#i guess the answer could be then that he used to hang out with dio when he woke up but could you imagine dealing with that Thing a | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

drabbles-of-writing · 3 years

Text

You’ll Be Okay

AO3

fourth owl fight attack! This one’s prompt was “Hunter and Luz being siblings” and I went a whole Direction with it

Summary: The Emperor was defeated. Amongst the ruins of a half-destroyed castle, Luz finds Hunter. While waiting for the others to find them, Hunter's shields finally fall apart. After all, at the end of the day, he was just a kid.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Luz found Hunter in the wreckage of the Emperor’s Castle, using his staff (the one that had Rascal perched atop, not the other, artificial staff. That one had been snapped in two) to support himself, his other hand clutching his side.

“There you are!” She breathed, rushing forward.

Hunter flinched at the noise and whirled around, lifting his staff to aim it before falling over at the lack of support. He hissed and curled up on the ground, eyes squeezed shut.

Luz faltered for a moment before continuing towards him, albeit much slower and cautiously now.

“Hunter?” She called, crouched down low.

He cracked open a wild, unfocused eye. It took a moment till it landed on her, and a few more until she could start to see him process who she was.

“Hey,” He croaked, slowly raising his head. “I was beginning to think I’d gotten rid of you for good.” He chuckled, before he was wracked with coughs and curled back in on himself.

“Oh please, you’ll have to try way harder than that.” Luz huffed, though the forced teasing in her tone didn’t work much. “Are you…okay?”

“Take a wild guess,” Hunter muttered, bracing one hand on the ground as the other stayed wrapped around his side.

And yeah, in hindsight, he really wasn’t. His white cloak was ratty and torn all over, the piece of under armor he often used barely hanging on by one strap. He was covered in gashes, bruises, grime, and who-knows-what. His breathing was ragged and raspy, and she figured that, yeah, when one is used as a living portal-booster they aren’t going to come out of it okay.

“Alright, fair, bad question.” Luz admitted, inching closer and placing a hand on his leg. “You need any help?”

“If I say no,” Hunter wheezed, eyeing her hand for a moment. “You’ll help me anyway.”

“Yeah,” Luz shrugged. “But it’s polite to ask.”

“Never stopped you before,” He rasped with the faintest of smiles, slowly leaning back until he was flat on the ground, staring up at the sky.

“Need a minute?” Luz asked, scooting until she was sitting right beside him.

“Or three,” Hunter agreed, shutting his eyes. “Everything kinda hurts.”

“Then rest, someone will find us eventually.” Luz assured. “I…may have run off to find you when I realized you weren’t with the others.” She admitted sheepishly, rubbing her neck.

“If they accuse me of kidnapping, I’ll break your shins.” Hunter threatened, though his tone never changed, and his eyes stayed shut.

“Understood,” Luz smiled, watching as Rascal transformed back into his usual self, chirping as he settled himself on Hunter’s stomach.

And the two remained silent for what felt like hours, though Luz was willing to bet it had been no more than ten minutes. She just looked out at the rubble around them, aching all over as a light wind breezed by. Had she not seen Hunter’s ear flicking periodically with the wind tickling it, she probably would’ve thought he’d died then. His breathing barely even disturbed Rascal, which she had to wonder if he was doing on purpose or not.

“When are you leaving?”

Luz blinked, turning her head down, finding Hunter had cracked open a single eye and was peering up at her.

“Huh?”

“The portal, you went through all this trouble to go back to the human realm, right?” He said. “So, when are you leaving?”

“Oh, uh,” Luz swallowed, shoving down the memory of standing before blinding car lights, reaching for a hand she phased right through. “I...I don’t know.”

“You don’t know?” Hunter repeated, giving her an incredulous look. “You went through all this trouble--”

“Okay, in my defense, this goes a little beyond getting the portal back, there were other reasons.” Luz said, waving her arms to the ruins around them.

“Still,” Hunter braced his arms under him, grunting with the effort as he pushed himself upright, disturbing Rascal. “Last I checked, the portal’s fine. How come you’re not making a beeline for it?”

“Uh, because I need to make sure my friends are okay?” Luz said, like this was the most obvious thing in the world, which, really, it should’ve been. “I’m not gonna leave right away. I need a day or two to make sure everyone's alright and figure out what they’re gonna do now.”

“Go back to normal?” Hunter raised a brow.

“An entire government was just dismantled, Hunter.” Luz deadpanned. “My fantasy books never really got to the part of explaining how they fixed a toppled tyrannical way of ruling, but knowing the Boiling Isles, I doubt this is gonna be easy.”

“Let the people good with politics handle that,” Hunter said casually, slumping back down on the ground and throwing an arm over his face. “They’re not gonna listen to a teenage human and her band of misfits for a new government, anyway.”

“Lilith might be good at figuring that out,” Luz hummed, ignoring him. “She has experience. Raine, too, technically.”

“If you put Lilith in charge, every witch and demon in the Isles will riot in the street.”

“We’re not putting her in charge,” Luz stressed, appalled at the thought. “Just guiding people. See? This is why I need to stay for a little bit, I gotta know what's gonna happen!”

“Do you actually want to go back, or was this all a game of keepsies?” Hunter muttered.

“Of course I--I’m not arguing with you, you’re wounded.” Luz said stubbornly, crossing her arms.

“I'm not in that bad of shape."

“Really now,” Luz said drawled, reaching out a hand towards his chest before Hunter batted it away.

"You trying to hurt me more?" Hunter grumbled, rolling onto his side and wincing with the movement.

"I don't think you could get any more hurt if you tried." Luz deadpanned.

“I’ve had worse than this.” Hunter wheezed out, Rascal fluttering around him anxiously.

“Worse than a living portal puppet...thing?” Luz lifted a brow disbelievingly.

“...alright, fair,” Hunter sighed, a wheezing, noisy one as he shook his head. “This is probably the worst. New record.”

“I don’t want to know what the old record was.” Luz cringed as Hunter rolled onto his back once more, wincing with the movement. “You think the worst of it came from the portal, or being thrown around like a ragdoll by an eldritch abomination?”

“Portal thing,” Hunter said, eyes shut. “I’m used to…” He trailed off, mouth clicking shut as he refused to finish the sentence.

Used to Belos, Luz reasoned, was likely where he was going with that. She gazed at him sadly, his hands clenched into fists over his stomach now, Rascal nudging at his shoulder.

“He didn’t make it, right?” Hunter asked softly, and she didn’t ask him to clarify who.

“I don’t think so, we didn’t find anything.” Luz answered. “We could go check where we last saw him...if you’d like.”

“...later,” Hunter sighed, raising his hands to press the heels of them up against his eyes, fingers gripping his hair. “I don’t wanna think about it much right now.”

“I’m,” Luz started, fiddling with her sleeve. “I’m sorry, about all this.” She said, because she didn’t know what else she could say.

“No, you’re not.” Hunter scoffed bitterly. “You’re glad it’s over.”

“I am,” Luz agreed. “That doesn’t mean I’m still not sorry.”

“I’m not mad at you, I get it.” Hunter said, agonizingly gently. “I don’t need your pity.”

