#gone I’m gone literally made me want to gnaw my brain

[sandu-zidian]

JGY and Gone, I’m Gone from Hadestown…

[spctrsgf]

bandages

summary: Poe’s gone for too long, and the worry is starting to gnaw at your brain. (part 9 of @/ham_zero (tt)’s HTS !)

word count: 2.2k

warnings: poe x medic!reader, language, mentions of death and blood, angst and then pure teeth rotting fluff

a/n: hello besties im back at it again with my fav flyboy and HTS! (yet another) big thanks to @roselement for proofing this monstrosity! anyways hope you guys are well

a/n pt 2: lol the gif literally has nothing to do with the story but it was the best i could do okay

“Y/n.”

The sound of Finn’s voice wasn’t enough to cut through the thick layer of worry that draped over you. You paced across your small office. Your mind displayed horrible scenarios, spiraling you into a deeper worry than you already were in.

The man shook his head, catching your shoulders and stopping your pacing. He waited as your glassed eyes flicked across the room before finally focusing on his face. You gaze studied his face for any indication of why he was here, because as of right now, you were denying the gnawing feeling that was sending you into a frenzy.

Poe wasn’t- he’s fine, right? That was the question that occupied every thought you had, shaking you down to the core and preventing you from doing anything else but worry.

And oh Maker, Finn could see it in your face. The bags under your normally bright eyes, the grim line that resembled your lips, the way your eyebrows pulled together and created a wrinkle on your forehead. Even your stance with him, one of your closest friends, was defensive.

“Finn?” Your voice was gravelly from crying and not speaking, your eyes weary but hopeful.

The man sighed, dropping his arms. “I’m sorry, still nothing.”

You swallowed sharply. “Okay.”

“Y/n-“

“It’s fine! Don’t say sorry, I’m okay.”

Finn raised an eyebrow. “Mhm.”

“What?” Your tone now matched your stance as you stepped back.

“You look like you haven’t slept in weeks. No, years.”

You sighed, plopping down on the bed made for patients. “I feel like I haven’t. Really it’s only been a few days.”

Finn gingerly placed himself next to you, resisting the urge to succumb to the same sadness. “I know it’s hard, but he wouldn’t want you to worry.”

You scoffed. “If that was his wish, then he’d be back by now.”

“He’s gonna be okay.”

“Is he?” Your voice was barely above a whisper as you voiced your fear.

“I don’t know for sure, but,” you glanced at Finn, ready to hear his uplifting words. “This is Poe we’re talking about here. Poe Dameron. He’s a good man and an even better pilot. He’s the best of the best, and he hasn’t let us down yet. Let’s not give up hope on our flyboy now, okay?”

You nodded silently. “Ill give him one more day. Then-“

Finn wrapped an arm around you, scooting closer. “Don’t go there.”

You bit your lip. “Okay.”

Finn turned to look at you, eyes downcast and hands wrapped tightly around one another, but he could see the sad smile blooming on your lips. “You need to sleep, y/n.”

You ignored his earlier comment, only offering a “Thank you, Finn.”

The said man’s eyebrows knitted. “For what?”

“For always being there,” you looked at him. “For cheering me up when I feel like I’m gonna lose him forever.”

Finn smiled. “Anytime.”

——

You woke to a beeping sound, causing you to jolt and shoot upwards. Your head swiveled violently as you assessed your surroundings. You vaguely remember Finn leaving, demanding you to go to sleep.

Huh. You must’ve fallen asleep.

You cheered happily, over the moon for a grand total of five seconds, which is when you remembered three things. One, you weren’t able to sleep because Poe was gone. Two, you’d slept for ten hours. Three, that really loud and annoying ringing was the emergency bell. Someone was coming in for help.

You shot up, gathering your medical tools and readying yourself for immediate action. The shouts from outside got louder, and you winced at the ferocity of Snap’s worried voice. And then the door was shoved open and the entire Black squadron was crowding into your office, Snap carrying the wounded person. You looked down and-

No.

No, no no no no no-

You swallowed your scream and instructed Snap to place him down. Tears dotted your vision as you bent over your boyfriends bleeding face. You assessed him immediately, shoving your worry out of your head and focusing on helping him. You cried softly as you trailed your hands down his body gingerly, testing for anything out of the ordinary.

You let out a heavy sigh as you decided that it was mostly cuts and bruises, no punctured kidneys or internal bleeding. You got the medical assistant droid you had to scan him to make sure before turning and telling the squadron the news.

“He’s got a shit ton of cuts, as you can see. He’s taken some damage, but everything will heal and he’ll be able to fly again.” You smiled at the sighs of relief from the pilots.

“How long till he’s back?” Karé questioned from behind some heads.

“I would say a few days? I got some bacta that Leia wants me to use.” You answered as per BB-8’s frantic beeping.

The squadron filed out after that, but Snap faltered at the door. “L/n?”

You looked up from where you were applying bacta to a deep cut on Poe’s lower abdomen. “Mhm?”

“Thank you.”

You smiled grimly. “It’s my job.”

“No, it’s more than just a job. You’re saving our best pilot, but also our leader and friend. Thank you for that.”

You nodded. “Anytime. And I mean that. I don’t care if it’s 3am. Come to me if he’s hurt.”

It was Snap’s turn to smile. “I promise.”

You returned to the task at hand, spraying the bacta onto the rest of his cut. Your eyebrows were pulled up and your gaze flickered over the half unzipped flight suit, watching his chest rise and fall.

He’s okay, You told yourself. He’s okay, he’s alive, he’s breathing.

But he wasn’t awake. And that’s what was really worrying you. It was that little part of your brain saying that he might never wake up.

——

You spun in your chair to face Poe for what felt like the millionth time, constantly making sure his chest rose and fell. You turned back to finish a bland report, eyes droopy and tired. Exasperated, you threw down the data pad and walked over to the pilot.

It was then that you realized his hands up close. You winced at the dried blood around the knuckles, supposedly from when the glass window of his x-wing had shattered. Grabbing gauze and some wet wipes, you picked up his right hand, gingerly wiping it down.

To your surprise, Poe grumbled drowsily, trying to yank his hand back into his chest. Your grip tightened, but the rest of your body froze. “Poe?” You said quietly, eyes wide. Your voice must’ve triggered something in him, because he shot upwards. Or he tried to, but was held down by your firm push on his chest.

“Y/n?” He responded, voice as gravelly as yours was but oh so familiar, wrapping you in a blanket.

“Oh thank the Maker.” You dropped his hand and scooted closer, wrapping your arms around his shoulders.

“You sound relieved.”

You rolled your eyes, pulling away. “I thought you were dead.”

“You have such little faith in my ability to not die.” He cracked a half grin.

“Poe! Not funny.”

“Alright, I’m sorry.”

“You better be.” You huffed, picking his hand back up and cleaning the last of the blood.

He winced. “That hurts.”

You let out a small chuckle. “It’s antiseptic, it’s gonna sting a bit.”

“Well, don’t you have some sort of magical medic shit that helps the pain go away?”

You grabbed his other hand, wiping away the blood with a smile. “It’s barely anything and I’ll be done in like ten seconds. Relax.”

“C’mon sweets, gimme some numbing agent.” His eyes pulled into a plead.

You chortled, placing a kiss in between his brows. “I’m done, silly.”

“Oh,” Poe looked down at his now clean hands. “Never mind then.”

You held up the gauze. “Last step!”

Poe groaned. “You said you were done.”

You sent him a smirk. “And here I was thinking you liked jokes.”

“You suck.”

“You love me.”

Poe fell silent after your sentence, and you focused on wrapping his hands, unaware that you said something… big. You hummed a tune you’d been introduced to by Finn, scooting closer to Poe’s face to place his arm in a more comfortable position.

Meanwhile, Poe watched you intently. He admired the careful precision your deft fingers practiced as you wrapped the gauze, always tying it just tight enough to be snug but not cut off his circulation. Your eyes were bright and happy, but he could see the bags under your eyes from lack of sleep. He internally cursed himself for putting you through that dreadful downward spiral of worry.

He stared and stared, watching your eyelashes flutter and the oh so soft touch of your fingers on his skin. Oh Maker, he missed you so much. The close attention from you wasn’t new, but it felt so different now that he knew that you worried about him, couldn’t sleep while he was gone.

He wasn’t used to care. Sure, he had Leia, but she was like a mother and he saw her extend the same curtsies to others she’d picked up from various places. He appreciated it all, but it wasn’t exclusive to him.

But you. You only did this to him. He’d watched you work, because it was mesmerizing and he took any time he could to be with you. The worry and the insomnia and the intense care and the special gauze? That was secluded to him and him only. And the bacta. You hadn’t told him, but he could see the way the skin on his lower abdomen was healing unnaturally quick. The pure love that you gave him was something he didn’t feel worthy of and he didn’t see what you saw in him, but it was making him flustered nonetheless.

Maker.

He was flustered? Poe couldn’t recall the last time he’d felt like this. The thought only made his face redder, and he resisted the urge to bring his free hand up to cover his hot face.

And so when you finished wrapping his hand and looked up, you were met with Poe’s red face and his eyes darting anywhere but your own face. You furrowed your eyebrows, unaware that he was ruffled.

Your eyes widened sharply and your hands flew to his face. “Poe?” Your tone was laced with so much worry that his face only became redder. “What’s going on? Are you okay? Do you have a fever?”

He kept his eyes looking outward, becoming slightly glassy with his lack of blinking. You brushed back the curls from his forehead, touching the back of your hand to it. “No fever, but his eyes are glassy,” you racked your brain for a solution. “What the hell is going on?”

Poe made the mistake of meeting your eyes, full and worried but as bright as ever. His hands covered his face in flash and he groaned.

You frowned. “Poe?”

“Mmm.” Came his muffled response as his legs curled up.

“What’s going on? Are you hot? I can turn down the thermostat-“

Poe realized then that he was causing you more worry and was just gonna make it worse, so he dropped his knees and grabbed your face in one fluid motion. You squeaked in surprise, nearly falling into his chest but catching yourself just in time, leading you to have one arm on either side of his body. “Huh?” You murmured as he tilted his forehead to yours.

“I’m okay.”

“Are you sure?” The worry was evident in your tone.

“Yeah,” he took a deep breath. “You just make me overwhelmed sometimes.”

The pieces clicked, flushing your cheeks immediately. He was red because you made him flustered. Poe Dameron, flustered? It was hard to wrap your head around. You were having even more trouble comprehending that you did it. You. Your mind raked over what you possibly could have done to make him flustered, but it wasn’t working properly after that confession. The lack of sleep you had gotten in the past few days didn’t help either.

“I did that?” You motioned to his face.

“Yeah?” He shrugged to play off the nervousness undertone.

“Wha- how?” You voiced your thoughts timidly.

“I don’t really know,” he mumbled, full of lies. “You just- you care so much. It’s new for me.”

You pulled away from him, frustrated at what he felt. “You’re the most caring person I’ve ever met. Poe, you always always try to help everyone before yourself, you’re willing to take a risk if it meant saving something in the long run. You are such a confident leader, which is admirable in itself. But then you have to go and add on the fact that you know your way around any type of ship, not to mention your the best pilot the resistance has, you can both fly and fix your ship, and you still find time between all of the things you have to do to make time to meet and get to know everyone on this base? That’s insane, and we all care about you so much. I care about you so much. This,” you motioned to his arm. “Is the least I can do to thank you.”

Poe stared at you, wide eyed. “You really believe that?”

You smiled earnestly. “Of course.”

His eyes softened even more and he raised a bandaged hand to caress your cheek. “I love you too.”

You frowned. “You-“

He nodded.

You grinned brighter than he’d ever seen. “I love you three.”

[sugamamacustard]

Let me help you

Pairing:  Alpha! Toru Oikawa x Omega! Reader, Alpha! Hajime Iwaizumi x Omega! Reader

Genre: Angst, fluff, Hurt/comfort.

Request: Because I like a bit of hurt/comfort, and I love the idea of an omega depression, I'm curious on how alpha third years on Aoba Johsai (so like Oikawa, Iwaizumi, Mattsun) would do in response to their omega being in an omega depression.

Summary: Because of unseen circumstances, you drop, and you drop hard. How does your alpha help you/redeem himself?

Author’s Note:  Oikawa’s got really long, so I didn’t include Mattsun or Makki. If you wanna request a part 2 I’ll get on it right away!

Requests: Open!

Toru Oikawa

➵ Truth be told, it was kind of his fault. 

➵Right after you both bonded, he immediately seemed to drop any redeeming qualities he had while courting you.

➵He skipped out on dates, stayed later and later at practice, gave the mile to his fangirls.

➵And while you could get over that, the worse thing you realized was when you went to cheer him on at one of his games. 

➵His bond mark was covered with a scent gland bandage and when Iwaizumi noticed it (He knew of your bonding), he sent a worried glance your way.

➵He could practically see the heartbreak from his place on the court. 

➵What was worse was that you didn’t make a scene. 

➵You stood, turned and left. That was it. 

➵ Oikawa was busy doing his pre-game whatever to notice, making the situation even worse.  

➵Iwaizumi wanted to follow you but the whistle of the ref called him back. 

➵ You didn’t want Iwaizumi to follow you anyway. 

➵You felt numb. So, so numb. 

➵Like anything you previously felt-- any longing, or wishing for your alpha-- reduced to a numb buzz that kept your body moving. 

➵You felt like you were on Autopilot. 

➵Toru made it fairly obvious that he wanted your bond mark on display, so why weren’t the same standards held to him? It wasn’t against the rules of volleyball-- several alphas had theirs out on proud display with their omega cheering in the stands. 

➵Was it you?

➵God, you felt so empty. Like your will to live was dripping away. 

➵You felt your omega lay down, whining as they tried to figure out what was wrong. Where did you go wrong? 

➵You barely felt the soft fleece of your blankets as you settled into your nest for who knows how long. 

___

 Toru was lost. You were in the stands during warm-up last game, but was gone by half-time. Okay, fine. Maybe you had to pee. But then you didn’t show up at all after that.  While at the time it took a back burner-- because we all know how Oikawa plays-- it was now front and center. His alpha was on edge and snapped on him twice already, sending sharp throbs of pain to his temples. It had been three days since Toru had seen you, his mate, so Toru could tell that was a big reason for his frustration. But Toru didn’t know why you had been gone for three days. 

If you were sick, why didn’t you text him? Were you injured? Toru didn’t know.  His neck burnt with anticipation at the thought of you in any peril. 

Where were you?

 Shoving his way past a few fangirls, Toru made his way into the gym, racking his brain for any sort of hint. Vacation maybe and you just forgot to tell him?

 “Iwa-chan! I need your-” Toru paused, huffing when Iwaizumi roughly shoved past him. His alpha was on guard immediately, making Toru growl loudly.   “What’s you issue, Iwa? Blue-balled or something?” 

The laugh that left Iwaizumi made even him, the head alpha, shiver. “My issue? What’s yours?! You absolutely destroyed your relationship last game and ask me for help?! What the hell is wrong with you, Oikawa?!”  

Oikawa swallowed. There was no nickname. No sense of friendship in his words. They were straight malice, laced with acidic venom meant to hurt him. 

When Oikawa didn’t immediately answer, Iwaizumi continued. “You make them wear their bond mark for all the world to see, but cover yours up? What in the actual fuck is wrong with you?! How in the hell you got someone like them to glance your way for more than a second is beyond me, let alone bond you; but when you do, you fucking destroy them. You’re a failure of an alpha, Toru Oikawa.” 

Truth be told, Oikawa thought that him covering up his bond mark would save you from trouble. The less people who knew about him being mated the less people to harass you. But he was your alpha. He was supposed to make sure that didn’t happen anyway.  Fuck, Iwa was right. He was a failure. This became evident as more and more things came hurdling back at him.  He didn’t even grab his duffel before he was, quite literally, sprinting out of the gym. He didn’t care who he pushed over. He didn’t care who he snapped at. He didn’t care. He only care about one person and one person alone. 

___

You whined as hunger continued gnawing at your gut. You wanted to eat, really, but you just didn’t have the energy. You didn’t have the will. 

You still felt so numb and didn’t know where to go from here. At this point, it was clear you were in the midst of an Omega Depression, and to be fair-- that scared you. You wanted to spend the evening in your nest, restart and reboot, before talking to your alpha about it the next day. You truly didn’t mean to drop. 

But here you were. The aspect of ...starvation scared you. The aspect of no closure for yourself scared you. Death scared you. But you couldn’t fight yourself to fix it. Couldn’t bring yourself to even lift your head or stay awake for more than an hour. 

The door to your room slammed open, but you didn’t look up. It was probably your guardian coming in to try and get you to eat again. But you wouldn’t. 

Your heart dropped when the smell of burnt plastic invaded your sense. 

“No- no, no, no, no no- Please god no-” Oikawa felt his heart shatter at the sight of you. You looked like you had both feet dangling in the grave, hanging on by a loose root you grabbed onto in a last ditch effort. 

He continued repeating no while running his hands through his hair, already crying before he even set foot in your room.  When he did dare step closer, that was all it took before he was running to you, pulling you in close despite your whines of protest.  His grip on you was bruising, but he couldn’t risk letting you slip. Not again. 

“Please- please don’t leave me.” He sobbed into your shoulder, your own eyes stinging (Dehydration keeping tears from falling).  “I- I can fix this- I can fix us. Fuck- Please Y/N. Please omega, let me help you. Let me make this right!”

Though you didn’t say anything, the grip on his jacket told him all he needed to know. And though it would be a long road to recovery, you and him would conquer it. 

➵ Completely contrary to Oikawa, your drop wasn’t anyone’s fault.

➵Maybe the school systems, if there was blame to be put. 

➵So much had gone on in such a short period. 

➵You and your alpha, along with his team, had been bombarded with practice and paperwork in preparation for the upcoming tournament. 

➵But just because volleyball picked, doesn’t mean school drops off.

➵ You had essay after essay due, Unit exams which would soon fall into Final exams.

➵You and Hajime had barely even seen each other all week.

➵You both still sent each other good morning and good night texts, and if you see each other in the hallway you’ll give each other a quick peck. 

➵Honestly, it was obvious everyone was on edge. 

➵Teachers didn’t care though, they just kept piling on more, and more, and more work.

➵ And volleyball just kept getting closer and closer.

➵You stumbled into the gym with a chirp, trying to sort through the multitude of papers in your arms. 

➵Your back was aching and your arms were strained, but you couldn’t drop them. That would be a disaster. 

➵ The coach sent you a raised brow, offering a hand to help. You waved him off, sitting on the bench with a grunt.

➵Everyone was already sweaty and panting, practice in full swing. 

➵God, everyone looked so tired already. 

➵You could feel the waves of exhaustion.

➵ As they were just in deep in your bones as they were in theirs. 

___

“Did you finish filling out the registry forms?”

You looked up to the coach, nodding slowly before riffling through your papers and pulling out the ones you were looking for. You handed them to the beta, quickly going back to your notes once more. 

You noted the stumbled steps and slowed reflexes, but simply made it a point to emphasize rest with the boys. Maybe a day with no practice would do them more good then practice. 

Hajime was doing well, as usual, somehow keeping his head and energy high. You know he hasn’t gotten much rest either, and you felt for your alpha. Honestly, you just wanted one day with just you and your alpha, where you both could sleep the day away and come back good as new. 

That just sounded glorious. 

“You wouldn’t mind filling out the ref sheets either, would you?” The beta smirked, already handing you the sheets. He knew you had a tough time saying no to people older and/or bigger than you; and had you doing several things that most mangers would never touch.

It was tiring.

You reluctantly took the sheets, already starting on them. The notes you were working on were yanking from under you, the coach reading over them. 

He scoffed at your note of possibly skipping a practice. “Are you serious?” 

“I’m sorry?”

“Take a break?! These boys are on the brink of a skillful breakthrough, and you want to stop them?!” 

You closed in on yourself at the yells, trying to focus on the ref sheets. He continued yelling and berating you for the notes you made. You could feel the teams stares on you, but you also knew they wanted you to learn to stand up for yourself. They had been giving you a few minutes to try and collect yourself and if nothing happened they would step in. 

It only took seconds for you to finally break down, sobbing into your hands as the coach’s yelling reached a breaking point. The team took very time to act then and there. 

Oikawa and Kyoutani were snapping and growling, pushing him back and away from you while Hajime slid onto his knees in front of you, pulling you to his chest and kissing your bond mark. He rocked you side to side, purring and letting you cry. 

You sobbed and sobbed while the coach tried backtracking, but it was too late. The pack was on defense. One of them was in danger and they were going to make sure they all were safe. 

___

You don’t remember falling asleep, but when you wake up, your in Hajime’s arms, which are wrapped tight around your waist. 

Oikawa was on the other side of you, head on Hajime’s thigh, Makki and Mattsun were cuddling together a little to the left of you. Kyoutani was closest to you (He had a soft spot for you, almost like you were another older sister to him). You ran a hand through his hair for a moment before taking a deep breath in and out. The rest of the team was scattered in the puppy pile around you, and the gym was dark. 

In fact, everything was dark. There were chairs propped up by the door, just in case you supposed, and there were jackets littered everywhere. Your heart fluttered at the thought. 

Hajime’s arms subconsciously tightened around you, luring you back into sleep.

You, your alpha, and your pack.

[it-was-summer]

Video Killed the Radio Star- Chapter 8 (Spencer Reid x Fem!Reader)

A/N: Hello!!! After a very very very long hiatus, school is over and I am ready to write again. I'm sorry for dropping off the face of the earth, but I did indeed get burnt out this semester and I just needed some time to recover. I also got sick with COVID-19, so I'm sorry that chapter 8 took so long to write. As regards to the things in my ask box, I will be answering them as soon as I post this chapter today. I will be working over the Summer, but I promise to write over the Summer. Thank you all for being kind and I hope that this chapter or two nerds being nerds makes up for some of it... a little at least? Also the text will be italicized

Warnings: One? Curse word? Fluff and texting?

Plot: Spencer and you fight against all judgement and ignore the growing feelings the two of you have for each other. Spencer sends you a text.

Word Count: 2.1K

Spencer had come and gone, and now your couch carried the faint smell of peppermint and old books. The moon peered through your living room window as you poured steaming water into a mug, the smell of peppermint making your stomach flip pleasantly. Your mind wandered dangerously, thinking about how sweet Spencer’s laugh sounded when you nitpicked something the Doctor had said.

Thinking about how he stood in front of your bookcase and how bright his smile became seeing The Nightingale and the Rose amongst the masses, his fingers brushing the spine for a second before he let out a soft ‘oh’. You shook your head from side to side gently, trying to shake the recent memories from your brain as you took a short sip of your tea.

You couldn’t help but feel dirty thinking about Spencer. If you were just thinking about him you would’ve felt better, but you weren’t thinking about Spencer necessarily. You were thinking about how soft his hands felt in the split second the two of you reached for the remote. You were thinking about how he used that same hand to push back his hair from his eyes, how the dying sunlight outside reached his eyes, and how he looked when he lingered for a second too long at the door.

That wasn’t right. You weren’t supposed to think about him like that, you didn’t want to. Every lingering thought was shoved into the back of your mind in a forceful act of rebellion. You needed to remain grounded, you couldn’t let yourself get carried away. He was your friend and he was going to remain your friend, just a friend.

The peppermint tea felt thick as it went down your throat, a soft chime bringing you back to reality. Your hand shot over to your phone, feeling desperate for any kind of distraction. Your mother had texted you a simple ‘Hi’ and you felt your shoulders relax instantly. You hit the call button.

___

Spencer stood in the middle of a park, he wasn’t there for a case or to play chess, he was just there-- sitting on a red blanket. His head raised to the sky as a breeze shook through his hair sweetly. He heard a gentle and familiar laugh beside him, his head snapping away from the blue sky to look at you. “What are you laughing at?”

“Nothing,”

Spencer frowned, sitting up on his elbows, eyes locked onto yours, silently interrogating you. You waved him off with a smile, “Fine,” you said, leaning your head into the palm of your hand. “I never get to see you like this, so free.”

“I’m always free, thank you very much,” Spencer taunted uncharacteristically as he felt your hand shove into his shoulder with a gentle jab.

“You know that’s not what I meant,” soft wind blew your hair into your face and Spencer could already feel his hand moving to push the hair out of your eyes, “You’re always worrying about work or a case or something else, sometimes it feels like you’re running a thousand miles a minute and I can’t catch up, but sometimes it’s nice to just see you be still for a while.”

Spencer felt pleasant shivers pass through his spine, opening up his mouth to whisper something sweet to say to you, but the words never got the chance to leave his throat as he woke up in his dark bedroom.

His eyelids fluttered gently, begging him to fall back asleep against his will. Spencer forced his eyes open, turning his head to the side to look at the time glowing on the digital clock that sat upon his nightstand. Four in the morning.

Spencer felt his face grow warm as he laid awake in bed, thinking about you. Your laugh, your smile, your eyes, your hands. Spencer didn’t like to touch people, being a slight germaphobe, he tried to avoid touching other people as much as possible. So why was he so comfortable with it in a dream? He didn’t believe that dreams reflected the subconscious, but sometimes he ignored that gnawing feeling inside his brain and believed in dream analysis.

This was one of those times. He knew that if he mentioned anything to Derek, he would make fun of him, and then he would tell Penelope and then everyone would know. So maybe this was something he was going to keep to himself. He wordlessly decided that he wouldn’t tell anyone, it felt wrong to tell anyone. You were hurting. Recovering.

Besides, if he said something-- if he reacted to it, wouldn’t that make this feeling grow? He bit his lip, rolled over on his other side, closed his eyes, and tried to resume the dream he had just woken up from.

__

A lump filled Spencer’s throat as he stepped through the elevator, coffee’s in hand. He wasn’t the best at lying about things and he worked with profilers. Literal people that could look at him and dissect his brain without him saying a word. Usually, he had the upper hand, usually, he didn’t feel so different. He had no reason to feel so strange, he was just happy, was it so strange that he felt happy? When Prentiss’s eyes fell on him, he decided yes.

The team didn’t always say something when they noticed something was off with Spencer, but most of the time they made a habit to say some teasing remark in passing. Spencer wasn’t sensitive, nor was he immune to throwing out some special one-liners of his own, he was just skittish about receiving them.

“Spencer,” Emily’s voice cut through the room, snapping Spencer’s head up from his coffee. “You seem,” she paused “Weird.”

“Weird? Reid?” Derek chuckled softly, eyes meeting Spencer’s for a quick second.

“Yep, always weird.”

“Yeah, okay, he’s being weird,”

Spencer took a long sip of his coffee, his fingertips gripping the cup a little tighter in a desperate attempt to calm himself down. He had no reason to feel weird, no reason at all. It’s not like his dream was real. It had just been so long since Spencer had liked someone as much as he liked you. That wasn’t the right way to think about it; he simply had a crush on you. That was all it was, a crush.

“I just had a good night,” he muttered nervously into the lid of his cup.

“Yeah, with a cute little miss thing that lives in Richmond.”

“Richmond?” mused Emily with a smile.

Spencer frowned at Derek, “Who even told you that? Was it Penelope, because she told me she wouldn’t tell,”

“When she says that, she means she won’t tell Hotch, but she’ll most likely always tell me.”

Emily waved her hand from side to side, “Wait go back,” she pointed at Spencer “Did you have a date yesterday?”

“No!”

“Yes.”

“No, it wasn’t a date. It was coffee. We drank coffee and talked.” Spencer argued quickly, making him seem guilty in a matter of seconds.

“Can she even do anything with that boot on?” Emily teased, earning a laugh from Derek.

“Come on, Prentiss. Reid only makes moves on girls in the middle of a case, not after.”

“That was once!”

“So you made a move on her then?” Emily implored gently, letting the interrogative teasing be cut short.

“No, we went back to her apartment to watch a show, and then I went home,” Spencer answered, trying to let his nerves settle down, when he said it out loud it sounded like it was nothing. It sounded silly. Derek and Emily shot each other a glance, shared a smile, and then both mouthed a simple ‘okay’, before going their separate ways.

Spencer knew that Emily was probably running over to whisper something to Rossi or J.J and Derek was probably heading over to Penelope to tell her what just happened. He could care less, he needed to work, and they all needed to work judging by the way Hotch walked into his office.

__

You had woken up near noon to a text that simply read; Hello.(: It was short, sweet, and from Spencer. To be fair, he had mentioned that he wasn’t the best with texting people, so the fact that he sent you a text said something.

You didn’t want to seem too eager as you texted Hey, did you have lunch yet?

You set the phone down, trying to get over the initial feeling of embarrassment that caused your cheeks to flush, remembering in a second that you were a nerd. You couldn’t text people for shit and as you stared at the message you had just sent Spencer it showed.

You sat up, sliding off to the edge of the bed, hand reaching for the phone as another chime made your heart burst. No, I spent lunch on a plane to Georgia.

Georgia?

Chime.

We got another case and the whole team is running on coffee.

Eat something soon.

Chime.

Can’t ignore a demand like that.

Good, don’t.

Chime.

Text me later?

Absolutely (:

You pressed your lips together, fighting back the growing smile on your lips as you left your phone on your bed, today already seemed promising.

Being out yesterday made you realize how much you missed being outside, the only downside was it took forever for you to get anywhere. So, you called your mom out for lunch. You found the slow walking easier to deal with when you were talking to someone else and she was worried about you, so it was a win-win.

The restaurant was crowded, crowded areas usually made you feel nervous like you were being watched. Being watched wasn’t so bad, being kidnapped was worse, and being physically abused was worse than being kidnapped. So you could deal with some crowds.

Certain things kept catching you by surprise, like the way slow-moving cars rolling down the street made you tense up, and the way you clenched your jaw as the waitress’s name tag shined ‘Heather’.

Your mother was kind enough to reach over the table to hold your hand in hers, a smile brightening her eyes effortlessly, “You look lovely today,”

You let out a small sigh and shrugged “I had a good morning,”

“Really?” she repeated, smile growing wider.

“Yeah,” you squeezed her hand gently “I went out for coffee yesterday with Spencer, too.”

“The F.B.I agent, Spencer?” You nodded quickly, hand leaving hers as you looked through the menu. “Was this a date?”

“Mom,” your eyes peered up at her, lips turned down into a gentle frown “I just went through something very traumatic, I don’t think it was a date.”

“What was it then?”

“A friend, being nice to another friend.” You replied quickly, trying to move your focus back onto the menu in your hands. You heard a small sound from your mother that reassembled an ‘okay’ before she went silent, but you could tell she was burning with questions.

You didn’t blame her, you never got out much but when you did, she was the first one to know. You had mentioned over the phone last night that the two of you were friends and he was helping you through so of the tougher things that recovery involved, but she seemed to ignore that then. You had yet to mention the addictive tendencies you were feeling, the yearning for a release, an outlet of some kind. You knew it would break her heart, so you kept quiet.

“I like him,”

“Mom,” you scolded with a smile, setting down the menu. “You met him once.”

“And he made a good impression,”

“You left the room!”

“I can read body language,”

“Okay, mom,” You scoffed as you took a sip of your water.

“All I’m saying is,” she put her hands together “Recovering doesn’t mean you have to ignore every opportunity that comes your way because you don’t think it’s the right time.” She met your eyes and let out a tiny laugh, “I know you and you won’t let anything happen if you feel like it’s not the right time, sometimes it’s not a bad thing to let things happen. Romantic things or otherwise.”

You opened your mouth to say something but instead, you let out a tiny sigh, nodding slowly. She didn’t need to know how miserable the night made you, how suffocating a day alone was for you, so you nodded. After all, maybe she was right, she was your mother.

[tsuumu]

good intentions.

kuroo x reader

your long-term boyfriend is perfect. i mean perfect. he excels at basically everything he does. well, except one thing. at least he has good intentions, right?

based off of a request found here.

word count:

tags/tw: y/n & kuroo are uni students, lots of playful insulting, kuroo is perfect, well not really, y/n is a mess, y/n is me doing any kind of work, domestic x1000, kuroo cooking is so cute.

You know those people who just seem to have it all?

No, not literally, but it’s so sickeningly easy for them that they might as well be arms reach of anything they want.

Usually we tend to dislike people like that, mainly because... well, we’re not them (much to our abysmal dismay, too). They end up taking a spotlight of jealousy in our lives and we find ourselves constantly thinking: Man, i’d love to kick their asses, but would alternatively jump at the oppertunity to switch lives with them ‘Freaky Friday’ style.

These people are the embodiment of admiration.

Young. Good looking. Fit. Successful. Socially conscious. Killer smiles. Can always hold a drink. Never seem to embarrass themselves even a little, but on the off chance they do, everyone adores them more and sees it as a cute little incident or quirk of theirs.

Just thinking about it makes you want to build yourself a bunker, deep underground, just to sulk in for a decade or so, lamenting angrily at the dusty walls.

Yes. You know the truth is that there will always be someone better than you at simply existing, but that doesn’t stop that simmering of content from rising within. Realistically speaking, you’d avoid these people like your life depended on it because they’re so... detestable.

So who would have known that you —of all people— would end up falling in love with one?

Well, you did. As much as they repel you, you find that they weirdly attract you too.

That’s right.

The man who stole that pretty little heart of yours, who’d caught your attention indefinitely with his cut-throat prowess and charisma. He’d approached you one fine evening at some bar you’d never been to before, ordered you your favorite drink because he’d seen you order it twofold previously (vodka cranberry, heavy on the juice) and chatted you up the way you’d always wished a guy would.

The appalling epitome of cliche.

The whole encounter practically ran like he’d planned it before-hand. It’s almost infuriating, how easily he swept you off of those tipsy feet of yours.

Something bumps lightly over your head as a shadowy figure passes by. You groan lightly in response.

“Hey, cut it out!”

Somehow, you’ve found yourself on the floor, crossed-legged, pen in your mouth and both your hands. One is furiously scrawling something down, the other flicking the cap off to highlight. It’s an understatement to note that you look like a bit of a mess, brows scruched up in an untidy pile in the middle of your forehead, dead-focused on the first draft of your thesis that was due weeks ago.

Yeah, you were one of those people.

A mocking string of apologetic noises come from the figure in front of you as he chucks his keys onto the kitchen counter.

Kuroo Tetsurou. That’s your A-list Boyfriend.

A-list of what? Of life, for god’s sake.

If it were him that’d been assigned a task with this ridiculous deadline, he’d probably have handed it before it was fucking given to him in the first place! Not only is he academically adept to the point of pure indignancy (on your part, of course, you’re too prone to jealousy for your own good), but his organisation is nothing short of freakishly unnatural.

He says he’s minimalistic, you say he’s an alien.

