#and i chose to walk the one way that's like at a 45° angle

[cosyvelvetorchid]

Requesting smut because yours is some of the best.

Prompt: photo

Well thank you! Ask and ye shall receive! 🩶

***

RATED: E

As far as birthdays go Buck was excited for this one.

He and Tommy had both been on 48 hour shifts and were about to have by 72 hours off. Together. Neither knew if it was luck or the gods or the universe but they both chose not to spend any time wondering how it happened lest they jinx it.

His birthday wasn’t actually until tomorrow but everybody was under strict instructions that unless it was a life or death emergency, under no circumstances were they contact with him or Tommy.

So today, Hen had arrived with a cake and Bobby had cooked one of Bucks favourites - baked macaroni. The calls they’d been on were fairly simple - a couple of minor accidents involving minor injuries and no deaths. Buck was trying so hard to not jinx it all by expecting the remaining hours on shift to be easy.

With an hour til the end he was upstairs with the team around the TV.

“So what are the birthday plans, Buck? Hen asked.

“Uh, I have no idea. Tommy says it’s a surprise.”

“You hate surprises.” Chimney stated.

“I dunno, man - Tommy’s surprises are pretty good.” He told him with a bashful smile.

“What does he do?” Chim asked. Buck simply tilted his head and smirked. “Oh ew! No! I did not need to know that!”

“You asked.” Buck said laughing. His phone pinged in his pocket he smiled when he saw Tommys message on the Lock Screen

“Call this birthday gift number 1. ”

He unlocked his phone to see the attached picture and the second his eyes met with the image on screen he quickly tried to hide his phone away so nobody else would see but fumbled it his hands, sending the phone flying out of his hand and onto the floor by chimneys feet.

“I got it.” Chim said reaching down.

“No Chim don’t…!”

It was too late. Chimney saw the image on the screen and immediately threw the phone onto the sofa.

“OH GO NO! NO NO NO NO!” He jumped off the sofa, head in his hands. “WHY DIDNT YOU WARN ME?!”

“I tried!” Buck argued.

“How am I supposed to look Tommy in the eye ever again after seeing that?!”

“What was it?” Hen asked.

Buck turned to look at her. “You don’t want to know.” He said.

“I have never once in my life wished I didn’t have the power of sight. Until today Buckley.” He narrowed his eyes at Buck.

“I’m going to finish packing my bag.” Buck said quickly making his way down to the locker room.

Once alone he opened up the photo to look at it again.

Tommy was laying back on his bed, completely naked and glistening from the shower. The angle was from his groin angled upward - his thick, heavy and rock hard cock in his hand.

Bucks mouth went dry at the sight of Tommys cock and he had to every ounce of willpower he could muster to not get a raging hard on himself. He snot off a quick reply.

“How are you this fucking hot?!”

“P.s you may have scarred Chim for life.”

“Hey Buck.” He turned to Bobby walking into the locker room. He quickly locked his phone, shoving it in his back pocket so Bobby didn’t have a repeat of Chims experience.

“Why don’t you head home.”

“I’ve still got like 45 minutes of my shift left, Cap.”

“Call it your second birthday gift from me.” He said.

“Second?” Buck asked confused.

“Who you think made sure you had the same 72 hours off as Tommy?”

“Has anybody ever told you that you’re the best Cap ever?” Buck grinned.

Bobby laughed. “Go home. Say hi to Tommy from me.”

He set a record for how quick he could change and get into his car.

Buck was mauled the second he walked into Tommy’s house. Tommy had him up against door before he even had a chance to put down his bag.

His mouth was hot and wet as it worked in sync with Bucks; Tommy’s tongue chasing his own. Every inch of his skin exploded in goosebumps as Tommys tongue licked along his jaw and down his neck. Buck breathed heavily outward at the wet sensation. He hadn’t said a single word since he walked in the door and was too worked up to even formulate words.

Tommys hands pulled down bucks sweatpants and boxers in one swoop letting Bucks already leaking cock spring forward. He got down on his knees without a word and took Buck whole.

“Oh fuck!” Buck cried out, finding his words. Tommy often like to tease Buck, working him effortlessly slowly until he was a babbling mess begging to come. But not tonight.

Tommy immediately began taking Buck to the back of his throat with speed. Buck hands tried to grab onto to door, the door frame.. anything to stop himself from buckling. He couldn’t think, he could barely breathe.

“Holy fuck.. Tom…” He panted. Every vein in his body caught fire as loud sharp whines echoed in the entryway.

“Ohmygod…ohmygod..” words pouring from his mouth almost incoherently as Tommy grabbed his ass pulling him forward to take his cock as far down his throat as he could get it.

One of Bucks hands grabbed at Tommys head, holding into his hair for some kind of leverage. Or maybe it was to make sure that he was still alive because he was starting to suspect that he’d somehow died on the drive over and this was in fact heaven.

His body began to tremble as he sped closer and closer to the edge.

“Fuck Tommy.. I… I can’t… oh god!” Every layer of bucks skin was vibrating, every hair standing on end. He couldn’t take it any more. He was so fucking close. Tommys hand shifted on his ass and the tip of his finger made context with his rim.

He didn’t even enter Buck, just the touch was enough to send him spiralling and he shot thick stings of come into Tommys throat with a loud cry. Tommy hummed in response which just make him come even harder.

He slid his head back, licking up every last drop of Evan that had leaked. Bucks head fell back against the door with a bang. He was vaguely aware of it hurting but he quite frankly didn’t have any brain cells left to care.

Once Buck was cleaned of any residue, Tommy pulled his sweats and boxers back up and stood up to give Buck a long slow and firm kiss.

“Happy birthday, sweetheart.” He took Bucks hand and led him to the kitchen to eat the dinner the dinner Tommy had ready for him.

Best fucking birthday ever.

[nexus-nebulae]

bruh why did i choose to walk up the steepest inclined path in this whole fucking park

[artificialqueens]

🤍💚 Running on Adrenaline (Jorion) - Anonymous

A/N: My small little submission for AQs Pride Bingo, I chose "Make it Rain" and if you squint, "Party" also works. Fair warning, there's handholding in this fic so if you can't handle something that dirty, turn away while you can!

"Orion, hey Orion… wake up Orion." An incessant voice whispered as they shook her body. No dice, Orion was still fast asleep, thanks for asking reader. Even more violently, the assailant tugged at her shoulder, it was almost like they meant it. "ORION!" It was almost a yell, but not quite. The other people in the room can't hear them, though that's foreshadowing that's going to be left on the floor within the next few paragraphs. 

"I'm totally awake." Orion groaned as she came back to this mortal pane. She had been sleeping so nicely on the floor with her head in an odd angle. A slight pain shot through her neck as she rose up to see who dared disturb her slumber. Oh, it was Jorgeous. She looked a little frantic, her hair strutting up in all kinds of directions. That's kinda cute, Orion mused to herself. Like a really pissed off chihuahua in a red polkadot dress.

"Yeah sure, and you're totally also listening to me telling you to get your butt up in gear. We have to keep moving." Jorgeous was snappy today. Scratch cute, the little bean was hot.

"I'm up, don't get too fired up." Orion got up and as she was already dressed from falling asleep in the previous day's clothes, she was ready to get the hell out of there.

The two of them stepped out of the penthouse, tiptoeing around the other sleeping people on the floor. The room looked like shit, with bottles and other party items also strewn around. As if someone had planned to make this a maze.

They made it onto the street with little fuzz, as they pretended to be sane people just having a morning stroll after a good night out. Orion looked like she had just gone through five one-night stands in the same night. She hardly cared, as the two got the hell out of the fancy bougie neighbourhood. Jorgeous walked right in front of her, as a way to get her to move at a more normal human speed. Still, Orion trudged along.

They finally reached the abandoned park in the middle class neighbourhood, and they could finally sigh in relief. They had gotten away once again.

"So how much did we get this time." Jorgeous jumped up on the metal bars to sit on them, and kicked her feet cutely. 

"I have it right here." Orion produced a huge wad of cash from one of her many pockets that she now had. Shut the fuck up the continuity is whatever I feel like it is. 

Jorgeous eyed the money. It was quite a lot. More than they usually were able to pull when schmoozing with the rich crowd. Maybe they could splurge a little. "That's a good starting capital. We could become investment bankers with that load." Jorgeous spoke about it as if she had any kind of knowledge of that sort of stuff. She didn't, but Orion believed her as she said it with confidence. 

"I'm not good with banks, Jorge." Orion recalled that one time she was trapped in a bank for 45 minutes while everyone had gone home for the day. It still haunted her, when she bothered to remember that kind of thing. Not that it happened that often. She had other traumas to repress to remember everything. 

"Shit, I forgot. We could sell some useless health product that would make military wives go crazy?" Jorgeous came with another suggestion. At least this one involved a new scam that definitely wasn't a pyramid scheme. Those are illegal. 

"Yeah." Orion put the money back where it belonged. "Let's go home." 

Jorgeous jumped off the metal bar to join Orion as she had started the walk home. And suddenly, without spending two more paragraphs on how they got home, they were there. I could have told you about the cat they found on the way and catnapped, but that's not important for the story. They cleaned themselves up so that they didn't look like they didn't just get dragged through mud or whatever the rich kids are into these days, and met in the kitchen. 

None of their 12 other roommates were home, so they could talk freely. They may do sketchy ass things for a living, but… there is actually no but. It's morally apprehensive what they've got going on and the police could storm their building at any moment. Their roommates really could do without the drama of that happening. Or knowing it was a real possibility. Moving on.

"Let's go shopping or whatever. We have a lot of cash today." Not one wise decision ever came out of Jorgeous' mouth, but who was Orion to say no when she looked like a coked up puppy that snorted amphetamine on the side? 

"Sure." Orion's basic answer to anything would make do once again. "Let's get ready Boots." 

"I really regret watching Dora with you."

"It's a really good show."

Instead of answering, Jorgeous pulled Orion along to the first shop of the day. There were a million little ugly trinkets, but the one that caught Jorgeous' eye was a set of pendants. They looked really cute together, and she reckoned Orion would look great with one of them. She purchased them in secret, then put them away.

The next shop was a clothes store. Everything was kinda ugly, but Orion bought a gaudy jacket there anyways. Something about using it for a project or something. Jorgeous wasn't listening.

The next few were even more unremarkable than the first two, so I'll skip over that part. Just know they ended up buying a lot of stuff.

After getting a good haul, and still having a good amount of money left over, the two decided to find somewhere to eat in the upper middle class part of town. They had to dodge some security cameras on their way, but they made their way there. That part of the backstory won't be explained, by the way. Maybe they were super spies or something.

Jorgeous sipped her juice. It was quite tasty. She looked over at Orion, who looked a little dazed as they ate. She was definitely way too adorable in the way her face lost all sense of reality. Her mind wandered from the wholesome to the obscene as they enjoyed their small feast. What she wouldn't do with her if she could muster up the courage. 

Like a bad action flick, someone they had duped in the past came by the café. Their face was all the way red, so all signs pointed to them not being happy to see them. Correction, they were mad as fuck.

"Fuck, Orion. We gotta go." Jorgeous touched Orion's arm to get her attention. Like usual, she needed more instruction.

"Go where?" 

Jorgeous didn't answer, she just got up and dragged Orion along by the hand. And no, she did not forget the bags. Those are important. Probably. 

"YOU!" They yelled, before making their way over to the table. The two of them scampered out of the café to avoid the nasty person who was now chasing them. 

"What the fuck is their problem." The two of them ran like mad women, earning them the odd look here and there. 

"Maybe they think we did something?" Orion was as insightful as ever.

"Very helpful, I never considered that." 

Jorgeous felt Orion squeeze her hand tighter as they ran like all hell. Adrenaline was pumping too much for her to really register how that made her feel. Eventually her lungs and legs had to give in, and they stopped. They were back in the same park as this morning. Funny that. 

"We finally lost them." Jorgeous' breathing was heavy from running around the past fifteen or so minutes. It truly was a wonder they didn't get hit by any cars on their way there.

"Yeah. We're alone." Orion hadn't let go of her hand. If anything, she held it just a little bit tighter.

Jorgeous looked down to their interlocked hands, then up at Orion. She was hardly affected by the run at all. Or by how they were holding hands. It was no longer due to the exercise that her heart was beating. She made a move to undo it. 

"Please, just a little longer. It's nice." Orion got closer. Even so close that she hugged her. Jorgeous didn't know how much more her poor heart could take.

"Yeah." She closed the embrace. The two stood there, alone in the park, with a haul worth at least two grand. However all their attention was on eachother. If Jorgeous could buy anything with money, it would be more time with Orion. Her hand was warm. Her body was warm. Everything in that moment comforted Jorgeous. That it would be okay. That they were invincible together. 

"I actually have a gift for you." Jorgeous had to pull away slightly to grab the pendants. Her hand was still in Orion's. That part was still important.

"Oh?" 

Jorgeous presented the pendant. It was silver with one of those clasps so that you could put in a picture. She hadn't gotten a picture yet for it, but no doubt they'd take one soon. On top of it were a couple of green gemstones inside a small lion's head. 

"I found this, and thought it would look nice. Or whatever." Jorgeous deflected, as if it wasn't a big deal. Those pendants had been damn expensive. "I have one that matches."

"Jorgie…" Orion engulfed Jorgeous in a hug, her head getting smashed into her cleavage. If she had a hard time thinking before, she could definitely not do it now. "I love it." Orion let go to turn around. She already missed the comfort. "Put it on me?" 

Snapping back to reality,  Jorgeous got up on her tippy toes to put it on. Orion turned back around and touched the pendant that was now sitting snugly against her chest. "How do I look?"

"Stupid." She couldn't resist saying that part, or sticking her tongue out. Orion just chuckled and shook her head. She was used to it. "Jokes aside, it looks great on you." 

"Thank you so much, Jorgie. Do you want me to help put yours on?" 

"Of course." Jorgeous pretended not to be offended when Orion crouched down to put the pendant on her. Well, the feeling was soon replaced by her heart racing. It sure had done that a lot today. She was really happy just now. Even if she wasn't ready to tell Orion about her feelings. 

"Oh, I never told you, but I heard there was a big party uptown tonight when we stopped to buy weed. Do you want to go?"

"Do I? We have a ton of work to do if we're to fool those rich idiots." Jorgeous' attention was grabbed immediately by the thought of even more riches and even more assholes getting their comeuppance. 

Orion smiled at Jorgeous once again. There really was something about her when they were about to pull another heist. "Let's go." This time, it was Orion who took her hand. And together, they were about to bring down the world.

[serendipitee]

oop! i just saw you already got 28, so scratch that:) (unless you want to do it again with juke heh)

otherwise #45 pls :)

I chose #45 because I wrote something similiar for Bellarke once and I love this scenario so there you go 😂 also, Luke shrieking is something I now need.

45. You get scared by them in a corn maze and lash out and hit them, quickly followed by apologies.

Luke would never admit it out loud, but he’s scared. He doesn’t even remember whose dumb idea this was. It very well might’ve been him. It kind of sounds like him if he thinks about it hard enough.

 Who else would think that walking through a corn maze in the middle of the night was a good idea?

 But during the day there were too many people and it had sounded good in his head. Most ideas did sound better in his head than out of it but he’d never ever give Alex the satisfaction of admitting that.

He would just have to suck it up and find the middle of that damn maze first.

 It couldn’t be that hard.

 Everything looks different underneath the light of the moon, though and Luke’s so very lost.

 There’s a rustling to his right and he tenses. The picture of a masked axe murderer appears in front of his eyes and that must be from that stupid horror movie Bobby made them watch last week. His heart rate is spiking, hands getting sweaty and Luke just wants to get out of here.

 The corn moves slightly and-- a mouse crosses his path.

 Letting out a heavy breath of relief, Luke turns around, rounding the next corner with big steps because he will not spend a second more than necessary in here.

 It’s then that he collides with something – someone, his brain immediately corrects him. A shriek escapes him, there’s an accompanying one and he flails, hitting whoever it is right in the face.

 “Fuck!” A female voice yells. “Ow, Jesus!”

 Luke freezes, blinks.

 The girl is almost a head shorter than him, glaring right at him, holding the left side of her face and he’s sputtering through an apology immediately.

 “It’s fine, it’s okay,” she finally interrupts him, “wasn’t that heavy of a blow anyways.”

 And okay, now he’s offended. He works out, he’s the fittest of the four of them and it should’ve hurt. “You should still get it checked out.”

 Luke steps a little closer, carefully pushing her hand away and angling her face further up with two fingers at her chin. Her lips part with a soft gasp as her eyes meet his.

 She’s pretty, is his first thought, immediately followed by, Oh shit, that’s gonna bruise!

 “Is it bad?” She asks, voice a raspy whisper and it sends shivers down his spine.

 He finds himself shaking his head. Gently he brushes his fingers over the bruise that’s already forming on her cheek. She doesn’t wince and Luke takes comfort in that, lets his eyes roam over her face.

 “I’m sorry,” he says again and she chuckles.

 “It’s okay, you were scared.”

 “I wasn’t!” He sputters.

 Raising an eyebrow, she leans even closer, maybe even getting up on her tip toes for that, and Luke’s heart is racing in his chest because she’s not only pretty, she’s beautiful. “You sure? Cause you screamed pretty good.”

 He clears his throat, tries his best to come up with a clever retort. “Did not!”

 Wow, his bandmates would never let him write another song again. He’s supposed to be a lyrical genius. Ms Harrison has always complimented him on his metaphors and shit.

 She hums, nose almost brushing his and Luke is contemplating closing the distance between them and shutting her up effectively but he just caused her bodily harm and consent is important.

 He is pretty sure, she’d like it, too, especially when her eyes shortly travel to his lips just to flick back up again.

 A noise behind her, startles them apart, before he can make a decision, though.

 Reggie steps onto the pathway, eyes immediately settling on them. “Luke!” He exclaims, the relief emanating off him in waves. “Fuck, am I happy to see you! Can we please get out of- who’s that?”

 He stops, raising an eyebrow at Luke and Luke flails, because he doesn’t even know her name.

 “I’m Julie,” she introduces herself and Luke files that information away. He’s just happy that apparently, they are not immediately getting into how they met.

 “So, which of your friends had the genius idea to visit a corn maze in the dead of night?” Reggie asks.

 Julie laughs and the sound sends another shiver down Luke’s spine. It also makes him stare at her lips again. Why did he have to hit her? Couldn’t he have left a cute, funny first impression? Was that too much to ask?

 “Flynn, she’s probably around here somewhere. And you guys?” Julie questions in return and before Luke can stop him, Reggie has answered.

 “You’re looking at him.” His index points at Luke and Julie raises her eyebrows at him.

 Bashfully, Luke rubs the back of his neck, tugs his bottom lip in. “It seemed like a good idea at the time.”

 “And do you always hit on girls this way?” She asks and Luke freezes. “I mean- hit girls, not hit on girls, that’s—” She bites her lips, hangs her head and Luke’s elated because she seems to be as bad at flirting as he is.

 Suddenly feeling a lot lighter, he suggests, “We can always pretend I hit on you, instead.”

 Her eyes meet his and Luke wants to find out what color they are during the day. They should definitely do this during the day, look at each other and talk and maybe get as close as before. Yeah, he’d like that.

 Reggie is watching their exchange with glee.

 Julie’s bruise has faded by the time they have their first kiss. Luke still makes sure to kiss it better.

[hunflowers]

so... this was supposed to be a blurb but like... it’s not anymore akeekeekee enjoy college!harry and the hotness that comes with it :) *nose boops*

It was a Friday night.

And typically, for you at least, you didn’t have the urge to party it up and go out and let loose for the night.

Except for this Friday, that is.

Finals were done, and after a few weeks of stressing over them, you were happy to actually let loose. You felt like you deserved this little bit of freedom before you would head home to your overbearing family for the summer.

You were hesitant at first, not being in the game per se for some while now. But when you told your friends you would go with them, they got so excited you would hate to back out on them and let them down. Plus, maybe you would actually enjoy yourself for once.

You had a pregame at you and your friend’s shared apartment, just eight of you having fun and dancing around before you were to head out for the night. You would have to leave soon though if you wanted to catch the right train into the city to get to the club at a decent time.

“Shit, Y/N, I forget how hot you look when you put in effort,” your friend Heather called, slapping your ass as she walked by to get another drink.

You didn’t think you looked that good, but her compliment was good enough to have you feeling better in your skin. You were wearing a tight suede skirt matched with a crop top that could practically come off as a bra and these cute heels that weren’t that tall so you could be comfortable for as long as possible.

In return, you slapped Heather’s ass back before cheering your glasses and knocking back your shots. You cringed at the taste of whiskey, finding another drink quickly to chase the bitter taste.

“Tell me, Y/N,” another friend, Will, came over to join you and Heather, “How excited are you to actually have fun once in your life?”

You scoffed at his words, gently punching him in the shoulder. “I have fun, Will. I don’t need to go out every weekend to have fun.”

“Sure, but how are you going to get dick, cooped up in this apartment all day?”

“Well, now I have all summer to worry about that.”

“With your parents over your shoulder? Yeah, good luck. My advice, get some tonight before you go nun for the summer.”

You rolled your eyes at him before he walked away to go mingle with whomever else. It was true you had some pretty... stuck up parents to say the least. Growing up they hardly ever let you do recreational things so when you made the decision to go away for college, you knew it was your time to actually get to live your life without your parents breathing down your neck.

You’re pretty sure they think you’re still a virgin and was waiting until marriage to have sex like they did. But, you weren’t.

“Oh my God, Y/N!” Heather gasped, gaining your attention as you looked at her with a quizzical face. She squealed, jumping up and down in her spot before practically shoving her phone in your face, letting you read over the messages she just received.

Your jaw went slack at what you read, and you almost did your own happy dance but decided to keep your calm just a little bit. Heather’s boyfriend couldn’t make it the pregame due to work and said he was meeting you all at the train station. The other thing was that he was bringing his roommate along, Harry, and you maybe had the smallest crush on Harry.

Well, it was actually a big crush but no one knew that. Everyone just knew you had wanted him to get in your pants for some while now. And, perhaps tonight was finally the night.

He was nice from what you could tell the select amount of times you’ve met him and although he was more on the quiet side whenever you were around him, he seemed like a great time. He would crack a joke once in a while that – you probably would’ve laughed at anyway – genuinely made you laugh your belly laugh and not to mention he was extremely good looking.

All in all, you wanted him to ruin you. There was no way someone that handsome wouldn’t be good in bed and you had to find out for yourself.

So, you looked to Heather, a small smirk on your face as you poured another shot for yourself, excited for the events of tonight.

❊ ❊

Much to your dismay, you didn’t get the opportunity to sit next to Harry on the train. This girl, you think her name is Kayla, was quick to sit down in the seat next to him before you got the chance to fully comprehend what had happened.

Will and Heather looked at you, wide eyed looks on their faces as you huffed at the situation, sitting two rows back from Harry. You couldn’t exactly blame the girl, because she didn’t know you – she was merely a friend of a friend – and she didn’t know your slight infatuation with the brunette boy. So, you couldn’t blame her but that didn’t stop the jealousy bubbling inside you.

The entire train ride you sulked in your seat, a small pout on your lips as you could see through the cracks in the seats that Kayla was snuggling up real close to Harry and you could faintly hear the sound of her giggling at whatever he was saying.

When you finally got to the club, against your better judgement you decided to put all thoughts of Harry in the past and let go of all worries for the night.

“How’re you going to let her take your man like that?” Will scolded, standing next to you at the bar as you waited for your drink.

“Maybe because he isn’t my man,” you shrugged, subtly glancing over your shoulder to see the two still talking. Although, it seemed like Kayla was trying to dance on him and he just wasn’t having it as he looked at her with a bored look. You stifled a laugh at the sight.

