#he's a romantic pathetic loser man

[hwanghyunjinenthusiast]

please tell me more about pathetic loser tendencies hyunjin 🤲 i’m inch rested

Oh anon, you have no idea what you've done. Honestly, if I wasn't about to do my laundry, I wouldn't poured myself a glass of wine to answer this lmao.

Anyways.

Okay so, I've said this before but, I think a lot of people look past Hyunjin's loser tendencies because of how good-looking he is and the personas he takes on while he's dancing/performing (all very valid). However, that man is a pathetic loser through and through.

It's in the way he can't maintain eye contact to save his life (see: any HyunHo interaction ever), how easily flustered he gets, the constant tripping over himself, his affinity for the members who don't fawn all over him to name a few indicators of his loserness off the top of my head.

I think he's a romantic loser at heart. Probably an absolute mess around someone he's in love with or generally has feelings for. Constantly trying to vye for their affection but, battling his shyness at the same time which just makes for a mess.

Very much the type to get easily pussy drunk and generally lost in whoever he's with. You kiss him? Oh no, he's getting hard. You hold his hand? Oh no, he's getting hard. Kiss his neck? Maybe he's already close to cumming. That's between him and whatever deity he believes in. Moaning into you constantly. Sounds completely out of it just getting to touch and kiss your tits. And when he finally gets to your pussy? It's already over for him. Cums in his pants while he eats you out and fingers you. Probably turns red enough to put tomatoes to shame no matter how much you tell him that it's okay and you find it hot actually.

Has to use all of his willpower not to cum instantly when he finally pushes into you. Already thinking up poems and songs to write about your pussy probably. All of his willpower instantly perishes, though, when you tell him you love him while he's inside you. Barely makes it a few minutes.

[javaberrychip1998]

I do have to say that I’m in love with every single one of the main characters in this show.

[suiana]

✎ yandere! academic rival who jerks off to you. duh, you're his academic rival, you two have lots chemistry together! it's only normal for him to think of you that way, no? it's not normal, you two literally curse each other 💀

✎ yandere! academic rival who you believe hates you. cursing at you, scowling and shoving against you whenever he sees you... if only you saw the blissed out face he makes the second you disappear from his field of vision...

✎ yandere! academic rival who hates how perfect you are in his eyes. it's pathetic that he's on his knees for someone who calls him a loser, someone who will never look at him in a romantic way.

✎ yandere! academic rival who's thinking of you 25/8. wow! not only is the theory of relativity in his mind but the concept of you being his is very much running through his head. have fun being first because this man will NOT be first this semester :3 he's too busy wanking off to you after all haha!

"fuck off."

"no, you fuck off."

the male clicks his tongue irritatedly as you stick your tongue out at him. fuck, you were just so... so infuriating! how could you look so adorable when you're being so damn annoying?!

"god, y/n, you're like a child!"

"yeah but at least I'm cute, unlike you~"

his fists clench as the heat in his cheeks grow. holy shit, the urge that he has to just squish your cheeks is unfathomable. you're so fucking cute it drives him insane!

he huffs, looking away as he attempts to conceal his blush by yawning. you merely chuckle at this, smirking smugly as you step in front of him and babble on about how his grades are slipping.

the male's attempt at trying to be calm fails as his brain fries. no, no, no! stop looking at him like that with that smug smile! stop boasting about your intelligence with that sweet voice of yours! don't even look at him! it's giving him a boner and it's embarrassing!

"whatever dumbass. I'm leaving, so DON'T follow me."

he states as he glares weakly at you. turning around, he limps to the bathroom, pants painfully tight as you watch his retreating figure.

yeah, please don't follow him. wouldn't want you to get traumatized from hearing his whiny moans.

[7s3ven]

GREEK ROMANTIC. luke castellan

IN WHICH… luke castellan joins an exchange program to visit camp jupiter for sword fighting experience but ends up spending most of his time with a girl from said roman camp.

Warnings : lowkey loser! Luke, kinda long… so uh yeah, Luke kinda thirsts over reader (he’s 19 and has spent most of his time in a camp, he does not get girls), i worked on this for like a week (PLZZZ READ AND LIKE AND COMMENT AND SUBSCRIBE 🫡), less strict version of Camp Jupiter

—

idea inspired by @the-empty-refrigerator !

I literally do classical studies, this is perfect for me to yap abt my roman knowledge. I have no idea what Camp Jupiter looks like so imma just use my Roman architecture knowledge for this. THIS IS MY FIRST LUKE FIC IN A WHILE LOL.

( disclaimer : info will differ from this fic to the canon plot bc i don’t know much abt camp jupiter )

In all honesty, Luke was a little nervous. He had willingly signed up for an exchange program between Camp Half-Blood and Camp Jupiter but now that he was on his way to the latter, he was anxiously bouncing his leg.

Years ago, there was a thick mist between the two camps due to previous events involving bloody wars. Now, that mist was lifted and the campers were free to sign up for an exchange program to visit the other.

Luke was wondering why he had agreed to sign up in the first place. Chiron promised he’d gain further experience in sword fighting, but warned that it wouldn’t be easy.

Camp Half-Blood prided itself on its friendly approach. Camp Jupiter was anything but that. Their campers were rugged, harsh, and disciplined by Lupa, the wolf who raised Romulus and Remus. Of course, their war-like nature made sense because the camp was founded on bloodshed when Romulus slayed Remus.

Luke lifted his head, looking around to see if he could spot anyone in a purple shirt. He was waiting on the side of the road, looking rather pathetic and sad to those passing by.

A black car with tinted windows rolled to a stop in front of Luke, and the car jolted open. “Are you Luke Castellan?” The demigod inside asked. Luke slowly nodded his head. “Hop in.” There was a bit of awkward shuffling from Luke to squeeze past the unnecessary amount of swords in the car. “So, how’s Camp Half-Blood?” The demigod driving questioned, looking at Luke through his shaded sunglasses.

“Good…” Luke was secretly relieved that someone was talking to avoid an awkward car ride. “Probably less demanding than Camp Jupiter, though. I’ve heard horror stories of your training from campers.”

The boy laughed as he sharply turned around a corner. “Yeah. It’s pretty bad. Made me wish I was a normal kid when I had to do all those pushups.” He paused before starting a new conversation. “Do you workout? Because you’ve got some nice muscles. Not to be weird or anything.”

“Uh, yeah.” Luke cleared his throat, “I sort of have to. Being a swordsman and all that.”

The other demigod whistled. “Must be hard, man. I’m Sohan, by the way. Son of Mercury, Hermes for you.”

Luke leaned forward, “I’m son of Hermes. That makes us like… distantly related or something.” Sohan laughed and tilted his head back.

“I like you, Castellan. Mind if I call you Luke?”

“Go ahead.”

The rest of the drive was each demigod taking their turn to explain different parts of their camps. Luke realized that Camp Jupiter didn’t have all the fun activities Half-Blood had. Though, there was a more bloody version of Capture the Flag.

“So you know how you have camp councillors, right? We have something similar but we call them praetors. They’re basically the leaders of the camp.” Sohan explained as he bit into his sugary chocolate bar. “We have two at a time, one girl and one guy.”

“So there’s only two leaders?” Luke questioned while opening the wrapping of his cheeseburger.

“Praetors are the highest leaders. Other than that, we have centurions, augurs, and quaestors. It’s confusing, I know, but you’ll get the hang of it. You don’t really need to know what everybody does, just who’s who.”

It was all too confusing for Luke.

“Our current male praetor is also a son of Mercury, his name’s Jae. Our other one is a daughter of Venus, Aphrodite for you. I think.” Sohan paused before shaking his head, dismissing his doubt. “We all thought she was kind of crazy for going after the position. That’s when I learnt to never underestimate a child of Venus because they are brutal.” Sohan chuckled as the car finally came to an abrupt halt.

Luke peeked out the window, gazing at the tall trees. Past the thick forest, he could faintly see a river.

Sohan grabbed the swords from beside Luke, sheepishly chuckling. “New sword delivery.” He uttered, “Didn’t have time to put them away. Some are still in a box.”

Luke merely hummed as he hopped out of the car. “Need help?” He questioned. He took a handful of swords from Sohan’s pile, easily supporting their weight. Sohan carefully stacked a box on top of everything else before nodding.

“You know, if I was a girl or gay, I’d have a crush on you.” Sohan uttered as the pair walked through the forest. “How do the girls at Half-Blood like you?”

“I’ve been chased multiple times. That should say it all.” Nothing was scarier to Luke than a hoard of girls sprinting towards him on Valentine’s Day.

“That’s the Tiber River.” Sohan pointed out as Luke stumbled into a sunny clearing. “The river that Romulus and Remus were thrown into.” Sohan led the way towards small, slightly unstable bridge. He effortlessly walked over it, ignoring the way the rickety wood creaked.

Luke sighed, having no choice but to follow after Sohan unless he wanted to swim.

“I’ll be the one showing you around. I just have to drop these swords off with the praetors, or at least one of them, and then we can begin.” Sohan piped up. He was shorter than Luke with shiny black hair and olive skin. Luke assumed he was Asian with the slight accent peeking through and the red-inked tattoo on his shoulder displaying a dragon with Chinese characters.

“Praetor!” Sohan suddenly shouted. Luke spotted the H/C-haired girl as she turned around, in the middle of talking with another camper. Luke couldn’t instantly tell who her mother was.

“Oh, the swords. Soldier, go find Praetor Jae.” Y/N hurried the other girl off before jogging towards Sohan.

“This is Luke Castellan. The exchange camper.” Sohan said, trying to gesture towards Luke. The action caused the box on top of the swords to slip. It opened, a group of swords toppling out.

Luke was quick to react. Instead of attempting to catch every sword, he simply grabbed Y/N and pulled her side before the swords could skewer her.

There was a second of silence before Sohan spoke up. “I apologise for my clumsiness, Praetor.” He immediately crouched down to rearrange the weapons, his movements so fast Luke thought they were rehearsed.

Y/N pressed her lips into a thin line as she stared at the swords on the ground. Her gaze flickered to Luke, who still had a tight grip on her arm. “Luke Castellan, right?” She asked, lips curving into a small yet charming smile.

Sohan looked at Y/N then at Luke. “I need to talk to Praetor Jae about something important. Praetor, would you mind showing Luke around?” Sohan didn’t wait for an answer before clumsily hurrying off, dropping swords every two seconds.

“You forget these swords!” Luke called after him but Sohan wasn’t listening.

“Dump them here with the rest.” Y/N instructed with a shrug. Luke dropped the swords, watching as they hit the floor with a loud clang. “Let’s get started with the tour.” She formally clasped her hands behind her back, standing up straighter than Luke had ever seen somebody stand.

“This is the Praetorian Gate, the entrance to the main barracks. On your right is the bathrooms. This street is called the Via Principalis, it’s the central road lined with barracks, the mess hall, and other necessaries needed for our wellbeing.”

Luke was a little stunned with how Y/N was speaking. She was talking like her words were scripted and had been practiced a million times in the mirror. Luke usually free-styled his tours.

“Centurion Sohan will show you your room once he finishes with his errand. For now, all you need to know is that you’ll be staying in one of these buildings. Behind them is the compost bin. Please do not jump in there because we have had to go dumpster diving to retrieve Half-Blood campers.”

Luke let out a quiet sigh. “It was Travis, wasn’t it?”

“You know him?” Y/N questioned, looking over her shoulder in mild interest.

“Unfortunately. He’s my brother.”

Y/N silently nodded, holding back a comment. “Beside the compost bin, where your raccoon of a brother jumped into for a game of hide and seek, are the stables.” Y/N led Luke down a smaller path to show him the stables. He glanced at the bin, arching an eyebrow at a badly drawn version of Travis on a sign with a large X on it.

“We had to ensure nobody else jumped in again.” Y/N explained, “So we put up a sign. It’s not very well-drawn. All the Apollo kids were away so we had no one artistic around. Over there is the training centre. Feel free to use it whenever. We have plenty of new swords as you already know.”

“What about those buildings?” Luke asked in curiosity as they walked back towards the main entrance.

“That’s the Praetorium and Principa, used to hold meetings and act as headquarters. Those aren’t important to you.”

Camp Jupiter was bigger than Luke expected. There were two main areas for civilisation and even a university.

“This is the forum. This area of camp is basically a replicant of Rome itself.” Y/N piped up, “There’s the senate house, also used for meetings, New Rome University, the Coliseum where we sometimes train or host mock battles, Circus Maximum, again used for training, sometimes chariot racing, ceremonies, and so on. There’s a lake over there if you ever wanna spend your free time swimming, but I will warn you that if you ever take your shirt off, it will attract attention.” Y/N teasingly smiled, confusing Luke. She was strictly sticking to her job as a praetor a moment ago, reciting a speech about the camp.

“Uh… why will it attract attention?” Luke sheepishly asked, feeling a little embarrassed for not catching on.

“You’re a new boy, Luke Girls here love fresh meat, especially when they have as much muscle as you.”

Luke’s cheeks flushed light pink. “Right.” He uttered, suddenly aware of how a group of girls was waiting for Y/N to leave so they could pounce on him. “Let’s uh, go back to the bin. I wanna see that sign of my brother again.”

Y/N slightly chuckled. “They aren’t gonna hurt you, Castellan.” She said, referring to the girls behind her, “Unless you want them to.”

“I would prefer to keep all my limbs attached to my body, thank you very much.”

Y/N cracked another amused smile. “Suit yourself. I like my boys missing an arm.” She joked.

“Guess I’ll cut mine off then after all.” Luke wittily retorted.

“We have a game of capture the flag happening tonight if you want to join.” Y/N offered, “You can sacrifice your arm for me then.”

Luke grinned, happy he was actually getting along with someone from Camp Jupiter given their rivalry with Half-Blood. “I’ve heard your games of Capture the flag are a little more harsher… to what extent is that actually true?”

Y/N quietly laughed. “It’s Roman style, someone will probably lose an eye to be honest.” She said it in such a joking tone but there was a look in her eyes that alerted Luke she wasn’t joking.

—

Luke would definitely come to regret even thinking about joining this game of capture the flag. The teams weren’t organised by Cabins, instead each leader strategically chose their members months before the actual game to ensure a high chance of victory.

Luke ended up standing across from Y/N, dressed in golden armour and holding a sword that seemed to be a little too heavy. Sohan was with Luke, checking his arrows.

“They still allow you to use how and arrows?” Luke questioned, remembering how said weapon was banned from Half-Blood’s game of capture the flag because of an incident.

“What’s fun without a little arrow wound?” Sohan joked. Luke slowly turned his head, eyes wider than usual.

“Not being stabbed by an arrow seems more fun.” He muttered to himself.

He glanced at Y/N, who was carelessly swinging her long spear around. She met his gaze and paused for a second before lightly dragging her thumb over her throat with a patronising grin.

Luke gulped. “She’s gonna kill me.” He whispered.

“Oh, good! That means she likes you.” Sohan nudged Luke with a smile, “The harder she tries to kill you, the more she likes you.”

“That seems a little contradictory.” Luke replied, almost shaking.

“When the bell rings, and trust me you’ll hear it, just follow me. We’re paired together to hide and defend the flag. All you have to do is hide and jump out to stop the opponents. They’ll think it’s only me and then, bam! You come in.” Sohan explained the plan to Luke, who was listening intently so he wasn’t the one to lose an eye.

Sohan tightly gripped the flag in his grasp. “We have ten minutes to plant the flag somewhere. A second bell will ring and that means the game has started.”

Luke nodded, his heart pounding in his chest. A loud bell suddenly rang out through the clearing and Sohan immediately sprung into action. He sprinted off and Luke scrambled to follow him.

“This way!” Sohan exclaimed as he sharply turned to the left. Luke leaped over a log, landing heavily on the hard dirt. The forest should have felt familiar since Half-Blood also played surrounded by trees but this felt different. Luke had no idea where they were going until Sohan came to an abrupt stop.

“Here should be good.” He panted.

Luke looked around. They were surrounded by heavy vegetation and he was barely able to see past the thick tree leaves. Sohan lodged the flag between two stones and nodded in approval.

“The bell will be ringing soon. Hide over there.” Sohan ordered, pointing at a bush beside the flag. Luke sighed as he ducked behind the bush, the twigs below him scraping at his knees. “I hate this hiding place.” He muttered, “I feel like a Guinea pig.”

“That sounds like a you problem.” Sohan replied. “The bell should be ringing any second now. Remember to stay quiet.”

Luke silently rolled his eyes as he ducked lower to the floor in order to get comfortable and peek past the bush branches. In the distance, he could hear the sound of the second bell ringing followed by loud shouts varying in volume. Some kids at Half-Blood, mainly the Ares kids, loved battle cries but not to that extent.

Luke waited ten minutes and when nothing happened, he resorted to lying on his back. Twenty minutes passed and there was still no sign of any other demigods. Luke had resorted to seeing how many leaves he could count before he heard a quiet rustle. He paused, waiting.

Everything was still before Luke heard weapons clash loudly together. He peered above the bush, instantly recognising Y/N past her bronze helmet. There was another kid reaching for the flag while Sohan was struggling with Y/N.

Luke quickly reached for his sword, flinging it at the Roman demigod before he could grasp the flag. The handle hit him in the face, temporarily stunning him. Luke was swift to jump out and grab his sword, holding it in front of him.

“Sorry ‘bout that, man.” Luke uttered. He swung his blade at the demigod boy, who he later realized was named Nikolai because of the inscription in his helmet.

Nikolai counterattacked Luke, effortlessly pushing the Greek brunette back. Luke was reluctant to injure a kid he barely knew but Sohan continuously shouting “hit him” was getting annoying.

Luke grabbed Nikolai by the shoulders, shoving him away from the flag. Sohan was battling against Y/N, who had a spear similar to Clarisse’s. Compared to her spear, Sohan’s bow and arrows and backup dagger wouldn’t be of much use.

Nikolai swung his sword at Luke but every time, Luke managed to block the hits. Luke pushed Nikolai’s sword away, but he underestimated his strength and the sword went flying.

Both Nikolai and Luke turned their heads to stare at the weapon lying on the floor.

“Hit him!” Sohan exclaimed through gritted teeth as he held Y/N back by her arm.

Luke, on instinct, punched Nikolai’s shoulder and scrambled for his sword. He leaned over to grasp it but he was unexpectedly kicked from behind.

Y/N, who Sohan should have been holding back, had knocked the son of Mercury to the ground and made an instant beeline for Luke.

“Don’t chop my head off!” Luke yelled as he rolled to the left to avoid Y/N’s sword as she forcefully swung it down. Luke kicked her ankles, causing her to sway.

Nikolai made another reach for the flag but Sohan managed to shoot an arrow his way, luckily not hitting the boy but it served as a warning.

“You said this was an easy job!” Luke yelled at Sohan as Y/N made another attempt to hit Luke. He tried to strike her ankles again but the same trick wouldn’t fool the praetor twice. She effortlessly pulled him up and slammed his back against a tree, holding a smaller knife to his throat.

“I am literally so scared right now.” Luke wheezed as he wiggled around in Y/N’s surprisingly strong grip. Sohan shot another arrow, this time at Y/N. It barely missed her head. While she was shocked for a second, Luke grabbed her by both shoulders and pushed her back.

“We got a runner!” Another voice suddenly shouted. A member of Y/N’s team, sprinted into the area, followed by two boys from Luke and Sohan’s group.

Sohan scrambled to stop the runner aiming for the flag but Nikolai knocked him back to the ground. Luke made the executive decision to pursue the runner. There wasn’t much Luke could do with his sword so he tossed it aside and did the only other thing he could think of; he tackled the other demigod.

Y/N let out a laugh as the two boys toppled down a hill, each trying to let the other take the brute of the floor. Luke groaned as he spat out a mouthful of daisies. His helmet had fallen off somewhere and he had no energy to actively search for it.

The bell rung once more and the demigod beside Luke sighed as he removed his helmet, running a hand through his messy blond hair.

“You’re the Greek kid, right?” He questioned. “I’m Kato.”

“Yeah. Luke, nice to meet you.”

“Do you also feel like you’ve got internal bleeding?” Kato grumbled as the two boys made no effort to sit up, instead choosing to just lie on the floor among the flowers.

“Oh, definitely.” Luke replied, “Think I might be sick later.”

—

“You both have bruised ribs. Honestly, it could have been worse. Drinking this will help.” An Apollo kid handed Kato and Luke a foul smelling drink.

“It’s best to get it over and down with.” Kato whispered, “Cheers.”

“Not sure if I actually want to consume this.” Luke wrinkled up his nose but tilted his head back away.

The pair gulped down the liquid as fast as they could, both gagging once they had finished.

“Wow, you guys are almost like twins. If Kato had brown hair, you guys might actually sell it.”

Kato and Luke exchanged a look before they both grinned.

“I didn’t know there was temporary hair dye.” Kato said as he stared down at the box. Y/N sighed, placing her hands on her hips.

“Do you want it or not? Coloured hair spray might be easier for you.”

“Yeah, give me that.” Kato threw the box of temporary dye aside. Luke easily caught it, handing it to Y/N.

“Thanks.” She smiled before looking through a trunk of hair supplies. “Good game out there, Castellan. Are you always that quick thinking on your feet?”

Luke shrugged as he stood beside Y/N, leaning on the bunk bed behind him. “I guess? Most of the time we have to think quickly at Half-Blood. We don’t exactly have strategies for every little thing.”

Y/N and Kato stared at Luke in mild surprise. Y/N let out a quiet huff, “I guess you Greeks are disorganised like Lupa said.”

“She said what?” Luke stood up straight. “We aren’t that disorganised. We still have tactics.”

“Yeah, and they kind of, forgive my language here, suck.”

“At least my whole existence isn’t based on a brother who killed his sibling because of anger issues.” Luke muttered loud enough for Y/N to hear.

“You are so dead, Castellan.” Y/N retorted, leaning forward.

“I don’t really want to use the same threat as you because that’s boring. But I will kick your ankle again.” Luke replied.

Kato cleared his throat. “Don’t mean to interrupt whatever… lover argument you have going on but how does this spray work?”

“The cap’s still on. You gotta take it off first.” Y/N exasperatedly sighed.

“Oh, yeah, got it. Go back to your lovers quarrel.”

Y/N picked up an empty box of hair dye, tossing it at Kato. “There is no lovers quarrel!” She exclaimed.

“Really? Bc I felt something.” Luke teasingly piped up from behind her.

“I hope you choke.” Y/N mumbled, sending Luke a warning glare. “Maybe I should’ve cut off your arm. Would’ve taught you a reason.”

