#apologies if the coding breaks i had it set up so i could post on mobile but had to edit :v

[python333]

I love your writings sm. And I love the way you write platonic stuff with task force 141 😋

You can ignore this if ya want but I just can't get over reader angst. Honestly atp I starve for angst. Could you feed us another angst fic? Like platonic 141 with a reader where she maybe got pretty badly injured while being on a mission? :3

AND. don't forget to stay hydrated and eat well!! Take any breaks you need 😌.

(sorry if this doesn't make sense English is not my native language 🥲)

below zero — python333

— — — —

synopsis u get thrown into a freezer after refusing to give up intel to enemy soldiers, and u get thrown into a freezer, and ghost comes and saves u :3

relationships platonic!ghost & gn!reader.

characters ghost.

word count 5.2k

warnings hypothermia, disorientation, 2nd person pov [you/yours/yourself], usage of c/n [code name/call sign].

note hi anon thank u so much for all the compliments!!! before i say anything else, i wanna point out that i 1) only really wrote ghost into this and 2) literally read the request completely wrong and i think im actually just illiterate because how did i mess up this bad. ALSO hi its been a month since i posted on here i swear i'm still alive i'm just super busy with school!! updates are going to be extremely slow, so i apologize in advance. still, i hope u enjoy it anyways tho!! its all hurt/comfort + angst/fluff + protective/soft ghost :3

When you were thrown into the freezer, the first thing you noticed were the bodies. 

There’s ten that you can immediately see, and twelve once you look a little bit closer. All of them are suspended from the ceiling, each hanging from their ankle—with said ankle being held up by a meat hook. 

When the door had been closed shut with a loud, booming thump you hadn’t felt any immediate fear. But now, as you’re sitting in the corner of the freezer you’d been trapped in—the corner farthest away from any bodies—that fear is starting to set in.

Before this, only a few minutes ago, you were being interrogated. Your captors were asking for information on the details of any upcoming missions, objectives, target locations, anything that you had about the 141 that you could share with them, they wanted. 

Of course, you didn’t say anything. You remained silent throughout the entire thing, not talking once, even when at the end of the whole thing your interrogator slammed his hand down onto the table you were sat down in front of and yelled at you to say anything. 

When he and his team figured out that you wouldn’t give them any information, you remember he muttered something unintelligible under his breath and swiftly walked over to your end of the table. He had uncuffed your ankles from the legs of the chair you were sitting down on and uncuffed your wrists from the table, and before you could fight back, he grabbed both of your wrists with one hand and dragged you behind him. 

Then, he led you to the freezer you were trapped in now, and threw you in roughly before shutting the door behind you. You had hit and scratched at the door for a good minute after being thrown in, and after you figured that it was a waste of time trying to do so, you sighed and retired to the corner.

Now, as you’re huddled in the corner, you kind of regret not giving them the intel they needed. 

The freezer wasn’t too bad at first—you thought you’d last pretty long in there, and mentally called all the dead bodies hung from meat hooks in there pussies and simply walked around for a bit. The walking helped warm you up a bit, but soon it got tiring, and you retired to the corner farthest away from any dead bodies. 

You think the freezer is below zero degrees—no, has to be below zero, because now, just about five minutes after being thrown in, violent shivers have started to wrack your body and you swear you can’t feel your lips anymore. You haven’t been able to feel any sort of warmth in the past four minutes, all of it disappearing within the first. 

And God, the smell. The smell of frozen, rotting flesh really isn’t something you ever want to smell again. Thankfully, there’s no live flies in the freezer—all of them had died of the severe cold, creating small black circles under each hanging body where they died. 

You currently have your knees up to your chest with your hands trapped in between your thighs to try and keep them warm at least, with your forehead resting on the top of one of your knees. It’s working, kind of. The palms and backs of your hands feel just warm enough to not be considered cold, but the tips of your fingers are so cold they’re beginning to burn. 

You pull them back a bit to trap your fingertips in between your thighs, exposing the area where your wrist and hand meet to the cold, sighing as your fingertips warm up just a bit. Your thighs, thankfully, still have some heat trapped in between them, and you think your stomach is still somewhat warm. 

Around ten minutes later, you feel the heat trapped in your thighs start to dissipate. Fucking fantastic. You sigh and let your head tilt back, the back of it hitting the wall behind you, making you wince at the cold metal directly on your head. The cold seems to crawl through your hair and make it to your scalp, small pinpricks of the cold spreading throughout your scalp and the back of your neck. 

You’re reminded of just how cold it is then, of how this is quite literally a freezer, and of how said freezer has already claimed twelve lives. Or, at least, has housed twelve dead bodies and several unfortunate flies.

Just then, the fear finally starts to set in. 

At first, you weren’t all too worried about being saved—you figured you’d be found soon enough, since your team has a general idea of where you are. But the more you think about it, the more your brain emphasizes the general part of general idea. You start to think about how they don’t know any specifics. 

Sure, they know that you were captured, and that you were being held in some small part of Italy, and the people who captured you—but what did they know beyond that? Did they know your exact location? How long would it take them to figure it out? And how long would it take them to get here? 

Would you even be alive by the time they got here, if they ever did?

You notice your teeth starting to make an annoying chattering noise and you bite down to stop them. The violent shivers that wrack your body don’t help, the intense trembling only succeeding in making you more anxious. You start to become hyper aware of the cold that crawls onto your back from the freezing metal you’re leaning back on, and you quickly push yourself just a foot away from it so that it no longer bothers you. 

Your feet are starting to feel numb, you don’t think you’d be able to stand on them anymore if you tried, for you fear you’d just stumble and fall down. You look around the small freezer. There’s nothing that could help you get out—there’s only the bodies suspended from the ceiling and the dead flies that surround them. 

You’re glad none of the bodies are facing you—you don’t know what you would do if you had to sit in the corner with a bunch of dead bodies staring at you with their vacant, frozen-over eyes. Thinking about the eyes makes your own water, and you blink away the small tears that’ve gathered on your waterline. 

You can’t feel them, but you see the tears that were once in your eyes now clumping together on your eyelashes, making your brows furrow. With them starting to cling to your eyelashes comes blurriness for the top half of whatever you can see. You sigh, a white puff of condensation hanging in the air as evidence of your exhale, and move your hand out from in between your thighs to wipe away the tears from your lashes haphazardly. 

You don’t bother to put your hand back in between your thighs, instead just resting it on top of your knee. Despite it only having been around fifteen minutes since you were thrown into the freezer, you’re starting to feel more fatigued and your breath slows down significantly, as does your heartbeat. 

Another ten minutes of doing nothing but staring at the wall opposite of your own pass by, and disorientation is starting to set in. You feel oddly forgetful—like at times, you forget how you even got into the freezer, and have to wrack your brain to remember that you literally got thrown into it and are now trapped in here until someone rescues you. Assuming they do. Who was it that would even rescue you? 

You think long and hard for a few seconds, and can scrounge up nothing from your confused mind. You let out a frustrated huff and let your head tilt and fall forward so that your forehead is resting atop your knee, another shiver ripping through your frame. It almost feels like it’s getting colder in the fridge. 

Suddenly, you hear a loud banging noise—albeit, it sounded more muffled to your ears, but you could tell it was loud—and guns being fired. 

You can’t really tell when the gunfire dies down, but you can tell when the thumping of someone’s boots grows louder and closer to the door of the freezer. You try to stand up, not really knowing why since you’re in no condition to fight, having been in a freezer for about forty minutes, but you still attempt to. 

You find that standing is extremely difficult after practically being frozen alive for the past forty minutes, because as soon as you try to even push yourself off of the ground with your shaky hands, you discover that you aren’t even strong enough to push yourself up a single inch before having to stop. As well as that, you find that the ground is just as freezing as the walls and air of the freezer, because your hands now ached with frostbite. 

The action causes an unexpected wave of exhaustion to roll over you, and you pant to try and catch your breath, breathing white puffs of condensation out into the air. 

You hear a loud bang against the door, and jump at the sound, your head whipping towards the door. You hear another loud noise, and the confused fog that’s taken over your mind only grows thicker, your disorientation only growing stronger with it. The room feels like it’s spinning, and the feeling reminds you of a word, and you know what the word is, but fuck, why don’t you know it at the same time? Why can’t I remember anything? 

There’s another bang, and you hear muffled cursing before suddenly the door bursts open, a man wearing a skull mask stumbling in after it does so—he probably ran into it to open it, you think, watching the man get his balance back. He looks around for a moment before his eyes land on you, and the moment they do, you finally remember something. 

That’s Ghost. 

Somewhere in your confusion-clouded mind, you’re happy that you’ve finally remembered something. But right now, you can’t really think about anything—your mind is blank, and you can barely even process what you’re seeing. 

You’re so caught up in thinking about the fact that you aren’t really thinking, you’re just focusing a little more on whatever’s going on in your mind and not actually retaining any of it, that you don’t even notice Ghost rushing towards you and kneeling down right next to you. 

He pauses for a moment, but after a second he makes the decision to put one hand behind your back and snake one under your legs, the warm physical touch making you wince. Not that you didn’t like the warmth—you just didn’t like the sudden temperature change beneath your knees and across your back.

“It’s okay, I’ve got you,” Ghost grunts as he picks you up, one arm under your knees and the other behind your back, lifting you up into a sort of bridal carry. He nearly drops you because of how cold your skin is—for a moment he thinks your back and legs are wet, then he realizes that no, they aren’t wet, you’re just really fucking cold. 

He takes a moment to make sure you’re secure in his arms before tilting his head to the side, all the way down to his shoulder, and muttering something into his earpiece. Despite being so close to him, his voice only sounds muffled to you—in all honesty, just about everything is starting to sound more muffled to you. You can only tell he’s done talking because he lifts his head back up and readjusts his arms around you, before walking out the busted-open door. 

The walking quickly turns into running, which then turns into sprinting, making your surroundings go blurry and makes your vertigo worse—it almost feels like you’re falling. You’re grateful you haven’t eaten anything in the past few hours, because you fear that if you had, you would’ve thrown it all up by now. All you can see are blurred colors—the hallways, you vaguely remember, because I’m in a building. How’d I even get here? Why am I here? You’re pulled out of your confused thoughts when you’re set down on the ground somewhere, and forced into a lying position with your limbs all outstretched. When you slowly blink up at what you thought was the ceiling, you’re both surprised and not surprised when you see the blue-black night sky. 

Not sure of what’s going on, you try to get up, but Ghost quickly pushes you back down, muttering something under his breath. He pauses for a moment, his blurred figure stopping any and all movements, before he suddenly picks you back up, making you wince at the way your head spins at the sudden movement. You hear a quiet, muffled—but clearer than before—’sorry’ from Ghost before he’s running again. 

It’s a much shorter distance this time, and instead of immediately setting you down, you hear something click and suddenly you hear another muffled voice. They sound concerned, you mentally note, Or maybe confused. Maybe both, actually. No yeah, definitely both. Well, now just concerned. Or maybe that’s confused. 

Caught up in your confused thoughts, you don’t realize that you’re being set down on a few comfy seats. You aren’t pulled away from your own thoughts until you feel two warm hands cupping either side of your jaw, and hear Ghost’s oddly distressed voice becoming more clear by the second. You now acknowledge the weird ringing in your ears that almost drown out the sound of Ghost, and struggle to figure out what he’s saying through the annoying noise. 

“—something,” You catch the end of Ghost’s sentence, and blink up at him slowly. 

“Huh?” You elegantly ask, coughing and wincing at your hoarse voice, not knowing how it got so hoarse—or why it hurt so much to talk. Your throat almost felt like it was burning, but it also felt oddly numb, a sensation you couldn’t quite put a name on. 

“Oh my god,” Ghost sighs, his forehead falling onto your chest momentarily as he takes a few deep breaths. He brings his head back up from your chest and says, “I almost thought you were dead when I got in there. Jesus, you look dead. I need to— I need to get something, a blanket or— why the fuck don’t we carry any heat packs or anything in here? Swear to God, I’m gonna—” You don’t pay too much attention to Ghost’s panicked ranting and shift your head to the side to try and look at where you are, and you discover that you’re in a car. Oh. Cool. You spot the door on the passenger seat’s side still open and swinging a bit, as if it’d been opened quickly just a few moments earlier for someone to quickly get out. 

Ghost suddenly backs up and gets out of the car, though staying within a foot of it, looking around for a moment before heading to the back of the car. Your head clears up the tiniest bit, just enough for you to be able to assume that he’s heading to the back of the car to get to the trunk for whatever reason, and you simply lie there on the seat cushions. 

A few seconds later, Ghost comes back with a somewhat-fluffy jacket, and carefully gets into the car—half kneeling down so that he doesn’t need to lean on the seats to get to you. He tosses the coat over your chest, and it does absolutely nothing at first, at least not until Ghost gets a bit closer and tucks the coat tighter around you, treating it like a blanket. Then, it starts to warm you up just the tiniest bit. Beyond that, it does absolutely nothing. But props to Ghost for at least trying. 

He quickly backs out of the car and once he’s out he closes the door behind him, and you want to get up for a moment, just to go see what he’s doing, but you don’t have to. He gets into the car again, this time in the driver’s seat, and he turns on the ignition. Once the car rumbles to life, he immediately turns up the heat and leans over to the passenger seat’s side in order to close the door, and with a grunt he manages to do so. 

The newfound heat makes you shiver, and it almost feels like you’re in a microwave defrosting. Distracted by the sudden temperature change, you don’t pay attention to what Ghost is saying into his earpiece as he glances out the front window of the car and back at you. You simply tug the jacket tighter around your torso and relish in the warmth. 

“—ay. So we’ll just leave then, and you’ll be fine?” You pick up from Ghost’s conversation, perking up at the mention of leaving, “Copy that, Captain. I’ll get them back to base.”

‘Captain’—Oh, he’s talking to Price—says something that makes Ghost sigh exasperatedly and take his index finger off of his earpiece, instead settling both of his hands on the steering wheel of the car and stealing one last glance at you before setting his eyes on the gravel ahead of him and pushing down on the gas pedal.

— 

When you wake up, you’re significantly warmer than you were… however-long-it’s-been-ago. 

You look to your left and see nothing but a white wall and a heart rate monitor—which displays that your heart rate is 115—then to your right, where you see Ghost sitting in a plastic chair close to the bed you’re laying in, eyes closed with his head tilted to the side and resting on his own shoulder.

You don’t bother trying to wake him up, not knowing how long he’s been asleep or how much sleep he’s gotten, and instead simply turn your head back to stare up at the ceiling. 

After maybe five minutes of zoning out and staring up at the ceiling, you hear clothes rustling and look back over to your right, seeing Ghost start to stir in his sleep. Just a few seconds later, he stirs awake, slowly blinking his eyes open. 

You watch silently as he blinks the sleep out of his eyes, and he breathes in sharply through his nose before looking over at you and seeing you staring at him wordlessly. You both blink at each other for a long, awkward moment before he speaks. 

“… Did you, uh… how was your… rest?” Ghost asks, not sure what to say. What exactly do you say, after saving one of your teammates from potential death?

“Good,” You respond, your throat having an odd, small burning sensation when you talk. 

Ghost looks like he’s holding back a few words for a moment after you speak, and after one expectant look from you, he mumbles, “You should really say ‘well’ or ‘fine’ instead. It’d be more grammatically accurate and is more grammatically aligned with the verb ‘rest’.” 

“… Okay?” You blink, thrown off by the unexpected information, “I’ll, uh… keep that in mind, next time someone asks me how my rest was.” 

“You get asked that often?” 

“I only get asked that by you.” 

“Ah.” Ghost nods, looking off to the side for a moment. You’d think he was your dad and you’d just asked him how babies were made with how awkward he was, and you honestly expected the next words out of his mouth to be ‘when a man and a woman love each other very much’ before he hesitantly asks, “D’you feel better? After the whole being-trapped-in-a-freezer… experience?” 

“Experience?” You question, a light laugh evident in your voice, “Yeah, I feel better. I like being warm more than, y’know, being frozen alive. Laying down in a warm bed is nice.”

“I didn’t know how else to phrase it,” Ghost huffs out, leaning back in his seat. 

“So you’re gonna correct me on my grammar but you can’t think of a better word than ‘experience’?” 

“Don’t get smart with me, [c/n].” 

“I’m just saying,” You shrug lightly, wincing a little when your shoulders ache as you do. Ghost notices this and his eyes narrow, but he doesn’t mention it. 

