#but that is LITERALLY not any different than from before the horrors started. so >:P

[autism-corner]

dad wont let me be excited about my new wounds which he attributes to the horrors >:(

[al9ayf]

ᥫ᭡ 𝐰𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐧 | carlos oliveira x f!reader

✧ chapter 3 :: snake

｡˚ word count: 6.32k

｡˚ a/n: i need to give all y’all awards for waiting 6 months for the third chapter 😭 i am so sorry for the long wait i literally lost the motivation to write for monthsss until june hit and the gayness came out of me. i got a wake up call party people. i hope u enjoyyyy and i will be giving u more carlos content i promise

｡˚ content warning(s) :: smut, p in v

he was gone for what felt like forever.

you only realized that time was passing because of the different sounds jill would make. other than that, you sat still looking at the iv bag drip in a continuous pattern. but then you heard it. the sound of somebody running. you didn’t freak out or even bother moving. you were too tired, and you already knew who it was anyway. his footsteps were familiar.

carlos stopped running right as he opened the double doors. you were seated next to jill on a rolling chair with no back support. you turned your head to face him, eyes dropping to his belt where you spotted the vaccine dangling from it. you then looked up at him and noticed the smallest expression of anger.

“was he there?” you asked, standing up.

“oh, he was there,” carlos said, coming right up to you. “—sitting there dead.” your facial expression didn’t change. instead, you only rolled your eyes and turned around to face jill.

“were there any more?” you asked.

“none,” he said. “he left a video on the computer explaining everything, which i assume you alre—“

“yes, i already know.” you snapped, turning your head to face him. you were angered at the fact that nicholai killed your only coworker left to help you. the only other coworker besides yourself who knew how and where to make another fucking vaccine. you couldn’t do this alone, but you had to now.

you kicked the chair beside you and walked across the room to get the supplies needed. it was only a bandage, alcohol wipes, and some gloves. you didn’t want to infect her even more with whatever you had. you slipped the gloves on and went to work. carlos handed you the vaccine after you had wiped the area you were going to inject it in. you stuck the needle into her arm gently, hearing her wince at the pinching pain as you injected the vaccine into her. after that, you placed the empty cartridge on the stand beside you.

“she’ll still have a fever,” you said as you grabbed the bandage.

“for how long?” asked carlos.

you glanced up at him, then back down at jill’s arm so you could start wrapping the bandage. “don’t know,” you said. “it depends on how well she handles it.”

once you finished, you backed away from her and walked away. carlos came up next to her and eyed her face. she seemed to look somewhat better. he turned around to look back at you, seeing that you were removing the blue latex gloves from your hands and dumping them in the trash. you glanced at him to see that he was looking at you, and you felt somewhat of an easy feeling wash over you.

“we need to leave as soon as your friend arrives,” you said. “we need to create another vaccine before anything else happens.”

“where can we even find another one? umbrella has so many labs,” said carlos.

“only one of them has the materials to make the vaccine, and it’s right under this hospital.” you looked at the double doors, remembering how you visited this hospital so many times just to create and work on things that ultimately destroyed this city, and now possibly the world. you looked back at carlos.

“the horrors down there…” you muttered. “it’s a suicide mission.”

“there’s four of us, y/n. there’s no such thing as a suicide mission if we all work together,” he said.

“you don’t understand… i want that vaccine as much as you do, but there are more than just bio-weapons down there. it’s not the only thing that’s scaring me…”

“then… what is it?”

you glanced at jill who was resting peacefully, then sighed. “not in here, she needs to rest,” you turned your gaze back to him. you beckoned him to follow you out of the room. carlos opened up the door for the two of you, only to be met with tyrell running up to the door. he quickly stopped and started panting a bit, but had a relieved look on his face.

“i got here as soon as i could,” he said, still panting. “the vaccine?”

“i already gave it to jill,” you said. “she’s recovering and resting now.”

“oh, thank god,” he let out a deep sigh of relief. “and you two?”

you both stood there silently, not knowing how to answer. but you quickly cleared your throat and laughed awkwardly, “there are a few things we need to talk about privately. in the meantime, i want you to watch over jill for a bit—make sure nothing is wrong while we’re gone. but if anything happens, let us know immediately.”

“yeah, yeah of course,” said tyrell.

he entered the room which left the two of you all alone in the lobby. you walked over by the desk to get some distance away from the door so you wouldn’t disturb jill and tyrell with your voices. you played with your hands, unsure of what to say first. there was so much to go over, and your fingers kept sliding your wedding band up and down your ring finger.

“umbrella… they don’t want any of this getting out, y’know?” you asked, turning to face him. you moved your hands away from each other to stop your fidgeting. “it’s either them or some fucking spy or government group that wants it. whether it be the vaccine or the virus itself.”

you felt your heart rate kick up. “just the thought of it kills me on the inside. jesus… we’re doomed if one of those fuckers gets it.”

you started breathing heavily, almost as if you were about to go into full panic mode. you fanned yourself with your hands as you paced around the lobby worriedly. “we’re nothing compared to them. nothing, carlos!”

he walked over to you and stopped you in your tracks by placing both of his hands on your shoulders. you looked at him, still in a frenzied state. “you don’t know that,” he said. “you don’t know if there’s anybody down there anyway! you need to calm down.”

“there are rats in this company,” you said, grabbing his bulletproof vest. “one of the labs has already been infiltrated before the outbreak, and one of my coworkers is being stalked by this woman who wants the virus!”

you leaned in close to his face. “and nicholai is somewhere around the area, trying to find another way to get into this lab underneath our feet. he wants the vaccine so he can fucking sell it.”

carlos moved his hands to grab yours, moving them away from his chest so he can hold them. “listen,” he said in a commanding voice. “in a day or so, this city is going to be a goner whether we get the vaccine or not. but either way, we can still have the upper hand here if we secure the only escape route from the lab.”

you gulped down the built-up saliva in your throat, “and if we don’t?”

“we will. it’s the four of us against whoever or whatever is in our way.”

he saw you start to calm down and relax in his close embrace. you were still anxious, but you felt somewhat reassured. you were a scientist. the smartest out of the bunch here in raccoon city. fuck, you could outsmart all the bio-weapons and the undead—even the people after the virus. you were smarter than all of them combined. you looked away from him and down at the floor, cracking a smirk at yourself.

“maybe you’re right… i’ll try not to think about it in the meantime,” you gently grabbed your bitten hand. “i don’t want to stress myself out more…”

you moved away from him and walked over to one of the couches, sighing as you sat down. “i uh…”

you looked at him, locking eyes. “… i never had the chance to tell you the truth… about umbrella, about me, about all of this shit.”

carlos sat down next to you and placed his hand by yours. “if there is more to tell about your whole situation, then let’s talk about it after this whole shit show.”

“and once jill wakes up,” you added.

“yeah…”

you looked down, avoiding his gaze. “thank you.”

“for what?”

“everything.”

you looked back up at him and locked eyes. for the first time—you smiled. a gentle, soft, genuine smile appeared on your surprisingly still moisturized lips. he was almost taken aback by it, shocked at how much your smile became a rare sight to see now. it has been way too long. your smile lasted only a second longer before you looked away from his face and at his body. you reached your right hand out to grab the strap of his bulletproof vest. you played with the flashlight with your thumb, as if you were a little child with a toy.

“how heavy is it?” you asked.

“not that heavy,” he said.

you knew he was smirking, and you couldn’t help but laugh at how stupid this was. you looked at his face and raised an eyebrow. “i can see you breaking a sweat though,” you said, leaning in closer. you were just joking, of course, and it was an invitation to just be at ease and not at each other’s throats.

a lighthearted mood settled in between the two of you. “it’s not ‘cause of the vest, but because of you,” said carlos.

“… i always hated your pickup lines,” you said, smiling again.

“at least they get you to smile.”

“yeah, right.”

you suddenly tugged on the vest, bringing him down to your height while almost pressing him up against you. he placed both hands on either side of you to not fall on top of you and crush you.

you let go of the vest by slowly sliding your hand down the front of it, all the while looking up at him through your lashes. although you were tired, dirty, and smelled a bit bad due to the zombie guts and running around, he still thought you were gorgeous. carlos swallowed the built-up saliva in his mouth, only to quickly bend over the other way and start coughing into his fist. you sat there a bit shocked but with an amused expression on your face.

“am i that vile to you that you choked on your spit?” you laughed.

you placed a hand on his shoulder, only to move it down to his back to start hitting it gently to stop the coughing session. he let out a deep breath once he was finally finished, and turned his head to look at you. carlos saw the tiniest look of concern dancing in your eyes.

“you alright?” you asked.

he smiled at you as he leaned back on the couch. “as long as my vile wife is with me, i’m fine,” he flirted but joked at the same time.

you couldn’t help but roll your eyes at what he said, only to laugh a little right after. carlos felt at ease hearing you laugh, which helped boost his ego up a bit when he went to move his arm behind you and place his hand on your hip. you didn’t say anything as he pulled you closer to him. it felt weird to be close to him like this again. after months of being away without any communication, and the tension between the two of you the past few days—it was going to be weird. but you felt safe and comfortable. you looked up at him and into those dark eyes. he always cracked underneath your gaze. he couldn’t stare at you for too long before having to look somewhere else. you were the only woman to have this effect on him. to play better at his own game; his own flirtatious game. but it only helped his confidence to know that you were letting on. he was coming back into your life as your husband again.

he looked back at you quickly, fearing that if he strayed his gaze away for too long that you wouldn’t be there anymore. but there you were, smiling softly. he cracked again. you were just so beautiful.

“carlos…” you spoke his name as if it was the first time you heard it. he moved his head down to yours and you stayed. you didn’t move away. this was the perfect moment. he grabbed your cheek and placed a gentle kiss on your lips. you kissed back eagerly. your lips were still so soft and so moisturized. it felt amazing. when he pulled away, he couldn’t help but move back in for more.

he peppered kisses from your mouth to your chin, then down to your neck and the place behind your ear which always made you gasp and moan. his kisses only grew more eager and lust-driven. but you couldn’t do it here, not now! you moved your head so your lips could connect one more time before you grabbed his arm and stopped him. he rested his forehead against yours and stayed looking at your lips.

“baby—“ you said but got cut off.

“shut up.” carlos said and went back to work. he laid you on the couch and feverishly kissed you again. he moved his hands down to your shirt and rode it up, exposing your stomach and bra. you bit your lip to suppress a moan and placed your arm over your mouth to make sure it didn’t split out. carlos only moved your arm away and you gave him a serious look.

“we can’t,” you whispered. “it’s too risky.”

“i don’t care,” he said, kissing you. “i have to scratch fucking my wife in a apocalypse off my bucket list.” you cursed him as you laughed.

carlos moved you off the couch and bent you over it as he came up from behind you. you looked over your shoulder and frowned. “on the floor? really?” you asked.

he shrugged his shoulders. “you were going to fall off eventually. you know me,” you muttered a “shut up”. you couldn’t take him seriously at times, especially now. he hooked his fingers on your pants and underwear, making sure to slide both of them down at the same time. you were glad he couldn’t see your red face. you became embarrassed when you suddenly heard him laugh.

“a thong? really?” he asked. you rolled your eyes. “were you expecting this to happen?” carlos only continued. you wanted to hit him. when you didn’t give him a reaction, he only retaliated by spreading your legs a little wider and slipping a finger easily inside of your already dripping cunt. you laid your head on your hands and let out a shaky sigh. he smiled to himself. he pumped his finger in and out of you slowly. you could feel the roughness of his fingerless gloves against your thighs. it only made this feeling better.

you turned your head and pouted. “please, carlos…” you sighed. “just fuck me already.”

he pulled his finger out and ran it along the inner part of your thigh, making you shiver. “well since you asked so nicely…” he said, moving his finger away. you heard him unzipping his pants and some shuffling. you felt the tip of his cock enter you, but he didn’t move.

you rolled your eyes. “carlos if you don’t fucking—“ he shut you up by thrusting into you, and you gasped. he covered your mouth immediately and brought you up to his chest.

“we don’t want tyrell to hear you now,” he said, fucking you even harder. “it’ll be embarrassing for the both of us.” you couldn’t help it though. as he let go of your mouth, the first thing you did was moan even louder than your gasp. he felt so good you couldn’t even shut up about it.

you leaned your chest back against the couch to get into a more comfortable position, but every time carlos thrust into you, harder and harder, you kept being pushed back against him. he was going to fuck you dumb at this point. and even though he told you to shut up, he was also moaning and grunting, but in a much quieter voice. carlos suddenly stopped and slipped his dick out of you. you were going to turn and face him but he only moved you off of the couch and onto the floor.

your back was now on the floor with your legs spread just a little. carlos grabbed your pants and underwear again and moved them down to your ankles just to take them off, not bothering to do the same with your shoes. he just wanted the clothes out of his way. you brought your finger up to your lips as he brought you right to him, and slid right back in even more. you bit hard and moaned. carlos’ grip around your hips tightened as he fucked even harder and faster. his hair stuck to his face and his mouth couldn’t and wouldn’t stay shut.

“carlos—“ you moaned, reaching your hands up to his face. you cupped his cheeks and brought his head down to yours, immediately kissing him to shut the both of you up. your saliva mixed with his as your tongues clashed against each other. you moaned at how good everything felt. how good he was at making every part of your body sweat and shake. your cunt clenched around his dick and that is when he bit on your bottom lip in response.

your hand snaked around the back of his neck and you dug your nails into it in response, but it wasn’t hard enough to hurt him. carlos kissed you one more time and then pulled away from your lips. your bottom lip throbbed just like your cunt and you only felt more pleasure from it. carlos started to go faster, and your body twisted from it. fuck, fuck, fuck you were close and you know he knew too. carlos’ breathing became heavier and your moans only became louder.

he bucked his hips into yours and groaned. “you really love being loud,” he moaned. you hummed and went to grab your tits, massaging them as he continued fucking you.

“mmm—you make me feel so good, how am i supposed to keep my mouth shut?” you managed to say, only to moan right after. carlos laughed and shook his head. within the next minute, you felt yourself become more sensitive to any touch or movement carlos made. you felt yourself. you were going to cum any minute.

you put your arm over your mouth and cried. “yes—yes! right there! oh fuck!” you moaned as he kept his pace fast and steady. “yes!” you cried as you moaned. carlos needed to hold himself together. he couldn’t cum in you but at the same time, he wanted to so bad. ugh, fuck it. with a few more hip thrusts, carlos came inside of you, becoming still as a rock as he finally had his orgasm. you followed too, and you grabbed his face to kiss him again just to conceal your moans. you were loud when you came but this time you had to keep quiet (even though you already failed at that).

when you finally stopped, you leaned your head down on the floor again and started to breathe heavily. carlos slipped out of you and fell back on his butt. he needed a breather from that fuck. it was so good, so passionate, so raw. it took him out more than killing fucking zombies did. but it has been too long and you two needed to head back inside again. carlos pulled his pants back up and zipped them. he looked at you only to see you were still laying there with your legs wide open. you were too exhausted to do anything.

he moved over to you and grabbed your knees, closing your legs together and placing his head on top of them. he smirked at you and you looked away. you were too flushed and a bit embarrassed right now.

“round two?” he teased. you only moved your legs as you lay on your side, flashing him a playful look. carlos only grabbed your arms and pulled you up. you placed your head on your legs now and smiled. “thanks,” you said, looking up at him.

carlos became confused. “for what?”

“for reminding me of how much i missed your cock,” you joked, standing up now. you heard carlos laugh at both your joke and how you wobbled over to your pants and underwear. you sat down on the couch and slid them back on with your shoes still on you. you made sure the both of you look presentable enough before walking back inside the room jill and tyrell were in. he greeted the both of you with a smile and a “hey” before going back to work on his computer.

carlos took a seat next to him as you took yours next to jill. you were monitoring her, and as you started to unhook her from the iv bag that she no longer needed, tyrell leaned in close to carlos with a small smirk on his face. “she that good?” he asked. carlos looked at him and scoffed before lightly punching his shoulder.

“shut up, man…” he muttered. you stopped what you were doing and turned to look at them. tyrell was snickering to himself while carlos gave you a quick wink. you only blushed and turned back to jill. motherfucker.

—

waiting around hoping for something to happen isn’t ideal, especially since the government was going to bomb raccoon city soon. you and carlos left tyrell in charge to look after jill since she was recovering well, and the two of you headed off into the lab to start looking for another vaccine. you weren’t sure if there were any left, truthfully, but if you had to make it from scratch then so be it.

everything was going smoothly up until the two of you got ambushed by the undead. you were forced to split up, and ever since then, you’ve been wandering around the halls alone. you knew where you were going, but you feared that carlos would be lost. if only you kept the radio. you decided that you needed to stop waiting around for carlos, and instead start going after the vaccine. you needed to get it before anybody else—if there even is another person lingering down here…

you finally arrived at the storage room in front of the lab and you quickly headed towards the lift. you didn’t see anybody on your way here so you thought to yourself that you were the only one. that is until the lift reached the monitor room and there stood nicholai with his hands behind his back looking right at you. “there’s the woman of the hour,” he said, walking towards you. you quickly got off the lift and headed to him as well, glaring straight into his eyes.

“what’re you doing here?” you asked. “there’s no business for you here.”

he looked you up and down before walking past you. “last night i saw you get bit,” nicholai turned around to see your confused and shocked expression.

“how?” you snapped, coming up to him. “i was alone. carlos wasn’t even there—“

“you forget that i’m a monitor. i watch,” he said, fully turning around to meet your eyes. “and you were stupid enough to forget that i could see you wrapping that bite up in that train.”

you bit the inside of your lip harshly and it almost bled. nicholai laughed at your shaken appearance. and to add it all on top, he placed a hand on your shoulder and smirked at you. “umbrella already knows of this. your body is a natural resistor to the virus. they would be so glad to hear from you—“

he got cut off when the power suddenly went out. you could still feel his hand on your shoulder, so you slapped it away and gave him a hard punch in the face. you surprised yourself by managing to land the blow. nicholai groaned in pain as he fell to the floor. it was still dark so you could barely see him. but then you felt him grab your leg and forcibly trip you. you yelled as you fell and landed on your bitten arm. you felt blood squeeze out at the pressure which only made you hiss at the pain.

“stupid bitch,” he muttered under his breath. he got on top of you and grabbed your neck, squeezing it. you reacted quickly, and as he struggled to strangle you, your hands felt around his waist area and grabbed the knife he had in his pocket. you grabbed it and stabbed him in the leg. nicholai screamed in pain and you then scooted away from him. you backed into the wall, breathing heavily and gasping for air. fuck it burned. you still had the knife in your hands, and you gripped tightly onto it as you stood up and made your way toward him. he was visible now in the dark. you finally managed to get a grip on your surroundings.

nicholai got up from the floor right as you tried getting a swing at his neck. he grabbed your wrist harshly and under his grip slowly started to crush it. you screamed in pain and fear as he brought the knife closer to you instead. but then the lights turned on, and he suddenly pushed you away. he ran to the sliding door and you quickly followed after him. you were going to kill that son of a bitch. as you slipped through the doors, jill came up on the platform, managing to catch a glimpse of your labcoat and hair.

“y/n!” she yelled, but you didn’t hear her. the doors shut and locked behind you and it was just you and nicholai. but in a twisted turn of events, he suddenly pressed a button he had in his hand, and down came the doors. you rushed to it and banged hard on it.

“i’ll get you, you bastard!” you yelled. “you fucking hear me?!” but he didn’t answer. you knew the lab like the back of your hand, so you turned around and ran down another big white hallway. you ran into a black door and you slammed it open. all you had with you was this fucking knife and a bitten hand. you were screwed. this place was crawling with the undead. but you were here, so you had to do something. you walked into the supply room at the end of the hall to find some bandages. yours was dirty and bloody again. when you took them off, you saw how bad your hand had got. your fingers were way too skinny and your hand seemed to have shrunk a little. what the fuck?

you quickly found some bandages and wrapped up your hand again. you left the room holding it as if you had broken it. you realized after all the adrenaline that there wasn’t much feeling to it anymore. you walked up the stairs in pain and fear. the vaccine synthesis room was only down the hall. you saw no infected around, but right as you got up to the door, you suddenly heard the sound of a few behind you. you didn’t bother turning your head to look at them. you only busted into the room with fear and shut the door behind you. you walked straight towards the machine and looked around the table. there were no materials. your breathing became heavier as you looked around the room for any materials. nothing. fucking nothing.

you fell to the floor crying and you slammed your okay hand on the ground. “fuck!” you yelled. you knew there were some in badly infected areas, but you couldn’t go there like this. you were dying, you knew it. suddenly the door busted open and jill came in with her gun aimed. you looked up at her in awe as she came down to you.

“fuck, are you hurt?” she asked, bringing you to your feet. you shook your head as she brought you to the chair nearby to sit on.

“the vaccine…” you started. “the materials aren’t in here.”

“that’s alright,” she said, placing her gun back in its holster. “i’ll go get it.”

“you don’t understand—“

“y/n, i’ve gone through worse shit. just tell me where to fucking get it and what the fuck it is,” she cut you off.

you stared at her in shock for a second only to let out a small laugh at her attitude. you enjoyed how brave she was. you sat there explaining to her where and what to get. you needed an antigen and adjuvant for it to work, but they were far from each other in deeply overrun areas. but jill didn’t care though. she only thanked you and walked out the door, only to come running back in to grab a usb drive by the computer. you laughed again at her.

—

an hour later jill came back with what you needed. she only had a few scratches on her but that didn’t matter. you told jill you would meet up with her and carlos later while you worked on this vaccine now that she had gotten rid of the infected around the area. but before she left, you told jill that there was a weapon in the lab that could destroy nemesis once and for all.

“if you can’t shake it off of you, head to that room. you will finally get rid of it there,”

and then she left. you spent the next few minutes finishing the vaccine. and as you held that bright pink tube up to your face a thought came to your mind—maybe it could help you. raccoon city was going to be a goner either way. you were still alive. everything else was gone. you needed it more, right? you looked around for a needle and managed to find one. but as you held it up, you felt like you couldn’t do it. you finally got jill’s trust and carlos back in your life. you couldn’t do it.

you threw the syringe on the floor and left the room. there was a helicopter up on the roof you could hijack and prepare for the three of you to leave. you knew a shortcut—an elevator that took you straight up there. you walked into the hallways and went through a door at the end of one of them. there was an elevator that took you up to the roof. you arrived in a minute, and there was the helicopter. you ran up to it only to be caught off guard by a gunshot. nicholai came charging at you, and you took out the knife again. he knocked you down to the ground but without getting sliced across the arm for it.

“you’re strong for somebody who is infected!” he said, sitting on top of you again. this time he grabbed the knife from your hand and threw it away, breaking your wrist in the process. you screamed and tried rolling away from him, but it hurt so bad. you started to cry and push him away with your other hand, but that one was already weak and “decayed”. nicholai grabbed your throat and raised your head from the ground, banging it onto the floor below. you screamed even more, but before he could do it again, he suddenly got shoved off of you.

you kept your eyes shut in fear and pain. your head hurts so bad. your arms were on fire. you wanted to die than continue living in this painful hell. you opened up your eyes to see carlos beating the living shit out of nicholai. but they kept turning and fighting each other it all became a blur to you. your head felt like it was about to explode. and eventually, you passed out for a few seconds only to wake up again to feel somebody searching your body. you opened your eyes to expect carlos, only to come face to face with nicholai. he grabbed the vaccine from your pocket, but at that moment it wasn’t the thing concerning you. you rolled to see where carlos was, only to find his body not moving on the ground.

“carlos!” you yelled. you could see the faint moving of his chest, so you remained calm. at least he was still alive. behind you, you heard jill run-up to the three of you. she yelled incoherent words since you kept slipping in and out of consciousness. the only thing you managed to make out was a gunshot and the sound of some glass breaking. there was so much going on as you heard some more struggling and another gunshot. then everything went quiet. carlos suddenly appeared above you and he bent down to pick you up.

“everything’s going to be okay now,” he said, lifting you. he helped you inside of the helicopter and you laid your head down on jill’s lap. you couldn’t bring yourself to move much.

“the vaccine?” you managed to ask.

“gone,” said jill in an angry voice.

you didn’t reply to her. that’s what the glass was, huh? you shut your eyes and let silent tears spill down your cheeks. your hand, your legacy, your life… all gone.

—

a week passed after you returned home. the government was still forcing you to go through some regulations, but you didn’t mind since you and carlos were back in your home. he questioned your hand a few times but you told him that it was still healing after getting it caught in a fence while running through raccoon city. you didn’t have the heart still to tell him that you had gotten bit and were still living. you added to the lie saying after you went to the government hospital, they bandaged and sewed your hand back up. he believed you—of course, he believed you.

at the end of the week, in the middle of the night, you received a phone call. it was your house phone, not your phone. you knew who it was already. you got up from bed slowly and walked to the dresser by the window. it was an unknown number, but you still picked it up.

“hello?” you asked while walking out of the room. carlos was a heavy sleeper so he wouldn’t notice you gone for a few minutes. you walked out into the hall and into an empty room filled with boxes. you sat in the rocking chair by the window and looked out into the street. nobody was out there.

“you made it out, bitten and still alive,” the man on the other side of the phone exclaimed. “how?”

you leaned into the rocking chair and smiled. “don’t know, don’t care,” you said.

“has it spread?”

“a little. the blackness reached my wrist and my fingers are stiff.”

“and your other hand?”

“the wrist is broken but it should heal in a few weeks. nothing to worry about.”

“and the vaccine?”

“destroyed by nicholai.”

“good. we can fix that hand of yours too and take a sample for some experimenting.”

you shut your eyes and relaxed into the seat. the man on the other side muttered a few things and you could hear the tip-tapping of his keys. after a few seconds of silence he spoke up again. “we’re expecting you back at work soon,” he said.

“umbrella is gone. i cannot continue my work there anymore,” you said. “everything perished from that fucking bomb.”

“you won’t be working with them anymore, you’ll be working with me.”

“and what will i gain from working with you?”

“the power you never had from umbrella.”

you suddenly heard your bedroom door creaking open. you heard as carlos’ footsteps started coming towards the door. you panicked. “one second,” you said as carlos opened up the door a bit wider to the room you were in. you looked at him with a small smile on your lips. he looked exhausted.

“you’re up,” he said, leaning against the doorframe. “whose calling you so late?”

you brought the phone down to your lap and sighed. “one of the government workers,” you groaned. “they need our passports tomorrow.”

“couldn’t they have waited in the morning?” you rolled your eyes at him and laughed. he came up next to you and leaned down to kiss your forehead. you felt so bad. “i’ll be waiting in bed then.”

you nodded your head and watched as he left the room. you listened closely to the sound of his footsteps as they disappeared and you brought the phone back up to your ear. “so?” the man asked.

“alright,” you said, getting up from the chair. “next time don’t call my house phone in the middle of the night.”

he didn’t say anything and hung up the phone. you hated blonde men. you went through the phone and deleted the number from the call history just in case. you walked back into your bedroom and placed the phone on its stand. carlos had his eyes shut but you know he was still awake. you crawled back into bed and into his embrace, placing your head on his chest. he wrapped his arms around you tightly and pressed another kiss on the top of your head.

“hey, y/n,” he started, looking down at you. you hummed in response.

“why are you lying to me again?”

ch. 1 and 2

bonus chapter party people?

ALSO THANK YOU FOR READING MY SERIES AND KEEPING UP WITH THE BULLSHIT UPDATING SCHEDULE 😭 I LOVE YOU ALL !!!

[bloodstained-white-jacket]

hello im here to talk about lupin eating dirt (this was originally a scrapped concept i gave for one of dukeswonderousmenagerie's aus, ty loopspoop for giving idea fuel teehee)

tw for body horror and the concept of bugs living inside someone's body

ok SO this anomaly is literally just. brainworms KJHJGH it kinda functions how the curse influencing does but just. worse bc its slowly taking over their brain (and everything else) JKHGJFH it works in stages (using lupin as the example for it)

first stage he just seems kinda sick, he sleeps longer, spaces out n forgets what hes doing more often and generally has less energy

second stage hes exhausted really and spends most of his time in bed (since his body is trying to fight the entity off as if it was an infection or smthn so that really saps his energy) he gets really spacey, like so unfocused that half the time he doesnt even respond when being talked to. despite this he will occasionally get up and be found just. standing in corners staring at nothing or be found wide awake at night just laying there in the dark with his eyes wide open

then theres a small space between the second and third stage where hes p much in a coma for 1-3 days while the entity fully takes over

and then in stage three hes completely gone and the spooky behavior ramps up teehee his eyes are glazed over and lifeless, he cant talk aside from quiet humming noises, he'll scratch at his skin until he bleeds n often scratches at walls n other surfaces until his nails break, and he seems to just. develop pica out of nowhere he'll literally go outside at like 4 am and start digging into the ground with his bare hands and eat handfuls of dirt, then later puke up an odd mix of blood, live worms, anything else he mightve eaten and the aforementioned dirt.

the live worms are the interesting part, bc if he did happen to eat any, theyd be dead from either chewing or yknow. stomach acid. no the worms he pukes up are literally the ones that took over his brain, like. theyre breeding inside him and infesting his other organs and turning him into a (barely) living nest. the ones infesting his stomach just happen to get puked up with the random stuff he eats

in less than a week after entering the third stage the worms are infesting literally every single organ in his body, theyre nesting inside his lungs, intestines and even his heart. theyre even managing to get into his veins

when jigen finally puts him out of his misery, the worms seemingly panic and leave his corpse in mass. the sight of what seems like thousands of worms crawling out of lupin's mouth, nose and even escaping via the bullet wound almost makes jigen sick

luckily all of the worms leave before lupin revives so he isnt infected again, but they still move to a different hideout since jigen is pretty sure the worms had gotten into the walls-

[theroadtosomewhere]

Writer Interview Game!

Tagged by @azapofinspiration yippeeeeeeee

When did you start writing?

Mmmmm.... first story I wrote properly was in 2014, little primary school lad who got marked well on a story in class and it ended up on a lil notice board which little me was like oH. It was a 10 year old's excuse for a horror story but it does make me laugh to think that I went from that to wattpad within months, back when it wasnt behind a paywall. My first original was on wattpad in maybe 2016 and after that I was really into LoZ and BBC Sherlock so there was some fanfics there. My longest (unfinished) original story was built off a plot that I created for a LoZ fanfic and I was still very active in writing it up until three years ago, so there was a solid 6-7 years spent with that lol.

End of 2022 I started reading abt skk on ao3 without ever having watched the show (shoutout athena and moxie p sure i read some of yours first lmfao every skker ever) and started writing my first few skk fics without ever having watched the show OR read the manga. Before that though the thing that got me onto writing for/on ao3 was Narumitsu!!! my babes one day i will finish that first fic (blackmadhi yesssssssss if you wanna see my cringe from pre bsd thats it lol).

Are there different themes or genres you enjoy reading than what you write?

god..... too many..... its been a long time since ive sat down to read properly, and even during school i would not have considered myself a book nerd by any means (mostly because i was juggling time between school and extra-curriculars.)

Is there a writer you want to emulate or get compared to often?

When I was in highschool, my writing style (based on the original mentioned above) was compared to Marcus Zusac before I'd even read a book of his. That was pretty nice. Same with Neil Gaiman but that is too high praise for me to accept considering i now write either about gay lawyers or gay mafioso x ex-mafioso soooooooooooo. not sure any of that would come through in my writing these days.

Can you tell me a bit about your writing space?

Literally write wherever I can. In my room, at my desk, on the bus or train, during breaks at work and in class at uni (responsible i know). Wind, rain or shine, if i have an idea (or not even) i'll jot down an idea or vaguely edit something. The process is process-ing!!!!

What’s your most effective way to muster up a muse?

Hehehehehehehe......maladaptive daydreaming..........

Are there any recurring themes in your writing? Do they surprise you?

I LOVE THIS OKAY. SO. typical projection stuff incoming. I feel like most if not everyone has a highschool horror story and up until like a year or so ago i was like!!! it wasnt that bad!!!! (it was, emotionally at least). The aforementioned original story and its characters changed a LOT overtime lol. when I hit my last year of highschool, i'd had some time away from writing and when i read over it, it was crazy to see not only what my mental state had been through my writing, but to see my own coping mechanisms written between the lines before i even knew what they were/that i did them! Won't go into too much detail about that but I did experience dissociation and anxiety etc which I only began to address in my last year of school, so going back and reading it with a clearer head was like wow okay. that was real!

That being said! Hurt/comfort my beloved. The unloved being loved. Second chances. Do with that what you will.

What is your reason for writing?

Initially i started writing for fun, but during highschool as things got a little worse, i fell into the characters i created and i can look back now fondly and think...thank you. i still dont know if i want to touch the story because its one of the last things i have left from a time past that may not have been positive, but the experience of writing and developing the characters alongside myself back then is just sighs :') sometimes i miss that girl.

First for enjoyment, second as a way of staying sane, and now i'd say its a mixture of both. My writing is my love letter to whatever I'm writing about. I do love sharing too. Right audience and all that :)

What do you feel is your greatest strength as a writer?

I've been told that I can write particular characters' inner voices quite well, which is always a compliment :')

I think my own strength as a writer is also the weakness, which is to say that a project is never finished. Even when there's something out there and up on the interwebs for people to see, there's a good chance that if you check back months later, something has been edited or changed. I do have issues with perfectionism at times, but weirdly enough its not a negative thing when i apply it to my writing. I enjoy the process of seeing the stories i write change.

How do you feel about your own writing?

Good most days. I experiment quite a bit with ideas and writing styles/formatting so I will leave it at that lol.

Tagging @calmlb and @samtheboyfailure if y'all want :)

[deripmaver]

laurent is a good person - book 1 meta

one of the most amazing things about captive prince is how the reveals in book 3 recontextualize all of the scenes leading up to them, including about laurent himself. in book one, all we see is damen pov as he’s being abused and humiliated by this supposedly spoiled, vile ice prince. when the regent comes to damen and subtly (and not so subtly) insults laurent, calling him unfit to rule - well, why would he think anything different? laurent has insulted him, had him whipped within an inch of his life, and even attempted to (and later successfully lmfao) have him raped while drugged out of his mind. 

after book 3 we can reread most if not all of book 1 as a very traumatized boy who has finally been confronted with the man who killed his brother, leaving him alone with his abusive uncle, and who he clearly has made into a complete monster in his own mind. damen of course sees him as a complete bitch, but there’s textual/subtextual evidence that laurent is well liked, and that his behavior during book 1 was actually pretty out of character for him. i’d like to provide some examples of that now!!!!

“Laurent had stopped dead the moment he had seen Damen, his face turning white as though in reaction to a slap, or an insult. Damen’s view, half-truncated by the short chain at this neck, had been enough to see that. But Laurent’s expression had shuttered quickly.” Captive Prince, Chapter One

i couldn’t resist adding this one in hehe. laurent recognizes damen!! he’s come down, knowing his uncle has devised another truly horrendous and triggering “gift” and that he’ll lose support if he calls it our for what it truly is, only to find out that it’s fucking damianos of akielos sent to him as a sex slave. a jab at laurent’s trauma about auguste and also a jab at laurent’s frigid sexuality - which ofc is completely the regent’s fault. fuck that guy so much lmfao 

“‘It’s so rare to see you at these entertainments, Your Highness,’ said Vannes.” Captive Prince, Chapter Two.

this is right before the fight between govart and damen in the ring, of course. damen sees laurent as depraved and vile as the sexual sadism on display by the veretian court, and considers him to be a willing purveyor of it. this is wrong, of course, as said by vannes here. laurent has only shown up because he wants to humiliate damen lmfao.

“He did remember being supported by two of the guards, here, in this room, while Radel stared athis back in horror. ‘The Prince really . . . did this.’ ‘Who else?’ Damen said. Radel had stepped forward, and slapped Damen across the face; it was a hard slap, and the man wore three rings on each finger. ‘What did you do to him?’ Radel demanded.” Captive Prince, Chapter Four

this scene, to me, was the most telling lmfao. it’s right after damen is whipped. you could argue that radel is just a servant in the employ of the royal household, so is of course going to be loyal to the prince, but he seems genuinely surprised of the prince’s cruelty towards damen. not only that, but he slaps him and immediately assumes damen must have done something. which - i mean, technically he did lmao. not necessarily enough to deserve having the skin flayed from his back, but you know. if laurent was in the habit of torturing pets and slaves, why would the overseer react this way?

“The men guarding him were the Prince’s Guard, and had no affiliation with the Regent whatsoever. It surprised Damen how loyal they were to their Prince, and how diligent in his service, airing none of the grudges and complaints that he might have expected, considering Laurent’s noxious personality. Laurent’s feud with his uncle they took up wholeheartedly; there were deep schisms and rivalries between the Prince’s Guard and the Regent’s Guard, apparently.” Captive Prince, Chapter Four

laurents relationships with his guards are also some of the biggest indicators that he isn’t just a spoiled brat, but can insire a deep loyalty in his men. even if they do all want to fuck him. ah, sexual harassment. it’s also hilarious that damen immediately assumes they’re loyal to him because they want to fuck him - nice projection there, dude. we know a bit more about laurent and his guards thanks to green but for a season, but this little bit here is interesting.

