#he opened up about the time when he couldn’t absorb too much positivity that he went to reddit to find sharp words and he cut himself

[may-the-gayforce-be-with-you]

I am bit late but this is an appreciation post for imran khan

[jgracie]

⋆౨ৎ˚⟡˖ OH, BABY!

firefighter!percy jackson x fem!reader

masterlist | rules

an firefighter percy as promised!!! this doesn’t focus much on the firefighter aspect but i had to do it im sorry LOL

you nervously paced around the kitchen of your home - the one you shared with percy - as you mentally rehearsed what you were going to tell him once he got home from work

“it’s okay, y/n, you and perce want this,” you told yourself, your voice barely above a whisper. it was true, you and percy did want a baby. you’d discussed it a while ago and decided it was the right time for the two of you, with both your careers finally being stable and all your debts having been paid. still, you anxiously toyed around with the pregnancy test in your hands, the two lines indicating ‘positive’ almost mocking you as you stared down at them

somehow, you’d managed to keep this hidden from percy for a month, which now made you two months pregnant. you weren’t sure how you did it, but you needed some time to absorb the information of the new addition to your lives so you simply hid the pregnancy test and scans and visits to the doctor for as long as you could

part of the reason why you were afraid was percy’s job. he was a firefighter, and while you did admire him for it as he would constantly risk his own life for the sake of others’, you couldn’t help but wish he’d chosen a different career path. you’d already get worried whenever he’d come home and tell you about the near-death experience of the day like it was nothing special, but with a baby on the way, those feelings tripled

however, you knew percy deserved to know. after a week of contemplating and planning, you’d decided to tell him using the classic ‘bun in the oven’ surprise. the warm smell of the bread baking comforted you as you waited for percy’s arrival, but it wasn’t enough to ease your nerves. that was what prompted you to make your mistake of the day: taking a bath

taking a bath wouldn’t have been a problem if you actually remembered to turn the oven off before you left. whilst you poured your scented soaps and bath bombs into the water, choosing a show to watch on your ipad and lighting some candles, your bun in the oven burnt under the scorching heat

percy was excited to see you, his precious wife. sometimes, he couldn’t believe he actually got to call you that. he nearly skipped all the way to your apartment, a goofy grin plastered on his face as he pulled his keys out of his back pocket and— what was that smell?

being a firefighter, this was a scent that percy knew all too well. suddenly, he was alert, his mind already conjuring up the worst scenarios it could as he frantically turned the keys to your apartment - first the wrong way, causing him to curse under his breath, then the right

he almost kicked the door down as he entered, scanning the space for any sign of you, any sign that you were safe and unharmed

“babe? y/n, where are you?” he yelled, running around the apartment as he tried to find the source of the fire. his shoes left dirty footprints all over the floor, footprints you’d definitely scold him for later, but he’d go through a million lectures from you if he had to. as long as you were alive and safe, percy would be fine

meanwhile, you had gotten out of the shower, your mood improving tremendously, when you’d finally heard percy’s shouts over the music playing from your phone. your brows furrowed in confusion and you put the pregnancy test into the pocket of your robe, making your way over to where he was

when percy saw you, tears sprung to his eyes and he lifted you up, causing you to squeal as he twirled you around before giving you a rib-crushing hug. when you pulled away, you frowned at the evident distress on your husband’s face - what was up with him?

“is everything okay, perce?” you asked, tenderly taking his hands into yours and giving them a right squeeze. percy nodded, but to you, he was an open book. there was definitely something wrong

just as you were about to ask if he was sure, percy said, “everything’s okay, i just smelt something burning and, y’know, with my job, your mind can’t help but wander…” you took a whiff of the air and smelt it too. biting your lip, you followed the scent to the kitchen as you wracked your brain for an answer as to why it was even there

you got to the oven. the oven with the hard, black bun in it

“oh my god, no!” you mumbled, hurriedly getting some oven mitts and grabbing the bun out of the oven, immediately dropping it onto the countertop. as you did this, something happened to fall out of your robe pocket

percy picked it up, about to hand it to you when he noticed what it was. a pregnancy test. more importantly, a positive pregnancy test

his voice trembling as he held back tears for the second time that evening, percy asked, “y/n, what is this?” you looked up and your eyes widened as you patted down your robe, realising the test had fallen out

“y/n,” percy began, pulling you closer to him. with your lips a centimeter apart, he continued, “is this real? are you…? are we…?” you couldn’t find the words to answer his question, so you simply nodded. immediately, percy closed to distance between you, and as the taste of his salty tears mixed with your minty toothpaste, you felt your worries get washed away

percy would be a great father, regardless of what job he had. under the soft kitchen lights, mr and mrs jackson became sure of one thing: that he would come home to you and your baby, no matter what life could possibly throw at him

[etherealphosphor]

Cuddling Headcanons ♡

⟡ Contains: Character x Gn!Reader, Sfw, Fluff

⟡ Diluc, Albedo, Venti, Dottore, Alhaitham

Diluc ˗ˏˋ ★ ˎˊ˗

After an especially tiring day at work, the thing that Diluc needed most was to lay down next to his beloved. As he walked through the door, you took his coat and gave him a quick kiss on the lips. He embraced you for a moment, breathing in your scent, which always seemed to calm him down. Once Diluc released you, you took his hand in yours and brought him to the bedroom. Hugging you from behind, he laid down next to you on the bed and rested his head on your shoulder. All the stresses from his day melted away, and the only thing he cared about was you. As you drifted off, Diluc gently whispered words of affection into your ear. He made sure you had no doubt that he loved you more than anything else.

Albedo ⋆⭒˚｡⋆

Albedo, as an introverted alchemist, spent most of his time alone. On top of that, being an artificial human, he never knew that he could even experience love. But when you came into his life, everything changed. He hated being away from you, and you were the one person he always wanted around. As you and Albedo lay in bed, he slowly ran his fingers over your neck. The red marks of your earlier activities were scattered all over it, and Albedo couldn’t help but feel slightly proud of himself. Those marks showed that you were his—and his alone. Albedo moved his head down to listen to the slow beat of your heart; something about it always fascinated him. He loved every inch of your body, and he smiled gently as he pulled you closer to him. You played with Albedo’s hair as he drifted off, which was something that always soothed him.

Venti °❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･

On some days, Venti would stumble home at night completely drunk. Ignoring your scolding, he’d throw himself into your arms and beg you to cuddle him. Despite being annoyed by his bad habit of drinking so much, you found it very hard to stay mad at him. The way his eyes sparkled as he smiled at you with flushed cheeks instantly melted your heart, and you agreed. Leading him to the bedroom, you laid down and pulled him into your arms. You could smell the scent of wine all over him, but you found that you didn’t really care. You quite liked having him in your embrace, even if he smelled like the tavern. Venti nuzzled his face into your neck, squeezing you as tight as he could. Even if you couldn’t see his face, you could tell he was smiling widely.

Dottore .𖥔 ݁ ˖˚☽˚｡⋆

After spending the whole day cooped up in his lab, Dottore was glad to be able to relax. He simply couldn’t sleep without having you in his arms, and he had been eagerly awaiting spending time with you after his awfully boring work day. You were waiting for him in bed, and you smiled as he opened the door. Dottore took you into his embrace and rested his chin on top of your head. In that position, your head was nestled gently against his chest. The slow rhythm of Dottore’s heartbeat lulled you to sleep as he stroked your hair. Something was magical to him about how defenseless you looked as you slept—a silent reminder of how fragile your mortality was. The way you trusted Dottore with your life made his heart flutter a little. Nothing could ever compare to how much he loved being close to you.

Alhaitham .⋆✮ ✧̣̇˳·˖✶

Alhaitham always stayed up too late at night, studying and whatnot. You’d always wait for him to come to bed, but oftentimes you became impatient. This evening, you walked out to the living room, where Alhaitham was sitting. Absorbed in another book, he didn’t even look up as you walked over to him. Without a word, you pushed the hand holding the book out of the way and wrapped your arms around his neck. Looking up, Alhaitham couldn’t even speak before you kissed him. Seated comfortably on his lap, he embraced you gently as you told him how much you missed his company. Moving one arm under your legs and one around your back, Alhaitham picked you up bridal style and carried you to your room. Only you knew the sweetness hidden by his prickly personality.

[girlgroupshots]

The Producer - PART TWO

pairing: arin x male reader/oc rating: M for Mature word count: 2685 summary: You learn more about your potential job while also having a run in with someone in need. 

As you stood before your uncle's building you couldn't help but feel a sense of deja vu.

Just yesterday you had been standing in this very position but with much less information than you currently held. Ironically, you felt more confused now then when you knew nothing. The day you had spent with your Uncle did nothing to help you make a decision. If anything it only confirmed that he was a terrific salesman. And then there was the night you had spent with Jessica. You assumed it meant nothing but that was one hell of a way to get to know each other. The end result of all of this was that you had gotten little to no sleep after you made it back to your motel room. You briefly contemplated merely catching the train back home but fortunately, or unfortunately, your conscious wouldn't let you do it.

So here you were, running on fumes but punctiual nonetheless.

On cue you saw Jessica walking up to the doors from inside. She seemed just as you had saw her yesterday, well, early yesterday. The Jessica you witnessed in the afterhours was an entirely different beast.

"I almost didn't think you'd be on time" she greeted with a teasing smile.

"What can I say, you left a good impression. Besides something tells me you are a fan of punctuality."

"It doesn't hurt."

At first you had thought that Uncle Min and Jessica merely had a good repitoire but you were quickly realising that she could make conversation with anyone. A good talent to have if one was in the people management business. She walked into the building and you followed closely on her heels. Clearly she had a plan set for what was going to happen today and you were merely along for the ride.

"The girls should be on their way," Jessica spoke over her shoulder as we made our way towards the elevator, "We have a pretty wide range from our oldest trainee to the youngest but for the most part they're relatively close."

You merely gave a nod, absorbing the information that she was giving me.

"Before they get here I want to give you a brief rundown. Just enough so you know a little bit about them; I wouldn't want to scare you off before you even accept the job."

You laughed lightly at her words as we entered the elevator, "Don't worry, I'm too impressed to be scared so far. Honestly though, it seems like you're on top of everything, I'm still not sure if I'm even needed."

Jessica looked over at me for a moment as if trying to judge whether I was being sarcastic or not before letting out a small scoff, "Well, I appreciate you saying that. However, like I told you last night there’s a difference between the two positions. We've been at it for four years now and still haven't fully lifted off the ground. I think a new perspective could be just what we need."

She was simply being honest but I couldn't help thinking it was another reminder of the potential pressure you’d be under and how bad it would be if you failed to be the new ingridient that the company needed.

The elevator doors opened with a ding and you followed Jessica the short distance to her office, noting that it was across from where your Uncle had said yours would was. Or rather, where yours would be if you started working there. You took a seat, noting the small pile of folders she had on her desk.

"So how many trainees do you guys have exactly?" you questioned as she sat across from you.

"Fifteen."

"Fifteen?!" you tried to leave the incredulous tone out of your voice, "And the plan is to debut all of them?"

"Well, technically that would be up to you. That’s another reason why we need your perspective. If it were up to me I’d debut all of them in some form or another. When you're in a small company like ours everyone grows pretty close and attached. Especially when you've been through the trenches together."

You could sense the sentinmentality in her words. You were finally beginning to understand why she didn’t want to be in that position. They needed someone with a more objective look at things to make any changes that were needed. Even if that including cutting some of the trainees. That said, the thought of being the guy who comes in and starts cutting loose ends didn't make you feel great either. You decided to move forward rather than dwell on that thought.

"Of course, that's only natural. So you wanted to brief me on them right?"

"Just briefly,," Jessica nodded, seemingly eager to change the subject as well, "I'll start with the youngest."

"Noona!"

Before Jessica could begin, a voice rang out in the hallway. You looked over your shoulder then back to Jessica who simply let out a tired sigh.

"Noona, are you up here – " the owner of the voice stopped short when he entered the doorway and saw the two of you sitting there. It was hard to miss how his demeanor switched from carefree to embarrassed. "Er, uh, Ms. Jung."

“What is it Jinyoung?”

“When the other girls start arriving should I send them to practice room?”

"Yes, please. Thank you, Jinyoung" Jessica forced a smile on her lips, "By the way, this is potentially your future boss. He might be working with us in the near future."

The man's gaze looked back to you before promptly bowing in greeting. "It's a pleasure to meet you, sir. I look forward to working with you in the future."

Honestly, it was hard to bite back an amused expression. The whole situation was unfamiliar. You were used to being the one politely bowing to the higher ups in the company. Now here you were in the reverse situation and the man couldn't be that much younger than yourself Still, it'd be rude to simply laugh so you managed to nod my head in response.

"Likewise."

“If that’s all, I have to go over some things with our guest, Jinyoung."

“Right. Of course.” The man gave a curt nod before scurring on his way.

When you turned back to Jessica you could tell she was already reading what was going through your mind.

"Don't give me that look. He's a member of the staff and he's a good kid."

"Oh, I'm sure he is...Noona."

"Don't you start."

You were unable to hold back the amusement this time and despite her annoyed words you could see the hint of a smile on Jessica's lips. For all the teasing you could do though, you didn't doubt her words. After all, she did say they had a family-like vibe in the company. But that didn't mean you were going to let her live it down anytime soon.

“Alright, let’s get started,” Jessica said, pivoting the conversation.

At those words your amusement faded, feeling a sudden sense of anxiety in your gut. One might go as far as to call it nausea. It was all suddenly becoming very real. This wasn’t drinks at the bar or your Uncle casually telling you his grand designs. This was holding the future of strangers you had never met in your hands. One thought ran through your mind: Oh fuck.

Suddenly feeling nauses you needed to get out of there. "Before we begin I need to use the bathroom."

"Alright,” there was only a slight hint of annoyance in her voice, “it's right down the hall."

You quickly learned that you and Jessica had vastly different ideas of what right down the hall meant. Especially as right around the corner soon turned into you wandering the building. At least your nauseous feeling had subsided somewhat if nothing else. When you spotted a young woman you quickly approached her in hopes of gettimg some kind of direction.

"Hi, do you work here?"

Stupid question. This wasn't the grocery store. If she was in the building then she must work there. From looking at her she clearly looked like she could be another one of Jessica's interns. What you failed to miss among the startled expression was the flush that crept up her neck and colored her cheeks, or the way her thighs fidgeted together anxiously.

"O-oh, um, y-yes. Yes…" she fumbled out.

You assumed it was just a reaction suddenly having a stranger appear in front of her. "Great, can you show me where the bathroom is?"

"It's right down the hall," she pointed.

"Believe it or not that's thw second time I've been told that," you rubbed the back of your head. "Do you mind taking me there?"

The girl was silent for a moment, biting her bottom lip as she looked away from you. You raised your eyebrow in curiosity, wondering what was going on.

"Are you okay?"

"I'm fine!" she blurted out. "It's this way!"

The dark-haired girl abruptly turned on her heels and began to lead you to your destination. You silently followed, your mind drifting to everything Jessica had told you thus far. Soon you'd learn about the girls and then you'd have to make a definitive choice on whether you wanted to take on this project or not. Jessica clearly seemed to think she was capable onconvincing you. But you told yourself it'd take more than good sex to change your mind.

"Here we are," the girl's voice broke your thoughts.

"Thanks."

You intended to walk past her and then likely never see the girl again only to have her suddenly grab your shirt. Her breathing was heavy as she clutched at the fabric. For the first time you noticed the red flush to her cheeks. Did she have a fever?! Was she going to pass out? How was this happening on your first day already? You gripped her elbow to help her keep her balance, concern etched across her features.

“Hey, are you okay?” you asked

She looked up at her, wavy hair framing her pristine features. When she opened her mouth the sound you heard was not the response you were expecting. The sound she made was a moan. It was high-pitched and needy and undeniably a moan of pleasure. You looked bewildered for a moment, briefly wondering just what the hell was happening as the girl pressed her body close to yours. It was only then you noticed her nipples poking against the cotton fabric of her shirt.

“Can you touch me?”

“What?!”

In response, the dark-haired beauty let go of your shirt to grip one of your hands and moved it to her breast. You were able to palm it easily, feeling the stiffened nub beneath your hand. At the contact she let out another moan. For as confused as you were to have this girl begging for your touch and writhing against you, you couldn’t deny the natural reaction your body was having. Your cock was beginning to stir beneath your slacks and becoming painfully obvious. Especially when you were this close.

“I just need…” she trailed off, pressing her body against yours.

She found purchase on your knee, rubbing herself against it as if she was riding your cock. If it weren’t for your utter confusion at what was happening you might have pinned her against the wall and had your way with her. As it stood you didn’t even know her name. Settling for being her tool for getting off was going to have to be enough for now. Still, that didn’t mean you had to be a passive participant. You angled you thigh better, fitting it between her thighs and pressing more fully against her crotch.

“Are you getting off on this? Rubbing yourself up against a stranger at work?” you taunted her.

“Nngh ~ ” She swallowed another moan, panting heavily as she pressed herself harder against you.

“I bet that friction feels good doesn’t it? Did you soak through your panties already?”

“Mmm ~ “

She buried her face into your chest, a muffled approval confirming from her in response as she nodded her head. Despite her seeming embarrassment, her actions were no less desperate. She gripped your shirt tighter, leveraging herself against you as she continued to hump your thigh, a certain desperation in her movements. You weren’t exactly sure what had come over her. Hell, you didn’t know what had come over you! But the angelic whimper that fell from her lips was enough to not make you question it any further for now.

“Are you going to cum?” you teased, pinching her perky nipples. “Are you going to cum for me?”

“Mmphf!!”

When her orgasm finally hit, it was a silent orgasm. She bit her bottom lip, stuffing her face into your chest as her body shook. Somehow she made an inherently sexual act seem precious. When it was over you retracted your hand from her breast, holding her elbow until she wasable to stand straight. The snap back to reality was almost instant. Her face flushed a crimson red as she stepped back.

“I– I’m so sorry,” she blurted out.

Before you could even ask her name she was quickly gone from sight. Leaving you with a rather uncomfortable erection.

“...What the hell just happened?”

By the time you made it back to Jessica she had a tired expression on her face.

“Did you get lost?”

“You could say that.”

She gave you a curious look but didn’t say press the issue further. “Well, sit down. You took so long we have to go through this quickly. I’ll start with the youngest.“

Jessica began giving you a brief summary of each trainee from their name to their core strengths. It was informative and and for the first time in two days it felt like this was an actual job. She had clearly put in a lot of work but you’d get a better feel for the girls once you met them in person. After all, they all sounded great on paper but anyone could make a resume sound good on paper.

“Wait,” you suddenly snapped out of your thoughts. “Who is that?”

Jessica looked at the current file. “Yewon?”

“Yewon…She’s a trainee here?”

“Yes? She joined us shortly after we started auditions so she’s been with us a few years now.”

The lump in your throat grew larger as you stared at the picture on file. There was no denying it: that was the same face of the girl who had been riding your thigh some thirty minutes ago.

“Oh…”

Meanwhile…

Yewon stumbled into the practice room, closing the door behind her. She was panting and out of breath, her cheeks flushed with color. Partially because she was out of breath from practically sprinting away from the stranger and partially because of the toy that was still going off inside of her. Immediately she was accosted by one of her fellow trainees. Specifically a blonde named Yunjin.

“Oh my god!” Yunjin exclaimed, a smile of disbelief on her features. “Unnie, you actually did it.”

“Turn it off already!” she whined in response.

Ignorant to her fellow trainee’s despair, Yunjin pressed on, “Did you have an orgasm?”

“Yunjin, please!”

“Alright, alright!”

“I can’t believe I let you talk me into this...” 

The blonde quickly reached into the pocket of her sweatpants, pulling out her phone to open the app that was currently causing the older girl torture. Meanwhile, a dark-haired, well-endowed trainee was getting everyone elses attention at the far end of the practice room.

“Everyone! If you missed the announcement, we are meeting the new CEO today,” Eunbi said to the girls gathered before her. “Let’s leave a good impression, alright?”

“I heard Jinyoung say he hasn’t accepted the offer yet,” another girl chimed in. When she looked up and realized she was getting a death stare from Eunbi she shrugged defensively. “What? I’m just saying what I heard.”

“Thank you, Jiwon, but either way we should do our best. Let’s make sure nothing goes wrong.”

After all, what could possibly go wrong.

authors note: part two done! part three is the last part of the ‘prologue’ of sorts and then it will start to be more episodic chapter updates. i finished this chapter a while ago so i thought i’d finally release it. i’m currently taking a break from writing but i hope you’re all doing well! i also might be moving things to a new blog as this is a side-blog which limits my ability to follow and such but tbd.

[captain-joongz]

Abraxas; Act 1, Chapter 2 Part 2

Pairing: mafia boss!Min Yoongi x police office!reader

Genre: enemies to lovers, humour, angst, investigation themes, dark themes, eventual smut, slowburn, some fluff

Chapter summary: As spring time comes, the police station finds itself intensely focused on several cold murder cases linked to the gangs. Amidst this chaos, it's hard to find time for anything else except for grappling with the position in the team and the burning ambition to be accepted, but something lovely might just be awaiting right behind the corner. The complicated relationship with the Min gang continues to get even more muddled.

Chapter word count: 18.3k

Warnings: discussion of crimes and murders, mentions of violence and gore (nothing too graphic, they're vaguely describing a murder scene), general anxiety? (our girl is NERVOUS in this one), Yoongi almost isn't in this chapter, start of reader x OC, gets suggestive at the end (it's not with Yoongi but he IS endgame, dw), also this chapter might be a bit slower and investigation and exposition heavy

Previous part | Series masterlist | Next part

A/N: unexpected sleepover kept me busy most of the weekend but here finally comes the second part of the chapter, i'm so excited for you to read the ending hehehe! let me know in the comments or through asks what you think, i'm curious to know your opinions! <3

The early summer heat was already hitting halfway through May, and as I sat in the station that was barely AC-ed, I suffered like a dog through the sudden and surprising rises of temperatures in between of bouts of rains.

Truthfully, looking out of the window, I wasn’t sure whether I’d rather be sitting here in a half empty dead office with barely anyone present (6 o’clock on a Friday afternoon usually not pulling much traffic around these parts) or sitting in full leather on my bike by some seedy club peeping at what Jungkook was doing this particular evening like a creep.

I wasn’t able to put much time into any extracurricular activities, the current task I’ve been made responsible of forced me to spend most of my time behind a desk, scrolling through endless police reports, paparazzi photos and news articles, taking names of cases and trying to find out what kind of people they were and who they were associated with. And after the hours and hours I’ve spent on this I was truly starting to get sick of it, almost missing the few days I spent watching a warehouse in the middle of the winter only to get trolled by Yoongi. Obviously, I wasn’t made for an office job.

