#i gave my friend one of my succulents a bit back when she moved for uni

[elvimoon]

I think there's a lot to be said of the plants we gravitate to and what plants we become associated with. I have a friend who has some of the coolest cactuses in the northern Midwest.  Desert plants that thrive inside a place that gets mountains of snow.  I have another friend who loves monsteras and that is the first plant I think of when thinking of her.  I know another who grows succulents in recycled beer cans on his kitchen window.   A friend in the Keys with a variety of orchids.  A coworker who had an aloe aristata on her desk.  An old professor who gave me a cutting of purple heart from the hanging planter he had in his office for nearly 40 years.  The list goes ever onward.

I really like plants that climb. Vines and trailing plants tend to be my jam, a curtain of trailing green hung over windowsills and book shelves. Which isn’t to say those are the only ones I own. I have a handful of succulents that are successful and I love them. I have other tropical plants that enrich my space: Monstera, Schefflera, Pilea, Fern, and more. Still, I don’t know what plant people would associate me with if they’d have to pick.

Or perhaps that is just how I think of people, by the plants they love.

My mother loved bulbs. In my childhood home she turned our front yard into an English Garden of sorts.  We had stone pavers to reach the deeper bits of garden she built during the time she was there and in good health. She planted annuals of every color - vibrant pinks and purples - but also hundreds and hundreds of bulbs. A dense cluster of orange lilies that lined the space next to the garage that stood tall every spring and summer. The same kind that lined the space by the front door, a place of honor as I’m told she had dug up the bulbs from her previous homes every time she moved and transplanted them.  (Those bulbs died when I tried the same 15 years after her passing.)  There were daffodils that signaled Easter in my memory, lining the path by the drive way. Crocus bulbs by the mailbox and the path between the fence to my neighbor’s house, so that we would see them all the time and know when spring was coming. Tulips - hundreds of them in every color - that were the stars of the spring.

The garden promptly got ripped up the summer after her passing. It was too large, too much upkeep. Too much on the hearts of those left behind.  My dad got a landscaper to tame it back. The garden was wrangled to just a decorative perimeter around the house and the boundary was defined with stone. Grass seed was placed and that was that.

That didn’t stop the bulbs.

It became a running joke, “How many could one woman plant before she died?” My mother planted hundreds of tulips alone, as if that were her last mission with her health declining. Every year we would get them growing on the lawn, the ghost of a garden past. Plants that grew seemingly out of spite, as each year the spot they popped up was dug up to remove them at the source. And no matter how many bulbs we removed, more popped up the following year. Tulips bloomed on that yard till the day the house was sold and we had to move.

My mother was superstitious in her plants. I do not remember most of it, too young at the time. But I remember she refused to plant marigolds for some old wives’ tale that they were bad luck around children, a bringer of sadness and misfortune. My mother similarly disliked sunflowers for attracting unwanted attention and for the mess they left (according to an Aunt). She considered snapdragons an ill omen for when the blooms withered, skull looking pods remained. I lean opposite; I plant marigolds wherever I move to because I think the puffy orange blooms bring happiness. (They certainly do to pollinators and I believe that must count for something.) Summer and Fall are not complete to me if I don’t have sunflowers at some point to put in a vase, sticky sap on my fingers from trimming the thick stems. I love snapdragons, full of character - lively and bright - and I find their skull-like husks at the end of their life cycle anything but morbid.

I love gardens and plants in ways my mother did not. And so much of me comes from the tiny window in which I knew her (and I struggle that I didn’t. Not really). I think of my mother and I remember her standing on the front lawn screaming “grow” at freshly planted spring flowers. I think of my mother and I think of green beans kept in a pot with a trellis on the driveway in summer. I think of my mother and I think of her green thumb for plants I’ve yet to figure out. I think of my mother and I think of tulips blooming on green grass outside the boundary of where they’re supposed to be.

[raspberryconverse]

Coley can't do anything (except maybe her actual job that she gets paid to do) right, Volume 425436234623

My friend got married in November and each table had a giant succulent plant as the centerpiece

There were a lot of them, so people were encouraged to take them home. We took one home, against our better judgement.

Now, I wouldn't say I'm a plant killer, except I did eventually kill Stevie, the almost 30 year old plant my mother had. Stevie was named after the drummer from my dad's band. It was his plant originally, but he was killing it, so he gave it to my mom (she had a degree in horticulture). Not too long after he gave her the plant, Stevie (the drummer) passed away unexpectedly. I was about 8 or 9, so this was in the mid 90s.

Over the years, my mom had given me cuttings of Stevie, but when she passed away (also unexpectedly) 5 years ago, I took him home. He was doing ok until the pandemic. I had him hanging in our home office, which I wasn't using as an office anymore because I was working from home on the couch, so he got neglected and was on his last legs when we moved. The move definitely killed him. I thought I could bring him back, but he got left in the garage while we were recovering and was definitely gone by the time we were able to tend to him.

I should also mention that I rarely have been able to keep a basil plant alive past September, though the one I bought last year has managed to survive until now. But of course it's dying too.

So maybe we shouldn't have taken the succulent home.

I thought it was doing well. It seemed to be growing and I'd rotate it in the bathroom window to allow different parts to get more sun. But apparently I was killing it with the tiny bits of water I was giving it most days. I have a retainer cleaner that I fill with a cup of water when I run it and anything above the max fill line I would dump into the succulent. It's really wasn't that much water, less than a tablespoon, for sure, but apparently it was too much and it's starting to rot.

My spouse just brought it outside to repot and see what they could still save of it.

*sigh*

I am having a really shitty day because of therapy and fighting with my spouse and reading sad parts of the fic I've been reading, so is this just another addition to the "things Coley can't do right" list and I am not handling it well.

I'm going to eat some ice cream and watch my "stories" (YouTube) and probably cry some more.

[imaginefe]

hey guys!!! a bit of a personal post coming…

i know ive made a post like this before but! ive been having a hard time with mental health again and i totally just had a fat cry over a plant can we have another happy hour ú ω ù

if you own any plants you really like feel free to send them into my submissions! tell me about how long youve had them!

if not plants u can send in pet photos… general asks… etc etc i just want something to distract me rn ✨✨

[01solarsmiles]

synopsis: you’ve been at jaehyun’s “secret” flat for a while now. you’re not quite sure how long, he says time passes differently here. not that you mind. you’re healing and there’s nothing you have wrong with that. having been away form everything that was bad for you, you’re coming to realise that things really were better with jaehyun. and no matter how many times he tries to tell you, he knows you have to come to that conclusion yourself.

tl;dr: you heal under jaehyun’s caring gaze.

genre: fantasy!au, kind of domestic!au, magic!jaehyun, fluff, smut, fem!reader

warnings: smut in the forms of kissing, titplay, basically motorboats oc, brief nipple play, heavy petting/fondling, grinding (?), oral (male recieving), jaehyun can’t hold his load oops, unprotected sex (wrap it b4 u tap it), creampie, brief cumplay lmao jaehyun is the teeniest bit kinky

other: jaehyun is my soft boi, wanna smooch and cuddle in his pastel coloured sweats, i’m british so he lives in a flat, soft smut… almost r*mantic,,, jaehyun is a boob man; do what you will with that B), jaehyun uses pet names bc i think it would be sickly sweet leaving his lips, time is relevant so i can do what i want with this thanks xox

wordcount: 8.5k

a/n: this is a continuation from the last chapter. i split it bc i needed inspo lmao so once again, not happy with how it ended previously so i had to write more. admittedly, it was origianlly one long piece but i realised i wanted to add more depth to when they’re living together (basically) so i split it therefore enabling me to write what i wanted about them being cute and stuff. yeah.

You had been given a wheelchair by the hospital but had refused to use it, wanting to prove that you were okay, to yourself and Jaehyun. He had convinced you to stay in it as you left the hospital to please the staff on your way out but you had point-blank refused when you made it to the small block of flats he said he lived in. After walking two steps from the car you let out a whimper and gave in to his incessant pleas to get you to sit in the wheelchair.

Oddly, there had been no one in the foyer and you hadn’t bumped into anyone in the hallway in front of the lift. He had helped you when you made it into the flat, moving you over to the sofa where you melted into the plush cushions of the seat.

On the way here, the two of you had already argued about where you were going to stay, him insisting on not leaving you alone and you insisting that you’d be okay at a friends place. In the end, he promised to contact your friends and family to tell them you were spending a little time away (you wouldn’t let him tell them you had been to the hospital). After all, he had saved you when you needed it most.

Your cracked lips remained tightly sealed as he folded the wheelchair away and tucked it behind a cupboard where it wasn’t in your direct line of sight.

You decide to look around, wanting to take up some time and to avoid looking him directly in the eye.

The flat was… cosy. It looked lived in, all the trinkets and small collages stuck up on the walls drawing your attention away from the shelves stacked with potted plants. Everything about the room seemed to tie together with another aspect of the flat. You couldn’t help but wonder why he had a place like this.

He notices your inquisitive look, “It’s supposed to be a secret. Though almost everyone important knows this is where they’ll find me if I disappear without an explanation.” Jaehyun moves towards the small kitchenette, fetching a glass of water befoer placing it on a coaster on the glass coffee table by your legs.

You wait for a second, acknolwedging the glass of iced water, then look up, meeting his hesitant gaze, “Everything’s green.”

It wasn’t a deep green either, more like a soft earthy green. Maybe a sage colour, but you were mostly going off of the presence of the plants and the colour of the sofa. Some of the counters in his one-person kitchen were a soft green, accented with wood countertops and a pastel fridge. It was soothing on your eyes, you had to admit.

He nods, unsure what you’re getting at, “Yeah…?”

“The first and second time I met you, you exclusively wore red. And it was glittery,” you point out, one wordlessly eyebrow raised.

He tilts his head, dimples appearing in his cheeks as he stuffs his hands in his jogging bottom pockets, rattling his keys in his pockets, “Just because I wear red doesn’t mean my whole life revolves around that primary colour.”

You roll your eyes and lean back into the sofa cushion, tenderly crossing your arms, “Well, no. I guess not,” you let your headrest on a pillow he slips behind your neck discreetly, “I suppose… I just assumed that you did,” you shrug your shoulders, “wasn’t something I gave much thought to.”

Jaehyun kicks off his trainers and throws his keys into a bowl on the kitchen counter. You could probably stick your arm over the back of the sofa and touch the pillar that separated the two areas if you tried hard enough adn weren’t brusied all over. He’s got a small smile on his face that brings his dimples out as he makes his way over to sit on the sofa with you, letting himself fall haphazardly onto the cushions. “So you thought about me, even a little.”

Ignoring his comment, you take in his flat to its fullest. You weren’t wrong, this man lived in a green, cottagecore aesthetic in his off-time. Admittedly you were a big fan of the wall of shelves stacked with different plants, mostly succulents and cactus -- the odd spine of a book eeking through -- and you even enjoyed the small desk that was home to a few depictions of watercolour flowers. Your eyes fall on the black figure, slinking under the legs of the glass coffee table pitched in front of you, making you flinch as you suppressed your reflex to jump; it was only a cat.

A cat man. Of course, he was.

Jaehyun’s eyes follow yours, “That’s Prim. She likes to keep to herself. Occasionally she curls up with me.”

“You made it sound like you rarely come here.”

“Mhm.”

“You have a cat.”

“I have a cat,” he affirms.

Prim disappears around the pillar into the kitchen. Jaehyun must’ve put down some food for her because you can hear her softly eating followed briefly by the sound of her lapping at a bowl of water.

“And plants.”

“Those too.” He’s not sure where you’re going with this, neither were you, but he was humouring it, seeing it through to the end if he got ot be in your presence longer.

Your eyes go back to wandering around the room, watching how the sun dips in between the curtains and cascades through the room. You had sat in the seat closest to the entrance, meaning Jaehyun’s back was to the window as he faced you while you were talking. He was still dressed in the outfit you assumed he slept in at the hospital. You were dressed in the same clothes you had gone in with, having had to change out of the gown they had provided when you left.

He looked so effortlessly pretty. It made you want to cry.

You suck in a breath and say, “I’m a little tired. Can I sleep… anywhere?”

He nods and jumpts to his feet before helping you to yours. Slowly, you make your way down the hall, almost all of your weight is beared on Jaehyun. He’s practically carrying you but neither of you mention it. It was only a small flat, something you couldn’t wrap your head around when he could probably have anything he liked, and so it only had one bedroom.

Initially, you had put up a fight but he simply said he wasn’t tired and there was a box room he could get a bed into if the sofa wasn’t comfortable enough (it was but you weren’t okay with the fact that he was giving up his bed). You lay on your side, a body pillow supporting your small frame. You were so tense, worried about Soobin and Dan-ah and Mina and your Mum and Dad and Hyejin as she was probably the only friend of yours who regularly checked in. There was so much running through your mind and you almost don’t notice Jaehyun’s soft palm gripping yours, his thumb rubbing over the back of your hand. Unbeknownst to you, he had seen the anxious look on your face and had guessed that you were psychoanalysing everything in your head, cogs turning. He wanted to subtly draw you out from your thoughts... so he let a little of his power surge through his fingertips and into your palm, hoping it was enough to make you woozy.

Without much thought to it, you rested your head on his pillow and fell asleep.

Jaehyun stays, for a minute or two, holding your hand until your grip weakens, your breathing becomes heavier and your chest goes into a steady rise and fall. He watches, as you lay, unbothered by the world outside. You looked at peace. At home.

Was this the first time you had been able to wind down like this?

He sighs, wriggling his hand from under yours and gets up to leave before he pulls a brown monochrome blanket over your frame. A slight frown etches itself on your forehead as your fingers twitch, looking for the hand Jaehyun had slipped away, before you subconsciously grip the blanket and curl into it instead, the frown erasing itself from your face, leaving you looking at peace once again.

You wake up to the sun going down outside, a blanket covering your body and pillows squished underneath to support your body.

You’re tender. That’s safe to say.

The room was airy; Jaehyun had left the window on the latch and the door cracked open so as to not make it stuffy. Glancing around, you notice the simplicity of it. Bed, side table, lamp and wardrobe. It differed massively from the rest of his flat. Maybe he hadn’t gotten around to decorating substantially in here.

You get up, perching yourself on the edge of the bed before making your way out of the room. Shuffling along, you cling to the wall as you know full well you shouldn’t be venturing around by yourself and make your way to the living room, “Jaehyun?” you call. The calling stops when you spot Jaehyun with an open book lying in his lap while he snores lightly, passed out on the sofa. The corners of your mouth twitch, curling into a smile at the sight of him so peaceful.

You hold out your arm, inspecting the bandage on it. You sigh, “I need a shower.”

You turn back, headed towards what you assumed was the bathroom. The door creaks open; thankfully, you were correct. There are fresh towels hanging on the rack and a laundry basket sits tucked into the corner. Stripping from your clothes gingerly, you turn on the shower. While it warms up you unwrap your bandages and softly poke the back of your head. You’re probably not supposed to submerge it yet so you work with what you can. The shower itself was a standalone that had frosted glass wrapped around it, hiding what was on the inside if anyone were to look in.

The whole ordeal was a show in itself, you carefully moving things about, trying not to knock anything all while trying to do your best with what you’ve got. It wasn’t the best situation in the world but it was the best out of the hand you were dealt. Having not been back to your flat to get anything, you didn’t have any of your usual hair products so you used the products that were already there and a lemon body wash that had been sitting patiently.

Eventually, you finish up with half-washed hair and a mostly clean body. Your fingers had pruned long ago and you took that as a sign to get out of the shower to stop using all the hot water.

You stepped out, and grabbed the towel off of the rack, wrapping yourself in them. They were so soft against your skin. Holding it tightly against your skin you move to stand in the middle of the bathroom. It wasn’t big but it had an oval mirror hanging above the sink. Staring at your reflection for a little, you internally pick apart everything you don’t like.

Staring with the obvious bruises. “I’ll heal,” you tell your reflection, “I won’t degrade myself like that again.” Your fingers brush against your towel-covered ribs, making you flinch. “He won’t do this to me again; I won’t let him,” you pause before whispering, “I’m not going back to him.”

By now, your eyes are watering a little so you sniffle and wipe the forming tears away before they’re given the chance to fall. You deserve better. You know this. “I deserve better. I am worth better.”

In the middle of this, Prim slinks through the crack of the door, making you jump a little. With your hand on your heart, you take deep breaths, watching as she jumps onto the closed toilet seat and sits down on a pile of clothes. A pile of clothes you don’t remember putting there. Your eyes widen at the thought of Jaehyun seeing you naked but then you whip your head to the shower walls, reminding yourself that they’re frosted and he would’ve only been able to see an outline at the most.

Prim purrs, drawing your attention back to her.

She blinks at you. She’s so calm. You reach the backside of your hand out so she can sniff it. After a quick sniff, she turns her head and rubs it into the palm of your hand. You gratefully accept her and let her continue to rub herself on you as you alternate between scratching the underside of her chin and the back of her head. She purrs in content and you let out a quiet giggle.

Jaehyun had been awake for the past ten minutes or so. He’d dug through his drawers, pulling out an old pair of jogging bottoms that he’d bulked out of but never gotten around to throwing out, a pair of clean underwear and a jumper that was currently his size but probably oversized on you. He’d slipped them onto the toilet seat (thank god it was so close to the door) without peeping past the sink and must’ve forgotten to pull the door up all the way on his way out.

He listens to Prim purring and you giggling softly from the safety of his sofa in the living room, a smile making its way onto his face. He had flicked on the table lamp on the end table by the sofa, continuing to read his book – A natural history of Dragons. Not as accurate as he remembers but a little light reading never did anyone any harm.

When you stepped out of the bathroom, you looked fresh. Swamped in his jumper and bare feet padding across the panelled flooring. He looks up from his book, noticing you gradually making your way over to him, he jumps up, trying to help you. You looked cute with your sweater paw leaned up against the wall.

He tucks a hand under your armpit for leverage, you turn, a little surprised and open your mouth to say something but can’t bring yourself to when you realise how close your faces are. Jaehyun either doesn’t notice or pretends to not know, making you feel more embarrassed than you thought possible. His musk engulfs you, overriding your senses and you hesitate in your step.

“Oh,” you say, face hot to which you can only pray he doesn’t sense how he caught you off-guard, “you don’t have to–”

“It’s okay,” he whispers softly, hands pulling you into him so he can use his body strength to help too. You feel goosebumps from his caring touch and you wonder about the last time someone treated you like this.

Since when did he become so domestic?

You brush it off and he helps lower you down to the sofa and Prim follows suit, helping herself to your lap as she curls into a ball, letting you run your fingers down her back in a soothing motion.

You could feel the heat rising up your neck at how close the two of you had been, your mind running to months before when you had been close to him. Before, you had been embarrassed about yourself as he was helping you out of the hospital but he had reassured you that you had nothing to worry about – the gentleman that he was – he didn’t want you to feel ashamed. So, you let yourself relax on his plush sofa cushions while he went about making something to eat for the both of you with a grin on his face, knowing all too well what he had inflicted upon you moments ago.

That’s how the next month or so went by. You pushed yourself to your limits, all of your minor injuries healed (somehow), and followed Jaehyun around while Prim followed you. As promised, Jaehyun brought home a bed for the box room to which you insisted on sleeping in since you were the one who was the guest but he had none of it. In the end, he dressed the room up nicely and it ended up looking like it had been there all along.

At first, Jaehyun hadn’t let you do any of the things you offered to do, especially the cooking. He had a large repertoire of recipes up his sleeve and wasn’t letting you do anything to strain yourself.

Your phone had briefly glitched the first time you turned it on, which was odd on a good day.

“Time passes differently here,” he had explained, “Einstein was right about that one; time is relevant. He almost caught us out one time with his research into it but Yuta turned him around and set him back on track again.”

To which he then had to explain to you who Yuta was. He sounded nice, harmless but what got you was the fact that there were more people like Jaehyun. You had yet to meet more than the man who stood in front of you as he explained that to you.

Weeks into your stay, he took you round to your place, helped you pick up your things and also helped you leave a thick layer of red glitter all over your now ex-boyfriend’s penthouse. He deserved it. According to Jaehyun, your ex was in the process of moving out, as per Jaehyun’s convincing argumentative skills.

You rang some of your family and friends, asking after them and telling them you were okay after it was established between you that you and Soobin were no longer together but the most heartbreaking one was between you and your niece. She had been there, she knew now, even if you didn’t want her too, she knew. You could only pray that it slowly faded from her memory, for her sake more than yours, as she grew older.

According to Hyejin (when she rambled to you on the phone as she bawled, bless her), Soobin had been given the sack and lost most of what he owned. He’d also been sporting a black eye for two weeks after you got out of the hospital. She had been the first person you rang but the small detail had slipped your mind until later that night. You tried not to outright weep tears of joy, knowing that he’d had even the tiniest bit of his own medicine fed back to him, followed suit by you quizzing Jaehyun to which he hid his knuckles behind his back as he walked in with a tray of sushi that had been delivered tonight as a treat before your anime marathon.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, I haven’t seen him,” he throws his keys into the bowl on the kitchen counter after toeing off his shoes in the entrance of his flat.

Having had time to heal, you pull yourself to tuck your legs underneath you as you look over the back of the sofa. “Jaehyun,” you warn. Prim materialises from the depths of Jaehyun’s bedsheets, where you had left her earlier, to greet her beloved owner. She purrs against his leg and he leans down to scratch behind her ear.

“Y/n,” he says back, trying his best to match your tone.

Your eyes follow Prim, closely watching as she jumps onto the kitchen counter and paws at the key-bowl. Tucking your bottom lip between your teeth you nibble until you can form a sentence that wouldn’t betray you when it left the corners of your mind.

Thinking about it, you decide against arguing with him on it. If he was lying it wasn’t something that was going to stop you from hanging around him, so why push it? Because you wanted to know why. “You were out a while after you texted me you’d finished food shopping the other day, where’d you go?”

Jaehyun glances at you, his hair stood slightly on end as if he’d been running his hand through it, possibly one too many times. It was shorter than when you had first come into his care – you’d helped him one day to trim it. You’d also insisted that he let you do it because you used to cut your hair in the bathroom mirror. ‘Not the same,’ he had said but he had handed you the scissors all the same. He was still dressing for comfort, something that you appreciated when the evening came and the tv turned on. It was a small flat which meant a small-ish sofa. He wasn’t against wrapping an arm around you and the two of you had been known to fall asleep to a movie or two in recent weeks.

“Went to work, briefly. Gotta make sure everything’s on schedule; they’d practically die without me to ditto everything they’re already sure of,” he flashes you a grin that his dimples can’t escape, “it’s nice to be home.”

You murmur a response.

Scattering away, Jaehyun has a shower after being out and gets dressed quickly to return to you. He walks over to the kitchen, deciding to grab some things for the evening.

His back is turned to you now, he’s grabbing a couple of drinks from the fridge, the glow of the light illuminating his face.

“I missed you.”

You… what?

The pounding of your heart against your ribcage was deafening. Had you just said that out loud? He turns to meet your frantic gaze, waiting for your response. He can barely breathe out the response, “I missed you too.”

He grins, sinking himself into the space next to you and slings his arm over the back, his hand resting close to your neck. “Awh, did you really?”

Your body practically recoils, turning back on itself, “No. I just wanted you to bring ice cream; I’ve been craving it all week.”

Instantly you regret your choice as he frowns slightly and turns away.

You’re forced to think about the countless nights you’d spent curled up in his bed, some of them the result of you weeping into one of his many pastel sweatshirts you adorned about your failed relationship with Soobin, others about how you had neglected to tell your family and friends about the situation you had been in for almost a year by the time Jaehyun had pulled you away from it. Most nights, Jaehyun heard you, upset and alone in the dark. In the beginning, he wasn’t sure what to do about it, part of him knowing that he should leave you to heal but the other part of him screaming that he shouldn’t let you suffer alone – shouldn’t let you think you’re in this alone when you’re most certainly not where he’s concerned.

The first time he had left you, not sure he had heard correct when he came back from work, groggy from the use of his powers and feeling like he needed to faceplant his pillow from the exhaustion. You had stopped, little sniffles being masked by the vibrations of Prim’s purring against your body where she had hopped up on the bed to comfort you, when you thought Jaehyun was listening, hoping that he would leave you to hurt for a short while longer.

He had sensed your hesitation and made his way to the shower, deciding he needed to be fresh for the next morning.

He was oddly caring. Not that it was odd for someone to care but it was odd for someone to care this much and for the person to be Jaehyun was the cherry on top.

