#big win for the voices in my head!! (my ocs) /j

[panther-asterisk]

[jj-babebank]

Camp Willowdale / JJ Maybank AU / PART 6

Synopsis: Camp Willowdale is buzzing with new campers. It’s Caroline Windsor’s first year as a camp counsellor after attending the camp as a camper for ten years. Little does she know that this year Willowdale Lake is going to be a little different from what she is used to it being…

Warnings: future chapters may include curse words, mentions of drugs, mentions of alcohol, mentions of sexual activities, mentions of death.

Pairings: JJ Maybank x fem OC Part 1 ; Part 2 ; Part 3 ; Part 4; Part 5 ;

Masterlist

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Part 6 -

49 days of camp left

“The thing I don’t understand is,” said JJ, taking a sip of his coffee several days later at breakfast, “How is everyone so chill about all of this?”

“Yeah, everyone except for us,” said Caroline.

“And Topper,” mumbled Sarah.

Her three friends all looked up at her, eyes wide.

“What?” she looked back at them, eyes equally as wide in confusion, “Why’d you think he’s been moping around camp, face looking like a slapped ass?”

“Sarah, why didn’t you say anything at the campfire?” Caroline asked angrily.

“Um, I did,” defended Sarah.

“Um, no you didn’t,” clapped back JJ, getting visibly annoyed.

John B nodded and mumbled quietly, “They’re right, you didn’t…”

“Not now, John B,” snapped Sarah at him, turning towards her other friends, “What do you mean I didn’t?”

“When we asked you about what Topper said, you literally said ‘oh nothing of importance, he doesn’t care about the bitch either’ and then you went back to glaring at those girls goggling at John B,” said JJ.

Sarah scoffed, “I was only glaring because they refuse to listen to me and only do whatever he says,”

“That’s beside the point, Sarah,” sighed JJ, “If you weren’t too busy doing that, perhaps you’d have mentioned that Topper doesn’t buy the whole boyfriend story either, which could mean that we’ve got an ally amongst all of these lunatics!”

“Sorry,” Sarah shrugged, “I guess I just got distracted,”

Caroline shook her head sighing, “Anyway, it’s almost 9,” she looked at JJ, “What’s on our schedule for today?”

“Funny you ask,” JJ responded, “We’ve actually got swimming until 11, which means the kids have swimming until 11 and we can just chill by the lake,” he wiggled his eyebrows, “If you know what I mean,”

In the days since camp began, the whole Madison thing had died down and since there was no new occurrences and, well, no new leads, Caroline and JJ decided to put their primary focus on their teens. They’d made a small rule that every time their schedule indicated that they’ve got an activity where their physical participation is not directly required, Caroline would sneak some whiskey in their thermoses and they would quietly drink it in secret, just to spice up their day.

So far Caroline was doing a pretty good job at hiding her crush on JJ, which was somehow becoming bigger by the day. For some reason everything that JJ did was attractive. Whether it was him running, or teaching the boys how to tie a noose, or eating (pretty messily) his food, or not to mention swimming practice when he was required to get naked – Caroline could just stare at him all day. She was somewhat happy about their newfound tradition of taking over some of their daily tasks while tipsy because the alcohol was somewhat helping her seem more confident and less shy.

Caroline tied her long brunette hair in a Dutch braid and smeared the tiniest bit of mascara on her lashes, just to seem effortlessly pretty, of course. She adjusted the straps of her swimsuit and grabbed her and JJ’s prefilled thermoses before heading out to meet the boy and their group in front of the camper’s cabin.

“There she is,” said JJ, unable to hide his excitement, “We ready to go?”

The campers all agreed and they made their way down towards the lake, where Caroline and JJ sat at one of the benches while their campers hurried into the water.

“Now, now, Teens 2,” said JJ after them, not too bothered about sounding strict, “Usually our timetable says swimming, but since we’re all grown ups here, we can all do whatever we want, as long as we don’t go too far away from me and Carrie’s eyesight, alright?”

Everyone agreed and JJ sat back down next to Caroline, who handed him his thermos.

“I’ve gotta give it to you, Maybank,” she said, taking a sip of the spicy liquor in her flask, “You’ve got a way with kids,”

JJ smiled down at her, taking a sip too, “I mean they’re hardly kids, C,” he said, “Besides, I try my best, I wouldn’t want to embarrass myself in front of you,”

That blush that Caroline was all too familiar with crept back onto her cheeks, “In front of me?” she repeated, surprised.

“Yeah,” nodded JJ as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, “I don’t see any other pretty girls around here,”

Caroline looked in the opposite direction, too shy to look at JJ, as she took another rather large sip of her drink, “JJ…”

“What? Can’t a guy give you a compliment?” he smirked, “Hey, come on now, we’re in this together, besides… your mom did say -”

Just as Caroline was about to turn towards JJ with a panicked look in her eyes, fearing what exactly her mom had said to him, two of their campers began screaming their names, diverting both of their attentions.

“Carrie! JJ! You’ve gotta come see this!”

JJ shot up, helping Caroline up as well, as they ran towards the dock. Bobby and Eli, the two campers who had called out for them, were hastily swimming back to shore.

“What is it?” Caroline asked, worry filling up her nerves.

“We found something dope!” said Eli, reaching the dock, “But we can’t reach it without you guys’ help,”

“What did you find?” asked JJ.

“That,” Bobby pointed in the direction they’d just swam from. There, a good distance away, in the middle of the body of water, stood an abandoned-looking stilt house.

“The old lake house,” JJ and Caroline said in unison.

“That’s just an old building, it’s been there forever and there’s literally nothing in it,” explained JJ, his nerves calming down after the initial jump scare, “Trust me, we’ve looked,”

Bobby rolled his eyes, “Oh, come on, you can’t be serious,” he moaned, “That place looks wicked!”

“Yeah, if you watch a lot of horror movies,” said Caroline, “JJ’s right, there’s nothing in there. I’ve been numerous times, it looks way cooler in your imagination, believe me. Reality is underwhelming,”

Eli crossed his arms, “If it’s so underwhelming why don’t you wanna take us there?”

JJ sighed, “Eli, taking you there would require taking the boats, which we’re not allowed to do unless it’s on our schedule, which it’s not, and if we take you there, we’d have to take everyone there, and -”

“Take everyone where?” came Jennie, another one of their campers’, voice suddenly.

“Yeah, JJ,” more campers gathered around the dock, “Where are you taking us?”

JJ and Caroline sighed in defeat as they shared a defeated look, making Bobby and Eli high five in victory.

“Change of plans, kids,” said JJ finally, giving in, “Swimming’s cancelled, looks like we’re going to be learning how to row today,”

_________________________________________________________

“You sure about this?” JJ grabbed Caroline’s hand as she was stepping off the boat and onto the back deck of the abandoned stilt house.

Caroline turned towards him and gave him a reassuring smile, “It’ll be just like the old days,” she said, her tone sounding promising.

JJ followed her onto the deck and they helped their campers tie their little boats on the deck’s cleats.

“Looks like y’all were really paying attention during our noose tying workshop,” JJ said proudly as he double-checked that all the boats were securely tied, “I’m gonna make sure to bring that up to Miss P and we might have a shot of winning at the Will-all-hail banquet,”

Caroline snorted at the name, “So tacky…”

“Come on guys, follow me and Carrie and watch your steps,” JJ signaled, catching everyone’s attention, “This place is crazy old so be careful! One wrong step and you may end up in the water,”

Carefully, the group entered the old creaky building. It was all too familiar to Caroline and JJ, the smell of mold and condensation hitting their nostrils as the single dusty dark room they had secretly lurked into numerous times as kids presented itself in front of them. Part of Caroline had always secretly wished for the old lake house to serve as a passageway to a parallel universe, or to hold some great big secret, or even to be inhabited by the not-so-friendly ghost of whoever built it back in the day, however unsurprisingly, nothing seemed out of the ordinary yet again. The room was empty, other than the numerous spider webs which decorated almost every corner and crease.

“There you go,” Caroline said, turning to leave, “Nothing to see here,”

JJ agreed, “As always, underwhelming and empty,”

“If it’s so empty,” spoke one of the campers, “then what’s that?” the teenager pointed in the direction of where there was once a door leading towards the front deck.

Everyone’s heads turned in that direction and sure enough, on one of the old nails sticking out of the door frame, was hung a piece of red fabric, barely noticeable from the inside, let alone from where the shore to camp was.

“Stand back,” said Caroline, slowly stepping forward towards the fabric. She peeped her head through the door hole cautiously, checking if there was anyone on the front deck, holding her breath as she did so. She breathed out in relief once she saw that the coast was clear and analyzed the fabric, “Hey, J, can you come over?”

JJ, half-impressed, half-paralyzed, snapped back to reality as he walked over to the girl who now looked so brave in his eyes, mentally slapping himself for not being a man and volunteering to go instead of her.

“Why does this look familiar?” Caroline said once JJ came over to piece of clothing. It turned out to be a dress.

JJ shrugged, pulling at the material and taking a sniff, “Whoever’s it is was here recently,” he said, “Smell of perfume is fresh,” he sniffed again, “And super strong,” he scrunched his nose, a look of disgust on his face.

Caroline took a sniff too, “Yeah, that smell is so familiar, but where from…” she sniffed again, closing her eyes in an attempt to figure out where she recognized the scent from.

“Probably one of the girls from your cabin,” concluded JJ, “I’d put my money on Jenna Kinley, she seems like the type to sneak around,”

Caroline smirked, “Sounds about right, she was probably up here sneaking around with Barry, I hear her talking about him all the time,” she unhooked the dress from the nail, “I’ll bring it back to her, she must think she’s lost it,”

JJ nodded and they led the campers out of the stilt house and onto shore again. Caroline tucked the dress in her bag along with her thermos and waited until after everyone’s daily activities were over to meet Sarah by the showers and tell her about her and JJ’s scandalous little discovery. Ever since they’d arrived at Camp Willowdale and had their phones taken away for the rest of the summer, the only source of news and gossip was whatever was happening around camp, and since it wasn’t all that much, every little bit of spice counted.

“So how was archery?” she asked Sarah as she folded her underwear and turned the water in her shower on.

Sarah followed in after her, not bothering on going into a neighboring shower stall. They had developed his habit of showering together about three days into camp, with Sarah seemingly having separation anxiety and insisting that “they’ve both got the same bits and pieces” and that how “any guy would be lucky to be in the position Caroline is in,”.

The blonde groaned as she squeezed some of her purple shampoo in her palm, foaming it up and working it into her hair, “Horrible,” she said, “How do you see me with a bow and arrows?”

“Do you really want me to answer that question?” teased Caroline, mirroring Sarah’s actions and washing her hair.

“Whatever, C,” Sarah rolled her eyes, “How was your swim date with your boyfriend?”

“Okay, first of all, he’s not my boyfriend,” said Caroline earning a smug look from Sarah, “And second, you’ll never guess what we found,”

“Oooh, is it the incessant lust you have for each other?” teased Sarah.

“No, it’s better,” said Caroline, ignoring her friend’s words, “We went to the old lake house and we may or may not have found what we believe to be Jenna’s dress just hanging there,” Sarah’s eyes widened at her words, “Yeah, we assume she’s sneaking around with Barry, how fucking scandalous is that?”

“Shut up!” gasped Sarah.

Caroline nodded excitedly, “Right? She’s been yapping about him nonstop and we just put two and two together,”

“Who’d have thought… little miss perfect and Barry,” scoffed Sarah, “D’you have the dress? It’ll be so embarrassing once you give it back to her, I can picture her face already,”

“You bet I do, it’s in my bag,” said Caroline, “Must’ve done the deed recently, it still reeks of her,” she scrunched her nose at the thought of the horrible smell.

Sarah raised an eyebrow, “What’re you pulling that face for? Does she smell that bad?”

Caroline shook her head, “It’s her perfume,” she explained, “Smells like what I imagine Miss P’s underwear drawer smelling like,”

Sarah scoffed, “Now you’ve got me intrigued,” she quickly rinsed her hair and body off, hurrying for her towel, “Where’d you say this dress was?”

Caroline nodded her head in the direction of her bag, “Somewhere in my bag,” she said, “But I’m being serious – you’ve been warned,”

As she continued rinsing her hair, Sarah dove her hand into Caroline’s bag, searching for the dress in question. When she finally felt it in her hand, she pulled the piece of clothing out pressing it against her nose to take a sniff. Her eyes widened in horror as realization consumed her.

“Carrie…” she mumbled not loud enough for her friend to look up, “Carrie, this isn’t Jenna’s dress,” she spoke louder.

This time, Caroline looked up at Sarah with a look of confusion in her eyes.

“The perfume you’re talking about,” said Sarah, “It’s Guerlain Shalimar, I’d recognize it anywhere,”

“Your point being…?”

“This perfume doesn’t belong to Jenna,” Sarah turned to look at Caroline, her eyes still wide in horror, “It’s Madison’s,”

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A/N: chapter 6 is upppp!! I hope you like it!! let me know what you think and if you want to be added in the tag list for future chapters, tell me!! xxx

tags: @k-k0129 ; @hayleyy-l ; @marvellover04

Part 7 here

[alpacaparkaseok]

Where you should be

Chapter 1: Prevaricate

Genre: Hobi x oc 

Warnings: this series contains stalking, blackmail, and similar stressful/fear inducing situations. Also unrequited love, which is perhaps the most terrifying of all.

Word Count: 5.6k

Prevaricate (v.) : to speak or act in an evasive way

Present Time  

There’s a reason why I’ve been working under a pseudonym for the entirety of my career at Bighit and never show up in photos that are going to be sent out on social media. There’s a reason why the very people I work for have hardly seen me.

After Bang Si-hyuk met me as a junior producer at another agency and saw that I was hardly working enough hours a week to survive, he gave me a one-time opportunity to prove myself. I would work at my agency in the mornings and then head out to the Bighit building in the evenings to meet up with Pdogg and Slow Rabbit who were more than happy to give me a shot behind the producer’s chair.

In the end, Adora was my biggest advocate. I heard her the day I was waiting for the verdict, speaking firmly with Bang PD in his office.

“If you let her go you’ll be screwing yourself over. I’ve seen her work, she’s a machine. I haven’t seen anyone like her. She’d be an asset to this team and we both know that we need that right now.”

It was the beginning of 2018 when Bang PD marched into Pdogg’s studio where I was working with him and told me the plan.

My contract at the other agency still had six years left on it, there was no way out of it. That had been Bang PD’s main concern, but when he looked at his star studded BTS and saw just how badly they needed a fresh perspective, he decided to go all in. So what did he do?

He bought out my old agency.

Naturally.

Source entertainment, the previous house of GFRIEND, still had their logo and a hand in their decisions. However with Bang Si-hyuk their new CEO they really didn’t have much of a say in my promotion.

Two and a half years later, life is pretty good. Well, besides the fact that I’m still living under a rock.

Let me explain: Source entertainment gladly sold their company to Bighit entertainment...under one condition. They didn’t want anyone to know why they were bought out in the first place. Not being able to keep a hold of a young female producer sounded pretty pitiful to them.

It just so happened that my name was starting to circulate around the different agencies around the time Bang PD took me in, and a few were out shopping for a new producer. Once word got out that I was the one behind “Navillera” things started to go downhill.

Sometimes I really feel like I can empathize with Rapunzel, locked up in her tower. At least my tower has a sweet stereo system. Equipped with a pseudonym and surrounded by speculation, I live an interesting life.

You see, nobody actually knows that I bailed Source for Bighit, although many suspect as much. When ‘trackers’ from other agencies began to snoop around for my whereabouts, Bang PD gave me a choice.

Either work so far behind the scenes that I would never see any action but would stay safe from prying eyes, or adopt a pseudonym and be alert for people showing up at my door offering me a higher salary.

There are a lot of things I wish I’d known before I began my career. However, there is one thing in particular I would have liked to known before jumping over to Bighit: cameras have never been able to capture Jung Hoseok in his full glory, and I doubt they ever will.

Mid July, 2018

“Have you eaten?”

Hoseok’s voice is muffled through my headphones, but I quickly slip them off my head and turn to see him standing in the doorway.

“Me?” As soon as I ask the question I know that it isn’t the most intelligent. The room is empty except for me.

Hoseok doesn’t tease me too much, instead stepping into my small studio that I share with a couple of other producers. “Yes, you.” Producing a giant bag of takeout, he lofts it up in the air. “You’ve been here all day and I’m pretty sure you haven’t left this room once.”

I’ve begun seeing Hoseok more frequently around the company building, he’s taken up the habit of stopping into Slow Rabbit’s studio more often during the day. We’ll make some small talk, talk about work and upcoming plans. But this? Just showing up at my small studio with food? That’s definitely never happened before. We’re not even on a first name basis.

I didn’t even know he knew where my studio was. If we’re ever in the same room together it’s either in a big staff meeting with all the producers or in Slow Rabbit’s studio.

Taking a long look between the food and my workload, I sigh and push some of my stuff away, creating a space for the food. Hoseok hollers and grabs a chair for himself, wasting no time in plopping down beside me and pulling out the cartons.