With a sigh I finally gave up after trying to focus on the currently opened case on my table and dragged myself to a bistro on the corner. I’ve been drinking so much coffee these past few weeks I was on the verge of throwing up anytime I just saw a brown paper cup, but I soldiered through for the fresh batch of caffeine that would allow me to die a little slower and more painfully. And as I waited in the line, I dreaded returning to the station and continuing in what’s been my sole purpose in life for days upon days.

Still not being able to move anywhere with Jungkook kind of haunted me, it stayed at the back of my mind practically every day, just calling me to go out there and do something. But I couldn’t exactly spend the whole night chasing shadows when I had to show up to work at 7 am. Sometimes I would wonder what Yoongi thought about my sudden absence, whether he was trying to uncover some mastermind psychological warfare plan while I was really just too busy to do anything other than sit in that damn building and sleep, but admittedly it did always put a little smile on my face imagining him being silly over why I’m not following his every step like before.

Occasionally I would tag along with the team for additional interviews and questionings, stand behind Minjoon and listen and absorb their strategies. Unfortunately, all the people we talked to, all the witnesses who were mostly workers from around the warehouse, they knew very well to keep their mouth shut about anything illegal. In the end we couldn’t get more out of them than them hearing shots and calling the police. Nobody saw anything and heard nothing beyond that, as it seemed.

But we knew we were going to hit the wall here, no one in their right mind would snitch like this, especially if this truly was the Min gang. For all the neutral demeanour and suave charismatic energy, people were still terrified of Yoongi. No matter the image he had right now, no matter how much he tried to situate himself as a businessman unconcerned with the underworld, everybody still remembered how he came up, how much violence it took for him to take his place, how much blood was spilt and continued to be spilt any time someone went against him. You didn’t act up against a man like that.

And given the fact the Kims were somehow involved as well, it was double the risk. A single word could cost you your life, no matter which side the hit came from.

That only left us with carefully dissecting the lives of the victims, trying to find out how they got there and who they messed with to end up massacred on a floor of a run-down warehouse in Incheon, which was a feat in and of itself, but Minjoon and Seungcheol worked on that diligently. I sometimes met him just as he was about to leave to presumably go question someone about them, but I haven’t heard much from them yet. So lately we were all mostly stuck behind our computers.

I shook my head at nothing in particular and with one last sigh I picked myself up and went back to the station coffee in hand, resigning myself to another few hours of ruining my eyesight and back at that stupid little cramped desk. These past two weeks really made me realise just how on each other we were in that little space, and how Park sat comfortably in his office doing god knows what.

When I arrived back, I was shocked to see Minjoon suddenly back sitting by his own desk submerged deep into whatever it was he was looking at. He barely even registered my entrance, and I deliberated on going up to him or going back to my own desk to not disrupt him, but in the end decided to procrastinate just a while longer.

Minjoon looked up as soon as he heard footsteps approaching and we exchanged friendly but tired smiles while he pulled out a chair next to him for me to sit at.

“Doing overtime too, I see,” he greeted me with, eyes once again glued to the monitor. I looked over his shoulder to see him reading up on a report of a crime from two years ago. The name was very familiar to me after all these days. It was one of the guys from the warehouse.

“You going over what Park Doyun was involved in again?” I jumped straight into reading the report alongside with him. It was an armed robbery from two years ago, but due to a mess up in the prosecution they were acquitted on some obscure technicality. It was honestly a huge embarrassment, because there was some good evidence, but it all went down the drain. It was the first thing that really smacked us in the face once we put the guys through the police database, because everyone was talking about it around the precinct and Minjoon immediately made the connection.

“Yeah, supposedly there was a third accomplice, but I can’t find any mention of anyone else being involved,” Minjoon muttered somewhat dejectedly, the exhaustion showing through his expression and posture. I patted him on the shoulder, trying to bring his spirits up while I was just as sick of this as he was. He only shot me a grateful smile over his shoulder and went back into the report.

The Police Academy truly doesn’t prepare you for the hours and hours of just pure research and paperwork, what a lie.

“Is that what one of the people in the neighbourhood told you?” I queried some more, desperate to distract myself from my own tasks long enough to gain some strength to go back to it. Minjoon hummed absentmindedly, but in the end gave up as well and turned to me.

“Yeah, it was the most I could get from this one old lady sitting by a convenience store on his corner,” the detective said around a yawn, decompressing into the chair and letting the day just wash over him. It was obvious that whatever he was doing today was catching up to him, and it didn’t surprise me much given that he was gone for most of the afternoon.

“What do you got so far?” I leaned back on my chair as well and turned so that we were face to face, and we just lounged there for a moment smiling at each other cheekily, “About the whole thing.”

That got Minjoon sighing again, wiping his hand over his face. “Most is the usual stuff,” the man started, launching into another long monologue brought up by my questions, “out of the six victims, two grew up in the same neighbourhood down in Gojan-dong. You know, the same old – not the greatest families, poor backgrounds, started messing around the block and got into a lot of trouble. That’s where the reports start flying in. The other four are from around there as well, but not as close by.”

I sat on the information for a moment, as this was the first time I outright asked about the details. “So they’re all from Incheon anyway?” I ended up saying, and Minjoon only nodded.

“Two of them lived pretty close to each other, went to the same school, and they have that one record together,” he continued talking, “but you know how it gets. The people living around there only talk about how pitiful it is they fell off the good path, and if there is something more organised going on beneath, they either don’t know about it, don’t want to know about it or will never talk to a cop about it.”

“But we can be pretty sure they were already tight back then,” I hummed. Minjoon moved a little on his chair to get more comfortable. I saw his eyes jump to the time showcasing on his computer before he turned back to me and the conversation, and I was suddenly hit with the realisation that he most likely wanted to go home and I was keeping him here.

“Yeah, according to the teachers they were troublemakers and there was some violence happening on other students,” Minjoon expanded on that, “and one also mentioned a kid from a school on another block that they used to hang out with a lot that was also known for trouble, but she couldn’t remember his name. She wasn’t very surprised that they died in a gang affiliated murder though, according to her they were most probably dealing already back then between the peers.”

“That’s tough, that’s real tough. Surviving on the streets like that just gets you involved in all kinds of trouble” the empathetic words spilled from my mouth before I could really think twice about it and I panicked a little. I wasn’t sure how much the people around the unit knew about my childhood, but it definitely wasn’t something I wanted to discuss with any of them, even Minjoon. Some things were just better left in the past, especially since it’d probably make my colleagues dislike me more.

“Yeah, but the worst thing is that I just can’t get the name of that third kid,” Minjoon carried on completely submerged into his own world, “I showed her pictures of the other guys, but she didn’t recognise them. Then I was trying to choke some info from an old lady sitting by one of their addresses, but she only mentioned that there were three boys involved in that robbery but couldn’t remember the third one because he was from a nearby neighbourhood, just that these three were always together and didn’t do anything good.”

“And it’s not any of the other four guys?” I asked once more, just to make sure I didn’t miss anything. Minjoon shook his head and leaned back onto his chair, just watching me with tired but smiling eyes.

“But I think it’s a safe bet that these three must have stood at the beginning of everything, I just can’t get the name of the last kid,” Minjoon finished with a sigh, fingers subconsciously playing with the hem of his shirt, “I don’t know how they got into the big game or where the other dude is though.”

“Do you think there’s a possibility he escaped? That he’s alive somewhere but skipped cities or something to get away from the trouble?” I pondered out loud, as we both exchanged conspiratory glances, but Minjoon just shrugged.

“I mean, anything is possible in this game really,” the detective closed the conversation with a definitive nod of his head. I thought that was my cue to go back to my desk and let him leave, but he surprised me with turning the conversation around on me.

“What about the files? How are you doing?” he asked suddenly just as I was preparing to stand up and go. For a split second I looked at him surprised, and then relaxed into the chair again with a smile.

“Honestly, it’s such an annoying work,” I complained a little whinily, allowing myself to be a little more open with Minjoon, “I have to go through every little article, report and a picture on the internet concerning the victim. Some of them are normal working class people who worked around the docks or clubs, but some are wealthy bastards.” Minjoon chuckled at me, fingers drumming a calming beat into the table.

“Some have no ties to Yoongi at all apart from like eating at his restaurant once or staying at his hotel, but some I think are worth investigating into,” I went on, giving Minjoon the opportunity to just listen to me babble for once and not the other way around, “like some businessmen that have done deals with some of Yoongi’s shadow companies or were frequent visitors of his clubs, there was this one dude that was really closely related to some charity events Yoongi put on. I think it’s worth looking into those.”

Minjoon smiled at me brightly, his whole persona suddenly lighting up at hearing me talk about the case. He straightened up and leaned towards me, hand grabbing my shoulder in a gesture that has become very familiar to me coming from him to a point when I had to fight an embarrassed blush and a smile at the warmth and pride it filled me with.

“Good job, Y/N, good job,” he said earnestly, eyes looking straight into mine until the direct contact got a little too intense and I dodged it, “I knew I could count on you with this.” This time I really did blush, an intense feeling of vindication filling me at finally having someone recognise the work I was putting into this case. I mumbled my thanks to him, too overwhelmed to even look up, but I felt his hand squeeze my shoulder in answer before he retracted it back.

“I put them into different groups,” I jumped back into the explanation to escape the atmosphere change, “the ones that are inconclusive when it comes to gang involvement, the ones that are mostly low-tier workers around the gang affiliated hotspots and the big wigs that died under strange circumstances and most likely were closely related to Yoongi’s business in one way or the other.”

I didn’t even realise I had naturally switched into calling him Yoongi even in front of Minjoon, but thankfully he either didn’t notice or didn’t think it strange. Once I clocked it though, I promised myself to make sure to never make the same mistake in front of Hwang or Park, who I didn’t want to risk questioning me about it. Was I paranoid? Maybe, but I had a good reason for it with my track record.

“Have you looked through all of them?” came Minjoon’s question after a few moments of silence and I startled minutely before shaking my head in response.

“Not yet, I’ve got like a case and a half left,” I answered him truthfully, the distaste over having to go back to my desk and keep researching this file still rotting on my table resurfacing and souring my mood. I had managed to forget I’d still need to return to it once Minjoon left and it had me slumping into my chair.

The man must have noticed my change in mood, since he gave me a small encouraging smile and then leaned towards me somewhat conspiratorially before lightly enquiring “you wanna get out of here and grab something for dinner?”. I visibly relaxed at the offered out and nodded enthusiastically basically before he even finished speaking, making him laugh heartily.

In one swift movement he was standing on his feet offering me his hand. I took it gingerly and let him haul me up, the feelings of guilt that have been eating me away for not dedicating more of my time to the task soothed by Minjoon’s approval of ditching work.

It didn’t take us long to turn off computers and collect our belongings before we both headed out into the still incredibly hot air of the parking lot in front of the station. He must have been just as excited to leave as me, with how gingerly he led us out and towards his car, only stopping when I lightly grabbed his arm. The officer turned his whole body to me, surprise and confusion written over his face at my sheepish expression. I gestured towards the other side of the parking lot where a solitary dark car stood parked.

“I’m here by car as well, we could go to the restaurant down the street so we can both leave by car?” I suggested and Minjoon as quickly brightened up and agreed.

Thus we found ourselves sitting over our respective bowls of kimchi jjigae just a few minutes later. This was a known spot for us, as they fed most of the police force from our station with the homely family run restaurant located only three minutes by foot away from our office. When we walk in, the kind middle-aged lady running it already greets us by our names and knows our tastes by heart. It was such a nice feeling to have a place like that, I had to admit that.

We both must have been pretty hungry, because for the first half none of us even spoke, too focused on our bowls and stuffing our faces like a pair of vultures. Once the dust settled and we were handing the empty dishes back to the smiling woman, we found ourselves once again just looking at each other not knowing how to start up a conversation. After few moments of awkward silence, Minjoon decided to break the ice.

“You mentioned you sorted the cases into three groups, right?” he started off the subject of our work again, waiting for me to nod and then continuing, “Once you get through them all, you should pull out the other cases we have connected to Yoongi and look through them again with the new ones in mind. There might have been things lost or not noticed.”

The feeling of disappointment that hit me was almost palpable in the air, and I felt my expression freezing into an awkward smile trying to not let it show outwardly. I didn’t want to anger Minjoon or make him feel bad about this, and I did realise I was a total newbie to the unit and a newbie to this particular investigation, but I would lie if I said it didn’t hurt that I seemed to be eternally stuck behind the computer while the others actually did all the investigating.

Minjoon still must have felt my lack of enthusiasm, even though I tried to show my agreement as happily as I could muster, and he hit me with another sheepish apologetic smile.

“I know what you’re thinking,” the man begun, hands on instinct raising as if trying to console me, “but this could be your own thing, you know? It would be your call and your own investigation. We could also ask the violent crime team to help you out with questionings.” Now, that did sound marginally better, and I found myself swaying. I mean, I really didn’t have much choice, I would still agree even if I was truly just a glorified secretary to them, otherwise I’d be booted of the team quicker than I could say ‘fuck you’. But like this, it at least didn’t feel like a complete lost.

“So, once I went through the cases, I’d have free range and I could try to investigate and close some of them?” I made sure before I truly consented to anything, and when Minjoon nodded and agreed, I relaxed a little bit.

“Okay then,” finally I accepted, “I’ll look through the old cases too.” That seemed to make him very happy, and he made sure to smile at me brightly and shower me in gratitude and praises, but I couldn’t really help the sinking feeling at imagining myself going through more cold cases. At least there was a clear end to that in sight with these.

After that the conversation shifted slightly to lighter topics and Minjoon ended up telling me some funny stories about our colleagues’ mishaps at work. I laughed at them heartily while feeling this strange rift between us deepen even more, realising more than ever that I was truly a stranger in this unit full of people who actually somewhat liked each other.

I promised myself that this time next year, I will be sitting here with the whole unit and be a part of those fun stories as well.

Later in the evening, as we walked leisurely back to our cars after finishing up at the food joint, Minjoon suddenly seemed a little more hesitant and withdrawn. At first I saw it as a reluctance to part after a nicely spent evening, but soon I came to realise that there was something he wasn’t sure how to tell me. I could see it written all over his guilty unsure face, mouth opening for a moment without words coming out and then shutting again. I waited patiently for him to gather his courage, until the man finally broke the suddenly awkward silence.

“So, we were making some plans with the team,” Minjoon opened hesitantly and immediately I felt a shot to my heart knowing I wasn’t a part of whatever discussion they were having as a team, but I kept my mouth shut. I only hummed in response, encouraging him to go on.

“Well, next Friday we’re going to speak to Ms. Kim,” he finally got out, and I froze a little, “I just felt that a heads up was needed for that particular encounter." And I wasn’t going to lie, there was a little bit of panic that seized me at the mention of her name.

Miss Kim, alias Kim Jiyu, alias the sister of the man currently in charge of Kim Enterprises and any other business the Kim family was running legal or not, was notoriously known in both the underworld and the law enforcement sphere as a very unpleasant and harsh woman that people only ever can have the displeasure of meeting. There was a lot of stories floating around about her, and most were extremely unflattering to her character. All kinds of adjectives were attached to her, from spoiled or mean all the way to downright cruel and heartless.

The meeting with her could mean only one thing – they were trying to get the meeting with the Mr. Kim himself, but as most people, couldn’t get through his sister first, as she acted as a wall between him and the rest of the world. Unless you came with a warrant, the chances of speaking to him alone or at all were very slim, most visitors got handled by Ms. Kim before they even made it through the receptionist.

I shuddered a little bit at the thought of meeting her and doing a questioning against her and the crimes her family was involved in. Allegedly. After this thing was over, I had to go to good old Jungkook and troll him a little over parking tickets to decompress from this whole ordeal.

I turned to Minjoon, taking in his worried face, and I put on my bravest expression, nodding with a gentle smile. We didn’t really speak after that again, both of us just processing the information that was traded throughout the whole evening.

When I got home, I was so exhausted I just wanted to crash into the bed and sleep for twelve hours but sleep just wouldn’t find me until the early hours of the morning, and I found myself lying there with closed eyes, brain overheating with everything that’s happened in the last 24 hours.

I nervously shimmied around, earning another judging stare from one of the maids and a warning shake of head from Minjoon, as we waited in the entrance hall to be accepted by the lady of the house.

When Minjoon mentioned going to interview Ms. Kim, I truly didn’t even begin to imagine we would go into her house. That morning pulling up in front of a huge modern mansion and getting greeted by a chauffeur and a gardener before I even made it halfway through the gate was truly a shock. I don’t know why I was expecting maybe an office or something, given the fact it was one of the richest residential parts of Seoul, but still.

As usual, my nervousness made it that I was there first, way before Sunmi or Minjoon got there, who were the two people assigned to this task, Hwang and Seungcheol trying their luck loitering around the office building where Mr. Kim must have been. It was a tactic that was already well known to me in our unit, fighting on two fronts and then exchanging found out info. In my mind I was transported months back, to the first time I was brought along, the “first time” I officially met Yoongi in the VIP lounge in Pied Piper and how I nervously sat in front of him while he laughed at me like my presence was the funniest thing that’s ever happened to him.

The feelings of unease and queasiness that thinking of Yoongi often brought along manifested themselves and I started sweating even harder, slowly gaining Minjoon’s worry as he looked me up and down. I shook my head to him very slightly, hoping it was seen as a comforting gesture and it wouldn’t make him hover over me in an attempt to shelter me or comfort me.

The silence in the hall stretched for several additional minutes and the three of us stood there awkwardly, scrutinised by every member of staff currently on standby. I felt the scolding gazes doubly, as I didn’t make much effort on the visual front, rocking up to one of the most expensive houses in the most expensive neighbourhood in my worn washed out jeans, a simple black tee and a breezy short-sleeved shirt with an aggressive flower print, hair styled in a way that was the most practical and needed the least amount of time to achieve and a face red and sweating both from the hot temperatures and the nerves, the look finished with a pair of old sneakers basically crying for help.

I couldn’t look more out of place in the pristine light green hall with sleek furniture and floors made from massive marble tiles and I felt properly as an outsider, both from the perspective of a kid growing up in an impoverished block and as a colleague that wasn’t properly informed about the details of the visit. Even Minjoon wore a nicer pair of jeans and a shirt, which he never did, and Sunmi looked as elegant as ever in her dress pants, light blouse and beautiful wavy hair let hanging loose around her shoulders. I swallowed my bitterness and regret at not checking up on the area first and not getting the chance to also dress accordingly. And avoiding looking like a beggar accidentally let in from the streets.

My train of thought was broken by the sound of approaching footsteps, the distinctive clacking of high heel shoes on the marble floors carrying to us all the way from deep inside the house, and I found myself almost letting out a breath of relief, as I would finally be able to escape this oppressive atmosphere and disappear somewhere into a corner of a room and just quietly make notes.

With each clack getting closer to us the tension in the air grew lightly, the forms of my colleagues also straightening out, hands last minute fidgeting around their clothes to gather courage and look as composed as we could. From what I understood, from the people present here only Sunmi had the pleasure of meeting our host before, and it was only twice. Not nearly enough for the initial instinctual apprehension to wear off. Therefore we were all probably experiencing similar levels of unease. Most probably. Hard to say, I was pretty strung up.

Finally, the form of a woman rounded the corner and materialised at the other end of a very long corridor, slowly inching towards us with the elegance and prowess of a hungry lion, her form slightly shimmering. At first I thought my eyes were watering or I was straight up hallucinating, but as she came closer I realised it was because she wore a silvery dress that reflected every light and surface around her.

She was taller than me, quite a bit (not a big feat honestly, I barely grew out of looking like an 8th grader) with a small, graceful face, each inch perfect and carefully maintained. Both her make-up and dress looked very sophisticated, showing clearly that she was a member of the higher class, with her beautiful dark hair pulled into a tight intricate bun at the back of her head. She was absolutely stunning and, to be honest, for a moment I got a little starstruck. It felt like meeting a movie star or a celebrity, she had that aura around her, and for a few seconds I completely forgot why we were there and almost started asking for an autograph and a detailed explanation of her beauty routine.

That all shattered the moment she finally reached us though, as her impassive face suddenly broke into a cruel smirk, venom taking over her dark eyes and she scoffed, looking us over like we were pests about to be exterminated. Before even giving us a chance to introduce ourselves, or really say anything, her focus shifted to Sunmi, gaze burning her down intensely.

“I thought we were over this, detective,” she said in a strong voice, sounding just as annoyed as mean, “There’s no need for you to come over and ask your silly little questions. I told you everything you need to know.” I saw the moment Sunmi steeled herself, eyes hardening, readying to play her part of an unshakable detective. And damn, did she do a great job.

“Please Ms. Kim,” she retorted, her body relaxing a little as she adopted a posture to counter the other woman’s stiff elegant figure, “You know I’ll never have enough of asking you silly questions. Just let us bother you for fifteen minutes and then we don’t have to see each other again for a few months.” There was a little impish grin tugging on her lips and I could notice our hostess was starting to get a little bothered by that, her annoyance slowly running through the roof. I watched on with bated breath, both me and Minjoon just hanging back quietly, taken aback by the sudden change in the air.

Ms. Kim’s face turned into a bitter grimace, the disgust obvious in the downturn of her mouth as she stepped aside and gestured down the long hallway she herself came from.

“Fine, you got fifteen minutes, after that I’m not entertaining any other visits unless you have an arrest warrant,” she bit out almost in a bark, before she turned around without waiting and stomped her way back inside the house. We all scrambled to follow her, suddenly thrust into action after just weirdly hanging about for such a long time. Sunmi took the lead, confidently striding after her, but as she passed me I could hear her releasing a huge puff of air as she steadied herself to carry on.

I gazed after her, taking in her stoney face and confident posture, my respect towards the female detective immediately skyrocketing. If Minjoon told me I was looking at her with hearts in my eyes, I would totally believe him. I liked to pretend I looked similar while dealing with Yoongi, but Sunmi clearly perfected the pest bratty power play that just drove these types up the wall, and I hoped I would be able to learn from her before we all had to go our separate ways again. I’m sure the Min gang would infinitely appreciate it. Especially the maknae.

Miss Kim led us only halfway through the corridor before she disappeared into a room on the right, and like ducklings we all followed inside. Minjoon came through last, but immediately went for the chairs, so I took it upon myself to close the door. When I turned, I was the last one to take the room in. It was quite a standard home office space, with a dark desk dominating the space, some shelves with books and decorations, and of course, the two chairs waiting for visitors to be scrutinised from the high table.

Not wanting to pull much attention to myself, I quickly hurried into the left corner where a lone small armchair stood, sitting myself there. I was already pretty much invisible to them as they sized each other up.

