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marimagines · 3 years

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Strawberry Cigarettes

Between - Fuckboy!Jimin X You Genre - Fluff, angst, and smut [in the future parts] Words - 25,743 [wow] Summary - After a long day, you get a phone call from your best friend who was drunk and sitting at the diner at the end of your street because of her issues. You didn't have a choice but to go and check up on her and drop her home where she's safe but, you didn't know there would be that new worker that had caught your eye. Your drunk friend's loud mouth and her words is what pushes you to actually talk to that guy even if you don't know who he really is. And that's the start of something.

Linked to the story Love - A Dreadful Bond

This story is a background of the Jimin character from the story Love - A Dreadful Bond.

A/N - Okayyy so this is my attempt to post after 2 years to get myself out of my writers block!! 2 Yearsss!! I had been writing this since 2018 ahaha and now i managed to complete part one.. whew. I sincerely apologize to those who had been waiting for my posts and writing.. hopefully i can achieve posting and writing more and getting out of this writers block.. Life is hard huhuhuh but we will all get through it.. Hope you all like this!!

This story was inspired from Strawberries & Cigarettes by Troye Sivan

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Part 1

You walk into your apartment and sigh out with the exhaustion from the long day of classes and never ending errands. Dropping your keys on the kitchen counter as you walk past it to reach your living room area where the couch looked unbelievably comfortable than before to plop yourself onto the soft and cozy seat. You groan out when your phone vibrates on the table and pick up to see the caller ID and frown at why she's calling now. "Hello?" "Heyyyyy," your best friend, Ailee, sings from the other line. She sounded drunk. "I'm alone-i-come here okay? I'm at you know where?" To others, she might've not made sense but to you, she was making perfect sense at why she was drunk and where she was at. "Come quick!" Her scream causes you to flinch and you pull away the phone when she ends the call. You knew where she was already so you get up while whining out loud even though no one could hear you and drag yourself out as quickly as you could. You were worried if she'd leave thinking that you're not coming since she had done that several times and ended up either in someone else's house, nothing under the worst case scenarios though, or she would end up in another bar or banging at your or your other friend's door. But during days like these, she would always end up at the cafe at the end of your street. It was like a cafe and a diner since their interior reminded you of those diners you see in movies, with their cushioned seats and tables in the middle of the soft seats. That area was separated by a half wall and on the other side were normal round tables and the accompanying chairs you'd find in any cafe. The place did serve things like sandwiches and sometimes they'd have special days when they would actually sell full meals but usually it’s just the basic cafe/diner menu. To you, it was a cafe so you were surprised when you realized that they had a refrigerator with beer and soju even though there weren't any in the beginning. Until you later found out that it was mostly for Ailee and it made you roll your eyes. She was a regular at that place since she lived near it too but on the other side of it, opposite from yours. You would find her there almost all the time for breakfast, lunch, sometimes dinner if she hadn't eaten anything throughout the day. You, on the other hand, weren't a regular but you were known there as Ailee's best friend and also as someone who is mostly there especially when your friends or friend is there. You were there maybe 3 times a week but Ailee was there almost 6 times a week. At first you had thought it was because Ailee might've had a crush on someone there but in reality it was mostly their food and their service. Even the workers there were friendly and to you and her, they were familiar and just like friends as well. You both knew almost all the workers, by name if not personally since there weren't many. The place is actually owned by a lady in her late 50s and she had her two sons, Kim Jongdae who was the older one and Kim Jongin, the younger one, working with her and two other employees. You were more close to Jongin since you had noticed how he possibly had a crush on Ailee and also because he was closer with Ailee too. He was caring and always there for your friend when you couldn't be and he was really nice overall. He is a really fun person to be around and you could trust him. Ailee had no clue since she was already attached to someone else even though that guy wasn't looking for a relationship. Ailee and her 'man', Young Do, were just friends with benefits; fuck buddies in your opinion and you knew it was affecting Ailee. Jongin knew too and you both always lectured her over the same issues every month at least. So when she called you right now, already drunk, you knew it must be about Young Do again.

You walk into the cafe and eyes widen at huge group sitting by the window, taking up almost all the seats in this side. You walk past that area to where you'd usually seat near the counter, on those softer seats. Ailee was there too, head hung low while her hand held up the little shot glass. A sigh leaves your lips once you take a seat opposite to her and stare at her state. You knock at the table to let her know of your presence since she was pretty oblivious to it. Her body jumps a little and she looks up with her half closed eyes, trying to focus on you. "Ya!" You hiss at her sudden scream and shush her. "Do you-you k-know," a hiccup stops her from speaking and she ends up smiling at you. She was really drunk at this point. "I called you hours ago! What took you so long?" "You called me 10 minutes ago," you answer her silently while watching her pour another drink for herself. "You know what?" She says before gulping down the drink in one go. "Me and Young Do had a f-fight." "Why am I not surprised?" You roll your eyes but look at her in shock when she throws a tissue at you. "Don't interrupt me!" She screams at you while moving her hand to cover your mouth. "I told him he can't take his anger on me," Ailee whines out mid-sentence and itches her head before sipping straight from the soju bottle in front of her. You look at the other 6 empty ones and shake your head in disappointment and frustration, and even worry inside at the fact that she might even doze off any minute. "He left! I told him to leave if he can't handle and that fuc-" "Can I get you something, ma'am?" Your attention diverts to the new voice that came from the figure who stood next to your table. You look up at the new face and your heart jumps at his beauty. He had deep, yet small and thin eyes somewhat like a slight dripping shape. His lips were full and really plump and perfectly proportional that you actually thought what it'd be like to kiss them for a millisecond. You look at his face for a while then clear your throat while looking away then back at him. "Umm, just water please," you smile at him and then watch him turn around but you could have swore you saw him smile or smirk. Were you too lost and obvious with studying his features? You shake your head to get yourself together but once you look up, your eyes follow his steps and you catch yourself staring at him. You could see the veins popping out on his arms where he had rolled up his sleeves of the white shirt. "Ya," you turn your attention back to Ailee and try not to look back at the boy who had caught your attention like no one had ever could. "What are you-" "You should end it with your Young Do, Ailee. Seriously. Look at you," you scold her and give her a disgusted look after. "That's what I've trying to tell her for months," you smile at the guy who took a seat next to Ailee. "How are you, Jongin oppa?" He smiles at you and turns to look at Ailee who was still drinking. "Aish, look at you," Jongin criticizes Ailee as he frowns at her state. "Get yourself together." "You guys are supposed to be consoling me! Not- don't yell at me!" Ailee screams out, making both of close your eyes and frown at the pitch of her tone. Jongin flicks her forehead causing Ailee to hiss at the stinging feeling. "You're the only one screaming here," you sarcastically comment and look back at the crowded table on the other side, hoping her screaming wasn't annoying them. A guy from the other table calls out for someone and Jongin taps at your table, letting you know he's leaving. "They're having a party tonight and Jongdae isn't here today so I got my friend to fill in for him instead. I'm sure you met him?" He quickly says and gets up to run to the table. You shake your head as you smile at how he called his older brother with his name only. Realizing Jongdae's absence, you sit up straight and look around to see how it was only the new guy and Jongin working and Jongin's mother was probably inside the kitchen preparing the food and drinks along with the another worker. Ailee curses out loud as her bottle finishes for the seventh time and she screams out for someone to come to your table. "Excuse meeee~" you stare at her and her state. She was never this kind of girl who would get drunk over a guy but this Young Do guy had played with her feelings. You were sure if she actually thinks about it, she doesn't really have feelings for him either. They just need each other for desires and needs; nothing more. You watch her and hope she'd get over this guy and not go back to him again. Your chest clenches when you see the cute guy walk towards your table with the water you had asked for and to serve another soju bottle for Ailee. "Sorry for bringing this in late," his voice was so sweet and melodic it made your heart melt. You whisper a small 'it's okay' to reassure him in case if he was nervous or worried for being late. "Ya, I miss him," Ailee speaks up as you turn to look at her and miss watching the guy walk back to wherever it is he goes to. "Shut up, Ailee. The first thing we're doing tomorrow is getting you over him." You give her a death glare when she scoffs at you. ~~ "Hyung, who's that?" Jimin asks his friend while leaning against the kitchen counter as he stares through the huge window-like opening in the wall, it made it easier for the chefs to put the order so the waiters outside don't have to keep coming into the kitchen. It separated the kitchen and the cafe outside the kitchen and right now, it was an easy way for him to look at the table as he leaned against the counter, his eyes stuck on the two girls sitting there. One of them was drunk and had been there for quite some time, finishing up bottle after bottle but Jimin's interest was on the girl who came later. The one who seemed more on the good girl list. His eyes and his curiosity were on you. "Hey, don't even think about it." Jongin warns Jimin with a stern tone and a gaze as he was busy putting plates of food on a tray to take to the only other table that was rather crowded. Jimin tilts his head to the side to get a better view of you and a smirk creeps onto his lips as the thoughts and ideas in his head run wild. He was definitely checking you out and he made sure to make it as obvious as he could, if only you'd look to his direction. Your friend yells out and that gives Jimin the cue to go to your table again. He grabs a bottle of water and soju before making his way towards your table. He smiles at both of you and puts the water in front of you. "Sorry for bringing this in late," he speaks softly and notices that innocent glow in your pure eyes. "It's okay," you answer almost immediately but in a low voice. It almost made his heart jump, almost. He smiles as he leans towards the friend and puts the soju in front of her already drunken state. Walking back, Jimin makes sure he does it slow in attempt to listen to your conversations. He walks around the counter and chooses to stay behind the counter instead of going back into the kitchen. Plus he had a better view of you from here. Since Jongin was serving the other table, all Jimin had to do was serve yours because Jongdae and the other two employees weren't here today. Jimin takes out his phone as he rests his elbows on the counter to lean forward a little. He could hear you and your friend talk from here so it was all good. From the words you were saying, he wrote down a mental note that you were probably smart. His favorite. His eyes kept moving in your direction as he tries to take glances of you every now and then, hoping you'd look. You were shy too, he noticed and it caused him to smile softly but he made it look like he was smiling at his phone when he noticed your friend looking at him. "Ya, he's cute." The friend starts speaking without looking away. Your eyes open wide and you look for a second at Jimin but look back at your friend while turning her head away. He could see that pink shade that was creeping on your cheeks right now. Cute. He thought to himself and licks his lower lip before biting it while holding a smile. "Ailee, stop. You're being so obvious," you mumble at her comment and hiss when she complains and give her a glare that Jimin picks up on too. You were either nervous or embarrassed. "He's checking you out," Ailee confirms way too loudly when she picks up on the continuous stares and it causes Jimin to look up at both of you and makes eye contact with you for a second or two. "Stop woman," you whisper while trying to take the bottle from her. "He probably has a girlfriend." Jimin tries to hide that smile that was threatening to come out and coughs out while looking away, trying to make it look like he didn't just hear what you said. His soft moment ends when Jongin walks over to him and motions him to go into the kitchen with his index finger in the air. Rolling his eyes, Jimin follows his best friend into the kitchen as he pushes the pale blue door open and stands with his arms crossed in front of his chest while looking at Jongin who seemed annoyed. "What is it?" He questions him so they don't waste time. "What do you think you're doing?" Jongin crosses his arms over his chest too and raises an eyebrow. Jimin frowns at the questions, trying to act oblivious to his friend's question. "Don't think I don’t know that look Jimin. They're my friends, not some girls you can have fun with," Jongin lectures and watches Jimin scoff. "Hyung, I didn't do anything." The younger denies with a smirk while raising his hands up in the air. "I'm just in awe at your pretty friends. That's all." "Don't even-you know what, stay here. Don't even go near that table." Jongin holds Jimin by the shoulders and turns him around to make him sit at the counter while his friend follows his order well and sits on the counter with a smug look. At least he could see you from here. Park Jimin was known as the fuckboy in his university grounds and he took pride in it. With his breathtaking looks to his sweet, angelic voice and his toned and well-built body, any girl he had tried to hit up with always ended up following him and doing whatever he'd ask them to do. He was also said to be the definition of 'looks can be deceiving' and a lot of people agreed to it. His brothers in the dormitory weren't against it nor were they supporting him in this since they had all fucked up once or twice. Jimin always had a thing for a challenge but sadly most girls were just too easy that he almost thought about giving up and settling on one girl only, but then again... almost. He wasn't happy with coming here to work for one of his close friend but upon seeing you, he actually had a change of mind. Also since the cafe wasn't crowded like usual he had all the time and space he needed to check you out all he wanted and maybe ask for your number later... You were arguing with your friend, who Jimin picked her name rather easily, Ailee and he figured what was probably the issue. It had him wondering how many girls actually ended up like this girl because of him. He stares at how you tried to take the bottle away from your drunk friend and whine at her when she doesn't comply. A little laugh leaves his lips when he finds it cute and interesting at how you still attempt even after failing. He quickly looks away when your head rises, searching for him or Jongin as your hand raises up. "Excuse me," you speak up while looking around for someone to walk up to your table. Jimin knew he had to go but he stared behind him to look at Jongin busy plating up the food for the other table. "Hyungnim~" he speaks up in a singing tone while smiling smugly. "Pretty table needs something." "Ya, can you go please? I'm kinda busy with this," Jongin asks without looking at him. "I don't know, should I?" Jimin plays with his hyung, knowing it would annoy him. A smirk curves on his lips when Jongin stops doing what he was doing and turns to gaze at Jimin. Bingo. "I mean, you said not to do anything, especially not go near that table. So I don't think I ca-" "Alright, fine. Go." He interrupts with a growl and an annoyed expression. "You're so fucking annoying and stubborn. Do whatever you want." "Okayyy~" he sings out, satisfied with the permission to have things his way. Jimin looks at you and notices you staring at him too. He smiles as he jumps off the counter and walks out the kitchen. ~~ You stare at how worse Ailee's condition was getting and she was speaking complete nonsense, even to you they made no sense right now. As you try to snatch the bottle away from her for the fifth time, she resists and her grip tightens each time and it scared you that she'd actually break the glass if she squeezes it more. Your head was somewhere else though, ever since Ailee pointed out that the cute waiter was checking you out, it made you want to look and confirm it but you were too shy to even look at him for more than a minute. You saw him follow Jongin into the other side of the kitchen and he didn't come back out even after Jongin kept taking trips in and out of the kitchen. You ponder if he'll always work here or if he was just a substitute for Jongdae. If he was a new employee, you wouldn't mind coming here everyday and being a new regular customer at this place. You get pulled out of your thoughts when Ailee whines as her glass drops on the table and spills the drink over it. You quickly put tissues over the fluid and try once again to take the bottle from her before she makes herself worse but she still fights back. Giving up, you sit up straight and look at the other table, the people almost left since only three were there so maybe Jongin could help you with this. Or the new guy. "Excuse me," you chant softly and look towards the opening that gave a view into the kitchen and saw the new guy sitting on the counter. He turns his head as he was conversing with someone, probably Jongin, and completely ignores you. You frown at the action, trying to get his attention again you try to speak up again but see him smile at you and jump off the counter. He strides towards you with an unreadable look on his face and gives you another smile once he reaches the table. He just raises an eyebrow in question and waits for you to speak. You clear your throat before speaking. If Ailee wasn't cooperating with you then you had no choice but to ask for help. "Can you please take these away?" You point at the bottles that were spread in front of your friend. He nods at you and walks over to the counter to grab a round tray. He starts with picking up the empty ones and it gets painfully quiet so you decide to ask something... stupid. "Umm," you start slowly and notice how he slows down his pace of working. "Did she... drink all of this?" You beat yourself up in your head for asking something so stupid and obvious but he smiles instead. "Yes," his eyes were still glued to the table as he reaches for the bottle next to Ailee. You notice how Ailee was eyeing him and that was probably making him uncomfortable. "Do I take all of them away?" He asks once he's done picking and cleaning up and stares at you with round, glossy eyes. You nod before speaking. "Yes, please. All of them." He reaches for the bottle that was in your friend's hand but she pulls her hand back and it causes them both to look at one another. You kick Ailee's leg under the table, causing her to let go of the bottle and rub her leg. You hand him the bottle quickly before she reaches for it again. You hand it to him as he whispers an apology to Ailee, threatening a smile to break through on your lips. "Where's Jongdae-oppa?" Ailee stutters out, finding it difficult to speak due to the intake of all the alcohol. Before he speaks, he leans back to stand up straight and gives a small smile. "Hyungnim couldn't make it so Jongin asked me to help out tonight." His voice was so smooth and soft. You wanted to hear him speak all the time if that's how he really sounds all the time. His aura was a mixture of good and bad. The rolled-up sleeves and the way his jaw clenches and that smirk with those wandering eyes that go up and down your body, studying as much as he could from it. "Can you please bring the bi-" you speak up but get cut off from Jongin when he talks behind the cute guy. "No need for that," he smiles at you while he stands next to the other guy. "It's on the house... or, I'll just make her pay tomorrow." You laugh at his words but stop as you notice the cute guy stare at you with a smile plastered to his face too. Clearing your throat, you brush your hair back, straightening them down smoothly before getting up slowly, hesitantly. "Well then, I guess I'll take her home before she snaps again. Are you done for tonight?" You look at Jongin, trying with all your willpower to not look at the other guy who was eyeing you shamelessly. Jongin nods before answering you and looks at the empty, messy table where the other group was having their feast. "I just need to clean up that table, take her out for now. I'll be out in a while." He adds quickly and pats his friend's back to get him back to work too. They both walk away from the table, leaving you staring at Ailee hopelessly. This will be hard. Every time she got wasted like this, it always turned into a hassle to get her to walk. Sighing, you tie your hair back and push your phone into your pocket before reaching for her upper arm as you lift her body up. She groans lowly while she tries to stand on her feet and moves with your help despite her body's refusal by turning her limp. You put her arm around the back of your neck and grab her by the waist as you squirm when she leans against your neck while making weird lewd noises. "Ailee, you gotta help me out here." You point out to her but of course she probably didn't even comprehend it properly as she runs her hand over your face sloppily. You move your head back as far as you could and let out an annoyed noise. "Do you need help?" The new worker comes up and suggests as he was fixing his rolled-up sleeve. He still had a soft smile on his face and it wasn't helping in calming your heart down. "Uhh... y-yeah," you stutter out as his eyes were glued onto yours. "Yes please. Thank you." You thank him quietly and he moves right away. He grabs her other arm gently and does the same as you, wrapping it around his nape and shoulder, keeping it there. He moves to grab her waist hesitantly but stops and smiles instead. "Let's go?" He says gently and gestures you to move first. The two of you walk slowly and reach the entrance but stop when Jongin calls you from behind. "Hey, take my keys. I'll take her home." He runs towards you three and pulls out the keys, jingling in his hand as he passes them to his friend while giving him a straight face. Once he leaves to go back to work, the other guy, you wished you knew his name, looks at you then outside. "It's raining outside," he notes as his eyes stay glued to the view outside. "I have an umbrella... wait." His tone was soft yet it seemed so demanding to you, making you bite your lips in nervousness. You watch him run back into the kitchen, coming back in a few seconds with a black umbrella in his hand. He gives you a small smile and it makes you ponder why was he even being so nice, having met you just half an hour ago. Maybe he was just being friendly and you were the one getting way too distracted in this situation. Opening the door of the restaurant, you notice it was raining lightly, not too light nor too heavy. He opens up his umbrella with his hands outside and puts it above his head and you two, while he helps you take Ailee to Jongin's car. You walk outside and suddenly realize that you didn't even bring a jacket to warm you up as the chilly air hits your skin through your hoodie. The awkward atmosphere was getting too much to ignore too as the three of you walk silently and slowly. You clear your throat before saying anything so your voice doesn't disappoint you by cracking or anything. "Thank you for this," you look at him with a smile as your head tilted to see him on the other side of Ailee. You notice he wasn't even under the shade the umbrella provided because you and Ailee had taken up the space mostly. A feeling of guilt builds up in you as you notice the white shirt sticking to his body as the raindrops land onto him. He must be cold too... "It's okay," that angelic voice. Your heart melts at how it was so soft yet so deep but in that perfect tone. "You don't know where Jongin hyung parked his car right?" You frown at the way he mentions Jongin. Was he younger? "Hyung?" You stop, making him stop and look at you with a light frown as confusion begins to show at his face. "You're younger than him?" You didn't want to sound that shocked but it was obvious you were. "Yeah. A year younger," he smiles widely, his eyes closing and making your heart jump and skip beats at how adorable he looked. "How old are you?" "I'm 22." "So I don't think I need to speak formally, do I?" He starts with a smug look and a raised eyebrow, making you giggle lightly. "Whatever makes you comfortable," you answer. Why was he so hot? You clear your throat and start walking again before things get awkward. Amidst your thoughts, you suddenly realize you don't even know his name but before you could even speak again, you're interrupted by him when he stops in front of the black car. "Here it is," he announces before opening the passenger door quickly hence keeping the umbrella up your heads to keep the two of you dry. As you help Ailee into the car, she suddenly looks up and smiles at you. You knew she'd do this... it's happened more than a dozen times so you knew she'd snap awake any moment. "Oh, (Y/N)." She blurts out as her hand caresses you face roughly. You pull away from the touch and help her with the seatbelt. "Stay still." You command lightly and smile at her when she raises her arms up in an attempt to "help" you with the belt. You pull her arms down once you’re done and slowly back away to straighten up. "Jongin oppa will be taking you home now okay?" "Oh," she points at the guy who was staring at her then you. "I don't remember Jongin being like..." you face palm yourself in embarrassment and push her hand away to stop her from pointing. You freeze when you hear him laugh out, his head thrown back and a huge smile on his lips. You couldn't help but smile at his cuteness. "I'm Jimin... Park Jimin." He looks at you as if answering your unasked question and you smile at him shyly. "(Y/N), and this is Ailee." Unintentionally, you bite your lip and push a hair strand behind your ear. It probably looked weird, you thought. "You're hot. Oh... She's single," your eyes widen at Ailee's bluntness and a shade of pink covers up your cheeks as you stare at her in shock and embarrassment then at Jimin, who was eyeing you with an unreadable look. "She's also a good kisser. Have you seen her lips?" "Okay, I think you should rest. Bye." You nervously interrupt her and close the door with her inside the car. You look over at Jimin and bite your lower lip again and your heart flutters when you notice his eyes on them. "Uh... sor-sorry about that," you chuckle out as the nerves kick in. "She just says whatever when she's like that. Don't mind her." "It's okay, I'll make sure to remember those two details about you," he remarks lowly as he walks closer to stand under the umbrella too. The sound of the raindrops hitting against the umbrella above the two of you gave you a very dramatic background audio, making you even more anxious. Especially after his last remark. You look down as you try to come up with something to say but sigh in relief when you hear Jongin from behind Jimin. "Hey, is she still passed out?" He asks breathlessly as he tries to cover himself up with his jacket. "No, she woke up now... be careful." You warn him and laugh when you see him shake his head and let out a defeated sigh. "Thanks... ah Jimin-ah, you have to stay and clean up the kitchen remember." You watch the two converse and frown at how Jimin had his jaw clenched at the order. "Yeah okay." He says in a low voice while he gestures you to start walking once Jongin gets in the car. "I was going to drop you home... it's not nice to just let a girl walk back alone like this." He says as his free hand sticks out from underneath the umbrella to feel the rain, that had calmed down a little from before. You blush at his words again and turn down his offer to walk you home as nicely as possible. The two of you walk back to the café with a small conversation about each other. He's in college too, not the same as yours though. A bummer, you think. He's a literature major, just like you; loves to draw and dance and sometimes party. You listen contently and so does he. Of course neither of you open up completely since the walk and the talk was small and basic. He lives in a dorm with six other guys who are apparently like his family, according to him. Cute. You wonder how he actually is without being all polite and nice since you two had just met. Too early to think that right? But you just wanted to know more and more about him the more you listen to his voice or see his beautiful smile. A pout appears on your lips when you see the familiar glass door of the cafe and come to realize this is where you two part ways and will probably not see each other again. You sigh lightly once he stands in front of you, leaning against the door behind him. "Well, I guess I better go then. It was nice talking to you and..." you pause for a while when you see him lick his lips before biting them lightly. Clearing your throat, you continue. "And, thank you for helping and for," you point at the black umbrella above your head. "For the shade." "No problem," he smiles sincerely as he straightens up his posture. "Here, take it home for now. You can't walk without an umbrella. I would walk you but I have work left," he says as his hand raises, his thumb sticking towards the cafe. Your insides crash against one another at his caring act and you reach up to hesitantly take the umbrella from his hand. Your fingers touch lightly and you quickly feel how warm and smooth they feel, making you what to hold onto them a while longer. You must be going crazy right now. "You can return it later when we meet." He adds when you don't speak. "Oh... So this isn't goodbye?" "Absolutely not. You have my umbrella. Of course I'll need it back..." you giggle at his sarcasm and shake your head. "And then we can start from there too." He smiles again, giving you another set of skipped heartbeats to deal with. "Thank you," you look down before walking back into the pathway. "Goodnight Park Jimin." You say before you start towards your home. "Goodnight, (Y/N)." He says from behind you. You continue taking small steps away from the store but pause when you hear him again. "Oh and..." you look behind you as he was leaning against the wooden pillar of the entrance. You raise your eyebrow when he doesn't say anything. "...I don't have a girlfriend." He smiles smugly when you realize what he was referring to. Your comment that you had made in there. Blood rushes to your cheeks at his comment as nervousness builds up and you bow down quickly before looking away in embarrassment. Your feet save you by starting the quick pace back towards your home as your ears pick up a small chuckle leave his lips and the opening of the door. You walk into your apartment and lock the door before walking into your bedroom. Plopping onto the bed, you stare at the ceiling and replay everything that had happened just a while ago. From going to Ailee to seeing Jimin and just checking him out to actually talking to him and now here you were. In your bed, with his umbrella still in your hand and with that promise to meet again soon. And... he's single. You blush as the last remark he made comes back to your head and you kick your legs up in the air as you squeal out. You felt embarrassed yes, but deep down that fast rhythm of your heart was trying to tell you something else. "You can't just fall for him. He's just a crush. Just. A. Crush." You lecture yourself once you sit up after your behavior and keep repeating the words. Shutting your eyes tightly, you sigh out before grabbing your phone to text Ailee. She needed to hear something and you were going to say it. Were you mad at her for the embarrassment and those words of her? Yes. Did it hurt you? No. But you wouldn't be feeling this or would have this umbrella in your hands if it wasn't for her. Scrolling down the chats, you spot her name right away and click on it, typing right away. You [9.50pm]: you're one lucky bitch. You smirk to yourself before setting your alarm for a new day tomorrow and hoping to not show to much appreciation to Ailee over this. You close your eyes and try to get yourself to sleep without having to think too much about Jimin. ~Jimin's point of view~ He was standing outside in the cold, breezy weather as his thumb scrolls through all the posts in the apps. He had tons of messages to check too but he chose to ignore those, just like always. He runs his hand through his hair as he looks up and around in hopes of finding a familiar car. When nothing happens in the quiet street, he sighs out in frustration. How long was he supposed to wait until his friends pick him up. He can't walk all the way to his dorm and he just didn't want to order a cab. A honk gets his attention away from a specific message that makes a smirk appear on his features, engaging his ego even higher than it already was. Unknown number [10.37pm]: I can't stop thinking about last night, Sunbae... can we meet again? "Aah~ I have to control these freshmen." He utters to himself as he walks towards the navy blue BMW, opening the backseat door. He's welcomed by his younger "brother" Jungkook and his older "brother" Hoseok. Fraternities... they just made him get used to calling all of his friends as brothers though he wouldn't admit so easily that he actually likes calling them that and how much they all mean to him. He sits inside quickly and lets out a lewd noise as the warmth of the heat hits his cold face. Jungkook was looking at him as his lower lip was hidden under his teeth. "I can explain why we're late," he starts off quickly as he changes the gear to drive. "It's okay, just drive. I'm tired," Jimin replies tiredly with his head tilted back and a smirk painted on his face. Hoseok and Jungkook share a frowned and confused look at the words coming out of the boy. He wasn't mad this time... Jimin would've been mad if it was any other day. Perhaps this wasn't a normal day. "Something good must've happened, seeing how you're not even mad and actually ... smiling like a creep." Hoseok adds as he shifts in his seat to turn to look behind at Jimin. "Ah hyung~ how can you say that? I don't always get mad," Jimin whines and earns a chuckle and scoff from the two guys in the front. "Did they pay you well?" Jungkook asks after a while when the three of them relax for a while. "Hmm," Jimin hums in response as his head nods slowly even though they probably aren't even looking at him. "They paid me well, there weren't many customers tonight... and I met someone." The two quickly look back in unison as Jimin chuckles. "Got your attention now, huh? Ya Jungkook, look in the front when you're driving." "Who's she?" Hoseok continues the conversation as they all relax into their seats again. "Her name's (Y/N), goes to Sonyei, is a literature major and she has a part time job at a clothing store." Jimin lists out all the details and information he gained earlier when the two of you had exchanged small talk while walking back to the cafe. "Well, I guess we'll have to deal with more screams and all that," the youngest comments, earning a few annoyed noises from Hoseok and Jimin as he sits there with a huge smile and a scrunched nose. "Oh my god, this little bastard here." Jimin says from behind and reaches forward to smack Jungkook's nape hard enough but also light enough. The rest of the ride back to the dorm was quiet since they were all tired from their day and work but Jimin's mind was going back to one thing. You. ~(Y/N)'s point of view~ The ringing of the alarm jolts you awake and you sit up in bed with a loud annoyed groan. Morning classes sucked and you were late. You quickly jump off the bed and run into the bathroom to get ready as quickly as you could and then choosing an outfit wouldn't be a problem. You can just put something simple. You ended up choosing a navy blue sweater with beige skinny jeans and grabbed a black long coat to end the look. Before running out the door, you stop to check if your lipstick was okay then you pull the door open and make a run for it before the bus leaves. Thankfully, you had gotten to class just a minute earlier and walk to your place with wobbly legs from running too much. You plop down on the chair with a loud sigh and raise your hand as a greeting for one of your friend, Kim Woosung. He smiles and waves back before eyeing you as you try to catch your breath. "Trying to run for a marathon?" He jokes as you smack his bicep lightly with an eye roll. You sit up straight once you notice his bottle of water was still almost full and grab it immediately. You needed water right now. "That's mine..." he says lowly as he watches you gulp down almost half the bottle and shakes his head. A sigh leaves his lips when he sees you smile at him. "That was refreshing," you add after he's done giving you "the looks". "I spat in it earlier," you roll your eyes and can't help but smile at his comment. "Makes it more refreshing." "You're disgusting," Woosung adds with a disgusted look after your comment. "Hmmm, so are you." You joke around before relaxing into the seat more after your breathing became stable. "Just finish the whole damn thing if you're stopping here," he moves the bottle towards your side of the desk and shakes his head when you giggle. Woosung was one of your close friends. The two of you met in ninth grade when he moved back in the country after leaving America. "A very, not a smart decision really", in his words. He spent two years being sad over leaving America, where he grew up, but slowly became better used to here starting from junior year. The two of you were friends from the beginning in ninth grade when he saw you reading a classic novel, Dr. Frankenstein. He criticized it and said it was in his least favorite list. "There are so many better ones. Why read this as a start?" "What's it to you? I like this!" You had argued back after being shocked at his words. "If i have to sit next to you for a whole year, at the very least bring a better book so that I can read too if I get bored." "Am I reading for your sake? Do you not have books of your own?" "What? Are you getting mad?" He scoffed at the way your tone had changed a note higher since you two had been quarreling over this for no apparent reason. "Yes. I am." "All I'm saying is get a better book so we can both-" "Do you have to read with me? Don't read, if you don't like the ones I'm reading," you lift the book up to cover his face and read again. That was in the second month of ninth grade. The two of you had just begun to talk like actual classmates and joked around too. He was really awkward in the beginning but with time the two of you settled down and tolerated each other to get along. Woosung became your best friend without the two of you even realizing. It just became so usual to have him around, in your house or room or out in the mall or clubs. People had even mistaken you for dating but you were quick to clear it out. "You could've played along," he had said back then too. Of course he was good looking. Soft features, thin lips, cute soft eyes and an adorable smile in your opinion. He was a great singer and was even in a band with three other guys. You had been to their gigs and busking events and you had to admit, he was pretty good. They were all pretty good. Did you ever feel something towards Woosung? Yes... obviously