#because you're part of the few whom are actually paying attention to me and being at all caring about me

[nickywhoisi]

Hi again everyone. I have returned, maybe just momentarily, to let you know where I’ve been.

I took a lot of time off for myself to have a “redo” of my life. How this went was that, from Aug 20, I finally felt like I was free, moreso than I had in my life, and that was the best starting point for me to choose that year as 1993, my birth year. I have, through all of this time including now, realize that I have ultimately been battling a giant war against life for the sake of keeping pure and keeping corrosion out. And I mean NIGHTMARISH LEVELS OF CORROSION. It’s so hard for me to put those exact experiences into a perfect pure-feeling term, but basically it’s been like that for a shockingly long time...and one of the things that was so corroded was my own past and childhood. I desired to have a “reset” wherein I got to control life and my timespan for a while, and devote it entirely to the keepsakes I have from those times. I was beginning again, starting over with my life just how I wanted, and I let myself be a little baby for a while, then transition each day to adolescence, teenhood and then adulthood. It was all finally at my own pace. Though even then, the rare times I had to step outside meant that it had to be the current year again for a while, and I still ran across what I now know to be corrosion confrontations, which were sometimes so bad, I had to switch a year, and let it pass until the next day where I would redo it as well. I’m just glad that this plan worked out and it all fit into september before the last few days of the month.

There was also two giantly damaging events that occurred on the 26th...a certain governmental event I couldn’t afford to miss and was getting so stressed about (because I haven’t been feeling more than I can handle of that), and this resulted in me believing I needed to protect my most precious keepsakes, among which, my art and my videogame collection. This was from MY ENTIRE LIFESPAN, including my reset! And all I did was park somewhere where I thought it was going to be safe and untouched. But it so happened to be a kindergarten with apparently a private parking rule that I didn’t know about (and sadly, that part of the corrosive error is on me because I didn’t think to take some time to ask if it was okay, I was just too worried about being on time (additionally, I am aggravated that if I were not left in such a precarious situation, I would not have been so stressed out and thus careless about where I parked!)), and by the time I had a free moment to think about it, I checked on what was going on with my chosen parking space...and I got the shocking news that this asian prick decided, also at the fault of the police ordering him to, to THROW OUT MY THINGS WITHOUT ONCE WAITING FOR ME TO BE PRESENT TO EXPLAIN MYSELF. I had to run out of breath to that place, only to be confronted by the guy who did the deed AND look at the abject horror and misery that my two makings; my very history of being alive, my two greatest and purest of life’s passions...were thrown into a giant garbage bin without an iota of care. Not even an understanding that these items were covered in MY NAME, showing it defacto belonged to me, and nobody had the right to make the decisions they did. And what was all the worse was that I had every right to be livid at the guy and chew him out for what corrosive display he wrought on my HISTORY, MY PROOF OF BEING ALIVE ON THIS HELL ROCK, but he seriously thought he had any right to bombard me with angry accusatory words and ideas, as if he was openly victim blaming me for something I could barely pay attention to over the sound of my own crippling depression...how could I not continuously explode when I had to cry while rifling through the garbage and make sure that I rescued all of my poor keepsakes that I NEVER ONCE WANTED OR WAS PREPARED TO SEE AMONGST GARBAGE WHERE NONE OF IT BELONGS, all the while having my suicidal levels of stress upset and discomfort pressured even more by this unfeeling demon ch*** who never had a shred of shame for what he did saying the most useless, unhelpful and distressing things, likely on purpose, which naturally made me want to swipe at him with a cardboard box lid JUST TO GET HIM TO SHUT UP AND LEAVE ME IN PEACE. But that is when he said the worst thing; you stop or I call the police. I was screaming myself hoarse, wailing in such impossible misery, all because he refused to stop causing coarse corrosive stress towards me, and he was actually de-existing me. What de-existing me means, is that he was actively trying to delegitimize EVERYTHING that was happening to me right there. His profound offenses horrified me as these would never stop coming from him. I feel that this is the type of homonid,,,this inhuman thing, this “flesh homunculus”...is the very thing that I will have to kill one day in order for such corrosions in life to permanently stop, as I want. I got all of my posessions back, but it can’t feel like a true victory until I see this creature gone, and all like it. Please don’t worry about what this means. It just basically means I’ve figured out how to get rid of the things weighing down on my mind for good.

Sadly, just another one of these things bled it’s way into ruining another event that was supposed to remain pure. Some user who I don’t know at all made a heinous reply about me being “such a manchild” over a post subject that I had done nothing more than say my piece on, state that I would not accept anyone trying to @ me over having what just seemed to be different from the crowd opinion, and leave it at that. I learned that on some monday, around the time I left to give myself that long-needed break, I was entirely treated like trash, only fueling yet more of what I have lately been feeling...rather, I should say I’ve been collapsing under the weight of. I already feel bad enough that there are sociopaths like this on the world who troll and are so good at trolling that I do feel very defaced and wounded by. What hurts me even worse than that though, is the timing in which this happened. The one precise moment where all that has happened is processed, or as well as it can, that nothing else is going on, and I thought I had a free chance to muster up the courage and retry from where I left off. I gave this place just one more chance, or at least see how all of my friends are doing, only to see there is proof that people on tumblr, or perhaps tumblr itself, is no longer the place I thought I could have to be safe and I am surrounded by corroded sorts who don’t want me here, as a poor damaged person on the side of purity. I was about to say that I’m a pure person, but that would not be so true. I just want to be good and clear in my soul, and the corrosions of all life, from sirens and sickening-acting people in real life, the fact that real life has so much badness going on that it’s all become besmirched, to here online where corrosion and policing seem to have concaved everything to the point where nowhere is good and pure enough to promise the level of safety and comfort that I need most. Even Gaia online, another legacy site that I frequented from my life’s history as well, suddenly proved on the 25th that it apparently hated me for having a pure connection with it and for some reason hates me for not wanting to support it’s bad practises with money. Apparently they really are the scum who did not pay or support their artists the way they should, and it shows now in the latest “game” they have going on now.

So it’s a real damn shame, but I have to maybe...just never come back here. Ever again. Not seriously anyway. I wanted to do so much more here though. I wanted to be able to be like all of you, my friends, and you amazing artists in the choo choo groop, or the ttte/rws fandom for those unfamiliar. And be like VoiceBoss/Coco, and all of the other cool batman fandom artists too. Just happily posting my art, getting to know everyone, never having anything bad happen that would lead to a confrontation. But someone who bypassed the way I was trying so hard to curate my experiences here made me face the fact that I need a place where not just anyone is able to throw me out of a good thing, by any means. So I must look elsewhere, as I said, for a truly safe, quiet bubble to call my own and to get every ounce of relief and healing relaxation that has been so unreasonably denied of me. This sucks royal.

I believe the last things I might want to take care of is reblogging everything I have in my likes, catching up with my pals, letting y’all know about stuff, having one last farewell party to this blog, and...if I can manage it, I may only post my art/links to where I will be posting art from now on. Cause the last thing I want to do is promise good things I’d share, and then never make do. I’m not perpetuating that cycle of abuse after being a victim of it, no fucking way gang

https://www.pixiv.net/en/users/86557536

[kyoghurts]

"you're weird, girl. i like you."

ϑℓ . SHIMIZU KIYOKO/FEM!READER

synopsis. the closest you’ve come to attain the stars is through her soft eyes and saccharine lips, and the greatest gift the cosmos has given you was the opportunity to fall from the sky and into the arms of a girl whom you cannot live without. ( fluff | 2.4k wc )

notes & disclaimers. i am truly a sap. enjoy reading this abominable & tooth rotting flowery sapphic oneshot. (dont bother w the weird interests the reader has in this fic its for the plot ok + dont play the game i mentioned it is not recommended <3)

“please stop.” you hid your face with both of your palm, an exasperated sigh departing your lips — kiyoko shimizu with her sweet snicker in response, something that inevitably melts you on the inside.

she gifts you yet another imitation of one of your stupid lines from two years ago. long lashes of hers shining like specks of stars against the neon lights, lips tilted with a teasing smile. her slice of mint choco cake on the table a crescent empty and left forgotten, her focus solely on you and your reactions. “whatever you say, captain obvious. though you’re probably just trying to make up an excuse to see me.”

“ughh”

four years sounds so far for you, nostalgic in the way that you wouldn’t have imagined yourself outgrowing something that was once considered an inherent part of you, and now you’re reminiscing how flirtatious you were with your lovely girlfriend in a cafe, the night of the city wide awake, your memories flashing before you as if you were driving fast, the scenery so vivid yet fleeting all the same. you wouldn’t have imagined yourself falling so head over heels for a pretty girl until you blurted out the first thing that popped into your head, your flirty streak so prominent back in your sophomore year.

“that was one of the first few times we interacted. summer classes, right?” you mindlessly sway your drink in your hand, before taking a sip on the straw.

kiyoko nods. “we always bumped into each other in the hallways, sometimes in the same neighbourhood, yet,” she huffs a chuckle, “what made you suddenly take an interest in me is when you saw me reading your favourite manga.”

you know this scene clearly, and you’d like to drive back a u-turn once more, “that was just the start, pretty.”

it starts as that. you see her across the classroom, a rare occurrence more to yourself than for her because you’re not the type to go to school early, but at times like these, you simply just woke up without needing your alarm to do the job for you. the sight of her frightens you, just a little, but enough to trip your feet and end up hitting the cold floor like a corny romcom classic mc would do.

congrats to you for achieving something first thing in the morning, though.

“you alright?” it takes approximately 5 seconds for you to register that in. footsteps approach you with slight haste, a hand comes into view, when you take it, the softness of touch blows you away. her skin slightly cold against your warm one (or perhaps its the other way around?), her calm eyes shone despite her glasses, and looked at you in quiet concern. something about her presence screams elegance, and you’re here being graced upon a beauty well deserved of its reputation.

when you stand and try to regain back your remaining dignity left in your body, which you’re sure its hiding between your teeth as you suck in a breath, seeing your shoes instead of the pretty girl in front of you, you nonchalantly say, “yeah, ‘m fine. thanks.”

she turns back to her seat, watching her as you realise how close she actually was to where you usually sat. you’re both under a class you don’t pay much attention to, but maybe this time, you might just be a little more considerate so as to not doze off every time your boring teacher arrives anymore.

(is this what you call infatuation at first sight? that’s ridiculous. you think, but the blush permeating your cheeks as you push your chair and sit, right next to her, says otherwise.)

you sift through your bag to check if you forgot something, skimming through your notes and lists when you hear pages softly turning from your left. curious, you flicker your attention to shimizu and nearly jump doing so.

she’s reading one of your favourite mangas of all time.

“no way! you read them too?”

shimizu blinks, wide eyed and surprised. “yes? i always read them in the morning.”

ah shit. maybe you really need to pay more attention from now on.

days after, you’ve learned a lot more about her than the lessons of your shared class, and you can’t seem to take your mind off of her even if you try. you learn that she likes her nails perfectly short and shiny the same manner your lip gloss glint against light, you notice how she tucks strands of her dark blue hair specifically behind her left ear when she’s reading or generally focused on something, eyes never leaving her subject with intensity you’re a bit apprehensive to break. she likes her writing neat and highlights perfectly aligned and in the right coded colours (compared to yours, which you ruin them by making it a rainbow). you like the way she tries to talk to you, and insists that your presence is never unwelcome, reciprocating your smiles that leaves you breathless, and letting you stick close to her every morning before your day runs its course.

if you allow yourself to pause your running thoughts, she’s actually the first friend that lets you roll off your flirty tongue and you receiving mean remarks in lighthearted tones, first friend to keep the energy you exert in your shared spaces; your yapping sessions and her quiet forms of reciprocation. she’s the first friend that’s gotten you this giddy and up to your feet, made you do things for her even without asking. and the thing is, when she doesn’t refuse, it certainly makes you wonder how lucky you are, to be able to touch an experience of unbridled fulfilment and happiness. this is not something you’re used to—proves of how special shimizu is, the first girl that makes you so happy in the most mundane yet fun ways.

there are many firsts that you have experienced with shimizu in just a span of 2 weeks and a half. and maybe one of them—albeit spontaneous and unexpected—might change a major part of you, leaving you no option to run away.

it’s precisely when the sun bathes shimizu in gold that seemed to erase anything else in your sight, when the classroom is your world and she’s right at the center of your vision, sitting in the usual seat in the usual time and in the usual quiet elegance that she carries herself. you greet her good morning and sit beside her, like any other day, but that voice of hers saying it back to you sounded so sweet and genuine, your chest warm like the hot showers pouring into your skin. she asks you something, and you wonder if she notice how you’ve been staring at her mole on the underside of her lips with awe, her miniscule smile’s enough of a distraction.

you stagger out a ‘what?’ and desperately compose your thoughts from running rampant like scattered monkeys on the loose. smoothing your shaky breaths into an even out pattern, all while waiting for her to repeat herself.

“you play psychological horror games, right?”

“yeah? what about it?”

“i found one last night, i tried to play it for you.”

“…” truly, you didn’t expect for her to pick up one of your questionable hobbies like it’s normal. you’re about to reassure her that she doesn’t have to do such things if she’s not comfortable when she follows up with “it kept me up that bad. but i enjoyed it nonetheless.”

you’re so bewildered that you couldn’t think she’s telling you the truth. but you had to ask, “…what’s the name?”

“therapy with doctor albert krueger-”

“no fucking way”

“hey. language.”

“YOU’RE INTO THAT SHIT?”

by now you’re standing in front of her while she sits, dumbfounded at your sudden outburst. the curious and weird stares of your peers retrieves you back to your senses just as quickly, awkwardly shuffling your chair closer towards shimizu and hide your face dramatically. you try to whisper instead. “that game’s underrated and particularly niche for a reason. it has its own kind of creepiness that you can’t find elsewhere. dream therapy turning out to be a method of luring you and turning you into a dream eater or some zombie slave? and you say you enjoyed that?”

perhaps you’ve gone delusional, but shimizu’s complexion don’t exactly turn this rosy pink, almost as if she’s blushing. no no, you’re definitely just being delusional.

(and yet for some reason. your face burns at the possibility that she might be feeling shy at the moment. part of you is in denial of this, but your internal self is just as jittery as she might look. god, could she actually get anymore cuter?)

and then she averts her gaze and stammer, eyes locked on her lap as she mumbles. “isn’t that the p-point? to creep you out in the most uncomfortable shivering way? that it never leaves your mind even after you’ve finished it?”

it’s your turn to look away as you swallow. tentative as you ask before the thoughts in your head starts pulling your tongue back. “…you’re weird, girl.”

that sounded funny to you, so a huff of air makes way into a fit of giggles. your heart is being weird too, beating so strongly against your chest as if it wants to leave your body. shimizu can only watch, speechless, still blushing. though the moment you set your eyes on her once more, it’s only then that you knew, that whatever you’re about to say next, may or may not be understood of it’s message clearly like you do.

(you remember being 7 years old was a heaven of the youth before your brain develops the sense when someone is really, really attractive in your perspective. and you’re not sure which is worse, either that you’ve had your very first crush on a girl or that you punched a guy for calling you out a weirdo in front of the girl. maybe the latter was bound to happen, maybe the former was a mistake.)

(right now, you’re certain the claims are switched, because you’re no longer a stranger to being a giver of affection. the way you give them is important, you can’t close your eyes and imagine that whoever you like could be anyone else. right now, you want to give these feelings to shimizu kiyoko if she lets you, you’ll grasp any possibilities presented in front of you, especially when she’s in full view.)

“i like you.”

fuck. if she asks you if you’re flirting now or if you’re confessing, you can’t promise yourself to say the first.

shimizu gets even more redder than you’ve ever seen, making your jaw drop as she softly say, “i know.” eyes falling back on her lap, repeating “i know you do.”

you turn uncharacteristically demure, crossing your arms on your desk as you rest your head against it, sighing in relief, heavy blush soaked on your lifted cheeks as you smile hard that it hurts.

and everything else is an afterthought.

“can i have a sip?” shimizu glances towards your drink you’re holding, then looks at you, expecting.

you pull it back slowly, narrowing your eyes. “say it back first.”

“pardon?”

“you didn’t say it back when i told you i liked you.”

her stunned silence makes this little attempt of yours so worth it, you hide a smile as you wipe your mouth with a tissue. “kidding, here-”

“i like you. i like you a lot. we’re girlfriends for a reason.”

she snatches the drink before your heart pounds too harshly to fully feel it in your chest, you wish it was her pouting right now instead of you as you cross your arms in a playful and childish act. “…you’re lucky i’m nice for you to let you play unfairly.”

“indeed i am.” she giggles, light and feminine and everything you’re not. you can’t waste a breathe not being by her side anymore. everyday is a chance to dream, but dreaming can only take you so far, it’s not enough, you want her to be this close to you as much as she wants to. as much as life allows you.

so when the both of you are at the front of your shared apartment’s door as the keys slightly jingle in her hand and about to insert through the doorknob, you place your palm on top of hers so suddenly she forces herself to look at you wide eyed. she asks you in that soft tone of hers what’s wrong, but nothing is ever wrong when it comes to her.

nothing would come to you to change how you feel for her. you’re a giver of affection, that much you’re certain in all your years of living, but as selfish as this sounds, you want to be the one receiving, too.

“i know i sound like a broken record here but when i asked you out like, four years ago. uhm, i really do want to be yours.”

you lock through the gaps of her fingers of that your own. your face mere inches away from her, skin warm and drizzling in its apprehensive passion. “i am yours. and that you are mine?”

you promptly gaze at your intertwined hands, smiling. “dunno i just. want to hear you say it, is all.”

she pulls you by the waist with her free hand, rubbing in slow movements just the way you always like it. under the moonlight’s command, she presses her lips with yours and parts you with a gift full of stardusts collecting your eyes. she whispers, “i have been yours all this time. so much that your sappiness grows into me, so much that i can’t see myself without you.”

(you truly are a weird girl, kiyoko. my one and only weird girl.)

you push the door open together and shut the world like an afterthought, the same habits you do when you’re home.

(and that your definition of home is both a place and a person simultaneously.)

notes. this was supposed to be a short drabble but then i remember that the fucking title dialogue is actually based off of a real conversation i had w someone (as well as the psychological horror game part) + got a lil emotional with the part where i inserted the childhood flashback thing bc it touches a slight part of myself and BAM i overdid it. oh well. didnt say i hated writing this tho <3

© kyoghurts ★ reblogs & likes are well appreciated!

[bekolxeram]

No, OMG! I'm so sorry if my ask came off this way. I was genuinely curious if there was any way this could work, hence the question. I used to believe it was Tommy who flew the plane, but once I saw your explanation, I actually subscribed to your view. It does seem more believable. I wish it was Tommy, but I think you're right, it wouldn't make much sense. I was just curious if Tim and the writers were to confirm in the future that it was indeed Tommy who flew that plane, whether it would be at least somewhat believable. That was the purpose of my ask. I didn't mean to disregard your theories. I'm sorry. I LOVE your aviation analyses; I even sent you a coffee from the Kinley cafe 🫣 I hope you don't stop. Whenever I see you posted something, I have this huge smile on my face because I know I'm about to read a banger of a post. It's all so interesting!

Noooo, it’s not you. I actually really appreciate your asks. And thank you for the Kinley Café order, you have no idea how happy it made me.

I don’t get asks often, but since the 8x02 title reveal I’ve gotten a few, all aviation related. I’ve been… honestly, elated. I have the chance to yap about my passion and do deep dives on stuff that never crossed my mind before. Sometimes I get carried away, I’m very much incapable of being normal about planes. Ever since I saw those planes in bts photos, my brain has been bustling with ideas, and at times I click rb/reply before thinking because I get too excited. I would worry later that I might’ve forced my theories on others without being asked about them. But it’s not like they’re harmful rhetorics or antagonistic hot takes, just an info dump about a lot of planes. So people can ignore and I’ll move on.

I especially enjoyed doing research on that C-130 in 2x14, I learned a lot about aerial firefighting in the process. I didn’t pay attention back then, but I noticed the lack of airplanes when Tommy was giving Buck the tour in 7x04, so I went back and found the line from the TV reporter saying it was CAL FIRE.

I suspect that line was shoved in there last minute, because some technical consultants told them firefighting air tankers are never used in an urban environment, the weight of water/fire retardant can flatten cars, houses, it has gotten multiple people killed. I can think of more instances where the emergency seems unrealistic at first, but then there’s a passing line making it kind of possible, just exaggerated. I know we always joke about Tim writing soap opera level surreal emergencies, but I feel like all the other people involved in the making of this show don’t get enough credit, especially those designing the opening big disasters.

I’ve noticed multiple times that shortly after posting stuff about Tommy’s pilot career, a post would pop up in the tag asking people to stop obsessing over timeline. I paid them no mind before, they were probably not personal I thought, a subsection of the fandom does have the habit to use Tommy’s age to call him a predator. But this time, well, my theory was mentioned by name, so they were talking about me.

I can handle bad takes or even attacks from the toxic part of the fandom, I don’t value their opinion at all. Seeing rb after rb from people on our side of the fandom, some of whom I admire, basically telling me to stop being so obsessive over realism, being compared to fans who nitpick certain actors’ accents, tattoos, grooming choices, that one stings harder than I thought.

I know I’m being thin-skinned, I’m making everything about me, I’m fully aware that I’m a disaster. But I find myself hesitating to answer the other aviation related asks in my inbox, one of them particularly asking about the possibility of certain scenario in real life. I’m just not sure my input is welcomed here. I have this fear of unknowingly annoying people with my over-enthusiasm. I feel like that kid who keeps yapping about trains at school that everyone secretly hates again.

I just really, really love aviation. I thoroughly enjoy uniting these 2 things that I love and maybe learn new things from it. I don’t mean to impose. I was very excited this morning when I received asks in my inbox, but now it feels like being slammed back onto the ground, and it’s not a good feeling. I don’t know, maybe it’s time to uncouple these 2 things.

[latte-fairytaekwoon]

Kickstart My Heart Pt.1 (Racer! Yeosang)

Next>>

Pairing: Racer! Kang Yeosang × Waitress/Fuckgirl! Reader (Female)

Genre: Fluff, Angst, 80s AU.

Summary: During an era known for its vibrant colors, eccentric fashion styles and rise of new yet unconventional genres of music, the young generation of that time was infamously known for their need to rebel and live their lives rather scandalously and Y/N is no exception. So when a new and attractive man moves into her town, she has her eyes set on making him her next boy toy.

Word Count: 4K+

Warnings: Dumb attempts at crackhead humor, reader is a cold hearted bitch, guy gets dumped in public, reader's friend is lowkey creepy.

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Throwing on the last article of clothing that had been discarded the night before, the young woman shook out her hair, still damp from the quick shower she just took. Picking up her bag, she looked over at the figure still sleeping soundly, the subtle hint of a smile on his face. With a pitied pout on her lips, she walked over to the edge where his face was. Taking out the lipstick tube from her bag, she applied it all over her lips, painting them in the dark burgundy color that she fancied so much and had practically become her signature hue. Bending over, she pressed her lips against the corners of his mouth, giving him the faintest whisper of a kiss before pulling away. A satisfied smirk was plastered on her pretty features as she stared at the lipstick mark on his face, the only memoir she'd leave him with as she had done with countless others.

Closing the front door behind her, she pulled her denim jacket tighter on her body, shivering slightly from the early dawn's breeze that blew across. It was always like that even though summer had just begun, the early morning hours still feeling obnoxiously cool and then transpiring into slightly uncomfortably warm afternoons that had more than one soul in that quaint town grumbling and fussing about the weather. But oh did the evenings feel absolutely refreshing, and that's when everything would start bustling to life.

Having finally made it out of that small residential area and finding one of the main roads that helped her locate where to go, she started heading south towards the all too familiar diner where she had been working in ever since her school days, first starting part time and eventually transpiring to full time when it came time for her to spread her wings and fly out on her own, a feat she had been most anxious to do to get away from the overly controlling nature of her parents. She knew they cared about her, but she herself cared very little about the morals and principles they had raised her with, a common trait all the young people in that town shared: their rebellious and headstrong nature to not conform and go against everything they had been taught thus far. Live their own lives as freely as they chose to do.

And she definitely lived as she wanted to, even if it ended up with a rather bad reputation and ugly labels that rather than infuriate her, she openly embraced, as others had come to as well.

The light twinkle of the bells above the glass door let the person at the register know someone came in and they immediately plastered on their business smile, which quickly faded when they saw who it was.

"You're late Y/N." The minuscule raven haired waitress informed her, eyes never leaving her coworker's figure that came behind the counter and started punching in her number.

"Only by like 7 minutes." She waved her slip at the nonchalant looking girl before placing it back in its respective slot.

"One day it wouldn't surprise me if you just didn't show up because you got too caught up in.... something else."

Chuckling softly, Y/N walked up behind her coworker, hands coming up to ruffle the cheekbone level bob cut hair framing her unusually small face.

"Awww come on Lynn, you know I'd never leave you hanging here to attend customers by yourself. You're my bestie." Y/N assured her, playfully poking her lips out as she tried to place a kiss on her friend, the poor girl craning her neck away as she tended to dislike physical affection.

"I will squirt ketchup on you." Lynn threatened as she picked up the cherry red bottle as a last resort to get her attacker to back away. A rather noisy struggle ensued between both girls, catching the attention of the owner and cook behind the two doors, prompting her to come out and see what was the cause of such ruckus.

"Well I'll be darned. I don't remember paying you youngsters to simply slack off and behave like the hooligans you are." The middle aged woman spoke up, her thick accent becoming more prominent. Although she had a stern look and hands placed at her hips, the girls knew she was not in reality angry at them.

Looking over at the recently arrived girl, the owner closed her eyes and sighed deeply when she took in the attire she was wearing: low cut white tank, ripped denim shorts that left little to the imagination if she bent down, fishnet tights with a few holes in them, and her beloved denim jacket that was almost always on Y/N's body.

"I swear to god, Y/N , everytime I see you wear them rags you call clothes, I feel like my body is about to collapse. Why must you insist on dressing like a common street worker?"

Y/N wasn't at all offended by her words, having grown used to and becoming fond of her boss's abrupt, direct and honest manner of speaking.

"Gotta start looking the part if I'm going to dedicate my life to the occupation." She giggled at her own joke, resulting in the older woman taking the rag off her apron and smacking her with it.

"This little runt, talking nonsense like that- get your ass back in there and change into your uniform. Can't have you prancing around here in those skimpy clothes and have all these men that come here say disrespectful things about you. Nuh uh, not to my girls." She shook her head.

