#bc i have the stuff in the cart and i made things but i just need to find a way to send them

[lxnarphase]

━━ ❝ the way of the househusband ❞

☾₊‧⁺...cw : househusband!fushiguro toji x fem!reader, you are megumi's mom, flirting, playful banter, just overall silly and cute domestic life

☾₊‧⁺...lunar's note : just some simple lil toji hcs of him as a househusband! i need some sweet stuff of him without a lot of sexual stuff in it bc let's be real, in a domestic setting he's probably just a big clingy and mildly annoying bear husband

f. toji is never going to complain about being the one staying home, watching over the little gremlin that is megumi. he's got his own ways of bringing in money with that friend of his, shiu, but he's more than content to being the one in the frilly pink apron, cooking for you and the lil' man.

toji didn’t ever expect to get married, especially after how he was treated as a zenin. he didn't know much about love or how to connect with people, let alone you. but when you handed his ass to him with no struggle and a pretty smile on your face at the gym, he knew he wanted you. two years later and a shit load of aggressive flirting, toji ends up with you as his spouse and he wouldn't have it any other way.

so imagine toji's surprise when he's genuinely excited when you tell him your pregnant. he's excited but scared. him? a father? there's no way in hell he has any idea what to do, his own father was nothing but a piece of shit...so what if he turns out like him? but the moment you pop that big headed little fucker out of you, toji can't help but grin, that excitement of being a father and creating memories with this tiny little thing erasing all his fears.

whenever you come home from work, toji's usually in the living room with little megumi, who forced him to take part in the exercise part of his favorite kids show. you don't know how megumi, your one year old baby who still talked in little babbles, forced his massive giant of a father who could kill a man with a look to do 'exercise for baby,' but you know better than to question it when you see the two touching their toes in front of the tv.

sometimes, he's in the kitchen, however, wearing that 'kiss the cook' apron you got for his birthday. toji always wraps an arm around your waist and pulls you into a kiss, muttering a 'welcome home’ against your lips before poking your side and going back to what he was doing, proud grin on his face at the little screech he gets from you.

he's started to get better at dodging your hands when you go to poke him back, skirting around the table before going to scoop megumi up. “you would never do such an act in front of 'gumi, would you? what if he starts going around poking girls in their sides, hm? then i'll have to explain to his teacher that his mama can't keep 'er hands to herself.”

toji's got you there...so you back off, opting to press a kiss to babygumi’s little forehead, taking him from your husband’s arms when he makes grabby hands at you. you savor the betrayed look on toji's face, sticking your tongue out at him. he scoffs, rolling his eyes before going back to make sure dinner wasn’t burnt. he’ll get you back for stealing his son from him.

despite what people might think, there’s not really a 'dominant' person in the relationship. when together, the two of you give off some of the most intimidating vibes because of the sheer power the both of you carry. it's not even put off by little megumi, because if he notices his parents looking at you in disgust, he's gonna give you one that's even worse.

toji will never forget the day the three of you went to the grocery store, him in his usual black t-shirt and grey sweatpants, you in one of those same shirts and leggings with megumi in the kiddie seat in the shopping cart, eating from the little snack pack toji made for him. toji swears he walked away for three fucking seconds, and he came back to some...fucker getting ready to chat you up. it’s no surprise anyone that he gets pissed, ready to storm over there and make it clear you're taken.

however, it's clear you don't need him to step in, and damn, you look...really hot telling this dude off, angrily flashing your ring when he wouldn't back off. god, he wishes he could marry you again. toji doesn’t even know what you told the guy, and he's tempted to playfully ask megumi what happened, knowing his lil' man would try to respond in babbles and coos.

“he said you crawled out from the trash, toj, i can't stand for that! he could’ve done you some justice and said you crawled out of the deepest pits of hell, so I had to educate him on that. besides, he called you my boyfriend and I almost punched his face.”  “yeah? hm, i’m glad you didn’t, babe, we don’t want to get kicked out the store.”  “i don’t know, i think an imprint of my ring in his forehead would get the message across.”  “well, next time, how about we just kiss like we haven't seen each other in 15 years? not a fan of showing out to some dude, but i'd do it for you, sweetheart.”  “mmn!”  “right, lil' man? mama's so mean t' me, it's a good idea.”  “gumiiii, you're supposed to be on my side!”

occassionally, when you're at work, toji'll just talk to megumi, the little one nice and comfy on his chest.

one habit he'll never get out of is randomly calling you throughout the day when he's particularly bored and missing you. if you don't answer, toji will just leave you a message, usually about how badly he wants you to come home, groaning about how tired he is but he can't sleep without you in his arms, without you playing with his hair until he falls asleep. he's so in love with you, it's almost makes you dizzy.

you'll never forget the day you come home to toji and baby megumi in the front yard, crouched down around...something. parking in the driveway, you make your way over and see what they're looking at. it's...a kitten and a puppy, two tiny little things playfighting with each other. neither one of them say anything, just looking at the two creatures. you sigh, knowing exactly what this means.

"...give them appropriate names and make vet appointments. we aren't naming the dog 'hot dog' and we aren't naming the cat 'kitten'." "i told you it would work, lil' man."

all rights reserved © lxnarphase | do not repost, copy, translate, or alter my work

[thebearer]

autumn leaves falling down like pieces into place |carmen berzatto x reader|

prompt: target, halloween, carmen, and you. or a short, fluffy work about halloween shopping with target bc why not? 'tis the season.

contains: fluff. that's it lol. mentions to past family memories and some insecure carmen, but honestly just fluff!

“Oh, look at this one!” You coo, snatching the tiny ghost figurine off the shelf.  

“Cute.” Carmen muttered, one hand on the obnoxiously red cart, the other on your lower back. “Put it in.” He nodded towards the cart that was slowly starting to fill up. 

The speakers droned out some dull pop song, your coffee and his melting away in the drink carriers on the cart. Carmen didn’t usually prefer Starbucks, much more of a fan of the local coffee spot a block over from The Bear. They knew his regular, made it for him as soon as he walked in. No fuss, no forced conversation- just the way he liked it. 

But you liked Starbucks, well, in the right circumstance. You liked going to Target, you liked having a coffee to sip on while you “browsed”. Browsed, Carmen had grinned when you told him that. 

“You don’t just go out and browse sometimes? Look at things? Window shop to make yourself feel happier?” You’d asked him earlier in the car, head tilting to the side. 

“No, baby. I, uh, I don’t.” Carmen looked over at you, his hand still holding yours in the center console. “But maybe you’re onto somethin’.” 

Carmen’s lack of decorations was deemed a crime in your eyes, which inspired the trip. Halloween trinkets filling the cart, the sly smile you’d give him when you’d slip another one in, just like you were doing now. 

“It’s my treat.” You’d remind him, with a little wink. Carmen let you think that. Like he’d ever let you pay. And miss out on a chance to spoil you? No way. 

“Where’re you gonna put all this?” Carmen hummed, watching you situate the tiny ghost next to the plastic cauldron and iridescent ornaments- something you saw on TikTok that you were going to attempt to DIY. “My place isn’t that big.” 

“I’ll find a place, don’t worry.” You hum, sliding back in beside him, swiping your cup out of the basket. “You’ve got a bathroom, and the kitchen, and the bedroom-” 

“-Bedroom?” Carmen grinned lightly, his hand snaking to your waist while his free hand pushed the cart. “You gonna put this creepy shit in there?” 

“It’s not creepy.” You huff at him. “It’s cute, festive. Makes the place feel more… homey.” 

Carmen decided then, he’d let you put a full fucking skeleton in his room if it made you feel that way. He’d get rid of all his shit, didn’t need it anyways, so you’d have room for all your holiday stuff. Carmen’s heart fluttered at the thought of what Christmas would look like. Would you put up a tree? He hoped you would. He’d go and chop one down if he had to. Where in Chicago he’d find a tree? He wasn’t sure, but he’d find one for you. If it made you as happy as this did. 

“Ok,” You pulled him out of his thoughts, stopping the cart lightly. You plucked the bright orange bag up. “Did you know these are my absolute weakness?” Pumpkin shaped Reese’s, in their bright orange and purple glory. 

“Yeah?” Carmen grinned. “This is it, huh?” 

“Yes, in any shape too. But I prefer the pumpkin.” You went to set it back, Carmen’s hand grabbing the bag lightly and putting it in the cart. 

“‘M more of a Christmas Tree fan.” Carmen shrugged. “You know Cicero- uh, Jimmy-” You nodded, slipping back into his side. “He, uh, he used to bring a bag of these to Christmas every year when I was little. He’d always have to hide ‘em, ya know? My dad… My dad didn’t want us havin’ all that sugar before dinner. Jimmy would come in where all the kids were, toss ‘em to me or Mikey or Richie when he started hangin’ around. Tell us not to get caught, and Merry Christmas, and hide the evidence. We’d eat them before goin’ to Mass, and he did it every year until I got in high school.” 

You smiled softly, hand sliding down his back. “That’s sweet.” You hum, squeezing his hip lovingly. “You should get him some for Christmas this year. Return the favor.” 

“Yeah,” Carmen scoffed lightly. “Yeah, I think he’d like that.” 

A silence fell between the two of you, chatter from the surrounding people, the scratchy-screech of the cart. Carmen’s heart hammered, mind racing. Why the fuck did you tell her that? Fuckin’ ruined the moment. Stupid, fuckin’ stupid. 

“Hey, uh,” Carmen’s hands shook lightly, fingers drumming on the red plastic over the cart. “I-I didn’t mean to… ‘m sorry, I didn’t mean to say all that, ya know? Ruin the-the… I just, I dunno, you said that and-and I-” 

“-What?” You asked softly, brows creasing lightly. “What are you talking about? Say what?” 

“The, uh, the thing with Jimmy. I-I didn’t mean to make it awkward-” 

“Why is it awkward?” You pressed, setting down the candle you were smelling. “I thought it was sweet.” 

“Yeah? I-I just… I dunno why I said it, I’m sorry.” Carmen rambled, a hand falling over his face, hoping you couldn’t see the blush growing over his face. 

“Don’t be sorry, Carm. There’s nothin’ to be sorry about.” You shook your head, waving him off. “It’s a sweet story. I like that you told me that.” 

“Yeah?” Carmen asked softly. 

You nodded, smiling at him. “You know I do, bear.” The nickname rolls off your tongue so effortlessly, calmly- Carmen’s sure he’s going to melt into the floor. 

“Here,” You twist the lid off the next candle. “This one has caramel. You like that, right?” 

Carmen wasn’t sure how you remembered that. He’d mentioned it once, in passing, that he liked whatever you were burning at your apartment when he was over. It was caramel and coffee, you’d remembered, because you showed up at his house with the same candle the next day. A love present, you’d called it, pressing a kiss to his cheek. You didn’t want anything in return, no strings, just buying him something because you wanted to; because he liked it. It was still a new concept to Carmen, how you could love him without wanting anything other than love in return. 

Carmen ducked down, the brim of his hat bumping your wrist lightly. “Yeah, I like that one.” He nods. “Smells like that other one.” 

“Yeah? Not too pumpkinny?” You tilt your head to the side. 

“No.” Carmen laughs, breathy and light. “I don’t smell any pumpkin. Is there pumpkin?” 

“Caramel Pumpkin Latte.” You tilt the label towards him. “They’re saying it’s in there.” Carmen hummed lightly. “You calling them a liar?” You giggle playfully.  

“No, but I am sayin’ there’s not pumpkin in there.” Carmen snorted lightly, putting the candle in the cart anyways. “Not real pumpkin, anyways.”

“Maybe if this chef thing doesn’t work out, you could be a candle critic.” You tease, falling into slow steps beside him. “Be a candle blogger or something.” 

“Candle blogger?” Carmen repeats with an amused smile. “That’s not real.”  

You look at him, eyes wide in excitement. “Oh, Berzatto, am I about to blow your mind.” 

“No? Really?” Carmen laughed. “You’re fuckin’ with me?” 

“No! It’s a real thing, Carmen.” You laugh, pulling out your phone. “There was this woman that, like, went viral because she was going insane about Bath and Body Works not having her candle or something.” You giggle, typing slowly in the search bar. 

“That’s fuckin’ insane.” Carmen rolled his eyes. 

“Yeah.” You smirk. “Think she might’ve started a trend.” 

“Well, can’t do that then.” Carmen shrugged, loading the items on the small platform at the self checkout. “Don’t wanna go up against her, baby. She’s intense.” 

“Yeah, good call.” You grin, pocketing your phone, opening the bags while he scanned the ghost. “Guess you’ll have to stick to cooking.” 

“Guess so.” Carmen muttered, putting the plush pumpkins in the bag, reaching for his wallet. 

“Eh! No!” You click your tongue, eyes flashing at him. “I told you I was buying it.” You put a hand over the card slot, glaring at Carmen with a frown. 

“C’mon,” Carmen shook his head lightly, pushing your hand away lightly. “You got a number you wanna put in?” He nodded towards the screen. 

You pouted, pausing for a moment. “Yes.” You mutter, typing in your number quickly, pivoting your body in front of the card machine. 

“You gonna move?” Carmen looked at you, already reaching around to put his card in. 

“No, I told you it was my treat.” You mutter, twisting with your phone in your hand. One look at the screen, and you were tapping your phone against the screen. The ding chimed, your smug smile spreading across your lips when the receipt printed. 

Carmen was stunned, card still in his hand. “What- How did you-” 

“Gotta be quicker than that, Berzatto.” You grin, pressing a kiss to his cheek. 

Carmen looked down at his card in his hand, shoving it back into his wallet. Maybe Sugar was right, maybe he did need to actually learn how to use his phone. He grabbed the bags from you, swatting your hand away while you pushed the basket back. 

“Shoulda let me pay.” Carmen grumbled, walking beside you out the sliding doors. It had started to get chilly, leaves tinging with warm color and the temperature beginning to drop. “Stuff’s for me anyways.” 

“Yeah, but I wanted you to get it.” You bump your hip playfully with his. “Besides, I told you it was my treat.” 

Carmen didn’t respond, unlocking the trunk and putting the bags in carefully, but the frown didn’t fade. Brows still furrowed and lips still in a hard line. 

“Hey,” You call, stopping him before he could close the trunk. “I told you I wanted to buy it for you.” 

“Yeah,” Carmen’s brows furrowed. “But you shouldn’t’ve-” 

“-Carm.” You groan lightly. “I wanted to pay, ok? You always get me stuff. Let me get this for you, ok?” You say lightly, arms snaking around his shoulders, looping behind his neck. “Let me spoil you, bear. Lemme be your sugar mama.” 

Carmen snorts, lips curling in a grin lightly. “Shut up.” He mutters, your lips closing over his in a sweet kiss. 

You pulled apart, blushed and swooned in a Target parking lot. “You gotta put the stuff up anyways.” You tease, hands sliding down his toned arms, over his color block jacket. 

“Yeah?” Carmen snorts lightly, pulling the trunk shut. “You’re not gonna help me?” 

“I’ll be directing.” You declare, pinching his butt lightly, grinning at how he jumped and flushed. Sliding into the passenger side, you lean across the console to Carmen. “I’ll make sure the ambiance is there.” 

Carmen nodded, starting the car, eyes bright when they met yours. “Light the candle?” 

“Yes.” You laugh. “And I’ll pick out a movie.” 

Carmen snorted lightly, his free hand moving behind your head rest while he backed out. It made your tummy flip with excitement. “Yeah? Casper?”  

You give him a feigned unimpressed look. “You know I’m more of a Hocus Pocus girl.” 

“Right, my bad.” Carmen laughed, hand gripping your thigh lightly, thumb rubbing patterns over the material of your leggings. Your heart skipped. “Fine. As long as you open those Reese’s.” 

“Deal.” You grin, kissing his forearm gently. 

Hours later, wrappers piled on the coffee table, the candle burning in the kitchen, and the orange lights glowing from where Carmen string them over the TV stand in the living room. One Jack-O-Lantern fleece blanket thrown over both of your legs, your head on Carmen’s while the beginning credits of Beetlejuice played on the TV. Carmen decided right there that you were right. This was more homey. Felt… right and content. He wasn’t so sure it was the decorations, more likely it was the girl who picked them out.

