes, Avengers just show up to say hi. Sometimes, they all show up at once, and Tony makes an party out of it. Sometimes, he invites the snarky, oblivious, somewhat insecure wizard because, and Peter quotes: "everyone else is coming".

Sometimes, something needs to be done.

Show Me Your Scars (And I'll Show You Mine) - Imagined. (Adorable. Lovely. Imagined does it again.)

The worst part is that Stephen keeps tucking his hands away, just as Tony wants to hold them. He keeps hiding them, surreptitiously, no matter what they’re doing. It’s only when Tony kisses Stephen, or hugs him, that he feels the hands settle on his back, uncertain, ready to pull back within seconds.

It only makes him want to cuddle up to Stephen even more, but he backs away, not sure if it’d be welcome.

Promise? Promise. - sharonscarters. (AU, kidfic, absolutely adorable.) 

A four year old Tony Stark runs away from home and finds his Guardian Angel.

What The Doctor Ordered - wakandan_wardog. (Post CW. Kind of not Rogues friendly? So fun, makes me smile. I re-read this one a lot.)

The Rogue Avengers are called back to New York because the heavy hitters are going to be needed against Thanos. Of course, there are some truths that Steve Rogers will need to accept sooner rather than later. Tony Stark has moved on and Stephen Strange will not suffer fools lightly.

Hurt/Comforty ones:

Among The Chaos of The Stars (You're My Safe Harbour) - ShootMeDead. (Oh my vishanti. OH MY VISHANTI. So so so so SO good.) 

Stephen has always been able to hear the stars. Tony is the only one who can silence them.

each night like a white noise frequency - Phierie. (I ADORE THIS FIC. OKAY. I LOVE IT. READ IT.)

Stephen is no stranger to making hard choices. He doesn’t regret his actions on Titan, but months later they weigh on his mind heavier than ever; the cracks begin to show.

Just An Accident - CucumbersInGold. (I really like fics with Stephen’s hands and the difficulties thereabout. Idk, just one of my favorite things. This is beautiful). 

Stephen's hands act up.

Learning, Unlearning - Caaaaaaas. (More character study than anything else. Really good.)

Whatever Stephen wanted with life, life just didn’t seem to know what to do with him.

In which Stephen learns and unlearns some very important lessons.

your eyes have their silence - doctortwelfth. (Oh look it’s another scars fic. I told you I liked them.) 

Tony is gentle with Stephen’s hands even when Stephen forgets to be.

Burning Lines Into The Snow - petroltogo. (Not very Steve friendly. Short and sweet.)

Post CW: It's not just the team that's so broken they are barely able to comprehend how many parts they're missing now, how many have been ripped and twisted and torn. It's Tony as well, right down to the core, the damage so far-reaching even he doesn't know how to fix it.

And then there's Strange, who has his own way of covering the cracks.

Old Bones - CJtheWeeb. (Owch. Dumb geniuses trying to be invulnerable.)

Sometimes Stephen Strange has great days, where he was nearly pain free and his hands still enough to where he could pick up a cup of water and barely spill a drop.

Today was not one of those days.

something taken, something new - meowrails. (So in-character. The premise was a little off to me, but I’m so glad I decided to read this one. I really really like this fic.)

The ChronicConnection implement and app allows a person that lives with chronic or illness-induced pain to transfer their burden temporarily to a willing loved one.

Tony and Stephen sign up as beta testers.

Angsty ones (happy ending unless otherwise mentioned):

day one - days4daisy. (THIS IS SO GOOD OKAY IF YOU READ NOTHING ELSE ON THIS LIST READ THIS).

Three days in Stark Tower. Stephen must be in bad shape if he just agreed to this.

His Merlin - babywarg (morphaileffect). (This author keeps showing up on this list because they are A LEGEND. A LEGEND I TELL YOU.) 

As a child, Tony imagined himself a Knight of the Round Table. Little did he know he would grow up to be a king. And that he would have a wizard by his side to lead him to either glory or destruction.

there is no heart for me like yours - turtle_abyss. (Soulmate AU! Wonderful. <3)

Being able to feel your soulmate - a phantom touch, a bone-deep awareness - is a divine torture. To know, but not see. To seek, but not find. To feel someone holding your hand and not be able to hold theirs.

Grace - StrangeMischief. (*cries in beautiful fic* Happy ending!)

“Pain’s an old friend.” 

Us...Me - StrangeMischief. (This will hurt you. So melancholy. Pepper and Tony live their life, and Tony remembers. Not a happy ending.) 

“I don’t believe in happily ever after.” 

One-Thousand Cranes - FriendlyNeighborhoodFangirls. (Self rec, sorry. Hopeful ending.) 

After it all, a man with shaking hands makes a wish.

courtesy - deathofglitter. (Dealing with the fourteen-million futures. So good.) 

Stark looked at him like he looked at the amulet that rested on his chest like a steady promise - dutiful, a bit burdened, and trying to hold a profound lack of personal emotion whatsoever, still personal enough to protect as anyone would a precious object.

La Douleur Exquise - BananasofThorns, StrangeMischief. (More pain. Pepper and Tony, and Stephen watching and trying not to wish. Very good, no happy ending.)

The before was easy. There were fewer boxes in their minds and no chains around their hearts. There was no hurt. No tears. No dreams.

But those days were long gone.

Stigmata - babywarg (morphaileffect). (AU! Soulmates again. Very interesting, beautifully done.)

Since Stephen was little, mysterious wounds have appeared and disappeared on his body, leaving mysterious scars. His mother says it's because he's one of a Pair, and he's absorbing pain meant for someone else.

*wipes brow* PHEW! That gotta a little more in-depth than I first intended... Have fun, my MysticIron friends. Happy quarantine. 

[ihavelovednone]

Emily & Miguel: Power & control

This post is long - REALLY LONG. I’ve tried to reduce it and separate it - but it’s not really working. So here goes. It’s centered around Emily and Miguel and the power imbalance between them and the abusiveness that he displays. I hope it’s somewhat interesting and not to hard to follow - if you read it in full that is.

The initial power imbalance There are several aspects in Miguel’s and Emily’s relationship that creates a power imbalance between them. First, and probably the one that relates to every other imbalance in their relationship, is the fact that she’s a woman. That doesn’t really need any further explaining. Women are generally seen as the weaker sex and there’s a long since decided role for women that still has deep roots in our society and in Emily’s life it’s very prominent. Dita displays dislike about Emily involving herself in the search for her child for instance. Devante uses a tone that reeks of aw, little girl and Miguel is somewhere in between wanting to be the sole provider and wanting her help.

One more obvious thing is the clear age difference between Miguel and Emily. It’s kinda like a spinn on the stereotypical old husband, young wife trope - except that Miguel, even though he’s no spring chicken, is still relatively young and very attractive. Kurt Sutter and Elgin James are so subtle in the way they decide use a stereotype without stereotyping that if you don’t look closely, you miss it. 

I think they met when Emily was in her final years of college or in law school and Miguel was in the start of his business career - the legal business that is. I have this idea in my head that Miguel tried really hard to impress her and she just rolled her eyes at him. Emily’s smart and strong, opinionated and a fighter, we’ve seen that in season 1 when Emily’s delivered info to Miguel about LO, called Devante out on his misogynistic shit and when she didn’t let herself get intimidated by Potter. She also found the info about the murder of EZ’s mother and called out Miguel’s hypocrisy in season 2. 

At the same time there’s an insecurity within Emily. She’s probably been told several times by her parents that she’s not good enough. When Emily meets Miguel the break-up from EZ is probably still lingering, even if it was awhile ago they ended in a way that never really gave them closure - she didn’t just loose her first love, she lost someone that was a security to her. On top of that she’d lost her baby (yes I say lost because I don’t think she’d have aborted it had the circumstances been different). This probably made Emily more susceptible to Miguel’s charm.

That insecurity is very apparent in season 2 when Miguel starts spending more time with Adelita. He used to worship the ground she walked on, she was his “touchstone” and all of a sudden his work is all about taking Potter down with the help of Adelita and Emily ends up being in the background. There’s a desperation in her actions in that season. She enters territories she’d never actually enter otherwise. She’s so desperate for the Agra Park thing to work because she never chose the cartel, she chose Miguel. 

There’s also a duality with Emily in season 2 - The cartel is, up until the kidnapping of Cristobal, in the background of Emily’s life. She didn’t see, she didn’t hear.  I think she stayed with Miguel in the hopes that he’d liquidate the cartel and go one hundred percent legit but now, he’s rising - he’s making more money and Emily’s spurring him on. Maybe because she wants to be more involved with him, close to him, move Adelita out of the way. She wants to feel needed. It’s a weird dynamic between them, like the abused wife that wants to please her man or something.

Never in control Miguel might’ve initially been a person she found to be what EZ once was - a safe harbor, a home, a lifeline. Not necessarily financial, more emotional. Emily sees Miguels way of treating her with loving words and gifts as affection, maybe she knows that there’s something else under the beautiful exterior, maybe she doesn’t. As Erin said, they choose men that are darkness personified, hinting that they seek it out, it comes naturally - almost as a way to punish themselves for not being good enough. Miguel’s affectionate behavior bleeds into darkness, or maybe his affectionate behavior is actually something sinister altogether - like he feeds on women wanting him, needing him, he uses it to get to them.

In the midst of her vulnerability Miguel displays behaviors of wanting for her to belong to him and no one else, and that’s dangerous and toxic. She doesn’t realize that behavior as problematic until season 2 - even though it starts in season 1 when he propagates to EZ that he need to leave Emily alone - because it complicates things. 

Emily’s very isolated. She has no friends, she’s got no one that’s just hers. Except for EZ when he gets out of prison, and even so, they’re not really friends either. They’re more in limbo than anything. And even though they’ve got a past - she’s got the right to spend time with whoever she wants. Or should have the right. Loyalty to a man does not derive from how few men you’re in contact with as a woman. Emily doesn’t need to go back to her man, or only stay by his side. She’s not Miguel’s property. She’s allowed to have relationships with other men - as long as she’s not actually cheating - and even if she wanted to - she’s could, it doesn’t warrant abuse of any kind.

His want for her to be a housewife - or work close by, offering her a job in his company - is toxic. Why? Well, she’s constantly under his watch, she’s doesn’t have the opportunity to make new acquaintances and friendships without those people having relations to Miguel. If Miguel were to demand information about what a person has spoken to his wife about - they’d tell him - in fear of loosing their job, or their life. Now, had Miguel not displayed other types of weird and controlling behaviors it probably wouldn’t have crossed my mind that she worked for him. It would’ve been fine.

Him having her ride with a platoon and not be left alone is, yeah, you guessed it: TOXIC. Freedom is not something that she has. You might think that Emily, just because she lives in an ocean of money and opportunity that she’s somehow free. She’s not. She has no privacy. And yeah, you could argue that Miguel’s cartel work is dangerous and therefore she needs to be protected - but at what cost? She’s constantly under the watchful eye of Miguel’s lackeys - which becomes more apparent in season 2 when Nestor’s following her every move without her knowing. They work for him - they abide to him. She doesn’t have the ability to do what ever she wants - and when she does, he abuses her, as seen in S01E05. As I said in a post that’s been deleted now: Miguel is, most of the time, abusive without actually doing it himself. He uses his staff to control her.

We’ve never actually seen Miguel give Emily any presents, probably because it’d be very stereotypical of him and Sutter and James want to avoid stereotypes. But I think he’d do something like that, considering his expensive taste in suits, cars and other things - I think he likes showing of how rich he is. 

Miguel comes of as one of those people who’d use presents to stifle someone. The wife’s mad? Get her a meaningless expensive present to shut her up and simultaneously tell her you care for her without actually asking how she’s feeling. She thinks you don’t love her? Diamonds, get her some diamonds. Diamond equals love. Him throwing all kinds of materialistic shit at her is toxic and it doesn’t matter how much he loves her because his behavior ends up being manipulative and controlling every single time. 

The comment you should be grateful feels like something that’d come out of his mouth to (and probably from people on the outside looking in). Not that many women get to live a life in luxury, he’d probably say. Like she should be grateful for something she never really asked for. 

Conclusion This became a long post - probably longer than all my posts so far - combined. There are so many red flags with Miguel and Emily - some of them so subtle you hardly notice them. In the first episode I thought they’d go the whole sugar daddy route which might seem cool and fun in theory. But it’s in fact a very common way for young women to enter prostitution so I’m glad they didn’t go that way with it and display it like it’s no big deal - it’s all fun, look at all the pretty things I get for being a companion. 

Miguel’s abusive behavior is subtle at times and yeah, he loves her and she love him, but it doesn’t matter when the relationship is so unhealthy. Writing this piece has given me a new perspective of the two as well. Emily’s desperate to not loose Miguel - why? Most likely because she’d be on her own otherwise and she’s not really ready for that and Miguel’s behavior is probably something he’s picked up from his childhood and I’m not sure he’s always aware of it. Miguel very insecure. Let’s be honest, no man comfortable within himself would ever restrain a woman’s social circle, career or freedom to roam. 

[stevesnailbat]

i shouldn’t be feeling this, but it’s too hard to resist | robin buckley

summary: Y/N is falling for someone, but it’s not someone they planned to fall for.

warnings: mutual pining, slightest mentions of homophobia

word count: 1.9K

a/n: this fic is loosely based off girls by girl in red!! i feel like the song just fits robin so perfectly, so here’s my take on it! i’m changing my writing style to be more inclusive also, so the perspective is different on this one! the gif used above is by @harringtown once again!!!

You knew you shouldn’t have said yes to it. But there you were, sitting on the edge of Robin Buckley’s bed, chewing on your lip nervously as you waited for her to come back into the room.

You and Robin were meant to be nothing more than coworkers at Family Video, maybe acquaintances at most. You had planned on it staying that way, and on keeping your distance. But, there was always just something special about Robin. There was something about Robin's smile that was so convincing, so inviting, so beautiful. There was something that kept pulling you back in for more. 

Just friends, you told yourself, nothing more. You didn’t want it to progress into anything more—it couldn’t possibly progress into anything more, not if you wanted to save yourself from the judgement that would most likely ensue.

When the door opened once more, you had to look away, avoiding eye contact with her. You could feel her eyes on you as she walked in with the widest grin, plopping down on the bed next to where you were perched. She sat a bowl of popcorn down on the bed along with a movie and a few boxes of candy after sitting down.

“I snuck a copy of Carrie from the store, I remembered you said you liked that one.” Robin said as she leaned down to rifle through some things under her bed. “Do you want to drink? I bought some wine because I thought it’d be fun to, y’know, let loose for once.”

“Oh—uh—yeah!” you reply with a nervous smile, only making eye contact with her for a fraction of a second. “I’ll take some.”

She smiled over at you again as she pulled the bottle and corkscrew from under the bed, working to open it as soon as she took it out. You cursed yourself for how awkward you were making the situation, but it was unavoidable. Every time you looked at her you felt like your heart was going to explode, so you avoided it at all costs. You knew it was wrong, what you were feeling about her. It felt so wrong that it made the pit of your stomach turn in knots and your heart ache. The feeling wasn’t going away any time soon, though. 

Robin could tell something was up from the moment you walked into the house, truthfully. In the past four months of working with you, she’d developed a theory that you just flat out didn’t like her, so she wanted that to change. There were shifts where you would ignore her completely, and others where you’d only give her a sympathetic smile when she’d talk to you. 

She didn’t know what she did, but Robin wanted to get to the bottom of it. She had randomly sprung the idea of hanging out on you in the middle of a shift with her and Steve, you couldn’t say no to her. When you said yes, she was downright thrilled to actually get to know you after working quietly alongside you for this long. 

You couldn’t help but stare at her as she worked the corkscrew into the bottle, taking in every little detail of her face for the first time. You couldn’t bring yourself tear your gaze away as she continued, eyes wandering as she tugged her lip between her teeth. It was impossible to not think about how soft her lips looked, and how perfect she looked altogether. If someone could read your mind, they might think you were just jealous of the girl. But, truly, the feeling was something much more than jealousy. It was something along the lines of a feeling of longing and desire.

“Finally!” Robin proclaimed, setting the cork on the bed beside her as you broke from your daze. “Here, you can have the first drink and get comfortable while I get the movie set up.”

You nodded and smiled at her, but suddenly lost all desire to drink the alcohol in your hands. There was already a feeling of intoxication building inside of you, built on being around Robin alone. Just looking at her was enough to make you feel a little drunk. Her beauty was overwhelming to you, almost painful to think about in a way. Slowly, you had come to terms with the fact that what you were feeling wasn’t temporary, that what you were feeling—despite how wrong it felt—was there to stay. 

“You alright?” she asked when she turned around to see you still sitting on the edge of the bed, frozen with the untouched bottle still in your hand.

“Yeah—yeah, sorry. I’m fine.” you lied, forcing a smile onto your lips as your heart pounded against your ribs.

“You don't seem fine.” Robin pointed out, setting the movie on top of the VCR as she furrowed her brows in concern. “What’s up?” 

“It’s really nothing, I—I guess I’m just tired, that’s all.” you lied, hoping she wouldn’t see through the thinly-veiled lie you were telling. “I’m sorry, I’m not trying to be boring and fall asleep as soon as I get here."

“It’s okay!” she said quickly, moving away from the TV to sit next to you on the bed again. “We can just hang out and talk instead, if you want, of course.”

“Yeah, that’s fine!” you stammered abruptly, looking at the bowl of popcorn next to you to avoid her gaze again. 

“Are you going to homecoming next weekend?” she asked, moving around on the bed to face you once more as she broke the odd silence. 

“Yeah, I’m supposed to.” you laughed bitterly, rolling your eyes at the thought of it.

“You don't seem too thrilled about that. Do you not have a date or something?” she implored, reaching her hand out to take the bottle from your hands. “Or do you have a date and just not like them?”

“Yeah—Yeah, that one.” you said, cringing about it once more. “I’m supposed to go with my brother’s friend from the football team but I’m not interested at all. He’s—He’s just not—“

“He’s just a typical jock who’s boring and doesn’t want to have any real fun?” Robin interjected, eyebrows quirking up as a smile grew on her lips.

He’s not you, Robin Buckley. He’s not the girl with perfect skin and pretty blue eyes that looks fucking perfect in a flannel. He’s not the one who makes you want to scream into a pillow about what you were feeling. That’s what you wanted to say. You wanted to grab her by the shoulders and tell her that you really, really wanted to go with her, but you knew you couldn’t. What would your family say? What would everyone at school say? And most importantly, what would Robin even say if you told her?

“Yeah, I guess that’s probably what it is.” you sighed, shrugging your shoulders to brush it off in the most casual way possible. “I don’t want to act like I like the kid for a whole night, it feels like such a stupid waste of my time.”

“Well, don’t go with him then.” she suggested simply, watching as you tilt your head at her straightforward proposal. “Is there someone else that you actually want to go with?”

“Yeah—I mean, I don’t—I don't know.” you stuttered, a blush settling onto your cheeks as the words slipped from your lips.

“I heard you say yes at first, you can’t take that back!” she said, her eyes lighting up with amusement. “Who is it? Is it that one kid who comes into the store all the time?”

“God no! That kid isn’t in there to flirt, I think he actually just watches a different movie every damn night.” you giggled shyly, heart skipping a beat at the sound of Robin laughing with you. 

“Well, who is it then?” Robin asked again, shoving her hand into the bowl of popcorn as if she was watching some interesting movie. “Actually, just tell me about them. You don’t have to name any names, just tell me why you like them. Is that easier?”

“Yeah, that works.” you sighed, chewing on your lip as you finally looked over to her. “I don’t really know where to start, I guess. They’re really like, one of the greatest people I’ve ever met. Obviously we’ve went to school together for a while, but I really have grown to like them a lot—like a lot—in the last few months. And—And I feel like shit for pushing them away for so long, but I just can’t bring myself to fully face how I feel.”

Robin continued to listen intently as you spoke, but was catching on rather quickly. She was shocked, to say the least. She never would’ve known that you felt this way, and would’ve done something about it a lot sooner if she had. There was a twisted feeling in your gut as you spoke, looking to Robin to see the waves of realization hitting her all at once. 

“Why don’t—or didn’t—you want them to know?” Robin questioned, tearing her gaze away from yours to stare at her hands. 

“Because I’m afraid of how they feel about me, and of what other people will say if I try to be with them.” you said softly, heart sinking as Robin’s smile faded into a focused frown. 

“Yeah, I was scared too.” she replied, making your eyes go wide in shock for a moment. “I still am, I guess. I just have people who I know will actually support me, instead of ones who would disown me.”

“You—You’re—”

“Yeah, I am.” Robin laughed softly, a bittersweet smile on her lips. “I’m not very good at this whole thing yet. Which is obvious, considering I didn’t realize you might actually like me until just now.”

“Might like you?” you laughed, making her look up at you with a hope-filled gaze. “I really like you, Robin.”

“Well good.” she sighed, inching closer to you as she spoke. “Because I’m tired of shoving my feelings away every time I see you.”

You smiled, looking away for a moment as butterflies filled your gut. There was a feeling of relief in the air that was quickly replacing the dread and doubt that had filled the room minutes before. Robin reached to put her hand on top of yours, making your heart flutter for a quick moment. Her free hand hooked under your chin, pulling your gaze back to hers as she smiled at you longingly.

“I’m glad you could finally talk to me about this.” she admitted, her thumb rubbing along your cheek gently. “And I’m glad we could both get this off our chests.”

