#grits teeth. i just like women a normal amount

[skenpiel]

falls in love with. 800 girls the minute i get drunk

[satans-left-asscheeky]

Fallout 4 companions reaction to crushing on sole who despite being a playboy who sleeps with mostly any man or women attractive are dense to see their interested in them and sees them only as buddies as a result

Maccready

MacCready would be very annoyed by it, and he'd make his annoyance known, He'd bitch at them for ditching him for some random hookup for the thousandth time, but he always hid his anger under the guise of teasing. He's actually pretty annoyed, though. I mean, would it kill them to just go to a bar and drink a beer with him? He normally wouldn't care who his boss was screwing, but his feelings for them would complicate things...even though he knows he has no right to feel that way he still feels himself getting more and more agitated every time they flirt up a stranger. He would find himself putting more and more ungodly amounts of alcohol on his tab whenever they would disappear and numbing the sting of rejection until he'd inevitably drink so much he'd blackout.

Hancock

Hancock wasn't shy when it came to flirting, and he had been flirting with sole since the very beginning and when they just laughed his advances off he just assumed they were the more quiet and reserved type, and took it as a challenge. Well, apparently, that couldn't be further from the truth. They were in the third rail, flirting up a stranger at the bar. His bar. Hancock knew he wasn't exactly easy on the eyes, and by no means was he God's gift to the commonwealth, but it did hurt that they didn't even give him a chance, especially when he didn't just want a quick hookup from them, but actually had caught feeling.. He knew he had no right to feel the way he did, Hell, he was known for getting around himself but a little voice in the back of his head kept on nagging that it was because he was a ghoul, and if he still had a set of smoothskin things would be different... He'd do everything he could to drown the voice out, emptying canister after canister of jet, but he still couldn't shake the feeling that he wasn't good enough for them.

Cait

She'd ball her fists and grit her teeth every time she saw a stranger getting too close, logically she knew she didn't have any room to judge them, was she annoyed that all her flirting was lost on them? Yeah, but she knows you can't force someone to feel something. If there's one thing Cait values its freedom, and she would never want to take that from someone like it had been taken from her so Cait would just make herself scarce when they were flirting with someone so her anger couldn't get the best of her

Danse

He'd give sole a whole lecture on how unsafe it is to be alone and venerable with someone you barely know, especially in the wastes. Danse really wouldn't be consciously aware that it may be his own feelings causing him to feel that way, and would genuinely belive he was looking out for his friends safety even if the pit in his stomach and burning in his chest said otherwise.

Curie

She watches the people sole flirts with very closely. She's curious to see what they all have in common (if anything) making mental notes on their similarities and differences, she'd tell herself it was just research, but the very detailed list of soles favorite attributes lying in front of her said otherwise

Deacon

Deacon had never been a jealous guy. With Barbara, he never had to worry, and since then, he'd never cared enough to be jealous, so it's safe to say this was a first for him, and it was absolutely infuriating. He'd watch them flirt up another random stranger and despite himself he'd tense up, abandoning his usual poker face, though if sole noticed they didn't seem to care as they got up to leave with yet another of their countless hookups. Deacon would end up distancing himself from sole for two reasons, 1. Because he can't let shit like this get to him, he's a railroad agent for fucks sake and 2. it hurt to much to be around them. He'd take more jobs from hq, and for the first time in a while, he'd find himself drowning his troubles in alcohol.

Piper

Piper has had a few crushes before, so she was used to the feelings, but what she wasn't used to was how goddamn inferior it made her feel every time she saw them with someone else. They were friends after all and she knew she had no right to be jealous, but all she wanted was for them to look at her the way they looked at all the random people at bars or at settlements. Even if it was just for a second... she wanted to know how it felt to have their undivided attention and adoration. To be theirs even if it was temporary.

Nick

Nick would always give sole the same line, "Just be safe kid". They'd always role their eyes as they walked away from him, but he'd always be stuck worrying... not everyone had the best intentions out in the wastes and when you're as infamous as sole that puts a target on your back. Maybe it was just all the cases he'd work that made him so cynical, but then again, that nagging feeling in his chest was a pretty dead give away that maybe it was more than cynicism keeping him up at night....

Preston

Preston wouldn't say anything to them at all. He cared about sole a lot, and all he wanted was for them to be happy, even if that wasn't with him. It hurt a lot, but he was used to pain, and for sole, he'd endure anything

X6-88

He would hate it. The people of the commonwealth were vile and undeserving of even a second of soles time. He hated how much time they gave strangers when they could be doing important work for the institute. He'd have a firm talk with them about where their priorities lied. He wouldn't even be able to process that maybe his own feelings were what was clouding his judgment.

[novajeon]

I'm so glad you're back!!!

For the drabble,the truth untold for jungkook, just end the drabble on a happy note I'm too sad to handle sad endings

It’s good to be back! My apologies for the wait. I hope this is up to par, but I didn’t want it rushed. I understand if it isn’t what you wanted/expected! I promise I will only get better. It has been a while 😅(Also quick note. I do NOT promote this behavior and this smut is NOT in any way meant to romanticize cheating. It is wrong regardless if you’re an idol or not and nobody deserves to be hurt by this behavior. Just because you’re famous, hot or VIP, does not give you the right to this behavior.)

Member - Jungkook

Genre - smut

Warnings - cheating! jk! unprotected sex, Jungkook fucks you in his chain… really this isn’t ‘bad’ and doesn’t go into much detail so there’s not many warnings.

❐❦➫✘✝︎☯︎♋︎♡⚡︎☽☹︎➂❣︎✰ ❐❦➫✘✝︎☯︎♋︎♡⚡︎☽☹︎➂❣︎✰❐❦➫✘✝︎☯︎

Having an idol as a boyfriend comes with a certain amount of pros and cons. Pro #1 is coming very well respected. Con #1 would definitely have to be your boyfriend cheating on you with other women. Normally you wouldn’t believe such things coming from the media, but when it’s seen with your own eyes it becomes a whole different headline. “Baby please let me explain!” Is the first thing out of Jungkook’s mouth the moment your eyes meet his. At first you’re speechless. What’s there to explain? You just caught your boyfriend cheating! “Oh God.” You mumble to yourself as you stumble out the bedroom door. Jungkook could be heard down the hallway as you were walking away. “Wait! Y/n, please!” Before you make it to the stairs, Jungkook is running out of the bedroom in nothing but his boxers and chain that just so happened to have your initial on it. “Do you realize how fucking stupid you look right now, Jungkook? Chasing after me in your boxers after fucking some whore in our bed?”

What made him think that he had any reason to waste your time at this point? “Baby please-“

“Should I leave?” His mistress questions, looking quite confused and embarrassed as she glances between both you and Jungkook. “You fucking think?” You respond leaving the mysterious women speechless as she walks down the stairs and right out your front door. You couldn’t help but scoff. She saw herself out the door? This has happened more than once. Not that she’s that stupid and couldn’t figure out how to leave, but she was far too comfortable inside your house. She knew her way around it.

“How many times, Kook?” Silence took over. “I said how many times?” Your voice was louder this time. Jungkook couldn’t look you in the face. He turned away from you holding onto the railing of the stairs. Guilt began taking over. “A couple.” He said so quietly you had to ask him to repeat himself. When he said it again your heart broke at what you already knew. “I fucking knew it. I knew you were fucking around on me. You fucking asshole!” You yell, storming off to the bedroom.

Jungkook follows catching the door you were trying to slam in his face. “Y/n what are you doing?” He asked when he saw you grab your bag out of the closet. “Oh me?” You throw you bag on the king sized bed you had just caught him and his mistress on before announcing to him your decision. “I’m fucking leaving you. I’m done.” His eyes widen, trying to shake off what you just said but the little voice in his head keeps repeating the words you just spat. “You’re what?” He asks. “You heard me the first time and I’m not repeating myself again. I’m fucking done with you constantly sleeping around on me, acting like I’m not good enough for you, fucking women in OUR bed in the house that WE built together. So now you can have all the hoes you want, baby because I’m done.” But when you go to open the closet door, Jungkook stops you. His hand gripping your wrist and pinning your body against the wall.

“Get the fuck off me.”

“You’re not leaving me.”

His teeth gritted together as his free hand squeezes your cheeks together forcing your eyes on his. “You’ve tried to leave before and look where that got you. You’re going to put your bag away and we’re going to fix this like the adults we are.”

You couldn’t quite pinpoint where the sudden sexual tension came from. Rather it was his hand squeezing your two cheeks together, your body being pinned against the wall, or maybe your intuition saying ‘this is fixable.’ All you really knew was that you needed him and you needed him bad but you weren’t going to let him know it. “Don’t even try to blame this on me. I give you all of me all the fucking time and you have the nerve to hurt me like this.” You tell him. Tears fill up your eyes as you do your best to look away from his. “I’m not blaming you for shit! I’m sorry that you give me all of you and I never give you me. I still want you, y/n.” Jungkook says. “So, what’s your excuse then huh? Because you better not play the ‘I don’t fuck you enough’ card because me and you both know that’s bullshit. I fuck you at least three times a week, if not more, sometimes twice a day.” Jungkook looks down, releasing the grip he had on your body and taking a step back. He shrugged his shoulders and ran his hand through hair. “There isn’t one. You’re not to blame here and neither is the sex that we have. You always are amazing. Like I said, I wish I could show you me and give you me but I’ve never been good at doing that. And I’m sorry.”

The sex between you and Jungkook was more than amazing. Considering the fact you never had to fake an orgasm once like you had to with your ex. And what hurts you the most is Jungkook still made it seem so passionate even when he was cheating. How is that love? You wonder. “So what are we gonna do, Jungkook? Are we gonna fuck all night and every time this happens until we finally get it right? Are you even gonna stick around long enough to even give and show yourself to me? You can’t keep using sex as an excuse to fix what’s broken.” Maybe the two of you are sex addicts or just hardcore Sadists and Masochists. He hurts you so bad and for some reason you can’t get enough of it. Or maybe this is just one hell of a wake up call! “It’s not an excuse if it actually works this time.” Jungkook slowly walks up to you with the mischievous smile on his face that you knew all too well. “Well is it gonna?” You asked. You would find out. You would spend the rest of the night working out your problems in the bedroom, screaming, crying, and hoping this would be it.

———————————————————————————

“Keep fucking doing that, yes, oh my God!” You moaned, his hands gripping the sheets above your head as he has both your legs pinned down with his while thrusting into you from above. His cock not failing to hit that little spot inside of you each time he pushes his way through your tight walls causing little sparks of joy to shoot up your spine. “Yeah you like that, huh? You like when I’m deep inside it?” He teases, his pace becoming faster as his hands make their way to yours. For some reason, even though a fucked out Jeon Jungkook was literally on top of you, you couldn’t help but hypnotize yourself from the chain with the initial ‘y/n’ around his neck that was dangling in your face. The left side of your brain couldn’t help but think about the your own initial dangling in the other woman’s face as he was with her but the right side of your brain kept telling you to stop hurting yourself that way. “Oh f-fuck.” You threw your head back, eyes rolling back into your skull as you have completely given up at this point. Jungkook smirks, sitting up on his knees before trailing his fingertips along your hands, down your arms, to your chest, all the way down until they gripped your hips. “That always gets ya doesn’t it, baby?” He references your reaction to his chain. He knows how you feel about it and how you feel about him wearing it during sex.

“E-every time.. f-fuck.”

“Think about that next time you wanna leave me.”

Your hazy eyes look up to meet his seeing his messy hair sticking to his face and that damn chain swaying back and forth and you couldn’t keep any composure. “D-did you fuck her with it on?” You asked. So much for listening to your brain. “Did you let my fucking name dangle in her face as you fucked her?” You ask again. Jungkook shakes his head, his thrusts increasing as you notice a change in his demeanor. “Lier.” You mumble, but it was mumbled loud enough for Jungkook to hear. “I didn’t let her see the god damn chain because I always fucked her from behind.” Jungkook grips your throat pulling your face close to his. “This is your chain, not hers.” The image of Jungkook having some girl bent over in your bed was too much for you to handle. It was devastating. But at least she never got to experience the good ol' chain dangle, right?

“How romantic, Jeon.” You roll your eyes. “I’m only romantic when I’m with you. Otherwise I’m just a man whore.” You try to think about how instead of doing what any normal woman would have done and walked out on the man who constantly cheats on you, you’re laying underneath him letting him slut you out hoping it fixes the obvious. “You need fucking therapy, Kook!” You spat. Your emotions getting the best of you but your emotions don’t matter right now. His cock pushing deep inside you as his tattooed hand presses down on your lower belly does. “You are my therapy, now shut up and take what I’m trying to give you.”

He was fucking you so good that you were almost too dumb to speak. You couldn’t find the simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answers in the back of your silly little brain to answer him back with. All you could do was lay there and take it like you always do. “W-wanna cum.” You mumble out, “what’s that?” He asks. You respond with a loud, annoyed groan because he knew all too well what you had said. You were in no mood for his games. “Cum, w-wanna cum.” Jungkook smiles, his body leaning on top of yours as he kisses the corners of your open mouth. “Cum for me, baby girl.” The infamous words that always made you explode with pleasure strike again. It takes Jungkook a solid three more thrusts inside your squirting pussy before be released uncontrollably inside of you. His tattooed hand roams your body from your face, down to your chest squeezing your boobs, down to your hip bones where he always rubs them. “You still with me?” He pants. You nod your head having absolutely no energy to talk.

“I’m sorry baby. I promise I’ll change. I love you.”

“I love you too.”

•end•

Let me know if there are any typos!

[spiri-a]

Y’all wtf I just finished Hungry Hearts Neo I can’t believe this shit is over

What do I do with my life now

I am filled the beautiful tragic baggage of three games worth of characters and I don’t know how to handle it

———

Okay but seriously the Hungry Hearts trilogy is some of the BEST mobile games I’ve played in a while. I normally don’t like idle games but the pure heart, serenity, and general world of the trilogy is something that just always makes my day better. I was never too miffed to let granny rest for a while and come back later to serve and listen to my customers once more like I usually am with the nature of idle games.

The ways character’s stories intertwined with each other, the lessons they learned, the insight that was brought to them before your very eyes, the heartbreaking and heartfelt realizations, the specialized food requests filled with earnest and meaning, Grannys OWN narratives and conflicts she works through, SO FULL OF LOVE (seriously, this game made me cry several times)

Not to mention the art style that stays consistently GORGEOUS every game, the music although simple remains classy and calming, the food looks like the tastiest thing I’ve ever seen in my entire life

As a child of an Asian household, who has been privy to SEVERAL of the dishes shown in the games throughout the years, the food brought an immense amount of nostalgia with it as well. Every dish I cooked, I could almost taste the very thing on my tongue, the pork cutlet dishes and spam musubi being two of my highlights as well as two of my favorite dishes in real life (which, obviously).

Yes there were ads that got on my nerves sometimes, but I honestly didn’t mind too bad (I loved these games enough that I didn’t mind gritting my teeth for a few seconds to support them). Also the ad rewards of either a rush or max energy refill was 100% worth the quick ad watch.

I learned to adore each and every character within the three games, their stories slowly unraveling with each and every meal. I of course adored the characters that kept coming back, like Mr Jizo, Officer Hiro, lovely little Mabo (who we watched grow up with tears in our eyes), and Dr Mondo (who was missing from the second game which was agonizing to me while playing it).

My favorite characters being probably Dr. Mondo, Mabo, Slick, Scarlett, Grimm, Sapphire, and Fudeko (apparently my type is hot women in colorful dresses and suspicious men along with a small child and tragic backstory doctor thrown into there for fun)

The perfect model of a quaint little town (or at least quaint little section of town) in 1970s Japan a few decades post WWII (in some customer stories, you find remnants of the effects of WWII on Japanese citizens), the games have the perfect vibes DOWN TO A TEE.

Overall though, I love the Hungry Hearts trilogy SO DANG MUCH and it makes me so sad to see so little love for the games online. Seriously, if you love calm vibes, heartfelt storytelling, gorgeous art, and even if you don’t love those things, PLAY THESE GAMES ❤︎❤︎❤︎

Also here’s my gallery of ending screenshots:

[mrskurono]

title: Bet Me || domming the Seijoh Grads

a/n: anon who gave me this idea, I thought FOREVER about how to execute this and I just like- this happened while taking a shower ok. Iwa had it coming to him being the alpha dog

word count: 2.7k 

tags: dom!reader, group sex (mmmmf), established relationship (on Oikawa’s end), bondage, handjob, slight degradation, edging, cockwarming, ruined orgasm, masturbation (male), oral( male and female), rimjob, cucking, male on male (penetration +oral), anal creampie, cocky Oikawa, brat taming Iwa, slightly dacraphilia, safe word mention (unused) petnames, uh probably something else but c’mon its fucking smut, unedited

character(s): Oikawa Tooru (hq), Hajime Iwaizumi (hq) Takahiro Hanamaki (hq) Issei Matsukawa (hq)

heavy nsfw undercut ⇾ ⇾ ⇾

Tooru ran his mouth like a bullet train.

No one took him seriously when he toted about how amazing you were. Claiming you to be the best. Which, to Iwa’s, Makki’s and Mattsun’s surprise, that was notably a lot coming from the ladies man himself. Tooru’s taste in women came like his coffee order did, sweet and sweeter. So when the man came sporting some glamorous little bruises on his torso. Well, that lead to a bit of a bet.

“This won’t work.” Iwa scoffed at the idea, nearly rolling his eyes out of his head when the last bit of rope was secure, “She can’t do it since Shittykawa is just a wimp of course he cums easily!”

“You gonna bet me for that huh baby?” Standing above the man who was now tied at your feet seemed to leave you in a pretty domineering position now over him. Iwa wouldn’t give it up though. He was certain you couldn’t edge him until he cried.

If Iwa cried, then the bet was in your favor. Makki and Mattsun would without a doubt bow to your ability. Seeing though as no one had bested their friend since high school, neither of them saw much potential besides maybe a fun circle jerk out of this. Tooru on the other hand was nearly vibrating out of his own skin with excitement for the occasion.

“You’re gonna eat those words you know Iwa!” Tooru grinning. His best friend really had no idea what he was in store for. And he wasn’t going to tell him either.

Rolling your eyes you wave your boyfriend away and kneel down in front of the bulky athletic trainer. Searching his face. Paying almost no attention to his half a hard on even now, and you simply smile at him, “No kissing. And the safe word is teal, yeah?”

Iwa rolled his eye once more, “Yeah ok.”

Mattsun and Makki elbowed each other with a bit of a giggle between the two of them. They didn’t think you could do it but were certainly glad to not be in Iwa’s shoes. Only arms tired behind his back, Iwa was left in a precarious position when your hand ghosted over his cock.

Feathery touch of your fingertips down his thick shaft and Iwa scoffed. An offhanded comment about if that was the best you got then you should just jerk him off. Instead you let his words fall on deaf ears. Smiling as you took your hand away. Earning all eyes on you as you reached for what was simply a regular bottle of lube. 

Drizzling it over Iwa’s cock until it ran down his shaft and between his balls to drip on the ground at his feet. You really had everyone’s attention now that his cock was slimy with lube and untouched. The peanut gallery snickered. Tooru said something in a husky mumble. But it was clear all three men were beginning to palm themselves through their pants. Iwa on the other hand, held firm that this would just be another handjob.

Which in reality you suppose it was. Your work slow and methodical. Wasn’t long before you realized Iwa was enjoying himself. Fingers dancing up and down his cock. The squelch of the lube when you squeezed his tip. Watching him roll his head back and savor the simple movement. Really besides his arms being tied behind his back this was all about to end like a normal handjob. 

That was, until the first stringy bits of precum dripped from Iwa’s cock.

“Fuck- Right there-” His low guttural moan. 

Indulgent and self centered. Iwa was about to cum and not a tear in sight. Even Makki and Mattsun who now shamelessly were jerking themselves off weren’t surprised by the outcome. But like he knew something they didn’t, Tooru had his hands off himself. Completely. Only those brown eyes set forward and fixated on your hands like he was waiting for you to do something.

“You gonna cum baby?” Your fingers working magic up and down his cock. 

Iwa nodded. He wasn’t even paying attention. The handjob was hot but all eyes on him while he was going to win seemed to fuel him even more. You could feel his cock twitch in your hand. Carefully you watched until his balls tightened and then you did it. Exactly what Tooru knew you’d do.

Hand smashed to the top of Iwa’s cock before he could say anything. Your strokes stopped completely. Replaced by a firm grip and your opposing hand feverishly rubbing your palm in circles over his slit. Iwa had no time to react. The overstim right into too much making his entire body twitch and convulse. He doubled over but could not escape. The bindings he strained against didn’t give way. And your hand didn’t stop with it’s cruel motions. Nothing he did could make him escape the pins and needles of pleasure cascading through his body on overdrive.

“Give up? Too much baby? Huh you not gonna cum? Baby wanted to cum though. Where’s all that big boy talk now, Hajime?” Your words sweet in tone and evil in context. Iwa was coming undone in front of everyone he knew. Makki and Mattsun had stopped stroking themselves entirely. Wide eyed at the sight as Tooru was giggling and palming himself finally to his slight relief. His queen was going to win the bet. He just knew you would.

“-‘s much-” Iwa croaked, body trembling under your touch.

“What? I can’t hear you?” Your hand only slick with precum and the lube off his cock, “Come now, I wanna see all your sweet milk spill out~ Won’t you do that for me Hajime?”

Iwa grunted, bucked his hips and gritted his teeth. His orgasm was being forcibly taken from him but still not a tear to spare. As he twitched and shifted his hips up he was certain this would come crashing into an orgasm. Building quicker and quicker by the passing second. He forgot to care if everyone around him was even jerking off to the sight of him anymore. Iwa gasped just when his orgasm was tipping to no return.

“That’s enough.”

Iwa gasped. Mattsun and Makki gasped. Tooru giggled.

Your hand completely removed from Iwa’s cock. All men witnessed the cruelest thing to date. Iwa’s cock bouncing, in desperation, with one exact bead of white cum oozing from his slit. You just ruined Iwaizumi’s orgasm and they all watched you do it.