but you kept your mouth shut and those feelings faded away slowly or hid away. You had to be frank, he did get better looking since senior year high school. You're pulled out of your thoughts when you hear students in the classroom mumble all of a sudden and frown at everyone who was looking at their screen. That's when you realize the instructor didn't even come yet, it was almost 15 minutes by now. Woosung looks around and hums lightly before speaking, "Seems like class is canceled." You roll your eyes in annoyance at having to wake up early and run here to have the class canceled. "Oh, for fuc-" "Hey!" He smacks your lips for almost cursing in front of him like that. He was older than you by a year so yeah... you couldn’t always be so easy like that. Well. You could swear and all but he just liked to annoy you that way. "I woke up and ran all the way here to have this canceled..." you pout as the two of you get up to leave the classroom along with the other students. "Why'd you overslept? You don't usually do that." "Ailee and Young Do had a fight or something and she went to get wasted again," you complain as he opens the door for you, letting you go out first. "So I had to take care of that last night." Once you step outside and finish your sentence, you finally remember the events from last night. It was hectic and frenzy since you had woken up late but now that your mind was more relaxed, you remembered. Jimin. The umbrella. The last thing he said. You bite your lower lip as a habit and look ahead as you walk wherever your feet were taking you. How were you supposed to return the umbrella when you didn't even take his number. When he said you'll meet again, did he mean soon? You kind of missed him... stupid right? You had just met him last night yet you were here thinking about him and how his voice swayed its way into your heart. How warm his fingers felt even though it was for a second. You try to remind yourself to get it together and repeat the same words you did last night. "Just a crush. Just a cr-" "Goodmorning," you blink several times to get yourself back in reality when you hear Woosung's greeting. You look where he's looking at and spot Ailee taking a seat on the other side of the wooden picnic bench. You frown at her sullen expression... why was she so sad about now? You quickly stand up half way to reach towards her and smack her bicep, earning a whine from her. "You. Are. One. Lucky. Bitch." You point out while getting back on the seat. Woosung frowns at the two of you but doesn't bother or ask what's going on... at least not yet. "I messed up last night, didn't I?" She gives you an apologetic look and closes her eyes tightly as she rests her head into her palms and groans. "Jongin-oppa and I had a fight last night." She looks at you with a pout planted on her lips and then continues. "And now he's ignoring me." "Why did you fight?" "He was lecturing me the whole drive to my house and I flipped and he came after me and yelled. When I say fight. I mean a while fight with us yelling and screaming here (Y/N)!" She whines out loudly as she grabs your wrists and pulls your arm towards her. "Well he's not the only one that's mad at you," you pull away and give her an annoyed look. Does she not remember everything else? Why was she so focused on Jongin. She never acted this way so why was she... perhaps they actually feel the same way for each other? You knew Jongin liked Ailee but you didn't know whether she felt the same way towards him. Did she? You're pulled out of your pondering when she speaks again with a whiny tone. "Why are you mad?" You roll your eyes at her oblivion and list the things right away. "First, you need to fucking STOP this whole shit with Young Do." Woosung smacks you lightly when you curse and you're reminded that he was actually here. He had been so quiet that you actually forgot he was here. You scowl at him silently when he stares at you with wide eyes. He always had a habit of smacking you every time you used a swear word, it's not even because he was offended or anything. He just did it. "Fine, I'll stop okay?" You two look at Ailee in unison with shock written all over your faces. This was the first time she ever said this. "And what did you even mean by this text?" She pulls out her phones and then turns the screen towards you. It was your message from last night. "This is why I'm mad!" You jeer out. "Do you not even remember? Park Jimin? The guy who served our table last night," Ailee's face contorts as she tries to remember and then her eyes widen in an instant. "Oh shit," "Hey, don't curse around your Sunb-" "Oh SHIT," Ailee gasps out loud as her palm goes over to cover her open mouth. You give her an annoyed look and wait for her to apologize... to be honest, you weren't even THAT mad but you had the right to argue over her words that she had said in her drunken state. "I said something to him, didn't I?" "You exposed me!" You yell back and watch her try to remember again. "You were like 'oh she's single and a good kisser'..." you mimic her tone and look at her frown and then... she ends up laughing. She actually bursts out laughing and then you sit there and watch Woosung join in silently. "This isn't funny you guys." You whine out loud and drop your head on the wooden table. "I felt so embarrassed and flustered... I didn't even get his number," you finish off before sitting up with slump shoulders and a pout on your lips while you look back and forth at the two who were still laughing lightly. "Why are you laughing?" You direct the question to Woosung. "It's funny. I thought she did something but it's so small," he rubs your head, messing up your hair as he makes cooing noises. "Poor little (Y/N) got shy because some cute guy found out you're single and a good kisser." You smack his hand away and look at Ailee, who was smiling at you. "At least he didn't run right? If you said I'm lucky then something good must've happened," her eyebrow raises and she tilts her head in an attempt to try to read your expression. You clear your throat whilst trying to hide the smile that was forming on your lips. "He said that we'll meet again for sure." You say confidently but blush slowly as you remember the last thing he had said last night. You roll your eyes when Ailee lets out a long "ooooh~" ~Jimin's point of view~ He came back from his class and went straight into his room. He couldn't bear to deal with another being right now... Sleep. That's what he needed right now. As he walks through the hall of the dorm, he passes by Jungkook's room and hears a different voice from inside. His ears perk up to try to encode the new voice... a girl? Did Jungkook really have a girl in there? A teasing smirk comes onto his lips but he saves it for later. He was already tired from today's classes and he even bummed into one of his "ex". She wasn't an ex, just someone he had spent some time with for a while but then got bored as usual. But she had always tried to come back, making things awkward. Just like today. He shuts his door once he enters and plops into his bed while staring at the ceiling. Something was going on in his head that he managed to ignore the whole day until now. He frowns when he catches up on his thoughts and wonders why, of all the things, was he thinking of that... Of you. You two had only met for a few hours but why out of all the people, why did you pop into his head. He laid there and thought about what you were up to, what you could be wearing, or if you were thinking about him or not. He plays with his hair lightly then once he realizes he hadn't even taken your number, he groans and whispers to himself "You're a stupid ass Jimin-ah." Maybe Jongin might give him your number... it was a small possibility though. A knock on his door gets him out of his thoughts and he turns his head towards the door, telling them to come in. "Hey," it was Taehyung. He looked like he was in a hurry. "We- no. You got a problem. Miyeon is here." "Tell her I'm asleep." He sighs out as he looks back at the ceiling. "She's your girl, you deal with her dude. She won't listen to me." "Tae-" Jimin huffs out a breath as Taehyung closes the door without even listening to him. He gets up to put his backpack in its place and picks up the clothes that were laying around to put them in his wardrobe. If there was one thing he could care most about, he'd pick keeping his home or room neat and organized especially if someone was coming over. It has always been a habit of Jimin, to keep things tidy and in their place. As he did the same right now, he hears the door open and close again. "Oppa," Miyeon's voice echoes around the room and he hears her step towards him but still doesn't turn around. His back towards her direction as he went on with folding his shirt and his sweatpants that he found laying around. "Hi." She wraps her arms around his waist to embrace him in a back hug and rests her head on his back. Jimin drops his clothes and shoves them in before sighing out loud. He grabs her wrists to free himself from the hug and turns around to glare at her. "You have to stop coming here without telling me. I told you that before." She looks at him with a pout before speaking back. "I did message you... an hour ago." Miyeon frees herself from his hold to take a step back. "You don't seem happy to see me." Jimin looks her up and down, taking in her small body and her soft features. She had long hair that reached a little further down her shoulders. She had curled them today, it was pretty. Her plump lips were giving a tint of red today and it matched the light shade of red on her cheeks as she watched him study her like that. Her eyes, usually small and almond shaped, were now round since she felt small in front of him like that. Her outfit was cute today too, as usual. A white crop top that hugged her chest and torso tightly and a pastel pink skirt that stopped just above her knees. He looks back at her and notices that pout was still there on her lips. "I guess I'll go if you didn't want to see me." Disappointment in her tone, she turns around when Jimin doesn't budge and starts to walk towards the door until he speaks again. "Did you wear this outfit for me? It's pretty. You look pretty," he compliments as she turns and gives him a huge smile. "But it's cold outside, didn't you feel cold?" "Well, it was freezing but I wanted to show off my new outfit." She skips to the bed and sits on the edge while looking around at the room. "Don't worry, I'll help you warm up." Jimin walks towards his bed and leans down to attack her lips with his own. A moan leaves her lips right away and it causes Jimin to smirk into the kiss. He cages her body with his arms next to her sides and gently pushes her down and into the mattress. "Get in the middle of the bed and clothes off." He commands as he moves to take his own garments off. The sound of Jungkook yelling is what wakes Jimin up. He opens his eyes slowly to take in the lightened up room, it was already the next day. He must've been exhausted yesterday to have slept right after sex and waking up the next day... especially since he had slept around 7pm last night. His palm comes up to press his temple gently and turns his head to see Miyeon still sleeping there. He turns his body completely so that he was facing her, she always looked extra adorable when sleeping. Miyeon is in the same university as Jimin and they had met at a cafe Jimin goes for his regular coffee or lunch during the day. The food there was good and cheap and it could fill him up and keep him going for a few hours too. He first saw Miyeon when he was in his second year and she was still a freshmen. She looked lost and confused while trying to order in front and Jimin was running late so he suggested his favorite and offered to buy for her too. He didn't have any intentions back then but they had met again after 2 days and that's when they started talking and hanging out more. Miyeon's in the college of Drama, mostly acting and doing or writing plays. It's right across the building of the Literature college. They were just friends since Jimin was busy with a girl or another every time but he knew she had felt something with him too. Jimin resides in one of the famous dormitory in their university along with other guys and he was even the son of a rich family so people always knew who he was and his charming and beautiful looks always stole hearts. He didn't want to drag Miyeon into this but she knew what kind of a guy he is when she had kissed him at a party once he said he's not really "looking for any girl at the moment". It had started off with just a kiss then it turned into a makeout and before things got ahead, Jimin had warned her once more and got another kiss as a response. That was a year ago. Jimin still slept around or flirted here and there. It's not like Jimin and Miyeon were in an exclusive relationship. She had an idea but she never let it show nor had she said anything except for little to no arguments. She was just too nice and innocent for someone like Jimin. Did he ever feel bad for her? Sometimes. But maybe this was his taste. This is what he preferred. It's mean and not exactly a good thing to- He quickly shuts his eyes close to act like he was asleep once she moves as her body comes back to life. He hears her groan and feels her stretch out as her body moves towards his. She leans in and lightly pecks his nose before whispering a good morning to his "sleeping state". He feels his body stiffen at the way she acted. But with his hearing, he could tell she got up the bed and was putting on her clothes probably. Once she leaves the room, he opens his eyes and lets out a sigh. He's an asshole for doing this to her. An asshole for doing this to you too probably. ~(Y/N)'s point of view~ It was almost a week after you and Jimin had met and for some reason, you still wondered more and more about if he'll actually even come to meet again. Every night for the past 6 nights, you would stare at his umbrella that he had handed to you and ponder over him in general. Was he also thinking about you? Or did he forget about all that happened that night? It was around 9pm right now when your thoughts are disturbed with your phone chiming two times, alerting you with your new messages. You frown when there's an unknown number and there's Ailee's message as well. You drop your pen that was hovering over your notebook and grab your phone, opening the unknown messages first. Unknown number [9.17pm]: hey Ailee [9.17pm]: hey You look over at the messages then reply Ailee first with a usual "hi" though you opened the other message first. You [9.18pm]: hi? You send to the unknown sender but before they could even finish what they were saying, you jump as your phone rings abruptly. Ailee. "Hey," you ask with concern since she just seemed weird this way. "Hey, can you come to Jongin's cafe right now... please." She almost whispers, unusual coming from her. "Yeah, sure. Everything okay?" You say, already getting to grab your coat and a cap. "It's Young Do, he's been following me all day and he won't fucking stop... just come there okay? I'm almost there too." You hear the beep of the call ending and run out the door whilst trying to put on the coat in a sad failing attempt. The other number had messaged you but that was in the back of your mind by now since Ailee did sound concerned. Once you reach the cafe six minutes later, Jongin was already in alert and being cautious. You sit at your usual place and wait for Ailee and try to get your breath back while constantly staring at your phone. She needs to get here already, why wasn't she- "Hi," you look up in shock when you hear that voice again. It's Jimin. Why was he here? "Are you alright?" He takes the seat across from you with his eyes wide since that look of concern was too obvious on you. "Uh... Hi," you stutter out in a low voice as he leans towards the table, his arms resting on the table as his fingers intertwine. "Why are yo-" "Ya," you get interrupted as Jongin yells out all of a sudden and that's when you notice Ailee pacing towards you. She pushes Jimin into the bench even more and takes a seat beside him. You eye her worriedly but don't say anything since Jongin beats you to it. "What happened? Did he follow you here too?" "I don't know... oppa, just go back to work please. I don't want to bring attention because that would make him realize it." She whines out as she pushes him away from the table and you stare at the two of them back and forth, wondering how Jongin listened so well today. "What happened?" You ask her once Jongin leaves. "I told him we're done for real this time... that was two days ago," Ailee spurts out as she tries to keep her voice low. "And then I noticed it yesterday that he had been following me. I don't know what he wants but it's damn scary." You could tell how scared she was, it was obvious but it was readable when you see her hands shake. Ailee already had a stalker problem before and if Young Do is doing the same thing, especially after knowing about it... he's an asshole. You try to calm her down, forgetting about Jimin completely even though he was sitting right next to her. Apparently he was a good listener, judging from the way he sat still the whole time and didn't even budge. You listen to Ailee's story while offering her water, even though she had asked for a bottle of soju. It was six to seven minutes later that you four thought Young Do probably gave up but just as you were about to mention it, you see his figure in front of your table. "I need to talk to you," he starts even before introducing or greeting. Not that you wanted to hear anything from him. He sounded like he was demanding her rather than even ask her if she wants to. Reason one of why you despised Young Do. "I don't want to hear anything." Ailee retorts straightforwardly. Even though she was terrified, she still didn't show it completely in front of him. Or maybe because she felt safe with you and Jongin around. Young Do grabs her wrist with force and that causes you and Jimin to react right away. "Hey man, she said she doesn't to talk." Jimin says as he frees Ailee's wrist from his grip and gives Young Do a warning look. "Who's this? You're new sugar daddy?" Young Do snorts and chuckles but Jimin's remain unchanged. You see his jaw clench and the veins in his neck pop out. "Ya, did she seduce you too? She'll run away in the e-" "You really want to continue this here?" Jimin interrupts him with his voice sounding as cold as the wind outside that causes goosebumps and chills to rise up your body. Young Do clenches his fists even before Jimin does anything and you already hope for something to stop them. "What're you going to do? Huh?" Young Do challenges him as a smug look paints both of their faces. "Ailee, can you move please?" Jimin smiles at Ailee and you both know what'll happen if she does move and lets Jimin out. "Jimin-sshi, forget it..." you whisper as your hand grabs his arm. His eyes move away from Young Do and land onto where your hand fisted his sleeves, making you let go hesitantly. You see Young Do's figure stumble back and look up to see Jongin's hand push him aside. "This isn't a place to fight," Jongin steps between Ailee and Young Do, keeping his hand out to keep him at a distant. Young Do challenges Jongin as he smacks his hand away and walks too close to his face. You were starting to get anxious as a lot of attention was beginning to divert towards your group. You close your eyes for a second just to hope this ends well even though it didn't look like it would. "If you want to make a scene, take it outside." "You're the same guy who took her home last time... Aah, I definitely would love to take this outs-" "Stop it you guys," Ailee interrupts right away as she pushes the two of them to give her space to get out. She walks towards the entrance door after telling Young Do that she'll "talk". He follows her after giving the three of a glance and then leaves. "Stay with (Y/N). This bastard could have someone around too." Your eyes widen at his words and you and Jimin share the same confused and shocked look. As you both sit back properly, you keep on turning your heads towards where the other two had left to speak. You were already worried and anxious since Young Do could get a little too violent at times, regardless of who it is he's dealing with. Out of all the guys, Ailee had to choose him. You keep noticing how Jimin's eyes kept on looking towards you over and over again. As if you weren't nervous enough, seeing Jongin run out the door made your body turn cold. Your body reacts immediately even before your brain could comprehend anything and you jolt up and run towards the same direction as Jongin. You hear Jimin telling you to wait or slow down but you couldn't. This seemed way too serious at this point. After taking one turn into an alleyway, you freeze when you see Jongin yelling at Ailee, the two of them arguing and you're about to walk in between when you feel a tight grip on your wrist. "Don't... interfere," Jimin commands as he tries to catch his breath again. "You can't just let those two fight like-" You protest but a small "oh" leaves your mouth when you see Jongin and Ailee shut each other up by pressing their lips together. You and Jimin stand there for a few more seconds until you clear your throat and drag him out by his sleeves silently. The two of you walk back towards the cafe silently but then you give him a brief explanation. "Jongin always had a crush on Ailee. I guess she feels the same way, judging from what happened back there. Guess we should let them be for now," you look over to Jimin who was nodding in understanding at the detail-less explanation. The rest of the walk was beginning to get quiet but then you remembered something. "How did you know I was going to be in the cafe today?" "Ah, I texted you. I thought you came there because I asked you," you frown in confusion but then remember the unknown number and quickly pull out your phone to see the messages you had forgotten about. Unknown number [9.19pm]: it's me, Jimin. how are you? took your number from Jongin hyung. Unknown number [9.20pm]: I'm at the cafe ... I believe we were supposed to meet? You bite your lips at his text as you suddenly remember his remark about being single and it causes you to blush. You clear your throat after saving his number and shoving your phone back into your pocket. "I was so caught up with Ailee and all-" you blurt out, hoping it didn't make him feel insulted or hurt but he cuts you off. "Hey, it's okay. I understand." He smiles at you sweetly and it feels like deja vu as you two reach the cafe once again and he sighs. You look at him and smile softly while looking around. It was getting kind of late and you had to be home by now. "I'm not busy at the moment, I can walk you home." He suggests nicely and you were glad he offered but still try to refuse out of habit. "Ah, it's okay. I can wa-" "You don't have to refuse, I came to meet you so I'll get more time this way." You feel your face getting warm at his comment and thank him silently. "Let's go?" You nod shyly and gesture him to walk in the direction of your apartment. As the two of you walked towards your place, it got better and less awkward between you two as you exchanged random conversations about his classes and his friends that he lives with in the dorm and you told him how you had to show your parents that you'll be fine on your own and moved out the house so you'd be close to your university. And you also had given a brief explanation about the issue of Ailee and Young Do as well so that he could understand more of why today was this serious for you and Ailee. Once you reach your house, he smiles at you before speaking. "I'm glad we got to meet today," he starts off and you already feel sad thinking about when you're going to meet him next time. Maybe if he could stay a little longer... "Oh, your umbrella," you cut in before he says anything else and turn to walk into the house but stop to say something out of your comfort zone, without even thinking. "Uhh... would you, umm... like to come inside?" A smile appears onto his lips and he looks away shyly before following you inside. You tell him to take a seat on the couch while you walk into the kitchen area, voicing out whether he'd like coffee or tea. He refuses for both options and asks you not to do something like that. Typical first guests act. You smile at him and ask him what he'd like and the answer is as plain and cold as the water you hand him a while later to satisfy his request. You didn't know what to do as the nerves in you were starting to build up one by one until they stopped in your throat, making you want to throw up. Even though you and Jimin had gotten along on the way back, this scenario was still awkward as you watch him look around fondly. "Your place is cozy," he compliments after he's done with his inspections. "It shows that a literature major lives here." "Thank you?" You say confusingly, causing Jimin to chuckle. "It's good. My room is like that too, to be honest. You should visit someday." Your eyes widen at the next proposal. Is this how he is always? Before you even speak, he beats you to it. "I should really get going now, thank you for today." You stand up and watch him walk towards the door and then remember why you had actually invited him in the first place. "Ah, wait!" You exclaim out and run infto your bedroom as you grab the umbrella quickly. As you walk towards him and stretch out your arm to hand him his umbrella, he breathes out a silent laugh and it does nothing to calm your thumping heart. You clear your throat before speaking so your voice doesn't let you down by cracking. "Thank you again for this." "My pleasure," he smiles sweetly once again as his eyes almost close because of the smile. You bite the inside of your cheeks to hide the smile that was threatening to appear on your lips too. "I'll see you later then?" "Yeah, sure." ~~ After that night, texts from Jimin had become a daily thing in your life. From good morning and good night texts to talking about each other's days to very, very random topics. The two of you got closer and closer each day, and each of those days, your feelings grew too. You didn't tell anyone about how much you two had talked but you were sure Woosung and Ailee probably noticed since they'd end up sighing every time you smile at your phone. Every day that passed by, you'd find yourself waiting for his texts. And when he won't respond or text, it would affect your mood too much which was starting to scare you. It had been a month since Jimin had visited your place and since Ailee and Jongin's relationship too. You had met Jimin once after that time too but it was more of a coincidence than planned. The two of you were at a comic cafe to relax yourselves from the stress of the midterms and you couldn't find a better way to relax than read comics and so did he. Though you regretted wearing your old, oversized grey hoodie with your black leggings that day. You could've chosen a better outfit at least but he saw you that way and there wasn't anything you could do. You were sitting outside in your campus park with Ailee and Woosung again as you three silently stuffed your mouths with food after a long day. You were on your phone and so was Ailee while Woosung was busy with watching the scenery laid out in front of him of the green campus ground and the students scattered here and there. You were explaining something to a classmate about your project then once you were done, you place your phone on the wooden table. Jimin hadn't texted for almost two days now and you were really, really missing him at this point. The last text you had sent was two days ago too, a text saying: You [11.49pm]: you've seen me in okayish clothes and you've seen me in that traditional hoodie of mine... It was a conversation about how you'd dress in specific places. It was a random topic but it had started when Jimin reminded you how you looked tiny and like a small koala bear in the hoodie you were wearing at the comic cafe. Quite embarrassing if you ask, since that hoodie was really old and it looked like it too. You probably looked homeless... Your phone's vibration pulls you out of your train of thoughts and flashbacks and you pick it up immediately as a smile forms when you open the message. Jimin [10.17am]: and I'd love to see you dressed up too. You [10.18am]: and how is that possible? Jimin [10.18am]: since it's the end of the semester... wanna come to our party? You jump up when Woosung's voice rings in your ear, startling you completely as he makes a comment. "He's got skills..." You look at him confusingly as you try to calm down from the jump scare while Ailee was eyeing you both with even a more confused look. "Stop it," you smack his upper arm lightly as you push him aside to move back into your place and open up your phone again to reply. You [10.20am]: I mean... not a party person but sure? You bite your lower lip as you start to imagine all the little scenarios in your head. He invited you. You. To his party. You weren't exactly the party type of person but if it was someone inviting you, you wouldn't say no right away unless you didn't know the person well. But Jimin... well you kind of knew him and maybe this was one way to know him more. More about the people around him and how he is when he's not looking like the calm before a storm. You wanted to know and see what he's like when he's in a different atmosphere, when he's the one who's hosting and known by others. You wanted to go just because he was there. ~Jimin's point of view~ He sees your message a little while later after he leaves the bathroom and goes back into his room. The guys were planning a party before the finals started in a week and it was normal since they had always done that. Jimin [10.47am]: great. i'll pick you up at 8 then. He smiles to himself as he throws his phone on the bed before walking out to the hallway towards Jungkook's room. "Jungkookie~" he sings out sweetly whilst opening the bedroom door to see the younger one busy on his laptop. He didn't notice that Jimin was there until he saw the reflection on his laptop screen. "Hyung, you could've knocked." He complains as he removes his headsets. "As if you'll hear me if I did... anyways, who's going to be here tonight?" "Jin hyung has dinner with his family so he said he can't and also he said he'll be staying at his home tonight. Hoseok hyung said he'll see when he'll be done with the dance classes. The rest... you know... will be here." Once he's done listing the guys, Jimin nods then pats his shoulder and is about to walk out but stops when Jungkook speaks again. "You're acting weird..." "Sorry?" Jimin looks at his friend with an oblivious look but stops when the younger doesn't buy it. "Ah... the girl I met, (Y/N), i invited her too so I guess I'm nervous." Jungkook scoffs at the last word and shakes his head while he turns back to play his game. Jimin walks down the stairs to prepare something to eat since his stomach had been grumbling for a while now. While he spread the strawberry jam on the bread, his mind wandered to you. What will you wear tonight, how will you look after you actually put on effort in your looks. You already looked attractive and adorable in the casual thing and even in that horrible hoodie of yours. It still looked cute and made Jimin want to see you more and more in any way possible. Maybe inviting you to a party won't be a good idea since there will be people he knows and some don't get along with him. What if they pick fights while you're there? What if his ex... his actual ex is there? He didn't worry too much about the one night stands or the girls he kept around for a while, like the freshmen. But the two people he didn't want there tonight were: Miyeon and his ex. Miyeon wouldn't say much but after a day or two, she'll create a huge argument with him for no reason at all just because he "drank too much" or "flirted with another girl". And he really didn't want to ruin this for you. As for his ex, she was shameless. After all they had gone through, she always had the audacity to come back unexpectedly. Jimin had taken care of it a year ago but he still saw her around at times, saying things like "it's a coincidence" or she'd say "didn't think I'd see you here." Tonight, it was for you. If only, he just wanted to know you more at least then maybe he can take it slow later but tonight, he wants his attention to be for you only. Tonight, it's to start something new. He was about to go upstairs to text Miyeon to make sure she doesn't show up tonight but stops in his tracks when the doorbell rings and Yoongi walks into the kitchen after a while, followed by Miyeon. "I was going to text you just now," Jimin comments when she walks towards him silently. Yoongi didn't bother listening to the conversation as he silently got into making a snack and coffee for himself. "Were you going to invite me?" She asks, voice full of hope. "No, I was gonna tell you not to come." Jimin's words come out as rude as ever, making both Yoongi and Miyeon look at him in surprise but Yoongi knows not to butt in so he gets done with his task quickly and leaves the room before things get serious. He hated being there when people fight and ask for him to back them up... unless it's really needed then he'd step in. "Why? Aren't you guys having a party tonight? Why can't I be the-" "You know why," Jimin finishes up his juice and drops it into the sink before walking out the kitchen. He knew Miyeon was following him into the bedroom so he kept the door open as he walks in and sits on his chair to organize the papers on the desk. "Who are you meeting this time?" Miyeon asks. She knew by now what Jimin does when she's not present at these kind of parties. He would either bring a girl or target one in the place and take things to different levels. Though she usually wouldn't say much to him before, just a few days of ignoring or avoiding after a small argument but this was getting too much that she actually started to get hurt. "Jimin-" "Miyeon-ah," Jimin sighs out in frustration as he spins his chair to face her. "You know you're not supposed to ask me these things." "It's getting too mu-" "Stop. You know what we have between us isn't exclusive. You know that, I know that and maybe everyone around us do too. So stop." He warns her strictly as he gets up to look for one paper that apparently went missing. He didn't want to fight Miyeon, she was just a friend who knew what she put herself in and that's why he never wanted her involved but she still did and he had to make it clear. But to Jimin, it seems like she still can't accept it. He realizes that it probably came out too rudely so he breathes out in frustration again. "Look, i told you before any of this started and you said you can handle it. I would never do that to you but you said it was easy to handle it." "I know you told me not to Jimin but I'm starting to have actual feelings. I already did from long ago but I could control it before... not now," Miyeon confesses weakly as her eyes start to water a little. Jimin feared this. Ever since him and Miyeon started this, whatever this was, he feared this would happen. That she'll catch feelings and it'll be too late to go back. "I told you. Miyeon-ah, I told you. I fucking told you not to do this," his voice rises with each word and it makes her flinch a little. "What was I supposed to do, Jimin? You really think it's easy, do you? What was I supposed to do?" She whines and screams out this time, making the atmosphere even more serious as he runs a hand through his hair. "You should've left! You should've left with no feelings. I told you that you can leave if it gets too mu-" "I love you, Jimin!" This time it's Jimin who gets surprised and stares at her in disbelief. This isn't how it was supposed to be... this wasn't supposed to happen. He breathes out loudly as he runs his hand through his hair again, looking around at anything but her. He couldn't look at her because he knew what he did and that's why he never wanted Miyeon to be involved in these things. But things turned out this way and this was out of his hands. He couldn't see her this way. It was his fault but he had to ruin her more if he had to fix her, if he had to help her escape this. The silence was starting to creep in until Miyeon breaks it by speaking again. "You think I don't know what you go around doing? You think I don't care when I say I don't... or that it doesn't hurt me?" Jimin finally looks at her in the eye and decides to throw in his "discoveries". "Don't act so innocent. You think I don't know that you meet up with other guys... and girls? You think I don't know what you're up to? You're seriously getting unbearable day by day, you know that? Acting like this with me and then claiming this." Jimin scoffs at her expression but before he says anything else, she mutters out something so low that he demands her to repeat. "Say it again. Go on. Say-" "I do that to hide away my feelings towards you or stop whatever this pain is!" "Don't act like I never warned you or told you what THIS is! I made it clear before and you said you can do-" "Well, I can't do this anymore!" The two of them scream at each other back and forth until there's a knock on the door and they both look at the same direction as Yoongi walks in with a cold glare. "That's enough," he says with a calm but demanding tone that manages to shut both of them up. "You two need to relax and talk it out. Not scream out your lungs." As he says that, both the guys' eyes widen when Miyeon bursts out crying and drops on the bed. Jimin looks at her with a pitiful and broken look as tears threaten to leave his eyes too. He looks away and clears his throat to stop himself. It wasn't as easy since he could feel Yoongi's eyes boar holes in Jimin and his ears picking up the sniffles of Miyeon. He really didn't want this to happen. At least not to her. As much as he messed around, he never wanted Miyeon to get hurt since she actually meant something to him. She was someone who he had a soft spot for. She was always pure and innocent, she kind of understood him well and she always did her best when it came to Jimin. There was only one other person who had the same soft spot in his heart before Miyeon... his ex. The girl he hates with all his energy now. The girl he can't stand anymore. The girl who ruined him and he had done the same with her... it was a never ending cycle. Yoongi orders Jungkook, who was standing outside the room with Taehyung, to bring some water for Miyeon from downstairs. He runs down immediately while Taehyung looks at Jimin from behind Yoongi but before the younger could do anything, Yoongi walks in the room and closes the door as he orders Jimin to sit down too. The boy takes a seat at the chair by his desk as his eyes look over at Miyeon, who was done crying in front of them but she still looked like she wanted to cry more. Yoongi hands the tissue box to her and walks towards the door again but he doesn't leave, just leans against it before he sighs out and speaks. "Whatever this is, I have no right to be in this... but I interfered because it sounded like someone had to. This... thing between the two of you, if it was getting this hard. Why did you continue to ruin each other this way?" "Hyung," Jimin starts but stops when there's a knock on the door as Jungkook hands the water to Yoongi that he ordered earlier. "I told her from the start what this is and that she could leave." Jimin says, way more calm than before as he watches Yoongi hand the glass to her and walk back to where he stood. "And it's not my fault that I have these feelings." Miyeon complains after she takes a sip, her voice shaking. Yoongi shakes his head in disappointment and clicks his tongue before his last statement. "This whole situation is wrong. From the start till the end. Now you two decide what you want and do it properly and maturely, yeah? Without trying to make it sound like you want to rip each other's skin out." Jimin looks up at his hyung and then at Miyeon who stands up quickly as she grabs her stuff. "There's nothing to talk about." She adds as she walks towards the door and leaves. Yoongi gives Jimin a death glare before he leaves too while Jimin sighs out in exhaustion with his palms covering his face. After a few seconds, he feels someone walk in and he looks at the doorway to see Taehyung leaning against the doorframe with his arms crossed over his chest. He didn't look happy or proud either. "You've done it now. What makes you think this is a good idea?" "Tae~" Jimin groans as he walks to his bed to lay down for a while and think it through. He avoids looking at his best friend who was still staring but sighs and confronts him again. "I'll talk to her." "It's not that ... and i don't think she would want to listen." "I know, but I'll take care of it." As everyone leaves the room, Jimin finally stares at the ceiling as he lets his thoughts take over and lets his mind wander off to Miyeon and - you.