“Laurent was indeed good at talking. He accepted sympathy gracefully. He put his position rationally. He stopped the flow of talk when it became dangerously critical of his uncle. He said nothing that could be taken as an open slight on the Regency. Yet no one who talked to him could have any doubt that his uncle was behaving at best misguidedly and at worst treasonously.”  Captive Prince, Chapter Five

idek what to say here. laurent my beloved <3333

“‘When someone doesn’t like you very much, it isn’t a good idea to let them know that you care about something,’ said Laurent. Damen felt himself turn ashen, as the threat sank in. ‘Would it hurt worse than a lashing for me to cut down someone you care for?’ said Laurent.” Captive Prince, Chapter Seven

this isn’t really relevant to my thesis lmfao i just love this exchange bc it gives SO MUCH information about laurent and his uncle in just three lines of dialogue. what has the regent done, who did he cut down just to hurt laurent? when and how did laurent learn that? p a i n 

“Laurent’s fussy horse began acting out again, and he leaned forward in the saddle, murmuring something as he stroked her neck in an uncharacteristically gentle gesture to quiet her.” Captive Prince, Chapter Nine. 

HORSEY NO- lmfao this scene just hurts so badly on the reread. especially later on, in book 3 i think, where laurent says something like “i provoked my uncle.” he’s really blaming himself for his uncle KILLING HIS HORSE, his horse that his murdered brother trained, one of the only living connections to auguste... all because his uncle could not let a single miniscule plan laurent had set go through without some kind of repercussion. literally all laurent did was do something to stop an innocent group of people from being abused, nothing to undermine his uncle’s rule, but because the regent is VILE he could not let laurent have even this. he’s so good with her, too. he must have known by this point and also known that there was no way to stop this. P A I N

“‘I know that you have somehow arranged this,’ said Erasmus. He was incapable of hiding what he felt, and just seemed to radiate embarrassed happiness. ‘You kept your promise. You and your master. I told you he was kind,’ Erasmus said. ‘You did,’ said Damen. He was pleased to see Erasmus happy. Whatever Erasmus believed about Laurent, Damen wasn’t going to dissuade him. ‘He’s even nicer in person. Did you know he came and talked to me?’ said Erasmus. ‘—He did?’ said Damen. It was something he couldn’t imagine. ‘He asked about . . . what happened in the gardens. Then he warned me. About last night.’ ‘He warned you,’ said Damen. ‘He said that Nicaise would make me perform before the court and it would be awful, but that if I was brave, something good might come at the end of it.’ Erasmus looked up at Damen curiously. ‘Why do you look surprised?’ ‘I don’t know. I shouldn’t be. He likes to plan things in advance,’ said Damen.” Captive Prince, Chapter 9.

this is the first in-text confirmation we have that laurent has a good heart beneath his layers and layers of trauma-induced lashing out. book one often skeeves people out because of its graphic and, honestly, yes, kind of sexualized depiction of rape, slavery, and depravity, but beneath it all you meet these two protagonists who are going to have all of their most deeply held views about each other challenged. laurent from very early on is shaken to his core when damen refuses to rape nicaise in the ring - it cracks the very foundations of the person he’d built up in his head as this horrible monster who killed his brother in cold blood. and damen keeps defying laurents expectations by being a good person through and through. on the other hand, laurent spends the first part of the book taking out years of anger on damen, but here for the first time we see him do something just because its the kind thing to do. yes, torveld is an ally against his uncle, but laurent has clearly been scheming with him for a while now, and he’s now overlooking his hatred of damen and working with him just because none of the slaves deserve whats happened to them. it’s such a sweet moment.

“One of the other men, eyeing them, approached a moment later. ‘Don’t mind Jean. He’s in a foul mood. He was the one had to stick a sword through the mare’s throat and put her down. The Prince tore strips off him for not doing it fast enough.’” Captive Prince, Chapter Nine.

HORSEY NO- pt 2. this is just another really sweet and sad detail - laurent being so upset that the horse’s death could have been more painless. it must have hurt so much to see her in pain, and to know that the only way for that pain to end was being put down as quickly as possible. i wuv him. im sad

that’s it, though there are still a few more chapters left in the book. this isn’t providing any new information, of course, the path of the three books is to show that laurent isnt the man we meet in book one, that he’s actually sweet, and earnest, and he’s been fighting his own battle practically alone against his abuser since he was fifteen years old. also, the reveal that laurent knew who damianos was from the start makes it clear imo that all of his violence in book 1 was supposed vengence, not... him being evil. he apologizes explicitly in-text, and also, all of the acts of violence he commits cause serious problems for him in terms of his future alliance which he then needs to fix. i just love how layered these books are, how there’s so much information in them that makes rereading almost more fun than reading them for the very first time!

[taestefully-in-luv]

Always You | JJK (Six)

Summary: you and Jungkook have been best friends since freshmen year of college, there’s a lot of unsaid feelings and tension but neither make a move. what happens when his friend Taehyung (also your crush) needs a fake girlfriend?

Pairing: Jungkook x Female reader, slight Taehyung x Reader

Genre: friends to lovers, idiots to lovers, slight slow burn, roommate au, college au, SMUT (starting ch2), fluff, angst (in later chapters) slight crack, lots of drama

Word Count: 18.3k

Warnings: Swearing, alcohol consumption, sexual tension (!!!), mention of drugs, mention of threesomes, mention of erection, grinding in sleep, car sex, riding, heated make out, hickeys, light hair pulling, light spanking

Notes: Not entirely sure how I feel about this chapter to be honest but here it is regardless! I hope you guys enjoy it:) ALSO those teaser pics from today!!! Anyway feel free to send an ask if you want to be added to the taglist or just want to chat about the story:)

Taglist: @mooniyooni @thisartemisnevermisses @giadalin @kookiebunny097 @cosmosjk @moonchild1 @just-jeon @anpanman-sonyeondan @starlight-night0 @yessii-i @apollukee @mikasaredscarf1 @kaye-rosales @bunnyjeonjk @dyriddle @seagulljk @hass-mich-los @peachy-skz0325 @wonusbitch @not-your-lion @flowersgirl02 @justinetingball @fiantomartell

© taestefully-in-luv

Previous---Next

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The week drags on slowly and horribly, Monday you had a raging migraine that just wouldn’t go away. Tuesday you were late for your job and were scolded for it. Wednesday you spilled your black coffee all over your white blouse. And today, Thursday, you started your period. This week could not get any worse. Oh wait, yes it can—you just remembered you promised Jungkook you would attend his get together.

You hope things won’t be awkward with Nick…Jungkook has assured you that things are cool and Nick isn’t mad about what happened.

Jungkook 5:15pm

Hey :) so, I was thinking you could bring that 16% wine we always drink?

Jungkook 5:50pm

It starts at 7 but you can come earlier if you want

Jungkook 6:00pm

Or you don’t have to,..it was just a suggestion.

Y/N 6:02pm

I’ll be there at 7.

Jungkook 6:02pm

Ok cool :) I can’t wait to hang out.

You click your phone off, groaning into your pillow. Your cramps are fucking killer and you want to die. You look to your nightstand to see your water and pain killers, you reach for them and swallow them down. Hopefully this helps.

You decide to start getting ready, you settle on some jeans and your favorite striped sweater. Like, who are you trying to impress?

You hear your phone buzzing from your bed and you hurry to answer it.

“Hello?”

“I’m outside whore.”

“Kay be out in a sec.”

You hang up your phone, stuffing it in your back pocket. You gather your things and do one last look in the mirror—casual but cute.

“Holly! They’re here!”

You two rush down to the parking lot where Jimin is parked, Trina and Holly sit in the backseat while you occupy the passenger seat.

“You ready?” Jimin smirks.

~~~~~~

Before you know it, Jimin is knocking on Jungkook and Nick’s front door.

“By the way, I still can’t believe you didn’t who nick was…”

“I never come over here! Jungkook usually comes to mine…” Jimin answers in pout.

The door swings open and there stands Nick, in all his hot glory.

“Hey Nick…” you say, avoiding eye contact but Nick is chipper as can be as he nods at you and everyone else.

“Hey Jungkook! y/n is here!” he calls behind him.

“I mean, we’re here too but go off I guess.” Jimin’s mutters from beside you.

The four of you walk into the apartment, Jungkook still nowhere to be seen.

The small place is filled with maybe 5 other people, you are quick to nod at everyone in greeting. You catch Jungkook leaving his bedroom with Vanessa following closely behind him, you can’t help but roll your eyes. Jungkook finds you staring at him and he grins, walking closer to you and your friends.

“y/n!” he goes in for a quick, unexpected hug.

“Hi.”

“Jimin!” he hugs Jimin too, “and Hey Tr—”

“Go fuck yourself.”

“Yup, nice to see you too Trina.” Jungkook smiles anyway, “And you must be Holly?” he extends his hand out for her to shake. She takes it while smiling awkwardly.

“I’m glad you guys came!” Jungkook scratches the back of his head, “This is uh, this is Vanessa.” He introduces the girl standing beside him.

Vanessa is pretty…really pretty actually. She has short black hair, it looks soft and sleek. She is taller than you, her height almost rivaling Jungkook’s. But she is still smaller than him.

“Hi everyone.” She says flatly.

She doesn’t look interested in meeting any of you, or interested in any of the people here. She grabs her phone from her bag and starts scrolling through it as Jimin introduces everyone.

“And this is y/n.” he finally finishes, gesturing towards you.

At this, Vanessa looks up from her phone to eye you up and down, “Right.” Is all she says, then her eyes are back on her screen.

Wow, quite the charmer. You look at Jungkook whose eyes are already on you, and he chuckles nervously.

“Well, did you bring that wine?” he asks you.

You pull it from the bag you are holding and hand it to him, “Here…” his hand goes to reach it and his fingers brush against yours and you shudder.

“Umm, I’ll pour us all a glass.” He takes the bottle, faces Vanessa and heads toward the kitchen while Vanessa follows him. You watch as they disappear into the other room and you release a breath.

“That’s the bitch he’s fucking?” Trina asks bluntly, one eyebrow raised in question. “She didn’t even look at us!”

“Let’s be nice,” Holly says.

“Fucking fine.” Trina rolls her eyes. Hard.

You can’t help but agree though, Vanessa seems…you don’t know, but why would Jungkook like her? She seems rude, and uninterested in literally everything.

“You’re never going to get over her like this, you know?” Vanessa continues to look at her screen as she speaks to Jungkook. “You’re just hurting yourself.” Her eyes dart towards her glass being poured, “I don’t even like this wine, I told you I wanted the other one.”

“It’s y/n’s favorite.” He exhales deeply as he pours more glasses.

“Oh right, so is this how it’s going to be?” Vanessa clicks her phone off and slides it in her purse, “Now that she’s back in your life everything is going to be about her?”

“No, Vanessa…” he looks up from the bottle, “We’re still…” he gestures between their bodies.

“Right.” She says, tapping her fingers against the counter, “Totally.”

“So what game shall we play?” Jungkook sits down between you and Vanessa, his body vibrating in excitement. (How you and Vanessa ended up sitting next to each other in the first place? You don’t know. But thankfully Jungkook saves the day.)

“How bout never have I ever!” Jimin winks at everyone, “It’s always a good way to get to know new people.”

“Fine.” Trina says with a smirk

“Yeah, I’m down!” Nick says, high fiving his same bro who believes in aliens.

Various ‘yes’s are heard around the room and you nod your head too.

“If you’ve done it, you drink, that’s the rule.” Jimin states “I’ll go first. Never have I ever done coke.”

A few people you aren’t well acquainted with groan and take a sip of their drinks, Jimin looks at you as he passes his turn.

“Uh,” you look up at the ceiling, “Never have I ever had a threesome.”

You notice every single one of your friends taking a drink, Jungkook included. Well, you shouldn’t be surprised. Damn, even Holly? Are you just lame?

Jungkook goes next, “Never have I ever ate ass!” Jimin raises his glass and he take a gulp.

Everyone’s laughing and having a good time, the game continues on for several rounds, everyone drinking at different times but everyone collectively getting drunker.

The turn is back on you…”Never have I ever cheated on a college exam.”

“Fucking liar!” Jungkook snickers beside you, “You copied like half my answers in bio!”

“Oh true.” You say nonchalantly, “Never mind. Jungkook your turn.”

Jungkook thinks for a few moments, “Never have I ever not made a girl come.” He smirks.

“Okay ladies man, we get it, fucking whore.” Jimin sticks his tongue out.

Next is Vanessa’s turn, she tilts her head side to side thinking on what she wants to say.

“Never have I ever had sex with my best friend.” She says, her voice smooth and silky.

You choke on your spit when you process her words, your head snaps to Jungkook’s. He’s already looking at you, debating if he should drink—especially in front of all your friends.

He watches in horror as you begin to raise the glass to your lips, your eyes never leaving his. He raises his own glass to his mouth and takes a sip as you do the same and the room goes quiet.

Jimin watches the two of you, his eyes widening in shock as he puts two and two together.

“Wait wait wait.” Trina speaks up, “Did you two…?” she looks between you two before her eyes settle on you, “When?”

“Yeah, when?” Jimin asks quietly, sounding betrayed.

“Can we not do this right now?” you plead.

Jungkook is nodding his head in agreeance, “Yeah guys….this is a bit…” he glances over at Vanessa who is quietly sipping her wine, she blinks at Jungkook a few times before taking another sip.

“So you two have fucked!” Nick says, totally oblivious. Fucking Nick.

“It was a really long time ago, it meant nothing…” you save while striking a chord in Jungkook, he clenches his jaw. “Well, it meant nothing for only some of us,” he grits out. You feel a pang in your chest. What does he mean by that?

“Okay, would if we all take a moment to relax…” Holly intervenes. She stands up, taking her glass and Trina’s glass to the kitchen.

“It’s getting late anyway.” You stand too, you look at Trina and Jimin with apologetic eyes and nod towards the door, “Let’s get going.”

“Wait y/n,” Jungkook stands up as well, grabbing on to your arm. “Can we talk for a moment?” he motions towards the balcony. “Please.”

You roll your eyes but go along with it, you follow him out the back on to the balcony. It’s a small space, forcing you to stand somewhat close to Jungkook.

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said that last thing…” he begins, “You were just trying to save the conversation….right?”

“Right.” You agree. You fold your arms over your chest, you want this day to be over with.

“Other than this last bit…I had a lot of fun…you know…everyone hanging out. It was nice,” Jungkook shakes his head a bit, his hair falling all over his face, covering his big doe eyes. You can’t help but reach up and tuck some wild strands away so you could see him properly.

He freezes when you do that.

“Oh sorry…habit.”

“No no its okay, I was just surprised is all.” He smiles, and you feel your heart glow.

“Vanessa seems…” you don’t know why you bring her up right now but you do.

“Nice.”

Jungkook bites down on his bottom lip, looking at you with serious eyes,

“You don’t like her.”

He chuckles lightly, “I still know when you’re lying.”

“Sorry,” you laugh into your palm, “She just doesn’t seem all that interested in anyone.”

“Including me?”

“Kind of…sorry.” You look up at him, “It’s none of my business.”

“Well, you’re my friend so I value your opinion.”

“Okay then…I just can’t seem to find what you might like about her…” Your honest nature isn’t something Jungkook isn’t use to, but he still feels defensive.

“Well, you don’t know her.”

“Do you?”

He opens his mouth to answer but falls short of a response. He stuffs his hands into his front pockets of his jeans and lets out a small groan.

“Can we go one day without fighting?” he whispers.

“Sorry.” You offer a half ass apology. “Jimin and the rest are probably waiting for me so—”

“Wait…” he grabs your wrist and pulls you closer to him, “Can I hug you? Since I have to ask now.”

“If I say no?”

“Then I will probably cry myself to sleep.”

“Well, we can’t have that can we?”

“So that’s a yes?”

You look up into Jungkook’s endearing eyes and nod your head yes, he doesn’t waste another second before he’s wrapping his arms around you and engulfing you in a sweet embrace. He smells like his laundry detergent and his natural scent, the combo making you dizzy—as usual. You finally return the hug, your own arms circling around his waist. You feel him inhale you and you can’t help but do the same…you missed this. You missed his touch—his warmth. You missed him.

“I missed you too.”

Oh, did you say that out loud?

“Yes you did.” He chuckles into your neck. his hot breath hitting your skin making you shudder.

“I missed you so much.” He whispers into your hair, his words almost getting lost in your locks.

“Then why did you replace me so quickly?” you whisper into his chest, you feel his heart beat faster than before.

“I don’t like her, Jungkook.” You admit.

“Please just give her a chance…for me, please.” He exhales into your neck before nuzzling further.

“Do you like her?” you brace yourself for the answer, you grip on to his shirt, bunching up the material in your hands.

“Yes.” He tightens his hold on you, “but, it’s complicated.”

You pull back from him, “Wait…you really do like her? Oh…” you drop your arms from his body.

“y/n…This is hard for me. She’s the only thing distracting me from…” he gulps, “Things.”

You take a step back, confused.

“Things?” you scoff, “What aren’t you telling me Jungkook?”

“Don’t worry about it.” He whispers, his hands still rest on your waist. He pulls you closer again, “I’m working on it.” He looks into your eyes and you can’t help but stare at his lips as he licks them.

“How hard are you working on it?” you wrap your hands around his middle again, stepping closer to him.

“I don’t…know…” he breathes out erratically. His eye becoming half lidded as he stares down at you, “I….dont …know….” He repeats in a daze.

Your hands travel up his back until your grabbing on to his hair, using this to tilt his head down gently.

“You’ll tell me eventually, won’t you?” you angle your head upwards, he slowly begins to lean down, his eyes shutting as he leans in closer and closer. You part your lips slightly waiting in anticipation for his lips to find yours.

“You’re so fucking unfair…” You feel Jungkook’s whisper hit your lips as he begins closing the distance.

Then the door fucking opens, you and Jungkook jumping apart at the sudden intrusion.

“y/n are you ready?” Jimin looks between you two, he eyes you suspiciously before looking at you expectantly.

“Right, yeah.” You look at Jungkook who is as red as a fucking cherry. He scratches his head with one hand and uses to the other to usher you inside. Were you and Jungkook about to…? Holy shit. What has gotten into you?

Before you go inside you turn around to face him, “Maybe we can talk about this later?”

“Uh, maybe.” Jungkook looks at the floor as you speak to him, he sways from one foot to another. “See you later y/n.”

~~~~

“Fucking spill it.” Trina spits out once you four are in the car. She aggressively puts on her seatbelt as Jimin turns on the car but refuses to drive anywhere until you talk.

“Can this wait til we’re home?” you whine, putting on your own seatbelt.

“I agree with y/n, Trina. Let’s wait…” Holly’s troubled smile begs Jimin to drive you all home back to your place.

Jimin is silent as he puts the car in reverse and begins driving. Just complete silence coming from him, which is more worrisome than him yelling at you.

The drive is mostly quiet, you can tell Trina is really forcing herself to keep it down while Holly has a death grip on her thigh. You want to laugh at their dynamic but you don’t think anyone is in the mood to laugh right now.

Once home, you drag out one of the chairs at the breakfast table and plop down, taking a seat. Your three friends follow your lead, each taking a seat at the table.

“Guys…do we really have to do this…?” you fold your hands out in front of you on top of the table.

“If it’s really that hard to talk about, no. But I would like it if we did…” Trina tries to say calmly.

You chew on your lips—your usual bad habit as you think. Do you tell them everything? About that night? Your true intentions? It’s silent for a while until Jimin quietly clears his throat.

“Neither of you told me…my best friends…” he stares down at the table top.

“When?” he whispers.

You stare at Jimin, who sits across from you and you feel your heart break just a bit. He looks and sounds so betrayed.

“Freshmen year. New Year’s Eve party.” You finally say.

Trina’s eyes expand, realization hitting her.

“Wait wait wait.” She throws her hands up, “New Year’s Eve party? The night you were going to….?”

You only nod your head yes, feeling fucking embarrassed.

“Going to what?” Jimin asks.

“Nothing!” You and Trina say at the same time.

“Really guys?” Jimin looks down at his hands, a frown taking over his face. “Is that how we’re going to be?”

You do feel bad but are you ready for Jimin to know? One look at his sad face and you guess the answer is yes.

“That night I was going to…” you begin, the memory of that night coming back to you.

Tonight is the night. It’s New Year’s Eve and you’re going to do it. Maybe it’s this glass of wine that’s giving you courage—liquid courage—but you feel like tonight is a good as any.

Jungkook promised you no girls tonight…that tonight is between two best friends with no interruptions. And you believe him, of course. In the months you have known Jungkook he has always kept his word to you.

You lean back in your rolling chair, bringing the glass of wine to your lips and you take a generous sip…yes, tonight you are going to do it. You are going to confess to Jungkook.

“What’s got you so nervous tonight?” Trina asks as she applies her dark lipstick to her thick lips. Trina and you are getting ready in your dorm for the long awaited New Year’s Eve party and she can tell something is weird about you. You keep rubbing your sweaty hands down your black skirt, you keep patting your sweaty forehead dry with one of your t shirts, you keep looking in the mirror and taking much needed deep breaths. You are obvious. So fucking obvious.

“I could be wrong but it looks like you’re worried about a dead body you’re trying to hide…” Trina’s hand stops mid lipstick application as she glances at you, “bitch, you know I will help you.”

You can’t help but laugh, easing some of the nerves.

“No, nothing like that…” you know Trina knows. She’s had her assumptions but she never lets the subject linger…she basically is a bad bitch who minds her business…unlike someone you know—Jimin. Who ALWAYS has some shit to say about you and Jungkook, he on the other hand is a messy bitch who does NOT mind his business.

“It’s about…” you struggle to complete your sentence as you gulp down more wine.

“You don’t have to say…I know. Just know that no matter what, I am on your side.” Trina goes back to applying another layer of lipstick, “Especially if you have to hide a body.”

“Sometimes I wonder about you.” You say flatly.

Trina only laughs that loud ass laugh you love so much. “You wonder about me?” she winks.

It’s your turn to apply your own lipstick to your lips, a nice soothing red when you receive a text from Jimin that he and Jungkook are on their way to the party.

“I hope Stephanie is going to be there tonight…” Trina mumbles underneath her breath, “if not, this outfit is a complete waste” You giggle as you continue to apply your lipstick. You check your phone again to see another text that they’re there,

“Shit, we gotta get going!” You drop your lipstick in your bag and a few other essentials.

Trina raises a brow at you, “Are you trying to rush me?” she looks amused. “You can’t rush perfection.” she threads her fingers through her bouncy hair, “Lucky for you, I am done! And also, always perfect.”

“Yes yes miss perfect, we get it. Let’s go!”

The party is without a doubt: booming. The amount of decorations and alcohol and people is impressive. This is surely about to be a party worth remembering—and you hope you do. You decide to only sip a few beers—wanting to stay at least a little bit sober when you confess and you hope Jungkook isn’t completely shit faced either. Speaking of, where is he? Your eyes scan the crowd, you see Jimin surrounded by a group of people, laughing his head off. You see Trina grinding on some girl…maybe Stephanie? And you see Jungkook on the other side of the living room, sipping on his drink while some girl talks to him. But his eyes are on you. You crack an awkward smile and he turns to face the girl that is trying so hard to talk to him. He says a few words to her and is quickly leaving her side, he is now walking towards you. You can’t help but feel nervous as he approaches you…tonight’s the night, you keep reminding yourself.

You never not liked Jungkook…If you weren’t so shy maybe you would have slept with him the first night you met him… but instead you became friends and that was without a doubt the best thing that could of happened for you two. But in the back of your mind you always wanted more. Something always tugged at your hands, begging you and pulling you in the direction of more with Jungkook. But he seems fine with the friendship…so much so that you thought that maybe pursuing him would be best if you pushed it to the side.

Unfortunately for you, you just couldn’t take it anymore. Your feelings so overwhelming that you got pushed the edge. You’re about to fall off the Jungkook cliff so you decide instead of falling against your will, you will control the situation—parachute and all, you are ready the fall. You’re going to confess.

“What’s with your face?” Jungkook finally stands in front of you, his hands pushed into the front pocket of his jeans.

You take a moment to take in Jungkook’s appearance…his tight jeans, his black combat boots and a white t shirt, with his coat draped over his left arm. He looks good. Really good. You crumble at the sight.

“Who’s the girl?” you catch yourself asking. It isn’t odd for you to pry into his life like this so the words don’t taste weird leaving your mouth…but, only you know you’re only asking because the tinge of jealousy you feel.

“Dunno.” He shrugs his shoulders, “I think I have a class with her.”

“Oh nice.” You also shrug, trying to sound as nonchalant as possible. “Shall we dance?” you nod your head towards the center of the living room where bodies shamelessly dry hump other bodies. You think you’ve seen Jimin grind on at least 10 different people tonight.

“Sure.” He smiles, his arm extends out for you to lead the way.

Somehow you went from sipping on a couple beers to taking shots with none other than your best friend. The two of you go from the living rooms dance floor to the kitchen for hours. The world becomes friendlier and a little blurrier but it’s nothing you can’t handle. You remind yourself to slow down, because you want to at least remember telling Jungkook your feelings for him and you want to remember his response. But wait—would if he rejects you? The thought lingers in your mind, so what do you do? You take another shot.

The air that surrounds the dance floor is different than the rest of the house…its hot, sweaty and downright dangerous. You and Jungkook find yourself dancing along with Trina and Jimin at some point, the 4 of you spinning around, jumping and hugging one another. Laughter filling the air, everything is perfect.

You feel Jungkook’s tatted fingers grip your waist as you dance on him, his fingers never find themselves going lower. And you wish they did.

“Guys! Guys!” You hear Jimin’s voice from a distance, but quickly growing closer.

Jimin stands next to the two of you as you guys are in your own world, the alcohol running through your veins, the music thumping loudly in your ears, Jungkook’s hands holding on to you tightly. Your bodies move together to the beat of the music, Jungkook’s head innocently falling into the crook of your neck. You innocently grinding your ass into his crotch.

All very innocent.

“Wow, just fuck already.” Jimin rolls his eyes playfully, “GUYS!”

“What?!” you and Jungkook yell back in unison, not having liked being interrupted.

An evil smirk makes its way on Jimin’s face, “Upstairs. Let’s go! Truth or dare, come on!”

Truth or dare? What are you guys, 12? You giggle into your hand, nodding your head approvingly. It should be fun. You follow Jimin’s lead up the stairs, you turn around to see Jungkook right after you. You reach for his hand, you two interlocking fingers as you stumble up the stairs trying to keep each other stable. The two of you giggle for no apparent reason as you make your way up, making Jimin roll his eyes again.

You’re about to enter the room when Jungkook stops just outside the door.

“Wait…Jimin?” Jungkook nibbles on his lips, “Can I talk to you for a sec?”

You and Jimin share a concerned look before you announce your departure.

“I’ll see you guys inside.” You smile, letting go of Jungkook’s hand.

“What’s up man?”

“Dare me to kiss y/n.” Jungkook states confidently. Jimin tilts his head in confusion then amusement.

“Why don’t you just kiss her without my help, hm?” Jimin teases, ruffling the younger ones hair. “But sure, why not?”

“Thanks, I owe you.”

“Oh you sure do.” Jimin winks, “Now come on.”

You’re sitting in a circle in the room with about 8 other people, some you’ve barely talked to, others you would consider friends. Jungkook and Jimin walk into the room and you notice Jungkook’s face is a soft pink…probably from the alcohol. Jungkook finds a spot on the floor next to you and he smiles gently in your direction, giving you the heads up that everything is okay. You just nod your head and smile back. The room is loud with chatter and laughter until Jimin stands up and clanks a wine glass with a spoon—ever the dramatic.

“Okay guys, we all know why we are here—truth or dare time!” He sits down in his spot, crossing his legs in front of him, “First, let’s start with Trina.”

“Of course.” Trina says flatly.

“Truth or dare?” Jimin smirks.

“Dare, obviously” she looks around the room, winking at several people.

“Okay,” Jimin pretends to think for a few moments, like he doesn’t already know what he’s going to say. “Dare you to flash your tits to everyone.”

“Oh? Is that all?” Trina quickly lifts her shirt up, revealing her bare breasts to the room. You and Jungkook cackle as you watch the scene unfold.

“Okay Hobi…” Trina nods towards to the bright smiling boy, “Truth or dare?”

“Dare!” he grins with all his teeth, no doubt excited “Okay, I dare you to take 3 shots in a row.”

The truths and dares continue on like this for quite a while. You being lame chose truth at first and had to admit when the last time you masturbated—which was 10 minutes before Trina arrived to your dorm. Jungkook had to spank some guys ass and Jimin had to make out with like, 3 different people. Which he wasn’t complaining. All was well…until it was Jimin’s turn again.

“Okay, Jungkook. Truth or dare?” Jimin smiles knowingly with an evil glint in his eye.

“Dare.” Jungkook says with a cocky smile.

“I dare you to kiss y/n.”

You immediately choke on your drink as you process his words. Jungkook? Kiss YOU? In front of everyone?

Everyone in the room starts whooping and hollering at the idea, but you shake your hands in front of you in denial.

“No, no. We can’t do that!” you slur, your eyes squeezing shut. This isn’t how things are supposed to happen! You need to confess first!

You miss the way Jungkook’s face falls as he looks between you and Jimin. Jimin looks at Jungkook with pity and mouths a ‘sorry’.

“Yeah, no way in hell am I kissing her.” Okay, maybe he didn’t have to sound so harsh. But he feels a bit rejected at the moment and needs to be on your same page.

“Uh, yeah.” You feel a pang in your chest. Oh. Jungkook doesn’t want to kiss you, not even as a dare.

“That’s literally the last thing I want to do!” You hear him cackle from beside you, “Someone else can do the honors!” he continues to bark loudly, laughter filling the room.

Jimin frowns, looking at Jungkook with knowing eyes as he clasps his hands together. “Fine. Kiss Amber instead.”

“That I can do.” Jungkook smirks, looking across the room to a blushing Amber.

Things are starting to feel like they are crumbling…you shouldn’t even confess anymore, right? Jungkook will clearly reject you. The thought makes you want to cry like a stupid ass baby.

“I’m gonna get something more to drink.” You say to no one in particular as you stand to your feet. Jimin watches you leave the room with sad eyes, then his eyes go to Jungkook who looks panicked.

You open the door and go to close it behind you when you feel it being pushed open again. Jungkook.

You ignore him the whole way down the stairs but he continues to silently follow you.

The party is still going hard when you make your way downstairs again, you weave through the crowd to get to the kitchen to fetch yourself another beer.

“y/n! Wait up!” you hear Jungkook call from behind you but you decide to ignore him.

You find the cooler of beers and grab yourself one, the chilling beer freezing against your fingertips. You crack it open and begin chugging it back, enjoying the carbonation that sizzled down your throat.

“Slow down Lightning McQueen.” Jungkook chuckles next to you.

“Don’t tell me what to do,” you don’t mean to snap, but you do. You feel tired, just tired.

“What’s with you?” he quirks a brow, looking adorable while doing so.

“What are you doing here?” you snap again, “Shouldn’t you be like, making out with Selena or whatever her name is.”

Jungkook tilts his head to the side, his doe eyes big and bright, “Selena? Oh! You mean Amber? Nah, I saw you leaving so I came with you.” He smiles, “I told you no girls tonight. I am spending new year with you.”

You blink at him in surprise, but you shouldn’t be surprised. Jungkook always keeps his word to you.

It makes the world crumble a little more, he said no girls. And you guess that includes you. Tonight was supposed to be the night, but you got your answers. Jungkook doesn’t feel the same.

“Want to go outside?” he asks, head nodding towards the back door.

“It’s cold, Jungkook!”

“I’ll keep you warm.” He winks then transitions into a soft smile, “Promise.”

You feel your heart begin to race but you order yourself to calm down…you aren’t confessing tonight, and that’s final.

The two of you walk outside, it was pretty damn cold, your skirt and crop top barely doing enough to keep you warm.

“Here.” Jungkook is shrugging off his jacket and handing it you.

“Thanks” you shiver, slipping on the warm, fuzzy coat. “Will you be fine?” you question.

“Only if you come snuggle with me.”

“Do these lines work on most girls?”

“Usually all of them.” He smirks, rubbing his hands together for warmth.

You giggle and move closer to him, wrapping your arms around his middle. Even though it’s like 20 degrees outside, Jungkook is unbelievably warm. You have to remain normal, like your heart isn’t breaking with every word or soft touch he offers you.

Jungkook pulls his phone out to check the time, huffing when he sees there’s still a few more minutes until midnight

“So how many girls did you have to reject tonight?” You ask with a snicker. Jungkook raises a brow in question, “Like, ‘oohh Jungkook please be my new year’s kiss??’ ya know, shit like that.” You mock. It’s not like you actually want to know the answer but you can’t help but be curious.

“Oh that? No girls lining up tonight.”

“Why’s that? You shut em all down early?”

Jungkook sways back and forth, your body clinging on to his, “I think they all see me with you tonight and are laying off.”

You scoff at his words, “Right, because I have stopped them before.” You roll your eyes.

“Ha, you never know.” Jungkook takes another look at his phone, “Oh less than a minute.” He says with the shrug of his broad shoulders.

“Wanna be my kiss Jeon?” the words slip out of your mouth almost killing you in the process. You can’t believe you just asked that! You literally just decided you’re giving up so why the hell would you offer him your lips

“Just kidding, you would rather have someone else kiss me, right?” you huff, saving yourself but god, what you wouldn’t give to feel his lips on yours just one time. For him to be yours…just one time.

Jungkook chokes on his spit as he tries to swallow down your words, “W-What?”

“Nothing.”

Jungkook obviously heard you loud and clear. Did you actually want to be kissed by him, he thinks.

5

4

3

2

1

Cheers of your classmates erupt besides you and you cannot help but smile at everyone’s happiness. You see many of them sharing hugs and kisses and you feel a pang of jealousy but you are mostly feeling joy.

“It’s nice right? Every—”

You didn’t get to finish what you were saying before Jungkook’s chapped lips are on yours. His mouth is warm and inviting but you don’t make yourself at home. Instead, you stand absolutely still as Jungkook innocently moves his lips over yours. Before you can really react, Jungkook is pulling away: absolutely horrified.

“y/n…I shouldn’t have done that…I’m sorry,” Jungkook is quick to stutter out.

You are frozen. You wish you could blame something…anything, wish you could blame the flurries that floated down to the earths ground, wish you could blame the below freezing weather and your short mini skirt, wish you could blame anything for why you are standing absolutely frozen.

You wish you could move, but the universe just won’t allow it.

“Oh my god, y/n…I really am sorry…fuck…” Jungkook’s wide eyes are focused on his feet as he threads his fingers through his thick, black hair. “Fuck, I’m sorry. Please forget about th—”

And your lips are back on his again. Jungkook’s lips may be a bit chapped but they are as soft and fluffy as you have once imagined. With your lips back on his, you take charge. You quickly move them over his, he hums in satisfaction. Your fingers find themselves in his dark locks, pushing up into his soft hair as his hand moves to cup your jaw.

You gasp when you feel his teeth nibble at your bottom lip, and moan into his mouth when you feel him jerk his hips into yours.

“Let’s go to your place.” You heavily breathe out, your fingers dragging down the side of his face.

Jungkook disconnects himself from you, stepping back a good foot, inspecting your face,

“You sure?” he asks.

“I’m sure.”

Because he may not feel the same, and he may not be yours but maybe just for one night he can be.

“Wait, you were…” Jimin’s eyebrows rise to the top of his forehead, “you were going to confess to Jungkook…?”

“Yeah…I know this might be shocking to hear—”

Jimin bursts out into laughter, his hand goes over to cover his mouth as he mutters out apologies.

“Shocking?! You think this is shocking to hear?!” he continues to chuckle, “But wow…on New Year’s eve…oh my god…” Realization hits Jimin. “Oh my god…you both are so unbelievably stupid. Oh my god.”

You share a look of confusion with Trina and Holly as Jimin continues to connects dots in his head.

“Please promise me one of these days you will actually sit down with Jungkook and have an honest conversation with him…because this is just cruel and hilarious to listen to. Your timing…wow. So fucking stupid, you idiots.”

“Okay, you don’t have to be so harsh Jimin.” Holly says sweetly, her awkward smile easing everyone.

“What do you mean?” you finally ask.

“Do you still like him…even now? I mean, I know the answer honestly but go ahead.” Jimin gestures his hand for you to answer him.