“No! Don’t stop! Idiot! K-Keep doing it! Keep moving I- I just- I wanna cum!!” Iwa’s pleas fell from his mouth. Ending with his voice cracking as his orgasm tightened around him but just wouldn’t be released. You sat smug in front of him and when his voice cracked he knew it was all over.

You won.

“Shit....” Mattsun mumbled, fixated on Iwa’s poor cock standing so abused and hard.

“Man....that’s....wow.” Makki, still grabbing at his cock, couldn’t tear his eyes away.

“Told you guys so~” Tooru sung your praise more than happy to see both his friends adamant that what they saw wasn’t something they wished on anyone. Especially themselves.

“So.” You stood up, hand covered in slickness mixed with Iwa’s precum and looked at Mattsun and Makki, “Anyone else think I’m a liar?”

Quickly they shook their heads. 

“Good.” You smiled sweetly. Fixing to pull your panties off right away and throw them between Iwa’s legs still bound in front of you. On full display the natural juices clinging to your thighs with how wet you’d gotten on this little bet. So now you figured no one was going to argue with you, it was your turn for some relief, “Makki, come here.”

Eyes wide he looked at Tooru. Who grinned and nodded for him to do as you said.

Sheepish of the same treatment. He knew a bet was a bet. Undoubtedly you were proclaimed alpha and did as you asked.

“Sit for me yeah?” You point across from Iwa.

Makki swallowed hard but listened. He didn’t want the same outcome as Iwa. When he’d sat down you grab a fistful of his hair and pull him into your ass, “Lick me up a little. I don’t wanna sit on your cock this wet.”

Obediently Makki liked this outcome much more. His tongue swiping over your thighs and lapping at your juices with no questions asked. If he heard you right, sitting on his cock was next in line.

“Tooru baby,” You cooed at your boyfriend, “Mattsun looks awfully hard. Maybe you should take care of him?”

While you pulled Makki’s face into you more, letting him lick you clean in front of Iwa. You take pride in seeing how well your boyfriend drops to his knees to take his friends cock. Mattsun certainly as big as some of the toys you make sweet Tooru gag on. It’s within no time that he has him down his throat. Brown eyes looking up at Mattsun as his cheeks hollow out and he goes to town sucking him like a good boy. Allowing you to enjoy yourself a bit more.

“Alright thank you, Makki,” You pull his face away, coated in your juices and a bit of a dazed look. Adding to the bliss on the man’s face when you finally seat yourself on his cock. Makki’s hands going right to your hips, “Ah ah ah, don’t move. Unless you wanna end up like Iwa huh?”

“Y-Yes ma’am-” Makki stutters with the right amount of fear not to try you on it. Iwa is still left bound in front of you with his cock head purple and aching as it twitches against the air for some kind of relief.

When you wiggle yourself comfortably on Makki’s cock. Moaning softly and spreading your legs so Iwa can see his friend’s cock buried inside you. You click your tongue at Iwa to make him look at you.

Drawing a finger up your slit and teasing your own clit, you smile at Iwa, “Bet you wish you hadn’t lost huh? Wishing you were stuffing my cunny with that cock right about now? Instead, only seeing sweet Makki stretch me out and how hard my clit is. Bet I could cum like this. On his cock that is.”

Iwa licked his lips. How desperate he was to cum. You were absolutely right, Iwa desperately wanted to be Makki, “.....please.”

“Please what?” You asked, reaching your wet fingers back to stuff in Makki’s mouth, “Suck baby.”

Makki listened well. Tongue washing over your fingers to eat your juices up as he relished the feeling of his cock inside you after all this. He wasn’t about to screw this up.

Hanging his head low Iwa internalized his growl and finally spoke up, “....please...let me taste you.”

“That’s a good boy,” You use your foot to tilt his head up towards you. Making him face you but when that smile widened Iwa’s stomach tightened, “But first, Tooru~”

Popping his lips off Mattsun’s cock, your boyfriend turned towards you. Seeing you motion him over. Tooru hated to leave what he was doing but was more curious about what you could want.

“Love, do you think you could take Mattsun?” You ask sweetly.

Tooru blushed at the idea, “I mean...yeah...with a little prep I could-”

“Say no more,” You wave his words away and look to Iwa, “Prep him for me will you baby?”

Giddy at the idea. Tooru didn’t waste anytime getting on his knees. Hips pushed back towards Iwa and Tooru bringing his face inches from your core. Not allowed to taste you but where he could vividly see Makki’s cock stuffed in you. 

Perhaps it was the grogginess of a ruined orgasm. Or the fact he was desperate to cum at this point. But there was no hesitation when Iwa pressed his tongue against Tooru. Earning a lewd moan from his best friend that fueled him. Finding himself so hard at the idea of Tooru pressing back on his face as Iwa tongued him.

“Mmm there, does Iwa’s tongue feel good love?” You caress his face as your free hand plays with your clit. Makki not moving as you ordered but his hands certainly didn’t seem to count as he groped and fondled your breast.

“S-So good-” Tooru moaned. His labored breathing and cock hanging between his legs as Iwa ate him out was a beautiful sight. One that wouldn’t last long though.

“Can you take Mattsun now?” You asked sweetly of him. Tooru nodded. He didn’t want to lose Iwa’s tongue but he knew the next thing would be better. So you looked to Mattsun with an inquisitive look.

“Don’t gotta tell me twice.” Mattsun ready to stuff his cock in anything a this point.

You watched in pure bliss as you saw Tooru straddle his friend like he did you so often. Instead of sliding down on a toy though. You watched Mattsun’s enormous cock disappear in his ass. Tooru’s stomach tensing until he relaxed and the brown haired man sighed in relief.

“Feel good?” You asked the both of them.

Hardly a response though as Mattsun and Tooru ended up in their own little world. Fucking only mere feet from you. Makki’s cock buried in you as you lazily played with your clit. Leaving Iwa out of it.

“Please...” He stooped as low as to beg, “...Please let me taste at least.”

Feeling generous and like it would be a nice change. You indulge him. Allowing Iwa to finally get a little something even though he was the loser.

“Make me cum before Mattsun fills Tooru and I’ll let you cockwarm next time~” 

Iwa didn’t need to be told twice. Diving between your legs to find your clit instantly. His tongue working overtime as you leaned back into Makki. Making the man hold you and catching his lips. He was a good boy who wasn’t moving so kissing him was the least you could do. 

As instructed Iwa was an expert with his tongue. Giving your clit all of his attention. Sadly thought he wasn’t privy to winning this either. Glancing over at the other two soon assure you of that. The way Mattsun gripped Tooru’s hips. Cum drooling out of Tooru’s cock for lord only knows how long now. And the way Mattsun’s brows pinched in the middle and hips stalled meant Iwa lost once more.

Unsurprisingly the two men had to catch their breath. Mattsun pulling out and a flood of cum following. Tooru being a good boy when you told him not to waste any and he scooped up Mattsun’s cum and pushed it back inside himself. Fingering himself as Iwa’s tongue began doing the trick when your hand found his hair and your grip tightened.

First a wonderful little tickle until finally you were leaning back into Makki groaning with a shudder. No real movement save for the ripple of your cushiony cunt walls around his cock. After all this Makki wasn’t going to complain. Even as Iwa’s tongue glided over his shaft a few times in desperation to keep you cumming on his tongue. 

Neither men cared when your orgasm was in full swing. Your cunt tightening around Makki until he had no choice but to double over into you. Holding you tight as his cock throbbed inside you and his balls emptied every last drop of cum into your well deserving pussy. Even Iwa not caring as he did his job to ride out your orgasm and some of Makki’s excess cum drooling out around him and Iwa licking it up like a good boy. Focused on your hand in his hair until he knew he’d done his job when your grip slowly loosened and finally released him completely.

Satisfied but not letting Makki go anywhere just yet. Which he didn’t mind. Tooru crawled over to you. Kissing you with the faint taste of Mattsun’s cock on his lips and certainly his cum still dripping down his inner thighs. Tooru smiled against you before nuzzling his face against yours.

“Aye wait-” Iwa, still the only one who hadn’t came yet, huffed and looked around.

No one said a thing. Makki spared you a look by hiding his face in your neck like Tooru. Mattsun looked your way and didn’t say anything to his friend. And Tooru simply kept kissing your neck without a care. None of them were going to go against your wishes making you smile at Iwa, “Well, maybe next time you’ll know better than to bet against me now won’t you?”

[watchyourbluesturngolden]

howard stern

I'M BACK BESTIES!!!!! i'm not totally back to my normal writing, but I finally got through a whole piece! anyways I really liked this and i hope you do too :)

warnings: howard stern being a bitch, talk of weight & body image

word count: 2.1k

"Hello Harry, how are you doing today?"

"I'm well, thank you," Harry answered with a smile. He was on the Howard Stern Show, his first interview since Stevie had been born. He hadn't really wanted to; Howard was kind of a prick. Everyone knew this, but Jeff was convinced this was the right move. He said it would be good for Harry to get back into the swing of things, and no one else was available on short notice. In the end, Harry only agreed because you had pushed him to, reminding him it wouldn't be a very long interview and then he wouldn't have to interact with the abrasive man again for a long time.

"That's good to hear," Howard said. "How have you been these past couple months? Have you been getting anything done?"

"Not much that's music related, honestly," Harry laughed. "I've been busy with family things."

"Yeah, you've kind of been hiding away from the world for a while here, what's that about?"

"Well, as I'm sure you already know, my wonderful wife had a baby recently, so I've been pretty busy... just navigating the world of fatherhood." A smile crept onto his face at the mention of Stevie.

"That's a lot, isn't it? Babies are awful at that age," Howard chuckled.

"Uh- I wouldn't say awful," Harry's smile dropped a little and he sighed internally. He already knew how the rest of this interview would go: thinly veiled insults, questions that were way too personal, and having to pretend he didn't want to get up and walk out of the room. But he knew that wouldn't be a very good look for him, so he gritted his teeth and tried to think of happy things. Specifically, the fact that he would get to go home to his wife and baby in less than two hours. "She's a very sweet baby, we're completely in love with her."

"Yeah, sometimes they're cute, but mostly they just cry and wake you up in the night, don't they?" Howard asked smugly, as if he knew Harry's baby better than Harry did.

"Well, of course she wakes up in the night sometimes. She's hungry, can't blame her for wanting food, can I?" Harry asked, trying to speak lightly and with a smile, but he could feel his patience slipping. He was ready to go home and he was not in the mood to pretend to be happy when this man was clearly insulting his child.

"Sure, I just wish babies could be a bit less annoying when they want something."

Harry nodded, plastering a smile that hopefully looked real on his face.

"So, besides the annoying baby, how's the family? Everybody healthy over there?"

Harry nodded. "Everybody's happy and healthy. A little sleep deprived, of course, but we're managing well, i think. And by we, I mean Y/N. She's truly... just amazing. I have no idea how she does it- she's the one keeping everything together. There's no way I could do any of this without her."

"Yeah, she seems pretty great! I remember though, at first we were all a little uncertain about her. She's not exactly like the other women you have a history with, is she?"

"She's-" Harry started talking, but Howard cut him off.

"I just mean, we were used to seeing you with models and actresses and the like, so it was a bit of a shock to see you with one of us commoners, you know?"

Harry huffed a small laugh, still trying to sound polite. "When you love someone, that's all that matters."

"Right, of course, but don't you get bored sometimes? You stopped going out so much when you got with her, almost like she was keeping you captive or something," He laughed.

"Are you asking me if my wife forced me to stop hanging out with my friends?" Harry squinted at the man.

"No, of course not, but..." He leaned closer with a malicious gleam in his eye, like he was about to hear some big secret. "Did she?"

"No," Harry said firmly. "She did not."

"Okay, okay, if you say so," Howard put his hands up, but then he leaned in again and spoke in an exaggerated whisper. "Blink twice if you need help."

Harry played it off with a laugh, crossing his arms over his chest.

"He's good," Howard laughed loudly. "Anyways, let's move on. Since you two are supposedly so happy-" He paused again, as if he expected Harry to cut it and give some dramatic confession about how terrible his relationship was behind closed doors. Harry only raised his eyebrows, signaling him to continue talking. "Tell us about that. When did you two get married again?"

"Almost 2 years ago," Harry said with a smile. "Our anniversary is coming up, actually, it's in 3 weeks."

"Oh wow, you guys moved fast with the whole kid thing, huh?"

Harry nodded. "We both knew we wanted kids and were ready to have them, so... yeah."

"Yeah, no point wasting time, right? How was Y/N after having the baby- Stevie, right?"

"Yeah, her name is Stevie," Harry smiled. "She was good. Again, she's amazing for going through that. She's- i'm just so lucky to have her."

"Did she bounce back right away?"

"I'm sorry?" Harry's brow furrowed.

"You know, did she get her figure back fast? I know that's a big issue for some women," He laughed again.

"Are you-" All traces of Harry's smile were gone now.

"I just mean, I hope she's working to get rid of the baby weight," Howard said casually, as if his words weren't extremely rude. "Just to make sure she can fit into her old clothes!"

Harry cleared his throat. He knew he had to speak very carefully, since this was something you had been very self conscious about. "Well, the two of us are concerned with the new life she brought into the world, not some old clothes, but she looks as beautiful as ever. The amount of pressure women face to live up to certain standards is disgusting to me, and it's especially bad for new mothers. My wife just went through an incredible process, she grew an entire human being in 9 months, then went through labor and the delivery, and she's being told to worry about her figure? That's wrong."

"Right, right, of course," Howard smiled, but Harry could tell he was annoyed at how he couldn't be tricked into speaking badly about his wife.

"I'm really over the whole thing, honestly," Harry said. "And I'm not even the one going through it."

Howard laughed nervously, seeming to finally take the hint that Harry was uncomfortable and annoyed with the topic. "Let's talk about your latest movie, why don't we?"

Harry was closed off through the rest of the interview; anyone could see that. He laughed less, his arms stayed crossed, and his answers were short. He was professional, but it went no farther than that. There was no more playful joking or easy conversation, just Harry trying to get through the interview as fast as he could. When it finally came to a close after his final song, Harry couldn't pack up fast enough. He made sure to say a polite thanks and goodbye before he hurried out to his car.

He sighed deeply before picking up his phone to call you.

"Hi baby!" your happy voice came from the other end. That was good, he assumed that meant you hadn't listened to the interview yet.

"Hi love," he smiled, his mood already improving just from hearing your voice. "Did you listen to the interview?"

"I have been- I couldn't right at the beginning, Stevie was crying, but I caught the end. Why?"

"Why was she crying?" Harry ignored your question, instantly worrying about his baby.

"Sometimes babies cry for no reason, Harry. She's okay, I promise. Anyways, what's up with the interview?"

Harry sighed. "Just the normal for a Howard Stern interview- he asked some very personal and rude questions. Just prepare for that."

"What else is new?" You laughed. "Are you coming right home?"

"Yeah, unless you need anything?"

"Nope, I think I'm good. See you soon!"

"Love you, bye," Harry said, ending the call and starting the car to begin the drive home.

-----

"I'm home," Harry called, removing his coat as he walked in the door.

"We're in here," you responded, not moving from your spot on the couch where you were nursing Stevie.

Harry walked in, a small smile on his face as he looked at the two of you.

"Hi," He sighed, plopping down on the couch next to you.

"That bad, huh?" You asked, taking in his dejected tone.

He hummed in response, leaning his head on your shoulder. "Those interviews are... always something."

"Yeah, I only caught the end, but you sounded pretty upset. What did he say?"

"He just..." Harry shook his head. "I don't think you should listen to it."

You turned your head to look at him. "Why not?"

"He's just very rude and pushy, as always."

"Yeah, i figured, but I wanted to hear your songs," you argued with a small frown. "Did he say something really bad, or...?"

"He just makes some very impolite comments about you and our family."

"Oh," You nodded lightly. "I think I'll be okay, baby. I appreciate you trying to protect my feelings, but I'm used to it at this point, and I really couldn't care less about his opinion of me."

"Alright," he sighed. "If you're sure." He pulled out his phone, checking his email and going through some messages while you started the interview from the beginning. You could hear him grumbling under his breath and huffing every time Howard said something rude, but you ignored it, just laying a hand on his leg to calm him down.

By the time it was over, Harry was clearly not too happy. "I can't believe I went back on that show," he shook his head. "I'm never doing that again. I'm so sorry about what he said about you, I honestly should have just left-"

"It's okay," you cut him off with a smile. "Also, it was kind of hot to hear you get mad at him."

"Yeah?" He smiled back. "I thought I was very tame, actually. I wanted to say some other things, but I figured that wouldn't be a very good look for me."

"Right, but the way you attacked him but stayed professional... very hot," you laughed, leaning in to kiss his cheek. "I love you so much."

"I love you too," He smiled, turning his head to kiss your cheek in return. "Is she done? I really need to hold her after the day I've had," He sighed dramatically, throwing his head back.

"I'm sure," you laughed, handing Stevie over to him and pulling your shirt back into place. "She's all yours."

"Hi baby," he cooed, holding her close to his chest. "I missed you so much."

Stevie yawned in response, cuddling into him.

"Oh, you missed me too?" He grinned. "See that? She missed me."

"She did," You agreed. "She was looking around when she heard your voice on the interview, she wanted to know where you were."

"I'm sorry," he pouted down at her. "I'll never go away again, and I'll never let the bad man be mean to you again."

"I don't think she's too upset about it, Harry," you laughed. "She is only 3 months old. She didn't exactly understand anything that went on."

"Excuse me," he said, looking very offended. "She may only be 3 months old, but she's very smart."

"Right, she's a genius baby, how could I forget?"

"I don't know," Harry shook his head at Stevie. "How could she forget how smart you are, hmm?"

Stevie yawned again, stretching her arms above her head.

"She's ready to take a nap," you said.

"Can I just hold her? I know it's not a good habit, to let her be held to sleep, but I don't want to put her down yet," Harry said, looking up with such pleading eyes, you couldn't possibly say no. Not like you would have said no anyways, but he didn't need to know that.

"Of course you can," you stood up, kissing his forehead before you turned away. "I'm gonna do the dishes, then we can watch something if you want."

"No, let me do those," he immediately protested.

"Harry, it's okay, I haven't done anything around the house since she was born-"

"And I'm not about to let you start now," he cut you off. "Come back here, please? Let's start that new show we were looking at the other night."

"Fine, but later I'm going to help you with the dishes."

"Fine," he smiled, agreeing with your compromise, even though you both knew he would argue later. "Now come back here."

[rumblelibrary]

Hello 👀❤️

So... I don't know if this will work or not, but I thought why not, I send it in... And if you don't like it, that's completely fine ❤️🔥

I really like how you write the characters' mind... What they are thinking or how they act... I was thinking, maybe a new mechanic (Reader) at Ferrari (yes, it's a Niki Lauda fic, you know me❤️🔥) who is really shy, but very good at their job, and Niki likes them and he is an asshole with everyone (which is normal from him) EXCEPT with the Reader... And like... Maybe at first he doesn't realize this, but then he does, and gets all conflicted like why is he getting soft suddenly, out of nowhere... (It is obvious, but not for him)... I'm curious how you would see this, write this... The ending of this story is up to you ❤️❤️

Love you ❤️🔥👀

What Is This Feeling [Niki Lauda x Mechanic!Reader]

Word count: 2.5k Warnings: lot of swearing by our favourite Rat King Author’s note: Niki is quickly turning into my comfort character to unleash my sass, thank you for giving me the chance to write him!

Part 2

On your first day at Ferrari nobody took you seriously, but to be a mechanic wasn’t exactly typing letters, it was not a place where somebody high up in the ranks would set a lover to give her some benefit and a free pay check.

You didn’t talk a lot, you stood your ground from the moment you put hands on any part of the car, but you weren’t exactly the chatty type and, being the only woman, it took you time to be allowed to the after work beer, to the birthdays and all the balancing that came with a good team spirit.

In a world full of bias about women, you were spared thanks to your abilities and knowledge. Or maybe, because the mechanics team had someone bigger to fight: Niki Lauda.

To work with him was thrilling, but stressful.

He would walk in at any hour of the day, break some egos, pile up an amount of changes that to make a brand new car would be a faster option.

You sat on the floor beside the baby, yes baby was the car, it wasn’t like you had to stay on the floor, there were more than plenty working stations, but it felt more comfortable for you: it gave you the chance to stand and look at things from afar, you were in need to touch, to understand, to put things together. It was your skill, but also your curse, because it was hard to gain yourself a space on the floor in such a fast paced environment like the one at Ferrari. You were working on the ignition when he stormed inside, the soft chats died fast and the noise of the radio was the only thing left, but he didn’t seem to mind the effect he had on people.

In a couple of long steps he was in front of one of your colleagues.

“What is this?” The man looked down to his sandwich like it was self explanatory, but the following silence brought him to answer “my lunch”

“Nice” Niki said, his lips curling downward in a very sarcastic amusement “well, take your lunch out of my garage because I don’t want your crumbles in my engine” he hissed picking the crumbles that effectively fell on the working table and sprinkling them like salt on the man’s face.

The man frowned and left to eat outside and avoid to punch him as Niki proceeded to his next victim.

“And you call this a design development? I call this dog shit”

“If this is a well done job, I’d better retire already before I get your good job to crack my skull open”

“Just begin again, don’t even ask”

“Are you sure you don’t work for McLaren? Because by the quality of your work I am starting to wonder”

One after the other all your colleagues fell under the axe of Niki’s commentary.

Nobody was spared, it was a butchery.

“So? What is this?”

You looked up at him as he towered over you, Satan himself would be less scary, and probably less attractive, to your eyes. His standing figure with rebel curls and his Ray-ban glasses in his left hand, the polo shirt under the fancy jacket, even his bad character gave him the edge so many men more conventionally attractive lack.

“I am working on the ignition” you said as he bent down crouching beside you as you showed him, his cologne filling your nostrils like the best smell your nose ever encountered.

“Okay, in what way?” He asked resting his elbows on his knees.

You gulped softly “Well, I am trying to experiment if I change this in here” and you pointed to a section in particular “maybe the car will have a better performance at the beginning of the race”

“Have you considered that it could over work the battery?”

“I did, but I wanted to see if I make here something like this” and you took a little tube showing how you lace it around the section “if I use this to push the cooler to work into this part as well, we might avoid over heating”

He listened touching his chin with the edge of his glasses thoughtfully.