If someone had told you that the man you loved was actually some kind of secret government- made equipment to survey you, you wouldn’t bat an eyelid. He’s that good.

He chuckles at his own jeers, slipping a hand through the fridge handle. It unlatches with ease and he takes a cold can of beer out, pulling the tab back and allowing it to hiss open satisfyingly. Your eyes flicker upwards, gnawing at your knuckle, you’re not only stressed out, but unbelievably embarrassed that you’re at it again. He’s seen you like this countless times, after promising to clean up your act and follow in his footsteps.

Following in his footsteps. Well, that’s how he described it. You were close to socking his arm.

“Shut up.”

Tetsurou tilts his head back, drinking to his heart’s content before catching your eye. You’re correct. He has seen this before, so he knows not to take your off-handed comments to heart. Instead, he’s rather bemused.

“Your scruched up nose.” He begins, setting the can down to the side, crossing one leg over the other. “That’s your classic concentrating face.”

You’re not even listening if you’re honest. You’re trying to understand what this section of the task even means after re-reading it for the fifteeth time. The responses you give are made absently.

“Hm.”

“You look like a cat that’s been forced to wait to eat. That little glare. It’s cute, kitty.”

Your head jerks up questioningly. Did he call you cute?

His head tilts.

“Oh, you’ve relaxed your face now. It’s gone back to being ugly.”

You scowl and throw the highlighting pen at him.

“Go away! I’m almost done!”

Your fingers move to your lower back, pressing on your spine in hopes it’ll crack and relieve some of the tension in your body. Kuroo retrieves the pen, sweeping the can up with his spare hand. He plods over, craning his neck down to study whatever it is that you have on your lap.

“It’s too dark in here to see that properly.”

“I’m fine!”

“Well—“ He leans back to switch the overhead lights on. “—now you’re finer.”

You turn to him, pausing for a moment.

“Oh, thanks.”

It’s like you fall into this crazed state when you’re overworked. Frantic. Snappy. Cowering in the dark like some sort of parody Dracula— that is, if Dracula were three weeks late on his university assignment worth a disgustingly high percentage of his final grading. If Kuroo came too close, or said something a little too sly, you’d probably bite him. He knows this too, opting to keep quiet from now on. Instead, he sits leisurely on the floor, just behind you, placing his hands against your propped up body and gently pressing his thumbs into the blades of your back.

“Drop it a sec, yeah?”

Your body’s stiff, but you can tell he’s shocked at just how stiff it is. For a moment, you’re caught off guard, before rolling your shoulders back forcefully.

“Can’t... gotta finish—“ and you gesture wildly at everything around you. That answer was to be expected. You weren’t as academically driven, sure, but you weren’t one to give in easily. Or fail, for that matter.

Tetsurou plants a gentle kiss onto the nape of your neck, mumbling into the ridge of your spine.

“That—“ he copies your movements. “Can wait. I know you think it can’t, but it can. And you’re going to stop now.”

Your eyes lower a little, vision blurring.

“But—“

“Nope.”

You twist yourself to look at him, giving him another sour look.

“I’m serious!”

“So am I.” It rolls off the tongue so easily for him. He’s utterly calm. But then again, he’s not the one that needs to be on bloody ‘X-Games’ mode.

He’s never the one. Damn it.

You lift yourself up a little by placing your palms under you, wincing at the twinges of pain it induces. You’d made friends with the floor for a little too long, butt totally numb.

“Fine.” You resign, suddenly falling back onto him. “I’ll email my professor for the tenth time this week and wait as he rips me apart. Shall I?” Kuroo tuts, snaking an arm around your upper-body, the other brushing at your baby-hairs so he’s able to see your face a little clearer.

“He wouldn’t do that.”

“Uh— yes he would. Would you like front row seats to my untimely demise?”

“You’re so dramatic.”

For the first time through that entire day, you smile, even if it’s just a little. And to him, he’s managed to fish you out of that downward spiral you’ve been plunging into. Job well done on his part. He softly runs a his palm down your side.

“Your professor covers mine when she’s busy.” He states matter-of-factly. “Let me email him. It’s not ludicrous to say that i’m your boyfriend and you’re a little troubled at the moment.”

You’re slumped over, at the moment, chin buried into your chest.

“Troubled sounds like i’ve lost my mind.”

“Well not like that—“ The eager boy begins sifting out your laptop from under the seemingly endless piles of paper. “Let’s think of a better excuse.” Your body doesn’t move an inch, fiddling with the cap of the pen lid. You throw it by accident and it bounces too far to reach comfortably. Shit.

“Mmm.” He buries his nose into the crown of your head. “Shall I tell him you got into a car accident?”

“What? Tetsu, that’s stupidly unbelievable. I don’t even drive.”

“I guess... maybe not a car.” His fingers teasingly splay over your stomach, body bent intrusively over yours. They move against the softness of your flesh, dipping down slightly.

You suck in a breath.

“I’m sure I can do something for you that’ll keep you from walking for quite some time.” Tetsurou hums deeply, and it feels like he’s talking directly into your brain.

Your fingers fumble for the pen he just gave back, before hitting him square on the forehead with it. It ricochets back perfectly onto your chest with a loud snap.

“Ow!”

“You’re an idiot.”

“Geez.”

“I don’t need excuses. I’ll just come back to it later.”

“Oh— yeah. That too.”

With a heave, you sit up, rubbing the side of your head as the blood rushes back.

“I’m kinda hungry.” You’d been so distracted with this work that even simple, human needs took a backseat.

This is why Kuroo doesn’t like it. At times like this, you’d barely eat, sleep, breathe. Seriously. Sometimes you’d hold your breath for absurdly long periods of time whilst reading, only to hack and gasp and apologise because you were so into it.

That’s... extreme. And he does not approve in the slightest.

“Yeah?”

“Mhm...” Your eyes sparkle hopefully. “Did you get me something to eat?”

Tetsurou scratches his neck timidly.

“Well, not exactly.”

Immediately, your face drops and he protests wildly.

“Don’t look at me like that!”

Well— well— you couldn’t help but be disappointed! You were starving and tired and ready to email your professor a string of rather unpleasant curse words instead of another half-assed excuse. Your fingernails had been worn down considerably from all the abrasive biting you’d done, aching and red.

Being a full-time student was covert self-destruction. You heavily relied on your boyfriend to bring in food because you didn’t have the time to do so yourself. This had been discussed and agreed upon prior though, since along with Tetsu’s many formidable talents, a balanced work to school life was yet another.

He ambles back to the kitchen area, gesturing to the island smack bang in the middle.

“That doesn’t mean I came empty-handed.”

Oh. You hadn’t noticed it before, but he’d come home with groceries. Um. Groceries?

“What’s that?”

“Stuff I picked up on the way back.”

“Like, ingredients?”

“Yeah, I guess you could say that.”

The both of you are quiet for a moment, and you’re eyeing the bag like it’s appeared out of nowhere with something potentially life-threatening inside it. Yes, that sounds stupid. But the truth is... you guys never really got groceries. Not actual groceries with actual ingredients. Because that is a strong indicator that they’d have to be cooked.

And god, neither of you knew how to do that.

You’re a student who’s barely stepped into adulthood, not Gordan Ramsay.

Okay. You sound ridiculous. Cooking isn’t that complex. It’s actually quite simple if your heart’s in it.

“I figured i’d be able to do something with these.” Kuroo pats the bags and they crinkle a tad.

Of fucking course he’d ‘be able to do something’ with them.

He’s Kuroo-Genius-Tetsurou!

CEO of doing things with other things and it actually working out. Building cabinates, lock-picking, gardening, guitar, skateboarding, poker. Since you’ve been together, these are a few of the varation of things he’s naturally picked up.

You? You’re a more do-it-once-it-fails-and-never-do-it-again type.

In your mind there’s literally no doubt he’d ace cooking and list it under the other fifty(billion) things he’s also capable of, just so he can mention it off-handedly to other people at parties or something.

If there’s something to criticise about your boyfriend, he’s awful at shutting up about himself. He’ll go on forever, as if he’s showcasing his entire life to strangers in some desperate attempt to sell them his excessive excellence.

Is he arrogant? Maybe. But is he able to do it in a manner that’s utterly bewitching? Absolutely. He’s not gloating, you see, he’s ‘modestly sharing’. And you find yourself wanting to praise him, you want to hear about how much better he is than you.

Let’s be honest. Kuroo and modesty were not made to be placed in the same sentence, any humble talk of his is utter bullshit.

But everyone loves it all the same.

That’s what you mean about perfect people. They spark something in others. It’s almost hypnotic. And when you snap out of it, it’s like it’s been confirmed that you’re undoubtedly inferior. Post-Kuroo-Encounter depression. PKE. You having a devastating case of it.

Maybe you have a bit of a complex about this. Ugh.

He’s lucky he’s so damn loveable.

And that you’re so damn hungry.

“Okay.” You state.

Plus, you are a little curious to see what exactly will unfold with his newfound persuit in the culinary arts.

You haul ass to get up, audibly cursing, hopping around from foot to foot to get your blood-flow back in action. Eventually, you’ve nestled yourself onto a stool, hands propping your chin up, observing expectantly.

“What are you making, chef?”

“Uhh..” He’s rolling his sleeves up, eyes glued to the screen of his phone that’s placed facing upwards. “Chicken Alfredo.” Tetsu sounds a little uncertain but you’re staring into his head and you can almost hear the cogs turning. Really, it’s only a matter of time until the bastard works his Area 51-esque magic and concocts the dish.

He takes a little more time to familiarise himself with the recipe, before looking up, giving you a wicked grin.

“I’ve got this.”

You’re sure he does, smiling back.

Whilst he’s preparing god knows what, you peek into the grocery bag to see if there’s anything you can nibble on. You recieve another gentle smack to your head. Tetsu’s holding a packet of dry pasta.

He’s hit you with pasta.

“Nu-uh. I didn’t bring any kitty treats for you, be patient.”

“Stop hitting me like i’m a fly, or a cat!”

“Don’t be silly. I’d never hit a cat! They’re precious, adorable, i’d protect one with my life. And you—“ He hits you again. “—well, you’re you, baby.”

You snatch the packet forcefully and lob it at him again.

“You have a death wish, Kuroo-san.”

“Eesh. The formalities! I’m kidding!”

You cradle your cheek in your palm, sighing tiredly. The two of you usually ordered in, or got something you’d be able to set up pretty easily. Neither of you were particularly passionate about cooking, hence its absence in your routines. Yes, it’s excessively healthier than your current lifestyle, but you weren’t suffering. And even now, watching Tetsurou fill a pan with water, muscles firm against the shy of his shirt. You know he isn’t either.

Now that you’re looking, and looking some more, it’s pretty hot, seeing a guy cook.

“You know, you should make breakfast shirtless so I can tell my friends my hot boyfriend cooks me breakfast shirtless.”

He laughs.

“You’d enjoy that too much.”

“Is that a bad thing?”

“Yes. I can’t keep indulging you.”

He means that your desire for immediate gratification is your biggest weak-point. Kuroo’s recently been trying to teach you the art of patience. Abstinence. You don’t get it. Apparently perfect people believe in ‘self-control’ crap.

“Also, oil.” He adds.

“Oh, I suppose it’d hurt, right?”

“Mhm.”

Your boyfriend alternates from his phone to the actual practice in short cycles. To you, he looks like he’s on track, though you’re not quite sure what to be looking for in the first place. These things usually came ready and steaming on plates in restaurants. Even now, having to wait, it’s so difficult. But you’re enjoying the light conversation it brings, so it’s whatever.

Though, that lasting etch of confusion and concern on the boy’s face leaves you wondering if actually, this is proving slightly difficult for him.

“Is everything okay?” You pipe up.

He doesn’t answer at first.

“Think so.”

“Oh— i’ve never heard that from you before.” It’s usually straight confidence from this man.

“Shut up.”

From the stool, you slip, dragging your hand over the counter as you walk around to see it up close. You don’t really know what you’re expecting, but... it’s not this.

“Tetsu, that’s boiling a little violently, don’t you think?”

“...No?”

“Yeah. It is. That’s not a good sign.”

He bats you away.

“We can’t both stand here!”

“Why not?”

“Spaaace.” He whines. “And if we both stay crowded around it’ll—“

And it happens, exactly what you’d predicted.

You, of all people, had made an assumption your boyfriend hadn’t. Ain’t that crazy? The water rises up too high, boiling over and spilling absolutely everywhere. The gas flame heightens all of a sudden, curling up next to the fabric of a dish towel next to it. In a panic, you pull him back.

“What the fuck—“

There’s no time for you to think, your hands fumbling to close the stove, you hadn’t realised the water had seeped over it, causing you to cry out in pain in the process, hand burnt silly.

But you do it. Quickly too. And Kuroo’s utterly dazed, like he hadn’t even thought to react. Your immediate response post-injury is to suck on the wound, trying to suppress the pain with the soothing movements of your tongue. That doesn’t do much, so you flap it about like a mad man, that only instigates more irritation.

Tetsu snaps out of it when he hears your hissing, grabbing onto your wrist and pulling you to the sink forcefully, apologising profusely as he does.

Cold water hits you. It’s instant relief.

“God— i’m so sorry, (y/n)—“ He stumbles, still panicking, he seems to be experiencing everything five minutes too late. “I don’t know why that happened, I swear to God i’ve done that before but it just—“

You let out a giggle, and it shuts him up.

Another one slips. It gets louder and louder, harder to suppress until you’re full on belly laughing, hunched over. He stares at you, wordlessly surprised.

“T-Tetsu— you burnt water—“ You try and stifle your laugh but it only shakes your body more. His deep shame morphs into relief when he sees you’re okay. Tearfully making fun of him, but okay. He pulls you into a tight embrace, ignoring your remarks and still feeling unbelievably guilty.

It’s okay. You’re still chortling, holding him just as tight.

“Here, let me— let me bandage this.” In a cupboard somewhere, he pulls out a small wrap of fabric, proceeding to do just that. You watch happily enough, before turning to the boiled water that had completely stilled.

“Thanks. Let me do this.”

With considerable time and effort, you’re able to clean up the haphazard mess and start afresh, filling his place. Yeah, Kuroo is pretty humiliated, but he was more concerned about your wellbeing at the time than anything else. Seeing you unwavered was enough to make him feel like things were good.

It’s a miracle really, that you do end up filling two plates with delicious smelling pasta.

That lingering look of sorrow is still plastered all over the poor boy’s features, watching you with wide eyes.

“How did you manage that?”

You just shrug, licking a smidge of sauce off of your thumb.

“Dunno. Guess I have potential.” Your gaze moves up to his, pinching his cheek and blubbering jokingly. “Baby. What’s with the long face?”

“Feel bad.” Tetsu looks so glum. It’s adorable.

“Hm.”

The scrape of the plate against the counter is clear as bells as you urge him to eat.

“I should thank you, dumbass.” Admiring the bandage work, a grin settls upon you. This ordeal helps you to see that, actually, Tetsu wasn’t good at everything. In fact, for once, you were better.

And God. That’s— that’s different. You don’t want to be as cocky as him, but it feels nice for a change. He admires you.

“Got an excuse for that late assignment now.” You muse.

“Oh my god.”

You’re always going to be a handful.

“Ugh. Tetsu. Something good always come out of your actions. It’s sickening!”

“I hurt you, silly!”

“I’m feelin’ pretty good about it, regardless. Plus—“ You jump up, leaning over the counter to flick his forehead. “—i’m going to tell everybody this pretty little golden boy set our kitchen on fire because he tried to boil water.”

“Cruel. You’re cruel.”

“The cruelest.”

[serendipityjxmn]

I Hate You, Park Jimin!

Chapter 24 (FINAL CHAPTER)

Words Count: 7.3k ripppp

TW: SMUT BABY IT’S ALL YOURS

Link to Chapter 23

Link to Masterlist

I woke up to Jimin giving me soft kisses on my lips. I was vaguely aware of it at first until my brain was slowly waking up and my first instinct was to push him away and immediately covering my mouth with my hand.

“Go away, I have morning breath.” I mumbled, eyes still shut tight.

I heard him chuckling. And the kisses went everywhere- from my forehead, my cheeks, my nose and finally the crown of my head.

“Get up, sleepyhead. We’ve a lot of place to go today.”

“Do we..?” I muttered while my eyes were slowly opening. I was surprised to see Jimin already showered, smelling so heavenly, dressed in black turtleneck- god he looked so handsome. What a wonderful thing to wake up to.

“Yes we are. So get your ass up now.”

And so an hour later, we kicked off our little trip in Tokyo. Jimin seemed like he knew Tokyo like the back of his hand. It’s such a beautiful city. While it was modern, the nature was never left behind and every view was a scenery.

He took me to several hotspots, becoming a dedicated photographer for me in the mean time, we had lunch at an exquisite restaurant in which case, by the way, I saw with my own two eyes Jimin being hit on by a Japanese girl. I happened to witness it while I exited the restaurant later than Jimin since I went to the washroom and asked him to wait outside.

He must’ve stood out, he always does with his charisma and god-tier sex appeal.

I stood at the threshold as I watched the girl shyly approached him, conversations exchanged with Jimin listening intently then laughing with her which does something to my heart. But then when the girl tried to reach for her phone, I saw him bowing his head, said something, then turned around, his eyes meeting mine.

I froze, clearly caught watching them.

Jimin remained polite as he made a small gesture pointing towards me, making the girl flustered and she bowed several times saying presumably ‘I’m sorry’ before going away.

“Why are you just standing there?” He asked, head tilting slightly to the side.

I cleared my throat then just proceeded to walk past him. I was aware of him watching me intently.

“You’re going the wrong way, though.” He said from behind me and I froze.

I heard him laughing then my hands were clasped in his as he pulled me towards his direction.

“Cold?” He asked, noticing me shivering. We were at Roppongi Hills’ observatory deck with Tokyo’s breathtaking nightview laid to see. The sky was getting darker though it was barely six in the evening, winter making the daylight shorter. The cold breeze made me shiver although I was already wearing a scarf around my neck and layers of clothes.

“It’s okay. I’m fine.”

He just watched me, perhaps waiting for another shiver running down my spine. Then he pulled me close.

“Jimin! We’re in public!” I scolded when his face was dangerously close to mine.

“Who cares?” He smiled naughtily. Then he just pulled me into a hug. “I’m just trying to make you warm. My poor girl is cold. Can’t let her be cold.” He said then he pulled back, only to turn me around so he was backhugging me. I remained silent as we both stood there, appreciating the view.

“Jimin..” I called.

He hummed.

“Why did you bring me here?”

He drew a breath before exhaling slowly, almost like a sigh. “I just want to make you happy.. you know, give you a bit of a distraction, maybe.”

My heart swelled hearing his words. Then I turned around and gave him a peck on his cheeks, making him blush even in the midst of the cold weather.

We went down to eat after that, the building filled with lavish restaurant and shopping malls. It was still early when we finished dinner, perhaps around eight in the evening and Jimin asked if I wanted to go sightseeing nearby area since we still have time before it gets too late but I just shook my head, asking if we can just head back instead.

“Babe.. you okay?” He moved closer, hands finding mine to lace with it immediately. His gaze on me was soft. We were in the back of the car, on our way back to the suite.

I felt guilty almost instantly. I had a wonderful date with Jimin today and I knew he did all that he could to make me happy or simply just putting a smile on my face but I can’t shake off the heavy feelings in my chest. I smiled but it doesn’t reach my eyes. I knew he was well aware of it too and that hurt me more.

I was.. unsure of everything that’s going on in my life right now. I love Jimin, a lot, yes but I live in the reality. What is to come after this?

“Just.. tired.” I gave him a small smile and he brought my hand to his lips, planting a soft kiss on my knuckles. I remained silent the rest of the ride back, the feeling of unease gnawing in my stomach and part of it was due to my own aloofness towards Jimin. I sighed. I really am was twisted in my own way.

When we arrived, I took off my scarf and discarded my winter jacket, leaving me in just my cream turtleneck and black jeans. Jimin was behind me as he put down all of the shopping bags from the shopping haul we did (mostly Jimin who bought stuffs for me that I had to ask if we’re migrating to Japan).

“Jimin, what’s this..?” I stood at the bedroom’s threshold, blinking rapidly as I took in the view in front of me. The room was dimly lit, bedsheet changed- it was all shiny of satin, romantic decor pieces were everywhere- rows of litted candles on the floor on each side of the bed and rose petals literally all over the bed.

The romantic setting took me by surprise and I failed to contain a gasp when Jimin appeared beside me, tugging my hands and bringing me closer to the bed. We both stood at the end of the bed and I gulped, having completely no idea of what’s to come. My pulse raced.

He stood there, just watching me intently for a moment, both of his hands still holding mine firmly. “I.. I knew I’ve upset you a lot and everything seemed overwhelming.. and there’s a lot on your mind right now.. but I just want you to know that I want to be your safe space.. I want to be your source of distraction or the one to make all your worry go away.” He said carefully and my heart never thumped so fast. “Yesterday.. you asked why didn’t I tell you first about the proposal and all that and I felt guilty because I knew it was wrong and that you deserve all the hearts and flowers. So I want to make it right as soon as possible.”

He dropped to his knee in front of me, together with my lung that I swore I wasn’t breathing at that moment.

“Kim Hana, my love, my life, my baby.” He winked at that last endearment though I couldn’t bring myself to react since my body went into shock the moment he dropped to his knee. “I love you, a lot. And ever since I met you I’ve changed a lot and it was all for the better. And so I’m here, on my knee, asking you to love me back for the rest of your life and I’ll do the same. This might look stupid but..” he held my hand, and pulled out the ring he put on when he proposed yesterday and held it close to my fourth finger, ready to put it back on again. Then he took a breath before finally uttering the words. “Marry me?”

I think I stood frozen for I don’t know how long. And then suddenly everything seemed to flash like images in my mind, the encounter with Yoo Nara and her words saying I’ll never be good enough echoing in my mind, the deal between Jimin and his father.. the sick memory of my own father leaving my mother.. It all suddenly felt too much, my vision clouded and I felt tears slowly dropping.

“What about your dad..? And the deal..?” I said, now soaked through tears. “You.. you’ve thought about this through.. right?” I asked and when he frowned, I continued, “You’re not being forced into marriage or something like that right..?”

To my surprise, he laughed. “God- honestly you’re so adorable. Is that what you’re worried about..?” I nodded. “Marrying you would make me the happiest man alive.. why would I be forced to do something like that..? I love you, you idiot. And I wanna marry you because I want to take care of you for the rest of my life, so hurry up and give me an answer since my knee is going to give out soon.”

“Oh.” Oh! “I’m-“ I tried forming coherent words with face still full of tears, blinking rapidly to clear my vision and when my eyes are met with him smiling at me- “Yes.. yes.. I’m.. I’ll marry you, I love you so much-“ I said as I went down on my knee to throw my arms around him, pulling him close.

Jimin laughed, flustered from the sudden hug and his ignored ring. But he was quick to reply to my hug, running smooth circles behind my back while his other hand held my face, stroking my head in soft, soothing pace and I can’t help the tears again that I broke into a sob.

When I pulled away, I was still sobbing. Jimin looked at me with adoring gaze and brought his hands up to wipe the tears on my cheeks. “Aigoo you silly thing.”

I only stared back at him in utter fondness because I literally love him so much, it’s almost overwhelming. My eyes threatened to well up again just by looking at him so I distracted myself by taking his hand that’s holding the ring down to stare at it.

“Give me your hand. Need to put the ring on that finger.” He grinned at me. I held out my hand nervously nevertheless and he slid the finger in effortlessly on my fourth finger. Looking clearly at the ring again this time,

It was simply stunning.

Jimin knew I don’t like fancy or lavish jewellery so instead he picked the one with minimal design for me though the diamond told me the price was nothing short of cheap. He produced another one from his pocket but this time it was the men’s design.

“Put it on me?”

And with another tear threatening, I nodded and took it from his hand. God, I’m an emotional mess right now. Drawing a breath, I shakily put the ring on his finger and I swore his expression after that was one I would die for. He beamed so happily at me, eyes completely gone from his huge smile, his teeth flashing.

“I.. I love you so much.” I said and caressed his cheek.

“And I love you, baby.” He stood up then brought me to sit at the foot of the bed, our knees meeting.

“I was just worried..” I confessed as I stared at him. “While we were at the party.. Yoo Nara came up to me.. she told me that I’ll never be good enough for you..” I noticed Jimin stiffening at the mention of her name. “And that’s when she mentioned about your deal with your father.. and it worries me if you’re forced into this marriage..”

“Sshh.. don’t say that. Don’t even think about it. I love you and there’s nothing being forced about that. Personally I think it’s even better that I can marry you earlier so I can keep other guys from hitting on you.”

I smacked his shoulders and he laughed.

He leant in closer, lips very slightly brushing against my earlobe, making me shudder. “And so that I can make love to you.. every night, every morning.. or every second.” He whispered.

My breathing suddenly became erratic so I pushed his shoulder at arms length, trying to make space between us before I became even messier. “Pervert.” I accused and he only chuckled in response. “And you still haven’t ask for my mom’s permission. So this is still invalid.” I said, holding my hand up to show my ring.

He then took my hand and just smiled slyly. “I already did.” He said simply and burst out laughing seeing my expression looking completely aghast. “When I first met your mom.. at your house.. while you were showering, I had a long conversation with her about you. I told her sincerely about my feelings towards you. And even before that.. I’ve made it clear towards my parents that I don’t want to marry Nara. I’ve always known about my fate, to inherit the company and continue the family’s legacy, marry the girl of their choice. So I just ask for some leniency, since I would have to marry anyway, can’t they just let me marry someone that I love? And so the moment I talked to your mother, I told her about all this and the possibility that I might have to propose to you sooner rather than later. And she seemed accepting enough which I was very thankful for. And then before the charity dinner my parents held, I went to see her and officially asked for her permission to ask for your hand in marriage. And she said yes as long as you agree.” His hands brushed my knuckles softly.

“I..” Wow. That was a lot to take in.. Silence fell upon us for a few beats as I processed everything Jimin said. Then I hit his arms and his look was of utter surprise. “You sly thing! And here I thought I’d be smacked to death by my mom at any second!”

He burst out laughing. “I know her blessing’s important to you.. so I knew I had to ask her first.” His fingers played the ring on my finger.

I glared at him but I can’t ignore the swell of my heart. Jimin really did go to such extent just to make sure everything was right for me. I’m literally the luckiest girl in the world.

“I’m sorry.. for being so out of it since yesterday.. It felt too much and I still felt hurt from losing Jungkook, my friend who I’ve thought-“

“Sshhh-“ He cut me with his index finger on my lips. “Don’t think about it anymore, okay?”

I nodded and with a determined stare towards him, I pulled him closer to me then kissed him on the lips- fierce and determined to tell him everything that I was afraid of and him- answering with the same force of determination as if to say that everything would be alright as long as we have each other.

It wasn’t long until the kiss escalated into something more intense and desire started to spread like wildfire inside me.

His tongue started becoming insistent to enter my mouth and I granted access almost instantly. His kiss was hard, lips mashed against mine as if trying to destroy me. He broke the kiss, allowing me to catch my breath only to suck at my bottom lip fervently making me squirm on the inside.

“God- I want you.. so bad.” His intention was clear as day when he started planting open mouth, wet kisses on my jaw and my neck. I tried to stifle a moan, biting my bottom lip while tilting my head to give him better access. He seemed to appreciate the gesture as he started licking the expanse of my neck and the crook of it that lead to my shoulder, his hot breath against mine. I was vaguely aware of his hands that started almost innocently on the hem of my shirt till it sneaked inside, palm resting flat on my hip.

He went back to kissing me on the lips as his canvas on my neck was limited due to my turtleneck top. He pushed me gently towards the bed and I lifted my feet off the floor, obediently following his gesture as I crawled on my back towards the top of the bed until my back landed flat on pillows.

“Let’s get this off you.” He said in between kisses and proceeded to take off my shirt, leaving me bare with only my laced black bra. “God- I’m so lucky to be the only person able to see this.”

I blushed and bit my lips. He leant back in to take me by the mouth again, hands now roaming towards my breast, giving tugs and squeezes over my bra.

I hummed in pleasure when he groped my breasts hard, feeling my nipples hardening underneath. I arched my back as soon as his hands made its way to my back and with expertise, unhooked my bra, pulling it from me, leaving my breasts bare without anything concealing it anymore.

Jimin wasted no time diving in and showing his appreciation with his tongue and sneaky bites on my nipples, laving at them like a man starved leaving me breathless and a hot mess, writhing underneath him. His expert work on my breasts, sucking and fondling them made my body squirm and yearning for more.

He straddled himself on top of me, lowering himself enough to let me know of his hardened member that’s pushing against my clothed core.

The sound of his sinful lips were enough to make me quiver and I unintentionally tried to squeeze my thigh, making Jimin groaned in response.

He pulled his lips away and I saw his eyes dark and lidded with lust. “You’re eager for me, aren’t you?”

“Yes,” I whimpered and tried to close my legs again, which doesn’t go unnoticed by Jimin.

“Then let’s get this one down here, off too.” He said and staring at me, he worked his way through the button of my jeans and eased it from my legs as soon as I lifted my hips. “Hmm, someone’s already wet.. down here.” I gasped when I felt Jimin’s finger grazed my clothed core. I moaned deeply in pleasure when he started rubbing circles over my clothed clit.

I arched my back, supporting my body on both my elbows. “Jimin stop teasing me.”

He smirked. “Tell me what you want, baby.” He said, hands still teasing me relentlessly, applying force every now and then causing me to curl my fingers on the bed sheets underneath.

“Jimin, I want you..” I whimpered.

He chuckled in response, though his breathing was slightly labored, clearly affected by my response to his touch. “I love how you respond to every single of my touch.. makes me wanna tease you more.” Before I could say anything, Jimin pulled my underwear aside and without warning inserted his index finger inside. It entered almost without obstacle since I was already so wet for him.

“God- you’re so fucking wet already and we haven’t really start the game yet.” He grinned, looking pleased with my responsiveness. Then his expression changed, gaze heavy with lust, he bit his lips. “Fuck- I can’t wait to taste you.”

His deft finger started to move inside me, rocking back and forth and not long until he inserted another and I moaned in utter pleasure from the intrusion.

“You like that, huh baby?”

I nodded frantically, eyes shut closed as I immerse in pleasure.

“You like my fingers better or my cock better?”

My head that was lolled back just now snapped back to find his gaze. He can’t be seriously asking that question? But when I found no trace of playfulness in his expression, I desperately answer, “B-both-“ the same time his fingers pushed itself to my core, hitting my G-spot. He didn’t stop there- his fingers worked in hard, fast pace, constantly pushing to the hilt making my stomach knot from the building pressure. “Fuck fuck fuck Jimin- I’m-“

“You close baby?” He asked, though he and I both knew he didn’t have to. He knew my body like the back of his hand, perhaps better than me.

Jimin wasted no time increasing his pressure, his fingers expertly trying to unravel the knot in my stomach and when his other hand reached out to press over my breast, groping it with force, I came undone from his ministrations with a loud scream of his name.

Jimin’s fingers was still inside me while I came down from my high, tight fingers clutching the satin sheets slowly uncurling and body wilting. I opened my eyes to see him looking at me with wanting gaze while he slowly took his fingers out.

“I don’t think..” he brought his fingers to his face, “I’ll ever get tired of seeing you cum,” he licked his own fingers. His fingers that were inside me a few minutes ago. God- I swear Jimin licking his fingers that were soaked with my arousal was the hottest image I’d ever seen.

Unknowingly, I gulped as I watched him intently.

Jimin, never missing any of my body gesture, held his hand out to me. “You wanna have a taste of yourself too?”

I nodded and leaned forward eagerly, taking his fingers completely in my mouth. I hummed in pleasure when I tasted my own salty arousal. I watched Jimin’s expression and seeing his eyes trained on my lips on his fingers, I put my hands over his and started agressively sucking on his fingers, doing it how I would do it with his cock. I watched his expression becoming harder, his jaw tight as he swallowed. I held my tongue out and slowly licked his fingers before I rammed it back inside my mouth and start fucking it. Jimin’s lips parted, no doubt imagining if it was his cock instead.

“Fuck- if you’re so eager to suck, you just have to tell me.” He said, yet not doing anything to stop my teasing act.

And then while hollowing my cheeks completely, I took his fingers out of my mouth with a pop. With a seductive gaze on him, I licked my lips as if challenging him.

Jimin swallowed but remained calm while his finger started to unbutton his shirt one by one, slowly revealing his skin. My heart rate picked up, eager to see him no matter how many times I’ve seen him naked. I leant back against the headboard, watching him as if he’s doing some strip show. When he finally pulled the shirt off him, he crawled towards me and with a slight force pulled me so I was now on top of him while he had his back against the headboard.

“Undress me.” He commanded and I’ve never been so eager to comply. The sexual tension getting higher with Jimin being dominant in bed like this that my hands were almost trembling when I got to the button of his jeans. Aware of him watching me like a hawk, I decided to tease him by palming him over his jeans.

He sucked a breath then narrowed his eyes at me. “Did I say you could tease?”

I only smiled at him playfully but decided not to further act on it. I unbuttoned his jeans, slowly pulled his zipper and eased him out of his jeans together with his Calvin Klein boxer. I could feel myself getting excited seeing his hard rock erection against his stomach it was almost embarrassing. I don’t think I’d ever get tired of seeing his glorious cock- strained with veins, red at the tip which looked so mouth-watering to be licked-

“Suck it.” He growled, obviously affected by my intense staring. If I wasn’t so eager to suck him though, I would’ve flushed crimson for being so thirsty of his cock. Not wasting any time, I dived down to wrap my fingers fully around his cock, causing him to hiss at the contact.

He watched me carefully as I ran my fingers up and down his length, slightly surprised that the act is turning myself on more when it should’ve only been Jimin’s. Meeting his gaze, I stroked him a few more times before adjusting my position, knees obediently in between his spread out legs, arching my body to lean down close towards his length before finally, finally taking its head in my mouth. The act had the both of us groaning in pleasure.

I would love to take my time appreciating his beautiful cock but I was thirsty for it and a bit too eager to please him. So when I pulled my mouth back out, I gathered as much saliva and used my hands to spread them all over. Then, with my hand firmly clasped on the bottom of his length, I began taking him in my mouth.

I fell into a quick repeated motion, bobbing up and down and cheeks hollowed to suck the skin of it.

“Argh- fuck-“ Jimin groaned. He moved forward very slightly just so he could reach my hair and held it up. I sucked him even more enthusiastically, increasing my pace and trying to take as much of him in my mouth. As I did so, Jimin’s other hand stroked my head as he watch his cock being swallowed each time by my mouth. Groaning with cursive words, his head then tilted backwards and his hand that was holding my hair was now holding my head firmly and started to guide me. His hips also began to thrust upwards to meet my mouth and I was sure he was getting closer.