Turning back to face you, he grins, “Wanna watch that anime you were telling me about? I googled it last night and read some forums; apparently it’s good.”

Your eyes light up, “Sword Art Online? Yes please.”

Jaehyun shakes his head, chuckling to himself at how eager you are. He loved when you showed interest in things like this. His auburn hair falls into his eyes as he skims through whatever application he had pulled up (Netflix; no chill) while you weren’t looking and he breathes softly through his nose, concentrating on the screen in front of him.

Once again, you were studying him. It had been a long time since you had arrived. Time is relevant, true, but how much time is too much time?

The sun had set an hour or so ago now and you had already eaten some of the takeaway earlier as neither of you had been interested in cooking. You wondered if he knew how the table lamp accentuated his face, the soft hue acting like his usual haze when he was in his suit – which you learned was the reason he practical glowed as he had since told you there was magic twined into the thread it was sewed together with – and made him look angelic. You wondered if he knew the camel sweats he was wearing made you want to cuddle him and nuzzle your nose into his side, somewhere that you felt more than safe to be. You wondered if he knew how much you liked it here and how you were apprehensive about going back to the real world full time.

You’d been out, of course, he couldn’t confine you to his flat even if he wanted to but he always made sure that there were the correct precautions in place. He was always here, anyway, choosing you over everything else so there was rarely a time where you could go out without him. Smiling to yourself, you remind yourself that you don’t think you’d want to go by yourself when there’s a perfectly good Jaehyun waiting for you.

His hair fell in soft waves on his forehead, and his brow furrowed as he tried to figure out why he couldn’t find Sword Art Online for you two to watch. The two of you had fallen into a routine, he pats his leg, signalling for you to lay your head down on his lap as he pulls a pillow from behind him for you to rest your head on.

Shifting your body, careful of your ribs still, you lay down and wrap a hand under his leg for leverage, being sure to keep it closer to the back of his knee than his thigh as it was easier to curl your hand. He didn’t mind because when you sat and watched horror movies you would squeeze his leg in anticipation for a jump scare of sorts. He thought it was cute.

Eventually, he finds it, “Here we go,” he mumbles, clicking on the first episode. You settle in, pushing your face further into the cushion as Jaehyun lets his hand rest on your shoulder, somewhere safe for him to touch. His other hand plays with your hair absentmindedly as the episode begins, showing the people who had been waiting for the game to come out so that they could play it.

It remains like this, you making comments here and there, ooh’s and ah’s coming form both of you as you talk about the episode before it rolls over to the next one. At one point, he says something that makes you sit up completely, throwing him off as your warmth leaves his body.

“Did you just suggest that Kirito could be –”

His eyes widen, “I merely suggested that he –”

You scowl, pout and cross your arms, your cardigan falling off your shoulder at an angle, “No! You said what you said. It’s out there now, in the cosmos, for all to judge. You can’t take it back.”

He’s looking at you, first with shock but then with an expectant look. All you were doing was arguing over anime. You’re not sure you remember seeing him like this, eyes filled with something you cannot describe. Is this what being loved feels like? The flying thought catches you off guard and you hold your breath. He wonders if you know that’s how he’s feeling, how he’s seeing you. The rose-tinted filter settled in and he was determined to keep it that way for a long time.

Jaehyun had got dressed after his shower into a sweatshirt and sweatpants, and joined you on the sofa while you were watching the back end of a drama you had been meaning to watch for months before you had switched over to anime. It was your thing; watching anime together.

His hand reaches to rest on the side of your face, thumb brushing your cheek and fingers splaying down to reach your neck and brings his face closer to yours, making your breath hitch. The last time you had been like this neither of you were thinking in coherent thoughts. At this point, you’d spent months with him, hiding from your family and friends – only partially as you had wanted to gain your confidence back again and go back with a real job.

His hair was still drying on the ends where he hadn’t bothered to towel dry it. It brushed against your forehead as he brought his forehead to rest on yours, savouring the moment.

Breathily, you manage to say his name.

He hums in response, eyes trained diligently on your lips, waiting for your response. He doesn’t notice how you watch him watching you, he’s enamoured. He loved when you looked like this. So carefree. So pure. So… pretty.

“Kiss me.”

He doesn’t wait any longer.

Lips centimetres form yours, he gives you the opportunity to change your mind but you bring your lips to his, not wanting to drag this out any longer. His fingers stay on your face while your hands have yet to find somewhere to be placed – something that Jaehyun notices – so he picks up your hand and curls it around the back of his neck before wrapping his own around the small of your back, a smirk finding its home on his face.

Feeling more confident, you bring your free hand to splay across his cheek, thumb mindlessly rubbing the dip where his dimple becomes prominent. His hair stands on end on the back of his neck, the sensation of your fingers brushing his face so calmly as he pulls your lower lip between his having caused goosebumps to form down his arms.

Secretly, he was glad he was wearing his sweatshirt so that you couldn’t see how sensitive he was to you.

Jaehyun leans gradually away and you chase his lips, not wanting to forget the feeling any time soon. All of the time you had spent with Soobin and yet none of the moments you had shared felt like this. It made your heart pound and the butterflies were making their way up, tickling your diaphragm as you struggle to breathe.

“Y/n,” he begins, lids heavy and forehead pressed to yours. He’s not really sure what he wants to say… how does one express the euphoria they feel from finally doing the right thing and knowing it’s the right thing? Because that’s how Jaehyun felt. You knew he wanted to say something so you lightly prompt him.

“Jae… what are you thinking?”

His lids close and he bumps his nose with yours, lips parted, “I want to kiss you like that more often.”

You giggle, which throws him off, “Do you?” He looks up to meet your wandering gaze through his lashes, “because I want to kiss you like that more often, too.”

He grins, tightening his grip around your waist, pulling you in until you’re straddling his lap. “Oh yeah? How about I do just that, then.” His lips return to yours. You noticed that Jaehyun’s lips tasted of cherry chapstick, and you loved that, deciding to part the seal of his mouth with your tongue to devour the taste further.

The subtle curve of his lips was something you didn’t want to forget – that was for sure. You work on memorising this feature and lightly tug at the tufts of hair at the back of his head, making him moan into your mouth ever so slightly.

“That was adorable,” you mumble against his lips, lowering yourself so your bum is resting on the heels of your feet either side of his thighs.

His face flushes but he pretends to not notice and instead lets his hands roam until they’re palming the globes of your ass.

This shocks you into action a little, the squeezing fingers forcing you to lift and lean on your knees, breasts pushed up against his chin as you continue to kiss him.

As you slipped your tongue to mingle with his, you decided then and there that you were absolutely in love with kissing him. Possibly smitten, just a tiny bit.

You had worn a tank top and a light cardigan for comfort around the flat, not wanting to pull jeans on and a blouse every morning and instead opting for leggings and light-tees regularly. You weren’t sure what kind of man Jaehyun was, an ass or boob man but something igniting inside you and hardening in his sweatpants told you that you were going to find out pretty damn soon.

Pulling away you offer a small smile at him, he grins, like he knows he’s about to get a present he’s been waiting for ages for. Ironic, considering his job profession.

You bite your lip and let your hands fall down to his arms, running your palms up and down his biceps. By now the episode had rolled over and was about 10 minutes into the next but you and Jaehyun were far too distracted, you figured it would have to wait. It would still be there tomorrow when you could rewatch it and continue your marathon.

His own hands rest below the curve or your breasts, thumbing at the swell.

You dip your head, pressing a kiss to the corner of his mouth before letting your tongue peak out and swirl its way down to his neck. Peppering kisses against his tan skin you pick a spot where he makes the most fuss when you reach it and bruise it with your lips. He groans at the feeling of your lips tainting his skin so skillfully and thinks about how you went to waste on someone like your ex before him. His breathing grows heavy and his fingers run up and down your back in a soothing manner, toying with the hem of your tank top every time his fingers brush the bottom.

“Oh my God,” he breathes out when you’re finished.

You giggle, “What?”

You had slipped your cardigan off, letting it fall in a heap on the floor and hooked your fingers under your shirt before throwing it across the room.

Gazing up at you, you can practically see the hearts spinning around his head. You knew that if this was a Looney Toon cartoon, his eyes would’ve been pounding hearts right about now.

“You’re so beautiful,” he sighs as you press a closed mouth kiss to his jaw, “…pretty girl.”

You were left in a dark pair of leggings and your t-shirt bra. It wasn’t anything fancy (you were here for comfort, for god’s sake) but Jaehyun looked at you like you had put all the stars in the sky yourself, something you were unfamiliar with. Pride swells in your chest and lust swells in your core.

“Are you going to keep staring or are you going to do something?” You tease. He merely smirks, enjoying what he hasn’t even done yet, and buries his head between your breasts.

You let out a small “Oof” noise and steady yourself on his shoulders. Leaning on your feet normally would’ve been enough but when he stuck his head between your boobs it had knocked you slightly off balance. Your fingers dig into his shoulder blades, pressing crescetn moons into his skin, but Jaehyun takes no notice as he noses his way to a fleshy spot and attaches his lips.

“Smell so good,” he’s referring to the perfume you had brought with you when you cleaned out your apartment. “Wanna taste,” he mumbles into your boobs. Your panties dampen at the confession, not knowing completely how to respond without crying out a moan.

Unshockingly so, this was one of the few tinmes you had felt like the only girl in the world, not to quote Rihanna, but it was truly a moment you had no desire to forget any time soon.

Instinctively, your hands retire to the back of his head, pulling him closer whilst he goes to town on a hickey he’s suckling into your skin.

Pulling back, he grins, “Perfect.” He’s admiring his handiwork but it still sends the stupid butterflies contained in your abdomemn stir crazy when his gaze meets yours, filled with lust, love, adoration – whatever you want to call it, his eyes contained it. Lids low and mind focused, his hand snakes behind your body to unhook your bra but you stop him.

In fear of pushing you too far he drops his hand and waits, eyes wide for what had stopped you.

“I-I haven’t – no – I don’t…” you struggle to find the correct words in front of Jaehyun, the cool breeze making you shiver in the slightest.

“What is it, angel?” He brings his hands to your waist, rubbing slow circles to calm you.

“Soobin,” you exhale. It was all Jaehyun needed to know so he took a deep breath.

He’s watching you as he says, “I don’t care. That was then… this is now.”

You nod. His features twist into a smile, images of that night coming back to him, “Plus I already fucked you against the –”

Your hand finds itself pressed across his mouth in the blink of an eye, praying he doesn’t finish that sentence, “I know,” you squeak before emphasising, “I was there.”

He tilts his head and offers a mischievous glint, “I thought you didn’t think I was real, simply a figment of your imagination, if I do remember correctly.”

Groaning, you roll your eyes, “Stop with that! You showed up, dressed in red and in the middle of the night after I’d written a letter that only I could know the contents of. Who’s to say you weren’t an incubus, huh?”

A single eyebrow is raised on his part.

“And you were gone before I woke up,” you mumble against his neck, now enticed by his scent again, “I never told anyone because it sounds wild, right? You have to admit that part at the very least.”

That made him take a second to process, “I never thought of it like that,” he mumbles, pressing feather-light kisses up your arm.

“It was something I thought about for a while,” you meekly replied to his unasked question.

“Well,” he begins, “you don’t have to worry any longer,” and presses his lips to your clavicle, fingers unclasping your bra behind you, this time you let him, sighing into his golden touch, boobs pressed against his chest. He groans at the feeling or your unclothed, hardened nipples cutting in on his pecs. You sling your bra across the room, not giving much thought or care towards where it ended up as there were more pressing matters you cared about.

Your neck is tipped back as his tongue dips to the valley of your breasts, he places an endearing kiss to your sternum and sets his sights onto your nipples.

Hand resting on the nape of his neck, you arch into the feeling of his wet mouth latching onto your nipple, peak caught between his tongue and teeth as he teases you, and tug on his hair.

He savours this, moaning before switching to your other nipple, not wanting to leave one without the same amount of attention. At this point, your panties are embarrassingly soaked from all of the stimulation.

“You’re so good to me,” you whine, not talking about just this very moment. You’re reminiscing about the past couple of months you’ve spent in his care too and something tells you that he knows that too.

He releases your nipple from his lips and glances up at you, “Is that so, angel?”

“Mhm,” you mumble, not sure what he wants you to say or what you should say to keep the mood going, “all the time. Miss you so much because of it,” you pout slightly, not wanting to draw too much from the conversation in case things went sideways.

You bring your hands to his cheeks, resting either side and pinch lightly, toying with him. “Keep me happy,” you state before leaning down to kiss him again. His eyes flutter close and you trail your hands down his abdomen, pressing harder with your nails as you slide them down to the hem of his jumper.

“Off,” you mutter against his lips. He gladly complies, you were topless and it was only fair he comes level with your nakedness. When you part momentarily to lift it over his head, your hungry eyes zone in on how constricted his hardened dick was within the confines of his sweatpants.

Jaehyun notices this, ruffled hair askew and mind now clear from the fog you had bestowed upon him when you had kissed him. He knew what he wanted, did you want it too?

Without hesitation, you palm the outline of his dick over the sweatpants, wanting to see his reaction. You were best pleased when he fights the urge to roll his eyes but bites his lip to stop himself from thrusting into your silky touch. Not that he’d felt that today, just yet.

You stifle a giggle, “Eager, pretty boy.”

One kiss is placed to his lips before you slip off of his lap, knees thudding as they land on the floor. You hook your index fingers around the waistband of his sweats and underpants, the tell-tale Tommy band staring back at you, knowing he would comply but you only pull them down just enough to free his weeping cock.

It springs up, slapping against his abdomen, veins prominent from the grining you had been doing earlier. Your mouth waters at the sight and you lick your lips, praying that it lives up to your expectations.

You give him a few slow strokes of your nails up him and one of his hands reaching up to push a few stray strands of hair form your face.

He groans when you finally wrap your slender fingers around his shaft, thumb wiping the leaking tip of his swollen mushroom head. It throbbed a pretty shade of pink, much like his lips, after you pressed a delicate kiss to the top.

“So, so good to me, angel,” are the words that leave his lips when you lick your own before dipping your head to lick up the underside. You offered a devilish smile and lowered your hot mouth onto his throbbing length slowly, wanting to savour every second and push Jaehyun to his limit.

You hum in agreeance to his statement, sending a shiver up his spine and eliciting a moan from him, his hands quickly tangling themselves in your loose hair as he makes a make-shift ponytail to keep your hair out of your face.

Once your jaw has adjusted to the burn of his girth, he helps you bob your head up and down, curling the ponytail around one hand and using that as leverage. Flattening your tongue, you press it to the underneath of his length. You experiment with seeing how much you can take as it’s been a long time since you’ve been intimate with someone like this. One of your manicured hands reaches down to tickle his balls – a trick Hyejin had taught you the last time you were having one of those conversations – and he all but thrusts up into your throat, making you clench your legs and rub them together for some friction as your eyes close tight, forcing tears to run down your face.

“Oh fuck, I don’t think I can ah-” he lifts you off of his dick and brings your mouth to his, pressing hard against your own.

You’re flushed from his abrupt actions but that doesn’t stop you from stripping yourself of your leggings when he practically begs you to. Unsure what he wants next, you fiddle until he instructs you, “Those too,” he gestures to your panties. They weren’t grand but, had you not been about to get it on with possibly the hottest and most caring man you’ve come across, you would’ve been embarrassed about him seeing them in any normal situation.

Once they’re discarded, he stands, shimmys out of his sweats and pants and brings you close to him and guides a leg to wrap around his waist, rock hard dick pressed between your two sweaty bodies.

He kisses you hard, a clash on tongue and teeth; it’s one of the messiest kisses you had ever been on the receiving end of but ultimately still one of the best you’ve been able to experience, and lowers the two of you onto the sofa.

Again, you’re perched on your heels. He breaks the kiss, looking between your bodies to align himself with your entrance. “I’m sorry, angel,” he mutters against the column of your throat.

“Wha-”

He waits no longer before slipping himself into your core impossibly easily, as he sets a killer pace.

Squealing, you let your head fall onto his shoulder as you try your best to thrust down as much as he thrusts up into you but it was proving difficult as he suckled sweetly on the juncture where your neck and shoulder met – sending your senses into overdrive.

“S-so tight,” he breathes out, trickles of sweat forming in his hairline. One of the few brain cells you have working tells you the clench on his next thrust, only making him moan louder than before. In response, he ups the pace, setting his sights on destroying your sweet pussy.

Knowing full-well that he hadn’t tasted your arousal like he had originally intended, he brings his finger to dance across your clit, stimulating the bundle of nerves until you were whining, hips stuttering as your vision hazes, unsure of how to control yourself. Still unable to match his deadly pace, you settle on tensing your legs and hovering above him where he pounds upwards, the sound of skin hitting skin echoing around the room.

You knew that by the time he was going to be finished, your ass was going to be tainted red from where his balls were slapping your underside as he pounds into you.

“Jaehyun,” you barely manage to breathe out, “fu… fuck.” Not what you were going for so you give it another try, “Jae… kiss.”

His eyes linger on your disheveled features. You open your eyes and look down at him, worried that he hadn’t heard you. His eyes meet yours; you pout, “Kiss me, p-ah–” one particularly strong thrust ignites inside you, the tell-tale sign of your orgasm about to snap through you; halts your half-hearted attempt at riding him.

He captures your lips with his, nibbling on your lip before licking it as if to heal it. His fingers are still rubbing tiny circles in your clit that send you over the edge and into complete euphoria, spine arching.

Within milliseconds, your vision is blurring and eyes unfocus, switching for white dots across your line of sight to pair with the white hot pleasure ripping through your core. “Ah,” you whine, “oh... Jae-Jaehyun,” your voice breaks, not being able to comprehend the possibility of more thanone thing happening at once.

As you clamp down on him unintentionally, he groans, unable to hold back any longer and empties his load inside your trembling pussy, cursing as he does.

Moments pass before he can bring himself to say anything, “You’re so perfect, angel. So pretty and perfect.”

You lift your head to look at him. At his fucked-out face you melt into him, swety bodies gradually becoming one and sliding off of his softening cock so you can wrap your arms around his neck and nuzzle closer to him. He brings his arms around your waist, pressing his face into the crook of your neck and breathing sharply through his nose.

“You’re so good to me. Can’t remember the last time someone fucked me that good,” you whisper against the shell of his ear. You have one hand raking your fingers through his hair. You breathe out a laugh as he shivers at the feeling.

Knowing that was probably an ego boost enough, you press a languid kiss to the side of his mouth, not really paying much attention to where your lips landed. Continuing to pepper him with kisses, he stirs slightly, not wanting all of this attention to go to waste.

“Hey, c’mere,” he says, holding you from your waist before slowly lowering you onto the sofa beside him so your back is flat.

You’re barely holding it together, Jaehyun’s cum trickling down the side of your leg from your sore hole. He pushes your legs apart, one falls haphazardly off of the sofa and the other is pressed between his side and the back of the sofa. He doesn’t care, though, bringing two fingers up to meet your quivering core.

“What are you doi – ah!”

A lazy grin spreads across Jaehyun’s face, his fingers now covered in yours and his essence as he stuffs it back into you. The overstimulation makes you quiver but he was determined about making you suffer. “So pretty with my cum stuffed inside you, angel, so pretty.”

By now, you’re convinced he’s drunk but you don’t put it past yourself to consider yourself just as drunk on him as he is on you. You squirm, not wanting him to continue as his fingers repeat their actions. “O-oh, too much,” you whimper, “sore, so fucking sore baby.”

You knew you probably could’ve handled a little more but he obliges, not wanting to scare you away (as if that was even possible) and finishes by pushing his fingers past your lips, coaxing you to lick them clean.

Gladly, you do as he was silently suggesting.

He groans, his dick twitching but he ignores it, knowing you’re still healing and by the state of you currently, you probably weren’t up for another round. Instead, he picks you up bridal style and takes you to the bathroom, feet wobbling a few times on the way before getting to the bathroom.

“Gotta clean up, angel.”

You mumble, putting your legs to use and absently moving to switch the shower head on, soaking both of you in the stall. The water is freezing but you make no complaints, wanting to settle the heat radiating from your body. Jaehyun says nothing too. He just helps you clean yourself as you’re making a half-hearted effort – this makes him chuckle.

Twenty minutes later, the both of you are laying on his bed (the one he gave up for you), snuggled into each other.

For the first time in a long time, you slept in the crook on an arm where you felt safe, possibly loved (that would have to be addressed another time).

While you lay, breathing slowly as you listen to his heartbeat, Jaehyun has his head propped up with one arm and his other arm rests on your side, t-shirt that he had lent you riding up on the side, fingers running up and down as he takes in the feel of your smooth skin under his fingertips.

Jaehyun was smitten.

a/n: hi hello. how, uh, how was it? feel free to leave me some feedback or pop in my ask box. you’re all my angels. i just like posting to post sometimes but interaction is p darn cool too. lyl <3

i follow from @00solarsmiles​

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copyright © 2021, 01solarsmiles on tumblr. please don’t repost or translate.

net: @neowritingsnet

[foreverfallingforthestars]

Shining in the Darkness

I've had to rework this plot about 3 times because I started this earlier this year and then restarted it a few weeks ago and then re-restarted it yesterday lmao I hope you guys like it