~(Y/N)'s point of view~ You were done with your makeup and the shower at least one hour later after coming home from your classes. Today was a more relaxed day since one class had gotten canceled so you came home after lunch with Woosung because Ailee had to leave to celebrate her one month anniversary with Jongin. You were really happy for the two... after all the feelings they kept inside and how frustrating it was getting seeing Jongin stare at her lovingly, all by himself, they finally opened up and took the opportunity. You had told her and Woosung about going to Jimin's party and they both had to make lewd jokes about it. As if he'd do anything. What if he wasn't even interested in you that way? You shake your head out of thoughts and get back to getting ready. It was already 7.40pm so that meant Jimin would be here any moment. You had chosen a plain navy blue dress that hugged your upper body nice and tight, showing your curves and the shape of your waist but was less tighter waist down stopping just a bit above your knees. You looked good but you weren't feeling good. Not being used to these type of parties, you didn't know whether you should stick to dresses or just jeans with shirts. You stare at your reflection once you’re done and ponder over what your final decision would be. Was this okay? Should you change it - maybe you should. But as you turn to rummage through your clothes, the ringing of your phone startles you and you freak out when you see Jimin's name on it. He must be downstairs already; you had no time to change or anything so you grab your phone and a small purse before running out the door towards the stairs that led you downstairs to the entrance of the apartment building. Before opening the door to step out, you freeze to take a deep breath and relax your nerves then proceed to open the door to be greeted by Jimin, busy on his phone. As he hears the door open, his head shoots up to look at you and you watch his eyes widen a little. Once you get closer to him, his eyes look you up and down as a smile rests on his lips, making you blush at how he was eyeing you. "Does this look okay?" You ask nervously as you flatten the cloth and smooth it out for no reason. He doesn't respond right away so you try again. "It's a bit overboard, right? I'll change it." As you turn around to run upstairs, Jimin stops you by grabbing your wrist and he smiles contently while shaking his head. "You look really pretty. You don't have to change this." Your heart starts to crash against your chest as your mind only focuses on one thing, his hand around your wrist. You'd do anything to keep it there at this point. He breaks your thoughts when he lets go and speaks. "Let's go then." You clear your throat and walk behind him, watching him open the car door for you while a smile is still painted on his lips. Such a gentleman, you think to yourself while whispering a thank you to him. Once you're on the way to his dorm, you share conversation together and as you get close to his university, Jimin starts to tell you things about tonight so you don't feel uncomfortable. "... and most of the people, we don't even know them well." He laughs at that then his eyebrows raise when he remembers something. "Speaking of that, I'll introduce you to two or three of my friends, so in case you get lost or don't find me just go to one of them. Don't trust anyone else other than them." His tone was calm but really dominating and you smile shyly while you look at him. "You think I don't know how these parties go?" Jimin turns his focus from the road to you then reverts at the road and chuckles when he sees your amused face. "I'm just saying... it's not your college and if you feel uncomfortable or anything then you'll have people you know." He explains softly and your heart melts at how caring he was being and how soothing his tone was, especially at this atmosphere. By the time you reach the dorm, you could see how many people were there already. It was 8.15pm when you arrived and for some reason you did feel uneasy. Jimin was right. You really didn't feel in the right place and it was making you nervous. You feel a hand rest on the small of your back and turn to look at Jimin offer you a sweet smile, making your heart jump and skip a few beats at the contact. He pushes you lightly to make you walk towards the house that had music booming from inside while you look at the few people outside the house and prepare yourself for the inside of this lively place. When Jimin opens up the door, the first thing your senses pick up is the smell of alcohol and the loud music. They really knew how to throw a party. The lights were dim and you saw the colored party lights put here and there. There was even a small Dj corner and a group of people already dancing, you walk past the kitchen and the atmosphere there was a little less crowded and chill as people went to get drinks or food. Overall, the place was crowded with people already and some were drunk already too. It was the typical university party but since you weren't used to these things, you were starting to feel even more uncomfortable. You notice how some girls were eyeing you, maybe because of the fact that they knew you weren't a student here. Or maybe it was Jimin and how he was close to you, pushing away people to give space to you that had people give you stares. You jump up in surprise when he leans towards your ear to say something over the loud environment. "Let's go out to the backyard first." He suggests as his hand grabs your wrist again and he leads the way, making a clear path for you along the way. You were grateful for him at this point. When you two reach the backyard, the energy here was a bit different from inside. Students were playing games like, beer pong or jumping into the pool or just drinking. A group of guys grab your attention when they yell out Jimin's name and he walks towards them. He smiles at them smugly when you reach them and you smile shyly while bowing a little. "Here she is, (Y/N)," Jimin sings out and the 4 boys smile at you sweetly and it doesn't help calm your heart whatsoever. He points at one boy one by one as he says their names. "Okay so this is... Jungkook, Jin hyung, Hoseok hyung, and Taehyung... these are my friends and if you need anything and I'm not around, just let them know okay?" You nod hesitantly and smile at them all again. "Yoongi hyung... where's he?" "He's being the Dj we never asked for since he doesn't approve of all the songs we picked." The boy named Taehyung speaks before taking a sip from his red cup. "Would you like to drink anything?" The Jin dude speaks and you forget how to speak for a minute. He was mesmerizing. The plump lips and those pretty, glistening eyes of his and his blonde hair dropped down and stopping right over his eyebrows. He was just too pretty. He chuckles at your state and shakes his head. "I know, you've never seen anyone this handsome, have you?" You frown at his words confusingly and watch the others laugh as one of them hits Jin lightly. "I'm here if you need anything... we all are." "Thank you," you finally speak up and listen to the others talk about random things. You didn't know Jimin was gone for a while until he came back with two red cups, handing one to you. "I don't know if you want to drink right away so I brought you coke." You feel soft as he says that and smile at him thankfully. The four guys made you relax after a bit more chatting and told you who was the oldest and youngest and also gave you a small brief of what each of them do and major in. It was mostly business but they still did other things that weren't business related. You also found out that Jimin and the rest of them were all super rich kids who were probably the heirs of their fathers or grandfathers' businesses. But the person who caught your attention the most was Hoseok, he was a dancer and also owned an academy that he worked hard for. He was really nice and made you feel nice and comfortable. Telling you stories about one of them or Jimin, making sure you didn't need anything or if you were feeling okay. Jimin kept going and coming every now and then since a lot of people would want to talk to him about their issues but thanks to Taehyung and Hoseok, you didn't feel uncomfortable. Around 10pm, everyone went to have fun in their ways or flirting around. Jimin was with you, leaning against a pillar as the two of you bucked along with the beat of the music lightly. You hadn't drank a lot of alcohol but you were worried if Jimin was starting to get drunk. Or maybe he was just having fun. You were watching Hoseok and Taehyung dancing together until you feel Jimin drag you into the pool of people and he starts to dance too, encouraging you to join him. If you hadn't had some of the drinks from before, you would never agree but the adrenaline in you was begging to be released so you let the music control you. You feel his hands grab your waist and control your movements to sync with his as he gazes at you with his dark eyes and a smug smirk on his lips. Your heart beats harder than it was already beating as you look at his plump, red lips and lick your own before leaning in towards him. He rests his forehead against yours but before any of you could move one more step up, he moves back when Taehyung drags him outside, leaving you to dance alone but eventually you walk into the kitchen to grab something to drink. It was rude to just leave like that but maybe they had a reason since you saw them from the kitchen's window outside on the backyard with serious looks on their face. You bite the inside of his cheek since it was still not right to just leave midway like this. Jimin basically ditched you in the party since you didn't see him after that until you walk through the hallway to see him drunk and flirting with some other girl. Their faces were really close and he had her trapped between him and the wall and she had a small smile on her lips that made you sick and jealous. He also looked like he was too drunk to make sense of anything. You contemplated whether you should go to him or not and you decided to walk away to find someone to hang out with. You spent the rest of the time with Taehyung and Hoseok and they also had you meet Yoongi too. He was pretty - just like all of them. He seemed mature and kind of intimidating with a look of pure disinterest, though he did look like he was having fun when he was controlling the music. You talked or just listened to them talk but your mind was elsewhere. The thought of Jimin with that girl was too much and you couldn't handle that. He invited you here to spend time together yet he left and found someone else to have fun around and that hurt you. You weren't going to wait for him to appear again. This wasn't right to you and sure you just met him and he must be well known here or maybe he had reasons but you weren't going to stay in this party and be sad when he doesn't come. It was almost midnight when you had decided to leave without a word. But once you walk out the house, a familiar voice speaks out, making you turn your head. "Leaving already?" It was Yoongi. He didn't seem drunk or anything. Did he not drink? He was leaning against the wall but pushes himself off it to walk towards you. "Uh... yeah. I'm tired." You reply nonchalantly but don't look at him. "I'll drop you home," Yoongi says and walks towards one of the parked cars outside the garage. "Aren't you drunk? It's illegal to drink and drive." You say that to try and turn down his offer but he wasn't taking no as an answer when he opens the door and sits in so you just sat in the car. You did need a ride home and Jimin said you could trust his friends. "I don't drink a lot and... I didn't drink tonight." He comments when you relax into the seat. The car ride was mostly silent after you had explained your address to Yoongi. He played music but kept the volume really low and kept his gaze on the road. Neither of you say anything but then Yoongi breaks the silence, making you turn your gaze and attention to him. "A right from here?" He asks for reassurance and you nod, whispering a yes. He hums lowly and clears his throat before continuing. "Umm... I apologize for how Jimin acted earlier. He usually doesn't get drunk that quickly." "It's okay," you say and try to continue but he speaks again. "No it's not okay. He shouldn't have done that but... if you're mad then I hope you forgive him. He had a fight with one of his friend in the morning today. She's a close friend and it got serious and she left without resolving so maybe..." Yoongi drifts off and lets his words fade away when he notices you staring at him. "Look. All I'm saying is that, he isn't always like this... he wasn't like this," he rephrases his words and tries to explain as you continue with your stare. You frown at his last sentence and start to ponder at what he really meant but instead of asking about that, you ask a stupid question. "Were they dating?" "What?" Yoongi's eyes widen and he looks at you before turning his focus back on the road. "The friend he fought with... were they dating?" "Uh... no... not that I know of. She's a close friend to all of us so I don't know," he states but you could have sworn you heard his voice shake. The rest of the ride was silent. You were too annoyed and kind of hurt to speak more. Yoongi had dropped you off and drove back to the party after saying that he'll let Jimin know. You only nodded to that then thanked him for the ride home and went inside. All of this, all of this makeup and the worry of the outfit turned out to be useless and for nothing. Of course you weren't looking for something drastic or different to happen but somewhere deep down you wished you did experience something more than just... this. It had been a week since the party. You hadn't met Jimin or talked to him as of that. He did message you the day after the party, apologizing for the most part and saying the same thing as Yoongi had said but then that was it. He disappeared. Again. You figured he likes doing that since he has done that more than once now. The good side of you always ended up with creating excuses for him... maybe he was busy, maybe he had some issues that were personal, maybe he was studying. It could be anything. But something in you always told you to be careful even though you had ignored that voice before. But for some reason, you wanted to meet Jimin, hang out with him, get to know him. You just missed him. And that moment the two of you had shared in the dance area that night, you kept going back to that memory even though it would get ruined by the image of him flirting with another girl. You were in finals week now. Tomorrow was your last exam so you had packed your bag to go to your parents house for a few days after your exam is done. You were currently at work, you requested your manager to let you work earlier so you have time to study later on and not stress over it. Standing behind the register was your task today... it was as boring as ever since not many people were coming in here at this time. You had at least 20 minutes left to go and you were getting exhausted but thankfully your shift was almost over. You were busy flipping pages on your notebook when you hear the shop door open up and a guy walks in with a little girl. You welcome them politely and watch them go through the displayed clothing items. The two were busy talking to your co-worker as she was helping them out with their process and you just stand there, waiting for them to come up with their things. The door opening gets your attention again and you look at the guy that walks in and your heart drops for some reason. He was wearing a black cap and a mask and the only colors you saw on him were the little ends of his pink hair sticking out from beneath his cap and his olive green jacket, other than that he was in full black. His head turns to your direction but then he looks away quickly and walks further into the store. Something in you starts to make you a little uncomfortable. You keep an eye on his figure as a precaution but your attention gets taken away when the first customers come up to the counter. You smile at the father and daughter and explain the process to them if they want to return or exchange after giving them the change. Your eyes skim over the store once they leave and you notice how that guy was staring at you too. The blood flow in you becomes rapid and you suddenly grab your phone without making it obvious... the situation just seemed suspicious. You try to act calm and normal when he approaches the counter and smile at him softly. "Welcome Sir, how can I help you?" You ask as you straighten up. When you see his eyes up close, he just seems familiar but you don't focus on that too much until he pulls down his mask. Your body turns cold right away when he smiles at you sweetly. He stands there with an apologetic look and a sweet smile at the same time. You put on your "tough" face and look away to fiddle with something else. "What is it Jimin?" You ask in a serious tone without looking up again. "I came here to apologize for how I behaved that day at the party. I shouldn't have ditched you or ignor-" "I am at work now Jimin. I can't talk about this here." You watch his expression change in a matter of seconds and it causes your heart to drop even deeper down. Of course you were mad at him and you were going to show it but... you were scared that he'll leave and disappear again if you act cold. "When do you get off work? I'll take you home." You stare at him blankly, disbelief written all over your face. He wasn't asking, he was stating it. You knew you had no time to refuse or argue so you tell him to wait somewhere outside, letting him know that you'll be done soon. Jimin was sitting at the bench near the store you work at. He was busy with his phone when you step outside and he doesn’t notice until you clear your throat to inform him of your presence. He shoves his phone into his pocket and smiles at you. "Did you eat anything? Let's go get something to eat," he suggests but you refuse him quickly. "No... Jimin, I have an exam tomorrow and I need to study for it." He stares at you for a few seconds before speaking. "I do too. But let's eat before I take you home, okay?" You just nod and follow him towards the food court since you knew you had no other options. The two of you ate together and Jimin even apologized a lot for what he had done the last time you had went to the party. From the information you gained by listening to his side was that the girl was someone he had known for a while and she thought he had some sort of feelings towards him. The other thing he had used to his defense was that he was very drunk that night due to some issues he wanted to forget. And that had you remember what that Yoongi guy had told you that night too so you stare at Jimin and nod at him before speaking. “Your friend Yoongi told me that you had a huge fight that day,” you say as you take a sip of your drink. “Yeah, she’s someone I really care about. And when we fought, she stormed out without really talking it out with me.” You were staring at him speak and get lost in your thoughts for bit. Trying to read his expression, you realize later that you were staring too much so you clear your throat and look down at your drink. You knew he was staring at you too but by the time you look back, his eyes were at his plate. “Did you guys make up now?” You ask to make things less awkward and he shakes his head no before continuing. “I texted her to tell her that I want to see her but she ignored it. Seenzoned me.” He chuckles it out and you notice how his smile actually disappeared after he looked down. He must be really sad about it. You stare at him for a bit trying to figure out why did that girl mean so much to him. Yoongi has given you a brief explanation of her being a close friend but you knew there might be something else. Jimin’s expression made it look like it had to be something more. You were about to ask something else but he beats you to it first. “Anyways, when is your final tomorrow?” “Ah... it’s at 10.30am.” He nods at your reply and continues. “So it’s a bit earlier than mine,” you frown at his statement and wait for him to continue. “I was thinking... maybe we can hang out together tomorrow?” Your body turns cold at his words for some reason and you stare at him for a bit, thinking if you wanted to be petty or just be straightforward. “I’m going to visit my parents tomorrow after I’m done...” You tell him and watch him nod in understanding, disappointment written on his face once again. The two of you eat in silence for a while but then Jimin starts conversations little by little and it gets less awkward for you and you forget about the last time you two had went out together. Once you were done, Jimin offers to take you home and you knew he wasn’t taking no as an answer. The car ride was as casual and relaxing as the meal you had with him. He was so different and nice today and you found yourself staring at him often. Everything about him seemed more welcoming this time, his energy and the attention he put on you, it all felt so nice and welcoming. Once you had reached your place, you didn’t get out the car immediately. The two of you stare ahead, neither of you saying anything for a while. You look at Jimin and your body turns cold when you catch him staring at you already. He doesn’t look away even when you catch him staring. The blood rushes to your cheeks quickly and you feel your face turn warm gradually. You clear your throat before speaking. “Umm... thank you for dropping me home, Jimin.” You thank him nicely as your hand tries to unlock the door, making an escape from his gaze. “No problem,” he smiles sweetly. You give him a smile back and turn your head afterwards to look for the darn door handle since your hazy mind wasn’t helping you. Your body freezes when you feel his hand wrap around your free wrist all of a sudden as he says your name in a low voice. You look at him with a confused face and a hint of surprise. “Yes?” You ask when he didn’t continue. “I was thinking... actually, I wanted to ask when you’re going to go to your parents tomorrow.” “Umm... maybe around 3pm I think. I didn’t pack yet so I’ll probably pack tomor-“ “I want to take you there.” Jimin interrupts you and it takes a while for you to comprehend what he had just said. When Jimin realizes the shocked expression on your face, he adds more to it, letting you know that you have a choice. “If that is okay with you.” “It’s okay with me but-“ you say almost suddenly, your mind noting the embarrassment you felt right when you said. Once that embarrassment grows, your words fade away and your eyes find comfort in how his hand was wrapped around your wrist. You fall silent. You didn’t know how long you two had stayed quiet for but it did feel long for you when Jimin finally asked. “But?” His face tilted a bit so he could see your face. When you look at him, your eyes meet for a long time and you could feel your heart beat faster and your pulse run faster too. “My parents... they wouldn’t really...” you were lost in his eyes by this point. The confused error mode you were in made him look at you in amusement as you tried to get words out. “It’d be really nice but it’s just... my parents...” “Well, isn’t it too early for parents to meet me?” You see his lips stretch into a small cheeky smile as your body and mind freeze at his words and you stare at him with wide eyes. He breaks into a small laugh once he realizes you were really shocked by his words. You didn’t comprehend his statement well since your mind was bringing up a lot of reasons and scenarios and possibilities. Jimin must’ve noticed the confusion so he smiled after a while and continued, “I’m just saying I’ll take you there... we don’t have to meet your parents if they won’t be okay with it.” He asks for your answer and you look at him for a while as your mind comes with a proper way. Your mouth opens to reply to him and a smile is dying to stretch your lips while you answer. The next day. You walk out the class after the exam hours are over, Woosung following you after with a exhausted sigh. He wraps his arm around your shoulder and you both share a tired smile. The two of you meet Ailee outside and she gives you guys pats on your backs with a huge smile. “You guys are donee~” she sings out while her hand keeps on smacking your shoulder. “Ugh... I think I got at least 10 questions wrong.” You stare at Woosung in surprise after he talks and while he looks in the distance, focusing on nothing. “Why?” He gives you a sarcastic expression as his eyebrow raises. “I don’t know... maybe I didn’t know it,” his tone was drowning in sarcasm and you smack him to stop his sarcastic attitude. “Well I tried to help you in studying but you’re not even focusing much lately,” you say and watch him walk towards an empty picnic bench. You lightly push him from the back in annoyance and give him a frustrated look. “You’re still not focusing.” Ailee smiles at you and walks in sync with you towards the bench as well. You fish out your phone from your bag and look through the notifications you got, trying to see if that one message came or not. A tiny smile emerges on your lips as you read Jimin’s message that he sent an hour ago saying that he’s still up for it to take you to your parents home. You feel Ailee’s and Woosung’s eyes on you and it makes you look up with a straight face as you clear your throat. You could hear their taunts in your head already and before you could stop them, Woosung suddenly speaks. “What’s so fun on your phone,” he asks but you could tell from his tone that he wasn’t expecting an answer so you wait for him to continue. “Did you pack yet? I haven’t.” “Ah... no not completely,” you say casually. You had to tell him that Jimin was taking you to your parents place this time. You and Woosung lived in the same neighborhood during high school when you both still lived with your parents and your parents were close too. There were a lot of times when he was the one who’d taken you to your parents house whenever you wanted to visit after you moved out for university. You could tell he wasn’t in the best mood today so that was making you nervous. You knew he would feel frustrated after hearing it right now. “Actually...” you open your mouth to speak and see them both stare at you, anticipating your words. It was making you even more nervous and you start to stutter. “Wait,” Ailee interrupts you and looks at you and Woosung back and forth. “You two are going together? What about Jimin?” You look at her in disappointment for bringing this up like that. You told Ailee last night after you went home how Jimin offered to take you to your parents house but you didn’t tell her about Woosung agreeing to take you too. The look on his face was scary enough right now too and it made you ten times more nervous than you already were. You give Ailee a “how dare you” smile with disbelief written all over your face. “What about him?” He asks and you knew you had to say it now before he loses his patience. A tired Woosung was not meant to be messed around with. “The thing is,” you shift in your seat as you speak and move a little close to Woosung even though he was across the table. “He... ummm... he told me he’d take me... to my parents’ place.” You study his expressions, eyebrows frowning in confusion then his eyes shifting and his jaw clenching. He doesn’t say anything so you just ask something. “Are you mad?” “Yes. I am,” the tone of his voice was no joke either and it gave you chills down your spine and you could tell Ailee had felt it too. Before either of you could speak, he continues. “Why is he taking you and why did you even agree to him taking you there?” “Woosung, she likes him. That’s why.” You could tell Ailee was on defensive mode now too and you silently wished these two wouldn’t argue. “Okay. And? (Y/N), you just recently met the guy. Spent a couple days with him only and he even ghosted you a few times. How dumb can you be right now?” You were now annoyed too. Sure, Jimin has ignored you before and it hurt you but he was still responsible enough to own up to his mistake and make it better. “What does it have to do with anything, man?” You ask him in annoyance and frustration. “Look. I know we both agreed to going there together but this is one of the few chances I’ll get to meet Jimin. I don’t want to waste the-“ “You’re not wasting anything but yourself,” he interrupts you quickly. “Excuse me?” You scoff at Woosung’s words and you could tell he kind of regretted it too but that didn’t stop him. “Come on, the dude has fuckboy written all over him. You don’t see it?” “Yeah well you can’t just judge someone. Besides you haven’t even met the guy, you only saw pictures and heard stories,” you retaliate. “And those were enough for me to realize what kind of a dude he is,” Woosung makes his last point and stares at you with an upset expression. Almost as if he was disappointed in you. “You’re so blinded by his looks and his flirtatious manner. You don’t even see why he’s trying so hard.” “Oh wow. Thanks Mr. I Can Read Through People. I really needed to hear that,” you mock him sarcastically. He opens his mouth to argue back but just lets out a defeated sigh and looks away. “I can’t believe you. I’ll see you tomorrow then,” he gets up with a sulky expression and grabs his bag. “Reach home safely you two.” You and Ailee watch him walk away with disbelief painted onto your faces. You were confused to why he was even mad at you for this, it was understandable at some extent but then he was yelling at you for something you wanted to do. This wasn’t like Woosung at all. He words left a tightening feeling in your chest and a lump created in your throat. You were hurt. You give Ailee a confused look and she speaks up, “Don’t worry about it. Just go with Jimin. I’ll talk to Woosung,” she tries to calm you down since it was clear you were now worried and hurt. “You’re not even close to each other to talk about these things,” you leave a remark as you get up as well. “I have to go pack. I’ll see you after a couple days. Have a good break.” “You too,” Ailee smiles back at you and squeezes your hand as a gesture to let you know she’s here. You manage to smile back at her and walk away. By the time you showered, got ready, and packed up your bag, Jimin was out the minute you finished up with everything and pinged his message to your phone. You look back at your apartment to make sure you weren’t forgetting anything for the week that you’re going to spend with your parents. Your parents were usually very strict with you during your high school days and the first year of university. It was Ailee and Woosung that helped you in convincing your parents to let you move out since it was a big hassle to commute for 4 hours back and forth everyday. You couldn’t live with Ailee since her apartment building had no vacancies back then so you choose a place near her and as for Woosung, he lives really close to the campus and there was no way you were going to risk asking your parents if you and him live together, even thought he’s literally the only guy friend you have that your parents are okay with. You two did grow up together and are really close. Your mind reminded you of your argument with Woosung earlier, causing you to take out your phone from your pocket to see if he sent anything. He didn’t. You were very hurt and also worried as your parents might get suspicious to how you got there and using the bus was a big no no to them as well. You couldn’t lie either since your parents and his parents would make a mini gathering welcoming the two of you for the visit. You bite the inside of your cheek as you make your way out of your apartment to go to Jimin. You were happy to spend time with him but this whole Woosung issue was eating you up right now. Jimin looks beautiful, as usual, in his blue jeans and his black turtle neck, sleeves rolled up too. It made your heart jump for some reason and you think to yourself, “how can someone be this good looking in such simple attire?” You must’ve looked concerned since the minute you stand in front of him, his smile disappears and he tilts his head trying to study your expression. “What’s wrong?” He asks you, causing you to feel your blood rush inside you for some reason. You contemplate whether you want to tell him or not because at this very moment, you really needed a hug and Jimin looks welcoming - too welcoming actually. “Oh, umm...” you start off and almost tell him nothing but something in you tells you to be honest about it. “I had a fight with one of my best friend, Woosung. And he stormed off without saying anything.” “Oh. I’m sorry about that,” Jimin replies honestly and you can tell he’s worried about you more than Woosung or the fight. “Are you okay?” He asks as he steps closer to you and you shake your head lightly as you recall the argument. “I just want a hug right now.” You state your want and without thinking, Jimin wraps his arms around you body and pulls you into a hug. Your eyes widen as you were clearly shocked by the sudden contact but you can’t help but take in his warmth and his “manly” scent. He smells very comfortable for some reason somewhat a mix of eucalyptus and spearmint which makes you wraps your arms around his waist as you squish into his warmth and hold. You two stay like this for a minute or so and he pulls back with a smile and takes your mini suitcase with your stuff in it from your side to put it in the car as he opens the door for you. You thank him in a low voice and give him a small smile as you sit in the car and watch him walk over to his side of the car. He sits comfortably and runs his hand through his hair before sighing lightly and looking your way. You look at him too, waiting for him to say something. “You can talk to me about the argument if you want. If it makes you feel any better,” he tells you as he starts lowers the temperature of the air conditioner. You look down at your hands and think about it for a while. He might give you a bad reaction once he finds out why Woosung even stormed off and you were somehow worried. You bring up the courage to tell him but you make it quick and short and after you’re done telling him, you notice a different look on his face and you’re worried you pissed him off. You bite your lower lip as you wait for him to say something. A part of you wishes you hadn’t even agreed to him taking you to your parents house... what were you even thinking. He clears his throat and looks at you with a sweet smile once again and says. “Well, I don’t know what to say to be honest,” he says calmly. “I can understand why your friend would be mad but I’m also glad you made your own choice. And umm...” he pauses for a bit, taking your hand into his and looks at you. You stare at him too and your cheeks turn warm the minute a thought pops into your head. You even forget that he didn’t even finish his sentence. “I’m glad you chose me.” He says with his soft voice as he stares into your eyes. You could feel the blood rushing through your entire body and you could feel him coming close, or was it you leaning towards him. It was silent in the car for a bit and neither of you broke the eye contact until the sudden ringing of Jimin’s phone gives you a jump scare which you laugh it off. Jimin clears his throat and lets go of your hand, making you miss the warmth right away. He runs a hand through his hair and starts the car before answering his phone. He was talking to Taehyung and it sounded like he had to cancel something to be here and it made you feel a bit bad. Jimin tells you it’s nothing to worry about and that he can hang out with his friends any other time too after the call had ended. The car ride was actually really fun. The two of you got to know more about each other. Your hobbies and the friends you have and how many siblings he has. One brother. His friends were a lot but according to him, his circle is the one you had met back then at the party. You told him about Woosung and you talked about how Jongin became close to you and Ailee too. You also found out that Jimin had a very strict father but his mother seemed adorable. He talked about a huge fight that happened between some of his friends too which caused one of them to cut ties with most of them. He didn’t go into details but either way to you, it seemed like Jimin still cared for that Namjoon friend of his. You were all-ears to his stories and it was just natural how the two of you were talking so peacefully and it wasn’t awkward at all. The ride itself was peaceful and really fun. It was a great relaxing moment for you to spend time with Jimin with you two being alone for so long like this. By the time you reached the town, you started to worry how you will tell your parents you got here with Jimin. They might end up killing you for going out with a guy they don’t know anything about. And it won’t work lying that you came with Woosung since you didn’t know if he is still on the way or if he already is there. Your mums would probably have a gathering at night once they see you. You were wondering what to do when a chime comes from your phone, bringing you out of your thoughts. It was from Woosung. “Woosung said to meet him at a bus stop near my house so I think that’s where you should drop me,” you say to Jimin who had his ears perked and his eyebrows raised. He only nodded so you decided to guide him through the streets until you reach the bus stop. Woosung was already there when you reached. He was sitting with a kid and they were both smiling while the mother was on her phone. It somehow made your heart flutter and you ended up smiling too. You turn to thank Jimin and wish him a good vacation but he suddenly suggests that he will drop you both to your houses since it’s be better. You get out the car to greet Woosung who greets you back but his smile drops when he sees Jimin come out the car too. “Thank you for bringing her safely,” Woosung says out of the blue. “We’ll be heading our way now.” “I suggested to (Y/N) that I will drop you both to your homes. It’s across each other anyways.” Jimin says coldly and you already sense the tension between the two. When you saw how Woosung reacted earlier, it was clear that he didn’t like Jimin. But you never realized that Jimin doesn’t fancy your best friend either. Maybe it was because of what happened and that you told Jimin what Woosung said about him that might give Jimin the wrong idea. You were silently panicking inside, trying to figure out what to do now. The two of them were quiet and you felt it, the tension this silence was bringing. Before you could even say anything and before Woosung could reject the offer, Jimin smiles and tells him to get in as he grabs his backpack. Woosung takes it from Jimin’s hand and walks after you. You could tell he wasn’t happy about it but he didn’t argue either. He ends up suggesting that you sit in the back seat for now and you knew it wasn’t going to get you anywhere if you disagree right now so you silently obliged to his suggestion. You saw Jimin’s “fake” smile and the small frown his eyebrows were falling into but he didn’t say anything. The three of you buckle up and the car starts to move towards your street. Looking out, you end up remembering the memories you had here when you used to live here. The times you and Woosung would walk home from the bus stop and the shops you’d stop by at to get snacks. Those were some great times in your mind and you hoped they were great times in his mind too. He was a really special friend of yours and you didn’t want to think of life without him in it. Woosung’s voice brings you out of your memory lane and you look at the back of his head as he tries to converse with Jimin. “I didn’t think you’d be a guy with pink hair,” he jokes sarcastically and Jimin lets out a small snicker and chuckle before answering. “I just wanted to try something new,” he says softly while his eyes were on the road. Your heart flutters at his voice for some reason and you sit and stare at him in awe with how gentle he seems and how good he looks doing the most minimal things. “I see,” Woosung says, making you come out of your thoughts. “I have always wanted to dye my hair light red or burgundy red.” “Oh really? You should,” Jimin adds, “but I hope you choose well because not everyone can pull off colors like that.” And you could see the way Woosung scoffs and speaks. “Yeah, I know.” You didn’t understand whether they were genuinely having a conversation or were they subtly throwing shade at one another. Either way, you were being completely ignored even after you tell Jimin to take the upcoming turn which he misses. The two of them were just “talking” and the car passed the turn and you just sit and wait for them to stop. “Umm guys,” you say after they both become quiet. “Yeah?” They say in unison. “We passed the turn,” you tell them and Jimin lets out a small “oops” then Woosung asks why you didn’t mention before and you scoff at him. “You were sitting in the front!! You should’ve seen it tooo,” you complain. “Plus you two were so busy talking that when I did say it, I got ignored.” “My apologies,” Jimin says in his calm voice as he turns the car to take a u-turn. “I was so engrossed talking to my new friend.” He adds and you could tell the sarcasm in his tone. “Why, me too,” Woosung retaliates sarcastically with a smile that you just couldn’t figure out. You could tell the atmosphere wasn’t good and you sat and beat yourself up in your head for thinking it’d be a good idea for the three of you to be in one place. Especially on this specific day. You were relieved when Jimin stopped his car two houses away from your house since you didn’t have to worry about what will happen of these two spent two more minutes around each other. Woosung was getting the bags out and Jimin just stood there smiling at you while you smiled back at him. You thank Jimin for bringing you here safely and ask him what will he do now. “Well,” he says while looking around. “I saw a motel around here so I will stay the night there and drive back tomorrow.” “That’s good. I should text you the good places in the town then!” You exclaim rather excitedly and it causes Jimin to smile at you. The kind of smile that makes your stomach melt and your heart skip beats. The kind that gets you lost in those few seconds making it feel like a long time had passed. “Yes, thank you for dropping us,” Woosung interrupts and clears his throat. He lightly pushes you forward to keep you walking and reminds you where you were. He turns and thanks Jimin for bringing you safely too and you smile at how his nice side is always there no matter what. He starts to walk towards you but then turns around and says something to Jimin and they both nod. Unfortunately, you couldn’t hear the words that were exchanged that moment but they seemed less tense then so you guessed it’d be a good thing. Once Woosung comes up to you and gestures you to keep walking, you decide to ask him what it was that him and Jimin said but he just shook his head and said “nothing special”. The rest of the evening was pretty much the same as always when you and Woosung would visit your homes during break. His house was just on the opposite side of your house so his family would bring in food to your house or yours would go over to their house. Today, it was your family that were hosting. Dinner was good as always. Your father was a chef and his food and cooking were just delightful and homely. Everyone was talking and chatting about each other or asking you and Woosung of life in the city. You were relaxed when no one asked how you got here because had someone mentioned it, you knew you’d get nervous. Your parents never really approved of you meeting up with guys they didn’t know. Or any guy as a matter of fact. But Woosung had always been an exception. Sure in the first years of your friendship, there were many incidents that must’ve been hell for Woosung but with time, your parents just seemed much more relaxed when they knew he was around. After everyone had settled and eaten, everyone was busy with their own thing. Your parents’ were drinking wine and talking about God knows what and you decided to walk out to the back yard. You were actually thinking of Jimin and if he got to a hotel safely and if he ate or not. You were wondering about him when you hear the back door slide open and Woosung smiles as he joins you sitting on the porch. There was an awkward silence since you two hadn’t talked about what happened earlier at the university today. You still didn’t know why Woosung reacted the way he did. He seems like he’s feeling better right now but you really weren’t sure at this moment. This was the first time he snapped and reacted this way towards a guy who was talking to you. To be honest, you were quite taken back and confused by it but of course he has his reasons so you wait until he feels comfortable enough to tell you. Which by the looks of the vibes meant that he was going to say something, maybe he didn’t know how to start or what to say. “Is everything okay?” You ask, deciding to help him form words and start the conversation he so desperately wants to have. “Oh - uh - yeah,” Woosung stutters and clears his throat. “It’s just... I wanted to apologize about how I behaved earlier.” He wasn’t looking at you but at the grass and the wooden steps that you two were seated on. “Earlier as in?” You ask trying to clear out which earlier he meant. Did he mean the morning at your campus or when him and Jimin were sharing the sarcastic and unpleasant remarks back and forth? You wait for him to reply but he seems like he was really having a hard time getting his thoughts right. You had never seen Woosung this way before and it made you wonder if he really was alright or not. “Woosung?” You add, genuinely worried now with how he seemed. The puzzled and confused expression he had and the uneasy and uncertain look in his brown eyes was not something you were used to. Despite knowing each other for so long, this was the first time he seemed the way he seemed tonight. He looks at you and smiles softly before continuing. “The things I said earlier about Jimin and you back at uni,” he starts. “And also how I got mad at you.” “It’s okay,” you reply but he interrupts quickly. “No, it’s not. I shouldn’t have said the things I said. Yes that’s what my opinion still is but I’m sure you know how to handle your life and I shouldn’t have interfered with your life like that.” You frown at his words, not really knowing how to react or say to that. He still seems like he doesn’t fancy you being around Jimin and just couldn’t understand his quick judgment. Usually he would try to hang out and talk about it with you but why was he so annoyed at Jimin specifically, you had no idea. Woosung looks at you and smiles once again before saying. “I’m just worried about you.” And with that, he gets up and walks back into the house. You sit there bewildered with his energy and his words, wondering what was going on with him for him to behave this way. Yes he is awkward at many cases and he sometimes finds it hard to express how he feels and all. But this just overall seems like a whole different scenario to you. This wasn’t how you’d usually expect Woosung to act like. Was he still mad at you? Were you supposed to apologize to him too? You didn’t even know. A ping from your phone pulls you out of your thoughts and a smile forms on your face when you see Jimin’s name. He had texted to ask you if you ate and you two sent texts back and forth until it was time to sleep. By 11pm, your parents had already fallen into their sleep and you were still awake. Jimin texted you after a while suddenly and his text made you blush but also nervously excited. Jimin [11.15pm]: Can we meet now for a bit? You weren’t sure why he wanted to meet so suddenly but you sure didn’t mind at all. Your parents wouldn’t mind you leaving the house either since you would usually walk out the house or go for a walk whenever you visited so it wasn’t something abnormal. But you had to make sure they don’t know about Jimin and you had to make sure no one in the neighborhood or town would see you two together. There was a hiking track near your neighborhood and you decide that’s where you and Jimin could go. It would probably be empty... plus there was a spot you had which had the view of the town from there. You text Jimin back and ask him to stop next to the house he stopped at before while you go and put on some tights and a hoodie since it’d probably be breezy out. Your heart skips a beat when you see his reply that he had sent right away after you suggest where he should stop. Jimin [11.20pm]: already been waiting there *wink* How long had he been there? You smile sheepishly and tell him you’re walking towards there now. You spot his car and notice his eyes on you as there was a smile plastered on his face too. He sings out a sweet hello when you sit in the car and leans in for a hug. You were taken back by the hug but you hug back with just as much enthusiasm as he was hugging you. He smelled really nice too. His hug was cozy and warm and you could tell your heart will yearn for this comfort in the future too. Once the hug was broken, you see how he had his hair slicked back and wow did he look stunning. Your mind wished he’d kiss you and you instantly blush at the thought and look ahead, clearing your throat. He asks you where you should go and you suggest the “secret” place and he chuckles lightly at your choice of word and lets out an “oooh” teasingly. Looking in the back of the car, you notice he already had got some drinks and snacks as well which causes relief in your mind that you won’t have to go through the town and risk being seen with Jimin. Once you reach the spot, Jimin turns off the car and reaches back to grab the bag of snacks and drinks which makes you notice his features close up and the shape of his neck and jawline. Your mind was busy coming up with sinister thoughts that were too inappropriate for younger ones. Jimin smirks lightly and it causes you to blush and look away quickly. He probably knows what you were thinking about judging from his cocky smile. When the two of you close the car doors, you finally remember the peace this place brought you. The cool breeze and the distant noises of people or critters. The way the night wrapped the town and the way the stars shine. It always brought you a kind of peace you never found anywhere else. This specific spot right here held so many memories as well and it was a place to unwind and release all the thoughts or stress too. You just loved it here. You watch Jimin walk towards the edge of the cliff and he looks around in awe, his eyes sparkling at the sight and he breathes out a “wow”, barely a whisper but you could hear it. A smile forms at his reaction and you walk next to him putting your hands in your pocket and speak. “It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” You ask and he nods silently. “Very,” Jimin adds while his head turns to look up at the stars. “I see the Big Dipper from here too!” He suddenly exclaims excitedly, pointing towards the sky and you laugh out while agreeing with his excitement. “Wow, I like this secret spot of yours.” He adds after a while. The two of you were quiet at first when you decided to sit on a long flat rock. You shared snacks and you drank cola while Jimin was drinking a can of beer. He loved beer apparently. He said it helps him relax after a long day to set his mind loose and ease himself. Out of the blue, you just suddenly started talking about your memories here. Memories from highschool, the day you first met Woosung and how the two of you got close. Your memories together and your friends. You opened up about your parents and how they are strict and how you can’t really confide in them when you have a hard time in life. Jimin listened throughout the entire time. He actually sat there and genuinely listened. Only speaking when he felt like he needed to make remarks or he’d laugh at a memory that was funny or cute. Unknowingly, you two got closer to each other as the night grew deeper and cooler. Jimin was only 2 inches away and he was leaning on one of his stretched arm which was stationed behind you while you were feeling cozy close to him. You were so busy talking and enjoying the view and time that when you turn to look at Jimin while laughing at a memory, you notice how his eyes were on you. His eyes were studying your features and he seemed determined to achiever what his mind was telling him. Your smile slowly fades away as you make eye contact and then your eyes fall to his plump lips and you feel him getting close... or maybe you were getting close to him. Your mind and body completely alert and nervous about what was going to happen. Nervous about all the thoughts you had, all the wishes and hopes you had to interact with him. Your eyes close the second your lips graze against each other.