"Yes Miss Audrey." Complying with the woman's wishes, she pushed open the swing doors leading to the back and quickly made her way to the corner where all the employee's cubicles were located. Grabbing the necessary items, she turned and went inside the bathroom to change into her uniform, consisting of a knee length crimson red dress, which she had actually altered so it would be shorter and display her thighs more, the cap sleeves slightly puffed up and the torso part had a trail of white buttons going all the way up to the modest v-neckline, usually most buttons were left undone so her cleavage would shamelessly peak out. Exchanging her black Doc Martens in favor of her white Nike sneakers, Y/N tied her apron around her waist, making sure it was as tight as possible so it would accentuate her curves and give her body a more flattering appearance. As she made her way out, she quickly piled her hair up before securing it with one of the many elastics she kept around her wrists, leaving out a few tendrils to fall on her temples.

Coming back out to start her daily work, she stood in front of Lynn, who merely spared her an unamused glance.

"How do I look?" Y/N asked.

"Like a total slut." Her friend answered in her usually rude way.

Rolling her eyes, Y/N grabbed a spray bottle and a rag. Making her way over to the table that had just finished being used, she quickly picked up the plates and glass, bringing them back over to where Lynn was, who took them so she could wash them in the sink. Spraying the top of the marble piece, she had began her task of wiping down the table when the ringing of the bell signaled new customers had arrived, and rowdy ones at that too.

"Damn! Is today's special fluffy sponge cake? Cause I would sure love a piece of that ass."

Y/N recognized that annoying voice even from miles away, belonging to none other than one of her old classmates, Jung Wooyoung, whom she considered a friend, if he didn't manage to irk her too much. Turning around, she of course wasn't surprised to see him surrounded by his crew of equally idiotic and adrenaline junkie friends, whom she had to admit were pleasant and fun to hang out with.

"Sit your asses down already, I'll be over in a minute to take your order." She told them before resuming her previous task, earning a scoff from the most dramatic of the group.

"Fine customer service! Don't think you'll be getting a tip from me." His words made her nearly burst into a fit of giggles.

"Wooyoung please, you never ever tip whenever you come. None of you, except Yunho." It kinda saddened her that said male unfortunately wasn't there with them at the moment.

"He doesn't tip you, he tips short stack over there." His friend with cat like eyes pointed towards Lynn, who upon overhearing him held up a rather explicit finger in his direction.

"I'll poison your food San." She threatened with a sing song tone.

"Like I wouldn't know that you already spit on it." San spat back, sticking his tongue out in his immature and infantile fashion.

"Can you guys hurry up and order already? I'm starving and we gotta head to the tracks as early as possible." The fiery red haired male known as Song Mingi blurted out, fingers tapping impatiently against the top of the table.

"If little miss g-string would care to hop her luscious ass over here, maybe we could."

Strutting over to where they sat, Y/N harshly threw the dirty rag on Wooyoung's face, causing a faint grunt to come out of his mouth.

"No matter how many times you mention my ass, I'm still not letting you tap it." She firmly stated, making Wooyoung slightly purse his lips outwards in a disappointed grimace.

"So anygays-" Mingi began.

"Umm I think you mean anyways." San corrected him.

Leaning in towards him, Mingi locked eyes on the shorter male and stared him down with an intimidating glare.

"Did I stutter Choi?"

San immediately shook his head rapidly. With a victory smile, Mingi reclined back in his seat.

"I'm just going to get the breakfast platter with some orange juice."

Y/N couldn't stifle her snort when he said his choice of drink, the other two men looking away in embarrassment.

"You've been drinking orange juice since you were in grade school Mingles, don't you think you outta start taking something more grown up? Like coffee?" San suggested and Mingi did not appreciate it.

"Coming from the one who still brings a plushie to sleep with him, your suggestion holds no value or power." He retorted.

"OK SHIBER IS NOT A PLUSHIE, HE'S FAMILY YOU JACKASS!" San sprinted up from his seat, nearly leaning across to grab Mingi by the color, but he was held back by Wooyoung.

Lynn, who had thus far stayed quiet, promptly came up with a spray bottle and consequently doused the untamed boy on his face.

"Bad kitty, bad kitty." She reprimanded him, unable to resist the opportunity to attack her long time frenemy.

"Lynn!" Y/N looked at her with surprise.

"You're welcome." Lynn replied rather monotone before going back to her place behind the counter like she didn't just spray San with disinfecting water.

"There's too many germs going around anyways..." She muttered under her breath.

Without any further interruptions, aside from the rumbling coming out of the boys' stomachs, they finished ordering what they wanted and Y/N sent it over so they could be prepared. Not wanting to be near their loud asses, Y/N went back over to where Lynn was, peeking over to see what she was currently reading in the magazine she held.

"What you reading?" She casually inquired.

"Horoscope section." Y/N wasn't surprised, her friend tended to be into more mystical, eccentric and rather.....extreme with her taste in fashion and music. If Y/N was the one who turned heads for her scandalous attire, Lynn was the one people turned away from in fear when they saw how she dressed. It was a sight that truly made both of them laugh at people's foolishness, well at least made Y/N laugh. Her friend rarely had any other expression plastered on that wasn't utter disdain for society and life.

Unexpectedly, another customer came in. Both girls looked at each other in confusion when neither of them recognized him. Their town was rather small with few people living there, so they deduced that he must be a traveler who probably got lost on his route. He himself looked around nervously, eyes barely lifting up. Y/N couldn't help herself as she took in his perfect face. Big, round eyes with crystal clear orbs, small face with a V-line jaw, perfectly sculpted nose with no sign of defects, skin smooth and blemish free, he looked like a prince out of a fairytale. He was incredibly pretty, yet stood there so awkwardly that it was almost comical.

"Hey Yeosang! You made it! Sit down! I ordered for you in advanced!" Wooyoung surprised both girls when it seemed he knew the stranger and even waved him over to where they sat. The other two boys also seem familiarized with him and welcomed him to sit with them, chatting up a storm already with him.

"Who's that?" Lynn was the one to finally ask out loud.

"Beats me.....but he sure is adorable."

Noticing the way her lips curled upwards, Lynn could already see the wheels inside Y/N's head turning.

"And I bet you're going to go over there and find out- aaand there you go." She ended up answering her own deduction as she watched Y/N happily walked over with a more bright expression on her face, that soon soured when her boss came out of the kitchen and beat her over to the table, laying down several plates of food.

"I knew as soon as I saw the orders that it had to be the lot of you." She scoffed softly as she looked at the boys' grinning faces.

"You know us Miss Audrey, we wouldn't ever think of eating anywhere else but here. You're the best cook in all of town." Wooyoung praised her with a sparkling charm that could have fooled anyone else but not the robust woman in front of him.

"Boy stop trying to tickle my ears, I've known you since you were in your soiled diapers being carried around by your mama, running around and creating chaos anywhere you went. Flattery may work on them poor girls you play with but me? I can see right through ruffians like you."

Turning her head to finally notice the new addition to the group, she looked him up and down.

"Boy who might you be?" She questioned him, earning the ears of the girls nearby to listen in for any valuable information.

"I'm..... Yeosang Kang, nice to meet you." He introduced himself, tilting his head slightly down when he said that.

"He just moved into town this week! He's the new guy who is going to work with us down at the car shop and help on the race track!" San enthusiastically shouted, making the older woman cringe.

"I may be old, but I still haven't gone deaf for you to yell in such a way boy. So...." She crossed her arms and looked at Yeosang again.

"You a racer too?"

Now the girls, particularly Y/N, were more interested in what his response would be.

"I- yes. So it seems." The poor boy looked so flustered, obviously being more of a soft spoken individual, contrasting starkly to the other 3 boys.

Miss Audrey let out a seemingly displeased hum at his answer.

"As if we needed anymore hooligans running wild. We already got enough with the 3 Stooges over here."

The girls couldn't help but snicker at their boss's words, always having a blast whenever she put the boys back in their place. They however looked displeased, glaring at them intensely.

"Shouldn't you both be off somewhere cleaning dishes or making sandwiches?"

Snatching one of the knifes, Lynn held it up and was about to jump over, but Y/N came up in front of her.

"Lynn, no. Just calm down ok? You know they're just being idiots." Y/N reminded her.

Grumbling something in a foreign language no one knew for sure if it was real or not, Lynn put the knife back, squinting her eyes at them before turning around to not look at them again. Y/N giggled softly, finding it absolutely cute whenever her friend lost her cool and collected form cause it reminded her of a chihuahua, barking and yelping at anything larger than itself trying to establish dominance.

Noticing that in her display of aggression, Lynn had inadvertently knocked over a few of the brochures that were on display for people to take, Y/N stooped down and proceeded to pick them up in a casual manner. Standing up, she neatly arranged them properly, making sure they all faced the same direction and the sides weren't poking out anywhere. Feeling as though someone had been watching her all along, she looked at the table of boys, half expecting Wooyoung's smug grin to greet her, but she was completely wrong as it was none other than the new guy who seemed unable to keep his eyes off her figure, staring intently at the length of her skirt. When he realized she noticed, his eyes went wide, cheeks burning up with utter embarrassment. Y/N however seemed unbothered by this. Wanting to test something, she pretended to accidentally drop one of the pamphlets. Bending over, she made sure he could get a perfect glimpse of her cleavage, if he payed enough attention, he'd be able to see that she was in fact, not wearing any bra. Coming back up, Y/N looked over to see the results, smirking when the agape mouth of Yeosang confirmed to her that he had indeed noticed everything.

"Oh sweetheart, you're gonna be too easy..." She had already made up in her mind that Yeosang would be her next target, and she had to put her plan in action. Placing the brochures down, she was about to go over and start flirting with him, until a familiar voice called for her.

"Y/N! There you are!"

She internally groaned when she heard him, wondering why on earth did he not get the hint of ditching him like that, especially when he very well knew about the reputation she had. She tried ignoring him, but of course, he had had to be the persistent type, no doubt thinking he was going to have a different ending than the rest before him.

"I thought you'd be here. You could have told me you were going to be gone early. I would have made you breakfast."

Knowing she had to say something, Y/N grabbed her pad and gave him the fakest smile she was capable of donning.

"Hi, what can we get started for you today? Waffles? Eggs and bacon? Coffee to start off with?"

The trio of friends, having no choice but to witness the interaction due to it happening right in front of them, snickered amongst themselves.

"Oh shit. He's in for it." San whispered lowly.

The boy obviously looked extremely confused, his smile lightly falling off, but then returning to its hopeful state.

"Why are you acting like this candy bear? Pretending like you don't know me?" When he tried to reach a hand to pull her close, the girl simply pushed him away with one of her fingers.

"Look, clearly you're too stupid to understand so let me spell it out in a language you can understand." Letting out a tired sigh, she crossed her arms in front of her chest, a sour look displaying on her pretty face.

"We had a nice time together, and last night was... average to put it nicely."

"Oh man. That was a total burn." Mingi couldn't help but snort, some of the orange juice being spit back into his glass.

"But that was all it was and all it's ever going to be. So why don't you do yourself a favor and just go back home to your Star Trek figurines and watch the latest episode of Thunder Cats?"

The not so discreet snickering coming from the table behind them only made the humiliation for the man multiply significantly. Turning red with utter despair and rage, he quickly brushed past Y/N rather brusquely.

"Fucking bitch." She heard him mutter under his breath, a phrase she had grown accustomed to hearing among many others.

"Oh god. Homegirl struck again." Wooyoung laughed, swirling his milkshake in his hand.

"Ayo why you gotta do Thunder Cats like that? It's actually pretty entertaining." San commented.

Looking over at the time, the guys quickly stood up, dropping their share of bills onto the table.

"You guys get paid today too right? Come meet up with us at the track." Wooyoung suggested.

"Why on earth would we want to go see your greasy, oil smelling ass after dealing for nearly an hour with you already?" Lynn questioned him, eyes never peering up from her magazine.

"Because Yunho would be there?"

Still she didn't respond, the only movement made was her finger turning the page.

"Bro we been knew she don't give two shits about him." Mingi reminded them.

"Because we're going to the drive in theater after work, they're playing a horror movie."

Lifting her gaze, Lynn closed the magazine, although still stone faced, her eyes seemed to brighten up.

"My interest has been greatly piqued." Her lips showed the faintest whisper of a smile that gave a rather eerie and chilling feel down the people's spines.

"Maybe we should rethink inviting Satan's offspring." San leaned in towards Mingi, shivering significantly.

"Great! So we'll catch you gals later."

The boys quickly dispersed themselves, save Yeosang who still sat quietly, keeping mostly to himself. His fingers fidgeted with the half drunk cup he was holding, gaze fixed on the table in front of him. Looking up, he was attempting to work up the courage to talk to Y/N, but before he could even get the chance to gather strength, the owner came out from the back, whispering a few orders to her and gesturing for her to go tend to a situation in the kitchen. With a defeated sigh, he got up to go join the rest of the gang outside who were waiting for him. Slumping his hands in the pockets of his pants, he moved out of the booth with a solemn gaze.

"Hey."

His steps came to a screeching halt when he heard Y/N call out to him. Looking over, she smiled sweetly in his direction.

"Hope I see you later." With a flirtatious wink, she bid him goodbye as she disappeared into the back.

Yeosang stood there stunned momentarily, replaying her words over and over again in his mind, pondering endlessly at their meaning.

"Little pussy cat sure got you brain dead, didn't she?"

Startled by the unexpected voice next to him, he jumped when the face of the kind yet stern old lady studied him carefully. With a disapproving shake of her head, she decided it'd be best to warn him before he started getting ideas in his head.

"Listen, you seem like a sweet and sensible young man, so it's best for you to listen to me and stay away from that darn girl. Don't let them sugar coated lips of hers sweet talk themselves into your heart. You'll just end up heart broken like all the lovers she's had."

Picking up some of the plates, she gave him one last look, pointing an accusatory finger at him to get her point across.

"She's dangerous." Finally saying what she needed to say, Miss Audrey headed back with plates in her arms, slapping away Lynn's hands when they attempted to pry them off her, barking instructions at her to watch the counter and leave her be.

"Dangerous....." Yeosang thought to himself, the warning the good intended woman gave him sinking deep in his mind. Although he took her words to heart, something about the way she glanced at him pulled at the strings in his chest, taking his breath away when he remembered the risque position she was in that purposely allowed him to view more than he should have. That memory tinted his cheeks pink, lips unable to suppress a small smile. He knew that he should heed the old woman's advice.

But he had to admit that he loved danger and the thrill it came with.........

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Taglist: @little-precious-baby @yunhofingers @brie02 @galaxteez @multidreams-and-desires @deja-vux @hanatiny @couchpotatoaniki @daniblogs164 @a-soft-hornytiny @yunsangoveryonder @minhyukmyluv @nanamarkie @ateezbabysitters @mingismoon @rainteez02

[johnkrrasinski]

burning desire;

full masterlist

Pairings: Ari Levinson x reader x August Walker 

Word count: 2,779

Warning: SMUT!!!! familial sex (step-uncle & niece), threesome, dirty talk, mentions of alcohol. 

Summary: your step-uncle, ari levinson, brought a friend, august walker to his house one night during you stayover and things heated up real fast. 

a/n: this idea popped into my head out of nowhere and i just had to write it immediately. (my other wips are sobbing so hard right now) enjoy! please leave a comment & like. 

The mid-August air feels clammy on your skin, and the daylight glared brightly into your eyes, but thank the heavens that you were clad in nothing but your pastel pink bikini and your eyes were protected by your heart-shaped sunglasses. you always loved basking in the sun in uncle Ari's pool in his massive backyard. Your parents were currently out of town for business matters, as they always were and when they were away, you always stayed at uncle Ari's place.

His place was only thirty minutes away from your parents' house and you always loved coming over to his house. What's not to love? The fact that it was just as huge as your parents', designed grandiosely and located in a secluded area made you wish you could just move here. Not that your parents' was any less palatial but- okay, honestly, your parents' house was just as fancy and you were the princess ruling your little castle, so what was really the reason that you wanted to move here so badly?

If you're being honest to yourself, it was because of your ridiculously good-looking uncle. Seriously, the man had no right to be that attractive at that age. He was nearing his 40's and he could still make every woman in his path weak on the knees. His cerulean blue eyes, the thick beard and those ripped muscles never ceased to make a particular part of your body tingle when he is nearby. It wasn't helping either that he'd touch you so close to the part where you wanted him the most when you two were alone, or that he would speak in a really low tone by your ear, causing you to shiver. And you definitely didn't miss those flirty glances when he thought you weren't watching or when you were dressed in something a tad provocative.

It was as if you were playing a secret cat and mouse game that you were both aware of and you both kept playing but no one dared to admit to partake in it or put it to an end by making a move. The tension in the dining table when your parents invited him to come over for dinner or when it was just the two of you watching a film on the couch and you would lift your legs and fold them so your bare thighs would be displayed for him (which you would pretend you weren't aware of its effect on him.)

You were lost in your daydreams of him tearing that bikini off your body and fucking you rough in this pool as the water splattered around you when you heard his voice.

"Enjoying yourself?" his smirk was smug as if he could see the pornographic movie that was playing in your head.

"Uncle! give a girl a warning, will you?" you tried to maintain your composure, not wanting to show him the wet stain in your thong.

He walked closer to you and crouched down to your level. "Didn't wanna disturb you, you looked so relaxed, I thought I'd give you a few more minutes." Was he watching you? How long had he been standing there? "I got a friend coming over tonight, to watch the game. Just wanted to let you know."

"it's your house uncle, you don't need my permissions to have a friend come over." You chuckled.

"I wasn't asking for permission sweetheart, I was just informing you so you wouldn't be startled to see a stranger in the living room," he stood back up. "I got some errands to run. I'll see you tonight." you scoffed. Curt and enigmatic as always.

You were lounging in the room that Ari specifically spared for you. There were six bedrooms in his house alone and five of them were empty. He figured you must have your own personal space every time you visited. You walked to the kitchen to grab some snacks when you were stopped by Ari’s voice calling your name.

“C’mere, say hi to my friend, August.”

The sight of the man sitting on the couch next to your uncle stopped you in your tracks. My God, he looked like a Greek god. His sleek black hair was combed to the side and moustaches weren’t your thing but damn, he rocked it so well. His blue eyes took your breath away as he smiled at you and shook your hand.

“Oh, so you’re the friend uncle told me about.”

“Well, your uncle here doesn't have that many friends so I might be the only friend of his you’ll ever hear.” oh, the things his voice is making you feel…

You chuckled, “well, I don’t wanna be a bother. You guys are watching the game, right? I was about to grab some-”

“No, of course not. Come, sit. We can all enjoy the game together, right?” He took a sip of his beer.

“I’m not really into-”

“We insist.” His tone left no room for argument.

“…okay, I guess.” August and Ari made a room on the couch for you so you sat between them. To say you were nervous was an understatement. A million scenarios were going through your head right now. The image of being sandwiched between these two bulky men with your clothes off was making you uneasy. You were only wearing a big loose shirt that barely reached your mid-thighs. You weren’t wearing any undergarments except a black lace thong because it was summer and petit clothing items were all you packed. (Not like you were trying to impress a certain person, not at all.)

“You want one?” August offered you a drink. “Yeah, sure.” You were an adult now so what’s the harm in one? Your parents were thousands of miles away and it wasn’t like you had to worry about dealing with the hangover in the morning.

August put his arm on the headrest, behind your head and it made your breath hitch. You put your leg over the other to cover the arousal growing in your extremely minimum underwear. Ari took a sip of his beer and then spread his legs and the side of his thigh graze yours and you were growing hotter every second. It was as if they could sense your arousal and fooled around to rile you. You had to take control over your breathing but it was getting more challenging every passing minute.

“So, y/n, what are your plans for college?” August broke the silence.

“I actually am in college. I’m currently in my second year and I always come home during summer.”

“Oh, you certainly don’t look like any older than nineteen. My bad.”

“It’s alright, uncle.”

“August is fine.” He was watching you intently as if he was paying attention to every detail on your face. What was he looking for?

“What are you studying?”

“I’m in fashion design.”

“Suits you.” He winked, retreating his arm from the headrest, to open another bottle of beer.

August asked you several questions about yourself and you answered every single one. After a couple more bottles and the soothing sound of the TV, you found yourself getting drowsy. It felt nice being in the presence of these two beautiful men so you let yourself drift away. You didn’t realize that you had fallen asleep on Ari’s shoulder. When Ari called your name in a low voice and you didn’t open your eyes, Ari and August looked at each other and were ready to execute their plan.

Little did you know Ari had been talking about you to August for months. Who was he kidding? Of course, Ari was attracted to you. You were hot, young and promiscuous. Also, something about the fact that you were his brother's stepdaughter turned him on even more. He and August had been friends since college and they shared a lot of things ever since. They had many hookups with women whom they shared with. They were also business partners of a company that had bestowed them a lot of fortune. Hence Ari’s swanky place and the fact that he stayed single throughout all these years. He was never the ‘settle down’ type. He never told you about his business partner, you only knew that he existed, you just didn’t know his identity.

August sniffed your scent on your open neck, and the vanilla smell turned him on. He began to spread your legs and caressed your thigh until he reached your underwear. He chuckled when he felt the delicate material on his fingers, “she’s practically begging for us to fuck her brains out on this couch.”

“You should see what she wears every day in this house, it’s like she wants me to pounce on her,” Ari replied.

“She’s soaked. She should’ve just asked, we would’ve obliged immediately.” August rubbed you in circular motions through your thong and when he felt you growing wetter, he pushed your panties to the side and inserted two fingers into your entrance.

You gasped in your slumber, feeling something scissoring you open but your head was too fuzzy to figure out what was happening. August curled his fingers and stroked your G-spot and your breathing became ragged. You began to stir and mumbled under your breath. Your brows furrowed and when August’s fingers moved faster in and out of you and Ari began fondling your breasts through your thin shirt, your opened your eyes.

“Uncle Ari…”

“Shh, just sit back and enjoy, sweetheart. We’re gonna make you feel good.” He whispered sultrily in your ear. You whimpered when August’s thumb circled your clit, causing your head to spin. “God, you’re so hot. I’ve been waiting to put my dick into this tight pussy for months now.” August whispered in your other ear.

Your hand went into August’s wrist, needing to hold onto something. You knew this was wrong, but you couldn’t find it in yourself to tell them to stop or get up and run to your room. Ari’s hand went to your jaw to turn your head to him and kissed you with fervently. He licked your bottom lip and you made room for his tongue to tangle itself with yours. You were making out on the couch with your uncle as his friend had his knuckles buried deep in you.

You felt your muscles tightening and then the dam broke, making a mess all over August’s fingers. He watched your expression as you hit your peak. The image of you losing your mind sent electricity right to their cocks and they were eager for more now. They couldn’t wait to see the face you were going to make when they gave you a bigger one.

You thought they would at least give you a few seconds of repose after the onslaught but you should’ve known better. You knew that Ari was a hustler when it comes to what his heart desired. And now, his body yearned for you and he didn’t waste any time in undressing you from the scanty garments you had on.

August sucked on the sensitive spot of your neck, leaving little love bites here and there before biting the spot where he wanted to mark you. You bit your lip at the thought of parading around Ari’s house with those sensual bruises reminding of the sinful act the three of you committed last night. You didn’t think as far as how you were going to act around Ari now after tonight but you were surely hoping that this wasn’t a one-time thing.  

Ari was still possessing your mouth with his, his plump lips felt soft on yours and they tasted even better than your fantasy. Ari pulled his lips away from yours and looked at his partner, “should we do doggy or missionary?” Ari asked as if you weren’t there at all.

“Missionary, I wanna see those tits bounce,” he smirked against your skin.

“Fuck yeah,” Ari keened.

They began stripping and you couldn’t help but watch. My God, they were sculpted to perfection by the hands of God themselves. The sweat on their skin made them glow from the ray of the TV. They pulled down their pants and their massive cocks sprung free and you could’ve come right there. Their packages were impressive, would they even fit inside you? You were drooling at the sight and you needed them to fill you up right now or you were going to explode.

“Lay back,” Ari commanded.

You did as he said and folded your legs to make room for Ari. The couch was large enough to fit two more people in here but you needed them as close as possible. Ari knelt on the couch and August was above your head. They both began stroking themselves as they kept their eyes on your naked body. Ari was staring at your drenched pussy and August imagined spurting all over your breasts.

“Open your lips, little girl.” You obliged and August pushed the tip of his cock into your lips and he pushed deeper until the tip hit the back of your throat. You looked up at him staring down at you with a predatory look. Ari pushed his cock into your entrance and your tight walls welcomed him with open arms causing him to throw his head back and groaned.

Ari had his hands on your thighs to keep them apart and he began pulling out until only the tip was left in you and pushed back vigorously like he was trying to invade your body. August began moving at the same pace, and he groped your breasts, pinching the nipples. The sting elicited a moan out of you, causing a delightful vibration flowing in his bones.

“Fuck, you’re as tight as I imagined,” Ari grunted. Your warmth wrapped his girth and he pounded into you as your breasts jiggled from the rough pounding. He lifted your legs onto his shoulders so he could delve deeper. He impaled the spot that made you forget your name and you clenched around him. The squelching noises that your pussy made blended with his pre-cum were lewd.

August grunted as you took him in your mouth as much as you could. You struggled to control your breathing with Ari ramming into you mercilessly and August’s size intruding your throat but you were getting off on it. You felt every inch of them inside you, the velvety skin and the raw taste were intoxicating. You hollowed your cheeks and let August use you. Let them both use you like a rag doll.

Soon, you were both moving in sync as the couch squeaked due to the impetuous action happening on it. Ari accelerated, chasing his own orgasm and you pulsated. The familiar pressure forming once more, ready to burst any second now. His cock throbbed and you tightened around him. A few more deep-seated thrusts and he came undone, painting your walls with his hot cum and filling you up so well.

You fell apart beneath him as well, moaning in ecstasy around August. If you weren’t muffled by his cock, you would’ve screamed so loud. You trembled and your legs shook. He pulled out of you and watched his juices leak out of you. The soreness between your thighs was pleasant and you were completely spent from Ari alone but you were definitely satisfied. If only your parents could see the blasphemous act you and your uncle had just committed. And you weren’t even finished yet.

August chased his own climax as well, needing to release the tension in his muscles. Profanities fell from his lips as he released on your tongue and you swallowed every drop of him. You were a sweet tooth but his salty taste had you addicted. You whimpered and panted on the couch, hoping that one of them would give you a warm bath to clean you up and bring you to your comfortable bed and wrap you in your blanket but then,

“We’re not done yet, princess.” August and Ari switched places and now August was kneeling between your legs while Ari was above your head. God, you were so worn out, you didn’t know if you had any more energy left in you to take them again. “You’re all ours tonight. And we’re gonna keep playing with until we’re satisfied. And trust me, we are far from being satisfied.” August whispered huskily in your ear as his raging hard cock penetrated you and Ari pushed himself through your opening lips and you could taste yourself on every inch of him.

Looks like it was going to be a long night.

[mrs-cavill-wife]

Safe And Happy (One Shot)

Pairing: Henry Cavill x Female Reader (Barbara)

Warning: Language. Fluff. Minor Injury. Zombie Apocalypse. Gun shot. Persecution. Please, say if I miss something.