“Yeah, me too.” you replied with a nervous smile. “And since we’re on the subject, there’s something else I’ve been wanting to get off my chest for a while.”

Robin knew exactly what you were doing as she saw your eyes flicker towards her lips, but the feeling still made her heart race. You both had wanted this to happen for a while, and it was finally happening. You cupped her cheek and pulled her into the kiss, keeping it short and sweet. Her lips were just as wonderful and sweet as you had expected, and that thrilled you. 

“Do you wanna watch the movie now?” you teased, brushing a strand of her behind her ear. 

“I think the movie can wait, because I wanna do that again.” she laughed, pulling you back in for another sweet kiss.

tags (join here!) : @sourapplebaby @harringtown @jxnehxpper @charmed-asylum @heart-eye-harrington @daddystevee @a-magey @lemonypink @igotmadskills @ilovebucketbarnes @simplesammyx @willowrose99

[honestsycrets]

A Cat Called Creamsicle | [ Ivar x Reader ]

❛ pairing | ivar x reader [ modern ]

❛ type | drabble, creamsicle square for @mzliterarydreamer​

❛ summary | a cat and a box of ice cream. 

❛  tags | bad employees (this is a thing for me okay), mention of death, mention of ashes, wheelchair use, referenced homeaid, pets.

He looks at them every time he passes into the room, running his hand over his mother’s dark stained wood. His mother’s canopy bed is sadly cold although he can still smell her perfume, wafting thin and light, and god he misses being able to climb into her bed and listen to her string him a story of the old gods.

She’s gone now.

“Ivar?” His watch alerts him to the door jangling, swinging open downstairs with a harsh slam. He would have jumped if he hadn’t known it to be his home nurse. Mother’s inheritance assured he’d live plush and comfortably. With the stipulation that-- of course, a home aide came to check on him every day.

“I’m coming.”

Once he makes his way down the stairs, he realizes that there’s something different this time. You stand with a small kennel under your arm, clicking the small suitcase you’ve rolled in. “What is this?” he asks.

“Creamsicle!”

Cream...sicle. You set the kennel down and unlock it, reaching in to pull out, what is a small orange tabby cat. His chest plumes white, like some arrogant little fluff ball. Ivar draws back the wheels of his wheelchair to get a better look at what kind of flea-bitten mongrel you had brought over. The cat is just as bewildered, stiff like a board, and glancing around for a way out. He’d ask why the hell you brought it over if he didn’t already have a sneaking suspicion on what the hell was going on.

“It’s… a cat.”

“I’m glad you’ve noticed.”

“Why did you bring me a cat?” He presses as if he hadn’t known why. You’ve always been a vocal woman about the need for Ivar to have more playmates than just his mother. Now that she was gone, he didn’t know who to socialize with. You bend down, peeling him away from the floor to clasp on a collar. With a bowtie bell.

God.

“Well, Mr. Lothbrok--”

“Lothbrok was my father,” he barks. He knows how you like to tease-- just because you weren’t familiar with his culture and were more acquainted with his fancy-ass company name. “Ivar Ragnarsson,” you correct. “You’re in desperate need of company.”

He’d argue if it weren’t so damn true.

“And a cat fixes that how?”

You sit on the ground beside his finicky fucking cat, rubbing your palm over his orange ringed tail as the cat hops over your scratchy baby blue scrubs. “It’s company for my off days.”

Ha, Ivar thinks. It’s a shit piece of company for an even shittier principle.

Most men his age were out, running, drinking-- and instead, he was here in his mother’s obsequiously big house, trying to make every room a little less lonely. It wasn’t working. Maybe you noticed that, too. The way he moved like some robotic wraith seeking to make himself feel better. Perhaps at the cost of his mental state which-- according to unhappy Mr. Clipboard on your suitcase said, he was miserable.

The cat seems intimidated by him. Anytime he wheels remotely the wrong way, the thing bolts like a rocket. “Get out of there,” you motion to his wheelchair. “No wonder he’s scared, you’re bulldozing him.”

With a long dragging sigh he pulls himself onto the cool tile floors. “There.” He raises his hands up, then down, slapping his thighs. “See, it still doesn’t fucking like me.”

You reach out, chasing his large hands out, and brush him as if you’re a grown woman teaching a small child to pet a cat. “You have to treat him nicely,” you whisper, and it sends chills all the way down, chasing his worries… away. Annoyingly far away.

It’s funny how touch can do that.

“Do you have to do that?”

You pull your hands away from his palm, clearing your throat a bit as you rustle in your things. Ironically, you pull out a box of those American treats you’re such a fan of. He spots the yellow box as the car finally seems to meld into his palm.

“You didn’t--” his smile begins to peak. You withdrawal a cool bar, popping it out of its bag with the smallest motion. “One for you,” you hand it over to him. “One for me.”

Somehow, he’s here on the floor eating orange creamsicles with his nurse and a newfound cat, not at all sure how he’s gotten there. “You’re in this deep?” he finds himself asking, unable to tear himself from the realization that you’re watching him suckle the cool treat. Unlike your other coworkers, it wasn’t as if you had anyone else to visit. Ivar was the only patient you had day in and out. He likes it that way-- the thought of you caring for someone else-- when this is so intimate? No.

“Looks like it.”

“Isn’t that against your job description?”

“Maybe if you wanted me.” There’s a silence in which Ivar debates that very fact. Then, as he comes to his conclusion that he can’t argue, you lean over to him. He feels the coolness wafting off your lips. “I put my two-week notice in.”

Ivar leans forward, smashing his cold lips against yours and nearly squishing poor creamsicle in the process. The cat leaps away. Ivar’s firm hand holds you in place against his mouth, and he never really needed to, because your hands have found the soft fabric of his shirt, kissing him with bruising, needy quality.

“Ivar--” you mutter. His tongue prods your lower lip before taking a hearty nip at it, and you squeak, dragging your face away. “--fuck!”

“Sorry,” he says as he pulls back. You shake your head, suckling the rivulets of cream running down your wrist. He watches in discomfort as you suckle it dry and finish your frozen treat off. “My ice cream was melting.”

“Can we go upstairs?” he asks, pink-cheeked. You stand upright, picking up the box full of creamsicle treats. If you went up there you already knew what would happen-- but Ivar’s excitement was too much to bear. You start toward the kitchen, flicking your head to motion him to get his ass up there. He fumbles into his wheelchair as you put the ice cream away, then start the journey up the stairs.

“You owe me dinner later, Mr. Ragnarsson.”

@beyond-the-ashes​ @supernaturalvikingwhore​ @mblaqgi​ @wuxiesalt @hopplessdreamer​ @therealcalicali​ @rekdreams-fandom @moondustmemories​ @athroatfullofglass @poisonedjoinery​ @strangunddurm​ @shookforyoojung @peachesnpisces​ @tierneygonzalez​ @hexqueensupreme @nohemi2500 @queenmissfit​ @alicedopey​ @dmv49​ @sallylebecks @terrainhead​ @mybarnesmyhero​ @youurkryptonite​ @lif3snotouttogetyou​ @vikingsmania​ @looneytunes20033​ @bat-fam-blob @oneofthelothbroks @lovelynerdytraveler​ @chinduda​ @whatamood13 @honeyofthegods​ @ilvebeenabad​ @queenbeeta​​ @wonderlandofsu​​ @tephi101​​ @alicedopey​ @supernaturalvikingwhore​ @tootie-fruity​​ @titty-teetee​​ @queen-see-ya-in-valhalla​​ @ethereallysimple​​ @deathbyarabbit​​ @deathbyarabbit​​ @readsalot73​​ @natalie-rdr​​ @lol-haha-joke​​ @lisinfleur​​ @hissouthernprincess​ @marvelousse​ @dangerous-like-a-loaded-pistol​ @vikingsmania​ @wish-i-was-a-mermaid​​ @lif3snotouttogetyou​​ @gruffle1​​ @cris101071​ @gold-dragon-slayer​ @babypink224221​ @wonderwoman292​ @naaladareia​ @beyond-the-ashes​ @generic-fangirl​ @chinduda​ @laketaj24​, @peaceisadirtyword, @ly–canthrope​ @cris101071 @daughterofthenight117​ @unassumingviking​ @ladyofsoa, @inforapound​ @winchesterwife27​ @feyrearcheron44@readsalot73 @squirrelacorngliterfarts @gold-dragon-slayer @medievalfangirl @sallydelys​  @bluearchersstuff​​ @affectionrabbitt​ @whatamood13​ @notyouraveragegirl17 @igetcarriedawaywithyou​​ @unacceptabletatertots​ @ivarandersen​ @stra-vage​ @tgrrose​ @cookies186​ @learninglemni-blog @theleeshanotlouise @soiproclaim​ @msmorganforever​​

[noblesandsstories]

The Paranormal Research Journals of Doctor Jaime Anderson: The Electrical Lavender Mouse

The 5th of September, Around 9 P.M.

My official investigation of the attraction center Amped Up Arcade was meant to be just that, a simple investigation so I could see for myself just what was happening and figure out what to do from there. However, I had theorized that a place recorded to have held so much suffering may require more immediate action. 

The facts of the case were very blurry, but a concrete fact was Amped Up was founded by two gentlemen: Mr. Issac Kingston and Mr. Kevin Stilmen. Kingston was in charge of the advertising, publicity, and the overall look of the place while Stilmen focused on the inside, keeping the building up to code and maintaining the arcade games and attractions. The place boomed and ran smoothly for a few years. But soon the place fell into a small pit where they needed to be more cost efficient, resulting in them cutting corners, which resulted in a slight loss of business. 

In the end, that was not what caused the biggest issues. The biggest problems were the missing children reports that began piling up. Kids would suddenly disappear from around the building, and police investigation led to partial remains of the kids being found all around the city.

Kingston was already pushing the idea of closing the place and starting again somewhere else, however Stilmen was against it.

Then about 15 years ago, almost to the day, Stilmen’s daughter went missing. Her missing persons report was barely out in the public for 48 hours when they announced the building was closing to the public and the two looked for a different location. Stilmen came into possession of the property; however, he refused to do anything with it, allowing it to fall into disrepair. 

Over the years, there has been a handful of reports of paranormal activity happening inside the building. Most of them were just the sounds of children and strange electrical phenomena from inside, but the most believable report was of a blood curdling scream that would be heard, if only once in a blue moon.

I personally dismissed them as hoaxes (as they usually are) until an acquaintance of mine told me that I should look into it.

That was how I had found myself in front of the building after getting the city’s mayor to allow my investigation. The building itself was quite large for an attraction in a medium sized town, and that wasn’t even including the outdoor area for the go carts. One could only assume it had grown over time. Most of the windows were boarded or were covered by tarps or sheets in an attempt to keep people from poking around. The brick of the building didn’t show much in terms of damage, but I figured that conclusion would be better left till I got inside.

One thing was for certain however. I could feel the presence of lost souls, and I wasn’t even in the building yet.

It took me a few minutes to bust the doors open at the front, since there was no key to get in from the outside and the hinges were rusted almost beyond repair. Once I entered the front lobby, I decided to start with my usual investigation procedure. I activated the calming rune on my arm so if I met any wary or benign spirits, they would not view me as an immediate threat. I began to explore.

From what I could see of the interior, the building looked to be well in order. Besides some rather tattered looking decorations and chipping paint, the place looked like it was still decently well kept. No signs of cobwebs or extreme amounts of dust.

I decided I would check the front offices before I went deeper into the attraction center to see if I could find a map, blueprints, or anything else helpful for my investigation. There were two main offices directly across from each other, one with Kingston on the door and one with Stilman. I figured that the information I would most be interested in would be in the latter of the two.

The door was unlocked, and on the desk, there were a couple of notes that seemed to track things that needed maintenance. In fact, there was a giant binder full to the brim of nothing but maintenance complaints. I was not all that surprised, since I understand how hard it can be to keep a large place that has a good deal of people coming in and out up to code. But I was interested in the numerous reports of electrical issues. I only skimmed through the papers, but it seemed like there would always be weird phenomena that would occur where the power would cut off randomly for only seconds before coming back on or the power surged and people would end up getting slightly shocked by the machines. According to the notes to the sides, they could never find out what was going on and even Stilmen was stumped.

I quickly erased the idea that it was anything paranormal related as I would have felt any disturbances that could cause such results. As I flipped through more papers and through the desk’s contaminants, I did not find anything else on the power issue beyond the usual complaint and confusion. 

I did, however, find a series of notes that talked about another interesting thing that brought amusement to the attraction, their robots. Mr. Stilmen had a talent for engineering, and would build, design, and operate robotic animal puppets. This was the one thing that they never cut back on when they started lowering expenses. Looking at the notes, it seems like Kingston wanted to assign a mascot for the attraction. But he was not fond of all of the robots they had so far and pushed Stilmen to come up with something. I couldn’t find out what they agreed on.

After searching a little longer and not finding anything else helpful, I went and looked at Mr. Kingston’s office. However, the office was completely empty. There was not even any furniture. 

(That did not entirely phase me, as Kingston* had almost completely removed himself from the attraction center all together by the time the place had closed.)

I moved on from there and just decided to wander my way around. I activated my wrist compass’ charm. This allowed me to be able to track any spirits that have a simple amount of power.

The compass started to glow faintly and then a small spear of light, acting as the needle, started to spin before pointing in a direction.

I went down the hallway attached to the lobby and found that the direction my compass was guiding me towards was the arcade. The arcade was a well and large room that was practically packed with arcade games of all kinds. Of course, none of them were on, as the power coords on all of them were unplugged. 

I followed the cords and upon inspection, realized that all of them connected at some point to the far outside wall. The outlets were in fact more like multiplugs (very heavy duty, in fact) that came from cut out holes in the wall. I knocked lightly on the wall, and sure enough, it sounded hollow. There were probably passage ways of some sorts throughout the building so that they could keep the wiring out of sight of the guests so they would not get damaged or tampered with.

I was quite impressed with this discovery, but before I could start searching for an entrance to these passages, I sensed a presence. In fact, I sensed quite a few. How odd.

I slowly scanned the room from where I stood, hoping to spot some sign of who (Yes who for it was not powerful enough to be a what) was with me. I ended up looking around for a small while before I caught a glimpse of someone small tucking to hide behind a machine. 

I quickly glanced at my wrist and saw that this was not who the compass needle was pointing to. Nevertheless, I slowly strode over to where I saw the person. I was a few feet away, but before I could get closer,  I heard the distinct crackle of electricity.

I quickly turned its direction and saw a purple streak of lightning hit an arcade game on the far end of the row of games I was in. 

The game sparked to life for a second, flashing frames of pixels and notes of digital music, and then the purple lightning went into the next game and the next, distorted speakers and bright strobes of color making its way down the line rapidly towards me.

I could quickly tell that whoever it was was not pleased to see me and that they definitely meant to do harm. I moved away from the machines and made a bolt to the archway that led to the next room, hoping to get away from the electrical machines. As I crossed the room, I was suddenly having projectiles thrown my way. Prizes from the ticket booth and tokens where chucked my way as I ran. I glanced over to see what looked to be the apparitions of children, looking as if they were on the warpath. (Obviously they were doing no damage, but it truly is the intention that counts.)

I was no longer being battered by their vicious attacks when I got out of the arcade and into the next room, however, I was unsure if the electrical being was able to pursue me in their stead.

Looking around, I was in what seemed to be a giant playground that consisted mostly of suspended tunnels that had translucent plastic bubbles made for windows and there were a few slides. There were also many places for children to climb up in many different manners. All in all, it looked like a hamster pen. 

Getting over my initial confusion, I promptly started looking to see if there was anything electrical off the bat. There were two security cameras and light fixtures on the ceiling, but I could view nothing else.

I turned back to the way I came in to observe the behavior of the lightning, but it was nowhere to be found. The arcade was as dark and silent as before. The only sign of anything happening was the items strewn about on the ground.

It didn’t need explaining to me that whatever that purple lightning was was what my compass was most likely pointing to, unless there was another being of similar power, which I highly doubted. 

In my experience, children's spirits are harder to work with, especially if you are not trained to work with them. They can be very emotional and one wrong move can greatly upset them. Another issue is that they seem to have a great struggle trying to explain what is wrong and what they are feeling. However, it is balanced out with the fact that not many children stay behind in our world, and usually when they do it is for a simple reason that usually caused or led up to their deaths.

To see what appeared to be a good handful of children that all were immediately aggressive and/or terrified is very concerning. This means that all of them were either killed or were here before they died. By the quick glances I got, they all could not be any older than 10 years of age. So now the question is, how do I help them?

Their instant aggression shows that they are not very trusting of me, probably because I’m a stranger and an adult. But that means it will be difficult trying to find a way to figure out what they need to pass on. I decided to keep investigating the building to see if I could find any clues as to what may have happened. 

The playground area was a bit smaller than the arcade and, at first glance, definitely seemed to be the most unassuming place so far. I wanted to see if I could find any more signs of the passageways in the walls, so I went about checking the perimeter of the room, careful as to not get close to the doors of the arcade, just in case. It was then I felt the presence of another soul in the room; however, I did not address it. 

I instead observed that there was a hidden opening, no more than half a foot wide. Upon pearing in I saw what looked to be a door that would lead into the wall. The opening looked like it could keep most full grown adults out and since there was nothing else there, no child would stay around it long, as long as the door stayed shut and locked. It was also positioned behind other equipment in the back, therefore it would be almost unnoticeable unless you were practically in the playground. 

As I was investigating, I could feel the soul creep closer to me and by the time I had finished my observations from above, they were only a few feet away. I started to slowly move, causing the soul to freeze in their tracks. I walked slowly around, pretending I was interested in something or another, keeping my back towards them. I slowly made my way to one of the benches on the opposite side of the wall from the playground and sat, leaning my head back and closing my eyes. 

 After a minute, the soul began creeping closer to me again. This time when they were only about a few feet away, I quietly addressed them.

“You really needn’t try to be so sneaky. I promise I don’t mean any harm.”

I felt the soul flinch at my words and quickly retreat behind the plastic slide in front of me.

“Don’t be scared,” I cooed softly. “I’m not going to do anything. Look, I even have my eyes closed. You don’t have to come out if you don’t want to. I understand that strangers can seem threatening.”

The soul stayed in their place, and for a small moment it was completely still. And then the soul came out from the slide.

“Can you see me?”

It was such a small voice, one that could only belong to a child.

“Yes I can.”

“How?”

“I don’t know. I’ve always been good at seeing people.”

I felt them come only a hair closer.

“Nobody has ever seen me after I died. Are you a ghost hunter?”

That was an alarming statement. Children ghosts rarely ever fully knew that they were dead. This meant that either they were told or that what ever had killed them made it hard for them to deny what happened.

“No. I’m a ghost helper. I help ghosts find a way home.”

“So, you can help us leave?”

“Yes, indeed I can.”

“How?”

“It depends. I will need to know more.”

“Know more about what?”

“I need to know more about you and your friends and what happened.”

By this point, the child had crept over and was only about a foot in front of me. I slowly opened my eyes and looked down at the child.

“Would you be ok with that? Me asking questions?”

The child sat for a second and then gave a nod.

“If you want, I can show you where everyone is.”

“That would be nice. Thank you.”

The child gave me a small smile, and then proceeded to lead the way. We left the playground, and into the main hallway. Across from the doors, there was another hallway, but there were signs indicating that it was only for employees. The child went down this hallway anyways, and kept going until we came to a door that was labeled “Maintenance Room.” 

Before I even opened the door, I could feel the amount of spirits inside. Once I did, I noticed that they all were sitting down, almost in a huddle. Upon seeing me, their eyes went wide and they all tensed up. The child who led me quickly glided over to where they were, while I decided to sit down at the door.

“Don’t worry, don’t worry! He said that he could help us go home!” At his pleading, the other children still seemed to be nervous about me being there. The child then walked back over and sat beside me. “See look! He’s not hurting me!”

I smiled warmly. “You’re alright. I promise I don’t want to hurt you. I just want to talk about what happened to you.”

One of the children, a young one at that, started to burst into tears.

“Oh, no no nononono, I’m sorry.” I quickly backpedaled. “You don’t have to think about it. I’m sorry.”

Suddenly, one of the lamps in a different corner of the room flickered before a trail of electricity moved over to the children. Once it was almost among them, it shifted form and went up the upset child.

The new apparition was that of a robotic mouse that was about the size of a large rabbit. Her spirit glowed a faint lavender hue. A protection spirit. 

“Shhhhh, it’s ok, it’s ok. You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to.” Her voice was different from other spirits, having more of a robotic sound to it. Almost like she was talking through a voice changer of some sorts. But even then, it was far more comforting than I could have possibly been. Once the child was calmed, she then turned towards me. 

She stared at me for a bit, like she was assessing the situation. 

After a moment, she spoke.

“Is it true that you can help them?”

“Yes. I can.”

At that, she moved away from the children and closer to me. The child that had sat beside me moved over to where the others were and watched the events unfold. She stood before me, looking deeply into my eyes.

“How?”

I gave her a smile and explained, quiet for only her to hear, “I know practically everything there is to know about helping ghosts move on. All I need to know is more about how you ended up this way and from there I can determine the proper technique to use.” 

She gave me a curt nod, sat on her hind legs in front of me, and took a deep breath before she whispered, “Murder. They were all murdered by a man from this place.” Her voice trembled slightly.

“Are there any objects that they could potentially be attached to?”

“No, no. It’s just...them.”

I nodded and then gave her a smile. “Thank you. That’s all I need.” I stood up and slowly walked over to where the children sat. “Now the question is, who wants to go first?”