“Shit fuck baby I’m gonna cum-“

With the last of his thrust, he pulled himself out of my mouth and I was quick to offer him my chest, breast on full display for his canvas. “Cum on me baby,” I urged which caused another curse to leave his mouth and with a few strokes of his cock, warm hot seeds spurted right onto my breasts and he continued to palm himself through his orgasm, milking out everything out of him.

He opened his eyes, only to be met with the sight of my boobs smeared with his cum and me smearing them all over.

“Ah dirty girl.” He smirked, eyes glinting between awe and amusement.

“Only for you.” I winked then pulled myself up to kneel in front of him. Putting both of my hands on each side of his shoulder, I pushed him back so he was leaning against the headboard. “Let me ride you baby.” I told him seductively.

“God- fuck you’re so hot.” He groaned when I moved myself to place both knees on each side of his hips, my sex ghosting over his erection.

I pulled at it, guiding it towards my entrance elliciting a curse from Jimin’s mouth as soon as its head made contact with my wet pussy.

I too couldn’t deny the sensational feeling of his hard rock erection brushing against me. Closing my eyes, I continued to stroke his cock up and down against the lips of my womanhood, shudding in pleasure just by the thought of it finally entering me.

Jimin, unable to contain anymore, put his hands on both cheeks of my ass, squeezing it slightly. “Babe come on. Sink down on me.”

I opened my eyes then. Staring determinedly with eyes full of lust, I slowly sank down onto him making the both of us groan. I froze when his head entered mine, eyes almost rolling to the back as the frenzied feeling of his length inside me consumed me. It was a wonder how I still need time to adjust to his length even after all the times we’ve had sex and even after I’ve cummed from his fingering skills.

I bit my lip as I tried hard to focus on the task at hand, my breath heavy. Then I moved, further sinking down on him and taking his whole length inch by inch.

“Oh my god-“ I panted breathlessly as I felt him stretching me to the core when I’m fully sat on him. He always seemed to grow in size seeing how I always seemed unready for him. I clenched around him when the pleasure seemed overwhelming that I felt like combusting right at the spot.

“Fuck- you’re so tight.” Jimin groaned, his grip on my ass tightening.

I struggled to find support and ended up settling the palms of my hand on his firm chest and the other on his shoulder. Then slowly, I raised myself up, clutching Jimin hard from how good it felt.

Jimin’s head lolled backward slightly as he sucked a deep breath. “Jesus fuck- how do you feel so good?” He told through gritted teeth.

Not long after that, I started to pick up my pace, sinking back down onto him till the curves of my ass hit the apex of his firm thighs and rising again, almost completely off off him before sitting again.

I’ve always loved riding Jimin, it gave me such sense of power to make the both of us come undone. It’s the way his cock would reach the hilt of my core each time that gave me unparallel amount of pleasure and had my eyes rolling to the back from the sheer feeling.

My grip on both his shoulders now became tougher which Jimin didn’t seem to mind as I felt the building sensation starting to consume me whole, drawing me closer to the edge of precipice in each second.

One of Jimin’s hand went towards my breast, kneading it immediately with force and sending a surge of thrill that had my head tilting backwards. He groped it harshly, elliciting a loud moan from me. “Fuuuck- I love it so much when you ride me baby.” He growled between heavy breathing, his eyes almost losing focus from the ecstasy, his bottom lip bitten so hard it could draw blood. “You look so gorgeous and so fucking sexy every time you ride me- shit fuck-“ he leaned in closer, closing the gap between his face and my chest as his mouth went towards my breast to suckle roughly on them, leaving bites and marks of his ministrations. His hands were now placed firmly on my back as his tongue continued to flick and suck my hardened nipples. I continued doing my best to go up and down his length but I knew my own stamina was not going to last to thrust any faster.

Jimin knew from my slowing pace that I was getting exhausted so he took over and started thrusting upwards in a fast pace, making me scream his name.

“Jimin- Jimin-“ I chanted his name between breathlessness, letting him know that I was getting closer.

He pulled out right then and I whined from the lost of him inside me. “Come baby, I wanted to try this for so long.” He held his hand out to me as he kneeled, making my brows furrow in confusion. Nevertheless, I placed my hands in his and I squeaked in surprise as he swiftly pulled me off the bed and took me to the window.

“J-Jimin?” He didn’t say anything as he pushed my body towards the window that oversees the glorious night view of Tokyo, my back flushed against his and my breasts pressed against the cold glass.

“I’ve always had this fantasy of fucking you against the window where everybody can see you naked and you taking my cock so willingly.” He ran his hand over my hair tenderly as if to calm me down before his fingers raked my hips, pulling it back slightly so he could align his cock against my entrance.

Fuck- this was so hot. Jimin was going to fuck me against this window and the mere thought of it made a gush of arousal escape my heated sex.

“This turns you on, huh? I knew you’ve always been into public sex ever since you fucked me in the parking lot..” he whispered near my ears, making me shiver from the cold as well as his words. I flushed crimson in embarassment. Perhaps I do have that kink.

“I’m gonna fuck you so good against this window.. and everyone’s gonna see you cumming so hard..” he bit my earlobe and before I could reply with anything, his hip slammed against me and I gasped at the feeling of his cock entering me deeply.

He dragged me back slightly by the hip before ramming his cock back in me harshly that I had to place the palms of my hand on the window for support.

“Oh God fuck Jimin, this feels so good oh God-“ I moaned.

“Yeah? You love being fucked roughly like this, don’t you?” He pulled me back once again by the hip so I was bending over to give him better angle for him to fuck me mercilessly. “Hold tight baby,” he warned. Then, using his thigh to spread my legs further, he placed his hands on each side of my waist to hold me firmly before roughly snapping his waist against me making me whimper.

“You look so fucking gorgeous- agh shit-“ he tilted his head backwards as his hip worked relentlessly into me, burying his cock deep inside me and hitting my G-spot with each thrust. The lewd sound of my behind slapping against his thighs filled the bedroom and I went closer to orgasm with each thrust.

His hips snapped savagely against me while his fingers digged even deeper into my sides, holding it tightly I wonder if it would leave bruises. He continued to slam again and again, each snap harder than before making my legs quiver as time goes on and my hands on the window slipping lower from lack of energy.

The pressure in my stomach increased, edging closer and closer from Jimin’s ruthlessness. “Jimin, Jimin, I’m gonna cum-“

“Fuck me too baby-“ he continued with his thrust, not losing his pace as he thrusted even faster. He pulled me by the shoulder so I was no longer bending but standing straight against the window, my forehead making contact with the glass while my breasts pressed roughly against it as well.

He continued pounding into me, lips close to my ears almost kissing it and when his hand travelled towards my clit, rubbing the surface in rushed circles, pushing me closer to the edge, I screamed his name as the most intense orgasm ripped through me.

I was unable to form any coherent words as the orgasm washes over me, my head lolled backward as the pressure subsided. I was too occupied with riding out my orgasm that I was vaguely aware of Jimin still thrusting behind me. He had changed his pace- no longer as fast as before, it turned into a slow grinding which only turned to serve him being able to thrust the deepest he could inside me, hitting me straight to the hilt.

“Fuck fuck fuck shit I’m so close-“ he panted. I clenched against him and that was when I heard him groan harshly and then hot seeds spurted inside me as Jimin reached his own orgasm.

“God babe-“ he cursed and swallowed deeply before taking large breath to steady his own breathing.

My legs quivered from the intense orgasm and my hands slipped from the window, making me almost stumble if Jimin didn’t slip his hands immediately under my arms to hold me steady.

“You okay baby?” He asked, leaning close to pepper kisses on the side of my head.

“I can’t stand anymore.” I confessed. He smiled fondly before pulling out of me then lifting me bridal style and placed me back gently on the bed. He crawled on top of me and took my lips in his in a passionate and soothing lip lock.

He pulled back slightly, sweaty forehead against mine. “Babe..”

“Hmm..?”

He pulled himself even further, allowing me to get a good look on him. He brushed strands of my hair that’s stuck on my sweaty forehead to the side. “I’m not done yet with you.”

My eyes widened and that’s when I felt the protruding of his erection against my stomach. “You’re kidding!” I gasped.

He smiled before beginning peppering kisses on my cheeks, down to my jaw. “I’m insatiable for you darling. Think you can go another round?” He gave kitten licks on my lips and I unknowingly parted them.

“I- I don’t think I can.” My legs were already weak and I was sure I was going to suffer from overstimulation if Jimin continued his ministrations though it doesn’t seemed effective as his sinful lips now moved towards my neck, licking and sucking it, leaving bruising lovebites.

“Jimin-“ I called him in warning as his hand wandered dangerously close to my clit as his lips hover over my swollen breast. I honestly thought I wouldn’t be able to handle anymore stimulation from Jimin but then my body unconsciously arched as his fingers started rubbing the lips of my pussy up and down. I was already sore down there but his expert fingers were so good, coaxing me in calming manner after the rough session just now making me moan in pleasure.

“See? Your body can still take it.” He said as I blushed abashed when I felt my own arousal starting to pool again. I whimpered as he started pushing teasing fingers inside me, only putting the tip of them, making me whimper wantonly.

His lips that was licking my nipples suddenly went away together with his fingers in between my thigh. Before I could process it, he was spreading my legs and placing it on top of his shoulders as he crouched down between them, face against my warm heat.

“Fuck you look so tasty-“ was the only thing he said before he delved into my pussy, all tongues out to send me into an overdrive once again earning a gasp from me. His nose was practically brushing against my clit as his tongue delved deeper into me, swirling and swiping everywhere making a gush of liquid spill and Jimin hummed in appreciation. He continued to lave his tongue on my swollen lips and I struggled to keep a cry from my mouth as my body now jerked in response to Jimin who seemed determined to taste my arousal to the core.

His tongue was torturous, pushing me to the limit slowly and steadily. He looked up at my flushed form, body aching in need just like how he wanted. He pulled away then, only to straddle me once again, the head of his cock brushing against my sensitive clit making me groan. Jimin seemed satisfied with the amount of liquid I was producing, his eyes full of lust as he rubbed the tip of his cock against my entrance, coating it with my arousal.

Then, once he was satisfied enough, he teased his cock at my entrance, making me curse.

He chuckled. “Just relax, baby. I wanna make love to you.. so I’ll take over from here.” He said, smirking down at me though his breathing was slightly ragged as if he couldn’t hold it anymore. Giving his own cock a few pumps, his sharp breath was the only warning before he buried himself deep inside me, hitting straight to my cervix on first thrust. My eyes blowned wide as I screamed his name, tears threatening from the overstimulation.

One of his hand found the headboard for support while his other held me firmly on my shoulder as he pull back almost completely before snapping back in with such force, making me jolt slightly.

He started to pick up his pace, his hip slamming against mine as he thrusted mercilessly, leaving me a whimpering mess. The obscene sound of our skin lapping and him grunting in each thrust as well as my little squeaks as he held me at his mercy filled the bedroom.

And then he slowed down, grinding against me with slow and calculated move but his cock still managed to fill me completely with his girth. He lowered himself slightly, aligning his face so I could see him clearly.

“God I love you.. so so much.. I can’t wait to marry you baby.” He said and it was clear of the utter adoration in his eyes.

My tears that was threatening just now slipped through.

Jimin’s face turned alarm. “Babe..? Baby why are you crying..?” His hand went to cup my cheeks tenderly, his thrust coming to a halt.

“Because.. I love you.. I love you so much Jimin.. I just want to thank you for everything.. you mean so much to me..” I sobbed his name. It seemed so out of place to cry during sex but I had no idea myself why I had such sudden overwhelming of feelings. It just suddenly hit me like a truck that I’m so in love with Jimin I felt it was necessary to tell him right then and there.

Jimin’s shoulder sagged slightly from relief. Perhaps relieved that he didn’t do something that hurt me. His thumb went to my cheeks to wipe my tears and caressing them. “You’re so adorable I love you so much.” He said before leaning to close the gap between our bodies, his hands going towards my back, hugging me close and I mirrored his act. He pressed a soft lingering kiss on my lips before his hips started moving again, grinding slowly and building the pressure in me again. I whined as my toes started to curl when Jimin started to pick up his pace.

He moved faster, hips snapping mercilessly against mine once again, persuading me to another orgasm, the knot in my stomach tightening with each thrust. He held me even closer and I took his lips in mine to kiss him passionately which he gladly returned.

“I love you.” He mumbled between kisses.

“I love you too.”

And with that, his hips snapped harder, ramming his cock deep inside me and we both knew the both of us were nearing our peak. The squelching sound of my beyond wet pussy and our skin lapping driving us nearer to a state of bliss. I kissed him harder, teeth clashing and tongue fighting for dominance and he replied the same, moaning and grunting into the kiss until we both reached our peak at the same time. Our lips still connected, bodies tight against each other, my breasts completely pressed by him, our hips still meeting as we both rode our orgasm, a gush of liquid rushing through me while Jimin’s seeds spurted in me for the second time that night.

It was only after our breathing had slowed and Jimin was done thrusting his last few seeds, milking himself completely as I clenched around his cock that our lips parted. He held his forehead against mine, both of us still struggling to catch our breath.

“I love you.” He said softly.

I hummed. “And I love you, bad boy.”

“Bad boy?” He chuckled.

“Yes, my bad boy.” I smiled against his nose.

He kissed me again, our bodies still tangled and that’s when I realized that I wanted to be with Jimin till the day I die. All sorts of insecurities that I had was no longer there. I believe in him. And I’m going to believe in myself as well. Our roads in the future may be uncertain but I’m willing to give it all if it’s with Jimin.

“Forever?” I heard him asking.

“Forever.”

THE END. POSTED ON 210321 10:00PM

WELL I CANT BELIEVE IM DONE WITH THIS STORY! To be honest with yall, I’ve finished writing this a long time ago but haven’t proof read and it takes so long for me to post because I don’t really wanna read it again because I find it cringe to write what I wrote especially after some time has passed hahaha. So tips to everyone out there, if you wrote something, just put it out there! Proofread *or not* LATER! Because you might not put it out there like, forever haha. Anyways, just wanna say thank you to anyone who read the whole series. This is honestly my first time writing a whole story, with an ending (mind you i never get to the ending haha) so I would like to apologise for all my shortcomings, flaws and other forms of criticisms haha. I solely started this because of my passion in writing and of course, my overwhelming love towards Jimin and all of BTS xD Thank you for staying till the end! I’ll come back with better work in the future <3

[veliseraptor]

2020 Fanfiction Round-Up

I do one of these every year! And have since I think 2016. Can’t break a tradition even if it’s been a clusterfuck of a time and filling this out was in some ways an exercise in remembering the ways I have failed myself as a writer this year. 

But oh well!

Total Year-Long Wordcount: I’ll post the final final number tonight after I finish the writing I want to do this afternoon (and plan to do this afternoon), but it’s currently 451,803 words written this year. Guessing I’m going to land somewhere around 453,000ish. (AO3 claims a higher number than that but that’s because it is counting the entirety of fics where I posted chapters this year.

This year I wrote and posted: I wrote a fair number more than I posted (there are five fics finished but for various reasons unposted on my hard drive) but based on Tumblr I posted 78 posts in my fic tag, which, not including chapter specific updates and three sentence meme answers (but including at least two Tumblr-only longer fics), probably comes out to about 60 or so “full length” fics that saw the light of day in 2020.

Overall Thoughts

Looking back, did you write more fic than you thought you would this year, less, or about what you’d predicted? 

Well, I wrote more than I did last year, which is sort of a surprise to me (all things considered) but also maybe not, because I was doing a lot less of most other things that could’ve been occupying my time, including two hours daily of commuting. 

But still less than I did in 2018. Which is fine.

What’s your own favorite story of the year? 

Lord, I don’t know. It depends on when you ask me. Lately I’ve been in a bit of a “I hate everything I’ve written ever” state of mind, so that makes it sort of hard to do any kind of...reasonable assessment. 

I know I’m proud of With Absolute Splendor but I have all these reservations about it and I can’t reread it for the most part because I always notice new things I wish I’d done differently. I feel pretty good about efforts in a common cause but something about it still makes me cringe, which I suspect has to do with my general self-consciousness. I have a hard time feeling unreservedly proud about...anything I wrote this year, really. 

I feel like the closest I get is maybe nor autumn falter which I am pretty pleased with and also which does hurt me a lot personally. Or I did end up overall pretty pleased with what came out of By Proxy.

But also the more I look at this question the more I start hating all my own work, so...guess this is kind of coming at a bad time.

Did you take any writing risks this year? What did you learn from them?

I mean, I started writing in my first non-English fandom in many years, and specifically one where I was trying to engage more with the cultural background of the setting (in a way I wasn’t with, say, Death Note, when I was writing Death Note fic). So that was a risk. And I learned that it’s very stressful and there’s so many ways to make mistakes and I am, in many ways, a coward. But also I think I’ve learned a fair amount thanks to a lot of very patient people on the internet, so...there’s that.

Otherwise...I mean, I got ambitious with a few projects this year (the Big Bang fic and With Absolute Splendor stand out), but I’m not sure how much I really tried new things. 

I feel like I had to fight myself a little on writing straight up bad sex for By Proxy - I planned on it being hot, and it really wasn’t. It was mostly just miserable. Which made for a better fic, but was a new experience for me as far as ‘I thought I was going to write porn and that isn’t what I wrote.’

From my past year of writing, what was….

My most popular story of this year: 

By far, With Absolute Splendor. In fact, it has now become my second most kudosed fic of all time, behind only fuckin Life in Reverse. So like. That’s a thing.

(It is still less than half as many as Life in Reverse, but for context Life in Reverse has been around for going on eight years.)

Most fun story to write: 

Most fics where I feel like “I’m having so much fun writing this!” also go through a “oh god I hate this it’s terrible” phase which makes this sort of hard to assess. But I did have overall a lot of fun writing Mutual Friends despite all my frustration with the canon-wrangling I had to do to make it work in my head. 

But also I feel like both Retributive Justice and Embedded were in different ways deeply iddy fics that were just fun to write. That actually goes for a lot of the Whumptober fics. That was a very self-indulgent month. Excited to do it again in February (hopefully, if I can write things in a timely manner at all).

Story with the single sexiest moment: 

I feel like the beauty of your repair might be my personal favorite smut I posted this year, but I think my personal favorite that I wrote is in the big bang fic nobody will see until January. 

I feel like most of the sexiest moments I’ve written this year are in the porn fics I’m going to start posting in January also. But just generally I feel like the beauty of your repair is the sexiest thing I wrote and posted.

Most “Holy crap, that’s wrong, even for you” story: 

I mean, I Come With Knives is definitely up there. It’s not that wrong or anything, but it got pretty intense in some ways I wasn’t expecting. Mostly in how much blood got involved, which was actually more than I’d had it involved in a sex thing before! Kind of surprises me that I haven’t previously done more with bloodplay stuff but. Well. First time for everything!

I don’t think this was a year that really had any “wow, what the fuck, Lise” things in it. Nothing on the level of last year’s winner. I’m almost disappointed in myself.

Abattoir was definitely the story that generated the weirdest conversation and creepiest search questions, though, so it does get points for that. 

Story that shifted my own perceptions of the characters: 

I feel like the writing of everyone else is spring bound was a lot of...me thinking through my Jiang Cheng feelings and specifically my Jiang Cheng post-canon feelings. 

the martyr, the victim was pretty formative in shaping how I think about both Lan Xichen and Lan Wangji and their relationship with each other. It was the first fic I wrote that really dug into them in any way, I think, and definitely one that informed how I thought about writing Lan Xichen later.

Hardest story to write: 

I was thinking it was the one that I haven’t posted yet but I did technically finish, aka my Big Bang fic, the terrible threesome fic, the massive “I’m gonna keep everyone in the Yi City arc alive” AU that I started shortly after finishing The Untamed and finished in December. So I spent most of the year writing it.

But then I was like - no, I’m going to have to go with we live until we die even though it’s technically been ‘in progress’ for five years and really kicked into gear in 2019 and I just finished it and posted it this year, because that fic was like. The culmination of a big arc in an enormous verse dealing with a whole lot of balls in the air and trying to tie up a whole lot of threads. It was ambitious and the stakes were high and it was full of plot and action which are not two of my strengths...frankly I’m still amazed I pulled the damn thing off.

Biggest Disappointment: 

I think it is better if I refrain from going too in depth on this because it would just end up as me listing a bunch of my perceived failings. But I think off the top of my head I’m frustrated by the fact that I still haven’t really managed to write a XueXiao smut fic that quite hits the spot for me, myself. I’ve written two and for various reasons I don’t really like either of them. 

Biggest Surprise: 

The fact that my Jiang Cheng fic took off the way it did. Legitimately did not see that coming! At all! I mean, I’m delighted by it but it wasn’t what I saw happening as far as “niche I’d find in this fandom” or “thing I’d write that people would really enjoy reading.”

Particularly with By Proxy. That fic got a lot more attention than I would’ve expected. 

Most Unintentionally Telling Story: 

I feel like every fic I write with Xue Yang in it tells you something about me and most of those things are things that make me, on some level, deeply self-conscious, but I try not to think about that too much.  

I feel like the most telling story is maybe we all drift sometimes because I literally wrote it out of a depressive episode about a bad brain day but that wasn’t unintentional.

Favorite Opening Line(s):

1. So it turned out that if you touched the tendons of a dead person’s wrist and channeled a little bit of spiritual energy just right, it made the fingers twitch and curl like they were still alive. (Abattoir)

2. Here’s the thing: your Daozhang is glorious when he kills. (tear out all your tenderness)

3. Turned out that a sect leader’s head came off like anyone else’s. (Unnatural Selection)

4. The first hint that anything had gone awry was the letter from Lan Wangji (His Excellency Hanguang-jun, pardon me) that simply said have you heard from Wei Ying? (some good mistakes)

5. What Jiang Cheng wanted to do, more than anything, was to go home and take a nap. (everyone else is spring bound)

Favorite Line(s) from Anywhere:

I usually keep this to 10 but because I’ve been in such a :| place about my own writing I indulged myself this once.

1. Sometimes it felt like all he had done since descending the mountain was shatter his own dreams and accumulate regrets. (nor autumn falter)

**

2. It felt like she was holding all the components of a bomb in her hands, half assembled. If she moved the right way they would stay just that: components. But if she moved the wrong way… (til my judgment day)

**

3. He should have killed him. Should have been the one to strike that blow, in revenge for Jin Zixuan and their sister and everyone else dead for Wei Wuxian’s pride. Maybe then there would not be this gnawing, aching thing embedded in his chest; this itching, unfinished feeling. Maybe then he would not feel torn in two, sometimes like he should have reached out with his other hand and sometimes like he should have struck truer and sometimes both, in the same moment. (Interstitial)

**

4. He owed Wei Wuxian more than he could ever give back in this lifetime. Forgiving him felt like betraying his sister’s memory. Not forgiving him felt like trying to walk with a thorn in his foot. He was just - stuck, caught like a demon in a spiritual net.

Jiang Cheng thought of the way Wei Wuxian looked at Lan Wangji, with warmth and trust and love, and the aching, sick jealousy he had no right to feel returned. He felt a little like a child watching someone pick up a toy he’d abandoned and suddenly realizing that he wanted it back. (everyone else is spring bound)

**

5. You close your eyes and think about how he looked back in that town, Shuanghua slicing clean through a man’s neck, opening it to the spine, and think dizzily that he could open you like that and it’d be good, as long as it lasted. (tear out all your tenderness)

**

6. When Wangji loved, he loved with his whole being, without reserve. And now he had been placed between the rock of his convictions and the hard place of his devotion to Wei Wuxian. (the martyr, the victim)

**

7. He spent a week turning the idea over in his head. Studying it like a corpse he was going to dissect, poking at it, cutting it open and examining its insides. (dead reckoning)

**

8. When the world hurt you, that was the only thing to do, after all. Hurt it back, harder, worse. Spill rivers of blood for every drop it squeezed from you.

And when the end came, never go quietly. (the blood in your mouth)

**

9. I would stand with you through the end of the world, said Loki’s voice in his head, and Steve’s heart wasn’t in his chest anymore, was somewhere off on another planet where Loki was lying dead in a ruined city. (we live until we die)

**

10. Was it always going to be like this? Stumbling into traps, tripping over familiar skeletons, slicing himself open on the edges of old hurts. Was there really such a thing as leaving the past behind? He still felt stuck in it, unable to move, and every time he thought he might be finally dragging himself free something pulled him back. (With Absolute Splendor)

**

11. His chest was full of poison. His throat was full of grief. And he was still a little drunk.

Jiang Cheng went to his room, sat down on his bed, put his face in his hands, and cried until he couldn’t breathe. (By Proxy)

Top 5 Scenes from Anywhere You Would Choose to Have Illustrated:

I think the scene from nor autumn falter of Xiao Xingchen just crying his heart out over Xue Yang’s dead body would be up there.

The Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian hug from the end of With Absolute Splendor.

Okay, just gonna say it: Xue Yang and Jin Guangyao having sex by the table with Nie Mingjue’s headless corpse on it. So sue me.

The scene in the blood in your mouth where Song Lan has stabbed Xue Yang and Xiao Xingchen is following the line of Fuxue to the latter. I have a very clear visual of it in my head and if I could art I’d art it.

Xue Yang with the hallucinatory Xiao Xingchen from liberate spirits, liberate souls.

Fic-writing goals for 2021:

Finish Walking Far From Home.

Maybe I’ll finish some of these MCU WIPs? I’d kind of like to, on an abstract level if nothing else.

Become a more well-adjusted human being about the relationship between my productivity and my self-worth.

[sunsetcurbed]

you showed me faith is not blind (miracles happen)

Pairing: Alex/Willie  Words: 5,369  Rating: T  Chapter Warnings: none  read on AO3 

Chapter Summary:  "What the fuck?" Luke murmurs across the table from Alex, just loud enough to grab Alex's attention from worksheet. "What the fuck?" he says again—much, much louder. His head snaps up and his eyes, burning, land on Alex.

Alex flinches back. "Dude, what?"

Julie is leaning into Luke's space, reading whatever is on his phone that's made Luke so upset. The rest of the table is silent, even Greg and Shawn. Alex is just… waiting, at this point, really, but Luke seems too angry for words.

(*) 

Their movie night starts off as normal with the group in the kitchen making their snacks. Alex has no reason to suspect that anything will go differently than his past experiences. So when things do... change, he's thrown off.

In Julie's living room, there's a couch, a love seat, and a recliner. Luke and Julie always share the love seat and Flynn claims the recliner. That leaves Alex, Willie, and Reggie to figure out who gets the two armrest seats of the couch and whether the other wants to take the middle cushion or just lounge on the floor. They… don't have that issue today.

Reggie is the first one inside from band practice so he is the first one done making his popcorn so he gets first claim. When Alex and Willie make it out, Willie gestures for Alex to take the other, and quirks an eyebrow at him. "I'll figure something out," he says. Alex eyes him warily but takes the seat anyways, grateful for a place to set his water down. Willie stands there for a moment, staring between Alex and the middle cushion. He sets his popcorn next to Alex's feet, then sits on the middle cushion with his back facing Alex, and reclines himself back so he's lying across Alex's lap. He grins up at him. "Told you I'd figure it out."

Alex quite literally has no idea what to do or say. What comes out is: "I'm going to drop so much popcorn on you."

"Cool. More for me."

He's thankful for his friends, because over the next hour, every single one of them sends him a look when Willie's attention is elsewhere, which lets him know that he's not just being dramatic. This… this is new and this is—

Alex doesn't want to call it weird.

He's actually quite enjoying it, once the initial awkwardness has faded away. He likes the weight of Willie in his lap. It's grounding. And Alex has an arm across Willie's abdomen, and Willie is absentmindedly playing with Alex's hand that's resting on Willie's side, and Alex likes the feel of Willie's fingers on his. Still, it's all overwhelming, but Alex finally has his proof that he needed to refute Willie: he's wide awake and doesn't fall asleep at all through the second movie, which Willie teases him about from his lap.

He spends the rest of movie night trying not to wonder what this could possibly mean because he knows the most likely answer is that it doesn't mean anything.

Days blur together for Alex after that—he doesn't have an off day (he doesn't have an off hour). Honestly, he likes that. He likes the constant going, the constant moving, the constant action in his brain. It keeps him from lingering on one thing for too long, from letting one thing manifest and grow into something beyond itself and gnaw away at Alex until he's a shell of himself.

He has his prince lessons, therapy twice a week—which his grandmother had offered to bring to the consulate after he had a panic attack in front of her on Sunday—, school, band practice, his new Friday "date" with Willie after prince lessons, and then on Saturday the 13th, Julie and the Phantoms play Camelot, a wildly popular nightclub that they'd worked their entire high school career to book. They're excited about it, and Alex is even more excited about it because his grandmother has actually booked the VIP suite, which, as Alex had expected, hadn't been reserved. She invites Alex's parents to come as well, so they hire a baby sitter for Ava and Austin and make a night of it, and Alex plays his heart out (not that he usually doesn't, but this feels special). The next day, at his shortened Sunday prince lesson, he catches his grandmother humming along to Finally Free a few times, though he doesn't point it out. He doesn't need to bring attention to it. Just… knowing is enough.

Somehow it's already Monday the 15th, two weeks into his prince lessons. He is getting more used to the routine now. He still does his homework at lunch, but he doesn't focus quite as hard, as he has learned that he has enough time left at the end of each day to do it. Still, sometimes it is nice to watch Netflix instead of doing homework. That's his hope for tonight as he sits at their lunch table, bent over his math homework. Reggie and Flynn are lost in conversation and Willie is talking about some skating competition with Greg and Shawn, while Julie and Luke are on his phone.

"What the fuck?" Luke murmurs across the table from Alex, just loud enough to grab Alex's attention from worksheet. "What the fuck?" he says again—much, much louder. His head snaps up and his eyes, burning, land on Alex.

Alex flinches back. "Dude, what?"

Julie is leaning into Luke's space, reading whatever is on his phone that's made Luke so upset. The rest of the table is silent, even Greg and Shawn. Alex is just… waiting, at this point, really, but Luke seems too angry for words. Alex can see him literally shaking. So instead he turns to Julie to gauge what to expect from Luke based off of her reaction. The way her eyebrows are halfway up her forehead and her lips are parted, he guesses it is something big. And then her eyes flick to him. "Alex," she starts, but Luke cuts her off.

"So, what," Luke hisses leaning over the table, dropping his phone like he's completely forgotten it. "You were going to drag us along for as long as you could and then drop us at the last minute to go live in some castle in a country you didn't even know the name of a month ago?"

"Luke," Julie whispers, grabbing at his chest to pull him back.

"Thought maybe you'd get one last hurrah, but oh, no, don't even bother to mention it to us," he spits, spinning in his seat fluidly, standing up, and storming out of the cafeteria. Julie sends Alex and apologetic look and then chases after Luke. Flynn sighs and gets up from the table, chasing after her best friend.

Reggie is staring, wide eyed, shell shocked. "Uh… what?"

"I… don't know," he says even though he has a guess. But he's not sure how Luke would know or how his phone would factor in. Alex reaches for the phone that Luke had left abandoned and freezes. One of his instagram pictures is on the screen, but it's not on instagram, it's on a news site. Beneath it, there are several blocks of text.

Prince Alexander of Beasiga, 16, is a student at performing arts high school Los Feliz High School in the Los Feliz District of Los Angeles, California. The prince is in a popular pop-rock bank with three other members (Julie Molina, Luke Patterson, Reggie Peters). The band is called Julie and the Phantoms and they were last seen playing at the popular nightclub Camelot, November 13 th  where sources confirmed his identity. The prince is the band's drummer and a back up vocalist.

Alexander has been on the honor roll at his high school multiple times throughout his schooling career and is in the highly renowned music program at Los Feliz High School. He is close with a small group of friends who mostly keep to themselves. According to all sources the prince is currently unattached romantically and has never been linked to anyone, not even close friend Julie Molina.

Sources say that Prince Alexander will be presented at Beasiga's annual Independence Day Ball on December 21 st , accepting his role as future ruler of the small but mighty country.

Alex drops the phone to the table after that, completely uninterested in anything else that it has to say. He doesn't need to read a news article to know about his life. He is living it. Except he certainly isn't planning on accepting his role as future ruler of Beasiga on December 21st.

On either side of him, Willie and Reggie lean in to look at the phone. Willie's hand immediately comes up to his shoulder and squeezes while on his other side, Reggie snorts.

"Dude, what?" he laughs. "Is this news article calling you a prince?"

Alex looks at Reggie. He feels his knee start bouncing under the table, and Willie must too, because his hand goes from Alex's shoulder to Alex's knee. "Uh… yeah. It is." he says. He takes in a deep breath when Reggie laughs harder and lets it out. "Reg. It's right. I—I am."

"Oh, sure," Reggie laughs, elbowing Alex in the side. When he looks over to Alex and sees his face though, Reggie pauses. Slowly, the longer he looks at Alex, the more the smile on his face fades. After a minute it's nearly gone. "Dude, seriously?"

Alex swallows. "Yeah, Reg." He reaches for the phone and holds it up shaking his head. "But—but this isn't—I didn't—I've made no decision. Well, yeah, I have—I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna be a prince. Two weeks ago I almost passed out during my public speaking midterm. Do you really think I'm planning to throw away the band to be a public figure for the rest of my life? Do you think that'd go well for any of us?"

"Of course not," Reggie says, seemingly offended that Alex thinks Reggie could share Luke's thoughts. "You love our band. I know that. Besides, even if you were going to move and become prince, we'd find a way to make it work."

Alex stares at Reggie for a long moment, and then feels a small smile form. "Thanks, Reg."

Reggie shakes his head. "That's not something you thank me for, man. That's just how we work. We're a band. That doesn't stop just because you're royalty now."

"You're taking this surprisingly well," Willie says from Alex's other side. "I knew Luke was gonna freak—didn't realize how much—, I said Julie's gonna try and find a way to fix it in her own way—probably offer to talk with his grandma—, and I guessed Flynn was gonna reference Prince Charming, William, and Harry all within twenty-four hours of finding out, so there's still... twenty four hours left for that. But I really wasn't sure for you. And yet I'm still surprised. Huh."

"I don't really know how you're supposed to react when you find out your best friend is a prince, to be fair," Reggie points out. Alex and Willie both laugh. Reggie narrows his eyes. "Wait. You knew?"

Willie grins. "Oh, yeah. From day one."

"We've been best friends since kindergarten, Alexander!" Reggie gasps, dramatic and exaggerated, in a way that lets Alex know he's not really upset.