Just as before, Miss Kim didn’t seem overly interested in getting our names, getting straight to business without any preamble.

“I cannot imagine what else you’d like to hear from me, Miss Lee,” her piercing voice sounded through the room, taking on a slight whining voice. I jerked slightly in my chair, head immediately flying up to look at the woman before I realised that me and Sunmi shared a surname and she was talking to her, not me. The relief that flooded me at not having to face her yet was quite mortifying, so I just focused on fiddling with my notepad and pen, waiting for something worthy of being written down.

“A multiple homicide took place on your front lawn, of course we’d be interested in getting your perspective as much as we can,” Sunmi replied to her matter-of-factly, holding her own in the intense power battle that was currently taking place between their gazes.

“On my front lawn? That’s news to me,” Miss Kim leaned back into her chair, throwing her arms into the air, “That’s not our warehouse. The Kim Enterprises don’t own it.”

“Cut the shit, that’s your turf. You want to tell me that someone was murdered on your turf, and you don’t have even the slightest idea? Not even if Mins were involved?” Sunmi snapped back immediately and even I was surprised for a split second before I schooled my expression and watched the two of them attentively.

Miss Kim seemed hardly surprised, she didn’t even blink at Sunmi’s approach, just sat there and stared at her blankly with not even a single hair out of place. Then she smirked lightly, fingers drumming a quick rhythm into the desk.

“I have no idea what Mr. Min is doing, but I can assure you he’s doing it far away from me,” she said diplomatically, “We’re not exactly the bestest of friends.” There was a tense venomous smile on her face and I fought back the scoff. That was some understatement. But she was really good at acting as if her whole clan didn’t almost lose their lives to Yoongi’s six after actively trying to sabotage him several times.

But guess they must have gotten a little mercy from him since most of the conflicts happened while the old Kim, her father, was still in power. Since he has died and his son took over, the relationship between the two powerhouses was still considerably strained, but also much calmer.

There was a moment of silence, Minjoon quietly looing to Sunmi whether she wanted to keep going and when she didn’t stop him, he cleared his throat and turned his full attention to the woman behind the desk.

“It might not be your warehouse, but we know the area is pretty much under your rule,” he said seemingly amicably, a stark difference to Sunmi’s irate approach, “We don’t care about any other stuff that’s happening there. We don’t care about drugs or smuggling right now, this is a murder case.”

To that the woman smirked and rolled her eyes. “So what? If I give you information, you’ll overlook anything else that might be going on? You want me to be a snitch?” she drawled out, clearly mocking us all, then threw her hands out into the air, “Not my warehouse, not my problem. Why would I know what’s going on in a house that doesn’t belong to me?” The answer was pretty clear, to be honest. Even as someone from a rival gang, if she knew something she wouldn’t cooperate with the police. The retaliation would be merciless if Yoongi found out. And he always did.

“Anything you say will be recorded as an anonymous tip, it will only push us in the right direction,” Minjoon told her, in what was supposed to be a comforting manner, but his voice was too hard and matter-of-fact to be friendly. The elegantly dressed woman’s eyes jumped from the two with a slyness that left a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach. In that moment she looked more like a viper about to strike than an heiress to a huge successful family. An ugly smirk curled around her lips and her face took on a certain savageness, suddenly she looked nothing like the graceful lady that greeted us in the foyer.

“Well, detective,” she started in another drawl, now her voice pitching more towards an almost playful hostility, like she was trying to make herself seem less lethal than she truly was, “all I can say is that they were drug dealers. Which is something you already know. So you probably have to ask… why did they lose their lives because of it? Hmmmm, I wonder… wonder who and where does drug deals that has the reputation of killing anyone that just looks at him bad…” She ended that whole spiel with a sharp grin, and promptly stood up and in a grand gesture flicked her wrist towards the door.

“I didn’t really expect that I would have to do the police’s job for them, should have fucking gone to the academy,” she hissed out in a snarl, “Now get the fuck out of my house and don’t bother me again about bullshit that doesn’t concern me.”

The two detectives didn’t seem to be bothered by her words or sudden turn in mood at all, instead they both stood up almost coordinated and without a single word or a glance back turned to leave the room. I scrambled to follow them, the whole thing replaying in my mind as I absent mindedly smacked about the door to catch the handle. The split second I turned to see where it was, I caught Miss Kim’s eye for the first time that evening. Hers were sharp, face a hard grimace of uncaringness and cruelty. She smirked at me in a mocking way, like she would at an insect right before she crushed in under her heel, her pride and ego clearly displayed like trophies in her arrogant stance and upturned head. I shuddered lightly and decided to leave the door be, breaking into a light jog to catch up to my colleagues much to judging looks of the servants. I didn’t care much, I just wanted to be out of there.

Once back on the street, a weighted silence stretched between us as we marinated on what we were told. Really, these interviews always felt so short and so little information would come from them, and then you’d look at the clock and find out it’s been thirty or forty minutes spend just turning in circles. This was one of them.

“Of course we know the drug deal is an important aspect of the case,” Minjoon suddenly bit out, peeved as the last comment clearly got him, “A group of drug dealers doesn’t just get murdered by accident. But Yoongi is self-sufficient, he has ties across the sea to Japan, he doesn’t do deals with small in-Seoul gangs.” We both looked at him, trying to ignore his petulant outburst, trying to be empathising because all of our emotions ran a little wild at the moment. I looked to Sunmi, studying her calm face that was in contrast to her hand tapping her thigh in a quick rhythm, her mind working fast to slot everything together and re-evaluate what we found out till now.

“Well, then the reason must be there,” I voiced out unsurely, getting nervous when their gazes turned to me, “If what she’s insinuating is that they were doing a deal with Yoongi and got killed, then we gotta find out why. If he normally doesn’t do that, then why now?” Sunmi nodded at my words, eyes squinted both against the sun and in thought, mulling over it.

“Yeah, that’s really the only way I see here too,” she stated finally, voice carrying strong, “We were working with theories that they maybe provoked him or split from him and stole some of his cargo, maybe tried to push his turf somewhere, the usual reasons for this brutal of a punishment, but maybe we should explore the option that they were actually partners. Maybe they scammed him with goods, that could get you murdered in this business.”

I pursed my lips tightly, keeping a neutral face to reign in my surprise, as most of those things she said were total news to me. I had known they were looking into their past and that they were drug dealers, that they missed one guy and maybe he got away. Nothing of what she said actually made it to me, and I had to stand there and pretend like I knew what she was talking about. I mean, I wasn’t dumb, these were the usual reasons for murder between gangs, but it would have been nice if someone actually told me we were looking into these options.

I swallowed my bitterness down and kept my eyes trained on Sunmi, nodding along. I didn’t want my negative experience with my team and unit to tamper down the respect that was quickly growing in me towards her, the detective has in the short period of time I’ve known her become something of a model for me, and I knew that it wasn’t her responsibility to keep me updated since she was from a different unit. No, this transgression was on the side of my own colleagues, so I stubbornly kept my eyes from straying towards the officer in question, who was nervously shuffling next to her.

I let out a tired sigh, the disappointment was so constant with them that I barely even found it in me to be properly annoyed, just felt resignation bleed into me slowly. I knew that I would most likely just keep getting fucked over like this, but still, I stubbornly and selfishly wasn’t prepared to give up just yet, and it hurt. But really, what other option did I have.

“We should get back to the station,” I piped in, cutting short the conversation that started up between them while I was spacing out, and I felt Minjoon’s guilty gaze on me, “Get the info to the others and re-evaluate.” Sunmi once again nodded, patting my shoulder and giving me a friendly smile.

“You’re here by car, right? We could definitely squeeze you in if you need a ride,” she offered easily, and I found myself genuinely smiling back. I thanked her and pointed towards my own vehicle, and she patted my shoulder some more, a little more awkwardly, and made her way to her own. Minjoon lingered behind a little, but whatever he wanted to tell me, we didn’t have time for it anyway, so I shot him a polite smile and went my way too.

The day went by surprisingly fast, considering I didn’t speak much for the rest of it, the earlier realisation weighing heavy on me. The briefing was pretty short, with mostly Sunmi making sure the other two detectives were caught up. They split their duties quickly too. Minjoon and Seungcheol were supposed to keep looking into the mysterious third accomplice while Sunmi and Hwang would start looking more sharply into their mob ties, hoping to somehow trace them to Yoongi if they scrutinised them hard enough. I sat there and watched them awkwardly, until Minjoon turned to me and somewhat sheepishly asked whether I wanted to share my findings. So I did.

I recapped to them everything I said to Minjoon a few days earlier before he stepped in and informed the others I agreed to go through the older cases as well and would try to build a new bigger case. I gulped down my own simmering anger, that was admittedly dwindling down with every hit I took from them, and smiled, nodded, agreed. Minjoon kept glancing towards me as if he wanted to say something more, but I ignored it for the moment. Now was not the time. He asked the other team if they would volunteer to have someone tag along with me. Seungcheol agreed. I shook his hand and thanked him. In my head I clung to the promise Minjoon made me, that this would be my own big case, and kept myself in check.

By the evening, I was finally wrapping up with the original task, a huge boulder falling off of my shoulders and then promptly building back up when I curiously checked how many files I would have to pull up come Monday. It was a lot. I did catch myself just sitting at my tiny desk kneading my face in my hands, smushing my features all together and then pulling them again, as my eyes focused and unfocused on the computer screen.

And that’s how Minjoon found me too. He walked up to me quietly, and at first I didn’t even notice him through the existential crisis I was going through, but soon his hip moved into my field of vision and I jerked back, embarrassed at my antics. Minjoon still looked just as apologetic as that morning, and I couldn’t even be annoyed with him after the day I had.

“Dinner?” he asked quietly, unsure of whether I would want to go with him or not. Maybe I shouldn’t have, but instead I just nodded tiredly, pushing the files under the desk and turning off the computer. I was done, done for the day and done with working on this, so I just wordlessly stood up and glanced around. Just like last week we were the last ones around, even Park already long gone from his office where he basically camped out.

Minjoon waited for me patiently, as I gathered my belongings and then just walked out without looking back. We ended up at the same restaurant, ordering the same thing, the lady behind the counter giving us winks and mischievous smiles while I tried my hardest to push the flustered part of myself as deep as possible. That was the last thing I needed, really.

Minjoon launched into his apology as soon as we sat down, stating how tired and overworked he was and pleaded for me to forgive him just this once for forgetting to forward the information to me. How it just slipped his mind and how Hwang just plainly refused to have to keep running to me with every new little thing and always left it to him and he was just so busy. I sat there staring blankly, not even really in the mood to pretend it was fine like I usually would for the man, and he stewed under my intense gaze, stuttering to find a way to make it up to me.

I wanted to be spiteful, wanted to tell him just how tired I was as well, how if they even invited me to these meetings in the first place, we wouldn’t have this problem, but failed to find the reason why I should bother.

“Then how about this? I have an offer to make,” Minjoon said suddenly after a few minutes of awkward small talk, a mischievous smile slowly stretching on his face. I perked up at the sudden change in mood and curiously nodded at him to continue. “I always have the time to tell you everything when we eat here and I can relax at the same time, so it’s pretty obvious you should keep coming to these dinners with me. Just for the work’s sake of course,” the man suggested slyly, eyes colouring with mirth and something else, something a little darker and sweeter. That insufferable flirt.

That time I did blush full force as soon as the meaning of those words hit me, ducking my head shyly as the negative emotions dissolved confusedly into something a little more excited and jittery deep inside my chest, the anger forgotten under the sudden attention. I found myself nodding and Minjoon rewarded me with such a blinding smile it made everything worth it, all the work and the bitterness long pushed from my mind.

That evening, there was plenty more conversation, none of it about murders or crime which was a refreshing change for both of us, and we both seized the opportunity to actually mention anything that didn’t have any tie to Yoongi, who seemed to have become a constant in my life. For a first time in a really long time I laughed freely with another person, nothing holding me back from the amusement and nothing weighing heavy on my mind.

When I made my way home that evening, the hopeful joy making itself known in my heart seemingly erased all the negativity of the day, of the week, of the month. The only thought that fought its way through was the flash of Yoongi in my mind as I passed the street that would eventually lead me to Pied Piper.

I turned my head straight and drove on.

The days quickly bled into weeks, into a month, until I was sweating my ass off in the office towards the end of May, the sudden heatwave hitting right after a week of storms and rains. The heat always seemed to get even more exaggerated inside the building, something about it just had to be cursed. And with how old and rundown the station really was, hoping for a working AC soon turned into a fruitless endeavour.

I spent the month the same way I spent the month before that, buried neck deep in old cold cases that never saw enough evidence or attention, cross-referencing every little thing down to wearing the same-coloured socks. Similarities started quickly adding up, and by the time I opened the 20th case I could confidently say whether it was truly a Min murder or not. I even had bets going on which one were Jungkook’s and which ones were Hoseok’s. There were even few that I suspected belonged to the Kims, but it wasn’t a theory I felt was strong enough to actually present to others. I had become something of an expert on violence.

Truly, throughout the cases, there were few names that kept repeating – names of companies that could be traced back to Yoongi’s umbrella corporation, names of middlemen that were known to hang about him, names from other cases. They all tied together a nice picture of shady business and in the middle of it all sat Yoongi, like the devil himself.

I was able to painstakingly trace some of the new cases to the older ones, fully incorporating them into the agenda after confirming truly that they were most likely victims of bad deals and finicky power dynamics. Then came the gut punch – the man that was linked to most of those cases, Moon Jiwoo, the middleman whose sole occupation seemed to be to link up wealthy influential men with Yoongi, has gone and turned into a cold case himself. This time a missing person.

Damn you, Jung Hoseok, ruining all my fun.

But obviously this was something worth looking into, given the fact that he was “taken care of” as well. So I started rearranging the files into different groups and sub-groups once again, making a pile that was directly connected to Moon Jiwoo, then a pile of cases that was linked to the victims in the first pile and then seemingly unconnected cases that were still most probably carried out by the Min gang. Thus I ended up with thirteen cases – seven that were connected to the middleman, the middleman case itself and five that had a link to the main seven. Ten more cases sat on the side, for now looking rather random, but maybe I would come to find out that they fell into the intricate web of murders I was currently looking at.

These lucky thirteen mostly had quite peculiar history of travelling between units until they ended up here. Some started off as missing persons cases until a body was found, death undetermined or suspicious enough to have the violent crimes look it over, some were first classified as an accident until someone from ours found it and pulled it over to organised crime. There were two cases that made it straight to us as soon as they were reported – the missing Moon Jiwoo, a known associate, and a dock worker that was employed by an affiliated company. Unfortunately, it was much easier to make a poor man working in the docks disappear than a filthy rich magnate, so those few cases that made it to us were mostly thin and under-investigated.

Stepping into this task, I have to admit that at first I was quite surprised that someone as infamously known for being a dangerous silent killer that almost never leaves any evidence as Hoseok had left this many cases for us to look into, but once I started properly going through them I realised that there was a stone wall at every turn and most of these cases went completely cold only a few weeks after happening. And considering it was a pure stroke of luck that even brought them to us, the chance that they would have been eventually completely forgotten was extremely high. I had to give it to him, he was extremely efficient, enough to make me progressively more annoyed every time I hit a dead end, cursing him in my mind four times a day. And I shuddered to think about the number of cases that never made it to us or that didn’t even get reported.

But now at least I had a firm idea of what would have to be investigated more thoroughly and which avenues I would look into. You bet that I was gathering those thirteen files to bring them home and put them on the map wall, silently sighing at the image of the macabre décor in my own bedroom. It was truly unfortunate it was the best room for it in my tiny tiny apartment, but sadly I was getting used to it by now. So much for calming relaxing mornings.

A cup of coffee landed on my desk and I jumped in fright, realising I had been just emptily staring at my computer screen as I went over everything I would have to do at home during the weekend and my plan starting Monday. I looked up with cheeks coloured by embarrassment, catching Cheol’s amused expression before he tipped an imaginary hat in my direction.

“Howdy, partner,” he drawled out and took a sip of his own coffee, leaning back onto a neighbouring desk and making himself as comfortable as he possibly could with the sharp edge digging into him. I chuckled at him and tipped my head in return.

“Howdy,” slipped out of my mouth easily, “thanks for the coffee.” He only smiled as a response and then nodded towards the computer and the mess of files everywhere.

“How’s it looking?” the detective asked. I sent him a faux annoyed looked, but there was a smile tugging on my lips. In the past few weeks Cheol made it his mission to check up on me regularly. He’d usually come with a cup of either coffee or tea and start asking about my progress. Since he had volunteered to be my partner in this, I understood his reasoning, but the first few times I found myself quite annoyed by his incessant questioning. Until I realised he was doing it on purpose and was just pulling my leg. After that I was able to relax and see the interaction for what it really was – an attempt to build some comradery, not an effort to press and humiliate me.

I found out he was actually pretty easy-going, he had a sense of stability and strength around him and yet still managed to be an absolute goofball, which helped me feel less nervous and I even started catching onto some of his jokes. I liked hanging out with him and I already trusted him as a teammate despite the fact that we hadn’t even gone out to the field together.

“Same as yesterday,” I told him finally, pretending to be annoyed with him, “Monday big briefing, then we can kick off.” My voice turned serious in the second half, conveying that it truly was an information he needed to keep in mind.

“Okay, I’ll be there,” he responded to just as seriously, only a small smile on his face as I nodded at him and then gestured to the mountains of files. “In the meantime I’ll have fun organising this for you, so you better not be ungrateful,” I joked right back at him, “I am not above abusing my power.” That got an amused chuckle out of him.

“Sure thing, rookie,” his voice turned slightly jokingly exaggerated, but I heard the genuineness in it, which pulled an honest grin out of me, “we’ll see about that on Monday.” With that he pushed himself off the table and started walking off somewhere, only waving around the cup in lieu of a goodbye.

On his way out, presumably back to his own unit, he passed Minjoon’s table, and I caught the man’s eye as I watched Cheol dramatically take his leave. Immediately I felt a blush spreading and I ducked my head back between the files quickly. There was a slight grin on his face witnessing my reaction, and I chastised myself to behave while at work. We weren’t highschoolers anymore and I could get in serious trouble sending puppy eyes to my colleague. If somebody caught wind of that, they’d disrespect me even more, it would become absolute hell here and I couldn’t afford to make the atmosphere even more hostile when I was barely making it now.

True to his word, Minjoon took me to the little restaurant by the office once or twice a week to eat and gave me the whole rundown of the other team’s plans and findings to keep me updated on everything going on. He would relay everything to me with care, making sure I wasn’t left out and that he wouldn’t have to awkwardly fill me in under Hwang’s hateful eyes. But we would always end up talking about everything and anything, and soon I started anticipating our dinners not because of the information, but because as soon as that was told, we would start chatting and laughing.

One moment I’d be asking about the next step against Yoongi and the next we were trading stories about the most embarrassing things we’ve done in high school or our favourite childhood spots to play in. Minjoon talked a lot about his family, about his older brothers and parents, and while I tried to avoid that topic as much as possible, I ended up also sharing some childhood stories without many details.

Honestly, those evenings became my favourite moments. The weeks and the work were both so hectic lately and I found myself swamped with cases, searching for the tiniest details, and more often than not I was going home totally exhausted with red raw eyes and a migraine that just wouldn’t leave no matter what I did. I almost perfected sleeping in a way that didn’t aggravate my headache to a point I almost threw up (I did throw up once, after I came home and almost passed out not realising I didn’t really eat anything the whole day).

The moments I spent with Minjoon were a beautiful escape, a few hours a week I forgot completely about my responsibilities and didn’t care about murders and gang activity, and only sat back and traded jokes and bashful flirts. We both have long since stopped pretending we weren’t interested in each other, and it made those encounters even more exhilarating as we danced around the attraction with careful teasing smiles and soft flirting. I was still very much nervous about the unit catching on and realising what’s going on, but Minjoon’s warm presence in my life slowly erased those fears and made me more open to the possibility. The last few meetings toed the line of propriety with more ways than one, flirtation straying further than before and Minjoon’s insistence he drives me home leaving us in a few tense charged moments by my door.

It was exciting and terrifying, but I liked the officer. He’d been the only one that went out of his way to actually accept me and treat me as a human, he helped me and pushed me through to give me opportunities to prove myself to others and he continuously cared about my well-being. I liked spending my evenings with him, he was charming and kind and we both seemed very compatible.

The only problem that stood between us and made us both hesitant to cross a line further than friendly dinners was the fact that we were not only coworkers, but team members. That left us awkwardly trying to navigate the sudden tension that arose between us without giving away how close we were getting. Honestly, every day I was nervous that Sunmi or Seungcheol would look at us and see, like it was written all over my face that I was starting to like Minjoon from a wholly unprofessional standpoint.

It was like there was a huge ticking clock hanging over my head just waiting for a disaster to happen, but it didn’t stop me from looking forward to the Friday evening every week. And Minjoon seemed to be in the same boat. But as long as we didn’t cross over to uncharted territory, we were fine.

Thus, we both just sat there in the office and exchanged timid grins, making sure no one saw us making eye contact, like we were two criminals fleeing from the law.

I tried to focus back onto my monitor, but I was absolutely fried. It was still noon, but the whole weight of the last two months just hit me and I was fighting to stay awake, knowing I was done with one of the most annoying boring tasks I’ve ever had to deal with and that from Monday I’ll be even more busy.

There was both panic and excitement coursing through me at what was waiting for me, all the possibilities from actually doing some real investigating and solving cold cases to finally having the chance to put my energy into something productive and not only sneak around Seoul at the ass crack of dawn hoping to catch a sight of a serial killer working for the most annoying man in the existence.

Finally I’d have a chance. And that was just as scary. It felt like I had twice as much to lose, given the fact I was barely tolerated now. I had everything to gain, but everything to lose. If I failed this, if I messed up or got us into trouble, it’d be the end of me on this precinct. Not successfully closing at least one of these cases wasn’t an option, I had to yield results.

For the nth time that day I tried blinking away the tiredness from my eyes and the early onset of another migraine, but as soon as it started being hard to focus through the pain, I decided it was time to give up on trying to achieve anything today.

Already having great experience with gathering my things to leave as fast as possible, I was ready to leave within five minutes of deciding to go home, the relief coursing through my veins like ice cream on a hot day. And it was a very hot today.

Still, I stopped by Minjoon’s desk, surprising him for a moment before he gave a confused smile, the question marks reflected in his eyes without him even having to ask anything. I grinned at him wildly, no doubt looking slightly insane from this angle of him looking up at me.

“You said that you haven’t questioned Yoongi yet, right?” I enquired out of nowhere, confusing him even more as he fully turned to me, and I could see him trying to figure me out. Then he slowly nodded.

