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#but also even if had been awhile she could still be alive because im thinking about this one cut line from the mafia boss
the-amazing-wonderss · 8 months
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hihi!! i hope both of ur guys day is going good! This is my first time requesting so im a little nervous i read ur rules over like ten times (⁠;⁠ŏ⁠﹏⁠ŏ⁠) can u pls do Kou, Nene, and Hanako reading their s/o a bedtime story >w< ty in advance :3
A/N: Omg hihi its been awhile since we last posted but we're here and alive still~!! Oh and also If it makes you feel any better, this is actually our first ask 😭??? So we're really excited and decided to have both of us write for it, aren't you a lucky anon?! Anyways I hope you like it! ⎯ Mod ☠️ Omg...a request...Hello! ^^ We added Mitsuba to the list, I felt like a silly fella while writing for him. His brain makes me insane. ANYWAY, I actually didn't write angst. I can't remember the last time I did that. Enjoy~ ⎯ Mod👻 (if tumblr eats this again, I will cry)
Content: Fluff, slight angst if you squint in Hanako and Mitsuba's part, no gender mention for reader aside from the word 'prince' and 'princess' being used. Summary: Reading their s/o a bedtime story
Characters: Nene, Hanako, Mitsuba, Kou
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A story about a girl who gets saved by her prince, not in an ideal way like she wanted it to be, but nonetheless, still fell for them anyways. ⎯ Once upon a time I had my eyes set out for a fairytale of my own, wanting to feel like a hopeless romantic with the person of my dreams. But to think that the person I've been dreaming of was actually beside me this whole time... Perhaps instead of me, it was them that was hopeless in the end.
It was during when you stayed over at her house and weren't able to sleep, that she suggested she'd tell you some of the latest stories she's been reading about. Some that you've already heard of (either from her already mentioning it before or seeing it in the media) while others not so much.
When NENE talks about her stories she's very enthusiastic about it. Happy to even have someone listening to her rant on and on about something she's been dying to talk about for awhile, but it's even more special when it's her S/O ⎯ especially if they were the ones to ask her first before she even got the chance to herself.
Her stories lean more towards romance for obvious reasons. Loving the tropes to the story is one thing, but another would be because of how she likes to imagine herself in those sort of scenarios. Embarrassed to even admit it out loud, though it's already clear why she likes them so much.
And although at first she was telling the stories to you to get you to fall asleep, it sometimes ends with you staying up a little later due to her getting a tad bit carried away.
Oh but if you do end up falling asleep right before her? You won't ever see or hear about it, unless you were pretending to be asleep, but Nene is definitely the type to give you a shy goodnights kiss. Feeling brave only because you were asleep, but if not, she'd totally cover her face as she fumes at how embarrassing it is to get caught in her sly act.
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A story about a commoner boy who had a princess that loved him dearly, despite his backstory and everything he deemed as 'unworthy' of their love, nothing ⎯ not even his words, could sway their view of him. ⎯ Time and time again you run and hide from me. Behind that wall of doubt and insecurities there's something that you clearly don't see in yourself that I adore so much. When will you finally come to terms and see things my way? Love yourself as much as I love you.
It's weird how you decided to nap in the bathroom. Especially his bathroom where he's poking you constantly until you tell him off.
When HANAKO is reading you a story, he has you sleeping and leaning against his shoulder. His hand occasionally shifting your head back in place when he notices you nodding off or about to fall, or maybe even just doing it to use it as an excuse to pat your head ⎯ who knows? Clearly not you.
But the types of stories Hanako tends to read to you depends entirely on his mood. Whenever he's feeling like a jokester, he'd tell you horror stories just to see your scared reaction as you cling onto him ⎯ or when he's feeling a little solemn, he'd tell the sort of fairytale that ends with bad endings to them.
Differing between those two genres the most. But on the more rarer occasions, does he switch it up to something else.
Something odd, something you wouldn't even expect from him. Something ... that perhaps convey how he really feels but is too afraid to admit it out loud? It honestly depends up to you to actually catch onto it. If not? Then you probably won't ever hear that story again from him.
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A story where a ghost finds a human and wishes to stand by their side ⎯ A story where death will not part them, for they belong together. ⎯ I keep thinking that I could be good enough for you - that you could love me as more than 'friends', maybe I am a bit selfish for thinking this. Not that I could ever say it to your face.
Someone decided to be nice today and bless you with a sleepover!! At your own house of course.
MITSUBA didn't plan on reading to you but you told him a few stories of your own. He wasn't sure why he did it. Perhaps it was the smile on your face every time you started reading to him, so he returned the favor.
He wasn't sure what to read until he came up with his own idea. A short story about a ghost, since he knew that firsthand. A story with a ghost about falling in love with a human, a story he...
As he told the story, he could see your smile slowly disappear, almost as if you realized he was the ghost in the story.
"The ghost never told them how he felt."
And that was the last thing he said before being engulfed in your arms. He knew this feeling - he's felt it before. That warm feeling.
The feeling of love.
The feeling of an old memory.
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A story where the knight doesn't get the girl ⎯ oh...I guess this is a different ending. A story where the knight gets the prince, and they live a happy life. ⎯ I didn't change the ending! This is how it was meant to be! I...I suppose if you prefer for the knight to not fall for the prince then...Huh? You liked it?!
KOU brought a book of short stories over to your house. He was super excited to be able to stay the night.
Unfortunately for him, you had the same book and it just so happened to be your favorite!
Kou told the story as it was written for a bit.
Until he got to the end.
The story was meant to end with the prince marrying a princess but Kou couldn't bring himself to say it. Perhaps it was because he was never the prince. He was always second.
But it seemed that you didn't mind. It does get a bit boring reading the same story over and over again, and you did like listening to Kou talk.
"I'm...really happy you liked it." He says, almost struggling to get the words out as you blush and smile.
Maybe this really was his story, and that's why he rewrote the ending. Well, you can't say it's impossible for that ending to happen.
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👀👀 okay that was Jules??? Holy scrap im excited!! Now Rosie whatcha got cooking?!
Sure, this one needs a smidgen of context though. My brother told me what the original ending was going to be for Bayverse Dark of the Moon and it's been on my mind a lot lately. Imagine that Megatron having to atone for his war crimes. And then getting stuck with a powderpuff of a mechanic (My self insert Rosie) 😂 Call it a midlife crisis. It's uh gotten out of hand so here's a chunk of it. Heck I don't even know if it'll get posted. Also, mention of Noah because I'm mushing continuities together!
Something in him hated this. It hated her kindness. And he hated her not because he was cruel, but because he was starting to understand why the bots trusted her. He hated that he felt an attachment forming. He hated that a thought of staying in this place crossed his mind. He hated that even with his records she never treated him as an enemy. He hated everything about her and this situation and yet the moment the others left he tried to keep her attention for awhile longer. He needed it.
“How… did you learn to repair Cybertronians?” he asked wanting to learn more about her despite the dark energy in his Spark screaming at him to leave it.
“Well, for the minor stuff I learned from Ratchet initially. Basic biology and terminology and the like. It’s very similar to things we have here so it wasn’t too terrible. Especially considering my father taught me to repair automotive vehicles.” Rosie said as she began to clean up the workshop so she could work on his right hydraulic tomorrow, “Then Noah taught me to sew bots back together. So, long as we can get parts from their chosen earth altmode it seems to be an easy task.”
“And reviving bots?” Megatron seemed almost cautious with this question as he carefully sat back down on the concrete floor of the hangar.
“As Jazz said, it was an accident.” she chuckled, “When he was brought to us his Spark was in one piece, just dormant. And one day while Noah and I were stitching him together I had a brilliant idea. What if your Sparks needed the same electrical pulses it took to revive our hearts? And well, I took my taser and just shoved it to the Sparks case holding and there he was. Dazed and confused, but alive. It wasn’t planned just a stroke of luck.”
“A risk… one that worked out in your favor. Interesting…” he said watching as she hopped onto a lift to get to his level.
“Mmhmm. And besides, he was thought to be dead. So, if it failed it wouldn’t matter. It was worth the risk.” she explained coming to level with his optics, “I can also repair aesthetic injuries like your helm with steel. So, long as I treat it like a transplant your energon, blood… or well the equivalent seems to grow over it and make it apart of you. Jazz? That panel on his abdomen that you tore in two? That is a steel replacement I did.”
Megatron recoiled at the mention of the war crime he had committed. Not only had she definitely been told about his past, but it was absolutely eerie how she spoke about it so calmly. But, beneath that was relief. She didn’t seem to judge him for his poor decisions made from being power hungry and filled with a rage that he still fought with despite the truce.
“I see why Sam trusts your work.” He said.
“I wouldn’t say that exactly, I think he trusts Noah more than me. But, only because he’s been doing it longer. Mirage isn’t going to believe me when I tell him I got to help repair you.” she snorted leaning on the rail, “Listen, I am highly aware of the circumstances between you and the other bots. But, I’m also highly aware of how and why it happened.”
“Then why are you helping me?” his voice was low as if he was a dog ready to bite.
“Sometimes, kindness is enough.” She responded.
Something inside of him clicked. Though he couldn’t quite place what it was. He watched as she lowered the lift. He gritted his dentae as his mind whirred with what that meant. Kindness was still a concept he had issues with. He couldn’t fully grasp it. Yet. So, he decided to leave it. It was a sentiment he could live with.
“I’ll see you in the morning.” she said, “If the others give you trouble let me know.”
With that she left and all he could do is sit and stare into the wall in front of him. He didn’t even notice the others coming in. He was ruminating about what was said. What it meant. Why would anyone give him kindness? He was aware of what he did and clearly this human was to. So, why? Enough? What was that supposed to mean?
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onyx-roses · 1 year
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Aight so this is little overdue since I finished the game awhile ago but I need somewhere to vent lol. So...Bayonetta 3...where to start??
Ok so for starters, even by Bayonetta standards I feel this game's story is a clusterfuck. Like the Bayo series story has always felt confusing to me due to there being time travel and whatnot (or maybe im just a dumb dumb who doesn't get it) but at least I feel Bayo 1 and 2 attempted to have a cohesive story. This one feels because of the whole multiverse thing, they must've felt like they could just retcon shit and do whatever they wanted Idk. I get that with this series, gameplay is the initial concern for the devs, and story is an afterthought but c'mon. The final boss is the wackest by far. Not only design but everything in general. And I felt the other multiverse bayos were wasted potential. They all got done so dirty. The multiverse was built up so much and then you rarely to get to see them and then they all die...like wtf. I'm especially still gagged at how chinese bayo died. In such a stupid fashion. She had more than enough time to react but no she stands there a few seconds too long and dies. This is Bayonetta we're talking about!! Her reaction time and reflexes are pretty much always flawless and she has witch time for fuck's sake! At least kill her in a more believable manner! And then Jeanne....my poor girl Jeanne. I feel killing her was so unnecessary. For what?? For fucking what?? Instead what I would have done was keep her alive and have her mentor Viola.
Now the ending....I admittedly didn't hate it like everyone else but it wasn't really stellar either. The final act of the game was overall pretty sus. Tbh, what I hated more than the ending itself was the fact that it is insinuated that Bayo 1 and Bayo 2 are two separate Bayos. That to me, not only makes things more confusing but makes the journey you take with Bayo 2 a little less meaningful? This whole time I thought we all played the sequel thinking we were seeing more of OG Bayo and her character development and what she had been up to but no. It was a different Bayo the whole time? Idk, I feel that lessens and cheapens everything we saw in Bayo 2. To think there was a direct connection between the two and nope. I will admit tho, it was pretty dope from a gameplay perspective, teaming up with the other two bayos was amazing. Not to mention when you take control over bayo 1, omg the feels. The fact that mysterious destiny is playing and her lifebar and magic mimic that of the first game.....just ugh amazing. I wish they would have let us switch between bayo 1 and 2 in that fight but oh well. At least at the end of the game, I was pleasantly surprised to see they brought back the 'let's dance boys' dance sequence. I rly missed it back in Bayo 2.
Ok so now admittedly imma nitpick some more minor things but they bugged me enough to mention them lol. First off why THE FUCK can't you play as Jeanne in the main story???? Y'all did it in the last two games! Just treat her as a skin/costume like in the previous games! I get her not being playable in Viola chapters but Bayo's? Nah son. Wtf. And they didn't giver her costumes either. Not. One. Like, the egyptian one is right fudging there. I'm not asking for 10 different outfits but c'mon. Or bare minimum they should have let us change her colors. Was also upset Viola got the same treatment too. Would have loved to have seen in her some different outfits or colors. Them getting rid of Umbran elegances made me sad. Nintendo costumes were also absent this time around which is a damn shame since those were a blast to use. This might be dumb but the lack of different taunts was a bit disappointing too. I would always look forward to choosing different weapons and seeing what taunt she had. I guess those got traded in for idle animations this time around. Now moving on to enemies, fights and bosses are bombastic as ever but man, the enemy design in this game is seriously lacking. The angels and demons are so memorable, they have character, they are brimming with originality. These white/green blobs ain't cuttin' it. I felt like I was fighting the same enemy over and over again. I think they may have exhausted all creativity into the demon slaves and masquerades. This next complaint is me being whiny bitch I get it lol but I REALLY don't understand why they changed the sounds for the platinum and pure platinum medals. Those are iconic sounds for the Bayonetta series. So why change them? Like, I'm seriously asking. Cause it seems like a random change to make? Now they are barely noticeable and sound like generic forgettable ass chimes. The camera in this game could get god awful at times too, which considering the high action pace of this game is a big problem.
So I could keep going but this is long enough lmao. Overall, I would be lying if I said I didn't enjoy playing through Bayonetta 3. It's just as over the top and chaotic as previous titles. I genuinely had so much fun with this game. I don't really have any complaints of the gameplay mechanics off the top of my head. But everything else...my god, platinum has some 'splaining to do.
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dadbodfanatic-x · 2 years
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A Sirens call part 1
James “Bucky” Barnes x Original female character
A/n: I’ve been on an “I’m a slut for Bucky Barnes” kick and the only way im getting out of it to finish my hopper story is to write it. It’s gonna be in your perspective so you can imagine who you like but when other characters refer to her she’s gonna have a name and a face claim. I apologize for that but I can’t write unless I can picture them together.
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“You’ve known him for what? A week?! I’ve known him my whole life and I watched him fall off the damn train! I don’t care what you think you “feel” he’s dead!”
Even when you wake up you still feel the venom laced words Rogers spewed at you over the radio, you’re covered in a thin coat of sweat and you’re trying your hardest to zero in on the familiar beats that echo around in your brain but it’s been hard for months now to pull it to the forefront and concentrate on it so you do the only thing you know how to do the slow down your racing heart.
You sit up on the edge of the bed and roll your shoulders and neck out, the only positive to this being “dormant” was you didn’t wake up to the extreme headaches and body aches but you’d take those back in a heartbeat if that meant you could tune into the noise and drown everyone else out. When you finally stand your heart is still racing a million miles an hour. That dream never gets any easier and it doesn’t matter that it’s been 70 odd years the sting still doesn’t hurt any less.
“32557038” you paced and repeated it like a mantra, like a prayer to a God you’re not sure exists anymore after everything you’ve been through. Sometimes it took minutes and sometimes it took hours before you’d calm down but it always helped you remember.
After your nightmare you knew you’d be awake for the remainder of the day and you needed to move today anyways, you never stayed anywhere longer than three days. It must have creeped up on you while you were listening to the agents on the other side of the door because you didn’t hear it in the beginning but now you could feel it in your veins. The familiar “thump…thump…thump” it always started slow and it took you awhile to realize that they must have been waking him up.
You began rushing around the motel room gathering the last of your things, you needed to be somewhere stable before the evening settled in because that’s when the headaches and the palpitations started. You tried not to complain because whatever you were feeling was a fraction of what he was going though, at this point it felt selfish to hope he was still alive. You never expected it would take 70 years to track him down, you also didn’t expect your commanding office to sell you out to Stryker for his own benefit either. That put a good couple years between you leaving the base in Germany that day and finding him.
You were finally on the road, map laid down in the passenger seat like it was actually going to help you pick a spot to lay low for awhile, but you already knew. Something had been screaming Washington in the back of your subconscious for hours now so that’s where you went. It was a long drive and you weren’t a huge fan of the music that was on this late so you sat in silence. Well, as silent as your head could get when he was active.
When you finally settled on a sleazy motel on the outside of town you realized sleep wasn’t in the cards tonight, whatever he was doing was stressful and as much as you hated this feeling because you knew what he was probably doing you also had to let out a sigh of relief because he was awake.
You had been pacing forever repeating it back to yourself for so long your voice was hoarse “32557038” again and again. You had resorted to tapping the numbers out on your thigh when you heard it. An almost deadly silent “ding” you froze. You had the phone for emergencies only and only one woman had the number. It had been 10 years since you gave it to her and you hadn’t heard from her once. You were terrified.
You hadn’t even unpacked yet too worried that you’d feel the need to move again since you were so restless. You pulled the phone out of the backpack before putting the straps back over your shoulders, boots tied tight for an emergency exit and you sighed before you opened the message.
“Think this might belong to you” and a file attached. The nausea you felt when you clicked on the file disappeared almost instantly “Director Furry assassinated by The Winter Soldier” you rolled your eyes.
“Who do I care about this?” You slid through mission reports until one stopped you in your tracks. A small solo picture, hair in his eyes and a mask over the lower portion of his face but you could pick those eyes out of anywhere.
Your words caught in your throat “Sergeant James Buchanan Barnes 32557038”
Your heartbeat in your chest for the first time in 70 years synched to his heartbeat in your head “I got you baby”
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ahatintimepieces · 3 years
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I just realized that bleak December by set it off fits snatcher and Vanessa when I listen to it
Omg “So give me any reason not to cut you out” ;o; I can see this being the Prince trying to save things or Snatcher right after the cellar reflecting on how he tried so hard to salvage their relationship. “I think I drove too far for that bleak December” could be the flower incident, maybe, and then “ You're not fooling anyone, not you, not me / So I wonder how you stay alive / When all I do is freeze,” screams the cellar.
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poppy-metal · 3 years
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so uh,,,,this ended up being alot softer then i was expecting LMAO.
Bully!eren x reader
Cw: not alot, some smut at the end. Tame for me but i was in my FEELINGS okay.
Word count: 2.3k
The familiar sleek black of erens benz pulls up to the side of your house as you walk home from a late night trip to the grocery store, pints of ben & jerrys ice cream in the bags, as well as several other snack items one might munch on to cram for an exam, which is what you planned on doing. 
You side step more onto the sidewalk when he pulls up beside you, still driving just slow enough to match your pace. He rolls down the window, jerking his head, “Just the girl i wanted to see,” he drawls hooking his arm out his window to lean out a little, he grins, “its fate” 
You scrunch your nose up and scoff “Stalking is another word for it, jaeger”. You look him over suspiciously, “you wanted to see me?” 
He rolls his eyes. He’s wearing aviator sunglasses, pushed up his forehead. Loitering in front of your house like this, you’re aware of how different the worlds you live in are. Everything about eren is expensive, from his car to his sunglasses to his clothes, even the way he smells, the cologne he wears, all tells how important he is. Meanwhile here you are in your oversized hoodie and leggings, hands full of stuff you’d bought from the convenience store, prepared to spend your night busting your ass to even stay in the college you had to claw your way to get into, wherein he had gotten in without even trying. You’re not self conscious, at least not usually. You’d never yearned to be apart of erens world too terribly, and it was eren who always sought you out, not the other way around, when there was plenty of rich girls right up his alley and status that would be glad to be with him and yet here he was at 11pm at night. You try to push down the way your heart flutters at that fact.
“Uh huh. Get in the car, bambi, m’taking you somewhere” his teeth are a flash of white against the night, promising trouble, as always. Your grip on your bags tightens, as does your heart in your chest. You glance away, “i have to study” 
“Study?”
Your brows pinch together and you hold up your bags “Not that you’d care, jaeger, but some of us have to actually study to achieve our goals. I can't entertain you tonight, im busy” 
Eren doesn’t look put out in the slightest, glancing down at your bags with casual disinterest“You dont need to study”. And then he looks up at you and meets your eyes, your breath catching, they look closer to the shade of seaglass today. “You’re smarter than anyone i know, ___, and i know alot of people. Whatever you want to pass? You’re already there. Just come with me, please”  
Your eyes widen and your heart spasms in your chest, caught off guard by the raw honesty in his voice. He has moments like this, where he usually teases you and gets under your skin but sometimes he says something that makes everything in you jolt. Its not fair. Its confusing and it messes with your head, makes it fuzzy, weakens you and makes you do things you’d never do with a clear mind.  
You wish you could fight it, wish you could roll your eyes and tell him no and do what you need to do. But you don’t. Huffing you say, “Ugh, fine. Just let me put this stuff up, my ice creams probably already a puddle by now” you turn and rush up to your house, ears burning when you hear him call out, “Thatta girl!” 