Author's Note: My second fanfic, YAY! Henry is not a celebrity in this fanfic. Duh! It's a zombie apocalypse so it's kinda obvious but I wanted to say it anyway. Hope you guys enjoy it and reblog if you do. I'm all ears to feedback!

Tag List: @lexyvaldez26 @thereisa8ella @natura1phenomenon @mrsavery @number1chonie @themanfromu @littlefreya @legendarywizarddetective @lovingbearherringhairdo @zealoushound @deangal-101 @everydaymultifandom @summersong69 @jgtfvhsg @tellingyouastory @sillyrabbit81 @nuggsmum @pussyverson @oh-for-fic-sake @foodieforthoughts @fanficlover91 @r-t-doll @its--fandom--darling @poledancingdinos @hlkwrites @rmtndew

Summary: The world is a dangerous place now, but in the arms of the man she loves, she always finds security.

Barbara's P.O.V

Shit. I miss when the world used to be good. It was never perfect but no doubt it were way better than now.

An zombie apocalypse, who could have imagined that this could actually happen? Who knew that one day I would be armed, with a "beautiful" wound on my leg, hiding in an abandoned store, running away from a horde of about fifty zombies, crazy and thirsty for some human flesh.

I got hurt entering here, there was a piece of wood that grazed my leg, but luckily I had some bandage on the bag, I tied it to my leg to stop the blood. I looked at my leg and sighed, frustrated with myself.

"What the fuck dressing did you do, huh? My man is going to be pissed"

I live with my boyfriend, well husband, wasn't exactly official but we are together, he's amazing with dressings, but of course, I never pay attention when he tried to explain it to me. I'm hiding, trying to calm my breathing and think of a new plan, I don't know if I'll be able to run with my leg like that, but I think partially, it's really my fault. I'm often on those situations, I have my skills but I might not be the best, I still remember when I meet my boyfriend, on this type of shit cliche situation, today I don't complain for being dumb back there..

We met a year ago, I was running away.. again. I remember going into a dead end street, my gun had only two bullets left, I managed to kill some of those brain eaters, but I had about ten still behind me. I was already out of breath and couldn't think of anything else.

It was all very fast, suddenly my hero appeared, super skilled, I can't say where he came from but he managed to cut the heads of some of them, cut one in half, he stopped in front of me and fired with a super powerful machine gun, spilling a little blood and a disgusting substance on both of us.

"Hey are you alright, princess?"

He spoke to me after all those butchers fell dead. I was in shock but in seconds, I regained consciousness and was able to notice the man in front of me.

Broad back, fair skin, incredibly neat curly hair, a sharp jawline that could cut my soul, kissable lips.. a beautiful ax, a weapons in the waistband and at least two powerful shotguns in the back. The sun was setting and the light reflected in his eyes. The brightest blue eyes I had ever seen. There was a small brown part in one of them, I had heard about cases of heterochromia, but it was the first time that I saw it right in front of me.

"Your eyes are so beautiful.."

He laughed softly and a little shy. The sweetest laugh I've heard. Oh God, he's so wonderful, I think I died and went to heaven and that angel came to receive me. Maybe I'm not too unlucky after all.. wait, what did I just said? Oh fuck, what a good way of cause a first impression. First you almost die then act like a dumb ass needy teen. I rolled my eyes realizing what I done and he touched my arm.

"Thank you, you're beautiful too.. but are you hurt? What are you doing all by yourself?"

I nodded looking down and blushing red like a tomato.

"Huh I'm fine. I was searching for a place to stay. I heard on radio there was a small group of survivors around here. I'm always alone, so I decided to look for it but I obviously didn't payed attention on the munition I had before risking my butt."

He giggled and soft touched my cheek, wiping away some of the dirty. Gosh, I'm not going to handle and he's not making it easy..

"So it's your lucky day, pretty girl. I am from that group of survivors. They always told me to go round and look for possible new survivors."

I looked at him frowning.

"Now it's my time to ask. All by yourself? Why?"

And he smirked, looking like a made a silly question. Your hot bastard.

"I'm a prepared person. Not bragging but I always check my munition"

Touchee. I crossed my arms looking at him, trying to keep my posture but I was really melting inside.

We heard a loud noise, making us concerned. He grabbed my hand and started walking.

"It doesn't seem far, we must walk. Let's go"

"Where are you taking me? I.. I don't even know your name?"

I stopped moving and he stopped looking a little mad then he sighed.

"I will take you to our shelter. I saved you, you can trust me. We both need a bath and some rest.. and I'm Henry."

He said smiling and I nodded starting to walk by his side.

That day, he took me to the survivors. There were at least four people, some couples and children, all of whom welcomed me very well. But despite that, I thought about leaving the next day, I was always alone and until then, it was how I wanted to be and I would be like this today, if Henry hadn't insisted that I stay. I said I would stay for some days but during that, he convinced me to stay for more weeks and when I realized, we were closer than ever. Actually, those days made me found love. One of the guys of the shelter was a priest before the world was destroyed, Henry and I decided to get married and so it happened. Simple but a beautiful ceremony.

After a few years, we both decided to leave, maybe it was not a smart idea in the current situation, but we were certain of it, so we did. It was difficult, at first from hiding to hiding, sleeping on uncomfortable places, sometimes without enough food for both, we almost died a few times but together, yes, we were unbeatable. But finally, we got a place, safe enough to call home.

Henry's P.O.V

One hour left. I trust her, she's a little clumsy but my girl knows what to do, I taught her some tricks when we met but still, my heart is desperate. Today I received a radio message, it was Stuart, a partner, we have known each other since I was part of a group of survivors, he provided us with food, ammunition and weapons from time to time, even now that I am no longer part of the group, he's a great friend. I always went to get it, alone, I didn't want to risk seeing my Barbara hurt. But today, Stuart said he couldn't come, because of some injuries, so I would have to go, but Barbara decided that her chance to do it this time.

"Barbara.. baby, you don't have to.."

I remember I said trying don't sound like I was doubting her capacities.

"Well on my mind, I do need. You always do that, I feel useless, I'm no princess in danger, i can do that"

I got closer touching her back while she packed her bag with "travel" supplies. She looked at me, touched my face and smiled. I love this smile.

"I'll be alright, I know that area is dangerous but you know I know the way and I had a good survivor teacher"

She said and wrapped her arms around my neck and I hugged her feeling defeated. She never had to say much to convince me of anything. I know she was feeling bad about me doing the hard work and I think she deserves a chance. I need to show I really trust her.

"I will be counting the seconds.."

I sighed and she smiled widely packing my lips many times. She grabbed her bag, her gun and went through the door but before leaving she looked at me one last time.

"I love you"

We both said at same time, making our hearts beat at same rhythm.

She gonna be alright, I know.. at least I hope.

Barbara's P.O.V

I heard a small noise that made me wake up. I dozed off for a while when I expected the horde to calm down and preferably leave. I got up and checked outside by one of the windows. Empty. Thank God. My leg didn't hurt so much anymore, but the fact that the street was clean was a relief to m. I wouldn't have to run, just be careful.

I opened my bag and ate a chocolate bar. Stuart wasn't lying when he said that had good things this time, I got things I hadn't ete in years. I left the store quickly after eating and started walking my way back home.

I was almost closer, I smiled seeing my home. Finally, safe house. when I got on the home's street, had three zombies, between me and my house. Great.

I tried to carefully pass behind them, I was almost there, but again, I didn't pay enough attention, I tripped over something and fell to the floor, over my injured leg, I couldn't contain the scream. They heard and were already walking towards me. F U C K M E.

I looked at my house. It's not so far, I can do it. I ran, fast as I could, my leg was hurting a lot, the bandage already red with my blood but I did it. I could climb the special secret passage through the wall and done. I layed in the grass for a second trying to recover my breath, closing my eyes, finally feeling safe then something fell on top of me. I got scared until I could open my eyes. A beast. A fluffy beast.

"Hey Kal, you scared me baby"

I hugged the big black and white American Akita. It's mine and Henry's dog, our loyal companion, our dog son. We found him on our away to find a new safe place, he were a little injured on the front paws. Of course we felt in love with him and took care of him, we had to keep him and we did.

I petted him a little more before getting up.

"Alright, mommy needs a good break now. Promise to play later. Where's daddy? He had a heart attack?"

Oh he will when see my situation. I walked to inside our house and pulled the food supplies on the kitchen. I was focused until I hear the shower on bathroom upstairs. I smiled.

"What a good way of relax, huh?"

I walked upstairs, taking off my clothes though the way. When I opened the bathrooms door, I was fully naked. Oh that vision. My man, all naked.. that furry defined abs, those strong muscles.. that round booty.. and that big veiny dick, shit, even soft he's huge.. I'm so freaking lucky.

I licked my lips and tried to close the door softly but i ended up making noises.

"Thought I had told you need to be stealthy"

When I turned around, he was looking at me, with those gorgeous eyes that left me speachless since first time. Then he's face changed to worried and I realized he were looking at my wounded leg.

"Barbara, what the fuck just happened?"

I rolled my eyes then got into the shower with him. Before he could say something, I kissed him softly. He kissed me back of some type of way that I could feel how worried he were. Was a intense kiss, our tongues battling against each other, oxygen wasn't this necessary for us at this point. He quickly grabbed me tight and gave me a little boost then I had my legs wrapped around his waist. We ended our kisses with soft pecks and smiles. I looked at him. He had one hand around my back and another softly rubbing closer my wound.

"Hey are you alright, princess?"

I smiled way more with his soft voice and nodded.

"Yes, now I'm safe and happy"

[srivsblk]

strange theories to keep the boys away | george weasley;

summary: after you created a “strange theory” to find a date for the Yule Ball and have fun, George Weasley, your best friend Ron’s brother, is sure that he’s the right guy;

warnings: —;

—

“What are you doing?” asked Ron Weasley sitting right in front of me.

The library had never been this noisy. All the students arrived with the intention of studying for those few subjects in which the professors continued to give homework and inevitably ended up talking about the Yule Ball.

“What do you mean what am I doing?” I asked looking at him confused. “Studying.”

“Well, everyone is talking about the Yule Ball,” Ron shrugged while Harry sat next to him. “You probably already have a date.”

I sighed and placed the quill on the table, paying my attention to Ron. “Actually, no,” I said observing Ron's expression, which went from calm to shock. “Oh, don’t look at me like that!”

“You- You don’t have a date!” Ron exclaimed wide-eyed pointing at me. “How?”

“High expectations regarding boys, I guess,” I shrugged looking around the room. “I mean, it's not like nobody asked me.”

“Did you know it?” I heard Ron asking Harry in a whisper receiving a simple ‘no’ as an answer.

“Have you seen Hermione, by any chance?” I asked frowning and still looking around. “I thought she was with you two.”

Harry shrugged. “Actually, we thought she was with you.”

I nodded with my brows furrowed and realized that Hermione was probably somewhere around the castle talking about her beloved S.P.E.W. Although Hermione remained my best friend and the only one I could talk to about women's issues, lately I found myself spending more time with Harry and Ron. And when I needed Hermione, I went to the library hoping to find her and sometimes failing. For this reason, I had now spent so much time in the library and alone that I had finished my homework and devoted myself to taking notes on future topics.

“How much time did you spend in the library?” asked Ron observing the open page of the Potions book in front of me. “I'm pretty sure Snape hasn't explained those things yet!”

“Well, long enough to be able to say I’m ahead of the schedule.”

“Ahead?” Ron said shocked. “Blimey, Y/N, either Hermione has infected you or you are terribly bored!”

“Thanks, Ron, coming from you it's a real compliment!” I said sarcastically. “And how's the date you don't have because you're too chicken to ask someone to come to the Yule Ball with you?”

Ron, visibly offended in his pride, was about to argue but was suddenly cut off.

“Yes, Ron! How's your date?”

Turning slightly I noticed that Fred and George Weasley were behind me and had probably overheard the last part of the conversation. Being one of Ron's best friends and having spent a lot of time at his home, seeing Fred and George was nothing new. In fact, in the last year I was sometimes surprised not to see them more often, but Ron kept repeating that they had become suspicious since we arrived at Hogwarts. As Fred sat on my left and George on my right, Ron rolled his eyes and sighed.

“I thought you two were busy.” Ron muttered looking between the twins.

“Exactly,” Fred said smirking. “We were.”

“But a little break doesn't kill anyone,” continued George who was mirroring his brother’s expression. Meanwhile, Harry had a smirk on his face and was exchanging amused glances with me.

“Oh, me and my date are perfectly fine,” Ron said with a forced smile, “but let’s talk about Y/N who still doesn't have a date!”

I looked at him tilting my head confused. “I think you didn't listen to me, Ronald,” I sighed. “It was a choice!”

“I can’t believe you,” Ron said shaking his head. “Nobody goes alone to the Yule Ball by choice!”

“What do you mean?” asked Fred curious.

I sighed and turned to Fred explaining myself. “Someone has already asked me to go to the Yule Ball with them and I refused saying I already had a date.” I calmly said before glancing at Ron who was shaking his head. “However, it's a good choice I've made this past week and I have no second thoughts.”

“I still don't understand it!” groaned Ron frustrated. “From what other guys say you are one of the prettiest girls at Hogwarts and even Malfoy would not care about your house and social status to go to the Yule Ball with you. You're wasting your luck, Y/N!”

“What is your choice based on?” asked Harry over Ron’s muttered words.

I looked at him and noticed that he was genuinely curious and so I started telling him what I kept telling myself every day. “The guys who asked me to go to the Yule Ball with them were from Durmstrang. I have nothing against them but... I mean, I didn't know them enough! You know how sad it is to go to the Yule Ball with one of them and spend a boring evening or discover that maybe they are like Karkaroff! I have decided that I will go with a person with whom I know I can have a pleasant evening. Besides, I'm not afraid to go alone.”

I caught my breath after my words and took the time to observe the reactions of the other boys. Harry struggled to understand my reasoning, but Ron had given up as soon as he heard the news and was waiting with his arms folded for a reaction as exaggerated as his. Fred, however, looked at me confused and George, who had listened carefully to my words, was thinking hard about something.

After twenty seconds of pure silence, Ron decided to interrupt the confusion. “Blimey, Y/N, there is no need to make up strange theories to keep the boys away.”

Ron's words sparked a deep rage that caused my body temperature to rise dramatically. My cheeks were probably tinged red with anger because I noticed Harry looking at me worriedly as if I was going to explode. Ron, however, did not notice the effect of his words. He had behaved like this with Harry before the first task, with Hermione more than once and now with me too. I had enough. With all the anger still inside, I got up from my chair causing a noise that attracted the attention of some people in the room and quickly collected my books. I took the bag and looking at Ron with narrowed eyes and pursed lips, I left. At that moment even Hagrid could have mistaken me for an angry dragon. Keep the boys away. How dare he? He knew me well and I would have accepted such words coming from Pansy Parkinson or Draco Malfoy, but not from Ronald Weasley. Was he jealous? Well, it wasn't my fault that he hadn't found the courage to ask Hermione to be his date! Yet it was not a plausible enough excuse to blame me for not accepting two proposals!

“Y/N!” I heard a voice calling me, which made me turn around and stop.

George Weasley had probably run from the library to follow me and was slightly out of breath. His hair slightly longer than last year was disheveled due to running. His bag was about to fall off his shoulder and there was a slight flush on his cheeks. After waiting for him to say something, I looked at him confused.

“What is it, George?” I asked in a kinder tone, regretting the brusque behavior of before. “Listen, if it’s about Ron-”

“Ron?” he asked frowning. “No, nothing about Ron, love! I just had to ask you something.”

I shrugged. “Go on, then.”

He looked around and was struggling to find the right words, but nonetheless he took a deep breath and became serious. “You and I. The Yule Ball. Together.”

George tried not to show his insecurity and was waiting for an answer from me, but he probably noticed my confusion because soon after he started to move his mouth looking for the right words, perhaps afraid of having said something wrong.

“Are you asking me to be your date, George?” I asked slowly understanding.

“Only if you want to!” he said hopeful adjusting the bag on his shoulder. “And don't think it's pity or something. I want to take you to the Yule Ball.”

I watched George closely and noticed small details that I had always overlooked in recent years. George had become a handsome boy and his fame as a prankster had made him known throughout the school. But I only knew him as Ron's brother who had always been nice to me, even defending me from some bad Slytherin pranks. “Yes,” I said satisfied of my choice. “I'll go to the Yule Ball with you!”

The expression on George's face went from nervous to relieved and enthusiastic in less than a second. He kissed me on the cheek and ran away screaming through the halls as if he had won an important Quidditch match. The place where George left the kiss on my cheek was warm and when I touched it I suddenly smiled. Then I turned and continued walking - this time more slowly and cheerfully - towards the common room.

What happened in the following days was a succession of events and voices that created a sort of pause between the moment when George had asked me to go to the Yule Ball and the evening that everyone was waiting for.

Although Hermione was shocked when I told her that same evening that I had accepted George's proposal, she told me that she should actually have foreseen it. However, she told me that I hadn't chosen badly since at least with George I was sure I could have fun. As for her date, Hermione had finally told me that she had agreed to go with Victor Krum and that he wasn't as bad as everyone thought. George, on the other hand, kept an impassive attitude when he met me with Harry and Ron. He had only told Fred and Lee Jordan that I was his date, as only Ginny and Hermione had heard from me. Harry and Ron had not suspected anything, although they had known that I had finally found a date. Apparently, neither Ron nor I wanted to resume that discussion because he was merely commenting on the Yule Ball matters with Harry. Just a few days before the event, I discovered that my two best friends were planning to bring the Patil twins to the Yule Ball. I thought it was a choice to save themselves from the inevitable loneliness, but I never told them. Hermione still didn't talk about her date in front of Ron and she preferred to avoid any conversation about the Ball.

“Who is he?” asked Ron two days before the Yule Ball while playing chess with Harry.

I sighed closing the book I was reading and looked at him. “No need to keep asking, Ron! You'll see him in two days.”

However, even though I kept refusing, Ron was so curious about my date's name that he repeated the names of all male Hogwarts students from our year and up. Still, it was interesting how he skipped his twin brothers, probably sure that neither George nor Fred saw me as a real girl.

On Christmas day, just after waking up and opening the presents, Hermione and I met Harry and Ron and went to breakfast together. Although the general excitement for the Yule Ball, we decided to spend the morning in the Gryffindor tower, where everyone enjoyed their presents, then returned to the Great Hall for a magnificent lunch. The afternoon passed quickly between walks on the grounds of Hogwarts and snow fights. Hermione and I watched Harry and the other Weasleys having snow fights, while Hermione occasionally sneaked a glance at the smiles George and I exchanged. Around five, Hermione checked the time and took my arm as she rose from the ground. Apparently it was already late and we had to get ready for the evening.

“What, you need three hours?” said Ron, looking at Hermione incredulously, and being hit by George with a snowball. “Who’re you two going with?” he yelled after me and Hermione, but she just waved while I smiled at George and shook my head. Then we disappeared up the stone steps into the castle.

It had taken three hours to prepare both me and Hermione. She had been having some problems with her bushy hair as I kept pacing the room, trying not to panic. Hermione, as soon as she noticed my nervousness, tried to calm me down ("Oh, George is a great guy, Y/N! You'll definitely have fun.") and she helped me put on my dress. Looking in the mirror I had never felt this way. Suddenly, Christmas at Hogwarts took on another meaning. I looked at Hermione smiling and we finally headed for the Great Hall.

Arriving at the Great Hall Hermione left me with a hug and walked over to Krum. I peered around looking for George or at least Harry and Ron so as not to feel completely alone. Finally, after a few moments, I found George talking animatedly with Fred, who had a splendid Angelina beside him. As I walked towards them, Angelina said something to George making him turn in my direction and he finally noticed me. My smile widened further and I saw it was the same for George. He walked away from Fred and Angelina and arrived in front of me.

“You’re-” George couldn’t find the words while looking at me. “Merlin, Y/N, you’re wonderful!”

“You're not bad too, George!” I smiled taking his arm. “I've spent the last three hours preparing myself and I'm not going to lie, I'm nervous.”

“Well, no need to be nervous, love,” said George smirking. “It will be an unforgettable evening, trust me!”

“Oh, I trust you,” I said looking around. “Why are they all looking in our direction?”

George shrugged smirking. “Actually, they’re looking at me. They always do like this when they see me, don't worry!”

I laughed and held his arm tighter. “For a moment I had forgotten that you are the funny one.”

“Never forget that, love,” said George closer to my ear as we entered the Great Hall.

I noticed that Harry was nervous next to one of the Patil twins and Hermione was talking to Krum smiling. Many people needed more than a glance to recognize Hermione Granger, but I smiled at her as she did the same when she noticed me not far from her.

The first part of the evening passed quickly between laughter and an exquisite dinner. Fred kept throwing jokes at Angelina who pretended to be angry for a while and then laughed with the others. George and I had relaxed so much that being this close after a while felt more natural. He kept one arm on my chair and I squeezed his hand when he complimented me. When dinner was over and the Champions started dancing with their dates, George kept holding my hand before smiling at me and taking me to the dance floor. We may not have been the best dancers, but dancing with George just made me happy. After more dances together, George and I walked off the dance floor laughing and, noticing Harry and Ron near a table, we walked over to them.

“Why aren’t you two dancing?” I asked frowning and still holding George’s hand.

“We’re bored.” Ron muttered looking between me and George and trying to change the topic. “So you two-”

“What?” I asked curious.

“Nothing,” shrugged Ron sighing. “I didn't know you had a crush on George. That’s all.”

“I-” I tried to find the right words but felt my cheeks flush. “What are you talking about?”

“And you, George,” Ron said narrowing his eyes at George. “I didn't know you were interested in my best friend! Because that's what Y/N is, a sort of sister.”

As my cheeks became more and more red, I felt George boil in anger beside me at Ron's tone. “Well, Ron, maybe she is your sister, but not mine.”

“Whatever,” mumbled Ron sulky. “However, you remain two traitors. You haven't even told me anything about it.”

Harry stood next to Ron watching the scene. He was too smart to criticize us and agree with Ron, but he was too afraid of losing his best friend again to go against him. So I realized that Ron's only intention was to ruin the evening for all his best friends just because he didn't get what he wanted so much.

“You know, I had enough, Ron,” I said firmly looking at him. “Just because you can't have the best night of your life because of your bad mood doesn't mean you have to ruin my night too! For once I'm having fun and you ruin everything. I can’t accept it, I'm sorry.”

I walked away from my two friends and George with my heart pounding with anger. I didn't want to ruin anyone's evening, so my goal was to go outside and get some air and then find George and continue the wonderful evening. I noticed that the air outside was too cold for how I was dressed, so I sat on a sheltered bench observing the people around me. I recognized a fifth year girl walking with a boy from Durmstrang, and a seventh year couple sitting on a bench not far from me.

“Excuse me, is this seat occupied?” asked someone and turning around I found George smirking. As soon as I shook my head, George sat down beside me.

“I’m sorry,” I mumbled feeling guilty. “I had a wonderful evening with you and I feel I ruined it by talking to Ron.”

George slightly smiled and took my hand in his. “If anything you made this evening better by silencing Ron in less than two minutes!”

I laughed and looked at him. “Still, I’m sorry.”

“Well, no,” said George frowning. “I’m the one who’s sorry.”

“For what?”

“You deserve someone like Diggory or Krum, and instead you end up with George Weasley, the prankster,” George shrugged looking down.

“I like George Weasley,” I smiled holding his hand. “I don't think I would have had more fun with Diggory or Krum tonight. Or any other night.”

George looked at me smirking. “So did you have fun?”

I laughed nodding. The couple of seventh year students looked at us for a second before turning around. “I had a wonderful evening and you, George,” I pointed a finger towards him. “you were wonderful.”

George stared at me without saying anything for a few seconds. He had a satisfied smile on his face and his eyes were moving from my eyes to my lips. Suddenly he brought his face close to mine and kissed me. It was a small kiss and it didn't last long. But it had stayed on my lips like a tattoo on someone's skin. A golden but small tattoo. I noticed that George's cheeks had turned red to his ears covered in long hair and he seemed eager to have a reaction from me. But all I did was get closer and kiss him more deeply than before. It didn't matter if it was cold and winter or if anyone could see George and Y/N kissing in the courtyard. It was something I wanted to do instinctively when I never did anything instinctively. After years of rational choices, kissing George Weasley was instinctive.

“Do you want to go back to the Great Hall?” George asked after the kiss. “Let's dance a little more and then I'll take you back to the common room.”

I nodded standing up still holding his hand. “What a night,” I said smiling and shaking my head.

“And you haven't seen anything yet, love,” said George walking and hugging me. “George Weasley can do better! Ask me for the moon and I'll bring you the entire galaxy. We still have time, after all!”

And that was true. We still had time. We were young and free and at the start of something which we would later call love. But in that moment it was still too soon. Two young students not knowing what is that feeling when you hang from the lips of the person you like and wait for their proposal or opinion, when you think that no sad moment can ever get over this happy moment. Because that person is your happy moment. And George Weasley became all of my moments.

[purplellamanator]

Second part is up for my @shinranweek fic. Above is my AO3 and again here is the fanfic link. There will be one more part that I will post soon. Thanks for anybody that checks it out :) I'll also post it below the cut again.

As it turns out, the ever righteous Kudou-san could be quite the dictator. He determined when she'd have her meals and even when she needed to rest for the night. It made her feel inept and she wanted to argue out. Every time though, she'd bite her lip. It was as if her body didn't want her to and she got the idea she wasn't used to being waited on.

It was actually . . nice. At times she did feel in the same category as a child, but . . . someone was watching over her. Someone cared about her. Well- that's what it tricked her mind into thinking. The girl knew that Kudou-san had no emotional ties to her. He was doing this because he found her wondering around in a park and felt obligated after thinking he caused her to have a brain aneurism.

She wondered how much longer he would deal with her. Though it still had only been two days, there were no leads and she still couldn't remember anything.

"I didn't want you to overexert yourself today." His sudden voice broke her inner musings and her eyes snapped to where he stood before the kitchen stove, stirring something consistently. Blue eyes glancing her way and realizing he had her attention, he nodded. "We can go out and get you some clothes tomorrow if you're up for it though."

The girl sat there, silently for a moment. Honestly, she felt up to it today. Staying inside the house was making her skin crawl almost and she figured her body wasn't used to it. But . . . "I can't ask you to do that for me," she spoke softly as she watched him cook.

"You didn't. I offered," he replied easily before his brows furrowed again. It seemed he was having trouble with whatever he was trying to make. . . Oddly she wanted to get up and help him but she was sure that was overstepping her boundaries. She already felt guilty that he was cooking for her. Kudou-san appeared like he didn't do it often but was making an effort for her. It would probably be best to suck it up and just swallow down whatever he placed before her.

This time, the scrunched features were from the way he caught the girl staring at him. "R-Ran?" He stumbled over the name embarrassingly, not at all used to or comfortable calling her that nickname quite yet.

