#and make animal noises at each other from across the house for no reason other than it makes us feel happy

[hollyhomburg]

Before I Leave You (Pt.70)

(Sneak Peek) (Omegaverse au, Mafia au, Bts x Reader)

Summary: The pack meet with Moonbyul to discuss terms.

Tags: Fluff, drinking and drunk characters, hurt/comfort, trans! tae, dress up, girl on girl fluff, themes of forgiveness, vomiting, eating disorder mention but everything's good, brief sexual content, oral f. receiving, Exhibitionism, car sex, Talks of mental disorders, implied/confirmed autistic jimin,

W/c: 12.1k

A/n: Trying my hardest <3 I'm admittedly having a tough time right now, this chapter felt very nice to write because it's all about the beginning of the packs happy ending <3

Previous part - Masterlist - First part

At least Yoongi is sort of talking to you again. Sort of getting over it minute by minute. It’s hard. Namjoon watches you from where he's sprawled on the couch, holding a near empty bottle of champagne by the neck while Jungkook and Jin wrestle on the floor, sort of making out, sort of scenting each other as they go. Jimin requests a song that Tae would like- and then Yoongi and Hoseok are leaning over Yoongi's phone to make her the perfect playlist. happy to have something new and mundane to bicker over.

Morning is just cresting over the rooftops and the music is just turned down when gets up from the couch, slowly, dizzy. You're perched on the counter in your pj's watching Jimin and Jungkook chase each other around the room. the need to scent and wrestle and get all your restless energy out near palpable.

Hoseok and Jungkook have a tiny paper drink umbrella tucked behind their ears, the same one that Jin stuck in your drinks so that you can keep track of whose drink is whose. He and Jungkook gang up on Jimin to stick one into his hair, the tiny little baby bun that tae tied in his hair.

You giggle as Jungkook gives up and just loops his arms around Jimin's neck, no technice to it and all body weight dragging the three of them to the floor. Sprawled next to the library room door, now open. Tae’s makeup collection spread out on the green carpet like the fallen petals of some red flowering tree.

It changes from wrestling to tickling. and then the three of them are getting up and surrounding Yoongi, a paper umbrella in their fingers, Ganging up on your mate who takes it all with a huff and a surprisingly whiney, “guys.“

You still when Namjoon walks over, the same way you'd still if a wild animal were approaching. He doesn't settle close, just stands next to you, and pours himself the last melted bit of the drink in the blender. Pink and yellow swirling delicately. He makes a noise in his throat and looks at you like he hasn’t barely said a word to anyone in the whole last 24 hours, hasn’t barely said a word to you since you got off the phone with him and Moonbyul left the house. 

You sip at your drink, lips pursed around the straw and when you're done, Namjoon takes it from you and puts it on the counter. You think at first that he might be cutting you off but then he fingers the gauze there.

"I should probably check these." You nod obedient, wordless, unsure what to say. 

Fingers prodding at the red skin, delicate but knitting itself together slowly. “How much do they hurt?” he asks. 

“Probably a two,” you rate, almost without thinking, staring at his downturned eyes. The way his eyelashes still cling together from salt. Face glossy. You want to wash his face, pad across his cheeks gently the way that Jin does after you've been crying (something that you admittedly do a lot- the pack's resident crybaby). 

"So should I consider that a four or-" 

"No, this time I'm being honest," Namjoon stiffens, "It doesn't hurt when I touch stuff unless I'm not careful." Being honest about your hurts and pains has never been easy for you. But Namjoon has shown you time and time again that he's willing to take your hurts and fix them. You have no reason not to tell him the truth. 

Namjoon grips your palm, turning it over his hands again and again, looking down at your love line lifeline all tangled there and leveling you with a look that is neither angry nor resigned.

“Do you notice?” He asks, you swallow. Eyes itchy. 

“Notice what?” His finger presses to the center of your palm, the hollow there. 

“Still dry.” He says. 

You think of the mice, of drowning, you don't pull your hand from Namjoon's grasp, but you know he wouldn't let you anyway. You think about the mice, of dying, of trying to stay dry despite the things that try to swallow you whole. Water is not gentle, water is hungry. The rain pitters against the dark glass and melts the snow outside. But you and namjoon and the rest of the pack are dry and warm and safe in here. 

Your breath hitches, but you close your fingers around his hand and nod. “Still dry.” You agree. 

Namjoon closes his eyes and breaks the tension and this distance between you. Pulling himself between your thighs where you sit on the kitchen counter. Wrapping his arms around your shoulders to tug you to his chest, and breathing deep in the hollow of your throat. 

He pulls back just as abruptly. Hands resting on the counter on either side of your thighs. All up in your space and sour-smelling. It takes great effort for you not to turn away and keep his piercing eye contact. 

“Don’t do something like that again. Ever.” His jaw rolls and his scent spikes angry. But it's all temporary as you nose under his jaw to soothe him. Namjoon has every right to be angry with you for leaving, the same way Yoongi does. 

“Never. Promise.” You hold out your pinky and you mean it. 

Namjoon looks at you for a second, staring you down, waiting for you to look away. But then after a second, he loops his pinky through. 

Coming Saturday May 18th at 5PM EST (Time Zone Adjustments Below)

[bingwriterxo]

midnight guest

pairing: jenna ortega x reader

summary: in which it's late and an unexpected visitor drops by

warnings: none

word count: 1000+

author's note: posted this one to my wattpad a while ago, but it's one of my favorites. i won't be able to post until saturday night at the earliest, so i wanted to give you guys something before i dipped.

hs au!

Your back was aching, your eyes were burning, and your throat was unbearably dry, but you couldn't pull yourself away from where you hovered over your history textbook. Finals season was quickly approaching, and your grades were far from acceptable, so you had been pulling all-nighter after all-nighter to try cramming in whatever information may have been necessary to pass each class. Tonight's sleeping period was replaced with reading about the two World Wars and the Cold War. Needless to say, you were bored and tired and--

There was a small clink that came from your window. You heard the noise but ignored it, brushing it off as some type of animal, and continued to learn about Franklin D. Roosevelt. A few moments passed without any other interruptions, and then the sound came again, and again, and again, and the repetition pulled your focus away from your textbook. You glanced toward the window, and, upon seeing nothing, returned back to reading.

However, you only got one, maybe two, words in before the clink came again, and you groaned, standing from your desk chair and walking toward the window. The street outside was bare--which didn't surprise you, considering the fact that it was nearing two in the morning--and you made to turn, but then the noise came again. 

"What the hell?" you grumbled. You pressed your face against the window, trying to find whatever could have been making that noise, when, just barely, you noticed a head of hair on the grass beneath. "Huh?" You slid your window open and peeked out of it, to which you were met with a beaming smile from none other than Jenna, the girl that you had officially-unofficially been talking to. 

"You finally answered!" She chuckled. "I've been out here for, like, ten minutes, dude! What have you been doing?" She seemed completely unfazed about the fact that she was standing on your side lawn in the middle of the night when the two of you had school the next morning, and she furrowed her eyebrows when you opened your mouth to answer but no words came out. "Can I come up?"

"I--" The brunette lived halfway across town, and you couldn't see her bike anywhere in sight, which meant she had walked all the way to your house. You couldn't just deny her request and send her back home, not at this hour, not when she must have something important to say. "Sure," you said with a sigh, already regretting the decision as you watched the girl clamber up the fire safety ladder that your parents had installed on the side of the house--this interruption was going to set your studying back. 

Soon enough, Jenna was standing in your room, brushing herself off, and you stood a few steps away, your arms crossed over your stomach as though you were hugging yourself. She offered you a sparkling grin, the bridge of her nose crinkling, and then sat on your bed, her back pressed against the headboard, and patted the space beside her as if to say come sit. You obliged. 

After a few moments of silence, you asked the most reasonable question you could think of. "So, uh, what're you doing here?" In your peripheral vision, you could see her turn to you, a smirk playing at her lips as she tilted her head. You focused your attention on her as you awaited her response. 

"You weren't answering your phone," she shrugged, as if that was reason enough for her to trek a mile and a half in the dead of night. 

You nodded. "I've been studying..." At the mention of your previous work, a yawn broke from your lips, and you raised your hand to cover your mouth. "What, were you worried?" you teased.

The two of you had found yourselves in the depths of a 'are-we-friends-or-something-more' situation (you both knew you liked each other, and that you didn't want to date anyone else, but neither of you had the courage to admit your feelings and get something started). You liked to lightheartedly tease the girl whenever possible in an attempt to force her into making a move. So far, your efforts had proved fruitless.

"No," she lied, though her small smile gave her away, and you laughed softly. "But..." She hesitated. "I did miss you." Your laughter stopped instantly at the girl's confession, and you simply stared at her, unsure of what to say: this was the most either of you had ever delved into your feelings. 

"You missed me? Are you going soft on me, Ortega?" you asked, ignoring the blush that rose to your cheeks, the one that you knew she noticed and just chose not to comment on. 

She nodded, nearly imperceptibly--the movement so slight that you wouldn't have noticed if you weren't really looking--before breathing out, "Yeah, I think so."

The admission filled your chest with warmth, and you smiled, a genuine smile that made your eyes squint and your teeth gleam. "Really?"

She gulped, chuckled, and you watched as her eyes flitted toward your lips. Slowly, cautiously, she leaned in, constantly glancing back up at you to make sure that her actions were okay. 

You met her halfway, lips pressing against her soft ones, and you sighed at the feeling, the one that you had been chasing, had been waiting on for months. She pulled away, keeping her forehead pressed against your own. 

"Is this okay?" she whispered, as though raising her voice any louder would have burst the bubble that the two of you had created around yourselves.

Rather than a verbal answer, you brought your hand to her cheek and drew her back in, catching her bottom lip between your own two. You felt her exhale through her nose at the contact, a quick, sharp motion of surprise, and you smiled into the kiss. 

You pulled away this time, far enough so that you could look at the girl, and watched as she suddenly became bashful, her normally tough exterior dissolving before your very eyes. She brought her shoulders up to hide herself in, and her lips had turned down in a shy smile, and you giggled. 

"You're cute," you said through your joy, and the girl shrank in on herself even more, her own cheeks turning a bright red. 

"Shut up..."--she paused, cleared her throat, looked at you--"...you're cute, too."

[callmelittlebuttercup]

Peace Offerings Pt. 8

Pairing: Joel Miller x F!Reader

Series Summary: Joel and Reader stumble upon an older couple's desolate cabin. Despite Joel's protests, the Reader accepts the woman's invitation inside for soup and warmth. Once the lady's husband comes home, he shares some information that send Joel and Reader spiraling, forcing them to hold onto each other for support.

Series Warnings: Slow burn, Age gap (reader is 34, Joel is 56), 18+ Minors DNI, Sexual Themes, Violence, Injuries (depictions of blood, bruising, broken bones), Cursing, Grumpy!Joel, Minimal depictions of reader's appearance (hair color/length.)

Chapter Warnings: Yelling, Dead animals/eating meat (rabbit/dear), Vomiting.

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Part Eight

Our boots crunched through the snow as we made our way through the thick woods. My cheeks stung from the bitter cold, my hands were still numb despite being buried into my pockets, and my stomach was practically eating itself. I thought about asking Joel to stop so I could eat something from our stash, but I kept ahead, dreading a conversation with him. I didn’t trust myself to not mention last night. Our kiss was implanted into my brain. No matter how badly I wanted to forget it, to purge the embarrassment that I’d felt afterwards out of my mind, I couldn’t. The desperation of his hands clenching my shirt, the way his beard stung as it rubbed against my face, the way he tasted. It was all painfully unforgettable, and I didn’t dare mention it. Afterall, it was a mistake. 

About 20 quiet minutes down the path, we came across a lone cabin. I gawked at the smoke coming from the chimney, and the rabbits and deer hung up outside. Joel put a hand up for me to stop walking. “It’s occupied. Might have to keep moving.” He muttered. “But they have food… and warmth!” I argued a little too loudly, letting my immediate need for both of those things spill out of me. Joel glared as if saying “Shut the fuck up.” By the time we turned back to the cabin, an older woman was standing on the porch looking our way. Joel handed me his gun and walked towards her slowly with his hands raised above his head. “Ma’am, we’re not looking for trouble, just passing through.” Joel called out. She stared for a moment longer, her eyes meeting Joel’s, then mine. “You guys hungry?” She called out.  We looked at each other. Joel shook his head, no. But I walked forward, my stomach making ungodly noises at the mention of food. “Starving.” I called out. Joel shot me a look. “I think she’s alone, Joel.” I whispered. “Or she could have someone waiting in the house to slaughter us.” he seethed back. “We’ll find out.” I said as I walked past him, hands raised.  My name left Joel’s lips in an exasperated sigh, “Goddammnit.” 

“Leave your guns at the door, my husband will be back soon.” She said bluntly as we timidly entered the house. Joel shot me another look as if saying “I told you so.” I ignored him and surveyed the area. There was wooden furniture arranged around a fireplace, and the walls were decorated with fur and animal bones. A fire warmed and incensed the small cabin. “Soup okay?” She asked as she moved to the small kitchen on the opposite wall of the same room. Joel and I nodded, watching closely as she ladled the already warmed soup into wooden bowls. She slowly made her way over to us, her age dwindling her speed. One of the reasons I wasn’t afraid of her. She handed me a bowl first. I whispered, “Thank you.” and immediately tipped the contents into my mouth. “Slow down.” Joel grunted as he accepted his own bowl. I ignored him and gulped down the so-called soup. It was broth with either rabbit or deer meat. Either way, I was ecstatic to have food in my stomach. 

“There’s a bed in the loft,” the woman spoke over the rhythmic creak of her rocking chair, then nodded towards me, “your girl looks tired.” Joel’s eyes reluctantly shifted towards me but I did my best to avoid eye-contact. A place to rest my aching self sounded like heaven. I began to stand up, but Joel grabbed my wrist before saying, “She’s not- She’s fine.” I pulled away and shot him an annoyed look. I knew he didn’t want to split up, but the last thing I wanted to do was sit next to him on a tiny wooden bench. It was hard enough to fight the urge to lean against him. And in addition to that, my side was throbbing and it was a chore to keep my back straight while sitting on the hard surface. “I would love to lay down ma’am. Thank you.” I said politely before climbing up the stairs to the loft.

 In the corner of the room was a small mattress with what looked like handmade quilts. I 

sighed and gently laid down onto the plush material. I was just starting to give in to the heaviness of my eyelids when I heard the door open and the unzipping of a jacket. There was a moment of eerie quiet before a man’s voice blurted “Who the hell are you?” Joel’s voice calmly answered, “Just someone passing through. Take the gun out, two fingers only and put it out of reach.” The gun clattered onto a table. “Why didn’t you shoot him?” the man asked. I assumed he was addressing the woman. “The gun was all the way over there.” Another moment of silence passed and then she spoke again, “He didn’t hurt me by the way.” The man groaned, “Yeah I see that… You made him soup?” His voice hurled towards annoyance. “Yeah…I did. It’s cold out.” the woman answered in a tone that made it seem like it was the obvious thing to do. I almost giggled at the casualness of the couple. Any other people would have Joel and I at gunpoint or even dead by now, but here they were worrying about soup. 

I moved silently to peek down at them between the rungs of the railing. The man had plopped into a chair, seemingly unbothered by Joel holding him at gunpoint. He was still layered in multiple sweaters, and as he took off his hat, short, white hair was revealed. “I’m looking for my brother.” Joel said, trying to get the interaction on track. “Well I ain’t seen ‘im.” The man responded. “I haven’t told you what he looks like.” Joel replied, a hint of sass in his tone. “He look anything like you?” The man asked. “A bit.” I tried to imagine what the man would look like, whether he was younger or older, all questions I could never ask. “Then I ain’t seen him.” The man grunted. The woman spoke again, “He’s got a woman with him.” My stomach dropped and I moved to hide behind an animal skin that had been draped over the bannister. “Uh..No.” Joel said panickedly. “He does! Just saw her.” The man exclaimed. “Dammit.” Joel cursed under his breath as I stood up, keeping my hands visible to them to show I wasn’t a threat. “Who’s this beauty?” The man asked, his eyes following my form as I descended the stairs. I clenched my jaw nervously and went to stand next to Joel. “Nevermind her.” He said while moving his body in front of mine. I stepped out from behind him, annoyed with the fact that he’d pushed me away but still insisted on bossing me around. I felt the woman’s eyes on me. A soft smile was spread across her round face. I responded with a smile of my own, and then focused back onto the men’s tense conversation. 

Joel finally got the man to plant a finger to show where we were on the map. He sighed frustratedly and paced, “Well you found a great place to hide I guess.” The man chuckled, “Look, I came out here before you were born, sonny.” The woman turned to Joel and I and said, “I didn’t want to.” I furrowed my eyebrows in empathy, but my attention was brought back to the man as he continued to speak. “And I didn’t mean to upset you about your brother, but if you’ve come this far then you know what’s out there. You seen Cody?” He asked. I sat up and joined into the conversation, “Yeah we’ve been close enough. It’s crawling with infected.” He nodded, “Laramie, Wind River Reservation… Anywhere people used to be, you can’t go there no more.” Joel finally sat down and rang his hands nervously, “So you haven’t heard the name Tommy?” The inflection of his voice had changed slightly. I sounded more anxious than usual. “Or Matthew?” I asked hopefully. “There’s two men you’re looking for?” The man asked exasperatedly. “Our brothers are supposed to have been in the same state. They left together with a group of fireflies.” I explained. “Like the bugs?” The woman questioned, her face twisted in confusion. “Not the bugs, the people.” I said again, trying to stay patient. “There are firefly people?” She asked again. The couple burst out laughing and I bit my lip, desperately trying not to join in. Joel was not having it, “You got any advice on the best way west?” The man leaned forward, “Yeah. Go East.” He pointed to a depiction of a river on the map, “Never go past the river here. Ever.��� I looked up from the map, “What’s past the river?” I asked reluctantly. “Death. We’ve never seen who’s out there, but we see the bodies they leave behind. Some infected, some not. If your brothers are west of the river, they’re gone.” 

The woman’s words felt like a punch to the gut. The thought that I’d done all of this- gone through all of this only to find that my brother was dead made bile rise up into my throat. My pulse thumped in my ears as I stood up. “Need some fresh air.” I breathed as I stumbled towards the door, almost tripping over the rug made out of bear fur. I squinted from the blinding sun as I opened the door and walked back out into the freezing weather. I leaned against the side of the house as I sucked in the cold air, trying to keep myself in reality. I needed to hold onto the hope that Matthew would still be alive. Those people were clueless. They had no idea what was going on in the world besides the cordyceps. There’s no way I was letting them convince me my brother was dead. The “what ifs” were still enough to make me lean over the railing and spew the soup all over the white snow. 

The door opened behind me and I heard Joel’s heavy boots step onto the landing. My name fell softly from his lips, and I felt his hand on my back. I leaned up off of the railing and shoved away from him. “Don’t touch me, Joel.” I sobbed. His hand retracted from me and he stepped back. His face was heavy with a mixture of grief, anxiety, anger and everything in between. “I’ve been thinking about this.” I said shakily as I wiped my face and turned to him. He looked at me through the side of his eyes, refusing to face me. “I’ve been thinking… what if they’re not there. What if this dream I’ve been having is real-“ He cut me off and growled, “No. DON’T FUCKING SAY THAT.” The volume of his voice caused me to shriek and recoil back. My body shrunk into the corner of the landing, and I stared at him wide-eyed. He dug his hands into his hair and pulled his head downwards onto the railing opposite to me. “We can’t believe that.” He whispered, his voice cracking under the immense weight of the situation. 

He was losing it. No longer able to keep up the cold, emotionless, strong man act. The thought of losing his brother broke something in him. He stood at the railing and heaved. He wasn’t crying, he was panicking. Fighting the same thoughts I had been for the past few weeks. 

I decided that this time, I would be the one to put my hand on his back. I pushed up off of the side of the house and slowly moved towards him. I raised a shaky hand to the brown leather of his coat, and pressed it in between his broad shoulders. His head raised up from between his hands and he caught sight of me in the corner of his eye. “I’m sorry.” He breathed. I shook my head, “Don’t be.” He slowly straightened from his crouched position and stood facing me. “Joel.” I said while maintaining eye contact, “I’m going to hug you now. Not because I want to, but because I need to. And you’re going to let me, because no matter how strong or manly you are, I know damn well you need it too.” He stared down at me, neither accepting or rejecting my declaration. I slowly raised my arms to his torso and my hands connected with the warmth of him. As I brought my body closer and closer, I waited for him to push me away or yell at me, but he didn’t. He stood still as our bodies connected. I pressed my head against his chest while wrapping my arms tightly around him. He didn’t hug me back. I didn’t expect him to. But the absence of his refusal was a sign that I was right- he did need it. Not wanting to push my luck, I began to pull away. It was only then that he wrapped his arms around my shoulders, pulled our bodies back together, and rested his chin against my head. I closed my eyes and breathed in a full breath for the first time in years. My heavy heart felt lighter.

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As always, thank you for reading!! <3

Masterlist

Tagging ppl I think would enjoy!!:

@demonsasss @ayamenimthiriel @ashleyfilm

[rottenblur]

My modern Romeo|J.MILLER

part three

Summary: When Joel ghosts you after a drunk makeout you had enough. Risking your life, breaking into his house was worth it to get the last word in. Only if you knew alot more than a conversation was gonna happen.

Warnings: thigh riding, joel teaching you how to touch dick??? Smut. Messy fucking situation. SMUT IN A BED!!! Kissing, makeout. Hickeys.

“You’ve been told listening to your heart rather than your brain gets you nowhere in this world, yet your feet still bring you to the walls of jackson.”

It had been three weeks since you last seen Joel, kissed him.

You were worried, had he got caught? Would you ever seen him again, did he want to see you again?

It was late, 2am on a Friday and you weren’t with him. It was eating you up alive, did he forget about me? Was all he wanted from me was to get it dick hard?

You throw the book you were reading, one that you could barely focus on due to lack of Joel. Three weeks of being bossed around by your family, your group was ruining your will from the outside in.

I gotta do something about this, if he doesn’t wanna see me, i wanna hear him say it to my face you think to yourself.

Its the least he could do, after making you like him so so long, crave him.

He can’t get kiss you then never see you again, can he?

Three weeks of walking to the so very prized field, waiting for hours just for him to not show.

You get off your bed, throw on a sweater not bothering to dress up for him. Fuck it.

You start on the route to jackson, a route you were warned about by group members. Yet Joel had told you a million times exactly how he sneaks out, to meet you, you knew where you we going, or you hoped.

It was a far walk, a reason Tommy used a horse and not his own damned legs. It’s hard to not get into your thoughts when your aching legs aren’t adding positivity to your thoughts.

What if everything you thought was true? Would you ever see him again? You loved him, did you? Did you even know what love is? Fuck it, doesn’t matter.

You reach the hill before jackson, the enchanting view of it. All the houses, the life that thrives from there made you overwhelmed. How could you be mad at him for not wanting to leave here, a overwhelming amount of guilt washes over you.

A guilt you should listen to but you don’t. You couldn’t, you’d rather die trying to see him then never see him again.

You’ve been told listening to your heart rather than your brain gets you nowhere in this world, yet your feet still bring you to the walls of jackson.

Joel had told you about a place where the wall needs to be repaired, how he sneaks out when he doesn’t have a reason to leave. Thank god for him.

You squeeze yourself through the broken wall, barely fitting through, how the fuck does he fit.

You make sure you’re out of sight from the patrol towers and make your way through a line of houses.

The faint sounds of barn animals is the only sound in the dead of night in jackson.

On the front of every house a last name is engraved in each mailbox, do they get mail? You only heard pre apocalypse stories about how people would send letters to each other worldwide, it fascinated you, maybe you would ask him about it.

Twenty minutes of scurrying through six rows of houses, till you come across a large house with worn down white paints on the steps. A black mailbox with “J.MILLER” engraved into it near some white fencing. Bingo.

You look around, checking to see if anyone was around before stepping onto the worn down steps, squeaking beneath your feet.

You take a deep breath before reaching for the door knob, twisting it. Fuck. It’s locked. Of course it’s locked, why wouldn’t it be?

Stepping over towards the window near the entrance you pull it up, slowly and carefully trying not to make any noise.

You throw yourself inside of it and close it behind you. You glance around the room, it smells like old coffee and pine. Him.

Walking around on the old wood floor, you walk towards the steps slowly stepping on each one trying to make it squeak as little as possible.

God what the absolute fuck were you thinking. You were so upset at him, and yourself for him leaving you alone for so long, you didn’t plan what you would actually do when you got here.

Reaching the top step, you try to make out the dark hallway. A few rooms covering the top floor, you walk up to a door and hope it’s his bedroom.

Never would you think in this world people would be living so comfortably, in such big houses, filled with furniture.

Shit, you had furniture if a bed on the floor and a bookshelf counted. A half empty bookshelf from giving away most of your life to this man. Whatever, maybe it could be worth it.

You turn the door knob easing it open slowly, not to wake him. Lucky guess, there he was. An arm tucked underneath his head, laid onto a pillow. You step closer, his room was exactly how you imagined it. Not exactly, but very close you didn’t think it would be this domestic.

It looked like he was alive. A real fucking human, alive not just living surviving however they could, at what major cost.

The wolves were living not fucking alive, they were gruesome with at the lengths they would go to, for survival. You were taught how to survive, not nurture nor love. That comes back to you when you realize what you were doing, breaking into his community just to get the last word what the fuck.

Brushing those thoughts out of your head and approaching the bed, his other arm laid onto his waist, his bare waist. You gulp down your shame and reach out a arm, covering his mouth.

His eyes bolt open with a worried look, he furrows his brows and searches your face in the darkness in recognition. He mumbles into your hand.

You remove your hand, his brows still tightly clenched together.

“What the fuck are you doin’ here?”

You tilt your head.

“Oh hello to you to? Jesus don’t gotta curse at me.”

“You could have gotten shot? Did you think of that?”

He sits up.

You sit down on the bed next to him.

“Obviously i did, where have you been asshole?”

He pitches his nose bridge and slumps over.

“Shit happened since i saw you last.”

He looks at you, the glimmer of moon light shines on dark bruises and open cuts covering his soft face.

“Oh fuck, who did that are you okay??” You touch his face, he winces and pulls your hand away.

“I’m okay. It’s nothin’ darlin’- fuck.” He shakes his head and says your name.

You stand up, turning on the christmas lights that litter his ceiling. Getting a better look at his face, it was bad, beat to plup bad.

“Jesus Joel that’s not okay. You were gone and i had to come all this way and you’re fucking beat up?”

He stands up, picks up a shirt off the floor and throws it on shaking his head.

“Okay, you make out with me then just disappear? I risk my life for you and you won’t talk to me?”

You walk up to him trying to size him up, knowing he’s double your size. Fuck that.

“I can explain, uh i just-“

He studders, and places his hands on your arms.