______________________________________________________

Hope you all liked this! Part 2 will be coming out too!!

Leave a comment or ask or feedback! I will appreciate it :)

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teamhappyme · 3 years

Text

a series of promising events (4/5)

aaron hotchner x female!reader

word count: 6.7k

a/n: happy new year!! we’ve made it to part 4! this part differs from the 3 previous ones, as it takes place all in one (and a half) days. But there are flashbacks, represented with italics. if anything is confusing with the timeline, or anything else is confusing you in general, please let me know! my brain is a weird place and does not connect the dots when i post for a public audience. i hope you guys enjoy this part, it was really fun for me to write!

get ready, let’s go friends!

here are the links to part 1, part 2, & part 3

****

October 2012

“Some people care too much. I think it’s called love.” - Winnie the Pooh

You’re known for your predictability. Yes, you’re overly kind, extremely perceptive, and a little bit of a literary genius. But those closest to you knew the predictability of your life.

You craved routine. You woke up at 5:30 every morning, had breakfast, watched the news, and caught up on some domestic things before heading into the office. You stopped at the same bagel cart every morning, an Asiago bagel with butter for you and a coffee for Spencer. Monday’s, you treated the whole team. You got to work at 7:12, second only to Hotch.

The team knew how you would react to every case. Missing or dead children would cause you to go silent, families being the target would choke you up, and anything including a scumbag with a signature kill made you nauseous.

So it was safe to say they were more than surprised to find out that you’d left for a month long european holiday, from an email, with Strauss cc'd on it. The team couldn’t remember the last time you went on vacation, because you hadn't gone further than two hours in one day.

In your travels through Europe, you stopped in countries that you’d only dreamt about visiting in your dreams. You saw Nyhavn, Denmark, the colorful canal right outside of Copenhagen. Hopped through Warsaw and Gdansk in Poland, before being silenced by your tour of Auschwitz. Next was France, the country you always said you would flee to once you aged out of the system. Besides hitting all the touristy attractions in Paris, you traveled through the alps, and made sure you stopped to see Giverny, the little village that inspired Claude Monet and his water lily paintings. The last true destination was Spain, jumping at the chance to flex your spanish minor muscles. You roamed Barcelona and Madrid, feeling a little like the Cheetah Girls as you stood in front of La Sagrada Familia.

The more you travelled, the more you’d thought about quitting. Thought about sending your resignation to Strauss through an email, leave your desk full of the mementos and picture frames, and continue falling in love with the continent you’d never been to before.

But then you made your final stop in London, to the sister who you missed immensely, and lost the nerve entirely.

“You’ll regret leaving them for the rest of your life,” Emily said to you, and you wondered for a second if she was projecting her decisions onto you.

“They don’t deserve me.” You’d mumbled out, just loud enough for her to hear. “I can’t continue on like this.”

You’d given the team everything you had for seven and a half years. The job demanded personal sacrifices you never thought you’d be capable of, until you met the people who signed on for this before you. The people who shared the same commitment to helping others, the responsibility to improve the world around them before the one that housed them. It was the first time you felt at home in your quarter century existence.

But the work never seized. The jet began to feel more like home than your apartment, hotel beds provided more comfort than your own pillow covered mattress. And no matter how many people you saved, no amount of gratification from loved ones could quell the loneliness building back inside you.

So you listened to Emily, and came back to the states on your original return flight, October 23, 2012. You returned to the real world in less than seventy-two hours and promised Garcia you would brush up on the next case before debriefing on Monday morning.

You were betting on the fact that the team wasn’t lingering around the office, considering it was seven thirty on a friday night as you headed up in the elevator, fresh off your flight from the UK. The last thing you wanted was someone to corner you, when all you wanted to do was sleep off the lingering memories of your last night here.

The glass doors leading into the BAU gave you a view of the bullpen; empty. Opening the door, you walked over to your desk, quickly glancing around the other spaces to see if anything had changed. It hadn’t.

Grabbing the files Garcia left on your desk and your car keys from the drawer, you tidied up the space the tiniest bit. You made sure everything was squared off to your monitor, updating the days passed on your desk calendar. You wrote a reminder on a yellow sticky to thank Reid for watering your small desk plant and stuck it to the screen for Monday. Everything looked like it was in its place, until you saw a blue stress ball sitting on your chair. Your head whipped up to the office at the top of the stairs, but the lights were off and the door shut. He wasn’t here.

But you could feel the stare of his eyes from four weeks ago on you just the same.

You guys were working a local case in the District.

The unsub had murdered three men, each with one shot to the head execution style. There were no signs of torture, and all three men were found with their eyes closed and arms crossed over their torsos; signs of remorse.

It took the team thirty hours to stick the profile and find the woman responsible. Her name was Kathryn Downey, a forty two year old mother of three, with a law degree that hadn’t been used in fifteen years. After digging into the victims personal lives and her own, the motive and stressor became clear to everyone; her husband had cheated on her.

You found Kathryn with a gun pointed to her husband’s head, his hands and feet duct taped, and a strip around his mouth keeping him silent.

Her hands were shaking, and you knew from the second you saw her that she didn’t want to kill him. She was angry, and full of rage, but she wouldn’t be able to follow through with this.

As long as you use the right language.

“Kathryn, put the gun down, we’re with the FBI.” Hotch started in a calm voice, but she shook her head, hands shaking faster.

“No. I have to do this. He,” She took a breath, pushing the hair out of her face with her free hand. “He has to pay.”

You glanced at Aaron before taking a step closer, slowly lowering your weapon. She needed to feel safe, and she needed to feel like an equal.

“Kathryn, my name is y/n l/n. I’m with the Behavioral Analysis Unit from the FBI. I really want to help you through this situation, so I’m going to put my gun down, alright?” You slowly lowered the gun to the ground, kicking it back gently to Hotch.

“Now Kathryn, I know your children are here. I don’t want anything to happen to them, and I know you don’t either, so could you tell me where they are so we can help them?”

“In the basement, I locked them in the basement. I didn’t want them to,” She let the thought end, not wanting to manifest it into the universe. She didn’t want them to see their mother kill their father.

Hotch spoke gently into the comms, getting Morgan and Rossi down to the kids.

“Kathryn, I want to know why we’re here in this situation. I’ve read the file, I profiled you and your family, but I want to know your side of the story. Why are you holding a gun to your husbands head?”

Her eyes widened in the slightest, and you were sure it was from the empathy in your voice. But this was your specialty, and you were determined to talk this woman down.

“He cheated on me,” She whispered, and for a split second, you thought this was going to be easy. But then she pressed the gun harder into his head, and let out a low laugh. “After everything I’ve done for this family, for him, he just takes his pants off for another woman?”

You heard the safety click off, and Hotch’s own in return. Please do not end in a shootout.

“Kathryn, don’t look at him. Don’t think about him kneeling in front of you. Just focus on me. Tell me how you got to this moment right now.”

“How did I get to this moment? I got here by following around this sad excuse for a man for the last twenty years. Like a moth to a flame, I couldn’t escape this life of mine.” Her eyes started to water, and you internally sighed. You were getting somewhere. “I have a law degree, you know. Fifth in my class at Columbia, and I only used it for a year. And it was in sleazy corporate law. Because I got married, and I got pregnant, and Sean wanted someone to stay home with the kids.

“I went from the intelligent corporate attorney with her eyes set on the attorney general’s office, to a cliche housewife who spends her days cleaning and dotting on her husband and kids. I never wanted to be this woman,” She closed her eyes, letting the tears fall down her face freely. She looked so young in this vulnerable state, too young to have three children. Yet she looked so tired, and so defeated. “I gave up everything for this family. I gave up my career, friends, bucket list dreams, and a life that was waiting to be lived, for this man. I cater to his every need, I listen to him drone on about work, assure him when he’s feeling anxious, and give in when he needs a release. I am my children’s rock; when they need a shoulder to cry on I’m there in a second. They need help with their math homework, I’m the number one girl. But when it’s my turn to fall apart, when it’s my turn to be lifted up and supported, nobody is there for me. And he should be able to be there for me.”

If you hadn’t undergone intense training at Quantico, you would’ve been in tears by now. You empathized with this woman more than you should, and you were trying so desperately to help her out of this situation. So you continued to dig your fingernails into your palms, and spoke again.

“I know what you’re feeling, Kathryn.”

“You don’t know what I’m feeling!” Wrong move. She ripped the gun away from her husband and fixed the trigger on you. Hotch moved so that he was only one step behind you, trying to get her to lower the gun. “You have no idea what this is like!”

“I do, Kathryn. I promise you I do. I may not be a wife, or a mother, but I know what it’s like to give yourself completely to a person. I know what it’s like to hold onto the stress and fears of the people you love. I understand, because I’m this person too.

“People like you and me, we feel the need to be the emotional support for everyone we love. We never want to see them struggle, and we never want to see them in pain. So, we listen. We overcompensate to make them feel better, and we check in regularly to make sure they’re okay. Our happiness, as strange and sad as it may be, is directly linked to theirs. We can’t be happy unless they’re happy. But once they come out of their depression, once they thank us for being the light in their lives, they walk away, and take the happy rainbow with them. And they don’t leave any for us.” Tears continued to fall down her face, but you needed to go further. She was going to break if you kept going. “Kathryn, I was in your position not long ago. I remember what it feels like when you realize that the love you have for someone won’t be reciprocated. That after everything you’ve done for them, all the small moments that you succeeded in taking their grief away and bringing happiness back into their life, they still don’t appreciate you. And it’s heartbreaking.

“But I’m standing across from you today, on the other side of that pain, trying to tell you that it gets better. It doesn’t go away, but it gets a hell of a lot better, Kathryn. So please, do not let this one moment that you couldn’t take the pain away ruin all the times you did.”

You expected the tears. You expected an emotional end to this situation. You didn’t expect Kathryn Downey to drop her gun in the middle of the room, and collapse onto you. But that’s exactly what she did. And instead of letting go to untie her husband, instead of joining Hotch in cuffing her, you held her for a minute. You held her breaking heart in your hands, and tried your hardest to take away all her fears and pain for once in her life.

After a minute, you pulled away and grabbed a hold of her upper arm. She gave you a slight nod, knowing this is what was always going to happen. You led her down the stairs and into the back of a squad car, as Aaron helped the husband to his children once outside of the house.

You were leaning against the suburban that you came in, watching as the team debriefed with the local pd before being dismissed. But amongst the chaos, Hotch found your eyes, and gave you a knowing look. One that meant you were going to talk through the very personal negotiation you gave.

The team arrived back at the office just shy of ten o’clock, Penelope waiting for Derek at the elevator. He wrapped an arm around her shoulder as you led the gang into the bullpen, everyone dropping their go bags at their desks.

You lingered for a moment as Hotch made his way up to his office, knowing you’d be joining him in a few seconds. You grabbed your blue stress ball, complimentary from the C.A.L.M. department meeting, as through the curtains you could see him drop his bag before checking his phone for any messages from Jack.

“L/n,” Here it comes. “Can I talk to you in my office please?”

You and Spencer shared a look, and he gave you a comforting smile in return. You took the steps two at a time to his office, and shut the door behind you once you arrived. He was standing behind his desk, so you didn’t feel the need to sit yourself.

You waited for him to speak, since he was the one that called you in. It was a little childish, but you weren’t the one who wanted the discussion.

“I want to talk about the negotiation.”

“I thought it was pretty successful. I empathised, I got her to drop her weapon, and no one was injured in the process.”

“Y/n, you know that’s not what I meant.” He uncrossed his arms, letting out a sigh. The two of you were too exhausted to have this conversation, but that wasn’t going to stop Hotch from going on. “I told you that you could lean on me when it all became too much.”

“That was six years ago, Hotch.” Defensive, but not rude. A fine line. “And this wasn’t about work, this was personal. You’re not obligated to listen to our personal issues that take place outside the office.”

“And you are?” Stop spinning my words, Hotchner. “I know you, y/n. This isn’t just something that can be brushed back under the rug.” You scoffed. “You don’t know me.”

“Excuse me?”

“You don’t know me, Hotch. None of you do. You know my file. You know that I got a full ride to Bowdoin, that I was a social worker before transferring here, and that most of my life before eighteen was sealed away. I confided in you six years ago about my childhood and now you think you know me?”

“Why are you getting so defensive?”

“I’m not-” You paused, knowing that if you finished that statement it would, in fact, be defensive. “I’m just really tired and I don’t want to be having this conversation right now.”

“It’s not healthy for you to keep everything in while people spill their lives to you. And you know that.”

“Hotch,” You warned, your exhaustion quickly turning into rage.

“What, you really think I’m just going to drop this after hearing you confess to a serial killer that you have no joy in your life? And now you’re going to try and convince me that I don’t know anything about you? Bullshit, y/n. I know that you talk to your foster siblings every sunday to check in and make sure they’re all doing okay. I know that you volunteer with Garcia to help the families of victims cope with their loss. I know that you cling to Spencer like gum wherever you go to make him feel less insecure in a bar.”

“Stop it,”

“I know that your favorite color is purple, that you still write articles for CNN and The Times under a pseudonym. And I know, more than anything in the world, you want to be the mother that you never got to have.”

“Stop it!” You threw the blue ball into his builtins, hitting one of his stupid administrative awards in the process. He didn’t even flinch. “You don’t get to know me like that.”

“Why not?” You let out a low laugh as tears started to fill in your eyes. He was oblivious, and that's what made it hurt even more. You cracked your knuckles for a few seconds, waiting for him to connect the words you spoke at the Downey house and your frustration with him in this moment.

But his face softened, the wrinkles disappeared from his forehead, and you knew he figured it out. He didn’t need to say the words for you to know exactly what was going through his head. But he was with Beth, and you were not going to interfere. This wouldn’t change anything.

“It’s late, I should head home. I’ll get you my report before monday.”

You left his office without saying goodnight, and you tried to ignore the rest of your team huddled around Morgan’s desk, pretending not to be eavesdropping. But they totally were.

Instead you grabbed your bags, giving Spencer a reassuring smile as his gaze lingered on you for a second longer. You had no intentions of turning around to see Hotch’s face. But if you had, you would’ve seen the same heartbroken expression across his face, realizing he let you walk away.

You tore your eyes away from the office, not wanting to relive the memory any longer. You stashed the stress ball under your monitor before turning out the light, and making your way back to the elevator.

Once you were settled back in your apartment, you sent a text to Reid and JJ, letting them know you got in okay and that you’d see them at the office on Monday. After getting a thumbs up and a ‘glad you’re home’ in response, you turned in for the night, trying to dream of nights in Paris and Barcelona instead of at the BAU.

---

It was hard for you to get back in the routine of consulting and profiling. Garcia had left you copies of three cases the team was going to be working on when you returned, and you’d barely worked through the first one in two hours.

Three teenagers went missing from their small town in Idaho, and all were found in Seattle in the same week. Of course, your first case back included kids.

You resorted to calling Spencer when you really had no idea where to begin. You felt like a rookie all over again, asking for help when creating a geographical profile or running new negotiation tactics. But your best friend was quick to help, assuring you that once you got back to the office, you’d fall back into the routine.

“Did you have a good time?” He finally asked, albeit apprehensively. You didn’t leave on the best terms with anyone, and they all seemed to know what pushed you over the edge.

“I did. It’s amazing to know that there is a whole other world out there that we don’t even know about. It’s so different over there, Spence. It’s peaceful, and beautiful, and everything the place you call home should be.”

You could hear the intake of breath over the line. “Does that mean you’re moving to Spain?” A smile crossed your lips just thinking about Barcelona. But, it wasn’t home.

“This is my home, Spencer. I’m not leaving anytime soon.” You left out the part about contemplating a new life for the better part of three weeks, knowing it would only cause him more paranoia. You were staying in Quantico, continuing what you were born to do.

After drafting a rough profile and reviewing family statements, you took a break from the paperwork staring back at you all morning.

You made your way into the kitchen to find something for lunch, the afternoon approaching quick. All you really wanted to do was crash on the couch and watch old movies for hours, until monday morning inevitably rolled around. Selfishly you wanted your vacation to last forever. But your mind, and your bank account, thought differently.

After consuming a sandwich and some chips, you brought back the fresh mug of hot chocolate to the kitchen table, ready to take on the second file. Two women raped, tortured, and murdered outside of Miami. Why the fuck did it always have to be Florida.

Halfway through the family statements, there was a knock at your door. You grabbed your gun from the side table, just in case. Only three people had a key to your apartment. One of them was in England, one you just got off the phone with, and one… you didn’t exactly know where you stood with him.

After checking the peephole and seeing Hotch on the other side, you let out a sigh of relief. No one is coming to muder you. But it was quickly replaced with the memories of your last encounter, and the unspoken realization of feelings unrequited.

You placed your gun back on the table, and unlocked the door for him. He was wearing a navy blue quarter zip, jeans, and sneakers, the ultimate Aaron Hotchner not on duty look. It made your heart beat just a little faster noticing his hair was free of any gel, flopping naturally as he walked.

“Hi,” You greeted him, half of you hidden behind your front door.

A shadow of a smile crossed his lips, and he placed his hands in his pockets. “Hi. I’m sorry for stopping by unannounced. I know you must be tired and getting ready for Monday.”

“No, it’s okay. Did you want to come in?” You opened the door a little more, stepping out to show your sweatpants and sweatshirt look from behind the door.

“Thank you.” He murmured as he walked through the entrance, moving to take off his shoes. You told him a million times that you didn’t follow that rule, and that you hated it when people made their guests remove their shoes. But he told you once that it was a sign of comfort, that he felt at ease in someone else's home.

“Can I get you something to drink? I have some tea bags left over I think, or I can make you a cup of coffee.”

“No, I’m okay.”

“Are you sure? It’ll only take a second. Oh, are you hungry? I still have some sealed crackers from before I left, might have something in the freezer if-”

“Y/n,” He interrupted you and you stopped in the middle of your path to the kitchen. “I’m fine.”

“Okay,” You nodded, making your way back to the living room. “Oh, I um, got something for Jack while I was in England with Emily. I know it’ll probably keep him holed up in his room for a week, but I couldn’t resist.”

You pulled out the bag of souvenirs you got for the team, grabbing the London attractions lego set you bought for the young boy. Aaron smiled when you handed it to him, knowing the two of them would no doubt be starting this when he got home.

“You didn’t have to get this for him. But he’s gonna love it.”

“I know.” You reached in the bag once more, pulling out the gift you got for Aaron. “And I know you’ll probably never wear this, but I had to get it for you.”

He opened the box, a british flag tie on the inside. He couldn’t help the laugh that escaped his lips, the tacky gift really meaning a lot to him. “Thank you. I can honestly say this is the most unique gift I’ve ever received.”

“Glad to hear it.” You tucked your foot underneath you as you settled onto the couch, letting Aaron set the gifts aside. You knew what conversation was coming next, but you didn’t have the courage to start it. Especially since he was the one to come to you.

He settled in on the couch, a cushion between the two of you, a clear boundary that he’d set.

“Did you enjoy your time over there?”

“I had a really great time. I can’t believe I’d gone thirty two years without leaving the country. You don’t realize how much of the world there is to see until you go and uncover a small fraction of it.”

He smiled while beginning to pick at his fingernails. This was a new tell of his, he was usually extremely reserved with his anxiety. “You sound like Emily.”

“I’m going to take that as a complement.” You said with a small laugh, adoring the woman across the ocean.

“It is. She called me a few days ago, told me you guys had a nice visit.”

“We did. Prentiss knows how to have a good time no matter the city. It was a little too much for me, though.”

“Nobody can quite keep up with Emily.” He added before letting out a breath.

“She also told me that you were contemplating leaving the BAU.” There goes the first shoe, dropping from the ceiling. “Are you still thinking of quitting?”

“No.” It was the truth. Em had spoken some sense into you, and you knew deep down, like you told Spencer, this was your home. “I just needed a break from everything. And Europe was an amazing distraction. But I’m back, and ready to get back into the swing of things.”

He nodded, some tension slowly released from his shoulders. He couldn’t lose another member. It was too soon.

“Was it because of me?”

“What?” Even though you were expecting this conversation, it still caught you off guard.

“I’m not conceited enough to think you fled to another continent because of a fight, but is that what pushed you over the edge? What led you to want to quit the BAU?”

In a word, yes. The argument was the last straw on the camel's back. You’d spent years with this unit, fulfilling a destiny that you made up for yourself so that you wouldn’t feel guilty for not having a family or friends to confide in. You spent the better part of the last three years pining for a man you couldn’t have, trying to fill the holes in your life by playing pretend. So yes, it was Hotch that pushed you over the edge. But you learned a hell of a lot about yourself in those four weeks.

“Hotch, did you know that this was the first time I went on an airplane for my own enjoyment? This was the first vacation I’ve been on in my life. I booked a flight on a Thursday night that left at six a.m. the next morning. I was spontaneous, and in control of all the moves I would make for the next thirty days. I’ve never felt more liberated in my life.

“But then I landed in Copenhagen, and had an anxiety attack. I can’t speak Danish, I have no idea how to get around a new country, and I only had thirty dollars in cash to my name. And the only thing I could think of to help me get through it, was calling you. I had your contact pulled up, ready to call you and tell you what a stupid fucking mistake I made. But then I could hear your voice in my head, saying ‘I know you’, and I’d never turned my phone off faster.”

“Y/n,” He sounded exhausted himself, but you weren’t going to give in to the apologies. Not yet.

“I had the time of my life there. I went to places that I never thought I’d get to see in my life. Places that my foster parents told me I’d never be important enough to go to. But I made it. I made it to Giverny, and I saw what inspired Claude Monet to paint the Water Lilies series with my own eyes. I went inside La Sagrada Familia and walked on the steps that Gaudi dreamt of. I saw everything I wanted to, and I wept every place I went to. Because I got myself there. I persevered and worked my ass off my whole life, to get there. I didn’t have any parents, I didn't have any siblings, a spouse, or children. I did it all by myself, and it felt pretty amazing to accomplish that.

“No one knows me like I do.” You finished. Your walls were back up starting to feel secure in your own skin again.

He stayed silent for a few minutes, maintaining eye contact with you the entire time. He was calculating his response, trying to formulate the perfect response to get the two of you back on track. It was exhausting watching his brain work, and you wondered how tired he must always be.

After another minute, he sighed and dropped his hands into his lap. “Beth and I broke up two weeks before you left.” The other shoe had dropped.

“What?” For the second time tonight, you were rendered speechless by Aaron Hotchner. This was not the response you were expecting, and not the news you expected to hear anytime soon. The two of them were obsessed with one another, how could they just end it?

“We ended it two weeks before your trip. She accepted a job in Kyoto, and didn’t want to string me along with long distance. But she also said she knew my heart wasn’t in it anymore.”

You stood up from the couch, not being able to sit still with this new information. Hotch and Beth were no longer together, he said all those things to you as a single man, understood what you felt for him, and still let you walk out of his office. For four weeks.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” It was his turn to stand, still leaving enough distance between the two of you to continue your pacing.

“Don’t deflect to another conversation.”

“You’re the one that brought it up!”

He sighed, running a hand through his perfectly shaggy hair. “I don’t want to have this conversation with you again. So please, get it through your thick skull when I tell you that I know you. And I don’t mean that on a bureaucratic superior level. I know you, y/n. And just because you’ve been alone your whole life, doesn’t mean you deserve to be alone for the rest of it.”

Your eyes started to water, so you looked away, gluing your line of sight to the wall next to you.

“You give us all one hundred and ten percent of your attention when we need you. And when I say all of us, that includes Jack and Henry. I’ve never met someone so intune to another person's feelings, who exudes so much empathy with one look and a smile. And we’ve taken you for granted for seven and a half years. Me the most.” Your eyes found his brown ones, begging you to continue looking at him. “I couldn’t have gotten through Haley’s death without you. And that is the biggest understatement of the decade. I am eternally grateful for all that you’ve done for me and Jack. But at the same time, I’m so sorry that it pushed me further and further away from you.”

His own eyes started to water, and he choked out a laugh. “What you said to Kathryn Downey, about giving yourself completely to a person and not getting the love reciprocated. I felt like an absolute idiot for not realizing that you felt the same way I did.” You closed your eyes with his confession, letting the tears roll down your cheeks.

“There were so many times I wanted to tell you. But then Haley took Jack, and Foyet came, and the world got away from me. And I’m so sorry that you’ve felt the need to carry all our problems on your own.”

“Hotch, you don’t have to apologize.”

“Please, don’t call me Hotch right now.” He took a step toward you. “It’s Aaron, when I’m standing in front of you, begging you to just let me in.”

“I don’t,” Your voice cracked, and you rubbed your hands over your face in frustration. “I don’t know how to let someone love me.”

“I know,” He took another step closer. “You’re just going to have to trust me when I tell you I’ve been in love with you for years.”

He didn’t see the rest of your tears fall, because you threw yourself at him, wrapping your arms around his neck and burying your face in his shoulder. His arms found their place around your waist, pulling you two impossibly close.

“I love you, Aaron.” You could feel him laughing with his chest pressed against your own, and he moved to kiss the side of your head.

“I love you.” He whispered back, causing the last of your tears to fall onto his sweatshirt.

He started to pull away, just enough to get a look at your face. His eyes were no longer filled with tears, but his cheeks still glistened when the light illuminated the damp spots on his face. He brushed a piece of hair behind your ear, letting his knuckles gently graze your temple. You caught his hand in the middle of his movement, lacing your fingers with his own. You’d been dying to know what it felt like to hold his hand like this for years, when you found yourself comforting him in his office one night, lightly holding his hand in yours. But this was so much better.

“You good?” He asked, and the corners of your mouth turned up the slightest.

“I’m good.” He traced the lightest check mark on your laced hands, causing a true smile to grace your face.

“You have a tally to see who can make me smile the most?”

“It’s just mine. Been keeping it for years. But I’m always in the lead.”

You laughed while letting go of his hand, wrapping your arms back around his neck. His eyes flickered to your lips for a second before looking back at you. You gave him a small nod, knowing he was asking for your permission.

When his lips met yours, you knew this was the feeling that all the fairytales sang about. He was gentle at first, slotting your upper lip between his own. It was slow, and full of love from the years of knowing one another inside and out. He bit your lower lip softly, barely there, and you slowly parted your lips, letting him trace your tongue with his own.

All you could think about was how warm he was, how his breath was actively leaving his lungs and entering your own as if you were one person. It was all consuming, and you were grateful that he took the lead, because you couldn’t focus on anything but him.

His hands slipped under your sweatshirt, resting on the skin just above your hips. You let out a small gasp as his cold fingers made contact with the sensitive skin, but it only made him laugh into the kiss.

After a few more moments of getting lost in the feel of one another, you reluctantly pulled away, needing air to fill up your lungs. But Aaron didn’t go far, gently resting his forehead against your own.

“I love you. And I don’t think I’m ever going to be able to stop telling you.” You closed your eyes and tilted your head up, slowly kissing him again.

“I’ll never get sick of hearing it.” You mumbled, your lips still grazing his own. He smiled into the kiss, which only made your heart glow brighter and brighter the more he showed you how he felt.

You pulled away first, tracing the outline of his jaw with your thumbs. “You are the best thing that’s ever happened to me.” He tilted his head to the side, just enough to press a kiss to the palm of your hand.

The tenderness this man exudes is beyond belief. “I really love you, Aaron.”

He laughed while pressing a kiss to your forehead. “I’m glad to hear that.”

You let him hold you for what felt like an eternity, but in reality was only a few minutes. “I promised Jack I would take him out for ice cream to make up for missing his soccer game last night.”

“Okay,” You said and started to pull away, but his grip on your waist only tightened.

“Really? You’re just gonna let go without a goodbye?” You laughed at his fake hurt expression, so incredibly happy that you get to see Aaron in this light, enjoying his son, his life, and you.

“I’m not about to stand in the way of Jack Hotchner and a sugar rush. That guy loves his sugar.”

He let go of your waist, but not without a light squeeze to your sides. “I know we literally just started this, but I really would like to tell him. I don’t want to keep any more secrets from him than I have to.”

You smiled at the thought of Aaron telling Jack how in love the two of you were. It made you feel complete, in a way you never thought you’d get to experience in your life.

“Tell him. As long as he doesn’t blab about it to anyone on the team just yet.”

“You sure?” You nodded while passing him the souvenirs as he slipped his sneakers back on.

“Aaron, he’s your son. I’ve loved him as long as I’ve loved you, maybe even longer.”

He stood up once again, that stupid smile not willing to leave his face any time soon.

“I don’t know what I did to deserve you.”

“Must’ve been something pretty good.” You said with a laugh, which he silenced by placing his lips on yours. You hoped the butterflies you felt now would be there every time he kissed you, no matter how many years have passed.

“Like that.” You said once he pulled away. His dimples were showing now, and you wished that you could take a picture of him in this happy moment and remember it for the rest of your lives.

“I’ll call you tonight.” He said and opened the front door.

“Okay. Have fun, tell Jack I said hi.”

“I will.” He kissed your cheek before starting the walk back down the hallway. He didn’t even make it halfway before turning around, and giving you one final kiss in the doorway.

“Love you,” He said and gave you one more peck, before you shoved his shoulder. “I love you too. Now get outta here, Hotchner.”

****

tags: @simplyprentiss @michaelahah @ssahotchner99 @svrgicalhands @hotchtopic @unionjackpillow @philcoolson @tommhollandzxhaz @kathleenjasmine @canimarrypizzaornah @reaperwalking @inlovewithaaronhotchner @shelbymm11 @mrshotchner23 @tropicalwrites @averyhotchner @dreamy-moments @softhxtch @crazymar15 @theinsanespaceship15 @wecouldbreakthedistance @jeor @funnycuteandannoying @andherestograce @thisisntjuliana @captwilson @kennedyblair @lovelysunflowerxoxo @rcompton @iifaequeenii @iwaizumiee @mrsaaronh0tchner @abbeyannsmith-blog @becausehello @rinacriedpower @ssa-raye @ephemeral-barnes @slxtherinchxser @baueoud @lieswithoutfairytales @hug-a-bug-boo @blogmythoughts @freebanditghostcalzone @sugarbutterbailey

#aaron hotchner x female! reader #aaron hotchner x female!reader #aaron hotchner x reader #aaron hotchner fic #aaron hotchner imagine #criminal minds #criminal minds fanfiction #jules writes shit ??

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borkthemork · 3 years

Text

Got tagged by @calamity-unlocked for the procrastinating writer ask, and might as well! Always fun to get away from the pains of editing, RIP to Falling Down Dry’s eighth chapter.

1) How many works do you have on AO3?

26.

2) What’s your total AO3 word count?

220,000.

3) How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

A lot. Just...a lot before I got into Ao3 so let’s keep it at that. But mainly I wrote for SU, Amphibia, and FMA.

4) What are your top five fics by kudos?

-Death of the Ego

I would say this happened because I wrote this at the right place at the right time. People had been theorizing that Steven would get corrupted ever since the trailer to SUF, and I originally made this as a one-shot...until people encouraged me to start exploring it.

Wouldn’t say it was my best work, but every time I wrote something it meant I improved slowly, and I would always appreciate that no matter the weather.

-Doesn’t Have to be Solo

Oh man, I loved this one! Just a series of connected events with Steven going on his road trip, and learning more about himself and who he was along the way. It also was the fic where I needed a lot of beta readers as time went on, so it made me learn a lot about grammar, prose, and overall the internal rules I developed while writing in general.

-Beyond the Music Box

This was the surprising one! This fic was originally a place where I could archive all the drabbles I written on Tumblr, and y’all really wanted it due to how chaotic my tag format is for this stuff.

It’s surprising for me because I didn’t expect a lot of love when it came to my casual writings since they take I don’t know an hour or so in creating, so thank you everyone who encouraged me to do this.

Just ignore the fact I’ve been lazy at updating the drabbles, shhhh.

-Building One Up

Marcanne, my beloved. Me and my friend kept talking about how Anne was a buff dork and this was at a time where no one really focused on that except mainly on Sasha when it came to strength (for obvious reasons).

I found this slander (I’m joking, by the way) and decided that I needed to write my feelings out on the topic.

And y’all agreed with me so dthdfthtfhtfht.

This also was the first time I had to hone in on a new form of characterization entirely, being that I infused the character’s thoughts and feelings into the way the prose flowed out itself. For Marcy, I went on a pretty analytical front with this piece, and it helped me get into the groove for people like Anne and Sasha and many others over the course of writing.

-Late Night Talks

I didn’t expect this one to blow up at all. I wrote this at one a.m. and y’all just grabbed this fic and ran, I am still confused.

5) Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

I respond to comments all the time because comments just give a lot of serotonin, you know? Someone took their time out of their day to remark on things I did in the work itself, and it’s just very validating to see. It also creates this environment that says, “Yes, I see you, and you can interact with me anytime you want.” so it’s all about that friendliness unless you’re rude to me back.

6) What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

Pizza for One. Had an angst kick when SUF occurred so I milked it whenever my motivation got the best of me.

7) Do you write crossovers? If so what is the craziest one you’ve written?

I don’t write crossovers unless you mean a crossover of characters to a new environment and set of rules. I would gladly write characters into the FMA world, oh my Lord!

But I guess the craziest stuff I’d written would just be comedy sketches? Best example would be Joe and Bessie having kids and Marcy having a conniption over it, so take that what you will.

8) Have you ever received hate on a fic?

I don’t believe so? I did get one person on my old SU fic asking me to continue while giving me unsolicited advice but they apologized not soon after.

9) Do you write smut? If so what kind?

I do write smut. I write it privately but I adore characterization and intimacy, and so I try to make rather domestic pieces that connect to the characters themselves. If it has a certain kink, I make sure to research it so I could understand why the character finds the act rather arousing, and I just want to pay respects to the act itself.

Even with our current day and age, there’s still a lot of conservative anti-sex rhetoric going around, and I always try to view the act of physical intimacy in the same lens as one who adores love in all its different facets and forms.

10) Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Nope.

11) Have you ever had a fic translated?

Nope to that either!

12) Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Sadly, no. I do art trades with people and those are lovely to do since we get to brainstorm and make art together, but I’ve never co-written work with someone. If anyone wants to do that, then sure, just hit me up.

13) What’s your all time favourite ship?

It changes every season, every morning tide, every peace loving hour on the Planet Earth.

It’s Marcanne, right now.

When it comes to ships I always go with the Friends-to-Lovers dynamic, but a lot of the ships I have come from seeing the amount of intrigue in how that type of ship would play out. That could be with Kannao and the amount of commentary over Japanese gender biases, or Royai with their very complicated but extensive adoration and loyalty to one another.

For Marcanne, it’s all about that playful banter that could definitely bubble out of the surface if you just (bangs table) allow them to communicate and be transparent fully. (cries)

14) What’s a WIP you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

Sadly, that Anne fic with her confiding in Hop Pop after they get settled in her house. After what happened with the sneak peek, I realized that this fic would need a lot of build-up to be satisfying and I didn’t have the strength to do a 10k build-up to Anne crying.

Maybe I’ll finish it, we’ll see.

15) What are your writing strengths?

Writing strengths would be concise prose and characterization. I am a worry wart, I worry over the importance of each paragraph and how it all forms and transitions together, it’s just a part of how I work a great deal of the time. And man, characterization is the big one for me, if I don’t understand how the people work and could theoretically function in the story itself, I feel absolutely lost.

Which is also the reason why I’m struggling right now with FDD Chapter Eight, because Marcy’s reaction to Yunan keeps eluding my grasp!