[shakirawastaken]

dsmp if....they fell in love with you at first sight

lowkey this sucks im so sorry but number 6 has been written  dream:

- this happened before he face revealed - so he went out to the grocery store or smth with a mask and sunglasses so if anyone recognized him they wouldn't like see what he looked like - pulled a ranboo fr - anyway he entered the cat food aisle looking for the best cat food for patches our beloved - and was so enthralled in the cat food that he didn't hear you walk by with your cart trying to get past the aisle - "excuse me sir can u please move???" "*is looking at cat food*" "sir?" "OH IM SO SORRY" - moves immediately but not before he makes eye contact with you through the glasses - his eyes widen comically, he thinks ur gorgeous - takes advantage of that fact that you cant see his eyes and continue to admire your face as you laugh and wave ur wrist in the air, swatting away the awkward interaction just like that - you walk away and he forces his mind to go back to the cat food - but god ur imprinted in his brain and he knows he cant just let you leave - so he grabs whatever cat food he sees and runs around the store looking for you - sees you leaving and went "NOPE" - in his head - RUNS to you but slows down before he gets to you so u don't fucking murder him - "hey uh" "oh hi!" "i thought you were really cute...and i couldn't just let u leave the store without tryna get ur number" "oh :) thanks! but idk what u look like.." "right" - whips that shit off in the middle of walmart mask off challenge succeed - ur face: :O - "yeah u can have my number" "LETS GO" - speedran that shit basically

sapnap: - met u in highschool me thinks - in the peak of his i play minecraft everyday era - just showed up at school to be there yk - and you were there but never really interacted with him - until one day you had to sit next to him in english class - life OVER for him tbh he made eye contact with you and nodded like an idiot as you introduced yourself - “wow ur pretty im nick” *facepalmed internally*  - youre like aw - u become friends - seating chart friendships and romances >>> - now he actually has a reson to go to school events like hoco and prom and stuff - “sorry dream ive got to to go homecoming” “motherfucker with who?” - you ask him to hoco as friends cause yk he hasnt been out much and he gratefully accepts - awkward dancing in the back - as the year progresses the two of you keep in contact even as you got moved apart in the class you sat next to - you met dream and george that was nice - prom came around and he new brother knew he had to do SOMETHING - so he made a prom posal that was like “will you be MINE(craft) at prom” or something like that  - and u were like “finally” - fast forward some years and ur doing whatever u want and hes doing what hes doing now - he never formally asked you out but its implied youve been dating for years - this one sucked mb

george: - god the british  - hate them/j - youre not british in this story okay  - and if ur british irl,,,im sorry for ur ailment/j - ANYWAY - youre a tourist ur visiting the good old u of k - ur in london obv - and george never leaves his flat there - except to get groceries - so he walks to the nearest grocery store bc he literally cant drive - and bumps into you its the classic omg so sorry i bumped into you romance - except he thought that was awkward and kinda went “sorry” looked down at the ground and sprinted forward - you were like “the british are.....odd”  - george then realized that was worse and turned around to apologize to you - and then fell in love with you - u were taking a picture on ur camera of just like the scenery of london - and we like “omg theyre cute and they appreciate the little things” - gets on discord and texts sapnap “im in love” and then sapnap goes “me too with ur mom” - logs off discord now - walks up to you sheepishly and was like “haha sorry for doing that it was a dare by my friend” and u were like “its ok:)” ad then hes like “yk what isnt a dare” and u were like “hmm what” and he was like “me asking for your number cause ur so cute” - and u were malfunctioning cause u didnt expect cute british man to ask you on a date while u were in the u of k - but u said yes and then he realized ur accent and was like “ar eyou not british” and u were like “no.” and he was like “thats okay! im skilled with long distance relationships ;)”  - unknowingly flirts with you  - you skull emojied and then joined him on his trip to the grocery store IDK this one was bad im sorry 

karl: - YOURE IN A MR BEAST CHALLENGE - oh oh OH the amount of things in my brain running through - anyway u were a subscriber of Mr jimmy beast so he was like "come be in a video" - its one of those last to leave the circle loses - each cast member is paired with a participant and whoever wins gets 50,000 and the cast member gets like 10,000 or smtn - and jimmy had them all pick a name out of a hat to make it simple - and karl didn't pick u - nolan did - but when they walked out to meet the participants and karl made eye contact with you for a split second - god he fell right there - couldn't help but imagine what loving you would be like - knew he wanted to experience that - but he couldn't do that if he wasn't even paired with you - so he BEGS nolan to switch - "dude please cmon" "what do i get out of it??" "if i win ill give you the money" "oh shit ok" - now he's paired with you HE MASTERMINDED THAT SHIT LIKE TAYLOR SWIFT - anyway you were like "shit he's cute ill win now" - ur dynamic is amazing jimmy loves it for the video - the whole time u both are playfully flirting and just being yourselves around each other its amazing - he tries to cheat to help you LOL but gets caught with a sheepish smile on his face - that's when u fall i swtg - anyway - the filming for the video goes for like 2 and a half days so you spend a lotttt of time with karl dearest - you lose in the end tho bc in ur sleep u accidentally kicked ur foot outside the circle - you're a bit defeated - after thanking u all jimmy sends you off - and u smile and thank him and karl and head off - but then you hear a "PIT PAT PIT PAT" of feet slapping concrete behind you - "wait can i have ur number? :)" "i thought you wouldn't ask :)" and u give him ur number number for number - jimmy mischievously smiles in the background before returning to his beast lair

quackity: - LAW SCHOOL LAW SCHOOL LAW SCHOOL YOU MET THERE STOP STOP STOP - stop college romances kill me for real - guys - k I'm good - met at orientation i feel - or not met - he laid eyes on you from across the room and he was like oh shoot this place is better than i thought it would be - LOL - runs across the whole room to snag the seat next to you - "hey I'm alex, whats your name?" "oh I'm y/n!" - bro squealed inside - "i like ur name!" "thanks :) urs is nice too" - u both talked for the rest of the welcome ceremony thing - compared schedules and had...nothing together for the first semester - thATS OK you still exchanged numbers - and you kept talking and hanging out even if u didn't have class - but as friends. - AAAAAAAAAAAAA you fell for him somewhere in the middle but both of you were like - we need to finish law school first in your heads - so u both skated on the line between romance and friends - like the song boyfriend by ariana grande - but when the end of law school was in sight? quackity didn’t waste a single second - BAM got ur number BAM took u on a date BAM yk 

wilbur: - fell in love with you at first sight except you didnt see him he just saw you - here’s the thing right hes the biggest hamilton fan - so when he went to see hamilton with tommy and all them - YOU WERE THERE you were in the cast you played angelica/eliza/peggy literally one of the three female main characters - ANYWAY you were screaming the lyrics to one of the songs and wilbur kinda just went “woah” - didnt see anyone else on the stage but you when you walked out  - tommy was like “did u see the bullet wil” and he wa slike “no” - forced tommy to stage door after the show - prayed to all the theater gods that you came outside  - when you did? game over for him - he stood there stawstruck awstruck jawstruck  - aND the same happened for you!!! bc u knew who he was ofc - u had a lovejoy poster in ur dressing room duh - so by the time you came round to him and tommy you were like “heheheh” and giggling “hi omg im a big fan of your music and stuff :)” and he was like “mIne?”  - his voice cracked - you giggled and you both took pictures with each other on your phones - then u invited him backstage  - and he wa slike LHJSKHFSDFKGHJERT - LEFT TOMMY AT STAGE DOOR - you showed him around including on stage - and this went on for a while hed just show up a stage door and youd let him in - one day you were both on the stage and he started humming helpless and you both started dancing - and then he was like “i rlly am helpless for you, id like to try and make this something more if ur up for it” - and you were like WOOOOOO yk 

[kaisfruit]

Motivation (Sportacus x GN!Reader)

a/n; i'm just gonna drop this rn bc im taking a while on some of your guys' reqs! i promise im working on them, but i feel bad not posting much so...have this fic i wrote and finished a few days ago while i continue on writing other things <3 warnings; probably ooc stephanie and sportacus and i totally just made stuff up but like,,,otherwise no warnings! <3 word count; 7.8k

Lazytown was exactly how the name described it; A lazy town. Though, with the arrival of Stephanie and then Sportacus the town had its days where it definitely picked up in activity. 

Unfortunately, it seemed as if you couldn’t get any of this energy that was being spread around.

You had attempted to perk up like so many others by starting with a simple job, but that didn’t do it. You still had the job of course since there’s not a lot of people in Lazytown who have the job as an ice cream vendor. Despite your efforts it seems as if these active attitudes have hit everyone but yourself. You really were trying! You tried to exit your house at least once a day (even on days when you didn’t have work!) That usually proved too much for you after about 5 minutes and you’d retreat back within the comfort your home provided. You had tried eating healthier, as you had seen Sportacus advise the kids, but it was semi-successful at best. Those things were just harder to make or find and you simply did not have the energy to deal with such a thing.

It was no surprise to you when Stephanie approached your ice cream stand with a frown on her face.

“Good afternoon, Stephanie.” You greeted, a customer service smile on your face. “What’s up?”

It took her a moment to process your question as she had gotten distracted by the mini-menu on the front of your cart. She had said she would get ice cream for the other kids so they could take a slight break from playing before getting back to it, but that didn’t mean she didn’t have an ulterior motive to offering to go.

“How are you doing?” She decided to ignore your friendly question with a question of her own.

“I’m good, thank you for asking.” Your brain seemed to work on autopilot here, the socially acceptable response tumbling from your lips. “How are you doing?”

Stephanie shook her head, “no. How are you really doing?”

“What do you mean?” You tilted your head in confusion at her, suddenly intrigued by what she was implying. 

Stephanie pursed her lips at you and it seems as if her focus had switched off the chilly treats completely. She wanted to speak to you. You mentally grimaced, this is why you usually stayed in your house most of the time.

“I think you should come and play with us!” Stephanie had a big grin on her face, leaning slightly forward as she looked up at you with big eyes.

“Oh…um,” you averted eye contact awkwardly, “I don’t really think I’d be that much fun…” You trailed off, feeling a bit bad. But it just felt…wrong. Your brain was screaming at you to just be active like everyone else and to spend time with the townsfolk. Yet your body had an argument of its own that your energy was too low and it would only drain you further.

“Sure you would!” Stephanie was adamant. “Everyone has more fun when they’re doing something!!” She had leaned more forward with the palms of her hands resting on the top of your ice cream cart. Her face filled with hope.

You shut her down.

“I’m sorry Stephanie, but I just don’t think I have it in me.” Your voice reeked of tiredness. “Do you want to buy ice cream? Or some popsicles?”

The girl seemed to deflate a bit, but begrudgingly paid for a few popsicles to take back to the others. A small treat was always welcomed by everybody. Well, everybody but…

Stephanie suddenly had a greater pep in her step than she had previously.

Meanwhile, you let out a huff of air as Stephanie began walking away. That was genuinely tough. You knew you had an issue, but you didn’t know it was bad enough to catch the attention of anyone in town. You didn’t even know if anyone in town noticed you outside of the ice cream stand! And that wasn’t in some “you’re so dark and mysterious and not like the other girls” way, but in a genuine way that you didn’t do anything too impeccable but you’re not completely forgettable either. When asked who lived in Lazytown, the citizens could pick you out just fine. Just when it came to such bright figures appearing in town, it didn’t seem like your problems were a big deal. There were bigger matters to be dealt with. You were just one person in an entire town, and it’s not like you were hurting anyone. You just had to convince yourself you’d get through this drag in your life eventually. It would happen one day. This endless slump that has existed your entire life, you had to believe it would go away one day. A day where you’d feel the energy to get up and maybe make a meal for yourself, or to go for a walk in the morning, or to even make your bed. Even if it hasn’t happened yet, it will happen. Maybe…

You leaned forwards against the ice cream stand and rested your elbows on the top to support your weight as you hung your head downwards. You sighed heavily as you closed your eyes. Just had to get through the rest of today then you could go home and feel the comfort of your bed. Just had to get through the rest of today. You’ve done it before, you can do it again. 

And you did just that. Since Stephanie had bought the treats in bulk, the day went on pretty smoothly. There were only a few other purchases here and there, but that was about it. Closing up shop made you let out a sigh of relief. You could finally let yourself recharge, even if it was just a little bit, but it was enough to get you through another day. 

As you walked to your house, you couldn’t help but think of your weird interaction with Stephanie earlier. She had been in town for quite some time now, so why was she suddenly taking an interest? Had she grown bored with everything else? That was unlikely. So unlikely that you questioned why you even thought about it in the first place. Had she seen everyone be active but you and wanted you to be included? But still, why did it take her so long to approach you? Nevermind. You shouldn’t think about it like that. Its not her job to make you feel included. But then…why?

You shuffled your shoes off at the door and closed it behind you, inhaling a deep breath as you finally got to experience home once again. If it were up to you, you’d just spend all of your time here and nowhere else. Technically, you could do that, but you really were trying to better yourself even if it felt useless. 

You mustered up just enough energy to switch into pajamas before falling asleep on your bed. The sheets warm and welcoming like an old friend who you hadn’t spoken to in years yet the bond still alive and going. You felt yourself smile lightly as you let sleep take you.

A sleepy groan escaped your lips as the sound of knocking on a door is what woke you up. Squinting blearily at your alarm clock you read a time that was far too early for your liking. You laid there sprawled out for a bit, hoping the visitor would just go away, but within a beat the knocking started up again. With a bit of mental preparation, you got yourself up and out of bed and slowly began shuffling towards the door.

Rubbing an eye with one hand, you opened the door expecting to see a neighbor wanting to speak to you about them not getting their mail or something of that sort, but you blinked rapidly at the true sight before you.

It was Sportacus. The town’s very own superhero!

Your tiredness seemed to melt away instantly and you stood up a bit straighter at the sight of him. He had never come to speak to you directly before, what was going on?

“What’s going on…?” You mumbled, voicing your exact question aloud. This earned you a slight chuckle from Sportacus.

“Why don’t you tell me?” He countered which instantly clued you in to one thing.

“I’m fine,” you smiled, “I don’t know what Stephanie said, but everything is well and okay.”

Sportacus frowned slightly, yet still wasn’t deterred in the slightest. “Well, you should go and get dressed!”

“What for?” You squinted at him confused, you had barely just woken up. “I don’t have work today.”

“All the more time for activities!” 

You grimaced at his answer. “What?”

“Come on, it’ll be fun!”

There was a pause in conversation. A silent battle happened between the two of you until you eventually sighed in defeat. You didn’t even have the energy to fight against it. You shut the door on him for a bit as you dragged your feet along the ground as you went about your house doing everything you needed to get ready for the day.

Finally, you made your way back to the front door and opened it to see Sportacus standing in your yard seeming to be admiring the grass and trees within the small area. It brought a small smile to your face as you shut your door behind you. The noise got the man’s attention and he flipped over to you, a spring in movement that never failed to surprise you whenever he did it.

“So, what activities are you having me do?” You asked, hoping to just get all of this over with as soon as possible. This would probably be a good first step for you, but you just didn’t feel the motivation. You felt no drive. 

Sportacus grinned as he rested his hands on his hips, “how do you feel about some breakfast?” The question caught you off-guard and you guessed it showed on your face as Sportacus laughed a bit. 

“Eating?” You voiced your confusion. “That doesn’t sound very…active.”

“That is where you are wrong.” Sportacus grinned, “just come with me.”

You followed behind Sportacus as you eventually left your house. Usually, that was your least favorite part of your day, but the hero had you too curious for you to even think about your house right now.

Very soon, it became very clear what he meant by eating being active.

He had insisted you two walk the longest route possible and this could quite possibly be considered the most walking you had ever done in your life. It was probably due to the incredibly fast-paced speed Sportacus had started you two out with. You were trying your best to keep up, but the distance began growing and growing until eventually Sportacus turned around and ran back to where you were.

“Don’t worry, it’s just a bit of warm-up!” He tried to reassure you, but your legs were too achy to really take it in. You thought you could do a bit of walking but maybe…

“Do you think we could walk a bit slower…?” You tried, not looking at him. He seemed to contemplate this before realization dawned on him.

“Yes, we should! That is a much better way to ease you into this.” Sportacus nodded as your head jolted up to look at him. “I’m sorry for not realizing my own speed.” He clapped you on the shoulder before gesturing for you to continue on with him. You felt awestruck, yet slowly took up a pace at his side.

“This is much better.” You smiled, a sigh of relief escaping your lips. “Thanks for listening.” 

“What kind of slightly above average hero would I be if I didn’t listen to those around me?” Sportacus proposed the rhetorical question. “I love it when you guys help me as much as I help you! That’s how growth happens.”

This sparked conversation between you two for the rest of the walk. Now that it was at a slower pace, it allowed for your guys’ words to flow freely between one another and it felt as if you were truly getting to know the hero. It was….fun! A feeling that felt completely new yet familiar in Sportacus’ company. 

“The perfect place for breakfast!” Sportacus announced abruptly, pausing in his steps which caught you a bit off guard. You look around the area with a slight frown on your face. It was a park. A park which you had never seen before (which wasn’t saying much.) There were trees scattered about and the grass was neatly trimmed. Sportacus seemed proud and took a seat beneath a tree, you stayed standing as you quirked an eyebrow at him. 

“This…isn’t a place to eat?” You asked as you still frowned. This got a good laugh out of Sportacus which only confused you more. You really were expecting a quaint café or a restaurant or even a food truck, but not an empty park. 

Sportacus just pulled out two granola bars and tossed one at you and, unsurprisingly, you didn’t catch it and it landed on the ground. You slowly bent over to pick it up and looked at the wrapper, trying to identify the contents. 

Timidly, you walked over to where Sportacus sat on the grass and decided to finally sit next to him as you made quick work of the wrapper. You tucked the plastic into a pocket, you may be lazy but hurting the environment was a no-no, and took a small nibble of the granola bar. 

“It isn’t the most healthy option,” Sportacus started once you had finally taken a bite, “but it isn’t junk food either. You will need something light for the start of the day! A bigger breakfast can come a bit later once your stomach has settled.” He shot you a reassuring smile as he said that. 

“Why do I need something light first?” You asked, wiping your hands on your pants to wipe off any leftover granola residue after you finished. “I thought a good breakfast is good for the brain?” You weren’t exactly sure about that, but you were pretty sure you had heard Sportacus say that before. 

“Right you are!” Sportacus agreed with a nod. “But I did say we were going to get active, yes?” You nodded slowly. “Well, that wouldn’t go over well if you had a full stomach. Getting sick would not be ideal.” Realization dawned on you as he said that. Sportacus was going to have you doing actual big time exercises? Right off the bat?! You don’t think you’ve ever taken the time to exercise in your life, which is probably why you felt so incredibly sluggish all the time, but still! That sounded horrible. You’d much rather just lay in your bed all day and maybe be on your phone when you’re not sleeping…Yeah, that sounds more your speed.

“Um…how active?” You asked as Sportacus reached his hands out towards you which you accepted as he pulled you up. 

“Nothing big! I promise you.” He grinned, slowly releasing his grip on you once you gained balance. Strangely, you missed the warmth his hands provided. “The hard stuff won’t come until later.” The look that came across your face must have been some sort of funny as it caused Sportacus to chuckle. 

“Come now, we’ll start light. Then we can get actual breakfast. How does that sound?” He spoke calmly, surely luring you into a false sense of security even though you knew Sportacus didn’t have an evil bone in his body. Your body slumped in defeat as you let out a sigh while nodding. The elf was absolutely beaming. “Great! Let’s get started!”

An hour later and you were drenched in sweat and could barely catch a breath. Meanwhile, Sportacus looked as if he had barely done anything. You were insanely embarrassed by this fact, but he was trying his best to help you feel normal.

“You’ve done great so far!” Sportacus praised, whipping out a water bottle which you gratefully took. Truth be told, he was right. You didn’t do much. Just a few cardio workouts and he allowed you to move at a comfortable pace. Still, that didn’t just erase all of your years of no workouts and you were now contemplating if you could even do this at all. “Honestly, I’m surprised you’re still here.”

“What do you mean?” You panted, lowering the water bottle from your lips.

“Well, when I first got here it took a while for everyone to just…take my advice?” He said this more like a question, as if the right words for what had happened weren’t coming to him. “I could maybe get 10 minutes of working out before getting ignored. You’re a real trooper!”

You weren’t sure you quite believed him, but you appreciated the effort. Everyone really seemed to enjoy Sportacus’ company and were happy to engage in activities with him. No way the citizens started out ignoring him? “Thanks.” You finally said, a light smile on your face. 

“Anytime!” Sportacus clapped you on the shoulder. “Now, about that breakfast I promised–” Your eyes widened and you perked up which made him huff out a bit of laughter. “Let’s head out. Then we can take a walk after and then, I’ll let you have the rest of the day as you want it. It wouldn’t be right for me to control your schedule and make you do what I want.” You nodded gratefully to him with a smile and you two slowly made your way out of the park and towards a local restaurant that was currently serving breakfast. 