The hand of the first child I met popped up. I smiled and gave him a nod. “Ok then. Wait a moment while I get ready.”

For privacy purposes, I went to the father corner of the room, which was hidden by a table and some boxes of spare parts. As I took off my coat and began folding up my sleeves, I heard the faint whispers of goodbyes from the children. I sat down and waited for them to come over when they were ready. As they came over, I motioned for them to sit in front of me.

“May I take your hands?”

They gave me a small nod and put out their hands. I took them in mine, and positioned them where the child’s were on top.

“Are you ready?”

“Will it hurt?”

“Not at all. It’ll be like falling asleep.”

The child gave me another small nod.

“Now, close your eyes for me and just relax.”

Once I felt he was calm, I activated the wings tatoos on my back and directed the power to my hands. Soon the child started glowing faintly.

“What’s your name?”

“Jack.”

“Well, Jack, what do you want to do when you leave?”

“I want to go find my little sister. She got left on the playground alone and got scared. I was going to help her out.” His spirit started to dim slightly.

“You’re a very good big brother Jack, but I’m sure she’s home and safe now.”

“You mean it? She’s okay?”

“Absolutely. Now relax. Remember, like falling asleep.”

Jack took a deep breath in and as he exhaled, his spirit completely faded away into a small light. Using a small amount of power, I moved it towards me and sealed it into a bead on my holding charm. This would make it easy to transport their spirits outside, where they can be let go and carried away into the next place beyond.

After a moment to make sure his spirit was secure, I spoke out, “Who ever wants to go next can come over?”

And just like that the process repeated until all of them, besides the lavender spirit remained. (I later looked into a list of all of the children that went missing and matched the ones I met here to that list, which I will have at the end of this entry.)

I could tell she was practically besides herself with emotion, witnessing the children she’s cared for finally being freed from this place. She was completely silent and stared at the spot where they were all once huddled together.

“Are you ready?”

She paused and then spoke slowly. “Is there anything else you have to do now?”

“I have to take what’s left of the spirits outside so they can completely leave. But that can wait until you’ve been helped.”

She didn’t respond for a small time, then she turned to me. “Go ahead and take care of them. Then come back for me. I have something to show you.”

“Very well then.”

I picked up my coat and was putting it on when a thud came from the halls.

I looked to the spirit, only to find she had gone back to her lightning form and zapped into the wall.

I braced myself and quietly slipped out the door (which was left ajar) and peered into the hallway. While there was no sign of a physical presence, yet, I heard the sound of movement from the direction of the lobby. It was then brought to my awareness that spirits in the charm (which I had looped into my belt) were reacting in a manner of fear. As I quickly added another seal over the charm to keep them from accidentally slipping out, I began to think of a plan.

I had no means of defense if whatever was there was a physical threat and not supernatural. This meant that I would be in trouble if the encounter got confrontational. I would have to try to avoid that by all means necessary.

As I looked across the hall, into the room with the playground, I noticed a lavender glow, though I couldn’t see where it was coming from. After checking to make sure the hallway was empty, I quietly slipped in.

I was partially expecting to see the lavender spirit, however the source of the glow came from behind the hidden opening I had found earlier. When I went to look in, I saw that the door at the end had been opened. 

He shouldn’t be able to get me in here.

An echo of a whisper, barely audible to the point where most people would ignore it, not realizing it wasn’t just a random thought in their head, but a memory of sorts. What they were hearing was someone’s thoughts and/or words right before their death. Echos rarely occur for no reason, mostly being triggered by a similar event or the presence of someone who was present before the spirit’s demise.

By the sound of it, she was being chased by someone. 

I decided that it would be best to follow the echo, instead of risking getting caught by whatever was now here. I managed to squeeze into the opening and began shuffling towards the door. As I got to the end, I heard the unmistakable sound of heavy footsteps. I turned around and through the sliver of the opening, saw a tall figure, who was definitely not dead.

Come on sweetheart, it’s not safe back there!

I had nearly missed the faint voice of an adult male in my attempt to stay out of sight. As quietly as I possibly could, I opened the door a hair farther and slipped inside, shutting it behind me. 

The passageway was barely 5 feet wide in total and had long thick wires running along the floor’s edges. The floor itself was about an inch or two below the level of the building. The light was only bright enough to illuminate the immediate area around the door.

However, before I could observe it more, it bolted down the hall, and I had to nearly sprint to keep up with it. Once I was about where the arcade would be, I noticed the amount of wires had nearly doubled. So much so at some points there were wires across the center which were torn from the amount of times they had been walked on.

The air itself became damp and there were a few times I could have sworn I saw moss. The farther along I went, the more I started to hear dripping from the roof.

Eventually the light came to a stop at a tiny opening that was at the corner of the building. From there on out, the passage was almost more of a crawl space. But here I could see where all the wires led to. There was a small chain of older power generators that was connected by various cords.

The arcade machines were powered by the generators which were connected to the main power system by vast amounts of wiring. Between the age of the generators, the leaks in the roof, and the constant treading on the wires, the place was almost beyond hazardous.

And it was at that, everything clicked.

Penelope!

I’ve got to hide.

It was then I saw the faint ripple of a figure in the light. It quickly moved into the crawl space. I was so focused on following the girl’s spirit, that I didn’t sense the pursuer until they were almost on me.

“You’re not supposed to be back here.”

I spun around and came face to face with the monster of this place, whom I had seen many photos of in my research.

“Mr. Stilmen. It's a pleasure to make your...” He cut me off with a growl.

“Don’t be smart with me. You’re trespassing on my property and you need to leave.” Before I could reply, he raised a gun and pointed it in my direction.

“I’m doing no such thing. The city gave me permission to investigate these grounds for activity.”

“What activity? The place is closed.”

“I understand that. I just was trying to look into the mysterious activity and the children that were murdered.”

He growled, “No kids died. They went missing!”

“No. They were killed, you can’t deny that to me now. I’ve seen enough.”

“Seen what? What could you have seen that would suggest that?”

“I’m going to go out on a limb and say that you were suffering from depression. Your wife did die from childbirth and not only that, you lost the baby too.”

“How-”

“It must have hurt you then. To see so many young children not pay heed to their mothers. I mean, technically, it was a child that took your wife away.

“The first time was probably an accident. That’s how it usually starts. But then you got carried away. And soon you had a lot of blood on your hands. Figuratively, of course.  Not only that, but what were you going to do with the remains? Well you had to dump them of course. But I’m sure you know how that went.”

He gave a small chuckle before tightening his grip on the gun. “And how did you figure all of that out? Huh?” It was hardly there, but I caught the slight waver in his voice.

“I pity you Mr. Stilmen. You really are a man who is followed by misfortune. But that will never excuse you for what you did.” 

“SHUT UP! That’s enough talking from you!” He screamed, pain laced in his voice. And then he pulled the trigger.

I braced myself for the hit, but instead a bolt of electricity struck the bullet and shocked his hand, making him drop the gun. 

A lavender girl stood between us, small sparks coming from her hands. As soon as Stilmen looked at her, his face went pale.

“Y-you… you can’t be…” His eyes held a look of surprise as he moved a half step towards her, turning his head in an attempt to get a better view of her face. “Penelope?”

“Daddy…” she choked out. I didn’t need to see her face to know what she felt, her voice was full of pure grief. “Daddy…” 

“Yes? Sweetheart, what is it? Whatever it is,” his words tumbled out, a faint shake in his voice.

“Daddy… please stop it.” Despite her originally trying to put on a brave face, she began to start sobbing. “I don’t want you... to hurt people... anymore. I just want you… to be… happy again.”

At her words, he broke falling to his knees with a sob. I then walked a bit closer to her, but to the side.

“You didn’t mean for her to know. But she eventually found out didn’t she?” I channeled my power into the air and space around me.

The echoed footsteps of a young girl running towards us soon played. It then turned to sloshing as she came closer from where the tunnel had a small layer of water. A faint figure of a girl came running into the area, and then stopped, breathing heavily. In her arms she held a robotic mouse close to her chest.She appeared terrified for her life. She then turned her head, as if hearing someone calling for her.

But instead, she slipped into the crawl space.

There was a sudden loud pop from the generators. And then...

A blood curdling scream. Loud enough to be heard from outside of the thin exterior walls. 

As the vision faded, the man sat there in silence with nothing but pain and grief. He then choked out, “I couldn’t get to her fast enough. Once I got there...” He looked up from the ground to Penelope, who was now crying. “I’m so sorry. Let me make it up to you. Whatever you want, I’ll do it. I promise.”

“All I want,” she whispered,” is for you to get better.”

“I’ll do it then. I’ll turn myself in. I’ll answer for my crimes,” he rambled. 

Then she gave a faint smile. “Thank you.”

Stilmen went along with the police with full cooperation and as they were loading him in the car, I saw his face. His expression was that of pure relief, as well as sorrow as he looked back to the old amusement building.

Once everything was said and done, he was probably going to hand it over to Kingston for him to do with it as he wished. But before they drove him away, he had one wish.

“Dr. Anderson… Can you take care of Penelope for me?”

“It would be my honor. Don’t worry. She will be in safe hands.”

Afterwards, of course, the police wanted my full report; however, as you may know, I have a strict policy regarding the privacy of my patients so I gave them a very short statement.

“I found him as I was walking and I managed to talk him down.”

After a while, the police gave up on me and began to prepare to scout the building.

I asked the person in charge to allow me a few minutes inside to grab some things, so they would not be considered evidence accidentally, and while they were more than disgruntled about it, they gave me permission.

By that point, the sun was starting to rise, and even with the windows boarded, the building was a bit more illuminated.

I made my way back to the area with the generators, this time using the official door that was in the back wing, next to the maintenance room. When I arrived, I saw Penelope sitting on the ground. 

“I was hoping you would come back in.” She looked up at me and gave me a small smile. “I’ve been thinking about...me… moving on.”

I smiled back towards her. “Yes. I was wondering about that myself. How do you feel?”

She hesitated, and then replied thoughtfully, “I don’t think I’m ready to go. But I can’t stay here. There is no reason to, and besides, they will probably tear the place down eventually. I don’t know where I want to go.”

“Hmm, well…” I hummed, pausing briefly. “You could come stay with me.”

Her face lit up instantly. “Really?”

“Yes, of course. There is always space in my home for more. And you won’t be the only ghost, or child, on the premises. Not to mention, if the need arises and if you wish to, you can travel with me sometimes for work.”

She sprung up to her feet in a jolt of lightning, laughing cheerfully as she zapped across the room. 

“I’ll take that as a yes?”

“Yes! Yes! I want to go with you!”

I chuckled as she ran up to me, returning her hug in earnest. “Now, means of getting you out of here.” I looked off to the side in thought.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, I can’t keep you in the charm, and it’s hard for a spirit to move on their own. It’s a lot more helpful when a spirit is connected to something, like a book or a tool.”

“Well… if it helps, I’ve been sleeping in something like that, but I don’t think I can move it.”

I instantly knew what she was talking about. Ghosts don’t exactly sleep, per say, but some of them need to rest in order to recharge their power. But if she was resting in something, that meant…

“What were you sleeping in?”

“Oh, it’s with... my body.”

“Alright then.” I pulled out my flashlight and set it on the dimmest mode. “Would you mind going back into it and exert a small amount of power through it? That will cause it to glow slightly.”

She nodded and then, turning back into a volt of electricity, she went down the wires into the crawlspace. Then there was a faint glow from just inside.

I used my flashlight to make sure I didn’t accidentally grab the wrong thing and began reaching for the glowing object. I tried not to focus on the mass that was next to it, and I managed to just grab it.

I could feel Penelope’s excited presence within it as I pulled it out. And once I brightened my light, I saw a small lavender mechanical mouse.

~Fin~

[sparkexplosive]

Sentiment [Izuku Midoriya] ; 01 ; rewrite

Masterpost of all chapters!

Proceed with Caution: This story will contain angst. 

Word Count: 2,615

The sun shining above birds chirped happily beside their own families. Small children are holding their mother’s hand as they walk across the busy street. 

The tall purple walls that surround the grounds of U.A High School, which protects their students and staff from any uninvited citizens to enter into their property. The security of the school has improved ever since the incident with the League of Villains. 

Students wearing their respected uniforms. They are chatting away with their friend groups from their dorms. 

Meanwhile, you are holding hands with your green-haired boyfriend, whose cheeks were slightly flushed in red since he’s still not used to this kind of affection despite the fact you’ve been dating for almost twelve months. 

Your first anniversary is coming up.

You cannot believe it has been so long. You can’t help but ponder on the reason why you even started to date him in the first place. 

You knew how messed up this was, taking advantage of Midoriya’s crush on you for your own personal gain over a stupid deal you made with an acquaintance. It’s just wrong and isn't you. 

You took the offer at a time when you were in a tight spot in your life without any hesitation. You didn’t think through it before accepting the deal. it. You just needed the money for your own family's sake.

At the very beginning, you didn’t have any necessary feelings for him in that sort of light. However, you could not avoid developing true feelings for him throughout the relationship.

Once you get the chance to get to know him better, you start to realize who he was behind his reputation of being one of the top students within the Heroes Course and well known for breaking his bones in his first year. 

Midoriya Izuku is very sweet and protective over his loved ones. You took notice of the small habits such as rambling on like a voicemail machine. 

You started to learn to love those traits about him, even if he’s a constant blushing mess. You remembered the times when he was a complete klutz during the dates you went on together, especially the first one. He was shaking on your doorstep with a gift in hand.  

Throughout your relationship, when he thought this relationship would last. He thought your guy's relationship was serious enough that when he brought you home to meet his mother. He was extremely nervous and worried about his mother’s opinion of you. 

You were nervous to meet the most important person in his life. It worked out in the end. His mother loved you dearly and would often ask for you to invite you for dinner on the weekends.  

Clearly remember how you felt the day when reality finally hit you like a truck. 

You were falling in love with an adorable dork who has a big dream of becoming the number one hero. You admired that part of him. You loved his resolve of becoming the selfless hero who puts his own life on the line to save others, although it does worry you at times. 

On a particular day, it was raining and clouds crowded over the sun. 

You were soaked wet from head to toe while walking away from the U.A building to get supplies for Deku’s costume to repair damages. There weren’t any of the supplies you need for his costume. Power Loader handle over a credit card to get the stuff you needed since they didn’t have the supplies. 

You could clearly remember the running footsteps hitting on the wet ground behind you. 

You had turned your head around out of curiosity to see who it was and stopped to only be surprised to see Midoriya.

“(Name)! Wait!” You saw him running to you with an umbrella in his hand.

“I saw you walking out in the rain without an umbrella.” He nervously looks up at you. He scratched behind his neck. 

“I didn’t want you getting sick because of me. I was the one who ruined the costume and the reason you needed to go and get the supplies to have it fixed in the first place.”

Your eyes widened at hearing his statement and you were flabbergasted. You didn’t know what to say. He nervously smiles before he looks down at his hand holding an extra sweater. He motions for you to grab the umbrella, which you did. He immediately flaps the sweater open, before taking the edges of the upper section. He quickly walks behind you and places the sweater over your shoulder, and you slipped your arms through the sleeves. You had switch hands from holding the umbrella. 

His dry sweater hugged your soaked body. You could feel the heat coming up to your cheeks and your throat was becoming dry as your heart started racing against your ribcage.

The realization falls on you very hard as you are beginning to catch feelings for him.

“Thank you, Izu.” You gave him a sheepish smile. 

That day, the two of you had a conversation with the store and back to school grounds. 

Overall, ever since you developed feelings for him, you could not help but feel guilty about it, which is why you were planning on telling him the reason sometime this week. 

You knew you shouldn't have waited for so long to tell him, but you were trying to convince yourself that perhaps you would find the correct moment to bring it up. However, deep down you knew there was never gonna be a right moment for something this big that spark the romantic relationship between the two of you to even happened. 

You want to be sincere with your feelings with him and tell him the truth about everything and hope for the best before he could find out by someone else. 

It would just make it more complicated than you tell him yourself. 

___________________________

Everything started within the first few months of the second year being Midoriya’s department of support partner, the two of you would spend a lot of time together for his suit and the equipment that he needed.

He would start acting more weird than usual. You would find him staring at you with admiration when you are using your quirk, heat vision. You were heating two loose pieces together within his mask and when you were finished, you would turn your head to him and raise an eyebrow.

He wouldn’t stop staring until you call his name, which immediately makes him snap out of his trance to knock over a wheeling cart with different sizes of screws and nails. He tried to clean the mess up but instead face planted on the ground and continued to apologize for his clumsiness. You had to help him clean up the mess he made.

That was the day when you realized why he was acting weird around you. All the signs, he has shown signs of having a crush on you. You didn’t understand why he would. You were not someone from the hero course, but someone who is from the support department.

You weren’t anything special to even gain his attention like that on you. 

However, once the word got spread around school that one of the students from Class-A of the hero course has a crush on someone within the support department, there was an uproar but it didn’t take long to find out who it was.

This was the day that sparked everything. You clearly remember the day when you accepted a stupid deal that could cost you a relationship with someone who genuinely cares about you.

You weren’t happy that you got ambushed by one particular classmate with their minions within the same department as you. They hid your tools, which you couldn’t do anything without them.

“You’re the one who’s partnered with that bushy-haired boy who used to break his bones constantly during the first year.” Your classmate states, making you roll your eyes and trying to find your tools in the supply area.

“What about it? If you want to ask about someone, the least you could do is learn their name.” You kneeled and started looking underneath the tables.

Your classmate completely ignores what you said then continues, “Well, let’s make a deal.” which made you stop and retreat your body from underneath the table. You glanced over at your annoying classmate.

“About?” You were curious about what they had to say.

“You ask out that klutz of a hero and maintain the relationship for a whole year then break up, and in exchange you get money. You would make that boy’s dream come true for a year and you get money as an exchange. Doesn’t it sound like a good deal?”

“But what’s the catch?” You asked.

There is always a catch in any kind of deal. 

“If you could not do it, then you have to clean up our messes for the rest of the following year.”

You ponder on the thought and glance over to your working station to see the yellow envelope from the hospital on the same spot where you left it.

“How much money are we talking about here?” You asked.

“I have plenty of money.” Your classmate cockily says, taking a sticky note from your desk and a pen before he writes something down. He throws the sticky notepad at you. You catch the sticky notepad and look at it.

You bite your lip in thought, before looking up at him. “Why did you choose Midoriya out of everyone?”

Your rich classmate clicks his tongue. “I have a grudge against broccoli. It’s just vengeance in a sense. Are you gonna take it or not?”

Your rich classmate holds his hand out for a handshake. You took a deep breath before looking at the yellow envelope again and returning your eyes to him and lifting your hand to grasp and shake his hand. “Deal.”

“Nice making business with you. (Last name).” He snickers and wave his hand to only have your tools to start appearing on your desk.

You could feel a pair of green eyes on you snapping out of your thoughts to glance over at him. His innocent green eyes holding worry and unease for you. He opens his mouth and shuts it before he makes another attempt to finally have the words come out of his mouth. “Are you okay?”

You return your gaze to the building in front of you, U.A High School Building. You lick your lips and nod your head.

“Yeah, I am. Don’t worry about me. You have to worry about passing that exam today.” You smiled and boop his nose. Instantly, he covers his face and a slight reddish blush appeared on his freckled cheeks.

You grin brightly and laugh at his reaction. You could never get enough of him being a complete dork, which is one of the reasons why you fell in love with him.

You lean over and peck his freckled cheek. He was completely distracted, and you took the opportunity to take his wallet. You let go of his hand and wave his wallet in front of him. He immediately touches his pockets with a bewildered expression. You snicker in front of him before you start to sprint away from him.

He runs after you, soon enough sweeps you off your feet. Thankfully his training paid off since he can run a lot faster than you.

Both of you were laughing at the silly goose chase. He has gotten used to your teasing but always gets off guard. You press the tip of your nose against his, making him grin brightly and you smiled along with him. He puts you back onto your feet on the ground. 

What you didn’t notice where students who are within the building giving you dirty to disgusted looks from the windows above. 

You are the first one to pull away and take his hand. Both of you are walking into the building, and you drop him off to his homeroom since it is the closest.

“See you later. You wish the best of luck.” You peck his cheek and bid goodbye with another good luck peck on his other cheek for his exam.

______________________________________

When Midoriya Izuku opens his locker in the boys' locker room after coming back from his exam. 

A white envelope falls onto the ground between his feet.

With an eyebrow raised, he bends down to grab the envelope with his hero name on the front “Deku”. 

He wants to open it but decides against it. He places it on the top shelf of his shelf as he changes into his school uniform. 

The back of his mind was itching to know what was inside. 

Everyone was slowly leaving to go to the cafeteria. He opens the white envelope to only reveal a photocopy of a paycheck with writing on top. 

His eyes widened at the moment when he read the wording. 

“Your relationship with (Name) is a lie.”

His legs weaken with his weight causing him to stumble back as the back of his knees hit the bench. He sits on the bench. 

He has so many questions, but the evidence is in his hands. 

A paycheck with an enormous amount directed to your name. 

Iida comes back to see Midoriya shoulders trembling sitting on the bench. Midoriya hands were clenching the piece of paper in his grasp. 

The president of the class walks over to him to see the piece of paper and what's written on it. 

His eyes widened, but he was overcome with sadness for his best friend. He reveals a secret that he has been holding to himself. 

“Midoriya, I did hear rumors.” 

Izuku could feel my mouth going dry. It was begging for something to drink. 