Word Count: 1699

Read on AO3

Rowaelin Month Masterlist

Day 13 of Rowaelin Month Prompt: Florist/Tattoo shop AU

~~~~~~~~

“Ugh,” Aelin groaned, “look at them pretending to be all high and mighty with their all-black, emo, punk tattoo shop.” She turned away from them in annoyance, instead taking in the bright and beautiful flowers around her.

“I mean, I hope you didn’t expect a tattoo shop to be all sunshine and rainbows,” Elide laughed as she wiped down the counter where bouquets were made.

Aelin sent her a withering glance. “You’re only saying that because you’ve been staring at Mr. Tall-and-Dark ever since they started moving in.”

Elide sent her a sweet smile in response. “As if you haven’t been staring at Mr. Tall-and-Blond? Plus, this is the perfect opportunity to go get that tattoo you’ve been talking about for ages.” Elide gasped and suddenly pointed the rag at her, “You should go by and give them a welcome present! It’ll brighten that dreary place up too!”

Aelin glared at her, “Don’t you have some work to do?”

“Uh-huh, sure, kick your favorite cousin out for having such a brilliant idea.”

Aelin rolled her eyes at her, “Aedion’s going to take offense to that. Technically, you aren’t even my cousin.”

“I don’t care, and Aedion can suck it,” Elide cackled. “Go get them one of the potted plants. Probably a succulent or two, since it doesn’t look like they can keep anything else alive,” she said as she walked into the storeroom to take inventory.

Aelin sighed as she turned back around to watch the two men wipe down the clear glass panels and windows of the store. Her floral shop, Kingsflame Florals, was right across from The Cadre, a tattoo shop that was apparently opening tomorrow, and she was understandably frustrated at how everytime she looked out her own shop’s glass panels, she saw the dark and gloomy exterior of The Cadre. There was enough darkness in her own brain over the last few years after her parents had passed away that she didn’t exactly need to see it constantly as soon as she looked out of her shop, but Aelin also knew that it was strictly her problem and that she really couldn’t take it out on the shop owners.

Elide was right, though. The only decent thing about the entire place was the fact that there was a Mr. Tall-and-Blond, except his hair glinted so brightly under the sunlight that it looked almost like platinum silver. Even from across the street, she could see his muscles rippling under his black shirt as he wiped down the windows, (this man did not care about the burning sunlight, and she had no idea how he could bear it), and Aelin could see the vague swirls of a tattoo down his arm and on the back of his neck. If she was being honest, she wanted to go see the design up close, maybe get some inspiration for what she wanted, but did she really want to deal with all that doom and gloom?

As she chewed on her lip, she decided that maybe her parents were worth facing that - and she would never admit it, but Elide was onto something with giving them succulents -, and so she turned back around and picked up one of their potted succulents that was there especially for the store. Aelin grabbed their water sprayer, gave it a few spritzes, fluffed her open hair, smoothed down her blouse, and walked out the store.

“Hey, neighbor,” she called out as she crossed the road. Aelin was definitely feeling slightly intimidated by how black everything was, but she could deal. She was out of her emo-depressed phase after her parents had died, and a black tattoo shop couldn’t change that.

The dark-haired man wasn't there, but the man with the silver hair turned around, and she was weirdly excited to realize that he had bright green eyes. It was like a surprise of sorts - the man who seems to prefer black had silver hair and green eyes, exactly the opposite of his personality. He was incredibly attractive, though. Gorgeous eyes, pretty hair, sharp jawline, and the tattoo swirling up his neck, almost creeping up his jaw.

“Hello,” he responded, a slight tilt to his words thanks to an accent. Aelin blinked at first, trying to remember how to breathe again because holy crap, the man was suddenly even more attractive, and this was so not fair.

She put on her best, charming smile as she responded, “Welcome to the street. Your shop looked a bit too doom-and-gloom so I decided to bring over some flowers from my shop!”

He raised an eyebrow as he looked at the plant in her hands. “Doom and gloom?”

“Well, yeah, your entire shop is black, which is quite an achievement honestly. How do you make something so dark when the front part of the shop is entirely glass which lets all this sunlight in?” she joked, but from the way his lips turned down into a scowl, she figured he didn’t exactly share the same sentiments.

“It’s a tattoo shop,” he stated in a manner-of-fact tone, “so yes, it’s a lot of black.”

“Um, right,” she awkwardly responded, her bravado effectively gone, “I just wanted to come by and give you a succulent to keep at the desk. I’m Aelin, by the way, I own Kingsflame Florals.”

He looked down at the plant again before looking back up at her. “I figured you owned the shop, but I’m Rowan. You can come in, if you want, and show me the prime location for that so it doesn’t look all doom-and-gloom.”

“You’re not going to let that go, are you?”

“Not at all,” he responded with a wry smirk on his face. He opened the door to the shop, and she followed him inside, immediately blasted with the cold air from the air conditioner.

She took the chance to look around the shop, and she was taken aback by the variety of designs posted around the walls. There were the simple designs like flowers, birds, dreamcatchers, and butterflies, while there were also insanely intricate designs of swirls and lines that created abstract art and distinct images, and all of it was just pure talent.

"These designs are beautiful," she breathed, setting the succulent down near the computer.

"Thanks," he replied, leaning an arm against the desk. "Interesting?" he asked, and Aelin could tell from his expression that he expected her to say no.

"Yes, actually," she replied with satisfaction as she watched Rowan's eyes widen slightly. "My cousin says that your shop opening up here is a prime opportunity for me to get the tattoo I've been talking about for ages."

"What’s stopping you from becoming our first customer then?" Rowan asked. Aelin shrugged.

"Lack of inspiration, I suppose?"

"Any ideas about what you want it to be?” Aelin shook her head, to which Rowan continued, “A reason behind getting the tattoo might help with the overall design.”

"We're not that close for me to share that part of my life with you."

"Really? I'd say these past five minutes makes us best friends," he spoke, leaning into her, mischief shining in his eyes.

Stifling a snort, Aelin rolled her eyes. “You should already know my tragic backstory then.”

“Same for you, Ms. Flowers,” he responded.

“No, but you see, I never claimed to be your best friend.”

“Ouch, that hurt,” he responded, a hand covering his heart with fake pain. Aelin’s lips quirked upwards at that with the realization that they had been leaning into each other during that entire conversation, and she was flirting with this man. She hadn’t even noticed how dark everything around her was because within that darkness was this man with bright green eyes that reminded her of pine trees from back home and silver hair that glowed like the moon,

“Fair enough,” she laughed lightly. “It’s for my parents. The shop was actually my mom’s idea for something to keep them busy after they retired, but they, uh, died in a car accident a few years ago. They never got to open it, so I did,” she said, looking out the clear panels to her own shop. It was years of hard work and pain, but she’d gotten through it. “I always wanted to get a tattoo, but now it’s more for them.”

She looked back at Rowan and was surprised to see that there wasn’t any pity shining in his eyes. No, it was understanding and compassion. He understood her decision, and it wasn’t something a lot of people were able to relate to. They would simply pass it off as a nice gesture she wanted to do, but it went deeper than that. It was a way to ensure she would never be separated from her parents, and from the way Rowan had let himself smile genuinely in front of her, she knew he understood.

“The tattoo you were staring at earlier,” he started, pointing a finger at his neck, and Aelin flushed realizing that she hadn’t been as subtle as she thought she was, “is about my wife and daughter that had passed away, also in a car accident. I understand your need to connect to them, so how about I draw something for you? You can take a look at it and make any adjustments as needed, but I can help you start off with something.”

Aelin looked at him, and she slowly exhaled a breath because maybe this was exactly what she needed. “Okay. I wanted it on my ribcage, if that works?”

“Yeah, of course, just be aware that you will have to at least take your shirt off,” he teased, and Aelin was so shocked that she barked out a laugh.

“Wow, Rowan, at least buy my dinner first.”

“Happily,” he replied.

Aelin sent him a bright smile, and she knew that she was never going to live it down from Elide that she had gone to the tattoo shop with the intentions of giving the grumpy men a succulent and had instead left with the man’s phone number and a beautiful tattoo design amazingly created with Old Language letters and a Kingsflame flower.

[wondersofdreaming]

Third time’s the charm

Characters: Henry Cavill x 3rd person female reader (the reader in this story has been described as someone with long brown hair, hazel eyes and not very tall)

Word count: 1.705

Warnings: Fluff. Insecurity. Doubt. Chasing. Jumping. 

Author’s note: Thank you @radaofrivia​ for your guidance and your help <3

Go read her stories right here: Rada’s masterlist

Sentences in square brackets are Kal’s thoughts. Sentences in italics are Henry’s thoughts.

I do not own any characters in this short story, except the reader who is a figment of my imagination.

MASTERLIST

Feedback is appreciated.

It was a lovely day. The sun was shining brightly in the clear blue sky. Not a cloud present. The birds were chirping in the trees, and people were chatting away around him.

His hulking size of a fluffball dog was trotting happily beside him. Kal’s long tongue was sticking out between his sharp fangs, panting and drooling all over the uneven pathway.

He watched as a couple walked past him. They were smiling, and the woman was laughing at a joke her boyfriend had just cracked. It made him long for a special someone in his life he could crack jokes to, a someone who would laugh at his sense of humour, someone with a genuine laugh.

Henry filled his nostrils with the fresh air. He felt the vibrations of children's laughter through the ground. His heart was yearning to hear the giggles of his own flesh and blood, and it clouded his already saddened mind.

He hadn’t noticed that Kal had been sniffing the ground. His ears perked with interest as his nose found a scent that made his mouth water. Kal galloped across the park without warning, making Henry lose his grasp on the leash.

[Something smells yummy!]

“Kal!” Henry yelled at the black and white dog, but it was too late. Kal was already out of sight, following his nose to whatever had caught his attention. Henry wandered around the park. His heart was beating so fast it felt as if it would jump out of his chest. A million scenarios ran through his mind: What if something happened to Kal? What if someone dog-napped Kal? What if Kal hurt someone?

Henry searched all over the park but to no avail until he heard a loud scream coming from behind a group of trees. Shit!

The run towards where the scream came from felt as if it took forever. Time was standing still as he neared the trees. He first noticed the bushy tail, then the rest of Kal’s body, standing atop a woman who was loving up all the licks Kal was giving her. She managed to push the large dog off her body, while her delicate hands were giving him scritches all over his fluffy fur coat.

“You’re such a good boy,” he heard her sweet silvery voice say, then a bark came from his wayward dog.

[Yes, Kal is a good booooy… oh yeah, right there. More scritches!]

Henry let out a breath he hadn’t known he had been holding in since Kal went missing. Thank god!

“Kal!” Henry yelled over the sound of giggles coming from the woman. He started walking towards them but stopped in his tracks like a deer in headlights when the woman looked up. Her hazel eyes shone with excitement, and the grin on her perfectly succulent lips made his heart skip a beat. Henry felt like he had been struck by lightning, suddenly unable to move as he watched the dark-haired angel stand. She dusted off the dirt from her jeans and walked towards him. She seemed unharmed even after having been hammered by Kal, who probably weighed more than she did.

“You must be this dog’s owner. He really scared me, when he suddenly jumped on my back,” she giggled a melodious sound.

Henry’s brain finally started working again, the gears turning behind his eyes as he was processing what she had just told him. Kal; his sweet mild-tempered fluffball, who wouldn’t hurt a fly; had jumped on this woman’s back, and yet she was still smiling and loving up the bear without being afraid. It didn’t seem she knew who he was, as he didn’t see the recognition sparkle in her eyes.

“I am so sorry that he jumped on your back, he normally doesn’t do that, I don’t know what came over him,” Henry knew he was babbling, he knew he needed to shut his mouth, but the words kept vomiting out between his lips.

“It’s okay. I wasn’t that scared. Besides, he is such a sweet dog, I don’t mind being jumbled,” she looked into his eyes, and his heart did a somersault as she smiled again.

“Be a good boy for your owner, Kal,” she told the bear, and then she was gone.

Henry was standing cemented to the place. He didn’t know what had just happened. Kal barked at him, his tongue dangling from between his lips; he was smiling.

“Well Kal, you sure do have great taste in women, but you should stick to the four-legged kind,” Henry reprimanded him softly. Kal wasn’t happy. There was a reason why he had gone rogue and run away from Henry. So, before Henry could pick up the leash, Kal darted through the bushes to find the mystery woman. Not again!

[But I didn’t get to know what smelled so good!]

Henry, having gotten out of his trance, followed his dog once again. Why was his dog so keen on pursuing that woman? It was starting to annoy him. Panic was beginning to make itself comfortable in his brain, what if the woman had something that would make Kal follow her on purpose? What if she was pretending not to know him, so she could steal his dog and ask for an insane ransom?

He rounded a corner just in time to see Kal jump on the brown-haired beauty, again.

“Oh, it’s you again, Kal,” she said with amusement hinting in her voice. Kal barked and went to sniff her jacket, burying his snout deep in her right pocket. He came back out with a bag of peanut butter cookies between his teeth.

[TREATS!]

“Kal! Stop! You pig, what are you doing?” Henry raised his voice sternly at his furry friend. He grabbed Kal’s collar and pulled him away from the lady, making Kal drop the bag of biscuits to the ground. Kal lunged forward, which made Henry think he was going to jump the woman again, so he moved between Kal and the lady, and gave his companion a hard stare, as to say not happening, pal.

“So that is what you were after all along,” she said and picked up the bag.

“I am so sorry, miss, are you alright?” Henry asked while jogging towards the two. She gave him an amused smile.

“I’m fine. He didn’t scare me as much this time. Apparently, he just wants some doggie biscuits. May I give him some? They’re homemade and don't contain anything that could harm a dog.”

“Oh, yes, of course, but he shouldn’t be rewarded for leaping on other people. I swear, he has been trained not to do that,” Henry was rambling again. He was spewing out nonsense while the gorgeous woman was telling Kal to sit before she rewarded him for listening. She even asked him to give her paw, which Kal did immediately, a rare thing as he only wants to listen when he’s in the mood, kind of like a cat. She is way too nice to want to abduct Kal.

“Good boy, Kal.”

[Miss with the treats is super nice. Hey human, can we take her home with us?]

“You said those were homemade, did you make them?” Henry asked.

“Oh, yes. I have a dog myself who is a picky eater. I’ve tried all kinds of doggie treats, but she would spit them out. I had no choice but to experiment on how to make dog biscuits,” the woman told him while she gestured for Kal to lie down, which he obeyed instantly.

“And does she like the homemade treats?”

“She gobbles them down like I didn’t feed her for a week. She’s becoming quite the diva.”

They talked a bit more about her dog, who was a rescue labradoodle, and about how it had changed her look on store-bought dog treats. It was healthier to make them yourselves, and people in her neighbourhood, who had dogs, had been asking if she would sell the biscuits to them. She had then started her own one-man company, making dog treats, and her most popular item was the peanut butter cookies. They were shaped like the femur bone, which was the most popular form for dog treats.

“I’m Henry by the way, may I ask what your name is?” Henry asked her carefully. She smiled brightly at him, and it chased all the dark thoughts he had earlier away from his mind. She told him her name, which was elegant and so fitting a person like her. He had been expecting the penny to drop when he mentioned his name, but she was oblivious as to who he was, which in turn made his heart leap with joy inside behind his chest.

She looked at her wristwatch and gasped.

[Oh boy…]

“Crap, I have to pick up my dog soon. It was nice talking to you, and please don’t let this beautiful boy out of your sight,” a chuckled left her lips as she walked away once again.

Kal licked his mouth for the crumbs that might have gotten stuck on the fur around his snout. He then looked up at Henry with an annoyed look.

“What?” Henry asked with a sigh. Kal tilted his head to the right. “I can’t just jump on her like you do and then ask for her phone number, that would just scare her away.”

Kal looked towards the woman, who was getting further and further away from them. He then let out a bark, and with a waggle of his puffy tail, he demanded that Henry make a choice before it was too late.

[You’re blowing it, human!]

Henry sighed and crouched down. 

“What should I do?” he asked the bear-like dog. Kal tilted his head to the side, looking at Henry as if he was crazy.

[Marry her! I want more treats!]

“You like her as well, don’t you, bear?”

Kal stood and bumped his head to Henry’s back, as to tell him to start moving, which made the human mountain chuckle, getting the hint from his dog. He released Kal from the leash and whispered: “Go get her.”

Kal licked his master’s face and darted towards the woman with the gorgeous brown curls.

[thestorycfus]

Behind these two white highway lines

Pairing: Erik Lehnsherr x gn!Reader

Summary: Erik and Reader always kept some distance, but they get a better glimpse of each other when they are tasked with bringing a new mutant to the school. The teen doesn’t like being a mutant, but Erik and Reader help him see the bright side of his identity.

Warnings and notes: This is a very self indulgent and obvious metaphor to how lonely it feels to be ‘the only one different’, and it’s not nearly as well written as it should be. There’s mentions of family discrimination, feelings of isolation, self-doubt and a journey to acceptance. But just... Not well written, for real. Other X-Men (First Class generation) are mentioned. 

Word count: 2,641

Masterlist

Erik Lehnsherr was quite a mystery to you. He was close to Charles and Raven, and he was great at training with the kids, but you had never even had a full conversation with Erik. Even though you had gotten to know everyone else in the Institute after it became your home, the metal bender preferred to keep his distance. He wasn’t rude, just… Private, it seemed. Maybe he had something against you, or maybe he was like that with every new mutant. You wouldn’t be able to tell. The guy made you a little nervous, to be honest. He was serious, powerful, strong-willed and, of course, irritatingly handsome too. If he didn’t want to be bothered, the best you could do was let him be.

For months, that was exactly what you did. You kept teaching your classes and working on your powers, while Erik kept doing whatever Erik does. You rarely talked to each other, despite living in the same house. The Institute was always full and always busy, so there was no need for you two to exchange more than a few words, nothing beyond small talk or work-related communication. You still wondered what Lehnsherr was all about, for a while, the quiet balance worked.

The equilibrium started to crack when Charles gave you a mission. He had detected a new mutant, a teenager with human parents living out of state, and it seemed like the kid was having trouble controlling his abilities. The parents were more than grateful when Professor Xavier called and offered to help their son understand and use his power, but they couldn’t drive him to the institute. With everyone else busy, Charles chose you and Erik to bring the kid to the school.

It sounded like a simple task, but you felt nervous all the same. The road trip was a little awkward, but overall uneventful, with you driving there so Lehnsherr could drive on the way back. As far as you were told, the kid would be ready to go as soon as you arrived. You both got out of the car and Erik rang the doorbell, always keeping a safe distance from you, as if you were about to bite him. You tried not to role your eyes, focusing on your most welcoming smile – very important when meeting a student and their family. The door opened to reveal a fidgety mother, who looked at you and Erik as if you were a miracle.

“I am so glad you are here, we don’t know what else to do. I’m Christine Johnson. Please, come in.”

At the same time, you heard shouting coming from upstairs, with a distinct scream of ‘I am NOT going to that freak show’, followed by the bang of a door closing. You and Erik exchanged a look before introducing yourselves and following Mrs. Johnson to the living room. Nobody had informed the school of it, but you were more than familiar with that sort of conflict. Being a mutant wasn’t always easy, and being a mutant teenager with a bunch of human friends and relatives was a mess, most of the times.

“Please, make yourselves at home. I will go get Jay, we will be ready in just a minute.” Mrs. Johnson said, looking towards the stairs and back to you and Erik. Before she could leave, you took a step forward.

“Maybe we could talk to him first? He might feel more comfortable if he gets to know us a bit before leaving.” You offered, only then remembering to give Erik a glance. He nodded discreetly, ready to follow you. There was a tension on him that you weren’t used to witnessing, but you couldn’t wonder about that now. This kid needed guidance and support, and that was the reason you went to the Institute in the first place. Mutant kids deserved better than what the world usually offered them, and the X mansion was their best opportunity to have that.

“That is very kind of you, Professor, if you don’t mind trying… Come upstairs, he’s in his room.”

You both followed Mrs. Johnson to the hall of the second floor, where her husband was pilling up bags. She called him to help with the something in the kitchen and they practically run downstairs, in an obvious attempt to not be a part of the conversation. You took a deep breath, not wishing to lose your temper, but the way the parents seemed desperate to get rid of the problem made your blood boil. To your surprise, it was Erik who knocked on the bedroom door.

“Hello, Jay. I’m Erik. I am here with my colleague Y/N. We would like to talk to you for a minute, if that is okay.”

There was silence for a moment. Erik beside you in the narrow hall, more serious than you had ever seen him. You watched his expression get lighter when he heard the doorknob click. Jay opened the door and stared at the two strangers with childish curiosity, but quickly looked away and went back inside his room. He sat at the bed, absent mindedly playing with a ring of old keys in his hands.

“It’s nothing personal, but I won’t be going to your school. I already told my parents, if they want me to leave, I’ll just move in with my friend until I get a job. His parents said it’s all good. Sorry you had to drive all the way here for nothing, though.”

His tone broke your heart. You had heard it so many times before, seen so many scared kids who were tired of sticking out, terrified because the people supposed to love them the most just saw them as an issue to fix. You and Erik walked into the room together and you sat down on the floor, leaning against the bedside table. Jay’s eyes scanned you as if you were about to shoot lasers at him – and for all he knew, maybe you were – and even you were surprised when Erik followed you, sitting on the carpet too.

“Let’s start from the beginning. I’m Professor Y/N L/N and I work at the Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters, which, as you might know, is home to many mutants, including myself and…” You gestured to Erik, who took your cue.

“I’m Erik Lehnsherr, also a Professor at Xavier’s and also a mutant. If you do not wish to join us, that is perfectly fine, but you could at least hear us out first. You know, to compensate for the long drive.” He opened his right hand, and Jay’s ring of keys came flying towards him, floating just above his palm.

You smiled at the way Jay stared, looking so lost, but also as if he had just been found. He looked so young, so starved for some understanding… Erik’s approach was a bit on the nose, but it was worth a try.

Since you entered the room, you had spotted the few plants that decorated the room, including a succulent on the table next to you. You reached up and grabbed it, touching the delicate flower that was just beginning to appear on top of it. At your touch, the flower grew, opening up in yellow and orange tones. Jay’s eyes went from you to Erik and back to you.

“What do you even do in there, though? I bet you’re not studying chemistry or something.”

You chuckled at that, and Erik had big grin when he answered.

“You would be surprised. Just because someone is blue, doesn’t mean they aren’t a science genius.”

“Blue as in sad or blue as in… Blue?” Jay probably sounded more invested than he intended to.

“Blue as in blue. Dr McCoy is a biochemistry expert, and he can also take down all three of us in a fight at the same time with very little effort. And he is blue, but he’s not the only one at that.” You explained, amused to see the kid look so curious.

“Actually, Hank couldn’t take me down unless the fight took place in a plastic prison, and even then it would be a close call.” Lehnsherr feigned offense, and you chuckled again. It was nice to see him being so casual and playful.

“No, it wouldn’t, but I won’t insist on that topic.” You turned back to the kid with a soft smile, while making a couple more flowers appear in the plant you were holding. “There’s a lot to discover at the school. You don’t have to stay there forever, but you could meet everyone, take a few classes and see if you like the place.”

“Sounds like all of you have everything figured out, uh?” As Jay spoke, a small flame emerged from his fingers, and he threw it from one hand to the other. “I’m not that good at keeping this under control.” There was a challenge in his eyes, as if he doubted that the school would be able to handle his abilities, even though you were used to students with powers way more complicated.

“Controlling all the metal near you isn’t as simple as it may seem. Most mutants are not in control of their powers when they first appear, but we can develop our abilities to degrees you can’t even dream of, Jay. That’s the reason Charles found the school in the first place – so all mutants can be safe and proud. I used to believe I was alone until he found me, and I was almost lost in my anger. The others allowed me to see that there is more than just one path for us.” Erik answered, making the keys fly back to their owner. Jay extinguished the flame and caught the keys midair. He remained in silence, so you continued Erik’s speech. Everything he had said really resonated with you, making you even more certain of the point you wanted to get across.

“You may make fire, but we have a guy who turns into and produces ice, a lady who can literally control the weather, some laser-shooters and a few telepaths and the list goes on. Even a seemly harmless mutation can be trouble, like when I have a nightmare and break the floor with tree roots growing out of nowhere, and the scariest powers can save all of us very often.” You felt Lehnsherr’s eyes on you, but you focused on Jay. You thought of how tiny you felt before you knew of others like you, remembering the desperation of dealing with a part of yourself that nobody around you could know, because they would never have to handle something similar. Until you were surrounded by other mutants, you were never able to allow yourself to just be.