Eyes widening and realizing that she was still staring blankly at the poor guy while he attempted to make their dinner, her cheeks heated a bit and she glanced at the wood of the table. "Have those detectives figured anything out?" Ran said suddenly to cover up the awkwardness.

Kudou-san frowned and shook his head as he began grabbing plates down from the far cabinet. "Not yet. There're still looking though," he spoke quickly hoping his first words hadn't discouraged her. "These things can take time."

Well she hadn't remembered anything and how much of his 'time' was he willing to waste on this? Surely he didn't plan on allowing her to live here with him forever. He'd probably realize how much of a bother this really was and take her back to the park where he originally found her, leaving her there alone like he was releasing a stray dog.

Suddenly Ran didn't feel so hungry and after the plate of whatever this was supposed to be was placed in front of her, she really didn't want to eat anything. Schooling her features however, she sucked it up and cleared the plate. He had helped her so much- the least she could do was eat the dinner he tried really hard to make. And somehow she knew and understood just how hard he really had tried.

She was found out however when Kudou-san took one bite and wrinkled his nose in disgust. "This tastes like crap," he admitted and she actually laughed at how bluntly he had said those few words. The man just seemed amazed that she had even ate the whole dish in front of her. He went so far as to scrape his in the trash.

"I can get better at that," Kudou-san promised so seriously but all she could do was chuckle at how earnestly he said it. Didn't he understand she was lucky to even have a meal tonight?

"So, since I don't think I'm the best choice for a shopping partner, I invited a couple friends along."

Ran glanced at him surprised but then again he did have a point. She highly doubted he wanted to spend his entire evening in a mall packed full of girls clothes shopping. "Where will you go though?" she questioned curiously. She couldn't help but wonder, after all, Kudou-san was the only thing she recognized anymore.

He shrugged. "Probably the book store- that's them right over there," he pointed ahead.

Standing some feet away still was a girl and a guy. Both seemed to be about her age though she still wasn't sure what that was quite yet. Doctor Araide had estimated her age to be around her early twenties from the development of her bone structure.

The two had yet to realize they had company and Ran's eyes widened from the language sprouting from the twos mouths'. If it wasn't the heavy dialect that caught her attention, it was the crude and abrasive names they called each other. The girl whom she had assumed would be so kind with her dark hair tied up with a ribbon was shouting equally as loud as the annoyed looking dark skinned boy.

It took Kudou-san clearing his throat before either party even began to quiet down. When they did, they both appeared equally embarrassed as the other at being caught in such a heated discussion. That didn't stop them from continuing to glare at each other from the corner of their eyes.

Eyes narrowed as well, Kudou-san directed their attention to the one unfamiliar face. "This is Ran. Ran- this is Hattori Heiji and Toyama Kazuha-chan." All the while the scowl was firmly in place on his features at the fact the two couldn't get it together just for a few minutes. They still had yet to stop frowning at the other as if they were straining themselves terribly from not yelling again.

Feeling the aggravated tension, Ran swallowed the trepidation down her throat. "It's nice to meet you both," she began and was thankful she bowed her head slightly so they couldn't see the wince she gave from how uncomfortable she sounded. When she straightened she very nearly fell over.

"She is cute." Ran had lifted her head only to come face to face with the girl whom seemed to be scrutinizing her closely. Realizing just what the girl said, her cheeks enflamed brightly.

"Stupid. You're embarrassing her," the man- Hattori? snapped. That got Kazuha-chan's attention off her fast and Ran took the time to scoot closer to Kudou-san.

It took Kudou-san clearing his throat again before either person quieted down again; both looking equally annoyed. "Ran needs clothes so I figured you could help her with that," he directed to Kazuha without any explaining. He probably wanted to get it all out before they started arguing again.

A card was suddenly placed in her line of sight and Ran stared at Shinichi, confusedly. "Just use this. Buy whatever you'd like." He placed the card in her hand considering she hadn't made a move to do so herself.

She stared at the card for a second before glancing up at him. "Where are you going?" she asked again but didn't pay any mind to how the other two stared curiously. Nothing against this Kazuha girl but she wanted to stick with the only familiar face she had and that was Shinichi.

"Hattori and I will probably wonder around. Whenever you're done or if you need something, Kazuha can call me," he shrugged to show her it was no big deal. He was but a phone call away.

This time she did blush a little from how attached she was appearing. She barely even knew Shinichi yet she already felt like he was the only thing she did have. Her only constant in the past few days.

Still not really liking that she'd be walking around without him, Ran nodded slowly with a small grin and they were off. It was quite embarrassing how she kept turning back while they were walking away. She did it every few feet until she couldn't do it no more and each time Kudou-san was standing there looking back at her as if he knew she needed that reassurance that he was right there.

If Kazuha noticed- and Ran was positive she did, she was respectful enough not to comment. And Kazuha simply led the way though she remarked multiple times she was from Osaka and didn't have a clue where all the good shops were. They decided they would stop at any place that seemed promising.

Shinichi stared at the girl's retreating back as it got further and further away. He watched her go until she got lost in the crowds of the other mall shoppers and he could see the girl no more. For some reason he felt a nervousness go through him now that she was out of sight.

"Not bad, Kudou."

And Shinichi startled at the reminder he was not alone either. A brow raised at the sudden comment.

Hattori, whom had also been glancing that way at first looked back at him with a knowing smirk. "She is cute."

Cheeks tinting a light pink, the half lidded glare he sent the Osakan man was impossible to hide. Why was he even surprised? He should've known better than to admit that to Hattori of all people. Still, as a last defense, the man said, "I never said she was cute."

"You said she was 'very pretty'. Same thing," he waved off.

The fact his face got redder had him mildly annoyed. "And you told Toyama-san," he accused.

They were already milling about the walkway and avoiding other passerby as they went. "Man, I live in the same house as that woman. Not that I told her myself- she overheard us talking but you think I'm going to lie about that? Trust me; it's not worth the argument."

Shinichi shook his head but honestly, he wasn't that bothered. Ran was pretty but it didn't change the fact that this was a case. The woman wouldn't want to live with him forever and anyone could see the emotional toll this was having on her.

"Have you found anything out? How about those two detectives?"

He shook his head. "Nothing. They're looking into any accidents that may have recently happened as well if anyone's filed a missing persons report but so far nothing."

Hattori pocketed his hands. "Have you tried tracing her memory back? Can she recall anything?"

"I think anytime she gets close to remembering anything, her mind goes into a panic. It's like she doesn't want to remember," he whispered the last part to himself but was sure the other man heard it anyway. It was a little disheartening though. What was something so terrible that had happened to her that she didn't want her memories back? He couldn't decide if it was the accident itself or her actual past life that had her mind subconsciously shielding her. That's what troubled him the most. Maybe she didn't want to know.

"Jeez, I'm starved!" Kazuha said as they waited together in some line of the food court. Just a minute ago she had texted Hattori letting him know to meet them there. Admittedly Ran was anxious to see Shinichi again. She had fun going through the stores and just being with another girl but she missed that one familiar face. She briefly wondered if he'd be mad by how much she spent and she glanced at the multiple bags she carried in her arms.

A little uncomfortable at first, Ran hadn't wanted to use that credit card given to her. It didn't help that nothing bought in a mall came cheap- even something so small as a pretzel she discovered. But after that, Ran wasn't sure how long they had been. She honestly had lost track of time and was enjoying herself. She was quite fond of this Kazuha girl and she liked her humor even more. Even though Shinichi had given her free reign with his bank account, she was sure to only swipe it on things she really liked. But had there been some unspoken price limit on how much she could use? Would he be mad? Now she was a little nervous to see him.

So trapped in her thoughts, she failed to notice her surroundings. She didn't catch any of the mindless chatter Kazuha was spewing beside her. She barely caught on to when the cashier was asking her what she'd like. So when the people surrounding her started gasping and a commotion began, she hadn't know until Kazuha gripped her arm tightly getting her attention. Blinking, she looked first at the girl in confusion before realizing she was staring somewhere else entirely.

Right before them was a man standing clad in sweats and a t-shirt. He appeared disgruntled and crazed and if that weren't enough to show he wasn't thinking, it was the fact he held a gun tightly in his grasp as he pointed it at them.

Ran could only raise a brow. Unlike in the doctor's office or when she met those detectives, fear was not her initial reaction. If anything, the surprising amount of irritation and annoyance that hit her almost made her giggle. Some man was pointing a gun at her and she wanted to laugh?

Then, "Step aside!" the man practically spit out and she realized he was talking to her. And now she was understanding the gun wasn't for her- it was for Kazuha.

The girl beside her stiffened at that but finally released the grip on her arm, as if silently giving Ran the okay to move out of the line of fire. Clearly the target wasn't her so why should she get shot?

Ran didn't move. If anything her stature straightened and her stance became even more firm where it stood. Ran didn't understand the way her body was having her react. Truthfully, she had wanted to move. She didn't want to die and the guy had a gun. But something was telling her she didn't have to be scared. That she would be okay.

"Move!" He barked again and there were gasps in the crowd when he cocked the gun.

Kazuha was tugging at her arm again now only gently. She was asking her to move like everybody else that had fled away from her the moment they realized she was the target. To get out of the way. She didn't want her to get hurt. "Ran-"

Taking the hand that was shoving her away lightly, Ran gripped it and practically threw her down behind her as she stepped forward. She didn't know what was coming over but she understood what her body wanted perfectly. She didn't have to be afraid and she didn't have to move.

Of course that didn't go over so well with the man standing in front of them and his face contorted in an angry snarl as he prepared to shoot.

Time seemed slower in that moment. So slow, Ran actually found the time to feel her lips tilt up at the sides the barest bit. Her eyes scanned his shaky stance and her grin almost broadened. People probably thought she was crazy but she didn't care in that moment for some reason. Not for the first time she felt trapped in someone else's body.

Then he pulled the trigger.

Screams rang out around them- the more prominent one being her name. But she barely paid them any mind. Her body was already steps ahead of her thoughts and instead of the pain of a bullet entering her, she felt nothing except maybe the breeze of it whizzing through her hair where her head had once been. The man didn't have time to blink before she was already before him and dispelling the gun from his grasp. She didn't really know what she had planned to do after that. Fight the criminal in hand to hand? She'd surely lose but now she wasn't so sure of that fact. If anything, her muscles seemed prepared- welcomed the challenge as if she had been holding back too long. Her body felt something familiar and it was latching onto that.

But by far, she was not expecting herself to turn the tables and actually bare the gun in her grasp. That's how she found her stance. One hand tightly clenching the grip; a finger on the trigger and ready to pull in a heartbeat on the criminal now turned victim. What scared her most was that the weapon was actually comfortable in her grasp.

In the still slowed pace of analyzing her own stance, she barely registered the man had dropped to his knees with his hands above his head in surrender. She couldn't tell if she even cared by the way the barrel of the gun followed his every move. Her eyes narrowed the slightest bit, curious as to if he would try to overpower her but the small grin never left her features. It seemed the idea . . . excited her. Yet she was almost at war with herself. Like she didn't want to pull the trigger but she would if she had to.

And then claps resounded around her and she jumped as she glanced around startled. As if snapping back and connecting her body to her brain again, she realized where and what she was doing- and couldn't of been more appalled. They cheered because they thought she was a hero. But she knew the truth. There was nothing victorious or gratifying about wanting to hurt another human being.

Shinichi and Hattori had arrived before the police did but it wasn't long in between. While the man was getting cuffed and Hattori was prattling and worrying over a frightened Kazuha, Shinichi watched her with stunned but puzzled eyes. She couldn't help but feel they were accusing and so she wouldn't meet his gaze anymore after that. Even as they were walking out of the shopping center and saying their goodbyes to the other couple, he stuck tightly to her side.

The car ride had been a silent one so it wasn't until they reached his house that he finally said anything to her. And it wasn't anything she was expecting.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

Ran swallowed. Did she? Or would that only serve to make her feel worse when he agreed and called her the monster she was?

"I won't make you. I just want to be sure you're okay," he admitted a little reluctantly.

"Kazuha-chan was the target," she dodged. So if anyone wasn't okay it should be Kazuha.

Shinichi sighed. "It was an old client of Hattori's. The man had come to him because he feared someone was stalking his wife and hired Hattori to find him." Here the man shook his head a little sadly. "Hattori found the culprit eventually but it wasn't in time to save the man's wife."

Briefly, she wondered why Shinichi had to tell her something like that and she had to hide her watery eyes. And client. . . ? Client for what, she had to wonder.

Unaware of her confusion he continued with, "Hattori felt so much guilt over it but the client didn't see it that way. He's being questioned now but I think it's obvious he figured Toyama-san was an equal loss to Hattori as his wife was to him."

"When you say a client to Hattori-kun. . . you mean-"

Shinichi blinked a bit confused before they widened in realization. "Hattori's a detective- like me." He said it so matter of factly as if it were the most obvious thing; as if she should've already known this.

She hadn't.

A detective. Like him. Shinichi-kun is a a detective.

A strange type of panic gripped her heart and for some reason it was mingled with betrayal. Her whole reaction was completely unwarranted though she was sure. She wasn't nearly as freaked as in the doctor's office and she had no excuse to feel betrayed. Shinichi owed her absolutely nothing. If anything, she owed him.

But now blanks were being filled in as Ran processed exactly what this meant. For the entirety of the three days she had known Shinichi, she was constantly asking herself why she was here. What made this stranger walk up to her when all she had been doing was sitting on a park bench? It was clear to her now though that it was due to his own instincts. He was a detective and she saw now that when he discovered her she hadn't only smelt of gasoline but of another case.

Heart beating faster and faster as she broke this down, she had the urge to run. Here she thought this was a friend that saw someone whom needed help. That would keep their promise and keep the involvement of police out of this. Feeling stupid now, the understanding that he agreed to that because he was in fact the police disturbed her greatly. She felt duped.

And she didn't appreciate it one bit.

"Ran?"

The woman startled from her thoughts, completely forgetting that he was standing there and they were holding a conversation. The man looked to be waiting for a response of some kind but she didn't know what she should say; didn't know what she could say. In all honesty, she didn't want to speak to him. The urge to just make a jump for the exit was all she could detect. Were the police already on their way over? Would she be detained? Had he understood what she had felt only moments before when she had almost shot a man?

At this point she was worrying him. She could see it in his face, especially when he stepped closer and asked, "Is your head hurting again? Do you need to lay down?"

Laying down was the last thing she wanted to do.

"You lied to me." It didn't come out angry. It didn't even sound like an accusation; just a fact she was simply saying.

He didn't seem to think so obviously by the way his brows scrunched, puzzled and the almost offended expression he bore.

"You told me there would be no public involvement with this and the entire time you were a detective yourself." The saddest thing was that she couldn't find it in her to be mad. She wasn't surprised he had lied because in all honesty, who wouldn't of called the police? At the time it was blatantly apparent she had been in an accident of some sort. She gave off multiple signs that she needed medical attention and she didn't even have any recollection of her own identity. The best place for her would've been in the hospital's care until they could identify her.

"I don't work for the police!" he hurriedly said before she could give this wrong idea anymore thought. "Well. . I mean- I do sometimes but not directly. I'm my own name," he tried to explain when she could only give him confused glances. "I'm pretty well-known so I work independently."

Well, that explained his arrogant manner when he introduced himself. But then that means. . .

"So you're not hired by the police?" she asked almost meekly.

Shinichi shook his head with a small grin that tilted up only one side of his mouth. "Not right now, no."

Her cheeks turned a light pink. "Oh."

Her heart shot right into her throat when he suddenly took her hands in his. "I made you a promise, Ran." He was speaking so firmly and she could see in his eyes that he thought breaking that promise was not an option.

The need to apologize was all she could think of now. Though she hadn't come at him angrily and annoyed, she had accused him. Words wouldn't come out of her mouth however and as she stood there fumbling in her thoughts wondering why she couldn't voice what she wanted to, her gaze kept flitting from their hands to his cerulean eyes that seemed so close to hers. Her chest was still racing but she got the feeling it wasn't for the same reason as before.

What was wrong with her? Maybe she did need to lie down.

The doorbell rang and Ran wasn't too sure why but a certain amount of relief hit her as if she were saved. Saved from what though she wasn't yet aware.

Dropping her hands at the noise, he glanced towards the front foyer. "It's probably Hiabara."

"I still need to introduce you," he continued and the casual air he had about him made her even more antsy if possible. Clearly nothing was wrong if he was acting perfectly normal. Why was it that she was reacting weirdly?

She needed a moment to gather herself. As it was, her cheeks were still slightly flustered and she had no idea why.

"I'll go grab the clothes," she declared and before he could even say a word she was already strolling from the room. It wasn't all just an excuse. They really did need to grab the clothes because after all, it was more than likely the only reason the other woman was there.

Haibara Ai, as Shinichi told her, was his next door neighbor. She was also the person who was kind enough to lend her some clothes until she could go out and buy some for herself.

Making sure not to take more time than normal, Ran returned to the living room with the clothes freshly cleaned and folded inside a laundry basket. The two were already deep in conversation but it seemed their voices were lowered purposefully for the moment Shinichi saw her enter the room was when he straightened and greeted her- almost pointedly.

The other woman, whom she guessed was the neighbor, was facing away from her when she first entered. It wasn't until she turned around that Ran fully took in the light brown hair that was almost red and also cut short. They both seemed to be about the same age but there was also a certain maturity this woman gave off. Her eyes were a hardened teal almost that seemed like they could cut through anything.

And then the woman's gaze fell on her and all of that fell away.

The steely glint in her gaze fell away in an instant as her eyes widened almost impossibly. Eyes doing an automatic scan, Ran watched as her body stiffened to the point that she looked like a string strung so tightly and was prepared to snap. Almost subconsciously, the woman took a step back in what looked like a retreat. It almost seemed like she was trying to hide behind Shinichi.

The smile Ran had originally had on from about to meet this woman for the first time slowly fell away. The brown whicker basket in her hands seemed to feel heavier and heavier by the second. "Um. . . Thank you for the clothes. I-I washed them." She placed the clothes on the coffee table as she stood there uncomfortably. The tension was so thick in the room she was wishing she had made some other excuse or even agreed earlier with Shinichi that she needed to lay down.

Haibara didn't say a single word in response. Ran was sure the woman hadn't even heard her. The only form of acknowledgement was the way those teal eyes watched her every movement as they were stretched wide in what appeared to be terror.

Shinichi cleared his throat. "Haibara, this is Ran- the one I told you about," he admitted. "Ran, this is Haibara Ai. My neighbor."

They both heard the words but it really just passed from one ear right out the other. The two both seemed to be locked in some sort of stare off. Only thing, Ran couldn't understand why. This woman was staring at her as if she were the scariest thing she had ever had the displeasure of seeing.

When Haibara still appeared to be anything less than willing to actually speak to her, Ran forced a smile. "I- I think I'll take a quick shower. Thanks for the clothes- nice meeting you," she said softly but kindly before turning and slowly strolling from the room.

She really had originally planned on going to her room to shower. But something inside of her, that she choked up to the same person as in that mall earlier- a more dishonest and curious side, didn't go far. Only taking a few steps down the hall to give the appearance of her exit, Ran quietly made her way back to the doorway hidden and out of sight.

It was quiet in the other room, to the point Ran almost suspected she had been found out and she should just leave like she had said. But then. . .

"What's with that attitude?"

It was Shinichi and she figured he took so long to speak because he wanted to make sure she actually had left. He spoke differently though. Where as with her his tone was usually patient and calming, this voice was marred with irritation and disapproval.

Even more silence stretched on like that and Ran was beginning to think this Haibara Ai was mute. She had still yet to hear the other woman's voice.

Shinichi seemed to get annoyed after that. "Why wouldn't you talk to her? Do you have to be so rude all the time?" The last part was said a little frustratedly as if the way this woman spoke to Ran was a big deal.

"You need to call the police."

If it weren't the actual words that were spoken, Ran would've stiffened either way. That voice had not been one she was expecting no matter how mature and stern the girl appeared. It was very feminine but the underlining hardened edge to it wasn't hard to detect. But her words however. . . Call the police? Over what? Shinichi voiced as much.

"She's dangerous," Haibara said curtly.

"That's ridiculous! You don't even know her-!"

The interruption came swiftly.

"She's one of them."

Silence again. Ran leaned closer to try and pick up on anything but she couldn't even detect their breaths. One of who?

"Do you have any proof?" His voice was tight and controlled but it was clear he forced out the words between clenched teeth.

Haibara sighed. "You know my proof, Kudou-kun."

"That's not proof. Even if I wanted to believe-"

"You said she dodged a bullet." She paused for added effect. "She disarmed a fully grown man. Is that normal?"

"Being trained in the martial arts is not odd. And you seem to know a lot about her. A lot more than even she does at the moment so if that's the case, please do tell," he snapped almost sarcastically.

"Rum."

Ran could practically feel the tension. Could just feel the way he stiffened and his breath hitched from just that one word. But what did it mean? If she was supposedly dangerous and this the reason, she didn't get it.

"S-she's-" His tone was shaken from just more than being stunned. Truthfully she thought she heard fear.

"No, but she's almost a close second."

"Who is she?"

"A personal favorite to the second in command and a pampered lap dog," Haibara grunted in distaste not at all hiding how demeaning she meant the comment to be. "When she was first introduced in to the Organization and members saw how closely she was sheltered, rumors started going that she was kept around for. . personal entertainment. She rarely showed her face any more than Rum himself- I've seen her just once. But when she did, she was never alone."

Personal entertainment. . The words echoed around her thoughts and Ran swallowed down the nasty thought.

"But it was quickly proven that she was more than just a pretty face. One by one, members were just suddenly dropping- all of which were proven later to be undercover agents. CIA, FBI- there were numerous."

"Sorting out the traitors," Shinichi voiced his thoughts.

There was agreeance in Haibara's tone. "Her innocence and beauty that she radiated made it easy for her to be underestimated then- made it easy for you to underestimate her now," she said pointedly. "She's a master of deception; manipulative. When work isn't getting done and the boss wants results, they send her in."

"But she doesn't know that."

"Or that's just what she wants you to think. You're not thinking of her as the dangerous criminal that she is."

"If she does have her memory and she does in fact know who she is, then what would be her reason to fake that?" It sounded rhetorical like he wanted her to answer to prove a point but the woman answered anyway.

"To kill me. I turned my back on them and that's not something the Organization will take lightly," Haibara responded. "And you've been hiding me as well as trying to expose them."

"If what all you say about her is true, wouldn't you be dead already. And not just you but me as well for helping you? You always say the Organization works quickly, don't you?"

There was quiet after that and Ran got the feeling the woman didn't know how to respond to that. Deep down she probably felt that Shinichi was right. He really was after all. She had no idea what either of them were talking about. Organization? Rum? Trained operative? None of this was making any sense to her but if they knew who she was, shouldn't they tell her?

"I'm telling you, you don't know what you're dealing with," Haibara bit out. "We can't trust her."

"I trusted you. What is the difference between you and her?" he argued.

"The difference is that I didn't kill anyone."

"I'm sure others would debate that."

There was a sharp intake of breath and Ran assumed it was Haibara taking offense. Releasing a shaky breath she finally said, "Even if that were the case and she really can't remember- what will you do when she does gain her memory? After all of what I told you, you know what she's capable of now."

"Then we have until then to show her a better way."

"This could jeopardize everything we worked for," she whispered harshly and it was clear she did not agree at all. "She's practically the princess of the Organization. They'll have every agent searching for her and allowing her to stay here will only paint a giant target on our backs."

Disregarding what the other woman just said, Ran heard the rustle of the whicker basket being moved and she prepared to make a hurried escape. "I'll let you know if anything changes with Ran-" It was obvious he was giving her a dismissal but not for the first time that night, Haibara interrupted him.

"Champagne."

Again, she had to wonder what was with all the alcohol. Was it some code? She had already been saying Rum every few seconds and now she was talking about Champagne.

"What?" Shinichi sounded as confused as her thoughts. And then Ran slowly caught on.

"Her name is Champagne."

Just narrowly making an escape before she was discovered by the neighbor or Shinichi, Ran actually ran to take a shower. That's what she said she would do and how fake she'd look if she returned with dry hair.

She entered the kitchen in a fresh pair of clothes and loose, wet hair to find Shinichi- again, standing over a stove almost hectically. There was a book open on the counter beside him and she watched with amusement as he kept glancing hurriedly from the pages back to the stovetop again.

He had no clue what he was doing.

She shook her head before stepping further into the room. "What are you making?"

The real question was, 'what was he trying to make'. It was obvious he was struggling and she actually felt guilty for wanting to laugh.

Shinichi turned to face her a little jerkily and she really could see now just how much trouble he was having. "Uh. . curry. . I think. . " And something bubbled making a loud popping noise from the pan making him jump his attention back to the stove.

He thinks? How can he not know what he's making?

Before she could even understand what she was doing, her body was already taking more steps till she stood beside him. Now she had a perfect view of the less than perfect . . curry? She wasn't even sure now.

He scoot over a bit while giving her a slightly annoyed glance. "What are you doing-?"

"Do you need help?" It was a question but she was already sliding the wooden spoon from his hand before he could even respond. Their fingers brushed a bit but she didn't pay it any mind and began stirring the pan slowly.

Shinichi appeared to want to protest but again she was already moving before he could get a word in. "This is a bit too high," she commented almost to herself as she turned the burner down and then she was swiping a finger in the sauce and tapping it on her tongue. Her features scrunched the slightest bit and she hoped the man hadn't caught that.

Looking at the recipe displayed in the book, Ran took some of the spices Shinichi already had set out and mixed some more into the mix. Tasting it again she nodded before angling the spoon towards him so he could taste. "It was a little too spicy," she spoke as he blankly swiped a finger into his mouth with the sauce. "See? Is that better?"

He bore an amazed look and she hoped that could only mean he approved.

"If you'd like, I can finish this if you want to set the table," she offered and almost laughed at how fast he made an escape. Honestly, she didn't think she could watch him struggle over cooking her another meal again. And for some reason, she didn't mind cooking either. If anything, she'd say she rather enjoyed it.

And Ran wasn't sure how long she took to fix- finish the curry he had started. But when she finished and was wiping her hands on a dishrag to tell him it was ready to start serving, she found he was already standing in the doorway watching her.

From the way his cheeks flushed and his eyes flit away, it was clear he hadn't been expecting her to turn around just yet. How long had he been standing there and watching her? Was she doing something wrong?

She glanced away nervously herself. "It's done," she spoke softly.

He cleared his throat. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to stare," and she was stunned to hear him actually apologizing. It wasn't like he had really done anything wrong anyway. "I just feel I need to keep an eye on you," he explained and unknowingly to him it struck a nerve.

"Because I'm dangerous." And his head shot up surprised.

Shoot. Her face turned a bright red and her gaze became even more intensified on the kitchen tiles. If she had wanted to keep her eavesdropping a secret it was too late now! Why had she said that?!

She peeked up curious to see if he was angry.

He wasn't. He looked only calm and relaxed. "I thought you would've heard."