“Then stop trying to sass me.” 

“Sass you? Jesus, fuck, don’t talk to me like I’m some preteen who just found out that they can talk back to their parents.” 

“Isn’t that what you are, though?” 

“No, I’m— you know what? Fuck you. Get out. I hate you. You suck.” 

“That’s a colorful choice of words to say to the man who saved your life,” Ghost raises an eyebrow at you, “I’m still waiting for my ‘thank you’, by the way.” 

“Don’t care, you’re never getting it,” You say stubbornly, making Ghost sigh and stand up. You look up at him as he stands up and try to sit up in your bed, but wince again when you try to move your arms. Still, you attempt to push yourself up, and only relax your weak joints and lay back down when Ghost presses a gentle hand to your shoulder to get you to stop trying to sit up. 

“Don’t,” He warns softly—you didn’t know his voice could get that soft—as he pushes you back down, “Medics said you’re to keep laying down for a bit while you warm up. We’ve gotta wait until your BPM is below a hundred before letting you up.” 

“That’s stupid,” You huff out, though not fighting Ghost pushing you back down. 

“It’s not stupid,” Ghost lightly chastises you, “It’s doctor’s orders. Once your BPM is below a hundred, we’ll know you’re warmed up enough to start gettin’ up and walking around.” 

“… Still stupid,” You grumble, not commenting on the way Ghost’s hand lingers on your shoulder even after you’ve already laid back down. Ghost sighs and kneels down so that his shoulders are level with the railing of your bed. 

“You’re too stubborn.” 

“I’m not.” 

“Yes you are.” 

“No I’m not!” Your light arguing only proves Ghost’s point further, and he knows this, the knowledge of it making him snicker quietly. 

“Uh huh. Sure, kid,” He begins to retract his hand from your shoulder, but upon seeing the disappointment that immediately seeps into your expression once he even barely begins to lift his hand from your shoulder, he immediately lets it rest right back onto your shoulder. 

You both sit in silence for another few moments before Ghost speaks up again, this time a bit quieter and in that same soft tone he’d used earlier, “I tried to get to you quicker. But we needed some time to get your exact location, and when we found it we were a hundred and sixty klicks away, and it was just—it took us… some time to find you.” 

“It’s fine. I understand,” You respond, about to shrug but stopping yourself, not wanting to feel that aching in your shoulders again, “I don’t even know how I let myself get captured, that— that’s probably on me.” 

“You didn’t let yourself get captured, you just did.” 

“Well…”

“Well, what?” 

“I don’t know, I just—” You take a deep breath before continuing slowly, “I didn’t let myself get captured, but I also didn’t do enough to fight against it, so I feel like technically—” 

“Fuck the technicalities about how you got captured, you got captured either way, and you got thrown into a freezer,” Ghost cuts you off, talking quickly, before sighing and continuing in a softer voice once again, “Please, just let me try to be somewhat comforting for once. You know I’m bad at this, and that I never do this. So just… don’t talk about what happened like that, if not for your own mental health’s sake, at least for my attempts at making you feel better.” 

You open your mouth to say something else but ultimately close your mouth and let out a deep sigh through your nose, not saying anything, letting Ghost continue to talk. 

“I, for whatever reason, feel… very oddly bad for you,” Ghost poorly explains, before pausing to think for a moment then rephrasing, “Not… not as in I pity you, but as in I feel bad for you in a way that I feel like I’m at fault for what you went through even though I know I’m not at fault. It’s like empathy but… worse. Not saying empathy is bad to begin with, but this is like if empathy was bad and it became worse and—” 

Ghost cuts himself off with silence and lets out a frustrated huff at his inability to put his feelings into words, and tries again, “I feel bad for you in a way that I don’t know what exactly you felt or how you felt in the moment that you were in that freezer but just the idea of you being in there without me for… I’m assuming an entire hour, if not longer, makes me feel like I failed. I don’t know what I failed at—”

Ghost quickly pauses before sighing and continuing, “Actually, no, I do. I feel like I failed at protecting you. Which is strange, because that’s technically not my job, but I felt—and still feel—obligated to protect you especially and that bothers me. Not bothers me in a sense that I don’t like you or the thought of… protecting you, but bothers me in the sense that I’m not supposed to feel like that. No amount of teasing, or borderline bullying, or anything should’ve ever made me feel obligated to think of you like— like— like…” Ghost trails off, leaving you wondering what he meant to say. He stays silent for a few moments, before you try to fill in for him. 

“Like… what, a kid?” You offer, watching him shake his head negatively. You think for another moment, before trying again, “… Like your kid?” 

Ghost nods affirmatively, hesitantly, and you want to scoff at the hesitation. 

“And what, that’s bad to you?” You ask, your words more venomous than you intended. Ghost sighs and nonverbally shakes his head negatively before responding to you.

“Not bad in the way you’re thinking,” He answers, before elaborating upon seeing your confused expression, “It’s bad not because you’re bad, it’s bad because I’m bad.” 

“… No you’re not?” 

“Yes, I am.” 

“No, you’re really not,” You insist stubbornly. 

“Please don’t be stubborn with me on this,” His tone makes it sound like he’s almost begging you, which is… somehow beyond terrifying to think about.  

“I’m not being stubborn, I’m being honest, you’re really not.” 

“But I am,” He sounds like he’s trying to make his tone sound like there’s no room for any further arguments, but he fails, and you continue to argue with him. 

“No you’re not!” The whole conversation feels like a parallel to the one you’d both been having just a few minutes earlier, except this time you’re not giving up as easily, “How are you bad?” 

“I’m—” Ghost pauses for a moment, not having expected that argument, and he weakly argues, “I just am!” 

“You’re not, and you fucking know it!” 

“Okay, well—” Ghost sighs and looks away from you, “You might not think so. That’s fine. But I know I am. If not for anything else, for you. I’d be… terrible as any sort of… I don’t know, role model to you.” 

“Jokes on you, you’re already a role model to me.” 

“I’m being serious.” 

“So am I,” You raise an eyebrow at him, “You aren’t a terrible role model. A little emo, sure, but not terrible.” 

“I’m emotionally and mentally unstable, and am terrible with empathy. I’m blunt, abrasive more than half the time, and I tell the shittiest jokes known to man. I can’t— I don’t show my face to anyone. I expect everyone to act the way I want them to. I’m almost always busy.” 

“At least you’re self-aware,” You brush off, “And, for the record, I don’t know what abrasive means and I can’t tell empathy from sympathy without using Google.” 

Ghost looks back at you in disbelief and stares for a moment before saying quietly, “Abrasive means harsh. And empathy is showing understanding for others while sympathy is pity.” 

“I also like your shitty jokes,” You add on, “I think they’re great. They make everyone else mad so I like them. And some of them are funny.” 

“You find them funny?” 

“Yeah?” 

“That’s…” Ghost blinks at you, eyes a little watery, before huffing out a small laugh, “That’s ridiculous, none of them are funny. I call them shitty for a reason.” 

“Some of them are pretty funny.” 

“Oh yeah? Like what?” 

“The Mayflower one.” 

“… That one?” Ghost asks, tone humorous but still disbelieving, “Out of all the ones I’ve told, that one?” 

“Yes, that one,” You insist, before pausing and holding back a smile while tacking on, “Unless you wanna tell it again to try and change my mind?” 

Ghost thinks for a moment before telling the joke, “If April showers bring May flowers, what do Mayflowers bring?” 

You feign cluelessness for a moment, “What do they bring?” 

“Pilgrims.” The bluntness of the delivery makes you quietly snicker, much to Ghost’s surprise, the laugh not forced or anything. 

“It’s still good,” You sigh, small giggles still escaping your lips. 

“It’s really not,” Ghost sighs, finally retracting his hand from your shoulder to settle it on the railing of your bed and use it to help himself stand up. Once he fully stands up, he looks down at you, and one look at your face makes him want to whisk you out of bed and at least hug you, but he knows he can’t with your sore muscles and still-somewhat frozen skin. 

Instead, he opts for grabbing one of your hands gently and giving it a very emotionally charged squeeze, and holding it for another few moments before letting go. 

“I’m not forgetting that, by the way,” At Ghost’s confused eyes, you tack on, “You confirming earlier that you think of me as your kid.” 

“That—” Ghost stammers for a moment before saying, “That was barely a confirmation, that was just— that was nothing.” 

“Oh really?” 

“Yes. Yeah. Yep.” 

“So if I told you that you saying that that was nothing is making me a little bit upset…” 

“… Then I would say, out of pity, that I did mean it and that it was a confirmation.” 

“Good to know,” You nod. 

“But that’s only a hypothetical.” 

“Right, yeah, of course.” 

You both stay silent for another moment, the silence now a little less awkward, before Ghost says, “I’m gonna, uh… head out, now.” 

“Alright,” You hum simply, watching as Ghost nods to you as a sort of ‘bye’ before heading towards the curtains in front of your bed. 

Before he can exit, you quickly and quietly say, “Thank you, for saving me.” 

He pauses, a little confused on why you chose now to thank him—and why you thanked him at all—until he quickly recalls earlier in the conversation when he’d mentioned expecting some words of gratitude. 

He smiles behind his mask, the smile evident in his voice as he replies to you, “No problem.”

[scoonsalicious]

Unwanted: Chapter 2, Unspeakable - Pt. 4

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x Avenger!Fem!Reader

Summary: When your FWB relationship with your best friend Bucky Barnes turns into something more, you couldn’t be happier. That is, however, until a new Avenger sets her sights on your super soldier and he inadvertently breaks your heart. You take on a mission you might not be prepared for to put some distance between the two of you and open yourself up to past traumas. Too bad the only one who can help you heal is the one person you can no longer trust.

Warnings: (For this part only; see Story Masterlist for general Warnings) Language, Steve Rogers (he is not my favorite, okay?), Emotional discussions, Explosions!

Word Count: 868

Previously On...: You celebrated Bucky's new arm by watching the Hobbit movie. When you mentioned that one of your friends would let him do "unspeakable things" to their body, he immediately thought of Natasha. Why did that make you feel icky inside?

A/N: I'm posting this from a coffee shop, which makes me feel very much like a "legit" writer, when, in reality, I'm just waiting for my dog to get out of the groomer, and the coffee shop is a Dunkin' lol.

Banner By: The absolutely amazing @mrsbuckybarnes1917

Taglist: (Please let me know if you’d like to be added!)  @blackhawkfanatic @les-sel @marcswife21 @buckybarnessimpp

"I've been meaning to thank you," Steve said as he stood over your shoulder. It was about a week after your movie night with Bucky, and you and Steve were working a mission together in Eastern Latvia. He'd already cleared the facility of hostile agents, allowing you the time you needed to infiltrate the site's computer systems and copy all necessary files for extraction back to the US government’s counter-terrorism task force. It was something you'd done a hundred times before, and could probably do with your eyes closed.

"Thank me for what? We've done this dance plenty of times." Your eyes narrowed as you concentrated on the computer code, fingers moving almost too fast for your own eyes to follow. You had nearly done it- the breach was wide open, and the terrorists' files were all laid out before you. The hard part was over, now it was just a matter of copying them over securely.

"Not the mission," he clarified, clearing his throat. "I wanted to thank you for what you've done for Bucky, for being there for him. I... I know you don't like me and things between us haven't been the same since Berlin, but it means a lot to me, knowing that he can call you a friend."

You paused, fingers hovering over the keyboard, and stared blankly at the screen, not able to look at him in the moment. "I never disliked you, Steve," you began, slowly, choosing your words with care, "but you broke us. You had your reasons, I get that, and maybe, to you, they seemed like good ones, but you fractured our family instead of trying to find a way for all of us to work through it, together. The only reason we're even in this room right now is because, by some grace of God, Tony was able to put his ego aside and offer you an olive branch to come home. We might look whole on the outside, but the cracks are still there. And they're always going to be. They'll never fully heal.

"So, it's not that I don't like you anymore. It's that I can't trust you. Not right now. Because I don't know if you're going to break us again." Your voice cracked by the end, but you felt surprisingly lightened, as though a massive weight had been lifted from your shoulders, and you realized just how desperately you had needed Steve to know how his actions had affected, not just you, but the others, as well. None of you had wanted to be forced to take sides in the civil war between Iron Man and Captain America; it had felt like burning down your own house, but in the end they had left you no choice. You'd already had it out with Tony. He'd apologized in the only way a man like him knew how-- with a brand new Ferrari that you were too anxious to drive and an obscene raise to your salary, but you'd never spoken about it with Steve. He'd seemed too content to act as though nothing had changed, like he hadn’t upended your entire existence.

You heard him clear his throat above you and you looked up. He was looking away from you, his face impassive, save for a tic in jaw. You'd known him long enough to see he was working on holding back his emotions.

"That's fair," he said softly. "That's entirely valid, and fair. And for what it's worth, I'm sorry. I was so caught up in trying to bring back my best friend that I didn't realize I was throwing away my family." He stole a glance down at you and caught your gaze; you could see his eyes shining. "I'll do better, Pocket. I'll do better for all of us, and I’ll especially do better for you."

His words didn't heal the wounds on your heart, but they did make them hurt a little less. You flashed him a small smile of gratitude, amazed that just his acknowledgement of the pain he'd caused you could be such a soothing balm to your anger. "Thanks, Cap. I appreciate it." He smiled at your use of the nickname; you hadn't called him anything but Rogers in forever. “And, for what it's worth," you added as the computer began beeping, signaling the transfer of files was complete and your objective had been reached, "I'm grateful you brought Bucky back with you. I can't imagine not having him in my life now." You stood up and pocketed the flash drive that now contained 18 months worth of terrorist plans. "Now, what do you say we blow this fucking Popsicle stand?" You gave him a cheeky grin as you deposited a small detonator on top of the computer server.

Steve returned your smile and offered a flourished "After you" as the two of you made your way out of the facility. Once you had cleared the perimeter, he gave you the all clear, signaling you to set off the detonators. You watched together as the building imploded into a spectacular fireball. Your relationship may not have been fully cured, but it had finally begun the process of healing.

<- Previous Part / Next Part ->

[valentine-writes]

boys don't cry

「 tws + notes: no tws, unedited, masc coded reader (kinda. no pronouns used!! but trust y'all i'll b writing masc reader stuff soon cuz I Need It), inconsistent lengths for each character i am Filled W/ Favouritism, kisses can be platonic (spider-noir part i love this man), reader is used to bottling emotions up, the spot's part is Not That Serious, characters all love u and wanna help :> 」

「 gn!reader, can be platonic or romantic <3 」

↳ ft. gwen stacy, hobie brown/spider-punk, jessica drew, lyla, margo kess/spider-byte, miles morales (1610 and 42), miguel o'hara/spider-man 2099, (spider-man) noir, pavitr prabhakar, peter b parker, and the spot/johnathan ohnn

author's note: this song slaps╰(*°▽°*)╯ also see other songs below which influenced this <3 u can slowly see me losing the slash srsness as the character progress,,, apologies. many :(( anyways!! had this marinating in my drafts so im posting. hopefully will get time to clear my inbox and fulfill reqz! tysm for ur patience lovelies !!!!（。＾▽＾）<333

“i try to laugh about it / hiding the tears in my eyes” – the cure, boys don't cry

“i didn’t want you to hear / that shake in my voice / my pain is my own” – car seat headrest, 1937 state park

“i don’t know why i am / the way i am, not strong enough to be your man” – boygenius, not strong enough

▸ GWEN, who all too familiar with what it's like to keep up a tough act for the sake of not falling apart.

she's grown accustomed to letting emotions eat away at her until they're too big to deal with. which is why she's quick to feel empathy when she sees that you do the same thing.

she won't force you to talk about anything you don't want to– but if you need an outlet, she hands you her drum sticks.

"maybe it'll help you like it helps me." gwen explains, giving you that awkward little smile of hers that makes everything weighing on you feel a little less heavy.

always trying to help you find a way to channel your emotions. even if drumming doesn't work for you. maybe it's singing. maybe it's art. or maybe you just need to cry. no matter what it is, she doesn't mind. she just wants you to let it out in a healthy way.

▸ HOBIE is instantly aware of the fact you're the type to laugh and joke around to hold back tears.

you're trying your hardest to keep smiling, but he sees it falter as you try to speak, choking out the words while holding back a sob.