"Yeah, well," Willie leans into Alex's space and rests his chin on Alex's shoulder. "What we have is stronger."

Alex feels his heart pick up into overdrive and his face heat up, all while Reggie raises his hands in surrender. "Whoa, okay, I know where I'm not wanted."

"Who said we didn't want you?" Willie asks in a deep voice.

"Okay!" Alex yelps, shifting so Willie's chin falls off of Alex's shoulder. Willie starts giggling, and Reggie falls into laughter, and Alex just feels like he's about to combust. He stares at the table while the two of them get this out of their systems, which leads to staring at Luke's phone, which leads to thinking about the article, which leads to—"Oh, my god."

"What?" Willie and Reggie ask at the same time, both still laughing.

"The news published a story about me."

"Uh, yeah, we were just reading it," Reggie laughs a little more, but Alex notices Willie go silent next to him.

"Yeah, I know, Reg," Alex says. "But—this is supposed to be a secret, at least from the public. I admit I didn't tell you guys for reasons that don't matter anymore, but—they're not supposed to know I exist yet."

"Oh," Reggie says, slipping from laughter to serious just like that. A lot can be said about Reggie not taking life in general seriously, but a lot can also be said when it comes to him taking the lives of his friend's seriously. "That's not good."

"No, it's not."

"When was it published?" Willie asks.

Alex picks up Luke's phone and unlocks it—eleven years of being his best friend having earned Alex that privilege—and looks at the publication time. "An hour and a half ago. Why?"

"Hey, Alex?"

Alex turns in his seat to find Flynn standing behind him. "Yeah?"

"Principal Lessa wants you in her office."

"What?" he frowns. "Why?"

"Your… grandma? is coming. There's a lot of news stations outside the school waiting to talk to you," Flynn explains.

Willie sighs. "That's why."

"Fuck," Alex says. He twists in his seat to get up, but Willie's hand on his arm stops him. He looks at Willie.

"Hey. See if you can get out of lessons today. I think you deserve it. If you can, text me and I'll wait for you after school, we'll go do something that will get your mind off this shit, okay?"

Alex feels so overwhelmed with relief and love and joy—with Reggie's reaction, with Willie's care, with their friendship. He nods at Willie, and then stands up and collects his things. He leaves Flynn with Reggie and Willie and makes his way to Principal Lessa's office, which is on the other side of the building. To get there, he has to pass through the front wing, and through the front doors he can see multiple news vans parked in the normal student pick up lane. He groans to himself and carries on faster to the front office.

His grandmother and John make it to Principal Lessa's office within five minutes of him, and they quickly get down to business. They discovered that it was a leak from one of the college interns at the consulate—that she was at the Julie and the Phantoms show at Camelot and was talking about Prince Alex once she recognized him on stage. Unfortunately, one of those people she had spoken to had been a journalism student with a job at a local paper that had looked into the story, which—likely to the student's surprise—had actually checked out.

Through all of this Alex is surprised that he keeps his fragile composure, even though he can feel his heart pounding in his chest. It's just… the news breaking means eyes on him. And, well. He has to admit now that Julie was right, at least partially. He might still suck at giving speeches (but also probably not because he got an A on his speech when it was one on one with only him and Mr. Kullins) but really, the truth is he can't have people looking at him because he's scared of what they'll see. He's scared he'll let them down. He's scared they'll notice everything wrong with him. Fuck, he's scared they'll be able to know what he's thinking, just by looking at him. Half the time, he wishes he didn't have to listen to his own thoughts, so even just the thought of other people knowing what he's thinking…

So, yeah. No surprise, Julie was right. She usually is, even if Alex likes to pretend that she's not at first. She knows it too, so at least he doesn't have to admit it to her.

It's been just about an hour since they all gathered when the bell rings to signal the end of what would have been Alex's public speaking class. His grandmother looks at Alex and clasps her hands together. "Well. Shall we see if police have escorted them away and get you out of here? We can get an early start on the 1800s history."

"I was actually gonna talk to you about that," Alex murmurs. "Uh—my friend wants to know—you know with. With my anxiety this has been a lot. So he suggested maybe skipping lessons today?"

Her face softens. "Oh, why Alexander, of course. I don't know why I didn't think of that. I'll call your driver and have him take you straight home."

"Oh," Alex frowns, "well, he actually—we actually thought we might. Just hang out a bit? Get my mind off of today? So he was going to drive me."

There's a long pause. "All right," she says. "As long as you don't go out anywhere too public, at least today, not without any security. Please, Alexander, for my peace of mind?"

"Oh, no, totally," he agrees. "We're probably just going to get tea and maybe get food. Sit in his car and talk about how this sucks."

His grandmother simultaneously pulls a face and laughs, and that's how he knows that he's growing on her, improper language and all. "All right then. I hope your afternoon with your friend helps," she says sincerely. She stands and turns to Principal Lessa. "Thank you greatly for allowing us to visit your school and use your office today."

Principal Lessa shakes her head. "It is not a problem. I am just sorry this happened. Please know that we will do everything we can to ensure that he is as safe as can be."

His grandmother smiles at her and then walks out of the office, followed closely by John. Alex is left sitting alone with his principal which—awkward. She gives him the choice of going back to class or hanging out in the front office for the last period of the day. Since his last class of the day is biology—which first, he enjoys and second, means he could potentially be missing something important—he opts to go back to class, but not before sending off a quick text to Willie, promising to meet him at the end of K wing after class.

Biology goes by quick and it's clear that no one in his class has seen the news yet, because not a single eye turns to him the entire class, aside from his late entrance. He can't say the same for the rest of the school, as he can feel a few eyes on him as he makes his way through the halls after class has ended. It's not the majority, not even close, but it's enough to be noticeable, enough to make Alex's skin crawl, heat creep up his throat, and spots dance in his vision. He tries his best to ignore them, but it's hard, especially when he hears his name a few times.

K wing is a reprieve. It's the least crowded wing in the entire school, and even though it leads to the student parking lot, since people who drive themselves don't have to rush, the flow of students leaving is slow and not all at once. Alex is grateful for the lack of stares, and pulls out his phone as he waits for Willie. Swiping through his phone, the typical list of suggested articles pop up and he freezes when he sees when he's not in not only one but three of them. So, people in his biology class may not have known today, but they definitely will tomorrow, along with everyone else in all of his other classes, and everyone else that he passes in the halls. Alex felt sick dealing with the few stares he got today, how in the hell is he going to manage the entire school looking at him tomorrow?

Or, maybe he's just being really self-absorbed. Maybe they won't care. They might see it, read it, think 'oh, ha, what a nerd,' and write it off. They'll pass him and won't look at him because why would they care that he's a prince? It's not like they live in Beasiga. It's not like him being Prince of Beasiga impacts them in any way. So, yeah. Self-absorbed.

"Hey, hot dog."

Alex clicks his phone off and pushes it in his pocket, pushes his thoughts away. "Willie. Hey."

"You ready to go?"

"Yeah, I'm ready."

Alex figures that this is going to be like their Fridays, where Willie picks him up and sort of just—wings it as he goes, but as soon as he gets in the car he has a purpose. He drives them to Alex's favorite tea shop and, before Alex can even begin speaking to the cashier, asks for the order to go. When their tea is ready they start driving again, a fifteen-minute drive until they're at one of the hiking trails just outside of Los Feliz. Alex supposes it's just to give them something to do, or to keep them away from other people, he's not sure why Willie chose this, but he doesn't think Willie factored in the tea to the hike. The tea is hot in his hands while they walk so he has to keep passing it back and forth between them.

"See, with invisibility you could skate wherever you wanted within reasonable distance, but with teleportation you could skate in a lot more places legally by just popping away," Willie explains, answering Alex's question about his reasoning for his choice of super powers. "So like, it'd have to be one of those two for me, I'm just… I don't know which one."

"I feel like you'd get more added benefits beyond the skating perks with teleportation," Alex says. "Go on vacation whenever, break in places, no rush hour traf—"

"I'm sold. No rush hour? Down."

Alex watches Willie make an exaggerated motion with his hands and then kicks at the trail dirt. He smiles and turns away.

"What about you then?" Willie asks. "What's your super power?"

"I don't know," Alex admits. "Is there a super power where you just… don't get anxious?" Next to him, Willie laughs. "No, I… I'm not sure. Indestructibility might be nice. I… I, like, wanna die of old age. Not in a car crash or some freak accident."

"Nice. Fits with your brand."

"What brand?"

"Anxiety."

They keep talking—they talk most of the time, about weird encounters they've had in Downtown LA, about whether or not ghosts are real, but never about the news article—sorry, articles. And when it's silent it's nice, too. And then sometime later—he's not sure how much later because he hasn't looked at his phone once, but their teas are gone and thrown away in trailside garbage cans—they make it to a peak. They take a seat in the dirt right off the trail and in the distance he can see Downtown LA. Alex's legs are stretched out in front of him and he leans back on his hands, and Willie sits next to him, cross-legged. They're close enough that Willie's knee is pressing into Alex's thigh and Alex is trying not to think about that, because he still can't make sense of what has changed the past couple of weeks, of how it's changed and why it's changed—of the touches of the hand holding of the dates of the—this was actually my parents first date, too—of the too.

"So what'd your grandma and, uh, her people say about all of this today?" Willie asks after a few minutes, finally broaching the subject.

Alex shrugs. "They weren't happy, obviously. It was, uh. An intern from the consulate who did it. I feel bad, but it's just… I mean… it was just… everyone knew that the press wasn't meant to know, right? They had a briefing over that. And I don't know if she wasn't there for it or wasn't paying attention or if she just didn't care… But, yeah, a journalism student got her first published article in LA Times because of it, at least." Willie's eyebrows shoot up, mirroring Alex's exact initial reaction. "But, um. Grandma's really mainly concerned about my safety, you know? Lessa had to go over our school's security with her a few times for her to feel secure, and John asked to have someone from his security team in the front office for anyone who visits throughout the day so they can vet them, which Lessa agreed to, but… I don't know. It feels over the top, but… you didn't get to see it, but there were so many news vans outside the school today, man. It was wild. So maybe it's not over the top. It's—just. Man, this is just like the prince thing all over again. It feels like a joke, or like a dream, you know?"

"Yeah," Willie says, nudging Alex's shoulder with his. "How's your anxiety dealing with it?"

"Honestly? Not that great," he admits. "Julie made me realize that it's not so much public speaking I'm bad at as it is people… noticing me. And now? So many people are going to notice me and I don't know how to handle that. I've always been anxious, and then I became a prince. Which did not calm me down. Now, to add to that, the world now knows I'm a prince. What do you think that's going to do for my anxiety?"

"Huh," Willie huffs. He looks over at Alex, tongue poking in his lower lip. His eyes drift from Alex out to looking at downtown LA, and then his entire demeanor changes. "I bet I know something that will help," he says, and in one quick motion hops to his feet. Alex watches him from where he's still sat in the dirt. Willie stares down at him with a maniacal grin on his face. "Yelling. on. a mountain." And then he throws his head back and screams.

Alex drops his jaw, whipping his head around. "Willie!" he gasps, reaching over and grabbing at the other boy's leg. "Willie—shh!" Willie stops, laughing, and looks back down at Alex. Alex stares up at him. "We're okay! Everything's okay!" Alex calls out as loud as he can.

"C'mon, man!" Willie encourages. "Ah!" he screams, much shorter than his first go. He nudges Alex with his foot.

Alex huffs. "Ahhhh," he breathes, sounding more like he's sinking into a hot bath than he is dropping off the top of a roller coaster.

Willie laughs, loud and open, and reaches down to grab the front of Alex's hoodie. "No, dude. You're doing this. Come on. Stand up. Spread your feet, brace yourself, take a deep breath. Ready?" Alex does everything Willie says and then bites his lip, hard. He can already feel the scream welling up inside him, ready to burst out. So when Willie screams at him, Alex screams back, and feels a pressure release somewhere deep inside him. When he cuts off, he already wants to do it again, so he does, and for much longer this time—this time, he screams until his lungs are screaming in their own way for air, and Willie screams right along with him. Tension that Alex didn't even know he had snaps and he feels like some lock inside of him has been broken. He's breathing hard and feels himself beaming at Willie, who has grabbed on to him at some point and is still holding him in his grip. Alex, in his current state of mind, really doesn't want Willie to let him go. And yet, Willie flashes his eyebrows and takes a step back, dropping Alex's shoulders in the process.

"Feels good, right?"

Alex grins. "Yeah. It does." And then. "Oh, my god." He looks around them again and yells, "we're okay! Everyone's fine!" In a normal voice he says, "there's going to be a news article later tonight about the search for two hikers who were screaming for help, isn't there? Because that's how my life is going."

Willie tosses his head back and laughs, and falls back to the ground. Alex joins him a second later, hesitating only because he's not sure if he should sit as close as they were initially sitting or not. He settles on a middle ground—sitting close enough that Willie could brush against him, but that he wasn't pressed against him. When he's settled back into the dirt, Willie starts the conversation back up. "I am excited to see what rumors might pop up about you though," he says with a waggle of his eyebrows.

Alex has a sudden thought. "What if they find out I'm gay?" Oh, god.

Willie frowns. "I thought you were only out to us?"

"I mean, technically, but there have been rumors at our school for—for how long now?" Years. There have been rumors for years. And all it took was one person like that intern talking to the wrong person and passing that rumor along and then Alex will have to—have to ask Flynn to pretend to date him or something and—no, god, no he can't do that, to himself or to her. "And like you just said, rumors are all the news need—and I don't—I don't want to have to deal with a fake girlfriend to get those rumors to go away, or, or—"

"Alex," Willie coos, gripping Alex's bicep tightly in his hand. "Alex, calm down. It'll all be okay. You won't have to. Okay?"

"But my parents," he says, realizing. Oh, god. It's not just the public he has to worry about. "My grandma—they don't, she doesn't—she doesn't know."

"That's okay," Willie says.

"She should know though. I'm just—I'm not… brave enough…" …but he can be.

He just screamed at the top of a mountain for the hell of it. It's not a very tall mountain, it's really much more of a hill, but that takes away from his point.

"Alex, what, of course you—"

"Willie?" Oh god. Whatever that lock that broke inside of him was, it was really, truly broke. And there was no going back.

"Huh?"

He closes his eyes. Okay. He's doing this. This is a thing he's going to do. He's going to be brave. He's going to do this, and then he'll be brave enough to tell his grandmother, right? If he can do this he can do anything. He's going to do it. He is. Just in—3, 2, "I like you," he blurts out, and… it's out there. He did it. Some pressure in his shoulders releases but—but that's not all he has to say. "And like, before you say something dumb like 'I like you too, dude.' I just. I mean in the way that's probably closer to the way that means 'I'm in love with you' than anything else. So like. Maybe not I like you. Maybe I love you. I don't know. I'm not sure how that's supposed to feel but I've felt it for a long time, specifically towards you, and it's never gone away, and it's only gotten stronger, so maybe that's love, but maybe I just have a really big crush on you? I don't—"

He's cut off by—

Huh.

He's cut off by Willie kissing him.

Without hesitation, he kisses back, hands automatically reaching up to hold Willie's face, his thumbs tracing over Willie's cheekbones as their lips move against each other. Willie's knee presses way too hard into Alex's thigh, probably hard enough to leave a bruise, and Alex can feel Willie jostling back and forth, can feel his hand sliding along the dirt as he shifts his hand to change his position. It's a little awkward, but it's—

It's good.

Willie pulls back far too soon, but Alex can feel the grin spreading on Willie's lips against his, before they even part. Willie doesn't lean all the way back. He pushes their foreheads together and bumps their noses together. "Maybe I just have a really big crush on you, too," he says.

"Oh."

Willie laughs, and sits back then. "Alex?"

"Huh?"

"You know that means I love you too, right?"

"Oh. No."

"Alex?"

"Huh?"

"I love you too."

[10millionyearsdungeon]

His Girl Friday

So! Shindou-mas was upon us! In honor of our favorite supporting character, we have a sordid tale of personal assistants and a week in the life of the notorious hero Grand. As part of a mini-collab with a few lovely writers from the BNHarem server!  ============================= “Your case files are on your desk, Grand. I took the liberty of filing them from oldest to new to help you catch up.” 

Shindou sat behind his heavy oak desk and flashed you his most dazzling smile. His nimble fingers unbuttoned the top two buttons of his pale yellow shirt and ran absently along the tanned skin of his throat. You had only started working for the hero as his personal assistant for little over six weeks now. Your temp agency had pre-assigned you to his agency but wouldn't disclose the reason why they pulled you from your prior assignment in Nagasaki. Your eyes lingered a half-second too long before you swore his perfect, sun-rivaling smile grew predatory. 

"Is there anything else I can get for you, sir?" Your thighs shifted together beneath your pencil black pencil skirt and you hoped he didn't notice your squirming. He took the files you tirelessly worked over and shook his head. 

"I think we're good, Y/n. Thank you."

You excused yourself from his office and beelined to the restroom. Splashing cool water on your face brought you back; you always suspected that your new boss was a flirt. Hell, he dictated his fan replies to you and his responses to the anonymous masses that elevated him up the Hero Billboards ranged from wholesome and sweet to downright lewd. 

"He is your boss and this is just a job! We do not lust over our boss like some ill-mannered slut!" you scolded yourself in the mirror. With a huff and slightly better control over yourself you strode back to your desk and started on the next mountain of paperwork to fill out and catalog for your boss. 

You felt like you had been working over reports and case data for backlogged cases for hours. A sharp buzz pulled you from your fastidious toil and the smooth, charming voice brought you back from data abstraction. 

"Y/n, could you cancel my dinner reservations tonight? I'm afraid it's going to be a late night for everyone." 

"Uh, yeah, sure thing." 

"Oh, and call Tuesday in, would ya? You're the best."

The line went dead and you sat confused by his request...or maybe it was the heat that bubbled under your skin at his praise? Numbly, you opened his planner and hovered your mouse over the events for the day. "It's Monday. Why am I calling Tuesday's staffer in?" In your grumbling, you noted a tall, thin woman with soft blonde hair falling past her shoulders in cascading waves of spun gold stride past your desk. Wrapped in a tan trench-coat, her heels clacked softly on the polished floor of the agency. She always came on Monday, but you never thought anything of it. She didn't even spare you a glance as she pushed through the double doors and into Shindou's vast office. He greeted her with a wide sweep of arms and that obnoxiously gorgeous smile of his. The blonde woman giggled in his arms and sat herself across from his plush throne. Shindou made his way to the doors and shut them, flashing you a glimpse of that same hungry grin you swore you caught earlier. 

With a raised brow, you shook your head and dialed the number affixed to the Tuesday staffer's sticky note on your planner app.  Naturally, the call went to voicemail. 

"Um...hey, this is Y/n from Grand Hero Agency. Grand is calling you in to work for the night. Thanks." Awkwardly, you hung up the phone and tuned the rest of the world out as you poured over your reports again. Your heart still hammered in your chest as you felt his eyes burning into you. Those harsh obsidian chips had a way of causing your brain to short circuit. Part of you wondered if that was a lesser known part of his famous quirk-- bringing women to the brink of stupidity with just his devastating grin? You sighed through your nose and pursed your lips at the report. Soft moans pulled you away from your work and you turned to the closed doors of his office. 

Maybe you were mistaken. Your lip caught in your teeth, you strained to hear the conversation inside the office but there weren't any words. Another moan, louder this time, rattled the heavy doors of Grand's professional sanctuary. Blood rushed to your head and heat settled in your core. Spluttering over your desk, you squirmed in your seat and tried to imagine what depraved acts your boss was doing to pull those moans from his blonde companion.

Another girl, short and with a mess of red curls piled high on her head rushed through the department and stopped herself at your desk. Her chest heaved as she fought to catch her breath, sweat glistened down her pale, freckled collar bones. Even a mess she was a vision in olive green, and her eyes were pale ice chips set in porcelain. If the first woman was poured gold and refinement, this one was that one wild night in the pub wrapped in a pert little package. 

"Don't tell me they started without me!" 

"Ah! He's expecting you," you whimpered out in an attempt to hide your shame. The sprite bounced to the double doors in a huff and threw them open. The image of Shindou Yo's head nested between the slender, golden thighs of his blonde Monday staffer would be forever burned into your retinas. Her elegant head threw back against the plush leather of his office chaise and her long willowy fingers pulled through his jet hair as he coaxed another high keening moan from her glossy lips. The red headed newcomer held her hands on her hips and stood in the doorway. You drank in the scene and found yourself unable to pull away. Every fiber of your being screamed for you to look away and continue about your day but you just couldn't. Slack jaw and burning cheeks, you swallowed down your shame and sunk deeper into your chair only to feel his sharp, hungry eyes on you again. A silvery string of slick hung between his mouth and her glistening folds and the sight sent white-hot heat straight to your abdomen. Sinful smirk stretched across his handsome features, he dragged his tongue slowly along his slick-coated lips and waved the redhead over while he rubbed his golden goddess's thighs to help her come down from her high. With a pout the newcomer closed the doors behind her, leaving you in a puddle of your own desire. 

You stepped away from your desk and began to make your way to the stairs. Air. I just need to get some air and then I can focus again. Heels in hand, you ran down the ten flights of stairs to the street level entrance. Your lungs burned with exertion, but the ten floors of steel and concrete between yourself and your boss only eased your unrest enough for you to think through the haze of your desire. His lascivious gaze stuck with you as you leaned against the cold glass lobby door. 

It was hardly fair, the strain he put you under. He knew he was gorgeous, a literal god among humble mortals, and with his quirk he could have anyone he wanted. The longer you mulled over the implications of catering to the hero, the more lost you became. He knew what he did to you the longer he kept you on payroll. You could feel it when his eyes lingered on you whenever you brought him his decaf oat milk latte with extra espresso shot, or how he would gently vibrate his fingers against yours when you took his dictation. Your breathing slowed only to hitch at the thought of his tongue lashing at the dewy pearl between those bronzed thighs. What you wouldn't give to take her place sprawled out on that leather sofa carding your fingers through his jet hair as he nipped and sucked bruises into your thighs. Heat rose to your cheeks and suddenly the chill of evening was gone. Ignoring the gnawing, wet ache in your core, you sighed heavily through your nose. It started as a rumble through the foundation of the building and ended in a cascade of shattered glass with Shindou Yo triumphantly groaning his release into the skyline.

+++++

Wednesday marked the beginning of a new day with a new set of struggles. Grand would be out of the office, saving you the embarrassment of facing your boss at least one day this week. As you stretched and went about your morning preparations, Shindou's predatory stare haunted you. The warm, bitter aroma of hot coffee sloshing in your mug kept you grounded. Tiny scratches along your arms from the shower of window shards stung with every pull of your limbs as you dressed for the day. It would be at least two days before the building contractors replaced the windows. Maybe this time they would replace them with something more durable to seismic-grade vibrations than rudimentary glass. You pulled out your phone and squinted at the screen.

Message: Shindou Yo - Y/n, I have a few errands for you to run after sending those finished reports off to the HPSC. My list is already uploaded to your planner. You're the best, doll! 

Your breath caught in your chest. It wouldn't take but a few hours to finish and courier over the reports, but Shindou's personal errand list? You cautiously opened your planner app and highlighted "Wednesday" with a trembling finger. This was a man quite capable of anything, and your career, your livelihood was in his large, devious hands. Much to your surprise (or was it disappointment?) his errand list was fairly innocent. Grocery lists, dry cleaning and package pick ups, it all seemed pretty self-explanatory. Every errand was detailed down to the minute, and for a moment you found yourself wondering why Grand even needed a personal assistant to keep his life in check. Dressed in your modest gray pencil skirt and white quarter-sleeve collared shirt, you took a quick look in the mirror. With a sigh, you steeled your nerve. This was your life now-- just another powerless pawn at the beck and call of a celebrated hero. You packed up your laptop bag, topped off your travel mug, and started your commute into the city. 

Your key turned effortlessly in the tumbler of the deadbolt on his penthouse door. It was a feat with how many bags and hangers you had hanging from your arms. You cursed your boss and his arrogance. It was borderline harassment what he was putting you through. As you pushed through the doorway with Grand's parcels and bags, huffing to yourself over his arrogance, you swore you could hear the softest grunts coming from inside the suite. Dutiful assistant you were, you hung the tasteful slate and navy suits and dry cleaning in the foyer. Silence continued to permeate the suite as you worked to replace the groceries in the fridge and tidy the kitchen. Internally, you thought about calling the maid service if only to keep the penthouse clean for the careless bachelor. 

"Hnnghnnn!!"

You froze and held your breath-- you knew that voice. A sickening crack resounded through the suite and was answered by another keening groan. A cool, low voice exchanged clipped, stern words. Your curiosity bubbled over and your skin burned scarlet at the vision swimming into view as you quietly emerged from the kitchen and into the open expanse of the playboy's living room. If the vision of his raven head buried between the bronzed and oiled thighs of a golden goddess left an impression, the sight before you would remain with you to the grave. 

Rich, wine ropes dug into limbs hardened and sculpted by years of hero field work and honing his multifunctional quirk. Sweat dripped from the tip of his nose and onto the polished hardwood as he hung suspended by a bolt from where you assumed a light fixture once hung. A heavy black blindfold velcroed tightly to his handsome face kept him blindly sweeping his head to find his playmate. Sinful mouth was left woefully unattended and you felt your panties grow damp at the thought of all the horribly lewd noises about to be coaxed from his saliva-coated lips. But the cherry of it all, red and angry, weeping onto the floor bounced proudly against his washboard abs with every twitch and sigh. He curled backward, spine arched deliciously and stretched his pecs with every heaving breath. The leather-clad woman in thigh-high boots and fishnet bodysuit didn't even register as you drank in his helplessness. 

"I want you to sit and think about what you've done, hero." Her voice was red wine and dark chocolate. It was night in the dungeon and her word was final. Her riding crop came down on the pale, toned flesh of his buttocks with another loud crack, earning another loud moan and a violent twitch of his neglected cock. Precum beaded and glistened at his swollen head, the light catching it in a way that made your mouth water from your hiding spot. As the imperious Amazon left the scene, your body moved on its own. Creeping through the dark, you sat on hands and knees beneath the quivering Adonis in his crimson silk harness. Wetting your lips, you raised up on your knees and dragged the tip of your tongue along the seam of his balls, up the thick vein running the length of his heavy shaft, and twirled around that leaking, hot head. He was all salt and heat on your tongue, a taste you could grow to appreciate under different circumstances. He let out a hiss under your tongue as you dragged the pad of your tongue against his head in soft kitten strokes. Your fingers drifted between your thighs and ran carelessly along your clothed silt, your slick rendering the cotton fabric useless. Grand was brought low by a Quirkless civilian, and all that remained was Shindou Yo, bound and moaning into the empty expanse of his penthouse. He keened above you and helplessly thrashed against his harness to seek more friction from your eager mouth. For a moment, you obliged taking his girthy length into the heat of your waiting mouth. He melted into his restraints and into the warm, wet cavern, helpless to your slow ministrations. His moans were low, needy notes littering their shared space. How frequently did you find your thoughts coming back to his penthouse? You moaned into his length and rubbed tight, sloppy circles on your clit over your drenched panties. The head of his cock pushed to the back of your throat. His poor, neglected cock twitched, and you felt yourself begin to come undone. His whimpering and frantic panting spurred you on until reason seeped back in through the cracks of your lust-hazed thoughts. 

"I know you're still there," he sighed, still struggling against his binding. "I can smell you. You're loving this, aren't you? C'mon, sweetheart...is that the best you've got?" 

His words, that sinful, husky voice doused whatever fire you had burning in your loins. He knew you were here. How could he not? Maybe he wasn't anticipating you finishing his list so soon? Or...more likely, in all his meticulous planning he wanted you to find him like this-- beaten and vulnerable, open to your advances. The door creaked open, signaling your chance to escape. Abruptly, you pulled his aching cock from your lips and wiped your mouth with the back of your hand. Scrambling gracelessly in your nylons against the hardwood, you dove back into the kitchen. Mistress Wednesday strode confidently into the frey, riding crop in hand. Harness slung across her hips in elegantly embossed black leather, her own proud length in dazzling ultraviolet was anchored to her crotch with a heavy steel ring. Eight inches and rivaling his own girth, your eyes rested on her gloved hands and how they worked to nimbly prepare his needy, puckered hole for the beating it was about to receive. 

It was too much to take in. The scene unfolded and elevated to a higher level of filth you were far from accustomed to, and you, despite every cell in your body screaming to stay and enjoy the show you silently stole away. The only sound signaling your departure from the suite was the gentle click of the deadbolt latching between Shindou Yo's hungry moans. You called in sick the next morning agonizing over whether or not it would be poor form to put in your notice. 

++++++

 You fidgeted at your desk when he crossed through the foyer to his office. It was a patrol morning, and naturally he had to grace his staff with the morale boosting sight of the boss hitting the streets just like the lowest-rung side-kicks in his employ. His bare chest glistened under the fluorescents. Sweat dripped from his pretty-boy brow and harkened back to that moment when he was curled back on himself, sweat dripping down his sinew and steel body for an entirely different reason. It was all you could do to avoid his sharp, onyx gaze and that heart-melting smile. 

"Y/n, I hope you're feeling better," he grinned. God, how you hated that grin! "We missed you yesterday."

"Ah, yeah. May I help you with something, sir?" 

He canted that gorgeous, raven head of his and narrowed his eyes at you. "Actually there is." You waited for him to finish, your heart leaping into your throat the longer he loomed over your desk, but he never did. Instead, he sauntered through the double doors of his office and gestured for you to follow. Numbly, your feet followed before the rest of you could catch up. 

Contractor tape still lined the window panes, a reminder of the last time you were caught in his crosshairs. You squirmed mulling over the implications of his quirk, your position, and how inexplicably tangled you had become in his daily life. As he pulled off his faceguard and set the sweat-stained support gear on the rich oak hardwood of his desk you felt him burn through you as if committing every exposed freckle to memory. He zeroed in on your lips and smirked, holding his arms open as if to invite you to take a moment and fully appreciate him for the god among men he was. 

"Like what you see, sweetheart?" 

You swallowed hard and nodded before you could stop yourself. It seemed to be the right answer because in seconds he was on you, pinning your back to the desk. He leaned over you, nose barely brushing yours and licked his lips slowly. His stare was downright predatory as he loomed over you, hands heavy and rough pawed at your poly-blend wrapped hips. He gripped at the dark fabric and eyed you hungrily. The breath you didn't realize you were holding slowly escaped through gently pursed lips, the preamble to what should have been your verbal notice. But something in his stare kept you silent, submissive. The possessive hold he had on your hips kept you grounded, but the scent of him after a patrol sent you reeling. Effortlessly he lifted your hips and slid your skirt down your legs, hoisting them over his shoulders once freed. It was his turn for his breath to hitch in his throat-- he drank in the sight of your damp, silk panties and dragged his tongue along his lips as if imagining how your fluttering walls would feel convulsing around his tongue. Pupils blown, he raked his eyes over your half-dressed frame. 

"Shy? I thought we'd be long past that, sweetheart." He lowered his head and dragged his lips across the soft skin of your inner thighs. "After all, I still have to return the favor," he purred, dragging his tongue in one broad stroke up along your soaked, clothed cunt. A shuddering gasp broke through your self-imposed silence and you all but melted into his mouth. He hadn't even used his quirk on you and he had you quivering into his mouth. You felt him grin that feral, wolfish grin into your heat and the lift of your lower back from the cool, hardwood of his oak desk. How many times did he seduce and lay waste to his catch of the day? It barely mattered as you carded your fingers through the tangle of black curls and opened yourself to his advances. Shame was an afterthought you could afford if it meant you could satisfy that carnal curiosity surrounding your boss. 

"Y/n, who knew you'd be such a lewd little slut." He pulled your panties to the side easily and teased your clit with the very top of his tongue. It started with a low, steady hum and graduated to a heavy buzz focused entirely on the head of your tender bundle. The sensation brought you to the edge almost too quickly. You fought against his hold, squirming and writhing with your legs squeezing helplessly around his head as he continued holding his tongue against you. Incensed by your sudden fight, he slipped a finger easily into your drooling hole and searched for that spongy spot that brought white stars to the edges of your vision. A moan, high and sharp ripped through you as he pulled his mouth from your now swollen pearl. Hungrily your cunt clenched around his finger, and soon he added a second. Your eyes clamped shut at the sudden addition and your body tensed around him. He planted soft kisses and gentle bites along your thighs as you slowly came back to a baseline he deemed appropriate. The moment he felt you relax, you felt it-- a hook of two calloused fingertips digging mercilessly up into your g-spot, vibrations resonating from deep within. You kicked and fought to writhe away and again he held you fast against the desk effortlessly. You tugged and pushed at his head, your end coming all too quickly. Your breathing grew frantic, moaning out half syllables and empty pleas for him to stop. 

"Yo!!"

Shuddering into his mouth, you rode his fingers to completion, legs trembling around his ears like his own personal earthquake. He withdrew his fingers and brought them to his lips, groaning at the taste. Shindou palmed his half-hard cock through his hero suit and lowed his head for a taste from your source. Satisfied, he pulled your ass lower down the desk and helped you find your feet back on the ground. Your heels long forgotten, the carpet felt foreign under your bare toes when he turned you around by the hips and bent you over the desk. His hands lovingly dug into the meat of your ass and spread your cheeks to peek at your holes from a different point of view. 

"So sweet, little miss secretary. So submissive. Who would have guessed you'd be such a dirty little voyeur, too…" he purred in your ear. The shuffling of fabric and the soft sound of skin sliding on skin punctuated his statement. "Bet you never thought you'd be part of the show, huh?" You whimpered under his caresses, slick dripping down your thighs as he ground his thick cock between your cheeks. 

"Please, sir…" you moaned, rubbing your thighs together for some semblance of friction to ease the growing ache. "I can't. I need you."

He ran his hand down your spine and rubbed soothing circles over your hips. "Use your words, sweetheart. Sir can't give you what he doesn't know you want," he teased. The head of his cock rubbed between your thighs, catching your swollen clit and earning a soft moan. "Say it."

"Please let me cum on your cock, sir!" 

As if that was all the permission he needed he sheathed himself into your needy core in one stroke. Spasming, you felt as if your joints would pull apart from the pleasure alone. He stilled inside you and gave you a moment to adjust, if only to revel in how tightly your velvet walls hugged around his girth. Satisfied, he gripped the back of your neck and rocked his hips into the plush muscles of your ass and thighs. You reached before you and dug your nails into the desk, moaning out like the only two adults left in the entire city were the two of you. Wanton and wanting you rocked back, earning a low groan in return. His hand wound around your hair and gave an experimental tug as he picked up the pace, the head of his cock curving into the soft sponge of your g-spot. White hot, pleasure surged through you from fingertips to toes and left you screaming his name as you came around him  

"Yo! Fuck me, please don't stop. Yo, don't fucking stop!" 