“I thought they were just rumors. I didn’t think to tell you. You know how it is sometimes, but I am sorry.” Iida speaks, causing Midoriya to put his head down in shame. 

His voice was cracking at each word that comes out from his lips as his eyes were blurred with tears. “Was I foolish?” 

The realization hits him when he thinks back at the beginning of the relationship. The way you acted in the very beginning but it changed over time.

He doesn’t want to believe it. He hopes it's all a lie. It is just a cruel prank. 

But deep down, the thought of the chance of this to be true is high. 

Was he fooled or even blinded by his crush to see the truth? 

Is he that gullible? 

He runs out of the locker leaving Iida alone. He ignores his calls for him. He was too deep in his own thoughts. 

He needs to take a walk to breathe.

No. He needs to run to relieve the heaviness on his chest.  

He could already feel all the stares of his classmate out of pity when everyone finds out. 

His stomach and heart wrenching so hard as if someone took his heart-crushing it with their bare hands. 

He rushes past students who were whispering to each other. 

“Did he find out?”

“What a pity. To play with kind-hearted boy feelings.”

He could feel the room becoming bigger and bigger. He has a hard time breathing, almost as if someone had punched him in his gut harshly. 

Once his feet went the ground outside to only scream his heart out while tears running down his freckled cheeks. 

His whole relationship with you was it a complete lie?

-__________________

Feedback is appreciated!

Please be kind within the comments. I hope you are enjoying the story.  Sorry for any spelling or grammar errors.

[coldcomputersoul]

Marco vs. the Forces of Love Episode 5: Carnival

Summary: It’s a hoot and a holler when Marco escapes from the girls and gets blackmailed by Jeremy. Meanwhile, Star, Jackie, Janna and Hekapoo work together to find him.

Star vs. the Forces of Evil belongs to:

© Daron Nefcy

© Disney Television Animation

[theme song]

ACT I

[The episode starts where we left off at the previous episode where Star and Janna have a heated argument regarding Marco]

Janna:

If anything, Marco should avoid you at all costs.

Star:

Oh yeah? At least I don’t steal things from him of stalk him like a creep, and let me tell you...

Marco:

[thinking to himself] Aw man, this is getting ugly. I need to get out of here.

Star:

...and that’s why I’m the best girl for Marco.

Janna:

Sure, keep making noise babyface. You sure are gonna win if you cry harder.

Star:

[breaking glass sound] What did you just say to me?

Janna:

I said: Keep making noise baby...

[before she can finish Star tackles Janna and they start a fight, but Jackie once again gets in between and attempts to stop them]

Jackie:

Come on girls please... fighting each other won’t solve anything. It will makes things worse.

Janna:

You’re right. We should let Marco decide once and for all and finish this nonsense...

Star:

I agree. So Marco, which one of us do you like...? [she notices that Marco is missing] Marco? Where did he go?

Janna:

Maybe he ran away from you and your childish behaviour your majesty...

Jackie:

Janna...

Star:

Well at least I’m a member of the royalty. You, on the other hand are just a sad, strange little girl who steals wallets to get attention. How pathetic.

Jackie:

Star...

Janna:

Say it again to my face, your royal pain.

Star:

I’ll be glad...

[Just when they’re about to start another brawl, an orange portal opens in front of them with Marco and Hekapoo coming out from it]

Hekapoo:

What’s up ladies?

Star:

What the…?!!!

[TIME CARD: FLASHBACK]

[Cut Marco and Hekapoo lying under the bed sheets all sweaty and exhausted. Marco stares at the ceiling with his arms around his head while Hekapoo plays with her hand on his chest]

Hekapoo:

That... was even better than I remembered. I really needed this...

Marco:

[concerned] I’m glad to hear it...

[Hekapoo notices that Marco looks concerned about something]

Hekapoo:

Is there… something you wanna tell me right now?

Marco:

What do you mean?

Hekapoo:

You look kinda sad. Do you regret about this?

Marco:

What? No, I’m not. It was wonderful and you’re an amazing chick and all but...

Hekapoo:

Do you still have feelings for Star?

Marco:

What happens between me and Star, like I said, it’s complicated. I don’t even know how to define it. The problem is: Right now, I just don’t know what I’m doing. It seems like every time I think I’ve found love, something happens and I get caught between more decisions and… I can’t think clearly anymore. I want somebody to love, someone who gives me comfort and support, but I also want to live dangerously, to be challenged...

Hekapoo:

Marco, you don’t have a problem. You’re just a kid. It’s normal for boys at your age being so indecisive and impulsive. You’re just a little confused, that’s all.

Marco:

Maybe that’s true, but it doesn’t take away the fact that I’m hurting Star. I wish I knew what I want so this could end peacefully.

[Hekapoo looks at Marco for a moment and thinks of a way to help him]

Hekapoo:

I think I figured out what’s your problem...

Marco:

You do?

Hekapoo:

You said that you don’t know what you want in a girl, right?

Marco:

Right...

Hekapoo:

That’s because you’re too busy pleasing everyone else instead of focus on what makes YOU happy. Am I right?

Marco:

Uhm, yeah, that’s kinda true...

Hekapoo:

And that’s my point: There’s nothing wrong in enjoying yourself once in a while. You’re a great guy Marco Diaz, and I’ve always thought you deserve better.

Marco:

That’s funny. I’ve always consider myself to be very lucky.

Hekapoo:

Yeah, but I’m not talking about the things you have, I’m talking about respect. And that’s what I love about you Marco: No matter how hard life has been treating you, you always seem to  keep going. You spent 16 years chasing me to get back a lousy pair of scissors that weren’t even yours. 

Marco:

That’s because I didn’t knew that were your scissors.

Hekapoo:

That doesn’t matter. What I’m trying to say is that everyone else would just given up the first year or so, but you... you persisted all those years and never turned back. And to tell you the the truth, It makes me kinda jealous of Star. She’s so lucky to have you in her life.

Marco:

[blushing] I... I’ve never realized how much I needed to hear that.

Hekapoo:

You’re welcome. [they stare at each other for a brief moment]

[Hekapoo gets up the bed and puts her trademark yellow dress. Marco dress up as well]

Hekapoo:

You know? You have done so much for me lately and I wanna make it up for you.

Marco:

It isn’t really necessary. I like to be helpful.

Hekapoo:

But I wanna do it. You deserve a better treatment and Star still doesn’t understand how valuable you really are, so we’re gonna pay her a visit so I can speak her a piece of my mind... 

Marco:

[getting nervous] You what? Hekapoo, I appreciate what you’re trying to do but… [Hekapoo opens a portal and grabs him by the hoodie before he can finish] Wait, I’m not mentally prepared for this...

[TIME CARD: END OF FLASHBACK]

[Cut Back to Marco and Hekapoo facing Star, Jackie and Janna at the park]

Janna:

And who the hell are you?

Hekapoo:

My name is Hekapoo, gatekeeper of the realms of time and space, and I’m here to set the record straight regarding Marco.

Marco:

[thinking to himself] This is it. They’re gonna tear me apart limb by limb.

Star:

Wait… what do you mean by “set the record straight”? Is there anything you didn’t tell us yet Marco?

Marco:

Uhm, it’s funny that you mention it, because...

Jackie:

Hey, aren’t you that girl that kept Marco recluse for 16 years on that weird dimension?

Hekapoo:

Mmmm, recluse it’s not the word I would use, but... Yes, yes I am...

Star:

You better have a good explanation for this Marco Diaz.

Marco:

I was getting into that, you see...

Hekapoo:

Don’t tell her anything Marco, you don’t owe her any explanations...

Janna:

[raising an eyebrow] You seem pretty close to be just acquaintances.

Hekapoo:

You’re pretty sharp for a human kid. I’ll give you that...

Star:

Seriously, what’s the deal with you and Marco?

Hekapoo:

Oh please, don’t tell me that you still can’t figure it out...

Marco:

[whispering] Hekapoo please, you’re making it worse...

Star:

[upset] And what exactly am I supposed to “figure out”?

Hekapoo:

Mmmm, I’m gonna take a wild guess: Marco is not only good in bed like… REALLY good, but also is so full of energy that is capable to last for hours and hours. Am I right?

Star:

So?

Hekapoo:

Where do you think he learned all that stuff?

[Star takes a moment to think about it until she realizes what she meant]

Star:

[gasps] Marco, is that true?

Marco:

Well, you see:  I was trying to get back your scissors and spent 16 years on her dimension to do it and… I may have got a little sidetracked...?

Star:

Marco!!!

Janna:

Well, well, well, guess we learned something new about you safety kid....

Jackie:

Why you didn’t tell about this before? I thought we were gonna be honest to each other...

Marco:

I’m sorry, it wasn’t my intention, but you also lied to me...

Jackie:

Yeah, but what you did was way before of what we did and we already apologized, right Star?

Star:

Indeed, what is wrong with you? I thought you were better than this...

Marco:

[staring at the floor] I’m sorry...

Hekapoo:

[to Jackie and Janna] Wait, I’m confused… What is your relation with Marco?

Janna:

I am his lover...

Jackie:

And I am his former girlfriend...

Hekapoo:

So, you’re telling he’s been cheating on all of you at once?

Janna:

That’s right.

Hekapoo:

Wait a minute: Wasn’t Star your girlfriend?

Marco:

I think you misunderstood what I meant. Star is not exactly my girlfriend, it’s just that I...

Star:

What?!!! So you’re telling me during all this time you did with me all kind of things... and you didn’t even considering me your girlfriend?!!!

Marco:

You’re getting me wrong. I’m actually...

[All the girls give Marco a death glare as he gulps and takes a step back wearing a fearful expression on his face]

Marco:

[thinking to himself] Oh God, I’m SO screwed. There’s no way I can’t get out of this one...

Star:

I don’t even know you anymore.

Jackie:

[crossing her arms] I agree. We’re very disappointed of you right now.

Janna:

So, what do you have to say in your defense loverboy?

Marco:

[shivering] Girls, there’s no need to do something crazy.

Star:

You haven’t seen crazy yet.

Marco:

Please, just listen to me: It’s not that I didn’t enjoy all this time with all of you...

Janna:

Oh, we all know that you did it, you womanizing bastard.

[The girls surround Marco while he just takes a deep breath and prepares to get punished by them]

Hekapoo:

Any last words to defend yourself fleshwad?

Marco:

[sigh] I understand that why you’re so upset right now and I just want you to know that… [he notices something at the sky] Holy shit, is that a nuclear missile coming right over here?!!! [points at the sky]

Janna:

[crossing her arms] Marco, Do you seriously think that we’re gonna fall for that one? I mean, not even Star is looking up...

Star:

Yeah… [beat] HEY!!!

Marco:

[panicking] I’m serious, it’s getting closer, we’ve gotta get out of here.

Jackie:

Marco, please. This is getting ridiculous. Why don’t you just face the problem instead of coming up with such a nonsensical…?

Random Person:

[o.s] A NUCLEAR MISSILE IS COMING DOWN!!! EVERYONE RUN AWAY!!!

[Cut to the missile falling down while all the people at the park evacuate while screaming in panic]

Janna:

[looking at the sky] Holy guacamole: Marco was telling the truth.

Jackie:

Quick, we gotta get out of here fast.

Star:

Wait… I know what to do...

[Star uses her wand to transform into her mewberty self and flies to the missile to blast it]

Star:

[pointing at the missile with her wand] MEGA RAINBOW BLA…!!!

Marco:

[shouting at her] Star, don’t do that!!! You’re gonna make it explode!!!

Jackie:

Try to slow it down!!!

Star:

Okay, I got it.

[Star flies towards the missile, grabs it and attempts to slow it down using the flutter of her wings, but it’s too heavy for her to handle]

Janna:

That’s it, we’re doomed.

[everyone close their eyes waiting for the end, but the missile just lands and gets buried in the ground without exploding in a very anticlimactic way]

Marco:

[opening his eyes] Are we… still alive?

Jackie:

Apparently, but how?

Marco:

Star, are you okay? [he helps Star to get down from the missile]

Star:

[turning back to normal] I’m fine, but… what just happened?

[Janna gets closer to the missile and takes a look to it]

Marco:

I’m not sure, but we need to get out here. This thing could still explode if we...

[Janna kicks the missile twice]

Marco:

[to Janna] WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?!!!

Janna:

Don’t panic safety kid. The missile is hollow.

Jackie:

Really? [she also kicks it] Hey, you’re right.

Star:

But I don’t understand: Why would anyone launch a weapon that doesn’t even work?

Janna:

Tell that to Pyongyang’s government.

Hekapoo:

And just when I thought humans couldn’t get any dumber.

Janna:

Yeah right, because mewmans and monsters are SO smart that they need magic to solve all their problems. That’s a good one.

Star:

Hey, shut your piehole Janna. You don’t know anything about us mewnans and all the problems we have to deal with on our everyday lives.

Janna:

That’s even funnier coming from you, your royal highness.

Star:

Just because I’m a princess that doesn’t mean I don’t have problems of my own, okay?

Janna:

Is that so? name one.

Star:

Well, for instance, you’re all getting in the way between me and Marco.

Hekapoo:

Oh, poor you. Let me ask you something: If Marco is SO comfortable with you, why is he looking for other girls?

Star:

Perhaps because some of those girls keep him prisoner for 16 years and take advantage of him...

Hekapoo:

Yeah right, because is not like I gave him the choice to go back to Earth. Also, the only reason he stayed on my dimension for so long it’s because he was trying to get back the scissors that your pony friend stole from me in the first place...

Star:

Leave Pony Head out of this.

Hekapoo:

Well, if you and Marco were so close, he would have told you all of this, right Marco? [notices that he is missing] Marco? 

Star:

Oh, damn it. He did it again.

Janna:

Nice job scaring him way. AGAIN.

Star:

Oh, like you didn’t have any part on it whatsoever.

Jackie:

Uhm, girls?

Janna:

At least I don’t blame everyone else for my own mistakes like you do.

Jackie:

Girls?

Star:

Perhaps because you never apologize for your mistakes.

Jackie:

Girls?

Janna:

As if you know what it is to apologize...

Jackie:

[screaming] ENOUGH!!!

[everyone stop arguing and pay attention to Jackie]

Jackie:

Now, I don’t care how entitled do you think you are, or how much you want to tear apart to each other. The only thing I want is to know where Marco is, and whining and complaining like a bunch of children is not gonna solve anything, so please, PLEASE: Stop it.

[they get quiet for a few seconds awkwardly staring at the ground. Then Hekapoo decides to break the silence]

Hekapoo:

[sigh] You have a good point. This bickering is both pointless and counterproductive. I mean, I don’t even know who you girls are, I was here just to stand for Marco, but now that he’s gone…

Janna:

Well, neither do I. Right now I’m upset because I  just want to know where Marco is...

Hekapoo:

I propose a truce until we find him so we can settle this once and for all. What do you say?

Jackie:

I’m in. [she shakes hands with Hekapoo]

Janna:

Me too. This whole argument is getting old anyway. [she also shakes hands with her]

Hekapoo:

What about you princess Butterfly?

Star:

Well... if Jackie is okay with it, I guess you can count me in as well. 

Jackie:

[giving her a pat on the back] That’s the spirit.

[Star finally shakes hands with Hekapoo]

ACT II

[Cut to a crowd of people at Echo Creek’s pier. President Richard Martinez is about to give a press conference while everyone is talking about the missile incident. Cut to Alfonzo and Ferguson between the crowd]

Ferguson:

Oh man, I’m so afraid right now.

Alfonzo:

Tell me about it. Less than 5 minutes after it happened and my dad just ran away to the store to buy plans for a bomb shelter. 

Ferguson:

What do you think it’s going to happen? Do you think they’re gonna relocated us all or something?

Alfonzo:

I hope not. I’ve spent the best years of my life on this town.

[cut to a flashback of Alfonzo getting his head stuck on a toilet by local bully Lars]

Ferguson:

[deadpan] Right...

[Cut back to President Martinez at the stage]

President Martinez:

[speaking at the microphone] My fellow american citizens:In light of the recent mass hysteria that followed the landing of the nuclear missile “allegedly” launched by the government of North Korea early this afternoon, I flew back to this lovely town to clarify some of the misconceptions you may had about what exactly is going on...

Justin:

WE’RE ALL GOING TO GET NUKED!!! [everyone at the audience starts screaming]

President Martinez:

Now, calm down everybody. Nobody is going to get nuked, in fact: This whole incident was a huge misunderstanding.

Sabrina:

Misunderstanding?

President Martinez:

You’re correct young lady in the audience. You see: This was all part of a… simulation, yeah, that’s it. The US DoD personally asked me to launch this fake missile to test the overall response of your town in case of an actual nuclear threat and… congratulations. You passed.

Reporter:

But, isn’t launching a fake WMD without prior notice a form of fear-mongering?

President Martinez:

Now, you may thinking that these nuclear policies are highly unconstitutional. And you’re totally right. That’s why I came here to personally apologize for such an irresponsible decision and make it clear that this tragic incident will never going to repeat again. And to compensate you: I’m proud to announce that I’m bringing to your town: A brand new carnival. [talks at the phone] Bring it on boys.

[a group of helicopters brings a rollercoaster, a ferris wheel, a merry-go-round as well as other park attractions and land them on the pier]

Brittney:

Oh come on, do you actually believe that we’re going to forgive you for spreading scaremongering on our town using such a moronic tactic that no one is going to…?

Blake Lemon:

Hey, look everyone: A free carnival.

[everyone at the audience go to the carnival to try the rides while Brittney gets trapped among the excited crowd]

President Martinez:

[talking to the bodyguards] Phew, that was a close one. Call CNN, CBS, ABC and MSNBC and tell them to bury the lede. no one else at the country has to know about this.

Bodyguard:

Yes sir.

[Cut to Star, Jackie, Janna and Hekapoo at Marco’s living room. Star is talking with Princess Pony Head using her mirror phone]

Star:

Are you sure about that?

Princess Pony Head:

[sigh] For the millionth time: Yes. I looked for him like… everywhere. He’s not at the Amethyst Arcade, he’s not at Quest Buy, he’s not at Pixtopia, and he’s definitely not at the Goblin Dogs stand.

Star:

But what about Kelly and Tad? 

Princess Pony Head:

They haven’t seen Marco either. I’m sorry B-Fly, but your beloved Earth Turd is officially MIA.

Star:

That’s okay. I appreciate your help. 

Princess Pony Head:

I’ve always knew that turd was no good for you B-Fly. I’ll tell you what: Next time I see him I’m gonna shove it my horn right up his...

Star:

As... well-intended you may be, it’s not really necessary for you to do that. I’ll deal with this problem all by myself, okay?

Princess Pony Head:

Pfft, whatever. See you next time B-Fly. [she hangs up]

Star:

Well, girls it seems that Marco is not at Mewni after all.

Janna:

Yeah, but it doesn’t take away the fact that he’s still nowhere to be found.

Jackie:

Do you know any other place he could possibly be?

Star:

Not a clue. but wait, I’ve got it: I’ll use the All-Seeing Eye to look up where he is.

Hekapoo:

Wait… The All-Seeing Eye? Are you aware that spell is completely Off-Limits. right?

Star:

Who cares? I’m gonna use it just for a teeny-weenie short moment. What could possibly go wrong?

Hekapoo:

Everything can go wrong if you use that spell. There is a good reason of why it’s in the forbidden chapter. You can’t just use it as you please.

Star:

Oh, and do you have a better idea?

Hekapoo:

Well, not exactly, but I do know that considering the low amount of magic power those scissors have, he couldn’t go any further than Earth. That’s for sure.

Jackie:

Yeah, but even if that were true, Earth is still a huge place for Marco to hide. He could be in China for all we know...

Janna:

Well, not necessarily.

Star:

What are you talking about?

Janna:

When you have the ability to move from place to place in a matter of seconds, one could argue that  he would use the scissors to hide at some unknown village at the Congo or something like that. But what if Marco is actually self aware of this and he chose to stay right here at Echo Creek just to drift away our attention?

Jackie:

It might be possible, but it still sounds pretty unlikely. How can we be sure?

Janna:

Exactly. We can’t, the only thing we can do so far is to look up for him at the last place he could possibly be right here. A place full of lights and surrounded by people, a place like...

Everyone:

The carnival.

[Cut to Echo Creek’s carnival. Everyone is having a good time, except for Jeremy Birnbaum who walks around along with his butler bored out of his mind]

Jeremy:

[eating cotton candy] Ugh, this is the worst carnival I’ve been on my entire life. I’d rather get grounded doing my homework than attend this snoozefest any longer.

Butler:

You want me to take you back home master Jeremy?

Jeremy:

Hang on, I’m sure I can find someone to pull a prank on. Okay, let’s see… [he looks around to find someone] Too many potential victims, but no one who’s actually worth the effort.

Butler:

Well, if you want my advice sir...

Jeremy:

I pay you to drive me home, not to listen your worthless advice, so shut your piehole. Wait a second… [he looks at some guy wearing a trenchcoat and a fedora sneaking around] Mission control: We’ve found our next target, he-he-he...

[the guy with the trenchcoat turns out to be Marco, who hides behind an alley and attempts to use the dimensional scissors]

Marco:

Ugh, come on. Open the portal already. Goddammit.

Jeremy:

Hey jerkface...

[Marco turns around and sees Jeremy right behind him recording him with his cell phone]

Marco:

Jeremy? What are you doing here?

Jeremy:

Funny, I could ask you the same question. What are you hiding under that coat? Free candy?

Marco:

Uhm, that’s none of your business, so... buzz off dude.