I must be staring at him like he has three heads, because he’s freezing in his tracks when he catches my eye.

“What?” He asks innocently.

I laugh lightly, hoping that he doesn't misinterpret what I say next. “I just wasn't expecting to see you, much less with food.”

“Oh,” he hesitantly passes me a carton. “Yeah, kind of weird, I know. I just thought you might like something to eat. I know how grueling work can be when you’re just starting out, and you’ve got a lot of competition here. No matter how hard it all gets you can’t forget to eat and sleep, alright?”

I nod slowly, watching as he looks utterly unfazed and begins slurping up his food. That’s when I realize that we’ll be eating together.

It’s oddly quiet in the studio that’s usually filled to the brim with music, but it’s nice. “How did you even know that I’d be in here?”

Hoseok shrugs, glancing my way. “Slow Rabbit said that you haven’t showed up for your usual lunch with him all week; I figured today would be the same.”

He talked to Dohyeong about me? Somehow that thought leaves me feeling a little off-balance.

“Thank you.”

Giving me his award winning smile, Hoseok nods. “Hobi. Just call me Hobi.”

Busying myself with my food, I nod. “Thank you, Hobi.”

“You’re welcome...” He looks at me expectantly and I realize that he’s not interested in calling me by my stage name, Sunny.

“Oh. Ha-rin.”

He nods, satisfied for the moment. Diving into his food again, he clears his throat. “Mind if I come back tomorrow?”

January 2019

Lunch with Hobi becomes the new normal. Whenever he has a free spot in his schedule he just shows up at the studio. Sometimes we have lunch around 12, other days it’s more like 8. Either way, he always sends me a text asking me if he can eat lunch in the studio, and chances are I’m still hanging around. He gives me a tentative time, and I always find a way to say yes.

I don’t think I’ve paid for lunch for six months straight. To be honest, it’s really nice. On the other hand, I feel a little guilty. Whenever I bring it up, Hobi just waves me off.

Nearly on the verge of tearing my hair out as I struggle with the title track of TXT’s debut  album, Hobi sends me a text telling me that he’s on his way over with the goods. It doesn’t take him long to show up, plopping down beside me and placing the food in front of me before I can even take my headphones off.

“I’ll order next time?” I ask tentatively. We’ve had this conversation several times already, but I can’t quite seem to win.

“Don’t worry about it,” Hobi says as he continues on in his meal. I glare at him.

“Well, I do worry about it. You don’t need to keep doing this, Hobi.”

Now he sets down his food and turns to look at me. He’s wearing a white t-shirt today, and his hair has been recently dyed with honey-brown highlights. When I first saw him in the doorway of the studio with his usual bag of food, I had to remind myself to breathe.

He looks good.

“Yes I do.” He said it so matter-of-factly that I nearly agreed with him before stopping.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I ask, a little annoyed. “I’m not some pity case that you have to foster until I make a name for myself, you know.”

As soon as I say it I gasp, covering my mouth with my hand. Hobi blinks before starting to laugh, applauding my bravado.

“Wow!” He says through his laughter. “You think that’s why I’m here?”

I just shrug, too mortified to say anything else. Heaven knows I’m too high-strung at the moment to be trusted to say anything else.

“I don’t know what’s going on in that head of yours, but you’re not a pity case. Do you feel like you’re a pity case?” Hobi turns what should have offended him into a shovel to dig around my brain a bit.

Shaking my head, I sneak a peek over at him. He’s sitting with his legs and arms crossed, looking at me intently.

“...no.”

I don’t sound that convincing, that much is clear on Hoseok’s face. Leaning forward in his chair, he looks like he’s thinking over something important but remains silent for a moment. I take the temporary silence to eat a bit more of my food, only then noticing that it’s ramyeon.

The thought of Hoseok taking some of the packets of ramyeon from the break room and sneaking down here with them makes me want to laugh and cry.

“Pdogg said you’re working on TXT’s title track. It’s your first big project here; how are you feeling?”

The question takes me off guard, and I slurp up the rest of my noodles before I respond. “Alright, I guess. It’s been a while since I had to start on a track from square one.”

A look of understanding dawn on Hoseok’s face. “That’s stressful. But that also says a lot that you’re trusted with so much.”

Shrugging, I drink the last bit of the broth before tossing my cup in the trash. “If I didn’t know any better I’d think Bang PD is trying to kill me.”

“Really?” J-hope frowns before also finishing off his ramyeon. “I could help you, if you want.”

I shake my head firmly, watching as he laughs as though he’d expected as much. “No, I need to do this on my own. I think I’m nearly there, anyways.”

“So that’s why you never leave the studio these days,” he muses.

“Exactly.”

Normally Hoseok is pretty quick in his visits; we eat and he leaves as soon as he’s finished. I’m honestly surprised that he has enough time to eat with me nearly every day. Today though, he lingers. I can tell that he’s chewing on a thought, and I turn to him, raising my eyebrows.

“Are you about to tell me I can get us food next time?”

He blinks at me, laughing. “No, not that. I know you won’t let me help you with producing; that’s fine. But will you at least let me listen to the track when you feel like it’s good enough?”

Hoseok and I are at a strange crossroads in our acquaintanceship. Are we friends yet? From the consistency of his lunches and willingness to help me, I believe we are. But then again, this feels completely unbalanced for a friendship. After all, isn’t he the one putting in all the work?

“That sounds like work, though.” I fold my arms in front of me. “You already work all the time.”

“You won’t even let me listen to it?”

Looking at him, I see how sincere he is in his intentions. Maybe that’s what makes me loosen up a bit, letting go of my insecurities just enough to let him in.

“You promise to tell me if it sucks?”

He giggles, the sound of his little laugh making me smile. “Oh, absolutely.”

Giving him a curt nod, I grab my headphones, ready to get back to work. “Ok.”

He hesitates. “Ok? That’s it?”

My chair swivels to face him, one side of my headphones off my ear so I can hear him. “That’s it. I’m kicking you out now so I can come up with a track decent enough for J-hope to listen to.”

Cackling at my behavior, he holds his hands up in surrender and makes his way out of the studio. “See you tomorrow, Rin-ah.”

I don’t hear him, my headphones firmly planted on my head. Chuckling to himself, Hoseok closes the door on his way out.

Two weeks later

“I think that one’s my favorite,” Hoseok says as he slips the headphones off. I raise my eyebrows.

“Really?”

He nods, smiling softly as he hands the headphones back to me. I put them on, immediately beginning to toggle with the track before me.

“Really. Why, do you not like it?”

I shake my head, eyes glued to the monitor. “No, it’s not that. It’s just...I think that’s the song I hated producing the most. It was by far the most challenging.”

“I can see why. But it sounds like your hard work paid off.”

I forget to breathe for a moment as he reaches out and gently removes the headphones from my head. Placing them on the desk, he crouches beside me and saves the changes I’ve made before closing down the computer.

“What are you doing?” I ask once I’ve remembered how to expand my lungs again. Hoseok straightens up, patting his thighs as though checking he has everything he needs in his pockets.

“That was the final track, right?”

I nod slowly, not catching on. “Yeah, but I’ve still got to review everything and-”

“No.” He looks serious as he shakes his head. “Not tonight. You’ve been locked up in this studio for over a month, I swear.”

Frowning, I turn my swivel chair in a slow circle, glaring at the wall and then Hoseok. “You make it sound like I never leave.”

“Well, do you? I’ve only ever seen you in a studio.”

Scoffing, I stop spinning and face him. “I go home at the end of the day! I shower! Do you really think I don’t shower?!”

Laughing, Hoseok extends a hand out to me which I stare at. My brain is completely fried.

“Sure, ok. You shower. But you leave here late and come back early. You’re finished - you’re practically finished, don’t give me that look - with the album and if you really want to review it, you can tomorrow. But I’ve listened to all the tracks and you deserve a break. Come on.”

He keeps his hand out, waiting for me to take it. Groaning, I grab my phone off the desk and take his hand. Hauling me up and out of the chair, I realize that his hand is larger than I thought it was. And warm.

“I can’t believe you’re kicking me out of my studio- it’s only 9 o’clock!” I shout as I see the time. I haven’t been out of the studio before 9 in weeks, usually opting to leave around 1 or 2 in the morning. Hoseok chuckles before me, looking at me over his shoulder until he slows down enough to walk beside me.

“When was the last time you were actually outside for longer than it takes to walk to your car?”

I shrug. “I take the bus. Can’t relate.”

“Whatever, you know what I mean.”

Squinting up at him, I curse those honey-brown highlights that are still prominent in his hair. He looks like some sort of model that got lost in the agency building, not my friend that sits with me and offers unsolicited advice.

“I don’t know…” I pout as he opens up the door and we head out into the night air. “A while?”

Laughing, he nods his head. “Yeah, I bet. Here, I’ll give you a ride.”

Stopping in my tracks, I shake my head. “No, that’s fine. I’m ok to take the bus, it stops right in front of my street and everything.”

Hoseok stops with one foot hanging off the curb, ready to head into the parking lot. He tilts his head to the side in that cute habit of his. Struggling to maintain an innocent expression, I watch as he marches back over to me.

“First off, do you consider me a friend?”

I’ve never seen Hoseok’s intense professional side before, but I can see that same tamed fire lurking behind his eyes as he draws nearer.

“I...yes?” I assume that’s the correct answer.

He nods his head before moving on to the next question. “Good. Secondly, I don’t remember saying that I’d give you a ride home. Did I?”

Blinking up at him, I shake my head. “No...but then where are we going?”

In an instant his intense gaze turns into the happy-go lucky expression I’ve come to associate with Hobi. “To celebrate! You just finished producing almost an entire album with only Pdogg for company; that’s a feat in and of itself.” He pauses, looking at me with a soft gaze. “You’re ok with that, right?”  

Once I nod Hobi jumps off the curb and leads me to his car. Where I’m expecting a sports car I’m pleased to see a normal, albeit nice, car waiting for us. Opening the door wide for me, he gives me a big smile as I reluctantly get in.

Once he buckles up and starts the car, I turn to look at him. He looks a bit worried behind the driver's seat.

“Are you ok?” I ask. He quickly nods.

“I’m fine...I just don’t tend to drive that often. It’s not my favorite.”

I can’t help but laugh a little at his concerned expression. “Right, I forgot.” He eases out of the parking lot at a slower speed than necessary, but I let it slide. “Why did you drive today?”

He shrugs. “Just felt like it. Are you hungry yet?”

I raise my eyebrows. “I think I could eat again.”

“Great,” Hobi smiles at me before returning his full attention to the road. “I think the boys ordered pizza.”

Heart dropping to my toes, I nearly smack him before I stop myself. “The boys? What are we doing?”

He’s too focused to laugh at my obvious worry, but the ghost of a smile flits across his mouth. “Well, you don’t really seem like the type to hit up clubs and stuff to celebrate, and I figured you’d be tired after everything. So we’re heading to my apartment to eat and maybe watch a movie or something.” He spares me a quick look. “Unless you’d rather go home. Really, I don’t want you to feel pressured. I can just drop you off.”

A part of me wants to shrivel up with embarrassment at the thought of hanging out with the rest of BTS tonight; I’ve only ever seen them at work. Unlike with Hobi who I see nearly every day, I’ve only seen the other boys a handful of times.

I doubt they even know my name.

The small part of me that has kept me up staring at the ceiling and replaying every moment spent with Hoseok; his warm smile and soft eyes, the way he says my name and seems so kind...that part has me smiling at the man in the driver’s seat.

“If you can get us all the way to your apartment without crashing this car, I’m down to watch a movie with you guys.”

His eyes light up with something I can’t quite catch before he’s focusing on the road again.

“Perfect. Here, can you figure out how to call Jungkook on this car phone? Tell him what kind of pizza you want.”

Hobi’s apartment can be summarized in one word: clean. When he mentioned going to his apartment, I thought he meant the apartment he shares with the other six members. Instead, we’re at his own apartment. I didn’t even realize he had one of his own.

I say as much when we pull up.

“I tend to split my time between both apartments,” he says, opening up the front door. “However, the floors are being rebuffed at the shared one. So for tonight we’ll be here.”

The smell of pizza intercepts my thoughts as I kick my shoes off and watch with no small amount of amusement the way Hobi delicately places his shoes on the rack. I make sure to follow suit, grinning as he lets out a sigh of relief when I appear to be tidy.

“Helloooo,” Hobi calls as he leads me into the dining area. Jungkook already has his mouth full of pizza when he spots me.

“Oh- mmf...Sunny!” I smile at the boy I just spoke to on the phone. I guess they remember who I am, after all. “Your pizza is...oh, Jimin’s got it.”

Sure enough, Jimin is opening up a pizza with pineapple, olives, and chicken on it. He raises his eyebrows upon seeing my strange assortment of toppings.

“And this is good?”

I laugh a little at Jimin’s attitude, surprised to see him so at home with me.

Instantly feeling more comfortable around them, I grab one of the plates sitting on the table and make my way over to the pizza. “Of course it’s good. Haven’t you ever tried it before?” Hobi follows suit, looking over the options with a sharp eye.

“Can’t say I have. Mind if I steal a piece?” When I shake my head Jimin reaches over to ease a slice out of the box. “Thanks. Also, congrats on surviving the debut album. Hoseokie hyung said you were crazy busy with it.”

My eyes widen a bit as I look to the man in question. Hoseok gives me a guilty smile before returning his attention to the pizza.

“You talk about me?”

The question leaves my lips before I can stop it, and I once again chalk it up to the lack of sleep, fresh air, nutrients, and peace of mind that I’ve been getting lately. Jungkook immediately starts laughing, nearly choking on his pizza.

Hobi shrugs, giving Jimin a brief look that details his plans for his murder. “I’ve mentioned you a couple of times. It’s been a while since we’ve had a new producer under our roof- much less one that works so hard.”

While the compliment doesn’t fail to make me blush, I also can’t get over the fact that J-hope has told Jimin and Jungkook and probably the rest of the boys about me.

“In his defense,” Yoongi says, striding into the dining room wearing a large hoodie, “we did grill him for questions when he kept skipping out on meals with us.”

“Especially when he was smuggling ramyeon out of the break room,” Jungkook adds.

I’m not sure where to look as Hoseok’s face goes bright red under the chandelier. Either way, I can’t hold in my laughter.

“I was wondering where you got all that ramyeon,” I muse. The other boys chuckle, grabbing the last few things before heading out into the living room. I wait for Hobi who’s currently staring holes into his pizza.

“You coming?”

He jumps a little at the sound of my voice, looking up at me with his mouth in a small frown before smiling. He dips his head to the side in that way he always does.

“Right behind you.”

February 2019

Things slowly begin to change. The debut album is reviewed and accepted, and suddenly I’m no longer eating in my studio with Hobi. Instead, I’m showing up at his apartment after work for dinner.

His schedule has gotten busier since mine has relaxed now that TXT is debuting in less than a month. Unfortunately I can’t just show up on set or in his studio or wherever it is he’s working for the day, so instead I begrudgingly accepted his offer of dining in at his apartment.

He’s never alone, our meals now consist of Jin usually choking on something or Yoongi making sly comments under his breath. Namjoon has only been there once, according to the rest of the boys he’s a workaholic. It doesn’t surprise me at all.

Jimin is a constant at Hobi’s apartment; apparently he’s none too happy about his roommate spending more time at a separate place. Jungkook and Taehyung usually tag along, although Jungkook has a bad habit of wandering about and leaving early.

Dohyeong has come over a couple of times as well, he made sure to make fun of me for no longer stopping in at his studio.

“You’re busy these days,” I say as I try to defend myself. “I don’t want to be a distraction.”

Dohyeong shrugs, completely ignoring the dark circles under his eyes. “We’re not too busy. And you could honestly be a big help to us, if you bothered to drop in.”

I’m in the middle of rolling my eyes when Hobi speaks up from where he sits beside me. “Actually, you really should. I was talking to Bang PD about it and-”

“You talked to Bang PD about me?” I shriek, dropping my spoon in my soup and turning my full attention to the man beside me. “Are you trying to get me fired or something? Jeez, Hobi, you’re going to give me a heart attack one of these days!”

Hobi looks like he’s not certain if he wants to run off screaming or burst into laughter at my sudden outburst. He holds up his hands in an innocent gesture. “Hey, all I did was mention the fact that you’ve been working very hard and that you show a lot of promise. If we could get you on a project of ours, it might really open up a lot of doors for you. You know, more than the occasional song.”

I stare at him, the table completely silent as I study out his face. He’s casually eating his food, keeping one eye on me as though waiting for me to start beating him up. He straightens up and grabs a bit of the meat from his soup, blowing on it before extending it out to me.

Glancing between him and the meat, I sigh before leaving forward and biting it.

Later that night, as we’re watching “Inception” and everyone is lounging about the living room, I look over to Hobi who sits between Jimin and I. The light of the movie dances across his face, leaving me a bit starstruck as I mull over his words.

I’ve worked on a few small parts of songs with the other producers for BTS before, but I’ve never headed a project for them. Granted, I’ve only been at Bighit for a short amount of time. I was thrilled to know that Bang PD wanted me to be one of TXT’s main producers. It’s a big deal, especially for someone as young as I am.