Will joined your looking but instead he didn’t hide his amusement and laughed quite loudly. “That’s what she gets for stealing him from you.”

You laughed at his words, then the bartender finally returned with your drink, and you quickly paid before taking it and making your way over to an unoccupied little table off to the side of the very crowded dance floor. You needed a drink before Will would drag you out onto the dance floor to dance to the very repetitive music that you supposed was dance music.

“Oh my God, this is my favorite song! I’ll see you on the dance floor!” Will screamed in glee, all but running into the mosh pit.

You observed the mass of bodies, eyes wandering over everyone that seemed way too happy to be sweating their asses off. Without really realizing, your eyes fell onto Harry for maybe the millionth time that night admiring the way he was laughing with some guy over on the other side of the club. You noticed Kayla was no longer all over him and you wondered what had happened. Perhaps she got tired of his stoic face and unmoving body as she tried grinding on him. You couldn’t help but snicker at the thought.

Getting lost in your thoughts, when you finally snapped back to reality you saw Harry was looking back at you, a tilt to his head as his eyes raked over your stance. You turned away quickly, looking anywhere but at him, but you couldn’t help the smile that wormed its way onto your lips as you sipped the remaining contents of your drink.

You slyly brought your eyes back to him and saw that his eyes were still locked on you. Your tongue poked your cheek as you smiled with an open mouth and you pushed yourself away from the table. You started walking in his direction but you siked him out when you made a quick turn to join your friends on the dance floor, all while keeping your eyes on him and measuring his reactions.

He smirked at you, one hand tucked into the pocket of his jeans, as his other brought his beer up to his lips. His friend was clearly still talking to him but from what you could gather, he wasn’t paying attention to a single thing he was saying.

Deciding to play up this hard to get act, or whatever it was you were doing, you took your eyes off of him, and focusing on your friends around you as you began to sway your hips in rhythm with the music playing.

“Y/N, Harry’s looking at you,” Heather said in your ear. You nodded your head, meaning you knew and she gave you a look as if to say you whore!

You shrugged in response, and when the beat drop happened in the song, you rocked your hips as provocatively as you could – without looking ridiculous. Hopefully Harry saw it.

Your questions were answered when Heather not-so-discreetly widened her eyes and motioned behind you with her chin and mouthing “He’s on his way over!”

Then you felt hands rest on your hips, your behind now brushing against the rough material of denim. You glanced over your shoulder, seeing Harry’s pretty face smirking down at you before he leaned closer, his soft lips just barely touching the crest of your ear.

“Hi, Y/N,” his sultry voice spoke, and you could feel your underwear already dampen. You chose not to respond vocally, instead pushing your ass harder onto his groin, swiveling your hips in time with the beat, and you felt his nails dig a little deeper into the fabric of your skirt at the sensation.

You stayed like this for some time, but then you felt Harry’s hand on the top of your back, pushing your front forward a bit so you were now stood at a 45° angle.

Wow, was it hot in here or was it just you?

And all of a sudden you had a deep regret of suggesting you all head into the city for this club. You wanted Harry and very soon and trying to catch a train in time with your sexual needs would prove to be quite difficult. And you’d be caught dead before having sex in the disgusting bathroom.

You cursed at yourself mentally as you couldn’t stop your grinding on Harry, just making yourself needier for him. When this song ended, you stood back up to your full height, and finally turned around to face him. His smirk formed into a smile as he looked at you, the firm grip on your hips now loose as you brought your hand up to push back the few strands of hair that had fallen onto his forehead.

“Hi, Harry.”

Harry laughed at your response to him from twenty minutes ago, gaining a small smile from you because you were in awe at his childlike features when his face lit up with a smile.

He then took your hand dragging you off the dance floor, trying to find some place else to talk that didn’t involve sweaty bodies bumping up into the both of your constantly. Ending up more so at the back of the place where there were still a lot of people but definitely fewer than up front, you two stood next to a wall, breathing in the less crowded air.

Harry put his back against the wall, standing with his legs apart, bringing your body between, his arms wrapped around your lower back loosely. You gently placed your hands on his chest, looking up at him through your lashes as innocently as possible.

Then with no words exchanged between you two, your lips locked together and all of a sudden you were thrown into a heated make out sensation. Normally, you weren’t a huge fan of public displays of affection, but when it came to Harry, your morals were thrown out the window and if he asked you to get on your knees in front of all these people, you wouldn’t think twice.

And, again, you shamed yourself for wanting to go to the city.

You felt his hands travel down to your butt, groping at your flesh the same time his tongue pushed into your mouth. Your hands slipped into his hair, your fingers lightly gripping at the curly strands and pulling on them softly, Harry letting out a low moan at the feeling.

One hand remained on your butt, the other moving down to caress your soft thigh and pulling you even closer to his body if that were even possible. Your front grinded against his front, and you could feel his cock hardening under the material. You moaned at the feeling of him, pushing your crotch harder against his, trying to fuel the fire stirring in your body.

After a while, Harry separated your lips, trailing kisses down your jaw and down your neck, finishing up at your collarbone before trailing back up to under your ear. He searched for a while before finally landing on your sweet spot, getting you to let out a small whimper at the feeling. God, you wanted him so badly.

“Harry,” you whined, tilting your head back as he continued to bite and lick at your neck.

He brought his head up, and immediately your eyes noticed the redness on his lips and you could only imagine how yours looked. His vibrant green eyes bore into yours, and he brought his hands up to cup at your jaw, his thumb touching your plushy lips, dragging your bottom lip down slightly. Without thinking, you stuck your tongue out to lick at his thumb before taking it in your mouth, a wild look in your eyes. Harry’s jaw dropped slightly, completely mesmerized at the sight of you, and if he didn’t have self-control, he was sure he would cum in his pants right then and there.

“I’ve wanted to do this for a while now,” he stated, still in awe at the way you’re swirling your tongue around his thumb and gently sucking on it.

You rose your eyebrow, wondering what in Hell took him so long to do so. You flattened your tongue on the underside of his thumb, slowly dragging it back up towards the tip, and then softly biting on it before letting him out of your mouth.

“And why haven’t you?”

“Can be a pussy sometimes.” You giggled at this, gently leaning your body into his.

“And what do you wanna do about this now?”

“If I could, I’d fuck you right here right now,” he started, again grabbing at your ass and digging his nails into the material of your skirt. “But, I have more decency than that.”

“So... when?” You pouted, giving him those same innocent doe eyes you did before.

“You can come to mine later. I’m sure my dick’ll be hard still then.”

“Right, with Heather and Rob in the room next door? No thanks, but you can come to mine. My roommate went on vacation for the week, so we’ll have the place to ourselves,” you persuaded, smiling sweetly.

Harry pursed his lips as if he were in thought before leaning down and pressing his mouth to the shell of my ear. And even though the music was loud, you very clearly could hear him say, “Amazing. I can’t wait to have you screaming my name all night, Y/N.”

Then he walked away, leaving you anxiously waiting for what’s to come.

Or him for that matter.

❊ ❊

It was painful waiting. The next two hours before you leave that club to catch your train were unbearable. You had this dull ache in your core that was itching to be relieved ever since Harry walked away and you were a baby about it the whole time.

You saw him around talking to people you didn’t know and you wanted to cry at how badly you needed him. You tried drinking a little more to forget about it for the time being but you couldn’t go overboard because you wanted to be as sober as possible for the night.

Then you all got on the train, and Harry purposefully avoided sitting in the seat you saved open for him. He grinned at you as he walked further up the aisle and sat at another pair of seats that weren’t occupied.

You didn’t know what game he was playing but you weren’t having fun.

By the time the train pulled into the station, you were officially frustrated by this guy. You don’t exactly know why you were so desperate for him to have his way with you, but when he took his sweet time to bid his goodbye to his roommate for the night, you practically dragged him in the direction of your Uber that you called for to take you home.

“Relax, Darling, you’ve got all night with me.”

By the time you stepped through the door of your apartment, you both were a stumbling mess of kissing and hurriedly taking off your clothes as you led him to your bedroom.

Flopping backwards onto your bed, you pulled him atop you by the loops in his jeans, your mouths hardly disconnecting the entire time. Dragging your hands down to the button of his jeans, you quickly undid it as well as bringing the zipper down before helping him discard of the next clothing item.

Clad in only his briefs, he was quick to get you out of your own skirt so you two were matching in the sense you were only in your underwear. You decided to spend the night forgo a bra, so that gave Harry easier access to your nipples, and he’s hardly took his hands off of them ever since you tossed your shirt on the floor.

He tweaked your nipple, pinching and pulling on it as he kissed his way down your body and to your sopping cunt. He kissed you through the lace fabric of your thong, tonguing at the wet patch that blocked him from getting his tongue into your actual hole.

“Shit, Har,” you whimpered, slightly thrusting your hips to meet his mouth but he was quick to pull away.

“Don’t move,” he said sternly, hooking his fingers into your panties and yanking them down your legs before tossing them somewhere in the room.

His middle and ring finger traced your folds, trailing up to your clit and slowly rubbing harsh circles before moving back down to your hole without ever going in. You moaned at the feeling, and going against his words, you moved your hips to try and get some more friction.

With his right hand, Harry pinned you down to the bed at the bottom of your abdomen, halting your attempted movements. “What did I say, Y/N?”

You looked at him flustered, your hands in your hair as you tugged at your roots, feeling way too frustrated to actually want to listen to him. You went to move again against his fingers, but Harry could sense it so he removed his fingers completely, and now used both hands to hold you down to the mattress. “Are ya gonna be a good girl and listen? Otherwise you won’t be cumming at all tonight.”

You widened your eyes at his words, 1) at the use of good girl and 2) because you so desperately wanted to let go of this pent up orgasm that has been waiting to come out all night. Somehow knowing he wasn’t lying, you nodded your aggressively, promising not to move again.

Harry smiled in satisfaction, returning his fingers to your core and finally inserting them. You let out a string of moans at the feeling of his fingers pumping in and out of you and the feeling of his thumb rubbing those same harsh circles into your bundle of nerves. You grabbed onto the sheets of you bed, trying your hardest to not lift your butt off the bed and meet your hips against his fingers that worked wonders inside of you.

It was when he thrusted them in at a faster pace that you felt that coil in your belly begin to tighten, and your breathing picked up as you felt your toes beginning to curl. Harry picked up on this, feeling the way your walls started to clamp down on his fingers, and he started egging you on.

“Gonna cum for me, Baby?” He cooed, and you cried out as you were almost ready to let loose.

But, then his movements stopped, and he removed his fingers from you, sticking them in his mouth and swallowing your stickiness.

“Harry!” You cried, sitting upright, a look of bewilderment on your face.

He ignored your protest, tugging down his briefs and your jaw went slack at the sight of him. When you were dancing on him you could tell he wasn’t exactly small but you never would’ve guessed this.

You could practically feel the drool dripping out of your mouth.

Bending down to get a condom out of his wallet, he easily slipped it on before getting on his knees on the bed. “On all fours, Y/N.”

You were quick to flip over, waiting for him to connect his body to yours anxiously. You looked over your shoulder to see what was taking him so long, and you nearly fell onto your elbows at the sight of him tugging at his cock, eyeing your pussy with this wild look in his eyes. His pupils nearly took over his whole iris at the sight, and just for the heck of it, you wiggled your butt at him, giggling as his eyes snapped up to meet yours with this very evident desire dancing across them.

He moved closer, the nails of his fingers digging into your soft flesh, most likely leaving indents in your skin. You yelped as he smacked down on your skin once then twice then three times, admiring the way his tongue darted out to wet his pink lips so sexily.

“Look at you. You’re just soaked for me, Y/N,” he observed, leaning down to press a kiss to your reddening skin before thrusting his cock forward and slowly pushing it into your hole.

You both hissed at the feeling, moaning as he moved further and further into you, stretching your walls well past what they’re used to. You tightly held onto the sheets as the pleasurable burn of Harry’s girth rocked into you, making you more of a mess then you were before.

“Fu– holy shit, Y/N, you’re so tight,” Harry groaned, finally stopping as he was pushed all the way in to the hilt. You’ve never felt so full in your life.

He let you adjust for a few more seconds before he started to pull out and push back in at a slow pace to start up a good rhythm without causing discomfort for you. You whimpered at the feeling, begging him to move faster, not able to deal with this slow teasing shit anymore.

“Since you were so keen on moving before, perhaps you should do the work,” he commented, halting his movements again and slapping at your ass, waiting for you to do your part.

You were quick to listen this time, moving forward so he was about halfway in you before pushing back quickly, keeping up with this movement, quickening your speed each time you thrusted back onto him.

“Tha’s it, Baby. Shit– I know you can go faster than that.”

And you could. So you did. And you even added in a swivel to your hips that had his balls hitting against your clit which you’re pretty sure made you wetter then ever. The squelching sound of your bodies slapping together proved you right.

Letting out a string of curses, Harry placed one hand on your hip while the other remained on your lower back as he guided you harder onto his dick, repeatedly hitting that special spot inside of you. “Fuck, good girl... Such a good girl.”

You couldn’t hold back your shouts anymore, yelling out his name as the tip of his cock kept hitting that spot inside of you. Soon, Harry took over completely, noticing your slowing down as tiredness laced through your body at the effort, pounding into you at pace you didn’t know was possible.

Your mind was in a haze the second you felt that heat build back up inside of you. This was clearly the best orgasm you’ve ever experienced, and your mind was starting to get really fuzzy as your walls clenched down around him. “I-I’m gonna– fuck Harry right there.”

“Come on, baby, cum on my cock,” he mumbled into your ear as he grabbed your shoulder and lifted your body so your back was to his sweaty chest. You cried at the feeling, your knot finally letting loose.

“Oh, shit, Y/N. Can feel ya soaking my cock, fuck,” he growled, still relentlessly pounding up into you, his own orgasm building inside of him.

Once you felt that distinct twitch inside of you, you wrapped your arm around his neck, fingers gripping into his hair as you encouraged him to come undone inside you. “Can feel you’re almost there, Harry. C’mon... I w-wanna feel you cum inside me,” you purred at him, clenching your walls around him one last time.

That did him in, and in the next few moments you felt him let go into the condom as he groaned out your name over and over again. By the time he was finally done, he whimpered at the feeling of sensitivity, slowly pulling out of you. When he was fully out, you felt empty as you collapsed onto the bed, breathing rapidly as if you didn’t know what air this entire time.

You could hear Harry taking in deep breaths too feeling him join you in laying down as you both tried to recollect yourselves. The silence around you was disturbed though when Harry spoke up, making you gulp harshly.

“Don’t go all limp on me, now, Y/N. I’m sticking to my promise and having you scream my name all night.”

[allie1804-fan]

Malaise (Chapter 4  - A Fresh Start)

Chapter 1, 2 , 3

The new film started shooting a week later in Culver city.  The session with Tara had revitalised him and he’d started to take a morning swim or do a gym session every day again.  A sense of equilibrium began to return.

He was both actor and  a producer on this film and would be  very involved in all aspects of the production. On the first day, cast and crew were introduced  and Keanu was quickly struck by the cinematographer Celia, a raven haired beauty of 45.  As work got rolling, they clicked immediately, agreeing on the angles and frames for shots and not always in synch with the director which caused some friction. They were like a mini team of their own and would often stay late, talking about the next day’s frames.

Celia had been divorced for about a year. She had 2 kids but they were in their late teens so she was a fairly free agent and was  finally ready to get out there again. She knew from industry gossip of  Keanu’s reputation as a bit of a player and she found him fun and very attractive. A fling with a sexy movie star would be just the ticket – fun,  flirtation, fucking – and she got the feeling the attraction was mutual. One night when they were on set again late and alone, she took a chance and invited him to grab a bite with her.

His immediate response was defensive

“Look just for the avoidance of doubt, I’m not looking for….”

“Me neither Keanu” she jumped in “this is just a bite to eat but if it were to turn into anything more, rest assured that I’m not looking for anything heavy or committed, just a bit of fun. I don’t bite – well not if you don’t want me to!”

“OK, let’s go!”  he grinned and took her hand.

They found a Chinese around the corner from the studios and he found her very alluring and sexy as hell nibbling delicately on ribs and biting into her wantons.

They’d talked and laughed on set but in this more relaxed setting they really laughed. They had co-stars and directors in common with tales they could share from their different movies.  Time flew and they were tempted to get a second bottle of wine but they were back on set in 8 hours so parted ways that first night with a quick hug good bye.

After that they got into a little pattern of eating at the same Chinese when there were late nights which was a couple of times a week. Celia was merely flirty at first but a couple of weeks in, as they stood by her car one Friday evening saying goodbye, she took the bull by the horns and opted for being totally direct.

“Keanu, can I ask you something?”

“Yes sure”

“Are you horny?”

“What!?”

“I said, are you horny? Because I am, horny I mean and needy and I like you, I find you very attractive and if you were willing …. Like I said before, I’m not looking for anything serious or  ……”

Keanu didn’t let her finish, crashing his lips to hers, eyes twinkling as he pulled back.

“Can I take that as a yes then?”

“Yes! your place or mine?”

“Yours, my kids are home so I’d rather tell them I’m staying at a friends in town then bring a man home”

“Alright then, OK to follow me?”

She got in her car and followed him on his bike up into the hills and the Birds streets to his home. He opened the garage and they both parked in there and he locked up for the night.

“I’ll give you the tour in the morning, show you the view” he said waving vaguely at the patio doors “want some wine?”

“Yes! Now I’ve gone and started this, I need some Dutch courage” she giggled nervously.

He took her hand and pulled her to the kitchen and they chose a fruity red. Glasses poured, he put his arms around her waist and held her gaze.

“I’ll look after you, I promise, you can tell me anything you don’t like and I’ll stop”

He bent his head to nibble her neck and she sucked her breath in.

“Stop?”

“No, don’t stop, it’s just, you know been a while” she shuddered as he bent once more to kiss the soft skin behind her ear making her groan. Pulling away, he took her hand again and handed her a glass.

“Come with me”

They walked down a long corridor to the other end of the house and his bedroom.  Luckily it had been housekeeper day that day and so the room was tidy and there were fresh sheets on the bed. The colour scheme was teal, grey and cream – manly but with some warmth too. They sat and had a sip of wine and he asked her if there was anything she wanted to tell him right away that she didn’t  like and whether he needed a condom. He’d had a medical before the shoot including tests for sexually transmitted diseases and covid so he knew he was clean. She had an IUD and had not had sex since her divorce so they were comfortable to go ahead with no condom.

“lucky me” he grinned taking her wine glass and setting it on the dresser.

He stood and appraised her for a moment. She was wearing jeans and a simple v-neck cashmere sweater which hung alluringly over her full breasts.

“you really are a very sexy lady”

She laughed and blushed

“I’m just in jeans and a jumper” she protested.

“all the more alluring” he mumbled, grabbing hold of the hem of her jumper and encouraging her to let him lift it over her head and take it off.

She mirrored his actions, quickly pulling his Arch t shirt up and off and running her fingers over his pecs and down to his scar which she traced with her finger tips before palming his erection through his jeans.

That sent him into action mode and he pulled her on top of him on the bed, beginning  a passionate kiss which they barely broke as they tugged and pulled at buttons,  zippers and clasps and wriggled out of their clothes.

He was a little worried when he felt her tight tunnel with his fingers and took his time to make sure she was wet and ready for him before he entered her, going slowly and looking into her eyes to make sure there were no signs of pain.

“OK? He said stroking her face with the back of his fingers.

She nodded, biting her lip as the burning of his entry began to recede “like I said, it’s been a while, just take it slow for a bit”

“My pleasure” he smiled before kissing  her again and pushing in just a little more until he was pushing up against her cervix. Then he pulled out, almost all the way and moved his hips slightly to change the angle.

“better?”

All she could do was moan low in her throat and push her hips up to pull him in further.

The build-up was long, slow and relentless as Keanu pulled out and went back in at the same slow pace over and over until she was wailing with pleasure.

“Harder, please” she whispered, wrapping legs around him “and faster ….. please!”

He grinned.

“anything you say maam, anything you say” He rose up on extended arms and started to pound into her. By now she was wet and wide open to him, no longer feeling any pain, just blinding need. He could feel himself getting stiffer and close to bursting and slowed slightly, dropping down to kiss her and slip his hands underneath, lifting her up so his pubic bone would press into her clit with each thrust.  Deep inside she could feel an amazing buzzing sensation which increased along with the extra external stimulation and pressure.

She pulled  her lips away briefly to express her incredulity

“Oh good God!”

She kissed him again as her orgasm hit and then her head fell back as bliss overtook her. The rhythmic pulsing in her pussy pushed him over the edge too and his eyes squeezed shut as he shot his warm come inside.  Finally his head dropped onto her shoulder, a satisfied moan passing his lips.

“fuck that was ….. ” there were no words

“mmmmm”  she couldn’t say anything either.

Inexplicably tears sprang to her eyes.  It was the first orgasm she’d had (other than by her own hand) in about  a year.  It was pretty overwhelming.

He smiled and called her on it, teasing her about her emotion

“Hey little miss just for fun, what are the tears for?”

“Hey, give a girl a break - I thought I might have shut up shop for good you know and here I am snagging myself a movie star – I’m justified in being overwhelmed!”  she teased back.

“Touche” he giggled.

“I, errr that was pretty intense though, for me too, just so you know”

“I’m glad” she said softly, not wanting to get too slushy but still feeling warm, fuzzy and happy, endorphins running through her body.

He got up and went to pee, bringing their wine back to the bed afterwards. He was utterly unselfconscious walking around naked.

“Do you want a t shirt to wear tonight?”

“No, I’m OK if you are with me being naked”

“is the pope Catholic?” he joked

“Is Luxembourg small” she joined in

“and do bears sha la la la!” he finished

They laughed together and she was glad to return to the light-hearted back and forth like they shared on set.  The emotion moments before had rather taken her aback.

When the wine was finished, they were relaxed and sleepy.  He turned the light off and she turned away, letting him wrap his arm around her, cupping her right breast gently in his big palm.  She was the first woman to have stayed over with him after sex in over a year.

@penwieldingdreamer @fortheloveoffanfic @kindainlovewithkeanu @ladyreapermc @witty-wallflower @gatsbynouvel @bitchyslut99 @keanureevesisbae @omg-imagine @iworshipkeanureeves @fics-not-tragedies @ficsnroses @kindainlovewithkeanu @paperplanesandwallflowers

[tanyalovesreading]

My Story

Hey guys!

I have thought about this quite some time, and I think there are more people like me out there. So, I decided I wanted to share my story with you of how I became a witch. It’s been quite some years and maybe I don’t remember certain wordings anymore. But I wanna tell you the honest truth. I think I’ve never actually talked about all of it in detail. And I am not sure yet how this will all play out with me and remembering everything. There are a few things that seem hard to believe, but trust me, this actually happened. So here we go :D

Let’s start with little me. I grew up in a pretty catholic family. In Bavaria. Where everything beside being catholic is not accepted. I went to church every Sunday and to all the big festivities like Easter and Christmas. When you’re in 3rd grade (so about 8/9 years old) you’ll have the Holy Communion. The first one. It basically initiates you into the church. At that time, we didn’t have a choice.

Maybe a few words about the German school system. You HAVE to take religious studies. When I still went to elementary school there was no other option. We had 3 hours a week and the whole year was separated for these 3 hours into 3 groups: Catholic, Evangelic and Ethic. As we had mainly Christians in our area, we got those options and then the Ethic kids. In there were all other religions and faithless people. That’s how it is.