“Give it a try”

He just said standing up.

Your colleagues looked at you shaking their heads as he turned around and everybody looked down to their tasks again, so then he left.

______________________________________________________________________ This wasn’t the first time, he wasn’t letting you do things he didn’t approve, but he always listened to you, he advised you, and the harshest thing he said was probably “I think you’re not looking at the bigger picture”

Nobody commented on it and beside some joke here and there, the little preference he had over you seemed to pass unnoticed mostly by him.

“You know, you really need a girlfriend” Clay, the other driver of the Ferrari alongside him, said during some tests.

Niki looked at him.

“Why? Do I look like one that has to fuck a woman to be fine?”

He laughed as Niki was always so overaggressive “No, but you treat everyone like bullshit beside the new girl, so you either can be an asshole only with men or your seduction technique needs a real check”

He frowned, eyebrows furrowing together as his lips parted in disbelief

“You nuts”

“Maybe, but I haven’t heard you complain about her as much as you complain about the rest of the world”

He shook his head “You are just letting you Italian genes getting your head stupid”

Clay laughed at him nodding knowingly “Sure, sure” he patted harshly on Niki’s back knowing how much he hated to be patted around like that as he moved to talk to one of the mechanics working on his car.

Niki crossed his arms resting against the wall of the garage, his eyes instinctively looking for your figure finding you to one of the working table writing down some notes over the changes applied while looking at the projects.

His eyes dropping on your ass like it was the first time he checked it, realising it wasn’t the first time he mentally noted it.

Well, he couldn’t really say you were unattractive, or not his type, or a good mechanic.

His thought process was suddenly interrupted as Clay himself approached you and you moved on side showing him the papers you were just writing on.

He nodded and said something to you, his hand casually resting on the small of your back making Niki’s jaw almost snap for how much he was gritting his teeth.

You shuffled on side avoiding the touch with a casual smile, but Clay kept talking to you and from afar Niki saw him say something and wave his pointed finger between himself and you. You shook your head and smiled turning down whatever he just offered with all the politeness you had, Niki pursued his lips slightly in amusement for his best girl’s behaviour.

Wait a second. Best girl?

He glared at Clay that smirked at him from afar, a big ‘I knew it’ smirk on his lips.

Niki bit the inside of his cheek not liking it.

He was with you like with everybody else, what the hell.

Niki ignored you all day, when you showed him something he himself requested to be shown, he shuffled away, when you handed him something he was looking for, he looked for it somewhere else, he just wasn’t meeting your eyes and hell and thunderstorm fell upon anyone that even tried to engage a talk with him on that day.

“I can’t with your boyfriend anymore, I swear” one of your colleagues muttered to you.

“He is not my boyfriend” 

He looked at you “Then he’d better be soon, maybe he’ll chill out”

“Are you even paid to stand and do nothing?” Niki shouted from afar and you two parted ways faster than two kids smuggling candies during class. ______________________________________________________________________

The next day was the judgment day for all the changes done on the car, your nerves were cracking as Niki arrived in his driving suit and your eyes immediately snapped a mental photo on his figure.

Did you ever went home wishing to have his company? Yes.

Did you ever wondered if he was so aggressive ever in the intimate times? Way too much.

Did you have any chance? Probably no.

You let out a big sigh as your colleagues reassured you “Hey, if it doesn’t work we either get rid of the rat or have some more time to work on it” he joked but you didn’t feel any better.

Niki looked up as he noticed your worried look, your lips nibbling down on your lips, your foot tapping rhythmically and nervously, the sudden instinct to lean his hand on that waist of yours, to rest his leg beside yours to make it stop that nerve wracking dance, to forbid your lips any more damage not caused by him.

All of that crowded his mind and he growled tiredly.

Stupid Clay, with his stupid theories.

He finished getting ready and put on his helmet settling down in his spot rolling his shoulders back, he needed to focus.

The head mechanic came over him repeating all the changes and just annoying the hell out of him, he is not always around the car only to check you out.

“When you're done telling me what I know, tell me something I don’t, I beg you”

The head mechanic did a big effort not to spit into his face and just left him waving his arms in the air.

You touched on your forehead nervously, if you failed it would show in the timings or maybe the car won’t even start.

You looked at him, seconds before he pulled down the dark lid of his helmet, his dark eyes so focused a shiver creeped over you.

You gasped as the signal was given and the car started.

Your fingers finding their way to your mouth as you nibbled your skin.

The car was fast, that was sure, you leaned beside the head mechanic that was taking the time. You breathed heavily, your mind going through all the changes you did, all the small settlements, the little details.

An eternal list that kept repeating itself.

Then the question as he was halfway through the leap, what if you disappointed him?

What if he asked you to be sent away?

Then you looked down to the chronometer, he was already almost two seconds earlier than usual.

A smile started to grow on you, the excitement filling your veins.

The sound of the engine roaring beautifully, you made it!

Then it happened, some smoke raised up to the sky, one of the wheels snapped, the breath died in your throat.

The car flexed on side but Niki controlled it and guided it against the sandy side of the track that slowed it down until it stopped.

“He was breaking his record” the head mechanic sighed “now he is just going to break our balls”

Niki moved out of the car throwing his helmet on the ground pushing off roughly anyone that tried to help him or check if he was hurt, some of the mechanics moving to the tow truck to recollect the car, Niki moving past you, his face tense and his posture of someone ready to snap some necks. You didn’t see him for the rest of the day, nobody talked about him, nobody mentioned anything as the storm will fall on all of the team the next day.

Now it was the head mechanic to face it for all of you.

______________________________________________________________________

That night you stayed over time, the other colleagues told you to just go home, to not let the thing sink of you, to look at it with fresh eyes and all those circumstantial phrases people gift you when they try to cheer you up. 

As always on the floor, you had now the chance to spread the pieces out, collect them into branches of types and use. You pulled closer your notebook writing down the ideas and things to remember to check, the image of Niki almost crashing gutting you even if you soon realised it wasn’t your change that set off the wheel, but it was part of the cause, the car was now too powerful and the stress on the suspensions was deadly.

You yawned lightly pulling a catalogue of replacements parts trying to find the best mix you could manage, but you surely had to make up something about it. You didn’t expect to solve the problem or to find the solution for everything with a creative twist, but to, at least, plan a sequence of possibilities to present to your chief the next day.

A hand slowly leaning a mug of steaming coffee beside you.

You looked up to find Niki there, another cup in his hand, those messy curls calling to be touched, his impeccable style always winning you over with a dark turtleneck and his tweed jacket.

“Found the problem?” He asked sharply as always.

He was surprised to see you there, he spent the rest of the afternoon after the malfunction with the head mechanic and some of the administrators as he needed a solution in time for the upcoming race.

So he decided he couldn’t trust their promises and reassurances, but take the matter in his own hand, for a change. But when he arrived he saw the lights still on and you there. He was almost tempted to leave, it wasn’t a good moment to screw things with one of his most talented mechanics.

But you, again, were so into it, you looked so beautiful with your working jumpsuit and the hair messed up nibbling on that pen like it was a matter of life and death.

He couldn’t just let you stay so beautiful and alone, who knows who could approach you.

You nodded “I think so” you said showing him the piece, he leaned his head on side studying it 

“May I?”

You nodded as he took off his blazer before joining you on the floor, he crossed his legs, your knees touching as he stole those papers from your hand.

“Signal to the administration this night shift, or they won’t ever pay you” he muttered without looking away from the papers.

You smirked “I know, but it is more a matter of principle than money, I didn’t like the heart attack you gave me today”

You were surprised by your own words, maybe it was because you really were over caffeinated or just realising how it was the first time you were alone and how you felt comfortable around him. No, not comfort, it was trust, you trusted him.

He looked up from the papers up at you, he didn’t replied to your comment straightaway, he let it sink in, he let your presence sink in.

A one-sides smirk appeared on his lips

“It is going to be a long night, then” Tagged @cazzyimagines @lieutenantn @handmaiden-of-mischief@thesunflowersutra Let me know if you want to get added <3

[han-shinsuke]

ɢᴇᴛᴏ sᴜɢᴜʀᴜ x ғᴇᴍ ʀᴇᴀᴅᴇʀ

Desperate to burden you more with thoughts and a few of his hard rubbing, Geto places himself between your legs and rubs his tip against your flushed lips down there, throwing you on the edge of torturous sensation. “Ge–Geto... please...” when he gets his desired reaction from you, a low chuckle emerges from him. To his kind, hearing a lady moaned softly was rewardingly good. And you did good, moaning his name like that.

🔞🌹 “does it hurt?” his tune was different compared to the normal tone he uses in class. There was a faint smell of concern in it and for a second, you wanted to believe that he cares for you for having his thing installed balls deep into you. The sheet is wet and so the pillow case where you had been muffling your moans and tears. You cried out the pain, digging your nails against your own flesh since your hands were tied behind your back while he was there, above your bareback, big hands gripping tightly on your waist as he makes sure you’d be filled with his arousal. One more long and strong push of his hips, you found yourself trembling from pain and an ounce of pleasure from his final assault. Geto withdrawn his shaft from your swollen anusx and he carefully rolled you on your back, checking your condition. “Does it hurt?” as if to make fun of your struggles, he asks again, swiping his thumb against your swollen lips. This may sounds funny but you couldn’t help but asked yourself if there were any part of you that hadn’t been touched and sucked by him. Probably, there’s none. Because Geto Suguru never missed. Putting your state in consideration, he feels obliged to answer his own inquiry, “of course, it hurts. I was your first, ms. front row.” You stared at his face, drained and in pain. If only you could wipe his smirk off his handsome face, you would. Sadly, you can’t. You need to stabilize your breathing and regain some energy in order to leave his estate. Though it feels impossible but you must. “G–get off me.” You gave him an undisturbed look, thinking of some effective ways to get to the bus station to not miss its last trip. Desperate to burden you more with thoughts and a few of his hard rubbing, Geto places himself between your legs and rubs his tip against your flushed lips down there, throwing you on the edge of torturous sensation. “Ge–Geto... please...” when he gets his desired reaction from you, a low chuckle emerges from him. To his kind, hearing a lady moaned softly was rewardingly good. And you did good, moaning his name like that. “Here’s the money,” again, the guilt was eating you up. Geto hands you the amount you both agreed on. You were no different from those department harlots who jumped on men like Suguru. “I’ll shower first, just wait here.” You got no time to waste so when he enters the bathroom, you put on your crumpled uniform, left his huge bedroom, painfully went through wide hallways and numerous staircases. As you stared back at the tall and automated gate, another slap from reality had hit you hard. Suguru Geto is reality miles away from the mud you’re in. You have reached the station on time. Luckily, the last bus hasn’t arrived yet so you took the chance to sleep in the shed. Fuck life. It will take a dozen of painkiller to calm your wrecked flesh and disturbed nerves, you thought. 🌹 “Your balance has been settled, Ms. Y/N.” The registrar shows you the updated payment of your account and you were not happy or pleased by it. You had someone in mind and just the thought of it, you can feel the anger and insult building inside of you. As usual, he’s there, surrounded by his kind. Women lurking around him as if they are there like an options for Geto to pick who knows who. He raises an arm, waving at you. You answered by nodding your head. Your knuckles turned white as he flashes you an innocent grin. The chair on the front row creates a screeching noise as you sat on it. You were so mad right now. Maybe throwing a shoe to his direction can lessen the fuming anger in you but you’re not that kind of person. You settled things privately. Just wait, Geto. You fucking wait and I’ll burn you alive. “Happy Birthday,” a hand put a protein bar and a can of chilled coffee on your desk. There’s no need to look at the giver. The bite mark on his wrist is enough to identify him. You were the one who put it on him last night. Your gaze follows Geto’s back as he returns to the back row. The place where strength and power lies. At twenty, you sold your dignity to

Geto Suguru. Now that you turned twenty one, you have promised that would be the first and last time you’ll use your innocence to overcome a problem. 🌹 “You’ve paid me well, Suguru, but I don’t accept tip for my service.” He didn’t speak. He must be in a state of shock after receiving a slap from you. After the exam, you confronted him and lashed out your anger from his doings. “I’m returning the money you had given last night. Thank you for the kind gesture.” You said in a very sarcastic tone. 🌹🔞 Suguru Geto is an heir. Unlike the other, he has no records of bad memories or any sad untold stories. The life his parents had given him was very ideal and perfect. He has friends and loved by many. And from those infos, you have come up with a thought that maybe, due to the perfectly laid out plan of his life, Suguru is trying to create a fault in his flawless existence. A fault that made you so eager to avoid him, that no matter where you tried to look at it, you’re a trial for him. Would he mind if you’ll be found in front of his doorstep, soaking and looks like a real shit? Well, that’s what he was looking for! A shit to jump in! “Geto!” he looks beautiful when he opened the door for you. The spotless white shirt he was wearing is now covered with dirt. Suguru returns your action, hugging you close against his body. “What happened?” his question after closing the door. Instead of answering, you just tightened the embrace around him and bit your lips to suppress your cry. “No–nothing... I’m sorry for barging in so late at night.” You tried to sound convincing and smiled. Your hand reached for the knob but Geto pulls you back, cupping your face between his warm hands. That’s the moment you gave in, face contorting as you cried helplessly while gripping his shirt. That’s all you need. Someone who can ask with sympathy. Someone who cares. For now, Suguru seems to care for you that’s why you let yourself cried in front of him. That moment, he looks and he feels like someone you can rely on with all the shits happening around you. You told him everything in details, not missing a part of it. You slept with him in exchange of some bucks. Gave your innocence with the man you thought who deserves it and that was him, Suguru Geto. Rather than selling it with your obsessed landlord, who also threatened to kill you if you refuse to bed him, you ran for your life, escaping the hell hole you have been in. You just wanted to graduate in college, make it until graduation but life have forced you to your limit. “I would rather die than to sleep with a psycho,” you confessed to him. You needed money and without those shit, you will not make it. You were so desperate to live. So desperate for a safe environment. You couldn’t even call your parents and tell them about your misfortunes for they are as well struggling to live, to sustain their needs. “You can stay here,” suddenly he suggested. “For free. No hidden charges.” He jokes. “I will be useful.” You ensures him. “You’re already are.” Geto smiles, tucking your hair behind your right ear. 🌹🔞⚠️ Whe he says, no hidden charges, there were really not. Guess, he doesn’t like the idea of tasting the same food he had before. You have been living with him for almost a month now but he’s not making a move to you. He lends you a spacious room and that made you felt lonely and cold. There was a time when Suguru brought a woman from the engineering department and you happened to witness their make out session in the kitchen one night. You were so embarrassed then apologized to them. As of the moment, you’re in the barn house, feeding his two pet horses while wearing the dress that Geto bought for you. “Y/N–” he swallows his words upon seeing you leaning forward in one of the stables, reaching the harness to check it. Suguru grits his teeth, seeing your thighs and curves are too much for him. Suddenly, he regretted purchasing the cerulean dress that fits perfectly on you. Your throat felt dry. You were familiar with the heat oozing from his

gaze. You’ve seen that during your first time with him. He walks to you, grabbing your hand, dragging you to the second level of the barn where you were slammed against the wooden wall. You cried in pain but immediately silenced by rough and hungry kisses of Suguru. At first, you couldn’t find the will to kiss him back but by just a lick on your bottom lip, you found yourself opening up for him, tilting your head to the side to give him easy access to your mouth. “Geto... ” his name slipped from your lips, pushing your own tongue into his, determined to play with his expert ones. He hummed between the kiss, supporting your chin through his forefinger. Suguru is really tall that you had to tiptoe to reach his mouth and kiss him back with same intensity. You gathered up enough courage and Suguru, himself, didn’t saw it coming. You caught him by surprised, pulling him down to you to suck on his bottom lip and lick it afterwards. “Fuck, babe.” He breathes when you released his mouth. Time for another surprise, you guided him to the nearest storage box and motioned to sit. You stopped him in the middle because you had to remove his pants and boxers. As soon as he settled, naked, Suguru holds your hair for you when you started sucking his thing. His moans and heavy breaths filled the space and your wet sucking sounds rings louder as he guides your face up and down to his erection covered in your saliva. You raised a hand when his grip tightened on your hair, almost like crashing your mouth with his hard and thick head that had been knocking your pipe pretty hard every time he goes balls deep in your mouth. You coughed helplessly as he frees you, gagging from the overwhelming thickness of his manhood. Geto cups your face and stares at you with malice before kissing you torridly, so eager to drown you with his lips and tongue that you accepted wholeheartedly. “Can I fuck you against the wall and tie you up as well?” a part of you shivered but you didn’t say ‘no’. He takes that as a ‘yes’ so you watched yourself slowly levitating from being tied up and held possessively by Suguru’s strong arms. You gasped for air when he enters your pretty tight hole in one swift push and managed to knock against your womb. “You’re so big, Geto aah!” your head fell back, the feeling of his throbbing manhood inside you is suffocating. You gasped again, sweats rolling down your neck as you let yourself adjust from his size. Geto licks your collarbone, nipping his lips against your skin up to your neck where he gets a taste of your tears and sweats, “really? You think I’m big? I feel honoured, babe.” He sucks the hollow on your neck and pulls slowly. Your eyes widened, feeling how a simple movement can stretch your rim wide open. “Aahhnnggg~ Ge–Getooo... ” You tugged your arms against the shackles, another pain inflicted upon you. And then there’s another pain, and it was a long one. He pushes fast, stretching you inside by installing deep inside of you, causing your hips to tremble when he smacks your ass and gropes you hard. As you can noticed, Suguru was being careful not to ruin the dress, the straps were rolled down just below your shoulder and he perfectly exposes your breasts, nipplesx really hard and red. For the second time in a row, your head fell back when he dips down your chest, sucking in a nipplesx while swirling his tongue around it. Geto. Geto. You went crazy and delirious. He’s attending your needy titsx with his thirsty mouth, biting the skin around it then going back to sucking the two buds alternately like a child. When he’s done showering your bosoms with attention, Suguru goes back to pushing further inside you, pulling his shaft roughly and then again, he never gets tired rutting you with his thing, slamming your hips against his hips. He was using different paces in stretching you wide so when he feels your breathing returning to normal, he would suddenly thrust his rod in and out of you roughly, making you gasp for air. “My arms feels numb, Geto ooohhh god!” you cried again, bursting into tears

when you felt him grinding his hips against yours while unloading his jizz. He stops moving for awhile but his loads are still oozing from his tip. “Okay, babe aahh~ hold tight.” Geto says, removing the shackles then locking your arms around his neck. Just when you thought it’s over, he lays you on the dust covered floor, folds you in half, hips ramming deep as he continues spilling his seeds into your cunt. He shoots you, with his long strings of arousal, fucked hard in a breathless mating press position. You’re just a dust in Suguru Geto’s universe. 🌹 Your surrounding turned pitch black with scattered stars in the night sky. You expected the moon to smile down at you but it was the greater creation who have his eyes on you. Universe taking his time looking at a particular dust. “where are we heading to?” you asked, blinking. He stops to carry you properly in his arms before answering, “home, Y/N.” Your eyes fell to the place you’ve been to. The door was left unlocked. “You forgot to lock the barn, Geto.” “They would not think of escaping, babe. They’re drawn to me and they are loyal to me.” You turned to the night sky once again, mesmerized by its beauty, you asked him a weird question, “since the door isn’t locked, then I’m free to go whenever I want to?” “Well, if it’s about you leaving my land, then expect some changes in the security. I can be selfish at times, Y/N.” “What do you meant by that, Geto?” “I just don’t think I’m capable of letting you go anymore.” ❤️

[13uswntimagines]

Stubborn Protection (USWNT x injured!Reader)

Requested by @Laikato : Reader is the baby of the team and goes injured to a camp and the team finds out and help her and get protective like they won't allow anyone near her they don't know. 

You shrugged uncomfortably on the locker room bench, tugging on the compression shirt that the medical team had demanded you wear for practice. It normally wouldn’t have been a problem. Compression short sleeve shirts and tank tops were a normal part of life on the USWNT, however, the shirt that you had chosen had long sleeves in an attempt to prevent the team from seeing the stitches that lined your arms. Seeing as it was July in Huston the team was sending you various disapproving looks. 

You trusted them sure, but you really didn’t want to have to deal with their overprotectiveness today. You were the baby of the team, having been called up just days after your 17th birthday. This meant that the team oftentimes took their protective streaks too far. Yes, you were young, but you weren’t an infant, and you knew that if the team realized why you had been avoiding them for the two weeks leading up to camp, their overbearingness would be on a whole other level. 

You sighed, tugging again at the sleeves that were rubbing uncomfortably against the stitches, and trying to prevent a wince as you brought your leg up to tie your cleats. 

“Short stack, you sure you want to practice in long sleeves today? It’s like a billion degrees outside,” Tobin asked plopping down on the bench next to you and throwing her arm over your shoulder. You rolled your eyes at one of your self-declared team moms as she pinched the thin material of your shirt with disdain. 

“Yeah, I’m good. Means I don’t need sunscreen,” You smirked, wiggling your eyebrows at the woman. She pouted, as she turned to your other team mom Christen. It wasn’t a secret that one Tobin Heath hated sunscreen, and if a long sleeve shirt could get her out of having to use the goopy substance, then perhaps the heat was worth it. 

“Yeah, but you’ll sweat to death,” Christen huffed, sending her wife a disapproving glance, and coming up behind you to rub your back. 

“I’ll be fine,” You shrugged, steeling yourself before you tried to stand up. You didn’t need the women to know that every movement caused you a tremendous amount of pain. They would probably throw a fit and prevent you from doing more than knocking a ball for the goalies. Soccer was your life and without it, you didn’t know what you would do. 

“Y/n you can’t wear long sleeves in 100-degree heat. We don’t need you passing out on the field,” Christen tried again, tugging on the bottom hem of your shirt, and holding up your favorite tank top. You bit your lip. Yes, you hated long sleeves, but the consequences of not wearing them were too great. 

“Guys just leave it, alright! I’ll be fine,” You mumbled, shoving your way past the women and heading for the field shaking your head. 

“We need to keep an eye on her,” Kelley said firmly, watching you go with a worried frown. The remaining women nodded. Your behavior was odd, and they were going to get to the bottom of it. 