16) What are your writing weaknesses?

I overthink a lot. Concise prose is great but I force myself to get all fancy and massive with details since I’ve got to unless I want a specific part to be so quick and unmeaningful, and this leads to pacing issues or just not enough intended time for people to breathe in the fic itself.

17) What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

I need to get a beta to make sure I don’t sound like an asshole, haha. I do love other languages, they are beautiful and can add a lot towards an audience who does know the language itself, but it depends on the work I’m doing.

18) What was the first fandom you wrote for?

That would be uhhhhh, my memory is lacking but Minecraft. The whole videogame had a wish fulfillment atmosphere to it, and since I got rather obsessed by how anything could happen in the engine itself I went with it.

19) What’s your favorite fic you’ve written?

When it comes to me, my own perception of my art changes day to day. Back when I first posted the Lapidot fic I thought it was the best thing I’ve ever done even though now, with the knowledge I have from workshops and betas, that the style I drafted had a lot of grammar and prose mistakes that I wouldn’t make in the future. It is pretty subjective, but for now I think the best fic I could look at right now would be amestrian catcher (set something ablaze).

Thank you Calamity once again for this! And I’ll be tagging @resplendent-chungus, @aanau, and @golddragon387!

#tag game #personal

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mental-dilemma · 4 years

Text

A Quick Meeting Part 4?

Damian’s an exchange student in Paris taking it easy until an Akuma attacks and he gets to meet ladybug. -----------------------------------------

Ok before everyone starts pancking: I am Emu-Lumberjack I just decided to create a Sideblog for all my writing so that way those who follow me exclusively for that don’t have to deal with the chaos that is my main blog

also I’m sorry it’s taken so long to post this but just between school and work and school and just general exhaustion it’s been hard for me to write.

and as always all credit to the Au goes to @ozmav

pt.1

pt. 2

pt. 3

“I don’t suppose I could bribe you to drop the matter.” Damian said sitting down in Tim’s office. He and Ladybug were situated next to each other while Tim was on the other side of the desk.

“Nope.” He turned to Ladybug, “I didn’t get a chance to introduce myself, making sure Damian didn’t disappear and all that. Anyway I’m Tim Drake, Co-Ceo of Wayne enterprises and Damians older brother.”

Ladybug turned to Damian and quietly said, “So does everyone in your family constantly talk like they’re trying to impress a victorian lord?” Damian snorted. Tim, unable to hear what she just said, looked to the two agape.

“At least I have a reason.” Damian responded, this time loudly enough for his elder brother to hear. “Anyway Tim is in CEO mode right now, which is pretty rare. Usually he’s a bumbling zombie dependent on coffee to function. In fact I remember one time when Dick took the last cup he----”

“I’d suggest stopping right there or I’ll tell her about the batcow incident.” Tim interrupted.

“Did you just say batcow? Because I understand each of those words separately.” Ladybug said, and even though her mask still concealed half her face Damian could tell she was really confused.

“Don’t ask. Just don’t.” Damian said quietly.

“Anyway. I never caught your name and considering the fact that your in a mask I assume you’re a hero. Which is surprising because none of us knew Paris had heroes.” Tim cut the two of them off before more could be said.

“Yes that’s becoming a common theme I’m finding,” Marinette began. “My name is Ladybug in the mask. I have a partner, Chat Noir, but he’s currently indisposed, something about paint in his hair.” Damian stifled a laugh as Marinette continued, “We have been operating out of Paris for the last few years, early on we tried contacting the Justice league but Green Lantern told us not to prank call him.”

“Oh did he now.” Tim said, leaning his head forward.

“Yes he did. Thankfully my power allows me to reverse all damage done during a fight. Including any lives lost or monuments destroyed.”

“That sounds like a very useful power. I'm sure that the heroes of Gotham would love to work with you.” There was a twinkle in his eye that Damian knew meant Tim was concocting some scheme. He was about to jump in, but Marinette got there first.

“Yes I’m sure you would but the issue is we currently have our hands full here although from what Damian told me you guys sound much more fun to work with. At least the villains have better costumes.”

Tim noting her wording turned to Damian, “Did you tell her the family secret? You know what Alfred will do if he finds out.”

Damian smirked “I’m not an idiot Drake this was all her. She could rival you for deductive reasoning.” Marinette just sat there looking innocent.

“Well that explains why the two of you were sneaking around together, Ladybug should I assume Damian knows your identity as well?”

“Yep.”

“Well this is going to be a nightmare. But this just means I can formally invite you to Gotham at least. Ha just leave it to the Ice Prince to leak the identity on his first civilian trip abroad.” Tim leaned his head back, closing his eyes.

“Actually it was you guys who tipped me off.”

Tim suddenly opened his eyes and looked her straight in the eyes. “Come again.”

“Well it was the fact that no one had spied Robin around Batman while Damian was in France. Then the fact that you were patrolling rather than him tipped me off that Robin might be on a vacation..” Tim just face palmed.

“Of course that would happen, how did we not see it coming.” He muttered to himself. “Wait, that begs another question: how did you two meet.”

Damian blushed and before Ladybug could respond he said “not important, there was an akuma. Now do you need anything else.”

“Actually yeah. Ladybug you mentioned the video you sent to Green Lantern, well Batman found it and wanted us to investigate. He didn’t know Green Lantern had seen it or otherwise he’d be on his way back to Ooa healing from a scolding from Alfred. Dick and Jason wanted to come but Bruce needed someone he could send discreetly and who better than the Co-CEO of Wayne industries who could just be checking up on the Paris branch.” Ladybug was impressed by the scheming having Dick Greyson or Jason Todd come in would stir up villain or media activity but Tim the third son wouldn’t.

“Well if you want we can meet up with my partner later and you can formulate a list of questions. Plus it seems you and Damian have some catching up to do.”

“There was a reason I came to Paris Ladybug. Being forced to talk to Tim was not one of them.” Damian made to leave only for a yoyo to catch his leg. Ladybug smirked at him. “Maybe a five minute chat couldn’t hurt anyone. Family reunion and all that.”

“Great then as long as everyones in agreement I can set up a time with chat later this evening for all of us to talk things through and get a strategy in place.”

“Are you sure about this having the league involved is going to cause a lot of chaos and even more dangerous villains could target Paris.”

“Tim I have dealt with so much crap the last couple of years that at this point I will take Darkseid over Lila…… Oh crap. We forgot about Lila.” Marinette looked at Damian who was coming to the same realization she was. He called out Lila in the bakery, and outed himself as a Wayne.

“Do I want to know?” Tim said rubbing his temples. He did not miss highschool.

“Lets just say school tomorrow’s going to be interesting, and I think we’re going to have to put the meeting on hold till after it. Ladybug and I are going to need to deal with school tomorrow, and caffeine isn’t gonna cut it.” Damian said.

“Then again if we aren’t lucid tomorrow might not be so bad….” Marinette began

“Do not even finish that, you even more than me need sleep. Between fashion, school and heroing you function off an hour.”

“You.. have a point. I’ll brief Chat on the situation on my way home. In the meantime I’ll leave you too to the brotherly bonding I’m sure you need.” she pulled her yoyo from her pocket, “See you tomorrow Damian, and whatever plan you hatch up make sure nit doesn’t include killing anyone.”

“Goodnight Ma--- Ladybug. And no promises.” The boy caught himself before revealing Ladybug's identity. She gave him the look of ‘don’t fuck up my secret identity bird boy’ before jumping out the window to run from rooftop to rooftop.

“So. how long have you had a crush on her.” Tim pulled Damians attention, and Damian was sudden;y very glad he had said nothing about not killing his brother.

--------------------------------------

“Do you think they’ll actually help this time?” Chat’s voice rang over the phone, Marinette had stopped behind one of the chimneys to talk to him in private.

“I don’t know, at least now they are actually considering it rather than just brushing us off as children.” Marinette was tired but they needed to have this chat now, there wouldn’t be any chance to in class tomorrow.

“Yeah, just don’t get your hopes up. They left us to fend for ourselves for 3 years and are only doing this now because of Damian if you didn’t know him then none of this would’ve happened.

“Ok but why does that matter that it’s Damian? They could’ve been doing it because of Jon too.”

“Oh please, you're more dense than our class sometimes. Jon would’ve noted it then forgotten to tell someone, but Damian told Batman right away. Why do you think he did that?”

“Chat I am too tired for this.” Marinette could feel Adrien facepalming through the phone.

“Oh I am not spelling this out for you, this time you get to figure it out yourself.”

“Fine. but next time you need help on your calc homework don’t come running to me.” Marinette hung up on him and made her way home. The parisian streets were nice and quiet for her, no akuma meant maybe another hour of sleep.

Once she was out of the suit she let Tikki rest and got right to work on the new piece she was making for Jagged, he wanted to somehow have the score of his newest piece sewn onto the pants for his next concert, and she had to brainstorm.

Twenty minutes went by.

Then an hour.

Then two.

Finally she put up her pencil and put on her pajamas, as she was falling asleep Adriens words kept replaying in her head, and the meaning slammed into her like a truck. Pulling out her phone she sent one message.

Oh fuck off

tag list: @clumsy-owl-4178 @pawsitivelymiraculous @yuulxd @smolplantmum @inarachi02 @notmycupoftea26 @laurcad123 @unknownvsworld @jeminiikrystal @megawhitleycalderonpaganus

#The dilemma writes #Maribat #damian wayne x marinette dupain cheng #Damianette #Damientte #Chat noir #Kwamii #fics #fanfic #myfic #damian x marinette #platonic ladynoir #platonic adrienette

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yeoldontknow · 3 years

Text

❧ check in tag

tagged by the sweetest angel @propinqxity to do this little tag. this is such a cute list of questions, and some of these i dont think ive been asked before. thank you so much for the tag and the tumblr crush mention lovely. you truly are a bright spot on this website and i mean that sincerely <333

going under a cut because im certain i will ramble ~

1. Why did you choose this url?

its sort of like a pun between yall dont know and the fact that, hopefully, sincerely, chanyeol does not in fact know that i run this blog lmao i changed to this after a long time of being bread-jinie and i wanted to rebrand. i will, however, do my best to never change URLs again because the masterlist switch over was a complete hassle

2. Any sideblogs? If you have them, name them and why you have them

i have a fic recs blog called @yeoldontknowiread. as to why i have it, i know it hasnt been updated in ages since ive been kind of on hiatus, but i think reading and sharing work on this platform is immensely important. i actually read quite a lot of fanfiction, and i try my best to share the things i read. im very very behind on recs at the moment cause i try my best to write something substantial for every recommendation i make. as a writer, i know exactly the kinds of thoughts and feedback on fics that make my heart soar so i try to put in the same energy to my recs. community is only fostered when there is reciprocation

3. How long have you been on Tumblr?

hmmm since april 2017. i actually had my 4 year anniversary this year and i did have plans for things but i got roped into real life things and couldnt celebrate the way i truly wanted to :(

4. Do you have a queue tag?

no but sometimes i think i should. i view tags as a library on top of my knee jerk response to things. most of my tags are just my initial thoughts or feelings at any given moment, so those take precedence over a specific queue tag

5. Why did you start your blog in the first place?

when i was getting into exo, i was reading fanfiction like crazy. i used to write fanfic quite a lot in other fandoms, but at that time i hadnt written anything in about 2.5 years. exo was the first re-introduction to that feeling of excitement and inspiration. after about 3 weeks of straight reading, i decided i wanted to write again. i wrote the prologue to hero in about two hours and tried logging into AO3 to post it. sadly i forgot all of my log in information because it had been years, and was getting frustrated. i really wanted to put it somewhere out of fear that id lose interest if i didnt do something with it, and everything id read had been on tumblr. so i made a tumblr just to put hero lmao i didnt have any mutuals. it was a blog with straight 0. i hadnt even created an account to interact with writers before that moment, i really thought id be a silent reader forever. but exo woke me back up and for that i am eternally grateful.

6. Why did you choose your icon?

the yours music video is...so stunning? like the colour theory throughout the whole thing is truly so inspiring and gorgeous. and this shot of chanyeol looking at the painting took my breath away, truly. tulips and the color of peach, like do you know how evocative that is? ugh

7. Why did you choose your header

my header was made by @jamaisjoons for my birthday this year because shes literally the most talented person when it comes to graphics. and this was so kind of her to do, i cried a lot

8. What's your post with the most notes?

uhm....either the body through time or truth i cant remember which but i checked recently and its one of those

9. How many mutuals do you have?

honestly at this point im not even sure. i know ive lost a bunch while i was on hiatus because i was basically a dead blog, and some people do dash cleanses. and im certain others have left, too, for their own reasons. still, i have a good core of friends though who are active and that is enough for me

10. How many followers do you have?

more than i probably deserve

11. How many people do you follow?

399

12. Have you ever made a shitpost?

uhm i guess? there was a time when nng was not updated and every wednesday id post the days go by music video in sadness and grief but im not a big shitposter. if i make a text post its usually a life update or me crying about chanyeol, theres no inbetween lmao

13. How often do you use Tumblr every day?

tbh i havent used tumblr that often, not since march i think. i used to use it many times a day, checking in on friends and stuff, but once i started focusing on my phd applications i was only here sporadically. i didnt make an announcement either, just let my blog run on queue so i wasnt totally gone. i think i was checking in twice a week or maybe once every two weeks to refill my queue and check mentions etc. but now that my interviews are done im trying to get back on here daily to reconnect

14. Did you have a fight/argument with another blog once? Who won?

ive had my share of disagreements with people and any details about those situations shall remain as they are meant to: private

15. How do you feel about "you need to reblog this" posts?

in what context? like, you need to reblog this or your wish wont come true? or like, please reblog this to spread the word/spread awareness, etc? in the case for the former, i scroll right by. in the case of the latter, if im around and see someone raising a go fund me or some major event is occurring and i find a post with good sources or charities i will reblog. mostly though, the full extent my activism isnt really on this blog. its my escape from reality. my activism is usually placed on other platforms.

16. Do you like tag games?

i doooo!!! theyre so fun i love learning about my friends

17. do you like ask games?

i love those too! theyre so cute and usually a nice way to have interaction immediacy with people in the community

18. Which of your mutuals do you think is Tumblr famous?

no one. can we please abandon this notion of fame on tumblr? arent we all here to write about some dick and some smut and some fluff and then hang out together and log off? lmao tumblr isnt reality and followers/fame is so arbitrary on this platform, no one has any control over any of it

19. Do you have a crush on a mutual?

i am in love with so many people here. let me name a few:

@yehet-me-up @kyungseokie @jenmyeons @j-pping @jamaisjoons @inkedtae @kookdiaries @yoonia @dulcetvk @kithtaehyung @imdifferentshadesofpurple @ditzymax @sugaurora @sahmbtsficrecs @junghelioseok @yeojaa @augustbutwinter @joonscore @btssavedmylifeblr @cutechim @sunshinekims @kimtaehyunq @ouvuo @delhyun @exo-stentialism @sooibian @softyoongiionly @jinseunie @zibermuda @bratkook @1kook @luffles424 @xjoonchildx

and so many other people and mutuals that i am certainly forgetting. love is such an expansive feeling, and it encompasses platonic ardor and creative desire. i admire every single person listed for so many different reasons, and cherish and treasure them or what they provide to the community. love is such an important and broad experience. truly, i hope they feel adored every single day x

#check in tag

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psychedellic-phase · 4 years

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Fifteen (pt 3)

A/N: Thank you so much for the support so far! This is the first fic I’ve posted anywhere in a long time. I’m totally down to do any requests! There are some season 6 spoilers in this part so SPOILER Alert!! xoxo R

tw: none! just more fluffiness

word count: 2444

(part 1) (part 2)

masterlist

The third envelope, which was labeled #2, was much thicker than the first two. Spencer held it in his hands for a while, just tracing over where you wrote #2. He always made fun of you for writing it like a kindergarten teacher.

“Adults make a two with the loop at the bottom,” He would joke any time you had to write it.

“Good thing I’m not an adult,” You’d reply.

He smiled at the memory. That’s one of the reasons he fell in love with you. You were so incredibly intelligent but also so clueless at the same time. You were definitely book smart. But common knowledge and sense? Not much of that in your pretty head. He liked that though; it meant you didn’t take yourself too seriously. You were down to Earth and kept him there with you, a trait he had to learn as he grew older. He didn’t even realize you taught him so much; he was always too busy trying to teach you.

Ripping open #2 he started to read, a warm fuzzy feeling filling his chest:

“Item 2 is a ticket to the Korean Film festival we went to together. So take it out and admire how bent and worn it is. I was so nervous that day I folded it into tiny pieces in my pocket just so my hands had something to do.”

He took it out of the plastic bag you put it in. It really was bent and worn, so much so you could barely read the name and date, July 7.

“That was our first official date, though we had a lot of time to bond between November 17 and that day. Emily died. Well, not really, but we thought she did. We’d take turns crying on the other’s shoulder. Some days I’d show up at yours and you’d immediately know that I just needed you to be strong for me. I’d often return the favor. We were still just friends then, but our pain bonded us in ways no one else really understood. We get each other, Spence, or at one point in our lives we did. I’m not so sure I understand you anymore, at least not like I used to. Sometimes I’d come over and we wouldn’t cry. You’d teach me chess and card games. But usually we would cry, and that was okay.

That was the start of our platonic sleepovers. Do you remember our first one? The night I cried myself to sleep on your couch and instead of kicking me out you put a blanket over me. You thought I was out cold, but I felt you tuck it around me, your hands lingering for a second too long. For the next few weeks we did that when we didn’t have cases. We’d talk about Em and life and everything and cry, and one of us would crash on the other’s couch. Then, if Hotch didn’t send the bat signal for us, we’d get coffee and pancakes the following morning at IHOP. It became a sweet tradition, born out of one of the darkest times in my life. You always took me at my most vulnerable, loved me, and kept me safe. I don’t think I ever really thanked you for that. So, thank you.

Everyone else didn’t think they were platonic. I mean if I were them I wouldn’t have thought we were ‘just friends’ either. The fact that we started carpooling together after our sleepovers probably didn’t help our case. I remember one time I brought you to work with me after an IHOP blueberry pancake breakfast. Rossi ran into us in the elevator and commented that you had on the same exact suit as the day before and that we had been coming to work together a lot lately. We both blushed profusely; we knew what his side eye meant. It’s funny how everyone else knew we loved each other except us. Some profilers we are.

Okay so back to the ticket. Emily’s loss made me look at life differently. Before she died, I confided in her how I felt. She’s the closest thing to a best friend I ever had. Being her usual supportive self, she told me to go for it. That you felt the same about me. That we’d be perfect for each other. That you adored me. I desperately wanted her to be right, so I selfishly believed her.

When she left, I realized how quickly we can lose each other. And her support of us told me what I needed to do. In some weird way it felt like I was doing her justice by pursuing you. I decided I wasn’t going to wait and risk losing you too. So I bought tickets to the Korean film festival in Georgetown you talked about for weeks, even though I know zero Korean. I walked up to you and flashed two tickets. The look on your face is one I’ll never forget. Your eyes lit up and you smiled bigger than I had seen in months. You (thankfully) agreed to go with me.

“I didn’t know you knew Korean,” You said as I drove us there. (I sneakily put on Stacy’s Mom then too, but I don’t think you realized)”

He chuckled. He most definitely did notice that, but what you didn’t notice was how he looked at you as you mumbled the lyrics to yourself. It was dusk and the street lights illuminated your face just so. It occurred to him then that he’d never seen anyone more beautiful than you in that moment, and probably never would again.

Spencer put the ticket and letter down on the table and got up to pace again. He knows exactly how this story ends; he wrote it with you. And in this story he’s the villain.

His stomach twisted up in knots. He rushed back to the table to grab the letter, but his eyes were too bleary with tears to read any of the words. Truthfully, he didn’t want to read them. He wasn’t ready to relive it yet. He wasn’t ready to feel it, because up until now he still got to see you and talk to you. He was able to protect you, just like he had all those nights when you cried in his arms.

He blinked forcefully a few times, forcing his vision to clear enough to keep going.

“I told you I didn’t know Korean. All I know is enough Spanish to get myself through cases. You smiled at that.

“Then why did you want to come?” You asked me.

“Because you wanted to come.” My answer was honest. I love so many things I never thought I would because of you, Spence. You didn’t answer me; the smile on your face was answer enough. Naturally, I got even more nervous.

“So since there are no subtitles will you translate for me as it happens?” I asked; you nodded.

We were strolling around the park the festival was at. It was warm out but you still had on pants and a dress shirt. I don’t know how you did that. I had on a dress and was still sweating. We got there early and were waiting for the first movie to start.

“You know, (Y/N), 1.2 million Americans speak Korean. Korean culture is becoming a vibrant subculture in America. The success of things like anime, Korean Dramas and Korean pop music are just going to add to that number.”

That’s when I looked at you. Your hair had gotten a little longer, but it was cute. Looking back, every hair you’ve ever had was cute. I miss running my hands through it to mess it up. Your eyes were trained on the people milling around us, and mine were on you. I love when you spew out stats. Contrary to popular belief, smart IS sexy. But anyways, your eyes looked so brown and reflected the lights so beautifully. I’ll miss staring into them and getting lost. I once told you I never liked the color brown until I saw your eyes. That’s still true.

“But like 50 million speak Spanish. So I think my tenth grade skills are more applicable,” I joked.

“It’s actually 41 million and I agree. Spanish is a very important language to know. But only a tenth grade level? Say something in Spanish.”

“Tú y yo va a ver una película,” I said in the worst Spanish accent ever. You laughed and said some beautiful Korean like it was nothing. I grabbed your hand. You flinched and looked at me confused. I gave it a reassuring squeeze and ran my thumb across the parts of your hand I could reach. That’s when you realized this was a “date” date and not a friend date. I could almost immediately see the red creep up your cheeks.

We found a place to sit and the movie started. It was called The Housemaid. And true to your word you translated the whole thing for me, much to the dismay of everyone around us. I found myself nestled into your side with your arm around me. You were whispering everything in my ear. Your breath tickled my neck and sent a chill down my spine. Truthfully, I missed half of what you said because I was too focused on not losing my shit. Here you were, the guy I was in love with, arm around me whispering sweet foreign words in my ear. Anyone would melt instantly.

We got through two and a half movies that night. I don’t remember the other two—“

“Sisters on the Road and A Frozen Flower!” Spencer spoke out loud then, as if you could hear him. When he realized you definitely couldn’t hear him because you were in Seattle, and definitely not in his apartment, he groaned and kept reading.

“We had already watched like four hours of movies and I was getting hungry. So, we stopped and got ice cream. I scolded you for getting a large when we both know you can’t have dairy, to which you just shrugged and said, “Dairy allergies are the most common in the world. 65% of the population has issues with lactose. You can’t expect 4,485,000,000 people to not eat ice cream, especially when it’s delicious.”

I rolled my eyes, “Well don’t come crying to me when your tummy hurts later.”

“Oh I most definitely will be coming and crying to you.”

We walked like that for a while, hand in hand, until the chill of the night got to us. We made our way back to my car and you opened the door for me like a gentleman. I wanted to invite you back to my place, but I thought that might give the wrong impression for a first date. So instead I drove you home and you didn’t invite me in. I was a little hurt, honestly. I have been in your apartment more times than I can count, so what was one more? It’s okay though. You made up for it. Remember?

We were sitting on the side of the street and you didn’t get out of the car yet. The windows were down and the radio was off. We listened to the sound of crickets and passing cars as we enjoyed each other’s company in a different way than we ever had before.

“It’s almost midnight, get some sleep. Your brain needs rest after all that translating.”

“Your brain doesn’t rest when you sleep, your body does,” You said and turned to me. Our faces were probably only six inches apart. Your breath was hot on my cheeks and you kept doing that damn tongue thing.

“But you need some sleep (Y/N). You don’t sleep well.”

“I sleep well on your couch,” I said and you smiled. The space between us had gotten much much smaller.

I put my hand on your cheek and felt the slight stubble there. You made the first move Spence. All I did was hold your face, you’re the one who closed the gap.

That was one of the best kisses of my life. It lasted maybe ten seconds, but it was ten seconds that took years to get to. It was all that longing and pining and pent up feelings released at once. Nothing in the world is as special as kissing you, Spencer Reid.

That next Monday we got shit from the team. Garcia is such a blabbermouth. Derek and Rossi made fun of us like middle schoolers. Hotch gave us that big bad ‘one of you will have to leave speech’. Deep down they were all happy for us. We all needed something to be happy about. And we were happy Spence, so so happy. Until we weren’t.

So take this bent up ticket and admire it again before placing the memory of our first date on a shelf in the corner of your mind that will get dusty. I hope someday you’ll brush it off and relive it.

There’s a Korean proverb I learned from you, that means: ‘At the end of hardship comes happiness.’

I hope that’s true.

xo,

YN”

Spencer put the letter down and picked up the ticket. He walked across the living room to a corkboard on the wall. There he took a pushpin and fastened the ticket to the board. It was surrounded by pictures of everyone he loves. Group pictures, his mom, Henry, pictures of the two of you. But in the center of it all was that ticket that had been so bent up because of how nervous you were for your date. He never told you how nervous he was then too. He had to make sure he wasn’t stuttering through the translations. Your close proximity to him, the smell of your perfume, and warmth of your body pressed against him made it hard to think. He held your hand so tightly that night because he thought that maybe you wouldn’t notice how badly they were shaking. He only got up the nerve to kiss you because when you weren’t looking he texted Derek, and he told him he had to. He remembered how his heart felt like it was leaping out of his chest when he closed the gap, how you sighed into him, how you sucked on his lower lip ever so slightly. You were right, nothing is quite like kissing the love of your life. It’s like every kiss you ever had before that kiss, the kiss, didn’t count. It’s the only kiss that matters.

He admired the ticket one last time, before reaching in to grab envelope #3.

Part 4!

tags: @l0ve-0f-my-life

- if you would like to be added to the tag list just let me know!

#spencer reid #spencer x you #spencer reid smut #spencer reid fic #cm #criminal minds #criminal minds fic #mgg #mgg fanfiction #matthew gray gubler #reid #reid x you #reid fic #derek morgan #aaron hotchner #emily prentiss #penelope garcia

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an0nymousghost · 3 years

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simblr asks v2

here are my answers! find the questions here.

i wrote soo much ahaha. like however much you think i wrote, i wrote more than that. imo everything i write is gold though

1. are you going to buy the new pack (cottage living) when it comes out? no, it looks really nice but i legit never ever buy packs at launch, especially cause this one is a expansion and it will probably go on sale at some point

2. do you p*rate your dlc or buy it legitimately? buy it legitimately 👌

3. what’s your favorite world? brindleton bay, it gives like seaside cottage vibes. willow creek is good but it’s boring.

4. if you use a queue, how many posts per day do you set it as? 3 or 4. i used to do like 12 lmaoo what even was wrong with me

5. do you watch sims on youtube? yes, i watch mainly malixa, oshinsims, and msgryphi

6. what are your thoughts on the most recent pack? (dream home decorator) those sectional couches look good! but honestly im kinda annoyed because now it’s even harder to have all the items filled in when i place lots from the gallery. like i’m just saying like a lot of builds will use that pack probably and if i don’t get it then i can’t really use builds/save files

7. how many packs/kits do you own? lemme count

expansion: all - 10/10 game: 5/10 stuff: 9/18 kits: none xo

24/38 - 63%

8. what’s your origin id? is it the same as your url? 🤗 it’s in my title, it’s celeschul. it doesn’t look that nice in my title but i use celeschul in my package files and i’m guessing people search things like, “celeschul penny hair” or something like that in order to find my cc- so i keep it in there so the search results are easier. i do want to change it though..

but no it’s also not the same! well i mean it’s the username i use for cc. my origin id used to be an0nymousghost but i changed it. i wonder if anyone’s taken that one?

9. is your simblr your sideblog or main blog? main blog ✌️ my old blog @stardze is a main blog as well.

my old old simblr was a sideblog but it had like 1 follower and it literally a bot so i don’t think that counts. i have a multifandom sideblog though

10. do you have a cc finds blog? i wish. i was thinking bout it earlier and that would be sooo neat but sometimes i download stuff that doesn’t have a tumblr post attached to it, and also it’s stressful to keep up with so nah

11. are you wcif friendly? yes sir. in fact i bring the trouble of wcifs onto myself but doing them even when nobody asked.

12. what’s your favorite sized household to play with? (ex. 1 sim, 4 sims) gonna have to think on this one, honestly 1 sim is really fun and stuff goes by so fast. doing stuff with astrid when she was on her own, it was much more efficient.

for families, i haven’t done that in a while actually. 5, 2 parents and 3 kids is cute tho. why did i write this this is honestly such a hard question

13. if you have c&d, do you play with pets? i feel like i haven’t played with cats and dogs in forever. honestly i just have no paitence. noelle fae was supposed to get a cat (there’s a food bowl + cat bed in her house) but when summer vacation started, the amount of time i spent playing ts4 decreased a lot. (this doesn’t really make sense, i have a lot more time. honestly it just has to do with my recent obsession with a certain anime/manga and some other personal thing)

i did random nightmares in may though and i had pets frequently. g5 didn’t because sofia scarlett lived in an apartment, but g2/3/4 had cici, and g1 had all the cats. but that was back in march so it’s been a while.

14. what lifespan do you use? i really want to do aging off but then i feel like it drags on. but aging legit stresses me out, sometimes i just want to sit down and do some cas stuff but i only have 2 hours in real time and there’s like 4 days left till one of my sims’ birthdays.

15. if you own a lot of packs, how many of them have you actually played through? just so everyone is aware this question was made for me

i feel like eps require a specific save made for testing them out, but the only save i’ve ever made for an ep is noelle fae’s get famous save.

that is literally a lie - i made a save for island living with one of my 100bc kids, maisie acapella. i did actually post it on tumblr BUT then i deleted all the posts BUT i reblogged them on my alt account BUT i privated my alt account so i honestly forgot about it

i have never played through discover university or watched anyone do it on youtube, i’ve read gerbits’ story about it so i think i’m pretty qualified. i’ve always wanted to do one with periwinkle acapella but i never got around to it

another ep i know nothing about is get to work

i tried doing a eco life playthrough but i hadn’t watched any videos and i was like..what is going on. so i quit lolx d ;;;;; i mentioned it but the whimsy stories legacy was the first time i had played with the eco lifestyle features so technically i think i know what im doing

i got outdoor retreat literally on monday of this week so i haven’t played through it yet.

jungle adventure i still don’t know what’s going on. i remember last year before i bought the pack i was brainstorming, and wanted to do a ja playthrough with luna and cedar, who are a couple who i did a random legacy with and it was all queued to post when i deleted everything (if you’re wondering why, it’s because my queue was literally 200+ posts). except this time i didn’t save them to my sideblog so i lost them.

i still havent had a restaurant in dine out

also never did the vet thing from cats and dogs

i have no idea what that rock climbing thing is from snowy escape but i did most of the other stuff because rn g5

city living i did through psc stage 5 and also it was the first pack i bought anyways

the rest of them are either stuff packs or i ended up playing them through casual gameplay (seasons, parenthood)

16. what do you do as you play sims? (ex. listen to music) i listen to music most of the time, or listen to commentary youtube videos because i am an alpha chad. i also used to talk with my friends on voice call but i don’t do that anymore 🥲

17. which sims challenges have you tried? random legacy, whimsy stories, perfect sim challenge, 100 baby, legacy (just the plain get-to-10-gens one), random nightmares, berry zodiac, astrology legacy, apocalypse

i feel like im forgetting some.. honestly most of the stuff i did before simblr was either 100 baby (i love that challenge) or random saves that lasted for 2 seconds.

18. do you like the new(ish) hair swatches? nah.

i do appreciate that most cc hairs have a true (ish) black, thank god! and the fact that the hair update is what inspired me to update and fix a bunch of hairs with different issues is pretty nice. but will i use them? no.

plus it takes up like 5 gb? depending on how many packs you have.

19. post the latest screenshot you took 📸

i live in cas

20. what is the cc/ingame hair that looks the most like your own? i think that dream home decorator side part hair looks a lot like my hair. honestly i havent see much like my hair but that one is kinda-? close

21. who is your favorite sim of yours and what is their story? noelle and alari fae i think!

link to post

noelle is blonde and has blue-grey eyes. she wears purple contacts pretty often though (because she wants to 😌)

alari has light brown hair that is kinda curly, and she’s got pretty vibrant blue eyes.

they’re sisters, alari is 3 years older than noelle. noelle was 19 and alari was 22 when they got spotted

they worked as models when they were young adults. their jobs involved dyeing their hair blue/pink, and they would model like clothes and stuff. anyways, they were pretty successful. like not ultra famous but they had enough money to not work for the rest of their lives.

their modeling group was made of 4 girls, the others were named paisley autumn and they were green and red, respectively. some things are:

paisley and alari started dating during this

autumn was a single mother to a little girl named destiny

noelle dated many people during this but never ended up finding the one <3

when their contract ended after like 6 years, paisley and alari went to go live together and noelle decided to get into acting. so thats when get famous playthrough started!

there’s more but basically they’re like oc’s with sims on the side. xoxo

22. if you use cc, are there any cc creators that you have like ALL of their items? this is such a good question! i hoard hair very heavily (my folder is 11gb) i so i have like 97% from most of the popular hair creators.

i think i had legitimately EVERYTHING from simstrouble though, i went through multiple times to check and i also have all of her retired stuff.

i have everything from ridgeport i think-? because of the fact that she uploaded all her stuff in one big zip.

i think that’s it.. for a long time i also had everything by clumsyalienn, but then i ended up deleting it and only keeping my faves.

and looking at my collection, maybe ah00b? i might be missing a couple but i at least have like 99%.

23. what’s one pack you think is underrated? dine out, it’s laggy af yes but it’s such a nice thing for my sims to do.

24. what are your favorite sims stories/legacies? melons by gerbits always and forever

this question was inspired by this ask anyways so

25. if you could change one small thing about ts4, what would it be? most of my suggestions are pretty complex but literally just - when you add tray files, they appear at the top. my life would be so much easier

this took me literal hours to answer

#replies #replying to MYSELF

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tehohaews · 3 years

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2020 CREATOR WRAP: FAVORITE WORKS

Rules: It’s time to love yourselves! Choose your 5 (or so) favorite works you created in the past year (fics, art, edits, etc.) and link them below to reflect on the amazing things you brought into the world in 2020. Tag as many writers/artists/etc. as you want (fan or original) so we can spread the love and link each other to awesome works.