“I’m not--Dios,” Luz muttered as she ran a hand over her face. “Me olvidé de lo reprimido que estabas. You are my friend,” Luz shoved lightly at his shoulder, and he jerked and raised one hand away to give her an offended look. “And as your friend, should the stars align, I am sorry that this terrible situation happened to you, because I care about your well being.” She said, perhaps a few notches more aggressively than intended.

“...I’m your friend?” Hunter blinked, removing his other hand.

“Yes! Yes, you’re my friend! Are we seriously still on that page?” Luz demanded, almost yanking at her hair. She raised a hand when he opened his mouth to speak. “If you start protesting about all the times you were a jerk to me before you switched sides, I’m going to hit you.”

“...you have a very mean way of expressing concern.” Hunter settled on, voice small.

“Because you,” Luz poked at his forehead and got a growl in return. “Can’t get it through your thick head that other people can care about you. Newsflash, buddy. Eda’s already talking to Hooty about making another room for you.”

“She what--”

“So I’m sorry that the castle is destroyed, and I’m sorry that your uncle is gone, because you cared about him.” Luz continued before he could butt-in. “And about that whole...Grimwalker thing, which is a whole other pile of messed up things, but you get the point.” She waved her hands around. “You...you deserved better.” She finally finished, realizing she’d sat up at one point to face him, and now leaned back on her knees.

Hunter stared at her for a moment, opening and closing his mouth repeatedly. Rascal had crawled his way up and onto his shoulder now, looking between the two of them.

Eventually, the tension left his body, and he lay on his side, cheek pressed into the dirty, rocky ground. Rascal jolted, fluttering up onto his head.

“He was awful,” Hunter mumbled, like he was trying to convince someone.

“I know,” Luz sighed, looking down at him. “But you loved him.” She said, and Hunter didn’t dispute it.

“...m’sorry,” Hunter got out, which sounded like a shuttering gasp, as though his throat was closing up.

“What for?” Luz tilted her head.

“You want the list?” Hunter managed, his snark falling short as he rapidly blinked his eyes. “I’d ask why you care at all, but you’re Luz.” He said, shaking his head slightly. “You’re too nice for your own good.”

“It worked out this time, didn’t it?” Luz said, offering a tiny smile as she held out a hand, just short of touching him.

He eyed her hand for a moment, then his gaze flicked across her face, searching. He must’ve seen something, because the little resolve he had left broke, and he reached for Luz’s hand and gripped onto it far more forcefully than needed.

She hoisted him upright, and barely had a moment to spare until he was grabbing onto her, hands fisted in the back of her shirt as he pressed his face into her shoulder. She froze for just a moment before she returned the hug, forcing herself not to protest against the tight grip along her back, definitely going to form nasty bruises later.

She saw that the white of his cloak was covered in dirt and blood all across his back, from injuries he must’ve sustained, though most of it looked dried now. She wondered if it hurt for him to lay on his back like that, and avoided disturbing those wounds as he trembled in her arms.

He shook with cries that were barely choked back, and she pressed the side of her face against his head. Rascal warbled sadly and nuzzled into his head from where he was perched in his hair.

Luz murmured words she couldn’t remember for the life of her, rubbing small circles across the uninjured parts of his back. He only pressed closer, clinging desperately like she’d vanish if he didn’t, and Luz had to put in effort to not fall back.

It might’ve been a few minutes, it might’ve been longer, but gradually, Hunter ran out of steam. His strained cries became muffled sniffles, slumping against Luz like dead weight.

“Sorry,” Hunter hiccupped again, voice muffled against her shoulder. “I think I got your cloak dirty.”

“It was already pretty messy.” Luz assured. “You wanna talk about it?”

“No,” Hunter muffled, hunching his shoulders.

“Okay,” Luz said simply. “We’ve got time.”

“And ain’t that a new concept,” Hunter mumbled, raising his head slightly to instead rest his chin on top of Luz’s shoulder, and she could already feel him wiping at his face. “Having time. I didn’t think I’d make it past nineteen, if I was lucky.” He sniffled, voice hoarse and raspy.

“That…” Luz frowned. “Yeah, we’re gonna make you see someone for all of that.”

“Make me?” Hunter repeated, a faint, fading amusement to his tone.

“We have our ways.” Luz said with a hint of pride. “You’d be surprised.”

Hunter remained quiet for a moment, and Luz watched the old, ripped tapestries in the rubble wave when the wind went by them. She wondered if Eda would be stealing any of those as a trophy, and how long it’d take before Lilith took it away from her.

“Are you going to come back?” Hunter asked, quietly, curiously, without any hint of pleading in his tone, which she was quite impressed by. The subtle grip around her sides tightening just an inch gave him away, though.

“Of course,” Luz said, not needing clarification on what he had meant. “I couldn’t leave this place forever, not even if I wanted to.” She said, and prayed she wasn't lying.

“Yeah, you couldn’t.” Hunter snorted, slowly pulling back as he wiped up the last of his face, though it was still pretty damp as he faced Luz. “They’d be insufferable trying to get you back.” He said, frazzled hair hanging into his eyes.

“Oh, so you wouldn’t put in an effort, then?” Luz scoffed good-naturedly. “Can’t wait to get rid of me, huh?”

“Well now how am I supposed to respond to that?” Hunter demanded in a whine. “I say yes, and you start getting melodramatic and bringing up pointless random acts of kindness like I’m a liar. I say no, and you get all starry-eyed and unbearable.” He complained.

Luz laughed, despite it all. Hunter rolled his eyes and sat back, looking up at Rascal on his head like they were in on some joke she was missing. He chuckled along with her and shook his head, ears twitching down.

“You’re impossible,” He huffed, though he bore a smile.

“I know,” Luz grinned. “And what’s it say about you, still caring anyway?”

“Don’t push it.” Hunter warned, shoving her shoulder as he leaned further back, her only giggling in response.

A call sounded off in the distance, and they both snapped their heads in the direction of the sound. Hunter’s ears pricked high, the sudden shift in personality from relaxed to alert being another slightly alarming thing to put on Luz’s list of traits Hunter had.

The call sounded again, and Luz could recognize the sound of Eda’s voice. She smiled and stood, untangling herself from Hunter as she peered out at the terrain, seeing a figure off in the distance, and if she squinted enough, she could see a few more not too far away.

“Over here!” Luz shouted, hands cupped around her mouth.

“Ow,” Hunter winced, rubbing at his ears.

“Oh, are they sensitive?” Luz worried, lowering her voice.

“Just a bit, I think I had a concussion earlier.” Hunter said, shaking his head to clear it.

“You’re seeing a healer,” Luz said firmly, looking back out to the figures in the distance. “Cover your ears.”

Hunter grumbled something about Luz being dramatic, covering his ears as Luz continued waving her hands and hollering to the others. It took a moment, but she saw one of them break away before the others followed suit, and Eda’s wild nest of hair could be recognizable from anywhere.

“Are you ready to make formal introductions?” Luz grinned down at Hunter, who slowly drew his hands away from his ears.

“Do I have to?” Hunter whined. “I could just live off the land, making a tent isn’t that hard. I know how to steal.”

“Nice try,” Luz lightly pushed at his head. “Unless you’ve got a proper living space, you’re staying in the Owl House.”

