#extremely cursed but nicely decorated place

[uluvjay]

Fall in love with you- T. Zegras

Trevor Zegras x Best friend! Reader (feat. Quinn Hughes)

Summary: you knew Better than to fall in love with Trevor

Warnings?; angst, self-doubt, crying, asshole Trevor, cursing, Quinn comes to the rescue, this is extremely old and hardly proofread so I apologize for any errors!

Next part

—

You were Trevor’s best friend, your moms were best friends in collage leading to the life long friendship of you two.

You two had always been close even when he moved to Michigan for hockey you never drifted. He begged you to come to Boston with him for collage even though he only stayed a year and your had gotten into your dream school.

It was Trevor how could you say no?

That was a problem of yours never being able to tell him no. He wanted to go to a party even though you hated them? You went, wanted you to stay up late with him despite you having a big test the next day? You did it.

You always blamed it on the fact he was your best friend but everyone besides Trevor knew you were lying, they could all see how in love you were with him they just never brought it up.

The first person to call you out on those feelings was Quinn Hughes. Trevor had invited you to the Hughes lake house two summers ago where he constantly left you and was hardly even home most nights, usually with some random girl he met that day.

There had been an argument between you and Trevor, you blew up on him after he came home from another one night stand telling him if you knew you would be spending more time with the Hughes family and their other friends then him you wouldn’t have come in the first place.

He got offended saying he was allowed to have fun to even though that had nothing to do with what you were saying, after he stormed out of the room you were staying in you made the impulse decision to book a flight back to New York, and get the hell out of there but Quinn had caught you packing.

—-

“Hey you okay we heard you two yell- woah what’re you packing for?” He asked stopping himself mid sentence

“Im going home Quinn, thank you for opening your home to me I really appreciate it and you guys have all been so nice spending time with me while Trevor’s off with random girls every night”

“Wait, why are you leaving though? Did Trevor say something? I’ll go kick his ass right now if he hurt your feelings”

“No he didn’t I-I just can’t do this anymore, he begged me to come and of course I said yes like always just for him to pretty much say fuck me and leave me to be with some random girls who probably took pictures of him sleeping so they can post them an-“

“Your in love with him” he said cutting you off

“What? No Quinn, I’m not” you replied with a defensive laugh

“Don’t lie to me”

“Quinn I’m not”

“Cut the bullshit” he told you more stern shutting the door

“I’m not lying”

“Yes you are, I see the way you look at your phone when he lets you know he won’t be coming back, how you stare at the marks on his neck and back, how you stare daggers into all the girls that talk to him, the way your face lights up when he walks into a room, your in love”

“He can’t know Quinn, it’ll ruin everything” you told him looking down at your hands

“Hey, your secrets safe with me, but you can’t do this to yourself forever kid”

And that’s how You and Quinn also became best friends

—-

Fast forward two years and here you are back at the same Lake house in the same predicament. However over last summer you became good friends with most of the guys including Jamie and Mason who came with from Anaheim.

You Graduated from collage in May and got your degree in interior design, tonight Quinn and Jack were hosting you a small graduation dinner as they wasn’t able to attend your graduation along with some of the other guys.

You were standing in the Kitchen with Cole, Quinn, Jack, Trevor and Jamie who had all just come back from a workout.

“So Y/n you gonna come to Montreal and help me make my house look nice? I need some help decorating my shelves they don’t look good” Cole asked

“You can reach your shelves?” Jack asked causing everyone to laugh

“Shut up asshole” Cole replied

“Yeah Coley I’ll come help but I won’t be needing your stepladder I should be good” you said adding in to the joking

“You know what fuck all of you” he said walking off laughing

“Love you!” You called out laughing as well

“When he murders us all in our sleep I won’t be surprised” Quinn said causing everyone to let out light giggles

“Y/n what color you wearing tonight? I don’t wanna clash��� Jack asked you

“You act like you won’t be wearing shorts and a random shirt ” you replied “but probably this white dress I bought a little while ago, I’m finally tan enough to wear it”

“You can’t wear white, the girl I invited is” Trevor blurted out looking at his phone

“Dude what the hell? I told you this was a lake house thing only, only the people staying here are allowed at the dinner, no extra invites” Quinn said getting a little pissed

“Aren’t your parents coming? Along with Luke, some of his friends, and y/n’s one friend? Why can’t my friend come”

“That’s our Family Z, they have a relationship with y/n and she knows Luke’s friends from them hanging around they’re like all madly in love with her” Jack said joining in

“Y/n’s fine with it right?” He said giving you the look he always did when he wanted something from you

“I’m not paying, it’s up to Quinn and Jack they organized the dinner” you said looking away

“Yeah so she’s not coming and if she for some reason does show up, she better not be in white, it’s Y/n’s night” Quinn said ending the conversation and walking out everyone else following besides you and Trevor.

“What the hell was that?” Trevor scoffed

“What?”

“You totally taking Quinn’s side!? Are you in a mood with me or something? Why can’t my friend come”

“Because I’m not paying Z, it’s not something i organized Quinn and Jack did, if I had it up to me we’d being having pizza and sitting around a fire not going to a fancy restaurant.” you told him growing a bit annoyed.

“Whatever” he mumbled stomping off.

—

Four hours later everyone was in a private room at some fancy restaurant in Michigan, in all it had ended up being You, The Hughes family, Cole, Mason, Jamie, Trevor, Dylan and Luca.

Trevor hadn’t spoken to you since earlier in the kitchen and hadn’t gotten off his phone since you guys had gotten to the restaurant.

Jamie and Mason had both said something to him multiple times but it just ended with Trevor giving both of them attitude.

You were talking with Ellen about the new things she had planted in their home garden when Trevor stood up and pocketed his phone walking out of the private room.

“Okay can I ask what the hell his problem is?” Ellen had asked loud enough for everyone to hear.

“I didn’t let him invite one of his little hookups and he got mad because Y/n took my side instead of giving in” Quinn explained.

“He hasn’t said a word to me since like noon either” Jack added.

“Okay this isn’t about him and let’s not make it about him, tonight is about Y/n and her achievements” Jim said shutting everyone up just in time as the food was being served.

Ten minutes later the door opened back up and in walked Trevor with a blonde girl.

You froze, was he serious right now? For one night he couldn’t listen and not go off and do what he wanted. You looked around and seen Jamie and Cole both rubbing their foreheads and looked next to you at Quinn who had his head titled back, then to your right to your best friend who looked like she was about to murder both Trevor and the blonde girl.

You returned to eating until you heard someone scoff and a chair scoot out, as you looked up you seen Jamie pulling Trevor out the room, leaving the girl in the room.

“And you are?” Ellen asked causing Luke and Jack to both let out slight laughs at how straightforward their mom was.

“Emma” she replied

“Mm” was all Ellen replied, she also knew about your feelings for Trevor

The door opened back up and in walked a pissed off Jamie which was a rare sight to see, and an annoyed Trevor.

“Everyone this is my girlfriend Emma” he announced and it got so quiet you could hear a pin drop as everyone looked from them to you.

Did everyone know about your feelings? Were you truly that noticeable when it came to how you acted around Trevor?

“Since when?” Mason asked

“Three months” Emma answered

Everyone just stayed quite, the tension could be cut with a knife and the amount of awkwardness was uncomfortable.

“I think it’s time to head home” you whispered in Quinn’s ear

“Yeah, I’ll go grab the check” he said getting up and walking out

“Where’s he going?” Trevor asked

“To get the Check” you replied

“Already? Is that what you whispered in his ear about? I’m not ready to leave you can’t just decide when we all leave Y/n”

“Well I’m ready to head home Trevor and it was my graduation dinner but you of course found a way to make the night about you” you snapped standing up and leaving.

—

Once everyone got home you went straight to your room and got changed into comfortable clothes, went down stairs, made a drink and went outback.

You were feeling a rollercoaster of emotions, you loved Trevor and he constantly hurt you but honestly it was your fault, you were the one that never told him how you feel how’s he supposed to know you wanna be the one in his bed every night?

You were also angry at him, how dare he pull the shit he did tonight at your graduation dinner of all things. You celebrated multiple achievements of his with him and never once made it about you, it just wasn’t fair.

You didn’t even realize someone had come outside or that you were crying until you heard someone ask you something.

“Huh?” You asked as you came back to your surroundings to see Jack sitting next to you.

“I asked why your crying”

“Oh it’s nothing” you rushed out wiping your tears

“Non of that Bullshit what’s up” he asked

“I love Trevor, no I’m in love with him, have been since I was 17”

“I know” he replied nonchalantly

“What?!”

“It’s not hard to notice y/n, your pretty bad at hiding it” he said with a laugh

“You don’t think he noticed do you..”

“No he’s to stupid” he told you laughing again

“Good, I just don’t know what I’d do if he found out I was in love with him, we’ve been best friends since we were born it would ruin everything.”

“You’re in love with me?” You heard the person that shouldn’t be asking that question ask it.

“Shit” you mumbled closing your eyes

“I’m gonna head back inside” Jack said getting up and patting your shoulder

“I asked you a question Y/n, please tell me you’re talking about someone else you’ve been friends with since kids.”Trevor said

“No it’s you, I love you” you said in a low voice

“What the Fuck” he said with a laugh

“I know, I know I’m sorr-“

“Sorry doesn’t cut it Y/n! Do you know what this is going to change? Everything! Our whole lives, every moment we’ve ever shared, it’s all different now”

“I know that’s why I never said anything, I knew you wouldn’t feel the same” you mumbled

“Damn right I don’t feel that way”

“Can you not be rude right now?, you listened in on a conversation you had no business hearing and now you know information that just ruined our friendship, I don’t need you being an ass”

“Why? Why me y/n?”

“I don’t know Trevor! I ask myself that every single day, why you, why my best friend? And I don’t have an answer ” you told him.

“You should have known better”

“It not like I wanted to fall for you Trevor, it’s not like I hoped and wished that I’d fall in love with you and ruin a 22 year long friendship.”

“We need space, I need space y/n I don’t know how to feel about this.” he told you

“I’ll find the next flight to New York tomorrow and be gone” you told him walking past him and into the house.

—

As you were laying in bed you heard someone knock on your door, “come in” you said with a hoarse voice from crying

“Hey I just wanted to check in, Jack told me what happened” Quinn said walking in

“It was so bad Quinny” you said breaking down again.

“No, don’t cry, it’ll be okay y/n” he said sitting next to you and rubbing your back

“I’m leaving tomorrow” you told him

“Why?”

“He said he wants space so I’m gonna go home, I think it’s for the better you know getting away from him”

“Don’t go home, let’s go somewhere”

“Where?” You asked with curiosity

“A beach?”

“That sounds nice”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah” you said looking up at him with a smile

—-

Next part

[hellfire--cult]

Edit of Eddie: Sofiiel

Stripper!Eddie x Shy!Fem!Reader

Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5 - Part 6 - Part 7 - Part 8 (end)

⚠️ +18 MDNI, Stripper!Eddie, Stripper!Billy, Stripper!Steve, sensual dancing, shyness towards men, nervousness, fainting, sexual innuendos.

Summary: You thought you were cursed with your shyness, but after one embarrassing night, you decide it's time to change, and you believe someone might be able to help with that.

A/N: IDK MAN. I just needed to write this down so that my brain could stop messing with me and I am still writing. This will be a two part thing, maybe three, with long chapters. It will have smut, and a lot of sexual tension my boys, but it won't be a long series.

As always, all reblogs help, tagging it, and I always enjoy reading your comments!

Part 1

You shouldn’t be here.

You knew you were not going to be able to tolerate it, yet, here you are, at your best friend’s bachelorette party. You weren’t nervous about that, no. Before coming to the place you are now, you had all gathered at her home, which was decorated and drinks, food and games were all around to play with. 

Most of the time, you could handle the decoration your other best friend picked. Robin was in charge of decoration for Nancy’s wedding, and everywhere you looked, a dick was there. In all shapes, colors, and some were not even humanly shaped. But there were times in the day where you had to excuse yourself to catch your breath in the bathroom because of it as well.

And now, things have gotten worse. Extremely worse. Because you seriously forgot this part of the party. This part that Robin had talked to you about. This part where you begged her to not do it because it was super cliché.

You were at a strip club. A male, strip club.

“Best seats on the house ladies!” The host greeted us and you could read the name on the tag as Joyce. She seemed nice, and welcoming, but the place you were in wasn’t remotely inviting to you. The table, in question, was right next to the end of the catwalk, so you were going to have the show right in front of your face.

You were sweating already, feeling your stomach flutter around as you looked around to all the excited women waiting for the show to begin. You didn’t even read the presentation of the men that were performing tonight. There were pictures at the entrance, with their names, ages, and some hobbies, but you couldn’t even do that.

“Hey, you okay?” Robin whispered to you worriedly, and you snapped your head towards her. You didn’t even know you were staring at the catwalk with a terrified look in your face. “You can go to the bathroom if you want, or just go wait in the car? I don’t want you there alone, but if it’s too much, just leave.” She says to you, not promising to go with you if that does happen.

You cannot blame her, and you can’t be mad either. She had organized everything, knowing you couldn’t do it. Knowing there was no way you would do a reservation on a place like this. She can’t leave Nancy, not even if Barb, Vickie, and Kali were there, so you just nodded at her, trying to shake your nervousness away.

“Yeah, yeah… I’m fine Robs.” You replied to her and she sighed, giving you a small nod. You didn’t want Nancy to have a bad night, so you believed you could endure this, just for an hour or two. 

But your shyness towards men has followed you since childhood.

You tried kissing, getting a boyfriend, even having sex, yet, meeting random men made your nerves go crazy on you, to the point of almost feeling like throwing up. You thanked your dad for this horrible curse. Growing up with no male figure whatsoever, and your mom being cheated on three times in your face did nothing to help with your shyness, and sometimes, even fear. Just small of it.

You weren’t afraid of men. You were afraid of what they could do, of what they could ruin in just a second, of how manipulative they can be. You know women can do that too, but you never met one like that, nor heard stories about it. You’ve seen it in movies of course, even books of the woman being the cheater and the horrible person you believed only men could be. 

But the shyness always worsened if the man before you was handsome. Your ex boyfriend was just remotely attractive to you, that’s why you gave it a chance. It sounds horrible, but you weren’t attracted to him, because if you were, you were sure to shut down every time he talked to you. 

It’s sad you weren’t attracted to women like Robin is, or bisexual like Vickie. If you were, you might not even have this problem, or maybe yes, because if you were attracted to women too, then this issue might even escalate there. 

But you weren’t, so that’s why your shyness didn’t exist around the female crowd. 

“Okay ladies, prepare your bills!” Barb yelled excitedly and your heart almost jumped out of your chest. You were seated the farthest away from the stage, so you would have to just sit back and hope to make no contact with whoever dances on that stage.

You were also hoping these men weren’t even remotely handsome. 

The lights went off as your drinks were getting delivered and you were chugging down on your Margarita as if it were water to make your nerves go away, knowing very well they won’t, while the rest of your friends yelled loudly in excitement. The tables full of ladies around you also yelled loudly as Unholy from Sam Smith started playing and your breath caught in your throat as the first man walked out.

He had brown hair, with a bit of volume and styled nicely, brown eyes, and he was dressed like a priest, rosary dangling in his left hand. He was handsome, yes, but thanks to the outfit your nerves were still remotely stable. You heard the ladies all around you cheer while drinking some beer.

“Hello Stevie boy!” You heard the woman coo as she waved at him, and you saw him wink back at her. She must be a regular you thought. The lights were bright as he walked down the catwalk, between the tables, and you were feeling your leg going up and down as he came closer. 

The lights suddenly went fully red as the chorus hit, and his grand had gripped the collar of his cassock, and in one tug, he had ripped the buttons, fully opening his garments and your eyes widened, your stomach turning into a sea of nerves and nausea as his abdomen was revealed, slightly toned, beauty marks all over. Your eyes trailed downwards, and he was wearing some tight short black briefs. Your friends all cheered as he took the garment off, throwing it on the floor as he swayed his hips while running the rosary all over his chest, down towards his abs.

You were surprised no one was offended by this.

He turned towards the table that was opposite of yours and dropped on his knees as he swayed his hips towards the ladies there. You had perfect view of his ass and you blushed a deep red as you tried to look away. You were glad it wasn’t your table, because you weren’t going to do what the ladies in that table or your friends were going to do. 

Dollar bills were being shoved in his briefs by hungry and lustful hands, and he always kept a smile on his face. You turned to see he was facing your table and the blood in your system drained completely. He crawled over and as he reached the very edge of the catwalk, he glided his abdomen down, as if grinding onto the floor, and his eyes were trained on Nancy.

She was wearing a small crown with white flowers, and a small white veil dropped at the back of her head. He knew it was a bachelorette party. You sighed with relief knowing this now. You weren’t going to be the focus of it! All the men were going to pamper Nancy because they know it’s her bachelorette party! One last whoop of ‘freedom’ before tying the knots. 

He jumped off the catwalk as he stepped over towards Nancy. You saw how he moved Nancy’s chair to face away from the table and she was giggling at the strength he had. You were trying to keep up with the clapping to the music but you were distracted as he stood over Nancy, over her lap, both hands gripping the back of her chair, his face inches from hers.

You were sweating now. You don’t know how Nancy could be smiling at this, shoving bills in his briefs. He bit onto the rosary that was wrapped in his left wrist, making it unwrap itself from there, and let it dangle from his mouth as he grabbed onto her hands and made her roam his chest, down to his abdomen sensually.

“GO NANCE!” Robin yelled while cheering and you were just stunned at how calm everyone is about this. He was swaying his hips over her as their eyes were locked with one another. You could see him smirking with the rosary’s beads still in his mouth and your jaw almost dropped at how sexy this man was, and you were extremely intimidated by it.

Your feet wanted to up and leave, but you were trying to stay calm, knowing Nancy had her veil on, and the night would be on her.

This Stevie boy leaned down to her face and his nose nudged her cheek, and you were sure he was going to kiss it, but he didn’t. He was letting heavy hot breaths onto Nancy’s skin, making it have goosebumps all over and shiver. Knowing this, Steve finally pulled away, putting the rosary around Nancy’s neck, winking down at her and pushing himself off her.

He hopped on the stage, the song finishing while the women cheered all around. He bent down towards his outfit to get something out of pockets and your eyes widened when he took a bottle out, a large vial with a cross on it. He grabbed onto the cork with his teeth, smirking as the crowd yelled in excitement. He walked back towards Nancy, dropping down off the stage, the lights shining on them as he handed Nancy the bottle and making her stand up from her chair. 

Nancy bit her lip as he slowly got on his knees, his hands over his chest in a praying position and you felt your heart coming out of your throat as he smiled up at her. She put the bottle over his chest and tilted it, dropping the water on him. All the girls were cheering and you looked down to the table to fight the shakiness and the blush on your cheeks. 

How did the girls do this with no problem? 

The song ended and he got claps all around as well as Nancy who was fanning herself with her other hand. The man stood up, completely drenched, his body glistening under the lights. Nancy took all of the bills from the girls and started shoving them in the edges of his briefs while he chuckled at her enthusiasm. He knew she liked the show.

“What a lucky man.” You heard him flirt with her, giving the table a wink which made you jump slightly, and he got on the catwalk under the dimmed lights, receiving claps and last hollers as he picked his outfit from the stage and gave a last smile to the crowd before disappearing behind the curtains. 

“Oh my god.” Nancy made you snap out of your staring as she fixed her chair back onto the table, and she was still fanning herself, putting the bottle on the table. “I am definitely taking that as a souvenir.” 

All your friends giggled and you couldn’t even take off the panicked look you had on your face. You licked your lips as everyone ordered a new round of drinks. You needed to calm these nerves down and you decided to talk to Robin again.

“Robs, how many dancers are there?” You asked her and she winced slightly and then sighed.

“Just two more.” Two. Two, okay that wasn’t so bad, you can handle two more. “You doing okay? Was that too much?”

“A little freaked out, but thankfully, Nancy is going to be the main person at our table, so I won’t be even near these men.” You said, almost as if convincing yourself and Robin nodded at you with reassurance which made you sigh a little bit in relief. You can handle a little more, it was bad, but it didn’t happen to you so watching it was tolerable.

After a few minutes, Joyce brought another round of drinks and you had another Margarita ready to be downed in two seconds. Your nerves stood on end as the lights dimmed again. You heard the roaring of a car as the song ‘Bad Karma’ from Miley Cyrus started blasting on the speakers. 

The curtains opened to a man wearing just a denim jacket over his naked torso, a blonde mullet in his hair, sunglasses over his eyes, while his legs were covered in tight jeans and a black belt around his waist. The women cheered and you could see some already fanning their faces. 

“This is Billy, right?” You heard Barb ask Kali, which the girl nodded excitedly. You could see the man smirk, showing his teeth towards the crowd as he licked over them as if excited. He walked a little bit to be in the center of the stage, and he turned around to shake his hips slowly while holding onto his jacket, opening it wide. Your eyes fixed on his backside, and his ass was even better than the last man. You felt your body burning wildly as he turned around, showing his torso in his full glory thanks to him widening open his jacket. 

Moans could be heard in the song and this Billy guy bit his bottom lip as he started to take off his jacket, slowly, swaying side to side, teasing all the women he was standing in front of. They were whining at him for not fully taking his jacket off. He nodded towards his jeans and the women understood perfectly, standing excitedly to shove some bills into the edges and some in his pockets while he chuckled, his hips moving from side to side.

He fully took off his jacket, throwing it towards the start of the stage and the women cheered as he grabbed the hands of an older woman, looking like 70’s or more, while bending down, kneeling in front of her. She was laughing, feeling shy about the action, shaking her head to a younger woman who was encouraging her. You tilted your head at the woman in confusion. She was acting shy, trying to pull away with a smile to her face but he was still holding onto her. If she didn’t want to, why was he making her do it?

You saw how his smirk turned into a soft smile, intertwining his fingers with hers, saying something to her and you could see the woman smile, while giving him a soft nod and she put both her hands on his chest, and he yelled out in cheer towards the crowd, who all clapped and cheered for the bravery of the lady. 

He smiled down at her as the woman retreated her hands with a giggle. The younger one was laughing next to her, cheering her on and this man bent down to give the older woman a kiss on the cheek, leaving her red and you could even see the words ‘thank you’ displayed on her lips. He stood back up, his smile turning into a devilish smirk again as he scanned the room. His eyes landed on your table again, and you jumped slightly because you didn’t know who he was looking at, but you didn’t have anything to worry about it, because it was Nancy’s bachelorette party—

Nancy wasn’t wearing her crown. She didn’t have the veil on.

You felt your breath getting caught in your throat as he walked towards the table, hopping off the catwalk and walking by Nancy, passing his hand in the back of her chair. He then passed behind Robin’s. You tensed up when you felt his presence behind you, your knuckles going white on your thighs, not even daring your gaze to follow him. Your heart was beating wildly, like never before. If you were to look at your smartwatch, it was probably at 165 bpm. 

You felt the air you were holding in your lungs leaving you when he didn’t grab your chair, or you for that matter, but he held tightly onto the back of Barb’s chair, tilting her backwards for her head to look up at him, hitting onto his torso. He grinned at her, taking his sunglasses off and you were stunned to see the brightest set of eyes you’ve ever seen in your whole life. You didn’t expect those irises, and you could see Barb’s throat bobbing up and down nervously.

He put her back in place as he shoved one of his sunglasses’ temples down Barb’s cleavage, hooking them in place there. His hands ran over her chest and down her sides. You saw your friend’s eyes close as she shivered with a smile on her face. You caught something in your peripheral view, and saw Joyce walking with a small tray. She put it in front of Barb and your eyes widened when you saw a small glass with salt in it, a slice of lemon, and a shot of tequila. 

“Oh…” Barb said with wide eyes, and she felt her chair being pulled away from the table and the man chuckled at her, stepping in between her and the table, showing her his white teeth.

“That’s for me, sweet thing.” The women around us cheered and swooned, as Nancy hollered towards Barb while he bent towards Barb’s ear to whisper something and you saw Barb smiling and nod in approval. 

You gulped tightly as you saw him grab the lemon from behind him and then hold onto the back of Barb’s head, tilting it backwards. He ran the lemon onto the side of her neck, dampening it, and then he ran a thumb on Barb’s chin, making her open her mouth. He put the side of the lemon’s skin in her mouth and she held it in between her teeth. He then grabbed onto the salt, and put some on his hand.

The ladies around us were clapping with rhythm at the same time, encouraging what was happening as he smiled devilishly at his crowd. He then looked down at Barb and pressed the salt onto the dampened part of her neck, sticking it to the skin. She shivered at the touch and he then wiped his hand on his jeans as he held onto the tequila shot in his other one. 

“Ready for me?” You heard the women ‘woo’ at his words and you almost covered your eyes as he tilted Barb’s head to the side, leaning down towards her with a smirk on his lips. He took his tongue out and gave it a flat lick, slowly, sensually, pressing his tip at her pulse point as he felt the salt finish. 