Jeremy:

And miss the opportunity to humiliate you and whatever you’re trying to do? No way, this shit is gold. 

Marco:

Okay, first of all: Watch your potty mouth you little brat, talk like a sailor does not make you edgier than the 12 year old kids who post Minecraft gameplays on Youtube; and second of all: If you wanna talk about humiliation, do I need to remind you of the time when I put your “private karate lessons” to shame at the graduation? I don’t think so...

Jeremy:

Well, if you’re so confident about yourself, whom are you hiding from?

Marco:

Who says that I’m hiding?

Jeremy:

Oh, give me a break Marco: You’re behind an alley wearing a trenchcoat AND a fedora like you were some kind of secret agent. You’re so bad at lying it’s kinda sad.

Marco:

Oh yeah? and you’re so full of yourself I’m surprised that you are not overweight. Why don’t you just admit that you act like a jerk simply because you have an inferiority complex that…?

[In that moment, Marco hears the voice of Star and the girls passing by, so he puts his head out the alley to confirm it]

Marco:

What the…? [he sees them searching for him] Oh, crap...

Jeremy:

[wearing a smug smile] Well, well, well... What do he have here? Marco Diaz, the tough, misunderstood “bad boy”, hiding from a group of girls? I don’t even know what this is all about, but I’m already excited.

Marco:

Jeremy, listen: Right now I’m on a very delicate situation and... I know that I’m not exactly your favorite person in the world, but… Would you please help me to get out of here without being noticed? 

Jeremy:

Wait, hold on. Let me get this straight: You’re asking ME to help YOU to escape from those chicks over there? [he starts laughing] This is just… I don’t even know what to say.

Marco:

Oh, come on Jeremy, don’t you have at least a bit of empathy for someone other than yourself?

Jeremy:

Mmmm, I don’t know. Aren’t you the one who said that I’m “full of myself”?

Marco:

[getting on his knees] Jeremy please. I’ll do whatever you want?

Jeremy:

[raising an eyebrow] Whatever I want?

Marco:

[sigh] Yes, whatever you want.

Jeremy:

Mmmm, let me think about it… on one hand, I could rat you out to those girls and enjoy your demise in the front row… and on the other hand I could help you out and turn you into my personal slave for the rest of the evening, which is a very rare opportunity… Alright Romeo, I’ll help you out... 

Marco:

Oh thank you Jeremy...

Jeremy:

However: I want your red belt...

Marco:

[sigh] Okay, it’s all yours...

Jeremy:

AND your karate certificate.

Marco:

Ugh, fine. You can have that too.

Jeremy:

Also, I want your entire comic book collection.

Marco:

Jesus Christ, why don’t you ask for my soul while you’re at it?

Jeremy:

Actually, that’s not a bad idea.

Marco:

[grinding his teeth] Jeremy...

Jeremy:

Okay, I finished to mess up with you sweetheart. [uses his cell phone to call his butler] Henry? Yeah, it’s me your master Jeremy… I need a distraction now… yup, 40’ away...

[A loud explosion is heard at the distance, which drifts everyone’s attention. Marco and Jeremy use the opportunity to run away from the scene]

Jeremy:

And that’s why you should worship the almighty dollar...

Marco:

Well, I guess I owe you for that one.

Jeremy:

That’s what I love to hear. Come on slave boy, you still have some work to do.

Marco:

[sigh] Somebody kill me please.

[Cut to Star, Jackie, Janna and Hekapoo still looking for Marco]

Star:

Now that was weird, it sounded like an explosion, but everything just seems fine.

Hekapoo:

Something tells me that Marco had something to do with it.

Jackie:

That may be true, but it doesn’t change the fact that he is still nowhere to be found, especially among this huge crowd of people.

Janna:

What are we gonna do then?

Jackie:

I suggest we split up to cover more ground. Janna: You and Hekapoo go and check up the stands while Star and I will look for him up in the ferris wheel. We’ll be in contact with our cell phones. Then we’ll meet again right here in one hour. Got it? 

Hekapoo:

Clear as crystal.

Janna:

It works for me.

Star:

Yeah, me too.

Jackie:

Alright people, let’s go.

[Cut to Marco and Jeremy wandering around looking for victims. Jeremy set eyes on a little girl eating ice cream while sitting on a bench]

Jeremy:

Alright slave boy, here’s the first order of business: See that little girl eating ice cream over there?

Marco:

Uhm, yeah.

Jeremy:

Well, I want you to sneak around behind her back and throw her ice cream at the floor without being noticed.

Marco:

What? That’s terrible. I’m not gonna do that.

Jeremy:

Oh, yes you will. We had a deal remember?

Marco:

Forget about it. I’d rather eat my toenails on a bowl of cereal.

Jeremy:

Well, in that case I guess I’m gonna have to rat you out with your cheerleading squad then... 

Marco:

Yeah, like I care. I bet they all returned home at this point.

Jeremy:

Oh, I wouldn’t be so sure about that. Just look at behind you.

[Marco turns around and sees Janna and Hekapoo heading towards them. Marco gets all nervous while Jeremy watches him wearing a smug face]

Jeremy:

Not feeling so brave now, huh?

Marco:

You little piece of...

Jeremy:

Ah ah ah! Remember our deal slave boy.

[Marco gets infuriated, but immediately calms down as he sees Janna and Hekapoo getting closer]

Marco:

[feeling resigned] Okay. I’ll do it.

Jeremy:

That’s a good boy.

[Marco sneaks around behind the little girl and throws a coin next to her. She turns her head and Marco uses the opportunity to throw her ice cream to the floor, which makes her cry. Then Marco returns with Jeremy]

Jeremy:

Wow, I hate to admit it, but… I’m truly impressed. I’ve never seen someone sneaking up that way, I mean, you have the reflexes of a ninja.

[Marco just looks at the little girl crying and feels guilty about it]

Jeremy:

Oh, don’t be so melodramatic. She’ll get over it.

Marco:

Please don’t make me do that ever again.

Jeremy:

Are you kidding me? That was freaking gold, and this is just the beginning my friend.

[Cut to Janna and Hekapoo still looking for Marco on the stands]

Janna:

Have you found anything?

Hekapoo:

I can feel the power of the scissors near around us, but I’m still not really sure where this feeling is coming from...

Janna:

Well, that’s just great. It’s like we’re playing hide and seek with Marco.

[they spot the little girl on the bench still crying, so they go to talk to her]

Janna:

Hey, what’s wrong little girl? Why are you crying?

Little girl:

My ice cream... [shows her the empty cone]

Janna:

Oh, I see. And where are your parents?

Little girl:

Over there... [points at her parents playing at the stands completely oblivious]

Janna:

Typical. I’ll tell you what: I’ll go to get you another ice cream, so in the meantime you can talk with my friend Hekapoo right over here...

Hekapoo:

What? Why do I have to take care of her?

Janna:

Don’t be rude, just keep her distracted for a few minutes, alright?

Hekapoo:

Okay...

[Janna goes to buy an ice cream while Hekapoo just sits on the bench looking at the girl in silence. Then she starts crying again]

Hekapoo:

Oh, come on little girl,dont cry.  I… I… I don’t really know what to do in these situations. [she thinks for a moment until she gets an idea] I got it.

[Hekapoo uses her powers to materialize a group of tiny ballerinas and makes them dance in front of the girl, which makes her stop crying]

Little girl:

[clapping] Bravo… I love ballerinas.

Hekapoo:

[looking exhausted] I’m glad you liked it.

[In that moment, Janna returns with the ice cream]

Janna:

There you go... [gives the ice cream to the girl]

Little girl:

Ice cream. Thanks.

Janna:

You welcome sweetie, just remember to be more careful next time. Now if you excuse us. We have to go... 

Little girl:

Bye ballerinas… [she waves goodbye to both of them as they leave]

Janna:

[to Hekapoo] Are you okay? You don’t look so well.

Hekapoo:

I’m fine. I just... need to take a short break.

Janna:

You did a great job back there. Come on, I’ll buy you a cotton candy.

Hekapoo:

Thanks.

ACT III

[Cut to an old lady on an electric wheelchair who can’t move around because their brakes were cut. Marco and Jeremy are watching her from the distance]

Jeremy:

I swear, this evening just keeps getting better every time, don’t you think? 

Marco:

It can’t get any worse than this.

Jeremy:

Is that a challenge?

Marco:

You know, I don’t understand you Jeremy...

Jeremy:

It’s MASTER Jeremy to you.

Marco:

It’s like being rich, healthy and successful isn’t enough and you feel the need to shove it on everyone’s faces, and it makes me wonder: Why? What’s the point? Is it because you don’t have any real friends? grow up...

Jeremy:

That’s funny coming from the guy who likes to bang everything that moves like if it was a sport. Also, aren’t you friends with a rich a-hole yourself? because from what I see it: You’re either a masochist, a complete pervert, or a social climber.

Marco:

You don’t even know what you’re talking about. My relationship with Star goes beyond your shallow and materialistic viewpoints.

Jeremy:

Or maybe, that’s what you want to believe. How naive can you possibly be? 

Marco:

At least I live in the real world. When was the last time you got out from your cute little bubble, you self entitled prick?

Jeremy:

I don’t need to live on what you call “the real world”, as long as I can humiliate poor saps like you.

Marco:

Is that so? Then how about a bet? If I win I can keep my red belt, my karate certificate AND my comic book collection.

Jeremy:

And if I win?

Marco:

I’ll mow your lawn for a whole year.

Jeremy:

Mmmm, that sounds interesting. I’ll take it.

Marco:

And just to prove to you how sure I am, I’ll let you choose the challenge.

Jeremy:

That’s even better.

Marco:

Yeah, that’s right. Keep that smug grin on your face, because no matter what you choose, I’m 100% percent sure that I’ll kick. your. butt...

[Cut to Marco and Jeremy at the bumper cars. Marco loses all his confidence while Jeremy just watches him smiling with his arms crossed]

Marco:

[thinking to himself] I didn’t think this through, did I?

Jeremy:

Well, what are we waiting for? Let’s get it on.

Marco:

I stand corrected: This evening just got worse.

[Cut to Star and Jackie sitting on the ferris wheel. Star uses her wand as a magnifying glass to search for Marco]

Jackie:

Do you see anything?

Star:

I can see Principal Skeeves selling a couple of yearbooks, but there’s no sign of Marco whatsoever. What about you? 

Jackie:

Well, It’s hard for me to see from this height, but so far I haven’t found anything yet.

Star:

[sigh] I’m getting tired of this. I wonder if Janna and Hekapoo already found him.

Jackie:

They would have already told us if that were the case

Star:

How can you be so sure? What if they’re conspiring against us to have Marco all for themselves?

Jackie:

Don’t be so paranoid Star. We all made a truce, remember?

Star:

I know that, it’s just that I don’t really trust Janna right now. I mean, look at what she did behind our backs.

Jackie:

Listen, I can understand why you’re so upset. I’m very upset too, but I’m trying to keep myself under control. That way is easier for me to deal with my problems.

Star:

You make it sound so simple, but I just... don’t have the same level of patience as you Jackie.

[Star holds her knees and lowers her head while Jackie watches her concerned]

Jackie:

Star, can I confess something very personal to you?

Star:

Sure.

Jackie:

Believe it or not, I wasn’t always the calm and composed person you see right now...

Star:

Get out of here...

Jackie:

But it’s true. The thing is...

[Cut to a black and white flashback of Jackie’s childhood. She’s painting a watermelon while everyone else is playing outside]

Jackie:

[narrating] When I was 8 years old, I was having a bit of a hard time. My folks got divorced due financial difficulties and at the time I used to think it was my fault because I was a kid and didn’t know better... [finishes the drawing and throws it away]

[Cut to Jackie’s mother (face unseen) talking with the school counselor while he shows her the report card of her daughter. Jackie is sitting next to her]

Jackie:

[narrating] ...my low self esteem started to affect my grades as well, and even though my mom told me countless times that it wasn’t my fault, I couldn’t simply believe it. I thought she just said that to make me feel less guilty about the divorce...

[Cut to Jackie receiving a dog for christmas while her mother is knitting a scarf next to the tree]

Jackie:

[narrating] My mom did everything she could to make me feel better. She even bought me a dog that I named Pickles. But it actually made things worse when I accidentally gave it chocolate while looking for some dog food, but couldn’t find any… again, I didn’t know any better back then...

[Cut to Jackie and her mother standing next to Pickles grave. She starts crying while holding her mother’s leg]

Jackie:

[narrating] It wasn’t until that moment my mom decided to take me to the beach without prior notice. I’m not exactly sure why she chose that place in particular, but what I do know is that it was an experience that I’ll never forget...

[Jackie is playing with a red ball next to the shore]

Jackie:

[narrating] I was playing with my favorite red ball very close to the shore. Back then I was full of energy and could play to kick the ball around for hours and hours. And just when I thought I was finally letting go all my anxiety, tragedy struck again. I kicked my ball so hard that it fell onto the sea...

[Jackie runs to the sea to get her ball back, but gets stopped by her mother]

Jackie:

[narrating] And thank goodness my mom stopped me because at the time I didn’t know how to swim, but most importantly: I witnessed one of the most beautiful sights I’ve ever seen in my entire life... [watches a group of dolphins playing with the ball] Now, I don’t know exactly how to put into words the wide variety of emotions I felt that day, but something about those dolphins and their playful and carefree lifestyle, got me so fascinated that I became obsessed with those animals. My mom of course received my new hobby with open arms and encouraged me to learn how to surf to get closer with them, that led me to learn how to skate and the rest is history... 

[Cut back to Star and Jackie at the ferris wheel]

Star:

Wow, who would’ve thought that the reason behind your love for skating could be so… deep.

Jackie:

Well, it’s the closest thing to surf when I’m on firm land.

Star:

Jackie: I want to apologize for all the things I did to you so far.

Jackie:

What are you talking about?

Star:

Don’t act like you don’t know, I’m talking about the kiss incident, the time I forced you to lie, the time I used that spell to spy on you and Marco. You deserve better and I definitely crossed the line. 

[Jackie smiles at Star and grabs her shoulder to comfort her]

Jackie:

The fact that you can come clean about this in such a transparent and honest way is enough for me. I really appreciate the gesture and it makes me glad that you consider me more than just your rival. 

Star:

And I just want you to know that no matter which one of us win Marco’s affections, I still want to keep our friendship alive.

Jackie:

So do I Star. So do I… [they smile at each other]

[Cut to Marco and Jeremy at the bumper cars facing each other. Jeremy looks much more confident than Marco, who tries to keep his composure]

Jeremy:

What’s the matter? Feeling a little under the weather already?

Marco:

Yeah, you wish.

Jeremy:

You know, you still got time to walk out of this and avoid the public humiliation. Just sayin’.

Marco:

Oh, so now all of a sudden you act compassionate, huh? What a hypocrite.

Jeremy:

Don’t say I didn’t warn you...

Marco:

[mocking voice] “Don’t say I didn’t warn you” I’ll show you how to...

[Jeremy bumps Marco against the wall without any warning. Marco already starts feeling sick]

Marco:

That’s not fair, I wasn’t ready.

Jeremy:

Welcome to the real world honey...

Marco:

[feeling dizzy] You’ll see...

[Marco tries to bump Jeremy, but feels too sick to focus and gets bumped as a result]

Jeremy:

So, what do you think about my driving skills? Not bad for a three times regional champion in Mario Kart 8, huh?

[Marco is too sick to pay attention to him]

Jeremy:

Hey, I’m talking to you. Pay attention!!!

[Jeremy bumps Marco once again and as a result, he throws up all across the floor, causing a malfunction]

Microphone voice:

Ladies and gentleman, the operator speaking here… uhm, due a small inconvenience regarding the electric floor, it’s my duty to inform you that we’re gonna have to close for the rest of the evening. In the name of the staff, we’re sorry. Have a good night.

[Everyone starts booing both Marco and Jeremy]

Jeremy:

[smiling] Ah, the sweet sound of public discontent. What’s not to love?

Marco:

It’s official: This is the worst day of my life.

[Cut to Janna and Hekapoo still looking for Marco while eating cotton candy]

Hekapoo:

This is actually pretty good.

Janna:

I told ya.

Hekapoo:

You know, as a member of the Magic High Commission I never got the time to enjoy things like this...

Janna:

Really? [looks at one of the stands] Have you ever played “shooting ducks”?

Hekapoo:

Never heard of it.

Janna:

Then follow me, Flaming Lips...

Hekapoo:

Mmmm, now we were supposed to be looking for Marco, but… yeah, why not?

[Cut to Janna and Hekapoo playing “shooting ducks”]

Hekapoo:

[shooting at some ducks] I got them...

Janna:

Wow, not bad for a first timer. What’s your secret?

Hekapoo:

Well, I may be not familiar with this game, but we do have target practice on Mewni. It’s part of our job.

Janna:

[shooting ducks] So, you don’t use magic for those kind of things?

Hekapoo:

[sigh] Here we go again: Humans assuming that just because we use magic on Mewni, our lives are somehow less complicated than theirs. Look, it doesn’t work like that, okay?

Janna:

Well, you tell me... The only knowledge I have about the topic comes from Star and her magic wand. 

Hekapoo:

Star is a princess, which means she has the privilege to use magic in a less restrictive way, but for entities like me, magic is more of a device we use to facilitate our jobs.

Janna:

Sounds pretty boring if you ask me...

Hekapoo:

It’s not that bad, I mean… you get used to it after a couple of centuries or so... 

Janna:

Hold on: How old are you exactly?

Hekapoo:

Like 700 years more or less. I don’t know, I stopped keeping track such a long time ago...

Janna:

Oh… You look great for your age.

Hekapoo:

Thanks.

Janna:

By the way, now that we’re knowing each other a little better, I have to ask: How exactly did you and Marco meet in the first place?

Hekapoo:

It’s a bit complicated to explain, but long story short: I was looking for my dimensional scissors after Princess Pony Head took them away without permission, and when I finally track them down it just so happened that Marco had them in his possession.

Janna:

Wow, talk about bad timing...

Hekapoo:

And that’s not all: Apparently, he also was under the impression that the scissors belonged to Star, so he did everything that he could to get them back and spent 16 years doing it. Which, by the way are just a few minutes in your dimension...

Janna:

So that’s when you and Marco… you know…

Hekapoo:

Well, 16 years is a lot of time and a lot of things happened, but… yeah. And just between you and me: Those were some of the best years of my life. Finding that fleshwad was one of the greatest accidents that happened to me in a long, long time... 

Janna:

Yeah, Marco is certainly one of a kind...

Hekapoo:

I mean, a guy who’s able to take care of five clones at a time? That’s not something you can forget so easily, even when you’re more than 700 years old.

Janna:

Wait a minute… did just say FIVE clones at a time?

Hekapoo:

Yep, and all without breaking a sweat... 

Janna:

Is that so? [thinking to herself] I think my mind just got a great idea...Oh, Marco you’re gonna love me for this, hehehe...

Hekapoo:

Okay, this was fun and all, but I think we should keep with our search...

Janna:

Yeah, about that: After a thoughtful consideration, I think I might have found the perfect solution to our little dilemma with Marco...

Hekapoo:

[raising an eyebrow] Keep talking...

[Cut to Star and Jackie returning to the meeting point along with Janna and Hekapoo]

Jackie:

So, did you found something that can lead us to Marco?

Janna:

Not exactly, but Hekapoo and I’ve been talking for a while and… We want to make you an offer to settle down our main problem...

Hekapoo:

Something like: A permanent solution if you prefer...

[Star and Jackie look at each other]

Star & Jackie:

We’re listening...

[Cut to Marco carrying a bunch of junk food while Jeremy walks right next to him whistling happily]

Jeremy:

Come on, hurry up barf bag. We still have a lot of work to do...

Marco:

[getting angry] I’ve had ENOUGH OF THIS!!! [he throws the food to the floor]

Jeremy:

What are you doing you retard?!!! I was about to eat that...

Marco:

[taking off the disguise] I’m so sick of you and your smug, cocky, arrogant and overall demeaning attitude. You think you’re SO clever and SO mature for your age when in reality you’re nothing but a hollow, self absorbed, worthless scumbag that stomps on everything that’s pure and decent because nobody, and I mean NOBODY likes you... And you know what? You may take my red belt, my certificate and even MY FREAKIN’ SOUL for all I care, but it’s not gonna change the fact that you’re a total loser, a waste of human life, a leech that depends on its parents money to survive... because in the grand scheme of things Jeremy, you’re part of the problem and I’m not gonna waste my time with you any longer, you hear me? So do me a favour and take all your money and all your worthless privilege and GO. F***. YOURSELF!!! [spits at the floor] God, you’re pathetic.

Star:

[o.s] Marco?

[Marco turns around and sees Star, Jackie, Janna and Hekapoo right behind him]

Marco:

[getting nervous] Uhm, girls, what a nice surprise...

Jeremy:

Good luck getting your butt kicked by your girlfriends, loser...

[Jeremy leaves the scene while laughing hysterically]

Marco:

Okay, listen up… I have an explanation for for all of this, ehm… [he checks his pockets to find the scissors] where did I put them?

Janna:

[holding Marco’s scissors] Oh, were you looking for these?

Marco:

Oh, crap...

Hekapoo:

I’ll keep the scissors for now on... [Janna gives them to her] Thank you.

Janna:

[crossing her arms] So, what do you have to say in your defense?

[Marco quickly gets on his knees to beg mercy while the girls just look at each other in confusion]

Marco:

[crying] I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt anyone. I know what I did was inexcusable and you have all the right to be mad at me, but please… this whole evening has been the most painful, cringe inducing experience of my life and I just can't take any more punishment… please, don’t hurt me. 