“I’ll just take my shirt off because like you said, no one can resist me.” Luke grinned as they bantered back and forth.

“Don’t rely on your looks to escape me, Castellan. Next time we play capture the flag, I’m kicking you down another hill no matter whose team you’re in.” There was a knock on the door and a rough-looking teenager peeked his head inside.

His body was covered in cuts, grazes, and purple bruises. He had a slit in his left eyebrow and an earring dangling from his right ear. When he turned to Y/N and said something in Latin, Luke noticed a shiny piercing on his tongue.

“Castellan, right?” The boy asked, pointing at Luke. “Nice to meet you. I’m Jae, the other praetor.” Jae stepped forward and reached for Luke’s hand, firmly shaking it.

“Nice to meet you.” Luke greeted him.

“I see you’ve already found yourself acquainted with the devil reincarnated.” Jae slyly grinned at Y/N, who could do nothing but huff and cross her arms over her chest in annoyance. “I’ve got to borrow Praetor Y/N for a second, hope you boys don’t mind.”

Y/N sighed as she followed Jae out the door. “This couldn’t have waited?” She asked.

“I was reluctant to interfere. You and the Castellan boy seemed quite close.” Jae replied with a shrug.

“I will literally feed you to the monsters if you don’t shut your mouth.”

“She likes you.” Kato uttered once Y/N was out of ear range.

“How can you tell?” Luke arched an eyebrow as he sat down on a nearby chair.

“She never argues with anyone. Not like that at least. When she argues, you have to listen because there’s no choice. That was more like… bickering used as an excuse to talk to you.” Kato said as he finally put down the can of hair spray. “Yo, we kind of do look alike. That’s freaky.”

Luke ignored Kato’s last point. “How do you know she doesn’t bicker?”

“Praetor Y/N is a straight to the point type of girl. You’ll know when she doesn’t like something. If she was really arguing with you, she would’ve had you shut up within your first two words.” Kato laughed, “She made me shut up once by shoving the words down my throat… literally. She wrote my words on a piece of paper and made me eat it.”

Kato paused, shivering as he remembered the chilling moment. “Anyway, Centurion Sohan, me, and a couple of other guys are going to the lake for a swim. You wanna join?”

“Yeah, sure, why not. I’ll act as eye candy like Y/N described me.” Luke sarcastically said, making Kato chuckle.

“Trust me, the girls will love you.” Kato only reassured Y/N’s point.

There were already a few smaller groups at the lake when Luke and the others arrived. As Luke combed a hand through his hair, he noticed a few girls looking his way and giggling. Kato nudged him.

“See? Told you they’d love you.”

Luke simply nodded. He lifted his shirt to pull it off but unexpectedly saw Y/N not too far away, locked in what seemed to be a serious conversation with Jae. Her eyebrows were tensely furrowed before her gaze suddenly switched to Luke.

He almost jumped at how fast her eyes moved. He quickly pulled his shirt off, giving Y/N a small wave. She slightly raised her eyebrows but never looked away. Slowly, she waved back.

Jae finished speaking and Y/N nodded, pointing to her right and uttering a few more words before they split ways.

“Wow, you two really do look like twins.” Y/N said as she looked at Luke and Kato. “You sure you don’t share a mother?”

“You out here for a swim too?” Luke questioned, squinting under the bright sun.

“No. I came here to check out the guys and pick my next murder victim.”

“How charming. And I thought what we had was special when you threatened to roll me down a hill again.”

“I’m saving you for last, Castellan. When the police find my victims, I’ll ask you to hide me then I’ll stab you in the back.”

“You know what I’m craving right now?” Luke switched the topic, “A pina colada.”

Y/N stared at Luke for a minute before furrowing her eyebrows. “Is that… some sort of drink?”

She heard Luke dramatically gasp. “You’ve never tried one?! Lucky for you, I’m a master at making cocktails. Just sit here, look pretty, and choose your next target. I’ll be right back.”

That was how Y/N found herself hanging around Luke almost every day, trying different cocktail mixtures he made while sitting under a large umbrella to avoid the heat.

“Why’d you put so much vodka in this one?” Y/N questioned, frowning, “It’s all I can taste.”

“My hand slipped.” Luke shrugged. He was lying on a towel beside Y/N, taking advantage of the sun to gain that perfect summer tan, as he liked to call it. “How come you never join your friends in the water?” He questioned, glancing over at Jae and a few other campers who were beckoning Y/N over.

“I don’t like water.” She covered her eyes with her shaded sunglasses, ignoring her friends. “It messes up my hair.”

“I’ll go swimming then. I think my back is turning red now.” Luke stood up, stretching. Y/N gulped down the rest of her drink, carelessly throwing the cup to the side as she jumped to her feet.

“I’ll come if you’re going.” She announced.

“Why the sudden change in attitude?” Luke teased, nudging her.

“I will force your head under water and let you drown.” Y/N deadpanned, causing Luke to take a small step back. Luke reached for his water bottle and took a large sip while Y/N peeled her shirt off. Luke’s eyes flickered to her for a second before his cheeks turned red and he spat out a mouthful of water.

Y/N looked at him weirdly, a judging glint in her eyes. “You good?” She asked.

“Yeah… fine.” Luke choked out.

Y/N didn’t believe him. She looked down at her bikini with bows and ruffles before raising an eyebrow. “Are you staring at my boobs?” She accused him.

“No! Are you staring at my abs?!” Luke tried to change the conversation but his attempt backfired.

“Yes. You’ve got nice abs.” Y/N shamelessly admitted like a true Roman, never scared to state the obvious.

“Well, in that case, you’ve got nice boobs.” Luke wanted to punch himself as soon as he said that.

“It doesn’t sound right when you say that to a girl.” Y/N scrunched up her face which only made Luke’s desire to be swallowed by the ground stronger.

“I realised that.”

“Praetor! Luke! Are you gonna keep chatting or finally get in the water?!” Sohan yelled from his position on a rock in the water.

“My makeup’s gonna get all ruined.” Y/N huffed but still dipped a leg into the lake. “It’s cold.”

“Lake’s are usually cold.” Luke retorted, not hesitating to jump into the deep end of the lake. Water splashed everywhere and Y/N shielded her face from the droplets.

“Watch it!” She yelled out a warning at Luke as he resurfaced, grinning.

“Oops.” He sarcastically apologised.

Y/N sat down at the shore’s edge, soaking her legs in the lake. “I’m good here.” She said, kicking her legs.

“You sure? The water isn’t that cold once you get used to it.” Luke swam closer to her and heaved himself up onto the warm rock.

Y/N kicked the water again, nodding. “Yeah… I’ll ruin my hair and makeup if I get in.” She tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear but it slipped out again, much to her annoyance.

She frowned, reaching for it again, but Luke beat her to it. “You’re pretty without makeup.” He said as he securely tucked the strand away.

Y/N glanced at the boy beside her, suddenly feeling very small. Luke made her feel vulnerable, not necessarily in a bad way. His deep brown eyes made her want to pour out every secret.

Like how she secretly hated an Apollo boy because he kept beating her to the last piece of cake.

Or how she cheated on every English paper in school to raise her GPA because she simply couldn’t read properly.

Or perhaps about how she was afraid of love, despite being the daughter of Venus herself. That fear always made Y/N feel a little stupid.

Or… how she couldn’t swim and refused to swim because she almost drowned once while her so-called friends laughed at her.

“Castell- Luke…” She quickly corrected herself, realising how accustomed she had become to Luke’s presence. “I can’t swim.” She blurted out. “My hair and makeup don’t matter… I just can’t swim. And I don’t want to swim.”

Luke carelessly shrugged and for a second, Y/N was scared he’d dismiss her fear.

“I’ll stay here with you then.” He said instead. “I’ll keep you company.”

“You can swim if you want to.” Y/N replied, fidgeting with her hands. Her heart leaped in her chest and her stomach felt queasy. Was this a crush?

“Nah. I like it here better.” Luke shifted closer to Y/N, slowly slinging an arm around her shoulder. He was expecting her to immediately shove him away but she remained still. Her back was rigidly straight until she hesitatingly relaxed.

“Thank you.” She said as the sun began to set, hues of orange, yellow, and blue painting the sky and reflecting into the lake. Y/N was surrounded by laughing demigods and legacies but she could only focus on Luke; how his hair looked perfect despite being damp, how his skin glistened in the sun, and how his arm was wrapped tightly around her as if he was protecting her from something.

For once, she felt safe. There was no quest she was required to complete, no glory to seek for the Legion, and no heavy exceptions weighing her down.

It was just her and Luke sitting beside each other in comfortable silence.

—

“Are you sure you have to go?” Sohan asked as he tightly clung to Luke, fully prepared to force the son of Hermes to stay.

“My little sister’s waiting for me.” Luke said as he hugged Sohan back, firmly patting his shoulder. Annabeth. Luke had told Y/N about his sister; they weren’t related by blood but she was his found family.

“Make sure to visit and right.” Jae uttered as he struggled to pull Sohan away from Luke. Y/N stood silently next to Jae, holding Luke’s bag.

“Have a safe trip.” She told him, which wasn’t the goodbye Luke had been expecting. He envisioned a small smile, maybe a hug if Y/N was in a good mood.

“Thanks. Good luck with your praetorian duties.” Luke replied, nodding his head.

“You ready to go?” Kato piped up, throwing the car keys in the air and effortlessly catching them.

“Yeah… I guess.” Luke muttered, stealing another glance at Y/N.

‘KISS HER!’ His mind screamed at him. This would be his last opportunity to address the feelings he had caught for Venus’ favourite daughter.

Jae and Sohan looked at each other then at Y/N, who seemed to be restraining all emotions. They almost seemed like they were begging her to make a move on Luke before it was too late.

“Bye, Y/N.” Luke stuck out his hand and Y/N didn’t hesitate to grab it.

“Good bye, Castellan. Camp Jupiter will miss you.”

Luke knew Y/N was too prideful to say ‘I’ll miss you’. This was her alternative.

Luke and Y/N stared at each other with their hands still gripping the other before they finally halted the awkward exchange.

Luke followed Kato towards the car, somewhat hoping Y/N would chase after him. She didn’t.

Y/N watched with her head held high to conceal her frown as Luke walked away, waiting for the moment he’d turn around and run back. He never did. He passed the stone arch that acted as entrance to Camp Jupiter, most likely to never return and if he ever did, it’d be in a few long years.

—

A year had passed since Luke’s departure from the Roman Demigod camp. He was pleased to be back at Half-Blood, but there was someone who was missing. As expected, some Aphrodite girls showed strong interest in Luke, but he never paid them attention.

They were beautiful, but Luke missed the girl who would threaten to throw him to the wolves if he even looked at her. He found her guarded personality charming.

“Luke, Chiron needs you to show one of the exchange campers from Jupiter around.” Chris, Luke’s brother, said. “She’s the last one.”

“Oh, yeah, sure.” Luke spent months hoping Y/N would show up randomly one day but after three, he gave up. He had heard from Sohan’s regularly written letters, which often featured Jae and Kato too, that Y/N was busier than ever as a praetor. She had doubled her work load, working until she quite literally passed out. Sohan expressed his concerns but didn’t quite know what was wrong.

“She’s waiting in the strawberry field.” Chris told Luke, pointing him in the right direction.

Luke took his sweet time in walking towards the field, his hands shoved into his pockets. There was a figure standing amongst the strawberries, admiring the various flowers and berries.

“Late as usual, Castellan. How Greek of you.”

Luke’s eyes lit up at the sight of the girl in front of him. He cracked a large grin. “What can I say, Y/N? I’m a true Greek demigod.”

FIN.

A/N: while writing this, I was randomly reminded of an old classic book I read where the main characters are clearly in love but know they’ll never see each other again after they split ways. And now I’m sad.

PJO TAG LIST (will update later, I’m tired 😴): @lostinhisworld @julielightwood @jennapancake @evrybodydies1 @kkrenae @s0ulsniper @be-bap @kamiliora @2hiigh2cry @gisellesprettylies @ur-lacol-dsylexic @lilacspider @lukecastellandefender

[aforestescape]

thinking about letting your friend, loser!konig grope you

content includes: idk man, consensual somno, chubby/fat reader, afab reader, gn reader, cunnilingus, p.in.v sex

it was so hard not to make this man a freak😔. i know this man would be stealing panties and huffing them like drugs

it’s dim and cloudy outside, rain batting against the window. the heavy resonance of thunder hitting every minute letting you know the storm won’t be ending anytime soon.

you’d been planning on going out with konig after classes but it looked like the weather had won over. you guys decided to huddle up in your bed, the plush blanket covering you both, most of it over konigs large form, as you watched random youtube videos on your television.

between the lulling sound of the rain and how warm you felt sharing your space with him you could feel drowsiness settling in. your clouded vision moving over to konig between heavy blinks to see his gaze shift from the tv to you. another long blink and you can see his eyes flicker from your face to your chest.

he’s mesmerized by the sight, how soft and plush you look. all cozy and tired. feeling comfortable enough in his presence to fall asleep next to him. it makes him feel guilty as he watches the slow rise and fall of your chest. licking over his chapped, scarred lips as he stares at the roundness of your tits. what he’d give for a chance to touch you, to feel your warm skin against his large and scar littered hands.

he has to fight himself to not touch you. you’re his friend and you definitely aren’t interested in him. it’s a surprise and miracle in itself that you decided to befriend him in the first place. even if people could look past how tall and imposing he was they still saw him as a weirdo, a freak. he was anxious around others he didn’t know well, had interests that were deemed inappropriate and childish.

he felt like you being in his life was a gift for the years of loneliness he’d endured. but he wouldn’t push his luck, no matter how much he wanted to explore your beautiful body.

konig lets out a shaky breath, eyes flicking up to your face to see your eyes already locked on him. a blush creeps up his neck and cheeks. your low eyes, the evident tiredness in them and he hopes you don’t realize he was staring at you with hunger.

he shifts his gaze away and back to the television. your gaze staying on his face for a few seconds, enjoying how adorable and pathetic he looks. it’s not lost on your that your friend has a crush on you. that he’s probably a virgin or at least had very little action. you’ve talked about it before, how much it hurts him to not only have no friends but nobody interested in dating him. nobody has ever seemed to want him, an impossibility in his eyes.

it made you feel bad for him. he was your friend, of course you could find things in him that would appeal to others romantically. it was just that you didn’t date. you didn’t want to and didn’t like to engage in any type of relationships. you were focused on other aspects of your life and more than content with being single. but konig always made you burn inside.

you never would have thought you had an innocence kink until you met him. or was it his submission? how easily and pathetically you knew he’d crumble if you gave him the opportunity to touch you. it made you feel powerful and ignited a fire in your veins. made wetness pool between your thighs.

there didn’t seem like a better time than now. your hand reaching down the bed to grab a hold of his. you idly play with his fingers in your sleepy haze. comparing the difference between the sizes, the difference in texture and complexion. gently running a finger over his palm, trailing down as you trace shapes in his freckles.

your eyes move up to his, keeping them locked on the pretty greenish blue of them as you bring his hand closer to you. pulling it towards your chest and making him cup your breast in his hand. a smirk pulls on your lips as his eyes widen, stuck on your chest. you give a slight squeeze, before holding his hand there.

“do you want me to stop,” you ask him softly, voice laced with drowsiness. he blinks at you, his eyes slightly wild like he can’t believe this is happening. you roll your eyes at his lack of words, tutting at him.

“c’mon i need your consent. yes or no.” konig let’s out another breath, moving his hand on his own, squeezing your tit. you let out a soft gasp, cunt clenching around nothing at his greedy grip.

“y-yes schatz,” he stumbles out. you let out a hum, closing your eyes. you let yourself drift off to sleep while his large hands weigh your tits in them. your actions emboldening him to pull your top down. his fingers running over your soft nipples, rubbing tight circles until they peak under his touch.

you can almost feel his greedy touch as you sleep peacefully. his hands moving to remove your clothes. running over the rolls of fat and stretch marks that cover your body. quiet groans leaving his mouth as he takes his fill of you. finally, finally being able to get his hands on you after months of being in the friend zone.

if this is his only chance he’s going to make it count. his hand dipping between your plush thighs to feel your wetness. his large, hung cock drooling in the confines of his pants. he moves down in your bed, hovering over the lower half of your body. running his hands up and down your thighs, your wetness smearing against your soft skin.

he spreads your thighs apart to finally get a look at your pretty cunt. he almost wants to take his time looking at you. detailing your pretty, glistening cunt to memory. but he delved his head down instead, taking a large huff of your cunt and groaning. the puff of air he lets out against you making you whimper quietly in your sleep.

konig flattens his tongue, licking from your cunt and up to your clit. he moans at the taste of you, licking you again to gather your wetness on his tongue. he’s hardly started and yet he knows he won’t ever get enough of you. licking and suckling on your clit. his thumb pressed against your leaking hole as he eats you out.

he pulls back slightly to spit on your cunt, watching the saliva trail down. leaning back in to lick up the trail it left and sucking your clit as he reaches it. he repeats the movement again and again. your wetness seeping and bursting onto his tongue. making him moan and pant as he moves his head side to side. coating his face in your juices while he takes his fill of you.

the smell of you all around him makes him light headed. the taste of you, the tired little whimpers you let out going to his aching cock. he ruts his hips against the mattress, thrusting against the fabric as he devours your pussy. he doesn’t stop until you let out a burst of wetness and cum on his tongue. lapping it up eagerly, moaning and mumbling praises against your spasming cunt.

konig lets out a groan as he sits back up. a mixture of saliva and your sweet juices on his face as he stares down at your cunt. he has to catch his breath, taking the time to touch you. caressing the fat of your thighs and squeezing them. you’re a breathtaking view to him. konig feels like he’s on autopilot as he reaches one hand up to collect your wetness on his fingers.

the pads of his index and middle finger pressing against your clit to rub tight circles. it’s an addictive sight, watching you tremble in your sleep. the lightning from outside briefly lighting up your prone form. your cunt clenching around nothing with each circle he makes on your bud. he could get used to this.

licking over his lips, with the taste of you on them, he moves to get out of his pants. stumbling out of the fabric and throwing it onto the floor out of sight. settling back between your spread legs. konig hooks your thighs over his as he grips his large, weeping cock in his grasp. ragged breaths leaving his lips as he gives a few desperate tugs. pulling back his foreskin to smear his precum along the shaft.

“du bist perfekt, mein schatz. absolut perfekt.”

konig leans over your body, pressing his shaft against your slippery cunt. shifting his hips to run his length up your pretty cunt slowly and then back down. he moves his hips repeatedly, setting a slow, steady pace as he rubs against you. his hands and muscles trembling as he pushes your thighs back more. blunt nails digging into your plush skin as he picks up speed.

“ah fuck. du fühlst dich so gut an schatz- fuck. so gut.”

you wake back up briefly to konig rutting against you. his head tossed back and pretty eyes squeezed shut as he shifts his hips back and forth. a pool of wetness under you, both of your arousal smeared along your cunt, inner thighs and the fat of your stomach. his spongy head rubbing against your clit repeatedly has you moaning.

not sure how many times you’ve cum at this point as your body quickly succumbs to the building pleasure. toes curling as you reach out to grab the sheets. moaning out konigs name and hearing him whine in pleasure in response. his eyes meet yours, shining with desire as sees you awake.

“ah bitte. fick mein schatz. bitte- please. lass mich ihn reinstecken. ich muss in dir sein. let me in.”

you’re too lost in the feeling as konig stops his thrusts to hold his cock, swiping his leaking head against your clit. you nod your head at him, trying to chase that high feeling inside of you. he lets out a groan, a string up thanks and curses leaving his lips as he replaces his cock with his thumb on your clit.

rubbing it back and forth while lining his large cock with your entrance. pressing against your slick, wet heat and grunting as the head pushes in. you tell him to keep going, bucking your hips so he’ll continue slipping inside of you.

konigs mind is reeling as he feels you around him. your spongy walls wrapping around him is utter bliss. the way you moan and cry under him as he stretches you out spurring him on. as he bottoms out inside of you you’re right on the edge. hands moving to grab onto his forearms as he slowly pulls out of you. nails digging in with with every thrust back into of you.

“fuck schatz. ihr seid so-“

he can’t finish his statement as he feels your walls spasming around him. konigs thrusts growing faster as he watches your body tense up. you’re so gorgeous he can hardly think, hardly breathe as he fucks you. a pathetic whiny noise leaving him as he cums. thrusts growing ragged as konig chases the feeling of filling you up.

you’re shaking under him, legs twitching and he has to hold himself up on his forearms to keep from crushing you under him. his thrusts slow as he tries to catch his breath. you wrap your arms around him to pull him into you, his head resting in the crook of your neck.

your hands running up and down his back as he settles into you. keeping his spent cock inside of you, wanting to keep every last drop of his seed inside of you. he can’t even be ashamed at cuming so fast, it feels like heaven being sunk inside of your cunt.

you offer him gentle pecks on his neck, eyes closed as you start to drift off. the quiet sound of the rain and video, konigs breath against you lulling you to sleep.

this wasn’t supposed to be this long or include sex at first lol. hope you enjoyed it xd

update: forgot to add that i used deepL translate for the german. also there’s so many spelling mistakes omg, i’ve fixed them now though

[maximumqueer]

In lieu of the second season of OPLA starting production, I want to talk about my mixed feelings on the first season of it.

Because I got into the anime and manga through the live action. So I will always like it at least a little bit for introducing me to honestly my favorite piece of media ever. But now that I'm caught up with the anime and manga, and know the characters and story better, I find myself having more criticisms of it.

The overall narrative is rushed in a way that leads to important character moments being glossed over. Syrup Village in OPLA is a good example. Usopp does a lot less in the live action, most of his big emotional beats cut for what I can only assume were time constraints. Reducing Gin's role to a one time appearance, and the Don Krieg Pirates to a cameo also feels like a product of the limited runtime, and cheapens Sanji's reasoning joining the crew, as we never get that moment where Luffy witnesses him feeding a starving man, and decides then that Sanji will be is cook. Replacing it instead with Luffy seeing him fight and tasting his food. Which in my opinion kinda misses the point of why Luffy wanted him to join. And that was because of Sanji's kindness, which is not nearly as present in the live action.

OPLA also removes a lot of side characters from the islands the main cast visit, making the world feel smaller, and the stakes lower. Like, the reason I personally cared so much about Luffy and Co. helping out places like Orange Town, Syrup village, Cocoyashi Village, is the people that live there who we get to know (in the anime and manga). I feel far more invested actually knowing the names of several of the people and the village, and knowing that their lives will be better after the big bad is taken down. It's not just a fight for the sake of having a fight, but a fight to help out a group of people who need it.