The conversation while eating flowed seamlessly and it was nice having someone’s company. You weren’t expecting the town’s superhero to be such a great hangout companion, but this charisma of his is probably how he gets others motivated towards bettering their lives. It was…appreciated. You didn’t really know if this would fix everything for you, nothing could be some magical one trick quick fix, but it helped put healthy behaviors in a positive light for you. At least a little bit. Your bed and your house still sounded like the most perfect place in the world, but you wouldn’t mind getting out like this every now and again.

After lunch, Sportacus took you on a walk as he had promised but this time your time with one another was spent in silence. It wasn’t bad. Quite the opposite. You probably talked more today than you had in your entire life, so quieting down and just appreciating your surroundings while in the company of someone else was perfect. You’d probably feel like a huge dork if it was just you walking around all quiet like this, but Sportacus being there just made sense. 

You weren’t quite sure when the walk would end and it seemed as if it wouldn’t until a familiar head of pink hair began to make its way over to your position. Sportacus got a bit shifty on his feet as she approached while you just waved at Stephanie with a smile on your face. A genuine one compared to the customer service one you had given her yesterday.

“What’s up?” The girl asked, a smile on her face. “Did your guys’ morning together go good?”

You nodded at her. “Yeah. I’m exhausted to be honest.” You laughed which caused Stephanie to let out a little laugh of her own. “How’d you know we’d been out together?” It was with that question that you finally noticed Sportacus acting a bit off. Stephanie just stifled a laugh behind her hand at his behavior and you were made aware of the fact that they knew something you didn’t.

“Well, Sportacus here–”

“Stephanie told me about how you were at the ice cream stand yesterday!” He quickly interrupted her which only caused the girl to laugh a bit louder. “So she knew of my plans to come out and help you.” That made sense you supposed, but why would the two of them be acting so weird about it? Sportacus seemed to have a light red hue to his face and Stephanie looked like the cat who ate the canary.

“Well, I’m gonna head out.” You began awkwardly, a nervous smile on your face. “Thanks for getting me out of bed this morning, Sportacus!” You waved and the other duo waved back to you before you turned and began walking away. In the distance, you could hear more of what you assumed to be Stephanie’s laughter. 

What was so funny?

-

This routine continued on for a month. Sportacus would wake you up in the morning, you’d work out, eat breakfast, then part ways. It became a part of your routine even if some days you guys would switch it around because of your job or his self-assigned duty to help the town against Robbie Rotten. It, strangely, became a welcome change to you. Maybe the change you had been trying to make all of these years had finally come to you. You just needed a little push to get the ball rolling. You found yourself actively making the bed in the morning, choosing more healthy options to your usual diet, you even started noticing you didn’t dread leaving the house as much anymore. Sure, you still had a few of your quirks like thinking you deserved a little treat for every success or preferring to sleep in, but you weren’t dragging your feet along just trying to get by one day at a time. This was the best you had felt in a while!

Once a few more weeks passed after that first month, you started hanging out with Sportacus more outside of his personal training with you. You got along with the hero surprisingly well and it felt nice to finally have a close friend within the town. With his help, you finally began talking and making friends with other townsfolk. You had accepted Stephanie’s requests to play or hang out more and more. Being around everyone really made you feel like you were a part of a community instead of just being some random face within one. Sportacus had helped you a lot…

“Soooo whatcha thinking about?” The voice startled you out of your thoughts and you suppose you jumped a little too because a “relax, it’s just me,” was quickly added on. You lifted your head up from where you were staring at the ground to meet the eyes of Stephanie. A light smile graced your face as you gave a nod of acknowledgement towards the girl as she sat down on the bench beside you.

“Nothin’ really.” You answered. “Just sitting on this bench and looking at my surroundings.” Stephanie pursed her lips at that answer as if she was hoping to hear a different one. But she let that grievance go with a sigh and instead decided on something else to talk about.

“I’m really proud of you.” 

“For what?” You huffed out a laugh. “I haven’t done anything.”

“What do you mean?” Stephanie said to you, wide-eyed. “A month or two ago, I would’ve only seen you at your ice cream stand! Now, look at you, I found you out in the wild without any coercion from anyone in Lazytown!” You shrugged at what she said and she comically deflated where she sat. 

“I mean, I guess…” you began slowly, “but this really isn’t much. I really haven’t done anything. It’s been Sportacus’ influence.” The mention of the hero had her perk back up and she leaned forward a bit in her seat. She was now swinging her legs since they didn’t quite touch the ground and her hands rested on the seat of the bench.

“Still! You’re the one doing the things!” Stephanie encouraged.

“Yeah, but–”

“But what?”

You sighed, “I’m nowhere near his level! How am I supposed to truly be better if I’m not even up to his active standard?”

“Are you joking?” Stephanie deadpanned with a raise of a brow. “He was made to be active. I like to have fun and play and move around, but at the rate he does it? No way!” You were silent after that, your gaze once again focused at the ground. Stephanie was having an internal battle with herself before she finally let out a groan of frustration before speaking. “Besides, you’ll always be up to his standard. He’s…” She had a pause as she searched for the correct word. “He appreciates every ounce of your effort. He appreciates you.”

Stephanie let that sit with you and decided to finally go silent herself.

Sportacus…appreciated you? Well, he probably appreciated everyone he was nice like that. But hearing the words made you…feel something. Something that had your face heating up and making your stomach do flips.

“Th..Thanks, Stephanie.” You got out, a shaky smile on your reddened face. Now this was what the pink-haired girl wanted to see. 

“Anytime!” She said with a grin and waved jovially as you excused yourself from the park bench and began speed walking home. You barely had half the mind to wave back as you were in such a rush. Why were you in a rush again? Your mind was scrambling with ideas that you barely even registered that you had made it home. 

Closing the door behind you, you quickly locked it and leaned back against it as you let out quick breaths of air. You held a hand to your chest as you had to force yourself to even out your inhales and exhales. What had gotten into you?

Sportacus.

He was so nice to you, so kind, supportive. Could you have…

You hopped into the shower, a shaky attempt to clear your head. You just needed a shower and to go to bed. That’d fix everything. After that it’d be like Stephanie never said anything that made you think about something you’d been pushing down for weeks. Girl math!

Those things didn’t help.

In fact, you couldn’t even get to sleep. Your mind was running wild with the idea that you maybe sort of fell in love with Lazytown’s slightly above average hero. You had done everything you could think of: counting sheep, drinking a warm glass of milk, breathing exercises, etc. But nothing would calm your racing mind and rapid heartbeat. The only person you felt comfortable enough to call at a time like this just so happened to be the source of the issue, so you were forcing yourself to suffer all by your lonesome.

Sportacus was most definitely nice to everyone in town just like he was with you. You’re so stupid for falling head over heels for a man over the slightest acts of kindness. But he was just so sweet and he took time out of his day to make you feel included and he was charming and–

You needed to shut up (even if you weren’t actually speaking.)

Safe to say, you didn’t sleep that night. By the time you heard the routine knocks on your door, your head was swimming with unsolved drowsiness. Knowing who it was caused a pit to form in your stomach, but you still got up out of bed and shuffled slowly towards your front door. You opened it up just a crack and saw the man himself standing there like he always did. You noticed him perk up when he noticed the movement, but a frown formed on his face when you didn’t open the door all the way.

“Is everything alright?” He asked, peeking through the small crack in the door to see a sliver of your figure.

“Yeah, I…um…give me a moment.” Your voice was overwhelmed with exhaustion as you closed the door and slowly got ready for the morning. It seemed as if sleep had tried to win too late because your mind was no longer racing with thoughts of Sportacus, but instead it felt blank. You can’t believe you pulled an all-nighter. Granted, you really tried not to.

Finally you made your way back to the front door and Sportacus was quickly on you once you made a step onto your front porch. He had noticed the slightest shift in your behavior and damn it if that didn’t make your heart skip a beat.

“Let’s go.” You smiled at him softly which caused a bit of the tension to drop from his shoulders, but he was still on guard. He couldn’t really tell what was wrong, but he knew something was off. 

He carried most of the talking on your guys’ way to the park and you were happy to listen, trying your best to suppress any yawns so that he wouldn’t take it as a sign of disinterest. How could you not be interested in everything he had to say?

Sportacus handed you a fruit cup for today’s light breakfast and you accepted it as you two sat side by side under a tree while eating. The conversation seemed to fall as you two ate, or, as Sportacus ate. He didn’t realize you weren’t until he felt a head fall against his shoulder. The elf jumped a bit and looked down at you and noticed you had fallen asleep on him as he heard a soft snore drift from you. A fond smile graced his features at the sight. That answered every question he’s had since seeing you this morning. You hadn’t had a good night’s rest. But what was the reason for that, he wondered. Carefully, he grabbed the fruit cup from your hands and set it aside to avoid a mess and began taking some time to figure out what to do. Sportacus was not very fond of staying this still if he wasn’t sleeping, but you probably needed this more than your daily workout even if it would ruin your sleep schedule for a bit. You also looked so incredibly peaceful and he couldn’t say he wasn’t glad about the fact that you trusted him enough to fall asleep near him.

To be honest, Sportacus has taken an interest in you since he had first arrived in Lazytown. Despite having the same problems as literally every citizen here, you were kind and you really did seem like you wanted to be doing your best. Plus you got along well with the kids (which may or may not have had something to do with your job) but he spent a long time admiring you from afar. He wanted to help you like he helped everyone, but he was selfish, And by that he means that you made him incredibly nervous. An emotion that the elf didn’t feel often, so he struggled to deal with it. Stephanie, the ever so observant kid she was, noticed his glances at you, the way he seemed extra interested anytime you were brought up in conversation. Once piecing together what all of it meant, that’s when she had made her way up to your ice cream stand that day. She didn’t want to be outright with anything, but she at least wanted to help Sportacus talk to you and what better motivation for him than to help you out of your slump. Stephanie didn’t know if you two would be all romance, but what kind of friend would she be if she didn’t help out the one person who was always helping everyone else? 

That’s how Sportacus got himself into this current situation. He realized he had been staring at you the entire time he was lost in thought and got embarrassed by that fact despite the fact no one was around to see him. You looked cute when you slept, but this surely wasn’t an ideal place for you to sleep, especially with the position you were in as your neck would definitely feel it when you woke up. With a disappointed sigh, Sportacus shook you awake.

“Wha?” You exhaled, rubbing your eyes a bit. You blinked rapidly trying to get a feeling for where you were even if you had only been out for at least 10 minutes. Upon realizing your position, you quickly lifted your head off of Sportacus’ shoulder and apologized profusely with your face lit up a bright red.

“It is alright! I promise!!” He chuckled lightly, a smile on his face. Yeah, you were cute. “We can workout another day. I think you need to catch up on some sleep.” You tried to protest, but a yawn cut you off which made you groan. You began moving to begin the walk back home, but found Sportacus doing everything for you and at his super fast pace so you couldn’t even begin to protest. He had picked up your fruit cup and every other belonging you both had brought along before holding his hands out to pick you up like he often did. You looked up at him with wide eyes and softly rested your palms on his. His grip didn’t falter as he hoisted you up and you stumbled forward closer to him once on your feet since you were a bit disoriented from your lack of sleep. A matching set of red complimented both of your faces at the proximity, but your eyes stayed locked with his. A beat passed before your gaze casted downwards, getting nervous at the prolonged eye contact.

“Come on, I’ll walk you home.” He spoke softly, his hands still clasping yours. You rubbed your thumbs along his knuckles absentmindedly as you nodded at him. You’re not sure who pulled away first, but your hands separated and you two were now walking side by side. Finding yourself incapable of walking in a straight line, constantly bumping into Sportacus as you walked, you felt a strong arm come to rest along your shoulders and it held you steady. You gasped at the touch, but welcomed it all the same. It felt nice.

Meanwhile, Sportacus was a bit panicky. Was this too much? You weren’t complaining, but you always were extremely polite. In all honesty, he did just want to help. No one could walk perfectly straight all of the time, but he noticed how your constant faltering was getting on your nerves and while he didn’t mind it, he wanted to relieve that extra stress. But what if this was the wrong way to go about it? He would not be overthinking it this much if it were anyone else…

“What kept you up last night?” He decided to ask. You tensed up at the question and sent quick glances at him as your heart began racing again. How could you answer that? You were NOT about to pour your heart out to this man. No amount of sleep deprivation could get you that delirious.

“I don’t know,” you eventually settled on, “just couldn’t get my mind to ‘turn off’ I guess.” Sportacus nodded as if he didn’t quite believe you, but he trusted your boundaries enough to not push past that.

The rest of the walk continued on in relative silence as he never let go of your shoulders until you two had safely made it back to your house.

“Thank you for walking me back.” You said as if he didn’t walk you back everyday. “I’m sorry for cutting today short.”

“Don’t worry. Your well-being always comes first.” 

You two spent a moment just staring at one another as if neither of you wanted to actually separate from the other.

“I hope you rest well.” Sportacus broke the silence and sent you that damned smile of his, the smile that made you weak in the knees. And you nodded, a soft ‘thank you’ escaping your lips as he somersaulted off to who knows where. You let out a sigh of contentment as you shut your front door. He was something else.

You couldn’t fall asleep faster.

Stephanie knew something was up as soon as she saw Sportacus zooming around the town square haphazardly as he was doing an assortment of exercises. A slight frown was on her face as she watched the hero for a few moments before calling his name. This made him pause and he looked over at the girl. His attention finally had her walking over to him.

“Hey, are you okay?” She asked. “You’re usually like this when you need to, I don’t know, occupy your mind or something.”

Sportacus was conflicted on telling Stephanie anything. On one hand, he knew she knew he had feelings for you, but on the other why would he let the child get mixed in with his love life? She was extremely intelligent for her age, but that didn’t make it any less strange in his head.

“Is it about [name]? Pleeeaaaassseee tell me it is! I love hearing about you two!” She exclaimed with a big grin on her face. His reaction was everything she needed and she clapped excitedly. “Are you guys finally together? Wait no, can’t be. You wouldn’t be so stressed out. But no way they rejected you either hm. What if–”

“Stephanie.” Sportacus began which effectively quieted the girl. “Nothing happened.”

The girl quirked a brow in disbelief and crossed her arms along her chest.

“Nothing happened! Seriously!” Sportacus exclaimed. “They didn’t get much sleep last night so we canceled this morning.” He explained.

“Ohhhh so you are upset?”

“No! It is very much important that they get the proper amount of sleep. It’s just, what if they’re sick? Or something is wrong? Those are the only reasons I can think of that would make them lose sleep.” He finally voiced his concerns and it got Stephanie thinking. Sportacus was pacing as she stood still, a hand on her chin in thought. Suddenly, it seemed as if a lightbulb went off above her head and she squealed. Sportacus sharply turned towards her, looking at the girl as if she had grown a second head.

“Maybeeeee…They like you too!” Stephanie planted that seed. She was trusting her gut, and based on her previous interaction with you, it seemed pretty likely.

“I don’t know Stephanie…” Sportacus thought. He usually wasn’t the one to second guess such actions, he was always certain and dove in head first. But, as stated previously, you made him nervous.

“I think,” Stephanie started, “you should ask them out! Awwww you guys would be sooo cute!!” The pink haired girl cooed and Sportacus couldn’t help but laugh a bit at her enthusiasm, even if his stomach seemed to churn at the thought of possibly overstepping a boundary with you. It’d hurt the most to know that he had made you uncomfortable in some way. Stephanie had begun staring up at him with puppy dog eyes trying to use her cuteness that all kids were granted to sway Sportacus into making a move. The hero sighed.

“I’ll think about it.”

-

That might have been the best sleep you have ever gotten in your life. You had even managed to sleep until early the next day which is just ridiculous, but at least you didn’t wake up in the middle of the night and continue a cycle of a poor sleep schedule. This felt like your entire body had done a factory reset.

You made your way through your morning routine and got on your phone once you finished. Sportacus could show up any minute now, and even if you feared embarrassing yourself in front of him due to your feelings, not spending time with him sounded like a new form of torture. So risking embarrassment it was!

Only a few more minutes of scrolling through social media and you heard the sound of knocks on your door. You rushed over to go answer it as fast as you could. Opening the door you grinned as you saw Sportacus standing there. His face brightened at seeing you and he opened his arms up wide in surprise.

“You’re awake!” He exclaimed which made you laugh with a roll of your eyes. “Ready to get going?” Something seemed…off with the hero. He was pretty normal, but he seemed jittery, anxious. Two words that didn’t fit him all that well.

“Oh, so ready! I really need to stretch my limbs out after all of that resting.” You said, pulling your arms up above your head in a stretch to accentuate your point. A look that could only be described as pure adoration crossed Sportacus’ face and you looked at him strangely. “What? Did I say something?”

He stumbled a bit over his words as the two of you finally began your walk to the park. “You didn’t say anything, it's just,” Sportacus sighed before turning his gaze to you. His eyes were filled with a sincerity you hadn’t ever seen on him before. “I’m very proud of you, [name].” That was absolutely the last thing you expected him to say, but you stayed silent as if urging him to continue. “You’ve come very far in such a short amount of time. Of course, I’m proud of everyone here in Lazytown for their improvements! Even with people like Robbie Rotten around, all of you continue on and are unknowingly eager to better yourselves. But you…” He trailed off, his gaze finally leaving yours as he stared ahead. “Your progress is special to me.”

You were certain your face was bright red at his statement and you turned your head to look at the ground so he wouldn’t notice.

“Thank you.” You murmured bashfully as you played with a piece of your hair. “I couldn’t have done it without you.”

“Nonsense!” Sportacus spoke incredulously. “I only got you out of bed in the morning. The rest was all you! You are extraordinary.” 

The conversation died off there as you replayed his words over and over in your head. He was too perfect. You were totally going to explode. Maybe you couldn’t keep up with your guys’ daily workout if he was going to keep acting so sweet. 

You hadn’t even noticed it yet, but you had made it to your guys’ tree. You set down your workout bag and were waiting for Sportacus to offer you the snack of the day, but quickly you noticed that his attention was focused somewhere in the distance. You tried following his gaze, but it was apparent he was just lost in thought. Timidly, you waved a hand in front of his face to snap him back to attention and it did the trick.

“Ah! Sorry, I was just thinking…”

“About what?”