You try not to put everything away to hastily, thinking he ought to squirm just a little, but even you can’t deny the eager buzzing under your skin. When you clamber into the passenger seat of his car eren turns to grin at you as he flicks his sunglasses back over his eyes. “Knew you’d see reason, bambi”. You roll your eyes at the nickname, crossing your arms over your chest as you side eye him warily, “where are you taking me jaeger, is this a kidnapping?” 
“Not a kidnapping when you want it, sweetheart”, eren says, putting his arm around the back of your seat as he backs up his car to make a uturn. You dont know if the flustered leap in your chest is from the petname or the way his forearm looks flexing, the cords in his neck prominent as he looks behind him for any oncoming cars. “Just trust me, yeah? You’ll like it” 
You sink in the seat, trying to get away from the warm heat of his arm so close to you, but hes taking it away soon enough, only to draw your attention again to the way his hands look steering the wheel. His hands….You turn to look out the window, opting for silence, because you feel like you’re about to lose your mind. This car is just so..him and its overwhelming your senses. It smells good, it smells like him, his cologne wafting all around you. The sleek interior of his car is crisp, clean, sharp, and just so richboy it feels surreal. You haven’t been in his car before. 
Eren seems okay with the silence though, tapping his finger idly against the wheel as soft music plays from the radio. Its strangely peaceful, actually. Before you know it, the whirring of houses and neighborhoods and highway turns into palm trees and sand. You sit up straighter, coming out of your daze when you realize eren is pulling his car into the sandy bank by a large body of water. The beach. You haven’t had a chance to go here. 
The water looks like black at this time of night, there are no waves, just sparkling dark abyss that stretches out for ages and ages, glittering under the moonlight. There are no other cars parked close to you so its just you, eren, and the sea. 
You spend quite awhile gawking at the ocean before you come to your senses and turn to face eren. He has his elbow propped on the wheel, chewing idly on his thumb as he peers at you from over his sunglasses. A small smile is playing at his lips as he watches you. 
You gape, “What…” 
“You’re cute when you’re excited, you know” his voice is low, dropped in that way that makes your toes curl in your shoes. You ignore the way your heart skips at his words, probing him, “Why did you bring me here, ren?” 
He turns to face forward, flipping the radio off so theres no background noise between the two of you. Taking his sunglasses off the folds them and puts them on the dash, sighing as he watches the ocean from out the windshield, gnawing on his lips. Tap, tap, tap, his fingers on the wheel go as you wait for him to speak. “Last week,” he starts, glancing at you, “When we had to do those presentations in class about places we feel at home..you talked about the library” 
He laughs under his breath like its some kind of endearing joke, shaking his head a little. You dont speak. “The library is where i first saw you, you know? I mean, before all this, before i..talked to you, i noticed you before you ever noticed me.” A small secret smile plays on his lips, “You were reading ‘percy jackson and the lightning thief’, and you haid your hair in pigtails. Your glasses were way to big your face. My first thought was ‘wow she looks like an owl’, but then i saw you laugh at something on the page and my second thought was ‘i want to know her’. We were in middle school.” 
Green eyes connect with yours, “You still go there, i know. But anyway..this is. My place, i guess”. He purses his lips “i figure since i'm always intruding on your little sanctuary , i’d let you see mine” 
You take everything he just said in. He’d known about you, noticed you, since middle school? You hadn’t acknowledged him until sophomore year of highschool, hadn’t spoken to him since senior year, when this tug and pull had first begun between you two. You remembered that day, your mother wouldn't buy you the series so you’d relied on constantly re-reading the books at the library. It was around that time you began to see that place as something special, too. Tucked away from the world, you could lose yourself in another's story. It was like magic. And to realize eren had been there the whole time, had glimpsed that, realized that the library was your special place, that he’d even payed attention to your presentation in class at all in the first place...that he was here, showing you something of himself in return, even though you’d never asked. You’d wondered of course. 
Eren was an enigma, he was on most days, the bane of your existence. He had made your life a living hell on many occasions, but with that, he also made you feel more alive than ever before. He’d dragged you out of your bubble and challenged you to see the world beyond school and books and fiction, he raised your emotions and forced you to experience everything head on. Anger, confusion, happiness, anxiety, thrill, lust and…
You look at him. The way the moonlight curls into the car like a kind of mist, making his eyes look absolutely beautiful. The soft wave to his brown hair, his eyelashes, everything about him made you ache with desire. All the time, even when you swore you hated him, you wanted him. 
“Kiss me”. Its whispered out so low, for a moment you worry he might not hear it. Its the first time you’ve asked for him, reached for him first without his taunting to guide a confession from you. With this request, filling the air between you, you’re making it known that you want him, want this. It doesn’t change anything and yet it somehow changes everything. You can’t look in the mirror and tell yourself he doesn’t occupy your mind and your heart anymore. Not after this. 
Eren seems to realize this too, his intake of breath letting you know he heard you loud and clear. “__..” he says, inching closer. His eyes, dark now, are so very hungry as he closes in. In a moment his lips, soft, so soft, are on yours. You sigh into his kiss, opening for him easily when his tongue glides into your mouth. His hand comes up to cup your jaw, tenderly, thumb stroking it. God, you want to eat him, you want him to eat you. The wet smack of your lips fills the car as you hungrily nip, and suck, and kiss at each others lips. 
When eren pulls back, he’s panting, hair disheveled. You don’t remember when your hands first sunk into his hair, but they must have, messed up as it is now. He looks at you like he wants to devour you, he licks his lips. “I’m gonna put your seat back,” he tells you slowly, each word dripping with finality, “im going to kiss every inch of your body and then you’re opening those legs for me and letting me inside, baby” 
You don’t have it in you to act scandalised, you know what you want. You’d basically asked for it. You just nod, never taking your eyes off his face when he reaches down and pulls the lever. And then you feel yourself being tilted backwards as the seat goes back, laying you flat. Your chest heaves with barely contained need as eren then settles above you, every clothed inch of him hovering just barely above you. 
Holding your eyes, eren lowers himself. You spread your legs easily to accommodate him, gasping when you feel his clothed cock settle right against your clit through your leggings. He rocks once, gently, against you, his hair hanging over his forehead as he looks down at you with utter want in his eyes, “Want you to feel me”, he murmurs, and rocks again, “Wanna fill you up so good, you can’t ever pretend that im not apart of you. Because, this, baby?” Another rock, a shuddered moan leaving your lips, “This is it. No ones gonna fuck you like i do, no ones gonna get inside that little head and play the games we play so well together.” 
One of his hands trails up your thigh, dipping his hand under the fabric of your leggings and pulling them slightly down, he pecks your lips, once, twice, three times. “Tell me”, he groans into your mouth, peeling your clothes off you slowly, “Tell me you understand, Tell me this is everything” 
And you tell him. Tell him through your whimpers when he parts the folds of your slick cunt with his fingers buried inside you. Tell him through your moans into his mouth when he shoves his jeans down and splits you open on his cock. Tell him through sighs of his name, when he rocks into you, licking into your mouth as he spears you open. Tell him through the way you claw your fingers down his back when starts to fuck you hard, rocking the car with the force of his thrusts. Tell him through the way you spread your legs, even wider, toes curling as he wrings orgasm after orgasm out of your tight little pussy milking him. 
“Its everything, you’re everything…” You cry out again and again, clutching onto him as he pumps you full of his cum, groaning brokenly into your neck. 
“Fuck”. He pulls back to look down at you, brushing your damp hair back from your face, still inside you. “You’re gonna fucking kill me, you little nerd” 
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unprofessional-bard · 3 years
Text
Don't Push It, Pt. 1
Unprofessional Bard's Masterlist
Part 2 (1/2)
Based on this request.
Pairing: Joel Miller x Female!Reader
Warnings: Age gap (the reader is 26 and Joel is 53), a lot of teasing/sexual tension, implied romantic feelings.
Summary: It's been going on for years. They both know better than to act on their feelings, but patience starts running thin when a few boundaries are crossed.
Word Count: 5.280
Author's Note: Okay y'all so I am a whore for Joel with long hair and I unintentionally made this into a fix-it au where Joel is alive. Also, the reader is going to have some OC characteristics to fit the scenario better. Finally, this fic changes POV's a lot, so I'm gonna clear that up:
• ----R and below: The reader's POV.
• ----J and below: Joel's POV.
• ----B and below: Both POV's.
The fic starts off with Joel's POV.
Enjoy!
gif credits: nikolai-stavrogin
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"Hey, Joel," Dina called over to the man sipping coffee on his porch.
"Mornin' Dina," He replied as his daughter's girlfriend walked over to him. Her baby bump had grown a little more and it never failed to put a smile on Joel's face.
"There's a little trouble with the patrol today," She said. "Jesse won't be able to make it to patrol with (Y/N)."
Shit.
"And they're askin' me to fill in?" He sat up a little.
"Yup, Maria told me to ask you if-"
"No problem, sure, I'll do it." He spoke nonchalantly, then asked if Jesse was alright. Dina told him she wasn't sure, that it must be something important for him to miss patrol, which made Joel nod: "You told (Y/N) too, or...?"
"No, but she's gonna be there regardless. I doubt that she knows."
"Alright, thanks Dina," Joel got up and she smiled in return before walking over to Ellie's place.
It was wrong. By the lord it was wrong, but he couldn't help it. You were fierce, confident, determined and disciplined; qualities he came to appreciate in time, but a bit differently only when it came to you. He shouldn't want you, an unknown source in his mind kept telling himself, but he did. He didn't know why, he never found himself being attracted to a woman your age, yet you had him under your spell. Oh the things you did to him...
Worst part was, he couldn't have you, whether he liked it or not. Nevermind the fact that you were too young for him, you probably didn't want him anyways- despite the crystal clear signals he got from you. It was just how you were, though: A little physical and perhaps a little flirty, but he could just be confusing that with your confidence.
Or he could be overthinking everything.
Joel readied his backpack, but realised there was still a little more than an hour before the rendez-vous, so he decided to head over to your place to tell you about the news to kill some time. After he made it there and knocked on your door while calling your name a couple of times, which were left unanswered, your neighbour curiously looked over the fences and called over to Joel: "She left a while ago... For the gym, I think."
"Thank you," Joel smiled politely and earned a wave from the lady in return. He took his time as he walked over to the gym. After he arrived, he looked around for awhile to spot where you were, but when he found it, the sight almost made him choke.
There you were, ankles crossed as you pulled yourself up and chin over the barfix with closed eyes, a frown and a clenched jaw. Sweat laced the sides of your face and Joel's eyes wandered lower: You were wearing a sports bra and matching shorts which hugged your frame tightly and the sun was shining directly onto your muscles, which the lord himself carved out and were also sweaty, but Joel didn't care - it made you look more attractive, if anything. You let out a huff and lowered yourself down, while he tried to collect himself. He didn't want to disturb you so he decided to wait until you finished...
...but you didn't seem to be finishing any time soon. He didn't want to look like a creep as he stood there and waited, so after you did another pull up and let yourself down, he cleared his throat.
----R
"(Y/N), here you are."
Had you not been already hanging, you definitely would've fell when you heard Joel's voice reach your ears. You opened your eyes to see him slowly approach you, his stupid thumb stuck in behind his stupid belt.
You hated it: You hated finding this man attractive and you hated your guts for occasionally flirting with him - him, who probably would never look at you the way you looked at him. He liked you, of course, he enjoyed your company but not the way you wanted him to. You hated that you had a crush on this man, who became even more gorgeous as he let his hair grow over the last few years, you also hated how he neatly parted it to the left.
Patrol with him was both a treat and a curse at the same time. You got to spend time with him, which made it a treat, but when you watched him- saw him in action, how aggressive he was, heat started to pool between your thighs. He was so rough and precise as he was smart; he always knew what to do under any circumstance, so you almost never worried when you went out with him. He made you feel safe, praised you and played with your heart when he responded to your flirting and nothing came out of it.
You hated it because your little "crush" on him was pathetic, for someone as confident as you. Sure, you teased and flirted with him, but one praise as simple as you did well today and you'd be melting on spot. You even tried to get with other people to distract yourself, to no avail. They weren't Joel.
None of them could ever be Joel.
"Good morning!" You said with a high pitched voice, reflecting your struggle to keep yourself up.
"To you too," He chuckled at your state and watched as you pulled yourself up slowly. "Hey, listen. Jesse ain't gonna make it to patrol today so I'm fillin' in for him."
----B
The way you faltered a little didn't escape him: "Why? Is he okay?"
"I dunno, but I'm sure he is. Something important must've come up," Joel informed you, not wanting to worry you as you seemed to care about him. A lot. Ugh.
"Tsk," You breathed out and closed your eyes to focus on keeping your head above the metal bar.
Joel then spoke again: "Yeah, I was just here to let ya know."
"Okay, well-" You exhaled audibly and suddenly let yourself go. The force of the action sent you flying a little and it almost made you bump into him: "Woah, oh, sorry-"
"Woah there," You both chuckled at the same time. Joel held you by your elbows to help you balance yourself and your heart rate picked up pace when you realised how close your face was to his chest a moment ago - the chest you wanted to get your hands on: How muscular was he? How many scars did he have there? How would it feel to run your fingers through the hair as you ro-
"Uhm, yeah, as I was saying," You snapped yourself back to reality and took a small step back, disappointed by the way his fingers let go of your arms: "I'm done here, just need to do a couple of stretches, then head back and take shower."
"Right. Well, I'll see you at the gate, then?"
"Uh, sure, yeah."
You didn't know what else to say other than stay. You wanted him near you and around you, you wanted to show off to him and you wanted his attention, so you had to think quick.
Joel didn't want to leave either, even though you were going to spend the whole day together. He still nodded and turned around to leave. It was then, when a brilliant idea crossed your mind: "Actually, Joel?" He turned around, gave you a soft look that made you want to run up to him and kiss all over his face. "Could you help me with my stretches?"
If he'd been drinking or eating anything, he most definitely would've choked: "Help you?"
"Yeah," You flashed a smile at him. "It's simple, you just gotta press me down and keep me in place." The widening of his eyes, puzzled face and his tense posture made you shy. "Eh- Normally, Jesse helped me with them."
True. Some stretches required someone to push your body to its limits - when you worked out alone, you stuck to simpler stretches, but right now, you needed a reason to have him by your side.
Joel was torn between leaving, like a responsible person who knew when to walk away would. He was responsible, yes, but his moral compass was thrown out of the window whenever you joined the picture. So far, he wanted to think he was handling his emotions well- by not acting on them and not talking about them.
Now, however, it was as if he was facing the last straw. He had a few boundaries left to cross, and this was one of them.
"Plus, I'm a bit tired to do them. Will you help me?"
Lies. All lies.
You'd been doing these stretches for long enough, even though you'd worked hard, you weren't tired at all. Joel thought this to be the case, so he tried to go around it: "You sure? I mean, how're you tired?"
"I've been training like hell this morning," You settled on the mat. "I don't wanna do these stretches, but I have to. I'm not in the mood to pull a muscle today."
That was good enough for him really: "'Kay," He sighed. "What do you need me to do?"
Your eyes glowed in excitement before you faced forward and explained: "Im gonna lean forward, like this-" You extended your legs forward and lowered yourself down. "All you gotta do is press on my back and stop me from moving away for a few seconds."
A few seconds which felt like five minutes, truth be told.
As soon as he touched your bare back, you sighed, then forced it into a hiss. He immediately retreated his hands, thinking he hurt you, pushing the ludicrous idea that you might have moaned away immediately.
His hands were big and a little cold comparing to your skin which was on fire after the workout, but you'd be lying if you said you didn't do that on purpose. You straightened up and looked at him with an innocent smile: "Your hands are cold."
Not cold enough to make you react like that, obviously.
Joel offered an awkward chuckle from the back of his throat: "You're gonna have to deal with it, missy."
And deal with it you did- barely. Christ, that was a bad idea, your worst one yet. To have his hands on your bare skin, pressing you down made your cheeks burn and mouth hang open as he kept you in place. You almost didn't hear him when he spoke, too busy trying to comprehend the size of his hands and how they'd feel around your throa-
"How many of these do you gotta do?"
"Uh, dunno," You blurted out. "Not too many."
Joel was partly glad, it felt so wrong yet it was just a simple act of help you could've asked from anyone. After 20 seconds of staying like that, you straightened. You went into a head-to-knee position and gave him an okay to press you down again.
You switched to the other leg after half a minute, but you were running out of ideas. There weren't any positions left that you could use his help with, so you played one last card to ruin him: "More."
"W-What?"
Good riddance.
"Press a little harder," You pretended to focus and tried your best not to smirk, knowing you had him where you wanted.
"Oh- hm," He cleared his throat and pressed a little more down on your back. If your plan hadn't backfired and made you almost moan through your teeth, everything was going accordingly.
Joel went to pull back, but stopped when you added: "It's been a while since I did these..."
Christ.
"That enough?" He slowly retreated his hands and stood up, watching you lean up where you sat.
"Yup, that'll be it," You smiled and blinked a couple of times. If Joel had known better, he would've thought you were making him do that, then being all cute on purpose-
It was going to be a long day.
----R
Patrol with the older Miller went as normally as it always was. Part one usually went like this: Meet up at the gate, get your rifles and horses, ride out, reach checkpoint one and sign your names. The road to checkpoint one didn't have any trouble, it usually never did. It was more quiet between you two than usual though. Had you gone too far?
"So, uh," You said once the two of you mounted your horses again. "You coming to the dance tonight?"
"What?" He snapped his head in your direction, looking clueless. "What dance?"
"Well, not a dance exactly but- you know what I mean?" You started riding. "The adults only event?"
He looked really distracted, a bit tense even: "Oh, right. You know those ain't my thing."
"I know," You nodded with a soft smile. "But I haven't seen you in any event ever since you decked Seth."
"Decked?" Joel chuckled bitterly at the memory.
"He deserved it, and more, that prick," You rolled your eyes, making him chortle.
"And nobody managed to shut up about it for the whole month," He sighed with a gorgeous yet tired smile on his face which you managed to see just in time. "So, no thanks. I'll pass."
"Aw, come on," You whined. "You can't avoid coming to these events forever. Please?"
He gave you a confused look, his smile slowly disappearing but not in a bad way: "Why?"
A good question. Oh, no reason, just wanna try and make a move on you, quite possibly jump your bones if it all goes well.
"I wanna make sure you haven't lost your ability to socialise." You offered.
"Really? Why, you're my momma now?"
"Ew, no," You both laughed. "Can't I be sure my friend is alive and well occasionally?"
----J
Friend.
A word that made Joel stop and think.
You saw him as a friend, huh? Two people, with clear sexual tension and an obvious age gap between them- Friends was an awkward description for him, but it was better than nothing.
He opened his mouth to reply, to insist that he was indeed alive and well, but you stopped him: "You know what I mean."
The conversation was making him a little distracted, he noticed, so he decided to keep his mouth shut until you reached checkpoint two. You didn't press him on, which was also a delight. That's another thing he liked about you: You knew your bounds- in patrol anyways. Or maybe it was because you got to know him well over the time, knew what he liked or not.
Part two went quieter too- infected and conversation wise. Not even a single runner was on sight as you swept through the small cabins and houses. Except for the occasional clear's and nothing here's, you didn't say anything else. Joel itched to talk to you, about anything to break the silence, but he was too lost in thought.
When you finally made it back to Jackson, you finally spoke up: "So? You coming?" He chuckled, mostly out of relief, then you added: "I found a new outfit, I wanna know what you think."
That caught Joel's attention. With a curious smile, after handing over your horses, he asked: "What outfit?"
"You'll see... If you come." You smirked, your close proximity making Joel's heart race.
"Don't get your hopes up," He sighed with a small grin and tucked his thumb behind his belt, the other one gripping the strap of his rifle.
"You're the worst," You punched his shoulder with mock upset, making him chortle and stumble a little to the right. "Anyways, I'll see you tomorrow then."
Joel remained quiet, then you walked away with a soft smile gracing your lips. The words sunk deeper than he would've liked, a sudden wave of guilt soaking his guts with regret, even though you didn't sound disappointed or upset. Lips pursed, he watched you hand your rifle to Peter and sign off, then leave; his steps coming to a halt as you did.
He just might check out what was up at the dance tonight, if he could successfully move himself out of his comfort zone in the following few hours.
----R
"Well well, look who it is," Tommy grinned when you approached the doors of the pub. The night had settled across the sky by the time you stepped outside your place. The sound of music and chatter of the people from inside filled your ears.
"Yours truly," You smirked. "It's crowded in there huh?"
"It sure is," Tommy said as he turned around to lead you inside. "Adults only events tend to attract more people, as y'can guess. Don't you look pretty today."
"Why thank you." You smiled playfully: "For no one, but myself, at that."
You lied through your teeth. You had dressed up in the silly hope that Joel would actually show up. You had been planning on it ever since you came across the item wrapped around your hips in an abandoned clothes shop a few weeks ago, and this event was the perfect excuse for you to wear it. For him.
"I ain't sayin' nothing!" Tommy raised his hands up in defense. "Figured that much, haven't seen anyone catch your interest in a long time."
Ha. Nice.
