#circles in trigonometry

[fretbored34]

[perseriph]

@theaethernetconnection did you enjoy rolling your meat melon around?

[er-cryptid]

[sciencesolutions]

[homeostasister]

I’m not super into math, but the unit circle has to be one of my favorite mathematical concepts.

The fact that every angle is also part of a circle with a radius of 1, and that that circle is really just a superposition of all possible right triangles with a hypotenuse of 1 (the Pythagorean theorem is the exact same formula as the equation of a circle! It’s all connected! (Gestures wildly to strings connecting pins on my conspiracy theorist corkboard)). That you can use a circle to find the trigonometric functions of any angle in any triangle, and even angles that don’t exist in any triangle—even angles that don’t exist in any meaningful physical form at all! I feel like I’ve unlocked some profound eldritch knowledge that has fundamentally altered my perception of reality and given me the power to solve basic trigonometry problems.

[notsosweetchan]

Warning: smut (Minors Do Not Interact)

Paring-Hyunjin x reader-

-Dirty Secret (Teacher AU)

Hyunjin couldn't help but feel a blush crawl up his cheeks as he glanced over the chalkboard, taking a deep breath to calm himself before continuing his lecture. His gaze found the wayward one, making sure to maintain eye contact with her.

She gave him an innocent smile, batting her eyelashes as if nothing was out of the ordinary - but he knew better. Her fingers were restlessly toying with her pen, tapping against it in a way that was all too familiar to him now.

It was hard to ignore the nervous energy radiating off of her, and he couldn't help but wonder what mischief she was planning next.

As he droned on about trigonometry, his eyes drifted back towards her again and again, unable to help themselves.

He watched as she playfully bit on her lower lip while furiously scribbling notes down in her notebook; could almost taste the sweet cherry flavor from where he sat.

The sound of chalk scratching against the board was drowned out by the soft rustling of paper as she flipped through pages and scratched away at words in bright pink ink that matched her cherry lip color perfectly.

Even when she furrowed her brows in concentration or chewed on the end of her pencil thoughtfully, there was an undeniable glimmer in those emerald eyes that betrayed any semblance of focus on the subject matter.

Amidst his lecture, a moment came where Hyunjin paused for emphasis; an opening for Y/to strike. "And that," he said grandly, pointing at an equation on the board behind him, "is how you use trigonometry to calculate angles."

The room full of students went silent for a moment before bursting into chatter once more, but Y/N's heart leaped at the pause in Hyunjin's lecture, feeling a mix of excitement and fear. She had been waiting for this moment.

She glanced up at him from under her lashes, feeling her stomach do flips as their eyes locked. He looked so handsome standing there, chalk dusting his suit but still managing to look put together and professional.

She couldn't help but compare him to the mess she was in; her hair was probably a wild nest on top of her head, strands escaping every which way after the impromptu make-out session earlier. Her cheeks were still flushed pink and her lips felt swollen from their kisses.

Hyunjin cleared his throat, breaking their gaze. Y/N took the opportunity to quickly scribble down some notes before looking back up at him, hoping he wouldn't catch on to her thoughts. The anticipation was killing her as he continued speaking, his voice low yet commanding in the quiet classroom.

His hands moved gracefully on the chalkboard as he drew triangles and circles, their soft scratching sound filling the air like music to her ears. She found herself tracing along with his movements, wishing she could feel the chalk between her fingers instead of just imagining it.

Suddenly, he wrote down an equation that she knew she wouldn't be able to solve alone - not without some guidance from him anyway - and she raised her hand hesitantly.

The sound of chalk on board stopped abruptly as he turned to face her, those deep brown eyes boring into hers. "Yes?" He asked softly. Y/N took a deep breath and shot him a shy smile before pointing at the board. "I don't quite understand this part," she admitted with a small laugh,

"Oh really?" Hyunjin smirked, walking over to her desk with a swish of his pants and a soft clearing of his throat. He leaned down over her shoulder, his breath tickling her neck as he peered over her shoulder at the board.

The warmth of his body against hers sent shivers down her spine, making it harder for her to concentrate on the equation. "Let me show you," he murmured softly, brushing a stray strand of hair away from her face.

The scent of her perfume filled his nostrils and made him dizzy with desire. His fingers traced the lines of the equation slowly, explaining it to her in a low voice that only she could hear.

As he went on, he couldn't help but brush against her knuckles or graze the inside of her wrist with his thumb in the guise of pointing things out.

His heart raced just as fast as hers did when their skin touched, sending electric currents shooting up his arm and down hers.

She gasped softly as he lifted his hand away from her skin, their connection broken only by the thin air between them.

Hyunjin chuckled lightly and stepped back, holding himself upright again while continuing to explain the lesson around them.

The rest of the classroom fell silent once more; every eye on them as they watched this exchange – some with envy, others with confusion - but none daring to interrupt them again.

Y/N felt herself blush deeper under their stares but couldn't bring herself to look away from him; those eyes held hers captive like no other could.

Hyunjin couldn't help but feel a wave of satisfaction wash over him as he saw the understanding dawn on her face.

He smiled gently at her, noticing the way her cherry-flavored breaths quickened as he leaned down to whisper the explanation into her ear. The softness of her skin beneath his fingertips sent shivers down his spine, reminding him of the allure and the temptation that lingered between them.

"Of course," he said, stepping back with a smirk on his lips. "Just remember this formula. It's important," he added as an afterthought before glancing around the room once more to make sure everyone was focused again.

The students in the back row whispered among themselves while giggling softly, their eyes flickering between Y/N's flushed cheeks and Hyunjin's satisfied smirk.

His words echoed through the classroom, causing butterflies in Y/N's stomach as she tried to concentrate on what he was saying instead of how close he had been to her just moments before.

As Hyunjin continued his lecture, moving around the room to assist other students who raised their hands, Y/N found herself lost in thought– dreams swirling through her mind along with images of those captivating brown eyes and that gentle touch from earlier.

She couldn't shake off the feeling of anticipation for when class would finally end so they could be alone again. Her fingers tapped restlessly against her desk while she scribbled down notes faster than usual, eager for that moment to come soon enough.

The hour flew by quickly, ending far too soon for both their tastes "Alright class," Hyunjin said, clapping his hands together to gather the students' attention.

“That's all for today. Remember to study hard and ask me or any teaching assistant if you have any questions." The students packed their bags and chatted quietly before leaving the room, but Y/N remained in her seat.

She watched as Hyunjin tidied up the classroom, erasing the equations from the chalkboard with practiced efficiency. “ Don’t you think you were being a bit obvious back there?” he asked, a playful glint in his eyes as he turned to face her.

Y/N felt her cheeks warm at his comment, realizing that perhaps she had been a bit too transparent in her feelings towards him. She mustered up her courage and rose from her seat, gathering her things as she walked towards him.

Maybe a little,she admitted with a shy smile, feeling a rush of boldness surge through her. “But can you blame me? You make trigonometry almost bearable.”

Her voice was barely above a whisper, but Hyunjin heard her loud and clear. He chuckled softly, the sound sending pleasant shivers down Y/N’s spine.

“Well, I suppose I can forgive you for that,” he teased, his eyes locking with hers in a way that made her heart flutter. “But you better be careful.

People might start putting two and two together and realizing there's more to our teacher and student dynamic than meets the eye.” His voice lowered, and he took a step closer, his gaze intense as he continued, “Unless... of course, you want them to know.”

The air between them crackled with unspoken tension, each word he spoke adding fuel to the fire that burned inside her. Y/N felt her breath hitch at his insinuation, her mind racing with the possibilities of what could happen if they crossed that line.

She met his gaze head-on, a mixture of desire and apprehension swirling in her eyes.

“Maybe I do want them to know,” she whispered, her voice barely audible in the empty classroom.

The confession hung in the air between them, heavy with implications. Hyunjin's expression softened, a flicker of something unreadable passing through his eyes before he took another step closer, closing the distance between them.

“Careful what you wish for,” he murmured, his breath ghosting over her lips as he leaned in, leaving no room for doubt in his intentions.

The tension between them was palpable, the air thick with desire as they stood inches apart. Y/N's heart raced in her chest, her breath hitching at the proximity of Hyunjin's lips to hers. Every fiber of her being yearned for his touch, for the forbidden thrill of crossing that line with her teacher.

Without another word, Hyunjin closed the final gap between them, his lips capturing hers in a searing kiss that sent a shockwave of electricity through her body. Y/N melted into his embrace, her hands reaching up to tangle in his hair as she deepened the kiss, matching his fervor with her own.

Y/N moaned softly against his lips, feeling the warmth of his mouth against hers. Her body trembled slightly, and she gripped the fabric of his shirt as a deep longing coursed through her veins. As their kiss deepened, time seemed to stand still.

Their tongues danced together, exploring each other's mouths in a way that felt illicit but oh-so-right. Breath mingled with the chalky scent of the classroom, creating an aroma unique to this moment.

Her heart raced wildly as his hands found their way to her waist before slinking upwards to cup her breast through her shirt. She gasped into his mouth, feeling his touch send shockwaves of pleasure down her spine.

Hyunjin couldn't help but let out a low groan, losing himself in the moment. He admired how she bit her lower lip teasingly, matching his boldness with her own growing confidence. He nipped at it playfully before trailing kisses down her neck and collarbone.

The sound of buttons popping loose echoed in the empty room as he undid them one by one until he could finally touch bare skin. His lips trailed lower, finding cherry-flavored sweetness with every new inch he explored.

His hands moved up her thighs Y/N's core clenched at his touch, and she gasped softly, her body begging for more. His hands slid up her skirt, finding the elastic of her panties, and she whimpered into his mouth.

It was intoxicating to be desired like this; to feel his fingers against her skin made her head spin. He pulled away from their kiss picking her up and placing her on his desk with a smirk, leaving her legs dangling over the edge.

Hyunjin kneeled between them and slowly pulled down her panties, revealing her wetness to him. His eyes widened at the sight before him, and he couldn't help but groan in frustration.

"I've been thinking about this all day," he whispered hoarsely, his voice thick with desire. Y/N smiled, tilting her head back as she felt him gently kiss her inner thigh, making his way closer to her core.

Her breathing became shallower, anticipation building inside her as she waited for what was to come. Hyunjin slowly licked her wetness, tasting her for the first time.

Y/N moaned softly, Arching her back slightly as he pleasured her with his tongue. Each lick, each suction, was sending waves of pleasure through her body, making her heart pound in her chest.

Hyunjin's soft touch sent shivers down Y/N's spine as his tongue found her folds, exploring her in a way that made her toes curl.

His fingers danced softly across her clit, sending shockwaves of pleasure coursing through her. She gasped and arched into his touch, her back bowing off the desk as he teased her. "Oh god," she moaned, her voice trembling with desire.

His lips parted and he took her entrance between his lips, sucking gently as he buried his face in her wet heat. Y/N cried out softly, her hands fisting in his hair as her hips bucked in rhythm to his skilled tongue.

He loved the sound of her moans, the way her body responded to his touch, and he knew that he wanted more. He wanted to feel her beneath him, inside her, to make her scream his name in pleasure.

Y/N's climax was building within her, her entire body tensing as her orgasm approached. She could feel it pulsing through her, making her heart race and her breath come in gasps.

Her body was shaking, on the verge of collapsing in a wave of pleasure that she knew would leave her weak and vulnerable. She knew that she had to release it, to let go and surrender to the sensation that was building within her.

Hyunjin could sense it too, the way her body was trembling and the soft whimpers that escaped her lips. He gently sucked on her clit, feeling the pulsing throb of her desire as she came, milking it softly.

Y/N's cries of pleasure echoed through the empty classroom, each one making him harder. Hyunjin looked up at her in ecstasy, his own arousal evident as he admired her flushed face and trembling body.

He pulled his lips away from her core, and she whimpered in protest. "Shh," he whispered soothingly, pushing himself up from the desk and removing his tie and loosening his belt.

"I want to feel you wrapped around me," he murmured, his voice rough with desire.

Y/N could barely breathe as she watched him unbutton his shirt, her breaths coming in short, needy gasps.

Her eyes locked onto the bulge that pressed against his pants, and she knew they wouldn't be the only ones coming undone tonight.

Hyunjin stepped closer to her, and she could feel the heat emanating from his body. Y/N watched him, her heart pounding in her chest as she waited for what was to come.

He stood between her legs, guiding himself inside her slowly, slowly until he was fully buried within her. She gasped, her head falling back as he filled her completely.

"You feel so good," he groaned, holding back the urge to thrust hard into her. He wanted to savor this moment, to feel her tight warmth surrounding him.

Y/N wrapped her legs around him, pulling him closer, and he began to move slowly, steadily at first, building up a rhythm. His hips rocked into her, and she moaned softly, her body adjusting to his.

Y/N's eyes locked onto his, and she could see the raw desire in them. They were both lost in this moment, in each other. Hyunjin's gaze never left hers as he picked up the pace, his thrusts becoming harder and more forceful.

Y/N's breath hitched with each powerful stroke, her body responding to his with a fiery need that surprised her. She moaned softly, her fingers digging into his back as he moved inside her.

Hyunjin's eyes never left hers, a mixture of lust and adoration reflected in their depths. “Hyunjin , please…” the breathless plea was all he needed. He increased the tempo, his body slamming into hers with a raw intensity that had her crying out in pleasure.

Her head thrashed from side to side, her lips parted in a silent scream as his hips moved faster, harder. He could feel his own release building, the tension within him coiling tighter with each thrust.

"I'm gonna come," he growled, his voice hoarse with desire. Y/N's eyes squeezed shut, her body convulsing with the same need.

Hyunjin grunted, slamming into her one last time before releasing himself, emptying himself inside her.

As his release spilled into her, Y/N felt a wave of pleasure wash over her, her body bucking against his one last time before collapsing back onto the desk.

She gasped for air, her heart pounding in her chest, her body still shaking from the intensity of the experience.Hyunjin's breath hitched as he struggled to catch his own breath,panting, his body still trembling from the release.

He gently pulled out of her, and she whimpered softly, feeling the emptiness left by his absence. He carefully lowered her back to the ground, his hands lingering on her skin for a moment longer before he cupped her face and brought his lips to hers.

Their tongues danced and twined together, their passion and satisfaction mingled in one last kiss.

Y/N broke away, her eyes wide with wonder as she looked up at him. "Hyunjin," she whispered, her voice barely above a whisper.

He smiled at her, his eyes soft and full of love. "I know, Y/N." He replied, his voice filled with the same emotion. "I know."