Sportacus’ stomach was doing flips, cartwheels, he felt as if he had just eaten a singular bar of chocolate. This must be what sickness felt like. The elf wetted his lips nervously before he let his eyes land on you. He stood there for a moment and let himself take in your appearance. No matter how many times he saw you, he didn’t know if he’d ever get enough. Maybe he should just,

“[Name],” he spoke softly, gaining your full attention, “you’re incredible. Seriously. You may not think so, but you inspire me everyday. You’re different from everyone else here. Yes, I care for everyone, obviously. I wouldn’t protect and encourage people who I didn’t genuinely like and believe in, but you’re…what I’m trying to say is that I look forward to every moment I get to spend with you. Hanging out and working out with you is more refreshing than any amount of sleep or relaxation I could ever get.” Sportacus had unconsciously moved closer to you as you spoke and you were just listening in pure awe. You gasped and looked down as he took your hands in his, his grip soft yet firm as if he didn’t want to lose this moment with you. “I was wondering if you would like to…go on a date with me?”

Your eyes were full of wonder as you stared up at the man. Every word he spoke was swimming around in your head and you were in complete disbelief.

“You? Want to date me?” You asked softly, looking him in the eyes.

“There is no one else I would rather be with.”

“Why?” Your words echoed despite the open area you two currently occupied. “Why me? I’m not the most athletic person around and I’m still pretty lazy. You’re…you’re a superhero! And I’m just…well, I’m just me.”

His hands quickly left your hands so he could cup your face. He brushed his thumb along your cheek as you two stared at each other intently.

“And you are exactly what I want.” Sportacus said with complete sincerity. “I’m only a slightly above average hero. That is nothing compared to how you appear in my eyes.”

Your eyes welled with tears, but you refused to let them spill. No one had ever spoken such words to you before in your life. Without thinking, you lunged forward and wrapped your arms around Sportacus’ neck in a warm embrace to which he quickly returned. His arms were wrapped strongly around your waist as you buried your head a bit into his shoulder. 

“I’d love to.” You finally murmured, pulling back slightly so that you could look at him. Your arms still rested around his neck and now his hands just lightly rested on your waist, trying to be careful with his placement out of respect.

“Love to what?” He asked, a confused look on his face that just caused you to smile.

“Go on a date with you. I’d love to.” You clarified and it's as if stars lit up in his eyes at your words. 

A beat of silence was held between the two of you as you both just stared at the other, happy to be in each other’s presence.

In an instant, you both surged forward as your lips interlocked. It was soft, tender, spark-inducing as the kiss continued on. The only thing running through your guys’ minds is that this is how it’s supposed to be. This kiss was right. Your lips moved in tandem for what felt like eternity in just a few seconds. If you had it your way, you would never separate, but your lungs’ cries for help cause you to back away and rest your forehead against his as you both caught your breaths. Staring at him, you couldn’t help but smile which caused him to smile in turn.

You knew you’d find motivation to become better eventually. What you never expected, however, was for it to come from someone else’s belief in you.

[leverage-ot3]

time for the obligatory post about what episodes I want to see in the upcoming leverage season(s)

(for reference, I made this similar post in 2020 after the reboot was announced. I'm pasting some from that post bc I still want them to happen lol)

new ideas:

I mentioned a date night episode in the last post (apollo really did bless me with foresight for the date night job on that one) but for considerment: ot3 date night. possibly their first date night after they all get together. breanna and sophie know it's happening (harry is, like, peripherally aware) and some crime hijinks are going down and the three of them are frantically trying to stop bad things from happening that are going to interfere with the date. I want to see them going through it behind the metaphorical curtain. I want to see breanna fighting for her life trying to out-hack the hacker that is going to ruin their ten-part itineraried date. harry has to get in a fistfight and eliot is so proud about it when he finds out after everything is over

tree law episode. harry has been frothing at the mouth about it since it was made. his life has been moving him towards this penultimate moment. breanna thinks it's HILARIOUS and cheers him on 100% of the way. she is VERY enthusiastic about this con

I'm not going to mention certain things because I've seen jrogers posting on bluesky social and I know he might be already writing some of those plots

con that the food trucks have plot-relevance. like, one of his food truck stations is being harassed /victimized by, like, a local gang or something that takes advantage of food truck/cart workers and the team steps in. the actual (veteran) food truck workers get involved in the con. leverage international might just have gained a few retainer members

quinn should come back for an episode. I know the actor is friends with ckane. they should make it happen because it would be iconic and I said so

on a similar note, ckane is friends with jensen ackles and. guys. wouldn't it- wouldn't it be extremely funny if a flame from eliot's past named sean sylvester who is a rugged drifter with a questionable past

episode where tara or maggie (or BOTH, can you imagine how powerful that would be???) come back and there is slight flirting with sophie possibly??? that or very obvious chemistry from a past tryst. sophie has slept with both of them, I know it in my heart of hearts. bonus points if tara and maggie fall in love (I think it would be funny. maggie's taste in men is canonically atrocious, I think she deserves someone like tara at this point)

I just want a lot of side characters to come back, okay? sue me I miss them

gonna put the rest under the cut since this post has become obscenely long

not episode-specific, but I want more mentions of the korean leverage team. and all the other teams too! we know that in canon there is the south korean one, the nigerian one, and one in london (I think that's it for mentions so far, but correct me if I'm wrong!)

episodes addressing issues with american imperialism and its effects on minorities and marginalized communities, specifically within this country (there aren't a lot of episodes where they are actively out of country)

dear fucking god take a more abolitionist stance on policing I'm begging. would it KILL you to not be weird about cops? pls just punch some more cops. take down white supremacist cops, I'm sure you can scrounge something up bffrrn

women's rights episodes. I know it's kind of recent, but episodes about accessibility of stuff like birth control, abortion access, etc. y'all are capable of making excellent episodes on that I know it

more climate crisis-related episodes. god knows you're feeling it in the deep south

taking down a corrupt megachurch pastor (although lbr, there is no ethical megachurch anything and you can fight me on this)

something to do with ace rights bc I think it would be really cool to see the team advocate for that stuff, especially since breanna is canon ace

helping a polycule that is being victimized by X organization/entity (maybe a housing association or medical or something???). breanna is bombastic side-eyeing the ot3 the entire time. it is making hardison sweat. sophie thinks it's hilarious

taking down 'writers' that use ai and self-publish AND/OR people that take original/fan works off of like ao3 and wattpad and publish them for personal profits without the author's consent. breanna would have a field day with this (god herself could try to convince me that girl does not read/write fanfic and I wouldn't believe it)

episode about underfunded public schools. we saw corrupt private schools in the fairy godparents job but I want an episode that would make abbot elementary writers proud

episode addressing native/indigenous. eliot is from oklahoma, I'm sure he is well aware of the health/job/economic/etc disparities on reservations. I will email jrogers about it myself if I have to- it anyone can get people going about native rights through a tv show it would be leverage.

I sent an ask to wil wheaton once asking if he was open to returning to leverage and I think he said he would be down for it. but chaos either has to be a reluctant ally to leverage international and is being handled by quinn as a hitter OR he is just. in jail. bc he sucks.

bpas and/or pfas episode. breanna has mentioned microplastics before but I want more

the team tears the shit out of conversion therapy camp owners and plants the seeds for legislation that will punish parents that try to send their kids to those hellscapes

while we're at it, I'd love to see an ep where they tackle the trans bathroom issue. god knows the news doesn't talk about it nearly enough

something to do with foster care. they end up starting some sort of foster care network that past clients/allies can take part in. maybe a mentorship program for kids that want to do what they do one day (they are very reluctant to encourage kids to participate in crime BUT if that is the avenue that they are going to inevitably go towards, they guide them in the right direction). nana makes an appearance (*insert 'everybody liked that' meme*)

prison industrial complex episode. I KNOW we had the jailhouse job BUT we really need this in our year of 2024

another episode on corrupt influencers. maybe influencer parents? dear god pls take them down a notch

ep where there is an underlying message that tells you how to avoid becoming victim to scams or something, or like is a tutorial for how to identify scams you might fall victim to (sorry, I just have to say this after two separate people tried to pig butcher me in less than two (2) weeks))

not to say I want them to do an ep calling out cop city, but it would feel really good to watch the leverage team rip that concept to SHREDS

the minimum wage job. need I say more? we deserve the catharsis

pls go after goodwill execs, esp the ones in the pnw that have their sector as for-profit and have become millionaires+ because of it while paying their staff (especially disabled staff) fucking pennies

while we're on the topic, pls call out salvation army (the corporation)

I can probably go on for like five hours so I'll stop here

ep that we get to see harry and his daughter bond :)

job where they get to lower the price of insulin (and other drugs)

actually, you know what? an episode where the crew annihilates big pharma and terrible insurance companies

I think that breanna should be able to go off about mass/over consumption as a treat. I 100% believe she has Thoughts about it. like, she will absolutely call out the corporations that are responsible for these trends, but also she should be allowed to mention our tendency for overconsumption as a society. obviously there are a few corporations that are doing most of the world's pollution/ecological damage, but we should be doing our part too and I KNOW it would be in-character for her to go off on it

I bet she has a LOT to say about influencers, tbh. obviously not all influencers are bad, but there are sooooo many problematic ones and problems within the influencer industry

sizing discrimination in the modeling/clothing industry. let eliot talk about how there are no perfect bodies. also while I'm on the subject, can we PLS have more body-diverse background actors on the show? I know this is nitpicky but I'd really love to see some more people that look like me, even if they are just in the background

a thinly veiled writers' rights episode (I'm looking at you media execs and the stupid amount of time it took for you to comply to the WGA demands)

something to do with media companies making entire movies/tv shows and then fucking cancelling them/not releasing them and using them as tax write-offs. every time it happens it baffles me. that is cartoonishly stupid villain shit. I can't imagine lovingly working on a project for a year plus and then the company just going, nah, we aren't going to release it because you suck and it's a good business move

ai art and ai in general. please. let it BURN

okay now I'm done

ideas from the previous post that I still want:

comicon job. I said it before and I will say it again- we deserve it!!! come on, it's the age of the geek after all!!! (in the last post I also said a ren faire ep, but I will let the card game job count for that)

summer camp ep? I saw a tumblr fic about it and I think it could be cute. it could kinda be like the fairy godparents job- eliot in charge of some type of sports (archery, fencing, etc), hardison would be in charge of arts and crafts (this boy might be a genius with tech and in general tbh, but the show did such a good job of showing that he’s also very talented with the arts- sculpting the statue for the miracle job, forging the old diary in the king george job, etc), parker would LOVE to be in charge of a high ropes course. breanna would totally be down for some sort of nerdy kid robotics or simple, traditional camp games (can't go wrong with the classics. everyone loves making bracelets!) I feel like it's too stereotypical to have sophie have kids put on a play but we all know that's exactly what she would do. idk for harry? I think he has the same traditional camp activities vibe as breanna. he's in it for the nostalgia. OR something to do with videogames

please, please, please, please, please make an episode where they take down a cult, im begging. that would be such a good episode. definitely a mindfuck episode like the experimental job (4x11). I’ve seen a few posts about a job dealing with a cult (here’s one) and I think it would be really interesting 

MORE STERLING being DONE with leverage shenanigans!!! give me feral!sterling like in the frame-up job (5x10)!!! give me sterling that protests every step of the way but conveniently looks away and “whoops, the team just disappeared, I have no idea how that happened!!! diddly dang darn it, they got away again!!! sorry guys!!!” bonus points if mcsweeten is there too and also participates in intervening hijinks

the team takes down a circus that is still using and abusing wild animals!!! because first I’d LOVE to see acrobat!parker swinging up in the air like a pro and being in her element, but also because those places are the fucking worst and need to Go Down. give me eliot having to pose as an animal trainer with deep sympathy for the animals being abused, quietly talking soothing words to them when he thinks no one is around (correction: hardison is, in fact, around, and filming his boyfriend’s softness to save for later). give me charismatic hardison playing the role of ringmaster, running and flaunting about and being passive-aggressive to the circus master. give me eliot freeing the animals from their chains when they are finally able to shut the place down and relocate the animals to sanctuaries (his hands shaking just a little as twists the key in the lock, because he too was once an abused, caged animal in his own right and he knows how liberating it is to finally be free). 

[sizzlingsandwichperfection-blog]

So my parents love coffee. They drink a ton of it every day. But they buy the cheapest bulk coffee they can find. When I travel (which I do a fair amount of) I try to bring them back a bag of coffee from wherever I’ve been. Normally they make really nice noises about how good it is but I can tell they’re just being nice because I’ve carted it across an ocean and into the middle of nowhere Wyoming and that they don’t actually notice a difference. But for the holidays I bought them a subscription of the awesome coffee club. I could tell they were a bit skeptical when I talked their ears off about how much better it was gonna be bc of how much care went into the selection of the beans and the fact that the growers were paid well and that they were actively fighting deforestation and that all the profits went to decrease maternal mortality in Sierra Leon (all the good stuff that you already know about by being the unpaid intern of course). However, when my dad first made it, my mom came down stairs and asked him “what did you do differently today, this coffee is so so much better than usual??” And I felt vindicated. So I think I’ve got them converted. Thanks for making their days better (and mine, but for more entertainment reasons, as a non coffee drinker)😊

This is the happiest story! You have helped your dear parents to see the light of better coffee that benefits the world's poorest people. This makes me overjoyed. Thank you. Also, please say hello to your parents in Wyoming for me.

Also: Awesome Coffee really is THAT good. Nobody is paying me to say that it's good. That's the great thing about being an unpaid intern. It just IS good.

[filmbyjy]

LOVE COMES WITH A PRICE

— the mafia main masterlist

pairing: lee heeseung x fem!reader

summary: working at one of the world's famous hotels in seoul was pretty interesting. you never thought your life would make a whole 180 when you got the job. you were now a mafia leader's fake wife and it's definitely not how you thought how you'd spend life.

warnings: cussing, shady business, honestly would make a little more sense if you played the game bc i tried my best to describe it as how i remembered. it's been a whole 1 year since i played that game. flirty heeseung.

word count: 9.1K words

NOTE: o em gee😵‍💫 it’s been so long since last touched this series. i was supposed to continue to it after ‘jam out’ ended but you know the whole fiasco happened with my account so here this is. i’m still procrastinating on writing the next member. i feel like it’s not as great so I may just scrap it and restart the whole thing🗿

when you look at a hotel, you would never think anything shady was happening. it was just a simple mere 5 star hotel that stood tall in the middle of seoul with all its glory. to many, the people behind this spectacular place were more in the talks. who were they? you might ask.

“have you heard about lee heeseung? one of the owners of this spectacular building?” one rich lady asks another.

“i heard. aren’t there 6 other guys too? i heard they are quite dashing too.”

“yeah. think we could meet them?”

“nobody ever gets to meet them. only if we were lucky, we would.” the ladies snobbishly laugh before leaving the hotel grounds.

you rolled your eyes at them. this was how it was everyday for the past 1 week at your new workplace, they always talked about the building but mainly the 7 boys who actually owned the place and built other hotels after.

Decelis Resort, it was really hard to get a job here. all their staff was to be trained. the first few days when you started were harsh. it felt like an army training camp rather than a simple training. thankfully, you became friends with the rest of the maids and even one of the higher up maids. there were two maids who joined 2 weeks earlier than you. they certainly made you feel like you were cinderella, as they constantly made fun of you and always left the work for you to do.

but at least there were other maids to help you out. that’s how the bond was because every one of them has gone through descrimination from the guests here.

“(name), care to help me?” danbi asks. she stands at one end of the bed and you stood at the other. the both of you lifted up the covers and straightened it out. she goes to grab something out from the cart. “oh no, we’ve ran out of towels to put in this room.”

“I can get it for you.” you say.

“(name). it’s okay, i can get it. you can stay here and help sort more stuff in this room. i’m sure you still haven’t really memorised where the storage room is.”

“well, i have to learn, don't i? so, this is a great opportunity for me!”

“oh (name).” she sighs. “alright, you can go but if you get lost. please call me, don’t even bother pondering over the contact. you know how this place is, it’s scary. one mistake and you are done for.”

“alright, danbi unnie.” you say.

you were determined to get the route of the storage room right. you always wondered why the heck it was so confusing to find the place but danbi simply explained that it was the owner’s decision to do it. which owner? danbi doesn’t know, all she knows is that it was one of them. everyone suspects it was lee heeseung because the two parks of their group couldn’t stop making out with girls. they were party lovers and you would always catch them partying with girls surrounding them constantly. some people even say that they always came back with lipstick marks staining the corner of their lips, dishevelled hair and a smirk adorning their lips. probably making out with their chosen girl for the night in a janitor’s closet. hence, lee heeseung was done with their doings so he placed the storage room far from any contact. it made the job for the maids harder though so you thought lee heeseung must really hate cleaners or either he really didn’t plan the floorplan properly at all.

“now was it the left or right turn?” you say. you took the right corridor. which wasn’t the way at all to the storage room. you entered one of the rooms.

“oh? are those towels?” you say. surprisingly, they had cleaned towels here but they were high up on the shelf. too tall for you. you found a chair but it didn’t look sturdy. you knew you had to take the risk since you needed those towels. you climbed the chair and went to grab the towels.

“just a little more.” you went on your tiptoes trying to reach for the clean towels. unfortunately, the chair gives up on you and you fell to the ground. it wasn’t a high fall but you were for sure going to have bruises the next morning. you wince at the sharp pain that appeared on your ankle. your uniform torn from getting caught on something as you fell.

the torn definitely made you look unprofessional though since it was like a cut slit to a formal dress. you were practically showing off a decent amount of your skin. you sighed and then you realised something else had broken as you fell. it was an art piece, sure to be way more than your salary. let’s hope nobody finds you-

“you.” someone says. you gasp and hide your face. he pries your hands off your face. “you just broke the bosses’ art piece! you are going to pay it back in full amount now!”

“h-how much is it?” you asked. the guy smirks.

“definitely more than your poor ass can afford.” you flinch when he brings his hand forward to tilt your head up to face him. “you seem pricey though, surely we would earn millions of dollars.” he smirks.

“i’m not an object though and i can’t be sold!” you say. the guy laughs.

“then find another solution for you to pay me off.”

“I can give you in small amounts first. how about that?” you suggest.

“it’s going to take you a lifetime if you want to pay me the full amount.”

“then i shall do it! I don’t care how long it takes. i would rather do that then we sold off to god knows what.” the guy laughs hard.