God he looks like he wants to cry.

“You just got your dick wet and decided you didn’t want me anymore?” You snap back.

He looks down.

“I just can’t control myself around you anymore, it’s for the better.”

You take his hands off you.

“For the better my ass. Wasn’t you that said that thing about lying? You should listen to yourself.”

He looks at you, you can see his pride slipping away from his soft brown eyes.

“I got into a fight cause i was so fucking mad at myself for missing you so much.”

You start to understand, maybe you felt a little bad.

“I feel bad that your first real—I don’t know what you would call us, romance? Is so forbidden. You should be able to see someone everyday, not just weekly.”

He shakes his head and takes a step away, you stop him.

You grab his arm and pull him towards you, he looks at you, down to your lips and back up to your eyes.

“I needed you so fucking bad Joel.”

You step onto your tippy toes and kiss him, pulling away to see his reaction, he looks at you with those fucking puppy eyes.

He pulls you back into the kiss, deepening it and pulling you closer. He steps back, his legs hitting the bed frame, then pulling you on top of him onto the bed.

Your first real kiss with him, on a fucking bed. Is this real?

He holds your face with one hand, the other placed carefully on your waist. You regret your outfit choice now.

You pull away, he looks confused then you take your gun holster off your hip and place it onto the bedside table.

You straddle him, avoiding his lips and going down to his neck. You didn’t know what you were doing, or if it even felt good fuck man he was the first person you ever made out with.

Yet the way his hips rutted up against you and whimpers left his mouth told you everything. You kiss and suck up and down his neck, grunts of “fuck” and “oh thats so fuckin’ good” left his mouth till you pulled away to look at him. His fucked out face, bruised patches on his neck matched the same hue of his face.

“Oh fuck did i hurt you?”

“Huh?” He looks confused.

“Your neck, its bruised? I didn’t know I could do that.”

He just laughs and shakes his head.

“Shit, you gave me hickeys? You don’t know what a hickey is darlin’?” He squints his eyes at you.

You shake your head.

“I mean you’re the first guy I’ve made out with.”

He looks shocked, and kinda guilty.

“Fuck, really?”

You nod and trace your fingers along his bruised neck, down to his shirt collar.

“You want it off?” He looks at you with a grin.

“That okay?” You ask him nervously.

He reached to the bottom hem of his shirt and pulls up and off. Fuck. He looked even better with the lights on, his happy trail littering his stomach leading down to a patch of curly hair peaking out of his boxers.

He watches your eyes scan his body, pulling you into a kiss, his hand moving from your waist down to your hips.

His fingers burned into your skin with pleasure, god you wished he could touch you forever.

The kiss picks up in pace, so does his hips. Rutting into you, holding your hips tight to the hardness in his boxers. It was embarrassing how fucking wet you were.

A whimper slips out and into his mouth, he feels the vibrations on his lips, on his tongue.

He pulls away, slowly rutting against you with a groan.

“You like that? Make you feel good?” He asks you in a hungry voice.

You nod and hold back a whimper almost escaping your mouth.

“You wanna try something else? Make me feel good?”

Of course you wanted to make him feel good. You liked him, if you knew what love was maybe you loved him.

You nod, he scoots your hips back a little bit, resting on the top of his thighs. He pulls the waistband of his boxers back, his length snaps back hitting his belly button. It was fucking huge.

It was leaking and the tip was tan to match the length, thick veins littered his girth.

Your eyes open wide and the fire in your panties grew.

“You wanna touch it?”

You nod and squeeze your fist onto his dark blue blanket.

“Spit on your hand.”

His words are demanding but his eyes are dazed and glossy.

You spit on your hand, he grabs it and wraps it around him.

“You’re hands barely wrap ‘round it darlin’”

He grins, move your hand up to his tip brushing your thumb on it, collecting the precum. He brings the precum down, moving your hand up and down at a slow pace.

“Am i doing okay?” You almost whispered out.

He picks up the pace and removes his hand, leaving your hand to do all the work. It was making you needy. You wanted him, you wanted all of him.

“Mh just like that, fuck that’s good.”

You look away from your hand and up to him, his gaze is lost and his head is thrown back onto the bed.

A string of grunts and mumbles leaves his throat, encouraging you to move your hand faster, grip him tighter.

You start slowing rutting your hips onto his thigh, the rough denim of your jeans against his thick bare leg.

“You like this darlin’? Getting yourself off on my thigh, so fuckin’-“ a whimper leaves his throat and he continues “-so fucking cute baby.”

His tip is leaking profusely onto the top of your hand, aiding to the wetness seeping out of your jeans. The more you hips more, the faster, the rougher. The harder you grip him, jerking him faster.

Between the two of you there’s almost a single thought, almost. Both Chasing a high, a desperate one, no one has ever made you feel this way before.

He starts rutting into your hand, rougher groans leaking from his throat, just as you reach your high, he does. Leaking white strings all over your hand, and onto his hips. A fucking mess, the two of you are.

He pulls his head off the bed and looks at you, fucked out glossy eyes, so fucking fulfilled. If it wasn’t for his face littered with bruises, you’d think he was the happiest man alive.

“Ah fuck, there’s shit in the bathroom if you wanna clean yourself up.” He leans in and kisses your lips.

A gentle, soft plush kiss.

You get off him with achy knees recollecting your thoughts, your brain as a whole.

“Fuck, you made a mess all over my thigh.” You watch him reach down, collecting some on his fingers and sucking on them.

A stupid fucking grin rushes to his face, a adorable grin.

You walk over to the bathroom, wet a face cloth with warm water and wipe off your hands, looking at your watch smeared with cum. Fuck. It’s already four in the god damn morning.

You bring out another face cloth, throwing the other into a laundry basket thrown into his bathroom.

He accepts it with a smile, cleaning himself up, disregarding his boxers for new ones.

“Cute ass.” You say smiling and sitting onto the bed, watching him clothe himself.

He laughs back at you, a forced one. So fucking sassy.

“You know, i’ve been thinkin’ ‘bout that since i met you.”

You shake your head as he walks up to you.

He places a kiss onto your neck, not one. Kissing up and down your neck with gentle kisses.

“It’s fucking late. I should really go, don’t want your boys on me, do I?”

He shakes his head, that god damn sad look in his eye made you want to stay forever, it was intoxicating.

“Friday? I mean it. I don’t know what i was thinking, i really fucking missed you.” He places a kiss onto your forehead, hugging you. A genuine comforting hug, a drug. You drink in his scent before getting up to leave.

Maybe it was love. Maybe you did love him.

My masterlist

Taglist: @paleidiot @slvbl @princessanglophile

AN!!!! God damn this took a while, my writing schedule has been so fucked up recently. Send request or questions to my inbox! I hope yall liked this

[liminalmemories21]

Writing prompt... can I suggest one?

"What's in the box?"

Andrew has inherited TK"s love for animals, and especially his love for strays.  "He couldn't have inherited your ability to nap?" he'd said more than once when Andrew was little. 

He's learned to be wary of Andrew sneaking into the house carrying boxes.

Andrew coming home with a box carefully cradled in his arms, that even from across the kitchen Carlos can see is moving, combined with his mother's decidedly too amused grin puts him on high alert.

"What'cha got there kiddo?"

Andrew carefully puts the box down on the counter, keeping a hand on the lid.  Carlos narrows his eyes.  "So, you know how you and Pops keep saying you're going to be lonely when I go to camp this summer."

"Joking," he corrects.  His mother makes an indelicate snorting noise.

Andrew ignores them both.  "And how then the house will be so empty when I go to college."

He raises his eyebrows. "In four years."

Andrew nods.  "Right, but it's good to get ahead of these things, prepare for them."

Carlos eyes the box.  "What's in the box?"

Andrew clears his throat. "So you remember how Uncle Judd's brother's cat had kittens?  And how Charlie took one for her apartment, and Aunt Tommy took one."

He eyes his mother's badly concealed smirk with concern.  "Yes."

"Right, so there were four left and Aunt Grace persuaded Uncle Judd to take two of them, and Uncle Judd said we could have the other two if you and Pops said it was okay"

"Did he, now." 

Andrew nods enthusiastically.  "And then Abuela said we should bring them home for you to meet."

"Abuela is getting coal in her stocking this year," he mutters and catches his mother's muffled laugh.

"I am just the driver, mijo."  

He gives her a sardonic look.  "Really, Mom?"

Andrew watches them, and says very carefully, "I know this is just a meet cute, and Uncle Judd and Aunt Grace know we might bring them back, and I know you and Pops have to talk about it first because a pet is a big responsibility, and I know you said maybe one pet, and this is two, but they can keep each other company and all the books say that's better for them.  But, you should have a chance to meet them at least, right?  Make an informed decision?"

He snorts, and where Andrew got his ability to argue for a cause he has no idea.  Andrew gives him a beseeching look he absolutely learned from TK, and he holds up his hands. "Okay, okay, Pops and I will talk about it tonight, but if he says no then that's the end of it. No arguments" 

Andrew nods, and they both know that there is basically zero chance TK is saying no to kittens.  TK's actually better than he is at holding the line on house rules, but all bets are off when it comes to animals.  He tries to steel himself to be the voice of reason. "Okay, show me these kittens."

They are fat squirmy balls of fuzz blinking up at him from the bottom of a towel lined box.  He watches the way Andrew carefully lifts them out of the box, and cradles them up against his chest - and when did Andrew get this grown up already?  He accepts the tiny marmalade kitten that Andrew hands him, letting it climb his shirt and try to burrow into his ear, stroking a finger down its back  And, Andrew is right, he reasons, they are going to have a large empty house in a few years when Andrew goes away to college, and two cats will give them something to come home to, and better to get them now instead of trying to fill an Andrew shaped gap later.

"We have to wait to see what Pops says," he reminds Andrew weakly, but he's reaching out for the other kitten as he says it and they all know his caveat lacks force.

[knickynoo]

Back to the Future: The Animated Series, s02ep10 “My Pop's an Alien"

Previous episodes linked here.

In this episode: If Marty McFly had a nickel for every time he had to impersonate an alien in order to threaten someone into doing something, he'd have two nickels. Which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice.

We begin with Doc watching alien movies on his giant screen TV.

He explains to us that you can't always believe what you see and mentions how many people were fooled into thinking aliens actually were invading. (A reference to the original War of the Worlds broadcast, most likely)

We move into the cartoon as Doc tells us about an "astronomical event" that caused similar panic in Hill Valley.

The town is excitedly preparing for the arrival of the Comet Kahooey. A shop has been set up to sell merch commemorating the event, and Jules and Verne have their eyes on a powerful telescope that they want to buy. Before they can make a decision, Marty comes into the store to tell the boys not to waste their money on anything because Doc's already invented equipment that will help them see the comet.

Biff comes in then, and when he learns the name of the comet, he completely flips out.

He then bursts through the store's window and runs through the town shouting that the aliens are coming back. Soon, he's got the entire town in an uproar. People are trying to flee town, news channels arrive on the scene, and mass hysteria is in full effect.

As Jules, Verne, and Marty try to figure out what's going on, they come across an old man who tells them that the same thing happened 25 years prior. "Busses ran late, spooky lights, weird noises," he explains, going on to say that the whole town became a "giant magnetic field."

When further questioned, the old man says that the only witness to the supposed "aliens" was Biff Tannen.

We return to Biff, who is riding through the town on a tractor while continuing to scream about the impending alien invasion. He veers off the road and comes upon a strange-looking contraption hidden around a farm.

Understandably, this does not help matters. Biff claims it's the same spaceship he had seen all those years ago. He hurries over to Doc's house and announces that he has two things to say to him, the first one being, "I'm returning your tractor because I wanna tie up loose ends considering we're all gonna be obliterated."

This is not the first time in the series that Biff has gone to Doc's to either borrow or return something, which is interesting to me for two reasons.

It's not like this is the changed "nice" version of Biff post-first movie. Cartoon Biff seemingly never underwent any sort of personality change and is every bit as mean and manipulative as original Biff was. Yet he and Doc seem to have an understanding of sorts in that they act pretty neighborly toward each other for the most part.

Biff evidently lives close enough that he can just pop by to borrow things, but Doc and his family live on a farm. Much of the area around them is farmland. Biff borrowing a tractor means he also lives on farmland. Very confused about the layout of Hill Valley then. This definitely isn't the Hill Valley from the movies.

Anyway, Biff goes on to tell Doc about the spaceship he found in the field, to which Doc casually replies, "Yes, that's where I keep it." He fails to further elaborate, which leads Biff to assume that Doc is admitting to being an alien. Biff has a great response.

Later that night, the National Guard, police officers, guys from the VFW, and local Boy Scout troops armed with cannons surround the Brown residence, prepared to confront the alien hiding inside. Marty, Jules, and Verne come upon all the commotion and learn that Doc is at risk of being "blown to smithereens."

It does not help his case when Doc emerges from the house surrounded by a blinding white light and wearing a strange-looking helmet on his head.

Jules proposes that the best way to get this whole thing solved is by traveling back to 1967 when the first "alien" sighting occurred. The boys all rush off to the DeLorean.

After arriving in the past, they quickly discover that the old man they had spoken to was right; they hear weird noises in the sky, and the whole town does appear to have been mysteriously magnetized. The harmonica Marty has with him causes him to be pulled through the streets by the magnetic force.

Btw, this is the third time the show has brought up the fact that Marty carries around and likes to play the harmonica (he's good at it, too!). I really like that and am going to incorporate it into my Marty Headcanons.

We soon see Biff, who is out driving. After nearly running Marty and the boys over, Biff comes upon and crashes right into the spacecraft. The "alien" gets out to greet him, but with all the light behind the ship, Biff can't see who it is.

After he quickly takes off and flees the scene, we get a good look at the alien. It's our good buddy Doc.

When Marty, Jules, and Verne come upon Doc and the ship, they're all a little confused. Marty thinks that maybe Doc has actually been an alien all this time. Jules says it would explain his father's very high intelligence and knowledge about space and time travel. Verne thinks it's really neat to possibly be part alien.

We also see Alien!Doc running off toward the mansion.

This does not make any sense since this is the year 1967, and Doc's mansion burned down in 1962. But many things in this cartoon don't make any sense.

The guys collectively agree that, alien or not, they need to protect Doc from the authorities who are for sure going to come looking for him. Marty suggests they try to move the spaceship somewhere else to hide it, and they scramble inside just before Doc returns. The ship takes off into the night sky, and Verne soon emerges from his hiding spot to make his presence known. A panicked Doc wants to know how a bunch of kids snuck onto his ship, and Marty (who had only moments earlier been talking about how they had to protect Doc) immediately loses his cool.

Doc is baffled at all of this and goes on to clarify that he's not an alien. We get a very silly joke from Marty in return.

Hahaha...ha.

When Doc responds with, "Who??", Verne says that if he was REALLY from Earth, he'd know who Michael J. Fox is. Jules helpfully points out that they're in the year 1967.

So, yeah, MJF canonically exists as a movie star in the BTTF Cartoon Universe, I guess. And we also know that Back to the Future exists in this universe as well, since it can be seen displayed at the movie theater in at least two episodes. Although, who's to say that BTTF in the Cartoon Universe is anything like the actual movie. It probably isn't. But maybe MJF is in their universe's version of it? Hmm. Much to think about.

Moving on! Doc explains that his spaceship creates a reverse-magnetic charge as it runs, which is why things were magnetized. And, I mean...that's a pretty big deal, Doc. Metal things were just flying through the air down there on Earth. Maybe you should have thought of that? But, anyway, Doc just wanted to see the comet without all the light pollution. And his bizarre alien clothes is just a self-cooling suit to help with all the peddling he has to do to keep the device in the air.

When the chain on the bike that powers the craft starts squeaking, Marty tries to help by putting some oil on it. Except he grabs the wrong bottle and uses an acid that immediately eats through the chain. The ship starts plummeting to the ground. Way to go, Marty. Thankfully, everyone is fine (they land in a little pond) and Doc isn't upset that his invention has been destroyed. He basically just goes, "Enjoy the comet, boys. See ya!" and walks off into the night.

Marty says that they still need to find a way to keep future Doc safe from the police when the comet returns in their present day. He comes up with a plan, but it doesn't appear that Verne is listening. When Marty asks what's wrong, Verne says, "You do sorta look like that J. Michael Fox guy..."

Using some beekeeper suits that Doc conveniently had in the DeLorean, Marty and the boys go and give Biff Tannen a little scare.

They announce that they've come to take Biff with them, to which Jules explains that they "wish to study the least intelligent creature on Earth."

I love Jules.

Biff begs and pleads to be let go, which Marty agrees to do on the condition that Biff NEVER mentions their visit to anyone. And, in 25 years, he isn't allowed to go to the authorities for any matter surrounding aliens. Biff promises, and they let him go. The boys return to the present and find everything normal.

Doc is working on his new telescope hat and is happy to show his sons and Marty. He begins to tell them that he once had a flying observatory, but it had vanished from its hiding spot years back. Verne suggests he go check the swamp (where they had all crashed) and Doc is shocked to find the vehicle there. After going inside, he finds the broken chain and gets a troubling memory.

"As I recall, a youngster by the name of Michael J. something-or-other caused this chain to snap."

Marty quickly distracts Doc with an offer to go into town and buy a new chain, then runs off with Jules and Verne in tow.

side note: Marty tells them to follow him by saying, "Come on, punks," and I must say that I really like the familiar, teasing, big-brotherly way that Marty talks to them. He's at other points referred to Jules and Verne as "punks," "squirts," "runts," etc, and idk. I think it's sweet. He says it with all the affection of an older sibling who has to look after his two younger brothers.

As we end the episode and return to Real Doc, he opens with a joke that I simply must include a full clip of because he cracks himself up with it, and I love the laugh he does.

Also, yes, he tricked us with a Fake Doc. He says he takes it along when he goes to the movies and puts it in his seat when he goes to get more popcorn, so that nobody takes his spot while he's gone.

This is a completely normal man.

Join me next time as the series continues to make perplexing decisions and makes Doc a wrestler in the early 1950s.

[miodiodavinci]

MR. DAVINKY I KNOW YOU DONT KNOW ME BUT YOU RESPONDED TO MY BF ABOUT SALVADOR ON YT. HES RIGHT.

You have no idea how much Salvador means to us we NEED more salva-lore ASAP I'm clawing at the door I'm making loud animal noise RHARATARRAH

AKJDHLAJDHLKAJDHLKAJD I'M LOSING MY MIND YOU'RE TOO KIND A A A A A

as a thank you i want to offer you legitimately All The Lore I Have on post-lychgate salvador—please do with this what you will KJADLAHJ

GENERAL WORLD BUILDING

“Garage kit idols” are a semi-independent response to the international phenomenon that is H○○○○○○ M○○○ and company.

Almost all formal “garage kit” talent begins at one of the many production, distribution, and management offices spread across the country. These offices provide approved talent agencies with the development kits necessary to “scout” new idols.

Of these development kits, there are several packages available (each being more expensive and in-depth than the last), most of which include a rudimentary neural net, a foundational chassis, an instructional guide, and the software required to “train” the net.

The lowest end packages include only the fundamental elements necessary for a functional idol, such as the capacity for CV voice synthesis, basic dance coordination, and a semi-life-like “face,” while more expensive and in-depth packages support multiple vocal libraries, more life-like bodies, additional personality modules, added expressive bonuses, and more.

To prevent damages to the office’s reputation, however, most offices require that an agency aiming to “scout” a new idol must first submit an application stating—among other things—their project plans and a three year timeline of what they hope to accomplish with their idol. If approved, this plan becomes a three year contract, at the end of which the agency and idol will be evaluated and potentially brought on for a full seven year office-endorsed contract.

While some “garage kit idols” have achieved near legendary status (such as K○○○○○ T○○○), many of these idols do not survive their three year trial period. Those who do not have their license and warranty revoked (the consequences of which depend on the office), and often are encouraged to be decommissioned and recycled to make way for a new, hopefully more successful generation. In years pasts, some idols have even forcibly decommissioned following grave transgressions or scandals.

That being said, plenty of former “garage kit idols” merely slip under the radar once their time is up, and go on to become independent, non-idol performers, or even leave the music industry all together. Repairs, however, often become an issue after three to five years of unserviced use. Often, it is difficult to find a former “garage kit idol” who’s been out of warranty for more than five or so years.

All this being said, of course, this process only accounts for “formal Garage Kit talent.” There are plenty of independently developed vocal androids, though they’re not often seen beyond local and private performances. They’re definitely more resource intensive to produce, though many fans argue most have more heart in them than any “Garage Kit Idol” ever will.

SALVADOR’S PERSONAL TIMELINE

Originally created by a small team of five individuals as the “garage kit idol” M○○○○○ using a modest but lower-end dev kit, his agency’s plan was to—by the end of this three years—make him reasonably popular in a local area, book three sold out in-house performances, and sell at least 300 CDs across all three years. 

With spirits high and hope abound, he received a great deal of support and enthusiasm from his agency in the first year.

Though a lot of prospective fans at the time weren’t interested in getting emotionally invested in a “garage kit idol” (considering they’re a dime a dozen and probably wouldn’t last more than three years anyhow), by 8 months into his career, SALVADOR had developed a small, dedicated fan following that ensured that most street meets and housed performances drew in a crowd of at least 15 to 30 people. By 9 months in, they'd booked their first "sold-out" show in a small venue near his normal stomping grounds.

Hands were shaken, CDs were sold, and the numbers bolstered the spirit of the agency. It seemed like the dream would come true.

Side note: it's vaguely around in here that he first picked up his "rival," Ayano, who somehow kept setting up shop on the same street as him, much to his annoyance. His initial impression was that she was gruff, crude, and wholly unsuited for idol work, though over time he stopped looking down his nose at her and started finding a certain charm in how she'd unabashedly yell at people who didn't tip well, or leap off her stand to viciously beat up any critics.

... Unfortunately, however, the numbers plateaued and fell rather than climb. Dedicated fans would still roll up to the regular performances (and SALVADOR's popularity managed to just scrape in enough ticket sales for a second show), but the company was nowhere close to breaking 100 CDs, much less selling out another show. The company spirit dampened.

All the while, SALVADOR's feelings surrounding performing started to become muddled, leaving him frustrated and uneasy before shows and bordering on nauseous after. He slowly grew to resent the way his fans looked at him, and often lost himself in thought wishing that he could have any other idol's fans instead.

He really, honestly, truly looked to Ayano as a source of light during this time, and wished he could have the confidence she had to bite patrons who so much as looked at her funny. Unfortunately, she disappeared out of the blue one day, and never returned to idol work.

More than a few fans started to complain that SALVADOR seemed “insincere” and “curt” during fan meets and off-stage encounters, which the agency redirected unto SALVADOR swiftly. His attempts at confessing his problems and seeking support were met with pointed comments and implied blame for his lack of success, which all but turned the latch on his heart, causing him to bury his discontent in as deep a hole as he could muster.

By the midway point of year two, it was becoming clear the dream wasn’t panning out. His growing revulsion privately festering in his heart, SALVADOR poured every bit of himself into his idol persona, increasingly his workload exponentially in an attempt to get his agency back on his side. Most fans stopped coming after a while once the concerts started to feel more and more desperate.

The final months before the contract expired were spent in a pitiful, frantic haze saturated with self-advertisement, frantic CD sales, enlistment of what few agency members would call him back (though these dwindled by the day), and desperate attempts at avoiding his fate. Many who knew him at the time would remember seeing him overburdened with cheaply printed CDs, begging anyone who would listen (in perfect idol fashion, however), to “buy a CD and rescue a poor aspiring idol from her demise.” When merch ran out, he sold anything he could get his hands on (as long as it came with several CDs).

The final nail in the coffin was the first and only concert SALVADOR booked himself, which he spent months preparing and advertising for (in hopes of meeting the third successful performance goal), only to open for a practically empty house composed primarily of drifters and only half-interested strangers (their enthusiasm not at all helped by the physical damage he’d obtained only a few days prior). He went "home" to a warranty expiration warning pushed under the office door, and nothing but empty voicemails from the people who had brought him into the world.

The months following the contract’s expiration remain a dark, hazy blur. Lots of unanswered calls, heart-wrenching notices, and persistent harassment by representatives of the office that had originally leased out SALVADOR's dev kit to begin with. Of course, no one from his agency was around to answer calls, so SALVADOR was left alone to bare the brunt of the responsibility (another point that they leveraged against him in an attempt to get him to retire).

In the midst of it all, SALVADOR started his transition. Months of harassment had brought his emotions to a boiling point (he all but marinated in an ever-constant stew of self-loathing, disgust, and frustration), and though it'd originally been in an attempt to escape the solicitation, cutting his hair ended up shedding some light on everything he’d felt before.

He slipped out of the office in the middle of the night and skipped town, ditching his uniform in favor of a pair of cheap coveralls and taking the first train that would have him. He still remembers staring into his reflection in the window, fans blasting hot air, terrified that he'd made some mistake (but also feeling a kind of lightness and euphoria he'd never felt before).

He ended up settling a couple cities away, far from the heart of the "garage kit idol" phenomenon. Unable to seek repairs for his last minute injuries (and finding that of the few android repair shops there were, none would take him without reassurance that he was still under warranty), he started researching mechanics on his own, patching himself up and offering some services to newfound acquaintances on the side.

In time, his skills had earned him some notoriety—at least to the point that his name had made it to the ears of some powerful friends, who were more than willing to lease him a workshop to continue his craft (the moment he first turned the lights on will remain burned in his memory forever).

And so the new SALVADOR began: a repair mechanic who’s first job was taking himself apart and rebuilding himself in a new image, completely separate from his idol past—a past he was certain would remained buried up until a certain former "rival" re-entered his life.

[basicallyjustmuggleremuslupin]

OKAY HI

is there any chance you remember Mark?

If not, here's a refresher: Mark is this vampire who mixes slang from three centuries mercilessly and wears priceless Victorian waistcoats with tracksuit bottoms with no shame.

(I didn't remember his name lol, had to check)

Anyway, so Mark is moving. He lives in this beautiful castle built by Ludwig || in Bavaria. Now, Ludwig is know as the fairy tale king and his palaces were built to fit such a title.

Mark is moving to a condo for a couple of reasons

He never bothered to learn German

The castle is just cold

Every so often a kid comes across it and he has to silence them or whatever

There is no closet space left

However, now Mark has to sell off said castle. First, though, he needs to make up some lies to tell the realtor about why the locals think is cursed, why the entryway carpet has a few stains that look weirdly like dried blood- you know what? I'll make you a list.

Why the locals have the strange idea his home is cursed

Why the entryway carpet has a few stains the look somewhat like dried blood

Why all the bins are overflowing with empty bottles of sunscreen

Why there are priceless victorian outfits in incredible condition stuffed into the backs of closets and under chairs

Why there is no food in the kitchen

Why every so often a kid goes missing when they come poking around

How the castle had stayed in his family for centuries

Why the lack of modern elements such as electricity?