[just-jordie-things]

the blackest day - fushiguro megumi

✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧ 10k follower event special! ✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧

word count: 12.2k warnings: shibuya + light culling game arc spoilers but not very canon compliant lmfao. suggested major character death, heavy themes of depression (not reader) including: not eating, insomnia, feelings of worthlessness + suicidal ideation. mentions of needles, stitches, + blood. heavy angst with a happy ending. summary: megumi tried to tell her not to go to that station. all he can do now is think that he should've tried harder. more info: rivals/friends to lovers, lots of hurt/some comfort, megumi has reached ultimate functioning angst in this ✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧

[ it’s not easy for me to talk about // i have heavy heartstrings.  and not simple, it’s trigonometry // it’s hard to express // i can’t explain // ever since my baby went away, it’s been the blackest day ]

✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧

“I don’t care that they assigned me to go with Nanami,” 

Her voice came out in a huff, irritation getting the better of her, and it was starting to become quite noticeable.  Her chest was puffed, her lips were pulled into a snarl that looked completely unnatural on her usually bright features.  The hand that wasn’t holding a short sword was curled into a fist so tight it began to tremble.

“Itadori needs my help more” She finished, sounding sure of this change of plan.

Megumi cursed under his breath, this petty argument being the last thing he was in the mood for.  There was no time for some ridiculous change in team ups.  The pairings had already been decided, and had happened for a reason.  With a veil over Shibuya making communication impossible, a change like this was absurd.

“You don’t get to just pick and choose what you want to do, (y/n),” He snapped back at her, before aggressively pointing in the direction of Nanami’s team, where he and Takuma had just taken off.  

It hadn’t been until too late that Megumi caught (y/n) hovering away from her group, looking lost under a flickering street lamp as she gazed off in the opposite direction of her team, chewing on her lip as she worried about her other classmate headed for the train station.  Had Megumi noticed sooner, he probably wouldn’t be standing here fighting with her right now.  He probably could’ve hollered for Nanami or Takuma to circle back and drag her off if they had to.  But they were too far gone now to yell after, and his phone was useless.

“These teams were drawn up for a reason,” He muttered.  “Now you’ve rendered it useless” 

She rolls her eyes at his drama, turning to head off towards the train station, not caring about winning this argument.  There were more important things to do right now than stand here and bicker with Megumi.  She was getting tired of this repetitive game of his anyways.

“Where the hell do you think you’re going?” He took a large step towards her, making her halt in her tracks before she could get very far.

“I told you,” She snapped back.  “I’m going after Yuuji.  Something’s not right.  I can feel it” 

Megumi’s eyes widened and twitched.

“You can’t be serious” 

“Does it look like I’m joking?” 

Her expression didn’t flinch.  He could tell by the hardness in her eyes that she’d set her mind to this new plan of hers, and no matter how stupid it was, he knew deep down she wasn’t going to waver on it.

“You’re not going off on your own,” Megumi scoffs, hoping he could get her to see that she’d be walking right into a trap if she split off by herself.  “Do you even know your way there?” 

“I think I’m capable of reading street signs, Fushiguro” 

Surname.  Ouch.  He was only succeeding in pissing her off.

“Just- god, just come with me, alright?” He suggests instead, thinking a compromise would sway her.  “Going off by yourself right now is reckless and you know it.  Come on.  If the roles were reversed you wouldn’t let me do this” 

Her eyes narrow, and she clenches her jaw.

“I’m not going to stand here and play the ‘what if’ game with you,” She told him.  “You’re wasting time.  If you cross paths with anyone, tell them I went after Yuuji”

“(y/n)-” 

Before he could come up with another argument- or resort to picking her up off the ground and forcing her not to go- she was already turning on her heels and breaking into a full sprint.

Megumi had tried to follow her, but she’d always been faster than him.  He called after her until his throat burned raw.  Eventually he had to go off with his own team, knowing if he strayed too far then he was putting himself at just as great a risk as she’d been.

But fuck, had he made a mistake in not pushing himself to follow her.

Even if they’d both died trying to get to Yuuji, he thinks it would’ve been better than this.

✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧

Megumi wakes up that morning looking like he was in just as terrible of a state as he had the day before.  And the day before that.  And every day before that for the last six days.

It had been a week since the incident with Shibuya, and with every day that passed and the more ground they covered, Megumi was starting to feel worse.

Yuuta silently offered up an apple he’d found at the last shop they’d raided.  Megumi barely glanced at it before shaking his head, going right to work rolling up the sleeping bag that was starting to get worn and dirty.  Yuuta frowned, crouching down beside the younger man to talk quietly with him.

“You should eat something,” He suggests calmly.  “When was the last time you’ve eaten anything?” 

Megumi tries not to appear annoyed.  He knows Yuuta is only trying to look out for him, he’d been trying to look out for everyone.  Unfortunately since the impact of Shibuya, it was hard to keep everyone in check and healthy.

“Ate last night” Megumi replied.

Yuuta frowned.

“You had a bite of a loaf of bread” He replied knowingly.

Megumi paused in his movements, his sleeping bag rolled up part way, and his eyes caught the beginnings of a hole that he hadn’t noticed before.  It must’ve gotten caught on some rubble or debris and torn the nylon.  He frowned at the supposed tear-proof material.  If it worsened it would be a nuisance, and if he was out of a sleeping bag, well, who knew when or if he’d come across another one.

Pushing that worry off for a later time, he glanced at Yuuta over his shoulder.  His face was blank, as it had been for the better part of the last week.

“You don’t need to keep tabs on me,” He said.  “I’m fine” 

Yuuta held his stare for a long moment, hoping that if he let the lie sit there for long enough, Megumi would realize how empty it sounded.  

But he didn’t budge.

So Yuuta sighs, standing and dropping the apple back into a paper bag and rolling it up so it’d tuck neatly in the backpack of supplies they’d been gathering.

“You know eventually, you’ll need to eat something,” He says matter-of-factly.  “If we come across something and you don’t have the energy to fight-” 

“I said I’m fine” 

Despite the harsh words, Megumi’s voice is monotone, and not all that loud.  In fact, he’s almost whispering.  It only sends a chill of worry through Yuuta’s demeanor.  He’d already been stressing over his well being- not to mention Maki’s, and Itadori’s- it was starting to be a weight on his shoulders keeping an eye on everyone.

It wasn’t that he was burdened by his friends or the guilt they bore, but after a certain amount of time, he just didn’t know how to help anymore.

Yuuji was completely unable to separate himself from Sukuna, taking on the destruction of Shibuya and blaming himself for the entire catastrophe.  All the death, the chaos, and where they found themselves now, the boy could barely keep it together.  Yuuta had only known him for a short amount of time, and even he found his behavior to be unsettling.

Maki had slain her entire bloodline.  All but her sister, who had died trying to protect her, trying to make her stronger, so that when she broke free from their twisted clutches, she was able to take down every single one of them.  Yuuta had barely approached the subject.  No one did, really.  Maki had briefly mentioned it when they all grouped together, and since then, it’d been radio silence.

And Megumi… well, Megumi was still beating himself up over (y/n).  It didn’t matter what anyone said.  It didn’t matter that Yuuji held onto some sliver of hope that she’d made it out of Shibuya before shit really hit the fan.  It was as though Megumi had tuned everything out.  They practically watched him dim before them, a burnt out bulb that wouldn’t light again no matter how much they prodded and tried.

For now, Yuuta let him be.  The gang packed up their supplies from the spot they’d crashed the night before, and without much talk at all began moving again.  Here and there they talked about direction, and brainstormed how to get around stealthily, but other than that, it was mostly a quiet journey.

Megumi remained completely silent.  One hand on the strap of his sleeping bag over his shoulder, the other shoved in his pocket.  Distantly he recognized that his stomach was aching and his mouth was dry, and he was sure he was also in desperate need of a shower, too.  But even as the thoughts crossed his mind, they seemed to float away and fade into nothing.  Just like everything else that tried to fill the time in his head, it was always replaced by the overwhelming gnaw of grief.

Maybe he didn’t deserve to eat.  It wasn’t like there was much food to go around anyways.  Wasn’t everyone else much more deserving of a healthier portion? What had he done in comparison to everyone else in this makeshift group of people who were once peers but now that Jujutsu Society had fallen apart… did they even have anything else in common?

Just as the mental downward spiral began, it was washed away once more by the reminder that it didn’t matter anyways.  Guilt and loss settled at the forefront of his thoughts again, and he kept his head down as he continued walking.

The ironic part about all of this was that if she had been here, she’d laugh at him and smack him upside the head.  Everything matters, dummy, he could almost hear her scolding him, with no bite to her bark, just as always.  She always had something dumb to say like that.

✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧

“Stop being so gloomy, ‘gumi!” She’d hollered, followed by a string of laughter as she skipped up to him, turning her back to Nobara and Yuuji, who happily kept walking along to the next shop on their trip.

“Definitely don’t ever call me that again” He muttered back, crinkling his nose and narrowing his eyes in distaste for the nickname.  She laughed again, stopping just before him on the sidewalk, just as their friends entered a boutique, leaving them behind.

“Oh yeah?” She places her hands on her hips and raises an eyebrow at him, and he wonders if she knows that their friends just abandoned them out here.  “Or what?” She asks defiantly.

He’d taken notice that when she was trying to instigate a bickering match, the corner of her lips tilted up in a proud little smirk.  She tended to get ahead of herself, always certain that she’d win whatever it was they were doing.  From petty arguments on the sidewalk to sparring to missions where she always wanted to compete and one up him.  Although after a while he had to admit it could be a little fun to show off on the easier-to-exorcize curses.

“Dork,” He rolls his eyes without a hint of genuine attitude.  When she gapes at him in mock offense he raises his hand to flick her forehead.  “C’mon, our friends dipped” He starts to head towards the shop Nobara and Yuuji had disappeared into, but she stays put outside.

“Yeah… I sort of let them…” She admits, a small, guilty smile stretching across her lips.  Megumi raises his eyebrows at her, smiling back in amusement.  Usually whatever those two were up to, (y/n) was following behind like an eager duckling.  “What?” She asks innocently.  “I just don’t want to spend all day looking at things I won’t buy and then carrying all of Nobara’s shit!” She defends herself.

Megumi laughs, a real laugh, his eyes crinkling at their corners and his shoulders shaking and everything.  (y/n’s) almost taken aback by the action, surprised that he looked so… joyful.

“Alright, you’ve got a point.  We have an opportunity here, and we should take it while we can” He begins to plot with her, and her smile stretches into a grin as she nods back at him.

“Bookstore and coffee?” She suggests quietly, as if it was more outlandish of an idea than it really was.

Megumi nods affirmatively, tucking his hands in his pockets before turning in the opposite direction, (y/n) following him right away so they could make it there before their friends noticed their departure.

She still pushed his buttons as they made their way to their destination down the street, but he couldn’t help but feel a blossom of warmth in his chest that for once he was the one getting her to tag alongside him.  He would never admit it, opting to poke back at her the rest of the day like nothing had changed, but it had felt… good.

✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧

The day that annoying chirping flyhead had announced a culling game, Megumi felt a glimmer of hope spark inside of him that he barely recognized.  It had only been nine or so days since the incident, but it seemed like ages since he’d felt optimistic about something- anything.  

But as the flyhead spouted off the rules to the games, he’d hoped that a lineup would be included.  Surely with so many sorcerers pitted against each other, there must be some condition of having all of the participants and their points on display, right? 

The others recognized a change in him then, an eagerness, an impatience as he barely took in what the flyhead was announcing, only waiting to hear what he wanted.

Announce the players’ names, he silently pleaded with the damn thing.  Say her name, tell me she’s a participant, tell me she’s alive.

But the rules concluded, the flyhead seemingly disappeared, and Megumi felt like a fucking idiot.

Yuuji and Yuuta shared a look, and the pink haired boy turned to give his friend an apologetic expression.  He opened his mouth to say something, but Megumi tightened his hold on the strap of his sleeping bag and kept walking before he could say anything.

He didn’t want to hear any bullshit about maybes or what ifs.  He just wanted to get to the next safe place by nightfall so he could lay awake on his sleeping bag for eight hours, and then repeat this whole cycle again tomorrow.

His ever so present grief and his growing hunger was starting to blend into a concoction that made him more stand-offish than usual.  The others had almost cracked, barely acknowledging him at this point, simply not knowing how.  Yuuji still tried, of course.  Forcing a water bottle in his face, or a piece of food that hadn’t gone totally bad.  He’d maybe had a few bites here or there in the last few days, not nearly enough to keep up his energy, but somehow he pushed through anyways.

Don’t get him wrong, he wasn’t finding some hidden source of energy, he wasn’t persevering, and he certainly wasn’t living because he had to.  If he was being honest, he’d been wondering why his body hadn’t given out on him yet.  Nothing felt good anymore.  If it wasn’t numb, it ached, and neither one of those options was more of a relief than the other.

He wasn’t pushing through the unmovable force of his grief.  (y/n)... Nobara… Gojo… Nanami…  He wasn’t staying strong in their memory, and if anything, he wished his body would just give up already so he wasn’t such a burden to those around him.  Megumi spent most of his time in his own head, but he wasn’t completely oblivious.  He saw the way the others talked about him with only their eyes.  Short, worried glances exchanged on his behalf, each of them trying to silently convince the others to do something first, no one wanting to be the one to address it.

Tonight when he rolls out his holey sleeping bag and lays back on it, he stares at the starless sky and pleads with it.  He begs the rolling clouds and inky black night to let him close his eyes, just this once, so that he won’t have to open them again.

He can’t possibly spend another long night wide awake, thinking about his hunger, thinking about her, no matter how hard he tries to shove it all deep, deep down and ignore it.

As exhausted as he is physically, sleep never takes over his body.

A tear rolls out of the corner of his eye, trekking slowly down his cheekbone.  It lingers at his jaw, fat and wobbly as he clenches his teeth together as hard as he can stand it, desperate to make this tear the last.

It falls with a near silent splat against the nylon material he lays on.

The following little splats come in quick succession, seemingly a little louder as they fall one after the other.  Megumi chokes down the sobs to be sure no one else could catch wind of his breakdown.

✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧

She momentarily glances up at him when he enters the room, only to scowl and turn away as soon as she recognizes it’s him.  Megumi fights the urge to roll his eyes, sliding the infirmary door shut and tucking his hands into his pockets as he approaches her.

“I’m not talking to you,”

Despite her sharp glare, he laughs at the ironic statement.

“I mean it.  I’m still mad at you,” She spits out, turning back to where she was stitching up the gash in her upper arm.  