“I…”

“She doesn’t need to answer that.” Trina cuts in, “No matter what, we’re on her side. Right?”

“Oh honey,” Jimin tilts his head towards Trina, “There are no sides for me. They’re both my friends and they’re both idiots.”

You can’t help but laugh at Jimin’s words. Because he knows better than anyone how true that is, so you’ll believe him.

“But really y/n…if you didn’t tell me or Trina…did you tell anyone?”

You begin chewing on your lips again,

“I don’t even talk about it with Jungkook.”

“Why?” Holly decides to pry.

“We…after we slept together…I could tell Jungkook was freaking out. He kind of tried brushing off the whole situation and I…I just had sex with the guy I had feelings for. So I put a little bit of space between us—”

“Wait, this is when you guys weren’t really hanging out for a couple months?!”

“It was only a month.” You deadpan. “But yeah…”

“I was wondering what the fuck was going on…Jungkook wouldn’t tell me anything.”

Guilt begins making a new home with you as you sit here. You wonder if you made a poor choice back then.

“Then we agreed to never talk about it to save our friendship.” You finish.

Jimin gives you a blank stare, his eyes probably going dry from lack of blinking.

“To…save your…y/n please, I am literally begging you. Talk to him. Fucking tell him the truth…” Jimin begs, he finally screws his eyes shut and shakes his head, “I can’t help you any more than that.”

~~~~~~

It’s Monday morning and you woke up with a raging headache and a snotty nose. You better not be getting sick, you think to yourself. You have a full shift ahead of you!

You slowly put on your work uniform and apply some light makeup for the day. Did you always lack color in your face or are you actually getting sick? Fuckity fuck, you think.

“Are you sure you’re going to be okay?” Jade asks from beside you, you notice she dyed her hair black instead of the light brown she was previously sporting.

“Nice hair.” You go to compliment.

“Nice try but don’t change the subject.” She pats you on the back, “Me and the guys can take care of customers, you just bake, okay?”

“Kay.”

“You know who is so beautiful even when she’s sick?” Adam butts in, “Hazel.” He answers for you both with a dopey smile.

“Now’s not the time, loser.” Jade bobs her head around, “Where’s Lenny?”

“Probably eating fucking cookies.” You say with a grin.

“Wow, guys. I’ve been here the whole time and I am not eating cookies.” Lenny says from behind Jade. “But speaking of, don’t throw away the rejects I am taking them home.”

“Quick everyone,” Jade says flatly, “act surprised.”

The sound of the bell going off catches your attention, you notice a head full of sandy hair and you groan. It’s him. You feel like all the energy is being drained from your body, now is not the time for Mister Oatmeal Raisin.

“I’ll take care of him, don’t worry!” Lenny gives you a wide smile but you raise your hand up to stop him.

“It’s okay, he’s my usual. He’s going to ask for me anyway.”

You make it the front of the store to the register and give Mister Oatmeal Raisin a weak smile.

“Are we going to be a brat today?” he greets you warmly. You scoff and try smiling again but fall a bit short.

“Hey everything okay, y/n?”

“I’m fine Mister Oatmeal Raisin.”

“You don’t look…” he lets the words die on his tongue, not wanting to actually offend you.

“The usual?” you ask, already pushing the buttons on the screen for his order.

“Yeah.” He gives you a small smile and you smile back. You aren’t use to being so nice with him, usually you two have a lot more fun, shit, you really must not be feeling well.

You must turn around too quickly because you become very dizzy, your body wobbling and shaking from the sudden chill you feel. You hurry to lean against the counter, your hand going up to feel your throbbing forehead.

“Hey you good?” Mister Oatmeal Raisin peeks over.

“Fine, I—” you try to take a few steps but wobble too much that you almost fall. The world turning dark as your vision goes blurry but before you can hit the ground you feel yourself fall into two arms.

“Woah woah, y/n? y/n?” you hear your name from a distance, but the world is so dark and so cold that you can hardly focus on it.

“I got you.” You hear the same voice again.

You slowly open your eyes to see your most faithful customers face mere inches from your own as he holds your body up.

“You okay?”

You steady yourself and slowly get out of his hold and nod your head.

“Yeah, thanks Mister Oatmeal Raisin.” You weakly smile, saluting towards him.

“Min Yoongi.”

You can’t help but blush at your situation,

“Yoo…Yoongi.” You repeat back, your face returning some of its color. Mostly just shades of red.

“Yeah.” He smiles a real smile, you notice how cute and gummy it is and it makes you feel nice. Min Yoongi, huh?

~~~~~

It’s a lazy Tuesday afternoon, the sun creating a blanket of warmth outside while being accompanied by a fresh breeze. You want to enjoy the day…you really do but…

“Just let me die a miserable death.” You sniffle into your sleeve. It’s the 2nd day of the flu and you are well, like you said, miserable.

“You need to take the rest of your meds babe,” Jimin’s hand is full of various pills, he tries handing them to you but you deny him.

“No, I’m gonna overdose.”

“You’re not gonna fucking overdose you dramatic ass bitch.” Jimin rolls his eyes, setting the medicine down on your nightstand next to a full glass of water.

“Listen, I have to go to work but maybe call Trina to come take care of you? I know Holly is at school for the day—”

“Trina is home visiting her parents…” you sound disgusting as you speak, your voice all gross and nasaly.

“Oh. Maybe you could call—”

“No. Anyone but him,” you cut in, waving your hands in front of your face.

Anyone but Jungkook, you don’t need him to take care of you…you guys are hardly starting to become friends again and its only in group settings. So him taking care of you one on one sounds…intimate.

“No offense babe, but you literally don’t have any other friends.”

“I can take care of my—” you’re cut off by a string of sneezes, one after the fucking other. “Fuck, I am dying.” You shiver.

Jimin places his hand over your forehead, getting a feel for your temperature.

“Shit…I’m going to call him.”

“Noooo Jimin….” You lay back on your bed, your head beginning it’s pounding again. “Don’t need him…” you lazily grab the NyQuil bottle from your nightstand, “Only need this.” You smile while taking a few gulps.

“Jesus, what is wrong with you?”

Jimin takes out his phone and taps away on his screen, you assume he is sending a million texts to Jungkook begging him to come babysit you, that or he is texting Trina what a stubborn, whiny bitch you are to which she probably just replies with “True.”

“Wanna watch Howl’s Moving Castle.” You slur in your drowsy state, all the meds and NyQuil kicking in.

“Jungkook will be here in 30. Have him put it on for you when he gets here…I really gotta go…”

“Jungkook?” you try to open your eyes as you speak but they threaten to close every few seconds.

“Yeah. He will take care of you y/n.”

You wrap yourself further into your duvet, but the shivers don’t let up. You’re shaking from how freaking cold you are. Yet you are sweating like the disgusting human being you are.

Jimin eyes you over once more, his eyes full of pity as he closes your bedroom door and whispers a ‘see you later’ under his breath.

“y/n?” You hear his voice in the distance, like he’s a mile from you at least. His voice is fuzzy and far away. And you want it closer.

“y/n???” your body is being shaken awake, gently though. Like, he doesn’t want to hurt you.

“Hey…you need to take your medicine…” you begin to slowly open your eyes, the world is blurry and the sound of his angelic voice echoes. Jungkook.

“No…” you manage to breathe out.

“y/n you know I will force these pills down your throat.”

“mmmmm, leave me alone.” You lazily turn your body over to face the window. Your body shivering as you nuzzle further into the duvet.

“Not happening,” He walks to the other side of the bed and sits on the edge, just staring down at you. “Please take your meds, for me?”

“Mm mm”” you shake your head, your hair sticking to your forehead as more sweat builds up.

Jungkook looks at you with a soft smile, his hand reaching out to feel your forehead. His eyes widen as he feels how much you are burning up.

“Fuck…you’re hot.”

You crack open your eyes to look at Jungkook, “Thanks, you’re hot too.” You wink. Like a fucking sleaze. Your drowsy state feeling intoxicating as you lay here in your bed.

Jungkook chuckles to himself before turning serious again, “If you take some fever reducer I will do whatever you want today.”

You let his words marinate as you lay here, lifeless. “Anything?” you say, peering up at him.

His soft smile grows as his fingers find their way in your messy, sweaty hair.

“Anything.”

“Go buy me chicken noodle soup.” You whisper. “The kind you use to always buy me.”

Jungkook’s brows climb up his forehead as he looks at you amused.

“You think I came empty handed? Like, I didn’t already bring it?” he smirks, standing to his feet. “I’ll go warm it up, and you promise you will take your meds?”

“Pinky promise.” You weakly lift up your hand to bring your pinky to his and he gladly accepts it.

Of course Jungkook brought the soup. He’s Jungkook and you’re y/n. He is always taking care of you and you want to melt. Well, with how high this fever is you actually might.

“Hey Jungkook?” you struggle to turn over to face the bedroom door, “Thanks for coming.” Your dopey smile doing things to his heart. He looks at you with a soft, almost sad smile before he’s making his way to the kitchen.

Jungkook doesn’t want to admit how fast he rushed here to your place, but it was fucking fast. All Jimin sent was a simple “y/n’s sick.” text and he was already calling the deli where he got the soup from, placing a quick order for 2 and gathering his stuff to make his way over.

He is used to being in charge of you when you’re sick because you are stubborn as hell and he actually has the patience. But he has barely talked to you since the night of the get together, aka the night he became weak and almost kissed you—and if it weren’t for Jimin, he is sure he would have.

Jungkook stands at the stove as he heats up a portion of the chicken soup, he stares off into space as the surface begins to bubble. He exhales deeply, taking the pot off the stove and pouring the contents into a bowl for you. The soup is hot, but you probably need the heat to help ease the congestion.

Jungkook walks back into your room, the bowl in his hands with a towel wrapped around it. You wish you could smell the soup but you’re so blocked up that you don’t even notice it.

“Here, try to sit up.” He sets the bowl down on your nightstand. He goes to help you sit up from your spot in bed, his strong arms pulling you up and you gasp when you’re finally upright. Fuck. You become so lightheaded and dizzy that you hold on to his forearm for support and he lets you. He gives you a moment to adjust to your new position before he’s reaching for the soup.

“It’s hot, so be careful.” He warns softly.

He waits for you to grab the bowl but you just continue to stare at him with tired eyes.

“Wow, do I have to do everything?” he jokes, “Even feed you?”

You nod your head slowly in approval, “Yes, feed me.”

“Such a brat. You’re definitely taking all your meds after this, okay?”

“Sure.”

Jungkook sets the bowl on the edge of the bed, holding it with one hand carefully and his other hand scoops up the broth with a spoon. He brings the spoon to your mouth and nudges it between your lips.

“Open.” He demands.

Your half lidded eyes stare up at his large ones, your chest slightly heaving from trying to breathe. You never break contact as you part your lips for him, letting him pour the spoons contents down your throat.

“Good girl.” He whispers, setting the spoon back down in the bowl. “Taste good?”

You swallow the liquid and open your mouth to speak ,”Can’t taste anything…” you murmur.

Jungkook smiles down at you, “That’s a shame because,” he takes a mouthful of soup in his mouth, “It’s fucking delicious.”

“Hey! You’ll get sick!”

“I never get sick from you, remember?”

You lay your head back on your headboard, closing your eyes as the NyQuil begins to make its second attempt with you.

“So sleepy but so cold.”

“You need to eat more baby.” Jungkook gathers vegetables and a piece of chicken this time in the spoon, he brings the spoon to your lips and you open wide for him, eating what he feeds you gratefully.

This goes on for several minutes until you can’t stomach anymore food, you slide back down into your sheets, feeling miserable all over again.

“Hey, time for yours meds.” Jungkook says sternly, he shakes the pill bottle to remind you of your deal.

“Fine,” you reply weakly, you try to sit back up enough to swallow down some pills and water.

Once you gulp it down, Jungkook stares at you with a satisfied smile.

“Cold?” he asks.

“Freezing.”

You feel the bed dip beside you and before you can react you feel two strong, warm arms engulf you in a hug.

“Jungkook, what are you doing?” you slur into his chest, sleep trying its hardest to take you away.

“Just rest, y/n.” he hugs you tighter. “I’ll be here when you wake up.”

“You promise?”

“I promise.”

Jungkook feels his heart crack when you doubt his promises now, he feels himself sink into depression as he recalls what he did to you.

The past 3 months have been crazy and weird without you. He’s missed you every day. The first few weeks he spent it in isolation. He felt like he was lost and lonely and like he didn’t deserve anyone’s love or affection. Then he decided in order for him to move on he needs to put some serious distance between the two of you…hence, why he moved out.

He knows it was sudden and fucked up but he had to…Or else he would be stuck in his lonely unrequited love forever.

Your last night with him before he disappeared he even got his hopes up…that maybe you could feel the same, but he had to be realistic. You were in such a weird state, you just needed comfort. And he hates that he was second choice.

He thought on this for a couple months, his mind overflowing with thoughts and cruel ideas. He was beginning to spiral until he met…Vanessa.

Vanessa was just looking to get laid, just like him. They met through tinder, hooking up after matching the first night. But the sex was so good they both agreed to do it again.

One night, they got so shit faced they both ended up venting about the one who makes life better yet harder. For her, it was her ex of 4 years and for him, it was you.

They confided in one another, feeling free telling someone their deepest romantic desires and they just clicked. Forming a solid friendship while also fucking.

Jungkook is grateful for Vanessa because for the first time in 3 years he connected with someone who isn’t you. Vanessa is a smart, sexy girl. And Jungkook isn’t blind to see that, so they made a deal. They would use each other to get over the ones they really love. And he thinks it could of almost worked until he saw you at that party. You were wearing the same black mini skirt that he fucked you in for the first (and only) time. You looked better than he’s ever seen you.

Somehow this made Jungkook feel even more depressed. So you are better off without him, he thinks.

Jungkook is lost in his thoughts when he feels you stir…you briefly open your eyes and tilt your head to look up at him, you blink lazily with a dopey smile.

“love you.” You yawn out, closing your eyes once again, drifting back off into dream world.

Jungkook’s heart stops. Your words ringing in his ears as he tries to stay calm.

He knows you mean it platonically but he still can’t help what it does to his weak heart. He is crazy for you, even with everything that’s happened he still loves you. You and you only. It’s always you.

Jungkook plays with your hair and chuckles lightly as he hears you struggling to breathe properly due to your nose being plugged up. How can he continue to see Vanessa when he has you? Jungkook’s smile drops all together when he realizes that would put him back at square 1.

It’s almost midnight when you wake, your body feels stiff from how much shivering you endured. You try to get up when you realize Jungkook’s body is wrapped strongly around your own, his light snores filling up the room.

You look at him carefully, his hair falling into his eyes as he moans lightly every time he moves around slightly. He’s so cute, you think. You’ve always thought Jungkook was cute but right now there’s something so endearing about him it makes you want to peck his lips softly.

Wait, what? You want to what? That’s not allowed!

The next morning comes quickly, you lay awake in Jungkook’s arms wondering if it’s okay to stay like this all day. You admittingly feel much better compared to yesterday, breathing is much easier and your head isn’t throbbing. You feel a fondness swell in your chest as you stare at Jungkook’s soft, sleeping face and it makes you feel weird all of the sudden.

You’ve always felt this way about Jungkook, right? Wait, what way? What are you saying? Or at least, trying to say? You know though, you know what you are trying to say…it’s the same thing you’ve been trying to say since freshmen year. But saying it out loud is just different.

Confusion on how to feel clouds your mind as you stare at him, his breaths are light and airy and you feel so warm and safe in his embrace. He slightly shifts, his hips bumping into yours, lightly grinding into you. Your eyes widen as you feel his hard member bumping into your thigh and it’s not like you haven’t felt it before while the two of you slept but still, it surprises you each time.

Feeling his length twitching on your thigh is creating trouble for you, you hate that such a small act is getting you all hot. You try to scoot away but he only pulls you closer on instinct. He brings you so close that his warm breath fans over your right cheek and you want to force yourself to sleep more so you aren’t hyper aware of his dick.

“Jungkook…” you mumble, trying to free yourself from his grasp but you fail miserably.

His arms are circled around your hips and he digs his fingers into your exposed flesh from how your shirt is riding up.

“Baby…” he groans out, his hips grinding into your thigh again. His eyes are screwed shut, like he is still stuck in his dreams.

You lay here frozen, he’s called you baby a million times but this is different. He’s only ever called you baby in that tone when you two…you slam your eyes shut, trying to rid yourself of the memories.

“Jungkook, time to wake up.” You wiggle in his arms but your thigh only rubs on his dick more. He releases quiet whimpers against your ear, his lips parting in pleasure.

“Mmm…” he pants out, his hips thrusts against your thigh again.

Jungkook…dreaming?

Was it bad luck to interrupt someone’s dream? Or is this just an excuse to have him rutting against you?

“Jungkook…” your voice comes out shaky as you turn your body to face him, he groans in his sleep once more.

You’re afraid he’s going to say it. Her name. Vanessa. That’s the last thing you would want to hear…it would probably ruin your whole day so you need to wake him up.

“Jungkook….” You sound more breathy than intended. You need him to wake up so you can stop thinking about his length rubbing up on you. You flush as you feel your panties start to dampen, this cannot be happening. Why did Jungkook have to have this sort of reaction out of you?

“Mmm…” Jungkook whines quietly as he ruts himself harder onto you. His cock up against your lower belly, you start to imagine him without his black sweats on, you start to imagine him without his shirt. You hesitate to reach your hand against his hard chest, you breathe out heavily as you begin to drag your fingers down until you reach just the top of his waistband. Your eyes follow your fingers until you spot his hard erection through his sweats and you breathe erratically.

“What are you doing?” Jungkook’s husky voice interrupts your horny daze. Your eyes expand in size as you realize your position. Your eyes trail up his chest until you meet his gaze, his pupils blown out.

“Where do your hands think they’re going?”

“No—nowhere.” You stare up at him, gulping. You can’t do this with him, you are finally getting your friendship back but what is with all this tension?

Jungkook releases his hold on you, moving to his back. His arms fold underneath his head as he stares up at the ceiling.

“What were you—were you dreaming about?” your hand innocently finds its way back on his chest, resting over his beating heart.

“Uh…” Jungkook turns 3 shades of red, “I don’t remember.” His blush deepens.

“I feel like you’re lying.”

“Why would I ever lie to you?” Jungkook chuckles.

Your eyes trail down his body and you see his length still struggling with a probably painful erection.

“You have a problem?” you gesture towards his crotch.

Jungkook exhales a heavy breath, his eyes rolling to the back of his head. “Jesus Christ, y/n.”

“what?” you feign innocence.

“Do you really have to point out everything?”

“Only things that are super obvious.”

“Fuck.”

“You can go take care of it in the bathroom?” you kindly offer, causing him to scoff.

“I’m good.”

“I guess Vanessa usually takes care of these things, huh?”

“Seriously?”

Jungkook groans out, frustration written all over his face. He hates the mention of Vanessa especially when he was just dreaming about you. He feels wrong. They aren’t officially in a relationship but somehow it feels like cheating.

“Can we not talk about her?” Jungkook doesn’t want to be reminded of the shitty situations he’s in.

“What do you want to talk about?”

“Are you feeling better?” he asks softly, he moves his body to lay on his side to face you.

“Much.” You smile, “Thanks again.”

“Ready for some more chicken soup?”

A few hours pass, you figured Jungkook would have left by now but he sits on your couch next to you while the two of you watch some new anime. He laughs every now and then at the ridiculous characters and you feel warm inside. It almost feels like how things were before, when he still lived with you.

“Yeah, it does.” He says, still facing the screen.

“Huh?”

“You said it feels like we still live together.” He points out.

Shit, you said that out loud.

Jungkook bows his head, “I am…sorry that I moved out.”

“Move back in.”

“You know I can’t do that…plus, you have Holly now.” Jungkook sits back against the sofa, “Can’t just kick her out.” He snickers.

“Just move in my room with me.” You say half joking. But also, you know, half serious.

“Ha ha y/n.”

“What? You don’t like sleeping with me?” you tease. “Speaking of…you can stay as long as you want…”

“I…I have plans tonight, actually.” Jungkook stiffens in his spot. He pulls his phone out from his pocket, “actually, I should get going soon.” He regrets saying.

“Oh, okay.”

~~~~~

It’s almost 7pm and Jungkook looks himself over in the mirror. He’s got tight, ripped jeans and a dark blue shirt tucked in, his hair is wavy against his forehead. He knows he looks good but he can’t find himself to be happy about it.

He has a date with Vanessa tonight…

Vanessa 7:04pm

Hey babe, I’m ready when you are<3

Jungkook 7:05pm

Okay, I am on my way :)

The ride over to Vanessa’s place takes about 20 minutes, he uses this time to listen to the radio and think. He asked Vanessa earlier this week on a date for both of their days off.

When he arrives to her apartment, he sends her a text that he’s here.

Vanessa walks out wearing a cute, yellow sundress. Her hair freshly trimmed and sporting bangs.

“Hi handsome.” She says as she steps inside Jungkook’s car. She leans over to place a kiss on Jungkook’s lips and as she begins to pull away he pulls her back in, his lips chasing hers for a more heated kiss.

“Hi.” He finally says, out of breath.

“What was that for?” she smirks, her skinny fingers digging into her purse to pull out her phone.

“Let me guess,” she begins scrolling through it mindlessly, “You’re desperate to get y/n out of your head?” She stops scrolling to glance his way, “Need me?”

“It’s not like that…” Jungkook groans.

“Oh? Isn’t it though?” her coy smile spreads across her face. “But you need me to forget, right?” she tilts her head to the side, “That’s what we’re here for, Jungkook. We use each other.”

Jungkook drags a hand down his face, “But we are trying aren’t we? To make this work?” he sounds and looks tired, that Vanessa almost feels bad.

“We can make it work later, right now you need me.” She crawls on to Jungkook’s lap, she hikes up her dress around her waist and swivels her hips over his crotch, “Don’t you?”

“Vanessa…” he chokes out. Men are so weak, she thinks.

Her hands go to unbutton his jeans and pull out his half hard cock, she gently strokes it over and over until he is fully hard in her hand.

“Fuck,” he exhales deeply, the feeling of her tiny cold hand doing incredible things to his dick.

Vanessa slides her panties to the side and rubs his dick against her wet folds, covering his dick with her juices until she lines it up with her entrance. She releases a smooth breath as she begins to sink down on his hard cock, Jungkook gasps out of the warm feeling her tight cunt provides.

“You need me, don’t you?” her voice is smooth as silk. “But you won’t ever love me.” Vanessa rises from his cock and slams back down, repeating the motion over and over until Jungkook is panting out sweet words that mean nothing.

“You wish it was her, don’t you?” her sinister smile growing on her face, “Wish this perfect pussy was y/n’s.”

At the mention of you, Jungkook loses all composure while his dick throbs, begging for release.

“Fuck...” he whines out, his eyes screwing shut in pleasure, “y/n.”

“That’s right….” Vanessa’s wicked grin takes up her whole face now, “Fuck me like I am her.”

Jungkook shamelessly moans out your name over and over, his hips meeting hers in desperate thrusts. His eyes remain closed as he fucks into Vanessa’s cunt, only wishing and imagining it was you.

“Fuuuuck” he groans out, his fingers finding Vanessa’s clit and he rubs tight, focused circles.

Vanessa whines out, loving the feeling of his cock, his fingers and the mention of your name. it was all fucked up and nothing turned her on more.

She quickly comes undone as Jungkook continues to thrust from below, his precision becoming sloppy.

“y/n…” he grunts out with one final thrust as he comes inside Vanessa.

He keeps his eyes shut as he comes down from his high, the feeling insane.

Vanessa smirks down at him, slipping his softening cock out of her. She crawls back over to the passenger side of the car and buckles her seatbelt.

“Ready for our date.” She smiles, she digs through her purse to fetch her phone and it tapping away on it.

“Fuck…” Jungkook finally opens his eyes, realizing what the fuck he’s just done. “Vanessa…”

“It’s okay.” She says nonchalantly. “I was into it.”

“How?”

“Because I think of him every time you’ve made me come.” She peeks over her phone, her eyes shining. “So we’re even.”

~~~~~

“She lives!” You hear Adam sing as you walk into the bakery.

You look and feel much better! Totally revived from the fucking dead. You smile at your coworker and do a twirl and a curtsey just for show.

“I live!” you copy while smiling as you continue to do a few more curtseys.

Jade and Lenny walk out from the back and applaud you, you laugh at their action.

“Your oatmeal raisin guy has been in every day since you’ve been out to see if you’re okay.” Lenny brings up with a knowing smile, “Or should I call him your hero? Your savior?” he grins, stuffing his face with a sugar cookie.

“Oh shush, let’s just call him…” you begin to blush, “Yoongi.”

“Yoongi, huh?” Jade playfully elbows Adam’s side, “We’re calling him ‘Yoongi’ now!” she and Adam laugh, their teasing going straight to your head.

Yoongi is your usual customer—yes. But he’s also your…what did Lenny say? Your hero? Your savior? You cringe just thinking about it! But you cannot help but grin.

The work day goes on, you have your usual easy customers, your usual stubborn customers but no sign of Yoongi yet. He usually comes on what you are assuming is his lunch break, he must work nearby but it’s already almost closing time and he hasn’t made an appearance…not that you were looking forward to it or anything…it’s just you want to say thank you, you know, for catching you when you almost fucking fainted. A simple thank you!

You’re chillin in the back, swiping through your phone when the bell goes off at the front. Jade is the first to head towards the counter when after a moment or two she’s calling out your name. He must be here, you think. You smooth out your apron and look at your reflection from your phone screen—wait, why does it even matter? You begin walking towards the front to see Yoongi standing there with a worried expression on his face but once he sees you he smiles softly.

“You’re here.” He says.

You raise a hand, “Yup, I’m here.” You laugh, “Listen, I wanted to—”

“Are you feeling better?” he looks between you and Jade and she nods her head and walks back to the back.

“Much.”

Yoongi sighs in relief, then smirks at you.

“Then I’ll have my usual.”

You stare at him before your smile is growing on your face, you can’t believe the nerve of this guy. You like it though, you have to admit.

“Sure…Yoongi.”

Yoongi looks pleasantly surprised as he nods his head in satisfaction. You walk to the back and get him his two cookies, you bring them to him as he takes the bag from you, you put it in his order on the screen.

“Also…” you say, looking up from the screen “I really want to say thanks.”

“For?” Yoongi stuffs his hands into the pockets of his jacket.

“For helping me that day…I wanted to like, uh…”

“Wanted to like, uh…what?”

“I was wondering if I could treat you to like an ice cream or something…” you sway side to side, feeling a bit awkward.

“Are you asking me out?” Yoongi blurts out and you feel flustered as fuck, all the heat rushing to your cheeks.

“W-What? N-No—”

“Because if you are,” Yoongi takes one hand out of his pocket with his phone in his grasp, “Then I would say yes.” He slides his phone over the counter. “Number.”

You must be red as a cherry, or a tomato, or like a fire truck or whatever the fuck else is super red. You look at him and gasp, your hand coming to your mouth and you can’t help but lightly chuckle.

“Fine, I’ll give you my number…but this is just a thank you outing.” You wink, taking the phone and putting your number in.

“Sure, whatever you want to tell yourself darling.” Yoongi takes his phone from you and puts it back into his jacket pocket.

“I’m free this weekend.” He sways back and forth on his heels and he laughs a bit before saying ‘Ah’ and taking out $4 and hands it to you.

“For the cookies.”

“You’re not going to inspect them?” you put the money in the register.

“I’m deciding to trust you today.”

You smile again, a real smile. Yoongi smiles back and he’s about to say something when the chime of the bell goes off and a woman and her kids make their way inside the store.

“I’ll text you.” He says before he’s turning around and heading out the door.

~~~~~

“A DATE?!” Trina and Holly yell in unison. You just told them about ice cream with Yoongi and their excitement is very evident.

“It’s not a date guys. God, how many times do I have to tell you?” you whine into the cookie you’re eating.

“It’s a thank you outing!”

“Thank you outing my ass.” Jimin frowns, “Why are you going on a date? What about Jungkook?”

You scoff, “What about him? We’re just friends, Jimin.” You defend.

“If you just come clean about every—”

“No. What good would that do?” you bite on your bottom lip, “So I can feel the lovely pain of getting rejected? He literally has a girlfriend.”

“Yeah, don’t even get me started on that shit.” Jimin complains, he takes one of the cookies from the box on the middle of the table and starts nibbling on the treat.

“But who even is this Min Yoongi guy? Is he cute?”

“Super…” you admit through a soft breath.

What? He is. He may have started out as your annoying customer but you kind of always thought he was cute.

“It’s just ice cream, you know?”

“Is it just ice cream though?” Holly intervenes, stuffing her own face with a cookie, totally ignoring the new fad diet she’s on.

“Yeah, this sounds like a good opportunity y/n.” Trina grins.

“A good opportunity?”

Jimin looks at Trina incredulously, “A good opportunity? Really Trina? Just say you hate Jungkook and move on.”

“Okay, I hate Jungkook.” She states without a problem and you frown…you don’t want her to hate him. Yeah, he hurt you but he’s…he’s not a bad guy.

“Stop guys…” you finally say, putting your half eaten cookie down. You…this isn’t a date! This isn’t a date! This isn’t a date! But…would if it is?

“Aren’t you ready to move on y/n?” Trina looks at you seriously, her hard expression almost scaring you.

“I—”

“She doesn’t have to answer that,” Jimin cuts in, “Because whatever she decides we’re on her side…right, Trina?” Jimin gives Trina a cold stare, a bite in his voice.

“Okay guys, yes let’s all just support y/n…” Holly tries saving the tension in the room.

You…tried this before already. You tried using someone to distract yourself from Jungkook, you don’t plan on using innocent Yoongi to do that again.

“It’s just a thank you outing…” you mumble, the words hard to understand by your friends. “Just saying thank you…” you bow your head, feeling sad all of the sudden.

This won’t be a repeat, will it? Taehyung number 2? You don’t think Yoongi has any ulterior motives, no not that. But do you?

“Yeah. It’s not a date.”

Jimin clasps his hands together, “Then it’s settled! Let’s change the subject.” He looks between you and Trina and Holly.

“Agreed.” Trina and Holly say at the same time, you only nod your head.

~~~~

It’s a nice Saturday evening, the breeze blows through you just right making you feel so alive. The sun is setting, giving the sky a gorgeous orange glow and you fall in love with the sight.

“How many more pictures are you going to take of the sky?” Yoongi chuckles, he walks close beside you making sure you don’t run into to like, any poles as you distractedly take photos of the beautiful sky.

“One more, one more!” you snap one last photo on your phone and slide it in your back pocket, “I have a collection of sky pictures!” you say with pride.

“I believe you.” He takes out his own phone and captures a picture of the sky too. “So we can look at the same sky.” He mumbles somewhat timidly.

You tilt your head and smile at him. You two met outside the bakery this evening so you could walk to the ice cream shop just a block away, he walks on the side next to the street while you occupy the spot walking next to all the shops.

“You know I work right around here but never been to this ice cream place you mention before.”

“Really? Where do you work?”

“The record store.”

“Ah, really? I’ve never been in.” you slow down to admire the plants outside the floral shop.

“You should come by, I think the owner would be cool with it.” He smirks.

You observe his sly smile and you wonder…

“If you say some shit like ‘It’s because I’m the owner’….” You begin, you see his sly smile grow even wider. “Oh my god, you are!”

Yoongi laughs out loud, nodding his head.

“It’s a pretty small store, but all mine.” He smiles fondly thinking over his store. “I’m serious, come check it out sometime. I mean, you like music right?”

“Am I a human being? Of course I like music!”

You both laugh while approaching the shop. Once inside, you notice how busy it is and you become afraid you two won’t find a spot to sit.

“Here, tell me what you want and I’ll go order while you find us a spot to sit, hm?” Yoongi offers, as if reading your mind.

“Oh. Okay, yeah. Sounds good.”

After circling the place for several minutes you notice a couple that was sitting at a table by the window leave so you rush to occupy the spot. You grab a napkin and wipe down the table before sitting down, you pull out your phone and scroll through social media while waiting for Yoongi to come with your ice creams.

After waiting for quite some time, Yoongi finally shows up with two ice cream cones of different flavors.

“Here.” He gives you a small smile while handing you your cone as he takes a seat across from you.

“Long line.” He gestures towards the line and smiles again.

You really like his smile, he looks genuinely happy when he does.

“You know, you kind of intimidated me at first…” you admit softly, your own smiling joining the club.

“But you seem quite soft.” You laugh, licking your ice cream.

“I get that a lot…” Yoongi groans, he looks down at the table before looking back up at you,

“I’m just kind of shy at first.”

“Shy my ass!” you lick more of your treat, “You weren’t shy complaining about the cookies I choose for you!”

Yoongi blushes at this, his laughter timid.

“The cookies you choose are fine.” He finally says, “Just had a lot of fun messing with you.” He looks up and smirks. “So,” Yoongi begins licking his ice cream again, “What do you do? Or is the bakery it?”

You internally groan. You hate this question. You have a marketing degree yet you work selling cookies.

“Uh, for now, yeah.”

“Why just for now?”

“I have a degree in marketing but…”

“Oh? Your passion lies in marketing then?” he continues to kitten lick his ice cream.

You don’t mean to scoff, but you do. You fucking do.

“Ha, passion.” You chuckle bitterly, “I hate that word.”

Yoongi raises his brows in curiosity, “Why’s that?”

“I don’t think I…” you struggle to find your words, the topic making you antsy.

“You don’t think you have a passion? Is that it?” Yoongi hits bulls fucking eye. You sigh out, finishing up your ice cream and take a bite of your cone.

“I know, that seems impossible right? Everyone has—”

“It’s okay.” He states plainly, finishing up his own ice cream. “Having a passion…a dream…you don’t have to have something like that to live a good life. Even just surviving the day is the dream.” He looks into your eyes and he shows that gummy smile you are learning to enjoy so much.

His words…you don’t really realize the impact they are leaving on you, his beautiful and wise words are exactly what you need to hear.

Yoongi continues,

“I thought I had big dreams but in the end my dream was small, it was simple. I just want to live happily. Maybe it’s the same for you, I don’t know though. I’m only now getting to know you.” His shy tone makes you feel weak.

“No, no. I think you’re right.” You admit between soft breaths. “I only pursued marketing because I knew I could find a job in the field not because I like it…I am failing miserably in interviews. All my friends are going on doing what they love and I’m just…here.”

Yoongi looks amused for a second before his soft smile returns,

“Isn’t being here enough?” he asks.

Is it? You think to yourself, is it really?

“Are you happy y/n?”

Woah, that’s a loaded question. You chew on your lips instinctively, deciding how you should answer this—if you should answer this.

“Life is a bit complicated right now.” You laugh awkwardly.

Yoongi laughs too, he nods his head in understanding.

“Even with complications, you can still find moments where you’re happy, right?”

You feel yourself becoming drawn to Yoongi’s wise and understanding nature, his words creating a warmth in you. You feel like you’re actually making a friend.

“Yeah, you’re right.”

“You just gotta find the small things in life to be grateful for and eventually each small moment will add up and create big moments of happiness for you.” Yoongi smiles then stands to his feet and heads towards the trashcan to throw your trash away. While he’s gone for the few seconds he’s away, you sit back in your chair and think.

What’s complicated in your life right now? Well, you can’t find a fucking job to save your life, you’re afraid you wasted four years of college on the wrong degree—but what’s the right degree? You and Jungkook are the definition of the word ‘complicated’ and you’re afraid you’ll be stuck in unrequited love forever. But you have good friends, you like your coworkers and your job for the most part, you live in a good apartment, your parents call you regularly, you found a lady bug on a flower this morning, the list goes on!

Yoongi sits back down and folds his hands in front of him, he looks up at you with expectant eyes.

“Well?”

“Well, what?”

“Tell me more about you.”

You’re about to say something when realization hits you,

“How much were the ice creams?! They’re my treat, remember?” you quickly unzip your purse and pull out your wallet, fully ready to hand him some cash when he’s shaking his hands in front of him, denying you.

“No no, it’s okay, really.” Yoongi ushers you to put your wallet away, his smile brightens and you find yourself slumping in your chair in defeat.

“Fine.” You huff out dramatically.

“You can pay next time.” He looks down at his hands as he smiles to himself.

“Oh? There’s a next time?”

“Yeah, hanging out with you is fun y/n. I don’t want to just see you when I buy cookies...coming to see you is getting expensive.” He laughs into his shoulder.

“I just think you really have a cookie addiction.”

“Something like that.” He looks into your eyes for a moment before tearing them away to look back down at his hands. “Do you have any siblings?”

“Nope. But I have a lot of cousins, so it almost feels like I didn’t grow up lonely.”

“Your parents didn’t want to have any more kids?” Yoongi pries further.