“Holy fuck.” You heard Robin say and you just wanted to bolt the hell out of there. This was too much, even for you, a spectator. He took the shot, throwing his head back with it, throwing the glass to the side, and it didn’t even break. He held onto the back of Barb’s head, leaning back down to lick onto the lemon on her mouth. Barb’s fingers were hooked at the front pockets of his jeans, pulling him close. He smirked widely as he finally bit onto the lemon, his lips touching Barb’s as he did so.

Your breath got caught in your throat. You didn’t know Strippers could kiss guests, clients at that. In the cheek, or neck, was one thing, but on the lips? 

Your group of friends had dollar bills in their hands, ready to put them in his pants and you felt a deep blush creep in your face from nervousness and embarrassment. You didn’t want to be the only one to not put a bill there. He was just doing his job, but you were just too shy to do so. Robin grabbed your hand and put a bill in there and you were wide eyed looking at her.

“I’ll help you, you can just close your eyes!” You were thankful for Robin. She was helping you in not being seen as a cheap person, not paying them for their entertainment. You nodded nervously at her, gulping loudly as you saw the Billy guy finally pull away from Barb. He took the lemon out of her mouth, throwing it onto the tray again. She was smirking at him and he followed her gaze to his pants and he saw the money she shoved in the front pockets of his jeans.

“What a sneaky baby.” He winked at her and he walked towards Nancy for her to shove her bills in his pockets, then Kali, then Vickie, Robin, and you felt your breath on your throat as he looked at you, cocking his head to the side as he inspected you. Robin grabbed tightly onto your hand and you closed your eyes, feeling your heart in your throat as she guided you towards the hem of his pants. As soon as you felt the denim, you shoved the bill there, and your hand flew back to your lap, as well looking down at your table.

You didn’t even look if he was still there or not, but you felt your body on fire, and cold at the same time. You didn’t know if you would be able to take another dancer. The anxiety and nervousness was destroying you inside out at this point. 

“He’s gone.” You heard Robin whisper and a sigh of relief escaped you as all the girls looked at you worriedly.

“You can go to the car, I won’t get mad babes…” Nancy coos at you and you look up at her. You remembered how Nancy helped you move into your apartment, settle in, help you call your internet service and fight off the plumber that wanted to scam you for a leak that was in the kitchen sink. You shook your head at her and let out a breath.

“I’m okay, it’s just one more, right?”

“I took off my veil so that everyone could have the chance of a dance–” At that Kali intervened.

“We don’t mind if you put it back on, it might make her feel more comfortable.” You were thankful for the friends you had, all understanding, but you didn’t want to ruin their fun, so you put on a bright smile on your face and nodded at Barb.

“What if the next dancer does something even wilder than what this Billy dude did to Barb here?” You said with a laugh and the girls erupted in giggles as Barb herself blushed a deep red.

“Oh god… You guys know I’m not one the guys go for, so it felt… so nice.” You knew about Barb’s self esteem being low, but you always found her so beautiful. You didn’t understand how she didn’t see that in herself. 

“You look hot Barb! And I am a lesbian, so take it as a fact.” Robin said and Vickie nodded at that, smiling widely.

“I second that.” A blush creeped on Barb’s cheeks and she gasped when she felt the sunglasses hanging on the V-Shaped cleavage of her shirt. 

“Oh… Guess I have a souvenir as well.” Barb smirked and you smiled at her happiness and giddiness. You wished you could react like that when a handsome man did something nice for you, but all you ever did was mutter a silent ‘thanks’ and walk away when it happened. You once had a nice looking man help you reach the top of a shelf in the supermarket, helping you get the raspberry jam you couldn’t reach. 

You turned around to thank the person before you, but as soon as you saw the beautiful middle aged man that stood behind you, gray hairs and all, you almost fainted. Your air pipe immediately closed, and you felt too dizzy to even say anything to him. 

So you ran away, forgetting the jam and all.

It was a curse because you didn’t know how to solve this, and you cannot be in a relationship if you have no attraction towards the person. Your sex life would be miserable, and you won’t ever be entirely happy. The worst part, is that, if you catch feelings, the person before you would look beautiful to you no matter what, so you were scared of it ever happening, even though you terribly desired it.

You stiffened when the lights dimmed again, and you saw many women near the catwalk and stage get up excitedly. You could hear whispers here and there while you looked around to see what was going on. 

“Last time, I got a lap dance from him, it was so good Donna.” You heard a woman say to the other and then another conversation caught your ear, right behind you.

“You think Eddie will have his hair down or in a bun today?”

So, the last man’s name is Eddie. Okay, just one more dance, and he might not even target your table now! Nancy doesn’t have the veil on, Barb already had a sexy time, so they have to prioritize other tables, other clients. Yes. It’s alright, you can do this, there’s no problem at all, you just have to push through your nerves and nausea and–

‘Do I wanna know?’ by Arctic Monkeys started playing and you shivered at the tune. You didn’t even want to look, but the excitement and shine in your friends' eyes made you a little curious as to what they were looking at. You turned your head towards the stage, and your eyes widened like plates as you saw the man standing on it.. 

You felt your air leaving your lungs, quite literally at the sight of him. He was extremely gorgeous, even without the clear irises the last guy had, Eddie was absolutely mesmerizing. He had his hair up in a bun, some stud on his chin, and then your eyes went downwards, towards his outfit. He had a black crop top on, with a leather jacket on top, but your eyes bulged when you saw the happy trail of dark hair, going from his abs, down the hem of his leather pants that were tightened with a black belt that had handcuffs at the front of it.

He was too attractive, too inviting, and you felt like vomiting at this very moment. 

He winked towards a group of ladies on the side and headed towards them, bending down, grabbing onto the bottle of champagne one was holding. He took a sip of it, and held onto the cheek of the girl before him. You felt your heart almost coming out of your mouth as the girl, willingly, opened her mouth. He leaned forward, and kissed the woman before him, giving her the alcohol he just took a sip of. 

Okay, he is a bold one. A very bold one.

He pulled away with a smirk to his face, leaving the girl completely dazed and your jaw dropped when you saw her put a One Hundred Bill in the front pocket of his leather pants. Not only did she put one in his pocket, but another girl next to her as well, and the next one too. Why are they handing out one hundred bills as if it were candy!? 

You saw him starting to pull off his jacket, revealing his arms full of tattoos, as he swayed it back and forth on his body, fully taking it off after some cheering, and he threw it on the floor afterwards. He bit his bottom lip as he dropped to his knees, and your eyes widened when his hips started moving back and forth, slowly, graciously, as if thrusting into something. The girls on his right were waving bills at him with excitement in their voices. He chuckled, sliding towards them and your eyes widened when he held a man’s hand.

You took notice of Eddie’s hands, covered in rings as he put the man’s knuckles up to his lips, kissing them tenderly. The young man was fanning himself as the girls next to him were squealing, yelling ‘Happy birthday Johnny!’ to him. Eddie motioned for something behind the girls, at their table, and one of them grabbed onto a plate that had a slice of cake on it. 

Eddie scooped some of the whipped cream with his fingers and he smirked as he wiggled them in front of the man’s face. 

“Oh my god…” You gasped as you saw the young guy opening his mouth, and Eddie pushed his fingers inside. You felt your stomach do a violent turn at that, your nervousness was now at its peak. Everything with this guy was not even discreet, or with double meanings. He was going straight to the point, taking what he wanted, not even scared of doing so. 

You could handle the small dances, and hip grinding, but going for a straightforward kiss? Sticking his fingers inside someone else’s throat? He was definitely the favorite, and you could guess why, but you didn’t want to stay and find out just what else he was willing to do. You didn’t think you would be able to push away your nerves any longer, so you nudged Robin, catching her attention. 

“Robs, I think I’m gonna go to the bathroom until this show is over.” Robin nodded at you, and squeezed your hand.

“I figured, he is… He is something else.” She said with a small chuckle and you could only nod, gulping heavily as the beat of the song rang in your ears. 

“Send me a message when it’s safe to come out, okay?” You say to her and she gives you a thumbs up. You stood up, not daring to look forward, or catch the man’s eyes. You don’t want him to think you were bored, you just simply couldn’t take the boldness of it all anymore. You went to grab your purse, and suddenly you froze.

Over your hand, which was on top of the small container with your belongings, a ring clad hand pressed over your knuckles, stopping you. A light was on you, and you felt your blood completely drain from your body as a wood-like scent invaded all of your personal bubble. You didn’t know where to look, what to do, what to say to escape, and you felt yourself take a sharp intake of breath when you felt his other hand gliding over your left thigh, just gently, as if brushing.

“Is my show boring you, princess?” A hot breath brushed your ear as he spoke low towards you. Goosebumps displayed all over your body, a sharp shiver ran up and down your spine and you felt a cold sweat invading your body. It wasn’t panic, it was plain nervousness, anxiety of being this close to a man. A handsome man. A man that was bold with his movements, not even a stutter in them. 

He grabbed onto your hand, and turned you around, making you face him and if you didn’t have breath in your lungs before, right now, every part of you was empty. No air, no blood, nothing. The only thing you felt was the tight knot in your stomach, and shakiness happening on your knees. You wanted to tell him, talk to him, say that you weren’t comfortable, but you couldn’t speak. Your words were completely snatched away.

His brown eyes were staring into yours, as he guided your hand up, behind his head, and you felt the bun on top of it as you kept staring into his face. You didn’t know if you were red or pale at this point, but you needed to run away. He grabbed onto the tie of his bun with the tip of his finger, and pulled, letting his hair cascade around his face and on top of his shoulders.

Your eyes were wide, lungs contracting on themselves as the man before you became even more handsome than before just by letting his hair down. Your heart was breaking your chest open, because never in your life have you had an interaction like this before with a man. Not with someone as attractive as he was. Not with someone who was making your nerves go crazy in your whole body, making you hyper aware of everything around and how his eyes were staring down at you. 

You were feeling your breath quicken as he guided your hand with his, downwards, under and you felt your fingertips run over his crop top and then towards the hem of it. You jumped slightly when you felt his skin under your hand, and you started feeling light headed, dizzy, and you needed air, god, you needed air. His face got close to you once again and you wanted to pull away, run, anything, you needed to leave and you couldn’t communicate it. 

“No need to be shy with me sweetheart.” And his nose brushed with yours. He was going to kiss you. He was going to smash his lips with yours. He was going to close the distance. You were going to be able to taste him. You were going to have his scent go into your nose and fill your lungs completely with it. Your body will flush against his, press against his chest, his hips pressing against yours.

He was going to kiss you.

And you blacked out.

End of part

A/N: I always believed that if Barb and Billy remained alive and helped the group, they would definitely do the Enemies to Lovers thing. Like, yes.

Taglist is open!

Here are the songs for this part:

Steve's:

Billy's:

Eddie's:

[thatfreshi]

Not if You Collect Them Like Ex-lovers (Astarion x Reader)

Tw - couple arguing

Recommended Song: This Is Me Trying - Taylor Swift

Whenever you and Astarion fight, it gets ugly. Two extremely emotional people, two people who still aren't used to letting their guard down all the time, people with faults.

"I don't understand why it bothers you."

Usually, it starts with a misunderstanding, an attempt at love, a hand reaching out to simply ask a question.

"Because Astarion, it's my house too!"

Full names, no more sweets and doves. Throwing words around like rocks, glass bottles breaking on countertops, shards, shattering.

"Yes, our house, I thought that's what you wanted? Or was I mistaken when you pleaded with me, saying you wanted this forever."

Questions lose answers, no longer searching for love, just words to defend yourself with. When the friend becomes the enemy and your throat closes up with grief, what do you do other than fight back?

"I wanted a house that at least had some semblance of looking like a house, not just your shit everywhere!"

Wounds that run deep, that need to hold onto every little thing he finds, your home decorated with the most meaningless items, things that mean everything to him. To you they're knick-knacks, some of them even garbage, and that hoarder's mentality drives you mad. The argument was so incredibly stupid, easily solved, but it's impossible to be peaceful when you never get time apart.

"Well, why don't I just take my things and leave then?"

And there he goes, escalating when he feels cornered.

"Oh right, and go where Astarion? Go burn to a crisp in the sunlight, or maybe hide in an alleyway somewhere? I'm sure that'll be so much better than living with me!"

Poking the bear, as you do when you're stressed. You know he hates the fact that he's lost the sunlight, cursed to be in a wooden box with blackout curtains.

"I'm sure you'd love that, if I just disappeared right?"

Deflecting, but also wrapping himself in insecurity. It's a test, a trick question, a puzzle.

"At least I'd have some room in this fucking house to do anything without tripping over all your useless 'treasures.'"

From trying to understand to going on the prowl for hatred, you've reached a point of no return.

"Why do you even care Tav, I just like having things! Is that so much to ask? Are they not allowed to mean something to me?"

"Not if you collect them like ex-lovers!"

Astarion opens his mouth to say something else, but trembles. Now you've done it, gone too far. He scoffs, tears leaving his eyes.

"Well then perhaps I should have another."

It's late, the stars dotting the sky like scars from teeth, allowing the vampire to storm out of the house, slamming the door. You begin to cry as well, knowing you shouldn't have said that, knowing you didn't really mean it. You're just frustrated, the stuff scattered everywhere is overwhelming, and you just don't get why it matters.

When Astarion leaves, he knows he only has a couple of hours to cool off, to think things through. It's infuriating at times, being so chained to one place, after getting to explore the world for months on end. He wasn't allowed to have things with Cazador, not anything that was his own. After the nautiloid crash, he started grabbing everything he could get his hands on. Jewelry, pretty fabrics, anything that could possibly mean anything. Now he's stuck in one place again, but a place where he can finally store all those little finds, a nice-feeling rock, a bottle that reminds him of a night stroll the two of you took. It's a comfort in a scary transition, to be allowed to keep something, anything.

While you're thinking of where he's gone, you look around at all the things Astarion has piled up on the coffee table. A couple rolls of thread from the market, ones he hasn't even started to use, a stack of books he'll probably take forever to finally read. You go through these items forever, trying to organize all the little things he's left around the place, filling drawers with memories you didn't realize were important. After clearing out most of the things in the living room, you find a small, poorly crafted ring. It's heavily scratched, but has an inscription on the inside. Your mind floods with the magical feeling of the grove, and Astarion pocketing this ring after showing the young tiefling child a magic trick. Back then, his intentions were just to show the child that your things can get snatched up so easily, but he slowly began to believe it was lucky, just as the kid said. You meditate on the thought, realizing these items, they're all either moments or possibilities. The front door opens.

Somber steps, the sound of his dagger being placed on the nearby table. You turn around and walk towards him, wrapping your arms around each other.

"I'm sorry."

You manage to choke out.

"It's alright darling, I'm being ridiculous."

You shake your head, breaking the embrace.

"No, no you're not. I was going through all of this, all of this stuff, and you're right. It all means something."

"Stupid meanings though. It's all fear Tav, fear I'm going to forget, fear I'm going to lose everything I have."

"That's okay, it's okay to be scared."

You show him the tiefling's ring.

"But we don't have to be scared anymore. We have luck on our side, right?"

He laughs, fiddling with the silly scratched-up band.

"You remember this?"

You nod.

"Of course I remember. I still don't know how you did that trick."

"A magician never tells."

You both laugh, still crying

"Gods, I thought you were so annoying."

"Well apparently I still am if you had to take that heavy of a jab at my past."

You frown.

"I-"

"I know you didn't mean it love, but we can't just say things we don't mean to get a rise out of each other."

He's become better at being the voice of reason, growing, changing.

"It's just so overwhelming sometimes. I know you're new at this whole, living a domestic life thing, but I just want to have a say in our space. That's all."

"I know, I hear you and I respect that. I'm sorry, I shouldn't have made our space my space."

"I'm fine with all your keepsakes, but can we just organize them? Have a space for all your little treasures and such?"

"We do still have that extra room upstairs."

You push him.

"That's supposed to be another guest room!"

"Do we really need that many guest rooms?"

The two of you giggle to yourselves.

"You know if we can't host all our friends at once, they will throw a fit."

"Well, I'll find some way to give you some more space. I never wanted to make you feel suffocated."

You look into each other's eyes for a moment, seeing that spark again, finding that love bubble back up. Saying things you don't mean, meaning things you don't say, it's all so new to both of you.

"I know my love, I know."

You hold each other by the doorway for a while, mumbling about how to make this space work for the both of you, how when you start raising your voices, you need to just step away and rethink it. Learning to love, to truly love, to exist as one, it's such a struggle, but a worthwhile cause. After all, there's no one else you'd rather fight with.

[redtsundere-writes]

Jinx | Sukuna Ryomen

mma fighter!sukuna ryomen x femalecoach!reader

Part 6. In My Hands.

Beginning. ← Previous | Next →

Sypnosis: Sukuna is a world champion with anger issues. It's believed by many that he is untrainable. Yeah, you can't train him, but you can dominate him. Contents: Fighting. Sukuna being Sukuna. female reader being dom. Jinx AU (the BL, not the character from lol) Warnings: Mentions and sexual harassment. Angst. Humiliation. Cursed words. Word Count: 3551 words. A/N: Hello peeps! This is a kind reminder that you need to fix your posture.

I still remember the terrible day I met Naoya Zenin. Six years ago, my first coach told me that I had to expand my horizons if I wanted to reach my full potential, so he sent me to the top jiujitsu gym in the country. This was before Team Black Gym even existed. The Zenin dojo was a beautiful temple on the outskirts of traditional Kyoto. There were several satisfying zen gardens, tall bamboo stalks and small ponds with beautiful koi swimming around. I felt dirty stepping into such a pure and sacred place. 

I shyly walked into the dojo. I had taken off my shoes to step on the tatami, so I wouldn’t get it dirty. The place was packed with fighters training the same move at the same time on the count of an old man who was analyzing each one of them. The walls were decorated with display weapons, scrolls with calligraphy, flags, and symbols of martial arts. The sensei started a break as soon as his eyes landed on me. 

“Welcome, you must be the student Geto sent,” he said while his eyes analyzed my physique without impudence. 

At that time I didn't have so much muscle, and it was obvious that I was a beginner compared to them. I had barely been training jiujitsu seriously for two years. I was sure he thought I was just a scrawny, innocent girl. 

“Thank you for letting me into your dojo. I promise I will try my best,” I said, bowing politely.

“You are not part of this dojo yet,” he corrected me. “I’ll test you to know if you really belong here,”  he explained serenely. 

I nervously tightened the strap of the gym bag across my body. I was used to facing off in national competitions, but this was different. I would have to fight someone from the Zenin family, someone who had probably practiced martial arts since birth. Someone who was light years ahead of me.

The sensei called out a blond boy with black tips, he was taller and more muscular than me. A very attractive boy, but that didn't matter now. Was I supposed to face a man? I had only faced women before, could I really beat him? In that case, I had to show off so I wouldn’t disappoint Geto. 

“Meet my son, Naoya. If you beat him, you can stay,” Naobito explained without further ado before he went to sit on a small cushion that was on a step at the back. 

“Nervous?” Naoya asked me as we stretched out in front of each other to start the fight. 

“I have never faced a man before,” I confessed. 

“Don't worry, I won't be so rough with you,” he said with a smile. 

“Naoya, such behavior is unacceptable!” Naobito exclaimed in annoyance. 

“I'm sorry, I just can't hurt such a pretty girl,” Naoya smiled warmly at me. 

I think it was the first time I felt my heart fluttering for a boy. That only made me even more nervous. Not only am I facing a boy for the first time, it would be the first time I would be facing a boy I like. So far he has only been kind and warm towards me. I wish he had stayed that way. 

“Please, give me your best. Make me try my hardest,” I asked him nicely. 

“I like your attitude,” He complimented me. My cheeks couldn't help blushing at that. 

After Naobito announced the start of the fight, Naoya went straight for my ribs with a kick. He was extremely agile and fast. I could barely dodge it on time. I knew this wouldn't be just like any other fight. All confidence vanished in me with each jab that made my feet instinctively recoil. I was fast, but not fast enough to dodge every punch. 

I was a floor fighter by instinct, so my best strategy was to take him down. I contorted my body to try to apply a headlock, but he wouldn't let me. He was like a worm slipping through my fingers. As soon as he maneuvered to grab my wrists tightly, I knew I had made a big mistake. Naoya was also a floor fighter. Luck really wasn't on my side this time. 

We were two contortionists fighting for dominance. Time was a blurry concept, my limbs were screaming for a rest and my mind was arguing with my body that we had to resist if we wanted a place among the Zenin. I would do everything in my power not to lose this fight. 

I elbowed him in his exposed cheek in a window of opportunity. I took the opportunity to pin him against the ground, his arms were against his chest and he was kneeing me in the back. I thought I had the fight won, but I didn't consider my opponent's amazing flexibility. He wrapped his right leg around my abdomen and cornered me against his other leg, knocking me to the ground with the strength of his legs in an instant.

“Shit,” I gasped trying to regain control. 

Naoya, having both arms free, was tearing me apart with jabs coming right and left. He had me cornered against his body like a dangerous boa as he was beating me relentlessly. I could only cover my face so he wouldn't knock me out. I was trapped, there was nothing I could do. I hit his back three times. Naoya stopped and separated from me completely. 

“Good fight,” he said with his voice cracking, tired as I was. 

Naoya offered me his hand to help me up. I snorted and took it kindly, I had to behave like a good loser. I think that was the moment I started to like him. Even though he was sweaty and slightly beaten, he still looked like a damn angel. His smile was intact, his hair was unruly tousled and his green eyes looked at me tenderly. 

“She got Zenin on her, I like her,” Naoya said to his father after I thanked him for letting me fight him. 

“Yes, it's just what Geto promised me,” Naobito mentioned while scanning me, still. “I've seen enough, tomorrow you start,” he warned me before announcing to the others that the class would continue soon. “I did it!”, I thought excitedly with a big proud smile on my face. 

“Congratulations and welcome,” Naoya shook my hand again in celebration. “Do you by any chance like Chinese food?,” he asked me out of the blue. I looked at him curiously while he smiled at me. 

That damn fake and hypocritical smile glittered in Team Black's small meeting room. Sukuna and the rest of his team were analyzing Naoya's fights to plan a strategy for the big fight. I had dedicated myself to watch each of his fights closely since I escaped from Zenin Gym, just to see how someone else would beat the smirk off his face, but all those hours were finally coming in handy. 

“We can see that he is a good floor fighter with high stamina,” Gojo explained as he looked at the textual analysis of all his fights.

12 wins with 4 losses, a great streak without a doubt. Long and defined arms, strong legs and a beastly stamina. Half of his fights have ended quickly because he has cornered them against his body and the others have been by judges decision. He was still a superb fighter and has only improved since I met him. 

“We should go to the floor. Give him some of his own medicine,” Gojo said without taking his eyes off the documents. 

“I disagree,” I said while watching the fight on the screen. 

“I agree with Gojo. Sukuna was able to beat Toji Fushiguro in the last fight, he has improved a lot in floor fighting thanks to you,” Nanami commented. 

“I'm not saying that because I think Sukuna is not a good floor fighter, he is, but we can't go with floor in this fight,” I explained. “Naoya has two types of opponents: weak and strong. He acts very differently depending on which one he fights. The visit he paid us a month ago wasn't just to annoy us, it was to see up close what he's going to face soon,” I argued. 

“And which one am I?” Sukuna asked me, raising his eyebrow with curiosity. 

“Strong,” I stated. “He has only faced opponents that he has declared as strong 3 times. Yuta Okkotsu, Toge Inumaki and Aoi Todo when he got the stupid idea to fight for the heavyweight belt.”

I had seen those three fights live on television. The satisfaction of watching him suffer on the cage was better than any orgasm I've ever had. I had been watching him from afar all this time, I knew him better than he knew himself. I knew exactly what I was talking about.

“The weak are the opponents he knows he can beat easily, that's why he goes to ground quickly. With the strong ones, he usually takes his time because he knows he has no chance of beating them and only relies on his incredible endurance,” I explained. 

“What exactly is your plan?” Gojo asked me, not convinced by my idea. 

“We have to tire him out. Keep boxing and avoid the floor. Get him out of his comfort zone,” I explained. 

“I don't think that's the best option,” the white-haired man answered. 

“She knows him better than all of us. We stick with her plan,” Sukuna said determined. 

“Is he defending me?” I thought surprised. I didn't think he would do something like that. I assumed he would be on Gojo's side being his lifelong trainer, but I think he noticed that this fight mattered more to me than to him. Sure, he wants to keep his belt, but I want to break his pride. He was fighting for honor, I was fighting for revenge. 

“I agree with her. Sukuna is a great boxer, and now he knows how to escape from the floor. That way he can tire him out for the last rounds,” Yuuji commented. 

“Well, I think that settles it,” Nanami sighed looking at Gojo. 

We left the meeting room, Nanami and Gojo went back to the office, while Sukuna, Yuuji and I were going back to training. I already had a foolproof training plan in mind to get my champion in his best possible shape. I would do anything to see Naoya suffer live. 