Ran only watched him, a bit perturbed. He's not mad? That conversation had obviously been meant to be a secret one.

Shinichi sighed. "No. You're not dangerous."

"But you both said I was a dangerous criminal," Ran argued.

"Haibara thinks that but that's only because she just met you."

She raised a brow. "You just met me," she pointed out.

"Yet your the closest thing to a friend I have- besides Hattori," he shrugged at that. "So no, I don't think you're dangerous."

The girl blushed. He considered her a friend? "I was afraid to tell you earlier- about the mall," she clarified and swallowed her nerves. "When I was fighting that man. . " She shook here head. "I- I felt at ease. I felt relaxed; at home. Like killing a man was second nature to me." And as if her mind was just realizing this for the first time, her indigo eyes began to water.

When the man must've seen she was in the brink of crying, his own eyes widened worriedly. But that didn't stop her tears like he hoped.

Lower lip trembling, she looked at the floor again. "I felt like a monster. I was standing there pointing a gun at that man and all that was running through my head was how I could actually pull the trigger and not care. Who could kill another human being- take a life, and not care?"

Shinichi remained quiet, still not quite sure what to say. He hadn't expected her to start talking about the mall. But the quivering voice and guilt ridden face she wore almost broke him. And it made it apparent to him that she really had needed to talk about it.

"I am a monster," she finished. "Your friend is right. I am dangerous and you should have me locked away."

Almost angrily, the man stormed closer to her. "You are not a monster. You're not anything like those black crows."

"But you can't know that. I can't fully remember what I was like," she said dejectedly. "I can't even remember my own name."

Ran startled when he gripped her shoulders firmly.

"You decide."

Her eyes went wide.

"You decide what your name is. It's your choice."

"The fact that you're so repulsed by the possibility of killing anyone is all the evidence I'll ever need. I don't believe you're capable of ending another person's life," he spoke truthfully with his face as serious as she'd ever seen.

She choked. "But in the mall-"

"Did you shoot him?"

"No, but-"

"Did you want to?"

"No!" The thought almost pained her and made her voice come out horror filled.

"Then I don't think you're dangerous," he concluded easily.

He made it sound so simple. Made everything so clear when it really was not. Neither of them had any way to know if she was innocent or not. His own friend he obviously consulted with warned him against her. How could he still feel the way he does?

He tilted her chin up slightly so she would look at him and the action made her heart jump again. "You're thinking too hard. Let's eat and I think you should rest."

She disagreed wholeheartedly. She felt perfectly fine and she had already gone a complete week without an incident. But she couldn't find it in herself to argue with the man. And especially, for some odd reason, when he touched or looked at her like that.

Ran nodded slowly and he dropped his hand with an arrogant smirk as if he knew all along she'd agree. "Well, let's start dishing it out."

And she was stuck staring at his retreating back wondering, not for the first time, what was he doing to her?

[xiyao-feels]

Nie//yao (MDZS)

So NMJ/JGY is actually getting two versions, because my read on them is wildly different for MDZS vs CQL.

In MDZS I...don't ship it? I mean, there just doesn't seem to be to be anything there at all of a romantic or sexual nature. It's not that they don't care about each other, they clearly do, but it's in a way that is...NMJ as substitute father, JGY as substitute brother, and heavily, heavily inflected by their (current and then former) relationship as superior and subordinate.

Putting this behind a cut because a) it's me explaining at breath length with quotes why I don't think they have a romantic or sexual relationship and I don't want people to have to see that unless they want and b) accordingly it is REALLY LONG and I also don't want to clutter people's dashes, so.

Actually backing up a step, I don't see MDZS NMJ as being attracted to anyone, that's not really specific to JGY. I tend to read him as aspec, tbh. So theoretically he could have romantic feelings about JGY without being attracted to him—I think he may have some quasi-romantic feelings for LXC, though I don't think he conceptualizes it that way—but... honestly, it's not really clear to me that he even likes JGY as a person.

I'm not saying he doesn't like JGY! He clearly does, at least before MY tricks him and flees. But it doesn't seem to have anything to do with MY's personality, as opposed to like—MY being really competent and conducting himself well.

Some quotes about what exactly NMJ values about JGY:

'Nie MingJue interrupted him, “I promoted you not because I wanted you to give back anything out of gratitude. I simply thought that you should stay in this position, since you are capable enough and your conduct is to my liking. If you really want to pay me back, just kill a few more of those Wen-dogs on the battlefield!”'

'After [Meng Yao] left [for Langya], Nie MingJue switched to another deputy. Wei WuXian, however, felt that the new one was always a few beats slower. Meng Yao was an unusually clever talent. He could understand what wasn’t said, and perform to the best with the simplest orders. He was efficient and never slacked. Anyone used to him wouldn’t be able to refrain from comparing him with others.'

'Nie MingJue was never close to people. He rarely opened up to anyone. Though he finally managed to obtain a competent, trustworthy subordinate, whose character and capabilities he approved, he found that the subordinate’s true colors were nothing like what he had thought they were. It was only natural that his reaction was so extreme.'

'Wei WuXian had once found it strange as well. Ever since Meng Yao betrayed the QingheNie Sect, the relationship between Nie MingJue and him hadn’t been the same as before. Then why did they later become sworn brothers? From his observations, aside from how Lan XiChen brought it up, having always hoped that the two would reconcile, the most important factor was probably the gratitude of saving his life and writing the letters. To be precise, in his past battles, he had more-or-less depended on the information that Meng Yao sent over through Lan XiChen. He still thought that Jin GuangYao was a talented person whom one would rarely come upon, and intended on leading him back onto the right path. However, Jin GuangYao wasn’t his subordinate anymore. Only after they became sworn brothers would he have the status and the position to urge Jin GuangYao, like how he disciplined his younger brother, Nie HuaiSang.'

Jin GuangYao spoke with dejection, “But, Brother, didn’t you hear what he said in the oath? Every sentence meant something more. ‘Face a thousand accusing fingers, be torn from limb to limb’—this was clearly a warning for me. I… I’ve never heard of such an oath before.”

Lan XiChen replied in a gentle voice, “He said ‘if one were to think otherwise’. Do you think otherwise? If not, then why should you worry over it so much?"

Jin GuangYao, “I don’t, but Brother has already decided that I do, so what can I do?”

Lan XiChen, “He has always cherished your talent, hoping that you would choose the right path.”

You might notice a recurring theme here: there's a lot of focus JGY's competence and conduct. But anything about who JGY is as a person? Not so much.

They clearly had a good superior/subordinate relationship going on, albeit one in which NMJ was missing a lot of context (see just behave well and show people up, plus the you're missing a solid foundation thing). But it does seem to be basically professional. WWX describes them as conversing "peaceably, even impressively" in contrast to "his future self, always being scolded by Nie MingJue" and "those jokes of how 'LianFang-Zun fled whenever he heard that ChiFeng-Zun arrived,'" and.... that's kind of it. The closest we get to them as friends is them talking together with LXC after NMJ tells MY he will give him a letter of recommendation and send him to his father; as WWX describes it, "The three chatted back and forth, at times serious, yet at times light. The conversation was much more relaxed than when they had been in the living room. Listening to their chatter, Wei WuXian often wanted to get a word in as well, yet he was unable to do so."

That's definitely not nothing! But it's also the most we ever get, only shows up the once, and is explicitly contrasted with their conversation from earlier. Moreover, I'm pretty sure LXC's presence is a necessary part of things; NMJ tends to respond differently to LXC than to other people (even just earlier in this chapter, we're told that while "Nie MingJue had never been one for humour," "in front of Lan XiChen his expression eased"), and WWX explicitly notes LXC's conversation skills in the context of this conversation: "At this point in time, their relationship really isn't bad. Zewu-Jun is actually quite good at holding conversations, so why is Lan Zhan so bad at it?"

In addition, I'd say that looking at the early part of that conversation is quite telling; while LXC and MY are sitting together as equals, MY stand up at once the moment NMJ interrupts, and doesn't sit even after NMJ tells him to do so (I think he probably does take a seat at some point, but the narrative doesn't actually tell us when). Moreover, MY seems to be worried that NMJ will be offended by a possible lack of gratitude on MY's part ("Sect Leader Nie, if you heard everything, then you should've also heard me say that..."), and the only objection he expresses to leaving is precisely that he owes NMJ a debt of gratitude, not anything to do with, like, missing him. To me all the evidence suggests that while they had a close relationship, it was not a /personal/ relationship, but fundamentally one of superior and subordinate.

(For a close read of the scene where NMJ, LXC and MY are talking together, I highly recommend @confusion-and-more's post here)

Moving on, let's look at after JGY becomes JGY. They don't seem to particularly spend time together with each other, certainly not for the sake of it. There's a brief moment at the Flower Banquet where NMJ asks JGY why he's wasting his time with XY (who has not at this point in time committed his crime, he just has a reputation), but after JGY makes his excuse and scurries away, NMJ turns away and doesn't seem to seek him out or even pay him any particular attention for the rest of the scene; he only shows up once more, and that's following WWX. (And although JGY-as-replacement-NHS would be a post all on its own, I do think it's interesting to note that the exchange about XY is immediately followed by LXC and LWJ coming over, described in a way that highlights both their impressiveness and their status at brothers—their Twin Jade-ness, one might say.) During the guqin scene, NMJ only speaks once, and it's to address LXC—to protest the inappropriateness of LXC leaking exclusive Lan techniques. When JGY shows up to play the guqin for him the first time, NMJ asks JGY "what did you come here for," which suggests that NMJ is not generally expecting JGY to come by without a specific, concrete reason. The closest they ever seem to get after JGY becomes JGY is during these guqin-playing sessions, and as WWX describes it, "when playing the guqin, the way that the two conversed and got along even had a hint of the peace they had before they fell out"—which is certainly better than there being no peace at all, but which I think suggests there's still at least some tension, given that it's only a "hint."

Now, NMJ certainly cares about JGY, both in the sense of desiring his well-being, at first, and absolutely in the sense of being emotionally invested in him—even after his death, as a fierce corpse his only desire is to kill Jin Guangyao. But while they had a close superior-subordinate relationship—certainly NMJ seems to have felt close to MY—at no point was it a close personal relationship, and I don't think that NMJ even liked JGY (or MY, I'm using the name expansively) as a person, let alone was in love with him.

But mostly so far I've been focusing in NMJ's feelings. What about JGY? Is /he/ in love with NMJ?

Once again, I just don't read him that way. This isn't to say he didn't care for NMJ—he absolutely did! He goes to quite significant lengths to save his life from WRH in the Sun Palace, including quite a lot of risk to MY himself—I analyze that in a lot more depth in the first part of my post here, if you're interested, though I will also note now that he specifically sent for LXC to help NMJ. (You'll have to scroll down some; I'm responding to someone else's post.) Afterwards, he kneels to NMJ and apologizes, I think sincerely, for hurting him and for invoking his pain about his father's death. He certainly conceives of himself as owing a debt of gratitude to NMJ for recognizing him, and he's so overcome when NMJ offers to send him to his father with a letter of recommendation, saying that he didn't promote MY so that MY would owe him, that he quite remarkably can't even find words. NMJ meant a lot to him, and so did NMJ's not defining him in terms of his birth—until he did, of course, at the stairs kick incident. But as far as I can tell, there's nothing to suggest he has /romantic feelings/ for NMJ, and frankly—how can I put this—it does not at all surprise me that JGY isn't in love with someone with a violent temper who is noted at least twice to react to people explaining themselves when he is angry with even more anger, and that's even without the thing where he nearly killed JGY on multiple occasions and called him the son of a prostitute.

No, I think JGY's emotional journey with NMJ goes through three stages: first, he's deeply grateful to him and respects him a great deal, although he's also aware of NMJ's lack of awareness of certain social realities (see: the teacup scene, NMJ yelling at the other Nie cultivators about their treatment of MY and telling MY not to worry as long as his conduct is upright); second, after Sun Palace, still gratitude and respect but also a mounting frustration with his lack of awareness of the implications of JGY's social position and his hypocrisy re: acceptable violence; finally, after the stairs kick when NMJ kicks him down the stairs, almost kills him, and tells him what else can be expected from the son of a prostitute, he is completely done with NMJ, but is still very much scared of him. The gratitude, I've discussed; the frustration, I think is fairly obvious in the speech he gives back to NMJ at the stairs. But I think the fear is often undervalued, so I'm going to pull a bunch of quotes again:

Meng Yao shrunk immediately after his previous outburst. Watching Baxia slash toward him, he sprinted off at once, scared lifeless. Of the two, one striked with madness and the other fled with madness. Both staggered, still soaked in blood. In such amusing circumstances, as Wei WuXian chopped at the future Chief Cultivator, in his heart he split his sides laughing. He thought that if not for how Nie MingJue was under heavy injuries and lacked spiritual power, Meng Yao would probably have been dead already.

Baxia’s strikes were so menacing that Shuoyue had to unsheath. Lan XiChen stopped him, half to support his figure and half to block his attacks, “MingJue-xiong, calm down! Why bother?”

Nie MingJue, “Why don’t you ask what he did?!”

Lan XiChen turned around to look at Meng Yao, his face was full of terror. He stammered as if he didn’t dare speak.

Nie MingJue remained silent, while Baxia and Shuoyue continued. Meng Yao took a glimpse at the glares from the clashes of the saber and the sword, his gaze full of fear. After a while, however, he still took a step forward. He kneeled to Nie MingJue.

A moment later, Nie MingJue still raised his saber. Lan XiChen, “MingJue-xiong!”

Meng Yao shut his eyes. Lan XiChen also tightened his grip on Shuoyue, “Please excuse…”

Before he could finish his sentence, the silver light of the blade slashed down violently, onto a boulder on the side.

Meng Yao flinched from the thunder of the boulder splitting apart. Looking over, he saw that it had been sliced into two halves, from the top to the bottom.

Jin GuangYao nodded. Xue Yang had been infamous ever since he was young. Wei WuXian clearly felt Nie MingJue’s brows knit even tighter. He spoke, “Why are you wasting your time with such a person?”

Jin GuangYao, “The LanlingJin Sect recruited him.”

He didn’t dare to protest any further. Excuse being that he needed to care for the guests, he scurried to the other side.

[part of his speech to NMJ at the stairs] You think that I should be afraid of nothing? Well I'm afraid of everything, even other people!

Within the temple, three people called Nie MingJue’s corpse ‘Brother’ but the three tones were drastically different. Jin GuangYao’s face was full of a drowning fear. His entire body began to shiver. No matter dead or alive, the person Jin GuangYao was most scared of was none but this sworn brother of his whose temper tolerated no evil. As his body shivered, his hands shivered as well, and the bloody guqin string he clutched tightly in his hand also began to shiver.

Clenching his teeth, Jin GuangYao struck a few acupoints of his arm. Amidst the dizziness that came from a loss of blood, he suddenly saw Nie MingJue walk a step towards him, his eyes locked on him. He was immediately half-dead with fear.

Collapsed beside Lan XiChen, Jin GuangYao saw this scene as well. Whether because the bleeding and the pain intensified at his arm and stomach or from some other reason, the glisten of tears could be seen in his eyes. But before he had a chance to catch his breath or lick his wounds, Nie MingJue turned around after he pulled his fist back and stared hungrily in his direction.

The harsh, stern expression on his rigid face held a sense of judgement that was no different from before he died. Even his tears had been scared away as Jin GuangYao turned to Lan XiChen for help, his voice trembling, “Brother…”

I think the stuff with, you know, handling NMJ's fierce corpse and hanging onto his head is often viewed as evidence of JGY's continued emotional investment in NMJ, but... I don't really think so? First of all, NMJ's fierce corpse is completely obsessed with killing JGY. I'll spare you another round of quotes on that because this is already ridiculously long and because it's not at all subtle—it's all over the temple chapters, take a look! And second of all—well, there's ways of getting information from a corpse. In this case, NMJ's resentful energy is so strong that without the protection of his body, papernan WWX is actually sucked into NMJ's memories against his will! Sure, maybe no one would risk it, and maybe no one who risked it would survive, but especially given that NMJ's fierce corpse is completely obsessed with killing JGY, that's a heck of a risk to take. And look at the description of the protections around NMJ's head:

Suddenly, Wei WuXian noticed that one of the shelves were blocked by a curtain. The curtain was covered in sinister, blood-red runes. It was a talisman of forbiddance, one of extreme power.

Jin GuangYao walked over and lifted the curtain.

For a split second, Wei WuXian thought that he had been exposed. After the faint firelight made its way through the curtain, he found that he was enveloped in a shadow. A circular object just happened to be in front of him.

Jin GuangYao stood still, as though he was staring into the eyes of whatever was inside this shelf.

After a moment, he spoke, “Were you the one looking at me?"

Of course, there couldn’t be any response. He was silent for a while, then let down the curtain.

Wei WuXian quietly attached himself to the object. Cold and hard, it seemed to be a helmet. He then turned to the front. As he had expected, he saw a pallid face. The one who sealed the head wanted it to see nothing, hear nothing, speak nothing, and so incantations had been crowded onto the waxen skin. The eyes, the ears, and the mouth were all sealed tightly shut.

There's containment, it's suppressed to all hell and back, and JGY quite justifiably expects it to be murderously obsessed with him, but to me it doesn't suggest a reciprocal obsession—just more fear.

I'll also note that as a strategy for containing the information about his own involvement it's a very successful operation! It failed in the end /eventually/, but the failure needed:

someone who could successfully break into his private treasure room and escape without being caught

who could also perform Empathy or a similar tecnnique on NMJ's head and survive it

who could successfully recreate from memory the altered Empathy song

whom LXC would be willing to listen to

That's a heck of a tall order!

As to being done with NMJ after the stairs, well, listen to what he says to LXC:

Jin GuangYao spoke with dejection, “But, Brother, didn’t you hear what he said in the oath? Every sentence meant something more. ‘Face a thousand accusing fingers, be torn from limb to limb’—this was clearly a warning for me. I… I’ve never heard of such an oath before.”

[...]

Jin GuangYao, “It’s not that I don’t know what’s right and what’s wrong, but that sometimes I really can’t help. Nowadays, I have it bad no matter which side I’m on. I have to ensure that I’m on everyone’s good sides. I wouldn’t care if it were someone else, but have I mistreated our eldest brother in any way? Brother, you heard as well. What did he call me?”

[...]

Jin GuangYao was almost sobbing, “If he could say such a thing when he was angry, then just how does he think of me on a daily basis? Is it that because I couldn’t choose my background, because my mother couldn’t choose her fate, I’ll have to be humiliated by others throughout my whole life? If so, then how is Brother different from the people who look down on me? No matter what I do, in the end, just a sentence and I’m ‘the son of a prostitute’.”

And then of course there's what he says to LXC, in his speech to him at the end: "You, on the other hand, ZeWu-Jun, Sect Leader Lan, are as intolerant of me as Nie MingJue—you refuse to spare me even a single breath of life!"

So—wow, this got very long—I don't ship them, and although I think they have very much mattered emotionally to each other, I don't really see them as ever having been in love with or attracted to each other.

A couple of end notes:

In MDZS, NMJ isn't the first (non-MS) person who recognizes MY's worth, although he is the first person to promote him; by the time NMJ promotes MY MY has already met, rescued, and exchanged intimate confidences with LXC, who respects him greatly and thinks he is highly talented (see again the conversation in Hejian which NMJ overhears/eavedrops on).

I've seen people talk about them not understanding each other, but while NMJ certainly doesn't understand JGY, it's not at all obvious that the reverse is true; he generally seems to understand him pretty well. I think he has two surprises overall: first, that he wasn't expecting NMJ to say he didn't promote MY so MY would owe him, and volunteer to send him to his father with a letter of recommendation—and second, he wasn't expecting NMJ, who for all his flaws did seem to ignore JGY's background in good ways as well as bad, to call him the son of a prostitute.

I definitely don't read the coffin at the end as romantic. Or I mean, uh, there's the romance of an obsessive stalker-murderer finally getting his victim, and that's not nothing (unironically; look, I'm a Hannibal fan), but I don't think it's usually what people mean. This is a shitty end for JGY, part of how thoroughly he loses and is destroyed. I think to some extent it might be that he doesn't want LXC to be the one who killed him, and to some extent it's an act of defiance—now that he has nothing to lose, not even his life, he's going to go out fighting. I would expand on this but this post is ridiculously long and I have way too many quotes, maybe I'll do it in a separate post later on—but if you look at the description of it in the text, plus the subsequent description of it in the coffin...yeah. JGY didn't want to die, he didn't want to be engaged in a mutually destructive thing with NMJ; he wanted to leave NMJ behind in the past, and move on. It's not, for him any kind of fulfillment, is my read.

All quotes are taken from the Exiled Rebels translation: ch 48-50 for everything about NMJ and JGY's past relationship, ch. 47 for the description of JGY's containment measures for NMJ's head, and ch. 106-108 for the quotes about JGY's fear of NMJ's fierce corpse. The description of JGY going into the coffin is at the end of 108 if you want to have a look, and there's more in 109 and 110 about the difficulty of sealing NMJ's fierce corpse/its power and violence.

[ladywinterwitch]

Run Away (Eight- What You Gotta Do)

Pairing: Steve Rogers x Avenger! Reader

Summary: You and Steve complete each other. Your love is that strong and devoted kind of love that pushes people to things like marriage, making a family. You couldn't imagine that a baby would be something you really wished, until the possibility wasn't your choice anymore.

Warnings:  A bit of angst, pregnancy talk, mentions of injuries, mentions of abandonement (mild), fluff, reader is still an emotional rollercoaster, cursing and swearing, smut, unprotected sex (too late for these two lmao), oral sex (f recieving), brief mentions of body insicurities, Bucky’s a puppy dog.

Words Count: 5289

A/n: Part eight! I can’t believe that I’ve actually come this far lmao. Plus, me posting stuff with less than 44827 years of distance with each other? A miracle. I always said that I would wrap it up at 10 chapters,but while writing this chapter I realized that I will need one or two extra chapters + the epilogue. We’ll see. For now I’m happy to be able to write lol. Series masterlist here, main masterlist here. Enjoy <3

ps: Chris’s look in that gif,,,chile 

                       (gif not mine)

In the following week you saw Steve once a day, just to assure that he was doing fine. He wasn' sleeping in your shared room for the moment, but in a spare bedroom. You knew that you were probably being harsh with him, but you were so mad. It wasn't the first time that he did something stupid to try and save others. Hell, just think about that damned plane crash that put him in the ice in the first place.

You understood the reasons why, and basically everyone tried to talk with you and kinda 'sugar coat it' but the issue wasn't that you didn't understand: the issue was that he couldn't afford to think only about himself. Was it selfish on your behalf to think that way? Maybe. But you couldn't help it. You told yourself that it would've been different if you were just married, or just lovers. His decisions would've still been his. But now it's different. In less than six months he would've become a father. And that comes with responsibility. Wasn't he the first to tell you how important it was for you to put aside your job, for months or maybe even forever, just for the wellbeing of the creature inside you? That kid is yours just as much as he's his.

You and Bucky went out for a shopping trip that afternon. You would've asked Wanda, but she and Vision went to Clint's farm for a few days to see him and his family. Steve still had to be inside the tower, since he wasn't fully healed yet. You knew that he was watching a football game with Sam now, while Tony and Bruce were working on a new project, and Thor went to Asgard for a while to go check that Loki and Odin weren't at each other's throats.

You didn't mind Bucky's company at all. And in any case it wasn't like you felt like going out with Steve, not just yet. The brunette drove you both to the mall where he parked and then you went inside.

-So, what absolutely exciting and girly shops I have to visit today?- he asked while you curled your hand around his bicep. You laughed, looking up at him while you walked.

-Well, this mama is getting bigger every day, so I really can't wear my old clothes. I wouldn't even fit in them, and I can't go on with you guys' hoodies and t-shirts. I mean, I'm still a woman. Who said I can't look good while pregnant?- you responded, dragging him to a maternity clothes shop. As soon as you entered like half of the women in the shop turned to look at Bucky. You glanced at him and saw that he blushed and was looking everywhere except them. You bit you lip to not smile while you started to look around at the clothes. You made sure to engage in conversations with him to try and take the attention away.

-Damn homie, I think you just made those women regret their partners.- you said lowly so only he could hear you, and being a super enhanced supersolier, he did hear you very clearly. He snapped his head towards you with a look of disbelief on his face. His expression was so funny that you couldn't help but laugh. He looked around quickly then got closer to you.

-Stop it! It's already embarassing without you pointing it out.- he whined with a low voice. You stopped laughing but you couldn't help but smile, pressing your lips together.

-It's just so funny to me, because I understand these women. Turns out that pregnancy doesn't only make you sick, but also terribly horny.- you rose an eyebrow and he face palmed himself. You laughed again.

-Too much information, doll.- he groaned. You chuckled, putting in his hands a bunch of clothes. He caught them with both arms and followed you like a puppy to the changing rooms.

-Thank you kind sir, now I'm gonna see if they fit then I promise we're out of here.- you joked, hanging the clothes into the changing room. You closed the tent and he let himself fall delicately on one of the couches. He looked around while he waited but it turned out to be a bad idea when he saw the women from the various isles and even the shop's staff looking at him. He awkwardly smiled and then looked back at the closed changing room, sinking in his seat and covering the side of his face with a hand nonchalantly. He heard a few muffled giggles but no ne bothered him.

-Y/n are you done?- he asked, more embarassed than anything. Suddenly she pulled back the tent and started to gather a few of the garments in her hand. Bucky's gaze got caught on her figure. It was essentially the first time that she wore something fitting and not exaggerately large, so her belly was fully on display, even more so since she was turned to the side. The man felt a mix of emotions all at once and didn't quite catch the first time she called him.

-Buck, did you hear me?- he snapped out of it and stood to his feet, blinking a few times.

-It looks great.- he commented. You had on a nice flowery minidress, the sleeves were short and puffy, the square neckline showed just enough cleavage to remain classy, the breast area was tight but just below the skirt was soft and fell perfectly on your figure, showing the belly. You looked at him with a smile, chuckling slightly.

-Yeah, it fits well doesn't it? I'm getting these,- he gave a three dresses, two shirts, two t-shirts, two pairs of jeans and a pencil skirt to him, while she had other stuff in her own hands. -And I'm leaving these.- she sighed.

-Would you do me a favor? I'm dropping these off, meanwhile could you go to the pay desk? I'll be there in a sec.- he nodded and you thanked him while you walked away to the isles. Bucky walked towards the counter and dropped the garments on the desk, giving a quick smile to the girl behind it. He pulled out from the back pocket of his jeans the wallet and then the credit card, which was obviously Tony's, and put it on the glass above the counter. He waited a few seconds until the clerk, which was a nice girl with black hair and amber like eyes, spoke to him.

-So, how far are you guys?- she asked. Bucky almost choked on air at that phrase.

-Oh we- - he was about to say, but you arrived at his side and saved the situation. You smiled kindly at the girl and gave a pat on Bucky's arm.