It was a nasty thing to look at, and probably worse to patch up on her own, but it wouldn’t be the first time she’d gotten back from an assignment too late to request Shoko’s help- and reverse cursed technique.

“Seriously,” There’s more of a bite to her tone when she plunges the needle through the narrow end of the wound.  “Just go”  

She’s hissing and clenching her jaw before pulling the needle through and doing it again, trying to keep her stitches even.  It wasn’t the easiest task with her non-dominant hand, but she didn’t want to show an ounce of struggle.

“You sure talk a lot for not talking to me” Megumi hums, still coming closer, despite her warnings.

He earns himself another glare, but he ignores it, stepping up to where she’s sat on the edge of one of the paper-covered cots.  She flinches as though to lean away from him, and he raises a brow at her.

“You want sloppy stitches?” He asks pointedly, voice hushed and lacking any emotion.  “Fine by me, have it heal weird if that’s what you want” 

He starts to step away, and (y/n) huffs.  Her eyes shut and her shoulders slump, and he takes her nonverbal defeat as his cue to pluck the needle from her hand and get to work.  She wouldn’t say so out loud, but she knew his hand was steadier than hers anyways.

He works quickly and diligently.  His free hand placed gently around her arm to make sure it stays still as he stitches up the gnarly cut.  She tries not to react to how cold it is to the touch, but her muscles flinch when he first makes contact.

“Sorry” He mumbles without much thought, going for the fourth stitch.

“For what, exactly?” (y/n) mutters back with a furrow in her brow.  “For your freakishly cold hands? Or for letting me take this hit back there?” 

Megumi doesn’t respond right away, opting to keep his focus on his needlework.  This only annoys her further, and he can practically feel it radiating off of her.  He knew it was a matter of seconds before she blew up at him, she was probably just thinking through what she wanted to say when she screamed his head off.  He could tell her to shut up and stop acting so childish, but he doesn’t.

And he’s not totally sure why.  If this was Yuuji or Nobara in her place, he’d be telling them exactly where they’d gone wrong on that assignment, and to top it off walk them through how they needed to shape up before they took another one.  

But it’s not Yuuji or Nobara.  It’s (y/n).  And his mouth stays shut.

Truth was she wasn’t necessarily wrong.  He had technically let her take this hit from a Grade Two curse with a horrific set of claws.  But had he not sent her that way, then she would’ve wanted to tag team the Grade One with him.  And this particular Grade One had a gore streak in the deaths it had caused around Tokyo.  And on that fact alone, he took it on himself, and ordered (y/n) to take on the Grade Two.

“I mean seriously what the fuck was that? You think you get to boss me around just ‘cause you’ve been doing this a little longer?” 

And here she goes.  He braces himself mentally for whatever she was about to throw at him.

“Or is it something else? Hm? You needed the ego boost? Needed to feel like some kind of big strong man, Megumi?” Her eyes narrow at him but he doesn’t cast her a single glance.  His focus remains on the steady movements of stitching her up.  “Did it feel good to play hero? Did you feel good exorcizing that Grade One and laughing when I let a measly little Grade Two take me down-?”

“I wasn’t laughing” 

His voice is quieter than hers, and significantly calmer, but it still manages to shut her up.  For a moment, her expression is blank while she still stares at him, and he still keeps his eyes on his task.  

A lump forms in her throat, suddenly making it very hard to insult him.  It remains silent between them as Megumi finishes up the last stitch, finishing it off perfectly and dropping the bloody needle on the tray beside the cot.  The metallic thunk echos shortly, and then finally, he turns his attention towards her.

To his surprise, her eyes looked wet.  She couldn’t possibly be holding back tears.  Surely the stitches hurt, she wasn’t invincible, but she was strong, and never showed weakness.  Even when that curse had grabbed her by the arm and he feared it was going to rip it clean off her body, she hadn’t cried.  Screamed and swore, sure, but not a tear was shed the whole way back to campus.

“Think what you will,” He tells her, eyes flickering between hers curiously, wondering what it was that would make her tear up now.  “But I’m not so callous that I would take amusement in your pain,” 

She tries to swallow the lump in her throat, but it only burns more, and she hopes that he can’t see the emotion on her face, she hopes that she’s expressionless, cold, even.

“In fact, when I sent you after that curse, it was for the opposite reason.  I was trying to do you a favor” 

“A favor?” She repeats, intending to snap the words back at him, but her voice is strained by her burning throat, and instead she almost sounds… lost.  Megumi can’t quite put his finger on it.

He nods his head once in a short motion.

“Sorry you got hurt,” He says, and he means it, but his tone still lacks any sort of emotion.  He plans to keep it that way.  “Just didn’t want to see you get ripped to shreds by a Grade One” 

He doesn’t say anything else, and he doesn’t give her the chance to reply, or even fully react to that statement.  Instead he turns around and walks right back out of the infirmary, not so much of a nod in parting as he shuts the door behind him and leaves her completely alone.

✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧

When Megumi had found Yuuji after the incident in Shibuya, he’d ran to him and grabbed him by the shoulders, asking if he was alright and hugging him shortly out of the pure relief that someone was there, someone lived.  Even though Yuuji was in rough shape physically and mentally after everything, he was a person that Megumi could see and touch, and relief flooded through him like pure ecstasy.

“Nobara?” He’d asked, unable to finish the rest of the question.  He didn’t have to for Yuuji to understand.

Yuuji didn’t have to answer aloud for Megumi to understand.  His glossy eyes turned away, desperate for something else to catch his attention before he thought too hard about the fate their friend befell.

Megumi frowned, his throat going dry as he swallowed harshly.

He didn’t want to ask anymore questions.  He wanted to relish the lone fact that Yuuji, his best friend, was alive and standing in front of him.  He not only lived through the catastrophe but they’d reunited.  He wished he could hold onto that joy for just a moment longer.  But he couldn’t help himself from asking another burning question in his mind.

“A-and (y/n)?” He stammered out uncharacteristically.  His panic was evident in his wide eyes and tightening grip on Yuuji’s shoulders.  The pink haired boy looked back at him in alarm.  “She- she left Nanami’s team to come find you, did she?” He explained the situation poorly, not wanting to waste time talking if Yuuji had an answer for him. 

He doesn’t respond right away.

“Did she find you?” He asks again, his voice quieter as his features begin to fall.

His heart hammered in his chest in a way he’d never felt before.  A deep rooted fear he can’t recall ever having before, even as a toddler and fearing a monster under the bed didn’t hold up against the icy hot pins forcing their way through his bloodstream now.  His face felt hot as it went pale.  The back of his neck felt sweaty as a cool breeze hit it.  He was sure he was about to have a seizure, the panic was all too much.  The longer Yuuji didn’t give him an outright response, the worse the taste of bile in Megumi’s throat became.

“I did see her,” Yuuji finally mumbles out, dropping his eyes to his hands, which he held palms up and trembling before him.  “After Choso- the people that…” Yuuji coughs, the need to vomit suddenly pushing through his mind and throat.  “She was trying to exorcize them all,” 

He was struggling to explain what he recalled seeing that night.  It was all too brutal, and his mind was trying to push the trauma into a dark corner where he couldn’t think about it if he tried.  But this was important.  Megumi needed to know.

“She… she was crying,” Yuuji looked up at Megumi again, who furrowed his brows and shook his head.  “She knew they were still people deep down, like… Junpei” 

Megumi’s head shaking grew more rapid as he processed this all too slowly for his liking.

“And then?” He asked.  “And then what? Where’d she go? You got split up?” Question after question tumbled out of his mouth so quick his words began to slur together.

Yuuji wanted to cry just seeing him so worried sick, much less actually remember what happened.

“I… I didn’t see,” The pink haired boy admitted quietly, shame bringing his eyes downcast again.  “I’m sorry, Megumi.  W- we got separated.  But there… there were so many of them…” 

Megumi had stepped away, his hands falling from Yuuji’s shoulders, hanging heavy at his sides as he took a larger step back.  

“I tried to find her,” Yuuji’s voice cracked as he hoped to explain himself.  “Really I- I didn’t want to abandon her, I didn’t want to leave her there, not after everything she did to get to me- she- fuck- she probably saved my life showing up when she did!” 

He could register that Yuuji was still speaking, but Megumi could hardly make all of it out.  His vision was clouding over, and his entire body felt weak, as though he could collapse at any point.  He hadn’t even realized he was heaving until Yuuji, Maki, and Yuuta were crowded around him and helping him slowly down to the ground to calm him down.

He’d never had a panic attack before.

Finding out that (y/l/n) (y/n) had likely died along with countless others in Shibuya struck the first of several panic induced attacks.  Most of which he managed to keep hidden from the others, but some hit so hard and so suddenly that it was near impossible to work through it in private.

He’d been replaying Yuuji’s account of that night over and over in his head for days now, trying to find some sort of hope that she could’ve gotten out of that train station before all hell broke loose.  But with a hazy recollection and no other witnesses, it was hard to pretend that she made it out alive.

At first he’d spent time looking for signs of her as they traveled.  Any remains of camps he was sifting through, hoping to find that familiar necklace she always wore, or the shortsword she’d carried that night, something- anything that could point to a sign of her still being out there somewhere.

But now he barely lifted his head as he followed the group blindly, kicking at loose rubble and keeping a tight hold on his unraveling sleeping bag that was almost at the end of it’s lifespan.  There would be no use in holding onto a tattered rag of nylon.  

There wasn’t a chance he’d ever see her again.  His denial was beginning to fade, reality giving him a cold slap to the face to wake him up.  It was harsh.  It left him rough around the edges, literally and figuratively.  His facial features were sharper, and devoid of color.  His muscles were sore, only growing more so the longer he put off eating a proper meal.  If he kept this up he knew there would only be a few more sleepless nights until he didn’t stand back up in the morning.

And still, when he was offered a piece of food, he took a mere few bites before excusing himself to go lay on his ruined sleeping bag and stare at the sky.  

He cursed it when it was empty and dull.  He cursed it when it was full of twinkling stars and a bright moon.  It was never quite right.

✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧

“Y’know any constellations?” 

Megumi startled upon hearing her tired voice creep up behind him.  When he turned to see her shuffling out of the doors in her bare feet and ducky-print pajama shorts and matching tee, he could almost laugh.  She was yawning, her eyes shut as she rubbed at them with the ball of her fist.  She looked like a child.

“It’s late” He muttered when she waddled up next to him sleepily.

“No shit,” She grumbles back with a roll of her eyes.  “So? Y’know any constellations or not?” 

Megumi wasn’t sure what exactly she was doing out here.  Had she heard him sneak out of his room to step out for fresh air? He’d left fifteen or so minutes ago.  If he’d woken her up, surely she would’ve followed him out here sooner than now.

Not to mention, she’d barely spoken to him since their last assignment together, and their sort-of argument in the infirmary.  The few times she had addressed him had only been out of courtesy to their present friends.  But even then, her eyes never quite met his, and her words were short.

“Actually, yeah,” Megumi hums thoughtfully.  “Tsumiki loved ‘em.  She used to show me when I was little” 

(y/n) nods, wrapping her arms around herself after realizing she wouldn’t relieve the ache in her eyes if she kept irritating them.  She lets out a soft sigh as she stands beside him, tilting her head back to glance across the sky.  She wasn’t sure of the last time she’d appreciated the stars.  It must have been when she was still a child.

Megumi clears his throat uncomfortably, before raising his hand to trace a pattern in the sky.

“Obviously that’s the Orion’s belt,” He says, before mapping out the rest of the hunter’s shape.  “The rest of Orion,” He mumbles, and he’s surprised when he glances down to see (y/n) carefully following his hand.  He wonders if she can see it the way he does, like the picture in the Astronomy book Tsumiki used to haul around.  Curious to see how interested she really was, he continued on to another constellation.  “That’s Ursa Major,” He says, tracing the shape out slowly to give her time to adjust to the image.  “And, uh, Ursa Minor is… there” He does the same for both bears.

(y/n) hums curiously, a small smile tugging at her lips in amusement.  She never would have guessed that Astronomy of all things was one of Megumi’s interests.

“Do you know what your star sign is?” He asks, dropping his hand and glancing down at her.  She raises a brow at him in surprise, slowly delivering her answer, half expecting him to come up short and sheepishly admit he didn’t know where that one was.

But he surprises her again, eyes darting around the sky for a matter of seconds before finding it in seconds and dragging his fingers along the main stars of her constellation with a great amount of ease.

“Alright, that’s pretty cool,” She finally confesses, shyly glancing up at him.  “You’re a pretty good brother for learning all of this” She tells him.

His attention is brought back down to her as soon as she says it, finding a soft smile on her face and a look in her eyes that he can’t quite decipher.  He thinks it’s akin to worry, perhaps empathy.  His eyes flicker between hers a few times as he tries to pinpoint exactly what it is.  She doesn’t shy away from his long silence accompanied by the eye contact that made her feel like she was an artifact under glass.  

It’s quiet for a while, until eventually Megumi looks back up at the sky again.  She wonders what brought him out here to begin with, but she doesn’t ask.  Instead, she clasps her hands together behind her back and admires the stars with him.

“What else can you show me?”

✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧

If it had been up to him, Megumi would’ve rather stayed behind at Jujutsu Tech to guard Tengen.  Maybe if he’d sat alone in the warping hallways of the school he could pass out from the mindfuckery of it all.  Then maybe, once Kenjaku arrived…

It doesn’t matter now.  Yuki and Choso had already decided they’d be the ones to stand guard.  He and Yuuji were already on their way to find Hakari, and there was no point in changing plans now.  Besides, he didn’t want to burden Yuuji any further than he was sure he already had.

“So, you’ve met this guy?”

Yuuji’s the first to speak, and Megumi doesn’t exactly have an answer.  He shrugs his shoulders and tilts his head side to side with a blank expression.

“Sort of.  I guess” 

Yuuji waits for further explanation, but after a few beats of silence, he realizes that Megumi isn’t going to explain what that means.

“Okay… well, do you think we can convince him to help us?” 

“Don’t know” Megumi replies.  

Yuuji frowns, and turns his gaze forward, fixing it straight ahead before slowly exhaling through his nose to ease his nerves.

Megumi glances at him out of his peripheral vision, and seeing his clear disappointment in his features, huffs out a breath and tries to explain himself.

“I met him for, like, a minute.  One time.  Before I was even enrolled at Jujutsu Tech,” He said.  

Yuuji turned towards his friend with a grin, eager to hear him opening up, or at least, trying to.  For once he keeps his mouth shut in the hopes that Megumi continues to talk.