“Thank you for defending me back there. I assure you that you won't regret it,” I promised him. 

“I didn't defend you, I just made a good decision,” Sukuna said without paying much attention to me. 

“Call it whatever. Thank you,” I smiled at him anyway.

He looked at me like he always did, cold and serious. Every day I felt that I was getting closer to him. We may not have been the best of friends, but Sukuna knew he could trust me completely. I was really proud to have progressed that way with him. 

“Let's train!” I exclaimed excitedly. 

“I'm sorry to interrupt you,” someone said behind Sukuna. It was the physiotherapist, Shoko. “It's time for your session,” she reminded us.

“That's right,” Sukuna checked the time on his phone. “You can go now. See you tomorrow,” he said goodbye before following Shoko to her office. 

Sometimes I was surprised how often Sukuna needed so many sessions with the physiotherapist. It was at least one every week. When I was fighting, I didn't need more than one session a month. Well, that was until I messed up my neck, in which case, I went three times a week. As soon as they entered the medical room, I turned to Yuuji. 

“Something wrong with him?” I asked curious. 

“What are you talking about?” He asked me confused. 

“Is Sukuna physically well? Why does he need so many sessions with the physio?” I clarified. 

“Don't worry about him. He's fine,” he said with a small blush running down his cheeks. 

“You're a bad liar, tell me what's wrong,” I asked him.

“Well, it's just he has… “sessions” with the physiotherapist. Do you know what I mean?” he asked. Yuuji said the word “sessions” with a wink. 

Is Sukuna fucking the physiotherapist? That made perfect sense. She was the only woman in the gym before I arrived for a reason. I just couldn't see her being his type. Shoko was very pretty, but it seemed like she didn't put much effort into her appearance. She always wore the same clothes, plus she smoked constantly, so she always reeked of cigarettes. 

“I would never have guessed it,” I commented. 

“Neither do I. It's hard to tell with him, though. He's never had a girlfriend or even dated,” Yuuji commented. 

“That damn personality is the problem,” I thought. Sukuna was a ridiculously attractive man. While I was researching workouts that I could implement into his training, it occurred to me to look up his name on the internet. The first thing that popped out at me was the cover he appeared on for Men’s Health magazine. He looked amazing in the skin-tight bathing suit they had put him in while he was getting out of a pool. The drips sliding down his body, the tattoos decorating his sculpted body and his piercing gaze. My mouth dropped to the floor in shock. 

“But I guess he's got the girls going crazy,” I mumbled in envy. 

“Yeah, he was the bad boy of the school. They all wanted to date him,” Yuuji explained. 

I could imagine him arriving at high school on a motorcycle like a rebel, leather jacket and dark glasses. Posing like a real unattainable hunk out of a chick lit movie. The girls surrounding him as he walked through the halls, not paying attention to any of them. 

“But he was once a horny teenager, he must have liked someone,” I commented. 

“I don't remember any girls at our school that he liked, but he would blush every time Megan Fox was on-screen when we watched Transformers. I'm sure it made him feel a type of way,” Yuuji said, trying not to laugh at the memory. 

“I don't blame him. Megan Fox made all of us feel a type of way.”

We both started laughing and then said goodbye. The drive home was quicker than I thought it would be. I started mentalizing everything I needed to do when I got to my apartment. Doing my laundry, planning this week's workout, making my lunches, doing the dishes… So my mind was entertained until I got to my building. 

I walked up the stairs slowly, tired from today's workout, until I reached the fifth floor. I walked through the halls to the rhythm of the song playing in my headphones. I was almost there. I was so happy to finally rest for a while, until I saw an obstacle in front of the door.

Naoya was standing in front of my apartment dressed in a suit and a small bouquet of my favorite flowers. “What the fuck is he doing here? How does he know I live here?” I wondered as I stopped in my tracks to remove my headphones. He quickly noticed my presence and smiled at me like the cynical fucker he is. 

“You're finally here, I still haven't learned your work schedule,” he said while scratching the back of his neck. 

“Have you been following me again?” I asked upset as I approached him. 

“I just want to make sure you're okay, that's all,” He answered. “Look, I brought you your favorite flowers.” 

Our fingers brushed as I took the bouquet. That simple touch made me remember of moments what I wanted to bury in the graveyard of my memories. When we were a happy, loving, healthy couple, before he became an obsessed maniac. I threw the bouquet roughly at his feet in total rejection and slapped him. 

“I don't want anything from you. Get the fuck out of here before I punch you for real,” I ordered him. 

“Why are you playing hard to get and cold?” He asked as if he really didn't know why. 

“Because when I was easy, you almost raped me!” I exclaimed without shame that someone else heard our argument, if this could be called an argument. Talking to Naoya was like talking to a wall. 

“It doesn't count as rape, you were my girlfriend,” he spat.

“You drugged me, asshole!” 

“Whatever, I already apologized for that,” he said, downplaying the issue. 

“I don't care about your apology, why can't you understand that? It's one syllable, no, no, no! Shall I tell you in Spanish? ‘No!’” I shouted in annoyance. 

“I will do my best to make you forgive me and get together with me,” Naoya said as he came closer to me. I walked away at her pace. 

“And I will do everything I can to get you to stop bothering me,” I answered. 

“Oh yeah?” He challenged me. “Why don't we bet on it? Since we want different things.”

“I'd rather make a deal with the devil than with you,” I snorted. 

“If Sukuna wins, I'll stop bothering you forever and admit that I wanted to rape you,” he offered without hesitation. “Is he really so confident that he would win?” I thought intrigued. 

“What if you win?” I asked. 

“You'll have to leave Team Black and join the Zenin Clan again.” Well that was less bad than I thought, knowing his twisted mind. 

“Why do you want me to join the Zenin clan?” I asked confused. 

“I know I can't force you to fall in love with me again, for God's sake I'm not a monster.” Cynical bastard. “So I thought that if we spend a lot of time together, as you used to do, you will want to come back to my arms,” he explained. 

“You're crazy,” I said. 

“It's a great deal,” he said. I just shook my head to ignore his proposal, waiting for him to just walk away before entering my apartment. “Or don't you have faith in Sukuna?” I hate to admit that felt like a slap across the face. 

“Sukuna is going to kick your ass,” I barked.

“Then let's bet if you're so sure,” Naoya offered me his hand to agree to enter the bet. 

“You better hold up your end of it,” I said as I accepted his handshake. 

“May the best man win,” he said before squeezing my hand to place a kiss on my knuckles. I pulled it away from him and wiped it on my sweatshirt. He picked up the bouquet from the floor and handed it to me. I reluctantly took it so he would get the hell out of here. 

“Go away,” I ordered. Naoya smiled at me and left the way he came. I followed him with my eyes until he was out of my sight. As he was about to take the stairs, he turned around. 

“Remember that luck is on my side, beautiful,” he said with a wink. 

I used not to believe any of that before. I was sure that luck didn't exist and that the only thing that existed was unique opportunities. Believing in luck is for weaklings like Naoya who don't trust their body and abilities. That's what I thought until I met Sukuna. 

“Luck may not be on my side, but it is on Sukuna's,” I said imitating his cynical smile. Naoya reciprocated and walked out of my sight. 

Quickly, I entered my apartment and closed the door behind me. I dropped my gym bag by the entrance to go to the window. “No way was I going to keep this,” I thought. I opened the kitchen window and threw out the bouquet of flowers like a football as far as I could. I slammed the window shut and leaned against it to take a deep breath. 

My pulse was racing. I felt anxiety invading my chest and my memories were rushing through my mind. I removed the scrunchie that held my hair in a ponytail to run my fingers through it in an attempt to calm myself. 

I sat down at my small dining room table and pulled out my notebook to begin planning this week's training. I pushed out the tip of the pen with a “click”. I tried to write the first day's name and it wouldn't release ink. I scratched the entire sheet, but the ink just wouldn't come out. 

“Fucking hell! I exclaimed in annoyance as I threw the pen across the apartment. 

Tears filled with anger and frustration began to roll down my cheeks. I pulled my hair as I cried over the notebook. I was sick of living in fear, of Naoya always knowing where I was, of him not understanding that I didn't want to go back to him. These false memories bombarding my mind every time I saw him made me mad. I had to end this. I had to finish him off no matter what. Yes, he would fight against Sukuna, but I must pull some strings behind the scenes to ensure our victory. 

Next →

Masterlist.

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Taglist: @maskedpacific @thepurpleempath @mazzd4 @charlie-xo

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[thevelria]

Pumpkin guy (canon!Gojo x barista!fem!reader) (SFW)

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Author's note: This was a request from a lovely reader on Wattpad. I really enjoyed this cafe <3 Thank you for my lovely @ladycheesington for proofreading it <3

warnings: no warnings, pure fluff

wordcount:1.3K

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Autumn finally sneaked in and kicked Summer out. This part of the year was your thing. You were excited to bring all the decorations up from the basement. After all, it was going to be Halloween soon. (It wasn’t but you were too excited to wait any longer.)

This Sunday evening seemed to be perfect for a little organization in your lovely home. Because even if you lived alone it didn’t mean you were sad or lonely. With a smile on your face you precisely placed all the spooky figures at their usual spots. 

“It looks nice, doesn’t it?” you giggled as you asked your kitty cat, Sir Sunflower. The little black furball purred and rubbed his head against your ankle, so you took it as a yes. 

Even if Monday morning arrived sooner than you expected, you felt happy. The second your feet touched the wooden floor in your bedroom you remembered that it is THAT day. The day when you change the menu in the cafe and replace all the Summer offers with Autumn ones. The light morning breeze danced on your skin as you were walking down the street to your workplace.

Humming a cute song you started to clean the tables and the counter, thinking about how perfect that morning was. So far. 

The tiny bell above the entrance sang its song, warning you of the arrival of the first customer of this beautiful day. It seemed your customers were just as excited about this day as you were. 

People kept arriving, ordering different kinds of Autumn themed drinks and sweets. Soon enough almost all the tiny tables and cozy couches were taken. Chit-chatting echoed through the place as people kept being excited. 

You were almost at the end of your shift when the tiny bell rang once again and a crystal white haired man with a pair of sunglasses walked in lazily. The second he flashed his mesmerizing blue eyes you froze in your action. You had no idea when, if ever, you'd seen such beautiful eyes for the last time. 

“Good evening, sir. What can I get for you?” you greeted him with a lovely tone.

“Good evening, beautiful.” he smiled. “I would like a pumpkin latte, please.”

“Sure. Anything else?” 

“Your phone number.” he flashed a smirk.

Your eyes widened and a tint of light pink rushed upon your cheeks. Okay, it would have been a lie to tell that no one ever tried to flirt with you but this felt somehow different. It felt different, because you found him extremely attractive. Even if you screamed inside you acted out cool and simply pretended you didn’t hear anything. As you spun on your heels and started to prepare his order, Gojo lifted his weight from one of his legs to another. 

A strange feeling caught your attention, as if someone was staring at you. And oh, you were right. He couldn’t resist fixating his angelic eyes on your back and followed your whole presence, checked your beautiful silky hair and even smiled at the cute hair clip you wore. It was a tiny brown-orange owl that perfectly fit the whole Autumn environment. He also let his eyes fall on your curves, your perfect waist and wonderful hips. Your uniform suited you well enough, giving a perfect sight of your round bum. The man took a desperate breath. His intentions weren’t only sexual, he felt as he walked in and spotted you that he had to make you his girl, no matter what. 

This feeling terrified him just as much as it made him excited. Gojo Satoru wasn’t a dating type of guy. He rather focused on his job, on his duty. Saving people from curses wasn’t the easiest work to do after all. 

The lively sound of the coffee machine made you zone out. You were hesitating. It was a dilemma you never really felt before. Should you? Shouldn’t you? Is it against the policy at all? You had no idea. The hot liquid pouring into the cup and the light beeping sound snapped you back to reality. Before you could have changed your mind you grabbed the black marker and hurryingly wrote your number on the paper cup. 

“Thank you.” he smiled at you. He was about to leave a cheeky comment when your coworker stepped next to you behind the counter. 

“I got this, Y/N.” they put their hand on your shoulder. “Your shift is over, go enjoy your afternoon.” 

Gojo thanked you for the lovely service once again, before he walked to the door and let a gush of wind caress his face as he stepped outside. “Y/N…” he hummed. “Such a beautiful name.” 

He got back to the facility and aimed for his room. The coffee was gone a long ago but he carefully placed the cup onto his desk until he saved your number.

Before getting home you stopped at the grocery store. A half full cart you pushed around as you kept picking the items you needed. Actually you just tried to distract your mind from the fact you gave your number to a stranger and for some inexplicable reason you wanted him to reach out. Finally you left the store with four or five huge bags which were heavier than you expected. A loud huff left your mouth when you finally got home. Being busy with packing out from the bags you didn’t hear the buzzing noise of your phone. It was buried deep in your bag. 

“C’mon. At least read my messages, sweetheart.” Gojo frowned, tapping his fingers eagerly on his desk. It wasn’t like him at all. The sorcerer was always confident, no doubt ever was able to sneak into his mind until today. You were different. You were unique. You were special. 

A loud gasp rolled from your throat when you realized the amount of new messages. Of course you knew exactly who the other side of the unknown number was but you wanted to tease him just a little bit. 

“Hey. Who’s this?” you sent the text, giggling. 

“Oh, so I wasn’t the only one who got your number today?” your phone buzzed almost immediately.

“Pumpkin guy? Is it you?” you kept teasing. 

“My name is Gojo Satoru.” 

You clicked your tongue before reacting. “I like Pumpkin guy better.” You even added an emoji with its tongue out. You found yourself chuckling and kicking your feet like you were a teenage girl once again. This feeling was decent, made you happy and free. It was easy to get addicted to this euphoria. 

As the night went on you both kept texting each other, chatting and flirting until you fell asleep. 

In the morning you woke up before your alarm went off. It was strange but as soon as your eyes shot open you felt excited and grabbed your phone, smiling immediately when you saw the unread messages from Satoru. He kept texting you way after you fell asleep, and wishing you a good night in the end. 

You bit your lower lip before you sent the message “Good morning, handsome.” The three little dots appeared almost in an instant which made you feel nervous. But it was the sweet kind of nervousness, the one when you are so excited you can’t really handle it. 

“So, I’m not the Pumpkin guy, anymore? Will you call me my real name as well?”

“Well, you have to earn it.” you smiled as the game of texting started once again.  

[yuujispinkhair]

Do you have any comfort Yuji/Sukuna fic’s to recommend? I’ve been feeling pretty upset recently and I just want that comfy feeling of knowing it’ll be fine

Aww I am sorry you are feeling sad atm! I looked through my bookmarks and I'll share some Sukuita fics I really enjoyed and which, as far as I remember, were fluffy and cute!! Please read the tags/warnings before every story to make sure you are ok with the content!! I hope you will find comfort in these:

White Garden by Kovffee Summary: Sukuna didn’t know how it began, why, or which fucked up god thought it was funny. One day, he was lazing around the space of his domain, kicking broken bull-shaped skulls off the rustic throne, and the next he finds a single white flower resting peacefully on the foot of his skull tower.

Pull me under (The world above is too much) by Anonymous Summary: The decisions and gruesome scenes that jujutsu sorcerers have to endure weigh extremely heavily on someone who wears their heart on their sleeve, such as Itadori Yuji. Sukuna helps him relax for a little while.

Pretty little wife by Truly_Morgan Summary: Yuji's apartment building caught fire and due to water damage, he cannot stay there until reparation and renovation are all done. He doesn't know what he'll do, until Sukuna suggests living with him, under one condition...

Phantom food by lyrebirdswrites Summary: When Itadori wakes, he is filled with foreign longing. He seeks a home he’s never seen. He aches to return to a time and place he can never reach. That feeling doesn't belong to him, but he feels it anyway. Itadori and Sukuna don't have secrets.

It's a curse thing by Paradgimshift26 Summary: The last thing the gang expected with Sukuna's resurrection was having to deal with an aggressively territorial curse. In other words, Nobara, Megumi and Satoru suffer as Sukuna and Yuuji navigate their tumultuous relationship. Or Nobara could safely say she would never – and emphasis on that never please – grow accustomed to this new routine of waking up every day only to see the King of Curses roaming about their campus grounds. Accompanied by a chirpy Itadori Yuuji, of course. Always.

Power washed by Mia_Moon Summary: That's why he spent so much on this ticket, Yuuji thinks as Sukuna's hand grabs his own and helps him get up on stage.

Brat next door by Backwardshit Summary: After a year of trying to clean and sell his old home in the country, Yuuji Itadori finally has an apartment to call his own. With the old place full of sad memories, he just wants a fresh start. Meet a few new people, keep up with some of the old ones, restart some classes to finish his education, and work to pay for classes. It definitely doesn't hurt he's got an attractive neighbor.

The college experience is losing the moral high ground by choclatecatcupcakecheese Summary: Itadori Yuuji is your typical Ivy League college student: stressed, anxious, and horny as hell, but with his nose too firmly pressed into the books to do anything about it. Then he meets Ryoumen Sukuna, loses a bet, and things change. (A college AU where everyone is happy, everyone has swords, everyone is gay, and they all do crimes.)

Strawberry Frappuccino, Double Whipped Cream (If You Know What I Mean) by chocolatecatcupcakecheese Summary: This job is only for the summer, Yuuji reminds himself, and grits his teeth through the indignity. Sukuna is the best and worst part of his day.

Buck Bucking by @skunaskitten Summary: Sukuna comes home to see his room mate decorating the apartment with festive holiday decor. He just had enough of yuji avoiding his feelings, so he just had to show his room mate his own feeling.

That's not a candy cane in my pocket. I'm just glad to see you by me :) Summary: Sukuna comes home to Yuuji baking Christmas cookies only clad in his boxers, and that's a sight the candy cane in Sukuna's pants enjoys a lot!

I don't care if I'm on your naughty list or your nice list. I just want to be on your to-do list by me Summary: Yuuji wants to bring a little Christmas spirit to the Malevolent Shrine, but that leads to Sukuna having to teach Yuuji how to get on his nice list instead of his naughty list.

And here is the WIP I am reading atm. It has dark elements too, but I think the relationship that's starting to form between Yuuji and Sukuna will be really sweet!!

Trapped by losing_sanity_fast Summary: Kind of a Beauty and the Beast AU but the vibe is fantasy and intrigue and not fairy tale. Yuuji gets sent to appease "the Beast" who threatens the world outside of his prison.

I hope you will feel better soon!! I am sending you lots of love <3<3

[i-am-a--lionheart]

Between Fire and Ice

SuNor week 2023 – Day 3 Kingdom of Sweden & Norway

@sunorweek2023

Stockholm, 29th of December 1827

He was not sure when the fire in the chimney had died down, leaving the room cold, dark and quiet. Lukas was sitting in one of the old armchairs, trying to get at least a bit comfortable. The world outside was grey, he guesses it was late in the afternoon, but he was not sure about this.

This place was absolutely timeless anyways and he could not even remember when he had been allowed to leave his chambers, which obviously meant it had been a couple of years already.

Those wooden doors were always locked, and he was not even sure if Berwald possessed any keys or if the lock was just always frozen. Of course, the Norwegian had tried to use his magical flames to escape a couple of times since he had been forced to stay here, but it was useless. After weeks of cursing and literally destroying half the interior decoration and burning his skin countless times, he had given up. He could have tried to escape through the windows but his chambers were placed in a tower and if he was ever brave enough to jump, the ground below would shatter at least half of his bones. Even though he would not die and possessed healing abilities, they would catch him before he was able to stand up.

Not that he wasn’t used to be caged, but at least Matthias had never kept him in a rather small area in an abandoned wing of his castle. The Dane had always kept him extremely close by his side, which of course had left him with scars and nightmares too, but at least he had never felt abandoned. Not at all. Matthias’ fire had been either a lot weaker than Berwalds or Lukas had grown even more frail. He liked to believe the first option more if he had to be honest.

The whole castle was filled by the cold, bluish-golden aura that suffocated his own with each passing day. He could never know if or when the Swede would come to this part of the castle until he was able to hear his steps on the floor outside.

Since he was shivering all over – nothing new at all – he stood up, his joints cracking in the silence of the room and put a few pieces of wood into the chimney, enlightening it with his own flames.

With a small sigh of relief, he stayed put in front of the growing fire, it was a shame that he didn’t possess enough energy to heat himself up with his magic. But with the little amount of training – basically he had no space to train his abilities at all – combined with his extreme low nutrition income, he didn’t have the chance to get stronger at all. With an extra piece of wood, not much thicker than his thin wrist, he settled down again, his small knife in his other hand.

His rooms consisted of two chambers, both too large for their own good. The little furniture, a desk with a wooden chair, two armchairs on an old blanket in front of the grey chimney. His bedroom was even larger with just a canopy bed that was also too huge. All walls were grey, empty and lifeless. He had tried to decorate them and his desk with those carved pieces of wood. Well, he could have tried and ask for colours and canvas, just to keep himself busy. But Berwald would possibly not grand him any of these things. Sometimes Lukas thought that the older one wanted to drive him crazy in some way, perfectly knowing that Lukas could barely stand being bored.

And still he, as well as his sanity, had survived gods-knows how long.

He had transformed the rough wood into a small bear as he finally heard something other than the crackling sound of the flames consuming the branches. Lukas couldn’t help but quiver a bit as the clacking noises came closer – it wasn’t necessary a bad thing when the Swede came over, once in a while. The Norwegian kept counting the times when the older was nice enough to visit, mostly just to bring him letters from either Matthias or Emil, sometimes little packages from Sanders or even Ivan as well. It had been snowing for at least five weeks by now and since then the older had been here three times. He wouldn’t count one of them as a meet though, he had just woken up the next day to find a couple of letters on his desk. Not that he was too keen on seeing him again, it was just relaxing for his mental health to know that he wasn’t completely alone in this world. Not even servants were allowed to actually interact with him, causing them to mostly refill his storage of bred in the night.

The Swedes Aura was incredible strong as the steps stopped and with a long, hissing noise, the crystals on the locked door begun to melt. Lukas hated this sound more than the individual that caused it. Still, he wasn’t sure how to feel about the other, not at all. Surely, he could hate him for breaking every single promise they had, surely he could despise him for forcing him into this union and locking him away, as far from his lands as Matthias had done. Whenever he was sitting in front of his chimney, thinking about the older one, he could feel his heart getting cold and icy from all the pain that he had inflicted on him in the past ten, or fifteen (?) years. But in the evening when he was laying on this mattress – he had not been sleeping in an own bed for nearly four hundred years – he yearned for his attention. It was more than a bit maddening, he had the feeling he was turning crazy. The noise that turned louder and higher in its frequency did not really help him to clear his mind.

Finally the hissing died down and for a couple of seconds he tried to relax and put on his mask of indifference, but then the silence was broken by the crackling sound of the old door swinging open. Luksa didn’t turn around, why would he? He was never sure if he hoped for a conversation or if he just wished that he would be left alone, because seeing the older one made him feel a toxic cocktail of emotions.

“Norge.”

Well, he had forgotten that they were on such distant terms by now. Still, Lukas did not turn his head to look at him – the other did not deserve talking to him anyways. Either of them had always, always known that, to him, there was nothing as important as freedom. Either of them had known and still both had broken his wings and thrown him in a cage as if his free will meant nothing to them.

And still, he had to control himself to silently stare at the fire in the chimney, watching the shadows the flames casted on the black of the chimney, he had to control himself although…

“I know you hear me.”, another few steps, the clacking sound of his boots would turn him insane in no time, nearly as insane as the silence that kept him caged. With a sound too loud for his good, a couple of letters, no, a whole pack of letters, were slammed on the little, wooden table placed between the armchairs and then, the other one placed himself on the other armchair. The strong need to burn the chair including the Swede sitting on it, filled his mind and he balled his hands to fists. His deep eyes scanned the different letters. It were so many that he could not believe that they were just the once that had arrived during the last weeks. Additional to this, a few of the envelopes had been opened. Lukas’ gaze turned from forced indifference over nervousness to anger.

“What have you done?”, he was always surprised how he sounded – his voice was dark for a person looking as androgynous and frail as he did, and it cracked a couple of times. He wasn’t used to talking at all, having no one around to talk to. He had not seen his magical friends in decades. They had disappeared as the abuse had turned too cruel for them to look at, as his soul had turned to sharp, shattered pieces of glass, cutting everyone that tried to come too close, human or not.

Berwald’s gaze was not friendlier than the one of the Norwegian, not at all. The presence of the younger one in the heart of his country bordered him, the fire he could feel burning inside of his opponent threatened his ice, his aura did not surrender to his own.

“Nothing.”, in contrast to Lukas’, the Swedes voice was clear and sharp as ice.

The coldness in his tone was enough to make Lukas snap, finally, finally. His hand shot forward, got a hold of the letters and brought his gaze up to stare draggers into those ocean eyes.