Star:

[crossing her arms] Hurt you? Oh no, Marco Diaz. We have a much better idea.

[Cut to Mewni’s castle. Hekapoo opens a portal in the middle of a hallway and Marco and the girls come out of it. They walk by and come across a giant grey wall]

Hekapoo:

It’s all yours Princess Butterfly...

Star:

I hope this works... [raises her wand] Vulgo Apertis Ianus!!!

[A giant wooden door appears on the wall, so they open it and walk through a long narrow hallway lightened by torches]

Marco:

[thinking to himself] Well, this is it. The end of the line for me. Goodbye world, it was nice to meet you. Mother, Father: I hope one day you’ll understand and forgive me for what I... 

Star:

Well, here we are.

[At the end of the hallway, they come across a giant door. Star opens it and they get inside a giant room with a pool sized bathtub some pillars around it and harp music to set the mood]

Marco:

Star, what is this place?

Star:

[closing the door] My parents private bathroom. This is where they come when they want to be alone and forget about their royal duties for a moment.

Hekapoo:

Also, it’s one of the few places inside the castle that can’t be reached using dimensional scissors, so it’s safe to assume that no one will interrupt us...

Marco:

But… I thought you were mad at me for what I did.

Jackie:

Although we’re still a bit upset for the way you handled the situation... 

Janna:

We talked about it came to the conclusion that... punish you it’s not exactly the best solution.

[They all stripped down to nothing but their underwear as they speak. Marco blushes and feels his heart beating faster as a result]

Hekapoo:

Besides: We assume that part of this problem was our fault too. We got too competitive with each other and put you on a very difficult situation.

Star:

So bottom line: We’ll allow you to keep things the way they are...

Everyone:

If you can take care or all of us.

Hekapoo:

So what do you say fleshwad? Will you accept the challenge?

[Marco closes his eyes and takes a deep breath]

Marco:

Alright, let’s do this.

MARCO VS. THE FORCES OF LOVE - EPISODE 5: CARNIVAL

[boku-no-loveletters]

Hello lovely, can I get a matchup please? I’m a 5’2 female, and my zodiac sign is Cancer. I’m very kind and patient but don’t like people walking over me. I try to be very understand and don’t get angry easily, but I’m also very fun and have a weird and energetic personality. I enjoy quality time with people most, and I highkey love getting teased (but won’t tell admit it). I get flustered VERY easily, and tend to try and hide my face bc it gets super red. Also, I LOVE food. Thanks for reading♥️

-From the moment I opened your request I knew that you’d be a perfect fit for Bakugou! Your bold and outstanding personality would suit well with his brash and intimidating attitude.

-Bakugou doesn’t easily associate with many people beside his clique because of his aggressive and endangering approach to everything. I think the possibility of you guys meeting would be fairly even, as he goes out of his way to make sure everyone knows that he’s the best and you probably would’ve been the only one to simply challenge him.

The shouting of the overly aggressive pomeranian echoed through the cafeteria, tables amongst tables of students were frozen at the violently assaulted threats that were meant generally for the small group of people that called themselves his friends. Ironic

"I'M NOT YOUR GODDAMN FRIEND, YOU IDIOTS!"

"Oh, come on! We've known each other since the beginning of our first year, Bakubro!"

"DON'T CALL ME YOUR BRO, SHITTY HAIR!"

In some cases, most of the students were sweat dropping nervously or awkwardly trying to distance themselves from that particular table.

And then there was you, quietly sitting in the corner of the cafeteria seeking to keep minding your own business as you held your face in your hands.

You gripped strands of your hair in frustration as you sought to keep your composure, you were already agitated enough from today and having some random dude that's an asshole scream obscenities at his friends in the lunchroom is already making you lose your usually calm composure.

Not only just that. But today just so happened to be the worst day you've ever had in awhile, you had crammed in last night’s studying for your test, lost a chance to retake your disciplinary exam, and had gotten into an argument with one of your friends before just losing your headphones in the locker rooms.

Overall, Today sucked and you were sick of having to deal with that dude's shit.

So you stood up and began walking directly to the blonde's table.

As you got closer, you noticed his so-called friends catch onto your advance. You could practically see their faces go into at least five different emotions. Panic, fear, anxiety, irritation, and cringe.

Once you were behind the violent teen, you wordlessly tapped on his shoulder which made him whirl around in anger and start shouting profanities at you.

But before he could even utter a word out, you interrupted him with a flat hand in front of his face and presented a mild, yet stern, expression on your appearance.

"Hey, " you began coolly, "Do you mind keeping it down a bit? Some people just want to eat in peace."

His eyes slightly widened before he let out a growl and swiftly pulled you up to his face by the collar of your shirt with his left hand.

"WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU ARE, EH?!" he demanded. His right fist curled by his hips, and his posture remained crossed, awaiting your response.

But you didn't say anything, you simply sighed before swiping away his hand and putting yourself in a defensive stance with your hands balled into clutches.

"Alright, you want to throw fists. Let's throw fists. I tried to be nice, but I'm getting tired of this." you declared.

You could hear the clatter of a few chairs in the background as his buddies stood up from their seated table and began attempting to break down your escalating fight.

"Whoa, chill out guys! Not in the cafeteria!" a golden-haired male with a streak of a lightning bolt worriedly pleaded as his fellow acquaintances agreed.

But you and the rude male before you simply ignored him. A sneer made its way onto his face, immediately replacing the rude and barbarous boy with a villainously and violent teenager.

"OH YEAH?! WELL LET'S GO!"

-Yeah, so you guys got put on house arrest afterwards LMFAOOOO

-So even after you had defeated Bakugou, it was at the cost of having to spend some time around him while doing school community activities. He wouldn’t admit that you had won against him and he never will. But he can acknowledge the fact that you are strong and he’ll treat you as an equal from now on.

-Though, you will need to expect him to be challenging you to more frequent battles from now on, even pointless ones. It could be casual hand-to-hand quirk combat or a simple carnival game for kiddies

-I imagined that Bakugou would not really mind your incapability to keep up your composure when you get flustered, he would enjoy it immensely. He’s an asshole and would take advantage of that weakness and start some playful banter between the two of you.

-And you know when I mean banter, I mean curse words and vulgar insults being thrown in your direction. It’s the Bakugou way of playing rough. Don’t worry though, he still loves you!

-Bakugou probably wouldn’t like a complete pushover, so having someone that can stand up to people and call out what they did wrong would kinda be hot to him. If you are a bit oversensitive at times, he would make an exception and be there for you if you're feeling down. He would even offer some violent nice advice if it was someone else who affected your attitude.

-Now you said you love food same. Bakugou would be willing to cook for you if it’s for an important event or a get together with the bakuquad in the dorms. Although once you ease into a relationship, he still wouldn’t cook everyday for you. More like once he gets back from hero work or smth.

-If you enjoy going to social events with your friends, then do I have some good news for you! Everywhere the Bakugou goes, the Bakusquad follows! It’s highly likely that they bring you in on their crazy heist and attempt to get you and Bakugou to either kiss or do something incredibly stupid.

You both do the latter bc the two of you won’t willingly admit to doing that in front of them.

-The Bakusquad. They would adore your personality. Having someone that one-ups their energy easily fits you in with their friend group. Kaminari loves to discuss the latest trends with you, Mina likes to take you shopping as some girl time, Kirishima teaches some ‘Manly!’ life lessons and Sero lets you tag along with him to prank people.

-Confessing his undying love for you…yeah, I don’t think so.

-This man will die before he even admits that he has an attraction for you, in fact, he doesn’t even take it as a crush at first. When he begins feeling the classic symptoms of a crush, more sweaty hands and that warm feeling in his chest, he assumes it’s your quirk and tells you to knock it off to which you’re oblivious to.

-He will become more competitive and constantly try to show his dominance in battles with you. He always thought that displays of power were attractive so he automatically attempts to court you in that kind of way, so don’t expect mushy mushy stuff until he’s comfortable to show you a more emotionally vulnerable side of himself.

-When he does realize that he had such intense emotions for you, he’d be in way too deep to get out by the time he figures it out. I think he might even be angry, although he wouldn’t try to avoid you like some of the other boys and would be rather straightforward when it comes to asking you out.

-If he wants it, he will have it!

-So you guy’s personality balances each other out pretty well and since Bakugou is more impulsive, you’d be able to keep his head grounded since you’re the more cool one. You’ll help him make some good decisions along the way or just be the chaotic couple while also teaching him the reins of being a better person!

Anyways, thanks for requesting! I hope this is to your liking!

@udontneedtokno

[theydontknowaboutusimagines]

Outside the Rain - Harry Styles Series (Part 12)

Part 11

It was the night of the VMA’s and you were currently getting your hair and makeup done. After getting in super late the night before, you all were up and at it early that morning for rehearsals. You all had done everything you could do to make sure the performance went smoothly. The only thing left was to go through with it. 

Harry had went shopping for an outfit for the show. When you invited him, you sort of didn’t think about the fact that he wouldn’t have anything to wear. Yes, he wasn’t going to walk the red carpet, but he couldn’t exactly just wear some trousers and a shirt. 

“And just like that we’re finished,” your makeup artist smiled. 

You got up from your chair looking into the mirror. You smiled moving some hair out of your face. 

“I love it,” you smiled. “Thanks.” 

“Well, you look beautiful,” she smiled. “And remember you’re going to do great tonight.” 

“I really hope so,” you said. “Tonight’s a big night for us.” 

You went over to open up the bag that held your red carpet outfit. It was velvet purple blazer dress that you wore with matching heels. Harry walked into the room, just as you putting your things into your clutch. 

“Wow, you look beautiful,” Harry smiled. “Not that I expected you not to look beautiful.” 

“Thank you,” you smiled straightening your dress. “You look very handsome.” 

He smiled placing his hands on your hips, “Thank you, baby.” 

“Thank you for being there for me tonight,” you said. 

“I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else,” he smiled. “I’m proud of you. You girls have been working your asses off these last 48 hours and I know you’re going to fucking smash it.” 

You smiled pressing your lips against his. He smiled pulling you closer to him. His hands ran down your back, stopping just below the edge of your dress. He smirked against your lips and you laughed pulled away. 

“Down boy,” you giggled. “Save that for after the show.” 

“But you’re just so tempting,” he groaned pulling you back towards him. 

“I also didn’t just spent almost two hours in hair and make up just for it to be messed up by my boyfriend within two minutes,” you laughed. 

“Hey! We both know it would at least be four,” he defended. 

“Oh my god,” you laughed. “That’s not where I was going with it.” 

“Well, I went there,” he joked. 

“Anyway, it’s time to go,” you said. “Our car is probably outside. Now, I’ll be let off at the carpet waiting area, but the driver will drop you off in the back. That’s okay right?” 

“Yeah, are you walking alone?” He asked. 

You nodded as you waited for the elevator, “We decided if we all walked the carpet together, it might ruin the surprise.” 

“That makes sense,” he said. “I wish... I do wish I could be there next to you.” 

“I do, too,” you sighed. “But we’ve only just got together and I think it’s best we don’t go public this soon.” 

“I agree,” he smiled. 

“Besides, just having you there is enough of me,” you smiled. 

“And there I’ll be,” he smiled kissing your head. 

**

Hearing the sounds of screams as you walked the red carpet brought a smile to your face. It had been a while since you attended an award show you would be performing at and the fact that no one knew about it made it even better. By the time you were done with the red carpet, your eyes were blinded and seeing little white dots from all the flashes from the cameras. 

Before the performance, you and the girls wouldn’t be sitting next to each other, but you would be sitting in the same section. You weren’t sure where Harry would be sitting either, but you wished it was near you. You two had gave it some thought and since there would cameras most likely landing on you throughout the show, it was best if you two weren’t caught sitting next to one another. 

You always hated this part of being in a relationship. It always made you feel as if you were ashamed of who you were with or that you couldn’t be yourselves in public for fear of being found out. But it was the cost of wanting to keep your relationship private. Plus, it wouldn’t always be that way, you hoped. 

You were waiting at the bar for your drink, when you felt someone behind you. 

“God, you’re so hot,” a voice whispered in your ear. 

Chills ran over you as you turned around to face your boyfriend who was already holding a drink of his own. 

“You’re really trying to get me to drag your ass to the bathroom and have my way with you aren’t you?” You joked. 

“It wouldn’t be the worst idea I ever had,” he smirked. 

“I can’t with you,” you giggled taking a sip of his drink. 

“How was the carpet?” He asked. 

“Blinding,” you laughed. “I forgot how much I hate it. Between the shouting and the flashes. Luckily, I didn’t have to do too many interviews, so that was a plus.” 

“Do you think anyone has an idea about why you’re really here?” He asked. 

“No one seemed to be on the trail,” you said. “What about you? Anyone notice you’re here, but didn’t walk the red carpet?” 

“Nope,” he said. “Luckily for me, I’m able to go unnoticed when I want to be.” 

“You are pretty good at going MIA,” you laughed. 

“But not from you,” he smiled. 

“Good thing too,” you smirked. “Or I’d have to hurt you.” 

“Well, what do you have in mind?” He asked. “Cause I might be interested.” 

“Oh my god,” you laughed pushing him away. “Stop it.” 

He laughed kissing your cheek, “Where are you sitting?” 

“Like second row in the middle section from the stage,” you said. “You?” 

“I’m fourth tow, middle section,” he smirked. 

“So, we are still pretty close then?” You said. 

“I couldn’t be too far away,” he smiled. 

Once you finally got your drink, you both walked into the venue and to your seats. You both saw some friends and acquaintances, so you made sure to stop and chat with them prior to the show. Out of the corner of your eye, you saw the rest of the girls coming in one by one. Each of you gave the other a small smirk, knowing you had accomplished your first task of the night. 

Getting in without blowing the surprise performance. 

And now, you had to wait and hope you accomplished the second task. 

The performance itself. 

**

The show had been on for an hour. Many performances had already taken place and they were phenomenal. Tons of awards had been handed out and it was getting closer to the time of your performance. Throughout the night, all of you were sneaking glances at each other. You were also sneaking glances to Harry as well. 

He would give you a wink and a smirk every time he caught your eye. He even sent you texts off and on. You would shake your head each time you read his messages. He was definitely setting the scene for an afterparty only including the two of you. 

When it was time for you to head backstage to warm up and change, each of you got up within in a few minutes of the other, so you all weren’t getting up at the same time. As you made your way towards the back stage, you gently ran your hand over Harry’s as you passed him. He squeezed your hand with a smile before you pulled it out and kept going. 

Backstage you all were changed and warming up. 

“I can’t believe we’re about to do this,” Rachel said. 

“We’re gonna crush this, right?” Jess said. 

“Not if you bitches go out there questioning it,” Daisy groaned. “We didn’t work our asses off the last two fucking days to give a shitty performance. These are our songs, our ideas, and our dances. This is us. The only thing is that we haven’t performed on stage together in a few years. But we’re still us, we’re still y/band’s/name.” 

“I can’t believe I’m saying this out loud,” you sighed. “But Daisy’s right. Don't get me wrong, I’m nervous as hell, but we’re not doing anything on that stage that we’ve not done before.. except maying performing the new single, but other than that... we’ve done this more times than I can count. We’ve got this.” 

“Group hug!” Rachel said opening her arms. 

“Let’s fucking go!” Daisy smirked wrapping her arms around all of you. 

You each took your places behind the screen. The venue was in complete darkness, at least as much as it could be. You took a deep breath and waited for the cue. The first song was an a capella piece that would transition into the opening of the next song. 

And now it was time. 

**

Gasps and screams erupted inside the venue as soon as everyone realized it was your group. It didn’t take long before all of your nerves left your body and the only thing left was pure adrenaline. Each of you hit every note and dance move. The lights, the pyro, and the other dancers meshed so well with the songs. 

Just when everyone thought the performance was over, the opening notes of the new single started playing. 

“Now, I know you didn’t think we’d come here tonight and not give you a new song, right?” Daisy smirked. 

You didn’t even think it was possible, but the screams grew even louder. When you hit the final note/run of the song, you all stood there taking it all in. Your chest heaved up and down as you looked out into the crowd. Everyone from as far as you could see, was up on their feet cheering all of you on. Your gaze zeroed in on Harry and his was whistling as he cheered you on. 

It was time for each of you to go backstage and of course, you were all bombarded with questions from reporters. After downing some water and answering a few questions, your manager finally shooed off the vultures and took you all back to your dressing room to change. 

When you got there, Harry was already in the room and he quickly wrapped his arms around you. 

“We did!” You screamed jumping in his arms. “We fucking did it!” 

“I told you,” he smiled kissing you, “God, you girls were fucking amazing! The biggest performance of the night. I swear the crowd was the loudest of the whole night.” 

“Do you think they liked the song?” Rachel asked. 

“It’s already number one iTunes,” your manager said. “We released it just before the performance and it’s already number one. The fastest song to reach number one.” 

“No, fucking way,” Daisy said taking the phone out of her. “HOLY SHIT!” 

“I’m so proud of you,” Harry smiled. 

“Thank you,” you smiled. 

“Okay, love birds, now that this performance has been crushed, it’s time to fucking party and celebrate!” Jess smirked. 

“She’s right!” Daisy said. “It’s afterparty time, bitches!” 

“That okay with you?” you asked Harry. 

“Hey, tonight’s your night, love, I’m just the plus one,” he joked. 

You giggled pressing your lips against his. You were officially on cloud nine and you didn’t want to get off anytime soon. 

[gracehoneyfield]

breakfast | annabelle and grace

Annabelle had been a bit surprised that their grandmother had been asleep when they'd returned from the ball. She knew that only meant they'd have quite the conversation over breakfast but she didn't mind. She'd try her very hardest to keep the attention off of Grace at all costs. Except, she had to mention that her sister had danced with a duke! It was such exciting news! She was sat at the table with her grandmother while they waited for Gracie to join them, talking a bit about how beautiful the ball had been. She needed Grace before she mentioned Charles.

Grace was a touch nervous about talking to her grandmother, but she knew it had to happen. Plus, she did know Isaiah, so that was a benefit for her. Maybe she would be happy after all. She got dressed and went down for breakfast. “I’m sorry I’m late,” she immediately apologized. She slipped into her chair, pouring herself a glass of tea. “Will Aunt Effie be joining us for breakfast?” she asked inquisitively.

Annabelle looked over when Grace joined them. She sent her sister a reassuring smile before her attention was back on her grandmother. "I do expect you to be on time for meals, Maria Grace," the older woman warned. "Considering the excitement of last night's festivities I can allow it just this once." Annabelle tried to hide her smile behind her teacup. "Aunt Effie is feeling a little poorly, unfortunately. I think she had a bit too much wine last night," she informed her sister.

Grace nodded her head down. “Yes, I know. I’m very sorry, grandmother. It won’t happen again,” she promised. “Oh, what fun last night was. Thank you for allowing me to go,” she added with a smile. “Oh no. I do hope Effie is feeling better. I cannot fault her too much, though. They pass out so much wine at those events!” She ate slowly, glancing between them both. “Did you tell her much about last night?” she asked Annie.

Annabelle shook her head a little bit. "Not much, only that it was very beautiful," she informed her. "Yes, and how curious I find it that Annabelle hasn't told me more. I'm beginning to think you're hiding something from me," their grandmother said suspiciously. "Of course not! I just wanted to wait until Gracie joined us, I promise," Annabelle said easily. "It was a wonderful night. I met very many young men. It seems I won't end up a spinster after all," she said, hiding a smile at the slightly disapproving look she was sent.

Grace wasn’t quite sure how much they should just dive into it. “Oh, how beautiful it was. Like a dream!” she agreed easily. She nearly laughed quietly at the way Annie spoke, rolling her eyes a bit. “I never for a second thought you would,” she said lightly. “Against all odds, it seems I’ve met someone, too. The duke, in fact. He told me you two are familiar with each other?” she said, hoping that was a good way to slide into that conversation and not a huge mistake.

Annabelle was surprised at how easily Grace had offered up that information. She'd been fully prepared to prattle on about her evening for a bit longer but she was relieved to not have to. "The duke? Duke Ramsbury?" their grandmother asked. "We are acquainted. How on earth are you acquainted with him?" Annabelle jumped in to answer, "We met him before we went to the theater! He's a very kind man. He's very taken with our Gracie."

Grace nodded, realizing she perhaps should’ve been more clear. “Yes, Duke Ramsbury,” she confirmed. “We did, yes. A friend at restaurant we went to introduced us on her way out,” she added. She waved a hand dismissively, but didn’t argue it. “I felt I needed to tell you that our night was cut short when another man made a very rude comment towards me. I don’t want you to hear from anyone else,” she explained. She wouldn’t have rushed to mention Isaiah otherwise, honestly. But she wanted to get it over with.

Annabelle took a sip of her tea, staying quiet as their grandmother processed this new information. "I won't pretend to not be surprised," the woman said. "He's seeking out your company?" she verified, looking between the two younger girls. The look on her face at the new information was shock. "Heavens! He said something rude to you in the presence of a duke? What a foolish man," she sipped her tea. "Well, we'll simply keep that bit of information from your father."

Grace knew it was surprising. No one, least of all herself, would have expected someone like Duke Ramsbury to show affection for someone like her. She nodded once, smiling a little. “Yes. He’s even intending on sending a letter to father to formally request that he be allowed to spend time with me,” she explained. She hoped her grandmother was okay with all of this. She smiled a little when she said they wouldn’t tell her father. “I would like that,” she said simply. “Annie, here, has made herself a friend, too,” she smiled.