The atmosphere was lively and the air was warm, full of energy. Chatter and dancing went about the packs of people scattered across the space, but you couldn't see Joel, much to your disappointment - you weren't surprised though. What surprised you was Jesse suddenly showing up.
"Where's Ellie and Dina?" You asked after a while of teasing him about missing patrol.
"They decided to stay behind, I guess." He shrugged.
"What can I get y'all?" Tommy smiled, suddenly appearing behind the counter. Without waiting for an answer, he filled two glasses and pushed them towards you. You and Jesse looked at each other for a brief moment, before knocking it back at one go. "Woah there..."
A round of laughter later, you felt someone's presence behind you, then they tapped you on the shoulder: "Hey, (Y/N)!"
Much to your disappointment, once more, it was a boy named Mark. He was a year older than you, had no features whatsoever matching Joel's prettier ones and he took an obvious liking to you, which in truth you didn't appreciate, even though he wasn't weird about it or anything. You faked a smile and turned to him a little: "Hi."
"Good to see you," Sure. "How, uh, how are you?"
"Busy, actually," You pointed at the glass Tommy was refilling for you.
"Mind if I join?" He made himself comfortable on the stool next to you.
"Yeah. I do." Your smile never faded but your words were laced with poison.
He looked between you, Tommy and Jesse, mortified at your answer: "W- Heh, well, would you wanna dance later, then-?"
"No, I don't." You spoke calmly and turned to face Jesse again, only for him to move to tap you on the shoulder, which Tommy stopped from happening.
"Why don't you go home, huh?" He grabbed his wrist firmly, but not hard enough to leave a bruise of course. "The lack of oxygen in your brain's clearly stoppin' you from understandin' a word as simple as no."
You looked over at the younger Miller, a stern look on his face which seemed to make Mark piss himself. Suddenly, an even deeper voice was heard behind the boy: "I advise you to listen to him, son."
You turned completely in your seat to see Joel grabbing Mark by the shoulders, making him jump, then remove him from the seat carefully. Mark's legs were quick to oblige, making him walk towards the exit, but Joel held him in place: "A-ah, what do you say to the lady?"
"I'm s-sorry, (Y/N)," He nodded quickly. "I'll never disturb you again, I promise."
"Good boy," Joel patted him on the back, which sent him running to the door. Your cheeks were suddenly burning and you couldn't help but smile shyly.
"Tsk, what a jackass," Tommy nodded disapprovingly as Joel took the now empty space next to you.
"You decided to show then, huh?" You smirked at Joel.
"Yeah, figured you'd break someone's wrists and make 'em eat it," He chuckled, tipping his head at his brother in a greeting -God he looked so handsome, was that a new shirt?- before he continued: "Decided it'd be a shame to miss it."
You giggled and lightly pushed at his arm, almost immediately feeling the muscles underneath the rolled up sleeve of his blue shirt: "I'll take that as a I came because you asked and I listened for once." The exchange, obviously, didn't go unnoticed by his brother and Jesse, which made you sit upright suddenly: "Tommy was the one who was gonna break his wrist anyways..."
"Nobody gets to disturb anyone here, especially right in front of me," He said and slid a glass to his brother.
Jesse joined in: "I doubt it, but should he ever-"
"Aw, you guys are spoiling me," You grinned and waved your hand down, pressing the other onto your chest.
----J
You looked beautiful. You were wearing a plain, dark green, mid-thigh, flare skirt; which could pass as a miniskirt, but Joel was no fashion expert. You always did come up with the rarest clothing items (like your sports set that morning), so he wasn't surprised that you happened across the skirt. You also had a simple, white, v-neck t-shirt on- which all in all was the reason you left Joel speechless: You could be wearing something as simple as these, but you'd still look so damn pretty.
A few minutes later, after Jesse and Tommy disappeared in different directions and you were finally left alone, Joel spoke up: "Is this the-"
"What made you-" You gave each other a brief look before chuckling: "You go first."
"Ah, I was gonna ask if this was the outfit you wanted me to see," He said, briefly looking down to point at your skirt.
He watched you run a hand through your hair and bite your bottom lip before answering: "Yeah..." You got up and stuffed your hands in your pockets, which made Joel's heart sizzle. "What do you think?"
He gave you a genuine smile: "I think you look beautiful."
The shock on your face made Joel panick a little, but when you offered a shy little smile, he relaxed: "You- Really?"
He gave you a single, slow nod in acknowledgement, his smile grew bigger when you beamed at him and offered him a quiet thank you, then sat back. You were staring hard at your glass, clearly avoiding his gaze and he found it rather cute, but didn't comment on it.
He was looking forward to chat with you, after all, you were the reason why he showed up, but you were unfortunately dragged away by a couple of friends, Jesse included...
To dance.
An upbeat song he didn't recognise started playing, putting you and another boy, Mick, to action. Everyone backed away to give you two space, then started off with what seemed to be something you'd been practicing for a while. You mirrored each other's moves, it was similar to some folk dance he'd watched way before the outbreak, but it most definitely wasn't a folk dance. Your arms linked occasionally, hands on your hips as you crossed each other's legs with fast movements and other types of moves Joel couldn't name if he tried, but it was organised and fun to watch. It wasn't intimate, too, just a silly little dance as you called it minutes later when you finished and walked to the bar for a drink. You didn't stay long, though, just downed your drink, winked at him and went back to the stage where you and Mick (but mostly you) stole the show.
It went on for two more rounds, to the point your t-shirts were absolutely soaked and your legs couldn't take it anymore. Joel had a particularly hard time in his seat, watching your skirt float around your thighs made him feel embarrassed with himself. Tommy even went as far as to tease him about his constant squirming, but a glare from his older brother was enough to shut him up.
The last dance finished off with you in Mick's arms, leaning back in his hold and closing your eyes with laughter. Everyone clapped you both, which earned you a kiss on the cheek from Mick- which you returned. Joel's jaw clenched unintentionally, even though you and him didn't appear to be more than friends.
Stop. Stop it, you idiot.
He couldn't care less about these types of things, drama about who's dating who and whatnot, but when it came to you he naturally grew curious.
He watched you, eyelids struggling to keep themselves open as Jesse led you and helped you onto the stool, next to Joel once more. You huffed and giggled, eyes closed with sweat droplets on your forehead. He couldn't help it when his smile grew wider at your tipsy state.
What he didn't see coming was the sudden hand on his thigh and your back against his arm, letting your head drop onto his shoulder as you let out a brief laugh: "Never let me dance and drink at the same time again."
Joel didn't know what to say, he quickly looked around for Jesse only to find him already gone and a couple of people staring at the both of you. With a rush of panic, he responded: "I don't think I'm the one you should say that to, darlin'."
Your hand and the rest of your body immediately retreated when you jumped at his voice: "Joel?!" You looked a little embarrassed and he couldn't help but smirk. "Uh, where's Jesse?"
The question almost made him scrunch up his face, but he patiently waited until the end of the conversation, which was after you've walked away to find the boy in question and he was alone with his own thoughts... Jealousies...
"He dropped you off and went over there, I think." Joel nodded to the direction he thought Jesse went off to - he didn't see though, he was too busy focusing on you when your fingertips had brushed somewhere dangerously near his crotch.
"Huh," You stared around to find him, but Joel figured you were too intoxicated to actually see that far. "You need to stop wearing the same clothes."
He raised a brow at that: "You tell him that."
"Oh I will," You grinned mischievously and suddenly grabbed Joel's glass of whiskey from his hand, then downed it at one go before he could intervene.
"Hey!" He tried to grab the glass from you but you leaned back. "I think you've had enough for the night."
"Says who-?" You pouted and at the very same time, lost your balance, realising that you leaned a little too back. However, Joel caught you; one hand on your arm, the other on your waist and he pulled you back - he didn't know if you did it purposefully, but you practically fell into his body: "Oh! I'm sorry-" You laughed, not looking sorry at all. "Thanks, Joel," You purred, extending the 's' and the 'l' at the end of each word as you grabbed onto his biceps. "You saved me."
"Pfft," Joel couldn't help but let his hand linger on your waist as he made sure you stood in place. Your eyes met when you lifted your head from his chest - the meaning behind his hazel gaze and your own was similar and it lasted for what felt like a whole minute, while in reality it was no longer than a few seconds.
You finally let his arms go and he took it as his cue to remove his hand from your waist (which, for a moment, felt like it had been glued there): "So... You enjoying yourself, old man?"
Joel sighed through his nose, amused at how the alcohol in your system was slowing your speech, then went back to how he had been sitting before you came. Just when you asked, the smooth, familiar tune of Ain't No Sunshine started playing. After all the excitement, a slower music felt nice: "Sure. You?"
"Oh I sure am," You nodded and leaned back against the counter with something of a triumphant smile.
"I can tell," Joel replied, then without turning his head, side eyed you. His stare later on moved down to your skirt. "Why'd you get all dressed up for, really?"
"Huh?" You blinked, not processing if he was asking what you thought he was.
"I, uh- just never took you for the skirt type."
"Is that so?" You asked, eyes widening. "Well, just trying on a new outfit..." You looked down and bit your lower lip, making Joel's heart skip a beat. He mentally kicked himself for not leaving right then and there and continuing to talk to you: "There's actually another reason."
"Hm?"
"There's this guy," You turned towards him, placed your arm paralleled across his on the counter and leaned forward a little, pretending to look around. His fingertips scratched against the wooden surface of the counter at the mention of this guy in question. "I don't know his name, but maybe you do?"
He just raised a brow when you looked at him innocently: "He's a bit old, around this tall," Your hand went back and forth in the air as you tried to size the man's height in your mind. "Has pretty, long, graying hair with an also graying beard... A little scar on his nose," You looked at him and leaned in a little more, invading his personal space but not touching him, then pointed at the exact spot on your nose and it was then, Joel realised, that you were indeed describing himself. "He's wearing this blue shirt and, honestly, it would look better on him if he opened another button or two."
I know, I know
Hey I oughta leave young thing alone
But ain't no sunshine when she's gone
He wanted to counter, tease you back, lean down and taste your lips, then place a kiss or two on your neck and bite it softly just to hear you moan quietly into his ear- he also needed to get his shit together, as much as he wanted to do all of that.
He couldn't quite believe his self control when he leaned away from you, especially since the tip of your noses almost touched and he felt your hot breath on his lips. He cleared his throat and quickly looked around to see if anyone was looking- no one had seen the rather intimate interaction so he spoke: "I don't know who that is."
The disappointment on your features was like a knife twisting up in his guts. You blinked a couple of times, but didn't lean back: "S- Sure you do..."
"I don't," Joel insisted, his voice stern. "Maybe you should look for someone else."
Your disappointment turned into embarrassment and anger, making you frown and lean back: "Excuse me."
Ain't no sunshine when she's gone
And this house just ain't no home
Anytime she goes away
And with that, you got up and stormed away, leaving Joel wanting, aching and ashamed.
Anytime she goes away
Anytime she goes away
Anytime she goes away
494 notes · View notes
missblissy · 3 years
Note
hello i saw you were accepting alastor requests so i might request a headcanon from alastor x fem! reader, where the reader is an acquaintance from his childhood, maybe their families were friends but he was never interested in meeting her and now in hell he discovers that they have a lot in common? maybe she also practices vodoo or witchcraft? If you don't want to, no problem, I hope you have a good week. 👋👋
((I would love too <3 And thank you! I hope you have a good week too friend! I had way to much fun with this one so it turned out long Like really long. it's been awhile since I've done these I got a lot of ideas in my head xD Im sorry but I'm not sorry. Hope you enjoy it!!!))
You weren't always in his view. You were just the neighbor girl next door. Sure, your mothers would make you play together during their Sunday brunch parties, but that didn't mean a whole lot then. Alastor was a strange boy you found out. He was shy, he didn't like to play with others, and honestly, he was a big cry baby, hence why you never really hung out unless forced to. And then one day, he wasn't there anymore. He grew up and moved away. Far far away into the big city or something along those lines. It didn't matter then.
But boy does it matter now. You never thought in a million years you'd end up in hell. And then again, you never thought in a trillion years that Alastor would the first real person you ran into down there. First of all, how did he end up here before you, and second... how did he recognize you in this new demonic body. You were frantic and confused and running away from a psychopathic demon that looked like some kind of horse when you quite literally ran into Alastor. He didn't budge but you were knocked back onto your feet. At first, you didn't recognize him and you were ready for your never-ending hellfire torment to begin between the dog man and this red deer. But when he laughed, and he spoke, you could hear the faint familiar voice of the boy who lived next door.
It didn't take a genius to see what was going here. Alastor was and will always be kinder to those he deemed innocent and fair. So he did you a good favor scaring off that demon, but not without scaring you as well. "Oh come on now, (Y/n)! Don't remember me?" He gave you a big smile. You knew it was him, but it was still hard to believe, "Is that really you, Alastor?" You asked him, "You're... haha... Dead too?" You found that so hard to believe for some reason. You died fairly young and so did he apparently. He laughed and nodded his head, "Oh that feels like ages ago! Went and brought myself here on my own. Honestly, I couldn't wait to get out that dumb they call the surface." Oh... Well then.
That was a very strange day, but it was the start of something you never had while alive. Alastor was the only peace you got in this strange and dangerous new world. You weren't exactly the vilest person, you weren't even sure how you ended up in hell. Lastly, you were prone to find yourself in danger too often. And it felt like all too often Alastor was never far to save you. Or maybe he just liked saving you because you were a fresh but old reminder of a simpler time.
You found yourself joining him for lunches, or stoles around the city. He'd often advise you where to go, and where to stay away from. You bonded over memories from life, and what happened when he moved away, "What did you do while I was gone?" He asked. You sat back in your chair and tried not the look at the murder crows Alastor threw his food at. "Oh, well I moved out of Louisiana eventually, I went west to California and found myself among liked-minded people." You told him. He perked up at that and asked, "Like-minded how?" That's when you laughed and shrugged, "Witches..." You chuckled then sat back, "You know I didn't believe in Hell, because pagans don't normally view death in that way. But guess we were wrong, maybe that why I'm here." You both laughed at that.
"You're mother would be very upset to know that wouldn't she?" Alastor joked with you. Your mother was a kind woman but was Catholic through and through, "It's funny too because my family puts up a very good front. Bet you or your mother didn't know we were active practices of Voodoo." You were shocked to say the least and Alastor's smug grin didn't help. You had no clue, but.... It explained a lot about how Alastor may have gotten here.
From there, the two of you found yourself spending more and more time together. Alastor loved showing you the tricks and spells he accumulated over the years. He also loved showing off the great deal of his power and strength. Being around him so often made you become a little numb to the violence that sometimes followed him around. Though rarely, when it did happen, Alastor never held back.
It was strange to think the two of you were so close now, versus when you were kids. He had changed so much in so many ways. The shy little boy who'd cry if he got a cut had grown into a man who deeply loved entertaining himself with other's pain. You wanted to know what changed him, but you knew better than to ask. Rather, you found yourself loving the time you spent with him so much that you didn't want to do anything to ruin it.
He was such a gentleman to you, however. Gentle and kind even. Alastor only seemed to want to protect you, make you laugh, and above all, keep you company. He'd always loop his arm with yours if you were ever walking anywhere. He'd hold open doors, go out of his way even buy you think, or treat you to wonderful meals. Though you noticed he never ate around you which was odd, you didn't question it. You learned quite early not to question Alastor's ways. He'd never give you a straight answer and he was good at dodging questions. It didn't really matter though, this was the rest of your existence, and honestly why question things anymore. Why follow the rules and lectures of society when you're dead. Alastor certainly didn't.
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i-love-hobbies · 3 years
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Eda's reckless behaviour and overall mental health
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Summary
Eda is a genius, but is very emotional when making decisions (not anger, but fear, stress ect.)
Her reckless behaviour and apple blood problem in my opinion are her ways of running from reality.
In season 1 she made a bit of progress on this issue. Then the finale happened. Then she made again progress and s2ep7 did a complete reset. And she is making progress now again.
Eda's intelligence
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She's been a criminal for thirty years. She has been in the shady business for an extremely long time. Yes magic definitely helps but you also have to find a way to be on top of the game, so you can survive.
Remember Tibbles' shrinking potion. She can't really use a lot of magic if she is shrinked or poisoned and dead, can she? Not to talk about her enemies which you'd think would attack her now that she is magicless.
They haven't on screen, yet. The only ones that tried are Adegast and Tibbles and they both died without her using any magic (or close to nothing).
Now we know that she doesn't make plans a lot on screen. In s2ep3 especially she just let's Luz make the plan but that's because she is her mentor.
In s2ep6 Luz used sleeping needles which is wild magic so no, it's not knowledge coming from Hexside. Also the pickpocketing Luz mentioned.
Teachers don't do the tests instead of students.
She teaches her everything that isn't glyphs. I wouldn't be surprised if she has told stories to Luz about her best "outsmarting everyone in the room" moments.
Now we have seen some of her problem solving on screen. One of which was in ep.18 fight only using her channelled magic trough the staff (im not taking credit for noticing this, have no idea who did though) and used the bridge.
Also if she can telepathically talk to her staff. Owlbert saving Luz was probably her idea.
She had her impact on Raine's rebellion as well, without having magic or turning into a harpy.
"You are not our mom!"
"Wow, we actually helped people this time!"
"Bye, mommy Eda!"
In the back of her head she knows exactly what to do, everytime something happens.
Eda's mental health
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Eda's curse and the nightmares it causes. The father incident. The fact that she probably thought Lilith was scared of her.
Lilith's hidden guilt and her taking her father's eye out don't mix well together. I wouldn't be surprised if they barely spoke even if they lived in a house together.
Her losing Raine.
Her faith in the emporer being broken.
She has seen a lot of death, that does impact people.
Season 1
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At the beginning of the series she was making a lot of bad choices which don't aline with her experience.
The series starts with her getting caught by Warden Wrath. Instead of just sneaking, they were just walking comfortably in the corridors.
They are kids, one from another dimension, but her... She doesn't know better? And for a paper crown that she can replace by stealing from someone else.
Next episode we are introduced to her morning drink later on confirmed to be for adults only. And that drink didn't get a mention for the rest of the season. In that episode she is also not the most clear-headed. She didn't try to sneak, she didn't use potions. Didn't try to plan.
A list about her being impatient can go on and on.
So when does she think. When she realises it's dangerous (aka when it's right in her face). Literally in the first episode the moment she started doing stuff is when she got caught and spat on the warden's face.
In episode 2 she didn't do that because she didn't know if Luz was alive and had a hard time bottling her feelings. Like if Luz proved to him to be hard to keep tight up he could have killed her, the girl that came back for her and her son yesterday. And she proved to Eda that she is a little dangerous the previous episode with her fireworks.
Eda was rational again, after she was with both King and Luz.
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As the series went on though she started to calm down a bit.
Firstly, the fact that she was so focused on fixing her card problem, after Tibbles scammed her, that she trew them away in another dimension.
I was wondering how she overcame it so quickly.
It also shows her knowledge of how to handle this type of problems which brings up a question. How did she learn it?
Secondly let's compare the first half of the season to the second.
1. Everything I already pointed out and was hiding the curse. The stuff that happened in ep.5. Her refusal to be parental in ep.7. Body swapped.
2. She gets scammed again (this time though, how do you expect that someone was digging their own grave). Didn't use a sleeping spell on the slitherbeast immediately instead was just standing there. Got caught by the fun police. Worsened King's stage fright.
In ep.15 because of her ignorance Luz and Amity almost die. Except that is not the full story. She had at this point a lot of faith in Luz and this was her friend's mind.
For Amity it's not that she hated her. Amity actually saved her in ep.12. It's because she wasn't that important for her to realise. "Omg Willow is at the very least extremely mad at her."
It's again a refusal to think, but for a stranger and not really on purpose. It was just a habit of hers.
Episode 18 and 19
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At the beginning of the episode. Eda hid the curse, again.
When she learned that Lilith had kidnapped Luz. She didn't try to make a plan. She just revealed herself in all her glory while her magic was disappearing.
Shot the staff in a wall while she was having no idea, what that was supposed to accomplish.
Luz showed up and she finally started thinking.
Afterwards Lilith said we all know what and for the first time Eda's anger was the leader of her choices and Luz almost fell on to the spikes.
So then, for the very least a night, she was stuck in her mind with something, that was chasing her. She woke up to Emporer Baby the B*tch, who was telling her, he was about to go after Luz.
And no she didn't believe in Lilith, but was so overwhelmed. It was insane. So she begged. After some more running, she woke up to Luz in the Comformatoriam.
Next, she was about to get petrified and for awhile this was the calmest things have been since she got caught. Then Lilith shows up (ah yes she existed).
King jumped "She was trying to help!". Wait King was there.
Petrification beam go.
PURE PAIN!
Then she got the idea for all of them to fly away. Lilith shared the curse making the confusion even bigger. Then her magic is gone (that was a thing). She learned that the portal is destroyed. Now she was living with Lilith and might have starved to death with everyone else in the house.
After all of this she not only tried but HAD TO pretend that she was mentally stable, so they could survive this mess.