"'s okay to cry, y'know? no one 'round here but us anyways." he reassures.

you take a sharp inhale, knowing it was useless to pretend. he was always emotionally intelligent, able to read you like a book. sometimes you wondered if he could read your mind. or maybe he was just attentive with you.

he puts a hand on your back, gently rubbing as you feel the tears run down your cheeks. this turns into an arm around your shoulder as you cry, until you're fully sobbing– he decides to just pull your into his arms.

he's still holding you close, even as your cries subside into sniffles. always encourages you to be real with him. there's nothing he loves more than you being unfiltered– even if it means expressing negative emotions. to hobie, vulnerability is bravery.

▸ JESSICA DREW who's quick to notice you the minute you turn away to conceal your face.

she pulls you aside discreetly, knowing you probably didn't want attention of others. tries to meet you eye-level, asks you directly about what's wrong.

after a few seconds of silence, you finally break.

"i feel so weak." you sniffle, not meeting her eyes.

"for doing a little crying?" she sighs a little, shaking her head. "not at all. you're strong– you've been strong. but even strong people gotta cry."

she'll talk you through it or just sit beside you, offering you advice or even just a space to vent. she's very busy all the time– but she'll set aside time for you. tells you that hiding from emotions only works for so long and that tells you that you aren't any less tough in her eyes for feeling them.

you're only human after all. you deserve to live out the wholeness of the human experience.

▸ LYLA isn't really all too involved with your day-to-day life shenanigans (being the best ai assistant is hard), but she always makes a point to check up on you when she gets the chance.

besides, miguel sure isn't gonna gossip with her like you do.

"you doing good?" she'll ask, grinning.

you only respond with a weak "yeah" and the fakest chuckle she's ever heard, as you clearly attempt to blink back tears.

she doesn't know what to do. tries to wipe the tears that eventually fall with a virtual hand that phases right through your face. well. at least she had good intentions.

"hey, hey–" lyla gets you to take a deep breath. "look at me."

she says your name, regrounding you. you look up at her, and for a moment, she's certain that she's felt something akin to sympathy. she's felt something real.

lyla doesn't let that distract her from her objective– right now, she's gotta comfort you.

she repeats your name, "...it's okay. you cry if you feel like it."

▸ MARGO who sits you down, letting you be the one to speak first when your smile wavers.

"i hate fuckin' crying.." you laugh weakly, trying to make the situation better. it doesn't help control the tears. "i feel so lame for it."

"you know," she whispers, taking your hands in yours, "i still think you're pretty cool."

she gives you a grin that's so earnest– so sweet– that lets you know she's being honest.

"okay, so this might be stupid,, butttt–" encourages you two to listen to some moody music so you can get whatever you've bottled up out of you systems. it's cathartic, crying your eyes out with her as whatever the two of you have queued up blasts in the background.

doesn't judge you one bit for crying.

"only way out is through." she shrugs. "gotta feel it before you can actually let it go."

▸ MILES (1610) who had just asked an innocent question about how your doing, now watching as you struggle to respond.

after a strained moment of searching for words, you shrink away and hide your face in your hands. he scoots by your side, asking before gently taking your hands away from your face.

"what's wrong?" his voice is soft. gentle as he looks at you with the sweetest concerned expression.

"i shouldn't be crying.. it's stupid... i feel so, so stupid–"

he frowns at these words. "i don't think it's stupid."

societal expectations forcing people to put on a tough act just to conceal emotions deemed as "weakness?" not a new concept to him. he's just sad that it's impacted you so deeply.

after this, will actively check up on how you're doing emotionally. will pull you aside to have a heart-to-heart if he senses the slightest thing off. terrified of being shut out by you, will always offer for the two of you to deal with whatever you're struggling with together.

▸ MILES (42) who asks more bluntly than he had intended when he senses you're not doing okay.

you take a sharp inhale, giving him an unsteady smile which only makes him sigh. no matter how much you try to make the situation lighthearted, his expression never changes.

"nah. you're not fooling me." he walks over to you, his voice softening as he looks at you. "...what's got you upset?"

a really good listener. lets you rest your head on his shoulder as you vent and let it out.

he's not the most open himself, so of course he understands– but he doesn't want you to be like him.

you thank him for putting up with your breakdown, feeling a little awkward as you pull your cheek away from his shoulder and look at him.

you watch as he falters for a moment, gently grabbing your arm and pulling you in for a warm, slightly stiff, side-hug.

"don't thank me for that– it's just what you deserve." though his quick to dismissal of what you'd said seems to be the end of his sentence– you watch as he unclenches his jaw, hesitating before he says something else.

"anytime. i mean it."

▸ MIGUEL who is jus like u for reals doesn't quite know how to cope with emotions either. that doesn't give him an excuse to not try with you.

he can't find the right words, but you see the empathy in his eyes. he offers quiet comfort– places a hand on your back, rubbing it as you lean into his side

"don't hide your face from me." he mutters to you. "it's just me."

your hands fall from your face into your lap, shoulders slumping. he feels you tremble softly, as you to reply.

"this should be for me to deal with. i should be strong enough." your words echo in his mind.

maybe because he's told himself the same thing too many times before as well. it's painful, the way that this moment with you reflects a mirror image of himself.

will crumble his own walls if it means you'll do the same. tries to be open to encourage you. you'll learn together.

▸ NOIR who is a gentleman through and through. always. tells you that he'll give you anything you need.

"i don't know what nitwit told you it wasn't okay for you to cry," his choice of words makes you crack a slight genuine smile, "but you don't have to believe them one second."

as your facade slowly crumbles, his gloved hands cup your face as you cry. he dries your cheeks, patiently nodding as he listened to you ramble on about everything you've been holding back.

when you've calmed down, he presses a kiss to your forehead.

to ache like this and still be concerned over burdening others– he's now finds little ways to remind you how precious you are to him. that he'll always care.

▸ PAVITR, who approaches you as delicately as possible. he tries not to do anything that will make you feel backed into a corner.

he knows that feeling scared can lead to lashing out. tries to be casual about it to ensure you're as comfortable as possible.

you crack an obviously forced joke and he glances at you questioningly.

"you're not telling me something, aren't you?" he asks. pavitr's secretly hoping he was good at playing this careful– but you had picked up that he wanted to talk to you about it for a while now.

you're both obvious.

your grin fades as you chuckle dryly. "i don't... i don't want to– it's embarrassing."

"what's embarrassing is that i didn't notice earlier. don't be shy. we can figure it out together, okay?"

offers all the help he can. even (secretly) messages gayatri for "advice for a friend" you!!! you are friend!!!!! he doesn't name drop tho. privacy king.

▸ PETER B(E MY WIFE) PARKER. the one who drags you outside to chat about it and cracks a stupid joke himself. it alleviates no tension at all.

"..ahh,, no, nevermind that kid. you okay?"

a shake of your head and his smile fades a bit. he grips your shoulder, shaking you gently.

"been there plenty of times. trust me– better to get it out now."

and for a while, it's just a conversation. you're both sitting outside, the night air bringing a chill to your skin. he offers his jacket– and then proceeds to pull you into it while he still wears it, your back pressed to his chest.

it goes unspoken, but he knew you had been struggling for a while now. he's relieved to finally get a moment with you.

he'll always be looking out for you. even if you don't realize.

▸ THE SPOT/JOHNATHAN OHNN panics ever so slightly. this is the first time you've ever cried in front of him. so he does what he does best– and just asks questions.

"you've been bottling it up this whole time?"

"mhm..."

"for how long?..." your response causes him to pause, blinking several times before parting his lips to speak again. "...oh. oh wow– yikes–" he means well i swear.

will scour the multiverse in search of a quiet place for you to lay this all to rest.

you admit, you're certain you don't need all this– but he seems happy to put in the effort and lead you into a portal into a nice area to relax.

"are we breaking and entering into someone's house?!"

"uh– don't worry about it for now."

[yetanothersparrowofthedawn]

Happier than ever

Pairing: Jake x Reader

Genre: Angst, hurt, ex!Jake

Extended Masterpost

Context: Y/N is so so so perfectly happy *practiced smile* yay marital bliss.

Disclaimer: English isn’t my native language, so I apologize in advance for mistakes and awkward wordings to come. Also, I guess this fic could be triggering for some because it’s kind of sad and angsty.

Word Count: 2.5k

Previous Track: Honeymoon (3 months prior)

Chapter soundtrack: Happier than ever – Billie Eilish

When I'm away from you, I'm happier than ever. Wish I could explain it better. I wish it wasn't true.

The London night hung heavy outside the windows of the elegant townhouse YN now called home. She sat at her desk, surrounded by scattered sheets of lyrics and half-empty coffee cups. Despite the late hour, her mind refused to rest.

Ever since returning from her honeymoon, YN had been trying her best to bury herself in work. As she sifted through the papers, her phone buzzed insistently, breaking the silence of the night.

She glanced at the screen, the number displayed unfamiliar once again. Another anonymous call, just like the countless others that had become a regular occurrence since her move to London three months prior.

With a sigh, she hit the decline button and tossed the phone aside, frustration bubbling beneath her calm exterior.

At first, she dismissed it as a nuisance, perhaps a misguided fan or a random prankster. But the calls persisted. She had tried blocking the numbers, changing her settings, everything she could think of to put an end to it, but to no avail. The rare times she’d picked up, silence had greeted her before the caller abruptly disconnected.

That night, though, she noticed something. The International dialing code seemed different from usual. A quick google search informed her it was Brazilian.

Her thoughts drifted back to a short conversation she’d had a few weeks prior. Josh. He’d mentioned the band's upcoming tour in South America.

No, YN thought, there’s just no way. She brushed off the thought.

Still, she found herself lying in bed a couple hours later, checking Greta’s Instagram account. There was just no way. Only, she was met with a photo posted just an hour before. The description read, “Thank you for a remarkable show. See you soon, Sao Paulo.”

Fuck.

--

A week later, the glow of her phone illuminated the dark bedroom. Another call, another unknown number, another international code.

With a quick glance at Harry's sleeping form beside her, YN slipped out of bed, careful not to disturb him. She tiptoed towards their bathroom and quietly locked the door behind her.

The girl leaned against the sink, her fingers trembling as she answered the call. Silence greeted her on the other end, a heavy weight pressing down on her chest.

Enough of this.

"Jake?" she tried, her voice barely a whisper. But there was no response, only the empty void that seemed to stretch on endlessly.

"Is that you?" She tried again, desperation creeping into her voice. But still, there was nothing, only the echo of her own words bouncing back at her.

Frustration bubbled up inside her, mingling with the deep-seated concern that gnawed at her from within.

“Jake, I know it’s-” the call abruptly disconnected. Her heart sank, an uncomfortable feeling settling in the pit of her stomach.

--

For the following three weeks, YN found herself in a semi-constant state of anxiety, her eyes darting nervously to her phone at every passing moment. Nights offered no respite, each small noise in the house sending her heart racing as she scrambled to check her phone.

Finally, on yet another sleepless night, her phone lit up. American dialing code. The boys might have returned to the States before embarking on the European leg of their tour.

Silently slipping out of bed, she made her way to the kitchen and answered the call. Without surprise, she was once again greeted by silence.

After a brief moment, she spoke into the void. "Are you alright?"

There was no immediate response, only the sound of uneven breaths on the other end of the line.

"It's late," she stated firmly. "I'm going to hang up now—"

"I wanted...” the caller suddenly spoke. Her breath was caught in her throat. She’d been right. “I wanted to hear your voice," his voice was rough, his words slurred. YN sighed.

“Are you drunk?” she asked, her tone annoyed. But there was no reply, only the quiet of the night surrounding her.

Suddenly, a noise erupted from the other end of the line, a distant car horn echoing through the darkness.

"What was that?" YN's voice rose with concern. "Was that a car? Have you been driving?"

She knew too well of Jake's reckless habits, the demons that had haunted him like a shadow. The thought of him spiraling out of control in some far-off corner of the world sent a chill down her spine.

"Fucking say something," she snapped, her frustration boiling over. But before she could receive an answer, the call abruptly ended. She winced.

Shit. Shit. Shit.

Panic began to gnaw at the edges of her mind as she struggled to make sense of the situation.

“Love,” a voice broke her train of thoughts, “what are you doing up?”

Harry.

“It’s Patty” YN said, turning to face him. “Go back to bed, I’ll be right behind you.”

Harry's brow furrowed with concern. "Is everything alright?" he asked, his eyes searching hers for any sign of distress.

"Yeah," she replied hastily, attempting to brush off his concern with a forced smile. "Just... schedule stuff." She shocked herself with how quickly the lies kept on tumbling out.

“Okay," Harry nodded, turning to head back to bed.

YN couldn't shake the feeling of guilt that ate at her conscience as she watched him leave the room. She hated lying to him, but she couldn't bear to burden him with the truth of her worries, not when she didn't even know how to confront them herself.

When the bedroom door clicked shut behind Harry, YN wasted no time. With trembling fingers, she dialed a number and pressed the phone to her ear.

"Hello?" Josh's voice, groggy with sleep, came through the line.

"Do you know where he is?" YN's hushed words rushed out.

"YN, it's like 1am over here, what—" Josh started to protest, but she cut him off.

"Do you know where he is?" she repeated, her tone insistent.

"Where is wh—"

"Jake," she interjected, her voice trembling. "Do you know where Jake is?"

Josh paused for a moment before responding, his voice serious. "At his place, I assume. Why? Wh-what's going on?"

YN struggled to find the words, her mind racing with a million thoughts at once. She quickly explained the situation, knowing that Josh would understand without needing further explanation.

Josh fell silent for a moment. He, too, knew the root of her concern, and understood what scared her to death.

"I'll take care of it," he assured her, his voice firm with determination. "Don't worry."

Relief flooded through YN as she hung up the phone, though she couldn't bring herself to return to bed. Instead, she sat on the sofa, her nerves on edge as she waited anxiously for an update.

 The minutes stretched into hours, and the first rays of sunlight began to filter through the window when she finally received a text from Josh.

"He's okay," it read.

Exhaustion gave way to mounting frustration and anger. That’s it? She thought. She’d been staying up all night for this shit; lying to her husband for this shit. She sighed heavily; biting the inside of her cheek so hard she could taste blood.

Fuck this.

YN texted back, “Thanks. Tell him to leave me alone.”

__

After a couple of weeks of silence, with no calls disrupting the uneasy calm, YN began to hope for long-lasting peace. She almost felt guilty for her earlier frustrations, often wondering whether Jake was doing better.

However, any hopes of tranquility were shattered when a storm erupted in the Greta Van Fleet online fandom.

A fan's comment on one of Jake's posts caught fire, igniting a frenzy of speculation. The comment read, "Okay, I was at last night's concert and let’s just say, it was not it. I feel like that's been happening a lot recently. So, what is it my man? Trouble with the fam? or did some bitch do you dirty?"

To everyone's shock, Jake had replied to the comment.

 Two words.

 "The latter."

The internet exploded, and although Jake deleted the comment an hour later, the damage was done. The news reached YN like a punch to the gut.

She couldn't believe it. To have Jake talk shit about her on the internet was a new low. Though no one outside of their inner circle knew he was referring to her, the mere implication cut deep. And there was nothing she could even do or say. Especially from halfway across the world.

YN stood on the balcony, gazing out at the sprawling London skyline, but instead of feeling captivated by its beauty, bitterness flooded her senses. Jake had somehow managed to make her hate this city. Worst, he’d made her resent Harry for simply asking her to move there. The constant rain felt like a mockery, and the distance from where she truly belonged only amplified her sense of displacement.

And the most infuriating part? She had let him. Her thoughts were blinded by anger as she put pen to paper. Even after all this time, she had allowed Jake to ruin everything good. Perhaps it was a good thing she found herself far away from him. All he seemed capable of doing was bringing her endless sorrow.

Harry, on the other hand, was the epitome of reliability. He always showed up on time. Got along with her friends, got along with Patty. Did everything right.

So why was Jake the one occupying her thoughts day and night? It was like a poison, slowly corroding the good in her life until all that was left was the bitter taste of regret and anger.

As YN stood on the balcony, her phone suddenly lit up. Jake's name. He finally had the guts to call her with his own phone.

She reached for the device, her fingers curling around it tightly. She stared at it for a moment, considering her options. She could let it ring. Or she could reply. For what, though? She thought. Some half-assed apology? Telling her how it’s all some big misunderstanding?

Without a second thought, she clenched her jaw and, with a determined flick of her wrist, let her phone drop over the railing, watching as it plummeted towards the ground below.

The sound of shattering glass echoed through the night as the device met its demise on the pavement.