“We know how hard it is to be the only one that is different. Pardon my language, but it royally sucks, doesn’t it? It gets lonely and terrifying, and it seems like there’s not a single person in your life that can understand. But we do. We have all been through it, one way or the other, and it gets much easier and much more fun when you have a community, if you’re willing to give us a chance.” The honesty in your words was undeniable. Even though no two mutants were the same, and each of the residents of the X Mansion had their own past and their identities, with the x gene being just one aspect of who they were, finding your community had being freeing in ways you didn’t even know you needed. There were still many barriers to face, and a lot of grief for everything that couldn’t be. It wasn’t fair, and it still hurt, but it didn’t hurt after you became more comfortable in yourself. The love you had for every mutant in the institute and the bonds you created made you see yourself in a brand new light, and you had seem the same magic happen to many others. You hoped it would happen to Jay too.

“I’m not just talking of making the burden less heavy. I’m talking of honestly understanding that there isn’t a burden at all. Even if I said I was proud of myself, I wasn’t really happy to be me until I was with the others. Now, when I say I’m a mutant and proud, I mean it. I know how strong, how amazing, how brilliant we are, and I’d never change a thing. I wish the world wasn’t as tough on us, I wish we didn’t have to be strong, but kid, I’m really thankful and proud to say that we can take it, and we’re worth standing up for and celebrating.” You finally stopped talking, feeling a bit self conscious about how much you had said, but opening up was worth it if it gave Jay a better chance of experience those changes. Before you could say more, though, Erik spoke again.

“I had an entire mutant pride speech ready, but I believe Y/N spoke for us both on what really matters here. Give it a try. If the school isn’t for you, you can come back to your friend’s house with some interesting stories.” You smiled at his words, waiting for Jay’s answer.

“Will someone drive me back here if I don’t stay or do I have to find a new ride?” The kid was already getting up and collecting stuff around the room. Erik stood up and offered you his hand. You took it, standing up too and smiling at him.

“Maybe our teleport guy will be back by then. We usually take the road when we’re inviting a new student, but we’ll figure something out.” Erik replied, which gained him an impressed look from Jay.

“Of course there’s a teleport guy. You could have lead with that.” He continued gathering his belongings but, besides the plants, there wasn’t a lot more to pack. Most of the stuff was already in the bags in hall. Jay arranged most of the plants in a metal shelf so they would be easier to carry, but he shook his head when you tried to hand him the succulent in your left hand. “You keep that one. She likes you.”

You nodded, turning around to leave the room and help bring the bags to the car. Only then you noticed that you were still holding Erik’s hand. You let your hand fall, but the two of you didn’t stand so distant to each other now. All three mutants walked out of the room and divided the bags among you, with Lehnsherr showing off and making every metal object float to the front door. Once everything was in the car, Jay went to talk to his parents. There were tears and goodbyes and promises of behaving, but you and Erik stayed outside to give the family some privacy. The Johnsons might not be the best parents a mutant could get, but they were still Jay’s mom and dad, and the process would be important for him.

While you two waited, you decided to break the silence.

“Turns out we can make a good team, Lehnsherr.”

“Wait to see if the kid comes running back home when he sees Alex explode something before you start to boast.”

“Oh, shut up. Alex will be his favorite.”

“Yeah, he will. And we do make a good team.”

The conversation was cut short when the Johnsons came out of the door, with Mrs. Johnson hugging Jay. You and Erik promised to take care of him and finally got in the car. The ride back to the institute was a little less awkward and silent, even though the kid fell asleep in half an hour. You could definitely count that day as a win.

[aethelflaedladyofmercia]

Twelve Months - Good Omens fanfic

Happy 31st Anniversary of Good Omens! :D

To celebrate this momentous occasion, I have posted a slightly-sad, slightly-sweet Wake the Snake fic on AO3, because our demon has been napping for a whole Twelve Months, and sometimes Angel gets a little lonely!

Thank you all for another fantastic year in this fandom!

--

Twelve months.

Aziraphale pushed open the door to Crowley’s flat, a simple shopping bag tucked under his arm.

The lights were still off, the curtains drawn in the awful empty room he called a study. Nothing had changed.

He passed through the enormous, rotating section of wall and into the solarium. This was still bright—many of the plants flourishing despite being unattended so long, despite clearly not having enough water. A few had started flowering. They waved their branches at him as he entered, perking up eagerly.

The angel waved back, but first he peeked into Crowley’s bedroom.

He was still where Aziraphale had left him, on his last visit a month before. Bright red hair spilled across black pillows, grown into a stringy mop. Duvet pulled up to his messily-bearded chin. One hand curled up beside him on the bed.

Still asleep.

With a sigh, Aziraphale crossed over to the plants, who greeted him excitedly, unfurling their newest leaves, a few vines hanging down to brush his face.

“Hello, my lovelies. How are you all doing? Look at you, grown at least a foot since I saw you, I’m sure. And you! What beautiful pink buds. Very impressive.”

He didn’t think Crowley would approve of how he spoke to the plants, but the poor things had been so distraught on his first visit, straining to keep upright, trying to hide their yellowing leaves. So much healthier now, much happier for just a bit of attention. He picked up the watering can and gave them all a quick splash. He didn’t know how much water each needed, but it didn’t seem to matter.

“You keep it up, dears. I’ll be back before you know it.”

Picking up his shopping bag again, Aziraphale headed down the hall to the kitchen. The kettle sat on the island where he’d left it, and he quickly refilled it and set it to boil. While he waited, he pulled his latest creations from the bag: a small pumpkin spice cake from a recipe he’d been perfecting since fall, a lemon coconut cake, and a few apple cinnamon muffins.

Two plates—a muffin for each, a slice of the coconut cake for himself and the pumpkin spice for Crowley.[1] The rest went into the refrigerator, where they would never go bad or stale.

Aziraphale put the plates onto a tray, along with forks and napkins. Next he found two mugs and pulled the little tin of his second-favorite tea out of the bag just as the kettle boiled.

For himself, a teaspoon of the expertly blended leaves, steeped for exactly three minutes, resulting in a pale brown tea with a slightly spicy aroma. For Crowley, he dropped a tea bag into boiling water and let it sit until it was almost black.[2]

He carried the tray back to the solarium and selected a bright red-and-gold tulip that was nearly vibrating in its eagerness to be noticed. A moment to assure the other plants that they were still doing fabulously—particularly a self-conscious little succulent that had rather drooped over the winter but was making a fine recovery—and he once more headed into Crowley’s bedroom.

Crowley had rolled over, and now sprawled on his back, sleeping soundly. He’d apparently kicked a bit, too, as the blanket had slid down past his stomach. Aziraphale smiled as he set the tray on the chair he’d brought in some months ago and got to work.

“It’s wonderful to see you again, dear,” he started cheerfully, carefully rearranging the objects on the little bedside table. “I have a few things for you again, I hope you don’t mind.” Just enough space to slide the mug and the little plate. Perfect.

“I received a package from Tadfield again. Everyone wrote a note and then gathered them all together, really quite clever. They’re all doing well, if a bit bored.” The table was nearly overflowing with little items now, brought in by Aziraphale to cheer the place up. Framed pictures of their human friends, quarantining with their families, clustered in one corner so tightly you could hardly see them anymore.

He pulled the latest out of the shopping bag. “Anathema has started a garden,” he explained, pausing to show the photograph to Crowley’s sleeping form. It showed the witch, kneeling outside her little cottage, working on growing several rows of herbs. “I got the impression she was off to a rough start, but she hopes to send us some mint in the next package. Although Newt warned me not to expect too much, as they’d already forgotten which patch is mint and which is oregano.” He set the picture with the others, and slid the potted tulip alongside it. “I’m sure she could use some advice from you, when you’re ready to share.”

“Nnnnh.” Aziraphale spun eagerly, but no, just Crowley shifting in his sleep again, rolling onto his side.

The angel paused to pull the duvet back up to Crowley’s chin, tugging it straight and smoothing a hand down his back. In a way, his friend was nearly unrecognizable, with that hair and ridiculous beard, but in another way looked the same as ever. That was always Crowley’s way, of course, constantly changing yet somehow always the same.

He lingered, taking in the shape of that face, leaning close, lips hovering above his cheekbone—

Aziraphale pulled back, quickly digging into his bag again. “Oh! Ah, the, um, the children have been making projects for their art class. This past month was sculpture, and they sent us some. Look!” He pulled out four little figures of oven-baked clay. “Ah, young Wensleydale has made a very clever model of a train car. Brian’s is…abstract.” He turned the next a few different ways. “And Pepper’s is, ah, either a very complex symbolic representation of the Patriarchy, or…a troll, I think.” They just fit on the edge of the table, all in a line, a very mismatched tableau. The fourth, on the end, was the best, in Aziraphale’s opinion. “Adam made a little Dog, and it’s very well done, don’t you think?” The canine figure posed with one leg raised and head cocked, ready to play, but the shadow it cast was just a little too large, too ominous, for such a small creature.

With a sigh, Aziraphale shifted the row this way and that. “I sent a letter to Warlock, over in America, but haven’t heard back since Christmas. I believe they’re very busy with something. Politics. You know how it is.” When the Dowlings had left England, they’d planned to return for a visit the following summer. A global pandemic had had other ideas.

“In any case, that just leaves Tracy and Shadwell. I understand he’s decided to hate the concept of literacy this month, so no word on how his war with the squirrels is going. And Tracy has declared she will spend the summer making a fairy garden. I thought her sketches looked very promising, and she promised to send us an update in June. I’m sure you’ll find it charming.”

“Hrrrrm.” Crowley sank under the duvet, nestling down a little deeper. Aziraphale smiled, settling into the chair with his plate and mug.

“Things are loosening up again,” he explained, taking a bite of cake. Delicious, if he said so himself. Sharp and not too sweet. “People are getting vaccinated, shops opening up. It’s really a lovely breath of fresh air, at least when you’re not wearing a mask.” A long sip from his mug, then he held it, fingers tapping. “It’s been nice walking through the park again, just in time for the baby ducks. And that record shop at the corner, they’ve had some wonderful new additions. Which reminds me.”

Putting aside his mug, Aziraphale dug through the bag again and pulled out a handful of square plastic cases. “They had a whole shipment of those little records the Bentley likes. Modern music. I picked out the ones with the rudest names. I’m sure you’ll enjoy them.” He pulled out the first disc and placed it atop Crowley’s phone. The device blinked in confusion a few times, then obediently copied all the music.

“Of course, it’s not all good news.” He stacked the rest of the discs atop the phone and returned to his tea. “Reopening means the customers are coming back. Yesterday, this one individual spent almost an hour browsing the same three shelves. And then he tried to make off with one of my books.” Another long sip. “Granted, he offered to pay, but still. What sort of establishment does he think I’m running?”

Aziraphale paused, waiting for Crowley to respond, not that he ever did. The demon’s eyelids moved a little, but no more.

Sighing, Aziraphale turned to his muffin. “You know, many times in the last year, I’ve wished you were there. Particularly during reopening phases. You could have posed as a customer, and then I’d be able to tell people I was at the capacity limit. Oh, and the people who would call to try and buy my rarest books. Collectors, or so they claimed, but then they just turn around and sell to anyone for twice the price! I’m sure you’d have some biting things to say about such people.” He smiled at Crowley’s sleeping face. “I’ve missed that, and your jokes. Rather more than I expected to.”

When his plate and tea were finished, Aziraphale set them on the floor and reached again into the bag. “Now, I have been attempting to teach my computer how to use the internet. I think it’s going quite well. Adam and his friends gave me a ‘homework assignment’ to find articles on recent news events, and I made the most wonderful discovery. Did you know that humans now share their news through humorous pictures? I printed out my favorites to show you.”[3]

He flicked through a few. “Ah, to start with, a few months ago there was this American politician with amusing mittens who showed up everywhere for a few days. It was extremely droll.” He leaned closer, holding them up for Crowley to see. “Ah, a few more from America. The murder hornets arrived, though by that point everyone had forgotten them. The election became increasingly confusing, and it all ended in a parking lot. For a little while everything was ‘This-or-That Total Landscaping,’ and before that everything was cake.” He showed a few extremely clever illusions. “I did try to make my own, but couldn’t manage it without miracles, which I felt was cheating.”

Really, leaning like this was starting to strain his back. Aziraphale shifted to sit on the edge of the bed, the better to share his pictures. “Ahhh. Also for a time everyone’s calendars were stuck on ‘March.’ And then earlier this year, a group of people learned how the stock market works, but sadly not how to spell it. The whole situation seemed very much like the sort of thing you’d be involved in. And…Oh, this angel from a television show was sent to Hell for…reasons.” He glanced at the shape beside him. Crowley had curled in slightly, pressing against Aziraphale’s back. “Yes. Various reasons. And then this musician, I suppose, went on his own. Both had many people extraordinarily upset.”

The next few images would really tickle Crowley, if he could actually see them. “The biggest news is that a large ship got stuck sideways in that canal in Egypt. Stopped half the world’s shipping for a few days while they dug it out! I’m sure you would have liked that very much. Exactly your sort of trouble. The humans were all very excited.”

The final photo was another of the ship, an image Aziraphale had made himself, printing out a blank version and writing on it in felt-tip pen. The hull of the enormous ship was labeled, “An eternity putting up with the tedious bureaucracy and frequently conflicting commands of my superiors until I begin to doubt my own judgement and sanity,”[4] while the small digger working steadily beside it was “Crowley.”

Aziraphale watched the demon beside him, not really expecting a reaction, certainly not getting one. He reached over, brushing brilliant hair back from Crowley’s forehead. “I think you’d have had rather a lot of fun last year. Or perhaps you’d have been upset you could only watch from a distance. Or…”

He’d leaned much closer than he’d intended, hovering just above Crowley’s forehead.

“Well!” Aziraphale stumbled to his feet. “I suppose that’s just about everything.” He picked up the tray from where he’d rested it on the floor, starting to re-load it with everything he’d brought in. Crowley’s cake and tea sat untouched, as always, but Aziraphale wouldn’t dream of skipping them. “We’re all very optimistic for the summer. Two months and everything should be just…just tickety-boo. Perhaps we can go for that picnic soon, if…yes…”

They’d made such plans for 2020. All the things they would do now they were free. Plans, and other thoughts carried in their minds, possibilities that would play out in their own time. Not too fast, just a slow, steady exploration of everything they could be…

“Well. Pleasant as that idea is, best not to—to plan too much, as the previous year made fools of us all. I just…” He turned away from the tray and watched Crowley sleep, hands clasped before him. “I miss you terribly. And I wish…very much…”

He picked up his shopping bag. One item still inside. The same one he’d been carrying for months, trying to find the courage to bring it out.

With a shaking hand, he reached in and drew forth a soft hand-made doll. He’d spent much of the winter on it. Simple white cotton for the head and body, wooly curls for the hair, and stiff white lace for the wings. Dressed in waistcoat and bowtie made from Aziraphale’s favorite tartan.

He still wasn’t sure why he brought it. He’d stitched several little toys, particularly a lovely black-and-red serpent with gold button eyes that had watched him from the sofa since November. But this, for reasons he couldn’t articulate, this one was for Crowley.

“I, ah…” He shuffled closer, doll clutched in both hands. “I made, um…” Back to the edge of the bed, one hand fumbling across the duvet. “…thought you might like…”

Crowley’s face stood out in stark contrast to the pillow, pale skin and bright hair. Aziraphale wanted to drink it in, memorize every detail, to hold him over until next month. The curve of his nose, the sharp angle of his cheekbones. His lashes flickering as his eyes moved. His lips, pursed ever so slightly…

“Bless it, Angel, are you going to kiss me or not?”

Aziraphale gasped, pulling back from the bright gaze of slit-pupil eyes. “You—you’re awake!”

“Nnnh. Half.” Crowley shifted, head moving across the pillow, eyes threatening to shut again. “Wouldn’t miss your visit.” One hand reached out, plucked the doll from Aziraphale’s unresisting fingers. “For me?”

The angel nodded. “If…if…you like it…or I could—I could just…”

Without a word, Crowley pulled the doll under the duvet and curled up, tucking it under his chin, a faint smile on his lips.

“If you were awake you—you should have said something! I’ve been going—going off like a fool all this—oh!” Aziraphale could feel his face turning hot as he recalled a few times his tongue had been a bit too loose for propriety.

“Mmmmmh.” The golden eyes were shut again.

“Crowley?” No response. “Crowley!” Aziraphale scowled. “Anthony J. Crowley, if you’ve fallen asleep again, I swear, I’ll—”

He’d do what? The angel fumed, but what could he really threaten? To stay away? Never.

“Alright then, I suppose I’ll see you in June. I’ve had several new requests for extremely rare manuscripts and I need to go pen some responses reprimanding these vultures for their cheek. I can—”

“You can stay.”

He spun around. Crowley had one eye barely cracked open. Gently, he pulled back the duvet, showing there was just enough space for Aziraphale beside him.

“I…I couldn’t.” But he stepped forward, not back. “I have business tomorrow, things to—”

“Just tonight then.”

His fingers brushed the mattress and pulled back as if burned. “You—you don’t really mean this, you’re just talking in your sleep.”

“Nah.” Crowley settled the doll by his pillow, making space. “Why else would I give you my key?”

“I…to…water the plants?”

“They take care of themselves.” Crowley held open his arms, eyes shut once more. “I missed you, too.”

Well. What could he say to that?

Aziraphale took off his shoes and slid into bed, into Crowley's arms. They wrapped around him gently as Crowley wriggled closer. “Mmmm. Y’r softer than the doll.”

“Oh.” He’d been called soft many times, generally as a way to imply he was a failure as an angel. But just this once, it made him feel rather pleased. “Soft is good?”

“Verrrry good.” Crowley twisted a bit, trying to find a comfortable way to rest his long limbs, and finally settled curled up against Aziraphale’s chest, tucked below the angel’s chin with a leg hooked over his knees.

The angel smiled. “And you’re…you’re noodlier than a stuffed snake. Err…”

A chuckle, just a stirring of breath across his throat. “Can’t wait to hear the story behind that.” Crowley nuzzled against his shoulder with a sigh. “Good night, Angel.”

Aziraphale swept the brilliant hair back again and bent down, pressing his lips to Crowley’s forehead. A soft, gentle kiss that made his friend smile a little more broadly. “Good night, my dear.”

Crowley drifted off again, burrowing close, as the angel continued to gently tease the back of his hair. Perhaps, he thought, perhaps tomorrow's work wasn't so very urgent. Perhaps a bit of rest would do him good. And perhaps...

Well. Don't plan too much. But for the first time, Aziraphale felt a bit of optimism about the coming summer and its possibilities.

“Sleep well, Crowley.”

[1] Crowley had invented pumpkin spice, and Aziraphale assumed he must like it. In truth, Crowley despised it, and regretted every autumn how it took over the entire world. He missed apple cider season. [2] Aziraphale had suspected since the early 1950s that Crowley secretly took his tea with several lumps of sugar, but would continue to pretend he didn’t know until Crowley confessed. Considering current circumstances, that was unlikely to be any time soon. [3] Aziraphale’s fax machine, revived after over three decades of disuse, had been somewhat confused to be asked to perform any task at all, much less to print memes onto photo paper with perfectly balanced color; but like the plants and Crowley’s phone, it couldn’t stand to disappoint the angel. [4] It was possible he hadn’t quite mastered this new form of communication.

[ariondevereux]

alya (@griffin-wood) made this lovely board of my hunters from the midnight hours as a present way back in december and i still love it so much so here it is <333 plus i needed an excuse to talk about my girls so under the cut for a really long list of unsolicited headcanons lol

sage marano

random fact: sage is cross-dominant. she writes with her left hand, does everything else with the other.

arion x sage: they kiss and cuddle a lot lol and when they’re together and arion sees a rat - because it’s new york - he’ll point at it and tell sage: “hey, it’s you!” if he sees another rat, “it’s you again!” and sage always tells him to shut up but she’s also laughing. arion’s also the only person who knows that on bad nights, sage sleeps with a plushy so he gave her a light brown teddy bear he made for her at build-a-bear and named it bearion devereux.

brotp: nikolas x sage x blane (x arion): over time - when arion and blane finally moved past their differences - all four of them have become a tight friend group at and outside of work. in fact, the roles are reversed because now it’s blane who has to endure nikolas and sage’s frequent banters which primarily consist of nikolas being effortlessly witty and sage eventually running out of comebacks. and once she does, she turns to blane like “blane, can you believe this guy?” then he just rolls his eyes and says “what now?” which prompts nikolas to tease his partner, “now you know what it feels like.” so blane ultimately shifts his attention to arion: “make them stop.” but arion just grins and smugly asks him to “say please.”

piper ellis

random fact: piper left wayhaven for new york because she wanted a fresh start. when she took a job at iaos, she had no clue she’d still be dealing with supernaturals.

nikolas x piper: when they don’t have work, piper teaches nikolas how to play guitar and even though nikolas quickly learns, he’ll say “how do you play this chord again?” just so piper will hold his hand again. sometimes, she can tell he’s just faking it but it’s whatever because she wants to hold his hand too. when nikolas teaches piper how to play the piano, he sits her on his lap then puts his hands over hers and rests his chin on her shoulder. if he’s feeling playful, he’ll poke her where she’s ticklish every time she messes up.

brotp: blane x piper: early into their friendship, piper bought a little succulent plant for blane as a “peace offering” even though blane never asked for it. to this day, he still has it on his desk. he also looks out for her the way he does for his partner despite knowing she can take care of herself, but he initially wouldn’t admit it - one time when nikolas was busy at the lab, piper invited blane to have lunch. when someone accidentally bumped into her, she insisted she was fine but blane told the stranger to “watch where you’re going.” when piper knowingly smiled at him, he was like “what? i have to get you back to nikolas in one piece.”

brotp: arion x piper x rylan: piper is introverted and a bit less adventurous; arion likes to take her to amusement parks which they both love and where piper feels carefree. eventually rylan comes along and they become a solid trio; arion and rylan like to coax her out of her shell but sometimes it’s like piper has an angel and a devil on each of her shoulders — rylan: hey have you tried [insert daring activity]? ; arion: pipes you don’t have to do that — but like blane, arion and rylan have a tendency to be a bit protective of piper like their little sister

bonus brotp: kian x piper: piper and kian don’t have a lot in common so they don’t hang out often (also because she doesn’t wanna bother him) but when they do, piper genuinely enjoys kian’s company especially when she needs some down time and he doesn’t seem to mind her presence anyway. they just sit there making small talk or in comfortable silence. when rylan’s being annoying and teasing piper, kian occasionally deadpans “leave her alone, villanueva” even when piper obviously isn’t bothered at all

beatrice dumont

random fact: tris’s favorite flower is tulips. she dreams of visiting all the tulip fields in the netherlands one day.

blane x tris: they have a very chill relationship tbh and i guess ordinary? (in the best way!) - they cook together, cuddle and talk about their days, etc. and while blane doesn’t like to remember how hostile he was to tris, tris likes to reminisce every once in a while and joke about it. if blane has a scowl on his face (not because he’s upset; just one of his default facial expressions that tris is so used to) she’ll cup his cheeks and coo: “it’s like i’m meeting you for the first time all over again”

here’s a specific headcanon for them because i feel like the one above sounds lazy 😭😭 — for their first anniversary, blane and tris decided to have a simple date because it falls on a work day and they’ll both be “too tired” to do something elaborate and a bit fancier than usual. on the day of the occasion, blane comes home to tris’ surprise candlelit dinner along with a few more candles that she has set up safely around the apartment to loosely recreate the lantern scene from tangled, blane’s comfort movie.

brotp: nikolas x tris x kian: tris loves answering crossword puzzles and when she’s stumped, she always asks nikolas and kian for help that she eventually made a group chat with just the three of them for this purpose. they’re also the group to most likely have a friendly competition over who has the least number of guesses on wordle; nikolas and tris would often ask kian first how many tries it took him to get the word, secretly hoping he used up all his attempts because loser buys dinner.

parker faye

random fact: parker participated in competitive swimming in her late teens. up to this day, she likes to rightfully brag about being a butterflyer.

rylan x parker: they either cuddle or wrestle. parker will wear one of rylan’s old clothes and rylan will tell her where he was hiding the time he was wearing it and parker will kiss him and remind him he’s home now OR she’ll act all edgy and say “bet i can beat your ass” and rylan’s like “oh yeah?” and she’s like “i’m one of iaos’s top hunters, remember?” and he goes “i wiped the floor with your and devereux’s asses, remember?” then she’ll tackle him onto the couch and wrestle until they fall into a fit of giggles. here are the sweeter headcanons lmao

brotp: kian x parker: when rylan and arion are out, parker likes to stop by kian’s penthouse. she occasionally brings a bottle of liquor she hasn’t seen at his place (he’s most likely already tried it though lmao) and it eventually becomes their thing to have small talk over drinks. sometimes parker orders takeout or if kian offers to cook, she’ll help him in the kitchen. overall, they have a lowkey kind of friendship <3

sutton hart

random fact: also a former detective in wayhaven. despite being good at combat and weaponry, she hates to fight more than anything.

kian x sutton: i wrote some pre-relationship headcanons months ago soooo for relationship hc — sutton’s naturally affectionate but she’s aware of kian’s boundaries on pda so she makes up for it when they’re at home where she gets to be cozy with him and sit on his lap lmaooo and kian knows how badly sutton wishes she could do magic. sometimes, he places his hands on hers and does some very harmless light magic, making it look like it’s coming right out of her fingers.