“Yeah,” he drawled out, “we decided to go into offensive and start pushing him, so we’ll start questionings in the following weeks.” I nodded quickly, shooting him a rushed smile before I made my way out into the hot noon air and blasting sun, leaving supremely more confused Minjoon behind, not even giving him a chance to really say goodbye.

There’s been a thought playing around in my mind for a few days now. Was it finally time to go see Yoongi again? Now seemed to be the best time to make my grand return, remind them of my existence and cut the suspense. The team was already planning to go talk to him anyway, come June they’ll be hot on his tail, back to their strategy of annoying him. It would be kind of a sweet little treat to find out how much he knows, whether it already made it back to him and he was onto us or whether he was still blissfully unaware of what we were investigating. I was slightly embarrassed by the amount of excitement that flowed through me at the prospect of teasing the man again, of hearing his remarks, now that I fully had a leg up (though the last time I thought that it went spectacularly wrong).

I wanted to try to throw him off his high horse. To unnerve him, in the same way he always did to me. To return the favour of always finding a way to get under my skin and make me mad. I wanted that. I wanted him to know that I would be getting him behind those bars, just as I promised two months ago in The Rose.

Waiting until the evening seemed almost impossible, not even my own exhaustion that tried to lure me into hours long nap could distract me from the slowly ticking clock, and I was restless the whole day. Sitting around, staring off into space, always wanting to pick something up, some chore or an easy task, but unable to focus on anything except for whether it would be better to catch him still in the office or make a grand entrance to the Pied Piper, where he should be today.

And pulling up to said club twenty minutes after 7pm, I did pray that he was there, as I immediately recognised those same bouncers and desperately wished there wouldn’t be a repeat of that whole situation. Though, if I did manage to cockblock Yoongi twice, that would definitely put a smile on my face, that’s how petty we were getting here.

But that hardly mattered, not when I walked up to them and before I could even get a single word out of me, a mean glint present in my eyes to let them know I remembered them and I wasn’t amused by whatever bullshit they would try to pull, they were already opening the doors to me and gesturing for me to enter with smug smirks. My whole actor bit got thrown off and I stared at them shocked for a moment, before I hurried to scramble inside much to the distaste and grumbling of people waiting in the line right behind me. There was some disgruntled shouting, a warning growl and then the door fell shut and I was left in the dark hallway leading deeper into the heart of the club. That was entirely too easy.

From here, I could only sense the loud drums pulsing through the walls, their faint echo thrumming through my very bones, as I mechanically forced a foot in front of the other, pushing myself back into my carefree smug attitude. Stop being stupid, I thought to myself, something like this can’t throw you off. But it did mean that Yoongi was already no doubt alerted to my presence, sitting like a king in that red balcony waiting for me to get there.

Well, I couldn’t let him wait for long, could I? We had a game to play.

Somewhat nervously I shuffled with my clothes, choosing to show up in a little bit more club appropriate attire so I could sell my arrogance and triumph, and flaunt it properly in their face. I had to appear strong, this was a crucial moment between us and I couldn’t fumble here. Though, deep down I felt like this evening, just like all of my other encounters with the man, would inevitably end in disaster. Still, I made sure my skirt and crop top were in place, short heels properly strapped and hair and earrings where I wanted them to be, hoping my makeup still looked as okay as it did when I left my apartment.

This afternoon, as I desperately tried to come up with some sort of a plan, I had realised everyone around Yoongi always walked around in pristine high-end clothes, while I ended up running after them dressed in rags, basically. The encounter with Miss Kim only strengthened this idea within me. I had to step up my game. I had to learn how to play by their rules just enough to get away with it. So, I made sure to dress up a little. Only a tiny bit.

With a deep stabilising inhale and exhale, I set out down the hallway and down the stairs into the main room. I ignored the bar that opened up to my right and went straight for the VIP section entrance. I was anticipating to run into a little more trouble here, as I made my way towards the two unsmiling bouncers all jittery and trying to look more confident than I’ve ever been in my entire life; but upon seeing me, they just stepped to the side, unhooked the red rope and waited for me to walk through.

I did, though my nerves grew with every step I took up those stairs, knees and hands slightly shaking, and I clutched my little handbag until I risked damaging it. The upper floor, the VIP section, was just as intimate and infinitely more pleasant than the downstairs as the last time I was here, and my eyes quickly scanned through the seated guests, trying to make out whether there was someone I recognised, but it was too dark. I caught the barman’s eye and he winked at me cheekily, gesturing at an alcohol bottle he was just fiddling with, attempting to lure me in to buy a drink. My returning smile was apologetic, but it did stop me, and I found myself just awkwardly standing there looking towards the wall where I knew the balcony entrance was.

Trying out the same strategy as before, I loudly inhaled and exhaled, forced my body back into working order, and started moving slowly towards them. With every step I shoved a little more false confidence and condescending attitude to prepare myself, steadily growing surer in those heels and schooling my expression.

Just like downstairs, the bouncer moved out of my way and allowed me to enter the private zone, but as I caught a glimpse of his face, I did a hasty double take. A wry grin made it onto my face, watching the man up and down.

“Good evening, Mr. Choi,” I greeted the bodyguard with a sense of mocking in my tone, a sentiment he gladly returned in his patronising little bow he did towards me, eyes fighting to not roll to the back of his head. I chuckled and moved on, finally climbing those last few stairs.

Coming face to face with the men after such a long time was truly terrifying, especially as I stood there in my ditzy little outfit in front of several of the most dangerous criminals in the city and noted the shock and interest in their eyes as they fully took me in. Several different instincts warred through me – to hide away, to run, to flounder under their attention, to throw my attitude into their face, but all I could really manage was stand there in a manner I hoped that screamed carefully constructed indifference.

Yoongi was spread out on the central sofa, just like last time, comfortably seated in a way that almost made him seem half melted into the soft furnishing, but his eyes were sharp just like his smirk, thoroughly studying me. I could already see the cogs in his head turning, realising this was a beginning of a new game, even more exciting than the last one. I fought the shudder that tried to overtake me under his heavy gaze and instead turned my attention to the sofa next to him.

There was no Jungkook today, his dark sulking mass would be hard to miss, but Taehyung was here, elegantly sitting near the corner of his settee with one arm curling around the top of it and the other gently laid on his crossed legs. Everything about him screamed how comfortable and confident he felt, all the way to the playful smirk and studious eyes. I would have to be more careful around him, he was kind of a whole lot to deal with and I had no idea whether I could take that tonight.

But I couldn’t stop the surprise from displaying clearly on my face as I clocked in the last figure in the room, sitting close next to Taehyung, full body turned to me with a wide smile that had a dangerous edge to it and strangely deep dark eyes that had my fingers trembling in a tinge of fear. It was Hoseok, dressed in a nice suit and comfortably sitting there with a glass of alcohol loosely held in his hand, swirling over his expensive shoes. He was grinning at me like we were old friends, but somehow that made me even more wary of him, an unease setting into my insides that had me reconsidering whether tonight was a good idea.

But I was already here, so. No way but forward.

Gathering my wits back I plastered a smile on my face and regarded the three men with a cheery “Gentlemen” while I made my way towards the little chair sitting straight across from Yoongi. It was my place anyway, we all knew it, he clearly had all the unwelcome guests sitting on it to make them uncomfortable and unsure of themselves, so I had to own it as effortlessly as possible.

“Well, what a pleasant surprise, officer,” Yoongi started with his smooth voice that he only used when he was being intentionally an ass, “Come here to club and destress on a tough Friday night?” His eyes flicked down to my attire and then back to me, the amusement shining through alongside another strange glint to his eyes. He was interested in what my strategy was here, inviting me to set my starting pieces.

I ignored him and turned straight to Hoseok, finding his dark unsettling eyes already on me, but I forced myself to smirk lightly. “Shocked to see you here,” I said with my full voice, a cheeky undertone to my words, “Aren’t there enemies to be murdered? Bones to be buried?” His eyes narrowed slightly, smile turning a bit sharper. I’d never really spoken to him before, and our first exchanged words were a taunt from me? It was as brilliant as it was stupid, but it did throw the man off for a few seconds, his face immediately becoming a little more closed off, the happy smile still dutifully in place.

“Everybody deserves a day off here or there,” he retorted back, drawing an amused smirk to Taehyung’s face. Yoongi was watching us closely, studying the interaction before taking the control back.

“Could I interest you in a drink?” he asked, testing the waters, sharp eyes observing me. I nodded. He smirked. “Perfect,” he hummed, “Finally truly came here on a day off?” I only chuckled in response, watching him wave to someone behind me, presumably to Soobin. I squirmed a little on the tiny seat that simply must have been designed to torture the people sitting on it, always playing a balancing game on the little square with nothing to really lean on. The dark-haired man’s eyes still followed my every movement and he suddenly gestured to the space next to him.

“Of course, if it would be more comfortable for you, you’re welcome to join us on the settee,” Yoongi drawled out with a smirk, Taehyung hungrily watching our interaction with some sort of dark amusement glinting in his eyes. It made me shudder, nerves threatening to swallow me whole under their intense scrutiny, especially since Hoseok was also present. I would have never guessed I’d meet him here, casually drinking with Yoongi. Somehow I gained the idea that he just always crawled around in the dark like some kind of a mythical creature.

I pushed all of the uncomfortableness to the edges of my consciousness and quickly straightened, moving to the sofa in a few confident strides. This suddenly put me much closer to the man than I’ve ever been before, my stomach revolting and filling with lead. I quickly clasped my hands together nonchalantly to hide the slight tremor that started up again in them.

If Yoongi was surprised by my decision, he didn’t let it show and only continued to regard me with rampant curiousness and interest. I felt like a puzzle game that he desperately tried to solve just for fun, and it was increasingly more difficult to not start tensely shifting around; my eyes flitting around the room and lungs seizing until it was hard to consistently breathe.

I figured since I sat like this with Jimin in The Rose when I went there I’d be fine now, but I should have known that Yoongi himself was a completely different ballpark. He shifted around in his seated until he was half turned to me, leisurely lounging on the red velvet with one arm rested on the top and the other playing with a glass of what I assumed was whiskey. He was a picture of aloofness and power, all painted in black and red, and his aura was slowly crushing me like I had found myself at the bottom of the ocean. All I could do was try not to flounder too much and stand firmly.

I had come here to play their little game, to shock them and throw them off, to show them that I can keep up, that I’m not just a stupid little girl that’s in over her head. I needed to be bold, to play with them the same way they play with me. So, I took a few steadying breaths and ignored the way my whole body was screaming at me to leave, instead grinning self-assuredly at the man.

The silence stretched on, the other two men present sat back and watched Yoongi with amusement and something akin to respect in their eyes as he stared me down. For few long moments no one said anything, and Yoongi’s eyes just bored straight deep into my soul, picking me apart and making me squirm uncomfortably in my seat. Unlike the first time he did this to me, I fought to keep myself defiantly staring back but I couldn’t hold the eye contact, every few seconds flitting to something else before I looked at him again, shame creeping into my features. His smile grew larger and more entertained until I couldn’t take it anymore.

Just as I started considering just turning away from him in humiliation the moment was broken by a waiter coming in to serve me a cocktail and I exhaled deeply in relief just as Yoongi chuckled and nodded at the boy. I took the drink eagerly, absolutely ecstatic that I had something to put my attention to instead of those fuckers smiling smugly right next to me. The drink was something very fruity and it tasted sweet, my features immediately perking up in delight as the taste hit my tongue.

Next to me Yoongi chuckled again, and I pointedly ignored him until he spoke. “Your eyes are so genuine,” he muttered, something warmer than just plain amusement creeping into his voice, “Everything’s so clearly written all over your face.” I froze at the tone, my mind transported back into The Rose to the respect he so clearly showed towards me, and I almost fled the club in absolute panic at the reminder of why I distanced myself in the first place.

I wasn’t the only one thrown off though, Hoseok sitting right at the corner of my vision visibly tensed at Yoongi’s words and looked at him in a way that could only be described as a warning glare. Not that the man himself paid him any mind, though I was sure he certainly knew of what Hoseok was doing right to his side.

But even when all of my alarms were going off in my mind and I was so undeniably shown just how much I was losing control of the whole situation (if I even had any from the beginning) and how I got myself into real trouble fraternising with Yoongi and going along with his stupid little whims, trying to outwit him and always managing to play right into his hands, I still stubbornly refused to stop. I still stubbornly refused to back down and admit to myself this was slowly crossing lines I couldn’t afford to cross, I still tried to force myself to believe that it would mean my defeat, my surrender. And I couldn’t surrender, that’s what he wanted. It was pedal to the metal all the way, baby.

I pulled myself back together and shot him a carefully crafted smirk in return. “Don’t try to butter me up with your words, you’re not taking me home tonight,” it took everything in me not to flush at the insinuation, and I cocked my head to the side with a cheekiness I’ve seen from him many times before to sell it properly, giving him back what he always gave me (especially in The Rose with Jimin, those bastards). But the answering grin that immediately spread over Yoongi’s face had me nervous again. He looked like he won the lottery, like I just perfectly played into his cards. The man just leisurely brought his drink to his lips, before a look crossed his eyes.

“Of course I’m not, that police officer is,” he retorted nonchalantly, one eye cheekily looking to me to gauge my reaction over the rim of his whiskey glass. I froze, some spectacular mix of emotions passing through my face, and I had no idea what kind of expression was set there, but it greatly entertained my whole audience, all three of them grinning like wolfs that just stumbled upon a little girl in the middle of the woods. My heart gave a few painful jerks, and I buried my face in the glass again, hoping to regain some composure.

“Been following me too, huh?” I shot back weakly, head still spinning from this particular information coming out his lips. God damn him, god damn them all. The man laughed at that like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“Of course, my favourite police officer just suddenly disappeared,” he said in a mock worried voice, “I had to make sure that you were alright. What if you needed help, officer?” Now my whole body trembled as I went over my whereabouts in the past two months. How much did he know? What did he see me do? Does he know what we’re investigating? Is he aware of what we’re trying to spin him into? Did I doom this operation right from the start without even realising it?

Yoongi was blissfully unaware of my inner turmoil and happily continued yapping. “Though I must say you have a rather boring life, somehow I expected a detective’s life to be more interesting,” he mocked some more, but really I didn’t care about what he thought about my life. I needed to know how much he knew about my work.

“Must have been at least a little interesting,” I tried to spin him to talk more, forcing my hands to calmly pick at my skirt to play up my aloofness, “had you interested in why the sudden absence, did I not?” He chuckled lightly, eyes dissecting me carefully with a cheeky look.

“I’m always up to indulging you and your little games, officer,” Yoongi half whispered back to me, leaning lightly forward, “Keeps my life more interesting. At least I have something to do over my lunch break.” I regarded him, spread there on the sofa leisurely like he owned the whole city, smirking himself half to death, and I decided to take a gamble.

“Oh, I have the most interesting game prepared for you,” I whispered too, subconsciously leaning in as well to make sure he heard me, “Trust me, you’re going to love it.” From this distance and under this lighting his eyes looked absolutely consumed in darkness and even as they crinkled in amusement, there was something predatory in them, especially as his lips curled up delightedly. I couldn’t help myself but think he looked almost like a tiger spirit that just managed to catch another poor soul unawares.

But when I searched the black irises for any signs of mockery or knowing, I only found pure interest and eagerness to see how this unfolds. With careful hope I allowed myself to believe that he somehow managed to miss me going to the crime scene or to Miss Kim’s house, for a short moment thanking the unit for not taking me with them as often as it clearly prevented from spoiling Yoongi his surprise.

He probably wasn’t expecting me to push an actual investigation against him at all, and probably also wasn’t warned by the Kims that we were asking around about those warehouse murders. That’s when a true smirk unfurled on my face, all the despicable joy I felt about paying him back surfacing freely onto my face.

There was a new kind of calculation reflected in his gaze, eyes never suspicious but always storing away every little detail about our interaction.

The atmosphere between us grew tense, I almost felt the air crackling, almost tasted the electricity on my tongue. I finally leaned back away from him, mirroring his relaxed posture and took a long sip of my drink.

My eyes flitted to the two other men that have just been silently sitting to the side watching the whole interaction, and suddenly I flushed realising they witnessed my shameless taunting of their boss. Hoping the light would hide any unusual colour on my face, I rather focused on deciphering their expressions.

Taehyung was watching me like a new toy that he couldn’t wait to figure out, like a game that he’s been dying to play and find out how the story ends. It made me shift uncomfortably under such raw curiosity, though I’ve been slowly getting used to the fact that he was just someone that would inevitably always throw me off. The man was basically 85 % deception and 15 % flirting, I’d rather keep myself amused by other means than striking up any kind of conversation with him.

Hoseok on the other hand had during our discussion leaned back into the sofa and he watched me with his face closed off and clean off any smile, only apprehension shining through in his gaze. He watched me with distrust and like I was a problem he wouldn’t hesitate to solve. That sent a wave of shivers and goosebumps down my back, finally giving me the opportunity to see the man behind the mask. This was the man people feared, this was the man the petty criminals respected, or they’d find themselves solved. This was the man that walked amongst the docks, and everybody listened. I fully believed that had Yoongi given the order, he’d be happy to get rid of me right here in the club.

Sitting here, drinking leisurely while these three men grinned at me like hungry wolves, I fully realised just how far deep into shit I shovelled myself with this personal justice route I had taken. Yoongi kept me around only because it amused him to watch me struggle and both Jungkook and Hoseok were firmly against indulging me.

As much as I enjoyed annoying Jungkook cause he was one of the members that always let his anger show, and that was very therapeutic for me, I was aware the reason why I was such a sore in his existence was because he hated how close Yoongi let me. Given the chance he’d prolly kill me even without Yoongi’s orders.

Other than that, Jimin and Namjoon were dangerous to be around and speak with, and Seokjin I haven’t even met, but Jimin insinuated he was also getting a little trigger happy when it came to my meddling. Now gloves were off and I was truly treading thin ice. One misstep and I would turn into a warning, just like any cop that got too close. Up until now it was all fun and games, what’s a little tailing and tracking between friends, but once I put this investigation to life, I’d truly be in danger of retribution.

I once again glanced at the satisfied grin on Yoongi’s face, at his hands gently clasped around a whiskey glass, at his relaxed shoulders and designer suit and shoes, pretty hair curling around a pretty face, and I saw the violence hiding underneath. He was good at masking his, and that made him so dangerous. It was so easy to forget what kind of man you were talking to. And from now on I would risk standing in the direct line of Hoseok’s ire as well.

I threw back the rest of the cocktail I had in my glass, my stomach protesting as I hadn’t eaten much the whole day, and I stood up to leave. I felt their stares on me, all three of them burning through me with those fiery eyes, each of them showing a different kind of craze. The gaze of a puppeteer, the gaze of a honeytrap and the gaze of a killer.

I shuddered and moved away from them, closer to the edge overlooking the rest of the club. Everyone was enjoying just a normal Friday night, having absolutely no idea what was going on just a few metres above them. I envied them a little bit, I envied how carefree they seemed.

“Feel free to enjoy yourself tonight,” Yoongi spoke suddenly into the silent tension, “The drinks are on me.” With his arm he gestured over the railing of the balcony, down to the pit of bodies moving together to the rhythm as one. Suddenly the spell was broken and I once again started to percieve the loud club music blaring throughout the whole space as it reverberated through my bones.

Without me noticing, Yoongi had stood up as well and moved to me, his presence and the warmth radiating off of his body abruptly crowding me in against the railing. I froze in a moment, just sensing him right behind, close enough to make me feel he was there but not enough to touch, as he leaned in close to whisper in my ear.

“You do deserve to let loose and relax once in a while,” he spoke to me in a hypnotising drawl, his voice turning into almost a purr, “So don’t be shy… indulge.” A full body shiver wracked through me, making me jerk in place with the force of it, and for a brief moment I wondered whether this is what it felt like to be sung by sirens into a sure death. Yoongi chuckled again, a low rumbly sound that made me twitch, and then he stepped away from me.

The cool air rushing in broke the spell and I collected my bearings again, throwing a disgruntled stare at him over my shoulder while my knees fought to work again, hands clenching the railing like it was the only thing currently keeping me alive. I just managed to catch a glimpse of the man’s sardonic grin before he turned completely and left.

The two other men stood up as well, both of their faces once again amused by my plight as I was very obviously flustered by Yoongi’s behaviour, before they stepped out right after their boss, leaving me completely alone in the luxurious balcony bathed in red velvet and sin.

Defeatedly I sat down onto the nearest sofa with an ‘oompf’, all bones turned into soup as I decompressed now that the oppressive atmosphere left with them, and blankly stared at a wall for a moment before I was able to process things normally again. My phone started wildly buzzing in my little handbag and I decided that ignoring whatever just happened and taking the distraction it offered me was a better choice than to dwell on it.

Fishing the phone out, I checked the neglected notifications, not much really coming in except for a text from Cheol confirming he read my email about the files and that he’d be ready Monday to go over it once more and some social media pings. And then, a very noticeable slew of messages from Minjoon. The first one was from 19:22, which was around the time I arrived here, asking whether I’d still be up for a dinner. It was currently over 8pm, but there was a few more asking minor questions with the newest one only from a few minutes ago.

I quickly opened the chat and answered an affirmative, my brain just begging for me to distract myself from tonight’s happenings. Minjoon was happy to hear from me and I finally took him up on the offer to drive me, as I couldn’t exactly sit behind a wheel right now.

On my way out I pointedly ignored the bartender’s small smirk, or the bouncer’s curiously raised eyebrows, I ignored Yoongi sitting at the downstairs bar chatting amicably with the guy manning it and sending me very unsubtle mirthful glances, I ignored Taehyung’s flirty wave as I passed him in the hall and most of all I ignored Hoseok leaning against a sleek black car outside of the club with a cigarette between his fingers, icy eyes following my figure for as long as he could.

The second I disappeared behind a corner I half expected him to run after me and grab me, the feeling of being watched slithering along my back in a way that made me shudder in disgust and fear. I hurried towards a bigger road, the Friday evening rush swallowing me and hiding me amidst drunken college kids, foreigners and working folk trying to forget their responsibilities for at least one night. I could relate to that, but no matter how much these meetings took away from me, they always gave me some sick satisfaction in return. And I couldn’t wait for the day I truly bested him.

I waited around for a few minutes, just enough to have the evening chill start setting into me, before a familiar car came into view, slowing down until I could hop in quickly. Minjoon smiled at me warmly, his eyes getting caught on my outfit and he fought for a few moments to keep his eyes on the road. I blushed deeply under his gaze and felt the relief of not having to police my reactions like I did with Yoongi, finally getting the chance to freely feel without fearing his mocking eyes.

“Where were you?” he asked incredulously, voice a little shaky as his glances kept getting caught on my short skirt and exposed legs. There was an electric current going through me at his obvious interest, a fire slowly waking to life right under my skin, and I found myself subconsciously trying to fold my legs in a way that make them look even prettier.