“I’m sixteen, no place in Bonesborough will give me an apartment unless I’m rich.” Hunter complained.

“Precisely,” Luz said simply, offering a hand to him. “Wanna try standing up?”

“I guess,” Hunter grumbled, taking her hand and letting her pull him to his feet.

He stumbled for a moment, hissing and favoring his right foot, and would’ve fallen right back over if Luz didn’t stop his fall with her body, hanging onto his arm to steady him.

“Yeah, that’s sprained. Or twisted, don’t really feel like checking.” Hunter gritted out, Rascal cheeping from his head before flying off, transforming into a staff that Hunter was quick to grab and then lean on, taking his weight off Luz.

“Viney can take a look at it, I’m pretty sure she came with us.” Luz said, grabbing Hunter’s hand and slinging it over her shoulder. “C’mon, let’s meet them halfway. You’re lighter than a sack of lumpy potatoes, it’s not hard to carry you.”

“I resent that,” Hunter growled, though he let her do as she wished. “You're just weirdly strong.”

“You live in the Boiling Isles, you're telling me you're not?” Luz scoffed, beginning to walk with Hunter, who used his staff occasionally to push aside heaps of rock or try and limp himself along.

“Well, I don’t exactly have a frame of reference.” Hunter drawled, looking up, his ears pinning back against his head when he could make out who was approaching in the distance. Luz could now see that King was sitting atop Eda’s shoulder, too.

“You didn’t answer my question,” Luz said, noting Hunter’s nerves suddenly spiking. “Are you ready to meet everyone, outside of, you know, portal mishaps?”

Hunter swallowed, looking down at Luz with something that might’ve been fear swirling in his eyes. He searched her face, closing his eyes and taking in half a breath, anything more causing him to cough, exhaling as he opened his eyes again, facing off towards where the others were gathered, the fear replaced with determination.

“Yeah,” He said, clearing his throat when his voice started to shake. “Yeah, I think so.”

Luz smiled, bumping her body against his, and he looked at her with a smile of his own that might just have been hopeful.

She turned back to call a greeting to her friends as Eda was already scolding her for running off the moment she was in earshot, King wailing something about being worried. Hunter gave them his best crooked smile, despite his earlier claims, insisting she’d only come to drag him out of the rubble.

Yeah, Luz thought as she watched Eda and King pause and look Hunter over, easily slipping into mocking him for how beat up he looked, like nothing had ever gone sideways, and it was any other day in the Isles. They’d be okay.

209 notes · View notes

intomymindspace · 4 years

Text

Video Games ✰ Tendou Satori

Video Games covered by The Young Professionals

tendou satori x gn reader

Through the Summer and the Fall // Haikyuu!! Songfic Series

a/n: hi everyone, I'm sorry for a posting a week late! I’ve been really unmotivated as of late for personal stuff but also because I'm lowkey still a little bummed that my Bokuto fic (definitely totally am not plugging it rn - totally do not click the link, ahaha 🥺) didn’t do as well as I hoped it would. But no matter! Here is the Tendou insert, as promised! It’s not the best, and I definitely have a bit of writers block and am behind schedule. I wish I could write his character and for him better considering how much I love him. Next will up be flattykawa 😌 and I will be posting it hopefully soon to help make up for last week’s missed post. I've also changed up this blog and have given it hopefully a better look - there is a new theme on desktop!

Warnings: part 3 spoilers for jojo’s bizarre adventure that include character death, my bb tori being insecure about him and his body but I love him and his flat a$$ so much, and as always, we clown on flattykawa in this household but all in good favor

It was a rainy day, and Tendou was quiet and content as he sat on your bed, reading the new Weekly Shonen Jump magazine that he had just been mailed. He had let Ushijima read it earlier - but as always, he only read the advertisements. You sat beside him on the floor, his long legs dangled off the edge of your bed, his foot brushing your arm every now and then. You were playing the new otome game you had bought a week ago on your console. On days like this, the two of you often fell into comfortable silences when hanging out with each other - and today was no different. There was nothing to do other than school work and go to practice - but even then, it wasn’t necessary for the third years to attend anymore. Not since they lost in the finals against Karasuno.

He was pulled away from the panel he was reading when he heard you gasp - his crimson eyes flitting to your monitor to see what had happened.

“What happened?” You turned around to look up at him, an excited look on your face.

“Murasame Jinnosuke confessed his love for me! I didn’t expect it to happen so fast into the game.” He looked back at the screen to see a handsome samurai on your screen. Snickering, Tendou ruffled your hair.

“Good job, now just see if you can get a real guy to confess his undying love for you.” Squinting at him, you slapped his leg playfully.

“You’re supposed to be nice to me, Tori-kun.”

“When am I not?”

Ever since you had taken the place of Shiratorizawa’s volleyball club manager two years ago as a first year, you quickly bonded with the strange amalgamation of players. It had been a running gag between the third year players to find out what type of guys you liked. You could always be found on your phone during breaks playing otome games - and that was the beginning of the years of playful torment from your fellow classmates.

It wasn’t that you weren’t attractive or that you didn’t gain attention - every Valentines Day you always received several confessions and chocolates, but you always rejected them as kindly as possible. For someone who played as many otome games as you did, they were surprised to say the least when you had always declined the advances of many classmates, saying that they just weren’t your type with a kind smile on your face.

It was Tendou’s turn to squint as he turned his attention back to your screen as you continued to play through the game. He scoffed at some of the things the fictional samurai said to you - what was so special about him anyways?

This is my idea of fun

Playing video games

Tendou shut his manga volume, and he noticed your curious eyes looking at the cover. Smirking playfully at you, he poked your forehead.

“Suddenly interested in pirates?” You sat back, rolling your eyes.

“Maybe. Who’s the character on the front?” He stared down at the covered, humming.

“Shanks. Say, I never thought you were one to go for a tough-looking guy.” He held a mischievous grin on his lips.

“Ha! Sure. Keep thinking that, Tendou.” He feigned a gasp.

“You used my last name too? With no honorific? No nickname? The rudeness! I’m so hurt!” You couldn’t help but egg your friend along.

“Hmm, maybe I should start watching One Piece if he’s in it…” But before Tendou could clap back, Yamagata slid into the seat next to you, a teasing smile on his lips.

“Ah, so that’s your type, huh? Tough-looking guys with scars?” You rolled your eyes at the libero. “I’m pretty tough too, aren’t I?”

“As if.” But it didn’t stop them from the teasing.

So what if you maybe did prefer more muscular guys? Tendou didn’t understand why the thought hurt his feelings so much. He may not have the bulging muscles, but he was just as strong. He sighed to himself, watching you from across the table as you shoved Yamagata playfully. Why would you want to like someone like himself anyways?

It's you, it's you, it's all for you

Everything I do

Tendou entered your dorm room unannounced as he always did - but this time he was surprised to see you in tears as you huddled in your blanket, staring at the tv. The first thing you usually did was banter with him about his bad habit of not knocking, but all he could do is stand shocked in your doorway.

Instantly, his gleeful eyes turned blood red. Shutting your door behind him, he quickly made his way over to you, his eyebrows furrowed, a scowl on his lips.