“Well too bad. I will not take that deal.” he knocks you out cold. the next time you opened your eyes, you could hear talking and gossiping. it was dark, something was blocking the light. the blanket gets pulled off from the place where you held at. you quickly realise, you were in a giant cage and your hands were bound to the chair by a tight knot.

you couldn’t even say a word as there was tape covering your lips. you could hear the guy calling out numbers and you only assume it was the price. it kept going up. this was it, you would be sold to some random old dude and he could do whatever he wanted with you. you wished someone would at least help you. please anyone but a random creep. you looked up to see who was betting for you.

there was this guy who was constantly betting for you and he looked like a complete creep. smirking at you, rubbing his hands and licking his lips constantly. it made you sick.

“going once, going twice. sold to the man in-” in grows quiet, someone else raised his hand. he was at the top, overlooking everyone. “What’s the price you’d like to name, sir with the mask and red hair.”

“100 million usd.” the announcer’s jaw drops. actually everyone’s jaw drops, even yours if your mouth wasn’t taped shut.

“anyone would like to add more?” the creep raises his hands.

“140 million won.” your eyes widened.

“500 million usd.” the guy in the red hair says. everyone gasps again. the creep was shocked. he quickly backs down, he can’t lose his money. he only had a certain amount.

“going once, going twice. sold to the man in the mask with red hair!” the announcer comes up to you and opens the door.

“good luck on your new life.” he whispers, you felt shivers down your spine. he removes the rope binding you to the chair and removes the tape across your lips. the guy who bought you comes up to you and holds out his hand. you hesitantly take it. a small smirk appears at the corner of his lips. he pulls you close.

“meet upstairs.” he hands you a keycard before pulling back and turning to the announcer. “The money is with my friends, let us go to them.” the announcer nods and follows the guy along. A few bodyguards coming along with the announcer to protect him, you guessed. you did what you were told to do because you were terrified.

you got in the elevator but you realise, that there were far more levels than upstairs. you noticed there was a penthouse but you were certain that was not what the guy meant. from what you were told, the penthouse was where the owners of the buildings hang out and probably stay. there was no way the guy wanted you there.

you entered the 18th floor, it was a ball. well, the business meeting kind of ball. tons of guests here were the rich business men/women. you certainly felt out of place, bruises glazing your skin, you carefully walked around when someone hands you an empty wine glass.

“thank you, the service here has been so far horrible. waiters are nowhere to be found. you guys should step up, we are providing more work for you to get money!” ah, how you despise rich snobby people but you couldn’t do anything. what if you somehow got told on and then you got fired. you were not taking any chances.

“of course sir, we are so sorry for the terrible service provided. I will make sure to inform the service team of our horrible behaviour.” you bowed. the guy scoffs.

“is this what enhypen taught their staff? those young boys are nothing but good looks. they have no skills.” you looked down pretending to feel sorry for the damage the other staff had done. someone stands next to you and you looked up. you stared at the man who just stood beside you. he smiles at the guy who insulted the owners of the hotel.

this young man had streaks of dirty blonde hair against his natural hair colour, his lips were wide but even though he was wearing a masquerade mask to hide his identity, you could tell he was really handsome. the suit was wearing showed off his amazing physique, small waist line, perfect combination of masculine and feminine hands, long legs and strong chest muscles (he most definitely had a huge heart under there). A rose tattoo adorned his beautiful neck, the final touch to make any girl swoon over him.

he smirks.

“you must be mr.hansel.” the young man holds out his hand. mr.hansel shakes his hand.

“yes, that is certain. i’m so sorry for not being able to recognise you but who might you be exactly.” mr.hansel says. the young man smirks again. he take off his mask and mr.hansel gasps.

“nice to meet you, i am sim jaeyun, i go by jake too. one of the owners of the decelis hotels.” he smiles. you froze in your spot.

you mean he is the jake that is part of the enhypen team? one of the owners who are highly important and the ones who created the hotels that every rich people lavish in?

mr.hansel freezes too. you noticed he was taken aback, not being able to find words to form.

“i overheard you talking to one of our staffs here.” jake turns to look at you. “you were complaining about the horrible service here and about how we don’t train our staffs right. we do apologise for that.”

“no no, it’s okay haha. mistakes are common of course. not everyone can do their job right all the time.” jake nods in agreement.

“that is very true. in that case, shall i punish our staff over here and her team?”

“oh my, there is no need for that.”

“great because she is no staff.” jake says. you tilt your head, “she’s mr.lee heeseung’s wife.”

mr.hansel’s eyes widened. he looks at you and starts bowing whilst muttering a string of apologies.

“i am so sorry, my dear lady. mr.lee has never revealed that he has a wife and we have never seen her before so i did not know it was you. Forgive me.” he mutters. you looked shocked. you turned to look at jake before he gestures for you to act it out.

“u-uh, it’s okay. i came out here without my husband’s knowledge and in a disguise. i just wanted to see how the ball was doing since my husband didn’t allow me to.”

“well, enough with the apologies, your husband awaits for you upstairs.” jake says. he helps to escort you.

you enter the elevator, jake swipes his card and clicks onto the penthouse. it looked similar to the one the guy had given to you downstairs. your eyes widened. wait so were you supposed to go to the penthouse with the keycard??

“you know, you’re really naive. heeseung hyung was waiting for you and was even looking for you but you were nowhere to be found. He thinks you should repay since he saved you from being sold to some creep.” you kept quiet. you shouldn’t voice out to someone of higher authority than you.

the elevator doors open, jake walks out first. you noticed there were 6 other people standing in the middle of the room.

“hyung, here you go. got your chew toy for you.” jake says. everyone turns their heads to look at you. you suddenly felt small, out of place. after all, these boys were higher class than you. one of them comes up to you and hands you a set of new clothes.

“here you go noona, your work attire is all ripped up.” he smiles.

“sunoo, stop being so nice to everyone you meet.” the boy with silver hair groans.

“well sunghoon hyung, maybe if you actually tried being nice to a girl for once you’d be able to find love and possibly get laid!” sunoo says. The boy named sunghoon gasps. clearly a little offended by the younger boy’s remarks. jake laughs before patting his dear friend’s shoulder.

“sunoo is right bud, being grumpy all the time does not get you laid.”

“shut it sim. you too should realise that your so called girl best friend has no crush on you!” sunghoon huffs.

“oh hoon, i do know. i’m not that dumb alright. this is why i’m part of the tech team and you are part of the protocol team.” sunghoon shoves jake. they argue for what seemed like a minute. the guy in the red hair sighs, takes off his mask and runs his fingers through his hair.

“would you two idiots stop arguing?” heeseung says. the two younger boys stopped arguing.

“sorry heeseung hyung.” jake pouts. heeseung’s eyes met yours, he steps forward towards you and you moved back. heeseung obviously knew what you were doing so his hand reaches for your waist to scoop you closer to him. you couldn’t move back anymore and when he scooped you closer, your hands fall flat on his huge chest. you blushed.

“look, i have no feelings for you in any sort of way.” well that ruined the slightly romantic mood, if there was even one to begin with. “and since I ‘bought’ you, i can do anything i want to you.” you gulped.

‘anything’ he wanted. this was not what you’d expected you’d be doing 3 weeks ago before you got this job. you thought you’d be happily living your life since you just finished college days prior. you thought you’d be happily at home entertaining your younger siblings as they play with their pet bunny. possibly also teaching your siblings their math homework and then giving up because who in their right minds likes math?

“uhhh hyung, i think you are scaring the poor girl.” sunoo says. Heeseung lets you go. he cocks a brow at you.

“so, deal?” he says. as if you could say no. well, you could but that is only a first class ticket to unemployment and possibly death if they were bad people.

“deal.” you held out your hand to shake his. his hands were huge, it covers yours. funny how it strangely fit yours too well. you shiver.

“alright, your first task.” he stares right into your eyes, “be my wife.” your eyes widened. it shocked you and it seems like you weren’t the only one who was shocked too.

“hyung, are you sure about this?” the boy with dark blue hair says.

“yes, jungwon.”

“but heeseung hyung, you do know that if you declare you’re in a relationship. everyone who practically hates us will be after noona too?” the tallest boy says.

“which is why you and sunghoon hyung will be around her at all times. don’t leave her side.”

you wondered, what did the boy mean by ‘everyone who practically hates them, will be after you’. then it hit you, they were bad guys weren’t they? you were going to be associated with shady people. oh no.

“h-hey umm, if you don’t mind me asking but what do you guys do?” your voice was soft but surely enough for them all to hear. you were terrified if you voiced out they’d possibly harm you. sunoo pouts, he could easily read your expression.

“noona, don’t worry. we won’t harm you, at most we will harm the people who hurt you so you’re safest with us.” sunoo says.

“yeah, don’t worry. we will protect you from harm.” jake says.

“then what about my family?” heeseung steps forward and holds your hand.

“they will be fine, we can move them closer to us or we can get our spies to watch over them and protect them.”

“okay. umm, what do i have to do to be your…wife?” the other boys tilt their heads. “i’m sorry, i’ve never dated anyone and neither have i been offered to be someone’s wife.”

“you’ve never dated anyone? you look like you’ve dated at least 1 person in your life.” jake says.

“unfortunately, i’ve been single my entire life. i’ve only focused on school and i just finished college 3 weeks ago.”

“wait but college doesn’t end this early.”

“i finished earlier since they allowed me to.”

“and what course did you even take.”

“Business.” they were shocked. heeseung smirks.

“maybe you could be of use, my dear wife.” he says. you blushed and quickly looked away from them.

“I need to change, is there any bathroom around?”

“go up, straight and turn left.” jungwon instructs. you nod. “that’s heeseung hyung’s room, just use his bathroom. after all, you two are gonna be a wedded couple.” the younger boy smirks.

“jungwon.” heeseung sighs. he grabs your hand and pulls you along with him. he drags you up the stairs and into the bedroom before standing still in the middle of the room.

“i can’t change when you’re here though.”

“i’m going to be your husband though, so just change.”

“what?! no. we aren’t even real husband and wife. we don’t like each other and i’m just doing your task.”

he comes close to whisper in your ears, “we’ll have an official marriage cert so we will be officially married. which makes me, your official husband.” he steps back and smirks.

you grabbed the pillow on the bed and threw it at him. you didn’t care if this would get you fired, he was a pervert and you were absolutely disgusted.

“pervert!” you yelled. heeseung chuckles.

“i’m kidding. if you want to take a shower, go ahead and wash up. towels are in the bathroom. i’ll be waiting for you downstairs.” he winks before exiting the bedroom.

why did heeseung have to tease you like that? did all bad guys have to be so flirty and charming? or were you somehow attracted to bad people? no that’s not possible. you huffed and glared at the closed bedroom door.

“what have i seriously gotten myself into.”

you walked downstairs after changing and everyone literally watched you walk down the stairs. you didn’t like the attention and spotlight.

“why are you guys staring at me like that?”

“uhh sunoo, are you sure this outfit is appropriate for any of our eyes.” sunghoon asks. jake smacks the boy’s arm before pointing at heeseung. he had his arms folded and staring at them. “sorry, she’s your so-called ‘wife’ forgot.”

heeseung pulls off his blazer and wraps it around you, he holds it shut.

“don’t you guys have jobs to do? we still need to find clues as to where that idiot of a guy is.”

“right, sorry hyung.” the tallest boy bows. he goes to leave the room with sunghoon. jungwon and jake left together to enter another room. jay and sunoo remained.

“umm hyung, we kinda need you since we are working as a team.” sunoo says.

“jay, how about you go meet up with the people downstairs. i’m sure there are great investors to meet up.” heeseung says.

“yes, oh great lee heeseung.” jay bows. sunoo holds in his laughter while heeseung glares at jay. the both of them quickly left the area before heeseung could even say anything. they knew if they stayed longer, he would have possibly used his hyung card to whack them.

“idiots.” heeseung mumbles.

“uhh, i’m not exactly sure what to do…” heeseung turns to look at you. his gaze was intimidating but in some way, it flustered you. especially since he was so good looking.

“well, you need a ring and we need to register our marriage certificate so let’s go out.”

“but i haven’t clock out and technically, i’m still working. i have a shift until 10pm.” heeseung sighs.

“i’ll talk to the person-in-charge of you, you will be excused. this is more important than your job.”

“how is this more important than my job-” before you could even finish, heeseung holds your hands and lightly drags you out of the penthouse. there was another elevator down to the VIP garage. which you didn’t know existed because you were sure it was simply only for the 7 boys.

heeseung opens the door for you and you enter his-

“It’s the latest ferrari model.” heeseung says as he sees you gawking at how nice the exterior and interior of the car is.

“and how much is it exactly?”

“About 700-800 million won.” heeseung casually says as he starts up the car. your eyes widened. you feel like you should not be seated in such an expensive car.

“are you sure you are okay with me sitting in this car? i mean, if i scratch anything won’t that anger you?”

“the boys play rough all the time so no, i’m not worried over a tiny scratch. besides, you are already paying by being my wife. my earnings are also for you to share.”

“don’t tell me you’re a sugar daddy.”

“would you be surprised if i am?”

you gasp, “no way. are you actually one?” heeseung chuckles.

“no, i’ve never even dated anyone-” he shuts his mouth before clearing his throat, “i mean, i’ve dated someone before.”

“you know heeseung, you’re not that lame if you’ve never dated anyone. besides, i did mentioned i have never met anyone too since i’m too busy with school. I’m sure you had your reasons to not date anyone.”

“right.” he blushes, “any ideas of rings you’d like to get.”

“A simple one please.”

“simple one it is.” he says.

you entered a shop filled with high class jewellery. Diamond rings and necklaces everywhere. it sparkled like your eyes as you glance through the collections. heeseung smiles. he goes over to the worker.

“mr.lee, what would you be getting today.”

“a ring.” the worker smiles and nods.

“for the lady over there?”

“mhm, she’s the one.”

“judging by her appearance I think she suits these rings. let me just bring it out and you can call over to get her opinion on it.”

“thank you. oh and it’s no simple ring, rather a wedding ring.” the lady was quite shocked but she still manages to put on a smile. a fake smile. how could someone like you be marrying lee heeseung, just one of the seven charming owners of Decelis Resort.

“right on it, sir.” she says. heeseung scoffs once she leaves.

coming from a family full of liars, he could easily differentiate their fake expressions from their real expressions. it was honestly a game for heeseung and it baffled him how fake some people could be to suck up to someone handsome, not that he knows he is handsome. they’d never bat an eye for someone who was deemed ‘ugly’. 

the lady comes back and shows heeseung the collection that she thought was perfect for you.

“(name)?” he calls out your name sweetly. you walked over to him and panned the collection. they were surely pretty but none suit your exact taste.

“mr-”

heeseung comes close to whisper, “call me babe or any sweet nickname. wouldn’t want someone to suspect that we actually aren’t married.” he moves back and pushes a strand of your hair behind your ear.

“so sorry dear, your hair was blocking my view of you.” heeseung says. your heart leaps.

“o-oh.” you feel your cheeks flame up, “thank you, babe.”

“anytime, love.” and…there goes your heart rate. you were starting to question if heeseung was lying about being single for all of his life because there is no way someone who is single can flirt and use such smooth vocabulary.

“now, what did you want to say before, love?”

“ah right, i was about to ask for your opinion for the ring design. i’m not entirely sure which rings suit me.” you blushed. heeseung pats your head. he scans through the collection and one of them catches his eyes.

“may i take a look at this?” he asks the lady. she nods and takes it out and carefully hands it to heeseung. heeseung delicately grabs your hand and slips the ring in. you stared at the ring.

it was twisted and intertwined with a line of small diamonds lacing one of the twists. surely sweet and simple enough for you. you looked up at heeseung and he smiles before turning to the lady.

“we’ll take this. Ah right, i have to get a ring too.” he turns to you, “care to choose a ring for me, love?”

“i’m not exactly sure what would suit you.”

“i’m not picky and definitely will never judge you.” he side eyes the lady seemingly indirectly calling her out on what she did before.

“alright.” you turned to the lady, “may i see the collection you have for wedding rings for men?”

“right this way.”

after shopping for the rings, you and heeseung went to the marriage officiant to get an official letter stating you two were married for real. they were surprised to see heeseung here since after all his private life was practically surrounded by cameras due to him being one of the top businessmen. they were of course shocked when he walked through the doors with a girl they did not know about. how did heeseung shield you away from cameras and paparazzi. not only that, how did you two even meet when you looked like a pretty average person and not part of some rich family.

those were the questions in their head as they watched you and heeseung sign the marriage letter together. then they saw the loving gaze heeseung gave you. well some sort, heeseung knew they were judging the both of you. he knows the public would act like this since it’s not common for an average person and someone as high-class as him to marry but was society this fucked up? yes, unfortunately it was.

the both of you left the place as an official married couple. heeseung’s phone rings, he goes to answer it and so you were left to wait for him as he finishes the call. once he does, he brings you over to the car and drives back to the hotel.

“you should sleep over. it’s easier for you to get to work on time without having to wake up early. it’s already pretty late.” heeseung says.

“no, its fine. my mom will be worried sick.”

“i see, in that case, i’ll drive you home and pick you up before work.” your eyes widened at heeseung’s words.

“no, it’s okay. you don’t have to drive me to work, you must be very busy with whatever. besides, we can’t exactly be seen as a couple in front of other staffs.”

“what’s so wrong about that?”

“they’ll think i got into this job through you or that i seduced you.”

heeseung snorts, “they don’t know the reason for us to even exist in the first place. Society is constantly judgmental. you don’t have to care about what they say. you’re living your own life.”

“I guess so but you seriously don’t have to pick me up tomorrow. my mom might question our relationship if you do.”

“I can just always tell your parents that i’m your boyfriend or better yet, your husband.”

“please don’t, she’ll think it’s a shotgun marriage and that i got married to you because we had a one night stand and now i’m pregnant.”

“will your mom really think that way.”

“you don’t know my mom, she’s insane.”

“maybe that’s why you are equally as insane.” heeseung jokes. you smacked his arm. “i’m kidding!”

“well, that’s not funny.” you pout. the car stops at a red light. heeseung unbuckles his seat belt and leans in to peck your lips. you gasp and before you could even question him, he speeds when the green light flashes.

“care to tell me your address now?” heeseung cocks his brow whilst smirking. you rolled your eyes playfully.

“it’s xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx.”

heeseung drives you home. it was silent and neither of you wanted to mention the little stunt heeseung had pulled. why did he suddenly peck you? was it just the slightly romantic air? why did his personality do a 180° flip? those were just a few questions that kept you awake, you couldn’t even sleep properly.

your alarm rings and you were shaken by your younger siblings waking you up.

“noona! help us choose what shoe to wear!!” the twins say.

“junyoung, jihoon. It’s too early in the morning.”

“well shoes are important!” junyoung stomps his little foot on the ground.

“yeah, very important!” jihoon added.