“Actually, they weren’t supposed to have kids at all. I was there miracle baby, as they call it.” You laugh into your hands, “It feels ridiculous saying that out loud myself.” You laugh some more.

“Miracle baby, huh?” Yoongi teases. “Are your parents still together?”

“Hm? Oh yeah, they are.”

You parents are in a great, functioning relationship so why is it so hard for you to get into one?! “Are yours?”

“Nah, divorced.” Yoongi says with no bitter tone in his voice.

“Oh. I’m so—”

“Nah, it was for the best. Nothing dramatic happened they just weren’t meant to be.” He smiles at you and you nod your head.

You’re about to speak up again when you feel someone’s hand grip your shoulder and your name being called out. You know this voice. No, it can’t be. Jungkook.

“y/n?” He looks at you with confused eyes as he looks between you and Yoongi.

Jungkook is standing here next to your fucking table with his fucking girlfriend who is not his girlfriend, fucking Vanessa. She looks at you with a bored expression and tilts her head to the side.

“Hey.” He smiles at you but then looks at Yoongi again, “Uh, hey man. I’m Jungkook.”

Yoongi watches as you sit here with your mouth wide open, but he’s quick to shake his head and look up at Jungkook and introduce himself.

“Yoongi.”

Vanessa doesn’t waste her time in greeting anyone, she just taps her skinny little fingers on the table and whines into Jungkook’s ear about hurrying up.

“You guys wanna sit with us? There’s like no other tables.” You cannot believe your own ears as you offer that to them. Vanessa visibly frowns and rolls her to the side as Jungkook reacts just the opposite.

“Really?” his bunny grin taking over his whole face. You nod your head and gesture for him to go order his ice cream. He takes Vanessa’s hand and they head towards the line.

“Sorry for inviting them…I didn’t think.” You admit softly to Yoongi but he doesn’t seem mad. Not at all.

“A close friend of yours, I’m assuming?”

“Very.” You place some loose strands of hair behind your ear, you awkwardly laugh and begin pulling at the ends of your hairs. A nervous tick of yours, for sure.

“I see.” Yoongi smiles that fucking smile, like everything is okay. But is it? You don’t want to be in the same fucking room as Vanessa. But you’re giving her a chance for Jungkook’s sake.

“We aren’t really going to sit with them are we?” Vanessa’s smooth voice fills Jungkook’s ears as they wait in line.

“Why not? Plus she’s right, there’s like, no other tables.” Jungkook tries to reason.

“Why not? You cannot be ser—” she tilts her head, blinking at him, “Oh? You are? Also, you’re not worried about who this guy is? My Jungkookie isn’t feeling jealous is he?”

“Vanessa stop. It’s probably a friend from work or something.” He says nonchalantly.

“Maybe it’s a date.” Her silky voice annoying him.

“If it was a date why would she invite us?” he tries to reason again.

Vanessa tilts her head again and puts a finger to her lip, “Maybe she wants a foursome?”

“Stop.” Jungkook warns.

“I’m just trying to help you.”

You move to the other side of the table and sit next to Yoongi, you two bumping shoulders and you feel like a third grader with how giddy the action is making you.

“We’re here!” Jungkook announces excitedly. He lets Vanessa sit first and then he’s pulling out his own chair to sit in, right across from you.

“So Yoongi, how do you know our y/n?” Jungkook grins with all his teeth.

“I—”

“He’s a customer at work—”

“Yeah, I like to go to her bakery.”

Jungkook raises a brow, “Yeah the treats are good I guess.”

“Well, I don’t just go for the cookies.” Yoongi says, looking in your direction.

“Oh?” Jungkook sets his cup of ice cream down, “Oh.” He says again once realization hits him.

Vanessa glances up from her phone and smiles a smile that is void of all emotion at you and Yoongi, she sets the phone down and claps her hands softly a few times.

“So this is a date.”

“No—”

“Yes.”

You snap your head towards Yoongi with a shocked eyes. Did he just say this is a date? Then he’s smiling at you with apologetic eyes.

“I mean, I would like it to be.”

Your head immediately faces forward to see Jungkook’s reaction. He looks as shocked and confused as you, you begin shaking your head.

“Uh…um…” you say, your eyes still on Jungkook. He looks between you and Yoongi then he frowns. Fucking frowns!

“We can discuss that later.” You finally say, laughing awkwardly. Jungkook turns towards Vanessa and glares at her, fucking glares.

“What?” She mouths innocently, going back to her phone.

“Anyway,” you try to break the awkward tension, “I think me and Yoongi are going to head out actually.”

“We just sat down?” Jungkook looks at you with his big, stupid doe eyes and you almost want to stay but you know what’s for the best.

“I’ll walk you back to the store?” Yoongi asks from beside you.

You nod your head in agreeance, standing to your feet while Yoongi follows. Jungkook stands up too, not ready for you to leave.

“I’ll see you later?” Jungkook asks with pleading eyes.

You hesitate for a moment but end up nodding your head in approval.

“Uh, bye Vanessa.” You force out, your voice a little loud as you bid your farewells to her.

Vanessa continues tapping on her phone but uses one hand to wave you off.

This fucking bitch. What does Jungkook see in her? You just don’t see the appeal? Yeah, she’s gorgeous. But is that all I takes for Jungkook?

“Yeah, okay.” You roll your eyes and Jungkook looks at you sympathetically. He will scold Vanessa later.

You and Yoongi take it slow walking back to the bakery. You two walking idly, and stopping by other shops just for the fun of it.

“About what I said earlier…I’m sorry if I made you uncomfortable.” Yoongi is messing with a scarf on the mannequin inside this little boutique.

“You didn’t. I was just…surprised is all.”

“Is Jungkook like, your ex-boyfriend or something?” Yoongi doesn’t waste any time apparently. “Because you guys seem to have some history.” How can he tell you have history?!

“Sorry, I’m just a really observant person.” He chuckles.

“Um, no but we were best friends but some things happened and…” you hesitate to continue, “And…”

“It’s okay. Life has complications remember? But there’s still happy moments. So, tell me what’s not complicated about you two?”

“I love him.” you blurt out. “Wait, wait. I mean. Fuck. I mean—”

“That’s normal. He was your best friend, right?”

You sigh out in relief, your deep exhale heard throughout the whole shop.

“Exactly.”

“Are you still best friends?”

“That’s the complicated part.” You breathe out, “But does he still mean the most to me? Yeah.”

“I see.” Yoongi takes the scarf and wraps it around your neck, “I had someone like that too.” He smiles. “But I was in love with them.”

You choke on your spit, what is Yoongi…is he…does he know?

“Oh.” You decide to laugh, “But that’s not the case with me and Jungkook.”

“Never said it was.” He inspects the scarf around your neck, “You should get this,” he motions towards the scarf, “It looks good on you.”

“It’s summer time!” you laugh, “But thanks.” Your phone starts buzzing, you pull it from your back pocket to get a look at it.

Jungkook 7:42pm

Hey

Jungkook 7:42pm

Wanna come over later? Nick isn’t home

Jungkook 7:42pm

I know you said no solo hang outs but I thought I would give it a shot

Does this mean he’s ending his night early with Vanessa? If so, you may throw the whole rule away about no solo hang outs. You just cannot stand her. You don’t want to say you hate her but you do hate her attitude and honestly, overall personality.

You look over to Yoongi who is messing with the material of some cardigan, and you almost feel bad if you decide to ditch him. But your night was ending anyway, right?

y/n 7:45pm

hmm, sure. I’ll be over at 9, does that work?

Jungkook 7:45pm

Yes.

You slide your phone back into your pocket and head towards Yoongi and his new cardigan that you are assuming he is buying consider how smitten he looks with it.

“It’s nice, right?” he says holding up the piece of clothing.

“Try it on!”

“Don’t forget to come by the record store sometime y/n, since you’re a human being who loves music.” Yoongi chuckles, he leans forward and you share a cute yet awkward hug.

“Bye Yoongi. I’ll def be by.”

You unlock your car and step inside, sitting down. Yoongi shuts the car door for you and smiles and waves you goodbye as he starts heading towards his own car.