These characters also end up trying to free themselves from the big bad. Them playing an active roll, and not just being used as hostages (like they were in the live action) is just so quintessential to One Piece in my opinion. Having characters native to the island already willing to stand up to the force controlling them, and Luffy's involvement being to aid them, and not just swoop in a save a group of passive bystanders who were simply waiting for a hero to save them, is subversive for shonen (hell just fantasy in general) and having the live action remove that just feels wrong, as characters having freedom and agency is a big overarching theme in One Piece that has been there since day one.

Then there is the characterization. Zoro is probably the most egregious change. Zoro (bur especially pre-ts Zoro) was far goofier than his live action counterpart. And I do think that that level of goofiness is essential to him as a character. Like, I cannot picture OPLA Zoro attempting to cut off his feet, fail, and then decide to strike a cool pose while he is slowly turning into a wax statue. I cannot picture that version of the character beefing with a bird while lost, when said bird is LITERALLY a compass. OPLA Zoro just feels like your stereotypical stoic cool guy, when he is very much not. He is a bit of a loser (affectionate) and to see him be treated like he isn't feels off. Nami and Sanji are closer to their anime/manga counterparts, but are still different.

OPLA Sanji is not pathetic enough. To use an analogy, OLPA Sanji would take off his coat to place it over a puddle so a pretty woman didn't have to get her shoes and feet wet. Anime/manga Sanji would hurl his body onto the ground, and have the woman use his back to prevent getting her shoes and feet wet. They said this change was to dial down the more pervy parts of his character, which is fair. But that aspect of his character only really starts up in a bad way in Thriller Bark. The part of the series that adapted was when Sanji was pretty much only presented as a hopeless romantic who worships the ground all women walk on and would do anything a woman asked of him.

Nami is similar to Zoro, in that she is just to serious. They both lack the whimsy their anime/manga counterparts have. And she just feels a bit more one dimensional in the live action because of it.

As for Luffy. Him referring to himself as a "good pirate" just feels all sorts of wrong. He has never shied away from that label, and never has had any issue with being lumped in with "bad" pirates in the anime/manga. He never was angry about being framed for crimes, but I get the feeling that OPLA Luffy would be more likely to be angry about that, because he is a "good" pirate. This Luffy doesn't feel like he would go on a rant about not wanting to be viewed as a hero. They also made him nicer overall, and this sounds like a weird thing to complain about, but Luffy not holding his tongue and just telling people how he feels about them, positive or negative, is what makes him as a character work. Is what separates him from a typical run of the mill shonen protag. Him being a kind, but not nice and overall blunt in conversation is pretty integral to his character, and I can't help but feel that the writers and directors of the live action were afraid of keeping this character trait because it could make him unlikeable. (despite that fact that he as been #1 in literally every One Piece popularity poll)

And obviously this is not a critique on the actors, I think they did a phenomenal job portraying their respective characters. This is more about how the writers/directors/producers decided to adapt and change the characters.

I kind of suspected that when I watched the anime (a more one to one adaptation of the manga) as well as read the manga (the source material) that I would end up having more issues with the live action. I do still like it for what it is, and I'm planning on watching the second season when it comes out, I just wanted to share how my opinion on it changed after reading/watching and catching up with the anime and manga.

[tiredofthehumanlife]

Please anything bestfriend! Or loser! Luke w and Aphrodite!reader!!!!!!

Warnings: not much, kinda short, lmk if it doesn't satisfy anon, sorry it took so long I had to do a really hard math problem for ekko, too many/not enough commas, Luke is a lameo and r spends a lot of time with doves, I know zero Percy Jackson lore I read the wiki fandom article on Aphrodite kids and just used that, also I took like five quizzes and three said I was an Aphrodite kid so like I'm hot guys, enjoy

In the nicest way, Luke was a total fucking loser. He was too busy practicing sword fighting to actually ask anyone out or even get asked out. Luke hadn't even held hands with someone romantically. That didn't stop him from having crushes. He crushed on an Athena kid two years ago and confessed his feelings. That kid laughed in his face and rejected him. The next thing he knew a group of doves was pulling at the kids hair, scratching at their face. They flung their arms up trying to run the doves away. When Luke looked over he saw a small crowd of Aphrodite kids. One stood out to him. You. Something about the air around you seemed intoxicating. You looked him up and down before giving him a nod and walking off with your siblings following behind you. Your one interaction sparked his crush. He's been head over inheels since then.

You two rarely interacted over the years. Luke was just some guy and you were, well, you. Luke tried his hardest not to stare at you anytime he saw you but it was hard. Anytime you were at the lake there was sea foam gently swaying around your ankles in the water, and the amount of seashells around you seemed to increase the longer you spent at the shore. If you were excited and you were practically skipping to your siblings and friends, flowers would bloom around your feet with each step. You would spend your free time sitting on the front checked deck with your siblings. Usually you'd call a dove over you'd all fawn over it, giving it kisses on its head, lots of pets and snacks you'd crumble up. And he...liked swords? How is Luke supposed to get the courage to talk to you much less ask you out?

It wasn't as one sided as Luke assumed. You had your eye on him long before you stepped in on his confession two years ago. You thought Luke was cute. You loved how into his fighting he would get. You thought it was adorable the way he'd scrunch his nose or fiddle with his necklace. You loved a lot about him. Luke was gorgeous and passionate and terribly pathetic. All the best attributes of a man. You just worried about asking him out because you thought he'd think you were tricking him or it was all a big scheme with your siblings.

Luke never asked you out because he was terribly anxious you'd say no. He worried you'd go and tell all your friends and they'd tell their friends and next he'd know it'd be all over camp and he'd be laughing stock. So Luke stuck to just gazing and sighing longingly at you. You always felt his eyes no matter what you were doing and most of the time once you'd find his eyes he'd look away.

So the day you ran up to Luke first thing in the morning, flowers blooming at your feet, Luke almost had a panic attack. You gave him a bright smile and he swore he fell even more in love with you. You said something but he couldn't hear you at all. Luke just stared at you. When your smile started to fall due to his lack of response he finally spoke up. He asked you to repeat yourself.

"do you wanna go out?" Luke froze, which was worse the second time around because now he's stopped talking to you twice in one conversation. You snapped your fingers to get his attention. He startled and ran your words through his head again. Luke quickly nodded his head.

"yes, yeah yeah that'd be good yeah." Your smile returned and clapped your hands together. You gave him a date, time, and where to meet up. Just as quick as you came you left, even more flowers sprouting at your feet. A few doves came down from the sky twirling around you as you ran back to your friends to tell them the spectacular news.

When your date finally rolled around, you were smiling the whole way though. Laughing when Luke did something stupid in an attempt to impress you. Jumping off tall rocks and failing miserably to land on his feet. Picking a flower off the ground and tucking it behind your ear. He climbed up a tree and hung down smiling at you, upside down. You moved closer to him and gently kissed his lips. You pulled back and told him to meet you at the same time next week. Walking away, you heard a large crash. Looking back you saw Luke on his back in the dirt. You called out to him, to make sure you wouldn't be charged with manslaughter. Luke rolled over onto his stomach and smiled at you. You returned it and made your way back to your cabin excited for your next date.

[cheolhub]

OH IM SORRY IM STUPID ASJAJXNXN svt !!

#SVT MTL — humiliation kink!

note. UR NOT ITS OK!! i assumed svt anyway, but i just wanted to make sure ^^ — i kinda formatted this weird so forgive me :p and if this has been done before, im so sorry hssh

—MOST LIKELY TO HAVE A HUMILIATION KINK!

MINGYU - receiving end

he’s so fucking pathetic. call him a slut, make him get on his knees and beg, make him feel small— he absolutely loves it. it makes him so hard when you degrade him and it turns you on so bad because he’s on the verge of tears yet he’s begging for you to be meaner to him <3

WONWOO

i feel like wonwoo loves making you feel humiliated. especially when you’ve been bad. he’ll make you get off on your own while he watches, burning holes into your skin with his lust-ridden eyes. he’ll laugh when you beg for his help and laugh even harder when you cry in response </3

MINGHAO

MENACE. A MOTHERFUCKING MENACE. the type to rile you up on purpose just to see how wet his words alone get you. when he finds that you’ve soaked through your panties— then he embarrasses you for being so easy. he’d be like, “wow, i haven’t even touched you and you’re already about to cum? needy baby.” in the most patronizing voice :/

JOSHUA

SO MEAN. he’s can be so mean to you omfg. he’d be mocking your moans and cries. he’d make you beg for everything and he’d say, “i dunno, it doesn’t really seem like you want it.” reduces you to tears just so he can laugh in your face </3 but he always ends up giving you everything you need, so you can’t be too mad about it

SOONYOUNG - receiving end

i don’t know what it is, but something about this man screams humiliation kink. he loves feeling like a loser. he loves that you make him cum untouched. he loves that you edge him until he’s a pathetic mess in tears. please, please, please humiliate this man.

CHAN

look, i know dom!chan isn’t a popular agenda… but it’s something i wholeheartedly believe in. lee chan is mean. lee chan will make you suck his dick through his boxers, soaking the fabric in drool and spit just to call you his needy little whore. lee chan will make you so desperate to suck him off just so he can make fun of you. lee chan will humiliate you. case closed!

JUNHUI - receiving end

oh my god, please call this man every degrading word in the book. i think he’d love every second of it. you could have your hand wrapped around him, fucking his nth orgasm out of him while telling him how stupid and pathetic he looks and he’d just bust another load like a loser :(

JEONGHAN - BOTH SIDES

a little wild card. you never really know what you’re going to get with jeonghan, but you do know someone is going to end up in tears at the end of the night. his humiliation kink is very lowkey— jeonghan is more of a tease than anything so when he’s humiliating you, it’s more like he’s tamely making fun of you for being so needy for him. when he’s on the receiving end, he’s just taking everything and letting you fuck him stupid.

SEUNGCHEOL

he’s not that into it, but, on rare occasions, he’ll let it all out. say he comes home one day to find you’re desperately humping a pillow or fingering yourself, he’ll make you keep going and make you feel so so embarrassed for not waiting for him. let’s you cum and then ruins your orgasm because he says, “slutty girls don’t get to cum properly.”

SEOKMIN

he’s kinda enjoys it on very rare occasions, but sometimes, poor baby can’t handle it :( he’d rather be reduced to tears because you’ve praised him so much. loves being called a good boy and loves it when you dote on him so much more. he cums harder when you’re nice <3

JIHOON

why would he need to humiliate you? you’re perfect— he loves when you cry for him and beg for him, but he never wants you to feel embarrassed for being a little very needy. he’d only ever do it if you asked, but even then, he’d still be really hesitant about it.

SEUNGKWAN

not him. he’s kinda romantic and more into sweet praise (both giving and receiving), so i don’t think he’d have a humiliation kink.

VERNON

doesn’t really see the point in embarrassing you and doesn’t really like feeling like a clown for wanting to fuck. no seriously, he literally just wants to fuck akmdhshs

—LEAST LIKELY

[umahumahumah]

Can you rate all hetalia ships and your fav

I'll try. Let's go alphabetical order!

America/Australia: 0/10

It feels incestuous. I do find it funny how apparently Australia, someone clearly younger than America, is apparently in his 20's while the latter is 19.

America/Austria: 5/10

I think the fun part about this ship is how America has the potential to annoy Austria so much. Still, I can't really see the appeal.

America/Belarus: 5/10

I like the concept of this ship because both characters have contrasting personalities and are on opposing sides! I'm a sucker for that type of thing, which is kind of surprising that this ship doesn't compell me too much. At least not enough to make content of them.

America/Belgium: 6/10

I think America would really like Belgium's waffles, that fatass...

America/Bulgaria: 5/10

Clearly Bulgaria has dedicated his heart to one man and one man only. I don't see any chemistry between him and America... Actually maybe a little. I like the dynamic between normie and pathetic loser. Though I think if Bulgaria is not with Romania he would kill himself

America/Cameroon: 4/10

I think America would take a liking to Cameroon due to their shared interests in sports, but Cameroon feels way too mature to take any of America's tomfoolery.

America/Canada: 0/10

Blatantly incest.

America/China: 8/10

It feels like an alternate version of RusAme, with one side clearly maturer than the other. Though tbh I think the fun of this ship would be seeing how long it takes for America to break China

(+1 Point for that Wash My Belly Dude! Roblox game)

America/Croatia: 6/10

I think I made fanart of this ship once. I never finished it and it's on my dead phone, so... From the very minor appearance Croatia made in the entirety of Hetalia's existence, he seems like a very lethargic character, a great contrast to America's personality. Unfortunately, since Croatia is less than bare bones, I can't rank it any higher. If he was developed more I could easily ship him with America.

America/Cuba: 7/10

Cuba has a very strong hatred for America, doesn't he? Though whether America reciprocates that hatred or not is up to question. Considering his other rivalries though, America is probably very dismissive or unaware about Cuba's hatred. Whether it is reciprocated or not, I love a good ol' rivalry!

America/Cyprus: 3/10

I guess there's nothing bad about it, but what can I say about this? Cyprus would probably be scared of America or at least uncomfortable with his presence.

America/Czechia: 6/10

Anything to cuck Slovakia.

America/Denmark: 7/10

I think these two would be a very chaotic duo! They'd get into all sorts of shenanigans and probably plant a stink bomb somewhere in the meeting room. Them in a romantic context doesn't compell me, but they seem like they'd be good friends.

America/Ecuador: 6/10

There's nothing wrong with it, but I can't say much about it since Ecuador's barely a character. I can imagine them being good friends though.

America/Egypt: 6/10

There's something interesting about the dynamic of someone who doesn't talk and someone who doesn't know how to shut up.

America/England: -100000000/10

We got to USUK.... Honestly man I don't think I can describe the absolute HATE BONER I have for this ship. Reading the world itself feels like a walk through the fiery coals that make up the ground of hell. The ship is a bastardization of the characters involved and I am glad that it is finally dying out. Putting aside the incestuous and pedophilic undertones, most USUK content I've seen heavily mischaracterize America and England. I could probably replace the two characters with Generic Yaoi Couple™ and nobody would be able to tell the difference!!!!

America/Estonia: 0/10

No idea why but Himaruya made Estonia 17... I know ages are almost obsolete in Hetalia nowadays but maaan still

America/Finland: 1/10

Honestly I've always imagined Finland acting more like a father figure to America than anything romantic.

America/France: 0/10

Incest.

America/Germany: 7/10

Couples with one wild party and one that keeps them in check are always fun!

America/Greece: 3/10

Honestly I'd feel bad for Greece if he has to deal with America all the time. Let him nap pls

America/Hong Kong: 0/10

Hong Kong is 16-17

America/Hungary: 3/10

I think she'd just be trying her hardest trying to set him up with Austria instead.

America/Iceland: 0/10

Iceland is 16-17.

America/India: 4/10

I think I see potential in this ship. The two are both described as pretty wild characters, with India still being pretty mature. I see America instigating India to act more upon his wild side. But honestly I don't know much about India to actually determine what the nature of their relationship would be like.

America/Indonesia: 6/10

Again, I see potential. I think these two might be cute together, but I can't really get invested in it.

America/Ireland: 7/10

I think America and Ireland would be really close considering the history of Irish immigrants in America. Maybe they could've lived with each other at some point? Considering there were a lot of Irish immigrants to the country back then....

America/Italy: 7/10

It sounds pretty fun! I like both characters, I think a relationship with each other is enjoyable. Dumb + dumb stick together!

America/Japan: 9/10

I think America and Japan have a pretty wholesome relationship, I really like them together. Their dynamic also interests me with it being extrovert x introvert. Also also cultural exchanges between the two are always fun

America/Korea: 0/10

Korea is 15-16

America/Latvia: 0/10

Latvia is 15

America/Liechtenstein: 0/10

Liechtenstein feels too young.

America/Lithuania: 5/10

Ehhh, I think it's fine. Most of the content I've seen of Ameliet falls into the pitfalls of typical yaoi tropes and I can't really get into it. It seems homey though so extra point.

America/Luxembourg: 0/10

Luxembourg is under 18... Apparently? I'm not sure where this age came from but I got it from the wiki.

America/Macau: 4/10

Ehhhh.... I guess it's fine. + Extra points for gambling

America/Malaysia: 5/10

This ship seems fun. Malaysia kun is such a cute character and he would have very funny interactions with America, I like imagining the latter helping him build his confidence.

America/Moldova: 0/10

Bruh

America/Monaco: 0/10

Monaco is under 18.

America/Netherlands: 2/10

I don't know, doesn't seem that interesting to me.

America/New Zealand: 0/10

Feels kind of incestuous but idk

America/Norway: 1/10

It's not bad but I'm not that invested in Norway.

America/Philippines: 0/10

There's a dynamic between them I built in my head that makes it hard to put them in a relationship...

America/Poland: 6/10

Dense Character x Cheeky Character? I wonder how long it'll take for either party to become annoyed.

America/Prussia: 0/10

While I think a ship between two characters with both of their personalities would be cute, it's important to note that Prussia was America's mentor during the American revolution. So it just kinda feels weird tbh....

America/Romania: 3/10

It's fine, I could see how it may interest some people but ultimately I don't really care about it.

America/Romano: 2/10

I think it's fine but explosive tsunderes aren't really my cup of tea anymore, I've grown out of that phase :( a platonic relationship between them would be fun though.

America/Russia: 9/10

OTP!!! Honestly though I've gotten quite bored of it, but I especially like this ship because America and Russia are my favourite characters in Hetalia.

America/Seychelles: 0/10

I think Seychelles is underaged... Idk

America/Singapore: 0/10

Singapore is under 18, I guess.

America/Slovakia: 2/10

I don't think Slovakia is able to be with anyone other than Czechia.

America/Spain: 5/10

It seems interesting! I see potential in it but I can't really bring myself to ship it.

America/Sweden: 1/10

Same as Finland, for some reason Sweden/Finland and America have been depicted in a lot of parental relationships in the fandom. Can't unseen it tbh.

America/Switzerland: 2/10

I think it could be interesting, but I really can't see these two work at all.

America/Taiwan: 0/10

Pretty sure Taiwan's underaged + shipping her with a guy feels wrong.

America/Thailand: 3/10

These two could be interesting together, but ultimately... ?idk

America/Turkey: 3/10

Don't see any romance between them but I think these guys would be pretty epic drinking buddies.

America/Ukraine: 2/10

I'm gonna be tbh guys I don't think Ukraine will be able to handle a manchild like America, then again, I don't think anybody can handle America.

America/Vietnam: 2/10

Idk most of the content I've seen of this ship involves Vietnam War stuff and sometimes it does feel a little messed up but... I do think that if I researched more about it it could be more interesting

[daintylovers]

heyyyyy lovely lovely tumblr user dainty, it’s me again with a stiles req because I just can’t seem to be normal. it would be sooo awesome if you graced us with some jealous stiles… I was listening to woman by harry styles and I was like … hmm I want a man to want me to look at him so bad he would kill another man over it.

OH AND I WANTED TO SAY your writing is the absolute perfect balance of powerful horny and pathetic horny and okay I’m done elaborating ilysm

powerful horny and pathetic horny are literally those two wolves in that picture that's like, inside you there are two wolves- and it's true, those are the two wolves inside of me (i wish stiles was inside of-)

i'm envisioning this as a best friends or at least close friends type of scenario. specifically because of the opening lines of the song, "Should we just search up romantic comedies on Netflix and see what we find?"

stiles, assisted by scott of course, has managed to crush every guy's hopes and dreams of being with you, throughout the years. and of course, it kind of crushes you're confidence a bit because you know you're pretty, but why won't anyone ask you out?

of course, stiles is always there to comfort you, tell you that they just don't deserve you. and you think it's bullshit, just a cliche cause he doesn't know what else to say. but in his eyes, it's nothing short of the truth. those guys truly don't deserve you, which is why they'll never have a shot. why he has guaranteed that they will never have a shot.

but once the werewolf stuff starts happening, things change within the social hierarchy of the school. and someone slips through stiles' brick wall he has so carefully constructed.

now, to appease my heart, this person happens to be the infamous issac lahey. yes, that's right, the former loser turned werewolf model who is holding nothing back anymore. issac's had a crush on you for years, and being a part of the lacrosse team means that he's heard a thing or two from the other guys about how stiles says that you just aren't interested in guys your age, or whatever excuse of the month the spaz has decided upon.

so, when stiles isn't practically glued to your side for the one class of the day the two of you don't share, issac starts enacting his plot to make you his. it's a tad bit cheesy, and throws you off at first, but how could you say no to such a pretty face? you guys slowly start hanging out, and of course, he's a nice guy.

but when scott catches of whiff of issac's scent lingering in your room one night, stiles is the first to hear about it. and god he is FUMING! how could you? how could he not have realized? why didn't you tell him? you tell him everything- why not this thing? did you know?

he's all too paranoid, but the anger and jealousy are winning. stiles isn't the type for outright confrontation, so you won't notice he's ignoring you for a few days. mainly because you're too tied up with issac, which only makes his blood boil hotter. but when you do realize, you feel almost guilty? and by the way, stiles won't even look at you, makes you feel like you are guilty. but guilty of what?

stiles knows that he's guilty. that what he's about to ask of you is unfair on every level, but so what? he can't stand to see you with another guy. of course he could ask you out himself, but he's just a silly little guy idk man.

if you want me to talk to you, you have to get rid of him.

a mix of confusion and fury graces your face. what? the? fuck? it's hot the way he says it, so possessive. so unlike him. but who was he to say some shit like that. still gawking at him, he continues, he is going to hurt you. and I'm warning you now, when he does i won't be there to pick up the pieces. it's me or him. I'm just doing this for your good. plus you're a smart girl, right? make the right choice here.

you tell him to fuck off, storming away with tears brimming your waterline. why couldn't he just be happy for you? later that night, you cry to scott about it all. he tries consoling you but ultimately sides with his best friend. which makes you feel even worse, cause you know who you'll pick. but how are you going to let issac down?

well, luckily scott had that problem handled a few hours later when he literally fights issac to defend your honor over some bullshit that the male had spoken. scott's right at your window after the fight, showing you the damage issac did and what he said about you. it's almost unbelievable, but scott's the most trustworthy person you know- so of course he wouldn't lie. right?

scott is on the phone with stiles after leaving your house, talking about how the plan worked and how he should expect you at his house any minute now. sure enough, the phone call ends with a doorbell ringing.

you're there, as promised, at stiles' doorstep practically falling into his open arms. he brings you inside, closing the door with his foot, and sitting you both down on the couch. with how close you are holding him, you're in his lap. and he can feel tears slowly soaking through his shirt. what's happened?

you're a blubbering mess, i'm sorry for making ignoring you. i should have never talked to him in the first place.

if you hadn't just cried before you said that, you wouldn't have missed the way stiles lips curled up for just a split second. he catches himself, opting to bring his hands to cup your face, bringing you to eye level, what happened?

this time the question is asked more firmly, and the grip he has on you brings you back down to reality. you tell him what scott told you, still crying a bit. who knew the new werewolf would be so cruel?

stiles knew. stiles always knew. and he makes sure you'll never forget it. i told you, but i know you never listen.

you're saying sorry like it's a prayer, and stiles takes it like he's god.