“alright, i’ll help. where is mom?”

“we tried to call her but i think she’s asleep.”

“that’s because it’s 6am. your classes don’t start until 8am. i have to get ready for work. just go back to sleep and mom will help you, okay?”

“fine! you are of no help, noona.” junyoung huffs before walking away. jihoon goes to almost agree but he stops himself. he gives you a hug and apologises for junyoung’s behaviour.

your twin brothers, junyoung and jihoon. they are both 10. junyoung was more chaotic compared to jihoon. jihoon was the nicer one of the twin pair, he only agreed with junyoung whenever it was right but whenever junyoung was in the wrong, he was quick to disagree. in this case, he did not believe you were of no help. in fact to jihoon, you were the best sister he could have. he wouldn’t trade you for anyone else.

you quickly showered and put on your work attire. somehow, you were thankful that you bought extra pairs in case. you had to return the clothes the boys lent you, you felt somehow in debt. maybe you were considering heeseung quite literally saved you from being sold to a creep. you quickly left a note at the fridge to inform your mom you had already gone off to work. yes, you had a very early shift and ended extremely late.

you quickly clocked in and checked your roster. cleaning duty. at least you wouldn’t be stuck with those two girls-

you heard their laughter from down the hallway. you weren’t one to be mean but their laughter sounded obnoxious. you glanced back at the roster and quickly realised…

“great, stuck with them for practically the whole day. they are probably just going to make me do their work. as per usual.” you sighed. they stepped into the room and scoffed when they saw you.

“you. why are you here so early.”

“sorry, i shall leave. I have business to attend to.” you say.

“hold on.” you paused in your step.

“take this with you.” they hand you a broom and basic cleaning supplies.

“you didn’t think we’d do the work right?”

“as your newbie orientation, you shall do extra work so you can get used to this hard labour.” they laughed. you nodded and went your own way.

you had no energy to deal with them early in the morning. you dropped the bucket of supplies onto the ground and got ready to clean the lobby. it was clean for the most parts but you were sure after last night’s ball, there had to be something amidst the clean surface. you mopped, swept, cleaned the windows and took care of the plants all by yourself until 12pm in the afternoon. lunch time finally came around and you sat down in the staff room.

heeseung pops his head in and you were startled by it. you were thankful that no one was around because it wouldn’t be great if anyone saw you with one of the owners of Decelis Resort.

you pulled heeseung inside and locked the door behind you. you folded your arms at the boy.

“why are you here?”

“can’t i visit my own wife?” you covered his mouth.

“don’t say that out loud. with the people i’m working with today, i’m sure they would be the type to listen in behind closed doors.” heeseung pries your hand off his lips.

“haven’t i told you to ignore the judging?”

“you have but these two literally bully me-” you cover your mouth.

“bully you? what did they do?”

“nothing, mr.lee-”

“also haven’t i told you that you are now my wife, you should call me by name or at least a nickname.”

“no one is around.”

“anyone can be around. you don’t know how my world works.”

“fine, since i don’t know how your world works, then why don’t you teach me.”

“that’s why i came here, to bring you over since i have some business meeting to attend to. i need my ‘wife’ to come with me so that everyone can get all shocked.”

“you could have said that first before barging in like that.” heeseung sighs.

“i was going to but you got all scared in case your co-workers heard me.”

“can you really blame me? I am suddenly married and my husband is the owner of the resort. they’d freak out.”

“whatever, i’ll meet you upstairs. don’t be late and here, the keycard.” heeseung goes up first. you rolled your eyes.

why was he so snappy today. you didn’t bother clocking out since you were still going to be in the hotel. i guess it was best that you should go up as quickly as possible to prevent heeseung from getting mad at you.

“first time getting snapped up by heeseung hyung?” ni-ki says as he leans on the elevator walls. “it’s normal, he is just stressed over work. since you are his wife now noona, you could relieve his stress.” the elevator dings and ni-ki leaves the confined space before you could even answer him.

“what did that boy mean?” you wondered. then it hit you, you gasp and covered your mouth in shock. “who taught him such dirty things?”

“hi noona.” sunoo waves and smiles. you smiled back at him.

“where is heeseung?”

“Mmm, i think in his office. probably handling some stuff. me and jay hyung need to go somewhere, do tell him since you are visiting him noona.”

“alright.” sunoo slightly bows and leaves. you went up the steps and looked around for heeseung’s office. surprisingly, you found it with ease. you knocked on the door and you could hear a small ‘come in’ before you entered. the room was huge, tons of books on each shelf. heeseung sat on the leather chair, glasses adorning his face, his tie loosened up and he muttered grunts and curses as he types away on his desk.

“you wanted me up here?” you say. heeseung briefly looks up from his laptop, his eyebrow lifting as he looks at you.

“ah right, you’re 10 minutes late.”

“i’m sorry, i was talking to sunoo. right, he said he and jay went out.” heeseung sighs before nodding.

“alright.” he stands up and hands you a red dress. “i have some business to attend to and i think it’s about time i show them my…wife.” heeseung grabs your hand and kisses it. you were flustered.

“umm where are we going?”

“gambling.”

“i’m sorry?”

“we are going to meet with the client. this client is apparently quite the ladies’ man so it would be great to have you around to strike a deal with him.”

“oh but what if he…umm you know, tries something on me.”

“don’t worry. you’re safe in our hands.” he charmingly smiles.

you went to heeseung’s bathroom to change and you realised that the dress was extremely provocative. you looked at yourself in the mirror, eyes trailing each part of you. the dress was a spaghetti strapped velvety red dress with a slit starting from your thighs and down to your ankles. who were you? this wasn’t how you’d normally dress. you breathed in and out and confidently left the bathroom. heeseung was waiting for you, he settled right on his bed as he scrolled and typed on his phone.

“okay, i’m done.” you say. heeseung lifts his head to look at you and he was certainly in awe.

“perfect, now the hair and makeup needs to be done.”

“huh? I don’t have my makeup with me.”

“oh don’t worry.” he snaps his fingers and 2 ladies enter his bedroom with 2 huge makeup boxes. “they will take care of you.” heeseung smirks before leaving the bedroom.

they dolled you up to perfection and smiled once they were done.

“i never thought i’d see lee heeseung with a woman.” one of them say. you tilt your head.

“what do you mean?”

“ah well, heeseung kinda doesn’t hang out with any girls. after his whole family fiasco, he was never exactly keen on dating or let alone getting married.”

“what happened to his family-”

“ladies, i see you’ve done up my wife beautifully. we are already running a little late so we have to get going. thank you for your hard work.” heeseung says as he grabs you. the makeup stylist bowed at him as he left with you.

the ride there was a little quiet, you didn’t exactly know what to say or ask. you two weren’t exactly really in love so you couldn’t talk like normal couples do. heeseung parks the car once you two had arrived at the place. he holds out a hand for you to hold and you happily took it, he leads you into the building. everyone’s eyes were on the both of you, wondering how and when the lee heeseung got a girlfriend (or well wife).

“sir choi.” heeseung holds out his free hand to shake the person’s hand.

“mr.lee fancy seeing you here and without your usual partners.” the guy tilts his head at you before smirking. “who is this fine lady?”

“ah.” heeseung’s hand travels down to your waist, he tugs you closer before throwing the older male a smirk. “this is (name). my wife.” he smiles. you hear gasps from the other girls that were beside the client.

“oh, mr.lee has found a wife. never would have seen the day. she’s really beautiful.”

“thank you, sir. now, i am sure you owe me a game of poker.” the older male laughs.

“of course, mr.lee. we can certainly play a game of poker as we discuss our business together.”

“hold on for a second. I need to talk to my dear wife.” heeseung says.

“go ahead. i shall set up the game for us first.” heeseung bows before dragging you somewhere secluded.

“so, what am i supposed to do?” you asked.

“simple, just sit there and look pretty. he will get distracted by you and your beauty.”

“well, i don’t exactly look pretty. those other girls are shining more than me.”

“look, you may not know this but you’re really distracting me right now. which means, you’re pretty so don’t look down on yourself.” you blushed. “jay and sunoo are here too. take this.” he hands you the other side of the airpods.

“hey pretty.” jay says.

“jay, could you not flirt right now.” heeseung scowls at the younger boy.

“whoops sorry, you are her husband. my bad. i’ll back off.”

“hi hi noona.” sunoo says.

“hi sunoo.”

“okay enough with catching up, jay you have eyes on the guy. let me know his moves.”

“on it hyung.”

“sunoo, you’ll come in when it’s time. you know what to do.”

“okay hyung.”

“(name).” heeseung stares at you.

you felt flustered under his gaze, “y-yes?”

“you are going to need to act.”

“don’t have i have to sit there and just look pretty.”

“yes but try to act all flirty. send seductive looks to him. that will really get him distracted.”

“umm, i’ll try.” heeseung chuckles.

“you don’t have to if you can’t, your job after all is just to be by my side tonight.” 

“no, i’ll try to act. you did save me after all, it’s the least i could do for you.”

heeseung’s heart shouldn’t be racing as fast as right now. you looked adorable, well if he wasn’t looking at the outfit you were wearing. he nodded before bringing you over to where his client was.

“shall we play now?” heeseung sends his signature smirk to him. mr.choi laughs.

“eager to play, i see. in that case, let the games begin.”

the game starts, heeseung throws you a few glances. you nodded at him.

“noona, we need intel.” jay says.

“well, i’m not exactly great at poker so i don’t really know what is going on.”

“It’s okay noona. jay hyung, knows how to play and he knows tactics. he has eyes on mr.choi so you don’t have to worry about a thing. just tell us how he’s acting since we can’t see his expressions as great as you.” sunoo explains.

“for one thing, he keeps throwing me lustful looks.”

“guess you are doing well at being seductive.” jay says. you hear a smack from the other side of the call.

“forgive jay hyung, continue noona.” sunoo says.

“umm, he just has been throwing those like confident looks. like he knows he is going to win.”

“that’s because he believes so. mr.choi always wins poker matches by cheating.”

“oh.”

“heeseung hyung, just a heads up. he has an ace card under his sleeve and he will use it soon.” heeseung scoffs under his breath, he tilts his head to crack it before smirking at mr.choi.

“good god, he’s hot.” you whisper. it was loud enough for the boys to hear and yes including heeseung. it boosted his confidence though.

“noona, we heard that you know.” jay says. you blushed.

“ah, whoops. Sorry.” you were embarrassed, for a split second you forgot you were even wearing the airpods.

“alright, i’m pretty sure he is about to strike now. noona, you need to distract him.” jay says.

“umm.” you stood up and walked over to heeseung.

“babe, we should go.” your arms slither around heeseung’s waist. he smirks.

“of course, sorry to keep you waiting my lady.” mr.choi clenches his fist and slams the table.

“no one is allowed to leave in the middle of the game.”

“uh oh. hey, you think it’s time to call the others over. more specifically, sunghoon hyung and ni-ki?” sunoo says.

“yes of course.” heeseung answers. sunoo knows it was for both his question and mr.choi’s warning.

“noona, i think you should run to the bathroom. it’s going to get bloody. i’ll grab you.” sunoo says.

“i’m sorry, dear. I need to run the bathroom for a bit. you may continue your game.” you tried walking out but they blocked you.

“like i said, no one can leave in the middle of the game. including escorts.”

“we’re fucked.” you mumbled. you noticed someone walking in. it was jay.

“sorry to disturb the game mr.choi but i don’t think this was part of the deal.” jay puts on white gloves and then takes out a silenced pistol, he pushes back his slick back hair.

“mr.park.” mr.choi says in a distressed voice.

“how silly of you to have forgotten that the park family has joined forces with lee corporation.” jay scoffs. “you know how my family deals with people who don’t pay up.” jay cocks the pistol and points it straight to mr.choi. mr.choi’s personal bodyguards stepped in front of him, protecting him. jay laughs.

“ah, have you also forgotten. I have eyes everywhere.” a gunshot was heard and mr.choi falls flat onto the ground. you yelped, heeseung holds you close.

“heeseung hyung, you may leave. I have business to attend to. oh don’t worry about the money. it shall be deposited by the end of the day, sunoo is checking it.”

“do you need anymore help?” heeseung asks. jay laughs.

“just a clean up help? we need to make this massacre look like an accident.”

“I’ll dial for jake and jungwon for clean up help.” heeseung leads you out to where sunoo was. he sits in the driver’s seat and drives off.

“what about jay?”

“oh, don’t worry. he would never get into a horrible situation. he has help from his family.” sunoo says.

“his family is in it too?”

“yup. ah, i wish to have parents like his. they are really cool though. as for mine…they abandoned me.” sunoo says.

“i’m so sorry.”

“oh, it’s fine. you don’t have to pity me, noona. my parents are my enemies too, seems like karma got them the best though. hell sure looks great on their death certificate.” sunoo says with a happy smile on his face. your jaw dropped.

truly bone chilling for someone to just say so. heeseung chuckles.

“you’ll get used to this. sunoo usually says the grimmest things with a smile all the time.”

“i don’t think i’ll be able to do so.”

“well, don’t worry. i’m here.”

“eww hyung, you aren’t even a real couple. what’s with these flirty comments. it makes me wanna gag.” sunoo says. heeseung laughs.

a month passes by since that incident, your life was still unfortunately miserable considering those 2 maids were constantly on your ass. oh and they had found out you and heeseung were married which made it 10 times worse. heeseung doesn’t know this because you kept quiet and never told him about it since you didn’t want him to do anything drastic.

which you found weird considering, yes he was your husband but you were never a thing from the start. why was he constantly doing things for you? what if…what if he-

“yeah, there is no doubt in my mind that lee heeseung is in love with you.” danbi says. you smacked her arm.

“no, danbi unnie. he can’t fall for me. this is a fake marriage and well i can’t date him because he is a rich CEO and people like him.”

“to you it’s a fake marriage but everyone already knows you are in a real marriage. you even got real marriage certs, you can literally skip the dating phase and go straight to your hot CEO husband.”

“unnie, this isn’t right.”

“and so is denying your own feelings for mr.ceo. come on (name). give him a chance to melt your heart. actually, i’m sure he has already melted that heart of yours. considering he does things to you constantly that makes your heart go crazy.” she huffs. “this is descrimination to single people aka me.”

“unnie.”

“shut it. your hot husband is coming over.” you froze.

“we need to go somewhere again. they want dinner with the couple.” heeseung smiles. you playfully rolled your eyes.

“do your clients want to or do you want to?”

“Both.” heeseung flirts.

“you two never fail to make me third wheel.” danbi says. heeseung laughs.

“come on, let’s go. my lady.” he holds out his hand and you happily took it. just as you were about to leave, the two (read: annoying) maids came up to you and heeseung.

“how could you leave in the middle of a shift? moreover, with the owner of Decelis Resort? disgusting, you’re just a wh*re.” heeseung scoffs.

“being a pick me girl i see. well, today’s a good day for the both of you. i’m assigning you two to a new job. a better one.”

the two girls gasp, “really?”

“yes, congrats. you’ve been promoted to unemployment.”

“what?” danbi holds in her laughter watching the two girls frantically panic.

“but we did nothing.”

“bullying surely isn’t nothing. after all, (name) is married to the owner of the Decelis Resort which makes her the co-owner of this place. if you insult the co-owner, it leads to expulsion. am i wrong? i’m just following the rules.” heeseung says. the two girls looked at you.

“we are sorry. we need this job. our parents will freeze our cards if we don’t work here.” they begged you. you turned to heeseung.

“well mrs.lee, you make the call. i’ll meet up in the penthouse.” he pecks your forehead.

once he leaves, the girls scoff.

“seriously, do you think you have the power? we only take orders from lee heeseung and the other enhypen boys.”

“ah, i came back to say. the expulsion will be done immediately so you may start packing your things right now ladies.” heeseung pops in. he leaves again and they turned back to you in shock. you simply shrug your shoulders.

“good luck.” you say.

in the car after changing into your outfit and putting on your makeup, heeseung drives with one hand on the wheel and the other holding your hands.

“so, who are we having dinner with?” you asked.

“someone who has worked for my family.”

“oh, it’s a big deal huh.”

“not exactly. we are having dinner with him because he may know who killed my parents.”

“right. again, i’m sorry about your parents’ death.” he rubs your hand.

“it’s okay. it happened already and there is no way i can bring them back.” heeseung smiles at you. your heart flutters. heeseung stops at a red light.

“heeseung, do you like me?” he turns to you.

“and if do? what are you going to do about it?” you unbuckled your belt and leaned forward to kiss heeseung. he quickly responds to it. it turns green and cars start honking at heeseung. he pulls away first and drives. you put on your belt again.

“i like you too.” you say. heeseung bites down a smile from appearing. he kisses your knuckles.

the both of you arrived at the restaurant, it was going really well until you felt something off. you excused yourself to the bathroom and dialed for jake.

“jake, something feels off. i think we need backup.”

“are you sure? i don’t think heeseung’s family connection would do anything to him.”

“jake, didn’t you say heeseung’s family was in debt to the mafia?”

“shit. we’ll come over right now. keep us updated for now.”

“alright.” the call ends and you went back to the table.

“love, do you want anymore desserts?” heeseung says.

“oh no, it’s okay. I’m really full right now.”

“can’t believe that our lee heeseung that we knew since he was young is married.” mr.kim says.

“that is right! you’re so grown up heeseung-ah.” mrs.kim praises. heeseung blushes.

“ah right, i forgot to ask.”

“ask away.” mr.kim says.

“do you happen to know who killed my parents? or did the killer ever leave any clues.” mr.kim was shocked.

“heeseung, did you not know?”

“know what?”

“your parents they are-” the door bursts open, they covered mr.kim lips and dragged mrs.kim out. they held you and heeseung at gunpoint and so you were forced to put your hand up. they were about to question heeseung when the other boys walked in.

“hey, big one. pick on someone your size.” ni-ki gestures for him to fight. the bigger guy runs to ni-ki but he was quick to avoid and then strike on the guy’s skull. you winced.

“missed us?” jungwon smirks. enhypen never knew who exactly these people were but any time heeseung tried to investigate about his parents’ death, they always appeared and caused chaos.

“sunoo, could you bring (name) out?” heeseung says.

“of course.” you quickly grabbed onto sunoo’s hand and he tries to lead you out of the room but there were people blocking the way.

“not again.” you sighed.

“noona, could you step back.”

“sure?”

sunoo breathes in, pulls out a pocket pistol and shoots twice before they could even react. he spins the gun and blows it out.

“come on noona.” sunoo smiles. you were still in shock. “oh? why is there a tissue paper on the ground?” sunoo picks it up.