“Just out with some friends,” the lie slipped out of my lips so easily I didn’t even stop to think about feeling guilty about it, too preoccupied with feeling the tension between us slowly cracking, clutching the handbag like a lifeline and revelling in my rising heartbeat. I felt so free, so opposite of how nervous and jittery Yoongi made me. And I wanted.

“I see, I thought you were going home to rest, so I didn’t want to bother you at first,” Minjoon said, lips turning into another warm smile, which I returned tenfold, my whole face lighting up.

“I’m glad you did, I was getting hungry,” I told him teasingly, “It’s always nice with a personal chauffeur, you know?” He went along with my teasing happily, hands attractively flexing on the steering wheel as he shot me a look with one eyebrow raised, lips playing with as subtle smirk. The whole atmosphere shifted; the tension close to overflowing. Suddenly it became very clear to us that we’ve been dancing around the line for too long.

“So where to, your highness?” Minjoon asked, even though he was obviously already driving with some goal in his mind. I only grinned at him and responded: “Wherever you want, sir.”

The place turned out to be a cute little restaurant, the kind that is open at all times of the day and a girl in full club attire in the evening wasn’t a strange sight there. I had to laugh at Minjoon’s choice, as he clearly improvised upon seeing how I was dressed. But the man was watching me with something I could call fondness in eyes and that was all that mattered to me as he placed his hand on the small of my back and led me inside.

Once seated, I found that there wasn’t really even a need for talking about the team, and frankly I wasn’t even in the mood to be discussing Yoongi when I had just met with him and was doing my best to distract myself from that. Minjoon was still watching me with some sort of fascination, his gaze flickering between intrigued and sensual, and I was sure he also wasn’t particularly interested in work related topics.

We exchanged some more flirty grins while we ordered, but politely waited to be alone before starting up any kind of conversation.

“So… outing with friends?” Minjoon started, gaze once again slipping to my attire before jumping back to my face slightly flushed. I only nodded, too spent to come up with something and spend my evening lying. “I wasn’t really feeling it,” I added after slight deliberation. Minjoon grinned.

“Was feeling up to meeting me though,” the man retorted, flirty expression taking over his face, “Gonna make me feel special. Be careful or it might go to my head.” I chuckled at him, leaning over the table to graze our fingers lightly together. Minjoon’s eyes immediately jumped down and zeroed in on the place of contact before he looked back to me, eyes hooded.

Suddenly feeling parched, I licked my lips, rolling my tongue along them slowly and curled them into a sly smirk. “Everybody deserves to feel a little special,” it came out almost on a whisper, the tense atmosphere setting between us and freezing us into our spots with dark eyes and hungry stares.

I still felt jittery from my encounter earlier in the night and it mixed together with the anticipation of what was to come from this, throwing me into a whirlwind of emotions that made my body tremble slightly. My stomach was all knotted up, but it didn’t feel unpleasant, instead there was excitement brewing and slowly spreading through my bloodstream.

Even after the food arrived, the air kept getting tenser, even as we attempted to have regular conversation, it crackled between us like an onsetting storm. Every word, every sentence inlaid with telling mischievous smiles and expressive eyes. Sometimes during the dinner it started dawning on me that this was inevitable, we both were already too far. With all the flirting we’ve been doing this was really only a matter of time, and it just so happened that tonight the tension was going to explode into something that we probably shouldn’t be doing.

I looked over at Minjoon again, properly eyeing him and his expression, and when his gaze met mine and darkened as he sat there with his cheeks dusted with pink, hunched over like he was ready to launch himself over the table, sitting there like he would rather be anywhere else and preferably somewhere where there were no barriers between us, that’s when I realised he also wasn’t as opposed to this as he should have been.

The small talk flew all stilted between us and we mostly just stewed in our own cocktails of emotions and sensations, trying to chew through our food as fast as possible so we could leave; and even though it was already a little chilly outside, there was a heat coming from within that was enough for a thin line of sweat to bead along my hairline. I couldn’t imagine what picture I painted at that moment, if with one look it was obvious how the arousal was steadily rising in my veins with every another second spent just shyly exchanging heated stares.

Every so often my eyes slipped a little lower, eyeing the young man’s collarbones just peeking out from his dark green tee, sliding up and down his arms as he leaned on the table and ate, and I could see from the delighted sparkles glinting in Minjoon’s eyes that he was aware, and very much returned the favour.

God, this was definitely going to end in disaster. There was no way we could avoid this any longer.

And I was right.

Once done with the food, we sat around for a moment just looking at each other silently, before Minjoon finally gestured towards the door. “You wanna go? I’ll drive you home,” he offered immediately, the kind words that I was already used to by now tinged by something a little more tonight. I nodded and after some flirty arguing over who’s going to pay, I finally surrendered and went outside to wait for Minjoon to settle the bill.

The cold air rushed over me and cooled my burning skin a little and I took a few big breaths to ground myself. The night Seoul was loud and lively, I found myself surrounded by joyful groups and couples dressed in their best sitting in restaurants and eating or walking around the sidewalk laughing, clearly aiming for one of the establishments in the area. It was quite refreshing to see, and I lost myself in the rush and buzz, watching others enjoy themselves.

And that’s how Minjoon found me when he came out, sitting on a little wall by the sidewalk dreamily staring off into the distance. He came over, hand going straight to my face, gently catching a strand of my hair and slowly pushing it behind my ear. He lingered there for a moment, fingertips brushing the reddening tip as all the blood rushed to my face in a mighty blush. On instinct I ducked my head being too flustered and broke the contact, but the man just smoothly moved to my shoulder, pushing me up to stand.

He was very natural in his movements, pulling me to his side and wrapping his arm around my shoulders very lightly, and I just went with it, too shy to express it but too happy to go against it. I fought against the instinct to giggle like a schoolgirl and set out to his car, which was quite a short walk, and unfortunately to my apartment it was a quite short drive as well, even in the restless silence that stretched between us.

Our arrival at my doorstep seemed to have come sooner than I was anticipating, sooner than I was ready to end this little outing. I turned to the brown-haired man and studied his face for a moment. We steadily exchanged eye contact, the tension between us back with vengeance, my throat drying up under his dark gaze. I was fluttering on the edge of propriety, in my head still repeating all the reasons why this was such a bad idea, but it didn’t seem to matter when Minjoon watched me with the same longing and desperation. I felt my skin heating up, my insides stirring with something I haven’t properly felt in such a long time it hit me with a ferocity I wasn’t prepared for.

“Aren’t you going to go home?” he whispered so lightly I almost didn’t hear him. He sounded slightly breathless, tone curious and probing.

“Can you walk me to the door?” I shot back immediately, almost unthinking. He licked his lips, his kind face getting twisted with something akin to intense desire before he quickly nodded, and we both scrambled to get out of his car.

The walk was brief, of course it was. I lived on a second floor and my door was accessible from an outside walkway, so all we had to do was clear two stories of stairs and we suddenly found ourselves by my tiny apartment.

I turned to Minjoon, something expectant in the air between us, and each second ticking by felt like a countdown to the inevitable. I wasn’t ready to end this night here. I knew I wasn’t. And judging by Minjoon’s bottomless eyes, I could confidently gamble on his interest and hit jackpot every time.

As the tense silence stretched out a little, neither of really sure how to tackle this situation as we were caught in the ‘will we won’t we’ and ‘should we shouldn’t we’, until I decided to break the curse. Stepping a little closer and looking up at him through my lashes, my hand latching onto the sleeve of his jean jacket that he put on in the car and tugging lightly, I steeled myself and jumped over the line head first.

“Do you want a cup of coffee before you go?” the whispered question escaped my lips and hung for a few moments between us. I watched as if in slow motion as Minjoon took it in and nodded once, then twice, and then his hand caught mine.

I turned hastily towards the door, jabbing the key in and pushing inside without a single thought in my mind. It turned out, there wasn’t even a need for an awkward pretending of drinking anything, because the second the door closed behind us, we were on each other.

It was like dam broke between us and we suddenly couldn’t stop, couldn’t keep our hands off each other. Minjoon kissed me quickly and desperately and I fought to keep up, hands going around his neck immediately while his snaked around my waist. Taking off shoes long forgotten, we stumbled inside and towards the sofa.

In that moment, I didn’t have the mental capacity to think about the huge maps in my bedroom. I didn’t realise how lucky I was we didn’t make it any further, too lost in the way Minjoon’s tongue was finally sliding against mine and how his calloused hands caressing my sides felt a lot like heaven.

And when he inevitably got his hands on my skirt and I inevitably thought of Yoongi’s eyes taking me in when I arrived at the balcony, and when Minjoon pulled me closer and I thought of Yoongi’s presence caging me in with his warmth against the railing, of his lips turning into a smug smirk as Minjoon kissed me, then I just pressed my eyes closed harder and tangled my hands into his short brown hair, banishing all thoughts of curly black locks far away into the deepest corner of my mind.

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[paraliveimaginesblog]

Can we get 42 from the kiss prompt with Yuto, please?:D

Yuto Inukai:

42. Distracting kisses from someone that are meant to stop the other person from finishing their work, and give them kisses instead.

Yuto was always susceptible to your distractions.

He didn’t have it in him to ignore you, not when you could make your eyes water on command or when you jutted out your lower lip in a pout that was too cute to resist. You never bothered him during work that was too important, only mindless paperwork that was heaved onto him by superiors who had no respect for his time. It was a necessary evil to allow GokuLuck to continue operating, to prostrate himself to the higher-ups whims to allow them some sort of freedom or potential rehabilitation, but there did come a time where he wanted to pick himself.

“Man, I wish I was your paperwork ‘cause then I’d have all the attention I needed!” Your opening statement was all the evidence he needed to know you were about to cause trouble. From the moment you had entered the room and started shuffling around, he knew you were waiting for him to address you before you became a complete distraction.

He chuckled nervously before responding, “I-I’m sorry. I’m almost finished, and then we can—”

“I’ve heard that before,” You huffed, arms draped around his shoulders now as you peered at the papers he was looking at. “Such tiny text, don’t your eyes need a break?”

The closeness was forcing him to fight the devil on his shoulder, taking an unsteady breath as he flipped through another page; he had long since stopped absorbing the words in front of him but he was trying to prove a point. He couldn’t just let you have your way all the time, could he? Not that he minded giving in to your demands but he liked when you put in the effort to distract him, hanging all over him, giving him all of your attention…

You turned his head toward you and your eyes meant his warm grey ones, your lips quirked into a tiny smile as you saw that you had already won. You leaned forward to press your lips against his, feeling him sigh against your lips before returning the pressure. You were happy where you were, pressed against him with your hand on his cheek to keep him facing you, lips moving together in a slow dance you wished would never end. His neck muscles were beginning to beg for mercy at the awkward position though, and as much as he wished he could keep going, he needed to catch his breath.

“Such a tease~” You scolded him, giggling as he mumbled something in exasperation under his breath. “Come on, just a short break, okay? Then I won’t bother you for a little bit.”

Yuto didn’t know your definition of a short break, or how long a ‘little bit’ qualified as, but he had long since accepted he lost the battle.

[theidiotwhowritesthings]

The Color of Blood [2]

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x Reader

Warning: angst, canon level violence, cursing, oh did I mention angst?

Word Count: 3,372

Summary: In this world, a person didn’t discover color until they locked eyes with their soulmate. As an agent of SHIELD, finding your soulmate was hardly a priority. Especially since you were currently dealing with the shocking discovery that HYDRA had been pulling the strings behind SHIELD actions this entire time. Life was all about timing, and you were about to find out that your timing was absolute shit.

There were some people out in this wild, wild world who didn’t know what it was like to slowly wake up with a concussion, in an unknown room, surrounded by people who meant you harm. Unfortunately, you were not one of those people. Double unfortunately, you were finding yourself in that position again.

You blinked your blurry eyes a few times, trying to make the world stop spinning, and when things finally did become clear it took you a second to remember what had happened. Not the being attacked on a bridge thing. The suddenly being able to see color thing. You couldn’t help but suck in a sharp breath of shock. The room around you was so vibrant and sharp. It made you wish you had the time to fully absorb this new view of the world.

You didn’t though because suddenly you were being hit in the face again.

With a hiss of pain, your head snapped to the side and before you could do anything someone roughly grabbed the front of your shirt and yanked you off the ground into a seated position.

“Welcome back to the world of the living.” Rumlow grinned at you.

“Being stuck staring at your ugly mug,” You spat at him, “I kind of wish I was back in the world of the dead.”

The traitorous agent chuckled, “Oh, don’t say that. I thought we were friends, Agent.”

“That was before I found out you were HYDRA scum.” This time you literally spat at him.

Rumlow threw you aside with a growl as he swiped at his face. You threw your foot forward to kick out his knee. He crumpled to the ground with a cry of pain and you got up to run past him, but his rough hand wrapped around your ankle causing you to hit the floor again.

Your already concussed brain groaned at the impact, but you didn’t stop swinging. You kicked your leg out, trying to make contact with Rumlow’s stupid face, but he army crawled across the ground until he was lying on top of you. His hands pinned down your wrists as he sat on your hips.

Rumlow gave you a sickening smile, “No need to play rough.”

“Fuck,” You spoke between clenched teeth, “You.”

“You wanna know what I just got back from?” Rumlow replied.

“Therapy?”

Rumlow’s hands tightened around your wrists, “I was out burying your little friends.” You felt your entire body tense as your jaw clenched down. “Don’t worry. I remember exactly where we put ‘em. Just in case you wanna visit their unmarked graves one day. That is if we don’t put you beside them.”

“God, you just talk way too much.” You growled. There was no part of you that thought Brock Rumlow of all people had finally brought your friends down. Maybe it was blind faith, but you were sticking by it.

The sound of a door opening made Rumlow push up off of you, but you held back on going onto the offense. The door had swung open because a whole new squad of HYDRA goons had strolled in. At the head of the pack was Alexander Pierce. Somehow seeing him in color made you hate him all the more.

Pierce called out your full name then hummed with a polite smile. As if he was casually running into you at SHIELD headquarters rather than looming over you as the hidden HYDRA thug in charge. “I am so happy to see you here.”

You shakily got to your feet, in a defensive position, “You come a step closer, and I will kill you.”

“There’s no need for that.” Pierce clicked his tongue in disappointment.

Alexander Pierce had been your hero. You hadn’t worked with him personally in quite some time, but he was the one to recommend your recruitment to SHIELD in the first place. Where the world saw anger, chaos, and delinquency, he saw potential. He got you into the field agent academy and put you on the path to who you were today. Nick Fury’s pride and joy was Natasha Romanoff. You were Alexander Pierce’s.

He stopped a few steps in front of you and the only thing holding you back from clawing his face off were the agents right behind him with guns. Pierce stuck his hands into his suit pockets, “I’m not going to beat around the bush. I’m not sure why the asset brought you here, but I couldn’t be happier. You belong here. With us.”

“No, I don’t.”

“Oh, but you do.” Pierce smirked. “Why do you think I recruited you in the first place? I saw exactly what you could be from the start. You can do the world a lot more good from this side than the one you’re on.”

You scoffed, “Says the man who’s planning on slaughtering a few billion people.”

“Necessary sacrifices.” Pierce shook his head in disappointment. “Sometimes if you want to change the world you have to get your hands dirty. I taught you better than to think so small.”

“You didn’t teach me shit.” You snapped. “Your name might be on my entry paperwork, but I am not your puppet, and I never will be.”

Pierce sighed and you watched him move his jaw to the right and left as he thought. You recognized the look of irritation he wore. He nodded once and Rumlow was on you again. The agent grabbed you by the back of the neck and shoved the end of his handgun to your temple. The older man stepped closer again so he was right in your personal space, “Why did the asset bring you here?”

“He’s your asset. You tell me.” You replied with a raised eyebrow. Telling him the truth about your apparent soulmate seemed like a very bad idea. Pierce must have recognized the determination in your eyes. He clenched his jaw and walked toward the open door to the left, opposite from the one he came into. Pierce made a motion with his hand and Rumlow dragged you after him. The next room looked like it used to be the back of a bank. The walls were covered in small, locked vaults. In the center of the room though was a strange set up. A chair surrounded by technology. In said chair though, was your soulmate. The Winter Soldier. Men in lab coats fluttered around him, but you couldn’t look away from the man in the chair.

The Winter Soldier was shirtless and slumped over with a look of confusion and fear on his features. It didn’t suit the mental image you had constructed of who this man was. His eyes were blue. That stood out to you. Red and blue were the only two real colors you were able to recognize and name at this point. The Winter Soldier’s blue eyes were mixed with some form of gray making them look stormy. It was hypnotizing, but the pain in them was distracting. Your eyes slid away from his eyes to where the metal arm was hooked to his body. Ugly, red scars decorated his shoulder where metal met flesh. It looked painful.

“Sir, he’s unstable.” One of the men working on the computers said, “Erratic.”

It was only then that you started to connect dots. They called this man an asset, yet he was seated in some sort of contraption, confused and lost, while his fellow agents had him surrounded at gunpoint? That seemed less asset and more prisoner to you. It also bothered you that you recognized his face still. It was familiar, at the tip of your tongue, but you couldn’t quite place it.

“Mission report.” Pierce said. The Winter Soldier stared ahead at nothing. As if he were in a daze. “Mission report now.”

Pierce slid his glasses off, sliding them into his coat pocket, then he stepped forward to stand in front of the Soldier. He bent down just a bit and after a beat of silence the older man backhanded the Winter Soldier across the face. You physically flinched at the motion as your heart raced in your chest. You weren’t sure if your reaction was from watching your supposed soulmate get so casually slapped or from the gnawing fear in your stomach that something was very wrong here. This entire situation wasn’t what you originally thought it to be. The Winter Soldier looked back to Pierce, more life in his eyes, “The man on the bridge. Who was he?”

“You met him earlier this week on another assignment.” Pierce replied.

The Winter Soldier’s voice was softer than you thought possible, “I knew him.”

Pierce rolled a stool over and sat down, “Your work has been a gift to mankind. You shaped the century…”

The traitorous old bastard continued to talk, but you stared at the Winter Soldier’s face. Steve had frozen in shock. The Soldier knew him. Finally, it dawned on you. The realization felt like a sucker punch to your chest, all the air seemed to be knocked out of you. Of course, you recognized his damn face. You had just been at the ‘Captain America and the Howling Commandos’ exhibit with Steve just earlier this week.

“You’re Bucky Barnes.” You cried out in shock.

The Winter Soldier—no, Bucky’s eyes snapped to meet yours as if he was just realizing you were in this room too. Pierce barked out a curse to you, but Rumlow was the one to punish. The man slammed the butt of his handgun into the side of your face and threw you to the ground. His boot kicked your gut before you could even focus on the throbbing of your face. The blow to your temple left your ears ringing again as you tried to focus, and the next sound that came to you was yelling. You glanced up to see that Bucky had lunged across the room to you and he now held Rumlow by the man’s neck as he crushed him into the wall.

Rumlow was gasping for breath, clawing at the metal hand crushing his windpipe, while Pierce screamed at all the soldiers to not shoot. Nothing the old man or the scientists said made your soulmate stop. Rumlow’s face was turning blue and his desperate movements were slowing.

Pierce held a gun to your face, “Say his name now. Get him to stop.” You glared back at Pierce, lips pressed tightly together. He could shoot you if you wanted. You’d die happy with your last sight being Rumlow suffocating to death. Pierce locked his jaw then turned to hold the gun to the back of Bucky’s head. Your eyes widened. “Now, Agent!”

You had no other options. You were backed into a metaphorical corner.

“Bucky!” You called out.

Steve’s old friend released his grip on Rumlow. The agent fell to his knees gasping for breath while Bucky backpedaled in shock. You didn’t know what they did to the poor man, but he looked so lost. It was like every other moment he was trying to grasp where or who he was. Other agents grabbed him, and he didn’t fight back as they dragged him back to the chair. Before he could sit back up, they clamped metal rungs over his arms to lock him in.

“What the fuck was that!?” Pierce roared at you. He reached down and yanked you up in anger, “Why the hell did he bring you here with him!?” Pierce just stared you down and you tried to keep your face as blank as possible, but you could see the gears turning in his head. His eyes widened after a moment and you prayed it wasn’t for the reason you thought it was. Pierce nodded once and walked over to Bucky. He pointed the gun at him again, “What color are his eyes?”

You shook your head, “How am I supposed to know that?”

“Tell me the color of his fucking eyes.”

“I don’t know!” You yelled. Pierce wouldn’t shoot his asset, right?

Pierce lowered his weapon and you held back a breath of relief. Instead, the man motioned to one of the agents, “Start cutting off fingers on his right hand.”

Your eyes blew wide in panic, more than a trained agents’ probably should, but it was a scientist that spoke up, “Sir—!”

“He can still complete mission a few fingers short!” Pierce barked.

An agent walked over and pulled a knife from his belt. You tried to hold back, but the moment the agent’s knife pressed against Bucky’s skin you blurted the word out, “Blue!” Pierce gave you a sinister smile and you your entire chest ache. “He has blue eyes. Please don’t— Pierce, please.”

“Soulmates.” Pierce nodded with a chuckle. “Wow. Who would’ve guessed it? Your fated soulmate is a man who should’ve died 70 years ago. Huh.”

“What did you do to him?” You seethed.

“We made him the perfect weapon.” Pierce shrugged. He sat back down onto his stool. “The real question is… now what?”

“Sir.” The head scientist, you assumed since he had spoken the most, stepped forward with a gleam in his eyes, “I think we can use this to our advantage. We’ve been running into roadblocks with the asset. The longer he’s out of cryo, the harder it is to control him, but with his soulmate here…”

You clenched your hands into fists. Absolutely not. You’d die before being used as a part of this man’s torture. Your soulmate’s torture. Your thoughts were interrupted when an arm suddenly wrapped around your throat and lifted your feet off the ground. You clawed at the arm, knowing it was Rumlow behind you based on his angry growls in your ear, and tried to kick back at him futilely.

Bucky strained against the locks around his arms, his blue eyes burning with rage, and the scientist motioned to him, “See!”

“Rumlow.” Pierce said, but the man’s arm tightened around your throat. “Rumlow!”

Finally, you were released and when he dropped you, you stumbled to your knees gasping for air. You forced yourself to look up and your eyes met Bucky’s again. The rage had simmered into misery. You weren’t sure how present he was, how aware of the situation around him, but the sadness in his eyes was dreadful. Bucky was broad and large, significantly larger than you, but he looked so small in that chair. You had never felt such a strong urge to pull someone into your arms and whisper comforts to them. This wasn’t a man you knew. Not really. No more than the facts Steve told you or the fact that he was your soulmate, but you ached to bring him relief.