It was a stupid but cathartic gesture. With a sense of finality, she turned away from the balcony, leaving behind the remnants of her broken phone and the memories it held.

--

Two weeks later.

Jake stumbled along the hotel hallway. The band had just wrapped up a show in Glasgow, which had gone rather well considering the blinding hangover that had been clinging to their lead guitarist throughout the tour. Jake had therefore rewarded himself with a local treat, that is, the now half-empty bottle of scotch in his hand. When in Rome, right?

Feeling for his keycard in his pockets, Jake cursed softly as he came up empty-handed. He decided to try the room across from his, hoping his baby brother hadn’t gone to bed just yet. He pressed his ear against the door and breathed a sigh of relief at the sound of a TV playing inside. Bingo.

With a drunken knock, Jake announced his presence before the door swung open to reveal Sam. "What's up?" he greeted.

"Lost my key," Jake mumbled, brushing past Sam and collapsing onto the nearest bed. " m’tired," he added, his words slurred from the alcohol.

However, amidst the haze of his drunken stupor, Jake noticed something amiss.

 It was too quiet.

“Why d’you turn it off?” Jake asked, curious.

“Mmh?” The bass-player replied.

“The TV” Jake specified. He had a feeling something was up.

"Oh, uh, nothing good is on right now," Sam replied nervously, his attempt at nonchalance falling flat. "British TV sucks ass," he added hastily. The youngest Kiszka had never been much of a good actor. Jake stared for a moment and Sam knew he could see right through him.

“Jake-” Sam tried protesting, but his brother had already snatched the remote and turned the TV back on. The bright light of the screen suddenly lighting up their features and the sound of laughter filling the hotel room.

There she was. Seated elegantly on the talk show couch. YN exuded confidence as she engaged in conversation with the host.

“So, tell me something,” the host leaned in, a glint of excitement in his eyes, “when are we going to get some new music?” A ripple of anticipation coursed through the audience, and a mischievous smirk danced across YN’s lips.

“Well, I actually just finished recording a bunch of tracks, so—" Before she could finish, the audience erupted into deafening cheers, their excitement palpable. “I know, I know, it’s exciting,” YN continued, her voice barely audible over the enthusiastic applause, “I can’t wait to get back on the road.”

“Back on the road?” the host raised an eyebrow, a playful tone in his voice, “Have you grown tired of Hubby already?”

YN chuckled. "Well, who says I'm not packing him in my suitcase?" she quipped. The audience laughed at her comeback.

"Talking about Mr. Harry Styles,” loud cheers exploded at the host’s mention of YN’s husband, “a little birdie told me you two just purchased a house in our fair capital, is that right?”

“Uh,” YN looked slightly surprised, feeling a pang of discomfort at the invasion of privacy, “yeah, we did get ourselves a little nest-”

“-a 9-million-pound nest” the host joked, eliciting laughter from the audience.

YN let out a polite chuckle. “Yeah, it is ridiculously grand, actually.”

“Is it your first time owning a place?” the interviewer asked.

“It is, yes, see, I’m originally from New York, so renting appartments has always been the way for me.” Jake’s mind drifted to their little apartment back in Nashville.

“Must be quite a change” the host declared.

“Kinda, yes,” she added, “it’s got a bunch of rooms that I haven’t seen in a while, like an actual laundry room, who knew that was even a thing?” the audience laughed, “and a foyer, whatever that is, and a-”

“-Nursery?” the host filled in. The audience leaned forward in anticipation.

“Well, aren’t you curious?” she said, maintaining a playful façade at the interviewer’s lack of tact, “But no, no nursery,” the audience could be heard huffing in disappointment.

“Ah well,” the host remarked, “someday soon.”

“Sure,” she replied with a forced smile, “someday.”

As Jake listened to the conversation, a thought crossed his mind: YN had always been unequivocal about her reluctance to have children. Then again, she had also once been adamant about her aversion to marriage. And yet, here she was with a ring around her finger. The bile rose in his throat.

“Well, we’re running out of time here,” the host abruptly announced, glancing at the monitor. “It’s been a real pleasure, and I think I can speak for everyone here when I say that the world is thrilled to see you embrace this newfound happiness, is that accurate?”

“Oh absolutely,” she replied with a tight smile. “I’m,” she paused, something unseen briefly flickering in her eyes, “happier than ever.”

--

YN never knew why but, after that night, the calls stopped.

--

Next Track: The Bomb

Extended Masterpost

Hope you liked it! Once again, I am begging you all to interact and leave comments it makes me so happy to get feedback and reactions xxx

Also, this is only the beginning lol. I have a billion drafts for other chapters so stay tuned, peaceful army.

Taglist

@aintthatapity

@sinarainbows

@vanfleeter 

@gretavanhockey

[chameleoncharm]

Aug 2024 News!

Hello hello! Meant to get this up a bit sooner, but had some family things come up and I've been down with Covid the last bit of time. If you're a paid member, this will sound like a repeat of things I said a little earlier this month, but please bear with me, as I try and get everyone caught up with my plans. First off, major apologies again for falling off the face of the Earth the last... bit of time. Life has been hectic, but in between the crazy, I've managed to catch a few moments to come up with game plans for the comic. I won't go over everything right now, but just cover the up and coming things on the docket. The biggest thing to note coming up in the next month though is the relaunch of the comic.

I've been putting together a new home for Chameleon Charm over on ComicFury. You can actually view it here: https://chameleoncharm.thecomicseries.com/

There's no pages up yet and the extra pages - like the Cast and Fan Art pages and the like - aren't fully functional yet. I'm not actually very good at coding, or rather no good at all, cause I know nothing about code, so it's been a struggle getting the page to look the way I want it. It looks pretty good now though, so hopefully nothing breaks going forward, hahah. If it does, it because of my spaghetti coding and I apologize. Anyway, the plan is that starting Sept 18 - the comic's 12th year anniversary - I will be re-releasing the comic over on the new ComicFury page. I hope to get my custom domain to point to the ComicFury soon, though the Tumblr will remain up, for archival reasons/purposes. What I mean by a re-release is that I will be trickling out all the past pages over the next bit of time; all five chapters. There will be minor differences, as I'm doing some editing on the pages to readability and consistency, will some minor art edits.

The release schedule will be Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday and once I get everything posted, will revert to the Tuesday and Friday release schedule I had back in the old days when I was hosted on Cup of Comics.

With what I have in terms of page count, for Chapters 1-5, it should neatly gets us to September of 2025, where then, I will finally start getting into Chapter 6, for real. I know that's still a long time, but this way, I have a built in buffer and time frame in which to work. Since I've gone on hiatus because of life and writer's block, I had not solid time frame in which to get back on the horse, so I'm setting one with the relaunch. So, short form, the plan is this: - Starting Sept 18, 2024, I will release Chapters 1-5 on the new ComicFury webpage, with a "new" page released on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays - By Sept 18, 2025, I should have things all set to roll smoothly into the long awaited Chapter 6

I've alluded to this before, but really, the time to think things through as really actually helped when it's come to story developments. Handing things on a page-by-page basis really wasn't a good idea, but hey, when I started the comic, I was young, dumb, and stupid and didn't know better. I'm older now so like to think I've learned some kind of lesson, lol. Anyway, the rest of the month is dedicated to the aforementioned edits so I can get pages queued up. I hope you'll enjoy revisiting the series through this relaunch and maybe have fun playing a game of Find the Difference on what I change. Again, they won't be big changes, but you know; for those people who like to keep track of such things (one reason why the Tumblr will remain). All I ask (aside from beseeching more of your continued patience and support, which I am eternally grateful for) is for you guys to help spread the word of the comic's release. I'll be putting up posts on the social media pages whenever a page goes live on the ComicFury (see here for all the official Chameleon Charm social media pages) and if you could like and share them around to get the comic in front of fresh, new eyes, that would be extremely helpful. But that's all for me for right now! I'll check in with everyone next month when the relaunch finally happens and to celebrate the 12th Year Anniversary. I'm sorry again for the absence, but I hope the stuff I have planned for the future will be worth it. I've been doing a lot in terms of world building and story development and I can't wait to share it all with you. Thank you again for your continued patience and support. For advanced news and behind the scenes, consider joining the Patreon! Take care now! - Fil

[aftgficrec]

Can you post fics where Andrew and Neil argue but make up in the end?

Enjoy this walk through andreil feels, anon. The previous asks mentioned lead to a bunch more asks and fics. -A

also see:

andreil arguing here

new andreil breakup/make-up here

fave break up and make up here

andreil or jerejean kiss & make-up here

miscommunication leading to near-breakups here

angst w/happy ending: miscommunication or pining here

andreil enemies to lovers 2 here

Andrew makes Neil cry here

Neil snaps ‘not nothing’ here

‘quicksand’ here

‘low quay, no pressure’ here

‘transience’ here

‘transmission’ here

‘Tumblr Headcanons - Andreil’ Ch 11 & 12 here

‘Neil worried that Andrew cheated’ here

‘Home for Christmas’ here

‘Wake Up to Your Sunset’ here (completed)

‘All I Wanted’ here

‘Some Kind of Disaster’ here

‘I’m Not Dead Yet’ here

‘Can Nobody Hear Me (I cannot breathe)’ here (completed)

‘nice to see your face again’ and ‘Dawn Won't End the Night’ (updated) here

‘please come back, save me from myself,’ ‘ghostin',’ and ‘I ran out of every reason’ here

‘but i don't think i can ever learn how to love just right’ here 

‘Shared Custody’ and ‘Shared Custody (The Blame the Cat Remix)’ here

if you really love nothing by seasy33 [Rated M, 39713 Words, Complete, 2022]

Andrew finds an interesting piece of paper. He's not quite sure how he feels about it.

tw: graphic depictions of violence, tw: rape/noncon, tw: flashbacks, tw: alcohol 

Undefined Roommates Code by Helpisneeded [Rated E, 56760 Words, Incomplete, Updated Oct 2022]

Punching your roommate is not a very smart idea. Starting a friends with benefits relationship with said roommate is an even worse one. Setting up a string of rules to keep it purely physical and make sure you don’t catch feeling but catching them anyways is certainly the stupidest thing you could do in that situation. Luckily for Neil, he never claimed to be smart.

tw: explicit sexual content, tw: implied/referenced child abuse, tw: implied/referenced suicidal tendencies

Regrowth by Mystrana [Rated E, 4836 Words, Complete, 2021]

It goes like this: Neil's giving therapy a chance. He's dealing with every emotion he's ever pushed down trying to leak back up. When he gets hurt during a game, Andrew gets upset and they get into an argument. And then Andrew apologizes. A fic in which Andrew and Neil work on healing together and cry and have the softest sex in the world.

tw: explicit sexual content

An intimate moment with someone you hate by krasmataz [Rated E, 7414 Words, Complete, 2023]

Neil and Andrew have their first fight after trying something new in the bedroom. Hope they figure it out before they destroy too much school property!

tw: implied/referenced self-harm, tw: blood, tw: implied/referenced suicidal tendencies

over/under by likearecord [Rated E, 9506 Words, Complete, 2023]

He’d thought Neil, with his smart mouth and his wild eyes, would be satisfied with what Andrew was offering. He guesses he’d thought Neil was used to living on scraps—and Andrew has never had anything meatier to give. He’d been wrong.

tw: explicit sexual content

Only Fools Fall. by Random2002 [Rated T, 19789 Words, Incomplete, Updated Feb 2023]

Neil tests how faithful his clients partners are. Roland is a client; he's worried about his boyfriend. It isn't long until Neil notices some serious rifts in the relationship he is meant to test.

tw: child abuse

Cold Cookies by Preludeno3 [Rated M, 11583 Words, Incomplete, Updated Jan 2023, Locked]

It starts off as an abstract, incomplete thought. Andrew’s on his knees on the rug in his Columbia bedroom, going to town on Neil’s dick. Or Andrew wants to try face fucking, trauma is a bitch and Neil is almost too understanding

tw: explicit sexual content, tw: implied/referenced rape/noncon

First fight by Olympyas [Not Rated, 3265 Words, Complete, 2023]

"There is no this, you are nothing and nothing doesn't exist." It hurt. A lot. Especially when you spent the whole day feeling like nothing. So he wanted to hurt Andrew in return. He wanted to get, even the slightest, reaction from him. "Well, at least you can't hurt 'nothing' like you destroy everything around you." —hurt him— "You'll still run away like the rabbit you are. Tell me, Nathaniel, why are you staying?" Neil hated this name in Adrew's mouth "For nothing. I shouldn't have stayed in the first place." And he left.

tw: panic attacks, tw: violence, tw: assault, tw: attempted rape/noncon

A Substitute For Please by cadkitten [Rated E, 1911 Words, Complete, 2018]

Please is a word built to make things easy and life has never been easy for either of them. Please is meant to smooth things over, but they're all rough edges. Please is a final ditch effort when hope is lost and, Neil, he knows there's still hope here.

tw: ptsd, tw: depression, tw: implied/referenced rape/noncon, tw: alcohol

NB: find more about Nicky’s state of mind here

To Be Close With You Is To Be Close With Myself by jostenskeys [Rated E, 20359 Words, Complete, 2022]

Andrew has always been a protector at heart despite how often he bullies Neil for his martyr complex. The summer before Neil's second year, however, he begins to feel the impacts of his life finally crash down on him just as they were finally safe from harm. Andrew fights with himself and doesn't know how he can help. But he soon realises, in order for him to help Neil, he needs to help himself too. Or The Convincing-Neil-To-Get-Therapy Chronicles. Written by Andrew Minyard and edited by Betsy Dobson.

tw: graphic depictions of violence, tw: rape/noncon, tw: self harm, tw: urge to self harm, tw: blood, tw: suicidal ideation, tw: nightmares, tw: panic attacks, tw: depression

Stay series by jaydreamz [Rated M/T, Collection with 2 complete works, Updated Nov 2021]

Part 1: Was Sorta Hopin' That You'd Stay [M, 25740 Words] Neil and Andrew have HATED each other since an incident in college. They really, really do. The Minyard-Josten rivalry is not a sham. But now Andrew's transferring to Neil's team and all hell is about to break loose.

tw: alcohol, tw: implied/referenced self harm, tw: explicit sexual content

Part 2: Before I Hated You [T, 5974 Words] Before the Minyard-Josten rivalry was on, there was something else entirely. *** Andrew and Neil's first meeting in college that ended up starting the feud between them.

Bittersweet by Mercey [Rated M, 8370 Words, Complete, AFTG Mixtape Exchange 2021]

‘Why would Neil want to be with someone who can’t even care for him the right way? Why would he want that life for himself? He’s not a runaway anymore, he’s not so desperate for affection that he’ll settle for my meagre offerings, and good for him. It’s better that way.’ Andrew's spiralling with graduation coming up, and beginning to question the very foundations upon which he and Neil are built.

tw: depression

Hold Each Other by exactly13percent_OLD (hymbeaux) [Collection Rated T/E, Complete, 2018]

Chapter 12: Stranger [T, 2854 Words] Sometimes, love comes easily. That's the problem.

I took a breath and took the knife by eeveepkmnfan [Rated M, 2271 Words, Complete, 2022]

Andrew and Neil argue. Or, Neil is still struggling through the aftereffects of being drugged. Andrew is forced to confront the consequences of that decision.

tw: transphobia, tw: implied/referenced sexual assault, tw: implied/referenced self harm, tw: implied/referenced involuntary drug use, tw: ptsd

Spring Cleaning with a Man on the Lam by SugarLime [Rated G, 2240 Words, Complete, 2019]

Neil glared at the wrapper Andrew had tossed on the floor next to his chair. He stalked over with a nasty frown and leveled a glare at Andrew. Andrew met his glare with an empty expression. “What?” He asked, following Neil’s gaze as it tuned to the discarded wrapper, “it’s a wrapper,” he said wisely. His gut did a small flip as he tried to figure out why his boyfriend was mad.

I Won't Be Home For The Rest Of The Night by CasTheButler [Not Rated, 1039 Words, Complete, 2017]

Neil and Andrew have a fight, Neil learns to let someone new in.

Stars and Moons by sonyathefairy [Rated G, 1111 Words, Complete, 2017]

Neil ponders about the stars and his fight with Andrew. Or in which they both realise that they can't live without the other anymore.

Where We Belong by conniptionns [Rated T, 1374 Words, Complete, 2017]

prompt: andrew and neil get into this huge fight while andrew is driving so he tells neil to get out the car and walk the rest of the way.