“You call this nothing?!”, he pulled out one of the opened envelopes, it was from Rosenholm, Emil’s residence in Denmark. “Why are you reading my letters?”, his voice grew louder and he slammed the letters down again. “Isn’t it enough you keep me here? Now you are spying on me as well?”, he could feel his face heat up in anger.

Berwald just looked at him with disdain, neither saying a word nor moving in his armchair even as Lukas jumped out of his own.

“I don’t trust you.”, he finally answered, his tone seeping with a mixture of scorn and dander.

“Oh, you don’t trust me?”, the sarcasm in his voice was stinging, hiding a bitter laugh.

“You don’t trust me? I am sorry, haven’t I been a good little dog, staying in this freaking rooms all the time so that you don’t have to deal with me? What bothers you so much that you read these petty letters that are all I have left from the world outside this disgusting castle?”, dangerous little sparks flew from his tightened fist and slowly but surely he didn’t care anymore that Berwald was probably a whole lot stronger than he was.

“I never trusted you since then.”, he would not lower himself to answer his stupid questions or be provoked by his attempts to play a little game with him. He was old enough to not embark himself in the mind tricks of the younger, knowing how perfectly skilled he was in manipulating others. With or without his magic.

Lukas rolled his eyes.

“Since I chose to stay with him? But what does this count now, Sverige? You are just the same as him. You always think you are so much better, don’t you?”, he hadn’t even faked the grin that appeared on his pale lips as he stepped closer, the sparks in his palm multiplied.

Berwald supressed a mixture of a sigh and a noise of anger as he rose from his seat. He should not have come here, not at all. He did not know why he could not send Lukas back to Christiania, because his presence made him sick, but his absence would probably kill him. He could not be with him, he could not be without him. If he let go of him, Matthias would most likely come and take him back, as always neither caring what either of them wanted. He had never cared. Maybe he was bad in showing it, but Berwald did indeed care. Lukas was just blind and ignorant, like he always was. He walked past him without a second gaze, reached the door and froze as he heard his partners voice again.

“And you dare to treat me like that, all while claiming to have freed me and god-knows what else? Just because I am not your little beloved Finland, you think you can just lock me away and let me rot here?”, Lukas couldn’t even blink twice before a sharp pain on his cheek send him to the wall in his back. Of course, he had forgotten this unspoken rule that haunted this place as well as every single location in which the Swede socialised. No one, no one ever spoke about the Finn. It sparked a blinding anger in the Swedish Kingdom, but on the other hand, Lukas knew that it was hurting him and why shouldn’t he hurt him? He left him here, he abandoned him, he did not care at all about he felt, he wouldn’t let him see his lands, he kept him here, suffocating in his own loneliness, turning him crazy from the mixture of love and hate he felt for his keeper.

He had bit his tongue and with a toxic gaze he spit a bit of blood into the direction of the Swede. Berwald was closer now, too close, and the air around him seemed to cool down rapidly. Lukas did not regret provoking him – in a way he was attracted to the danger that radiated from his elder, plus he could see the pain reflecting in his seablue eyes.

“Don’t you dare bring him into this.”, a hand grabbed the collar of his white shirt, pressing him closer to the stones in his back. Lukas raised a hand and clenched it around the taller one’s hand, activating his heat.

Berwald hated it when someone talked about Tino, reminding him how much he had failed the Finn, failed to protect him, failed to grant him a decent life, failed to win his heart, failed to gain anything. He was cursed with Lukas, cursed with his love, cursed with his presence, cursed with the flames that slowly crept up his shirt. With frost spreading over Berwalds skin, the flames were put down again and he lift Lukas up, slamming him against the stones in the hope to whip the grin out of his face. Lukas felt like laughing but he didn’t. He felt like crying, but he didn’t do this either. Instead he continued to stare at him, ignoring his aching back.

“You don’t deserve him. You don’t deserve anyone. And you know that, you know that perfectly. Remember Emil’s words? He said you would become a monster as well.”, his midnight eyes lightened up, bringing flames to Berwalds boots what caused the latter to let go of him.

Still, Lukas wasn’t quick enough to escape from the wall that prevented him from eluding, and he knew the silence of the other wasn’t a good sign at all. While Lukas’ tongue turned sharp the angrier he got and Matthias turning all loud in his fury, the Swede got more and more quiet with his actions getting insanely brutal. The ice formed crystals on the ground, frost shed over the stones, climbed over the walls, the armchairs and finally formed small patches of ice on Lukas shoes and pinned him to the wall. He kept his distance to the Norwegian though, avoiding to gaze into his face, because Lukas could easily lit flames with his gaze. Despite being weaker than Berwald physically, his magical abilities were more complex and his control of them was more advanced.

The anger that turned his blood to ice, tainted his vision red, and he was not able to restrain himself. How could the other compare him with this stupid, cruel Dane? He wasn’t like that, he wasn’t like that. Never. Whatever Emil had said, curse him and his fortune telling abilities, curse this little child, god damn. With his vision distorting more and more, the ice was growing and no matter how Lukas increased his heat, he couldn’t escape the crystals encaging him. The coldness was stinging, and he pressed his hands against the ice around his hips, melting it bit by bit with his flames.

“Finally shut up, haven’t you?”, Berwald didn’t really care about the danger anymore that came with the shrinking distance between them. His greenish blue eyes had darkened, his vision consisted more and more of twisted shadows and with one hand he grasped the smaller one’s hand, freezing them above his head in an instant. The other clenched around his throat in a still rather light hold, forcing him to look upwards.

Oh well, maybe he wasn’t that much better than the Dane but what did that matter right now?

Lukas wanted to play this game and now he had to bare the consequences.

The cold drained the Norwegian of his energy and although he tried to focus his energy to produce new flames preferably on the others hair, he wasn’t able to lit any. Instead, the hand around his neck choke him and he had to bite down harshly on his lips to prevent himself from producing any miserable sounds. With blood trickling down his chin and a stubborn, cold gaze, he eyed Berwald.

If he thought this would scare him, he was oh so wrong. His darkened, dangerous eyes, provoked Lukas to mock him more, maybe because he couldn’t stand the indifference the other held for him. He wanted to be loved, he wanted to be hated, he wanted anything, anything.

Not a little sound passed his lips though because from one second to another, sharp teeth made their way into the sensible flesh of his neck, the cold breath of the other mixing with his own heat.

Lukas’ heart stumbled in horror, froze for a second and his eyes turned dull.

  (An extract from an old fanfic of mine written in 2019 when i was still active in the fandom, slightly pinched to fit the theme better)

[ladyshandioftheendless]

Shandi’s Whumptober!

Thanks to @gh0stfl0ra for helping me with planning this out because I had no idea what to write. Hope it comes out half as decent as I imagined! ^^;;

~Shandi 

Day 12: What Could Go Wrong?

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Nikki had heard of the Sweet Brothers from Mick. 

Master Hunters. Dangerous. Once you’ve met them you wouldn’t survive to see your next sunset.

Sure, they were a force to be reckoned with together. 

But what about apart? 

The possibility intrigued Nikki to no end. 

He didn’t have anything better to do anyway. The Old Man was with Paul. He had the whole night to himself. Time to get into some serious mischief.

He spotted them coming out of a church. Of course. Replenishing their supplies, no doubt. He followed them in his bat form, mentally cursing them all the while. Fuck, were these two joined at the hip or something? He thought they’d never separate until one crucial moment. The blond asked his brother to wait outside while he went into a shop..and it was definitely not a normal shop. He would only have a few short minutes to observe. He took the chance, changing back into his human form to walk past the brother into the shop. It was bright, and smelled heavily of incense. A smell that made him incredibly dizzy. Definitely some kind of ward. He spotted the blond looking at glass bottles. Bottles decorated with gold crosses. He took a few steps back. “Shit..this was a big mistake..” 

“And you’re the one who made it..Vampire.” 

Nikki turned to see the brother standing behind him, his expression irritatingly calm. “Such a fool..” the blond held a bottle filled with water in his hand as he turned around. “Did you think we didn’t know you were following? You’re quite terrible at being stealthy.” 

“He must be one recently turned.” 

“Indeed. He didn’t bring his Sire with him for protection. A amateur's mistake.” 

“Extremely amateur. Like blindly walking into a Holy place.” 

Nikki, tired of the brothers’ sanctimonious prattle rolled his eyes. “Fine. You’ve proven your fuckin’ points. You have me.” 

The blond sighed. “You poor dear. You must be in so much pain you can barely keep your eyes open. Does the holy incense sting? Does it dampen your murderous senses?”

“Not..as much as you’d like to believe!!” Before the blond could react Nikki grabbed him and escaped through the skylight.

~*~

“Unhand me, you vile creature!!” 

“Quit your struggling and I will!!” 

“Don’t think this will stop my brother from destroying you!! This..is a mission given to us by God!!” 

“Yeah yeah..” Nikki finally found a clear open space to land far away from the city. He stripped the blond of his coat and threw him on the ground. “Not so tough without all of your toys now, are ya?” 

The blond just glared. “I don’t need my weapons..the Holy Light of God will protect me..” 

Nikki snorted. “You say I’m the fool.. God is only a myth. He won’t keep me from sinking my teeth into that pretty neck of yours~” 

“Unholy monster!! Don’t touch me!!” 

It was only a few moments. Nikki wasn’t even sure anything had actually happened, until he felt a dull pain in his chest. He looked down to see that a rusty railroad spike had been driven into his rib cage. He took a few steps back to allow the shock to wear off. “Haha...nice try. You actually..managed to..hit a lung..” 

The blond cursed. He could’ve sworn he’d punctured the heart! 

“Naughty..taking the Lord’s name in vain~ You should be punished for such an..offense to God’s ears~” 

“It may not destroy you..but it will stun you.” 

Fuck. He was right. Nikki could feel his body seizing. He collapsed to the ground while the blond managed to pick himself back up. 

“What did you..do to me..?” 

“I blessed it before I stabbed you.” He slowly walked past Nikki to pick up his coat. “You may have caught me unprepared before, but you will not be so lucky a second time.” 

“ROBERT!!”

The blond looked up to see his brother running towards him. “I’m alright, Michael. But only just.” 

“If he’s paralyzed, we should just finish him now.” 

“No. Not yet.” 

“Why not?” 

“It might be..possible to save him..” 

“Robert..” 

“We can! If we can destroy his Sire he can be normal again!” 

“We don’t even know where he is!” 

“We can look! Brother..God would task us to save his soul. We find the one who made him and we can end the cycle.” 

Michael sighed. “Very well, Brother..we’ll try this your way. But if it doesn’t work..we’ll destroy them both.” 

“Agreed. Let’s get out of here before my blessing wears off.” 

Only the smallest of glances were exchanged before Robert disappeared with his brother into the night. 

It left Nikki to ponder.

Did a Hunter..just show him mercy?

~END~

[revenge-is-dead]

heres a req: please give me something kind and domestic of ur choice. like making dinner or catching up on a favorite tv show or going to the store or

Apper Cider Kisses (Brian/Tim Fluff)

The sun was setting already. The wind grabbing leaves from the trees and brushing them past the closed windows of their shared apartment. The moment was quiet and warm.

Him and Tim had gone to the pumpkin patch with Jay the other day. Getting pumpkins to put out on their small porch. Sharing some fudge and apple cider doughnuts before Tim had found where they had been storing the apple cider at Red Berry Barn. It was a little bit of a drive to get out there, but it was fun.

It was a couple days later now he and Tim were resting on the couch. Watching extreme pumpkin carving and enjoying their warmed apple cider (Tim had nervously tended to it, calling Jay to see if he should add anything to it. Jay had told him to hush and calm down and to put a cinnamon stick in to add some more spice). Leaning his head against his partner's shoulder. Nuzzling it and looking up at him.

“Yes, Bri bear? Do you need anything?” Tim caught him looking. Curse the man for being overly observant, it made it hard to just look and enjoy the presence of his boyfriend with a comment being made.

“I'm just enjoying you Hun.” Smiling up at the man, “I’m so glad you’re here with me.”

“I’m glad I’m here with you as well my love” Tim leaned down, kissing his hair then his forehead before capturing his lips in a sweet apple cider kiss. Brian melting against his boyfriend, hazy and happy with love.

They leaned out of the kiss, pressing their foreheads together. Brian nuzzles Tim’s prominent nose and his cheeks before placing a soft kiss on it.

“So, are you excited for next weekend?” Brian hummed, curling back up against Tim, holding his warm cider cup in his hands. Mindlessly watching TV. Seeing the contestants finishing up their Demonic pumpkin carvings.

“What’s happening next weekend again?” Tim spoke, pulling the thick flannel blanket over. The cool air of the house making their feet cold.

“I was going to have Jay and Jessica come over and help us decorate for the Halloween party we were gonna have” Looking back up at his partner. Seeing his reaction.

“Ah yeah. I remember now, and I am excited. I got some miniature clowns to shove into Jay’s bag when he’s not looking” The shorter man gave a devilish grin, eyes stuck on the tv as Brian gasped. He slapped Tim’s arm lightly.

“He’s been through enough! Don’t scar the poor boy!” He relented to his partner. Him just rolling his eyes and chuckling. Here was Tim, having friends come over to help with his party just to throw in a scare for poor Jay Merrick. “God why do I put up with your antics.” Brian huffed before taking a sip of his drink.

“Because you love me” Another kiss was pressed into his hair. He Just chuckled at that, giving a ‘yeah I guess I do’. This was nice, it was warm and comfortable, safe from the horrors of Alabama. His partner and close friends are just a 10-minute drive from him. He was doing good.

[kinetic-elaboration]

October 31: Halloween

I had quite a good Halloween today, everything considered, though I am now absolutely exhausted and a little overwhelmed. And my feet hurt a lot.

I went into work in the morning: very cloudy, rainy/drizzly, cold, atmosphere. Extremely Halloween-like weather, I’ll be honest. I got my backlog of work done, and I stopped in at the registrar for warm apple cider and cookies. I mentioned this event to the library and got some, like, insulted responses, like, how dare they hone in on our event but I have to say… chill out. If they were also doing hot dogs, or even another lunch food, I’d say that’s insulting, but their event really didn’t compete. Also since the event email was nuked because it’s too expensive or whatever, no one knows anything about what’s happening, and I barely even heard this was a thing. They were not our competition. So. I don’t know, the cookie and cider were good and the office was made up in a very spooky manner and all I needed was to engage in some awkward conversation.

There were some nice costumes and make up, people in holiday sweaters or with cute earrings, one co-worker with Halloween makeup and one in a full Halloween get-up, with makeup, and a matching clown mask that she did not wear but kept at the desk to disturb people. She didn’t know where it was from, just found it in her closet, so… I presume it’s cursed. There were also some dressed up students, including, most notably, Sexy Pennywise with some red balloons. One of the housekeepers is afraid of clowns and I felt bad: dude was not having a good time.

Then there was Halloweenies itself. It was drizzly and cold, so we had to separate our grill from our actual food stations: grill outside, stations under the overhang. It actually was not too chilly in my little, dark corner lol. Much more lowkey than other years, not a lot of people just hanging out outside with their food, but we were still very popular and saw a lot of people come by. We ran out of ready beef hotdogs pretty fast, within my shift, and we kept having to tell people we didn’t have any, which kind of sucked. One kid, I felt bad for him, he said he’d be back in 15 minutes, and in that time we got another batch out and then every single one was taken, and then just as the last one was given away, he came back and we still had none. I hope he got one eventually. Anyway, it’s always an enjoyable event. We had a couple medium sized inflated ducks and a large cardboard duck that was positioned to be staring right at me, in honor of the whole duck thing that’s still limping along.

I had a 45 minute shift but stayed a little longer because I didn’t want to have to do any more work before I went home and also I wanted one of the hot dogs. I got one eventually, found a ring pop in the candy bowl. Talked a bit to A about the situation at Circ, still not resolving itself, possibly heading for disaster. Then I left at around quarter to 1.

My plan had been to get some lunch, sit outside, write a little in my notebook but it was too cold and everything was covered in water from the rain. So I took an impulse walk into the historic area instead. There weren’t many people, and it was overcast and rainy and leaf-strewn, so even though they’ve totally given up on Halloween decorations (a big L, in my opinion), the area itself was done up in a spooky way by nature itself. I felt like I kept seeing haunted places, in some way that’s hard to describe. I took a lot of photos.

I walked way longer and farther than I had I intended to, and then I was exhausted and cold. So I went to a coffee shop, which wasn’t crowded for once because it was the middle of the day, got a brown sugar pecan latte, and sat inside for a little bit, writing up notes. Not very useful notes, but that’s okay. Then I headed home.

I had a quick lunch, posted my ficlet, stuff like that, and then I roused myself to make an apple crisp, which I’ve been meaning to do for ages, and also change the sheets on my bed and do some other chores. I also watched Halloweentown because even though it was not part of my childhood, I thought it looked adorable and like something in-season that wasn’t yet more horror. It was good background noise. Then I got a quick dinner. At this point I’m very tired and my feet hurt terribly. Whenever I’m productive, I always end up becoming very anxious in the evening: thinking about what I didn’t do and what I need to do next and what I need to do in the coming days, weeks, months, aaaaah! And of course it’s not a good feeling, so then I feel later like it’s not even worth being productive, because all I get is anxiety. I’m trying, as I head into the end of the year hoping to build better habits, to manage this feeling, to learn, as I think I was once able to do, to shut off the anxiety and just rest in the accomplishment. I did a lot today. I did essentially everything I had set out to do. Now if I hope to do anything tomorrow—starting with a full work day—I need to rest and get some good sleep.

So, overall, I am ready to transition out of the Halloween era, but I do think the day was successful!

[minusgangtime]

Ok,to explain for the spooky verse:

Halloween creatures like werewolves vampires and skeletons can be made in the real world,transformed from humans,when this happens however,the creatures are whisked away by a magical door infinity train style to a place called Halloween town,where Halloween candys,decor and especially monsters roam freely,this is cause the ruler of this Halloween town dosent believe humans and monsters could conexist so he whisks them away to keep them safe and any human in Halloween town will be executed.

Now for the versions of the gang:

Betas story is the same until when he runs away from home,he ended up getting attacked by a werewolf and got turned into one a few days later and was whisked away to Halloween town,where he reunited with MB and was able to get top surgery,becoming a bulky strong yet still smart and kind wolf.

MB: story is same up until his scar incident,unlike in canon he actually succeeded,but was cursed by a demon,with them saying “if you don’t appericiate the body you were gifted with,you don’t deserve a happy ending” thus he was scent back to the living world but now as a magical immortalish skeleton,when he was scent to Halloween town he got fitting clothes and just spent his time there just enjoying what the town had to offer,finding GF and falling in love,slowly being reunited with each of his homies and eventually his Dino lover,it takes a bit of focus for him to harness magic into his skeleton wings to fly and his powers are kinda like sans,despite how touch he can be,he can still be a big softie,treating everyone who deserves it with love and compassion.

Blue: everything is normal for blue until he turned 19,as in one tragic rap battle accident he was run over by a car,however instead of becoming an angel,he became a ghost,in Halloween town,he has way to much fun with the festivities,candy and of course the people,as he reunited with the other boyfriend,he was the happiest he’s ever been,and you know he immediately fell in love with a Dino and vampire,despite being dead,he’s the most optimistic and cheerful of the gang,though when frying or upset he vanished into thin air,not wanting to be seen,he also does this to spook or play peekaboo.

Pico: everything in picos story is normal up until the shooting,where he did actually die in the shooting taking down Cassandra,however,when he became an adult,the ruler of Halloween town decided to give him another chance at life and brought him back as a zombie in Halloween town,despite his rotting and bleeding body,he isn’t in that much pain,he doesn’t really interact with others outside the gang,however if you challenge him to a rap battle,that’s an offer he can’t refuse,he’s quite bombastic and shouty not to mention confident,if not a little ignorant to what’s happened in the real world since his death,he’s also able to detach his body and still move them even when they’re separated,however just cause he’s dead on the outside dosent mean he’s dead on the inside,as he still had a very caring side to him, cheering people up and getting the hungry food.

GF: ok,now for GF..oh boy. GF unlike in the canon was a regular human that was dropped off at an orphanage by her unknown parents,in a very VERY religious town,no one liked her cause of how much she was fascinated by magic and demons,when she became a teen it got worse,getting kicked out and having to wander the streets of a town that hated her,calling her a monster,beast and demon,it all came to a sudden end when she was killed by a priest trying to get rid of the “demon” in thier town,however,overnight a hidden vampire found her body and felt bad for her,so he bit her,using his venom and turned her into a vampire,where she was then brought to Halloween town. Despite her upbringing,she is extremely nice and friendly to everyone,and dosent really care if people insult her that much anymore,however there are some occasions where she can get sensitively what people think of her,especially when everyone is staring at her,she eventually met and fell in love with MB,beta and blue and met her newfound bestie named pico,who give her more love then her entire life as a mortal,people assume that cause she’s a vampire she is very dangerous and bloodthirsty,but it’s the exact opposite,if you meet her,she will shower you with love and affection no matter what.

-mod Shelby

(Despite the angst, I love this!! 👀)

[sg2tiger]

I'm a weird person who likes archiving things. Making lists. Etc. My friends bully me for it all the time but it's simply who I am 😔 I always liked doing these little end-of-year gaming wrap ups but they never really felt right on twitter (and I had to post my rambling thoughts at an external link anyway). I thought about just coming back with 2022 and ignoring the two years I didn't post them here but the gap would bother me too much, so here's a repost of my 2020 gaming recap.

Unless otherwise noted, all text was written in December 2020. For a couple games that I’ve played more in the time since I might add some additional thoughts, but I’ll make a note of it being 2022-me talking if so.

The Sims 4

I feel like I have to preface this with the fact that I was never into the Sims franchise, and never played any of the previous games in the series. Yes, yes. I know that they were better than the Sims 4 in every way. But since this is my only Sims game and thus the only metric by which I can judge a Sims game for myself, I can still say that I’ve gotten a lot of fun and enjoyment out of it since obtaining it earlier this year.

It started because some friends of mine were playing, and I became intrigued by the building system (and the death traps one friend was constructing with said building system). I don’t think life simulator games as a whole really appeal to me, which is why I never got into the Sims before now, but I do love me a good building system. And I do think the Sims 4 has a good building system. I just love zoning out and making and decorating houses, even if I’m not exactly GOOD at it. 

Still, despite all the things I hear about how inferior Sims 4 is to its predecessors, I’ve enjoyed the gameplay too. Since I play on PC I of course have access to mods to improve some of the areas where it’s lacking, but even so, ON ITS OWN without having anything to compare it to I think it can be a lot of fun if you know how you want to play it. Like, the only real ‘playthrough’ I have done so far that wasn’t just me testing mods and CC and stuff involved me trapping a full household of 8 sims inside a house and forcing them to live together reality show style. Except the house was also cursed AND haunted, and I had a mod that made fires spread faster and kill quicker. The goal was, any sim that could survive until they reached Elder on the fastest aging game speed would be set free from the house and be granted eternal youth and immortality. I had a lot of mini goals pop up as I played this save, but there was a light at the end of the tunnel — “reach elder without dying” — and that helped guide my gameplay enough that I didn’t feel completely aimless, which can be a problem for me if a game is too open-ended sometimes.

I can’t say I’d recommend spending more than $800 for the game and all its packs, but if you were to acquire it through some other means (that I absolutely definitely wouldn’t and am NOT advocating, of course) I think you could theoretically get plenty of enjoyment out of it, especially with the plethora of mods and CC out there. While there are certainly a lot of areas that have room for improvement and I have hopes for with the eventual Sims 5, I don’t think the Sims 4 is a BAD game. At least for a newcomer to the franchise like me who can’t really be disappointed because I have nothing to compare it with. To me, it’s a fun sandbox where I can zone out and enjoy building, or just throw some hapless sims into a horrible situation and play god. And sometimes it’s nice to have a game like that where you can just turn your brain off and do whatever.

Undertale

Yeah, I know. Undertale in 2020, extremely late to the party, etc. Thing is, when I first heard about Undertale, it sounded like a cute and fun game that I would probably enjoy. And then the overzealous fandom blew up and no one would shut the fuck up about it, casual spoilers were literally all over the place, and people looked at you like you had two heads if you said you hadn’t played it or didn’t want to play it. I got SO SICK of seeing people not SHUT THE FUCK UP about FUCKING UNDERTALE that I developed hype aversion and came to actively hate a game I’d never played, a game I probably WOULD LIKE if I played it, because everyone was so goddamn obsessed with it. I was actively avoiding it for years for this reason.

Anyway, after many years of consciously avoiding anything to do with Undertale as a result of the hype aversion, I ended up deciding to play it after all at the behest of good friends whose opinions I trust and who knew about my hype aversion going in. We sat down and talked it through and decided that I’d stream it to them on Discord while playing. They wouldn’t influence my gameplay or talk out of turn and spoil things for me, or give me hints I didn’t ask for, or tell me how to play the game. We’d meet once a week for a few hours for ‘Undertuesday’ and they’d just watch me play and experience things for myself (even if I sometimes very definitely annoyed them with my gameplay). And I appreciated that, so thank you guys again for being patient with me.