“Prep him.” Pierce commanded.

The scientist shook his head, “He’s been out of cryo freeze too long.”

“Then wipe him and start over.” Pierce replied and you watched as Bucky’s face crumpled in a mix of defeat and pain.

“Please, sir, I’m telling you.” The scientist tried to argue. “We use his soulmate to our advantage. His mission isn’t a success? Then she’s punished as well. The mission goes perfectly? He’s rewarded with time with her.”

You shot a glare to the scientist talking with his stupid bow tie. If you survived this, if you got the chance, you were gonna beat the shit out of him right after you dealt with Rumlow and Pierce.

As you mentally planned his fate, Pierce walked back over to you and reached his hand out. You refused to flinch as he let his hands trace the side of your face. He shook his head, “A stick always works better than a carrot. Wipe him now.” His lips curled up into a cruel smile. “And you, Agent, I want you to watch. You only just met, but I hear soulmates can bond extraordinarily fast.”

He gripped your chin tightly and snapped your head to watch as the scientists began to move about. The one with a bowtie grabbed a black mouth guard and brought it over to Bucky. Your soulmate’s jaw clenched briefly, eyes flared in determination, as he opened his mouth and let the scientist place the mouth guard in. They pressed a button, the seat lowered just a hair, and the large, metal circle behind him began to spin downward. Bucky’s chest was heaving with each breath.

You struggled against Pierce’s hand, “No. Don’t!” The arms of the circle stretched out as electricity bounced from site to site on the inner surface of the arms. The inner surfaces closed in to cover portions of Bucky’s face. You tried to tear yourself away, but your body was too weak to get the momentum it needed, “Stop it!”

The metal plates clamped down on Bucky’s face and you could briefly hear the humming of electricity. That sound was immediately washed out by the sickening screams coming from your soulmate. It was gut wrenching. Watching a man be tortured was rough, you had dealt with that before on a mission gone bad, but this was different. This was in a league of its own. You felt hot tears roll down your face as you clenched your eyes shut. That did nothing to drown out Bucky’s screams though. For the remainder of your life, however long that might end up being, you’d never be able to forget that sound. You’d never forget the absolute pain and agony and despair in every single scream that filled the air and cut through you like a hot knife.

And it just kept going and going and going.

It felt like a million years had come and gone.

Pierce let go of your face and you collapsed to your hands and knees. The scene had ended. Whatever it was they did to him had ended, but the screaming hadn’t. You could still hear it echoing in your head. Bouncing around your skull. Pierce knelt down beside you with a hum, “This is your last chance. Reach your full potential. Come with me. Help me change the world.”

You forced your head up so you could glare at the old man kneeling beside you. Never had you hated someone as much as you hated this man. Your training told you what you needed to do. Play the game. Tell Pierce what he wanted to hear. Go along with him until you found your moment to end him. You knew that. You knew that, but God, all you felt right now was rage. Your blood boiled under your skin. Your fury wouldn’t let you play this smart. You couldn’t even pretend to appease this man.

Regardless of what the consequence would be, you lunged forward and clawed at his face. Your nails caught his skin and dragged down enough to leave three long scratches down the side of his right face. Pierce howled in pain and then kicked you in the face. You went sprawling onto your back, blood pouring from your now broken nose.

“Such a waste.” Pierce spat at you. You groaned in pain and sat up just enough to watch as Bucky was released from his chair. The old man used his pocket square to blot at the bleeding scratches on his face. “Soldier?”

“Ready to comply.” Bucky said in an emotionless voice. It wasn’t Bucky anymore. It was the Winter Soldier again.

“You will kill Captain America. You will not let him reroute the helicarriers.” Pierce said gruffly. He glanced over at me and threw his bloody pocket square at me, “But you can start by killing her.”

You watched Pierce and Rumlow, along with the other agents, stalk out of the room without even a single look over their shoulders. Your face still ached, and you could feel blood running down the back of your throat. You slowly turned to look back at your soulmate to see he had risen from the chair and was now staring down at you. The stormy blue eyes were cold and lifeless. He began to march toward you while clenching and unclenching his metal hand.

You scrambled back as he continued to march toward you.

There was no recognition in his eyes.

Just malice.

Just the mission.

[previous chapter] [next chapter]

[b4mpyre-k1zz3s]

Bedside Manner

Y/N visits their boyfriend in the hospital after a particularly…brutal injury. Of course, all his buddies had to come along too.

Johnny Knoxville X Gn!Reader

(Fluff)

1.2k Words

Warnings: Suggestive content, hospitals, drug use, alcohol, crude language, description of injury

An: I had this idea stirring arround for a while and I thought it was finally time for me to dredge it up!! :) I just love this man and his broken crank!

By the time you rushed to the hospital, your boyfriend was already so drugged up he could barely recognize you as you stood next to his bedside, staring up at you with confused, blown out pupils. His speech was slow and almost slurred as he squinted up at you from the gurney they strapped him to, “What're you doin’ here?” You thanked god that it was the painkillers, not annother head injury as you sighed, taking his limp hand in yours, “Johnny- Johnny. It’s me, Y/N.” It was like you could see the synapses firing behind his eyes as he blinked once before a look of realization flashed across his face, a goofy smile taking the place of the slack jawed expression he was wearing, his words excited but loopy, “Y/N! Oh…I missed you, honey.” He took your hand, bringing it up to his warm cheek and moving it to press a gentle kiss onto one of your knuckles like he was comforting you, not the other way arround. “I got some bad news, sweetheart…” He looked up at you with those big, dinner plate eyes, “My weiners broke- and I know how much’y liked it, but I think it’s gonna be outta commission for a while…” Staving off all urges to laugh, you patted his hand soothingly, “I do really like it, but we can talk about it later. I was worried about you!” Johnny giggled, “Aww, that’s sweet…” This might’ve been a very sweet moment under any other circumstance.

Because of his line of work, it wasn’t uncommon for your boyfriend to end up in these situations, but you were always there to pick up the pieces for him. From bull spills to concussions- at the end of the world, the only things that will be left standing are roaches and Johnny. His accidents were, more often than not though, a pain in the ass to deal with. As much as you ached for him every time he busted his ass, you couldn’t really feel too bad for him, especially when his idiot friends got involved. You always gave the obligatory phone call to his buddies, but they were never any good.

From behind you, you could hear the sliding door whoosh open and that’s when it all started. Parading in like he owned the place, Bam’s awful cool dude facial hair brushed against your cheek as he peered over your shoulder at the giant flag of Japan Johnny had made on the white sheets right above his crotch, “Oh, dude! Knoxville’s got’is period!” Bam reached into what sounded like a plastic shopping bag and threw a box onto your boyfriend’s lap, rolling until it landed face up. It was a box of tampons- extra absorbency, of course. Before you could call Bam an ass and smack him with the back of your hand, Johnny started…laughing. It seemed like this was the funniest thing to him, pointing at the sheets, “Oh, if you think this looks bad, wait till’y see what’s under here!” He grinned, peeling away the wet layers of linen, “It’s like I gotta Franken-cock…”

“I- I don’t think that’s really…” You hurried to cover him up, just as he was yanking up the hem of the little flowery paper gown the doctors dressed him in, looking up at you pleadingly, “Aww, c’mon baby!” Johnny only ever called you that when he was drunk or high. He gave you puppy dog eyes and gave you with that sweet, persuasive little smile that always got him his way with you. Before you could dissent further, the rest of the guys crowded in the room around him like a tsunami, washing you away to a corner. From your position in the room, you could hear Steve sounding surprisingly earnest as he crimged over Johnny’s crotch, peering at the mangled thing between his legs, “Dude…I feel so bad for Y/N.”

Chris laughed that dumb stoner laugh, reassuring him, “Don’t worry, Knoxville! I’d be happy to sevrice’em any time!” You wouldn’t admit it to your boyfriend, but there was a moment where you contemplated that. Johnny didn’t really comprehend what he was hearing as he leaned back against the pillows, his head lolling to the side to avoid the harsh overhead lights as he turned to face Pontius, “Ah, thanks man…” The guys all talked like girls at a sleepover, gossiping about you like you weren’t even in the damn room with them. Bam, always looking for a reaction, put a hand on your boyfriend’s shoulder, leaning in and trying to provoke him a little, “Really, dude? You’re just gonna take that?” He seemed to think for a second, as much as he could in the state he was in, and just sort of…shrugged, “He’s just bein’ nice.” Bam grinned at the prospects of Johnny letting that slide, “Hey, I can be nice too! Maybe I could hit that…” That idea was much less appealing. “Okay, okay-“ nudging your way to his bedside, you sighed, “nobody is hitting anything for a while!” You shot a wink at Chris, leaving the rest of the guys (sans your actual boyfriend) slack jawed as he chuckled.

Just then, Dunn, fashionably late as always, practically kicked open the door, a six pack in his hand. Turning to him, Steve whisper-yelled, “Dude, this isn’t a party!” Beside you, he seemed like the only person who was taking this seriously. Ryan took a seat in a chair near his buddies, passing one to the boy in the hospital bed, “Didn’t think it was one. It’s a funeral for Knoxville’s ding ding.” Taking the cold, wet can from him, Johnny cracked it open, taking a sip, “It’s not a funeral- the thing’s repairable!” The six pack was passed around as Ryan cracked his open, “Great! Then it’s a party!”

“So, the doc says I gotta get ‘constructive surgery…” Johnny poorly explained what he was told before the little hospital party was crashed, “So maybe, I could get’im to make it, like-“ his eyes widened like a kid talking about what he wanted for Christmas as he gestured about three feet with his hands, “this big!” Your eyes went wide. Ryan pilfered through a medical supplies drawer with his back to Johnny, looking over his shoulder to face him, “You'd’ have’t tuck it into your sock, man- imagine gettin’ Lombardi’d with that.” The guys, including you, all laughed. As much as you hated them, your boyfriend's friends really knew how to liven up a hospital room. Steve piped up amidst the chuckling, “Yeah, I have!” Suddenly, silence. “…Y’ know, Indonesia?” Johnny thought back for a second before a look of realization hit his face, “Oh, yeah! Good times.” Steve elbowed his bed bound buddy, his joking keeping him in good spirits, “You gotta promise me to gimmie one if you get that done.”

“I wouldn’t miss it for the world, man!” Johnny continued his rant, turning to you with sparking eyes, “- But that’s what I want- one that size! Whadya say, babe? Think y’could put in a word for me with the doc?” You giggled, “I think that’d be a little too much, Johnny.”

[vivalarevolution]

𝓚𝓲𝓼𝓼𝓲𝓷𝓰 𝓐𝓵𝓵 𝓞𝓿𝓮𝓻 𝓨𝓸𝓾𝓻 𝓑𝓸𝓭𝔂 𝓜𝔂 𝓝𝓮𝓯𝓮𝓻𝓽𝓲𝓽𝓲

Jake Sully x Avatar Reader x Tsu'tey

A/N: After I shared the question and saw the quick and positive response I got, I decided to write something with both Jake Sully and Tsu'tey.

I hope it will be pleasant to readt and all of you will enjoy it. English is not a language that I use on a daily basis, mistakes may or will appear.  

Also the work contains smut, so minors do not interact.

*Due to technical reasons, the work has been posted again

They were like flames to her. Both equally glaring and hot, burning her soul and heart every time their skin touched hers. But she couldn't tell them no.

They made her addicted. So much that she couldn't live, breathe or function without them.

And she made them just as addicted. She made them forget about the world around them. She was the only one they needed ,like lungs needed air ,like a baby needed its mother. She became the bane of their existence and the object of all their desires.

-Ma paskalin - Tsu'tey murmured into her ear, waking her up from her thoughts - Don't go far with your mind, you must stay here with us - he said, gliding his long fingers over her swollen clitoris.

The woman moaned at the feather-like feel of his fingertips, trembling involuntarily, unable to control her body being at the mercy of two men who gave her as much pleasure as they took from her.

Looking down through half-open eyelids, she could see Jake , who was not listening to their exchange, being too busy devouring her womanhood like he was starving. Licking her, kissing her, and sometimes running his fangs over her labia, making her quiver like an aspen, turning him on even more. So much more that his hands tightened on her firm thighs, leaving traces of his big, strong hands behind them.

-I…I - she tried to form a sentence, but the words tumbled in her mouth with every second the man between her legs slipped the tip of his tongue into her hot center, growling softly at the taste of her on his lips.

All the attention that was accumulated on her femininity overwhelmed her so much that the image in front of her eyes began to blur and before she could react in any way, her inner thighs tightened on the avatar's head and Tsu'tey's fingers, thus stopping both of their movements, and a large amount of sweet liquid gushed from her, adorning the two men, much to their delight.

Her eyes were closed, and the whole weight of her body rested on the black-haired man behind her, who held her in his arms in a strong, steady grip, wanting to never let her go.

-So sweet…always so sweet - Sully murmured, kissing her sweat-damp skin, marking her body with tiny bites and sucking marks on her soft skin - I need to feel you on me, baby.

But before he could fulfill his tempting promise, Tsu'tey buried her even more in his embrace, hissing lowly.

-You had her, now you will wait - he said, looking hard into the avatar's eyes, clasping his hands on the young woman's belly - She's mine, just like she's yours. Do not forget that.

Both men stared at each other intensely, neither wanted to back down.

-Please - Y/n suddenly whispered, her hand lazily stroking Jake's shoulder - I'll let you both take me however you want, as long as you want. But I can't wait…I can't - she whimpered, her hips moving desperately.

It was hard to settle with such stubborn people as both her lovers were. But there was one thing that could break their conflict in seconds.

She. Her tears and begging to take her body was enough, especially when she herself was ambrosia for both of them.

Avatar in front of her growled softly in an act of annoyance. Pulling away from the woman, he allowed Tsu'tey to place her in a kneeling position, still securing her limp body. His hands roamed her naked body, leaving goosebumps behind, while Y/n's head was still on his shoulder, absorbing every touch, every brush of lips, every whisper.

Man was extraordinarily gentle ,savoring the moment. His slender fingers were rubbing her puffy folds that were still very sensitive from the earlier orgasm. He could slip easily into her hot tight canal, her arousal was spilling from her insides, straight to his fingertips.

-Ma yawne, you are so beautiful, so soft - he complimented her, stroking her hips, sometimes touching her thighs - How do you want me syulang? - he asked, placing wet kisses in the hollow of her neck.

-Inside - she replied breathlessly - I want you inside, Tsu'tey - she announced, looking at him with eyes clouded with lust.

-Whatever you want - he replied, sliding into her slowly, almost agonizingly slowly.

Y/n moaned loudly as she felt the delicious stretching of her walls caused by her lover's member filling her to the brim.

Jake watched her facial expression closely. The way her eyebrows furrowed, the way her eyes squeezed tight, the way her mouth formed an o-shape. Her hands tried to find a place, grabbing at Tsu'tey's hips or legs, tightening her fingers on his skin, sometimes scratching him with her nails when the pleasure seemed too much for her.

The bulge on her belly was visible from a distance, a beautiful sight for Jake's yellow eyes as he stared at her like a predator, getting closer and closer every second until his hand was able to reach the nape of her neck, pulling her into a deep, sensual kiss. Their tongues met, drowning out the moans and whimpers that had left the woman's lips moments ago, but Tsu'tey was quick to pull her away, tasting her full ,kissable lips himself. Unable to resist, sending the man a challenging look that disappeared as quickly as it appeared.

But the avatar saw it anyway, hissing under his breath.

He fought with himself. All he wanted to do was snatch her from the man's embrace to take her for himself. He tried to hold back. But even so, his hands began to roam, stopping at her round breasts, which he began to massage and knead. His thumbs were gliding over her nipples, knowing exactly how sensitive they were.

Y/n broke the kiss, feeling the overwhelming feeling return with double strength. Member that hit her cervix and lips that marked her chest with wet kisses , it all seemed to have too much of an effect on her.

-Ma paskalin…I can feel how much your body wants release - Tsu'tey whispered in her ear in a warm and tender voice, even though his loins were moving in such a powerful and precise way, hitting all the right places - Go on, cum for me. I need to feel it.

As if on command, the young woman came with a loud moan. Her thighs trembled intensely, and the substance flowed out of her womanhood again, soaking their lower abdomen, part of both men's legs and the ground beneath her.

Her breath was ragged and her eyes clouded, staring at the sky above her. She couldn't wake up from her state of pleasure, once again putting all the weight of her tiny body on the man behind her.

However her peace did not last long.

Jake immediately grabbed her in his arms, laying her on all fours. Y/n moaned softly, feeling an unexpected emptiness and a sticky substance on the inside of her thighs that began to flow from her insides, but before she could do anything about it, Sully entered her in one brutal movement, filling her so much that the woman was sure that he was in her belly.

The movement of his hips was rough and hard, filling her so deeply that with each stroke of his pelvis, that all she had left to do was drop to the ground beneath her, allowing him to use her however he wanted.

Various sounds fell out of her mouth, interrupted from time to time by the dark-haired woman's attempt to say his name, but to no avail.

-Good girl , allowing me to use her as much as I want - man growled in her ear, massaging her bum, sometimes catching her tail, which was vibrating with every move he made - I'll fill you up, would you like that baby?

Y/n just let out a broken cry, closing her eyes as tears began to flow from the amount of pleasure filling her body.

Tsu'tey grabbed her body, letting her lie on top of him as Jake used her, tearing her insides apart, his mouth marking her neck, biting and kissing her.

-Tsu…tey…please kiss me - she moaned, looking at him imploringly.

Without a word, the Na'vi pressed their lips together in a sweet kiss, stroking her cheeks as her lover behind her assaulted her abused wet and hot walls, growling shamelessly into her ear like a hungry animal.

-Give me a kiss too, baby - Jake said, catching her jaw lazily to guide her in his direction -Good girl - he said as she opened her mouth, inviting him.

Suddenly, a third orgasm hit her, causing her to see the stars, nearly passing out.

The man was still moving, wanting to feel the feeling of the wet, hot, tight canal as long as possible before he filled her completely. So much so that the white substance began to escape from her while he was still inside her.

Y/n moaned softly, feeling the sudden warmth that poured out of her, directly between her asscheecks. Holding the necks of both lovers, she pulled them to herself, snuggling into their larger bodies, which covered her form completely.

Her mind was blank, her muscles limp as if they didn't exist, her heart was pounding against her ribs, and the accumulated sweat began to run lazily down her body.

-I'll let you both take me however you want, as long as you want - Jake whispered into her ear, which made her frown looking at him in an act of silent question - Did you think it was over? - he asked her, stroking her cheek.

-Oh, ma beautiful yawne - Tsu'tey murmured, almost whispering into her ear, kissing its petal gently - This is just the beginning.



*paskalin - honey

yawne - beloved

syulang - flower

[eddie-van-munson]

Elvira's Movie Macabre (Eddie Munson x Sunshine!Reader)

***********

Summary: After hearing your crush talk about his infatuation with "The Mistress of the Dark", Chrissy decides to give you a makeover...

Warnings: Friends to Lovers, References to Jason's Rumors About Eddie, Implication That Eddie Might have ADHD/ A Learning Disorder, Reader Puts on Makeup, She/Her Pronouns, Cursing, Slight Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, Self-Deprecation, One Sex Joke

A/N: Happy Halloween! This is cheesy as hell and I'm not sure if I like how it turned out, but I haven't posted anything in forever, so I thought I'd give it a go! Let me know what you think! I promise I'm working on requests!

***********

"Chrissy, are you sure about this?" 

Your eyes burnt as Chrissy dragged a black eyeliner pencil over your waterline. She stuck her tongue out in concentration, brushing away a tear that had gathered at the outer corner of your eye. The liner smeared a bit beneath her thumb, but she left the smudge where it was, deciding it added to the look. Your eyes fluttered open as she capped the pencil proudly. "I'm absolutely positive! You're going to knock his socks off!" 

You tried to hide your uncertainty, glancing over at the small television in your friend's room. 

Chrissy had taken it upon herself to tape that week's episode of  Elvira's Movie Macabre after overhearing Eddie call the series host "a total fuckin' smoke show" in a conversation at the Hellfire table. 

"It's fool-proof!" She'd explained to you as she fast forwarded through the weekly B-Movie, pausing on a clear shot of Elvira. "We know he likes Elvira, and we know he likes you. If we combine the two, the results will be completely irresistible!" 

The speech had been very convincing as your friend studied the TV host's makeup, but now, as she plucked a cherry red lipstick from her collection, you were starting to have your doubts. Not that you had much of a choice. You'd been pining over Eddie since Mrs. O'Donnell had assigned you to him as a tutor last fall, and it was getting to be pathetic. 

You'd been nervous at first. You didn't know anything about Eddie, apart from the nasty rumors that Jason Carver liked to spread in the cafeteria. From the things he'd said, you'd half expected Eddie to start performing ritualistic sacrifices mid study session. Instead, you were met with a goofy, friendly, curly-headed boy, who immediately told you that he was "Sorry, you got stuck with the freak." He certainly wasn't scary. In fact, you liked Eddie. 

You could see why his grades were suffering. He had trouble focusing, and you often had to tell him things several times before he was able to absorb them. It was as if his brain was too loud on the inside. That being said, Eddie's attempts were earnest. He worked so hard to do right by you, and you'd celebrate a C minus like it was a badge of honor if it made Eddie feel proud of himself. 

All week long you eagerly awaited the afternoons when Eddie would pick you up from cheer practice in his van. He always looked so happy to see you, honking the horn and calling your name just so he could see you go all blushy and giggly in front of your friends. In moments like that, when Eddie smiled at you like you hung the stars, you could almost let yourself believe he loved you back. 

You must have had hearts in your eyes when he'd invited you to come see his band play. He'd gone so blushy when he asked, scratching his neck awkwardly as he stuttered through his words. 

"You don't have to come. It's just a small gig, y'know? You've got to start somewhere. But I'd really like it if you came. I'd like to see you there... I think Steve and Robin said they'd come too, so, you won't be there on your own or anything. But you don't have to come if-" 

You wrapped your arms around him, pulling him into a great big hug. "Oh Eddie!! Of course I'll come!! Don't be silly!! I'd love to see you play!" 

You couldn't have known, but Eddie had wanted nothing more in that moment but to kiss you senseless. You looked so sweet there in his arms, clad in your little pink cardigan and lacy socks. Your lips were a glossy smile, your cheeks dusted rosy. Eddie couldn't remember the last time he'd been hugged like that. 

You thought about his pretty brown eyes as you puckered your lips. Chrissy painted them carefully, finishing them off with a touch of gloss before she ran to retrieve a can of hairspray from her bathroom. 

"I don't have a teasing comb, so a regular comb will have to do!"

***********

You looked...Well, you looked like Elvira.