“Who do I have to beat up?” A million thoughts were running through his head - were you made fun of? Did someone reject you? Did you receive a bad score on an exam? He wrapped his arms around you the second your tear-filled eyes looked up at him.

“Who did it? Who hurt your feelings?” His genuine care and questions only made you cry harder into his chest.

“Dio.” You said, but it was too muffled for him to hear. Pulling back, he gave you a quizzical look. You pointed at the scene that was unfolding on your tv.

“Dio killed Kakyoin.” Tendou immediately smacked a hand to his face. His eyes flickered to the screen to see a tall, muscular character slumped against a water tower, a hole in his torso with text on the screen saying “Kakyoin Noriaki has died.” He couldn't help but laugh.

“You want me to beat up the mighty and powerful vampire lord and stand user, Dio Brando? For killing the guy who licks cherries weird?”

Slapping his arm, you pouted at him through your ugly tears. “Don’t make fun of me! I really liked him.” Tendou kept on snickering as he rubbed your back.

“I know, I’m sorry. But it’s just too funny to just not tease you.”

As ridiculous as it sounded, Tendou wondered if you would ever cry for him the way you cried for Kakyoin. He smiled to himself as he stared down at your face that was still buried in his chest - he hoped you wouldn’t notice how fast his heart was beating at the notion of you coming to him for comfort.

Maybe your type was animated men.

I tell you all the time

Heaven is a place on earth with you

Tendou put his jump comic down and just watched your gameplay - he was too distracted by his thoughts of you to focus on the new chapter of My Hero Academia.

He couldn’t help but pine over you. You had been so open and kind to him from the first time you met him - he remembered that day with ease. You had looked so confident walking into the volleyball gym, introducing yourself to the players as their new manager.

He was genuinely surprised that you weren’t turned away by his quirks - and he was thankful that above all, you treated him just like you treated everyone else.

It seemed so easy for you to become friends with the other first years at the time. You found commonalities with each of them, and you even managed to break Ushijima out of his shell by the time you all first went to nationals. Tendou remembered the hours upon hours that the two of you spent together - whether it was hanging out in the dorm watching animes, giving him tips and encouragement on the court during timeouts, or quality conversations on long bus rides to and from games. If you had never joined as manager, Tendou would’ve never guessed that the two of you would become as close friends as you were now. And he had always been a good guesser.

As he stared at you, controller in your hand, he remembered why he realized he liked you so much - it wasn’t because you shared a strong love for manga and anime. Okay, well, maybe it was, but it wasn’t the commonality. It was because you understood and even empathized with escaping through these fictional stories.

He knew what it was like to want to escape - to want to find paradise away from everyday life. On the court, Tendou could sneak into the small slice of heaven that he visited when he played volleyball. Off the court, he wanted nothing more than to have you safe in his arms as the two of you escaped into the world of whatever show you had chosen to binge that day.

To him, you were just as heavenly as the defeated looks on his opponents’ faces that he craved to see - maybe even more.

Tell me all the things you want to do

I heard that you like the bad girls, honey, is that true?

You squealed excitedly as you waved the game in front of Semi’s face after practice had ended.

“Semi-semi! Look what just came in the mail!” He pushed your hand out of his face, scoffing.

“I can’t see it if you’re rubbing in my face like that, idiot.” The setter had a smile on his face nonetheless, making you laugh as he took a look at the game. His eyes widened.

“No way, Castlevania Judgement?!?!” You nodded proudly, smiling at Tendou and Ushijima as they walked over to see what the commotion was about. The middle blocker gawked at the game you held in your hands - the third years had been talking about the release of it for at least a few months now.

“You jealous? If you want, we can play after dinner.” Semi quickly nodded, and you looked at Tendou and Ushijima for their answers.

“What, when have I ever said no to wanting to play video games with you?” To his reply, the captain simply nodded.

“Thank you for your invite. I am happy to attend as well.”

Tendou and Ushijima sat on the edge of your bed as you and Semi sat in front of your tv, switching the controller after every chapter of the game. Ushijima had no interest in actually playing the game - and Tendou knew he would get a chance to play with you later. Semi was more excited for the game than he was anyways.

You couldn’t contain your excitement as you gushed over one of the main characters, Simon Belmont. From the looks of it, he was a powerful fighter - and Tendou sighed once again - he was super muscular and tough-looking too. You were too invested in the gameplay with Semi, that you weren’t paying attention to the conversation Tendou sparked with Ushijima.

“I don’t get what’s so special about him anyways.” The redhead had a pout on his face, his arms crossed. Ushijima was very aware of the middle blocker’s crush on you - his friend often coming to the captain for his advice. While Ushijima had almost no experience and knowledge at all in terms of dating, he was always observant of the people around him, and was very blunt.

“Tendou-kun, if you like them so much, it would just be better to ask. It is pointless to be jealous over every fictional character they like.” He couldn’t help but gawk at the monotonous tone and the serious look on his captain’s face.

“I’ll raise you a better one. It’s pointless to ask because their standards seem to be so high anyways.” Ushijima couldn’t help but stare at his friend.

“And why should that stop you? They’re not real.” Tendou sighed, exacerbated.

“I get it, I get it! I know they’re not just going to pop out from the screen or anything.”

“But?”

“But that doesn’t mean those aren’t their same standards to people they prefer in real life,” Tendou admitted, and Ushijima knew he hit the reason why. Tendou may be tall, but he was lean and lanky. The muscle he had was nowhere near that of any of the fictional guys you crushed on. What could you possibly want from someone way weaker - someone like him?

“They are not the type of person to go completely for the way someone’s body appears. If that were the case, they should’ve confessed their attraction to either myself or Yamagata by now, based on your logic. Besides, they told me they liked you.” Tendou couldn't help but roll his eyes, placing a hand over his heart.

“Wakatoshi-kun, you wound me. Of course they like me - they wouldn’t be my friend if they didn’t. Couldn't you at least sugar coat your advice sometimes?”

It's better than I ever even knew

They say that the world was built for two

Before the prefectural qualifiers in the fall, Shiratorizawa managed to snag a practice match with none other than Aoba Johsai. While there was clear tension throughout the entire time, the teams kept interactions outside the court lines as light-hearted as possible. Seijoh managed to snag victory during the first match, but Shiratorizawa hit back just as hard, winning the second match.

The boys were currently loading their bags into the bus as you supervised them, reminding them to triple check that they had everything. You were almost caught by surprise when a volleyball rolled towards you, hitting the back of your foot gently.

“Sumimasen.” You heard from several meters behind you, making you turn around. It was the Great King himself, Oikawa Tooru, that was slowly jogging towards you - it almost seemed like he was doing it in slow motion. Your fellow teammates heard the setter, their eyes sneakily following him as he got closer to you. They couldn't help but snicker at their so-called sworn enemy - it was obvious by the way that his aura sparkled around him and the smoulder on his face that he had rolled the ball your way to get your attention.

“I’m so sorry, could you get that for me?” You nodded, a polite smile on your face. The great Oikawa was definitely handsome, to say the least - and Tendou couldn't help the childish frown that filled his features. As you picked up the ball and handed it back to the setter, he flashed you a heart-stopping, pearly white smile.