Now…I think I had a lot of thoughts and feelings about this game when I finally finished it, but it was back in April, and I don’t seem to have put them in writing because we were talking in voice chat. Unfortunately I can no longer remember any of the specific commentary I must have had for the game when it was fresh. But I think my general take was…I wasn’t able to enjoy it as much as I think I could have, had I TRULY been able to go in blind. But I simply had too much meta awareness of what the game was expecting of me due to how much it blew up. My awareness of things like the mere EXISTENCE of ‘pacifist’ and ‘genocide’ routes ensured that I tried to do the right thing throughout and never kill any monsters, because I knew the game didn’t ‘want’ me to. I had foreknowledge that actively changed the way I may have played had I not known. I also knew that the player character and the original lost human were not one in the same. Perhaps my feelings about the story may have changed had I been properly fooled into believing they were. And in general I had a hard time letting myself like Papyrus and Sans because of how popular they had become, and how sick I was of seeing their faces plastered all over the internet at the height of Undertale’s popularity.

Lots of things like that, mostly little things, but those little things added up to an experience that felt inherently tainted compared to being able to go in without that foreknowledge. I felt like I was just acting the way the game ‘wanted’ me to, but didn’t always expect me to, because a part of me knew that I was supposed to act that way if I wanted the best ending. Because I knew I’d be guilted and punished if I acted differently. Because I went into a game that acts as a deconstruction of the genre knowing that it was a deconstruction. I don’t know how else to put it, but I feel like I wasn’t really able to play it genuinely, and it affected my perception of the game and its themes. Perhaps also being aware that my friends, to whom this game means a great deal, were watching me with expectations and hopes of their own that I would come away loving it as much as they did, and wanted me to. And I feel like I probably let them down because that just didn’t happen for me.

Undertale is a good game. It’s cute, it’s got some cheeky little amusing moments, and you can tell a great deal of love was put into it. I understand why it’s as beloved as it is. But I think it’s also a good lesson about fandom hype and how NOT to try and get your friends to play a game you like (or watch a show, or whatever). I know that when you’re very interested in something you want more than anything to get your friends to become interested in it too — believe me, I’ve been there, and I was definitely the annoying type about it (especially about Umineko). But I think it’s also very important not to let your excitement for a thing override the experience of others, especially if you want them to love it as much as you do. Undertale feels like the kind of game that really works best when you can go in blind and not have your experienced guided — directly or indirectly — by spoilers and meta knowledge. I feel like I definitely would have been able to appreciate it more had I been able to have a natural experience with it, anyway.

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey

A lot of my thoughts on Odyssey are basically repeats of my thoughts on Origins from last year, so I won't rehash those here. The TL;DR of it is, I can enjoy both games on their own merits as vaguely historical open world action games, but not as what I consider to be Assassin’s Creed games. What I consider to be Assassin’s Creed has essentially ended with Syndicate, and it appears that we won’t be going back, now that Valhalla continues to follow in Odyssey’s footsteps in turning the franchise into (the very loose definition of) an RPG.

What’s NEW here from Origins is the addition of dialogue options and “choices” in how quests can complete. Except your choices aren’t real choices at all, and the player never truly has any agency in the parts of the story that actually matter in the end. (spoilers for this next part so skip to the end if you don’t want ‘em)

Phoebe always dies, for example. No matter what you do. No matter how fast you are. No matter what choices you made before this point in the story. Her character, regardless of what you do or don’t do, is destined to die. To me this would have been an IDEAL point in the story to have some actual cause and effect…like, maybe my actions earlier with her friend and the plague business could influence this, and if I choose poorly, I would have to live with the fact that I’d doomed her. Or something DURING the quest itself, as you pursue her. Maybe you could have acted in a way to get to her in time. I know they really wanted Aspasia’s reveal as the big bad to be a surprising end game affair, but it was pretty heavily foreshadowed at this point in the story (I didn’t think she was The Ghost yet but I certainly was suspicious of her being a cultist). Maybe if my character could have had the opportunity to not trust her, I could have advised Phoebe to not work for her at all, and not end up endangered as a result. There are any number of ways they could have given me the agency to either save or or TRULY end up responsible for her death by my actions. They did not. She is scripted to die no matter what you do. And this is just one example of many points in the game just like it where places that I feel like I SHOULD be able to influence the outcome with my decisions don’t do jack shit because it’s scripted. By contrast, most times that my decision CAN influence the outcome of a quest, the change is so minor (slightly different dialogue or the opportunity to pursue a bland out of the blue fade-to-black sex scene I don’t want) that it doesn’t feel worthwhile at all.

At the end of the day I’m left wondering why this even needed to be a feature at all. Just to give the illusion that this is an RPG now, and broaden the customer base? Because that’s what it feels like. The game could have played out almost exactly the same had they gone with a FULLY scripted story like all the previous games, especially since Alexios/Kassandra clearly already have a pre-written personality that comes across through the things they say and the way they say them regardless of which dialogue options you actually choose. The choices are basically tacked on for appearance’s sake, choices in name only. I felt nothing meaningful from a single one of my choices in all of my 207 hours so far (I’m still trying for 100% completion but I have finished the main questline with both Deimos and unveiling all the cult members). And that’s my biggest complaint about this game — the “choices” didn’t even need to exist because their absence wouldn’t have actually changed the game at all.

And that’s not even getting into the whole forced DLC marriage and child debacle (I don’t own it and plenty of other people have already gone on at length elsewhere on the internet about it, but I think it speaks to the exact same issue of the game promising and giving the illusion of player choice but ultimately still having a scripted story to tell and a protagonist whose personality is already set in stone regardless of your ingame decisions).

At this point I had a whole txt file with more specific examples of Quests That Did Not Actually Give Me A Choice but you get the picture, so I’m not gonna go on endlessly about each one…

Anyway. I feel like Ubisoft would be better off just making a new IP if they want to explore the RPG market so badly. Assassin’s Creed never fit this format and I don’t feel it ever will. RPGs with significant choices work best with silent protagonists (though I feel like KC:D did a serviceable job without one), not fully fleshed out characters who already have literally existed in a historical context by way of the game’s entire premise. By actively taking place in the past you are inherently limiting the things my character can do to influence the story, because that story has already concluded, and the results of it can be seen in the present day story. But they keep being so wishy-washy with the present day story that it’s like a relic at this point anyway that they’re just afraid to drop entirely to piss off the minority who still cares (me, I’m the minority). But when it clearly doesn’t MATTER anymore, why not just bite the bullet and do it already? You could always resolve the loose ends in a comic tie-in lololol

Honestly though, while I’m probably the .0001% who actually enjoys reading all of the stuff on Layla’s PC that gives more context on the lore of the modern day assassins vs. templars conflict and the overarching story that’s been running through this franchise since day 1, I think we’re at a point where they may as well just let it go. They’ve been doing it so dirty since Black Flag as it is, I’d rather just see it go than get further tarnished by being forcefully tacked on because it’s an artifact of the series. After the complete disregard for modern day that we saw in Unity and Syndicate I was genuinely excited when we got Layla, because I thought she’d step into the role of The New Desmond and have adventures that actually made the modern day story relevant again…but she’s actually LESS relevant than the nameless faceless Black Flag modern day protagonist, and that’s just sad. Just pull the plug already, Ubisoft. You’ve made it abundantly clear that you want this series to become a loosely historical sandbox RPG and the intricate and complex lore of the modern day storyline is only dragging you down. You don’t care about it anymore, so what’s it matter to people like me who DO care if you’re not giving it proper attention either way? Just let it die before it can be disgraced any more.

I’m getting off track though…honestly, it’s a fun game. Like I said, 207 hours and I’m still not done shooting for 100% completion by exploring every island and doing every sidequest that I missed my first go around. If I wasn’t having fun at all I wouldn’t still be here. I AM having fun. I think less fun than I had with Origins, if I’m being honest, but it’s definitely not a bad game. I’ll just never be happy with the idea of the series going in this direction in the first place, so I’m always gonna be here nitpicking about little things the majority of people won’t care at all about. Like the fact that haystacks and hidespots no longer exist despite being a literal staple of the franchise. Or the fact that you can’t die from fall damage anymore. Lack of true poison/berserk darts mechanic or any real ability to sow chaos in an enemy camp without breaking stealth because the game really really REALLY wants to force you into open dynamic combat because it looks cooler in the promo trailers. Feel like I had to fight the game to give my gear all the mechanics that boost Predator Shot and passive adrenaline regeneration so I can pull off multiple headshot kills without being spotted, y’know, like I want to actively do in a game where I expect to play like a proper assassin. Oil barrels also seem way weaker than they were in Origins where setting fire to camps was a risky (because it’s not exactly stealthy and quiet in the traditional sense) but very fun way of making quick work of enemies in the dead of night and then slipping away in the chaos before they could see you. The game just really wants me to be a Spartan Warrior Demigod and I’ve gotta work so hard to NOT be that and it annoys me. Can’t even blow up a grain silo from absolute and complete cover with no one around to witness SHIT and not get a mysterious bounty on my head. Are the horses and goats reporting my crimes again, like in Skyrim?

I could keep going with nitpick after nitpick but I won’t. I’m just cranky because I actually really liked both Unity (gameplay-wise, the story was a trainwreck) and Syndicate (slightly less of a trainwreck which is funny considering the presence of actual trains) and thought they did a lot to really refine that tried and true core Assassin’s Creed gameplay…and I know it’s never coming back. But Odyssey is fun I guess. If you aren’t an experienced AC fan you’ll probably enjoy it. And I guess that’s exactly how Ubisoft likes it.

Sonic Adventure 2

One day I was babysitting my 3-year old nephew and he told me he wanted to play a ‘blue game’. I didn’t know what that meant (I have since learned that this is how he refers to his parents’ Switch, which is light blue) so I looked in my Steam library for something blue. I landed on this, which I forgot I even had on PC. And that’s how I got my nephew obsessed with Sonic and also how I spent the next 2 months reliving one of my favorite games of the GameCube era.

I don’t really have a lot to say here. It’s Sonic Adventure 2. I got big into the Chao Garden, as one does, and trying to A-rank all those stages that used to give me the hardest time. I’m actually really proud to have A-ranked Crazy Gadget on all stage types, and Eternal Engine on all types except Hard (couldn’t manage more than a B). Also got all A ranks on Route 101, but I did that in the olden days too (after a great deal of frustration and one broken GameCube controller). Can’t manage to pull it off for Hard Mode Pyramid Cave though…and I know I DID finally get that one last time I replayed this game, like, 8 years ago, so I know I’m capable, but I just can't manage to pull it off.

Mostly I focus on the Hero stages though. Growing up, me and my brother used to share our save files on most games instead of having separate ones, and when he played I’d watch and vice-versa. For SA2 I always played the Hero story and he played Dark, so I’m always less familiar and more rusty when I try to do the Dark stages. I did get all A ranks on Radical Highway after many many hours of trying (fuck you, time attack)…but that’s about my sole Dark stage claim to fame. Rouge's stages in particular are exceptionally difficult for me.

I was still working on raising some Chao before I inevitably got distracted away by other games…but the good thing about having it on Steam is that my save data will be there next time I get the urge to play, whether it’s a year from now or 5+. No more hunting for old memory cards that probably got lost or thrown out when we moved houses, taking all those hard-earned A ranks and carefully-raised Chao with them. And I think it'll be satisfying to boot it back up after a long time and remind myself that I got all A ranks in Crazy Gadget (the finest achievement I'll ever attain in this lifetime and what should be engraved on my tombstone).

Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town

The original Friends of Mineral Town (back when it was still Harvest Moon) for GBA was probably my favorite Harvest Moon game, so I was excited to play the updated remake. It’s not PERFECT, and I did kinda end my playthrough on a sour note which I will explain in a moment, but looking back on it now several months later I’d say it’s a very comfy and largely casual farming sim that’s hard not to like. Fans of Stardew Valley or more modern farming sims might find it too shallow, but for people who played either the original FoMT, HM64 or Back to Nature, it’s a fun and nostalgic little game.

Of course, as with all remakes, there’s always those things you wish they didn’t change. Some of the character redesigns don’t sit as well with me as the originals, but most of them grew on me as I played (except Karen…). The removal of rival marriages is also a heavy blow, simply because a certain Japanese market didn’t like the idea that their waifus might get “stolen” if they didn’t act fast enough (and iirc you had like, 2 whole years before they WOULD in the original so like…)…I’d like to say the inclusion of same-sex marriage makes up for it, but I wish we could have had both. I always end up wooing everyone in town before I actually get married in these games, just so I can see all the events, and then I feel bad for leading everyone else on, so I like the idea that they’ll find happiness together too! I think that if the game were ever able to be hacked for mod support this would be the first thing modders would put back in.

But while these things are the main offenders you’ll hear people talk about, they’re not the worst. A lot of this is probably on the nitpick level that most players won’t care about so feel free to stop reading here. Granted that a lot of the game’s issues stem from being a little TOO faithful to the original and some of its more frustrating gimmicks (who honestly thought a 50 year wedding anniversary gift was a good idea in a game where no one will ever age?!), but there are a lot of things that were CHANGED from the original and made needlessly more difficult for some baffling reason…and then tied to achievements, to boot.

So, most of the achievements are pretty easy to get as long as you play normally and get past 3 years. Others require you to go a bit out of your way to achievement hunt for them specifically, but are absolutely doable if you set your mind to doing them. But then there are the ones that basically require you to plan your entire save file around getting them, and making no mistakes in the process unless you just really really REALLY love waiting around for entire ingame seasons before you get another chance. The main offenders here are all related to breeding farm animals, and how they needlessly changed the breeding mechanics in this game for seemingly no reason than to make things more tedious and difficult.

See, the remake introduced a convoluted friendship/happiness system to all your animals. I think the original had some hidden friendship requirements too, but the main thing in the remake is that animals you purchase have a friendship CAP, after which they cannot continue to gain more friendship, even if you’ve had them and cared for them every day lovingly for years. The only way to raise that cap is to breed your animals, and each time you breed a successive generation that heart cap goes up by one. Purchased animals cap out at 5 out of a maximum of 8 hearts. If you breed your 5 heart cow you bought, it’ll have 6 hearts. Breed that one and it’ll raise to 7. And so on down the line until you have a cow with 8 hearts…which is basically a requirement if you want to get several achievements, and if you aren’t aware of this and start doing it IN YOUR FIRST YEAR you’re going to have a very bad time.

See, you need your animals to have max hearts if you want them to produce the highest-quality animal products (milk, eggs, wool). And you need those animal products in order to cook some dishes, which you need for the achievement to cook all dishes in the game. And you need them at max hearts to win the seasonal animal festivals, which also have achievements. And the thing about those festivals is that they come once a year, and if you don’t have your maxed out adult animal by the time they roll around you have to wait a whole year to do it again. This is much worse than it sounds when you consider the aforementioned fact that the heart cap only raises by one with each successive time you breed…and it takes a full season (30 days) for a pregnant animal to give birth, and about another 20 for that baby animal to become fully grown. And then you have to actually GET that animal’s friendship maxed out up to its cap before you can breed them and pass that cap on to its baby (I think? I was playing in August so I’m a bit fuzzy but I’m pretty sure this was part of what made it so obnoxious because you couldn’t just breed the baby as soon as it hit adult stage if you wanted to do it right).

Now remember, the animal festivals come only once a year. You can’t submit a pregnant or baby animal, but you need an animal with 8 hearts or more (10 is actually the maximum but you only need 8 for everything that matters) to win the festivals. So if you time your breeding poorly, you might not have an animal that’s ready for the festival in time…there’s also holidays and the occasional typhoon/blizzard (which you can sort of cheat your way around in most cases if you’re vigilant about watching the weather channel) that can interfere in your ability to feed and brush the animals, which loses you precious days of raising that friendship.

Now let’s say you didn’t even find out about this cap system, or the 8 heart requirement for winning festivals, until well into your third year, after you’ve gotten most of the other achievements and basically done almost all you wanted to do in this game. Well too bad, because you’re basically going to need another 2 years minimum before you’ll actually have a prize-winning animal ready for the next festival! And if you’ve already befriended all the townsfolk, gotten all the romances, married, fully upgraded your farm, learned all the cooking recipes, fully explored both mines, and basically everything ELSE in the game besides these achievements…you’re going to have a lot of extremely BORING grind ahead of you where you basically just wake up, care for the animals, go back to bed and repeat. For season. After season. After season.

I was basically working like crazy to try and pull this off and I DID actually just barely not make it in time for the sheep festival one year which kinda threw me over the edge in my anger about this mechanic. And if you want to get all the products for your shipping log (thank GOD not required for an achievement, but something I was actively trying to complete before the breeding madness made me just say fuck it, achievements and then I’m done with this game) you have to do this for each type of cow as well…or at least have the sense not to buy any other type of cow besides normal until you’ve already gotten an 8-heart cow through breeding. Because whenever you buy a new animal of the same type after raising the cap, those animals will have the increased heart cap too…so if you had bred yourself a cow with 6 hearts, and bought a new cow, it’d have a 6 maximum instead of 5, and the different cow flavors all run on the same cap system as the normal cow (but only the normal cow’s milk is needed for the cooking achievement so the flavored cows are…well, frankly useless outside of the shipping log).

If this were the only frustrating system in the game I could probably suck it up and deal. It’s very obnoxious since, despite all the tutorial books in the library, I don’t think any of them mention this mechanic at all and basically require you to read about it in an online guide to know (and sucks to be you if you don’t do so early into your save so you can get started on it ASAP), and because it takes so much time to do it that it’ll take you a couple years for certain…but I’d probably sigh, complain a bit, and move past it. But the game decided that this was simply not ENOUGH of a punishingly specific seasonally timed game mechanic to tie to an achievement. No…instead they had to throw in that achievement for owning all 4 of the possible animal pets.

In the original FoMT you just started the game with a dog and you could take it to the fetch festival on the beach in summer. That was about it. The remake introduced different breeds of dog as well as cats, penguins and capybara you can get during different seasons from a special pet merchant. That merchant only shows up on the 15th of the month, and only if it’s sunny, and only if you’ve done some other stuff I forget exactly in order for him to start coming to town. And THEN, the pet he sells changes per season — cats in spring, penguins in summer, dogs in fall and capybara in winter. He won’t sell you a second pet until you’ve raised — you guessed it — your friendship hearts with your first pet, and it also has to be an adult…and you also guessed it, this takes a lot of time and daily dedication to level. And you have to do this until you’ve obtained all 4 pets from him, which you have to do EXACTLY on a sunny 15th day of each season, and only when all of your other pets are adults with maxed friendship.

Getting the idea yet? Another achievement basically tailor made to make you waste your time living through more ingame years than the game has engaging content to complete, and another element that you basically have to read about online to know exactly how it works. I wanted to get a cat. Cats are sold in spring, but it’s impossible for the merchant to come to town before the SUMMER of first year, so the earliest you can get a cat is year 2. It’s also not possible to get two pets in a row — your pet does not grow from baby to adult in time. I tried. So you CAN’T get a cat in spring of year 2, and then a penguin in summer of year 2…you have to skip over summer that year and you’ll be able to get a dog in autumn year 2. But then your dog won’t be an adult by winter of year 2, so you can’t get a capybara. But you can get a cat in year 3 spring! Oh wait, you have a cat already? Bummer. You effectively shot yourself in the foot and wasted time by not buying your pets with the maximum efficiency required to get this achievement.

I was in year 6 by the time I finally got all of the achievements. I had actually reached a point where I basically abandoned my actual save and made a second save file just to do this, neglecting my friends, family, livestock and farm for the sole purpose of waking up, playing fetch with my pet, going to bed and repeating until the time came that I could buy my next pet. The amount of time I wasted, both in real life and in the game, was just unbelievable. The unbelievably restricted mechanics in this game that can’t even be blamed on it being a remake of something so old, because they were actively INTRODUCED in the remake…by the time that last achievement finally popped I was just 1000% fucking done. I came away from a fun and jaunty little remake of a beloved game from my yesteryear feeling angry and soured on the whole experience. And I know that’s stupid, and I know you don’t have to get all achievements and I know achievements should be for things that you really SHOULD work to ACHIEVE and not be handed out like candy. But there’s a difference between achievements that make me feel like I worked hard to achieve them, and achievements that are gated behind ridiculously convoluted time-gated events that require you to actively stop playing the game normally and dedicate yourself solely to…waiting. To grinding your real actual time WAITING day after ingame day until the right time appears, and praying to God you didn’t fuck up and miss even one day in your routine. It’s bullshit, plain and simple.

And it’s not enough for me to not recommend this game, because I still had a lot of nostalgia and fun with it and this isn’t something that’s going to affect the vast, vast majority of players. I just…it’s remarkable how this game is both cutesy and casual and also so sadistic in its torments that it would make Satan himself blush. And it just kinda left a bad taste in my mouth by the time I’d finished and made me want to rant about it. And I put it in my notes, ‘rant about this thing when you write up the end of year post because I’m too angry to do it now’, and I didn’t wanna let my past self down. They put a lot of wasted time into getting those achievements, dammit, they deserve a little 10-paragraph rant as a treat.

But hey — at least I’m in the less-than-1% of (Steam) players who made it.

Fire Emblem Fates: Birthright

Been playing this on and off at a very slow pace for a while now…I’m not finished yet so I don’t really have a whole lot to say. It’s…alright. It’s like Awakening: More Differenter Edition, except it lacks a lot of the charm that game had and copypastes some of its mechanics over seemingly just for the sake of it despite it not REALLY making sense to do so (I’m looking at you, dimension babies). The characters are less charming and memorable IMO, and while I kinda like the story plot itself more than Awakening’s, I’m not a big fan of the Pokemon-style version split between the two stories. I’m basically never going to buy or play Conquest, so I’m effectively missing out entirely on the characters and perspective of that side…a perfect scheme to engineer people into buying two copies of the same game, of course (at least with Pokemon the idea is that you’re socializing with other people to get what you don’t have…that logic doesn’t really work when it’s an entire story that you’re splitting between two games that effectively must be played by the same one person to get the full experience).

I was enjoying it well enough though, even if not loving it, until the other day when I finally got to that mission. Suffice to say I didn’t have the requisite A-rank with a certain someone, who was then Doomed To Die By Cutscene In The Stupidest Most Convoluted Way Possible, despite that person being one of my best and most-used units gameplay-wise…so I was basically punished for not having them stand next to my PC character, specifically. But I’m not going to go on another 10-paragraph rant about why I hate game mechanics that come out of the blue and give you no way of knowing about them without seeking knowledge from outside the game. Suffice to say I just sucked it up and reloaded my save, grinded out the last level of support on one of the bonus maps (we were at a B support already…just not A 🙄), and then replayed what had been one of the hardest maps to get through in the game so far the first time (it was easier the second time since I knew about the reinforcements spawning nigh endlessly from the towers if you don’t block em off). The character’s life was spared and life goes on.

Still one of the stupidest things I’ve encountered in a game though, since no other Fire Emblem has had something like that locked to a support, to my knowledge (unless the old pre-GBA ones that I never played did), and there’s really NOTHING in the game’s story to that point that suggests this character’s relationship with the protagonist is important enough to doom them to Death By Cutscene if you don’t support them to A before that point. I was angry. But I managed to overcome it so I’ve moved on.

2022 Addendum: I finished this game the following year, before moving on to play Three Houses. My final verdict was ultimately one of disappointment, hence the updated ‘Meh’ review on the page image. The writing was just plain bad (and I’ve heard that it’s arguably worse on the other two routes), and the characters were just not that memorable or likeable to me with maybe two exceptions. What I did like about it was the gameplay - and at this point I can’t even remember the specifics, but I do remember that there were a few times playing Three Houses where I kept thinking ‘man I really miss being able to do [x] like in Fates’, so I guess there’s that. I know Birthright is also the Baby Easy Mode of the Fates trilogy, but I think Conquest would probably be hard enough to piss me off (I put up with that shit in the GBA era but I don’t know if 2022 Tiger is patient enough for that anymore). 

But mostly, the reason I don’t ever particularly care to play Conquest or Revelation is simply because Birthright wasn’t satisfying enough in the writing department for me to WANT to. Ideally you’d want one of your 3-part game series to hook the player into wanting to see how things go down on the other routes, right? Like, no one plays a visual novel, gets one ending, and says ‘okay that’s enough’ (r-right?). If the writing were GOOD it should make me want to see things from the other side. If the characters were compelling enough I should want to see them through another viewpoint. And if the overarching plot (which I spoiled myself on once I decided I didn’t want to ever play the other two games) actually had more hints to its presence IN Birthright’s story, enough to nag at my mind and say ‘there’s something unfinished here and I want to know what it is’...but well, it didn’t. Birthright didn’t manage to make me care about any of those things, certainly not enough to spend more money to buy both a second entire full-priced game and THEN a paid DLC on top of that. 