So, if your whole class is attending the Holy Communion you also go. I can’t remember any year, as long as to the end of high school, where not everyone attended. At that age you don’t get it. Why you’re doing this. So, you just attend bible study and youth group and have a lot of fun with your classmates.

Obviously growing up in a catholic family like mine, it is only logical after being initiated to become an altar girl. By that time, we had a really great priest and we were quite many kids. We did a lot of afternoon activities together and went somewhere for the weekend. This took almost all my time. The rest of it I spent at karate. I liked it and it was a great sport that could easily be included with my daily activities.

But pretty soon after the holy communion I went and broke my arm. Bye bye karate… For some time this meant I had more time for church. I attended 5 times a week as an alter girl and it took a lot out of me. It took me about two years (when I attended a catholic middle school) that it was no fun for me anymore. I stopped going to church so much, and said I had to study a lot (which was kinda true). By that time a also joined a choire. I loved it. I mean we also sung at church some time, but most of it consisted of singing classical music, doing musicals and joining the theater for operas or theaters. The dynamic changed and I started to spend a lot of time there.

Until my family (and yes I don’t only mean my parents) got mad at me for not attending church as much. God would hate me. So they sent me off to boarding school. It wasn’t far away, but it was catholic and that would do. The boarding school system was kinda weird. I didn’t know any other boarding school who did this. We only slept there. Our schools where all around the city. The boarding house was mixed with girls and boys. The school I went to was girls only, the boy’s school just across the yard.

So what was our day like? We got up at 6 am, because we were expected at morning prayer at 6:45 am. After that we had breakfast and we went to school. Our walking time varied between 10 – 30 minutes, depending on which school we attended. Most of us (who had a further way back) came from school around 1:45 pm and then we had to hurry to lunch which started at 1:30 pm. After that we had a bit of break, and first study time would start at 2:30 pm. For one hour. Then we would have 15 minutes of break, another hour of study time, 30 minutes of break and then another 45 minutes. By then it would be 6 pm. The day pupils would leave and we had dinner. Don’t forget the praying. After that we actually had some free time until we had to be in bed at 9 pm. On Thursdays we also had to attend evening prayer. And that was our day.

By this time I actually hated praying and god and everything that had to do with it. It took too much out of me and I couldn’t be myself. Around that time (I must’ve been 12) I started reading up on other religions and finding paganism. I’ve only heard about it this far and what I’ve heard was what the church told us. Worshipping Satan, dancing around naked, yadayadayada… I started getting interested when I read and saw what paganism really was about. I started learning about different deities and religious paths even within paganism and decided that I really liked that. The individuality. How everyone wasn’t afraid of their gods and how everyone actually had fun being religious. But I also knew I could never tell my parents. My family. Because I knew what they would say. And this just couldn’t happen. After one year at boarding school I was allowed to come back home. I was happy, but also dreaded it. They expected me to have deepened my faith, which had not happened of course. So, what would I do?

I could hide it pretty well in the beginning. By the time I came home, I had to chose a (I don’t know what else to call it in English) educational path. I took languages. That meant a lot more studying. And my parents were content. I went to church on Sundays, but I couldn’t during the week. They saw me studying the whole time. Good thing, they never checked what I was studying because then they would’ve found herbology, crystals, deities and whatever else there beside my schoolwork. It actually took them 1,5 years to catch on. By then my father had become a real alcoholic. He not only mentally abused me, my sister and my mother but from time to time he would hit us. Well, me and my mum, because my sister was his little angle. In the beginning I was mad about that, but this meant she was safe. So there’s that. One evening I was out (I rejoined the choir when I came back home) and came home pretty late. I heard the yelling all across the street because they left the balcony door open. I dreaded going up to our apartment but I had to. When I entered I was bombarded with yelling. I didn’t even know why in the beginning. Both my parents just yelled at me and then my dad hit me. I tried getting to the room I shared with my sister. And when I looked in there I realized why they were mad. My dad found all my secret stashes. All of them. My pentacles, my papers, my books, my wand, … everything. Even now, 10 years later I can’t tell you what happened that night. I just … I didn’t know what would happen. I didn’t know…

Anyway. A few weeks later I was called to the youth officers office. When I entered I was greeted by a child service worker. She told me a neighbor reported my dads yelling and overheard all the threats coming my way. One day they wanted to come to check, but they heard him. So there was their proof. They offered me to come with them, to get away from him. I immediately accepted. I spent time till Christmas in a foster family, after that they put me into a foster home. Long story short. I couldn’t have any faith. At that point it was not mentally possible. It took me finishing high school and leaving the country to find myself again.

I left to go study in the Netherlands when I was 19. And I absolutely loved it. I was finally free.  It was then that I started to find my way back to witchcraft. Very slowly. But steady. There was no one telling me what to believe. It was fun to talk to my fellow students about everything and nothing, but faith never mattered.

I had to quit the study after a year, because of money issues and just moved across the border to Germany. Which was still at the other end of the country. Far away from my parents. I started working as an EMT (I already had the training from before I left Germany) and I was really happy being a witch, finally having a path that I loved and a job that wouldn’t clash with my believes.

About three months ago I had a crisis again. My parents came back into my life and I questioned a lot of life choices. I couldn’t remember why I became a witch in the first place. My life wasn’t so bad when I still believed in god, right? But I couldn’t and wouldn’t go back to church. I started taking bible studies with Jehovas Witnesses. And I liked it. I remembered a lot and their gatherings gave me what church never did: A sense of familiarity. Of belonging. But it didn’t take long for me to realize why I left church. It’s just not for me. A god that always wants you to follow his rules. If you don’t there’s not great life for you. And that’s not what I believe in. So last week I did some more meditation especially on that topic and I found my path. Myself. I had a beautiful encounter with a goddess who told me, whatever my path will be, it is the right one as long as I see myself in it. And that’s what I am doing now. Being myself. Caring about myself.

And this last week I have felt more like myself and more at peace, that I have … ever. Sometimes it’s hard to find your way and sometimes you have to leave your path to find the right one. But the only right one is the one where you can find yourself. Everything else is a lie.

________________________________________

So that’s it. That’s my story. I had to leave out some bits because I just couldn’t talk about them, even though I wanted to. I wanted to show how it doesn’t matter where you’re coming from or how many obstacles are in your way. If it is meant to be, then you will find your way through the world. Just be courageous. And don’t be mad if there’s a time when you can’t be.

This thing kinda stirred things up for me. And I really should work on them. But to all of you witches out there. Babies or not. Broom closeted or very open about your faith: If you ever need someone to talk to, write me. I always have an ear for everyone of you. I never had someone to talk to about any of this. So I want to give you the opportunity I never had.

I’d love if you shared this, show others they’re not alone out there. That there are others like you :D

So I wish all of you a great day and Blessed be :D

[dxlansfxck]

BLOOD // WATER [G.D] † 01

Summary: Grayson Dolan, better known as “el diablo” – Los Angeles’ most known gang leader and drug lord – doesn’t usually think twice when it comes to killing someone that is dangerous for his business. One night, he meets this mysterious woman that out of nothing wants to start dancing in one of his DEVILISH-nightclubs. Once their heated relationship got more intense, he knew he’d be killing for her too – and realizes how handy she actually could be for him and the revenge he’s been longing for years.

Warnings: mentions of violence, sex work, stripping / pole dance, soft smut, gun use, blonde & tattooed Gray (it should be a warning bc it’s hot, lol)

Word Count: 14.5k

Saturday, 13th August 2016. 10:47 PM

Loud, obnoxious sounds were filling the crowded streets of Los Angeles, caused by a pack of luxurious cars racing down the 700 Main St, passing by tourists and locals that were trying to get to the annual beach party on Venice Beach. The leading car, a black Mercedes AMG CLA 45, came to an abrupt halt, all the other cars stopping right behind it. The tinted windows rolled down as one hand motioned the crew to take a turn on the left side, while the Mercedes went the other way, trying to find a free parking lot somewhere… inconspicuous. Not that this car wasn’t inconspicuous at all, Jalen chose the sleek black one instead of his bright green Corvette, but it wasn’t even his job to fulfill this task on his own. Usually, Grayson didn’t give him those kinds of jobs, knowing that Jalen could do better, but today, everything was different. They were so close to reach their goal; Jalen just had to make sure everything worked out as planned – so he decided to do it by himself.

Grabbing his sunglasses, he stepped out of the car in one swift motion, closing the door behind him while walking towards the more and more crowded beach where loud music was playing, and drunk people were either grinding on each other or fucking in the ocean. He scoffed at the exhilarating freedom those people must be savoring, knowing that by tomorrow, some of them wouldn’t be there to celebrate anymore. On the other hand, it wasn’t his fault that they chose the wrong side.

Jalen quickly pulled out his phone, texting Grayson that he was there and telling him to look after him if he wouldn’t call him within the next two hours. Then, he muted his phone, stuffing it back into the pockets of his worn-down jeans while putting on some random base cap he found in the trunk. Lighting a cigarette, he passed some couples that were in the middle of making out, not caring about them at all – he was looking for someone different.

The heavy weight of the Glock that was pushed into his underwear was something he was used to by now, even though he wasn’t one to use it on a regular basis. Like already said, he wasn’t the one to do that.  The diablo’s hierarchy was strict, no one could ever come even near the rank that Grayson Dolan had, that was for sure. But Jalen, he was a close second, maybe even qualified enough to be called the vice president. He was still out there in the streets, looking for his rookies sometimes, but most of his business was behind a desk, just like Grayson’s. Neither of them was the one to have blood on their hands, why else would they have hundreds of members following their instructions?

This time was different, though. Jalen couldn’t sleep over the fact that someone else could be the one to kill this motherfucker, the one that seduced his girlfriend, the one that had her pinned underneath his body when he was out there on a business meeting with Grayson. He found out rather quickly, he left no one he was close to without observation, but he couldn’t believe that the whore he used to think of as a loving girlfriend would ever dare to cheat on him with Kyle Houck. This edgy, wannabe tattooed bastard? Yeah, no chance that he’ll be surviving this night.

11:43 PM

The beach got more crowded as the time passed by, but Kyle Houck was yet nowhere to be found. Jalen has updated Grayson, talked to a few other gang members that were there as well, but neither of them has seen the target yet. Jalen grew nervous and impatient, wanting this night to be over as soon as possible to head back home where his younger sister was possibly waiting for him. Y/N never liked the thought of him being part of this gang, even though she didn’t know what exactly he was doing in there. But he loved his family, wanting them to be protected for the rest of their lives – and Grayson was one of the few people that could help him with that.

Sunday, 14th August 2016. 12:18 AM

A mob of teal hair passed Jalen’s field of vision, causing him to be more attentive than he’s already been, following the colorful head with his eyes, slowly walking after him without getting noticed by the dancing crowd. Sweaty bodies were pressed against his and Jalen couldn’t help but cringe at that, hating all those people but envying them at the same time. Their life was easy and fun, his on the other hand was full of risks and worries, weighing too heavy on his shoulders.

The gun he had checked multiple times by now was burning into his skin, ready to be used any moment from now, but Jalen had to wait, not wanting to cause a mass hysteria. Kyle walked further down the beach to a part where just a few random people were standing with red cups in their hands, probably talking somewhere quieter. Jalen acted as if he was concentrated on his phone. ‘Got him” was sent to Grayson before he raised his glance just to be found right across from Kyle motherfucking Houck. Jalen was quick to grab his weapon, but Kyle was faster – and smiled down at him. “Hello there”, he grinned while almost softly caressing his own gun.

“Houck”, Jalen spoke through gritted teeth, loading his gun while pointing it at his opponent. The tattooed man laughed at his reaction, angling his head. “What brings you to our side of the beach, Y/L/N? This is Angelo Vendicatore territory and it makes you”, he steps closer to him, “our prey.”

Just then, Jalen realized where he was, surrounded by AV members. “Fuck”, he hissed, reaching into his pockets with one hand to press the quick call button that was holding Grayson’s number while still looking at Kyle, but he was too late. Just as Jalen was about to make his only shot – a shot that had to be on point -, he heard a loud noise followed by the worst pain he had ever felt. His ears were ringing, and his body was on fire, a loud scream escaping his lips as he randomly shot his bullet into Kyle’s direction, not even hitting him in the process, before he fell to the ground with a loud groan. “Y/N”, was all he could say, not wanting to leave his sister yet, needing to see her finally get a man, build up a family, moving out of their parent’s house. He promised to take care of them, but he broke his promise. He broke his life goal. Laughs and applause was heard, but he couldn’t concentrate on that while feeling such pain. Jalen cried, not caring about it at all, his vision getting blurry and his breaths coming shorter than he’d like them to come. He felt so, so cold and he was hurt. Flashes enlightened somewhere in the corner of his eyes, knowing that someone must either film this scenario or at least take enough pictures to threaten Grayson with them.

By all goods, he just hoped Y/N would never be able to see them.

Y/N. With the thought of his sister, he closed his eyes one last time.

Late July, 2019

“Maybe you should go for it, Y/N. I know what they say about el diablo, but he never disrespects any of his girls – and you’ll be save around there. Jalen is dead, we can’t change that. It’s been over three years, you need to get your head back up, honey”, Zavi mumbles while scrolling through different web pages, looking for a better job opportunity than dancing in a night club. You sigh, pulling some of your thick braids in a knot. “I know that he’s dead, Zav, thanks for reminding me”, you shake your head, trying to get rid of the tears forming in your eyes. “But it’s el diablo, he’s known for killing people! What if I fall down the pole or anything like that? He fucking killed his twin brother’s fiancé because she was pregnant, and he wanted to get out of the gang!”

It was true, Grayson Dolan wasn’t known to be the nicest human being on earth, he killed many people – not that anything was proven by the police -, but people around the streets knew what he was able to do. He might not be the one to kill those people himself, but he for sure was the one that shoot the shot in this woman’s heart, enjoying the view of her falling to the ground, crying out her baby’s name while Ethan had to watch the entire time, not being able to move. Grayson’s men were holding him down, making him feel every bit of pain his fiancé had to feel, watching her life end while tears burnt his cheeks. Soon enough, her eyes showed no emotions anymore, her mouth hang open, but no sound came out, her heart stopped beating, still losing blood. And the baby never made its way into the daylight. At least, that’s what the rumors said.

Rumors said also, that Ethan killed himself right after that, others said that he managed to leave the gang, joining another one while promising to ruin Grayson Dolan’s life. But no one knows for sure what happened after that one special night. You didn’t know who exactly killed your brother, but you for sure knew that Ethan Grant Dolan was still alive, running the Angelo Vendicatore like his life depended on it. Yet, not many people have seen him ever since that night, leaving him to be as mysterious as you could imagine.

“Y/N, stop it! It’s your decision, I could totally talk to my boss if we have another spot left in the team, but you were the one that said working in a pet store isn’t going to pay your rent”, Zavi shakes her head while writing the number of the DEVILISH-nightclub down. “That’s the number I found online. Give them a call, maybe even just go there to introduce yourself, I don’t think Grayson Dolan himself will be the one to decide who’s going to work there or not. He’s probably too busy buying and selling drugs.” She shrugs her shoulders before standing up and pressing a kiss to her best friend’s cheek. “I’ll call you tonight, okay?” You just sit there and nod, still thinking about Grayson Dolan, while Zavi was already on her way out of the small apartment.

You knew you were in desperate need for a job, your parents didn’t even bother sending you any money to pay the rent when they moved away over two years ago, leaving you in the city where your brother was buried, but not wanting to live there themselves anymore. You on the other hand couldn’t imagine living anywhere else, Los Angeles was the city you grew up in, so many memories you had in each and every street that you could never leave that town. It was the city of angels during the day, but the city of the devil in the night – the city of el diablo, the city of Grayson Dolan.

Letting out another sigh, you quickly type in the nightclub’s number in your phone, breathing in a few times before pressing the call button, letting it ring for a while, but nobody answered. “Seems like I need to go there on my own”, you huff before standing up, taking a deeper look into your wardrobe, searching for an outfit to wear while having a job interview at a night club as a stripper.

You, of course, didn’t know what to expect there, trying to be prepared for anything that could happen. Starting off with a shower, an intense shaving session and you even exfoliated your skin to make it extra smooth. “I should’ve gone to the waxing appointment with Zavi.” You muttered, annoyed at the amount of time you just spent shaving, knowing that by tomorrow you’d for sure be covered in stubble again.

Now onto the big decision: what was the best way to show off your body, but not looking like a whore? On the other hand, it was a strip club, you might need to show off more than you usually would. You were standing in front of your full body mirror, the opened wardrobe right next to it, clothes were shattered all around your feet, some on top of your bed, but you felt like neither of them fitted. Usually, you’d go out in oversized band shirts and leggings or high waisted jeans, completely fitting into the whole “grunge/arthoe”-aesthetic without even trying. You didn’t like to dress up, all your clothes were comfortable but still cool looking, completely fitting your tattooed body. If you’d ever dance for el diablo’s nightclub, you’d dance in an outfit you feel good in.

Around an hour later, you decided on wearing a black button up skirt that ended mid-thigh and was tight, hugging the curves of your butt perfectly, showing off what you’ve got. Usually, you’d combine that skirt with a jeans jacket and an oversized shirt, knotted above your stomach, but that just wasn’t sexy enough. Grayson Dolan had the most beautiful, exotic woman dancing for him, skinny girls with porcelain-like skin, completely different from your dark skin and tattooed, curvy body. Back in the days people would call you out different names, not realizing that your skin color didn’t make your personality. You are black, who cares? You couldn’t change that anyways – and you love your skin, love the way it makes your light green eyes pop out and how white your teeth looked even though you were literally running on coffee.

One problem you’ve always had with finding cute tops was that your boobs were too big to wear most of them. That’s why you always decided onto something loose, showing off your hips and butt instead of your cleavage, but you felt strong and confident tonight, deciding on wearing a leather harness-bralette with some fishnet long sleeve over it. You’d totally dig some fishnet tights as well, but wouldn’t want to overdo it just yet, needing to find a pair of shoes fitting to that outfit. For you, it was usually either a pair of Doc Martens or some sneakers, but for today you decided to go with your old Jeffrey Campbell heels, the ones you wanted to badly but never wore them because they were made out of black leather and covered in studs. Well, tonight was the night.

LA’s streets were still filled with people, even though it was around 11 PM now. You didn’t like going out there alone, walking the streets on your own without anyone to protect you – especially in that outfit. For your hair and makeup, you kept it quite simple: bold brows, eyeliner and mascara, some highlighter and lip gloss. But still, you were popping out in the nightlife, people were looking at you with confused looks on their faces, eyeing you up and down. Your tattoos were always something that society didn’t seem to accept, making it quite hard for you to find a job these days, but you would never even think about getting them removed, they were a bigger part of you than your actual self. Your arms were sleeved up, mandalas and dotwork covering your left arm while your right one was filled up with beautiful flowers. Medusa’s head was covering your lower stomach, disappearing in your underwear – where it for sure continues, the snakes winding up around your belly button.

But your favorite piece so far was the ox skull right under your boobs, its horns going up on the sides of your boobs, while a dagger was placed between them. Some smaller tattoos were splattered around your legs, some of them stick and poked by yourself or your brother, but you loved all of them equally. You made your body even more beautiful than it already was by putting your own art onto it.

It was quite a walk to the DEVILISH-nightclub, but once you started to hear music you already knew it wouldn’t be as far anymore. The loud bass was already accelerating your heartbeat, making your stomach jump in both fear and excitement, but you were still more than just nervous. Your feet stopped abruptly; it was your last chance to head back home now. The red and pink sign of the nightclub was so bright that you had to squint your eyes to read it, making sure you were in the right spot. DEVILISH. There it was. Either your future or your death, you couldn’t know by now. Biting your lip in anticipation and agitation, you decided to stay there for a while to watch people enter the club.

Not everyone could get inside, you got to realize that so far. Boys in a sweater and joggers? Nope. Girls without makeup or high heels? Nope. Any other person that looked wealthy and arrogant, maybe even dangerous? Sure, come on in.

That was probably one of your biggest problems: the audience, the clienté. Those people, who will be watching you move your ass on stage. Those people, who probably wouldn’t even think about shooting someone your skin color. It was dangerous, you knew that, but it was also your only chance to stay in Los Angeles. You take one more deep breath, straighten your posture as you walk towards the line, waiting until you were the one in front of the bouncer. He raises an eyebrow at you, waiting for you to explain yourself while checking out your outfit.

“I want to…”, you cough, trying to control your shaky voice. “I want to dance for this club. My friend told me I could just come over to give you a sneak peak of what I’m able of?” The bouncer looked at you in confusion before speaking into his headset, unsure of what to do with the girl in front of him. You tried to resist the urge to bite on your bottom lip, not wanting to, first off: act like you’re weak and second: not wanting to smudge your gloss. His deep voice asks for your ID card, repeating your name, address and date of birth to the other person who probably must check your criminal past. Luckily, you had none that was written down by the police. With one last nod, he opened the curtain for you to walk through, wishing you good luck.

You were overwhelmed by everything that happened right now; your senses couldn’t even react to all the action around you. It didn’t smell like alcohol or sweat like most of the clubs you’ve been into, it actually smelt pretty nice; like a mixture of grapefruit, ginger and even coffee, maybe. Step for step, you dare to walk in further, carefully having an eye on the people that you passed on your way, one prettier than the other. Blonde goddesses, tall businessman, all dressed in Louis or Gucci. You looked down at your own outfit, frowning while doing so. It wasn’t anything expensive, nothing too daring and suddenly, you don’t feel as confident as you did a few minutes ago. You felt cheap, not worthy to dance in front of those people. As if they’d watch you, if they could enjoy a show by the other, prettier, more experienced dancers.

“Are you Y/N?”, a sudden voice tears you out of your thoughts, making you turn around with a quiet shriek. Right in front of you, there’s this woman and you could swear to god, she was the most attractive person you’ve ever seen. She was so tall, you had to tilt your head back to look her in the – bright blue, of course – eyes. She didn’t wear much make up, but she didn’t even need to. Her skin was flawless, her lashes long enough to just be coated by a simple layer of mascara and her lips, god her lips. They were covered in a nude gloss, looking so soft and plumb, you scolded yourself for always chewing on yours, which looked nothing like hers. “Yes, I am, ma’am. Y/N Y/L/N.”

The mysterious woman smiles down at you, offering you her perfectly manicured hand to shake. “I’m Lia, nice to meet you, honey. I got told you wanted to dance for us?” Her smile was still prominent, revealing two rows of beautiful teeth and two cute little dimples. You nod, still more than cowed by her appearance. “Don’t worry, love, our team is nice and loving, the girls will love you!”, Lia cheers while grabbing your hand and walking you to a huge door, typing in some code to open it, motioning for you to walk through it first. Somehow, you couldn’t help but grin at the hectic woman in front of you, nodding quickly while walking through the door with your head raised, making you look more self confident. Suddenly, you didn’t bother your outfit anymore, even though everyone else was dressed differently – it was your style, your dance and most importantly your body.

“You don’t need to be nervous, you won’t dance today, we just all need to get to know you first”, Lia smiles at you sympathetically while guiding you through the long hallway – the clubs music was nowhere to be heard anymore. “Currently, we’ve got 7 wonderful dancers, most of them are American, but we’ve got one beautiful Asian queen and a European goddess, we’d love to have someone like you in our team as well!” You cringed at her comment. ‘Someone like you’, what were you like? Were you different? Was it the tattoos or the color of your skin? “Oh, shit. I didn’t mean it like that!”, Lia cringes as well, trying to make the best out of the situation. “Don’t worry, it’s fine”, you mumble while looking around.