Annabelle was so pleased at how well this was going. It seemed like their grandmother was quite chuffed with the idea of Gracie and the duke. "Is he? This is excellent news. Your father cannot be foolish enough to say no. Perhaps we should invite the duke over for tea," she said, mostly to herself. "What's this? And who might that friend be?" Annabelle set her cup down and gave a winning smile. "Mr. Barrington! He's a very kind man, grandmother. He invited me to see his estate so I could paint it! Please say I can go. Gracie can be my chaperone," she begged. "I'm not as familiar with that name," the older woman said.

Grace hoped she would push for Isaiah, then. She certainly didn’t think her father could say no, but she was sure he could come up with reasons she couldn’t fathom. “I’m sure he would love to come over for tea,” she said with a smile. “He is very kind! And he’s very close friends with the duke. His family has top quality horses!” she saying, vying for him. “I would be a very good chaperone, I promise," she insisted.

Annabelle nodded eagerly as Grace vouched for her. "Oh yes, they really do. He went on about them at length. They sound so beautiful. I'd love to see them. I think he'd make a good match for me, grandmother. It's not as if I have a line of suitors," she insisted. "Don't beg, Annabelle. It isn't becoming on you." Annie sat back, defeated. "Friends with the duke, you say? Will the duke be in attendance?"

Grace shot Annabelle a look as she belittled herself like that. “He would be a lovely match for Annie, even if she had a long line of suitors,” she insisted. She nodded. For a split second, she questioned whether she should say he was going to be there. If he was, wouldn’t she need a chaperone, too? If he weren’t, she maybe wouldn’t let them go at all. “I think he might be. Mr. Barrington did invite him, and the duke is quite fond of his company.”

Annabelle hoped their grandmother agreed. She so wanted to see Charles again. She couldn't wait to pretend she couldn't ride a horse. She glanced at Grace when she confirmed he might be there, wishing she hadn't said so. "He's a very busy man, the duke. I don't know that he has time to come," she said, taking a small sip of her drink. "Well, if Duke Ramsbury might be there then I think Grace should be there too," the older woman said finally. "The only matter is, do you now need another chaperone?" She looked between the two young girls, mulling it over.

Grace nodded a little to confirm that. “He is busy. He left it open ended and didn’t say whether he would be there or not,” she said honestly. She glanced at Annie, not really sure what they were hoping for other than a yes. “We could have another chaperone. Though, as we aren’t certain that he’ll be there, it would be a shame to waste somebody’s time on a trip if he were to not show.”

Annabelle looked between the two women, feeling a little tense with how much she hoped her grandmother allowed them to go alone. "I suppose if anyone asks, we could always say the duke showed up unexpectedly as, of course, he would be unexpected," she supplied. The older woman paused to think, studying her granddaughters. "No, I suppose we wouldn't want to waste anyone else's time. The two of you may go," she decided. "But you will be home early. You have reputations to uphold."

Grace thought that was a solid idea and nodded in agreement. “Yes! We can simply state we didn’t know he was coming. It would not be a lie, after all,” she added. She smiled when she said yes, saving her excitement for when she was with Annie alone. She was terribly excited, though. She thought it was a bit of a stretch to say she had a reputation to uphold, but she would of course oblige. “Of course, grandmother. We will be home very early.”

Annabelle tried to contain her excitement but she caught herself beaming. "Thank you, grandmother! We'll be home very, very early," she agreed. "I'll let Mr. Barrington know we'll be able to make it. I'm sure he'll be just as grateful to you," she added. She sent Grace a happy smile. She couldn't believe this had worked! "If the duke does arrive, I do not want either of you to separate from each other. You will remain together at all times. There will be no sneaking off with either man, do you understand me?" she said sternly.

Grace nodded and smiled. “Thank you. We will be on our best behavior. I give you my word,” she promised. She nodded again. “Yes, of course. We will stay by each other’s side the entire time,” she promised. She was so excited to go. She hoped the duke did show up, for it would be quite the shame if he didn’t. She would miss his company greatly. She took Annie's hand once they finished, leading her to their room so they could gush.

Annabelle nodded as well. "Absolutely. Thank you, grandmother," she said again. She couldn't believe this had worked. She'd thought it'd be a lot harder to convince the woman to let them go on their own. She'd been so certain their aunt would have to chaperone. She took Grace's hand after the meal, following excitedly back upstairs. "She said yes! I can't believe it! We get to go to Mr. Barrington's estate and see his horses and we get to go alone!" she exclaimed when the door closed.

Annabelle was timed out 16 hours ago

Grace jumped up and down excitedly, holding her sister’s hands. “I really didn’t think she’d say yes! I was so certain she’d tell us we couldn’t go at all, or we had to bring our aunt. We’ll have to be on our best behavior, but oh, we’ll have so much fun!” she grinned. She wondered if she could ride one of the horses. She loved horseback riding, and she wasn’t lying about not knowing how like Annie was.

Annabelle beamed brightly. She could not believe their luck! "I was so certain she'd say no once she knew the duke was likely to be there. The way she hesitated gave me such a fright! I'm so glad our aunt won't be coming," she laughed. "Oh! I can't wait to see Mr. Barrington again and meet his horses. You must be so excited to see the duke again, aren't you?" she asked with a smile.

Grace had been really nervous about mentioning that. There was a high likelihood that knowing the duke would be there would make it too big of a deal to let them go unaccompanied, but she also was pretty sure that the duke being there would sway her to allow them to go. It was a thin line to walk. “I was on the edge of my seat! I am, too,” she admitted, a bit quieter, before letting out a laugh. “I’m sure you are. You’ll have to ask him to teach you a bit,” she teased. “I am. Nervous, but excited.”

Annabelle grinned wickedly. She was so looking forward to pretending to be inept at riding. She knew it would be the easiest way to get close to this man. And he'd have to touch her a little bit if he was teaching her. She couldn't wait. "Oh, I plan on it. I'll have to think of a reason why you know how to ride and I don't but I'll think of something!" she smiled. "Don't be nervous! He's very keen on you."

Grace waved a hand, dismissing that. She had a plan already. “I’m older! And I was engaged, if you recall. Anyway, you’re better at stitching than I am. We don’t do all the same things,” she teased, smiling at her. She was going to have so much fun with him. She hoped they maybe would actually consider courting one another, though she knew that wasn’t Annie’s plan. “That’s why I’m nervous!” she said with a laugh. “I haven’t had this sort of attention in so long, I don’t know what to do with it.”

Annabelle figured that made perfect sense. "Of course! Why didn't I think of that?" she laughed. "That's why I never bothered to learn! And I've never had reason to until now. You must think me so foolish to lie about this," she giggled. She thought it was so sweet to see her sister flustered over a man who truly did care about her. Oh, how she hoped they worked out. "You let him court you, of course!" she insisted. "What's the harm?"

Grace laughed a little and nodded. “I most certainly do. But I also find it rather endearing. You like his company! I cannot fault you for that,” she said with a smile. Men were hard to talk to sometimes, she thought, and having a reason for the conversation made it easier. She laughed and rolled her eyes. “I’m obviously going to allow it! There is no harm. It just makes me nervous. Anxious? I don’t know. But it isn’t bad.”

Annabelle smiled to herself. She really did enjoy his company. He was such a kind man. She loved speaking to him. "I really do," she smiled. "He's becoming a very good friend already. He's so thoughtful," she said. She really did enjoy him. She laughed when Gracie did. "I understand. It can be very flustering when a man shows interest. At least you feel the same interest in him! Imagine if he was awful and you had to pretend. You're so lucky!"

Grace was really glad she’d found someone to spend time with. He seemed like a considerate and trustworthy man, and his friendship with the duke only laminated that for her. “I’m sure he’ll prove to be a most valuable friend. He seems lovely,” she said with a smile. She nodded in agreement. “It can! But it is also so exciting,” she said. She laughed a bit and shook her head. “I’m far past pretending to care about men I don’t like.”

Annabelle just couldn't wait. She'd have to send a message to Mr. Barrington to confirm they'd be coming to his estate and she sat at the writing desk to do just that. She'd give it to one of the messengers to deliver. "He really is lovely. He was so kind to sneak out to the garden with me so we could dance again," she smiled. "It is exciting! I'm excited for you!" she promised happily. "I wish I could say the same."

Grace thought that was cute, too. It was so nice of him. Plus, then they got to dance more. “I can’t believe he did that. It was so sweet. Do you think grandmother knows?” she asked curiously. She had explicitly stated she didn’t want them to go off on their own, which was fair, but she wondered if she knew they both had done that. “Thank you, so am I,” she smiled. “Well, maybe if you become the family shame and people scorn you, then you could not pretend to care about men.”

Annabelle couldn't believe it either. She thought it had to be the kindest thing a man in the gentry had done for her. He'd helped her slip away so she didn't have to be forced into dances with men who saw her as property to win. She'd actually been able to enjoy her evening. "If grandmother knew, she would not allow me to go see Mr. Barrington without our aunt. I had no chaperone outside. Anything could have happened," she said with a laugh. "Grandmother would lose her mind." She rolled her eyes as she finished her note to Charles and turned back to Grace. "And then who would Edgewater go to? I can't become the shame, unfortunately. I wish I could."

Grace echoed her laugh and nodded. “You’re right. She would have lost it. Are we going to follow her rules?” she asked, lowering her voice a little. It seemed like it could be tedious making sure they were always together, and neither one of them was going to do anything improper, least of all her. She nodded a bit, making a face. “I know. I suppose one shame is enough for one family. I’m sorry I put this pressure on you,” she said with a sad smile.

Annabelle smiled slyly. "Oh, please. How on earth could grandmother know if we did. She has no spies at the Barrington Estate. She's unfamiliar with the name. There's no one to report to her," she explained. She sealed the message and tucked it away to pass on. "Oh, don't think like that, Gracie. I was always destined to find a suitable match regardless. I could never have been with the stable boy anyway," she said sadly. "Even if your marriage had worked out."

Grace smirked a bit and laughed. Of course they weren’t going to follow her rules. Annie was so mischievous. “I won’t tell if you don’t,” she said with a smile, sticking out her pinky finger. She shrugged a shoulder and let out a soft sigh, but smiled at her. “We can’t really say, can we? Even if you couldn’t have been with the stable boy, you could at least only show interest in those you were interested in,” she said. She shouldn’t have been so naive. It was more than her life on the line.

Annabelle grinned mischievously. Why on earth would she tell? She didn't want to face the wrath of their grandmother. Especially since she was supposed to be the good one. That was laughable itself. "It's quite alright. I don't mind a bit of flirting. Just so long as you come save me at events when I look bored. We need a signal!" she decided. "Perhaps I'll just marry an old man and he'll die on our wedding night. Edgewater will be mine and I'll be free to do as I wish."

Grace smiled, feeling a bit better. She felt so guilty that she’d ruined so much in their lives. She was supposed to be responsible. But knowing that Annie didn’t hold any of it against her made her feel a lot better. “We can find a signal, I’m sure of it,” she said with a small laugh. She laughed a bit louder, sort of surprised by her suggestion. “That would work. Quite a plan. Though him dying on your wedding night would be a very specific thing to have happen.”

Annabelle paused to think. What would be the best way? She grabbed her fan off the desk and opened it. "We could signal like this, a twist of the wrist and snapped back shut. It's still a polite gesture, so the man I'm talking to won't suddenly be offended," she said with a smile. She shrugged a bit. "Well, that way I don't have to share a marital bed with him, of course," she laughed. "He just die and leave me his fortune and then I'll have Edgewater and I'll be established as a widow. No one will bother me. You can live at Edgewater and Marjorie can be the heir when I pass."

Grace watched her and nodded, thinking that was a good idea. “Yes, perfect. I’ll keep an eye out for you, and when you know you have my attention, use that gesture and I’ll come to your rescue,” she promised. She understood why, and she thought it was brilliant, but how could she be sure he’d die? “No, I do understand it, but what if he doesn’t die?” she asked, giving her a look. “Unless you,” she trailed off, using her finger to slice across her throat before laughing. “I’m only joking. I’m certain something will work out.”

Annabelle felt such relief. She could get out of so much using this signal. Grace would always rescue her. She couldn't wait to try it out. "Brilliant. I'm so lucky to have such a wonderful sister looking out for me," she said brightly. She frowned a little, unsure of where she was going until she made the gesture. "Gracie!" she exclaimed with a laugh. "I don't know. It was only a dream, anyway. I'll find someone kind to marry. That's the best I can hope for."

Grace smiled, pulling her into a quick hug. “You know I’d do anything for you,” she promised. She laughed when Annie caught onto what she was saying. “I was only joking! You would never, and I would never encourage that,” she said with a smile and a wink. “Maybe he’ll have a mistress in another country and you can have your stable boy and no one will say a thing,” she said with a shrug. “Maybe one of these men will surprise you.”

Annabelle laughed happily. "I know. I'd do anything for you too, I promise," she parroted. She shook her head a little bit, thinking she was the last person to kill another. It'd be a way out, though. "We'll save the death for the men who go to war," she said sadly. "Well, what kind of terrible man am I supposed to marry! I don't want one who has a mistress. I just don't see why I can't marry who I want to because he's of a lower station. It's absurd," she sighed. "Hopefully I find someone."

Grace shrugged a little, not knowing what the right answer was in this world. “That’s the only real solution I could think of! You know father would never allow you to marry the stable boy, not in a million years. He’d have to be dead, and even then, I’m sure he has someone else set up to tell us no,” she said honestly, letting out a sigh of frustration. She understood, she just didn’t like it. “I hope you do. Someone you like.”

Annabelle sighed. She'd have to figure something out. "I wish I could simply not marry anyone," she admitted. "Since I don't think I'll ever love anyone more than I love him and I refuse to marry for anything but love. I don't want it to be some business arrangement. The child I have with my husband is the heir to Edgewater and I will not choose a man who will try and take my own inheritance from me. I've seen it happen."

Grace understood why Annabelle felt that way, but she didn’t think she’d ever get a chance to marry anyone, and it broke her heart. “I know,” she said, rubbing her arm comfortingly. “You may. People are capable of love more than once,” she encouraged, trying to be helpful. She nodded. “I know. Men think they are entitled to everything, especially if it comes from us. Our body, our land, our lives, our worlds. How dare we think to be a person on our own?”

Annabelle sighed heavily. She'd do her duty. She'd find a suitable husband. She'd have a child with him. And that was that. She didn't really have a say otherwise unless she purposely shamed herself. "I'll be alright, dear sister. Don't worry about me," she smiled. "Pah! Men. Selfish creatures. We're people too. I shouldn't have to marry to inherit Edgewater. I should be given my property same as I would had I been born a man."

Grace didn’t think it was possible for her to not worry about Annie. The weight of the world was on her shoulders, and she couldn’t help but want to carry some of it for her. “You know I can’t help it,” she said with a smile. She nodded, letting out a snort. “This is a cruel and unkind world we live in. Perhaps one day women will inherit what is rightfully theirs on their own,” she said. She sighed a bit, then took Annie’s hand. “Let’s get that letter sent out to Mr. Barrington.”

Annabelle smiled back at her reassuringly. "I will be alright, Grace. I promise you that," she swore. She might complain a lot but she'd do her duties. She would secure Edgewater. That was her purpose in life, sad to say. "Perhaps. Not in our lifetime, though," she sighed. "And not me." She let Grace take her hand and grinned. "Yes, let's! I can't wait to see him again. I think Mr. Woods is around, he can take the letter to Mr. Barrington."

[wegotjiminsjams]

When I’m with You I’m in Utopia

Oneshot

Taehyung X Reader

Word Count: 2643

Genre: Fluff

You had always wanted to do your Masters away from home, in a new place.You were craving for change, for something new in your life. You wanted to move away from all the drama and be your own person.You had applied to a lot of universities and it was getting difficult to wait.After a month of waiting, you had almost lost hope of getting in.The mere thought of having to live with your parents was crushing you.

Just when you thought there was no hope at all, you received a letter from one of the most prestigious universities for literature.You couldn’t contain your excitement! Although your scholarship would cover the cost of your education at the Uni, you would have to find a job to sustain because your parents were not happy with the choice you had made and they weren’t going to support you. You had saved up some money working part time at a cafe, so you could cover your travel. You had been accepted in at the very last minute so you had only a week’s time to pack and move.

You were surrounded by lush green trees, fresh air with beautiful scent, you felt like you were in utopia once you were there. You headed straight for your hostel, you managed to pay for a month by borrowing a little from your best friend, Lisa. She was extremely happy for you because she knew how difficult your life was and you finally got what you wanted. Your hostel was pretty close to your university, so you could save on travel.It was quite surprising that you could do so much in a week’s time.

Now you had to find a job. Classes started on Monday, so you had the weekend to look around and see what you could do to support yourself. You walked around your neighborhood and noticed there were a lot of cafes, probably because of the number of hostels and the universities in the vicinity. The aroma from the cafes made you realize you were hungry, you stopped by a burger joint to grab a quick bite. Once you were done you checked with the place if they were hiring people but tough luck. You asked a couple more places but nothing seemed to be working out. At last you arrived at this very fancy cafe, which was due to open on Monday and was looking for people. Since you had previously worked in a cafe, you were hired as a part-time server. Everything seemed to fall in place! This place really must be utopia!

Monday was just orientation, you could meet the professors to have a one on one if you wanted, sign up for clubs. You decided to look around the university and head to work. Cafe Max agreed to pay you on an hourly basis and this worked well for you because of your class timings. Since it was the opening day, you could never tell how many people would show up. The cafe was jam packed and there was a lot of work to be done. At the end of the day you were so tired that you just wanted to crash. You had only four hours of class in the first half of the day, so you could work during the second half. Weekends were an off from college, so you could work longer hours.

You headed to class the next day, made few acquaintances,attended the lectures, headed to work after. Your whole week pretty much went like that. On Saturday when you went to work you got to know from your manager that there are few events every weekend like dance-offs, busking, game nights and so on conducted in the evening hours. This weekend the cafe was hosting a game-night; Every weekend it would be someone’s responsibility to host an event and ensure it carries on smoothly.It was an extremely busy day and as evening came you could see a lot of people gathered up for the event. So many of them took part, it was so lively and nice.Once the event was over, you headed to your hostel feeling content and happy with your current life.

Almost a month went by, you had the same mundane routine. You hardly made any friends because of your busy schedule, you hardly spoke to your parents, you were never really that close and the closest you had to a sibling was Lisa with whom you occasionally spoke. You were starting to feel lonely, your utopia didn’t seem so perfect after all! Lisa advised you to sign up for clubs or classes outside college which meant more expenditure which you really couldn’t afford. Going back home wasn’t an option either.

Despite that you carried on with your life still hoping for better, hoping you would have someone to keep you company, because you did not know how long you could carry on like this. The only time you had fun was on weekends at work during the events. You had gotten excellent at hosting the busking event, usually you got students from your college to sign up to earn extra. People would usually donate a lot to the buskers, they would also participate for fun. This Saturday you were hosting the event once again, Sheri from the university was gonna sing tonight and she was a hit with the audience.

Tonight you had a request by someone named Taehyung who wanted to sing Lay Me Down by Sam Smith.  It is a very difficult song to attempt and you thought this stranger would ruin the mood set by Sheri.However was very insistent.You didn’t want to disappoint him so you added him in between Sheri’s lineup.

When his turn came you called him, “ Taehyung, you’re up next”.

He started singing, “ Yes I do, I believe…..” You were stunned, you had never heard such a beautiful, husky, deep voice in your life and when he reached the Chorus “ Can I lay by your side, next to you, you” you had goosebumps.

He was already very attractive, caramel coloured skin, brown hair complementing brown eyes, sharp eyebrows, coral lips but his voice made him seem immortal. The whole cafe was mesmerized by his angelic voice, you didn’t want him to stop. But to yours and everyone else’s disappointment, he had to leave. You noticed he was with a friend, Jimin, a guy you knew from class.You thought you would get his number from Jimin, so he could participate more often.

You were walking towards your hostel after wrapping up everything, you couldn’t get Taehyung’s voice out of your head, you wanted him to be a regular busker at the Cafe. You reached your hostel, took a warm shower and slid into bed. Tomorrow was Sunday, you get off two Sundays, so you could sleep longer. Your head was ringing with Taehyung’s voice and surprisingly it helped you sleep better. Usually you would drown in your loneliness, but today it was different.

You woke up fresh around 11 a.m. unlike other days where you would wake up with sore eyes from crying the previous night. You decided to text Jimin immediately.

“ Hey Jimin, this is Y/n from university, I work at the cafe your friend Taehyung sang at last night. Everyone loved his performance! Would like to know if he would want to participate more often.”

To which Jimin replied, “ Hey Y/n I am so surprised to receive a text from you, you hardly speak to anyone. Would you like to come and hang out at Papa’s Burgeria for lunch around 1:00? Taehyung will be there too! You can tell him yourself. He is very shy, so this would boost his confidence”.

You were so antisocial that you would have refused the invitation but there was something about Taehyung that made you want to go. After debating a lot with yourself ,you responded, “ Sure Jimin, Thank you for the invitation”.

This is the first time you were going out with someone from university, you were so nervous but also happy because you never had company in so long. You got dressed quickly and headed to the Burgeria .You saw Jimin already there with  group of people. You went and joined them and introduced yourself as Y/n and everyone responded with bubbly and welcoming greetings.His friends Irene, Joy, Taehyung and Yeonjun were kind and y’all casually spoke about how you all got in, what is your daily routine like and Jimin then mentioned that Taehyung would also be joining us at Uni. This was the first time everyone was meeting Taehyung.