He grinned above you and pulled your back tight against him, spine arched beautifully by the hair you continued to whine and beg as he rutted his hips against you. "That's it, sweetheart. Let loose a little. Sir's got you. That's it. Cum on Sir’s cock again."

His words enough could have been enough to be your undoing, but it wouldn't be Grand if he didn't bring that little extra something to the scene. He sheathed fully, angling up and pulling hard on your hair to kiss his head to your tender cervix. Stars flooded your vision, and your legs threatened to give if it weren't for the strong hold he had on your hair and the solid desk beneath you. He didn't budge from your tight, fleshy ring. As he held you, he closed his eyes and focused his quirk into that spot he just knew few before him had touched. Deep, rumbling vibrations threatened to rend your soul from your still breathing body as you convulsed and clenched rhythmically on his cock, milking him. Words were lost. The longer he fed on your spasming body, the sensations and sounds he could pull from your pliant, willing little holes, he felt himself get lost. 

"Cum, I'm cumming again, Sir! Fuck, I can't fucking stop!!" With one last spasm, he let go of your hair and let your body slump over his desk as he took your ass in his hands. He spread your cheeks and watched as his cock disappeared into your tight pink sheath and sloppily gave a few more thrusts before digging back in and releasing with a low, gravely groan. Hot, thick ropes of white coated your abused hole as he continued his release. Your body trembled, cunt still clenching tightly around his softening member, and you whimpered softly into the desk. First emptiness set in, and then anxiety. Emotions crept back in where lust once sat, and all you could do was slowly piece together what just took place. 

As if sensing your growing distress, Shindou scooped you into his arms and peppered your cheeks and nose with chaste kisses. His tenderness seemed out of place given how savagely he had used you moments ago. The leather couch was cool against your after-glowing skin. He left you briefly, retreating to his private restroom, and returned with a washcloth. 

"You're okay, sweetheart. You did so good. Better than I ever expected." He crooned over you as he gently wiped the remnants of his spend from your leaking hole. "Looks like you passed. Congrats, we're hiring you on full-time, Friday," he grinned coyly. It took a moment for the gravity of his words to sink in and finally it hit at once. In your fucked-out haze, you barely registered what he meant. It was going to be a long rest of your career. 

[prey-to-go]

Ate we going to get a first-customer fic with Peter? Also, I swear, these are some of the best things I've ever read!

Oh whoops- I forgot to post it here! But yes! Peter's first order was luckily Tony! Also thank you so much!???? That is super kind!!! T♡T))

Tony had been ordering from Prey to Go for years. All to satisfy the deep urge all demons had. It stopped him from having to eat souls and always left him feeling full days after. He hadn't found his favorite snack quite yet so sadly he had to keep ordering random selections. 

He hums softly as he speed dials the number, grinning widely when he heard the little jingle. He had gone a bit to long this time, the hunger for a soul gnawing at him the whole time.

“Hello, this is Tony Stark, I’d like to place an order.” 

Usually he’d just order online but it took so long and they always asked him to be specific with ages, tallness, size, god the list went on.

“Oh Tony! A randomized order with a 12 inch size presume?” 

Tony hums softly. He was just thankful the place basically knew him at this point. He didn’t have to argue about specifics he could just get his meal and be satisfied with that.

“Yes, as soon as you can. Thank you.” He says before hanging up. Now all that was left was to wait. He could do that, just a few more minutes.

When he heard the elevators door open he was already salivating at the thought of having a soul inside of him. Tony shidders excitedly, looking over to see what his randomized order looked like. He was young, a little pudge which just added to his cuteness. He couldn’t help but grin, his stomach growling anxiously as the kid stepped inside. 

“I-I’m Peter, y-you’re um, prey for to-tonight.” 

Tony’s smile drops instantly when he notices the tears streaking down the kid’s face. Oh no. He could not deal with tears, especially when it came to kids. Despite being a demon he surprisingly had strong parental instinct, which got annoying at times.

He grimaces slightly and kneels next to the kid. Peter was the same height as all his orders, around a foot tall, which just made his heart twist even more. 

“Hey kid, what’s with the tears?” He murmurs softly. He wasn’t surprised when the kid jolted back, things must have been jaring at that height. Peter seemed like a sweet kid, he wasn’t sure why the kid was working with a company that literally gave predators the meals they needed.

“M’ s-sorry. I-I’ve never d-done this before.” Peter managed to hiccup out between quiet sobs. Tony sighs slightly, gently wiping tears from the child's face. Of course the one time he needed a quick meal he wouldn't get it. That's alright. He couldn't get mad at the kid, he was just frightened, no worries.

"Hey, look at me kiddo. We don't have to do this if it's really that scary for you." Tony murmurs softly, offering a warm smile. Besides the kid was a bit on the young side, he could see why this would be frightening to him. 

"M-m' okay now y-you can do..do..it now." Peter whimpers, rubbing his eyes. Tony sighs again shaking his head.

"I'm not going to eat you when you're crying kiddo." He says tiredly. No matter how hungry he was he wasn't just going to ignore the fact that the poor thing was terrified. It honestly killed his appetite. 

"Come on, deep breaths." He says softly. He smiles slightly wiping some tears away as the kid struggled to listen to him. 

After a few minutes of him shushing the kid, and Peter letting soft hiccuping sobs put he managed to calm his little snack down enough so that he wasn't crying. At this point he was sitting on the ground with Peter's face buried in his side like an exhausted child. The moment was almost peaceful, well except for his stomach loudly complaining about its lack of a meal.

"S-sorry I..I should probably do my job- right?" Peter asks hesitantly, glancing up at Tony nervously. This kid was one of the most sensitive prey he'd ever had.

"I don't want to sound pushy but this is it. You can walk out now, but I need to know in the next ten seconds kid." Tony says with a tired sigh. He was starving, ravenous actually, for a decent soul, and if Peter needed to walk out he'd have to place another order as soon as possible.

Peter, bless the kid, shifted slightly before taking a shaky breath in and nodded. Obviously mentally preparing himself for his decision. 

"I..I can do this." 

Well he wasn't expecting that. The kid was really dedicated to his job then. He was so terrified and yet here he was standing determinedly in front of him. 

"Close your eyes, it'll help." Tony murmurs softly gently running a hand through Peter's curls. He smiles a bit when the kid nods and squeezes his eyes shut tightly, the poor things heart rate picked up as he got closer. 

Peter grimaces slightly waiting anxiously with his eyes shut tight. Letting a quiet whimper out when he felt warmth wash over his face. Despite the sharp teeth he knew Mr.Stark had he didn't feel any of them as he was gently eased inside the demon's mouth. 

He trembles he felt the demon's tongue carefully coat him with salvia, the slick muscle twitching firmly against his chest as he was squished down into Mr.Stark's throat. 

It was hot and tight and he had no idea what was happening at this point. He yelps slightly when he jolts forward at a thick and sudden swallow, his heart beating nervously when he was pushed further down. 

Peter felt hands on his legs and waist, his face scrunching up in mild confusion until he felt Mr.Stark tilt his head back, the hands guiding him as he slid easily down the demons throat. It shouldn't have been that easy, a small part of his brain demanded that he fight, scream, put up a fuss or something but he couldn't shake his fear away long enough to react.

Several thick swallows dragged him out of his blind panic, grimacing as his head squished down into a slightly larger chamber. It groaned and gurgled excitedly as he slowly started slipping inside, his face pressing into the soft slick flesh as he tried getting somewhat upright. Thankfully the more Mr.Stark swallowed the more he could somewhat position himself. 

He was completely encased in warmth, and with a few more swallows he felt his feet joining him in the extremely tight area. He wasn't sure how this was comfortable for the pred. 

"Doing alright kid?" 

Peter jolts slightly at how weird the voice sounded. Tony's voice was deeper and came from everywhere which was slightly comforting and freaky at the same time. The muscle groaned around him, following his movements as he tried to right himself.

"Y-yeah I'm alright!" Peter says sheepishly. He didn't mean to move around so much, but this was the first time he had actually gotten eaten. It was a bit weird and he wasn't used to the feeling at all. It was like getting smothered with soft slimy sheets honestly. 

"Mm, good. You got a few more hours, so try to get comfy." 

Peter shudders slightly, but nods instinctually, flushing when he realized that Tony couldn't see him.

"Y-yeah gotcha." He says quietly. He didn't try to move very much considering he still didn't know what was comfortable for the demon and didn't want to test that. 

Peter could do this, it was for May after all. He sighs shakily and shifts slightly flinching at the soft gurgles the muscle around him let out. Yeah this wasn't too bad. 

[flowercrown-bucky]

Trouble has never looked so good - But then again, it’s never been wearing a push-up bra before.

Fandom: 1970s!Loki Multi-Chapter

Pairing: Loki x ConArtist!Reader

Warnings: Swearing, drinking, drug references, later death, later smut, crime, loki and the reader are con artists..... It’s a wild one y’all, hold onto yo’ seats.

Word Count: 3084

[Something Wicked This Way Comes - Chapter One] 

Loki’s life on Asgard has become vapid; uninspiring. He’s got the taste for a little danger. 

During a trip to earth, he finds just the danger he’s looking for.

A partner in crime - in every imaginable sense. 

TAGLIST IS OPEN - EITHER COMMENT OR MESSAGE ME IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO BE ADDED. 

LIFE on Asgard was unbearably normal.

It was fine. If anything, it was too fine.

There was only so much feasting and so many council meetings one could take, you know?

Loki had stalked off to his chambers, muttering to his brother that he needed time to focus his magic.

He didn't, of course. Odin's lecturing on diplomatic decorum had simply become mind numbingly dull and it seemed like the most suitable excuse.

Loki's chambers were in a prime position. It was, after all, the reason he had coerced his older brother into switching with him when they were both around three hundred years old. He was roughly a hundred yards from the palace kitchens, something that well suited his secret midnight-snacking habit, and about as far from the Allfather and Allmother's chambers as he could possibly be, something that well suited his secret midnight sneaking-out habit.

However, the thing he loved most about his chambers, was the proximity to the palace orchard. If he stepped through the doors onto the balcony, he could grip the railings and sort of kamikaze himself over, before dropping the two-or-so-feet distance between him and the floor, and it was this that had made him want to occupy this chamber so badly.

He'd loved the orchard ever since he was a little boy. It was his safe spot, somewhere he had gone to hide from the world, where nothing could harm him or make him feel anything he didn't want to. He liked to take a book with him, and read under the shade of the apple trees until someone came to retrieve him.

It was here he had considered retreating to when he remembered the girl kneeling between his legs.

She was, Loki believed, a princess of Vanaheim, visiting Asgard with her father. Sex was not something that particularly concerned him, but he had left the council hall feeling rather frustrated, and the remarkably attractive woman had practically thrown herself at him.

If a beautiful woman desired to fellate him, who was he to complain?

It was, however, doing nothing for him - so much so he had forgotten she was even there.

"You can stop now." He wasn't entirely gentle when he tugged her off him, opting to do so with the help of a handful of her hair, but ,hey, he was extremely frustrated and she had been no help in the easing of that frustration.

"I can-"

"Nope." He waved a hand dismissively at the woman, leaving her to gather her clothes and dignity from where they'd been discarded in the floor. Girls were far more his brother's thing.

The only satisfying sexual encounter he had ever had had been on Midgard, some ten years before. Her name was Elizabeth, and she wanted to be an actress. With a head of carefully constructed dark curls and unusual violet coloured eyes, she was positively electrifying. She'd liked Loki's regal manner, assumed he was important. He'd been looking for a way to unwind and had yet to find it in a bottle of whiskey. They had, you might say, used each other equally.

He wondered what she was doing now.

Midgard, however, didn't seem like too bad an idea.

The mortals, he thought, were funny. Their funny little ways, their funny little habits, their funny little emotions.

He rather liked that idea. Midgard it was to be, then.

--

Las Vegas, was perhaps, the worst place he had ever been. Crawling with perhaps the worst specimens humanity had to offer, and drowning in immorality, Vegas was perhaps the physical embodiment of iniquity. 

Perhaps the underbelly of the world, Vegas combined all aspects of bigotry - racism, misogyny, pride. Men traded their lives away to pay to warm the sheets of women condemned to a life of misery, destined to while their days away in some clandestine pact with dingy hotel rooms. 

Not Vegas, Loki thought to himself. 

New York, he was not particularly fond of either. It was much too cold and full of self importance. The people were, largely, cold and unpleasant, and the food was something he could never get behind. 

Europe he had not visited for a long while since. It had been stricken by an unpleasant pox last time he had visited, covering the suffering with boils as large as the palm as his hand. He’d begrudgingly lent his healing skills to the ailing people. After all, he really didn’t like the smell of rotting flesh. 

 He wasn’t altogether pleased with the likenesses the people later formed in the name of worship.

In all honesty, they made him look rather greasy and weaselly.

—

Montecarlo, Loki thought, might be a little more interesting than he'd initially thought. Possibly, his favourite place he'd visited on Midgard.

It was like a hive of temptation, the culmination of human greed. Nowhere on earth quite said luxury like a city dressed to the nines, and Loki loved it.

It was far better than his previous visits, wherein he had found the planet stricken by various bouts of violence and deadly plagues. 

1973, with its penchant for sex, drugs and rock'n'roll was far more to his taste.

He had, in the short time he'd been in the city, become very well acquainted with the calibrate of person who liked to visit. Men with enough class to never let an expletive pass their lips within company, but perfectly happy to snort narcotics off the seats of public toilets using a ten dollar bill that was on its fourth use.

Women loyal enough to remain on the arm of one gentleman for the whole of an evening but not opposed to a quick fuck in a back alley from a tall dark stranger with a mysterious smile.

Sex was not something Loki was particularly concerned with, but he did enjoy the sense of power he got from looking directly into the eyes of a man whose wife he had made come undone not ten minutes earlier.

Humans, he noted, were no different to the savage tribes of Muspelheim. They just hid it better, under expensive clothes and university degrees and layers of makeup.

This was not something he necessarily was bothered by. He was having far too good a time for that.

Casinos, he had taken a real liking to. Money was another thing that held no meaning for him, but cheating pompous assholes out of what they believed was rightfully theirs?

That, he could get behind, and it seemed he was not alone in that.

He had been watching you all evening, as you worked your way around the room.

You were dressed to kill, and the man you'd turned your attentions to looked like he would gladly die if it would please you.

One hand stroking his *ahem* ego, and the other stealing his wallet.

You were perfect.

Mischief was on his agenda, and you looked like a wonderful accomplice.

He'd approached you quietly, a gentle hand on your shoulder, his lips by your ear.

"Well, hello." He'd murmured, as you turned to face him. "Who might you be?"

You'd practically preened at the sudden attention, clearly very pleased with the idea of a second conquest of the evening.

"Darling, I'm your worst nightmare." You bit your red painted lip, your eyes trailing the length of him. Your glance was cold, calculating - pretty much everything Loki appreciated in a woman. 

For a moment, he wondered if you were to kill him, how you would carry out the act. He felt almost as if he would appreciate it. 

You looked like a poisoner, he decided. Less messy, less loose ends to take care of. 

“And what, exactly, does my worst nightmare take to drink?” He could feel the smug grin growing on his face. “I am well acquainted with the torment of the unconscious mind.” 

You were taken aback, that much he could see from your face. For someone so experienced with hustling card games, you did not have much of a poker face. 

His smile grew. Unsettling people was one of his very favourite things.

“Champagne.” You still gnawed at your lip, but the reasoning, he could tell, had changed - if he didn’t know better, he’d think you were quite literally biting back a smile. 

“A lady after my own heart.” He replied. “You have good taste.” 

 “Only the best.” You lifted your glass towards him. 

“I’ll drink to that.” 

-- 

The course of the evening made abundant to Loki exactly how you operated. You were fairly certain you had him in the palm of your hand, that much he could tell - and it was certainly amusing to play along with it. 

You played your role well, and that was something he admired. You allowed him to lead the conversation, showering his ego with praise and affirmation. You fiddled with your hair as you spoke, twisting it around your index finger before draping it over your clavicle, trailing towards your ample bosom. 

You occasionally - intentionally - licked at your lip as you spoke, your tongue coyly tracing your plump bottom lip, tilting your head to the side as if to show how truly intrigued you were by what he was saying, exposing a good deal of neck in the process. 

It truly was a shame, he thought, that mortal men were unable to see the brains, the intellect, behind the beauty - or more specifically, the bust. 

Midgardian men were truly unable to see exactly what they possessed, but on Asgard, you would’ve been celebrated, treasured even, for the power of your mind. 

It was a great pity, Loki thought, and rather unfortunate for their wallets. 

You’d kept him on his toes since you’d first spoken. You were keeping him on his toes now. 

He watched you as you spoke to the woman next to you. You were so careful, every movement deliberate, purposeful. 

You played your part well. In a knee-length blue dress, you largely left the curves of your body to the imagination. The imagination, however, was aided by how the material clung to your hips and your more than ample bosom. Almost every male eye in the room was on you. 

You made your way back over to where he lent on the bar. You seemed to enjoy toying with him. As to why, he could not fathom. 

You waved a bottle of champagne in his face, before topping up his own glass. 

“Consider the favour...” You flashed a smile at him that was utterly to die for. “Repaid.” 

He ran a hand through his long hair, catching your gaze. 

If he was an ordinary man, he would be truly fucked. 

“So, tell me.” His voice came out as something closer to a purr than anything else. “How does a woman such as yourself turn to petty crime?” If it were possible to display every element of the spectrum of human emotion in one simultaneous instant, Loki was sure it would look very similar to how your face currently looked. 

Almost as quickly as it had come over you, it was gone. The mask returned and you flashed him a coy grin. 

“What gave me away?” Your left eyebrow quirked. 

“I’m perceptive.” He smiled. “You’re good, I’ll give you that. But I’m better.” 

“What are you, a cop?” Your voice was calm, level. It was almost completely impossible to detect the emotions behind it. 

“Please.” He scoffed. “I have a proposal for you.” 

Your arm dropped to your side. Your face remained unchanged, but the mischief, the slight twinkle in your eye, was gone. 

“Meet me outside the toilets in five minutes.” Your voice was hoarse. You turned away from him with a swish of apple-scented hair, taking a step away from him. 

He reached out, catching your wrist. You stumbled slightly, grabbing at the bar to steady yourself. 

“I’m not interested in sex, if that’s what you think.” His voice dropped. 

“Then what do you want?” You spun to face him. 

“If you show me, I’ll show you.” He grinned at you. 

“Show me, what, exactly?” You asked, intrigued. 

“Everything.” He whispered. His hand came up to your face, taking your chin gently inbetween his forefinger and thumb. He turned your head gently from side to side, before tilting it back. You watched with curious eyes, but allowed him to rest his hand on your forehead. 

He closed his eyes slowly, his consciousness seeping through his body, penetrating your mind. 

--

It was an odd place, your mind. He’d never been in any other quite like it. There had always been a lot going on, in people’s minds. They were.. furnished. Most appeared as a place, at least - a childhood home, a favourite place - but yours was remarkably empty. 

Enormous black units surrounded him, rows upon rows of boxes reaching as far as his eyes could see. The only other thing present within your mind was a chair, upon which you sat. 

It was tall and as black as the shelves. The back faced him, your legs slung either side of it, your elbow resting on the top. Your chin rested on your fist, and you watched him as he adjusted to your surroundings, one eyebrow bemusedly quirked. 

“Fancy seeing you here.” You smiled. “Sorry about the mess. I don’t get a lot of visitors, you know, inside my head.” 

Loki laughed. 

“Your mind is intriguing, little one.” He walked towards one of the units to get a closer look, lifting a hand to open one. It didn’t budge. 

“I bet you say that to all the girls.” You teased.  

“Just the pretty ones.” He tugged again, a little harder. “What’s in these boxes?“

“My deepest secrets.” You replied curtly. “How do you do this, anyway? You don’t get many people who can waltz into your mind uninvited around here.” 

“I told you, you show me, and I’ll show you.” He left the boxes, walking over to where you sat. He circled you a few times, looking around for anything else within your mind. “I am not of this world.” 

“No shit.” You grumbled. 

“Ladies first.” He grinned. “I want to know how you do it. Then you will get your answers.” 

“Then get out of my head.” You replied. “The only person in here to scam is you, and it’s not quite the same when someone knows you’re going to rob them.” 

“Very well.” Loki snapped his fingers. 

You opened your eyes with a gasp as he lifted his hand from your forehead. 

“Never do that again.” You warned. 

He chuckled, lifting his hand to support his head, looking at you expectantly. 

“I’m waiting.” He raised an eyebrow. 

“Where shall we start?” 

--

You leant across the table towards Loki. 

“That one.” You tilted your head towards the left. 

He lifted his head, looking up for the man you’d singled out. The ginger in the double breasted suit? The lanky blonde with the knock knees? The man bun? 

No. 

He knew the one. 

“Clammy hands.” He mused. “Look at the discoloration on the front of his trousers. The pigment has been lost from repeatedly wiping his hands on them. He has sweaty hands.” 

“Can I keep you?” You tilted your head to the side. 

“Why him?” He asked. “How do you choose?” 

“I don’t.” You replied. “They sort of... reveal themselves. They look at me. Stare at me. All I have to do is look back.” 

“And from there?” 

“The art of robbing someone just comes down to sleight of hand. Same as hustling a card game.” You glanced over at the man. “I used to do magic tricks with cards and make people’s car keys disappear as a kid. I picked it up from there.” 

“Impressive.” He leaned back in his seat. “Why do you do it?” 

“This world has not been kind to me.” You sighed. “Besides, life is so much more interesting with a little chaos.” 

He chuckled, placing both of his elbows on the table, hands clasped together in front of his face. 

“Do you fuck all of them?” He raised one eyebrow. 

“Just the pretty ones.” Your face cracked into a wide smile. 

He stared at you for a second. This beautiful, conniving woman in front of him, the poison that resided in your mind, the deadliness that lay in your hands. 

In all honesty, it excited him. 

You’d intrigued him since he’d very first laid eyes on you, and every moment since, that  intrigue had grown. Who were you really? What were you? 

For the first time that evening, it occurred to him that he didn’t even know your name. 

He got the feeling that if he asked, you wouldn’t tell him the truth. You weren’t that stupid. 

You were hiding from something, he was fairly sure. Being in hiding was something he was all too familiar, and if there was anything he had learned in his five thousand years of life, it was how to spot when someone was on the run. 

“I believe you are exactly what I’ve been looking for, little criminal.” He murmured. 

“And what, pray tell, would that be?” You pursed your red painted lips. 

“A partner in crime.” He replied. “A fellow mischief maker, if you will.” 

“You could be a serial killer.” You crossed your arms over your chest. 

“So could you.” He said curtly. “I entered your mind and you’ve just explained how you con and rob people, but yet, here we both still are.” 

You blinked, shifting so you were leaning on your left side. Your expression was thoughtful - you were considering his suggestion. 

“And what exactly do I get out of this deal?” You asked. 

“You saw what I did earlier.” He leaned forwards on his forearms. “I will open your mind to things you cannot currently even begin to comprehend.” 

“Okay. I’ll bite.” You lifted your drink to your lips, taking a sip. “I accept your offer.” 

“I must tell you.” He warned. “You will be playing with fire.”  You set your glass down on the table, before leaning back in your seat. You turned your head to the left briefly, tossing your hair over one shoulder. You crossed one leg over the other as you turned back to face him. Your eyes found his, a gaze that truly seemed to be looking into his soul, and you smiled. 

“Luckily for you, I like to watch things burn.” 

TAGLIST: @possessedjoker​ @amour-delicate

[softyoongiionly]

Fear and Dumplings: Chapter Fifteen

Confronting your fears for a final grade sounds unappealing but, with Yoongi as your partner, things might not be so bad.

Summary: You’re in your final semester at University when your Abnormal Psychology professor assigns you a partnered project surrounding your greatest fears. Lucky for you, your partner just so happens to be a cute boy named Min Yoongi.

Pairing: Min Yoongi x Reader

Genre: Underground Rapper! Yoongi, Soft!!! Yoongi, Fluff!!!, College! Yoongi, Sub! Yoongi

Word Count: 10.1k ( this is unedited for now)

A/N: hello its 4am and, Im dead inside but, I love soft yoongi so much. I hope this makes you happy :)))) This chapter was really supposed to be about Jimin’s showcase but, there is a lil spice and a whole lot of Suga (ha, get it?) at the end. Please please please let me know what you think, it means the world.

NOTE: ALL BOLDED WORDS INDICATE WHEN CHARACTERS ARE SPEAKING KOREAN

Warnings for this Chapter: overwhelming tension as we wait for the winner of the showcase to be announced, language, alcohol use (stay safe kidz), like an insane amount of fluff and friendship, smut (18+ only plz).

Chapter 15: Park Fairy and Professions

So, you think you can make it out of Yoongi’s studio aka the place where you’ve realized you’re most definitely falling for the one and only Min Yoongi aka Agust D aka THE CUTEST MAN ALIVE???

You can!

Well, barely…

After the conclusion of yet another round of morning sex, you finally pry your greedy hands off of Yoongi’s body and, force yourself to head home to freshen up before Jimin’s show.

Yoongi hadn’t been very fond of the idea but, the logical side of him knew that the two of you couldn’t stay cocooned together forever.

(even though he would have been totally fine with that)

He walked you to your car, flipping Seijin off as he berated him from the front desk and, placed at least 5 shy kisses onto your mouth after opening your car door.

Home boy was thoroughly whipped…

But I mean…so we’re you.

Because, now that you’re sitting on your couch in nothing but your towel, you can’t help but allow a drunken smile to invade your mouth.

While you might have erred on the side of caution a month or two prior, you can’t help but, free fall into the mushy pit of emotion that’s currently taking over your brain.

It’s nothing you can avoid anymore. You’ve been trying for quite some time.

You’re hopelessly, recklessly, falling in-

BROS FOR LYFE (JUNGKOOK): ANNOUNCEMENT: TONIGHT IS MY BOYFRIEND’S, AKA PARK JIMIN’S, AKA PRINCESS JIMJIM’S, AKA THE LOVE OF MY LIFE’S SHOWCASE AND, HIS MAJESTY WOULD LIKE TO INFORM YOU THAT YOU NEED TO BE AT THE PERFORMING SPACE A HALF AN HOUR EARLY TO MAKE SURE YOU GET IN ON TIME. IF YOU FAIL TO COMPLY, I WILL PERSONALLY BEHEAD YOU.

Saved by the bell…

You giggle, your heart warming at Jungkook’s open display of (aggressive) affection.

He’s come along way.

BROS FOR LYFE: I’ll be there! Even though getting beheaded by Jungkook doesn’t sound like a bad way to go…

BROS FOR LYFE (JIMIN): when he sends out death threats for you <333 I can’t wait to see you kookie, I miss you so much. Are you guys staying the night?

BROS FOR LYFE (JUNGKOOK): I’m definitely staying the night. I don’t know what Tae is doing.

BROS FOR LYFE (JUNGKOOK): and given that he ate my leftovers last night, I don’t care what he’s doing :D

BROS FOR LYFE: the ultimate sin

BROS FOR LYFE: tae, I’m surprised you survived through the night…

BROS FOR LYFE (TAEHYUNG): The leftovers were unmarked, aka they were fair game

BROS FOR LYFE (TAEHYUNG): also, yes we’re staying the night but, we have to leave early in the morning because we have finals to study for

BROS FOR LYFE (JUNGKOOK): YOU KNEW THEY WERE MINE

BROS FOR LYFE (JIMIN): kookie never said he missed me back so, he might not have a place to stay tonight -_-

BROS FOR LYFE: valid

BROS FOR LYFE (JUNGKOOK): NOT VALID AT ALL

BROS FOR LYFE (JUNGKOOK): we spent four hours on facetime last night (while Taehyung the Traitor was taking candy (my leftovers) from a baby (me) ) talking about how much we missed eachother

BROS FOR LYFE (JUNGKOOK): I can’t be gross in the main chat but, you know I miss you a lot

BROS FOR LYFE (JIMIN): good point <333 I love u

BROS FOR LYFE (JIMIN): Y/N is Yoongi coming tonight??? I really want to meet him

BROS FOR LYFE (JUNGKOOK): I love you more jagiya

BROS FOR LYFE: *cries in genuine love and happiness for two of my best friends finding that good ol fashion true love*

BROS FOR LYFE: He’s coming <333

BROS FOR LYFE (TAEHYUNG): is he? He’s a cool guy, I feel bad that I didn’t talk to him more but, I got distracted

BROS FOR LYFE: all of you were distracted that night smh but, yeah he’ll be there

BROS FOR LYFE (JUNGKOOK): forgive me; I was confessing my undying love for Jimin

BROS FOR LYFE (JIMIN): and I was trying not to murder the group of co-eds for swarming my man like a bunch of fucking vultures ^-^

BROS FOR LYFE (TAEHYUNG): and I was uh…you know…getting laid

BROS FOR LYFE (JUNGKOOK): see Y/N, Tae has no excuse…

BROS FOR LYFE (JUNGKOOK): he’s just awful :-)

BROS FOR LYFE (TAEHYUNG): you were also getting laid??? At least I actually met Y/N’s new boyfriend

BROS FOR LYFE (JUNGKOOK): excuse you, I was making love…

BROS FOR LYFE (JIMIN): Kookie (◕‿◕✿)

BROS FOR LYFE:  There’s no hard feelings, yoongi and I were unbothered

BROS FOR LYFE: we all got laid that night XD

BROS FOR LYFE (JUNGKOOK): did she just

BROS FOR LYFE (JUNGKOOK): XD us

BROS FOR LYFE (JUNGKOOK): I’m so proud :’’’)

BROS FOR LYFE (JUNGKOOK): we’re getting distracted though

BROS FOR LYFE (JUNGKOOK): tonight is about the one

BROS FOR LYFE (JUNGKOOK): the only

BROS FOR LYFE (JUNGKOOK): Park Jimin

BROS FOR LYFE: True that

BROS FOR LYFE: Park Fairy, we are so excited to see you dance tonight! I already know that you’re going to blow us away but, I am not prepared for how hard I’m going to cry.

BROS FOR LYFE (JIMIN): I hope I make you guys proud, having you there means the world to me

BROS FOR LYFE (JUNGKOOK): hi, can you stop saying nice things? I’m in public and, I don’t need strangers seeing me cry

BROS FOR LYFE (TAEHYUNG): He’s cried twice already…once at the gas station and, once at mcdonalds

BROS FOR LYFE (JUNGKOOK): THEY FORGOT MY BACON

BROS FOR LYFE: Jimin, we’re already so proud of you…like? You’re literally so talented. We’ve been proud since you won the 7th grade talent show. WE WORE MATCHING T-SHIRTS

BROS FOR LYFE (JUNGKOOK): ahhh yes, how could I forget? You made Taemin cry lol

BROS FOR LYFE (JIMIN): NOT ON PURPOSE

BROS FOR LYFE (JIMIN): he was really good

BROS FOR LYFE (JIMIN): I was just…you know…

BROS FOR LYFE (JIMIN): better…

BROS FOR LYFE (TAEHYUNG): isn’t he a pornstar now?

BROS FOR LYFE (JIMIN): is he?!?!

BROS FOR LYFE (JUNGKOOK): can 100% confirm that he is a pornstar

BROS FOR LYFE (JIMIN): -_-

BROS FOR LYFE (JIMIN): how do you know?

BROS FOR LYFE (TAEHYUNG): lmao

BROS FOR LYFE: gtg

BROS FOR LYFE (JUNGKOOK): well this was fun! Love you jagiyaaaa! We’re about to go through a very windy tunnel!

BROS FOR LYFE (JUNGKOOK): underground!

BROS FOR LYFE (JUNGKOOK):  I can’t hear you *static sound*

BROS FOR LYFE: did he just

BROS FOR LYFE: type out…static sound?

BROS FOR LYFE (JIMIN): I’m going to kill him  (◕‿◕✿)

BROS FOR LYFE (TAEHYUNG): lol Jungkook has left the chat. We do have to get back on the road though. We love you guys, see you soon : )

BROS FOR LYFE: Love you guys! Drive safe through all of those windy underground tunnels lol

As usual, a conversation with your best friend’s never ceases to leave a massive smile on your face.

Those three were good for the soul.

There were a few things you’ve been neglecting for the past two days. One of which was currently howling at your feet.

Marizpan is a fickle creature, as most cats are but, she’s exceedingly affectionate during times like these.

Times when she wants something

She rubs her tabby body against your legs to summon your attention and, immediately you oblige, picking her up and placing her on your lap.

“Hi…did you miss me? I was gone for one whole night and, I nearly died without you…” You lament, giggling as she offers a grumble in response, rubbing her head against your hand as you scratch gently behind your ears.

Another howl comes from Marzipan’s throat as she glances anxiously towards the kitchen:

She wants treats…

Of course.

“I can’t believe, after all of these years, that I actually believed you genuinely wanted affection…” You admonish her, smirking fondly as she grumbles again, eyes still trained on the kitchen.

“Fair enough, come on…” You giggle, patting her butt before the two of you stride towards the cupboard.

Marizpan’s insatiable hunger is satiated for now and, upon surveying your living room, you decide to tidy up a bit.

There was quite a bit of nervousness swirling around your stomach at how tonight would go. If Jimin wins his showcase, the odds of him being hired into his dance company of choice would literally skyrocket.

You know that’s his ultimate goal. It has been ever since you met him and, you wanted to see him succeed so badly. Watching Jimin evolve into the dancer he is today has been a truly incredible experience.

All of your friends have become amazing people and, you couldn’t help but smile to yourself at how lucky you are to have them in your life.

Yoongi meeting your friends was kind of a big deal and, you’re trying your best to downplay it. You wanted them to meet at Kappa’s party because, it would have been a less formal setting. In all honesty, you kind of knew that your friends would disappear and do their own thing so, it was a cop out to have them meet there in the first place.

Having them all formally meet on such an important night probably wasn’t the greatest idea but, given that it was Jimin’s suggestion, you figured he was more than ok with it.

There was a gnawing thought in the back of your brain that begins to remind you that the reason you care so much about Yoongi meeting your friends is because well…

You’re in-

Yoongi: Hey, what time should I be there tonight?

The abrupt buzzing on your thigh was a welcome distraction; your incoming texts seem to have impeccable timing.

You: Jungkook said to get there a half hour early so, maybe like 7?