Thank you soooo much Nuria @taytawan for tagging me 🥺💖and ignore how late this is oops

Okay so 2020 is the year that I returned to “the internet” and I’m grateful cause otherwise I wouldn’t get to know all of you lovely people.Thank you for existing and making me feel like I belong somewhere 💖💖 So, along with my works I'm also gonna mention some of my favorite people and their works here and If you’ve ever made me smile you’re here and I love you <3

@snugglesweaters Terryyyyyyy. My closest friend here 🥺 I’ve never told you this but if it wasn’t for you,I doubt I would’ve lasted this long here. It's nice knowing someone as clueless and a clown like me. I can talk to you about anything and I feel like we have similar views on stuffs.I love making random references to fics and knowing that you’ll get it cause we kind of read the same fics. I love this tine glitter fic of yours (yes tine glitter fic), obviously this cause (vampire) bright in a beanie AND the coffee shop au hc that only I know about hehe. I love your (almost) phd brain and hope you’re doing well in your dissertation. YOU CAN DO IT DW. And may you stay healthy,hydrated,safe and happy in the coming year 😊💖 I love you soooooooo muchhhhhhh 💖💖💖

@lesbian-earn Mayyyyy!!!. My co president of the short people supremacy club. You are so sweet and kind and thank you for reaching out to me that one day I was feeling a bit anxious.It’s always lovely to see you on my activity and on the dash. Like I once said, you remind me of sunshine and ilu 💖💖 Hope that the next year is kind to you and you’ll do well in your uni stuffs dw, I know you can.💖 Also I’ve said this before but i looooveeee this fic of yours and when I found out it was you dfjidfjidfidf

@taytawan Nuriaaaaaaa 💖💖 You say that I’m kind but it’s always because you are so sweet and talented that I can’t help screaming about your works everytime I see them. If I’m not mistaken, the name Nuria comes from the word Nur meaning light. You make the world brighter and a better place by your presence and I’ve said this before but really, it would’ve been very lonely without you in this 2g circus. I love these two sets of yours (I mean I did write an essay in the tags when I saw this) .Thank you for everything, I love you and I hope that you remain safe and happy in the coming year 💖💖 (Also join mine and May's short people club,Terry isn't invited ofc jdjsdjasjij)

@brightwinfilm NATH efhifhihis my (almost) birthday twin. LISTEN we’re gonna have so much fun in March, 1) Itsay part 2 AND your birthday 2)Sarawat’s birthday 3) My birthday and 4)since we’re here let’s just say Tine’s birthday is in March too hehehe. Thank you for all the lovely sarawatine and brightwin content you make, they never fail to make me smile.I love this set of yours and this also cause hehehe i WILL bring this back muhahhaa.You’re a wonderful person and you make the world a better place. Take care of yourself and I hope that you are always happy,healthy and safe 💖 i love youuu

@ryudian My go to person when I need any updates. You are SO HELPFUL and so NICE. I love going to your blog and seeing your st dolls and all the crazy stuffs you do because of bw. And I absolutely loved what you did with the oishi drinks here. May you be happy and safe in the coming year and stop spending so much money on merch I'm worried you'll go bankrupt

@komari-maxx I love seeing you on my activity and I love your st dolls and fics, specially this fruity4 one cause sdhididhid you included my hc of them arguing over the colour on lunch.This totally happened no one can change my mind. Hope you'll be happy (with your st dolls hehe) in the coming year

@teh-ohaew *tarn voice* Eyy TAY djidjijid hehe oops. Tay and Teh sound so similar specially in tarn's voice. Omg Teh Tay besties. TAYYYYY I love youuuu and I love reading your tags and seeing you on my dash except when you and Ayesha go crazy sdhusdh hehe jk. You are so nice and I love this sarawatine ig hc of yours. Hope you have a lovely year ahead and remain happy,healthy and safe. Don't forget to take care of yourself (by that I mean listen to the itsay original score on repeat)

@metawin JAYYYYY. I still remember the first time I came across your blog, it was when you were (probably) rewatching wyel and blogging about it crazily. I was laughing so hard at those and then you followed me back and I still to this day have no idea why. It's comforting seeing your posts in the tags and the dash and I absolutely love this itsay set of yours. You are so talented and lovely and I hope that you have a wonderful year ahead. Lots of love <3333

@gremlinmetawin Ayesha bb 🥺🥺 You were the first person who interacted with me here and I love you for that. It's lovely seeing you in my dash and thank you for tagging me in tag games, I have fun doing them 💖💖 tbh I know like 3 Ayeshas irl but you are the loveliest and kindest of them all. Hope that the next year is kind to you,bring you happiness and you finally finish all those unwatched shows

@khaotungthanawat SAMMMMM Have I said that you are SO TALENTED this week? although tbh you deserve to hear that everyday. You always say that it's nothing but no, you ARE talented and kind. It's wonderful seeing your posts ( I feel like you're everywhere nowadays another proof that you work hard). You are a blessing to this world and I hope for you to be always happy and safe 💖💖.I love this st set, this itsay one and the tags of this post 😂😂 I will never not laugh at this.If this doesn't happen in the st special special askdkdsks

@metawwin ALIIIIIIIII, queen of parallels djijidjias. I love going through your blog and seeing all your 2g stuffs.I absolutely adore this set of yours. You are so talented and you make the world a happier place <3 I love youuuuu and I hope you're staying hydrated,taking care of yourself and doing the things you love. You deserve all the love and happiness in the world 💖💖

@wirapong AISHIIIIII Hope you're doing well. I've screamed about this already BUT this club drama fic? lives in my head rent free. Also I love all your soft baby wat fics cause WAT IS A BABY. Glad we have Tine as the President of the Sarawat protection squad. I love your writing. you're so talented and I hope that the coming year will bring you happiness <33

@acequinz Hi Ace!! I love your incorrect quotes sideblog and I love your fics, specially this, this and this. You're a lovely person and I hope that you have a wonderful year ahead.

@bisexualrep DORAAAA We haven't talked in a while but I smile whenever I see you in my activities. You are maybe the 4th person who followed me here and it still feels weird cause this and this? some of my fav wyel fics of all time. It's lovely reading your tags, they are so cheerful <3 Hope you're doing well and taking care of yourself. You deserve to be happy always 💖💖

Omg this is so long. If you're still here, here are some of the works that I'm proud of. 1)This itsay set. This was my first time doing big gifs and although this is loooong I like how this turned out, specially the colouring. 2) This cause do I do anything except 2g shitposting? No <3 I had this idea even before s2g aired but decided to wait so that I have more shots from s2g and I'm glad I did cause Earn basically got confirmed as a wlw so (Also special thanks to Terry cause the Man and Air hc were hers,her phd brain ikr) 3)This cause dcjsdjidi SARAWATINE SOULMATES. I love how the colouring turned out despite the fact that ps crashed halfway and I lost the gifs i spent 2 hours colouring. I tried to do this with scenes from the series only but couldn't cause wHen YoU aRe wItH yOuR cAmeRA SHOW US goddammit. If this was ao3 this would've been tagged as Tine teepakorn loves Sarawat guntithanon xD 4) Still2gether textposts obviously. I KNOW that 90% people follow me for my 2g shitposting and I got an ask once saying how were they so accurate and the reason for that is I spent HOURS on these. Atfirst it took a long time but after a while I got the hang of it. It was fun (though sometimes tiring) to make these after each ep aired. I'm proud of it and the fact that I managed to do 13 parts? gsjsdjsj 5) Still2gether subs that looks fake but aren't. shutup this was my first time giffing but it was funnnnn looking for the (canon) crack parts after every ep aired.

Also,thank you to all the lovely people who likes and reblogs my posts, I do see you and I love you all <33

Tagging: If you’re here then consider yourself tagged if you wanna do this or to anyone who sees this on the dash

#i wrote this at 4 am so this might not make sense #but anyway #HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE #tag game

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winryofresembool · 3 years

Text

Caleo fic: It’s all about the name

Chapters 1-2

Summary: Calypso is a barista at a coffee shop and one day she gets a customer who refuses to give her his real name. At first he seems really annoying but eventually Calypso finds out not all is what it looks like on the surface.

a/n: Surprise! The coffee shop AU we Caleo shippers deserve! This fic is based on @caldez /minervaparadi-no's headcanons so a /big/ thank you goes to you for allowing me to work with your headcanons! Here you can read them if you want to! I might have modified some of them slightly to go better with this exact storyline but I tried to stick as close to them as possible.

Anyway, this fic got way longer than I anticipated because I wanted to see more than just the first meeting, so that's why I'm going to split it into 5 short-ish chapters. The first 2 I'm posting today but the rest of the fic, while almost complete, is still unedited so I will probably post more in a few days. I'm not sure exactly how long it will take because my little niece will visit us starting from tomorrow and I'm really bad at focusing when there's a lot going on around me... but know that more is coming soon. Same goes for Things We Lost in the Fire!

As usual, remember to let me know what you think because it will literally make my day!!

Words: 3,1k+

Genre: fluff, humor

Warnings: none

AO3 (Btw I’m considering changing my posting platform but more about that later)

...

Calypso wasn’t having the best of days. If she was honest to herself, being a coffee shop barista had never been her dream to begin with, and busy days like this particularly reminded her of that fact. The coffee shop she was working at was currently low on staff because one of Calypso’s coworkers had hurt her ankle on a slippery road and another one had caught a cold. Calypso felt like she would have needed at least 5 extra hands to get everything she wanted to do done, and it didn’t help that some of the customers had decided to be extra difficult that day.

One older woman had already tried to run from the coffee shop without paying for her order and Calypso had had to run after her, finally managing to make her come back to pay by telling her that she would call the police if the woman wouldn't obey. Another customer had yelled at her for supposedly messing up his order, claiming that he had ordered an iced mocha instead of iced coffee. Luckily Calypso’s manager had shown up just in time and explained very calmly to the customer that mocha was coffee, but the incident still left a sour taste in Calypso’s mouth. Afterwards, the manager just shook her head and told Calypso to not care about it; she knew the young woman was quite a perfectionist so she took the setbacks quite hard.

Either way, after serving the customers for four hours straight, Calypso felt she was in a serious need of a break. She was just about to let her coworkers know she’d go to the backroom when a new customer stopped in front of her, changing her plans. It was a young man, probably around her age, Calypso guessed, with curly black hair and tan skin. Thanks to his messy outfit and the mischievous gleam in his eyes he gave her an impression of one of those guys who caused chaos wherever they went just because it was fun.

Tapping his fingers nervously on the desk, he asked: “Double espresso, to go, and please be fast because my boss is gonna kill me if I’m back late. I don’t normally drink coffee but desperate times call for desperate measures.”

Calypso had already been on the edge before this customer had showed up but something about his ‘be fast’ order really rubbed her the wrong way.

“Alright, then,” she said, still trying to stay calm and refraining to tell him that they worked just as fast for every customer. “And what name should I write on the cup?”

“Bad Boy Surprise,” he replied, remaining completely poker faced. Calypso made a growling sound before managing to stop herself.

“What was that?” the young man asked, not missing her reaction.

“Nothing, must have been our coffee machine,” she lied and pretended to be focused on the espresso making. The guy still didn’t leave the queue, though, as if he wanted to say something more. “Now, Bobby, would you please move so we can serve the next customer. Your drink will be brought to that counter over there in a minute.” Calypso pointed at the said counter.

“OK, Sunshine,” the guy said, giving her a quick grin before finally leaving her alone. What a nuisance, Calypso sighed to herself as she wrote the name Bobby on his cup instead of Bad Boy Supreme. Still, she would probably have to apologize for her behavior because she did not want the guy to complain to her manager. It wasn’t really his fault that she had already had a lousy day and his arrival was simply the final straw that cut the camel’s back.

Soon she finished making the drink and found the ‘Bad Boy Supreme’ waiting at the other counter. His back was towards her, as he was checking out the coffee shop, and Calypso noticed he was carrying a big backpack. Maybe he was carrying some of his work equipment there, she guessed, before calling his name.

“Ahem. Mister Bobby. Your drink is here.”

‘Bobby’ turned towards her, for a moment clearly amused by the fact that she still refused to use the name that he had given her. Unfortunately, him turning caused a series of unfortunate events. The backpack accidentally hit a small milk jug that had been a bit too close to the edge of the counter. It fell, spilling the milk all over the counter and startling Calypso who had still been attaching the lid to the espresso cup. The cup slipped from her hand, the espresso spreading on the counter, floor and Calypso’s clothes. For a moment both Calypso and the guy just stared at the mess, not sure how to react. Calypso’s mouth formed an ‘O’ of shock before she finally snapped.

“IDIOT! LOOK WHAT YOU JUST DID! It will take me ages to clean this mess! Ugh, my clothes are wet too!” She tried to dab her wet apron with a paper towel. The guy seemed genuinely sorry, even though Calypso was too angry to pay attention to it.

“Look, I can replace the…” he started but Calypso didn’t let him finish.

“I just want you to go,” she said in a low voice. “Please, leave before I call my manager.”

“You’re not being fair now,” the guy said but conceded anyway. “I would have paid… But fine, I’ll get my espresso elsewhere.”

‘Bobby’ left and once the dust settled a bit, Calypso noticed her coworkers were giving her disapproving glances.

“Um, Calypso, was that really necessary?” One of them asked. “It was quite clearly an accident. Could have happened to any of us. And he really seemed sorry.”

All the anger suddenly left Calypso and she felt like an airless balloon. “I’m… I’m sorry… I didn’t mean to… I… need to do something in the backroom…” she excused herself before she started crying in front of everyone. Dashing past them, she left the perplexed coworkers clean the fallen drinks.

Once alone in the backroom, she buried her head into her arms and let the frustrations of the day come out. She wasn’t allowed to be alone for long, though, because soon the manager came in and started talking to her.

“I just came back from running some errands and heard some things about you causing a scene while I was gone. What was that about? You’re pretty much the last person in my staff who I’d expect to lose it in front of customers.” The manager raised her eyebrow questioningly.

Calypso started by saying that she didn’t want to make any excuses but it was a result of several things having gone wrong that day. She knew she had been totally inappropriate, but she just hadn’t been able to stop herself in that moment. Still hiding her face behind her hands, she also mumbled she would understand if the manager wouldn’t want to keep her around after that incident, but to that the manager just snorted.

“Listen, Calypso,” she said once Calypso had finished her story. “Mistakes happen to all of us. Do you think I have never snapped at idiotic customers? Even if the drink spilling was an accident, it sounds like that customer kind of deserved it for being a jerk towards you.”

“But… what if he spreads the word about my behavior and people start avoiding our coffee shop?” Calypso asked worriedly.

“I don’t think one person will have that big of an effect on our coffee shop,” the manager smiled. “We have survived our previous setbacks just fine. However,” she got more serious. “There is something you can do. To avoid the bad feedback from spreading, you will apologize to the guy for the yelling. And you could also offer him a free beverage since he got nothing to drink this time.” “But I have no idea who he was!” Calypso exclaimed, not happy about the thought of having to encounter that customer again. “He didn’t even say his real first name; he just gave me some joke name when I asked what I should write on the cup.”

“You can ask the others if any of them have seen him here before,” the manager suggested.

“Alright,” Calypso complied. “I will do that. But if they don’t know who he is…”

“Then we’ll just have to live with the fact that one customer out of the hundreds we get daily is not happy with us,” the manager said lightly before getting more serious. “Calypso, it’s not the end of the world. The main thing is that you understand what you did wrong and will do your best to not repeat it.”

Calypso was very relieved her boss took her incident that calmly. Not everyone would have been that patient, she thought, remembering some very unpleasant memories from her childhood. Already calmer after her manager’s words, she washed her face and changed into a dry apron before joining her coworkers to ask them about the guy she had yelled at. Turned out that one of them in fact remembered seeing him before.

“Yeah, I remember that guy,” Reyna, the coworker said. “He was here a couple of days ago and gave a fake name even then. I think it was Super-sized McShizzle or something like that. Anyway, he was wearing a work shirt that had a logo of a place called Waystation printed on it. I think it’s a car repair shop or something like that, but I’m not entirely sure. That could be a clue, though; maybe he works for them.”

“Waystation?” Calypso repeated, memorizing the name. “Alright, I’ll try to see if I find something with that name. Later. I’m not sure I’m mentally able to talk to him right now… I’m still a bit on the edge, to be honest.”

“Alright,” Reyna said understandingly. “If you want to, you can take care of the dishes for the rest of the day. I’ll deal with the customers.”

“Thanks,” Calypso said gratefully. “That would be good.”

“Hey, Cal?” Reyna asked tentatively, pulling her into a more private corner before she left for the dishes. “Are you sure you are OK? I don’t know, you have just seemed a bit off for a while now. Not just today.”

“Um, it’s nothing…” Calypso replied hesitantly, pretending to be interested in her hands. Reyna kept glaring at her suspiciously, though, so she continued: “Well, it’s not nothing, but… you know. It’s about /him/. I just heard the other day that the real reason why he broke up with me was because he wanted to date someone else. Yeah. Not the first time that has happened. I’m starting to get used to it.”

“Calypso…” Reyna said sympathetically. “I think I know what you’re thinking right now. It doesn’t mean there’s something wrong with you. You just… weren’t meant to be with him. Trust me, I know. I was pretty upset after I found out about Jason and Piper, but… it kind of forced me to think what I really want. And I realized that I can be happy even without a romantic partner. I’m not saying that’s your solution, but I’m saying that maybe there’s a reason why it didn’t work out with Percy. Maybe there’s someone else waiting to meet you.”

“Like who? That Bad Boy Supreme guy?” Calypso attempted to joke.

“Who knows, maybe even him,” Reyna said teasingly. The conversation ended there because a new customer was waiting for Reyna to serve her, and Calypso withdrew into the backroom to do the dishes.

…

After work Calypso laid down on her bed in her small studio apartment and decided to do some research on the mysterious Bad Boy Supreme. She searched for Waystation on her phone, learning that besides the car repairs they also sold flowers and had an animal shelter in the area. Checking the staff information, she hoped to find the names or even pictures of their employees so she could maybe progress with her search. However, it seemed they did not have up to date information on their workers on the website so instead Calypso decided to check where the place was located. It was only about a kilometer from their coffee shop, close enough that she could go there before or after work and ask for a Bad Boy Supreme. Deciding to do that the next day, she put her phone down and blew the frustrations of the day out of her system. Even though many things had not gone her way, she felt grateful that the people at her work were so supportive. It was very different from what she had gotten used to earlier in her life.

...

The next day Calypso had an evening shift at the coffee shop, but she decided to leave an hour early from her apartment so she could drop by Waystation on her way to work. It took a while for Calypso to find because the area was full of similar looking buildings and there weren’t a lot of signs around telling her where to go. Knocking the door, Calypso secretly hoped that the Bad Boy Supreme himself would open it so she could just get done with her business, but of course she wasn’t that lucky. The person showing up was an older woman, Calypso guessed probably in her 60ies, who looked fit for her age, though. The woman looked at her questioningly for a moment before finally saying: “Hello. How can I help you?”

“I am looking for a guy who presumably works here,” Calypso started. “At least, that’s what my coworker thinks. He visited our coffee shop yesterday and, um… there was this little incident I wanted to talk to him about. I don’t know his real name but he was probably around my age, kind of short, dark, curly hair, and he called himself ‘Bad Boy Supreme’. Does that ring any bells?”

“Oh, yes, I know who you are talking about.” The woman’s eyes flashed in recognition. “Did he get into some kind of trouble again? Goodness, he may be our best mechanic but he seems to be quite a trouble magnet…”

“Oh no, it isn’t like that. It was just an accident. I’m the one who’s here to apologize,” Calypso corrected her.

“Alright, then. I’ll get him now. You can come in to wait,” The woman said before disappearing further into the building. Calypso stepped inside and looked around curiously. It seemed like the people working at Waystation also lived there; from the hallway she could see a big kitchen and a stairway presumably to the bedrooms. On the walls there were pictures of two women (one of them Calypso recognized as the one who had opened the door) and a little girl looking happy to spend time together. There were also pictures related to their work: some of the nicer cars they had fixed and animals they had taken care of. Before Calypso had time to check them closer, though, the woman arrived with a young man following her. He seemed really surprised to see her.

“Alright, I’ll leave you to it,” the woman said before going back to her work.

“You’re that girl from the coffee shop. What are you doing here? And how did you find me?” the ‘Bad Boy Supreme’ asked suspiciously once they were alone. He crossed his arms, giving him the kind of glare that told Calypso he wasn’t very happy to see her, and to be fair, she couldn’t really blame him.

Suddenly Calypso felt silly about having dashed into the guy’s workplace without a warning like some kind of stalker. “I… I, um, asked my coworkers if they knew you because my boss and I agreed that I should apologize for my behavior… and someone thought you probably worked here because you had this place’s name on your shirt… so, yeah, here I am. To apologize. I’m sorry. And I realize now how weird this is. You know, me coming here. But I still wanted to let you know that if you still want to visit our coffee shop, we’ll give you a free drink because you didn’t get what you asked for yesterday.” The guy listened to her intently. He seemed to try to determine if she was being sincere, and eventually he asked: “You sure you want me there? If I remember correctly, the last time you wanted me out of there even though it was an accident.”

“Hey, I’m trying to apologize here.” A flash of anger went through Calypso again, but she tried to bite it back. “I realize I wasn’t acting like a decent coffee shop barista should back then. If you want to, we can even have someone else serve you, but I mean what I say.”

Suddenly the ‘Bad Boy Supreme’ started laughing. Calypso just stared at him, feeling slightly offended, until he finally managed to speak.

“I’m sorry for laughing, but girl, you have guts. I mean this in a good way. Not all the people I know would have come here to apologize to me after that kind of incident. You wouldn’t have needed to do that, I think I would have just forgotten about the whole thing eventually. I’m kind of used to being yelled at, you know? But I appreciate you coming here.” Then he grinned at her. “You know what? I think I’ll accept your offer. I’ll come to your coffee shop tomorrow; today Jo is making me work on this really challenging yet beautiful car and I don’t think I’ll have time to leave the place. But I’d like you to be the one serving me because it’s your apology, right?”

“Are you always this annoying?” Calypso asked, not quite sure how she should react to his response. Luckily, the guy didn’t get offended by her question.

“Some people I know may say yes, but I myself say I’m annoying only when I’m nervous around a pretty girl.”

Calypso was surprised by the compliment. She had noticed that he hadn’t had that mischievous glint in his eye when he had said it, which probably meant he was being sincere. “Oh, OK... Thanks, I guess?”

“Welcome. Just saying what I think.”

Calypso felt a bit flustered all of a sudden and didn’t know how to respond to that so she ended up tugging a loose strand of her hair behind her ear and checked the time from her phone. “Well, I should get going now, but ask for a Calypso if you can’t see me when you come to our coffee shop.”

“Calypso?” the guy seemed to evaluate the name. “Aw, I thought Sunshine suited you better. Can I at least call you Calie? Or Cal?”

“Whatever floats your boat,” Calypso shrugged. “Um, sorry but I only have like 15 minutes until my shift starts so I really should go now. But I’ll see you soon.”

“Alright, see ya.”

When Calypso was already out of the building, she realized she had still not asked the guy’s name.

#caleo #leo valdez #calypso #heroes of olympus #percy jackson and the olympians #my fics

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erinxneil · 4 years

Text

Stay with Me

This story will be based on the song:

Walk Me Home - P!nk

Primarily based on the lyric:

When I saw everything as good, but now you’re the only thing that’s good.

This was suggested by @my-own-oracle and I am super happy that you did! This was actually the most recent request that I got for this and I still have a few others i need to do, but I wanted to do this one next for several reasons. 1) The request mysteriously disappeared from my messages and was only available in the tab I still had open. 2) This song genuinely takes me back to a better time and means so much to me. 3) I just really was in the mood to write about our boy lol. Usually for these I just base these off a single lyric and write the story around that but for this one, I think the whole idea of Spencer walking the reader home and the reader asking him to stay because she doesn’t want to be alone is just super cute. Again thank you so much for suggesting this and if anyone would like for me to write a story about their ship based off a song you can send your requests anytime, the original post is here ! I was asked to write this story using the pairing Spencer and Reader from Criminal Minds!

Pairing: Spencer Reid X Reader

Warnings: Mentions of suicide

Summary: Spencer comforts Reader while she’s having a tough time.

Loud music. Voices buzzing. Spilled alcohol on the floor. Someone probably throwing up in the corner of the room.

Y/N never really liked clubs, and especially not today. The team had wanted to go out to celebrate a successful case. however she didn’t really feel like partying. This particular case had struck a chord with her, and she hadn’t been able to get over it.

The killer in this scenario had been targeting the youngest siblings, manipulating them into trusting him by honing in on their feelings of insignificance in their own life.

As someone whose youngest sibling had succumbed to these feelings and taken her own life, Y/N really did not appreciate this case.

Yesterday was a year since, and it was like this was the universe’s way to keep reliving it.

“Hey, Y/N!” I glanced up from the inside of my drink, lost in thoughts, in the direction that I heard Prentiss call my name.

I forced a smile onto my face as I gazed over at her, JJ following behind. “We’ve been looking for you everywhere, why aren’t you dancing?” I laughed curtly. “I just needed a beat. The music’s getting to me.” The girls nodded. “Well, when you’re feeling better, come join us! We wanna dance with you!”

I grinned as they walked away, the smile immediately dropping the moment they fell out of sight. Sure, they were profilers, but I was exceedingly good at hiding my emotions. Practically nobody could ever tell what I was feeling, except-

“Y/N, what’s up?”

I smiled softly at the voice behind me before turning around and forcing it to grow wider. “Spence! I’m peachy. How are you?”

He raised an eyebrow, as if to say, I’m not buying it.

“In all of the time that I have known you, you have only ever said the word “peachy” twice, and both times were with sarcastic intent.”

I blinked. “Sometimes I forget you’re an actual genius with an eidetic memory.” I forced a laugh but Spencer’s face contorted as if the sound pained him.

“Do you wanna head out? I’m getting a headache from this music. Sorry to be a buzzkill, I know I’m supposed to walk you home, and you’re having so much fun but I think we should leave.” I felt the corners of my lips perk up slightly as he spoke. Spencer didn’t do subtle. While he may think he was being subtle, I knew exactly what he was doing. And I appreciated it greatly. I nodded my head, and we walked around to say goodbye to everyone, Spencer taking full responsibility for our sudden departure.

We got outside and began to walk. It was silent for a moment,both of us admiring the beauty of the sky. It was almost pitch black, few stars speckling the night sky. I glanced up at them before Spencer finally spoke.

“So,” he began, “Rough day, huh?” I raised my eyebrows in mock surprise. “Me? I’m sure I have no clue what you’re talking about.”

Spencer sighed. “You don’t have to play this game with me, Y/N. I know this case hit you hard, especially considering the timing, and if you don’t want to talk about it that’s fine, but never feel like you have to lie to me.” I tensed. He knew. Of course he knew. He has an eidetic memory, he’s probably been watching you writhing all day, all knowing that yesterday you were forced to remember the worst moment of your life, and that the case today only amplified that.

I didn’t respond for a moment, before replying. “I was the one who found her, you know.” My voice was quiet. “I was coming home after a long day at work. I’d brought home icecream for her. I walked up to her room and-” I struggled to get the words out, my voice getting hoarse, when I felt a pressure on my hand. I glanced over at Spencer, to see his jaw locked tightly and his gaze locked forward, but his hand still rested over mine in comfort. He glanced at me quickly, a sudden softness in his eyes filled with evident concern.

I sighed. “I just wish there was something I could’ve done. I’m a profiler for gods-sake, how wasn’t I able to tell that my own baby sister was hurting?”

Spencer frowned. “You were there for her as much as you could have. And now, you’re using that to help even more people. We wouldn’t have been able to solve that case today without you suggesting that he was likely preying on the youngest siblings insecurities. That would’ve caused even more families to lose their baby sibling.”

I blinked away the tears that sprung from my eyes, trying to hide them from Spencer, but he of course noticed. His thumb began to run circles around the backside of my hand and I sighed. “Thank you, Spencer. For everything.” I glanced over at him to see him already smiling at me.

We soon arrived to my apartment. “Here, I’ll walk you up.” Spencer offered. I grinned. “Spence, you really don’t need to. You’ve done so much already-” Before I could even finish my sentence, Spencer was already walking through the doors of my apartment complex. I chuckled and followed behind him.

When we got to my room, I placed down my stuff.

“Are you alright?” He asked finally. I smiled at him. “I’m not going to break, Reid.”

Spencer rolled his eyes and warmth spread through me. “Spence, do you remember when we first met?” He nodded. “It was 492 days, 12 hours, 42 minutes and...” He checked his watch. “36 seconds ago.”

I chuckled. Of course he knew the exact date and time.

“And do you remember what happened when we met?” It was practically a rhetorical question. We both knew that he remembered. He nodded, a look of uncertainty on his face, as if he wasn’t sure where I was going with this.

“You looked at me and spouted some random fact about the probability of the occurrence of tsunami’s in the East coast, and I turned to Morgan, and I said ‘this must be the genius boy you were telling me about.’“ He smiled softly, clearly remembering. “From that moment, I felt completely at peace. It seemed as if everything in my life was going great. I had a great job, great family, and I knew I was bound to make some great new friends.”

He tilted his head, appreciating the sentiment but unsure of why I suddenly brought it up. “Sorry, I know it seems random. It’s just- seeing you roll your eyes like that, it just takes me back to that time of my life where I felt like everything was good.” I sighed. “Some days, Spence, it seems like you’re the only thing in my life that’s good anymore.”

Spencer immediately wrapped me in an embrace. “I’m always here for you, Y/N. Always.” I smiled into the crook of his neck, hugging him tighter. It was odd. I had the sudden urge to cry into his shoulder and just to have him hold me and tell me everything was going to be alright, despite the fact that I refuse to shed a single tear around anyone else.

I eventually pulled away, knowing Spencer wouldn’t have let go until I did. His hands still rest around my waist and my arms around his neck. I smiled at him and he grinned back.

He cleared his throat. “Well uh, I guess I’d better get going then-” He turned as if to walk away before i grabbed hold of one of his hands.

“Stay.”

We stared at each other a moment. My cheeks flushed, realizing the implications of what I said. I didn’t necessarily mean anything by it, I just really wanted him to stay with me tonight. “Please. You don’t have to if you don’t want to, I just.. really don’t want to be alone right now. If you don’t want to it’s fi-”

Spencer grabbed hold of both of my hands in his and smiled at me. “I’ll stay as long as you’d like me to, Y/N.”

I changed into a loose t-shirt and shorts, and for Spencer I grabbed a large t-shirt and sweatpants that my older brother had left here.

“I’m not sure if these will fit, but it’s probably the best I’ve got.” I glanced up from the clothes to find Spencer staring at me. I felt myself fidget under the weight of his gaze and my cheeks heated up. What was he doing? Were there stains on this shirt or something?

“Uh, Spence?” He blinked, as if ripped from a trance. “Y/N! Sorry! I just- uh.. I’ve never seen you in anything other than clothes from work.” I watched him scratch the back of his neck awkwardly, flipping his hair to cover his face. Was Spencer Reid blushing?

I grinned at the thought and handed him the clothes, which he quickly took and practically sprinted to the bathroom. I chuckled before heading in the direction of my bedroom, thankful I had cleaned the place yesterday during my day off. Spencer walked in the room shortly after and paused, observing his surroundings. He was no doubt trying to profile me, if not simply just because of instinct.

He walked over to my vinyl collection and ran his thumb over the slightly worn covers. “You like a lot of old music.” He commented. It wasn’t a question. He could tell.

I didn’t really mind him trying to profile me. He wasn’t trying to be nosy. It just allowed him to get to know me better without me even having to say a word, which I think is pretty great.

He smiled as he came across my book collection. He picked up my copy of Wuthering Heights and fingered through the pages. He probably noted the messy handwriting smudged between the margins and the creases in the pages where I had left as a bookmark. He probably noted the coffee stain on page 187, dark enough for him to realize I took my coffee black.

“Do you annotate all of your books?” I grinned. “Yeah, I like to be able to read it later again and know exactly what was going through my mind during the last time I read it.”

I heard soft laughter as he flipped through the pages of another book. “Only you would leave comments making fun of Shakespeare in the margins of Romeo and Juliet.” I chuckled.

He then came across my makeup table, which was a sight that’d make a neat freak weep. Despite having cleaned my place yesterday, when I do my makeup in the morning I tend to throw my products everywhere. I use the same three products everyday but I always manage to lose them in the box of products, so the table is a scattered array of mascara, highlight, and eye-shadow.

He turned back to face me. “Sorry for looking through your things. A persons room just tells you so much about them.” I smiled. “And what did you learn about me, Dr. Reid?”

“You’re organized in a disorganized way. You clean your place often because you dislike the cluttered feeling that you get when it’s messy, however if the place was messy you would still manage find. You’d still know where everything is and how to find it. You desire to maintain the status of olden days and are still stuck in the past in some aspects of your life. You don’t wish to move foward, as you’re scared of what the future may hold and dislike change. You thoroughly enjoy reading and reread the same books often because you like the familiarity that they offer and you aren’t unsure of the ending. I’m sure you look up spoilers to any show or movie that you watch after the first ten moments because you can’t handle not knowing.”

I stared at him. “Wise observations, Dr. Reid.” He blushed again and I laughed, throwing a pillow at him. “You’re cute. Why do you keep blushing at everything I say?”

He laughed aswell, turning slightly to shield himself from the pillow. “Leave me alone, Y/L/N!” We joked around for a bit more before we both sat on the edge of my bed in comfortable silence.

After a while, Reid sighed. “Well, I’ll go take the couch then-” I reached out and grabbed his hand as he began to sit up.

“Could you actually... stay with me?”

He turned to face me, an unreadable look in his eyes.

“Is that what you want?” I nodded in response. Spencer paused for a moment longer, before smiling and agreeing. I grinned and crawled into bed and Spencer followed behind awkwardly. We glanced at each-other and started laughing.

“This isn’t weird, is it?” “A little bit, but it’s alright.” We chuckled before it soon became silent again.

“Thank you again, Spencer.” I quietly murmured.

He wrapped an arm around me in response, and I fell asleep to him whispering in my ear, “Anytime, Y/N.”

-*-*-*-*-*-

Sorry for not posting for 2 days!! I was preparing for going on vacation and didn’t have much time. Keep sending me requests!

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pixelfun20 · 4 years

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Flower Fields: Chapter 2

Chapter 1

Notes: Again, all credit to @give-grian-rights (hope you don’t mind the tag!) for the concept! Thank you so much! Also almost forgot to post this on Tumblr rip.

No fighting wars, no ringing chimes

We're just feeling fine

Tubbo started out by building his starter base.

It was a concept he’d learned about while living with Xisuma, and it was quite a good one, too. After all, megabases worthy of Hermitcraft’s admittedly lofty standards often took months to build, and he’d need somewhere to live in the meantime. In Season 6, he’d neglected that fact, and had suffered his fair share of mob deaths before he put up four walls and a ceiling to protect himself, back when he’d left to live on his own. And that was with a small, quickly-thrown together base, not the project he was currently planning.

Still, even setting up the basics of his starter base took a few nearly sleepless days. Finally, the framework for the build, a treehouse spanning more than a few trees at the edge of the forest, was up, and Tubbo was finally able to place a bed down in safety and sleep for a solid fourteen hours straight.

Xisuma dropped by, quite literally, a day or so later.

Tubbo had been sitting in his quickly-expanding living room, sorting through the loot he’d gotten from yesterday’s day-long mining session when he swooped down through the half-finished roof. While he was still wearing his bee-themed armor, now there were two glider-like wings, shimmering purple, strapped to his back.

“Heya, X,” Tubbo greeted the admin with a wave, closing one of his chests. “You got elytra already?”

“Tango and I defeated the Ender Dragon yesterday,” Xisuma replied, touching down softly. Tubbo made an ‘ah’ sound, recalling the achievement he’d seen out of the corner of his eye the other day. Right; he’d forgotten about that. Trust X to be as efficient as possible and defeat one of the toughest monsters in the world just for the ease of travel.