Chrissy had worked magic. Your eyelashes were dark and heavy with mascara, your eyes shrouded in sexy black smoke. Your hair was perfectly wild and mussed, like you'd just gotten off of a motorcycle. You stared at your reflection, red lips parted in shock. 

Chrissy grinned, "Well, what do you think?" 

It was perfect. You looked like one of the girls in the band posters Eddie had taped up in his room. If he didn't want you like this, then nothing would win him over. 

"Oh, Chrissy...it's beautiful!" 

'`You're beautiful, silly!' She giggled as you pulled her into a hug, looking you up and down. "We've just got to find you an outfit to match now, hm?" 

The thought hadn't crossed your mind. You looked in the mirror again, realizing how out of place your little skirt and blouse looked next to your hair and makeup. Your closet wasn't filled with anything better…mostly an array of pastels. That is except for one recent addition. 

Your brows raised, an idea tugging a smile to your lips. 

***********

Eddie searched for you from the wings, unable to find you in the bar's sparse crowd. Surely you'd come. You said you would come, right? 

He didn't let the band go on until Gareth reassured him that he had definitely seen you coming in. "She's here man. And shit, she dressed up real pretty for you, too. Just relax, ok? She'll eat it up." 

Despite the stroke of possessiveness that sat in his chest over the comment, Eddie concurred that he'd never played better. The whoops and hollers as the band played were almost exclusively from his friends, but it didn't matter. You were there. He might as well have been playing Madison Square Garden. 

"We're Corroded Coffin and you guys fuckin' rock!"

The moment he exited the stage and carefully rested Sweetheart in her stand, he was sprinting to the dressing room. His skin was drenched in sweat from the lights, but thankfully, his curls still looked relatively good. He checked his teeth as he toweled off and clumsily pulled on a shirt, nearly tripping over his own feet in his haste. 

He searched the crowd at the bar, but found no sign of your usual pink lace and frills. Finally, he wandered over to Robin and Steve, his dark brows furrowed with confusion. "Have you guys-" 

His words trailed off when he finally noticed you, standing right there next to Steve. Your hair was mussed and teased, heavy makeup lining your eyes and lips. You smiled at the sight of him, tucking some hair behind your ear. 

Only then did Eddie see what you were wearing. There, oversized on your frame, was his leather. He'd leant it to you a few nights back when he'd dropped you off at your house. It'd started raining, and you were still in your cheer uniform from practice. Eddie had found particular satisfaction in watching you curl up in it, giving his cheek a grateful peck before running inside. 

"Y/N?" 

Your smile faded a little, seeing the confusion in his eyes, but you shook it off, jogging over to hug him tight. "Eddie!" 

You grinned up at him, excitement in your eyes. "Oh, Eddie! It was amazing! You really-" 

"What are you wearing, sweetheart?" He frowned as he smoothed your hair a little, thumbing at your smudged eyeliner. 

Immediately, your face fell. You saw disbelief flash in Robin's expression from the corner of your eye. Your voice was so soft when you spoke again, "You don't like it?"

Eddie was at a loss for words, confused by every last detail of the situation he was in. He shrugged, scratching his neck awkwardly.

"I-...Well I..." 

He fucked up. Oh he fucked up. Your pretty eyes glossed with tears, betrayal in your expression. His stomach lurched as your arms dropped from his waist and you took a step away from him.

Eddie floundered. "Y/N-" 

You shook your head, chest flooding with embarrassment. A tear welled over. "No, I'm sorry. I just-...I really shouldn't have come."  

The crowd thickened as you backed away from him. 

"Y/N!" He shouted for you as you snaked through the crowd, following behind you. "Y/N that's not what I-" He grabbed your wrist, pulling you to him, but you only thrust his jacket against his chest, embarrassment burning your ears. 

You turned from him again, and before he could even reach for you, you were gone. 

***********

"Eddie Munson, what the hell is wrong with you!?" Robin shouted as Eddie scrambled around the greenroom, trying to find the keys to his van. 

"I know. I know, Robs. I fucked up, ok?" Panic laced his tone as he tugged his curls angrily. 

"Yes! Yes you did! She showed up here tonight dressed like she'd just walked out of your own personal wet dream, and you totally fumbled!" Steve put a hand on Robin's shoulder, reeling her in. She only sighed, holding her temples. "Eddie, you don't question a woman on how she looks. Unless she is, perhaps, wearing actual clown shoes-" 

"I get it Robin!" He shouted, voice cracking as tears smarted his nose. He collapsed on the green room couch in defeat, burying his face in his hands. "I fucking get it, ok? I'm an asshole. I'm the biggest moron alive." 

Steve sighed, wandering over to sit beside him on the couch. "Dude, you're not a moron." 

Eddie didn't respond, only stared at the ground. His eyes were red with tears. 

Steve crooned to meet his gaze. "And you're not an asshole either, huh? You didn't mean to hurt her feelings. Did you really think she looked bad?" 

"No." He choked, wrapping his torso iin his arms. "She looked fucking gorgeous, man. I was just surprised." 

Steve smiled encouragingly, giving Eddie's shoulder a shove. "Then find your damn keys and go tell her that, ok? Y/N's an angel. She'll understand." 

Eddie sniffled and rubbed his face with a nod, standing from the couch. Steve jumped up after him, "Eddie, wait..." 

He turned to look at Steve as he caught up with him, plucking the keys from where he'd spotted them in the back pocket of Eddie's pants. "Go get 'er, Tiger." 

***********

You were glad your parents had gone out to dinner that night. If your mom had seen your outfit, she would have had a heart attack. If your dad had seen you crying, Eddie would have been a dead man. 

You cried until your makeup was gone. And then you washed the black smears from your face and cried some more.

It'd been a stupid idea, really...trying to be like the girls he liked. You'd never be like those girls, even if you looked the part. Eddie knew that. He was probably mortified at the sight of you...all dressed up in a silly costume at his important gig. You shouldn't have even tried. 

You dozed off on the couch, wishing you'd never given him his leather back. You wanted nothing more than to put on his big jacket and fall asleep wrapped in the smell of him. Well, there was one thing you wanted more. You'd rather have him holding you. 

You were half asleep on the living room couch when the front door opened. You ignored the sound, curling in tighter on yourself and trying to go back to sleep. You weren't in the mood to answer your parent's questions right now. You just wanted to sulk. Heavy footsteps made their way into the living room, and you couldn't help but sigh as the figure knelt beside the couch. A warm hand rubbed your shoulders, sweetly. 

"Sweetheart?" 

The voice was soft and hoarse. You rolled over, brows furrowed with confusion. "Eddie?" 

He gave you a sad smile as you rubbed your eyes, holding up the spare key he'd found under the mat. "I did knock."

You sniffled, sitting up on an elbow, but Eddie relaxed your shoulders sweetly, guiding you to lay back down. " 's alright." He hummed, barely audibly. "Stay comfy."

"What're you doing here?" Your voice was croaky, but defensive. A hollow ache panged in his chest at your distrust. 

"Well…" He sighed, adjusting his position so he could sit more comfortably on the floor beside the couch. "You ran off before I could tell you how pretty you look tonight." 

His voice was earnest and calm, but you shook your head angrily and crossed your arms over your chest, tears burning your eyes. "I looked stupid."

Eddie's dark brows furrowed, "Hey, that's not true. Why would you say that?" 

You felt a hot trail roll down your cheek, "I embarrassed you." 

"Horsehit." Eddie scoffed, "You really think I was embarrassed by you?"

You nodded, still refusing to meet his eyes.

"What's so embarrassing about having the hottest, most badass looking chick in all of Hawkins show up to my gig, huh?" 

You went bright pink, and Eddie couldn't help but smile a little. He pulled you closer to hold you in a hug, admiring you as he stroked your hair.

"It was absolutely killer. And if you want to change up your look, then hell, I'm with you all the way." You shied at his praise. "That being said… I'm kind of in deep for this little ray of sunshine that I'm always running around with, huh?" 

You hid your face, making him grin. 

"There's my shy girl." He laughed, tapping your cheek playfully with his thumb as he cradled your jaw. "Sweetheart, when you showed up dressed all punk…I thought maybe it was because I'd made you feel like you had to change the way you look because of me."

You relaxed a little. He wasn't exactly wrong. You had dressed like that for him. 

You blinked through your remaining tears, letting your cheek press into the palm of his hand. "C-Chrissy heard you say you think Elvira's pretty." 

Realization flashed in his eyes, a small smile creeping to his face, "Wait a second..." 

Your face flushed. 

He grinned, "Are you telling me that you tried to look like Elvira, because you wanted me to think you're pretty?" 

You nodded, ashamed, and toyed with the rips in his jeans, avoiding eye contact. 

Eddie was smiling like the sun, "Christ, you precious thing..."

"I wanted you to be proud of me at your show." You whined defensively. "I thought I'd stick out like a sore thumb in my normal clothes, and I like you so much Eddie. I know I'm not really your type, and I wanted to look pretty for you, like the girls in your band posters, but made a fool of myse-" 

"Y/N L/N." He took your face firmly in both hands, making you look him dead in the eye. It was only then that you realized he was giving you that look again. Like you'd hung the stars. "How on earth have you not realized that you've got me on a fucking string?" 

You frowned, eyes glossed with emotion. "What?" 

Eddie chuckled, disbelieving. "Baby, forget Elvira. Do you even know what you do to me?" 

You could only sit there in front of him dumbly, lips parted in shock. 

"Jesus Christ, sweetheart. I look forward to seeing you all week. I'm like a man deprived. And then you show up looking so happy to see me and you're dressed so sweet with your little bows and lace. God...I can't get you out of my head." 

Eddie's cheeks were pink.

"You wanted me to be proud of you, baby? I'm so fuckin proud of you. I feel like I've won the lottery every time you smile at me. A pretty thing like you running around with a freak like me? That's a miracle. And I will show you off to every damn person I see, angel. I'm so proud of you. Proud that you'd even humor me enough to come to my show, let alone change up your entire look just for me? Holy shit. I'm the luckiest son of a bitch there is." 

You were smiling now, trying to hide your face from him in the couch cushions as he pulled you close, kissing your cheeks through your giggles. He crawled up onto the couch, tickling your sides until you were smiling ear to ear, and your tears were replaced with happy ones. 

You laid on your back now with his head rested on your tummy, playing with his curls passively as he admired you. "Who's your celebrity crush, huh?" 

"You." 

Eddie chuckled, "Oh, come on…There's got to be someone." 

You blushed, eyeing the smirk on his face. 

He hummed, "Rob Lowe?" 

You shook your head, busy with his curls. 

"Tom Cruise? You into pilots?" 

You laughed, shaking your head again. 

He watched you closely, "Ralph Macchio?" You paused for a moment, your ears burning as Eddie's face split into a grin. "Oh, Shit! She's into Macchio!!" 

You hid your face, "Oh, Eddie. It's nothing really. I just thought he was awfully cute in-"

Eddie's big brown eyes, lit up. "You think Chrissy will make me over too? Oh man, I've got to start Karate lessons!" 

"Noo!!" You squealed, shoving him playfully on the shoulder. 

"I'm serious! Wax on, Wax off…I'll start calling you Grasshopper and learn how to do that kick!" 

You held your stomach, laughing through his verbal sound effects as he mimed the kick poorly with a socked foot. "Eddie, you'll break a leg doing that!" 

He grinned, "It's only fair, babe. You got to be Elvira!" 

***********

[mouwrites]

I love all ur Lloyd stuff so much omgkmfkmgnfkahdhfb !! Literally all so adorable, and ur writing style too eugdkkfs <3<3

I was jus wondering if mayb you'd be interested in writing a Lloyd x reader during a thunderstorm, but the reader is afraid of loud noises. So they make a blanket fort, surround themselves with stuffed animals, and fall asleep toghr??

You’re too sweet 😭 your wish is my command sugar!!

Word count: 700

Ninjago - Lloyd Comforting You in a Thunderstorm

You frowned at the rolling dark clouds gathering in the sky. You knew what was coming, and you knew you were powerless to prevent it. Hugging yourself with the grip of a grizzly bear, you slumped against the wall beneath the window, gritting your teeth in anticipation.

The sound of your door opening nearly drove the soul from your tense body. It wasn’t the treacherous thundering noise you were dreading, but the little scare did nothing to calm you.

“Sorry,” Lloyd said, shooting you an apologetic look from your doorway. “I didn’t mean to startle you. I have some things here…” He stooped down to pick something up from the floor of the hallway just outside your view. When he straightened himself again, his arms were piled so high with blankets and pillows that you couldn’t see his face. He waddled inside, moving slowly so as not to disturb his towering burden. Then, when he reached the center of the room, he let them all drop to the floor—pompf! You started again.

“Sorry,” Lloyd winced, making his way over to you and placing a gentle hand on your shoulder. “I thought we could make a blanket fort together,” he said, subtly pulling the curtains shut to block out the sight of the storm.

You nodded, but you remained tense against the wall. Lloyd pried one of your hands from its claw-like grip on your upper arm and used it to pull you to your feet. Holding onto your hand, he put his free hand on his hip. “Okay, how are we going to do this?”

Strategizing turned out to be a pretty good distraction; good enough that you almost forgot about the storm brewing outside. Almost. The fist loud crack of thunder sent you diving into the fort, hands over your ears and eyes squeezed shut.

Happy thoughts, calm thoughts, happy thoughts, you repeated to yourself, but somehow that only made you more anxious.

You opened your eyes when you felt something soft land in your lap. You looked down to see your favorite plush toy resting on your legs. Another appeared at your side. And another. And another. And another until you were surrounded by your fluffy buddies. With no more room directly around you, Lloyd took to placing the remaining plushes in various places around the fort.

You couldn’t help but smile at the cozy sight as you hugged your favorite plush close to your chest.

“There it is,” Lloyd beamed, triumphant in his goal of comforting you.

He moved a few plushies so that he could sit next to you, a fluffy blanket draped over your backs. He pulled your head onto his shoulder and planted a kiss on your crown.

Your relaxed demeanor was again disrupted by another boom from the storm, but this time Lloyd was right there. He pulled you in closer. “It’s okay. We’re safe here.”

You sighed, leaning into his touch. “I know,” you whispered into the crook of his neck.

Whenever the thunder harassed you, Lloyd would drive your anxiety away with a gentle touch and whispered words of reassurance. “We’re okay. I’ve got you. Just hold on to your plushie.”

Soon enough the noise ceased to bother you; you were entirely absorbed in the downpour of affection from your boyfriend. That and the therapeutic softness of the plushies in your arms and around you. The storm ended, and you remained as you were. Neither of you noticed, but even if you had, you both still would’ve stayed in that fort, your private sanctuary in the midst of turmoil.

As the hours ticked by, drowsiness began to burden you both. Lloyd spoke no more, now only petting you in slow, sleepy strokes. You slumped from your position against his side, your head falling in his lap as your heavy eyelids closed. You were roused only briefly when Lloyd repositioned himself. He pulled you onto his chest and tucked the blanket over you both. You nuzzled into the heat from his body, sighing dreamily. The sound of his heartbeat was like a steady drum counting you off to sleep. Soon enough you were both in dreamland, no doubt dreaming of each other.

Thank you for this request!! And thanks for reading :D take care <33

(divider by saradika)

[ihopeinevergetsoberr]

Pleaseeeee,i love how you write Viktor so much!!Also,i am ecstatic to still see people writing for our favorie pale victorian child-esque man!How do you feel about a request about tenderness?Maybe someone finding him to be their own little safe haven,even if that means just being in his company?

ask and you shall receive! we love a good dose of fluff <3

cw: viktor x gn!reader, fluff, established relationship, dialogues — because i fucking love writing them. i couldn’t help but fill this with my stupid ass questionable humour — but i hope you darlings don’t mind me being a little silly. didn’t proofread this + i wrote it at 2 am with only one eye open, so don’t hesitate to slap me if i made some stupid mistakes.

wc: 600~

tags: @zaunitearchives @blissfulip

Viktor’s workshop is a sanctuary of some sort, desk a cramped little shrine cluttered with his precious tools, and you wince, absorbing the rhythmic sounds of his scribbling — soothing and steady, mingling so smoothly with the thuds of hail. The absolute misery of the weather has treacherously decided to lock you up in his bizarre chambers — though it didn’t feel like being held hostage: you were a voluntary victim, wholeheartedly willing to spend hours simply watching him tinker. You wouldn’t dare to sneak out even if it did eventually brighten up — who needs sun in a world where Viktor’s eyes exist, warm and museful, orbs the prettiest shade of amber?

He sighs, living up to the proud position of being the most observant man you know, and a sinuous hand nimbly scratches the screwdriver against the nape of his neck — as if he somewhat felt your enamored eyes on the wild knot of shorter hairs sticking out from under the mess of longer ones. Has you worrying that your glances had just accidentally gained the power of giving him itches.

The gesture is charming in its frivolity, though Viktor seems rather unaware of it as he quizzically turns around, thick eyebrows forming a curious arch at your resonant chuckle.

“What?” he mumbles, dragging the last letter with that heavy accented voice — utterly dashing even in his confusion. “Is there something particularly entertaining?”

It takes you a moment to catch your breath — this man might just become the reason for your passing. You can already picture the epitaph — ‘blame my death on Viktor, who’d been cruel enough to overhumor me to the point of undoing.’ You should definitely demand he makes a joke at your funeral — that way mourning won’t overwhelm everyone present too much.

The thought makes you notice that you must inherited your lover’s view on mortality. That’s a little food of thought for another, less cheerful day.

“Your choice of a… scratching tool is rather unusual, that’s all,” the soft response earns you a wry smile on his behalf — no teeth, just a handsome stretch of slightly chapped lips into a thin line. “You could’ve just asked me to do it for you, you know?”

“I would hate to become a distraction for the foolish purpose of using you as a screwdriver,” he remarks with a hum, nodding in your direction. Though his concern about disturbing you vanishes the second you step closer, brushing his hair with a gentle stroke of a touch-starved hand, fingers getting stuck in tangled locks, reminding you to use an actual brush on him later.

“Ah, but I wasn’t busy,” you assure him, savouring the barely audible keen when you part the woven together hairs with the softest of tugs. “And I don’t mind becoming your tool for a minute or two. As long as I can be of service.”

“That’s very, eh… thoughtful of you,” he purrs a careful response, visibly savouring the tender gesture — the man is basking in your gentleness, and you’ll gladly offer him every last bit of it — if only he proceeds with being yours in return. “May I hope for your indulgence in case my tools accidentally become useless?”

He gives you another pretty grin — it’s a toothy one this time, and you stiffen, endlessly proud of bringing such a wide smile to his mostly demure face.

“Of course,” you respond with a sweet peck, placed precisely on the mole above his chuckling mouth.

Perhaps you should change the epitaph to ‘died of overwhelming love for a certain scientist’. Though now that you’re thinking about it — the quote is definitely a little bit too cheesy for your liking.

[spookyscarydemonbabe]

heyyy so i was wondering if you can do eddie munson x fem! reader and she shows him how a tampon works. i think it’ll be really funny like the challenge on tiktok a while ago. thank you 😂❤️

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTRxTF8yp/

i love this idea so much 😂 lol i’ve actually been seeing those all over my fyp too and i’ve been looking for an excuse to write something about it!! i don’t love the ending on this but i thought it was cute :p and when do i ever like the endings for my request fics? 😂 (also these types of requests are my absolute favorite to get, i love getting to write about random things like this 🥰)

Now You Know

Genre- Fluff (?)

Warnings- Talking about periods and tampons, but i’m pretty sure that’s all :p

Tag List- @imagine-all-the-imagines @whiplaaaaaaaaash @ladyapplejackdnd @tayhar811 @wistfulwisteriawitch @thatsthewaythechrissycrumbles @zoeyquinn94 (crossed out names wouldn’t let me tag)

Words- 0.8k

You giggled as Eddie sat at the kitchen table, holding the little paper wrapper in one hand and the applicator in the other.

You weren’t sure how this thought popped into his head, and it was pretty funny the first time he asked you about it, but you figured if he was curious and wanted to know then you should be the person to show him.

You had grabbed a tampon from the box you kept under the bathroom sink and filled up an old beer bottle with water from the faucet and set them on the table in front of Eddie.

He sat there staring at them for a moment, his cheeks flushed as he started to feel embarrassed about even bringing it up, though he was curious as to how things like that worked.

He knew what a period was, or at least the basics of it, and whenever he had any questions about it or about girl things in general he always asked you.

It was cute, and you loved knowing that he was interested in learning about ‘girl stuff’, even the things that some guys might consider to be gross.

“So how does it work?” Eddie asked you as he opened up the paper wrapping and removed the little plastic tube from it, “Do you just like… Do you put the whole thing up there?”

“No!” You said with a laugh, moving the bottle closer to him, “You can’t just shove the thing in there, it’s uncomfortable, you do it slowly. And you don’t put the entire thing in, it’s got those little grips on it to help you hold it.”

You placed his hand onto it in the same position you would when using one, his thumb and middle finger on the little indents and his pointer finger just at the top of the applicator.

“Ok… Now what? How do you do it?”

You sat and watched as he curiously looked at the applicator in his hand, almost like he was inspecting it,

“Put it in the bottle, not all the way in! And don’t drop it either,” You watched as he did what you said, carefully placing the tip of it into the bottle just above where the water rested, “and you use your finger to slowly push it out into the bottle. Slowly! It’s not a toy.”

He did as you said once more and as soon as he removed the applicator his jaw dropped as the cotton at the end instantly expanded as it absorbed the water, getting itself stuck in the neck of the bottle.

“That’s what it does?! Really?!” He said it with both shock and surprise being heard in his tone, just staring at the tampon stuck in the bottle.

“Yes really!” You said in between your fit of giggles, “How did you think they worked?”

“I don’t know! I thought that it like…” He silently gestured to it, still a bit awestruck, “I thought it just blocked it in you know? Like it just kept it in there until you had to take it out.”

“Oh, sweetie, no,” You put your head in your hands and couldn’t contain your giggles, Eddie giggling to himself next to you, “it absorbs it! They don’t just block it in, the blood can’t stay in there.”

“How was i supposed to know? I don’t get periods, you do!”

“Well now you know how tampons work, you put it in, it absorbs the blood, you take it out. But i can understand why you would have no idea about this stuff, i was a little surprised you asked me about it, some guys think it’s gross.”

“I mean…” He said with a laugh, “i guess to me it’s kinda gross but that’s just cause i don’t have them and you do. I don’t know how all that stuff works, but i know you’ll tell me if i ask about it, right?”

“Of course! I know you’re just curious.” You smile to him and start playfully hitting his arms and chest, making him giggle and try to playfully push you off of him, “If you want i can show you how cramps feel.”