So why is Hobi trying to get me to jump onto some project for BTS?

He must sense my stare, because he’s crinkling his nose before looking over at me a moment later. I stare at him with wide eyes, caught red-handed.

Apparently the dark room doesn’t show him how red I am, because he simply looks at me and raises his eyebrows, silently asking me what I’m thinking.

Scooting in a little closer until my head is resting against the back of the couch near his shoulder, I whisper my worries to him.

“It was nice of you to mention me to Bang PD, but I don’t feel comfortable just jumping in on a project with you guys. That feels...wrong, somehow.”

He nods slowly, bringing his arm around my shoulders and giving me a comforting squeeze. “Ok...you don’t have to do anything you don’t want to. But I really think you should talk with Pdogg or Dohyeong about it. I just think we could really use your help.”

Once I agree to talk with Pdogg about it, Hobi removes his arm and focuses on the movie again. I close my eyes for a moment, fighting the pounding in my chest as I replay how it felt to be so close to him.

Just jumping in on a project with Hobi doesn’t feel right. I know he’s doing it out of friendship, but I also know myself. The world tends to open doors for people based off of who they know, and I refused to use that to my advantage a long time ago.

Looking around the room at the people I’ve begun to call friends, I wonder if I’ve inadvertently sabotaged myself before I could even begin.

♟

After the movie ends Hobi wastes no time getting up and driving me home like he usually does. It’s quiet inside the car, I lean my head against the window and watch the city lights stream past.

I hear Hobi’s intake of breath before he speaks. “Did you like the movie?”

Glancing over at him, I can’t help but smile. He’s nearly buried in his oversized sweatshirt, his nervous eyes flitting all over the road almost as though waiting for a bear to amble out in front of him.

“Yeah, it’s a good one. I’ve seen it before.”

He frowns. “You didn’t tell me that. We could’ve watched a different one, you know.”

I shake my head, eyes drifting down to where his hands clutch the steering wheel. “No, it never gets old.”

He turns onto my street, starting to let off the gas. “If you say so.” Coming to a stop before my apartment building, he turns to face me. “Hey, about earlier...I know it probably seemed really weird for me to just say that out of the blue, but-”

“Lock the doors.”

“What?”

I lean across him to lock all the doors, grabbing his arm out of fear when I see a burly man edging closer to the car. “Hobi…” I whisper, a sudden shot of fear coursing through my veins.

Hoseok catches sight of the man, who has bent over and is trying to see who’s inside the car. We’re both frozen as he comes ever closer, until he suddenly pounces at the passenger side door, making me scream.

“I see you!” He shouts, his hood dropping from his face. “I see you, you little-”

I don’t get to listen to his colorful language before Hobi throws the car into drive and takes off. I’m still clinging to him, staring out the passenger window. Blood is pounding through my veins, making me see stars even as I gasp for air.

“Do you know him?” Hobi asks, keeping his eyes glued to the road. His voice is exceptionally calm, despite the fact that I know he scares easily.

Finally detaching my hands from his arm, I rub my eyes. “I...I don’t know…?” We pass a speed limit sign, and I jump up in my seat. “Hoseok, slow down!”

He doesn't listen to me, and I swear he almost speeds up. I watch people’s faces as we speed by, a few staring after the nice car with a sneer. If it weren’t for the terror in my system I would have been making fun of Hobi. For a man so terrified of driving, he sure does know how to floor it.

Pressing a few buttons on the steering wheel, the sound of a phone ringing fills the car. A glance at the dashboard shows that Hobi’s calling one of their full-time bodyguards.

My jaw appears to be locked as I can’t even bring myself to open my mouth to ask him what’s happening.

“What’s going on?” The bodyguard, Do-yun, immediately asks. It’s rare for him to receive a call this late at night; it can only mean one thing: trouble.

“Do-yun?” Hoseok’s voice is ice-cold as he begins to deliver instructions. “I’m going to send you an address, I need you to stop by my apartment to retrieve a key and then bring some of Sunny’s items over.”

I perk up a little when he calls me Sunny. It’s the first time I’ve ever heard him refer to me by my pseudonym. The bright name coming from his lips somehow makes me feel cold.

“Yes, sir. Are you alright?”

I don’t miss Hobi’s gaze as he glances over at me with fire in his eyes. “We’re fine. See you soon.”

When we pull up outside of Hobi’s apartment again, I stare up at his darkened windows with wide eyes. He must sense my confusion, because he waits before getting out of the car. Gingerly unbuckling my seatbelt, his icy exterior melts enough for me to see to Hobi that I’ve grown close to over the past six months.

“Rin-ah,” he starts, and I instantly relax upon hearing my name from him. “Did you recognize that man?”

I immediately begin to shake my head. “I told you, I don’t...I don’t know.”

“Have you seen him before? Even just hanging around your apartment, down in the street or something.”

Looking into Hoseok’s eyes, I can see the unending depths of his patience. But there’s something more there, now. Something I’ve never seen before.

A sharp blade hides behind his eyes, one that I’ve never seen him wield. Watching how his hands curl up into fists against his jeans, I realize that I’m not sure I want to see that weapon at work.

Perhaps I’m at my limit, the memory of that man hurling himself at the car and attempting to claw his way inside too much for me to handle. Whatever it is, something pushes me to do something I immediately wish I didn’t.

Looking straight into Hoseok’s eyes, I lie.

Chapter 2

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[olivemac]

heartbeat | chapter six | b.b.

Summary | When Steve Rogers asks Kate Stark to find the Winter Soldier, she gets too involved.

Notes | Captain America: Civil War re-write, essentially. Starts just after the events of CA: Winter Soldier.

Pairing | Bucky Barnes x fem!oc, Bucky Barnes x Stark!oc

Genre | romance

Rating | explicit

Story Warnings | mild angst, fluff, romance tropes, so many romance tropes, coarse language, alcohol use, canon-typical violence, smut (m/f), oral sex (f&m receiving), 18+ ONLY

Chapter Warnings | canon-typical violence, coarse language

Citation | Russo, J., & Russo, A. (2016). Captain America: Civil War. Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures.

A/N #1 | FINALLY got this rewritten. Final chapter coming very soon, as well as a "lost scene" between chapters three and four.

A/N #2 | Feedback is encouraged! Let me know your thoughts.

master list | AO3 link

_____

prev chapter

_____

The next morning, the rest of Sam and Steve's plan comes together on the sixth level of a parking garage at the Leipzig/Halle airport. Steve pulls the car into a spot next to a grey van and gets out to greet Clint and Wanda.

"Cap," Clint says, shaking Steve's hand.

"You know I wouldn't have called if I had any other choice," Steve tells him.

"Hey man, you're doing me a favor," Clint says. "Besides, I owe a debt."

Steve looks at Wanda. "Thanks for having my back."

"It was time to get off my ass," she replies.

Kate, standing by Bucky next to the Volkswagen, nods her hello to Wanda and Clint.

"How about our other recruit?" Steve asks Clint.

"He's raring to go." Clint walks over to the van and opens the sliding back door. "Had to put a little coffee in him, but...he should be good."

The man lying across the backseat jolts up at the sound of the van door. "What time zone is this?" he asks.

"Come on. Come on," Clint says, pushing him forward.

The man shakes Steve's hand. "Captain America."

"Mr. Lang," Steve says.

"It's an honor. I'm shaking your hand too long," Scott Lang says, dropping Steve's hand. "Wow! This is awesome! Captain America." He turns to look at Wanda. "I know you, too. You're great!" When he looks back at Steve, Scott can't stop himself from feeling his broad shoulders. "Jeez," he says.

Steve looks over his shoulder at Bucky and Kate, and Kate raises her eyebrows at him in a silent question of "Who is this guy?"

"Ah, look," Scott continues, "I want to say, I know you know a lot of super people, so...thinks for thanking of me." He mixes up the words in his excitement, then turns to Sam, "Hey, man!"

"What's up, Tic Tac?" Sam greets.

"Uh, good to see you. Look, what happened last time when I..." Scott trails off.

"It was a great audition," Sam says, shaking his head, "but it'll...it'll never happen again."

"They tell you what we're up against?" Steve asks.

"Something about some...psycho-assassins?" Scott answers.

"We're outside the law on this one," Steve tells him. "So, if you come with us, you're a wanted man."

"Yeah, well, what else is new?" Scott says, shrugging.

"We should get moving," Bucky speaks up.

"We've got a chopper lined up," Clint tells Steve before a man's voice comes over the public announcement system in German.

"They're evacuating the airport," Bucky says.

"Stark," Sam says.

"Stark?" Lang questions.

Bucky looks at Kate. "You're not coming."

"Two things," she says, holding up two fingers. "First, I work for and own shares in a former weapons manufacturer started by my father. Second, I came to a foreign country as a single woman, alone, to find the Winter Soldier. Do you really think I came unprepared?"

She enters a code into the smart watch on her wrist and it transforms into a smaller version of Tony's Iron Man gauntlet, wrapping around her wrist and hand, leaving her fingers free.

"It's a repulsor," she says, pointing it at Sam.

"Nuh-uh, no," he says, holding up a finger.

"Plus, I know some self-defense," she says. "Romanoff trained me."

"So, she could probably kill us all," Clint says, smirking. Scott looks momentarily worried, and Kate winks at him.

Wanda hands Kate a duffel bag. "Thought you might want this," she says. Inside Kate finds a Stark Industries-designed tactical suit and a laptop.

"Thanks, love," Kate tells Wanda.

When she turns back to Bucky, he's staring at her. "What?" she asks.

"Nothing," he says, shaking his head, but his smile is wider than she's seen it in a while.

_____

While the rest of the team spreads out across the airport, Kate hangs back in a terminal, trying to hack into Tony's Iron Man suit. It's a long shot, but she wrote some of the code for FRIDAY so she thinks she might be able to shut down a few functions.

"Sir, Miss Stark is attempting take us offline," FRIDAY informs Tony.

"Shut her out," Tony says. "And remind me to ground her when this is over."

In the terminal, Kate's screen flashes the message "Nice try, sis" before going black. She slams the laptop closed.

"Fuck," she exclaims.

"We found it," Sam comes in over the comms. "Their Quinjet's in hangar five, north runway."

"I'm closest," Kate says.

"You know how to fly that thing, doll?" Bucky asks.

She smirks even though he can't see her. "There's a lot you don't know about me, Sergeant Barnes," she says, her voice heavy with innuendo.

Sam groans, "Please stop."

_____

With what's left of the Avenger's distracted by Steve's team, Kate is able to make her way to hangar five without any incident. She ascends the Quinjet's ramp and preps for flight.

"I'm in," she says over the comms.

"We're almost to you," Steve tells her.

From outside the Quinjet, Kate hears Natasha shout, "Get out of the jet, Katie."

She stands at the top of the ramp, not descending. "You know I can't do that, Nat," she says, shaking her head.

"Is he really worth all of this?" Nat asks.

Kate doesn't hesitate before answering. "Yes."

Near the entrance of the hangar, a control tower collapses. Steve and Bucky come running through the debris. Nat stands between them and the Quinjet.

"You're not going to stop," she says to Steve. It's not a question.

Steve shakes his head. "You know I can't."

Nat sighs, "I'm going to regret this." She lifts her wrist and fires an electric charge from her Black Widow's Bite, stunning T'Challa who stands behind Steve, ready to avenge his father’s death in the UN bombing.

"Go," Nat says.

Steve and Bucky join Kate on the Quinjet. "Glad you could make it," she says as Steve slides into the pilot's seat.

_____

Bucky and Kate sit behind Steve in the Quinjet, not speaking. Bucky's mind is a jumble of questions he wants to ask them both. He starts with Steve.

"What's going to happen to your friends?" Bucky asks.

Steve sighs and shakes his head. "Whatever it is...I'll deal with it."

Bucky stares straight ahead. "I don't know if I'm worth all this, Steve."

Steve glances at Bucky. "What you did all those years...it wasn't you. You didn't have a choice."

"I know," Bucky says, then looks at Steve, "but I did it."

Kate bites her bottom lip and stays silent.

_____

Somewhere outside of Moscow’s airspace, Kate's phone dings. She pulls up an encrypted email from Tony.

"Steve, you need to see this," she says.

She opens a file detailing who the doctor in Berlin really was: Colonel Helmut Zemo. Steve studies the information, his mouth set in a hard line.

"Who the hell is this guy?" Kate asks.

"He's Sokovian," Steve finally says, and Kate can see in his eyes that he's still haunted by what happened in the small country.

"At least Tony knows the truth now," she says.

Steve only nods.

_____

Steve brings the Quinjet to land in the snow on a remote mountain top and kills the engine. Kate pulls out a rack of guns labeled 'Romanoff' and hands Bucky a machine gun. She takes a pistol for herself from a cabinet above and places it in her thigh holster. She can feel Bucky's questioning eyes on her again.

"Tony used to take me shooting every year for my birthday," she says.

"You sure about this?" he asks. She knows what he's asking, if she's sure about risking her life for him, choosing him over Tony.

"Always," she says, and she kisses him on the cheek before sliding another pistol into the back of her belt.

She moves to stand behind Bucky and Steve as the exit ramp of the jet descends.

Steve turns to Bucky and asks, "You remember that time we had to ride back from Rockaway Beach in the back of that freezer truck?"

"Was that the time we used our train money to buy hot dogs?" Bucky asks, smiling.

"You blew three bucks trying to win that stuffed bear for a redhead," Steve says.

"What was her name again?" Bucky asks.

"Dolores. You called her Dot."

"Should I be jealous?" Kate chimes in.

Bucky smiles again. "She's got to be a hundred years old right now."

"So are we, pal," Steve says, clapping him on the back.

Kate follows closely behind Steve and Bucky as they enter the bunker. On a lower level, a loud thud catches their attention, and they all turn as a set of double doors are forced apart by Tony in his Iron Man suit.

He steps forward and retracts his helmet.

"So, you're done being a jackass?" Kate asks, lowering her weapon slightly.

"You seem a little defensive," Tony says. Steve takes a few steps toward him without lowering his shield. Behind him, Bucky keeps his gun aimed at Tony.

"It's been a long day," Steve says.

"At ease, Soldier," Tony says to Bucky. "I'm not currently after you."

"So, why are you here?" Steve asks. He wants to hear Tony admit he was wrong.

"Could be your story's not so crazy," Tony says. "Maybe. Ross has no idea I'm here. I'd like to keep it that way. Otherwise, I got to arrest myself."

"Well, that sounds like a lot of paperwork," Steve replies, lowering his shield. "It's good to see you, Tony."

"You too, Cap," Tony says, then he turns at Kate. "Katie."

"Big brother," Kate says.

Tony looks at Bucky. "Hey, Manchurian Candidate," he says, "You're killing me. There's a truce here. You can drop..."

Steve indicates to Bucky that he can lower his weapon and he does.

The four of them continue through the bunker, with Bucky keeping Kate between himself and Steve. Tony, with his helmet reengaged, leads the group into a large chamber holding several cryo capsules.

"I've got heat signatures," he says.

"How many?" Steve asks.

Tony hesitates. "Uh, one."

As they enter, the lights come on and the cryo capsules fill with a hazy, yellow mist. They can see that the capsules contain the other super soldiers. Kate catches Bucky's eye and they share a bewildered look.

A voice comes over an intercom system. "If it's any comfort, they died in their sleep," Zemo says. "Did you really think I wanted more of you?"

As they draw closer, they can see that each soldier has been shot in the head.

"What the hell?" Bucky mutters.

"I'm grateful to them, though," Zemo continues. "They brought you here."

A light in a control room at the back of the chamber comes on, illuminating Zemo's face. Steve hurls his shield toward the small window, but it flies back.

"Please, Captain," Zemo says, "The Soviets built this chamber to withstand the launch blast of UR-100 rockets."

"I'm betting I could beat that," Tony says.

"Oh, I'm sure you could, Mr. Stark. Given time. But then you'd never know why you came."

"You killed innocent people in Vienna just to bring us here?" Steve asks, making his way to the door that separates Zemo from the rest of them.

"I thought about nothing else for over a year. I studied you. I followed you. But now that you're standing here, I just realized," Zemo pauses, "...there's a bit of green in the blue of your eyes." He chuckles. "How nice to find a flaw."

"You're Sokovian," Steve says. "Is that what this is about?"

"Sokovia was a failed state long before you blew it to hell. No," Zemo shakes his head. "I'm here because I made a promise."

"You lost someone?"

Zemo clicks his tongue. "I lost everyone. And so will you."

A small screen to Steve's left comes to life.

"An empire toppled by its enemies can rise again," Zemo continues. "But one which crumbles from within? That's dead. Forever."

Tony steps up to the screen, his helmet retracted, and studies the grainy security footage of a secluded road.

"I know that road," he says. He turns to Zemo, "What is this?"

Kate steps up behind him. "It's...." she starts but doesn't finish. She can't pull her eyes away from the date at the bottom of the screen: December 16, 1991.