Season 2A
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In episode 1 she told Luz not to go after big bounties and then tried to steal from a coven's ship.
At this point her emotions are the only thing that made decisions while they were also getting hidden. Don't get me wrong she did help and should, especially Luz but it's ALL feelings. She didn't think about consequences, which sometimes are good.
She didn't attack Lilith cause it's just not the time, she's scared from her own anger. Plus she can't really stand being with the roller coaster of emotions, that came with being in one room with her.
This didn't mean she didn't work with her and hadn't listened to the backstory, though.
The episode ends with her and everyone else not being close to dieing. Finally!
So now what? She tried to think about Lilith? Yeah, she probably preferred not to.
Then her glyph almost kills King, but Lilith showed up and helped. This is probably a familiarity she missed. So again she decided not to process it, but it definitely sticks.
She also didn't notice Luz being hurt.
Next episode, we saw Eda taking a shower which means she has healthy coping mechanisms, at least one, self-care and is not yet a workaholic.
Luz's apple blood joke is concerning.
After the events of episode 3. Luz probably told her that Lilith stayed with her and King, instead of just leaving them, get killed by Jean-Luc.
Then Eda still isn't certain where she stands about everything and Lilith just left, with her final act being, giving King mental issues.
Throughout this whole thing her mom was there with her cures/annual accidental attempt to kill her favourite daughter.
In this episode, Eda fell for apple blood signs. Rationality is out of the window.
In ep.6 she decided to help, with students getting palisman. Again not thinking about all the trauma, but finally doing something against her first instinct.
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In ep.7 she heard King's "Le-" and refused to fully process, where the heck is he gonna go.
She also punched someone, cause this is gonna work?
Now she has reconnected with Raine having no idea should she even think of a romantic relationship again? And decided to be useful at least for something since she "can't raise kids".
She was helping and being very good at it, but it came from fear of loneliness.
Then she heard that Belos has a plan and just is overwhelmed. What if the kids get hurt, is she powerless?
Oh, look! Raine might be dead!
Next episode she overworked herself.
In between ep.8 and 9 she was trying to scare the beast into transforming. (She is losing her sanity. Literally the previous episode told her not to do that.)
In episode 9 again it's all emotional. She wants to feel better and be stronger, so she told King to blast her (almost blasting Amity), hit fool's blood even though Amity said the lake is further ahead.
Luckily she showed progress too.
She ate voles, which was against how she was feeling.
In ep.10 she was scared of letting Luz in the portal. I'm not saying she wouldn't have before, but I don't think it was easy.
Right now, after s2ep10, I think she isn't the most mentally stable. But she is definitely working on it.
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littlemisslipbalm · 4 years
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Little Border Town Pt. II
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Summary: Harry starts to find himself more and more drawn to the bookshop owner. She’s maybe not as annoying as he first thought. And maybe Harry isn’t the worst like she thought either. A little notebook, drinks, shoes, and a boat begin to show each other that. 
AKA: Harry and Y/N are neighbors that fight all the time, the whole town wants to know when they’ll just fuck. 
ello loves,  part 2 is finally here pls let me know what you think!! barely proofread sorry... also i think theres gonna be quite a few parts to this because i keep not getting all i want to say said in each part. and im trying to keep the chunks relatively short. — also I made one direction lowkey exist bahaha
Word Count: 9.2k | Warnings: flirty fighting/banter, slowburn 
Part 1
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The next day Harry found himself walking into the bookshop next door without really thinking about it. He hadn’t seen Y/N again for his early morning run and he had his list for her of the Paul Simon albums he already had. They hadn’t had their windows or shades open last night either so it was the first night he didn’t give her a salute and she didn’t flip him off. The jostle in routine seemed a little weird to him so as he walked through the shop's door and the bell sounded, he thought the smile on his face was because he was well rested and unbothered by anything.
Y/N had slept in this morning. She couldn’t put her finger on it, but the beginning of Fall always put her in a cozy sleepy mood. She wanted to go to a pumpkin patch and watch a fire burn out in a fireplace. She wanted to listen to her halloween playlist and plan out an intricate costume with her friends. All of this was a wistful dream though. She had quickly learned that the little border town didn’t celebrate Halloween how they did in the States or any major cities. It was okay, at the end of the day, even if she was a little bummed about it. This was her new life and she would have to adapt to the new customs.
After she walked downstairs and unlocked the door, she went back over to her front counter. Yesterday, right when Harry had come in, she had found a booklet of Marie’s. It was leafed over to the point that all the pages were crinkled and dirtied from hand debris. Each page was filled with her loopy handwriting, all of it in French. She must have only liked blue pens because even if the type changed over different pages, the color was always blue. Each page was headed with a name, a customer’s name Y/N was starting to realize as she leafed through the pages. She sat back on the wooden stool she had gotten for behind the counter and propped the book in her hand. After the name of the customer there were extensive details on them. Not their purchases specifically, but their preferences, their personality, and just tidbits about any quirks they had or interesting things Marie had decided were of note.
She found many names that were now familiar to her after her few months of living in the little border town. There really weren't that many people to get to know and the tourists were starting to die down now that the school year was getting back in. After a few minutes of pouring over Monsieur Friedfrickson’s page, who lives across the street from her and runs the flower and gardening supplies shop, she flips to an even more familiar name’s page.
“Harry Styles.” The page had the name written out in strong tall letters. Marie had used a blue inky pen for his page, not a ballpoint. “Likes Music. Poetry. Love stories. Romance with a happy ending, but also likes the practical love too.” The interests are laid out plain and she purses her lips at the idea that Harry is interested in romance novels. She wondered what type of poetry he liked since Marie didn’t seem to think that had to be elaborated on. “He’s a special one,” it reads and Y/N scoffs to herself, really Marie? She reads on, “His heart is in the right place, but he’s got a mouth on him. Quick-witted and charming, but kind-hearted and sincere.” She pauses, and flicks the page back and forth, checking that it still reads Harry’s name when she gets back to it. Was she really the only one who found Harry vapid and annoying? Sure she had softened a little towards him since she had arrived, but they were by no means friends. “While seemingly perfect in every way, Harry is actually-” it reads and she mutters to herself, “Ok, now we’re getting somewhere.” “While seemingly perfect in every way, Harry is actually scared of his own shadow.” “This can’t be real!” She once again scoffs at the book and looks up to the ceiling like Marie is going to talk back to her from beyond. “His exterior persona is very strong, both physically and in his personality, but it seems like he’s just waiting for that right person that he can really be vulnerable with and let them into what he’s really thinking. He’s looking for his Angie.” Now she’s just confused. Who the fuck is Angie? She almost doesn’t finish reading the page because honestly it’s just making her mad, but there’s only a few more lines. “Lots of tattoos, why so many tattoos? Thinks he’s funnier than he is. Flamboyant Harry is best.” And beside that last sentence is a star. She tries to hold in her laughter. At least it wasn’t a complete page of praise for Harry.
Thinking back to her knowledge of Harry, she realizes that Marie must have known him for about three years. Maybe more if he had come to visit before moving there officially. She agreed with Marie that Harry had a lot of tattoos and that he thinks he’s funnier than he truly is, but she was yet to see flamboyant Harry. She knew he painted his nails and wore rings, as well as interesting clothes, but she wouldn’t say he was particularly flamboyant for any of that. That comment definitely piqued her interest. When would Marie have seen Harry where he was being flamboyant?
Her eyes scan over the page once more and realize that this book is only for the most current year. Marie re-did the customers' outlines every year. So this was this past year before Marie died. She wondered where the other books might be and if Harry’s outline had changed over time and also if her name was in the one from when she had visited. That would be interesting to read. It’s strange to read a dead person’s private musings. To her knowledge, no one else alive knew the contents of these pages and these pages seemed especially personal since they spoke of people’s lives and who they were at their core. Maybe that’s why she didn’t hear the chime of the door this morning when the first customer arrived.
Her eyes don’t shoot up from the page until two ringed hands enter her eye line on the counter. The tanned skin, with the gold and silver dazzling rings on each finger and the cross tattoo all register in her mind as her eyes go wide. She snaps the book shut when her eyes meet Harry’s almost ivy green eyes - they’re darker in the foggy fall light streaming through the window today. She hadn’t even turned on the lights yet in the store, the natural light being enough for her this morning. The book is clutched in her hands as Harry’s smile widens to a grin of amusement.
“What have you got there?”
There’s no cover on the book so he can’t make anything out about it. He assumes it’s some novel she’s embarrassed of and has chosen to slip the cover off of to keep anonymity of it. This assumption is why his tone is so teasing and why she grimaces at him in response. Her cheeks have also tinted themselves, she’s flustered that the man she had just been conversing about with the book was now in the store.
“None of your business.”
“I guess not.” He replies easily when she responds curtly and places the book out of sight somewhere under the countertop.
“Why are you here again?” She’s avoiding his eye contact now, feeling like she’s been caught doing something she shouldn’t have been even though it was perfectly within her right to read something that now belonged to her.
Harry’s smile falters with her followed curt reply. Annoyance settling in, Harry straightens up and removes his hands from the counter. The familiar feeling doesn’t exactly feel nice, but familiarity is better than discomfort. “You wanted a list of my Paul Simon records? So you could order me one I didn’t already have?”
She looks at him curiously as the conversation comes back to her from yesterday morning and she nods. That conversation was real. “Oh yeah, I said that.” She replies, still not looking at him. “Okay,” she says when he doesn’t move or do anything. Her eyes widen, silently asking him to get on with it.
His hands shove into his pockets, searching around for a list he apparently had made. They come out empty. He pats over his jacket pockets and feels nothing but his phone and wallet, no list. “Fuck,” he mutters beneath his breath. She scratches at her eyebrow and sits back on her stool, seeming like she might be waiting awhile. After a few more minutes and no produced list, she sighs. “Do you just want to go next door and grab it since you obviously forgot it?”
“I didn’t forget it…” His voice is low and he shoots a glare at her, the annoyance that had come back had now doubled.
“You did, but it’s okay if you can’t admit that-”
“It must have fallen out of my pocket!” He insists.
She rolls her eyes and stands up. Walking to the front door, she looks on the ground and then a little ways outside. “I don’t see it, just go back and get it. You probably left it in your boudoir, it’s fine.” Her tone is a little less condescending now and more understanding. She forgets stuff all the time and she really wasn’t trying to be rude when he first came in. He had just startled her is all.
He turns around to face her. Her body is now completely out in the open area of the front of the store. His head tilts and one of his loose curls flops over his forehead while he takes in her appearance. “Why do you do that?”
She wets her lips and steps closer to him, more on her way back to the counter than anything. “Do what?” She’s oblivious to what he’s taken note of.
“When you have a conversation in English you’ll swap in some words that are French. They’re easy words to figure out and you don’t do it a lot, but you’ve done it enough times for me to notice.”
“Oh...I don’t know. I prefer French to English. It’s so much sexier.” She walks closer to him and utters her next sentence as she brushes past his shoulder. His gaze follows her every movement. “Would you prefer a girl to whisper in your ear, “let’s go back to my bedroom” or “let’s go back to my boudoir.”?” Her French accent hangs in the air with the word and compared to the hard American accent she had employed for ‘bedroom’, ‘boudoir’ sounds far more dirty this time than before.
A shiver rolls down Harry’s spine, but he doesn’t let it show. She shrugs her shoulders, “I think the answer is clear.” He clears his throat in response and a smile grows on her face. “Don’t you agree, monsieur?” She leans her head into her hand now that she’s behind the counter and looks up at him sweetly. He knows she’s teasing him now, her smile more of a sultry smirk.
“Piccola diavola,” his Italian rolls off his tongue and she squints at his words. She knows “devil” but the first word troubles her - it just means little. Her Italian really wasn’t strong and it hadn’t improved that much since she’d been in the little border town. But she also wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of asking what he had said. Harry chuckles at her confusion and relaxes now that he feels the playing field has leveled once again.
“So your list… Do you want to go grab it? Or if you can just list it off the top of your head? As enthralling as your conversation skills are, I actually don’t have all day.” She trails off again, her questions lilting from her mouth after regaining some composure.
“I wasn’t the one teasing about taking someone up to their bedroom,” he huffs. Her face colors with crimson. While she had been teasing him, she didn’t want to be called out for it.
“Wasn’t teasing…”
“So it was a serious offer?” He inquires with a lop-sided grin, changing the meaning behind her words in one fellow swoop.
“That’s not what I was saying! Shut up and give me your list.” Now her blush was all over her face and neck, and she was totally and completely flustered by Harry.  She glanced down at her hands that were fiddling with a pen and paper, ready to write his words down.
“I can either shut up or tell you my list. But it’s sadly one or the other, love.”
She groans and takes her free hand to run it over her face. “Just tell me what you already have, Harry. Please.”
“Okay, okay,” he chuckles and spreads out his hands in front of them both. He crosses back to the counter and leans on it once more. They are in close proximity once again, only the counter between them now and she can feel his hot breath fan over her softly. Smells of wintergreen gum, her favorite.
She glances up at him and their eyes hook together for a moment before she tears hers away to look back at the paper. He rattles off a good amount of Paul Simon’s albums and she nods approvingly as she scribbles the names down. She would have to look through his discography to find the ones Harry didn’t have and she probably could’ve made Harry do that and then give her that list, but she didn’t. It was too late now to do that as well, so she’d just have to live with her decision.
When he finishes, she glances at him once again. His eyes are very large. A detail that isn’t really important about him is seared in her mind. They’re big and they’re staring right at her. His pupils are almost as big as his irises, it was interesting. Her eyes shift under his gaze after a beat and she straightens up again. While they went over his list, she had indulged in the close proximity, the mingling of warm breath and brushed hands as she scribbled and he pondered. She nods a farewell, “I’ll let you know when I order next, but I won’t say what album you’ll get. It will be a surprise.”
“I wouldn’t expect anything else from you,” his smile snaps back to his face and he scratches absentmindedly at his side. He hesitates before exiting the store. “I have a question.”
“Don’t need my permission.”
He emits a half-laugh, half-scoff from his parted lips. “Wasn’t asking for it...How come you never go out?”
She stares at him curiously, her head tilting to the right. “How would you know I don’t get out?” She challenges him.
“There’s only one pub in this little town and I’m your next door neighbor. I know.” He’s insistent on being right.
She scoffs, but only in an attempt to cover up her embarrassment. Her skin had finally cooled from all the excitement that had happened earlier and she wasn’t in the mood to grow red once again. Today was the first day she had ever felt flustered by Harry. It was annoying, it made her feel out of control. She liked to go out well enough, maybe more than the average person. But she’d only been in the little border town for a few months and going out hadn’t been on the top of her list of things to do. Sure, it would be nice to go get a drink out in the town, but she didn’t really have anyone to go with. Meeting people wasn’t hard in the town, but there weren't many people who were her age and she hadn’t particularly clicked with anyone where she would want to go out on the town with them. It was embarrassing to face the fact that she wasn’t flourishing as much as she had hoped. She was happy, but being confronted with the truth that she hadn’t gone out yet dampened her belief in her success in the little border town.
“I - It’s not at the top of my list of priorities,” she stutters, her chin raising a little in indignance.
One of his shoulders shrugs and Harry makes a little face as if he was indifferent to her answer, even though she knew much better than that. Harry always wanted to get a reaction out of her, maybe that was all he gained from their interactions - entertainment. She didn’t know, but she didn’t feel like giving him the satisfaction and left it at that. His eyes meet hers again, his stare far more intense now. “Ciao, diavola.” He simpers, repeating the little nickname. It was far more sultry of a nickname than ‘Shrimp’ but she wasn’t going to complain. She rolls her eyes in response, the only correct one at that.
-
That night, she found herself feeling pulled to journey down to the pub. It was on the Italian side and like she had acknowledged to Harry, she hadn’t been. She wouldn’t admit to anyone, especially not Harry, that his question had been what had pushed her towards the establishment when night fell. Yet, here she was. Her pants were dark red silk that matched the black tank top with red embellishments that she wore over her chest - the only part of her it really covered. Her boots were a matching black with gold metal bits, they were knock-off horsebit Gucci shoes, the closest she could get to the real thing with her modest budget. She was having to be more frugal lately, after buying her car here in September, she had really seen how little money she truly had.
The heels of her boots clicked against the cobblestones as she stalked up to the front of the bar. There was happy chatter seeping out the open door, the warm but dimmed light also flooding out along with the sounds of people within. Taking a deep breath and fiddling with the waistband of her pants for a second, she made her way into the bar. Stepping off the deep end and making the plunge. She knew there was nothing to be afraid of, but after months of not going there, she felt a little sense of apprehension now.
The warmth was the most surprising bit of the bar that she felt when she stepped past the threshold. Some Italian song was buzzing below the words of the patrons and she smiled at the automatic welcome she felt upon entering.
At the tables, there was a mix of younger and older patrons. At the bar, there wasn’t much of anyone. The young bartender leans across the bar to talk to another man, who had dark brown wavy hair and a dark linen shirt on. He’s seated at the bar and his back is to her so she can’t make out anymore than that. She doesn’t notice the myriad of tattoos gracing the patron’s arm that rests casually on the bar as he laughs at something the bartender had said, just for him.
She smiles, thinking it’s a cute little flirtation between the two and hates that she has to go over to break it up. Her movement gets the bartender’s attention easily and has the patron glancing her way as well. The smile she had once had falters off of her face and her eyes go wide at the realization of who she has settled herself beside. She had left a seat open between her and the man, but now she wished she had chosen a spot across the bar and simply flagged down the bartender. Better yet, she wished she had stayed home. As her smile falls away, Harry’s only grows wider. He’s grinning down at her as he moves his whole body to face her.
“Ciao!” The bartender starters, not noticing her discomfort at seeing Harry. He begins to ask what she would like in Italian, but her eyes widen even further. He’s speaking far too fast for her and she blushed in embarrassment. In her fluster, she forgets to even try French and she just stares dumbfoundedly at the handsome man behind the bar, who’s now looking at her with great curiosity. Harry has watched the entire thing and chuckles behind his glass. She has no attention span left to allow her to even try and guess what he’s drinking.
He interjects for her, actually saving her any more embarrassment, surprisingly. “She doesn’t speak Italian. She’s from the French side and new in town, so she hasn’t been able to refine her Italian.” The bartender gives a smile and nod of understanding in her way and she wishes she knew what Harry had just said. Whatever it is makes the bartender switch to French for her and her jaw goes from being dropped back into a normal position.
“What can I get for you, mademoiselle?” He transitions smoothly and she smiles, his French accent sounding practically perfect. She’s recomposed herself, but Harry is still watching her intently, like a reality television show that he can’t wait for the trainwreck finale to occur on.
After she orders, the bartender gives her a wink and then walks off to get what he needs to begin preparing her drink. Harry slides over, eliminating the courteous one seat between them. Her eyes watch the movement and she refrains from the letting out the sigh festering in her chest. She really had hoped he would not be here tonight, at least that’s what she believed. She truly felt embarrassed that the night after Harry had accused her of never going out, he had seen her out. But it also was nice not to be sitting in the bar alone. It seemed that Harry had been sitting alone at the bar before she had come in,  but she also wasn’t Harry and didn’t know how much enjoyment she would have  gotten out of being alone.
“I see my words had some effect on you.” He says out of the corner of his mouth after running his tongue over the bottom of his lip. Her scoff once again dies in her throat because she knows he’s right and he knows it too. There is no being proud right now. He essentially caught her red handed.
“Thought I’d come out and see what all the fuss was about. I see you’re alone tonight, but I assume that’s how most nights go.”
“You should know by now that is simply not true.”
“Just because you leave with someone doesn’t mean you come with someone.”
“I guess…” He trails off.
She picks up when he doesn’t seem to have any more of a response. “How do you even meet people here? Isn’t it all locals?”
“Not always. Not all of the people here are locals tonight,” He scans the crowd. “She’s visiting...So is she...that whole group actually. Look French. So we’ve got a group from Nice tonight…” He looks a bit more. “Eh, that looks like it tonight, but still. It’s plenty.” He finishes with a smirk and she grimaces, understanding the meaning behind his words.
The bartender returns with her White Russian, which Harry had cocked his head at, but had kept his opinion to himself for once. Expecting Roman to return to their conversation, Harry turns his attention back to him, but he is only greeted with the side of his head because Roman is still staring at Y/N. He coos something to her in French, that Harry can’t pick up and his nostrils flare when she emits a giggle following their exchange. The two people he was last talking to were now ignoring him to talk to each other. How rude.
After another moment without their attention, he huffs loudly. Roman seems too entranced in Y/N to notice, but her eyes slide over to him. “Yes?” She inquires, albeit disdainfully.
Harry isn’t sure what to say to her now that he’s gained her attention. He was on his second drink and her stare has made his mind go blank. All he had wanted was for her to stop flirting with Roman so that she’d pay attention to him. But he hadn’t thought of his next step yet. He takes a sip of his beer to grant him a little more time and she rolls her eyes at his action. His mind rattles through possible things to say, but every single one is coming up as not good enough.
“I used to be in a band.”