“Gojo introduced me,” He went on.  “And I really don’t know if he’ll help us.  He’s a bit… eccentric” He mutters the last part with distaste.  

“Like Gojo?” Yuuji chuckles, and Megumi tilts his head from shoulder to shoulder once more.

“If Gojo had a gambling addiction so twisted it got him kicked out of school, then… maybe” 

Yuuji’s eyes widened, and he snapped his mouth shut before he could ask any other questions.  Megumi’s patience may have been thin- and perhaps nonexistent at this point- but he had a feeling that he should let his friend save up some energy for his social battery.  If Hakari is anything like Gojo, then he’d certainly need it.

When they stop to rest it’s not for long.  Yuuji gets Megumi to eat a bit more than usual, though not by much, he takes it as a good sign.  They rest just long enough to soothe the ache in their feet, but as soon as they’re moving again, the pain returns.  Neither one of them complained.

THe sun was just starting to set when they finally reached their destination.  Megumi stopped them both just on the perimeter of the territory.  An unsettling feeling spiking in his chest had his instincts telling him not to step any closer without a plan. 

Silently, he glances over to Yuuji, who’s already surveying the area.  He must have felt it, too.

“Cursed energy?” Yuuji mumbles, his brows furrowed as he meets Megumi’s hard stare.

The dark haired boy nods his head once in confirmation.

“Yeah,” He hums back.  “And a lot of it” 

It was impossible to ignore.  Cursed energy in great quantities had a natural buzz, like static electricity in the air.  This wasn’t that at all.  If Megumi closed his eyes and focused on it, he was sure he could feel the ground below him vibrating with thick waves of energy.

One thing was for sure, they were in the right place.  But whatever it was that was happening here put him on edge.

“Keep your guard up,” He muttered, stepping past the brush they’d been hiding behind and heading towards the building.  He tucked his hands into his pockets as he glanced over his shoulder to make sure Yuuji was following.  “And your expectations low” He adds upon seeing the grin on his friend’s face.

✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧

“Arms up, Megumi!” 

Despite her offensive stance and the glow of cursed energy around her fists, (y/n’s) voice was full of pure delight.  Sometimes when Megumi would spar with her, he would be reminded of Maki.  He never understood why she never sought her out instead, surely the older sorcerer was a better match for her twisted delight with training.  Nonetheless, here he was on a Saturday, rolling his eyes as he raised his hands to keep his face behind his arms so that when she hit him she didn’t break anything.

(y/n) spoke as if she could read his thoughts.

“Skipping out on training doesn’t get you to Grade One, y’know,” She told him as they started circling.  “And if Yuuji can’t teach me Black Flash, I’ll have to learn it myself!” 

“Did you even ask Nanami?” Megumi grumbles, already knowing her answer.

She wasn’t one to ask for help.  Only ever requesting a training partner- or victim, as Nobara had once affectionately put it.

She didn’t give him an answer anyways, throwing a fist towards his exposed stomach, trying to apply her cursed energy at the last possible moment.  She not only didn’t succeed in using Black Flash, but she missed hitting him too, as he dodged with a graceful sidestep.

“If you’re so scared, why’d you say yes?” (y/n) asked, gearing up to find a weaker spot on him to aim for.

He doesn’t want to answer that, but she clearly isn’t going to make her attack until he gives her something, so he huffs.

“No one else would wake up at this hour on a weekend” He says lamely.  It feels like a lie when he says it, even though Megumi knows it’s the truth.  

It was seven in the morning, after all.  Yuuji and Nobara likely wouldn’t be awake for a few more hours.  If (y/n) needed a partner to train, her options were severely limited.

“Guess you’re right” She shrugs.

In the same motion she throws another punch at him, this time her cursed energy crackling in her hand, giving her some hope. But even though she landed a hit on his shoulder, it was still unsuccessful.

She groans loudly, to which Megumi scowls, seeing as he was the one that just got punched.  He rolls his shoulder to work out the ache before taking his defensive stance again, waiting for her to try again.

“You’re not in the right mindset” He points out.

She raises a brow at him.

“You wanna chase me around a bit?” She suggests, only half jokingly.  Megumi snorts, but stops himself before he could actually laugh at the idea.

“No,” He shakes his head.  “You should try something else” 

“Like what?”

“I don’t know,” He huffs, annoyed for trying to walk her through a technique he’d never even used.  Still, he finds himself brainstorming another approach.  “Try psyching out,” He suggests, nodding his head as he thinks it through.  “It’d be more effective that way anyways.  If you’re using hand-to-hand with an opponent but don’t lead with it, you’ve got the element of surprise on your side, too,” 

(y/n) nods along with him, finding the advice to be surprisingly solid.

“So if you let them underestimate you, then catch them off guard, you’d probably be good as gold” He finished.

She beams at him as she raises her fists again, ready to take his advice out on him right away.

“Just remember you suggested it when I take you to the infirmary later” She teases.

Megumi smirks, widening his stance and raising his arms to protect his face again.

“You’ll still have to figure out the technique” He reminds, but the coy look on his face suggests that he had no doubt in his mind that she could master it in no time.

✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧

The inside of the building was so loud and rambunctious, it was downright overstimulating.  Megumi fought the urge to cover his ears as soon as they entered the premises.  Crowds of people swarmed multiple levels- he counted about six before getting distracted by all the pushing and shoving- and it was no secret what it was they were wildly rooting for.

“A fighting ring, huh?” Yuuji grinned, not out of delight for the sport, but surprise for the timing of a setting like this.  Did these people even know about the games?

“Great,” Megumi clicked his tongue bitterly as he surveyed the crowds with a furrow in his brow.  “Should’ve expected he’d pull some shit like this” He muttered too low for Yuuji to make out what he was grumbling about.

The squared ring where the current match was taking place wasn’t too far from where Yuuji and Megumi found themselves, but with all of the people in the way it made it difficult for them to see who was winning.  Too many arms in the air with money in their fists blocked the fight.  But it seemed whoever was up there was getting thrown around like a ragdoll.  The sound of a body rapidly being smacked against the rough mat or against the chains surrounding the ring were heard in quick succession.

However despite the sound of someone being brutalized, the match continued.  Neither of them have caught a glimpse of either combatant, but they knew it must’ve been an impressive lineup as it had been a few minutes of this now.

“Is this even legal?” Yuuji asked.  Megumi scoffed, although he wasn’t trying to deliver a rude response.

“Not even a little bit” He mutters back with a shake of his head.

Wordlessly, they decide they’re going to push through the horde of chanting people to get a better look at what was going on.  They pause in their shoving when a booming voice erupts from an intercom, the screech of an excited announcer sounding throughout the building and echoing across the concrete infrastructure.

“Place your final bets now!” He drawled every word out for dramatic effect.  “Will our resident Panda live to see another day?” 

Yuuji and Megumi locked eyes instantly, and without having to say a thing, began pushing and shoving forward again.  The sea of people cast them dirty looks and occasionally pushed back to scold them for their rude behavior, but they paid it no mind.

There could only be one Panda in that ring, right?

Sure enough when they got closer to the square, they could see the wide, furry expanse of a panda- The Panda’s- back.  His shoulders were trembling, not from pain or fear, but from the rambunctious laughter he let out.  He raised his paws, tilting his head back as his howl boomed.

Yuuji’s face brightened excitedly upon seeing their old friend.  Megumi couldn’t help but feel some relief as well.  Neither of them had considered the possibility of scattered sorcerers they knew being here.

They were close enough now that when Panda spoke, they could make out what he was saying.  The crowd around them was too busy screaming and chanting threatening cheers to care about what the fighters in the ring were saying to one another, but Yuuji and Megumi did their best to listen in.

“Just try not to knock me out this time!” Panda said through his laughter.

Was he throwing the fight? Megumi didn’t quite understand the context to this statement.

“Last time they didn’t bother to move me off the ring, I slept here all night!” Panda continued, his laughing ceasing as he took on an irritated tone.  “Ruined my back!” 

His opponent only laughed.  Something feminine and twisted, but undoubtedly genuine.

Megumi’s heart plummeted to his stomach.  He recognized that sound.

When Panda’s body was knocked back into the chains of the ring from a swift but heavy kick to the chest, his opponent was finally made visible.

A girl.  Not that girls couldn’t fight, but this particular girl had a cutthroat attitude when it came to fistfighting a bear.  It seemed every swing of her arms as she landed hit after hit on him grew faster in speed.  Half of her face was covered with a black mask, but the bloodied grin on her face was that of someone who believed they couldn’t possibly lose, no matter what beast of an opponent they might face.

Recognition flashed in Megumi’s face, making him go pale as he watched her strike two blows to Panda’s jaw so quickly it had to have given him whiplash, sending his furry head back and forth with such great force.

If Panda was throwing the fight, it didn’t really look like it.  He blocked a hit here and there with his massive paws, but she always seemed to move quicker to outsmart him.  Ducking and weaving around him with graceful feet and agile movements to keep herself from getting caught by him again.  Clearly she’d learned a lesson when he’d been throwing her around earlier.

When Panda did try to land a hit on her again, she grabbed his large wrist in one hand, still grinning as she used the momentum of his swing to swing herself forward and kick her feet into his chest.

The first from the right foot, directly against his ribcage, knocking all wind out of him.  

The crowd began to go wild, anticipating something Megumi hadn’t caught onto yet.

The second from the left foot, kicking lower against his stomach, making him curl over and heave.

But before he could catch his breath or clutch his stomach, she struck with her right foot again.  

The third and final blow came with a shock of blue energy, an abundant amount of cursed energy striking him in the chest so hard it sent him a few feet backwards, crashing into the chains and crumpling to the mat in a heap of black and white.

It was undoubtedly Black Flash.

She didn’t taunt him as the referee began his countdown before calling a knock out and declaring her a winner.  She didn’t strut around or try to rile up her fans in the crowd.  Not that she needed to, the people around Megumi and Yuuji were clawing at their own faces in astonishment from watching her take her opponent down with ease and showmanship.

And when the match was officially over and the announcer was hyping the crowd up for the next fight over the intercom, she slid out of the ring and left the area without so much as a wave.  It took a few minutes for Panda to get up, but eventually he was sauntering his way out of the ring too, waving to the few people who were his diehard fans and didn’t take his defeat tonight as anything more than some bad luck.

“Come on” Megumi beckoned Yuuji to follow him, his feet already moving as fast as they could take him through the mob, struggling to follow the exact direction that Panda and his opponent before him had gone.

Yuuji kept up fairly well, but Megumi wouldn’t have noticed.  He was driven forward by absolute panic, his heart racing in his chest with a feeling he’d thought he’d relinquished days ago when he’d tried to stop living in denial.

But he couldn’t get the image of that girl out of his mind.  She was so… he couldn’t get his hopes up.  Her laugh was so familiar he couldn’t have possibly mistaken it for someone else's… he shouldn’t get his hopes up.

“Yo! Panda!” 

Eventually the crowd thinned out enough that Yuuji tried using the power of his loud holler to get their friend’s attention.  Panda perked up immediately, spinning around and searching the crowd for the familiar voice.  It didn’t take long for his eyes to land on the waving boy with the unmistakable head of pink hair.  He grinned, and his ears twitched a bit as he turned completely and began to make his way towards the pair.

“Itadori!” He beams wider as he reaches them, as if they could have turned out to be figments of his imagination.  “Fushiguro!” 

He hugs them both at once before either could protest.

“I can’t believe you’re here! Did you come to see me fight?” He laughs at his own joke, shaking his head before they could even say anything.  “Really though, what are you doing here? It’s not as fun as it looks, y’know” 

“We’re looking to talk to Hakari-” 

“Who was that with you?” Megumi speaks up before Yuuji could begin his explanation.  

Yuuji turns to him with a confused look, which Panda shares for a moment, before he chuckles.

“She went down that way,” He said, pointing behind him in the direction he’d been heading.  “(y/n/n) always ditches fights fast.  Hates the crowd, I guess.  Not me, I love the-” 

“Wait, (y/n/n)?” Yuuji repeats the semi-familiar nickname, his jaw going slack and his eyes widening.

He turns to share a look with Megumi, but it seemed the raven haired boy was already processing just whose nickname that could’ve been.  His face was flushed so pale he looked sick.

“As in (y/n)-(y/n/n)?” Yuuji continues.

“Yeah,” Panda nods affirmatively, not understanding just how devastating his casual response was for the younger sorcerers in front of him.  “She’s-” 

“She’s alive?” Megumi finally speaks. 

His voice is hardly above a whisper, but the words are like a dropping bomb.  Clear, and unmistakable.

Panda blinks in shock, his features contorting in realization as he looks between his two friends.  He doesn’t know what to say, doesn’t even know where to start.

So he nods his head, and turns to point down the corridor he’d been heading once more.

He gives them specific directions to where she’d been likely to go.  Megumi listens but doesn’t quite hear a thing he’s saying.  His heart is pounding in his ears, his body is going hot, and even once his feet are moving on their own accord- apparently having understood the directions just fine without his ears- he frets that he might break down into a panic attack if he’s not quick enough.  

The warning signs are there, the labored breaths, the hot and cold flashes in quick succession, his blurring vision- but he ignores all of it, racing through what was left of the crowd to slip into the near empty corridor.  Yuuji is hot on his tail as they dart through, eyes moving in all directions at every doorway and passerby, just to be sure that they wouldn’t miss her.

“(y/n)?” 

Her name leaves his mouth in a strangled choke of syllables, as though it were his first time speaking in months.  

She hadn’t been facing his direction, her hand still on the handle of the door she was about to open.  Her movements had been rushed, like she were hoping to sneak into the room and lock the door behind her as quickly as possible.

But now, as her hand stilled and a chill shot up her spine at the familiar voice, her movements were far too slow as she turned towards the owner of said voice.

Megumi and Yuuji are standing a few feet down the hall, their heavy footsteps having skid to a stop when they finally did see her.  She’s closer to them now than she had been in the ring, and although she still wore the mask, she was far more recognizable now.

Her hand trembles as she raises a hand to her head, pulling at the black material of her mask until it gives way, sliding off her head and pooling in the palm of her hand, revealing her face completely now.

Her eyes were wide as they moved between Yuuji and Megumi slowly, disbelief written in her features from the way her brows drew together, to the part in her lips but no words coming out, to the way her eyes began to water as they snapped back into reality and began to move closer to her.

“Megumi?” She drops his name in a mumble, barely audible even to herself, but seeing him here, right now, has her in such a state of shock that she could have believed Panda threw her around too rough and now she was experiencing delusions.