-I'll be exactly of five months in a week, and he's more like the uncle than the father.- she tileted her head towards the brunette. The clerk smirked.

-Is he now?- she said rethorically. Then added, -That would be 277$. You're paying with cash or card?- Bucky gave her the Visa and she thanked him, finishing the payment. Y/n glanced at him with a knowing look and a slight smirk. He rolled his eyes and shook his head a little, she furrowed her brows as if to ask 'Why?' and he just mouthed 'No', so she didn't push. For now.

-Thank you for your purchase, congratulations and we hope to see you soon.- the girl said with courtesy, her gaze lingering a bit on the man, whom didn't return the look. You could see the slight disppointment of the girl.

-Thank you, have a nice day.- you saluted her and then headed out with Bucky. An hour had already passed and you still had in mind to buy a few things, but first you needed a break.

-I desperately want a piece of cake. What do you think?- you elbowed him delicately to catch his attention. He turned his head and nodded, still carrying the two bags. You arrived at the mall's cafe and ordered. He picked an iced coffe and you a slice of cheesecake and some tea, knowing that coffe wasn't that good for pregnancy. You took a seat at one of the tables outside, even tho you were still technically inside the mall.

-So, wanna tell me why you didn't accept the clear as the sun advances that the pretty shop assistant did?- you brought the fork to your mouth. He huffed and shrugged.

-Because I am not interested. I don't think I'm in the right mindspace to date right now.- he responded. You exhaled, tilting your head slightly to the side.

-Buck, I know that it didn't end up that smoothly with Nat, but she's gone.- she realized how that sounded like and quickly corrected herself, -I mean, not gone. But...gone, you know?- you cringed at your own words and he snorted.

-Very smooth y/n.- he joked, earning a glare from you.

-Shut up, I'm trying to help here. What I meant that while I understand that things with Nat didn't end up in the best of ways, she went away to give both of you the space you need to get back on your feet.- you paused, drinking a sip of tea, then offring the last bite of cake to him. He shook his head, giving you a lopsided smile.

-Don't worry, it's all yours.- you pointed your finger at him, while chewing the cheesecake. He chuckled.

-Right answer. Anyways, what I'm trying to say here, Buck, is that you have to allow yourself to try again. Because you deserve it. What do you tell me about that person you said you were interested in? I've never seen you with anyone in the last three months.- he looked to the side for a moment casually.

-They're taken so, yeah.- he simply answered, shrugging while taking a sip of coffe. You got sad all of a sudden. You eyebrows knotted in a sad expression and he noticed, giving you a small smile.

-Hey, don't do that. It's okay. I'm not like heartbroken or shit. I'm happy for her.- he assured you, -She.. well she has a family. She deserves it, so I'm happy for her.- he nodded, smiling softly. You smiled at him too, still with a hint of sadness. He took a nother sip of coffe an then raised an eyebrow, looking at you.

-Why are you crying?- he asked confused. You furruwed your brows in confusion and wiped your fingers under your eyes, realizing that a few tears had escaped. At that point without a reason, you started to feel worse and embarassed and a mess, so you sterted to actually sob a little. Bucky got up and moved his chair next to yours, hugging you.

-Hey what's wrong? I promise I'm alright.- he laughed to try and lighten the situation. You hiccupped into his chest.

-I- I know..it's just.. I don't know, these stupid hormones are making me act hysterical.- you had sittle sobs coming out every now and then. He kissed your head while he stroked your back.

-It's okay, you're not hysterical.- he chuckled softly making you smile. You pulled away from him looking in his eyes.

-I'm a mess aren't I?- Bucky wiped a little smudge of mascara under her eye, and then smiled at her lovingly.

-You look just fine, darling.- she hugged him, whispering a 'thank you, I love you' in his ear.

-I love you too- he answered.

After that, they finished their drink and Y/n told Bucky that she wanted to order a few things for the baby so they did just that. They went in a baby-stuff shop and she choose and placed some orders for a crib, a baby seat for both the car and the kitchen and the changing table. You didn't wanted to buy them right away, so you told the shop to bring them at the tower when they wanted.

When you exited the shop, it was already six thirty pm, so you decided to head back at the tower.

In the car, you told Bucky about your idea to get a midwife to help you during your pregnancy and especially when it'll be time to deliver the baby.

-I don't know y/n... I mean I think that you don't need a midwife or some other stranger to take care of you and the baby. You have Steve. You have me, and Sam, Wanda and the rest of the team. Bruce has basically become a doctor of everything, I'm sure that helping to deliver a child isn't that hard.- he shrugged while keeping his eyes on the road.

-I can't and wouldn't expect you all to babaysit me for another four months, Bucky. You have missions, classes, a you know, your own lives.- he glared at you, probably wanting to intervene and contraddict you, but he remained quiet in the end.

-And, you really can't expect Bruce to handle this. He's a fucking physician for God's sake. He's absolutely amazing, but a delivery? No, that would be too much even for him. And I would be kinda embarassed, for crying out loud.- you added with a high pitched voice. You absentmindely started to cradle your belly. He thought about it for a few seconds.

-I don't know y/n, you know how I am with strangers. But in any case it's your and Steve's decision. Please, talk to him. He's been miserable this week without you. He wouldn't shut up about how he was sorry, and stupid and in love with you and that he misses your smile, your belly and I don't know, I stopped listening after a while.- he said exasperatedly. You suppressed a smile.

-Really? - you asked sheepishly. He turned his head to look at you for a second before smiling knowingly.

-You know it's true. Your fucking married, for God's sake.- he said, tired of you two being idiots. He could just imagine how it'll be when you'll become parents. You will be great at it, but also a mess at the same time.

-Hey, Whiny Soldier, how was shopping? - Sam shouted when he saw the two of you coming in the room with your hands full of bags. You didn't see him, but you just knew that he pursed his lips and shook his head.

-

You came back at the tower just in time for dinner. Vision and Wanda had aprons tied on their chests, while the others were just chilling in the common room. Steve was there too, beside Bruce.

-Shopping was productive, thank you very much.- you answered pointing for Bucky to put down the bags.

-Let me help you take these to your room.- he offered, but you gave him a look and he understood immediately, putting them down. You smiled and kissed his cheek.

-Thank you for being my human cart today.- his jaw dropped, pretending to be offended.

-Oooh- Sam howled and the others laughed. Steve smiled slightly, still mortified by your little 'cold shoulder week'  thing.

-You're lucky I can't tickle you to death right now.- he pointed his finger at you before walking to the fridge to pour himself a glass of water.

-Yeah, yeah, like you say big guy.- you teased him. You paused, shifting your gaze to Steve. He was wearing a blue hoodie and gray sweatpants, his dirty blonde hair were starting to get a bit long at the sides and a few strands fell on his forehead, while his jaw was covered with a slight scruff. His puppy dog eyes met yours and you couln't help but melt a little.

-Steve, are you well enough to help me with these?- you asked and even before you could finish he was on his feet. He almost tripped from how fast he tried to reach you.

-Yes I'm perfectly well I mean I'd love to help you. I mean obv- - you raised an eyebrow and he stopped, looking down. The whole team was watching in silence like it was a damn movie.

-I'm rambling, I'm sorry.- he said lowly. You sighed and places three of the four bags in his hands.

-C'mon. And you all, get a life.- you called them out while you two walked to the elevator. A few minutes later, after the short, silent, trip, you arrived to your room. He placed the bags on the bed and you did the same after closing the door behind you.

-Help me take off the price tags.- you invited him. He grabbed the bag, taking out the first garment. It was a white baby onesie, with Captain America's shield logo on it in white, blue, and red. His breath got caught in his throat and he suddenly let out a sob.

You snapped your head up in confusion, your features softening when you saw him. He sat on the bed, head down, onesie still in his hand. You put down the dress you had in your hands and went to sit next to him, since it would've been really uncomfortable for you to bend on your legs now. You hand went istinctively to rub his back.

-Can we talk?- he asks with broken voice. You tilt your head to the side to look at him with the shadow of a smile on your face.

-Only if you stop crying. Or else none of us will be able to talk at all.- he chuckles slightly making you smile lovingly. He wraps his big arms around you, nuzzling his face in your neck, your collarbones exposed due to the large shirt you were wearing. The wave of relief that washed over you in that moment was hard to describe.

-I missed you so much, baby. I couldn't stand the thought of you being mad at me. I'm sorry for being so impulsive.- he sniffed while he talked. You nodded, cupping his face gently. Steve melted into your touch.

-I know you are. And I'm sorry too. I know that I've been harsh with you these past days, it's just...- he waited patiently, -You're not responsable for only yourself anymore. I understand, please trust me, I understand what you wanted to do and also that you feel like it's your duty to do that. And it kinda is, but my point is- you shook your head realizing that you weren't really explaining yourself.

-What I mean is that you cannot put your life behind other's. Not for me, not even for the team. We're grown ass adults okay? Fow how much you can love us and we can love you, we are our own person. But this- you placed his hand on your belly, -This had been a choice. Your, mine. We both are responsable for this life. The same way I gave up my job, and the lessons. Now, I'm not asking you to stop going on missions, but I'd like you to be with me as much as possible. And that when you go, you'll be careful. Please, Steve.- you say softly, almost in the verge of tears. Again. You've cried more in five months than in your whole life probably.

-You're right. It was pretty hypocritical of me to get mad at you for the same reason in the first place.- he shook his head in disappointment. You rolled your eyes, adding -Work. I think we'll have to rearrange ourselves in this department.- you smiled and he laughed, agreeing.

-So, are we gonna get these off the bed and use the space in a better way or what?- your lips curled in a seductive smirk that quite shocked him. He recovered quickly, jumping on his feet and placing the bags on the ground in a split second. You threw you head back laughing at his eagerness, but you honestly couldn't blame him. Your hormones were a mess and your horniness at level 100, but you often were either sick, tired, hungry or he was. And not to mention the missions that separated you. So let's say that since you got pregnant the sex decreased noticeably, which was something that you wanted to fix. You phisically missed and needed him.

He returned to you and crashed his lips to yours, and soon enough you were a mess of tongues and lip bites and sucks that got interrupeted just briefly to get your clothes off. He didn't have anything under his hoodie, and you happily noticed that he was completely healed and that his weeks in the tower were due to the lack of new missions. You sincerely hoped it would last. After his hoodie, his pants and boxers were next. With you the situation was a bit more complex: first the light material shirt you had on had to be unbuttoned, then your tank top, the jeans' belt and the pants themselves. When you were left in just your underwear, a plain set of cotton white bra and panties, Steve stopped to look at your body.

He was in awe of you. He rose his hand and started a caress that began on your cheek, his thumb on your bottom lip, then descended to your now fuller breasts, to the curve of your waist to to your baby bump. At that point he bent down on his knees and kissed it softly.

-Hey little one, if you want to take a nap, now it would be a good time.- he whispered directly to the stretched skin. You let out a sound that was halfway between of a whine and a laugh.

-Steve, Jesus Christ.- you covered your face with your hands. You heard him laugh and stand on his feet again. He removed your hands gently, kissing you again with slow, agonizing passion that even let escape a ridiculous whine from your lips at the loss.

-Where were we?- he reached behind your back and unclasped the bra, sliding it off your shoulders and freeing your breasts.

-Mrs and Mr. Rogers I'm sorry to disturb, miss Maximoff would like me to inform you that dinner's ready.- you stopped hearing F.R.I.D.A.Y.'s voice. You groaned, annoyed at the interruption, but Steve suddenly started to push you on the bed and to lick and suck your boobs.

-Tell miss Maximoff that we have dinner here.- he responded biting softly your nipple, making you whimper.

-It will be done, mr Rogers.-

-Geez Steve, couldn't you be more specific?- you sassed with a deep breath, distracted by your husband's mouth. He snorted moving further down to remove your panties.

-You're already pregnant, couldn't be more obvious than that.- you started to laugh, but it soon became a loud moan when you felt his tongue licking a long stripe on your pussy. You closed your eyes and istinctively wanted to bring your hand in his hair, but you found an obstacle. A medium big, round and naked obstacle. You huffed and Steve stopped, tilting his head to the side, since now you couldn't even see him from between your legs.

-Are you okay?- he asked, worry in his voice. You sat on the bed, helping yourself with your hands. He returned beside you, waiting.

-It's just..ugh I'm so awkward and big and not confident if I have to be honest.- you say for the first time out loud. You wanted to cover yourself by curling your knees to you chest, but again, you swollen stomach didn't allow it. At that point you got even more frustrated.

-Damn it.- Steve places his fingers under your chin and made you look at him. His eyes were serious but not mad.

-Hey, none of that. Do you even realize the miracle your beautiful body is doing? You're creating a whole life in there, baby.- he smiled brightly looking in your eyes, -And by the way, you're still hot as fuck.- that made you laugh. He kept smiling while he made you lay down again on the sheets.

-This beautiful face..these cheeks are even sweeter now.- he peppered them with kisses making you giggle uncontrollably.

-Don't get me started on these ones...- his hands cupped your breasts while his mouth attacked your nipples and the soft skin. You moaned softly, your hand immediately in his short hair, your nails delicately scratching his scalp.

-But you know my most favorite thing?- he kept going, -This.- he was now between your legs, kneeled in front of your stomach. He caressed it and kissed it a few times. Then his gaze  locked in yours again. You almost felt hypnotized, both by his velvety voice and his touch.

-I love it because it's round and soft and most importantly because it's giving me a family. A baby. And you know who's giving me all of this? You are. So don't ever be insecure about this wonderful body, please.- you smiled at him softly. Soon enough the mood changed again when he spoke his next words.

-Now, are you gonna let me thank this stunning body like it deserves or not?- you felt the smirk in his voice, his blue eyes hungry. You mirrored his expression propping yourself up on your elbows.

-Would like to see it.- you answer. He huffs out a laugh and reprises what he started doing a few minutes prior. He took good care of you until you came on his tongue, and at that point you grabbed him to crash your lips together. You kept moving and bringing him with you, until he found himself laying down on his back and you straddling his hips. Steve's hands immediately went to your sides, trying to not move and let you do the work, even though all he wanted was to fuck you until you both could't anymore.

You kept you eyes on his while you stroked him a few times before slowly sinking on him. He squeezed both his eyes shut and your hips, huffing a long breath. That could've almost made you laugh if you weren't just as wrecked. Your hips started moving, back and forth, to the sides in painfully slow circular motions. At one point he grabbed your ass, sitting up and making you gasp.

-Doll I'm kinda struggling here- he breathed out kissing your neck while you kept moving. -I want to be delicate but damn.- he nipped at your sweet spot between your neck and shoulder. Your hips started going faster with the help of his hands guiding you and soon enough you were panting and kissing each other passionately and messily.

-Oh, Steve I'm almost there- you moan hugging his head to your chest. He moaned too, reaching in front of you with his hand to circle your clit.

-I'm right behind you baby.- he reassured you while in reality he was trying hard not to come in that exact moment. He craved you more than usual, not only beacause your body was actually so fucking hot to him but also because he hasn't touched you for almost two whole weeks.

Just a few seconds later you gripped his shoulders, hiding your face in his neck. His breath got caught in his troath at the way you clenched around him when you came. And as a cue, he followed you short after, coming inside you. You stayed like that, hugging and cuddling for some minutes, then he kissed you and moved you gently on his side, hissing slightly when you lost contact.

-Be right back.- he said going to the bathroom and returning with a wet wash cloth. He cleaned you up from both of your releases and then went back to throw the dirty fabric in the laundry basket. You looked at him with a lopsided smile, still hazy and quite tired from the recent activity. He mirrored your expression with messy hair, crawling in the bed to you and pulling you on his side after.

-I needed that.- you say. He sighed, -I definetly did too. How come we always end up having sex after we argue or talk?- he asked casually. You shrugged.

-I don't know, the important thing is that the talk comes first and then, the sex.- he agreed with a nod. You chewed on you lip a bit before speaking again.

-Honey- you called, he hummed.

-While you were away last week I started to think about how I will probably need more help in the future, you know. And the fact that you and the others are often away on missions. And I mean it's totally alright, that's work but... I felt so bad when Sam and Wanda were left behind last time. And just to 'babysit' me.- he looked down at you with a frown.

-They offered to stay behind because they wanted to. We're taking turns on missions all the time.- he responded. You barely noticed that he had started to caress your belly.

-That's not the point, you know it. The last mission was quite big. I know my work well enough to know that Fury would've sent all the team, if I weren't left behind. Also by now we both understood that this baby isn't a normal baby and that is why I'm so sick so often. Bruce can't be here all the time, and for how good and skilled he his, he's not an expert in the baby field.- he was listening to you intently, but he wasn't quite sure with where you wanted to go with this.

-What's the point?- he asked, moving a strand of your hair from your face with his fingers.

-The point is,  that I've read a lot in these months, and I think that we should hire a midwife. It would be someone that stays with me most of the day and helps me. An actual expert.-

-And how would you explain that our child has the blood of two super soldiers?- his hand motioned himself and you. You got up, towards the bathroom.

-Steve, we share the house with a god, a giant green monster, enhanced people, a witch, a kid that has the powers of a spider and an intelligent robot. I think it wouldn't be a great surprise.- you closed the door, peed and then refreshed yourself before going back to take some clean clothes. You saw that he was waiting for you to get out, probably wanting to shower.

-Okay then, I guess we can arrange that, if that will make you feel better.- he finally spoke. You kissed his cheek, already in your underwear.

-Thank you. You're showering?- he nods, the raises an eyebrow.

-Wanna join?- you laugh and shake your head.

-No, baby not now. I get tired quite easily and if the bed's already a bit difficult to work with, the shower must be a nightmare.- he pouted.

-You're right.-

-But- he stops the door before it closes, waiting for you to continue. -I want to fix your hair and your beard if you let me.- a lopsided smile opens on his face.

-Be my guest.-

-

After you sat him down on the edge of the bathtub, you shortened the longer strands on top with tiny scissors. After that you picked up the electric razor and groomed the sides, shortneing them but not removing them completely. You did the same with the beard, leaving a short, barely visible scruff. About twenty minutes later you were done. You put down the razor and took a step back to look at your work.

-Perfect.- you commented, brushing the hair that fell on his chest and shoulders. He stood up and looked at himself in the mirror, smiling.

-Is there anything you can't do?- he asked. You smirked, kissing him before starting to clean up.

-No, I'm a woman.-

*************

Tag list: @polarcrystall​    @a--1--1--3​    @silver-winter-wolf​   @jessyballet​

[hellomynameisbisexual]

When I first met my husband, Neal, I thought he was gay. Maybe that's because he told me he was gay. So while I was attracted to him, I figured he would just be my gay best friend. Then, one night, we wound up in bed together, and let's just say that he did not act like a gay best friend usually acts. In fact, he seemed more comfortable with my body than plenty of straight men I'd dated had been. And after a hot-and-heavy weekend, I knew a lot more about Neal than "gay" had hinted at: He'd been married before (to a woman), and he was (still is) attracted to both sexes. Since his divorce he'd mostly dated men, so he'd gone with "gay" over "bi" when we met, but deep down that's what he is: bisexual. I was not entirely surprised, and I was definitely not disappointed.

However, I did have some concerns. Early in our relationship, which got super serious, super fast, I was anxious: I worried Neal would change his mind, say that he was actually truly 100 percent gay after all, and leave me for a man. (Maybe you've heard the joke? A man who says he's bisexual is gay, straight, or lying.) Another part of me worried whether a bisexual guy could ever really be monogamous. Also, didn't being with a man who was interested in men and women mean that I was competing against everyone in the world for his attention?

I just wasn't that familiar with bi guys. Bi women are practically mainstream: Megan Fox, Lady Gaga, Anna Paquin, Jessie J, and Evan Rachel Wood, to name only a few, have all spoken openly about being bisexual. When a woman says she's bi, it makes her more desirable to men. But few celeb men are out as bi—and you never see two guys making out in a bar to get women to pay attention.

Plus, I must admit I wondered whether all the stuff people say about bisexuals might actually turn out to be true—that they're untrustworthy, just going through a phase, or slutty; that they'll break your heart or give you STDs and probably cooties too.

Dating a bi guy, even one as great and as honest as Neal, was daunting to think about.

The sliding scale of sexuality explained

Understanding the basic science of bisexuality helped me a lot. Ritch Savin-Williams, professor of developmental psychology at Cornell University, who has done extensive research into arousal patterns of gay and bisexual individuals, puts it simply: "Bisexual men are attracted to both sexes. They have variations in how much they lean toward women or men." It's important to note that Savin-Williams, like most social scientists, differentiates between sexual orientation and sexual behavior. "So a guy could be attracted to 70 percent men and 30 percent women," he says, "but still meet a woman he wants to spend the rest of his life with and be monogamous. His orientation is bi, but his sexual behavior is straight." Conversely, if someone is having sex with both women and men, then he is behaviorally bisexual, regardless of what he says his orientation is.

What many women struggle with is not the fear that a guy is bi but the fear that he's temporarily bi and will eventually identify as gay. It's not a weird thing to worry about (I worried about it!), since many men have done exactly that. "Before homosexuality was as accepted as it is now," says Allen Rosenthal, a researcher at Northwestern University, "homosexual men often identified as bi in the process of coming out, like getting their feet wet. But it was a disservice to genuinely bisexual men because it left a lot of people with the impression that bi is a transitional orientation." The good news is that the reasons the bi-to-gay move used to be so prevalent—societal and family pressures, fears of being openly gay—are lessening. These days, it's more OK to be gay, and that's making it more OK to be bi. Progress!

So Could You, Should You? We asked glamour.com readers if they'd date a bi guy. The results:

__I'd have a lot of questions,

but maybe.……………………………16%

No way.………………………………..36%

Totally, why not?…………………….48%

In other words, two out of three of you would consider it. Explained one commenter: "If he's into me, he's into me. If he happens to be into guys too, well…we only have more in common!"__

Our little nonsecret

Neal assuaged my anxieties by being so enthusiastic about me that I had no reason to doubt his attraction. I was impressed by his self-awareness too. He realized he was bisexual when he was 20, and he still considers himself attracted to both sexes, at a ratio of about 80:20, women to men. My friends said he was an improvement over more macho guys I'd brought home in the past, and no one really made a big deal about the bi thing. They'd already seen him with men and with women, and we run with a pretty arty crowd. Bottom line: I was in love. As the years passed, I saw that Neal had more integrity and self-knowledge than anyone I'd ever known. And so, reader, I married him. We've been together and monogamous for 12 years, married for eight.

Neal is comfortable with his sexuality. He's "straightish," in the terminology of a gay friend of ours. But he is kind of "gayish" too. He is a performance artist, eccentric, and has—true to stereotype—better style than I do. And if I'm like, "Wow, Mike is superhot," he doesn't stare blankly but says, "Totally. Because of the way he plays guitar, right?"

Generally, we don't tell the world about Neal's orientation (well, until now!). Not everyone is as supportive as our circle, and to be honest, I have zero interest in talking with someone who thinks I'm in a sham marriage just because my guy doesn't go, "Ewww!" when Channing Tatum takes off his shirt.

There have been a few bumps along the road. Early on, Neal confessed that he had a crush on someone else. In the moment before he told me who it was, as my heart sank, I thought: Oh God, it's a man. He's gay. He's going to leave me for a man. I am a fool. How did I not see it coming? How stupid could I be?

Then he told me who it was: a woman. And we worked through it. In retrospect, I think we would have been OK even if it had been a man. In the years since, we've weathered crushes I've developed too, and a million other surprising and not-so-surprising things. I don't think we're any more open-minded than most couples—but the amount of honesty required at the beginning of our relationship has served us well.

Talk, then talk some more

So how do you make it work with a bi guy? "If I were a woman involved with a bisexual man," says Savin-Williams, "I would have very honest communication with him about what he means when he uses the term." Trust me, I asked Neal a lot of questions about what he was into and what to expect as our relationship deepened. Would he commit to monogamy? What kind of boundaries did we need to set up? Be clear about what you're asking, warns Lisa Diamond, professor of developmental psychology at the University of Utah. "The question Are you attracted to men?' is different from Would you want to have a sexual relationship with a man?'" she points out. "Many men might say, It's a hot fantasy, but not one I would act on.'" At that point the question becomes whether or not you're OK with the fantasy. On the other hand, if he says he wants more than a fantasy when it comes to men…then he might not be the guy for you.

No matter whom you're dating, part of love is taking that leap into the unknown. "The only way to be truly sure," says Barbara Hernandez, a family and marriage therapist, "is over time. It depends on the values of the person, and the strength of commitment, and whether both partners work hard at it." Good advice for any couple, even a straight-as-an-arrow one.

At some point, if you're still freaking out about whether your bi guy is really bi, you might need to acknowledge that what you're worried about is whether he's really yours. "We all need to be honest with ourselves," says Diamond. "I wonder if the underlying concern isn't the same one we always have: Does he really want me? Is he going to leave me? That's a concern as old as the hills." With Neal, I came to look at it this way: If he was choosing to be with me, then he was choosing me over all men and women everywhere. And that felt kind of awesome.

Believe it or not, Neal's sexuality doesn't come up that often in our daily lives. My failure to close drawers, his inability to throw anything away, and an ongoing disagreement on who is the more lenient parent are all topics that cause more strife than his sometimes thinking men are hot. Really, who can blame him? Men are hot, especially ones who are honest and confident. Especially ones who, even though they may be attracted to lots of people, pick you.

[heyitsbugette]

Todobug: Fallen lover.

The spotted heroine was out with her team for a regular round of patrol, finding herself just a few meters from the girls to plan the rute alongside Chat Noir. She constantly ignored his attentions, but when he took her hand trying to kiss the back, with her opposite she invoked a lucky charm out of curiosity, winning a small spray bottle with which she sprayed on his feline friend.

──── Bad Kitty! Behave! Behave!

She exclaimed, spraying her partner, watching him contract through the water as if he were a small cat taking a bath, making her laugh mockingly next to the turtle hero who stayed next to them contracting against his stomach to laugh at the blonde’s childish reactions. Lately the heroes have gotten much closer as the meetings get more and more enjoyable, sometimes taking a few breaks to chat or joke with each other.

This was one of those days, being a fairly quiet time to afford that luxury that on rare occasions they could joke around. For today the only ones who were absent were Viperion, Roi Singe, and Pegase, but soon it would be their turn on the night patrol. And while both boys were organizing to cover ground next to Ladybug, it was that both Rena Rouge and Queen Bee looked puzzled at the initial duo of heroes at the same time while Ryuko sitting on a pile of bricks next to them sharpened her sword patiently without much interest.

It wasn't until the beautiful-looking blonde snorted as she touched up her lipstick that when she uttered a word, she broke the ice, paying attention to her reflection in the portable mirror that she carried with her even in battle. And at once her lips took on a little more color, she looked out of the corner of her eye at the heroine in a fox costume, ready to start conversation.

──── And ... Are you sure these two are just friends? Huh, I'm suspecting that the Ladybug's alleged boyfriend scandal is actually fake news of that infamous Alec Cataldi guy.