“are alive?” it’s written in lipstick. you were thinking about it and then it hit you.

“heeseung’s parents are still alive.” sunoo gasps.

“we have to tell hyung.”

“well we can’t exactly tell them-” the 6 boys walked out of the door and shut it close.

“hey umm, we need a clean up. make it look like an accident as per usual, thanks.” jay ends the call.

“what’s wrong?” sunghoon says.

“Heeseung.” you hand heeseung the tissue paper.

“are alive? what does that even mean?” ni-ki tilts his head.

“my parents are alive.” heeseung says.

“they are what?” jake says.

“how can that even be possible. they’ve been dead for literally half of heeseung hyung’s lifetime and he is literally 40.” ni-ki says. heeseung glares at the younger boy.

“i’m not 40, ni-ki.” heeseung says.

“well you do seem like you’re ageing fast. white hair does not suit you by the way.” sunghoon says.

“can you not.” heeseung growls.

“well what are we going to do now?” jungwon says.

“find my parents and where mr.kim and mrs.kim have been abducted to.”

“is noona coming though.” sunoo says.

“well yes, she is my wife…for real.” heeseung says. you blushed. heeseung holds onto your hand.

“gross.” jay says.

-

taglist[open]: @my5colors @wtfhyuck @nyfwyeonjun @thealatte @dimplewonie @nuttykittypainter

(not me forgetting to put the taglist, sorry🙏🏻)

[mary-laib]

I've seen a lot of people say that Mordecai is ocd and idk if Tracy has said something about it yet, but I feel like outside of people who are ocd or know a lot about the disorder, most people say it bc of what mainstream media has to say about it. But let me pose you an alternative: ✨Autism✨

As an autistic person who works with multiple ocd people, let me tell you that ocd≠organized. From my understanding, ocd is more of a compulsion-based disorder such as checking your locks multiple times, repeating words or phrases, and counting in certain patterns. Some of this can lead to being more neat and organized, but it is also just as often not the case. Autism can often be more driven by symmetry than ocd, though with less anxiety reactions.

As a neurotic autistic person who gets upset when things are not symmetrically placed on shelves or on counters and works with ocd people who constantly leave stuff wherever for days on end, but happen to be good at counting and making sure that reminders are made when things are bothering them, it is hell here.

Actually let me go off the rails for a second and complain about the disorganization of these people (and before I get accused of "mimicking" Mordecai, let it be known that I just got into Lackadaisy and have been complaining about this stuff since July of last year. I just like him because he's relatable):

• I have a huge issue with cans not being stacked forward and the labels not facing the correct way and empty boxes being left on shelves. I also hate it when cans are not the exact same size so when you stack them, you can never get them all exactly lined up at the top. I go into Walmart and organize their shelves, that's how big of an issue I have with this stuff.

• At the registers, I have very particular spaces that I keep everything so that everything is mostly hidden and all the square/rectangle-shaped items we have are pressed together like a tetris set. I will spend hours at the register minutely changing fhe exact setup and making sure everything is neat and lined up, including the pens.

• I like keeping my aquatics station organized with the nets neatly in the sink and tilted to the back so they're not hanging over the counter, all paperwork folded neatly on my little drawer set and underneath the cup where I keep my pens, markers, and thermometer, my square fish-catching cups stacked neatly against the wall, and blackbag folded between the faucet and the wall while I'm not using it. I keep my chemical bottles organized based on purpose (ex. Medical in back, plant food in middle, and contirioner/chamical water adjusters in front.

• In the wellness room, I like to keep carts and terariums pushed neatly against the wall, often between shelves. It there's space between the item and one of the shelves, I like to push it against one and find something that will neatly fit in between on the other side.

• It annoys me that the organization system in place is mostly just people throwing things on shelves and organizing them by wide categories, rather than neatly sorting things together based on stricter categories. Like instead of putting all the aquatic stuff mixed together on one shelf, we could be putting food to one side, then filters, then thermometers, then decor, etc.

• Everyone also moves stuff around way too much. Like just put stuff back where you found it. Why am I constantly having to move stools back to their designated sections from the same spot. Why do you need 3 stools for one area???

• Can we maximize space? Why are 10 pallets of new inventory on the floor when you can scoot them into one area, organize them based on what place they belong in the store and then move those boxes neatly onto the end of the aisle they belong? Most of what we have is food anyways, so if we can get boxes out of the way, that leaves room to take those pallets off the floor and those boxes can get done so much quicker so we can get them out of the way.

I'll edit as I find more things to complain about.

Edit:

Ignore the bad line work and weird perspective, but when I say that I value symmetry, this is what I mean:

Things need to line up together

Edit 2: Another example of my neurotic need for symmetry.

Plus I always put the nozzle throught the handle (which nobody else seems to do 😒) because it I don't, there will be cobwebs and dirt all over the handle, which I hate touching or getting near. I litterally spent 15 minutes banging it on the side of a cart, trying to get the cobwebs off until a coworker passed by and I made them grab it with a towel because I couldn't physically put my hands anywhere near it without gagging. I also work with and hold tarantulas, so it's not a spider issue. I just really hate the texture.

[maybeimamuppet]

Do you have any autistic/ADHD headcanons for Cady? (Love your fics by the way :333)

OH BOY DO I

(thank you dear!)

usual disclaimer these are based on her musical self and are mostly from a list i made like three years ago anyway yeeha

-literally my first bullet point in her characterization list is just “autistic”

-she’s the kind of person who’s like “at 1:47 pm on Tuesday, May 7, 2022 you said this in these exact words” and also like “i have not eaten or peed in seven hours” at the same time (idk if may 7 2022 was a tuesday i just made smth up lol)

-she has the kälteen bars on her at all times bc she forgets meals so often but she also constantly reminds her friends to take their meds and stuff when they forget

-she’s not actually a savant in math, she just likes rules

-for much the same reason she’s also a polyglot

-she studies languages from books and the people she grew up exposed to and is at least bordering on fluent in seven languages

-she was mute until she was six

-because of this she knows asl

-she uses it whenever she has nonverbal times and teachers her friends basics and like how to fingerspell and stuff so they can use it too

-she can speak backwards because she got bored learning how to read and taught herself to do it both ways. she can flip any word or phrase around in her head

-she’s really good at impressions bc she copycats to learn most of how to socialize and stuff so she’s very quick to pick up intonations and vocal tone and stuff like that

-she’s very sensitive to noise and to touch

-she prefers broadway music (which damian loves) bc they use enough diction to override her auditory processing issues

-she doesn’t like to be touched softly because it’s too tickly and she also just hates being tickled

-but she loves to be snuggled by her loved ones and one of her love languages is touch

-she loves soft clothes (like janis and damian’s jackets) and will steal them if she gets the slightest opportunity

-she loves to stim with her hair which is why it’s so long. and also other people’s and especially janis’ because it’s different colors and very soft

-she also loves when other people play with her hair

-she hyperfixates HARD on the lion king, especially the musical, when janis and damian show it to her and blows all her money on merch and stuff lol

-she’s shockingly organized but her handwriting is terrible

-her friends get her chewy necklaces and stim toys for like every birthday and holiday so she has them all on a rotation to be fair

-she is blunt as all hell and honest to a fault

-she loves when janis paints and draws on her for that good good sensory input

-she goes barefoot whenever she can for also sensory input but she always wears socks inside

-she hates when people whisper and also when people fake crying

-she stims a lot by singing and humming and most of the time she doesn’t notice but (insert preferred partner here) doesn’t mention it bc they love it

-she adores disney movies and cartoons 

-she hates crowds of people

-she had daily meltdowns as a plastic bc the texture of the clothes was so overwhelming for her sensorily

-she drops shit all the goddamn time and is incredibly clumsy

-she hates eye contact

-she does not understand fashion rules at all but gretchen gives her a crash course and that helps

-she hates surprises for the most part and is v into her routine

-she will tell her africa stories to someone on the sidewalk if they’ll listen to her

-she loves being off the ground. carried around, table time, riding in shopping carts. favorites.

-she has really weird medical knowledge

-she actually prefers to write or sign than speak out loud but she speaks anyway bc it’s faster and everyone can understand that

-she doesn’t easily pick up on sarcasm or figures of speech unless it’s v obvious/intuitive but janis teaches her so she’s got it down within a year of their friendship

-she constantly forgets what things are named and invents new ones. and also is constantly stumbling over her words and inventing new curse words

-she hates english class the most bc there’s so many exceptions to all the rules

-idk if this is an adhd or autism thing lol but she talks in her sleep

-she also can and will sleep anywhere but sometimes she pretends she can’t so she gets cuddles

[staybabblingbaby]

Felix Tinder AU (First Date Part) A2 D3

[Caution: These are not full fics, or even full parts of fics for some, these are part of my writing progress archive!]

Concept: You match with what you think is a Stray Kids fan account on Tinder. You get along great with the account's owner, and think it's probably your most successful match to-date. Little do you know who's actually behind the screen...

Word Count: 1,580

Notes: So this will probably be the actual beginning. Maybe. Some version of it, anyways. idk, the formatting for this one is a bit... And I still have to figure out how to make fake Tinder stuff without photoshop. I do not own adobe products. This may actually end up being the first writing part in a hybrid SMAU, so it might not be the first part at all. We'll see. I didn't read this one back for any editing notes bc This entire fic is fighting me rn and I don't wanna look at it lol

Warnings: None as far as I'm aware

Leave me comments or questions or anything! Love hearing from folks <3

Masterlist | Next Part (Coming soon!)

You nervously tap on your steering wheel, anxious gaze glued to the side door you were parallel parked directly in front of. You felt sketchy as hell, but this was the manager-approved pick-up method apparently. Or at least leader-approved. You weren’t really clear on the details.

You were still sort of processing that this was your life, actually. Details were a bit secondary to the big picture here, you thought.

At last, the door creaks open and the blond head you’d been waiting for pops out. After a brief cautious sweep of his gaze, his eyes lock on your car. You roll the window down to offer him an awkward smile and a little wave.

Then, with a bright smile that made your heart do stupid little summersaults, Yongbok Felix Lee is sliding into your beat-up little jeep. You’re shamefully distracted by his (very) pretty face for a solid 10 seconds before you roll up the window and start moving to a proper parking spot.

You may be dazed by his presence, but by all things good in this world you were not carting off a (sort-of) stranger without talking to them first.

“Hi!” He’s the first to break the momentary silence, sunny grin on full, blinding, blast in your passenger seat. Your brain stalls a second time as your (again) realize that Stray Kids’ Felix is in your car. Like right now. Currently.

“Wazzup?” You greet back with a cheeky little smirk. You feel a bit bad for Felix. Making light of things was your one and only coping mechanism. You hoped he hadn’t been expecting a serious candle-lit dinner from you.

Well. Candles, maybe. Depends on how late the two of you ended up staying out.

Luckily Felix seems delighted by your overly-casual demeanor, bumping your arm with gentle playfulness. It almost feels like you’re two close friends meeting up after a long time instead of (sort-of) near-strangers.

You know that if he spends enough time with you the shell of confidence you’re currently wearing will become transparent, but hopefully the façade would carry you through tonight.

“We’re just moving so we can talk without being in the way before we head out.” You explain, pulling into a shaded parking spot in the corner of the lot. You’ve pulled hopefully far enough away to not attract attention from the doors, but also not far enough to be creepy.

Felix nods, tilting his head curiously at you. “Sure, what are we talking about?”

You put the car in park and laugh a bit at his cuteness. “Just expectations and whatnot,” You say, unbuckling so you can turn and face him properly.

“Before all that, though, are you a hugger?” You hold your arms open a bit, not enough to actually touch him, and making sure you’re not leaning forward, letting him take the reigns of contact.

You worry you may be being a bit too forward, but you were trying for normality with all of this, and you really did open most interactions with hugs when you could. You were touchy like that.

Fears once again unfounded, Felix grins widely and quickly reels you in for as tight a hug as the two of you can manage whilst still seated. He reels you in so quickly, if fact, that your arms become trapped between the two of you and you struggle for a moment to wiggle them free and wrap them firmly around his waist.

As you settle in, you rock the two of you to-and-fro, and Felix lets out a content little sigh that has you melting into the embrace.

You sort of feel like giggling madly and tearing up at the same time. You feel a bit like you need to vomit, as well, but you hold all three urges back. It’s just that Felix holds you so warmly and delicately, you feel a bit like you might shatter before the night even begins.

You reluctantly pull back before you cross the bounds of appropriateness for a first meeting, skootching around so you can bring your legs up into your seat in a weird pretzel and start the conversation properly.

You want to coo at Felix as he imitates you and gets himself comfy as well. You’re down bad for this man already, unfortunately. IT’s best that you don’t let on quite how badly if you can help it. You don’t know if you can.

“So!” You start with a clap, “First of all, allow me to welcome you to our humble city.” You do an awkward showman’s bow, gesturing as grandly as you’re able when you’ve crumpled yourself into the world’s cringiest ball.

You’re so damn lucky that Felix seems so charmed by you so far. You’re begging with everything you can that your innate silliness will guide you through tis interaction without you panicking too hard.

“I’ve been here for several days now, first of all,” Felix starts, eyes twinkling with amusement and mischief. You play right into his hands, squawking with offense and playfully swatting at him.

You both dissolve into giggles as he tries to catch your hands to keep them from hitting him, and you loudly begin to complain, “Oh well, I’m sorry someone was too busy playing two fabulous shows to come see little ol’ me before now!”

“Oh, come on now, you wouldn’t let me get you seats, you deserve this ribbing!” He retorts back, finally catching your hands and putting a stop to your flailing. He pauses then, and you can practically see the gears in his head turning.

“Wait.” He tugs you forward by your hands, staring you down with an expression of delighted disbelief. “Fabulous show? Were you there?”

You quickly turn your head to hide the mirthful smirk on your face, replying only with a drawn out “Maaaaaybe.”

Felix gasps loudly, letting go of your hands only to lightly slap your knee, “Why didn’t you tell me? I could have gotten you backstage or something!”

You wave your hands in front of you, both warding off Felix’s playful attacks nd waiving off his words.

“No, no!” You deny him, continuing on to confess, “I actually had the tickets before we even started talking, I got them right as they went on sale.” You pause and duck you head a bit to hide your blush, “Besides, our first real meeting should be our first date, right? That’s how this works.”

To your slight mortification, you can very easily tell that Felix is trying his hardest not to coo at you, so you quickly rush to move on before he can interrogate you further.

“But we’re getting off track!” You exclaim, pointing at him in gentle threat. He holds up his hands in surrender, but you can tell by the smirk on his face that he wouldn’t let it go that easily. Still, he lets you move the conversation forward for now.

“So, I’m a bit paranoid,” You suddenly confess. Felix’s brow creases with concern, but you continue before he can get any weird ideas into his head, “I just wanna make sure we’re on the same page before we actually go anywhere.”

Felix makes a noise of understanding and gestures for you to continue.

“So I just want to make sure we’re both expecting this to be a romantic date and not, like, a platonic one.” You explain. Felix tilts his head a bit in confusion but nods along.

“Yeah, we’re on the same page there.” He agrees. His gentle smile feels a bit like he’s humoring you, but you plough on regardless.

“And I know we’ve already talked about this, but I don’t put out on first dates. I’m not into hookups, so even if you’re leaving tomorrow I’m expecting this to be the first of many or the first and last date.”

Felix seems to be cottoning onto the intended severity of the conversation, despite its relatively light tone. He nods along, seeming pleased about something. You pause to let him interject, but he just gestures you to continue.

You hesitate a moment, but then finish with, “That’s all, really, I just want both of us to be happy with things at the end of tonight.”

Felix smiles so fondly at you that you think you’ll combust, so you quickly reach across him to open your glove box to pull out a couple of papers, to Felix’s utter bafflement.

“Moving on!” You exclaim, pretending that your ears aren’t burning with the force of your blush, “I also have these!”

You present to Felix a paper with an address and your vehicle details as well as a map with a certain area circled.

“Ok, so, keeping as much a secret as I can,” You begin to babble as Felix examines the papers with confusion painted over his delicate features.

“But I was thinking about what we could do that didn’t involve being in public much and wasn’t expensive or anything, and I came up with a plan. A friend of mine owns some forested land with some nice hiking trails, so I thought we’d start there, but it’s a bit rural and I know it’s weird, so I brought both the lot address and coordinates and my car details so you can tell your people exactly where you’ll be and if phone service dies or anything no one freaks out and-”

You cut yourself off, realizing that you’d probably said way more than you needed to

[aropride]

pro tip that works for me (adhd haver) when it comes to cleaning and organizing and such: i have stopped trying to fight my brain completely and deny that my room is gonna look a little messy if it's going to work for me bc i need to be able to See my items that i use a lot. and i also know that having Things on every single Surface strewn about looks messy and cluttered and i can't always find stuff

my solution : Bowls . (also plates, dishes, baskets, small reused cardboard boxes, etc)

i got a heart shaped bowl a few years ago that i meant to put snacks in but then i didn't have enough snacks to fill the bowl and it made me sad so it kind of sat collecting dust for a while. but when i got home from college i was working on getting a state ID and a passport and such and i needed to be able to find all my documents easily so i just. put em in the Bowl. couldn't freak out about whether i lost my passport as i could clearly see it was in the Bowl. where's my wallet? oh it's in the Bowl. many such cases

and now i'm back in college and the bowl is on my.. rolling cart storage thing, idk if there's a specific word for that, but it sits on the middle shelf/bucket easily accessible from my bed and i keep all my meds in there. which also works great!

and ive discovered putting things in Bowls (or baskets, boxes, etc) automatically makes my room Look cleaner as well even tho it's all the same stuff and still entirely visible. and Sorted somewhat, which is awesome because i love sorting and such. 👍

[waters-and-the-wilde]

okay speaking of wrestling and also apropos of 'Rita drags him in by his tie', I was previously having Thoughts about imminently post Got His Ass wherein Rita is bound and determined to drag Nureyev kicking and screaming back into being family again so uh. scenario.