The tape plays. The car on screen crashes into a tree, and Kate gasps. She watches as her father tumbles out of the driver's side door and a man approaches. She can hear her father's voice in her head before he speaks: "Help my wife, my daughter. Please. Help." Bucky can't look at Kate; he doesn't want to see the realization dawn on her face, doesn't want to watch it turn to hatred. When her father looks to the man above him with recognition and says, "Sergeant Barnes?" Kate sobs. She isn't sure how her legs are still holding her up, and she can taste bile in her mouth.

When the tape ends, Tony lunges toward Bucky.

Steve stops him. "Tony. Tony."

Tony turns to Steve, tears in his eyes, "Did you know?"

"I didn't know it was him," Steve says.

"Don't bullshit me, Rogers! Did you know?" he asks again.

"Yes," Steve answers. Tony pushes him away.

Kate finally turns to look at Bucky. He's not sure he can handle the tears running down her face. "You could have killed me," she says. "You should have killed me. Why didn't you?" Her voice grows progressively louder with each statement.

"You weren't my mission," he says quietly. But it's a lie. The mission called for no witnesses. He doesn't know why Kate is still alive. But he remembers her wide, scared eyes looking up at him that night, not unlike how she's looking at him now, and his heart feels like it might crack in two.

"So, what?" Tony shouts. "The Winter Soldier has a conscience? You don't kill kids? Just leave them orphaned?" He lunges for Bucky again.

"Tony, stop," Kate says, reaching for him.

Tony turns to her quickly. "You're grounded, Katie," he says, and he fires a low-voltage stun from his repulsor that knocks her unconscious. Bucky lets out a deep growl as Kate's body hits the floor.

The fight that breaks out is chaotic. Steve is certain that Tony will kill Bucky, and he isn't confident that Bucky won't be able to keep himself from killing Tony to protect Kate.

"Get out of here," he roars at Bucky, and he throws himself between the two of them.

"It wasn't him, Tony," Steve shouts. "HYDRA had control of his mind!"

"Move!" Tony demands.

"It wasn't him!"

But Tony isn't letting up. Tony gets Bucky the neck and seethes, "Do you even remember them?"

"I remember all of them," Bucky growls and pushes off from the platform he's on, taking Tony with him.

_____

When Kate wakes, her head is pounding. She gets to her feet slowly and looks around. Zemo is gone, having used the chaos as an opportunity to escape, and she can't see Bucky, Steve, or Tony anywhere. The room is eerily quiet. She stands still for a moment, taking deep breaths and waiting for a wave of nausea to pass. She's fairly sure she has a concussion.

As her vision becomes clearer and the ringing in her ears dies away, Steve appears at the entrance of the room with Bucky beside him. They're leaning on each other and seem to both be holding the other up. Bucky's titanium arm has been blown away, and Kate gasps at the sight. Steve doesn't look much better. She makes her way to them and presses her palm against Bucky's bloody cheek. The sight of him in pain momentarily outweighs her heartbreak at the recent revelations about her parents. He hisses at the touch to his bruised face, and she pulls her hand away quickly.

"Sorry," she says. But he shakes his head.

Kate turns to Steve. "Where's Tony?"

Steve gives a nod over his shoulder toward the silo where he left Tony with the shield, and says, "It's over."

Kate wants to ask more questions, but she doesn't think now is the time. She follows the two super soldiers out of the bunker and back to the Quinjet.

_____

Aboard the Quinjet, Kate finds one of Tony's T-shirts and wraps it around what's left of Bucky's arm to cover the jagged metal. Then she pulls out the first aid kit and wipes the blood from his face. They haven't spoken about the tape or that night in 1991, and neither of them know what to say. So, they both stay silent.

When she finishes with Bucky, Kate makes Steve sit still so she can clean his wounds, as well. He watches her closely as she bandages his bloody knuckles.

"I'm sorry about Tony," he says. "About what he did to you back there."

"Thanks," she says. "I've never seen him like that. He...," she pauses, "I know he feels guilty about what happened, things he said to Dad before he died, things he didn't say. And then...having to raise me. It was a lot for him."

"And you?" Steve asks.

Kate is quiet for a moment before answering. “They died before I even knew them. The only memory I have of them is this dream of the night of the crash and a man I thought was a figment of my imagination. Turns out.…” She doesn’t finish the thought.

“It wasn’t him,” Steve says. “Not really.”

She looks over at Bucky, slumped in one of the seats on the other side of the jet. She knows he's listening, but he doesn't look up. "I know," she tells Steve, meeting his eyes again with a soft smile.

Kate closes the first aid kid and stands. Before she turns away from Steve, she says, "You knew. Nat knew, and she left it out of the file. You could have told me."

Steve looks up at her. "Would you have helped me find him?"

"I don't know," she says. She looks at Bucky again. "But I'm glad I did."

_____

final chapter

[queen-of-my-goofball-army]

Oc Questions

So my friend @bio-hazard0us and I have been working on a lot of My Hero Academia original characters and I was hit with the sudden idea to make my first villain one. I thought that I would share my process so that they could see it and everyone can know how I flesh out a character. In this case I have paired my original character up with Jin Bubaigawara aka the villain Twice in My Hero Academia. 

A: What are/were this character’s best subjects in school? Violet was good at just about every subject in school but her favorites were history, ballet, English and of course botany

B: Do they have any allergies? She is funnily enough allergic to bees even though they are essential to her quirk. They pollinate her flowers but just the sight of them has her feeling ill.

C: Can they swim well? She taught herself how to swim rather well and it’s one of her favorite hobbies that she does on her days off. 

D: How do they react to being flirted with? A flustered awkward disaster mess that’s how she would react to being flirted with (Especially if it was with Twice. He does it to mess with her in and out of costume and always teases her when she gets a bright pink face. 

E: How are they with children? Violet comes from a really big family and loves her siblings but one of Jin’s biggest fears is that his mental instability will be passed down to his children. 

F: What’s one thing they’re really bad at? She is awful at being a villain, let’s just be honest here. She is mostly doing this because Jin is doing it and she wanted to stick by his side. She is always known for being the most genuine member out of the League and even helped Bakugou escape.  She is also very bad with directions so she usually has to be sent out with Dabi or Toga as well as Twice because they both are extremely scatterbrain and tend to get way off track.

G: How do they flirt? Violet is basically the worst type of flirt, the type that doesn’t even know when they are flirting. She just is genuine with her compliments and is always open about how she feels. She loves to compliment Jin and it is usually her way of getting revenge when he flirts with her “That was so good hun!!” She’s basically his little cheerleader always encouraging him to do his best at everything that he does and he loves that about her. 

H: What is their deadly sin? Her deadly sin would most likely be Gluttoney because she has a problem with sweets and knowing exactly when to eat them. (Twice jokes that it’s lust which usually results in him getting smacked upside the head.) 

I: On a scale of 1 to 10, how much do they love themselves? On a scale of one to ten she loves herself at a very low 4. She loves Jin more than anything in the entire world but she hates having to be a part of the League of Villains. She would much rather be a small flower shop owner even with her quirk that is meant to do things for evil. She has a lot of crippling self doubt and doesn’t know how to deal with the awful things that she has to do. The only reason that her number isn’t any lower is because of Twice. 

J: What’s their sense of humour like? Her sense of humor is very bubbly and peppy, it’s a lot of plant puns and really bad jokes that Jin told her to get her to laugh at him when she was younger. If she’s tired it’s a lot more sarcastic and full of attitude but usually that only happens when Shigaraki asks her to do villain stuff when she has already had a long enough day as it was. Twice loves her either way you look at it with her sense of humor. He just loves her more than anything when you really think about it he considers her the best possible thing that he could ever ask for.  

K: How do you know when you’ve upset them? You will know when you’ve upset her when she sends her “Audrey II” after you. That is her man eating venus flytrap that she named after the flytrap in Little Shop of Horrors.  

L: What is their favourite board game? Any board game that makes her laugh. She loves to play Apples to Apples with Twice and the rest of the League of villains it’s the one time when she truly thinks that they are actually a family and she really feels like she fits in.

M: What is their favourite dessert? She loves ice cream, absolutely loves ice cream. When she has a bad day stress or anxiety wise Jin brings her strawberry cheesecake Ben & Jerries ice cream and Phish Food for him and they both openly talk about what they are struggling with (Mental health for the win!!!) 

N: What do they usually eat for breakfast? Her go to breakfast usually has some fruit in it. That's really the only thing since she isn’t always hungry in the mornings. 

O: What would it take to break them, inside and out? For Jin to break up with her. That’s what would break her inside and out she would not be able to live without him making her laugh. If he were to break up with her and not even want to be friends that would cause her to have a full on mental breakdown. 

P: How do they handle money? She is nearly a professional at handling money. She doesn’t have a whole lot of it because she works part time at a flower infused coffee and pastry shop.

Q: Are they patient? She is one of the most patient people that you will ever meet in your entire life. It is one of her best qualities that she prides herself on. You sort of have to be patient when your long term love of your life is Jin Bubaigawara (Twice). She always rubs his back when he cries into her shoulder apologizing for saying anything wrong in his other personality. It breaks her heart to see him like that. She would much rather see the joking having a fun time side of his personality but she has loved him for as long as she can remember and she’s going to be damned if a little mental illness roadblock is going to get in her way. 

R: What are their hands like? Her hands have little calluses on them that Jin loves playing with as a fidget technique because having her presence around makes the voices in his head for once shut fully off. He can be comfortable around her just holding her hand and telling stories in his different personalities to make her laugh. 

S: How stealthy are they? She is actually very stealthy and extremely quiet person (when Twice isn’t around to make her laugh)

T: Where are they ticklish? Violet is ticklish almost literally everywhere on her entire body something that kid Jin loved because it caused her to snort when she laughed if he did it too much. 

U: What’s their voice like? She’s naturally soft spoken unless she’s really excited about something than she has the tendency to rise in volume. 

V: What’s the easiest way to annoy them? The easiest way to annoy her is to send her off on a solo mission with Shigaraki. It takes everything in her not to just blow up at him and tell him that she’s done being his minion. Then she thinks of Twice and just takes some deep breaths to calm herself down and remembers why she’s doing this. So that the love of her life can fit in somewhere and finally be truly happy with his life. 

W: Can they dance? Dancing is one of the things that she is the best at pretty much all styles of dance. 

X: What’s their most petty little secret? Her pesky little secret is that she made a stuffed smaller version of Jin as Twice for the nights when they aren’t together and she can’t sleep. It helps her sleep at night knowing that she has something to remind her of her boyfriend. 

Y: What is one question they’ve always wanted an answer to? Why did her dad have to die? Her older brother who was a police officer was caught in the crossfire and killed by a hero in an accident.

Z: How do they sleep? She doesn’t sleep that well at all if she doesn’t have either her stuffed version of Twice or the real deal around her. She suffers from frequent nightmares of the awful things that she was forced to do as a member of the League and the momentous amounts of bullying that she was given as a child.

1. Do they sleep with a stuffed animal? She does actually sleep with stuffed animals. Jin won her a massive stuffed sea otter at a shooting darts game when they were back in high school at their cultural festival and she loves it so much. She also has the afformented stuffed version of Twice.

2. Can they take care of a plant? What about a pet? What about a child? Her quirk is quite literally taking care of the plants that she houses as tattoos on her arms and that she keeps in her garden at work. She has a pet cat that is probably the most tsundere cat to ever exist but it loves it’s human so much. Violet adopts young Toga as her own showing her what actual love and affection really should look like instead of the pain that she has suffered through.

3. Ask them to describe their love interest. Violet would describe Jin as the sweetest man that she has ever met. Forget about the mental illness, that doesn’t bother her in fact it only makes her want to take care of him on his really bad days. She truly loves her boyfriend more than anything in the world. He is the reason why she gets up everyday to make him laugh with her little screw ups at being a villain. To her, you can’t find a more perfect man than Jin Bubaigawara. She loves his sense of humor, the way that he looks at the world and the man behind the mania more than anything. She’ll jokingly call him her Deadpool and he loves it so much since that was one of his favorite heroes in high school. 

4. Do they look good in red? In her opinion since part of her villain costume (her hoodie) is red she would say yes. Twice jokes that she would look good in a paper bag. 

5. Speech! Speech! Speech! Speech! It would definitely be a late night speech to the love of her life Jin after a night that he’s been struggling with his split personality disorder. He’ll tell her that he doesn’t deserve her and her pureness and that she should run while she still can. She would tell him that would never, ever happen. That she loves him despite her mental illness. That she loves the man that has always been there for her and is the other half of her soul. That he isn’t defined by his mental illness but by the person that lies beneath all of that. He would just melt into her side and she would quietly run her fingers through his hair turning him into putty in her arms.

6. Who will they take advice from, no matter what it is? Who won’t they take advice from, no matter what it is? She will always take advice from her father who has known what is best for her throughout her entire life and is immensely supportive of her relationship with Twice. He loves Jin and worries about him instead of being against their relationship he gives Violet advice for how to deal with him and his outbursts that he sometimes has. She would absolutely never listen to Shigaraki no matter what. He tells her that her “emotions” for Twice will be her downfall and that she shouldn’t be as kind as she is if she wants to be a villain. 

7. Describe them in three words. Now let them describe themselves in three words. I would describe Violet as endlessly patient, kind and forgiving of all of Jin’s downfalls. Usually when he forgets an anniversary (he never forgets her birthday though). She would describe herself as a wet blanket, a burden on Jin and a naturally spineless person. 

8. Do complex puzzles intrigue or frustrate them? Puzzles have always intrigued her 

9. Do they empathize with non-sentient things (dolls, plants, books…)? She has an attachment to her favorite book since childhood that her dad would always read to her. It’s called The Little Prince and it’s been her favorite book since she was five years old. She feels an empathization with her plants that she needs to use for her quirk and always apologizes before she has to use them. 

10. What age do they most want to be right now? She wants to be at the age that she is right now. She lives on her own even though she wishes that she could stay live with Jin full time. 

11. They’ve won the lottery. Spend, or save? Save the money for the future and get a big house for her, Jin and Himiko to live in. She loves her family more than anything and just wants for them to be happy together. 

12. Do they like romance in the books they read (or in the book they’re in)? She has a soft spot for romance in films. She openly cries every time that she watches the first ten minutes in Up or the ending of The Painted Veil. She is a naturally overly emotional person so whenever she watches one of these films Jin has a box of tissues at the ready to dry her eyes with.  

13. Name one thing their parents taught them. Her parents taught hre to be kind and patient with most everyone she meets which is one of the biggest reasons as to why she is so good with Jin and his mental instability. 

14. Would they agree with the term ‘guilty pleasure’? Do they have any? She has a guilty pleasure for the film version of Little Shop Of Horrors and is often seen humming Mean Green Mother From Outer Space while she waters Audrey II

15. What would they consider a waste of time– other than school or work? Violet considers lazing around a waste of her time. Why be lazy when she could be watering her plants or helping Himiko with her homework? Jin definitely has to draw the line at some point and give her a backwards hug telling her that she needs to take a break. 

16. If money wasn’t a limit, what would they wear? She would wear designer clothes that she always sees in the shop windows. There is this really adorable dress that has plants all over it that she loves to look at on the street and in the shop window (Jin buys it for her for Christmas once he gets a steady following with his artwork.) 

17. Do they like children? Violet has always loved children and willingly will look after her siblings if she doesn’t need to be doing villainous work with Twice and Himiko for the night. She was raised to love children and her and Jin have talked about adopting others when Himiko goes off to college. He’s legitimately afraid of being a good father but she is always there to encourage him and tell him how good he is with their adopted daughter. He teased her that they already were basically siblings so it didn’t really matter but he always loves her encouragement. 

18. Kissing: tongue or no tongue? It depends on where they are. She loves to press little kisses to his mask when he’s wearing it but when the mask is off they do have the tendency to kiss. She’s actually asexual so as long as it doesn’t go to sexual intercourse she’s okay with all the types of intimacy that kissing can bring. 

19. Do they study before tests? Practice before job interviews? She always has this need to study for tests even though everyone around her encourages that she’ll ace it with flying colors because she is just naturally intelligent. She actually helped Jin get his GED in high school so that he could pass and got him through the grades with the help of a lot of patience and snacks to go around. 

20. What do they like that nobody else does? Most of the stuff that she likes that nobody else tends to like is the manga that she reads in her free time. This gets a lot of jokes poked at her by Jin and Himiko but they love it about her that she is a massive Otaku.

21. What would it take for them to break up with someone? What would be the last straw? There would be no real “last straw” with her and Jin. Unless he cheats on her which he would never do because he loves her way too much to do that to her. 

22. Do they like being called pet names? Do they call other people pet names? What’s their go-to? Oh the sappy nicknames between these two strap yourselves in folks especially for Jin\Twice because his are numerous. His favorites are dolls and baby that he uses outside of the mask and they never fail to make her soft like butter. With the mask on it’s cupcake and milady “Hey cupcake need a little help over here!!” 

23. Stability or novelty? Stability all the way. She needs to keep to her schedule and her downtime needs to be there otherwise she will fall off the rails and it’s not a pretty picture. Jin is there to make sure that even her stability is still the life of the party. 