****

A/N: was this ooc? yes. but was it really? no. there's like a multiverse of stiles' in my head and slightly sadistic stiles decided he had to make his debut on this one. i didn't proofread this so if it sucks, I'm sorry <3

[emotionally-cuckolded]

“You want to know what else I do? Well -- a day doesn’t go by that I don’t belittle my cuck at least once by talking about what a small unsatisfying dick he has and without telling him at least once what a pathetic excuse for a man he is -- especially in comparison with my boyfriend.  And on my cuck’s birthday, I make HIM give a gift to my boyfriend, and of course, I spend the whole day and night with my boyfriend while my cuck stays home alone feeling lonely and rejected on his “special day”.  And on our wedding anniversary each year, my cuck is in charge of setting up a romantic dinner and evening and night for me and my lover, and my cuck gives me some sexy lingerie that he knows he will never see me in -- but he knows I’ll be wearing it for my boyfriend.

And do you want to hear something amazing? The more I shame and humiliate him, the more he loves me and the more devoted to trying to do everything he can to try to please me he becomes. Deep down, betas like him NEED to be shamed and humiliated. They know it’s what they deserve for being small-dicked losers.  My cuck knows he will never have sex with me again -- not ever. And he accepts that completely and understands why I have a boyfriend that I have great sex with.  

So yeah -- I strongly recommend that you humiliate your own cuck as often and as much as you can. “

[mariamakeslemons]

Chapter 2 (Peed on a Leprechaun's Corpse)

I warned @ghouljams that I would use this death (don't know if Tumblr ate that particular ask, but...), however I didn't think I'd use it so soon...

TW: mildly graphic description of gore, a very bad attempt at an Irish accent, absolute Loser behavior from König

Gaz returned to your shop, only to hide immediately. He peeks out from around the shelf filled with tarot cards and pendulums, watching at the giant bastard they’re trying to keep dead looms over you.

“Come now, Liebling,” the man pleads, “Just agree to be mine.”

“I told you already,” you huff, your back to König as you reorganize the products that you keep behind the register, “I’m not going to marry anyone until I meet my soulmate and find out if it’s romantic or platonic.”

“But you were so keen to flirt with the… ah… das Arschloch,” he says, obviously forgetting the English word. You immediately spin around, snarling at the man.

“You don’t fucking call him that,” you snap. The black phoenix behind you caws and flaps his wings behind you angrily. König shrinks back at your reaction, whining pathetically before you huff and point at the door.

“Leave. Just go,” you order. Gaz watches as the giant of a man slinks out the door, barely hiding in time for the behemoth to trudge past. He waits until he’s sure the big bastard’s gone before peeking out in a purposeful manner.

“Is he gone?” Gaz asks, pitching his voice into a child-like register. The startled laugh you give him is more than worth making a fool of himself. Grinning, he stands up and strides over to the register, watching as you fight with your giggles and your pretty bird shimmies happily at his arrival.

“How have you been this day?” Gaz asks, scratching at the phoenix’s neck while watching you try to regain control of your giggles. You smile at him, blinking your pretty eyes at him.

“Outside of that guy’s visit, slow but nice,” you answer. Gaz grins at you in return. Honestly, while he’s annoyed at this particular mission, he’s not upset about meeting you. Hell, he doesn’t know how he feels about the thought of possibly never meeting you.

“So, how can I—Hello!” you cut yourself off, chirping your greeting to whoever came in the door. Gaz turns and feels his stomach drop as his Captain, Lieutenant, and fellow Sargeant step into the shop. Price offers you a polite smile as Soap perks up.

“Yer a bonnie, ain’t ye,” Soap chirps, swaggering up to your register. You blink in confusion, your polite smile straining in confusion.

“Excuse me, whaaaaaaaaat?” you draw out, blinking rapidly. Ghost snorts, pausing to look at the preserved skulls lining one of your shelves in interest instead of stopping his boyfriend’s flirting.

“Sorry, ‘bout this, Love,” Price cuts off his Sargeant, “We jus’ needed some clarification.”

“About what?” you ask, turning your attention to the Captain. Gaz slides up beside Soap and smacks the idiot on the back of the head.

“What the hell?” Gaz hisses, “You’re boy’s right there.”

“So?” Soap whispers back, “Wanna ken ‘f they’re good ‘nough fer ye.” Gaz blinks at his fellow Sargeant, touched at the honest look in the Scot’s eye.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake!” you yell, startling the taskforce as you drop your head in your hands.

“Aye!” a tiny man squeaks with a nod, who appeared out of who knows where, standing on your counter. The little man is wearing a bloody green suit with gold accents. He’s cleaning off his shoe with a handkerchief, “Yoor Bonded pissed on me body. So, I’s be needin’ compensation.”

“Sir,” you intone, your expression completely done with this conversation, “He’s not my Bonded, he’s Bound to me.” The Leprechaun snaps his head up, a frown marring his face, before dawning horror crosses his face.

“Oh, fook! I’s is terribly sorry, I’s is!” the Leprechaun apologizes, “Do ye’s know where I’s can get compensation for me body?”

“I think I know where one of his safe houses is,” you admit hesitantly. Gaz shares a look of confusion with Price as you stumble through giving directions to what you think is one of König’s safe houses.

“There seems to be more than we understand going on,” the Captain mumbles.

“Yeah,” Gaz agrees, “I think it’s somethin’ t’ do with intention? My Gran mentioned it a few times, but I always thought it was a load of tosh.” You wrap up the conversation with the Leprechaun, who bows and vanishes in a burst of smoke and glitter. Ghost is the one who steps forward, looming over you.

“So, there’s a difference ‘tween Bond and Bound?” Ghost asks. You hum before making a noncommittal answer.

“Words are important to Leprechauns and their ilk,” you explain, “It was more for clearing up what can’t be easily shown with an understanding of magic.”

“How so?” Price asks, stepping around Ghost to lean on the counter. Your phoenix flies over and practically rubs against Price, begging for scratches.

“Ogun, you whore,” you scold jokingly, getting a huffy squawk from the bird before turning back to the Captain, “A one-way Bond is toxic, with only the slightest of protections on the one that is Bonded against the one who Bonds. König can’t physically hurt me, but he has every right to call on me to revive him and I have to revive him. He can’t fight anyone in my shop, but he can call upon me to curse or poison someone and I have to. It’s a need instead of a want or an exchange.”

“‘N’ that’s what you have,” Ghost states, getting a nod in answer. Gaz watches as you stop and tilt your head, a frown on your face.

“Speaking of which,” you huff, “I need to go revive a whiny bitch.” There’s a pause before you snap, “Yes, you are!”

“I take it that his spirit is here?” Price asks.

“Unfortunately,” you groan, grabbing a jacket and moving from around the desk, “Feel free to stay here. Ogun can watch the place and I know you gentlemen won’t leave until I give you all the information you want at this time.”

“Yer jus’ walkin’ oot th’ store?” Soap asks in confusion.

“The man is literally in the next alley over,” you explain with a tired sigh, “I’ll be right back.” You flip the sign to your store to ‘closed’ and walk out. The team stands there awkwardly as Ogun, the phoenix’s name apparently, flies over to Ghost and lands on his shoulder.

“…Wut you lookin’ at?” Ghost asks, snorting when the bird lets out a little song and shimmies back and forth on his shoulder.

“Looks like he’s dancin’,” Price comments, a smirk curling his mouth as the phoenix lets out another trill and turns, doing the cool fire thing on his tail again. Ghost flinches away a little when the multi-colored flames blaze on his tail, before he seems to relax as the flames are shrunk a little.

“Steamin’ Jesus,” Soap breathes, taking a hesitant step forward. Ogun flares his tail out, almost offering a feather to Soap. He shares a look with Gaz and Price, none of them knowing what to do. The only one with any experience of non-hostile magic animals is Ghost, and he seems fine just standing with the phoenix on his shoulder.

Suddenly, Ogun snaps his tail back and turns his head to the door. You come back with an annoyed look on your face, storming in while making sure to lock the door behind you. Ogun trills and flies over to your shoulder as König presses his hands and face against the glass door pathetically.

“What’s his deal?” Gaz asks as you step back behind the counter, only for all four of them to jump when you drop your head on the desk with a thud.

“…ow,” you intone, sounding tired. Ogun lands beside you and drapes himself over your head. You sigh under his wing, softly saying, “Thank you, Oggie.” Gaz frowns at how done you sound, laying his own head on the counter to make eye contact with you.

“You okay, Love?” he asks.

“It was his dick,” you say. The dead silence that descends upon the store is deafening. None of the men know what you’re talking about, or why you’re tired, or why the Austrian is whining pathetically at your door.

“Wot,” Ghost deadpans when they realize you were not going to elaborate. You gently coax Ogun off your head and look up at them, heavy bags under your eyes.

“The Leprechaun. Revived. From. His dick,” you grit out. Immediately, the four of them turn their heads and look blatantly at König’s crotch area. The Austrian stops whining upon seeing them looking at him, before covering his crotch and scurrying away. Gaz looks back at you incredulously, when you eventually continue, “It looked like one of those cartoon guns after being blocked, ya’ know? Like a banana peel, but starting at his dick and going through his pelvis. Fuck, that little bastard did not deserve compensation.” Ogun coos again, snuggling against you.

“I… I don’t like that description,” Gaz admits, cringing at the image that is now in his head.

“Well, I didn’t like lookin’ at it, yet here we are!” you huff, swinging out your arms. Gaz feels sympathetic of your plight with dealing with the aftermath of König’s many deaths. But, a question has been bothering him since he was last here. One that he’s not really sure you’d be comfortable with him asking it in front of his team, so instead…

“Well, as a way to make you feel better,” he cuts in, “How about I take you out? There’s a good café a few streets out with excellent tea and coffee.” You turn to blink at him in surprise, your mouth dropping open at his offer.

“I, uh, yes! YES!” you yell, jumping as if you startled yourself. The trill from Ogun reminds Gaz of laughter, which only gets you swatting at the phoenix while giving a grin at him, “Yes, I’d like that.”

“Capt’n!” Soap calls out like a tattletale, “Gaz’s flirtin’ on th’ job!” Gaz spins around to take a swing at his fellow Sargeant while Price sighs and Ghost tilts his head back, probably asking for patience.

“You chose that,” Price reminds Ghost as the Sargeants start a stupid slap fight. You and Ogun share a look before deciding to wait for the pair to settle on their own before asking for more information on your potential date.

[bts-hyperfixation]

Brotherly Betrayal

A Jeon Jungkook Fanfiction

Summer madness 1/33 You've been dating your high school best friend for three years now, pretty much since you left high school. Lately, though he hasn't been able to make it home from college to see you as often as you both might've liked... His brother, Jungkook, has decided this is completely unacceptable and wants to show you how his little brother should really be treating you.

"Hey! I was watching that asshole!" You huff as Jungkook changes the channel.

"Tough shit, it's my house." He sneers in response.

You roll your eyes but settle back into the sofa defeated. It is his house after all, much to your annoyance. He spends a moment flicking through all of the available channels and you can't help but roll your eyes. If he didn't know what he wanted to watch there was no reason to change over from your show. You make sure he is aware of your displeasure and he glances back at you, clearly annoyed by your display of dissatisfaction.

"Why are you even here? Your loser boyfriend is not even home." He points out.

"He was supposed to meet me here an hour ago, but then his train got cancelled. Your mom let me in, and told me to stay the night." You shrugged.

"Ugh, I hate that she loves you so much." 

You smirk at him.

"You'd think you'd be used to me by now, I've been your brother's girlfriend for three years now, his best friend for even longer." 

"You'd think after three years you might actually love him..." Jungkook trails off, switching his attention back to the TV and leaving you to stew without a comeback. 

You don't really have a response, you know deep down he is right, you just didn't think anybody else had noticed. You really had hoped you would grow to love your boyfriend like that. He had always loved you like that, and at 18 it seemed like an ideal situation, fall in love with your high school best friend, the perfect fairytale story, only it never progressed past fondness for you. Now it felt a little like you were stuck. 

You loved his family (brother excluded) and he meant a lot to you, it just wasn't romantic. 

You stare at Jungkook, studying the smug expression on his face, clearly pleased with himself that you'd finally fallen silent. He finally puts on a K-drama, putting on the subtitles for you automatically and tosses the remote well out of your reach. 

There have been a couple of times recently when you've spent a lot of time alone with Jungkook. Your boyfriend was getting busier and busier preparing for his master's degree in the fall, so he ended up having to cancel a lot of plans last minute. You attended some family BBQs without him, Jungkook being one of the only people you knew well enough to cling to, much to both of your disdain. 

Today was just another addition to the evergrowing list of quality time. 

You must've fallen asleep at some point because it's morning when you wake up... Wrapped in the comfort of your boyfriend's bed. You don't remember getting up and moving but you must've. You shake it off and traipse downstairs where you can smell breakfast being cooked. 

You expect to find Mrs Jeon at the stove but are treated by the well-toned, naked back of Jungkook.

"Can you at least pretend to keep your eyes off of me? What would my family say if they saw you so openly pining for me?" He asks turning to face you.

You spend a second blinded by his abs before your brain manages to reconnect to your mouth.

"You wish Jeon!" 

"And you keep pretending it's my pathetic excuse for a brother you actually want."

It's starting to sound a lot like he is jealous, but that's absurd. Jeon Jungkook has never once shown interest in you beyond a vague dislike the entire time you've known the man. 

"It is your brother I want." You state.

"You've always been a terrible liar." he counters. 

He turns back to the breakfast that he was preparing, the slight smell of burning starting to permeate the kitchen. You can see the way his jaw clicks in frustration as he serves up the slightly charred meal on two plates. 

"Are you jealous?" You ask genuinely.

"Of that twerp? never..." He passes a plate to you.

You eat in silence. He never once looks at you, but you can't stop yourself from studying his features. His brows furrow in annoyance and he stabs at the food with more force than necessary. 

"Seriously what's the problem?" You ask.

He huffs and pushes the plate away from himself taking a breath before he looks up at you. 

"Look, let's not make a big deal out of this, but lately it's been getting more and more difficult for me to be around you..."

"I'll take that as a compliment shall I?" You say sarcastically. 

"That... that's not what I mean." 

He makes his way around the breakfast bar and spins the barstool you're sitting on to face him properly. His arms cage you in, preventing you from turning away from him. 

He just stares at you for a moment, a war raging behind his eyes as he thinks of the best way to phrase his words. You spend the silence really taking in his face. It's been a long time since you've really looked at Jungkook, the last time might've been over a decade ago when it was still appropriate for you to play fight together. You used to take him on single-handedly every time he made a disheartening comment towards one of your friends. Of course, he would immediately flick you away like a little bug, pinning you down until you were the one that apologised, but your friends had always told you it was the thought that counted.

Being the brat you were, you would remain pinned under him for long stretches of time, refusing to apologise until his mom came out and pulled him off of you. 

The way his arms sat on either side of yours reminded you a lot of back then, a lot of the little crush you'd been harbouring for years before you grew up and thought the flame had blown out...

"He doesn't deserve you." That is all he says when his words finally come out.

"Who are you to say what he deserves?" You ask.

"Because I know who he really is, and I know what you're worth. And it's so much more than he will ever be able to give you."

He kisses you before you can organise your thoughts enough to respond. 

It's feverish, almost desperate, the kind of kiss you see in movies when men go off to war when they aren't sure if it's going to be their last. You don't respond. You just let him kiss you but you don't make any moves to deepen the kiss, even if every bone in your body is screaming for you to. This doesn't seem to deter him, his arms sneak around your waist and he lifts you against him. It finally occurs to you that he must've carried you to bed last night. 

Eventually, his lungs give out and he pulls away but his arms don't leave you, he holds you close. You can feel every muscle in his stomach pressed against yours as you are suddenly very aware of his shirtlessness.

"Jungkook..."

"Don't tell me no... please..." He whines, breathless. 

"But... I can't do this to him... and I know you don't want to either." 

"I don't give a shit about his feelings Y/N. And deep down I don't think you do either. Plus you guys have been drifting apart for weeks now. It's finally my time to have you, please don't make me stop."

His hand comes up to your face, pinching your chin between his thumb and forefinger, keeping you in place and looking at him. 

Your heart jumps and you struggle to come up with a way to say no when he is looking at you earnestly. You've never been so lost for words in your life. He is the only person who has ever made you feel this way, and it's always been the same, even when he was barely acknowledging your existence. 

"O..kay." You whisper.

His lips are back on yours in seconds and he is pulling you upwards. Your legs wrap around his waist as he pushes you back to sit on the breakfast bar. His mouth trails from yours, down your chin to your throat, biting gently as he goes leaving little bruises in his wake showing exactly where he has been.

You throw your head back and moan as he sucks harshly just above your collarbone. His fingers dig into your thighs as tries to get impossibly closer to you.  You grapple at his hair holding him to you as you focus on the feeling of him in your arms. He is bigger than his brother, taller, and his hair is longer. The dark curls wrap through your fingers making it so easy to pull him along where you want him. 

You use that leverage to bring his face up to match yours. Instinctively you kiss his nose as it becomes level with your face, and he whines.

"We need to move this upstairs, right now." He groans.

He takes your hand and pulls you off of the countertop. He doesn't lose your hand as the pair of you run up the stairs, past his brother's empty room and into his. You barely get a chance to look around before he is leading you towards his bed, pulling you into his lap as he sits down. You straddle him happily, your legs stretching over his thick thighs. 

His fingertips reach for the hem of your shirt and you lift your arms to accommodate him easily. Slowly his tattooed hand traces over your newly exposed skin as his other arm holds you upright against him. 

"So pretty." He breathes. 

His face dips down to your chest, burying his face into your cleavage. The hand on your back works blindly to remove your bra. He pulls at the front of the garment with his teeth until the straps fall down your arms. He doesn't remove it completely, just abandons the fabric as his teeth return to bite at the soft flesh of your breasts. His tongue circles around your nipples gently. He can't stop himself from nipping at the unmarred area surrounding them leaving even more marks behind as he went.

"Finally mine." He pants in between bites. "Do you know how long I've waited to claim you like this? My brother could never make you feel the way I'm about to."

"You talk a very big game, Jeon. I'm yet to see proof" You grind down against his lap.

He growls possessively and flips you with ease. It winds you slightly. He licks his way down your stomach, only pausing as he reaches your sweats. He pulls them roughly out of the way so his tongue can continue along all the way. You bite your lip just as his tongue hovers above your clit, but he doesn't go any further. 

You can feel his hot breath against you, but he makes no movement to suggest he is going to go any further. 

"I thought you were going to prove it?" You say leaning up on your forearms to take a good look at him. 

"Beg me to." He retorts

His head between your legs looks like something out of one of your dirtiest dreams.

"Have you ever heard me beg? What makes you think I'll start now?"

"Oh, I've heard you beg... through my bedroom wall, late at night when you think we are all asleep. I've listened to you beg him to come to bed and stop ignoring you. I definitely think you can beg me for something we both know I can actually do for you." 

You can feel your ears turning red with embarrassment, if he heard you begging his brother to come to bed, what else has he heard?

"Oh I've heard so much come from that room... the walls are so thin. It's why I know for a fact you are loudest when he isn't even there. It's like you wanted me to hear you. Pretty little slut, you probably knew I could hear you pleasuring yourself." He kisses along your mound waiting for you to speak.

It might be true that sometimes you had spent time masturbating alone in the room next door... and occasionally your mind might have wandered to the eldest Jeon brother, but not even for a moment did you think he could actually hear you. 

"Come on Y/N, don't make me beg you to beg me." He punctuates it this time by smacking your bare thigh, the sound echoing through the room. 

"Make me feel good, please prove to me how good sex can really feel" You whine.

He spanks your thigh again.

"Who are you begging Y/N?"

"You... Jungkook please."

He hits your thigh three more times, enjoying the little whimpers it drags from your lips each time. 

"One more time, Y/N, tell me what you really really want from me." He laves his tongue over the red marks left behind by his hand.

"Jeon Jungkook, I am begging you, please put your hands and tongue all over me. Make me cry from how good you make me feel." You thread your fingers through his hair and direct his mouth back to your awaiting pussy.

He chuckles, the hot air making you shiver as it ghosts against your awaiting heat. He wastes a little time wriggling your trousers off completely, making a show of chucking them to the floor. He then slides off the bed completely, kneeling on the abandoned garment to protest his knees. He strokes down each of your legs softly as he places them on each of his shoulders, the movement deceptively soft compared to his next move of using your thighs to tug you across the duvet towards him. 

Once again his face is perfectly aligned with your clit. His tongue darts out and teases the little bundle of nerves, You jump as he makes contact but his arms wrapped tightly around your legs keep you firmly where he wants you. 

He flattens his tongue against you, running it along the entire length of your folds. He teases your entrance slightly, circling the hole before dipping the tip of his tongue the slightest amount. He moans at the taste and you watch amused as his eyes roll into his head. It doesn't take longer for the humour in your eyes to disappear as he returns his attention to your clit. He sucks hard, occasionally flicking his tongue to create variation. It feels amazing as he focuses only on your pleasure. 

Your stomach ties in knots and just as you're starting to feel a little bit too empty, one of his arms is unwrapping from your thigh. He immediately inserts two fingers inside of you, not even pausing as you cry out from the sudden intrusion. The stretch burns as he hooks his fingers inside of you, pressing directly into the sweetest spot. You cum so fast you barely have time to grab onto the sheets. 

As the feeling washes over you, you start to squirm hoping to stop the onslaught of pleasure, but he won't let you worm away from him.

"Come on baby, you can take more than that." He says before attaching himself to your clit with more fervour than before. 

You can't do anything but whine as he continues his onslaught. A third finger buries inside of you, stretching you more than you're used to. Your hands come down to his hair, clawing at his scalp.

"Say my name." He demands pulling away from you and focusing on the movement of his fingers

"Jungkook."

His thumb begins rubbing across your clit in place of his tongue as his mouth takes up biting the surrounding areas.