Just as if she was reading your mind, Lia points to another huge door. “There we are, it might be a bit confusing to walk through this long ass hallway, but Mister Dolan just wants us to be save from all those… people. You know, our clienté isn’t always the nicest, you’ve probably heard the story about our club and why it is called DEVILISH. But don’t worry, until now, nothing bad has ever happened, Gra- Mister Dolan just wants to know us in safety if something would happen.” You nod, waiting for Lia to enter the code to open the door, letting her step inside first this time.

“Okay, this is basically where we hang out before our show starts, we get ready in here, we eat in here and after the show, we could shower or take a bath in here as well. Mister Dolan offers each of us a room to sleep in whenever we need to make more customers, whenever we need a place to sleep or when we’re just too tired to head home, maybe having one too many drinks.” Lia smiles at the thought, she’s probably been sleeping here quite often. “He takes good care of us, Y/N, don’t listen to all those bad stories people tell about him. He has had a rough past, losing his brother like that, you know? I’m sorry for him”, she sighs before eyeing your outfit the second time this evening. “I love your skirt! And those shoes, god damned, I wanted to get them too, but I couldn’t figure out where to wear them. Well, by now I would know. Anyways, let’s find at least two of our lovely girls.” Lia starts walking through the different rooms, showing you the bathrooms with those luxurious bathtubs that made you think about the old one back in your apartment that you never used because you were kind of disgusted by how old and rusty it was. Usually, you’d just hop in the shower, scrub your body and jump out again before the cold water was actually hitting you. This seemed… nice.

Soon enough, you were introduced to a small Asian girl, also covered in tattoos, but a different style than yours. Hers were more comic book looking, some Ghibli figures dancing on her skin, some bright colorful ones, not fitting into your black and white scheme. “Oh my god, hi! I’m Yun Hee, but you can go for Yun, it’s easier and easier to remember, I guess. I’m glad we get another tatted bad bitch for our team!”, she hugs you, glitter spreading all over your body while you hesitantly wrap your arms around her as well. “I hope you’re going to make it, Mister Dolan is here tonight”, she whispers the last part into your ear, not looking at Lia, “He’s a sucker for his girls ass and can’t say no to a lap dance, especially when it comes to a girl with a body like yours.” Yun slapped your ass with a cheeky grin, watching as it bounces while you couldn’t hold in a small laughter. “I didn’t know I had to dance in front of him… I thought I’d just dance for you and you girls decide whether I’m in or not…”

Yun nodded with a knowing frown but got back to her cheerful self within seconds. “Anyways, I need to fix my make-up, I’m sure you’ll do fine! I’ll let Lia know to give you my number, tell me how it went then, okay?” Then, she was gone. And you? You were even more insecure, biting your lip in anticipation while looking around to find Lia. Instead, you stepped in front of the many full-length body mirrors, eyeing your outfit once more this evening, not sure if you want to do this anymore. You should’ve asked Yun about the costumers, the loan and Grayson Dolan.

“Y/N, there you are! Mister Dolan would like to see you perform, now. Don’t be nervous, I’m sure he’ll love you! I hope he does, good luck!”, with that, Lia pushes you through another door, leaving you alone in a dark room with dimmed lights, a little platform for you to stand on and a dark blue velour couch. You take in another deep breath, trying to calm down all your anxious thoughts before raising your head, letting your eyes adjust to the darkness.

And then you saw him. Erebus. El diablo. Grayson Dolan himself. Staring at him, you couldn’t move at all, hypnotized by his stunning looks, now understanding why he was named after the devil himself. He looked hot as hell.

“Hello, angel.” His deep chuckle brought you back from your trance, causing your breath to hitch slightly. You finally dared to really look at him, practically sucking in his appearance. His eyes even managed to sparkle in those lights, prominent eyebrows giving him that intimidating look and those, combined with his tight, chiseled jaw just left you like a shy little schoolgirl, dreaming of his attractive teacher. He tilted his head in amusement, raising one of those sharp brows at you. “Did something bite off your tongue? Or are you just so wet by just seeing me that you can’t move without dripping down your long thighs, baby?” Now it was your turn to raise your eyebrow, mocking his amused face while stepping towards him.

“Not the slightest, Mister Dolan. I came to dance for you and that’s what I’m going to do, yet I couldn’t get any preparation time. Is there any chance to change the lights and let me choose a song of my liking?” Your loose tongue causes his fists to clench, but he was somehow impressed, no girl would ever contradict him, especially none of those dancer girls. “Suit yourself, angel.” He crosses his arms while sliding back onto the couch with spread legs, making himself comfortable while taking a deeper look at your dark skin, covered in all those pieces of art. And that outfit, that no other of his girls would ever choose because it wasn’t as slutty, not as cliché. But on you, it looked amazing. You looked like a bad ass bitch – exactly what he was looking for these days. Mentally, he took a note on observing you the next couple weeks, minding something bigger for you already.

Soon enough, the lights turned a dark red, making you almost disappear as you slowly walked onto the platform as “DEVILISH” by Chase Atlantic started to fill the room.

SEVER OFF THE HEAD AND WATCH THE BODY FALL, SEE YOU IN THE DEPTHS, THAT AIN’T A METAPHOR.

SEX, BLOOD, FASHION DRIPPING HOLY WATER. HOLY SHIT, SHE WORSHIPPING MY DICK LIKE IT’S THE HOLY FATER.

As soon as the calming, yet rough voice fills your ears, you couldn’t help but slowly sway to the rhythm of the song you chose wisely – referring to Grayson, to his nightclub and his life. You’ve had lots of dancing experience, even took some pole dance classes, but dancing in front of the devil himself wasn’t something you could ever come prepared for. The beat started to get faster, making you run towards the pole and jump up on it, letting it turn you around multiple times with your head hanging low, bringing you closer to the floor with every rotation. Once your fingertips brushed past it, you let yourself fall until your back was hitting it as well, turning around to crawl onto the floor while opening your legs for him, humping the parquet twice.

TRIPLE THE SIX, I’M BLAMING YOUR GOD ‘CAUSE HE DON’T EXIST, I KEEP THE BEAT, ONLY TALK A FEW WEEKS THEN I CUT OFF YOUR WRISTS.

MEDICATION GOT MY HIGHER THAN HEAVEN BUT BRO I’M THE SHIT, BETTER FIX I SAVED FOR HADES, I’M POPPIN’ THE PILLS WHEN I’M SICK.

You didn’t dare to break the eye contact with the intimidating man in front of you, watching every of his reactions, trying to read his mind – but he was a professional in keeping his poker face up, not showing you any kind of emotion. Biting your lip in anticipation, you continue your dance routine, climbing back onto the pole until you were about to reach the ceiling, when you pushed your feet of the secureness, holding yourself up by just your arms while walking through the air, slowly circling around again. Then, just as the beat intensifies again, you press your back against the turning pole, crossing your feet over it while slowly tracing your silhouette with one of your hands. Your thick braids were flying through the air, your abs clenched, and you were slowly but sure getting out of breath, but you would never give up.

I ONLY EXIST TO FALL, HAPPENS LIKE THE GHOST OF GOD, I JUST WANT TO LET THEM GO. FEELING HOMESICK, FIRE UP THAT BLUNT, BITCH. SHUT UP.

DEVILISH, FUCKING WITH MY GUYS, YUH. I MAKE SACRIFICES, YOU MAKE LIES UP. HEAVEN LOST AN ANGEL WHEN I SIGNED UP, I MIGHT FUCK YOUR FRIEND, I MADE MY MIND UP.

Just as the music hits its peak, you pulled yourself up with your right hand, bringing your legs over your head in a split, spinning the pole even faster than before. Your legs were now above you, your head stretched away from the pole and hands working as wings, as you slow down a bit, winding around it like a snake. Taking a deep breath, knowing the next move must be perfect, you jump back up to the highest point, wrapping your legs around the pole as you let yourself hang from it like a bat, opening your arms while waiting for the next beat drop. Once it comes, you let yourself fall to the floor in a horrific pace, a move you usually just dared to show off when you were drunk. Just as your nose was about to hit the floor, you quickly let go of the pole with a somersault.

Grayson raised an eyebrow, impressed with your performance and shifting in his seat while waiting what’s next to come. You couldn’t hide a smirk while crawling towards him with swinging hips, enjoying the desirable glance he shoots towards you.

I’M DEVILISH, YUH. I’M DEVILISH, YUH. I’M DEVILISH, YUH. I’M DEVILISH, YUH.

Looking up at Grayson with a slightly innocent look, you climb up on his lap, debating whether to touch him or not. This man was out of your league, yet, you had to compel him, to seduce him like you would with any other man that was watching you perform. Without even thinking about it twice, you grab the collar of his dress shirt, playing with it while smiling down at him. You didn’t press your crotch against his – yet -, but you could feel his hips move to the beat as well, eyeing your entire body up and down

It wasn’t part of your choreography, but you bite your lip while placing his huge hands on your hips and pull off your fishnet shirt with them, wrapping it around his neck as if it was a scarf, giving him a view seconds to enjoy the view of your impressive cleavage. Then, you turn around quickly, pressing your back against his toned chest while using his hands again to roam your body, while wriggling around in his lap in a slow pace.

DEVILISH, SAY THE PART YOU LOVE ME, YUH. I DON’T WANNA TALK, JUST SAY THE PART YOU LOVE ME, YUH.

SETTLE DOWN, YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE ME DRIVE THE DEVIL OUT, YOU DON’T WANNA SEE MY DEMONS IN YOUR FUCKING HOUSE, YOU DON’T WANNA FACE DAMAGE IN YOUR MENTAL HOUSE.

Once the slow part was over and the beat dropped again, your let yourself fall right down onto his dick, earning a quiet gasp from Grayson, his hands tightening around your waist as you started to grind down on him, hands buried in his perfect styled hair. Just as his hands were about to travel further down your waist and you feel something starting to grow underneath you, you get out of his lap to dance around him while softly pressing down onto his shoulder. Once you were standing behind him, you let your nose brush against his neck, breathing in his heavy but delicious after shave, knowing that this man had to smell good. Your clothed tits were pressed against his shoulders as you gently bit down onto his earlobe, loving the way he twitched underneath you. Placing your hands on the couch upholstery, you lifted yourself up in a handstand above him, rolling down back onto his lap as the song finally comes to an end.

I TAKE DRUGS ON THE DAILY, I TAKE PITY ON THE PEOPLE WHO TRY TO SAVE ME, GOD DOESN’T EXIST AND EVEN IF HE COULD, OH BITCH YOU WOULD NEVER CATCH ME PRAYING.

Within seconds, you had your shirt back on and were standing in front of Grayson, raising an eyebrow at him, waiting for him to say anything. He, on the other hand, keeps on looking at you, burning you with his stare. Just as you grew impatient, he opened his mouth. “Where have you been all my life, angel?” He stands up, walking right up to you while pressing his warm palm against your cheek, almost stroking you. “Definitely not here, Mister Dolan”, you chuckle as you stepped back once more. “Well, what is your opinion on me, Sir? Will I be able to dance for your clienté?” He hated the fact that you were running away from his touch, but he loved playing games, he loved a challenge.

“Well, Miss Y/L/N”, he chuckled in his intimidating deep voice, “I do think you’d fit in perfectly, but”, he stopped once more, just to build up some tension, “why would I let you dance for me, angel? What would you do to deserve your wings? How important is this job for you? Tell me your story.” He was way too interested in her to just let her go like this, no. He needed to know everything, needed to know if she was the one. The woman he was seeking for, the woman he needed to finish off his plans.

“I’m sorry to tell you, Mister Dolan, but I don’t think my past is important for you to hire me, isn’t it? All you need to know it that I’m available on the daily, I will dance for you, your friends and your… costumers. I don’t mind if it’s one man or twelve, I’d still be up for it if the payment is high enough. I’m not for free, you won’t be able to bring me down, I went through way too much to be ordered around by another gang member, even if it’s the leader this time. So, you could either hire me and make some money with my body – a body like no other of your girls has- or I could pay your sweet brother a visit to see what he thinks of my dancing skills. Because I for sure know what’s going on with you two, Mister Dolan. I’m sick of deciding which gang my family belongs to, you know?”, your walk towards him, showing him that you weren’t afraid of him. The thought of your brother, killed by the rival gang, made you feel powerful.

“I once chose my side, don’t let me regret it.” You lift the left side of your bra a bit up, showing off the devil tarot card that held Jalen’s name hidden on your ribcage, always near your heart. “I’m not an angel, nor am I as innocent as you might think, but I am willing to fight for my survival. I am willing to fight for my family, even though I might have lost an important member of it. So, I wouldn’t wait another second to team up with Ethan’s gang, because I don’t want to starve to death, but my brother was part of the diablo’s , I guessed it would be just the best to follow his footsteps.”

Grayson’s eyes widen in shock before he frowns, pulling you even closer to look at the healed tattoo – you had to have it for quite some time now, not seeing any fresh ink or crust to show some healing process. “How long?”, he mumbles while secretly checking out your other tattoos. You didn’t even have to think about it for a long time, always remembering the night you got the tattoo together with Jalen.

“About three years ago, when my brother got his tattoo, he made me get the same one – I didn’t know what it meant, though. I thought it was like a brother-sister thing to do, get matching tattoos and stuff. But once he…”, you cough to swallow the lump in your throat, trying to find your voice again, “But once he died, I quickly found out what that tattoo meant. He wanted me to be safe if something happens to him. I knew I never had some receptive ritual or something like that, but I already have the tattoo – wouldn’t it be a shame to get it covered by Gabriel?”

“It would be a total shame, princess. You deserve an angel on your skin, but not that one”, he walks around you, acting like he’s inspecting you, as if he hadn’t seen enough of you during your performance. “Who was your brother, darling? Must have been someone I know, otherwise he wouldn’t be that confident of me securing his little sister.” Well, you haven’t thought through that part of you actually telling Grayson who your brother was, not knowing which position he had in the gang or if Grayson even liked him. On the other hand, you really didn’t want to know what your brother did, whether it was a simple drug deal or being the cause of someone’s death. It doesn’t matter, just because of this gang shit, Jalen ended up being the death one.

“Jalen, Sir. Jalen Y/L/N..“, you mumbled while lowering your head, afraid of his reaction. “Jalen? Jalen had a sister?”, Grayson raised his eyebrows once more, balling his hands to tight fists. “I never knew about his family. Okay, listen to me, Y/N. You should’ve been searching for me a long time ago, Jalen didn’t die for no reason, you got me?” You just nodded; eyes wide in shock.

“Jalen was somewhat of my right hand, he helped me do… lots of things, I guess. But they know who he was, probably checked out his family as well, but nobody ever knew he had a sister.” Grayson paces through the room, the red light making him look even angrier than he already was. “Where are your parents?” Biting your lip, you quickly answered. “Gone, they moved away as soon as they found out about his death – but I couldn’t leave the city I grew up in, I’ve got too many memories here. And I want revenge.” Your voice sounded stronger than you felt in this moment, but Grayson looked at you with an impressed glance, nodding in agreement. “That’s what I wanted to hear, angel. Okay, here’s what I could give to you: a place to stay that’s absolutely safe, money or whatever you’ll need to keep living your life and I promise you: you’ll get your revenge. But I need you to do something as well, angel. Are you willing to do something for me in return?”

“Yes, Sir. But you don’t need to do all those things for me, I’d be fine with a somewhat good paid job. I don’t need a new place to live in…”, you suddenly grew nervous again, not knowing what he had up for you. “Really, I don’t want to bother you, Mister Dolan.” “Stop talking, would ya? As Jalens sister, I owe you more than you think. This man saved my life way too many times.” He shakes his head with a chuckle before continuing. “And don’t worry, my house has more than enough rooms, I wouldn’t even know you’re there. Anyways, I think you’d look quite good by my side, don’t you think? So, in return I want you to keep me company whenever I need to do important stuff. I want you to dress up pretty for me, lull my business partners and who knows, maybe you could be the one to finally ruin my brother. I know you’ve got your brothers blood in your veins as well. You’re a fighter, angel. Would you like to fight on my side?”

Grayson steps towards you, placing his hands on your waist as he whispers the last couple words against your lips, leaving you gasp in excitement. “You sure, Sir? I don’t know if I’d look that good by your side, I-“ “Oh angel, you don’t know how you’d look in Louis, in Gucci or even in Balenciaga? All those brands would be glad if you wore them, pretty girl. Where’s that skirt from, Forever 21? You deserve better.” His soothing words left you with goosebumps along your spine, making you shudder under his touch. “It’s actually H&M…”, you whispered, ashamed of your cheap outfit that probably hasn’t even cost half the price of his underwear. His fingertips were currently tracing your jawline while you were still thinking about his offer.

“What do you mean by living in your house, though? I mean… I do have my own apartment, there’s no need of me moving in with you. But I’d totally be fine with escorting you to your business meetings. And I wouldn’t say no to a nice dress. I came to dance, so that’s one thing I’d love to do for your club, Mister Dolan”, you giggled at the thought of something more expensive covering your body, knowing that Grayson wouldn’t be hesitating in buying you all the designers you loved. “I just offered you anything you could dream of, but you still want to dance in front of hungry men? What did I just got myself into”, he chuckled while nodding in agreement. “Fine, you can put on your show on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but on the other days, your body will me mine, angel. And about the living situation: we’ll be discussing that later, for now you can go home and think about everything. Tomorrow, you’ll be having a little shopping spree on your own, okay?” He hands you his credit card while grinning down at you. “Visit La Perla for me, darling. I bet you’d look great in salmon colored silk.” With that, he left you standing alone in that dimmed light, holding nothing but a black credit card in your hands – not knowing what to do with it.

 “So, you’re really telling me that he not only offered you a job, but also to live with him in his freaking mansion? And that you denied that?”, Zavi shakes her head at you, blowing nose through her nose in disapproval. The two of you were currently wandering through your local mall, searching for some nice stage outfits. Grayson’s credit card was burning holes through your wallet, but you denied on using it, not wanting to waste any of his money for something you’d earn your own money with. Just as you walked past a small store called La Perla, you smirked while pulling Zavi with you into it. “Y/N! This store is out of our price range, c’mon, even looking at those pieces will make me poor”, Zavi whined as you showed her Grayson’s credit card. “It’s on el diablo. Don’t worry, I guess he won’t even realize that some money is missing. He told me to spoil myself, so why not spoiling my best friend too?” You shrugged while looking through the different lingerie sets, some of them out of complete mesh, others of lace – which you absolutely adored, packing 4 sets into your basket, knowing they’d look stunning on your body. But one pair of silky lingerie caught your eye, salmon colored and absolutely wonderful, you didn’t even dare to touch it. Zavi didn’t even bother to put that one into your basket as well, grinning at you while showing off her teeth. “Make him greedy for you, girl. Try it on, I need to see it!” She shoved you into the dressing room, handing you your basket after putting some more lingerie in there.

You put on one after another set, actually feeling yourself and smiling into the mirror with such a confidence, you couldn’t help but step out to show Zavi your favorite set so far – the one that Grayson suggested. It pushed up your tits to their maximum without looking too fake, but those panties were a different level. They were short, revealing but sitting on your hips like they were meant to be there. You turned around, showing her the fabric that was hidden in between your cheeks, showing the roundness of them perfectly. “Fuck, Y/N you look so hot, you’re driving my pan sexual ass crazy”, Zavi moaned at the view you gave her. Just then, you saw a familiar silhouette passing the dressing rooms, making you chuckle. “Hey stranger, what do you think of it? Or would you like to enjoy a show later on?” You would’ve guessed it was Grayson, following you on your little trip to see if you were about to spend his last coin, but the person that was now standing in front of you definitely wasn’t Grayson. “Oh, that color suits you pretty well. But let me tell you, I bet baby blue suits your skin even better.” You stood there in shock, not being able to speak up while letting your eyes travel the person that looked so similar to Grayson that it couldn’t be a coincidence. “Oh, I’m sorry, what a shame to not introduce myself. I am Ethan”, he holds out his hand for you to shake and as soon as your smaller one touched his, you felt instant rage boiling up your skin. But instead, you smiled.

“Well, hello Ethan. I’m Y/N, always up for help when it comes to finding a new style. Is there anything specific you’d suggest for me?”

You instantly regret going out in your sweatpants and some tank top you found laying on your floor, your face was free of any make up, wishing you had at least put some effort in doing your eyebrows. It was a one time chance to meet Ethan Grant Dolan, talking to him without him knowing who you were. “Oh, for sure, pretty girl. I see, you already chose some lace, that’s always been a secret love of mine, I adore women in lace”, Ethan closes his eyes, imagining you stripping down in front of him, wearing nothing but those see-through lace panties.

“Yeah, I can totally imagine you in that set”, he pointed over to a cute baby blue set with flowery lace detailing. “Oh, Ethan, this is so pretty!”, you smiled at the set, putting it into your basket willingly. On the inside, you were rolling your eyes at him being that easy to compel. Shouldn’t he be crying over his dead wife? This Ethan wasn’t someone you expected him to be.

“Let me buy that for you, Y/N. It’s going to be my treat for you, hoping I’d be the one to see you wearing it one day.” “Oh, Ethan, I can’t accept that, this lingerie is way to expensive to let a stranger pay for me…”, you pouted while Zavi giggled.

“You like being a challenge, huh? I won’t be a stranger to you for long, baby”, he grabbed the lingerie to go and pay for it while you rolled your eyes as soon as he was out of your sight. “Such a fucking dumbass”, you huffed to your best friend. “As if I’d be in to fuck the guy that-“

“Here I am, babe.” Ethan hands you a little bag while smirking at you. “I put my number in there as well, I surely hope you’re giving me a call or at least some pictures to strengthen my opinion on you in lace.” He kisses your cheek before winking at Zavi one last time, disappearing into the crowd of people outside that store.

Later that night, when you finally unpacked all the clothes and make up you bought, you decided on enjoying a nice bath and some Sushi in the tub while listening to music. Sadly, your pampering night got interrupted by the annoying ring tone of your phone, the display showing some unknown number. “Hello?”, you asked while chewing on a big chunk of avocado maki, snorting at the amount of wasabi you put on that piece. “Angel.” Grayson’s soft voice made you almost drop your chopsticks into the water, choking on the Sushi. “Mister Dolan.” You tried to sound professional, but which professional would ever decide on eating maki in their bathtub? “How is my princess? I was hoping to see you tonight, there’s still some things we need to figure out. Are you free?” “I guess I am, Sir. When and where to you want to meet up?” Opening the drain, you stepped out of the tub while grabbing a towel from your heater, wrapping it around your body and looking for your body lotion.  

“I don’t mind coming over to your house, would you?” Grayson asked casually, causing you to sigh in relief. “I’d like that, Mister Dolan. Would mean I don’t need to get dressed nicely”, you giggled while walking towards your bedroom, looking through all those beautiful pieces of lingerie you got with his – and Ethan’s - credit card today. “Fine, I’ll be there soon, angel.”

Minutes have passed and you grew more and more nervous, debating whether to wear something nice or casual, whether to wear make up or not. Well, you chose the same pair of sweatpants from before combined with a basic tight black crop top, trying to look at least somewhat sexy. Not knowing what Grayson had on his mind, you just set your brows in place with some brow gel but didn’t waste time on foundation or mascara. Then, your doorbell interrupted your upcoming anxiety attack, leaving you with one more spritz of your perfume before rushing to open the door. And there he was, dressed quite casually, some lose dress pants combined with a simple black hoodie – but he managed to still look stunning. “Good evening, angel”, he grinned at you while shrugging his shoes off. “Can I come in?”