24. Honesty or charity? Honesty is always the best policy.

25. Safety or possibility? Possibility she is always open to new ones that could change her life and it’s one of the reasons why she started dating Jin she saw all the possibilities that their relationship could have. 

26. Talent or effort? Effort all the way. She will always put forth the effort into everything that she does. She has this belief and it’s the same way with her father that there is no talent without a little bit of effort thrown into everything.

27. Forgiveness or vengeance (or…)? Forgiveness. She will always forgive Jin no matter what his mental illness does to put a damper on their relationship she will always take him back with open arms. 

28. Would they date a fixer-upper? She would because she believes that there is really no such thing as a fixer-upper. I mean growing up her favorite movie was Beauty and the Beast so she has always believed that the true beauty of somebody isn’t on the outside but on the inside their personality. Jin is basically one giant fixer upper that most people would run for the hills from but not Violet. Most of her siblings scratch their heads when they seen the two of them together but they know that their sister is the happiest that they have ever seen her when she’s around him. 

[fictionsofriverdale-blog]

Cendrillon - A tale from the Southside - Chapter Eight

Chapter One || Chapter Two || Chapter Three || Chapter Four || Chapter Five || Chapter Six

A/N: As some of you know, I had a massive crisis of faith writing this chpater and questioned whether or not to even write this chapter at all! A massive thank you to @j-jones-the-third and @choke-me-sweet-pea for brainstorming with me and basically inspiring me to keep going. 

A/N: If anyone wants to talk to me about the themes that come up in this chapter, please feel free to message me. Some of the themes in this story are very triggering. Please keep yourselves safe and, if you can’t talk to me, please talk to someone that you trust! Thank you :)

Characters: Katie Harris (OC), Toni Topaz, Jughead Jones, Fangs Fogarty, & Sweetpea

Warnings: Neglect, emotional abuse, physcial abuse, eating disorder, swearing.

Summary: Katie Harris is a student at Southside High, and like many of the residents of the Southside of town, her home like is not perfect, not even close.

The TV was murmuring quietly in front of me, the colours flickering across the screen, but my eyes were unfocused, drifting in and out of sleep. My head lay comfortably on Sweet Pea's thigh, my legs curled up on the couch cushion behind me. Sweet Pea's fingers slowly combed through my hair, lulling me back into sleep. It was early, maybe 6am, and the trailer park was silent. Toni was sleeping in the bedroom and, wanting to give her some space, I had opted to sleep on the couch, Sweets insisted on staying out here with me rather than going home. He had sat up with me, calming my nerves about Jack and my mother.

A muffled groan floated from the bedroom and I moved to stand up, but Sweet Pea shushed me, stroking my hair and gently sliding his leg out from under me, replacing it with a pillow. He padded across the small kitchen and into Toni's bedroom. After a moment, he returned to the kitchen and I heard the tap running and a glass being filled with water. Sweet Pea rustled around in a kitchen drawer before pulling out a small packet of painkillers. He quietly padded back into the bedroom and closed the door behind him. 

A tap at the front door stopped me from drifting back into sleep and I rubbed my eyes as I stood and made my way to the door. I peered through the small window and saw Jughead and Fangs standing on the doorstep, Serpent jackets wrapped around their shoulders, shielding them from the morning chill. I opened the door and motioned for the boys to come in, holding my index finger over my lips. They both nodded and quietly crossed the threshold, toeing off their boots before shuffling into the living room. I closed the front door and twisted the lock, returning to my seat on the couch. 

"Fangs told me what happened. Are you okay?" Jughead's voice was low and his eyes were studying my face. 

“I'm okay, better than Toni is anyway." I replied, a yawn escaping my chapped lips. 

Jughead stood and walked towards me, crouching in front of me he placed his hands softly on my shoulders and held my gaze. 

“Don't let him get to you, okay? Don't let him win." He held my gaze, his pupils flickering from my left to my right eye, and back again. I sighed, breaking our eye contact, and nodded. He kissed my forehead and made his way into the kitchen to make coffee. 

My fingers twisted together in my lap, picking at the loose thread that was fraying from the grey knitted blanket. I know Jughead is right, and I can't let what happened to Toni get to me. I can't let Jack win, but none of this would have happened if I hadn't involved my friends in my messed up 'home' life. If I hadn't turned up to school with bruises on my neck. If I hadn't dropped that stupid cereal bowl in the first place. 

A warm hand gently covered my own, making me jump slightly, breaking me out of my reverie. He went to pull back but I quickly looked up into the warm eyes of Fangs Fogarty, gripping his hand with both of my own. 

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to pull away-" I whispered.

"It's okay, Katie. I understand. I just wanted to make sure you were okay. You seemed to zone out for a minute there." His lips pulled into a smile, but I could see the concern in his eyes. I smiled and leaned into his side, feeling his arm tighten around my shoulder.

"It's going to be alright, Katie. Just, don't let him get under your skin. Jughead's right about that." He whispered. I nodded against the side of his chest and he released me from his embrace in time to accept a mug of coffee from Jughead, who also passed one to me. 

I cradled the hot drink in my hands, letting the heat radiate through my hands and down my arms. Jughead sat on the couch next to me, and with Fangs on my other side, I was squished in the middle. Both boys relaxed back onto the couch cushions and let their eyes focus on the TV in front of them. 

Across the kitchen, the bedroom door opened and Toni is guided into a kitchen chair by Sweet Pea. Fangs and Jughead jump up for the sofa to go and see Toni. I follow closely behind, careful not to spill my coffee in the process. Sweet Pea has left Toni to be fussed over by the boys while he pours a fresh coffee for himself and T. I walk up to Sweet Pea's tall frame and rest my hand lightly on his, looking up into his eyes. He smiles tiredly down at me, the dark bags under his eyes evidencing a restless night. 

“How is she?" I ask quietly. 

"She's bruised, but she'll be okay." Sweet Pea sighs, his thumb stroking the back of my hand. 

Grabbing the two cups of coffee, he walks over to the table and hands a mug to Toni. He takes a seat on the one remaining chair, placing his mug on the table and rubbing his eyes with the heel of his hands. I pad over to the table and stand beside Sweet Pea, leaning against the side of his chair. Sweet Pea's arm comes up behind me to wrap around my waist and he pulls me down into his lap. I close my eyes and lean back against his chest, holding my mug in my lap, careful not to spill a drop. 

Opening my eyes, I look around the table to see Jughead's eyes wide in shock, Fangs smirking at Sweet Pea and I, and Toni smiling and looking between the two of us. I feel my cheeks heat up, realising that the others had never seen Sweet Pea and I this close and comfortable with each other.  Jughead is the first to speak up.

“I know I've been busy with Betty and everything but, is this news to everyone, or did I miss something?" He smiled at me. 

“I only found out last night." Fangs said, holding his hands up in defence. 

“Girl talk." Toni announced, slowly standing from her chair and gesturing for me to follow her into the bedroom. I unfurled my body from Sweet Pea's lap and followed Toni through the bedroom door.

Once the bedroom door was shut, Toni and I sank down onto the bed, facing each other. Toni reached forward and clasped my hands in hers, her eyes locked in on mine. 

“Babe, are you sure about this? I mean, I love Sweet Pea to the ends of the earth but, well you just got out of a really shitty situation and I don't want anyone to take advantage of that, even if it is one of my best friends." She let out a long breath, waiting for me to answer. 

“I appreciate your concern T, I really do. But all we've done is kiss. I'm not going to rush into anything, and Sweet Pea hasn't pushed me to do anything either. I think we're good." 

Toni squeezed my hands gently and squealed quietly, causing a genuine smile to break out across my face. I helped her to stand, and we made our way back out to the kitchen where Jughead was cooking breakfast for everyone. Toni took her seat again and I curled myself into Sweet Pea's lap. His arm curled around my waist, his fingers drawing small circles across my hip. The smell of bacon wafted throughout the room. 

I could see Jughead transferring bacon from the frying pan onto a big plate, along with sausages, eggs, tomatoes, and toast. There was a pile of plates on the table. Five plates. There was one there for me. I shifted in Sweet Pea's lap, my breathing becoming slightly laboured as I tried to calm my escalating heart rate. 

Toni and Fangs were sitting close together, he was inspecting the cut on her lip and the bruise on her cheek. Jughead was whistling as he ambled over to the table, the giant plate of greasy food balancing on his hand like a waiter in a five-star restaurant. He placed it in the middle of the table and started passing plates around the table. 

Fangs leant in, filling a plate with food and passing it to a grateful Toni. He then began to fill a plate for himself as Jughead used his fingers to fill his plate with bacon and eggs. Sweet pea gently leant forwards, his arm holding against his chest still. He used his free hand to grab a fork and fill his plate with food. I held my nearly empty coffee with both hands, clutching it to my chest. Sweet Pea's hand moved from my hip to my thigh, aimlessly tracing invisible patterns into my pyjama pants. 

He didn't fill a plate for me, nor did he wait for me to fill one for myself. He removed his free hand from my skin, grabbed a knife, and started to cut up his food. He speared a forkful of grilled tomato and left the fork on the plate, handle practically touching my hand as it rested on the table. 

He grabbed a spare fork and used it to eat a slice of bacon, his spare hand running up and down the side of my arm. I looked around the table, taking a sip of my coffee and placing the empty mug down on the table. Jughead was tucking into his food, talking quietly with Toni and Fangs. 

I picked up the fork and brought the tomato to my lips, opening them slightly and pulling the small amount of tomato off the fork with my teeth. I chewed it slowly and swallowed. 

Sweet Pea's hand squeezed my upper arm gently and he kissed the crown of my head. We repeated this pattern until I had eaten half of a grilled tomato and a few forkfuls of scrambled eggs. 

I leant back into Sweet Pea's embrace and his arm snaked around my middle. I closed my eyes, letting the conversation wash over me. The easy laughter that fell from Fangs' lips and the light-humoured sarcasm that dripped from Jughead's every word. Sweet Pea's chest rumbled against my body as he joined the conversation. 

This is what Sunday mornings should have felt like. This is how I should have grown up. I should have felt this safe in my own house, but I'm grateful that I feel it now. This is my new family, and I couldn't feel more grateful even if I tried.

I felt Sweets shift under me, his lips coming close to my ear as he whispered to me. "I want you to meet someone. Can I take you to meet someone today?" He murmured. 

I nodded cautiously, opening my eyes and looking up into his. His hazel eyes were soft and warm, making me feel instantly at ease. He smiled softly and pecked my lips quickly. 

Two hours later and I'm climbing off Sweet Pea's bike, taking the helmet off my head and resting it on his handlebars. I stood awkwardly, looking around at the trailers that surrounded me. There was a swing set nestled in between two trailers with a couple of children playing on it. There was about 15 trailers in this trailer park, and most of them had motorbikes parked outside of them. I looked back to Sweet Pea, who was leaning against his bike, legs crossed at the ankles, patiently waiting for me to finish checking out my surroundings. 

"This is my home" he announced, gesturing to the trailer behind him. "Do you want to come in?" He asked, a hint of vulnerability flashing across his eyes. 

I took a step towards him, reaching for his hand and clasping it in both of my own. "I'd love to come in" I whispered. A small smile appeared on his lips as his thumb stroked my hand. He pushed off his bike and wrapped his arm across my shoulder, leading me up the porch steps and pulling the front door open.  "Hello?" He called through the trailer. 

“Jesus, Pea! No need to shout, I'm sitting right here!" A Raven-haired girl whined, dramatically holding her hands over her ears. She was curled up on the couch in a pair of grey sweat-pants and an oversized navy V-neck. Turning towards Sweet Pea, she spotted me and stood from the sofa, walking towards us. "And who is this lovely lady?" She raised her eyebrow at her brother. 

“Lyla, meet Katie, Katie, meet Lyla, my sister."

I looked from Pea to Lyla and smiled, holding my hand out for her to shake. She smiled back at me and held both of her arms out and pulled me into a hug. If I had ever pictured Sweet Pea with a sister, I would never have pictured the girl in front of me. She was slender and, at about 5 foot 3, she was about the same height as me. She had beautiful shoulder length dark hair and light brown eyes. She pulled me over to the couch and sat me down next to her. Sweet Pea perched on the arm of the sofa next to me. 

“It's so nice to meet you. Sweet Pea never brings anyone here!" Lyla whined, glancing at her brother and then back to me. 

“Well, I'm honoured that I made the cut" I giggled.  "Ly, there's actually a reason that I wanted Katie to meet you..." He trailed off, looking a little unsure.  "It's okay Pea, I can talk about it..." Lyla was looking up at her brother, her hands softly clasped together in her lap. Sweet Pea's hands gently rested on my shoulders, his thumbs slowly ghosting over my shoulder blades. 

“Katie, I know we don't know each other, but it's clear that my oaf of a brother cares about you. So, with that in mind, I wanted to tell you my story." She took a deep breath before continuing. "When I was in a kid, I started doing gymnastics at the community centre. I really loved it. The freedom that I felt when I was flying through the air. Flinging myself form one bar to another or throwing myself over the vault." "It terrified the living shit out of me" Sweet Pea interjected, making Lyla laugh. I could hear Sweet Pea in Lyla's laugh and it made me smile. 

“Anyway, when I got to middle school," Lyla continued "I started competing more seriously, and had a shot at Nationals. My coach was pushing me, helping me to perfect tumbles with higher degrees of difficulty. I was competing against girls from all over the state, many of them had money and fancy leotards and choreographers. But what I noticed was that they were all tiny. In this sport, being small is a benefit as it enables you to fly higher, rotate that much more, you know?" I could see the passion in her eyes as she was describing the sport, but there was a sadness too. 

She locked her eyes with mine before continuing.  "Katie, I started to restrict what I was eating. I wanted to win, and to win I had to be smaller. Smaller than the other girls, than my competition. I thought I was in control, but you can never be in control of something like that. There was a voice in my head that kept telling me that I had to get smaller, be better, eat less. It was the voice that was in control, not me. It got to the point that I collapsed during a competition. I lost consciousness in the middle of a bars routine and could have broken my back if my coach hadn't stepped in and caught me." 

I felt Sweet Pea's hands stop moving on my shoulders. I reached one of my hands up to hold onto his, but I remained silent, not knowing what to say. Lyla took a deep breath and smiled. 

"After that, I was taken to hospital and got help. I eventually got healthy again, with the help of my family and a few good doctors. I'll never be fully better, but most of the time I'm good. I'm aware that everyone's journey through this is different, but sometimes just hearing that someone else has walked a similar path and come out the other end can help. I know this is a really shitty way to introduce myself to someone," she laughed "but I can see that you are struggling with some of the same demons, and I wanted you to know that I - we are here for you."

I sat there in silence. I had no idea that Sweets had a sister, let alone a sister that had been through something like this. It made sense to me know, how Sweet Pea had known that something wasn't right, and how he had known what to say and what not to say. He had walked this path before, and although the specific path wasn't the same, it was in the same forest, with many of the same trees looming overhead.  

Although Lyla's story was different to my own, I recognised the voice in her head as my mother's voice. Her demon voice had come from within, developed after God knows how long of starving herself in a race to be the best, whereas mine came from outside of myself, constantly telling me that I wasn't good enough. A tear slipped down my cheek as I leant forward and wrapped Lyla in my arms. Lyla's head rested on my shoulder and her arms enveloped me in a hug. She held me as I sobbed quietly against her shoulder. 

After a few moments, I pulled away, sniffling as I willed the tears to dry up. I took a deep breath and looked up at Lyla. "Thank you" I whispered. "Thank you both," I looked over my shoulder at Sweet Pea. "You have literally saved my life."

Sweet Pea slid down from the arm rest and pulled me into his arms. "Anytime baby" he whispered into my hair. We spent the next couple of hours watching episodes of Friends and getting to know each other, while Sweet Pea and Lyla playfully bickered over the remote.  

Monday morning rolled around and the alarm clock shocked me into the real world. Toni grumbled next to me, slapping her phone to turn of the shrill noise. I carefully climbed over her as she snoozed and tip toed into the kitchen to make some fresh coffee.

After leaving a full mug on the bedside table for Toni, I jumped in the shower and then got myself ready for school. A pair of light blue jeans, a white vest and a navy V-neck sweater. I rode to school on the back of Toni's bike, clambering off once she had parked next to Fangs, Sweet Pea, and Jughead. Sweet Pea walked over and gently took my back pack from me, slinging it onto his shoulder and wrapping his arm around me. 

“Morning, beautiful" He mumbled against my hair. 

"Morning" I looked up at him and smiled shyly. 

He lead me up the front steps and into the school, walking me to my locker before class. I quickly swapped some of my books over and then walked with Sweet Pea to his locker where he grabbed his books for his first class.

Sweet Pea walked me to my history classroom, planting a kiss on my forehead and nodding to Jughead, who was already sitting in the seat next to mine. I walked over to my seat and flopped down into it, smiling at Jughead who returned my smile and nodded at Sweet Pea who was still standing in the doorway. Sweet Pea gave me a wink and then walked down the corridor to his first class. 