Some people play these games entirely for the strategy gameplay, and that’s the crowd I hear praising Conquest. But other than that I get the strong sense that I’m not alone in finding Fates a pretty weak entry in the series overall. Thankfully I feel that Three Houses more than made up for all of Fates’ shortcomings, at least in the writing and character department, but I’ll talk about that more in my 2021 Three Houses review. UNthankfully...well, I’m not too excited for what I’ve seen about Engage so far, so I guess time will tell as to whether Fates redeems itself in my eyes in the future.

Skyrim Modlist: Elder Souls

I think it’s becoming a meme at this point that Skyrim, in some form, will be on these lists at the end of every year. But I can’t help it…something about it calls to me every year around the same time (late August to September) and it always manages to pull me back in 😔

Anyway, last year I gave Ultimate Skyrim a try because the last time I modded my own game I broke things in hilarious ways by trying to make my own mod compatibility patches (turns out I’m not that good at it). I thought having someone else curate the modlist experience for me would alleviate my problems. And I loved that part of it, and how integrated Ultimate Skyrim’s systems felt compared to me just slapping together whatever I liked with no thought to how those systems would interact. Unfortunately I wasn’t as big a fan of Requiem, the entire system Ultimate Skyrim is based upon…

But in the intervening year between playthroughs, Automaton (the tool used to install Ultimate Skyrim) gave way to a new tool called Wabbajack, and an entire new world of curated modlist installers opened up before me. I decided to peruse the various Wabbajack lists and see if I could find one that’d suit me a little better than Requiem…and I actually really liked the sound of Elder Souls.

As the name implies, Elder Souls is basically The Dark Souls Of Skyrim. The world is harsher, bleaker, and filled with a huge variety of new enemies and dungeons chemically balanced specifically to kick your ass. The skill and leveling system is completely overhauled — aside from the crafting skills (smithing, alchemy and enchanting), you don’t gain exp and level up by doing anymore. You gain gold with each kill, and when you sleep you spend an increasing amount of gold to raise your level in the skill of your choice. Eventually you’ll earn enough exp to level up and gain perk points to invest. As you level, the amount of gold it takes to progress increases higher and higher, from the hundreds to the several thousands…but as you grow in power, you’ll be able to kill more enemies to earn more gold to put towards leveling up further. It’s actually a really cohesive and fun gameplay loop that works surprisingly well in Skyrim, and I came to enjoy it a lot.

Of course you can also earn gold in the usual ways…loot, selling loot, crafting things and selling those…everything you do in the game basically makes you think about how much gold you have and how you want to invest it. In the early game especially, when it’s so hard to kill and loot enemies, that expensive weapon at the blacksmith can be really tempting…but that means you’ll be spending the gold you need to level up, so it’s a judgment call. It also makes you really focus your character build because your skillups are restricted to when you can sleep and afford them, and your perk points become harder and harder to earn as each level up starts to feel so far away (though you can find perk points by exploring and finding waystones in the world as well, for a little extra help). Do you want to invest that perk in alchemy or enchanting? Or is it more practical to boost your damage or defense by taking a combat perk instead? It really makes you think about how you level.

In the early game, you’re a fragile little baby. When you die, you leave behind a gravestone and all your gold with it (you don’t lose your gear) and respawn in the last inn you slept in. If you can get back to your body before dying again, you can recover your gold…but if you die on the way, it’s gone forever. It may be practical to bring a follower along for better survival, but they’re expensive to hire and share in a portion of the gold you earn…is it worth the tradeoff for the survivability? I managed to get lucky and beat Uthgerd the Unbroken in a fistfight by using the architecture of the Bannered Mare to my advantage, ducking and weaving, so I earned a ‘free’ follower to carry my burdens and tank for me in my early hours. She also came at level 11 when I was like, level 3. I had to make her essential, though, because she kept jumping in front of my arrows when I tried to shoot the enemy and I killed her/reloaded about 5 times before I’d had enough of that 😔

By the middle to the end of the game, though, if you’ve been diligent in exploring, killing and building your perks well, you come to feel like an invincible god. You can take anything alone, and followers just get in the way. I was playing an Orc warrior, with two-handed/heavy armor/archery/smithing. Orcs in Elder Souls have passive health regeneration. With the Wintersun religion mod I followed Malacath, of course, and his boon allowed me to regain health for the amount of overkill damage I dealt with each enemy kill based on my favor with him. My favor with him was constantly high because I pleased him by constantly slaying great and powerful foes. With the addition of crafting equippable Runes I furthered my health regeneration per kill and buffs to my armor rating. For completing Meridia’s daedric quest I got a spell that…well I forget what it did exactly but it buffed me even more. Using Ocato’s Recital I had it autocast whenever I entered combat. As a werewolf, I also had further buffs to my health and stamina, even outside of my beast form. By the endgame I was further buffed by Black Books and the reforged Gauldur Amulet (which in Elder Souls has the extremely OP power of letting you revive once on death with a 15 minute cooldown — but considering the Gauldur brothers are extremely formidable, it’s a reward worthy of defeating them). And with the Cleave ability in the two-handed perk tree allowing me to deal AoE damage with each attack, I became a literally unkillable, unstoppable machine of death.

I’m not even a min-maxer. Optimizing builds and gear isn’t something I find fun, so I don’t really do it. This just was mostly a case of multiple factors all aligning in just the right ways to make me feel like a literal actual god. To further illustrated exactly how broken my character became by the endgame, there’s an enemy in the Vigilant mod designed to be unkillable — as in, you’re supposed to just RUN from her if she sees you. I’m kind of a weenie about horror in games in general so I was very scared and I did run and panic when I got to that part of the dungeon but then I got cornered in a room and in my panic flailed about attacking and…killed her. And then her equally scary friend who showed up shortly thereafter. Just killed them both. They’re either meant to have stupidly high health or defense or maybe both, I read about them online and they are definitely not meant to be killable because this section of the mod is more or less supposed to be a survival horror. You can’t kill the monsters chasing you, you can only run. Unless you’re me, the most broken Skyrim character who ever lived.

Anyway. To further drive home how much I ENJOYED Elder Souls, this is the first time I actually, legitimately finished Skyrim. In all my 2,193 hours of OG Skyrim on Steam, in only 228 hours of Elder Souls (this was my first time playing Special Edition so I did have the exact hours on hand) I did what I thought I could never do because I was always so distracted adding and removing mods and generally being too busy breaking my load orders to actually play the game. I beat Alduin. Then I did the Dawnguard DLC for the first time. Then I did Dragonborn for the first time. And then I did vicn’s trilogy of GLENMORIL (I was actually doing this concurrent with Dawnguard), VIGILANT and UNSLAAD. And there were even more quest mods I’d never played included in Elder Souls…but after being able to solo VIGILANT basically effortlessly it felt like nothing in this game could be a proper challenge anymore and I officially decided to call it quits. At level 49, Ushnak the Orc retired, too powerful for Tamriel to contain.

I was still in the mood for Skyrim after that, though, so I grabbed a new modlist and started a new file. But it just…didn’t click. It was a fun enough modlist in its own right (Equanimity) but it just…didn’t feel the same, after getting used to Elder Souls. The world felt so much more empty without all the enemy variety…sure, they had QUANTITY with bandit camps absolutely overflowing with difficult foes, but it wasn’t the same feeling as wandering through the desolate mountains and stumbling upon a minotaur, armed to the teeth and blocking your path. My gold no longer felt like it had value when I couldn’t spend it on skill ups, which had kept loot meaningful throughout the entire game. I feel like Elder Souls just kinda ruined a more traditional Skyrim experience for me…it was so DIFFERENT, and definitely took some getting used to at first, but when I stopped playing I finally realized just how much I’d warmed up to it.

I do wonder how much more punishing it’d be on a different build, though. I was focusing on archery more in the early game but then focused mostly on two-handed by the end, but how would the traditional Skyrim Sneak Archer survive in Elder Souls? What about a mage? I never play mages, but still. A squishier class, a race and religion without inherent health regen abilities…it might be fun to try next year when the Skyrim urge strikes me again. Or maybe I’ll venture out and try another new modlist again. I think I just couldn’t jump RIGHT from the Elder Souls experience into something that was a little closer to normal Skyrim, but a year off might ‘reset’ that a bit. Still though, I’d like to play Elder Souls again sometime. And I wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone who wants to play Skyrim for the 100th time, but also like, doesn’t want to play Skyrim for the 100th time.

2022 Addendum: Sadly Elder Souls has been discontinued, so my ‘Recommended’ rating feels a little weird now, but there’s other Soulsy inspired lists out there that can hopefully scratch a similar itch (last one I was playing before I got distracted was Ruvaak which was pretty fun). In general I still cannot recommend Wabbajack modlists enough, and since the time of this review I have not played Skyrim without it being a Wabbajack modlist (with the semi exception of me taking someone else’s Skyrim Together modlist and then kind of hacking it to pieces to fit me and my friends’ needs, but that’s a story for the 2022 game reviews).

Genshin Impact

Some friends were playing Genshin so I decided to give it a try. Especially since it was constantly being called a BoTW clone, and I figured I’d never get a switch or be able to play BoTW, so hey, why not?

I feel like I don’t have a lot to say about it. It’s cute and fun and while the gacha elements are, well, gacha elements, I think the game is still very playable and enjoyable without suffering under the greedy fist of Big Gacha. The elemental interactions are really fun — I love games that take elemental play in more exciting directions than simple “water beats fire” style (one of the reasons I like Divinity a lot). Exploration is also a lot of fun, and it’s always really rewarding to solve a puzzle and see a chest pop up. I was also pleasantly surprised by how much worldbuilding and story there actually is, since I kinda figured it was gonna go more sandbox-style and just throw me out with a vague premise and have me explore the world in hopes of finding my sister.

I’ve enjoyed it a lot so far, I just haven’t played it a ton yet because I’ve also had my hands full with other things. But what’s there so far is pretty fun and I think it’s worth checking out at the very least.

World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth/Shadowlands

A friend of mine usually buys me a couple months of WoW sub for every new expansion (I started playing when Pandaria was current). For reasons I no longer remember but are probably ARK-related, I didn’t end up getting a sub during the BFA period (my last sub came around the end of Legion). So about a month before Shadowlands dropped she got me a new sub, and I had to play catch-up on all the BFA stuff I’d missed out on…and THEN jump into Shadowlands.

Since I didn’t play BFA when it was current content, I think my opinions of it are pretty skewed. From what I hear, Azerite gear was wildly unpopular, but I kinda thought it was fun (granted I’m not into the endgame high tier raiding stuff where it’d really be an issue). I also liked how the Alliance and Horde stories were COMPLETELY different, and not just slightly different takes on doing the same content in the same zones. Both islands have a lot of personality and I thought the stories for both were interesting, and neither really required me to have a PHD in World Of Warcraft Lore Studies to understand them (which Legion sometimes felt like it did). I’m not SUPER thrilled with some of the changes they made to Outlaw Rogue since I was away, but I’ve gotten used to it…mostly.

Then Shadowlands came out JUST after I finished up my rep grind to get flying in BFA, where I now no longer had any reason to be and to fly (okay that’s not true, because it came in very handy when I leveled my horde main through BFA later, but it’s how I felt at the time). I kinda liked the more railroaded leveling experience for a change because of the way the story elements were able to be tied together and flow into each other, and I appreciate the fact that once you’ve gone through it that way once you don’t have to do it again on your future characters. Usually when I’m leveling I end up wandering off and picking up !s wherever I see them, getting vastly off-track from where the game actually wants me to go (I basically wandered away from like, the third story quest you get in Kul Tiras and ended up doing Every Sidequest in Tiragarde Sound before wandering back to continue the ‘main’ story there and realizing some of the places it would have taken me were places I had already gone to). For Shadowlands, since it wanted to guide me into focusing on the storyline, I decided not to do that — Bastion still had a bunch of the map unexplored by the time I finished the story there, but instead of wandering off to see it all I just headed right to Maldraxxus so I could do the story while it was all fresh in my mind. Then after finishing that, I went back to the other zones to wrap up the extra sidequests and stuff I had missed the first time around. It was a different kind of experience from how I usually play but I liked it for a change. Not sure if I’d like to see it as the new style for every expansion going forward, but I thought it worked well for Shadowlands in particular and the story it wanted to tell.

I’ve now got both my mains set up in covenants and am working on developing those. Another friend who hadn’t played WoW since WoTLK also recently came back and we have been working on leveling new characters together. As someone who’s mostly only ever played one Main Character, with a Secondary Character to occasionally experience stuff on the opposite faction, it feels weird to suddenly have all these ideas for new alts I wanna make, and having to find time to do all the things I wanna do. Thankfully my friend extended my sub as a Christmas gift, so I feel less pressured to have to do EVERYTHING I want to do by the end of the month now that I’ve got more time.

Overall I’ve been having fun though, after having been away from the game for a while. I’m kind of a casual WoW player in general, preferring the questing experience to doing stuff like Dungeons and Raids with groups of strangers that are gonna be putting pressure on me and my gear and my performance, so MY enjoyable WoW experience is not going to be EVERYONE’S enjoyable WoW experience. I get the sense that BFA was not terribly popular, but I thought it was better than Legion (and I liked Legion when it was current content). I’m also not as concerned with choosing the optimal covenant for Maximum Performance, but more based on aesthetics and style and how they fit my characters, and I’d like to see how all their little stories play out on alt characters at some point (right now my rogue is Venthyr and my hunter is Kyrian). Plus there’s still leveling my lowbie druid with my friends, and other alts I wanna make at some point…and working on stuff like pet battling and archaeology on the side. Lots of stuff to do, but hopefully now I’ve got enough time to do it in, and can relax a bit.

2022 Addendum: This was all before the whole big Blizzard scandals came about. At the time me and my friends were having a blast playing Shadowlands content together almost every night. Then basically all at once we all kind of stopped playing. For one friend, it was entirely due to the controversy. For the other I think it was a combination of conflicted feelings and general burnout. I kept going for another month or two until my sub ran out, but I was hitting the burnout around that time as well, and not having them to play with made me lose my zeal to work on my alts and other things to hold my interest, so I just let it lapse. I’m not really sure what the future holds as far as playing WoW together again, now...maybe someday. I don’t think there’s even been a new expansion since Shadowlands yet, anyway (I don’t really keep up with WoW news at all when I’m not actively playing). It’s kind of crazy how much can change in such a short amount of time. I’ll still look back at that time we were playing together and having fun, though, even if our WoW playing days might potentially be over.

Grounded

My friends came to me and basically said, “we’re obsessed with a new survival crafting game, do you wanna play”, and I said “why yes, I do love a good survival crafting game”, and the next thing I knew I had become a little ant…

Grounded hits on all the usual trappings of the genre. You have a vague premise (in this case you’ve been shrunken down to insect size and forced to brave the dangers of the backyard, Honey I Shrunk The Kids style) but otherwise are on your own to fend for yourself against things that want to kill you, while managing your own hunger, thirst, and other needs, building increasingly more advanced shelters and braving deeper into the world to get higher-level crafting materials and march ever toward advancement.

What makes it fresh is the way the ‘theme’ of being shrunk in the backyard feels really well integrated into the world. Things like finding a discarded juice box or soda can with a little (large, to you) droplet of liquid you can drink or fill your canteen with to replenish your thirst, which you can absolutely imagine finding in a backyard where children play. The giant bird who sometimes flies by and perches on a nearby bit of distant scenery, massive enough to blot out the sun from your tiny view below. The koi pond essentially acting as the ‘ocean’ biome, filled with hostile aquatic creatures and the ever-present threat of drowning. The vaguely 1980’s aesthetic of it all. It just all feels really cohesive and helps you immerse yourself in the world.

The mechanics are also a bit more…dare I say, casual? More forgiving? Than some of these games tend to be. Your only needs are really hunger and thirst, and while you CAN sleep, you don’t have to…you can just keep working through the night every night if you want to, without rest. Buildings can clip into the terrain by default, so where you build is a bit more forgiving (some games could stand to learn a thing or two from this…looking at you, ARK). When you die, your corpse basically stays there forever, so there’s not a ton of pressure to race back to where you died to recover your stuff. For that matter, anything you drop seems to stay on the ground forever. These things might change if the game gets persistent servers down the line for performance reasons, but it can be kinda nice in a multiplayer game with friends.

I think my favorite thing is how the building system is LEGITIMATELY cooperative. In games like ARK or Conan Exiles, it’s like, you basically designate one person in your tribe to be The Builder, with everyone else just being your resource gathering monkeys. One person has the plans, the ideas, the visions for how to build the base…and it can be hard to communicate that without wires getting crossed, and that can be costly when these games usually don’t return all your resources spent when you demolish a structure. But the way Grounded does it, you’re basically not placing down structures in the world right away, but blueprints for them. Everyone can see them, even as you’re trying to position them. Then anyone can get the resources and actually turn that blueprint into a structure. And if you decide you don’t like it, or change your plan, you can just destroy the blueprint without sacrificing the resources on it. It feels a lot more like I’m working with a team when I see blueprints that my tribemate made, and I can just go get the resources to build it when I’m able. Really working together, just like real ants…for queen and colony…

Another thing I love and think needs to be default in ALL these games, ASAP, is the ability to color code and add a floating icon to all your chests and containers as an easy way of saying ‘this is what we store in this box’, without requiring signs or mods or just you having to memorize/check every chest every time. Seriously, survival games? Please take note.

All that said, it’s still early access, and there’s some bugs (heh) sometimes. We’ve had some semi-frequent random disconnections kicking us back to the main menu and forcing the host to re-invite us back. There are also not yet actual servers, so the multiplayer game saves just live on the host’s computer. Latency can be an issue if their internet is better or worse than yours, and lagspikes and rubber banding is a bit more frequent than I tend to feel it in games with dedicated servers. Some hitboxes are a little wonky sometimes, for both enemies and resources. And lots of other little stuff I’ve already forgotten, but nothing I’d consider really gamebreaking.

Overall pretty fun if you don’t mind some bugs, both literal and technical (though there IS an arachnophobia slider that can make the spiders into basically cartoony blobs, which I think is a pretty cool consideration in a game like this). It seems like the devs have a lot of big plans on the roadmap as well, and a friend who was playing around in God Mode stumbled upon a few areas labeled as UNDER CONSTRUCTION, so the map might be getting some extensions at some point too. If you ever felt like you just wanna zone out and go about some farming tasks like a diligent little ant…Grounded is your game.

2022 Addendum: Grounded’s officially out of Early Access at this point and there have been a lot of changes to the game in the time since I wrote this review, and updates have continued coming out pretty regularly even post-release, which is always good to see. I think the funniest thing about my review in hindsight is that I don’t know if I’d consider it ‘casual’ as much anymore because combat has become a bit more deep and challenging...we even had to bump our difficulty down in an ongoing save at one point because we were having a rough time. I think more or less all the changes have improved the game, though, which isn’t something you see every day in a game like this (at least in the two I’m most familiar with, ARK and Conan Exiles, where every update tends to be met with a choir of angry players (usually PVP people, I don’t go there) about how the devs broke everything and suck and should issue refunds and also die). But yeah idk, go check it out, it’s pretty fun to be a little ant sometimes.

[galadion]

house party

[crowhyun]

HARD CATCH

vampire!yeonjun x human!reader

— After getting kicked out of his clan due to his excessive bloodlust, 400 year old Choi Yeonjun moves to a small city in hopes for a new start. Though, disguising himself has a human was an all new challenge for him, especially when you come into the picture. Innocent, lively, and joyful, you were. But his interest didn’t come from that. It came from how sweet your blood smelled and just how much he wanted to taste it, but unknowingly, you made it a challenging task for him to get you alone.

genre: smut, fluff, unrequited enemies to unrequited friends to unrequited lovers to actual lovers lmao

warnings: mentions of blood and blood sucking, cursing, Yeonjun does NOT like you at first, oral (fem receiving), mentions of vampire role play, rough sex, crying during sex, overstimulation, rimming, slight dirty talk, passing out, suggestions of mlm and polyamory near the end

other main character(s): Skz Felix

words: 9.1k (not edited)

Yeonjun felt like this was the start of his fourth life. After four hundred years of living on this earth, he was starting again in a whole new place. It wasn't his choice, though. More of...the consequences of his actions.

It was tiring to play the human game again.

He had moved into his new apartment, the process consisting of compelling the person who lived here before him. He didn't do much, honestly, all he did was tell them to go far, far away and never come back.

The rent was cheap and the apartment already came with a full set of furniture, so he was set.

The only problem he had, was the fact that feeding wasn't going to be easy for him. Since he had to pretend to be human for as long as he could, he had to be more meticulous with it. It was the fastest way to lead to starvation, yet it was one of the basic rules all vampires had to follow. Otherwise, you forever get abandoned by your clan.

With curiosity, Yeonjun found himself in the lobby of his apartment, going through the previous owner's mail. He frowned, seeing mail pertaining to credit cards and bank loans. Did he fuck up and steal a broke man's apartment? What if he hadn't paid rent? What's Yeonjun supposed to do about that, now?

Slightly startled, he heard the rustling of paper from the mailbox beside his.

"Oh, hi!" You greeted him. He turned to you with eyebrows furrowed. Were you talking to him? "I didn't notice that someone new moved in! I'm your neighbor, (Y/N)."

You held out a hand to him with a big smile. You always made sure to greet your neighbors everyday, especially new ones. He seemed a bit hesitant before he shook your hand. Your smile slightly faltered, noticing how cold he was. Maybe he had just come from outside.

"What's your name?" You asked him.

If it was any old random person, he'd simply ignore them, not wanting to think they'd be able to have some sort of connection with him. But...he was feeling quite hungry, and you smelled...heavenly.

"I'm Yeonjun." He switched his confused glance to a friendly one, maybe with a hint of subtle deviousness. It was so subtle that you hadn't noticed at all.

"Nice to meet you, Yeonjun!" You said, chirpy as ever. "Well, uh, see you around! If you ever need anything, just come on over to room 17B."

"I'll keep that in mind." He said before you scurried on off to the elevator. He'll definitely keep that in mind. Staying next door to his future blood bank would be extremely convenient.

——————————————

    Exploring the floors of the nice apartment complex, Yeonjun stumbled upon a cozy little cafe in the lobby. He found the decor nice and all, but it wasn't like he'd be here often. He hated the smell and taste of coffee, a trait developed after centuries of being a vampire. He could still eat and drink, but nowadays, it was only for nostalgic reasons.

    "Oh-" A man started to walk past him into the cafe before he stopped, looking at Yeonjun. "You must be the new tenant my friend was talking about!"

    Yeonjun looked him up and down, seeing as he was dressed in a black padded coat, most likely just coming in from the cold weather outside.

    "I'm Felix," He said, holding his hand out to you with a big smile. Seeing how similar he was to you, you must've been the friend he was referring too.

    "Yeonjun." Yeonjun said, shaking his hand.

    "You wanna get a cup of coffee?" Felix asked, pointing towards the cafe. "During this hour, they're 10% off," Then he leaned in to whisper to him. "Only a few of us know that." He giggled.

    "I'll pass." Yeonjun said. "I have...something to do."

    "Oh...okay!" Felix smiled. "Catch you next time, then." He then bowed and went inside, greeting the barista. Was everyone here so chirpy and talkative? Frowning to himself, Yeonjun went for the stairs instead of the elevator, not wanting to come across anyone else. If everyone was like this, then maybe another apartment complex would do him good...

———————————————

    Yeonjun couldn't help but be nosy as he went through the previous owner's things. A few days ago, when he had "moved in", he noticed that the previous owner had a pet bunny. It was white with black spots, and it had a little 'hobby' of staring at Yeonjun whenever he was in the apartment.

    Cleaning up after the bunny was annoying as hell, especially with the droppings the bunny seemed to plant everywhere it walked. He didn't think he could be more out of luck with the way things have turned out so far. The fridge was nearly jam packed with food, half of it being rotten, the sink was full of dishes, and wet laundry has been sitting in the washer machine for god knows how long. Maybe Yeonjun did him a favor by ridding him of his home.

    Although the circumstances were bad, he knew that it was too late to start a new life somewhere else. And the knock on his door just confirmed that further.

    Opening the front door, he was greeted by not only you, but Felix as well. The both of you had big, bright smiles on your faces, and you held a basket of brownies in your hands.

    "Hi, Yeonjun!" You said. "Felix told me he met you this morning! We thought it would be kind to give you a housewarming gift!"

    "Fudge brownies!" Felix said excitedly. "I made them!"

    "Oh..ah, thanks-"

    "Can we come in?" You asked, eyes bright and hopeful.

    "Uh, sure." Yeonjun said, fighting the urge to groan. He was relieved that he had managed to clean the apartment the best he could, though.

    You and Felix shuffled inside and Yeonjun closed the door behind you, nostrils flaring as you walked past him. He had forgotten about just how wonderful you smelled that quickly. He felt that you being here was now less of a burden. Felix, on the other hand, he could do without.