"Say it louder."

"Jungkook!"

"Tell me who is the only person that can make you feel this good."

"You Kookie, only you." Something about the nickname makes the man go feral. 

He surges from the floor in between your legs so his face is back level with yours. The hand between your legs doesn't stop, the orgasm building quickly. His pupils are blown and his chin is soaked with you. He bites at your lower lip before kissing you harshly.

He swallows your whines as you cum on his hand for the second time, but still, his hands don't rest. He pushes through that orgasm to tip you over the edge quickly into a third wave. 

"It's too much." You whisper brokenly in between kisses. 

"No such thing as too much pleasure." 

Tears are forming in your eyes when he finally pulls his fingers out from inside of you. 

"Kookie, I feel empty." You complain. 

"You won't for long." He says, you can feel him jostling with his belt but you don't look down, memorising how he looks above you. 

You're positive there has never been a more sinful image on this earth. His long hair is a mess framing his face, his brown eyes look even darker thanks to his lust-blown pupils, and his mouth starting to purple from how hard he has been kissing you. 

You think about commenting on his appearance, despite the fact you likely looked similar. Before you get the chance, his dick is rubbing against your folds as he uses your cum as lube. Your eyes leave his for a fraction of a second, darting down to get a glimpse of his cock as it slides into you.

"Look at me." He snaps. "Don't ever stop looking at me." 

You obey instantly, meeting his gaze as he slowly sinks into you.

Three fingers should've been enough... it would've been with your boyfriend. But Jungkook struggles a little as he pushes into you. You try to relax but it's difficult, it feels so good to have him filling every inch of you. 

His brow furrows and his eyes close in concentration. You reach up and smooth the little wrinkle, the way you'd always wanted to when you'd seen him frustrated in the past. 

He leans into the touch but his eyes don't open. 

"You feel too good." He groans as he finally bottoms out within you. 

He stops for a moment allowing you both to catch your breath. You wriggle a little, Suddenly aware of the fact your legs are still balanced on his shoulders, bending you almost in half. He must notice your discomfort because he immediately moves his arm so you take one of your legs down. Both of you hiss as it causes him to move slightly inside of you. 

"I really thought I was going to be able to last longer inside of you. But you feel way too good."

"I don't think I can take another orgasm." You admit

"You can take whatever I give you," he states.

He begins to pump slowly at first, but he builds speed steadily. His teeth are gritted as he struggles to keep himself together. 

"Play with yourself." He demands and you obey.

It stings a little as draw circles around your clit. You rest the heel of your hand against your mound and you can feel every thrust as your tummy bulges. The tears sting in the corner of your eyes again as you bring yourself closer to the edge. You clench around Jungkook and can feel him start to falter with less confident strokes each time your pussy contracts around him. As you cum he teeters over the edge. 

He groans loudly as he comes down, sliding out of you as carefully as possible. He fetches a towel from his en suite while you wriggle back to put your head on the pillows. He lies down next to you and wipes carefully around your overly sensitive folds to clean you off. When he is finished the towel is thrown in the general direction of his hamper and he lays with his head on your shoulder, arm possessively over your stomach. Neither of you speaks, dozing off slightly.

You're not awoken until much later...

"What the actual fuck!?" Your boyfriend screams from the doorway.

This did have a user name of jjkgurlcedes attached but I can't find them here or on AO3

Ask Box - Please send me thirsty/funny/angsty bts thoughts

Masterlist

Summer Madness Masterlist

[okimsimp2023]

Ok, I decided to create a mini-column for this blog, namely the personal cry of the soul of the simp, or "This character is my wife, and I'll explain why!".

That's right, I will heartily write in posts about why I like this or that character so much! And hardly anyone will shut me up, because this world needs more posts with positive reviews about the Persians. And the first wife who will become my first post will be Jon Arbuckle from the animated series "Garfield and Friends"! I want to talk specifically about Jon from this cartoon, because he appeared in it much more often and showed a character, and I'm afraid to watch 3d animated series based on Garfield. Well, I'll also warn you that the post was created on emotions, so I'll be dumb at times.

Well, I definitely know that the simps will gather under this post… Hello people, I know you are unlikely to pass by this post, because I will lick the character. If anything, you can write your impressions about the character under this post. Maybe you want to add new things or just share your opinion.

He's cute.

Like… Both in appearance and character. He is funny, awkward, clumsy, and most importantly, he is quite a good guy. Yes, he does all sorts of shit or any nonsense, but that's what Jon is all about, half of Garfield's humor is almost based on this, that he's a loser and a hopeless romantic, and I'm not surprised anymore. But in fact, he does this job perfectly, I really love him with flaws than without them, otherwise I would not be perceived by me as a person with flaws and strange hobbies. Sometimes you look at him and think, "fuck, man, how do I understand you…". And yes, to some extent I like pathetic and nervous men, who are sometimes capable of doing crazy things (and he can also whimper).

2. Attitude towards pets.

dilf dilf dilf dlif dlif dlif dilf dilf dilf dlif dlif dlif dilf dilf dilf dlif dlif dlif-

All right, jokes aside, AHEM. But there is some truth in every joke, so he still DIL-

I like that in this cartoon he sometimes appears to Garfield and other pets as a parental figure (although unsurprisingly, Garfield in some cases behaves like a typical troubled teenager, but without whining, and I also find this charming). True, he is not perfect at all, but still he takes care of his dear boys, and in no other way! And he probably has almost the strongest patience with Garfield, lol. Because if I had such a cat, I might not have been able to stand it and would have gone to a mental hospital myself.- But okay, it's too loud about the latter.

3. Voice.

I don't know if I should mention it, but of course I will. For me personally, his voice is like that... Gentle and pleasant.

4. An apron makes a man 20% more attractive!

I don't know why, but I like that when cooking food, he puts on this little apron lol. But that's not the only reason I've highlighted this item, because I also want to highlight his culinary abilities. Because… Dude, he can cook! Forget about those words that he doesn't know how to cook, it's a complete fucking lie. Jon can cook many dishes at once! And this is just for the sake of feeding the cat.

So if you suddenly work late and come home, then you obviously won't stay hungry, because the same tired Jon managed to cook dinner (and most importantly, make it to dinner, otherwise Garfield will finish before you lol).

5. Dancing

I think it's not worth talking about it, everyone has known about this dance for a long time. BUT HEY, I'LL SAY IT. HE WAS FUCKING AWESOME.

His plastic body, smug face, movements, and this shot of him opening his jacket and a tie with his pet on his chest… The dude literally revealed his whole wonderful essence. I mean it… I am an insecure person myself. I would never go out dancing in front of people, because I can't dance and it sucks. BUT THIS LOSER MAN DID IT, AND HE GETS A KICK OUT OF IT! HE DOESN'T GIVE A FUCK ABOUT PEOPLE, HE JUST DANCED. THIS IS MY HOT WIFE EEEEEEEEE-

And that's why this character is my wife. The End.

And I'm sorry that this post came out… It was enough for the little ones, although I could paint everything down to all sorts of little things like interests and other things, but I wrote everything I wanted. For me, Jon seems to have become a comfortable character, and I still don't fully understand why this is so (or is it my hyperfixation). But as long as he makes me happy, I dare not object to anything. And I lived up to the name of this blog, lol.

[biffhofosho]

A Shot Through the Heart

Fandom: Monsta X

Genre: Smut, natch.

Word Count: 17k (yeah, you read that right >.>)

Pairing: Hyungwon x OC

Trope: Anonymous sex, strangers to lovers

Synopsis: “You can’t catch feelings sucking tequila out of a stranger's bellybutton.”

The Vibe: Hopeless romantic OC meets shameless Miami Beach party, sweet and sincere Chae Hyungwon (who’s also a bit of a pathetic loser sometimes, and I love that about him, so that’s here also), probably cringey meet-cute, definitely cringey rom-com title because obvious cheesy rom-com overtones, well-meaning friends who actually have no clue what they’re talking about, body shots, stepping out of one’s comfort zone, instant chemistry, trying (and failing) to keep things casual, unprotected (not-so) anonymous sex (thank you, dramatic irony), far too romantic for what it’s supposed to be, the usual unrealistic rom-com expectations, cute ending because the author is also a hopeless romantic

A/N: Continuing the Wonnie love agenda since no one else wants to do it for me. This was most definitely for me because I’m hyper-obsessive about Hyungwon’s every charming feature and the Unseen promotion as a whole, but I hope you enjoy it, too.

You are here for fun.

As Gwen danced from foot to foot in the raucous line, she repeated the words over and over.

You are here for fun.

With searing clarity, she could hear her roommate Marie as though they were still in the car on their long drive down from New Jersey.

“It’s Miami, okay? You’re not going for a relationship. You are here for fun. Grind up against random hot guys. Make out with a stranger. I love you, but be a little fucking unpredictable for a change. Whatever, just no crushes because, I swear to god, if you even say to me, ‘He’s really sweet, Marie! I could see myself going out with him!’, I will throw up. And if the words ‘boyfriend material’ come out of your mouth, then so help me,I’m leaving your ass in Florida.”

You are here for fun.

She couldn’t even fault her friend for the rant. Gwen formed attachments, real and imagined. Hell, she was about to celebrate her 11th anniversary of fake marriage to Dylan O’Brien even though she hadn’t watched anything with him in it in years. Almost every man she’d ever gone on a date with had been followed with a relationship that left a crater of ruinous magnitude. It drove perennial bachelorette Marie crazy considering she was always the one left behind to rip the empty cookie dough tub from her roommate’s death grip and hazmat the ground zero of all the balled-up tissues.

After the latest of Gwen’s embarrassingly short-lived “sure-thing” relationships blew up spectacularly in her face, her friend had taken her under her wing and planned to show her once and for all “how to put distance between your heart and your lady parts.”

“Let’s have a little fun at men’s expense,” Marie had proposed when she’d flaunted the extravagant hotel deal she’d scored in Gwen’s face.

Now a month later, and here they were, three nights in at a palatial hotel on Miami Beach with a pulsing club in its heart and a raucous party that trickled out onto its grand pool concourse.

Their deal had been a simple one. In exchange for saying “yes” to three bullet points on her roommate’s “good time list,” Marie would pay for the hotel rooms for their bachelorette weekend. The only other stipulation on top of that was absolutely, positively no relationships.

So far, Gwen had passed with flying colors. She’d let a man buy her a drink at the hotel bar, and she’d danced with a few strangers, all without a hint of attachment. The guys were an eclectic mix of hot that had Marie rubbing her hands together and muttering “Taste the rainbow” on ludicrous repeat, but that’s all they were—eye candy. Gwen could compartmentalize that. Her friend’s plan was working. She’d felt beautiful. She’d felt powerful. She’d felt in control of her heart for once. She was ready to conquer one last, more challenging bullet point.

“You’re young, you’re hot, but you’re too damn romantic,” Marie had scolded as she’d helped her friend accessorize before heading down for the night. “Tonight, remember your mantra. You’re here to have fun. You’re not going to invent a backstory for everyone you meet. It’s okay to be a little superficial sometimes.”

“I’m doing pretty good, aren’t I?”

“Killing it, in fact,” the spicy brunette agreed.

“Damnit, I’m still so nervous every time though,” Gwen admitted as Marie had smoothed out her friend’s blonde beachy waves.

“Yeah, I know, babe, which is why I keep urging you to dip your toe instead of deep-ending everything. Contrary to what your Nora Ephron-mutated heart tells you, ninety-nine-point-nine percent of the guys you meet aren’t marriage material for Gwen Goodwin.”

“What about the one who is?”

Marie bent down and kissed her friend’s cheek. “I don’t know, but I promise you this. You didn’t meet him last night, and you’re not going to meet him tonight.”

So it had all led up to this bullet point—a ridiculous line for body shots poolside.

“Come on, you picked the best one on the list! It’s harmless,” Marie had laughed as she escorted her friend into the line. “You can’t catch feelings sucking tequila out of a stranger's bellybutton. Now, I'm going to go hit on that guy over there, and, god willing, have his beautiful, obscene mouth on mine for a bit, and you’re going to spin the roulette wheel of hot and put your beautiful, obscene mouth on someone’s sexy stomach. No regrets?”

“No regrets,” Gwen agreed.

“I’ll have my eye on you, babe. If you need me, text me,” she said as she flashed her smartwatch at Gwen.

“Will do.”

“Have fun! Love you!”

“Good luck!”

Gwen watched as Marie zig-zagged through several clusters of partygoers until she reached her target, a rather burly guy with stupendous shoulders accentuated by a compression tee. Gwen couldn’t see the guy’s face, but she could see her friend’s, and it was lit up with a smile the likes of which she had never seen from the girl. She kept her fingers crossed that things would pan out as her friend hoped.

Meanwhile, Gwen turned back to her line where the shot-takers waited alongside the line of human shot glasses. She was at least twenty people back from the table, so there was no way to know with whom she might be paired. There were just as many women in the shot glass line as there were men, all of them attractive at unprecedented levels. She was grateful she was in the line she’d chosen because she didn’t think she could survive someone of their sexiness putting their mouths on her stomach.

That’s when her eyes fell on him, the shot glass with the round face and flushed lips. He was tall and slender, dressed unassumingly for someone in his decidedly sexier line. He wore a plain black tee and a pair of slim fit jeans on legs that seemed double the length of the rest of him. Other than a few silver rings on his spindly fingers, his only accessory was a pair of now-pointless sunglasses sitting on top of his fluffy dark hair. There was nothing flashy about the guy, yet she somehow wished she had a pair of her own sunglasses just to look at him.

His toned arms were stacked loosely over a wide chest that pulled the tee at his shoulders. Pretty as he was, the man didn’t talk to a soul; if he knew any of the people around him, he didn’t let on. Instead, those big, inquisitive eyes busied themselves scanning the party like a prairie dog.

He looked at her suddenly then, and the weight of his attention made Gwen’s ankle give out in her stupid high heels. She wobbled back with a yelp, but, luckily, the girl behind her caught her elbow and helped her regain her balance.

“You all right?” the girl asked.

“Yeah, yeah,” Gwen mumbled along with an apology and her thanks.

“Walk much?” said some generic bro a few people back in line, and it felt like everyone at the party was looking at her.

Humiliated, Gwen risked a glance over at the shot glass, but he seemed to be the only one who had turned back, though she couldn’t help but think that a proud smile tugged at his lips.

She would give just about anything for her pajamas and a romantic comedy right about now. She contemplated slipping out of line and heading back to her room, but she’d have to clear it with Marie first because she didn’t want to just leave her friend in such a big crowd of strangers, so instead, she stayed the course with plans of making a hasty retreat right after.

As the EDM pulsed across the party deck and the palm trees shimmied overhead in the steady sea breeze, the lines dwindled quicker than she ever expected.

And of course, it was becoming abundantly clear that, short of someone passing out or running off at the last possible second, Gwen was going to be lapping tequila from the navel of the pretty boy with the prettier smile.

When there was just one couple left ahead of them, she thought about offering her spot to the nice girl behind her as a thank you. The ponytailed babe behind the pretty boy sported a crop top and a great set of abs, so technically, it would still be fun for Gwen without the creeping dread, but before she could ask the girl behind her to switch places, she heard the call from the bottle girl.

“Next!”

With a lump in her throat, Gwen approached the table alongside the man in the black shirt. He nodded to the girl behind the table and then to Gwen.

“Hey.”

“H-hey,” she said.

The bottle girl continued all business as she had that night, though she did offer the man a smile she did not offer Gwen.

While she paid for her shot, he climbed onto the bar counter easily and shimmied himself into the most comfortable position the hardwood would allow.

Everyone waited for the hem of his shirt to reveal his stomach, but it didn’t. Instead, he looked to Gwen.

“You want it, you have to do it,” he said with a toothy grin as his eyes flicked to his clothed torso.

Gwen glared at his stomach and then at his face. “Excuse me?”

He laughed and waved in surrender. “I’m kidding, just kidding!”

But it was now patently clear he knew he’d been the reason she’d stumbled, and she wasn’t going to let him halt her momentum.

You are here for fun.

Finally, the attendant grew too annoyed to keep her mouth shut and griped, “If you’re not going to take the shot, I have to—”

“Okay, okay, I’m doing it,” Gwen insisted, though she’d meant it more for her shot glass than her bartender.

With a glower at the long man stretched out before her, she pushed his shoulder back so he flattened out on the table, the grin still playing at his luscious lips finally disappearing with her determination. Her fingers curled around the hem of the t-shirt resting far too near the apex of his thighs, and, slowly, she pushed it up his abdomen. She could have just yanked it up, but she wanted to punish him for his teasing as much as she wanted to savor the reveal, so she let her palm drag across the yielding skin of his stomach.

A swath of flawless flesh appeared beneath her, tensing instinctively along the path her hand had set. Like the rest of his features, it was soft and inviting. He didn’t have washboard abs like many of the men who’d showcased on the table already; instead, she found a narrow waist flaring broader and broader the higher she pushed the shirt up his chest. His freshly tanned skin featured the gentlest dips and smoothest waves of skin she’d ever seen. His navel was delicate, cute even, though she’d never considered a bellybutton particularly cute before. All of it made Gwen’s throat feel far too dry.

The bottle girl didn’t even try to hide the way she chewed her own lip, but she poured a shot of crystalline liquid into the appetizing little divot anyway. Gwen’s shot glass laughed, borderline giggled, at the sensation, sending a slender river of booze cascading over his naked waistline.

“Cold,” he confessed.

“You’re up,” the bottle girl said to Gwen with a bitterness she also didn’t try to hide.

Gwen nodded and stole a quick glance at the man’s face. He’d propped his head on his hands now so he could watch the show and grinned so hard she expected his laugh to follow any second.

Her brow wrinkled. If he was going to play games with her, then she could damn well return the favor. Gwen splayed her hand at the hem of his jeans, her fingers spread between the contrast of silken flesh and harsh denim. She bent over and pressed her bottom lip into the pouch of skin at the edge of his navel and closed her top lip around it to form a seal. She sucked quickly, a little of his skin suctioning between her lips.

The man gasped, and his hand clasped reflexively to the back of her head as she drained the last of the liquor from his navel. The urge to kiss his tummy overwhelmed, but Gwen fought it off, though she couldn’t quite stand up with his hand still in her hair. Instead, she rolled her head to the side and caught his eye. The motion surprised him, and he yanked his hand back.

Gwen stood up and licked every honeyed droplet of booze from her lips. He tried to sit up, too, but distracted by the trail of her tongue, his hand slipped in an errant splash, and he fell back onto his elbows. It was her turn to savor a proud smile.

“One more?” asked Gwen hopefully.

He didn’t hesitate. “Okay, sure.”

“Another shot please,” she said to the bottle girl, thrusting out her card.

“Sure,” said the other woman with a well-practiced smile. “See you shortly.”

“What?”

“You can buy another shot, but you’ve got to hop back in line.”

“But we’re already here?” Gwen noted with a poignant look at the man’s exposed stomach.

“Not how it works, sweetie. See you in a bit. Next!”

With a resigned sigh, Gwen rejoined the crowd. There was only a slim hope of being paired up with the same guy again, but not knowing what else to do, she followed the snaking line to the end only to notice the man was nowhere to be found.

Gwen looked for Marie, but the crowd had swelled as the night had worn on, and she couldn't find her friend anywhere. No doubt, the girl was twirling in some random hot guy’s arms somewhere in the thicket of dancers at the other end of the concourse, but Gwen didn’t really feel like braving all those sweaty bodies.

You are here for fun.

It had been fun, she realized, but it was so short-lived that now that it was over, she also realized how little fun the rest of the night had been in comparison. Rather than spoil Marie’s good time, too, Gwen made her way to a poolside recliner and sat down to people-watch.

There were hundreds of beautiful people here, not that that was a surprise; short of some place like Los Angeles, she wasn’t sure where there was a more concentrated percentage of objective hotness. Everyone rocked a beach-ready body, many still clad in their actual swimsuits, and thanks to the tropical air, they all smelled of a perfume of sunscreen, booze, and sweat. Laughter and cheers crescendoed around her as drinks were downed and the music pumped up. Tiny asses nestled in gyrating groins as limbs snaked up and down strangers’ bodies.

But as much as there was to see, the truth was the one person Gwen wanted to watch was gone.

Another ten minutes or so had passed with her eyes firmly fixed on the body shot lines, but her shot glass never reappeared, and she found herself so painfully far from the “fun” she was supposed to be having that when a new guy sat down beside her and started to chat, she decided to invent a new backstory of her own considering Marie had banned her from inventing them for bachelors she’d met.

“I only found out mid-way through the pregnancy that my cousin was having my fiancé’s baby. So I said ‘screw them all,’ packed my shit, and drove straight down here to start having some of my own fun for once,” proclaimed Gwen with a whip and toss of her hair over her shoulder.

“Heavy,” said the bearded man with a smug, approving nod next to her, and she snickered to herself at the anticipatory predatory flash in his eyes.

But her fun at the stranger’s expense was also short-lived when she heard over her shoulder, “That’s some story.”

Gwen swiveled on her chaise to find the lithe stranger from the body shot line holding a mostly empty bottle of tequila with a spout already stuffed in its neck.

“Oh, hey,” she fumbled. “You’re still here.”

“I am.”

An awkward silenced stretched between them as she scrambled to figure out which version of herself she was supposed to be presenting.

Miraculously, the bearded man saved her at the last second. “Is this your friend?”

“Best friend actually,” said her former shot glass, “here to make sure she has all the fun she wants.”

Knowing his window had closed, the bearded man nodded and faded back into the crowd without so much as a wave goodbye, not that Gwen had room to spare another second for him now that pretty boy had returned.

“Was any of that story true?” her handsome stranger asked.

Gwen shrugged. “The having fun part is true enough. The rest might have been part of said fun.”

He smiled gently, his cheeks two kissable meringues as he added, “Sorry about before.”

“For what?”

His eyes cast down her leggings to her feet. “Is your ankle okay?”

“Oh.” Gwen wrinkled her nose and protested weakly, “Hey, that wasn’t you, you know.”

“No, of course not.”

“It was these stupid heels. I’m more of a sandals girl. I’m just not used to wearing them.”

He nodded though he was clearly suppressing a laugh. “I see. So I’m off the hook?”

Gwen cocked her head in mock consideration as she eyed the bottle in his silver-clad hand. “That depends. How are you going to make up for exposing a very tragic girl after she thought she’d gotten away with it?”

One of those rings clanked emphatically against the glass, ringing even above the club music. “What about offering a second shot like you wanted?”

He waggled the bottle for effect, the liquid inside splintering the pulsing lights.