The day was passing by quickly, and for once I looked forward to lunch. Not because of the slop-like food that they served in the cafeteria, but because I got to see Sweet Pea. I practically skipped across the cafeteria to our usual table and plopped down onto the bench next to him. I smiled across the table at Toni and Fangs, who both smiled back at me.

Sweet Pea silently handed me an apple and curled his arm around my waist, pulling me slightly closer to him. I rested my head on his shoulder as I took a deep breath and started to eat the piece of fruit. The conversation flowed around me, like a river running around a rock; making contact but not penetrating the surface. 

Sweet Pea's arm tightening against my hip brought me back into the present, and I refocused my attention on the conversation. 

"I can't believe that fucker showed his face again." Jughead growled. 

"We should have got rid of him when we had the chance" Fangs slammed his fist on the cafeteria table, making me jump. 

Sweet Pea's hand moved from my hip to my upper arm, slowly running up and down, trying his best to soothe my nerves. 

[justtextmeoppa]

❝Would you give me a chance?❞

Plot: After two years, Jaebum sees his ex girlfriend and he hasn’t stop loving her. What will happen? 

Pairing: Jaebum x OC

Words count: 4,8k+

Genre: Angst/Fluff

Warning: None / Italics parts are lyrics of a song expect for the last sentence.

I made this one shot two weeks ago ispired by “My I” by Seventeen (CHINA LINE IS RISING YEAH!), I hope you like it! - M. 

Gif isn’t mine, credits to the owner! ♥ 

" Are you saying to come or to go, that waving hand.

Not sure if you want me to come or go. What could it mean? Tell me about it."

Jaebum sighed while for the umpteenth day he reopened his eyes, waiting for the screams of his bandmates who were trying to decide who should use the bathroom first.  

He turned on his side, clutching a pillow against his chest and for the first time after months he was happy that Youngjae had abandoned their room for the living room.  

To be alone allowed him to reflect, without interruptions that brought him back to reality. Returning to those moments, returning to those feelings, was like eating something sweet and sour. It wounded him but at the same time healed him, like a chain without the possibility of being broken.  

"Aish.." He dimmed his cursing by thinning his lips, returning to lie down on his back with his gaze facing sideways.  

On a photo that he hadn't dared to throw, to leave behind as everything that concerned her.  It was his mistake, he knew it forever. As much as she had continued to take part in those too big faults to endure, he was solely responsible for that end.  

Her smile crossed his mind like a lightning, that smile she wore on the day they had taken different paths. She knew it, she had read it in his eyes many months before soon came to their "end".  

But when the end arrived, she had been totally unprepared. Just as he had been, too busy with his own work and pressures to be a "leader" to distract him from what, perhaps, had helped him more than anything else in the worst moments.  

Nervously he passed a hand through his hair, throwing the pillow against the door at the moment when it opened. He struck an unsuspecting Jinyoung, who had made an appareance to understand why he hadn't already come out of his room.  

"Sorry J."  

"What's going on, Hyung?" He asked, lowering to be able to recover the pillow and entering the room he closed the door behind. He knew Jaebum for years, now more than eight, and recognized when something obscured that mind already overburdened with thoughts.  

He approached the bed, sitting next to him and crossing his legs propped his elbow on his thigh, supporting his chin with his open hand. He observed his own hyung, who in those moments had hidden his face under the pillow, sensing immediately what the problem was.  

And he couldn't help him more because in those years he had always been a great help for him.  

"It's been two years and you still think about it, Hyung?"  

Jaebum sighed, feeling his heart heavier and being almost on the verge of breaking but it didn't happen. Lifting the pillow he looked jinyoung, his fleshy lips folded in a half-smile and the understanding that flashed blatantly in his deep eyes. "Jinyoung-ah, I never stopped thinking about it."  

"It's unusual for yo--I joked, it's usual for you. But I thought you'd live better with it. "  

While Jaebum was seated, Jinyoung paraded his slippers and turned towards him; crossing the legs and preparing for one of those moments between them. Jaebum had never been the kind of person to open easily, but you knew he was about to do it when on his face you could only see the sense of helplessness. And he was powerless in front of that amount of emotion and resentment ever disposed of.  

"It was my fault, Jinyoung. She was always there to stretch her hand when I was on the verge of collapsing and I let her go. "  

"You made a choice. The music or her.. " He pointed out Jinyoung, biting the corner of his lower lip making it just blush; "You didn't have many options.. You had worked so hard to get what you got, even she knew it.. If I remember she didn't ask you to choose, she did it. "  

"And why, huh? Because she knew I wouldn't choose her. Even though everything she saved me from remorse of an obvious choice. "  

The two boys looked in their eyes for a handful of seconds. The Jinyoung's big and expressive ones sought to scrutinize in Jaebum's sharp and thin ones which were even more reluctant than usual to get "read". He regretted that day more than anything; he regretted not stopping her, not telling her the truth. And the youngest of the two read all in a simple glance, too wounded in order to be healed.  

"You know where she lives.. If you really have all this remorse, apologize. You have taken two different paths; " He began with a gentle tone, rising from the bed and giving him a slight pat on his shoulder; "You're two adults, your apologies perhaps are the only thing that after two years you can really give her."  

Smiling he stepped out of the room, leaving him alone again and Jaebum could hear that he screamed to the other five to stand good and not disturb him; otherwise, he would make everyone bald in zero seconds.  

"Your apologies are the only thing that after two years you can really give her."

But Jaebum didn't have the courage because he knew that if he had seen her he would find those reasons why he had fallen in love with her. And neither one could afford another wound on a heart already too destroyed.  

1 week later  

"Hyung!"  

"Jackson, don't scream, I hear you." Jaebum threw a glimpse into the friend, who kept hopping for the stage that in some hours they would have cast for the second time.  

They were in Osaka for one of their stages of the Japanese tour and despite, after three years, they should have been accustomed to the emotions that all felt were still impossible to describe.  

They had done the second sound check of the day and now they could really relax before the concert, although all knew that with Youngjae and Jackson in hyperactive mode every attempt to relax would have been practically useless.  

"Guys, there's the son of the president of your japanese label who would like to meet you." One of their managers appeared suddenly and that news left them upset, they had never had the opportunity to know someone in such a high position in their record company in Japan.  

Immediately Jaebum turned to BamBam and Yugyeom, who had started to whispering with each other as they always did and only one look was enough to silence them immediately.  

Mark approached Youngjae, wrapping an arm around his shoulders and smiling him to instill that calm of which he was sure the youngest needed; calm that allowed him to smile at him immediately of referral.  

"Jackson if you don't stop in two seconds I'll hide your labeled foods."  

At Jinyoung's threat, the blond blocked, sitting on a step of the stage coming immediately followed by the two maknae of the group. They wanted to make a good first impression and Jaebum, within two seconds, began to feel again the weight of being their leader on the shoulders. It wasn't easy to handle them, especially when most of the time no one listened to him, but still, he strived as he could.  

"If I take a step closer, thorns appear on a flower path."  

Her scent, vanilla and cinnamon, was the first thing that Jaebum perceived.  

Then came her laughter. It had always been a low sound, almost an inaudible melody and he remembered how her nose was squeezed slightly and the small wrinkles that formed at the corners of her eyes every time she laughed.  

The third thing his mind perceived was her voice. A mirror of his nature, always sweet, slow and incredibly cadenced. It was the exact opposite of what he was. If Jaebum was like fire, always prone to burst because of his bad temper; she was like water, always prone to flowing quietly.  

"Hyelin-ah" Youngjae and Mark whispered in a chorus, so much so that Jaebum felt his body petrified and his usual cold blood vanished instantly.  

"Here are our Got7!" A male and nasal voice disgust all seven, but with the best fake smile, they bowed to the boy who showed up in front of them.  

Once again, Jaebum laid his gaze on the woman beside him. Petrified as much as he felt him, for he saw him from her body. And from her eyes. She didn't expect to find him there, he sensed that she shouldn't be aware of that little encounter.  

"Hyelin, you're a fan of what I know, right?"  

"I was."  

"Oh what a bad news!" He exclaimed, almost feeling offended because one of his "groups" was not appreciated by the woman who was trying to seduce for months. Without any kind of result, he admitted miserably every time. "How?"  

"Tastes change, sir.."  

"And I thought I'd win you if I let you met them, Hyelin!"  

At that sentence Jaebum found himself forced to hide his hands behind his back, closing with so much force to prevent the blood from flowing properly. The instinct told him to silence that cocky guy in front of him, but he couldn't create trouble. There wasn't only his career in the game, but also that of the others.  

"I'm sorry sir, but we should go. His meeting has already been postponed by ten minutes. " murmured Hyelin, looking everywhere except in his direction.  

Months away from her beloved Seoul weren't enough to erase the memory of that boy who had changed her life forever. And fate seemed to want to play a bad joke because seeing him was certainly not among her programs. Yet the accelerated sound of her heart was a clear symptom of what, she hoped, had disappeared. The distance, the breakup, the words of hatred screamed to hide the pain, nothing had cleared or done weaken what she felt for him.  

"Alright, Hyelin; Can I count on your professionalism right now? Stay with them and make sure they have everything they want. "  

Those words were like an icy shower; both for Jaebum and for Hyelin, but she was forced to nod and bow her head, feeling the nervousness begin to melt in her veins, almost taking the possession completely.  

Jinyoung laid his gaze on his leader and felt sorry for him, because that look, that emptiness that he could only see was something he wouldn't wish even to his worst enemy. Quietly he approached him and placed his hand on his back, making him just turn and giving him a little smile. It served to reassure him, at least in part, but Jinyoung was able to feel the tension even from the muscles of his back. And Jaebum so nervous just meant that everyone ran the risk of witnessing a collapse and his more tempered side.  

When all except them were gone, Jackson immediately got up and avoiding the gaze of his hyung came up to Hyelin, which raising her face looked at him cautiously. She knew Jackson, she loved him like a brother despite being months that they didn't see each other, but when he wrapped her in a hug she was totally surprised.  

"Aigoo, why do you seem shorter than before Hyelin?" He asked and immediately she pinched his side, making him move away while a roaring laughter filled the air.  

Before being Jaebum's girlfriend, she had been a great friend for all and she regretted having had to cut the bridges with them too, too hurt to be able to stay close to them. Taking courage from the gesture of their bandmates, even Youngjae, BamBam and Yugyeom approached her, hugging her with warmth and smiling as if it hadn't passed two years but just a few hours.  

"Go, don't worry." Jaebum murmured at Jinyoung, trying to keep calm and adjust his own tone of voice.  

He didn't want to deprive them of a hug, remembered well how they care about her, but seeing them so carefree triggered in him a pinch of envy. He would have liked to be so quiet, happy and instead, he felt his stomach upside down, his heart that ran at an irregular pace and his hands shaking to such a point as to have tightened them up to feel pain.  

It wasn't the day that he had been expected to live and instead seemed to have turned into his personal nightmare.  

"When I close my eyes, when I breathe,"  

If I don't lie to myself I do not wander or feel sad. "  

He had come out to catch a breath of air, though everyone would have to go out anyway because a mini tour with Hyelin was expecting them.  

Those were the orders of her boss, all seven knew that she but not even they could "disobey" and with the spirit of initiative the other six had begun to keep her occupied but especially far from him.  

Jaebum realized that he was even more grumpy than normal, he was literally closing himself at every moment he passed trying to think that that night there would be the concert. It was the only goal he had for that day, getting to the concert and making happy all those people who had brought him to success.  

"Can I ask you only one thing?"  

He jumped in hearing her voice at his side, feeling a sudden lump in his throat when he was granted to really look at her. Her lines were always those, but he couldn't help but notice how much pain seemed to be drenched in that one look. The guilt provoked him slight nausea and looked back, but of the presence of his friends not even the shadow was visible.  

"I asked them two minutes with you, I just had to find out something."  

"I understand."  

He nodded simply, remembering to kill them once back at the hotel after the concert, slipping his hands in the central pocket of the sweatshirt and letting loose his gaze on the "Panorama" before himself. All better than watching her, because in doing so too many memories were triggered in his mind and he didn't have enough strength to revive them.  

"Do you ever lie to yourself?" Hyelin asked, holding her arms tight against her chest and turning only her head towards him. Hee was avoiding to look at her and she couldn't help but smile because that habit hadn't been lost. Every time he was nervous he tended to avoid the looks of the others or to remain silent, but oddly enough to her was never weighed that little flaw. It made him simply more human in her eyes.  

"It depends on the context, Hyelin."  

Her name on his lips seemed to still have the taste of honey. As his voice caressed every letter, the cadence with which it came out of his mouth, as it seemed in one name to dye all that he couldn't tell her normally. He hadn't changed and this failed to make her feel better; she who ardently had hoped that after two years he now felt only indifference in pronouncing his name.  

"You know the context, Jaebum." Without adding more she turned and made to return from the service door, avoiding to hope that he would stop her.  

Jaebum turned, watching and made to speak but something inside him blocked him completely. If it was over there was a reason and both couldn't afford to make unnecessary illusions. Now they were two completely separate paths and joining them was impossible.  

"When I meet you once time passes, I’ll know you were my future;  

I’ll know I was your yesterday.  

And if I...? "  

"Hyung?"  

Jaebum came out of the bathroom with a towel onto his head, rubbing his wet hair with strength and feeling strangely much more relaxed than normal.  

Youngjae was smiling at him, sitting on his bed like a little child, and the admiration that shone in his eyes was always able to make Jaebum think that maybe he wasn't doing as bad as a leader and especially as a friend.  

"What's Youngjae??" He asked with a smile, sitting on the desk and looking him. They were both tired but oddly full of energies. "Do you need anything? Are you hungry? "  

"I wondered when you'd solve all this, Hyung."  

Jaebum arched an eyebrow to that phrase, without being able to understand what he was referring to, as he paraded the towel and squeezed it in his hands, continuing to look at him waiting for an answer.  

"I'm talking about Hyelin. I never understood one thing."  

"Youngjae I don't want to talk about it, can we just avoid this talk?"  

"Why did you let her go if you love her so much?"  

He didn't answer but angrily threw the towel on his bed, recovering a tracksuit from his suitcase open to his feet. He locked himself in the bathroom, holding his anger and dressed quickly and furiously. Without even saying goodbye, after coming out of the bathroom, he stepped out of the room and pulled the door forcefully without worrying about the noise he had just done.  

With him, he only had his phone and wallet, but he didn't import it. To get away from that question he would also run away without anything.  

He dropped the hood of the sweatshirt in his head, bowing his head and starting to walk towards the elevator when he noticed the stairs of service. He didn't want to see people, loneliness at that time was the only solution for the torment he felt inside.  

Once crossed the door he decided not to go down but climb, it wasn't the first time they were staying at that hotel and he well remembered the quietness on the roof.  

The fresh air of the night made him sigh, the immediate relief was even able to make him smile but when he closed the door behind him he heard a strange click that aroused some suspicion. He lowered his gaze and saw a piece of metal next to the door, almost as if someone had stuck it underneath to prevent it from closing altogether. The feeling of having made a problem was immediate and soon after it was confirmed because trying to open the door he noticed it was totally closed.  

"Don't worry, every morning they come to check if someone has been locked out."  

"Shit! Hyelin?!? "  

"Hi," She murmured waving her hand slowly, curling up against one of the colonnades that housed the puffs of the boilers. She had a book in her hands and the warning lights for helicopter landings allowed her to have a perfect view of the black words on white.  

"What.. You're telling me you were here and... Of course, the metal block. "  

"Yup.. But don't worry, it wouldn't be the first time I'm stuck here. "  

That was the first exchange, civil and polite, between them after two years and both were pleasantly surprised. She lifted a hand, squeezing a colored and with a game made him understand to take it.  

It was not one of the coldest nights in Osaka, it was already spring, but occasionally some gusts of wind really shuddered. Circumspect Jaebum came up, taking the blanket and thanking with a nod while she went back to focus on her book. She pretended to focus, in fact, she was trying not to give him too much attention; not because she wanted but because it hurts to look at him and to know that now they were two complete strangers.  

"What are you doing at this hotel, anyway?"  

"I live here.. The company pays me the attic, but I hate it.. But I can't refuse. " She shrugged her shoulders, answering with her gaze on the book, omitting the reason for that preferential treatment. "Let's say I helped avoid a dangerous crisis last year and from that moment keep me tight, they're afraid I'm going back to Seoul."  

"Or the son of your boss is shamelessly flirting with you." With a low tone, Jaebum suggested feeling the anger mount in his chest without apparent reason. He didn't have to care about her life, especially not the sentimental one.  

"Your power of observation hasn't changed to what I see."  

"And you allow it?"  

Lifting her gaze she literally glared him and he almost made two steps back, since he was still standing in front of her with the blanket in his hands "Jaebum, I don't think we are in the situation of being able to do this kind of conversation. Not you and me. " Contemptuous she cut the conversation in two; making it totally die and lowered her gaze by feeling her hands start to itch. She would have liked to slap him, but she couldn't afford it.  

"You're right, we're nothing. Why should I care about it. "  

His sentence was a breath but she managed to hear it and had to bite her lower lip to not replicate. Jaebum sat by her side, it was repaired that little space but pretended that she wasn't there. Just as Hyelin did the same thing, despite his presence could fill that space where she had taken refuge a few hours earlier.  