Still here by theresnothis [Rated T, 2779​​ Words, Complete, AFTG Summer Exchange 2022]

After a fight with Andrew, Neil ran off into the night (but he would go back). Andrew found him and of course with Neil’s luck a robbery would occur.

flashes of intimacy by mostly_maudlin [Rated T, Collection, Complete, 2023]

Chapter 3: conflict resolution [385 Words] Chapter 4: space [507 Words]

tw: mild self harm

Chapter 16: picking fights [554 Words]

tw: mild self harm

“I don’t want your pity, I want your absence.” by markonasurface (idwir) [Not Rated, 1627 Words, Complete, 2018]

After the freshmen find out about Neil and Andrew, a terrible practice leads to Neil saying things he shouldn’t.

tw: involuntary outing, tw: homophobia, tw: scars, tw: anxiety attack, tw: implied/referenced rape/noncon, tw: implied/referenced csa, tw: victim shaming, tw: self harm

“So much for not getting involved.” by markonasurface (idwir) [Not Rated, 769 Words, Complete, 2020]

“I don’t want your pity, I want your absence.” pt 2

tw: implied/referenced rape/noncon, tw: implied/referenced csa

“don’t call me that”-andreil prompt fill by @markonasurface [Tumblr, 2017]

Neil heard the door to the roof open and knew it was Andrew. Annoyance flooded his chest and he had the overwhelming urge to hit him. Instead he lit another cigarette and let Andrew pluck it from his fingers even though he hadn’t offered it to him.

[good-beanswrites]

Eheheh! The anon who sent the ask on the Lights, Camera, Sing Your Sins here! Happy to hear you like the silly thought I made up, bonus on making a small drabble on it! So happy! >w<

So I guess when Mikoto's condition is revealed during his first interrogation, everyone's like "Ooooooh that's why..." over it. And uuuuuuh, does Kotoko feel bad for bashing Mikoto back then? I think it's not scripted according to that post you made back then, but no hard feelings between them, right? And I guess Shidou wouldn't be happy that the prisoners are getting into actual fights ;;

I really did! :D Thank you so much for reaching out, I love hearing people’s thoughts and ideas!!

I'm always very committed to keeping any canon hatred accurate -- I won't sugar-coat a relationship that has been stated to be terrible. However. This is not canon, and I am employing every fix-it in my arsenal >:3 So yes, there are absolutely no hard feelings between them and after every trial they hang out and make up!!

It pains me that all the violence in Mikoto’s interrogation has to be real, but yeah, neither of them pull any punches. Of course Red doesn’t want to hurt Es, but I picture all the prisoners really driven by the desire to tell their stories. Unlike in canon, the au characters are very aware that they’re going to represent a larger social issue/group of people. So when Mikoto is instructed to really sell it, he does it for the sake of accurate experiment results for others like him – and clings to the trust that Es signed up for this. 

And Kotoko’s interference is such a core part of her character: she’s observant, she’s clever, she’s used to and skilled at breaking rules, and she’s such a protector, even to the person who’s holding her imprisoned. It felt unfair to take that away from her by making it something Milgram scripted, so her reaction had to be real and just as violent ;-;

Okay so you know when you’re playing a game with friends/family and you feel very real anger at them for their decisions/actions? Then after it ends you can cool off and acknowledge it was just a game and there’s no hard feelings at all – but you can still clearly remember what made you upset and know it was valid? That’s what I'm picturing when the prisoners write their t2 plans. Kotoko’s anger towards the guilty prisoners is genuine by the end of the first trial. She’s very hurt that Mikoto wouldn’t tell them the truth about himself, after all the secrets they’d collectively shared. She’s disgusted by the others’ actions. She’s not actually planning on beating them up, but she recognizes she kinda wants to lol. Amane does hate Shidou. Yuno is tired of everyone. 

But a few days after the first trial ends, they start interacting in a setting that isn’t immersive anymore. They’re able to relax and talk through everything with clear minds. Kotoko apologizes profusely for hurting Mikoto during the interrogation, admitting that she’s not entitled to anyone else’s secrets. Amane apologizes to Shidou. She may not be as friendly to him as he was hoping, but she tells him that she understands they live under different codes and she shouldn’t hold hatred in her heart. Yuno gets a bit of time to refresh herself while they’re debriefing and collaborating with the writing team. She’s excited to be around the others by the time filming starts up again. Anyone who has anger towards Es lets it soften, feeling bad that they’re allowed to get a fun break while Es must remain asleep.

And I think Red and Kotoko would actually get really close in the au, despite their rocky start! They have very similar ideas on protecting the people they care about and being disgusted by those who abuse their power. Koto-koto duo is real!! 😤I can’t say for sure because so much could change in t3, but I’m hoping to write the two of them bonding over being labeled “the scary violent one” and slammed with a guilty vote next time ;-; 

If anything, Blue is more upset that she attacked Red than he is himself. (“That was our interrogation, what was she even doing there?”) And like you said, Shidou doesn’t want anyone to get hurt for real, so he pleads with them to keep their violence as staged as possible, going forward. He’s also extremely upset with Milgram that they’d let Es get hurt (since he’s the one who treated them afterwards). It takes such long time to assure him it won’t happen again, and that it was a one-time twist that Es signed off on beforehand.

Although I think the violence is going to get worse during this next hiatus, the au characters will actually feel less emotional, in my mind. After doing this for so long, I'm sure it would get easier to regulate which emotions are real and which result from too much immersion -- so there will be less to apologize and make up for this time, they're already very close and happy :')

[facet-project]

hey it's the first devlog on this blog yaaay

unFortunately it's probably also going to be the scarcest devlog. migrating things to the new godot file is taking a while, since i had to get a few specific things set up before i could really start playing in the space again.

was a little bit lethargic getting back into the project after taking a break. making the prototype and getting it reviewed by friends and family took a LOT out of me. it turns out when you put your entire heart into something, you Care about how other people think about it. shocker!!!

also the fact that it FEELS like i'm working from scratch again! it's difficult. even though i'm not, i now have almost a year of experience and knowledge of this game's inner workings. i'm just reordering and re-coding some things that were slapped together. not only does this version have to run, it also has to be robust

so a Lot of the programming side of the project this month was like... dry research about screen resolution, pixel compression, and config save/load (different from game progress save/load, as your config settings SHOULD carry over between different saves. would be really annoying if they didn't ljadsflkasjd). and there's not a lot to Show for that. "ooh cool a screenshot with dummy buttons on it" "oh look i hammered out what the native resolution of the game is" c'mon

there's Not a lot of visual assets to show this time so i apologize for that. next month will be a lot meatier i think!

i actually still have some stuff to do with the config save/load but i at least got it to the point where i can... you know! save and load. i need to figure out how i'm going to store game saves, but. i can worry about that later. all i need to make the game run right now is the initial save/load process. and then as i work through the game i can decide what needs to be saved between play sessions instead of having to decide after months of development what should be in the data file

i started making the UI for this but i need to actually finish it - in the options menu, for colorblind and cultural accessibility, you'll be able to change the colors of the five "temperament" colors in the game - it's very important that someone can look at these colors at a glance and know what it means. there are a few pre-built pallets but in the full game you'll be able to map them all to whatever colors you want. red to me is a very angry color, so it's set to the hotheaded temperament - but if you can't see red very well or you don't associate it with anger, you'll be able to change it to whatever color you want instead! i might make a post about what this system means because it doesn't really come off as interesting in text but it's fun to play around with

i also wrote MUSIC this month! i picked up the violin for the first time in over a decade and was really surprised how easy it came back to me. i might go be brave and ask my dad to help lend some guitar parts for the soundtrack which i think would be very sweet and sentimental for me to have immortalized in a game

i have violin demos for a lot of songs but i'm not posting them. i'm soooo shy. i'm only posting finished music i think and nothing's Finished (i have some time in october to do Finished Polished work, so....)

i think next month i'm going to work on........... character movement. get the pc's character sprite all polished up and get the movement states and walking/running animations up and......running. heh. in the prototype you could only run up/down/left/right there wasn't like. a running speed and a walking speed or transitions between directions.

also i hadn't put in color shift support for the sprites in the last version.... probably need to do that this time around. the player scene is going to be a lot more complicated than it was in the previous version!!

[gaveitbackbroken]

Complete list of Songs

Since ccdaily is back, you can check out the complete music catalogue page I'd written for it. It's out of date now, sadly, but I couldn't figure out how to color-code anyway, so I'll make a more simplified version of the list here.

All I Think About

Already Had Her

Backtrack

Bad to Break

Be Mine

Bless Your Heart

Blondes

Boy…Friend

Boys Are Dumb

Brave Girl

Break My Heart

By The Time She Leaves

Chances

Change My Mind

Checking In

Citrus

Closer To Love

Country Boy

Dangerous

Diamond

Don’t Let Your Mind Talk Your Heart Out Of Falling

Don’t Need It Anymore

Dressed To Kill

Easy On Me

Easier Said Than Done

Empty

Even The Sky Cries Sometimes

Fast

Feather

Flower Girl

Flowers Die

Fly

Friends Forever

Full Circle

Gave It Back Broken

Gettin’ Old

Goodbye

Growing Up

Guilty

Guys That Get Me

Half

He’s The One

Heart Feel

Heart Home

Heart Set

Heartbreak Song

Honky Tonk Angels

How Could You

Hurt Like That

I Believed Him

I Don’t Wanna Love You Anymore

I Knew I’d Hate You

I Love You More Than She Does

I Shouldn't Be

In My Nature

It’s My Breakup

It’s ‘Cause I Am

Jewel

Keeper

Killing Time

Know

Know What I Mean

Leave Again

Lie

Like A Boy

Like I Do

List

Looking At Me

Magic Maker

Make Me Stay

Man

Maybe I Should

Maybe Just Once

Meadow

More Than I Miss You

Music Box

Nail Polish

New Boots

No Apologies

No Flowers

No I'm Not

Nothing But Time

Old Soul, Young Heart

On Purpose

Out Of Love

Perfect Strangers

Petal Pickin’

Pickin' Up

Picture Perfect

A Piece Of Me Left You

Pinocchio

Player

Point Of No Return

Preview

Read It

Real Or Make Believe

Real To Me

The Reason

Reckless

Record

Red Light

Run Into You

Sad

Saturn

Seasons

Sister Don’t Like You

Someone To Talk To

Sounds Like

State I’m In

Still Feels Real

Sweet 'N Low

Tell Her

Terrifies Me

Thankful

That Kind Of Brokenhearted

They Don’t Tell You That

Thrill Of It All

Took My Love

A Town That Never Changes

Tractor

Trouble Loves Trouble

Version Of You

What You Don’t Say

Who I Would’ve Been

Who’s That Girl

Why Can’t You Cry

Why You Broke Up

Wild

Wildfire

Wish You Wouldn’t

Without Darkness

Worst Guy Ever

Wouldn’t Change A Thing

You Or The Highway

You Shouldn’t Have

You're Too Old

28 Degrees And Sunny

I changed the way the colors work a little

RED = have not heard even 1 second of this song. Its existence is all that is known about it, typically from song registries such as BMI or ASCAP but also just from Callista mentioning the song in an interview etc

ORANGE = we have heard a little of this song. Maybe she posted a snippet of herself on social media, either playing it or singing along to a studio recording. Maybe she performed it live but part of the song is missing.

BLUE = we have this song in full, from start to end. Whether it's a live recording from a concert, or a run-through Callista posted on social media, whether it's super crisp and professionally recorded or crunchy and hard to parse the lyrics.

GREEN = go buy this song on iTunes / Amazon / wherever you get your music because it's out and released :)))

I'll do my best to edit this frequently as I do with the other masterlists!

[sysmedsaresexist]

We aren't active on syscourse tumblr anymore, or sysblr in general (just follow a few blogs we like or consider friends), so could you summarize the whole Weskcourse thing?? Who are they, what happened? Also, are you JAS? (I assume the acronym is Just-Another-Syscourse but one can never be too certain! - Prime

UHM, yeah... I can do a dirty, barebones type thing, it's been a week of stuff

Yeah, I'm JAS, justanothersyscourse

- I got put on a blocklist with a couple others, and someone who shouldn't have been on it (this someone was replaced three times with more people who shouldn't have been on it when they received pushback)

- I reblogged the blocklist with a meme because blocklists are dumb, and we ended up going back and forth about whether blocklists were any good and how they were maliciously putting people on it (the last person put on the list was DEFINITELY put there maliciously because of a post they THOUGHT was vagueing them). The blocklist and all arguments are now deleted from OPs blog, but still on mine if anyone wants to go back and check

- weskcourse jumped into this entire argument randomly with this cryptic shit about how I ruined their life three years ago by breaking their DNI (I wasn't on tumblr then, but I was also apparently LISTED in this DNI??), and then I, APPARENTLY, refused multiple requests to take down this post, and blocked all their accounts so they couldn't "bother" me anymore

- I (shockingly) gently (clearly I have trouble with that) explained that I had no idea who they were, or what I might have done, and I have only ever had two people blocked, and I very frequently engage with people who ask me to change or remove posts to figure it out, but if they could show me the post, I would own up to it and apologize

- They changed the timeline to under two years ago, and provided a post I had made about a screenshotted DNI. It's here if you want to scroll, but it was a completely normal DNI with no identifiable features, and it really wasn't anything even interesting? The last point was, "DNI if you think alters can't have disabilities the body doesn't," and I posted it with, "What kind of disabilities?"

(their current DNI was the exact opposite of all other points, for example, the original was DNI pro ship, and weskcourse's current DNI listed them as being pro ship and pro non contact, etc)

EDIT: I did own up to the post and apologize, in case anyone is wondering

- after the post, I received an anon saying, "no, I remember this, you said mean stuff to me about using the word 'cripple'", which immediately jogged my memory, and I pointed out that THAT was from a completely different blog, in regards to the post-- they were mixing me up oops-all-syscourse (not to be confused with the new blog, oopsallsyscourse), and I provided screenshots of the back and forth THEY had been doing about alters with disabilities

- weskcourse then explained (despite the above) that my post had lead their stalker to them, despite it being actually pretty tame and having no identifiable information

- said stalker then randomly showed up in all this professing their love and devotion to me and threatening to leak weskcourse's info

- stalker posted his IP, which was fake-- it's a private IP anyone can use to login and adjust the settings to their router, so that was dumb

- stalker then posted an address that doesn't exist in Canada's postal code database, which weskcourse immediately reblogged with, essentially, "yeah, that's my address" and then started telling everyone and their mother to kill themselves

- stalker started sending me ask after weird yandere ask and I'm rolling my eyes

- when it was pointed out that the IP was fake, the stalker blog immediately disappeared, and it's up for debate whether it was reported and removed, or the person deleted

- another blog VAGUELY and strangely involved in this (not sure if they want to be mentioned, but it raises eyebrows based on the above) received an anon with the stalker's Discord About Me, but never posted it.

- now this random 3 day old blog, ALSO has that about me, and these random chats with everyone in weskcourse's life, and claims to share a server with stalker

- Stalker then tried to join MY server but was instabanned before anyone even told me it had happened

- I made a vague post about cops and weskcourse deleted

The end

[onewomancitadel]

I’ve had a thought about the Weiss-Jaune stuff happening in this volume that I’d like to run past you. It’s been in the back of my mind since E5 and after this most recent episode it clicked that it feels akin to the development of the Blake-Sun relationship in V2-5, if in a more compressed timeframe. In that there’s this overt (in this case, contra B/S, unreciprocated) physical interest lending a patina of romantic potential to their interactions simultaneous with recurring moments of disconnect undermining that potential. Particularly the hurt when Jaune overhears Weiss insinuating he’s crazy is sticking in my head now as quite similar, narratively, to Blake’s startled upset when Sun misreads her intentions at the top of V4. And then in E9 Weiss figured out the right things to say to him to crystallize his epiphany but any romantic coding that might be read into the moment is (I felt, at least) deliberately refuted through the piling on into a whole-group hug, which again (this is what made it click) feels reminiscent of the inverse correlation between Sun’s emotional understanding of Blake and the intensity of his romantic interest in her.