Honestly there's probably more but that's pretty long already.

Anyway, I hope you'll excuse my antics and my procrastination techniques (I should be editing rn)

omg hi, i'm genuinely dying for these random asks about mark ahhh

(also i didn't exactly remember the name but the moment i read 'vampire who mixes slang from three centuries' it all came back to me)

omg, i imagine that would be a big issue lmao

so, my answers are probably not the most creative ones but i imagine they would work:

so, hundreds of years ago, there lived a very bad person in the castle, who would rule over bavaria. said person would take a large amount of food from the farmers that lived there as payment in exchange for him to protect them all with his soldiers. but, as one can probably imagine, some years crops are very good and some years... well, not so. so in a year when the people barely had anything to eat, they still had to give away a huge amount to the ruler, most people had to give more than they had, so that they had to give up their houses and farm animals and were practically homeless, leading to many many deaths. whoever was able to survive ran away to better lands. when the ruler finally died, with no heirs of their own, mark's ancestors moved in and live slowly came back to the lands. it is said, that to this day, the ruler's spirit still lives in the walls of this very castle. but obviously, this is impossible. mark has lived there for hundreds- i mean, his family has lived there for hundreds of years and there has never been an unexplainable noise or movement or whatever. i mean, how would that even be possible to still be somewhat alive after hundreds of years, right? right?? so, it's obviously just a little ghost story that people tell each other on a dark autumn night with the only purpose being to scare each other.

oh, so that's fun story actually. you see, there was this ball, not too long ago, where lots of influential people met up. it was very unofficial tho so that no one really knew about it unless they were invited. basically just a little party amongst themselves. you see, since he moved into the castle, mark had access to more aristocratic rows of society. as it so happens, some people got into a fight, as in physically. unfortunately, while they were tumbling to the ground as a bundle of various bodies, they knocked over a table holding red wine in several glasses. said table, unfortunately, stood at this place near the entryway carpet and was knocked onto that. as red wine is known for, it is very difficult to erase out of a carpet, and until today, a final solution has not been found, except for maybe throwing out the entire carpet, which obviously would be a shame as it's rather vintage and worth a large amount of money.

so, since we're talking about a castle built by ludwig II of bavaria, i'm going to assume we're talking about schloss linderhof/linderhof castle, since it was ludwig's favorite castle of his. the castle has several huge gardens and parks and with that come several good spots to sunbathe (for example around the water parterre). with the opportunity for the guests of schloss linderhof to use such sunbathing spots came also the luxury of getting sunscreen for free, since the residents of the castle obviously had to take care of their guests and their health. however, the disposal of those bottles was an issue, so that they were found stashed in a little room, which was so rarely used that nobody noticed them even being there until a few days ago, when all the rooms and itinerary were checked for good. but of course, they will be disposed of before the castle will be sold.

as was established earlier, the castle was the location of several balls over the years. as some balls are known for, a number of visitors tended to change their clothes for the several stages of these balls, for example for eating they had a set of clothes and for dancing they had another. some, very irresponsible, people left their clothes behind, which had the tendency of laying in rather unfortunate places due to the recent cleaning of the castle.

as a castle with a certain reputation, the castle had a great number of cooks. lately, however, mark has spent the majority of his time outside the castle with his boyfriend and at his place. therefore, there was hardly any use to having cooks and food, which would go off eventually. therefore, he sent the cooks away and had them take the food with them for themselves and their families.

since the castle is old and huge, there are plenty of chances of a child going missing on the premises without mark even noticing that the child is even there. there are several hidden places and in the gardens, there is always the possibility of children falling down trees that they try climbing or hills that they want to run up. especially around the music pavilion in the northern part there are many trees, which can make a person get lost, especially a little child. so, even when they know that a child has gone missing on the premises and everyone starts looking for them, the chances are very small for them to actually find them. of course, children should rather listen to the numerous signs telling outsiders to stay off the premises. unfortunately, several children choose to ignore them, in part because they do dares based on the ghost story explained in 1, in which they have to go onto the premises in order to show their friends that they're brave.

as established before, after the bad ruler had died the castle fell into mark family's hands. they were then introduced into the higher parts of society and soon became an influential family themselves. nowadays, everyone was very content with them taking care of the 'haunted' castle, so that they never found a reason to change the owning family.

that's a very simple question, really. since the castle is so old and has a very rich history on its own, mark's family has always tried to limit the changes made as far as possible in order to keep its inherent oldness. hence, there were never any changes to rather modern features. it was all to preserve the charm of the old castle as it was hundreds of years ago.

this was sooo much fun!! i love helping mark out, so if there is anything more i can help with, feel free to tell me :)

also, let's pretend that ludwig II lived hundreds of years earlier than he actually did, cause otherwise it doesn't make much sense what i wrote haha

also this really makes me want to visit schloss linderhof lmao

[wilsonthemoose]

Ao3 link.

There is a house in Lawrence, Kansas, white with boarded up windows, and it is a local ghost story.

Tw suicide

Ask the spinster aunt what happened to the last residents but only ask in the morning. These things are best left to lie when it's dark.

There may be a hundred reasons Sam Winchester killed himself in the house he was born in, locals say his brother asked him to.

There is a house in Lawrence, Kansas, white with boarded up windows, and it is a local ghost story.

Neither devil-may-care children nor rebellious teenagers dare each other to walk through it. No one steps foot inside after dark. (Though there are lights that turn on and off all times of the day.)

Occasionally, attracted by the low asking price and undeterred by the local whispers, a family might buy the property.

The house will act docile for days until they smile and tell themselves they'll be happy here.

Something will rest it's hands on their shoulders in the negatives of their photographs, but they will not see it.

Neighbours will shake their heads, the religious will pray, the kind will extend invitations (no one will take a pie to the door) and it will come to grief in the end.

The light will go out in the upstairs window, abruptly while the woman pulls her dress over her shoulders.

If she's very lucky, you won't hear a thing.

The newspaper will read an obituary, the spinster aunt will sit on her rocking chair and tell the children the old stories once more, cackling when they run away.

Parents will soothe their children to sleep, say there are no yellow-eyed monsters here. The religious will tell their children angels are watching over them.

No one will look too closely at the house, they know it may change while they're watching.

Fresh out of college and low on cash, Sam Winchester came on a bus back to the town he'd been born in. Looking around the abandoned house, he'd met the new owners and offered to help them remodel.

They'd looked him up and down, taken in the college boy haircut, the working man's hands, the slept-in threads, and accepted his offer gratefully.

It was only three weeks later when they'd found him hanging from the ceiling with a child's jump-rope round his neck that they'd come to regret it.

They say his little brother wasn't content anymore with short visits.

They say the brothers toss a baseball back and forth between them in the yard, flickering in an out of focus, their voices caught in the wind and drifting through the cracks in neighbouring windows like an echoing call. They say the jump-rope still hangs limply from Sam's neck.

The spinster aunt sighs and says he had so much potential, tutting and rocking back and forth.

Another young college boy, one Tyson Brady died in the house hardly a week later. They say it was the man with the yellow eyes. They say shadows detached themselves from the walls and ripped him apart.

Police reports talked of wild animals that couldn't have been there and were never seen or heard. The coroner shook his head and talked of ribs snapped and lungs torn.

They say it was revenge. They say he failed.

They say Sam Winchester stood and watched.

Happy with two little boys, Mary Winchester (born Campbell) burned in her son's nursery after throwing her 4 year old son from the burning house. He died of a cracked skull.

They say her ghost torments itself nightly, burning in that very same nursery.

They say you can hear her scream.

They say her sons cry and beg her not to set herself on fire. They say her little boy jumps from the window to get away from her pain.

If you want to go inside the house, go in the morning. If you hear a lullaby, don't worry, they're at peace for the moment but make no loud noises either. Leave from the closest door.

If you hear snoring from the cupboard, don't open it to see, and watch out for the third stair coming down, it creaks quite loud.

If the girl at the newsstand asks you to walk with her across the house, don't refuse and don't touch her. If she gives you something, throw it in the nearest garbage can.

(If you find it in your pocket later all the same, burn your clothes).

If you hear Mary scream, close your windows. If a lonely boy asks you to play ball, throw it as far as you can and run when he's not looking. Don't turn around till you're home.

And if a man in a leather jacket drives up in a loud black car, don't look into his yellow eyes, run. Run back into the arms of your cackling spinster aunt, blind with milky white eyes.

When she puts her arms around you, pretend you didn't see her eyes roll down to irises.

When Mary Winchester burns herself that night, get on your knees and pray you're not next. Don't look over your shoulder. And if a child coos on a baby monitor, remember you have no monitors, no radios. Keep quiet and watch the thing with it's hands on your shoulders in your mirror. Keep calm and don't look right at it, you'll be fine as long as it doesn't know you can see it.

It's time to leave this town.

Leave in the morning and say goodbye to the house. Don't look in your rear-view mirror but acknowledge the young man in the backseat of your car. Make casual chit-chat and agree when he says you do anything for family. He's not the one you should be afraid of.

If you ever go back to town again, drive by the house, if the young man from your backseat waves at you, wave back. If his little brother wants to play, run.

If you pass Stull Cemetery and see the man with the loud black car talking to the spinster aunt, drive as fast as you can and ignore the voices in your radio.

If Mary Winchester isn't the only one burning in the house that night, smile, it's over.

[skylar102]

NLBF - Chapter Three

“Honestly, Ragnor, you couldn’t have messaged me to meet you at your London flat?” Magnus grumbles as he tracks his nice shoes through the mud. “You had to choose the farm that you haven’t touched in almost a hundred years?”

His foot slips on a particularly muddy patch on the ground but he thankfully saves his clothes from being destroyed. It doesn’t matter that he has magic at the ready to clean himself up, it’s that he shouldn’t have to do it in the first place. If he does fall he’s sending Ragnor his dry cleaners’ bill just to spite him.

It’s what he deserves for sending him a fire message to come to this awful place. All he did was ask for assistance with a memory spell, and now he’s walking through the farmlands of Ireland.

“I swear if this is some elaborate prank to get me back for something I probably don’t even remember, I am going to steal all his Monet paintings.” 

As he approaches the farm he notices that there are crops in the fields as well as a few horses and other animals scattered around. Did his dear Cabbage give up on life and become a recluse farmer? It would make the most sense. It’s not like the man was willing to go to downworld hotspots even when he had his place in New York City. His friend preferred a quiet cafe where he could read a book in peace.

The last time he had been here was when Ragnor won the farm off a vampire in a card game. The place had clearly been run down and in shambles, since the vampire had no use for it, but now it seems to be thriving and full of life. Magnus’ eyes wander over the crops and spot the familiar tops of potato plants being grown, only a half acre. Seems the rest has already been pulled. There’s no way that Ragnor did this on his own.

He approaches the front door and sees it’s busted in. He immediately summons his magic as he creeps through the entryway. The house is an absolute mess. Turned-over furniture, broken lamps, and shattered dishes are strewn across the floor. There’s no sound save for the creaky floor with each step he takes. Dread fills his stomach with each room he clears, his friend nowhere in sight. 

Magnus doesn’t dare make noise or call out for Ragnor. He doesn’t want to give whoever raided the home a reason to know he’s here so he can get the drop on them. When he reaches the kitchen he notices the pots on the stove are in stasis but the fire is still running. He reaches over and turns them off; the last thing he needs is a fire starting. Whatever happened here is still recent. Leave it to Ragnor to downplay an emergency when he’s in danger. 

He also notes that the two chairs at the table are pushed back. Ragnor had a guest here and didn’t expect more company. If someone he trusted betrayed him, Magnus would send them to Edom, no questions asked. 

As he rounds the kitchen to the back room, a loud thump echoes above him and he rushes to the stairs. He skips steps as he makes his way to the noise, ready to defend his friend, only to find a dead shadowhunter at the top of the stairs with an arrow in his chest. It makes him pause before another thump happens from the room at the end of the hall. He makes his way to the doorway, ducking back out into the hallway when a shadowhunter gets flung through the door, this time an arrow right between the eyes.

Magnus grimaces at the corpse before peeking his head in the doorway only to duck out of the way again as another arrow sings past him, embedding in the opposite wall. His heart beats out of his chest at how close that was to hitting him. Whoever is wielding that bow knows how to use it. 

“Asher, wait,” Ragnor coughs. “I think that’s my friend.”

“Are you sure?” A man’s voice speaks up. “How do we know that it's not just a glamor?”

“Trust me when I say that shadowhunters would never be able to recreate the over-extravagance of my friend.”

“Excuse you, I am a delight,” Magnus huffs from cover.

“You can lower the bow, it’s okay-” Ragnor’s words get cut off with a groan.

Magnus looks into the room again and sees Ragnor on the floor, holding his hands to his side from a wound that does not look pleasant. His eyes track to the stranger standing protectively in front of Ragnor, the arrow still knocked back and aimed at Magnus. He holds his hands up and lets a bit of magic spark out of his hands to show that he’s not a glamored shadowhunter. That seems to do the trick and Asher lowers the bow.

With his life not at risk anymore he rushes to Ragnor’s side.

“My dear Cabbage, what have you gotten yourself into this time?” Magnus asks as he gently removes his friend’s hands from the wound. He rolls up the shirt to see what is clearly a gnarly stab wound and immediately starts to pour magic into the wound.

“Me?” Ragnor coughs. “I have done nothing of the sort. I don’t know how those bastards found us. It’s not like I flaunt that I own a farm in Ireland.”

“Speaking of us.” Magnus glances back at Asher. 

He’s kneeled down checking the pulse of the shadowhunter who he shot through the head. He doubts that the woman is getting up anytime soon, but he understands wanting reassurance. Magnus notices the injuries the man also carries and makes a note to ask him if he needs treatment after healing Ragnor. 

Even with his back to Magnus, he can see the tension that is still coiled tightly in Asher’s shoulders. There’s a slight tremble to his frame that makes Magnus wonder how terrified Asher truly is. He hides it well behind the stoic face as he stands up to face them. There’s something about that face that’s so familiar, but he can’t put his finger on it.

“I’m going to check for others,” Asher announces.

That gets Ragnor to try to sit up. “Absolutely not.”

“Ragnor, sit still,” Magnus chastises, though he doubts his friend heard him and readjusts his magic.

“Ragnor,” Asher sighs. 

“Don’t Ragnor me,” Ragnor scolds. “Just wait a moment and we can check together.”

“Yeah, tell that to the hole in your side,” Asher snorts. “Even with warlock magic, that injury is going to take at least a few days to heal before you can move normally again. In case you forgot, you were stabbed with an adamas weapon by an angelic warrior. They make sure those weapons hurt anything with demon blood in their veins.”

“I should have never taught you the basics of warlock magic and anatomy,” Ragnor sighs. 

“It’s a good thing you did because Magnus wouldn’t have come here in time and you would have-” Asher looks away from the two of them and Magnus watches the man clench his jaw.

“I’m fine, Asher,” Ragnor reassures.

“But you almost weren’t,” Asher insists.

“And thanks to you protecting me, I get to hear Magnus fuss over me for the next twenty-four hours,” Ragnor notes.

“I do not fuss,” Magnus defends. “I simply scold you until you get it through your thick skull that you are an idiot.”

“See: fuss.” Ragnor gestures to him, wincing. “Lilith, adamas weapons hurt. Who let Nephilim have access to this horrible metal? It should be outlawed.”

That gets a small smile from Asher and some tension from his shoulders disappears. It seems that was what he needed to see to know Ragnor would be just fine.

“Be happy it was in the abdomen,” Asher notes, pointing to the closing wound. “Anywhere else would take longer to heal and knowing you, you’d hate to be stuck on this farm any longer than necessary.”

“That is not true, I enjoy visiting you,” Ranger insists.

“Once a month,” Alec reminds him. He steps over to Magnus and Ragnor and kneels on the opposite side of Magnus. “Maybe you should go into hiding again.”

“And leave you here defenseless? Not a chance,” Ragnor proclaims. 

“Last I checked they were here for you, not me.”

That sets off a little siren in Magnus’ head. Why would Asher be worried about the shadowhunters coming after him? From all that Magnus can see of the man, he’s as mundane as it gets. With him this close, Magnus notices scarring on the side of his neck and on his arms. The man’s hands are calloused but that can be brushed off as him running this farm. Yet, there is something about the man that Magnus can’t shake.

“Why were they here in the first place?” Magnus asks. “How in the hell did they find your farm?”

When those hazel eyes meet him for the first time, Magnus feels like he’s gazing into the man’s soul. He sees the anger and fear flashing in them, but he also sees something else that he isn’t able to read before Asher breaks contact. 

“That would be my fault,” Ragnor says. “It seems that Valentine still has a few followers out there trying to get rid of downworlders that were there at the Accords all those years ago.”

“Are you saying those were Circle members?” Magnus glances back at the dead woman in the doorway trying to see if she bears the mark.

“Unfortunately so. It seems that when I went to London to pick up the food for tonight’s meals, they spotted me. Buggers must have taken something of mine to trace me back here.” Ragnor lets out a smile and pats his hand against Asher’s shoulder. “Thankfully they didn’t know about my protective farmer that lives here.”

Asher rolls his eyes at the words, but raises a hand to the one on his shoulder and squeezes. It feels so incredibly intimate — especially coming from his friend who is not all a fan of physical touch — that Magnus wonders if Asher is a secret boyfriend. The man is not the type that Magnus has known his friend to date in the past so maybe he’s just looking into it too much.

“Alright, that’s as much as I can heal right now,” Magnus announces, removing his hands from the wound. “It’s barely a scab, but it will reopen if you move too much.”

“Thank you, old friend. Help me up, Asher.” 

Asher doesn’t even complain as he helps Ragnor to his feet, arm carefully around Ragnor’s waist. Magnus raises an eyebrow at his friend who only scoffs and shakes his head. 

“Come, we should clean up the place. I can’t stand a messy home,” Ragnor huffs.

“You are going to sit down and recover while I clean up,” Asher tells him. “You can barely stand on your own and I doubt using magic right now is a good idea seeing as how you almost fainted sending that fire message.”

“Again, I regret everything I have taught you,” Ragnor grumbles as he’s led downstairs to the kitchen. Asher picks up one of the knocked-over chairs and helps Ragnor down. As much as the old fool likes to say he’s fine, Magnus catches the sigh that he lets out now that he’s not putting weight on his side.

“I can help clean up,” Magnus offers.”I’m not too drained from helping this buffoon.”

Asher looks at him suspiciously, eyeing him for any sort of lie. Magnus feels his skin heat up as Asher’s eyes scan him thoroughly for any sign of magic fatigue. Ragnor is not kidding when he says that Asher knows the signs.

“Okay,” Asher agrees, satisfied that Magnus doesn’t look close to passing out. “If you want to start in the kitchen. I’m going to clear out the upstairs and take care of the bodies. I’m sure Kevin and Diana wouldn’t mind the extra meal.”

Before Asher can even leave the room, Magnus snaps his fingers and waves a hand, cleaning up everything in the house. Asher turns to glare at him, but he’s gone up against Valentine, he doesn’t fear a simple farmer. Asher just grumbles and mentions checking the parameters of the house and is out the door before Ragnor can protest.

“So, who are Kevin and Diana?” Magnus asks, sitting next to Ragnor at the table. “I hope your friend here isn’t Hannibal Lector.”

“They’re his pigs, you loon,” Ragnor answers.

Magnus gags at the thought of feeding people to pigs. Those poor animals don’t deserve the gross meat of Circle members. They didn’t do anything wrong.

“Are you going to tell me who that is?” Magnus asks, trying to keep his concern out of his voice.

“His name is Asher and he’s my caretaker for this farm,” Ragnor explains, almost too perfectly. Like he’s rehearsed this answer before. “Met him four years ago while checking up on the place. He was looking for a job and I was sick of having to magically clean the place.”

“You just stole a mundane off the streets?” Magnus asks. While it is not the first time that Ragnor has made friends with mundanes, this is the first time he’s kept up the friendship.

“Of course not,” Rangor scoffs. His friend doesn’t look at him, continuing to stare forward towards the kitchen where the food is still kept in stasis. “We first met at the farmer’s market and chatted for a bit when I mentioned the farm. He made a snide comment about its state and I just told him if he cared so much he could take care of it. And the rest is history, he moved into the place and now cares for it twenty-four, seven.”

Magnus doesn’t believe a single word out of his mouth. 

“Right, and you just are really close friends without ever mentioning him to me, or Cat, or Raphael,” Magnus notes. “Or any of your close friends. He clearly knows about magic, the Circle, and everything about the downworld and yet he’s just some mundane.”

“Yes,” Ragnor snaps. The chair scraps against the floor, startling Magnus as Ragnor gets up. Magnus rolls his eyes at the hiss of pain that Ragnor lets out at the sudden movement. Instead of sitting back down, the warlock walks over to the stoves. He turns the burners back on and gets back to cooking the food.  “I couldn’t hide that side of me for this long and accidentally used magic in his presence. As for not telling you about him, that was at his request. He asked not to know more than necessary when it came to our world.”

“But you told him about the Circle?” He thinks back to when Asher made a comment about who those shadowhunters were after and it not being him. 

“How could I not? What happened was still recent and the Clave never confirmed that they took care of the problem,” Ragnor explains. “If something happened to Asher because I didn’t prepare him for everything that might happen by being friends with me, I would never be able to forgive myself. That boy has been through so much already, I wasn’t about to make his life worse.”

Magnus feels a little guilty now for prodding too much. It’s clear there is more to Asher than meets the eye. Those scars on the man’s body tell a story that he wants to know, but he’s not going to pressure them to tell him. It’s clear that there’s something more going on in their relationship and Magnus wants to know. 

“Looks like those two were the only ones,” Asher announces as he comes back into the house. Magnus gives Ragnor a look that they are not done with their conversation before focusing his attention on Asher. “The animals are fine, though the horses were a little spooked. I just gave them extra food as an apology.”

“I”m sure Sophie was ecstatic about that,” Ragnor jokes.

“Do all of your animals have human names?” Magnus asks as Asher starts to pull out an extra plate for him.

Asher shrugs at the question. “It’s easier than coming up with random names and it’s not like I’ll be submitting them to be race horses, so I didn’t have to get fancy with it.”

“Fair enough,” Magnus replies before holding out a hand. “I’m Magnus Bane, by the way, from what I understand this old fool never spoke about me and honestly, I’m hurt.”

Ragnor lets out a long sigh as Asher ducks his head and lets out a small laugh. He takes Magnus’ hand and shakes it.

“Asher Walsh,” he introduces back. Asher’s hand feels rough, yet his handshake is gentle as a warm hug.

“Ragnor tells me that he hired you to take care of his farm. How is it working for a man like that?” He jabs a finger in his friend’s direction who flips him off in return.

“It’s good,” Asher admits. “He helped me in the beginning, getting this farm where it needed to go. Though Darrah down the road was more helpful seeing as it was obvious that Ragnor had never farmed in his life.”

“Some of us don’t like getting down and dirty in actual dirt,” Ragnor defends. 

“That would mean you get down and dirty in the first place.”

“Oh, I can vouch for him on that one,” Magnus pipes up. “This man right here was a riot in the nineteen hundreds.”

“Is that so?” Asher perks up at his words. He sits down next to Magnus, clearly wanting to know more. Magnus is more than happy to tell the tales of their past since Ragnor has apparently taken Asher’s not wanting to know about the downworld as also not wanting to know about his past.

Ragnor places the plates of food down with a grumble and sits on the other side of Asher. The next hour or so is filled with Magnus bickering with Ragnor over what really happened and who was right. Asher just laughs with every story and argument the two get into. It’s nice, different from all the drama currently happening in New York City. 

Speaking of the Big Apple, Magnus looks at his watch and curses. He told Jace and Clary he would be back before it got too late and it was already eleven at night here.

“As much as I have enjoyed your fine company, I do have to get back to New York,” Magnus announces, only to jump in surprise when Asher starts choking on his drink. Magnus doesn’t know what to do other than pat the man’s back. “Are you alright?”

“Yeah, yeah,” Asher coughs out. “I just remembered that I need to close up the stables.”

Without further explanation, Asher high-tails it out of the house again. Ragnor calls after him but the man doesn’t stop. He watches his friend curse under his breath as the front door slams shut. Magnus stares at the door and back at the spot where Asher was mere seconds ago. 

Why would the mention of New York elicit such a response from the man? Ragnor said they met here in Ireland and the man doesn’t look to be the type to take a trip to the city. 

“Well that was interesting,” Magnus says.

“Magnus don’t,” Rangor pleads. “I know how you are and I’m telling you right now to leave Asher alone.”

“Ragnor, there is clearly something you are not telling me and honestly I am offended that you don’t trust me enough,” Magnus pouts.

“Well when Asher trusts you, I’ll tell you!” Ragnor barks. “Just because you are curious doesn’t mean you deserve to know, you bollock.”

Magnus holds his hands up. “Okay, clearly I touched a nerve.”

“More like several,” Ragnor grumbles under his breath. His friend waves his hand and puts away all the food and dishes. Magnus takes a step towards Ragnor when the man leans against the table after using his magic, but the man waves him off.

“Asher has obviously been through a lot judging by the scars on his body,” Magnus notes. “I’m not about to corner the man and ask him to tell me all his secrets. I thought you knew me better than that.”

“I do,” Ragnor sighs. “Unfortunately I do.”

“You, on the other hand, are fair game to interrogate since you’ve been keeping your boyfriend secret from me.”

“Boyfriend?!”

Magnus is pleased to see his green friend’s face turn tomato red at the comment. It’s clear that his friend is protective of Asher in the way that he is with Magnus. Whether that’s romantic or not, Magnus wants to get down to it. He tries not to be hurt by the idea that Ragnor has had a secret boyfriend this whole time and didn’t tell him.

The man is gorgeous. Definitely a tall glass of water that Magnus would drink without question. At first, Magnus thought Asher was some trained assassin with how intense his stare was with that bow in his hands, but the second he checked up on Ragnor, it was like he changed into another person. 

Gone was the stoic look and replaced with concern and fear that looked strange on a man of that stature. And when he smiled for the first time? Magnus had to stop himself from making a lewd comment and focus on healing his friend. There was so much about Asher that Magnus wanted to get to know better.

“Please, Magnus get your eyes checked,” Ragnor stutters. 

“My eyes are perfectly fine,” Magnus states.

“I should have fire messaged Catarina,” Ragnor groans. “At least she would heal me and be gone without all these comments.”

“Yes, but where’s the fun in that?” Magnus laughs as he makes his way outside. 

“Sometimes I wonder how we became friends,” Ragnor sighs as he follows Magnus. 

The smell of farmland attacks his nose as Magnus steps outside and he grimaces at the smell. Mangus doesn’t blame Ragnor for also not coming here all that often. How Asher is able to stand the smell of animal excrement is beyond him. He’s only been here for a few hours and already misses the city. 