Gwen squinted at him. “How did you…?”

He brought his finger to his lips and bent down to her ear. Thanks to the blaring music, even this close, he nearly had to shout, “I stole it.”

“What a rebel.”

“Yeah, well, I’m really motivated.”

“Uh, okay, sure. I guess that’s fair.”

“Good, because I’m all about fair. Come on. I’ll find us somewhere where you can take it.”

The innuendo simmered between them until Gwen’s thirst had expanded beyond the restraints of mere drink.

“There’s a lounger right here?” she suggested as she looked at the chaise, but he shook his head.

“That would draw to much attention. I’m a rebel and thief now, remember?”

“Oh, yeah, of course. How could I forget?”

“Maybe we can head out to the beach, or,” the stranger hedged slowly, “I have a room upstairs if you want?”

His tone was matter-of-fact, considerate even, yet sin infused his bottomless brown eyes. It was a proposition Gwen had never considered. She was a fall-in-love not a fall-in-bed kind of girl.

But.

She was not going to fall in love on this trip, and she had never seen a man who looked like this one.

She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear as she pretended to mull it over and shrugged a shoulder to sell the act, though there had only ever been one possible outcome the moment her eyes had met his.

“Maybe it’s better if we go upstairs… I mean, we don’t want them to lock you up and throw away the key.”

“I appreciate that,” he said with a smile that left little doubt how well he understood everything.

“Let me just make sure my friend is okay with it.”

He nodded, unfazed. “I’ll do the same.”

Both of them pulled out their phones, and Gwen sent a quick message to Marie.

When Gwen put away her phone, she found the man waiting with an expectant, squishy grin on his face.

“Is your friend all good?” he asked.

“All good. What about yours?”

He motioned through the crowd back toward the hotel, and as they walked, he said, “They’re all good. Turns out they all knew already. The friend who helped me distract the bartender told the rest of them anyway, which I should have figured, I guess.”

Gwen perked an eyebrow. “They knew when I didn’t, huh? You’re not just a rebel, but a cocky rebel.”

Her companion laughed and rubbed the back of his head in his chagrin. “Maybe I’m just more of a hopeful rebel. Or a lucky one seeing as I almost lost my chance.”

She laughed now, too. “Who? That guy? No way. I think I was just amusing myself since I was bored.”

“Bored? Here, I half-expected I’d find you back in the body shot line.”

“Well, I whole-hoped I’d find you back in it, too, but since you weren’t there, that poor guy had to hear a story I’m pretty sure I stole from a soap opera.”

Her companion smirked. “I guess that makes you a rebel and a thief, too.”

“I guess so.”

They chatted easily across the busy pool deck and all through the lobby, but the second the elevator doors closed them in alone together, the conversation clotted up. It was a long and mortifyingly unbroken trip to the twenty-second floor, and the only sounds were the shush-shush of the elevator and the dull thunk of the bottle as he tapped it against his thigh.

Suddenly, he cleared his throat. “Uh, kind of embarrassed to admit this, but it occurs to me I don’t know your name. I’m—”

“You know, let’s keep it that way for now, okay?” Gwen interrupted with a tight smile.

“Huh? Oh, sure, sure…” he agreed though he couldn’t have looked more floored.

“It's nothing personal. Actually, that’s sort of the point. I have a tendency to get carried away. It’s a long, boring story, ha. And a lot less colorful than my made-up ones.”

“I'm a good listener.”

“Yeah,” she said solemnly, “I can tell that about you. Which is definitely why I need to keep things firmly in the here and now.”

“Live in the moment, I can get behind that.”

“Cool.” Gwen turned hesitantly to him just as the doors to the elevator split wide. “So, is that okay with you? Because if it’s not, we’ll just toast to this super awkward elevator ride.”

The man motioned for her to go ahead of him into the hallway before he added, “I’m not the kind of guy to turn back.”

I can tell that, too… she thought resignedly.

He led Gwen down the chic hallway to his room, where she stopped short and pulled out her phone.

“What’s up?” he asked.

“Just letting my friend know where I am.”

“That's smart,” he said with a nod. “I’m on notice now, huh?”

“You got that right, buddy.”

They shared a laugh, and again, Gwen was struck by how brightly the man’s face glowed and how engaging his laugh was. Another thought popped into her head just then.

“Speaking of...” she started as she raised her camera. “Smile?”

Without a trace of surprise or curiosity, he did, and it was so blinding, it threw off the exposure in her phone, which gave Gwen the perfect excuse to snap a few more.

“How did my mugshot come out?” he asked and craned his neck to steal a peek.

“You’re a matter of public record now, sir. But I imagine it will be the first mugshot to grace the cover of Vogue.”

“Nice.”

She stashed her phone without hitting send, with a small grin for her white lie. For some reason, Gwen couldn't bring herself to share him. But he didn't need to know that.

Meanwhile, the man fished his key card out of his too-tight jean pocket and ushered her inside. He took off his shoes as soon as he walked in, much to her relief, since it meant she could finally get out of her damn heels. When she looked back up, she was at a loss.

“Shit…”

His head whipped toward her, eyebrows pinched with concern. “Everything okay?”

“I mean… Your room is so much nicer than mine.”

He clutched his heart in mock relief before he said, “What’s your room like?”

“Not like this. Small and bayside. You have a balcony!”

“Oh, uh, yeah. It’s my friend’s bachelor party this weekend, so we all kind of went all out, I guess. You want to go out?”

“Hell yeah, I do!” Gwen squealed. She made a bee line past the enormous bed and whisked open the door.

The wind was stiffer twenty-two floors up, and it bombarded her skin, fresh and salty and a little sticky but uplifting. She breathed in deeply, a smile splitting her face. The half-moon shimmied across the Atlantic swells in time with the electronic beats filtering up from the party at the pool below. She couldn’t help herself—she waved at the partygoers even though they were far too small to see much this high up.

“Aw,” her companion said sweetly. “Waving to your friend?”

“Yeah,” replied Gwen with a blush. “Not that she’ll see me.”

He joined her in leaning on the railing and waving at his friends, too. When he looked back up, his smile shifted slightly, less silly and a lot sultrier. She cleared her throat lightly and headed back inside.

With her back to the huge bay windows, Gwen could finally take in the rest of the room. It was modern and cloaked in the same jeweled beach tones of her own, but it was much more spacious, with a desk and a sofa plus a pair of chairs, while, to the left behind a half-wall, the enormous bed stretched out beneath a large padded headboard.

With a tiny yelp, her companion scrambled over in a hurry to straighten the still-crumpled covers and even out the pillows.

“Sorry,” he mumbled as he worked, “I wasn’t expecting company.”

“It’s fine. It’s not like I make my bed on vacation. Or ever really.”

Gwen meant it, but that didn’t mean she could shake the undeniably sexy implication of those tossed sheet or the image of this beautiful man stretched out naked and languid in them.

Still, he dressed the bed as quickly as he could and turned around with a flushed face. Again, he mumbled, “Sorry.”

“No worries. Hey, do you care if I use your bathroom?”

“Sure, it’s right around there,” he replied, gesturing toward the other side of the bed.

It was really just an excuse to see how much fancier it was than her own, and it did not disappoint. Instead of just a shower stall, there was a huge walk-in surrounded by glass, and instantly, images of fogged windows with desperate hand smears flitted across her mind. Just around the corner was a deep jacuzzi tub that conjured just as many filthy thoughts.

This was progress, Gwen thought. Her libido was on overdrive, which meant she could safely put her heart in the backseat. She looked at herself in the mirror. Her waves had regrettably frizzed, and she’d sweated out a fair bit of makeup, but it did make her skin glow, even under the harsh LED lighting. After a quick freshen-up and a primp to make her chest is best perky self, she returned to find the man waiting in front of the main window, adjusting the tuck of his tee in his tiny waistline.

There was just something about him—his every gesture was sweet and sincere, completely without artifice. And just like that, her heart was threatening a comeback.

You are here for fun.

Gwen shuffled in with a short wave. “I think your bathroom might be as big as my hotel room.”

He grinned. “I think it’s bigger than my apartment honestly.”

“You mean you don’t live like a high roller every day?”

“Actually, I moonlight as a broke New Yorker.”

Oh shit, he’s not far from you, Gwennie…

“You’re ruining my fantasy of the millionaire playboy in town for a big business deal.”

“My apologies,” he joked with a bow.

“So, when’s the wedding?”

He cocked his head, and it was painfully cute. “The what?”

“Your friend’s wedding.”

“Oh, next month.”

“And the groom’s not going to be mad that you’ve abandoned him?”

The man smirked. “On the contrary. Pretty sure he’s looking for any excuse to get rid of me.”

“You really are public enemy number one, huh?”

“Oh, yeah, undisputed.”

As they came down from their laughter, Gwen realized how close they were standing. This close, those lips loomed like a full moon, and she basked in their plumpness. The heat between them brought the intoxicating tendrils of his cologne forward, a fresh brightness that matched his smile, though it occurred to her he may have stolen a moment to reapply it while she’d been in the bathroom. The thought made her swallow hard.

“You’re easy to talk to,” he confessed abruptly, and Gwen tensed all over.

You are here for fun.

“Even though we haven’t really talked about anything?” she retorted.

He shrugged one thick shoulder. “Maybe that’s why. I’m kind of a wallflower at parties. I mean, that whole body shot thing was just a dare from my friends anyway.”

“Mine was like that, too!” she blurted and immediately regretted it, the way he seemed to soften all over. It wasn’t just how gentle his already-round features looked, but he relaxed against the desk into a cool lean as his usually petal-shaped eyes widened with interest.

No backstories, Gwennie, she scolded herself. Put that distance between your heart and your lady parts!

“So that’s how it happens, huh?” she continued in a sultrier voice as her finger stroked the neck of the bottle. “You do one dare, and now, you’re a full-blown criminal mastermind?”

His voice had dropped, too, along with his eyelids. “Looks that way.”

“Are you a liar, too?”

“No! What?”

She chuckled and waved the bottle between them. “What about my second shot?”

“Oh, you were serious?”

Gwen gaped at him. “Aren’t you the one who stole the tequila?”

“That was just so I had an excuse to talk to you again.”

Oh no… He was painfully, unforgivably, patently cute. Gwen could practically hear Marie threatening to leave her in Florida.

“Ah,” she said to deflect, “so you did lure me here with empty promises.”

“No! I—"

“I’m teasing,” she assured, and as she studied his saucer eyes, she risked resting a hand on his bicep, which she had to stop herself from just straight up groping when she felt the twitching muscle beneath.

“Sorry,” he said. “I just… I never do stuff like this.”

“Like what? We haven’t done anything.” He looked helplessly at her, and Gwen chuckled again. “Sorry, still teasing. When I'm awkward, I make awkward jokes. I've never done anything like this either.”

“Like what?” he echoed, and they shared a tight smile, but it vanished when he looked at her much softer this time. “Seriously, I don't expect anything.”

You can't catch feelings sucking tequila out of a stranger's bellybutton…

“I know, but I do.” Gwen swished the bottle back and forth, and he offered what she could only type as a giggle.

“You’re right, you’re right. So, um, how do you want to…?”

He spun in a circle until he nearly made himself dizzy, and she grabbed his shoulders to steady him.

“Maybe, um, you should just lay on the bed?” she suggested.

“Oh. Yeah, that makes sense. So, I’ll just…”

“Get on the bed?”

“Get on the bed, yeah,” he repeated. The man spared a quick moment to smooth his shirt over his chest and run a hand back through his thick black hair, which had the most fatal way of feathering back across his forehead in a very regrettable heart shape.

Since the moment she’d met him, the man had possessed a magnetism that had set him apart from all the other hot people at the party, but here in his room, he was borderline pathetic, tromping around like a lost giraffe between the living room and the bed as he emptied his pockets between the desk and the bedside table. When, at last, he was ready, he walked to the foot of the bed and plopped down. He looked back at Gwen with a sheepish grin and comically high eyebrows.

“Ready?” she asked as she raised the bottle.

“If you are.”

She nodded and followed into the bedroom, and the air shifted. In here, it was hotter and even more humid than down at the beach but without the benefit of a breeze.

He sat down at the edge of the bed, and Gwen crawled on the bed beside him. She strategized on how to best take her shot, and while she positioned herself, her knees pressed into the mattress as she sat up, he untucked his shirt and raised it himself.

At the party, body shots had been a game. Here, it was foreplay. Judging from the blackness in his eyes, he knew it, too. He laid back and propped up just a bit on his elbows, which cupped his stomach just the right amount into the sweetest little bowl.

“It’s different,” he murmured.

“Yeah, it is,” she whispered, too, because somehow every thing, every word, felt very loud. “I can take my time now.”

He didn’t say anything. He just waited.

Gwen lifted the bottle, and, as carefully as she could, she tipped it until a golden thread puddled at his belly. He didn’t flinch this time. Instead, he sucked in a breath which deepened the cup at his navel, and she was only too happy to fill it to its tasty brim.

“Perfect,” she said as she set the bottle on the floor. “Don’t move.”

She braced her hands on his thigh and his ribcage and bent forward. Her lips glossed the velvety skin there before she opened her mouth and sucked up the sweet, smooth liquor all too quickly. This time, though, she spared a moment to dip her tongue into the divot, and this made the man beneath her hiss.

She licked her lips and ventured a look up his heaving torso to find him totally expressionless save for his overblown pupils.

“Satisfied?” he asked in a voice swollen with the same darkness.

Gwen shook her head lightly. “Still thirsty.”

But she did not reach for the bottle. Instead, she put her lips to his stomach and sampled a new patch of skin. It yielded beneath her, and so did he. He let out a low groan that tightened the muscles under her lips.

Another kiss led to another and then one more as she nipped and nibbled at the tender flesh. There was something about the man that was simply and undeniably edible, and no matter how much she tasted, she could not get enough. Gwen helped herself all the way up to the delicious flare of his rib cage, and at the swell there, she risked a swirl of her tongue. His head snapped up as he panted out a heavy pair of breaths.

“You're driving me crazy,” he said with a slanted smile.

“I could say the same,” she agreed, and when she brought attention back to his stomach, she noticed a lonely freckle at his hip. Her lips raced to devour it, this time adding a graze of her teeth. He jolted.

“That tickles!” he exclaimed though it was followed by another groan.

Gwen responded with another twirl of her tongue to savor the salt on his skin, and the groan became an outright moan. Emboldened by each grateful sound, her hand slid slowly up his thigh, and soon, it bumped a rigid hill smothered by tight denim.

At the first graze, he jolted again but followed it with a simmering hiss as his hips bucked reflexively into her hand. His eagerness was going to Gwen’s head. She wanted more of his pretty moans. She wanted more of his pretty body.

Her hand moved more brazenly to stroke the outline of the intensifying hardness, but this time, she was the one moaning at the way his bulge filled her palm. Her forehead pressed into that gentle stomach as she rested her lips lazily at his hip bone. Meanwhile, her fingertips traveled up the zipper to the waist of his jeans and swept back and forth before her thumb centered over the button there.

“What are you doing?” he whispered.

Gwen kissed his hip again before she answered, “You told me if I wanted it, I had to do it.”

“Ah, I said that, didn't I?”

“You did. And I want it.”

He sat up higher now, expectation on his face. He drew his lush bottom lip between his teeth, and that alone set Gwen’s blood aflame.

Without another thought, she placed a garland of kisses along the waist of his jeans, and when she undid the button there, her lips raced to taste the secret skin she’d exposed. Dimly, she realized she was getting too carried away on a chance encounter, but she couldn't stop.

She couldn’t stop.

The further her mouth charted down the open zipper track, the more powerful her desire grew. She smelled his cologne here, too, bright like the tropical air but deepening down to dark woods on a second, greedier inhale. And beneath all that was the smell of him.

Too hungry now, Gwen hooked her hands in his jeans and tugged down. He lifted his hips with zero hesitation, and soon enough, she had full access to all that she desired. She swept her hand over the black fabric still sheltering him and felt him lurch. She hummed.

Slowly, she peeled down the hem of his boxer briefs, and his cock sprung up gratefully. Above her, her pretty boy exhaled hard, which only grew raspier as her skin touched his rawness at last.

Gwen’s romantic heart had drawn her to a number of beds over the years, and she’d enjoyed some decent sex in that time, but even without entering her, she knew this man was special. All his skin had been babied, but here, he was silkiest, like satin over marble. One touch was enough to fuel an addiction that sent a blaring alarm of dread to the back of her mind that she might never touch another cock that felt like it was made just to please her.

She danced her fingertips down his wickedly hard length until she got to his base, where she squeezed appreciatively. He hissed and hummed and arched his back before he mumbled something low and deep that she wished she could make out because just the echo of its echo sounded devastating.

Gwen didn’t intend to take things so leisurely—she knew she shouldn’t be—but it seemed foolish to fast forward through what had to be the sexiest man she’d ever met. Her friend’s rules be damned, she was going to enjoy every second for as long as she could make it last.

He was watching her, open-mouthed, as she held him. Their eyes met. Her breath caught.

Gwen wet her lips and pressed them to his hot, red tip and let her tongue curl into the smooth channel underneath. Her beautiful stranger let out the raspiest groan as his face disappeared from her view to sag under the weight of pleasure.

Spurred on, she invited him into her mouth now, shallow at first, but a little greedier with each pass until she could take what she could of him to the back of her throat. When she was comfortable, she found the perfect rhythm to have him singing for her with every eager suck.

And he was so noisy. It wasn’t filthy words or heaps of degradation like she’d heard plenty of times before. Between his moans and the grunts and the achy sighs, Gwen realized she’d never been with a man who had appreciated her more. It was filling her up with not just pride but confidence, and it made her want to ruin him even further.

His hand came to rest on the back of her head, but she quickly plucked it aside and pressed it into the mattress. For the briefest of moments, she released him to mumble, “Stay still.”

His shaky “okay” made her chest feel swimmy, and, instead, he balled two handfuls of sheets. But the man couldn’t help himself. Though he was hanging onto the bed with white knuckles, his hips took to lifting from the mattress, and she had to force them back down, too. She knew with just a little more speed and the addition of a helpful hand, she would get him off in no time, but she was having so much fun.

It didn’t hurt that all his whining was getting her off, too, even without a single touch. Gwen couldn’t remember a time she’d been so wet or so turned on.

Again, the stranger moaned, but this time, he added with a thick rasp, “You’re incredible. You might be my dream girl.”

It was her turn to whimper, but the vibrations traveled not just through her body and straight to her throbbing clit, but they also traveled down his length in a circuit of pleasure. He sucked in a harsh breath through gritted teeth as his legs tensed and struggled in the confines of the jeans still cuffing his knees.

“Can I—” he said before another grunt cut him off. “Wait. Can I just—fuck—can we take these pants off? I want to feel more of you.”

Gwen startled. She sat up on the bed and watched, numb with anticipation, as the man practically had to peel off his skinny jeans. He worked as quickly as he could, but it afforded her a flash of an ass as cute and smooth as his stomach and legs as long and delicate as his fingers. When he sat back down at the edge of the bed, he pulled off his shirt, too.

When she came to his room, Gwen hadn’t really known what to expect. It was clear they would end up in bed, but, for some reason, she never expected them to be fully naked. Now that things had taken a much more intimate turn, the casual momentum she had built quickly siphoned away.

This time, he didn’t lay back.

Here, he sat—breathless, naked, gripping his glistening cock, and staring hopefully at her.

“I’d really like to see you, too,” he asked.

As soon as he voiced his throaty wish, a fresh torrent of lust leaked between her pressed thighs. If she had worn the minidress Marie had pitched, there would have been no hiding it.

Gwen wanted to be coy or funny or anything other than tragically eager for this man, but how could she say no to such hopeful eyes and freckled lips?

With a red face and sweaty hands, she slipped out of her shirt, leaving her in her bra and leggings. She’d been wearing the same damn burgundy lace piece for two years, but now her hands were shaking so badly that she couldn’t undo the last clasp she’d put on hundreds of times.

He smiled knowingly and leaned in to wrap his arms around her. It only took him a moment to rescue her, but in his arms, time had stopped. Skin to skin changed everything. Gwen was spiraling, and the only way to make it stop was to steer into her tailspin.

Their lips met not in a clatter, but gently and with curiosity. Even at first brush, the way his puffy top lip notched into the crease of her lips felt like habit, like it had been there many times before and should return countless more times.

His hands cupped her cheeks briefly before they slid back in tandem to tangle in her disheveled waves. Only then, as he held her fiercely, did his tongue slip into her mouth to their shared whimper. One of his hands glided from her hair, down the back of her neck and over her shoulder, fingertips dancing like raindrops with the same biting chill thanks to the metal at his knuckles. He traced the side of her breast and then its underside all while his lips meshed with hers and his tongue curled deliciously against the roof of her mouth.

Trapped in the riptide of the moment, Gwen reached for him, too. His skin was just as soft at his neck and shoulders as it was at his waist, and she couldn’t stop stroking every inch she could access. He was only too happy to encourage her touches, even going so far to redirect her hand from his ribs to his hair like he wanted her to pet him. She let out a needy sigh that his mouth immediately gobbled up.

It wasn’t a surprise that the man was an attentive kisser. What surprised Gwen was how much she felt in the kiss. He was pouring something into her even as he seemed to drink from her, and she didn’t want it to stop.

She didn’t want it to ever stop.

You are here for fun.

Marie’s voice in the back of Gwen’s head was the ice water the blonde needed to disentangle from her beautiful stranger. Because that was all he was.

A beautiful stranger.

Gwen pulled back. He blinked slowly at her, but she kissed his flushed lips briefly to soften the transition. The hand of hers he’d placed in his hair drifted down his arm to his thigh, and whatever emotion had knitted his brows a moment ago corrupted. With a gnaw of her bottom lip, she slipped off the bed to the floor. His eyes followed.

He didn’t ask Gwen to kneel between his legs, but he didn’t have to. She was getting good at telling exactly what he’d like best—far too good at it.

His thighs were much creamier than the Florida caramel that warmed the rest of him, and as she shuffled into position between them, her hands worked higher and higher up their breadth. His knees tightened at her shoulders. Now that she was shirtless, she had no defense against the zaps of electricity that came with each stolen moment of raw contact.

His cock strained between his hips, the head shiny with lust and the veins pulsing along its length. Gwen gripped his hilt and stroked a few times, and he sighed in relief.

Now that he was sitting up, their dynamic swapped. He loomed over her. Shadows darkened what had always been a bright face. His enormous hands braced at the edge of the bed, firing prominent veins along his forearms. His shoulders corded with heavy muscle previously concealed by his round edges. The planes of his stomach creased as he bent over her. He wasn’t about to neglect even a second of his front row seat.