The blonde wasn't exactly discreet when she looked away from her mirror to turn and look skeptically at the dynamic duo fighting childishly as they calmed down to begin their part of the patrol, both walking away with Carapace jumping from roof to roof.

Instead, the young Japanese woman who calmly held her sword, settled into her seat crossing her legs with a quick movement. For a few thoughtful moments, she rested her gaze indifferently on her mate, while resting both hands on the handle of her sword, glancing sideways at the direction in which her superiors were leaving.

──── Believe it or not, she is in a relationship with Todoroki-san, and we must respect that, Queen Bee. It is not very honorable that you speak of him like this when he is not present to defend himself.

It was her answer said with a little bit of hostility, since clearly the foreigner hated gossip and to people talking cowardly behind them back. She did not know the guy in question well enough to consider him a friend, but he had been cordial in those events in which their parents had coincided.

Of course, it was a shock to learn that he was the mysterious boy Chat Noir was constantly complaining about standing between him and “his lady”. However, she couldn't blame them for their relationship being now seen in the public eye, after how an annoying low morality TV presenter had exposed the couple without their consent, robbing them of the opportunity to reveal their relationship when they were ready. It was so unpleasant, but she remembered with satisfaction how the Ladyblogger reported such an invasion of privacy on her blog, causing so much backlash to the man.

Some karma was dealt after that.

And although her words were almost interrupted by a fox lady in a bright orange suit, far from being annoyed, she continued her own business by returning her attention to the weapon even as she paid attention to the girl who questioned her words.

──── As much as I hate the shit Cataldi pull on them, the guy don't give me good vibes... I mean he's stupidly cold even with her. It seems he doesn't even care that Ladybug is in love with him!

The fox's heroine commented annoyed, while the blonde bee buzzed with excitement, agreeing with the words of her comrade. Neither of them seemed to believe Endeavor's son as the one for Ladybug, the national angel of France.

──── I know damn right the guy is hot, I'm not blind. But he's so... Uninteresting that he loses his charm. I think we all agree that our little bug can easily get someone better, my Adrikins is dying for her and I don't blame him, I don't even know who to be jealous of.

The blonde commented in a playful tone while she fixed some strands of hair ruffled by the wind, and putting on the final touches of the lipstick with her hand mirror, she closed the end at once to cross her arms later. It was obvious that her words were anything but kind, because even when Rena agreed that her heroine should seek someone else, it was equally clear that she did not approve of being so cruel when speaking of the aspiring hero. Chloe, on the other hand, was still taking small steps to be friendlier, but the change was gradual and she didn't avoid releasing hurtful comments on rare occasions.

No one refuted anything, it was not worth it and among the three they ended up leaving finally once their rest ended, ready to resume their patrol, perhaps hopefully catching up with the rest of their teammates.

Todoroki Shoto was just leaving the Le Grand Paris, where he was staying with his family, his father apparently had work pending in Paris and they would be spending the summer outside of Japan.

He keeping silent and walking beside his older brother for as long as their paths coincided, after all he did not plan to follow him any longer; he had his own plans going. He had reserved a table in a restaurant that was close to her girlfriend's home, clearly paying with his old man's credit card with the bonus of bothering him, and of course thanks to his action he ended up earning a tremendous shout from the older one, but that did not matter, he just wanted to pamper his beloved.

──── So.. Have any plans, kid?

Asked the curious albino while chilling at the side of his brother. He and his penpal Luka Couffaine would hang out at the mall and then go to the disco store, it was clear that he wanted to see if the youngest of the family was free to accompany them.

──── I'm going out with my girlfriend once she comes back from patrolling with her team.

He answered calmly, taking out his phone when he felt it vibrate for a few seconds, surely his sister had called him to scold him for what he did with the credit card, but from seeing the angry expression on the older man's face he could say that it was worth it worth the scolding.

──── Ah? So, are you're really dating? I thought you were joking when you told us.

The college student spoke with a little laugh, noticing how his sibling looked at him confused. Suddenly the punk looking teenager gave him a discreet push with his shoulder to shut him up, an action that made him finally react.

And it was not for less, he had really been surprised to hear the albino's words, which shows with his changing facial expression. And while the double quirked teen questioned his words with his typical seriousness, it was remarkable for the man, for his slipt he keeps laughing nervously and even uncomfortably at the heterochromatic stare.

──── And… why did you think that?

──── Hey, chill... I didn't mean it like that, but you guys don't really seem like a couple. You know, you don't show it much. B-But I know you must love her a lot, of course!

Realizing how insensitive his words were, as well as how prejudiced he sounded when saying them, Natsuo ended up hiding behind a certain guitarist who shook his head gently and placed his arm between the two boys in a crude attempt at protection in what they both looked like. Instead of getting angry, the half redhead hung his head in surprise, grimacing seconds later, looking at them this time with a frown, clearly offended and annoyed.

──── Don't take it the wrong way, Shoto. You know that Natsuo can be somewhat naive and reckless, it was not his intention to offend you.

──── See you tomorrow, Couffaine…

Without saying anything else, he turns away into the flower shop, leaving behind the guys with whom he had had a bitter revelation. It was the only thing he said, annoyingly walking away in the opposite direction. Didn't they really seem like a real couple? The young man knew that he was not very expressive with his feelings, but he never thought it would be so bad. He continued his walking now without much encouragement, looking even more serious than usual if that was possible, but he was still determined to prove to himself that Natsuo was wrong. Perhaps if he made an effort to make his night with her girlfriend perfect, he could show his love for her, although it was difficult for him to show his feelings. But that did not mean that he wouldn't do his best to try.

So, he continued walking until he reached the picturesque place, entering and buying a bouquet of flowers, cheering up little by little. He left the place much calmer, even motivated, eager to meet his dear ladybug; but it was not until he heard three female voices talking about him and his lovely girfriend without any hesitation, that without being able to avoid it with strangeness he raised his face to watch the heroines speak from the roof of the building animatedly, being the blonde the loudest among the three.

Little by little he felt worse and worse with each word. Was he such a bad boyfriend? Marinette thought the same as her friends?

Once the heroines left the Japanese boy sat on one of the benches, leaving his bouquet of flowers beside him, running his hands over his hair. Maybe they were right, maybe he was giving less to the relationship than his girlfriend deserved, maybe he was throwing her into the arms of another guy with his attitude. Suddenly he felt an upset stomach just thinking about it, it wasn't a nice feeling.

At the same time his discomfort was escalating and frustrated, he bent down looking at the bouquet of roses with an unsatisfied gaze, remembering how the cat hero used to give her a flower every day during the time that his relationship with her was a secret to the public. He remembered the jealousy he repressed every time Chat Noir tried to seduce his heroine, every flirtatious and cheesy nickname said in the midst of battles, as even when she rejected him, he was still motivated to win her love.

He recalled the mistrust he had for Luka when he mentioned his feelings for a certain baker's daughter, but he quickly dispelled his insecurities when he knew that Couffaine would never try anything with her. In his words he remembered how the eldest simply said that “her melody had found her own rhapsody,” whatever that meant. It was much worse when he find out about the past feelings his Maribug used to have towards Adrien Agreste, but detesting him made him feel guilty, the boy was also too kind for his own good.

He needed advice, it was not a good sign to be so insecure or jealous. But he was just a confused teenager in his first relationship, they couldn't blame him for his inexperience.

Todoroki Shoto, Memories. A couple days ago.

During finals a certain pigtail lady had sneaked to Japan with the equine kwami’s help, of course, she missed her long-distance boyfriend as much as she knows he missed her too, and surprising her lover from behind she didn’t hesitate into hugging him sideways, laughing and playing with their noses in an soft Eskimo kiss. A couple minutes later, he took her by the waist just to give his girlfriend room to sit on his lap, while both kwamis hovered curiously around the room towards one of the hero magazines.

──── Not that it bothers me for you to come see me, actually I enjoy it, but what are you doing here?

──── I needed a break ... If I hear Lila say how she introduced you to Ladybug again, I will lose my patience, mon trésor.

With a snort the young woman let herself lean on her lover's shoulder, listening to him laugh vaguely with that unmistakable grimace on his lips, without a doubt the double quirk teen was just as entertained of the situation than he should be.

──── She's still into her fantasies? Should I be scared?

──── Not worth it.

In a mocking tone the eldest played with his beloveds’ lips, approaching to touch them tenderly just to move away when his muse deigned to reciprocate. From one moment to the next, he earned her frown, and it was when he saw her pout that he finally let himself be caught, feeling the plump and pink lips against his, sharing the cherry flavor of her usual chapstick.

When closing his eyes in duo with his sun sunshine girl, one of his hands fixed on her cheek tenderly as he passed his thumb over the blush, while in an ephemeral separation to discharge his heavy breath in a second, they again kissed again. Much more shy tan before.

──── Please come tomorrow… If not, who's going to kick my ass in Ultimate Mecha Strike?

Little could he know that his scattered thoughts made Gabriel Agreste smile with discretion, as he, after sending one of his models to their wardrobe test in the care of their star designers, was that he hung up the call by video-chat once he delegated the activities of the day to Nathalie and went calmly towards the portrait of his beloved Emilie, caressing gracefully the illustration on her lips, in a silent conversation with himself.

He would have another chance to save her.

──── Oh, disappointment and jealousy ~ Powerful feelings from the hand of the lover that will bring my victory ... Simply poetic. Get ready, Ladybug! It will be the person who has your very own heart who will bring your defeat to me. So, fly my little Akuma, and possess Endeavor's son!

Ignorant of what was happening, were his racing heartbeats and his concern about losing the girl he had fallen in love with, without notice he caught the attention of a certain villain who triumphantly prepare one of his akumas to leave outside of his lair as he walked in the direction of his butterfly window ready for send his tiny henchman in search of the tormented teenager boy whose peace was disturbed. Humming, Hawkmoth smiled poisonously, capturing in his hands the tiny being whom he filled with negative energy, and in the end commanding them with his stick for catch his target.

Earlier when news of the heroine's romance leaked, he simply didn't rush into acting. He wasn't an idiot, he knew how dangerous it was to villainize the wrong people at the wrong time, he learned it the hard way with certain failed villains. But now, it was the perfect timing for him.

The akuma fluttered from the sky until found the source of such intense negative feelings, it could feel them for miles, and when the time came it was easier to be able to catch him without being noticed. Without missing the opportunity to melt into the bouquet of roses that the brokean hearted boy held so sadly, linking without opportunity to fight in a forced communication with the most feared villain in Paris at the moment when the butterfly communicator managed to get a surprised sigh out of him.

──── Greetings, Heartstroke. I am your friend, Hawkmoth. I have felt your fear of losing the love of your heroine, as everyone sees you as an obstacle. I promise to give you the power to punish whoever dares to take her away from you, and prove them wrong... But there is something you must do for me in return.

His words were poisonous, said with false concern and artificial charisma, selling to his victim the idea that would solve their problems once and for all, but the minor's doubt internally annoyed the criminal, he hated when his victims became resistant.

──── No, I won't give you her miraculous…

──── Don't be naive, son. Every Ladybug is destined for her Black Cat. Creation and destruction cannot live without the other. I offer you the opportunity to free her from her destiny. And what do you say? Do you accept my offer?

The half albino quickly covered his ears, while biting his trembling lip closed at the same time, he closed his eyes, unable to resist the intense connection with Hawkmoth any longer. But with each spoken word he felt increasingly furious, helpless, more insecure. To Paris, he was just a busybody, someone who kept Ladybug away from her one true love, the one who truly cared about her; as with every threatening mail they insinuated that he should get away and look for someone else, that he should stop confusing Lady luck's feelings. He couldn't handle it anymore, he was only human after all, and naturally he was selfish.

Selfish for wanting a future with her.

──── It will be a pleasure, Hawkmoth.

With a simple scaling flash of light, the bicolor eyed boy’s body was enveloped until it disappeared into a new metamorphosis, a different appearance drifted away from his usual looks.

Goodbye Todoroki Shoto, let's meet Heartstroke.

[anythingbutmyname00]

solangelo + "you're trembling"?

Solageno for prompt #23: “You’re trembling.” This one was asked by two different people!! 

I’ve never written Solangelo before so be kind!! I also...haven’t read past the first half of the first Trials of Apollo book so I apologize if I get something or the dynamic wrong. I set this between Blood of Olympus and Trials of Apollo.

—

Despite his best efforts and most stubborn arguments, Nico was confined to resting at Camp Half-Blood for the foreseeable future. He had no issues with the camp itself, he actually rather liked it there.

He had an issue with how he felt when he was there. Some people are just outsiders, it happens. The thing is that they’re usually outsiders because they don’t like how being a part of things makes them feel.

Everyone wants to belong somewhere, right?

Despite himself, Nico actually loved Camp Half-Blood, and he wished he could stay.

Since the war ended, he thought he might actually have a reason to try harder this time, but Nico wasn’t one to get his hopes up.

Though, the son of the sun god made a pretty compelling argument. Nico had wondered if he might just consider-

“Nico!”

Nico snapped to attention towards his left side and saw Annabeth with a desperate look on her eyes.

“Gods, I called your name twice I said ‘do you understand what you have to do?’”

“Ye-yeah.” Nico said and shook his head a little, clearing it up.

“Yeah?” Annabeth said. She lowered her head a little and her gray eyes bore into him. He suppressed a shudder, the stare was oddly chilling.

“Yes,” he said, with much more confidence.

“Yeah Annie we got it don’t you even worry.” Connor Stoll jumped in. She glared at the nickname but he ignored it. He threw his hand on Nico’s shoulder and Nico promptly picked it up without looking and dropped it, letting it fall back to Connor’s side.

“See? We’re so in sync. I totally knew he would do that! Don’t worry about us!” Connor added, which, if anything, made Annabeth’s stare turn from commanding more towards distressing.

“Great.” She said and immediately turned to give out the next order.

Nico sighed and turned his head away from the intense blonde back towards the tree line again. He didn’t know why she was talking this so seriously anyway.

It was just capture the flag.

Apparently, Nico’s “doctor” was okay with—no, extremely vocally supportive of—his participation in capture the flag, but allowed no child of Hades demi-godly power drawing at all, much to Nico’s complaint.

Nico thought his “doctor” was a little too partial, but that was an opinion ruled irrelevant.

Somewhere in the distance, a horn blew signaling the beginning of the game.

Connor tapped Nico on the shoulder again and said “come on, we’re off.”

“Man, don’t touch me.” Nico said, but started a slow jog behind the son of Hermes in the direction of the tree-line closest to the beach.

Annabeth had strategized for two days leading up to this game. Nico had to sit through her run down at the beginning of the war games counsel as to every possible place the flag could be hiding and which was the most likely.

Zeus’ fist was overplayed. The field where the council of cloven elders met was too visible. It could’ve been at any random point in the woods—no landmark to draw the enemy to—but Annabeth doubted it, or so she told Nico and the other bored demi-gods waiting to here their strategy.

She had decided the other team would go for the far corner of the woods where there was only one possible path towards the flag. The Long Island Sound guarding one side of the flag left less ground for necessary defenders. It also would provide a pretty unmatched advantage for the captain of the other team—Percy Jackson.

Yeah, Nico had thought it was a bad idea for Chiron to captain the opposing capture the flag teams with Percy and Annabeth, but everyone else seemed to have a good laugh about it. Within days of the announcement, a betting ring had circulated camp, led by the Stoll brothers of course.

Nico didn’t participate in that either, he didn’t trust the Stolls not to pocket his money.

Outsider, right?

His and Connor’s job was to be the runners. They were to scout ahead and try and tell early on if the flag was in the aforementioned proposed area. If they had a chance, they should try for it, but most likely they were just ensuring the strategy would work as it was supposed to and no last minute adjustments needed making.

Connor was by far one of the fastest people at camp, which is clearly how he ended up with the job. Nico, on the other hand, was chosen because he could blend in and run by without people taking too much time to look, or notice for that matter.

He repeats: outsider.

Him and Connor had a nice pace going, they knew their path and they followed it easily enough. They didn’t pass many campers as they ran along, and if they did they were sure to keep their distance.

They arrived to the general area in which Annabeth suspected the flag would be located. Nico could hear the waves of sound. It was a nice day, the water sounded calm.

This is when Nico realized Connor had been talking to him.

“What?” Nico said.

Connor rolled his eyes “Dude, I said, ‘look, it’s almost too easy.’” and Nico followed where his finger pointed which was towards a little cluster of trees where the foliage was a more dense. the flag stood right in front of them. It followed the rule that the flag had to be in plain sight, but it was cleverly placed so that if you scanned the area quickly, you might just miss it.

Percy was on guard to the side closest to the Sound, for obvious reasons. There was Mark, son of Ares in the middle, and Clarisse guarding the other side farthest from the water.

Nico could hear Clarisse grumbling about something and Percy giving her shit about whatever it was. Mark looked extremely uncomfortable standing between them.

Connor and Nico made eye contact, and Connor nodded his head a few times towards the way they’d come from. He was clearly saying ‘come on! the plan! We go back!’

Nico was a little shocked at Connor’s insistence to follow the plan, but he didn’t think even he would pull some shit to screw up the plan lest he would have to face Annabeth’s wrath.

Nico held up a hand to say hold on, and then looked back towards the scene in front of them.

Percy had clearly thought two of the best fighters should be guarding the flag, but he hadn’t considered how him and Clarisse in close quarters would cause obvious distraction and arguing.

They were clearly not paying as much attention as they should be. They thought no one could get behind the flag with the Sound and the vegetation, but Nico had a way. The plant life created the perfect shadows for shadow travel.

He could easily get in and out with the flag, and then all they’d have to do is cross back over the creek.

It would save everyone a lot of trouble, and he’d be lying if he said he didn’t want to be the hero just this once.

He looked back at Connor. “I can get the flag.”

“What! are you crazy?” He jerked again in the direction back towards base. They could hear the distant sounds of a makeshift battle now as the game got more intense. “What are you gonna d-”

He looked at the flag, and then at Nico.

“Uh-oh.” he said with a smirk. “Somebody want’s to disobey doctors orders.” Nico blinked, clearly bored by the joke. “He won’t be happy.” Connor chuckled.

“Does it look like i’m concerned?” Nico asked.

It was hypothetical, but Connor responded anyway. “No,” he said “but I heard that you care a bit more than you let on am I ri-”

Nico closed his eyes and jumped into the shadow of the tree he was hiding behind before Connor could finish the sentence and “jokingly” jab him with his elbow in a “see-what-I-did-there” kind of way.

He felt the shadows mold around him, and he admits, he got a little nauseous at first—more than usual. He took his time and uprighted himself before going towards the shadows of the foliage behind the flag.

He took a step forward but his foot never connected with the ground, it kept going down as if he were, well, as if he were walking on a shadow. He “woah-ed” and pushed himself forward, unbalanced and unstable.

This was nothing like what shadow travel was supposed to be like.

Instead of gliding, Nico was dipping and spinning. He couldn’t keep his eyes trained straight towards where he wanted to jump.

Get a grip, he thought, and for a moment, he thought it worked and he’d jarred out of it. He saw the green of the trees getting clearer and thought he was almost to the flag.

Instead, what he was seeing was the ground coming quickly towards his face as he fell out the other end of the shadow he had entered. He was but maybe 6 feet closer to the flag, and unfortunately was deposited directly in front of a bickering Percy and Clarisse, whom were now standing in front of each other with Mark clearly trying to mediate a sort of peace.

Nico made to speak, but shadows swallowed him once again. He wasn’t in control of his limbs this time. In fact, he wasn’t even sure they were there. He felt like he was swimming in tar. The shadows that surrounded him were becoming ghosts now, faces bleeding out of their dark ambiguous shapes. They grabbed at Nico, and he couldn’t move or speak to stop them.

He watched them mentally grab a hold of him, and then like someone clicked the button on a TV remote, he flickered out and went black.

—

“I told him, no, I told him that this was a bad idea he doesn’t listen.”

“Give him time, he will listen now I’m sure. He will have to.”

“Gods, no that isn’t good enough, he should have understood the first time I told him.”

“Go easy on him, he is still weak.”

“Yeah, but he wouldn’t be if he just li-”

Nico groaned. He hadn’t been eavesdropping on purpose. He had gained his consciousness a moment before the ability to open his eyes.

The people who had been talking before had stopped and Nico, using so much more effort than it should have, tried to focus on who was standing at the edge of his bed.

It was Will Solace and Chiron. Nico’s mind was still really foggy, but he could make out some things. He was in the infirmary. He felt like ice cream that was left out on the counter to melt and then thrusted back into a freezer and starting to refreeze.

His eyes focused a little more. Both Will and Chiron were staring at him. Chiron didn’t look disappointed, which was a good sign. He looked more...worried. Worried for him, he guessed, but also Nico caught a slight glance at Will and then back to him. That couldn’t be good.

Nico then decided to look at Will. He still looked like walking sunshine despite the fact that he had a deep scowl on his face. Nico had never seen him look so angry. It took a lot to make Will properly angry, and Nico hadn’t found that breaking point yet, until now he guessed. His eyes blue eyes usually shone like the clear sky on a summer day. Right now, they looked like the middle of a summer heat rain. It looked unnatural. Nico looked him up and down again and noticed—

“You’re trembling.” he said. Will was shaking head to toe like someone turned a dial in him up to a level he almost couldn’t handle.

“I’ll leave you two to discuss. Glad to see you’re okay, Nico.” Chiron left the infirmary, and Nico kind of hoped he would stay seeing the way Will was looking at him.

They were alone. Nico thought maybe it’d be best if he started.

“Okay, I was stupid, I know, but I-”

“Stupid?” Will exclaimed incredulously. “You almost died, Nico. Died.” he said, his arms no longer crossed but thrown out to his sides.

“Okay,” Nico said, a little exasperated. He didn’t understand. He specialized in this sort of thing. Did he know it was stupid? Yes. But did Will reprimanding him about it help him want to follow his instructions? not at all. He opened his mouth to continue but—

“No!” Will continued “No ‘okay.’ You almost died, you don’t listen. I told you how dangerous it was. I said you needed to slow down.” He looked like he was about to start steaming. He still hadn’t stopped shaking.

“No,” Nico said. “I might have struggled a bit, but I wasn’t in any real danger I would’ve felt it.”

“Your heart stopped, Nico.” Will yelled. “For 20 seconds your heart stopped. They got you. Whatever is in the shadow realm, it got you. We did CPR and it didn’t help. We had to send Clovis in through his dream space or whatever. He had to pull you out and then we could save you.”

Nico was stunned. “My heart stopped?” He asked.

“Yes.” Will said, much more choked up and quieter this time. Nico didn’t buy that he was over being angry though.

Shouldn’t he have been able to tell his heart had stopped, even momentarily?

“How could you be so selfish?” Will said next. Nico thought the yelling was done but he almost missed it. Will being angry-sad was worse. Nico hated that he did that, but he was stubborn.

“Selfish?”

“Yes, selfish. Don’t you get it? You’re decisions don’t just affect you. Gods, if you had died...” he trailed off. “Don’t you see?”

Nico didn’t answer. He didn’t see, no. What was Will trying to say?

“Is this just a joke to you? Something to tide you over until you feel good enough to leave again, and then I’m still stuck, just, here?” The shaking had stopped. Will stood miraculously still; which was shocking for someone with both ADHD and the energy of one Will Solace.

“No.” Nico said. He wasn’t sure what else he could say. He’d been sort of seeing Will he guessed for some time. They never really talked about it though. Nico hadn’t thought this was why. He assumed that’s just how Will was. He was a go-with-the-flow sort of guy. “You’re not a joke to me.” Nico said, and then immediately cleared his throat, hoping to move a little further past that now.

“okay.” Will said, quiet as a mouse. That didn’t seem like he was pleased.

Nico sighed, “Will, look,” he said to begin with. “I know I should have listened to you. I know it was stupid. I can be a little...” He choked on the word, swallowed, and said “stubborn.’

“No kidding,” Will said, his arms once again crossed. His face set.

“I didn’t think that,” Nico thought for a second, “I didn’t think that if anything happened to me it would...matter.” It sounded like crap, he knew that, but he wasn’t kidding either.

“That’s the stupidest thing you’ve ever said to me.” Will deadpanned.

Nico raised his eyebrows and looked away, nodding a little. Will reeled himself back in a little.

“It’d matter to me a lot.” He said. “But I can’t do you not even trying to stay safe. You’ve gotta listen, Nico, really listen. You were lucky this time, but next time...”

Nico got the gist. He wouldn’t come back next time, at least yet.

“Okay.” Nico said. This time it was enough.

Will smiled, the sky in his eyes cleared and summer returned. Nico suspected they were okay again. Like he said, Will angry was unnatural, he couldn’t hold it long.

“Now,” Will said, “your doctor recommends tons of bed rest for at least a few days. Can you handle that? Or should I strap you down now and save myself the trouble?”

Nico rolled his eyes and sighed. “Whatever you say, doc.”

“Good!” Will said and climbed onto the bed with Nico. He rolled into Nico’s side. lifted up his arm, and draped it around himself.

Nico didn’t fight it but he gasped “Now, what would my doctor say about this? I don’t know, I was told to get a lot of rest...”

“Shut up.” Will said, “Human contact is good for convalescence.”

Nico didn’t argue, he wouldn't have wanted to anyway; even if he hadn’t used up his reserve of energy for the time being fighting a losing argument. He supposed some arguments were worth losing.

—

Ran a little long, lol hope you enjoyed!! I have 4 more prompts to write but I am still accepting! just know I am still in class right now and am pretty busy, so I can really only write one a night! If you submit one please be patient :) Thanks!

[btsrmono]

Trial & Error | chapter 1.

A/N: hey guys ik this is really random for my page but i got bored lol pls enjoy?? 

Main Pairing: (jimin): student/idol x (main): foreign student

Side Pairs: main x taehyung,, main x (nct) jaehyun 

CHAPTER 1

"I still can't believe you're moving."

 You sighed, leaning your head on your boyfriend's shoulder. "Don't remind me."

 It had been a month since your parents had told you about the big move and school would be starting the next week, which is when you'd be moving.

  Ryan lied his hand on your thigh as he squeezed it a bit. "I was thinking, you know," he started, "since you're moving and all... y/n, don't you think it'd be better if we--"

  You already knew where this was going. "Break up?" you finished for him. He didn't say anything, causing you to chuckle a bit. "It's alright," you told him. "I've been thinking the same thing."

 "You have?"

  You took your head off of his shoulder, looking him in the eyes. "Yeah. I mean, it only makes sense, right? What would be the purpose of staying together?" You gave him a small smile of which he returned. You and Ryan had only been together for 5 months, not really making it a big deal.

"You know I care about you, right?"

"Yes," you confirmed. "Same goes here. Just because we're 'ending this', doesn't mean we're ending us. I'll still keep in contact with you and check up here and there."

 Smiling at you, he stuck his pinky finger out. "Promise?"

 You quickly interlocked your pinky with his. "Promise."