****

You panted lightly as you jogged back into position, cursing under your breath as you wiped the sweat from your brow. Christen wasn’t joking, it was fucking steaming out here. Though you loved scrimmages, being against both Emily and Kelley wasn’t something that you were particularly enjoying right now. 

You were hot, and your entire chest was aching and it was only halfway through practice. You placed both hands on the back of your head, ignoring the burn in your ribs at the stretch, trying to get some much-needed oxygen to your lungs. 

“Baby, you have to take this off, you’re overheating,” Christen murmured as she came up beside you, rubbing your back. 

“I’m fine,” You spat back, moving to pull away. This was hard enough as it was, you didn’t need any more reasons to stop. 

“No, you’re not.” Kelley insisted as she too came up beside you. Your cheeks were flushed bright red and sweat was pouring from your face. That and you were slower and slower to get up with each tackle she or Emily did. 

“I can’t,” You growled, shaking off their comforting hands. Both women’s eyebrows furrowed. They all had their moments of insecurity, but this seemed a little excessive. You were never shy about wearing tank tops before, so why was this so different? What had changed?

“You know we’ll never judge you,” Christen tried again, sharing a very concerned look with Kelley, and trying to grab your shoulder to force you to look at her. 

“I can’t practice if I don’t wear it,” You mumbled, jogging back to your position, and blatantly ignoring the worried looks the women around you were sharing. 

****

The game seemed to calm down a little bit after that, all of the defenders on the opposing backing off just slightly at Kelley’s instructions. That was until Lindsey threaded a cross through a space left by Sam and Rose, right to you. You being the amazing striker that you were, collected said ball, weaving past Kelley and setting up a shot right towards Alyssa in goal. You were almost there, almost ready to take the shot when you were swept cleanly off your feet by Emily. 

You tumbled to the ground, the wind leaving you and a sharp pain shooting through your chest. You rolled from your back onto your stomach, clutching your middle. You dug your forehead into the hot turf, tears pouring down your face. “Holy fuck,” You groaned.

“Shit, you ok baby bear?” Emily’s panic voice broke through your pain, as insistent hands tried to force you to turn over. 

“Ow,” You gasped as you were forced to roll over, squinting up at the worried looks of your teammates. 

“Hold on short stack, the medics are coming,” Tobin murmured, pulling your head into her lap. You whimpered, at the light jostle. Your teammates shushed you, running soothing fingers through your hair. 

“Y/n is it your ribs or something else?” The medic asked as he kneeled beside you, trying to push the crowd of women out of the way to be able to inspect you. You nodded lightly, as Christen brushed a few tears off of your cheeks. 

“RIBS!!!!” The women around you exclaimed as Kelley tried to pull up your shirt to get a better look at the area. A gasp resounded around the group as the bruised skin was revealed, along with several small lacerations. 

“Guys you have to move so we can help her,” The medic grumbled, gently moving the women out of the way. He carefully began to inspect your stomach and ribs, pressing as lightly as he could to make sure that none of your cracked ribs had fractured. He motioned to Vlatko on the sidelines that you weren’t going to walk off the field. 

“Tell us what’s happening!” Christen exclaimed with gritted teeth, glaring down at you. Why had you hidden this from them? You had such a desire to be the best that you would push past your physical limits to make everyone else proud. 

“I was in a car accident about a week before camp. A drunk driver blew a red and hit me and my friend,” You murmured, sending a sorry look towards the women. 

“And you tried to hide this, why?” Tobin asked, sending you a hurt look. You frowned and looked away from the women. 

“I didn’t want you guys to baby me more than you already do,” You said almost too quietly for them to hear, groaning in pain when the medic pressed on a particularly tender spot. 

“You can guarantee that kid,” Lindsey laughed with an eye roll. She was your roommate in Portland and knew how much the women could drive you crazy. 

“Let’s get you back to the locker room,” The medic said softly as he helped you sit up, only to be brushed away by Christen and Tobin. 

“We got it,” Tobin nodded at the man as they helped you stand and begin limping your way back towards the locker room. 

****

All you wanted was to shower in peace. To let the warm water soothe your aching ribs and rinse the sticky sweat from your skin. But here you were, standing in the shower room in a staredown with your favorite blond midfielder. 

“I can shower by myself,” You grumbled, pulling the towel tighter around you. You didn’t need the women to stand there and make sure you didn’t pass out or something. You weren’t and invalid. 

“You have a major rib injury and you just got tackled, I’m standing here to make sure you don’t pass out or something,” She glared back, leaning against the opposite wall. She had been placed on babysitting duty as you couldn’t be trusted to tell them how much actual pain you were in, or to know your limits. All they needed right now was for you to get a concussion in the shower on top of all of the other injuries you possed. 

“Hey, I need to look at Y/n when she-“ A man that Lindsey didn’t recognize said as he entered the room, staring down at his clipboard. 

“Who the fuck are you and why are you in here!? Tobin!!” Lindsey called over her shoulder, staring daggers at the man who was most definitely in the wrong place. Tobin came running, having been stationed outside of the shower room in case Lindsey needed help with you. 

“Hey buddy, I think you’re in the wrong place,” She growled as she entered the room, spotting the man who obviously didn’t realize the situation he was stepping into. She grabbed his shirt and pinned him against the wall. 

“Medical sent me!!! Vlatko said they needed to check Y/n out. Please don’t kill me,” He squeaked, holding his hands up in surrender. Tobin shared a glance with Lindsey before letting the man go and shooing him out of the room. 

“We’ll take her when she’s done,” She said pushing him lightly towards the door. 

“He told-“ The man started, planting his feet and attempting to turn around. Vlatko had been very adamant that you get checked by medical after you had changed. 

“I’m telling you that we’ll handle it,” Tobin said firmly, placing a hand on his shoulder and dragging him out of the room so you could shower in peace. 

******

You had conceded to allowing Lindsey to stand outside the stall while you showered, but being carried to the bus was where you drew the line. The vets had insisted that you shouldn’t be walking after Dawn had taped your ribs, and you honestly didn’t mind that much if it meant you got to cuddle into Alyssa for the time being (her cuddles were the best). But the problem came when you saw the group of fans lining the barricade between the stadium and the bus. 

“Let me say hi,” You whined into Alyssa’s shoulder, and the team rolled their eyes around you. You were hurt and there was no way they were going to risk a bad fan encounter while you were in suck fragile condition 

“You need to rest kid,” Tobin murmured, running a hand down your back, and sending you a sorry smile. She knew how important fan interactions were to you. 

“Guys, I’m fine,” You huffed, wiggling in an attempt to escape Alyssa’s grasp. She tightened her hold on you to prevent you from hurting yourself further. 

“You’re outvoted baby bear,” Christen sent you a sad smile, and you huffed. 

“Hey at least you get to cuddle me for the movie,” Kelley said as she jogged up beside you, trying to lighten your mood a little. 

“Disney?” You asked with a pout, the corners of your lips tilting up at the sound of your team’s laughter. 

“Always,” They smiled your way, glad that you seemed to have given in to their coddling for now. They knew that you would try to buck their system at some point when you got tired of their overprotectiveness, but for now, they would just keep their watchful eye and enjoy your happy mood.

[thetaoofzoe]

FIC: Syverson the Protector Pt 4

*   Syverson The Protector - Part I (pairing Syverson x YOU)

*   Syverson the Protector - Part II (pairing Syverson x YOU)

*   Syverson the Protector - Part III  (pairing Syverson x YOU)

Summary: You are an embedded journalist and on a mission, everything goes wrong. The two of you have made it to safety and now it’s time for the healing to begin. 

Rating for this part: Budding romance, Fluff, medical related content, I’ve picked ‘Henry’ as Syverson’s first name and he’s grown his hair out :D

Must be read in order, no part can stand alone. I expect to have at most,  two more parts, 5 and concluding in 6. 

Word count: 2293

Want to read more? Click for my Masterlist

Lying flat on his back, Syverson stared morosely at the ceiling and listened to the gentle thwapping sounds of the bedside machine that was currently and eagerly siphoning fluids out of his intestines. He let his mind tick over what the machine was actually doing to him and blearily considered why he wasn’t in constant pain from the electronic manipulation of his own vulnerable flesh.

Surely those plastic tubes driven into his guts should hurt, right?

Sure, you’re right, his mind chattered, a little giddy to be imparting an unknown bit of information, but consider this: morphine – a wounded man’s best friend.

My best friend, he thought and then as if the devil knew it was being called, another machine beeped and a flood of soft luscious haziness rushed into his bloodstream and he immediately relaxed. This tired mind drifted and it didn’t take long for him to slip back into sleep.

Hours later, Syverson startled out of a clinging and sticky dream with a desperate gasp. He felt hot all over, stiff and aching and the very thought of trying to move elicited a terrible pain response. Hot, oily bile crept up in his throat and his mouth watered in that awful familiar process of preparing him to violently empty his stomach.

I have to sit up, his brain screamed. I have to sit up. I don’t want to puke still lying on my back!

A broad cool hand pressed down on his chest and another closed about his shoulder. Someone was speaking but he couldn’t make out the words through the heavy veiling fog that enveloped him. He tried to speak to the person, and tried to tell them that he was going to be sick.

‘It’s ok, Henry,’ a voice was telling him. ‘You’re ok. I’ll help you roll onto your side if you need to vomit.’

Swallowing jerkily, throat working hard to force the urge back down, Syverson clamped his teeth and shook his head.

‘All right. How about we move you a bit. Are you ok with that?’

Move? God no. I can’t bear that. Moving meant pain.

He shook his head again, but the warm voice came back to him, sounding much more insistent this time.

‘I can help you, Henry, or I’ll put the positioner in bed with you and it will make you move. We want to prevent pressure sores, remember?’

Syverson took in a breath and after a moment nodded to show that he understood. When the man leaned in close, Syverson could smell his cologne. It was a pleasant and fresh woodsy scent that reminded him of his cabin back home. A sudden homesick ache tightened his chest and tears wet his dry eyes. He didn’t like feeling that way, but everything seemed to be out of his control now. He hated it.

Nevertheless, he put his arms around the man’s shoulders and gritted his teeth when his body was repositioned and stretched out again on the stiff mattress.

He gasped and couldn’t believe how out of breath such a small exertion had left him. But, he noted, he did feel better and the nausea had subsided.

The urge to eat suddenly struck him and he blinked up at the nurse.

‘What time is it?’ he rasped, voice rusty from disuse.

‘You hungry?’ asked the nurse with a grin.

‘Yeah, I could eat,’ he answered, wriggling a little to get more comfortable in the pillows under his head.

‘I can get you something, but it’s after breakfast and not quite lunch.’

Syverson nodded. He didn’t care. He just wanted to eat.

‘Fries and a coke, then,’ he said closing his eyes and grinning a little.

The nurse laughed and gently patted his shoulder condescendingly. With the state of Syverson’s gut, there was no way he was going to survive ingesting any amount of carbonation. That little fact didn’t stop the cravings though.

‘I’ll see if there’s some soup still left. I think it’s chicken.’

When he was alone again, the memories came back. After the jeep explosion, he was sure that he was going to die out in that sandy wasteland. Had it not been for you, he was sure that he would have died. Had it not been for the beautiful, plucky reporter, some stony faced military man would be paying his parents a visit to inform them of their youngest son’s passing and that his body would be flown home for burial.

Instead, he had been saved. And when he found that you’d been housed in the civilian wing of the hospital, he wanted to see you. He wanted to thank you for saving his life. When visiting you was denied, considering the fragile state of the both of you, Syverson had instructed that the well stocked gift shop be bought out and carted to your room, all with his heartfelt thanks.

He owed you his life. A few flowers and a couple of teddy bears was the least he could do.

The plastic and faux wood table rattled next to him and snapped Syverson out of his muse. He opened his eyes and watched as the nurse positioned the table over his bed and put down a ceramic bowl of steaming soup. He groaned and strained a little to help himself up into a sitting position.

The nurse was distracted and looking down into his other hand.

‘I ran into your girlfriend’s nurse in the hallway and she gave me this to give to you.’

God, he sounded so smug and Syverson wanted to punch him square in the face.

Girlfriend?

His brain searched for a face to put to the name but came up empty. He’d broken up with his ex more than five years ago, right before his latest deployment. And then it clicked.

The reporter. You.

The nurse handed the card to Syverson and upon seeing it, his heart sank. It was the same envelope that he’d sent along with the gifts. Had you refused his outpouring of affection? He slowly opened the envelope and breathed out with relief when he saw the new message that had been written for him.

He didn’t want to smile at the note in front of the gossipy nurse, as he didn’t want to encourage any nonsense rumours, so he kept his elated reaction to himself. But inside his heart soared and the soup tasted better than anything he’d ever eaten before.

**

The day that you both championed and dreaded finally arrived. The day you could get out of bed on your own and walk down to the men’s wing to pay your captain a visit. He had come a long way, you’d heard from the nurse, but would still have trouble doing any taxing travelling. However you were well enough to make the trip.

‘That is, if you still want to,’ said your nurse with a glint in her eye.

Oh, she thinks she’s funny, does she?

You sighed luxuriously and stretched back on your pillows. You’d managed to wrangle an extra set so that you could prop yourself up like a royal lady taking in visitors for the afternoon. You ran the edge of your thumbnail across the thick scar skirting the side of your left palm, scratching it lightly but thoroughly. You had recently had your bandages removed and the sight of your hands was shocking. The backs of your hands had taken the brunt of the burns and they were wrinkled with scar tissue which butted up against new skin growth. A daily cream was a must to keep the tissue from tightening up and preventing normal usage of your hand. You scooped up a handful of the waxy smelling stuff and massaged it into your hands as your nurse watched you expectantly.

Her expression fell a bit when you didn’t answer right away.

Serves her right, you thought, casually kneading fingertips into the palm of your opposite hand.

‘I mean, you don’t have to, if you’ve changed your mind.’

She picked at a bright yellow rose bud that had fallen off of one of the new crops of flower bouquets. Henry had made sure to keep you flush with fresh beautiful flowers. You had to draw the line at the character balloons, and had to tell him that he should stop sending them because the hollow sounds of them knocking together at night was creepy and it kept you awake.

‘I haven’t changed my mind, Barb,’ you said and gave her a smile.

I feel like I’ve been waiting my whole life to see him again.

‘Well, good. He’s been asking after you… like… constantly now.’

You said nothing, but a tiny grin stretched your lips.

Constantly?

‘We can whip out the chair and wheel you over there after lunch.’

Your heart leaped with sudden and visceral terror.

It’s soon. So soon. Too soon! Today?

You swallowed hard and felt your face heat with uncertain embarrassment.

‘S-sure.’

‘Ok, I’ll reserve one and be back in a few hours.’

Barb turned around and left the room. You could hear her chuckling as if this matchmaking was the best thing that had happened to her all year.

You sat up in bed, greasy hands limp in your lap and you made a face when you sniffed at yourself under your hospital gown. No way were you going to present yourself to Henry, or anyone else who would be in the day room, looking like you’d been in an accident.

Heaven forfend.

So, you washed carefully and put on the pale peach coloured long-sleeved pyjama set you’d received from the Ladies’ Supply. The Ladies’ Supply was an organisation of volunteer women who ensured the dignity and comfort of women at the military hospital through social visits, clothing donations and other feminine needs.

You did your hair the best you could and whiled away the hours until you heard the squeaky wheelchair being rolled into your room. With heart crashing excitedly against your ribs, you perched delicately on it and Barb rolled you away.

**

The day room was spacious and welcoming and abuzz with activity. Some of the men were still hooked to IVs and sitting by the wide windows and others who were more capable were dispersed amongst the tables either reading or playing cards or just talking with each other. There were also some women in there, so you didn’t feel like you were entering the lion’s den. You spotted Henry by one of the card tables and you wanted to put your feet down on the floor to stop Barb from rolling you right up to his side. Unfortunately, you didn’t do it in time and when you squeaked to an unceremonious halt at the edge of the table, he glanced up from his cards.

The look on his face when he recognised you was one that you would store in your memory for an eternity. He put the cards face down on the table and made to stand up. You immediately put up your hands to stop him.

‘No, no, don’t get up, you don’t–‘

But, he had already struggled to push himself up and out of the chair and you didn’t want to take that victory from him. You stood up as well, ready to give a firm friendly handshake, or a paltry pat on the shoulder but he had other intentions. He dragged you into his arms, and crushed you to his meaty chest, before you could manage to say, hello.

When he finally let you go, you both went back to your respective seats, feeling overwhelmed by the perfect greeting.

Grinning at him, you made a gesture to your own head.

‘Your hair… it’s all curly!’

The last time you’d seen him, his hair was shorn right to the head, and there was really no hint as to the texture or really even the true colour. So it surprised you to see a neatly clipped mop of glossy brown curls. Henry put a self conscious hand into his hair and ruffled his fingers through it.

‘I like it,’ you assured him, hoping to put him at ease. ‘I like it a lot.’

Grabby hair, your brain chittered. Perfect length for grabbing.

With that the two men who had been playing cards with him at the table, picked up and left, taking the not so subtle hint that they should leave the two of you alone.

‘I’m glad to see you. Finally,’ he said, wincing a little when he shifted in the chair.

‘Does it still hurt?’ you asked, reaching out to put your hands over his on the table.

‘I’m getting over it,’ he said, dodging the question effortlessly.

He turned his hands up to hold onto yours and you felt as shy as a virgin on a first date. So, what could you do but make a joke the break the tension.

‘I mean… if I had to get blown up to get a date with you in a hospital day room, don’t know if I would do it again. Ehh, I probably would.’

Your eyes swept up to his and he stared at you a moment, puzzled and when you gave him a little hesitant smile, Henry started to laugh. The sound it lit you up with happiness and then the awkwardness was broken.

You spent about an hour chatting and if you were honest, most of it was spent flirting, until you started to feel tired.

You didn’t want to overstay your welcome and he seemed disappointed (much to your juvenile delight) when you said that you were leaving.

‘Tomorrow then?’ he asked, big blue eyes bright and eager, his hands unwilling to let you go again.

‘Yes, tomorrow.’

-End part 4

[thosewickedlovelies]

AND THEY WERE WALLMATES: Cookies (part 2)

Pairing: Javier Peña x F!Reader

Rating: T for mature themes (implications of sexy times and violence). It will go up later ;)

Summary: You share an apartment wall with Javier Peña, but that doesn’t make it any easier to get to know him. You didn’t think your baking would be the catalyst.

Javi and Reader continue to get to know each other.

Tags: Mention of blood, super vague description of wound care. Additional TW for Javi: the Mortifying Ordeal of Being Known.

Word Count: 3,484

A/N: I was NOT expecting the amount of enthusiasm I got for the first chapter, but I’m so grateful for it!! I struggled a little bit with this chapter because it was the only one I didn’t have a solid plan for lol, but here it is because I’m impatient to share (and also tired of looking at it). I promise the next few will be better ;)

Masterlist

---

The next evening, you give yourself a stern pep talk before going to knock on Javier’s door. Javi, you remind yourself. You’re here to check on his leg, assuming he needs you to.

The door swings open much more readily than it had the night before, and Javier appears, an expectant half-smile curling the corner of his mouth. “Neighbor,” he drawls. Despite the new air of informality about him, his eyes hold a familiar suggestion that makes your heart sink a little. Back to his customary flirting, then.

“Hi, Javier,” you say, more coolly than you had originally planned. “I came over to see if you wanted me to check on your leg. I just kind of assumed that you would have the right supplies and stuff when I was giving you instructions last night, but if you don’t I can give you some, change the bandage for you. The first few days of healing are the most critical,” you explain, willing yourself to cut off your own rambling.

He examines your face for a second, the ready welcome fading. “Why do I get the feeling this check-up is more for you than for me?” He hitches an amused eyebrow back up, stepping back to let you in.

Over the threshold you cross your arms. “I don’t know, did you want your secret stab wound to get infected?”

He puts his hand on his hips with the beginning of a disbelieving frown. “It wasn’t a stab,” he grumbles defensively, with all the dignity of a petulant child.

You roll your eyes at his assertive posturing. “I know. I examined it.” Javier doesn’t move, though it couldn’t be comfortable maintaining such a wide-legged stance in those tight jeans. Your lips twitch the slightest bit as you take in your normally composed neighbor, his conflicted moue suggesting he’s been thrown off.

Taking pity on him, you borrow a page from his communication manual, nodding to a chair. “Come on. Pants off,” you deadpan, letting just a hint of your amusement show.

His expression starts out relieved, then cycles through several emotions in the space of the next second (albeit extremely subtly). He seems to freeze momentarily. “Uh, if you’ll just excuse me for one second, I’ll have these off for you in no time.” He winks, which would be charming if it weren’t Javier and he didn’t look like he had forgotten something important, and hastily strides toward the bedrooms.

Mystified, you look around, curious about the man despite his unpredictable demeanor. The apartment looks comfortably lived-in, yet there’s a distinct lack of personal effects, creating an odd contrast. There’s an empty takeout container by the sink, but you aren’t fooled by that- very occasionally, you’ve smelled amazing things coming from this kitchen. You wonder what sparks his culinary inspiration.

A throat clears behind you and you jump. You hadn’t heard Javi return, but there he stands by the dining room table, the fly of his jeans already gaping. He quirks a brow at you. “See anything interesting?” he asks, tipping his head to indicate the apartment. Apparently at ease, he begins to remove his jeans, and you avert your gaze, a flush creeping up your neck.

What? You saw people in all states of nudity every day at the hospital; why should you be flustered now? Annoyed, you busy yourself sorting through supplies while he sits down,

though not before he pulls out a chair for you.

Just like the previous night, he waits until you’re almost finished working to speak. “How did you know I was in pain last night? I didn’t think I made much noise.” His eyes are narrowed, like it’s something that’s been bothering him.

You reflect on your answer before giving it. “You...moved like you were in pain. Slowly, shuffling. And...you made a noise once you closed the door. I heard it, you know, through the wall.” You admit the last part with your eyes down, focusing on adhering tape to his skin.

“Through the wall, huh.” Something in Javier’s husky voice makes you glance up. He looks contemplative, dark eyes studying you thoughtfully. He angles his head down toward you. “What else do you hear through the wall?”