Gwen brought her lips back to his member and picked right back up where she’d left off, only this time she was noisier. Wet slurps and hungry hums echoed up from between his legs, and with each one, he got a little louder, too.

This time when his massive hand curled around the back of her head, Gwen reveled in it. His nails scratched deliciously against her scalp as he threaded her hair through those elegant fingers and tugged mindlessly. She was grateful she’d forgotten to strip off her leggings or she would have been dripping shamelessly on the carpet.

At last, she picked up speed, so she closed her eyes and concentrated on her seal around his demanding thickness. Her lips chased her fist up and down his shaft so he was never without a moment of her full attention.

The messier she savored him, the more urgent his whines got and the more he bucked underneath her. The hand in her hair was now a fist full of a makeshift ponytail. Mouth full, she raised her eyes to his face. A swirl of her tongue around his tip was all it took to rip a cry from his hunkered chest.

“Wait, wait, wait!” he demanded and pushed her shoulders back. “Wow, okay, you have to stop. I’m going to cum.”

“That’s the idea,” Gwen replied as she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand.

But the man shook his head. “I want to make this last, and I definitely don’t want to disappoint you.”

“You’re not.”

“Good… Good.”

A pregnant silence fell between them. Both of them considered where to direct the needle of their night next, but he was faster.

“You know, the view from up here really is something,” he said.

“Ha ha,” Gwen said drily, but the earnest look on his face knocked her sarcasm down a few pegs.

“Come up and see.”

He offered both his hands, and once she took them, he helped her up to the edge of the bed. When she was seated beside him again, he kissed her sweetly.

When he stopped, his forehead rocked against hers, and her eyes fluttered open.

“I really want to taste you,” he confessed in a whisper.

Gwen swallowed hard.

“You do?”

“Desperately.”

“It’s just—” she fumbled, painfully aware of the panic in her voice.

“You don’t want me to?”

She didn’t know how to explain herself without pitiful embarrassment. Most of the men Gwen had dated were keen for a blowjob but always had a dozen reasons to move things along right after. Over time, it had given her a heavy insecurity, which Marie had always assured her was utter bullshit, yet still it persisted. Gwen didn’t think she could recover from someone this desirable rejecting her, even if he was a total stranger.

“No, I mean, yeah, if you really want,” she blundered, “but… it’s just—”

She bit her lip, and he cocked his head patiently. His hand squeezed her knee, and the words came tumbling out of her mouth.

“I’m kind of a mess down there.”

“Yeah?” he said hopefully—to her complete and utter shock. “Come on, you can’t tease me like that. Now, I have to taste you.”

“What if— It might take me awhile,” she admitted from behind her hands.

Gently, he lowered them from her face to her lap, where he held them like a friend, though his hooded eyes and honeyed voice told a very different story.

“I hope it does.”

Gwen gasped and closed her eyes to steady herself. “What about you?”

He laughed. “This is about me.”

The best she could manage was a slow nod, but that was all the stranger needed.

He dropped to his knees on the floor and spread her legs enough to rub his huge palms up her thighs and back down again. The more he soothed her, the more her legs parted on their own so he could sit taller—and closer—between them. On the next sweep up, his hands lingered at the crest of her thighs so his thumbs could stroke over her swollen sex still imprisoned in her leggings.

“Feel good?” he asked.

“So good,” she replied as she collapsed onto the mattress and threw an arm over her eyes.

“Good. You can watch if you want, you know.”

“Yeah, I’m not sure I’d recover from something like that. You’re, like, the hottest guy I’ve ever seen as it is. That might actually ruin me for life.”

He chuckled, but it was tainted with pride. “Maybe that’s the idea.”

Gwen shot up to her elbows to argue, but that was the exact moment the man wriggled his slender fingers under her waistband and then her underwear to peel them both off. Cold air attacked her core, and though it was a relief to finally be free of her sticky prison, she was unprepared for the pad of his finger to graze over the seam of her lips. She shivered and whined.

He hummed. “You’re really feeding my ego here, sweetheart.”

His thumbs resumed the same stroke as before, but since it was over her bare lips this time, the intensity amplified exponentially. Each wave parted her folds a bit, and there was no escaping the knowledge that her arousal leaked heavily every time.

“What a pretty sight,” he murmured.

Foolishly, Gwen stole a look at the man, and the image of his keen eyes fixed on her wet cunt branded her brain just as she’d feared. She whimpered, zipping her bottom lip between her teeth to near shreds as he played with her.

She felt the first brush of his lips against her not in the careless rush of an obligation but as a leisurely kiss of a seasoned lover. There, his mouth lingered only to part for his purposeful tongue. He licked up along her seam once—twice—and on the third pass, his fingers parted her core wide. The exposure had her keening mindlessly, but when his tongue swiped through the secret skin, she cried at the top of her lungs. Her arm pressed over her eyes hard enough to create starbursts behind her lids while her other arm pressed over her mouth.

For just a moment, he pulled back. Another burst of cool air blasted her core as he hummed again, this time dreamily. “Perfect.”

He kissed the meat of her thigh once, and then drove on heedlessly. He teased her entrance for a moment before he swirled that wicked tongue around her clit with a mind-numbing rhythm. Through all of it, Gwen sank deeper into pleasure. As vocal as he had been, she managed to outdo him even with her makeshift gag. It was completely mortifying but also completely out of her control.

He didn’t try to stop her writhing or her moaning. Instead, he used them both to his advantage. Whenever she squirmed, he chased, and it made the promise of release a near certainty.

It was incredible. It was terrifying.

It shouldn’t be this easy. It had never been this easy before.

Gwen felt the blossom of his lips nibbling at her aching clit, and before she could brace herself, he’d taken her in his mouth. It wasn’t just his delicious suction that made her lungs seize but the way his tongue undulated across her eager bud.

And then he pressed a fingertip to her entrance.

Gwen’s hands flew to the sheets and dug into the mattress. Her head snapped up as she screamed, “Oh my god!”

Her eyes flew open. He was waiting.

Damn heart-shaped hair and damn heavy eyes stole what was left of her sanity right before he eased his finger inside her.

At least the unprecedented bliss gave Gwen the small mercy of forcing her flat to the bed. Her back arched, her nipples tightened, and her voice gave out. The only thing she could do was pant like some unbound creature.

His fingers were so long—world-record long, she thought drunkenly—and they explored parts of her she’d never even known were there. He didn’t race through her either, but primed her the same as she’d primed him, the devil. In only a matter of a few plunges, he knew her in ways she’d never even known herself.

In and out, in and out, he pumped that perilously long finger, each stroke sealed with a kiss of metal and knuckle. Her body hungered louder and messier, worse even than she’d promised him. Her shameless pussy dribbled like it had never been touched before, and Gwen was very, very glad she could hide in the crook of her arm.

And then he added a second finger.

The stretch was vision-whitening, the depth dizzying, but still his tongue insisted on speeding her to her ledge. Even with her face covered, she turned away because looking at him was like risking looking into the sun.

“I’m going to— I’m going to—” she stammered.

His mouth lifted then, but before Gwen could protest, he brought his other fingers to her clit. There, he kept a thorough pace just shy of what she needed. No doubt, he knew it just as she had known it with him, but with the tables turned, it felt unexpectedly cruel.

As if to contradict that, he tenderly kissed her thigh, and basic instinct drove her to look at him.

He smiled at her, and, with grit in his voice, he asked, “You going to cum for me, beautiful?”

“Yes!” cried Gwen, shuddering on his fingers. “Yes, yes, yes!”

His fingers moved faster now, across her throbbing hill as well as inside her. Pressure like she’d never felt built between her hips. It was hard to breathe. It was hard to think.

And it all happened faster than she could ever have imagined.

She unwound.

Eyes winched shut, Gwen tore at the sheets as she arched, every muscle clamped in ecstasy, before everything released and she slumped glassy-eyed onto the mattress. Somewhere below her, she heard a little refrain of happy hums and dimly felt the slick circle of a tongue collecting all that she had released.

She panted as she came down from her high, her arm flung over her face once again, feeling everything and nothing all at once. As she worked to center herself, Gwen shivered.

“That was the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen,” said the stranger who was once again idly massaging her thighs, this time with the most delicious domesticity. “You kind of glow when you cum.”

“Oh, shut up!” she wailed as she curled into a ball.

“What? Sorry, but I mean it. You do this cute little thing with your toes, like a kitten paw.”

Gwen heard him pantomiming something in the sheets, but she was too busy cringing into another universe, one where she’d kept at least a little of her dignity. She burrowed her head deeper into her arms to fight back how endearing she found him.

“Hey,” he said with the sincerity of concern. “You okay?”

“Mm-hm.”

“You liked it, right?”

Gwen peeked out through a small window behind her arms and found the man seated beside her on the bed. He looked down at her with eyes no longer blackened exclusively by desire but softened with care. She bit her lip and lifted her head as she held his gaze.

A beat passed before she said, “I loved it.”

“Well then, if that’s the case…” he said softly.

He leaned down and kissed her as lightly as a feather brushing skin. When he pulled back, there was the sweet temptation of darkness tinting his eyes once more.

“Will you let me inside you?”

“Why did you have to say it like that?” whimpered Gwen as she flopped back onto the mattress.

“I’m sorry,” he said though he sounded anything but. “Is this better? Please let me fuck you.”

She hissed. “You’re a terrible, terrible man.”

“Yeah, but I’ll make you feel so good, and I did ask nicely.”

“You did…” she murmured as she leaned up.

Their lips barely had time to fully enmesh because he had to help guide her up to the pillows since the only thing she could manage for the moment was a beached fish, half-hearted wiggle.

If Gwen thought she’d have a moment to recover between heated kisses, she was dead wrong. He caged her in beneath him, his heavy cock thudding unmistakably against her mound as his body flattened against hers. Her legs spread instinctively. Perhaps she should have taken the many, many hints that she would never have any control over herself with this man, but the way her body simply opened for him was more than a little pathetic.

At first, she threaded both hands in his hair, and he groaned into her mouth, but every little thing he did made her restless for more. She kept a hand fixed in his hair while the other now squeezed and groped the length of his back. Even if she couldn’t see it at the moment, his shape drove her wild. Not only did his definition heat her hotter than she’d ever felt in her life, but, fully pressed against hers, his skin was as decadent as cashmere.

His member, on the other hand, was as heavy and demanding as a stone on her mound. Every time he rutted against her, the base of his shaft brushing her engorged folds, she lost a little more of her sanity. She could probably cum again just like this, completely empty and yet feeling so fulfilled.

They passed some time in each other’s mouths without further expectation, but the weightier his cock pressed, the more impossible it was to ignore her basest needs. As he’d been able to do all night, he read her easily.

Unwilling to leave her lips, he groped blindly at the nightstand until he’d found what he was looking for and had to break their kiss. He held up a condom, his eyebrows up on his sweet, swollen-lipped face with the unasked question.

“Forget it,” Gwen said with a huff. “We’ve already crossed the line, I’m on the pill, and I really just want to feel you.”

“Oh, shit, are you—” he said, but she cupped his cheeks and kissed him hungrily.

She was being stupid, but the fuck if she cared.

Gwen whimpered with every sweep of his tongue, but those gave way to hitching cries as his long fingers trailed from her cheek down her arm to her hip where they danced in unreadable designs across her flesh. It was so playful, so charming that her heart fluttered to a totally different rhythm than it had all night. And that was dangerous. She needed to move this along at last.

You are here for fun.

Her hips jerked beneath him, tilting up in a kiss far filthier and needier than even their mouths’, and he pulled back with a ragged hiss.

“You are so wet again,” he growled with a glance down between their bodies.

“I can’t help what you’re doing to me.”

He cocked his head to the side, looking handsomer than any man really had a right. “Yeah?”

“Yes…” she sighed. “You make me so desperate.”

She drove her hips up again, her overheated sex grazing his base once more. His eyes flared, and Gwen felt the urge to cower.

Suddenly, he grabbed her arm and pushed it above her head, pinning it there by her wrist.

Dimly, the bass from the music far below drummed through the walls, but it was little more than a backing track to their tattered breath.

His stare was more commanding, more powerful even than the hot-forged iron branding her just shy of her center.

“I—”

Despite how badly Gwen yearned to hear the rest, he let whatever thought it was simmer on the heavily perfumed air enveloping them. His eyes searched her, from his ring-clad hand clasping her wrist to her sweat-studded breasts and back, at last, to her parted mouth.

He dove back down to her lips with another growl while his other hand fumbled between their bodies. After a moment, his hips lifted, and she felt the blunt head of his cock at her entrance at last.

She needed air to calm her ragged nerves, but thief that he was, he stole everything from her with another nibble of her lips. As his tongue entered her mouth again, he pushed his length inside her walls.

Gwen tore from his kiss to unleash the reediest moan of her life.

“Oh fuck,” he grunted. “Did you feel that?”

She had no idea what he meant, which made it all the more dangerous because she knew exactly what she felt.

Everything.

Why did he have to kiss her just then?

Why did he have to fill her like he was the only one who should ever do it again?

You’re idealizing, Gwennie, she scrambled to remind her sex-saturated mind, but she couldn’t convince herself to stop even if she knew she was. This was a man who was every bit as perfect as her stupid romantic self wanted to believe.

All Gwen could do was moan and grasp the back of his head.

He followed the weight of her hand and pressed his face into the juncture of her neck to kiss her reverentially.

“Go slow,” she implored.

He hummed in agreement and eased his hips back to draw his length to its limit before gliding back in as though he were savoring her. The moment he bottomed out, her mouth fell open in a silent wail. Gwen had never felt so full.

“That’s it, sweetheart,” he murmured. “Open up for me.”

His voice penetrated as deeply as his cock and rendered her putty in his hands.

Each sweep of his hips was catastrophic, but it was even worse since his body smothered hers. It was too much and not enough all at once, and Gwen was glad she didn’t have use of her other hand or she’d have wrapped him up in her arms already.

She thought after the first few strokes that he’d pick up speed, but he seemed content to while away their night just like this. The only change to his smooth rhythm was the rough emphasis he added to his every thrust that drove the air out of her lungs each time. It was like he was trying to drive deeper and deeper and deeper inside of her.

Each penetration afforded her the sexiest view of the horizon of his body, and now that she was this far gone, she lifted her head so she wouldn't miss another moment. He moved with the grace of water, and the current threatened to drown her just as easily. The swell of his ass rose and fell over the heave of his back.

His whines and grunts came back with a vengeance, with the added mercilessness of being uttered along her skin. It was a devastating reminder that as much pleasure as she drew from him, he was just as greedy for her body, too.

“Need to fuck you harder,” he warned in a voice heavy with gravel. “I need to.”

“I want you to,” Gwen echoed.

If she thought this would be the reason he pulled back from this ridiculous intimacy, she was dead wrong. Instead, he stilled inside her as he lifted to his elbows, but it only brought his searing gaze to her. His enormous hand soared up to cup her cheek. His thumb traced her bottom lip before, at last, he planted his hand firmly on the mattress.

His first few thrusts stayed slow, but soon he gained speed and, with it, power. His hips slapped against hers, and each time, it sounded wetter and wetter, but it all should have been louder.

The difference was, now that they couldn’t tear their eyes away from one another, neither seemed capable of making a sound. It was all Gwen could do to remember to breathe.

Harder and harder, he drove into her until her tits were bouncing and each fuck pushed rhythmic, vibrating cries from her. Still, she could tell they were both holding something back from one another.

They knew the moment they ended, whatever this was had to end, too.

His luscious mouth parted. There were words there, half-formed, but those he held back, too, though she starved to know them.

The next thing Gwen knew, he released her wrist to push her knee up and back. The angle shifted, and she had no choice but to rip her eyes from his to watch as his cock disappeared inside her greedy cunt.

She let out a tattered moan before she hiccupped out, “So. Fucking. Good.”

“I want to be deeper,” he answered back.

Gwen’s eyes rolled back in her head. “You’re—ah—you’re already so deep.”

But he didn’t seem to hear her. He dropped to her chest again, his hips rutting truly desperately at last. He buried his face in her neck and his nose in her hair as his lips glanced across her skin in the unintentional kiss that came with every thrust.

“Deeper…” he murmured as though hypnotized.

“Oh my god!”

He hitched her thigh higher up his side so she could feel with devastating consequence the way his ribs flared with every frantic gulp of air.

“Wrap your leg around me,” he instructed.

Gwen dug her heel into the meat of his back, and he grunted, but it still wasn’t enough for him.

“Hold me tighter, please.”

As she’d feared, it was a mistake the moment she wrapped her arms around him. Strangers fucking didn’t embrace. Yet here she was, clinging on with the last of her sanity to his sturdy shoulder blades.

He smelled so good—like sex and summer—and it imprinted on her mind.

“So. Deep,” she stuttered.

The way he stretched her out clouded her mind until the only thing she could find through the fog was him.

How could he possess her so fully but make her so desperate for more of him?

Him.

“Give me your hand,” he demanded in a rush.

Gwen let one hand fall from his back to the bed, and he grabbed it quickly and pushed it up over her head again, only this time, his fingers threaded through hers and squeezed as tightly as her walls squeezed his shaft.

His thrusts switched to shorter, shallower, much faster now. Each time, his cockhead brushed over a spot inside her that robbed her of all sound and all thought. Just like that, he’d reduced her to nothing but quivering nerves and trembling muscles.

Gwen dug her nails roughly into his back same as she squeezed his hand and let him ride her for all she was worth.

Since his cheek pressed against hers, she heard his every grunt in relentless stereo. He was too needy, too desperate. It was only magnifying those same feelings inside her.

Her skin burned with sweat. Her eyes burned from squeezing them against the overwhelming pleasure. Her core burned from the friction of his perfect fucking.

He was panting in her ear, and she could feel the curl of his lip as he snarled.

Gwen moved her free hand into his hair as she clutched his head to her like a lover.

“Baby,” she cried, “baby, I’m going to cum again.”

He let out the most pitiful whine she’d ever heard in her life as his hips spurred even faster.

“Baby.”

The pull was there, starting at her chest and dragging her down.

Down.

Down.

“Give it to me,” he urged, the words nearly broken under the crushing weight of his desperation.

“Baby!”

This time when Gwen said it, it was a strangled little thing, the last breath of a woman before she disappeared beneath the waves.

It was different, cumming with his cock inside her instead of his fingers. Her walls frantically beckoned him to disappear within her, willing him to never leave. She shivered and shook and screamed with the power of a release she’d never thought herself capable.

He fucked her through it all, the smoky curl of his self-satisfied “yes…” unfurling across her skin.

And when at last Gwen had no more aftershocks to give, she laid there too limp to hold on to him at all. Her leg slipped to the bed and her hand from his hair and her fingers slackened in his, though he refused to let her go.

His strokes had grown erratic, each one accompanied by the sloppy sounds of her catastrophic release.

“Where do you want me to cum?” he said hurriedly.

Gwen knew what she wanted—what her body was demanding. She wanted him to fill her up. She wanted this perfectly handsome perfect stranger to cum deep inside her so she should could hold on to a little bit of him even after she walked out the door.

But this was the end—not just of their passionate sex but their time together. If she didn’t put distance between them right now, she was in for an even more terrible fall.

No feelings, just sex.

“My face,” she blurted.

Gwen regretted it instantly. That wasn’t what she wanted at all, and she braced for the humiliation she deserved.

But, instead, he pulled out with a strangled cry and came in the tangle of bed sheets beside him.

“I’m sorry,” he managed between heaves of breath and frantic jerks of his spasming cock. “I’m sorry.”

She watched his broad, glistening back flare as he hid himself from her, and she couldn’t stop herself from reaching out to touch him. Her fingertips slipped in the sheen of sweat there, and his head whipped back toward her.

“I couldn’t do that,” he said dejectedly. “You’re just so pretty, I’m sorry. I know that’s what you wanted, but—”

“I didn’t mean it anyway,” she said. “I don’t know why I said it.”

Something fluttered across his dark features before his brow furrowed, and he turned away again. “Damnit, I should have never listened to my friends.”

Gwen quirked her head even as she covered up with the sheet. “Your friends?”

The man tumbled onto the mattress and spread out like a winded starfish without a single care for his nakedness, and she felt a little shame at the way she ogled that delicious stomach and his softening length now glossy and still leaking onto his thigh.

He sighed.

He was so different now from the dark, intense man he’d been only moments ago. Back was the brilliance that emanated from within that almost compelled Gwen to close her eyes when she looked at him. She could hardly believe it was the same man who’d brought her to two earth-shaking orgasms in no time at all.

“Can I confess something to you?” he said.

Gwen tensed all over, but she managed a nod of her head. “Okay.”

“This isn’t really my thing,” he continued, and her heart plummeted in ways it shouldn’t considering she’d just fucked a total stranger.

“Oh…”

Gwen realized too late how apparent the disappointment in her voice was when the man shot up and swiveled to her, his hands waving in defense. “I didn’t mean it like that, I swear! I mean, I have a hard time keeping things… simple. It wasn’t just the body shot thing that was a dare. Tonight was kind of my friends’ idea. They want me to be more… unattached, I guess?”

“That’s what my friend said, too,” Gwen laughed.

“Really?” He joined her laugh until, finally, his shoulders sagged with a light sigh as he covered his lower half with the sheet at last.

“Yeah.”

“I thought I was doing pretty good there, too, but— That was just so much more than I ever expected—you’re kind of more than I expected—and I really don’t want you to think I was just using you.”

“I don’t.”

“Good. Because…” He paused then, massaging his lips together as his eyes fell to his lap. “I think their dare kind of backfired anyway. Or it’s entirely possible I’m a hopeless case. So… I was wondering if you wanted to hang out tomorrow?”

At this, Gwen stiffened. Her eyes snagged on his naked frame. Though the sheet swaddled his hips and thighs, it did nothing to hide his tummy or his shoulders or his bowed head, nor did it conceal his pencil legs and feet poking sweetly over the edge of the bed. And then she realized they were both tucked under that sheet, and it would be so, so easy to just lay back and fall asleep with him.

There it was again, that urge to romanticize someone she didn’t even know, yet everything about the guy screamed boyfriend—or worse.

Oh no.

Boyfriend.

The one word Marie had made Gwen swear not to use this weekend.

And damned if her roommate hadn’t been right all along. The hard truth was, Gwen didn’t know this man. She didn’t know what he did, she didn’t know his past, she didn’t know his ethnicity or even his damn name, and that was all there was to it. To assign any more meaning to it was every bit as foolish as everyone always reminded her she was.