Her head tilts and she swivels more to Harry. His comment is unexpected and rather intriguing. She had expected something annoying or rude. Truly she had just expected him to say “Nothing” once he had swallowed his drink so he could distract her from enjoying her night.
“You were in a band?” She asks incredulously, her voice pitching slightly higher than normal. While Harry was many things, including handsome, she just didn’t think he had the right persona to be in a band. He dressed like a grandfather most days and he tended to a little shoe shop, he didn’t come off as a guy who would enjoy traveling around performing. The constant praise would be on brand though, she conceded.
Harry nods and bites back his smile, knowing he had struck the perfect chord. “I was...it only took off in the UK but we were pretty popular.” He boasts.
“So what do you play?”
Harry’s eyes widen, expecting more of a question about the name of the band or something. “Well, it was, like, a boy band…” He says.
She was taking a sip of her drink and she contained her little laugh behind her glass. Another hum as she swallows the liquid that burns her throat a bit. “Oh. Interesting. So no instruments.”
“Well I can play a bit of guitar and piano!” He adds quickly, seeing her eyes shift away from him, like she thinks the conversation is over. “I was thinking of trying a solo thing, but then plans changed...”
“And now you’re here?”
He echoes her, affirming the question. “Now I’m here and I’m not leaving.”
“You don’t miss it then?”
“Didn’t say that. I miss it at times, but this is where my life took me and I’m happy to be here. Maybe happier than I ever was in the band.” His eyes stare at the liquid in his glass and he swirls it lightly, determined to study the way it moves as he ponders something quite personal to him. He never really talked about his past with anyone here. Saying he was in a band and retrospecting that time are two very different things to share with someone. She’s just watching him now, not trying to make a quip or bug him. His demeanor shows that’s not something he’s very interested in hearing right now.
She experimentally puts a finger on his knee when it seems that he’ll never raise his gaze from his glass. His eyes move down to the tiny pressure he feels and sees her painted nail poking in to him. His tongue darts across his lower lip as he raises his head to meet her eyes. He notices the sparkle in them, she finds amusement in the childish gesture and so does he.
“I do miss the stage though,” he admits, smiling more now. “Performing. It was like nothing else.” Instead of a sad state of mind, his look is far more wistful now and she actually feels the smile growing on her face.
“You’ll have to sing for me sometime, then.” She says resolutely after taking the last bit of her drink and then pushing the glass across the bar. Roman had wandered off, much to Harry’s pleasure, but now they both needed another round so she was looking for him.
Harry slides over a chair so that they’re sat side by side. He had originally done it to reach across her for a napkin, but then hadn’t retreated to his original seat after he was successful. They talk as they drink, but most of it seems to be flirtatious teasing even if neither of them recognize that fully. Harry just wanted her attention earlier and now he found that he wanted to keep talking to her all night. It was a Friday and usually he would be looking for someone to take home. The group of women at a table that he had observed were visitors would be a perfect place to start his quest, but that wasn’t on his mind. He liked watching the different shades of blush Y/N’s face kept turning as she drank more and how silly she was getting with each passing drink.
She was enjoying her time out, she had only gotten wine drunk in the confines of her little home since she’d been in the little border town. And that endeavour was all by herself. It was much more fun when you had someone to talk to, so joking around with Harry was a nice surprise. She no longer felt embarrassed about showing up after he had teased her for never going out earlier today. Now she felt empowered, like she could come to the bar whenever she pleased. He was nicer than she had realized. His hand was quick to encircle her back respectfully when she laughed a little too hard at a joke and began to tip off her stool. His smile was genuine and his eyes didn’t flit over her body more than once. His jokes were funnier than she had first thought or maybe that was just the alcohol clouding her mind, that one she wasn’t sure about. But, truthfully, Harry was exceeding expectations tonight and being a stand up human being for once, in her eyes.
A couple at the end of the bar, locals, watched on as the shoemaker and the bookkeeper threw back their heads in boisterous laughter and placed their hands on each other chastely. The older women smiled to themselves as Y/N smacked Harry’s bicep after an especially cheeky joke he told her. They were going to have a field day with this interaction once they told their friends tomorrow morning.
After drink three, she definitely felt drunk. Not completely out of it and can’t walk drunk, but I haven’t drank anything stronger than wine in months so three cocktails are kind of hitting me drunk. And because of that buzz that’s enclosed her mind and body, it makes perfect sense to her that Harry’s hand is resting casually on her knee as they talk. It also makes perfect sense to her to cross her legs, causing two things to happen. Harry’s hand shifts up further on her thigh and her boot is now dangling right next to Harry’s shin. The fabric of his cream linen trousers look especially soft and so the next logical move in her mind is to rub her foot against the fabric. She hooks around her foot easily and the patent leather of her shoe slips softly against the pant leg that flows over Harry’s calf.
He hums lowly at the feeling, but makes no other notion to acknowledge what she is doing. After the hum he gets back to the story he’s telling her about his boat. She had been extremely interested in the boat initially, but not she was transfixed on the feeling of the fabric slipping past her boot. When he shifts his leg, absentmindedly or not, she almost squeaks because this movement has Harry’s foot brushing around her ankle. The footsy was occurring without any acknowledgement of it besides small sounds the two had made in their chests. No knowing looks, just the presence of each other’s bodies against one another.
He had switched to a Manhattan after his second beer for some reason that she didn’t ask, but he was enjoying it nonetheless. When she slipped her foot against his calf, it had sent a spark of electricity from the point of contact up to his alcohol muddled head. It felt nice so he went with it.
Around midnight the two of them were practically in each other’s laps, nursing their fourth round. Brains a million miles away while their glassy eyes stared at each other. Harry’s arm nestled around her waist while hers played with the stir stick in his glass. Their heads inches away, closer than they’d ever been before.
Somehow they decided they should walk home about then. Maybe Harry had checked his phone and decided he was done. Maybe she had glanced at the clock above the bar and realized she needed to go to bed. Either way, they slammed down the last bits of their drinks and stumbled into the street. With only each other to hold them up, they had some trouble gaining their balance. They could walk just fine if they wanted to be serious, but Harry kept trying to step literally on her toes and she kept throwing all her weight into his side. Both of their actions would cause them to stumble one way or another along the empty streets. Their blurred minds thankfully didn’t get them lost, but the travel time back to their places was far greater than the travel time to the bar initially.
Finally arriving at the border of Italy and France, their shops and homes, she stared up at Harry under the glow of the streetlamp across the street. His hair looked more dark brown than his usual caramel chestnut in the light. His linen outfit billowed across his pectorals that were exposed. A tan golden color that he seemed to maintain from his frequent runs and trips on his boat. His jaw had a bit more stubble on it now, his morning shave no longer sleek on his skin. His mustache was still the most prominent bit of facial hair he had and she wondered what he might look like without it. She also thought if she’d ever kissed a man with a mustache, her mind was pretty sure she hadn’t.
As she stared, she moved from his side and took a step closer to her door. His hand reached out and grabbed her wrist, stopping her and bringing her attention to his eyes. He dropped her hand and stepped closer to her. They had been laughing about some weird encounter she had in Nice the other week. But now their laughter had faded out, the conversation all but forgotten.
“Hi.” She says meekly.
“Hi,” Harry laughs.
“I had fun tonight,” she muses and takes a step forward. She began swinging her arms back and forth, rocking on her feet. She felt antsy now that it was so quiet. The silence made her realize it was really just her and Harry together right now. Which wasn’t unusual, they had been alone together plenty of times. Maybe it was the time of night, but it felt far more intimate to her this time which made her squirm a little. Why was she nervous with Harry right now?
Harry nods and laughs again at her actions. “Yeah, you’re not so bad.”
Neither of them realized the proximity of their bodies until her hand swung a little higher and hit Harry’s hip bone. “Oh! Sorry!” She moves to take a step back, but Harry grabs her hand once again and tugs her even closer. Bringing them chest to chest under the lamp light. Her eyes flicker between where their bodies touch and Harry’s face. He’s looking down at her sweetly, gently. She feels safe with the way he’s looking at her. The warmth radiating from him was a nice contrast to the dark cold of night. The open expanse of skin that lived between the two sides of his mostly unbuttoned shirt seemed to have the most heat coming off of it. He had a jade cross that hung between the two muscles and she almost reached out to play with it. If it hadn’t been so dark and she hadn’t been so inebriated she would have realized the color matched his eyes almost exactly.
He’s not quite sure what he’s doing, but for some reason it feels like he might kiss her. The mood that was set by their surroundings made it sound right. Romantic even. Her lips look precious too, plump and puckered, flushed from alcohol and the brisk night air. They look a little glossy too from the last time she had wet them. He wanted to feel them for himself. His head ducks to move his lips to touch hers.
Upon registering his movement, she moves her hand from his grasp and places it on his chest, causing him to take a small step back.
“I think...I think this should be goodnight, Harry.” She breathes out. She’s trying to clear her mind enough to have conviction in her decision.
After a little intake of air, less than a gasp, Harry agrees, running a hand through his hair, “Yeah, you’re probably right.”
Her hand slips from his warm chest, immediately curling in on itself to maintain the warmth his body had just provided. She watches her tendons in her hand ripple before looking back at Harry with heavy eyes. He doesn’t seem to want to make eye contact with her, but she’s determined to leave on a good note.
“Thank you, Harry.” He looks up from beneath his lashes at his name, like a shy toddler. “You gave me the push to face a fear of mine.” With her final words she crosses the little distance between them once again and places a chaste kiss to his cheek. Immediately, his cheek flushes and she can feel the heat beneath her lips, as well as the light prickle of his stubble. Harry swallows, causing his Adam's apple to bob quickly, at the contact. His senses get overloaded with the sweet kiss and the smell of her perfume. It all swims through his consciousness.
She smiles as she pulls away and then turns to let herself into her place without another word. Once unlocked, she gives one last glance to Harry who’s also busying himself with opening his door. She doesn’t see that his free hand is caressing over his cheek where her lips had just been.
-
The next day, she woke up and groaned feeling the stiffness in her body. Especially her head. Oh god, her head. It was like she was back in college, but worse because she wasn’t as young. At least she didn’t have to roll out of bed for an 8 am lecture. For that, she was thankful. Still, the pounding needed to stop or subside at least. Grumbling, she threw her legs off the side of her bed, the fuzzy socks she had slipped on in her drunken stupor settled on the hardwood. She dragged her body to her window and raised the shade. Her window was fogged from the difference in temperature outside and in her room. Kneeling down, she began to pull open the window, in need of the cool fresh air on her clammy skin. Three drinks, or was it four? She couldn’t remember, either way, it was too many.
Her eyes glanced around the view of the window. It wasn’t much since it was so close to the building right next door. Peaking up, she could see the already clouded sky. To the left she could see the street and to the right was more buildings. The scene most easily accessible was the window right across from her. The shade was mostly closed, a little bit of the floor could be seen where Harry hadn’t lowered it completely. It was just the same hardwood as what she sat on staring back at her. She sat there, breathing in the crisp morning air. After a night of drinking, she usually woke up rather early, today was no different.
It dawned on her, far too slowly, that a pair of feet had entered the plain hardwood scene she had been staring at outside her window. A tiny stage now filled with two matching characters. The pair of feet were tanned and large. Little tattoos seemed to be sprinkled both on the toes and the ankles of the feet. She couldn’t read them even if she tried. But upon realizing what these feet might be doing, she had been discouraged from staring any longer. Still, her brain was foggy and her body was not nearly quick enough to hide her from view as the owner of the feet did something to open his shade as well. Then, once again, like deja vu, she was staring at her naked neighbor. Thankfully, this time, he had briefs adorning his hips to keep covering the part of him that would keep her up for weeks trying to forget again. The briefs were, just that. Brief. Low on the hips and barely touching his thighs, it seemed they really only existed to keep that one appendage covered. Still, she had to tear her eyes away from the lower half of his body and let the embarrassment wash over her when she met his eyes.
The knowing smirk of his has him nibbling at the inside of his cheek. She had been checking him out. It was a nice confidence boost after last night. The awkwardness of her stopping him from kissing her had him spiraling in his mind when he went to bed. He didn’t know why he had even tried to kiss her in the first place, probably just because he was drunk. Yeah, he was drunk and feeling needy on a friday night. That’s what it was and she had been there.
He’d have to thank her today for putting a stop to that colossal mistake. They were barely just friends, he hated to think what would happen if he’d done something so reckless as to kiss her out of the blue. Still, he couldn’t shake the thought in the back of his mind that he had gotten the vibe from somewhere. Why else would his drunken mind tell him to kiss her under the glow of the lamp light. He thought back to the bar and what they had talked about. He wouldn’t categorize it as overly flirty. He thought back to their physical interactions at the bar, okay, maybe his hand on her thigh and her playing with his drink was a little flirtatious. But that could be boiled down to him being close to hear her in the bar and her idle fingers wanting something to do while she was drunk. The footsy, though. He wasn’t sure if he could explain that one away. Instead, he would choose to ignore it. If he didn’t think about it, did it actually happen? Was it something he had to worry about? Not in his mind.
Returning his focus to the girl in the window across from him, his smirk was now fully fleshed out on his face. She was still sitting on her knees as Harry looked down at her and if they were in the same room this might have seemed like a rather compromising position. Her cheeks were still red, noticing the difference in height, she clambered to her feet.
“G’morning,” Harry’s voice is groggy and deep. Scratchy almost from the alcohol he had drank last night. It rings through her ears lowly and seems to have her blushing even more. It’s a different feeling than how his voice used to make her feel.
“Hey,” She clears her throat before responding, not wanting her morning voice to crack in front of Harry. Usually she would talk to herself a bit or sing along to her music before going downstairs, not wanting her first customers to hear her as if she just woke up. For some reason, she makes a little wave along with her greeting, feeling especially awkward at this moment. Harry chuckles and repeats her motion. His large hands mimicking the same daunting motion makes her laugh and releases some of the nervous energy she had been holding in her body.
“Fancy seeing you here,” he openly flirts, placing one hand on his naked torso and the other against the frame of the window, leaning towards her. His movement flexes just about every muscle in his body and she keeps her eyes trained on his face, determined not to be caught gawking once more.
A roll of her eyes and she’s back to staring straight into his green ones that he’s still blinking awake. “It’s almost like we’re neighbors.”
He scrunches his nose at her deadpan. “You’re no fun,” he mutters.
She sighs, “I’m fucking hungover after last night…” and runs a hand through her tousled hair.
Her foot rests itself over her other, causing her hip to just out slightly. The movement of her body that accentuated her curves and her words have Harry blushing now. The red flowers at the center of his chest and begins to spread up his neck and cheeks. He’s once again presented with the almost kiss last night.
“Big night out for you,” he laughs, “I’ll admit I don’t usually drink that much, bit of a lightweight myself.”
She only hums in response, her fingers beginning to twiddle with the hem of her t-shirt. It reminds her of what she is precisely dressed in. The big t-shirt and tiny pajama shorts that Harry can’t even see are the only things on her body besides the socks on her feet. She glances down at her legs and takes in the expanse of fleshy skin that is showing just below the shirt. Harry’s eyes follow hers and admires the skin there, wondering what it would feel like underneath his big hands.
“I should probably start getting ready for the day,” She says finally, shaking herself from the random thoughts flitting around her mind about bare thighs and the man across from her. “Are you open today?”
Harry emits a noise from the back of his throat at her question. He draws his arm back from the window and stands up straight. His head tilts as he thinks about her question, his mind still muddled this morning.
“Er..no, actually. I was planning on going out on the boat today, switching my closed day to today instead of tomorrow. Why?”
“I’m in need of shoe repair,” she smiles, her eyes catching the glimmer of the sun starting to peak out. Harry swears it’s her eyes genuinely sparkling on their own accord. “But if you’re out today, it can wait.” She begins to walk away from the window to go to another room in her apartment.
“No!” Harry steps forward, but is restricted by the screen, which keeps him from falling out of his window. She swivels around, looking at him curiously. “I can - you can just come over. I’ll fix it up for you before I head out.”
“Really?” She’s truly surprised that Harry would do such a nice thing for her. She knew they were getting along better, but for him to open shop just for her repair seemed overly nice.
“I mean,” and Harry’s once again blushing under her gaze and he’s hoping she can’t see it. “What are neighbors for?”
“I guess,” she’s still unsure. He seems like he’s nervous, his body tenses and one of his hands twisted in his curls. Harry’s so weird. “Thanks.”
-
She jogs the short distance from her front door to Harry’s once she’s ready. The pair of deep teal almost navy loafers she needed new soles in - she was pretty sure - in hand. A red pinstripe blouse half buttoned falling over her figure perfectly, hugging the right spots and flowing over the others. She’s in white jeans today that are flared slightly but also cropped. As it gets closer to Halloween she keeps having to remind herself not to dress festive and it’s a struggle everyday.
When she reaches the door, it doesn’t open. The cream door doesn’t budge as she tempts the handle with her free hand. She looks between the handle and the inside of the shop. Her eyes search for Harry’s figure. She had been inside his shop only a handful of times, never for a repair before. Maybe less than a handful, once to check it out and once again when she thought she needed a new pair of shoes and then decided against it. Oh, and that one time she went over to yell at him about something. Maybe the planters, maybe the shade, she couldn’t remember anymore.
Now that she thought about it, she had been in the bookshop once more. Two and a half years ago when she had visited the little border town for the first time. It was a little fuzzy for a memory, but she was sure she had at least peaked into the shoe shop after her lengthy visit with Marie the second day there. It looked just as it did now, maybe it used to be a little more vibrant, but she couldn’t be sure. She remembered an older man in the shop greeting her in Italian and her offering her sad ‘Ciao’. Back then she was even worse at Italian. He had looked at her with kind eyes and a sweet smile. It was a similar lopsided grin that she had now grown accustomed to on another man’s face. After beckoning her over to him the old man had turned away from her and shouted into the back of the store in quick Italian. It blew over her head completely. There must have been someone in the back of the shop who he had talked to. She was sure of it, because after she had perused the cute boots and shoes he kept, she saw a swish of hair coming around the counter. It was just as she was turning around to exit the shop, after she had bid farewell to the man she now connected as Joe. Whoever it was had long hair and was tall, slinking out into the main shop floor. The mysterious stranger was whoever Joe had shouted to in the back.
Y/N wasn’t the quickest when it came to timelines and how people could change over time. She didn’t connect the year she had visited with the year of someone else's arrival or the same chestnut waves cascading around someone’s face, just now much shorter. It made perfect sense who would be in the back of the store, but for some reason the idea of time and hair length were standing in this girl’s way. Oh well, maybe Harry would spell it out to her someday.
Harry finally rounds the counter that separated the back room to the front. The shoe shop was set up a little different from the bookstore. Her counter was right when you came in while Harry’s was about halfway through the shop. He shakes his head and laughs at her expression. The sound brings her out of her memory as well as a grimace on her face.
“Sorry, I was a million years away.”
“I’m pretty sure it’s ‘a million miles away’, love.” Harry continues chuckling while correcting the girl in front of him.
She holds up her pair of shoes, ignoring his teasing. “Fix my shoes, shoe man.”  
His smile drops and he walks back from the door. His feet taking back steps as he beckons her into the interior of the shop. When they reach the corner, he takes the shoes from her hands and places them between their bodies. The teal loafers stare up at them. Harry inspects them, a serious expression falling over his features. His brows scrunch together slightly, the wrinkles in his forehead growing more prominent as he examines the shoes. Large hands reach out and begin to finger over the patent leather on the top and the leather soles. After a few minutes of silent deliberation, he places down one of the shoes and then holds the other up as if to showcase it.
“These,” he juts out the shoe in his hand, “need new soles. What did you do to ‘em?”
“I wear them a lot.” She insists while Harry looks on quizzically.
“I’ve never seen you wear these.”
Her brow quirks at his comment. “I wore them a lot before I got here,” she corrects. “They’ve been feeling wonky every time I try to wear them, must be because they need new soles.”
Harry nods, now satisfied with her answer. He hums, regarding the teal shoe in his hand once again. “Alright.”
She looks at him confused once again. “Alright what? Can you fix them?” What does he mean by ‘Alright’? “I’ve honestly missed wearing them these past few months.”  
Harry bites his tongue, a quip ready to be voiced. He’d gotten so used to fighting with her, he was confused how it had slipped away all so easily. His fear of them not talking if they stopped fighting didn’t seem to come to fruition so he could rest easy on that front. But now he was going to have to retrain his brain not to be rude after every comment Y/N made.
“Yeah, of course.” He sighs, placing the shoe next to its mate and then turning his face to her. She had been chewing on her bottom lip, actually worried for her shoes. They really were her favorites. She’d had them forever and it would be heartbreaking if they had to be thrown out. If she couldn’t wear them though she was almost sure she’d just let them collect dust in her closet rather than dispose of them if it really came down to it.
“But it’s like a good amount of my day to replace soles…”
Her face falls, but she tries to hide it. She knew Harry was doing a favor by taking a look right now. If he could fix them it didn’t matter when he did it. What he says next though truly throws her off. No normal enemy-ship turned somewhat friendship overnight would engage in what Harry was about to propose. If any such relationship other than her and Harry actually existed.