    "Wow, it smells really good in here!" You exclaimed.

    "You're right, it's like a mixture of cedar wood and lemons." Felix nodded, then gasped. "You have a pet bunny?"

    Yeonjun frowned. "No- yes." He then remembered the bunny that was sitting in its cage in the corner of the living room. Felix ran towards it with a big smile.

    "It's so cute!" He said. "What's its name?"

    "Uh...Annie." Yeonjun came up with the first name that popped up in his head. "Yeah, Annie."

    "What a cute name for such a cute bunny." Felix said in a high pitched voice, greatly differing from how low it was usually.

    "Yeonjun, try a brownie." You said to him with a smile. "Felix seriously makes the best brownies, you'd love them."

    Hesitantly, Yeonjun reached out for a brownie from the basket. He couldnt lie, the brownies looked amazing, but he definitely wasn't in the mood for eating human food. He took a small bite out of it, the taste of the chocolate kind of dull, as all human old was for him. He nodded with a smile.

    "It's good." Yeonjun said.

    "Really?" Felix smiled, coming back to the two of you in the kitchen. "That's awesome, so far, no one has turned down my brownies! Y'know, I like you, so maybe you'd get a brownie from my next...special batch."

    "Felix!" You nudged him in the ribs.

    "Ow!"

    "Sorry, he's a bit...unique." You chuckled. "But I thank you for inviting us into your home! I hope we can be close neighbors, and—actually, let me give you my number."

    "Mine too!" Felix said, all but snatching Yeonjun's phone that was rested on the counter top. "What's the password?"

    Containing his annoyance, Yeonjun, took his phone from him and put in his password.

    "Felix, you can't just take people's phones like that." You giggled nervously, then inputted your number into Yeonjun's phone.

    "Sorry, Yeonjun." Felix said apologetically. "I get comfortable quickly. But we're friends now, right?" He gave him a cute wink.

    "Yeah." Yeonjun said with no meaning behind it and let Felix put his number in his phone.

    "Well, it was nice seeing you again." You smiled. "You can call or text us anytime!"

    "Nice seeing you as well." Yeonjun smiled, saying his goodbyes as he watched you and Felix exit the apartment. After shutting the door, Yeonjun felt more at ease. The delicious scent of your blood still lingered in his nostrils, and he only wanted more. Your number would surely be useful for him in the future. Despite wanting to take a break from feeding off of humans, he found himself curating a plan in which he could get you alone and taste the delicious blood that was rushing through your veins.

——————————————————

    It's been about two weeks since he had moved in, and Yeonjun figured that that was too long to be without your scent. If he couldn't feed from you now, then your scent would be enough to stave him off for a while. He was good at controlling his bloodlust due to being an experienced vampire, so he would be fine for now.

    He called you for the first time since you gave him your number, and the phone rang twice before you answered.

    "Hello?" You answer.

    "Hey...this is Yeonjun."

    "Oh, Yeonjun!" He could practically hear your smile over the phone. "I'm glad you called! Do you want to go to the movies with me?"

    He didn't even have to do anything. "Sure. Now?"

    "Yep!" You said. "I was getting ready just now, and it was perfect timing that you called. I didn't really want to go alone, anyways. Meet me at the lobby in 20?"

    "Sure, I'll be ready by then." He smiled before hanging up. This was going to be a lot easier than he thought it would be.

    20 minutes later, he got out of the elevator and entered the lobby, looking around for you. He froze when he noticed you by the entrance, but right beside you was Felix, dawned in his long padded jacket. Yeonjun rolled his eyes, annoyed by the fact that you two weren't going alone.

    He approached the two of you and Felix noticed him first. "You're here!"

    "Yay!" You smiled when you saw him. "Felix called right after you and I invited him along as well, I hope you don't mind."

    "No, I don't mind at all." Yeonjun said with a tight smile, flexing his jaw in annoyance. "The more the merrier."

    "Exactly." Felix said. "What movie are a watching? A scary one? Please don't be horror..."

    You looked at Yeonjun deviously, as if hiding a secret before turning back to Felix. "Don't worry, Lix, it's just a romcom."

—————————

    "This...this isn't a romcom, is it?" Felix whispered between the two of you as the movie started.

    "Just saying...it's too late to leave, now." You whispered back. "We already paid for the tickets."

    "You tricked me." Felix frowned, sinking further into his seat.

    Yeonjun put his tongue in side of his cheek, slightly frustrated at the seating arrangements. He had wanted to sit next to you, but Felix was all too eager to sit in the middle and hold the bucket of popcorn. Now that he couldn't even try to be close to you, he didn't want to watch this stupid movie at all. He had watched plenty of movies in his life time, and there was no doubt that this one would be like those same old cliche horror movies.

All throughout the movie, Felix jumped at the smallest little scares, and you giggled at every one of them. Yeonjun found your constant giggling to be annoying. Like, was everything really that funny to you?

He had to admit, there were one or two ACTUALLY scary scenes, but it was nothing to jump at. Felix was basically being a grasshopper in the seat next to him.

Once the voice was finally over, Felix all but ran to the exit of the theater, and you followed after him, laughing the whole way there. Yeonjun didn't bother to run or quicken his footsteps. For all he cares, they could leave without him and it wouldn't matter. He could try again to get you alone, but for now, he'd probably have to tag along with you and Felix for a while.

————————————

"Oh? Yeonjun, did you just come in?" You caught up with Yeonjun as he waited for the elevator.

"Yeah." Yeonjun said.

"Awesome, you should come over!" You said with a cheery voice. "I've had a long day at work, and I was thinking of ordering takeout and watching a movie?"

Yeonjun smiled, something that you didn't see very often. "Sure."

"Yay!" You wiggled your little fists in the air. Cute. Getting into the elevator, you nearly talked his ear off. You talked about the movie you wanted to watch, the food you wanted to eat, how your day was at work, and more.

To be honest, Yeonjun didn't really like you that much. You were kind of overwhelming and the fact that you were so cheery all the time annoyed him. But, with his ulterior motive, he could look past that.

Upon entering your apartment, he noticed how cute your decorations were. You seemed to have an affinity for cats, especially since you had your own. There were pictures of your cat hung on your walls, a little cat trinkets scattered around. The deco and furniture fit you, to say the least, but it also hurt his eyes. Were you allergic to normal colors or something? What was with all the pastel?

"Do you want to order something, Jun?" You asked him while you were on the phone.

"No, I'm not hungry."

"Okay!" You smiled then went back to ordering take-out. He didn't know why you had called him 'Jun', and he didn't really like it, but he wasn't going to sever this 'friendship' before he even got a chance at tasting your blood.

Once you finished ordering, you plopped yourself on your couch next to him, sitting criss cross while you looked for the movie you wanted to watch.

"What type of movies do you like to watch, Jun?" You asked him. Nearly scowling at the nickname, he answered your question anyways.

"Just...any movies." He said, and you chuckled.

"You're quite shy, aren't you?" You asked.

"Not really." Yeonjun frowned.

"It's okay to be shy, Felix and I will help you come out of your bubble." You smiled brightly. "That's our superpower, I think.

"I'm not shy-" His eyes flashed red for just a second, but you didn't notice, as someone knocked on the door.

"Hm? The food can't be here that quickly." You went to answer the door, and a second later, Yeonjun heard him pitched squeals.

"What the f...?" Yeonjun turned around, seeing Felix at the door. He groaned, fists balling in anger. Why the hell is he here right now?

"Yeonjun, Felix is here!" You said, inviting him in.

"I came at the perfect time, didn't I?" Felix said, taking off his shoes and that damned puffer jacket. "Did you order any take out for me?"

"Oh, sorry..." You said with an apologetic smile. "I didn't think that you'd be coming over."

"That's fine." He said, kissing your cheek. Yeonjun furrowed his brows. Did he like you or something? Friends kiss each other's cheeks as well...right? "I'll just steal some of your food." He said with an evil laugh. Running to the couch, he jumped on the seat right next to Yeonjun, bumping into his shoulder. "Hey, Yeonjunnnn!" He grabbed onto his arm. "You're like the addition we need to make a trio friend group, right? You're shy, so that's balance."

"I-I'm not shy!" Yeonjun said, snatching his arm from Felix's hold.

"Awe, he stuttered!" Felix giggled, looking at you.

"See, I told him he was shy but he keeps insisting he's not." You said, sitting on Yeonjun's other side. "You should meet the rest of the tenants. We're friends with all of them."

"Except Greg." Felix said. "Greg doesn't want to be friends with anybody."

"Yeah, he's just a big ol' negative Nancy." You added. "But, Felix, what do you think about watching this movie?" You pointed to the movie on the TV. "It's not scary at all, but it's like Sci-Fi."

"Oh, okay, I'm fine with it." Felix shrugged.

"Great!"

You started the movie, and Yeonjun crossed his arms, hoping that Felix wouldn't put his death grip on him again. Thirty minutes into the movie, you heard a knock on the door, signifying that your take-out was finally here.

"Pause the movie!" Felix said, jumping up and racing you to the door, leaving Yeonjun to pause it no wait for the two of you. He couldn't even believe that he was still here. He could just come up with an excuse and leave so he wouldn't have to be so close to you without being able to actually feed from you. But...he felt as if it would be better to hang out this way. To get really close to you ad then eventually, you guys could finally be alone.

"Felix, don't eat the crab rangoon, that is for ME!" You yelled at him, snatching the bag out of his hand. "I'll let you have some of my lo mein, but NOT the crab rangoon." You sat back down beside Yeonjun. "Felix always tries to steal my food. He's sneaky that way, so be careful around him."

"Hey, stop lying about me to our Yeonjun." Felix whined. "Jun, I don't steal food, I just borrow it."

"That doesn't even make any sense."

"YOU don't make any sense."

"Yeonjun, press play." You said, ignoring Felix. He found the playful banter quite amusing, but he pressed play anyways. The both of you being quiet was way better than hearing you two argue.

This movie was weirdly longer than most movies, it being almost 2 and a half hours. You and Felix finished eating the take out in thirty minutes, and then the room was completely quite, the only thing to be heard was the sound of the TV. It was getting dark outside, and Yeonjun could hear your breaths start to slow down.

After a few more minutes, the both of you were fast asleep, leaving Yeonjun awake and annoyed, as per usual. Not only did you rest your head on Yeonjun's shoulder, but Felix did the same, resting his head on Yeonjun's other shoulder. Yeonjun felt like there were two cats resting on him, and that he couldn't move until the both of you woke up. He could close his eyes just for the fun of it and pretend to sleep, but it was nighttime, and he definitely wasn't in the mood.

By the time the movie played the credits, he thought that it would be wise to wake you two up. He nudged into your side and did the same with Felix.

"The movies over." Yeonjun said.

"Is it?" You asked, yawning and squinting at the TV. "Awe man..."

"Dang it, I was actually looking forward to the end." Felix said in a deep, groggy voice. "Why did it have to be so long? (Y/N), why did you choose such a long movie-oh...sorry, Yeonjun."

Yeonjun looked at him to see what he was sorry about, and Felix was looking down at Yeonjun's shoulder. He followed his line of side to see a wet patch on his white shirt. His nostrils flared and he held back from snapping at him.

"It's...fine." Yeonjun said.

"He's like a puppy, he always drools when he sleeps." You said, shaking your head.

"I don't mean to!" He pouted, crossing his arms. "Let's play the second half of the movie again. I really wanted to see the ending." Oh no. Oh god no. Yeonjun tensed up.

"It's kinda late, though..." You sighed, looking at the time on your phone. Yeonjun relaxed again, inwardly thanking you. He just wanted to be alone again.

"But it's Friday!" Felix said.

"Wait, you're right, I didn't even notice!" You said. "That...that means we could all have a sleepover!" You eyes widened as you got excited.

"S-sleep over?" Yeonjun's eyes widened as well. How could you come up with an even worse idea than Felix?

"Yeah!"

"We haven't had a sleepover in so long!" Felix said. "We could watch movies all night!"

No.

"We can eat junk food!"

No.

"We can make a pillow fort!"

No!

"We can cuddle each other to sleep!"

NO!

———————————————

Yeonjun felt as if his efforts were wasted. Every time you'd ask him to hang out with you, Felix would pop up out of nowhere with that darned smile and excited nature. The two of you were stuck together like glue, never giving Yeonjun a chance to be with you alone. Did Felix have a life? A job? Maybe a pet to look after? It didn't seem like it.

He was starting to get impatient. He hadn't fed from anyone in weeks, and he was reaching his limit. Even Annie looked appetizing, though he would feel a bit too bad if he were to feed from the rabbit.

Just an hour ago, you had asked Yeonjun if he wanted to go out and eat lunch with you, to which he accepted. This time, he hoped Felix wouldn't come and spoil his plans. He was desperate to finally get you where he wanted you.

He approached you outside of a deli, seeing you on your phone, laughing at something. He smiled as you noticed him and waved at him wildly.

"Am I late?" Yeonjun asked.

"Nope, you're just on time." You said, walking into the deli with him. "Since you're still kind of new here, you probably haven't been here before." You said, referring to the deli. "You can get whatever you want, but I recommend the caprese panini."

The both of you went to order, and you ordered the caprese panini, as you usually did. He squinted at the menu, knowing he had to eat something or else you'd be suspicious of him.

"Can I just get a salad?" He asked. "Just put extra tomatoes and steak on top."

"How would you like your steak cooked?"

"Blue." Yeonjun said. The cashier raised their eyebrows for a second before moving on.

"Blue steak? What's that?" You asked him.

"Nearly raw." He shrugged.

"Raw?" Your eyes almost popped out of your head. "What eccentric eating habits you have. I could never." You chuckled. It was the only type of meat he'd eat. The steak was practically still moo-ing, and it had enough blood to stave him off for a day or two.

After ordering your food, the both of you went to go sit at a table.

"Oh, Yeonjun, I hope you don't mind, but I also invited Felix, he'll be here in a few." You said nonchalantly. Yeonjun frowned. "He just got off of work and this deli is his absolute fav."

"I do mind." Yeonjun blurted out, and you looked at him with wide eyes.

"Huh?" You said.

"I do mind." He repeated. "Why does Felix have to be wherever you are? You guys are shoulder to shoulder 24/7."

"No we're not." You laughed. "But he's my best friend, we hangout a lot."

"But, why can't it just be the two of us?" Yeonjun said. "It's always us three. Why can't we be alone together, hm?"

You froze, feeling a bit flustered at his words. Yeonjun always came off as cool, calm, and collected without a worry or complaint in the world. Then you gasped.

"What?" Yeonjun frowned.

"Jun, do...do you...like me?" You asked him, and his jaw dropped in surprise. "Like, it's not a bad thing or anything, and you don't have to really answer but...do you?"

He didn't know what to say. Of course he didn't like you. He liked the smell of your blood, yes, but you? You were too annoying. But would it benefit him to lie and say that he did like you?

"I...I-"

"Besties!" For the first time, Yeonjun was saved by Felix's appearance.

"Felix!" Yeonjun said with a big smile.

"Woah, you see that, (Y/N), Yeonjun's excited to see me!" Felix said, sitting down. "What did you guys order?"

Yeonjun was glad that he could get out of the previous conversation, but he noticed you sneaking glances at him from time to time. Hopefully, you didn't think that he really liked you. Then he'd have to keep up with yet another lie.

—————————————

Today was one of those days where you had to work overtime, and Yeonjun was getting sick an tired of waiting. Everytime you weren't at work, you were with Felix, everytime you weren't with Felix, you were at work. Yeonjun was going to intervene, now in the only way he knew how.

He knocked on Felix's door, and after a few seconds, Felix answered and smiled brightly.

"Hey, Jun!" Felix said, inviting him in immediately. "It's a surprise seeing you here, you never come over."

"Yeah, I thought I'd hang with you." Yeonjun said. "You're not busy or anything, right?"

"Nope!" Felix said. "I was just cleaning up a bit. Good think you came when I was almost done, otherwise you would've seen the mess." He giggled, then grabbed the broom he had before he invited Yeonjun in.

Yeonjun looked around, his apartment being a bit more basic and plain than he thought it would be. The kitchen was slightly bigger than yours and Yeonjun's, but he guessed that was the main reason Felix got this apartment. He seemed to have an affinity for cooking and baking, and if the size of the kitchen didn't say that, then the containers of brownies stacked on the counter did.

"Do you eat all of those brownies?" Yeonjun asked, slightly concerned.

"Nah, though I do eat a lot." Felix replied. "Brownies are my favorite. I usually go door to door to give my neighbors some brownies every time I make a new batch. They call me brownie boy." He laughed. "You can have some if you want. Or...you can have some from my 'special' batch. Which ever you choose." He smiled deviously.

What a unique individual.

"Do you wanna listen to music?" Felix asked, going to his speaker right by his TV. "I've been listening to this new artist, and his music is, like, the best."

"Sure." Yeonjun said. Felix then turned on some music, lowering the volume so that it wouldn't be too loud.

"Oh!" Felix suddenly got excited. "I just remembered something really important that I have to ask you."

"Hm?"

"Come on, sit down." Felix said, patting down on the seat next to him on the couch. Yeonjun sat dow, curious with what his question was going to be. "So, I was talking to (Y/N) the other day, and, like, don't tell her I said this but...I think she likes you." Felix whispered as if (Y/N) was going to hear. "She was talking to me about how she likes your hair and I don't know, something about daddy material, but we were just a little drunk, so...but drunk words are real thoughts, right?"

Yeonjun widened his eyes, feeling a bit awkward.

"And then she was like, 'I think he likes me too, but I'm not sure'." Felix said. "And, like, I'm just trying to be a good friend. You could tell me if you like her, I won't tell her if you don't want me to."

"Honestly..." Yeonjun pursed his lips. "I'm flattered, but...I don't like her like that."

"...oh." Felix said, frowning, then he sighed. "You don't like her at least a little bit?" Felix asked, eyes sparkling with hope.

"No..." Yeonjun said. Right? He didn't like you at all. He may have been slightly interested in you, but that's only fro your blood. Blood. He then rememebered what he was here for. "But...I am interested in her in a different way."

Felix gasped. "You mean..." He whispered, leaning in. "You mean in a sexual way? I-I mean, there's no proble with that, this is a judge free zone." He chuckled. "I completely understand, (Y/N) and I have...played around every now and then."

"Uh, no, you have the wrong idea." Yeonjun scowled. "And I didn't need to know that."

"Oh...oops." He scratched the back of his neck. "Then what do you mean?"

"I mean...that I'm interested in her blood."

Felix didn't say anything. Staring at him with wide eyes. After a couple seconds of silence, he spoke. "Like...in a kinky way or something?"

Yeonjun just laughed. "Of course not, sweetheart. I mean that in a literal way. See...I'm a vampire. And ever since I've moved here, I haven't been able to feed not once. I'm getting a bit impatient, and you can't even seem to leave (Y/N) alone for me." Yeonjun gave the frozen boy a sympathetic look. "So, do you know what I'm going to do? Hm?"

Felix gulped, shaking his head. Yeonjun watched with amusement as Felix started to close in on himself, slightly cowarding away from Yeonjun's presence.

"I am going to feed from you instead." Yeonjun said, leaning in closer to him. "Think of it as a punishment for getting in my way, and that you deserve it, okay?"

"A-are you gonna k-kill me?" Felix asked, finally finding his voice.

"Of course not." Yeonjun giggled. "But if you speak about any of this to (Y/N), you can be sure I will." And with that, Yeonjun yanked Felix's head back with his hear to bear his neck, and before Felix could protest, Yeonjun dug his sharp fangs into the side of his neck, finally getting the blood that he so desperately needed. Felix whined in pain, not able to call for help or to pry away from his strong hold.

Once he got his fix, Yeonjun detached from him, blood dripping down the corner of his mouth. He smiled in satisfaction, licking the blood on his lips. Felix was lightheaded, drowsy from the blood loss as Yeonjun lapped up the blood dripping down his neck so it wouldn't make a mess on his couch. he was at least nice enough to do that.

"Remember our conditions, Felix." Yeonjun reminded him. "Tell (Y/N), and I'll drink you dry." Felix weakly nodded before he fell unconscious.

"Wasn't as good as I suspect (Y/N)'s is, but it'll do." Yeonjun shrugged, laying him down on the couch and then exiting the apartment.

——————————————

Upon entering your apartment, Yeonjun noticed that Felix wasn't there, and it was just you and him this time. He fought the urge to smirk, finally getting what he wanted, but he just wanted to make sure.

"Hey, uh...is Felix not coming over?" Yeonjun asked you.

"No." You sighed. "He's been feeling sick the past couple of days. Like, I'm trying to help him take care of him, but he's not letting anyone into his apartment. Do you know what's up?"

"Nope." Yeonjun shrugged, letting the lie slip from his mouth with ease. "He didn't tell me anything."

"Oh...well he'll probably get better in a few more days." You said. "At least I have you." You giggled, tugging on his arm. "Didn't you say you wanted to hang out with me alone once? Well now you got me, since you obviously don't like me."

"Hey, stop, now you're acting like Felix." He scoffed.

"Hm?" You looked up at him with a look of confusion. "What do you mean acting like Felix?" Then your eyes widened and you let go of his arm. "D-did he say something to you?"

"Uh..." Yeonjun looked away.

"He did, didn't he!" Then you held your hands in your head.

"I didn't say anything." Yeonjun shrugged.

"But I can see right through you." You frowned. "He told you I liked you, right?"

Yeonjun didn't say anything.

"So, he did." You groaned, throwing your head back. "He can't keep a secret to save his life."

He hoped that wasn't literal.

"But I mean, that was obvious wasn't it?" You looked at him.

"Yeah, kinda." He said.

"But you like me back, right?" You asked him. "...right?"

"Oh, um..." Yeonjun failed to make eye contact. Does he like you? He can't seem to find the line between wanting to feed from you and wanting you to be his. This was a problem he's faced ever since he turned into a vampire. If he rejects you now, he may never get to drink your blood. At least that was just the excuse he needed for now. "Sure."

"Sure...?" You frowned. "That doesn't sound so convincing..."

"But it's true." Yeonjun said, lying once again. After centuries of doing so, he was basically a pro. "Why else would I want to be alone with you?"

"Hm..." You still weren't convinced. "Did Felix tell you anything else? Just, uh...making sure."

His eyes widened, and that when you knew he was hiding something from you. "No, uh, he was just saying that the both of you were drunk or whatever."

"Oh, okay, that's it?" You asked.

"And h-he mentioned something about daddy material and the two of you...playing around."

You gasped. "Oh my gosh...why...WHY would he tell you that?" You cringed. "B-but don't worry, it was only, like two times. Felix didn't tell you the details of those times, though, did he?"

"Fortunately, no."

"Good," You chuckled. "Because I'd rather you experience that yourself." You mumbled that last part, looking down on the floor and fighting the urge to giggle.

Yeonjun froze and raised a brow, the corner of his cough slightly rising in a smirk. "Say that again?"

"S-say what?" You darted your eyes from place to place.

"What you just said."

"Hm? I didn't say anything." You chuckled. He looked down at you with a smirk, an idea crossing his mind. Yeah, he found you slightly annoying and a real pain in the ass, but were you attractive? Yes. Especially right now in your large T-Shirt and shorts, basically flaunting your beauty at him. It wouldn't hurt to entertain this little crush you had on him, would it?

"Are you sure?" Yeonjun said, coming closer to you. "If it really wasn't anything, then...I guess so. I was going to see if I could experience some of that, but I guess not."

"Wait, huh?" You grabbed ahold of his arm. He could almost laugh at the face you were making, eyes wide, and mouth pulled into an almost desperate pout. He raised a brow. "I never said that you couldn't."

"Couldn't what?"

"Yeonjun..." You whined and he laughed.

"I'm not sure what you're talking about, you have to be specific." He said.

"I want you to...know the details." You said. "If you could do it better than Felix, that is."

That seemed to tick him off, his cocky smirk falling. You were going to get your words handed to you, but you surely didn't mind when he smashed his lips into yours, and you moaned in surprise, half at his aggression and half at how cold his lips were. You nearly stumbled back at the force, but he held your hip tightly to keep you in place. Once you got past your surprise, you kissed him back, running your hands through his hair as he pushed you towards your couch.

He pushed you on the couch, hovering over you, not parting his lips from yours. He was such a passionate kisser, it already had you moaning for more, swirling your tongue with his. He started to feel you up over your clothes, large cold hands groping every curve with fervor.

He suddenly parted for you, leaving you gasping for air but desperate to feel his lips on yours again.

"You really think I can't fuck you beter than Felix?" He scoffed, the smirk not leaving his face. "I want you to remember that once I'm done with you." He was quick to hook his fingers around both your shorts and panties, slipping them down and off, throwing them somewhere else in the living room. "Tell me any time if you want me to stop, okay?"

You nodded, biting down on your lip. He grabbed the bottom of your thighs with his large hands and pried them open, revealing just how soaked you were to him. He licked his eyes, and you gulped at the primal look he was giving you.