You just nod, still perplexed about how different he looked from yesterday, but you instantly felt so miserable standing next to him in your dirty joggers. “Sure.” Stepping aside, you allow him to come into your cozy little apartment. “Do you want anything to drink? To smoke?” Grayson shakes his head, but you decided to grab a beer just to calm your nerves.  “I don’t really have much space to sit, is the couch okay for you, Mister Dolan?”, you bit your lip in discomfort, you’ve never been ashamed about your living situation, but you knew he was used to something much better. “Everything’s fine, angel”, he places his hand on the small of your back while guiding you to your own living room. Once the two of you sat down, Grayson looked at you with such an intimidating look that gave you instant goosebumps.

“So, what I’ve been wanting to talk about was our contract stuff. I know you want to dance for me, but you know that I’ve got different plans for you, right? It wasn’t just a wish of mine to have you move in with me, Y/N. I want you to live by my side from now on, not just as my coworker, more like a… girlfriend. It is hard for me to do all the business meetings alone, to attend anything without someone by my side. The problem is, I can’t trust most people around here. I mean, I could choose any girl from the gang, but… most of them are manlier than I am”, Grayson chuckles while looking at you, “Would you be okay with that? Just keeping me company. You wouldn’t have to dance for all those men, you could be by my side, in my house and live your best life while doing one, two things for me. To be honest, I’ve got plans, most of them maybe not as easy as pole dancing. But I feel like I could trust you – I know that I can trust you, let alone because of Jalen. I owe you something, angel.”

Grayson el diablo Dolan wanted you not to only move in with him, but be some sort of his girlfriend? Shaking your head in shock, you chugged down most of your beer before starring at him in confusion. “Mister Dolan, I don’t understand...” “Grayson”, he interrupted you. “Huh?”, you raised an eyebrow at him, more confused than before. “My name’s Grayson, don’t always call me ‘Mister Dolan’ or ‘el diablo’ that’s kind of weird, you know?” You gulped but shrugged your shoulders.

“Fine, I don’t care what to call you, so Grayson it is. Okay, Grayson. Don’t you think there’s some kind of love needed to ask someone to be their girlfriend? Instead of just asking someone jobwise. I mean, I’m honored, but… I feel like this is so wrong. I’m not an escort or anything like that – and I barely know you. What I know is that you can be really, really dangerous, that you own more money than I could ever dream off and that you could probably pay prettier and more graceful woman to go out with you. I’m not the one to be in the spotlight, Gray”, the nickname slipped off your tongue so easily that you didn’t even bother to correct yourself, “I need to be the girl in the shadows, the mysterious one that dances a few times a week and that’s it. If I was the one by your side, everyone would know me. I’d be everyone’s target.” There it was, the side you didn’t want to show anyone that works – or owns – DEVILISH. Your insecure, anxious self.

But Grayson was fast to react, cupping your face with his large hands, suddenly a soft sparkle in his eyes. “Listen, Y/N. The moment I saw you, I knew that I had to have you. Before you even started to dance, I knew what kind of ride you were – the first girl ever to open her mouth and be not up into my ass like all the others. I’m usually not the type to ask for anything, you should know that. But let me phrase it properly: Will you, Y/N, be my girlfriend? Or will you at least be willing to get to know me better?” He smiled that smile that would melt thousand of hearts in seconds, but you were still frowning, not sure of this situation. “I am willing of getting to know you, Grayson”, you bite your lip while nodding shyly, “But I still want to dance, you know that. I want to get paid the way you pay all your dancers, no benefits, okay? Dancing will be my job, we’ll see about the rest – that will start only in our private time, okay? You can invite me to dinner, I love sushi. Tomorrow, 7PM?” Out of nowhere, you got your confidence back, grinning at the man in front of you. Grayson couldn’t help but laugh.

“I’ve got myself a feisty one, huh? But fine, sushi it is. Wear something nice, though, I may or may not want to take you to another club afterwards”, he winks at you before standing up, looking down at you. “Mind escorting me to the door?” You nod, getting up as well and throwing your braids into a knot, relaxing your neck while doing so. “Oh, by the way. I met the other Dolan twin today. It was quite… interesting, I’d say. He even bought me those”, you giggled while lowering the waist band of your joggers, revealing some of the baby blue lace Ethan bought you earlier that day. “That dumbass even gave me his number, wanting me to send some pics in those.” You rolled your eyes, huffing at the thought of this greasy guy.

Grayson’s eyes widen at your confession, sitting back down on the couch in disbelief. “You met Ethan? And you didn’t tell me earlier? What did he say? What did he do? Does he know who you are? Oh, no, he couldn’t know. Are you going to call him?” “Grayson calm down! He was so weird, acting all flirty and stuff. I mean, I tried to flirt back, but I couldn’t because I kept thinking of Jalen. I still kept his number, though. What do you think?” You sat down next to him, popping your legs on the couch table while looking at the bill that kept Ethan’s number on it. Grayson scratched his beard, thinking about all those possibilities to ruin his brother.

“Tease him, send him pictures, try to get in his pants, I guess. But that would mean you couldn’t be the girl by my side… Mh. Fuck, Y/N that’s one of the best chances I’ve ever got. Okay, wait. Let’s do it like that: we’re still going out, doing all that official business stuff but you keep on hitting on Ethan, trying to convince him that you hate me with all your guts but you’re still with me because of my money, how’s that?”

You scrunched your nose at his idea, shaking your head no. “I’m not the type of girl to do that, Gray. It would be too obvious to be with both of you, don’t you think? I mean, Ethan doesn’t seem that dumb. But, I may or may not have a friend that he flirted to as well. I think she’d be up for it. She loves a challenge – and a good dick to ride on. How’s that? I just slip Zavi Ethan’s number, telling her to send some lingerie pics to him, trying to drive him crazy. And once he’s far up her ass, we’re destroying him and his business.” You raised an eyebrow, giving Grayson an asking look while typing Ethan’s number into your phone, sending Zavi the contact.

“Girl, I love you, I can officially say that. You’re a genius! But I got to say”, he eyes you from head to toe, smirking while doing so, “I think I’d still prefer salmon colored lace or silk on your body. Was your shopping day successful, angel?” You nod with a wide smile, thinking about all those luxurious lingerie sets that were ready to wear in your closet. “Yeah, it was wonderful. I was quite surprised though, I look fine as hell in salmon.” Grayson groaned quietly, nodding his head. “I bet you do, angel. I bet you do. I can’t wait to see it, mind to give me a show? I mean, I paid for it”, he winked at you, making you pout. “But I wanted to wear them for my first dance.”

“Dance for me, then.” Grayson kept his eyes on you, a soft smirk still plastered onto his beautiful lips while you stand up, basically running into your room to change into a nicer outfit. If Grayson wanted a show, he’s totally going to get one. Stripping out of your nasty clothes, you quickly slipped into your new lingerie set after removing the tags on them, turning around in front of your mirror with a proud smile on your lips. Salmon truly looked amazing on you, Grayson was right. You didn’t have a pole montaged into your living room, so you need to improvise in that, probably going for a lap dance or a striptease. One of your new favorite pieces you just bought today was a skin-tight dress made from black faux leather, hugging and stretching around your curves. It had so much cleavage, that you were unsure if your boobs were about to fall out during your dance, but they’d see them anyways – who cares? The back was something different, though. It was held by many straps, covered in rivets, giving it some sort of grunge vibe. To that, you’d usually wear some of your combat boots or over knees, but since you were at home anyways, you went barefoot.

Once you came back into the living room, you saw Grayson on his phone, probably checking up with his gang mates or whatever an important gang leader must do in his free time. Little did you know was that he already booked your dinner at this really fancy sushi place. You walk up to him, coughing quietly. “What’s your favorite song, Gray? What would you like to see me dance to?” You ask while standing in between his legs, caressing his thighs with your thumbs. Grayson lays his head back to take your appearance in, sighing at the view of your hips in that tight ass dress. “Fuck, angel”, he moans while gripping onto your love handles. “You could dance to anything and nothing, I wouldn’t mind at all. Look at you, girl.” He pulls you down onto his lap, smoothing out your braids over your back. “The worst thing is, I kind of know what’s underneath, but I haven’t seen it. So, what about me just ripping off that beautiful dress?”

You shake your head in amusement, standing up again before connecting your phone to the Bluetooth speaker, choosing ‘American Money’ by BØRNS. As soon as the soft bass starts, you sway your hips in front of Grayson, but he just shakes his head, pulling you back onto his lap while holding your chin between his fingers. “I can’t watch you just dance for now, babygirl”, his nose traces your jawline, inhaling your flowery scent with another groan while his hands explore your body. “I need to see you, need to taste you”, he mutters with closed eyes – leaving you almost paralyzed. His fingertips were melting into you skin, while his body was practically molding against yours, leaving no free space for anything. Opening his eyes again, Grayson traces the thin straps of your dress, biting his lip. “This makes you look so naughty, angel. Doesn’t it?” You nod, seeking for more than just his fingertips on your body, aching for his rough touch. “Grayson, please”, you mewl, rolling your lips between your teeth and looking down at him. “Please what, baby? Please, stop?” He grins, waiting for your answer. “No! Please, continue. Please, touch me. Please, remove this fucking dress”, you squirm around in his lap, searching for at least some friction.

“But, Y/N, I thought I came just to talk?”, he removes his hand from your collarbones, smiling innocently at you. Your blood was boiling, not wanting to waste any chance of getting Grayson into your bed. “Yeah, you did, but now I want you to fuck me, Mister Dolan.” Grayson loved the way his name rolled off your tongue, but he loved the sparkle you had in your eyes even more. “What was that, doll?” He needed to hear it once more, needed to hear her begging for more. “I want you to touch me, Gray.” Raising an eyebrow, Grayson gently rubs her back, her hair and her shoulders. “Like this?” You shake your head, whining in impatience. “No, you idiot. I want your hands here��, you place his large hands over your tits, helping him to squeeze them while grinding down on his slowly hardening dick, “while I need your tongue down there.”

His hands were fast to move to the bottom of her dress, rolling it up and revealing the fantastic set of lace that she bought just for him. Grayson breathed out through his opened lips, not believing what he was seeing. “Fuck, I fucking told you”, he emphasizes while quickly laying you down onto the couch, hovering over you with lust filled eyes. His fingers move to the already damp fabric, slowly tracing those flowers out of lace. Squirming, you were the one to remove your dress completely, enjoying his stare with a wide grin. “Look at what you bought, Mister Dolan. Don’t I look pretty for you?” “You look amazing, babygirl. You look like the queen you deserve to be”, Grayson breathes out as he picked you up, your legs tightly wrapped around his waist. “Where’s your bedroom?”

Just as you were about to tell him, Grayson’s phone began to ring, causing him to set you back onto the floor, picking up his phone with a groan. “What?”, he snaps, pinching the bridge of his nose, shooting you a sorry smile which you just shrugged off as you took another sip of your beer to calm your nerves down. You were really about to go there, even though you know nothing about this man besides that he’s fucking dangerous. On the other hand, he could give you anything you wanted, he could make your life hundred times better than it was by now. He had the opportunities – you didn’t. And by now, he was nothing but nice to you, as if he really wanted you by his side. “Taehyung, I already told you not to go that far all by yourself! I swear to god, if you get hurt, I’ll fucking shoot you!” Grayson’s loud voice dragged you out of your thoughts, making you look into his direction in confusion. He quickly mouthed a ‘sorry’ combined with an apologetic grin before continuing to talk. “Just take care, man. Alright, good luck, I’ll be there soon.”

You laughed as soon as Grayson had shoved his phone back into his pockets. “Don’t your own men listen to you, Mister Dolan? Where’s the authority?” Grayson laughed along with you. “Taehyung isn’t one of my… men. He’s most likely my best friend that wants to save my ass more often than I could save his. Speaking of, I need to head over to him before he ends up in the hospital once more.” He presses one soft kiss onto your blushing cheeks before walking towards the door. “I’m sure you’d like him too, but I need you to get to like me first! Tomorrow, 7 PM!”, he shouts before leaving into the dark night, doing whatever he needed to do.

Once your clock hit 6 PM, your nerves started to go wild again. You were pacing around your flat, trying to clean up even though you just spent an entire day cleaning just to calm down. Of course, you were already dressed and did your make up, but you’ve been changing your dress at least 5 times, drew your eyebrows on twice and couldn’t decide for the perfect lip gloss for another solid 15 minutes. Grayson stressed you out, even though your “date” hasn’t even started yet. You spent the entire night thinking about what he had said to you, about the girlfriend thing and living with him, but you were still unsure. He has been nice to you two times, but you didn’t know him, didn’t know what he does in his “job” and you didn’t know if he would be loyal or if all of this would be just for the outer world. All you knew about him was that he was fucking powerful – and that scared you.

At 6.54 PM, Grayson texted you to come outside, so you quickly applied one more layer of lip gloss before slipping into your heels and heading out. Gasping, you couldn’t help but adore the car he was standing in front of: a dark grey Corvette Z06, one of your most favorite cars in the entire world. “Fuck, Grayson”, you basically moaned, walking towards the car, touching it with sparkling eyes. “Hello to you too, angel”, Grayson laughed before pulling you into his arms softly, pressing a kiss to both your cheeks. “I see you like my car for the night?” You not quickly, smiling at him. “Can I drive?” Grayson’s chest moved against your head as he chuckled, looking at you in amusement. “Not tonight, this is one of my favorite cars, I wouldn’t even trust Tae to drive it. C’mon get in!” He guided you to the passenger’s side, opening the door for you and watched you get in before closing it, running over to his side. Once he started the motor, you couldn’t contain your envy. “I will be your girlfriend if I can drive this car. The interior is even better, this car is pure sex.” “Keep on talking angel and we won’t make it to the restaurant”, Grayson glanced at you while maneuvering the car through the traffic, soft beats coming out of the speakers while Los Angeles’ skyline passed your windows.

“It is so beautiful at night, yet so dangerous”, you mutter with a sad expression on your face, thinking about the night you heard about Jalen’s death. “It is, but who am I to judge?”, Grayson answers, leaving the car in silence again. He was right, you thought. If his and his brother wouldn’t be in those gangs, your brother would probably still be alive. Grayson breaks the comfortable silence shortly after, announcing that you arrived at the sushi place.

“Urasawa? Grayson, this is literally the most expensive place. Believe me, I’m fine with ‘Roll Roll Roll’, really. No need to spent hundreds of dollars for some raw fish…”, you mumbled as you gawked at the luxurious restaurant, but Grayson ignored you, opening your door and holding out his arm for you to hold on to. Sighing, you stepped out of the comfortable car, grabbing Grayson’s muscular biceps as you walked in together. One of the waitresses came up to you, showing you your booth as soon as Grayson mentioned his name, leaving you two in the most private area after taking your orders.

“So, Y/N, why don’t you tell me something about yourself? Did you go to university?”, Grayson asked as he took a sip of his water. You played with the water droplets that were running down your own glass, shaking your head. “No. I was about to go to university, but then Jalen died, I needed to help my parents pay for his funeral. Then, I fell in some kind of black hole, couldn’t handle my own feelings and decided to take some time off. Well, I never applied after that, working here and there to pay my rent. College wasn’t a topic for me ever since. By now, I’m too old to attempt, I guess. Did you?” Not wanting to talk about you all night, you decided to ask him some questions too, wanting to know everything about him and his life. Grayson nodded.

“I did, but only two years, never finished because… well, the gang happened. Ethan and I were both going to UCLA, I studied law and forensic studies, while Ethan went for art and humanities – even though our dad wanted us to study architecture. But then, things got weird and difficult with us, so we stopped and went our own ways, you probably know the story”, Grayson shrugged as the waitress brought your food. You smiled at her as she placed the plate in front of you, Grayson didn’t even look at her. Once she was gone, you tried to get him talking more. “What happened between Ethan and you? I know what the street says, but I want your story.” “You should eat, Y/N. We can talk about this another time.”

The rest of the dinner went on with some small talk, but you learned quite some things about Grayson. He loved wasabi, even ate it without pieces of sushi. He didn’t do drugs, even though he was one of the biggest drug lords out there – he hated people that bought from him, but he makes his money with him, so who would he be to decline that? His mother and his sister are still in contact with Ethan, but not him. His dad passed away because of cancer, which caused him to donate around a million Dollars to a children’s hospice. You frowned, feeling bad for him and his loss, but also admiring him for his strength to still lead that empire on his own – starting to hate Ethan more and more. “Don’t worry, I’m fine by now. Learned to hold my head higher than they do. I don’t get called el diablo for nothing”, Grayson winked at you while eating his last piece of sushi, making you giggle, but also smile in admiration. “What is your favorite childhood memory?” You asked while continuing to eat, curious if he’d tell you something about his past. Grayson remained quiet, obviously thinking about it before answering. “Probably something with my dad. Whenever Ethan was sick, dad and I would go out and do things on our own. It was fun, almost like I was an only child, not having to share experiences with my twin, you know? Full attention on me. Not having to share dad or mom, something like that”, he shrugs. Nodding, you finished your sushi as well, laying back in your chair to relax your stomach. “I’m so full”, you groaned with an exhausted laugh, Grayson joining in. “You ate more than I expected, not that it’s a bad thing. Usually the girl I take on business meetings with me just eat some appetizers. I must’ve looked like Son Goku next to them, eating all the time.” Smiling, the two of you kept having a comfortable conversation, getting to know each other better and better, leaving you with the thought that Grayson wasn’t a monster at all.

Days have passed, conversations were shared, and memories already made. By now, you knew that Grayson wasn’t the tough man he pretends to be, you found his soft spot, even though you’ve been now living with him for little less than a month. You decided the day after your date night, that Grayson was right: you two were meant to be. All your worries were for nothing, Grayson cared about you as much as you learned to care about him. Including staying up the entire night whenever he didn’t come home, cleaning his wounds whenever he got into a fight and helping him with any paperwork that was bothering him. A smile stole its way onto your lips as you thought about your argument during your second week of living with him.

You just got into the car with Grayson, glitter covering your body, barefoot and an exhausted look on your face. “You tired, angel?”, Grayson hold your hand while driving, caressing it with his thumb. “Mh, yeah”, you yawn, head pressed against the window, about to close your eyes. He looked over at you, smiling, while he realized something on your exposed neck. His grip got tighter; eyebrows furrowed. “What’s that on your neck?” “Hmm?” “Is that a hickey, Y/N?” Turning your head in confusion, you rolled your eyes at him. “Probably something you did last night, babe.” Grayson shook his head. “I didn’t, this time. What happened during that privat dance? I told you not to make out with any of your costumers!” You shot him a glance that could kill – if Grayson wasn’t already used to your stubborn head. “Thank you for calling them ‘costumers’ as if I was some slut fucking for payment. I dance, Grayson. I don’t even strip that often, remember? You should, because you’re always there when I’m on stage. That private dance was just me on the pole, I didn’t even give him a lap dance, I don’t know what you’re seeing, but it definitely isn’t a hickey.” Rolling your eyes, you laid your head back again, huffing at his assumptions. Soon enough, Grayson’s finger was tracing your neck, touching the ‘hickey’ – and realizing that it stuck to his fingers. “Ew”, he said, looking at his index finger, causing you to break out in a massive laughter. “That, my dear, is lipstick. My own lipstick, to be exact.”

That night, Grayson ended up showing you who you really belong to – him, no one else.

That night, you stopped dancing for clienté, leaving Grayson to be the only one to enjoy your hips swinging to slow music.

That night, you fell in love with Grayson, because you realized he actually cared for you.

Smiling, you looked down at your intertwined fingers, gently squeezing Grayson’s hand as the two of you walked towards the empty beach, large cones with ice cream in your hands. “I’m glad this part of town is mine, I wouldn’t know what to do without Marco’s ice cream”, Grayson confesses while happily licking at his lemon ice cream. You nod, stuffing your face with the mixture of hazelnut and melon you chose, leaving Grayson cringing. “I don’t get your taste.” “I can never eat just milk ice cream, but just fruity ice cream is boring either. So, the only logical thing to do is just pick one of each”, you shrug as you bite into your cone. “Never liked that though”, you hand him the waffle as soon as every drop of ice cream was in your mouth. Grayson takes it, basically eating it in one piece, speaking as he was still chewing. “How can someone not like the waffle?” You shrugged, nudging his side and you started to run down the street, enjoying the wind in your hair, laughing as Grayson started to sprint towards you, trying to run faster than him. “I don’t need a girl that’s fitter than I am, Y/N!”, he laughs as he finally catches you, pulling you closer to him and pressing a soft peck onto your nose. Then, he wraps one of his arms around you, hugging you from the side while walking towards the soft breeze of Venice Beach. “Haven’t been here since… you know”, you whispered as you slowed down, terrified and anxious about your feelings. Were you ready to get confronted with that? “It took me a while to come back too. But I want to show you something. Jalen once told me how he imagined some nice guy taking you here, walking with you on the beach, enjoying the comfortable silence. Are you okay with me being that nice guy tonight? Fuck it, not just tonight. Always.”

Your eyes widened in surprise, allowing you to just nod. “Just… don’t leave me there, be by my side, okay? I don’t think I could handle it all by myself.” Grayson’s eyes got soft immediately, his fingers playing with the braids that fell over your shoulder. “You’ll never be alone again, Y/N. I promise you that.” Then, he guided you towards the water, lacing your fingers with his and pulling you closer to his side. Soft rustling noises were heard from the ocean, even some seagulls were still flying around, chirping above your heads. “Should we sit down here?”, Grayson quietly interrupts your thoughts, pointing to a clean spot in the sand. Once you nodded, he pulled you in between his legs, sitting down with you against his chest. “I’ve never done that with a girl, romantic stuff.” “Really? Not even in high school?” “No. It is difficult to date when your brother is always the one who gets the girls. I was always their second choice whenever Ethan didn’t want them. So, I preferred staying single instead of being just the Ethan lookalike. But let’s not talk about that, let’s make it to a moment you will ever remember and a night that you will never forget.”

And well, you did.

Grayson pulled you towards the water, the two of you only in underwear, deciding to go for a midnight swim. “Gray, please tell me nobody will see us”, you asked in worry, but Grayson just shook his head. “I promise you, baby. No one comes ever to this part of the beach, it’s el diablo territory – and I told my guys that we would be here tonight. But if you don’t want to…” “No! I want it, but… not in my underwear”, you grinned at him while slowly unclasping your bra, letting it fall onto the ground where all your other clothes were neatly folded, your slip soon following. “C’mon, baby.” You ran into the cold water, yelping at the feeling, but laughing as soon as you realized you were back in your element, letting yourself fall under the surface. Grayson laughed, enjoying your carefree side – and the view – before he stepped out of his boxers and ran towards you, embracing your naked body with his own, warming you up and engulfing you in comfort. Your skin was glistering from all those water droplets reflecting the moonlight, you were stunning, like Selene herself. Grayson’s personal goddess of the moon, of the night – and of his life.

Grayson on the other hand looked like a mixture of Hades and Nyx – if she was a man -, fitting perfectly into the night, shining under the starry sky. His broad shoulders broke the soft waves on the water surface, his strong arms holding you up against him. “You’re so beautiful, angel”, he whispered as he admired your simple beauty. You smiled at him, tracing his tattoos with your fingertips. “You’re a piece of art. I love every single one of your tattoos”, you hum. “I… love you.” There you said it, looking at Grayson with wide eyes, just like a shy deer, scared of his reaction. Grayson’s face softens immediately, mouth hanging open before it cracks into a smile, pressing soft little kisses around your mouth. “I love you too, angel. I never thought I’d say that, but I love you. I love you. I love you.” His hands were everywhere, showing how much he loved every part of you, starting from your face down to your neck, your arms, your fingertips, going back up again to caress the curves of your breasts, your hips and your butt before he grabs your legs to wrap around his waist.