You’ve walked into a trap of your own making. Those daring insinuations are back in his eyes, but you can’t escape to your apartment in the middle of changing a bandage. So you answer truthfully: “I hear you cook sometimes. Smell you cook sometimes,” you correct yourself brightly. “What do you make that always smells so good, Javier?” You meet his gaze with deliberate innocence, although you would genuinely like to know.

His expression shutters, and he leans back in the chair again. “Food,” he mutters. “Stuff I learned a long time ago.”

An unexpectedly real answer; you quash the intense curiosity it provokes. Not wanting to pry too much, too soon, you just snicker in response. “Food, huh? I think I’ve heard of that.” His attention snaps back to you, but you just let him brood as you finish with his leg.

This time when you stand, you linger over your supplies, leaving some out for him and explaining things to watch out for. “I’ll come by again tomorrow night, but it should be fine as long as you don’t aggravate it,” you conclude. 

“Well, non-aggravating is my middle name.” Javier gives you a winning smile, one that probably would have passed the muster of anyone who hadn’t heard the mocking edge in his voice.

A laugh sputters out of you. “Is that so? I’ll be sure to tell Connie next time I’m over there.”

Something like fascination sparks in his eyes, a hunger he can’t hide propelling him to lean forward. “Oh? You two ladies talk about me?” 

Your lips purse as your mind races through suitable responses. “Well, I had to get the dirt on my mysterious neighbor from somewhere,” you say lightly. Because it sure wasn’t coming from him. Yet the longer you spent in his company, the more you found you wanted to know.

“Hm.” A huff is his only response. His shoulders relax against the chair back as he returns to regarding you wordlessly, but in a distinctly more agreeable way.

You suppress a smile as you pick up your bag. “Well. Goodnight, Javi.”

--

Almost a week after your last checkup, Javier grinds his cigarette butt into the ground and flicks a last glance at your window. He and Steve had arrived home at the same time, so he’d stalled with the excuse of a smoke outside, knowing that if he entered his own apartment, he’d lose his nerve. Gritting his teeth, he limps up the stairs and to your door. He knocks.

The noise of the tv cuts off, and a moment later, you open the door. You blink in surprise. “Javi! What are you doing here?” Concern clouds your face as you take in his rumpled appearance.

The words lodge in his throat. “I, uh. I need your help,” he admits, dragging his gaze up from the floor. “Banged my leg at work today. Think I opened it up again...thought I should let you take a look at it.” He couldn’t stop imagining your reaction if you found out he hadn’t.

Your eyes widen, and you immediately step back to let him in. “Of course! Please, here-” You offer your arm, but Javier has enough pride this time to make it to your dining room table without help. When he looks up you’ve vanished, dashed off to your stash of medical supplies, he assumes.

He takes the opportunity to look around. Your place is cute, homey-feeling, because of course it is. He notes, however, that most of the decoration has been locally bought, and curiosity needles at him. Nothing more personal to bring with you? He gets a fleeting glimpse of the bottle of wine on the coffee table before you return.

“...sorry about that, I don’t know why I stashed this away so well when I knew you might need it again.” Your setup is a familiar scene by now. You keep glancing over at his blood-stained bandage, frowning worriedly, and he wonders how you can be so damn caring when it’s clear he’s interrupted your evening.

He makes a sound of disgust. “Nah, this was a stupid accident,” he says, annoyed all over again. “Normal, routine chase after some narco, but I slid against a wall that had some shit sticking out of it at just the wrong spot.”

Your eyes leap to his in shock, and too late he remembers that Connie gave you the ‘janitorial services’ line. You don’t ask though, pressing your lips together and determinedly refocusing on peeling off the bandage, and Javi can’t help but feel a twinge of respect.

Well, someone in the building would tell you sooner or later. “I’m an agent of the DEA,” he says, monitoring your reaction. “Since you were about to ask.”

You straighten indignantly. “I was not!” you protest, before you see the lazy gleam in his eye and realize he’s joking. You roll your eyes reproachfully, but the press of your lips now looks amused. “I just thought there was probably a reason Connie didn’t tell me.” Javier winces as you gently prod at his injury.

“Well, what’s one more secret between neighbors?” He winks conspiratorially at you. Just like the last time, however, it gets minimal reaction, and it confounds and intrigues him in equal measure. Women usually respond to his efforts. Even if there’s no real intention, he likes seeing them get a little flustered, likes the feeling of having influence, control. And women don’t seem to mind.

But you...you resisted. Javier doesn’t know why, but you don’t react to his usual charm in the ways he’d come to expect. He’s sure you don’t dislike him- but he’s not exactly sure what he’s doing to make you like him, either. There was something...enticing about it.

The familiar feeling of your fingers smoothing tape along his thigh brings him back to the present. He tries not pay too much attention to it, knowing that it would be extremely asshole timing to pop a boner.

“Well, you should be all set. Again.” You look sympathetic, not resentful, and Javier nods, suddenly feeling awkward. How could he possibly make up all of this up to you?

“Just- try to be careful, okay? You don’t have to hurt yourself as an excuse to hang out with me.” Out of nowhere you’re teasing him, with a line to rival some of his worst. His eyebrows raise, and he chuckles as he dips his head.

“I’ll keep that in mind.” He gets to his feet. “...Thank you,” he says gruffly, hoping he’s conveying even a tiny amount of how much he means it. “Enjoy your evening.” He doesn’t let himself look back as he heads for the door.

--

Steve and Connie have invited you to a movie night. Or at least, Connie has. You assume the invite comes from both of them, even if a movie night doesn’t seem like something Steve would initiate.

“Javi will be there too,” Connie had informed you nonchalantly, but she watched intently for your reaction.

You hadn’t even blinked. “Great!” you said easily- until you realized the opportunity this presented and beamed. “What should I make?”

Which is how you end up standing outside her door, one floor up, holding a plate of cookies. You were glad now that you decided to make them today and not yesterday- finishing them barely 20 minutes ago had effectively given you no time to tailspin about what to wear or how you were supposed to act around Javi. Or rather, Javi and Steve and Connie, since although you and Javi had a secret, it was not what they’d imagine it to be.

Connie answers the door, and that’s definitely not a twinge of disappointment you feel, because why would Javier have answered the door of someone else’s house?

“Hey, come in!” Connie gushes. She waggles her eyebrows meaningfully at the plate in your hands. “What are those, and what are you drinking with them?”

Her easy familiarity grounds you. “Whatever you’ve got,” you reply, some of your nerves settling. Your friend leads you to the kitchen, where Steve and Javi stand continuing some conversation at the bar counter.

“The party has arrived, boys!” She announces. “I told you all that smell was for us.” She winks at you, a bottle already in hand to pour you a drink.

“Welcome, welcome,” Steve greets in his easygoing way, gesturing with his beer to encompass the apartment as a whole.

You smile in thanks, your eyes flitting briefly to Javier. He hasn’t said anything yet, but there’s a loose relaxation to him you haven’t seen before, a softness playing on his lips as he absorbs the scene. It’s similar, you realize, to the moment when he complimented your lemon cake, the first time you felt like you were meeting the real him.

This observation only takes a heartbeat to sink in. Tucking it away to examine later, you shyly lift the plate and set it in the middle of everyone. “She‘s right,” you confirm, peeling off the plastic wrap. “Peanut butter cookies.” The next few seconds are spent in an expectant semi-quiet as everyone takes a cookie and savors the first bite.

“Mmm,” someone sighs, and the dam breaks. A flurry of compliments all around, new threads of conversation bursting forth. You absorb it gratefully, relieved at their enthusiastic response and happy to have been able to contribute. You try not to react to Javier’s eyes on you.

The ice broken, you all chat and drink around the bar for a bit, before Connie declares that it’s movie time, leading everyone to the living room. Before following them, Javier grabs the plate of cookies. “We’ll just take these with us,” he says decisively, and you take it as a compliment.

It’s the first time he���s addressed you directly since you arrived, and there’s a knowing glint in his eye. “By all means,” you respond pleasantly, meeting his gaze. Taking your tenuous first step in sharing the establishment of a public-facing persona to your relationship (such that it is).

In your delay, Connie and Steve appear to have gotten into a hissed discussion, standing between the couch and the loveseat. Connie whirls around as you and Javi approach, fixing a smile to her face. She waves you over to the smaller sofa. “Come on, we get to snuggle up on the loveseat, so the big men have more room to spread out.” She aims a cool faux-glare at her husband, but a glimmer of real frustration prevents it from being believably fake.

Steve sends Javi a long-suffering, apologetic look. “Sounds cozy,” you chirp, mediating before anyone else can say anything. “So what are we watching?”

At this, Steve’s face lights up with a grin that almost makes you wary. He takes great delight in announcing the selection, some military action flick with “enough drama and hunky actors to keep the ladies entertained as well,” apparently.

“A true classic.” Javier nods sagely from his sprawled seat on the couch, his smirking grin suggesting that it was not at all true. Steve kneels to put the tape in, and as he and Javi continue to snigger over it, Javi shoots a self-conscious glance in your direction, his posture shifting.

Connie sighs. “They’ve done a few of these now. I should warn you that it’s less about watching the movie than it is about bonding over making fun of it,” she confides.

You keep the two men in the corner of your vision as you turn to reply to your friend, feeling warm with gratitude at being included. “That’s okay,” you assure her. “It’s a good bonding activity.”

Connie smiles, but seems distracted. She lowers her voice to speak again. “I should also tell you that they make fun of it because they know how government/military stuff really works. From their job at the embassy.” She seems unsure if she should say any more.

“Oh!” You realize that Connie has no way of knowing about your conversations with Javi. “I know. I mean, Javier told me. What they do.” 

Connie looks amazed. “Javier told you? When?” Her voice drops to just above a whisper.

“Recently,” you hedge. “I was, um, helping him with something, and it slipped out.” No point in getting him in trouble. 

Connie looks ready to burst, but before she can say anything the tv blares, and Steve pointedly declares that it’s starting.

You settle in for the mock-fest, and sure enough, the men don’t disappoint. It’s hard to follow what’s actually going on through their exasperated groaning, but you don’t mind. Their back-and-forth is just as entertaining, and you even manage to join in occasionally during the medical scenes.

Throughout it all, you surreptitiously watch Javier. His opening up is a slow-building thing, like he can’t decide how much of himself to reveal. He steals frequent glances at you, as if trying to judge what you’re thinking of him in this new context. But he can’t pretend to be his usual lascivious self in front of Steve and Connie, and all at once he seems to decide to just be, and damned if you don’t like it.

You don’t let on that you’ve been paying such attention, only teasing and acting like you normally would around friends. But you can’t help but respond to the way Javi’s eyes crinkle when he smiles; to the hard-won sound of his laugh, sending pleasant tingles down your spine. With other things for him to focus on besides you, you’re able to observe him more freely, noticing things you hadn’t before.

When the movie finally ends, you and Javier stand to leave, managing to only after Connie extracts ironclad promises from the both of you to do this again. The tentative banter you’d fallen into in the apartment carries you down the stairs; it felt rather like you were still creating the steps to a dance in which you weren’t quite sure if you were competitors or partners.

He walks you to your door. “It’s like eight steps down the hall, Javier.” It’s sweet, despite your objection.

“A lot can happen in eight steps,” he counters, undeterred.

At the door, he murmurs your name. You look at him in surprise when he takes your hand, even as your body sings from the warmth of his attention. “I don’t believe I’ve thanked you for all your help yet.” He brings your hand to his mouth and presses his lips to your skin. Softly, lingering. “Properly, that is.” In his hooded eyes is a brazen offer.

His mustache brushes more softly than you would have thought, and your mind immediately leaps to imagine what it would feel like against your mouth. Heat flares within you at the thought, but you pull your hand free and step back from him. You can see his thoughts slow, reorganize at your retreat.

“You don’t have to thank me with sex, Javier.” It would be lying to say you hadn’t considered this possibility; you place each word with care, knowing that any future relationship you might have with Javier would depend on his response to this conversation. “I didn’t help you as an excuse to sleep with you.”

It wasn’t that you weren’t interested in sex with him, exactly. The truth was...you didn’t want to be done with him yet. You wanted to learn more about him, uncover all the little things that made him him behind the gruff armor. But if you agreed to be seduced by him tonight, it would send the opposite message. That all he had been to you was a debt that was now paid.

Javier looks befuddled, the furrow in his brow deepening as his listens. Your next words come out sounding more practiced. “If that’s all you want from me then fine, but...friendship is good too, you know? Friends are a thing people have.” Your gaze drops briefly, a flicker of embarrassment overtaking you. But you’re determined to make him understand that this isn’t a blanket rejection.

His expression turns frustratingly inscrutable as he digests this. “Right.” Slowly he nods, shifting away from your door.

“Just- think about what I said, Javi. Okay?” No pity in your voice, only a soft, steady plea.

Javier continues to nod as he backs away. “Sure,” he replies, step by step, toward his own home. “Buenas noches, Vecina.” Good night, Neighbor.

In a twisted reversal of your usual roles, you watch him walk the length of the hall. A contemplative saunter, hands sliding into his pockets to retrieve a cigarette.

You can only hope you said the right thing.

---

A/N: In the first scene, Javi left the room to go put on underwear lmao.

Fic Taglist: @din-damn-djarin​, @thirstworldproblemss​ 

[nonobadcat]

Yandere All For One X F! Reader - A Hypnotic Nightmare: Chapter 26 Excerpt

Story rating: Explicit

TW: Rape/Noncon. GORE (non-reader directed). Highly mentally and sexually abusive relationship. This story is absolutely not for minors and readers should consult the warnings/tags at the top before reading.

Read the entire story at: Archive of Our Own

"Lobo!"  Shigaraki called, waving to the man in front of him. "I had hoped you'd be by to talk at some point."

Beyond your companion stood a two and a half meter tall manbeast made of ripping muscles which strained against a torn white wife-beater. He had pointed white ears, claws hands, and a large bushy tail which swished back and forth behind his jeans. As Shigaraki strolled towards him, the ears tilted back and the man bared his fangs at the blond.

"You think you can be so casual with me after what you've done!" The wolfman snarled.

Shigaraki cocked his head and smiled pleasantly at the clawed stranger. "You'll need to be more specific. I've been busy this week."

"Don't play games!" The wolfman sneered as the fur on his tail bristled. "You killed my friends!"

"Did I?" Shigaraki rubbed his chin. "I don't recall. They must have been rather forgettable if I did."

Lobo's eyes ran red as his high blood pressure caused the veins there to throb. "ARE YOU SERIOUS RIGHT NOW?!"

Shigaraki shrugged. "Well I've been on my honeymoon so I had more important things to remember." He shook his head. "After all, women can be hard to please. It takes a lot of effort to do things right."

Lobo gritted his teeth. His hands were shaking. "So you just killed my men on a whim and bounced to see your whore?!"

"Oh no," Shigaraki waved at the car behind him. "This one is a homemaker. The last one was the prostitute." He frowned. "And you ought not to criticize them for doing their jobs. Both are very old, venerable professions."

Lobo glanced at the car. The pale yellow met your astonished ones. He snorted and kicked his foot back, tossing some loose gravel from the road like a dog burying its waste. "Yeah, whatever. Just looks like a generic cumdumpster to me."

All For One's face settled into a cold frown. He stood up straight. His fingers twitched against the wool of his suit pants. "I suggest you take care how you refer to my wife."

"Yeah, well you should take care not to piss me off!" Lobo fired back. "You might think you're all cocky and cool cause you wiped out my underlings with the little bunny hop plant trick number but your ass ain't so tough here!" The wolfman gestured to the walls around you. "Ain't no trees or sky." He grinned with a mouth full of razor-sharp fangs. "Just you and me and all the cement we need to bury you with our friends."

Just at the edge of the light, you saw a group of twenty shadows collecting in the din of the tunnel. Most were carrying guns or had gun like quirks, and one appeared to be secreting grenades from his hands.

"Oh no…" The driver whined, scratching his head and the damage to the interior of the car. "I just got the holes fixed from the last time. He really needs to have more faith in my defensive driving." Without much ado, the brunette crawled through the window dividing the front and back before grinning sheepishly at you. "Sorry m'am, but the closer we are the stronger the shield I can make. The car is bulletproof but Master'll kill me if I let you get hit by any stray shrapnel."

You stared in wide eyed horror as the large group formed an arch around your husband. "Is he going to be all right?"

The driver waved off your concern with a sigh. "Oh he'll be fine. It's the tunnel I'm worried about."

You raised an eyebrow. "The tunnel?"

“That guy with the grenades could collapse this thing right on top of our heads.” The driver crossed his arms and nodded sternly. “Not a real smart quirk to be using in this situation.”

“Oh…” you murmured, gazing at the group in front of you through the glass.

All For One sneered at the men down the tunnel. “Bullets and explosives? Really? How unoriginal.”

Lobo raised his hand. “I’m not one for drama. I prefer the simple things.” As the men raised their weapons into firing position, the wolf grinned cockily. “Any last words before we waste you and the fuck toy?”

Your husband's body tensed. He raised a hand and scratched a spot behind his ear.

"Just a brief question: do you have an epitaph picked out, Lobo?"

As soon as All For One's fingers touched the skin, the driver’s eyes went wide and he lunged to shut the car door. It slammed shut, the sound echoing like a clap of thunder in the dim tunnel.

"Shit! Now that idiot's gone and done it!”

He threw his hands out and a glowing box formed around you and he. His eye twitched as a second cube encased the car and then a third cube appeared around that. You watched sweat drip down his brow two more barriers appeared: one directly behind the men with guns and one behind your husband.

“Just my luck that some moron goes and ruins a perfectly nice vacation!”

“I thought you said the car was bulletproof?” you asked as the driver shoved your head down.

The drive grinned at you before covering your body with his. “It’s not the bullets I’m trying to stop. I need multiple air gaps to stop the heat.”

“The heat?”

All at once there was a blast of white that engulfed the area where the villains were standing. Despite the barriers around you, you noticed the temperature in the car rising dramatically. It was then that you heard a high pitched whining noise. You clapped your hands over your ears, trying to keep the whistling shriek from splitting your head open. As you winced a second sound reached your ears.

It sounded like screams.

You lifted your head to see the swirling white mist wrapped behind the barrier. As it started to dissipate, you could see Shigaraki . His shirt was drenched, clinging to his muscles like gossamer robes made for angels. With his hair plastered to his head and his skin a rosy pink, he was more than a heart-thumping sight to behold. You gulped down the arousal building in your chest and looked away from Wet-Shirt-Contest Shigaraki before your judgement could get any more impaired.

The walls of the tunnel beyond the barrier were dripping. The whitewash was rumpled and appeared to be all but peeling off the cinder blocks. The tar on the road was liquid and sticky. The plastic lights looked slightly melted around the edges.

As your gaze shifted, you caught sight of some lumps laying on the pavement. Most of them were flat on the ground, curled into balls but one was stretched out and twitching. You saw a blister covered lobster red hand with peeling fur groping in the open air. The skin was exfoliating in large yellow rolls and small amounts of blood seeped from the open sores. As he clawed at the ground, dragging himself forward, you realized the creature before you was Lobo.

“My… you’re still alive? That steam was pressurized between the barriers so it was much hotter than normal. Why, it must have been nearly 150℃!” All For One said, stalking forward towards the scalded carcass of a man. “You are a rather determined fool aren’t you?”

Read the rest of this chapter on Archive of Our Own

@shigashigashig​ - Hope it was worth the wait.

@allforoneswife​ - This is your enabler calling. Come get you some wet shirt contest AFO.

[wrienne]

My Cheating, Amnesic Fiancé

Chapter 6: Lies and Pressure

Shoot.

Because it wasn’t as if though he had a famous girlfriend he had been cheating on you, his ex-fiancée, with for who knows how long. And though the amnesia had seemed to make him more mellow - probably because he recognized nobody else but you and therefore clung to that sense of familiarity - you would still not consider him a friend. Also, technically, he was still an idol and probably had an endless sea of fans that adored him in every and any way possible.

So, he was neither eligible nor a friend, in addition to being an idol, and here you were, wallowing in your feelings. Great.

Before you allowed yourself to sleep, you decided to check with Sejin. The man was pacing back and forth in front of the door, and opened his mouth to speak when he spotted you. Immediately, you put a finger across your lips, silencing him.

“He’s finally asleep,” you whispered as you poked your torso through the opening between the door and the frame. “I’ll stay here until morning, but then I need to head to school. I think it’ll be good if someone can be here by then to guard him against nosy journalists or stop him from being all too problematic.”

“I can be here by six-thirty,” said Sejin.

“That will be perfect,” you said. “Thank you.”

“No, thank you,” he said instantly. “I can’t even imagine how the situation would have turned out without you here. The kid is lucky to have someone like you.”

You blushed at the compliment. “I’m just doing what any good friend would do.”

“I thought you said you weren’t friends.”

“It’s a bit more complicated than that,” you admitted hesitantly.

“Are you dating?”

“No!” you blurted, startled by the question. You slipped out of the room and shut the door as gently as you could after you, as not to wake Jungkook. “We’re just… family friends.” This was sounding a bit repetitive even to you now.

Kim Sejin regarded you closely for a beat, but then relaxed. “Good. He already has one girlfriend to take care of. I would have hated to see him grow up into a type of guy to have several women on the side.”

You were tempted to laugh, but managed to rein yourself in. “Agreed.”

“I’ll leave you to it, then.”

You fell asleep almost before you had returned to the vacant hospital bed. Now, your plan had been to wake up before Jungkook and sneak out quietly as not to disturb him. But what you had forgotten from your earliest days of acquaintanceship - sleepovers, yes, there had been numerous of them during your childhood - was his eerie ability to wake up before anyone else. By the time your alarm went off, he was already awake, watching you in the dark.

You yelped.

“Scared you.”

You only barely discerned his smile through the dark. “Stupid,” you grunted as you tried silencing the harsh ringing. “I could have attacked you and injured you even more. Colored your eye to match the splint.”

“Didn’t take you for the fashion-conscious type.”

“You didn’t react to me threatening to throw a punch at you.”

“I know you’re violent,” he replied. “Besides, I know Taekwondo. I would like to see you try.”

His voice was smooth, like a soothing summer eve’s breeze. Or rather, as if he just had drunk from the glass of water standing on the bedside table between the beds. You sounded like a troll, and probably smelled like one, too.