Everyone asked Taehyung about his interests and he said “ I love photography and singing but I am very shy when it comes to singing for an audience”, to which Jimin added, “ Hey Tae, Y/n here says your performance last night at Cafe Max was amazing, everyone loved it. You should sing more often”.

“ In fact I think you should become a regular, the people loved you, I can arrange for you to sing regularly like I  have for Sheri, she is also from Uni,”  you further added.

Taehyung was so surprised, “ Really Y/n, Do you think I was so good?”

It was astonishing that Taehyung could doubt himself so much because when he sung it felt like honey was oozing out of his mouth.

You reassured him once more by saying, “ Your voice is nothing like I have heard before, I would love for you to sing at the Cafe regularly.”

Taehyung was so happy and excited with what you said, his reaction was almost like a puppy’s who had just been petted. He immediately agreed but he agreed to start slow, like two songs per evening instead of busking the whole night. After speaking for a bit more and exchanging numbers you all left. You had such a lovely afternoon after so long, you wish this could happen more often. You went back to your hostel and decided to tell Lisa. She would be so excited to know you made new friends.

Lisa was so enthusiastic to know that you were finally making friends and having fun, but Lisa thought you weren’t telling her the whole truth,” Y/n do you like this Taehyung guy, are you seeing him?”

Your face became so red,” No Lisa, why?”

“ Because you can not stop talking about him.” she giggled.

“ Aah, no Lisa I just met him today…”

“ Okay Y/n, if you say so….” and there was a long pause.

You wrapped up your conversation with Lisa and proceeded to carry out your tasks so you would be prepared for Uni.

All evening you could think only about Taehyung,failing miserably at your work.His caramel coloured skin, his dewy coral lips, his deep voice, Maybe just maybe you had a crush on him, but you quickly dismissed the thought.

Next Morning, you woke up feeling refreshed, attended classes and then went and spoke to your manager about Taehyung. He was more than willing to make changes, he also trusted you because you organised the event so well.

You carried on with your usual routine which now included meeting Jimin and his friends once a week at least.Busking happened every alternate Saturday so you used to meet Taehyung more often. His favorite singers were John Legend and Maroon 5,whose songs he sang more often. You recorded all of his performances because his was better than the original version to you and his voice helped you sleep better.

He would usually walk you to your hostel after work and sometimes you both used to hang around in the park opposite your hostel.

You really appreciated his company; conversations with Taehyung or Tae, is what you call him now, could go from very deep like “ Why is Y/n feeling sad today?” or  to something random  and light- hearted like “ Y/n I think there are Rabbits on the moon”.

Tae was very pure, his boxy smile, his childlike innocence, his offbeat solutions to problems were some of the things you loved about him.

Sometimes you thought that you like him more than a friend but you could never gather up the courage to tell him. You had also come to know that Tae was a very private person so you could never tell what was on his mind unless he chose to tell you.

On one of the nights when Tae was walking you he said nervously, “ Y/n i have something very personal to discuss with you”

You knew Tae was acting very distant lately and you were hoping he doesn’t tell you anything that would hurt you, maybe he had a girlfriend, maybe she was uncomfortable with Tae hanging around with you, all these thoughts were running in your head, but you had to listen to him because he was not someone to discuss personal matters so easily.

You asked him to spill the beans.

“ Y/n would you meet me tomorrow for dinner?’

“Ahh Tae, we usually do every Sunday, all of us, Jimin, Yeonjun, you, Irene, Joy and Me, Is this what you wanted to discuss?,”you really didn’t understand why was this so personal to him.

“No y/n”, he said nervously, “ Just you and me.”

“Tae, are you asking me out on a date?,” you weren’t really sure if this is what he meant.

“Yes y/n, I think i like you more than a friend should.” he played with his hair, which was a habit when he was nervous.

Your heart started pounding so loudly, you felt like the entire neighborhood could hear it.” Now is the time y/n, tell him how you feel,” you thought to yourself.

“Tae, I would love to go anywhere with you, I like you a lot too ,”  you blushed.

Tae was so delighted that you felt the same way!  

“Y/n let’s meet tomorrow at 7 pm, I have something planned for you”. Tae was almost going to tell you out of excitement where he was taking you, but he wanted it to be a surprise.

All he said was ,”Dress warmly Y/n,” after which he fled like he had just asked you to be his accomplice for a crime he was gonna commit.

The whole day went in deciding what to wear, Tae didn’t even tell you where you were going, he just asked you to dress warm. You took Lisa’s help and decided to wear a Purple pullover with black denims, since purple was his favorite color.

Tae was there at 7 pm sharp, wearing a yellow pullover with teal pants and a waistcoat, he looked very handsome.He blindfolded you and took you to the venue, the table started raising up and you immediately knew he had arranged for Dinner in the Sky. He removed your blindfold and you found yourself amidst stars, Taehyung being one himself. He knew you so well, he knew exactly what you would like.

Tae had  even prepared a song for you, “ Some people want diamond rings, Some just want everything, But everything means nothing,If I ain't got you.”

He ended the song by saying “ I purple you Y/n”, which had a meaning deeper than I love you,

“ Purple is the color of love, It means I’ll trust and love you for a long time”.

This was the first time Taehyung was so direct about his feelings, It put a huge smile on your face,“ I purple you too”, you couldn’t help but grin.

You could really not ask for anything else. This was one of the best nights of your life and there were many more  magical nights to come in your Utopia.

A/N: Hey this is Firefly, I really hope you all enjoy reading this as much as i enjoyed writing it. Would really appreciate feedback.

[primrose-path-of-dalliance]

Lotor’s end (?) in s6

toc 1: i shake out some salt and talk about the altean colony | 2: i question why people keep insisting lotor was "evil all along" | 3: i talk about my favorite parts of lotor’s breakdown

lotor, altea, and king alfor

when lotor chooses to lash out and start destroying everything, he says: "what about your father? he may have been a master engineer, but alfor was too weak to defend his homeworld. i'm the one who had to step up and save our entire race. who are you to question my tactics in bringing peace and prosperity to the universe?"

the knee-jerk reaction is to be furious at lotor for this statement, and what he says is unfair. it's not as if alfor simply gave up, lay down, and offered his people to the pyre. perhaps he made a mistake in sending voltron away (as his ai freely admits to allura), but although we don't get a lot of information on what happened after zarkon's resurrection, we know that he tried to defend his people. that he ultimately lost isn't a fact that's fair to reflect onto his moral character. additionally, lotor is singing his own praises even after we've discovered that he's far from hot shit, and naturally it's unappealing.

but as a character, lotor possesses an extremely unique perspective. he is the only major sympathetic character in the show to have lived through all of the 10,000 years of post-resurrection zarkon's reign. and he is among the small group of characters who have been aligned against the empire for a significant amount of time since before allura and coran reawoke; potentially, he has spent the longest actively on the galra empire's shit list.

i said that allura's viewpoint in the show is limited for a very good reason. even the person who is our primary protagonist, who is extraordinarily sympathetic and compassionate, whose heart breaks regularly for the people who suffer under the oppression of this empire and who has suffered tremendously herself while determined to devote the rest of her life to this cause, can be a bit clueless when she's a teenager and only woke up about a year ago into a universe entirely different from the one she once knew.

most of allura's life was spent in a stable and loving home on an idyllic planet as crown royalty, with all the resources and wealth that lifestyle offered to her. she was raised for both diplomacy and warfare but had little time to become familiar with them, particularly the latter, when compared to the work of centuries or millennia under the rule of an extremely powerful and oppressive empire. and the perspective from which she learned her trades was as the heir of a powerful kingdom and expansive legacy, not as a freedom fighter. most significantly, she had astounding resources even after waking up into an empire that wanted her dead—the castle of lions, an extremely mobile self-powered warship with apparently no concern to be had for things like food supplies or relative comfort; and voltron, quite literally the most powerful weapon in the universe with limits unknown and a sentient being in its own right. additionally, the return of the black lion distracted zarkon. he was obsessed with reclaiming it above all else, to the point where haggar criticized his illogical behavior right to his face. voltron's return weakened zarkon's ability to strategize intelligently. in terms of practical position against the galra empire, allura, coran, and the paladins possessed the strongest one from the very beginning. and they have only gotten stronger.

this doesn't place allura in an easy position to empathize with the other forces who have fought against the empire, and considering the usual level of empathy or thoughtfulness one can already expect from a teenager, it shouldn't be a shock that allura's perspective may not be the most understanding.

when she condemns lotor for his treatment of the altean colony, as rightfully as she may be doing so, she does so without any understanding of where lotor is coming from. she literally cannot comprehend the type of situation someone like lotor must have been in to drive him to do something so horrific, nor that someone who's not Evil could still commit such crimes. this is tied into one of the biggest reasons lotor loses his temper and says what he does.

what i'm saying isn't without precedence in this show. @howtofightwrite has talked about the usual experience of a resistance (link). (please feel encouraged to read the whole post, especially for context. they do a great job being a resource for writers about a wide variety of topics, and if you're not already acquainted, i totally recommend following them.)

since it's a very long post, i'll quote the most relevant parts:

"When you’re writing a story about a resistance, never forget that they are in a hostile environment where everything is a danger to them, and you should approach every engagement violent or not as a cost comparison. ....

When you’re working with a resistance fighter, the resistance part is more important than the fighter part. These are not people with a very large margin for error, and who need to be incredibly good at threat assessment in regard to their greater goals. The greater goal is what’s most important to them, their priority, their mission, they have limited resources and that means they have to make compromises. For the resistance fighter, violence itself draws attention. Attention is bad.

Think about this, if he does manage to fight these two and kill them then whatever kills he makes will be taken out on the civilian population. If he doesn’t kill them, and they remember his face then he’s done as a resistance fighter. Again, attention is bad. Attention brings notoriety. In a hostile state, the consequences are many and they hit the innocent population hardest.

My point is this: your character is not making decisions on what he can do or can’t do, not in what’s morally right or wrong, if he wants to survive in a resistance then he’s making decisions based on risk. ....

Resistance fighters are the ones who run when their friends get captured, the ones who stand by and do nothing if they’re not at risk of being outed. They wait. They strike later, though usually not to recover their friends. Well, the smart ones do. The stupid ones try. They either get gunned down or captured because hot blood and hot heads get murdered in the streets by the gestapo. There are always more of them than there are you in a resistance, and violence attracts attention. The wrong kind of attention in the wrong place means death or capture, prison, interrogation, torture, and then the firing squad. The consequences for failure are high, not just for the single resistance fighter but for everyone they know, everyone they love, and for the very movement they’re fighting for. ....

For every piece your character and his friends take, the enemy will take five of theirs. He is in a rigged game where his own lack of resources will crush him unless the resistance can convince the populace at large to rise up. That is how a resistance actually wins in the real world, you know. If they can’t get the citizens behind them or receive aid from an outside power or train up an army on foreign soil, they’re doomed."

when the blade of marmora are first introduced, they fill precisely this type of role in the show. they are the resistance, the small guy fighting against an empire that has conquered and controls most of the known universe, who has decided to focus on spywork as the primary goal they can accomplish. and allura dislikes them instantly—not only because they're galra, but because she considers them disappointments for having not already taken down the empire themselves. she criticizes what she sees as passivity, as fear to engage with the enemy. she fails to realize that the blade of marmora lacked the firepower of voltron or the resources to commit to a war with the empire.

as the blade of marmora emphasized in their introduction, they survived through their secrecy. if things went wrong, if they took too many risks in trying to liberate other people, their existence would be discovered. and then the empire, a force with effectively infinite resources and no small amount of cruelty, would have their guard up. all of their spies would suddenly be in great danger. any future operations would become exponentially more difficult. depending on the risk that fell through, it wouldn't be difficult at all for the empire to decimate their numbers, or worse, decimate whatever civilian populations they might have been trying to protect or train for war. the blade of marmora simply wouldn't have the ability to fight back.

allura deserves no guilt for condemning lotor, of course. he abused the very people he was supposed to be protecting. he may have found some comfort for himself by treating it as a conservation issue, but he nevertheless ruined the lives of thousands of already oppressed people. regardless of motive, that is never going to be something that sits well with the type of good our protagonists are, and rightfully so. it's the reason we love them so much.

but it's frustrating to see people reduce antagonists like lotor to "Pure Bad Evil all along" because it's completely dismissive of the work the show writers have put into him as a character with a story entirely different from either zarkon's cardboard cutout villainy or allura's honest but youthful idealism. and to what purpose? making sure we all know genocide is bad? surely we don't have to perform hatred or oversimplification of a fictional character just to make sure everyone knows our disdain for mass exploitation. and surely we're capable of understanding that exploring the reasons why someone would do such a thing doesn't mean we agree with them or are excusing their actions.

i stated that the ultimate incompatibility of allura's perspective with lotor's is tied into lotor's break. not the sole cause. that's because it, when expressed in such a raw attack on lotor's character, was only the trigger for the release of a massive amount of resentment that lotor has been harboring inside him. when lotor breaks, it isn't because he can't tolerate the idea of a woman rejecting him. it's because he's been bitter toward everything for a very, very long time, and his break is that moment when he decides to stop holding it in or rationalizing it away.

for 10,000 years, he has endured abuse from the people who ought to have loved him the most. he's been disconnected from each side of his heritage: the galra, because he's half-altean and a disgustingly moral half-breed exile; and the alteans, because he's half-galra and they, at the hands of the empire and to an extent lotor himself, have experienced genocide and abuse until they were scattered and isolated, a mere shadow of what they once were. his friends are few and far between, because trust is difficult when his father will murder everyone around him just because he hears from someone nearby that lotor's having a decent time being deviant, and when the woman at his father's right hand (who he now knows is his mother, one of the sole figures in his life he imagined to be good because he thought she was already dead) will send spies his way through any avenue possible, including benevolent ones (he's not even a little shocked to accept narti's supposed betrayal, or to find himself taken to haggar's feet at galra central command after kuron's mind-control switch is flipped). sendak, the man implied to have been more raised as a son by zarkon than zarkon's own actual son, threatens to make lotor his personal slave, and lotor barely bats an eye because this inherent violence toward his existence is something completely normal to him. his style of fighting and strategy is entirely angled as someone who's used to being the small guy—he's agile, and clever, and quick, and prefers to either manipulate his way out or outfox his enemy because he rarely has the strength to challenge or threaten people head-on; even sincline's strength is in outmaneuvering its opponent. as an infant, we see lotor in the darkness crying alone in his crib with no one to tend to him.

consistently, lotor has been characterized as a target of abuse, with all the baggage that it comes with.

the resentment here is in knowing how easily it could have been better. how happy he might have been. if he had known king alfor as a parental figure instead ("i envy you, growing up with king alfor"). if he had grown up in altea with honerva instead of in the galra empire with zarkon. if king alfor had not failed in his duty to his people, to the universe 10,000 years ago, and simply killed zarkon when he had the chance.

allura, as much as he respects her as an individual, is also a representation of what he wishes he could have had: a loving family, a happy life, proper training as an altean alchemist, security in a group of close friends she can trust and interact with comfortably. she trusts the universe in a way he can't even comprehend of doing. moreover, allura got to sleep relatively peacefully for those 10,000 years of zarkon's tyrannical rule, undisturbed and undiscovered on arus.

she never had to live those millennia under zarkon's oppressive rule. she never had the burden of a horrific legacy. she never had to figure out who she was all by herself, uninternalize every ounce of racism and abuse and discover what it meant to be a person of value by chasing after crumbling ruins. instead, he had to save the last alteans left after zarkon's genocide. he had to figure out a way to topple the empire. he had to find himself trapped in every corner with the choice to either die or sacrifice whatever morality he had to live another day, to take a single step closer to killing his own father.

and now allura has the gall to condemn him, when he didn’t have a superweapon like voltron. he didn’t have a massive castleship, a wormhole generator, or the gifts of a sacred altean. he was working with the best he had. does she think he wanted to use the alteans as a quintessence farm? does she think he wanted to be zarkon's son? all he wanted was peace. maybe if her father had just won, none of them would've had to be there. none of this would have happened. but instead she has the gall to hate him for trying to clean up her father's 10,000 year old mistake.

well, fine. he'll just do a better job restoring the alteans to power and bringing peace to the universe than any of them ever could.

in lotor's relationship with allura and king alfor, there is as much jealousy and resentment as there is love and admiration. and he understood how much of it was unfair, or else we would have seen it leak into his behavior before now no matter how good of an actor he was, if only so we the audience might characterize him properly as a dick. (hopefully i don't have to clarify that it didn't.)

but at this point, everything has been going wrong, allura is on the other side of the battlefield, and quintessence exposure is insidiously wreaking havoc on his ability to process what's happening in a healthy manner. all he can think about is how bitter and tired he is of this. and so he breaks.

of course it was wrong. he was literally attempting to kill the team by the end. none of this excuses the choices he made or the things he said, and he has to be held accountable for all of it. but more than anything, lotor is an example of how a person as human (for lack of a better word) as anyone else can be incredibly hurtful, how his end of self-destruction is brought about by the very authentic experience of wanting the happiness that has been continually taken away from him, and how this self-destruction is implicitly tied into his isolation.

the importance of a support system

this is probably one of the defining themes of vld. although it sometimes doesn't deliver on the paladins as a family unit, we get numerous arcs throughout the show about one character helping to emotionally support another through something difficult, and it's emphasized several times that every person in the team is deeply concerned with the individual wellbeing of their other team members/friends. as a show about a bunch of somewhat-strangers having to come together and form a giant robot mech in order to literally save the universe through the power of teamwork and cooperation, this isn't really surprising.

so let's look at lotor. he's incapable of having a positive connection with either side of his heritage as a whole—the galra have abused him and most of the known universe, the alteans either never recognize him as one of their own unless he tells them or end up victims of his own vampiric needs. the only person from his history he can draw strength and purpose from is honerva, his long-dead mother—and then he discovers that she survived quite well to become one of his greatest demons. his relationship with his generals is fairly good, but their dynamic is always more professional than casual—and then he kills narti and later claims he will kill any and all galra that stand against him. he and the paladins tentatively befriend each other, he and allura fall in love with each other—and then it's revealed that he hid very dirtied hands from them in the process. all of them abandon or turn against him. and by the end, he pilots sincline alone, in sharp contrast to the recently-reunited team of five in voltron.

repeatedly, we see lotor as a desperate seeker for connection who inevitably sabotages himself through his own actions, driving away every one of his friends and associates. this final collapse of his already-fragile support system is what leads directly to his self-destruction.

officially, lotor's been described as a secret azula the writers were trying to trick us into believing was a zuko. it's a fair description, but not in the sense that he was an evil villain, and that misconception ought to be cleared away. anyone who's watched avatar: the last airbender understands that azula, as dramatic and stunning a villain as she was, was far less someone to hate for her deeds than she was someone to pity—she was a tragedy who never got to grow away from the abuse of her father the way zuko did, and who brought about her own self-destruction through her toxicity and subsequent isolation.

the parallels are very obvious, and i suspect the reduction in similar reception when it comes to lotor is because 1. it's a lot easier to sympathize with a teenage girl who already had characters in-story to sympathize with her and fill in her background of abuse, and 2. fandom culture now is different and much less forgiving to its villains.

in many ways, lotor had the chances azula never got. like zuko, lotor was exiled in disgrace and spent a significant amount of time away from home; like zuko, lotor got the chance to uninternalize his abuse; like zuko, lotor demonstrated qualities from the beginning that made him more similar to the protagonists than the villains. the one thing lotor never got, however, was an uncle iroh: someone with the maturity, energy, and willingness to stay by his side through his unhealthy behavior, support him by promoting healthy behavior, and give him the unwavering love and forgiveness and faith that he was never able to receive from anyone else.

instead, lotor more or less had to figure it out on his own, which is challenging enough without adding isolation and high amounts of stress into the mix. by the end of s6, lotor was probably unconsciously seeking out a similar kind of relationship through allura, but the problem is in how demanding that type of support is. no one is really obligated to expend that amount of effort on anyone, no matter how positive of a result it might create. uncle iroh sacrificed a lot to give zuko the encouragement he needed to find a healthier state of mind, even suffering through his multiple missteps off the path that hurt iroh and everyone else around him, and zuko understood this by the time they reunited in the campgrounds of the order of the lotus.

team voltron, on the other hand, would never have been able to give lotor that kind of support for a myriad of reasons, youth and conflicting priorities and unfamiliarity with lotor among them, much less should have. many of the circumstances were also different—much more difficult with a 10,000-year-old character whose missteps include the abuse of a colony of already oppressed people, after all.

lm and jds have also drawn a similar comparison between lotor and keith (link). they share similar backgrounds—complicated family situation, absent mother, interpersonal issues borne from a history of isolation—but unlike lotor, keith found someone to guide him away from a downward spiral: shiro. ("i will never give up on you.") this difference between the two of them is explicitly acknowledged as what saved keith from self-destruction.

lotor was not an irredeemable character by far, and for some of us who were excited by the potential we saw, the end of s6 was disappointing. but within the context of the show and the progression of the plot, lotor's self-destruction was the logical path for him to go. it probably isn't the ultimate end of lotor; he didn't die, after all. but all things considered, i feel that lotor was ultimately treated with respect, and his arc added things to the story we never would've gotten otherwise.

(if we want a happy story, well, that's what we can write fanfiction for, right?)