“Thank you,” he said, taking the ball from you, brushing your fingers in the process. “You are the manager for Shiratorizawa, right? I didn’t catch your name earlier.” Oikawa ran a hand through his silky hair as you gave him your name.

“Wow,” he flashed you another smile, “such a beautiful name for someone just as gorgeous.” Semi couldn’t help but let a snort out at Oikawa’s compliment.

“Thank you.” You took the complement in stride, deciding it would be nice to say something back. “You played great today, Oikawa-san.” He laughed jovially.

“Thank you, you’re very kind. And cute. Would you be interested in catching boba with me sometime? I know a cute place that has good milk tea and milk bread.” Tendou rolled his eyes at Oikawa’s words. It probably was his plan all along - to try to bewitch the manager of Shiratorizawa. When Tendou saw a smile grow on your face, he couldn’t help but feel defeated. Were you actually going to say yes to him?

“I’m very flattered Oikawa-san. But I’m sorry, I must decline your offer.” Oikawa’s eyes widened in surprise. The Great King? Being rejected? “You’re not really my type.” You turned around, making your way onto the bus, leaving Oikawa with his jaw on the ground, the ace on Seijoh’s team as well as your teammates laughing their asses off at the scene that had just unfolded in front of their very eyes.

“That’s what you get, Crappykawa! You should’ve gone to Shiratorizawa!”

“Iwa-chan, that's not funny! I feel like my heart has been broken into thousands of pieces!”

“Well, if they’re gonna hit it, they better hit it til it breaks!”

“Pfft, I’m actually not surprised they didn’t say yes to him.” Semi commented, placing his duffle bag into the storage compartment. Tendou’s head quirked at the statement.

“Why’s that?” Reon asked, storing his things as well, making Semi and Yamagata snicker.

“Did you see how flat his ass was? I’m 100% sure their type is thicker guys. Like their ace, or something.” The three of them burst into laughter, Tendou only slightly laughing along as well. Ushijima only grunted in disagreement as he shut the compartment’s door.

“I believe their type is actually redheads.” All of the third years looked at their captain with wide eyes and dead silence - before laughing even harder. Semi slapped Ushijima’s bicep lightly, bending over. Tendou’s eyes widened - Ushijima was not the type to joke around, right?

“I didn’t think you actually knew how to crack jokes, Ushijima-kun!” The olive-haired man only looked down at his fellow third years in confusion.

“I am not joking. I simply just decided to ask them earlier, and I am only relaying the answer they gave me.” They couldn’t help but bend over, Yamagata even wiping tears from all the laughing.

“Stop! Your bluntness is only making it worse!” By the way the rest of his teammates reacted, Tendou believed Ushijima really must have been joking - in his own way. He had just picked a hair color different from Oikawa’s, right?

“Good one, Wakatoshi-kun.” Tendou let out a chuckle, giving his friend a smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes.

Only worth living if somebody is loving you

And baby, now you do

Tendou’s eyes widened as he relieved all the memories. Was Ushijima actually serious? He had never asked his friend about it - but perhaps it was because he was too scared to actually know the truth. Quickly, Tendou pulled out his phone and googled each of the characters - Shanks, Kakyoin, and Simon. The samurai was still on your screen, and he flipped through the tabs on his internet browser, trying to find the similarities.

Obviously, they were all built rather strong - but Tendou couldn’t get what Ushijima said out of his head. They were all redheads, after all. Why hadn’t he noticed this before? He looked back at you, your attention still on the otome game. Should he ask you? Would it be weird? Tendou thought about texting Ushijima, but he quickly decided not to. He already knew what his friend would say. Right after he called your name gently, you set down the controller and turned to look up at him.

“What’s up, Tori-kun?” He had never felt this nervous before - it wasn’t even like he was going to confess to you or anything either.

“Uh - what’s your type? Like, in guys? I promise I won’t tease you this time, I just want to know.” Surprisingly, you smirked at him. What were you thinking?

“You gonna brag to Eita and Yato that you finally found out after all these years?” The apparent blush on Tendou’s cheeks only spread further.

“What? No, I wouldn’t do that… Unless I had to,” he said, trying his best to come off as his usual teasing self. This only made you snicker at him.

“I’m surprised you guys haven’t beat it out of Toshi-kun yet. I already told him a few months ago.” Tendou’s eyes widened at what you said.

“Huh?” You rolled your eyes at him.

“Yeah.” He couldn’t believe how casual you were about it. You were always so hellbent on keeping it from them - but perhaps it was because they made such a big deal out of it in the first place. Tendou didn’t exactly know how to respond to you - he was still trying to process the realization. So he had guessed wrong this whole time?

After sitting in silence for a couple of seconds, you gave him a playful smile. “Redheads,” you said, turning around and picking up your controller. Ushijima’s words echoed with yours in his brain.

Besides, they told me they liked you. Tendou let out a choked noise.

“I’ve made a mistake!”

You burst out laughing at Tendou’s exclamation. Setting your controller down once more, you stood up and turned, leaning your elbows against your bed. “You guys really are that oblivious, huh? Even Toshi-kun saw that I liked you. He went so far as to ask me about it too.” You propped up your head with your hand, staring at him. Getting past his initial shock, Tendou settled back down.

“How shallow of you,” he teased, leaning his head closer to yours. “I can’t believe the only reason why you like me is because my hair is red, yanno?” In return, you inched your face up closer to his as if you were challenging him.

“I know,” you said smugly, your eyes flickering down to his lips, “I’m such an awful friend. I’ll only break your heart once I replace you with another redhead.” He smirked as he noticed where your eyes had glanced. Tendou may have been oblivious, but he wasn’t called the Guess Monster for nothing.

“I’m guessing that you want to kiss me right now, hmm?” He asked quietly, dangerously moving closer to you - your faces now only mere inches apart. A blush crept onto both of your cheeks. You answered back, your voice nearly a whisper.

“Why don’t you find out for yourself, Guess Monster?”

Immediately, Tendou closed the distance between the two of you. Your lips were warm and soft, making him wish he had at least put on chapstick earlier. His heart was beating so hard inside of his chest that he was afraid you’d hear it, but you said nothing as the two of you pulled away. Saying nothing, he only smiled as he traced his fingers up your neck, cupping your jaw. Pulling you into a deeper kiss, he sighed contentedly as he felt your hands trail up his torso.

Kissing you felt like paradise.

As always, thank you so much for reading!! please like, reblog, and follow 🥺

~ Crystal

through the summer and the fall masterlist

blog masterlist

buy me a ko-fi! (but only if you want to and can)

BONUS

The following day, Tendou met you at your door to walk with you to lunch. With your hand in his, the two of you took your sweet time making your way to the cafeteria to meet up with the other third years. Today, Coach Washijo had asked for them to play a practice match against the Miyagi first years he was holding a training camp for. You decided to tag along since you had nothing planned to do for the weekend.

As you talked about a weird dream you had, Tendou couldn’t help but gaze adoringly at you - he couldn’t believe that you liked him, or that you were actually dating him now even if it had only been about twelve hours. The two of you waited in the lunch line, his chin resting on top of your head as he held both of your hands from behind you - it felt so natural to touch you. He could tell that people were staring - but none of it mattered when all he needed was the sound of your excited voice and the blatant look of love in your eyes.