                                                              ~~

  Turns out, saying your goodbyes to your friends wasn't the hard part. You already knew this was going to be a problem but you had been in Korea for over two hours and still had yet to find someone that spoke English. You guys began to settle in your apartment with the help of moving guys, and you had decided that you wanted to take a look around, maybe buy a snack.

  Little to no avail, you couldn't find many American snacks like you were expecting to, and when you did, they surely didn't taste the same. Anyway, you was trying to make your way back to your new home when you realized you didn't know where you were going. Google Maps was acting up, and you were too afraid to attempt the Korean you actually did know with local natives. Therefore, you tried to ask, using as much broken English as you could to make it simple on them. However, they weren't very helpful but at least they all seemed nice. You thought maybe if you made one more attempt, you could have hit the jackpot. "Uh, excuse me sir."

The older man stopped in his tracks and stared at you. "Uh... Yes?" He asked, sounding quite nervous.

Right then and there, just from his tone, you knew he wasn't going to be much useful. You politely smiled. "Never mind." You bowed and he went on with his day. Ugh, why were you so scared to speak Korean. You were actually pretty good at it at some point due to your childhood best friend, Shi Ah. Practically her sister, you two were around each other all the time and you easily picked up the language. It was fun because you guys would always say things about people with them right there without them knowing what you two were speaking about.

 But, unfortunately, Shi Ah had to move to China Freshman year due to a job opportunity for her journalist parents. The goodbye was extremely hard but you both eventually moved on, you becoming best friends with Mariana and Riley, her doing God knows what. You even fell out of touch so you had no idea what she’d been up to the past few years. It was sad but it quickly became your new normal.

 Anyway, you knew, eventually you were going to have to get over your fear of speaking Korean but until then, you sighed and took in the scenery surrounding you to see if anything looked familiar, but nope. You stood there, deciding that maybe it was time to call a parent. As you went to dial your moms number, you suddenly become very distracted.

"Lost?" you heard a voice say.

You looked up from your phone to the girl that now stood in front of you. "You speak English?" you stupidly asked. The girl laughed. "I'm sorry," you apologized, realizing how rude you probably sounded.

"Don't be, it's understandable. What can I help you with though?" The girl was really pretty. She had perfect skin with long blonde hair and bangs that made her wide eyes stand out.

You let out a breath, looking down at your phone. "I need help getting back home."

She giggled. "Already? Come on." She then proceed to walk ahead of you as you, confusingly, followed.

"But wait, you haven't even asked where I live."

"Its alright, we're in the same neighborhood. I saw you earlier," she explained. It then made sense. However, you had not seen her. The girl was gorgeous, you must admit, so you would have remembered seeing her.

"So we're neighbors," you stated.

"Yup."

"What's your name?"

Still walking, she looked back at you and smiled. "Jinsoul. But my English speaking friends call me Zoè. Say which ever you'd like."

You nodded, repeating her name in your head a few times. A habit you picked up in order to remember people’s names. 

"And you?" she asked.

"Y/n."

"That’s pretty," she complemented you. “It’ll be hard to forget.”

Only a short block later, you guys were back into the neighborhood. "Thank you so much," you said as you began to reach your doorstep. "I owe you." 

 After exchanging numbers, she informed you that she only lived a corner away from you and that if you ever needed anything, you could just ask.

______

 The next day, you were starting school. You walked around the corner and saw your mom in the kitchen cooking breakfast. You knew that your Dad didn't leave the house until 9 am. "Morning, Mom," you greeted her.

She turned away from the pancakes she was in the middle of making and smiled at you. "Y/n! Morning baby, are you excited for school?"

 You shrugged your shoulders while smirking as you placed your back pack on the kitchen island table. "I guess. I don't really know what to expect though."

"Well if there's any advice I can give you, it's : Don't stress. Seriously, it'll make everything go wrong."

Instead of a reply, you sighed, still feeling sleepy. "Why are you up so early?" you asked her.

She then proceeded back to making the pancakes. "For you."

"Oh no, you didn't need to do that, Mom. I'm about to leave out."

She looked at you with a confused expression on her face. "Well then what are you going to eat?"

"There's a store around the block, I was just gonna grab a quick snack and head to the school early."

"Early?" she wondered.

You shook your head. "Yup. Want to get my schedule 100 percent accurate and get a mini tour of the building before it gets too crowded." Your mom kind of smirked, looking at you from the side of her eyes. You giggled. "What?"

She shrugged her shoulders. "Nothing, it's just nice seeing you be responsible and positive on the first day. I know you didn't exactly picture your senior year to go this way but I just want you to make the best of it and I think you're off to a good start so far, sweetie."

You smiled. She was right, you guess. You did feel very out of place but not in a bad way exactly. You'd rather be home but you weren’t. You were in Seoul, South Korea and what would you be able to do about it? Nothing. So why not do what you can and make it a good experience rather than a negative?

She then turned the stove off and fully looked at you. "Get going. Have a nice day of school!"

As soon as you left the apartment building, you saw the girl from the day before walking in your direction. She beamed widely at your appearance. "Y/n!" she yelled.

You gave her a gentle smile, waiting for her to catch up with you. Once she did, you both continued walking together. "You look nice for your first day."

"Thanks, you look nice too!"

You started to think that she was also going to the store. So you both walked in silence for a little bit until you arrived there. The bell dinged on the door as she opened it. The older cashier man looked at you strangely. She noticed this. "Don't mind him," she said. "He does this to everyone."

You shook your head understandingly. "Okay."

She went over to the fridge section and grabbed banana milk, as did you, then a pack of peanuts and you went up to pay for your stuff while she was still looking. Once she was done, you two stepped back out into the hot heat. Only a few moments later, a group of three good looking guys showed up, talking amongst themselves as they headed to school as well in their uniforms. This made you believe you were getting closer to the bus stop.

On the side of you, you heard Jinsoul let out a slight laugh, making you turn to her. She was looking at the boys. Next thing you knew, they were looking back at her and walking over towards you guys. "A-are they coming over here?" you stuttered.

"Looks like it," she replied cooley, a small smirk glued to her face.

You quickly gave your hair a little fix as you both suddenly stopped walking, waiting for the boys to join.

"Yah, Jinsoul!", one of them said. He continued to speak in Korean as you zoned out, worried about if they would try to speak to you too. Sooner or later, you heard your name being said by Jinsoul and the boys all kind of glanced your way, throwing you off track. 

They eventually turned their attention back to Jinsoul, continuing their conversation. All except the one boy, whom was the most adorable of them all. He blankly stared at you, his eyes even squinting a bit.

You shifted one foot to the other as you looked down at the pavement, slightly uncomfortable with this. You then heard him laugh and when you looked back up, he was smiling at you. You nervously smiled back before he finally went back to paying attention to Jinsoul. They spoke in some more Korean.

After a good minute or two passed, you heard them saying goodbye, the cutest one being the only one to wave at you. Once they were out of ear shot, you turned to Jinsoul. "Uh, Jinsoul?"

"Hm?" she wondered, nonchalantly.

"Who were they?"

She laughed loudly before covering her mouth quickly. "Really?" she asked. "You really don't know who they are?"

Of course you didn't know who they were, why was she expecting you to? You tilted your head slightly. "I mean, I'm not from here," you explained.

"True." She began to walk again, you following. "They're all idols."

"Idols?" you wondered. "As in?"

"As in 'famous', y/n."

 You slightly hesitated, letting this new profound information soak into your brain. "Famous as in?"

"They sing. Dance. Rap. They're idols. K-pop idols."

You knew of K-pop, you looked it up upon arriving to Seoul but were no expert at it and of course the only people you ever even slightly heard of were Psy, Exo and Got7. Other than that, you were completely ignorant to the Korean pop industry. "Are they all in the same group?"

She shrugged her shoulders. "Two of them are. The other one, aka, my friend, is still a trainee, which means he hasn't debuted yet but he's training to."

"Interesting." You walked a few more seconds in silence until you absolutely had to ask their names. Specifically for the one guy.

She deviously smiled, already knowing what was up your sleeve. "I see what you're doing," she stated. "But if you insist. My friend's name is Bae Joon Young. We call him Jacob. The other one is Kim Taehyung and the one that you seem interested in is Park Jimin."

"Jimin," you repeated. "But wait. If they're all famous, why were they in uniform to go to school?"

"Because they have to," she told you. "They all made an agreement that if they ever dropped out of school, they are eligible to be dropped from their company. Plus Taehyung and Jimin just debuted so they have to listen to their company right now. It's a pretty logical idea if I do say so myself."

You guys finally arrived at the bus stop and she explained to you what you would do after being released at the first stop. You both went to different schools. While you went to a Foreign school, she attended a performing arts school with a ton of other inspiring and/or famous people.

Of course you saw the boys again at the bus stop but they did not bother you guys this time, instead, they met up with their other friends that were also at the bus stop. The bus eventually pulled up around 7:30am and everyone got on board. Since both schools were basically right across from each other, all students got off at the same spot too. The only difference is that you and about two other students had to walk an extra block before actually getting to the International school. Once you finally arrived there, you took a deep breath and headed inside.

A/N: Bruh, I’m sorry this chapter was so BORING but it was the 1st. It should get a lil more interesting moving forward since we got most introductions out of the way. More Jimin to come next chapter! 

ALSO: I’ll be putting a gif of a main character each chapter at the end! For this chapter, we have Jinsoul, the friendly neighbor and school bus buddy! 

STAY TUNED

PART 2

[ncitycafe-blog]

word count: 2.3k

—

it was late, about 10 pm, but you were in a relatively safe part of downtown so you felt safe walking alone, and your apartment wasn't too terribly far. shops were closing one by one, most of your light came from the amber glow of the street lamps with the occasional fluorescent hue from still open convenience stores and office buildings. you were stopped at a light and took time to admire what was around you. there was something so peaceful about the night, you almost got lost in it. up until there was a grip on your elbow, it was gentle but it was so sudden you almost let out a scream.

"babe, sorry!" you looked up a man with slightly longer brown locks. one, mind you, you did not recognize, "i had to close tonight and it took a little longer than usual, i should've texted you to wait inside."

does he have you mistaken for someone else? just as you are about to politely tell him you have no clue what he is on about, he leans down and whispers in your ear.

"if you slyly look over your right shoulder, you'll see a shady looking man. he's been following you for a few blocks now."

you look and, sure enough, you make eye contact with a guy wearing all black and he quickly averts his gaze to look away from you. either way, you had two choices: take the chance of the prince-like stranger being a complete lunatic or take the chance of the guy behind you blitz attacking you the moment he had the opportunity. you took your chances with your knight in shining armor or...nice suit rather.

"it's okay!" you reply cheerily, playing along with the ruse he started, "wanna grab something at the diner before we get home?"

"yeah, sounds great!"

with that, he grabs hold of your hand and the light gives you the go ahead to walk. the guy still follows you two, but now from across the street where he every so often sneaks a quick glance. luckily, he seems to continue walking once you step inside the diner.

"so," you start after the both of you order milkshakes and he gets a burger, "to whom is it i owe thanks for my rescue. and, just to let you know, i carry pepper spray and a pocket knife at all times. that is both a threat and me telling you i could have handled it."

he chuckles, resting his chin on the palm of his hand, "johnny seo."

your blood runs cold at that moment. johnny seo? infamous mafia member under Nterprises? maybe you should have taken your chances with the shady guy.

"don't look so afraid, darling," he says, leaning back against the booth seat. "could never harm a pretty face like yours."

he winks at you, sending a chill down your spine and warmth up to your cheeks.

"well...uh, thank you," you stammer quietly. "isn't it dangerous that i've...y'know...seen your face? for you, that is, because...y'know..."

"hmm, not unless you're confessing right now to having the intention of turning me in, but you seem smarter than that," he shrugs.

your waiter walks up, setting your orders and mumbling a "enjoy" before skittering off. johnny pays no attention to the odd behavior as he dips a fry into his milkshake and then proceeds to eat it, earning an odd look from you.

"what? have you never tried it?" he asks, genuinely shocked when you shake your head. "you have to! it's really good i promise!"

he slides over the fry basket and you mirror his prior action, eyes widening upon realizing he's totally right. he smiles, seemingly pleased with himself for introducing you to one of his favorite food combinations. the two of you finish what you have in silence before he walks you the rest of the way home.

"thank you, again," you say at the lobby entrance, "and for the milkshake, too, though i wish you let me pay."

"no, no, can't let you pay for the first date. however, if you want to buy us coffee sometime..." he trails off.

"date? are you— maybe i should've maced you," you scoff under your breath.

"hey!" he pouts, "that's not very nice."

for a moment, you had forgotten he was a member of one of the most powerful gangs in korea, but that moment was gone upon catching a glimpse of the handgun in his waistband.

"well, better get going!" you laughed nervously, trying to reach the safety of your apartment soon as possible. only, he catches your wrist just as you turn away, whispering lowly in a tone much darker than the one he spoke in all night.

"seriously, i advise you not to try anything, it wouldn't be pretty and i don't look forward to what would have to be done."

with that, he disappears into the shadows of the night, leaving you in the cold embrace of the wind and the moon as your witness. did this make you an accomplice to the mafia? maybe if you just never saw him again, you could pretend it all happened in the first place. head spinning, you finally stepped into your building and made your way up to your room, crashing as soon as your body hit the mattress.

and you didn't see him...for a couple of weeks. but one night, he showed up at your doorstep. how he got through lobby security? you haven't a clue, but he surely was insistent as he brushed passed you, into YOUR home.

"shit, well, come on in i guess," you mumble.

"the night we met," he ignores your remark, annoying you further, "did you notice anything strange?"

"afraid you're going to have to be more specific than that. what kind of strange? two men casually following me strange? handgun on one of said men strange?"

"can you be serious for two seconds?" he pleads, "did you see anyone else suspicious?"

you sigh, taking a moment to actually think, "um, the waiter acted a bit odd. scared, i guess?"

"what did he look like?" he asks firmly.

"jesus fuck i don't kn—"

"well, remember." his tone sounds bitter, harsh.

"woah, attitude much?"

"sorry, sorry," he takes a deep breath and runs a hand through his hair. "i think someone saw us, me, that night."

"why do you think that?" now you're concerned.

he doesn't answer, just hands you an envelope. inside, there are photos of you two walking, sitting in the diner, outside your apartment complex. you can't quite grasp what this all means, but you don't like it one bit.

"i— johnny?" your voice wavers. "w-what does this... am i..."

he nods, "pack a bag, believe it or not you're safer with us for the time being, until we find out who did this."

"us?" you ask, rhetorically.

he nods again, waving you off to go pack as he sits on your couch, placing his head in his hands.

and that's how you wound up under the unexpected protection of Nterprises.

a few months passed, all leads leading to nothing but dead ends. you grew numb to it after awhile, but johnny was frustrated as when the hunt began. a bounty on his head? fine. a bounty on you? it tore him apart. there were times you found him silently weeping alone in the middle of the night when you'd gotten up for any reason, and every time, your heart ached. he blamed himself. sure, from some standpoint he could be held accountable, but this isn't what he wanted. it was just the wrong place at the wrong time.

you had learned more about the "business" whilst living under headquarter's roof, it was only natural. the first night you'd come in everyone was attentive and tried their best to...make you feel welcome. it was the least they could do, and there was no point in wasting time pretending you didn't exist. they knew you would be around for quite some time. Nterprises was built under the lee clan decades ago, and had held steady ever since. taeyong is head of the business, he's the one who really briefed you on everything. he made it very clear they didn't go around killing people as they so please, they hardly did any killing at all. to them, it was all about money, which did set your mind at ease a slight bit. he was surprisingly nurturing, not just to the other members but to you as well, much more so than you ever could have expected. he was one of the ones you saw more often, along with mark and haechan, and johnny of course. doyoung, taeyong's second in command, appeared as cold and indifferent to you, but taeyong assured you he would have your back if the time came. the others were always either busy behind closed doors or away on what mark simply put as "business trips", so you didn't have much interaction with them. you made the best of your time, there was no point to spend it wallowing.

you spent so much time with johnny, you two naturally became insanely close. in the rare times you could forget about the world around you, you would did anything normal friends would. cook and make a mess in the kitchen (much to taeyong's discontent), watch movies, act a damn fool, talk about anything and everything under the sun. he was incredibly goofy, having the boyish charm of a young child. however, he was also the most genuine and caring soul you'd ever met. he was deep thinking and seemed to always appreciate the finer things in life. there was a light in his eyes that never seemed to burn out.

one night, around 2 am, you are woken up by a clatter in the main room. you open your door, taeyong and yuta, one of the other members, run by you in a flash. you follow suit, gasping and tears welling up in your eyes at the sight in front of you. johnny is torn to shreds, scratches covering his face and a couple of deeper wounds on his biceps, probably a broken rib as you examine the way he clutches his side as he writhes on the floor in pain. you push passed the boys, kneeling down beside him.

"what happened? who did this? johnny, oh my god, we need to get you to a hos—"

"nakamoto," he says bitterly through gritted teeth, "your men wish you farewell, i sent them your regards."

you turn around, confused. taeyong has his gun drawn and pointed at yuta, who has a shit eating grin on his face.

"tsk, tsk," he mocks, "too clever for your own good. you really weren't supposed to make it back here tonight, what a shame."

"enough!" taeyong shouts, and it echoes throughout the room.

"yeah, yeah," yuta dismisses him as he puts his hands on his head, "do what you must, i took the risk. besides, i've transferred enough information, i'm really the least of your problems.

taeyong walks him deeper into the house, disappearing into its shadows. you turn back to johnny, tears in your eyes.

"c'mon, w-we have to get you to a hospital," you choke through tears. "doyoung! doyoung, g-get the car he's—"

"he's seen worse," mark says, barely audible above a whisper.

"the kid's right," doyoung sighs, "and we just can't risk that right now. let's get him upstairs and patch him up, we have enough in first aid, patch him up and he'll be okay. as long as he actually rests."

johnny? resting? you would have laughed if not for the circumstances. but you get him upstairs with the help of mark and doyoung, washing your hands and wiping your tears as he sits against the wall of the bathroom, and you begin treating his wounds the best you can. it's silent for awhile, but you finally manage to clear the lump in your throat so you can speak.

"sometimes," you start softly, "i sit in bed and wonder what would happen if things were different."

"what do you mean?" he questions, wincing as you wrap the gashes on his arm.

"what if we met under different circumstances? what if we'd met like in one of those cheesy romance movies, and we'd fallen in love so seemingly oblivious to the cruelties of the world?" you laugh halfheartedly. "or, what if we never met at all? then, neither of us would be here in this moment right now. you wouldn't be hurt, i would just be in my apartment alone probably watching some stupid series on netflix to pass the time alone. and that's just it, i would rather have this than have nothing at all, than not having you. and maybe that's what being in love is, being willing to face anything so long as you have what is most important to you."

the room falls silent again, and you attentively continue to treat his wounds. you feel dumb, like you just made something really awkward out of the situation. you were so overwhelmed that it all just came out without even thinking of what he—

"marry me," he says tenderly, looking into your eyes.

"w-what?"

"i said," he carefully lifts up one of his hands to cup your cheek, "marry me. maybe not now, maybe not this year, but someday."

“someday," you smile, just before placing your lips gently on his.

"i told you!" you hear haechan snickering outside the door.

"children! go to bed!" johnny jokes sternly.

and you both giggle, still sitting there on the bathroom floor as you hear the sound of footsteps fleeing down the hall.

[kunt-dracula]

If I Were In ‘Vikings’ Headcanon~ Part 1??🤔

║Okay so I’m not as caught up on Vikings as I used to be. I might watch every few episodes and that’s if I watch it at all. Some of it’s because school is back in session and I’m at school 3 times a week from 8am to 8pm because I also work on my campus. The other reason is because my sister is getting her home renovated and so her and her 4 kids (whom are all under the age of 7) are living with me so my tvs are playing cartoons 24/7.

What I’m getting at is, if it’s inaccurate or seems highly unlikely due to events or character personality, I don’t know😂😂 but I wanted to try it so I am.║

Also

There will be quite a few changes to the storyline of the show. To simply put it, my baby Ragnar ain't dead and him and his kids get along just fine.🤣

➖

(Cartoon-ishly edited just for the occasion🤣👍🏾)

𝒦𝒾𝓎𝒶𝓉 (ky-yaht)

/I didn’t feel that my own name (Raine) would make a suitable ancient Egyptian name/

(My Attire during my teen years in Egypt)

⚜️Daughter of Pharoah Wahkare Khety III and Hetepheres.

⚜️ I didn’t have much a relationship with my mother due to the fact that she died merely a few years after my birth.

⚜️My father did what he could, but he wouldn’t stay around me much due to how much my physical likeness to my mother pained him.

⚜️I ended up spending more time with a caretaker that was assigned to me.

⚜️Around the time I was 12, he had wed another; a priestess named Ioja.

⚜️Soon after her crowning, it became sure to me what her true intentions were. Getting my father to be devoted to her and only her.

⚜️It started with her cutting into our conversations, arranging outings without telling me and making sure I had no knowledge of them at all.

⚜️When that ceased to work, she began spewing lies to my father about my ‘promiscuous’ behavior with male servants and even a few peasants.

⚜️Although I deny the allegations, it's clear to me that he's taking her side over my own.

⚜️After years of nonstop arguing between me and his wife, my father's breaking point was reached when he came upon a set of highly venomous snakes tangled within his bead sheets when he awoke one morning.

⚜️To make matters worse, each snake had a bracelet of mine he had gifted me around its body.

⚜️I was undoubtedly framed by Ioja who then tried to convince my father that I should be executed—in turn, I pointed the finger at her and made the same suggestion.

⚜️Frustrated and unsure, he had us fight one another and the defeated’s fate will be sealed.

⚜️Unfortunately, the odds were not in my favor and I was overpowered.

⚜️Not having the will not heart to slaughter me, he went against his own word and had me exiled—which didn't seem to effect Ioja at all since she had gotten what she wanted still, me out of the hierarchy.

⚜️Seemingly filled with guilt my father offered me an abundance of gifts before my departure.

⚜️I kept my clothing and jewelry and was given more, a fairly large amount of money. And him being disturbed with the idea of me being alone—the female servant that I was closest to was sent to travel with me wherever I settled.

⚜️Opwet—my older companion— had gotten me out of my funk, telling me that she was a firm believer in the concept that everything happens for a reason. [I picture her as a slightly younger Cicely Tyson😄]

⚜️Not sure of where to go, Opwet made the statement that she had not been to her birth village in decades.

⚜️My curiosity and ache for a change of scenery was all the push I needed for us to migrate to Kairouan.

⚜️Once we were settled in a home for the both of us, I had asked Opwet about her history. That was when she informed me that in her younger years she was the best healer in Egypt which led to her working for my family and then she was converted by my selfish father to be a caretaker for my mother during her pregnancy and then me.

⚜️I almost instantly asked her to teach me how to be a healer. It was always something I had wanted to do but was denied because of the written fate that my title held. But now that I was no longer royalty, what was to stop me from fulfilling my desires.

⚜️It wasn't easy. Far from it actually. There were a lot of specific procedures, rituals, and concoctions that went along with the role. It wasn't until I turned 21 that I finally got it down.

⚜️By the age of 26, I was a very well known healer throughout the city. The entrance to my home quickly became a revolving door to patients.

⚜️While caring for a pregnant woman who had been weak from it, Opwet was left with the woman while I went out to a fruit stand to purchase more mangoes. [The all natural prenatal vitamin.]

⚜️While at the stand my love for pineapples hit me and I began piling them in my arm.

⚜️One rolled off my arms and tubbles to the ground.

⚜️Contemplating just how I was going to pick it up with my arms full, someone beat me to it.

⚜️Of course, the first thing I noticed was the large pale hand holding the pineapple outstretched towards me.

⚜️The owner was a tall man. Very attractive. A great deal older than me, judging by the white strands of hair peppered his beard. Lips stretched in a crooked smile showcasing teeth that matched his skin, but what really hooked my attention were his almost glowing blue eyes.

⚜️He was someone I had never seen before but judging by his appearance he was no doubt one of the Vikings that word had circulated about through the city.

⚜️ ”Þakka þér fyrir, Viking.” {Thank you, Viking.} I say, shocking him. His shocked expression pulled a smile from me.

⚜️ ”Þú talar tungumál þjóðar minnar?” {You speak the language of my people?}

⚜️ ”aðeins nóg til að halda einfalt samtal. Þú ert ekki sá fyrsti sem ég hef haft ánægju af að hitta.” { Only enough to hold a simple conversation. You're not the first Norseman I've had the pleasure of meeting.}

⚜️I lose my focus on what I'm doing for what had to have been at least 15 minutes. It's not until the frustrated stand owner asks if I was going to pay or not, that I snap back.

⚜️Before parting ways I tell him my name and he tells me his. Ragnar Lothbrok.

⚜️That would not be the last I’d see of Ragnar Lothbrok.

⚜️He showed up at my home to talk but Opwet wasn't having it and told him that he couldn'come in unless he needed medical attention.

⚜️Not even a day later he returned to my home with injuries he had gotten during ’sparing’ but in all honesty, they looked self-inflicted.

⚜️Not a day passed that I was rubbing him down with shea butter to heal his scars. So much that I had to start using my own personal batch that I used daily. I wasn't happy about it.

⚜️Constantly having to fight with my inner ’thot’ and thoughts while doing so.

⚜️He was fascinated and distracted by 3 things: my hair, my skin and mostly my derriere.😒

⚜️Had the nerve to ask if I was I had stolen goods hidden under my dress. 🍑

⚜️”Did you just touch my rear?”

⚜️”Sorry I thought it was—what’s the name of that large fruit? ...Watermelon yes. I simply thought it was a watermelon, especially in that green dress.”

⚜️Opwet: *eating a peach in the corner*

⚜️When it got dark, he would attempt to stay the night. Again Opwet didn't play that and she would make him leave.😆

⚜️In all, he was impressed with my skills and stated that they could really use someone like me in Kattegat and asked if I would consider going back with him. Shocked, I told him I would think about it.

⚜️It was then that he told me about himself. He was in his 50s but obviously very fit for his age being that I thought he was much younger. His son was the current king of Kattegat. A role he had given up once he got older, though he still had authority over the village.

⚜️When it was his last day in Kairouan, I couldn't help but ponder over my dilemma. Opwet only persuaded me to go. She restated her believe that everything happened for a reason and that I was being offered an opportunity that I should take.

⚜️ I did want to go but I didn't want to leave her. She wanted to stay and help the people of Kairouan and kept persuading me to leave for Kattegat to do the same for their people.

⚜️She was nearly relentless and finally got me to leave with Lothbrok. To a new world and a new beginning.

[Near the end I got lazy. I was tired, sorry. 😆

I'm not sure if this is even good or not. I was higher than the clouds when I wrote it.🚬

I'm kinda tempted to do a part 2 on when I'm actually in Kattegat but that all will depend on how y’all react to this.]