“Do you want to come out on my boat today?” His brow arches, his lips in a soft smile, he’s being genuine.
“Why would I do that?” Her brows raise along with her voice, taken off guard by his suggestion.
“More fun waiting for me to fix your shoes on a boat than in your shop.” He says simply before taking the shoes and placing them in a little cubby hole behind the counter for safe keeping. “Trust me, you’ll love it.” Her expression doesn’t change. “Just say yes,” He pleads now.
She sighs, “Fine.” All of the reasons not to go out on Harry’s boat are at the forefront of her mind, but she still finds herself saying yes easily. His pleading really wasn’t necessary to get her to agree. The bookstore could live with being closed today, it wasn’t going to hurt anyone.
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jadedxrealityw · 3 years
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-Strange Girl- Draco Malfoy x Female Reader
    ♡~🐍~♡
    Request:   can you do one where draco realizes he likes the reader and wants to kiss her but he is scared so once she is by herself one day he goes up to her and kisses her and he is embarrassed but she kisses him again 🥺🥺 and she’s a hufflepuff
    Kody: This is gonna be a short one, but sweet nonetheless.
    Year: 7th
    House: Hufflepuff
    Possible Triggers/Warnings: fluff overload, Draco being a nervous wreck because i like torturing him. 
    ♡~🐍~♡
    herbology was your favorite class at Hogwarts. Plants and learning about their magical properties were just something you found extremely interesting. It was also where you met your soon to be favorite person. Draco Malfoy had been chatting it up with his friends and go himself a detention after lunch.
   being you, you spent most of your time in the herbology classroom. So after lunch when Draco Malfoy went to serve said detention you were there, but no professor? How strange. He had thought he walked into the wrong classroom for a moment.
    Roll Flashback
   “Professor Sprout?” a males voice called out. Startled, you quickly go to stand up, but hit your head on the table you were under instead causing a loud thud and slight pain. “Ouch!” you squeaked, reaching up to rub the top of your head with the pal of your head to sooth the pain.
   “Who the bloody hell are you?” turning your head, your met with cold grey eyes that bore deep within your soul. Draco. Malfoy. Damnit. “Um Y/n L/n, Hufflepuff, 7th year- uh sorry!” you sputter, being intimidated by this tall platinum blond Slytherin.
   he raises a brow and looks around “Where the Professor?” he asked, referring to the first statement he had said. “She usually just asks me to watch the ‘troubled kids’ as she calls it, but they just end up leaving because i’m not threatening in the slightest. She gave you a list of stuff to do i presume?”
   you lean down and pick up the empty pots from the ground you had dropped before you got there, keeping your hand up so he could hand you the paper. Draco looked at you weirdly. You were fully aware of the fact people chose to walk all over you? ‘What a strange girl’ he thought.
  he nonetheless reaches into his robe pocket to hand you the sheet of folded up parchment. His fingers grazed your hand as he slipped it in your palm. You felt your face flush slightly, but grab it anyway. You lean back up, placing the pots on the table and use one hand to unfold the paper, quite skillfully.
   you eyes scanned the few items on the list and you smiled gleefully ‘How fun’ you thought. You turn your attention to the Slytherin and nod once “Thank you. Now just avoid Sprout for like an hour and you should be okay. I suggest just hanging out in your common room for now”
   Draco’s blinks mindlessly for a second or two. “How- How come your just letting me leave? You seem like a goody two shoes. Why not just rat me out?” a amused smirk played on his lips as he spoke. You reach under the cupboard and grab the bag of soil that was under, placing it down.
   you look up at the ceiling, indicating you were thinking “Um- well, i believe that we shouldn’t have to ‘do extra’ for a class we aren’t really interested in. I, on the other hand love herbology, so i don’t mind the extra work. You rather do something in Alchemy right?”
   your words seem to catch him off guard How did you know that? He crosses his arms with a distasteful look “Oh so your some bloody stalker aren’t you?” he hisses, which makes you twinge a bit, but you stand your ground “We have been in the same potions class since first year. You speak quite loudly”
   you let out a small laugh, but Draco just huffs and makes a dramatic exit ‘Strange bloody girl’ he thought while storming off
    ♡~🐍~♡
   after that, Draco began to take notice to you in potions class. For someone who liked herbology a whole lot, you exceeded in in potions almost as well as he did. How in his right mind had he not seen you before? Maybe it was because if a person didn’t wear a green lined robe, he tuned them out.
   a month or so would pass and we would continue getting detentions in herbology, but would actually aid you in his own punishment chores this time. You both made small talk and Draco grew to like your company. You didn’t seem to be afraid of him, well not to much.
   you also found yourself growing closer to the Slytherin, but in a romantic way. You just couldn’t shake the feeling no matter how hard you tried. What really got you was when he took off his robe and vest and rolled up the sleeves of the white collared shirt. It. Was. Hot
   but out of the herbology classroom, you were nothing more then the strangers you were a month ago. Your friends had convinced you to try and get over him because it wouldn’t result in anything other then avoidable heartbreak. Draco on the other hand was a oblivious idiot. 
   “So let me guess, when you talk to Y/n you feel all warm and fuzzy inside, your palms get sweaty, your heart rate starts to pick up, and you kind of want to kiss her?” Blaise explained, brow raised in a amused manner. Draco’s jaw dropped, dropping his book “How do you know that!”
   the tall Slytherin boy chuckled “because you won’t stop talking about her. Its driving me, Theo, and Pans up the wall. Just ask her out” he shakes his head. Theo and Pansy nod from there side of the sofa in agreement “Please, we beg you. It’s so obvious you like her. Its painful” Pansy groans.
   Draco’s pale face turned a light shade of pink as he clicked his tongue “I do not like Y/n. That’s absurd! She’s a Hufflepuff anyway, what would my father think?” he crossed his arms. “In case you haven’t noticed mate all three of us are still alive and well”
   “What does that mean?” Draco asked, a confused expression on his face. Blaise sighs deeply and lifts his hand that is interlocked with Theos “All three of us? Gay. Pansy? She’s dating Ginny Weasley. A Gryffindor girl. We are living proof that your father will be pissed, but won’t shit” Blaise xplained. 
   Draco seemed to have an epiphany and pushed up and off from the black loveseat. Tripping over his feet, he zoomed out of the Slytherin common room leaving his friends slightly stunned “What do you think he’s going to do?” Theo asked with an excited smile.
   “Trip over some stairs and die at this rate” Pansy let out a snort. Blaise shook his head and stood up from the sofa with Theo “Will be in my dorm room, alone. Bye Pansy” Blaise spoke quickly as he began to drag Theo into the halls. The brown haired Slytherin boy smiled and waved “Bye Pans!”
   seconds later Pansy grumbled “I hate being single- oh wait. Ginny!” she yelled as she followed Draco out of the common room to find her girlfriend. 
    ♡~🐍~♡
   running down the halls of Hogwarts, he made a sharp turn to the exit. He pushed open the doors, the cold air hitting his exposed skin. He should not have ran out of the common room only wearing a black t-shirt with dark grey sweats. He even forgot shoes and was only wearing socks. What a lovesick boy he was. 
   he made his way behind the school to the greenhouse where he had met you all those weeks ago. Hoping to find you there. As the pale boy pushed the door open, there was no one to be seen. “Y/n!?” he shouted, but nobody came.(Someone has to get that reference please)
   a confused look played on his features. Your always here and now your not? He had no time to mull over that fact and left the greenhouse. Searching the school felt like hours, when in reality was only about ten minutes. He had even waited outside the Hufflepuff common room for awhile.
   waiting had only made his heart race more in anticipation. He wanted to see you. He needed to see you. He soon found himself walking back to the greenhouse. “Draco?” his head snaps up like an owl. There you were with a confused expression,  E/c eyes looking up and down his body.
   why wasn’t he wearing shoes? It was also dreadfully cold out and he didn’t have any jumper of sorts, while you looked as warm as a marshmello. “Why don’t you have shoes. Are you alright?” you asked, worry clear in your tone. Draco didn’t answer, just walked towards you.
   you raise a brow, placing the bag of soil on the ground. As soon as you lean back up a pair of lips clash with yours. His lips move against yours in a feverish way, almost hungry. Draco pulls away and looks down at your shocked face. Oh shit. 
   “Oh- no. I apologize for that. I- I didn’t- well i did mean to, but i didn’t want to make you uncomfortable. I’m going to kill Blaise-” he was forcing words out which seemed to bring you back to reality so you could grab a fistful of his t-shirt and bring his head down to your height.
   now it was your turn to kiss the shocked boy. It didn’t take him long to react because his hands found your hips rather quickly. he stepped closer, pushing his chest against yours. Kisses eventually got more sloppy before he pulled away for air “I- uh- wow?” he said, unsure of what to say. You chuckle softly.
   “Yeah, wow. Now let’s get you inside. Your so cold” You say, grabbing his chilled hands, interlocking his fingers with yours. He nodded slowly “Please” he said, a small smile forming. You both made your way back inside the school, holding hands and smiling. 
   “What in the bloody hell just happened?” Cedric asked, looking towards the  Gryffindor boy who had watched the whole scene with him.
   Harry seemed to sputter a bit before answering “i- i have no clue. We should do that though” 
   “What?”
   “Nothing!”
    ♡~🐍~♡
   Kody: short, sweet, kill me im so tired. Anyways peace. I also ordered a Draco Malfoy love letter on etsy, so when that comes in February, expect a post about it lmao. 
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graceloveswolves · 4 years
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Insatiable Pt3
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Okay so I wasn’t planning on making a part 3 originally but I just love this idea so much so here you guys go!
________________________
Today was the day.
I was standing with my mate Resmond. He had on a suit, and I had worn a red sparkly dress, it stopped above my knees and had a loose and open back, resting against my hips. Clara had picked it out for me, she always had such better taste in clothes then I have had.
“The venue is lovely, kind of a shame we didn’t have a huge wedding don’t you think?” Res had envied, looking around at the snow covered ground, the landscape was breath taking. I looked at the winter wonderland themed wedding, it looked like something out of a movie. Everything was perfectly placed, not a single flaw in the setting.
“No. Our wedding was perfect. It was special.” I disagreed, taking his hand and wrapping it around my shoulders. I stood on my tiptoes, and whispered against his ear.
“But if you want to redo our wedding night I have no complaints here.” I felt him stiffen as he looked down at me, raising his eyebrow with a surprised smirk plastered on his face. “That was very bold of you. Don’t tempt me love, Clara’s been dying to throw another wedding.” He replied, eyeing the curious blonde across the venue, that was talking to Irinia-one of the Denali sisters.
I smiled at the sight, she always was good at making new friends. I let my gaze wander, taking it the different crowds of vampires from around the world. Suddenly I stiffened, my icy heart dropping to the pit of my stomach. I felt as if I was going to puke, which wouldn’t be possible but none the less.
I had accidentally made eye contact with a familiar pixie that I would’ve known anywhere.
“Oh no.” I gasped, dropping my gaze to the ground beneath me as I saw her making her way towards me. Resmond had put two and two together, letting his arm fall from my shoulders and pushing me behind him.
“That’s close enough.” Resmond demanded, however not phasing Alice in the slightest. Then without a single beat, a familiar cowboy had made his presence near Alice.
“Jasper. Alice.” I stated their names, pulling Res back a few steps, as a signal that everything was okay. I felt unusually calm, no doubt in my mind that Jasper had been using his mojo on all of us. “This is my mate, Resmond. Res, this is Alice Cullen and Jasper Hale, they are from my old coven.” I introduced the pair, glad that the tension was slowly fading.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you.” Jasper had politely nodded towards Resmond, who seemed calm and collected now. “Well, Im going to find Clinton. He’s no doubt already in some sort of trouble. I’ll leave you to catch up with your friends. If you need me...” he trailed off, already knowing that I knew the drill.
“Yes, have fun.” I dismissed Resmond, he was not good at making new friends, and I didn’t expect him to want to get to know the family I had left behind. Once he was gone, I had looked at my old sister.
“Well...Aren’t you going to give me a hug?” Alice asked, opening her arms up to me. I smiled, practically jumping into her arms. I had felt such bliss, reuniting with Alice. She had always had such a bubbly and happy personality. Once I had broken from her grasp, I turned to Jasper, who also given me a quick but loving hug.
“How have you guys been? I’m sorry I have been such a stranger. It’s just with everything that happened with...” I couldn’t bring myself to say his name aloud. Thought I already knew I didn’t have to. “We have been good, we have been in Ithaca for awhile. Jasper’s enrolled as a philosophy student and Carlisle works nights.” Alice said, shocking me.
“You left Forks?” I questioned the short pixie in front of me, I wondered if that’s why Carlisle was looking for me. Maybe he didn’t want to leave me behind in case I had decided to come back. But why? They had such a perfect set up in Forks. They should be leaving until another few years. Then the realization had hit me, they must’ve gotten in trouble with the human, why else had they flee from a perfectly normal town.
“Yes. Edward hadn’t wanted to stay there anymore, so we left.” Jasper answered for his mate. I could practically roll my eyes, of course, Carlisle would have done anything for his precious Edward.
Carlisle.
My eyes widened, I turned to Alice, surely she’d seen me ask the questioned I had been dying to ask since I saw her. She looked at me with sympathy, nodding her head.
“Yes. He is here. Over by the river.” Alice responded to the question I hadn’t asked out loud. Suddenly music had started to play, to which I nodded in gratefulness as Jasper pulled her into the dance floor. I smiled at the couple as they started to dance. They had completed each other’s life, it made me happy that nothing has changed between them.
I then gazed over by the river that was a few hundred yards from the venue. There was a few vampires chatting at the tables that had been placed there, however my eyes fell on the one vampire sitting by himself. The blonde vampire was at the edge of the river farthest from the others, sitting in solitude. Or more like waiting. I bet Alice had seen this beforehand. Maybe she even planned it all herself. There was no telling when it came to her.
I was near the river in seconds, deciding to walk the next few yards. I felt the pit in my stomach grow bigger by each step I had taken, growing closer and closer to my creator. I didn’t dare to look up to see if he had taken notice in my figure, I already knew that he probably had. Instead I became very focused on the snow beneath me, watching as I left a shoe print with each step.
Part of me had wanted to turn around and go back to the dance floor, maybe dance with Resmond or Braxton. Chat with Clara, or even with my old siblings in the Cullen clan. But despite all of the anxiety and regret, deep down I had craved seeing Carlisle. I needed to have this talk to him, then I could finally move on. Then I could finally be happy with Resmond.
Once I had gotten to the edge of the river, I had sat down next to Carlisle. I didn’t look at him, I just took in his smell, which I haven’t smelt in over a year. Nor had I been this close to him since the falling out. It was quiet, we just sat and looked at the river in front of us, listening to it flow freely.
I could feel his stare burning into the side of my face. He had been waiting for me to speak, but I was still trying to find the right words to say. I grabbed a fist full of snow that had laid beside me.
Don’t be a coward.
“What a wonderful wedding, don’t you think?” I had finally spoken. Trying to break the silence, hopefully that didn’t sound as stupid as I thought it did. I had finally turned to face him, to which I was right, he had been staring at my face. He seemed somewhat mad when he had met my eyes.
“You never came back.” He responded, making me look back out into the river. He had not felt the need to beat around the bush apparently. Getting straight it the point I guess.
“I didnt see the need. You made it clear that I was never on your list of priorities Carlisle.” I tossed a chunk of snow in the water, watching the ripples fade away as the snow melted into the river.
“You were my very first creation Y/n, I spent the majority of my life with you, you were always one of my top priorities.” He defended himself.
“You certainly had a unique way of showing it. Tell me, what was the real reason you left Forks? Was it because of the human?” I pressed, my way of indirectly telling him I told you so.
“You were right. I am sorry I hadn’t listened to you the first time. But you did not have to disappear, I would have given you your space, you didn’t have to leave me wondering every day whether or not you were even alive.”
“You had Edward, you didn’t need me. And look, I’m still alive.” I gestured to myself, looking back at the man who I spend more then half my exsistence with. He had a pained look on his face, his eyes eyeing me up and down.
“Edward was not my first creation, I did not spend over 200 years with him alone. Did you know how much pain you put me in? I spend every day thinking of ways to get you back. You were mine, and I had lost you. You were the only one I did not worry about leaving, and you did.”
“Well I’m not yours anymore. You couldn’t appreciate what you had while you had it. I found someone else who does, every single night.” I rubbed in, snapping at him.
There was silence between us for a few moments. Carlisle looked like he was thinking, trying to find something to say to defend himself, but even he knew his errors in his treatment towards me. He had sighed, giving up.
“Are you happy?” He had asked me.
“Yes.”
I had responded immediately, I raised my left hand up, flashing him my wedding ring that Resmond had proposed to me.
“ Well I guess that’s all the matters.” Carlisle had said, he had a tint of sadness in his voice.
“What about Esme? Haven’t you two gotten married already?” I brought up his mate. He had refused any intentions of marrying her in the past, but I had secretly knew he loved her, he just didn’t want to upset me.
“We eloped, she is at home with Edward. She didn’t want to leave him, not in his state. He had taken it hard, leaving Bella behind.” Carlisle explained.
“Well, for what it’s worth, I’m sorry about that.” I had given my sorrows to him.
“Thank you.”
Once again we had been left in silence. I debated on saying something, but I had heard footprints behind us.
“Y/n my Love, would you like to dance?” I heard Resmond from behind me.
I looked back at Carlisle, who had smiled softly at me. “Well, I guess it’s finally time to let you live your life. Have a nice life Y/n, go be happy.” Carlisle had gestured to Resmond. I smiled, nodding back at him.
“You too Carlisle. Thank you, for giving me this life.” To which I gave him one last look, before turning around hand in hand with Resmond.
I had felt peace.
I knew deep down it wouldn’t be the last time I saw Carlisle, but I could finally let go of him. I could start my new life with Resmond, who I loved and he loved me back.
And that was all I needed.
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yesimwriting · 3 years
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Anastasia (prologue)
A/n ive been talking about my Anastasia x SOC story for awhile and im finally ready to post the prequel,, ive also been working on some requests and thinking about my next multi-part fic (ive made some posts about it lol)
things to know before reading: i tend to like to make up my own countries when writing these type of politically/plot driven fics that revolve around a royal family bc i think it makes it not only easier to write but less confusing bc it takes out the issue of potentially conflicting with canon, so i made up the country ‘Anastasia’ is from,, this also follows the musical Anastasia a little more bc i feel like that version of the story is more mature and easier to write for SOC (the only difference is that not everyone is happy that Anastasia is alive and someone tries to kill her bc they hate the royal family)
Series Summary: y/n makes an unconventional deal with Kaz to save the life of her best friend. No one’s ever made a deal with the infamous Dirtyhands that resulted in them shedding the title of orphan from a revolution-torn country that can’t remember her life before the orphanage and taking on the title of Princess Anastasia. As time progresses, things are made more complicated as y/n has to deal with royals, revolutionaries, a grisha general who has a lot to gain from an alliance with a princess that doesn’t know what she’s doing, and potential feelings for a conflicted Kaz Brekker that has more to do with Anastasia’s disappearance than he’s ever admitted. 
--
The world seems to be made up impossible things. Each day, people defy odds, strangers fall in love, the universe expands, and the Saints watch it all. I am not the kind of person to sneer at a miracle, to try to explain it away instead of acknowledging it for what it is. 
But what this stranger is proposing is laughable. 
I lean more into the chair, doing all I can to get away from the desk that he sits at. A nervous kind of giggle threatens to escape me, a laugh at the expense of the foolishness of the situation. If his demeanor was any less brooding, I would have already laughed at the irony. Kaz Brekker, the Dirtyhands, creating a ploy so colored by the fairytale notions of dreamers.
The longer I go without reacting, the worse this situation becomes. I haven’t seen Verne since Brekker and his people separated us. I can see the world of torment my eldest friend must be experiencing at this very moment while I sit at this desk. 
“Me?” I’m the most ridiculous part of his plan. He said the only reason me and my partner are still alive is because I fit the general description of the kind of person he needs, and if I’m blackmailed into it he won’t need to waste kruge paying me. “A princess?” 
He blinks, as uninterested and stoic as he’s been since he first ordered me into his office. “A pretend one,” his correction feels like a slight, “a surrogate one.” 
My eyebrows furrow together. “But what--I know the odds of the real Anastasia coming back are beyond slim, but if we’re caught in a lie the Dowager Duchess of Avila will have all of us killed. She may be in Ravka now, and her title nothing more than decorative due to the revolution, but she still has people loyal to her.” 
“Anastasia can’t come back.” The graveness of his voice is so certain a part of me has to wonder if he could have anything to do with her death. I dismiss the thought almost immediately, I don’t know his exact age, but he doesn’t look much older than me. He couldn’t have been more than two or three years older than Anastasia when she died, and she was a child at the time. “No one remains missing that long unless they’re dead.” 