“I know you do,” you grumbled as you sat up and fumbled for the glass. “Now, what did you just say about my fashion sense?”

“You never struck me as someone who cared about his or her appearance, that’s all.”

You downed the glass of water. “‘His or her’? Gee, thanks.”

“You’re welcome. Still tired?”

“Not a morning person,” you answered as you rubbed your eyes. “Why are you so talkative? Didn’t you drink last… er, about six or so hours ago? Shouldn’t you be the sour, surly one?”

“I don’t remember.”

“Did you drink so much you-- oh.”

“Sorry, I forgot to tell you - amnesia is contagious”

“Clever,” you said with a chuckle. “But no, it’s not. I just have a case of bad genes.”

Your body ached as you rose and you stretched. You hadn’t slept in the most optimal position, nor any way near the amount you needed, and your body and mind made sure to remind you of that.

“You were going to try and sneak out without waking me, weren’t you?”

“Yup,” you replied.

“You know you can’t lie to me, right?”

You threw up your hands defensively. “I merely thought you needed to sleep some more.”

“As do you.”

You turned on the lights and immediately found the room flushed with pallid light. You made a face and replied, “I don’t really have the freedom to do so. I have school and then errands to run because of you.”

You hurriedly unplugged your phone and checked the fourteen notifications you had received, thirteen of which were concerned texts from your parents’ driver. The last one was a message from Se-Eun, who wondered if you would pick her up as you usually did Monday mornings. You shrugged on your jacket and purse while replying to both of them. You didn’t think you could make it to Se-Eun’s, however.

“Try to rest, Jungkook,” you said absentmindedly while typing. “Be polite to the doctors and nurses. And eat something while you’re at it.”

“I’m not hungry.”

Just then, a growl erupted from his stomach. You raised an eyebrow at him.

“I won’t sit here, being fed by some stranger who treats me like I’m an infant,” he said sternly, his large brown eyes defiant.

“Just like you won’t wear the hospital gown or follow any other kind of normal hospital regulations?”

“Just like that.”

“You don’t remember you’re a world-famous idol, but you sure do behave like a diva.” You snorted. “Have fun starving until I get back then. I don’t have time to force-feed you right now, but I will later.”

Jungkook snorted, too. You headed toward the door after refilling the glass when he stopped you.

“(Y/N), before you leave…”

You spun around. “Make it qui--”

You felt your chest tighten. He was holding up your engagement ring.

Jungkook had picked it up and kept it after you left him.

“Is this what I think it is?” he asked. “I mean, I don’t know what type of guy I was yesterday, but I don’t think I’d just walk around with gold and diamonds.”

“Maybe a new trend in the K-pop industry?” you managed stiffly.

“It’s too small for me,” he said as he slipped the ring onto his little finger. It stopped halfway down the digit.

You didn’t know what to say. This was your chance to tell him the truth: the two of you had been engaged ever since you were eighteen. But then, he had cheated on you and you had broken the arrangement. You could change all of that now. To be frank, you didn’t hate the idea as much any longer. You were the only person he trusted and, as you had acknowledged a few hours ago, you were starting to actually like him, no matter how scary that felt. And you would fulfill your promise to him - you would help him get through the amnesia.

But you couldn’t get the image of him and Park Yi-Jae out of your head. So even though it hurt more than anything else in the world, more than when you had broken your collarbone falling down a hill, more than all of Hye-Bin’s words and “pranks” combined, you decided to lie.

“There was a girl visiting you earlier,” you began as you felt your hand clutch harder around your phone. “Do you remember her? Slim and pretty, with short, curly brown hair.”

He frowned, but nodded. “Yes, she was just as weird as the guys.”

“You and she were--are in a relationship,” you went on while you inwardly prayed that you sounded convincing. “A romantic relationship. She is your girlfriend, Jungkook.”

“My… girlfriend?” The furrow between his brows deepened. “I don’t remember anything about a girlfriend. What’s her name?”

“Park Yi-Jae,” you replied.

He shook his head. “Nothing.”

“That’s the thing with amnesia,” you said with a voice you hoped sounded light and playful, at least in his ears. “You loved each other very much.”

“So you’ve seen us together?”

You forced yourself not to grit your teeth in anger. “Yes, I have. Just yesterday. You looked very happy together.”

Jungkook didn’t say anything. He simply held your gaze, his eyes trusting yet suspicious.

“If you say so,” he finally said.

“Yeah, well, anyway, I better leave now,” you said as you broke away. “I’ll be back sometime late afternoon with clothes and food. Call your parents if you want to be a bit helpful meanwhile.”

“I will. See you later.”

“Yeah.”

You left before he could add anything to prolong the conversation. You didn’t want to be there any longer. Still, though it pained you, you were proud of yourself. You had chosen the right option.

Yeah, sure you had.

Down by the front desk, you met Kim Sejin while he was purchasing some coffee from an old beverage machine. You doubted he had gotten much sleep, judging by the still present bags underneath his eyes, and gave him a half-hearted smile.

“He’s awake, hungry and probably a bit tense,” you greeted him with. “He’s not exactly convinced about the whole thing, but he has agreed to let me try and help him.”

“I’m afraid I have worse news,” he said grimly. “I spoke with a specialist just now, and he told me there’s a big chance that Jungkook won’t ever regain all of his memories.”

“That's not the worst thing in the world,” you replied, furrowing your brows. “He could have died.”

“Yes but with the situation being the way it is now, I don’t think Jungkook will ever be able to perform again, at least not with the rest of the kids. The director is already considering kicking him out of the group.”

“Why?” you exclaimed. “It’s not like he’s lost a leg or his mind or something - he can still dance or sing or whatever else you need him to do!”

You ignored the sharp look a nurse sent you as she hurried past. You were fuming. Here they were, this large company that probably made a fortune out of these seven guys - out of Jungkook. And they were just dropping him as soon as something - an accident - occurred?

“They just launched their biggest tour yet,” Sejin explained in a calm voice, though he also seemed disappointed. “The company poured a lot of money and planning into this. The boys are supposed to perform on a lot of shows and be on programs as well. But how are we - or anyone at all -  supposed to work with a kid who refuses to cooperate with people he doesn’t know? Who can’t seem to recall a single song or performance with his members? And don’t make it anything personal - the director is desperate not to lose him.”

“But what are you going to do without him?” you wondered. From what you had heard from Se-Eun, Jungkook was one of the most significantly popular members of the group, which probably meant his mere presence generated quite the revenue. And judging by yesterday’s concert, he had the most lines in their songs overall.

“I don’t know,” he muttered, probably considering the same things as you. “They might make it, they might not. Chances are, however, that without Jeon Jungkook, the Bangtan Boys will disintegrate.”

You placed your hand against your forehead and exhaled. You weren’t sure exactly what the idol life consisted of, but you had caught bits and pieces from Se-Eun whenever she rambled with her friends about the group. It wasn’t what you would have chosen to spend your youth doing. It just seemed too risky.

And now, all of Jungkook and his hyungs’ accumulated effort from years of work, promotion and practice could crumble.

His childhood dream could crumble.

“I’ve grown too fond of them to let it end just like this, though.”

You shook your head to clear it from your brief reverie. “What can you do?” you asked, hearing a budding idea in his tone.

“I think I can convince the director to cancel most of the concerts,” said Sejin as he scratched his stubble. “Though it might be a little tricky, it won’t be impossible or detrimental to the company since the money is best in Japan, which is where the tour ends. If the kid could somehow perform by then, I might still have a job tomorrow.”

“But as you said, he can’t and won’t cooperate with anyone,” you pointed out. “Not even with medical personnel.”

Sejin drank from his coffee cup, then grimaced. It had probably gotten cold from all your talking. “The doctor told me there is an unorthodox way of reintroducing memories to a person with any kind of memory loss. Unorthodox because it isn’t scientifically proven and because, more often than not, it fails and proves fruitless.”

“What do I need to do?”

“You really are a great friend,” he said, giving you an odd look of sympathy. “All of this relies on your ability to remind him of his life before the accident. Since you’re the only one he trusts, he might be more receptive to you showing and telling him about the other boys, their music and their performances. All and anything that might cause it to fall in place inside his head.”

“This sounds like a movie trope or something,” you said skeptically.

“As I said, it’s unorthodox. But it’s all we really have. There are no known cures or proper treatments for amnesia.”

“Very well then.” You managed a smile even though you felt the heavy mantle of responsibility weighing your shoulders down. “I’ll try. I have at least until the end of the year on me, right?”

Sejin’s expression fell and he groaned. “Damn it, I forgot you don’t know their schedule like the back of your hand.”

“What is it?” you asked. “What do you mean?”

Tension and trepidation already tightened your throat, but your heart was beating steadily. When you had offered to help Jungkook that night, you had known it would be tough. And as the conversation with Kim Sejin had continued, you had had a feeling that whatever he was going to say would be the opposite of good. Still, you hadn’t lost faith in Jungkook’s recovery. Even now, looking at his manager, you knew it would be bad since his face said as much.

But you had never thought it would be this bad.

“The beginning of the end of their tour starts May 30th. That means you only have a little more than three months to restore him, (Y/N).”

[sasa-gay-yo]

Maybe (Levi Ackerman x Female!Reader)

Request / Summary: I was wondering if you could write about female y/n being taller than Levi (he's 5'2" and y/n is 5'7"). Sharp, rational mind, she's the new quartermaster and in charge of the supplies... she was asked to cut unnecessary orders. So she terminates the tea supply contract... Levi's not happy and confronts her about it. It takes several arguments to convince her to conclude a new tea supply contract... VERY annoying... but damn, he likes her wit.

Timeline: Season 1 - 2 ish 

Warnings: some swearin’

Art Credits: AoT (I think?)

“Budgets are very important to adhere to when you’re trying to fight against a never-ending force of titans, Captain Levi. I’m sorry, but there’s nothing I can do.” You sing-songed those last words, finding happiness in the sheer annoyance that graced his face after. This was power.

“And who gave you the order to cut my tea supply?” His hands turned into fists, keeping his distance so he didn’t have to stare up at you. You noticed this and made sure to take a few steps forward to look down at him. On an everyday basis, you were below him in rank, but this situation made you feel so powerful. Erwin had approved this budget right in front of him, so it was funny to see him so upset over his precious tea that he, himself signed away.

“I did. Does your tea have the same ability to feed the entirety of the Scouts for an extra week? No, it does not. It was either bread from all, or tea for one. I think we all will appreciate your sacrifice, Captain.” He grit his teeth and you could see, physically, how irritate he was with you. While it was a bit scary, your new status as quartermaster made your training sessions almost disappear with how busy you’d become. He couldn’t discipline you if you weren’t able to be present. 

Also, it wasn’t like your decision was wrong. If he went to Commander Erwin to talk about it, he’d probably say the same thing. He definitely knew that. That’s why he was spending so much time here arguing with you, rather than going directly to the higher ups. You smirked at that thought.

“You were asked to cut unnecessary orders, Cadet. The tea supply is a necessity.” You held up your clipboard to his face and he glared at the paper as you used your pencil to explain to him the budget.

“Your tea supply cost the same amount as three bags of flour and yeast. As I said before, food is a necessity, Captain. I can’t, in good conscious, let my fellow comrades go hungry while you have a cup of tea every night. Also, it’s Quartermaster (Y/L/N) now, hence the ability for me to cut your tea supply from the shop in Mitras. If you’re able to find me a cheaper and closer shop to buy from, then all means… Captain.” He didn’t like the way you sneered his name and he wanted to make you run laps out in the hot sun instead of standing under this tent causing him mental anguish, yet he couldn’t think of an argument against yours. He just wanted his tea. No, he needed his tea. The caffeine was what allowed him to stay up and not fall into his nightmare’s grasp. The caffeine was what allowed him to function after a night of no sleep. He needed to convince you to put that back on the list, even if that meant the brats didn’t have bread for a week.

“You’re dismissed, Cadet,” he said, walking away from where he came to find you. You laughed at his actions when you thought he couldn’t hear you, seeing how ridiculous the Captain was acting after not getting his specific and expensive artisan teas. You saved so much money from cutting the export taxes alone, that it was worth the little grumpy short man and maybe a few more laps around HQ. However, you would apologize to the new cadets who were definitely going to get the brunt of his anger. If it got really bad, you could just give him a bit of your “commoner’s” tea.

The next time he confronted you was two days later at dinner. You didn’t know he was behind you, but you were telling the new cadets all about Captain Levi’s attitude. They were complaining how harsh he was towards them, and the older Scouts, like yourself, were all recollecting stories of your first time meeting the Captain.

“The first time I interacted with Captain Levi, I flirted with him and shorty made me run laps until sunset. He was probably just flustered, you know. Captain Shorty doesn’t know how to react to pretty women, I guess.” You didn’t notice the kids freeze up when they saw who approached behind you. You just kept on going, probably digging yourself in a bigger and bigger hole as Levi stood behind you, arms crossed and ever so irritated.

“One time when he was disciplining me I reac-”

“Quartermaster (Y/L/N), unless you want to run laps again till sunrise, I suggest you stop telling such ludicrous stories to the new cadets.” You smirked, turning around with the cup of tea you had in your hand. You’d taken the liberty of using your own stash, as a drinker of the liquid yourself, and now you were going to flaunt it in front of him. You took a sip before talking back. 

“Captain Levi, I didn’t see you there! Do you want to talk about your tea supplies with me? I have a meeting with Commander Erwin next week about next months orders…” You trailed off, sipping at your tea, but not hiding your smirk. You now had something over the Captain that was worth far too much for him to annoy you or dish out a punishment. He knew that. If he made you run into the sunset, the tea was going with you. There would be no mention of it at your next meeting with Erwin. Gripping his fists behind his back, he made sure his face was that normal, annoying look when glancing at you out of the corner of his eye.

“No, (Y/L/N), I just came here to tell you that I do, in fact, know how to handle pretty women. That’s why I made you run. Have a nice dinner.” The new cadets snickered behind you as you gripped the teacup hard. 

Oh no, forget about dangling it in front of his head. There was no way you were going to let him have it after he insulted you in front of everyone like that. You turned around and glared at Jean who was laughing the loudest out of the others. That tea was gone now.

You let him know it, too.

As you were walking out of the Mess Hall, you made an effort to stop at the officer’s table in front of the Commander. He smiled up at you while Levi’s glared was evident to your left.

“Commander, do you have time tomorrow or the next day to push up the supply meeting? I think that with the winter coming soon, shipping lines are going to be cut off by impending snow. Ordering a week earlier would be most beneficial, especially since our supplies are already dwindling.” Erwin agreed with you, noting that this foresight is why he assigned you to the position that was vacated by the other Quartermaster (who was killed by a titan).

“I can meet with you tomorrow after lunch, Quartermaster (Y/L/N). Just come to my office!” You smiled back at him and turned your attention to Levi. As you walked by, you mumbled something under your breath, but you knew he heard you. Payback was served to the cocky man you hated ever since you stepped foot on the Scout HQ grounds.

“You’re never getting your tea back, Levi.”

And at the meeting with Erwin, you did just that. He agreed with your plans completely, signing off on it without any protests. You would be excused from training the next day, and would be riding into Trost to set up the order with Reeve’s Company. You might even make a day out of it, needing a fresh haircut and maybe a relaxing stroll through Trost. Then, Erwin called out to you before you could walk out through his office door.

“Oh, by the way, (Y/F/N), Captain Levi will be personally accompanying you to Trost tomorrow.”

-       

You hadn’t talked at all. You just sat next to each other in the cart while the horses pulled you along towards Trost. He made you do all the work too. You hitched up both horses, tied them to the cart, and you were now holding the reigns to make sure they stayed on the pebbled path. He just sat there the whole time is his normal position, one leg up and blank expression. It made you extremely annoyed and he could feel the anger radiate off of you as he sat, which made him smirk. Getting the upper hand on you was one thing that Levi found recently brought him joy.

“Permission to speak freely, Captain?” You had enough. He wasn’t shocked at your request, but he wasn’t sure he’d let that upper hand go. If you said something out of line, he’d jump at the chance to punish you… but he allowed it because he was curious. Besides, he was excited to see what useless insults left your lips today.

“Permission granted.”

“Why the fuck are you here?” It almost surprised him, the tongue you had on you, but he also knew the cadets you were friends with. You’d even taken some of the new ones under your wing, Jean and Connie. Levi has punished them various times for their filthy mouths, and he’s heard it millions of times, but never towards him. You should feel honored that he let you say that to him.

“I just wanted to take a trip, Cadet. Besides, a woman shouldn’t be travelling by herself in a world like this.” You gave him an annoyed look and rolled your eyes. Again, you should feel honored he’s gracing you like this. If any cadet did that to him, he’d kick them off the cart right away and discipline them. Again, he was just curious.

“I thought you didn’t give a damn that I was a woman, Levi.” He put his arms behind his head, closing his eyes. You were making this too easy for him. It was when your anger got the best of you that your insults were sloppy and uncalculated. He’d also made the same assessment when it came to your fighting. Perhaps that’s why he’d always insult you before fighting drills, knowing he could get the upper hand. Still, it was going to an easy day for him if you acted like this. 

“With a mouth like that, how could I consider you one, (Y/F/N)?” You scoffed, but a thought popped into your head. He said speak freely, so you were going to do just that. You couldn’t let him win, not when you were going to be stuck with him all day.

“With height like that, how could I consider you a man, Shorty?” You felt him freeze next to you, now instantly regretting his permission. You knew how bad he wanted to kick you, and the tone of his voice hardened.

“Permission rescinded. Say something like that again and you’ll be locked up for insubordination and be punished.”

“You know I don’t mind punishment, Captain. Especially with you.” He scoffed, closing his eyes again and making sure that you didn’t see his flush. How nasty was this woman he was sitting next to? You just laughed at his reaction. When you were a new cadet, you gained the brunt of Levi’s punishments, simply because you didn’t give him the legitimacy the others did.

Everyday, you would find some way to make your presence his problem. At first, it was openly flirting in front of him, trying to get some reaction, only to be punished by running or cleaning. Next, it was besting your partners, just so you would have to fight him. Levi usually didn’t struggle to fight with new cadets, but you would give him a run for his money. You never won, but you’d get so devilishly close that you knew it slowly frustrated him. The last thing would be questioning his orders, which he hated the most. While you knew to never do it out in the field, it was fair game during training. Why should we hold our ODM gear this way when you don’t, Captain? I don’t think that’s the best formation, Captain, why did you choose that? He would physically punish you then, which gave you fuel. Perhaps it was the way he led others with insult, or the fact everyone bowed to him without question that pushed you to never listen. Slowly and surely, you were wreaking havoc in his mind, but nothing permanent to really stick it to him.

Then, you were given the Quartermaster position by Commander Erwin. As insubordinate you would be to Levi, you knew who and when to rub up to others. Besides, you liked the other officers. Erwin discovered your experience with supply work and inventory at your family restaurant, so he put the job up to you. When you saw that Captain Levi had personally requested to break the rules and order five personal items instead of one, you knew it was your turn to punish him. You didn’t know how much joy it would bring you to erase the tea order off of the inventory chart until he came marching into the supply tent.

“You would be a better soldier if you listened to authority, Cadet.” It seemed the only way he could recover with you was to insult you back into submission. His voice was softer then, calmer and more composed: normal. To you, he seemed to be more serious, but it made you roll your eyes again. You didn’t care if he caught you.

“I am a good soldier, Captain. You don’t put worth on my fighting skills, but on my ability to listen to you.”

“If you listened, you would be an officer by now.” Levi knew you were a good soldier. You would rush out on the field and sacrifice your life or horse or swords for any comrade, regardless how they treated you at dinner the other day. The only time you would listen to Levi without question was on the field, too, and you would execute his shouts with speed and precision. He knew that the new cadets looked up to you, too, after saving many of their assess on the first expedition with Erwin’s new formation. If only you were the same off, then you would be on Levi’s Squad at least, if not in the officers’ cabinet.

You knew that too. You heard the others’ praise your skills and critique your behavior. You wouldn’t let anyone tell you what to do unless they had legitimacy in your mind. Erwin was amazing at strategy and kind to anyone, Hange was extremely intelligent and didn’t care who you were, and Miche was just soft and wouldn’t hurt a fly unless they threatened his squad. Levi was an amazing soldier, but it seemed that was the only thing he had. You didn’t give appreciation to those with bullied others with their brawn.

“I don’t want to be an officer, Captain. Quartermaster is the farthest I’ll go.” He frowned, knowing that one day you’d probably be promoted due to someone’s death. Maybe even his. You had to have known that.

“Why?”

“Papers please! Where in Trost are you- OH! Captain Levi!” The Garrison member bowed only once, seeing Levi’s annoyed face as he cut him off. You handed the papers, smiling, and was permitted into the district, turning right away to get to Reeve’s. You had no intention of answering his question, and he didn’t press anymore as the horses galloped up to the depot. When you hopped out, you smiled at all the workers, knowing they’d give you some extra supplies if you buttered up to them. It worked last time, but you were alone last time.

“Flegel! How are you today?” He looked directly at Levi, not even caring that you just greeted him. You just rolled your eyes again at the two and went to work, picking up the things on the list and signing. Levi didn’t get out to help once, he just sat in the cart, looking down at you like you were an ant. At one point, you stood next to the cart, noting that you were almost equal to his sitting height. You straightened up to make sure he realized it too. 

“I thought you came here to help, Captain.” He scoffed and sent another glare at Flegel who was shouting at some worker.

“I thought the Commander was clear in that I’d be accompanying you. I have no intention of doing heavy lifting.” You leaned back on the edge of the wood, marking off the rush supplies they put in the cart. The only thing that was left was the heavy bags of flour that three people needed to carry. You wondered if Levi would order you to go back right away, or he’d let you go off and do errands of your own.

“You’re right, he didn’t say. You probably couldn’t carry any of these things either, they’re a bit heavy… Captain.” Before he could say something back, hearing your insults, Flegel couldn’t help but join in. He’d told you on your previous supply run that he disliked the short man more than anyone in Trost and it stemmed from an apparent mess up and fight over Levi’s tea order. Go figure.

“Some of these packages are taller than you, Captain Levi. We can’t have our strongest soldier getting hurt by some wood, can we?” His question was directed at you, hoping you would jump in and support him, but after feeling the anger radiating off of Levi behind you, you knew it was better to not indulge him. Flegel was the easier target in this situation.