Which strikes me as interesting because obviously the B/S detour on the way to Blake’s true love interest facilitates development Blake needed before she could be a good partner to Yang—Sun’s friendship confronts and incites the unraveling of Blake’s instinct to retreat and burn bridges for the sake of protecting her loved ones. So it occurred to me that something similar might be behind what they’re doing with Weiss and Jaune in this volume, with her fleeting/superficial romantic interest and romantic incompatibility precipitating a closer friendship that helps him reach an emotional turn toward his true love interest. I’m not invested in the story’s romantic pairings per se (I really enjoy them—I do love how RWBY handles its romantic arcs—but the romance isn’t what’s gluing me to the story), hence my interest in Jaune/Cinder largely comes down to noting that the narrative set up for it is, uhm, conspicuous, and trusting I’ll enjoy seeing how it unfolds. But I was irately nodding along with some of your posts on the Weiss topic earlier in the volume because the out of nowhere of it all really Bugged Me, so I’m interested to hear how this line of thinking tracks from a less casual-enjoyer J/C perspective? Hence rambling in your inbox, apologies for the lengthy ask.

Okay, if you guys really actually love me, please use paragraph breaks. I try to mindfully use paragraph breaks and space out text as best I can to make for an easier reading experience myself. It might also help that if you're sending an essay like this you supply a title with it and maybe even a tl;dr so I don't accidentally skim-read it and delete it assuming it's about something else. Someone bringing an essay about Jaune/Weiss into my inbox really is cause for alarm. You don't know the stuff I've historically just deleted.

Just so everyone knows, Tumblr used to have a word limit of around - I want to say like 250 words, so a paragraph - and a lot of us are still getting adjusted to the freeform wordcount. It's a really different experience because I'm not just answering brief thoughts/questions, I'm now like, interacting with whole essays, and to be entirely frank I'm not overly fond of it. You have to appreciate the length of my response to brief questions (e.g. this very ask here today). I don't think Tumblr is conducive to a debate format like this lol.

That being said: yeah I had separate thoughts about Blake/Sun and its equivalency to Jaune/Weiss, and I was talking to my IRL friend about that yesterday; in the past I've speculated that the Blake relationship patterns also reflect Jaune's, including a point of contention over a redhead kill. I didn't make any posts about the development of Blake/Sun as it pertains to V9!Jaune/Weiss, mostly because I actually hated that storyline then and found its development really boring (on my rewatches I'm really bad and usually just skip past Blake's storyline when Ilia's not around) and I didn't feel confident expressing my feelings on the matter. So that being said, that you've outlined what seem to be eerie parallels, I think you've arguably done a better job than I possibly could on the topic.

So consider yourself the very rare exception in this circumstance where I'm not annoyed and actually quite grateful. Even further I'm grateful someone else noticed the parallel to Blake/Sun, so I'm not the only one seeing it. I agree with everything you've said here (although I would quibble that the romances are thematically and narratively fundamental to the show, and I am personally here for the show insofar as I think its most interesting ideas are actually realised through the romances and the character redemptions. I'm a 'shipper' in a very serious sense that might run contrary to casual fandom, but a shipper all the same).

I'm glad you found my earlier posts about Jaune/Weiss relieving, because I feel pretty alone on the matter since it's obviously a ship some people want to happen, and it's the 'obvious choice' insofar as lazy storytelling. Nice guy waits patiently and gets hot and she finally notices him, yay. I'm gonna puke. Nevermind the replacement goldfish business.

I'm very curious that you're not largely a shipper and you're mostly approaching the matter textually; first of all, way to blow up my ego, because you know the frightful thing with Jaune/Cinder is of course the accusation I'm biased and seeing things because I want them to smooch, but further to that, if you don't mind me asking, what convinced you? I think what you've outlined here with the romances suggests we have similar background of analysis, especially that tension between the shiny thing in the left hand (anime romantic trope) and the textual meat in the right hand being disguised. This type of magician's foreshadowing trick is interesting, even if at times I feel it's a little mean when they do it (it's not a RWBY exclusive thing, just maybe some elements of how it's done). To be totally frank, I do think the shipbaiting is partly to stir furore, but the out-of-nowhereness did make it a little strange (and tonally off with his reintroduction, but that's me).

Seriously, go back and rewatch Volumes 4-8 and compare the Jaune/Weiss interactions to the romances developing at that time. Every reunion, there's no major Jaune/Weiss reunion (V5/V8) when all the others get one, there's barely any dialogue, even when he's healing her in an ostensibly major fucking dramatic scenario their dialogue barely scratches the surface of just buddies being friends. If I were a shipper I'd be disappointed because fan of the romance or no, there is genuine intensity to the other canonical romances, even completely pre-canon ones (e.g. Oscar/Ruby confrontation in V5 and their whole everything). So the out-of-nowhereness in V9 is either bad writing, or it's paralleling Blake/Sun and is saying things about who Jaune once thought he should've been. I'm not going to repeat all of my Jaune posts, but seriously, the only way I can intuitively parse this is that he puts all of those notions about who he should've been to bed, including the idle childish fantasy of the perfect princess (who doesn't even want to be a princess, so who is the one in this story who desperately wants to be a Maiden). I think it's especially damning that Weiss has only noticed him 'now' from a textual perspective, even if shippers consider it 'finally earnt' now he's hot or whatever. Shiny thing in the left hand, meat in the right hand.

If the show had committed to Blake/Sun, hey, I'd give it to the Jaune/Weiss shippers no problem. But it didn't and it was never intended to. So what fucking gives? Because I really don't think it was only purely shipbaiting with those two; I think there was something more weighted there done with the teasing and who the characters are/who they want to be, even if there was some of that. So is the story smart or not? Are they setting up Jaune to do things related to Cinder after this for a reason? (If we do get a parallel of V4/V5 fully, Jaune does want to hunt Cinder down back then, and um... I'm just saying, Blake returns to Yang after her time with Sun...)

So if you've got (bold for kill, central conflict to the given canon endgame pairing): Blake/Adam = Jaune/Pyrrha, Blake/Ilia = Jaune/Weiss (Beacon era), Blake/Sun = Jaune/Weiss (V9), Blake/Yang = Jaune/who??????? WHO, PRAY TELL??????

[swee7dream]

nct dream as partners to an age regressor cg!nct dream x f!reader

dni: if you sexualize age regression and/or have an 18+ blog.

genres agere content, fluff warnings feminine nicknames dni if you sexualize age regression author's note hihi ! first time blogging, kinda nervous ... i've had this idea in my little marble head for quite some time and now here i am posting it !

mark lee (ᓀ‸ᓂ)

ur gonna be the death of him. poor boy is stressed 25/8

he's doing his best but he still doesn't quite understand at times

a quality time lover ! sometimes he gets so immersed in his own thing he doesn't notice you switch tasks until it's too late,,,,

"oh no! oh dude... i'm so sorry man, c'mere. no, don't apologize. it's my fault. it's ok. you can cry all you want. let's just get a bandaid on that gnarly cut, okay?"

when he's sorry, he means it ! after the pb&j knife switcheroo incident, he made sure to set alarms to make your meals just in case you've regressed that day and can't (safely) make your own food

a very good listener ! he loves listening to u talk for hours and hours and hours and hours and

listens intently to the explanation of your shows, the names of your plushies, and the storylines currently on going as you play pretend

loves playing pretend. at first, he was a bit shy, breaking character and laughing into his hands when embarrassment got the best of him, but now bro is confident! u could place him in a broadway show and no one would think he's out of place

could be said he was actually the one who made the first move to play pretend.

"...whatcha doing?" "playing" "...what are you playing?" after being burned under your x-ray vision gaze for no less than 5 seconds, you hand him a plushie and 'insist' on him playing with you

not one for titles or nicknames. mark is mark, you are you!

punishments are the last of his worries. hopefully, you don't make it rise the ranks

huang renjun ૮ ˙Ⱉ˙ ა

manners freak

"ah!" he always has to hold whatever you asked for out of your reach. "what do we say? it starts with a t and ends with a 'you'."

does all sorts of crafts with you

one time, he drew your favorite character and you loved it so much you made him put it on your wall then and there. he was undermining it and complaining that he didn't want to get up and do all the work that involves framing it but the smile and blush on his face told a different story

lets you put stickers on him! only the pretty ones that he's approved beforehand. and NOT on his hair. he's chinese, not korean. he doesn't need the military service buzzcut

like mark, not big on titles. they make him uncomfortable tbh. nicknames for you, however, he does quite like (tiny, munchkin, etc.).

happy to let you be independent while regressed under STRICT supervision

goes so far as to make little songs and jingles to you can sing along to as you perform certain tasks so you both know you're doing things safely and correctly even when out of his eyesight

ur complete coloring pages go right next to his pieces of art on the fridge. u are both artists !

lullabies are a must. the man is a singer for a living ! good night! z Z z ....

punishments usually consist of renjun nagging on for over an hour. you don't really tend to listen. it's mostly for him to let out his frustration before the big stepper comes for you.

"and NO ice cream this weekend!" "NO!"

lee jeno ૮ .◜◡◝ა

first one to actually not mind titles ! he can live without them but they scratch an itch in his brain like nothing else can

two words: cute aggression. leans in to kiss your cheek only to bite it. he bites your nose. he bites your EARS ?! someone lock this man up !

hugs you in a way that presses the cheeks of the two of you until you look like twins conjoined at the head

the cuddliest man ever like i've never seen a more teddy bear-coded individual?!?!?!

"gotta pee." "hold it." "i can't!" grumbling jeno noises

started going back to the gym after seeing how much he you like being carried

he doesn't really talk a lot when in cg mode, but you've known him long enough that you can read his body language just fine

might actually be in cg space more than you are regressed !

just anything that you do, big or little. it's so precious to him. he feels the urge to just protect you from everything!!!

no !!! u can't go outside !!! what if bugs bite u?!!! oh u brought bug spray? ok... send him a message of when u get on the bus! and when u get off the bus! and to ur friend's house! actually, just let him drive u ok? give him five minutes to change !

the worst at dishing out punishments out of all of dream. a pout, a teary eye, a sniffle, he's unraveling at the seams.

he sits on a chair by the bed, arms crossed with a stern look. you could shatter it with a bat of your lashes, but you know you need this.

"i'll be sitting here until you fall asleep. we could've played chutes and ladders tonight like you wanted if you hadn't thrown away your veggies, angel."

lee donghyuck ʕ˙Ⱉ˙‧:ʔ

he is the baby. wdym you are ?

poor boy is used to being the youngest and acting cute, what is he supposed to do now that the tables are turned?

at the beginning, it's lots of awkward head pats and hugs of comfort.

sits you on his lap while he's gaming, playing with you and your toys in between matches

kind of insecure to be ur cg :( give the boy praise and appreciation!

"you," he sighs, looking away from you. "you should really be in bed by now. it's past your bedtime." "but you're not asleep." another sigh. "i know..."

when his confidence and comfortability is up tho? big big BIG on the baby talk and praise to the point you have to remind him you guys are in public!!! it started out as a joke (yk how he is, being annoying on purpose with his main weapon being aegyo). he doesn't think it's a joke anymore guys,,,,,,,,,,,,,

titles are goofy to haechan. he calls you the same he always does.

"what about me? did i do a good job today?" he asks, striking a ridiculous pose. "yeah ! you're the best, chan ! :D" "... :( thank u baby :,("

punishments don't exist actually! he's right there next to you. silly string all over the room? it was his idea to play spiders. veggies thrown away? impossible. he never bought them to begin with. didn't do your assignment? was it that important to begin with? hyuck doesn't think so

might be a regressor too ! on the older side, perhaps (pre-teen - teenage)

na jaemin ଘ(੭ˊᵕˋ)੭

terrible for big space. just the absolute worst

baby talk and aegyo is not an action for him, it's a lifestyle. makes you do one or the other (or both if he's feeling particularly sadistic i mean playful) if you want something or as a punishment on the lighter side

probably made you slip multiple times before you even told him you regress

all the cheesy, cringy, cliche stuff? he does that. shamelessly too

loves titles and uses them on himself even if you don't. doesn't make you call him anything, but he loves how it 'rolls off the tongue so well!'

he's an addict to nicknames for you. finds them randomly

"oh man, look at that rabbit! it's so cute!" "just like y/n" "what" just randomly takes out his phone in the middle of walking to text you nana: hi bunny you: ? you: hi?

acts of service are his natural calling. you might as well be quadriplegic.

makes your favorite drink for you! ur too little to do it urself !!! let him do it for u (pls pls pls pls pls he's on his knees)

also makes lunches for you that are all pretty and shaped like some sort of animal when ur feeling small ! he stopped doing cats though since one time you felt like you were eating luna and cried.

you two literally fight to death about who loves who the most. jaemin has to be tied to a chair in the basement of an abandoned building to let you do literally anything for him

punishments are extremely rare. virtually non-existent. he prefers to talk things through and give rewards rather than take away

health is important! it's so so important to him he set up a meal plan where you eat the rainbow three times a day.

makes you exercise with him.........

"i'll be home in about half an hour, jellybean. do you think you could finish a bottle of water by then? i know you can. i'll see you soon, okay?"

zhong chenle (ᯟ︿ᯏ)

you know those people that talk to babies like they're grown people that pay taxes and drink alcohol? that's chenle

he knows you've regressed and you're not in the mindset of an adult anymore, but he isn't a big baby talk person like jaemin is

the nicknames he uses for you are very classic so he can use them both in public and in private (doll, dollface, princess, etc.)

surprisingly into his role as cg? like, he has a chart set up for you and everything. if he's abroad/not around, he'll call you so you can place the gold stars yourself in his behalf

another manners enthusiast

uses titles for himself and expects you to use them too

"'can i have dessert please, what?', princess? what word is missing from that sentence?"

doesn't say much but always keeps an eye or hand on you in public.

bro is nonchalant (for the most part. just don't read his locked notes)

"a gift? i didn't buy you anything" LIAR. "what pink box? have you opened it? bring it over here. let me see"

he's very patient, just stern since he has strict boundaries and rules. constantly encouraging you to have firm boundaries as well.

"is this ok?" "do you not like this?" "how do you feel about that?"

go-to punishment is writing lines. always gives you a yogurt or some other snack when you finish. mostly does it for himself, he doesn't like staying on the subject of punishment/bad behavior. there's better things to do in his opinion

his favorite activity to do with you when small is your text message conversations. no words, no talking, just a photo message from you (!!!! look what i'm doing !!!!) and a photo from him in response (!!!! good job i'm so proud of you !!!! here's what i'm doing !!!!)

park jisung (∩˃o˂∩)

a lot like mark, not a fans of titles or nicknames

more of a listener. has lots of questions but doesn't want to interrupt the groove with which you're explaining the lore of equestria so he just nods his head in hopes that he'll understand with time and context

the one who would adjust the fastest to learning about your age regression out of all the dreamies. give him five minutes and he'll be like "...ok. wanna watch tv now?"

jisung is so !!! silly !!!

a goofy boy. he loves making exaggerated reactions and expressions to make you laugh

"gah-!" you've hit him with an invisible arrow! jisung holds his chest, stumbling back to slowly fall down onto the floor. very very slowly. "you've shot me... i can feel my life force leaving me... why... would you do this...? bleh."

kind of has a sixth sense for you. if something triggers you and makes you slip in public, he's like a cat that heard something no one else can.

pulsing your hand in his to get your attention only for you to avoid eye contact is a dead giveaway. he might not always be able to leave the event, but he makes sure to give you a break of just you two. breathing exercises, grounding techniques, he also lets you play with the plush toy keychain he bought for occasions just like these.

the first time you shutdown verbally when small, jisung panics! he's running around looking up on the internet how to 'talk without talking'. now he's a baby sign language expert. good job, you! /gen

author's note can u tell this came from a jaemin delusion? he's just so cg coded my LORD T-T

[westshellos]

equate coffee @ orchard central

a couple months before their orchard central outlet opened, i visited equate coffee’s original tanjong pagar store. i can’t remember the exact cost of the items or the exact variety of food or drinks offered, but i do remember only being able to order mostly coffee and some tea variants (i believe i had a matcha latte?). i did enjoy the ambience at the tanjong pagar outlet—apart from being located in a small, quiet corner in tanjong pagar plaza, the storefront is framed with a gigantic jagged-edged, almost raw-looking (but not really, obviously) hole in the wall that serves as the entrance to the café. inside, the décor is a mix of brutalist and minimalist aesthetic, with unfinished (again, done intentionally, of course) cement screed floors and tiny stools next to tiny coffee tables. 