He laughed and quickly stood up from his seat trying to playfully outrun you as you chased him through the trailer, each time you caught up to him your hands moving to his torso and trying to lightly hit his groin.

He always meant well when he asked you little questions like that, but you loved that he was comfortable enough to ask you. You loved your big dumb boyfriend and all his silly questions.

[jaebeomsbitch]

Pandora’s Box

Pairing: RomanRoy x Executive! Reader

Content Warning: mentions of mental and physical abuse

Summary: Romulus Roy was a broken man but he'd never let you know. He had a hard time letting anyone into his black heart. The years of abuse had conditioned him to be void of true emotion until one day you give him a safe space. Let him be truly Roman and not just another meat puppet for daddy. Things get emotional 

Roman sat there staring at his phone waiting for some business deal. Waiting for the call so he could tell daddy dearest he closed the deal and get just a shred of approval. He knew he’d never hear an “atta boy” but he was desperate. A piece of his heart always yearning for the approval of his father. He lived and breathed just for one acknowledgement, one offhand comment. He’d never be the favorite because he wasn’t the oldest nor the darling little girl. He was stuck in the middle, kicked like a dog and expected to crawl back with no complaints. He tried to justify it, mumbling to himself that he was annoying and deserved it. Deserved the sting on his cheek, the loss of a tooth, the bleeding lip. He deserved it, he was annoying and brash. He pushed buttons all too often using humor to ease the tension between his siblings and his father. He became the court jester, cracking jokes to appease the king and his court. When did he lose himself? Was he always lost?

When did he start questioning his worth? Probably when his siblings shut him in that cage, forcing him to bark and eat “dog food” dragging him around the room. He grew accustomed to performing, dragging those memories deep down. Dragging them to the basement and beating the fuck out of them until they couldn’t get up. Repressing his emotions until he long forgot what they felt like. Roman was vacant, a puppet ready to perform for his family. Play out the deals, be whored out by his father, neglected by his siblings.

The day he met you was insignificant, just another secretary or something, he didn’t pay attention to those around him. Something about the way you looked at him was different though. You absorbed his opinions, asked about his ideas even when he made inappropriate jokes, you hung onto his every word. He tried to minimize your position in his life, tried once again to repress any emotion. Afraid of what Pandora’s box he’d unleash if he opened it just a centimeter but he grew dependent. Hung onto your small acknowledgments, the rare compliments, and gazing eyes. He relished in the small brushes as you handed him documents. He’d never admit to his desperation at physical touch. Nothing sexual, just a hug, kiss on the cheek, a soothing hand on his back when his emotions threatened to spill out, waves crashing onto the sides of the box, small droplets sprinkling out the seams.

Somewhere in the days and long nights of sitting at his desk something changed. You can’t pinpoint it. There’s a softening in his gaze, just slightly almost imperceptible to anyone around him except for you. You’d studied him for a long time, staring at his faux chuckles. Understanding that his insults and sexual jokes were not him. They were a character he slipped into, it was his armor. The only thing that protected himself from the king and his hurtful words.

Then one night he’d convinced you to go to his apartment, not that you needed too much convincing. Something about him made you want to give him a hug and let him cry and cry and cry until his tears were dry. Then pretend like nothing happened. You sought to comfort him almost unconsciously, giving him reassuring nods and passing touches. Your mother always said you had a soft spot for wounded animals. Roman was just a bird with a hurt wing, ready to be nursed to health so he could soar like you knew he could. He was so much more than he could ever see. His confidence in himself was synthetic. When you pass that threshold into his apartment you realize just how personal this all is. His apartment was incredibly sleek and cold, you couldn’t feel traces of him within the walls. Even his couches were pristine like they had never been sat in.

“You have a… nice apartment,” you can’t help but grimace. Your comment sounds awkward to your ears.

“Nothing like you’ve ever seen,” he says chuckling. It’s true never been in an apartment like this but you’ve seen them in architectural digest. You can sense the sarcastic undertone in his words. Feeling unsteady at letting you into the one place he can kind of relax. He felt exposed, the cables of his robot heart out for just a second.

“Yeah something like that,” you agree, not wanting to get defensive and make a joke of your economic status. You were well paid by the Roy’s but you’d never be a billionaire. You walk to the window, gasping at the view of Upper Manhattan. The lights twinkle across your face as the blue hue of the city glows. He moves around the room as you stay there entranced. Eventually he calls your attention, asking you to hand him some documents as he calls someone on the phone. You sit on his untouched couch, perching on the edge afraid to get comfortable but after an hour you sit back. One leg crossed over the other, leaning a document on your knee highlighting important things for Roman. You move into reading the contract, reading every excruciating detail just to triple check there wasn’t a hidden clause that would cost the company millions.

You don’t notice Roman sitting across from you, studying your face as you work. “Here you go,” you say, handing him the stack of papers before going back to your contract. You try to pretend to read it, the text blurring together as your boredom grows. You sigh, giving up on the work waiting for the phone call. Roman sits on his phone, waiting for the call. The ring of his phone breaking the silence, he answers standing up before pacing around the room. You follow his pace, eyes tracking his movements. He hangs up, “I fucking got it!” He celebrates for a second his face morphing into a smug smile.

He picks up the phone again, presumably calling his father. He tells him the good news, just for a moment he lets his heart race, the sliver of hope coursing through his veins hanging onto his fathers words. He must’ve not said anything good, Roman has that fake smile on his face as he hangs up. He sits down, sighing as the weight of pressure leaves his body.

 He leans his head backward, exposing his pale neck as he closes his eyes. You sit there quietly, not wanting to alert him of your presence. It’s a rare moment of vulnerability. He snaps out of it, realizing you were still in the room. He��d assumed you’d leave as soon as he closed the deal like every other executive. Instead, you sit there staring at him, he feels scared under your prying eyes.

“You did a good job,” you smile, breaking the silence between you too.

“As if I need your approval,” he bites. He knew what you were doing, giving him that praise he craved from his father. He didn’t need your compliments, he didn’t need fixing. You refuse to look away, not bowing to his gaze.

“Can I say something?” You say, leaning a little forward. Trying to cross slightly into his personal bubble.

“Better watch your tongue or I’ll have you fired,” he laughs. Of course to a billionaire your life was a game, he could fire people and ruin their livelihoods for fun. It was one of his favorite pastimes. Digging for dirt and having ATN blast it, watch as anyone he remotely dislikes was scorched by public opinion.

“You know how much power you hold. It doesn’t matter to me if you have me fired. I just need to say this and we can forget about it or you can have me pack my desk up. It's fine,” you say, placing the stacks of documents into your bag.

“Ooh do you want to talk about how hot I am? Want to suck off the boss?” He quips.

“You deserve to be loved,” is all you say. You look into his eyes as he makes another daddy joke. “You deserve love,” you repeat. His jokes shorten and shorten as you keep repeating it. “You deserve to be loved, you are worthy of love,” you say finally. You wait for his response, he’d been sitting there quietly for the last minute. You just wanted to let him know something that he never believed himself.

“Roman?” You ask, were you forgetting or were you being fired?

“I don’t deserve love,” he finally says. His voice level, his eyes distant. This was Roman, this was who he was when he was alone.

“You deserve love,” you simply reply. Standing from across from him to sit on the couch he’s on but not daring to sit near him. You were afraid he’d crawl back into his shell so you give him space.

“I’m annoying and an asshole, I don’t deserve it. I don’t deserve praise for doing my fucking job,” he says his voice growing an edge. You let him sit in silence, the venom of his heart spewing out, the edges of Pandora’s box sprinkling out just a little more. He tried to bury it, push down all his negative emotions.

“You’re good at your job, you deserve praise, you deserve to feel loved and happy Roman,” you sigh, staring at the wall. The waves of sadness lap at a millimeter you’ve just opened, they threaten to spill over as your words run through his mind. 

His entire life he’d been told he was worthless, not a real person. He only lived to be exploited by his faults. His siblings always using his intimacy issues as the butt of a joke. You were the first person who told him he had some sort of allowance to his person. He was allowed to feel love and happiness. He wasn’t just a meat puppet for his father.

“You did a good job, Roman. You deserve to hear it,” you finalize. The waves come spilling out like a tsunami, one tear rolls down his face. You turn to look at him, he’s trying to self soothe just like he’d been taught. “Ignore the baby and he’ll stop crying,” His mother would say. They didn’t allow nannies to coddle him when he cried, instead shoving him into an empty room at the other side of the mansion.

He tried to hold the waves from killing him but they’re dragging him into its rip current. He’s being dragged downward, gasping for air, arms and legs kicking trying desperately to push himself upward. Roman didn’t know you were supposed to swim sideways until you were free from its grasp. He screams in his head,” don’t fucking cry, stop being a pussy, you have no reason to cry” He tried to quell his sadness but you don’t let him. 

You sit closer as he leans forward trying to subdue the imminent panic attack, head between his knees as his breath comes out in puffs. You tentatively move your hand forward until it reaches his back. He doesn’t seem to notice your touch so you move forward. You rub circles on his back as you would a crying child after they fell and broke their skin on the pavement. “Let it out,” you whisper to him as his breath shallows. He’s holding in sobs, tears spilling out faster. “Come in let me see you cry. Let it all out,” you whisper again. Pandora’s box bursts open, the water all over the floor, the ocean splintering the wood into tiny chunks. He’s sobbing, choking on his saliva, hiccuping as a natural reaction to the tightness in his throat.

You turn him into you, burying his face into the crook of your shoulder and neck as one hand rubs his back and the other runs through his hair. You massage his scalp trying to ease the tightness of his body until he relaxes against you. He lets himself cry and be held, you hold onto him letting him know your his life line back down. You’re the rescue boat after the shipwreck, searching for survivors in the endless sea. He’ll come out bruised and scarred from the passing of wood biting and cutting at his skin but he’ll live. 

He lets himself lose control over himself, hugging you, his hands grasping at the back of your blouse. This is the first time Roman has ever been truly vulnerable. He’d usually try and wait until the middle of the night when he’s alone in his dark room to cry. You turn your head, kissing his temple as his sobs die down. His body involuntarily hiccuping as he sniffles. He doesn’t want to get up, doesn’t want to see your face when you let go so he sits there for a minute longer.

You can’t help but give him a little more praise, “You did such a good job, I’m so proud of you,” you say, giving him another kiss to his temple. He can’t help but whine, letting himself feel like a child again. Letting himself revel in the comfort he missed. Some embarrassment starts to seep through as he tries to bury himself deep into your neck. You try to pull him away from you, wanting to see his face but he just wiggles his head away from your hands, his arms tightening around you.

“Let me see your face,” you whisper trying to pull your head away from his face. He shakes his head, not ready to face the reality of his breakdown. The aftermath will leave him feeling devastated, the lows of his emotions too much to bear. You refuse to leave him though, you’d help him climb from the bottom of the mountain until he grew endurance and strength to do it himself. You convince him to leave the crevice of your neck, he refuses to make eye contact even as his face is a couple centimeters from yours. His arms not letting you go, he wanted the safety net that your physical contact provided.

You take one of your hands, wiping the remnant of his tears from his face. His eyes over your shoulder until you brush the hair on his forehead away. He looks down at you, your touch felt foreign not because it was new but because he’d never been caressed like this. Never held like he was everything in the world, never held with so much tenderness. He looks pretty even when his eyes are puffy and red, his lips a bright shade of pink from the saliva he tried to wipe away with his tongue.

“Okay let’s get you to bed,” you smile as you start into his eyes but he’s afraid. He’s afraid to go into that room alone and face the splinters of wood and clean up the water. You see the worry in his eyes.

“I’m not leaving, I promise,” you reassure him. He lets himself be walked into his room. You sit him on the edge of the bed, grabbing some of his sleep clothes. You help him remove his suit, too tired to do it himself. He feels like a sick child as you redress him, folding his suit and placing it on a chair, putting his watch on the nightstand, and then tucking him into the sheets. His bleary eyes slowly try to fight away the sleep as you give him a kiss on the forehead. 

He whispers for you to stay, sleep in the bed with him. You look at him, his eyes half lidded with tiredness, pleading you with the last amount of energy he has left. You agree, telling him you’re going to the restroom and you’ll be back shortly. You grab some of his sleep clothes on the way out, changing in the bathroom trying not to freak out. You breathe in hard, it was your turn to reign in your emotions. You smooth out your hair, folding your clothes and leaving them in the bathroom. When you step into his room again he’s sound asleep, you go to the kitchen grabbing a glass of water. He was going to be dehydrated when he woke up.

You weren’t sure whether you should climb into bed or not. He was asleep but he did beg for you to stay. You decide to just do it, the emotional overhaul weighs on your body. Your limbs tired as you scoot into bed, dragging the covers to your chin. Almost instinctively Roman scoots closer to you, head in your shoulder hugging you close to him as he sighs. You reach your other hand smoothing out his hair until you drift off to sleep.

[nostalgiachan]

Pillow Talk

Eighteenth Prompt: When was the exact moment Vier fell in love?

C/W: It gets mildly spicy at the end

Summary: Astarion finds himself curious as to when Vier first fell in love with him. (1492 words)

---

“You know, for the longest time, I thought it was the night of the party.”

Vier lay nestled snugly within Astarion’s arms in their bed, her head resting against his bare chest. His pale skin had grown rather warm with how much of her heat it had absorbed, and if she didn’t know better, she might have thought she’d heard his heart beating in his chest for just a moment. For a moment, she wondered what a vampire’s equivalent to a racing pulse was. Was there a magical sort of sensation unique to them, or did the heart still remember what it felt like to throb and summon up its phantom?

She continued, “I told you about that one, right?”

“Not so much ‘told me’ as ‘showed me through that ghastly tadpole the night I confessed to you,’ but yes,” Astarion replied, his right hand idly running through Vier’s sussur bark hair. “My little ‘I love you’ hit harder than you expected, you snuck out of camp to have a moment to yourself, and…you cried.”

As he recalled the vision, he pulled Vier just a bit tighter to him, just as he had on the night he’d first seen it. “I’m still sorry for that, you know. Of course, at the time I didn’t much care, but…had I the ability, I’d go whip my own arse for putting you through that torment.”

“Water under the bridge, I assure you,” Vier said with a gentle pat to Astarion’s pec. “Anyway, I thought that moment, hearing that ‘I love you’ which I absolutely knew was a lie but which set my heart afire regardless, was it. But in retrospect, I feel like that was simply the moment I realized I had fallen in love. There had to have been some earlier turning point, something else to make my feelings change from merely wanting to help you as I was helping everyone else.”

“I take it you’ve put quite a bit of thought into this, then?” asked Astarion with genuine curiosity.

“Of course,” Vier replied. “A common part of our daily meditations in the church is self-reflection. It’s good to understand how my thoughts and feelings develop, so that I might continue to nudge them in a positive, productive direction. But getting back to the point, I thought back over the days leading up to the party and tried to comb through for that one moment. Obviously, the first turning point was the night I let you bite me.”

“Which I still look back on fondly,” Astarion sighed, cuddling Vier closely for a moment. “Gods, if only I could’ve truly appreciated that moment more. Ah, it was so sweet how lost in the moment you were, how lost we both were.”

“Well, I don’t wish to burst your bubble any, but that was only the first moment of attraction. It certainly wasn’t love at first bite, as everything else about you was still deeply frustrating.”

Despite the fact he absolutely agreed, Astarion still couldn’t help but pout a bit at Vier’s blunt assessment. 

“It wouldn’t be until you first opened up to me about Cazador that I would start to properly care for you beyond a surface-level carnal desire. You reminded me so much of how I’d been before Cyril took me in; I was hateful, power-hungry, indiscriminately murderous, just as you were. It may not have been my place, exactly, but I wanted to show you that you could be so much more, that you deserved to be so much more. But it was still far too early to call that ‘love’. I wanted purely to help you, and I told myself that however you hissed and spit, I would treat you fairly and compassionately…well, unless you were being just a right prick, and then I’d get harsh.”

“So if that wasn’t it, then I had to keep looking. It definitely wasn’t the night we first slept together, either.”

Again, Astarion couldn’t keep a pout from his lips. “Aww, not even that did it? I had that romantic setup and everything.”

Vier propped herself up to place a gentle, reassuring kiss on Astarion’s lips. “And it was absolutely wonderful, don’t get me wrong,” she said as she pulled away and tucked herself once more into his side. “But it was me giving in to physical desperation, and it was tempered by the fact I knew you didn’t feel the same. I may not have known the depths of your wounds yet, but I certainly knew you were only doing that to manipulate me.”

“True, that would make the whole thing a bit less romantic,” Astarion sighed.

“But if that wasn’t it, then it didn’t leave too many more specific moments that it could’ve been,” Vier continued. “I looked back over everything, up to and including the time you salivated watching me get beaten to within an inch of my life in the goblin camp.”

“What happened to ol’ Abdirak, you think?” Astarion idly mused. “Think that cheeky pervert is still out there somewhere?”

“Oh, I’m sure he’s opened up shop in another dank dungeon somewhere,” Vier harrumphed. “Still can’t believe you liked watching me get beaten with a mace.”

“It was just the blood I liked, I swear! And I’ll remind you, I have not once asked if I could smack you with a mace.” With a purr, Astarion added, “I know you prefer getting scratched, anyway.”

“A-ny-way, the more I thought, the more I started to realize: I don’t think there’s one particular moment that I fell in love.”

“What, really? Well, that’s a let-down after all that.”

“Just wait. There’s no one particular moment, because there’s so many little moments. As silly as I’m sure it sounds to you, I like to think of my love as a seed of hope from Lathander’s hands planted in the garden of my heart. I worked to keep it pruned, keep it reasonable, to neither let it run rampant and grow into blind obsession, nor to let it wither away to base tolerance or worse. But every time that I saw you were being truthful with me; every time those gorgeous eyes grew wide with genuine surprise; every time you were vulnerable, that seed grew. When I promised you I would protect you from Cazador? I meant it. I didn’t care that I was just one cleric, if he had shown up right then, I would have gladly laid down my life to buy you even a moment to flee because I loved you. I may not have realized it at the time, but I did. I loved you and I wanted better for you.” For a moment, Astarion was quiet, and as Vier looked up to meet his gaze, she saw that his darling red eyes were brimming with tears. Swiftly, he wrapped her in another tight embrace, his lips pressing kisses to the top of her head.

“Gods, how do you make me cry so easily?” he half-whined between each kiss. “I don’t think I have half this effect on you.”

“Oh, believe me, you do,” Vier chuckled in return, “in myriad ways.”

Suddenly, Astarion rolled, keeping his grip tight upon Vier as he straddled her waist. He cupped both of her obsidian cheeks in his pale hands, red eyes gazing into red eyes. “Well, I want to do it more. In only the best ways, of course. I want to flood your heart with even half the joy that you’ve brought me. And I think the very best way to do that would be to fuck the rest of this day away. Unless you don’t think you’re ready for round two just yet?”

“Are you certain you want to?” Vier asked, a genuine look of concern in her eyes. “I don’t want you to force yourself to–”

“Darling, believe me, I know you don’t want me pushing myself,” Astarion replied with a well-meaning eye roll. “You’ve been quite effusive about that. So trust me when I say I absolutely–”

His face inched closer to hers at the word.

“--positively–”

And closer again.

“--want to.”

Barely a mote of air separated their lips. “I appreciate your compassion more than words can say. So let me say it with actions, darling.”

How in the sweet hells did he still have the power to turn her into a blushing, fidgeting mess after everything they’d done together? Gods, she hoped he never lost that ability.

“Aw, but your words are plenty pretty, too,” Vier still managed to taunt him, and her heart turned a flip as she caught a mischievous glint in his eye. His mouth slipped past hers and traveled all the way to one of her pointed ears.

“Then I shall sing your praises passionately, my love,” he moaned, his voice reaching into the recesses of Vier’s mind and setting her body aflame once more.

And with a kiss, the night began in earnest.

[foreverinadais]

being the big spoon: jake lockley

It was the usual position you found yourself in on the majority of Sunday afternoons- Jake holding you close to his chest, hands mindlessly wandering your back, your shoulders. It was much needed after a stressful week of both work and missions, all of you craving touch and affection. You were full, lazy off the lunch Steven made, but also from the love Jake provided for you.

Which is when it hit you.

“Jake?” Your voice was muffled by his chest. He replied simply with a hum. “Can I have a turn?”

“Huh?” You pushed off his chest slightly despite his sounds of protest and looked up too see his face. His eyes were shut, the crease between his eyebrows evident.

“Can I be the big spoon?” He awoke at this, eyes fluttering open in confusion. It was rare for you to have any kind of dominance or control over intimate situations with Jake, and cuddling was no exception. But Jake needed to feel the love he made you feel, and you would implement that in any way you could.

“Why, cariño?” You chuckled, reaching up a hand to fiddle with the neck of his top.

“Do I need a reason to cuddle you?”

“Well, no, but… don’t you want me to hold you?” He sounded hurt, insecure, and it made your heart drop.

“Hey, no, that’s not it at all, the opposite actually. Just wanna give you my love, Jakey, ‘s all.”

“Oh.”

“I don’t have too if you don’t want-”

“I do.” You grinned, moving fully away from his grasp and sitting upright. He hesitated for a moment, just a brief moment, before turning his back to you, head pressed firmly into the pillow. You smiled, lying just taller next to his large back.

You ran your hands over his shoulders, surprised at how tense he felt. “ ‘s okay, baby.” You couldn’t help but whisper, massaging your hands into the knots in his body, trying to soothe them away. His demeanour broke only slightly, and you felt him beginning to become undone at your touch.

You slowly ran your hands down his back, stopping at his midriff, easing your way under his arms to reach his front. Your hands settled on his chest. From here, you could feel his heartbeat accelerate, rattling against his ribs, a direct product of how he felt about you. “You can relax.” You whispered, solidifying your statement with a small kiss to his shoulder, then another for good measure.

“Thank you.” His voice was small, but his heart was slowing back to it’s usual pace, comfort settling in.

“No, thank you for trusting me.” The statement made a wave of emotions wash over him. He had wished for this over the years, silently prayed for finding someone who wouldn’t hurt him, them, ever again. And they had found that; they had found it in you.

“Te quiero,” He said in a choked whisper, the words falling off his lips sounding better than any love symphony you could ever envision.

“I love you. Love you too, so much, Jake.” You shut your eyes and smiled as he brought one of your hands up to his lips, planting a firm kiss on each knuckle. He kept your hand there, buried under his chin as if he was absorbing your touch. And then, you could feel his breathing slow, his touch loosen just a touch- he was asleep.

You couldn’t help but repeat ‘I love you’ a few more times, a kiss to his shoulder blade following each phrase. And then you were drifting off too, a feeling of complete content filling every inch of your body.

Needless to say, you were certainly the big spoon again.