Stepping away from your back slightly, he moved forward to gently place a kiss on your cheek - and that's when he heard the yells. The both of you turned to find your fellow third and second years staring at the two of you with wide eyes and mouths catching flies. Goshiki accompanied the team as well, his face beat red. Ushijima was behind the flustered first year, a rare half-smile on his face.

“Afternoon guys!” You had said it so casually as you leaned back into Tendou’s arms, allowing him to place a cheeky kiss on your temple - making Semi gag and Yamagata nearly tear up.

“I did tell you all that they preferred redheads.”

#tendou x reader #Tendou Satori x reader #tendou imagine #Tendou Satori imagine #tendou reader insert #Tendou Satori reader insert #haikyuu imagines #haikyuu reader insert #through the summer and the fall #intomymindspace #tendo x reader #tendo satori x reader

159 notes · View notes

barbasbodaciousbeard · 3 years

Text

Delete the Twitter app, Mr. Barba

In which Rafael Barba deletes the Twitter app because of the Householder case, and Carmen babysits him.

Accidental Feminist Icon

The last thing on Rafael Barba’s mind when he was in the hospital room with Maggie Householder was his online reputation. Once he’d turned himself in and been released on his own recognizance, however, he opened his phone to call mami and instead saw hundreds of Twitter notifications, emails from people whose names he didn’t recognize, and missed calls and voicemails from unfamiliar numbers. He didn’t touch Twitter, texting Carmen to ask how bad it was and she advised him to delete the application until at least after the trial. When he went home, mami was there and just as disappointed as he expected. There were tears the minute she saw him, but not any offered comfort.

“You murdered a child, mijo.”

“You don’t understand, mami. No lo viste. El no estaba realmente vivo.”

“Esa fue la decisión de Dios. No es tu decisión. Tu abuela estaría tan decepcionada de ti.”

“No estoy de acuerdo. Si estás aquí para regañarme, vete a casa.”

“Te llevo a la confesión.”

“Vete a casa, mami. Me confesaré cuando esté lista.”

“Rafa-”

“Go home.”

Lucia stormed out, and Rafael went inside his apartment and went straight for the scotch he kept aside. It wasn’t his good scotch. It was the cheap one that burned his throat and left him sicker than he ever was the next day. Before twisting off the cap, he heeded Carmen’s advice, deleting the Twitter app as he dropped to the couch and began to drink. It was only eleven, not even noon, but he didn’t want to remember what had transpired the day before. He should wade through his email, but someone had posted it. He knew because it was referenced time and time again that they’d found his personal email via some Twitter thread or Subreddit or something else he hadn’t yet encountered. He’d had to mute his phone as phone calls rolled in; the only one he answered confirmed it was strangers from the Internet who had seen the news. Carmen called it getting cancelled when it happened to other people. That usually didn’t involve the loss of a life, so the term seemed not quite right for what was happening, especially given the fact this included more than just the people he was used to. People who had never encountered him were hearing about him in the news.

He ignored Olivia’s calls, considering the morning’s interactions enough. As he drank, Rafael was able to filter unknown numbers and messages, tossing the phone aside and quickly finishing the bottle. Olivia came by, and he didn’t answer, choosing to lay back on the couch as the room spun around him. Carmen texted him, and he didn’t look. An hour later, he heard her outside of his door with Olivia and unlocking he apartment for her. He’d given her a key long ago so she could get files or suits or drop off leftovers. Both of them came in, and it suddenly dawned on him that he had his suspenders down and shirt open over his undershirt. He’d spilled the most recent tumbler over himself with the pizza he’d ordered. And now, they could see him like this, eyes rimmed red and mood unstable as he thought more than he could about himself.

“Mr. Barba,” Carmen said softly, kneeling by him. Olivia stayed closer to the door, surveying the room. By the nature of their constant proximity, Carmen had seen the tail end or starts of Rafael getting frustrated, though he always pressed it down with a glass of scotch and good meal. That said, she’d found him too drunk after a trial didn’t go his way. Seen him frustrated as he went through a case he may not be able to do anything about it. Caught him yelling at paperwork as though something would happen. She’d also seen him the next mornings when he came in pretending not to be insanely hungover and was wearing the suit from his office.

“I’m fine.”

“No you aren’t. Is this what happens between an eight o’clock bourbon and the office suit?”

“Shut up, Carmen.”

“Don’t talk to me like that. I’m helping you.”

“Sorry,” he said with a huff as his hand ran down his face, and Olivia had to stifle a laugh at how properly embarrassed he looked. “My email and phone are bad. How bad is Twitter?”

“Medium. A lot of people understand. Or they feel that they can’t understand, so they’ll watch the story.”

“People understand murder?” he scoffed.

“No. No one does. But we all understand how impossible your choice was. How badly the parents were hurting.”

“I was too selfish to do it for my dad.”

“I know, Mr. Barba. But people want to know how long until they hear more. Want people to wait. Can see why you did it. It’ll blow over. We can change your number and your email. Twitter has a really handy button. Block.”

“My name’s Rafael.”

“You’re my boss.”

“Not for long,” he chuckled bitterly before his gaze softened. “All I wanted was for people not to hurt.”

“You need to go to bed, Rafa.” It was Olivia now, and his eyes suddenly snapped open. It was different when it was Olivia. They were friends, but they kept things to work. Other than the occasional group event, they’d grab dinner after work. She didn’t hear him debate pocket squares or see him drunk alone in his office or help him think of replies on Twitter. He’d probably lose his friendship with Carmen once he wasn’t in the office, he supposed. She humored her boss a lot more than she probably should.

“I’m fine, Liv.” It came with more of a snort than he liked, and he was suddenly pulling himself up to sit, wrapping his shirt around himself as though it were a cardigan. Carmen watched he was steady, and Olivia was sure she now knew what she’d looked like when Noah was learning to walk on his own with her hand on his back to keep him upright. Once things passed, she wanted to ask if Rafael was always this willing to be relaxed around Carmen, but she wasn’t sure she really wanted to know.

“I don’t think I’m helping things,” Olivia said softly, and Carmen gave a gentle nod.

“My son’s with my mom for a visit. I’ll take care of him.”

“You’re sure? I can call Lucia.”

“I’m fine, lieutenant. And mami has already been here.”

“Make sure he meets with an attorney tomorrow.”

“I make his calendar. I know.”

“You two can stop talking about me like I’m not here,” he grumbled, heels pressed against his eyes. “I’m drunk, not deaf.”

“You’re belligerent, counsellor.”

“Call me Rafael,” he said again, flopping onto the couch when Olivia had left again.

“I thought Lieutenant Benson was your best friend, Rafael.”

“She is, I guess. Is that sad? My best friend used to be Alex, but I pursued that case. As if mami needed more reason to hate me.”

“You don’t act like you in front of her. Not all the way.”

“This isn’t me.”

“It’s you without a carefully constructed persona.”

“If that’s the case, I suppose you’re my best friend, Miss Frye.” She’d expected to see a bemused smirk or annoyed scowl, but Carmen was taken aback by how sincere he looked as his hand moved to rest on her forearm and squeeze as well as he could.