(photo from shout.sg, sorry. i didn’t intend to review this place when i was there)

so when i heard they were opening a new outlet in orchard, i was pretty excited. i was a little disappointed, though, when i found out it was in orchard central, a shopping mall. i don’t know if it’s personal bias, or if it’s a legitimate design concern, but cafés in malls just don’t feel the same as cafés located in your average gentrified-retro-looking-shophouse neighborhood. i could go on about how the location of these cafés plays a role in its “artisanal” image but that’s probably a topic for another post. 

i don’t completely hate the design of the new outlet. i do like how they kept the brutalist theme and added an eco twist to it—the two large tree trunks sprouting from the center of the space and the shrubs growing between slabs of rocks add a hint of nature and greenery to the drab of the steel-and-glass interior of orchard central. 

the counter, like the tanjong pagar outlet entrance, is also framed by the same jagged-edge, hole-int-the-wall design, which again helps break the monotony of the mall setting. 

the décor couldn’t save the café from the awful overhead lighting of the mall, though. it ultimately made for a difficult time trying to capture photos of the food without any harsh shadows lurking over the table. combined with my lack of skill in photography, it’s safe to say my pictures were not the best. i apologize in advance. 

as for the food, i had a cup of hot mocha ($5.50) with a tonkatsu sandwich ($15.80) and hazelnut chocolatine ($7.80). 

the mocha was a little bitter and acidic; admittedly, i can’t say much about its quality or value-for-money, but it was good for the most part. i wanted the iced version but must’ve screwed up my order. it’s my bad, they do operate on a self-served ordering system where you scan a qr code for the menu, select what you want and pay on the website.  

the tonkatsu sandwich is supposedly made up of “japanese panko-breaded pork loin, emmental, sesame dressing and shredded cabbage in toasted milk bread”, according to the café menu. the pork loin was cooked perfectly, which helped to bring the whole dish together.   

the hazelnut chocolatine is essentially a filled croissant in cubic form—to be fair they do state it on the menu, as i quote here: “croissant filled with homemade chocolate hazelnut praline”. i appreciate the aesthetic novelty though. 

i like the contrasting textures in this one. the softness of the praline pairs nicely with the crunchiness of the hazelnuts and mini chocolate biscuit balls. along with the perfectly flaky pastry and irresistible cube shape, this is probably my favorite dish here. 

overall:

7/10 affordability

8/10 taste

6.5/10 ambience

[barnesafterglow]

blind date

summary: your best friend sets you up on a blind date with the last person you expect

pairing: tasm!peter parker x reader

word count: 963

warnings: slightly awkward but peter is adorable, gwen is a great wing woman, so much dialogue i'm so sorry

a/n: here is day 9 of my writing challenge with the prompt getting set up together by mutual friends. sorry it is once again late but i think i overestimated myself a little with this writing challenge rip . thank you very much to @itistimeforusalltodecidewhoweare for reassuring me that this is not terrible <;/3

main masterlist ─ challenge masterlist i no longer have a taglist, but you can follow @theafterglowlibrary and turn on post notifications to get fic updates! 🤍

You stopped short just as you rounded the block towards the coffee shop, causing an older woman to slam into your back. You mumbled an apology to her as you stepped onto a doorstep, phone still pressed to your ear, and had to fight a laugh as she flipped you off before continuing on her way.

“Sorry, I’m meeting who?” you repeated, not quite believing what you were hearing.

“Peter,” Gwen responded.

“Peter? As in, Peter Parker? As in, your ex-boyfriend, Peter Parker?”

“The one and only.”

“What the fuck.” Your best friend was certifiably insane. Peter had only had eyes for Gwen for two years, and just because they had an amicable break up didn’t make it any less weird for her to be setting the two of you up on a blind date.

“You know, just because you and Felicia are all happy and in love doesn’t mean I’m not content to be alone,” you griped, but nevertheless slipped back into the foot traffic.

“I know, but you don’t have to be.” She paused, and you heard a rustle in the background. “I gotta go, but if it goes as terribly as you think it will - which it won’t, by the way - I’ll buy you your favorite bottle of wine as an apology. Swear.”

“Fine.” You could see Peter was already sitting at a table in the corner.

“Awesome, love you, bye.”

“Love -” Your phone cut off with a beep, signaling Gwen had hung up, and you shoved it in your bag with a huff. Then, you took a deep breath and stepped inside.

His eyes snapped to you as soon as you walked in, even without the usual bell ringing overhead, almost like he could sense your presence. Your eyes locked and he did an - admittedly adorable - awkward little wave. You tried to force a smile, but could feel your hands sweating with each step closer to him.

The thing was, you had always had a crush on Peter. Long before he did everything in his power to wow Gwen, you had held a burning torch that you let diminish once Gwen showed interest back. You never told her, but a best friend always knew.

It didn’t hurt when they started dating. You held no grudges; you had always just wanted both of them to be happy. Even when they broke up - which it had been almost a year - you didn’t hold onto any hope for a relationship with him. It felt like breaking girl code, but obviously Gwen didn’t see it that way.

When you finally slid into the chair across from Peter, you noticed there was already a cup there with your name on it.

“It’s chai.” Peter sounded nervous. “Gwen said it was your favorite.”

“It is. Thank you, Peter.” You reached across the table and laid your hand atop his, stopping him from fiddling with the napkin in front of him. “So, uh -”

“I’m sorry she didn’t tell you. I asked her not to. I didn’t think you would come if you knew you were meeting me.”

“Wait, you knew that she was setting us up?” You had assumed he was just as clueless to Gwen and her scheming, but apparently you were wrong.

He blinked, slowly, and you felt like you were missing something vital to the conversation.

“You.. She didn’t tell you?” Yeah, you were definitely missing something.

“Tell me what?”

“I asked her to set us up.” You were in no way expecting that. Peter wanted to go on a date with you? Why hadn’t Gwen told you? There were too many questions that you weren’t sure you were ready to hear the answers to.

“I am very confused right now, Peter.” 

“Would you have come if you had known?”

“Well -”

“Exactly. You always kept me at arm’s length and I never knew why and I just wanted a chance to -” 

“Peter,” you interrupted him. “Calm down, okay?” 

You realized your hand was still resting on top of his and started to pull away, but with lightning quick reflexes, he stopped you. Your eyes locked and you could tell he was freaking out just as much as you were, yet neither of you could look away. With a little smile on your face, you let him clasp your hand between his, and you continued.

“I always kept you at a distance,” you tried to do air quotes with the one free hand you had, “because I had a crush on you, and you always wanted Gwen. Which was fine, and I dealt with it, but I never wanted to step on any toes. So, yeah, that’s the distance and I’m sure Gwen didn’t tell you because, like, girl code or whatever and that would be totally uncool of her.”

All of a sudden he was laughing, near hysterics, clutching your hand to his chest as he hunched over in his chair. You eyed him in shock, waiting for him to calm down, and his laughter finally died off. He wiped a stray tear from his eye as he looked at you again.

“She really is a schemer, huh? She’s been listening to it from both sides, and she decided a blind date was the easiest way to get us together. She’s smart, but we already knew that.”

She really was, and you couldn’t believe she had played you both so well. But that was Gwen for you.

“I guess it worked out, though.” Your eyes met Peter’s and you smiled at each other, the first real smile you had managed, the anxiety of this date leaving your body.

“Yeah, I guess it did.” He squeezed your hand - the one he was still holding - and took a sip of his coffee. “It really did.”

[blackwatchbastard]

Long Time No See

Rating: T Chapter(s): 1/1 Relationship(s): Gabriel Reyes/Jack Morrison Warnings: N/A Words: 3,335 Additional Tags: Sap and Fluff, Kissing, Established Relationship, Long Distance Pining, Soft Old Men

Summary: Neither of them ever really did enjoy the time apart. But it makes for some damn good reunions.

A/N: That good ol’ long distance pining and cute reunion shit I said I was going to do ages ago because of @mysadtwodads2

(ao3)

Another mission, another month apart. Jack felt the dread boiling in his gut the closer they got to the airport. Really, as far as Blackwatch assignments went this one was a cake walk. But he wasn’t worried about Gabriel being able to handle himself and his agents, he was more worried about what one would consider lesser issues.

“You’re going to be able to sleep alright, right?” he asked, one hand on the small of Gabriel’s back as they approached his gate.

Gabriel shrugged and leaned to kiss his temple, eyes on the message he was typing in his data pad. “No.” he replied casually, “You know how it is.”

Humming in agreement, Jack leaned against Gabriel’s side. When he finished his message Gabriel stuffed the pad in his hoodie pocket and turned his attention to the sulking man stuck to his side.

“You look how I feel.” he said, teasing, and ambled to a stop outside his gate to wrap his arms around Jack’s shoulders lazily. Jack pressed in and kissed the corner of his lips, feeling him smile under the gesture, and felt fingers winding into his hair.

“Must feel bad, then.”

“Terrible.” Gabriel confirmed. Then, “You have to remember how to smile while I’m gone, alright? No frightening the children with your moods.” Jack wrinkled his nose. “I mean it.”

“I’ll do my best.” Jack replied blandly.

Gabriel grinned and pressed a noisy kiss to his lips before heading for his plane. “All I ask.” he shot back playfully, “See you in October.”

Jack watched him go with a lump in his throat he couldn’t swallow and then headed home. He spent the next week or so wrapped up in a botched Overwatch mission, paperwork flying in and out of his office at breakneck paces, and by the time things slowed down he barely realized how little he and Gabriel had been able to speak. He managed to steal a rare day off and, after finagling around the time zone issue, set up a chance to talk properly that evening.

Gabriel looked exhausted on the feed. Thick bags under his eyes and laying in bed even though the international time clock told Jack it was near noon where he was. But he still smiled when he saw Jack; that sappy mellow thing he didn’t realize he was doing. If Jack’s desire for the ability to reach through the phone hadn’t been strong before it was then.

“You alright, babe?”

Gabriel bit back a yawn and said, “No,” because there was no sense in trying to fib his way out of it. The question was admittedly a bit of a trap.

“What do you need?”

“Sleep.” Another muffled yawn. “Jesse told me to lay down and do mission notes later because I was being quote ‘a cranky baby’ unquote.” He threw his voice a little to mimic McCree’s drawl and Jack snorted. “Haven’t made any progress yet.”

Jack watched him adjust his position irritably and hummed in consideration. When Gabriel settled down he asked, “Anything I can help with?”

“Come turn me into a human body pillow like you love to do and I’ll be asleep in minutes.”

“Second best option?” Jack ventured.

“You could try snoring?” Gabriel offered, “That helps.”

Jack snorted. “You make me sound like a wonderful bedmate, you know.”

Gabriel laughed and melted a little into his pillows. There was a moment of consideration, then he said, “Your voice helps.”

“So the sounds of gravel and smoker’s regrets is going to soothe you to sleep?” Jack teased. Gabriel just nodded and squeezed his eyes shut. “Alright, whatever floats your boat, sunshine.”

So he spent the next hour or so on the phone, chatting with Gabriel until he drifted off. Then a brief period after just watching him sleep (just to be sure he was out for good, of course, no sap there) before he finally forced himself to return to his evening.

The rest of the time apart drew on as slowly as one would expect. But they both did their best to stay busy between small chances to talk. And as soon as Jack had a time and date for Gabriel’s return flight he put in for the day off and glared down anyone who tried to argue against it. A few days later and he was headed for the airport.

The minute Jack rounded the corner and spotted Gabriel, lost in his data pad and dragging his luggage, his heart bloomed in his chest. Truthfully, he looked like a mess. Bags under his eyes, wrinkled old hoodie, sweats, ratty slip ons, and that ‘I slept on the window’ look to his beard.

Jack Morrison had never been more in love.

“Gabe!”

Gabriel dropped his arms and glanced around rapidly as soon as he registered his voice, eyes going wide. When his gaze fell on Jack’s he instantly broke into a grin. Like sunshine on flowers.

Jack stuck his arms out and Gabriel stuffed his data pad in his hoodie pocket before abandoning his suitcase and breaking into a run across the space between them. He dove into Jack’s arms and dissolved into laughter when Jack hoisted him off the ground and spun, face squished against his shoulder. His feet hadn’t even hit the floor before he was kissing Jack, one hand grabbing a handful of his hair to keep him in place.

They both sank as Jack set him on his feet again, Jack leaning into the kiss and grabbing handfuls of Gabriel’s hoodie. He pulled him as impossibly close as he could manage and hunched awkwardly as he tried to chase Gabriel’s mouth when he finally retreated for air.

“Easy, tiger,” Gabriel drawled when they finally broke apart, “act like you haven’t seen me in years.”

“Felt like years.” Jack mumbled, pressing his lips to Gabriel’s temple instead. Gabriel laughed and nudged his chest.

“Like that could happen. You’d die with me gone that long.”

“I would.” Jack didn’t even hesitate that reply. Instead, he ducked to press his face into the crook of Gabriel’s neck and breathed deeply. His shoulders went slack, tension leaving in waves, and he lingered a moment before he felt the other man shift with a faint chuckle.

“I can’t smell nice. Been hopping planes for the past 48 hours.”

“You hungry?” Jack asked, swapping subjects rapidly, “Tired?” Gabriel shrugged and Jack felt his fingers tease back into the hair on the nape of his neck. “Wanna go home?”

“Home sounds good.” Then, “Also, I’d go toe to toe with God for some good pad thai right now, if you can stop by the place we order from on the way.”

“I got it.” Jack said. He shifted, arms looping around Gabriel’s middle and hoisting him off the ground again–this time met with some protest. “I got it.”

Gabriel squirmed a bit but seemed to give in and swung his legs around Jack’s hips to keep from getting drug across the airport. Jack just did a quick loop to grab his suitcase, one hand squeezing at his thigh as they set off for the car.

“Clingy. Act like you missed me or something.” he teased when he felt Jack’s chin dig into his shoulder. But there wasn’t even a little bite to it–all pure adoration. Didn’t help that Gabriel was still combing absently at his air the whole time.

Jack just chuckled faintly and rolled his eyes. “Oh? What gave you that impression?” he asked.

He could feel Gabriel smiling when he pressed his lips to his cheek. Made the whole attempt at teasing hold even less water.

“Oh, just a hunch.”

They’d been apart for years. Years. The last thing either of them had in mind was splitting up when they finally got to be together again. Once they’d figured everything out and got to be in each other’s company it wasn’t on the radar.

But duty had a habit of calling when they wanted to hear it least. And as much as Gabriel had been annoyed about Sombra’s multiple messages that morning he couldn’t exactly deny her. He had promises to keep.

Jack saw him off at the helipad, toting one of his bags for him and wrapping a scarf around his neck while he tried to go over the details Sombra had sent and eat a bagel at the same time. They were both unhappy about it but it wasn’t expected to be that long.

“Sombra promised it’d be a week.” Gabriel reminded him when he caught Jack making those damn puppy eyes again. “One week, old man. You’ll survive.”

Jack tugged at the ends of his scarf and puffed out a sigh. Pointedly, he didn’t look at Gabriel this time when he asked, “You sure about that?”

“Yes, I am. You’ve survived worse.”

To punctuate his point, Gabriel took Jack’s chin in his hand and traced the scarring cutting through his lip. The response was a quick kiss to the pad of his thumb and another eyeful of those awful sad dog eyes.

“Not like I’m happy about this either, babe. She’s taking me to Russia again. Gonna freeze my damn ass off.”

“I’m sorry.”

Jack tugged at his scarf again, pulling him closer, and Gabriel got the message. He ducked in for a brief kiss and, based on the fact he probably tasted like cream cheese and the transport copter was starting up in the background and kicking up dust and his coat tails, it was best to keep it that way. Even if Jack pressed after him when they parted, kissing the corner of his mouth and his lower lip before finally slacking the hold on him.

“Be safe.”

“Yes, dear.”

“Call me when you can.”

“Of course, baby.”

“Don’t let Sombra get you into any trouble.”

Gabriel stole a glance over his shoulder. In the window, Sombra had smooshed her face up against the glass. When she caught him looking she mimed rubbing tears away with her fist and puckered her lower lip out dramatically. Gabriel briefly stashed his data pad inside Jack’s coat pocket to flip her off. Sombra responded by clutching her chest dramatically and dropping out of view in her seat.

“That’s my girl.” Gabriel hummed, turning his attention back to Jack with a grin plastered on his face. “We’ll be fine, promise. Just a little espionage. Just like old times. Cept this time instead of a cowboy and a ninja I’ve got little miss cyberpunk.”

“Not too late to invite the ninja or cowboy, you know.”