“I’ve never seen you carry any packages, Shorty.” He paused in his tracks, now noting that your insults were not on his side. They’d never be on his side. You stood up to your full height, trying to tower over Flegel as you handed him the list to sign. He was mumbling something under his breath, and you wouldn’t let him breath.

“What was that? Speak up, I can’t hear you from up here, Flegel.” With that, he walked away without saying goodbye, and your smile was the largest Levi had seen it. In fact, Levi was also satisfied with the way you put the fat boy in his place. Only a little bit surprised, though, that you defended him after insulting him yourself. It seemed to put him in a better mood and he even offered to buy lunch to take back.

You took the cart outside of Trost, letting the horses rest and eat in a meadow before the heavy ride back. Levi and you were on the grass eating, him leaning against a tree. He’d bought pork buns and you noted that it seemed to be his favorite food. You noticed his change in mood, which was probably the reason he’d bought you the buns, but didn’t press it. You also realized this was probably the first time you’d talk to him at length without getting reprimanded or into a fight.

“Is that fat boy always like that?” You huffed in laughter at the nickname he’d given Flegel.

“No, usually he tries to get me to eat dinner with him and I always deny.” Levi could imagine it in his head. If the way you acted in front of him was restrained, he wondered what you would say to the boy once you were all alone. Maybe he’d come again just so he could witness you insulting someone other than him. He had to admit, it was funny, and he wondered if that’s what it looked like to others as well.

“How do you deny him?” This answer might get rid of his good mood.

“I tell him I don’t go out with men shorter than me.” He just rolled his eyes and took another bite. Of course that was your answer. You’d do something daily to remind Levi that you were taller than him.

“Why did you come again? You could’ve saved yourself the time and insults.” You looked up at him from your seat on the grass, having eaten all the buns. He was a slow eater.

“To get my tea back. I saw it in the Reeve’s storage room. What a waste.” You laid back on the grass, looking up at the sky. It was getting colder, and you could tell by the heaviness of the clouds that your prediction on early snow was going to be correct.

“All officers get only one personal item per request. Erwin’s is a leather-bound journal, Hange’s is glassware for experiments, and yours, if we list them all off, are cleaning supplies, tea, a new broom, extra milk, and a fresh linen shirt. When I went to Erwin about it, he just told me to get rid of the most expensive thing and let you have the rest. If anything, yell at him, and stop bothering me about it.”

“I don’t need the linen shirt. Take that off and give me back the tea.” You laughed at him again, and it made him pull back the annoying look. His good mood was quickly leaving.

“Your tea supply is equal in price to the cleaning supplies, broom, and linen shirt. I can only let you have the extra milk and tea. We’re in the middle of a famine and supply shortage, Levi.”

“Captain,” he warned you, and you knew the mood of your previous conversation had flew out the window. You sat up, giving him your best glare. He wasn’t thinking rationally about this at all.

“Look, Captain. I’m given only a specific amount of money per month and have to balance out needs over wants. The Scouts need food, water, and winter clothes, that’s without question. Then, because you’re an officer, you’re supposed to get one thing with the excess money. Even the Commander has given up his leather-bound journal this month because of the recent inflation, and we weren’t about to have any left-over money for budge room. Like I said, it was either your tea or the Scout’s necessities which you also use. Even so, you’re still getting an unequal four other items. For someone who’s so stuck on me following the rules, you really like to use your position to break them.” He looked like he was going to kick you right then and there. You were at the perfect height for him to do it, too.

“I need the tea.” He crossed his arms, trying to forget what you just said. He knew he was being selfish, but it was never a problem before, or rather, the previous Quartermaster was afraid to call him out on it. Maybe that’s why Erwin promoted you out of the blue, knowing you weren’t afraid to tell him.

“So, you want me to cancel the orders for cleaning supplies, the broom, the shirt, and the milk?” You saw his jaw clench. No, he didn’t want to lose those either.

“I use the tea so I can recover from lack of sleep.”

“And if you didn’t drink the volume of tea you did, you would be able to sleep. You seem to be doing just fine without it.” You gestured your hand towards him, and his eyes followed.

“Do you know why I don’t sleep, Cadet?” His voice was lower now, and it made you draw back your hand, thinking he’d probably attack that first. You’d seen him some nights when you couldn’t sleep, just sitting alone in the mess hall drinking a cup or two. Seeing his state at night, dark eyes and dark circles, you didn’t feel like it was morally right to bother him then. It always had a dark tone, whenever you looked at him at night. His head was always hanging low and his hand had a death grip on the teacup. You had an idea why he didn’t sleep.

“Is it nightmares, Captain?” You saw his hand grip the last bun hard, his movements stopping. You knew you’d gotten the right answer, but he wasn’t actually looking for you to answer. Now, he’d had to brace himself for whatever words came out of your mouth next. Were you going to call him weak? Laugh at his pain? He wouldn’t put it past you, yet you just sighed.

“If you can find me someone in Trost, I can set up a contract with them. The tea’s export tax sends the budget over. It would also be better if you permanently got rid of one thing. You could steal a broom from the supply closet, no one but me will notice.” Levi didn’t buy it.

“And then you’ll report it to Erwin again? Announce it to the cadets that I’m stealing from the closet?” You could hear the anger in his words. Who did he think you where? Sure, you’d make fun of him for other things, but not for something he couldn’t control. He could control being an asshole, but not his nightmares.

“No, I won’t, but if you keep protesting my goodwill, the deal’s off the table, Captain.” You stood up to get the horses ready to leave. He still found it annoying that his tea supply hinged on your favor, but this deal seemed much more open than the last.

It took him another month to show up in the supply room as you were auditing. The weather had gotten extremely cold, always being able to see your breath as you went outside, and you knew that it had to be a special occasion for Levi to come outside since he hated the cold. When you turned around to see him, his eyes were bloodshot, and the black circles were the thing most evident on his face. Since the blizzards came, there was no training or expeditions, so you hadn’t seen him for a while, and you wondered what he’d gone through to look like this. Was it the nightmares?

“I found somewhere in Trost that is up to my standard. Here.” His voice was tight was he thrust the contract into your hands. The signature was empty, waiting for you to put your name down, but you were about to ruin his day even more. The blizzard was eating up supplies like crazy, and firewood was quickly running out. Unable to go out and cut down trees, the supply closet’s surplus was bring used up hourly. Moreover, a group of mice had gotten in and eaten through food and clothing, causing you to make this random audit to see the damage. There wasn’t going to be any leftover money this time for him to bargain a tea contract. You almost felt guilty for having to tell him this after personally giving him the option.

“I’m sorry, Captain.” Levi noted this was the first time you’d apologized to him, but he didn’t want to take it. The nightmares got worse as the sun faded from the sky earlier and earlier. He’d run out of all the tea he could find, and now he was forced to fall asleep and wake up in a cold sweat at three or four in the morning, just to stare at the wall before he fell asleep again. When he had tea, he could get up and drink it, not afraid to fall asleep again. He needed tea, any tea.

“I’ll give up everything like you said.” You almost dropped the pencil when he said that. You’d never seen him so desperate for something and you wanted to give it to him so bad, but it was something that couldn’t be done. Not this month. No officer would be getting their personal requests.

“I’m sorry, Levi, I can’t. Not this month. No one is getting their personal requests because of the mice mishap and the snow. I-I can try next month?” He just sighed and ripped he contract out of your hands.

“Nevermind. Forget what I said.” You wanted to stop him from walking away to see if you could work it out, but he was too quick. His cape swished in the winter wind as you watched him walk back to the castle, only to be submerged in the white snow. You felt guilty that you couldn’t give him what he wanted. He was suffering, and you could see it on his face too. He probably thought you were denying him the tea just to see him suffer even more. The next few days he snapped so easily at everyone that your daily insubordination completely stopped. You would just stare at him in the mess hall, willing him with your eyes to come back and talk to you. He never looked back at you, but he knew you were staring.

“You have to get the audit done by the end of this week. It seems we’ll only have a day window for you to get to Trost and back before a big storm comes again. Can you do that with the budget?” You looked down at the list of items you procured, only for Erwin to tell you that the budget was cut down again by the Royal Government. You’d have only a day to rethink the items needed.

“Yes Commander, I can redo the budget tonight.”

It took hours to do, but you did it. Instead of outright buying new jackets, you pushed back the spring supply, and just ordered patches to be sewed on. Then, you go to work figuring out how you were going to do it. If you allotted certain funds to different types of flour, cheaper versions, and you were able to receive beans instead of meat, you could get protein without the added shipping and cooling costs. As soon as you got to the number you needed, you let out a shout that echoed through the empty mess hall. Finally!

“What are you doing up, brat?” You seized up, turning around to see him, this time in pajamas and tossed hair. He looked even worse than the other day when he came to see you.

“I could say the same to you.” You didn’t add your usual insult at the end, knowing he wouldn’t be able to stand it. It looked like he was already fighting some other demons.

“Oh, you know, slowly dying of exhaustion thanks to the Quartermaster. Nothing new.” You held in the urge to roll your eyes at him, knowing what you’d just written down on the order sheet. He wouldn’t be saying that soon. If you stayed in this room, you would probably revert back to your old ways and start a fight with him. You’d only be able to do that after the shipment came in the next two weeks. Oh, how you longed for the day you could insult him in front of the cadets at training again. 

“I’ll leave you then, Captain.” His eyes seemed to light up a bit as you started to get up from the bench. He also noticed how your attitude towards him changed after your trip to Trost. Although there weren’t training sessions for you to sass him at, you would bow to him in the hallways and not talk back when he said something to egg you on at dinner. Sometimes he would catch himself missing it; discipling you just to hear your new insults the next day. While it was annoying to no end, it was refreshing. He needed to be refreshed.

“What, no snarky comment? You wouldn’t let me say something to you like that before, (Y/F/N).” You knew what he was trying to do, but you also knew the dangerous line you walked on. He was looking for something to punish you for, perhaps. Now that he knew he wasn’t getting tea, he had nothing to lose and a person he usually takes his frustrations out on right in front of him.

“No, Captain. I have to deliver this to the Commander.” You walked past the door and he grabbed your arm, making sure you didn’t leave. You looked into his eyes and for the first time in your Scouting career, you were scared of what would happen next. 

“I can give it to him for you.” He looked down at the paper and you pulled it back so he couldn’t see what was on it. His bad attitude was going to ruin your surprise. He took this action as your anger. 

“No, Captain. It’s fine, go get some rest.” His hand didn’t leave your arm and you glared down at it. His grip was starting to hurt and that smirk on his face was getting really annoying. 

“I can’t get rest, Miss. Quartermaster, because of you.” You ripped your arm out of his grasp and his smirk grew. There it was. That’s what he was looking for. You knew you’d lost the game of keeping in your temper. 

“If you keep acting like this, pretty soon you be able to walk either, Captain. Now if you’ll excuse me!” When walking to Erwin’s office, you almost erased that tea order right off the list, but you held yourself back. When Erwin went over the list to approve it, you saw him smirk over the last item, and maybe, just maybe, that made all the trouble you just went through worth it. 

“He finally convinced you?” It was the first time you’d crossed your arms in front of the Commander, but it just made him laugh. He was happy you finally obliged Levi because he was almost to his wits end hearing the Captain complain about your new appointment. Hopefully, next week, he would have a happier, more alive Captain.

“No, he was just too annoying to handle anymore, Commander. I pray he won’t notice that I took off everything else he ordered, because then we’ll be back to square one.” Erwin nodded and signed the paper, making you take a breath of relief. You could go to bed and sleep in tomorrow before you’d put in the order.

“I’m sure he’ll appreciate having a tea supply back, (Y/F/N).” You just sighed and dismissed yourself to your quarters. When walking to the showers, you saw the glow of a candle still coming from the mess hall. Levi was sitting there, drinking something, scowling down at the table. It was the same scene you’d seen over and over.

You threw the small package you had at him, narrowly missing his head. He grabbed the paper, snapping his head to look at his attacker. When he saw it was you, his smirk increased. He guessed it was too tempting not to come back and torment him. At least it was something to do.

“Since the Commander even complained about your whining, you can have the rest of my tea. It’s probably not up to your high standard, Captain, but I don’t think you’re in the position to choose.”

“And I don’t think you’re in a position to have that tone with me, Cadet.” You just rolled your eyes, having a mutual understanding that he wasn’t actually going to do anything to you tonight. He saw the clothes and towel you had in your hands, and you saw how tired he was. If anything, you should be telling him to go to bed again, but you knew that he’s probably afraid to fall asleep. The tea would help tide him over till the next delivery.

“It’s Quartermaster. I swear, even if I get promoted, you’ll still call me cadet.” You turned to walk to the showers, but his next insult disappeared at your statement.

“Why don’t you want to be promoted?” He asked you outside of Trost, and you didn’t answer him. It bothered him a bit, but not enough to ask you until now. You were a perfect candidate for a leadership position in Erwin’s eyes, and Levi knew that. He just wanted to know your reasonings, that’s all.

“I don’t want to have to be in meetings with your sorry ass, Captain.” He glared at the back of your head, and you could feel it as you walked away. He even thought about throwing the tea sachet back at you, but it was too precious. He had a terrible nightmare, so he was not very excited to fall back asleep, and you basically gave him a cure all. If he was smart, he could use this tea for at least a week and maybe take a personal trip to Trost and get more. Either way, he was grateful for your change in attitude towards him, even if you’d still sass him around HQ with your words. He’d take that over nightmares. He even dismissed the idea of punishing you tomorrow for swearing at him. 

Once the shipment of supplies came in the next week and you handed everyone their rations, you had your sights set on Captain Levi’s office. You knew he had a meeting with Erwin in the afternoon, and it would be easy to sneak into his office and leave the box of tea on his desk. Once you got inside, you decided to leave him a note. One last thing to piss him off before he’d see you at dinner. You’d give him a smug look all night, too, maybe even going to sit at the officer’s table and pretend to talk to Hange. No, you weren’t giving him this tea to make a point, but you still wanted him to know he’d have to be thankful to you for once. Maybe you’d even make a visit during his nightly mess hall tea break, just to emphasize your point.

Shortie,

Remember that night you bruised my arm? This is what I was doing. I expect you to bow at my feet during dinner, but it shouldn’t be hard since you’re already close to the ground.

You’re Welcome,

Quartermaster (Y/L/N)

When he found it, he smirked at the note, opening the box to see the tea he requested from the company in Trost. The note was annoying, but he couldn’t stop staring at your handwriting. You were fucking annoying too, but he couldn’t stop staring at you during dinner either, sipping a cup of tea. You’d chosen the perfect spot in front of Hange, making it easy for him to look at your features. Little did you know, he was enjoying your presence while you were trying to rub into Levi that you saved him.

“Hange, you have no idea how hard it was to get everything ordered within budget. I stayed up till three trying to figure out the math!”

“If you had half a brain, then maybe you wouldn’t have had to stay up that late, Quartermaster.” Your gaze snapped to him, glaring, but not missing the fact he called you your proper title for once.

“If I remember correctly, you were up too, Captain.” 

Hange cut in, making sure that both of you atoned for how annoying you were. Every time you two were together, the constant bickering made others listening develop a headache.

“If I remember correctly, I found you two flirting in the mess hall!” She made sure to yell that out loud so that the other cadets looked at the scene she created. Everyone heard her loud and clear and Levi was about to kill her. How dare she make such accusations?! 

“As if!” You crossed your arms, glaring back at Levi.

“Flirt with her?!” Hange could feel the animosity between you two, but she also noticed how red both of your faces had become.

“He’s the most annoying person I’ve ever met!”

“I am?! Have you heard yourself speak, (Y/F/N)?” You stood up, huffing in anger.

“I don’t date men shorter than me.” 

“And I don’t date stuck up brats.” You gripped both of your fists and realized that if you stayed any longer, your face would get incredibly red and you’d have to throw hands with Hange, so you left with everyone watching you. Levi was now in recovery mode, glaring at all of the cadets so they would turn away in fear.

“How can you not see how annoying she is, Hange?” He took another sip of the tea that you had given him. Maybe, he’d grown to prefer whatever brew you gave him that night in the mess hall. It was minty. He liked mint. 

“Mhm, Levi, sure.”

Maybe, he’d have to catch your annoying ass later tonight and ask you to order whatever personal blend you’d given him.

“Don’t look at me like that, four-eyes. Go oogle at some titans.”

Maybe, he’d catch you and start another little fight about the tea order, or force you to tell him why you didn’t want to be an officer.

“Oh, like you were “oogling” at (Y/F/N) tonight?”

Maybe.

xx this one took a LONG time to write haha I hope you like eet xx

[drivingsideways]

k-drama rec list

Prior to 2020 I’d maybe watched 2 k-dramas in my entire life, but this year I got sucked in, thanks to some great recs, and y’know, *gestures * everything.  

I think I’d held off watching kdramas because my impression of them was limited to romances that I didn’t enjoy at all. But this was the year I discovered the equivalent of “gen fic” kdrama- dramas that had wonderful ensemble casts, strong story lines that weren’t entirely romance focused and also a variety in terms of themes and styles. A big plus was that I found so many of these dramas had women leading the writers’ room, and seeing the effect of that in the story telling. (Notable exceptions: a certain “star” writer who should please stop inflicting her badly written, formulaic crap on the world, yes Kim Eun-Sook, I mean you, and whoever wrote that trashfire Flower of Evil)

So here I am with my own rec list! Caveat- these are mostly not the dramas released in 2020, I’m still playing catch up! :)

Under the cut for length

My Mister/ My Ahjussi  (2018, Written by Park Hae-Young, Directed by Kim Won-Seok, starring Lee Sun-kyun and Lee Ji-eun aka IU) 

This was definitely my absolute favourite of the shows I watched this year across western/ asian media. It’s a story about the thread that binds us all and the ineffability of human connection. It’s also a story that deconstructs ideas of masculinity and honour and shame in a non-western context, but with an extremely compassionate touch.  It’s a story that doesn’t shy away from showing the consequences of material and spiritual poverty; and how one can so easily feed into the other. It’s a love story that isn’t a romance, except that it’s a Romance. It’s about finding salvation in one another and in the kindness of strangers.  It’s about choosing life, and picking yourself up off the floor to take that one last step and then the next and then the next. The one quibble I have with the series is that it could have been better paced, it does get extremely slow after the half way mark. But god, do they land the ending. Both Lee Sun-kyun and IU turn in absolutely heartbreaking performances, and fair warning, be prepared to go through an entire box of tissues watching this series. 

Life  (2018,  written by Lee Soo-yeon  and directed by Hong Jong-chan, starring Lee Dong-wook, Cho Seung-woo, Won Jin-ah, Lee Kyu-hyung, Yoo Jae-myung and Moon So-ri.)

Medical dramas are very much not my thing, and I wouldn’t have taken a chance on it except that @michyeosseo said I should, and she was right! It’s a medical drama in the sense that it’s set in a hospital, but rather than a “case-fic” format, this is actually a sharp commentary on the corporatization of health care, and the business of mixing, well, money and what should be a fundamental human right. Writer Lee Soo-yeon was coming off the global success of Stranger/Secret Forest S1 when this aired, so I understand that expectations were probably sky-high, and people were disappointed when this show didn’t give them the adrenaline rush that they wanted. On the other hand, I thought that this outing was really much more nuanced in terms of the politics and also how the ending doesn’t allow you the luxury of easy-fixes. This show has a great ensemble cast, and while it took me a while to get used to Lee Dong-wook’s woodenness (i ended up calling him mr.cadaver after watching this and was surprised to learn that he’s very popular?), in the end I was quite sold on his version of angry angst-bucket elder-sibling Dr.Ye Jin-woo. His best scenes were with Lee Kyu-hyung who turns in a lovely, achy performance as the paraplegic Dr. Ye Seon-woo who just wants to live a normal life. The love story between the two brothers is actually the emotional backbone of the story, and I think they landed that perfectly. 

My one quibble with writer-nim is that she ended up writing in a forgettable and somewhat (for me at least) uncomfortable romance between the characters played by Won Jin-ah and Cho Seung-Woo. I think part of my uncomfortable-feeling was that I got the strong sense that the writer herself didn’t want to write this romance, it was as if she was being made to shoe-horn it in for Studio Reasons, and she basically grit her teeth and did the worst possible job of it.  I do wish we could have absolutely had the OT3 of my dreams: Moon So-ri/Cho Seung-woo/Yoo Jae-myung like, c’mon TV gods MAKE IT HAPPEN, just...look at them!!!! 

Anyway, that apart, I think this was a very engaging series, and by engaging, I also mean thirst-enabling, see below. 

 Stranger (aka Secret Forest  or Forest of Secrets) S1 & 2 : (2017-, Written by Lee Soo-yeon, directed by 

2017′s smash hit aired a much anticipated second season in 2020, and I managed to catch up just in time to watch that live, so that was thrilling :D . Writer Lee Soo-yeon  mixes up thriller/office comedy/political commentary in an ambitious series. I think S1 is more “exciting” than S2 in terms of the mystery and pacing,  but S2 is far more dense and interesting in terms of political commentary because it takes a long hard look at institutional corruption and in true writer-nim fashion doesn’t prescribe any easy solutions. Anyway, please enjoy public prosecutor Cho Seung-woo and police officer Bae Doona as partners/soulmates kicking ass and taking names in pursuit of Truth, Justice and just a goddamn peaceful meal, along with a stunningly competent ensemble cast. Also yes, Han Yeo Jin is a lesbian, sorry, I don’t make the rules. 

Search: WWW  (2019, Written by Kwon Do-Eun, directed by Jung Ji-hyun & Kwon Young-il, starring  Im Soo-jung, Lee Da-hee, Jeon Hye-jin)

GOD. Where do I start? +1000 for writer Kwon Do-Eun saying “fuck the patriarchy” in the most grandiose way possible, i.e. absolutely refusing to acknowledge that it exists. Yes, this is that power fantasy, and it’s also a fun, slice-of-life  tale about three women navigating their way through work, romance, national politics and everything in between. It’s true that I wasn’t entirely sold on the amount of time spent on the romance, and I really wish they’d actually had a textual wlw romance, though the subtext through the entire series is PRACTICALLY TEXT. But still, it maintains that veneer of plausible deniability and I think queer fans who are sick of that kind of treatment in media have a very valid grouse against the show. On the other hand, personally I felt that the queer-platonic vibe of the show is very wonderful and true to real life, and it was only reinforced by the ending. This is a show written by a woman for women (like me), and it shows. 