Yikes, the butterflies are in full blown chaos mode and, all Yoongi has done is send you a text.

Yoongi: Ok sounds good.

A few seconds pass before another text comes through.

Yoongi: you left your bra here by the way

You: Ugh I knew I forgot something…

You: Would you mind setting it aside for me? I’ll get it the next time I come over.

The butterflies ricochet uncomfortably in your stomach as you respond with the assumption that you would be coming over again.

Yoongi: ok :-)

Yoongi: thank you for coming to the studio last night

Yoongi: I feel a lot better today

A small smile curves onto your mouth, his little smiley face with the nose are YOU KIDDING ME???

You: anytime <3

You: thank you for trusting me with your emotions; I know that shit isn’t easy.

Yoongi: idk, you make it pretty easy

Yoongi: I gotta keep working but, text me when you’re there so, I can meet up with you guys

Yoongi: have a good day <3

You: I will <3 you too!

Once again, Yoongi has a way of making you feel on top of the world but, saying only a few words. It’s always so genuine, which is why it strikes such a chord in you.

You never understood why people would want to spend all of their free time with one person until you met Yoongi. Obviously, keeping things realistic, you know that isn’t possible. But, you’re fully in that cupcake phase. If you had your way, you’d spend every day with him at this point.

It’s absolutely disgusting.

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

For Jimin’s showcase, your outfit choice was simple: just a patterned dress and, some boots. As Jungkook said, tonight is about the one and only PARK JIMIN.

But, you still wanted to look nice, as this night is so incredibly important.

Taehyung and Jungkook called you earlier in the day to let you know they had made it to Jimin’s apartment. Jimin, of course, had already left for the showcase to warm up and, get into his costume.

Yoongi had also texted you 10 minutes ago letting you know that he was leaving his house and, at that, your stomach had swirled once again with excitement.

As you’ve done so many times before, you bid Marzipan an enthusiastic farewell which, of course, isn’t reciprocated.

She’s kind of a rude girl.

But, anyway, off you go.

The ride to your university is longer than usual due to an unscheduled stop at a nearby station but, you make it to the center of campus in less than 20 minutes.

The school is swarming with students, which is obviously unusual for this time of day but, the annual showcase is one of the biggest events of the entire year. So big in fact, that there are several media outlets there to cover it.

You can’t be bothered with that kind of excitement because, you’re dealing with a very different kind of excitement that literally explodes in your gut the moment you see him.

Yoongi is standing by the fountain, dressed in a light blue button up, a chocolate brown pair of cuffed chinos, and dress shoes. His faded hair is combed neatly towards the front of his face and, you swear you’re literally going to melt right here, in the middle of campus.

There isn’t a need to feel shy anymore but, you don’t want to make a scene.

Not in public anyway…

“Hey I’m sorry to bother you but, you look so familiar. Do we have like…class together or something?” You inquire casually, resisting the urge to smile as his gummy smile immediately makes an appearance.

He saw you coming but, he chose not to look up from his phone, still holding on to some level of chill.

“Uh no sorry, I’ve never seen you in my life…” He replies, smiling but, not looking up from his phone, his cheeks flushing as he spots your dress out of the corner of his eye.

“So weird…” You muse before, hooking a finger underneath his chin to bring his gaze towards yours, “I feel like I just saw you this morning though…”

Yoongi thinks you look beautiful and, he kind of wants to proclaim it loudly to the entire quad but, of course, that isn’t his style. Instead, he keeps his smile intact: gums and all, and replies.

“Hm actually, now that I’m looking at you, you do look kind of familiar…”

He’s already itching to kiss you; emotions really are a sickness.

“Maybe this will jog your memory…” You murmur before leaning and pressing your lips against his, immediately wishing that there isn’t a crowd of people surrounding you.

Yoongi’s hands come out on instinct to rest on your hips, cursing himself for already missing the feeling of your lips.

“Do you remember me now?” You whisper, pulling away, one of your hands coming up to cover Yoongi’s.

He blushes, nodding wordlessly, still sort of lingering against your lips, “Y-Yeah…”

“WeEELLL hello there! Hi, yes we are here now so please stop being gross!”

You giggle, reluctantly pulling away from Yoongi’s mouth before turning towards the boisterous voice.  

Jungkook and Taehyung are approaching from the huge crowd of people and, you feel Yoongi tuck into your side obviously nervous. They draw attention from a group of girls also loitering by the fountain and, sometimes you forget how unbelievably attractive your best friends are. Taehyung is wearing a maroon button up that’s casually tucked into a pair of the tightest black pants you’ve ever seen and, Jungkook is dressed in all black (dress shirt and pants) along with a tie that LITERALLY HAS JIMIN’S FACE ON IT.

We love a supportive boyfriend.

“Uhmmmm hi??? Where did you get that tie and, why didn’t you bring any Jimin merch to share with the rest of the class?” You inquire, brows raised in expectation causing Taehyung to snicker and shake his head.

Jungkook scoffs, the two of them now standing right in front of you and Yoongi, “This is exclusive. Boyfriends only. Yoongi-ssi it’s good to see you again…” Jungkook bows his head slightly, shaking Yoongi’s hand and, Yoongi accepts it graciously, bowing his head as well.  

At this, you raise your brows, not expecting Jungkook to whip out the honorifics but, you can tell it pleases Yoongi by the small smile on his lips.  

“It’s good to see you again too, your tie is great.”  

Taehyung follows suit, shaking his hand and bowing before speaking, “Yoongi-ssi do you speak Korean?”  

Your ears perk up at the unfamiliar language and, immediately you see Yoongi smirk, “I do yes, it’s my first language.”

Jungkook snickers, “Interesting. So what I’m hearing is, we now have a way to communicate without Y/N knowing.”

Narrowing your brows, you nudge Yoongi, “What are they saying???”  

Yoongi smirks, turning quickly to press a kiss to your cheek, “Don’t worry about it…”

“Yeah Y/N, the adults are talking…” Taehyung chuckles and, you feel yourself roll your eyes in response.  

“Yah this is going to be fun…” Jungkook chuckles causing the other two men to join him.

With a roll of your eyes and, a groan at the back of your throat you, slide your hand down Yoongi’s forearm before interlocking your fingers with his, “You guys suck...”  

Yoongi thinks he’s going to melt due to the fact that you are now holding his hand but, he plays it off by snickering along with your friends.  

You don’t miss the way his thumb runs over the back of your knuckles whilst he still maintains the smirk on his face, “Did you not know that you’re best friends spoke Korean?”  

“Obviously I knew but, they only ever speak it at their parent’s house. I didn’t think they’d use it for mischief...” You grumble, nudging Jungkook as he wraps his arm around you, leading all of you towards the performance space.  

“How else do you expect us to intimidate your new boyfriend? If we said it in English, you’d know and ruin all the fun.” Kook explains, very matter of factly, still smirking as he keeps Yoongi and Taehyung entertained.  

“Excuse you, I don’t ruin the fun, now you’re just spreading lies...” You admonish, nudging Jungkook even harder, swaying slightly before leaning into Yoongi for support  

“You would ruin this specific type of fun.” Taehyung corrects, “we have to make sure Yoongi is a certified Bro...”  

“A certified Bro?” Yoongi inquires, brows furrowed in confusion.

Taehyung’s statement and Yoongi’s subsequent confusion make you giggle and, you nod to your cell phone in response, “We made a group chat on Discord like 7 years ago called Bros for Life and, we’ve kept the same name ever since so, that’s how we refer to each other…”

With a nod, Yoongi acknowledges your explanation, thinking it over before turning to Taehyung as the four of you walk closer and closer towards the entrance, “What are the qualifications to becoming a bro?”

Jungkook snickers as your face falls once again, “You’re off to a great start Yoongi-ssi, your willingness to annoy Y/N is impressive.”

Yoongi chuckles, nodding and, although your curiosity is eating you alive and, you want to smack Jungkook for enjoying it so much, you feel warmth blooming in your chest as you see Yoongi interact with your best friends.  

Also, hearing Yoongi speak Korean is…you know…hot.

“You speak in a dialect too, which makes you cooler, where are you from?” Taehyung fishes out his wallet, pulling four tickets out as you approach the beginning of the line.  

“Daegu, you sound like you’re from Gyeongsang too…”  

You recognize the word ‘Daegu’ from his otherwise mystery sentence and, you come to the conclusion that they are likely asking Yoongi where he’s from.  

Taehyung’s face goes wide with excitement, slapping Yoongi on the back a bit too hard, “Yahhh I am, I left when I was ten. Y/N your man is doing well so far, we’re from the same area back home.”

The end of Taehyung’s sentence reaches your ears and, you turn towards Yoongi to catch the blush on his cheeks.   

‘Your man’ Yoongi thinks, he likes the sound of that.

“Oh yeah that’s right Tae, I forgot you were from Daegu too...look at you guys, having things in common already…” You smile, averting your gaze towards the entrance to the auditorium.

It’s been awhile since you’ve seen Jimin dance. You’d gone to a smaller showcase earlier in the year and, although it was fucking fantastic, you have a feeling that whatever you’re about to experience is going to blow you away.

“Tickets?” A chipper voice draws your attention as the female student extends her hand towards your group.

Taehyung gives her a polite smile before handing over the tickets and, upon checking them out the girl’s face seems to light up.

“Sorry but, are you guys here for Park Jimin?”

You and Yoongi glance at eachother before Jungkook pipes up, “The one and only…he’s my boyfriend…”

Jungkook isn’t one for talking to strangers so, the fact that he is so willing to announce his relationship to this unsuspecting girl is kind of cute.

The girl smiles, her cheeks flushing a bit as she nods, “Oh well…congratulations um, I was just asking because, Mr. Park has a reserved seating area at the front of the auditorium. He also instructed me to tell you that he loves you very much and, if I see Jungkook, which I’m assuming you’re Jungkook…” She laughs and, gestures to Jungkook, “…to tell him that…” She pulls a piece of notebook paper from her pocket, reading intently, “ ‘ To my Kookie Monster, if you aren’t wearing anything with my face on it, I will probably die of a broken heart also, you look really hot, I can’t wait to let you hit it from the back later, lots of kisses, Love your little Mochi…”

The letter causes a great flush to come over Jungkook’s cheeks as  he desperately wishes Jimin had even an ounce of shame. You and Tae are in a full blown fit of laughter that Yoongi actually joins at some point but, not without blushing first.  

“Anyway…” The girl giggles, ripping off a portion of your tickets before gesturing to a tall man with a headset, “Soobin will take you to your seats, enjoy the show…”

“Oh he will…” You tease, your laughter still dying down as Jungkook audibly groans, trudging behind you like the angsty teen he really is.

“Shut uuuuuup.” He grumbles which only fuels the teasing more.

“Yah, Kookie Monster really? I thought you guys were Jeon-Z and Jimyonce?” Tae jests, pinching Jungkook’s arm.

He shrugs off Taehyung’s touch, a smile threatening his lips because, while yes it was pretty embarrassing, Jungkook secretly enjoys the attention.  

“We still are…” He affirms before, an uncharacteristic smirk comes over his lips, “…that’s just what he calls me in bed…”

At this, your brows go up but, Jungkook just keeps walking, pushing playfully past Tae who also sports your same astonish expression.

“Kookie monster is a weird sex name…” Taehyung murmurs in your ear whilst attempting to following Jungkook to your seats.

You giggle, shrugging your shoulders before subtly pulling Yoongi a little closer to you, knowing he gets nervous in larger crowds, “Don’t kink shame them, they are young and in love…”

“That’s no excuse.” Taehyung smirks, shaking his head as Jungkook proudly takes his seat front and center, frantically waving the rest of you over.

Still smiling fondly at your friend, you turn towards Yoongi, only to find that he’s already looking in your direction.

“Are you ok? I’m sorry, I didn’t even think about the crowd…”

Yoongi just smiles ( :] ), shaking his head, “No need to be sorry, I’m good…”

You raise his hand, pressing a kiss to the backs of his knuckles, which of course makes him want to keel over and die in the middle of the performance space.

“Ok good, let me know…” You assure him as the two of you sit down, the bustling of the room growing increasing louder as more and more people file in.  

Yoongi nods, still smiling fondly at you before, his dark eyes flit towards the stage. What you don’t notice is the quickening of his heart, which occurs every time you do anything remotely endearing.

This, unluckily for him, is very often.

As the room begins to settle, you see Jungkook pull out his camera, puttering around with the settings to make sure everything is ready for Jimin’s performance. The nerves bubbling in your stomach begin to grow, knowing full well that your best friend is backstage getting ready to put on the show of his life.  

You notice the various talent scouts around the space, stiff looking people nursing clipboards between their hands and, a panel of judges at the center of the room, looking just as pedantic.

“What number is he?” Taehyung leans over Jungkook to whisper to you but, Jungkook pipes up before you have the chance to speak.

“18. It’s his lucky number…” He nods with his response, his dark eyes eagerly scanning the stage.

You and Tae smile fondly at him before glancing knowingly at one another.  

Jungkook looked nervous, probably more nervous than you’ve ever seen Jimin. He’s likely spent many nights speaking with Jimin about the importance of this night and, Jungkook being the supportive, loving person he is, wants nothing more than to see his boyfriend succeed.  

“I think Jimin said there are 20 dancers in his category and, then a short deliberation period before they announce the winner.”  You affirm, patting Jungkook’s thigh, which has been bouncing up and down for the past few minutes, “Are you ok?”

He glances at you, nodding, his eyes holding a bit of apprehension, “Yeah, I’m just nervous for him. I know he’s going to be amazing but, I just want them to know that..” He nods to the panel of judges assigned with essentially sealing Jimin’s fate as a professional dancer, “He told me that he’s been promised so many things if he wins, like contracts and stuff, it’s just really important that he wins. I don’t know what would happen if he didn’t…I just want them to see how amazing he is…”

Jungkook’s concerns are mumbled in such a way that indicates he only wants you to hear them, not wanting to appear nervous to the rest of the crowd.  

“It would be impossible for them not to see how amazing he is. He’s going to light up the entire room, you know he will…” You smile, rubbing Jungkook’s thigh gently and, he leans into you, placing his head on yours momentarily before turning and placing a quick kiss on top of your head.

“I know, I know, thank you…he’s going to crush these amateurs….” He mutters into your hair, causing you to giggle at his brashness.  

“Into smithereens…”  

With a grin, Jungkook pulls away, trying to reign in all of his difficult emotions as the lights around the room begin to dim.  

The noise lingering around the room comes to a complete halt as the host for the evening meanders onto the stage. Dressed in a bright pink suit, you decide that he looks vaguely familiar but, you can’t quite place his face.

“Good evening ladies and gentleman, welcome to the 10th annual Crystal Cornucopia, the nation’s leading collegiate dance showcase. I’m your host for the evening, Kim Jong-in but, most of you probably know me as Kai. It’s pleasure to be back here on the 10th anniversary of this amazing event that launched my career not too long ago.” He smiles brilliantly at the crowd as applause erupts at the end of is statement.  

Ah yes, you remember now. Kai was an alumni of your university who subsequently actually lost to Jimin during Jimin’s freshman year showcase. However, things apparently worked out for him because, according to Jimin, Kai went on to join a very prestigious dance company after graduation. Knowing this gave you some comfort because, although Jimin losing the showcase was unlikely, it was still possible.  

“We have 50 incredible dancers tonight from three of my favorite styles.” Kai continues, adjusting the shiny lapels of his suit, “20 amazing contemporary performers, 20 hip-hop performers and, 5 stunning pairs of ballroom dancers.”

“Tonight, not only do we get to witness months of hard work and dedication but, we also get to witness the championing of the year’s best collegiate dancer.”  

At his words, the crowd cheers again, and you smile at the thought of your best friend twirling on stage to receive his much deserved trophy.

Kai continues his intro speech, giving the room a rundown on basic etiquette and, instructions for meeting with the dancers after the show.  

“First up is June Lee!”  

The hip hop category is first and with it, comes a lot of excitement and, older members of the crowd shooting disappointing glances at the stage.  

During a small set-up break between performers, you lean over to Yoongi, who seems to be enjoying himself, “Is Hoseok performing tonight?”

Yoongi smirks and shakes his head, “I told him when he transferred that he should sign up but he said, and I quote, ‘hyung dance competitions are way too mainstream and besides,  they would ban me immediately for being too sexy on stage.’ “

You laugh quietly, leaning into him as you do, “Fair enough, that’s why I didn’t join too, you know, cause it’s too mainstream or whatever…”

He raises his brows at that, “Oh yeah? That’s why you’re not in the competition?”

You attempt to get a straight face and a quiet voice as you reply, “Definitely yeah…I would have given Jimin a run for his money…”

Before Yoongi has a chance to return your banter, Jungkook casually turns to you and whispers, “Stop lying to your boyfriend Y/N, trust is the most important thing in a relationship.”

Whilst you gawk at him, Yoongi erupts in a quieter version of his rickety laughter and, you’re actually happy Jungkook is telling jokes, even if it’s at your expense. 

“Why would you expose me like that? I thought we were friends….” You lament, face full of mock offense as the two men continue chuckling.  

The chatter once again dies down as the next performer enters the stage.

Although you were thoroughly enjoying the performances as they were incredible, you were only there for one reason and, that reason was:

Park fucking Jimin.  

“Up next, we have three time national champion, Park Jimin, number 18!” Kai’s voice echoes throughout the room and, your stomach literally drops as the curtains are pulled open to reveal Jimin’s set.  

Several dancers had mini set-ups and, if you remembered correctly, they only had 30 seconds to put up and take down their props; Jimin had been stressing out over whether or not he’d be able to do it.

Of course, he pulled it off.

Your breath catches in your throat as soft periwinkle and yellow lights illuminate the stage revealing Jimin curled up inside a shiny looking bubble filled with flowers. His pink hair is ruffled playfully atop his head as his pearlescent lycra suit clings to his figure. Only, it’s not just the suit this time, he’s also sporting a diamond choker, paired with diamond earrings and, perhaps the most stunning addition of all, are the beautiful fairy wings adorning his back.

“Park Fairy…” You whisper, trying to control the massive smile that’s taking over your lips. Yoongi squeezes your hand encouragingly, knowing how emotional this moment is for you.

Jimin looks up at the top of the bubble as his song starts playing, it’s a song called Serendipity and, its one of Jimin’s favorites. As he touches the bubble, it seems to curl away and disappear around him, allowing him to move freely about the stage.  

And move freely he does, Jimin takes the stage gently and, then all at once. Twirling and twisting, hitting every single move perfectly, smiling brilliantly as he does, relishing in the attention the audience is giving him.  

“He’s so beautiful…”  

The unfamiliar words draw your attention for just a moment as you take in the sight of Jungkook crying beside you, adoration pouring out from his smoothed out expression. You don’t know what he said but, you lace your fingers with his anyway and, he obliges quickly without taking his eyes off of the stage. Taehyung isn’t doing much better but, he’s keeping it together for the sake of filming the performance for Jungkook.  

Your attention is pulled back to the stage as you catch Jimin leaping into the air before intentionally collapsing back to the ground, arching his back as he does. His movements, his expressions; everything about his performance is the epitome of beauty and elegance.  

Jimin’s dance seems to be about a fairy taking flight for the first time, given that he acted unsure in the beginning and, is now leaping and bounding across the stage. His expression grows softer and softer as he twirls to the bubble to grasp at a single pink rose.  

“Let me love, let me love you…”  

The song chimes behind him as he rushes to the front of the stage, his eyes glossy as he meets Jungkook’s loving gaze.

“Let me love, let me love you…”

Jimin mouths the words as he does his final move and, with the conclusion of his dance, he tosses the flower into Jungkook’s lap, which of course he catches with one hand, laughing lightly as he does, despite his tears not slowing.  

Jimin smiles softly, glancing between the three of you and, you can tell he’s reigning in his own emotions as he takes a deep bow for the audience.

The four of you stand up along with the rest of the room and, clap until your hands are sore. As you take your seats, Jungkook pulls you into a tight embrace, tucking his face into your neck.  

“He did so good, oh my god he did so good…” He whispers, still practically sobbing and, Tae sends another knowing smile your way, wiping his own tears with the back of his hand.

“Park fucking Jimin...” You affirm, smiling through your own tears as you rub a hand over Jungkook’s back, kissing the side of his head.

Sniffling, Jungkook pulls away, chuckling and shaking his head as he wipes his tears. His face is overcome with emotion, consumed with love for his boyfriend.  

“I feel bad for anyone who has to follow that...holy shit...” Tae chuckles, sniffling whilst placing a hand on Jungkook’s shoulder.

The two of you agree with him and its then you notice how quiet Yoongi is being, quickly turning towards him, wiping the last bit of tears lingering in your eyes.  

But of course, ever the collected one, Yoongi merely smiles, his thumb coming out to brush underneath your right eye, collecting another tear, “You’ve gone soft Y/L/N...”

You know he’s joking but, you snap your teeth at him anyway, a move that causes him to snicker and jerk his hand away, “Shut up.”

“Easy...easy...” He admonishes, but softness quickly returns to his eyes, “he was amazing. Definitely the best dancer I’ve ever seen.”

“Damn right he is.” Jungkook pipes up, still crying but, it’s much less intense and, his demeanor causes the three of you to chuckle fondly.  

“Be nice to me, I’m fragile...” You grumble, pouting your lips and, Yoongi, having never seen you really pout before, thinks that he’s going to explode.  

“C’mere...” Is all he says though because, you know, he’s gotta keep it low key but, he lifts his arm, encouraging you to huddle him next to him for the remainder of the show. “I’ll hold you until it’s over, since you’re so fragile.”

And of course, you oblige, smiling triumphantly as you snuggle up next to him.  

Tae and Jungkook smirk knowingly at eachother now and, while a large part of them really wants to tease you, they can’t exactly ignore how happy they are for you.  

You’ve never had anything like this before and, they know it.  

The rest of the show passes by fairly quickly but, the same couldn’t be said about the period of the judge’s deliberation...

“Oh my god are they done yet?????” Jungkook whines, slumping back against his seat.

Taehyung chuckles, patting his shoulder reassuringly, trying to deny his own nervous feelings, “Relax Kook, I’m sure they’re almost done, it's been awhile.”

“Awhile?” He bolsters, eyes widening as he gestures wildly to the backstage entrance, “It’s been a million years, are they trying to give me a heart attack?”

You’ve taken solace in Yoongi’s side, playing with his fingers, feeling soft as heck, the usual.

“I can’t imagine how Jimin must be feeling right now, he’s probably so nervous.” You murmur to Yoongi, not wanting to rile up Jungkook anymore.

Yoongi’s free hand rubs your shoulder tenderly, his chocolate eyes riddled with concern, “I know, I feel for him. It will be worth it when he wins the whole thing though.”

A smile pops onto your mouth, as you cuddle closer to him, selfishly wishing the two of you were curled up in bed together, instead of awkwardly on two theater seats.  

“I can’t wait to see the look on his face Yoongi...when he wins, he deserves it so much...” Your voice is even lower now, smiling gently at the thought of it, excitement stirring in your lower stomach.

“You’re a really good friend to him...” He muses, still rubbing your shoulder, “wait I think someone is coming out_”

You don’t have the time to react to Yoongi’s comment because, the lights are up and performers are flooding the stage. It only takes a second for you to spot the man of the hour: Park Fairy, IRL. After knowing Jimin for so long, you can tell he’s nervous; his plump is tucked between his teeth, the normally soft shape of his eyes are drawn tight with tension but, he still takes a moment to look towards the four of you to send a watery smile and, a small wave your way.

Jungkook tears up all over again mouthing ‘i love you’ in his direction, which causes Jimin’s thin smile to illuminate a little more as he mouth’s the same three words back to him.  

This was it.

Four years of work all leading up to this moment.  

You can feel your heartbeat berating the underside of your sternum as Kai takes his place at the center of the stage.  

“Hello everyone! Are we excited to hear who the winner will be?” He cheers, the audience reciprocating but, the tension in the room is clear. “The judges appreciate your patience as they had a lot of amazing performers to evaluate tonight but, they have just given me this golden envelope with their decision so without further ado...”

Kai opens the golden envelope, his eyes widening slightly as he sees the results and, at this point Jungkook has locked your hand in a vice grip, doing the same thing to Tae’s other hand, his body literally shaking with nerves.

“Ladies and gentleman, tonight you are witnessing history...” He begins, glancing towards the performers before finally revealing the winner, “because tonight, Park Jimin will become the ONLY collegiate dancer to win the Crystal Cornucopia FOUR YEARS IN A ROW.”

Holy

Fucking

Shit

“LETS FUCKING GET IT!!!!” Jungkook bellows and, thankfully he is mostly drowned out by the crowd as you also jump to your feet.

“OH MY GOD YES!!”  

“JIMINIE!!! YESS!”  

You drag Yoongi up as the entire theater rises to their feet.  

The room is going wild.

And Jimin, well, he’s sporting the expression you hope he would. He’s beaming, he’s teary eyed and, shaky as he stumbles toward Kai, graciously accepting the trophy before bowing towards the crowd.  

He did it, he fucking did it.  

Park Fucking Jimin

FOUR TIME NATIONAL COLLEGIATE CHAMPION.

You had never been more proud.

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

“My baby!!!”  

Jimin’s twinkling voice fills the lobby as he rushes out in his street clothes, his fairy wings sticking out of the duffel bag on his shoulder.

Jungkook immediately breaks out in a huge smile, running towards him to catch a leaping Jimin in his arms.  

They kiss for a moment, crying and smile into eachother’s mouths, as Jungkook bounces with his boyfriend in his arms.

“I’m so proud of you my love, I knew you’d do it, you’re so amazing yeah? You know that right? I love you so much...”  

Before you can ask the content of Jungkook’s proclamation, Yoongi’s raspy voice can be heard beside you:

“I’m so proud of you my love.”

“I knew you’d do it.”

“You’re so amazing yeah? You know that right?”

“I love you so much.”

You know he’s only translating for you but, at the last sentence you turn towards him, catching the softness in his eyes.

Well fuck, that definitely didn’t sound like a translation.

Yoongi smiles sheepishly but, Jimin is already bounding into you, pulling you into the kind of hug that only Jimin can give.  

Your attention is pulled towards him, squeezing your arms around his shoulders, kissing his cheek over and over, “PARK FAIRY??? REALLY??? DO YOU HAVE NO REGARD FOR MY FEELINGS???”

He snickers, overjoyed by the events of the evening, hugging you just as tightly, “How else would I pay homage to my best friend hm? I did a theme for Tae last year and, I let Jungkook plow me anytime he wants so, how else would I repay you???”  

The ridiculousness of his statement thankfully doesn’t travel past your ear lest turning Jungkook into a pile of dust.

Sniffling, you pull back, cupping his beautiful face in your hands, “I’m so fucking proud of you...you did it Minnie, you won.”

Jimin tears up again, smiling at you whilst he nods, “I’m so happy I made you guys proud, it’s all I want...”

Taehyung approaches then, placing a fat kiss on Jimin’s cheek, “Good, then we don’t have to get you anything for Christmas then...”

His voice is paper thin though, you can tell he’s trying not to cry.

“TAE...” Jimin exclaims, turning to the side to jump at his other best friend.

Taehyung’s boxy smile makes an appearance then, wrapping Jimin in a bear hug.

“We’re so proud of you...”  

Fondness is the only thing flowing through your veins until Jungkook butts in, flustered by the lack of attention.

“Ok, I want him back now thank you, any other physical contact will cost you $60,000 an hour...” He grumbles, tucking Jimin back into his grasp.

Jimin accepts it though, relishing in the attention, “Yahh are you whoring me out now?”  

Jungkook smirks, kissing his cheek, “Mmm you’re right, I’d never share this body...”

Taehyung’s face turns up in disgust and, Yoongi shakes his head, chuckling to himself at the sight of you growing flustered for information.

“Trust me, you don’t want to know this one...”

Before Jimin and Jungkook fuck in the middle of the lobby, Jimin’s face lights up with realization, “Oh my god Yoongi, I’m so sorry.”

He rushes over, pulling Yoongi in for a hug, smiling sweetly at him, “It’s so nice to meet you, thank you for coming...”

Yoongi blushes of course but, he reciprocates the hug, “Thank you for having me, your performance was amazing and, uh, we’ve met before actually...”

Jimin’s face wrinkles in confusion as he pulls away, leaving his hands on Yoongi’s shoulders, “Really? When?”

The memory comes back to you too,  a newly crowned Agust D, Jimin hanging out of a taxi cab....

“Outside of Glacier, you might not remember though...you were um...”

“...hammered.” You giggle, finishing Yoongi’s sentenc.

“Ohhhh that’s right, shit I’m sorry Yoongi...” Jimin chuckles.

He waves him off, “No worries, we’ve all been there, it’s nice to meet you again. Congratulations on your win...”

Jungkook quickly pulls Jimin back towards him, carrying his duffle bag on his shoulder.

“Thank you Yoongi. It means a lot that you came.” He smiles, kissing Jungkook’s cheek before eagerly looking towards the door, “Let’s get out of here, the dancing queen needs to EAT!”

And with that, the rest of you chuckle, leaving the performance space feeling on top of the world

----------

Jungkook had made reservations at a fancy KBBQ place downtown but, after several rounds of meat and Soju, Yoongi had insisted on paying.

The dinner went exceptionally well, Yoongi had continued to click with your friends, their inhibitions loosening up with a bit of alcohol. Jungkook and Jimin were hammered by the end of it but, Taehyung stayed sober enough to drive them home. Oddly enough though, Yoongi only had two shots of Soju. You know Yoongi doesn’t drink all the time but, according to him, he really enjoys drinking. However, you decide it really isn't that important so whilst waving goodbye to all of your amazing friends, you decide to drop it.

Yoongi’s long fingers lace with yours, pulling you close to him in an attempt to shield you from the cold, “Aren’t you freezing?”

You smile, graciously accepting his touch as you nuzzle into his chest, “Yeah I am, I should have checked the weather, or brought a jacket...”

“Mhm...you’re gonna get sick...” He scolds playfully, rubbing his hands up and down your arms to keep you warm, “were you gonna go home after this?”

A smirk is placed against Yoongi’s chest, “I don’t knowww...why?

He chuckles at your tone before, untucking your face from his chest, smoothing a thumb over your cheek, “Come sleep in my bed with me.”

The alcohol and meat has roughed up his voice a bit and, that paired with his slightly suggestive expression has you feeling some type a way.

“Is that code for something?”

Yoongi just smirks, leaning over to whisper in your ear, “It’s code for: I miss you in my bed...you can take that however you want...”

Forward Yoongi isn’t something you’re used to but, holy shit, you’re not complaining.  

A kiss is placed on Yoongi’s lips and, he surprises you by catching your lower lip between his teeth, his big hands sliding over your hips to rest at your lower back. He smirks into your mouth before releasing it, still lingering into the kiss. There is a catch in your breath but, Yoongi doesn’t comment on it-

He just lets it go straight to his dick.

“Are you good to drive?” You whisper against his chin before placing a kiss there, keeping your lips on his skin as he responds.

“Yeah, I’m good, I didn’t drink that much...”  

His voice has also dropped to a whisper, not able to ignore the way your lips make him feel.

“Will you...” You begin, slowly trailing your lips down over his neck, relishing in the way he shivers for you, “take me home with you then?

Neither one of you can pinpoint what has you so riled up, the only thing you know is that you’re thankful you’re in a deserted part of the parking structure.

Yoongi’s head leans back against the side of his car now, his teeth gnawing on his lower lip, “Don’t stop...”

“Don't stop?” You inquire teasingly, brushing your lips against the sensitive skin of his neck, placing fluttering kisses down over his Adams apple, “But Yoongi, we’re in public...”

His grip tightens on your hips, pulling you closer to him as his eyes flutter shut, “Y-yeah I know but, my car has tinted windows...”

Yoongi is full of surprises tonight and, although it’s a huge part of your character to wonder why, the night last few months have been the best of your life so, maybe it’s time to just go with the flow.

“I remember...” You smirk still, recalling the first time you and Yoongi were ever intimate.

With his eyes still closed and, your lips still on his neck, he smirks, his hands sliding down the length of your outer thighs before his fingertips barely brush the skin at the bottom of your dress, “I’d hope so, I’ve never gotten over the image of you coming all over my lap...”

The movements of your lips, halt as your breath catches in your throat, Yoongi’s wanton mouth and fingertips going straight to your core.  

“ ‘may I sit Min Yoongi?’ ‘May I ride you Min Yoongi?’ I almost came in my jeans for you, right then and there. But I’m so glad I didn’t.” He continues, his fingertips trailing up further and further, tickling at the tender skin of your bikini line, brushing over the bottom of your panties.

“I could have gotten you hard again...”  You offer, your breathing picking up slightly when his fingers brush the top of your pussy. Yoongi open his eyes now, catching your gaze in his dark one, lips still quirked in a smirk.

“It wouldn’t have been the same though...I wouldn’t have came so hard for you a second time,” He insists, leaning in towards your mouth, “and you deserve everything I’ve got don’t you? Deserve anything you want...”

It’s safe to say that Yoongi’s dirty talking is obliterating you slowly and painfully, his eager fingers and, slight boost in confidence turning you on more than you’d expect.

But, he still knows his place and, if he’s forgotten it, you have no issue reminding him...

Two can play at this game.

“Baby?” You practically coo, holding his gaze as long it takes for you to brush your lips against his, your legs spreading slightly to encourage his touch, “you’re making me wet...”

Yoongi feels his dick twitch inside of his pants at the tender tone of your voice and, that paired with the access to the soft skin of your inner thighs is enough to make him swell painfully against the seam.

“Y-yeah? Really?” He’s a little breathless himself, the bit of smugness he has is still lingering but, his desire for you, his desire to let you take control is growing stronger. With a finger curved underneath your chin, he brings your lips a little closer, “Can I make you wetter?”

He seals his request with a plush kiss against your mouth, his hands coming out from underneath your dress to hold onto your hips once again. You’re nodding as the two of you kiss at one another, not quite able to think of a witty response, not with Yoongi being this bold.  

Without breaking the kiss, Yoongi uses the sensor on his keys to unlock his car, which of course doesn’t work until after the 7th try.

“Piece of shit.” Yoongi chuckles and, you follow suit, leaning into him still even as he opens the door to his backseat, ushering you inside.

His car is freezing so, you’re thankful when he starts the engine and, gets the heater running. Although, you’re more thankful when he returns to the backseat and, places the warmth of his body over yours.

“I’m sorry it’s so cold, it will warm up in a second...” He regrets his split decision to bring you in here, not wanting you to be uncomfortable while he takes care of you.