Tonight was nice, weird, then nice again. You definitely won’t use Yoongi to distract yourself from Jungkook but you definitely feel like you made a friend. He gave you some words of wisdom and comfort, that you really needed to hear. You feel like Yoongi could become someone important in your life.

~~~~~

Jungkook 9:14pm

When will you be here?

y/n 9:15pm

be there in 15.

Jungkook steps out of the shower, his towel hanging dangerously low around his hips as he takes a look in his fogged up mirror.

“You can do this.” He tells himself, his teeth catching his bottom lip.

He can hang out with you like things are back to normal. He can hang out with you like you guys are still just best fucking friends. But he hasn’t seen you since you were sick, since you had your hand in a dangerous place. Since he dreamed of you while in bed with you.

He can be normal. Like he didn’t fuck Vanessa and moan out your name the entire time. He groans and cringes just remembering that. Vanessa assured him it was fine but that just makes him feel worse. He feels guilt ridden while she remains coy and sickingly sweet.

Apparently, Jungkook got lucky. But will it be this way with every girl he’s with from now on? That’s unacceptable.

Soft knocking can be heard from the front door and a chime from his phone goes off. You must be here, he thinks.

He doesn’t have time to dress so he decided to say fuck it and open the door this way, it’s not like you haven’t seen this view before…you lived together.

He approaches the door, taking a long, deep breath before he’s swinging it open and letting you in.

You’re wearing leggings and one of his t shirts, his chest tightens at the sight. Jungkook quickly apologizes for not being dressed and you nod your head slowly, taking in his more than half naked appearance.

You flush at the sight, his towel doing barely anything to cover the outline of his length, and shit, the towel is short on him…his monstrous thighs flexing underneath. Your mouth waters as you shamelessly eye him up and down.

“Yeah…” you choke out, “Probably should get dressed…”

You make yourself comfortable on the sofa in the living room, some random movie is on TV and you mindlessly watch.

“Sorry about that” Jungkook laughs. He walks to the sofa, sitting beside you but with enough space. “You got here sooner than I thought.”

“Well, I live pretty close.” You point out, your face angled towards him. “So what’s up?” “Nothing, I just wanted to see you.” Jungkook eyes light up, “Oh! I have wine!”

You nod approvingly, “Now we’re talkin’ baby.”

Jungkook rushes to the kitchen to find two wine glasses and fills them to the brim, he walks back to the sofa and hands you a glass.

“I know you said no one on one hang outs but thanks for coming.”

“I’ll make an exception this time” you wink, bringing the glass to your lips. You nod at one another as each of you take a generous gulp.

“Aaahhh, alcohol.” You say in unison. Then you look at one another and burst into a giggle.

“How were your plans?” you pry. You set the glass down between your thighs as you move your body to face him, giving him your full attention.

“Uh…” Jungkook doesn’t know what to say.

“It’s just…” the words die on his tongue. He sends them to the graveyard as he sits back on the sofa and shuts his pretty mouth.

“You guys didn’t have fun?” you pry further. You want to know, for some reason you want to know what him and Vanessa were up to.

“Did you guys like, hang out after the ice cream place?”

“Not really…we…kind of hung out but it was quick.” He says, rubbing the back of his neck.

“A quickie, huh?” you joke, but you wonder if that’s what it really was.

“y/n.” he warns, his hands go to massage his exposed thighs, his shorts doing little to cover all his muscles.

“I’d kill myself for a quickie, it’s been so long.” You decide to be honest, you’re trying to be like normal friends again.

Jungkook’s brows crease as he looks at you, “Don’t say stuff like that.”

“Right, sorry.” You pat his shoulder, “But really, it’s been forever.” You say again.

“Um, when was the last—”

“Taehyung.”

Jungkook’s frown deepens, “When’s the last time you spoke to him?”

“Maybe a week ago? He sends me texts occasionally.”

“You talk to him?!” Jungkook howls out, his hands gripping his shorts.

“It’s more like he talks to me.” You chuckle. “What about you? When is the last time you talked to him?”

“Umm…”

“What?”

“About a day after you told me everything.” Jungkook’s eyes slide to the side, a look of guilt plastered on his face.

“You went and talked to him after?” the shock is evident in your voice.

“Something like that…” Jungkook scratches the top of his head, deciding if he should tell you the truth. He decides to be honest.

“I went over there to kick his ass.”

“Jungkook!” you blink at him repeatedly, until you’re snorting. “And how did that go?”

“Gave him a black eye.”

“And you?”

“Got a busted lip from it.” He admits, even though you can tell he didn’t want to say that last part.

“Fighting is never the answer.”

“He deserved it, y/n.”

“And did you deserve the busted lip?”

“Yeah.”

You weren’t expecting him to agree with that so quickly, you were just joking around. You realize Jungkook is probably still trying to forgive himself, like he once told you.

“Well, everything’s okay now right?”

“Is it y/n?” he doesn’t look at you. He only stares straight ahead.

“Jung—”

“I am still so sorry…” Jungkook exhales deeply, his hand finds its way to yours.

You tangle your fingers through his, until they’re interlocked.

“I know, Jungkook.”

“I’m trying so hard to…” Jungkook faces you, his frown making you wince. “…make this right.”

“I know, Jungkook.”

“I’m trying to…” he chokes on his words, his breathing becoming slightly unsteady, “…work this out.”

“Jungkook—”

“I’m trying.”

His palm in your hand becomes so sweaty and you almost want to detangle so you can wipe your hand on your yoga pants. But you keep holding on to his hand, his guilt very apparent to you right now.

You scoot closer to him until your knees are touching, you place yours and Jungkook’s hands in your lap.

“And we’re making it work, we’re taking it slow.”

“It almost feels like our friendship has started over y/n.” Jungkook’s voice cracks, “Like, I don’t remember how to be like we use to be…”

“I told you Jungkook, things probably wouldn’t be the same.” You squeeze his hand in yours, “But that’s okay. We…”

Jungkook looks at you with his doe eyes and you want to melt. You want to melt into a puddle on the floor.

“It may not be the same but could it be better this time around?” Jungkook asks with pleading eyes.

“I hope so baby.” Your other hand reaches forward and caresses Jungkook’s cheek and he leans into your touch, he breathes out, his breaths hitting your palm and you feel yourself getting hotter.

“You rarely call me baby.” Jungkook whispers. “Only time you really did is when we—”

“When we what, Jungkook?” you challenge, your hard stare making him shiver.

“I don’t have to say it.” He says. “Look, wanna get fucking wasted?”

You look at him for a few moments, just staring into his eyes before you crack a smile.

“I dare you to chug your entire glass of wine.” You point at the wine glass with your chin.

“Only if you chug yours.” Jungkook winks.

“Wow, aren’t we some classy bitches?” you joke.

You both clink your glasses together and begin chugging the wine back, the bitter flavor making you wanna puke but you handle it just fine.

“Phew, that was something” you say, trying not to throw up. “wow I am not young anymore, or what?”

“Yup, you’re an old lady. I chugged it like a champ.” Jungkook grins, setting his glass on the table in front of the couch.

“If we aren’t tipsy within the next 5 minutes I am punching someone.”

“I’m starting to wish Nick was home now, I don’t want to fall victim to your fists of fury.”

After several more glasses of wine has been drank, you find yourself snuggling close to Jungkook on the sofa.

“I thought you said no affection.” Jungkook slurs out, teasing you.

“Oh? Should I move away?”

Jungkook pulls you by the arm, making your body fall forward into his side. Closer and closer.

“Never.” Jungkook lays his head on top of yours. “Wanna go lay in bed? More comfortable.”

“Yes yes, sleep over.” You cheer drunkenly. Jungkook stands up and helps you to your feet as well. You fall forward into his arms and he has to half carry you to his room.

Jungkook has the same blue comforter on his bed and it brings you back to a million memories. You wonder how many times Vanessa has been tangled up in this blanket? You don’t even want to ask Jungkook if the sheets are clean…you don’t want to think about him with her.

“Come lay with me.” You slur out as you slip between the sheets. “I want to cuddle.”

“Coming, just gonna grab some water for us.”

“Kay” you respond lazily.

You look around Jungkook’s room, it looks exactly as his last room in the apartment you two shared. Somehow that makes you happy, like not much has changed.

“Okay, drink this.” Jungkook is nudging a glass of water between your lips but you refuse.

“Mm mm.” you shake your head.

“Be a good girl for me.” Jungkook says in a low voice, you blink up at him, opening your mouth to drink the water.

“Good.”

He sets the water down on the nightstand and sinks into bed with you, leaving the lamp on so there’s a nice, warm glow lighting up the room. You immediately snuggle close, your head nuzzling his chest.

“So…was that a date tonight?” Jungkook finds the drunken balls to ask you, finally.

“No.” you answer honestly. “But it could turn out that way.”

You don’t know why you say that. Maybe in hopes to make Jungkook jealous? But why would he be jealous?

“How so?”

“He’s a nice guy.”

“Pshh, I’ll be the judge of that.”

“He is, Jungkook.”

“So you give any nice guy a chance?” Jungkook slurs out. “I can be nice…” he says, barely above a whisper.

“Tell me 3 nice things then.” Your hand lays rest over his stomach, you rub circles on it and he sighs out.

“You’re…” Jungkook bites down on his bottom lip as he thinks, “Really beautiful.” He turns to lay on his side to face you. “Really smart.” His breaths are mingling with your own. “And really funny.”

“What generic answers.” You laugh. “But I’ll take them” you look up into his eyes, they’re dark and beautiful. “Should I compliment you too?” you ask, your drunk mind giving you confidence.

“Yes please.”

“You’re really, like really fun to be with.” Your fingers brush some of his hair out of his eyes, “You make me laugh a lot. And I think you’re really sexy.” You chuckle.

“Sexy?” he slurs out, licking his lips over and over as he watches you nod your head.

“Yeah.” Your hand goes back to his stomach, your fingers go under his shirt, brushing your fingers over his sensitive skin and he releases a long breath as he slowly closes his eyes.

“y/n…” Jungkook whines out quietly, his erratic breaths not going unnoticed by you.

“You like being touched by me?” you whisper.

“Yes.”

You know you are both too drunk right now but you cannot help but continue.

Your fingers dip lower, caressing his lower belly, your touch so light he almost doesn’t feel it. But he does feel it. He feels it.

That same hand crawls up his chest and goes behind his head, gripping a handful of hair and slightly tugging his locks, Jungkook whimpers at the feeling.

Jungkook’s hips rut forward and you feel yourself getting hotter. Jungkook has his eyes screwed shut when you tug his hair again, this time pulling his head back to expose his throat.

Your other hand reaches up and with your pointer finger you drag it from his lips down his throat until you reach his collar bones then you slowly, very slowy drag that same finger down his chest and his toned stomach.

Jungkook tries to steady his breathing but he can’t. Your own breathing not much better. You decide to retreat both hands back to your sides when Jungkook’s eyes shoot open.

He looks down at you, his eyes dark and dreamy.

“You think you can just tease me like that?” Jungkook’s voice is the lowest you’ve heard it. “Huh, y/n?”

Your name slips past his lips in a low, seductive tone and you can’t help but squeeze your thighs together. You’re drunk, you keep reminding yourself. You should stop this. But—

“What are you going to do about it Jeon?”

Jungkook glares at you before he’s smirking, his hands circle around your waist and he pulls you into his body, your chest flush against his. You feel his hard length against your stomach and you swear right then and there you become undeniably wet.

Jungkook just stares at you, stares into your eyes, stares at your lips until he’s breathing so erratically. Your harsh breaths hit his skin and he leans forward until his forehead is touching yours. Your lips so close yet so far.

“We’re drunk.” He slurs out, but there is amusement in his voice.

“Drunk people do things they’re not supposed to all the time.” You tease.

Jungkook’s go from your waist to your hips real quick, he pulls them closer to his crotch. You feel how hard he is at your center and you want to moan out right then and there. The clothed contact feels so fucking good.

“Jung—”

Jungkook desperately brings you in close, his lips connecting with yours. His mouth is warm and moving against yours messily and aggressively. You pause the kiss to moan but then dive right back in. He ruts his hips forward, you feel how desperate he is and you find yourself grinding your hips into his. The pleasure on a whole other level, his clothed cock rubbing against you so deliciously.

His tongue finds its way into your mouth, he plays with your tongue, tangling them together. You continue to moan out, your hands exploring the front of his body until you hand finds its way back into his hair. You know he loves to have his hair pulled, you do. You tug it gently at first, he disconnects his mouth from yours to groan out. Then you’re pulling it a little harder and he’s rutting against you faster. He guides your head to expose your neck to him and he begins sucking bruises, leaving his pretty art work behind.

“y/n.” your name gets dragged out between his teeth and you swear you become even wetter. You yank his head forward until his lips are on yours again, you kiss him over and over until he’s begging to be touched.

But you don’t touch him, no. You just continue to kiss him, like your life depends on it. Your lips move from his mouth to his neck, you suck on his skin as he whimpers out.

Jungkook’s hands grab a hold of your ass, grinding you closer into his crotch and you moan at the feeling. You never knew this much action with clothes on could feel so fucking good.

“Love this ass.” He massages your cheeks and gives them a light spank. You whisper his name over and over, your lips attacking his neck again. You two move desperately against one another, he finds your lips again and kisses you wet and sloppy and you couldn’t be more turned on.

And next thing you know the sun is making its way through his blinds and it’s morning. You’re dead asleep in Jungkook’s arms. The boy snoozing away as well. You two completely oblivious to last night’s adventures.

You begin to open your eyes, taking in your surroundings. That’s right, you’re in Jungkook’s room. You look all around the room until your eyes land on him. You smile softly until you see it. A purple bruise blooming on his neck…several in fact. And last night’s events hit you like a fucking train.

You quickly sit up in bed, panic filling your body when Jungkook begins to stir in his sleep, your action waking him up. He opens his own eyes and sees you staring down at him.

He notices his own evidence of his attack on your neck and goes pale. Then he says the words you’ve been thinking.

“Oh fuck.”

[looooooooomis]

F I N A L  G I R L  |  O N E

You were his final girl.  And there was no chance in hell that anyone or anything was going to mess that up.

p a r t   o n e  |  c o r n   m a z e

masterlist here 

pairing: Billy Loomis x f!reader  word count: 4.3k warnings: implied/referenced cheating, swearing (obv), angst, drinking, fluff, pending smut + mentions of smut. as mentioned, part 2 will be allllllllll the smut x

You were going to kill Randy.

In fact, as the five of you crossed the threshold into the corn maze, you thought of the various ways you could do it without it coming back to you. You could strangle him with the tape of one of his precious Jamie Lee Curtis flicks, you could push an entire shelving unit of said movies on him during one of his shifts, hell, you could just lure him over to your house with the promise of sex before ultimately throwing him out your window. Any of the above sounded good to you tonight because the bastard was running late. Which meant that you were currently fifth wheeling on what was supposed to be a slightly boozy corn maze with your friends. Only now it was a slightly boozy corn maze with yourself and two loved up couples as you all impatiently waited for the idiot to arrive.

Yeah, you were definitely going to kill Randy.

You and Randy were friends, had been for years, and you were always there for each other when it came to these types of activities. Nobody liked being a fifth wheel but at least with two single people in your little gaggle of friends, it made things easier. You were happy as a clam being single, you preferred it in many ways if you were being honest, but at least with Randy around, you could ignore the weight of his stare.

Billy’s stare.

His brown eyes were on you constantly. You could feel them on your skin, feel them raking over every inch of you as though he was trying to soak you in from afar. His stare had a weight to it, you found. No matter how far away he was or where you two were – be it at school or hanging out or even in a goddamn corn maze – you felt him all over you.

At least with Randy around, it was easy to ignore. The two of you could joke around and escape the couples long enough to focus on anything else but the weight of Billy’s stare. But tonight, it was impossible to ignore, and you hated Randy in that moment for unknowingly leaving you with the one man you hadn’t been able to get out of your head for the better part of three years.

You hated Billy more, though, for making you feel as though every inch of your skin was on fire. For making you feel this level of guilt each and every time you hung around with Sid. Sid was one of your best friends, as was Tatum, which only made this entire situation so much worse.

“You think they’ll kick us out if they find out we’re loaded?” Stu asked with a quiet chuckle, glancing behind them for effect as though he was being tailed by the owners of the farm.

Tatum smacked his chest. “Maybe if you said it a little louder, Shit for Brains.”

Stu giggled again and slipped his hand into his jacket before pulling out a mickey of cheap vodka wrapped haphazardly in a brown paper bag. “Then I guess they’d be really mad at this.”

Tatum opened her mouth to tell him off but seeing it as your only saving grace, you reached across the divide and plucked it out of his hands to take a big sip. The vodka burned all the way down your throat, and you could feel all eyes on you as you licked the remainder of it from your lips and bottled it back up before handing it back to Stu. “You’re a saint, Stu.”

“Damn, Y/N,” Tatum laughed, “I can’t even be mad at that.”

Stu was smirking across at you, knowing exactly why you were choosing the bottle tonight which only made you feel worse than you did. Of course he knew. Where there was a Billy, there was a Stu. The pair didn’t have secrets between them much to your chagrin which only made nights like this all the more awkward.

“Everything okay, Y/N?” Sid asked, sweet as ever.

Your stomach twisted in your gut at the genuine concern radiating off of Sid’s features and your heart fell into your stomach when you watched her lovingly place her head on Billy’s shoulder. Where the fuck was Randy?

“All good, Sid,” you smacked on a breezy grin and shot her what you only hoped was a convincing wink. “I haven’t done a corn maze since I was a kid, just preparing myself is all.”

Tatum leaned into Stu’s lean torso and frowned. “Why? You scared?”

“Nah, she’s not scared,” Stu hummed, grinning across at you with a gleam in his eye. “On edge, maybe. Why so jittery, girl?”

You rolled your eyes and flipped him the bird just as Billy spoke up. “She’s not jittery, pencil dick,” his velvety voice was closer than you’d expected and when you saw him reach for the bottle in Stu’s pocket to take a rather big gulp himself, you swallowed hard. “She’s just getting this party started.”

You held his stare for a moment, feeling your entire body light up like a switchboard, before the familiar voice of Randy rang out. Breathlessly, he waved you all down and grinned. “What’s this I hear about a party?”

Tatum rolled her eyes and hugged her jacket closer to her body. “About time you got here, dick, it’s fucking freezing out here.”

“I know a way we can warm up,” Stu teased as he leaned down to nibble at her neck.

Despite your mood, you found yourself smiling across at the pair. They were a good match and you could tell that Stu genuinely made Tatum happy. Just as Billy made Sid happy. Your smile fell at the thought.

Randy’s eyes circled around your group of friends briefly before he threw an arm around your unsuspecting shoulders. “What did I miss?”

“The usual,” you chimed in, smiling across at him. “Tatum and Stu sucking face, Billy and Sid cuddling up and me drinking my weight in cheap beer from Stu’s dad’s mini fridge in the garage.”

Randy grinned. “I chugged a couple beers before I left the video store, so good to know we’re all on the same level.”

Your chest was already starting to feel lighter now that Randy was around. Granted, Billy’s eyes hadn’t left yours for a second since Randy slung his arm around you, but that was to be expected. At least you had Randy here now. With that kind of distraction, you’d be just fine.

“Why don’t we make this interesting?” Billy suggested, running a hand through his unruly mop of brown hair. When everyone’s eyes were on him, you could have sworn he gave you a little smirk before shoving his hands in the pockets of his jacket. “We should split up.”

“Fuck that,” Tatum laughed, “no chance in hell.”

“Yeah,” Sid agreed quietly, “I don’t know.”

“That’s literally what they tell you not to do in scary movies,” you chuckled. “When everyone splits up, trouble starts.”

Sid shivered and leaned into Billy’s chest. “Yeah, Billy, I don’t know. I don’t think that’s a great idea.”

“Oh, come on,” he was grinning excitedly now, looking between Stu and Randy for backup. “It’ll be like the movies. Dumb teenagers wander into a corn maze and split up for the sake of the plot. Halloween’s tomorrow - why the hell not, right?”

A slow grin began to pull on Stu’s face as he listened to Billy. There was a mutual understanding between the two men in that instance and if you blinked for just a second longer, you would have missed it.

It made you nervous.

“Dumb teens wander into a corn maze on the night before Halloween,” Randy repeated, “you know what, I like it. I’m in.”

You snapped your neck up to look at him. “What the hell happened to the Do’s and Don’ts of a horror movie? This is easily number one: Don’t split up.”

But Randy only shrugged. “I’m still a virgin, I’m safe.”  

“How about you three idiots stick together,” Tatum gestured to the boys, “and the three of us stick together. Whoever makes it out first gets a prize.”

You and Sid were nodding along to her words, but Stu simply pulled her in for a quick kiss and laughed. “Or we all split up and see where the night takes us.”

“I’m not Lewis and Clark, Stu,” you grumbled, “I had every intention of letting Randy and Sid lead us out of here alive while the rest of us idiots followed.”

“Don’t worry, Y/N,” Billy smirked across at you, “I won’t let anything bad happen to you.”

Sid seemed to still be unsure of the entire situation as she mulled over the suggestion. “Y/N is right, what if people get left behind?”

“It’s corn, not the berlin wall,” Stu pointed out incredulously. “Fucking walk through the stacks until you find an exit if you get too lost.” As if on cue, Stu’s eyes lit up as he noticed one particular bend of the maze that held six different options. With a burst of laughter, he took off running towards it and pointed to his newfound discovery. “If this isn’t fate, I don’t know what is.”

You, Sid, and Tatum begrudgingly followed the boys to where Stu now stood giddily beaming across at everyone. “This is a stupid fucking idea,” Tatum grumbled as she took her place in the row beside her boyfriend. “We only brought one flashlight, how do you idiots plan on seeing the route?”

“Here,” Billy gently tossed the flashlight to Tatum and shrugged. “Moon is bright enough for me.”

With another roll of her eyes Tatum flicked the flashlight on and scowled across at her route. “Girls, if you see a flashlight, come to me.”

Stu laughed. “What about me?”

“You lost that right when you agreed to this stupid idea,” she groused. “You’re on your own.”

Grinning – and probably much drunker than he gave himself credit for – Stu rubbed his hands together and began counting down from three.

“You okay to do this, Sid?” You found yourself asking. Her mother had only died a few months prior and the idea of the poor girl meandering around alone in a cornfield sounded barbaric considering what she’d just been through.

“I’m fine,” Sid vowed, “I’ll see you guys soon.”

“It’s okay, Sid,” Randy muttered. “You’re safe, I promise.”

By the time Stu reached one, you took a hesitant step forward and embraced the darkness that surrounded you once you delved further and further down your path. You could hear the footsteps and crunches of the stacks around you as your friends eventually all split up to take their own trail and you swore that you heard Randy bump into Sid a few minutes in, putting you slightly at ease to know she wasn’t going through the maze alone. But, as time went on and you continued to circle the gigantic moonlight maze by yourself, your nerves began to eat away at you.

You weren’t one to scare easy but there was something about being on your own in the middle of a corn maze that was eerily off-putting. You’d seen Children of the Corn one too many times to feel at ease right now and the fact you could only see a few feet in front of you at any given time wasn’t helping one iota.

Hugging your denim jacket tighter around your body, you turned left and were met with a dead end. Groaning, you threw your head back in defeat and turned on your heel to retrace your steps but stopped when you heard a loud snap come from the wall of tall corn stacks before you. Swallowing hard, you narrowed your eyes in an attempt to see through the wall of decaying crop, but it was to no avail.

You couldn’t see a damned thing.

Another snap of a corn stock echoed out before you, making your skin crawl. Why the fuck had you agreed to splitting up? This is exactly how every horror movie you’d ever seen started and sure enough, here you were. About to be killed by a child of the corn on the eve of your favourite holiday.

Another snap.

And then, just as you were prepared to run for your life, a husky raccoon came bounding out of the thick hedge with a mouthful of hard corn. Your scream caught in your throat as you jumped back from the wild animal but, before you could think of bounding away, your back connected into someone’s chest.

With a high-pitched yelp, you turned only to be met with Billy’s wide brown eyes watching your every move. “Hey,” he cooed, reaching across to steady you. “You okay?”

That familiar cologne of his hit you like a tonne of bricks and for just a second, you allowed yourself to get lost in it. You knew that smell well. You couldn’t count how many times you’d woken up to that smell all over your pillows and sheets, wafting all over your bedroom like a slow mist that never quite subsided. Swallowing hard, you blinked out of your reverie and took an instinctual step back. “I’m fine,” you breathed out, “a racoon just scared me, is all.”

He glanced over your shoulder briefly before those brown pools soaked you in yet again. “You sure you’re okay?” He asked, shoving his hands into the pockets of his jacket. “You’ve barely said a word to me all week.”

You offered him a polite smile. “I’m fine, Billy. Just been a busy week. With swimming practice and—”

“You know that’s not what I meant,” he muttered, voice strained. “You’ve been avoiding me.”

“Billy,” you sighed, pinching your brow, “I’m not doing this here. We can’t.”

His brows pulled together and a pained look crossed over his handsome features. “I meant what I said,” he rasped out. “You’re my girl, Y/N.”

“No, see that’s bullshit, Billy,” you bit back, “Sid is your girl. I’m just an easy lay. That’s all I’ve been for the last six months and I can’t do it anymore. I won’t.”

“You can’t believe that,” he stepped towards you and visibly flinched when you stepped back. “Sure, Sid’s a good girl but it’s compli—”

“Complicated,” you choked, “yeah, you’ve mentioned that a few hundred times in the last six months, Billy. And you’re right. It is complicated because me and you are making it complicated. For god’s sake, she’s one of my best friends, Billy. I’m fucking one of my best friends’ boyfriends. Do you get how fucked up that is?”

“Me and Sid are complicated,” he reiterated, ignoring your little tirade entirely. “But me and you, sweetheart, we work. We’ve always worked. You’re it for me. You’re my final girl.”

You shook your head and grabbed his wrist, yanking him closer to you to avoid having one of your friends creep up on the two of you and hear him rambling on. “Jesus, scream it a little louder, moron,” you growled, pulling him into the corner of the maze where the racoon had just jumped out of. “What is wrong with you? Do you want one of them to hear you?”

“I don’t care,” he admitted, “I miss you. I miss feeling you squirm against me when we watch a scary movie. I miss smelling you all over me the next morning. My fucking pillow smells like your shampoo and the fact that you haven’t so much as said a word to me this week is killing me, Y/N.”  

Looking over his shoulder to ensure none of your friends were coming, you nearly hissed as you pulled him further into the thick wall of corn stocks. The tall stacks towered over the two of you and shielded you away from any prying eyes.

“One week, Billy. It’s been one week and it’s hurting you? Try being in love with someone for three fucking years and watching them fall in love with someone else. And then, when he can’t get his whistle wet with his girlfriend, he ends up in your bed.” You ground your teeth together in an effort to control the burst of emotion pounding in your chest. “That is the shit that hurts, Billy. I wasn’t good enough to be your girlfriend, but I was easy enough for you to sleep with and I was so enamoured with you that I was willing to overlook the fact I’m hurting Sid each and every time we do it. I won’t do it anymore.”

The moon managed to seep in through a barren patch of the maze wall and struck Billy in such a way that you lost your breath. Those brown eyes you’d fallen in love with all those years back were glued to your face. He’d always had this air of intensity about him but, right now, looking at the long shadows cast against his face from the illumination of the moon, that intensity had all but dissipated. You’d never seen Billy look more beautiful in your life.

The silence that followed your words was thick and tense, but those damn eyes never left your face. Not even for a second. Slowly, Billy leaned in and, in the softest voice you’d ever heard him speak, he managed to break your heart all over again. “You love me?”

“Oh, shut-up,” you snarled, “like you didn’t know.”

“How the fuck would I have known that?” he whispered, taking a step closer to you. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Tell you?” You snapped. “Billy, you have a girlfriend. I’m already fucking you, what am I going to do? Confess all of this in between sucking your dick and packing up before Sidney catches wind of us?”

“Don’t cheapen it,” he cautioned, “not when it comes to us.”

“There is no ‘us’, Billy!” You reminded him. “There is a you and there is a Sidney. Then there is me.”

“Fuck Sidney,” he snarled through gritted teeth. “And don’t act like it’s only been sex between us.”

You snorted. “Maybe the odd movie, sure.”

Anger flickered across his face as he took another step closer, backing you into a particularly sturdy corn stock. This was a side of Billy you rarely saw, this unhinged almost animalistic side that came out when his emotions got too overwhelming. You’d seen this look only once before. It was few weeks into your sneaky little affair when Billy had snuck in through your bedroom window with red, bloodshot eyes and bleeding knuckles. It was the night his mother had left, and he’d just had lost a one-sided fight with the brick wall of his house.

“You were there for me when nobody else was,” he leaned his forehead against yours and you watched the muscle in his cheek clench several times over as he chewed on his words. “When my mother left, you were the one that was there for me. Not Sidney, not my father – you.” You felt his hands trail up your jean-clad hips before guiding your hips towards the thick corn stock behind you. You should have pushed him away, stuck to your guns, and ran off to find the rest of your friends. But, you couldn’t. Not with Billy looking at you the way he was.

“Billy,” you tried, but there was no conviction behind it. “I meant what I said.”

“Which part?” He asked. “When you said you loved me or when you said you couldn’t do this anymore.”  

“Both,” you told him. “Sidney’s a good friend and—”

A growl escaped his throat as he shut his eyes, but he never stepped away. With his forehead still leaning against yours, it was as though he was afraid to break contact in fear of losing you all over again. “Can we not talk about Sid for one goddamn second?” He took a few even breaths before those brown eyes opened back up, capturing your gaze instantly. “I love you.”

“Don’t,” you warned him. This time it was your turn to shut your eyes as the pain of hearing those three little words sliced you from stem to stern. “That’s not fair, Billy.”

“What? You don’t believe me?” You felt his hands slither up the side of your waist and up the length of your body until they cradled your face. “Look at me.”

“No,” you griped, “to both of your questions. Don’t say shit you don’t mean, not when it comes to that. It’s cruel.”

His calloused thumb danced across the apple of your cheek. “Look at me,” he demanded, barely above a whisper. “Sweetheart, look at me.” Frowning, you opened your eyes but remained silent. Bumping your nose with his, Billy pushed your hair back and away from your face and shook his head. “I fucking love you.”

“You’re with Sidney,” you reminded him, sounding like a broken record. “If you loved me, we wouldn’t be hiding in the middle of a goddamn corn maze while our friends blindly stumble around looking for the exit.”

“Stu knows,” he admitted. “And when it’s a good time, so will everyone else.”

“Colour me shocked,” you rolled your eyes. “Stu knows everything.”

“You think I don’t want to parade you all over town?” Billy questioned. “I get so heated when I see Randy or any of those goons on the football team flirt with you. I want you every second of the day.”

You swallowed hard. “Then please, Billy, just be honest with me. Tell me why things are so fucking complicated with Sid? I get break-ups are hard but cheating on her isn’t the answer.”

Billy was truly torn as he took in the desperation in your eyes. Things with Sid were complicated but not in the way you thought they were. There were no feelings involved with Sid, at least not the romantic kind, but there was no chance in hell he was divulging his plans with Sidney. Not with you. He couldn’t stomach the idea of losing you knowing full-well you’d try and sway him on it. Or worse. What if you went to the police about it? What if you tried to stop him? No. He wasn’t getting you involved. You were the one person in his life who hadn’t let him down and he was hell-bent on doing the same for you.

The less you knew, the better.

“Just give me some time, alright?” He pleaded, grabbing your hands to ghost his lips across your knuckles. “She’s still dealing with the loss of her mother. I can’t spring a break-up on her, too. Not yet. But soon,” he kissed your hand, “I promise.”

“I don’t want to hurt her any more than we already have, Billy,” you told him, “we could end this here and now and then when you do break-up, we can continue whatever the hell this is. But we shouldn’t d—”

Before you could say another word, he leaned forward and captured your lips in a bruising kiss. Everything about this man was electric and despite everything –  the guilt, the secrets, all of it – the way his lips seemed to mould against yours so perfectly, stopped you dead in your tracks. Placing sloppy kisses down from your mouth and along your jaw, Billy nipped at your ear. “I really do fucking love you.”

You leaned into the kiss and tangled your fingers through his hair, tugging at the ends. A low growl rumbled in his throat as he continued his assault down your jaw towards your neck where he nipped and sucked at the sensitive flesh. “You give me a fucking hickey and you’re dead,” you chastised breathlessly. When he responded with a gentle bite, you gave his hair another gentle tug. “I mean it, Loomis.”

Pulling back from your neck, you were met with one of Billy’s rare but genuine grins. He was all teeth as he leaned his forehead against yours again, scraping his thumbnail gently across your cheek as he fought to catch his breath. “You’re perfect, you know that?”

“Your girlfriend would beg to differ, but I appreciate the sentiment.” Groaning quietly at the mess you and Billy had created for yourselves, you reached up and pushed a strand of his brown hair back and away from his face. “We should go,” you told him. “Before anyone besides Stu finds us.”

Giving you one final peck, he nodded in agreement and pushed a few stocks aside for you to escape from. Before you stepped out of the covering, however, Billy reached for your hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. “I promise, Y/N, everything is going to work out for us.”

Giving him a small, resigned smile, you leaned in and gave him a quick, chaste kiss. “I’ll leave my bedroom window open tonight,” you told him. “Do what you will with that information.”

Billy watched you disappear back into the maze with a shit-eating grin on his face. God, he was in deep with you. Too deep, perhaps, but he couldn’t bring himself to care. Not yet, at least. For now, he had you back and he had no intention of letting you go again.

part two HERE

[giorno-plays-piano]

Abominable Part 1

Pairing: mage!Peter Parker x mage!Reader

Warnings: yandere, obsession, stalking, murders, possible gore in the future chapters, pretty dark story overall.

Words: 1543

Summary: An investigator of the Mage's Association, you are sent to discover the mystery behind a series of murders before more sinister events take place.

P.S. This was inspired by The Garden of Sinners particularly. I loved it dearly when I was a teenager.

To avoid any confusion, the reader is neither good nor bad due to the nature of her profession. Peter is an adult.

____________

Stepping on a platform with a vintage Samsonite briefcase in your hand, you looked at the people standing aside, most of them waiting for other passengers to leave the train. Although you knew the face of a magus who was supposed to meet you, it was hard to recognize him in the crowd, and you stared at all those people in front of you, clenching the briefcase’s handle. You hated waiting.

Of course, Lord Pierce wasn’t too happy with your arrival: the old fool thought he was untouchable even after a series of murders and an unnatural magic activity in Tombra that got the Mage's Association alarmed. You remembered the revulsion in Mr. Stark’s voice when he talked of Alexander. The old aristocracy, Lord Pierce was an outstanding magus who had long abandoned practicing any decent magic and instead preferred to exploit the strength of his numerous successors. While he still had some friends in the Association, Stark hated him greatly and was happy to remind him who was in control.

Naturally, Pierce knew why you came to Tombra, and the conversation between you two didn’t go well. You didn’t hide your intentions: you were the Investigator of the Clock Tower, and your job was to figure out what was happening in that megalopolis where Lord Pierce resided proudly. It meant you were going to be a great disturbance and a possible danger to many aristocratic families under Alexander’s protection. 

It wasn’t surprising he chose the most useless assistant to help you find out the truth. His name was Peter Parker, and he was class D+ magus who attended neither Clock Tower nor Atlas Academy. His role was to slow you down, you thought and sighed. 

Suddenly, you saw a familiar face when a young man hurried to you, his cheeks red, sweat running down his face: apparently, he was late. You snickered, looking at his formal attire - his black tie was so long as if he stole it from his father.

Once he was close enough, the young man stood tall, at attention, waiting for you to say something as he stared at you with awe and horror.

“Lady Ragna of the Clock Tower,” you named your rank coldly, and your companion nervously bit his lower lip, acting exactly how you expected of him.

“Peter of Tombra! Pleased to make your acquaintance!” He sounded too excited, and his hands were trembling a little, although he tried hiding it.

Gods, what was he good for in a situation like this, unless he possessed some extraordinary powers not stated in his file? Well, now was the time to discover that, you thought as you narrowed your eyes at the young man.

"Your primary magecraft?"

"B-bounded fields and healing!"

Nothing spectacular there, but bounded fields could be of use to you if you would ever be attacked while performing magic.

"Elements?"

"Water and wind!"

This was better: magi controlling more than one element were still rare, and the boy could make a nice apprentice if he were to be send to the Clock Tower. Besides, with Tombra surrounded by a river, a liquid manipulation skill Peter definitely possessed could be valuable, too.

"Magic circuit composition?"

"N-normal?"

"Any familiars?"

"None."

He was clearly feeling like a mouse in front of a snake, his face getting even more red with every second, and you found the situation rather funny.

"Your motto?" You stared him dead in the eye.

For a second Peter looked horrified, his mouth slightly open as if he were to say something, but you heard no sound coming from him. Then, as if struck by lightning, he gibbered with fear, "Live p-proudly?"

Oh boy. He really thought you were being serious when you talked rubbish with a stony face. If anybody was to talk about a personal motto, even the most pretentious magi of the Clock Tower would burst out laughing.

Rolling your eyes skyward, a gleam of deviltry in them, you smirked, "It was a joke. Don't ever use a motto, it's a terrible idea."

"Thank goodness! I thought it's something high magi of Clock Tower have." The next second Peter made a sigh of relief, and then the both of you laughed loudly, making other people on the platform throw glances at you.

Although you realized the young man had much less experience than you, you still felt he would be fun to have around. If he could make your life a little easier, you would accept his help.

Moving away from the platform and soon passing through the station's hall, you went straight to the city streets instead of catching a taxi. Peter hurried after you, still perplexed at your refusal to let him carry your bag - you guessed he expected you to boss him around, and it made you chuckle. What Pierce was doing with young magi here if Peter had such an impression about higher-ups?

"Lady Ragna, I was informed that the cottage where you chose to stay is in the suburbs. Did you decide to change it?" He asked, seeing you walking to a completely different place.

"No, it's the same cottage. If you wonder why we aren't driving there right now, I'd prefer to patrol the streets tonight to get to know the city. We can discuss the details of the job in the meantime."

You walked away fast, not looking at your companion anymore and watching the night city instead: you had never been to Tombra before, but many magi from the Clock Tower were born there, and their talk about the city always made you a little jealous. Born in a small town to a simple human woman who knew nothing of magic, you always wished to know what it was like to grow up in a true magic society like the one in Tombra, a home to many noble families, albeit smaller and less significant than those living in the capital. 

The city looked exactly like you imagined it: giant grey buildings stood besides the streets, and while they didn't look particularly pretty, you loved those countless neon signages and bright posters that were shining even in the darkness of the night. The streets were busy with tourists admiring the city, couples walking out of the fancy restaurants and cinemas, and young people, recklessly snooping around some nightclubs and bars, trying to get in despite the security glaring at them and requiring them to show their ID cards while the kids pretended they forgot them. There was also a small marketplace with colorful food trucks and booths, offering both local and international cuisine, and you blended into the crowd immediately, taking some crepes and then buying takoyaki - Peter, following you like a puppy, looked shocked.

"I can't do my job on an empty stomach," you smirked and handed him some takoyaki.

Funny enough, he accepted the second you showed the plastic plate into his hands, eating so hungrily as if he had been starving the whole day.

"Well, now since I feel a bit better, let's talk business," you motioned the young man to follow you, and turned to a narrow alley, leaving the noisy market that was going to be full of people for at least a couple of hours more. "Do you have any idea why I have been sent by the Association?"

Licking his fingers, Peter looked somewhat shyly at you, probably afraid he would say something silly, "From what I understand, the reason is some unnatural magic activity the Association couldn't trace, and the involvement of its user in several murders."

"Correct." Crossing the alley, you scratched the chipped paint from an old building in front of you and looked at your fingers, furrowing your brows. "To be precise, the reason why the Association didn't leave these murders to a human police is the method how these murders were carried on. Whoever did it pretty much sucked the soul out of victims' bodies."

Peter frowned, staying still while you kept examining the concrete wall in front of you, drawing strange symbols that started glowing immediately as you finished them.

"It may sounds funny, but the ritual necessary to prevent the soul of a dead person to come back to Akasha is known only to a couple of magi, and each of them is considered a great danger to the society by the Association. This alone is a threat, but Mr. Stark's other concern is the indefinite nature of magic practiced in Tombra. It is likely that the magus responsible for the deaths is planning something much more sinister, and we can't allow this to happen."

Finding what you were looking for, you nodded to yourself and moved further, Peter walking right beside you with a concerned expression on his face. He was probably surprised you didn't need his guidance, but you spent the last three days memorizing Tombra's map.

"Do you mean that the souls of victims can be combined to become a power source for some... dark ritual or something?" He asked nervously, licking his lips.

You smirked, turning to him and pointing to the wall of the next building that started to glow subtly as you got close, "Exactly, Peter."

__________

Tags: @finleyjayne @alexakeyloveloki   ​@helenaeisenhower @villanellevi @hurricanerin @inlovewiththefictionalcharacters @chris-evans-indian-fanfic @navegandoaciegas @rosalynshields @sllooney @angrythingstarlight @lookiamtrying @buckysbunny @soleil-dor @stargazingfangirl18 @dillybuggg @literate-lamb @cosicas-cuquis @sarge-barnes-sir @buckybarnesplumwhore @jaysayey @megzdoodle @gotnofucks @lux-ravenwolf @ximebebx @jeremyrennerfanxxxx123 @sourpatchspinster @biiskuitx

[jj-babebank]

Camp Willowdale / JJ Maybank AU / PART 3

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

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

Pairings: JJ Maybank x fem OC

Part 1 ; Part 2

Part 3 -

Music was blasting in the boys’ cabin and John B made sure to keep the lights dimmed to a maximum, adding to what he referred to as ‘the groovy ambiance’. Caroline and Sarah entered the cabin, leading the way for all of their fellow girl counselors. Word spread faster than a wildfire around the Wildcat Lodge and now everyone was attending what was meant to be a welcoming party for just the boys. Caroline leaned against the ladder of one of the bunk beds and crossed her arms as her and Sarah waited in anticipation for their grand scheme to play out.

“Caroline, Sarah!” John B’s voice alerted them as he snuck up between them, hooking an arm around both their shoulders, “Right on time for the big surprise!” he said, walking dramatically towards what the girls already knew to be his luggage. He turned the music down on his way there, “Alright everybody, listen up!” he said, stopping by his bed, gathering everyone’s attention, “I’m sure to most of us, if not all of us – camp Willowdale is a token of light, a beacon of faith, an ode to nostalgia, if you will,” he spoke dramatically, waving his hands around, making Caroline and Sarah chuckle, “Which is why we have all gathered here tonight, and for that reason, I have done my due diligence and prepared a special surprise for all of us. Girls and boys, allow me to introduce to you,” his hands went to unzip the bag, “Ton-” his eyes widened in horror as he unzipped the bag, revealing it to be totally empty, except for his scarce clothes and the limp body of what appeared to be a dead owl at the bottom.

Everyone around him seemed either disappointed or confused as he frantically ran around the room, looking for his alcohol stash. Caroline and Sarah, however, gasped at the sight before them.

“Shit,” muttered Sarah, “What the hell is that? When I said I was hoping there wouldn’t be animals in there I didn’t think there’d actually be animals in there…”

Caroline shook her head, “Screw what it is! The real question is – who put it there?”

The girls were so focused on their conversation they barely noticed JJ showing up, “You girls know anything about this?” he said, making both of them jump.