They remained silent for a good half an hour, Jaebum had sent texts to anyone but probably they were already asleep or pretended not to read them, while Hyelin had continued to read in silence, only the sound of the pages between them two.  

There were too many untold things, too many wrong words screamed, too many silences not filled to burden on both. They were almost able to perceive them at the touch and she almost cursed when some tears made their appearance on the page of the book. She quickly wiped the tears, failing to be seen by him while the pleasant memories of their relationship flashed into her mind, allowing her to remember the reasons why she had fallen in love with him.  

"Yes, I often lie to myself," Jaebum whispered from nowhere, taking her by surprise and she immediately closed the book.  

Both knew it was time to really put an end to that story.  

Jaebum sighed, feeling his own heart heavy and perhaps not ready to let himself go in that way, resting his head against the wall behind him. "The most recurring lie is the one I tell myself at night when I try to fall asleep. I say it was the best thing for both of us. "  

"Yes, I know that lie.."  

"The funny thing is that I feel better when I accept the truth. That I ruined everything and that no, that wasn't the best thing for both of us. "  

Hyelin forcefully bit her lip but keeping to repeat to herself that that was the point that they were putting to that almost infinite story. Jaebum smiled at her and she remembered what she felt every time he smiled, trying to ignore the thick stomach that struck her sudden.  

"Hyelin that wasn't the right choice for either. I was simply afraid of not being enough. You and my career, I couldn't focus on both. " His voice was full of grudge and he reproached himself every time, because only after he lost her and in the months to follow he realized that he could make it.  

If only he wanted to make it.  

She was on the verge of speaking when he lifted his blanket and covered both her body but also his own, although she already had a blanket to warm her up. Immediately she felt an unknown warmth on her cheeks and after two years she was blushing but thanked that the night was their company and he couldn't notice it. But he had noticed and thought that her beauty was being exalted by that pink nuance that colored her cheeks slightly chubby.  

"I could if I wished."  

"Jaebum.. You couldn't. You kno--"  

"You surrendered to not make me feel guilty, Hyelin. And that's what makes me even angrier.. It was my fault, but you.. you blamed yourself for everything, " he interrupted her, looking at her for the first time since a few hours ago.  

He looked at her indeed, in her sweet and hazel eyes; and as it happened every night in her bed when they were able to sleep together, he felt at peace with himself.  

She trembled under the weight of that look, immediately lowering her own and looking for something to focus on; "Maybe we were both stupid, Jae.." she managed to whisper shortly thereafter, while her voice trembled and broke to every word.  

-She hasn't changed.. Look at me Hyelin, please look at me. -  

But she didn't gaze at him, continued to keep her face low, her cheeks red and not for the cold. It was so that he took away her book from her hands and turned better towards her, he cupped her face gently, lifting it and allowing himself to enjoy that spectacle which she actually was.  

"On one thing I never lied, Hyelin. You were my future at the time. "  

"I was.. Your verbal choice clarifies so many things, Jaebum. " She made to move away, in an attempt to free herself from his grip but nothing succeeded in helping her. Especially not his eyes, at that time softened by a feeling that she could not decipher. There was no trace of his sharp gaze of his constant attempt to keep people away. Hyelin was only able to see the desire to be understood in those dark and profound eyes.  

"It didn't change the thing, though. You're still my future. It's tiring to lie to yourself, you know? Aren't you tired too? If you're not.. Tell me. If you were able to move on, I'll accept it. "  

He wouldn't have endured that kind of truth, but he couldn't do anything to. If she really had found her own way and life without him, he would have accepted it.  

Their breaths were mingled due to the closeness, while Jaebum began to caress her cheeks with his fingertips without loosening the gentle grip.  

"I.."  

"Hyelin.." He murmured gently, resting his forehead against her in a daring impetus that he should have been two years earlier. "It's all right, whatever your answer is."  

"Do you think after two years it can work? We've changed, we grew up and.. I mean look at us.. We look like two strangers. "  

"Seriously? Look at us, Hyelin.. And be honest with yourself. "  

And Hyelin had to stop for a second to really think. The same feelings she felt every time he touched her were a riot within her at that time, they were able to talk despite everything that had happened and she knew she didn't erase those feelings. Perhaps her, as well as for Jaebum, was simply fear. Fear of suffering again and seeing everything disappear for the umpteenth time.  

"Are you not afraid, Jaebum..?"  

"Yes. But I think if I didn't give a second chance to us I would live in a much more miserable way because I'd be a fool. " A little smile, not amused but frightened, outlined on his thin lips making her just sigh.  

"Jae..."  

"Look me in the eye and tell me you don't love me. If that's what you really feel. "  

"And if I never Stopped Loving You,"  

Would you give me a chance to show you that I won't let you go again? "

"Hyelin.. And if I never stopped loving you, would you give me a chance to show you that I won't let you go again? "  

Every word exuded sincerity and Jaebum had never felt more exposed as at that moment, because the fear of having lost that moment; their moment, it was so big that it made him feel like on the verge of a ravine.  

Hyelin remained silent, trying to understand what she really wanted. Yet her heart was so clear about what she felt and for once decided to stop listening to her fears. Or she would always find an excuse to escape from her own feelings.  

Slowly she laid her hands on his, lowering them but without giving him time to fight she surrounded his neck with her arms and went to hide her face against his chest. She clasped forcefully, she almost clung to him and Jaebum immediately surrounded her hip with an arm and drew her towards himself, feeling his heart on the verge of exploding.  

Neither of them needed one more word. That ending so discounted, in fact, had just turned into a new beginning.

[ginevrafangirl]

Initialization

Warnings : Torture and Death of an OC

She knocks quietly at the door to a chamber.

"Come in!" says a hoarse voice.

And she does. He is sitting on a cot, bare-chested, healing some wounds. She gasps.

"What happened to you?" she asks, her voice full of concern.

He looks at her for a moment, then answers, "Initialization. To be fully considered as part of the pack, even as the alpha, you need to go through it. And since they are werewolves, it can get… a bit rough at times."

She feels a wave of concern for this man go through her, even though she only met him a few hours ago.

Rodolphus and Bella were flooing to her Uncle's house, Number 12 Grimmauld Place, when something went wrong and they were spit out the wrong grate. The floo network had undergone an unexpected malfunction and all traffic was jammed. The engaged couple had no choice but to wait in the big, dirty mansion till it got up and running. There were anti-apparition wards on it, an indicator that it was inhabited, so they set off to find their unwitting hosts.

The host, it turned out, was a muscular man, with matted hair, rotting, yet sharp teeth, and keen yellow eyes. His nails were covered in grime, and smelled of blood and fleas. Being quite familiar with the smell herself, she immediately warmed to the man who introduced himself as Fenrir Greyback. Bella had heard of the werewolf; he bit his victims early, and manipulated them throughout childhood to hate the government and all civilized society. She didn't care much for civilized society either, finding balls, galas and tea parties a complete waste of time.

After a quick chat, Fenrir had graciously agreed to host them till the Floo network was up and running again. He told them a little more about him, that he lived in here with his pack, and that he had a special experiment underway. Then he'd stopped, like an idea had popped into his head. He said that since they were there, he could unveil it then. He led them to his dungeon where there sat a huge cauldron full of a black, bubbling potion. He then assembled his entire pack, and added the final ingredient before their very eyes, the potion rose and swirled around a black tornado, slowly taking the shape of a man.

That man is currently sitting on a cot in the dungeon with scratch marks all over his torso.

Deciding to be bold, she walks into the room.

"Can I help you with that?" she asks, softly.

Another pause later, he nods. "Thank you."

Taking out her own wand, she mutters a few incantations she remembers from her sisters that heal broken skin and bruises. Andy had always loved learning healing, and even though she thought it was useless, she had obliged to learn a few basic spells. She twists her wand in the shape of a tear of the phoenix, one of the most powerful healers. His chest glows brightly for a few seconds before dimming, looking as good as new. She smiled for a second before gracefully seating herself next to the half-naked man.

"How do you know so much?" she asks.

He quirks an eyebrow. "About?"

She shrugs, "Everything. The way you talked to me at lunch, and the ease with which you use magic isn't something I would expect from a man generated out of a potion four hours ago. Everything. You seem… very well informed. When we talked at lunch, we talked about politics, values, and the future of the Wizarding World. Now, you are very familiar with the inner workings of a werewolf pack. Seeing as you were just generated out of a potion, I am a little surprised at your worldliness. Were books part of the ingredients?"

He laughs, before saying, "Didn't Fenrir tell you?"

"Tell me what?"

He smiles tentatively, saying. "I haven't been completely generated out of a potion. The potion was made from my remains."

Shock. Revulsion. Horror. Those are all things she should be feeling right now. Instead, she is intrigued, asking, "Your remains? So you were…dead?"

"Not entirely. I chose to end my life so I could change myself. But all that has ended is simply my physical appearance. My memory remains untouched… I had some dirty Muggle blood in me, and in my features. That was unacceptable. So, I decided to rearrange myself." he says, his voice still slightly hoarse yet suddenly chilly. 

She is surprised to hear of his disdain for Muggles. It is becoming more and more popular to embrace these useless nitwits, and she is glad a few vestiges of sense still remain.

"Interesting," she mutters. She has been against such filth since the beginning, hate and repulsion that was partially filtered down from her parents, partially all her own. She knows she is right, but having someone else share your belief always makes you feel validated.

"Tell me more about you, before." This time her voice is louder.

"Before I became this?" he asked coldly.

She nodded. "I am very interested in finding more out about you. You seem like a very righteous man, and I am curious as to what motivates you, what drives you."

He smiles, and his face looks even more… distorted. It fascinates Bella to no end. When he smiles, his dull skin brightens, in a stark contrast to the rest of his body. A hint of his yellow teeth peek from his lips, and… even a dimple graces his left cheek.

"I lead a simple life. All I want is to purify all magical bloodlines. By any means possible. Too long have we wizards, gifted with such power, downplayed our abilities for Muggles. We do not need them. Not even as slaves, as we have house-elves for that. They have absolutely no purpose other than impeding our lives from embracing our abilities and not being afraid of the Statue of Secrecy. The purer the blood, the stronger the magic." He speaks with confidence, head held high. In that moment, he shines. The dirty dungeon is not a very glamorous place, filled with cobwebs and dust, but in that moment, Bella feels like she is witnessing the birth of a glorious revolution.

Another chill runs through her. This time, it is triggered by the assertiveness of the wizard before her. To have survived death proves he is a remarkably skilled and resilient sorcerer, and his ambition lights a similar desire within her to help him. He had just expressed what she had been feeling for a long time. That fire of conviction she had let go of after her engagement, comes back with a vengeance. She is eager to fight; to fight for what she believes in.

She lets her eyes trace his features. He does not look human. Gleaming scarlet eyes, pale skin, smooth scalp, hints of a long nose, lips that are drained of all colour. No, he is not human. He is a God.

"May I?" his questions shakes her out of her thoughts. He is pointing at a thin black piece of cloth behind her. He wants to get dressed.

Silently she hands him the fabric, which he wears with fluid movements.

"I am pleased to know what you think of me," he says, once dressed.

She is startled. "I did not say a word."

He smiles that inhumane smile again and remarks, "Yet I know you think of me as a God."

Her breath catches in her throat. "I have never met a Legilimens that could break through my barriers." She has been trained since a young age to bar inquisitive idiots from her mind. Her parents warned her how many powerful wizards were skilled Legilimens and desired to bring down the Black family for doing what they believe in. "You must be truly formidable."

"I am., he says with utter certainty. "Your barriers were the strongest I have ever come across. What is your family name?"

"Black. I was Bellatrix Black, daughter of Cygnus Black."

For a split second, she sees a flicker of surprise in his scarlet eyes.

"Black? Well it seems I stumbled upon a member of the purest family of all," he says, sounding interested.

She rushes at the opportunity, eager to please "Our family motto is 'Toujours Pur'. I have a sister who married into the Malfoy family."

"The Malfoys are one of my most loyal supporters. If you were to join me, you would have very useful ties."

She stops for a second. "J-Join you?"

His gaze sharpens. "Yes. Join me. You would be doing your family and yourself a great favor. I would be pleased to have both your husband-to-be and you to join me. We would make a formidable team, bringing vengeance on our enemies and letting nothing stop us from our goal. And when we inevitably win, you will be rewarded most of all for believing early on."

Suddenly, she remembers Rodolphus, having a chat with Fenrir in the lounge. Feeling guilty, she widens the gap between her and the man before her. Rodolphus. Her family wants him for her. And she is already promised to him. She is a woman of honour. She cannot be swayed by annoyingly attractive super wizards.

He seems to sense her change in mood. He inches forward. "You would be…invaluable to me."

She is paralyzed; elated at the thought this man is talking to her in such a suggestive manner. She feels completely drawn in. As he inches closer, her mind draws up justifications for the deed she is about to commit. Who is she? Cattle? She will not be promised to anyone. Her whole life she listened to her family. It is time she does something for herself. Besides, no one expects Rodolphus to be faithful. Why should she?

He keeps moving closer to her till their faces are only inches apart.

"You have already shown your magical skill by healing me," he whispers. "I want to see what else you can do."

She closes her eyes, completely swept away by the charm of the man. At this point, he could ask anything of her, and she would oblige. He however, makes no further move. After realizing that, she opens her eyes again.

"What do you want to me do?"

He licks his lips. "Joining me requires certain… parameters. Mudbloods and filthy Muggles will be eradicated. Show me what you would do to them. Show me how much pain you can bring scum. Can you bring them to their knees? Can you make them beg? Can you torture them to hell and back without any aggressive behavior from them?"

Her heart beats wildly. Her hands are trembling. Her eyes are bright, excited. "Bring me a target, and I will."

He backs away, and pulls up his sleeve. For the first time, she notices a giant red snake tattoo on his forearm, coming out of a skull. She feels incredibly aroused at the thought of being branded like cattle by this dream of a wizard, even though she had just objected to the same treatment from her parents and from Rodolphus. He presses one long pale finger to it and it burns black.

"What is that?" she asks.

"A method of communication between me and my… friends," he answers. 

No later than a minute later, Fenrir rushes through the door. "You called?"

The man looks at him and commands, "Bring me your least useful beast."

Fenrir looks uncertain for a second, but the harsh look sent him cowering to find him.

Bella guesses why that command had been so specific. She will kill the beast, and prove herself to be worthy to join the formidable wizard beside her.

"What about Rodolphus? How shall he prove himself?" she asks.

He glances at her, saying. "He doesn't need to. I am convinced a formidable witch such as yourself would have been promised to an equally formidable wizard."

She laughs. "Oh no. My family decided he was a perfect suitor based on his stellar bloodlines, and he is a great wizard, but he comes nowhere close to me. To put it into perspective, the most creative curse he can come up with is Diffindo, because he loves seeing blood spurt from his victims. He can barely hold the Cruciatus for a minute. I have for twenty."

He is barred from replying by the arrival of a pale, thin and undernourished girl.

"I'm Astrid. Fenrir said you asked for me."

Bella turns to face her. "Oh hello, Astrid. Why don't you come in?" her voice is a perfect mix of friendliness and charm.

And she does, slightly timidly. The girl settles herself in a chair as Bella silently locks and wards the door to prevent the noises from going out. She doesn't seem to notice.

"You are really pretty, Astrid," says Bella, standing up from the cot and walking towards her prey, twirling her wand between her fingers.

"Erm…thanks?" she says uncertainly.

Leaning in, just as the wizard had done a small while ago, her voice changes. "That wasn't a compliment." And with that, she slashes her wand across the girls face and makes several deep cuts along her nose, lips and forehead. The gashes start bleeding heavily as she shouts in pain.

"Not so pretty anymore, are you?" mocks Bella. When Astrid doesn't answer, she gets angry and inflicts a few more cuts on her body.

The girl is crying, trying to shield herself with her hands, but it was useless. No one was safe from Bellatrix. Not the girl who had dared to make fun of her at Hogwarts, or the boys who called her names behind her back, and especially not the innocent bystander to any evil thing she planned in public. Do not even get her started on all the Ministry officials that tried to restrain her that one time.

Seemingly getting bored from the blood, Bella dials it up a notch with her specialty, "Crucio!"

The girl starts screaming and writhing, only kept in place by the metal constraints that Bella had conjured.

A manic smile spreads across the face of the dark haired woman as she listens to the screams. Bella feels a rush through her body, an exhilaration that nothing else could provide. She remembers her excitement when her parents taught her the curse. Cissy and Andy had also learnt it with her, but she was the best at it, took the most pleasure. Cissy had done well, Andy had barely passed, but she, she excelled at it. Her favorite time is probably the current moment, but beside that, it would have been the time she accidentally drove a First-Year insane after challenging herself to keep it up as long as possible.

She lifts the curse and turns to the wizard, an eyebrow raised.

He looks at her, his lips stretched in a smile, gleaming eyes. "Finish it."

Her grin broadens. "With pleasure."