“I’ll have to go endbusting soon, then,” he said, more to himself than X. Before the elder man could protest (ah, he was getting good at noticing when he was going to), he added: “Stress and xB have already asked me to go with them, so don’t worry , alright?”

“Good,” Xisuma sighed. “It’s never a good idea to go out on your own, especially since this’ll be your first time seriously exploring the End.”

Tubbo rolled his eyes good naturedly. To be fair, he hadn’t gone out to the End before it had been conquered before. He’d had a fair few trips last Season, mostly with X, but it was generally for the XP farm once it’d been set up. He’d never left the main island before. Now that he had considerably more freedom at the beginning of the Season, he was excited to go exploring.

“Anything bring you over?” He asked, changing the subject.

Xisuma nodded. “Yeah. A bunch of the others are getting together for some sort of wrestling tournament this weekend.”

“And I’ve been invited?!” He grinned, clapping his hands together.

“As the referee.”

“Ah,” he pouted. “Darn.”

“Don’t worry,” Xisuma chuckled, setting down a shulker box. “It can be a lot funner to watch sometimes; I’m just going to be part of the audience, too. I think Doc wanted you because he thinks he can bribe you.”

“He can not !”

Xisuma raised an eyebrow. “Area 77.”

“Oh, that’s not fair. I am completely unbiased!”

“And that was why you became their lawyer and not for all the cool experiments they had. I don’t think Cleo has forgiven you for defeating her in court.”

“No one can defeat Big Law,” Tubbo sniffed, faux-offended, and Xisuma laughed. “Well, I’ll show him!” He declared, crossing his arms. “I’ll just have to make sure he loses, then!” Xisuma blinked, and he laughed. “Kidding! Kidding!” Mostly .

“So you’re going?”

“Sure! It’s nice to see the Hermits all in one place, anyways. What’s in the shulker?”

Xisuma tilted his head teasingly. “What do you think? Someone had to get the supplies for our honey farm.”

Tubbo gaped. “You’re ready to build farms already?! Man, and I thought I was ahead of the game with just having my base halfway done.”

The armored man shrugged, looking about the partially completed build. “Well, you’ve certainly put more effort into this than me. Truly, your building skills are already improving. I love how you’re styling the roof with peaks like you are; it looks like it took a while.”

“My last house had a roof like that, too,” Tubbo reminded him, glancing up as well. It had become a tradition, of sorts, to build curved, peaked roofs onto his builds. Last season it had been one of the few things he’d built slowly to make look as good as possible. In all honesty, it was his own way of honoring the person who’d made it possible for him to come here, to have a life worth living once again. Rushing through the technique just felt disrespectful.

“Yes, but you’ve definitely gotten better.” Xisuma bent down over the shulker box, checking its contents. “Do you have any good ideas for where to make the bee farm? I’ll admit, I’ve been a bit too busy to scout out a good area.”

“Really? Then where’d you get these guys?”

“Tree farming in the desert.”

Tubbo snorted into his hand, and he could practically feel Xisuma’s embarrassment. “Well, you did say you hadn’t scouted out a good spot.”

“Indeed I did.”

“I can take a look around here and see what I can find. Meadows are supposed to be excellent places for farming bees, right?”

“Indeed it is,” Xisuma agreed. “Do you have plans for your megabase, yet?”

Tubbo nodded, grinning. “And trust me, it’s going to be awesome .”

............

Two days later, a chicken appeared in his base. Tubbo found it laying an egg in what was starting to become the base’s storage area, with one of his shirts nearly ripped to shreds in what appeared to be a makeshift nest.

There was a nametag wrapped around its leg. After some chicken wrangling and a few feathers to the face, he got a good look at it and realized there wasn’t a name written there, but a set of coordinates.

A set of coordinates rather far away, but who was he to turn down such an intriguing mystery?

With the chicken now renamed Wilbur and placed in a pen (he’d needed a chicken farm anyways), Tubbo set out that morning with a few supplies to find the spot he was looking for. After crossing a fair bit of forest and ocean, by the next day he’d found himself cutting his way through the underbrush of an overgrown jungle and wondering why in the world Stress had wanted to wait a week before going to get their elytra.

He pushed a few low-hanging vines out of the way, checking his communicator for the upteenth time. He was getting closer, now. This better be worth going out a few hundred chunks in the middle of nowhere—hey, wait a minute!

There was smoke in the distance. He could just make it out through the leaves, and now that he concentrated, he could smell it, too. Tubbo rushed forwards, pushing through the brush to see several man-made wooden pillars sticking out. As he pressed forwards, he made out a semi-stone floor, several chests, and a small fire in the middle, explaining the smoke.

“What is this?” He asked himself, looking around the place. The coordinates were right, and yet no one was here. Just this outpost in the middle of the jungle.

Tubbo walked around. There were some papers pinned to the wall, and a few dispensers lying around. Idly he pressed the buttons on them, already starting to form a plan to enact revenge on whoever made him travel over a day to get this place.

He pressed the button on the dispenser in the middle of the build and nearly got an arrow to the face.

Tubbo yelped, his reflexes, honed from a half year of training, the only thing saving him from a sudden death. A bell rang behind him, but it took him a few more moments to calm his racing heart.

“Not funny! You nearly took my head off!” He shouted to the jungle. Still, he didn’t leave, instead turning to the bell the arrow had his, examining it. Huh.

There were some cookies in one of the chests, probably left behind by whoever had actually built the place. He nibbled on it, only half hungry, as he tried to examine the place better.

“HERMIT CHALLENGES!”

Tubbo shrieked , dropping the remains of his cookie as the voice rang through the forest air. He looked around, trying to find the source, but found that he couldn’t.

“INITIATION!”

A diamond-clad figure dropped out of the vines above, landing with a firm thud on one of the ground dispensers. He nearly lost his balance before righting himself with a huff.

“Mumbo!” Tubbo exclaimed, a little annoyed but mostly impressed.

“INITIATION!” He shouted at the top of his lungs. “HERMIT CHALLENGES! YOU ARE BEING INDUCTED.”

“How long have you been up there?! It took me over a day to get here.”

“No matter, Mr. Tubbo! Congratulations! You’re in!”

“...Thanks?”

“Of course, my friend! You have been inducted into Hermit Challenges! Of course, you could have eaten the entire cookie—” he glanced down at the crumbs at Tubbo’s feet. “But besides that you have acted perfectly.”

“Wait, what is Hermit Challenges?” Tubbo asked, blinking. What? This version of Mumbo was almost nothing like the Mumbo he’d seen at Spawn a mere week and a half ago. Who used chickens to deliver messages? Or perch in a tree for supposed hours on end?

Okay, he had to admit, that last one was pretty funny.

“Oh, it’s a game I’ve made up,” Mumbo continued. “Iskall and I have already had a go at it, and I figured I’d invite you next.”

“...Alright, then. How do I play?”

“It’s simple! Write down three challenges and put them in the dispenser. Then we’ll pick one at random from each other.”

Mumbo reached into one of the chests on the ground, taking out a sheath of paper and passing three to him with a pen. Tubbo looked at him, and Mumbo grinned.

“Go on! I’m sure you’ll have something fun in that head of yours.”

Ah, he was right. Tubbo gave in with a smile, leaning back and thinking briefly about what he wanted to challenge Mumbo. A few ideas came to mind, and he quickly scribbled them down, pushing them into one of the two dispensers on the side of the small build, Mumbo doing the same.

“Alright, then!” Mumbo announced with a smile. “You go first.”

Tubbo stepped towards Mumbo’s dispenser and clicked the button, causing a slip of paper to slide out. He unrolled it, then read it out loud.

“‘Steal everyone’s front doors for the rest of the season.’ What? The whole season?!”

Mumbo laughed. “Oh, that one! Man, you got the hardest one from me!”

“Well, I’m sure it’s nothing compared to what you’ll get from me.”

“We’ll see,” Mumbo said with a chuckle. He moved across the platform, and pressed the button the dispenser Tubbo had put his challenges in. The dispenser whirred, and then another slip of paper popped out. Mambo picked it up and read off of it, face contorting as he did so. “...‘Act like you don’t believe in the moon for the next two weeks, and claim the sky is a hologram put up by the SCA (Secret Chickens Agency) to keep us from seeing the real overlords- the sky chickens.’ What?”

Tubbo snickered at that, covering his mouth with one hand. Oh, he was proud of that one.

“No, seriously, this is awfully specific.”

“What? It’s funny!”

“Funny for you!” But Mumbo was smiling, and Tubbo grinned back at him.

“I’m going to be having a fun few weeks,” he giggled.

“So am I,” Mumbo agreed with a raised eyebrow, tucking the slip of paper away. He clapped Tubbo’s shoulder. “I suppose I’ll have to make up a good story to go with this prompt.”

“And I have some doors to steal!” Tubbo laughed.

“Whoever gets the first complaint in chat wins?”

“You’re on!”

#tubbo #tubbolive #hermitcraft #mcyt #xisumavoid #mumbo jumbo #hermit challenges #fluff #Hermit!Tubbo AU #watcher!tubbo #it took me like a month but hey I updated

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snowdice · 4 years

Text

Finding the Time to Study Fic 2 [Day 31]

Here is my starting post for today’s study break stories session. See this post for more details and feel free to send me asks to keep me going! It’s been a lot of fun so far! I will reblog this post with the story as I write them today. I’ll be constantly looking for ideas of times and places for Janus to have missions, so feel free to send in any you can think of at any point!

If you are a new follower or just don’t want all of these posts clogging your dash, please feel free to block the tag “study break stories” as all posts and voting about it will go there. You can still see the finished product of the story even if you are blocking that tag as I will not tag the edited chapters with “study break stories” but with the tag “folds in paper.” See edited chapters below. Chapters 3-8 and what I have of Chapter 9 are under the cut.

My Masterpost Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8

I also have a playlist on youtube (because Spotify didn’t have one of the songs I wanted). It’s short, and not really for serious listening, but I had fun with it.

Still feeling unmotivated. I’ve got to get this presentation done though.

Chapter 9

Khalid immediately called everyone back to base.

“What happened?” asked Fred when he and Lena arrived. The tech people were already scrambling to get through to the TPI and get the time lock broken from the outside.

“Remus, Remy, and Khalid got played by Pat or whatever his name is. It certainly isn’t Nick. He was just setting up a joke,” Janus told him.

“Stop being smug,” Remy said. “It’s not a good look for you.”

“Pat is…?” Lena asked.

“They guy who fucked me over in 1923,” Janus said, “and is currently in the middle of fucking us all over because he stole the pin timepiece, and by extrapolation, probably the time bomb too.”

“It will be fine,” said Khalid, “because what he doesn’t know is that timepiece has a tracker on it. Wherever and whenever he went, we’ll have his coordinates.”

“Speaking of,” one of the techies said. “It’s about to break. You might want to hold onto something.” Janus grabbed for a support beam next to him as the techie put a device on the ground in the center of the base. It blinked once, twice, and on the third blink the ground rumbled. There were sounds of panicked yelps outside. The fail safe for the time lock was not nearly as gentle as ending it correctly.

Everything settled after a few moments, and they all straightened themselves out. Janus’s timepiece buzzed to indicate it was now functioning normally. Khalid had returned her usual timepiece to her wrist and now used it to open a display they could all see. “The pin timepiece’s closest time/space coordinates are…” she trailed off. “Right outside?” She frowned. “That’s strange. Why would he still be here?” She turned to march outside, following the coordinates to a trash can. She pulled the pin timepiece out and stared at it. “Fuck,” she said.

“What just happened?” Remy asked.

“He ticked us,” Janus said. “Again.”

“He was stuck in the time lock,” Khalid said. “That’s why he got our attention. He couldn’t leave with the time bomb unless he had the pin timepiece or we broke the time lock. Apparently, he’s smart enough to know that if he took the pin timepiece away from here, we’d probably be able to find him, but he knew we’d break the lock as soon as the pin went missing. So, he must have stashed his own timepiece and went back in time within the time lock to grab it while we were distracted with the past version of him. As soon as the time lock went down, I imagine he left.”

“Probably with the time bomb,” Janus said.

“Probably with the time bomb,” she confirmed.

And everyone knew the only thing worse than a time bomb was a time bomb you didn’t know the location of.

They evacuated after that, of course, and time locked the location once they were out just in case they were wrong, but midnight 3000 struck without thousands of people dying in Brazil, so the time bomb had defiantly been removed from then.

The, they initiated a time travel lockdown for all nonessentials, not willing to let random history students get caught up in an explosion if Pat decided to set the thing off somewhere.

Then, it was a matter of figuring out everything they could about ‘Pat.’ First, they checked the tracker data as Khalid had tagged him with one of the Millennium Bird trackers. It wouldn’t work outside of the zone they’d set up that day, but the record would show his behavior during the time lock after he’d escaped with the pin timepiece.

There had been many little green dots on the map that day as Fred and Lena had actually been doing the job they’d set out to do, but most of those were running around in the south. There had been one green dot, however, that appeared suddenly in the game area about 10 minutes before the time bomb had been stolen.

They could see Janus’s yellow dot almost brush his when he’d been chasing the earlier Pat down, around when he’d lost him briefly. The earlier Pat must have all but handed it off to his future self.

“He doubled back,” Remus commented when they watched the recorded data. It was a ballsy move and one that most people balked at, because there were inherent dangers any time you interacted with yourself from a different point in the timestream. It was ripe for paradoxes. It made everyone at the agency even more worried, because if he was willing to risk that, then what else was he willing to do?

Because of the lockdown of all nonessential time travel, people working for the TPI were not allowed to go home for the night. They were allowed to pick up anyone or anything dependent on them for care like kids and pets if there wasn’t someone in their home time to care for them, but other than that, they were unfortunately all sleeping in their offices for the foreseeable future.

“You are the only tolerable one,” Janus told the cat who upon being let loose in the office by Remus, immediately jumped on Janus’s lap.

“I have literally done nothing to you,” Lena said, but then added. “Yet.”

“You exist. In my space.”

“Can’t we just all get along?” asked Fred. “It’s only been an hour past when we’d usually go home. I went and grabbed milk and I have my giant thing of different flavored hot chocolate under my desk. We can try them all and vote on which is better.”

“Fuck your hot chocolate, Fred,” Janus growled, having been one of the three who had chipped in to buy it for him on his last birthday.

“Don’t go after Fred, jackass,” Lena spat.

“He’s just testy because his boyfriend escaped,” Remus contributed.

Janus’s lips turned down into a frown and he cupped Diesel Fuel’s face. “We agree we’re eating him first, right?” he asked her.

She purred her agreement.

“I’d have it no other way,” Remus replied.

“There is plenty of food,” Fred said, sounding stressed. “In fact, I was thinking we should all chip in on ordering take-out soon. “What does everyone like on pizza?”

“This is not a slumber party, Fred,” Janus pointed out.

“Shut it,” Lena snapped and turned to Fred. “I’m fine with almost everything, except…”

“Bananas and tuna salad!” Remus interrupted.

“…whatever Remus is about to say.”

Janus rolled his eyes as that started a debate about whether or not fruit and/or fish belonged on pizza. He leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes, which was when there was a knock on the door.

He froze when he heard the familiar voice. “Hello, hello,” said Emile, cheerfully. Janus looked up to see Emile standing at the open office door. Shit. Apparently, the man had decided to give up on sending lackeys to come fetch him and had decided to track him down himself when Janus couldn’t even escape without breaking a time lockdown. They met eyes briefly and Janus could see irritation if not anger in his eyes despite his otherwise cheerful expression and tone.

“Janus,” he said when he’d gotten their attention. “I’d like to have dinner with you.” The word choice told Janus everything he needed to know. Usually Emile was careful with how he said things to make sure people knew they had a choice. Typically he’d say something like, “I was wondering if you’d have time to have dinner with me tonight,” or “I’m about to go get food, would you like to come?” Today, there was no choice in the statement.

Janus still dried to dodge anyway. “Uh,” he said. “We were actually about to order pizza.”

“Go ahead,” said Fred kindly. Janus wanted to strangle him. “We can order pizza with olives if you’re not here.”

“I…” said Janus. “Guess, I’ll be going with you.”

“Great!” Emile said. “Let’s go.”

“Oh,” Janus said. “Uh, now?”

“Now,” Emile said a bit of uncharacteristic steel to his tone.

Well, Janus was screwed. He swallowed his nervousness and got to his feet, taking Diesel Fuel with him. He turned to hand her off to Remus with a plea in his eye, but he just got an eyebrow raise in return. Traitor.

Then, he followed Emile out of the office door. “What would you like to eat?” asked Emile.

“Uh,” Janus said. “I don’t know. You asked me to eat, don’t you have any ideas?”

“I don’t actually,” Emile replied. Right.

“…Noddle Bar?” Janus threw out the nearest restaurant he knew.

“The one noodle restaurant? Sure,” Emile answered simply. They walked side by side out of the front doors of the TPI building. Janus actually couldn’t remember the last time he’d taken these stairs. He usually used his timepiece to get in and out.

The noodle bar was only moderately busy at this time. They were quickly able to find a table near the back and Emile pulled his menu up in front of him. Emile hummed as he flipped through the different displays. “What are you having?” he asked.

“I don’t know,” Janus said, only then pulling up the menu himself, but still not quite looking at it.

“What about the fortune noodles,” Emile suggested.

Janus shook his head. “I don’t like those,” he said.

Emile glanced at him through the menu displays. “You used to.” Fortune noodles were a bit cheekily named. They didn’t actually indicate anything about your future. They were just supposed to taste like what you wanted from your future. A grad student might experience a feeling like they’d just aced a paper. A child that they got to stay up an hour later that night. Janus had liked the experience when he was younger, but in recent years, he’d begun to taste the underlying chemicals in the dish until that’s all he could.

“Well,” Emile said lightly, eyes on his menu. “That makes me even more worried for your mental health than I already was because of the almost three years of you avoiding talking to me.”

“No small talk, huh?” Janus asked.

“Forgive me,” Emile said, eyes now focused on Janus, and tone much darker. “How has your life been since I last saw your face 5 months ago during a business meeting and you refused to look me in the eye? Anything interesting happen? Shave your head and let it all regrow? Develop an allergy to peanuts? Join a convent and take an oath of silence that you only just broke today?”

“No,” said Janus quietly into the table.

“Great,” Emile said clipped. “Small talk over. Order your food.” Janus reached up blindly to select the first thing that came up on the food and drink menu as Emile punched something into his own and both menu displays disappeared, meaning there was nothing between their faces anymore. “You know, I was willing to give you a year,” Emile said. “I was willing to let you deal with it on your own because I thought eventually, you’d come talk to me about it, but apparently I was mistaken. The next year, I thought maybe you thought I didn’t want to talk to you, so I subtly made myself available, and you never took me up on the offer. I thought maybe I was just not being clear, and I should make my desire to talk to you more explicit, but as you have been routinely, clearly avoiding me at every single turn, I’ve decided I’ve had enough. So, let’s lay it all on the table. Is it me or do you need help?”

Janus closed his eyes. “It’s not you.”

“Then you need help,” Emile concluded.

Janus shook his head.

“Yes,” Emile snapped. “Whatever this is has gone on far too long.”

Janus stood up and slammed his hand down on the table. “And it’s going to keep going on!” he said. The food popped up at that moment. It appeared Janus had ordered lasagna and bubble tea, and Emile had ordered something with spaghetti and a fizzy drink.

“So, you’re just planning to go on being miserable then?” Emile asked, and Janus wasn’t sure if it was worse or better that he didn’t sound angry anymore.

Janus slapped his hand down on the “To Go” button and his dinner was insta-wrapped by the table. “Yes,” he said.

“What exactly do you think you’re paying penance for, Janus?” Emile asked.

“You wouldn’t understand,” Janus said, paying for both of their meals with his fingerprint.

“That’s a cop out and you know it,” Emile said. “All you’d have to do is talk to me. Or even just talk to someone else. Please.”

“Just…” Janus said, grabbing his bag of food to avoid looking at him. “Just, leave me be.” He walked out of the noodle shop without another word.

Chapter 10

“And I thought Remus was going to be the most disgusting roommate in this equation,” Lena grumbled. Janus and Lena were apparently the earlier risers in the group as Fred was still curled up around a pillow and Remus was sprawled out under his desk.

Janus flipped her off.

“Protein infused Poptarts and caffeinated orange juice for breakfast?” she asked. “Just eat an energy bar and have a cup of coffee like a normal person.”

He took another pointed bite of his Poptart.

“You’re a horrible roommate. This is why they gave us different partners.”

“Yeah, well you snore, asshole,” Janus said after finishing off his meal.

“I’d tell you to go eat shit, but you already did that once this morning.”

A pillow flew across the room and somehow managed to hit the both of them. “S’op fighting,” Fred mumbled. “It’s sleep time.”

“It’s morning Fred,” Lena said.

“No,” Fred mumbled.

Janus ignored them, turning back to his integration port to continue to keep plugging in phrases of interest, but he kept getting nothing.

“What are you doing?” Lena asked after a few moments of him huffing at his screen reader.

“Trying to do anything that may change our current living arrangements.”

She puffed out an amused breath. “Can I help?”

“Can you see any connection between these words and phrases?” he asked, pulling away his screen reader and tapping at the words he’d typed out.

“Paranoid, tonight, I live to party, comeback, love Bug, BB good, Mandy, Macy Misa, I believe, cool, that’s just the way we roll, burnin’ up,” she said. “What are these?”

“They’re things Pat said when we interrogated that struck me funny,” Janus explained. “I feel like he was saying something more than what he said.”

“Hmm,” she said. “PTI for the first three?”

“Maybe,” Janus agreed, “but what about the rest of it? I feel like I’m missing something.”

15080

“Millennia,” Remus mumbled from under his desk. Janus hadn’t been aware he was awake. “He said something something about it being the only time he could see the change of the millennia.” He turned his head to look at Janus. “Considering he’s a time traveler, that’s definitely a weird thing to say.”

“Millennia,” Janus contemplated. “A different turn of the millennia. Oh no.”

“What?” Lena asked.

Janus sighed, and rubbed his temple. “I know someone who studied the 1700-2200s.”

“Isn’t that good?”

“No,” Janus groaned, “because now I have to go talk to him.” He stood with a sigh and then paused. “How do I even get to Silver Mountains University without my timepiece?”

Luckily Sliver Mountains ended up only being about an hour away from the TPI by time adherent travel, but considering Janus was used to his travel being instantaneous, it was an aggravating trip. He had to show ID and be buzzed up to the fourth floor since it was usually locked to everyone not traveling by timepiece or who worked in the office.

The receptionist was the same man as before. “I’m here to speak to Professor Eran,” Janus said.

The receptionist nodded. “He mentioned you asked to meet him but didn’t know when you’d arrive. He’ll be done teaching his class in about 5 minutes. You can wait over there.”

Janus nodded and sat, waiting for time to slowly tick by. Virgil arrived after a few minutes, lugging a giant bag with him. He caught sight of Janus and wordlessly jerked his head towards the hallway. Janus followed him.

“What’s in the bag?” Janus asked.

“Early 21st century cell phones,” Virgil said, dropping it on his desk. “I let my students mess around with them for their lab.”

“I see,” Janus said.

“What did you need?” Virgil asked. “You said it was official business.”

“You’ve heard about the lockdown, I presume,” Janus said.

“Yeah, it really screws up my research schedule for the summer,” Virgil said.

15412

“Do you know why the lockdown was instituted?” Janus asked. Virgil shook his head, so Janus explained briefly that they had been trying to find a timebomb on the eve of the year 3000, but it had been swiped by a free agent time traveler. “Some of the things seemed to be references to things that I couldn’t place, and I was wondering if you would recognize any.”

“Shoot,” Virgil requested, seeming intrigued by the prospect.

“Okay,” Janus said. “First, the alias he was using was Nick Jonas.” A weird expression crossed Virgil’s face immediately and Janus paused.

“You said the year 3000?” Virgil asked.

“Er. Yes.”

“Nick Jonas. Year 3000,” Virgil repeated with a snort. “Were Joe and Kevin a part of this too?”

Janus blinked. “Yes, how did you know that?”

“Yo-you’re going to have,” his sentence was broken by a giggle, and actual full-fledged giggle, “have to give me a minute.” With that, he sort of listed to the side and seemed to purposefully fall off his chair onto the floor under his desk.

Janus blinked and when he didn’t surface after a moment, he stood up to lean over the desk and look down at him. Virgil had his arm thrown over his beat red face, as he shook from what Janus thought was suppressed laughter.

“What?” Janus asked. “What’s wrong?”

“Just…” Virgil said, sobbing through his laughter. “Just tell me the things he said.”

“Er, mostly he just had weird inflections on words and phrases. There was ‘paranoid, tonight, I live to party, comeback…’”

“Wait, stop,” Virgil said. “Let me guess a few. That’s Just the Way We Roll, Burnin’ Up, Sucker.”

“The first two were, but not the last one.”

Virgil laughed. “Maybe the last one was just implied.”

Janus frowned down. “What are you talking about? What does this all mean?”

Virgil pulled himself out from under his desk and grabbed his bag of phones. He dug through it for a few seconds before pulling one out and handing it to Janus. “I have a lab for my students where they get preloaded phones from the early 21st century and are supposed to guess the demographics of the person who owns it. This one is an iPhone 3 meant to belong to a pre-teen to teenage girl from the year 2009. Look under music artists starting with the letter ‘J.’”

15810

Confused, Janus scrolled through the old style phone, finding the music app and opening it easily. Upon getting to the ‘J’s, he immediately paused on an artist called the ‘Jonas Brothers.’ He clicked on it and read a few of the song titles. They weren’t all there, but…

“That rat bastard,” Janus said.

“Scroll to the bottom,” Virgil said. Janus did and found a song titled ‘Year 3000.’

“You’re kidding me.”

“Click on it,” Virgil requested.

Janus did, listening to the fairly standard pop like intro from the time period. It wasn’t until he got to the lyrics saying, ‘He told me he built a time machine’ that he cursed, understanding exactly what Pat had been doing. When the singer a few lines latter proclaimed that his neighbor said ‘I’ve been to the year 3000’ he almost smashed the artifact to pieces right then and there.

“I have no idea who this guy is,” Virgil said, “but he’s a comedic genius.”

Chapter 11

Khalid caught him on his way back into the TPI building. “I heard you went to Silver Mountains to follow up on a lead,” she said.

“Yeah, but it was garbage,” he seethed. “All I learned was ‘Pat’ knows early 2000s popular culture and likes to fuck with us.”

She hummed. “I’d still like a report about whatever you found. Who knows what we might end up getting from seemingly inconsequential data.”

“Sure,” he said.

“Anyway,” she continued. “I have a mission for you.”

“We’re on lockdown,” Janus pointed out with a frown.

“For nonessentials,” she said. “This is essential.”

“What happened?” Janus asked.

“We picked up a small time distortion in France 2027. At the moment, it is small enough not to cause any disruptions, but it is slowly growing, and we don’t know what caused it. Usually we’d just send surveillance agents at this stage, but considering what’s going on, I think it would be best to send a field agent. And it would just be you, because we don’t want to send too many people out at once.”

“Is this related to the time bomb?” Janus asked.

“I’m not sure,” she said. “At the very least, it’s not it being set off as it was in 2999, but if it’s been altered for some other purpose…”

“I’ll go,” Janus said.

“I’ll send over the mission directive to everyone who needs it. You’ll go in around 3 hours.”

He nodded. “I’ll be ready,” he agreed.

In less then 3 hours, he was dressed for 2027 France and in decontamination. “Well,” he said out loud when he was given the all clear sign, “I hope I don’t explode.” He selected the coordinates on the timepiece and the next moment he was in a small alleyway in the city of Montpellier, France in 2027.

It was a little bit warm, but not stifling even in the mid-afternoon and he could faintly smell the sea on the breeze.

After a moment to get his bearings, Janus made his way out of the alleyway and onto a small street. The street was lined with restaurants and shops as people went about their daily lives. He carefully integrated himself into the crowd and began weaving his way through them. He needed to find the source of the distortion but doing a quick scan with his timepiece told him there wasn’t any sign of it yet. He’d have to wait for it to act up.

For now, he decided to get slightly away from people by heading towards the river. He found a park that had benches along water.

As he walked towards the river, he noticed a man on the bench, angled slightly away from Janus and looking out at the water. He immediately recognized the man. “You!” he exclaimed.

Pat’s head shot around to look at him, and he gave a slight head tilt. Then, he smiled, amused. “You are not the person I’m here for,” he said.

“Well, I am now,” Janus snapped. “Where’s the time bomb?”

“Time bomb?” Pat asked, eyebrows drawing together, but amusement on his lips. “Oh sweetie, the time bomb happened a long time ago for me.”

“What?” Janus asked.

“Oh, you’re just a baby,” Pat laughed. “Don’t you get it yet? The two of us are out of sync timeline wise. You’ve been apparently running around with a much younger version of me, but all of that happened quite a while ago for me. Don’t worry though, it gets better.”

“What are you talking about?”

“The time bomb has been long deactivated. Here,” he reached into his pocket and tossed him something. Janus caught it on instinct. “Proof. Don’t worry, we took all of the dangerous bits out years ago from my perspective.” It was the core of a time bomb, the time bomb Pat had stolen if he was to be believed. “You can tell your people it’s safe to remove the lockdown.”

Janus curled his fingers around it. “I don’t get it.”

Something on Pat’s wrist beeped and he looked at it curiously before he stood from the bench, “and I don’t have time to explain it.”

Janus jerked forward to grab his wrist. “Don’t you dare.”

Pat reached up to pat his face. “Don’t worry honey, you’ll be seeing me later.” He twisted his wrist and a small electric current sparked between them. Janus jerked his hand away, and Pat smiled at him. “Or… earlier.” He winked, and then he was gone.

Janus cursed, but he didn’t have more than a moment to be angry because in the next second there was a yelp, and something landed on top of him. He was bowled over into a tangle of limbs and pained noises.

“Oh my god, we need to figure out the height thing,” a familiar voice groaned, just as Janus managed to pull himself away. Pat blinked up at him and his eyes narrowed. “You,” he hissed.

“…What?”

Pat jumped to his feet, leaving Janus on the ground in front of him. “What are you doing here?” he spat, his tone much different then the one he’d been using a moment earlier. His hair was longer than it had been before, and if Janus looked closely, he did seem like he was a couple of years younger suddenly. Out of sync timelines. I’ll see you earlier. Holy shit.

He was suddenly very glad he’d been forced to let the other Pat (the older Pat?) go, else they’d have a whole thing on their hands.

“What are you doing here?” was Janus’s retort as he stood up and dusted himself off.

“It’s none of your business,” Pat told him.

“It is my business,” Janus said, “because for all I know, you are the cause of the time distortions I’m after. Considering that I doubt you have a license for that,” he waved at the odd looking timepiece of Pat’s wrist, “it’s very possible.”

“What are you?” Pat asked, “the time police.”

“Yes.”

Pat dared to roll his eyes, but then he tilted his head slightly. “Time distortions?” he asked.

“Yes, that’s why I’m here.”

He still had a confused frown on his face. Did… did he not know what a time distortion was?

Just then there was a sudden flash of lightening through the sky despite the absolutely lack of clouds. He and Pat both looked up.

“Is that the time distortion?” Pat asked.

“It’s probably the beginning of it,” Janus said.

“That doesn’t look good,” Pat said as he squinted at the sky.

“Just wait,” Janus answered grimly. He looked at Pat. ��Usually I’d arrest you on the spot,” he said, “but I’m alone for this one, and that is far more important at the moment. So, have a nice day doing whatever bullshit you are doing.” He glanced at his timepiece.

Janus turned to walk away from him.

“Wait!” Pat exclaimed, and Janus turned back to him to see that his eyes were wide. Janus raised an eyebrow. “So, this time distortion thing is dangerous, right?”

“Depending on the severity, it could cause time to fracture around this place and time, basically erasing it from existence and killing everyone in it.”

“Well, in that case, I should go with you. To help.”

Janus looked him up and down. “You… have no idea what’s happening, do you? You’re an amateur.”

“I’m not,” he claimed. “I just. Pooling resources. You know?”

Janus sighed. “Well, you going around mucking about this time period without knowing what you’re doing could just exasperate the situation, so fine, you can tag along.”

“I know what I’m doing,” he grumbled even as he rushed to Janus’s side at the permission.

“Sure,” Janus said with an eyeroll. He guessed he was a babysitter now. “I believe you.”

Chapter 12

There was something off about his readings. Clearly the time distortion was starting to pull at this place with the way the weather was flickering between storming and sunny, but he still couldn’t quite pinpoint the exact location of the source of it. He could, however, get that it must be somewhere on this side of the river more into the downtown area, so that’s the way he was walking, Pat close on his heels.

“What’s your name, by the way?” he asked.

Janus shot him a glare. “Elvis Presley,” he said.

Pat frowned, clearly knowing who that was. “There’s no reason to be mean.”

“You did it to me first.”

“…Introduced myself as a famous musician?” he asked. Janus didn’t respond, and after a moment, Pat laughed lightly. “You really don’t understand time travel, do you?”

“Oh, yeah,” Janus said. “Name the three types of time distortions.”

“Just because I don’t know the names of things doesn’t mean I don’t understand them.” He stuck out his tongue. Janus was dealing with an actual toddler. “Unlike you who has a bunch of fancy words, but just caused a time loop.”

Janus scoffed. “I did not just cause a time loop.”

“Maybe not a big one,” Pat agreed, “but you did.”

Janus raised an eyebrow. “I’ve never introduced myself to you with a musician’s name, but now you’ve told me that I will. So, at some point in the future I will have to, thereby making you think to say that now. Time loop.”

“That’s not… that doesn’t count.”

“Does too,” Pat claimed. “Like I have said once before and you may or may not have heard me say before, anything you do to me to get back at me for something I haven’t done yet, just causes whatever that is to happen in the first place.”

“But you’re still going to do it.”

“Then take it up with future me. I haven’t done anything to you.” Then he paused and sighed. “…Which I guess means you’ve done nothing to me.” He seemed to mull this concept over for a long moment. “Well you were a bit crabby about me not knowing what a time distortion was, but I can forgive you for that.”

“And I’m supposed to forgive you?”

“Like I said,” Pat said. “I haven’t done anything yet.”

“You also haven’t done anything to endear yourself to me either,” Janus grumbled.

“Hmm,” Pat said. “Fine.” He pulled something out of his pocket. “You’re obviously not having much luck finding whatever you’re looking for. Tell me what it is and I’ll help.”

Janus squinted at what was in his hand. “Is that… an iPhone 5?”

“No!” he said. “It’s super-secret time travel tech disguised as an iPhone 5!”

“We’re in 2027,” Janus said. “Not a great disguise. Those things have been obsolete for a decade.”

“Well I’ll keep in mind to have my tech disguised as phones from the right year next time,” Pat said, sticking out his tongue. “Now what are we looking for?”

“If my timepiece can’t find it, I’m certain yours can’t.”

Pat rolled his eyes and tapped on the device’s screen a couple of times. “I’m going to guess it’s that,” he said proudly.

Janus leaned over to look at the screen. “Are you using google maps?” he sputtered.