“JJ!” Caroline said, trying to mask all sense of worry in her voice, “How could we possibly know anything about this?”

“We did it,” said Sarah quickly, “We stole the alcohol, but we swear to God we have no idea who put that pigeon in there!”

“Sarah!” hissed Caroline, only making Sarah shrug.

“What?” the girl said, “If there’s some psycho playing tricks on us, we might as well have a guy on our side!”

JJ raised an eyebrow, a small smile spreading on his face, “You’re telling me you two are behind this?”, he said, looking at Caroline impressed, “Gee, Carrie, didn’t picture you to be the bad type,”

Caroline’s cheeks heated up immediately as Sarah rolled her eyes and turned to look at JJ, “Earth to Maybank, are you listening to me? We only stole the booze, we didn’t put that in there!”

“Relax, girls,” said JJ, “Knowing John B, that little fucker probably sat dead at the bottom of his bag for a while before you even got to the alcohol,”

Caroline and Sarah both scrunched their noses in disgust, however what JJ was saying did make sense.

“You’re probably right,” sighed Caroline, “Booze is in our storage room, me and Sarah will go fetch it now,” she said, pulling Sarah out of the cabin.

“Are you crazy?” Sarah hissed at her, “Do you really want to give them all that alcohol back? Jesus, Carrie, how the hell do you expect me to last all summer sober? It’s bad enough I have to bunk with Madison Hague…”

“Relax, Sarah, I’m sure there’s gonna be a handful of teenagers with secret stashes of alcohol just waiting to be confiscated,”

Sarah sighed in relief, “You’re totally right, C,” she said, shaking her head as they walked the few steps up to their cabin’s door, “We’re just gonna rob our teens! What could possibly go wrong?”

As she said that and pressed onto the door handle, an ear-piercing scream echoed through the forest, making the hairs on the back of her arm stand.

“What was that?!” she quickly turned to Caroline, who was just as frozen as she was. Counselors started coming out of the boys’ cabin, the music dying down again suddenly. JJ and John B quickly made their way towards the girls, both visibly concerned.

“Are you alright?” said JJ.

Caroline nodded, crossing her arms, “I am, but whoever’s in there doesn’t sound like they are,” she said, tilting her head in the direction of the thick forest from where the scream came.

By this point, Pricilla and the rest of the head staff appeared from the staff lodge, all looking slightly tipsy as they paced through the path to the counselors’ cabins.

“What in the world is going on here?” Pricilla said, trying not to slur her words.

“Sounds like we should be asking you the same thing,” John B muttered under his breath, earning a chuckle from JJ.

“Our guess is as good as yours, Miss P,” explained Topper, shrugging, “We were all hanging out in there when we heard the scream and came out,”

“Well whose was it?” enquired Pricilla, looking slightly annoyed that her night had to be cut short for these teenagers’ shenanigans. When no one could give her an answer, she rolled her eyes and waved them over, “Come on then, off to Wildcat Lodge. We’re gonna have to do a count,”

Once everyone was gathered in the lodge, Pricilla waited for Mrs. Darbyshire, who also seemed a bit too drunk to be taking any of this seriously, to bring her a list of all the counselors’ names.

“Alright,” she said once the list was in her hands, “I’m gonna do a name call. Once we figure out who’s missing, you’re gonna go into that forest and look for them.” This earned her a bunch of annoyed comments and groans, making Pricilla snap back, “Don’t give me that shit, you lost ‘em, now you gotta find ‘em.”

“This is bullshit,” Caroline crossed her arms, “We’re literally minors, what are they gonna do?”

“They’re gonna finish their party,” interjected JJ.

Caroline shook her head in annoyance as Pricilla started reading out everyone’s names one by one.

“Jenna Kinley?”

“Here!”

“Kelce Johnson?”

“Here.”

“Barry Smith?”

“S’up.”

“Madison Hague?”

No answer.

This made Pricilla stand up straighter, looking around the pool of counselors in front of her, “Madison are you here?” when there was no reply yet again, she sighed loudly, “Has anyone seen Madison?”

“Last time I saw her, she said she was going to the girls’ cabin to pick up a jacket,” chimed in Topper.

“Oh, for the love of-” Pricilla groaned loudly, “This better not be a stupid prank, or I swear!”

“I should’ve just given her one of my jackets…” muttered Topper, “Now I feel kinda guilty,”

“Hey, it’s alright,” said Caroline, tapping him on the shoulder, “I’m sure she only saw a bug or something,”

“I trust you’ll all disperse and look for your friend now,” said Pricilla, “In the meantime, us adults will be supervising the Wildcat Lodge,”

“Supervising from what?” asked JJ confused.

“In case… Madison comes back here, of course!” Pricilla quickly lied, “Now off you go, Maybank, you ask way too many questions!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“This is ridiculous,” moaned Sarah after bouncing down the stairs of the girls’ cabin with a bag on her arm, “As if this summer couldn’t get any worse,”

“Pipe it, princess,” bit back JJ, “If you didn’t insist on stopping by the cabin before we went into the woods, maybe we’d have called it a night by now.”

“Don’t big yourself too much, Maybank,” she said, leading their pack into the trees and looking around to see whether the coast was clear, “You see, while you were moping around outside, I picked up some provisions,” she said, a devilish smirk spreading on her face as she pulled out a bottle of whiskey from her bag.

Caroline’s jaw nearly broke off, “Sarah, are you serious?”

Sarah only shrugged, “What? I told you I’m not gonna make it through tonight sober, besides, if I’m gonna be looking for the bitch I was hoping wouldn’t be here in the first place, I’d rather be shit-faced when I find her,”

Caroline rolled her eyes, snatching the bottle from Sarah’s hands, “Yeah, well, if I’m going to be looking for the bitch with you, I’d rather be shit-faced too,” she said, taking a rather large swig of the alcohol and hissing at the taste.

“Sweet,” said JJ, picking the bottle up from Caroline, “This is better than the party,”

John B agreed as he got hold of the bottle last.

The group walked through the forest, flashlights in hand, taking the whiskey bottle in turns and laughing as they went. John B had argued that if Sarah could pick something from her cabin, then he could pick his speaker from his, and so the four of them found themselves nearing the clearance by the lake, drunk and singing along to some cheesy song that was currently playing loud enough for only them to hear.

“It’s a good thing Pricilla wanted us here a day early,” slurred John B slightly, “Now you girls have set up the bonfire area and we can chill there,”

Sarah rolled her eyes, “Yeah, you’d know all about that, wouldn’t you?”

John B raised an eyebrow and turned to Caroline, “What’s she talking about?”

Just as Caroline was about to answer, they reached the bonfire area, which much to her dismay – had been totally wrecked, once again.

“This,” she said, anger quickly replacing the previous buzz she was feeling from the alcohol.

“Whoa, who did this?” said JJ, flashing his flashlight in the direction of the discarded logs and pillows.

“What do you mean who did this?” snapped Sarah, “Why’d you think we stole your alcohol?”

“Sarah, we didn’t do this,” John B shook his head.

Sarah stopped dead in her tracks, her face becoming slightly worried “What do you mean you didn’t do this? Then who did?”

“Guys,” Caroline chimed in from across the bonfire area, where the fire was supposed to be lit the following night, “Come check this out,”

The three teens made their way towards Caroline who was flashing her light at one of the rocks at the base of the fire pit. There was something written on it with a gooey substance the origin of which none of them wanted to question.

“I don’t know who did it, but whoever it was,” said Caroline, stepping back from the rock so that her friends could see what was written more clearly on it, “Probably did this, too.”

And there on the rock, written with what looked an awfully lot like blood, were plastered four words:

Come and find me

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Part 4 here x

A/N: Finally something is happening haha I hope you're enjoying so far, let me know what you think and if you want to be added to the taglist, please notify me! Story is about to get juicy from now on hehehe

Link to masterlist here. xxxx

taglist: @k-k0129

[ladykissingfish]

Halloween with the Akatsuki

Konan

Dress-up isn’t really for her, and neither is going out to join in any festivities. She prefers to go the homemade treats and scary movie route, staying either by herself or with her fellow Akatsuki members who think the same way. She’s the one who will decorate the house (often with Tobi’s help) with orange and purple lights, hanging ghosts and witches, and an entirely too-real-looking scarecrow. Might decide to wear some spooky-printed pajamas and/or a matching robe. Also makes herself of use to anyone who’s dressing up and needs help applying face paint or makeup. She also stays up the latest to ensure that those who do go out make it home safe and sound, although she doesn’t tell anyone that this is why she’s still awake.

Deidara and Hidan:

Normally these two don’t get along (to put it mildly) and avoid each other like the plague. However, on Halloween, it’s a different story. These two are the youngest in the Akatsuki and therefore much more into the “holiday spirit” than the others. They’ll help each other with costumes (Hidan figures that his normal getup/ritual black and white paint is scary enough, and Deidara will dress as a literal “bang”; bright, flashy clothing ((definitely with a cape)) with small handmade explosives set to go off at regular intervals). Deidara will likely be made to take Tobi trick or treating during the early hours of the evening, and Hidan will tag along; not because he likes candy but because he figures the sugar will give him a needed boost of energy for the rest of the evening. Once Deidara finishes with Tobi, he and Hidan will set out for some greater fun. Haunted houses are their favorite; they can separate themselves from the crowd and hide within the exhibits, to scare the bejesus out of everyone else. Deidara can throw as many bombs as he wants ((and at point-blank range)), and Hidan can lure countless unsuspecting sacrifices people into the darkness; and the best part of it? Everyone thinks it’s just part of the show. It’s only when the others realize that the “fake blood” and “fake dead bodies” aren’t so fake that they decide to dip out. Likely to end the night sneaking Kakuzu’s sake from his room, getting completely shit-faced, eating ALL of Tobi’s candy (which he’ll cry about to no end in the morning), then passing out face-down on the floor. Will have to be dragged to their own rooms by Sasori and Kakuzu, and in the morning Kakuzu will be as loud as humanly possible to punish the two hungover idiots for stealing his alcohol.

Tobi

A holiday whose sole purpose is to get as much free candy as possible? Sign. Him. The FUCK. Up. He doesn’t really bother with much of a costume (after all he’s already wearing a mask that greatly resembles a lollipop) but might adorn it with a set of cat ears and tail. He’ll beg his senpai to take him trick or treating (which will be refused at first because “You’re a grown man for fuck’s sake, hm!”, but then Pein and Konan will use some “gentle persuasion” on the blonde until Tobi’s wish is granted). He’s thorough with it; he’s had Zetsu infiltrate houses for weeks beforehand to find out who has what candy, so he knows the best route to take. When he’s done (or rather when Deidara’s patience has run out) he’ll go back to the hideout and start eating his hard-earned treats. But not too much; because Konan is also making pumpkin and ghost shaped cookies and green-dyed hot chocolate. Will end the night watching scary movies (during which he’ll hide behind a pillow) with Konan and Kakuzu (Kakuzu insists the movies are boring but for some reason he has yet to leave the room). Sometimes accidentally slips into Obito voice when talking about how much he “gets” Michael Myers. 9/10 will fall asleep and be covered with a blanket to stay on the couch. Also 9/10 will wake up to find his candy gone because of senpai and the jerk Hidan, and will sob about it until Deidara caves and goes out and buys him several bagfuls of (now conveniently discounted) Halloween candy.

Kakuzu

Likes to answer the door for trick or treaters, but instead of candy he’ll give out what he feels is “more helpful”. Like, pamphlets on how to start a 401k, or advice on what stocks are a good investment, or tips how to save the most when shopping at the grocery store. Most children are unappreciative of the old grouch’s “treats”, however, and the Akatsuki house always ends up heavily egged and TP’d. But hey ... that means free eggs ((the ones that aren’t too damaged, anyway)) and free toilet paper: win-win. When not answering the door, he joins some of the others in their “scary” movie fest. Not because he thinks the flicks are in anyway scary ((to him they seem more like comedies)) but he likes to analyze the actions of the main characters to see how and where they went wrong; good practice for future missions.

Pein

Thinks the “holiday” is utterly pointless, but gives his blessing for the others to indulge in in however they see fit.

Zetsu

This is the night of the year that Zetsu brings in the most revenue to the Akatsuki. He scopes out what places are having costume contests with cash prizes, and he enters, and literally always wins first place. Nobody can figure out how he “made” a costume so wonderfully realistic, with the unique dual skin-tone and the lush foliage. This is also a good time for him to indulge in sweet treats ... and NOT the candy kind. Lots of dumb teenagers like to wander out to the woods and have Halloween parties; their exuberance and intoxication lets them see Zetsu as just another guy with an awesome get-up. Getting one or two or ten of them away from the group is child’s play, and devouring them? Easier than taking candy from a Tobi. Sometimes will take a severed hand or foot and enter ANOTHER contest as a carnivorous Venus fly trap.

Itachi and Kisame

Neither of these two like to go out, so they spend time at the house together. Kisame goes out the day before and raids a pumpkin patch, and the two spend a good part of Halloween evening expressing their “artistic” sides on different jack-o-lanterns ((which will be mercilessly criticized by Deidara)). Kisame’s masterpiece is Samehada at his strongest and Itachi’s is the portrait of who he SAYS is himself as a younger man ((but is clearly that little brother of his)). Kisame is not a fan of candy, but Itachi is, so Tobi will bring him a large handful of his own to share. They will abandon their customary tea and biscuits for warm apple cider and whatever confectionary delight Konan is making. Might also join the others for scary movies at some point. Most Halloween’s end up with Deidara and Hidan coming back to the house very late, drinking too much, and falling asleep. This might be the ONLY time Itachi ever initiates an act of aggression against them, as he takes advantage of their out-of-it states to put each of their hands in a cup of warm water ((a trick he learned from Hidan himself)) and letting nature (and overfilled bladders) take its course. Kisame sees him doing this and laughs himself sick; it always amuses him when he sees his partner drop his ultra-serious nature and let loose like a normal young person.

Sasori

It’s always been said of Halloween for sweet-consumers to be aware of what they’re eating, as many unscrupulous people out there can hide poison in the candy. Sasori is that person who parents warn their kids about. However, Sasori doesn’t direct his malice towards children; rather, adults. He concocts a variety of poisons, sleeping agents and other horrors, laces candy or apples with it, and has his secret subordinates in other villages pass them out to pre-selected individuals ((usually people that the redhead has some sort of grudge against)). Sasori keeps careful track of his lab rats by sending small, drone-like puppets out to observe them, and record their reactions from time of consumption to whatever end comes for them. This research greatly helps him in terms of future poison preparations. If particularly bored, he’ll dress up some of his larger puppets in terrifying attire, and send them out in the darkness to stalk and frighten the life out of young trick-or-treaters. He’s likely to join some of the others who watch movies, or, if he’s in time to catch Deidara after the blonde passes out from his night of fun, he’ll take a marker and write “Art is Eternal” across his face ... in multiple languages.

[hostess-of-horror]

Danse Macabre

Finally! After so many days of writing, I have finally finished my biggest fanfic yet! It's another Phantom x Peach fanfic and it is a bit of a sequel to my previous one "Encore at Midnight". I had this really cool story concept for a little while and I felt like I just could not do anything else unless I write it down. It was a bit of an experiment since I had to do a little bit of research just to pull some things off (however, it is far from perfect, so please forgive me). Also, I have officially made some OCs for this fanfic, yay! Anyways, I hope you guys enjoy what I have created!

Number of Pages: 17

Word Count: 9358

[Content includes: Themes of Death/Mortality and Some Suggestiveness (not smut though!), OC “Death”, Graphic Body Horror, and Slight Profanity]

For @salamifuposey, @kindpopstar, @jawaii-chan, and everyone else who wants to read this fanfic!

____________________________________________________________

My Dearest Princess,

Forgive my absence these past few days. I have been preparing the final touches in my newest masterpiece, and I have been dying to show you what I have created. It is something I have not done before; consider it an experiment of sorts. My excitement cannot be contained any longer! Tonight, I invite you to a performance unlike anything you have seen before. I have arranged a carriage to arrive at your castle at around midnight. It will take you to Spooky Trails, where I have made refuge, and you will be accompanied along the way. She will be your guide, and I assure you she will not lead you astray. I pray you receive this letter and that you accept the invitation.

Your Humble Host,

P

---

Princess Peach reads and rereads the letter. So many questions run through her mind. What does he mean by “experiment”? What kind of performance will this be? And who is this guide? She looks up from the letter, and across from her is an unfamiliar face. Sitting across from her is a woman looking out of the carriage window, admiring the night sky. Or, at least it seems like she is, for the bright reflection on her tea shades completely covered her eyes. Her guide is abnormally slender and taller than her, however she could not tell exactly how much. Her alabaster skin pops in contrast of her dark attire, which consists of a frilly ivory blouse and high-low trail skirt, a velvet violet corset, leather pants, and a long onyx black coat embellished with jewels. Her frizzy, unkept silver hair is pulled up into two buns with small strands of hair shimmering like a diamond. Peach had never seen anyone quite like her before; it’s like she came from another world entirely. The guide turns her attention from the view towards Peach and smiles. Peach averts her eyes and looks towards the window – it was rude to stare, especially at a stranger. “So, you must be the one my master has been interested in all this time? He has told me so much about you.”, the guide spoke. Peach brings her attention back towards the guide. “I am, miss.”, she responds, “And, he has?”

“Oh yes! He is simply infatuated with you! I dare say, obsessed, even. And now that I have a chance to see you up close, I can definitely see why.”

“Infatuated is a good word to describe him. He has shown his affection quite often since our first reunion.”

“Has he now?”

“Mm-hmm. He’s been nothing but a gentleman towards me, even if he does get pretty… excitable from time to time.”

“Consider yourself lucky, your highness. Having an enthusiastic partner makes the relationship a lot more interesting!”

“Well, yes, I agree… I- um…”

“Is there something wrong?”

“Phantom and I have only met a little while now; almost a month I believe. I’m not sure if I want to start referring to him as my partner.”

“Just yet, you mean?”

“Oh, please don’t get me wrong, I do like him! I just like to… take things a little slow.”

“Ah, I see. I completely understand. You want to get to know him a little bit more before you make any decisions. A rather smart move on your part.”

“Exactly.”

“Don’t tell anyone this, but my master isn’t one to do such a thing. That is not to say he’s completely reckless, but whenever there’s something – or someone – he’s interested in, he becomes determined. Stubborn even. And personally, it is not his best quality sometimes. It makes him look like a moron. A blind one at that.”

“I guess you can say he becomes inspired. Phantom is an artist, after all. Art is meant to invoke emotion, no matter the medium. It would make sense that he himself is the same way.”

“Insightful! And right you are.”

“Not to mention, Phantom is an opera singer. Opera, of course, is highly emotional and very dramatic, and so is he.”

“That too. I know this might be a personal question, but your first reunion with my master…”

“Yes?”

“What happened that night? I ask because I remember seeing him wallowing in shame after his trip over to the Mushroom Kingdom. When he returned, he threw himself onto his fainting couch, murmuring curses, almost about to cry.”

“Oh my! Well, Phantom was in the ballroom inside my castle that night. He was singing this beautiful melody. When I found him, we talked for a bit and discovered we both have something in common.”

“And what would that be?”

“Companionship.”

“Ah…”

“As we talked, he told me about his life after that battle at Spooky Trails a few years ago. He was so lonely, unable to find friends to call his own. Soon he became… anxious. I cannot describe exactly what came over him, but it was obvious he was in pain. Then, his eyes turned red, and suddenly darkness. I fainted.”

The guide stares at Peach, her mouth slightly agape. Although her tea shades cover her eyes, her expression is readable. It is a look of shock – that look of knowing exactly what had just happened with Phantom on that very night. She sighs, “I see. That is not the first time he has done that. My master can be terrifying when he has his moments.”

“Everything was just so overwhelming. I was scared, yes, but afterwards I was more concerned of his well-being. I cannot bear to see someone in pain; being alone can take a toll on anyone… Oh, that poor thing! He must’ve thought that he harmed me when I fainted!” Peach exclaimed. Silence takes over the conversation. Peach’s eyes wander towards the carriage floor while the guide’s attention never breaks. Her eyebrows furrowed, Peach fidgets with her gloves. The guide adjusts her position, leaning over towards the worried princess. She reaches out and holds her hand; Peach stops fidgeting. “I’m glad that you care about him, your highness. Very few do.” she gently smiles, “There have been many times I believed that the only people who care about him is me and the others.”

“The others?”, Peach asks.

“The rest of my master’s theatre troupe. Just like him, we are all one with music.”

“…may I ask what is your name?

“My name? Oh-! my name, how could I forget my manners? How rude of me! I am Dolores, your highness.”

“And if I may ask as well, if you don’t mind, where do you come from?”

Before Dolores has a chance to answer, a flash of shadows sped by the carriage. Dolores motions towards the window, her head peeking out, looking over the view. Her pearl white teeth shows as she grins from ear to ear. “We’re almost there! Ah, soon you will experience the greatest show yet, Princess Peach!”, she exclaims with glee. Peach takes a look at her window. Memories flooded her mind like a rushing river coursing through the barren earth. Spooky Trails.She remembers now; it was all coming back to her. This was all leading to the very location where her battle with Phantom took place. She, alongside Mario, Luigi, and a few Rabbids, witnessed Phantom’s creation and fought him as he flaunted about on the old, decrepit stage. To think, he was an almost entirely different person. Phantom wasn’t as gentlemanly as he is as of recently, but since their first reunion, he has been wanting things to change.

He wants her. Her heart. Her soul. Her beauty. Everything.

To think it has come to this. To think the princess, who has been known for being saved by her plumber in shining armor and being in love with him, would fall for such a character. But has she truly fallen for Phantom? Or is it all just nonsense? If it was just nonsense, then why would she accept the invitation? Peach takes in the environment as the carriage rolls across the cobblestone path, driving through the dead trees and the old, seemingly abandoned village. Despite having never returned after the battle, Peach regains her memories of Spooky Trails, almost to the point of knowing exactly where Phantom resides. Dolores returns to her position, her shining grin still on her face. Peach turns her attention back at Dolores and asks, “What was the inspiration behind this performance?”

“I would tell you, but it would ruin the surprise! My master has ordered all of us to never reveal his masterpiece until it is time.” Dolores answers.

“Oh…”

“All I can say is that this is no ordinary performance. My master is quite the visionary, you know!”

“Very well, then. I won’t ask any more questions, if it’s going to ruin the surprise.”

“Are you excited, your highness?”

“Of course! Why wouldn’t I be? It’s not often that I get invited to such events.”

“Really? But you’re royalty! I thought you would be invited to all sorts of performances.”

“I do, but it just doesn’t happen that often, and I honestly don’t know why. I adore the theater!”

“We all do too. Our lifestyle is nothing but the theater… quite literally!”

“Gosh, that must be so wonderful, to be part of a theatre troupe. To perform for all to see, to entertain others through amazing plays! I’ve always wished to join when I was a little girl.”

“Oh! Would you look at that! We’ve finally arrived!”

After what it seemed like more than an hour, the carriage, at long last, finally stops. Dolores gets up from her seat, slowly crawling her way out of the carriage. Her elongated body almost struggles through the small door, but she succeeds with grace. She then offers her hand to Peach with a softer smile, “Your midnight show awaits, Princess Peach…” Taking Dolores’ hand, Peach steps out of the carriage and immediately she is greeted by a massive silver gate. The very gate that stands guard the entrance to Phantom’s stage. It is beautifully sculpted, shaped into swirls and patterns holding up an illuminating full moon, with two music notes placed on each side as the borders. Yes, Peach remembers now. Dolores walks up to the gate and peers through it. She waves at something or something – Peach could not tell – and opens it, allowing themselves to enter. Peach follows behind. She didn’t know how tall Dolores was when they were in the carriage, but now she could get a good look at her stature. Dolores was tall – taller than any human she has ever seen before. If Peach could guess, her guide was three to four (maybe five!)feet taller than her and was practically towering over her. Ever since they met, she had this feeling of uneasiness. Who is this woman? What is this woman? Where did she come from? So many questions. There was something off about Dolores, and it wasn’t necessarily her abnormal physique. There was something, but Peach couldn’t put her finger on it. Whatever it was…. Perhaps she doesn’t need to worry too much about it.

Approaching the decrepit stage, the two ladies are met by a small man wielding a large, glowing lantern. This man is the opposite of Dolores in terms of height and physique. He is a short and stout dwarf, donning a regal yellow robe over his slightly mismatched clothes. The light emanating from the lantern reveals his nicely trimmed beard, his long, curly chocolate brown hair tied back into a ponytail, his fluorescent amber eyes giving them a warm welcome. His smile grew bigger once Dolores waves again; he waves back. “Dolores, there you are! And you brought our special guest! Wunderbar! It is a pleasure to meet you, eure hoheit.”, the dwarf greets them, bowing in courtesy. “Are the others ready, Stefan?”, Dolores asks.

“We’ve been ready for a while now. Just making sure everything is perfect for tonight.”

“And what about our master?”

“He will not show his face. In fact, he wants me to tell you that no one must see him until he has shown himself to us all.”

“Ah, well that makes things interesting.”

“I agree. Anyway, enough chit chat! Let us proceed! We must not keep our master’s little freundin waiting.”

“Por favor, Stefan! Don’t tease… that’s my job.”

Stefan chuckles as he ushers them to go into the stage. Dolores follows Stefan, and Peach follows Dolores. They all walk deeper through the torn platform and dusty curtains. Damaged props, broken wires, hanging ropes, and mangy fabrics scatter the place. The further deeper they went, the larger the backstage seems to be. Peach looks in awe as she continues to follow her guides. Who knew that this abandoned stage held such secrets? After a few minutes of walking, Stefan places his lantern on the floor, lighting up the entire floor, and begins to crawl on his hands and knees. His fingers trace the nooks and crannies of the floorboards, mumbling to himself. He searches until he finds a small hole and grabs it. The hole turns out to be a handle, and Stefan pulls and lifts up the floorboards. He reveals a decent sized door leading to a much darker pathway – a long stone stairway stretching far into a secret tunnel. Stefan’s lantern gave light to the darkness, making the trip down into the underground refuge much less intimidating. Dolores holds Peach’s hand as they go down the stairs. This was such an odd way of attending a performance. Peach could not imagine what kind of performance involves having to venture underground in order to see it. What could she possibly expect from all of this? Part of her mind began screaming for help, pleading to go back to the Mushroom Kingdom. Part of her mind wanted normalcy, no surprises. It wanted her to stop and return to her chamber, to her castle, to Mario and her friends. However, the other part was curious. It was that familiar curiosity – the same curiosity she had when first reunited with Phantom. She could never forget that night. Never in a lifetime. Everything about him, whether it be music or shadow, is just so…. Alluring.

Alluring… Beguiling… Captivating… Enchanting…

Her mind finally gives in. She goes for the latter. How could she not? She has ventured too deep into this tunnel to start leaving. For once, she is able to take a break from her royal duties. To forget her troubles. To finally experience something new. For once. As for curiosity, she was more concerned about Phantom. Why would he not allow anyone to see him? Of course, it must be for the performance, but what exactly does Phantom have in store? The more Peach thought about him, the more impatient she became. Phantom. Oh, where are you, Phantom? Her mind falls into that familiar trance. She wants to see him again. She wants to hear him again. Perhaps Peach has become just as obsessed as he is with her. This must be an addiction. It must be. If it wasn’t, then she would never be where she is right now. Whether it be curiosity, obsession, or madness, Peach will continue to walk into shadow if it meant she will meet her friend again. Stefan, Dolores, and Peach finally reach the end of the tunnel, finding a wooden door decorated with gold etchings, which looked out of place amongst the cobweb-shrouded stone walls. With a strong push, Stefan enters through, allowing the door to creak wide open. Behind the door is a humongous hallway, adorned from wall to wall with a vast multitude of paintings, flyers and posters of plays and musicals, candles, and curtains. To think a dusty tunnel would lead to a beautiful makeshift palace! It’s like discovering a treasure chest inside of a dank, murky swamp. Is this where Phantom was residing all these years? Peach gasps. Dolores turns around and smiles, “Welcome to our humble abode, your highness. In this place, music is our lifeforce. We eat, we drink, we breathe, we sleep in music. Just like our master, we are not only creators of art – we are art itself. And tonight, we shall once again breathe life into another masterpiece. I cannot describe how immensely happy we all are. We are so glad that you accepted our master’s invitation, you will not regret it! Now, come along with me, let us go into the Ladies’ Dressing Room. Natasha has designed a wonderful costume for you to wear, and Ophelia will help you with your hair and makeup. I assure you they will make you absolutely gorgeous. Of course, that is not to say you’re not already beautiful.”

Stefan leaves the two ladies and heads towards the Gentlemen’s Dressing Room, which is across from the Ladies’ Dressing Room to the left, placing the lantern onto an iron hook built into the wall. “Well, I’m going to get myself ready and meet up with the others. I’ll see you all at the Gallery! Bis bald!”, he says as he closes the door. Dolores enters through the door to the right and holds it open for Peach to walk into the room. There sitting inside are twin sisters, both garbed in fine, flowy silk and chiffon gowns, working on their latest projects. To the left is a somber young lady sitting near a vanity, dressed all in Aegean and periwinkle blue, her pale pink hair intertwined into exquisite dreadlocks that reaches down to her shoulders. Wrapped around her head is a flower crown composed of lavender, Baby’s Breath, Fairy Foxgloves, and Forget-Me-Nots. To the right is a cheery young lady wearing a similar gown but in shades of fuchsia and rose, checking over the details of an extravagant costume, which is porcelain and peach in color. Her pale blue hair is also made of dreadlocks, as well as composed with the same flowers with the addition of small vines, but is pinned up into a lovely cornrow braided bun. The twin in pink looks up from her work and gasps, “Dolores, you’re back! And the princess is here! Ophelia, look! They’re here!” Ophelia turns around, her saddened expression softening into a weak smile, “Oh, hello again. And it’s nice to finally meet you, your highness.”

Dolores greets them back, turning her attention back to Natasha’s project, “Is the costume ready?”

“Yes, it is! I was just making sure everything’s perfect!”

“It looks amazing! Buen Trabajo!”

“Aww, thank you!”

“Alright, now we must hurry. I need to be in costume. I’ll meet you all in the Gallery, and don’t dottle please.”

“Don’t worry, Dolores, we’ll be ready as soon as possible.”

Dolores leaves Peach with Natasha and Ophelia, entering through a darkened room to get ready for the performance. Once she leaves, Peach witnesses what is perhaps the most amazing thing she has ever seen. The speed in which Natasha and Ophelia got her ready for the performance was astounding. What should have lasted for about a few hours or so ended up lasted for a few mere minutes! No human possesses this level of speed, especially with makeup. Any makeup artist would take their time getting every detail right. There would be no possible way anyone could apply eyeshadow, eyeliner, blush, concealer, lipstick, and every other detail really fast without messing up. But Ophelia proved that such an ability was possible. Natasha was no different. She helped Peach get into the extravagant costume without any struggle at all, as it fit perfectly onto her frame. How did she get her size just right? And it’s so comfortable too! “And… done! Oh, look at you! You are just beautiful, your highness! Don’t you think so, Ophelia?”, Natasha exclaims happily, proud of her job well done. “Oh yes, I agree…”, Ophelia smiles weakly again. Peach looks over to a nearby mirror. They were right; she is beautiful. Perhaps even more so, she thinks to herself, for she had never worn anything like this before. It is true that, being of royal blood, she is accustomed to an extremely elaborate (and expensive) wardrobe. But this… this is different from any other dress. It is a ballroom gown, completely encrusted with diamonds and pearls, with lovely black roses making a long trail from her waist down to the skirt. The white skirt is massive, flowing down towards the floor like a mass of billowing fog. Her shoulders and bosom are exposed completely, giving room for a glistening choker made of the same jewels. Her hair is done up in a high bun, lightly sprinkled with silver glitter, and tied together with another black rose.

She looks heavenly. Like an angel.

With everything all set and done, Natasha and Dolores begin preparing themselves. As they do, Ophelia pauses for a moment. “Oh, your highness! I almost forgot something. Before we go, our master wanted me to give you this.”, Ophelia says, handing her a small card. It reads: For the Princess. Before heading back to primp herself, her expression slowly turns gloomy, barely keeping up with her smile, “You are so lucky to be chosen…” Peach turns over the card as she waits for the twins to get ready and continues to read:

Tonight’s performance is a one-of-a-kind experience. You, my dear, will not only be the audience, but also part of the story! Everything and everyone around you will be interactive, so please do not be shy. Converse with your newly found friends! Eat, drink, dance with your heart’s content! And please, do not wait for me. I hope you enjoy my masterpiece.

- P

Ah ha! So, this is what Phantom’s performance is! It is a role-playing experience, and based on what the card says, it must be a party he’s hosting. What delightful news! Although, Peach must admit that she has never role-played before, especially in something like this. But wait – didn’t she say to Dolores earlier that being part of the theatre was her childhood dream? Perhaps this is the perfect opportunity to try out her acting skills! Peach beams. She could not believe Phantom would make something like this. Whatever this role-playing party entails, she thinks to herself, she’s going to do the best she can. “We’re ready!” Natasha exclaims in a sing-song tone, “Are you ready, Ophelia?” Ophelia nods. Natasha excitedly takes both her and Peach’s hands, leading them out of the Ladies’ Dressing Room and into the Gallery. Peach almost could not keep up with the twins, for they have remarkable speed, as shown by their natural talents on makeup and costuming. How fast can could they possible go? If this is how fast they can walk, then how fast can they run? Natasha’s ecstatic giggling echoes through the hallway, and with every step they take, the upbeat tempo of music could be heard from behind the Gallery doors. The closer they went, the louder it became. The melody drifts in the air like a calm perfume for the ears, capturing Peach’s attention with its harmonious essence. A delicious delicacy for the senses. Just like Phantom’s voice. He must have composed this melody, for there is no way Peach could have been so immersed and entranced by its sound if it wasn’t. The three ladies approach the Gallery doors, the music muffled behind them. Natasha takes a glance back at Peach and Ophelia, unable to contain her excitement anymore.

She pushes the doors wide open.

What words could possibly describe the sheer extravagance of the Gallery? To think that all of this is completely underground! To think Phantom created this gargantuan chamber, big enough for him and perhaps one hundred guests! Maybe even more than that. Peach could tell, just by admiring the Gallery, Phantom is quite the fan of marble, silver, and velvet. Marble floors and pillars framing the chamber and silver-framed mirrors and portraits decorate the walls. Deep black velvet curtains cascade from the middle of the ceiling and down towards the floor, giving the appearance of one massive Bohemian tent. In the middle hangs a glamourous jeweled chandelier, giving a dim light to the darkness. Looking around, Peach notices there are seven rooms divided by the curtains, each one color-coded, with three rooms on both towards the left and right. To the left are the colors blue, purple, and green, and to the right are orange, white, and violet. The seventh room is located right in front of the ladies, right across from the Gallery entrance. Inside is completely shrouded in shades of red – wine, scarlet, crimson, garnet – and there sits in a shiny throne a crowned gentleman – a prince – with a glass of Amontillado in his hand. His wavy, champagne blonde hair falls delicately around his party mask and square facial structure. His rosy lips gently purse as he raises his glass to drink. He is accompanied by two other women, who are garbed to the nines in the richest finery, blushing and laughing amongst themselves. Every now and then, the prince would turn to one of them and whisper in their ear, making their faces turn into deeper shades of red. As Peach follows Natasha and Ophelia, she finds more guests, all conversing amongst one another in the color-coded rooms. The costumes they wear are vibrant in color and theme, ranging from jesters, to creatures, to knights, to fairies and pixies. These guests, including the prince himself, must all be part of Phantom’s theatre troupe. Peach begins to count: one… two… four… six… nine… eleven. Eleven members of the troupe. She wonders if there are any more, considering how large the Gallery is.

The prince turns his attention suddenly towards Peach, and so do the two women. Soon, almost everyone begins to stop for a moment and do the same. Simultaneously, Natasha and Ophelia bow, gesturing to Peach, “My Lord, we have brought you your special guest, Princess Morrigan of the Stygian Border.” The prince sets down his glass on a nearby silver platter, and stands right up from his throne, adjusting his vest and coat. “C’est magnifique, my loyal subjects! Now the masquerade can truly begin! Come, come! The night is young, gather around everyone! Let us celebrate all of our blessings and forget our grievances!” he declared, “May we prosper in these trying times, and may we never run out of wine to drink.” The crowd laughs and cheers, some of them raising their own glasses. He turns to Peach, his eyes wandering up and down, and smirks, “My, my… Enchantee, your highness. I must say, you look… ravishing tonight. I am Prince Fortunato, at your service. Why don’t you join me, my dear, in the Red Room? Surely, we can have some… fun together, what do you say?” Greeting her, Prince Fortunato places a soft kiss on her hand, his emerald eyes admiring her beauty. Or perhaps something else. Although Peach has to be polite, she immediately had no interest in him. Too cocky, she thinks to herself, too full of himself. It reminds her too much of Bowser. Then again, Phantom was that way, too, at least in the past. But she learned that he was not licentious. He never looked anywhere else but into her eyes. He never searched for anything other than her eyes. He ever seemed like he was after a particular goal other than seeing her whenever they meet. That is the one thing Peach was sure about. Ah, but remember! This is only roleplay; nothing is real. Prince Fortunato, as well as everyone else, is only pretending. In that case, this gentleman is an excellent actor!

Prince Fortunato leads Peach back to his throne, the two women still standing to accompany him. Envy fills the air. Their expressions turn sour as they watch Peach get even more attention than them. Peach could already tell that this is no ordinary masquerade. She has been to many royal revelries throughout her life, and all of them were filled to the brim with sophistication. Every guest, staff member, and host had class – anything that was considered less than classy wasn’t allowed. This masquerade is different in terms of the usual standards of hosting such parties. It was as eccentric as its Gothic décor, consisting of tables filled with silver platters of fruits, meats, bread, and desserts, goblets of beverages, and candles. Every once and a while, a few guests would stuff themselves and each other with this feast, disregarding etiquette for sheer pleasure. Peach isn’t used to the cacophony of this kind of merrymaking. All of this was nothing but pure, unadulterated debauchery – something she was taught never to delve into. She is a princess, after all, and princesses never do those sorts of things. However, did she not accept the invitation to let herself loose? Did she not agree to join this performance – this masquerade – to experience something new for once? For once? Feeling out of place just standing idle amongst Prince Fortunato and the guests, Peach goes over to one of the tables and picks at a plate of grapes. She watches as the guests gather around Natasha and Ophelia in one huge circle, clapping to the music’s rhythm as they frolic together. The fabrics of their dresses fly with their movements as if they were colorful wings dancing in the darkness. As she plops the grapes delicately into her mouth, her eyes continue to wander over the décor. Suddenly, she stops at a grim sight. There as the centerpiece sits three skulls, two of them from a different species, ones Peach isn’t familiar with. The skull placed in the middle, however, is human. She could not tell if these skulls were real. She hopes they aren’t real. Taking a closer look, an engraving is found on its forehead: Ars longa, vita brevis.

Without warning, the Gallery doors burst open! The music stops – the crowd jumps in surprise! Prince Fortunato rises to his feet, alarmed by this sudden interruption. Peach turns around. There standing in the doorway is an aged peasant woman in old, torn rags, her hair glowing bright red like a burning inferno. Her complexion is dirtied, her makeup is smudged, her eyes red-hot with fury. She scowls as she approaches the partygoers, her hands clenched as if she is about to attack. “For shame!Have you no shame?!” the peasant chants, flailing her arms with rage, “Have you no compassion for your people?! The plague lays waste throughout the land! And yet, here you are, surrounding yourself with wealth and whores! They are suffering! They are dying! There is no hope for us! For shame! For shame! Have you no shame?!” Peach watches as everyone else steps back, avoiding her filthy presence. Twelve. Twelve members in Phantom’s theatre troupe. Prince Fortunato steps forward, confronting her, “Who dares… who dares interrupts us?! Who dares trespass Fort Fortunato and speak against the Crown?!”

“It is your undoing that dares enter your home! This, all of this, will be your downfall!” she responds back angerly, gesturing to the masquerade.

“Leave this instant, or else I’ll have your head for this!”

“I have seen it, Prince Fortunato! I have seen your fate in the deepest of dreams! Doom is upon you all!”

“Ah, it’s one of those so-called soothsayers my people love so much… how lovely. They love having their fortunes told, don’t they? Superstitions and all that. Hmmm. Well, in that case, go on. Amuse us with your… dreams and visions, fortune teller. We do love to be entertained.”

“It will come, Prince Fortunato, in retribution of your indulgences. You and your party may hide all you want; it will still find you! Mortals cannot escape from what is inevitable. In the end, it shall visit us when our time comes… and your time is nigh.”

“Qu’est-ce que tu racontes? What is this ‘it’ you’re talking about? Whatever ‘it’ is, I am sure it will not ruin this masquerade. Princess, do you hear all this? She’s simply mad!”

“Our time is nigh!”

“Tu es timbre!”

“For shame! For shame!”

“Quitter cet endroit!”

“Have you no shame?!”

The peasant stops. Her eyes shift towards Peach. A look of horror falls upon her face. “You…”, she whispers, slowly raising a pointed finger at her. Peach watches as she approaches her, still pointing, terrified. Her expression contorts as if she is studying, searching for something. “You… are to be Death’s Bride… Yes! You are Death’s Bride!” she exclaims, falling to her knees, clutching Peach’s skirt, “Oh, you poor soul! So young… innocent… all to be swept by its dark embrace! I beg of you, your highness, leave this place! Forget these fools! Forget all of this! Save yourself!” With a swift grab, Prince Fortunato pulls the peasant away by the shoulder and pushes her aside. “Unhand her this instant! You trespass my fortress, you waste our time with your superstitions, and now you insult me and my guests?” he yells, “Everyone! Let us show this insolent wretch what it means to insult those higher than her! Bring me a chair! Bring me some rope! Let’s play a game with her, shall we?” Peach could not believe it. A prince sacrificing the well-being of his people for an elaborate masquerade! And now, he and the other guests have decided to torture this poor woman! She cannot stay silent any longer – she must act! “Wait!” Peach cries, making everyone stop in unison, “Have mercy on her! Please!” Prince Fortunato scoffs in amusement, “Why, and for what? She insulted us, you heard her!”

“Yes, but none of that would have happened if you attended to your royal duties as Prince and took care of your people!”

“E-excusez-moi?”

“This poor woman is in dire need of assistance, and you have all the wealth to help her! Maybe you should consider.”

“Ha! My dear, you jest! I have no need for peasants! Why should I dabble in their affairs?”

“Because their affairs are yours as well. They have relied on you for so long, and you rely on them. Without your people, you’re done for!”

“Do you not see the extravagance of this masquerade? The bountiful feasts presented on the tables? Our costumes? The wine in our glasses? I am rich, Princess Morrigan! Wealthy beyond imagination!”

“Wealth that came from people like her! Please, my Lord, have mercy.”

“Are you mad? Ha, you must be! Just as mad as the fortune teller!”

“If I am as mad as her, then I must be! Yes, that’s it! Perhaps your foolishness is just another wild hallucination, for what respectable royalty spoils themselves to the point of gluttony and greed?”