You didn’t even break eye contact once, not as he touched your nipples, nor as he slowly enters you. Both of your lips were parted, chests pressed against each other’s as you moved gently against Grayson, soft hums leaving both of your mouths as the water around you started to move with your actions. “Grayson”, you whimper as he buried his face into the crook of your neck, his teeth teasing the sensitive skin. “I’m here, baby.” His soft thrusts grew unsteadied, whimpers turning into moans as Grayson hits the right spot each time. Again, you couldn’t believe that this tough, almost criminal man was so soft when it comes to you. You tilt your head back, looking up to the stars and start to ask yourself how you out of all people deserved to get this man. “I love you, Gray”, you moaned out as you clenched around him, your orgasm coming in stronger than the waves around you. “Fuck, angel, I love you.” With that, Grayson came too but remained inside you while you shared this intimate moment, soft kisses and many whispered promises, before you eventually went in for another round.

[riarushi]

mark as your badminton partner.

❥ genre- fem!reader, fluff, friends to lovers, idk sports?

❥ word count- 3.3k

I've wanted to do this for so long :') I play badminton myself and have been training for 2 years, so when I started stanning NCT and saw that Mark liked badminton I was super happy. I know this is my second Mark piece but anyways, please enjoy it! ~Ness

ミ☆ 

You got partnered with Mark at the beginning of the season.

You coach wanted to try rearranging the lineup, so he put his favourite singles players together as a mixed doubles team.

So now you and Mark are partners.

It wasn’t like you didn’t know him, though.

There were times when you warmed up with him.

From those, you picked up a bit of his playing style.

He was a little bit playful and ambitious, preferring quick attacks like smashes and kills.

Although his judgement wasn’t always the best.

Sometimes, he would hit the net and laugh nervously as he went to pick up the birdie.

You, on the other hand, were a little more cautious.

Every move you made was calculated in some way.

The angle of your birdie, the position of your opponent, you position, etc.

There was always something that determined your next move.

That contrast made you and Mark the perfect mixed doubles team.

However, the first few practices didn’t reflect that.

Neither of you were used to having another person on court.

You would constantly bump into him at the center.

He even hit you with his racket a few times.

“Sorry! Sorry! I forgot to look in front of me, haha...”

Mark massages the back of your head, handing you your water bottle with his free hand.

You smile, and take the water as Mark removes his hand from your head.

“It’s fine, we’re still getting used to this.”

The two of you return to the court after hearing your coach shouting.

You definitely weren’t as skilled as the previous mixed doubles team.

After playing with them for a while, you and Mark couldn’t even score 10 points.

They each came to give their tips and to their respective opponent.

“It’s not that you two aren’t a good pair, in fact your play styles are matched perfectly,” the girl previously in your position explained.

“My net shots aren’t as good as yours.” You laughed tapping your racket against the side of your leg.

“Oh, it’s not that! You guys just need to bond a little. Makes the teamwork better, ya feel?”

You nodded.

“I hung out with that idiot a whole bunch once we were partnered.” She pointed at the guy currently joking around with Mark. “If I didn’t I think playing badminton with him would’ve been way too awkward.”

ミ☆

Taking your predecessor’s advice, you ask your partner to join you for dinner after practice.

“Mark, do you wanna grab something to eat?”

He looks up from his bag, eyes staring into yours.

“Sure, if you want. I don’t have anything to do anyways.”

You settle for a small restaurant.

Nothing fancy, but a place where you can sit and chat comfortably. 

You learn quite a lot about him that you never knew before.

He had a passion for music, he disliked sciences, and he had a huge friend group that he shared a house with.

In return, you told him lots about yourself.

Your interests, your friends and family, and some funny life stories.

When the food arrived and you couldn’t finish, he helped you eat the rest.

He’s a growing boy still.

By the end of the night, it felt like you had already become pretty close.

“So that’s why your racket grips are always green?” you ask, laughing as he bounces his bag higher onto his shoulders.

“Look, my friends are ridiculous. I can never buy rackets myself ‘cause they know I’ll try to get a different colour!” he whines.

“It’s kinda cute that you guys have a squad colour, though~”

“Nooo, I want a blue grip or something! Anything other than green! It’s so embarrassing when they come to tournaments..”

ミ☆

You thought it was an exaggeration, but Mark wasn’t kidding when he said they were embarrassing at tournaments.

The famed Jaehyun, Johnny, and Donghyuck from the stories were all hooting loudly as you two stood on court for your first game together.

You had met them formally prior to the match.

Although they acted polite towards you, you could hear them teasing Mark the second you turned around.

“So when are you guys gonna make it official?”

“Dude, we’re literally just badminton partners.”

“Hey, you never know.”

“It won’t happen!”

You couldn’t help but stifle a giggle as Mark’s friends continued to push the idea.

It really helped relieve the stress you had for your first match.

Here you are, on court with your partner getting ready to serve.

It’s nerve-wracking.

As soon as the birdie goes over the net, your mind switches to game mode.

There are more variables than you’re used to, since two more people had been added to your usual setup.

Not to mention the court was bigger.

Just like in practice, you and Mark bump into each other a few times.

He still wasn’t used to covering you if you went back, either.

Formations a little messy, the two of you lose your first set by quite a bit.

Your coach comes over to give his advice before the next set.

“What do you think went wrong there?”

You and Mark look at each other, unsure of what to say.

“Both of you can do better than that. Your formations were fine last practice, what’s up here?”

When he doesn’t get a response, your coach sighs. “Talk it out with each other.”

He leaves the two of you staring at each other.

“So, um...” Mark starts, spinning his racket in between his fingers.

You let out a little laugh. “I’m just a little nervous, sorry.”

“Don’t be nervous! You were doing great,” he comforted. “Did you see that kill you did near the end? I could never do that.”

“Oh, really? I think that smash you did to the front right was just as good.”

He smiles at your compliment and readies himself for the next set.

Although you lost the game, you and Mark definitely improved during the second set, only losing by 2 points.

You high-fived each other after the last point before returning to Mark’s screaming friends.

“HOW COULD YOU LOSE? YOU WERE USING YOUR LUCKY RACKET!”

“YOU WERE THE ONE WHO CHOSE THIS ONE, I’VE NEVER EVEN PLAYED WITH IT BEFORE.”

ミ☆

Since that tournament, you and Mark have been training more and more.

Your skills have been going up quite quickly, actually.

The two of you never bump into each other, and Mark instinctively covers whatever you can’t.

You’re starting to finally become a solid doubles team :’)

Your friendship has been growing stronger as well.

Both of you always eat dinner together after practice.

Though you’ve eaten at a couple of restaurants with him, the first one you went to remains superior.

Mark agrees.

There’s a lot more that you to about with each other, too.

You two feel more comfortable sharing more personal things, like your opinions on other teams and your friends.

Truly a close bond uwu

Of course, this reflects with your improved teamwork as well.

Your coach is happy that he doesn’t have to keep pointing out mistakes since you two point them out for him.

“Mark! You’re supposed to hit at 45 degrees, not 12!”

I know how to do a clear, okay?! I wasn’t even that late!”

“Oh yeah? Then why did it go to the middle left?”

“Shut up! You can’t even hit a net shot without letting the other person kill!”

Of course, it’s all playful.

You guys have grown to care a lot for each other.

Mark makes sure to also fill your water bottle every time he fills his own.

You bring extra snacks for him in case he gets hungry.

From a distance, you guys look like that one athletic couple™.

Which is friends love teasing him about.

You’ve spent the night over at their house a couple times now.

Since the training center is closer to Mark’s home than yours, it makes getting to morning practices a lot easier.

His friends adore you by the way.

At least three of them can’t stop pinching your cheeks (aka Johnny, Yuta, and Jaemin).

They treat you like royalty as the bully Mark about his friendship with you.

“Are you sure you’re not dating? Because I think I’ll take Y/N if you don’t~” Yukhei teases.

“Stoooooopppppp, leave me alooooonnnneeeee!”

Whenever you stay over, Mark lets  you take his bed while he sleeps on the couch

What a gentleman uwu

His bed is super comfy.

And it smells nice, unlike the sweaty Mark you usually have to be around.

You always fall asleep pretty quickly under his covers.

The next morning, you’re perfectly rested up and ready for practice.

Unlike your partner, who barely got any rest with his roommates walking in and out of the living room all night.

ミ☆

You didn’t tell him yet, and you made sure he couldn’t see it last night.

But you had a little surprise for him this practice.

You tap your partner’s shoulder as he pulls out his gear from his bag.

“Mark! Guess what?”

“Mhm? What is it?”

Unable to keep the smile off your face, you pull out a racket from behind your back.

“I got you something!”

Mark looks at the object, then back at you before taking it from your hands.

“You like it heavier on the head, right?”

He nods, adjusting his grip and doing a couple of small test swings.

“But most importantly...”

You grab his wrist, prying a few of his fingers off the handle.

“The grip isn’t green!”

Mark smiles, admiring the vibrant blue colour you had chosen for him.

“Thank you, Y/N. It’s perfect.”

“Wait! There’s something else I wanna show you, too!”

You run over to your bag, Mark watching as you rummage around in it and pull something out.

“Tada!”

His smile grows wider as you run back, holding another racket in your hand.

“Is that new, too?” he asks.

You nod happily.

“I got it to match with yours, see? Same colours~”

You hold the racket beside Mark’s to let him look at the matching patterns and shades.

“But my racket is balanced, hehe.”

Your partner’s eyes sparkle as he admires your racket while you practice, glancing at his occasionally.

He better hide this one, or his roommates will whine AND tease him.

That’s pretty much overkill.

ミ☆

“Hey, Mark? Can you fill my water bottle again?”

His eyebrows raise slightly in surprise, but he nods and grabs the bottle.

When he returns, you start chugging the water.

“Woah woah woah.” He pushes the bottle down, take it out of your hands. “Why are you drinking so much? You might throw up on court.”

“Sorry, I’m just really nervous..” You closer your eyes and sit down on the bench.

“Don’t be. We’ve gotten pretty good, we even beat the last pair we versed.”

“I know but... this pair is supposed to be super good.”

You remember the previous mixed doubles player warning you about this duo.

They’ve been partners for years, of course their play would be perfected.

You and Mark on the other hand, have only been partners for a little over three months.

“I don’t think we can beat them like coach said..”

You head your partner sigh as he grabs your hand, placing your racket in it.

“We can, okay? Trust me, I got you.”

He places a chaste kiss on your forehead before grabbing his own racket and walking towards the court.

When your eyes open, they immediately gravitate towards Mark and his bright blue racket grip.

The match was more than you were expecting.

Although you weren’t losing terribly, it felt like you couldn’t keep up. 

Every time you tied, something would happen, causing you and Mark to lose the serve.

You ended up losing the first set and just barely winning the second.

The two of you step off the court as the referees call for a quick break.

“We have... a third set to play...” Mark says in between pants.

You nod, setting your water bottle on the bench after downing everything inside.

“We’re so close...”

“And you thought we couldn’t beat them.”

Shoving his racket into his chest, you try to hide a smile.

“Get serious... or else we’re gonna lose.”

He chuckles.

“Okay, okay..”

ミ☆

Please... Please don’t mess this up...

You take a deep breath before serving gently.

They were so close to winning, they had 20 points.

You and Mark were way behind at 11, and were lucky enough to get the serve.

Any mistake and you could lose the game.

With a smash, Mark gets another point.

“Nice one, Mark.” You scoop up the birdie, switching sides and readying your racket again.

You feel a tap on your shoulder just as you’re about to serve.

“Serve high,” your partner whispers.

You turn around, worried. “Isn’t that risky?” you ask quietly.

“Trust me.”

Nodding, you wait for him to get back in position before serving.

The boy in the other pair runs to hit it to your left.

Quickly chasing after it, you toss it just over the net onto the other side of the court.

Surprised, the girl fumbles and misses the birdie.

Another point for you and Mark.

He smiles, spinning his racket in his hands as he walks over to his side of the court.

Making cautious yet accurate attacks, you somehow manage to tie with the other team.

Meaning, you have to play a deuce.

“Just two points, Y/N.. Two more points and we win...”

You can hear the nervousness in Mark’s voice.

“Play safe, be ready.”

Mark walks a little bit closer to the middle of his side, ready to defend.

At your serve, everyone moves around the court, readying for the next move.

The two of you are pushed into defence, returning the bird side by side as your opponents attempt to drive it into the ground.

When the opposing boy drops it to the front, Mark quickly dives to save it.

You move to cover the back, smashing the return onto the other side of the net.

One more point..

“Not bad, Y/N.. Didn’t know you could hit that hard...” Mark pats your back as he passes, mustering the best smile her can.

“I used to be a singles player too, y’know...”

Taking a deep breath, you ready yourself for what you hope is the final serve of the game.

You can feel your partner watching you, and you turn to see the nervousness and excitement in his stance.

He lifts up his pinky, signalling you to serve high again.

“You really need to stop being such a showoff..,” you playfully mock him.

Your partner only smirks at your comment.

The birdie flies to the back, quickly being received by the opposing female.

In response, you aim the birdie to the open spot she leaves in the front.

Unfortunately, she’s quick to get back in time to hit it, allowing her partner to return comfortably to his position in the back.

Her push goes straight to the middle, a perfect place for Mark to attack.

You aren’t exactly sure where he is on court, so you decide to position yourself in the center just in case.

Mark, however, didn’t realize you were trying to attack and collided with you.

“Mark! Hurry! Get back up!!” you shout, panicked.

You aim the birdie aimlessly, allowing the other team to start attacking as Mark tries to push himself off the ground.

“I’m gonna knock you over if you don’t get out of the way!”

“I can’t! They keep hitting here!”

The other team has clearly caught onto a strategy.

By keeping the more aggressive player on the ground, they have a chance to confuse you and gain the serve.

“Just smash! Do something!” your partner yells.

You nod, watching the high receive you were just given.

Trying to hit something that gives Mark time to get up, you gently push the birdie to the front corner of the court.

Mark gets up quickly, only to have nothing to receive.

“Did we just...”

“We just won..”

You turn around to face your partner, who had a smile just as big as yours plastered on his face.

“Mark! We won!!”

Squealing, you drop your racket and run towards him with your arms out.

He lets go of his own and catches you in a hug, letting you wipe your tears of joy all over his sweaty chest.

“I told you we could do it, didn’t I?”

You feel his hand gently stroking your hair, but his quick heartbeat contrasted his calming actions.

Excited from the win and your love TT

Even though your teammates and friends were cheering loudly, all you could hear was the pounding of your partner’s heart.

You were so glad to win with Mark.

ミ☆

“I saw that racket grip! When and how did you change it?!” Donghyuck pouted, hitting Mark’s bag.

Your partner groans. “It’s a gift, okay? I didn’t choose the colour.”

“But you still used it? Just keep using the old one!”

“Clearly,” Johnny chimes in. “You didn’t see Y/N’s racket on the floor.”

He points at the handle sticking out of your bag, causing you to hide it from view.

You could feel your face getting warmer as the older boy laughs at your actions.

“Oh? Are they matching?” Donghyuck wiggles his eyebrows, nudging Mark’s side.

In the dark, you’re unable to notice the blush that had crept onto your partner’s cheeks.

“No response! So they are matching~ I’m so gonna tell Chenle about this one!”

“Hyuck, shut up.”

Johnny chuckles. “Okay, okay. Get in the car kids, it’s getting late and this old man needs rest.”

You whine.

“Johnny, you’re not that much older than us!”

ミ☆

“I still can’t believe that we won.”

Mark smiles at your words, tugging one of his large hoodies over your smaller frame.

“Like, you went woooooossshhhh and then ran after the receive like swiisshhhhhhh...”

He chuckles, watching as you reenact the scene with your sweater paws.

“I know, I honestly shocked myself.”

“What? But you were so cool about it, Mark!”

“Oh, was I?”

You nod. “You were like, ‘Oh, I just hit a shot that was impossible to receive, lemme wipe the sweat off my forehead~’ like it was nothing!”

While describing the event, you dramatically place the back of your hand on your own forehead and throw your head back.

“Okay, you child. Do you wanna watch movies tonight or not?”

You giggle, making your way to the living room.

“Dunno if I’m gonna be able to focus though.”

The two of you watch movies until you start getting sleepy.

With your eyelids getting heavy, you rest your head on Mark’s shoulder.

His arm makes its way around you.

“Wanna go back to your room?” he asks, tucking some loose hair behind your ear.

You nod against him, eyes already shut.

He picks you up and takes you to his bedroom, setting you down on the mattress.

“Goodnight, Y/N.”

Just as he’s about to leave, you grab his sleeve.

“Did you shower today?”

He raises an eyebrow, though you can’t see in the dark room.

“Yeah, of course I did.”

“Hmmm...”

“Don’t tease me now, Y/N..”

You feel the sides of your lips being tugged at when you hear the pout in his voice.

“Sleep here tonight.”

Your words shock yourself, but you try not to move as you wait for Mark’s answer.

After a few moments, you feel his sleeve leave your fingers and the covers move.

“I have to be honest, the couch sucks,” Mark says, his weight causing the mattress to sink a little.

You smile, shuffling closer to Mark to wrap your arms around him.

“Night, Markie..”

Mark presses a kiss to the top of your head.

“Night, my little champion...”

[straykidsramblings]

head over heels. [han jisung]

producer!han jisung x fem!reader feat. 3racha | college!au

word count: ~3.7K

genre: fluff

summary: Jisung falls head over heels (quite literally) for a girl and finds himself struggling to cope with the situation he’s placed himself in.

Jisung wouldn’t be able to tell you what possessed him to go running that morning, but that was just about the best decision he’d made since he chose Music Composition as his major at SK University. Maybe it was the fact that Chan had been talking about needing to go back to the gym. Maybe it was the fact that Changbin always wore muscle tees in the studio because, as he claimed, “it was too hot.” (Honestly, spring wasn’t that hot of a season.) Maybe it was the fact that Jeongin, the youngest of their friend group, had abs. Whatever the reason was, Jisung Han found himself on a run at 7:19 on a Tuesday morning.

As he stepped out of the dorm building, he immediately put in earphones before he faced any awkward silences. Jisung was a musically-oriented man. He also used this as an excuse to always be listening to some kind of music. Once the earphones were in, Jisung was out. Stretching lightly, he took one last deep breath before breaking into a steady jog.

He started out fairly okay. After all, Jisung had typically made healthy choices in life. It wasn’t that he didn’t work out. It wasn’t that he didn’t have stamina. It just wasn’t enough.

His course consisted of a lap around the [distance] campus. This early in the morning, Jisung was confident that no one would even be up to see him. The only people who would be awake are the suckers who had an 8 a.m. class. At that point, they’re usually too dead inside to even pay attention to him. He was off to a good start, pacing himself properly in order not to exhaust his stamina.

The cool air was nice against his skin as he ran. With the sun rising steadily, his surroundings shined with a golden glint. Jisung did enjoy the in morning jogs. Unfortunately, he wasn’t always awake at this time of the morning. Jisung was not exactly known for being a morning person after all.

He was about halfway around his course when he met her. He was just passing the neighboring town’s park when his brown eyes caught sight of a dog across the road. He supposed he had forgotten about people walking their dogs until it was too late to turn back. However, the girl who was walking the dog really caught Jisung’s attention.

She was captivating. Her hair color switched between two different colors depending on the angle of the rays of the sun. [eye color] eyes laughed lovingly at her dog as he pranced around in front of her. Her lips were curled into a smile as if she genuinely seemed to enjoy life. She seemed so at peace and content with life that Jisung couldn’t help but stare. He knew it was a little bit creepy, especially at 7:43 in the morning, but he just couldn’t focus on anything but her. He didn’t even notice he’d slow down his pace significantly to look at her for a little bit longer (again, he promised he was NOT a creep).

Was she his age? She looked it. Did she go to the same Uni? Hopefully.

As Jisung kept pondering over the unanswered questions, the girl finally noticed the intense stare that wouldn’t leave her alone. She turned to his direction.

The moment that their eyes met, Jisung felt his heart leap in his chest. She was looking at him; she was actually looking at him. She was just as gorgeous as he thought he was.

Jisung must have had some expression on his face because the girl started laughing at him. Jisung managed an awkward smile back. He was never this nervous around other girls who were only inches apart from him, but this girl walking on the other side of the road made him feel like he was about to have a heart attack. And then she waved. Jisung raised a shaking hand to wave back at her, but he felt himself fall before he was able to stop himself.

The next thing he remembered was staring up at the sky. His earphones had fallen out, so he was able to hear the bark of a dog coming closer to him. He shut his eyes as his mind registered the pain signals his body was sending.

“Are you okay?” a worried voice asked.

Hearing an unknown voice, Jisung slowly opened his eyes to see the girl of his dreams observing him with a concerned expression.

“Wow, you’re amazing,” Jisung mumbled.

“What?”

“…amazingly kind,” Jisung covered up to the best of his abilities with a small chuckle. He cleared his throat as the girl helped him sit up. He tried to act as natural as possible. “I guess this means I’ve fallen for you.”

“Well…” the girl started, clearly not wanting to explain. She was looking at something a little ways ahead of them. Her dog sat patiently beside her. “You fell for something.”

She bit her bottom lip (something Jisung found absolutely adorable) as she refrained herself from laughing. It was only then that Jisung had the mind to look at what she was looking at.

It was dog poop. Jisung had slipped and fallen because of dog poop. He could still see the streak his shoes made.

The embarrassment ran to his cheeks as his expression changed into one of terror. That was enough to ruin the girl’s failed attempt at not laughing. Although her laugh was beautiful and made Jisung wonder if that was the sound he would hear upon entering heaven, he wanted nothing more than to run away. He couldn’t look at her straight in the eyes.

“So, uh,” Jisung began although he didn’t exactly know where to go from there. “I’m probably just gonna go home and clean this.” Anything to get out of this situation.

“I’m so sorry,” the girl laughed apologetically. “I really shouldn’t be laughing.”

Jisung rose to his feet. “Oh, no, no, no. It’s okay. I would be laughing too if I were in your shoes. But the problem is that I’m in mine, and mine have dog poop on them so…”

Her laugh at his joke almost made the entire thing worth it. Almost.

“I’m just gonna go then,” Jisung forced a laugh before setting back on his course. He debated taking his shoe off, but then he would be walking around without any form of defense. He wasn’t sure which one was worse.

The girl waved goodbye to him, her dog happily standing on his four feet. She was smiling—at least that was good. Jisung decided to go back to the dorms as quickly as possible with as little damage as possible. Curse morning runs.

Jisung avoided working out for a few days after the incident. Instead, he poured more of his time into the studio that he shared with Changbin and Chan, two of his friends. The three of them often collaborated on songs. Their ultimate goal after Jisung (as the youngest) graduated was to form a trio of producers. While he enjoyed their company, his mind kept wandering back to the beautiful girl he had seen that one morning at 7:45 that morning. He didn’t even catch her name. Maybe that’s why he found himself walking one Friday morning in the park where he had met her.

He figured he could play it off as an 8 a.m. class on Friday, but he supposed he dressed a little too nicely for that. Most students with a morning class were dressed is sweat everything; Jisung elected to dress in a crewneck sweatshirt, his best pair of jeans, and his new Converse. Casual, but not sweatpants. Sweatpants were the epitome of indifference.

He tried to look as casual as possible, sticking his earphones in without actually listening to anything. His active eyes constantly glancing around at the area around him, he also occasionally checked his watch as naturally as possible. The time was 7:30, a little bit earlier than the last time he had met her, but he had faith that he would meet her again. Maybe her dog would do him a favor and insist on being taken out early.

He heard her before he saw her.

“Whoa, Milkshake, slow down!”