brotp: arion x sutton: baking is one of sutton’s frequent hobbies and arion is her “official” taste tester. in return, if arion buys a new game, sutton has to try it with him - lots of “arion, i don’t get this!” “you’ll get the hang of it.” but she never does. arion comes over at sutton’s place so often that when he finds her working on a new house project, he no longer questions it. he starts bringing her food in case she forgot to eat again. then she’ll remind him to drink water in case he forgot again.

brotp: nikolas x sutton: they’ve quickly bonded over their love for food and fashion. they talk about it all the time like walking lifestyle magazines. whenever they’re both free, nikolas teaches sutton some dishes from his background and she shares with him her favorite filipino recipes.

brotp: blane x sutton: sutton hasn’t made a lot of vegetarian meals so when she invites the gang over to her place, she texts blane beforehand a link to a recipe she found online and asks if it’s something he likes or to let her know if there’s a specific dish he’s craving for and she always tries to make it for him.

brotp: rylan x sutton: sutton loves rylan but he’s also the bane of her existence and will not pass up any opportunity to annoy the shit out of her

rylan: you dated a vampire right?

sutton: yup

rylan: how old was he?

sutton: 300-ish

rylan: and you said you like kian?

sutton: yeah so

rylan: i’m just saying - since you dated a vampire - i’m a vampire… well, half-vampire. but still. you never thought about you and me? ;)

sutton: ew rylan no

rylan: right sorry. i forgot i’m too young for you

[kaiparker-avengerssmut]

Happy to help

Pairings | Steve Rogers x reader (side pairing), bucky Barnes x reader

Warnings | smut, knife play, rough sex, vaginal sex, unprotected sex

Word count |

Summary | you and Steve break up when he catches you kissing bucky, bucky is there to distract you after the fight

A/n | this is kind of a snippet from my Stucky x reader fanfic Their Doll, check it out if you haven't already!

A/n | the reader is 19 in this fic

Masterlist

Once I'd reached the stairs, I was kicking my heels off and springing up the steps, two at a time. Reaching the top, I clutched the railing for a second as if to ground myself as a sob ripped through me, my palm covering my mouth again as if it could stop the sounds. I padded quickly across the carpeted floor, fumbling with the handle of my door before pushing it open blindly, stumbling inside.

A sharp gasp was stolen from me when I walked in, more tears clouding my eyes. I hastily swiped them away with my palms, desperate to get a good look of the man before me. His cerulean eyes, long and thick dark hair, his undeniably visible metal arm...

Then his lips met mine. Not desperate or hard like usual, but gentle and slow, as if I would shatter to a thousand pieces if he even held my soft face with too much pressure. "Y/n." he said seriously, but a small smile still glistening in his deep blue eyes. "Soldier." I responded, reflecting his playful seriousness. He pulled me in for another passionate kiss, my whole body relishing in its tenderness. The soldier bought his mouth next to my ear, leaning over me and holding my waist carefully. My thoughts raced one another over and over, but there was always a clear winner: I had him back.

His compassionate whisper floated past my ear, dancing around the loose curls of hair that were tucked messily behind my ear, a whirlwind of emotions tunnelling through me, allowing the butterflies to roam free as he murmured "It's Bucky, by the way."

"We're done."

A frown settled across my face, my head snapping the the side to see Steve stood gobsmacked and clearly hurt in the door. He must've followed me, to make sure I was alright and now he's seen this, and - how long had he been standing there?

"Steve, it's not what it looks like." Bucky tried, now also looking at the Super Soldier.

"So it's not my best friend kissing my girl? Hm?" Steve almost whimpered, as if the words physically hurt him to say.

"Well, yes, but-"

"No. No buts. I don't give a shit what you have to say." Steve interjected me, the harshness of his voice cutting through me like a knife. "Have a nice fucking life." He spat, before turning and retreating out of the door. I started wistfully after him, before glancing back to Bucky and opening my mouth to speak.

"Go. I'll talk to you later." He answered for me, a reassuring glint in his blue-grey eyes. I gave him a small nod and a grateful smile before instantly running after Steve.

"Steve! Steve, wait!" I called after him, but the man's strides were so damn long I couldn't catch up to him even whilst running. "Please, let me explain!" He turned around at that, my body colliding with the wall of muscle that was his torso.

"What's there to explain, y/n?" He said, defeated.

"I- I don't really know. I just don't want to lose you." I murmured, placing my hands of his chest and looking up at the man through my lashes. He wrapped his hands around my wrists before yanking them away from his chest, tears stinging in my eyes. "I love you, Steve." I whispered, for the first time. Steve averted his gaze with a frustrated sigh.

"It's a little too late for that. You can tell Bucky he won't be hearing from me either." Steve spoke, dropping my wrists and turning to leave again. I didn't follow him this time, I didn't call after him, I just sunk to my knees, head in my hands, and cried.

...

It had been nearly an hour since y/n had left in search of Steve, and there still was no sign of her. Bucky began to worry, chewing his already short fingernail as he became more and more scared. Now, weather it was the thought of y/n getting hurt that scared him or one of her in Steve's bed, he didn't know.

The super soldier was just pushing up from where he'd perched himself on her surprisingly luxurious bed when the door creaked open, the shock of it giving Bucky a little start as he flinched slightly. Y/n stood in the doorway for a moment, eyes red-rimmed and looking almost dead - so dry from crying for so long it looked almost uncomfortable, which of course it was. She held a near empty whiskey bottle in her hand, which almost fully explained her state.

Bucky stood from the bed abruptly, taking the few strides that it took to close the gap between them as y/n kicked the door closed with her foot.

"You didn't find Steve?" He asked worriedly, hands coming up to cup her face. Y/n scoffed, letting out a slurred, humourless laugh.

"Oh I found him alright." She crocked.

"And? Should I go speak to him?" Buck urged, desperately trying to meet y/n's eyes but she adverted her gaze to some plotted succulents that occupied her bedside table.

"That's probably not the best idea. At all." She deadpanned, moving out of Bucky's grip before flopping onto the bed and blowing out a big sigh.

When Bucky looked at her, he couldn't help but feel like she looked like a fallen angel. Her hair fanned around her face like a halo, the glaring light from the room creating shining highlights over her skin, her lips pouted almost sinfully; and yet her dress was skew-whiff and her mascara ran down her cheeks, the reddened look to her eyes almost devilish.

Y/n brought the whiskey bottle up high enough to unscrew the cap, tilting her head up enough so she could take another swig of the golden liquid. But she was predictable, the drink's effects slowing down her movements and before her lips met the rim of the bottle Bucky was swiping it from her hands, letting it settle on the little table next to her bed.

"I think you've had quite enough of that." Bucky scolded, a frown morphing his once-soft features. Y/n blew out a frustrated sigh, sitting up and crossing her arms over her chest like a little girl throwing a tantrum.

"And I think you should stop telling me what to do." She bit back, her snarky attitude telling Bucky everything he needed to know about why people avoided the Stark's when they were drunk.

"C'mon, doll. Why don't we just get you into some more comfort clothes and into bed?" Bucky suggested, y/n standing up to become nose-to-nose with him as he spoke. "I'll help with the zip if you like." He offered, gesturing for y/n to turn around. But her attention was elsewhere, eyes glued to his plump pink lips that she was kissing not to long ago. Maybe the distraction would help...

"Doll-" Bucky began but y/n was quick to cut him off.

"Just shut up and kiss me, soldier." Y/n murmured breathily, eyes transfixed on his lips. Bucky threw all logic out the window, like those words were a new string of triggers. His rough hands cupped her face again, y/n letting out a shiver when the metal made contact with her flushed skin, before he was smashing his lips to hers in a desperate kiss.

Bucky walked her backwards until y/n's knees hit the bed, the girl falling into the plush covers. Bucky was quick to crawl over her, coving y/n's body with his own at his teeth nipped at her bottom lip and his hands explored her body like it was the first time. His touch was everywhere, leaving a trail of fire in its wake across her skin.

"Soldier, please." Y/n whines breathily, fisting her hands into his hair as Bucky trailed his kisses over her jaw. He hummed in agreement, beginning to kiss down her body before y/n was using her grip on his hair to yank his head back up. "I'm ready. Just please, get inside me." She begged, a sound that Bucky could listen to for hours if need be.

He nodded quickly, moaning as she fumbled with his belt and jeans zipper before wrapping her slim fingers around his hard cock. He kicked off his jeans and boxers, thrusting onto her hand slightly as he bunched y/n's dress around her waist and slid the thin piece of cloth to the side.

That's when his hand brushed against the silver blade strapped to her upper thigh, hand hand instinctively snapping away. Y/n giggled, a soft sound that was like a melody in the super-soldier's ear.

"I always like to be prepared when I'm in public." She informed him, her laughter gone when she realised that she may have scared him off. But a wide grin split over Bucky's face, his lips hovering over hers once again as he unsheathed the knife from the leather strap.

"Good girl. It seems I taught you well." He mumbled against her lips, giving the girl a quick kiss before pulling back from her and sitting back on his haunches.

He twirled the knife in his hands, smirking at the blade as he flipped it between his fingers until the tip rested at y/n's heart. Her breath hitched momentarily, eyes drifting forwards towards the silver dagger before a smirk of her own spread across her lips.

"Kinky. I always knew you'd be a freak if you were in the right headspace." She smirked, gasping lightly as the soldier flipped the blade again, this time holding it against her hip, under the dress, and hooked it into the waistband of her panties. He brought his lips her her ear, breath hot and foggy.

"And what sane person initiates knife play during sex?" He mumbled, nipping at her earlobe. Y/n giggled again, the endearing sound finding his cock and making it throb as it somehow grew even more.

"I never said that you were sane, soldier." Y/n whispers, enticing a small growl from Bucky as he nipped at her neck. Y/n gasped again, the blade tugging up harshly and snapping the band of her lace panties, the fabric falling from around her as he repeated the same action on the other side.

"Hands and knees. Now." He murmured gruffly in her ear, making y/n clamp her bottom lip between her teeth in an attempt to conceal her giddy smile, but the excited fling to her eyes gave away ever though the girl was having at that moment.

When she didn't move quick enough, bucky used his metal hand to flip y/n over, tugging her up onto her hands and pulling her ass flush against his hips. He ran his cock through her puffy folds, collecting her wetness and groaning at how much he found just from some kissing and knife-play.

"Fuck. You're soaked." Bucky praised, soothing a hand over her ass before it was cracking against the skin. Y/n yelped, jolting forward onto her forearms as bucky slid home with one deep thrust. "Fuck. Your little pussy just sucks me right in. Suck a fucking slut for me." Bucky grunted, pulling his hips back and snapping them into hers roughly.

Y/n cried out as Bucky tangled a fish in her hair, pulling the girl back against his best as he thrusted vigorously into her wet heat. His mouth next to her ear, Bucky brough his flesh hand to her neck again, knife still in grasp as the blade pressed slightly against the scar running across her neck.

You'd think it'd trigger something in y/n, make her uncomfortable or flood her with unwelcome emotions. But it did the opposite. To y/n, having one of the men she loved, who she knew to have endured the same trauma as she had at the same hands as her, with her knife pressed to her neck, it somehow made her feel empowered, like they were claiming the pain as their own - no one else's. She moaned loudly, now completely sobbed and completely aware that every time she jolted forward the knife scraped and scratched her skin ever so lightly, nicking the skin in a prickle that caused on or two drop of blood to trickle down her neck and slide over her collar bone.

"S'tight and warm. Fuck, you feel so good." Bucky husked into her ear, the words causing y/n's walls to flyer around his cock, causing both the assassins to moan loudly. "Touch that pretty clit for me baby, make yourself come all over my cock." He rasped, driving into her tight cunt even harder that before, if that was possible.

With a shaky hand, y/n reached down, rubbing small and tight circles against her bundle of nerves as Bucky's cock slammed into her balls-deep. Y/n cried his name as she came, her walls convulsing around Bucky wildly, her own orgasm triggering his.

Bucky grunted and groaned y/n's name as he stilled inside her, ropes of his come painting her slick walls. Her dropped the knife to the bed, placing his hands on her waist as he slowly pulled out of her. Y/n winced slightly as he did so, moaning at the feeling of their come mixed together and dripping down her thighs.

Y/n made to protest as Bucky got up, leaving her panting of the bed. He chuckled, placing a lingering kiss on her forehead before telling not to move and that he'd be back in a moment.

...

I didn't know how long he left the room for, but when Bucky returned he scooped me into his arms and carried me into the bathroom that was connected to me room and set me down on the marble counter, the warm feeling of the hot bath radiating against my skin, the mirror against my back dam with condensation and steam. I shivered slightly at the cold contact of the glass against my exposed skin, my mid elsewhere as I felt the super soldier slip me out of my dress and lift my into the bath after him.

He used a soapy cloth to clean me, rubbing it over my skin in soft circles, gently massaging my aching muscles. He littered my shoulders in kisses, his warm chest pressed to my back and his arms circled around me once he was done cleaning me.

"Did I help?" He pondered, tilting his head slightly although I couldn't see that.

"Hm?" I hummed, still slightly out of it.

"Did I help? Distracting you?" He rephrased and I nodded, cuddling against him further.

"Lots. I haven't really thought about st- that, since I saw you. So thank you." I smiled, and Bucky didn't miss the way I avoided Steve's name.

"I'm happy to help, Doll." He smiled back, pressing a kiss to my hair. We stayed like that for a while, his arms wrapped around me - one warm and one cool - my head against his shoulder and his nose buried in my hair.

After a while of comfortable silence, Bucky helped me out of the tub, where the water was now turning cold and my body was beginning to shiver - despite the warms radiating off him. He wrapped a towel around the both of us, leading me into the bed room and throwing me his t-shirt whilst he pulled on his boxers.

We climbed into bed, my head resting against his chest as I nuzzled into him, completely missing the way his gaze lingered on my face, or the was his hand carded through my hair and his lips pressed to my forehead because sleep had already pulled me under its lulling spell.

"Goodnight." He whispered against me, finally letting his blue grey eyes fall shut and his mind to rest, falling onto as deep a sleep as me as he slept the best he had since before the war, when him and Steve used to share a little apartment in Brooklyn.

[ag3ntl3vi]

Hoodie X GN! Reader X Masky | “Rock Paper Sisscors” |☁️

This struck me at like, 3AM while listening to Devil in Diguise. I’ll probably write more parts to this tonight if im being honest. 

!Gender-Neutral reader!

Trigger Warnings: Sexual mentions. 

Word Count: 2,317

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"Can you go any slower?" You laughed, stopping to allow your friend to catch up. Sweat dotted her chocolatey forehead as she panted. 

"Yes! I can." She wheezed. "You're just too fast!" Taylor whined loudly, bending herself in half to try and catch her breath. You rolled your eyes and pulled her up, raising her arms over her head. 

"You'll breathe better this way," You told her, taking a step back and taking a long sip of your icy water. Taylor nodded her thanks and slowed her breathing gradually. 

        "Wanna keep going?" You asked as you wiped your mouth on your wrist. Taylor feriously shook her head. "I'll pass, (Y/n)." She whimpered. You put yout arms behind your head as you began to walk down the worn dirt bath. 

"That sucks," You murmered. "We were only 1/4th of the way done."

Taylor gaped at your cocky smirk. "And you do this everyday?"

You nodded. "Twice a day if I'm feelin' lucky," You winked and giggled. Taylor shook her head in disbelief. 

"You're a machine," She grumbled, jogging to your side. You could tell she was tired, but she was the one who asked to join you in your near-night run. She said she needed the exercise to get the perfect "summer body", even though it was fall. 

You hummed. "I didn't know they made sexy machines now." Taylor pushed away the urge to roll her eyes, though she desperately wanted to. She chose not to answer your stupid comment. You both started to walk back to your dorm and planned a junk food movie night. You had the feeling she wouldn't last, but you couldn't say no to her puppy face. You had to admit, you were a sucker for your best friend.          Taylor ended up chugging the rest of her and your water bottles greedily, but you didn't blame her. She was pretty out of shape. The darker skinned girl took a large gasp of fresh oxygen after finishing off your beverage. 

"Learn to breathe, my God," You snorted. She glared.

"I just ran a mile, you can shut your mouth, you fucking monster," She hissed playfully. 

School campus soon came into view after your bickering. Taylor grumbled about how badly her feet ached and how she was never running ever again. You parted ways at the dorm. Taylor wanted to get the living room set up for the movie and sent you out for snacks and drinks. You easily migrated to the everything store. That wasn't its actual name, you couldn't care to remember what it was, but the everything store seemed to suit the run down shop better. 

        You pushed thr glass double doors open, a cute bell ringing to announce your presence to the cashire, Michael. 

"(Y/n)!" He greeted with a smile. You returned the facial gester with a small wave of your own.          "What're you here for this time?" He leaned his head on his open palm, his eyes trained on your figure. You had your back turned to him as you read the movie names on the rack. 

"What does it look like?" You chuckles, plucking a familar title from the shelf. 'Kiki's Delivery Service', a childhood favorite of yours. Michael didn't verbally answer, he was too busy allowing his eyes to roam your every curve. 

His eyes snapped to the side when you turned around to wonder down the candy isle. You shoved a KitKat , snickers, and (f/c) into your arm (allowing an extra of your favored one into your pocket, shh) before you turned the corner, finding the energy drinks. With a childish grin you grabbed a few of the better Monster flavors. You knew you had popcorn at the dorm so you didn't bother trying to find a box here. 

        You decided to check out as quickly as possible, avoiding as much conversation with Michael as you could. He gave you the creeps. He always tended to make sexual remarks regarding your running outfit, like how your shorts made your ass look plump or how cute you looked with a flushed, tired expression. In general, he didn't seem like a good guy or influence, though Taylor took an odd interest in him. She always had shitty tastes in men. 

It was getting late, you noticed. The sun started to darken as students scrambled to their respected dorms or apartments off campus. You made your way to your room. The illuminated cobblestone path gave you the worst horror movie vibes, so to say you booked it was an understatement. As soon as you were inside the safe confindments of your dorms living area, you released a loud sigh of relief. You thought about taking the elevator up, but decided on the stairs to the third story. You were very grateful you were on a higher floor, to you it served as a lesser chance of being robbed or murdered. 

"I brought a movie, candy and monsters, come on, you filthy goblin." you called into the freakishly neat room. Taylor was a very, very messy person so you tended to pick up after her more than you'd happily admit. It didn't take long for you to set positions for certain objects in specific places. Example, your shoes stayed in a small, plastic, blue bin by the door. They didn't ever make it to the carpeted floor of the living room. You had a key rack by the door so your keys were never lost or misplaced and Taylor had insisted you needed a coat rack, so your bookbags and Taylor's purses hung there. Any extra blankets, pillows, and sheets were placed neatly in the spare closet. 

        "Monsters..?" Her brown head popped out from around the corner. 

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

Taylor had passed out halfway through the movie, not that you were surprised. You pouted. You were very well use to it, but it wasn't any less disappointing when it happened. You carefully laid her on the couch, not bothering to wake her. She was a literal demon when she was woken up. You covered her body in a large, fluffy blanket before standing, pacing for a moment. 

You wondered back to your organized room and grabbed your large spray bottle you kept on your dresser. You stared down your mass of plants in your window seal and the few on your night stand and hanging from the ceiling before watering the ones that needed it, leaving your Rainbow Bush succulent alone. Satisfied, you grabbed your school jacket and your earbuds and phone before slipping your shoes on at the door. 

It was almost 1 before Taylor and you had finally settled enough to sit and watch the movie, so it was fairly late now. But, regretfully, your body was still pumped from the sugary drinks you consumed not long ago. You made a quick choice to go on a short run to tire yourself out a bit before retiring for the night. Sure, wasn't the best idea to go out at night, alone and defenceless, but you prided yourself in your speed if needed. Besides, you've done it before and you were obviously still alive!

You made your way to the dirt path you ran earlier in the day, struggling to remember a stupid songs name. You grinned when you figured it out and hurriedly played it. The opening played through your earbuds as you gently bobbed your head to the beat.

"There are boulders on my shoulders, collar bones begin to crack, there is very little left of me and it's never coming back," You sung softly along with 'Be nice to me'. An old, but greatly loved song from your middle school years. You began to run.

Your lips parted in a content smile as a phrase slipped past your teeth.

"You're a killer, and i'm your best friend. I think it's unfair, your situation," 

You began to bounce on the balls of your feet excitedly. "You say i'm changing! I'm sorry I didn't know I had to stay the same!" You jumped as your legs moved, your voice growing louder and bolder with every word thoughtlessly spilling out your mouth. You became unaware of the eyes watching your movements, head tilted in confusion. 

"Your voice is driving me insane!" You shouted, hopping more as you swished your head side to side, getting louder everytime the phrase was repeated. The last note rang through your ears and you let out a joyful that was quickly cut off. The overbearing feeling of being watched dawned on you. 

You jerked around and scanned the treeline, your eyes falling on a tall male facing you with a tilted head. You stared at him, confused before your gaze fell on the bloodied pipe dangling by his side. You fearfully and turned around, bolting in the direction the path led you to. You didn't have much time to understand why he was watching you, but you could hear his heavy footsteps crushing dead leaves as he raced after you. 

'Molly' blasted into your ears loudly, making you jerk in surprise. If you were going to die tonight, you were glad this was the song you'd die to. 

You could hear him distantly still chasing after you. Not to brag, but you could run a mile amd keep going onto the next without breaking too much of a sweat, though you'd be fairly tired.          Speaking of tired, you could feel the drousiness spreading to your head and deep down you knew that you couldn't keep the pace up for much longer. 

Sucking in a deep breath, you turned into the woods, lifting your feet high so you wouldn't be the stupid one to trip on a root and be killed first. That would be an embarrassing way to die and not even Molly could make it better, you concluded. 

So you did the most logical thing your sleepy brain could think of.

You climbed a fucking tree.

The man was a far enough distance for you to get a good amount of height between the two of you. You panted, your palms itching with needle-like pain from the rough and merciless bark, but pulled yourself up another branch and looked down. The man was panting heavily, bent over as he struggled to force air into his most likely burning lungs.  He stood up after a quick second, glaring up the tree at you.

Childishly, but overcome with a sense of acomplishment, you stuck your tongue out at him. 

Bad idea, you concluded when the guy's gloved fists clenched by his sides and he started to climb. 

You squealed. "No! Fuck off!" You shouted. "Pick another goddamn tree, you humanoid orange!" A growl ripped through your teeth as you glared fearfully at him.          To your surprise, he got down. He moved his head to stare at you before sitting indian style, his face pointed to you.

For the first time you had a proper look at him, and you weren't surprised. He looked like he came from a shitty horror movie. He wore an orange hoodie with a ski mask hiding his facial features, a red frowny face sitched into it. He had dark blue, wore out jeans and black boots that looked to be kept as clean as Taylor would keep her living space. 

'Best friend' Began to play quietly through your (f/c) earbuds and you forced down a snort at the timing. You were hoddled up in a tree while a guy who most likely wanted you dead watched from below. You shook your head and glanced at the dark sky.

'The stars are out' You thought as you spotted the little dipper, the big one wasn't far away from it's child. 

It only took about ten minutes for your easily distracted mind to get bored. You stared down at the hooded man as he drew in the dirt with his pipe. An idea struck you, a bad one, but an idea nevertheless. And it wasn't going to kill you, with a lot of hope, it may allow you to live another day. 

"Yo, tangerine!" He flinched at your loud voice, moving his head to stare at you. 

You held up a fist with your dominate hand, your opposite going under it, palm up and open.

"Wanna play rock, paper, sisscors before I die?" 

The man stilled before very, and I mean very slowly nodded. You allowed yourself to snort. Now you were going to play a childs game with a murderer. 

"Do you know how to play?" You called down. He nodded again and held up his hands. "Cool," You said.

The orange-clad killer was absolute shit at rock, paper, sisscors. He was even worse than your nephew, who was six and had the attention span of a squirell. Sometime in your game playing, you had moved yourself a few branches down to see him better in the dark woods. You now sat a branch above his head.          He didn't move much, but his shoulders seemed to slump.

You threw rock, again, and he threw sisscors. You gave an evil victory crackle whiele he glared gloomily at his open fingers.          "That was fun," You stretched your arms over your head, yawning. "Can I go now?" You calmly asked. 

He didn't move for a long while, looking between you and his gloved hands, the, back to you. Finally, he nodded. You hopped down, smiling widely. 

"Thanks," You said nervously. He was trying to kill you earlier, so you wouldn't be completely off guard around him. You started to shuffle around him cautiously. His arm shot out, grabbing your upper arm roughly. You flinched hard, looking up at him with wide eyes. 

This is it, You thought He changed his mind and wants to eat me!

Instead, you heard a deep voice whisper.

"You can leave if we can play again soon."

[pinky-the-elephant-room]

SapioSexual

★☆ AN: So, this prompt is dedicated to anyone attracted to nerds and science. Look I’m terrible at chemistry so I made Kuroo a jack of all trades while still being ace at chemistry. Also, thanks to @succulent-momma​ and @drabbles-blurbs-words​ for editing this for me.

★☆ Summary: It’s not Kuroo’s fault, not really. It’s not his fault that every time he opened his mouth to talk like that you just wanted to throw yourself at him. 