“It’s ok, you’re warm.” You whisper, smiling and kissing him harder, your hands pulling his body completely over yours. Yoongi just grins, his hands resuming their place on your thighs, squeezing gently at the flesh there.

He takes his time, unwinding you slowly, kissing around the curve of your jaw, suckling and nibbling at your skin, wandering fingers slowly pushing your dress over your hips. He kisses down your throat now and, you feel him hesitate a moment before taking your flesh between his teeth, groaning lightly into your neck. The motion sends your hands out in front of you to brace against his shoulders and, it hurts but you have to admit, you like the pain.  

“So pretty for me...”  

Your lips part as you hear his native tongue tumble past his lips, the tone sultry and unmistakably Yoongi but, his accent makes him sound slightly unfamiliar.  

You don’t want him to stop talking.  

“I think about this all the time...” He’s careful to place a few soothing kisses over the mark he left, nuzzling against the base of your neck before continuing his descent down your body, “kissing you everywhere...from head to toe...tasting you, drowning in you...”

You feel hypnotized, completely captivated by the sound of Yoongi’s voice: raspy and sounding like the bottom of the ocean. The only thing you can do is keep your hands on him, touching over his body gently to insure him that you’re letting him take the lead.

Your dress has been pushed up for a moment but, Yoongi is just now taking the time to take in the sight of your panties: tart cherry red and made entirely of lace.  It’s safe to say, you’d hoped this moment would come when you slipped them on this afternoon and, by the pained look on Yoongi’s face, you feel you’ve made the right choice.

“You really don’t let a man breathe do you?” He’s back to English as he continues pushing your dress up your body until you’re able to lean up and, push it over your head, revealing the matching bra to go with your panties.  

“Not when my man likes getting choked so much...” You smirk, running your fingers through his hair and, tugging on it a little.

Yoongi melts at the sensation, groaning again before burying his face in your chest, nipping playfully at the skin there, “Oh she’s calling me her man now huh? Playing dirty...knowing that shit makes me weak...knowing that I’d give anything to be hers...”

He keeps his Korean to himself and, uses English to convey a much less intense response, “Your man?”

A rather coy smile takes it’s spot on your mouth but, despite your sudden nerves you nod anyway, rubbing a thumb over the apple of Yoongi’s cheek, “My man...”

Yoongi feels his heart threaten to explode in his chest at your genuine expression. Leaning down, he captures your lips once more before nudging your nose and, pulling away slightly, “I swear I could die happy right now, just looking at you, you have no idea what you do to me...”

“Is that ok?” You check, obviously unsure what he’s actually responding.

You’re definitely going to finish your Korean lessons, that’s for sure.

Yoongi is kissing back down your bottom again, paying special attention to the curves and dips of your body, his hands making their way to the sides of your underwear, “More than ok...”

He doesn’t trust an eloquent response right now because, he’s too focused on his main objective: making you wetter.

“You’re so handsome...” You muse, playing with the ends of his hair, encouraging him to continue exploring, “I swear there is no other guy out there that can make me wet just from looking at them but, here you are, my man, ruining my good panties...”

If you aren’t mistaken, you think you hear a low growl at the back of his throat but, there is no time to asses because, the next thing you know, you feel Yoongi pulling down your underwear, “Do you want me dead is that it? Do you want me to fall apart?” He spreads your legs, allowing the cool air of the car to hit your center, which is swollen and practically dripping. “Because I would...for you. I’d break into tiny little pieces but right now_” An almost mischievous glint takes over his eyes as he begins kissing down the middle of your stomach, letting his lips and soft breath replace your skin with goosebumps. He stops right over the lips of your pussy, the warmth of his breath fueling the throbbing of your neglected clit, “...its your turn to fall apart...” He kitten licks over your lips before smirking and, adding_ “on my fucking tongue...”

Using his fingers to spread your lips open, Yoongi begins placing teasing licks all over your clit, kissing and sucking and, teasing the fuck out of your aching cunt. He’s eating you out like he’s never tasted anything sweeter, like it’s only thing he’ll ever eat. It’s sending you into a shockwave of pleasure, your nipples hardening against your bra painfully but, Yoongi’s oral skills literally fuck with your ability to remove it yourself.  

He makes an ‘O’ with his lips, suckling gently at your clit, increasing the pressure over the next minute or so, one his fingers teasing at your dripping entrance.  

“Does it feel good baby? Am I eating it right?” He coos, sucking on your clit three harsh times in succession, each bit of suction causing your toes to curl.  

“Mhm...your mouth Yoongi...oh god_” You breathe, a moan catching at the end of your sentence, hands reaching down to find something to grab onto.

Yoongi notices, smirking into your cunt before his hand reaches up to place yours in his hair, “Hurt me...hurt me while I make you cum...”

You quickly oblige, tugging on his brown locks, the stinging pain causing him to whimper into your pussy and, when you see his eyes squeezing shut, you know he’s trying to hold off cumming in his pants.

“Yoongi...I want you...” You whisper, eyes threatening to roll back as he sucks at your clit again.  

Your statement gets to him as it’s not often that the roles between the two of you are switched but, he doesn’t think the power switch does anything for him. It’s more so that he gets to see you being vulnerable for once, it makes him feel like you trust him.

“I’m right here.” He coos, licking up the length of your pussy, savoring the flavor of you.

Tugging at his hair, you shake your head, pleading with him, “Please? Inside...inside of me...”

Yoongi can’t deny you anymore, his emotions starting to get the better of him as he pulls away from your aching center. You don’t waste anytime, sitting up quickly and peeling his shirt off, touching and kissing all over the expanse of his bare chest.

He really is the most beautiful man you’ve ever seen.  

Long fingers comb gently through your hair as he kisses any part of you he can reach: your shoulders, your chest, your cheeks, your ears. Every inch of you.

Unclipping your bra is the last step before Yoongi lays you down on the backseat, placing a kiss on your mouth, “This is the only way I can tell you right now because, I am terrified you don’t feel the same way but, I’ll show you and, you’ll know...” His voice is shaky and, you desperately wish you knew what he was saying, “I’ll fuck you like I love you because I do...I love you Y/N.”

With that, he slides into you, his dick arching perfectly against your g-spot which is already swollen and, sensitive. Your lips connect with Yoongi’s as you settle into the kind of rhythm that isn’t meant for lasting a very long time.  

Through a few moments of soft kisses and, gentle pants, Yoongi leans back, his eyes eagerly scanning over your figure as your first orgasm hits you. He tucks his face into your neck, fucking you through your release, trying to hold off on his own, “Do you know how beautiful you are? I swear I could cum just looking at you...so pretty and so perfect and, you have no fucking clue...”He’s almost whimpering at this point, his hips pumping into you with all he’s got. “That’s why I give it up to you jagiya because, you deserve it. You think I get on my knees for just anyone? Fuck no...just for you...because I love you...”The truth is, the night in the studio had changed him and, the truth is, the main reason he wanted between your thighs tonight was because he realized something: in the midst of all the chaos, seeing you with your friends had been the icing on the cake:

Yoongi is in love with you and, tonight, he wanted to make love to you.  

The pleasure between your second (yes, second) and, final orgasm is so intense that you don’t feel qualified to speak anything else other than Yoongi’s name which, thankfully only pushes him closer and closer to the edge until he’s nearly there.

“Y/N...baby...I’m really close.” He warns, still out of it and placing sloppy kisses all over your face and neck, barely hanging on by a thread.

And you plan on snipping that thread with the one thing you know will make him cum instantly, “Come for me angel...”

With a tightening of his figure, Yoongi spills everything he has inside of you, continuing to kiss all over you as he does, whimpering your name against the rapid beat of your heart.

“I love you...” He whispers shakily before slumping over onto your body, clinging to you as he does.  

Through the heavy breathing and sweet nothings whispered at one another, you wait a beat or two before uttering the one Korean phrase you are whole-heartedly familiar with.

“I love you too”

[thepoppypress]

The Battleline Between Good and Evil (Runs Through the Heart of Every Man)

Chapter 6: 

Harley’s head lolled onto Peter’s shoulder as they settled into one of the comfortable couches in front of the fire. Damian was turned away from both of them, not at all curious about their new guests. There was a suspicious heat to his face, however.

‘Must be the fire,’ he thinks sullenly. Soft growls and barks were heard in the corner as Piper, who had situated with Titus, attacked and viciously gnawed with her blunt puppy teeth at his wagging tail, the Great Dane lazily keeping her entertained.

Bruce sat in an armchair that seemed to shrink with his hulking figure crouched in it. Dick and Jason boxed Peter and Harley into the couch, sitting on both sides of them, Jason to Harley’s side and Dick to Peter’s. Tim sat next to Damian, sipping on his hot beverage. Alfred had excused himself to get two guest rooms and a snack ready.

“You must be quite famished after that catastrophe. Don’t worry one bit. I will be back. Excuse me.”

“So,” Dick said, throwing an arm over Peter’s shoulders, “wanna tell us what that was about?” Tim sat forward in interest.

“Yeah, why did the Joker quite literally crash into Harley’s apartment building?” Peter raised an eyebrow at the slightly taller male.

“How did you know?” Tim smirked smugly, and waved his phone in the air. “You hacked into the security cameras?” The second youngest Wayne shrugged.

“It’s not that hard.” It was Peter this time, who smirked, which threw Tim for a loop.

‘Him and Ned would be great hacking buddies,’ Peter thought, an ache present in his chest when he thought about his best friend. He wondered if he was doing okay in his world, and if he was missing Peter at all.

“Peter?” Tim asked, snapping Peter out of his small head space.

“Yeah,” he said, looking around and realizing that everyone was staring at him, save for Harley who was still leaning against him. “Yeah, sorry, I- uh,” he trailed off, rubbing the back of his neck with the arm Harley wasn’t on, “got a little lost for a second there.”

“That’s okay,” Dick assured gently, “what were you thinking about?” Peter, not turning towards him, answered.

“A world far away from this one.” There was a far away look in his eyes, one that the Wayne siblings did not appreciate. It seemed like it made him too sad for their liking, and with one look sent over Peter’s head, Jason subtly elbowed Harley awake. While it would’ve fooled a normal person, Peter was far from normal. He felt the movement of Harley’s body and he glared at Jason, who’s smile was a tad too innocent. Harley snorted herself awake (adorably, Peter should add) and her head lifted off his shoulder.

“Wha?” The dazed and groggy look in her eyes made Peter turn his glare into a little giggle. The platinum blonde’s head snapped toward the sound and she squealed.

“Puppy!” Her arms lifted over his shoulders and she hugged his neck, smacking a kiss to his cheek. Peter gave her a small smile, ignoring Dick’s pout.

“Hey Harls,” he said softly, knowing that this was likely the start of shock that would turn into another manic episode. It wouldn’t have been the first time it happened, but she seemed to get over quickly last time (as quickly as one can). Harley opened her eyes and observed her surroundings before adopting a fearful look on her face and jumping into Peter’s arms.

Peter tried not to wince when it aggravated his wounds that had yet to heal (he wasn’t a monster, he could still be in pain from a few cuts). Instantly, he patted her back.

“Hey, you’re okay. You’re safe.” Harley squeezed tighter and it seemed like her happy visage was gone, and instead, replaced by remorse.

“I’m so sorry,” she whispered, trembling. Peter’s heart broke for his best friend, not for the first time that night.

“It’s not your fault,” he told her, “it’s your ex’s.” That made Peter think for a bit. A while back, it seemed like Harley knew the Wayne’s and their associates (at this point in time, things had started becoming a bit obvious to Peter about Bruce Wayne’s true career, though many things had stayed the same. The enemies for one, and the intention to protect for another.), which was suspicious to Peter. It led him to the Joker. Harley is a good person and wasn’t likely to get involved with them, if they’re mob bosses in this world.

Even before he knew her personally, he also knew a bit of Harley Quinn’s backstory. Everything started the day she met the Joker. Naturally and even more reasonably, that would be the case here as well. The Joker and Batman are mortal enemies, hence Harley was Bruce’s enemy as well (at least before she got involved with Peter, who had gotten involved with the Wayne syndicate. It made him shiver to address them like that).

“Mr. Wayne?” Bruce’s head turned to show that he had his full attention.

“Bruce, Peter,” he corrected gently, “what is it?”

“How much do you know about the Joker?” A careful look was passed around, one he’s seen being passed between Bucky, Natasha, Clint, and other Avengers who were too observant for their own good. He was sure that he wasn’t supposed to notice but being around those kinds of people, it’s impossible to not pick something up.

“Not much,” a little note of hesitancy was held.

‘He knows more than he’s letting on,’ he thought while gazing at Bruce’s face, ‘Joker is his nemesis. Of course he’d know everything.’ But something about this seemed a bit off putting to Peter.

Batman in this world may be a part of the mob but his priority was still to rid the streets of crime (in his own backwards-ass way), so if Peter needed information, considering that at least some of the Wayne children cared for him, Bruce should be able to give it up. So why wasn’t he?

‘Unless,’ he paused, ‘there’s nothing to give up.’ It’s an angle he should work more. In the meanwhile, he should also start gaining Bruce’s trust.

“Does Commissioner Gordon know anything?”

“He’ll probably know more than I do.”

“Sure. I’ll talk to Barbara and see if I can get his number.”

“We can give it to you,” Dick was quick to rush in. Peter gave him a small smile.

“Thanks Dick, but I think it’d be more appropriate to get it straight from them.”

‘I don’t want to owe you anything,’ he supplied in his own brain while bringing out his phone and shooting a text to his red-headed friend. Once he was done, he noticed that Harley had stopped trembling. Lifting her head from his neck, he saw that she was asleep.

“Actually, I also think that it’s a good time for me and Harley to turn in for the night.” Coincidentally, Alfred came in as he said those words, a couple of ham and egg sandwiches on a silver tray. The smell of light salted eggs and honey ham wafted towards his highly sensitive nose and his stomach rumbled loudly. He hadn’t had much to eat that day. Yet another reason as to why he’ll never be able to fight crime here. No food. There was an awkward pause before those around him burst into laughter. Bruce let out a small chuckle and Damian still had his head turned away. Peter blushed.

‘How embarrassing.’

“We’ll also take those sandwiches to-go please.”

-----

A violent jerk next to him had Peter sitting up with an urgency. Harley gasped, her breath coming out short and fast, and Peter was quick to reach for her shoulder and called out her name, as a reminder of him being there. He didn’t want to startle her into more of a panic than she was already in.

“Harley?” He called, brows furrowed. “Harley? Hey. Harls. I’m here.” His best friend cradled her head in her hands, her shoulders shaking with a jarring consistency that reminded him of his aunt’s when his Uncle Ben had died. He squeezed her shoulder gently and gathered her into his arms. A small sob escaped her and Peter shushed his friend, a comforting hand running up and down her back. “I’m here. I’m here,” he reassured her.

Small sniffles and sobs were pressed into his neck before a watery voice spoke.

“Promise?” There was a hesitant pause from him. Could he really promise?

“Yeah,” he agreed finally, “I promise.” The reward for the obvious answer was Harley snuggling further into his embrace. He promised her. However, actions spoke louder than words. So the question really is, would he be able to keep it?

-----

Peter yawned and trudged downstairs, leaving Harley to sleep in a bit more. The rest of the night was spent contemplating and overthinking until his head hurt while his best friend slept on with the occasional sniffle. Needless to say, he was tired.

“Oh, you’re up!” A chipper voice greeted him at the base of the stairs. He met the blue eyes of his least favorite Wayne at the moment. However, considering this was his house, he shouldn’t disrespect him.

“Yup,” he tried to sound as perky (failing, obviously).

“You know, if you need more rest, you should take all the time you need.”

“Yeah, I would but I have to go to work. I don’t have many sick days yet.” Dick grinned down at him, something he was slowly getting used to.

“Don’t worry about that, my dear! You have the rest of the week off!” If Peter was holding something in his hands, he would’ve dropped it at that moment. He took a small pause in stride to process that statement.

“What do you mean ‘I have the rest of the week off?’” Dick, now walking a little distance in front of Peter, turned around and looked at him weirdly.

“I mean that you have the rest of the week off? Why? Is that weird?” The sweet smile on his face left much to be desired. Peter closed his eyes and took a deep breath. It would take all his patience to deal with this.

“I mean, how, Dick?” An innocent tilt of the head. A bright smile that Peter was sure led people to their ultimate demise before. The feeling of his Spidey Sense coming to life. His shoulders tensed minutely, realizing that there was someone behind him.

“We took care of it for you.” A deep voice said and Peter whirled around to face the head of the Wayne household.

“Mr.-” A stern look stopped him in his tracks. “Bruce,” he amended with a sheepish smile, “what exactly do you mean when you say ‘you took care of it for me?’” The tall man shrugged, a devilish smile on his face. He could see where his first son came to get his charismatic ways.

“We called you in sick.” It was almost as if it wasn’t computing for Peter.

“But I don’t have any sick days saved.” Bruce shrugged again.

“Well, now you do.” That left Peter in dumbfounded silence. Both father and son chuckled at the look on his face (it was a cute one, Dick would assure) before the brown haired boy found his voice again, noting the faint footsteps and feeling of impending danger that approached.

“Do I want to know?”

“Best that you don’t,” another voice said behind him, Tim, he recognized. Peter let his eyes roll back into his head and let it loll back, stretching his neck in the meantime. A series of cracks occurred and Peter let out a sigh of relief.

“Alright, you know what? It’s too early for me to want to know what happened. Maybe after I’ve had coffee or something.” Tim, holding his own coffee, placed a hand over his heart, a little smile on his face.

“A man after my own heart.” Peter peeked out of one eye and decided to tease a bit. He blew a kiss and smiled at the resulting laugh. “Walk with me?” He opened both eyes to see Tim offer an arm to him, the look of a proper gentleman (if that gentleman was as sleep deprived as possible) on his visage. With a grin, he took the arm offered and both men walked through the open door to the dining room. Behind him, he hears Damian’s voice say,

“Father? Why does Grayson have such an insipid look on his face?” It took everything in him to not laugh out loud.

-----

Peter sat in the lounge room of the Wayne’s club, the entire Wayne family around him, save for Damian, Bruce and Jim, because they had other things to do. In his lap was a textbook on advanced quantum physics and the theory of space and time, his brows furrowed in concentration.

As far as he knew, Dr. Strange could travel between worlds and would do so once he knew where Peter was. The balance was important to the good doctor after all. Even then, it didn’t hurt to gain more knowledge about the evidence of the multiverse.

Jason and that redhead from the gym were behind him playing darts, while Dick and Tim watched with amused eyes as the redhead, Roy Harper as Peter had come to know him, beat Jason with relative ease. The second eldest Wayne scowled as the others snickered around him. Another man hung around Tim, seeming the closest to him and Steph.

Yet another black-haired, blue eyed guy, complete with shaggy hair that hung in his eyes and a fade in the back. He wore large, round sunglasses and his ears were pierced severely. He gripped Peter’s hand tightly when they shook, and he introduced himself as Connor, Kon as he insisted Peter call him. His anxiety amped itself up in his presence, and where he was more or less used to the reactions to the Wayne family, he was still cautious.

From his meager knowledge about the DC Universe, he knew Roy Harper as Arsenal, formerly Speedy, Green Arrow’s sidekick, and Kon as Superboy. If Batman and his Robins kept their names here, in the Mafia-verse (as Peter so aptly calls it now), it was likely that they also had the same monikers.

At this point in time, a few days had passed since he had come to stay at Wayne Manor and got acquainted with more people from, what Peter was guessing their shadier dealings. Harley was absent today because she had some things to straighten out. She hadn’t left his side for long since that day but she reluctantly did today and Peter was concerned. He knew his best friend could take care of herself but he couldn’t help but worry.

It was then that he thought about what the last few days brought him. Since he hadn’t really had any time off from work, Steph, Dick and the other Wayne kids took turns showing him around the Manor and around Gotham. It amazed Peter. There was so much more than he realized. They also went to the popularized shopping and club district, spending as much as they wanted.

By they, Peter meant the Wayne’s because he did not have enough money to buy the things sold in that particular part of the city. And he wouldn’t accept any charity, he was clear about that before. Despite that, however, it seemed the Wayne’s didn’t listen. If he said he didn’t need or want anything, they threatened to buy everything in the store. When he finally acquiesced and got something, they insisted that that couldn’t be enough.

“A Wayne entering the store and not buying anything? Preposterous,” Dick said, a grin on his face.

“Yeah. Besides, angel, if we don’t buy anything, it’s bad for business. Rumors would spread.” Feral amusement lit up Jason’s features while Tim smirked in the background, Steph tight to his side. Harley hung off his shoulders, relaxed and obviously having fun. Peter, in the meanwhile, was not.

“BUT WE CAN’T BUY AN ENTIRE STORE’S WORTH OF THINGS!” Damian, leaning onto the counter with a nervous looking cashier, shrugged, eyes sharp and yet, laughing. His voice held some form of enjoyment. This made him sick to his stomach. Is this what rich people did?

“It’s been done before.” There was a moment before Peter exploded.

“WHAT?!” Needless to say, they bought all the merchandise in the store. And then some.

Peter returned to Wayne Manor owning more than he had ever had in his life. A new phone, watch, electronics, wardrobe (after hours and hours of Steph and Dick twirling him this way and that, having him try on things, catering to their whim. The manager was helpless to their wrath, and so was Peter.).

The sudden and faint sound of leather being poked reached his ears, snapping him out of his reverie and he knew that someone had nudged Kon, seeing as he was the only one wearing a leather jacket. A small moment passed before Kon cleared his throat. Peter lifted his head to meet his interested eyes.

“So Peter,” he started. Peter tilted his head.

“Yes Kon?” The lilt in the question paired with large, innocent looking eyes and a sweet smile made Kon blush a bit. He cleared his throat again, aware of the jealous glares that were subtly directed towards him.

“Where are you from?”

“Queens. You?”

“Smallville, Kansas, but I was born somewhere else.”

“Adopted?” Peter asked.

“Something like that. So how’d you get to know the Waynes?” Peter fingered the page of his textbook.

“Through a mutual friend, Slade Wilson. Maybe you know him?” The shocked look on Kon’s face was quite funny and Peter just stopped himself from smiling.

“You know Deathstroke?” Peter shook his flattened hand.

“As a friend, not a business contractor. We met at the bar I work at.” Kon filled out his lips into the shape of an ‘o’ and nodded.

“So then, I suppose you know what he does.” Peter nodded.

“Not the full extent, but vaguely, yes.” An awkward silence fell between them, even with the laughter that surrounded.

“So, what’re you reading about?” Peter lifted his book for him to see the cover. “Advanced Quantum Physics? Smart guy, huh?” Peter lifted one shoulder in a half shrug.

“I mean, not really? I’m just good at this stuff.” Steph snorted, teetering on the back of the couch.

“What a liar. You’re really smart Pete. You should start owning it.” Peter shrugged again and Kon nudged the second youngest Wayne next to him.

“Sounds like you, buddy.” Tim hummed, seeming amused as he watched the interaction between Kon and Peter. The look didn’t leave his face as he stood up and walked over to Peter.

“Speaking of being smart, Peter? Can you help me with this?” The chestnut haired boy quirked an eyebrow, aware of the obvious ploy that was happening and he was nervous about letting it play out.

“Sure. I’m not sure I’ll be of much help, but I’ll try.” Steph cooed, leaning her elbow on her knee and brushing a strand of curly blonde hair out of her pretty face.

“Always our humble boy.” Peter reached over and slapped her knee before she saw it coming, dislodging her arm and making her face plummet towards the ground before she righted herself. She cursed playfully at him as he laughed and walked to join Tim at the long table. A whiteboard was situated at the end of it.

About fifteen minutes later, Tim and Peter had nearly figured out everything that the second youngest Wayne needed help on, Kon and Steph joining (after she finished sulking) at Tim’s side.

“So, I was thinking that this-” Peter pointed to a statistic on a spreadsheet before the sound of something metal bouncing off wood caught his attention. His ears perked up and he could hear Roy and Jason’s voices yelling across the space and footsteps starting to stomp towards him. Suddenly, everything was in slow motion.

His Spidey Sense activated, anticipation gearing his systems as the feeling of anxiety got bigger and bigger and bigger still. The three across from him joined in, their voices creating a cacophony that Peter let sink into the background. The slice of metal through air made him tense his shoulders and with the speed gifted from the spider bite, Peter lifted his hand and caught the object that was hurtling towards him, fingers spanning across the grip, the edge of the dart a mere inch away from his temple.

Everything was no longer in slow motion and his Spidey Sense died down. Footsteps halted and a tense silence hung in the air. Peter looked at the dart that he held in his hands and up to Jason and Roy, who were staring at him in confusion. He glanced towards the three sitting across from him and saw the same look etched onto their faces. A few more moments of quiet passed before someone spoke up.

“Where did you learn how to do that?” Jason asked, jaw clenched. Peter floundered.

“I-” He shrugged helplessly, looking around in nervousness, “I don’t know. I kind of just-” he mimed what happened and shrugged again, a lost look on his face.

“You kind of just caught a dart in mid-air?”

“Yes?” He knew he was being less than convincing but he didn’t know how to act in this situation. Back home, everyone already knew about his powers and he didn’t need to explain when he did weird shit like that.

“How?!” Roy looked incredulous. Peter was really happy that Bruce wasn’t here.

“Natural talent?”

He really needed to work on his lying skills.

-----

“Tony,” Stephen gritted his teeth, “it’s been three days.”

“We haven’t found Peter yet.” The doctor sighed at his wonderfully caring, loving, and infuriatingly stubborn husband.

“You haven’t slept.” Tony sipped his coffee, a dead yet still alive look in his eyes.

“I’ll sleep when we’ve found Peter.” Stephen’s eye twitched and he bit back another sigh. He came forward from his perch behind his husband’s back and wrapped his arms around Tony’s waist, smirking when he felt Tony tense.

“Peter wouldn’t want you to do this to yourself. He’d want you to put your health first.” Seemingly ignoring him, Tony mumbled into his coffee.

“Stupid teenagers. Making their dad worry.” The rest was unintelligible by his ears and Stephen rolled his eyes.

“Wherever he is, darling, he’s fine.” Tony suddenly slammed his coffee mug down onto the table and violently turned towards his husband, scowl deepening when Stephen didn’t even move an inch. He just raised an eyebrow at him.

“Did your Wizard Tingle tell you that? How can you be so sure, Stephen?! He could be dead for all we know!” The blue eyed man scowled right back down to his husband.

“He’s not dead, Tony. I know for sure.”

“Yeah? Well I don’t know, so I’m not going to rest until I find my son.” Tony turned back around and continued tinkering around with the dimensional travelling device he was concocting.

If he could make a time traveling machine to go and stop an evil grape with a panini bread chin from eliminating half of the universe, he should be able to do this. “In the meantime, sweetheart,” the endearment was stressed and said through clenched teeth, “keep searching through the universes, dimensions, or whatever. Please. We need to find him.”

Stephen’s eyes softened. He really loved his husband. While the media made it seem like he was self-absorbed and didn’t care about anyone but himself, it was really the opposite. He cared so much that he was willing to go to the ends of the earth for his children. He had the scars to prove it.The doctor moved forward and leaned his head heavily onto the genius’ shoulder, letting his breath fan across the back of his neck.

“If I continue to search,” he whispers, “will you please go to sleep?” Tony was silent for a minute before he released the tension in his form, slumping in defeat.

“Do I have a choice?” Stephen made a humming noise.

“Well, I mean, you definitely have the choice to ignore what I say, but I will do what I have to.” Tony grumbled some more but Stephen knew that it was all in good fun.

“Fine. But you have to keep looking.” Stephen smiled at the brunette’s back as he left the lab and he called after him.

“Promise, honey!” Once he was sure Tony was out, he looked towards the ceiling. “FRIDAY.”

“Yes, Dr. Stark-Strange?” A small smile came upon his face as he heard his name. What an incredible feeling, to have his name in conjunction with the man he loves.

“Lock down the lab until he gets at least a full eight hours of sleep. Sleep Protocol.”

“Of course.” Then, Stephen opened a portal and stepped into his room to meditate. He promised his husband and it wasn’t like he wouldn’t have done it anyway. Peter was like his own son. He cared for Peter and he wasn’t stopping until Peter was found.

-----

“So,” Harley popped her bubble gum obnoxiously, “I heard from a little birdy that my Puppy did something badass today.” Peter snorted.

“Did you? Lemme guess. Steph?” Harley smirked from her perch on the bathroom sink.

“Spot on as always, Pup. So,” she tilted her chin coyly, bringing her knees up to her chest, “what happened?”

“Nothing much. I just stopped a dart from hitting me. That’s all.” Peter finished washing his hands and left the bathroom with Harley in tow, pouting at the lack of information.

“Aw, Puppy! You can’t just leave me without all the details! Spill! Spill!” He laughed, the sound echoing down the long hallway as they walked towards the dining room.

“It really was nothing! Also, how are you so chipper?” Harley tsked, as if the last few days, if not weeks, weren’t immensely hard on her.

“In my line of work, we need to get over things very quickly. This is no exception. And stop changing the subject!” The argument continued until they reached the dining room.

“Look Harley! There’s nothing to tell you other than the fact that I caught a dart when I went to scratch my head.”

“There has to be more than that!”

“There really isn’t! I caught a dart! End of story!” Those who were already sitting at the dinner table looked up as the duo came in.

“Talking about today?” Steph asked, leaning back into the chair. “You should’ve been there, Harley. It was badass.”

“I know!” Harley whined. “It would’ve been so cool!” Peter groaned as they sat down at the table. The others looked at them, not even trying to be subtle.

“There is literally nothing to it! I happened to grab it when I went to scratch my head!” Jason and Dick grinned while Tim chuckled into his water (Alfred said enough with the coffee. For today.). Damian, who wasn’t at the lounge, looked a bit confused but didn’t ask.

“Okay, okay, we believe you,” Dick tried to placate. Peter gave him a deadpan look, knowing for a fact that it wasn’t true. He also knew that they happened to latch onto this new information, considering that their background checks didn’t yield anything useful. Or really anything at all, with him being from another dimension and all that jazz. Peter sighed.

“Whatever.” Steph and Jason snickered while Harley huffed.

“Not whatever, Pup! I still wanna know!” Jason perked up.

“You haven’t told her yet?” Harley shook her head, looking towards the man with extreme excitement.

“Tell me, tell me!” Jason started recounting the situation earlier, Harley paying attention. Damian typed away on his phone, trying to make it less obvious that he was listening quite raptly as well. By the end of it, Harley was gasping with shock (Jason, the Shakespeare nerd he is, made it so much more dramatic than it really had been).

“That was so much more than what actually happened!” Peter scowled at Jason, who smirked in return.

“Every heroic tale deserves to be told in style, angel.”

“I saved myself from attaining a hole in my head from a dart. Whoop-dee-fucking-doo.” Dick gasped, one hand covering his mouth and the other pointing straight at Peter.

“You swore! You shouldn’t swear. Angels don’t swear!” Peter’s eye twitched, an annoyed expression obvious on his face (though he wasn’t as annoyed as he should’ve been).

“I’m not an angel! I-” The doors to the kitchen opened with Alfred and Bruce carrying plates of food. They placed them on the table and sat down at their respective spots (at the head and the right side of the head).

“You what Peter?” The chestnut haired boy blushed and looked away, the feeling of slight embarrassment prevalent in him.

“Nothing.” Bruce gave him a weird look while everyone else looked amused.

“If you’re sure.” Peter said nothing else and Bruce nodded in assent. “Alright. Let’s eat.”

-----

After dinner, Harley, for reasons unknown to Peter, left, but not before meeting Barbara at the door of Wayne Manor.

“Are you sure you guys will be alright, Harls?” Harley rolled her eyes, an exasperated, but fond look on her face.

“I’m sure Pete. Now go and hang out or do something interesting. I swear, you worry as a hobby. You’re gonna get boring.” Peter pursed his lips, looking adorably concerned and a little insulted.

“I do interesting things!” Barbara and Harley snorted. Peter, in an act of defiant childishness, stuck his tongue out at them and closed the door in their faces, ignoring the loud laughter that reached his ears from the other side. “I am interesting!” He muttered to himself, barely surprised when an arm was thrown around him.

“Sure you are, angel.” Peter shot him an irritated look.

“You know, I’m not an angel right?” Jason looked down on the boy trapped to his side.

“What makes you say that?” Peter looked on darkly, weirdly introspective.

“You attract what you are. I’m friends with a mercenary and someone who deals with some of the shadier sides of things. Not to mention, her boyfriend, a notorious gang member, is after us because I convinced her to break up with him,” he said simply.

‘Too simply,’ Jason thinks. ‘He must really believe this.’

“That’s not necessarily true, Pete.” Blue clashes with doe brown as Peter turned his large eyes up to meet Jason’s.

“How so?”

“It’s not that you attract what you are. What if you are kind but you attract people who are mean? Or you’re loyal, but attract cheaters. It’s not ‘you attract what you are,’ but ‘you attract those in desperate need of what you are.’ Like us.”

Peter was quiet for a moment. Seeing that he wasn’t going to say anything else, Jason continued.

“Besides, even if you aren’t an angel, you’re our angel.” Jason lets Peter go from his side and uses his longer legs to stride in front of him, turning when he is to face Peter. He steps towards the shorter man, towering over him. Jason brings a hand up to Peter’s face and cradles his cheek in a calloused hand. Peter stays still, frozen at the contact. “Whether you like it or not.”

-----

“Tony!” Stephen yelled, bursting through his portal and into Tony’s bedroom. Tony blinks blearily before recognizing his husband and sitting up.

“Hey hon. What’s wrong?”

“I figured out where Peter is!” Tony’s eyes widened, now more awake than ever.

“What?! Where is he?!” Stephen shoves something into Tony’s hands. The genius looks down and squints in confusion.

“Why are you giving me a comic book?” Stephen pointed straight to the comic book, which was titled, “Batman: The Mafia-Verse.”

“He’s in there.” A pause of silence before Tony raises the book.

“Peter.” His husband nods.

“Yes.”

“Peter Parker.”

“Yes.”

“Is in a comic book?”

“Yup.” Another pause of silence.

“What the actual fuck?!” Stephen nodded sagely.

“Wait until you read it.” His husband looks at him weird.

It took Tony ten minutes to read to the stopping point.

“OH HELL NO!”

-----

The bad news came in the morning. Jim Gordon, with tears streaming down his face, came knocking on Wayne Manor’s door. Bruce opened it.

“Jim?!” He reacts with shock and concern for his old friend. “What’s wrong?!” The police commissioner of Gotham City collapses into Bruce’s arms, clutching at shoulders awkwardly but too overcome with grief to notice.