He assumed Milkshake was the name of her dog. Preparing himself mentally, he relaxed his muscles down to a casual stroll. He slowly put his hand into his pocket and began to whistle. He heard her angelic laugh as she approached him, his heart skipping a beat.

“What’s gotten into you, girl?” the girl laughed.

He felt the dog sniff around his feet, prompting him to a halt. The girl stared at the dog for a second longer before glancing up at the person that her animal had stopped. Judging by the enlightened expression on her face, she seemed to have remembered him.

“You’re the guy who slipped on dog poop,” the girl recalled. After realizing what she said and seeing Jisung chuckled awkwardly, she tried to play it off. “And the funny guy! I wish I could’ve talked to you longer before.”

That definitely managed to make him feel better.

“I’m guessing you have a class since you’re not dressed to run?”

Jisung cleared his throat, removing his earphones to hang them around his neck. “Oh yeah, I’ve got this dumb 8 a.m. class on Fridays. It kinda sucks.”

The girl hummed. “So, I’ve heard. I was careful not to take any.”

“Oh, so do you go here too?” Jisung asked, possibly a little too excitedly. He yelled at himself in his head.

The girl nodded with a smile. She didn’t seem to mind. “Yeah, but I live really close by, so I just live off campus. It’s cheaper on my family that way too since they don’t have to pay for room and boarding.”

Jisung tried not to let his excitement get to his face as the two began to walk side-by-side together. It was so natural too, Milkshake trotting ahead of them. Jisung was careful not have any more mishaps.

“Oh, I’m [name], by the way,” she introduced herself. “[name] [last name].”

“Jisung Han,” replied Jisung.

“You know, if you’re heading to a class, I can walk with you. If you’re okay with that, of course. I would be out walking Milkshake anyway, so, if you don’t mind the company, I’d love to keep talking.”

The nervousness was starting to set in again. The effect she had on him was really no joke. His palms were beginning to feel clammy, so he rubbed them against the side of his jeans as nonchalantly as possible. He wasn’t sure if the lump in his throat would make his voice crack or make him cry. He couldn’t maintain eye contact with her for too long in case he wouldn’t be able to look anywhere else again. He would be tempted to only look at her. How could one person be so perfect to him?

“Yeah, I’d love some company!” Jisung exclaimed, attempting a smile. It felt forced, but did it look it?

“Great! So, where are we headed?”

“Uh…” Considering the fact that Jisung was actually not on his way to an 8 a.m. class, the question required more thought than most. “The Math and Science building.”

He was doing this to himself.

“Oh, really? What are you studying?”

“…biochemistry.”

Jisung, a producer, knew next to nothing about biochemistry. He had no idea what possessed him to say that. He wanted to blame it on the way that she was making him feel, but, instead, he knew it was because of his own stupidity.

“That is so cool, Jisung!”

And suddenly, his mind was only filled with thoughts of her.

“I’m an English major myself. I’m not really one for mathematics and sciences, but I’ve always wanted to be good at them,” she continued, not noticing Jisung’s struggle to keep his lies alive.

He forced a laugh. If he explained the truth now, it would be simpler. “It’s kind of tough, but I enjoy the work.” He really was just trying to screw himself over at this point.

The two continued talking about themselves and their hobbies, their likes and their dislikes, anything that managed to come up. They discovered that they did not have many mutual friends, but, after sharing a couple of funny stories about their different friend groups, both of them agreed that they would definitely need their close friends to meet each other. The walk to the Math and Science building seemed too short, but [name] and Jisung were both too talkative to end it there. They exchanged phone numbers to keep in touch with each other and soon found themselves falling into a routine every Friday morning. As much as Jisung wanted to become closer to her, he hated lying to her.

“Chan, what do I do?” Jisung cried one day when he, Chan, and Changbin were all chilling in a studio together.

Legs dangling off of the edge, Jisung was lying on the couch in the back of the studio as Chan was tweaking Changbin’s rap demo. The rapper had only stepped back into the studio room as Jisung started his complaining. Jisung kicked defiantly.

“I didn’t mean to lie to her, but one thing lead to another, and, now, I’m knee-deep in lies. But there’s something about this girl. She’s different from any other girl. It’s like every crush I’ve ever had up until her was just leading me to her. She makes me so nervous, and I forget what I’m trying to say when I’m trying to say it. But she’s so kind and lets me take my time. And she’s absolutely gorgeous too with the most adorable laugh which really doesn’t help because I find myself staring at her, and that’s considered creepy. The last thing I want to do is creep her out, and—“

“Chan, please tell him whatever he wants to hear so he’ll shut up,” Changbin hissed, resting his head on his palm as he sat down on the free side of the couch. He was clearly exhausted from long nights of studying and producing. They all were.

Jisung pouted but turned to the oldest nonetheless. Chan, on the other hand, released an exasperated sigh. “I mean, Jisung, what else is there to do but just tell her the truth? Just explain everything to her. From what you’ve told us about her, she sounds like she’d understand.”

“I know…” Jisung mumbled with a huff. “I’m just scared and embarrassed, I guess. Scared because I don’t want her to hate me, and embarrassed for lying in the first place.” He released another sigh, beating himself up mentally. “I didn’t mean to lie. I just get so nervous around her.”

Changbin shifted his head to look at his friend. Jisung looked miserable, staring up at the ceiling with his arms going in every direction. His legs kicked rhythmically against the side of the couch in an attempt to amuse himself. Every ten seconds, his face would contort into a distinct expression of terror or sadness. Changbin could only guess his thoughts.

“Well, it hurts to see you like this. So, if you don’t tell her, Chan and I always can.”

“No!” Jisung shot up with a start. “Telling her myself is bad enough. I’m not about to let my friends tell her in my place.”

“Then, get your act together and tell her!” Changbin barked, making a move to kick the younger boy off the couch. He didn’t actually, but Jisung moved to defend himself.

Jisung looked to Chan for support but found none. He huffed once more, sitting up straight. The time was coming. He’d have to tell her eventually.

“Jisung!”

[name] calling out his name made Jisung’s heart skip a beat. He began to panic. It wasn’t Friday. On second thought, he wasn’t anywhere near the park. He was walking back to the cafeteria from the studio. Jisung had never turned around quicker.

“[name]…!” Jisung returned with as much feigned enthusiasm as he could. His lie was falling apart in front of him (although that was kind of what he needed??). “Wha-What are you doing here? I thought the English department normally stayed on the east side of campus.”

“Well, I was in the area, visiting my roommate, and I figured I’d stop by and see you.”

She smiled. Why was she smiling?

“Uh… so, how’d you know I’d be here?”

[name] motioned towards the same building that Jisung had just walked out of, the one that houses all of the studios that all musically-inclined majors used.

“My roommate is a Commercial Music major,” [name] admitted.

Wait.

“So, I’ve kinda known who you were since we met. You, Changbin, and Chan are pretty popular among the female student body after all.”

Jisung felt like he was facing his first exam in high school. He could not wrap his mind around what exactly was going on or how popular he really was.

“But-But-But—“

“So, I know you’re a Composition major, I know you don’t have an 8 a.m. class for biochemistry, and I know that you lied to me about everything.”

“Not everything!” Jisung exclaimed in a panic. She raised an eyebrow, waiting for him to continue. “I, uh, meant it when I said I fell for you.”

When [name] crossed her arms over her chest, Jisung knew he wouldn’t have much time to explain, but he had to tell her the truth.

“Okay, the truth is… I’m really not good around girls. I mean, I don’t think I was terrible. I didn’t flirt nearly as much as Minho, but that’s not the point. I’m nervous around girls, and then I met you, and that nervousness hit me like a truck because you’re so different than any other girl I met. The first time we met, I was so embarrassed, but I wanted to see you again. So, I thought of an excuse to be there around the park without looking like a crazy stalker—I’m not a stalker, I promise—but I was traumatized because of the, um, incident from last time. So, I figured the safest way to casually run into you again would be if I had an 8 a.m. class in that area, but none of my classes are over there, so, one thing led to another, and I’m so sorry that I lied. I’m not trying to justify my lying, but to explain, I was so nervous around you. And then, the more I got to know you, I started developing feelings for you, but I didn’t want you to hate me for lying to you. I really didn’t mean any harm.”

[name] stared at him for a good minute, silently taking in Jisung’s confession. Underneath her intense gaze, Jisung felt a lump form in his throat. The heartbeat in his chest sounded louder with every second that passed. He wanted to look away from her [eye color] eyes, but he felt that, if he did, she’d be gone. That was the last thing he wanted.

“Is there anything else that you lied about? I mean, how do I know you didn’t lie about half of the other stuff we would talk about?”

“No!” Jisung insisted. “Everything else I said was true. I really do love cheesecake, but I’m thinking I’m falling in love with chocolate more. I really do need glasses, but I prefer contacts although I always feel like I’m going to poke my eye. And yes, I really do shriek every time. I really do have trypophobia, but I enjoy general horror like jump scares in movies and haunted houses. The list could go on, but I’m sure you don’t want to listen to me talk, so the last thing I’ll mention is that I really do want to spend time with you and get to know you more because I like you.”

He couldn’t stop the words before they had come out. His eyes widened. He supposed that was out in the open.

It was the first time he’d gotten a surprised reaction out of [name], but it vanished in an instant. She smiled at him, the same angelic smile that he had seen weeks ago. Maybe she didn’t hate him.

“Well, I’m glad because I like you too, Jisung,” [name] confessed with a small giggle. She clicked her tongue. “Although, I’ve kind of had a crush on you since before we met.”

“What? How?”

“Like I said, the three of you producers are pretty popular on campus! And I’ve seen you working hard in the studio when I would visit my roommate. I thought you were pretty cute. Next thing I know, you’re waving to me when you’re on a run, and then you’re tripping over dog poop. I suppose I have known this entire time that you were lying about your major, but I’m glad it was just due to nervousness. I didn’t think it could be anything else, but I wanted you to be the one to tell me yourself.”

Jisung wasn’t sure what to say at this point. He just stared at her with brown eyes widened ever so slightly. He took in everything about her, searching for any indication of how he should react. The amused smirk on her lips made his heart flutter. Her [eye color] eyes shimmered with mischief. While she stood in a defensive position, she didn’t seem angry at the slightest.

“Are you sure you’re not an Acting major?” Jisung finally asked with a small laugh.

Her bright giggle filled the air around them as she relaxed her stance. “No, I’m an English major.”

“So,” Jisung cleared his throat. Now or never, Jisung. “What does a Music Composition Major have to do to get a date with an English major?”

[name] hummed, pretending to ponder. Or maybe she was genuinely thinking. Jisung couldn’t tell. “Well, you’ve already slipped on dog poop for me… so, let’s say we’re equal.”

“Dinner tonight?”

When she smiled bashfully, Jisung knew that he was hooked.

“Pick me up at 7.”

Maybe Jisung was still afraid to go on runs, but he couldn’t help but be grateful because it allowed him to meet [name].

[lesbian-raichu]

HAPPY ENTIRE MONTH OF HALLOWEEN

Here’s a short scary story - this is “Case 45: Medical Institute of Arkansas” (Continued under the cut)             Heya Sunshine, Found this out in the woods near the clubhouse. Looks like a letter or something spooky like that so I figured it might be something you’re into. I started reading on the way back it but tripped like a dumbass - I can’t fucking walk and read, I’m like a kindergartner. Skinned my hands and everything so the paper got kinda crumpled and gross. My bad. But uh, having blood on this sort of shit makes it more legit maybe? I dunno. You’ve got a better stomach for mysteries than I do. I keep thinking I hear shit behind trees and it’s not even night yet lmao. I’m gonna drop it on the table for you. I’ll call you after my classes are done.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Love,                                                                                                           C

Medical Institute of Arkansas

Log date: 10.24.2004

Name: Sarita Makwana, Chief Physician

Forgive the frankness with which I am to depict what has transpired. After today, I believe it allowable. I am writing this both to make sense of this and to convey to others what occurred here. Patient zero, James Allison Fitzgerald was committed to my care this morning, by his wife. Initial symptoms were arrhythmia, excessive hypertension, risk of stroke. It was Nurse Ellen Suzuru who performed the MRI, and who deduced based on strain of the heart that there were arterial clogs.

You know what? I am forgoing the lingo. I have no idea when this will get out. I have no idea if anyone will get to read this.

Suzuru did the scan, and as a result, the decision was made to operate. With respect to whomever reads this, I frankly don’t give a damn if we made the right choice or not. We could not have known. The thing about the scans, from what we could see, was that his ribcage looked abnormal. Several of us dismissed it as an injury, a poorly regrown bone, maybe a deformity of the third and fourth ribs. It was inconsequential, if a dying man is brought to a doctor, that doctor has few options. His wife disclosed that James had been experiencing trouble breathing for approximately three days prior to his entry, and that the pains in his chest had started merely an hour before he entered our care. I remember she rambled about a trip to France they had gone on, worrying about salmonella poisoning from snails, and I attempted to calm her down. Her husband was 6’4 and 360 lbs, heart conditions were not improbable. God, I am so tired.

We sedated him and proceeded to open him up, with the plan to insert a few heart stents to improve blood flow. The initial appearance of everything however, was fine. Confoundingly so. James was healthy.

If anything, there was some strain on the heart, but no blockages, blood flow was fine. For all intents and purposes, James had simply overexerted himself, yet when he came in he was half-conscious. At this point, I was confused but intrigued. A healthy dying man, only 40, no pre-existing health conditions. The most I could figure was that if his ribcage was poorly formed, it could  place stress on the organs, but his wife insisted to one of our nurses - Kinnings - that he was as healthy as an ox before last week. And at this point, perhaps I can only laugh, because it feels almost like a joke.

We were paying attention to the wrong thing.There were two other doctors with me - Uzumaka Williams and Desmond Corrigan. Williams said she had cut her hand, and was sent out immediately. I didn’t know how she managed it at the time, she wasn’t holding anything, just examining the patients heart, when she jerked back. She insisted she was fine, but left to avoid contaminating anything. Corrigan left after her to call my assistant. It was after about fifteen minutes of examination, right as the thought crossed my mind that I should simply stitch him up and send him to neurology, that I saw his breastbone, and the ribs curving out of it. I had not cut it out of the way, but somehow it was pushed aside, as though malleable. His ribs had been moved. Corrigan came back with Suzuru, and I asked if he had done anything, or if he’d seen Williams, but he denied both. There was no reason to lie. I wasn’t paying attention. If I had been, I would have noticed that his ribs had moved.  I perhaps would have noticed that the beeping of the heart monitor was not coming from the heart monitor at all. I would have noticed that despite the fact that I felt the patient’s heartbeat, he was dead by the time he came in. Perhaps I would have noticed that James Fitzgerald’s ribs were not ribs at all.

How many doctors does it take to realize that the patient is already dead?

That was my initial assessment, anyway.

I feel ashamed in saying I froze, but we all did. There was a long, loud creaking noise, like a door opening. The sound of beeping was being perfectly mimicked, but no one’s mouth moved. There are different types of fear. The subtle: a general feeling of unease, a pit in the stomach. The frenzied: screaming and crying and begging. Then there is the overpowering: the silencing, no scream can leave you. You’re afraid to utter a sound, afraid to breath, afraid to twitch or run.I could not turn around. God bless Desmond, who tried to attack. God bless Ellen, who tried to get its attention. My good friends, may God bless them, God save them. God help me.

I never turned around. Whatever was inside James’ body was now protruding out of him, able to control his mouth just enough to mimic the beeping, before falling silent. The opening I had made in his chest was stretched, long angled white rib bones - used as legs - lurched him forward, towards Ellen. James’ head lolled around, his mouth agape, tongue out, discoloured and bloated. The legs were segmented and thin, like that of an arachnid, and the host body was dragged along like a puppet, James’ toes dragging and swinging against the ground. I watched, frozen, as two of the sharp, eight protruding bones, stuck into her body and twisted her around, as though she were a mop on the floor. It thrashed her around in the air, and then threw her against the wall. It did the same to Desmond, poking him through the eyes, jabbing his neck erratically, piercing it several times, and shaking him madly in the air with a leg stabbed through his abdomen. An image in my head was of a child shaking a dead goldfish in a plastic baggie. Trying to make it live. Aggressive and spasmodic, able to move with extreme speed in one second, and be eerily stock-still the next.

It swiveled in my direction, twitching like a spider, or a crab, and suddenly James was making sounds. Sobbing, gargling screaming. It felt like there were words in there, distorted. The stresses on syllables felt wrong, like a movie being rewound. He ended the sentence with a long and loud gurgling howl that shook the equipment in the room. At the time, I thought I was spared. I was stabbed once, in my side, thankfully missing my lungs. With monstrous speed, the creature jerkily scuttled away. I stayed with their bodies. I was certain that someone had to have called for help, but it only took me a few hours to realize that even if it came, I wasn’t sure any of us could be saved.

I consider myself a decent doctor. I may be in nowheresville, Arkansas, but I graduated magna cum laude from my university, and chose to stay where I was close to my family. With this in mind, I have to insist - this is not an illness to be cured. This is a parasite, some bone-like tapeworm. I realized this in that time alone, and that with the screaming I heard in the building, both human and parasite, that they were looking for living hosts. Poor Desmond and Ellen were of no use to them.

God I am so tired. I’m going to take a moment. Funny. This isn’t really a report anymore. I’m back. I recorded them, the parasites. I was right about one thing, and wrong about another.

They are speaking, for some reason, backwards. Begging. Calling for loved ones. Asking to be killed.

Which of course means I was wrong. They were never dead. “Consumed” is maybe a better word. The parasite begins its control through the spine, then connects to the brain stem, keeping their human hostage like a flesh puppet. I caught a glimpse of Uzumaka, the spindly legs extending from her torn chest hoisting her around, dangling with her mouth torn at the corners, the sounds she made were the worst of them all.

The Medical Institute has been quarantined. I managed to talk to a few other doctors in Cardiology and Gastroenterology that called the room I was next to. They told me how the parasite was being transmitted. They told me the authorities are planning on burning the building. Several cops that tried to enter to save survivors were killed. The others I heard. The frenzied snapping of bones against tile, the sobbing screams, and the trails of congealing blood that followed the sounds gave me all the information I needed to know. The phone call was cut short, the other doctor had hung up on me while I spoke to them. I went back to my colleagues, my friends, their bodies cold. I have no idea what will happen now. If the quarantine is breached, then God help us.

My hand is seizing up at this point from writing. It’s the only loophole, though. I realized it before Uzumaka did. It’s transmitted through blood, whatever these things are. The smallest cut is too much. Luckily I was stabbed through my right side. I’m left-handed. I lost my motor skills sometime during the phone call, when my colleagues hung up on me, unfortunately, and I suppose my ribs are currently being dissolved by the creature taking their place. I’m writing this in the infinitesimal chance that amidst the destruction, maybe carried by an errant breeze through the window, this letter will get out, and people will know what happened to us. Though that might be selfish, as even this page might be contaminated. If I am being honest, I am too tired. I can’t do more. One of the officers is in the room, across from me, still apart from the body hanging from those towering bones, eyes plucked out, half of his face torn away. And funnily enough, I can understand him. I hear his words, no longer backwards, still wracked with agony.

My name is Sarita Makwana. I am a doctor at the MIA. I love my family. God bless them. God protect them.

And God save me.

[markcairneyphotography]

Artisan Research

OVER THE SHOULDER  3:18 - 4:00

I would like to use this shot as a segue into a close up of whatever I’m shooting. I like the fluidity of the shot as you focus on how it follows the subject as if your eyes are following them closely in person. I think this style of shot really makes you involved in the actual scene, makes you feel present. I really like what Francis Ford Coppola has done with this one of many classic scenes, focusing on Vito Corleone, making the man who we are behind seem unimportant in comparison, we don’t see his face as we don’t need to, it’s not important.

Tracking 0:00 - 0:50 

I want to use a tracking shot to track my subject across a room into what they are creating. In this shot what catches my eye is the loose shakey style which makes us feel we are chasing the boy, which makes me feel uneasy. Also the unknown of what could be behind any corner in this horror thriller. It makes the movie seem more real, as if we are in the actual hotel and not some movie set. Overall I think it adds the suspense of the movie with the rough sounds of the wheels transferring from carpet to hardwood floor, and keeping him centred at all times, not letting him out of our sight.

Mid shot  0:00- 0:45

I really like the wide angle shot as there is a lot more in scene to focus on. Theres something about this mid shot which the subjects are following us having a conversation which draws me and my attention. In this mid shot it is quite wide angle which gives us more of the scene and allows us to take more in, for example the street they are walking on, the people on the bus they just get on.

Close Up 0:30 - 0:36

I want to use this shot to get zoomed in and a better idea of the detail of the subjects hands etc. There are few ways to show better of what an Artisan is making than a close up shot, I chose this one because of the interesting subject and skill displayed. I think the element of danger plays in this aswell, as glass blowing can be very unsafe without the right skillset and experience, something I value when I watch these kinds of clips because these skills have been years in the making and produce things we usually don’t admire and take for granted.

Follow Shot 2:20 - 3:20

I like the idea of a shot following the subject into a room maybe used in the intro, maybe combined with over the shoulder. In Tarantinos debut movie we are shown a bold shot which I find simply amazing, from the continuation of the music being played non-stop as the actor leaves the warehouse and enters back, it feels authentic, the music doesn’t need to stop and continue at the same part, but just take a brief exit and we exit. He was told to take this scene out of the movie as it was too brutal and grotesque, but he didn’t listen and it is an iconic scene in film history. Everthing about this scene I find perfect, from the taunts of ‘don’t go anywhere’ to the tied up man, to the manic dancing of the crazy character.

[exceedinghappiness]

This past weekend (Thursday-Sunday) I took my very first solo trip across the country to the beautiful San Diego, California! It wasn’t just my first trip to California ever, but it was also my first flight ever! I’m from Michigan and I've lived here my whole life. I just turned 23 (Aug 21) and I’ve only ever made it to very little states near me... (Ohio, Kentucky, Chicago). All my life, all I’ve ever wanted to do was travel and visit new places and see and experience new things. My family in general are not much big travelers, so they didn’t know much about it, or have any desire to push me past the things that scared me. Well, California has always been a dream state for me to visit. I’ve always wanted to see the beautiful ocean, the palm trees, the perfect weather all year round, etc! Well after talking about “I will make it there one day” to my family about 100x a day, about two months ago, I finally decided that as a 23rd birthday gift to myself- kinda as a new start to a new year in my life, I decided to plan that trip! I don’t have many close friends in general- let alone one that would travel to Cali with me in a short amount of time. I also don’t have family who would do the same! The one fear of mine was flying there. I had never been on a plane before, and all my life that and heights have always been my biggest fear. But I thought about the fact that as the years had went on, my fear of heights weren’t as bad, and I’ve done many things that I enjoyed that I didn’t think I’d ever do. I first booked my flight and started doing LOTS of research about the best way to plan this, considering I’ll be all alone, in a new state I’ve never seen before. I knew no one there, and only had some places and things listed that I knew I wanted to see. I do have a friend who lived in San Diego for two years, before moving back to Michigan. I asked her some of her favorite places and what not to see. I managed to find a cheap hotel in the middle of The Gaslamp District, which personally was an excellent location for me to stay. It was in the perfect location to walk to many restaurants, shops, Balboa Park, Petco Park, etc. It was only a 15 minute ride to Sunset Cliffs and Ocean Beach, and the airport! I ended up Lyfting to the beach and airport each time, since it was a little more difficult to walk, but it only cost about $10-$15 each way if you chose shared ride, which personally made me feel a little more safe and comfortable. Plus if you left to one of the locations in the morning, and planned to spend the day there and come back at night, then it was cheaper than taking a few trips there and back each day. I then spent all the rest of my time walking everywhere using google maps, and yelping places nearby! Let me tell ya, after figuring all those details out, it was all so smooth and wonderful! I had an amazing time just taking as much or as little bit of time the places I wanted to go, and things I wanted to see. I made the choices for everything and didn’t have to worry about feeling like I missed out on things because someone I was with didn’t want to “go there” or “see that.” I felt like I gained an extra bit of independence and learned a whole lot. The one thing that was probably the hardest about traveling alone, was when you’d want to get a Instagram worthy picture in front of somewhere, and you had no one to take it. I learned if you look around you and look for a friendly face. Usually I’d go for young teenage like girls who are most likely very into social media, or young mom’s who are already taking the time to stop and take millions of pictures of their children. They are usually sooo nice and will say yes to taking 1 or 100 photos for you (I did so happen to find a young photographer at Ocean Beach who took over 100 pictures of me, with different angles- so that was cool: see first photo). 