★☆ Warning: Explicit sex, Size Kink, and Rough sex. Read at your own discretion. Kuroo x Fem Reader. 

★☆ ★☆ ★☆ ★☆ ★☆ ★☆ 

Kuroo considered himself fairly handsome and was well-liked by most people. Except by his teammates who nicknamed him "demon captain". And of course, Kenma who would frequently throw some jabs his way. But he was nice to girls. In fact, he was a gentleman to every girl he met, only accompanied by mild playful teasing when the moment required it. Most girls, in his humble opinion, wanted his attention and frankly desired to date him. Except for Y/N.

He would never forget that particular day in 2nd year when she turned him down in front of his team. Kuroo and Kenma were heading home after volleyball practice accompanied by Yaku and Yamamoto, who were heading out as well.

Kuroo, noticing Y/N, called out, "Y/N-chan!"

Y/N turned around to see Kuroo waving at her, to which she only frowned in return.

"So, Y/N-chan, when are you going to take up on my offer of going on a date soon?"

"Over my dead body," she murmured before flouncing away.

Yaku had burst out laughing, enjoying Kuroo's embarrassment. Yamamoto tried to spare his senpai's feelings knowing the pain of being rejected all too well. But it was just too satisfying to watch smug Kuroo get turned down. Yamamoto collapsed in howling fits. Kuroo could even see Kenma hiding a smirk underneath his long bangs while trying and failing to look absorbed in his PSP.

She perplexed the hell out of him. He didn't understand where he went wrong with Y/N. In fact, she only displayed uninterest most of the time he attempted to talk to her.

★☆ ★☆

  However, he finally started making headway in his third year. Y/N, lo and behold, was in his class. Making it easier for him to talk to her. She was resistant to his efforts at first, but one particular day she let her guard down.

"Y/N-chan, how did you do on your chemistry test?" he inquired, looking at his 98.

He could feel her glare, and so Kuroo looked up to shoot a smirk at her.

"An 85. Probably better than your score," she huffed.

"Not today, sweetheart. Looks like I win." He sat back in his chair and radiated smugness.

Y/N leaned over from her chair to look at his score, and he could see her eyes widen in shock.

"How? You had two practice matches this week against rival schools back to back! When did you get the time to study?" Y/N blurted out.

"I'm flattered you know so much about my schedule."

She avoided eye contact and cleared her throat. "Don't get it twisted. It's hard not to know when that's all you've talked about for two weeks."

Kuroo's smirk just got bigger. "And here I thought you don't listen to poor old me. I'm smarter than you think I am. I don't need to study a lot to get adequate grades."

Y/N seemed a bit incredulous.

"Then why isn't your rank higher?" she challenged.

"Well, we can't all be ranked second like you. But you're right. My rank could be better if I tried more. But I don't need to because my grades just have to be good enough to play volleyball and get into a decent university. It's not like I'm going to be a doctor."

Y/N stared at him for a moment before requesting if she could look at his test to see what she did wrong. Kuroo shrugged and gave it to her.

He could feel Y/N's inquisitive gaze on him the rest of the day. But every time he turned to see, her long dark hair hid her face. It was puzzling, to say the least.

As the bell rang and he was about to leave for volleyball practice, Y/N stopped him.

"Kuroo, next time there's a chemistry test can we study together?" she asked him almost shyly.

A bit dazed by her request, he only nodded, to which she responded with, "great! See you tomorrow."

  ★☆ ★☆

Days began to fly by with Y/N still somehow talking to him, their topics ranging from academic to inane intellectual discussions.

"Ne Kuroo, do you think there's any truth to Jurassic Park? Like theoretically, can we bring back dinosaurs?" she asked him one morning after biology.

He blinked at the question and put his mechanical pencil down. Y/N reminded him too much of a particular beanpole dinosaur enthusiast in that moment.

"Not really. Because think about it, not only would we need to have a perfect DNA replica to duplicate, meaning the bullshit explanation from the movie of filling the missing DNA structures with DNA from modern species wouldn't work. But we would also need to recreate the environment these creatures thrived in. The current Earth right now is colder than they're used to. Then we would also have to recreate the same food sources. These dinosaurs didn't evolve to eat grass or cows. Plain and simple, they wouldn't survive."

Y/N's face brightened. "Exactly! Oh, and did you see the new dinosaur they discovered in Hokkaido? It's called Kamuysaurus. It's a different species of Hadrosaurid." She continued enthusiastically explaining to him what made the Kamuysaurus different from other Hadrosaurid species. It was kind of boring, to be honest; he wasn't much of a dinosaur fan, but he listened intently, feeling satisfied knowing that Y/N's attention was solely on him.

   ★☆ ★☆

The next week as Kuroo was walking home with Kenma, he noticed Y/N going inside a bookstore.

"Kenma, I'm going to go ahead, alright?" Kuroo said as he watched Y/N curiously.

Kenma looked up to see Kuroo staring at Y/N. "She's just going to yell at you again."

"Don't worry; I got it handled. See you tomorrow." Without waiting to hear his childhood friend's response, Kuroo ran to catch up to her before she left the store.

The store's bell jingled, and an employee welcomed him inside. He walked around for a bit before finally finding Y/N in the back, intensely reading a book. He walked up behind her and placed his hand on her shoulder.

Y/N jumped and let out a squeak. She relaxed, seeing his smirking face "Kami-sama! Kuroo, don't do that! You scared the crap out of me!"

He chuckled at her reaction and stepped closer into her personal space. Looking over her shoulder to catch a glimpse of what she was reading.

"Stars and constellations? Since when are you into astronomy?" he asked.

"Well, it's a fairly new hobby. Chichiue and I are planning a trip to the mountains to chart stars. I thought it would help me to know what we are looking at."

She tried to move away to put some space between them, but he just grabbed her waist and rested his chin on her shoulder.

"Hmm, need some help?"

She turned around and cocked her eyebrow at him. "Let me guess you know some things about astronomy too?"

He just ignored the sarcasm in her voice before going on a tangent. "Well, did you know at the center of every galaxy is a gigantic black hole that is gradually sucking everything inside? That's how we got the image of a swirling galaxy that we know today. Just in the Milky Way alone, there's about ten million to a billion other smaller black holes."

Kuroo stopped to glance at Y/N, who was looking back at him keenly, before continuing.

"And the name of the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy is-"

"Sagittarius A," Y/N finished almost breathlessly.

Kuroo joked, "guess you also know some things about astron-"

He failed to complete his sentence when Y/N yanked him down by his school uniform and captured his lips. Her kiss was harsh and greedy as she tried to swallow him whole. He reached over and lifted Y/N to steady her against the bookshelf. He separated for a moment to observe her, captivated as her ample chest heaved up and down.

"Kuroo," she whimpered out while clutching his school uniform.

Y/N grabbed his red tie and tugged him closer. Unable to deny her, he slanted his lips over hers.

 Kuroo was honestly so confused; why was she kissing him in a bookstore of all places? Did she have feelings for him? He supposed she had to have felt some attraction. Otherwise, she wouldn't have jumped him in the middle of a conversation. But if she did, when did it began and how? Because as far as he knew, nothing about himself had changed except they were talking more than usual. Their previous conversations included him being flirty and Y/N doing her best to walk away. But now they could spend hours arguing over their shared answers on their organic chemistry homework.

Still, all those questions disappeared when he felt her tongue intertwine with his and suck. Letting out a groan, he pressed her harder against the shelves and bucked. Y/N gasped and grinded back against his clothed cock. Kuroo could feel his member stirring at the soft sounds she was letting out despite gnawing on her lips. She was impatiently trying to rub against him, unable to get a satisfying rhythm.

"Here…here," he urged, grabbing her legs and tugging them around his waist.

She complied and clutched him closer before reigniting their kiss. Y/N was just so impatient and greedy, she coaxed him to get rougher by nibbling on his lower lip.

"Fuck, sweetheart. Do you always get so needy?" he panted.

He needed a minute. Just a minute to get himself together. Because if he made contact with her hot cunt one more time, Kuroo was going to lose it. He was going pull her panties to the side before plunging his hard cock inside of her. And he didn't think getting disciplined for obscenity in a public place was something either of them could afford right now.

SLAM!

The two of them startled and pulled apart to hear a customer apologizing to the bookstore's employee. A book was dropped on the floor.

He reluctantly lowered Y/N back on the floor and let her go. Y/N was looking anywhere but at him, as she tried to fix her appearance and make herself look presentable again.

Kuroo stepped forward. "Let me."

Y/N just nodded as she looked at the floor. He raised her chin to gaze into her eyes as he fixed her long-ruffled strands of hair.

"There. Perfect." His words meaning more than what he implied.

Kuroo waited for her as she paid for her astronomy book and followed her outside.

"Kuroo, it's still early. Do you wanna grab something to eat?" she asked once both had stepped out.

He blinked at her question, wondering if this was a date but decided to not let the chance slip by.

"Sure, I know the perfect place." He grabbed her hand and ignored her flustered pleas to let her hand go.

By the time they arrived at their destination, Kuroo had noticed Y/N had stopped all her protests. Finally, feeling relaxed and secure in his presence.

 ★☆ ★☆

Several months and dates later, Kuroo and Y/N found themselves at his house while studying for an upcoming chemistry exam.

"So, almost all stoichiometry problems can be solved in four simple steps. First, you balance the equation. Convert the units of the given substance to moles. Then calculate the moles of substance yielded by the reaction. Finally, convert the moles of the substance to the desired units. Sounds easy enough, right?" Kuroo asked, looking up from his notes to see Y/N eyeing her worksheet nervously.

"I-I'm going to be honest with you. I have no idea what any of that means," she grumbled.

He grabbed Y/N and pulled her close to him on the bed they were both occupying.

"Here. Watch me do it, and then if you have any questions, let me know."

Kuroo went through the process slowly. When he finished, he looked up to see Y/N gazing at him earnestly with a prominent flush on her face.

He stared back curiously, not understanding why Y/N was peering at him like that. Usually, she gave him those looks when she watched him play volleyball or if he acted particularly sweet that day. He shouldn't have been that surprised when she shoved her worksheet aside and pounced on him.

Y/N desperately clung and kissed him thoroughly.

"W-wait Y/N. We still have work to do," he gasped while turning his face away.

She didn't seem too perturbed and instead started nibbling his slender neck instead.

Hang on, why was he hesitating if there was a willing and rutting girl on top of him?

Kuroo tried to grasp her waist tightly and switch their position. But Y/N was having none of it and pushed his grabby hands away.  She swung her leg over his waist and pushed him down. With her position, her skirt had ridden up and showed off her legs. He couldn't help it as he caressed her silky-smooth skin and started making his way up her skirt. But before he could touch her lacey panties, she once again shoved his hand away.  Y/N carefully steadied herself and started rocking against his jeans.

It didn't take long before his dick started stirring with Y/N grinding on top of him. Trying not to upset Y/N's pace, he carefully unbuttoned her lacey blouse to expose her black bra. Kuroo shoved off the garment off her shoulders so he could knead her breasts through the cotton bra. Perhaps she got impatient from the lack of friction because soon enough, Y/N was unzipping his jeans and pulling out his dick. She pumped it a few times and asked Kuroo to help. While she was getting his dick hard, Kuroo pulled down her panties. She lined up him up quite nicely.

Y/N quickly rammed his cock inside of her, so fast that Kuroo almost missed the pained whimper from her mouth.

"Oy, slow down," he groaned while feeling her walls constrict around him. Kuroo tried to remove himself from her embrace, but she held onto his hips tightly. She started pushing herself up and down on top of him, letting out whimpers at the feeling of being so full.

He could feel her slick building up from the added ministrations and coating his length, making it easier for her to descend on him. Still, it was a tight fit. Bordering on pain and pleasure. He could see the tears in her eyes, so Kuroo once again tried to get her to slow down.

"Sweetheart, we got all the time in the world."

"Tetsu, I.. I need you so badly," she moaned while simultaneously shoving the rest of him inside her.

"Fuck!" he let out after seeing her be filled to the brim and her mound connecting with his pubic.

Y/N was a panting and crying mess, trying to accommodate a cock that was clearly too big for her.

He felt a little ashamed and guilty for liking the way she looked on top of him. But sex with Y/N was always so nasty and filthy. He remembered vividly how desperately she begged for him to take her virginity after school one day. So, Kuroo cut his practice short (the one rare time he did) and took her to the nearest love hotel where he proceeded to fuck her senseless for an hour straight. Still, he remembered feeling despaired afterward because he had wanted to make love after a romantic date for her first time.

His musing got cut short when Y/N started bouncing on his cock mercilessly. She let out choked sobs each time she slammed back down. The bedsprings began squeaking, and the frame of the bed banged against the wall. So much so he would no doubt have to explain about the dent later to his parents.

Soon enough, he could see Y/N becoming tired, her breathing becoming more and more labored.

She begged, "Tetsu, help me."

"I don't know, Y/N. You got yourself in this mess-" Kuroo let out a loud groan when he felt Y/N purposely squeezing his cock.

Kuroo pulled the cups of her bra down to reveal her heaving chest. He sat up on his forearms to thoroughly suck the peaked breasts while keeping one hand on her hips to control the thrusts. The wild bouncing was now replaced with rhythmic rocking. He knew from experience that she liked to stimulate her clit along with penetration. So, each time he entered her, Kuroo held her hips still so he could grind against her more. It worked, her body started shaking and becoming restless from the extra stimulation.

"Tetsu, I-I'm…" she didn't finish her sentence.

"Fuck, I can feel you milking me. Shit, that n-never gets old," he replied, feeling helpless as her orgasm spiraled out of control.

Feeling that the opportunity now was perfect, he quickly reversed their position. Kuroo rammed his cock back inside of her and made sure to rest her ankles on his shoulders. He had to bend a little to make sure his taller height was able to accommodate her. But the position was perfect for deeper penetration, especially when he pressed his chest against the back of her thighs. Y/N was still sensitive from her previous orgasm, so she only got louder and louder from the new angle. He covered her mouth with his hand; however, her muffled sobs were only subdued to a point. Her keening was still audible to anyone who might pass by his room. He let out a grunt when their bodies connected, creating a loud wet slap that only served to turn him on further. No longer able to hold back, Kuroo didn't stop himself from the telltale signs of his own impending pleasure. The base of his cock tightened, and he came inside of her.

He moaned and let Y/N go, settling his face nicely on top of her sweaty and warm chest. Kuroo thanked whatever deity out there that Y/N had been on birth control since their first time. He had the privilege of hitting it raw and hopefully would continue to do so until she said otherwise.

The two laid side by side for a couple of minutes, trying to catch their breaths before he turned on his side and clutched her closer.

Kuroo grabbed Y/N's face and started peppering it with quick kisses, "I love you. I love you so much. You did so good, baby."

Y/N was too tired to participate, so she returned the kisses halfheartedly.

"Not that I mind, babe. But what was that about? I thought we were supposed to be studying," he teased with a smirk.

Y/N shrugged and replied, "I think intelligence is sexy and a turn on."

The smirk on his face crumbled, and he facepalmed.

Y/N frowned at him. "What's wrong?"

"You shouldn't have told me that. Now we will never get any studying done," he replied with a groan.

[h2bakugou]

Your work is amazing! Can you write about a fem reader that doesn’t go to UA but has been dating Bakugo since Junior High and one day she decides to visit him at the dorms and no one in class 1-A knows they are dating so when they see her some of the guys flirt with her and Bakugo sees what all the commotion is all about and gets possessive? ♡´･ᴗ･`♡ Sorry if it’s a long request.

a/n: thank you so much!! of course! this is cute! we love bakubaby. i’m in the middle of fixing my sleep schedule, we’re getting there!

summary: you’ve been dating bakugou since junior high. you don’t attend u.a but you decide to go visit your boyfriend for a bit. unbeknownst to him, he hears so commotion and decides to check it out.

key: (y/n) - your name / (f/n) - first name / (l/n) - last name / (e/c) - eye color / (h/c) - hair color / (y/q) - your quirk

warnings: swearing, fluff, 16+ some suggestive touchy shit

wordcount: 1k

»»————-　★　————-««

»»————-　★　————-««

You’ve been with Bakugou since your third year in junior high. It was funny how the two of you had come to be, and it boggled everyone around you. You seemed to have some arbitrary relationship.

But you loved Bakugou. And your friends that knew of your relationship considered the two of you to be endgame. They really couldn’t see Bakugou tolerating anyone as much as he did you.

Pulling his sweater on over your shoulders, you grabbed your wallet, phone, and lanyard that held the keycard to your dorms and headed out. You didn’t attend U.A. with your boyfriend, but that didn’t mean you couldn’t go visit him.

You’d already made the plan to surprise Bakugou prior to today. You’d contacted the principal and asked for permission to come onto campus, providing all of your identification and such.

So you took the train toward U.A., excited to see Bakugou again. You made time to see each other frequently, usually arranging something every month, spending time on days-off or on weekends. Of course, you gave him space when he asked for it as he did for you.

You found yourself always video-calling him, enjoying the sound of his voice while he pressured you to finish your homework before falling asleep. Despite a little distance separating you, you always found time and ways to talk or see each other.

Finally arriving at your station, you only had about a fifteen minute walk and then you’d be at the gates of U.A., your lovely boyfriend awaiting you, unknowingly on his end.

You’d picked a day that they weren’t too busy, opting to surprise him after classes had ended. It would be sweet for the both of you, and a bit of a different speed since he wasn’t really expecting you.

Your legs moved you forward with each stride, only bringing you closer and closer to your goal. And before you knew it, you were admitted onto the campus, thankful that they had kept up their end of the bargain with allowing you a temporary admission.

Following the directions you’d been giving, you wound up at the 1-A Alliance dormitory, you marched up the stairs, excitement bubbling inside of you. 

The cold breeze of the air-conditioned building almost swept you away, but the dozen or so pairs of eyes on you gave you a different feeling.

“Woah who’s she?”

“She’s really cute!”

“You think she’s single?”

“Beautiful, succulent, tender, full-”

The sound of a purple haired, if you could call the balls on his head hair, boy getting smacked caused a few laughs around the room. You examined further before sinking.

“Is ‘Suki around?” You questioned innocently, half expecting him to be sitting down where everyone else was, but to your avail, your (e/c) hadn’t seen the spikey blonde boy anywhere.

“Forget this Suki guy, can I get to know you?” A yellow haired guy with an interesting black lighting-shaped strand of hair approached you, slinging an arm around your shoulder.

“Uhm actually-”

“She really is pretty.” A straight black haired guy spoke, his odd elbows resembling that of rolls of duct tape. 

“I know right!” A red-haired male which you could distinctly recall Bakugou naming shitty-hair.

“Shitty hair!” You smiled, removing yourself from under the yellow-haired boy, rushing over to the redhead.

“Hey! Only-”

“What the fuck is- (Y/n)?” Bakugou’s voice rips through the air. You snap your head back toward him and smile.

Darting over, you open your arms and jump into his, instinctively he catches you.

“Suki!” Your smile seems to spread to his lips in the tiniest bit, hidden by your arms wrapped around his neck.

“Shut up! Don’t call me that.” He mumbles, his cheeks tinting red from embarrassment. He holds you close and eventually sets you down, watching as everyone in his class is now staring at the two of you.

“Don’t tell me-”

“What the fuck are you all staring at!” Bakugou yells, causing you to giggle.

“They don’t know do they?” You whisper, watching as Bakugou frowns. He shakes his head and groans.

“This is my...” Bakugou pauses, frustrated.

“This is my girlfriend and if any of you even think to make a move on her I’ll kill you-”

“He won’t do that, he’s actually a big softie-”

“Shut up!” Bakugou picks you back up, carrying you back to his room, leaving the crowd of his classmates awestruck by the fact that Katsuki Bakugou had a girlfriend.

Tossing you down onto his bed, Bakugou hovers over you with a half smile on his lips.

“You didn’t tell me you were coming by.” Bakugou wasn’t hurt by the fact that you hadn’t told him, but he was confused as to why you hadn’t.

“Well that’s the point of a surprise.” You pulled him down on top of you, your lips meeting his.

What was just a simple kiss turned into a make-out, making up for the dozens of kisses you’d sent over text. 

Only stopping to catch your breath, you kept this up for a few minutes. Bakugou’s hands wanted to wander, and they did. Bakugou pulled away and stared into your eyes.

“Stupid dunce-face tried to pull a move on you didn’t he?” He growled, his lips lowering to your neck as he pulled his own sweater down over your shoulders.

“The yellow haired- Suki!” You giggled, Bakugou finding your sweet spot beginning to kiss and nip at it.

“You’re mine. All mine, babygirl.” He whispered against your skin.

“I know!” Your breath was jagged as your hands tangled into his blonde locks. Bakugou’s hands traveled up your, his, sweater, teasingly rubbing circles into your skin. 

“Fuck, I love you so much.” Bakugou pulled away, his vermilion eyes staring back into your (e/c) ones. You smile and sit up, Bakugou raising to sit on your lap.

“I love you too, my king explosion murder.” You tease his goofy hero name, watching as he smirked before you.

“How long do you have here?” Bakugou asked, his hands crawling back out from under your sweater, teasingly playing at the hem.

“Someone’s horny-”

Bakugou’s lips attacked your neck again, not bothering to hear your response.

Needless to say, the two of you enjoyed the surprise visit. It was just the right amount of time to spend with each other, even if all you did was make out. 

»»————-　★　————-««

masterlist

[mrsalwayswrite]

To Call Forth Love - Chapter 5

Here it is! Ivar and Kari’s “date”....between friends of course. 

Norwegian translations are via google, apologies if incorrect.

Warnings: swearing, Ivar being Ivar, sexual tension, fluff 

Words: 8000 

Series Masterlist

Tag List: @youbloodymadgenius

"Stupid, stupid, stupid." Kari repeated to herself as she fixed her chocolate brown hair in the bathroom mirror. She hated how Ivar had manipulated her into going out with him, coming to her work and turning her class into participants in his scheme. Why couldn't he just let this go? Why did he have to keep injecting himself into her life?

 She vehemently ignored the small part of her that enjoyed his attention. Sure, she found him attractive, he was gorgeous, there was no denying that. It did not help how her mind liked to vividly recall how intoxicating his kisses felt, how passionate his embrace was. Never had she had a man pursue her so intently; well really, any man pursue her in general. The conflicting emotions were warring within her mind. It was best if they did not interact, if he forgot about her and moved on…. for both of their sakes. The traitorous part of her heart that yearned for more, whispered beguilingly for her to just try. 

 She still hated his manipulation. 

 A loud banging on the front door jolted her from her thoughts. She raced back to her room to see a luxury Mercedes car parked in front of the driveway. This was it. Her breath hitched in her throat. Was she really doing this? A second pounding on the door forced her to move. Snatching her purse off her bed, she made her way down the stairs and opened the front door. 

 Only for her jaw to drop. 

 There stood Ivar dressed in a designer black suit and white shirt, that complimented his body in all the right ways. His dark hair was braided back impeccably. One hand tapped on a dark metal cane by his side. He looked so deliciously suave and sophisticated; it was unfair. A runway or photoshoot seemed a more appropriate place for him instead of waiting for her at her front door. His blue eyes, even more striking in contrast to the dark colors of his suit, traced over her body with a severe scrutiny.

 "You're not wearing that."

 And that harsh statement was enough to rip her attention back from her ogling. She glanced down at her clothing, a nice pair of jeans and one of her favorite flowy blouses. 

 "What? You said dress nice."

 He tapped his cane on the ground once, as he scoffed. "Yeah, not dress like you're going to a fucking outdoor festival."

 "Well you didn't give me much information to work with." She retorted, already fed up with his attitude. It was his fault she was unaware to dress like they were going to some black-tie event. Since agreeing to this ill-conceived date, she had been on edge; and now him throwing this in her face, even more solidified this was a bad idea.

 "Right, let's go." He started past her, heading towards the stairs. 

 "Wait, what?"

 He looked at her over his shoulder and stated-as if it explained everything in the world, "I told you, you're not wearing that." Turning back, he began ascending the staircase. 

 She groaned, shutting the front door, and pressed her forehead against it. What had she done in a past life to deserve this? If she walked out of her front door and disappeared, how long would it take for him to notice? The idea was tempting. 

 The thumping of his footsteps and cane up the stairs preceded his voice yelling down, "left or right?"

 "Right!" She called back, then realized he was heading to her bedroom alone. She scurried towards the stairs and up them to enter her room just as Ivar stood in front of her closet. 

 "Do you own anything that isn't fucking athletic clothing?" He waved a hand at her wardrobe like it personally offended him. 

 She gestured to the clothing on her body. 

 "Right. We're going to fix that." He said as if to himself before diving into her closet. 

 Unsure what to do, she sat on the edge of her bed watching the scene unfold before her. Any other time this might have been amusing to witness. Ivar pushed around the clothing on the hangers, opening a couple of the drawers before returning back to the hanging clothes. The whole time she noticed, even as he muttered to himself, he was never rough with her stuff, nor was he delicate either but he seemed to take care of how he handled her things. 

 "This." He pulled out a dress after a couple of minutes, holding it up on the hanger. The dress was something she had bought spur of the moment when she first moved here as a treat to herself but never actually had a reason to wear it. It was a rich purple, off-the-shoulder, high-low skater dress that she loved. On more than one occasion she pulled it out just to admire it and hope one day to have a reason to wear it. It was most likely the only thing she owned that could pretend to be black-tie appropriate, even if it fell woefully short. 

 "Come on, we don't have all day." He shook the hanger, holding it out towards her. 

 She pursed her lips in annoyance but snatched the dress from him. Wordlessly, she went to the bathroom attached to her room, making sure to lock the door behind her. Changing into the dress, she reminded herself she just had to make it through tonight. He would realize how boring and uninteresting she was and then she would never hear from him again. 