Hyena  (2020, Written by Kim Roo-Ri, directed by Jang Tae-yoo & Lee Chang Woo, starring  Kim Hye-soo and Ju Ji-hoon )

Those of you who’ve been watching hit zombie epic Kingdom are probably familiar with Ju Ji-hoon’s brand of sexiness already. I had not watched Kingdom and got hit in the face by Mr.Sexy McSexyPants’ turn as a brash, privileged-by-birth, up and coming lawyer who gets completely runover by the smoking hot and incredibly dangerous fellow lawyer/competitor from the other side of the tracks in the person of Kim Hye-Soo. When I say they set the room on fire, I mean it, ok. Every single scene between these two is an actual bonfire of sexual attraction and emotional hand grenades, and they’re both absolutely riveting to watch. “Flower of Evil” wishes they had what this show has- an actual grown up romance as opposed to a thirteen year old twilight fan’s idea of an adult romance. 

The “lawyer” shenanigans and the “cases” are hit or miss, and I think the occasional comedy fell flat for me. But that’s not why I mainlined like 6 episodes of this series overnight like a coke addict, and that’s not why you’re going to do it either. It’s so RARE, even in these enlightened days to find a female character like Jung Geum-ja: hard as nails, unapologetic about it, and not punished by the narrative for it. The best part for me is that she feels like a woman’s woman, not a man’s idea of what a Strong Female Character should be. Anyways, when I grow up I want to have what Kim Hye-soo has ok?

Other dramas that I watched this year, quickly rated:

The King: Eternal Monarch (3/10 and those 3 points are only for the combined goodness of second leads who deserved better- Jung Eun Chae, Woo Do Hwan and Kim Kyung Nam. Please head over to my AO3 and read my attempts to fix this garbage fire and rescue their characters from canon)

Flower of Evil (-10/100, dont @ me)

Tale of the Nine Tailed (5/10, I think it succeeds at what it set out to do, which is a light hearted, sweet fantasy-romance-melodrama, plus “second lead” Kim Beom will make you cry as the hot mess of a half human/ half fox spirit ALL TEARS character. I think if you’re into kdrama romances as a genre, this is probably a good bet?)

Signal  (7/10,  This was the first full kdrama I watched this year and would definitely recommend. It’s a police procedural with time travel shenanigans and has an engaging plot, good pacing, texture and compelling performances. My one disappointment with it was the way they wrote Kim Hye-soo’s character. As literally the only female character to survive in any way, she was given short shrift, and toward the end it really began to grate on me.)

Six Flying Dragons - (7/10, also would recommend if you’re interested in Korean historicals. It definitely already feels a bit dated in terms of styling and production values, and even scripting and acting choices. But it has a good balance of fantasy and history and political commentary. I was not a fan of Yoo In-Ah’s performance in this series, but it’s not anything that would make you want to nope out of the series. It’s GoT , if GoT was thoughtful about politics and characters and not the misogynist, racist trashfire that it became.)

My Country: The New Age - (3.5/10, and that’s 3 points to Jang Hyuk’s fan and 0.5.points to Woo Do Hwan’s heaving bosom. If you like your historical drama/fantasy with very pretty men, very gay subtext -seriously RIP to show makers who thought they could hetero it but didn’t account for Woo Do Hwan’s Tragic Face- lots of blood and tears and very nonsense plot, this is right up your alley. I probably would have enjoyed it more in other circumstances, I think? But this one just annoyed me too much at the time! 

I have a couple of more dramas to watch on my list, that’ll probably carry me over into 2021, so see ya on the other side! :D

[consumedkings-archive]

ancient names, epilogue

A John Seed/Original Female Character Fanfic

Ancient Names, epilogue: goodbye

Masterlink Post

Word Count: 3.7k

Rating: M for mature themes, mostly T though.

Warnings: just sad feels, my guy.

Notes: One last and final thank you to everyone who has read, kept up, commented, popped in to say hello to me on Tumblr. You really made this an incredible experience. ♡ I can’t wait to get started on the sequel, and I hope you enjoy this little interlude!

Everything hurt.

Or, rather, everything that he could feel hurt—which wasn’t much, or was hard to categorize, considering that opening his eyes felt impossible and thus his brain couldn’t register whether or not all of his limbs were attached or not.

“.... ohn. John, wake up.”

No thanks, he thought, tiredly, as pain splintered up his spine and radiated through his skull. No, I’m really quite good right here where I am.

“John,” and it was Joseph’s voice, muddled with the sound of steady rain. “Wake up.”

John felt the groan, rattling somewhere deep in his chest, as he pushed his eyes open. Then, and only then, did the agony really fucking hit—real, pure body-pain, the kind that sank straight into the marrow of his bones and stayed for a good many days. Struggling, he forced himself into a sitting position, hands flat against cold, wet pavement.

Hands flat. Free. Not cuffed.

“Good,” Joseph said, sounding relieved, “you’re awake.”

When his older brother extended his hand out, John took it; with a surprising amount of strength, Joseph hauled him to his feet, and he finally got a good look around him.

Carnage.

The highway was littered with bodies and blood and the mangled metal of crashed vehicles. He saw dark figures; it was night, late, and his eyes burned, and his body ached, and when the low snarl of one of Jacob’s judges echoed in his ears, he thought, ah, that’s it, then.

Jacob was there too, with Faith glued to his side. Her palms skinned and her dress torn, and the blood from Jacob’s gunshot wound seeping through dark-crimson. A steady sheet of silver rain had begun to fall, drenching them all; the chill seeped straight into his bones.

And, of course, there was Joseph. Relatively unscathed. Not an open wound in sight.

“How did—” John started, his brain still foggy from pain and, presumably, being unconscious. Joseph gripped his shoulders. There was a kind of look in his eye; fervent, urgent, and John realized that it had been there all along—that his brother had always looked like this, and maybe he had just gotten used to looking into different eyes as of late.

“Our followers have stayed true,” Joseph told him, his voice low. “The Collapse remains on the horizon. Perhaps—”

His brother stopped, as though to gauge himself.

“Perhaps,” he began again, “not as close as I thought. I prayed, John. I prayed for us—for you, and for your child, and even for...” Joseph’s mouth twisted viciously for a moment. “Even for that Delilah of yours.”

Elliot, he thought, a wave of sickening, burning fury washing over him even when the venom in Joseph’s voice doused him like gasoline. Liar. Lied to me, lied to my family, lied—

Wretchedly clever and cruel. More devil than woman. He had always known it, had loved her for it, and he couldn’t be surprised when his hand had come back from the fire burned. You can’t have both, she’d said, and she’d meant it; of course she had. He wouldn’t love her if she wasn’t the kind of woman who meant what she’d said.

“We have much to do,” Joseph plunged on, as headlights turned around the corner of the road. “God is going to speak to me, I know it. I can feel that we have so little time left, John.”

“Okay,” John said, feeling a little dazed, trailing after Joseph when he began to move to one of the nearby trucks idling. “Okay, yes, we’ll—what do we do about—”

He stopped, opening the door to the car automatically for Faith to climb in. Of them all, he thought maybe he was the least fucked up—outwardly, anyway. Inside, his body felt like it had been jumbled around, tossed like a fucking salad at Olive Garden. The ache in his head didn’t dull as the seconds ticked by.

Jacob paused. The redhead’s mouth twisted, like he was biting back the things he wanted to say; John knew it had to be something like I fucking told you, I told you the situation wasn’t under control, I knew you couldn’t control her, but the words didn’t come out.

And in his own mouth, words sat, too: I’m sorry, I know I fucked up, but I know I can get her back.

Not can. Would. Would get her back, no matter what. By any means necessary.

“John,” Jacob barked out, and he realized that moments had passed—maybe minutes—of him standing in the rain, the door of the truck open. He moved on autopilot, hauling himself into the back seat of the truck and slamming the door shut.

The air inside the truck was humid, fizzing and popping with a strange energy. He could taste it on his tongue, electric; ozone; vibrating in his mouth and in his skeleton. Some of it the storm outside, and some of it the fury in his mouth, so potent it had become tangible.

Mine, he thought, shifting as pain splintered up his spine and shoulder. My wife. My baby. She thinks she’s done with us, huh? Not even fucking close.

“We have much to do,” Joseph murmured as the truck pulled a u-turn and began its route back to the compound. “Now, more than ever.” Through the rearview mirror, his gaze met John’s; lingered for a moment, and only a moment. “We will find her, John. Her, and your child.”

John felt his eyes flutter. Exhaustion was already beginning to try and take its toll on him. “She traded us in.”

“Yes,” Joseph replied, and his voice was terse, sharper than normal. “But God is ever merciful. And are we not to liken ourselves in his image, so that we may be as holy?”

He didn’t know if he wanted Elliot back to be holy. He thought maybe he wanted her back because she belonged to him—because they belonged to each other, two wretched creatures, and she owed him, and he would have what was rightfully his. What he was owed.

“Yes,” John agreed hoarsely. “Just as holy.”

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Nothing like dry-heaving over a toilet with your mother standing by.

“You know,” Scarlet said, “us Honeysett women have always taken well to childbearing. You were the most perfect baby, Elliot.”

Her mother was perched on the edge of the sink, a glass of rosé (chilled glass, of course) in her hand, golden curls perfectly pinned and coiffed and the floor-length maxi dress pressed to perfection—in stark contrast to Elliot, gripping the edge of the toilet in her sweats, stomach somersaulting and trying its best to achieve Olympic level gymnastics.

You’re not a Honeysett woman, she thought exhaustedly. You’re a fucking Graves woman. She managed to spit, taking in a long-suffering breath. “You said I was colicky.”

“Well, yes. But I never got morning sickness.”

Elliot gritted her teeth, eyes fluttering shut at the hot wave of nausea rolling over her, prickling sickly heat along her spine in warning. “That’s awesome, mama. Good for—” She swallowed. “Good for you. So glad. Really cool.” She exhaled. “Thank goodness it’s five in the afternoon. What’s that, then? Afternoon sickness?”

“Mm.” Her mother sipped at her wine, setting it on the counter with a little clink that somehow managed to sound three thousand times louder in her wretched state. “Yes, we’ve always been excellent vessels for our children.”

“That’s lo-uuh—” She closed her eyes tight. “Lovely.”

Scarlet’s fingers brushed her hair back from her face, cinching it in a ponytail. “Must be the father.”

You don’t fucking say? Elliot wanted to spit, but there was no room. Scarlet Honeysett tolerated a great many things—poor weather on the day of her events, a lukewarm glass to transport her alcohol, the repeated and systematic abandonment of her by her husband—but a mouthy child she did not.

“Educated inference,” is what she said instead. “I think I’m done.”

“Well.” Scarlet looked at her, arching a manicured brow. “Stay here for a while longer, then, just so you don’t go puking on my carpet.”

“Thanks, mama.”

“Mmhm.”

When her mother swept out of the bathroom and took with her the scent of her perfume—normally familiar and comforting, now only nausea-inducing—Elliot closed the door with her foot and leaned back against the wall in the bathroom. Her chest was burning; the strain of dry-heaving while the skin on her chest was still tight and healing was enough to have probably broken it open if she hadn’t been meticulously taking care of it.

And thank God her mother hadn’t seen that yet.

After a few more minutes of questioning whether or not she was going to actually puke, Elliot pushed herself to her feet and rinsed her mouth out with Listerine. It had not been easy, the last two weeks. Not only was she acclimating to living with her mother again—a thing which she had not done since she was in high school—but she was doing it pregnant. Pregnant, and with the child’s father nowhere to be.

Her arrival at the ancestral Graves home—a meticulously kept two-story historic building that had not only been in their family for so many years, but was planted on twenty acres of premium real estate in what was otherwise a small town named Weyfield—had been a tumultuous one, to be sure. Though her mother seemed inquisitive about what had occurred, she wasn’t even aware that anything had been happening at all.

Because she hadn’t been there.

“What do you mean?” Elliot had asked, incredulous.

“Well, I always come down here when the weather is starting to turn,” Scarlet had replied idly, squeezing her lime wedge dry into her glass. “I left In July.”

“The weather is not turning in July.”

“Some of us, Elli,” her mother had snipped, “are sensitive to changes in the weather. It’s not my fault you couldn’t feel it. Nor my fault that you didn’t answer my phone calls.”

It provided, at the very least, a bit of leeway when it came to explaining what was going on. Her mother had, of course, been aware of the Seeds in some capacity; but only in the kind of capacity that she thought them a zealous nuisance, and a little slimy—“Except for the oldest one, he seems like a good man,” she’d said, much to Elliot’s disgust—but nothing more than that.

This meant that Elliot didn’t need to tell her anything she didn’t want to. For now. Until the news broke, if it ever did; it seemed like headlines these days were more preoccupied with what was going on overseas than what was going on within the States’ own borders.

“Here,” Scarlet said, planting a pill bottle in her hand. “Take one of these thirty minutes before you go to bed.”

“What are these?”

“Sleeping pills,” her mother explained.

Elliot’s mouth twisted. “I sleep fine.”

“If you slept at all, I might believe you. I know you, Elli, I birthed you from my own womb, and you’ve never been a good sleeper.” The blonde paused. “And I hear you at night, you know, moving around. You and that hound.”

Boomer was fairly good at being stealthy, but perhaps not so much so in a house that was almost exclusively hardwood flooring. She’d have to remember that the next time she decided to go on a walk at three in the morning.

Elliot looked at the label. Eszopiclone, it said. S. Honeysett. “I probably shouldn’t take your prescription, mama.” And why are you giving me sleeping pills you should be taking, anyway?

“You need to sleep,” Scarlet said firmly. “For you and baby.”

It took a concerted effort to swallow back bile that tried to surge up her throat—for some reason, the knowledge that there was now a she and a baby, that she was both herself and vessel, made her nausea want to kick in. She hadn’t been sleeping, it was true. Not for lack of trying, either. She’d drink some kind of stupid sleepy-time tea, settle herself into the bed, and lay there. And wait.

And wait.

And wait.

But every time she’d close her eyes, she would be assaulted by images; Joey, jaw snapped and hanging loose from her face. Kian, face a bloody pulp. The blood seeping down her chest from the WRATH scar John had left. And John, of course.

He was always there, too. His eyes on her, his hands on her, his mouth on her.

So good, hellcat, it’s gonna look so good on you.

I’m all yours, just take what you need, I’ll give you anything, anything.

I’m fucking it for you.

I love you, Elliot.

“... listening to me?”

Elliot blinked. Her eyes burned, stinging with the threat of tears, and she swallowed thickly again. It felt like choking. Things often felt like choking, nowadays—things like breathing, swallowing, sleeping. It all felt too much for her to take, sometimes. Like she was deranged.

“I’m sorry,” she managed out, her voice barely breaking a whisper, and the second she felt the slip of a tear down her cheek she quickly wiped it away and sniffed. “I’m sorry, mama, I wasn’t.”

Something in her mother’s expression shifted for just a moment. Her eyes swept over Elliot, like maybe she thought she could see what it was that was really ailing her. Scarlet had tried to pry about John; she’d tried to figure out who it was that had left her daughter destitute, like this. What she didn’t know was that Elliot had left him destitute.

He deserves it, she thought through the heavy wave of exhaustion. Whatever they do to him, he deserves it.

“Maybe you should take a nap,” her mother suggested after a moment. “Dinner in an hour.”

“I’m going for a walk,” Elliot replied, tucking the bottle into her pocket for later. “Boomer gets crazy if I don’t.”

“Well, can’t have that. Back in an hour, then, bunny.”

She slipped past her mother, snagging the dog leash by the door and calling for the Heeler. He came sprinting down the stairs delightedly, and Elliot opened the door so he could go racing out. He’d certainly gotten less time running than he had prior to this, but he seemed in better spirits, anyway—new smells, friendly people. It was a dog’s dream.

“Don’t forget you have a doctor’s appointment tomorrow,” her mother called after her. “I’m taking you in at nine A.M. sharp.”

“Yes, mama.”

The afternoon had passed by in a blitz, as it was wont to do in late Autumn, and now Elliot found herself with so little golden daylight left; but she thought maybe she liked it best like this, walking with Boomer darting around ahead of her, watching the sky wring the last little rays of light out of the sun before it dipped fully behind the mountains.

I love you, Elliot.

She stopped walking, closing her eyes for a moment. A low, dull headache had begun to bloom behind her eyes. Lack of sleep, probably. Lack of sleep, and now she had a—

A fucking baby, she thought, with no absence of despair.

Boomer had doubled back when she stopped moving, and for a moment Elliot felt a vicious sting in her chest. Cry, it said, when the dog nosed her hand with a cold nose. Cry, it said, when she struggled to sit down in the damp, chilly grass, and Boomer could push his face into hers.

She had been alone, before. Alone in all the world. But not anymore.

Boomer tucked his face against her neck and stayed there, panting his hot doggy breath down the collar of her shirt. And as dusk fell, and the first speckling of stars started to make their appearance, Elliot felt herself come undone.

Just a little bit; just for now, while she could bury her face into her dog’s fur and cry, she would come undone.

And when she was finished, she would get up and walk back home. She would sit down and have dinner with her mother, and listen to her complain that while the doctor they were going to see was quite new but supposedly very nice, and she’d take a sleeping pill so that she could hopefully get some peace of mind for one night. In the morning, she would get up and out of bed, and she would keep living. That was all she could do.

For now, though—for a little while, she would let herself grieve. And every time she thought she couldn’t do it anymore—every time she thought she’d reached the absolute bottom—she’d keep fucking digging. What would she do with grief, if not lug it?

She would never heal otherwise.

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“Where the fuck is Weyfield?”

Jacob’s derisive tone did nothing to help John’s mood. Hunched over a map, the scattered papers of the file he hadn’t thrown away, eyes stinging, he thought he’d felt shittier only once before—long before his reuniting with Joseph. Back before he’d been cleansed.

He’d read every paper three times over. Stared at her photo for hours. Nothing felt any better than it had two weeks ago, when she’d been screaming that she would kill him.

“Some nowhere corner of Georgia,” John muttered, passing a hand over his face. “Her file says she was born in Weyfield, but that can’t be right—that shit is so small. Like, population three hundred, maybe? And her mom’s rich, which means—”

“Probably some kind of old money, then,” Jacob suggested. “Historic home. Lots of farmland surrounding it. Didn’t you say her grandfather was a racing jockey, mom never worked, or something? Gotta have room for horses and big fancy homes to go with those horses.”

Oh, John thought absently. Oh, of course. Of course her mother is a trust-fund baby. They would have an ancestral home, wouldn’t they?

They’d been back at the compound for a few weeks; Joseph had been secluded, alone, ruminating and marinating or whatever else it was he had to do to really hear God, and that meant John had been free to figure out what his plan was. So far, it was pretty bare bones.

Find Elliot and baby. Bring Elliot and baby home.

Joseph did not have a timeline, yet. He didn’t even know what it was that had delayed the Collapse—not quite. He had fervently insisted he be left alone to himself and God, to ensure that there were no interruptions—“Interruptions,” he’d said, “interfered with it last time, I won’t have it again,”—and so John, Jacob, and Faith had been left to rebuild what they could.

What members of Eden’s Gate remained after the veritable slaughter the Family had brought upon them were run ragged, but the nice thing about having an enemy meant that they were bound together by the same hatred.

“So that’s it, huh?” Jacob asked, breaking him out of his thoughts. “Weyfield, for the little hellcat?”

“That’s it.” John sucked his teeth and came to a stand, grabbing his coat from the back of his chair. “I should head out to Atlanta as soon as possible. I’ll need—”

“That’s a big city,” his eldest brother cautioned.

“That city has resources I’ll need. As much as I’d like to think that I could just track her down and we’ll kiss and make-up, I get the feeling that if I don’t do this the right way, it’ll be dragging her back kicking and screaming.” He paused, his voice tightening. “And I will be getting her back.”

Jacob watched him for a moment. He exhaled out of his mouth before he reached over, planting a hand on John’s shoulder. He half expected his brother to say something like, just forget it, Johnny, or it’s not worth running the risk of getting recognized, but he didn’t.

Instead, he said, “Be careful, keep in touch. And get my nephew back, yeah?”

John swallowed thickly. There was a lot wrapped up in those words; a lot that he had yet to parse through. Blinding, insatiable fury, that he had been tricked and lied to and deceived, but above all else—above all of that, he missed—

No, he thought, hands shaking and jaw clenching as he pulled his coat on. No, above all else, Elliot belongs to me, and that’s the beginning and the end of it.

“Don’t know it’s a boy,” he managed out, with all of those whispers rattling incessantly in his head. Jacob smiled.

“Joseph does.”

“I suppose so.”

A moment of silence stretched between them, and for the first time in a long time, John felt closer to Jacob than he did to Joseph—and maybe that was because he hadn’t seen his brother’s face in weeks, or maybe it was because he knew that for some strange reason, Jacob was pleased to have Elliot come back, and Joseph might not be.

Not if he was being honest, anyway.

“Off I go,” John blurted out, worried that he would get stuck in an infinite loop of trying to parse out things that weren’t meant for him to understand. “I’ll call when I get there.”

“Take someone with you?”

“It’ll just slow me down. Besides, I’m trying to not draw attention.” He paused, hesitating at the doorway of the church. “You’ll tell me when he knows, right?”

When he knows how much time I have?

Jacob’s expression hardened. He nodded once, short. “I will.”

“Thank you.”

John pushed the door open, stepping out into the night. It was chilly; soon, it’d be snowing, if it didn’t do so that very night, and the compound’s courtyard was bustling with sleepy life. As he climbed into the truck and took a breath to calm the rapid, unsteady beating of his heart, he closed his eyes for just one moment.

Just for now, he thought tiredly. I’m going to take a breath just for now, and then—

And then one more breath, and then another, turning the key in the ignition and shutting the radio off and throwing the car into drive, and then one more breath, until he was breathing all the way to fucking Georgia. He was going to get his wife back.

One way or another.