“My name’s Carmen,” she teased. “Now come on. You need to go to bed.”

“My suit will get wrinkled.”

“I’ll hang it for you.”

“You can sleep in the guest room. It’s not safe for you to go-” His eyes were suddenly wide. “Carmen, where’s Ollie?”

“With my mom. I told her you needed me for a couple days.”

“You don’t need to disrupt your life.”

“I’ll tell you a secret Mist- Rafael.”

“What?” he asked, flopping into bed where she’d pulled the blanket down once he managed to strip to his boxers.

“You’re my best friend too.” She tugged the blanket over him, pressing a gentle kiss to his temple. He smiled up at her, and she made her way out turning off the lights. It seemed silly to say it to someone like him, but they’d worked together a long time, had a lot of late night talks. She liked him more than a lot of people she knew, and saw him more than anyone outside of her family.

Carefully, she cleaned his living room, dumping his other bottle of cheap scotch out and disposing of both before setting up the coffee to brew at seven, just in time to have him at an attorney’s office by nine. McCoy had approved her to work from wherever she needed to in order to keep Rafael functioning. She’d have been miserable helping Peter Stone with this trial anyway. They both knew about his father, and it seemed he may be a ticking time bomb. She logged into his twitter, going on a blocking spree as she explored his mentions, tweeting from her own account and his that she’d done it and retweeting it from his account.

She also liked all the kind ones. The ones asking for understanding or expressing empathy. The ones that acknowledged he had an impossible choice and neither one would have sat well with their own conscious. Leave a child and his family to suffer without end or expedite the inevitable. Then there were his direct messages. Since getting verified, he had the ability to only see messages from people he followed. As she combed through, there were a couple of hateful messages she ignored, but most who knew him expressed understanding and a couple even included leads if he wanted out of the city. She marked those down in her notes app before falling asleep in the guest bedroom.

The sound that greeted her in the morning was Rafael Barba vomiting as the coffee machine roared to life in the background. Silently, she ordered ginger tea and vitamin b12 for delivery, going to fetch the pedialyte she’d brought from home. When he came out, hair wet from a shower, she’d already brewed him tea, cooked breakfast, and given him an expectant look as she slid a glass of unnaturally purple electrolytes to him. He didn’t know what to say, so he took the proffered glas and took a long sip before wincing.

“Grape,” she said plainly.

“Grapes don’t taste like that.”

“Ollie likes it okay. I make him popsicles though.”

“He’s old enough for popsicles? Isn’t he still on milk?”

“Rafael, he’s two. He drinks milk, but he even eats.”

“Does he like books yet?”

“He does. He really likes being read to.”

“I’ll read to him next time I see him.” He was quiet for a moment, and when he spoke again, his voice was thick. “Do you play him music?”

“Some. Usually my playlists.”

“Play him Bach.”

“You’ll have to tell me what’s best to play him.”

“I’ll send you a playlist.”

“Why Bach?” She watched as his jaw shifted from side to side, lips pressed together, and that told her all she needed to know. “Drew liked Bach?”

“He’d never know if he liked Bach. Maggie was playing one of his cantatas.”

“Maybe we can take him to an orchestra one day.”

“There are some shows. Kid friendly.”

“He’d like that.”

“I’ll send it to you.”

“You’ll come, won’t you?”

“Me?”

“It’s your idea.”

“You’d still let me around your son?”

“My son is a healthy vibrant boy. If he was in the same situation as Drew, it would be hard, but I’d still want you there. You did exactly what I would have done for him, okay?”

“Did you mean what you said last night?”

“Which part?”

“The last part.”

“You probably are my best friend. And that hasn’t changed. I wish you didn’t have to be put in the situation, but I would hope I’d have been strong enough to do the same. And other people agree with me.”

“God, you’re not actually looking at Twitter.”

“I looked at Twitter. I blocked anyone vitriolic. But, I collected all the kind ones in your favorites for when you’re ready. A lot of your attorney friends have job leads for you if you leave the DA’s office.”

“I’m leaving. And I’m probably going to fucking prison. You’ll be down a friend in a few months.”

“Stop it.”

“They’ll end me in there, Carmen. I sent some of them there.” She wasn’t sure what to make at how at peace with the prospect he was.

“And you won’t go to prison. Don’t focus on that. Even if you do, they’ll have to do something to protect you. And I’ll come visit you.”

“You barely know me.”

“We spend more time together than I do with anyone else. I know you’re good, you have a good heart, you send birthday presents to every SVU detective’s kid and think I don’t know you send them coffee gift cards on their birthdays. You’re a total mama’s boy and despite what a snarky prick you are, you have imposter syndrome out the ass. You’re lapsed enough Catholic not to go to church, but you pray when things are really bad. I also know some part of your brain feels like you’ve let down people who think you do good work by this one thing, but one bad doesn’t outweigh an exorbitant amount of good. I hope Ollie has half of the ethical backbone you do. I know there have been occasions in the past you weren’t perfect, but the man I’ve known deserves every ounce of credit he gets. That doesn’t mean you’ve never made a mistake.”

“You’re ridiculous,” he muttered, and much to his chagrin, Carmen wrapped him in a hug that he returned, refusing to look at her. He was suddenly aware he’d cry if he looked at what he knew was a genuine smile. “I’ve got to get dressed to see an attorney.”

“Who are you going with?”

“Randy Dworkin.”

“He’ll be good.”

“I hate to admit that. And I’m sure I’ll hate every second with him.”

“How about you teach me about Bach this afternoon?”

“You have work.”

“McCoy approved me to be remote.”

“So you’re my sitter?” She could almost swear a smile pulled at the corner of his lip, and she felt pride she didn’t expect.

“I suppose. So Bach?”

“Bring Ollie?”

“Deal.”

#rafael barba #rafael barba x reader #law and order #law and order svu #law and order special victims unit #Rafael Barba x Carmen

45 notes · View notes

pastaaa-bird · 3 years

Text

Day 4:historical

@aphrarepairweek2021

Sorryforbeingadaylate

Oh warning for very minor swearing(only happens three times) but other then that there is nothing inappropriate and also there is implied period typical homophobia in this

Summary: An 80s human AU where a stressed out Chiara (nyo Romano) is saved from going crazy by a hero(Amelia aka nyo America)

Basically this is just fluff, fluff and more fluff

Chiara Vargas was a second a way from flipping her desk and raging down the halls, or at least she would be if she had not possessed just enough self control to hold back on the urge.

“Fuck fuck fuck….” Chiara muttered, the sound coming out muffled from her face being squished against her desk in failure.

“OH, CHIARA” came a high pitch voice down stairs.

Reluctantly she lifted her head to the sound.

“WHAT?I'M BUSY”,she yelled back, mentally cursing her brother for disturbing her sulking.

“A CERTAIN SOMEONE IS HERE FOR YOU",

“WHO IS IT?”,

“YOU'LL HAVE TO COME DOWN AND SEE",

After managing to hold back a bitter protest she stood up then stormed down stairs.

“This better be worth my time, Feli or l swear to Dio l’ll-",

Chiara came to a halt once she saw the girl beside Feliciano.