 Once changed, she tried to touch up her make-up better. Adding some eyeliner and darker eyeshadow, she only added a gloss to her lips to finish it off. Make-up and fashion had never been something she excelled at but she could hold her own. Luckily, she had painted her nails a shimmery silver so they matched her attire.

 With one last look in the mirror, she gave herself an approving nod. Her blue-green eyes popped with the enhancement around them, the bit of blush and bronzer made her cheekbones sharpen and her lips looked fuller and shiny due to the gloss. The dress itself flattered her nicely, emphasizing her small waist and toned legs. She ran her hands over her sides, loving the soft feel of the material. At least she had the chance to finally wear the dress. 

 "Here goes nothing." 

 Opening the bathroom door, she was surprised to see him seated on the end of her bed, typing away on his phone. "Shoes and jewelry are on your table." He said without looking up. 

 A small table sat shoved into the corner of her room, her bed taking up most of the space. On it was the small jewelry box she owned, along with her aloe vera plant and a couple of small succulents. Laying out on the table was one of her few expensive necklaces she had brought with her when she moved, and it was one of the most sentimental. Reverently, she put it on, running her hand over the small diamond pendant hanging on the dainty, silver chain. It matched the small diamond earrings she always wore. A gift set from her grandmother. 

 "Who taught you fashion? Most guys are hopeless." She jabbed, as she slipped on the slender, black heels that he set out for her. She had forgotten she owned them. He must have dug into the recesses of her closet, a terrifying thought. 

 Either he ignored her tone or was not paying attention, as he was still focused on his phone. "You spend enough time with my mother, you begin to pick up useless information."

 That answer she did not expect. She peered over at him, still staring down, and smoothed down her dress once more. Nerves fluttered in her belly. Which was ridiculous since she did not really care what he thought of her appearance. Right? 

 "Alright." She announced. "Does this earn the highly esteemed Ivar's seal of approval?"

 He rolled his head to the side, a sharp comment obviously on the tip of his tongue, but when his eyes locked on her…. he froze. A myriad of emotions flickered through his eyes before he blinked and swallowed thickly. "Come here." He commanded, holding a hand out to her. 

 There was a tenderness in his gaze that beckoned to her, even more than his words. In three strides she found herself taking his hand and standing in front of him, before she could rationalize her actions. It felt almost instinctual, like she was drawn to him without conscious effort. Plus the way he gaped at her now, it was like he was admiring the rarest gem or most breathtaking natural phenomenon. The vulnerability in his admiring gaze caused her to look away, unnerved just by the sheer awe in his eyes; yet at the same time she had never felt so beautiful or safe.

 "Vakker, kattungen min." He murmured, almost inaudibly. 

 "I don't know what that means." She whispered back, the air feeling heavy with something unnamed. 

 "I know."

 "So…" She glanced at their hands, his thumb running lightly over her knuckles. "This alright?"

 His gaze greedily trailed over her, taking in every curve and dip of her body. Then once his eyes met hers, he winked salaciously. "It's adequate."

 Her jaw dropped for a second before she shook her head and laughed. "Well you dressed me. So, if it's only adequate, it's your fault."

 "I didn't have any good material to work with." He let go of her hand, rising to his feet. 

 "You sound like a diva."

 His heated gaze instantly transformed from sensual to threatening in an instant. "The fuck does that mean?" He sneered, looming over her. 

 "Not...nothing...I'm just teasing you." 

 Tension surrounded them, Kari had to physically restrain herself from squirming under the feel of it. It was terrifying how his demeanor could switch so drastically. How he could go from sweet to dangerous in the blink of an eye. Finally after a long moment, he huffed and turned away. 

 "Come on, we're going be late already."

 Silently, she followed behind him, unsure of what to expect next. They headed out and into his vehicle, the driver taking off as soon as they were both seated. 

 The residual anger rolled off of him like encroaching mist, not sure if it would eventually dissipate or grow into a storm. So she watched the city pass by out the window, a place still both unknown and becoming familiar. After ten minutes, suddenly thick, calloused fingers hesitantly entwined with her slim ones. Peeking over, Ivar was also looking out of his window but his hand reached across the seat between them, his fingers gently holding hers. She wondered if this was his silent way of apologizing. Instead of pulling away like would have been the intelligent thing to do, they rode the rest of the way with their fingers entangled and a comfortable silence between them. 

 When they pulled up to the restaurant, she now understood why they were dressed so formal. She had heard about this place but never in her wildest dreams thought she would actually be eating here. Casa mia, Maggiore ranked in the top five most popular and most expensive restaurants in the city. To even get a table, it had to be booked months in advance. The Italian restaurant was legendary, catering an old-world theme while boasting the best chefs in the country. From what Kari overheard, all the praise was well-deserved. 

 She could only gape as she scooted out of her seat and took Ivar's hand to help guide her out, too distracted by the magnificent building and the shock they were eating here. Her head swiveled about, like a child in a candy store, trying to see everything. What appeared to be stone columns lined the short walk to the entrance. Once inside, the tantalizing aroma of garlic bread sticks, wine and savory meat blended together with underlying hints of seasonings to immediately make her mouth start watering. A small fountain bubbled in the front entrance, a peaceful sound amongst the dim noise of conversations. Ivy hung strategically around from more columns or baskets on the walls. Marble-esque statues decorated corners. The rich colors of the restaurant tied in beautifully with the stone and wood making the place feel like you stepped through a portal straight into Italy. 

 The two walked up to the host standing behind a podium. 

 "Two for Ivar Lothbrok." 

 The sharply-dressed man barely glanced down before he responded. "Ah, yes, thank you, sir. Follow me."

 "Ivar, how did you get us in here on such short notice?" She quietly asked as she walked beside Ivar, not even realizing they were still holding hands, too caught up in staring at everything. 

 "I know the owner."

 "Of course." She muttered, earning a playful wink from him.

 They were led to a partially secluded table, which had a perfect view of the restaurant and the live instrumental band on a small stage. 

 She started towards the opposite side of the table, to sit across from Ivar but stopped when he said her name. 

 "Sit by me."

 Tilting her head in confusion, she just shrugged it off and moved to sit next to him instead of across the table. Soon as she sat down, she was grateful. Now she faced the direction of the live band and the captivating mosaic on the far wall. Every time she turned around this place continued to astound her. 

 "Anything I start off for you, sir?" The host asked as Kari and Ivar settled into their plush seats. 

 "Yes," Ivar answered immediately, "we'll start with a bottle of the Fontodi 2017 Chianti Classico."

 "Excellent choice, sir. I'll send your waitress with it in a moment."

 As the host walked away, Kari turned to him. "This is…. this is too much, Ivar. Why did you bring me here?"

 He shrugged, leaning back casually. "It's my favorite restaurant." Like that explained why he was prepared to spend a couple hundred dollars on their dinner. 

 "This feels like a date-date. I told you I was only going out as friends."

 "Yeah, well I have expensive taste. So shut up about it and enjoy. I swear you'll be thanking me after you taste the food here."

 Silence descended once again. As he scanned over the restaurant, she took the moment to stealthily appreciate how handsome he looked. His chiseled jawline, beguiling eyes and plump lower lip was enough to entice anyone; but his broad shoulders, strong upper body and toned stomach could make anyone swoon. Her mind drifted into wondering what he looked like bare chested, what his apparent muscles would feel like under her hands. Heat flooded her face and belly as she realized where her mind went. Friends, just friends, she tried to remind herself. 

 He must have caught onto her blatant ogling because he spoke to her without turning his head away from the band. "See something you like?"

 Her face further inflamed, fiddling with the necklace as she tried to compose herself. To change the subject, she blurted out the first question that came to mind. "You said earlier, spending so much time with your mother, you picked up some fashion sense from her….is she….um…." Her question trailed off, not quite sure what she was trying to get at. 

 He studied her for a moment then returned to watching the band. "My grandmother, my mother's mother, was a fashion icon who wanted her daughter to follow in her footsteps. Instead my mother married my father. She still has connections in the fashion world but she focuses more on the hotel chain she and my father started."

 "Aesir, right? Aesir Luxury Hotels?"

 He nodded. 

 The cost for one night in those hotels was more than a down-payment on most houses. Only the wealthy and elite ever stayed in them because of their outrageous costs. 

 "Are you…. close….to your mother?"

 He hesitated for a moment but she could visibly see his gaze and demeanor soften. "Yeah, I guess. She spent most of my childhood at my bedside or in a damn hospital. And when I wasn't bedridden from surgeries, she forced me to travel with her or be at her side because she didn't trust many people to "properly" take care of me. Floki and Helga were the only ones she truly felt confident in. Even father or my brothers, she would call almost every other hour to check in on me."

 "I met Floki, didn't I? He has the head tattoos."

 Ivar paused as the waitress returned with their bottle of wine. He waved her off when she went to pour it and quickly gave her their order, sending her away with a dismissive wave of his hand. 

 "I didn't get a chance to look at the menu." The brunette protested.

 "Kitten, trust me. I know you'll like this." He said as he poured them both a glass of wine. "And yes, Floki has the head tattoos. He's been a friend of my father's since they were children, he's even more of an uncle to us than my actual Uncle Rollo."

 "Oh, he seemed…. ah, nice?"

 Ivar laughed loudly, startling an older couple at a nearby table. "He's a mad bastard, smoked too many herbs when he was younger but he's solid. I'd trust him with my life. I have on occasion. What about you?"

 "What about me?"

 "Are you close to your family?"

 "Not really. My father died in a car accident when I was five so I don't remember him much. My mother is…. she’s a complicated woman. We don't talk much. My grandmother was the one who really raised me. She was my safe to go to when I was a child." That was as close to the truth as she could get, every word honest but certainly missing a few important details. 

 He hummed, swirling his wine seeming deep in thought. After taking a sip, his eyes landed on her with an intensity that threatened to split her soul. "Is that why you moved out here from England?"

 She froze, the glass just touching her lips. 

 "What?" He asked, eyes wide in innocence. 

 "What do you know?" She breathed out, mind frantically racing. 

 He answered her with a sly smirk, looking pleased with himself like the cat that caught the canary. "You moved here almost two years ago from a small village in England where you lived with your mother. You had top grades in school, played football for a few years while in school, tried to go to university but dropped out. Not too much later you moved here. Also, you have the worst fucking taste in music. Ed Sheeran? Adele? Could you be any more stereotypical?"

 "How...how do you know that?"

 "The security on your phone is pathetic. Even an amateur could hack it. Don't worry, I already ordered a new iPhone for you when it comes out in two weeks. The Playlists on your phone are fucking boring. And your Netflix account...remind me to introduce you to good movies and TV shows instead of that shit you've been watching."

 "You…." Her words tumbled out as her mind refused to fully comprehend what he was admitting. "...you are unbelievable. You hacked my phone? You looked up information on me?" 

 He shrugged. "I always do that with anyone I meet."

 "Ivar…. that’s…. that’s not ok."

 "Why?" 

 "Because…. people deserve their privacy. I mean, if you wanted to know that information about me you could have asked, LIKE A NORMAL PERSON." She tugged on her earring as she looked away. Thankfully the information he got on her was only her cover. She made a mental note to thank Albus when they talked on the phone next. Still, if he could find all this out about her in a week…and he acted like there was nothing wrong with his behavior. She could tolerate many things but this, having her privacy invaded like this. She pushed her chair back and started to rise. "I think, I think I need to go." 

 "What are you talking about?" His voice dropped to a low, menacing tone, a sudden fire blazing in his eyes. 

 "Ivar, I like you for some reason, you're fun to talk to and you're interesting but this…. I don't know if I can be alright with it. You crossed a line and I think it's best if we stop talking now. I'm sorry. I'll get an Uber to take me home."

 He seized her wrist in a firm grip just as she took a single step away. "Is this because I hacked your phone?" He sneered, only tightening his grip on her as she tried to tug her wrist away. 

 "Yes….and looked into my background." She sighed, holding his burning gaze. "That's just not…. that’s not normal behavior."

 "It is in my family. We have to be careful who we get close to…. who we let in."

 It was in his hushed tone, the way he made his answer sound like a confession that held her in place even more than his physical grip on her. Sincerity danced in his eyes, but also something more. Something far stronger and darker. Staring at him, the only word that came to mind was fear. Was he truly that terrified by the idea of her leaving? Although he tried to hide it behind the anger, it lurked just within view. That vulnerability she caught glimpses of, that drew her to him. How much of his instant rage was only a mask?

 Then she thought about his response. Even if the answer did not completely pacify her, it kind of made sense. Was his family even able to fully trust people or did they constantly second guess their motives? 

 His eyes dropped to their hands, his grip loosening marginally. "If I promise not to do it again, will you sit back down?"

 When she did not respond, he looked back at her. She was never one for direct confrontation, but passive-aggressive, the silent treatment, she was a professional at. So she waited, pressing her lips together intentionally. He was the one continuously forcing himself into her life, manipulating her. If he did not want her to walk away right now, he was going to have to learn her boundaries. And abide by them. She was done fully playing by his rules only. 

 A voice in the back of her mind that sounded eerily like her roommate screamed at her, reminding her of the darker side of the Lothbrok reputation, particularly Ivar. 

 His words struggled to come out through his clenched teeth. "I promise not to hack into your phone or run anymore backgrounds on you unless I think it's absolutely necessary."

 "Your definition of necessary is probably different than mine."

 "Fuck. Fine. Unless I think you or someone else is in danger, that kind of necessary…. fucking happy now?" He released her, running his hand over his braids, and glaring in the direction of the live band as if plotting their murders. 

 "Thank you." She slowly settled back into her seat. 

 Ivar grabbed his wine glass and drank the whole thing in two gulps before reaching for more. Luckily the waitress returned with their food, setting a plate in front of each of them and a basket of breadsticks in the middle of the table. 

 "Oh gods. This looks delicious. What did you order?" She eyed the plate set before her, her senses overwhelmed with how utterly mouth-watering it smelled. 

 "You have Pansotti Alla Genovese."

 Without another word she took a bite of her pasta and practically moaned. She closed her eyes as she let the flavors settle on her tongue. There was no doubt, whatever was in this pasta was pure magic. When she opened her eyes, the first thing she saw was Ivar staring at her with a hungry look in his eyes, and she did not think food would satisfy that appetite. It made a warmth curl in her belly and a flush rise to her skin. 

 "What?"

 He blinked. "Nothing." He abruptly dropped his gaze down and started to cut the meat on his plate. 

 "What did you order?"

 "Osso buco alla Milanese."

 "It looks good." She lightly commented, taking another bite of her pasta. Maybe the chefs were all wizards here, that's how the food tasted so good. Forget the train platform, the kitchen here was the secret entrance to Hogwarts. 

 "Want to try?"

 She almost choked on her food. Chewing quickly, she took a sip of her rich wine before speaking. "Excuse me?"

 "Open your mouth."

 She just stared at him. 

 "Come on, kattungen." He cut a small piece of the meat and speared his fork with it. A mischievous smile on his face, he held it close to her lips. "Trust me."

 It smelled divine whatever it was, so she opened her mouth and allowed him to feed her. Soon as it touched her tongue, her eyes involuntarily closed again. 

 "Mmm…. that’s amazing."

 "I told you to trust me." He winked, putting a bite into his own mouth. 

 "Yeah, yeah. So, you know all about my favorite artists and movies. Are you going to tell me about yours?"

 "You know, you asking me all these questions is really starting to sound like a first date. You sure we aren't on a real date and you're just saying…."

 She reached over and swatted his arm. "Unbelievable. Now answer my question."

 It took a tense minute before he really started talking but before she knew it, she was regaled with a comparison of heavy metal bands, the ones he liked and disliked plus some rock bands he listened to. Several jabs were made at his brothers and some of their choices of music. Next they easily slid into comparing movies, him continuously making fun of her love of animated movies. The rest of the dinner flew by as they talked effortlessly, never a dull or awkward moment in their conversation. It was completely different from how tense everything started, it almost felt like two separate dates…. between friends. 

 All too soon they were walking out of the restaurant.  The air was still warm from the late summer, even as the sun had disappeared beyond the horizon. People still wandered along the stretch of businesses. The loud thumping from a nearby club intermingled with the sounds of cars and pedestrians. 

 Before they left the table, Ivar had called his driver. Now the luxury car waited for them just off the main sidewalk. As they approached, her gait began to slow down. 

 "Do we, um, never mind." She started then changed her mind last minute, hurrying the extra steps to catch up with him.

 "What is it?"

 "It's nothing really, let's go."

 "Kari," he stopped her with a hand on her arm, uncaring of the people that had to swerve around them as the two stood in the middle of the sidewalk. "Just tell me."

 "Do you have to take me home now? I mean, I get it if you need to leave so you can sleep and be ready for work or whatever you do."

 "No, no, I don't have to drop you off yet. What do you want to do? I mean if you want to go back to my place and take advantage of me, I did drink more than you so…."

 "Stop it. I take it back. I want to go home now!" 

 As she tried to step away, he dropped his cane to grab both of her wrists, pulling her closer and placing them on his chest. "Tell me." He commanded gently, looking down at her with those bright eyes that pierced her soul. 

 "It's stupid." She mumbled, fiddling with the lapels of his suit jacket. 

 "For fuck's sake, just tell me."

 "Alright." Although she hesitated a moment longer, the words slipped out hesitantly, like she expected him to laugh at her when finished. "There's this ice cream place around the corner I've always wanted to go to. All the flavors are named after famous art pieces."

 "Masterpiece. That's the place?" He clarified, head cocked to the side. 

 "Yes…"

 "You want to go out for ice cream?"

 "Yes?"

 He was quiet long enough for Kari to start to fidget out of nervousness, then a bark of laughter erupted from him with a broad grin on his face. "Fuck it. Why not? I don't think I've been out for ice cream since I was four."

 "Well all the more reason to go. See I'm doing you a favor."

 "Shut up. Stay right here." He snarked without malice, then picked up his cane and headed over to tell their driver about the change of plans. After quick instructions, he walked back over to where he left Kari on the sidewalk. "He'll meet us there. Come on."

 She did not complain when he wrapped an arm around her waist as they started in the direction of the ice cream parlor. Instead she slipped her arm around him, too happy to be going somewhere she had only dreamed about. Of course the place was expensive, just based on its location that was evident, but she would have felt weird going alone. Plus, she did not have anyone she felt comfortable asking. Alana might have been willing but she was busy lately with her work and school. Gyda was the only other person Kari could think of that might go with her. The thought reminded Kari of how few friends she had here. 

 The parlor was everything she had hoped for. The interior looked like a high-class art studio. Various sized canvases hung along the exposed brick walls, the entire wall facing the street was a window. None of the chairs or tables fully matched giving an eclectic vibe. Classical music played in the background, only competing with the handful of other patrons in the parlor. 

 Not caring how childish she looked, she practically sprinted to the counter and pressed her face against the glass to see all the different flavors offered. 

 "Gods, how old are you, Kari?"

 "This is ice cream! Age doesn't matter!"

 They both scoured the many flavors, laughing at some of them and debating the merits of others. A couple comments were made about what they should try next time, which sent Kari's heart fluttering, even if she tried to not let it get to her head. Eventually after much deliberation, Kari ordered a cup of Girl With A Pearl Earring while Ivar chose The Garden of Earthly Delights. 

 Ivar paid, ignoring her insistence that she pay for herself this time. She thanked him, grabbing her cup and looking towards the tables. Only two tables were occupied, both pressed against the large window so there were plenty of spots to choose from. Ivar was finishing up the transaction when the patron standing in line behind them whispered loudly. 

 "Fucking move already. Your crippled ass is holding up the goddamn line."  

 Ivar whipped around without hesitation, his icy blue eyes overflowing with rage. "You want to fucking say that to my face?"

 The man dressed in a light gray business suit glared at Ivar. He could not have been much older than Ivar or Kari but the way he sneered down at them gave the impression he thought he was more mature. "Are you done yet? Just move, if you're able to."

 Without a word, Ivar took a menacing step forward, twisting the top of his cane with his hand. Immediately, Kari crowded Ivar's side, grabbing his face with both of her hands, forcing him to look at her. The snarl on his face and the wrath in his eyes terrified her, promising blood to be spilled. 

 "He's not worth it." She cooed, trying to put out the raging fire in him. "We're having fun, ok? Just ignore him." 

 He took several deep breaths, the tremble in his body dissipating with each second as his eyes bored into hers, before giving a faint nod. That fury lingered under the surface, just waiting for a spark to set it off. Kari slowly moved her hands away but not before caressing his cheeks, hoping to instill some sort of calm. His eyes fluttered shut for the briefest of moments under her touch, tipping his head to lay his head in her hand for a second. 

 After Ivar straightened, he looked back at the man. "You're fucking lucky, if she hadn't said something you'd be in for the ass-whooping of your life."

 "I'm so scared." The man mocked, rolling his eyes. "Are you fucking done yet?"

 Kari turned back to the man, having grabbed her ice cream cup quickly off the counter. "We'll be out of your way, I'm so sorry…. oops." She "accidentally" tossed the ice cream cup onto the front of the man's suit. The cream-colored ice cream slid down his gray suit, to start dripping on his shiny leather shoes. 

 "You bitch! Do you know what you've done?!" He screamed, hands frantically waving. 

 "I'm so sorry. Would you like me to grab some napkins?" She asked with a sickly-sweet tone. 

 Before the man could say another word, Ivar raised his cane to press the end against the man's chest. "You better take care of that before it stains."

 If looks could kill, Kari and Ivar would have dropped dead. The man glared and muttered curses under his breath as he stormed out of the parlor. 

 Kari looked over to the lady behind the counter. "Do you have a wash cloth and bucket? I can clean up the mess."

 "Oh, don't worry about it. He's always an asshole. Honestly, this just made my night. Let me get you a new cup on the house."

 Kari convinced Ivar to go choose a table for them as she waited for her new ice cream cup. While making small talk with the lady, and learning about a new seasonal flavor coming out soon, she noticed Ivar had picked a booth across from the large windows. After thanking the lady once more and grabbing her cup, Kari walked over to him, ice cream in one hand and purse in another. 

 "Thank you again for…." She started as she slid into the booth seat across from him but her voice trailed off as Ivar slid out from across and onto her bench. "Wha…"

 Without warning, he wrapped an arm around her, clutching the back of her neck while the other hand cupped the side of her face. His lips descended on hers with a bruising kiss. She gasped at the unexpected action, which allowed him to deepen the kiss. It felt feverish and not appropriate for their surroundings. Her hands clung to the lapels of his suit, to keep herself upright under the onslaught of his delicious mouth. 

 "That was so fucking sexy." He mumbled as he switched to placing soft pecks against her lips.  

 "Ivar, stop…." She tried to lean away from him, to be able to think and breathe fully, but the grip he had on the back of her neck prevented it. 

 He pressed his forehead to hers, his erratic breathing matching her own. "Gods, you don't know what you just did. Fuck, kjære…. only family ever stands up for me, never...never anyone else."

 Her heart broke at hearing that. She did not know what to say, so she cupped his face, stroking his sideburns as they both just breathed. This felt even more intimate than the kissing their swollen lips were evidence of. It was sweet and raw. No facades, no boundaries, just a moment of understanding and connection. 

 Eventually he stole another quick peck before leaning back. She knew she would have to address all the kisses but with what he just confessed, now did not seem the time. 

 Kari took a bite of her ice cream, both to distract herself and try to erase the feeling of his lips. "Wow, this is delicious." She gushed, eyes wide. 

 "What is yours?"

 "Mmmm…. it’s praline, I think." She peeked at his cup. "What’s going on with yours? It looks like it's got a little bit of everything possible."

 "Garden of Heavenly Delights. Just like me." He winked flirtatiously, scooping some onto his spoon. 

 She snorted, covering her mouth quickly. 

 He narrowed his eyes, "what the hell is that supposed to mean?"

 "Nothing…. just something caught in my throat."

 "Yeah, and I was going to share with you. Changed my fucking mind now."

 "Ivar, you are the best and are truly a delight! Anyone who says differently clearly has never met you! " She squealed, placing both hands over her heart and fluttered her lashes at him. 

 "That sounds much better. Open your mouth."

 "No, I can…"

 "The only way you are trying this is if I feed it to you. Your choice."

 His ice cream looked amazing. She was not sure what exactly was in it, looking more like a conglomerate of all the best ice cream toppings mixed into the frozen ambrosia….and she really wanted to try it. He fed her back at the restaurant and nothing bad happened. This was just sharing food between friends, nothing special. At least, that's what she told herself. 

 "Fine." She opened her mouth and wearing a self-satisfied smirk, he gently stuck the spoon in. First the chocolate hit her tongue followed quickly by the caramel and the little bits of candy mixed in. "Oh, that is divine!" This time she did not even try to suppress the moan. Ice cream was a gift from the gods and no one could convince her otherwise. 