Gabriel scoffed and freed his tablet from Jack’s pocket (begrudgingly). “No thanks.” he said, taking his duffle bag from Jack and hiking it up high on his shoulder. “Those two, and everyone else, are all you guy’s job this week. Hope you and Ana got some sleep.”

“Winston helps sometimes.” Jack ventured, grinning faintly.

“He’s too soft on the punks.”

“One to talk.”

Gabriel held a finger up to his lips. “Hey, don’t give away my secret. I’m the fun dad.”

Jack laughed and leaned in, managing to steal one more kiss before Gabriel slumped his shoulders and headed for the transport. He made a point not to look back until he was already buckled in and stuck next to Sombra (who had already started blaring Selena through the speakers somehow). Because it was usually all he could do not to visibly sulk as badly as Jack did when they were together. He waved out the window, Jack wiggling his fingers after him, and sank back once they took off.

Once they were apart, however, it was all holds off. He tossed his scarf at Sombra halfway into the trip and kicked his seat back, arms folded over his chest and ear buds jammed in. Made it a bit hard to realize Sombra was talking to him until she leaned over his face and papped roughly at his chest.

“What?”

“You gonna pout the whole time, Gabo?”

“I’m not–”

“Were you and Morrison this joined at the hip when you were younger? Or is this a thing you grew into?”

“We–”

“Is my music not good enough for you, by the way? Gotta play your sad emo shit?”

Gabriel cut his eyes at her. “It’s 1980s rock…” The first full thought he’d managed to get out. Sombra scrunched up her nose.

“Older than grandpa music.”

“Selena is from literally almost the same time period.”

Sombra waved him off easily. “Yeah, but she’s a classic.” she countered.

They spent the rest of the flight making subtle snipes at each other’s music tastes and Gabriel almost managed to shove down that dull ache in his chest once they were to work on her little project. It was easy to focus elsewhere when they had things to do. But when they hit a safe house that night and Sombra passed out on the sleeper couch, leaving him alone with a pile of blankets and pillows but no too-warm super soldier to coil around him like the world’s weirdest starfish, it came back with a vengeance.

Gabriel didn’t know what time it was back with Jack. Probably late, or early. But it didn’t really matter, he knew he was going to call him anyway as soon as he opened his eyes after trying to squeeze them shut and force sleep. It was easier to just give in and roll over, grab his data pad and punch in a video call request for ‘call-sign: Soldier76’.

(Gabriel made a mental note to have Sombra hack it later and let him change the call-sign. Something more fitting like ‘Soldier Flatass’. But, knowing her, it’d end up being something like ‘Schnookums76’. Maybe he’d try his hand at it first.)

Jack answered on the third ring with a “Hey, sunshine.” He looked awake enough, coffee cup in the frame as he greeted Gabriel and fiddled with the pad a moment before propping it on something and sitting back slightly. Gabriel took in the background a little better; warm lighting, coffee cup, and wire furniture.

“You’re having breakfast?” he asked. Jack nodded and took a draw off his coffee.

“I made pancakes.” Jack drawled.

“Asshole.”

That summoned a laugh. Jack pressed two fingers to his lips and held them to the camera. Gabriel just stuck his tongue out and flopped back into his mess of bedding, tablet held above his head.

“Mission going well?” Jack asked.

Gabriel shrugged. “It’s been okay. Bit of a goose chase but eh. It’s Sombra.” Then, “I miss you.”

“That’s just because you’re cold.” Jack teased.

“Maybe. Take what you can get.”

The other man laughed and shook his head. He looked so warm and softened in the morning light. Gabriel felt his chest tighten some and tried to ignore it. Instead, he focused on the way Jack paused to take another sip of his coffee before speaking.

“I miss you too. Slept like shit.”

“Sombra says we’re too needy and that’s why we can’t sleep apart.” Gabriel offered, grinning faintly.

Jack scoffed loudly. “Don’t care. I’m too old to give a fuck about what it means when I can’t sleep without my partner.”

Gabriel muffled a laugh into his fist. “Same.”

Jack went to say something else but Gabriel accidentally cut him off with a loud yawn. Stretching, he flipped sideways and propped the data pad in his pillows. That whole display earned him a sympathetic little frown.

“Trouble sleeping, babe?”

“Mm.”

Jack hummed thoughtfully and propped his chin on his fist. After a moment of consideration, he asked, “What do you need me to do? Lullabies?” That one made Gabriel cringe and Jack chuckle. “Phone sex?”

“Nah.”

“Give it a few days and you’ll be harassing me at weird hours for it. I know you.” Gabriel rolled his eyes and Jack pushed on. “You can’t fool me. Just gotta hear it; I love you, Gabe, you feel so good, oh yeah, that’s–”

Gabriel flipped the tablet onto its face, hissing, and heard Jack let out a muffled laugh on the other end. When he finally flipped it back up he glared at the other man.

“No sex voice when Sombra is sleeping in the other room, asshole.”

Jack laughed again, fist stuffed against his mouth, but nodded. Took him a second to calm down before he could offer another suggestion.

“Want me to read for you?”

Gabriel hemmed and hawed and moment before finally nodding. So Jack grabbed a book off the shelf behind him (convenient for balcony relaxing) and set to work plugging through some trashy fantasy romance novel. Gabriel was asleep in no time. He woke up the next morning to a ‘good night’ text from Jack and Sombra cooking eggs in the tiny kitchenette.

By the time they headed back Gabriel felt like he was running on empty. He hadn’t slept half a shit the whole time, even with Jack’s dutiful reading, and every bit of him felt sore and tired and cold. It showed, clearly, considering Sombra even shoved his data pad at him on one occasion and told him to ‘have old man phone sex and stop being so pissy’ before leaving for the afternoon.

(They didn’t, though the thought crossed his mind. Instead, Gabriel listened to Jack go over repair reports while he fixed some tears in Sombra’s coat. Domestic bliss was all either of them ever really needed, it seemed.)

He spent the flight back bouncing his knee, much to Sombra’s loud annoyance, and staring out the window. The whole thing took too damn long. He couldn’t even really talk with Jack during the travel and it just made the whole focus even worse. If he could have at least bounced a few texts back and forth he might not have been so… insufferable.

Gabriel was out of his seat and onto the landing pad the second he could. His knee ached from the cold he’d been enduring, slowing him down a little, but the second he spotted Jack across the way he took off into a run anyway. Jack threw his arms out, grinning widely, and Gabriel collided with his chest a second later, legs swinging up to wrap around his waist in the embrace.

Unfortunately, the combination of momentum and Jack’s faulty joints made the approach a little more than either of them bargained for. Jack’s knees gave out and they dropped for the ground, both yelping and latching onto each other instinctively in their panic. There was a loud oof as Jack hit the ground and took most of Gabriel’s weight on top of him and Gabriel cringed as his knees banged against the hard asphalt ground but he sat up immediately to check Jack over. Dazed but unharmed, Jack blinked back up at him.

There was a pause, just briefly, then Jack said, “Act like you miss me or something.”

Gabriel blinked, then immediately dissolved into laughter and ducked down to squish his face against Jack’s chest. The other man laughed too, arms wrapping around Gabriel and pulling him down into a proper embrace, and for a while they just laid there laughing and hugging. Gabriel squirmed up enough to pepper Jack’s jaw line with kisses, still half crushed in his grasp, and felt all the angst and ice melting from his body with the warmth around him now.

Behind them, Gabriel heard Sombra snort loudly. “Saps.” she hissed, stepping past them headed for the base.

“Yeah, kinda,” Gabriel hummed, finally sitting up and awkwardly shuffling to his feet–pulling Jack along with him.

Jack leaned in and pressed a kiss to his temple, one arm swung around his shoulders. Gabriel tucked himself closer to Jack’s side and sighed contently.

“You missed me.” Jack said, teasingly sing-song in his tone.

Gabriel just rolled his eyes. “What ever gave you that idea?” he asked.

Jack bit back a laugh and shrugged. “Just a hunch.”

[sluttywonwoo]

sunkissed || l.sk x reader

Summary: more like sunburned. on vacation with seokmin you lay out on the beach for a little too long, making for a very interesting night.

Warnings: swearing, smut

Word Count: 1.8k

A/N: originally posted on my tom holland fic account ( @wazzupmrstark )

Masterlist

The sun was absolutely blinding and even though you were wearing sunglasses you couldn’t see anything. You knew your boyfriend was still stretched out in a lounge chair under the umbrella behind you, though, because you could hear him humming along to the music streaming from his phone, and that was all that mattered. 

Last time you’d been able to see him he had been hiding a copy of his new Excalibur script behind a book and feigning reading. The two of you had agreed to a no work on vacation rule, and he’d been the first to break it, but you could tell he was just so excited about his new project that you let it slide.

It was your first vacation with Seokmin, and so far it had been wonderful. You’d checked in yesterday and done a little bit of the touristy thing, but today you were content to lie on the beach for hours with no intention of moving. 

The sound of the crashing waves had lulled you to sleep a couple of times already, and you knew Seokmin would make fun of you for it later, but with the salty breeze and warm sand beneath you, you couldn’t help it. 

The water was spotted with some swimmers and surfers, but the beach itself wasn’t very crowded. You and Seokmin had planned your trip so that you’d just miss the summer break rush so everything could be a little more peaceful. 

You were pulled out of your half sleep when Seokmin’s humming stopped. You opened your eyes and tried to blink away the spots dancing at the edges of your vision when a weight dropped on top of you. You smirked as familiar lips planted a kiss to your cheek and tried to squirm away, but he had you pinned.

“Almost ready to go back up to the room, baby?” he murmured in your ear.

You nodded, and managed to twist your body underneath Seokmin to look up at him. Your eyes finally adjusted and you grinned lazily at the sight before you. His fair hair framed by the golden sunset behind him, brown eyes more dazzling than anything you’d ever seen, faint freckles starting to show on his cheeks from the sun. You consider yourself lucky that you didn’t need to leave home to see such a beautiful view.

You hadn’t been keeping track of the time, but now that you saw the sun setting over the water you realized how long you and Seokmin had been sitting out there.

“Are you hungry? Let’s get something to eat, babe.” 

“I could eat.”

“So could I,” he whispered breathily, sending a shiver down your spine despite the heat. 

You’d been teasing each other with the clichés all day: being a little more thorough than necessary with rubbing sunscreen on each other, you untying the back of your bikini to sunbathe, Seokmin running into the water for point two seconds just so you could see him soaking wet and admire the way the water glistened on his body. You were on vacation, and the hotel room was beautiful. It had tub on the balcony and a breathtaking view of the blue-roofed villas cascading down the cliffs as well as the water.

However, the bed had yet to be broken in, both of you had been exhausted after exploring Akrotiri and Pyrgos, but it was something you planned to remedy tonight. 

You followed Seokmin up to the room where you both got ready for dinner at a restaurant a friend had recommended to you. You wore a short, white, linen dress and Seokmin wore a similar white button-up that he left the top buttons undone on, so that he could show off his tan.

Dinner was much like the afternoon. The details were blurry, but there was a lot of alcohol and a lot of back and forth. By sheer luck the host had seated you at a tiny booth in the back of the restaurant where you could still see the cliffs, but also sit smushed next to each other. Seokmin kept one hand on your knee throughout the meal, and if asked later, he would deny moving it any further, but you recounted the events very differently. At one point, your lips were moving in a whisper against his ear and the base of his neck and you swore Seokmin’s grip on your leg got so tight you thought you might lose circulation. 

“You want dessert, baby?” he asked when the waiter approached your table with the shiny silver menus.

“I’m good,” you managed to say, slowly, but steadily. “You?”

“What I want isn’t on the menu,” he replied in the same tone, looking directly into your eyes, ignoring how the waiter in front of your table pursed his lips.

He’d probably heard that line a thousand times, especially working in a vacation spot like this. His eyes screamed ‘just fucking say you want to eat her out and go’ but for what it was worth, the line worked on you.

“So I’ll bring the check then?” he asked when neither of you addressed him. 

“Oh, yes please. Thanks.”

After fumbling with the key and stumbling into the room, you were beyond ready to be fucked senseless when Seokmin slapped your ass cheekily, making you cry out in pain.

“Ow, Seok,” you bit out, putting your hand where his had just been. 

His face contorted with concern. “I’m so sorry, y/n! I didn’t mean-”

“It’s okay,” you said, smoothing your dress out over your body.

“Are you okay?”

“Fine.”

He leaned back against the dresser, arms crossed, watching you with pain in his eyes. You knew how bad he felt about hurting you, but it wasn’t that big of a deal. Usually, there was pain mixed with pleasure, but this time was different. You could still feel the sting on your skin. Hesitantly, you lifted the edge of your dress and saw the unmistakable tint of a sunburn all down the back of your legs, complete with a still fading mark of a handprint on your ass.

Seokmin gasped. “Y/n.”

“What the fuck?”

“Baby, I’m so sorry, I had no idea,” he apologized again.

“Neither did I,” you groaned, squinting your eyes down at your body.

“You put on sunscreen didn’t you?” he asked and you had to bite your tongue before you snapped at him. 

“Of course I did!”

“Did you reapply?”

“Yeah, once I think.”

He didn’t say anything, but you knew he was judging you. “Here, I think we have some aloe,” Seokmin said and disappeared into the bathroom. He emerged moments later with the signature bottle of green gel in hand. 

“Take your dress off, baby,” he instructed and carefully helped you lift your dress over your head, careful not to let the fabric touch your body.

With a sigh, you threw yourself on the bed on your stomach, only smiling when you heard Seokmin’s little chuckle from behind you. You felt the weight shift on the bed as he climbed up next to you, and sat cross legged beside you. He pushed some of the hair out of your face with a soft grin and popped the cap on the bottle of aloe. 

You could tell he was trying his best not to come off as deflated, but you understood. You were disappointed too. You had been looking forward to getting good dick all day, and now every time you moved pain rippled through your body.

“This might be a bit cold,” Seokmin said as a disclaimer before rubbing the first bit of aloe onto your skin.

You sighed with relief as the gel instantly cooled your skin on impact. Seokmin was careful to rub it in gently, applying just enough so you wouldn’t be sticky later. He started with your calves and worked his way up, and you began to feel progressively better. 

Once he reached your thighs you fought the urge to clench them together. You knew it wasn’t the time, but your body didn’t, and your boyfriend’s fingers on your inner thighs was basically code for it. All of the feelings from the beginning of the night came rushing back and his fingers were just so close to where you wanted them. You had to actively fight the urge to moan. 

“Fuck, y/n,” he cleared his throat awkwardly as he continued to massage aloe onto your ass. “Are you, uh, wet?”

You only nodded in response, still not trusting yourself to open your mouth. 

“Do you want me to...” he trailed off, but you got the idea.

“God yes,” you sighed out and let the tension evaporate from your body as you felt Seokmin’s fingers work their way back down to your thighs, right where they had been. He was just about to give you what you wanted when you stopped him. “Wait,” you said, grabbing his wrist and he froze, afraid he had done something wrong. “Use your other hand,” you held up his right hand, covered with green goo for him to see. “I have a feeling aloe in my vagina won’t end well.”

He laughed and leaned down to kiss you. “Of course, whatever you want, baby.”

He started his ministrations again, continuing to rub aloe on your body with his right hand while he began to work two fingers inside of you. You moaned out, louder than expected at the combined relief from the gel and the pleasure from his fingers inside you. 

“Feel good?”

“So good, Seok, baby,” you breathed.

“Let me hear you,” he encouraged, inserting another finger. You gasped in response and felt your eyes roll to the back of your head. “Fuck, y/n, you’re so good for me,” Seokmin praised eliciting another moan from you.

You felt yourself getting closer and closer, teetering on the edge, but it wasn’t quite enough. “Seokmin,” you pleaded and looked back at him, catching him licking his lips, eyes filled with lust in the dim lighting, making you swear. “Fuck, Seok, please.”

“Hm?” he asked, ripping his attention from between your legs and meeting your eyes.

“Fuck, I need more,” you gasped. “I need you.”

“Don’t worry, angel,” he said in a raspy voice with a glint in his eye and a smirk pulling at his lips, “I’m nowhere near done with you yet.”

i didn’t go too in depth about what he sunburn looks like on the reader because…well, it’s different for everyone. like it’s a fucking tossup whether I’ll get sunburned or not because i’m hapa lol anyway lmk what you think I always appreciate feedback!!

send me an ask to be added to my taglist