A crowd of gasps shatter the silence. The crowd glance at Peach, then at the prince, then back at her, awaiting another response. Prince Fortunato stands silent, completely stunned by her audacity. His face becomes flushed, his teeth gritting, his emerald eyes bright with anger. His fists clench. “Oh…. I’m a fool, am I? Am I a fool?! I am not a fool! I am Prince Fortunato, the next in line! Heir to the throne! I am as respectable as royalty can be!” he furiously shouts, “I will not be insulted like this! I will not be degraded like this! I need not your judgment, or hers, or anyone else’s! I am no fool, do you hear me? I am not a fool! I am a Prince, full of riches and beauty! I am perfect! I am powerful! I am untouchable! You think I’m a fool? You call me a fool, eh? Ha ha! Well then, let me entertain you all! Come, gather around, my lovely guests! Let me show you what a true fool really is!” With a whip of his cape, Prince Fortunato rushes from the crowd and goes behind the throne. Everyone watches as he switches his coat and cape with another coat and removes his crown with another accessory. In a matter of seconds, he reappears, this time donning a shiny blue coat and a mask in the shape of a rabbit’s face. Raising his arms, he presents his new costume to the crowd, “Here! Here! I am now a fool! But Prince Fortunato? Oh no, no, no! He is no fool! You imbeciles! He is a national treasure!” Has Prince Fortunato finally lost his sanity? What could he possibly gain from this? Peach is stunned, as much as the rest of the others. However, she is not as terrified as everyone else. She sees Natasha and Ophelia cradling each other, comforting one another despite both being in distress. She sees Stefan in costume backing away, almost seeming to run away and hide somewhere safe. She sees Dolores frozen in utter fear.

Peach remembers what she had said: “My master can be terrifying when he has his moments.”

No one could help but watch as Prince Fortunato danced along the ballroom floor, singing random songs in a mocking fashion. He flails his arms, waving his hands wildly as if no one is watching him. Is this even part of the roleplay? This moment feels too spontaneous to even be scripted. Peach could not imagine Phantom having his own theatre troupe mock him, regardless of whether or not it would be intentional. Whoever is playing Prince Fortunato must truly be a fool. Prince Fortunato sings in a sardonic tone:

🎶“Look at me!

Watch me float and gloat and show off my coat!

Watch me as I sing about plumbers – oh, how I hate them!

I hate them so much, oh what a bummer!

Watch me as I make sweet, sweet love to my precious spotlight

Under the moonlight!”🎶

Although the song is less than perfect, Peach admits to herself: he has an amazing singing voice! And he sings opera, just like his master! She wonders if all of the members of the theatre troupe can sing as well. Ah, no! Enough of that! Don’t get distracted now! As he sings, Prince Fortunato runs and leaps onto a nearby table, knocking over huge plates of food, skulls, and candles on the floor. Everyone else watches as he spins and taps his feet on the table, his arms still flailing around. No one in the theatre troupe tries to stop him – they’re all too shocked and afraid to even do so. They did not want to get involved in such mockery. Peach could. However, what would happen if she did? As much as she would like to stop him, she just couldn’t. For whatever reason, whether it be out of shock, or out of fear, or out of curiosity, she did not move at all. Still, the Prince continues:

🎶“Imbecile, imbecile, imbecile!

Everyone’s an imbecile but me!

Listen to me, listen to me!

My ego is as big as it can be!

Come, my Princess, marry me please

Or else I’ll cry, cry, cry!”🎶

Then, the sudden drone of a large bell rings! It brings everyone into a hush, sending an immense chill down their spine. No one moves. The drone continues. And continues. And continues. Is this what the peasant woman was talking about? The impending doom that is to fall upon this masquerade? The fate of everyone who stands here on this very night? This inevitability that will claim those who still walk on this earth? Whatever is coming for them… has arrived to make its debut.

The Gallery doors creak open. Seeping through the entrance is a cloud of fog, billowing across the floor like a massive white sheet. It surrounds everyone, almost rising up to their knees, and soon the entire chamber is filled to the brim with gloom. Prince Fortunato finally steps down, his eyes staring in fear at the entrance, and retreats behind Peach. As fate approaches them, soft murmurs of terror arise from the crowd. One by one, each and every actor and actress trembles in anticipation. Peach awaits as well, but more out of curiosity than the shock of terror. This feeling; she remembers it all too well. She has to know what happens next. She has to know what kind of resolution this entire roleplay performance is coming to. Although the resolution is frightening, it was the satisfaction of discovery that keeps her within the Gallery. She will not leave. Fear will not take over. Only curiosity. Only awe and wonder. Only fascination.

And lo and behold, there stands the face of Death in his newest and blackest masterpiece.

He stands tall, bejeweled and shrouded in crimson, emerging from behind the murky darkness. The sheer size of him is intimidating enough, but the opulence in which he had adorned himself gives him an almost divine presence in the masquerade. Out of all the costumes Peach has seen, this one is more magnificent – more vibrant and elaborate – than the rest. Blood red veils cascade down from his large cavalier hat and alongside his cape. His vest a skeletal ribcage, patterns of bones scatter his scarlet greatcoat, and in his paws is a colossal gold cane. Hidden underneath the shadow of his hat is a golden mask, formed into the shape of a skull. Everyone slowly backs away as this masked red-clad stranger approaches them. But not Peach. Instead, she stays, completely in awe. She has become too enamored by his Gothic glamour to even be remotely scared. Finally. After so many days, they finally meet once again. She could see his sapphire eyes peering through and meeting hers with a sign of notice. He stops for a moment. That look… that tender gaze! Although they had only met for a little while before this moment, Peach confesses to herself: she could never have enough of those bright eyes. Those gleaming sapphire eyes. Even through that skull mask of his, she could stare into them all night long.

Alluring… Beguiling… Captivating… Enchanting…

Phantom shifts his attention to Prince Fortunato, his eyes wide with fury. The partygoers cower as he floats over to the foolish prince, towering over him as he looks down. Prince Fortunato scrambles, quickly taking off his blue coat and rabbit mask, full of sweat, almost hyperventilating. His face is revealed with a terrified expression. His eyes look up at Phantom, awaiting whatever fate – whatever punishment – shall bestow upon him. Phantom twists his cane and slowly he pulls it apart, revealing it to be a scabbard with a long, sharp sword inside it. Peach gasps as he unsheathes his weapon, raises it up in the air, and points it down at a quivering Prince Fortunato. “Please, monsieur!” Prince Fortunato gasps and swallows, “Spare me! It was only a mere jest! I was only having some fun entertaining my guests! I-I am the host, after all! Monsieur, please… Have mercy…!” Everyone watches in horror as he pleads for forgiveness. Phantom takes in a deep breathe; music begins to play again. It is in minor key, deep and dramatic – the orchestral equivalent to an imposing force. Peach holds her breath. Finally. With a smooth, baritone voice, Phantom sings his haunting solo:

🎶“Fortunato!

Surrender to me,

Look upon the face of Death!

It is meant to be,

Now savor your last breath!

Fortunato!

Your time has come at last,

Take your final drink of wine!

For your sins in the past,

Oh Prince, your soul will be mine!”🎶

“No!” the prince cries out, “You cannot take me! I will not let you! My guests need me! My people need me!” What hypocrisy! What foolishness! Peach watches intently. What is going to happen next? Will this masked presence spare Prince Fortunato? Will Prince Fortunato’s mockery be forgiven? She anticipates what comes next, whatever that may be. But although she tries to expect the unexpected, there is one thing she is certain about: the masquerade was doomed from the very beginning. Phantom lowers his sword, just by an inch, almost as if in contemplation. A few moments of silence passes. Everyone watches him in anticipation. Peach. Prince Fortunato. Dolores, Stefan, Natasha and Ophelia. Everyone. Anticipating. Anticipating. Anticipating.

Phantom smirks, letting out a soft chuckle. His sword lowers even more, and finally inserts it back into the scabbard. A sigh of relief fills the Gallery…

Then sudden horror! It happened so swiftly. So much so that if one were to blink at that moment, they would miss it completely. A scream pierces the silence! It was Prince Fortunato, now on the floor collapsed to his knees! He screams in agony as his covers his face! Phantom had made a sharp wave of his hand, almost as if he were to slap him across the face. But no! It was much, much worse. A terrible fate had fell upon the prince.

Blood…!

Oozing from his face is a gush of crimson blood! His eye sockets, his nostrils, his mouth, his pores – all drenched in blood! Horrid blemishes begin appearing on his flesh, leaving opened, pus-filled wounds as they pop one by one! Tears and yellow fluids mix with the blood, staining the floor with a pool of secretions! And the screams! Oh, the screams! Prince Fortunato tries to hide his face once more, only to find that it hurts too much! His hands pull away from his face – and, oh God! His flesh, his flesh – it is rotting away! What was once the pristine beauty of a spoiled, gluttonous prince is now the face of nightmares. He coughs and chokes; he cannot scream anymore – blood has filled his throat! He falls onto the floor, panicking, suffering! To think that this is what his people had to endure while no one was there to save their lives. With eyes stained with tears and blood, he rushes over to his guests and reaches for help, but in vain, for who could ever touch a diseased man? With a final cry of fear, Prince Fortunato falls. There lays on the floor is a twitching corpse, the face mutilated by the worst of illnesses…

This display of gore puts the guests into a state of frenzied panic! More screams and sobs fill the Gallery, as well as the sound of footsteps running and chairs and tables knocked over. If they don’t do something, Phantom will come after them next! Anything to get away from this face of Death. Chaos ensues! All except for Peach. Peach stands still amongst the disorder of the partygoers. Her widened eyes are fixated on Phantom. Is it shock? Is it fear? Is it something else entirely? Of course, anybody would be frightened by the sheer grotesqueness of the prince’s death and the possibility of meeting the same fate. But strangely, it seems to not bother Peach at all, almost as if she isn’t aware of the situation. Perhaps she is still mesmerized by Phantom’s extravagant appearance? Perhaps she is somehow desensitized? Whatever is going on, Peach still remains, as well as the peasant woman. The two ladies stare as Phantom slowly turns to watch over the terrified crowd. He observes the scene quietly. All in unison, the panicked guests rush toward the Gallery doors. With a wave of his hand, he blocks the entrance, slamming it tightly shut. Ophelia throws herself on the doors, slamming her fists frantically, “Open the doors! Open the doors! Oh please, open the doors!” Everyone begins to do the same. But alas, their attempts of escape are futile, for their master – the Red Death – had already claimed their souls. Once again, Phantom sings:

🎶“Crowned with privilege and villainous

Bathe in the blood of your wickedness

Tonight, retribution is at hand

For this masquerade shall be damned

Mask yourselves to hide your shame

But in the end, they know your name

Into the earth, your corpses will sink

May your blood be the wine they drink…”🎶

And one by one, each guest fell, forming a massive pile of bloodied bodies in front of the entrance. Peach takes in what had just happened. She had never seen something so macabre before. Roleplay, she thinks to herself, this is all just roleplay. This is all just pretend. No one is hurt. They are all just acting. This is all just roleplay. But by the stars, it looks so… real! There is blood everywhere. Not just the red pool on the floor, but also smeared handprints on the doors too. How did Phantom do all of this? This must have taken so much effort and hard work to even pull off such a remarkably gory scene! Peach couldn’t help but wonder what exactly went through Phantom’s mind when making this performance. This was something she never expected, let alone how absolutely graphic it was going to be. But regardless, the entirety of the roleplay screamed Phantom. It was bold. Dramatic. A complete subversion from a usual masterpiece. There was grandeur, there was beauty, there was mystery, there was tension. Then finally the payoff – an act of karma against the avaricious Prince Fortunato and his hedonistic friends. Now only she and the peasant woman are left. Peach cannot imagine what this powerful reaper is going to do next. Ah, no – she suddenly remembers!

Death’s Bride. She is to be Death’s Bride…

Her thoughts are interrupted by another cry, this time from the peasant woman. She turns to find Phantom approaching her, his hand lifting up to claim another soul. But why must the good die? Death is inevitable, it is true. Life is short. Peach knew this. But what did this poor woman do to deserve such a fate? Why do bad things happen to good people? Perhaps it is meant to be, just like what Phantom said. Roleplay. It is all just roleplay. Should she stand by and let things take its course? Or maybe… what could she do? Roleplay…. Ah, of course! Peach dashes over and stands in between them. “Wait!” she says, defending the peasant woman, “Have mercy on her!” Phantom pauses, taken by surprise for a moment, but then resumes in character. “Young or old, poor or rich… Death waits for no one. Her time has come.” Phantom calmly responds, his voice low. “Can you at least give her enough time to live another day? Can you see she has suffered enough? Please, I beg of you.” Peach pleads.

“You stand in front of the face of Death… and yet you are not frightened. Are you… not afraid of me?”

“I do not fear what is inevitable. I just want to give her another chance.”

“Such compassion… and all of this for a stranger. However, as painful as it may be, you cannot persuade me to spare her.”

“If that is not enough, then I will offer a gift to you.”

“And what is this gift you speak of?”

“For this woman’s life, I offer you myself. You can have my soul. You can have everything, all of me, and I will not refuse you.”

Phantom is rendered speechless, despite staying in character. Do his ears deceive him? No, it couldn’t be. It couldn’t possibly be! Deep down inside, he could not believe what Peach had just said. He watches as Peach ushers the peasant woman to flee the masquerade, and so she does, retreating to a small secret entrance hidden by the large curtains. Silence. As much as he tries, Phantom seems to be unable to speak. Now only he and the princess are alone. Together. Just like that one night. “I believe that is enough to persuade you?” Peach says with a soft smile. That smile. Oh, that sweet smile! He could stare at it forever! “I can be yours, and yours only. I will not leave. I will be not be frightened.” she continues, “It must be lonely, going around the world and reaping souls for those who’s time has passed. You don’t have to be lonely. You can have a companion! Someone who will join you by you side. Don’t you want that?” Companionship. Is Peach talking to Death or to Phantom himself? The lines between roleplay and real life begin to blur before his very eyes. He could not differentiate which is just acting or an actual confession. She must be playing a trick – she must be! This could not possibly be real! This is just too good to be true! Taking in a deep breath, staring deep into Peach’s pretty eyes, Phantom sings one last solo:

🎶“Oh, Sweet Maiden!

Surrender to me,

Look upon your paramour!

It is meant to be,

Together forevermore!

Oh, Sweet Maiden!

Your time has come at last

Take your final drink of wine

For this spell I shall cast

My Bride, your heart will be mine!”🎶

With a wave of his hand, two shiny, black feathered wings sprout from Peach’s back! Peach glances over in surprise, admiring her new wings. They sparkled under the light of the chandelier with iridescent glitter. Natasha must have added these in while making her costume. Once again, she continues to be impressed be Natasha’s work. Then her eyes glance over towards the Gallery entrance. Peach stops. Something has changed. Her eyes squints as she tries to make out what she is seeing. Confusion floods her mind until realization hits her.

The bodies… are those…. Mannequins?

Phantom places his paw on her cheek, delicately turning her face towards him. The softness of his caress fills her senses, and she is greeted by his tender gaze. What a tender gaze he has! As her eyes are locked in his gaze, Peach feels herself being gently embraced around her waist and leaning back into a dip. Her heart begins to race. Beat after beat it quickens its pace, her breathing becomes more and more shaky. It must be adrenaline – all of this is so new to her. Peach finds herself reaching out towards Phantom and, ever so gently, she takes off his skull mask, revealing his face. At long last, she finally sees him. Oh, how she missed him! “Did you enjoy the show, your highness?” Phantom grins, “I must admit, there were some things that weren’t… intended to happen, but as long a—” He is stopped, as Peach catches him off guard. Locked in a tight hug around his neck, he feels his lips being locked with hers. It was passionate yet gentle and warm. Peach, the princess he has adored for so many years, is giving him a kiss. A kiss! Is this a dream? Is this actually happening? So many thoughts went through Phantom’s mind. He could not process all of them at once; his head could possibly burst from excitement! His eyes flutter and close, letting himself melt into Peach’s embrace. If they could pull each closer than they already are, they could. But no matter how much closer they can be, it just wasn’t enough. They wanted each other. They craved each other. The unbridled desire for connection and companionship broke loose, and immediately they find themselves losing all control of their yearning. Their lips break apart, their hot breaths mingling with each other. They open their eyes; Peach grins and so does Phantom. They kiss again, neither of them wanting to stop. “Ah…!” Phantom gasps in between her soft lips, “Mon ange de la mort…!”

Overwhelmed, Peach swoons as Phantom dips her even further and surrenders herself to his kiss of death.

---

She woke up the next morning. The first thought that would have come to her mind was how she even managed to return to her castle without any notice. But no, the very first thought that came to her mind was what happened last night. She laid in her bed and, as stares up at the ceiling, touched her lips softly with her fingertips. Then up her rosy cheek, then down to her neck, and across her bare shoulders. She could still feel his touch. She sighs deeply – what a performance that was! Peach stretched her whole body and curled up, sinking back into sleep. A love stricken grin appeared on her face as she whispered to herself, “Until we meet again.”

[rwhague]

Writer’s Guide to Mental Health: Anxiety Disorders

Different Types of Anxiety Disorders:

Last post was a broad overview of anxiety as a whole. Now we are going to dive deeper into individual anxiety disorders and what they would look like in your characters.

Agoraphobia: Literally “fear of the marketplace,” agoraphobia is ‘anxiety about or avoidance of places or situations from which escape might be difficult or in which help might be unavailable’ (Videbeck p. 233). This is more than just being a ‘shut-in.’ Many people with debilitating medical conditions can be homebound. The agoraphobe could physically leave the house or be alone, but the overwhelming anxiety is either too much to handle or makes life incredibly difficult. They have trouble shopping, making it to meetings, spending time with friends or family, etc. They may avoid travelling in vehicles. And often, they know their responses to the anxiety are extreme. The agoraphobe often feels trapped in their homes.

So how does agoraphobia develop? It can start with a panic attack at the grocery store with an overwhelming sense of doom and fear of death. The person may end up in the ER only to be told there is nothing wrong with them. They go back to the store a week later and have a panic attack in the parking lot as they think about what happened last time. So they turn around and go home. Then it happens going to work. Then in the car going to the park. Then walking to the mailbox. A person avoids these triggers one-by-one until they just don’t leave the house anymore.

Panic Disorder: ‘is characterized by recurrent, unexpected panic attacks that cause constant concern. A panic attack is the sudden onset of intense apprehension, fearfulness, or terror associated with feelings of impending doom’ (Videbeck p. 233).

Last post we discussed what a panic attack looked like and I have other posts on this subject as well. Visit my website at rwhague.com for more information.

After the first panic attack, the person is left waiting on the next. Soon the anxiety itself is being fueled by anxiety regarding panic attacks. As more panic attacks happen, the more the anxiety increases. The person often feels as if they are going crazy. All they can think about is the next one coming. Every sensation might feel like a threat—even hunger, thirst, tiredness can be interpreted as anxiety coming on.

Specific Phobias: These are things such as claustrophobia (fear of tight spaces), arachnophobia (fear of spiders), etc. Anxiety responses are extreme and can lead to avoidance. This seems as if it would be fine—just don’t go into closets. But when the tight space is an elevator or a car, life can be hampered. Most adults recognize their fear as unreasonable.

Social Phobia: ‘characterized by anxiety provoked by certain types of social or performance situation, which often leads to avoidance behavior’ (Videbeck p. 233). This can lead to isolation or interference in work or habits. The person recognizes their anxiety is unreasonable.

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD): ‘involves obsession (thoughts, impulses, images) that cause marked anxiety and/or compulsions (repetitive behaviors or mental acts) that attempt to neutralize anxiety’ (Videbeck p. 233). The person experiencing these obsessive and compulsive thoughts and actions do not want them. They are intrusive, recurrent, and persistent. Any attempt to get the thoughts to go away are ineffective. The individual recognizes that these obsessions and compulsions are excessive and unreasonable.

OCD is probably one of the most misunderstood disorders. Keep in mind there are two parts: the anxiety trigger (obsession) and the attempt at solution (compulsion). So fear of germs or contamination can lead to compulsive cleaning—but this is only one type of OCD. Obsession with the number 3 may require things to be done in 3s. Open the door three times before going through it, brush three times before moving on to next section of hair, etc.  Here is a good video that helps explain this disorder: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhlRgwdDc-E

People with OCD are also fully aware of these irrational obsessions and compulsions. They do not want them and feel powerless to their mind’s whims.

Generalized Anxiety Disorder: is ‘characterized by 6 months of persistent and excessive worry (Videbeck p. 233). A person might be anxious through a stressful time of life, but usually these parts of life do not last for more than a few days to a few months. If after 6 months, the person continues to have uncontrollable worrying that impairs social or occupational functioning, they may have GAD.

Once again, the person knows their feelings are irrational. They do not want to be this way. But like a panic disorder, the anxiety often provokes more anxiety. The heart palpitations, tremors, tightness in the chest become intrusive—and when the symptoms abate the fear of their return remains prominent in the sufferer’s mind. This is often accompanied by sleep disturbances and insomnia.

Acute Stress Disorder: ‘development of anxiety, dissociation, and other symptoms within one month of exposure to an extremely traumatic stressor; lasts from 2 days to 4 weeks’ (Videbeck p. 233).

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder: ‘characterized by the reexperiencing of an extremely traumatic event, avoidance of stimuli associated with the event, numbing of responsiveness, and persistent increased arousal; it begins within 3 months to years after the event and may last a few months or years (Videbeck p. 233).

It is important to note that not all suffers of PTSD are the victims. Often, they can be the perpetrators. For example, a soldier who shot a non-combatant accidentally might find themselves struggling with what they did. Usually after a traumatic event, a person has suffered a change in their view of the world. If something evil was done to them, their previously naïve self has endured something beyond their imagination. If they previously viewed themselves a good person, but they committed a travesty, this is a change in their fundamental view of themselves.

Often times, the mind will play the event over and over again as it tries to rectify their previous perceptions to form a more accurate view of the world and themselves. The mind is trying to protect the body by re-living the event and trying to solve it, but this is very distressing for the person to live through again and again.

Symptoms of PTSD include: intense fear, helplessness or horror; reexperiencing (intrusive recollections or dreams, flashbacks, physical and psychological distress over reminders of the event); avoidance of memory-provoking stimuli and numbing of general responsiveness (avoidance of thoughts, feelings, conversations, people, places, amnesia, diminished interest or participation in life events, feeling detached or estranged from others, restricted affect, sense of foreboding); increased arousal (sleep disturbance, irritability or angry outburst, difficulty concentrating, hypervigilance, exaggerated startle response); significant distress or impairment.

Not all flashbacks are obvious to those not experiencing it. The person may ‘zone out’ for a moment or two. Often triggers are very subtle and those around them will not know why the flashback occurred. This is important to keep in mind in regard to children or individuals ho are not fully able to articulate the trigger or even the event that lead to the initial trauma.

And with all of these things, depression is often a common compounding problem that arises. Being anxious all the time uses up a lot of energy and often the body and mind just crash into a depressive state from being keyed up all the time. It is rare to find anxiety without some level of depression present.

Next post will be an over-view of different treatments of anxiety. Keep in mind, none of this is to be taken as medical advice. It is just a writer’s guide for character development.  

[belliesandburps]

(Commission) Tiny Training Accident (Hakari Accidental Vore)

This is a commissioned piece I wrote up for my pal @pspmaniac818 which features his OC, Chris Invicta, getting into a rough spot with my OC, Aidan, when the two are accidentally swallowed by my main OC, Hakari, in what has to be the mos ill-advised “shrunken training session“ a person could conjure.  :P

Hakari didn't mind assisting his friends out in any way he could.  However, sometimes, his friends asked him to do things that just made ZERO sense whatsoever.  For example, Hakari could understand if Chris and Aidan needed a place to train.  After all, both young men were fighters through and through. He could also understand that they may need someone to keep an eye out if Chris was going to use his ability to shrink both himself and Aidan while they trained in “tiny mode,” as Aidan so delicately put it.

But WHY then...did the two need to train in Hakari's mouth...?  How often did Chris expect to face off against an enemy whilst being consumed by another enemy?  Because right at this very moment, the young Saurian ninja was standing in the middle of his living quarters with his face-mask pulled down to reveal his soft, youthful face and scale-covered cheeks, with his fang-filled mouth nervously being held wide open as a shrunken Chris and a shrunken Aidan sparred atop Hakari's tongue.

Hakari was dumbfounded, but Chris was keen to remind him that such oddities DID occur.  After all, it wasn't too long ago that Chris had swallowed a micro-assassin and Hakari himself had to duke it out from inside of Chris' stomach with the fiend.  But honestly, what were the odds of something like THAT ever happening again?

Well, in Chris' case...a lot more likely than one would ever imagine...

Inside of Hakari's open mouth, Chris and Aidan sparred relentlessly.  Chris jumped back (as best he could) atop the spongy tongue of the reptilian ninja and held up his arms in defense as Aidan bum-rushed him and delivered a flurry of punches, all of which Chris managed to block.  “Ha!  That all you g-EAAAAGH?!”  Chris' cocky teasing was cut short when Aidan grappled Chris and slammed him to the 'floor', which, in this case, was Hakari's tongue.  The young ninja grimaced while keeping his mouth held open as he salivated a little bit more upon getting more of a taste of Chris' body.  All that battling it out was making both young men incredibly sweaty, causing their salty yet not unpleasant flavor to stimulate Hakari's taste buds.  

Instinctively, his body was telling him to swallow then and there, but the young Saurian resisted and kept his mouth held open.  He hated to admit it, but his friends tasted oddly delicious...

Aidan grinned cockily down at Chris, baring his own mouth full of fangs as smoke spewed from the corners of his mouth.  “Ya oughta watch yer footin' there, punk,” Aidan teased, pressing his boot down on Chris' chest.  Chris could feel Aidan's toes curl up as his foot compressed against his pectorals and ground ever so slightly.  The sweaty Ignis mage smirked at Chris and added, “Bet'cha wish I didn't have this boot on right now, huh, ya kinky fucker...”

Chris blushed a little, his many fetishes absolutely no secret to Aidan (or Hakari, despite the latter's discomfort).  But it didn't stop him from grinning right back at Aidan and adding, “And YOU always forget to not let your guard down, tough guy...”

Aidan wasn't sure what Chris meant, until the invulnerable young man brought his legs up and kicked Aidan's back, making him stumble forward while Chris rolled back up to his feet and wrapped his arms around Aidan for a firm bearhug. Despite Aidan being visibly toned, Chris' power and his constant training had given him some considerable muscle mass.  In fact, even Hakari had noted that Chris was looking a lot buffer than he used to look when they'd first met one another on the job.

And Aidan?  Well, let's just say he knew first hand how Chris' body had toned up.  Not that he'd ever admit it, since it would imply Chris was starting to get stronger than he was.  And as both Hakari and Chris knew full well, Aidan wasn't the type to ever admit anyone was superior to him in any way.

As the two continued wrestling inside of Hakari's mouth, Hakari found himself salivating even more, drooling more heavily around the two shrunken fighters and causing their “training grounds” to grow more slippery.  He really didn't mean to be doing that.  But their battering around inside of his mouth was practically lathering the ninja's taste buds with their salty (and smoky, in Aidan's case) flavor.  He almost whimpered to himself as he tried desperately not to swallow them down.  

Aidan's hand became engulfed in flames as he punched Chris right in the dome.  The firepunch was enough to make Chris break his grip, even if the fire itself had no effect on his body.  Chris charged again, but Aidan sweep-kicked Chris' legs as he advanced, causing him to trip near the front of Hakari's open mouth.  With Aidan near the back, the young pyromancer grinned wickedly as both hands became engulfed in flames.  

“NOW yer in for it, tough guy...”

And with those last words, Aidan began firing a flurry of fireballs at Chris, who managed to evade each one.

Hakari's eyes bugged out of his head as tiny fireballs shot out of his mouth.  Fortunately, due to Aidan's size, the flaming projectiles were tiny and thus, were blown out long before they could hit the walls.  Didn't make the action any less unnerving for Hakari.  “Careful, Aidan...!!”  Hakari mumbled as best he could with his mouth hanging open like that.

But Aidan just snorted and said, “Stop bein' such a baby, lizard-boy!”

The ninja sputtered indignantly but held his tongue (literally).  He'd learned very early on that the spitfire mage was not someone keen on being especially respectful to most people.  To quote Nara, Aidan was, in her own words, 'a flaming dick'.

Speaking of Nara, the leading mercenary swung the door open and sauntered up to her friend with an amused grin.  

“Yo!  How's tiny-trainin' goin'?” Nara asked, walking right up to Hakari and slapping him on the back as she casually passed by him.

This...was a mistake...

Because the instant Nara slapped his back, Hakari stumbled forward slightly and the force of that stumble made both Chris and Aidan, who were once again in a grapple-hold, fall backwards to the back of Hakari's mouth.  

“Gah!  What the hell-?!” Aidan shouted, trying to pry himself up from out of Hakari's throat.

But Chris had a different look on his face.  He simply had a dull look and muttered, “...Ahhhhh crap...”

He'd been down this road before, he knew exactly what was coming next.  And poor Hakari; despite trying so desperately to avoid giving in to his inherently predatory instincts, once he had those two in the back of his mouth...?

*GLLUUUULLK!*

Hakari couldn't help but gulp heartily, causing both Chris and Aidan to be pulled down from the back of his mouth and through his gullet.  Both young men were pinned together as the fleshy, rubbery throat muscles pulsated around them, pushing them further and further down Hakari's throat.  Going down a throat was a tight fit as is, but bunched together in the process like that was even worse, especially for Aidan.  The pyromancer growled and thrashed against Chris as the throat itself, baring his fangs as he shouted, “Gah!  Watch it, punk!”

Chris rolled his eyes and muttered, “Little hard to do that from where I'm at, don'tcha think...?” He didn't say it, but there was an implied 'dumbass' at the end of his sentence.  

Outside, there was a sizable lump pushing down from Hakari's slender, black spandex-concealed throat. It was the size of an orange sliding down his neck slowly while Hakari clenched his eyes shut and bared his fangs, really working his friends down his gullet.  He rested his fingers against the lump, feeling it pass down his throat and almost pushing into it to really guide them down as his head lurched forward and he gulped thickly yet again, causing a trail of saliva to trickle down his chin.

As he felt the two slide further and further down, he thumped his armor-clad chest to help work them past his collarbone.

Inside, Chris could feel a loud, rhythmic thumping reverberate all around him.  At first, he thought it was the young ninja thumping his chest.  But he quickly deduced that it was, in fact, Hakari's heartbeat, rhythmically beating at an accelerated rate all.  The way it thumped almost felt comforting to Chris for a moment, but that comfort was short-lived when he and Aidan squeezed past the esophagus and slowly squeezed past the thick, rubbery entrance to Hakari's stomach.

The sour stench of the young snake-man's innards hit both Chris and Aidan like a dump truck, and smelled about as pleasant.  Chris grimaced with Aidan hacked with disgust, though Ignis were used to deeply unpleasant smells, due to their over-exposure to brimstone and sulfur.  Didn't make the innards smell any better for him though.  The two were worked further and further down until, with one last especially hearty...

*GLUUUUUUOOOLLP!!!*

...Hakari had successfully swallowed both of his friends down.  That lump finally squeezed past his athletic chest and collarbone, and both Chris and Aidan unceremoniously plopped into Hakari's stomach.  The Saurian teenager gasped heartily, drool trickling from his mouth as he huffed and caught his breath.  

“Graahhh...haaaaaah...” Hakari huffed with relief, using his forearm to wipe his mouth clean and lick his fangs.  He stood there, panting and catching his breath after such an endeavor to work those two down.  

But as he caught his breath, it sloooooowly dawned on him as to what he'd just done.  Slowly but surely, his inverted eyes began to widen with realization and steady horror.  And once it finally clicked...?

…

“GAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!!!” Hakari cried out in horror, startling the passing Nara, who immediately turned to see Hakari rushing up to her with a look of abject, petrified terror on his youthful, slightly scaly face.  

“Jeez, dude!  What the hell's wrong with-”

“-N-Nara...!!  I-I just...I ATE CHRIS AND AIDAN!!!”  Hakari cried out in a comically panicked manner as he rushed to Nara like a panicked child rushing to their parent.

Nara blinked with surprise and said, “Ya did?” 

All Hakari could do was nod shakily in an anxious and scared manner. 

But then, the mercenary grinned and added, “That's awesome!”  She even knelt down and poked the young ninja in his tight, body-suit concealed abs and asked, “How're ya likin' it in there, boys?”

Hakari's panicked expression was frozen in place, as was the rest of Hakari's body.  Even though he still looked panicked, he added, in a much more deadpanned manner, “...I don't think you fully appreciate the gravity of the situation...”

Inside of Hakari's stomach, both Chris and Aidan steadily pushed themselves up and took in their warm, stinking surroundings.  It was dark inside of Hakari's stomach, with everything around the two young men feeling really damp and slimy. The stomach lining all around them gurgled and groaned idly, with something dripping down from the 'walls' all around them.  There was a soft pulsation all around the two, from the idle burbling of Hakari's stressed organ.  

Chris looked around and sighed to himself, muttering, “There has to be a record for this sorta thing happening to a single person...”

The two were startled somewhat they felt the stomach constrict itself and heard Hakari's bellowing voice call out to them.  “A-Are you two all right?!”  Hakari shouted in a very panicked tone of voice.

Despite himself, Chris smiled and gently pat the front of the stomach lining where he could sense Hakari grasping and leaning down to check on his friends.  “Relax, dude, we're just fine in here,” Chris assured the young, anxious ninja.

But Aidan scoffed dismissively and tried in vein to wipe himself down of the slime that had globbed over his bare body.  “Speak fer yerself, punk.  Told'ja trainin' in lizard lips' mouth was a stupid fuckin' idea...”

“Oh, quit your bellyaching,” Chris responded back with a roll of his eyes, adding, “With the amount of other mages and bad guys who can shrink you down'n gobble you up, this is good practice.”

“This only happened ONE other time, fucker.  And ya know full fuckin' well who gulped me down the first time, don'tcha,” Aidan snarled.

At that, Chris' smirk turned more impish as he slowly licked his lips and said, “To be fair, you DO have a real smoky flavor...”

Aidan's hand went ablaze as he balled his hand into a fist and said, “I swear, one'uh these days, I'mma find a way to light yer ass on fire...”

“Well, we know ONE way you can do that,” Chris responded in a slightly suggestive manner.

Aidan snorted and waved the fire from his hand away, causing smoke to spew around him as he said, “Kinky fucker...”  He brushed past Chris and started banging on the stomach lining up front, making Hakari's belly gurgle around them. “Yo!  Lizard-boy!  Get us the fuck outta here already!  It fuckin' stinks in here!”

The banging caused a sudden hiccup to erupt from the Saurian.

Outside, Hakari blushed and covered his mouth, nodding nervously as one hand rested gently against his stomach in a protective manner.

He was deeply relieved to know that his friends were okay.  He knew Chris was invulnerable to this sort of thing, and that Aidan has resistance to extreme heats, to the point where he may as well have been immune to digestion.  But still, the thought of his friends trapped in his stomach made him an anxious wreck.  He didn't know if they could suffocate and didn't want to chance it.  

It caused so much anxiety that Hakari's stomach felt like it was tying itself into a knot, which only made it gurgle heavily all around Chris and Aidan, making them both stumble back.  Hakari huffed in a breathless manner and paced around nervously while Nara looked on.  “H-How am I gonna get them out...?”  Hakari muttered softly and anxiously to himself.

Nara simply shrugged and said, “How'd ya get yer prey out normally?”  Hakari glanced back at her with confusion as Nara went on.  “Ya always used to say that, when ya had to interrogate bad guys, you'd go full snake-boy mode'n swallow them whole to make them think you'd digest them until they cracked, right?  How'd ya let 'em out then?”

Hakari thought for a moment, drumming his fingers against his abs in thought.  “...W-Well, I used my gag reflex to regurgitate them back up, which, frankly, was never pleasant.  But it was different then.  They weren't shrunken, so they filled up my stomach a lot more, which made it much easier; albeit more painful, to push them back up.  But Chris and Aidan are so small that I don't even think I could push them up...tch, I KNEW this was a bad idea...”

Nara rolled her eyes as Hakari's nervousness once again kicked in.  It never failed to be adorable to her the way this stoic young ninja turned into such an anxious mess so quickly sometimes.  She walked up behind Hakari and gently patted him on the back and said, “Chill, snake-eyes.  If anything, that oughta make it EASIER to cough Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dipshit back up.”

Hakari blinked and was about to open his mouth, but-

“-The second one was Aidan,” both Nara AND Chris said in unison, which seemed to answer Hakari's question and enrage Aidan at the same time.

“H-Hey!  Fuck you punks!” Aidan snarled, which Nara could hear over Hakari's turbulent tummy, which made her snicker.  

Still, Hakari didn't look especially comforted or confident.  “Okay, but then, HOW do I get them out if they can't be worked up normally...?”

“Easy!  Just burp 'em up,” Nara replied in a shockingly casual manner.

Hakari glared at her with a deadpanned look in his eyes.  “...Nara, please be serious-”

“-I AM bein' serious.  If they're so small, all ya gotta do is push out a big one and that oughta lift those two up'n outta yer gut like nothin',” Nara explained.

“Actually, she's right,” Chris explained, causing Hakari to glance down at his stomach again. “Every time I swallow one'uh my pals, I usually just let out a HUGE burp and they go flying outta my gut and out to safety, easy peasey!”

Again, Hakari blinked to himself and added, “...How many times have you done this...?”

“Who cares, ya scaly nerd?  Just get burpin' so I can shower already, fuck!” Aidan growled out.

...Hakari was starting to see why Nara referred to Aidan as “Tweedle Dipshit” right about now...

But still, there was this apprehensive look on Hakari's face.  “...I-If I'm going to do that, can I, umm...have some privacy, please...?  I'd rather you not hear me being so gross...”

Nara stared at Hakari with a bored look on her face.  

“...Dude, it's ME.  I guarantee I can top anything you let out, so stop bein' so prissy for once'n just relax'n let loose,” Nara said.

Hakari blushed at being called 'prissy' and turned away with a soft, almost petulant grumbling under his breath.  But, nonetheless, he had a job to do.  So, he nodded and took a breath, kneading his fingers into his tight, concave stomach to try and work something up.  He opened his mouth expectingly and nervously, trying to work something up.  

Nothing came out.

In unison, Nara, Chris and Aidan all had the same response.  “Seriously...?”

“I-I'm trying!  I don't know how to do this sort of thing on command!”  Hakari replied defensively with a light blush on his scaly cheeks, adding, “It's not like they were especially filling that my stomach has any excess pressure, n-no offense, guys...”

Chris snickered to himself and shook his head.  Despite the situation, it was genuinely adorable how 'pure' his Saurian friend was.  Those ninjas must've hammered good manners into Hakari's brain whether he liked it or not.  So, Chris pat the stomach lining in front of him gently and spoke up in a loud and concise voice to ensure Hakari could hear him.

“It's alright, man.  I guess it's hard to explain but the best way I can describe it is, you gotta sorta swallow air into your stomach, like use the back'uh your throat to do it.”

To demonstrate his point, Chris held up his finger and gulped down some air while his gullet rumbled. Once he'd taken in enough, Chris thumped his broad chest and let out a pretty loud belch.

“Ah, see?  Nothing to it!”

Aidan scoffed dismissively, muttering, “Pussy...”  

Whether that was addressed to Hakari or Chris was anyone's guess.

Still, Hakari nodded and tried to follow Chris' advice.  He tried to swallow air, having a hard go at it, but Chris called out, “Make sure you feel a weird gurgle in your throat when you do.  That's how you know you're doing it right!” Hakari nodded, even though Chris couldn't see him, and continued sucking down air in a way that didn't quite look right.  More like a fish bobbing its mouth in and out for air.  

But eventually, he got it down, and there was a rhythmic throbbing in Hakari's throat as he managed to gulp down some air.  Chris and Aidan could feel Hakari's stomach lining tense and gurgle all around them as he took in more air.  

“Atta boy,” Chris assured him as Hakari continued taking in more air.  

Hakari could feel his belly expand ever so slightly with the influx of oxygen.  It was a dull ache, but told him that he was doing something right.  And once he'd felt his stomach take in as much as he could gulp down, Hakari's hand clenched his gut tightly and his mouth lurched open in the form of a pretty deep burp.

“BRRAAAAAUUUUUURRRPH!!!”

It rumbled out of Hakari for just over two seconds and had some decent rumble and volume to it.  When it ended, Hakari blushed and covered his mouth, immediately excusing himself in an embarrassed tone of voice, even though a burp was exactly the rest they wanted.  Unfortunately, it wasn't the ONLY result Hakari was hoping for.

“Pfft, weakass,” Aidan groaned in an unimpressed tone of voice, adding, “Even Invicta could get a bigger one than that, ya lil lizard brain!  C'mon!”

“Not helpful, asshole,” Chris chimed in, nudging Aidan back.

But eventually, Nara rolled her eyes and headed back back to the cooler and returned with a few 2 Liter bottles of soda.  “'Kay, this is embarrassing, dude.  Just, here,” Nara insisted as she handed Hakari a soda bottle.  “Chug that as hard as ya can.  The soda oughta do the rest.”

“...I'm, w-well, not the biggest soda drinker-”

“-Just chug or I'mma fill yer belly with fire and smoke us out myself, ya hear me?!”  Aidan shouted impatiently.

Hakari yelped nervously and immediately wasted no time unscrewing the bottle and bringing the soda right to his lips.  He dipped his head back and proceeded to chug heartily.  Hakari's face tightened with discomfort.  He liked sweets as much as the next person, but he always preferred a soothing tea to an excessively sugary soda.  

Nonetheless, the bubbly liquids poured down his gullet, causing his slender throat to bob in and out rapidly as he sucked the beverage down with reluctant gusto.  

Inside, Chris and Aidan's confines were suddenly overcome with a flood of sugary, bubbly water that spilled out from the esophagus and pooled into the bottom of Hakari's stomach.  It rained down on the two young men, causing their bodies to become wet with a combination of soda and stomach juices.  All around them, Hakari's belly gurgled and bubbled intensely from such an influx of carbonation all at once.  The stomach lining itself seemed to expand somewhat from the gas being produced by the soda.

“Well, this oughta be fun,” Chris said in a slightly dejected yet also amused sort of tone.  Again, he'd been down this road maaaany times before...on both sides of the voracious spectrum really...

Hakari grimaced when enough soda went down.  He TRULY wasn't a fan of the stuff or the feeling of having so much carbonation festering in his belly all at once, which he could feel had become just slightly bloated from the beverages carbonated emissions.

He promptly pulled the bottle away from his lips and gasped breathlessly...then almost immediately unleashed a HUGE burp.

“BRAAAAAAAUUUUUURRRRAAAAAAPH!!!!!!!”

The poor young ninja lurched in an embarrassingly uncouth manner as that deep, bellowing eruption blasted past his soft lips for a good few seconds straight.  Inside, Chris and Aidan felt their confines get rattled about from the force of that expulsion of carbon dioxide all being rushed out from the stomach at once.  It caused the stomach lining to quiver and gurgle intensely as it sank into itself.  However, both young shrunken fighters were still stuck within the ninjas stomach.  

Hakari blushed profusely when it ended, while Nara snickered and gave the ninja a thumbs up.  He was about to excuse himself, but there was so much pressure in his tight stomach that the instant that wall-rattler had expelled from his bowels, that the second Hakari opened his mouth, he paused, grabbed his belly and let loose another titanic belch.  And with it, no shrunken friends came flying out of his gaping, fang-filled maw.  