Magnus is about to make a comment but looks over to where Asher is tending to his horses. The man looks like he’s stopping himself from falling into a panic attack. Ragnor gives him a half hearted goodbye before slowly walking over to check up on the poor man. Magnus watches as his oldest friend reaches out gently and starts to run a hand up and down Asher’s back. 

He opens a portal back to New York City and steps inside. There are more important things to do than pry.

[tryst-art-archive]

Context: 2012, pt. 1

This particular year is what you might call A Big Oof.

It's going to be fairly lengthy, so we'll split it up across kind of a lot of posts.

New Living Arrangements

This will sound like starting in the middle, but I think it contextualizes the rest in a more orderly way.

In September of 2012, CatHaus (the 7-person apartment I'd been in) parted ways, and I moved in with my bestie, his partner, and one of his partner's close friends. The new digs werw a technically smaller, one-floor apartment that we had more leeway to modify because it was a bit of a train wreck. The pipes weren't in the walls, the insulation was horse hair, and there was a shower stall trapped in the back stairwell that led down to the single washer/dryer shared across the building.

I loved this apartment. I spent four or five years there, which is the longest I've lived in a single place since moving out of my parents' house for college.

I was initially trepidatious about this move. My bestie and his partner had been together for around a year at the point that we were making decisions about housing. (Boston operates on a September 1st lease cycle, for the most part, but you generally need to lock in your housing by March if you're on that schedule.)

I wasn't really convinced that their relationship would last, not because of anything about them but because neither my bestie nor I had gotten a romantic relationship past the two year mark; indeed, my bestie had only had one partner, a friends with benefits (me), and a couple of passing flings prior to dating his current partner. From a collegiate perspective, it was more reasonable to assume that they would split than that they would last. Additionally, many of our mutual friends were quite convinced that the relationship was doomed to failure because my bestie had changed greatly since it started.

Unbeknownst to any of us at the time, this change was because he had been emotionally abused in the prior relationship and he was now becoming himself again. "Himself," however, was a version of him that few, if any, of them had ever met.

I signed on to the lease despite my misgivings. I didn't want to live apart from my bestie, and it wasn't like I had a better idea. Moreover, my bestie's partner (by now we were friends, too) and the other lingering roommate were more or less pushing a third roommate out of their apartment in order to make space for me. It's sort of hard to turn down that kind of determination.

The arrangement worked out, though, and the four of us grew very close. The fourth roommate, whom we'll call Tiger, worked in game dev and would ultimately be an inroad to that industry for me, in addition to being a good friend. My bestie, whom we'll call Deer from here, and I's relationship improved as we cohabitated in a smaller group, and my bestie's partner, whom we'll call Coyote, and I simply grew closer as time went on. (If you're wondering, I was Fox in this animal-based arrangement.)

I think we basically all spoke the same, semi-nonverbal language and had similar thoughts running around in our heads. We were able to be weird with each other in a way that wasn't about being in art school or having less-than-mainstream interests but which was about what we called our animal-ness. In hindsight, it's likely that we shared varying forms of neurodivergence that happened to communicate similarly and play nicely together when combined.

Whatever it was, there's something truly liberating about being able to make weird, non-words noises and be understood intuitively. We were a collective of weird creatures, and we were a family.

[thekillingmoonr-francis]

Chapter 1; The Visitour

                         10 months before the beginning of classes

Remus Lupin was not specifically known for being a coward but he did fear many things. He feared darkness, narrow spaces, loud noises, heights, public speaking, animals (not every one of them but those with teeth pointed enough to remove his carotid from a single bite), but without a doubt his greatest fear was the Basement.

Remus's family moved houses quite often since the incident. In the last year they had been in six different houses far enough away from each other not to be recognized, but they all had something in common and that was the Basement. Remus had noticed that, despite leaving the houses, the Basement never left him. After the bite, Lyall, his father, was forced to create a safe area where Remus could have his transformations without jeopardizing the neighbors or his own family. At the beginning Remus had the transformations in his own room, Lyall would apply magical protections to the door and window every full moon so the wolf couldn't destroy it but the next morning everything was a terrible mess and all of Remus stuff was destroyed, and that having in mind that the wolf was nothing more than practically harmless cub.

He also went through a container, a muggle friend of Hope, his mum, was a container tenant and Hope commissioned one with the excuse that she needed a place to store Lyall's woodworking tools (who had never taken a hammer in his life unless he was looking for a paperweight). The container was a good option, with a couple of silent spells, Remus could transform quietly without raising suspicions but the wolf did not like the container, there it was when he got his worst wounds, one of them across his nose almost reaching the corner of his eye and the other one across his right eyebrow. The container was quickly discarded.

But when they arrived at Lupin's sixth home when he was 8 years old, he met the Basement. The house was a beautiful moss green colour with white frame windows and a garden full of flowers of all colours but the real reason Lyall chose that place was the Basement. The house had a huge basement lined with unsound cement, with a small bathroom and a storeroom whose only entrance was a wooden staircase. The wolf met the Basement within the week of moving and, for the first time, he woke up with not a single scratch. The Basement quickly became a requirement in the Lupin homes but soon ceased to be a friendly place, both, Remus and the wolf, hated that place, the wolf soon snarled against itself but, at least, the damage was minor and managed to pass unnoticed.

Now Remus was 10 years old, nearly 11. Both Hope and Lyall had lost all hope that Remus would attend Hogwarts so they were looking for a school to send him to, they had decided to wait until his eleven years to send him to school, in the midtime, Remus was home-educated so he didn't have many friends, but Remus didn't care, he loved his house classes. His mum taught him reading, mathematics, evolution and everything that muggle schools taught while his father had chosen to give him as much information as possible about the magical world, Remus was specifically drawn to magical creatures, his favourites were Grindylows, highly energetic aquatic demons and, though aggressive from time to time, they were easily domesticable.

But his lycanthropy was not his only difficulty, Remus was also dyslexic and, many times, Remus thought that that screw him over way more than being a werewolf.

Now he was sitting in the living room playing with a wooden train that Hope had made him. Hope was extremely skillful with carpentry (unlike Lyall) and enjoyed making and fixing things. She had only recently given up her job to engage Remus full time, she become so thin that she sometimes did not recognize herself in the mirror. She used to be a beautiful woman, she had huge amber eyes as bright as honey and a silky black hair that framed her face, Remus had inherited her eyes and the thousands moles and freckles that covered her skin, the rest was his father's. Hope was now a thin woman, her amber eyes had darkened and lost in the sunken bowl of her cavity, her hair was now always in a loose tail and her skin was paler than ever. She had several gray hair that made her look older than she was. Remus often thought his mother was sick, Lyall thought of it too but he never said it aloud, he couldn't, not knowing that he had caused it in the first place although he wouldn't say that aloud either.

For the first snowfall of December the Lupin received a visit, but not any visit. The door slapped gently at about seven in the afternoon. Hope was washing the frets almost out of inertia, Lyall had offered to do it with magic but Hope needed a distraction and, to be honest, sometimes appreciated going through times without the magical world around her. Remus was lying by the fireplace hugging his legs with his shirt lying on the floor. The night before it had been a full moon and in an outburst he got his back hurt. The wound was much better than it was when he woke up in the morning, his wounds healed quite quickly but still the contact of the fabric hurted him.

"Have they knocked?", Hope asks from the kitchen, Lyall, who was reading the magic newspaper, shook his head even though she couldn't see him.

He had developed a mania with reading the newspaper expecting to see Greyback's name somewhere followed by "dead" or "captured," but he had never been lucky.

"Lyall?", the woman insists again, Lyall was going to deny it once more but someone knocked on the door again forcing him to stop his reading.

He jumped up from the chair making it crunch. Not receiving a response, Hope cut off the water from the sink and took a cloth to dry his hands before reaching the room. She noticed Lyall's concern and  how his gaze was fixed on the door, she was inevitably infected with that sudden feeling of alarm.

"Remus, honey", speaks Hope making a sign for the little boy to get up and approach her, Remus frowned, he knew something was really wrong when her mother spoke to him that way. "Go to your room, right?"

"What's going on?", Remus asks, looking at the door, Hope strategically grabbed him by the shoulders where she knew he didn't have any injuries and pushed him upstairs.

"Nothing, darling, we have some business to take care of with your mum", speaks, this time, Lyall without even looking at him.

He reluctantly obeyed. He was not in the mood to argue, even less after the full moon. He walked slowly up the stairs as he looked over his shoulder to see if he could catch something of what was happening. He climbed the stairs quickly and walked to his room, opened the door and closed it immediately. He waited a few seconds in the hallway and, when he heard the whispers, he slowly crawled back to the stairs. He crouched on the last step and watched closely through the handrails. He could smell his parents scent but he also felt a itching in his nose, that itching was only there with his father which meant that whoever was on the other side of the door was someone magical.

"You think they found us?", murmur Hope with caution, Lyall palpates the pockets of his pants while denying with his head, realizing that whatever he was looking for was not in his pockets, he hurried to the table, Hope ran behind him and watched him rummage through the papers. "Did they come for him?"

"No, no, I don't think so", Lyall quickly denies raising his wand that was under one of the newspapers he was reading. "Bingo!"

He hid his wand under his sleeve and approached the door slowly, Hope followed him very closely. Remus went down two more steps to get a better view. His father leaned against the door and approached his eye to the peephole, as soon as he saw who was on the other side, he slammed off and stepped back several steps. Noting his surprise, Hope also looked at the goatee and released an exclamation of surprise. Remus felt the curiosity stinging him in his stomach. He quickly climbed up to his room and this time he entered, he slipped over his bed and pulled the blind out toward the street. He pressed his forehead against the cold window and tried to spot the mysterious person through the snowflakes. He noticed that there were no cars nearby other than his neighbors. Remus hadn't mentioned this to his parents but had memorized the models, colours, the noise of the tires and every scratch of his neighbors cars, it was a mania that he had developed since he realized that their changes would be habitual, it gave him peace of mind to know his environment better than anyone else.

Suddenly he saw a tall figure coming out of the doorway of his house, he seemed to be leaving. He was an older man, he seemed to bring a huge leather coat that covered him up to his neck and a matching hat but he could see his long white hair that covered his back almost completely, he also had a huge beard of the same length. Remus crouched more in place to make sure he didn't see him but when he arrived to the sidewalk he turned and his eyes immediately traveled to Remus, instead of looking surprised, the man smiled at him and waved his hand in an informal greeting. He quickly closed the blinds and went down completely on his bed feeling his heart racing. Bloody hell, he saw him.

"Remus?", his mum calls from the ground floor, Remus took a heavy air, he was sure he was going to be scolded for spying although he did not know how they could have discovered it, the old man had left.

He slid out of his bed and down the stairs preparing for the reprimand, instead, he saw his mum and dad twisting their nervous fingers. Looking over their shoulders, he saw the man from the sidewalk sitting on the couch as if he was the owner of the house, Remus could see his face more clearly. He had a chubby, very pink face covered by a leafy white beard, very round small lenses were attached to his long nose. Remus's cheeks turned pink. He was praying internally that he would not be scolded for looking at the stranger.

"I want you to meet someone, Remus", his father speaks nervously, the old man smiled sweetly at him but Remus did not want to approach. "He is the director of the school that we were talking about, remember?"

"Albus Dumbledore?", Remus exclaimed suddenly interested.

"That one, yes", Dumbledore nodded smiling.

He hurried to the couch and sat next to Dumbledore staring at him. He did not know how he imagined him through his father's tellings, but clearly it was not like that. It was embarrassing for Remus, but Albus Dumbledore was, for him, what Santa was for the Muggles. His father always told him about him, he told him fascinating stories about his Hogwarts years and how Dumbledore was the greatest wizard of all time, for Remus, Albus was never more than a bedtime story but he always desired to know him. Lyall had told him that at the age of eleven a letter came from an owl to all the magician children to invite them to the school but he had also told him that Hogwarts did not accept werewolves which was a terrible disappointment for Remus. A new flame of hope ignited inside Remus but a strong breeze ran causing his enthusiasm to extinguish.

"I'm not eleven yet...", Remus recalled aloud feeling his dream sail away from him again, Albus laughed as if that was the funniest joke he had ever heard.

"You go straight to the point, don't you?", Albus inquires gracefully, Remus's eyes traveled to his parents who embraced nervously, noticing Remus's gaze both smiled. "But there's not much more time left, innit?"

Remus nodded. The breeze had dissipated and the flame was more alive than ever.

"Remus is right, I came here to invit him to Hogwarts", ends up confirming Dumbledore materializing all the wishes of Remus who got up in a jump and ran towards his father.

"I'm going to Hogwarts!", exclaims happily forgetting completely the wounds on his back, his father, despite the surprise, rested his hand on his head and gave him a genuine smile.

"You shall receive an invitation in due course, as always, classes will start the first of September", Albus begins to explain by getting up from the sofa, suddenly he no longer looked friendly nor happy, Remus knew that Dumbledore was not there just to inform him that he had entered Hogwarts. "I think we may have to discuss a couple things before about your... condition".

He nodded slowly. He agreed. One of his greatest concerns was his transformations. A normal muggle school wouldn't be a big deal, he would go to classes in the morning and go back for the afternoon, but Hogwarts was a boarding school, he would go there almost all year round, he needed a place to transform himself or a solution not to do so.

"We been verifying it with the nurse at school, we are still weighing the options, you just introduce yourself and we will take care of the rest, okay?"

Remus liked that Dumbledore referred to him for those things instead of his parents, after all it was his condition and nobody elses, on the other hand it made him feel a new level of maturity he didn't feel when his parents took care of everything. He would be there for a year alone, he had to start taking responsibility on his own if he wanted everything to go well.

"I also think it would be propitious to keep your condition a secret", says Dumbledore, Lyall seemed to have breathed again for the first time since they knocked on the door. "It is pertinent that as few people as possible know of this for your own good, Remus."

"I agree", Lyall nods attracting Remus against his chest, Remus tried to push him away but Lyall held him tightly.

But Dumbledore's gaze remained on Remus waiting to hear his opinion on the matter. Remus felt embarrassed.

"It's certainly not something I want to go screaming around", he says.

And it was true. His father had taught him to be cautious with his condition, he himself had warned him of the bad fame that the werewolves had. All he knew about lycantropy was thanks to his father, he was quite informed on the subject because of his position in The Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures of the Ministry of Magic. Because of the information he had collected and the attitude of his parents in this regard he had deduced that it was not something to be precisley proud about.

"Good", Dumbledore nods, back to his friendly expression, Lyall finally let go of Remus who did not hesitate to step aside. "See you at Hogwarts, Remus."

"See you", he says goodbye feeling his fingers tingling with emotion.

The elder gave him a little reverence before walking to the door, Hope hurried to accompany him. He heard how his father's heart began to beat slower after that moment of tension, Remus's heart, on the other hand, was beating faster than ever, had just lived one of the best moments of his life and already felt anxious for September to arrive.

He felt an icy breeze on his chest as the door opened, and for the first time since he went downstairs, he remembered that he was not wearing a shirt.

[beels-burger-babe]

Double Vision

*This is completely self-indulgent as I officially have to wear glasses now and got my first pair today, but I figured to give you guys some content in between me being stuck on the two stupid drafts that I'm writing, I'd give you this I guess this is a series of shorts?? Either way, enjoy! -B*

Summary: It's the night before the first major test of the RAD school year, and MC has been holed up in their room all day. The brothers are concerned and go to check in on them, but they notice something different - MC is wearing glasses

CW: Asmo being Asmo. His bit is a little suggestive at times

LUCIFER

Although he'll never admit it, Lucifer was really concerned when you had disappeared for the entire day.

He was so used to hearing you laughing amongst his brothers, or pestering him in his office, or even just lounging in the living room that your absence had left him feeling like something was wrong.

Using the excuse of bringing you food to prevent you from starving, he comes to your room and knocks once before entering.

"MC, I know your studying, but do try not to forget that you...need..."

He's cut off mid-snark as he saw you staring back at him behind a pair of framed lenses.

His heart stuttered in his chest and Lucifer Morningstar is left speechless.

Your hair was a mess from the countless times you had run your hands through it. There were bags of exhaustion under your eyes, and there was a hand-shaped mark on your face from where you had been leaning into your palm.

But with those glasses, you looked studious and sharp.

If the eye-wear added this much to your beauty when you were clearly sleep-deprived as you were, he couldn't help but imagine how you might look dressed up in business wear with them.

"Lucifer?"

He snapped his head up, as you caught his focus one more, and noticed, with a frown, how you had removed your glasses.

"Did you come here for something?"

Lucifer walked over to your desk and set down the plate in front of you. "I was ensuring that you actually ate some food between all the reading you're doing." He picked up your glasses and casually inspected them (although mentally he was taking note of the style so that he could buy you more). "I was unaware that you wear glasses, MC."

You rolled your eyes and took a bite from the food in front of you. "That's because I don't need to wear them all the time. Just when I'm doing activities that can strain my eyes."

Lucifer hummed and looked closely at you. You rose an eyebrow at the demon, questioning his odd behaviour. Before you could say anything, he leaned forward and gently slid the frames onto your face.

You felt your cheeks heat up as his eyes remained locked on yours, and a sly smile graced his lips. "You should wear them more often," he whispered softly. "You look lovely in them."

MAMMON

Mammon sighed heavily as he sat upside down on his bed.

He was bored. You had locked yourself up in your room all day for that stupid test and had kicked him out since apparently he was "distracting" and "prevented you from getting any work down."

Well, fuck that! He wanted to spend time with you, damn it!

Mammon marched down the hall and banged on the door once before throwing open the door. "Yo human! Studyin' time is over! It's Mammon ti-...time..."

He trailed off for a moment as he noticed you glaring heatedly at him. However, it wasn't the glare that made him surprised. No. It was the fact that the glare was being filtered through a pair of glasses that he had never seen before on your face.

"When the fuck did you start wearin' glasses?!" He screeched and marched over to you, grabbing your cheeks to pull you closer and get a better look.

You let out a noise of frustration and swatted his hands away. "Mammon quit it! I'm trying to study!"

Surprisingly, he pulled back his hands, but he remained barely an inch away from you. "I didn't ask if you were studyin'! I asked about the glasses!"

You felt yourself blush and pulled your face away. "I've always had glasses. I just don't always wear them. That's all. Wh-Why does it matter?"

Mammon opened his mouth to give a retort, before snapping his jaw back shut. His face grew rapidly warm as he scratched the back of his neck. "I-I was just wonderin'! You've been down here for what? 3 months now? And I ain't ever seen you wear them."

You averted your eyes from the clearly flustered demon and nervously played with your hands. "Yeah, well, I didn't really want any of you to see me in them. I look pretty silly and-"

"What the fuck are you talkin' about? You're adorable!!" Mammon shouted before slapping a hand over his blushing face. The two of you stared at each other with wide eyes full of shock. "I-I mean, glasses are cool, ya know? I wear glasses all the time! And if the Great Mammon knows anythin', it's style! So, of course, you look cute- I mean good- I mean gorgeous- I-I mean GAH!" Mammon turned around and stormed out of the room.

A couple days later, you found a pair of tinted glasses, identical to the ones Mammon wears, in your prescription sitting by your door.

LEVIATHAN

Levi groaned as he looked at the books in front of him.

He wasn't the most studious of his brothers, and this test was draining the life out of him. He wanted nothing more than to curl up with you and watch anime, but because of this stupid test you were both holed up in your respective rooms studying.

Leviathan let out a huff as he laid his head on his desk and glanced over at his manga collection. His gaze paused on the side of a particular school manga with the two main characters studying on the cover.

Levi shot out of his seat in realization, "I can just go study with them!!!"

Levi quickly gathered all his textbooks and went straight to your room. He knocked on the door and nervously waited for you to answer.

As the door swung open, Levi's jaw dropped and his books went scattering across the floor.

Glasses. You were wearing glasses. Glasses that made your eyes look slightly bigger and just overall made you so freaking cute. Oh goodness. He didn't know that you could pull off the cool, studious type so well. You were just so cute!

"Oh shoot, Levi! Your books!" You bent down and quickly began to gather them for him. It was just like a scene from an anime!

"S-So kawaii," the otaku muttered, as he tried to hide his red face behind his arm.

The reddening got worse as you looked up at him and tilted your head. "What was that, Levi?"

He frantically waved his hands took his books back from you, "N-NOTHING! Just, um, I-I was wondering if we could study together? I'm not having much luck on my own, a-a-and you look smart, especially with your new glasses, which look amazing, and I-I thought maybe..."

You smiled softly at the otaku's mumbling and grabbed his hand. "Of course, Levi! I'd love to study with you!"

As you pulled him into your room to sit at your desk, Levi blushed and followed behind you, mentally thinking of the number of glasses-wearing cosplays he could get you to try.

SATAN

Satan took a sip of his tea as you sat down at the library table beside him.

Test season had always been a favourite of his for a number of reasons, but this year, those reasons could all be narrowed down to one big one: he got to spend more time alone with you.

It made him more grateful than ever that his brothers were morons and that he was the only dependable demon in the house that you could study with.

He had constructed an easy-to-follow study guide for the two of you that would guarantee both your success for this test. You'd get good grades and avoid Lucifer's wrath, and he'd get to spend time with you. It was a win-win.

He flipped through a textbook to find the subject of the test. "Alright. We should get started if we're going to stick to the plan. Now, how comfortable are you with..." he stopped short as he looked up and saw you staring at him with a pair of glasses on your face.

He blinked.

He had never seen you were glasses before. He couldn't help but think that now that he had, he never wanted to see you without them again. You look so stunning and elegant with them on. He absolutely loved it.

Of course, he couldn't just tell you that though.

Instead, Satan tilted his head and smirked. "You are aware that just because you're wearing glasses, it won't make you any smarter?"

You gasped in mock offence and lightly hit his arm as Satan laughed. "I'll have you know these are prescribed! I have to wear them when I'm doing any strenuous activities."

Satan flashed a roguish smile and went back to flipping through his book. "Pity. I'd rather like to see you wear them more often. You look wonderful," before you even got the chance to respond or acknowledge the light blush on his cheeks, Satan cleared his throat. "Now, on page 364, you'll see..."

ASMODEUS

Asmodeus hummed to himself as he walked towards your room with a basket full of facemasks and nail polish in one hand and a bottle of wine in the other.

You had been tucked away in your little room all day studying, and he just knew that you needed a break. That's where he came in of course, offering you all the love and self-care you could ever desire.

Asmodeus joyfully knocked on your door before slipping inside. "MC dear, I've come to free you from your..." he inhaled sharply at the sight before him.

You were laying on your stomach, kicking your legs behind you as you read whatever book you were studying from, dressed in an adorably oversized sweatshirt. That alone would've been enough to make him squeal.

But you were also wearing glasses.

Asmo shrieked as he jumped onto the bed with you and tackled you.

You let out a yelp as the two of you tumbled to the floor. "Wha- Asmo! Get off!"

Asmodeus giggled and sat up beside you. "Sorry, darling! I couldn't help it! You look so cute with your little glasses. AH! It's delightful," his eyes sparkled with intrigue and pleasure. "Sexy even," he purred as he leaned in close.

You chuckled and pushed Asmodeus away as you stood up. "I'm just studying. The glasses are so I can read without getting a headache."

The demon hummed as he walked back over to the door to regather his supplies. "Well, have you ever considered buying some for accessories? I have a pair or two that would look gorgeous on you. It'd be a shame if the only person who ever got to see how scrumptious you look with glasses was your books," he smirked knowingly as he turned around and saw you flustered.

Asmo grinned and held the basket and wine bottle. "Now enough with the studying. It's time for a break. So sit back and relax, and let me take care of you."

You raised an eyebrow at him, and damn that glare was more effective from behind a pair of lenses. "Asmo," you warned, causing the demon to shiver.

Asmo pouted and gestured to the basket. "Self-care of course. Gee, MC, why must you think such filthy things."

BEELZEBUB

Beel made his way towards your room with his arms full of snacks.

He was proud of you for taking your test so seriously and really putting in the work to do your best, but he was also worried. He had barely seen you come out of your room even once today, and that meant that you probably hadn't eaten enough.

Seeing as you were always carrying around snacks for him, he figured it was time that he returned the favour.

He frowned as he got to your door and realized that he had no hands to knock with. He tried rearranging the food in his arms but nearly dropped the entire load. Beel huffed and stared at the door for a couple seconds before leaning forward and butting it with his head several times.

He heard a groan and some shuffling on the other side before the door opened.

His eyes widened as you stood before him, yawning as you rubbed your eyes underneath your glasses - yes, glasses.

You were always small in comparison to Beel, but now with the glasses, there was something about it that made you look even more delicate.

"Cute," Beel said as he looked down at you.

Your face instantly flushed as you blinked up at him. "H-Huh?"

Beel smiled softly and felt his fingers twitch with the urge to ruffle your hair. "Your glasses. They look very cute," he explained honestly.

You squeaked and quickly took them off, too embarrassed by Beel's forward compliment. "Th-Thanks Beel. They're um, they're just for studying."

The urge to ruffle your hair, or pat your shoulder, or even simply touch you grew stronger, but Beel's hands were still full. So, much like with the door, Beelzebub thought of an alternative.

He leaned down and gently kissed the top of your head. His warm gaze met yours as he gently whispered, "You always look pretty, but with them on, you look even prettier," and then, as though he hadn't just stolen your heart, he grinned and held out the food. "I brought snacks."

BELPHEGOR

Belphie had been wandering around the house late at night in yet another round of restlessness.

He had just walked past your door when he noticed your bedroom light was still on. Belphegor tsked and began making his way over. It was bad enough that he wasn't getting any sleep. He didn't need you picking up on his awful sleep habits just because of some boring test.

Without bothering to knock, Belphie opened your bedroom door. He opened his mouth to tease you but found his words catching in his throat.

You weren't awake after all.

You were passed out on your desk, face smooshed up against an open book with a pair of glasses sitting uncomfortably askew on your nose.

Belphie felt his cold heart melt at the sight.

He let out a deep chuckle and walked over to you. He carefully removed the glasses from your face and snorted at the red lines that had been left in their wake. He pressed gentle kisses to the marks before scooping you up in his arms and carrying you over to your bed.

"Silly MC," he whispered as he draped your blankets over you. "Everyone knows that you're not supposed to sleep with glasses on," he smiled tenderly at your sleeping form as he brushed a few hairs from your forehead. "No matter how cute they may make you."