Now on my last full day in Cali (I had a 9am flight Sunday morning) I didn’t have a whole lot of money left so didn’t want to spend it all getting a lyft to and from the beach again, as much as I wanted to. I just wanted to see something new! Well, Friday afternoon- I was walking back from Balboa Park to my hotel in Gaslamp which was about 45 minute walk. There came a point where I ran across a street before the light turned green and then got stopped at the next crosswalk. Suddenly there was a young, attractive gentleman stopping at the crosswalk as well. He had a paramedic uniform on and a very friendly smile on his face. He then turned and asked me what I was running from. I was pretty confused by his question, where he then proceeded to explain I must not be from around there because no one runs across the street unless they’re running from something. I then explained everything. Obviously not telling too much detail or anything because I’m by myself, in a different state, and with some guy I’ve never met before. He was super nice though, and explained how he accidently got on the wrong trolley home from work (which he’s never done before) and was walking to the trolley station, just a couple blocks before Gaslamp. Then he seen me running across the street, was concerned and also knew we’d be walking awkwardly at the same pace a few blocks so thought it’d be less awkward to introduce himself instead of complete silence. We then talked for a bit. He’s very open and very funny! He was very easy to talk to, which is unusual for me who is super introverted. He then asked if he could walk with me until he gets to his destination, because it would be safer than just by ourselves. We ended up walking the 30 minutes to Gaslamp. We were so into our conversations that we both forgot about his street and we didn’t even mind it. He then asked for my Instagram and told me how happy he was he took the wrong trolley that day. I walked the rest of the way to my hotel and he left to go back to the trolley station. Now... Saturday comes and I’m standing in line at Dunkin’ Donuts, it’s not even noon yet and he messages me on Instagram, asking my plans for the day. I didn’t have any so I just told him id probably just walk around and see where it takes me. he knew that was my last day there and told me it was his only day off that week. He asked if I’d want to hangout for a bit. I was a little unsure considering I didn’t actually know him, and all my family told me not to talk or go with strangers. I decided to take the chance but still be safe with it. He ended up meeting me at the Starbucks just a four minute walk from my hotel. He met me there at 1, but was actually early. He was dressed very nice and had a huge smile when I walked up to him. He told me he had a whole day planned for us and some back-up plans if I didn’t like some of his ideas. His first was to take a trolley ride to Old Town San Diego, which I had yet to see plus I had never been on a Trolley before. I loved that Idea and we then ventured off and talked about sooo much along the way, He showed me a bunch of his favorite music, and told me about his life growing up, etc. I enjoyed every single moment of it- even the overly crowded trolley. We then arrived to Old Town, which was totally awesome! He knows so many facts about so many things, and made the history of things so entertaining! He was so comfortable to joke around with and be myself around, it was so wonderful. He also took a few pictures of me in certain spots because he knew i’d want it for Instagram later. I didn’t even have to ask him. I do regret not getting a single picture of him or with him the whole time, only because in the beginning I felt a little weird to ask him because I wasn’t sure how he felt about pictures. He bought me my very first Churro, which was delicious! We just had an amazing time together. Then around 7, we planned to go to one of his Rugby teammates party, but we chilled in the parking lot outside of Old Town to wait for the details of this party. We then had a moment of silence after laughing about something we were talking about, and kinda just stared at eachother smiling. He then kissed me, and it was almost like a “too good to be true” kinda kiss. Eventually we decided to go to his home town and the town he lives called Chula Vista. We took a couple trolleys there and made it there at 7. We walked around his city, talking about the different places and the memories he’s had there growing up. I met his best friend’s mom, who was a total sweetheart and loved me, and told me she better be seeing me again soon. I met his cousin and their roommates, and some of his dad’s co-workers at the fire station. We then made our way to downtown Chula Vista which had a bunch of taco trucks, bars, and shops. It was so cute and everyone was so nice. We stopped in his favorite bar, and he bought us both a Corona then we headed out back to the outside. We spent the last couple hours out there just talking, laughing, showing eachother music, etc. It was then midnight and I had to get back to the hotel to get ready to go to sleep for my early flight in the morning. We ended up stopping at his and his roommates house just a couple blocks down (I know that doesn’t sound safe, but I sent my aunt the address just in case) We all ended up playing video games, eating some homemade tortillas his cousin made, and just listening to music and goofing around. I honestly didn't check my phone or anything just about the whole day, because the whole day was just too amazing and fun. He then drove me back to Gaslamp around 2am (I still didn’t feel comfortable telling him my hotel so I just walked two blocks to my hotel after) but we sat in his car for a bit and just talked about how this whole meeting eachother has felt like a movie. We laughed about it, then explained how terribly sad we are to have to say goodbye already. We both teared up a little and just enjoyed our last few moments together (hopefully not for long though). I then left and so did he. We texted all night til I fell asleep. Now here I am now, writing this Monday night. I’m home now and still felling extremely sad to have left. I’m so happy I went and had the most amazing experience I’ve ever had. We have both been texting and Snapchatting all day, since. I miss him a lot, and it’s crazy saying that considering I’ve only known him a day. But there’s definitely something special about him and I definitely believe there’s something special about the way we met. I believe everything happens for a reason, and his taking the wrong trolley and getting off on that stop that day, and me running across that same street and catching his attention, was all meant to happen. That’s why I believe there’s a special reason he was put into my life, whether or not it ends up romantically, He definitely gave me the most amazing memory I’ll ever have so far. I appreciate him and his kindness, and for just being there. I find new parts of me, I never knew existed. I’ve learned new things. I know so much I want to do now. I’ve made a new friend. Plus sooo much more. California will always hold a very special place in my heart. I definitely plan to visit San Diego again very very soon! Until then... Time to save money and just reminisce through photos and memories in my head. 

[fabfoxly]

Analyzing the Apothecary Photos

Today PopSugar dropped an article about H&M’s Friday visit to Ilapothecary in London, along with a series of photos that look just a little... odd. Naturally, within hours, M’s clothes were being merched on http://www.meghansmirror.com/. Aside from Harry’s drab gray duds and duckbill cap, MM’s outfit was disappointing. Seriously, girl, a Sixteen Candles t-shirt? What were you thinking?

Enough with the wardrobe critique, though. Right off, I noticed a few seriously shady things about these pics:

One can’t see “H’s” face clearly in any of them. The best we get is a profile shot.

The temp in London Friday night between 6-9 PM was 45-46 degrees F, or about 7.5 C, yet H wears a short-sleeved polo shirt and appears to be sweating heavily.

The shop sign reads “Closed,” and the shop is dark, with no interior lighting while the couple are leaving. Who shops in a dark store?

They aren’t carrying any bags as they leave. Did they buy anything?

Meghan’s baby bump is quite a bit smaller than we’ve recently seen, tight, and very high, almost right under her boobs, which seem to also be small and crowded out of the way. Her tee is not a maternity shirt.

A Closer Look

Let’s take a closer look at three of these photos, shall we?

Words, Words, Words

Note M’s position here. She is strategically posed so the words on the window, which are all words M wants her followers to associate with her, are positioned right over her body. Tell me that wasn’t staged.

H swings the door open so that it almost hits whomever is standing behind it -- very odd, indeed. This person has her hand up to her face as if she’s talking on a phone, which is also an odd thing to be doing in the presence of TRHs.

What’s even weirder is that M has her right arm extended like she’s holding H’s left hand -- but if that’s the case, he’d have had to open the door with his right arm crossing in front of him (a very awkward motion). As the door swings back, it would hit him or M as they passed or they’d have to squeeze through. The easier way to exit the store would have been for H to open the door with his left hand, but that wouldn’t have placed M correctly behind the window words.

Here they are leaving the store. Let’s zoom in on H, shall we? 

What’s up with “H?”

What the hell is going on with H’s neck, anyway? And who’s his barber? They are not doing him any favors; look at that ragged blond hair line. Not only that, the collar of his polo is so worn that it curls under at its faded edges (as you can see in the next photo). This is what happens when you wash the shirt a few dozen times with cheap laundry soap and toss it in the dryer on high with jeans, folks. Whoever does H’s laundry should be fired. H now wears a wristwatch instead of, or in addition to, the bracelets he sports in some of the photos. Is this even H?

Finally, there’s a couple of photos from a more frontal angle as they leave.  Here’s one that spotlights M:

Pimping the bump

M is doing her usual bump pimp with the left hand; notice how the thumb is arched up and and the knuckles are are pointed. This is a display pose. She’s not “cradling” or holding the bump (there’s only a little light contact with the fingertips) -- she’s pulling focus to it. This is basic Acting 101, peeps. The bump is very high and her first two fingers are curved in towards her boobs, maybe to emphasize the shape of the bump.

Looks like she’s either in a wig (same one she’s worn several other times) or has just had color and a blowout. She’s wearing at least blush, lippy, and eye makeup, too. She’s looking down with a slight smirk rather than at the camera, which is unusual, but not hiding any part of her face. H is hiding his face, as he does for most of these pics. Is H, the army Captain, just not so proud to be seen hanging round a shop that links its products to numerology?

Shopping in the dark? Really?

Behind them, we can see that the store is completely dark.

Who shops in a store at night with no lights on -- and what shop owner would let royal patrons stumble out of their closed store in complete darkness? This seems fishy, as does the fact that they didn’t leave with any purchases.

Who did these photos, anyway?

This was no pap walk. These photos were staged. Click on the link to the PopSugar article and look at those black shadows falling at a specific angle behind H; there were very bright lights positioned to the couple’s right, glaring over their entire bodies -- not just a flash.

So if paps didn’t just happen to randomly catch them leaving a closed, dark shop at night, who took the photos?

The photos are all credited to Constant Media, which seems to be a New Jersey, US advertising and PR firm specializing in “custom-designed” media campaigns for Point-of-Care spaces (doctor waiting rooms in the US). So why might they be snapping pics of H&M in a closed London apothecary shop and feeding them to PopSugar? 

It turns out Wills Robbins, the founder and CEO of Constant Media, is a former actor. He modeled in the 80s, did a few Hollywood films in the late 90s/early 2000s, and had some parts on Guiding Light and other daytime TV shows, but his career never really took off. Before he founded Constant Media in 2011, he was sales VP at Elite Sampling & Media, which offers its clients “unique ways to communicate with their consumers.” It’s not yet clear how he’s connected with M, but his Hollywood past plus more recent PR experience makes sense for her. Could he be connected to other people M knows?

The speculation

Here’s my guess: H & M weren’t “shopping” anywhere on Friday night. Constant Media chose the property for the words on its windows and the image it conveyed, then rented it out for the staged photoshoot. Who knows if H was there for the whole thing, part of it, or not at all? I wouldn’t be surprised if PopSugar was paid to run the story and photos. Of course, it’s already everywhere, including Vogue, eonline, MarieClaire, HelloMagazine, and purewow.

I was really hoping we’d get a rest from the photo-ops and bump-pimping, but that’s not happening. The PR machine is still grinding away, folks. It’ll be an interesting ride. Stay tuned for more wild speculation and analysis from the FabFox.

[tinabritton-photography]

Final Spheres . . .

I’ve worked really hard on this project. These techniques were difficult in that, I have never really had to freeze motion, pan or blur in my portrait studio. I am, foremost, a person who loves portraiture in the studio. There was no intruction on these techniques in class, so I had to learn them on my own whilst capturing hundreds of images.

Have I made mistakes in my captures? Yes, profoundly so. I was in manual mode, however, I was having problems with my ISO. I never understood why and I said so. I set my ISO in manual mode to 100, as I always have. When I sat down to speak to Peter about my images, he asked why my iso was so high, which of course leads to noisy images. I was stumped. Truly stumped. I knew before each set that I had manually set my ISO.

My husband and I did not put 2+2 together until yesterday, 20th September. This is when I realised that my ISO was set to be adjusted on the wheel on the back of my Sony Ar7ii, which is extremely easy to turn. So, when I was setting up for any subsequent shots, I was inadvertently changing my iso. Instead of checking my ISO settings again, because I was confident I had already set it, I went about my business of taking images. I admit, this camera is new to me. I should have spent more time getting to know my equipment before using it on location. I just assumed something was wrong with the camera instead of me! I should have used my Nikon D5300, which I am familiar with. These are choices I made. Now, knowing what I did wrong, I can, from this point forward, satisfy my briefs in a more professional manner.

This is one of my most successful panning shots. As I said in my last post on spheres, what is a bicycle but 2 circles and a seat? I had seen this man on this unique bike quite a few times while walking to college from the train station at about 7:45 am. I waited for him outside the Apple store where I had seen him before, yikes (stalker much?) and prepared for my shot. I decided, even though being told I should have a tripod, and after having watched many panning videos, that I would use the technique of turning my body into the shot while tracking the moving object and simultaneously holding down my shutter button half-way to keep the subject in relative focus before release. I set my shutter speed to 1/15 second and aperture to f2.2. Again, I notice now upon looking at my file info, that my iso is at 320! It should have been at 100 where I initially had set it! You only get a fraction of a second to set your focus on your intended subject before they approach and zoom by.

Final Image #1 . . . Panning

Below are several other panning shots I took, but I prefer the one above as his cycle is unique.

I like the image just below because it appears as though the person walking is colliding with the man on the bike.

A bit boring, but I do think I have gotten the technique.

Final #2 . . . Slow Shutter Speed.

I really like the texture and colour of our garage at home. It just feels like the perfect backdrop. In these next 2 images I wanted to show slow shutter speed and blur movement. It took me many tries. My first tripod was too shaky and has thin legs. It was an extremely windy day in Irvine. I needed my husband’s assistance and he works on the weekends much of the time, so this was the day he had off. Due to these reasons, my background was blurry. So I chose another day, a week later. It was cloudy, but not windy and I had just purchased a brand new panning/ball head tripod with thick legs. Magic. These images were more successful. Both of them were captured at 1/15th sec and f22. However, once again, as I just realised the problem with my iso yesterday whilst working on my ‘seeing the light’ portraits, my iso is too high. These images should have been captured in the 100-200 iso range, (I had set it to 100), however, I had inadvertently reset it to 640!

Final Image #3 . . . Shallow Depth of Field.

For this image, I was at Findlaystone County Estate. It is one of my most favourite places to go. I could only visit once for some of the shots I took for the ‘Spheres’ and ‘Who Am I” projects.

The shot below was taken, whilst I was sitting on the ground to steady myself. The sun had just come out for a moment and was creating beautiful bokeh in the background. I actually like the highlights on the crystal ball, but am told they are distracting. I have cropped the image to remove the background bokeh and have downplayed the hightlights. There is only a very thin slice of the image that is in focus. It is right inside the crystal ball in the centre; perhaps it is too thin. I captured the image at 1/500 sec and f2.2. Again, we have the iso, which was set before I ever left the car at ISO 100! Now it is at ISO 4000! This has added unnecessary grain to an otherwise beautiful image.

For this shot, as I had to get on the ground to be close to it. My tripod was too tall and I wanted the image on the rotten log with the moss growing on it. So between me moving about, and me and my husband handing the camera back and forth between each other, I had obviously, and inadvertantly, reset the iso. 

Final Image #4 . . .

For this image, I asked my mate Andrew, who is a jeweller, a potter and an extraordinary artist to melt some metal in my hut. Andrew told me, that metal, in this case silver, spins in a half-sphere bead when super-heated, and this interested me greatly. I had seen him melt metal in our jewellery class before. This process is awesome. I waited until evening and had Andrew arrive with his equipment. It wasn’t long before the metal was spinning. I wanted to get the bead and flames in a soft glowing light. Here I was actually in the proper ISO. I obviously never accidentally changed it. The camera was on a tripod the entire time. I used 2 cameras, my Nikon and my Sony. This image was taken with my Nikon using a 18-105mm lens extended to 105mm. It was captured at 1/10 sec, f5.6 and ISO 200.

Below we have a wider angle than I have chose before. I focused on the crystal sphere.

[hollerpresents]

Lottery

Lottery by Matt MacNeil

  We hit traffic some minutes away from the pizza place and were stopped at a red light. A firetruck came barrelling down the road and Nicole told George to pull over. “I know,” he said, and angled the car into the curb. The firetruck flew by and went yeeeeowww. I thought, The Doppler Effect, to myself but I didn’t say it out loud.

“I wonder if they ever just put the siren on to get through traffic or something,” I said. “I know for a fact that they do,” George said, getting the car back on the road. “My uncle Charlie was a firefighter, or I mean he is a firefighter, and he told me that he does it.” Reilly shook his head. “Maybe your uncle Charlie is a piece of shit.”  

George swung his head around and looked back at him. “Don’t you dare talk about my uncle Charlie like that you fucking bitch,” he said and smiled. He turned back and looked at the road, but he continued to watch us through the rear-view mirror. 

“Anyone says shit about my uncle Charlie and I’ll kick the fucking shit out of you,” he said and started laughing, and Nicole turned up the radio.  “One time he had to rescue a cat from a tree, just like in cartoons or whatever,” George continued, glancing at us through the mirror. “He was up in a cherry picker and when he went to grab the cat, the cat sprung away and fell and splattered on the ground.” “No way,” I said. 

“No I’m serious, the whole family was there watching and everything. Like, little kids,” he said, smiling again, through the rear view mirror. 

“That didn’t actually happen did it?” Reilly said. “George. You’re joking.” 

George shrugged his shoulders. “That didn’t fucking happen,” Reilly said. 

  When we pulled up, Reilly took out a piece of paper from his bag and said, “Oh I can check my lottery ticket,” and waved it at me. 

I had never bought a lottery ticket in my life, never had the balls, frankly. 

I was too embarrassed to buy lottery tickets because I thought only poor people bought lottery tickets, and even though I was poor, I didn’t like to flaunt my poorness around like most poor people did. 

“Wow,” I said at the lottery ticket. “I didn’t know you bought lottery tickets.”

“I don’t,” he said, and put it in his pocket. “My parents put one in my stocking every year. My sister got one too.” 

Of course. That explained it. 

“Didn’t your mom win the lottery?” Nicole said to him passively, which sounded like she was trying to insult him, but she was being serious. 

“Yeah, she won a million dollars,” Reilly said, all nonchalantly. 

And it was true, he wasn’t lying about it. 

His mom had actually won a million dollars in the lottery sometime last year. 

“Whoa, what the fuck,” I said, trying to keep my cool.

I found myself laughing at his jokes more.

     Reilly and I went into the corner store while George and Nicole went into the pizza house. He went to the cashier to check his lottery ticket while I chose what kind of chips to buy for the group. 

It was a toss up between corn and potato. 

When I got to the register I asked him if his ticket had won the big jackpot, and he said that the numbers hadn’t been drawn yet. 

“Nain terty, nain terty,” the cashier said, frantically pointing at the clock. 

“Ah, there’s still time!” I said mischievously, and I started rubbing my hands together like a rat, and the cashier smiled at me.

I walked out of the store a new man. In one hand was the lottery ticket and in the other were the chips I had picked, good ones too, the best ones they had. Your favourite kind!

Let’s just say I felt like I had already won the million. 

On the drive home, George was singing a song and just ripping shit down the road where the speed limit was like 40. “Slow down for Christ’s sake,” Reilly said. “We’re gonna hit a deer and we’re all going to die.” 

Nicole was telling me some bullshit about how you’re more likely to be struck by lightning five times in a row than win the lottery. 

 But I wasn’t listening. 

I was thinking about all of the things I would do with the money. 

I was thinking about quitting work, about going into the break-room when my boss and co-workers were there and telling them all to suck it and just walking out in slow motion. 

I thought about giving Grandma maybe a thousand. 

I thought about giving it to my parents and saying you don’t have to worry anymore, your son has taken care of it, your son has saved your lives, and he didn’t have to, but he chose to do it, because he is good.

  Later that night back at George’s house, his younger brother and his friends came over and all of us got high and sat around his dad’s giant table and played poker. 

I thought about that painting (or was it a photograph?) of the dogs playing poker. Which dog would I be? I would not be the cheating one, the one secretly giving the other one a card from between his toes. 

I would have that dog put to sleep in real life. 

  One of George’s brother’s friends was so high, he kept saying the dumbest stuff, like, “We are all here right now,” and no one would say anything, which made me feel embarrassed for him, so I would usually say something like, “Yeah man, haha.” 

“We’re all here right now, right now!” he said and burst out laughing.

“Yeah,” I said. Everyone else was just looking at their cards or phones. 

“We are SO here. We are all extremely here right now, do you know what I mean?”

And I laughed and said, “Yeah man I think so.”

And he said, “Yeahhh, we are some fuckin’ here-ass dudes,” and everyone was getting so tired of his shit. Then another friend of George’s brother said, “What if one time you get so high that you just never go back to normal?” and the super high guy started to lose it. He really started to lose his grip.

He started breathing like a bird and we all had to lie to him and tell him everything was okay.

  I was losing bad at poker, but my luck was about to change, I hoped.

I suddenly remembered the lottery ticket. “Wait is it 9:30 yet?” I asked, and someone was like, “It’s 2:45.” 

I took the crumpled ticket from my coat pocket and went to the lottery website to check the numbers. 

Not a single match, it seemed. 

Not one!

In that moment I felt like a crashing airplane, and I hope that I never have to feel that feeling as long as I live. 

I drank twelve beers to celebrate the loss.

I walked home from George’s place in the freezing cold, and on my walk I saw this old lady riding a bicycle loaded up with so many bags. She was pedalling the old thing so slowly, her head wrapped in a blanket to keep it from freezing to ice. 

It was very late and she was the only person around, and I watched her struggling on the bicycle, so slow, going a snail’s pace against the unforgiving wind. This merciless season. 

It seemed clear to me at that moment that if I did not intervene, nature would take its course and turn this lady into a solid block of ice, like a big cube of ice just there, frozen on the road. 

I even pictured it in my mind and the image made me shudder. 

I wanted to help this lady, give her a boost, since her old bicycle was crawling like a little baby. I thought about speed-walking up beside her and grabbing onto her and saying, “Don’t worry, I’ve got you,” and both of us going faster, faster, picking up speed, me on foot and her on the bicycle, and she would be smiling and nodding and saying “Thank you, thank you,” and I would say, “It’s okay, just hold on tight!” and we would go faster and eventually we’d be zooming down the empty streets together like a rocket. Both of us blazing down the lonely streets together, no one to stop us, faster than the speed of light, hotter than hell.

 In my drunken haste, I silently lunged at her and she looked at me quickly and I grabbed onto her and for some reason I yelled, “Oh you’re so cold,” and she let out a scream and we both toppled over onto the ice and she was screaming and screaming and I freaked out and got up and just took off down the street and I had tears in my eyes. 

So I kept running, running, blazing down the road alone, gathering speed, like a rocket, and the lady, well, that lady turned to ice.

Fin