Poor Hakari was an embarrassed mess, who promptly covered his mouth and felt his cheeks burning so bright that he was certain they were going to spontaneously combust.  

“...E-Excuse me...” Hakari mumbled in a deeply embarrassed manner, hoping to the stars above that no one outside of his quarters could hear him.

But Nara just laughed and said, “Hahaha, damn, snake-eyes!  For a dude so damn uptight'n well-mannered, you can really belt 'em out, can'tcha!”  She gave him a hearty pat on the back, which just caused Hakari to hiccup from the pat and blush anew.

But inside, Aidan was far less impressed.  “Tch, weakass.  Even Chris 'ere could let out bigger ones than that!”  Aidan shouted.

Chris shrugged and smirked.  “I mean, you're not WRONG,” he said in an innocuous  matter of fact tone of voice, patting his stomach with pride.  But then he looked up and added, “That wasn't too bad, but it wasn't big enough, man.  Think we're gonna have to lend you a hand there!” Chris called out so Hakari could hear him.

The ninja looked down at his stomach nervously, hugging it protectively.  “...H-How...?”

Aidan grinned wickedly as he marched up to the front of Hakari's stomach alongside Chris.  “Shall we?” He asked, baring his fangs with ill-intent.

Chris rolled his eyes at Aidan's grin then muttered, “...Sorry in advance, dude...” up to Hakari.  

Then, without warning, Aidan POUNDED the stomach lining alongside Chris with enough force to cause it to quiver and ripple around intensely.  The impact was so great that Hakari felt his abs jostle just EVER so slightly from the strength of Chris' abilities and Aidan's natural strength and speed.  Hakari lurched for a moment with one hand wrapped around his stomach and the other clamped against his mouth.  But that hand was soon blown back as a massive, guttural belch expelled from Hakari's mouth...

“HOOOOOOOUUUURRRRRAAAAAUUUUUUURRR-BLAAAAAAAAUUUUUUURRRRRRRUUUUUUPH!!!!!!!!!!!”

It was one of the most powerful and bellowing eructations Hakari was pretty sure he'd ever let out.  The decidedly un-ninja-like sound exploded from past his lips with such force that a few strands of saliva splattered from his maw.  Nara whistled, clearly impressed while Hakari gasped breathlessly and slumped forward, drooling slightly and hating every second of this...

Even more so considering the fact that the two STILL weren't released from his stomach.  

“...This is...the last time I ever...uurrrOoOoOorRrrp...guh, pardon...I ever train with you two again...” Hakari groaned while his stomach churned deeply.  He grimaced and burped again, too sickly to even blush properly (though he DID at least excuse himself again).

Again, Aidan scoffed at how unimpressed he was at the ninjas “gastric talents,” while Chris smiled a bit apologetically but kept throttling the front of Hakari's stomach alongside Aidan.  Their confines gurgled and churned ominously, bubbling intensely from their rough treatment.  Again, they felt it rattle with another lengthy belch from the outside and folding into itself with a deep glorp in response to Hakari slumping with each expulsion.  

But then...

*GWUUUOOOOOOOOOOOORRRRBL!!*

There was an especially ominous burbling that erupted from deep within Hakari's stomach.  This was enough to stop both Chris and Aidan from battering away and take in their surroundings a bit cautiously.  

“...That mean it's workin'...?” Aidan asked.

Chris' face soured somewhat. “...Unfortunately...yeah, I think so...”

Outside, Hakari groaned and held a hand over his mouth and groggily mumbled, “Urgh...I don't...I don't feel so good...”

Even Nara cringed a bit when she heard an especially intense churning erupt from the ninja's overly abused belly.  Hakari's scaly cheeks were a copper color, yet, with that churn, his face seemed to go green.  He lurched for a moment and went wide-eyed, when suddenly, his stomach hitched heavily; like the organ itself had bounced in his body.  Hakari muffled what sounded like a really wet and deep burp, but looked even sicker after that.

“...O-Oh Gods...” was all Hakari could say before he slumped down and wretched onto the floor.

Nara grimaced with disgust and disgustedly declared, “Uuuuugh...party foul, dude...!”

Hakari threw up violently, heaving again as more bile expelled from his drooling mouth.  Until eventually, he was so exhausted, he slumped onto the ground, one hand supporting him against the floor and the other wrapped around his aching belly.  

When it finally stopped spewing out of him, Hakari whimpered breathlessly, tearing up somewhat from the deeply unpleasant feeling of having his empty stomach emptied even more from that onslaught.  But not before checking in the sick and, to something resembling relief, finding Chris and Aidan desperately in need of a shower, but no worse for the ware.

“...That was so fuckin' gross...” Aidan growled in disgust as he tried in vein to wipe himself clean.

“...Seriously,” Chris chimed in with agreement, but nonetheless looked up at Hakari and asked, “...You okay, man?”

Hakari nodded weakly but cringed in pain.  Nara had seen far worse, in truth, so she knelt down and smiled sympathetically at the ninja, gently rubbing his back while he suppressed the urge to whimper like a hurt puppy.  The night had been more than embarrassing enough for him.  

“...N-Never...ever again...” was all Hakari could manage whilst trying to catch his breath.

“...Yeaaah, that's fair,” Chris said.

“Y'know what else is fair?” Nara chimed in, adding, “You two bozos cleanin' this mess up.”

“...Ah fuck,” Aidan mumbled but didn't argue for once...

“Don't whine,” Chris chimed in.

“Hey, fuck you, I didn't whine, ya lil jerkoff!” Aidan snapped, earning a roll of the eyes from both Chris and Nara.  Hakari probably would've joined them, but with how sensitive his stomach was after being sick, he was worried rolling his eyes might make him dizzy and, thus, sick all over again.  

Fortunately, the outpost had a few spare living quarters and Nara had given Chris and Aidan their own space.  So, after cleaning up the mess the two had caused, they both had a very, very, VERY thorough showering.  Naturally, Chris and Aidan showered together, scrubbing each others bodies under the steaming water as thoroughly as they could...and maybe getting a little frisky with one another as they did.  Shortly after that, both men got changed, with Chris in a spare black T-Shirt and jeans while Aidan rocked a dark red tanktop and sleeveless vest with black cargo shorts.  

Hakari, meanwhile, was still in his ninja gear, sitting on the bed in his own quarters, groaning while Nara sat next to him and gingerly rubbed his aching stomach in slow circles.  He huffed breathlessly and leaned into Nara's palm, muttering a soft 'thank you' to her as she continued tending to his aching tum.

Nara just smirked and gave Hakari's abs a gentle pat, adding, “Y'know, one'uh these days, you're gonna have to learn to say 'no' to these weird-ass requests you get from those two.”

“...Urgh, you would think training in someone's mouth would be outlandish, but there WAS that incident with that Microbe fiend a while back, so perhaps, Chris wants to be extra cautious...” Hakari suggested, voice still a bit weary after his ordeal.

Nara snorted and shook her head. “Bullshit.  You'n I both know it's 'cuz that fucker's kinkier than a hedonist at that olive oil orgy from three years ago.”

Even in his groggy state, Hakari slowly turned to Nara and gave her a very deadpanned look, muttering, “...Dare I ask...?”

“If you value your delicate sensibilities, naw...probably not,” Nara insisted with a smirk, one that grew wider when she saw Hakari look away and shudder.

She continued gently stroking his belly, then leaned down and rested her head against his concave stomach, listening to it burble as she stroked it.  Hakari blushed a little then promptly pulled his face-mask on, glad he could at least TRY to mask how easily flustered he got without two friends in his mouth or stomach.  

“Man, it's really noisy today, huh,” Nara noted, hearing Hakari's stomach churn deeply enough to make Hakari cringe a bit.

“Mph, well, it's been rather overworked, thanks to those two...” Hakari muttered, huffing under his mask.

“Maybe we oughta give you two some more private time to fix that then, huh?”  Chris suddenly teased alongside Aidan, who smirked with his arms folded at the sight.

Hakari immediately yelped and sat upright, only to immediately clear his throat and pretend he didn't just make an embarrassingly flustered sound.  Nara laughed but showed enough mercy to sit up away from Hakari's stomach, gesturing for the two to come back in.

Chris and Aidan sat down across from them on the adjacent couch.

“So!  Feeling any better?”  Chris asked.

“Ah, he's fine,” Nara insisted before Hakari could respond, heartily patting Hakari on the back and making the young ninja jut forward slightly from how firm the pat was.  

“I'm sure snake-eyes here can handle a pair'uh spicy meatballs like yourselves,” she assured them, before adding, “WHY he had to, I'm not so sure...buuuut you do you, Invicta...”

Aidan snorted with amusement as Chris scratched the back of his head sheepishly.  “Ah, any excuse t'mop this punk around fer a bit'n lizard lips' mouth at least made for a cushy spot to train.  I'm just bummed I couldn't let loose with my full fire power...”  Aidan muttered, flexing his hand out as fire emerged from his palm.

“...I'm not...” Hakari insisted with a look of dread on his face at the mere thought of Aidan 'letting loose' inside of him like that.  After that, Hakari cleared his throat and said, “The important thing is that you two are safe.  But...please, can we keep the training OUTSIDE of peoples mouths...preferably MINE...?”

Chris just laughed and nodded assuringly with, “Hehe, well, I can't promise the latter part, but yeah, I assure you, no one's gonna make you 'open up' again like that.”  Then, Chris' smile turned a bit cheeky as he leaned in and added, “But be honest though, PART of you prooooobably enjoyed the taste, right?”

Hakari nervously tugged his mask higher, and was about to deny that claim when Nara once again chimed in and said, “You kiddin'?!  I once had to pull this scaly dork's arm soooo long t'get him to eat me in his whole snake-dude form and once he finally did?  He was rumblin' like a damn motorboat!”

...Even with his facemask on, Hakari's face was practically steaming at Nara's remarks.  

...Just then...

*GRRRRROOOOOOOOOOMBL!!!!!*

A deeply loud and hungry grumbling bellowed from the room.  

Instantly, Chris, Aidan and Nara all turned to Hakari, who at this point, was so red that he looked like he'd just consumed six ghost peppers at once.

Slowly, he looked down at his stomach in a way that seemed to say, ‘...Seriously...?’  (As if Hakari hadn’t endured enough embarrassment for one day...)

Tentatively, the young ninja wrapped his arms around his grumbling stomach in a desperate effort to calm his stomach down.  It didn't work.  

Chris smirked and asked, “Why, Hakari...is all our talk of eating people making our favorite Saurian hungry...?”

Hakari nervously cleared his throat and hopped up from the bed, saying, “Aherm, y-yes...w-well...I-I'll be in the mess hall getting something to eat...w-would anybody else like to join me?”

Despite himself, Chris shrugged and gave his own stomach a firm pat, adding, “Eh, I could eat.  What about you guys?”

Aidan stood up and said, “You kiddin'?  I'm fuckin' starvin' 'ere...”

“Good,” Nara insisted before getting up and wrapping an arm around Hakari's shoulder and tugging the young flustered ninja close.  “Lead the way, snake-eyes!”

Hakari groaned to himself with a weary sigh, but nonetheless carried on.  

With any luck, maybe he could EAT the embarrassment away.

But given the company he was keeping, he had a distinct feeling that wasn't gonna happen anytime soon...

[summerofpinecestcontest]

Birthday Wishes, Birthday Kisses

Second place

by @penningpines

{ I know they turned 21 last year, but getting drunk for the first time on 21st birthdays is like v special to me }

Grunkle Stan guided the blindfolded twins into the kitchen, a hand resting on each of their shoulders.

“Alright, kids, you can take them off now.”

“Hardly kids now,” they heard Wendy laugh. They removed their blindfolds to find her, Soos, and both their Grunkles standing before the kitchen table, which was lined with brightly colored bottles and cans.

Mabel tilted her head. “What is—”

“Alcohol!” Stan exclaimed, throwing his arms into the air. “Booze! Man’s great equalizer!”

Ford, standing at the other side of the table, chuckled warmly. “He may have already had a bit. Happy birthday, kids! You are officially of legal drinking age now, so enjoy yourselves! But go slow. And hydrate!”

Soos raised a bottle in the air and beckoned Dipper over to him. “You’re a man now. Come try this shit.”

The dark brown glass bottle in Soos’s hand didn’t look like it contained anything terribly appetizing, and the closer Dipper got to it, the worse it stunk of yeast. He reached out to take the bottle from Soos, who was now holding it in front of him, and with another small sniff and a grimace, he reluctantly took a sip. Immediately after, he began coughing and sputtered out a, “this is disgusting!”, shoving the bottle back into Soos’s hand.

“That’s the taste of manhood,” Stan said proudly, clinking his own beer bottle against Soos’s. “It’s an acquired taste, like coffee and cigarettes and lake water. You’ll get used to it.”

“What was that last one?”

Stan narrowed his eyes. “Cigarettes?”

“N-no, after that,” Dipper replied, grabbing a bottle of water off of the table and chugging it down to get the taste of stale bread and dead dreams off of his tongue.

“Don’t worry about it,” Stan said, waving a hand dismissively.

Mabel watched in slight horror as the interaction went on. “Do I have to drink that, too?”

“No, thank fuck,” Wendy cut in, handing a colorful, foamy, multicolored atrocity to her. “I took the liberty of making you something a little more… you. It’s gonna be a total sugar rush, and you won’t be able to taste the alcohol at all, so be very careful.”

Mabel’s eyes widened as an excited gasp left her. She eagerly took the glass from Wendy, placing her lips on the colorful twisty straw she had stuck into it, and took a big sip.

“Dipper!”

A disgusted look remained on Dipper’s face as he turned to face his twin. “What?”

“You have to try this!” Mabel pushed the glass into his hands, eyes sparkling in anticipation as she waited for her brother to taste it.

Dipper raised an eyebrow, observing the foamy pink mess, before taking a small sip.

“What do you think?!” She asked enthusiastically.

He grimaced yet again. “This is so… I can feel my teeth rotting…”

“Sorry,” Wendy laughed. “I may or may not have literally poured like an entire cup of sugar in there after all the sodas and juices.”

“It doesn’t bother me,” Mabel boasted, snatching her drink back from Dipper and taking another swig.

“You’re used to running on sugar and boybands, Mabes,” he chuckled. “Of course it doesn’t bother you.”

“Try something straight with a mixer, then,” Ford suggested, tapping a finger against the lid of the vodka bottle closest to him. “Any soda or juice will mix with it.”

Dipper eyed the table, grabbing a peach Pitt Cola and an empty cup.

“You’ll wanna measure the hard stuff,” Soos advised, handing a shot glass to Dipper. “And use more mixer than alcohol, otherwise that’s all you’re gonna be able to taste.”

With an appreciative nod, Dipper filled the shot glass, poured it into the cup, and filled the rest with Pitt Cola. A single sip and he seemed satisfied with the mix. “Thanks, Soos.”

“It’s what I’m here for,” he smiled. He then deadpanned. “I am the keeper of alcoholic knowledge.”

Stan playfully slapped a hand against Soos’s back. “Sure are, big guy.”

“Oh, on that,” Wendy piped up. “Carbonation will filter the alcohol into your blood quicker, so be careful with your mixers.”

Soos cleared his throat as he stood from his spot and offered it to Dipper, Wendy mirroring the same action for Mabel. “Go on. Sit down. Drink. Talk about stuff.”

The twins took a seat, offering each other a smile across the table.

“Here’s to 21,” Mabel smiled, raising her glass to meet Dipper’s.

“21,” he repeated, tapping his glass against Mabel’s.

They each took another sip or two.

“Who do you wanna bet is more of a lightweight?” Ford asked, working away at his own bottle.

“Mabel,” Wendy responded instantly. “Definitely. No offense,” she laughed, turning her attention to the accused. “It’s just… in my experience, for some reason, alcohol tends to hit the bubbly ones first, and I’m pretty confident you’re a happy, giggly drunk.”

“What kind of drunk do you think I am?” Dipper inquired.

“Hmm…”

“Conspiracy theorist,” Stan offered easily. “I am fully expecting you to go on about lizard people once it kicks in.”

“Hey,” he laughed. “Not fair! Don’t conspiracy theorists sound crazy? I don’t think—”

“To be fair,” Soos interrupted, taking another swig of his drink. “Your book of crazy monster stuff sounds like some conspiracy type stuff a lot of the time.”

Dipper scoffed playfully in mock offense. “Gravity Falls is full of crazy shit. I am merely documenting and researching said shit.”

This time, Ford slapped a hand against Dipper’s back. “That’s my boy! Carrying on the family business, eh?”

Mabel giggled into her drink, lips pulling at her straw, perhaps a tad too fast. “You still need to find me a unicorn. Like a good unicorn. Not one that’s all full of themselves.”

“What if I find you a caticorn instead?” He offered.

“Even better!” Mabel laughed, raising her glass, which was now halfway empty.

Wendy raised hers to meet Mabel’s this time. “Slow down there, birthday girl,” she laughed, reaching for a bottle of water to offer her. “I told you this one was pretty strong, and you don’t want to make yourself sick.”

“Pshhh,” Mabel laughed. “From sugar? I don’t get sick! My body’s built up a tolerance! A-after that whole Smile Dip incident…”

“From alcohol,” she smiled, pouring one of the water bottles into Mabel’s drink until it reached the rim. “This will help, trust me.”

Soos followed suit, pouring water into what little Dipper had gotten through on his own drink.

“Take it from someone older and wiser, little dudes,” he said, grabbing his own bottle to chug. “Hydrate or diedrate.”

“Or,” Wendy laughed. “Less drastically, hydrate or get super sick and have an awful hangover in the morning.”

“Speaking of,” Soos said, turning his attention to Stan and Ford. “Do you guys remember the first time you got drunk?”

The older twins exchanged a glance, and Ford was the first to speak.

“Times were different. Laws were different, too. We were 16, and—”

“—and you got fucked off of three beers,” Stan interrupted, pointing and laughing at his twin. “And then you got sick, but I never did. Alpha Twin!”

Ford rolled his eyes playfully. “You are not the Alpha Twin just because—”

“Ha!” Now Mabel was pointing at Dipper. “You’re the Ford, I’m the Stan! Alpha Twin!”

“Yeah!” Stan cheered, thrusting his fist into the air. “I got Mabel!”

“Hey!” Dipper laughed. “What about me?”

“I got you,” Ford proclaimed proudly. “Together, we will discover all the mysteries of Gravity Falls!”

“Like whatever the hell is living at the bottom of Stan’s sock drawer,” Wendy loudly half-whispered to Soos, who stuck his hands up in defense, chuckling, “I don’t even wanna know!”

“Grunkle Stan and I will… hmm…” Mabel chewed at the tip of her straw. “Take over the world!”

“Quite a tall order to fill, little miss.” He moved in closer to ruffle her hair. “I don’t know if my back can keep up with that.”

“Oh, shit, wait!”

They all turned their attention to Wendy, who was taking hold of Mabel’s hand and helping her to her feet. “You guys need to stand up for a minute. If you sit the whole time, the first time you get up, you’ll fall over. Happened to me my first time! Robbie started freaking out for a minute, but I thought it was hilarious!”

“I’m sure it’s not so— whoa!” Mabel clutched onto Wendy’s arm, trying to stabilize herself. “Okay, maybe it’s a little bad right now.”

Soos did the same for Dipper, helping him up, though he was much more stable on his feet.

“One to ten,” Ford said, addressing the twins. “On a lev- uh, a scale, I mean. How drunk do you feel?”

“We don't…” Mabel started, to which Dipper finished, “…have anything to compare it to?”

“That was a dumb question for such a smart guy,” Stan cackled, shaking his head at his brother.

“Yeah,” he agreed, matching his twin’s joviality. “Pretty dumb!”

“What was your first time being drunk like?” Wendy asked Soos, reaching out to playfully pluck the bottle out of his hand.

“It was fun,” he snickered. “…until it wasn’t. I got, like, mega sick, dude. But before that, I was having a good ass time!”

“First time sickness buds!” She exclaimed, reaching out for a high five with the hand that wasn’t supporting Mabel.

“Is it, uh,” Dipper, who had just been released from Soos’s grasp, chuckled nervously. “Is it possible to, um, not get sick your first time? Or ever?”

“Hydrate or diedrate,” Soos repeated.

“Hydration,” Wendy giggled, thumping Soos’s bottle against his arm before handing it back to him. “And pacing yourself, and eating before, during, or both. After is kinda debated but it seems to help me, so I do it after, too. Fresh air can help.”

Mabel looked up at Stan. “Is that why you had us each so much before this?”

“As is tradition,” he winked.

“Okay,” Dipper nodded, reaching for another bottle of water with a slight quiver in his legs. Still steady so far.

“Especially you,” Wendy playfully punched Mabel in the arm, causing her to stumble. “You’ve been going at that thing way too fast.”

“The Alpha Twin,” Mabel giggled, “does not get sick. I simply transfer all my sickness to Dipper. When we were little, I had chicken pox. As soon as mine went away, Dipper got them. I haven’t gotten them since, and if that doesn’t prove my theory, I don’t know what will!”

“Mabel, I’m pretty sure chicken pox—”

“Shhh.” She pressed a finger against Dipper’s lips. “No.” Her finger dragged down his body, quickly swiping it over his chest and arms and grabbing at his hand, which she pulled down with her as she dropped to the floor. “We’re gonna sit here now!”

The room, if only slightly, steadied once Mabel had to focus less on keeping her knees from buckling or her legs from otherwise taking her down. As she looked across to Dipper, though, he seemed to be swaying a bit. Or maybe she was— she couldn’t tell.

Stan began telling a story above them, but from down on the ground, and with her lack of focus, his voice sounded small and distant.

“I’m… mmm… mm… tired.” She yawned and reached out for Dipper, who was already staring at her. “Are you tired?”

He shrugged his response. “You wanna go to bed?”

“Yes. No. Mm-may—yes.”

“Okay,” Dipper laughed. “Then let’s go to bed.”

“Okay.”

“Okay?”

“Okay,” Mabel repeated, now loud enough for the rest to hear, holding onto Dipper’s arm with one hand and Wendy’s leg with the other. She maneuvered herself onto her feet, tugging Dipper up with her, and just about shoved her face into his chest as she stumbled forward and clutched onto him more completely. “We are going to have a meeting. It’s about our twin telepathy.” She turned slightly to face the rest of the room. “And only s-s-twins who are under the age of… seventy-b-billion are allowed,” she slurred. “Okay, bye!”

“That means bedtime,” Dipper laughed, supporting Mabel as he helped move her over to the staircase. “This… may present a problem.”

Mabel stared intensely at the staircase for a moment, studying it, before she looked up slightly at her brother and pressed her hands against his chest and pushed to distance herself from him. “I am the Alpha Twin. There is no obstacle too large.”

“You’re gonna hurt yourself, Mabes. Come on. One step at a time.” He took hold of her arm which, honestly, she hadn’t noticed, and began helping her up the stairs.

“I’m doing it!” She exclaimed excitedly. “I’m doing it! I’m—” she looked down and noticed Dipper’s grip on her arm. “Oh. Well, we’re almost up there anyway!”

“Mabel, we’re only three steps up the—”

“We’re almost u-up there anyway,” she repeated, lifting an unstable foot, setting it down, lifting it again, moving it to the side, and fumbling closer to Dipper.

Wendy came up behind them, placed a hand on each of their backs, and helped push them forward. With some slight coordination issues, more than a little bit of random ‘whoaaa!’s, and Mabel tripping over her own feet not once, not twice, but three times, they made it to the top of the staircase.

“Should be able to handle it now,” Dipper giggled to himself, pulling Mabel against his chest once again and guiding her (pulling her, more like) to their shared bedroom.

He got them to the door, which, of course, was shut. He fumbled with the doorknob for a moment before the door swung open, which startled Mabel, and got them inside. He led Mabel over to her bed, which she managed to get into without too much trouble.

“Perfect birthday,” she mused, “almost.”

“Almost?” Dipper questioned, kneeling beside Mabel’s bed to keep himself from falling down. He had managed to keep it together enough up the stairs, but now his legs were threatening to give out and deprive him of his favorite pastime of walking in a straight line.

“There’s oooone birthday wish I didn’t get.” She stared up at the ceiling, clutching onto one of her stuffed animals.

“And what’s that? Maybe I can help?”

“Mm…” she thought for a moment. “No. Never mind. Too embarrassing. G’night!”

Dipper laughed, shaking her shoulder. “Come on, Mabes.”

“Nope.”

“You can tell me! I’m your twin. Come on, use the telepathy!”

She closed her eyes, placed a hand on Dipper’s forehead (well, mostly, and after a few tries), took a deep breath, and whispered, “I… wanted… a birthday kiss.”

Dipper scoffed, amused. “Is that it?”

“What do you mean ‘is that it’?!” She sat up quickly, opening her eyes and turning to look at him, face flushed. “It’s embarrassing! Aren’t you embarrassed?!”

“Mm… nope. Come on, you’ve admitted to me before that you’ve thought about it.”

“Thinking about it and actually doing it are two very different things, Dipper!”

He raised his hands up defensively with a soft laugh. “Alright, alright, just thought I’d offer.”

Mabel groaned playfully. She fell back into her mattress with a soft thud. “Okay… fine… come here.”

“What?”

“Come here! I’m gonna close my eyes so it’s not so… weird… and you’re gonna kiss me like I’m a princess.”

She could feel the weight on her bed shift, signaling that Dipper had sat down next to her. His next question came softly, softer than she expected, and she had to strain her ears to hear it.

“Like you’re a princess?”

“M-mhm…” she felt a little shyer about it now. It felt more real than when she had proposed it. She kept her eyes shut, but she felt her body tighten and flinch as he moved closer to her.

“Actually…” she opened her eyes to find Dipper’s face about a foot away from hers, watching her with a loving gaze. A slight smile was pulling at the corner of his mouth.

“Okay,” she breathed. She couldn’t help but smile, reflecting her twin’s. “You can… you can do it now.”

She let her eyes flutter shut again, and he followed her lead, closing the space between them slowly, anticipation building.

His lips hovered above hers for a moment, soft breath matching her own, tension in the room building to a climax when he slowly, softly pressed their lips together.

Though anticipated, it took both of them a split second to process what was happening. Quivering lips steadied as they pressed against their matching pair, and for a moment, they were stuck there, until Dipper pressed his harder against his twin’s before awkwardly pulling away.

He opened his eyes, almost hesitantly, and watched as Mabel did the same. She blushed deeply before breaking out into a fit of giggles, forcing her head to the side so her hair would fall into her face and offer even the slightest bit of concealment.

“Perfect birthday,” she mumbled into her pillow. “For real this time.”

Dipper moved in again to plant another kiss against her face, this one a soft, loving peck on the forehead. “I’m glad,” he grinned. “I agree.”

A comfortable silence filled the room, until he whispered, “goodnight, Mabel. Happy birthday.”

She felt the weight of her mattress shift again as he stood up, crossing the room to get into his own bed.

“Um, Dipp?”

“Yeah, Mabes?”

Mabel rolled over onto her other side to face him. “Can… um… can I get birthday cuddles, too? Like old times?”

He simply chuckled, turning and walking back to her bed, which she had begun moving stuffed animals and pillows off of to give him space to lie down.

“Thank you, bro bro.” She nuzzled her face into his chest as he wrapped his arms around her and rested his chin on the top of her head, breathing in her scent.

“Anything for the Alpha Twin,” he murmured, earning a giggle from his sister as she nuzzled closer to him.

“Best birthday ever,” Dipper repeated, mumbling into Mabel’s hair, arms tightening around her midsection in a protective squeeze.

Not bad, 21. Not bad at all.

[fishylife]

Street Dance of China S4 Ep 3

(I’m having problems with Tumblr not saving my posts...)

- Oh no people are going to start getting eliminated! :o Well, I’m still really glad that we had two whole episodes of people just dancing and having fun and getting the opportunity to showcase who they are and how they dance.

- This question just occurred to me, but where do people look when they watch dance performances? As I watched the Go Go Brothers, I was thinking to myself, “Where do I look? If I look at one of them, I might miss what the other Brother is doing!” Just my musings lol.

- I am super shallow but people tripping makes me laugh, so yes, Nelson accidentally tripping did make me chuckle. (+ Rochka’s reaction)

- Yibo and Yixing discussing the SDOC theme song. It made me laugh because the lyrics are kind of hype but Yibo and Yixing aren’t exactly the most facially expressive people lol.

- After every performance Henry’d be like “let’s collaborate!!!!!!” Han Geng finally stepped in being like aight Henry you gotta take it easy on the recruitment because we’ve literally only seen three performances. I’m still not really sure of the format of the show from now on, so I’m not sure if they form new teams afterwards.

- Yixing was so guilty about not giving Bouboo a vote.

- Rochka’s shock @ Boubou not getting four votes.

- He’s ashamed.

- I think if a dancer gets less than 4 votes, then other dancers are allowed to challenge them for a spot to advance, but whoever loses is eliminated out of the tournament, so you have to be super confident to challenge. And if a dancer only gets 1 or 2 votes, they are eliminated.

- Yibo asked Rochka why he wouldn’t challenge Bouboo and Rochka said he’d never go against his teacher/big brother v.v They exchanged hearts but then Rochka pretended to throw the heart away and crush it lol.

- While I was expecting a bit more from Bouboo, I don’t think his challenger JC Jun was better than him. JC Jun was kind of wobbly, and I think his dance didn’t match the music as well as Bouboo’s did.

- Yixing had his head down when he voted for Ibuki too, so I think he just gets nervous about voting.

- Henry wanted to say that Ibuki was like lightning but he said the word for a flashing light/disco light and Han Geng wanted to give him shit for it.

- Yixing said that he thought AC’s waacking almost felt like krump.Yixing said that if he was to collaborate with AC, AC should do the arm swing, and Yixing would do the waacking lol. I am all for seeing Yixing doing more dance styles! Not gonna lie, I think he’d look cute doing waacking.

- Ye Yin’s performance was really nice! The music was unique and the way he danced, with the tap dance and folk-like elements really suited it.

- Rochka said he wants to know Ye Yin more and said they also have the same smile.

- Xiao Jie said he’d never battle Ye Yin but he got peer pressured by the captains into freestyling to Ye Yin’s self-produced song lol.

- To show face, you know? The entire time he was like “but this doesn’t count, okay?!!!!” since he wasn’t actually challenging Ye Yin, and it was just for funsies.

- The judges were a bit troubled by Xiaoming’s performance because at the end, he was supposed to fall but his fall wasn’t coordinated with the sound effect in the music. Xiaoming was like yeah, it’s pretty difficult but I’m hoping that my challenger wouldn’t be able to get it too and Yixing was laughing his goose laugh. But Xiaoming was eliminated with zero votes in the end.

- Kelo and Uwa had a horror mental hospital-themed dance which was interesting. Kelo said it was based on a nightmare he had as a child.

- Yang Kai wasn’t impressed though. He said he’d performed something similar with Liangliang before. He felt that Kelo and Uwa were performing but not really dancing. I can see where he’s coming from. Kelo and Uwa got three votes.

- Xiaohai ended up challenging them. He used the wheelchair too but like...somehow his expression just makes us unable to not laugh.

- I think he did really well considering he’d only heard the music once. And he returned to the wheelchair at the end of the performance lmfao

- Apparently when Xiaohai was looking up at the beginning, he was asking Li Yulong (who I assume is the person in charge of the music) for music cues but Li Yulong just laughed at him lol.

- Yibo basically said that Kelo and Uwa’s performance felt a bit abrupt in the story telling side, and that there weren’t really highs and lows to their performance.

- Rochka was talking crap about Bouboo behind his back and Yibo tattled which resulted in Rochka getting whacked in the face.

- Zyko taught Yibo and Rochka how to do his fancy leg moves.

- Yixing talking krump with Auju. Auju was like you’re really good for someone who’s only been learning for a year, but then Yixing was like, I practise 6 hours a day and Auju was like ?!?!

- Zyko + Henry (with Henry’s infamous “getting down while playing violin” move)

- Poppin’C introduced himself, saying he was from Italy and Switzerland, and Yibo and Yixing were thinking of all the things from Italy they knew. Yibo was like “...Valentino Rossi...” and Yixing was like “....pizza.....” These two spacey twinks istg.

- Anyway, Poppin’C’s performance was nice. Not only were his moves clean and impressive, but he also expressed the lyrics through his dance.

- Rochka fanboying over Poppin’C’s dance :P At one point, the lyrics were about hearts, and Poppin’C did some moves where he made a heart and Rochka here is saying how cute it was.

- Poppin’C said he missed his daughter and everybody’s like ?? a baby??? :3 :3 :3

- Also, I saw Uwa in the audience, so I think that the eliminated contestants get to continue watching.

- Poppin’C said that before, he was more fierce, but now that he has a daughter, he’s a little smoother and sweeter :3 Also he was describing that the singer’s voice in the song made his skin feel like chicken and everybody was like ??? Luckily Yixing saved the day lol. In Chinese, goose bumps are called “chicken pimples” or something like that.

- Bozi was next. In his introduction, Bozi said he was from Guangzhou, and maybe that’s why it sounded like so many people in the audience were pronouncing 波子 in Cantonese.

- Eleven said something very interesting about B-boys. He said that in their profession of dance, they don’t fear b-boys who can do tricks, but they fear b-boys who can listen to music. I think it’s a reference to the fact that b-boys are often doing their own thing and disregard the music, which makes sense. Sometimes b-boys are closer to gymnasts because they are so focused on the spins and other really athletic moves they do. But because their moves are so difficult, they sometimes don’t move to the music which is supposed to be the point of dancing.

- Bozi passed with 4 votes. And he did a bit of krump at the beginning, which Yixing admitted he fell for haha. Bozi said that Eleven helped him choreograph that part, so it’s Eleven who knows Yixing well >3

- The director asked Bozi who he thought his biggest b-boy rival on the show was. Of course, we all thought he was going to say Lil Kev, but he ended up saying Xiaoji and Xiaoji was like ?? me?? Bozi’s reasoning was that he’s more troubled by dancers with a different style from him because he doesn’t know how to beat them. From the small clips they showed, I think Xiaoji has a more animated style, whereas Bozi is more serious and reserved.

- Acky-san cheering on MT Pop lol. (”Embarrassing dad at baseball game” mode activate)

- MT Pop has really impressed me in the competition so far though. The way he moves is so cool and creative. I think he purposely goes for a kind of...monster vibe? Like he often has this creepy smile on his face lol. He’s not only dancing, but he’s using popping techniques to change how he moves entirely, including simple things like walking or how he turns his head. I think MT Pop is my favourite contestant.

- He said the monster from Pan’s Labrynth inspired this dance. So I guess I was kind of right that he does draw inspiration from monsters and other creatures.

- Low key mad at Han Geng for not giving MT Pop his vote lol. Geng-ge said he wanted to give someone a chance to challenge. Of all people, why MT Pop?? I don’t want him to goooo.

- Henry wanted to try doing the voiceover for the challenger and Han Geng indulged his overdramatic ass.

- Baby Dolphin challenged. He had some cool moves at the beginning, but I think he fell apart a bit towards the end, based on the judges’ reactions (as we didn’t see the full performance). Plus, I think MT Pop’s approach to dancing is just too unique and interesting to eliminate at this point.

- Kabamba had an interesting performance that had African and Latin influences, with big and energetic movements. Tianci challenged but he went with a general hip hop approach which did not suit the music at all. (I looked up Kabamba. Her name is Latrice Kabamba, but she also goes by 林珊娜 on her social media, which is why she’s sometimes called Nana on the show).

- Acky-san was repeating everything that people were saying around him. Stuff like jiayou!! and other words of encouragement. Dianmen who was sitting next to him was just lol’ing.

- Ma Xiaolong was performing to a song called 棋 and this word usually refers to any kind of board game. Ma Xiaolong’s first moves looked like he was putting pieces on a board and you just know that kind of stuff draws Yixing’s attention right away.

- I think Kenken’s style of dance is the kind of dance that the general public would really enjoy. Whereas some kinds of dance don’t really appeal to people who aren’t into dance, I think Kenken’s kind of dance will attract both the dance-conscious people as well as those who aren’t. I definitely got that vibe from him in the dance that he choreographed, and also his individual performance.

- Not even gonna question this. Perfection. Rochka catboy here we go.

- Okay, I agree with Colin’s performance not making the cut. Based on his introduction, he was supposed to be a popping expert, but his dance didn’t showcase that. His dance was more of a contemporary dance piece, but while we’ve had performances similar to that, his choreography didn’t stand out in comparison. After his performance he had a bit of a cry. Yixing mentioned that it was hard to judge because of the emotional aspect. But admittedly, this emotional stuff is usually the reason why I don’t like competition shows. It was revealed that Colin had lost his grandfather. Now, I’m going to sound cold, but I don’t like it when sob stories are brought in, because it makes us feel bad when we don’t like a piece of art that comes from very pure intentions. Yixing’s reasoning for not giving a vote was that he felt that the emotions overshadowed the dance, which is a problem because this is a show about dance. Han Geng’s reasoning was that he felt that the skill level could have been better. Yibo was quite moved by the performance, and I think that’s why he gave his vote to Colin.

- We got a preview for this week’s hotpot show.

- Yixing and his emotional support giant cup

- Lots of laughing (including Yixing laughing) which is good for the soul

[yandere-wishes]

Aquaphobia //Yandere Leviathen x reader//

Oh, have I never mentioned that I am MORTIFIED of water and literally any sea creatures...no? It must have slipped my mind.

For this story, I'm making a few assumptions. 1) Levi can turn into some sort of sea monster-like thing I'm assuming it looks like a cross between a Megladon/Giant squid/ Sea serpent. 2) He can communicate with sea creatures. 3) The giant horrifying aquarium that basically makes up his back wall is in reality linked to either an ocean or somewhere that houses a bunch of dangerous sea beings. 4) In addition to sea animal communication Levi posses Aquakinesis

------------------------------------------------------------------------

For as long as you can remember water has always haunted you.

The large bodies of H2O particles have never failed to shake you to your very core. 

In every single nightmare you ever recall, you are drowning in one of those shallow blue celestial bodies. The colorless liquid invading your mouth, clawing its way to where your lungs rested, joyously filling and choking them. 

Sea roamers of all kinds flocked to your drowning corps, millions of eyes drinking in your defenseless form, from the beady black shark eyes to the yellow cyclops eye of a giant squid. A fraction of a second later and those beastes were sinking their fangs into your tender flesh, large tentacles wrapping themselves around an arm or leg and tugging it until it detached from the rest of your corps. 

But in the end, you always woke up, always resumed your day as if nothing had come to pass the night before, back then you knew that it was only a nightmare....however this time you weren't so sure. 

Out of all seven brothers you'd always dreaded Leviathan the most. You had nothing against his "otaku" like ways or his unkempt appearance. No, it was simply what he was that made you keep your distance. 

Yet the third born seemed to have other plans for you. Leviathan hates "normies", the average demons and humans that overpopulate the earth, mocking those like him who have hobbies and likings that are "abnormal" in their eyes, forcing them to live shameful lives of isolation. Due to the superiority of normies in all three realms Levi had never once come across someone as abnormal as himself...that was until the new exchange student had arrived. At first, they had seemed to be just like anyone else, a normal human with absolutely nothing extravagant about them. But as time progressed Levi became aware of just how similar the two of them were. She would spend hours talking to Mammon about the newest anime or the latest level of the video game she was playing. Her tone was always so excited and pure, eyes gleaming and radiating happiness. But Mammon never understood, he simply scuffed and made some degrading comment about her being a nerd or worst then Levi. 

Maybe it was then and there that Levi had decided you were the one. That if anybody angel, demon or human would ever understand him, ever be this alike to him, it would be you, it had to be.

You didn't want to go to his room. You'd avoided it like the plague after Mammon had described the bathtub bed and giant aquarium that drew its water from one of the Devildom's massive oceans. The avatar of greed had even vividly described how the ceiling tiles could pull away, reveling yet another large aquarium for a roof. 

It sounded worst than any haunted house, a place you would never dare venture into. But this time you didn't have a choice, try as you may you couldn't get out of this. 

Earlier that day you'd awaken to something cold and yet trailing down your visage. The mere texture of the substance had jolted you from your slumber, the fear of the colorless liquid had bounded itself deep into your body's habits and subconscious. Eyes dilate, body frozen, tears at the brink of falling. A moist want reached out and cupped your chin, turning your neck too briskly that you were sure you heard a few bones "pop". A squeal escaped your lips only to be met with an instantaneous "shh, be quiet".  Your (eye color) orbs landed on the third born, his eyes housed a sort of sick glee it matched the sadistic twisted smirk he dawned on his face. Maybe it was the adrenaline pumping through your veins, maybe it was the fact that you'd just awoken and your brain was still partly asleep. Either way, you could have sworn that Leviathan's teeth had somehow changed. They where long and jagged, bending at roots were they sprouted from his gums, to top off the horror thin lines of thick juicy crimson highlighted the tips and betweens of his shark life teeth. 

By now you had begun to sob, tears flowing non stop from your puffy red eyes. Your body was frozen you dared not move, vocal cords had given up and your tongue laid dead at the bottom of your mouth.

"Hello, princess sleep well?" Despite it seeming so innocent there was a sort of mocking laced into the question.

You noticed something in his other hand. A large familiar blue-colored plushy with a gasmask was suffocating in this grasp. That was a rare collectible you'd somehow managed to win from a Crain game back in the human world. You never slept a night without, feeling safe whenever you held it in your embrace. When you'd arrived in the Devildom you'd practically begged Lucifer to retrieve it for you. It had taken all so many tears and tantrums, in addition, to agree to take over his chores for the course of two months. The day the firstborn had carelessly tossed it to you, had probably been the second happiest day of your life. 

Levi let out a cruel giggle as he brought your prized possession closer to your face. His long nails dug into the fabric of its forehead as he dangled it before your eyes. "It's kinda cute, what show is it from?" This time round he sounded genuin, no inanity to be heard. Yet you didn't speak still petrified and stiff. 

One heartbeat

two heartbeats

three heartbeats--

"Fine! What you won't talk to me cause you think you're better than me?!" You shook your head slowly, the gesture barely being noticeable. Yet he picked up on it. He let out another string of offensive giggles "You're scared, right? Afraid the big bad sea monster will eat you?". Oh, God how desperately you wished you could run. Find Mammon or Lucifer and cling to them. To find any means to get away from this monster. 

His fingers fell from your face, he turned without saying another word and made his way to the door. As he opened it, he called behind his shoulder. " If you want it back, come to my room at midnight and come alone" He then slammed the door abandoning you to your thoughts and terrors. 

In short, that was why you were standing in front of the door that would lead you to your personal hell. You had no desire to step foot into his room and yet it was the sole means to retrieving your stuffed monster. Hesitantly you lifter your hand to knock, your finger had not touched the wood when the door creaked open and something slithered around your arm and dragged you into Leviathan's room. 

"I-I'm h-here know p-please give it back--"

Your back collided with the cold tiled floor. You let out a scream of pain before Levi's hand was shoved over your mouth. 

"Be quiet would ya?" His orange and purple orbs gazed into your wide mortified eyes. He let out a sigh and his gaze softened. "(Y/N)...I-I've never felt this way about anyone before...well maybe Ruri-chan and Sugar Frenzy's lead singer for a short period of time, oh and this one...nevermind! Look I-I feel like your something different okay. I g-guess that I have a little crush on you. Noting big alright! But-but what do you say (Y/N) will yo be mine? We'd make a great couple! We like the exact samethings, share practically the same opinions. We are meant to be one!" Slowly he lifted his hand from your mouth, an excited smile playing at his lips, his eyes sparkled with joy and exhilaration. Maybe if you'd have time to think this trough you would have felt bad about what you next words where. 

The second his hand was removed from your mouth you shouted.

"NO! No no no no no! Never! I can't I just can't your a freaking sea monster you--"

No sooner had the words left your mouth that you felt your head accelerate forward and then get smashed on the wet hard floor. The notion repeated again and again. You where sure you were bleeding, some sort of concussion must have formed, your sight was blurry and spots were dancing everywhere. 

"You stupid normi! You tricked me! I thought you were like me! That would actually love someone like me! You made me freaking fall in love with you, you bitch!" 

He twisted your head to the side and pushed your face into the floor. "You're scared of water aren't you? Your sacred of what lives in the water too right? Is that why you don't love me (y/n)? Cause I'm some sort of water freak? Well? Damit answer me!"

"Yes" you choked out "y-yes L-Leviathan, I'm scared of you!" He let out a furious sigh, his tail wrapped around your neck and hosted you up pressing you into the glass of the aquarium. An odd noise filled to room, something alike to buzzing yet..somehow very different. "You know what's funny (y/n)? I may be some sort of freak, but I'm also the only thing keeping you safe from the horrors behind the class." 

Something was swimming closer and closer, it's figure getting bigger and bigger. The teeth and large snout and hulking dorsal fins soon became evident what was coming toward you. You screamed, the noise echoed and bounced from one wall to the next. Your throat started to bleed and go raw, your mind blank with the loud ringing of alarms or was that your heart trying to break your ribcage and runaway?

As the monstrous shark swam only a few centimeters away from the glass, you could feel the sensitivity and life drain from your corpse, blackness taking over. You tried to remain awake to grip on to conscious, darkness was not friendly for it only showed the monsters face, the image burned permanently into your brain. 

As you slipped away into a stygian dream world, Levi brought your limp body to his chest cradling you gently and sweetly kissing your forehead. He waved a hand dismissively at his "pet" and watched for a second as it swam away. He lifted you up and brought you over to his bed. Placing you carefully inside. He placed your stuffy next to you and stood up admiring the aesthetic of your sleeping form. You were so gorgeous when you weren't scared or defensive. 

"You're mine (y/n), finally! I'm never going to let anyone else come near.. you never!"