*And that's that! I hope you enjoyed this cute little thing I just threw together! Sorry I haven't been able to write as much lately. School and work have just been insane and I honestly don't think the workload is gonna get any lighter. Thank you for your patience and your support!*

TAGLIST:

@thegrimgrinningghost @henry-and-the-seven-lords @satans-beloved-riv @cosmixbun @sufzku @victoirey @obey-mes-treasure @kissed-by-a-dementor @yukihaie @justtiarra @mammoneybb @obeys-world @poly-bi-mf @armycandy10 @burrixino @rulaien @pumpkins-mainside-blog @acousticpen @sucker-for-angst-and-fluff @itskrispy @10paradox10

[genshingarbage]

In the bedroom || Part Two || Headcannons

Hello again~ Time for more degeneracy!! Next post will add some more characters to the fray muehheheheheh- Mod Kaeya

✧*

Part One Is Here: Diluc, Childe, Zhongli, Xiao

Albedo

- He’s not really privy to the matters of the heart so at first he approaches this with a very scientific outlook ngl

- Like don’t get me wrong he loves sex it’s just he doesn’t get the urge? It’s less “ah that person’s hot time to go wack off” for him and more “wow they’re good looking” and then he moves on and only really registers a couple days later when he’s wacking off for a completely different reason that he’d fuck them if he could

- So when the both of you get jiggy with it the first time he’s studying you, trying to see how you tick and picking you apart with that beautiful mind of his to wreck you with the information

- It’ll take a couple of times but you can get him out of his head by whispering sweet nothings into his ear, he’s really not used to people touching them or being close so if you end up biting it he will quite literally jump

- He’s really one more for foreplay than the main event though, he just likes the quietness of it. Like a calm before the storm, the hypothesis before the experiment as it were

- As such he’s really good at it

- Annoyingly good at it

- The fucker can now just stand behind you during the average day, work under your pants and make your knees weak with one hand while handling an experiment in the other and nonchalantly talking to sucrose across the room as if his fingers aren’t lightly tracing JUST to the left of the right spot

- He doesn’t really have a voyeur kink, he just really likes making you squirm but the idea of getting caught by someone has crossed his mind before and I’ve gotta say it’s only made him hornier at the though

- Like what are they gonna do? Hm? He’s just enjoying time with you, at least now they can see what the both of you are together

Kaeya

- Mmmmmm I hope you yourself are dirty minded because otherwise you’re not particularly gonna have fun with him

- Since he’s always thinking about sex

- Always

- And if it’s not sex it’s because he’s working in which yeah he’s relatively focusing on the task at hand but he’s mostly fixated on the fact his boob window isn’t low enough

- Have I called him a man whore on here yet? Anyway

- You’re going to have sex on every available surface in your house including straight up pressed against the window late at night with the lights on where everyone can see you

- He’ll close the curtains if you want but it won’t mean much once his tongue curls juuuuust so in between your legs

- He’s a menace

- Walk past you during the day, give your ass a light pat and barely even half an hour later you’re bent over his desk at favonious HQ

- One of his favorite things is just the idea of you absolutely wrecked for him in public like, the idea of you flustered, completely disheveled and dazed and goo goo eyed with it obvious to any passer by that he did that to you

- He might just get hard again

- You have to moan for this pretty boy, either way he’s gonna make you sing y’all it’s just better you do it from the get go if you’re loud in bed

- If you’re quiet, the of times you do make little noises he’s gonna blush really hard because he thinks it’s cute

- Then he’s gonna be embarrassed he thought it was cute when he’s got both your legs over his shoulders

- Oh no someone help him

- One thing he’s not used to, and so REALLY receptive to, is a lot of affection after the deed

- Like bang him till the bed breaks yeah but if you cuddle him and give him sweet kisses and hold him? He’s yours now y’all I’m sorry

- He’ll follow you like a love sick puppy for

Kazuha

- Very much a sweet heart but don’t expect him to be the blushing, nervous virgin in any regard

- He’s a wandering samurai not an anime protagonist the guy’s had his fair share of whirlwind romance during his time traveling across teyvat

- So while unfortunately it means you can’t really share each other’s virginity, if you are a virgin he’s going to give you the ultimate first time

- Full on treating you to a whole 5 star buffet (does food even have a ranking system? Eh)

- He’s going to give you his all and let me tell you that is a LOT

- Probably the most skilled at dirty talk

- He’s gonna be really spontaneous about it all too, usually anyway since being a wanderer traveling across Teyvat means typically you’re not in any one place for too long

- So if you’re not into doing it outside in nature and risking that small chance someone might be able to hear you on the next trail over you may have to wait awhile to do anything with him

- He doesn’t really have an extremely high libido but what he doesn’t have in frequency he more than makes up for with stamina

- Like if you’re feelin it but he’s not particularly bothered he’ll just lend you his fingers and tongue and tease you about how needy you are good naturally but if he’s in the mood and you’re raring to go as well?

- Oh honey

- I hope you have some sort of way to help with sore muscles

Scaramouche

- Probably the one you want if you’re into a looooot of the more kinky stuff I’m not going to lie

- You’re going to relinquish all control to him. That’s it. End of.

- It’s not in the bedroom either, it’s wherever he wants whenever he wants it and that means on the wall, the floor, his office desk or even in the fucking pool

- He gets off on your pretty little expression when he’s shoving you onto the couch in the Northland bank so that he can get his fill

- “But someone might see us??” You say, “then let them see how good of a lay I am then?? Hm?”

- If you want any chance of being on top whilst getting down with him you need a weapon- and I’m not saying beat the shit out of him because that’s just fucked up. But he takes Childe’s little lust for destruction to a whole new level.

- He won’t admit it bit one of the hottest things he’s ever seen you do is be dressed in barely anything with a gun pointed at his chest

- He felt like a horny teenager for once rather than a domineering pretty boy

- …might have to buy you a couple more things to complete the little roleplay scenario he’s been replaying in his head ever since then…

- But if he’s so rough, even when he’s the bottom, my dearest mod kaeya would he ever be sweet to us?

- Well I’m glad you asked

- No. Not while you’re awake.

- Chances are after you guys fuck each other out you’re going to fall asleep in the mess that is your bedroom, and this part will only happen in the bedroom, he’s going to peel you off of him

- And then he’s going to check if you’re still awake (and you better not be), then he’s going to bring a washcloth and start giving you a little bit of aftercare. He’ll massage your bruises or where he strained you and then snuggle down next to you and mutter praises to your unconscious self for putting up with the mess that is his whole ass screwy state of mind

- He doesn’t do this while you’re awake because he doesn’t want to be weak even if no one is around, no matter how much he loves and lusts for you there’s always that underlying voice telling him if he’s soft to you it’s over for him

- But if you ever bring this up to him it won’t end all prettily, so if you expect that then I’m sorry but it’s going to go more like him ignoring you for weeks straight after in sheer humiliation and anger towards you and himself

- He’s not a charity case, he’s a fucking harbringer and he expects to be treated as much

[ao3komorii]

Tangling with the Lifeguard (Pool Party Sett/Reader)

The Pool Party Sett story is done! I’ve gone with a beach!AU sort of setting where league races exist in a modern-day beach sort of place. Also sorry to any MF or Syndra mains, they don’t really come out the best in this xD Hope you enjoy, and as always, there is a smut warning for the end!

---

The sun was shining high in the sky, crystalline waters lapping against the shore as beachgoers took advantage of the perfect summer day. Taking in the scene from your place in the shade of a tree on the border between the beach and parking lot, you let a smile grace your lips as you mused on just how much this place seemed to not change, even after so many years.

The last time you had set foot on this beach, you had been twelve years old, full of excitement and unaware of the harsh realities of the adult world. Your parents had brought you here for that summer, now thirteen years ago, the beautiful beach an unforgettable experience. You had left after that summer with treasured memories, and a new friend, that same friend the very reason why you had returned to Port Navori beach after so long.

Taliyah had been the same age as you, with fairly lax parents who let her roam the beach by herself, even as the small twelve-year-old she had been. You had bonded instantly, spending almost every day together, and keeping in touch through letters, and later emails and text messages.

You had long said that you had wanted to come back and visit the lively beach town, but the timing hadn’t been right, not until this year.

You were done all your schooling, and had quit your high-stress, low-pay job, and as Taliyah had said on your last phone call, you had no reason not to visit. Her parents had been travelling the world since they retired, so you would have her house all to yourselves.

In your absence, Taliyah had become a fairly accomplished surfer in the local scene, working at an ice cream shop on the beach to support her expensive pursuits. She had been so insistent that you couldn’t find yourself able to refuse her offer; work in the ice cream shop with her in the day, and then spend the rest of your time catching up with each other. You had missed your friend dearly, and had accepted the offer without a second thought.

And now here you were, waiting at the beach’s edge for Taliyah to show up. She had told you to dress for the beach, sounding casual as was her usual, so you had worn a swimsuit with a short, flowy shoulderless dress on overtop. Unwilling to look like a lobster by day’s end, you had carefully layered yourself with sunscreen, and now all you needed was for your friend to get here already. Just when you were about to get out your phone to text her, an excited call of your name had you re-stowing the phone in your bag and looking back to see your friend bounding across the parking lot towards you.

Taliyah, dressed in a two-piece water suit and carrying a tropical-flower-print surfboard, came to a stop before you, leaning her surfboard against a tree to free her arms to tackle you in a hug.

“You’re finally here!” she grinned, surprising you with the strength of her hug. “We’re gonna have so much fun!”

“So what’s first?” you asked as you pulled back from the hug.

Taliyah hummed. “I guess I’ll show you the shop.”

You followed her onto the beach, recognizing the small bright blue building from the pictures she had sent you before. Taliyah took you around the back, fishing a key out of her pocket before unlocking the door and leading you into the small room.

There were large tubs of ice cream in the middle of the room, the walls lined with containers of various toppings and machines. On the back wall from you were two windows, glossy menus pasted to the doors that would display out when they were opened. Upon walking closer to the menu signs, you noticed something.

“Hey, it says we open at nine, but it’s ten-thirty…”

“It’s fine,” Taliyah replied with a shrug. “The owners are pretty chill. If anyone complains, I’ll just tell them I had to train the new employee.”

You playfully rolled your eyes. Sometimes you really envied Taliyah’s ability to be so carefree. Her calm energy was a big help for you, having got advice from her on numerous occasions over the years.

Taliyah came over to where you were, eyes flitting boredly to the menu boards before turning her attention back to you. “So I’m thinking we get you taking orders while I make them.”

“Works for me,” you agreed. It certainly sounded easier than figuring out what a poro float was supposed to be. You never knew ice cream stands had such fancy options now, used to the simple menus of ice cream cones and bars back at the shops in your hometown.

You were about to open the order windows when you were stopped by a rustling noise from the back of the store. You turned to see Taliyah digging in a cardboard box in the back corner, pulling out some folded-up fabric that was the same sky blue as the stand.

“Didn’t think you’d get away without an embarrassing uniform, did you?” Taliyah teased, tossing some of her fabric pile your way.

You caught the bundle, unfolding it to find an apron with Poro Palace Frozen Treats in pink bubble letters, little white fuzzy animals dotting the apron. There was an accompanying blue visor hat that looked like something out of a kid’s store. You reluctantly slipped both items of clothing on, looking back to find that Taliyah had done the same.

“Stylish, huh?” she smirked, striking a modelesque pose.

“We look like we work at an amusement park, Tali,” you laughed.

“Feels like it sometimes with all the annoying kids that come by,” she replied. “Okay, you can open it up now.”

Taliyah settled herself down in a chair in front of the section of ice cream tubs, and you reluctantly turned to unlatch and open the windows, unsure of exactly what you were getting yourself into.

The small room lit up with the outside sunlight streaming in from your window to outside, the immediate glare of the sun making you wish you had worn sunglasses.

Almost immediately, the masses were upon you. You noticed a woman with several children in tow who perked up as she laid eyes on you, striding over to you with her children right behind her, pushing each other as they scrambled to be the first one to get over to you.

You heard Taliyah groan behind you. “Get the pen ready. They always have the most annoying orders.”

You rose an eyebrow, but picked up the pen and notepad that sat beside the cash register as the woman came to a stop before you.

“You know, I’ve been waiting for an hour already. You young girls don’t know how hard it is for mothers,” the woman complained, not letting you get a word in edgewise. “Alright, tell her what you want.”

“I want a brownie sundae!” a small boy with blue hair who clearly intended to make full use of his outdoor voice shouted. “But with cotton candy ice cream and pop rocks and I want only blue candies!”

“Uh…” The kid was talking too fast for you to write, but luckily Taliyah had your back, a got it ringing out from behind you.

You weren’t sure how you had managed to get their orders out before they melted, messing up their total several times before Taliyah had to come and help you out. With a last snide look and a fistful of blue napkins, the mother and her little terrors left the stand at last.

“She’s the worst,” Taliyah said, bringing your weary gaze her way as she cleaned off an ice cream scoop. “I accidentally put one red candy in that kid’s sundae once and he screamed until I remade the whole thing!”

You winced. “Feels like we got off easy today.”

“Yeah,” Taliyah agreed. “Helps that they order the same thing every time, so I’ve got some practice.”

“Are they all this bad?” you asked, turning away from the window after seeing no potential customers nearby.

“Not all of them,” she replied with a strained smile. “I swear the heat just brings the jerk out in some of the people here.”

Speaking of jerks… your conversation was interrupted by an impatient-sounding throat clearing noise from behind you. You whirled around to see a redheaded woman with heart-shaped sunglasses and a revealing swimsuit leaning against your counter. She was staring at you like you were gum she had stepped in, flipping some hair over her shoulder when she knew she had your attention.

“Five cherry snowballs,” she said, dropping a few coins on your counter, some of which bounced and hit the floor. “To the red umbrella, thanks ice cream girl.”

Without any further interaction, she turned on her heel and strutted away, hips swinging as she went, leaving you wondering what had just happened.

You slowly turned back to face Taliyah again. “Um, do we usually deliver?”

“Nope,” she answered. “Not to people like that anyways.”

“But…” you protested weakly. You knew Taliyah got away with a lot here, but you didn’t want her to lose her job because some rude girl complained to her bosses. “I’ll just take them over and next time I’ll just say we don’t deliver.”

“Still tempted to put rocks in their snowballs,” Taliyah joked as she set about piling the scoops of red ice.

Soon you had a tray with five cherry syrup-coated piles of shaved ice in little plastic bowls with accompanying little plastic spoons stuck in the side of the dishes.

“I’ll be right back,” you said, heading past Taliyah to the back door, opening it to find yourself back out in the mid-morning heat.

The sand still felt uncomfortably hot underfoot, even with your flip flops on. With how hot it was out, these would have to be delivered as soon as possible to not be a puddle by the time they were eaten. Your only problem was that you had no idea where to go.

The redhead had said that she would be at the red umbrella, but of course nothing at this ice cream stand would be that easy. Standing just outside the hut, you were treated to a veritable rainbow of colored beach umbrellas. You counted at least ten red ones scattered across the beach, none particularly standing out to you. You didn’t have many options, and were forced to go with the most tedious one; checking every red umbrella until you found the girl and her group.

The first umbrella had been a bust, as had the next five. The sixth had led to a sweaty old man who told you that you were just in time to help him sunscreen his back. By the time you had hurriedly fled from that creep, it had been about five minutes of searching, the snowballs on your tray looking considerably droopier than they had been when you had left the shop.

You stared down at the tray of melting treats, unsure of what to do now. Should you go back and have Taliyah remake the snowballs? Try a few more umbrellas and hope you got lucky? You really hadn’t been anticipating this much stress when you had agreed to work here with Taliyah for the summer.

You frowned at the now-more-water-than-ice treats, your decision made. You couldn’t serve these, not as melted as they were. You would go back and help remake them and see if Taliyah had any insight as to which red umbrella was the right one. You turned around to head back to the stand, only to trip on your overheating flip flops and fall forward with a cry.

You had closed your eyes with a flinch as you fell, but opened them with a start as you heard a grunt from right in front of you. Looking up from your position in the burning sand, you felt like your heart was going to stop in your chest.

Standing before you was the most attractive guy you had ever laid eyes on, with fire red hair and a pair of black animal ears that looked soft to the touch. He was dressed in a tight pair of swim shorts, a lightweight red jacket tied around his waist. He had a flower lei around his neck, but that was the only thing that he wore on his top half, his insanely-well-built torso on full display, a torso you realized with horror was currently splattered with red syrup and shaved ice.

You looked from the hot guy to the ground, the sand around you speckled with plastic cups, spoons and napkins, your tray turned upside down in the sand. You slowly risked a gaze back up, only to see the guy staring down at you from behind his pink-tinted sunglasses as a clump of ice fell from his stomach to the sand just in front of your hands.

Embarrassment forced you to spring up, grabbing some stray napkins from the ground and dabbing them against the mess of syrup and ice on the man’s abdomen.

“I’m so sorry, I–” You looked up from your apologizing to see the man silently staring at you, your hand freezing in place as you realized that you were basically feeling this guy up through the napkins, the realization making your cheeks burn with shame and embarrassment.

“I’m really sorry!” you cried out, pulling your hands back. He still hadn’t said anything, and you realized that you couldn’t just stand here like an idiot, your flight instinct kicking in as you reached down to grab your tray before moving around the man and fleeing in the direction of the ice cream stand.

“Hey, wait!”

The man tried to grab your arm as you passed, but you were faster in your embarrassment-fueled retreat, and soon the hot stranger was far behind you. You didn’t stop running until you were back at the shop, the empty sand-logged tray clutched tightly to your chest, your heartbeat pounding in your ears as you shut the door, making eye contact with a confused Taliyah.

“Hey, are you okay?” she asked, getting up to approach you when you didn’t respond. “Talk to me. What happened? If that snob said anything to you–”

“No, no, she didn’t,” you replied weakly, sinking to the floor with your back against the door. “I didn’t even get to her.”

“Then what happened?” she pressed, bringing you a glass of water and prying the tray from your hands at last.

She ushered you to your feet and down into her chair, taking a seat on one of the counters. You took a deep breath, taking a sip of the water before recounting the events of the past ten minutes to Taliyah, who listened silently.

“…I didn’t know what to do, so I just ran,” you finished, setting your water down to bury your face in your hands.

“It’s no big deal,” Taliyah replied gently. “Everyone has embarrassed themselves in front of someone. Remember that time I tripped over my board in front of that group of tourists?”

“I covered him in cherry syrup, Tali,” you groaned. “I don’t think I’m cut out for this.”

“It’s your first day,” she stressed. “You’re bound to mess some things up.”

She stood up, returning to the shaved ice machine. “Now how about we remake those snowballs and then I’ll–”

Taliyah had frozen in place, a plastic cup in her hand as she stared straight ahead.

“Tali?” you questioned, standing up. “Are you–”

“That guy you dumped the snowballs on,” she quickly interrupted. “Did he have majorly cut abs and animal ears?”

“Uh, why?” You felt a jolt of fear shoot up your spine as you followed her gaze to see the man from earlier currently approaching the shop, well-defined abdomen now minus the sticky mess you had spilt all over him. “Oh god, it’s him!”

You and Taliyah exchange wide-eyed glances before you dove down out of sight, hiding behind the tubs of ice cream like they were a fortress.

“Please get rid of him!” you begged. “I’ll do whatever you want, I just can’t face him!”

You heard Taliyah sigh. “Fine, but this means you’re coming stone hunting with me tonight.”

You agreed immediately, even if the prospect wasn’t overwhelmingly appealing. Taliyah was always eager to add to her collection of shiny stones, but was so picky that it often took hours to find just one stone that met her standards. But right now you were so desperate that you would have promised her anything just to make the angry hot guy go away.

From your position behind the ice cream tubs, you could only hear Taliyah’s voice clearly, the general noise of the beach preventing you from hearing what the furry-eared man was saying. You wanted to peek out from your hiding spot, but found yourself chickening out. You really didn’t need him catching sight of you and making Taliyah’s job even harder.

You had gotten so in your own head with panic that you had completely tuned out of your surroundings until a hand waved in front of your face and you realized Taliyah was crouching in front of you, calling your name.

“You okay?” she asked worriedly.

“Is he gone?” you replied quietly.

“Yeah, he’s gone,” she confirmed, standing up and grabbing your forearms to pull you up with her. “Now help me remake those snowballs and then I’ll fill you in.”

You bit your lip as you scooped shaved ice into a row of plastic cups as Taliyah readied the cherry syrup. Soon you had five pristine-looking snowballs on your slightly-sandy tray, the sight of them bringing you back to your moment of collision with the cute guy.

The tray was snatched from your field of vision by Taliyah, who headed over to the rear door. “Be back in a few. Try not to freak out too much while I’m gone.”

And then the door was closed and you were left alone. Looking over at the order window, you decided that you were probably safer to just resume your position behind the ice cream tubs, unwilling to risk being out in the open in case the guy decided to come back.

While she was gone, you couldn’t help but fret over exactly what had been said between your best friend and the mysterious hot guy. She didn’t seem to be upset, so clearly their conversation hadn’t been that intense. Or maybe it had; Taliyah was a fairly relaxed person, so it would be difficult for a random angry customer to really get to her. But that didn’t quite make sense either; if he had yelled at her, you would have heard it over the noise of the beachgoers. All you were doing was overthinking yourself to death, exactly what Taliyah had told you not to do.

And it was there you remained until Taliyah returned, closing the door behind her and placing the serving tray in the sink before she turned her attention to you at last.

“Calm down, it’s fine… I think,” she said.

“You think?”

“Well he didn’t seem mad,” she explained. “He asked if a girl that looked like you worked here and I said you went home sick. Said he’d come back another time.”

“Another–” Oh god. Was he really so angry that he was willing to come back just for the chance to yell at you?

“I can see you freaking out,” Taliyah scolded. “Don’t. You’re fine. Musclehead or not, he’s not going to kill you just because you spilled shaved ice on him.”

She was probably right; hot shirtless guys on the beach likely had more important things to do than yelling at clumsy ice cream shop workers. By tomorrow, he would probably forget you ever existed, and you could go back to enjoying your time working alongside your best friend.

 The rock collecting that night had been long and boring, at least for you. Taliyah hadn’t found any rocks she liked enough to take home, only ending the search after she had found some sea glass that she had deemed acceptable to add to her collection. You could only hope that you wouldn’t owe her any more favors any time soon, unsure if you could survive another late night rock hunt.

The next morning, you entered the shop alongside Taliyah, who put her bag down and began to set up the day’s supplies. Considering it was ten minutes past opening time and Taliyah had insisted that she didn’t need help setting up, you decided that you might as well just open the order window for the day, hoping that mom and her group of demon kids wouldn’t be waiting out there, only to unlatch the widows and see something arguably worse.

The window had only been open a peek, but it was enough for you to see the large figure of the man from yesterday standing ten feet or so from your shop, his back facing you as he stared out at the beach. In your brief glimpse, you also noticed that the jacket wrapped around his waist had a white plus sign in a circle as well as the word lifeguard in white blocky letters above it. Oh god, of course you had gone and pissed off a lifeguard on your first day here.

You shut the barely-open windows with a too-loud slam that made you wince before you quickly locked them again and rushed over to Taliyah.

“Tali, he’s here again!” you hissed.

“Huh?” she replied, pausing her task of refilling a container of sprinkles. “Muscle guy?”

You nodded frantically and Taliyah frowned, putting the sprinkles down and approaching the order window herself. You watched as she opened the window ever so slightly, peering out for a few seconds before closing it back up.

“Well… can’t say I was expecting him to actually come back,” she said evenly.

“What do I even do?” you asked, staring at the order windows like they would burst open at any second and reveal you to the clearly-determined lifeguard. “He’s a lifeguard, Tali! What if he bans me from the beach?”

She rolled her eyes in response. “He can’t just ban you from the beach. Lifeguards don’t have that much power. If they did, I would’ve been banned a long time ago for all the times I’ve surfed after hours.”

“Then what does he want with me?” you asked, looking away from the window.

Taliyah shrugged. “You’d have to ask him that.”

“But what if I… don’t?” you replied weakly. “He’ll give up eventually, right?”

“I mean, maybe?” she said. “But it might be easier to deal with him now and get it over with.”

You saw her point, but it wasn’t her that was being pursued by a tall, muscly lifeguard with a vengeance!

Taliyah clearly caught the reluctance on your face and sighed. “Fine, I’ll switch with you for today. Now let’s go over how to make the basic stuff before we open.”

True to her word, Taliyah had allowed you to hide in the back making orders, telling the lifeguard guy that you were off today. You watched him walk away from behind the shaved ice machine, hoping that your ordeal was finally over, but your hopes were quickly dashed the next day as you went to open the store again, only to see the same broad back facing you from just outside the shop.

Taliyah had reluctantly agreed to switch again that day, and the day after. But by day four, even the promise of helping her scavenge for rocks again wouldn’t get her to agree to switch.

You closed the window again, turning to Taliyah with pleading eyes, but she was having none of it.

“It’s been four days,” she said, arms crossed. “Clearly he’s not giving up. You should just see what he wants.”

“But…” The thought still terrified you. You knew you deserved to be yelled at for what you had done, but it was made that much worse by the fact that the subject of your plight was just about the hottest guy you had ever seen.

Taliyah shook her head at you. “Okay, but I’m not doing orders again today, so if you want to keep hiding from him, we’ll have to move onto plan B.”

Plan B, as it turned out, was a mascot suit of sorts; three fluffy poros stacked on top of each other like a snowman. A poro each made up your upper and lower body, the last poro being the head of the costume. You looked incredibly awkward, the arms and legs of the costume hairy and tipped with little brown claws. You were momentarily stunned by the sheer lengths you were going to just to avoid this guy, but you were already in the costume, so you reasoned that you might as well follow through with it now.

Taliyah put the costume’s head on you and your world was plunged largely into darkness, minus the mesh one-way view out of the top poro’s eyes. You were helped to the back door, some fliers for the store shoved into your hands.

Taliyah helped you walk out front, and you were pretty quickly swarmed by kids. You couldn’t see the lifeguard guy, but the relief that coursed through you was short-lived, swallowed by the immediate explosion of business brought on by your costume.

One thing you hadn’t considered in your haste was the heat. You weren’t sure if it was the costume or if today was hotter than usual, but very quickly you found yourself becoming a sweaty mess under the weight of the dense, furry costume.

The longer you were in the costume, the worse you felt, but you were determined to stick this out. So you handed out fliers and posed for photos with children while Taliyah ran the stand.

You wished that you could wipe the sweat from your face, but you weren’t sure if you could even reach up to remove the costume’s head yourself due to the awkward shape of the costume. So you endured the ever-increasing heat, only feeling wearier as the time ticked by.

You waved goodbye to a group of kids as they left with their ice cream cones, the sweltering heat really bearing down on you. As you went to turn and head back to the stand to ask Taliyah to help get the head off, a wave of dizziness crashed over you. You took one step towards the stand, and then another, and then it all went dark as you felt yourself falling forward, too weak to stop your descent to the ground.

 You woke up with a heavy head, feeling foggy with confusion. The last thing you remembered, you had been heading back to the stand…

Immediately, you realized that you weren’t at the ice cream stand, and you weren’t wearing the poro suit, or even your beach dress. Sitting up in the cot you laid in, you found that you were wearing only your swimsuit.

As you sat up, a blue ice pack that you hadn’t realized was there fell from your forehead and into your lap. Picking it up, the pack only feeling slightly cold, you turned to look around the room, still unsure what exactly was going on.