But then she’s moving too, her feet shuffling at first before picking up pace and running towards them once she’s close enough that she didn’t even need to.

“(y/n)!” Yuuji cheers when they’re huddled close together again.

“Yuuji!” She throws her arms around his neck and hugs him tight, rocking back and forth in bliss upon seeing her beloved friend safe and before her now.

When they part, Megumi still hasn’t figured out what it is he should even say.  He doesn’t know where to start, doesn’t know what to do with his hands, and suddenly feels so anxious he worries he might throw up.  To his luck, (y/n) acts before he has to, and she’s giving him the same warm welcome.

Her arms are tight around his shoulders, and her fingers curl into the material at the back of his uniform jacket.  She gathers the fabric in her fists, making sure that he won’t pull away until she’s squeezed every bit of comfort out of his embrace as possible.

And to her surprise, he returns to affection with more force than she would’ve thought.  One arm around her waist, keeping her snug against his chest, the other laying upwards against her spine so that he could bury his hand in her hair and cradle her head close to him.  He’s shaking, she can feel it, and she pushes closer until her face is buried against his shoulder, hoping to ease his panic.

“We- I thought-” He gasps between struggling breaths, and she’s never heard him sound so broken.  He drops his head so his lips hover over her ear when he finds his voice again.  “I thought you were dead” 

Her heart spikes with an odd feeling, and she squeezes him a little harder before pulling back.

“Alive as ever” She says with a weak smile and an awkward shrug of her shoulders.

Megumi has to shove his hands into his pockets to hide their obvious trembling.  The rush of adrenaline in his system hadn’t quite worn off yet, and at this rate he wasn’t sure that it would.

“Well what happened?” Yuuji asked.  “How’d you end up here?”

She lets out a humorless chuckle before wincing.  

“It’s… it’s not an interesting story,” She explains, then beckons with her hand to have them follow her back to her door.  “Here, I sorta have my own space, if you want to come in I can tell you about it, and then you can tell me what you’re doing here, too” 

Yuuji begins a long winded rant right away.  He tells her all about meeting Yuuta and dying again, and despite Megumi sending him a dirty look for going into too much depth about the parts that didn’t matter as much, (y/n) was an attentive listener, taking in every detail and asking him questions, too.  A lot about Yuuta, seeing as she hadn’t crossed paths with him in months, it was good to know he was still out there and on their side.  Yuuji continued on about the culling games, and how they had come here originally looking for Hakari.

“But then we found you and Panda- hey wait, do you know Hakari?” Yuuji asked excitedly.  “Maybe you could talk to him for us-!” 

Her eyes widen with uncertainty, a nervous smile stretching over her lips as she shakes her head quickly.

“I- I don’t know about that,” She tells him.  “He doesn’t really come out much, I think I’ve seen him once since getting here.  I wasn’t exactly trying to get on his radar.  He doesn’t love those affiliated with Jujutsu Tech, you know” 

“What? Why! He must like you, your fight was very entertaining!” Yuuji gushes.  Megumi sends him another look that he ignores.  “And you mastered Black Flash! He’s got to be interested in- ow!” 

Megumi smacked his hand upside the back of Yuuji’s head, making sure this time that he didn’t miss the look he was giving him.  His displeasure wasn’t exactly subtle.  (y/n) laughed through her nose at the pair that hadn’t seemed to change too much in their time apart.

Besides the fact that Yuuji had a few more scars on his face.  And Megumi looked like he had lost a bit of weight.  Besides that, their demeanors hadn’t changed one bit.  For a second at a time, she could pretend things were normal again.

“Go find Panda and tell him our plan,” Megumi orders gruffly.  “See if he has any ideas on how to get Hakari to see us” 

“What? But-!” 

Megumi widened his eyes, silently telling Yuuji to go.  The pink haired boy huffed, but stood from his seat on the floor and shuffled towards the door.

“And keep a low profile!” Megumi called, only for Yuuji to wave him off nonchalantly before shutting the door behind him.

(y/n) chuckled when it was just the two of them, turning to face him again.

“So,” She breathes out a heavier exhale than she’d expected.  “How’s he really holding up?” 

“How you’d expect,” Megumi replies honestly.  “It was really rough for a while.  We all were… pretty messed up.  Still are, I guess” 

(y/n) frowns.

“Yeah,” She mumbles.  “Shibuya… was…” She drops her head before she could finish her thought.  There wasn’t a word strong enough to explain the devastation of the incident.

Megumi’s fingers begin to twitch, fiddling and locking together as he thought over what he wanted to say next.

“Look, before we…” He starts, but loses momentum quickly.  He clears his throat to try again.  “When I last saw you, I-” 

“It’s okay,” (y/n) cuts him off before he could say anything more.  The face he makes is uncertain, and she gives him a nod as she repeats herself.  “Really, Megumi, it’s okay.  It was just a fight, it didn’t mean anything” 

“But I-” He starts, only for her to shake her head again.  “But it did mean something” He argues.

“We fought a lot, Megumi,” (y/n) chuckles.  “Trust me, if I was holding onto resentment over every time we ever argued, you wouldn’t be sitting here right now” 

“No- not like that,” Megumi shakes his head.  “It meant something because you left and I- I didn’t think I’d ever see you again, (y/n),” His voice holds a grave tone that has her kind smile faltering and her brows pinching together as she watches him.  “Yuuji said he lost track of you when you were dealing with all the transfigured humans and- and then you were just gone” 

(y/n) blinks, her mouth opening and closing a few times as she realizes just how long it had been since they’d seen each other.  How long he must’ve carried around guilt and grief over her.  It makes her heart sink, and she shuffles forward on her knees to sit closer to him.

“I got dragged out of the train station pretty quick,” She tells him.  “There were so many of… them… and I knew that I was worrying Yuuji while exorcizing them.  Cause- cause it didn’t feel like exorcizing,” 

Megumi nods, recalling how Yuuji had told him she’d been crying during the whole ordeal, something quite out of character for her.  Even now as her eyes begin to tear up, the sight is alarming.

“It felt like… like killing,” She whispers.  “So I started leading them away and got outnumbered and got dragged out further.  By the time I… once they were all gone, I was out of it.  I must’ve passed out or something, because when I came to, Shibuya was… gone.  I tried finding you- I tried finding anyone-” She tries to catch her wording, but she’s not quick enough.  “But it was just rubble and dust.  It was nothing.  After a while of trying to find somewhere to land to… to rest and regain some strength, I found this place and Panda with it and I just… stayed.  It sort of started to feel like this is all that was left,” 

She lets out a shaky sigh, rubbing her clammy hands over her thighs to relieve some of the stress building up in her body.  It doesn’t do much, but she continues the action a few more times.

“You know, I didn’t necessarily think I’d ever see you again, either,” Her eyes are downcast as she speaks.  “For a while I wondered, um, if you’d show up here…” 

“Sorry it took so long,” Megumi replies quietly.  She lets out a short, watery chuckle.  “But we’re here now,” He adds, moving closer to her, until she looks up at him, surprised by the sudden close proximity.  Her eyes are wide as they flicker quickly over his face, trying to read his expression.

It was a new one for Megumi, one she’s not sure she’s ever seen on him before.  Except maybe the night in the infirmary, when he’d stitched up her arm.  Her face feels warm, and she can’t decide if it’s because of the memory, or if it’s because of how close he is to her.

“And I’m not going anywhere without you” He tells her.  His voice is low, but instinctively, she doesn’t feel a shroud of doubt in his words.

She blinks to try to rid the tears from her eyes, but after reliving the last week and a half, and reuniting with the people she’d been naively hoping were just missing and not gone was starting to get on top of her.  She’d spent quite some time shoving down bitter thoughts and choosing to stay in denial.  As long as she focused on her matches and made enough of an earning to have a place to crash, she tried to stay as blissfully ignorant as possible.

Still, there had been a few sleepless nights when she’d wander outside and try to find a few constellations in the sky, or when she’d lay wide awake and let the tip of her finger trace over the perfectly straight scar on her shoulder.

“Really?” 

The question comes out with a shaky breath.  She held no uncertainty in him, Megumi was a man who was always true to his word, but reality was beginning to settle in and the urge to hold on to him and never let go was growing stronger.

Megumi nods, clearly amused that she even had to ask.  It felt like the first time in a long time that a smile began to twitch on his lips, the muscle feeling awkward from underuse.  His eyes gleam as he reiterates his intentions.

“We’re not splitting up again,” He tells her, a weight hanging on to each word.  His eyes move between hers, and when she blinks, a tear sticks to her lashes.  “I’m not losing you again” He adds in a smaller voice.

A choked sound that almost sounded like a laugh comes out of her as she nods back at him, shaky and fast.  For once, agreeing with him completely.

To (y/n), there had always been something about Megumi that drew her to him.  He was easy to pick on, easy to tease and laugh at.  She found joy in their banter, even when it was less petty and more serious, there was a magnetic spark between them that she just couldn’t deny.  She’d tried to explore that feeling, before Shibuya.  But she’d never known how exactly to approach it, always becoming apprehensive of the foreign feeling.

Now, it felt so easy to jump into the unknown territory that she felt silly for never having worked up the courage to do so before.  The fear of losing someone she cared so much about was too great, and there was no time to waste.

Her tear dropped onto her cheek, the fat droplet rolling slowly across her skin until it dipped into the edge of her wobbly smile.  A few more followed shortly after, unable to be stopped no matter how hard she willed herself not to cry.

Just as she raised the back of her hand to hastily rub the wetness away, Megumi beat her to it, moving closer to her as both hands worked softly to catch each tear.  They were cold against the hot wet skin, just as she’d remembered, and she found herself shutting her eyes and leaning into how comforting they felt.  The tears didn’t stop, but she didn’t seem to be in any anguish.

“I’m not losing you again either,” She whispers, her fingers skimming over his wrist before she clasps her hand around it, making sure he doesn’t pull away just yet.  “I- I can’t” The words come out in a small whimper.

Megumi nods in understanding.  His thumbs swiping across her cheekbones, and softly under her eyes, trying to catch every last tear.

“I know,” He says softly, still nodding as his eyes wander her features, making sure there weren’t any lingering tears he’d missed.  “I know, and you won’t, ‘m not goin’ anywhere” 

When their eyes lock again, she’s overwhelmed by an influx of emotion.  An eagerness to have him back by her side, a desire to keep him there next to her and never let him go, to never let anything take him away again.

“Listen, ‘gumi, I-” She tries to put words to the feeling, wanting to explain to him that having him here with her was sending her heart into orbit, wanting to tell him that knowing he was alive and he was okay was the first time she’d felt happiness in what seemed like weeks.

But the words are too difficult.  They’re too big and they get caught in her throat.  Rather than try to force them out, she acts on it instead.

Megumi anticipates the movement before she leans forward, catching the way her eyes rapidly shift between his and his mouth.  He reciprocates the look, curious to see if it meant what he’d thought it did, but just as quickly as his eyes land on her parted lips, she’s shooting forward and pressing them against his.

It’s a rushed kiss at first, full of anxiety and grief that hadn’t fully been relieved yet.  It’s  messy lips and clashing teeth, but once they both realize that whatever this feeling was, it was reciprocated, they relaxed.

Megumi sighs through his nose as he cups her cheeks and keeps her close, kissing her a little more softly, a little more deliberate in his need to display to her just how much he’d missed her.  In turn, (y/n’s) hands rest against his shoulders, squeezing just firm enough that he could feel her there, without being too aggressive.

Kissing her like his life depended on it made him feel like everything could turn out alright now that she was with him again.  Now that he was sure she was here, feeling the heat in her cheeks, and her soft breaths against his cheek, Megumi thinks his life had depended on this.

Up until about an hour ago he’d been mentally checked out since Shibuya.  Seeing her again brought him back a sense of purpose he hadn’t even really noticed he’d been losing.

Her hands are gentle when they card into his hair, combing softly through the dark locks that seemed a little longer since the last time she’d seen him.  He sighed at the sensation, unintentionally breaking their kiss.

The tips of his hair tickle her skin as his forehead drops to rest against hers.  (y/n) lets out a soft, breathless giggle before opening her eyes.

He’s smiling at her.  So full of delight that his blue eyes seem to gleam, and they’re crinkled at their corners.  She can’t help but smile back at him, her heart full and her face warm, even with his cool hands still holding it.

Megumi moves then, fingers catching a loose strand of hair.  He twirls it thoughtfully for a moment before tucking it behind her ear carefully, and laying his palm across her cheek again.  His long fingers splay out, wanting to touch as much of her as he possibly can, just to keep sure that she really is in front of him.

“No more runnin’ off, alright?” He murmurs, the tip of his nose grazing hers.

Her hands latch behind his neck, her focus on his lips as she thinks about kissing him again.  They linger there for a moment before shyly meeting his gaze again.

“Don’t let me go again” 

He shakes his head, a silent vow to never do anything to push her away again, and even if he fails to keep her by his side, he swears he’d follow her, wherever she may go.

With his eyes falling shut he leans in again, lips grazing hers as he speaks.

“I won’t,” He murmurs, and then once more before he seals their lips again. “I won’t” 

She could never part from him again.  She loved him too much to even conceive the idea.  What was next to come would be difficult, she may not have known Hakari very well personally, but she knew enough to be anxious about approaching him.  He was a bit of a loose cannon.  However she was sure that with Megumi- and Yuuji and Panda of course- they would come up with the right plan of action to gain his help.

With needy hands and a needier heart she clings to him now, just to be sure that she could never look back and regret not holding onto him tight enough.  He does the same, dropping his hands to circle his arms around her waist and pull her in impossibly close to him.

Whatever it took, he’d keep hold of her for the rest of their lives.  Nothing could ever take her from him again as long as she was right there in his arms.

✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧

[ i got you where i want you // you did it, i never // i’m falling for forever ]

✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧

xoxo ~ jordie

[jayflrt]

𝐀 𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐍𝐄𝐑'𝐒 𝐆𝐔𝐈𝐃𝐄 𝐓𝐎 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐁𝐔𝐂𝐊𝐒 49. #STARBUCKS_FIRST_WIN

IN A MATTER OF HOURS, YOUR COWORKER PIZZA PARTY HAD TURNED INTO A FULL-ON GATHERING. 

Not only had Heeseung and his group joined you, but the employees from Peet’s had dropped by, too. Soon, Chan and Renjun’s apartment was packed with everyone sitting in a circle and scarfing down the boxes of pizza. You thought it would just be Chaewon and Aeri coming over, but you knew things were getting serious once Jungkook, who Chaewon told you was notorious for never doing anything that required energy, showed face.