I awkwardly scratch the back of my wrist, “You’re the expert here.” No--I did not just say that out loud. “Sorry--I didn’t mean to say that out loud. Not that thinking it makes it any better, but at least then you wouldn’t know and I’d seem like less of an idiot and I wouldn’t be talking about it right now, and just rambling at a really inconvenient time for me to just...” I cringe slightly, opting to stare at his desk instead of meeting his judgmental gaze. “Sorry, again. Normally Verne is here, and he just kicks me in the shin or something to shut me up.” 
“If you’d like to see what apparently is your only source of impulse control alive and in decent enough condition to kick anything ever again, you’ll agree to what I’m proposing.” 
I straighten my posture slightly, nerves and guilt twisting in my stomach. “I’m going to be as transparent as physically possible.” The warning is for both of us, the urge to hide all my weaknesses bubbling in my chest. “Mr. Brekker.” That’s awkward--what am I supposed to call him? “I’m a university student that’s only in Ketterdam because of an academic scholarship. I’m from somewhere average--I’m not from a place nice enough to give me the manners I’d need to pass as a girl who spent her fundamental years growing up in luxury and I’m not from a place grimy enough to make me a quick enough liar to make up for what I don’t know.” I inhale slowly, ignoring the sting of the flaws I laid out for a cruel stranger. “I’m not particularly graceful or sly or talented in any field that someone like you would value. The closest thing I have to talent involves things that can be tracked on paper. I wasn’t even supposed to be here tonight, I was just doing a friend a favor.” 
“You claim that you’re not a decent liar or a thief and yet your closest friend is one who believed himself talented enough to challenge me?” 
I resist the urge to shrink back into my seat. “This is Ketterdam, you try finding someone that doesn’t dabble in crime and ambition.” He does’t reply to my retort, which I think means I won. “Cards on the table, there’s nothing I wouldn’t do to save Verne, but you don’t want me for something like this.” 
He pauses, jaw locked and eyes too stony for me to interpret. “Every flaw you just pointed out, every reason you think makes you unfit for this job, is exactly the reason I’m offering you this.” I keep a thousand questions to myself as I wait for him to continue. “Those used to lying lack the warmth that will be needed to sell this. The Dowager Duchess is a grandmother first when it comes to Anastasia, that’s why she’s offering so much gold. She, and the rest of the royals that desire to know what happened to Anastasia, want to believe the story I’m telling. If you present yourself as someone real and warm and you understand table manners enough to not disturb the serene picture they want, they’ll squint at ugly details until they disappear.” 
Wow. I know that he’s intelligent, but what he’s constructing is so much more bullet proof than I thought it’d be. “I’ll admit you’ve constructed an airtight narrative.” 
I know my approval means nothing to him, but it’s the most agreeable I’m willing to be. “A narrative the background you told me of fits perfectly.” I shouldn’t have answered all those questions he asked me earlier so honestly. “A child born in Avila who was sent to a Kerch orphanage due to a war-relief effort during the revolution. A faceless orphan who was found during the height of the revolution with no memory of anything before the morning she woke up in a hospital cot.” 
I say nothing. My skin burns in protest of someone knowing so much about me. He must take my silence as a sign of me teetering the line away from what he wants, because he then says, “your friend is fortunate, if things aligned a little less perfectly he’d be dead already.” 
Dead already. The words elate my heart in a way that pinches. He’s still alive. Verne is alive. “If I agree, you let me see him and then you let him go.” 
“If you need a contract to believe me, I can have that arranged.” The words have an almost mocking edge. I guess it’d be a little ridiculous to get an official contract drawn up for something so small. “If you at any point change your mind, I’ll do the same.” 
The threat is clear. I back out and Verne pays for it in blood. Verne’s safety is once again in my hand. This situation is much more precarious than Kaz Brekker wants it to seem. “You need me to do something that will literally last the rest of my life. Tiaras aren’t something you can slip in and out of.” 
“Yes, I’m forcing you to give up a life in the slums for a palace for your friend’s life. This must be a difficult choice for you.” 
I look down to avoid rolling my eyes. “It’s still permanent, and it’s large because at any point I could reveal the truth and take you down with me.” 
“Remember who you speak to.” His voice has turned to pure darkness. 
Don’t wince. Don’t wince. Don’t wince. “All I’m saying is that you’ve offered Verne’s life to buy my cooperation, but you have yet to mention the cost of my silence.”
His expression is sharp enough to draw blood. “The Dowager Duchess is old and sick, wait at most two years and you’ll have more gold than you could ever spend. The revolution took that family’s power, not the wealth the Duchess took with her to Ravka the night of the massacre.” 
I shift awkwardly. “I’m not trying to get kruge from you for me.” I fold my hands neatly on my lap to avoid fidgeting. “Verne--he’s beyond desperate for kruge, that’s why he risked angering you.” The urge to shy away threatens to break my resolve. I think of all the times Verne has saved me. “Let him keep what he tried to take.” The request is awkward from my lips. I’m asking for more when I should should be grateful any type of mercy came from him. Any type of offer. “Half. Let him keep half.” 
He’s silent for a long moment, weighing the implications of loss. “You’re already entitled enough to pass for royalty.” I don’t let myself shrink. “Deal, but not because you threatened me--try that again and you’ll find yourself wishing you had never left the orphanage you came from.” The relief is practically crushing. Verne is going to be okay. He’s going to live and my resistance earned him enough kruge to have a week or two without worry as he plans what he’ll do in my absence. “You better be as good a study as you made yourself seem to be.” 
I don’t understand the second threat. “Studying?” 
“You didn’t think you could wander into the Dowager Duchess’s home, use the excuse of amnesia to explain why you don’t even know your own mother’s name, and expect them to think you more than an Avilan orphan with a desire for wealth.” 
“I actually don’t know my own mother’s name because of amnesia.” 
He’s in no mood to be contradicted, glowering sharply, “not anymore, anything that doesn’t fit the narrative I’m constructing is no longer true.” He straightens slightly as he begins to pace away from me. “You’ll have five minutes with your friend and then we’ll see where your table manners are at. I know someone who knows enough to correct you.” 
I try to picture where someone like him would meet someone that knows about etiquette. My mind provides nothing useful, but it doesn’t matter--I’ve agreed. It can’t be undone, not without having the blood of my dearest friend on my hands. 
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yozzers · 3 years
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vexos hcs and random notes
ill update as i go, because yes i do update my masterlists every once in awhile, i should probably add them to my pinned... 
General
I sincerely hope they have a small living arrangement so I can inflict them with the pain of having to share almost everything with each other
I just want Shadow and Lync to share a bunk
Like to think that alongside Volt, Mylene and Lync were also recruited by Hydron
None of them officially joined until they were a bit older but probably trained to eventually join the Vexos; in the mean time they probably worked for Hydron or something like that
Volt recruited at 11; Lync a year later and Mylene following not long after (respectively 13, 8, 12 when they’re all gathered)
My reasoning to why Volt is patient with Lync’s antics and Mylene less so but doesn’t lash out as badly as you think she would around annoying little kids; grew up tgt moment
Spectra probably forced his way into the Vexos like “hiiii i see you dont have any Vexos members <3″ bcs obv he wasn’t using royal scientist dad privelages (i think, bcs Clay seems horrified abt Spectra being a Vexos and well, being Spectra) 
Shadow had an advantage of being a nobleman (in terms of him being accepted into the Vexos’ ranks)
the Vexos and their set of rules magent-ed on the fridge door or something and every time they go over a page they have to staple/tape a new page on
Joined in this order, Volt, Spectra, Shadow, Mylene, Lync, Gus 
Vexos being a “chance of death low but the chance is still there” type of job... they feel like idols girl help they are bakugan idol group who work for the government 
sorry the way the vestal kids talk about them... going to treat the Vexos like a kpop group now
Spectra Phantom / Keith Fermin 
[canon] son of a (royal?) scientist. definitely had it good and comfy
think it’d be REALLY funny if he already knew Shadow before he became Spectra, Shadow just doesn’t recognize him bcs of his stupid get up
throws childhood friends Shadow Spectra at you, just two weirdos 
Keith specifically keeps Shadow from ever meeting his sister which is why neither of them really recognize each other
Pre-Spectra; probably would’ve been really into bakugan biology and what not. Feels like the kind of person to talk w/ his dad about “do you think we could change their appearance if we messed w/ their mechanical ball form or would it not carry over to their released forms”
this mf looks like a biology major i feel it in my guts 
mom isn’t dead she just divorced Clay bcs he didn’t know how to balance family and work, good for her
probably lives in another city now, and it’s a bit more of a hassle to meet with her kids so they don’t see her as much but she is present in their lives (keep in contact in other ways) 
probably went a bit silent when Keith went missing
didn’t bleach his eyebrows bcs he didn’t want to harm the skin around there and he never thought he’d take the mask off around others, or about how stupid he’d look without the mask
please please please please draw him with his pink hair roots in his MS fit he should've grown out some of his bleached hair by then
daddy issues is truly the root of evil
Gus Grav
Just Some Gut background; middle class just living life
[canon?] was going on a route to being an “idol brawler”, because that’s kind of what their brawls felt like, since it was all purely for show with some competition. it felt less like a sport and more spectacle.
Gus wanting to be an idol brawler is actually such a funny string of words put together I’m making that a thing, if he didn’t join the Vexos he would’ve been an idol brawler
I like the Gus needs glasses hc (shoutout to @marmeladebois ‘s post on that) 
The hc of him being half human and Runo’s half brother is so good 
Cooks well but refuses to help cook fr the Vexos (unless Spectra specifically asks) --> that job is usually left to Volt
not related but reminds me heavily of yugioh vrain’s Spectre (or other way around... Gus was the blueprint) 
Shadow Prove
[handbook canon] a vestal nobleman 
has an older brother (oc; Lux- casual Haos brawler)
inferiority complex or whatever, the only thing he bested his brother in was Bakugan
the Prove family being typical prim proper noble family and forcing Shadow to be repressed is something, but the Proves having the same kind of wavelength as Shadow but in different variations is funnier. They’re just Like That.
Probably not a military family, does work closely with the government still; um im thinking somewhere under the Fermins but not by much
Considered running away from home several times 
Unwillingly has knowledge on Vestal classic literature/ music
hard clutching a wall whenever he wants to join in on discussions about it bcs he knows this stuff but no way is he going to make himself look like a nerd + hes not actually that interested
*debates you for fun and bcs i hate u <3* 
You know how he doesn’t take his job as a Vexos member super seriously, I wonder:
did his parents force him to be a Vexos since he wasn’t interested in the political side of his family and probably against taking up anything related to it, so they had him do something that’d still be beneficial to the family?  
joined to pursue a freedom he didn’t have as a nobleman and is now just taking it really easy?
has clowns > jesters debate with volt; obv he’s team clown, volt is team jester
incredibly irrelevant but if he was a human he’d be chinese, i’ve claimed him, prodigal son older brother and fail son dynamic is there 
Mylene Ferrow
While I like the idea of her being from a military family, I want to make her like Ling Wen (TGCF) in the sense she started from the bottom and climbed to the top... it fits her ambitious nature of grasping for more, she hasn’t reached what she considers the top just yet... 
[very Ling Wen specific but Mylene being put in jail fr crimes unknown to me and being recruited  by Hydron bcs she kicked serious ass is an entertaining thought] 
I like to think she’s closest to Shadow due to the fact he kind of forces his presence onto her so... not her choice in that matter. “annoying” to “endearingly annoying, you still aren’t getting special treatment though”
Ofc Volt and Lync are on the same level, but I think they all know when to give each other space so they’re more of a “we hold each other at a distance, but we’re aware of out closeness which is enough for us”
Then its Spectra and then Gus in the “closest to Mylene” scale; she just straight up hates Gus and it’s mutual
whoever made the “Mylene and Spectra were exes” hc I think it’s really funny so I’m adding it here 
terrible fashion, she’s the one who chose the outfits when she and Shadow went to earth; her fashionable armor look she usually has was designed with Volt’s help, she just voiced what she generally wanted 
Her red lipstick look was bcs she thought it’d make her look more serious/ intimidating (Volt and Lync approved, it rlly does work on her)
Shadow matches w/ her (via his red nails) after they get teamed up tgt several times bcs he thinks they’re basically the go-to duo matchup whenever they’re assigned work n it’d be cool
Very forthcoming about the fact she used to be considered a criminal and was from same rundown area Volt and Lync come from
She’s grateful she got out of jail but she still has no respect for Hydron and despite how much she tries to hide it she does make it pretty clear to him she doesn’t really like him
I wish I had more to say about her... but It’s all relationship esque, i think in general she’s enjoyable and good so what I want more out of her is character dynamics
Lync Volan
[eng dub] he has grandparents; whether they’re still alive or not is...? 
was part of the same area Volt is from
probably aware of each other but didn’t really know each other
you sound like you have mommy issues 
came from the same area as Volt, but lived further out and closer to those areas where there were some bits of nature left 
ill expand on why he got picked up by Hydron another day lazy rn
Volt Luster
[canon] he’s from an area that just straight up looks like yugioh 5ds’ Satellite, and Hydron was the one who pulled him out of there  
He says Hydron pulled him out of there when he was a kid? I’d assume at youngest it’d be like Hydron (8) and Volt (11)
has a neat collection of handmade jester dolls 
lot more artistic than he seems 
Had his guardian bakugan with him the longest; had Brontes even before he met Hydron
Would the others consider him weird fr having a talking Bakugan that acted friendly with him n cracked jokes? 
27 notes · View notes
violetnotez · 4 years
Note
hello!! how are u today? i hope youre well💖 may i request a baku crushing on a girl who is native eng speaker, but has never heard her speak. however one day the whole class is watching some eng movie n y/n starts dissing the movie in eng bc its so bad n the whole class is sHOCKED BC HER VOICE IS SO FLUENT N SM DEEPER IN ENG. bakubabe is just there like damn thats hot.
Hey babes! I’m doing well thank you, just doing some stuffs for my art blog! I hope youre doing well 💕💕also thank you to @gallickingun for the mangacap, it saved me so much time and I was actually able to color it! 😍
Also: IM ALIVE!!!! I LITERALLY WROTE THIS TODAY AND OMG I MISS WIRITNG! I’ll start on that Dabi x reader fic I mentioned in a little bit, just wanted to post this! Hopefully it’s good lmao
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⤷ Genre: Fluff
⤷ Word Count: 2020
⤷ Warnings: cursing its bakubabe
⤷ Synopsis: Bakugo won’t admit it to himself, but he’s conflicted: he knows he has a crush on you, but his dumbass won’t admit it-well, until he hears your sexy American voice.
Song Recs: ⤷If I Cant Have You-Shawn Mendes⤷Thinking About You-Calvin Harris ⤷Rather Be-Clean Bandit
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This was so stupid. Completely dumb and a waste of his time.
Bakugo slumped in his seat a little more, a grumble escaping his lips as he tried to focus on the screen in front of him, his broad shoulders crossed in front of him.
He should be sleeping right now, not sitting and watching this dumbass romantic American movie, especially when you were by his side.
There was no reason why his cheeks should feel hotter when you laughed at the movie, or his hands feel clammy with his sweat everytime you shifted your body closer to him.
It was pissing him off, because no matter how much he tried to ignore the pent up emotions in his chest, he had to admit it to himself-he had a goddamn crush.
On you, the goddamn exchange student.
Fucking great.
His lips pouted as he sulked in his seat on the couch, trying his best to glue his eyes to the screen instead of sneaking a glance at your profile.
The TV showed one of the most sickly sweet and horrific scenes he had ever witnessed: the main couple on screen were finally declaring their love to each other, their voices getting louder and more desperate as they tried to one up each other, almost as if battling to see who could last the longest.
“I love you to the moon!”
“I love you to the moon and back!”
“I love you to the moon and all the stars in the sky!”
“And I love you to-“
A laugh erupted next to him, Bakugo swiveling his head over to see you giggling in your seat, your pretty lips parted as those sweet sounds came from your mouth.
“God, this is terrible!” You chuckled, shaking your head as you said it.
Bakugo’s face reddened, his eyes widening from the sounds coming from your mouth.
Your sentence wasn’t in Japanese: it was foreign and new, American sounding.
Bakugo was used to your voice sounding light and airy when you talked in Japanese, like a leaf on a autumn breeze as it floated into his ears and danced in his mind whenever you spoke his native language. Sometimes you would fumble over the words, trying to piece the meanings together as a blush formed on your cheeks and your eyes turned up from embarrassment. He always made fun of you from it, usually telling you to “Spit it out Baka, I don’t got all day”, but really-he absolutely loved it. You sounded so sweet, so innocent and endearing: he just wanted to wrap you in a hug and envelope himself in your sugar sweet voice.
But right now, your voice was somehow the opposite-it was deeper and richer, like warm,auburn honey on a summer evening. It coated his mind in its thick numbness, the only thing he could think of was how deep and sultry, and well, sexy, it sounded coming from your lips.
He squirmed in his seat, hating how much that little change in your tone affected him so much as you continued to giggle at the wreck of a movie in front of you.
Your class turned to look at you, their faces clearly as shocked as Bakugo’s-they had never actually heard your voice when you spoke English, and they weren’t quite used to it.
You looked at your classmates, your face twisted in innocent confusion.
“What? What did I say?” You asked again in that sultry American voice, making Bakugo shift in his seat, his face looking away from you as he covered his mouth with his hand.
Damn you needed to get that voice under control-he felt like you were controlling his emotions when you spoke like that.
“Whoa y/n you know English!” Kamianri propped himself up, his face clearly in awe as he yelled it out the words.
Sero, who was sitting beside him, chuckled at his air headed friend, giving him a judging look.
“Uh, you do realize she’s from America, right?” Sero snickered, Kamianri looking sheepish as he realized his forgetfulness.
“Oops, Sorry!” He yelled out again, earning a laugh from you and the rest of your classmates.
Jealousy bubbled inside Bakugo like a volcanic eruption, the dangerous emotion barely being contained inside him as his fists clenched.
He hated when others made you laugh, especially his freinds, who unfortunately figured out the crush he had on you a few weeks back. Hearing you giggle at his idiot friends made him want to yell out in possession, declaring that they should know that you were his-well would be his- and they should lay off. But you didn’t suspect a thing about his feelings, and he really didn’t feel like looking like a possessive freak in front of you.
He felt your body shift next to his, his heart beating faster as your finger tapped his shoulder.
“Hey, Uh, Bakugo?” You whispered, the sweet tone of your Japanese voice making him shudder pleasantly, as well as long for your deeper American voice.
He grunted in response, his arms still slung across his broad chest.
“Did I talk in my American voice?”
He scoffed, his eyes rolling in his sockets at how adorably oblivious you could be sometimes. He sent you a shit eating smirk, his vermillion eyes dark like wine.
“What do you think?” He stated, but he didn’t say it in his language, no-he said it English.
He watched your face instantly light up, your eyes bright with excitement and awe as you gasped.
“Wait-you know English?!” You yelled out in awe, a smile erupting on your face. That smile seemed to shake his world, his mind eternally thanking that the room was so dark as his cheeks flushed.
“Of course I know English,” he scoffed, “what idiot doesnt.”
You giggled at his comment, your body shifting closer to his.
Damn it, his cheeks were getting hotter-he could feel your shoulder a mere centimeters away from his, your skin radiating a coolness that felt so soothing being near his permanently hot flesh.
You leaned in closer, your eyes watching his face with sweetness. “How long have you been speaking it?” you asked, but in that hot ass American voice-he was about to combust right then and there.
Shit-he would never admit it, but he hadn’t been exactly practicing his second language. He had learned it back in middle school, when it was a required class, and he had passed it with flying colors of course. Over the years though, he began to forget it, and he was pretty rusty now, now only remembering a few phrases (‘What do you think?’ being one of them)
“Ahh-“ he grumbled out, feeling stupid for not even understanding what you had said. He felt those pretty eyes of yours continue to stare at him, making him feel almost guilty for leading you on as you face fell slightly.
“You didn’t understand what I said, did you?” You asked sadly, back to using your airy Japanese voice. He hated seeing you look so disappointed, as if he let you down in some way.
“Of course I do, dumbass, I just-“
“It’s been awhile since you spoken it?”
He grunted in reply, your mind already translating that to a “Yes.”
Your face somehow light up again, your body even closer to his as you shimmied yourself near him.
“Then I’ll reteach you it!”
“Huh?” He looked at you, his eyes slanted as you peered at you with an almost judging look. What the hell were you playing at?
You nodded again, your lips letting out a slight hum.
“Yeah, I’ll teach you a phrase in English! To be honest, I miss having someone to talk to in my language…” you chuckled at your revelation, your eyes coated in embarrassment.
Well shit-if you needed someone to talk to in English, he was going to be the one to do it. With his damn luck Icy Hot and damn Deku would jump in and be your little English buddy. His skin crawled at the idea of you getting all cozy with one of those two bastards, his insides light up like a fire.
“Fine,” he huffed out, pretending like he was giving in, “but I’m not sitting through a whole damn lesson.”
You chuckled slightly, brushing a piece of hair behind your ears.
“Don’t worry, I’ll start off easy,” you smiled up at him, looking up slightly as if in thought.