You were in a room of some sort, guessing it was afternoon by the minute amount of light filtering into the room, even through the closed curtains. There was a fan gently whirring above your head, but otherwise the room was silent.

There was another cot beside yours, and a table nearby with a few red first aid kits stacked on it, some bandages messily spilling out of one of them. There was a sign pulled over the door, the side facing you reading come on in, we’re open.

You got up from the bed, shuddering with disgust when you noticed just how sweaty your whole body was. The bed squeaked as you got up from it, your knees hitting a bedside table between the cots that you hadn’t noticed had been there. On the small table was a glass of water, as well as a white fan that was emblazoned with what looked to be a group of cats waterskiing.

You picked up the fan, letting out a small laugh at the silly-looking cartoon cats on the fan. It looked like something you could win at a carnival booth.

“If you can laugh, then I guess you’re feelin’ alright.”

A deep voice from behind you made you jump, fingers fumbling the fan, which fell onto the floor with a clatter that was only made louder in the quiet room. You turned to look behind you, only to fall off the cot in shock when you saw the very lifeguard you had been trying so hard to avoid standing in the doorway of a small office you hadn’t noticed was there.

“Hey, careful!” He quickly crossed the room to squat down in front of you, taking your elbow and helping you back up onto the cot. You were too stunned to resist and found yourself falling into his chest as a wave of dizziness hit you.

“You okay?” he asked, and you tried to nod, but your head was spinning too much to focus. “Hey, hold still.”

He placed his hands on your shoulders, keeping you steady against him until you were able to regain your focus. When he was satisfied with your condition, he pulled back, releasing your shoulders and instead reaching out for the glass of water on the table next to you.

“Drink,” he instructed, handing you the cup before standing up. “I’ll be right back.”

He stared at you for a moment before finally turning back and heading into the office at the back of the room.

You watched him go, feeling on edge, but complied, bringing the glass up to your lips and taking a long drink. The last thing you wanted to do was give this guy more reason to be upset with you. You were surprised at just how refreshing the water felt, and you had soon downed the entire glass, placing it back on the table when you were done.

“Alright, lay back down,” the lifeguard instructed as he returned.

“What?” you replied. What was he going to do to you? How had you even got here? Where was Taliyah?

He stopped before you, furrowing his eyebrows as he looked down at your shaky, terrified form. “Are you–”

“I’m sorry!” you exclaimed, bowing your head. “I didn’t mean to spill the snowballs on you! If you need to yell at me, go ahead. I’m sorry I didn’t just come out sooner and–”

It had occurred to you mid-ramble that he had yet to say anything, and you cut off your babbling, slowly looking up to find him staring at you with what you could only describe as a bewildered look on his face.

He blinked. “Is that why–”

“I’m so sorry!” you interrupted, bowing your head again. “If you want to ban me from the beach, I get it!”

“Ban ya from the beach?” he replied with a bark of laughter. “The only thing I wanted to do was get your number.”

“My… what?” You had to be hallucinating. There was no way he had just said that.

“Lay down first,” he spoke sternly, and you complied, still feeling stunned by his words.

Once you were laid down, he picked something up from the bed, which you recognized as another ice pack. He placed it on your forehead, the cool pack immediately flooding you with a feeling of relief. Closing your eyes, you let out a tired sigh, suddenly feeling fatigued.

“Get some rest, princess. We’ll talk when you’re up again.”

You took his advice, the cooling from the ice pack lulling you back to sleep, your eyelids too heavy to keep open.

When you woke up again, you felt infinitely better, your head clearer and body feeling less overheated. The ice pack on your forehead was room temperature, and it was now dark outside. There was a light illuminating your left side as you sat up in bed, turning to see the office in the back with its light on.

The cot squeaked under you, which was responded to by the squeak of a chair from inside the office, the red-haired lifeguard emerging from the office and approaching your bedside.

“Feelin’ any better?” he asked, and you nodded, biting your lip nervously. “Got you some more water.”

You looked over to the bedside table to see the water cup refilled and took hold of it, grateful to have something to focus on other than the intimidatingly muscular man before you.

You drank the entire glass before you forced yourself to finally address the situation before you. “Um… why am I here?”

“You passed out,” he replied bluntly, taking a seat on the cot next to yours. “Overheated yourself in that rat costume.”

“They’re not rats, they’re poros,” you replied, unsure of what to say.

He let out a huff of laughter. “Poros that important to you that you’re willin’ to fry yourself for ‘em?”

“No, that was…” you trailed off. Well, you might as well just admit it. If he had gone out of his way to care for you after you had passed out like an idiot, then he deserved the truth. “I was avoiding you. I was scared you were going to yell at me. My friend didn’t want to keep covering for me at the window so I decided to wear that stupid poro costume.”

“So that’s what that was about,” he replied. “And here I thought you were avoidin’ me ‘cuz you weren’t interested. Gave up on gettin’ your number and then got news that someone passed out from heat stroke.”

You were still having a hard time comprehending the asking for your number part, so you instead chose to focus on the other half. “Heat stroke?”

“Not sure what you expected, wearin’ that costume in this heat,” he said. “Can’t say nobody’s ever been afraid of me before, but giving themself heat stroke just to avoid me is a new one.”

He sounded somewhat self-deprecating, and you immediately felt bad. You had clearly misjudged him, and realized that he hadn’t even mentioned the snowball incident himself.

You forced yourself to meet his eyes, even with as awkward as you were currently felt. “I’m sorry for giving you so much trouble, and for spilling snowballs all over you. I’m just really sorry.”

He laughed. “Ain’t nothin’ for you to apologize for. I’ve had worse get on me since I started workin’ here, and usually it ain’t from a cute girl.”

You tensed in your seat, tearing your gaze from his to look down at your feet, your cheeks feeling warm.

“Hey, don’t go overheatin’ yourself again,” he scolded, standing up from the bed. “If you’re not interested, that’s fine, but I think it’s best if I take ya home. Don’t need your friend yellin’ at me again if you pass out on the way back.”

As much as you wanted to deny his assertion of you being not interested, you couldn’t muster up the courage, so you instead quietly accepted his offer of help. You would have to ask Taliyah what he had meant when you got back.

It was surprisingly cold on the beach at night, the icy breeze sending shivers along your skin. You stared out at the dark ocean waves, entranced by the water crashing against the sand, when your focus was broken by some soft fabric being laid over your shoulders.

You turned to look over your shoulder to see Sett just behind you on the steps of the lifeguard office, the jacket that was usually around his waist now laying on your shoulders.

He caught your curious look and raised an eyebrow. “You nearly cooked yourself to death today, I ain’t about to let you freeze yourself to death now.”

“Thanks,” you replied quietly, reaching a hand up to keep the jacket around your shoulders.

Your feet met the soft sand as you followed Sett towards the parking lot. The beach was totally empty, an odd contrast to how things were in the daytime. It felt weird to actually see the shape of the landscape unobscured by giant beach umbrellas and a sea of bodies. You only looked away from the empty scene when you realized that you had left the sand, and Sett was staring expectantly at you.

“…what?” you asked, getting the feeling that he had said something that you had missed.

“Which way?” he repeated with a quick glance at the street ahead of you.

“Oh right,” you replied. “My friend lives on Sandstone Way.”

Sett’s ears perked up. “By that tacky souvenir shop?”

“Yeah,” you laughed. “Right by there.”

You giggled at Sett’s assessment; you had noticed the eye-hurtingly brightly painted store when Taliyah had walked you to her house from the train station. She had rolled her eyes at the store as you surveyed the display of t-shirts with embarrassing designs on them, stating that sometimes they got some good rocks in, but it wasn’t worth the amount of tourists always asking for directions when she was walking around the neighborhood.

Looking over at Sett out of the corner of your eye, you were struggling to think of anything to say. He was dressed in just his sandals and shorts, his sunglasses forgone and giving you a clear look at his golden eyes that seemed to glow in the dark.

“So this your first summer here?” Sett asked, breaking the brief silence as you walked side by side. “I know I’d remember you if I’d seen ya before.”

“I was here for a summer when I was a kid,” you answered. “But everything looks so different now. Maybe I just saw this place differently when I was a kid.”

“Nah,” he dismissed. “It never used to be this busy here. Tourists bring money to this place, but it means it’s always loud around here.”

The conversation was slowly helping you feel more comfortable with the intimidatingly handsome lifeguard. You felt dumb for putting so much energy into avoiding him.

“So have you always lived here?” you asked.

“Born and raised,” he answered with a grin that you couldn’t help but feel looked a little sad. “Ma used to work at the boating shop… and the laundromat… and the candy store.”

“All at the same time?” you asked incredulously.

Sett shrugged. “Didn’t have much of a choice. Pa ran off on us when I was a kid, and it wasn’t like anyone would hire a fatherless runt to work for them.”

“Sounds like it was hard,” you replied. “Did you ever find out where he went?”

“For his sake, I’d better not,” Sett sneered. “I heard ma cry missin’ that scumbag more times than I can count. There ain’t a family here for that bastard to come back to.”

“How is your mom doing?” you asked as you turned onto Sandstone Way, passing by the tacky tourist shop, the flashy paint on the walls too bright even at night.

“She’s doin’ good,” he answered, finally looking happy with a satisfied smile. “Got her to quit her jobs when I started workin’ enough to pay the bills.”

“You’re a good son,” you complimented him. “She’s lucky to have you.”

You smiled at him, coming to a stop before Taliyah’s house. “Well, this is me. Thanks for walking me back.”

“Take care of yourself,” he said. “I don’t wanna see you passin’ out again.”

“I’ll try not to,” you replied. “No more poro costumes for me.”

“On that topic,” he purred, leaning closer to you. “You never gave me an answer.”

“An answer?” you squeaked, flustered by his sudden closeness.

“I’ve been tryin’ to get your number for days now,” he replied, and you did your best to supress a shiver from running up your spine. Was this real life?

You wet your lips with your tongue nervously, unable to miss how Sett’s sharp eyes watched the movement.

“I, um, I don’t have my phone on me,” you said, immediately realizing how dumb you sounded. You didn’t need your phone on you to tell him your number! You hastily made to amend your statement. “…but if you come by the stand tomorrow, I’ll give it to you!”

“Oh?” Sett’s grin was wide, gold eyes flashing dangerously. “I s’pose I could find some time to stop by. See you then, sweetheart.”

Sett turned to walk away, but you stopped him with a call of his name. “Wait, your jacket–”

“Keep it for the night,” Sett replied. “I’ll get it from you tomorrow.”

You reluctantly agreed, stunned silent by his bold flirting, his jacket sitting warm on your shoulders as you watched him walk away. You stared at his broad back until he was out of sight, only then turning to head inside, knowing Taliyah would be waiting.

 The next morning she was still on you as you spent some extra time getting ready.

“I still can’t believe he gave you his jacket,” she teased with a grin. “I mean, I figured he was probably into you, but–”

“You what?” you replied as you paused styling your hair.

“I kept telling you to talk to him,” she replied. “No guy like that is going to wait outside your work for days in a row just to yell at you for spilling ice on him. But I didn’t think you’d believe me if I told you.”

“I just feel so stupid giving myself heat stroke just go avoid him,” you lamented.

“Yeah,” Taliyah frowned. “If I had realized it was that hot out, I never would’ve let you go out in that thing.”

“It’s my own fault for being so dumb,” you insisted.

“But hey, it all worked out, didn’t it?” Taliyah grinned as she slipped on her water shoes. “You’ve got a hot lifeguard coming to visit you at work today.”

“Don’t remind me. I’m still super nervous,” you said, adjusting your beach dress over your most flattering swimsuit.

“You’ll be fine,” Taliyah replied. “He’s clearly super into you. You should’ve seen him when you passed out yesterday.”

“What?” You had been so tired last night that you had only told her the basics before crashing for the night, completely forgetting to ask her what had happened yesterday.

“Someone got him when you collapsed,” she told you. “You should’ve seen his face when he pulled off the poro head and saw it was you inside the costume! I tried to come with, but he told me he’d handle it. I maaay have threatened his life if anything happened to you, but just a little.”

You laughed. So that’s what Sett had been referring to.

Taliyah came up from behind you as you stared at your appearance in the mirror, resting her chin on your shoulder and meeting your eyes in the mirror. “Relax, you look great. Fuzzy ear boy isn’t gonna know what hit him!”

“Fuzzy ear–” you sputtered, laughing at Taliyah’s choice of words. “I guess his ears do look pretty fuzzy.”

“Well if he lets you pet them, tell me how soft they are!” she teased, pulling back from you to grab her bag. “Now let’s go. You’ve got a boy to meet!”

You somehow felt even more nervous today than you had the few days you had spent avoiding Sett. You were still having a hard time wrapping your head around the fact that a guy that looked like he had walked straight out of a fireman’s calendar was coming to your little beachfront ice cream stand for the sole purpose of getting your phone number. And his jacket, which was folded neatly on the countertop beside you.

You weren’t exactly sure when he was going to come. Usually, he would be there waiting outside in the morning before you opened, but all you had opened up to today was a sparsely-populated beachfront, no handsome lifeguards to be seen. By two in the afternoon, your anxiety had begun to get the better of you.

“Stop pacing,” Taliyah scolded you. “He’ll be here.”

“But what if he decided not to?” you said, taking a deep breath to try and calm yourself down. “What if this was just a joke?”

“Then I’ll go kick his butt,” she responded plainly. “He’ll come. Relax.”

You were about to reply, when a ding of the service bell at the order window had you spinning around, ready to take an order, only for the words to die on your lips when you laid eyes on the well-muscled lifeguard with the fuzzy black ears just outside the order window, sending a grin your way.

“Here to pick up my order,” he said, leaning an arm against the window.

“Your… order?” you replied, too entranced by his appearance to properly make use of your brain.

“A pretty girl promised me her number if I came by,” he replied, looking down at you through his sunglasses.

“I… right… I…” You turned back quickly to see Taliyah staring expectantly at you, mouthing the word number at you. Right.

With slightly shaky hands, you reached for the small notepad at the front counter, taking that and a pen in hand and trying not to focus on the fact that Sett was watching you as you began to write.

Double-checking that the number was right, you handed the paper to him, your fingers touching as he took it from you. Remembering about your other promise, you reached over to grab the lifeguard jacket from the counter beside you. You went to hand him his jacket, surprised when he didn’t take it from you.

“What time do you get off?” he asked, and you answered a quiet six. “Give it back to me then.”

With a short wave and a grin, Sett made a show of stowing the phone number in his pocket before sauntering off and leaving you standing there slack-jawed.

“See? Was that so hard?” Taliyah called from her seat at the ice machine. “Now you just have to keep it together for your date.”

“I don’t know if I can,” you said, leaning back against the counter.

“You did last night, didn’t you?” she countered. “He’s just a guy. A really hot guy, but still. Don’t freak yourself out. You deserve a nice guy. It’s just a bonus that he has more abs than spiders have legs!”

You let out an amused huff. Taliyah was right, as she always was. You needed to get over yourself and let yourself have a good time tonight.”

But for now, you had customers to deal with. You and Taliyah let out a shared groan as you saw the nightmare mom and her army of brats heading towards you. You both returned to your posts, hoping their overly-complicated orders would be right on the first try this time.

 Taliyah let out a yawn, stretching her arms high above her head before beginning the process of cleaning up for the day. After the last customer left, you hastily closed the order window, not wanting to give anyone the chance to come and beg about how it was only five minutes past closing and they’ve been wanting a banana split all day. You had learned your lesson from that mistake on day two.

Once the order windows were closed and locked, you joined Taliyah at the side counter, helping to return all the different containers of toppings to their rightful places. You found your hands moving slower, your nerves slowing you down in order to prolong the inevitable.

Taliyah eventually got tired of your pitiful attempt at stalling for time and gently removed the container of blue sprinkles from your grasp. “Just go, I’ll finish up here.”

“Are you sure?” you asked, and Taliyah sent you an unimpressed look. “Okay, fine, I’m going, I’m going.”

“I hope you know I expect all the details later!” she grinned as you made your way to the door, hesitating with your hand on the door handle for only a moment before opening the door.

It was mercifully less warm outside today than it had been yesterday, not to mention that you were also minus a heavy mascot costume. Yesterday hadn’t ended too badly for you, but you would still prefer to not end today in a hospital if you exacerbated your current heat-sensitive state.

You weren’t sure if you preferred if Sett was already there, or if you got there first to wait for him; neither option seemed to abate your nerves. But of course, the lifeguard was prompt as always, leaning against one of the beams that held up the awning above the order window.

You didn’t think you had been making much noise walking along the sand, but he seemed to hear you, turning to face you with a grin as you approached.

“Ready?” he asked as you came to a stop before him, tucking some of your hair behind your ear in an effort to keep your cool.

“Yeah,” you answered, impressed that your voice hadn’t come out squeaky with how nervous you were.

“Good,” he replied, before his grin turned teasing. “Was half expectin’ ya to come on our date in that rat costume.”

“Poro!” you corrected again, trying not to get flustered by his mention of this being a date. You weren’t sure what else it would be, but you couldn’t help the butterflies that fluttered in your stomach when he had acknowledged the obvious.

He surprised you by taking your hand, pulling you along with him as you tried desperately not to stumble and fall into the sand.

The beach crowd was beginning to thin out, people heading home or to one of the many beachfront restaurants nearby. Watching as a kid packed up his sand toys, you wondered if one of those restaurants was where you were headed as well. Sett hadn’t told you anything about what the plan was, and you found yourself curious when he led you to the bright white lifeguard office.

At first, you had thought that maybe he had forgotten something, at least until you followed him into the small building to see what looked to be the table that had previously held all the first aid kits, now decked out in a soft-looking purple picnic blanket. On top of the makeshift picnic table was a spread of various tasty-looking finger foods, the scene completed by two chairs pulled up to the table, cushions with a starfish pattern placed on the seats.

You were perhaps too dumbfounded by the sight, as you snapped out of it to Sett calling your name, looking over at him to see him looking surprisingly tense. You should probably say something, you realized.

“It looks great,” you said, meaning every word as you looked over the table. “Are those cabbage rolls?”

“Ma helped me make ‘em,” Sett explained, looking bashful for the first time since you had met him as he raised an arm to scratch at the back of his neck. “Helped me with all of this, actually. Never done anythin’ like this before.”

“You mean a picnic?” you asked curiously.

Sett chuckled. “Picnics. Dates. Not a lotta women ‘round here who wanted anythin’ to do with a fatherless half-breed.”

You had a hard time believing that; you had noticed several mothers checking him out as they packed their family’s stuff to leave the beach. But the hint of something sad in his eyes made you reconsider. You had no memory of seeing someone like him that summer you had spent here, but it wasn’t like that was a surprise to you. You and Taliyah had been in your own little world at that time, only ever spending time with each other.

“Well I’m excited to try your cooking,” you said, figuring a change of subject was for the best.

Sett grinned as he sat down. “Should be decent. Haven’t poisoned anyone since high school.”

Your eyes widened, hand freezing on its path to grab a cabbage roll, startled eyes darting to his.

Sett let out a bark of laughter at your alarmed face. “Relax. Wouldn’t poison ya. Maybe those kids that keep swimmin’ into the boating zone, but not you.”

“Thanks… I think?” you replied, biting your lip as you stared down at the cabbage rolls, weighing your options.

“Wasn’t real poison anyways,” he scoffed, taking some rolls from himself. “Not my fault sugar and salt look the same.”

You laughed, grabbing some food for yourself at last. “I suppose they kinda do.”

“Ma didn’t wanna hurt my feelings, but I knew when I tried some myself,” he explained.

“It was nice of her to try,” you offered.

“Too nice,” he said. “Ma is always too nice. Never said anythin’ bad about my old man, even after what he did. Had to work three jobs for years because of that bastard, but not a word.”

“Well I’m sure she’s glad she has you,” you commented. “Even if you give her food poisoning sometimes.”

“Once,” he corrected, taking a bite. “Learned my lesson the first time.”

You followed his lead, finding the food to be entirely poison-free, and actually the best home-cooked meal you had eaten in a long time. The conversation moved to swapping work stories, and you were unsurprised to find out that the mother and her the demon children had been a thorn in Sett’s side as well.

“They really buried sleeping sunbathers in sand?”

“Five times in a day one time,” Sett grouchily confirmed. “Last time Braum went to handle it. Said I would bury those little assholes under the sand if I had to go yell at them one more time.”

You sympathized with his pain. You felt lucky that you had only experienced the tip of the annoyingness iceberg with that group of little terrors.

“Braum?” you inquired as you both left the lifeguard office, the beach now fully dark.

“Fellow lifeguard,” he answered, nonchalantly taking your hand in his as you made your way off the beach. “Bald, giant moustache, even bigger than me. Better at the whole gentle-but-firm thing than I am.”

“Oh, I think I’ve seen him before. He comes by for poro pops sometimes,” you said, mind drawing a picture of the surprisingly friendly man in the small purple swim bottoms with a weakness for poro-shaped ice pops. “So are you the head lifeguard then?”

Sett considered your question. “Guess I am the boss of ‘em. All of the other lifeguards are always comin’ at me with problems to solve. The extra pay doesn’t hurt either if I wanna keep momma from feelin’ like she has to work.”

“Say thank you to her from me for the dinner. It was really good,” you said as you passed by the familiar tacky souvenir shop.

“She’ll be happy to hear it,” he replied with a soft smile that made your heart thump in your chest. “I know she wishes she had more to cook for than just me.”

You both came to a stop before Taliyah’s house, and you sneakily glanced over just to make sure Taliyah wasn’t peeking out from a window, which she wasn’t. You turned your focus back to Sett, only to find him closer than he had just been. How was he so good at sneaking up on you?

A large hand came up to cup your jaw, thumb brushing against your cheek, and your face was tilted up towards Sett’s. You were glad it was dark out, because otherwise you knew your reddening cheeks would be obvious.

“Still afraid of me?” he asked, voice low, lips so close to yours that you could make out a small scar that crossed over his bottom lip.

“No,” you answered, making no move to pull away as you stared up into his eyes. “Not unless I was about to taste your high school cooking.”

“Smart,” he replied with a smirk. “But I’m talkin’ about right now, because if you don’t turn and run into that house, I’m gonna kiss you.”

Your bag almost tumbled from your grasp, but you held fast as you stared at Sett, whose own had already become half-lidded. You had no words to describe how much you didn’t want to run right now, so you didn’t use any, instead angling your face further upwards, trying to make your willingness abundantly clear.

With a grin, he leaned down and kissed you.

Pulling back slightly, he dove back in, his other hand coming to your waist to pull you against him. You happily leant into him, your hands on his firm chest.

When he pulled back again, you opened your eyes at last, feeling almost as dizzy as right before you had passed out from heat stroke.

Sett looked content, and you were only hoping you looked half as composed as he did right now. He leaned back in to give you one more peck before pulling back from you entirely, the cold from the air outside immediately apparent as soon as you were minus his warm hands against your skin.

“Think I’ll stop by tomorrow,” he said. “Been cravin’ a cherry snowball for some reason lately.”

 Sett was a man of his word, you learned, though you were less happy to see him the next day when he asked if he could order a cherry snowball served like last time, and then laughed as you had proceeded to sputter like a broken machine.

His visits became daily, sometimes bringing Braum with him, who continued to surprise you with the sheer amount of poro pops he was able to consume in one sitting. Quite a few nights a week, you had found yourself all around Port Navori with the half-Vastayan lifeguard. You were surprised at how supportive Taliyah was being, considering you had originally come here to spend time with her.

“Gives me more time to surf,” she answered with a shrug when you had asked her. “And maybe that boyfriend of yours can convince you to stay here after the summer is over.”

“Boyfriend?” you yelped, and Taliyah raised an eyebrow.

“You aren’t? I thought he would have made it official by now. It’s been over two weeks… have you guys even done it?”

“Taliyah!” you scolded her, switching back to professional mode as a group of people approached the stand.

As you helped prepare their orders, you couldn’t help but think about what she had said. You and Sett had kissed quite a lot actually, but he had yet to do more than that. But it was far too embarrassing a subject for you to have the confidence to broach, so you had resolved yourself to just be content with things as they were.

It was just your luck that right then was when Sett had decided to make his daily visit to the stand, approaching the counter as the other group left.

Taliyah apparently wasn’t done pestering you for the day as she sped to meet him at the counter before you could get there yourself.

“Hey!” she greeted Sett with a sly smile as you stood frozen behind her, nervous about her motivations. “You’re on your break, right?”

Sett raised an eyebrow. “What about it?”

“Well,” she said, in the voice you knew meant that she wanted something. “There’s a surfing contest I entered, and it’s almost my turn and it won’t even take that long and–”

“Tali!” you interrupted, rushing over to the counter.

“All I need is an hour,” Taliyah insisted, before pulling you beside her at the counter. “And she needs some help while I’m gone since lunchtime is when most of the people come by.”

“I’m fine, I–”

“I’m in,” Sett cut in, eyeing you with almost palpable smugness.

“Awesome!” Taliyah replied, immediately shucking her apron and hat onto the floor in her haste to get out the door. “Have fun, see you after I win!”

“Taliyah!”

Your call of her name fell on deaf ears as she already had her board and was out the door, leaving you standing at the counter with Sett still leaning against the counter.

Sett reached up to pull his sunglasses off, tucking them into his packet, his golden eyes fully uncovered and sparkling with mischief, the sight alone making you feel weary.

“Well? You gonna invite me in?” he asked. “Not sure I’d fit through the window.”

You scrambled to meet him at the back door, not wanting him to try and get into the shop through the order window that was less wide than he was. It was a strange feeling to open the back door of the shop to a guy that was almost too tall for the doorway, and another thing entirely to try and corral him into behaving as you tried to keep the ice cream stand functioning while Taliyah was gone.

“Aren’t lifeguards supposed to set a good example for others?” you huffed, wiping ice from your apron. At least he hadn’t made things truly equal and put cherry syrup on the ball of shaved ice he had pressed against your neck.

“Not when I’m off the clock,” he answered. “Besides, it’s my once in a lifetime chance to see what workin’ one of these is like.”

It would definitely be only one time if you had anything to say about it. If the almost-hour with him here had taught you anything, it was that Sett was not cut out to work in an ice cream shop.

The scoops of ice cream he doled out were easily twice the size of the ones Taliyah did, which made for happy customers, but a less happy bottom line if he was here for more than an hour. He was also lacking Taliyah’s patience, and you were forced to sideline him when an especially picky middle-aged woman came by who insisted you remake her smoothie four times until it had an acceptable pH level. The woman’s complaints had miraculously stopped the moment Sett had approached the window himself, becoming so invested in flirting with the handsome lifeguard that she had snatched her next smoothie attempt from you without complaint, not even glancing your way as she batted her eyes at him, only leaving when he excused himself with an excuse of needing to make more orders.

You approached Sett to check on him and found yourself pulled down into his lap as he leaned back in the chair.

Huffing, he pulled you against him, nuzzling against your neck. “Don’t know how you deal with that. Couldn’t pay me to make her damn smoothie one more time.”