Rita corners Nureyev for A Conversation after they Get His Ass, like plot resolution denouement loose ends and stuff where he's in the clear debt-wise, made his peace with Slip however that looks, he and Juno Have Talked but they're like just on the other side of Having Talked. like Things Are Okay but also everything's just so raw and they're being So Careful with each other, it's like the early days on the Carte Blanche again and it's hard to shake the feeling that any more disturbance is going to topple whatever they're trying to rebuild

so Nureyev is just. his whole brain is full of fire alarms. he's vibrating in place like a greyhound that just got picked up at the shelter after it got spooked and ran away from home. this time he has no high ground as the injured party, he and Rita have known each other for a year now so there's a lot less of her initial 'sniff out the new beau' hesitancy, and sure he knows Rita well enough that it's obvious she's not gonna up and Ruin Him on purpose when she wholeheartedly volunteered to get him out of the mess he was in but still. she's the most unpredictable person he's ever met, he has no idea how this is going to go.

like logically he knows that he and Juno are working shit out and logically he knows that Rita's kinder than the people in her life deserve and might continue to tolerate him, but ultimately she's Juno's best friend who might well just be about to give him the mother of all 'you're on thin fucking ice' shovel talks, like she can't possibly still approve of him anymore right??

so he's scrambling to do preemptive damage control, he's throwing everything he's got into trying to Fix This. going on about how he knows what she must think of him and how sorry he is and that all he has to say for himself is that he only wanted to keep Juno safe, that he couldn't bear the thought of dragging him down with him, not when he was free and their family was together and he knows he should have ended it when Juno asked him to and he just wasn't strong enough and Rita's like. yeah that's nice i know Mista' Nureyev, hey can I tell you what I said to Mista' Steel when he told me about leaving you in that hotel?

and Nureyev shuts up and braces himself and nods very seriously and then she's like, actually you might wanna take off your glasses for this, and now he's extra confused and possibly even more terrified, and she waits until he's put them in a little case and set it on a side table and then there's just kind of a blur and a whole Rita NYEEERRRRRRAAaGGHHH!!!! noise and WHOOMP

pillow to the face

(for context. in my brain. I sorta presume that Juno told her about what happened with Miasma at some point in the aftermath of Newtown bc he owed her an explanation about both times he went missing, and yes she was glad that Juno didn't run away on an adventure across the galaxy without her but she knows a dick move when she sees one and also probably has the full context of baby Mista' Steel's self-sabotaging romantic choices (Juno said there was a whole thing about him walking out when he was with Diamond so I am assuming that Rita was privy to any number of related incidents over the course of those years). finding out that he passed up the chance to run away on a romantic adventure with the mysterious and dashing gentleman who he'd been mooning over for month, who was apparently also smitten with him the whole time and saved his life and tried to take care of him when he lost his eye?? she waited until he was staring into the bottom of his glass and then started whaling on him with a pillow)

anyway Nureyev doesn't get a chance to do much except yelp and sputter and get his arms up before she whacks him with the pillow again. and again. and starts yelling like 'YOu! are! such! a! big! dumb! baBY! Just! 'Cause! YOU! Think! People're better off! Without you! Don't make you! All! Noble 'n stuff!'

and he gets with the program pretty fast, which is to say that he's just on the floor letting her do her worst because that's just what's happening now

'alright I yield! I surrender! have mercy your honor!'

'DAMN! RIGHT! YOU! DO! DidN'T! Captain! Mom! Teach! you! aNYThInG! Big! Stupid! Tough guy! Tryin'a! Do it all! Yourself! We're! S'posed to be! FaMBLY! Now you're! Stuck with us! FoReVeR!!'

tackles him with the pillow. starts tickling him. both of them are shrieking. he vaguely registers that Juno has appeared and is slouching in the doorway 'my love i beg of you call off the attack i'll do anything' and Juno's like 'sorry honey i'm a little busy' and is holding up something that is probably comms-shaped and 'Nooooo, Juno how could you, JUNO SINCE WHEN DO YOU KNOW HOW TO RECORD THINGS'

(and the thing is Nureyev was just letting it happen because he assumed this was catharsis for Rita's sake and sure it's not not for Rita getting it out of her system but she processes things pretty fast you know? and she runs out of steam and goes off to get a snack and he's just there on the floor with his hair in his face kinda punch-drunk and Juno sidles up and sits beside him and whoops turns out Rita found the Release Feelings Valve and Juno's like 'yeah she does that. went a lot easier on me but I think that was mostly because I'd just gotten out of the hospital when i told her about all that.')

(a couple months later Ruby turns up to scoop Jet in the nick of time from a dangerous raid on Dark Matters and he asks what it's been up to and it pulls up the footage that Juno copied to the databanks. he gets a good kick out of the fact that Rita was on the same page about the whole 'he is solitary and overconfident and alone he can only fail' thing and that she got the opportunity to address it in the most rita way possible)

[plenilune]

hello friends! I used to be Guy Who Does Nothing Ever for like the better part of ten years and now I'm become Guy Whose Schedule Is Too Packed (Good Way)? anyway I miss you and here and also I hate mobile tumblr but it would be so much easier to use tumblr and like chill here in a fun social way if my computer situation were not so dire that I am perpetually harnessed to my desk where the shitty desktop Corey liberated from work (managers thought it was broken bc they're too generationally wealthy to have really sat down and reckoned with bad technology before; it's just a really shit Acer) when I wish to do, non-phone things. anyway, recently I have accidentally unlocked some type of overall beneficial mania I am trying to ride out gently but that has made me become Make Stuff As Part Of My Identity and also have a lot of emotions all the time. I bought a big rolling craft cart (twice the size of the Michaels ones) off Facebook Marketplace for fifteen bucks and then Corey and I had breakfast-lunch (it deffo wasn't brunch) at a diner in the neighbourhood where our combined meals with sides and coffees totaled like sixteen dollars before tip. (this is detectivecore.) also I've started painting tshirts and I may take up the bass. I don't know who I am or what is happening too me but I am riding it all the way to the end of the goddamn track, okay!!!!!!! maybe I'm just better now!!! maybe I love to be alive!!!!!!! I've spent more of my life more or less passively suicidal than I have, not being that, since my early teens so this is like, okay. sure. nice. what. let's fucking go

anyway not to brag but to tell my isolated teenage self -- my isolated mid-twenties self! -- that fuck it, life can be great and weird and big someday even if you feel like it's too late to get in on it, my calendar for this week includes

goth/industrial drag king night at my favourite local queer bar

if I convince myself it's worth it to call in sick to work to go see HOUSE (1977) on the big screen and maybe sell some stuff to make up the lost income (money is tight lately), I will, uh, go see HOUSE (1977) on the big screen at my favourite local cinema. you may know about it, coincidentally. recently it advertised Oppenheimer's sexual proclivities and went viral about it, which made me very proud.

oh it's ~employee appreciation week~ at work this week and Saturday is uhhhh sports day when everyone is encouraged to wear sport, clothing, or whatever. well I participate in one sport (cycling) and consume another (...........Formula 1) and can't afford a Bianchi logo shirt on short notice, so I may simply have to paint a shirt with checkered flags and the legend FASTEST LAP. you know. for normal and wholesome reasons. to wear to work.

[mumble mumble might have a make stuff and make out date with a hot possum-in-human-guise I know who gave me a chicken bone as a token the last time we hooked up]

anyway hello friends! I MISSED YOU. let's take this one from the top.

[himejoshiangels]

more duke things bcs I'm so normal abt Him I promise

duke was in the foster system for years while not being able to mourn his parents, knowing that they were missing while only being able to search for them to the best of his ability, often being moved from home to home bcs of how often he got into fights and being mistreated or abused in some of the homes he was sent to

what I'm saying is, duke probably kept to himself because he was moved around so often that it made keeping relationships hard, in batman and the signal he straight up says that he doubts that his situation will last already putting up a wall between the rest of the family and him

eventually when he does settle in or at least get comfortable with the rest of the bats he stops being rigid and is able to be himself for the first time in a while, this is his first stable living situation since his old apartment and a small part if him is sure he's gnna fuck it up like his previous foster homes

when he first arrived he was awkward and cold, so when he started getting comfortable and everyone was exposed to his blinding smile and cuddly habits

as for relationships w the other bat kids, cass and duke like to tell ppl they are twins for the fun of it, they know nobody believes them but no one's been brave enough to question it either

Jason is dukes lame big brother who wants to look cool so bad but duke is so so dedicated to never letting Jason find out that he finds him incredibly cool and also lame, Jason will do the wildest shit for dukes attention and then ask what duke thinks and he'll go "eh it was aight"

duke and dick don't interact a lot but whenever they do dick is trying to banish all of duke's insecurities like it's his fucking career, they cannot go a single conversation without dick praising duke and duke preening and shit

tim is so awkward w duke at first he has no idea how to interact w him at all. instead of just talking to him like a normal person he'll just leave gifts in duke's room that say shit like 'I heard you wanted this shirt so here you go' only they didn't have a conversation at all and the shirt was in duke's online shopping cart - its so weird but it's growing on duke, he won't say no to free stuff

steph and duke are not allowed to be alone together anymore because last time they were there was a category 4 incident with the riddler and it was just hell for everyone involved esp nygma, bcs they were having the time of their lives

one of the many reasons duke is able to get away w sm is bcs babs has a soft spot for him and will cover his ass without hesitation, if some wild stuff went down on dukes patrol there will be no evidence bcs oracle wiped anything that even mildly incriminates duke from existence, they get lunch on weekends

damian is dukes #1 info dump victim but it's ok bcs duke is damians #1 info dump victim, now the other has more knowledge abt movie analysis and animal facts than they'd like

[felineverdure]

anywaysss manga jean >>> anime jean

dont get me wrong he is still one of my best bois. finally caught up to the anime and was lowkey upset that a lot of good jean dialogues/reactions/little things were shafted, cut out or moved to other characters. (mostly s1-s3 stuff.) some rambling of mine on parts that they change that i dislike.

one small thing that they changed it up for anime was his motivations for joining the mp. sure we all know that his purpose was to live what little time he has left comfortably in the interior. but he also emphasize on being sick living in the frontline towns that is prone to titan attacks which is pretty normal and valid reason to want to escape to the inner walls imo. animes only sees jean as a spoiled brat bc eren says he is but manga jean is not?? also his face calling out marco in manga is just * chef kiss *

2. this one bugged me A LOT. i think they move this whole dialogue to a another character. ( i cant rmbr) basically jean aint dumb. he went on to school eren on the 'reclaim wall maria operation' aka the culling when eren chastised him for his 'selfish' reasons for wanting to join the MP. here we we have the classic pessimist, defeatist jean kirstein. (also lowkey baby anarchist)

3. his jealousy towards eren isnt really purely from his crush on mikasa but more of eren dragging mikasa and armin into 'an early grave'

4. THIS ICONIC FACE

5. jean eventually stopped slacking off but likely to get back on eren (love his level of pettiness)

6. after training everyone wants to be in marco's team with marco as a leader which prompts marco to tell jean he makes a much better leader than him. (i find it weird that they insert the dialogue in the trost arc itself. it gives little time for jean to digest the idea of him being a leader whereas it makes more sense here in the manga, pacing wise)

7. his motivations to join the scouts. its not just eren or marco words that inspired him into joining. NO. trost arc made him realized he does care about his comrades. his decision to joining the scouts includes him wanting to not have to worry about his other comrades dying. (i feel that this doesnt translate well in the anime ugh) if u noticed, connie and sasha's fear was 'to be eaten by titans' for jean its 'watching his comrades be eaten by titans' its not about him saving humanity or be a leader. he just doesnt want his friends to die.

8. strategist jean!!!! (i know this is included in the anime but i like the manga ver more. it feels like he has more confidence and authority here) and reiner's thoughts on jean's change.

9. after the entire military rescued eren from reiner & bert, suffering huge losses, jean gave eren a reality check. (i think this part was shorten greatly and moved to another scene in the anime) + the scene of the scouts noting how jean has changed was removed completely.

10. when jean managed to bring marlowe and hitch to help them. levi says GOOD JOB JEAN.

& the whole scene was changed from the MP compound to the MP checkpoint where jsc busted through with a cart. manga was pretty badass in that we were shown how levi squad arent children anymore, having the need to wound the mps to reach their goals. (plus jean and sasha busy being baddies on the roof sniping and shooting arrows at the mps ??? )

11. I CANT FORGIVE YOU REINER line. it make no sense in the anime for them to remove this because annie's 'what about me' makes no sense without that line!!! also makes their conversation on the flying boat and titanic scene more impactful later on.

12. jeans & floch relationship!!!! please please trust me when i say floch makes one of the best jean relationship & interaction because how they are each others foil and weakness. the anime straight up made jean a floch hater and floch that one weirdo who cant take a hint. their relationship is so subtle and nuanced in the mange. PLUS jean straight up tries to stop floch from bleeding to death, something the anime cut out bc they dont want to show someone cared about floch!!! also trying to stop someone from dying even tho its 100% happening?? not a very jean like reaction me thinks (ooooh). and the manga panel focusing on flochs dying words with jeans stressed expression is so so good

13. THIS

ok anyways these are just some of the things i can think of reagarding to jean at least. there are also other parts of the story that i was upset that they didnt include. i know anime runs on strict time limitations but *grumble* *grumble*

other things that im upset about: eren kruger adaptation in anime was meh. warriors training era was cut out. RBA spying days was cut out too which is a big L IMO. also facial expressions in the manga were so much more impactful than the anime version like how??????? and manga is jean is top tier hot. i hate what mappa did with him.

[yourbookcouldbegayer]

heya! i'm planning to write my characters (queers and allies) going to a pride parade, but i have never been to one so i'm wondering if you can help me describe the atmosphere and how people interact with each other during the parade? or are there any resources i can look into about pride parades?

tysm!

I highly encourage you to go to one if you are able, but I know it's not something everyone can just do. My experience under the cut

First, it's my impression that they vary vased on how accepting the setting is. I live in the US in a very liberal area, and that influences my experience a lot, given that a) it's 80% either organizations or buisnesses of some kind showing support, and b) I don't encounter a smidgen of hate/counterprotest.

So my Pride starts as a parade down the street and into the park, where it settles and becomes a festival. I personally enjoy the festival far more.

Most people going , who aren't part of the parade, wear something with a flag on it, the rainbow being the most common. But more and more you'll see flags you don't recognize. People give out stickers-- either rainbow flags in different iterations or hearts with several of the most common flags. Wearing pride flags is very common.

There are usually a couple people with shopping carts so full of flags, boards displaying stuffed animals, large pins, and other things for sale. They start going around the parade area early on. This if good is you want a flag before the parade, but I usually avoid them-- usually these are not queer sellers, and are simply reselling products they bought elsewhere. That said, it was the only place last year I found a 7 stripe sunset lesbian flag.

People there are generally freindly, complimenting pride themed outfits and stuff. There are families with kids there as well as young adults.

The parade, for me, is mainly organizations supporting us-- the grocery store, churches, local politicians, the police (🙄🙄🙄 I went stony silent for them), ect. Groups that I loved tto see though was the local POC Queer group, Planned Parenthood, and my absolute favorite, a local social liberation group. I loved that last one so much because someone was shouting protest chants and there were signs calling for change in trans rights and stuff-- 90% of pride is a parade, not a protest, and feeling the protest energy made me so so happy.

Most people marching are in tshirts associated with theor organization that say something about pride. But you also see a lot of people with pride flags, rainbow butterfly wings. There is usually at least 1 float full of, plus a few other, drag queens. There's the gay bar's float with mostly men dressed in very little. There's giant bubbles or bubble guns. People in the parade will toss out candy, flags, support bracelets, ect to the audience-- also condoms, but I didn’t see any this year. But that might've been because I was near a lot of kids.

At the festival you have:

All those organizations have a booth. There is usually free stuff and sometimes spin to win (pay to spin)

However, you also have local small businesses! There's a good amount that make queer stuff, usually a metaphysical booth, jewelry, pins (fun pronoun pins), flags, umbrellas, fans, pretty much anything you can think of that can have a pride flag, including homemade stuff

The shopping carts are around still

There's a whole bunch of food, like food trucks and stuff. Usually these have nothing to do with pride, theyre just not actually homophobic, and are there to sell food. But there was a local cafe these 6 trans owned and operated that I was super happy to see bc I've been meaning to go.

STD testing somewhere

A stage with a band. I think a drag queen from ru paul came to ours (I go to a big one in a state capital). It's very loud so I don't usually linger here but a lot of people go and enjoy the music and whatever else performance happens.

Ours had rides! A swing ride (so popular I skipped it even though that's one of my favorites) and a carousel. Also face painting. We didn't even have those at the biggest local festival of the year

Free Mom Hugs! I learned recently that this is a group and not just shorrts that are worn, but mother+ aged women wear tshirts saying Free Mom Hugs (or Dad hugs, therre are men too).

As for the people... my pride is crowded. People are usually drressed pretty lightly-- gentials are covered but that's about the only rule. Think rave rules-- boobs usually have their nipple covered. Being covered up is just as common though. No matter what the no-kink-at-pride people claim, this largely isn't sexual. It's queer, it's body positivity and acceptance, it's just being yourself. Also it's usually hot out. People are generally freindly, will compliment especially rarer sexuality representation or cool slogans on shorts. You'll see people in drag, a lot of androgeny, mixing feminine and masculine, ect. And there are plenty of people dressed more normally, too.

People don't necessarily act like everyone there is family or are that much more freindly/familiar with each otther than anywhere else. But mostt people there will respond positively to compliments, most people know far more flags than the average person. People assume pronouns slightly less, definitely still do (my enby gf, wearing all trans colors, no pronoun pin, was misgendered a few times) but it's a much safer environment to correct or ask for one's pronouns or respect ones they see.

Only other pride I've been to is in Provincetown, an extremely gay place. From what I remember, this was much more the common folk, much more an assortment of people marching and cheering and not as directly associated with an organization wanting support. I also went to a leather march there, also basically pride, except mainly... y'know. Leather.

There's a post on heere somewhere of someone watching someone on the bus after pride (idk if ot was a freind or stranger) who lookeed so happy and like themselves, theen having to peel off the stickers, hide the rainbows, ect., as they returned home. This will be an experience that still happens for likely a very long time.

That's about all I can think of. I welcome anyone else to share their experiences! I feel like I talked more about the festival than the parade but I like the festival better.

Unlike what people claim, there is no gatekeeping. The idea of people feeling like they aren't allowed is so weird to me because like. There's so many straight people giving support. There's so many people who you don't know theor sexuality. No one is at pride judging anyone for not belonging. If you look like a bunch of straight people there to party, maybe people will think that and move on. But for the most part no one would notice. You don't know someone's sexuality unless they have a flag, or if someone is there with a same-gender partner or not unless you see them kissing. And no one is performing sex scenes, that picture used in the no-kink-at-pride discourse wasn't at pride, no one does that. Did a freind once tie a bdsm knot on a ripe over my shirt at pride once? Yeah. So what? People there show some pride for their sexaulity, that's different.

Good luck with your story!

Mod Emma