Obviously, no one expected the number of heads to double, so the pizza ran out soon after Heeseung arrived. Sunghoon took the liberty of exercising his Papa John’s employee privilege to pick up more pizza. It was even better than the pizza you all previously bought, and it was plenty for everyone to enjoy.

“Is this, like, a Starbucks-finally-burned-down party?” Wonbin asked before Aeri sharply jabbed him in the side. “Sorry, I meant an oh-no-Starbucks-burned-down party.”

“That wasn’t any better, Wonbin,” Aeri deadpanned. 

“We got our customer connection score report today,” Chan answered, finishing chewing the last of his pizza before continuing, “and we got the highest score in the district. We’ve never gotten a score over thirty before, and today our score was in the eighties.”

“Maybe they felt bad for you,” Jungkook suggested.

“Shut up.”

Heeseung turned to you, wide-eyed and breaking into a grin. “You guys got best in the district?”

“Yeah—number one! I was gonna text you about it.” Although you two were sitting next to each other, shoulder-to-shoulder, you still slid your hand into his. “We were almost tied with Starbucks in second place, so your survey really helped us.”

He squeezed your hand. “Totally worth the mermaid cosplay.”

Renjun raised his voice to say, “Riki, you should give us a speech, since you've been losing your mind over our customer connection score.” 

Minjeong, who was sitting between Jake and Aeri, let out a snicker. “Yeah, you’re the one who almost failed trigonometry over Starbucks.”

“I didn’t fail, for your information! I got a passing score,” Riki said with a huff.

Sunoo leaned back on his hands. “Yeah, a D.”

“And D’s get degrees, Sunoo,” Riki fired back before standing up. He raised up his glass of water, clearing his throat. “I was but a mere child when I first joined Starbucks. I didn’t know much about the world around me or the tribulations I’d face in my journey to becoming the best Starbucks in this district. However, today, I’ve become a man.”

(Sunghoon rubbed the back of his neck. “This kid makes me feel like I smoked a pack whenever he opens his mouth.”)

Riki continued, “I wanna thank Chan for always looking after me and being, like, my second father, even when I pissed him off every single shift, or when I used his credit card to buy LED lights, or when I made a weed frappuccino past closing hours, or when I forged his signature to get out of class, or—”

“You forged what?” Chan interjected, distraught.

“Anyway, moving on.” Riki waved off the store manager’s concerns and said, “I also wanna thank Jay for always being on my side, even when the odds were against me. And Renjun, I wanna thank you for always giving me credit when it’s due. Sunoo, you’re the best shift lead I could’ve asked for, even though I’d probably throw you under the bus for your job. Minjeong, I think you’re insane, but I appreciate that you strike fear in our hearts when necessary.” 

At that, Minjeong gave Riki a high-five, which was a little too forceful and left the kid’s hand stinging. 

Riki’s eyes then met yours and he softened his gaze. “Y/N, we all had our doubts about you when you joined, but you’re totally part of the Starbucks family now. I just really wanna thank you especially for letting me cover your shift so that I could get a bonus.”

Your smile dropped. “Man, fuck you.”

“I’m just here for the pizza,” Anton admitted, “but that was sweet… I think.”

Jay seemed to be wiping tears from the corners of his eyes. You were surprised that his eyes actually seemed to be glistening.

"That was a beautiful speech, Riki," he praised the high schooler.

“Thank you, Jay. I’ll miss you guys when I go to Harvard,” Riki finished.

“Your ass is not going to Harvard,” Jake said flatly.

The rest of the night was spent eating, talking, and watching the Harry Potter movies together. While some of the boys went outside for a smoke sesh, you and the girls discussed plans to get an apartment together for the next year. Since you lived alone, you figured it was about time you experienced living with your friends. Chaewon shared a Pinterest board with everyone to start pinning interior decoration inspiration. You and Minjeong were completely useless in that area of expertise, so you offered to help with picking out more practical things, such as kitchen and bathroom essentials.

You already knew that Heeseung was going to continue living with Sunghoon for the next year, but you were content with that. You weren’t sure you were exactly ready to move in with your boyfriend or anything, so you thought it was best that you two lived separately for the next year. The student apartments were close, anyway. 

When your boyfriend returned, his eyes slightly glossed over, you tugged on his sleeve to get his attention. He leaned down so that his ears were by your lips. 

“Ask them if they wanna watch the Mario movie,” you whispered.

He shot you a wary look, whispering back, “No! They’re gonna make fun of me. You ask them.”

“No, they’re gonna make fun of me, too.”

“Well”—his lips curled up in a smile—“guess we’ll just have to watch it on our own, then.”

After a while, everyone started to disperse, except for Jungkook, who decided to crash on the couch. It was nearly midnight, anyway, and Riki’s mother had called him about twenty times to get home soon. He was strangely at ease while everyone else was anxious for him.

Chaewon and Aeri left first, claiming that they had to go to bed early because they both had 8 a.m. classes. Wonbin and Sunghoon were discussing going to a party that one of their friends was hosting, and Jungwon and Sunoo immediately shot down the idea when they were asked to tag along

Sunghoon held his phone up to show everyone a Snapchat story of a guy in a Barney costume double-fisting two beers. “Bro, Vernon’s at the party.”

“We’re going home,” Jungwon insisted. 

“C’mon, it’s just for a few hours. We’ll bring you guys back home safe—or, like, we’ll try to. No guarantees. If your safety's compromised, blame Jake or something.”

“Hell no,” Sunoo deadpanned. “I have a paper to finish.”

“Also,” Jungwon added on, pointing an accusing finger at Sunghoon, “I don’t trust you.”

“The fuck? I’m trustworthy.” He turned to you and asked, “Y/N, you think I’m trustworthy, right?”

“No,” you replied immediately. “In fact, I was gonna tell Jungwon and Sunoo to save themselves.”

“Yeah, I can’t get spiked today, dude,” Jungwon said. “I have a fluids test tomorrow.”

After saying your goodbyes to Sunoo and Jungwon, who took a while to figure out where they parked their car, you turned your attention back to Sunghoon and Wonbin. Beomgyu walked up to your group after being occupied with talking to Jisung and Anton for a while. 

“Let’s just go for an hour or something,” Wonbin told Sunghoon. “Are Jake and Beomgyu coming?”

“I’ll join,” Beomgyu said. “I think Jake’s being dragged somewhere by Minjeong, though. Heeseung, are you coming?”

Heeseung started, “No, I—”

“Oh!” Sunghoon bursted out, grabbing his two friends by the shoulders and tugging them away. He turned on his heel quickly, muttering something along the lines of, “Let’s just leave them alone.”

You raised a brow. “What’s his deal?”

You were just able to catch Heeseung’s expression under the dim lamplight, noting how he shied away at your question and averted his gaze. You swore the tips of his ears went scarlet, although you weren’t able to properly discern whether your mind was playing tricks on you or not. 

“Uh, he’s probably just zooted,” your boyfriend said offhandedly. He shot you a glance once you two started walking in the direction of his apartment. “Are you cold?” Before you could answer him, though, Heeseung was already taking off his sweater to hand it to you.

You giggled. “Thanks.” After a few moments, you bit your lip and told him, “Hey, so, about the survey, I thought you should know—”

“—that Minjeong sent me the link?” he finished for you, a grin growing on his face. You stared at him, nonplussed. “Don’t worry, I already knew. When I showed Jake the text, he recognized her number immediately. I figured you guys were just being nice.”

“I’m sorry, I—”

“No, no,” he interrupted, shaking his head. “Why’re you apologizing? That was, like, the nicest thing they’ve done for me.” He wrapped an arm around your shoulder. “You really turned my life around there. I would’ve probably just been permanently banned from Starbucks by now if it weren’t for you.”

Your cheeks went hot. It was true that you and Heeseung growing closer definitely changed his relationship with the employees, but you could say the same for him, too. You were admittedly reserved before you met Heeseung, and dating him opened your world up to so many new people. You wouldn’t have had all these new friends if it weren’t for him.

“You’ve done so much for me, too,” you told him. “I’ve never been able to just spontaneously hang out with so many friends before. I never even approached people before, and now I’m gonna room with Minjeong, Chaewon, and Aeri.”

He smiled down at you. “They like you ‘cause you’re fun to be around. Give yourself some more credit.” When you two reached the door of his apartment, Heeseung stopped in his tracks instead of opening the door. You noticed the flush of pink dusting his cheeks when he mumbled, “By the way, I sort of got you a surprise for your Starbucks thing.”

“Really?” You beamed up at him. “Hee, it’s really not that big of a deal for you. You didn’t have to get me something over that.”

“No, it is a big deal,” he insisted. “If it’s something big for you, then it’s big for me, okay? So, close your eyes.”

“Okay.” You placed your hands over your eyes, and your chest felt hot when Heeseung moved his arm to place his hand over your hands from behind, too. Your back was against his chest, and you could almost make out how fast his heart was beating. After you heard the sound of the door being unlocked, Heeseung took small steps forward to get you to walk inside. “Ow. You stepped on my heel.”

“My bad. Step on my feet.”

You did as he said and proceeded to laugh as Heeseung awkwardly walked you further into his apartment after shutting the door behind him. You leaned back against his chest and stumbled a little once he had you step off of his feet. 

“Okay, stay right there,” he instructed, “and keep your eyes closed!”

You swayed back and forth as you waited for him to return. He didn’t take very long, but you were brimming with anticipation. You stilled once you realized he was right in front of you again. You were just about to remove your hands when Heeseung stopped you again.

“Don’t!” he warned, and then asked, “Remember when I stole that baby goat for you?”

Your smile was quickly replaced with a disapproving frown. “Lee Heeseung, do not tell me you still have the baby goat.”

“No!” he exclaimed. “I miss him every day, though. But… I remembered you said something about how it would be nice if we raised a pet together one day, and I know we’re not living together yet or anything, but I thought it’d be nice to share… something…” He trailed off, clearly flustered. “Er, so—yeah, you can open your eyes now.”

You removed your hands and a gasp fell from your lips almost immediately.

Nestled in Heeseung’s palms was the cutest baby kitten you had ever seen. You cooed as you reached over to stroke its plush, white fur. The mewl that came from the kitten nearly had you falling to your knees from how adorable it was.

“He’s a Ragdoll,” he told you. “I thought we could parent him together.”

Heeseung let you hold the kitten in your hands, and you held him close to your chest and pressed a kiss to the top of his head. 

“I could seriously kiss you right now,” you breathed out. 

“Don’t kiss me yet.” He grinned. “I have something else for you.”

You could’ve died of happiness on the spot. Your boyfriend really was completely unfair. How could he spoil you this much and expect you not to combust?

Heeseung dug into his pockets for a moment before pulling out a silver key. You were confused as he took the kitten back from you and placed the key in your hands. After you weighed it in your palm and inspected it for a moment, the dots started connecting in your head. You could almost feel the tears threatening to well up in your eyes.

“That’s our spare key to the apartment. It’s all yours,” he said. “I talked to Sunghoon about it, obviously, and he was totally chill with you having a key to our place. You can come by whenever you want, and you don’t need to wait for me to get out of class if you wanna come over and see our cat.”

“Heeseung,” you murmured, “I don’t know what to say.”

He seemed to visibly panic. “It’s totally cool if you don’t want it. I wasn’t sure if I was moving too fast with that or not, uh… Sunghoon and I just keep it under the doormat if we accidentally get locked out, so it’s really not—”

“I love you,” you breathed out.

His eyes grew wide. 

He quickly became a stuttering mess, scrambling to fit words together into a sentence, but nothing was coming out coherently. You almost wanted to laugh because his distress was so cute, but you decided to show him how you felt instead.

The words died on his lips as soon as you wrapped your arms around Heeseung’s neck and kissed his disquiet away. And this time, it felt like you were able to pour your entire heart into that one kiss because there was something that stirred deep within your heart as your lips moved against Heeseung’s soft ones. 

You never thought one person could move your heart like this, never thought someone could make you feel like you were made of magic, but Heeseung managed to wriggle his way into your heart so effortlessly. One of his hands moved to hold the back of your neck, deepening the kiss slowly—at your own pace. 

When you two finally pulled away after what felt like forever, Heeseung didn’t pull away from you. His nose nudged yours, then grazed your cheek, peppering several more chaste kisses to your lips before you were a giggling and blushing mess. 

Your boyfriend grinned. “I love you, too, Y/N.”

It was then when your kitten mewled from where it was resting on Heeseung’s free hand, seemingly wanting attention. You stared at it for a moment before realization dawned across your face.

“Yoshi!” you exclaimed. “We should name him Yoshi.”

He gasped. “I wanted to name him something Mario-themed! But I thought Mario or Luigi sounded stupid.” He snorted and held the Ragdoll properly again, using his knuckle to gently stroke his head. “Yoshi sounds perfect.”

You giggled. “Yoshi should watch the Mario movie with us. It’s only tradition.”

“I’ll get the popcorn ready.” 

He saluted and handed you the remote so that you could pull up the movie. You took the kitten in your hands and curled up on the couch, placing Yoshi on your lap. When your boyfriend returned, he wrapped an arm around you and started the movie, petting the kitten every now and then. 

And after your umpteenth rewatch, you were definitely going to brag about your new kitten to all your friends; you were going to start looking into applying for apartments for you, Minjeong, Chaewon, and Aeri to move into; and, most importantly, you were going to tell Heeseung you loved him over and over again until there were no doubts in his mind about your feelings for him. 

It was around three in the morning when Park Sunghoon stumbled to the front door of his apartment. He, Wonbin, and Beomgyu somehow ended up getting crossed to the point of nearly blacking out at the party. Thankfully, though, after sitting on the curb of a sidewalk for thirty minutes and having Beomgyu forcing Gatorade down his throat, Sunghoon seemed to sober up enough to walk back home.

Beomgyu insisted on walking him back after they dropped off Wonbin (who hardly remembered his own name at the moment), but Sunghoon was determined to brave the journey back home. 

He patted down his pockets and realized he only had his phone and wallet. No keys. He must’ve left them at home since he was out with Heeseung earlier in the night. 

But no worries. Sunghoon and Heeseung always kept a spare key under the doormat in case of emergencies like these. Sure, he and his housemate often got themselves into crazy situations from time to time, but the smartest decision they had ever made was keeping their extra key ready. 

However, when Sunghoon flipped the corner of the doormat up, there was nothing there. He paused and lifted up the doormat completely, but absolutely nothing was underneath. 