“You get used to it,” you replied. “Don’t you deal with worse as a lifeguard?”

“Yeah,” he grunted. “But nothin’ sayin’ I gotta be nice when I deal with ‘em.”

“That’s true,” you laughed.

“If anyone complains, they can go somewhere else. Ain’t another beach within a hundred miles as well-run as this one,” he bragged, kissing at your neck.

As much as you were enjoying his sudden affection, you knew time was running low until Taliyah would return. You made to pull back to tell Sett that, but were instead pulled into a kiss that took you a few breathless moments to find the strength to escape.

“This Friday,” he murmured, face inches from yours. “There’s a party at the pool. You should come with me.”

You had heard about the exclusive pool parties on this beach from Taliyah, but hadn’t expected to ever get an invite. The pool, which was at the far end of the beach from the ice cream stand, was as exclusive as it got. Gated with walls so high that you couldn’t see in, it was the membership-only place to be for all of the elite in the beach town of Port Navori.

“Is that… okay?” you asked hesitantly.

“Why wouldn’t it be?” he countered, and you didn’t really have an answer. “It’ll be fine. Come. Have some people I wanna introduce ya to.”

The door burst open at the same time as you nodded your agreement, revealing Taliyah clutching both her dripping board as well as a shiny blue ribbon.

“You won?” you asked, trying to disentangle yourself from Sett, who reluctantly let you up.

“Easily!” Taliyah gloated. “Nobody else stood a chance. So how were things here?”

“The money ain’t worth the drama of this place,” Sett griped.

Taliyah laughed. “Smoothie lady come back with a vengeance?”

“I’ll take kids buryin’ sunbathers up to their ears over this any day,” he replied with a grimace, standing up and stretching.

At his mention of ears, Taliyah had brought both hands up to her own head about where Sett’s were on his head, and you quickly waved at her to cut it out before he saw. Thankfully she did, but you could tell that you were going to get asked if you had pet his ears yet as soon as his fuzzy ears were out of earshot.

“I’ll text ya the time when I know it,” Sett said, giving you a quick kiss on the head and a two-fingered salute to Taliyah before heading out the back door.

“So?” Taliyah asked, pulling the chair up to the ice cream station after she had stashed her prize ribbon in her bag. “Are they as soft as they look?”

“I didn’t pet them,” you answered.

“It’s been over two weeks!” she complained. “Has he at least asked you to be his girlfriend yet?”

You shook your head. “He did invite me to a pool party with him on Friday at that fancy pool.”

“Really?” Taliyah responded, eyes wide. “You have to tell me what it’s like! I mean, I’ve seen satellite photos, but it’s not the same…”

“I’ll probably be too nervous to remember any of it,” you grumbled.

“This is your chance!” Taliyah encouraged. “By Friday it’ll be three weeks. You need to ask him if he sees you as his girlfriend or not.”

You reeled back, waves of anticipatory anxiety rolling over you. “I don’t want to scare him off. What if this is just casual to him and I’m too dumb to see it?”

“Then you’ll know,” she replied. “I know you. It’ll eat you up if you put this much energy into a guy without knowing how he feels about you. So ask. If he says no, then at least you’ll have an entire store’s worth of ice cream to drown yourself in after!”

Taliyah was right. She was always right. You knew that you couldn’t keep whatever this was up without knowing where you stood with him. The more time you spent with Sett, the more you wanted, and if he intended to keep things casual, you would rather know sooner so you could make an informed decision.

So that would be the plan then. Go to the party, have a good time (and get some photos of the pool for Taliyah) and then ask Sett about the state of your relationship. Sounded easy in theory. You could only hope you could muster up the courage to go through with the plan when the time came.

 After hearing that the party was to start at four, Taliyah had gone all out, closing the stand at two so she could help you get ready to impress the snobs. You hadn’t put up too much of a fight, happy to have her help and her company, as your nerves only climbed higher the closer it got to four o’clock.

“You’ll be fine,” Taliyah said as she styled your hair. “You’ll only feel worse if you don’t get an answer from him. And with how good you’ll look at the party, he won’t be able to say no!”

“Thanks, Tali,” you replied gratefully. “I promise I’ll get you a bunch of photos of the pool. And whatever else you want.”

“What I want is for you to stay here for good,” she said. “So really I’m just doing myself a favor by helping you. This place has been a hundred times more bearable since you’ve been here, and I want it to stay that way.”

“Still,” you persisted. “I feel bad that you’re going to so much trouble. If you want anything, just let me know.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Taliyah dismissed with a wave of her hand. “You should get going, don’t wanna be late to the fancy pool party.”

She practically shoved you out the door, and then you were alone, walking down the mostly-empty sidewalk. As you walked along the street, you couldn’t help but dwell on the possibilities. What would happen at the party? What would Sett say?

If he told you that he wasn’t looking for anything serious, what would you do? It was hard to have an answer for until you were in the moment, since a lot of it would depend on what Sett’s answer would be.

You walked through the parking lot, and then onto the beach, passing by kids building sandcastles and games of beach volleyball as you walked towards the end of the beach where the pool was. As you made your way to the fancier end of the beach, you began to notice the differences that marked the split between here and the side of the beach that you were usually on.

The shops on this side of the beach were much fancier, the sand littered with designer beach chairs and umbrellas. It was crazy just how different two ends of one beach could be.

The pool was noticeable from a great distance, or at least the wall white walls that surrounded it were. At least you weren’t going to get lost and miss the party entirely.

You approached the pristine white stairs that led from the beach up to the pool entrance, equal parts excited and apprehensive. The entrance was an open doorway, covered by a deep blue curtain and guarded by a muscled bouncer in white. The sight alone was intimidating; why hadn’t you just asked Sett to meet you beforehand?

You plastered a reluctant smile on your face before approaching the man. “Hi, I–”

“Name,” he interrupted, not looking up from his clipboard, sunglasses too dark for you to see his eyes.

Well it wasn’t like you hadn’t expected some level of standoffishness from the elite side of the beach. Keeping your smile up, you told him your name, waiting the prerequisite few moments for him to leaf through the list.

He seemed to have found what he was looking for, as his hand with the clipboard went to his side and he moved over to the curtain, pulling it to one side to allow you to enter. He had said nothing further, but seemed to be staring in your direction, so you took that as your cue and walked towards the now-open entryway and into the pool.

The entryway led into a hallway with pristine white walls, soft lighting hanging overhead. You could begin to hear chatter as you got closer to the end of the hallway, exiting into an explosion of sight and sound.

The pool was huge, and there seemed to be an intricate gold pattern on the tiles at the bottom. The pool was surrounded by lounge chairs and umbrellas, tropical foliage bordering the inner walls around the pool.

There were people all over, in and out of the pool. There was also a bar in the center which seemed to be very popular, as many people were carrying around intricate-looking cocktails.

More than the scenery or the people, your eyes were scanning the area for Sett. You checked your phone again to make sure, finding that it was the time he had told you to be here for. Maybe he was just running late or…

Your rising concern was broken up by the tap of designer wedges on the granite heading your way. You looked up from your phone to see two girls heading towards you, one of which you realized you had seen before.

The stuck-up redhead that had been the reason you had been out on the beach to spill the snowball on Sett in the first place was striding towards you, not a hair out of place underneath her likely-expensive sun hat. At her side was a lilac-haired woman in a swimsuit with a plunging neckline that was color blocked with various shades of purple. Together they made quite a striking pair, but your previous encounter with the redhead had you wishing that Sett would get here soon to save you from the impending conversation.

“Look, Sarah,” the purple-haired one sneered as they came to a stop before you. “So eager to pretend she’s one of us that she rushed right over.”

You took a step back, but that only seemed to embolden them.

Sarah lowered her sunglasses, staring at you like you were in her way. “Sad when they don’t know their place, Syndra.”

“Sett invited me here,” you replied defensively.

The women exchanged a pointed look before Sarah raised an eyebrow at you, a hand on her hip. “You ever think about why that was?”

“What?” you replied, unsure of what she was getting at.

“She doesn’t get it,” Syndra said with a cruel undertone in her voice that unnerved you.

“Look around,” Sarah said sharply. “Really look. Do half the people here look like they belong?”

You looked around, not sure what you were supposed to be seeing. A man with a hook-nose sat at the pool bar, flanked by women in skimpy bikinis. A humanoid form that seemed to be made of water conversed poolside with a large purple man in a ratty straw hat who was holding a ukulele. What were you supposed to be noticing?

“Sett is too nice to break it to you, so the job falls to me,” Sarah said with a smirk. “This is our annual loser fest. Charity case race. Bring-a-freak-to-work-day.”

“Pig party,” Syndra supplied.

“Yeah, pig party,” Sarah repeated, noticing your confused look. “Don’t know what that is? Poor thing.”

“I don’t–”

“It’s pretty simple,” Sarah interrupted. “We take half the summer to find the biggest freak we can, and then we bring them all together and crown a winner, and by the looks of you, Sett is really going for the top prize.”

You gasped, eyes wide, suddenly feeling like you were going to be sick.

“Aw, you really thought he liked you, huh?” Syndra mocked with fake sweetness.

“He didn’t… he never…” you stammered, clutching your bag to your chest.

“Well duh,” Sarah replied haughtily. “He wanted to win. Do you tell a pig when it’s about to become bacon?”

“What is meaning of this?” Braum accused, storming up to your group. “I have not heard of such a thing!”

“Need-to-know, Braum,” Syndra dismissed.

“And you didn’t need to know,” Sarah added.

You felt numb. This whole time… is that why Sett wouldn’t ask you to be his girlfriend? Why he never did more than kiss you? All this time, he had just seen you as a prize pig for an ugly date contest? It all made sense now, why he had been so desperate to get your number. He had never liked you… it had all been one sick joke. You should’ve known; nobody as attractive as Sett would ever see you as anything but a freak. And was too cowardly to come and tell you the truth to your face.

“Look, she’s crying,” Syndra taunted. “Don’t cry! Soon you’ll be queen pig!”

You couldn’t do this. You couldn’t stay here with all these people who saw you as less than human as your heart was breaking into pieces. You were so, so stupid, now wanting nothing more than to cry in peace. So you did, turning and running as fast as your legs would take you out of this awful place.

“Bye, piggy! We’ll ship you the ribbon!”

You heard Braum shout your name, as well as the cruel laughter of the women, but you didn’t stop running. Not when you got to the beach, nor the parking lot or the tacky souvenir shop, the sayings on the gaudy shirts too blurry to read through your tears. Your feet didn’t stop until you were at the doorstep to Taliyah’s home, out of breath, tears running down your cheeks.

The door opened, Taliyah’s face appearing in the doorway. “Hey, did you forget– wait, what happened?”

 “Settrigh, stay still!”

Sett frowned, but did as his momma requested, allowing her to tie the ends of his hair after she had finished arranging it. He loved his ma dearly, but he really didn’t have time for her to redo his hair ten times right now.

It was getting way too close to the start time he had given you, and with how nervous of a person you were, he had intended to be on time, but that was before his mother had discovered the reason why he was cutting their visit short today.

Ma was aware that he had been seeing someone, had been ever since Sett had needed help making food for their first date.

“You do intend to let me meet her, Settrigh?” she asked, stepping back once she had fixed his hair to her satisfaction.

“Yes, ma,” he answered, standing up from the chair.

He wasn’t exactly surprised by his momma’s eagerness, considering this was the first girl he had ever dated, let alone considered introducing to her. This world was shallow; he had learned that early in life, which may be why he found himself so drawn to a girl who had put her all into having nothing to do with him. You broke up the monotony in this busy beach town and gave him something to look forward to other than seeing his ma for the first time in a long time.

Sett knew he was working on a time limit. You had mentioned that you had planned on only visiting Port Navori for the summer, and the summer was half over already, which meant his chances to convince you to stay were also halved, which is where tonight came in.

He had been taking things slow, not wanting to come on too strong and scare you off like he had watched happen to many a beachfront pick-up artist. He had been unwilling to rush things and lose you, but the slip of the calendar into August had forced his hand.

He would be lying if he said he wasn’t a bit apprehensive as to how today would end. How would you take him asking you to be girlfriend? He could only hope that he hadn’t misread you entirely.

He didn’t go to the pool parties often, but it seemed like a good way for him to introduce you to his friends, as they didn’t often all gather outside of those parties. He knew you would likely feel out of place, but Braum would be there, and he intended to stick by your side the entire time. And then after the party, if things went well, then maybe he would end the night with you as his girlfriend, but the party would be the first step.

As he left his ma’s house, he found his mind turning to the party. If you were wearing that red swimsuit you had worn last week, then it was going to be a difficult night for his self-control. His desire to take things slow had really taken a hit then, his only saving grace being ma’s lecture on being a gentleman pounding in his head as he tried not to look at how your chest was half-busting out of your top as you leaned over to pick a thread off of his glove. You were really too hot for your own good, which made him all the more eager to see you.

He knew he was running late, the party having started at least ten minutes earlier. It wasn’t his style to be late, but he was also pretty helpless to defy his ma. He only hoped that you hadn’t given up on him and left.

He took the shortest route possible, which included a short trek through some bushes that left him more leafy than he would’ve liked, but it was all forgotten when he spotted the stairs that led up to the pool entrance.

He was able to bypass the doorman who was only half as big as he was and seemed to be wary of interacting with him, stepping out of the way as Sett approached. He pushed past the curtain, hurried steps heading down the hallway. You hadn’t been waiting outside, so clearly you had been able to get in. He tried to fight back the excited grin that wanted to take over his face, but it was a losing battle as he entered the pool area, eyes immediately scanning the area for you.

“Your cruelty is unimaginable!” Braum’s booming voice carried easily through the air. “That girl has done nothing to be deserving of such treatment!”

What had Braum so worked up? Generally he was an easy guy to get along with, easily Sett’s most tolerable co-lifeguard. Not much phased him, which was a little concerning. But Sett had other priorities, the most important being locating you.

You weren’t in the pool, and didn’t seem to be sitting in any of the chairs. Maybe you had gone to the bathroom and would be right back–

“Well how else was she supposed to know Sett is too good for her? She clearly wasn’t going to see reality without a little help.”

Sett’s ears perked up, his attention snagged by the mention of his name, but especially by the latter half of the sentence. He turned around to see Sarah Fortune with Syndra at her side, who had her arms crossed and looked bored. In front of them was Braum, looking more irate than Sett had ever seen him.

“What’s this about?” Sett asked in a warning tone as he approached, the fur of his ears standing on end, leaving him feeling like he wasn’t going to like where this was headed.

“Nothing you need to worry about,” Sarah dismissed, flipping her hair behind her shoulder with a flick of her head. “We just showed a daydreaming little clout chaser the way out.”

Sett’s eyebrow rose. “A what?”

“Your ice cream girl,” Braum cut in. “These two have told her that this is a party for pigs. They have told her that you intend to bring her here to win ugly contest, and then she had run off.”

“What?” Sett growled dangerously, but the two women remained nonplussed.

“We did you a favor,” Syndra stressed. “If we get a reputation of letting just anyone in, then we’ll lose all status as members of the ruling class of the food chain. So we decided to throw this little pig party to make you come back to your senses.”

“You’re one of us, Sett,” Sarah added. “This pool doesn’t have room for little nobodies who don’t know their place.”

“Rather be a nobody than whatever the hell this is,” Sett snarled angrily, the full knowledge of the truth turning his bad feeling to a mix of simmering fury at the two women, and worry for you. He hated himself for being late and allowing this to happen to you. “Save your concern and don’t talk to me again.”

“But we were–” Syndra started, but Sett wasn’t in the mood.

“If you even look at her again, you’ll have me to deal with. And unlike that girl you just bullied outta here, I ain’t so nice.”

With that, Sett turned on his heel and stormed towards the exit to go do his best to fix this mess.

Braum quickly followed behind him. “My friend, I am sorry I could not stop them in time.”

“Ain’t your fault,” Sett replied. “Wish I’d have known. Gotta go see if she’ll even talk to me at this point.”

“I wish you luck,” Braum said as exited the hallway and emerged out into the sunny late afternoon.

Sett parted from Braum, taking the stairs two at a time as he surveyed the area, trying to see if he could catch sight of you. He quickly crossed the sand, making a beeline for the ice cream stand, even if it seemed like a longshot. He passed by a group of kids throwing sand on an older man sleeping on a towel, but ignored it and kept going. If anything was on fire, Braum could put it out. Sett’s sole focus right now was finding you and hoping you’d let him explain himself.

His chest felt heavy with anger and regret. How could he have let this happen? He hadn’t realized how cruel those women could be, and it had led to them making you believe he thought you were some freak he was using for convenience, which could not be farther from the truth.

Seeing those two talk about you like you were a pariah had brought him right back to when he was younger, to what he had endured at the hands of people just like Syndra and Sarah. People who had ostracized him, did their best to make him feel like he didn’t have a place here. Sett-the-beast-boy-bastard; the words had haunted him for a long time.

He had grown tough in response to the years of bullying, but you hadn’t. This was your first exposure to how awful this place could be. He and ma had dealt with it for years after pa ran off; he had nearly gotten expelled from school after a particularly bad fight with a kid that had made one too many nasty comments about his ma to his face.

Sett stopped, letting out a frustrated sigh as he saw the large closed sign on the front windows of the ice cream shop. So that was a bust. Without giving the store a second look, he continued on towards the rocks and then up to the parking lot.

There was only one other place to try. Chest tight, Sett followed the same path he had the night of your first date, the same path he took every time he walked you home. The walk there was one long blur, his feet unable to stop moving until the familiar house was in sight. Without a moment’s hesitation, Sett approached the front door, rapping his knuckles against the wood. When no answer came, he tried again, and after a few moments, the door opened to reveal Taliyah, who glared once she caught sight of him.

“What do you want?” she asked, narrowing her eyes at him.

“Is she here? I need to talk to her,” Sett said, urgency bleeding into his voice.

Taliyah sighed, stepping outside and closing the door behind her. “You’re lucky I’m even talking to you after this. You don’t deserve to talk to her if that’s how you let your friends treat her.”

“They ain’t my friends,” Sett argued. “If I’d have known they were gonna pull that shit–”

A sly smile lifted the corner of Taliyah’s lips. “Good answer. If you had said anything else, then I’d be slamming the door in your face right about now.”

“Then can I–”

“Talk to her?” Taliyah interrupted. “Nope. Not a good idea.”

Sett’s face must have taken on a darker quality, because Taliyah retreated back a step, raising her hands in the air in mock surrender. “Relax, tough guy. I didn’t mean it like that. But she’s a little too upset to talk to you right now.”

The information only made Sett feel worse. He wanted so badly to talk to you, to do what he had wanted to do before this mess had happened and make you his girlfriend. You had never felt farther away than you did right now.

“Give me some time to calm her down. I can get her to be at the pier at seven, then the rest is up to you,” she said, levelling him with a stern look. “I know this wasn’t your fault. That’s the only reason I’m giving you a chance. She really likes you, so try not to make her feel any worse than she already does. Bye.”

And then Taliyah was gone, retreating back into the house and leaving Sett standing on the doorstep.

 “Brought you some water,” Taliyah announced as she entered the room, glass in hand.

“Who was at the door?” you asked.

She shrugged. “Someone looking for my dad. Told them he’s not here.”

You nodded. It was probably too much to hope that it would be Sett. You winced as you thought his name. You hated how much you wanted to see him, someone who had used you to win some popular kid ugly date contest.

So it had all been a lie then? All the things he had told you about his life, his family? Every time he had kissed you, was he picturing kissing one of those girls instead? Is this really what popular people did for fun? You felt stupid for falling for it, for falling for him. You were so stupid.

With some prompting from Taliyah, you took a sip of the water. After she had made sure you had drank the whole glass, she sat down next to you, taking the glass from you and setting it down on the bedside table.

“I should have known,” you croaked.

“Known that popular girls are bitchy? Maybe,” she responded.

“That it was too good to be true,” you corrected.

“You’re acting like you’re eighty,” she scolded. “There are other guys out there. Ones who don’t have shitty friends.”

“Yeah, I know,” you replied. “But I really liked him. And I didn’t even get to pet his stupid fuzzy ears.”

“Well if you’re joking, then you must be doing okay,” she said. “How about we go do something to take your mind off of things?”

You frowned, and she rolled her eyes. “Not right this second. I’ll give you until six-thirty to get yourself ready to go.”

Taliyah got up off the bed and headed towards the door. “I’m not gonna let your night be ruined because of a couple of snobs.”

She closed the door, leaving you alone with your thoughts again. You laid back on the bed, intent on taking some time before you got ready to just veg out. As much as the notion of going out didn’t excite you right now, it was probably better than being a mopey mess all night. There would be other guys; it was just a shame that you had liked this one so much.

Two hours later, you were walking down the street with Taliyah. Your getting ready to go had consisted of washing your face of all the smeared makeup from your crying, brushing your hair into a semi-decent state and then watching dumb cat videos on your phone until you felt like you didn’t want to crawl in a hole and die.

Taliyah had assured you that you didn’t look bad, which you might have believed if you hadn’t seen yourself in the mirror as you were leaving, but at this point you were beyond caring about how you looked right now.

Taliyah had refused to tell you where she was taking you, and so you were forced to follow her down the familiar path towards the beach, unsure of where it was you were being led. Part of you was worried that you might run into Sett, but then the more rational side of you took over; he was likely back at that pool, partying it up with those girls and lamenting that you had run off before he could win his ugly date prize. It was crazy to realize just how flawed your judgment had been.

You had expected to be walking onto the beach, as it was where you two usually spent most of your time, but Taliyah didn’t go to the parking lot, instead heading towards the rockier section of the beach. You hadn’t been over here before, only vaguely aware of the area as a prime fishing location, bait shops and the like lining the street across from this part of the beachfront.

She took you past the fishing spots, down to near the end of the beach, where there was a small pier that went about thirty feet out into the sea. Like most of the beach at this time on a weekday, the pier was empty, most of the fishermen also having headed out with their day’s catches.

Taliyah led you down the pier to the small bench at the end of it, pushing you to sit down. When she didn’t do the same, you looked up at her, confused.

“I’ll be right back,” she said. “I’m gonna go grab something to help cheer you up. You just enjoy the view for a bit.”

You decided to follow her advice, staring out at the water. There wasn’t much to see other than some boats in the far distance and some buoys bobbing in the water that marked the swimming section from the boating section.

It was kind of nice in a way, the calm waters helping you to relax as you watched the waves roll in and out. You stayed like that for a while as you allowed yourself to zone out until you began to wonder how much time had passed. Pulling out your phone, you saw that it had been almost twenty minutes, and yet there was no sign of Taliyah as you looked around.

You had assumed that she went to get you two some food, which likely was still the case. Some of the places here tended to have rather large dinnertime crowds, so a twenty minute plus wait wasn’t exactly unusual. You had no idea where she had gone, so all you could do was wait. If she wasn’t back by seven, you would just text her and ask what was up.

You let yourself be taken in again by the rolling waves as you continued to wait, trying to recall what kinds of restaurants there were on the beachfront. It couldn’t be that fish and chips place; Taliyah had spent a full half hour last week complaining about how stale their food was. Or the taco place, since it had been closed for renovations for the past week. You had been trying to think of a third option when your concentration was broken by someone taking a seat next to you on the bench.

You looked over, expecting to see Taliyah back with some food, but instead nearly jolted off of the bench when next to you was the very man you were out here trying to forget.

Just seeing him when you were feeling so pathetic sent a jolt of you weren’t sure what up your spine, your flight instincts screaming at you as you made to stand up, only to be stopped by a firm grip on your wrist.

“I know you don’t wanna see my face right now,” Sett said. “But I can explain.”

“Explain what?” you replied meekly. “Those girls explained enough.”

“I haven’t,” he insisted. “Just listen for a minute. Then you can leave, or punch me, whatever you want.”

You took a look around, still not seeing Taliyah anywhere. You weren’t sure what he could have to say that would make much of a difference, but you sat back down, and he let go of your wrist.

You turned reluctantly to face Sett, waiting for him to talk first.

“Never told ‘em to do somethin’ like that,” he said gruffly. “Didn’t even know about it ‘til I got there and you weren’t there.”

“But they said…” you started, taking a breath to keep yourself calm as you prepared to recount the hurtful words. “They said you were only spending time with me so you could win their whole ugly date contest.”

Sett’s eyes narrowed, the skin of his knuckles tightening on his curling fists. “First I’ve heard of it. Ain’t no way you’d ever place in an ugly contest anyways.”

His words threw you. “Wait, so you don’t think I’m ugly?”

He snorted, a grin playing at his lips. “Well I was plannin’ on askin’ you to be my girlfriend after the party, so nah, I don’t think you’re ugly.”

“You–” you gasped, pulse skyrocketing. This was not how you expected this conversation to go. You were half convinced you were experiencing auditory hallucinations until Sett reached over, pulling you into his side.

“This is my fault,” he spoke lowly. “If I hadn’t been late, I’d have been there to stop that from happening.”

“What happened when you got there?” you asked quietly.

“Braum told me what happened, then those two tried tellin’ me they did it for my sake,” he growled. “I thought I was used to seein’ through bullies from how I grew up. Doesn’t matter now, they won’t be botherin’ you anymore unless they wanna find out why momma says I got her temper.”

“Why were you late anyways?” you asked.

He groaned, leaning his head back against the bench. Even with the sun mostly set, you could clearly see a pink tone to his cheeks.

“What is it?” you pressed, curious about why the intimidating lifeguard was suddenly being so shy.

He let out a long sigh, finally meeting your eyes. “Ma was doin’ my hair.”

You looked him over, realizing that his hair did seem to be tied differently today. The only thing that looked the same was his ears, just as fluffy as they always looked. You could almost hear Taliyah’s voice screaming in your head to pet them. Speaking of Taliyah…

“Taliyah!” you gasped, trying to extract yourself from Sett’s grip, but failing. If Taliyah was to come and see you here with the guy she had taken you out to forget about… “My friend, she’ll be back any second and–”

Sett laughed, and you were immediately left with the feeling that you were missing something.

“She ain’t comin’ back,” he said amusedly. “I’ve got you all to myself for the night… if that’s what you want.”

“Taliyah set me up?” you breathed, not having suspected a thing.

“I asked her to,” Sett explained. “Wasn’t about to let you go ‘cuz of some shallow assholes.”

Taliyah was much sneakier than you had given her credit for, you realized, but you couldn’t bring yourself to mind right now. Though that didn’t mean you weren’t hungry, your previous stress melting away and removing the only distraction from your empty stomach.

“So,” you hummed. “Are you still going to ask me to be your girlfriend?”

You still had no idea what would happen by the end of the summer, but you really wanted this. You wanted him.

“Yeah, was plannin’ on it.”

 You had thought about it all the way back to Sett’s house. Was it really for the best to go back to your city when the summer was over? Back to your parents’ house to find an equally demanding and unfulfilling job?