“Babs-” he gasped out, voice hoarse, “she’s in the hospital.” Bruce’s blue eyes widened.

By then, Peter had heard the commotion from his bedroom (now separate from Harley’s) and came rushing down to be greeted by the sight of the sobbing commissioner.

“Commissioner Gordon! What happened?”

“He got to her! She’s in the hospital! And Harley! Oh Harley!” Peter’s blood froze, and his ears pounded. In the background, he could hear multiple footsteps rushing towards them. Peter surged forward.

“Jim! Jim! What happened to Harley?!” Jim could barely get his words through, but eventually could.

“Harley. She’s-” a gasp, “gone.” Another gasp. “The Joker. He took her.”

Previous: Part 5

Next: Part 7

[medeafive]

Blood and Stone - 23

Masterpost

“Bruce, I- He’s not waking up.”

“Hm? Oh, sorry. Who?”

“Steve. I went over, just wanted to check because he has been asleep for so long, and- I think he’s not waking up anymore. Could you just take a look?”

“That sounds bad.”

She hears scrambling and a door falling shut and then she must have nodded off again because the next thing she hears is “Nat. Nat!” She pries her eyes open. Bruce is standing next to her bed, looking panicked. “Nat, I need the drip. And the bed. Quickly. Sorry.”

She blinks, slipping her feet out from under the blanket. Cold outside. “What’s going on?”

“He has sepsis, probably,” Bruce replies briefly, pulling the needle from her arm. “Sharon, get Sam, and Bobbi, tell her we need to do a white blood cell count, obtain blood cultures- sorry, Nat, you really need to get up.”

She has no idea what’s going on but Steve, who Bruce drags in on the stretcher, really looks bad and Sharon, before she disappears, looks very pale, so Natasha pushes herself up, even though her heart starts drumming. “Put something on it so it doesn’t bleed too much,” Bruce orders. “You’ll find something. Could you- no, just get out of the way.”

Oh, this is bad. She moves slowly to the cabinet with the bandages, holding onto things in order not to fall over. Bruce starts dragging machines towards the stretcher, one of them the ventilator. “What does that mean, sepsis?”

“Inflammation,” Bruce replies briefly, changing the needle on the IV drip. “Immune system goes into overdrive, then stops. Leads to organ failure, leads to death.”

She takes one of the bandages, presses it to her arm. She’s feeling dizzy. Shouldn’t have gotten up so fast. “Can I help?”

“You stay where you are,” Bruce rejects, pressing two fingers to Steve’s neck and checking his watch. “He has a fever, he’s breathing hard, his heart rate is up- did he seem confused?”

“Well, yeah,” Natasha replies, gripping the other table for stability. “Of course.”

Bruce gnaws on his lip. “Shit. It’s probably the lungs. Where’s the sphygmomanometer?”

She’s about to ask him what the fuck that is when James rushes in. “Are you okay? You’re bleeding.”

Of course he smelled that. “She’s okay, he’s dying,” Bruce returns. “Oh, there it is.”

Her head tumbles off her shoulders just then, or that’s what it feels like, but James catches her before she drops like a stone, narrowly avoiding the edge of the table. “Take her away, give her fluids and food,” Bruce’s voice says. “I can’t right now. Oh, did she hit her head?”

“She’s fine, just weak,” James replies, cradling her head. “Can I do anything for him?”

“If you have no idea, just get out,” Bruce returns. “God, I should have monitored him better.”

Someone else comes rushing in. She blinks until Bobbi’s frame slowly sharpens. “Fuck. Did you take blood already?”

“Blood pressure is low,” Bruce reports. “Help me move him to the bed first. One, two-”

“Are you okay?” James asks, caressing her cheek.

She blinks, still dizzy. “Think so.”

“I’ll take you upstairs,” James suggests. “Is it okay if I carry you?”

She nods quietly. Bruce and Bobbi have moved the body, Bobbi has a syringe- James picks her up. Sam comes through the door. “How bad is it?”

“Very bad,” Bruce states. “I think it’s the lungs, pneumonia, his breathing-”

She’s out of the door by then. All of this is surreal. James is moving slowly, carefully. “Is he really dying?” she whispers.

“I don’t know,” James replies, shifting her head so it rests against his shoulder. “But he smells really sick.”

  James puts her on the couch in the common area and the others slowly join there. She eats cornflakes and an apple and some sausages, despite not having any appetite. Sharon's crying quietly, Pepper stroking over her hair while Fury asks her questions about the vampire fledglings from their last patrol. Natasha dozes off again, James right arm around her. Tony went downstairs a while ago, trying to help, but came up empty-handed. Clint's staring into empty air.

It's tense and it takes hours. Natasha eats and drinks mechanically, like breathing, just her body keeping itself alive. "I thought he was getting better," Sharon whispers to herself.

"Rumors spread," James remarks to Fury. "Even if vampires don't necessarily like each other, there's still a sense of belonging. Schmidt will take advantage of that and declare war on specific cities or regions. All the vampires, young or not, sanctioned or not, know they can go there and bite and kill as many people as they want, without penalty, and they will. He did it in Moscow, he did it around Sarajevo and he tried it in Northern France."

"So there will be more," Fury states. "A steady flow of vampires into Prague."

Tony snorts. "Well, isn't that just what we need."

"But did he really declare war on us?" Pepper asks. "Is that what you heard?"

"I didn't hear anything," James replies bluntly. "If he sent me a message, I made sure not to receive it. But that's probably what he did, keep you busy and wear you down while he gathers black cloaks for the final strike."

Fury frowns, which is probably the height of his facial expressions. "Rumlow won't clean them up anymore?"

"It's an unspoken deal," James states. "They help take the city, they get to live. If you call this living."

Someone's coming up the stairs. Sharon spins quickly. "Is it- how is it- is he-"

"Not good," Bruce admits quietly, wiping his glasses on his shirt. "I'm afraid we're going to have to make a decision."

"What decision?" Fury asks.

Bobbi sits down heavily. "He's in very bad shape. We gave him antibiotics and fluids, put him on ventilation and tried to drain fluid from his lungs but- I'm afraid it's too late."

"We also gave him a blood transfusion, and vampire blood as well," Bruce adds. "200ml, what we gave Nat. But it's just not enough."

"What's the choice then?" Tony asks. "Turning him into a vampire?"

James' left fist contracts, metal clacking. "I don't want to bite him."

"We could give him a lot more vampire blood," Bruce explains. "His blood pressure is very low so he could easily take a few liters. Of course we have no idea what will happen, but I would say we try it. Bobbi disagrees."

Bobbi sighs, wringing her hands. "I just don't think we can save him. He's so weak already. Either it kills him or does nothing to stop him from dying, or it turns him into something completely unknown to us. And that's going to be a lot harder than losing him now."

"We three can't make that decision," Bruce remarks. "And so we thought… you two are the closest to family he has."

"Me?" James replies incredulously. "Sorry but I don't even remember anything about him. I can't decide over his life."

"Killing people is also deciding over their life," Clint remarks.

James hisses. "I don't kill people, I kill vampires. Most of the time."

Sharon groans, rubbing her swollen eyes. "I should have checked on him earlier. If we found him earlier-"

"We haven't been able to identify what he's infected with," Bobbi explains. "So even starting earlier might have been useless. And we should have all monitored him, that's not your responsibility, but there was just so much going on."

"We really don't know what will happen when we try the treatment, Bobbi is right," Bruce says. "Natasha can correct me but I don't think anyone ever got injected with so much vampire blood."

She shakes her head weakly. Somehow, she feels like this is all her fault. "If you give him the vampire blood," James asks, "would you still have enough for Natalia?"

Tony snorts. "Oh, don't worry about that. We could pump both of them full of it and still have leftovers."

Sharon's chewing on her nails. "So it's my decision."

"Sorry," Bruce replies. "I think we should, Bobbi thinks we shouldn't and Sam said you should decide."

"We're not sure this won't turn him into a vampire, right?" Clint questions. "Or some other monster. What do we do then? Hope we can reason with him? Kill him?"

"I can do that," James offers quietly. "If it comes to that. I wouldn't want to place that burden on any of you."

"James," Natasha interrupts, alarmed. "Don't do that."

"Maybe this doesn't make sense but-" Sharon sighs. "I can't believe he got all this way here, the crash, the ice, the- just to die now? There has to be a way."

"I thought we were going to give him a lot of vampire blood anyway, initially?" Tony adds. "What changed?"

"Natasha and I had something of a plan," Bruce admits. "She told me about experiments with vampire blood that I didn't know about, that went horribly wrong, and- if it had gone wrong, we would have taken him out and told you it just didn't work. Spare you the pain."

"You're all a bunch of self-sacrificial idiots," Fury hisses. "Why didn't you tell me about this?"

"It was Alexei," Natasha whispers. "Alexei went farther than anyone else, than anyone ever should, and- I burned the evidence, I killed him, I made sure nobody would ever find out and get the same ideas."

"Oh, you really killed him yourself?" Tony questions. "So you're even worse than what they say."

"He was building an army of mindless drones," Natasha hisses. "He was going absolutely insane. I couldn't make him listen anymore. So yes, I cut off his head, and then the fledglings tore him apart, covering it up. And I'd do it again."

"Where are the mindless drones coming from?" Fury asks calmly.

Natasha sighs, staring at the ceiling. "When you- when you inject dead people with vampire blood, they get up and move again. But they'll only do what you tell them. Whatever you tell them."

"Oh, like zombies," Tony remarks.

"Like brain dead," Bruce corrects him.

Natasha snorts. "Well, we had a lot of bodies. And enough vampire blood. And Alexei had enough desperation and broken morals to- it was the only way to stop him."

"So you had no problem tearing your boyfriend's head off," Clint remarks bitterly. "And now you think you can have a baby ?"

"That's not fair, Clint," Pepper admonishes. "I'm sure that wasn't easy for her."

It was too easy, though. That's the problem. "Hey, plenty of people who shouldn't have kids have them anyway," Tony interjects. "Like my dad. Or yours. If she thinks she can do it…"

"Guys," Fury interrupts. "There's someone literally dying in our basement, so get to the point."

"Is that the worst that could happen?" Sharon asks. "That he turns into a mindless drone?"

"He could turn into a vampire," Bobbi replies. "Or something like that. He could try to kill us."

"But maybe even that wouldn't be so bad?" Sharon insists. "Maybe it's from seeing Natasha's friend, or maybe I'm just hopelessly naive but- I just can't imagine Steve being anything other than Steve."

"I wasn't always like this," James mutters, tracing down Natasha's arm to the wound from the needle. "I don't remember much of the early years. It took decades until I had any semblance of control."

"Okay, but she's optimistic and she wants to try?" Tony asks. "Is that right, Sharon?"

Sharon bites her lips, swollen glassy eyes. "I- I can't give him up."

Bobbi sighs, slapping her hands on her thighs, straightening. "Then- I guess we'll just restrain him and try. Hope for the best."

"Should I come with you?" James asks.

"We'll have to prepare first," Bruce replies. "Wait here until we'll get you."

Sharon presses her face into her hands while they disappear down the stairs again. "Fuck."

"It's going to be alright," Pepper mutters, hugging her. "Either way."

"You're remarkably calm, for just having found out she beheaded her last boyfriend," Tony remarks.

"I killed the fledglings," James admits. "They told me they found him already dead. Nobody else knows. I assumed she had her reasons."

"So did I," Fury admits. "Or I would not have accepted her here."

"Well, you definitely earned your nickname," Tony decides. "And I guess turning him into a martyr was better than everyone finding out even he was losing his mind."

"Today is really great," Clint mutters. "We're gonna get overrun by vampires, we're doing crazy experiments with people who can't say no, and also Tasha personally murdered the biggest icon in the fight against vampires. Isn't that great."

  James has to go down eventually and from there on, it's even more of a nail biter but somehow, Natasha still manages to eat another bowl of cornflakes and to fall asleep. She should probably get another dose of vampire blood but she doesn't want to ask. Somehow, this is her fault. If she hadn't taken up all of their attention, they might have had more time for Steve-

She wakes up because someone’s moving. God, she must have slept forever. The lights are off and the shutters are closed. “Oh, you’re awake?” Pepper’s voice asks.

Natasha stirs. “Uh, I guess. What’s- anything new?”

“No,” Pepper replies. “We thought we’d go downstairs and check. Do you want to join?”

Natasha groans. She really should get up. “Yeah, just wait a second.”

“Just gonna throw in a quick look,” Sharon states nervously. “I don’t wanna disturb, or endanger anyone-”

She doesn’t want to know, and simultaneously has to find out. “Oh, I’ll help you up,” Pepper offers, coming closer. Natasha’s eyes are getting used to the dark. “There. Should I lend you an arm?”

“Thanks,” Natasha mutters, grunting as she pulls herself to her feet. “Oh fuck.”

“Maybe Bobbi should take a look at you later,” Pepper suggests, steadying her. “Take it slow.”

They make it down the stairs, Sharon ahead and turning around nervously because they’re so slow. But then they’re down there and Natasha leans against a wall while Pepper takes a deep breath and cracks the door open, Sharon right behind her, biting her nails. There’s voices inside but Natasha can’t really see or hear, so she just leans there, eyes closed. She can hear her heartbeat in her ears. Oh, maybe she should sit down. “Oh, hey,” Bobbi’s voice says. “Just wait, I’ll be out in a second.”

The door closes. “Was that…” Sharon starts.

“Yeah, right?” Pepper remarks. “Weird.”

Natasha pries her eyes open. “What?”

“It looks like-”

The door opens again. “Sorry, we were too busy and forgot we should update you," Bobbi says. "He's stable but not waking up."

"But it looked like he-" Pepper starts.

Bobbi giggles. "Oh yeah, he's super jacked now. Sorry, I shouldn't laugh, he's not out of the woods yet- but I'm just exhausted and that was super weird."

"But what about the inflammation?" Sharon asks, worrying away at her lip. "The lungs? Is that better?"

"Slowly," Bobbi replies. "But his lactate went down and the fever as well, blood pressure is normalizing- basically, the symptoms subsiding. And his muscles are growing huge, which is unexpected, but whatever."

"And he hasn't attacked anyone?" Pepper asks. "Or, you know, grown fangs or anything?"

"Not yet," Bobbi admits. "I reserve judgment until he wakes up. And you should be prepared, even if he doesn't try to hurt anyone- he's probably not going to be the same. Physically, mentally, personality-wise."

"You think it was- right?" Sharon questions. "Trying it?"

"Let's say it doesn't look too bad," Bobbi admits. "But the jury's still out. And if you hadn't tried, you'd beat yourself up about that, too."

"Should we leave you to it, then?" Pepper asks. "Let you go back to work?"

"We're still trying to identify the microbes causing the infection," Bobbi agrees. "Less urgent now, but still. Uh, Natasha, your friend is still in there, I hope it's okay if we borrow him a little longer."

She nods. Not that she likes this, James thinking it doesn't matter if he kills another person, that it's less bad because he's already a monster- he's not a monster. But she needs Bobbi, Sam and Bruce to be safe and James can keep them safe.

"Well, Nat, you should keep eating and drinking, even more now without the IV," Bobbi recommends. "And then we'll do your check-up later, if that's okay."

"We'll look after her," Pepper assures her. "So you can focus on Steve."

"Thank you." Bobbi grins. "I'll let you know when he grows an eight-pack."

  Once again, she eats and drinks, and then she's tired again. This time, she uses the opportunity to sleep in her own bed again. It smells like James, the cold, less human one, the old book. It's been a while.

She wakes up countless hours later, and it's again dark outside. Normally, somebody would be out on patrol. She's not so sure now. But she feels- okay. Someone, either Pepper or Sharon, probably Pepper, left a sandwich on her nightstand while she was sleeping, plus a glass of water. Natasha's hungry. She swallows the sandwich and downs the water, feeling her heartbeat in her throat. It could be wrong but she thinks the baby's moving, though it's not kicking as hard as that one time.

She decides to go downstairs, where there turns out to be no one, then goes down to the basement, slowly cracking the door open and peeking in. Bruce is looking through the microscope, Bobbi is surveying the choice of drugs or antibiotics or whatever, Sam is just sitting there, arm splayed across a table, dozing. All of them look very tired. James smiles at her, standing a bit away from the patient. She slips in, closing the door behind her. "Is it okay if I stay here?"

"Hm?" Bruce looks up and boy, those circles under his eyes. "Oh, yeah, sure. Just stay over there."

She takes a chair and sits down next to James. The guy- Steve, he's nothing like before, now he's broad and muscled and- he doesn't look real, to be honest. There are black straps all over him, keeping him down on the bed. He doesn't move, though she can see his chest heaving and lowering. His face isn't swollen and red anymore, just- normal. His eyes are closed. "Do you think he's better?" she asks quietly.

"I think he's going to make it," James states, staring at the blonde man strapped to the bed. "But he smells nothing like anything I've ever smelled before."

That could be good or bad. She stares some more. He's really- he looks less like a man and more like a statue. "I really hope you don't have to kill him."

"I don't want to kill him," James admits. "Maybe I've been staring at his face for too long but- I don't remember him but I know that face. And I- I feel a certain way about him, even if I don't remember him. Like I have to protect him."

She smiles. "That's sweet."

He snorts. "Well, we'll see. Did you get some sleep?"

"A lot," she returns, brushing her fingers through her hair. "And I ate a lot and drank a lot. And now- now I just want to sit here and do nothing."

"Mhm." He shakes his head, still staring at the comatose body. "That's fine by me."

[pepperonijem]

I. Plus One || Count on Me

I. Plus One → Count on Me masterlist

Pairing: Peter Parker x Reader

Warnings: none, this is just fluff I guess. Or, pre-fluff??? 

Word Count: 1.6k

Summary: .The beginning of it all. What else is there to say? (College AU)

A/N: I wrote this for @sebbbystaaan​‘s 500 writing challenge! Thanks for letting me participate in this! :) My prompt was “Hey, we do what we do best. We improvise, all right?” from Fast and Furious 6. This is part one of a mini series!

“Alright, I’ll see you guys in two weeks,” the professor shouted over the cacophony of laptops being shut and backpacks opening. “Enjoy your spring break everyone!” 

Peter let out a sigh of relief, thankful that this was he didn’t have to worry about calculus for the next week. He packed up his notebook and followed the exodus into the halls of the building. Peter paused by the small couch by the elevators, deciding to sit down and wait for the crowd to diminish rather than fight for a spot in the overcrowded elevator. 

Unlike most of his classmates, Peter was in no rush to get out of the building. He had no plans to go back home over the week-long break. Happy and Aunt May were on a small vacation of their own and with Ned’s spring break not being until a few weeks later, Peter had made the decision to just stay on campus for the week. Peter’s big plans for the week mostly consisted of seeing how quickly he can learn to solve a Rubiks cube, and then maybe trying out the game he just bought, something about farming? 

He passively scanned the bulletin board behind him, trying to pass the time as more people flooded the hall. Guitar classes, babysitting gigs, research studies, the usual. His eyes passed over each flyer but stopped on a sheet of notebook paper, hastily handwritten, with accents of neon highlighters around a phone number.

FAKE DATE NEEDED FOR A WEDDING. RSVP 555-0120. I’LL PAY YOU $50 AND YOU GET A FREE MEAL. SERIES INQUIRIES ONLY!! 

Peter let out a chuckle and noticed that the date was this Friday. Figuring he had nothing better to do anyway, he pulled out his phone and began typing in the number, not realizing it was already in his phone. 

(Y/N) from class

His eyebrows furrowed as he tried to remember what class he had you in, until a silly memory of a conversation the two of you had about trying to insert as many Spongebob references into your presentation as possible. Oh right, he recalled. She was in that French class I took last year. Your professor had assigned you to project groups at the beginning of the semester based on who you were sitting with, and it just so happened that you were the only two people who sat at the front row. 

The first project you and Peter had together was an oral presentation in which you had to have a conversation in front of the whole class. The morning of the presentation, you and Peter noticed everyone else rehearsing and carrying out extensive scenes, whereas the two of you had agreed to wing it, not thinking seriously about the project at all. Funny enough, your presentation went smoothly, scoring high marks for the both of you.  By the end of the semester, you two had become somewhat friendly with each other in class, but unfortunately, because you two were in different majors, it was the last class you had together. 

Although Peter would never admit it, he was disappointed in himself for not ever asking you to hang out outside of the class. But now, he finally had a chance to do something about it. 

Once he got back to his dorm, Peter dropped his backpack on the floor and flopped on his bed. He pulled out his phone and typed out a message, analyzing every word to make it sound as casual as possible. 

Hey (Y/N), it’s Peter! We had French together last year. Um, I saw your flyer outside of my class, about the wedding. Do you still need a date? I don’t have any plans this break so uh, I thought why not?

Before he could think too hard about his wording, he hit send and set his phone face down in a terrible attempt to not freak out over a reply, but the thoughts flooded his brain anyway. Oh god, oh god what if she doesn’t remember me? Or worse what if she did remember me and now she thinks I’m a creep? “So I thought why not?” Come on Parker, you sound like you don’t care. Maybe she didn’t even--

A loud ding came from the other side of his mattress and he scrambled to flip over his phone. 

4 new messages from (Y/N) from class

Peter unlocked his phone and checked the messages.

Yeah, I remember you! We did that Spongebob presentation! Also, yeah I definitely am in need of that date TBH I’m glad it’s you asking me because I was scared I was gonna get some weird messages. Anyway, if you’re not in class or anything can you meet me at the cafe in 10 minutes?

Peter replied a quick yes before slipping back out of his dorm room and headed towards the campus cafe, trying to let out his jitters before he saw you. Come on Parker, you’ve fought space aliens and literally saved the world, you can do this. He hyped himself up, and let out a deep breath before opening the door. The smell of fresh baked croissants and strong coffee enveloped him in a warm hug as he walked through and he immediately felt a wave of calmness wash over him as he walked over to where you were seated at a table in the back, tucked away from the chatter and sounds of the rest of the cafe.

“Hey,” you looked up from your laptop and smiled at Peter as he slid into the opposite side of the booth and slid his backpack off. “I got us a couple of cookies, but I don’t know if you like coffee or not so I didn’t get you a drink.”

“Oh don’t worry about it,” he waved it off. “Thank you for the cookies though, these are my favorite,” he said as he reached for one of the snickerdoodles. “So, why the fake date?” He asked.

“Right,” you began, taking a deep breath. “So funny story, my cousin is getting married next week, and one day when I was home I mentioned that I was working on a project with a guy, and somehow they assumed that I was talking about my boyfriend, and everyone was so excited so I didn’t have the heart to tell them no, and so blah blah a year later, they’re using this whole wedding to try to meet my… nonexistent… boyfriend. Which is where you come in!” 

You grinned sheepishly as you stared at a wide-eyed Peter. Somewhere in your head, there was a voice saying that this was not a good idea, coming to a crescendo until Peter finally let out a laugh. You laughed with him, unsure of what he would say.

“I’m in,” Peter said with an excited smile.

The next couple of hours went by in a blur as you and Peter worked on the details of your fake relationship. From your first date, your anniversary, how Peter asked you out, what he got you for Christmas, for your birthday, you tried to cover as much as you can.

“Okay, well what happens if someone asks us something we forget to cover?” Peter asked nervously. “Or, or, what happens if I say the wrong thing, or we get our stories mixed up--”

“Hey,” you interrupted, flashing Peter a calming smile. “We do what we do best. We improvise, all right?”

Peter nodded, setting his pencil down and grabbed the last cookie.

“The trick is to base everything on as much truth as possible,” you taught him. “The more truth we tell, the less lies we have to remember.” You leaned back, somehow more relaxed than you probably should be in this situation. “We’re gonna do great, okay, Pete?”

With a full mouth, Peter returned your smile. Although he was extremely nervous, he had to admit, he was also excited. It was evident from your days in French class and the last few hours that the two of you had a pretty solid chemistry, as it was incredibly simple and fun to bounce ideas off each other. No idea was a bad idea between the two of you. Just silly ideas and good ideas, but nearly everything ended in laughter. 

By the time you had finally finished planning, the sun was long gone. The two of you packed up your stuff and Peter walked with you back to the dorms, still not wanting the evening to end. He was hooked on your company, and the regret he felt from not pursuing your friendship sooner left him with the gnawing desire to have more than just this one fake date with you, to have this arrangement blossom into a real friendship, that goes beyond a classroom.

Once you finally arrived at your door, your conversation came to a slow stop. “This is me,” you sighed. “Thanks for walking me back, and uh, thanks for agreeing to help me with this crazy scheme.”

“It’s no problem at all,” Peter smiled at you. “This is gonna be fun, I can feel it.” Peter felt butterflies in his stomach, and he wasn’t sure if it was because of you or because of his anxiety, but he was excited nonetheless.

You let out a small chuckle. “I’ll see you on Thursday, for the rehearsal dinner?” you asked, still beaming at him.

Peter nodded and extended his hand for you to shake, as you rolled your eyes and gave him a quick hug instead. Oh they’re definitely because of her, he thought.

 “It’s a date.”

[t4t-lumpygrab]

Bedtime

me @ the lumpygrab fandom: pspspspspspspsps

Anyway this is day one of fluffember! Yes I am doing it 8 days late mind ur own business <3

Lemongrab would never be able to understand how his subjects did it. All he needed to do was yell “LIGHTS OUT!” and every single one of them would drop as if dead. He’d had to stop calling lights out while they were working, or they would literally fall asleep in the trees they were picking fruit from. Lemonblombo broke his leg and since then bedtime in the Lemon Earldom had been made longer with extra steps like “make sure you’re actually in a bed first” but even so it was astounding. Just like that they’d all be asleep.

If only the same could be said for him.

Lemongrab tossed over again and muttered something incomprehensible. Why couldn’t he do it? He was tired, he was in bed, he’d done everything you were supposed to, he’d drank the stupid warm milk and everything- so why couldn’t he just sleep already?! It bordered on unacceptable.

It was his fourth night in a row having insomnia. Fourth! It was disgusting. Unbelievable. His brain- how dare it. If LSP was here he’d complain all about it to her, but four nights ago she’d moved back to Lumpy Space for her coronation.

As soon as he remembered that his chest tightened and it felt like his insides were tying themselves into knots. He instinctively reached out to touch her side of the bed, seeking her warmth but finding only cold, empty sheets.

He drew his hand back. He was busy during the day so he could distract himself with paperwork and manual labour from the gnawing loneliness. He wouldn’t think about how each day she wasn’t with him, it grew a bit bigger. Till now it was all he could feel and he couldn’t hide from how much he missed her.

Lemongrab muttered something else and yanked his pillow down so he could hug it. He sadly stroked it but the texture was all wrong. LSP was covered in a fine coat of fluffy fur, so when he touched her, his hand dissolved in softness. And she had been so warm.

He turned his head to look up at the ceiling mural Jermaine had painted for him. Jermaine hadn’t understood why Lemongrab insisted on going over all his sketches and personally drawing in each individual purple flower. Or why he had to lie there and watch him paint every single one. Then he’d seen him and LSP together and it all made sense. The dog hadn’t said anything to him (thank glob) but he’d smiled at him knowingly in a way that made the earl squirm with embarrassment. It was so obvious that they were meant to symbolise her. So he’d always have a part of her with him when he went to bed.

He looked up at the outlines of the flowers in the dim moonlight. They seemed so high up, too high up to reach and touch, as far away from him as she was. It didn’t feel like he had a part of her with him, it felt like he had a cruel reminder of the empty space beside him. Mocking him.

He hugged the pillow and tried to pretend it was her, but the shape was all wrong. The size was wrong. The everything was wrong. And no matter how much he squeezed it, it would never hug him back. The arms that were supposed to be around him were gone. The gentle sound of her breathing was gone. It just lay there, cold and limp.

He turned his head to look at the phone on the bedside table. It would be wrong to call her this late. It would be unacceptable. He should be ashamed of himself for even considerin-

Lemongrab reached for the phone with zero hesitation..  

It was stupid. He was a grown man. He didn’t need someone else to put him to sleep.

Lemongrab shakily dialled the memorised phone number.

It was dumb to assume that just because they were in love they could be together all the time. He had to get used to being on his own. He should already be used to being on his own. He’d been alone for all his life-  being together was supposed to be the hard part. He’d always found other people difficult. It had always just been him. He’d always been able to look after himself before. He shouldn’t need someone else to put him to sleep.

He jabbed the final button. He needed her to put him to sleep.

He pressed the phone to his head. Nothing. Just the dial tone. A dull beep beep, beep beep instead of her voice. He traced round the phone cord, running his finger up and down as his heart raced. Bump bump, bump bump. She’d pick up soon. He’d hear her voice. The gentle sound of her breathing into the receiver, her voice travelling down the wire he was wrapping his finger round right into his heart. Bump bump. Beep beep. He wound the cord round and round. Beep beep. He pulled it so tight it nearly snapped.

She wasn’t picking up.

He let go of the wound up cord as all the excitement he’d been building up unravelled. It was late after all, she’d already gone to bed. She was already asleep, gently breathing as she dreamed. She didn’t need him, he thought, not like he needed her. It was just going to be him tonight, alone. Like he always had been.

There was a click. “Hello?” came her muffled voice. “What the lump is this, it’s two in the morning. Dummy prank caller. If I ever meet you it’s on sight, I’ll rip off your arms, I’ll rip off your ugly legs, I’ll rip off your wig- unless you don’t wear one, then I’ll put a wig on you just to rip it off. And-”

He instantly felt better. It was like magic. “Hello? Mmmmm Princeeess?”

“Omg hiiiiiiii Lemmy~” LSP switched fast enough to give anyone whiplash. “Why aren’t you asleep is something wrong?”

Lemongrab smiled and gently rocked back and forth as her voice washed over him. “I am, ngh, okay now.”

“Can you like, not sleep, or something?”

Lemongrab didn’t say anything as the answer was obvious.  

“Well anyway, I’m really happy you called. I was like, literally just thinking about you this is crazy!”

“Iiii was… thinking about yoouu tooo, my sugarlump.”

“What were you thinkiiing?~” LSP said flirtatiously, “were you like, thinking about how hot I am?”

“Well no-”

LSP switched back to her “I will rip your arms off” voice. “What the hell do you mean no, little man?”

Lemongrab broke into a cold sweat. “I-I meeaaan, my darling, that Iiii…” Lemongrab clutched the phone cord from embarrassment, “I miss you.”

He stroked the cord with a yellow finger. “I know you need tooo go to Lumpy Space for your mm coronation- and very acceptable it is, I’m sure! You deserve to bee a queen, and to have everyone admire you as much as Iiii doo, I want everyone to see how special you are. But… But I wish you were with me too.” Now that he’d started it all came pouring out. All the little things he hadn’t even realised he missed about her, like having her clothes hanging next to his in the wardrobe, or eating dinner together, he hadn’t realised how quiet the table was without her, how lonely, how empty the castle felt. How empty he felt.

LSP didn’t say anything for a while and then there was a weird crackling sound on her end of the line.

“W-what was that?”

“I gave you a kiss through the phone.” she said factually.

“O-oh. Mmm thanks?”

“I miss kissing…” LSP said dreamily, “You get so embarrassed about it it’s soooo cute! You know, I’d never seen a boy blush green before.”

LSP would probably be happy to know that he was furiously blushing green all the way through that sentence. Lemongrab didn’t say anything, he just muttered flustered gibberish and played with the phone cord like a teenage girl.

“I miss… I miss so much stuff I can’t even pick one. I just miss you. I am having fun in Lumpy Space, and my coronation is gonna be lumping amazing. But I just keep thinking that it’d be so much more fun if you were here.” LSP sighed heavily.

“Hmmm…” Lemongrab hummed as he listened to her, “mayybee… Iii should visit?”

“OH MY GLOB YEAH YOU SHOULD TOTALLY COME!” LSP yelled into the phone loud enough to blow his ears off if he had them. “Wait aren’t you like, mad busy tho?”  

“Yes but… I have come to aaa realisation,” He was wrong when he thought LSP didn’t need him the way he needed her. She did need him. She missed him and she wished he was with her the same way he did. This whole time they’d been secretly yearning after each other. He shouldn’t have to be alone if they both wanted to be together. And maybe they couldn’t be together all the time, but they could try.  

“My people need me but, you need mee toooo...I know your parents need you… but I need you too.” he admitted quietly, “I can’t sleep without you.”

“Aw!” LSP gave him another phone kiss, “Okay okay I’ll put you to sleep.”

Lemongrab was overjoyed. “Really?!” LSP shhed him through the phone. The sound of it was gentle and soft, and so real. Almost as if she was there with him, on her side of the bed.

“Lieee dooown~” LSP murmured and he obeyed her, already feeling sleepy, “Close your eyes~” she didn’t need to tell him twice. “Would you like me to tell you a bedtime story or should I sing?” she simpered into his ear and he shivered.

“Sing…” No one could understand why Lemongrab liked LSP’s voice so much, most people just put it down to him having peculiar tastes as he’d never exactly been known for his normalcy. Even LSP wondered why he genuinely liked hearing her sing, no one else really did. She wasn’t used to it so she couldn’t understand it.

She asked him about it once and all he said was; “You have aaa... beautiful voice.”

“Yeah right.” she’d scoffed. “I sound like a freaking grown man trying to do a valley girl impression.”

Lemongrab looked sad and was quiet for a while. “If you do not believe that I like it then, will you believe me if I say, I love it because it’s a part of you?”  

“This is the song baby Sweet P likes,” she told him, “he like, totaaaally loves me. I’m, like, absolutely his favourite babysitter eva! Even though I trashed his parents’ house, but that’s not important. What I mean is: I think you’ll like it.”

Lemongrab was already half asleep. He shifted to get comfortable in the bed he’d just been tossing around in, with the phone leaned against him. He heard LSP’s gentle breathing as she inhaled to start singing and then the sweet melody of her voice wrapped him up like a blanket.

“But-ter cakes, cup-cakes and ice-cream-cakes,

Small baby bums, and the friend-ship of pup-pies…”

It was a tiny lullaby and LSP worried for a moment that it was too short, but she heard Lemongrab breathing deeply through the receiver and grinned to herself.  

Lemongrab was normally the one who fell asleep first while she stayed up late. She hadn’t realised how much she needed his soft breathing to calm her and lull her to sleep until she tried to sleep alone in her own bed and it felt so wrong. It was so cold without him draping an arm over her when he rolled over. Pulling her close, making her feel safe. It had been so lonely.

She didn’t know how long she lay there, just listening to him until she felt her own eyelids begin to droop. She planted another kiss on the phone’s speaker for him and whispered the final part of the song. She’d hoped he’d still be awake to hear it, but to be honest, she just wanted to say it to him.

“You are more precious than anything in this world. And I will always, always love you...”