“It integrates time relevant data like traffic conditions and local weather warnings with time travel technology,” Pat explained. “Something seems to be going on in a museum a couple of blocks that way.”

“I…” Janus said. That was actually a really good idea, usually unnecessary with scouts observing that data beforehand, and Janus wasn’t sure how good the accuracy would be considering whatever was taking it into account was automated, but still a good idea. “Well, I guess since we have no other leads, we can check it out.”

Pat looked far too proud for having only used a piece of tech that hadn’t even been confirmed as accurate. “Then, let’s go,” he said right as a chilly wind started to pick up and a couple of snowflakes began to fall around them. “Before that gets worse…”

Janus let Pat lead with his iPhone. Janus’s timepiece still wasn’t picking up a clear signal for some reason, but it seemed to point in the same general direction as Pat’s. Strangely though, as they got closer to their destination, the signal started to get fuzzier. Pat’s tech seemed unaffected leading them closer to the museum.

When they got to the Musée Fabre museum, Janus stopped. “What?” Pat asked. He was shivering slightly in the cold and holding his arms around himself.

“My timepiece stopped working completely,” he said.

“I’m assuming that’s weird?” Pat said.

“It is,” Janus confirmed, turning to squint at him suspiciously. “How do I know you’re not the one doing it?”

“If I was doing it, wouldn’t I have just knocked it out from the get go?” Pat questioned.

Janus pursed his lips. “I don’t know,” he said. “Would you have? Maybe it’s a trick.”

Pat’s eyes narrowed a bit on him. “Think what you want, but I’m freezing. Come in with me if you want.”

He dithered from a few moments before following Pat inside. Pat had already struck up a conversation with the woman charging admission into art museum. She was looking at him, her brow knit as he spoke. Janus nudged him away from her getting a confused glance from him in return. He shot a smile at the woman.

“Two adult passes for the museum and the Hotel Sabatier d’Espevran, please,” he said, placing down 14 euro.

“Ah,” she said, still looking at Pat oddly. “Yes sir.” She gave them the passes and Janus quickly shuffled Pat away.

“What is wrong with your French?” he hissed once they were out of earshot.

“What?” he asked, bewildered.

“You sound like you’re reading Le Comte de Monte-Cristo. No one talks like that anymore.”

“I’m a little rusty,” Pat defended himself.

“Two centuries?” Janus asked. Pat stuck his tongue out like a child once again. “Is that your only way to respond to legitimate criticism?”

“What does it even matter anyway? No one ever expects time travel, at least not for something so silly.”

“It’s not silly,” Janus said. “It’s a legitimate issue. The wrong person who’s watched too much science fiction notices and you’re putting the timeline at risk. Not to mention if there are other time travelers around that aren’t as nice as me.”

“Are there a lot of time travelers around?” Pat asked, sounding intrigued.

“There are plenty, both legal and not.”

“Huh,” he said, “but what are the chances we’ll run into another one?”

“Considering the time distortion? There could be many. Opportunists wanting to capitalize off the chaos, people trying to stop it, like me, and not to mention the person who caused it.”

“Wait, someone made it happen?” Pat asked.

“These things don’t just happen naturally.”

“Huh. So, something like this has to be caused by a person?”

“Yes,” Janus said. “…Why?”

Pat smiled. “No reason. I think we should head upstairs. Whatever I’m picking up says it’s around here, but I don’t see anything. Maybe it’s a floor or two above us.”

“Which is why it’s ridiculous to use Google Maps.”

“Would you rather use yours?” he asked sweetly.

“I’m still not convinced it’s not your doing,” Janus growled. “Why does your tech still work when mine doesn’t?”

“Probably the same reason the ring did,” he muttered.

“What?”

“You may be the most aggravating being in the universe.”

Pat glanced at him with a bit of a smirk. “I can’t tell you,” he said. “It would be a much bigger risk to the timeline than me speaking in French from the 1830s. But, I’m pretty sure the reason mine still works is just a software difference.”

“What the hell do you mean a software difference?”

Pat opened his mouth, doubtlessly to supply him with yet another frustratingly cheeky and unhelpful answer. Yet, Pat did not have a chance to do so as, just as Janus stepped onto the second floor of the museum, the ground started to violently shake. Janus tried to turn to catch Pat as the other man’s foot slipped on the last step, but he couldn’t do so in time. Pat fell onto his hands and knees, sliding back a few steps and smacking his face into the stairs hard once and then a couple of times more after that as he slid.

Chapter 13

The room stopped shaking after a moment. “Ow,” Pat said. He seemed a bit stunned but was still moving at least. He carefully maneuvered himself into a seating position. “Ouch. Owie.” He reached up to poke his own nose. “Ow!” Janus slapped his hand away when he got there. A bit of blood was already trickling from his nose and there was a small cut over his eye, but it wasn’t bleeding too much.

Janus pushed him so he was leaning slightly forward and produced a pack of time appropriate tissues from his pocket. He pulled one out of the package and offered it to him.

He took it and pressed it up against his nose to try to stop the bleeding. He seemed mostly alright though Janus imagined he’d have plenty of bruises down the line. The power in the museum flickered and Janus looked up. Now that he was listening, he could hear people panicking in and out of the museum.

“We should probably get off of the stairs,” he suggested.

“Yeah,” Pat agreed. Janus helped him to his feet, and they climbed back up the steps. Janus looked around and found an employees only sign a few feet away. Usually he’d not risk that as it could get him into trouble he didn’t want to be in, but considering the earthquake that had just happened, he could probably play it off as panic.

He ushered Pat into a small room and found a chair and table. He had Pat sit in the chair and pulled out another one of the tissues to dab at the blood coming from the cut over his eyes. “Here,” he said. “Hold that there. I’m going to go see if there are any bandages about.”

Pat took the tissue with the hand not already holding one to his nose. “Thanks,” he said.

Janus nodded and got to his feet. The lights flickered once again but didn’t stay off for now. He didn’t know how long that would last.

He couldn’t see anything that might hold bandages in this room, but there was a second door. “I’ll be right back,” he told Pat, exiting through it.

The lights flickered once more as the door closed behind him and he cursed. When they came back up Janus’s eyes immediately fell on a man. They both froze.

“Remus!” Janus hissed the second their eyes met. “What are you doing here?”

Remus blinked at him for a moment. “Hi. Janus,” he said. “I… come to France for… tea sometimes?”

“There isn’t any tea back here.”

“So, there isn’t…” he said. There was a moment of silence. “Uh, so I actually cannot talk to you right now.”

“What do you mean?” Janus asked. Remus grimaced in a way Janus had never seen from him before. It immediately set off alarm bells in Janus’s head. “Oh my god,” Janus said. “Oh my god. You’re not from the same time as me.”

“Oh, you have no idea,” Remus mumbled.

“Holy shit, you’re looping?!”

“It’s… not looping if I wasn’t here the first time.”

“Remus, we spend more than 12 hours a day together most of the time. The only thing worse than this is if I looped back to this time myself.”

“…Yeah. Anyway, I need to leave now.”

“Please do.”

He turned to go, but then stopped. “Oh, and,” he reached into his pocket and tossed something at Janus. Janus caught it.

It was Band-Aids.

“Oh, shit,” Janus spat at the clear use of foreknowledge. “I hate this. I hate you. I’m going to kill you the next time you see me.”

“Sure, Jan.”

“Go.”

He did, slipping into the next room while Janus took a deep breath and then turned back to the door behind him. He schooled his face before Pat looked up. “I found some Band-Aids.”

Pat nodded and Janus came over to squat next to him.

Janus opened the box and Pat looked down. His eyes lit up with sudden joy so intense that Janus felt like he’d just gotten a punch to the gut. “Kitty Band-Aids!” he exclaimed. Janus bothered to actually look at the design on the container, only to note the cartoon cats on the front. Pat was almost vibrating off his seat. “Look they’re all so cute!” He grabbed the container from him to inspect the different designs printed on the back with glee even as a bit of blood was still trickling from his nose.

Janus took the box back gently and guided the wad of bloody Kleenexes back to his nose.

“Which would you like?” Janus asked.

“Oh, they are all so cute,” Pat cooed. “Um, how about that one!” he pointed. “Or that one! Or that one!”

“Pat you only have one cut.”

“But they’re all so cute!” Pat said, tongue tucking into his cheek. He contemplated the box again. “Let’s do the black one,” he finally settled on.

Janus selected one of the Band-Aids with a black cat wrapped around a pink ball of yarn and staring back at them with wide green eyes. The think looked like it had partaken in one two many doses of catnip, but Janus didn’t mention that.

Instead, he just carefully unstuck the backing from the Band-Aid and motioned for Pat to remove the tissue from his forehead. He smiled at Janus as he drew back.

Janus cleared his throat. “How’s the nose.”

“It’s slowing down,” Pat replied. “Thanks.”

“No problem,” Janus replied. They met eyes for a second before Pat looked away back at the box of Band-Aids.

“Oh,” Pat said. “There’s a grey one. I didn’t notice.” He pointed to it. “I should have used that one.”

“Do you like grey cats?” Janus asked.

“I like all kitties,” he said, “but one of my roommates loves grey cats. He had one when he was a kid and thinks of them as good omens. Seeing one always brightens up his day.”

“A friend of mine has a grey cat,” Janus said. “She’s much more tolerable than him.”

Pat laughed a bit. “Don’t be mean,” he said.

“Oh, he deserves it, don’t worry.” Janus considered him for a moment. “Here,” he said, pulling out one of the Band-Aids with the grey cat on it. It did, actually, look a lot like Diesel Fuel.

“But I don’t…”

Janus just shrugged and stuck it on his cheek where there was no wound. Pat giggled and touched it with a finger. Janus stood back up.

“Can I have another tissue?” Pat asked.

“Sure.” Janus handed a tissue over to him and he crumpled up the bloody ones in his hand.

“I think I’m good to keep going,” Pat said, putting the new tissue under his nose. “The nose will stop soon.”

Pat got out his iPhone and directed him back out of the room. They checked the second floor and didn’t find anything and so went to the third floor. The second they arrived in the room that Pat’s phone was directing them too, Janus knew that it must be right. There was a strange, distorted whirling sound and the entire room was shaking slightly like they were standing next to a railroad track.

“I’m guessing this is it,” Pat said.

Janus nodded and looked over his shoulder at the screen. They both cautiously walked towards where the little dot was on the phone.

“Is that it?” Pat asked, pointing at a small device on the center column in the room. Janus reached forward to flip the switch on it. The whirling stopped and the room settled. Janus’s time piece vibrated as it came back online. They waited for a few moments. “I assumed… time distortions would be more…”

“They are,” Janus said. “This one is artificial.”

“What does that mean?”

“It’s a simulation,” Janus said. “It causes similar symptoms to a time distortion, but it’s not actually fracturing time at all.”

“That’s good, isn’t it?” Pat asked.

“I don’t know,” Janus said. He took the piece of tech of the wall and carefully stored it in his pocket, “but someone’s trying to get our attention.”

Chapter 14

Janus didn’t feel comfortable leaving France 2027 just yet, still weirded out by the strange turn of events. So, he and Pat ended up sticking around for a couple of hours. They looked through the art museum for a bit, but Janus was having trouble focusing on the pieces, and Pat eventually suggested they get some air. Janus agreed considering the museum would close for the night soon anyway.

They wandered around the downtown for a bit. The people seemed to jump back from the strange weather and earthquake that afternoon rather quickly, and there were plenty still about to blend into.

Pat was snapping photos every so often like a tourist which Janus shook his head at but allowed because even with the outdated phone it almost made them blend in even more. It also might stop any questions about Pat’s weird way of speaking French. They could just say he was an overeager tourist who watched too many old movies.

“Ooo!” Pat said. “We should get crepes.”

“Why?”

“You can’t go to France and not eat crepes.”

“I assure you, you can,” Janus said dryly.

Pat shot a pout at him and the next thing he knew he was in a small crepe shop.

For Janus, choosing something was easy. He just ordered the first thing he found on the menu which seemed to be a standard one with ham and eggs. Pat on the other hand seemed to be struggling greatly, and Janus had to gently push him to the side to let some other customers order first.

“What should I get!?” Pat asked. “They all look so good! I could do strawberry preserves or maple syrup or just sugar!”

“Or you could get one that is actually food,” Janus suggested mildly. “I don’t think you need any more sugar judging by how you are acting.”

Pat rolled his eyes. “You sound like Lo.”

Janus made a note of the name ‘Lo’ even though it surely was a nickname.

“But, since you’re insisting, I’ll get something healthy. I’ll have the strawberry one. That’s a fruit!”

“It comes with a cream cheese filling,” Janus pointed out.

“And it’s fruit!”

Janus shook his head and stepped up to the counter. “One ham and cheese and one strawberry preserve, please,” he said to the cashier as he was not allowing Pat to order in French and accidently say something stupid. He forked over some euros.

“You don’t have to pay for me,” Pat protested when he saw that.

Janus glanced back at him. “I was afraid you’d try to pay in francs,” he said dryly.

It looked like Pat was about to stick his tongue out at him, remembered that Janus had criticized him for that earlier, and then just scrunched up his face in displeasure as though that was any less childish.

They waited for their crepes to be finished and then went to eat them outside near a water fountain.

“I can pay you back for the crepe,” Pat said after they sat down. “I do actually have euros.”

Janus waved him off. “It wasn’t that expensive.”

Pat hummed. “Well, in that case. I insist on paying for a wish for you.” Janus raised an eyebrow. “In the fountain!” Pat clarified.

Pat set aside his crepe to dig in his pocket for a couple of coins. “Here!” he said handing one over.

Janus glanced over at the fountain. “No.”

“Oh, come on,” Pat beseeched. “You have to want something. I’ll even throw it in for you, but you have to make a wish first!”

“No.”

“Please!”

Janus sighed. “Fine.” He popped the rest of his crepe in his mouth. “I wish for a crepe,” he said after swallowing.

“You just had a crepe, silly.”

“But I liked it, so I want another one.”

“We can go back and get you another crepe.”

“Ah, but I’m not hungry anymore.”

Pat crossed his arms. “You’re just being difficult on purpose.”

“Not me,” Janus said putting hand over his heart. “I would never do something like that.”

Pat glared at him, but then snatched the coin out of his hand. “Fine!” he said. “One crepe wish coming right up.” He hopped up with the two coins and darted over to the water fountain. Janus turned to watch him go but then happened to catch sight of something out of the corner of his eyes.

Pat’s phone.

He didn’t pause in his movement, completing the turn, but as he watched Pat close his eyes, presumably to focus on his own wish, Janus snuck a hand out and grabbed the phone without looking. He slipped it into his own pocket.

Pat came back over after throwing both coins in the fountain and didn’t even seem to notice that his phone was missing, picking up his crepe to take another bite. Just to make sure, though Janus decided to distract him. “What do you think of your crepe?” Janus asked.

“I like it! It’s sweet, but not too sweet. There was a crepe place across the street from my apartment in college, but they always put a bit too much sugar in the dough, I think. I’d still eat them, but these are much better.”

Janus nodded and kept up the light conversation until Pat was finished.

21088

“Well,” he said then, getting to his feet. “It seems that nothing else is going to happen regarding the time distortion. I should be getting back.”

Pat hummed. “I should too. It’s movie night!”

“I probably should arrest you,” Janus noted.

“In the middle of all of these people?” Pat asked mildly.

“Touché,” Janus said.

Pat gasped and pointed at him. “Pun!” he said. Janus blinked at him. “Because we’re in France! That’s French!”

“…Goodbye Pat,” Janus said, turning to walk away from him.

“Goodbye… wait I still don’t know your name!”

Janus stopped to look back at him for a moment. “Like I said,” he replied. “Elvis.”

“Fine,” Pat said. “Au revoir, mon chéri.”

“You never stop, do you?” Janus asked.

Pat giggled. “Considering I don’t know what you mean, I imagine I’m just getting started.”

Janus actually left then, walking off towards the alley he’d first arrived in. In some ways, the mission had been a bust, but in others it had gone very well.

He felt for the weight of the phone in his pocket before pulling up the display screen on his timepiece to go back to the TPI.

It had gone very well indeed.

Chapter 15

The first thing Janus had done when he’d returned to the TPI was hand over the timebomb to Khalid who sent it to forensics. Within the hour, forensics got back to them that it was the same timebomb as 2999 and that it had never exploded, but simply been diffused. Which meant, blessings on blessings, everyone got to go home that night.

Not that Janus went home, no, he ended up falling asleep on his desk somewhere between 3 and 4am, but at least he wasn’t sharing his space with anyone. He’d been trying to hack the cell phone all night to see if it had anything he could use, but he honestly had no idea what he was doing. All it seemed he could do was play some annoying song over and over again about never giving someone up. At around 2am, he’d finally broken and sent off an email, though, he’d continued to try to mess with it after that.

He got woken up by Lena coming into the office at 7am, and noticed he already had an email response asking when Janus wanted to come in.

“Now?” he sent back.

“…Do you sleep?” was the immediate response. “And yes.”

His wrist buzzed as an appointment in 5 seconds downloaded to his timepiece. He selected the coordinates and landed at Cultural Outreach. The receptionist blinked up at him and then back down at the screen on his desk. “Oh!” he said. “I didn’t see this appointment. I think Professor Eran is in his office.”

He didn’t stand to escort Janus this time, so Janus went ahead and went down the hall to Virgil’s office himself.

He knocked on the door and while he was waiting for Virgil to open it, the infernal contraption once again started to play the same stupid song.

“I didn’t even touch you!” he spat, getting it out and tapping on the screen.

“Jonas Brothers dude again?” Virgil asked causally upon opening the door.

Janus shoved it at him. “Make it stop.”

Virgil took it and fiddled with it for a few moments before it stopped with the song. “Oh my gosh,” he said scrolling through something on the screen.

“What.”

“What maniac sets a custom alarm for every 30-60 minutes for a week that just plays ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’? Oh, and one ‘It’s Not Unusual’ on Saturday. He’s mixing memes at an alarming rate.”

“Can you. Just. Make it not happen. Anymore?”

Virgil smirked at him. “Maybe.” He turned around to go back into his office.

“Virgil,” Janus growled following him in.

Virgil just laughed. “What do you want to know about it?” he asked. “Just a fair warning… the song means he… likely was aware someone would steal it.”

“Of course, he was,” Janus groaned.

“But I’m sure we can still get something out of it.” Virgil started tapping at the screen again. “Okay, let’s see. It’s an iPhone 5, and someone jailbroke it.”

“What does that mean?”

“Tampered with it so they could install non-company approved software,” Virgil explained.

“Well I figured that since he was using Google Maps to track time distortions,” Janus grumbled.

“I think I have something,” Virgil said to himself while digging through his desk. “Ah ha!” He held up some sort of cord. “This will let me hook it up to my integrator.” He slotted the cord into the bottom of the iPhone and then crawled under his desk to fiddle around with some other things. “There we go,” Virgil said popping back up. “It might take a few minutes. Running the program any faster might overheat the phone.”

Janus nodded and sat back to wait. Virgil grabbed the phone and started to play around with it a bit even as it uploaded all of its information to his computer.

“Weird,” Virgil said after a moment.

“What?” Janus asked, sitting up straighter.

“There are exactly two contacts. Fewer than I’d anticipate for a regular phone from the 2010s. More than I would expect from one clearly not being used as a phone.

Virgil glanced to the side, and it must have finished the download because he unhooked it from the computer. “I have a 21st century phone network adapter,” Virgil said. “It transfers call back to whatever date the phone says. Do you want to try calling one?”

“It’s worth a shot,” Janus replied.

Virgil dug back into his desk for a small device that he plugged into the same port he’d plugged the earlier cord. “Okay, which contact do you want to try first?” he asked. “One has ‘Ro’ with a crown, red heart, and a gold star emoji. The other has “Lo” with a book, blue heart, and Milky Way emoji.”

“He mentioned a Lo,” Janus said. “So, try him first.”

Virgil nodded. “I’ll put it on speaker.” He pressed some buttons before setting the phone on the desk between them.

The phone rang three times before with a bit of a crackle, it was answered. “Salutations,” a voice said, voice sounding a bit scratchy as though he had only just gotten up.

Virgil motioned with his head for Janus to speak. “Are you ‘Lo’?” he asked.

The man hummed. “To some people.”

Janus… didn’t quite know what to say to that, or even what questions he should ask.

“I’m assuming you’re the man that stole my associate’s phone.”

“Your associate?” Janus fished.

The man made an amused hum. “I believe you were calling him ‘Pat’ on your last adventure.” Janus could hear something being placed down on the other end of the phone. Before Janus could respond, he heard what sounded like an old keyboard being typed on. “Now,” Lo said. “I have to admit, I am surprised you were willing to oblige me so thoroughly by plugging the phone into your system. Let’s see…”

The screen on Virgil’s lit up bright blue all of a sudden. “…shit,” said Virgil.

“Well,” Lo said, “it seems you were clever enough not to plug it into the TPI system, which is disappointing, but…”

There was more clicking on the other end. “Hmm, interesting music tastes for the 4000s,” he said.

“I’m an anthropologist,” Virgil spoke up.

“Ah, yes, I can see that,” Lo replied. “Virgil Eran, senior professor at Silver Mountain University, a vetted member of the Cultural Outreach program, and searched the phrase ‘How to eat sushi without making a cultural blunder and making everyone hate you and losing your job because what kind of shit anthropologist doesn’t know how to eat raw fish right’ which you then shortened to ‘How to eat sushi’ and proceeded to search 52 times in the last 48 hours.”

Virgil went a bit scarlet around the ears. “Dude, did you really have to out me like that?” he hissed at the phone.

“My apologies,” Lo responded. “From my personal experience, don’t dip the rice parts in soy sauce, and don’t add too much wasabi. Overall, most people will be understanding of mistakes, and you will certainly not be fired or ostracized for handling food incorrectly. As long as you are not acting intentionally disrespectful, and I image you will not be considering your clear anxiety over whatever outing you are planning to attend, you will be fine.”

“Okay,” Virgil said. “Good point, but counterpoint, what if you’re wrong and everyone hates me forever?”

“Is it the lunch meeting today at 11:30am?” Lo asked, “because I can see that a Professor Boris Laden has attended the event multiple years in a row. Considering he is a philosophy instructor, has no Japanese heritage that I can see, and I have found a photo of last year’s event wherein he has placed his chopsticks vertically in his rice, and he has yet to be fired or ostracized, I would postulate that your fears are unfounded.”

“Yeah but… okay, I really don’t have an argument for that one, except maybe I’m a piece of shit and everyone is looking for a reason to hate me.”

“Considering your many impressive accolades in your field, I would argue that ‘a piece of shit’ is not a good descriptor of you. Not to mention the fact that you are often a highly requested member for different committees in your department and outside of it.”

“Oh, but is that because people like me or because I’m an anxious mess and make sure events go off without a hitch?”

“From experience, disorder with people you enjoy the company of is far more tolerable than order with people you do not. Which explains my current living situation and the lack of finished dishes in my sink. Therefore, I would assume the former.”

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“A lot of assumptions,” Virgil commented, but he was smiling slightly.

“Assumptions based on data,” Lo argued back lightly.

“You really came in here, hacked into my computer and smacked my anxiety in the face, huh?”

“Glad to have helped.”

“Y-”

“Are the two of you finished?” Janus interrupted, finally getting sick of the two of them.

“Not nearly,” Lo said. “I have gained access to an entire network of a very large university and will be sorting through the data for a long time.”

“Ugh, right,” Virgil groaned, “and you got access through my integrator.”

“I doubt they’ll be able to trace it back to you if you don’t tell them.”

“Nice try,” Virgil said dryly, “but not likely. I’m telling them about you immediately so they can work to kick you out.”

Lo laughed. “Fair enough, but I’ve already gotten plenty of information at this point. Including the fact that you work with the TPI and scheduled an appointment with an Agent Janus Picani this morning set to start a few minutes before this phone call. So, hello Janus.”

“Bastard,” Janus shot back.

“And goodbye Professor Eran. It was a pleasure.” He hung up.

Virgil sighed and ran his hand through his hair. “This is going to be fun to explain to both of our bosses.”

Arc II What We Do to Each Other

Chapter 16:

As it would turn out, Janus and Virgil did not get in trouble for hooking up the old phone to Virgil’s integrator, mostly because it wasn’t really a mistake on their part. The phone cleared all virus checks that the tech people both from the university and the TPI ran on it. The phone should have been clean and should not have caused an issue.

In fact, they were still trying to pin down the code on the general university server. They could tell that something was mucking about on the system but what or how was a mystery. This also meant that there was no telling what information had been compromised and considering how many things Silver Mountain had its hands in, that was… a bit worrying.

Another worrying thing was there was suddenly more activity of late at the TPI. There were more time distortions popping up every day. Usually they would be few and far in between. There had been 3 total recorded the year before, but over 12 in the last week. Some of them were fake like the one Janus had investigated, but some of them were real. It painted a distressing picture and also was a drain on their resources. Khalid was actually looking to advertise positions to hire new recruits which was something she rarely did as she liked to keep appointments to the TPI in house.

They’d even loosed the number of field agents needed for each mission and Janus and Remus had been splitting up just to get everything done. Today, he and Remus had thankfully only two missions scheduled for the day.

“Are we going together or separate today?” Janus asked Remus.

“Think they’ll burn me at the stake for being a witch if I go alone to either of them?” Remus asked.

“I don’t know. Probably. I think we’re getting a bit late into the 1700s for that in Cuba, but I have no idea about Mesopotamia.”

“Let’s just go together. I did not like almost drowning yesterday because I was the only stranger in town when the weather was going wonky.”

“Surely it isn’t because you opened your mouth. Ever.” Janus said dryly.

“How was I supposed to know he was the local clergyman’s son?”

Janus rolled his eyes. “On second thought,” he said, pushing a button on his desk to choose Cuba as he next mission, and standing up. “I don’t want you coming with me.” Yet, he did not protest when Remus also signed up for the Cuba mission and he waited for him by the office door before going to talk to Rhi.

Rhi was a bit frazzled when which meant quite a bit as she was usually incredibly put together. Remus didn’t even seem inclined to tease her today.

“Okay,” she said once they’d closed the door behind them. She flipped through some documents on her desk. “Picani and Clockson. Camaguey Cuba 1755. Do you know Cuba?”

“Uh,” Janus said. “Yeah?”

“Like you’re reading the things, right? I don’t have to babysit you, right? You got it? The Seven Year War was happening, but it won’t affect you much as it hasn’t really hit Cuba. It’s the middle of the Camaguey Carnival. Everyone will be everywhere and there will be chaos so as long as you don’t really fuck up you should be fine. Um…apparent races.” She looked up at them and studied them each for a moment as thought looking at them for the first time despite having known them for years. “It’ll work. Go to costuming.”

“Shouldn’t we…” Janus said, “sign things?”

“…Yep,” she said, fiddling with her desktop and then sending documents over to their side to sign.

Janus and Remus both did before sending them back.

“Great. Good.” She stood and grabbed some things from behind her. “You can go.” She sat back down as they took their things and Janus noticed a message pop up on her desk. She looked up at Remus looking exhausted. “What?” she asked.

“Just open it,” Remus said.

Rhi tapped it and a photo opened.

“I got her a new mouse toy!” Remus said happily as Rhi looked at the picture of Diesel Fuel attacking a cloth mouse.

“That is… appreciated Agent Clockson,” Rhi said. “Now get out.”

They did, leaving to get their costumes on and checked. Costuming was just as busy and frazzled as Rhi had been and they actually had to wait for decon because there’d been a mix up with the agents leaving before them. They landed in Cuba without issue. Janus could already hear the festival in full swing outside the small building they’d were in. Remy was standing there with a very not time appropriate mug of coffee.

“Sue me,” Remy said when Janus raised an eyebrow at it. “Please just… get in and out without causing trouble. Seriously. I don’t want to have to deal with that on top of everything else.”

“We’ll do our best,” Janus assured.

Remy pulled his sunglasses down to look at him. He looked exhausted. “God please do more than your best.”

Janus nodded tightly. “We’ll be in and out,” he said, already glancing at his timepiece. It had been disguised as a golden bracelet which made it a bit harder to actually use, but wrist watches wouldn’t be invented for more than a century, so they’d have to make do. “The time distortion, if that’s what it is, should be in the middle of town. Let’s go.”

He and Remus exited the building onto the packed city street.

Janus was immediately bombarded with all types of sights, sounds, and smells. There were many colorful articles of clothing and costumes as people went every which way along the street talking to other members of their community, playing instruments, and dancing. There was the sound of people speaking Spanish, still mostly almost pure Castilian Spanish with perhaps a bit of influence from Taino as the Haitian revolution had yet to push the Creole language over to Cuba. People must have been hard at work cooking different dishes for the carnival as many different spices wafted through the air. It was sticky hot considering it was the middle of June in the tropics and Janus was immediately sweating despite the temperature appropriate clothing he’d been outfitted with.

He glanced around their immediate area, just scoping out the crowds. His eyes were immediately drawn to one person near them.

“Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me,” he said out loud when he saw Pat. Remus looked in the direction Janus was.

Even if Janus didn’t recognize him the moment he laid eyes on him, he probably still would have ended up staring as he was the only person in the area who clearly did not know how to do the dance he was attempting.

Remus snorted and Janus shook his head in secondhand embarrassment. “Well, would you look whose boyfriend’s here,” he said to Janus. Make that firsthand embarrassment. “Has anyone told him the Mambo wasn’t invented until the 1900s and also that’s not how you do it?”

Chapter 17

Pat stopped dancing the moment he saw Janus approaching him, but he still bobbed cheerfully ( and unrhythmically) to the music. “Hi Janus,” he said pleasantly.

“You just have to rub it in, huh?”

There was a flash of confusion across his face, but then he smiled. “Well, I know where in our relationship you are. How was France?”

“You’re a bastard.”

“You stole the phone,” he laughed.

“You stole the bomb,” Janus countered, “and you wanted me to steal the phone. You booby trapped it.”

“No,” Pat correct, putting a finger up. “We have security on my phone because in high school I once forgot it in the school locker room and long story short, the three of us ended up in a lake. So, then Lo made sure I always had some sort of tracker on it. When I started time traveling, he updated it and when I met you we updated it again in case there was ever an opportunity like that. Lo calls it using our weaknesses to our advantage.”

“He’s a bastard too,” Janus growled.

Pat just laughed.

“Is someone talking about me?” Remus asked, stepping over to them. Janus rolled his eyes.

“Oh,” Patton said, blinking at Janus’s partner for a moment. “Remus.” He hesitated slightly. “How are you doing?”

“Me?” Remus asked. “Uh, I’m doing good. A little stressed out with work, but fine.”

“Good,” Pat said with just a little too much heartfulness to it.

“What?” Janus asked, eyes narrowed at Pat. “What is that?”

“What is what?” Pat asked. He met Janus’s eyes briefly and it made panic surge up Janus’s spine because the look Pat was sending him wasn’t one that said he was playing dumb. It was a warning.

Oh, Janus did not like this. That look told Janus Pat had some foreknowledge that he absolutely could not tell Janus about without messing up the timeline spectacularly. This was why this mess the two of them were mixed up in was so bad, but it seemed Janus did not have much of a choice when it came to Pat.

Despite how bad of an idea he knew it was, he still wanted to push, because whatever Pat was hiding could be very, very bad and it had to do with Remus. There were so many reasons Pat could be acting like that around Remus, but the worst ones were definitely the ones on his mind. Death, injury, illness. They were all possible especially in their line of work and especially with how time was being screwed with right now. And Pat knew. He knew exactly what the answer was, and oh did Janus want to push.

Experience knowing what worse things could come out of having foreknowledge made Janus bite his tongue.

“So, what are you two doing here,” Pat asked, and Janus unhappily let him change the subject.

“Oh, like you don’t know,” Janus replied.

“I don’t know,” Pat said innocently.

“There’s another time distortion,” Janus said, “and while you didn’t know what it was the last time I saw you, I’m pretty sure you do now.”

“Oh, I didn’t know there was a time distortion here. I can help you if you like,” he offered sweetly.

“Oh, yeah, sure. Then why are you here?”

“I wanted to see if I could find the Flying Dutchman,” Patton told him.

“And so you went to Camaguey?”

“Uh huh.”

“One of the farthest places from the ocean in Cuba?”

“Is it?”

“I don’t trust you.”

Pat just shrugged. “Well, if you don’t want my help finding the time distortion, I’ll just be on my way then.”

“Wait,” he said when Pat went to turn away. Pat paused. Janus turned to Remus. “Remus, do you think he’s bullshitting me so I let him wander off and do whatever the hell he’s doing, or do you think he’s bullshitting me into letting him come with us.”

“Hmm,” Remus said, looking Pat up and down. Janus could immediately tell he wasn’t going to get any helpful answer. “Well, if we’re going with the how much do I get to see his, admittedly very sexy, ass criteria.” Janus pinched the bridge of his nose. “Letting him leave now means instant gratification and a nice full image when he turns away. However, letting him go with us means many more opportunities to get a glimpse, but they’d probably just be glimpses. So, yeah that’s a tough call.”

“You didn’t even bother to give me an actual hidden suggestion with that bullshit,” Janus groaned. He glanced at Pat only to see him hiding his very red face in his hands. Janus blinked. “Oh,” he said. “You got him, Remus.” Janus was surprised. He’d expected a bit more tenacity for someone with Pat’s personality. Of course, Janus was used to Remus, so that perhaps had some effect. Pat made a muffled distressed sound behind his hands and Janus raised an eyebrow. “You really got him.”

Pat flapped one hand around while still using the other to completely hide his face. “It’s just. His face. Saying that. Is weird.”

Janus could not say that he didn’t feel a slight spark of joy at seeing Pat flustered. After all, Pat’s weapon of choice had often been flirting with Janus in the past. However, he still smacked Remus on the shoulder when it looked like he was about to continue with something likely far more inappropriate. “We are here for a reason,” he reminded. He turned to consider Pat and squinted at him. “You’re coming with us, I’ve decided. I don’t want to let you out of my sights. Don’t,” he said empathically turning to Remus as the man opened his mouth once more.

Pat had mostly recovered, though his cheeks were just a bit pink still. “Yeah,” he said. “I’ll go with you. Where do we start?”

Janus glanced at his timepiece. “It’s not showing up on our trackers yet.”

“It messed with your tracker last time,” Pat pointed out.

“I know,” Janus said. “Which means it could be another fake one or whatever is causing it hasn’t started yet. If things start going wrong, but it still doesn’t show on our radar, it’s almost certainly a fake one, but some of the fake ones haven’t blocked our technology.”

“Here, I can check,” Pat said.

“Please don’t pull out an iPhone,” Janus begged.

Pat stuck out his tongue at him, and then smiled. He reached for the bracelet on his wrist and twisted it back and forth a few times before pressing his palms together. He glanced around them quickly to make sure no one around them was watching and then peeled apart his palms like he was miming reading a book.

“What the fuck is that, and how do I get one?” Remus asked immediately. It was innocuous, whatever it was. If someone from this time caught a glimpse of the display, they’d likely assume it was a trick of the light, but staring right at it, Janus could tell it was a map of the surrounding areas with a softly glowing blue light marking their current location. Janus could see no screen or origin of a hologram. It looked like the image was drawn onto the man’s palms, but as he watched, the image shifted to zoom out.

#study break stories #not writing

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