“We’ll start with a something easy,” you instructed.
“I’ll teach you-“your sweet Japanese voice suddenly turned rich like syrup as it switched to American. ‘Hi my name is Bakugo”,
“Easy enough?” You asked, switching back to Japanese.
“Fucking elementary,” he scoffed, “yeah I can do it.”
“Cool!” You exclaimed quietly, still mindful of your classmates watching the crappy movie. You shimmied again, your face squarely staring at his as you waited for him to start speaking, your eyes expecting and wide with anticipation.
Shit he was supposed to be paying attention?
Bakugo cursed himself in his mind, as he was too preoccupied listening to your hot as hell American accent.
Damn, he was going to have a hard time talking to you in English, especially if you said his name like that. He hadn't realized how mezmorized he was by the way you spoke his name, your voice low and sultry as if you were telling him a secret, something he was only able to hear. His spine tingled and his hands clammed up again, making his mouth feel dry.
Shit, you’d be the end of him.
He opened his mouth, feeling uncharacteristically nervous as he tried to speak the words you had spoken. He could barely remember how you had said them though, the syllables coming out his mouth feeling cracked and awkward.
“H-hi my n-ame is...shit!” He cursed at himself, hating the way the words felt in his mouth. He couldn't say them right, knowing full well he looked like an idiot as his cheeks began to redden.
He heard you giggle next to him, the voice sounding sweet and kind against his ear.
“It okay,” you reassured him, “your just opening your mouth a little too wide...here-“
Before he could register what was even going on, your hand had wrapped delicately around his jaw, the floral scent of your perfume swarming his mind and making him unable to think straight. Your digits were pressing against his hot cheeks, forcing his lips to pout out slightly.
Damn, if he thought he was blushing, it was nothing compared to this-it felt like his cheeks were on fire.
You laughed at his clearly shocked face, his vermillion eyes wide and filled with confusion.
“Don’t worry, Bakugo, I’m just helping you,” you reassured him, your voice feathery as you whispered close to his ear.
Why the hell did that sound so hot?
You sent him another smile, speaking again in Japanese and then back to English, “Just say- ‘Hi my name is Bakugo’,”
he continued to star at you, actually beginning to like the feel your digits pressed against his mouth.
He swallowed, trying to coat his dry mouth with saliva.
“Hi-my name-is-Bakugo,” he stuttered out.
He wouldn’t ever say it out loud, but he had to admit it-his English voice did sound much better with your fingers pressed against his cheeks like that.
You clearly noticed it as well, your face triumphant and proud. “There ya go, that sounded so much better!” You congratulated him, your fingers retracting from his skin.
He already missed the feeling of your cold skin against his hot flesh, his cheeks feeling empty without your digits pressing against them.
He sucked the flesh of his cheeks into his mouth, moving his jaw.
“Shitty woman-need to give me a warning-“ he scolded you, his hands feeling clammy with the sudden change in events.
You rolled your eyes, lying yourself against the couch cushions and returning your gaze to the TV.
“Well, your going to have to get used to it if I’m going to teach you more-“
“Teach me more?!?” He practically yelled out, gaining a few confusing looks from his classmates.
“Of course!” you smiled as if it was obvious, “need to make sure your fluent enough for a conversation dumbie!”
“It’s also fun seeing you blush like that Bakugo,” you playfully nudged his ribcage, sending him a wink as you turned your gaze to the movie, unaware of how flustered you just made him.
Well shit-he thought numbly, a small grin playing against his mouth-you were something else.
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Taggings:
@weebartistinc​ @orokayagi​ @leeeah-loooser​ @bakarinnie​
597 notes · View notes
mediocre-writerr · 3 years
Text
fresh eyes [jamie]
Jamie x fem reader
Requested: In a non-creepy ghost verse, reader goes to like visit Dani in England bc she wants to confront her for running away from Eddie’s death, and then basically she meets Jamie, then Dani and the whole house scheme them to get together.
For my friend @everything-im-a-fan-of​, she came up with this request and I hope you enjoy it! Also go check out her blog, it’s amazing!
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*not my gif*
Ring, ring, ring, ring
You hear the rings coming from the other line of the phone as you’re trying yet again to contact your best friend Dani. Dani and you met when she met your brother Eddie. People would call you ‘The Three Musketeers’, that’s how inseparable you guys were. Before Eddie even proposed you already knew that you and Dani were gonna be best friends and sisters for life. 
When your brother proposed and Dani accepted it, you could tell her heart wasn’t in it. Maybe it was at first, but as the rehearsal dinners and the wedding planning were getting more and more serious, the more distant she became. Even though you were happy for your brother, you also knew that this whole proposal wasn’t good for either of them in the long run. Dani would have a nervous breakdown and Eddie would end up heartbroken. 
So one day you went on a lunch date with Dani and told her that he needs to tell him the truth, for both of their sakes. She did and later that night he died. Dani had become distant from you ever since, you knew what she was thinking that all of this was her fault and she had that guilt build up for a long time. And you tried to be there for her as much as possible, but one day she took off to England on an ‘impromptu’ trip, that was months ago. You just want your best friend back and to make sure she’s okay.
“Hello?” an unfamiliar voice asked from the other line. 
“Hi! My name is Y/N O’Mara! I’m looking to see if Dani is available.” you respond and you can hear rustling coming from the other line. 
“Hey Y/N,” you heard Dani respond, this is the first time hearing her voice in months. 
“Hey stranger! I have a little surprise for you!” you say excitedly. 
“Oh what is it?” she asks curiously and you can hear a small smile form on her face. 
“I’m coming to visit and see your new home that is Bly Manor! I’ve missed my best friend and I thought about needing to get away for awhile. If you don’t mind of course, I’d just really need to get away.” you say and you sigh softly waiting for her response.
“Of course that’s okay Y/N. I’m sorry I’ve been so distant and away, I promise I’ll make it up to you once you get here and I’ll explain everything!” she responds and you nod smiling over the phone. 
“Deal! I’ll see you in a couple days!” 
- - - - - - - - - - -
Arriving in London was a sight to see, but you couldn’t stay in the big city for too long. Right when you arrived you were greeted by a sweet man with a cool mustache and glasses. 
“Hi, are you Y/N O’Mara?” he asks and you nod, “Amazing! Nice to meet you, I’m Owen. I will be taking you to Bly Manor. I work with Dani.�� 
I shake his hand and he smiles back, “It’s nice to meet you too! I hope my best friend hasn’t caused you guys too much trouble!” you say as he puts my luggage in the back. 
“Surprisingly not for an American, but we’re still waiting for the other foot to drop,” he jokes and you laugh, “But in all seriousness she has been lovely and actually keeps the kids in check.” 
“Good!” I reply, “If she ever causes too much trouble, give me a call and I will sort her out for you.” now it was his turn to laugh as he starts the car and makes the drive to the manor. 
You guys partake in small talk and get to know each other. You come to learn the Owen loves puns and he will do anything to keep the puns going. He’s like a dad with just dad jokes stuffed up his sleeves. 
After about an hour ride you guys finally arrive in Bly. Owen helps you out of the car while unloading your bags. You’re about to make your way inside the house when you hear snickers coming from behind the two of you.
“Owen, how many times do we have to tell you not to bring girls back to the manor to impress them? Henry always finds out and he always gets mad at us!” the voice says jokingly. 
Owen laughs and you both turn around to see a beautiful girl with curly brown hair, she had a pair of gloves crumpled into a ball in one hand, and shears in the other. Her eyes met yours and she sent you a small smirk.
“Jamie, this Y/N O’Mara, Dani’s friend,” Owen introduces the two of us, “Y/N this is Jamie, she’s our gardener.” 
You extend your hand out and she takes it softly, “A pleasure to meet you.” you say and she just nods. 
“These plants aren’t gonna cut themselves. It was nice meeting you Y/N, Poppins is gonna be glad you’re here.” Jamie responds before walking away towards the bushes. 
“A hard one to crack, don’t take it too personally.” Owen responds as we enter the house and you carry your luggage inside following suit, “Dani might be upstairs in the classroom, I can take you their if you’d like.” 
“No I can do it.” another unfamiliar voice says to reveal another women, “Hi I’m Hannah, Dani has not stopped talking about you since you called a couple days ago. It feels like we already know you!” she says and you laugh.
“Well that’s Dani for you!” you reply and the two laugh, “But yes thank you that will be lovely.” 
You follow Hannah up the stairs as she makes small talk with you. Until you finally reach the classroom and she knocks on the door interrupting Dani’s small lesson on poetry. 
“Dani, you have a visitor.” Hannah says with a smile and Dani squeals before hopping off the desk and running towards you.
“Y/N!” she yells engulfing you in a hug. 
“Dani!” you yell back as you wrap the arms around the girl. 
She looked different, but not in a bad way. In a good way. Her eyes looked a little brighter and her whole vibe just seemed to be way more positive. You couldn’t be happier that she found peace within herself and you wish she would’ve taken you along. Because while she ran away from her problems, you were still stuck with the gloominess that your family brings everyday. 
“I’d like you to meet these two,” she says releasing you from the hug as she gestures to the two children sitting at the desks, “Flora and Miles this is my best friend Y/N.” 
You give them small waves as they smile politely waving back at them, “It’s a pleasure to meet you guys!” 
“And you!” they say in unison. 
“You two most have so much to catch up on. I will watch the kids for the rest of the day so you guys can catch up.” Hannah says and Dani’s about object before Hannah cuts her off, “It’s no worries Dani really. Enjoy your day off. I will see you guys in the kitchen later so we can help Owen cook.” she sends a small smile as Dani thanks her. 
Dani leads you to her room as she closes the door softly, “I just want to apologize. I know running off wasn’t the answer and leaving you behind it killed me. It physically killed me, but I just needed to get out of there Y/N. The guilt ate me alive and I know I should’ve talked to you, but it was your brother. He died because I didn’t want to marry him.” she says and you let out a small sigh.
“I should be angry at you, but I’m not for running off. You are just as important to me as Eddie. And I know you were struggling with his death and I completely understand needing to get away. I’m not mad about running. I’m mad about you ignoring me.” you reply, “You’re my best friend and pretty much a sister to me and the fact that you felt like you couldn’t talk to me really hurt.” 
She sits down next to you and lets out another sigh, “I know I’m sorry. I just didn't know how to face you. I couldn’t face you. I was so scared and I didn't know if you’d be mad at me for killing him.” her voice cracks and you immediately shake your head.
“No, no, Dani. You did not kill Eddie you know that. He was just at the wrong place at the wrong time. I don’t blame you for any of that.” you say and immediately pull her into a hug. 
You rub her back lightly letting her let it all out. When her sniffles finally stop she looks at you with sad eyes. 
“I’ve missed you.” she says and you smile back at her.
“i’ve missed you too.” you reply sending her a small smile, “So on a much lighter note, what’s the deal with the gardener?” you ask intrigued. 
She sends you a small smirk, “Jamie? She’s a tough shell to crack, has a big ol’ ‘I don’t care about people’ front, but in reality she’s a little softie. Why? Do you think she’s cute?” 
“Maybe I do.” you reply matching her smirk. 
“Well we got two weeks to make her fall in love with you.” she shoots back and you release a laugh pushing her softly. 
“Yeah, like we’re gonna do long distance.” you respond shaking you head. 
The rest of the day goes about like that. Her endless teasing along with just catching up on everything we’ve missed the past few months. Now you guys were standing in the kitchen along with Owen and Hannah as the kids played outside. 
Jamie came walking in and bee-lined straight for the fridge, “Do we not have any food?” 
“We’re making it right now,” Hannah replies and she groans before grabbing the cookie tin from the cabinet and eating one as she leaned against the counter. 
“Are you staying for dinner Jamie?” Dani asks and Jamie nods, “Yes it’s gonna be like a family dinner! I’ll make tea and coffee for Y/N!” 
“No!” everyone including you shout in unison and she looks a little taken aback. 
“Wait Poppins made you bad coffee once?” Jamie asks and you nod. 
“Only every morning before school when we went to high school together.” you respond laughing softly. 
“Why didn’t you just not accept it after the first one?” Owen asks looking intrigued in your story. 
“Because my parents gave her a ride to school everyday and when we got to the 10th grade I could drive and she couldn’t. So I took her to school everyday and brought her home, so as a way to thank me she made me coffee. I couldn’t deny it. By the time graduation came I got used to the taste.” you tell one of your favorite stories about Dani as she just stands there sheepishly. 
Everyone lets out a laugh while Hannah goes over to make everyone a tea and you a coffee. 
“Any more stories about Poppins?” Jamie asks looking at you with that same smirk she showed you when you first met. 
“Hmm...where do I even begin?” you ponder jokingly and Dani shoves you lightly. 
“I’ve got some good stories about Y/N! If you want to hear those Jamie.” Dani says suggestively and Jamie smiles.
“Oh I would actually love to!” Jamie says and you scoff, your mouth hanging wide open.
- - - - - - - - - - -
The next week continued like that, slight flirting with Jamie that kept getting more and more obvious to everyone around you. But none of you acted on it, why? Because both of you knew that you’re going to leave soon and why start something if it’s not going to last. 
However, to everyone around you it was frustrating! They all see the tension and how happy you guys make each other, but none of you want to do anything about it for something completely out of your control. 
You and Jamie were hanging out in the garden as she was teaching you how to pull the flowers out safely. Owen, Dani, and Hannah were sitting on the side sipping on some lemonade. The children were in the city with their Uncle Henry for the next week so it was nice little break. 
You let out a loud laugh as Jamie tickled your sides for teasing her. 
“God, can’t they just get together already?” Dani asks and Owen and Hannah murmur in agreement.
“Jamie has worked here for as long as I can remember and this is the first time I’ve seen her actually happy.” Hannah says and smiles at the two girls. 
Dani lets out a sigh before sipping her lemonade, “I haven’t seen her this happy since her brother died.” 
“Maybe we should do something. It’d be sad to let Y/N leave and they aren’t able to act on them because of their fear.” Owen chimes in.
“What did you have in mind?” Dani asks eyeing him curiously. 
“I have just the idea!” 
- - - - - - - - - - -
You made your way down the stairs to dinner after showering up and dressing into something more nice. Dani said that since the kids are gone we’re gonna have a themed dinner party. And by party she meant the small family you guys have created in the week you were there: Owen, Hannah, Dani, Jamie, and you. 
When you got downstairs the dining area was lit with candles as a beautiful bouquet of flowers sat at the middle. The table already set with plates and forks. Jamie was the next one who came down and at the sight of her your mouth dropped.
She was drop dead gorgeous and you couldn’t help, but stare at the beauty she is. 
“Close your mouth darling, you’re gonna catch flies.” she says tapping your chin lightly as she walks by.
“I’m sorry, you just you look gorgeous.” you whisper still staring at her in awe and she smiles softly at you. In the candlelit room you see a faint blush on her cheeks, “Oh I’m sorry! Where are my manners?” you ask getting up from your seat and pulling out the one directly across from you. 
She sits down gracefully as you catch a wiff of her scent. She smelled of fresh flowers and somehow woodsy at the same time. Whatever she smelled like you were intoxicated by it. 
“Where is the rest of them?” she asks and I shrug.
“I expected to see everyone else by now, but they haven’t come down yet...” your gaze drifts at the small movement of someone walking in behind Jamie.
“Y/N? What are you-oh my god...” Jamie replies.
Dani walks into the room wearing a waitress uniform while Hannah comes in wearing a sophisticated coat and tail with a violin in hand. 
“What is going on?” you look at the two girls and they just smirk while Jamie looked just as confused as you were. 
“Good evening Ms. Y/N and Ms. Jamie. Me and our staff are so very happy you lovely ladies chose us as your dinner reservation for your first date.” Dani says in her super bad, yet super cute British accent. 
Jamie and you look at each other, both eyes wide as you guys realize what’s going on. All three of them literally went out of their way to force into a date. 
“Tonight our renowned chef Owen has cooked you guys up a three course meal. All of these recipes he created all on his own with the help of his handy dandy Jamie Oliver cookbook. Now can I interest you ladies into anything to drink?” she asks and you look at each other and laugh.
“Um Y/L/N, would you like anything particular?” Jamie asks you and you smile before shaking your head, “Alright can we have a bottle of your aged pinot noir?” 
Dani nods before leaving the dining area to go grab the wine. The smell of Owen’s cooking automatically makes your stomach rumble in anticipation as the scent makes its way into the room. Hannah begins to play the violin softly in the background.
You and Jamie take a look at each other before bursting out laughing. Both in shock and awe at how far your friends went to get you guys on this date, “Did you know about this?” you ask her and she shakes her head.
“No not at all, but I really wish I thought of it.” she replies smiling softly and you’re about to reply when Dani comes back into the room.
“Your bottle m’ladies,” Dani says placing the two wine glasses down in front of you.
She pops open the cork before pouring you both an even amount before smiling softly. Owen comes into the room with two plates in hand. He’s wearing a big white chef hat with a full on chef’s outfit. 
“Hello lovebirds, for your first course you have one of my personal favorite starters Spanish-style prawns with fennel,” he says placing both plates down in front of us, “I hope you enjoy.” him and Dani bow before making their way back to the kitchen.
The prawns sat a top a beautiful tomato sauce with sprinkles of fennel and parsley mixed throughout all of it. As lemons and bread garnished the rest of the plate. The smell was absolutely amazing. 
You pick up your glass of wine and raise it to her, “To the best friends that we could ask for. This date would have never happened without their help. And to us, whatever this is.” she smiles at you before clinking together your two glasses.
You both take a bite of your food and it’s literally heaven on Earth. You both let out a small little groan at how unbelievably good this is. After you guys finished eating you both turned and started to have a nice conversation.
“So what was your first impression of me?” you ask her and she smiles to herself softly before replying. 
“I thought damn we have another hot American on our hands.” she says and you both release a laugh, “Us first meeting was very short, but I felt like I got a good grasp on how you were, but there was still some mystery there that I wasn’t quite sure of. I was intrigued. And yours?” 
“I thought ‘damn does every girl in London look like her because if so, when can I move??’” she shakes her head as you both laugh again, “But no I found your sense of humor right up my alley and I guess I was also intrigued. You put up such a cold front, it didn’t seem like you quite liked me.” 
“Oh I liked you...way more than I’d like to admit.” she whispers and you smile.
Owen and Dani come back with a bowl in their hands, “Now we have your second course of Irish stew. It is sliced lamb chops with finely chopped onions, carrots, and potatoes. Enjoy.” Owen says before hurrying back to the kitchen.
Dani smiles at the two of us, “More wine ladies?” 
“Yes please.” you respond shaking your head at your best friend. 
She poured out both our glasses before wiggling her eyebrows, smiling giddily. 
“Y/N you have a wine mustache!” Dani whisper yells before taking your napkin and wiping it away like your mom would usually do.
You smack her hand lightly, “Dani!” Jamie lets out a hearty laugh before Dani runs back into the kitchen with Owen. 
Hannah took a small little wine break from playing the violin. She smiles at the two of you with a small smirk on her face. We continue to eat the delicious food that Owen made while having small conversations in between each bite. 
You both finish your food and continue a game of 20 questions. 
“Hmm, why do you think you’re here?” Jamie asks as the 19th question.
“Here as in London or here as in life in general?” you ask and she laughs softly.
“Life in general.” she confirms and you nod.
“That’s deep,” you say laughing softly, “But um I guess I’m here to make people happy. Anything I can do I do to make the people care about happy and safe.” 
“Am I one of those people?” she asks and you smile at her. 
“Is that your last question?” you ask raising your eyebrow and she nods, “Yes you are. You know besides Dani because she doesn’t count since she’s like a sister to me.  You’re definitely on top. I’ve grown to really like being around you and who you are. My head is telling me that you’re a bad idea, but I think my heart knows that I really like you.” you say and you take her hand in yours.
“What’s your last question?” she whispers back to you, her eyes never leaving yours. 
“Will you be my girlfriend?” you whisper and her small smile widens. 
“I think I could manage that.” she says her smile reaching from ear to ear. 
You get up from your seat and she does the same. She takes your face in her hands before pressing her lips against yours. Her lips are just as soft as you imagine. No matter how many times you’ve dreamt or fantasized about this, you finally get the chance, and it’s so much better than in your dreams.
Both of you pull apart at the sound of someone clearing their throat. You see Owen, Dani, and Hannah standing there with wide smiles on their faces. 
“Finally!” Hannah yells, “Do you know how much tension was in this room?! I was just sitting here playing the violin awkwardly!” 
We all laugh and Jamie presses a small kiss to your cheek. Owen held a cake in his hands as he placed it on the table. 
“Your last meal a strawberry and cream sponge cake!” he says and you laugh at him. 
“Sit down and eat with us!” you suggest and they all look at each other before Dani says.
“Don’t have to ask me twice!” she cuts herself a slice and sits down at where Jamie’s spot once was.
You all sit down with each other. Jamie on your right side as she kept a hold of your hand at all times. All of you sat there enjoying the rest of the night laughing and smiling. Jamie leans in close and gives you a small peck. 
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