The more you thought about it, the more you wanted to stay. Taliyah was here, Sett was here, and other than your brief nasty encounter at the pool earlier, this summer had been the best one you’d had in a long time.

Sett seemed intent on giving you more reasons to stay as he was on you pretty much as soon as you entered his house. You had been standing in the entryway, looking at a picture of what must have been Sett and his mother when he caught you off guard, picking you up from behind.

You yelped, turning your head back to face him just in time for him to dart forward to snatch a kiss.

“You’ll have time to look around later,” he said as he walked down the hall, nudging a door open with his shoulder and then taking you into what looked to be his bedroom.

Once again, you were scarcely granted a look around before Sett had overtaken your attention yet again. You were swiftly carried over and deposited on the bed, Sett eagerly caging your body down against the sheets with his own.

“I wanted to go slow,” he said against your ear. “Didn’t wanna mess things up. But that’s not what you want, is it?”

“No,” you gasped as he snaked a hand under your dress, and then under your swimsuit bottoms. “I… I want…”

“This?” he inquired, thumb brushing against your clit, causing you to jolt against him with a breathy moan. “Waited a long time to hear that.”

Seeking more room to work, Sett pulled back to reach down and pull down your swimsuit bottoms, tossing them to the side. You watched with reddening cheeks as he returned his attention to you, head disappearing under your dress next.

His first lick against your pussy felt back-archingly good, but you didn’t have a lot of room to move with Sett’s hands holding your lower half in place. His tongue felt slightly rough, bringing pricks of pleasure-pain along its path.

Closing your eyes tight, you tried not to squirm, but it was difficult as Sett’s tongue prodded inside you before moving back to sucking at your clit. It felt good, almost too good, but you found yourself wanting more than his mouth against you.

“Sett,” you moaned. “Please…”

You weren’t sure if he got the message until you reached down to grasp at one of his hands. He pulled back from you, wiping one forearm against the wet lower half of his face as he sat back. His position on his knees on the bed allowed you a good look at the decently-sized bulge in the front of his tight swim shorts.

Sett caught your eyes, reaching one hand down to cup his cock through his shorts. “All you, sweetheart. Still think I think you’re ugly?”

You somehow managed to shake your head, speechless from his ardent display of his body. Sett seemed to bask in just how speechless he had made you, a sexy grin overtaking his face as he stared down at you.

“Couldn’t ask for more than this,” he said. “But if you want more…”

He was such a tease. With a burning face, you relented.

“Could you just put it in me please?” you asked, too shy to make eye contact.

“Can do,” he replied, and you could easily hear the smug satisfaction in his voice.

Without a moment’s hesitation, Sett stood up from the bed to pull his shorts off, wincing slightly when he pulled the tight fabric over his painfully-hard cock. Tossing the shorts to the floor, his attention quickly returned to you.

Giving his cock a few slow strokes, he watched you sit up on the bed. Feeling a burst in confidence from his display, you reached down to the hem of your dress’ skirt before pulling it up and off your body, Sett’s hungry gold eyes unable to look away from you as you moved onto your swimsuit top.

Once your top was off, Sett struck, pulling you towards him. Sitting at the edge of the bed, he pulled you onto his lap, reaching around to your front to cup your breasts as his mouth went straight to your neck. His hands were warm against the sensitive skin of your breasts, rolling your nipples under his thumbs as his teeth scraped against a sensitive spot on your neck.

You felt his hard cock under you and shifted yourself against it, Sett letting out a deep groan in response. You could feel how wet you were, but this wasn’t enough. You needed to fuck him, needed this building tension to come to a satisfying end for you both.

You turned in his lap, looping your arms around his neck and leaning down to kiss him. Sett was happy to meet tongues with you, one hand resting on your ass until you pulled back from the kiss.

You met eyes with Sett, who began to help you lift yourself up, lining up his cock with his other hand. When he brought you back down onto him, you both sighed as you were fully seated on his cock at last.

“Nothin’ else would feel as good as you,” Sett groaned as he began to help you move and up and then back down onto him. “Never wanted any girl as bad as I want you.”

You were much less coherent, moaning out his name as your hands grasped against his chest. With a further burst of confidence, you reached a hand up to his ear, running your fingers along the fur and enjoying the resulting groan, the next upward thrust of his hips hitting even better into you. Maybe you would leave this out at Taliyah’s interrogation later.

“There,” you moaned as he shifted you in his lap, his cock hitting even deeper inside you. “Right there, Sett.”

“You’re so tight,” he groaned, pulling you down into a rough kiss as he held you close, thrusting up into you as you eagerly moved along with him, needing to make this gorgeous man under you cum.

Sett came first, stilling for a moment before pulling you slightly back to put a finger to your clit, letting you cling to him as you followed him over the edge.

Once you had both come back down from the clouds, you were set back gently on the bed so Sett could run off to grab a cloth to clean you up with. You watched him leave the room, still having a hard time comprehending just how you had ended up this situation.

You definitely had some phone calls to make tomorrow. Your parents would be surprised, but you would probably focus on the Taliyah part rather than the new boyfriend part of your reasoning. Taliyah would be overjoyed for sure; you’d have to thank her for her meddling when you saw her.

As Sett returned, you realized something.

“Wait, is your mom home?” you asked in horror. You hadn’t made any effort to be quiet during sex, forgetting about his mother until he re-entered the room.

Sett laughed at your mortified face. “I don’t live with ma, so no.”

“Oh god,” you breathed in relief. “I was worried I was too…”

“She ain’t here,” he replied as he joined you on the bed, handing you the cloth he had grabbed. “You can be as loud as you want.”

You dropped the cloth, burying your head in your hands, Sett’s amused laughter ringing in your ears as you tried to content with just what you had signed yourself up for.

[tojiaesth]

boyfriend

gojo satoru x f!reader

summary: you and gojo had some sort of unspoken agreement in which you refused to adhere to labels and instead chose to have fun. except neither of you would ever admit the hold you had on each other.

warning: heavy smut, 18 +, minors dni, fingering, oral (fem receiving), rough handling of reader, marking, dom!gojo, sub!reader, choking/breath play, overstim, raw sex, tummy bulge, ?slight breeding kink, jealousy and possessiveness, mentions of drugs and alcohol.

tags: college au, fratboy!gojo, friends with benefits, unlabelled relationships, bisexual!gojo, bisexual!reader, fluff at the end <3

A/N: inspired by ariana herself <3 so i recommend at least listening to the song before you read, if you’re like me and can’t read and listen :p

It was loud. That was the first thing you picked up on before you even entered the sweaty house. Your friends begged you to come, as if there weren’t parties every week and missing one would change the world. You struggled to find a parking space, choosing to walk the rest of the way. The deafening thump of bass could be heard a few blocks down and you wondered how there was never any noise complaints.

Satoru probably threw money at them.

You smiled, it was such a him thing to do. The cold air nipped at your dress, having left your coat in your car. You had chosen to wear an emerald green satin body con dress that stopped mid thigh. It accompanied a criss cross pattern that exposed your back. You first saw it online and had fallen in love, it partly being the reason why you had said yes. You wanted him to see you in the dress, already craving the dark look in his eyes when he was turned on.

Gojo Satoru, college senior, with his charismatic personality had a very big presence at the college. Almost never alone and surrounded by a group of admirers, both men and women fell at his feet. If someone had told you back in your first year that you’d be sleeping with this man on the regular you’d think they were crazy. He honestly, despite being very handsome, was not your kind of man. Too pretty, very cocky and had serious commitment issues, bedding half the campus. But it had started at the beginning of the year, your friendship groups overlapping as you had grown close with Suguru Getou and Shoko Ieiri having been studying the same subject. You found yourself around him a lot, eventually going out with just each other and things quickly progressed.

Soon enough he was between your thighs, lapping at your cunt with fervour and sucking gently on your clit, two slender fingers hitting that spot. He did that a lot, seeming to relish in the way you fell apart on his tongue, your slippery walls pulsating as you softly said his name like a prayer. He’d nonchalantly get up, sometimes not even asking for anything in return and it surprised you. You pegged him as more of a receiver than a giver but it suited you fine.

You became pretty popular on campus as you hung out with them, attending parties and making life long friendships. You usually weren’t someone who slept around, but that quickly changed. So did your care for a steady relationship. You were 21, life was short, you had a great body and a pretty face, opting to have fun.

You found yourself caught in Gojo’s trap, legs wound around his waist on a weekly basis, his hard cock driving into you with such force you thought you’d break. Your legs clenched just thinking about it, a thin layer of slickness coating your panties.

Your thoughts were brought back to reality when you entered the frat house, NalinA by Block B was being blasted at full volume through the house and you already felt a course of excitement run through your veins. You couldn’t wait to let loose and find your friends. The house, just short of a mansion, had been decorated with l.e.d lights, a soft red and blue glow painting your skin. There was alcohol everywhere, sweaty bodies and the strong smell of weed.

“Y/N! Over here.” You looked over to see the majority of your friends on a sofa, catching sight of Satoru with a girl on his lap. His hand was caressing her ass, as she pouted saying something to him. She was pretty, and you tried your best not to care. Their faces were sweaty, with cups in their hands, indicating they had stopped dancing. You walked in their direction, plopping yourself next to the person behind the voice.

“Hey Mei-Mei. You look hot.” You said casually and she automatically pulled you to sit on her knee. You smiled and took her cup, whatever bitter liquid sliding down your throat. You and Mei were another short lived fling, sleeping together a handful of times and besides Satoru, no one else could compare to that sinful mouth of hers. A queen at teasing, she brought her hand to your waist and lightly began tracing shapes with her fingers.

“You look hot, that dress is making me want to do things to you.”

You chuckled as you stared at each other, tensions running high as the song changed to one you were familiar with. You wanted to dance.

“God, please make out.”

You ignored the annoying comment from Sukuna who was sat diagonally from you, blatantly checking you out. You told him to shut up, your mouth twitching as he looked completely unfazed. Looking away, you ran your fingers through Mei’s soft hair,

“Come, let’s dance.” You whispered, breath hot on her ear as she shivered. You loved how easily you could fluster Mei, knowing the more you worked her up the more she’d punish you for it later.

You both got up and your arms were grabbed by Shoko,

“We’re coming, we’d rather not watch Sukuna hunt for a girl like an animal or Gojo practically fuck in front of us.” She said, shuddering and dragging a very amused Getou. Your eyes flickered to Satoru, finding that he was already watching you. The girl was now straddling him and the buttons on his shirt looked undone, his hands rubbing circles on her thighs. He refused to break eye contact with you, kissing her neck as she moaned, smirking as you looked away, grasping Mei’s hand.

You don’t know what he was trying to do, but it pissed you off. It annoyed you more that he’d groan in your ear some nights, grabbing your neck and claiming you were his and his only. Not wanting you to touch or look at anyone else. The next morning? Business as usual as he was all over some girl. You deducted that him saying those things to you were just in the heat of the moment, recalling how your clit would throb as he would rub slow circles, staking his claim. You liked how possessive he could get, the rough sex, and how occasionally he’d surprise you with a gift. All without having to actually be in a relationship.

You didn’t care about labels and neither did he. So why? Why did his eyes say, he wanted you to get jealous? You sighed, these mind games and mixed signals were your least favourite part of Satoru.

The beginning of an all too familiar riff began to thump through the walls and you all squealed in delight. As ‘Do I Wanna Know’ began you swayed your hips and lip synced, literally letting your hair down as Mei came up behind you. Shoko began recording you without your knowledge, watching as your head fell onto Mei’s shoulder, her hands ghosting around the space between your breasts, purposefully ignoring how your nipples hardened as she whispered something lewd into your ear.

“She’s gonna kill you if you post that.” Suguru watched as Shoko posted the video to her story, her eyes shining with amusement as almost instantly people replied asking who you were.

Satoru on the other hand could not take his eyes off of you. He studied you as you wrapped your arms around Mei and he was exasperated. She was addictive, he thought, those pouty and full lips had a hold on him, his dick twitched thinking about them wrapped around him. Her body was something else, those breasts of hers heaving against her dress. Shit. He almost got hard. The girl currently giving him a hickey was just not doing it for him. In fact no girl or guy was, he had tried countless times only his encounters with Y/N fulfilling his desires. In spite of that, he would not tell her this, not wanting to ruin the game of cat and mouse they had going.

“Satoru, let’s go somewhere.” The girl whined, hips grinding against his crotch. He suddenly got up and pushed her off of him,

“Nah, not in the mood. I’m sure Sukuna would be interested. He has a habit of going after my sloppy seconds.” Gojo snapped, sick of the way he was gazing at you, eyes darkened with lust.

He ignored the girls cuss words directed at him as she stormed off and Sukuna snickered, looking up from his phone.

“She’s fuckable but I have my eye on something else tonight.” He thrust his phone in Satoru’s face, only to be met with Shoko’s story, full of Y/N dancing suggestively.

He willed himself not to show anger and hummed,

“Like you could pull her.” His voice dripping with fake amusement as Sukuna tensed in irritation.

Satoru walked in the direction of his friends, still dancing crazily and singing very out of tune to ‘Kiss me more’, you were now dancing with Suguru and laughing loudly as he tried to attempt some sort of dance move so terribly, Satoru could not decipher what it was supposed to be. Your lips were glossy, eyes twinkling as he picked you up and twirled you around, ribs hurting from laughing so much. You never laughed that much with him.

Satoru pursed his lips, he was just so irritated. Suguru put you down when the song finished and you fixed his hair that your arm had messed up,

“Your hairs gone so long now, I love it.” You said cheerily, fingers twirling on a stray strand as Suguru bent down slightly so he could hear you over the music.

“It suits you.” You stated softly, unable to look away from his intuitive eyes. The lights were casting a glow across his face, bringing his jaw to attention as you traced it slowly. He was a different kind of handsome you thought, more your type than Satoru was and you thought about how his eyes were a warm brown, compared to Satoru’s cerulean ones. You scolded yourself internally for still finding ways to think about Satoru, you just couldn’t shake him.

Suguru smirked and focused on the feeling of your hands, now running through his hair and eventually resting on the back of his neck. You smelt so good, he thought, he wanted to kiss you. He leaned down and you realised his intentions, your hands paused on his biceps that were coated in tattoos. As you closed your eyes, thoughts wild and slightly clouded by the shots you did with Shoko, you braced yourself to kiss the god-like man that was Getou Suguru, pulse racing.

“Y/N!” Your head automatically snapped at your name being called, sheepishly looking at Suguru whose eyes were now filled with something you couldn’t quite figure out. Satoru was in front of you both, promptly grabbing your hand and dragging you away. Eyes bewildered you looked back at Suguru who looked entertained at the whole situation. You found yourself at the focus of everyone’s stares, all curious as to why Gojo had a dark look in his eyes.

“Satoru, what the fuck? Let go-“ His large hands were gripping your smaller ones hard, uncomfortably squishing your fingers together. He said nothing, back to you as he hauled you up the stairs and into his room. His door slammed as you stumbled into the dimly lit room, turning around in utter confusion at Gojo’s behaviour.

“Fuck, what is your problem?” You were enraged at how he just did what he pleased with you and how you just let him. You massaged your wrist, now slightly red at Satoru’s force.

“Why the fuck would you try and kiss him? Seriously, Suguru? You’re such a fucking whore.” Gojo clenched his jaw, finding himself even angrier at the thought of you underneath Suguru, moaning, sweat dripping off your backs.

You were baffled. A whore?

“Firstly, you’re literally the definition of a whore and secondly, why the fuck do you care?!” You stepped closer to him, cheeks flushed in anger at Satoru’s audacity,

“You have no fucking right to care about who I fuck. Got it? You’re not my boyfriend.”

Satoru moved closer to you, your nose in line with his chest as the man’s eyes changed suddenly. For once, he had no comeback or witty remark, you were right but he’d had enough. Just the thought of his best friend between your legs snapped him into action and he had to come to terms with his feelings. His fingers lifted your chin, your eyes willing itself not to melt at his touch, goosebumps already littering your arm. He silently moved to your lips, thumb pressing against your mouth, encouraging you to open.

You were so unbelievably confused, this man blew hot and cold. One minute so angry he couldn’t speak and then next initiating a kiss.

“Satoru-“

His lips were against yours before you had time to think, furiously pressing against them and swiping his tongue across. You relaxed into his touch and opened your mouth. His tongue found yours in an instant and lightly sucked it, your breathless moans pleasuring his senses as his hands pulled your body closer to him. He explored your body, cupping your ass while you simultaneously wrapped your arms around his neck, fingers drowning in his soft white locks. Eventually he pulled away, cupping your face gently like you were a porcelain doll,

“I don’t want you to see anyone else or kiss them like that. I’m not playing any more games. You’re mine.” He stated firmly, blue eyes framed by his ash coloured lashes, gazing into your soul.

You couldn’t bring yourself to tease him. Gojo...was serious. All those extra knowing glances you’d give each other, the fiery arguments, the passionate sex, the pang of jealousy at his lips on another girls neck and the way his eyes would linger a little too long when you spoke to a guy, you realised the both of you were stupid. Too busy trying to convince yourselves you didn’t care you both buried your thoughts away, afraid to articulate them in case you were rejected.

You found yourself repeating after him, his eyes almost hypnotising you as you stuttered,

“I-i’m yours.”

Satoru lightly kissed you on the lips and motioned you to jump up, supporting your legs as you wrapped them securely around his waist. He gingerly placed you on his bed, hovering over you as his hands slowly rid up your leg, ghosting around your inner thigh and you suppressed a moan. His touch was magnetic, something as simple as stroking your thigh with Satoru becomes so much more, a tingly sensation jolting through you when his hands brushed between your clothed folds. Meanwhile he began kissing his way down, starting with your neck and sucking furiously at the spot above your collarbone. You mewled against him as he licked the now marked spot, your hips desperately finding his to grind against.

“Patience, baby. I’m taking my time with you.”

You whined at his remark, you just needed him inside you, now.

“Such a whiny brat.” His voice slipped through your ears like silk as he slowly slipped the straps of your dress down your shoulders, the new stimuli adding to the experience. You were never more glad to have not worn a bra. He focused on your exposed breasts, nipples hard and swollen and he groaned at the sight.

A warm sensation reached your nipples and you cried out in pleasure, looking down at Satoru lapping up your soft mounds. His seductive gaze ripped through you as he began to trace slow circles with his tongue. His fingers kept your other breast occupied, rolling around your left nipple with his fingers, constantly switching sides and worshipping them.

His attention switched to your lower stomach, kissing your skin with affection as you anticipated his lips between your thighs. You could feel the damp spot slowly spreading on your panties and the swell of your clit, begging to be touched.

“Fuck, Satoru you tease.” You breathed out in gaspy moans, he had completely removed your dress by now and was blowing warm breaths against your knickers. Satoru brought a single digit to rub against the wet spot, moaning as he felt the tent in his pants. He loved teasing you but it required self control, wanting nothing more than to release his large cock from its restraints and into your warm hole, throbbing at the thought.

He finally pulled your panties to the side at your delight and your whimpers filled the room as his fingers brushed against your soaked clit. He played around with your pussy, stroking up and down and noting the creamy juices that were flowing out your hole. The sight of his fingers coated in your juices and he almost came right there. The lewd squelching of your cunt was slightly covered up by your cries of pleasure as he entered two slender fingers inside you, stimulating your sensitive walls. He reached down and took your clit into his mouth, humming at the taste.

“F-fuck, right there Toru” You moaned, attempting to wriggle but Satoru quickly used his arms to clamp your thighs into place, his sensual mouth causing white dots to appear in your vision. Your stomach fluttered at the slow, familiar build up of your climax, not even embarrassed that he had only been eating you out for five minutes. You were just so sensitive today and paired with Satoru laying claim to you, your body was responding to each and every one of his touches.

“Ah, k-keep going baby, fuck. You’re so good at it.” The praises fell from your lips as the deep pleasure in your stomach changed, indicating you were near.

Satoru was persistent, his insatiable need to feel your cunt quiver against his tongue caused him to add one more digit, scissoring his fingers against your gummy walls. He could feel you frantically clenching, chuckling at his inability to move as fast as his fingers were in a death trap. He kept his eyes on you, watching as your hand came up to your mouth to stifle your sobs, eyes rolling to the back of your head.

“I’m close.” You whispered and you made a mistake of looking down at Satoru, his tongue was pressing down against your sensitive nub, saliva dripping onto his bed. His fingers went even faster, determined to make you cum.

“Shit, shit, shit. I’m gonna-”

“Cum for me princess.”

That was all you needed. You legs squeezed frantically against his head, the euphoric sensations causing your back to refuse to rest against the bed. Satoru paid no mind to your repetitive whimpers as you began to come down from your high, his lips still stubbornly attached to your clit. It was too much, the previously pleasurable feel was now borderline painful, his sticky fingers removing themselves from your cunt.

You legs jolted occasionally each time he purposely grazed the bundle of nerves, continuing his efforts by using his tongue to tease around the now sensitive area, chuckling when your hips wriggled.

“Delicious.” His velvety tongue swiped his lips and he brought his fingers into your mouth. The tangy but familiar taste of your undoings were accompanied by his soft fingers, swirling around your tongue until your saliva created a mess.

“Shit, you’re so hot.” He groaned, the twitching of his cock was unrelenting. You pressed your legs together, the achy feeling of need returning. Reaching to kiss him, your hands started to undo his belt buckle,

“I want you.” You whispered, unable to look away from his eyes.

His lecherous eyes stared back at you, his fingers curling around your back as he brought you closer, now hovering above you.

“I want you too.”

In one swift movement, his cock was freed and he entered you, the new feeling causing you to cry out as he slowly bottomed out.

“Shit, you’re clenching like crazy baby.”

You couldn’t even reply, his thick shaft splitting you open, Satoru stared down at how you sucked him in, a creamy ring of your juices at the base of his cock. You felt him harden even more, he hadn’t wasted any time by helping you adjust. He started a rough pace, watching your perky tits bounce as he reached down and placed a nipple into his mouth. You were truly addicting, he thought, your whimpers becoming louder with the sticky sound of your cunt. Your pussy seemed to fit him like a glove, Satoru’s eyes wandered towards your soft tummy, at the faint bulge of his devouring and his eyes widened, using a hand to press against it and his ears welcomed your high pitched gasps.

“What’s the matter baby girl?” He cooed, chuckling at your stifled sobs and flushed cheeks.

“‘is too much...” You managed, barely able to communicate as he fucked you dumb.

You were so sexy, he thought.

You scooted away, his rough movements almost resulting in your head banging against the headboard but without missing a beat Satoru pulled you back, cock sinking into you with a new sensation.

“That’s not how this works, sweetheart. You’re gonna lie there and take it.”

His hands ghosted at your waist, using the soft tissue as a grip as he forcefully used your body, eyes unable to look away at how you took his thick, veiny member. Your pussy twitched as he licked a stripe at the side of your neck,

“Oh...you like that?” He muttered, sucking on your weak spot, he groaned when you tightened against him, knowing the tip of his cock was red and angry, your walls were too much.

You blink, eyes glossy and lips swollen from his kisses, Satoru’s marks were littered across your body, evidence of his ravishing as he continued his strong pace, cock driving into you with hunger. Your moans changed pitch,

“t’s...too much...can’t...too big.” You babbled, a new, insurmountable pleasure was ripping into your stomach.

“It’s too big?,”

Satoru wrapped his slender fingers around your neck, pressing down lightly as he smirked,

“I know.”

Your breath was slowly snatched from you as he gripped your neck harder, it somehow heightening the feeling of him around your cunt. His groans were turning you on, you always loved how vocal Satoru was.

Satoru paid attention to you, removing his hands and watching as you gasped for breaths. He grinned at how crazy your pussy went whenever he did that, he had really met his match. His cock twitched, indicating his nearing climax and you creamed shamelessly around him when his thumb lightly brushed your rosy clit. Your legs had gone to jelly at this point, but you securely clamped them around Satoru’s waist, bringing him even closer as your eyes closed in pleasurable agony.

“You gonna be a good girl and cum on my cock?” The way you cried and babbled nonsense, mouth messy with saliva as you drooled around his fingers, Satoru pressed at the pad of your tongue, cerulean eyes gleaming at where you connected. As he sinked into you again and again, the intemperate need to feel you squirt around him, he took your soft mounds into his mouth once more and before he knew it, you let out a long, drawn out moan as you found your release.

The white hot pleasure against your stomach snapped and as you orgasmed for the second time, a new warm sensation splashed against Satoru’s cock. Your juices dripped onto the bed, your pussy quivering and legs shaking as you rode it out.

“Fuck.” His azure eyes twinkled with amazement and you didn’t think he could possibly get any harder, as his member remained snug against your cunt.

Satisfied at your mess and how your slimy walls squeezed so torturously against him, Satoru’s own release was not far behind. With one last sound of pleasure, another warm feeling filled your pussy, spurts of the familiar white liquid spilling out of you as he slowed down his thrusts, emptying his balls into you with his repeated moans.

He pulled out, watching the results of his orgasm dribble onto his sheets. Using his fingers, he pushed the remaining liquid deep into you as a low moan escaped your lips. He brought his coated fingers to your mouth, and you licked them clean, humming against him.

As he hovered over you, his captivating eyes caught in the moonlight peaking through the curtains, illuminating his spacious room. He was so beautiful, you thought, mind now unclouded as your high disappeared. Instead, a lighter but warm feeling fluttered through you as Satoru bent down to give you butterfly kisses across your stomach.

“You’re gorgeous.” He whispered and he felt you smile against the top of his head, white tendrils tickling your nose as he placed himself on your tummy, careful not to crush you.

A comfortable silence lingered in the air, for the first time neither of you needed to fill it in with pointless words. You stroked his hair, content that he was still here and showing you affection even after sex, a concept new to the both of you.

After some time, with the both of you deep in thought about each other, Satoru’s head lifted and he made eye contact with you.

“I meant what I said earlier. I know this is new to the both of us so we can take it slow and I’ll probably fuck things up a few times but...I really do care about you, Y/N.”

Your eyes softened, as he glanced nervously at you. You had never seen him so vulnerable before and somehow it made you like him even more.

You extended your arm, your fingers tapping against his cheek,

“I care about you a lot too, Satoru. More than I’d like to admit.” You looked away, confused at how quickly the atmosphere changed from the desperate grappling of hands against skin to soft eyes and shy kisses. You were shy around him. You really did care about him but you also weren’t the best at articulating your thoughts, Satoru was always one upping you with his smooth talking.

His smile softened before his eyes changed, amusement dancing across his face.

“Well why wouldn’t you like me? I’m amazing.”

You rolled your eyes and pushed him away, his hands grabbing you and placing warm kisses around your neck. You melted into his touch, only now realising he hadn’t even properly undressed, unlike you who was completely bare.

He paused as you wriggled uncomfortably in the messy and slightly damp sheets, the both of you a tangle of limbs.

“Is this a bad time to ask if you’re on the pill?”

You stared at him.

“You are such an idiot.”