Sliding down so that his head was level with your pussy, he watched as you gushed uncontrollably, wanting him to do something, ANYTHING.

He literally heard your blood rushing to your clit and he zeroed in on it, pressing his nose to it and deeply inhaling your scent. You squeaked in embarrassment, and he only chuckled, looking into your eyes as he licked a long stripe from your hole to your clit, tasting all of your juices. He saw the effect of his action immediately, you biting your lip to contain the sounds that were trying to escape. But he wanted to hear you.

So, he attached his soft, plump lips to your clit, sucking on it. Your hips bucked up at the sudden wash of pleasure, and you gasped, a loud whine coming out. He held your hips down and went at it, wanting to hear more of your sweet moans. He went down to slide his tongue into your hole, seeking out all of your juices while his nose nudged at your clit. He shook his head from side to side, groaning ever so often at your taste and smell. It sent vibrations to your pussy, making you squirm, but Yeonjun held you with an impossibly tight grip that would leave bruises on your hips. The wet  sound of him eating you out was embarrassing, but the feeling was out of this world. He didn't fail to keep eye contact with you, dark eyes gauging every one of your reactions.

You then grabbed a tight hold of his hair when his tongue wandered even lower. "Y-yeonjun!" You gasped as he tongued at your rim. He went back and forth between both holes, and in no time, you found herself clenching over nothing as you came hard, the grip on his hair probably too strong, but he didn't care. He loved to watch you fall apart as he devoured all of your cum and licked your pussy clean. You squirmed in overstimulation and he left your pussy alone, dragging kiss after kiss on your tummy, pulling your shirt up with each kiss.

"Your pussy tastes so good," He groaned, finally face to face with you as he attached your lips to yours so you could taste yourself on his tongue. He parted the kiss to push himself up on his knees and unbuckle his belt. You watched with anticipation as he unbuttoned his jeans and slid them down along with his boxers. His cock sprung up, and mighty god...it was so pretty. Veins lined his cock and it stood hard and proud, girthy and long. You clenched your pussy, just wanting it inside of you already, wanting to be fucked impossibly full. "You're so desperate for this cock, aren't you?" Yeonjun laughed at you, as if he could read your mind. You only whined, too desperate to even speak.

He hooked his fingers under your shirt and took it off of you, leaving you completely naked under him.

"Fuck..." He muttered, seeing the complete beauty of your naked form.

"Jun, o-off." You motioned to his shirt, wanting to see him fully. He didn't hesitate to take his shirt off, taking his pants off in the process of doing so. Now, the two of you were fully naked, and his cock was throbbing, begging to be inside of you. He pinned your wrists up above your head with one hand to the point where you couldnt budge them at all. Using his other hand, he grabbed ahold of his cock, and he pressed the tip into your hole, the initial stretch painful as it accommodated his girth. He slid inch by inch of his cock into your wet heat, and he watched as it engulfed him until he reached the hilt, his hips connected to yours. His hand then met with his other to hold your wrists above your head as  he waited a few seconds to move.

"You okay?" He asked, trying to hold back from pummeling into you.

"Mhm," You breathed out. "You can move. J-just go slow at first...you're kinda big."

"Kinda?" He smirked, pushing out slowly and then thrusting back in. You closed your eyes, biting your lip as a moan slipped through.

"Very, v-very big." You corrected yourself as he trusted into you again. You were slowly getting used to his size as your slick coated his cock from base to tip. He kept it slow, clenching his jaw to gain some self control. You were so tigt and wet, sucking him in with every thrust. He wanted to see you lose your mind on his cock, he wanted the neighbors to hear you scream his name, and he especially wanted Felix to hear it. He didn't like the idea of the two of you even touching each other, and he wanted to imprint himself into you so that it wouldn't happen again. Just thinking about it had him thrusting into you at a faster pace, and you took it, starting to get nervous as he got faster. You weren't nervous that it was going to hurt, no, as the pain had subsided by now, you were just nervous that you were going to lose yourself in the mean time and that you were going to say things that you couldn't take back. You were going to be so embarrassed facing your neighbors in the morning.

You watched as his face contorted into pleasure as he picked up the pace, and the sound of skin slapping started to resonate throughout the room. Your breathing went harsh, and you whined with every exhale and every skillfull thrust inside of you.

"Please, Jun, harder-" You begged, now used to his size.

"Are you sure?" He asked and you nodded desperately. He started to rock into you with more strength, your body bouncing up and down on the couch as he started to pound you into the cushions. You opened your legs impossibly wider, as if his cock would hit deeper inside of you. You were started to get a bit too loud, but that was exactly what Yeonjun wanted.

“Fuck…” Yeonjun groaned as he pounded into you. Your hands balled into fists, wanting to grab onto something to try and keep your sanity as he pounded your pussy to pieces.

You felt your orgasm come close to the hilt that fast, clenching around his throbbing member.

This was a total rush for Yeonjun. The suction of you around him but the delicious rush of your blood drove him crazy, and he felt his canines start to point, sharp fangs protruding past the bottoms of his teeth. In your cloud of pleasure, you didn’t even notice nor did you care to notice. Yeonjun was making you feel too good that you didn’t feel compelled to pay attention to detail.

His eyes glowed into an alarming red color, dark as they zeroed in on your neck. He seemed to pound into even harder, forcing an orgasm to rip through you for the second time. You threw your head back and arched your back in pleasure, tits bouncing with every thrust he continued to give you.

He growled, his vision nearly blurring and all sounds muffled as the only thing he heard was the pumping of your blood in your veins. With her neck beared to him and seeing you in such a vulnerable state, he got filled with uncontrollable blood lust.

Before he could try and regain control, he bent down and sunk his teeth into the skin of your neck and you yelped in pain and surprise. Your eyesight blurred as your rolled your eyes. You didn’t know what was happening or why it was happening, but the pain only made your orgasm stronger, as if it was just ongoing.

The immense pleasure didn’t stop as Yeonjun was pounding into you in an inhumane pace, pushing you up the couch with each thrust. You were so loud, too loud, erotic moans and whines resonating throughout the whole apartment.

He groaned, the taste of you just what he imagined. Sweet, heavenly, angelic, delicious. It was the best thing he’s ever tasted. Fuck, maybe he did like you. Maybe he was even in love.

Before he managed to accidentally suck you dry, he detached from your neck, watching as you were lost in extreme pleasure.

He drew yet another orgasm out of you, just as strong as the last one. You whined like a hurt puppy, shaking your head vigorously, even though your neck hurt.

“T-too much, ah— too much!” You whined, legs shaking like leaves in the wind. Yeonjun ignored your pleas, watching as tears fell down your face. Despite you telling him it was too much, you didn’t want it to stop. You found it hard to breathe when you were feeling this much pleasure, plus the fact that you were feeling so lightheaded.

“I’m gonna cum,” Yeonjun groaned, holding your hips down so that he could hold himself fully sheathed inside of you as he came. He shut his eyes tight, releasing his load deep inside of your womb.

You couldn’t stop your hips from twitching up as you slowly unclenched your shaking fists, taking multiple deep breaths.

Yeonjun watched as you calmed down, your eyes fluttering shut and your muscles finally relaxing from the strenuous activity. He bent down to softly kiss your neck, licking on your wound. The wound healed within seconds after that and he smiled.

He hadn’t noticed that you were now fully asleep. Or did you pass out? Which ever it was had him a bit worried. Had he taken too much blood? Had he fucked you so hard?

Why was he even worried in the first place? He didn’t like you like that. Or maybe he did?

He slowly pulled his softening member out, closing your legs and he put his clothes back on, keeping an eye on you. Looking around, he found a blanket and he tucked you into it, seeing as you were probably not going to wake up any time soon.

He hesitantly placed a kiss on your forehead, feeling a bit sorry that he had put you in this state. With one last look at you, he left your apartment, but not without leaving you with a text so you could see it when you wake up.

——————————————

You felt so groggy waking up. You were fully naked on the couch with a blanked draped over you, and the sun peeked through the curtains.

Slowly sitting up, you looked around to see if there was any trace of Yeonjun being here. Did he really just leave you here after he basically fucked the life out of you the night before?

Picking up your phone to see the time, you noticed a text in your notifications.

Jun <3: Sorry for fucking you to sleep :) let’s talk more in the morning.

You scoffed, but you couldn’t help but laugh and shake your head. Remembering the events of last night, you couldn’t help but smile. He had made you feel so good, better than anyone has ever had.

But that’s when your smile dropped. You remembered just one thing that really stood out. His bright red eyes. But his eyes were brown? Yet…he had red eyes last night. And that pain that you felt in your neck when he bit you…that was no regular bite. He punctured you with his teeth, and although I felt good, you had some questions to be answered.

You quickly took a shower to wash all of the sex that lingered on you and then you got dressed, making a beeline for Yeonjun’s apartment. You knocked on the door for it to be answere in a few seconds.

“Good morning, (Y/N).” Yeonjun said with a smile.

“Morning, Jun!” You gave him an even bigger smile. “Can I come in?”

He opened the door wider, gesturing for you to come in, and so you did, although you found walking to be a little hard and he laughed as he watched you waddle in.

“So…” You said slowly as he shut the door behind you.

“So?”

“Last night was…nice.” You said.

“Nice?”

“Yes. Very nice.” You nodded. “Very memorable. But, I have a few questions.”

“I thought you would.” He crossed his arms.

“What do you mean?” You squinted your eyes at him.

“Yah, stop acting clueless, I know what you’re curious about.” He said. “That’s why I texted you that we’d talk in the morning.”

“Oh…then if I ask you this question, you won’t get mad and you’ll answer truthfully?” You asked.

“Yes.”

“Okay.” You took a deep breath. “What the fuck?”

Yeonjun raised his eyebrows. “Is that your question? I need you to be a bit more specific.”

“Y-you, you bit me and stuff,” You said. “Please tell me…are you like…not human? Or is this some role play thing that you like?”

“Wait, how many people do vampir role play, I’ve never heard it mentioned this much in my life, and that’s saying something, because I’m four centuries old.”

“Centuries-“ You choked, holding onto your chest as you coughed. “Y-you’re a vampire!?”

“Quiet down, will you?” He scowled. “Yes. That’s what I am.”

“So…you drank my blood?”

“Yes.”

“Then how am I still alive?” You asked, eyes wide. “Am I a vampire now!?”

“No, (Y/N), you are not a vampire.” Yeonjun said. “I just drunk enough so that you wouldn’t die.”

You then pouted, eyes gleaming. “You care about me that much? Even though you need blood to survive, you made sure that you didn’t suck me dry?”

“I…what?” He furrowed his brows in confusion. “Why are you taking this so easily, where’s the scream of terror and the ‘please don’t kill me’ stuff?”

“I’m not scared, Jun.” You said. “It’s because I like you. And if you haven’t already killed me, then that means you won’t do it anyways. It’s so kind of you.” You giggled like a little school girl while Yeonjun looked at you as if you grew two heads.

He then laughed, shaking his head. “(Y/N), you’re something else, you know that right?” He had half the mind to tell you that he didn’t actually like you, but there was something in him that didn’t even believe that statement. “You’re cute.” He mumbled. “You’re really not scared of me?”

“Nope.” You said, shaking your head. “I feel safe with you. Actually, you can drink my blood anytime. It felt good!”

“It won’t feel good if I’m not fucking you while drinking from you.”

“Oh…then everytime you want to drink from me, you can fuck me at the same time.” You said with a big smile making him laugh.

“Then you’d be okay with me ducking you every day?” He raised a brow.

“That’s an arrangement I could definitely work with.” You said. Yeonjun could feel the sexual tension start to rise once again as he looked at you, wanting to pin you against the wall and get yet another taste, but all plans were ruined as he heard a knock on the door.

He frowned, going to answer the door. Once he opened the door, he saw Felix there with a scarf around his neck. He guessed he forgot to heal him after he fed from him.

“Yeonjun, I can’t keep it in anymore, I just can’t!” Felix said. “(Y/N) is my best friend, and I don’t want you to hurt her, so I’m going to tell her what happened, I don’t care if you kill me!”

“Felix?” You approached from behind Yeonjun. “What are you doing here? Aren’t you sick?”

“(Y/N), we have to go, h-he’s a vampire!” Felix said, pointing to him. He took off his scarf, showing you the two bite marks on his neck. “See? He bit me!”

“He bit you?” You frowned at Yeonjun.

“I was getting hungry, don’t look at me like that.” Yeonjun said. “At least he’s not dead.”

You sighed as you looked back at Felix. “Felix, I know what he is.” You sighed. “He bit me too, and see, I’m fine.”

“H-huh? But he told me he’d kill me if I told you…”

“What!?”

“Oh my gosh,” He grabbed Felix’s arm and pulled him inside, shutting the door behind him. “(Y/N), I didn’t want you to know at that time, so I threatened him, but I told you, obviously, so no, I’m not going to fucking kill him.”

“You’re not?” Felix asked, eyes welling up with tears.

“No…”

“Oh, thank goodness, I was so sure I was going to die!” Felix cried, hugging Yeonjun tightly. “Thank you for sparing my life.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Yeonjun said, peeling the shorter man off of him.

“I can’t believe he knew before me.” You pouted.

“Don’t worry, it wasn’t really by choice.” Yeonjun shrugged. “Besides, you’re my girlfriend, now, so that doesn’t matter.”

You widened your eyes, smiling widely. “Girlfriend?”

“Mhm.”

“Girlfriend!?” Felix exclaimed. “But I thought—“ He stopped once he was faced with Yeonjun’s dealt by glare. “I thought…it would happen earlier of course! Haha…yeah.”

“Don’t worry, Felix, you won’t be single for long.” You patted his back. “Don’t be too sad being the thrived wheel.”

“But do I have to be?” He pouted and you tilted your head in confusion. “You two were the ones who were so loud last night, right? I could hear it all the way across the hall.”

“Uh…” Yeonjun looked away.

“It’s okay, it’s didn’t bother me.” Felix smiled. “Could you do me next, though-“

“Felix!” You yelled.

“What? You never heard of a polyamorous relationship—“

———————————————

Taglist:

@jjunbug @bluesoobinnie @fairyofshampgyu @rencarnationofangel @wynncrites @rosie-is-everywhere @jjhmk @yeonjun4beagles s @deobitininy @yzhvuo @just-a-bi-moa @nowrosesaredead @iluvvkkh @luvyxdovey @willowcxmilee @lovedqisy @junhit @satorusimpp @leviathanlee26 @gyumie @lxxdxnixl @fangmei08 @lumine-blight @wtfbruhidgaf @she-is-dreaming @melonsdeathday @underworldnet @yeonyeonyeonjun

[vrabbiit]

Caught: Vanessa X F!Reader (NSFW)

i was inspired to write some vanessa smut by, once again, the sheer lack of f/f security breach content. this one isn't a request, sorry! as much as i love writing sun/moon x reader, i thought i should probably give them a break and give some other characters some love!

Word Count: 2226

Contains: NSFW - Minors DNI with this content, Hate sex, Dirty talk, Light bondage

Your day just kept getting worse and worse.

First of all, you'd lost track of time in the Pizzaplex and somehow, despite all the announcements and warnings, you managed to get stuck overnight. You had, in fact, sprinted all the way to the exit only to watch the cutesy decorated shutters slam shut over your only method of escape. Leaving you in here with only robots.

At least, that's what you'd thought at the time, and now you honestly thought you'd have preferred it that way. You'd been creeping around, trying to avoid setting off the security bots, when you'd spotted a blonde ponytail and perked up instantly. Thank God, another human, you could explain your problem to her!

...Except, that as soon as she saw you her eyes darkened with what you could only describe as "murderous intent". Well, it probably wasn't that extreme, but it was clear she thought you were an intruder, and you didn't think you'd get the chance to explain yourself.

So instead, you ran. Turning on your heel and darting into the gift shop to the side of the atrium. She followed you, calling out after you, but you slipped into the first "S.T.A.F.F Only" door you found, and lost yourself in the maintenance tunnels until you finally heard the footsteps behind you stop, and the security guard hiss out a curse.

"Shit, lost her."

Only a few moments later, after you were sure she was gone, did you heave a sigh of relief. You didn't know what her problem was, but she was definitely not going to be any help to you, so you decided to continue down the tunnels. Maybe one of them led to an exit?

As you found out, that was not the case. You'd popped out of several doors, only to see even more of the 80s themed prison you were in - just how big was this place, anyway? - and you eventually decided to just ditch the tunnels altogether. You'd passed by Rockstar Row, the area that the animatronics supposedly stayed at, but you'd felt a strong urge to avoid that area. If the human in the place wasn't friendly, you took a strong bet that the robots wouldn't be either.

The Pizzaplex was vast, and quiet, and after what felt like hours but could only have been one or two, you finally relaxed enough to properly look around. It was kind of cool, in a way. It reminded you of all the wishes you'd had as a kid to run around your school, or the local mall, at night, and just play around. You had no plans to sneak into the games, of course, you couldn't even access them, but you smiled to yourself at the idea of letting your inner child loose.

You'd managed to slowly make your way up a floor or two, and you had to admit the place was eerily beautiful, especially from above. You gazed out over the balcony, somehow missing the steps coming up behind you until your shoulders were grabbed by surprisingly strong hands.

"Hey, what the- ?!" Your words were cut off as you turned to see exactly who you didn't want to - the blonde security guard, looking furious.

"What the hell are you doing in here?" she demanded, tone sharp. You stopped struggling against her grip - she was actually asking?

"I got locked in at closing, I've been trying to leave this whole time."

"Mhm, sure." Her voice was dripping with sarcasm. Your jaw dropped.

"It's true!"

"Then why did you run when I saw you before?" That... was a fair question, actually.

"I don't know, I didn't think you'd listen to me." It sounded like a flimsy excuse even with you knowing it was true, and it was clear she didn't believe you.

"Yeah, nice try. Innocent people don't run at the sight of a security guard." You resumed your attempts to get out of her grip, your stomach dropping in horror when her hands moved to pull your arms behind your back and you heard a telltale jingle of metal.

"Are you fucking handcuffing me?" You were absolutely incredulous, disbelief sharp on your tongue. You felt cold metal, and then a click, which confirmed it. "That cannot be legal."

"You're trespassing," the woman said simply, finally turning you around enough so you could see the name on the badge dangling from her neck.

"Listen, Vanessa, is it? This is a misunderstanding- ow!" You were cut off from your reasoning by her grabbing your arm with much more force than was necessary. She simply rolled her eyes, dragging you along with her. She brought you through a door you hadn't explored yet, the other side leading to a series of employee-only areas. You tried to remember the twists and turns, dead set on getting out of these handcuffs (seriously. This felt like a scene out of a shitty movie.), and bolting. Before you could, however, she pulled you into what looked like an office. Monitors lined the walls, showing different angles and rooms of the building, and it sunk in that this was her office. She could probably have seen you the whole time.

You were brought out of your thoughts by her unceremoniously shoving you down into a chair, your cuffed arms squashed against your back somewhat uncomfortably.

"You're staying in here with me until 6am, and then I'm turning you over to the police."

"I told you, I got locked in here by accident!"

She just scoffed at you, crossing over to the other chair in the room and sitting with much more grace than you'd managed. You fidgeted, trying to find a position that didn't put your arms in an uncomfortable position.

"You may as well settle in. It's only 2am."

"Maybe I'd be a bit more uncomfortable if someone hadn't handcuffed me," You huffed.

"God, you're really hung up about that, aren't you? What, are you into that sort of thing or something?"

"No," you snapped back, but your face reddened and you suddenly felt you couldn't make eye contact with her. Now that your gaze was averted, you couldn't see her lips draw up into a slight smirk.

"You are, aren't you?" There was an edge to her voice that hadn't been there before, and there was a shift in the tension of the room. She almost seemed... amused by the idea.

Were you into it? You certainly hadn't considered it at that exact moment, but you couldn't deny that what was happening to you sounded like the start of a cliche porn video. Now that you thought about it, it wasn't like she was unattractive by any means; sure, she'd been angry and you hadn't got the best look at her face, but looking at her now, she was actually really pretty, and though you were embarrassed to admit it, being tied up by a pretty girl was something you'd definitely thought about in the past.

"Oh my God, you're so red, you totally are." Standing from her chair, Vanessa walked over to you, placing her hands on the arms of your chair and leaning over you (you had to make an actual effort to not look at her chest.) "Looks like I've caught myself a perv, huh." She looked down at you with mirth, and you tried very hard to compose yourself from combusting on the spot.

"I'll tell you what," she started, one hand leaving the arm of your chair to trace your jaw, "I'll make you a deal, just cause you're cute."

"W- what's the deal?" You responded, cursing yourself internally at how shakily that came out.

"You have two options. We can sit here for four hours, and you can watch me work. Or, we can have a bit of fun. How does that sound?" The unspoken words were there, "I won't do anything if you don't want me to." Considerate, considering she believed you were a criminal.

However, the point still stood. She was... actually propositioning you. This was exactly like a shitty porno.

After a moment's hesitation, you nodded.

"Good," she smiled, something that you decided at that moment you liked much more than her anger (although thinking back, that was kind of hot, or maybe you were just painfully gay.) Abruptly, she brought a leg up to nudge yours apart before placing a knee squarely between your thighs, delighting in the gasp you made at the close-but-not-quite-enough touch. The proximity made you realize just how tightly the coil in your stomach had wound itself, and just how sensitive you were.

To put it simply, you realized at this moment just how turned on you were, and she hadn't even touched you in a way that wasn't aggression or light teasing.

You shifted forward slightly, hoping to finally make the contact you so needed, but Vanessa stopped you with a hand on your... Your chest.

"Nope, you're only getting what I give you," she scolded, although her tone was more seductive than genuinely annoyed. "Consider it your punishment for trespassing."

Her hand traced down from your chest to the hem of your shirt, lightly enough that you whimpered and leaned into the touch, before pulling it up above your bra. You shivered at the cool air of the office hitting your skin, contrasted deliciously with her warm hands.

"Look at you." Her voice dropped to a purr, her green eyes looking down at you appraisingly, and you almost keened. She focused her attention on your chest, her hands caressing and kneading, and you hate that you're sensitive enough that it feels good. It wasn't enough, though, and you grew impatient. You huffed, and she rolled her eyes, finally pushing her knee forward just enough to give you friction. "Fine. Since you're so desperate."

She pulled back, her hands dancing around the waistband of your pants before finally dipping down between your thighs. If her hands were warm on your bare skin, they were cold in contrast to your clothes, and you gasped; between the shock in the temperature change, and the sudden contact with your core, the feeling was amplified. Tired of teasing you, her fingers slipped into you with embarrassing ease. Any sass that you had left in you left as soon as she gave you what you so desperately wanted - it didn't take long for her to turn you into a squirming, whining mess, your hips rocking against your chair to meet her ministrations as your head dropped to her chest. For once she didn't stop you, instead humming in amusement.

Distantly, you realized how absolutely ridiculous this situation was: you couldn't remember the last time you'd got laid, and now here you were getting fingered in the security office of a children's entertainment complex by the head security guard. Classy.

That didn't matter though - what mattered was your rapidly approaching climax. Your moans grew in volume, and your grinding grew irregular, and Vanessa noticed. She didn't stop, but she slowed down, a move that had you voicing your complaint in broken whimpers.

"Are you close?" she asked, false sympathy dripping in her tone, and you nodded against her collarbone. She chuckled, a short exhale against the top of your hair. "You know what, I want to hear you beg."

"Wait- what?"

"You heard me."

You were ready to swear at her, tell her exactly where to shove her begging, but then her fingers curled up in just the right place to have you seeing stars, and your resolve (and shame) left you completely.

"Fuck, please Vanessa, I've been so good, please let me come - pleasepleaseplease-"

Stunned, she sped up wordlessly, finally giving you what you needed to make it over the edge, and you climaxed with a cry, your vision going white and what felt like your soul leaving your body for a moment.

When you came to, Vanessa had (albeit a lot gentler than before) pushed you back into your chair and acquired some wipes. You sat there, dazed, as she cleaned you up, before finally coming to your senses and sitting up.

"I can do it myself if you take these handcuffs off."

Giving you a raised eyebrow, Vanessa shook her head.

"Nope, you're still a trespasser." Seeing the dejected look on your face, she huffed out a laugh. "Listen, I'm not going to turn you over to the police. However, there is-" she checked her watch "Three hours left until the doors open, so until then you're mine."

Fuck, that shouldn't have made you flustered. This woman had literally made you come harder than you had in months (and made you beg for it, no less), and you were blushing at her calling you "hers".

"Now," she said coyly, "I hope you're planning on returning the favor."

"I, uh, can't use my hands."

"Did I say you had to use your hands?" Vanessa sat back down on her own chair and worked on getting her pants off, her eyes boring into your own pointedly. Getting the hint, you stood up, albeit unsteadily, and moved to sit in front of her, your head the perfect height to be in between her thighs.

"Maybe I'll take them off if you do good," she mused, and you perked up.

You had something to work towards now.