 "Told you, just like me." He winked and licked his lips. 

 Signing in mock annoyance, the way her lips curved upward teased of her amusement. "Alright, your turn." She stated, scooping up some of her ice cream and holding her spoon at his mouth. 

 He opened his mouth, maintaining eye contact with her the entire time as his lips and tongue worked the ice cream off the spoon. She bit her lower lip at the suggestive look he gave her, unable to tear her eyes away. It was a miracle their ice cream did not immediately melt from its close proximity to his blatantly heated look. Slowly she pulled her spoon back, only to scoop up some for herself to try and distract from the ache pooling between her legs. His gaze lingered on her; she could feel it even as she stared down at her cup. 

 "Tell me about your brothers." She said, not so subtly, trying to diffuse the growing heat between them and the way her mind kept creating images of tasting the ice cream off his tongue. The kisses he kept stealing were not helping her resolve and her stance as just friends. 

 "Why?" He asked with an incredulous look.

 "Well, I already know Gyda. And I'm an only child, so call me curious."

 "Nothing interesting to tell. They're all idiots."

 She giggled. "They can't be that bad…. please?" She tried batting her lashes at him again, knowing she looked ridiculous but did not care. 

 He groaned, running a hand over his mouth, before speaking. "You met Bjorn. Him and Gyda are from my father's first marriage to Lagertha. Then there is Ubbe, the oldest, Hvitserk, and Sigurd."

 "Do they all work with your family?"

 "Why do you care?"

 His sharp tone caught her off guard for a moment, but she kept her voice light. "It's interesting." She answered honestly. 

 Taking another bite of his ice cream, he surveyed around the parlor. There was no one sitting close by them. Only one other table was occupied now and it was almost across the dining area. Finally, he leaned back with a grimace, throwing his arm on the back of the booth, toying with the loose strands of her hair. "My father started Ragnarssons Trading but over the past few years he's slowly handing it out over to Bjorn. Fucking imbecile. If it wasn't for Torstein, Torvi, Hvitserk and Lagertha, Bjorn would drive the company to the ground."

 "Why?" She desperately tried to ignore the way his thick fingers felt twirling her hair and just brushing through it. All of her muscles fought with the desire to relax into his touch, but she kept her back straight. 

 "He's better at social connections, traveling, meeting new vendors and creating trade agreements. The day-to-day running of the company, he sucks at."

 "Wait…. Lagertha?" Her mind jumped back to the name previously mentioned. "She works for your father's company?"

 "She heads the second office in Istanbul, though she focuses more on trade around the Mediterranean."

 "Isn't that awkward? I mean, I guess they must still be friends, right?"

 He shrugged but by the way his jaw tensed, she decided to drop the subject. There was a story there and it sounded full of drama. None of it was her business anyway. 

 "Ok, um, Hvitserk." She tried to get back on the subject. "I met him the other day too, right? What does he do?"

 "He advises, but he helps head the finances also. Making sure father and Bjorn don't spend all the company money on huge parties."

 "Ok, Sigurd?"

 "Nothing useful…. wastes his days on music and women." Contempt laced his every word, shocking her but she pressed on. 

 "And the oldest?"

 "Ubbe." He nodded. "He helps advise but mostly helps my mother run the hotels."

 "And you? What do you do?"

 "I'm hoping to do you."

 "Oh gods! That was terrible." She laughed loudly, swatting at his chest. A genuine smile teased his lips and his eyes lit up, erasing the intensity he wore like a mantle. Seeing that, all she could do was stare. She had seen him angry, cocky, smug, charming and furious, but this look, an almost boyish sweetness peeking through made her heart swell. Silently, she decided it was her favorite look of his. It was like the dark clouds rolled back to reveal a sunny day. It was breath-taking. 

 If he noticed her gaping at him, he thankfully ignored it. "Security mostly." He replied indifferently, scooping up some ice cream with his left hand. 

 "I feel like there is a whole lot there you aren't telling me."

 "Anyone tell you, you're damn nosey."

 "I am not!" She gasped dramatically, but a smile quickly settled on her lips. "I just want to learn more about you."

 He stared at her for a moment as if lost in thought, then rubbed a hand over his mouth before speaking. "I sometimes help my mother out but I do mostly contract stuff so I can make my own schedule."

 "Do you like it?"

 "I guess, I'm good at it." He tugged on her hair lightly, that sweet smile still on his face. "What about you? Why yoga?"

 She thought about her answer, how best to articulate her feelings. "It was something that I did for me, you know? Back in England. When I moved out here…. if I had to work, I wanted to do something I enjoyed."

 He hummed in understanding. "Your family did not approve?"

 "My mother thought it was stupid. My grandmother was the only one who encouraged it. She was the one who would drive me to the yoga studio whenever I could go, even though it was an hour away."

 "Sounds like she cared about you."

 Kari felt her breath hitched for a second, emotions swirling in her chest at the memory of her grandmother. "She did." She softly said, dropping her gaze to the table. 

 "Done?" He asked after a quiet minute, both having finished their ice cream and now just sitting there talking. 

 "Yeah."

 They disposed of their trash and walked out onto the sidewalk together. Ivar's car was parked just off to the side, the driver leaning against the car and smoking. The late summer's warmth still permeated in the air. Without a word, they slid into the Mercedes. With the ice cream settling in her stomach, Kari shivered once she got into it. The temperature difference was just enough to cause goose bumps to break out on her skin. 

 "Here." Ivar slipped off his jacket and laid it across her lap. Then, in an almost practiced move, he slung an arm around her shoulders and tucked her into his side. 

 "I'm fine." She grumbled, even as she made no indication to scoot away from him. 

 He chuckled, but made no sarcastic comment. They rode in silence for several minutes, cuddled together in the back seat and watched the city pass by under the starlit sky, before he spoke up. 

 "Are you glad you agreed to come out with me?"

 Unable to help the slight jab at him, she muttered. "I didn't have much of a choice."

 "You have more of a choice than you think." He whispered, barely audible even with her sitting next to him. 

 "What?"

 "Nothing." He snapped, sounding suddenly defensive. "So?"

 "I had fun. You aren't so bad to hang out with, I guess."

 "Shut up."

 She giggled at his mock annoyance, the smirk he was trying to suppress gave him away. Wordlessly, he tugged her closer, if that was even possible, and laid his head on top of hers. After they both drifted back into a comfortable silence. 

 The line of friendship she was trying so hard to maintain was blurring and she found herself struggling to try and fix it. Never had a man held her like this and she found herself unconsciously melting into his embrace. In his arms, she felt safe and warm. A fact that concerned her. This was Ivar Lothbrok, someone with a dark reputation for anger and violence, if you believed all the rumors. Cuddled up with him right now, she was not sure what she believed. 

 When they arrived at her place, she winced when she noticed Alana's car in the driveway. Hopefully her roommate was asleep or watching a movie in her room. Somewhere where Kari did not have to explain why she was dressed up fancy. There was no simple explanation she could conjure that would be believable. 

 Sitting up, she slipped Ivar's jacket off her lap and turned to say thank you but stopped when he cupped her cheek. 

 "I want to kiss you." He breathed out, staring at her like he was unsure if he wanted to worship or ravish her. 

 She tried to shift subtly, the blooming ache between her legs distracting. Teasing him, she purposefully kept her voice light. "Do you always kiss your friends?"

 His lips twitched but he remained focused on her. 

 "Ivar…. we’re just friends. I told you. I can't be anything more."

 "Samme det. Jeg har ikke tenkt å gi opp når som helst snart, kattungen min." The foreign language rolled off his tongue gracefully, as he rubbed his thumb along her cheek. 

 "What did you say?"

 "Nothing." He pressed a kiss to her cheek, lingering a moment too long for it to be considered chaste. "I'll text you."

 "Ok. Good night, Ivar."

 She slid out of the car and walked to the front door, her skin tingling from the warmth of his body against hers. She waved at the dark vehicle before letting herself in. 

 Once she was finally in bed after taking a hot shower, she laid there for a long time, her time with Ivar replaying in her mind. Did she hate how Ivar manipulated her into going out with him? Yes. Did she actually enjoy her time with him? Yes. It was all so confusing. She repeatedly told herself she needed to stay away from him, it was better for their lives to diverge…. but he was making it hard to follow through with that conviction. The more she learned about him and spent time with him, the more she found herself not wanting to walk away. Even if it was the best thing to do. 

 She rolled over onto her stomach and pressed her face into the pillow. She had meant to get away from drama, to live simply and just enjoy life. That was why she had moved away in the first place. Now having Ivar inserting himself into her life, he was turning her life upside down. And she could not decide if she was truly upset about that or not. 

[nashvilledreams]

My Naya, my Snixxx, my Bee. I legitimately can not imagine this world without you.

7 years ago today, she and I were together in London when we found out about Cory. We were so far away, but I was so thankful that we had each other. A week ago today we were talking about running away to Hawaii. This doesn’t make sense. And I know it probably never will.

She was so independent and strong and the idea of her not being here is something I cannot comprehend. She was the single most quick-witted person I’ve ever met, with a steel-trap memory that could recall the most forgettable conversations from a decade ago verbatim. The amount of times she would memorize all of those crazy monologues on Glee the morning of and would never ever mess up during the scene… I mean, she was clearly more talented than the rest of us. She was the most talented person I’ve ever known. There is nothing she couldn’t do and I’m furious we won’t get to see more.

I’m thankful for all the ways in which she made me a better person. She taught me how to advocate for myself and to speak up for the things and people that were important to me, always. I’m thankful for the times I grew an ab muscle from laughing so hard at something she said. I’m thankful she became like family. I’m thankful that my dad happened to have met her weeks before I did and when I got Glee, he told me to “look out for a girl named Naya because she seemed nice.” Well dad, she was nice and she became one of my favorite people ever.

If you were fortunate enough to have known her, you’ll know that her most natural talent of all was being a mother. The way that she loved her boy, it was truly Naya at her most peaceful. I’m thankful that Naya got that beautiful little boy back on that boat. I’m thankful he will have a strong family around him to protect him and tell him about his incredible mom.

I just hope more than anything that her family is given the space and time to come to terms with this. For having such tiny body, Naya had such a gigantic presence, a void that will now be felt by all of us - those of us who knew her personally and the millions of you who loved her through your TVs. I love you, Bee.

My favorite duet partner. I love you. I miss you. I don’t have words right now, just lots of feelings. Rest In Peace Angel, and know that your family will never have to worry about anything.

We started out as the closest friends and then like all new things, we went through a bit of a rocky phase. However, we stuck by each other’s side and created the most beautiful friendship built out of love and understanding. The last I had the chance to see you in person, I had left oranges outside our home for you to take. I wanted to say hi through the window but my phone didn’t ring when you called (which it never does, f*cking T-Mobile), so instead you and Josey left two succulents on our doorstep as a thank you. I planted those succulents and I look at them everyday and think of you. I still listen to your EP on repeat because from the moment I heard it, it struck me and I always wished the world knew more of your voice. You sent me over 5 dozen SnapChat videos when you and Josey woke up in the morning and I kick myself that I didn’t save one of them. You always shared recipes and I admired your love for food. We vowed to spend every Easter together, even though Covid stole this last one from us. You are and always will be the strongest and most resilient human being I know, and I vowed to carry that with me as I continue to live my life. 

You constantly taught me lessons about grief, about beauty and poise, about being strong, resilient and about not giving a fuck (but still somehow respectful). Yet, the utmost important lesson I learned most of all from you was being a consistent and loving friend. You were the first to check in, the first to ask questions, the first to listen..you cherished our friendship and I never took that for granted. 

We never took photos together because we mutually hated taking pictures...our relationship meant more than proof. I have countless pictures of our babies playing, because we shared that kind of pride and joy. So I’m showing the world a photo of our little goof balls for you, because I know that meant more than anything and they remind me of you and I. I speak to you everyday because I know you’re still with me and even though I’m feeling greedy that we don’t get more time together, I cherish every moment we had and hold it close to my heart.

There are no words and yet so many things I want to say, I don't believe I'll ever be able to articulate exactly what I feel but... Naya, you were a ⚡️ force and everyone who got to be around you knew it and felt the light and joy you exuded when you walked into a room. You shined on stage and screen and radiated with love behind closed doors. 

I was lucky enough to share so many laughs, martinis and secrets with you. I can not believe I took for granted that you'd always be here. Our friendship went in waves as life happens and we grow, so I will not look back and regret but know I love you and promise to help the legacy of your talent, humor, light and loyalty live on. 

You are so loved. You deserved the world and we will make sure Josey and your family feel that everyday. I miss you already.

She was bold. She was outrageous. She was a LOT of fun.⁣

Naya made me laugh like no one else on that set. I always said it while we were working together and I’ve maintained it ever since. Her playful, wicked sense of humor never ceased to bring a smile to my face.⁣

She played by her own rules and was in a class of her own. She had a brashness about her that I couldn’t help but be enchanted by. I also always loved her voice, and savored every chance I got to hear her sing. I think she had more talent than we would have ever been able to see.⁣

I was constantly moved by the degree to which she took care of her family, and how she looked out for her friends. She showed up for me on numerous occasions where she didn’t have to, and I was always so grateful for her friendship then, as I certainly am now.⁣

And even as I sit here, struggling to comprehend, gutted beyond description- the very thought of her cracks me up and still brings a smile to my face. That was Naya’s gift. And it's a gift that will never go away. ⁣

Rest in peace you wild, hilarious, beautiful angel.

How can you convey all your love and respect for someone in one post? How can you summarize a decade of friendship and laughter with words alone? If you were friends with Naya Rivera, you simply can’t. Her brilliance and humor were unmatched. Her beauty and talent were otherworldly. She spoke truth to power with poise and fearlessness. She could turn a bad day into a great day with a single remark. She inspired and uplifted people without even trying. Being close to her was both a badge of honor and a suit of armor. Naya was truly one of a kind, and she always will be. 💔 Sending all my love to her wonderful family and her beautiful son.

Dear Naya, 

I’m failing miserably to process this news. I always imagined old future senior moments where we would hear your infectious laughter down the hall knowing that our funny bone was in for a treat. To many people, myself included, you were the life of the party. Not only able to rock when fun was to be had after a long day but that shining friend that was always willing to listen, offer sympathy, perspective and at times, give much needed levity to any situation. 

You were a beast on the show. I admired you as I watched you nail multi page monologues that you learned moments before and pour your heart into every performance with an energy that had that snicks special written all over it. Our deep conversations about life inbetween scenes are some of my favorite moments with you. Getting to hear about your hopes and dreams for the future and with Josey’s arrival, ‘Your greatest success’ I was so happy to see your dream turn into reality. 

You deserved more. I’m so sorry but you deserved more. You gave life your all and I hope all the good that you have given to the world will be returned in abundance when you reunite with our brother in the heavenly skies. I’m so grateful for our memories. We will make sure to keep your legacy and spirit alive so Josey will grow up to know the incredible woman you were. Love you, Naya. You are already missed. Eternally. 

-HSJ

Naya and I fell into stride with such ease, she was my first friend and ally on our show. In the pilot, our characters came and went with such swiftness. Our enthusiasm brimmed with all of the unknown. We tried to grasp what the other cast members must be feeling as we were working in such separate manners. We dared to dream. What if this show worked? Wouldn’t that be something? Something was brimming, it was palpable. And thank god it worked. Naya’s magnetic talent was going to be unleashed, we just didn’t know it yet. ⁣⁣

I’ve been revisiting Naya’s performances on our show and it has brought me great joy. To work with her was a gift. There was a great deal to absorb - her work ethic, her fearlessness, her talent - supreme. Naya had a laugh that would envelop you and hold you captive. She was mesmerizing. That twinkle in her eye, her luminous smile. Naya lead with truth, humor, wit. I loved her for all of these reasons. ⁣⁣

I loved her sense of curiosity and wanderlust. I was lucky enough to be her travel partner for some of my most favorite adventures. As I write this, I’m grinning with swelling memories of a spontenaous 36 hour excursion - one might even say diversion - to Paris. With Naya, everything was possible and would often simply unfold before us, almost magically.⁣⁣

On this particular jaunt, within ten minutes of checking into our hotel, we found ourselves strolling the halls of L'École des Beaux-Arts, sipping wine from paper cups with students showcasing their latest work. It was fantastic. We were united in our commitment to discovery. And there was always a list of cleverly curated ideas in Naya’s back pocket, should we need it. ⁣⁣

I cannot make sense of this tremendous loss. I will hold onto her and these memories for the rest of time, alongside our Glee family. Please hold space for her, her family, her beautiful boy. ⁣⁣

In absolute, loving memory.

Naya The world is at such a loss and I am truly heartbroken. I still remember the day I met you. You Walked straight up to me, grabbed me by the face and drug me around until I met every single person on set, introducing me as “new booty”. You were one of the first people who made me feel like family when others saw me as an outsider. I didn’t know then that you would become my family and that’s just who you were to everyone.. A Mother, Sister, Daughter and most of all a friend. Your massive heart and bright spark is what carried our entire show, when at times we all felt like giving up. 

You always showed up for me when I needed some wisdom or was down and just needed someone to talk to. You took care of everyone around you in a way that was so warm and comforting and you sure knew how to throw a hell of a party! 

I always admired your bravery and passion to fight for what’s right even when it seemed like you were up against the world. Your spirit is contagious and you continue to make everyone you have touched a better and stronger person by knowing you. 

My favorite part of glee was getting to watch you perform and shine up close every day. You really were the pulse of that show. Anyone who was blessed enough to see and experience your raw talent knows it to be true. You’re one of the smartest and most gifted people I have ever met. There is no one like you and there never will be.

You have changed peoples lives all around the world and you continue to change mine forever. I will never forget your love and kindness. Thank you for sharing your spirit Angel.

I will miss you always. I Love you Naya

For the last 7 years the 13th of July has shattered our hearts beyond repair. There aren’t enough words to describe the pain we are feeling, we are truly heartbroken at the loss of @nayarivera .

Naya, Cory loved you so so much. He cherished your friendship more than you will ever know. From the laughs you shared, to the strength you gave him when he needed it the most. Cory truly adored you. He was in awe of your incredible talent, the way you gave everything you had to each performance; the slap in the auditorium was one of his favourite stories to share. You once said Cory was like a member of your family; you will always be a part of ours. We’ll carry you in our hearts forever. We miss you. Friends reunited for eternity.

We send all our love and strength to your beautiful boy, your family, friends and fans 💔🐻💔

[buckysnumberonegirl]

April showers

A fic inspired by the poor weather by me today and a new follower the very lovely @officialchrisbeck

Warnings: fluff, slight animal cruelty(don’t worry it wasn’t committed by our space daddy or the reader)

Possibly 2 parts of there’s interest 🤷🏻‍♀️

Pairing: Chris Beck x neighbor!reader

Word count 1.3k

You paused your music and pulled out your headphones, admiring the freshly painted wall with a smile. The guy at the store said a lady shouldn’t use darker colors, that you should pick something more bright and colorful. But the color of the grey reminded you of storm clouds and rainy days.

Rainy days like today. You looked out the window to see that the beautiful sunlight that was once illuminating your small townhouse had now turned into sheets of rain.

‘THE PLANTS’

You jumped up and sprung into action thinking of the poor seeds and tiny plants you’d stuck outside for a bit of sun, that were now probably drowning.

You shoved your feet into a pair of boots and searched for a jacket.

Milo, your dog, wagged his tail happily thinking it was time for a walk.

‘No buddy, you’ve got to stay here’ he turned his head but walked away. You gave up on a jacket and bolted out the door. You hit the steps forgetting the rain for a split second as you slipped. Falling straight into the arms of your new neighbor.

“Are you okay, it seems like a bad time for a run” the man smiled at you as he held your arm. You let out a little laugh before reaching down to grab a pallet of your violets.

‘The plants they’re too young to have this much water they’ll drown, I’ve got to bring them inside’

The man looked down at the plants and grabbed a sheet, looking at you. You propped open the door and welcomed him in, the two of you carrying in the many sprouts and seeds as you said a silent prayer that they didn’t all die.

You grabbed the last plant, your tiny cactus. ‘I’m so sorry Jerry please pull through this’ you whispered into the little flowering succulent.

The man held your door open for you “I don’t think I got your name when you moved in, I’m Chris Beck”

You set down the cactus and held out your hand ‘I’m Y/N, sorry for not introducing myself sooner I’ve been a little busy. It’s just me and..’

Before you could finish Milo ran out of the house, stopping on the sidewalk. He put his paws to the ground and wagged his tail. ‘Milo please not again’ he took a few steps back towards the house, then took off down the street.

You took a deep sigh when you heard a cough.

You looked over to see Chris standing awkwardly with a jacket in his hand. “Do you have a jacket?”

‘Oh um, I’m sure I do in one of my boxes…’ he held the jacket out to you.

“If you give me a second to grab another and an umbrella I can help you look, there’s a park not to far away from here that he might have run to”

You looked down the unfamiliar streets, ‘yeah I’d actually really appreciate that, let me grab his leash’

You quickly grabbed the leash on the table by your door and went back outside. Chris put up the umbrella and led you down the street.

About 20 minutes of walking you found yourself at a small park, relatively empty due to the rain. It was easy to see why any dog would love it. You and Chris both called out hoping that Milo would come running back.

You spotted a gazebo in the center of the park ‘we should check there, he really isn’t a fan of the rain’

Chris laughed “well then he picked a horrible day to run away”

Before you got there you heard the soft whimpers of a dog in distress. You left the safety of the umbrella and jogged over to see Milo pawing at a sealed garbage bag. ‘Hey buddy what wrong’ you crouched down and Milo walked over to you tail between his legs. He let you put his leash on, but still pulled you to the bag.

Chris stepped into the gazebo and shook out the umbrella. “I’m glad we found him, the rains getting worse” as he spoke a loud clap of Thunder struck.

‘I’m so sorry to drag you out in this, I owe you a coffee or something when we get back’ you looked up and smiled at him only to find his brow furrowed and his eyes on the garbage bag.

“It’s moving”

‘What?’ You turned and looked to see Milo sniffing the bag, it moved slightly reacting to his nose.

Before you could even think it through you grabbed the bag and carefully tore it open. A pair of tiny blue eyes looked up at you.

You reached in and pulled out a kitten, no older than a week or two old.

It let out a weak mewl and wiggled closer to your chest. Milo let out a tiny whine and sniffed the kitten.

Chris bent down and pet the pooch “good boy Milo, I’ve got a steak in my fridge that is all yours if it’s okay with your mom” he looked up at you and reached out to pet the small kitten you held close to you.

It was then that you actually took a moment to look at the friendly neighbor who had helped you save your plants and find your dog. His eyes were gorgeous, so was the rest of him. You hadn’t noticed before that he truly was a beautiful man. You studied every feature as if it was the last time you’d ever see him when he turned to look at you.

“Do you think you’ll keep her?” He smiled still petting the tiny cat

‘I don’t think I can, I had to fight the landlord quite a bit to keep Milo. I don’t think he’d appreciate a kitten’ you looked down, she was sleeping now curled up in your hand so small and weak.

“I could always take her, she’d be right next store and you could visit of course, if you wanted too”

You smiled at him and stood up ‘do you think you’ll get in trouble, they seem to have a pretty strict pet policy’

He looked down and laughed a little bit “I’ve been here a while, and it can be our little secret”

Chris winked at you and smiled.

The rain started to slow a bit, the two of you walked back to the townhouses, you couldn’t help but notice how warm he was every time your shoulders bumped. Or maybe it was just that you were feeling cold, the chill from the rain earlier was finally getting to you despite being in the oversized jacket you borrowed from your new friend.

You got back to your home, invited Chris in and made some tea and hot soup.

You both talked for a while going on as time flew by. He left for a bit to go get supplies for the cat, which he so lovingly named Luna, claiming he just had a thing for space.

You pet Milo smiling at the tiny kitten sleeping in your lap, you heard a knock on the door then the sound of it opening. Chris walked in with a smile and several bags of supplies.

“I hope this is enough for now, I’ll probably go get more tomorrow once this rain starts”

You stood up, Luna in your arms and walked with him to the door.

‘Well you know what they say about the rain’

You smiled at him as he raised an eyebrow

‘April showers bring may flowers’ you gestured to the plants he had helped you carry in earlier that day.

“That’s true” he laughed “maybe when it’s time to plant everything I can help, I’ve always wanted a garden out back”

You handed him Luna and grinned ‘I look forward to it Chris’

Both of your doors shut together, the two of you thinking the same thing.

Chris held Luna up and whispered “you, little one, may have just found me my future”