Fuck, he remembered, that motherfucker gave Y/N the stupid spare key.

He honestly couldn’t blame Heeseung because he agreed to letting Y/N have the key, but now he couldn’t get in the house. Couldn’t Heeseung give her the key at a normal hour, like tomorrow afternoon? This situation was fucked.

Sunghoon groaned and dialed Beomgyu’s number. After a few rings, his friend picked up.

He asked, “Weed Guy Beomgyu, can I crash at your place?”

“Use the doormat key,” was his friend’s curt response. 

“Heeseung gave it to Y/N.”

A couple seconds of silence rolled by before Beomgyu answered, “Fine. I’ll pick you up in a few.”

prev | masterlist | next

SUMMARY ▸ in which you work at the starbucks where heeseung is a regular at (and considered a public enemy). also he only goes when he’s stoned off his ass.

AUTHOR'S NOTE ▸ thank you for supporting a stoner's guide to starbucks all this time !! :') it has been a JOURNEY and i feel so so bittersweet about it ending but i very much appreciate all the love and support you guys have shown this smau <3 i am also very much content with this ending and i hope you guys enjoy it as well 🥰 the next chapter will be the epilogue and then i'll post some uncuts !! #LIGHTONEUPFORHEESEUNG

[green-blue-switcharoo]

What's your guys' opinions on math? Love it? Hate it? Indifferent?

No clue if this is a personal question but were gonna answer it that way,

I am a fan of math, trigonometry has to be the kind of math i hate the most tho- i hate shapes with a passion. I do however like working with circles and multiplication/division :D - Greg

I'm a big fan of doing big pemdas problems, and also I enjoy most geometry. I hate kcf and converting fractions to percentages though. -Chilli

[mariasabanahabanabana]

Wait... what?

Pairing: Joel Miller x Tess Servopoulos x Adopted!Daughter!Reader x Ellie Williams.

Summary: Your innocence and naivety almost ended up getting you and Ellie into serious trouble.

A/N: I know I've said it before, but, not all of my fics will follow the chronological order of the story, nor will they be as faithful to their origins, I mean, in certain aspects, but not all of them.

Warnings: Slight mention of topics such as stalking, farting, and kidnapping… (Don't worry, I won't go into them too much).

Spanish version available here

If there was something that kept surprising and at the same time disappointing (in an ironic way) both you and Ellie, it was the fact that despite being at the end of the hell of the world, schools still existed, it was mandatory to attend them, homework was still as or worse complicated and of course, taking classes that probably wouldn't help you at all, well, this would depend on what you would do in the future if there was one, to begin with.

A thought that deep inside Joel, as well as Tess, Tommy, Maria, or Marlene supported, but that none of them dared to admit out loud so as not to discourage you. With the exception of Tommy, who once when you called him for help with your trigonometry homework scoffed at the usefulness of the assignment. "I'll tell you something kiddo, in all this time I've been surviving the damn apocalypse I have never used tangents or anything like that and if I'm honest, I don't know how knowing that could help me defend myself against a clicker, anyway, where were we at?"

Yeah, maybe after that Joel "forbade" you girls from asking his younger brother for help with Homework.

Anyway, today was their first day of classes and both you and Ellie couldn't find yourselves more terrified and at the same time fascinated by the subjects to be studied in the following months.

Luckily for you, your classes were over, and possibly Ellie's too, you didn't have too much homework, and with the minimal homework that came to you or became complicated, you could help each other, although, thinking better of it, you couldn't. Since you and Ellie were not good at the practical part of the science, the best thing to do would be to go to Marlene or Tess.

Bored of waiting alone and standing in the middle of the hallway for Ellie, your friend and non-biology sister, you decided to go out to distract yourself for a while, a situation that would not be a problem given your extreme curiosity, naivety, which sometimes led you to peculiar situations, not to say problematic, just like right now.

When Ellie finally got out of her last class, the first thing she did was to look for you, not finding you in the library or in the cafeteria, she assumed you would be in the garden at the entrance, and so it was. There you were, standing there talking with a couple that clearly was twice your age, something that Ellie found strange at the time since the social circle of both was similar, simply put, and judging by how well she had known you, she knew that you were an orphan of parents and probably of a family as well. For all these reasons Ellie was surprised to see you talking so animatedly with those strangers.

As she got closer, something inside her told her that they were in danger and that they should get away from there and them now.

"Hey (Y/N), 'til I find you, Joel just called me and said not to be late, as we're on patrol today and making dinner." In a subtle and casual manner, she puts her arm around your arm in an attempt to get you to walk.

"What? Again? But we had to cook at this weekend… That old grumpy bastard".

"Yeah well, you know how old man is… we'd better hurry up." As Ellie said this, she could see the way that old couple was staring at you. It was a bit awkward and uncomfortable.

"'Kay…" You turned to your "new friends." "It was nice to meet you Mr. and Mrs. Weinsptein… I hope you manage to find your puppy…"

Before you could even take the first step, suddenly your hand was grabbed by The Husband, stopping you abruptly. "Don't you girls like us to take you home?

"Oh really? that would be fantastic…" Before you could even respond Ellie interrupted you.

"Don't worry, we'll be fine, besides our father is coming for us…"

Confused by your friend's recent attitude and words, you looked at her with a raised eyebrow, since Joel wasn't the kind of person who usually picked you up or dropped you off at school.

"Actually, I think he just got here… but thanks…" Without looking back, Ellie pulled you towards her, causing the old man's grip on your hands to loosen.

Even though you were far away from that couple and probably halfway back home, Ellie never let go of your hand, it was not a grip like the previous one that the man had given you, this was a soft, delicate touch, one that gave you a sense of confidence and security.

"So… How was your first day? Joel asked.

Again, Joel was not the kind of person who used to take too much interest in the lives of others, but as time went by his heart softened and opened up to the two of you.

"Oh it was definitely a day we won't forget" you replied with a smile as you took a bite of your food.

"And that? That bad was it?" Now it was Tess who was interested in the course of the conversation and your day.

"Not at all…or well, not as such since we're almost adopted."

"What." A dismayed Joel and Tees asked in unison, to which Ellie immediately corrected you.

"Actually we're almost kidnapped."

"Oh, okay…and how about the homew…? Wait, how?" For the second time in record time, Joel and Tess's reaction was once again simultaneous, the only difference being that Tess was half a mouthful of meat.

Spanish version available

[mathmatrivia]

So how big does the inner circle need to be in order to put those four points on one straight line?

It turns out to be about 38%. But this is math. We want to know exactly how much and we want to know how to find the answer!

Let's consider the bigger circle a unit circle, so R = 1. Then consider this triangle.

Ten equal sectors define the entire 360°, so they're 36° each. The center-touching angle of this triangle encompasses 2 of those sectors. Therefore, 72°.

Unfortunately, I have to use cosines now. Those who fear trigonometry may want to look away.

Cosine equals adjacent over hypotenuse. We defined the hypotenuse to be 1, because it's a unit circle. So the cosine of 72° is the height of that triangle divided by one. Or just the height of that triangle. h = cos 72°

Now lets look at this slightly different triangle.

That's only 1 out of 10 equal sectors that make up the entire circle. That's a 36° angle. And the cosine of that one is the height of the triangle (the same as the other triangle) divided by the radius of the inner circle — exactly we're trying to find! cos 36° = h / r But we know what h is. cos 36° = cos 72° / r Now we solve for r. r⋅ cos 36° = cos 72° r = cos 72° / cos 36°

That's the exact answer: cos 72° / cos 36°

If you throw it into a calculator, you'll get something like ≈ 0.3819660112510519363...

Like I said, about 38%. Or 38.197%, if you want to be pedantic. Which I hope you do.

And if you don't want your stars straight... that's fine, too. Every star is perfect for someone. ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜

[teenandbeyond]

hi, this my one of my first requests so i hope im doing this right!

can i request an nsfw senku x fem best friend reader that had similar traits as senku, where they both barely show they’re attracted to anyone, and turns down anyone who has feelings for them. but then they start catching feelings for each other, but both are having a hard time expressing it, and eventually senku is the one to step up? also senku gets a little submissive towards the end of the smut, and reader finds out she likes seeing him like that? sorry if it’s too specific! <3

Senku x Fem. Best Friend Reader

Low-key, I wasn't in a smut-writing mood, so I made it vague xD Edit: This reminds me of my Dr. Stone OC with Senku a little lol

Want more from me? Masterlist 2

☆*: .｡. .｡.:*☆☆*: .｡. .｡.:*☆

🧪Illogical🧪 (Dr. Stone)

Warning(s): Subtle smut, if petrification didn't happen

When two scientists who find love illogical catch feelings...

✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨

“It’s [Name]! The Ice Queen!”

You sigh, sauntering down the hall.

“There goes that name again…” you mutter.

Why do they call you that?

 

“H-Hey, [Name]?” a boy approaches you, averting his gaze.

“Mm?” you acknowledge, disinterested as you work on your current project in biochemistry.

“I’ve liked you since first year, w-will you go out with me?”

With furrowed brows you turn from your notes, “Since first year?”

His smile became hopeful, “Yeah!”

“And you waited until almost the end of our third year to say anything? That’s pretty sad, dude.”

‘Dude’ Attack Used! Fatality!

“Yeah…”

You could be pretty brutal with rejections, which annoyed you when after three years, people didn’t get the hint.

But to be fair, you were a triple threat, crazy smart, mysterious, and you’re beautiful.

And that’s why you were the Ice Queen, brutal with rejections—cold more often than not, and your beauty gave a mysterious air to your vibe.

To make matters worse, Senku was your best friend (who was also brutal with rejection).

So whenever you were together brutality was doubled.

“[Name]! Date me!” a boy nervously bowed, shoving a letter at you.

You raised a brow, “That’s not very original, the last boy did that.”

Senku shared a glance with you, “Creativity really lacks at this school, huh? This is 10 billion percent boring.”

“Really. Trigonometry would be better to waste my time with,” you sighed.

“Um…”

“Is he crying?”

“I should be the one crying, he came up to me out of nowhere with that. I feel attacked.”

The only person who you seemed to be playful around was Senku along with your other two friends at times.

“Is that why you’re rejecting me? Are you with Senku-senpai?”

You tilted your head, “No, neither of us are into the romance thing.”

But really, you were in denial.

Because something had developed, somehow for Senku.

You’d never thought of romance before with anyone.

It scared you, and you knew he was far from your mindset.

So, you pretended it wasn’t there.

Unbeknownst to you, Senku was in the same predicament.

“Damn it,” he muttered under his breath, tearing his gaze from you.

You looked so peaceful as you focused, unaware of the small smile on your face.

He’d never felt like this toward a girl before, he’d always been immune to this feeling.

Yet now, he was staring at you again. And his thoughts were yet again on you instead of his project he was currently working on.

You occupied his mind a lot, especially lately. Like his body decided all his hormones would assault him at full speed suddenly.

He blinked away the thoughts that tried to creep from the corner of his brain he’d shoved them to.

Now, based on general knowledge the both of you knew what it was.

But it was against your logical mindset, you weren’t supposed to have feelings for anyone.

Let alone each other.

And you couldn’t tell the other because you knew they didn’t like romance.

So, there was no way either of you could say anything, not that you knew how to express it anyway.

So, you found yourselves circling around this situation and the tension that began to build.

Then summer was edging closer, you had both planned to go to the same college, but you had another offer that was tempting.

Asked on video-chat one night, “Why do you want to go there all of a sudden?”

You applied face cream to your cheek, “Well, this college offers pretty much all of the same things, only difference is it’d be here in Japan instead of America. So, there wouldn’t be any reason for me to leave. Right?”

That statement echoed in his mind relentlessly for days, it didn’t sit right.

Deep down he knew why, but…he didn’t know if he could tell you.

 

“It’d be weird to not see you every day, though,” you chuckled.

He’d hate that, being limited to video-chat if he wants to see your face.

 

“Me,” he blurted one day.

“Huh? ‘You’, what?”

He looked into your eyes, leaning in,“Your reason to go. You can go for me.”

“Y-you? Why—”

“We both know why, [Name]. It’s ten billion percent pointless to keep dodging it.”

“I…I know. I just—I’m scared…”

“Scared?”

“Well, this is new. And…not logical…emotions are always a scary thing. You don’t have logic to hide behind, you have to be—"

“Human. Yeah, that scares me, too.”

“But…you’re right, we can’t avoid it forever,” you admitted.

The tension became much more apparent as you gazed at each other.

“Senku…”

“[Name]…”

 

You two were like magnets; a sudden pull overcame you.

At first, curious, unsure.

Then as you grew more comfortable, you gained some confidence.

And as scientists, you were definitely fine with asking questions.

“Senku? Is this okay?”

He tossed his head back, before looking down at you, “Yeah, definitely fine.”

And Senku loved to experiment with something he had yet to learn.

“Who would’ve thought the Ice Queen…would be so warm?” he muttered against your back with a smirk.

“Shut—Ah~!”

You saw another side of each other that day.

And you edged close to the end, but couldn’t get that release…

You watched as Senku let out a desperate whimper, something you’d never expected to hear from him.

His cheeks flushed, brows furrowed.

The cute expression was all you needed.

[greenhouse-studies]

Day 69 (nice) • 100 Days of Productivity

on my day off from school but not the work i need to do. i’m studying for biology and precalculus. my biology stuff is cell biology and my precalculus is trigonometry and the unit circle. i also did some history work today which was fun, we’re about to hit the Romantic era which i absolutely adore, especially the poetry from that era so i’m super excited!

🎶 stars - les miserables 🎶

[niki-phoria]

Hello, first of, I just wanna say your writing and stories has help me like literally 😭 so thank you so much!!!🤍🤍🤍

I was wondering if you could do Jake and Jay from Enphyen x male reader. Since valentines is tomorrow, maybe Jake and jay is trying to impress and try to get the male readers' attention. Jake and jay fights for Male reader to be their Valentine. For example maybe Jake and Jay trying to impress male reader with their muscles🥲. Ending could be fluff with male reader going out with both of them. Again if you don't wanna write this you don't have to lol. Have a great wonderful day!!!!!!!🤍🤍🤍🫧🫧

they look SO GOOD omg mullet jake >> and jay's earrings sknlknsl

pairing: non idol!jay x non idol!jake x male!reader (he/him pronouns) genre: fluff word count: 1.2k

includes: poly relationship (at the very end end), high school au, probably poor descriptions of high school, blushy jake, blushy jay, i love blushy boys lmao

a/n: thank you for requesting !! i made this a high school au bc i had a lot of inspiration for the idea i hope that's okay lol this is being posted after valentines day so i just made it into a normal confession fic. it means so much that you like my writing <33 i really liked this idea, i hope you like it :))

additional notes: it physically pains me that so many idols love justin beiber for some reason what does that man have that i do not /j i was looking for any solo covers from jay but all i could find was a duet with heeseung for off my face so that's what he sings here and the boquet is based on this pic

requests open !! read my rules first

you’re met with the overwhelming smell of flowers as soon as you open your locker. you can’t help the smile that spreads across your face at the sight before you. a bouquet of purple dahlias sits delicately placed between your textbooks. 