She then turns back to her panting victim with a flourish and waits till the girl looks her right in the eye. "Avada Kedavra."

The green light shoots from her wand, hitting the girl who immediately goes limp.

"Well done." She hears him say. Bella faces him again as he continues. "You are truly a find. Worthy of my mission. You shall receive my mark."

She bows her head slightly in gratefulness. "What can I call you?"

"Whatever you like, Bella," he says in that high voice of his.

"Thank you… my Lord."

A twitch of his lips betrays his stoic expression as his lifts his wand and engraves the skull and snake into her skin. "Mordsmordre!"

A/N: I am a reserve for the QLFC on FF and this is my entry for Round 6. The prompt is ‘Rocky Horror Picture Show’

[lightening816]

So last night, I was chatting with Beckham, AKA @themarquisofdorks, and I came up with this ridiculous Modern AU where we worked as double agent criminals for The Red Hats’ Mafia in a more modern Cheesebridge, all from The Boxtrolls. 

Mr. Snatcher is the big bad crime boss, Mr. Gristle is his weapons technician, Mr. Trout is his brute muscle, Mr. Pickles is his right hand, and Beckham and myself are double agents for the Boxtrolls. He pretends to be Snatcher’s backup lackey, and I am Beckham’s platonic gun moll (in real life, we’re just good friends, but I pose as his moll so that I can stay around as Snatcher’s informant). 

My Boxtrolls OC, Pepper, is the victim of a rigged adoption after she accidentally witnessed the head bashing of local inventor, Herbert Trubshaw, who’s head injuries keep him from pointing out his perpetrator, much to the despair of his wife, Marjorie and their little son, Arthur. Snatcher forged a background check and illegally adopted her, right from under the nose of her manageress, Lady Portley-Rind. 

When Pepper comes in, asking for something from her brute of a father during on of his meetings, he’ll send me to go tend to her needs. Pepper loves his stooges, especially Uncle Becky and Auntie Lucy. 

...

  The third floor of the Snatcher and Son's factory in Cheesebridge, England was dimly lit as people of various ages sat across from a wide, smooth desk make of dark wood. A thin line of smoke made Lucy, a young woman wearing a long blue gown and a red headband in her hair, place a hand near her nose. Next to her was a young man with short blue hair and a handsome brown business suit, Beckham Marque. They stood across from three older men, a beanpole with a cone shaped head and worrying eyes named Mr. Pickles, a giant with bulky arms, thin legs, and a cauliflower ear named Mr. Trout, and an imp with black rimmed glasses and ice blue eyes named Mr. Gristle. The last of them held the handle of a club in one hand, patting the end of it onto the palm of his hand.

 His giggles made Lucy a little nervous, but she knew better than to complain. After all, it was The Boss's turn to speak."Have the preparations been met?" A thick, oily voice said from behind a huge red, leather chair. "Yes, sir," Lucy confirmed. "The Mayor will pass the Curfew Bill any day now." "Excellent," the voice replied. "Boss," Beckham had the nerve to interject with blushing cheeks from the nerves. "I want to be the one to go out ahead of time and scout for those Boxtrolls." Everyone looked at him as Lucy nibbled her bottom lip. 

  "J-Just to get a head start on those monsters, ya know?" He insisted. The voice from behind the leather chair chuckled, causing Beckham to tremble in stress as well as a little bit of excitement. "I admire your spirit, Mr. Marque...but Boxtrolls will never come out as long as the sun is up. We'll have to wait until sunset. Simple as that," the voice concluded. "But, if Lucy and I could-" "Mr. Daniels, I will not say it again." Lucy took his shoulder, causing the boy to sigh. "Very well..." "Good show," the leather chair swiveled around, showing its occupant as a tall man with thin limbs, and a enormous potbelly that shifted as he moved. His ovular face held the coldest gray eyes Lucy had ever seen. As if to say that he had probably seen plenty of grown up things she and Beckham could only dream of. Mr. Archibald P. Snatcher smirked a little at the disappointment on the boy's face. He loved implementing his authority at the best of times, especially as he put out his old cigar and lit up a new one.  He pushed back loose strands of thinning brown hair, tied back.

  "Mr. Gristle, how are you with weapons?" "GUNS!" The two kids flinched, before Mr. Gristle showed a arranging gun with a net attached. He placed it in Mr. Snatcher's hand surprisingly gently, so that the Boss could really examine it. "Hmm...nice projectile, firm elastics-" he shot at an empty corner on the wall, getting a stir out of all of them except Mr. Gristle. "And shoots at a reasonable distance, well done, man," the Boss concluded. "Now, Mr. Pickles, have you identified every sewer entrance in town?" "Yes, Boss," the beanpole replied, as he plucked out a map of the steep hill of Cheesebridge. 

   Mr. Snatcher grumbled at a couple of imperfections here and there, but accepted it all the same. "We will use this one until you can make up a new one," he replied plainly. "Oh! Yes, Boss," Mr. Pickles accepted, with a hint of disappointment. Mr. Snatcher nodded as he turned to the gentle looking giant. "Mr. Trout, has the agreement with ‘Loch, Stacchi, and Barrel’ gone through?" "Yes, Mr. Stacchi is willing to accept the discounted payment for gas, like you said." "Perfect! I knew he'd see things out way." He rose from his chair and strides towards his employees. "Lady and Gentlemen, we are coming upon a new era for our little 'family' as it were. With this new curfew in place, we'll surely be able to destroy every Boxtroll in this town. And I will take the place past Snatchers should have taken before me, a White Hat!" 

   "Ooh..." the rest of them replied. 

   A White Hat meant power, prestige, and position. Only a man of valor, chivalry, wealth, or fame could even dream of winning such a prize. It was sure to be Snatcher's soon. "My descendants shall always know the power of respect and brotherhood. Just think of it: Snatchers are, in my experience, a league all their own. A prime example of civilization and culture!"

   "Daddy?..."

   Everyone spun around and in the doorway stood the smallest 6 year old any of them had ever seen. Her long deep, red mop of hair fell gracefully down her shoulders and her brown eyes were wide and full of life, despite their innocence. Lucy looked on her with compassion, Beckham with fondness, and the stooges with humor and joy. Snatcher, on the other hand, grumbled.

   "I told you to stay in bed," he said with almost a threat in his voice. "I-I-I know but I can't sleep." Snatcher rolled his eyes and sighed. "Again? This is the third time this week!" He exclaimed, unamused. Pepper seemed nervous. 

  "Damn that little runt, never sitting still-Lucy!" "Yes, sir!" "You're a girl, go put Pepper to bed!" "Me? I don't know much about putting kids to bed." "I know you don't, but you'll do as you're told. Mr. Marque, you will supervise." "I-I will?" "Yes, I'm done with you two for now anyway. Off with you."

...

   Pepper enjoyed the company of her Daddy's stooges, especially Uncle Becky and Auntie Lucy. Every since Mr. Snatcher had caught them and brought them home like he had with her, she didn't feel as lonely. She also felt more tired. During their off time, they would watch the likes of Inertia Tumbles, Andrew Galaxy, and Pepper's favorite: My Small Horses: Love is Enchantment. 

   After Lucy got her ready for bed and Beckham cooked them something to eat in Mr. Snatcher's fancy, rustic loft, they watched a couple of episodes of Inertia Tumbles, only to have Beckham and Lucy tuck her in just after the second episode. "Am i going to bed?" "Yes, Miss," Beckham replied. "I don't want to go to bed." "Aww, why not?" He asked. "Because I want to watch Flyer-Meek in My Small Horses. She's my favorite." Lucy laughed. "Me too, tomorrow perhaps." 

   They sent her to sleep and left her there in her pitch black bedroom. Lucy sighed. "Saying 'goodbye' to her is going to be tough when they find out whose team we're really on," she explained, looking at a cardboard box on the counter. Beckham smirked. "Who says they have to find out?"  

[miracleonicefanfiction]

#17 Jack O'Callahan

Let me just tell you something. Dating John J. “Jack” O’Callahan is not easy. Not at all. Yes, he is handsome and loyal and is willing to fight for those who he loves, but that doesn’t mean being with him is easy. Trust me, I know. Jack and I have been dating for two years, since my sophomore year at the Boston University, but we’ve never faced such challenge like we did when he made the Olympic hockey team. I am an athlete myself and I understand practices demand much attention and I am glad he goes along with all of his teammates, but I could count the days we spent together since he made the final cut on fingers of one hand.

~20th February 1980~

The boys are playing their best once again and the game ends with USA winning over Western Germany 4 to 2. Needless to say, the whole arena is giving them standing ovation as they salute us, their faces glimmering with pride and sweat. I catch Jack’s eyes and give him thumbs up. For a second it seems he will wave at me and his lips are starting to curve into a smile, but that doesn’t happen. I see him hug his teammates again and I also notice Pavelich, Ramsey and Strobel point up at me. He quickly nods, but that’s all he does. Great, he is in a bad mood again and again for completely unknown reason.

Avoiding the crowd, I make my way to their locker rooms just to congratulate them for another great victory. When I get there, I hear loud laughter, hollering and shouts from the locker room, making me realize how happy they are after another great game. The door open and Herb walks out: “Hey, Y/N.” “Hello, coach Brooks. C-Congratulations on another win,” I stutter quietly and look down. Even though I’ve met him after the first game they played, he still gets me nervous and maybe a bit afraid of him. Hey, he is capable of anything and I don’t doubt he would forbade OC seeing me if his game started going downhill.

“Thank you. But honestly, I think they could’ve played much better…”

Leaving the words hang in the air, he curves his lips into something that looks like a smile and walks away. I wait until he disappears around the corner before I knock on the door. Voices on the other side are immediately silenced and I hear one of the Minnesotans whisper: “Herb’s back, come on, shut up everyone.”

“Oh come on, you scared us shitless!” Bah exclaims as I open the door, grinning widely.

“Sorry, guys. Didn’t think you’d be such chickens,” I wink and earn glares from twenty guys, the nastiest one coming from no one else than my beloved boyfriend.

“Did you come in here to make fun of us?” his voice cuts through the air and the rest of the boys go completely quiet.

“Excuse me?”

“Did you come in here to make fun of us?” he repeats, his fists clenched. I’ve seen him pissed off, but he has never acted like that.

“I came here to congratulate you.” “Then do it,” he spits and continues taking off his gear. One part of me wants to start yelling at him for being such an idiot, but the other part is telling me to let it go. Something must’ve happened on the ice to piss him off despite the victory and the best thing to do is to leave him alone.

“Well, uh, congratulations, guys. Another great game. Verchota, congratulations for that game-winning goal. And Mac, those were two beautiful goals!”

“Thank you, Y/N/N,” both Minnesotan grin while pulling on their team hoodies. After fist bumping few other guys, I head out, without looking at OC for the final time.

Later he comes to the hotel and knocks on my door.

“What?” I hiss when I open the door and see him standing there, hands in his pockets.

“I…can I come in, please?”

With a sigh, I move away and let him in. As he sits on a bed, he still has hands in his pockets and seems a bit uncomfortable.

“What do you want, Jack?”

“I came to apologize. For acting like an ass. Uh, it’s just… I don’t want guys to see my softer side, you understand?” “No, I don’t. But it doesn’t matter. Glad you dropped by, but I think you should leave.”

He gets up and sighs: “I am really sorry. We should go out tomorrow. Just the two of us, after my practice.”

I look up at his eyes and melt a bit when he ruffles his blonde locks: “I’d love to go out with you after tomorrow’s practice.”

His smile grows wide and he ruffles his hair once more before leaning down and placing a sweet kiss in the corner of my lip. I let him kiss me, but I don’t kiss him back.

“Again, I am sorry,” he mumbles before leaving.

~22nd February 1980~

Two days later it’s the ultimate showdown as the boys are playing against the Soviets. Last time they played against each other, it ended horrible, so it’s understandable everyone is nervous. Jack and I have an agreement not to see each other before and during the game, but right now, my feet feel itchy to go and see him just to wish him luck.

Yesterday he was the same sweet himself as he always is when no one is around. He took me skating and we ended up drinking hot chocolate and watching other skaters. Jack talked about his life and I could see the guy who had fallen in love with hockey and skating at the early age whenever he looked at those families skating up and down the ice.

“You know, sometimes I feel…like hanging up the skates. But then I remember that little kid who spent hours on the ice. And that keeps me going.”

“Jack, one day that little kid will inspire many other little kids. They will take you as an inspiration and maybe that will keep them going.” He took my hand in his and intertwined fingers with mine: “I am sorry for acting like I do…I know I don’t make it easy for you, especially since you came here because of me.”

“It’s okay, I understand. I mean, I don’t understand why do you have to act like that around the others, but I understand you are tired and nervous and everything.” “I know, I know…I will try not to do this anymore, okay?”

I quickly kissed him before we both stood up and headed towards the hotel hand-in-hand. As soon as we were close enough to be seen, he let go my hand and tucked his hand back into his pockets.

“Well…see ya tomorrow?”

“I guess…good luck tomorrow. Beat some Soviets for me.”

He chuckled and touched my skin gently with his fingertips: “I will. I promise.”

With that and a quick peck we went our separate ways.

And now I am here, one of the thousand fans and waiting for the game to begin. I know how hard the entire team worked for this, how much they trained only to prove themselves. I catch a quick glimpse of Jack and he seems ice cold on the outside, just like the rest of the guys. But on the inside…they know that if they mess this up, all those months of hard work will be for nothing. And they know coach Brooks will give them hard time.

Tonight’s game is something completely different than their last game against the Soviets. They seem to play with more confidence and less fear. I don’t know what Herb told them before the game, but it seems to be working.

The last period

Ten minutes before the last period ends, Rizzo scores and gives the boys a lead, leading the whole arena into euphoria. Whenever the Soviets shoot on goal, I close my eyes and half expect the siren to go off. But it doesn’t and the final minute begins quite soon.

“Eleven seconds, you’ve got ten seconds. The countdown is going on right now! Morrow up to Silk! Five seconds left in the game! Do you believe in miracles?! YES!”

The final buzzer goes off and it hits me- the group of fresh-off or college kids has just defeated the absolute favorites of the Olympics. The underdogs defeated big, scary Soviet team and connected the entire nation, making us all believe in miracles at least for a while.

Guys pile up, celebrating, hugging, shouting, crying and congratulating each other. I stand up and clap with the others when I see OC looking up at me. I quickly smile and wave at him, expecting him to smile and turn around like he always does. But he does a completely opposite thing. He signalizes me to join them down on the ice.

I don’t remember moving so fast down the crowded halls as I move tonight. Still, it seems like an eternity before I get to them and first thing I see is no one else than Jack O’Callahan sitting on John “Bah” Harrington and shouting out of pure happiness. I step on the ice and smile awkwardly. I’ve never really been a social kind of person and I really don’t know what to do. Neal Broten pokes Jack’s sides and points in the direction of where I am standing. Jack follows his stick and when our gazes meet, I lift up my thumbs. He is going to do what he always does; smile a bit and pretend I am not there.

But he stands up and next thing I know I am in his arms, his shoulder pad squashing my nose.

“We won, Y/N! I can’t believe it! We won!!”

“I know, Jack, I am so proud of you.” I laugh and look up at him. He is already staring down at me, his eyes filled with tears he won’t let anyone see and way too many emotions to count.  I get so lost in his eyes I don’t even realize he lifts me up until I can’t feel ice beneath my feet. Jack spins around on his skates, holding me above his sweaty head.

“Jack! Put me down!”

I get a loud laughter in response: “Nope!”

“Jack, everyone’s watching.” Now he puts me down, but only to smash his lips against mine and wrap his gloved hands around my waist, holding me close to him. When he pulls away, the rest of the boys are around us and they squash us into a sweaty yelling group hug.

“OC, you finally publicly kissed your girl!” Rizzo laughs from the pile of guys and Verchota continues: “He actually touched her in public for the first time!” “Okay, okay, guys, knock it off. I know I was being an ass…” “Lightly said,” Silk interrupts and earns a round of cheering. Jack smacks his head: “Shut up. As I wanted to say, I know I was being an ass and treated you like shit time to time and that was not kind of me…” I kiss him again just to shut him down: “It’s okay, you were ashamed of me.”

“I was not! You should be ashamed of your stupid boyfriend. Y/N, I know it’s hard being with me, but you cope with everything I put your through with no or little complaining and I…Well, I love you.”

I look up at him and this time, I notice tears. And he is not even trying to hide them.

“I love you too, John J. O’Callahan.” His face lights up and once again, he lifts me above him, above the others.

“Jack! Put me down, please.” it takes a bit more convincing this time before I am finally back on the solid surface. He does but me down, but doesn’t let go of my hand for a second. Not even when we join the celebration and not even he gets tackled down by McClanahan. So all three of us land on the ice, me between two loud hockey players. Mac pulls himself up, but OC and I remain down. My hands frame his face and I lean down for another sweet kiss. He quickly pecks me back before I pull away and rest my head on his chest.

“Thanks for coming to Lake Placid with me, Y/N,” he murmurs softly and kisses crown of my head.

Yes, he may be a douche sometimes, but I would never let him go. Never.