Dread welled in her stomach and weighted her limbs. The best Gwen could do was offer a tight smile. “I’d really like that, but my friend has our whole day planned.”

“Oh.” He looked crestfallen, but he picked himself up quickly and slipped out of the bed in a shy, awkward rush while trying to keep his modesty with the edge of the sheet still draped around his hips. He stretched out his leg as far as he could to hook the band of his jeans with his toe. He tried to keep conversation flowing even as he struggled with the cutest little grunts very different to the ones that had just been uttered for her ears only. “Oh yeah? Going to check out the beach or the city?”

“I’m not sure,” Gwen said. The truth was they had no plans, but she had to lie because her whole body screamed to meet him again, and if she did, there was no way of keeping things superficial. The man was too cute, too sincere, and far, far too sexy to turn down a second time. “I’m not one for itineraries. I kind of go where my heart leads me.”

He stopped, jeans sagging in hand as he looked at her with a gentle smile. “Yeah, same.”

But then his smile fell away, and he raced to shimmy into his jeans, too in a hurry to even bother with his underwear, and Gwen turned her head and busied herself poking at the remote on the bedside table.

Over her shoulder, she asked, “So, what will you guys get up to then? More bachelor party stuff?”

“I never can tell with them. Even when one of the guys makes plans, the others always seem to change them. I’m just along for the ride.”

“Easiest way to get through life,” she agreed. Gwen wanted to flinch at her own voice, but she didn’t want to call any more attention to her terrible bedside manner than she already had.

In the end, it didn’t matter. The man beside her was too perceptive, and he picked up her cues instantly. “Let me just grab the rest of my clothes and clean up in the bathroom so you can get dressed.”

“Would you mind if I go first? You know, since...”

Maybe if she tried hard enough, her awkwardness could compact her into a handful of atoms, and she could just disappear.

“Oh, of course, duh. Sure. Absolutely,” he bumbled.

Gwen grabbed the haphazard pile at the foot of the bed and practically sprinted to the bathroom where she tried to lose herself in the repetition of cleanliness. At least that was automatic.

Against her better judgment, she checked herself in the mirror. She looked every bit as undone as he had made her, and she hastily combed her fingers through her bed head so she didn’t scream “harlot” when she made her way back through the hallways. She rinsed her face and neck and swished some water to freshen her breath, and when she was done, she felt brave enough to face the music.

When Gwen returned to the bedroom, she found the man dressed as he had been, though all his clothes bore the same noticeable wrinkles and bagginess that hers did.

He smiled at her, and she swallowed roughly.

“Hey,” he said.

“Hey.”

It was agony. She just wanted to kiss him again. She wanted to feel him again. She wanted to hear him in the shell of her ear again.

“So, this was really fun,” she said lamely. “Thanks for the drinks and, you know, everything else.”

He laughed shyly.

This time, as she faced his open complexion and expressive eyes, she had no choice but to be sincere. “I had a really great time.”

“You did?”

She nodded. “I really didn’t expect to meet someone like you either, but I’m glad I did.”

“Ah!” he exclaimed before he unexpectedly bowed to her. “Thank you. I feel the same.”

Gwen burst out laughing, which helped ease the pang in her heart at having to pull away. “You’re cute.”

He shrugged a shoulder and laughed, too, though his was much more forced. He opened his mouth, but nothing came out, and the pair stood there in a stalemate. At last, he took a step back, and she took one forward.

“So…”

“So…” he echoed.

Gwen bit the inside of her cheek roughly in the desperate hope it would wake her up, and, thankfully, the flare of pain combatted the butterflies before they could overtake her. Tightly, she began, “I’m going to head out, I think.”

“Sure, yeah,” he said as he ushered her back into the living room to the door. “Yeah, you probably should. Are you good to walk back to your room? Wait, this is your hotel, right? Do I need to call you an Uber?”

“Yeah, I’m here. All good.”

“Good.”

“Good.”

They exchanged another round of confused smiles before Gwen, fool that she was, lurched up onto her tip toes and placed a kiss on his cheek. When she pulled back, his smile slanted with an irresistible dopiness.

“You sure you don’t want me to walk you back?”

“You probably shouldn’t.”

He nodded as though he understood, but Gwen wasn’t sure she did even though she’d been the one to say it.

“Goodnight,” she whispered.

“Night,” he replied. “Take care.”

He opened his hotel door, and with a nod of her head first, Gwen turned and headed down the hall with the burning notion that he was watching her walk away.

She barely made it to the elevator before she had her phone in hand, intending to text Marie that she was headed back, but Gwen got sidetracked by the memory of what now lurked in her gallery.

She opened her camera roll only to be assaulted immediately by several snaps of his heart-shaped hair and buoyant cheeks framing his dazzling smile.

“He's cute. Is that your boyfriend?”

Gwen’s head shot up. She hadn’t even realized the elevator had stopped to acquire another passenger at some point. The bleached blonde girl smiled, her wild gold eyeliner glinting in the lowlight like some forest sprite sent there just to taunt her.

Gwen locked her phone and stuffed it in her leggings pocket with a shake of her head. “Uh. Oh, no, he’s just a friend.”

“Cute friend.”

“Yeah.”

The elevator dinged at the fourth floor and Gwen nodded to the other woman. “This is me. Have a good night.”

“You too!”

Back at her room, Gwen showered quickly, hoping it would be easier to distance herself from the forbidden word now buzzing in her brain like neon.

Boyfriend. Boyfriend. Boyfriend.

She considered a shower, but that meant too much time to think just as much as it meant washing off the remnants of his cologne. She could do that in the morning once her heart had sobered up from its dopamine surge.

Gwen dressed for bed the same mechanical way she had back in Room 2281, and once she was safely into her pajamas, the familiarity brought the exhaustion in her muscles to the surface. She was only too happy to climb into bed after that, and tired as she was, she remembered to send her text to Marie.

Her finger hovered over the gallery icon again, but at the last second, she forced her phone off and let the night take hold of her.

Gwen woke to banging at her door. She blinked, rubbed her eyes, and sat up slowly since her muscles ached from head to toe. She glanced at the thick drapes and caught the wan strip of light along the edges, but she had no clue what time it was until she grabbed her phone to find that it was just past noon. Even more surprisingly, she noted the slew of notifications.

Nine texts and four missed calls, all from Marie.

The banging continued, and Gwen groaned. “Give me a minute!”

At last, it quieted, and she shuffled like a geriatric over to the peephole. There, warped in the fish eye lens, was her roommate looking the perfect cross between annoyed and desperate. Gwen unlocked the door, and Marie rushed in.

“Finally,” the brunette said. “I was getting seriously worried.”

“I told you I made it back,” Gwen corrected.

“Yeah, but then you didn’t answer me at all, and I thought maybe you were passed out or something.”

The blonde squinted as she studied her friend now pacing the length of the hotel room. “Are you sure that’s it? Seems to me you’re the one who’s not okay.”

Marie shrugged a shoulder.  

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” her roommate said, still pacing. “Everything.”

Still exhausted, Gwen sat back on the bed and waited.

“Shit, it’s just— You know what, let's go to the pool. Maybe it will wash that guy out of my system.”

“That guy? The one from the party last night? Did you have a bad night?”

“No! Worse!” Marie wailed and flopped onto the bed. “He wasn't just scalding hot. He was likable! Ugh, I'm devastated. Catching feelings is your thing, girl, not mine. Damnit, I need a distraction. Tell me about your night. Please, don’t spare a single fucking detail.”

It was Gwen’s turn to shrug a shoulder. “I had fun.”

“So much fun you're not even going to tell your friend a single detail?” But then Marie's eyes narrowed, and her roommate’s skin bristled. “Or you had too much fun?”

“Hey, I slept in my own room last night, thank you.”

Marie whined. “Shit, I know. I must be projecting.”

“So what the hell happened with you last night?” Gwen said, only too happy to turn the attention away from her as she shuffled into the bathroom for her usual morning routine.

“I hardly know. We were dancing and drinking, no big deal, so I figured it was just going to be the usual fun, and it was fun, but, shit, he was just different, you know? He was like one of those lead guys from your movies, all gentlemanly and shit but more, too. Like he’s got secrets, but not the kind you want to run from, the kind you want to know. Oh my god, what am I even saying?”

Gwen smiled. “So, he was hot and charming? How is that different from the other guys you hook up with?”

“Gwennie, I didn’t even tell you about the sex. Shit, the way he moved his hips! There should be a law. And he was so diligent. He knew exactly what I wanted, and I didn't have to say a word, which was good because the only ones I could utter were swears. And I just couldn’t keep my hands off of him, you know? Fuck, not just his muscles, but his hair…” Marie laid there slack-jawed at the memory, her hands pressed over her belly.

“Sounds like you got the unforgettable night you were gunning for.”

“You don’t get it, babe. Even as he was giving me the dicking down of my life, this guy—he was, like, quietly sweet and funny? I don’t know how to explain it. He could just… smile, and it would make me laugh, like, even when he was inside, and somehow that was still super hot, you know?”

Gwen burst out laughing.

“See!” said Marie, gesturing at her roommate as she exploded up from the bed.

“I see,” the blonde teased with a lingering grin.

“What?”

“Nothing, it’s just, you know who you sound like?”

“You.”

“Me.”

Marie sighed. “Shit, I know. You know the worst part?”

“What?”

“This guy asked me to stay after.”

“Oh…”

“I mean, it’s not the first time, but it’s the first time I considered staying. Ain’t that some shit? But what would be the point, right?”

“Yeah…” Gwen said slowly as she thought of her thick-lipped lover. Marie’s unexpected dilemma had been just what Gwen needed to forget the ache in her core and the bigger ache in her chest, but now, it was a mirror reflecting things back far too vividly.

“Shit, huh?”

“Yeah. Shit.”

“You know the only thing to do, right?”

“Don't you dare,” Gwen warned.

But Marie was already up and moving to the door. “We’re going to the pool, and I'm going to find another hot guy because hot guys are a dime a dozen in Miami, right? I'm going to cleanse the palate.”

“Yeah, that's not how that works.”

“Look, I've never thought a guy was husband material before, let alone a one-night stand, so what do you suggest I do, Ms. Ephron?”

Gwen scowled. “Don't ask me. I've been getting it wrong so long that I'm not even sure I could trust myself to know when it was right.”

“Okay then. For lack of absolutely any other plan, this is what we’re doing. Put your swimsuit on, gorgeous. Let’s see how much Vitamin D we can get.”

Gwen sighed, but the truth was Marie’s distraction did help her forget the feeling of being surrounded by the stranger she couldn’t shake, so she slipped into her bikini, fought hard not to open her gallery yet again, and decided to dive headfirst into something new like her friend suggested if only to prove to herself once and for all that she’d idealized everything about last night.

Marie joined her in the hallway decked out in her cutest Miami-approved string bikini, already smelling of sunscreen and Flowerbomb. “Let’s do this.”

The pair chatted about their day and where they might go for their last night in town, all while studiously avoiding the topic of last night. They padded through the extravagant lobby along with a sea of other swimsuit-ed guests, their flip-flops smacking across the marble like theme music, until they emerged into the blistering Florida sun.

The pool looked very different in the daylight. There was no trace of the stage or the bars, and there was certainly no body shot table left out. It was just an ocean of sun-bleached concrete thrusting straight up to the white sands of Miami Beach, broken only by an enormous aquamarine pool, dozens of lavish cabanas, and a manmade forest of towering palms.

“Wait,” said Gwen as she scouted the bustling crowd stretching all the way out to the blue sea beyond, “you want the pool or—”

“Oh my god!” shouted Marie as she squealed to a stop and slipped behind Gwen. “It's him!”

“Who? The guy from last night? Where?”

“There, right at the edge of the pool. The one who’s shaped like a yield sign telling me slow down and give in to him again and again and again…”

“Marie!” she shouted and whirled around to face her friend.

“Oh my god, Gwennie, you have to hold me back or I am going to do irreparable damage here. Shit, shit, shit! I can’t believe I’m the one saying this. Fuck. He's looking right at me now, and he's waving with that stupid cute teddy bear smile, fuck. What do I do! What do I do!”

Gwen grabbed her friend’s shoulders and shook her until Marie looked at her. “What do you want to do?”

“I want to go over there, and I want to talk to him, and I want to hear his whole entire life story and what he wants in a woman, and then I want to take him back to my hotel room and be that woman.”

“Oh, girl,” Gwen laughed, “I never want to hear advice from you about this ever again.”

“That’s fine, just please come with me. I don’t want to talk to him alone.”

“Who are you, and what did you do with Marie?”

The brunette grimaced as she squeezed Gwen’s hands. “I don’t know! Help me!”

“Okay, now, I need to see the guy who broke my friend.”

Gwen turned from Marie toward the pool in time to catch the man who’d unmade her roommate over the course of one night. He was every bit as hot as Marie had described, with a chiseled jaw and even more chiseled abs, and he was indeed shaped like a triangle, which could be appreciated even easier since he was only in swim trunks. His skin had been worshipped by the sun, and he was sparkling thanks to a fresh dip in the pool. He lowered his muscular arm to sweep his fingers back through his sopping wet hair, and somewhere beside her, her friend whimpered.

But the blonde could only spend a fraction of a second on everything else around her because beside Marie’s hunk now was the very man who had unmade Gwen last night.

Time stopped.

He, too, was fresh out of the pool, with a towel ringing his neck and shoulders as swollen droplets rained down from thick, haphazard locks. He was out of breath, his chest heaving from his swim and his pale lips hanging open as he gulped air, just as they had when he’d fucked her to the brink of insanity.

But his eyes were as steady as ever, and they were fixed firmly on Gwen.

“Should we go over?” asked Marie, but her friend couldn’t move.

Instead, the two men began to walk the long perimeter before the bronzed man cut out the inconvenience and hopped back in the pool to wade across. Gwen was pretty sure she’d never again see anything more life-altering than these two shirtless heartthrobs pressing determinedly through the water with the ripples surging around their matching narrow waists.

The pair climbed out in horrible, horrible unison, their wet thighs flexing in time with their arms as water rushed off in diamond falls, and it was all terribly loud in Gwen’s ears. It only amplified when her stranger smiled in his darling tight-lipped way.

They padded across the concrete to the little swath of grass under a palm where the two ladies had been paralyzed.

“Hi, hello,” said the deep-voiced bronzed man. “It’s nice to see you again, Marie.”

“Hey, Hyunwoo,” she replied. Maybe it would sound casual to the strangers, but Gwen didn’t miss the uncharacteristic tremble in her friend’s voice.

“Good day for a swim,” he observed as he glanced up at the sun through the palm fronds and rubbed the back of his neck. “You planning on the pool or the ocean?”

“We hadn’t decided.”

“Ah, is this your friend you told me about?”

Marie nodded and took the chance to cling to her roommate’s hand, and with that, gained some strength. “Oh, yeah, this is Gwen. Gwen, this is Hyunwoo.”

Gwen felt the sharp squeeze at her hand, which was the only thing that made her realize she’d been staring unceasingly at her own pretty boy. She whipped her attention to Hyunwoo to smile and wave, but she could feel the burn of the other man’s eyes until she felt more naked than she had in his bed. She didn’t dare look back.

“Nice to meet you,” Hyunwoo said with that teddy bear smile, as Marie had called it. He turned toward his shirtless friend and added, “This is—”

“Hey!” came an exuberant call from across the pool in one of the loudest voices Gwen had ever heard. There stood yet another handsome man with hair dyed honey blond and chipper eyes waving at them with both arms like a used car lot inflatable. “Hey! Ask them if they want to join us.”

“Minhyuk,” scoffed the remaining stranger with a roll of his eyes, but Hyunwoo shrugged his mouth.

“What do you say, ladies? We have a cabana over there. Lunch is on its way, and we ordered lots.”

Marie giggled nervously and tucked her hair behind her ear. “Yeah, I remember how much you said you like eating. I mean, if it’s cool with everybody…”

The brunette looked desperately at Gwen and squeezed her hand tighter than ever, and all eyes looked to the blonde.

“Sure, that’s cool,” said Gwen though she was anything but.

She was burning under the sun though it was nothing to the way she burned under the magnifying glass of cruel fate. Here, before the gentle gaze of the man she had forced herself to walk away from, everything came into calamitous focus.

His laugh, his easiness, his openness, his beauty. Their chemistry, their connection, their compatibility, their flaws.

Maybe Gwen had been a fool in love an embarrassing number of times, but she realized now that maybe all those mistakes had served a purpose. She could see clearly for the first time what all those men had lacked, and she’d be a much bigger fool to turn back a second time from something that felt undeniably different.

“You coming?” Marie called, and only then did Gwen realize Hyunwoo and her friend were already on their way to the cabana.

Beside her, her shot glass waited, smiling as he always seemed to be in her presence with that delicious bellybutton still glistening though this time it was from lingering pool water.

“Didn’t think I’d be lucky enough to ever see you again,” he said.

“We’re really bad at this, aren’t we?” Gwen laughed awkwardly as she took the lead and followed her friend.

With his long legs, he caught up in a single stride, and together, they walked the long perimeter of the pool without any complaint.

“Bad at what?” he asked.

“Keeping promises to our friends.”

“Nah. Maybe it was just a dumb promise to make in the first place. And anyway,” he said, looking at her keenly over a bare shoulder, “aren’t you the one who told me no itineraries?”

“Oh yeah,” she said with a red-cheeked chuckle.

I go where my heart leads…

“I take it Hyunwoo’s a part of the bachelor party?” Gwen said.

“Yup. There’s eight of us, including the groom and his brother. You’ll like them, just hopefully not as much as you like me.”

She cocked an eyebrow at him. “And who says I like you?”

“I do. At least, I hope you do. Or maybe I’m just trying to manifest it.”

Gwen smiled shyly and nodded. “You’re right. I do.”

“Kind of funny how this worked out, huh? Your friend and my friend meeting up. Kind of feels like…”

“Blind dumb luck?”

“Destiny.” He studied her for a moment and then returned his eyes to the path around the pool. “I was going to say destiny.”

Her heart was beating out of her chest again, but this time, there was no scolding voice inside her head to temper it.

“You’re still cute,” she blurted.

“And you’re still driving me crazy.” His eyes roved over her skimpily clad figure, and he pressed his lips together. “So… Gwen, huh? That’s a beautiful name. It suits you.”

She was not prepared for the way it would feel to hear her name from his exquisite lips.

The front of her flip-flop rolled, and she stumbled forward with a cry and a flail before he grabbed her wrist and pulled her into his arms.

“I’ve got you,” he assured. He stared down at her fondly as she sheltered in the shade of his wide shoulders. Slowly, a smirk crept onto his lips. “Last time, you said it was the heels and you were a sandals girl. What’s your excuse today?”

“I’m clumsy, okay.”

“For everyone or just for me?” he teased. He leaned down, his lips to her hair, and added, “It’s okay if you say just for me. I’m kind of hoping for it.”

Gwen looked up into those brown eyes. The night had brought out their smoky depths, but the day brought out their playful hickory dimensions. So, too, had the merciless sun illuminated the finest spray of freckles dappling his cheek to puffy cheek, to devastating consequence.

“Maybe I’d admit it if I even knew who you were,” she said.

He stopped, and she stopped, too. Gwen looked at him with nervous eyes and an even more skittish heart.

She could forgive herself for all her stupid mistakes if it meant she could just get it right this one time…

Please. Just this once…

He lifted his head, caught her gaze, and closed the gap between them with one big step.

“In that case…”

Slowly, he bent down as his large hands gripped her cheeks, and just as his lips grazed hers gentler than the sea breeze, he spoke.

“So nice to finally meet you, Gwen. I’m Hyungwon.”

A/N: I know, I know. The muse obviously tried to turn this into a whole rom-com novel, but instead, I remained resolute to close this on the whimsical romantic open ending I originally intended. It got too out-of-hand as it was, if you couldn’t tell lol, so let your own romantic hearts take it from here, loves. <3 Thanks for reading!

[beanghostprincess]

God the idea of “every girls uncle ever”!Buggy is tickling me pink because of Crossguild and just how funny would it be to have Mihawk, who has a soft spot for Perona, much to his own dismay, suddenly having to be cordial to Buggy because his not quite adoptive daughter saw this weirdass clown ONCE and immediately decided that he’s her personal comfort older man? Mihawk sipping some wine while staring over the at the two disapprovingly, Perona getting Buggy involved in some bullshittery and Buggy being in hell, because I refuse to believe that even if he loves that girl to pieces he wouldn’t suffer every second he’s near her, but….. he cant do shit. He would absolutely LOVE to tell the clown what a pathetic excuse of an emperor is, getting bossed around by a teenage girl and her parade of misery ghosts…. but that would be a step to far for Perona who would immediately jump to Buggys defense and also be incredibly insulted herself. Mihawk would LOVE to bring his blade to Buggys neck as a warning for that little joke he made earlier at his expense, but Perona was laughing so hard she started to snort and he cant just do that right now for … some reason. He will drag Buggy away from makeup time to get actual work done, because he knows the only thing he will get from Perona is a pout and that she will call him a spoilsport, but his methods of intimidation towards the clown are starting to dwindle more and more rapidly.

This is incredible because I imagine Mihawk being extremely conflicted about his feelings for both of them. He cares about Perona, weirdly enough, and he isn't quite sure why, but he does. And on the other hand, he's kind of pissed she chooses to be with Buggy instead because that man is a fucking clown (derogatory) and doesn't understand why she'd be interested in him in any way. But he can't go against Perona's wishes because it's not like he's her father or, whatever- So he sits there trying to understand why he feels this way and trying to fight hard the urge of, you know, actually caring for somebody. But he does understand why they get along. They're both... Flashy. Flamboyant. He hates every second of it.

Buggy, despite absolutely adoring the menace Perona is, is still exhausted after being dragged around to every little one of her schemes. He has to suffer the consequences (spending time with her) of his actions (telling her he liked her once). She adores him and finds him incredibly interesting to be around because, well, he is the most interesting out of the three Cross Guild members. Also, she's always so harsh on him saying he's a loser and a depressed clown who needs comfort because I think the same thing that happened with Usopp (not being affected by her powers because of already vivid self-deprecating thoughts) would happen to Buggy. So she feels responsible for his happiness, kind of. She's actually a sweetheart.

It'd be really funny to turn this into something romantic between Buggy and Mihawk. Make it Bughawk. Turn Mihawk's fondness for Perona into a fondness for Buggy, somehow, and Crocodile notices he's been acting a bit softer around the clown lately. The funny thing about this is that Mihawk actively has no fucking idea why he's now so... Interested in not hurting Buggy. Seeing Perona and the clown together makes him feel things. He hates it. Make it stop.