“i take it you like them?” jake asks, leaning against the locker next to yours. you smile, taking them out and holding them against your chest. 

“i love them,” you smile, pulling him into a quick hug. “thank you!” 

a light flush spreads across jake’s face when you pull away. “i’m glad,” he murmurs. he absentmindedly plays with the strap of his backpack. “hey, i was wondering-” 

his question is cut off by the shrill noise of the school bell, officially announcing the start of the school day. slowly, the student body begins dispersing through the hallways, entering various different classrooms. “shit, i have a test in second period,” you curse to yourself. “oh, what were you gonna ask?” 

“it’s nothing important.” jake’s blush gets a little darker as he waves you off. “i’ll walk you to class?” 

“sure.” you set the flowers back as you close your locker, eagerly returning to jake’s side. his hand brushes against yours before he slowly reaches over, taking your hand into his. 

you dramatically sigh, throwing your head back in frustration. jay stifles a chuckle as he watches you roll onto the floor, laying on the carpet. “math sucks,” you whine. “i hate it here.” 

“what are you working on?” 

“trigonometry.” you nearly hiss the word. 

“come on, it can’t be that bad.” you lift your head to glare at him through your fringe before dramatically laying back down. 

“i am but a poor teenage boy. i can’t be expected to memorize the unit circle!” 

jay laughs, setting his notes aside and kneeling down next to you. “alright, why don’t we take a break?” you sit up as he walks over to the other side of his room, grabbing his guitar from it’s resting place against the wall. 

“ooh, gonna play me a song, pretty boy?” the nickname makes a dark flush spread across his face as he sits across from you. 

“i wont be able to if you keep flustering me like this,” he whispers. you chuckle. jay sets the guitar across his thigh, positioning his fingers along the neck. “i’m a little nervous, i haven’t played in front of anyone before.” 

“well, i’m honored to have the privilege of being the first.” he nervously repositions his fingers on the chords, staring down at his hands. “hey,” you reach over to grab his hand, making him look at you. “you’ll do great. i’m sure of it.” 

jay smiles, nodding. “thanks.” he takes a breath before he begins, slowly strumming the strings. “‘cause i’m off my face, in love with you / i’m out of my head, so into you / and i don’t know how you do it / but i’m forever ruined by you.” 

jay lets the final chords ring out. you sit in a comfortable silence for a few moments. “you’re incredible.” a flustered smile makes it’s way across his face, blush deepening a little. 

“thank you.” he whispers. an odd tension hangs in the air when he looks up at you. you stare into his eyes, deep brown pulling you in. their darkness is alluring. in the next minute you sit staring at him in silence, taking in every part of him, you decide you’d like to get lost in them forever. 

you sigh, setting your belongings onto the library table. jake stifles a laugh as he watches you. “you know we’re gonna have to pick all of this up later, right?” 

you playfully glare at him, ignoring him as you set your bag down on the floor. across from you jay smiles. “you know y/n. he can’t study if he doesn’t have a highlighter in every color in case he needs to take notes.” 

“at least i’m prepared,” you retort, opening your computer. “what are we working on anyways?” 

“chemistry lab.” 

“don’t you actually need to take notes though?” your eyes widen as you look over at jake. 

“notes? did i miss something?” 

his eyebrows furrow as he looks at you. “for history. about the korean war?” 

jay chuckles. “did you forget?” 

“i think so.” you close your laptop, sliding your chair back to stand up. “can you watch my stuff? i need to get my textbook.” 

“go ahead.” 

“thanks.” 

jay waits for you to leave the library before leaning in a little closer to jake, voice dropping to a whisper. “are you two going out?” 

“what?” jake cocks his head at him. “no, why would you think that.” 

“i heard about the flowers.” 

“oh, that’s just a little joke we do every year.” jay nods. “why do you ask?” 

“i was planning on asking him out.” jake nearly freezes as he stares at his friend. this time it’s jay who’s confused at his reaction. “what is it?” 

“i, um…” jake glances over his shoulder before dropping his voice even lower. “i like him too.” 

“i thought you did.” jay has to stop himself from laughing at jake’s shocked expression. “come on, you’re not exactly… subtle.” 

“oh, and you are?” 

“listen, i don’t want this to affect our relationship, but i also don’t want to miss out on a chance with y/n.” 

“so, what are you thinking?” 

“i’m thinking we both ask him out and let him choose.” 

“choose?” jay shrugs. 

“i mean, unless you have a better idea.” 

“no, no. when were you planning on asking him?” 

“sometime tomorrow. probably at a cafe.” 

jake nods. “that works for me.” 

the cafe is nearly empty when you enter. you spot jake and jay immediately, both sitting together at a table. jay waves you over, smiling when you sit down. “sorry i’m late, i wasn’t expecting the rain.” 

“don’t be.” jake shakes his head. he slides a cup across to you. “we got you an americano.” 

“oh, thank you.” the cup is warm against your hand. you take your jacket off, setting it on the chair beside you. jay and jake share a glance together. you cock your head at them in confusion. “what are you planning?” 

“we’ve been talking, and we wanted to ask…” jake begins. 

“we both like you.” jay finishes. you raise an eyebrow at them. 

“and you want me to choose?” 

“that’s… kinda what we were planning, yeah.” 

you have to stop yourself from laughing in disbelief. “i’ve also been thinking and i like you too. both of you.” 

“so, you mean…” 

“listen, i really like you guys. and i’m willing to try this if you are.” 

jake is the first to react, reaching out to take your hand. “i really like you. i want to try.” 

you look over at jay. he contemplates for a second before nodding. “as long as we take it slow.” 

“we don’t have to do anything until all of us are comfortable.” jake squeezes your hand. 

“does this mean i can call you mine?” jay smiles. 

“i’ll be yours as long as you’ll have me.” 

[nogoandbees]

Ten Ways To Say "I Love You" | Neil Perry edition

First one shot of the serie. The gift isn´t mine.

Pairing: Neil Perry x Fem!Reader

Summary: Neil may never dare to say those words out loud, but he will take advantage of every situation to make you feel loved.

Word count: 950

N.A: Well, this was supposed to be a short one shot, but as I really enjoyed writing the first part I've decided to turn this story into a series. I don't really know when I will update the next part, but it will be soon so... stay tune!

This whole fanfic is dedicate to @mietlynn , thank you for all your love and support. I love you sis.

Next part here:

One

Little more than two months had passed since your arrival at Welton Academy. Of course, being the first and only girl to attend the school caused quite a stir, but things calmed down over time.

After being expelled from yor fourth school due to bad behaviour, your grandfather, Mr Nolan, decided that interning you in his own school would give you a lesson. Despite your mother's concern about leaving her little miss surrounded by teenage boys, your behaviour did improve.

Weeks passed and, although the idea of playing a prank on the teachers dangerously caught your attention, you were so immersed in your studies that you had no energy to plan any prank. You finally felt like you were learning useful things, and not the “how to be a lady” nonsense that the nuns tried to teach you in yor preveious schools.

However, what really changed the way you saw the school, were the friends you made there. By the second day you were joking around with Charlie and Meeks, and by the third day, Neil offered you to get into their study group. Not just that, you were proud to be a member of the second generation of dead poets.

Exams period was getting closer, but all of you considered club meetings more than sacred. You don´t really mind to sacrifice a few hours of sleep just to not fall behind on your studies after staying in the cave until late at night.

This particular night you had barely slept. All the poets were so fascinated in Byron's poetry that you all lost track of time. However, the thought of not handing over your trigonometry homework on time kept you awake until the sun began to peek over the horizon. When professor Hager said he would take a point from the final mark if anyone was late on his homeworks, he wasnt kidding.

When you finished the last exercise, you didn't even bother to get into bed. You waited a couple of minutes for the alarm clock to go off and sighed as you reached over it to turn off.

Through your window, you could see the path the dead poets took to go to the cave. A sleepily smile appeared your face at the thought of how quickly you had hit it off with the boys. Maybe, in other circumstances, a girl in a boys school would cause a hormone problem; being the head master´s granddaughter makes boor boys stay away.

Although most of the time you were grateful that it was so, your heart shivers every time Neil looked at you. You knew it was impossible for the boy to feel the same way about you; but you couldn't help but get butterflies in your stomach every time you heard him recite sonnets from Shakespeare, rehearse for his play, or just see him sitting in class with his glasses…

After a while, a bell pulled you out of your thoughts. Without being able to believe it, you grabbed the clock from your table, and with a gasp, you rushed towards the closet. You had wasted an hour rambling about Neil and the club, there were only a few minutes to get dressed and get to trigonometry class.

By running through the corridors and avoiding the rest of the stragglers, you managed to get to class before Mr Hager. You have never considered yourself a religious person, but the fact that the stricter and puntual teacher was five minutes late could be considered a divine miracle.

You sat at your place, behind Neil's, thanking any god in existence for his services. The boy turned to you smiling; he had the same dark circles under his eyes that you after the previous evening.

- For a moment I thought you wouldn't come. Did you stay awake after coming back from the meeting?

- It´s fine. I had to finish today's exercises, I've been up all night. I thought I was late, couldn't even get any breakfast.

As if waiting for a signal, your stomach growled for food. You hadn't realized how hungry you were until that moment.

Neil was about to say something when voices came down the hall. You both turned your gazes towards the door.

- Thank you for solving my doubts, sir.

- It is not necesarry to thank anything, Mr Dalton, but I still don't understand why you couldn't wait until we got to class to answer.

- I couldn't take another second without understanding the argument of complex numbers. I almost felt like I was going to faint!

Mr Hager came through the door followed by Charlie, who was still in the role of his concerned student. The chestnut had left full of numbers under his arm. Before sitting down on his seat, he looked up and winked at you mockingly.

As the teacher got the books ready to start class, Neil turned back to you.

- Are you sure you're okay, darling? It seems that you are going to fall asleep on top of the exercises at any moment -He asked raising an eyebrow

- These exercises worth more than my life right now. I wish I could have taken some coffee from the dining room. -Your stomach sounded again as if you were right.

Neil stifled a laugh as he shook his head in amusement. He casually reached down to pick up his backpack and pulled out a white, messed-up napkin and an apple.

- Sorry to disappoint you then. -He smiled as he placed the wrappers on your desk.

Curiously you unwrapped the napkin and you see a couple of toasts.

- I couldn't fit a coffee pot in my backpack.

~ End of the first chapter

[zeldahime]

Highway to Pail Day 17

[Day 1] [Prev] [Next] @do-it-with-style-events

February 17: Acute Angel

Warlock Dowling actually liked maths a lot, as a matter of fact. Everything about his life was weird or unpredictable, but maths had a soothing sameness about it. No matter how many ways you sliced it, whatever method you used, 104 times 986 would always come to 102,544. It would never end up being 17, or a sudden flight to a different continent, or an argument about whether or not Alexander the Great was burning in Hell. It would just be one hundred and two thousand, five hundred and forty-four.

The Earth was round, the sky was blue, and maths was his favorite subject.

He just didn't understand why everyone in his life seemed so upset about it.

His father thought it was some "sissy nerd shit, Harriet" and his mother was worried it meant he might not go into politics and she wouldn't be mother of a president; he'd heard them arguing about it when he was meant to be asleep. His tutors didn't like it either, even though they were supposed to be teaching him: Mr Cortese simply didn't understand maths at all and seemed desperate to escape any conversation where it came up, and Mr Harrison kept giving him harder problem sets and teaching him new things about it, but seemed worried whenever Warlock mastered a new theory, like he thought something bad would happen if Warlock thought too hard about it. Or, given Mr Harrison's gleeful obsession with evil warlords and pits of lava, like he was afraid something good would happen. And, of course, if any of the other kids found out, he'd never hear the end of it; he'd be teased until the end of time (or until they found something else to focus on, which is the same thing when you're ten-nearly-eleven). It was bad enough being named Warlock without inviting teasing for anything else.

Mr Harrison had taught him geometry, and how the Babylonians had divided circles up into 360 degrees like the number of days there were in a year, and how to calculate angles. He said earlier that day that once Warlock got the hang of circles and degrees, he'd get to do trigonometry next. He'd spent the rest of the day thinking of nothing but triangles.

Mr Cortese was trying to explain the lessons of the Founding Fathers to him—probably pretty badly, since he was English and kept backtracking over himself, though Warlock wasn't really listening—as Warlock drew pages and pages of angles in his workbook, trying to fit eight together into a circle made of 45° angles, or 12 30° ones. As he was absorbed in his angles, Mr Cortese's words washing over and past him, he remembered how Mr Harrison sometimes called him "angel" when they thought nobody was listening, and honestly Mr Cortese kind of looked like one, or as much as a grown-up could anyway without wearing a white dress and fake wings, and angel and angle kind of sounded the same....

Before he knew it, a lot of Warlocks angles had wings attached, including some of the ones he'd made into circles; it looked pretty wicked, actually. Maybe if he drew flames around them too, or maybe gave them swords?

Before he could decide, Mr Cortese had slid the notebook away from him.

"Fascinating perspective on the foundations of republicanism in the modern era," Mr Cortese said dryly, and Warlock's cheeks burned. "Your attention please, Mr Dowling? Where did you drift, and we can start again."

Warlock mumbled an "I dunno," and Mr Cortese sighed. "Well, we can hardly start the entire lesson over today," he said, and Warlock slouched down in his chair. "Well, perhaps it would be better to switch places, don't you think? Why don't you try teaching me about your maths? Mr Harrison has tried but between the two of us," Mr Cortese's voice dropped to a whisper as he took a seat, "he's simply not a very good maths teacher, at least not for me. I don't understand a word he says about mathematics."

Warlock perked up, though he quickly buried it. "I won't be a better teacher than Mr Harrison," he protested, but under the encouragement of Mr Cortese's smile, he tried anyway.

Mr Cortese didn't get it after he tried to teach it either. He just wasn't very good at maths, Warlock thought. Which was fair enough: Warlock wasn't very good at history or literature, and that wasn't Mr Cortese's fault.