“Hey!” a cheerful voice as usual from the smiling blonde with pink sunglasses in her hair, dressed in her demine shorts, red t-shirt and long white socks with a pair of roughed up old sneakers.

“Amelia- uh hi there" She replied while awkwardly fidgeted with the sleeves of her jacket, embarrassed at the realisation that she had heard her yelling.

“Nice to see you calm down, anyway l’ll you two ladies to it”, he winked at Chiara who rolled her eyes at the look, not sure whether to love or hate that it felt the exact same to when her grandfather would make comments about her bringing a boyfriend home.

He disappeared into the sitting room to join Valentino on the couch.

“I was wondering if you would want to hang out, we haven't done that for ages”,

“Oh right, ugh l don't think l can”,

“Sure you can! You're not busy are you?”,

“l am, study”,

Amelia raised an eyebrow at that.

“Study? Our exams aren't till two weeks" ,

“I know, l know but l'm sick of revising everything on the night before the exam, besides l need as much of time as possible to understand this crap",

“Ah fair enough- how about l help ya with it? math l'm guessing?”,

Sighing at the memory of her many failed attempts at completing and understanding equations and formulas she nodded.

“Yeah, but are you sure?”,

“Definitely!”, stated Amelia with both hands on her hips and standing tall to her eagerness for the task.

“Alright then...",

A while later Chiara found her self back at her desk with Amelia standing beside her reading over her practice questions, nervously waiting for the results.

It felt like an eternity before Amelia finally looked up and spoke.

“And…that's like sixty five percent right!”,

“Sixty five?! Where did l go wrong this time?!”,

They had been at this for quite some time now. Despite Chiara’s frustration she stayed relativity calm for the most part thanks to Amelia’s encouragement and little jokes that made her either outright laugh or complain due to what she claimed was annoyance even if though she did find it humorous.

“Symbols, you forgot them again, there's supposed to be a measurement symbol at the end of this to say whether it's centimetres squared or cubed or meters squared- eh you get the point...", she paused then continued.

Miss Kirkland is your math teacher, right? She's real strict when it comes to small stuff like that so she takes off a lot of marks”, explained Amelia while doodling with the pen in the corner of the practice sheet of paper Chiara had used.

Miss Kirkland, certified smartass- even if it is technically her job to be one. Now, Chiara didn’t exactly hate her but she was far from a favourite in terms of teachers she was forced to put up with.

She hated how Miss Kirkland loved to call on those who she knew where not paying attention, there was a sense of snobbishness when it came to the way Miss Kirkland would proudly correct the unsuspecting student with a smile that more closely resembled a smirk.

“l hate this, I'm so close to getting this right but l keep screwing it up”,

“Come on it's fine! You've made awesome progress since when we started! It's only been like what….an hour? Give yourself some credit",

“…l guess you're right. But I'm also stuck for other things- like history and geography suck",

“ Wanna head to the library? They got good resources for both”, questioned Amelia now looking up from her doodling.

“Nah, I've had enough school for today. Let's do something else, anything in mind?”,

“Ooh! A few things-“,

Understandably Chiara was not surprised when they had arrived at the arcade on their bikes.

“Is this becoming an addiction for you?”,

“Ha-ha very funny, you have your obsessions and l have mine”,

“You even call it obsession, keep all this up and l'll be hosting an intervention for you",

This time Amelia genuinely laughed in response, Chiara savoured every second of the sound.

They were stuck there for a while, when it came to Amelia's great interest and Chiara’s competitive attitude it was easy to guess that there would obviously be competitions to see who could score the highest.

To Chiara’s dislike Amelia ended up winning proportionally more then she did followed by listening to the victory taunts from Amelia.

And it seemed that as quickly as they arrived they where off again.

“No, no, no, nah, no, nope, no”,

“Oh come on! l thought you weren't a quitter”,

“I have my exceptions, this is one of them",

Roller skating, she wanted Chiara to roller skate. Clearly Amelia wasn't aware of the fact that Chiara would likely crawl into the ground out of embarrassment if she would likely- no when, when she would end up falling flat on the floor.

“l'll help ya along! You'll be fine", urged Amelia tilting her head to the side with pleading eyes.

Upon arrival to the centre she instantly felt her heart sink knowing what would be expected her. After much convincing from Amelia and equally as much rants about what could go wrong from Chiara- she ended up agreeing to at least attempting to skate.

Chiara felt her chest tighten and face heat up once she suddenly felt the hand of Amelia intertwine with her own, guiding her into the skating area after they got their roller blades.

It was fascinated to see how effortlessly Amelia could move, practically gliding with ease although at a much slower pace due to guiding Chiara along. For this moment anyway, Chiara forgot how to feel anxious.

The last destination for the day was the local diner.

“Two milkshakes please, a double chocolate for myself and a strawberry and banana mix for her”,

“Coming right up, dear", replied the waitress.

“Oh and don't worry l'm paying, l owe ya for last time with the ice-creams” reassured Amelia after she placed their order.

It was the small things that Chiara adored about Amelia the most, how she remembered her favourite foods was one of them. Along with her passing small notes with funny faces on them to her whenever they shared a class and she had noticed that Chiara was dying of boredom.

They sat on the high chairs in front of the counter top as they awaited her drinks, Amelia flapped her hands with giddy excitement once they were received, Chiara couldn't help smile at the sight.

She thought about sharing the milkshake together, putting the straw in her drink like those shitty romantic movies Amelia loves so much. It would be cute wouldn't it? Cuter to see Amelia's reaction to the gesture! She smiled to herself at the idea.

Then her face dropped.

No, no they couldn't, not here, although her smile was brought back again by looking towards her girlfriend who had all her attention on blowing bubbles into her drink.

“Should you really be playing with your food like that?”, she questioned placing the straw into her own drink.

“Might as well make the most of it when my folks aren't here to tell me off ", Amelia shrugged in response.

Chiara found her self agreeing with that mentality and joined in with the childish behaviour.

They cycled back to the house, it was getting dark already.

Amelia was invited in and the two walked past the living room seeing Feliciano and Valentino with their eyes still glued to their precious TV.

At peace now they were sat together on the back porch. There was a small garden behind the Vargas' house, it was closed off by the tall fence( put there mostly so the neighbour's cat couldn't hope over and ruin the vegetable patches or flowers).

The air was humid all day and was beginning to cool down with the sun getting lower and the clouds moving in.

For what could have been anywhere from a minute to a thousand years the two spoke about anything and everything, the topics seemed to flow so easily, naturally changing with ease.

Finally the two sat in comfortable silence, looking towards the sky who’s colours had turned into oranges, yellows and pinks.

This is what Chiara so deeply enjoyed, how they could just sit together and feel so secure.

Routinely this what would be done for one another if the other was upset and asked for so, this time was often spent with their hand held or being hugged by the other.

There would be times where Chiara in particular would wish to be alone, in cases like this Amelia would go prepare or buy a snack for whenever Chiara is feeling okay again, it gave her something to look forward to when she needed to be alone with her own depressing thoughts.

Sometimes when Amelia would be upset she would just want to vent and vent with no words of “it will be okay" or “look on the bright side of things", Chiara was there to listen and agree with the difficulty of whatever situation she found herself in.

Chiara's head was rested on Amelia’s shoulder, her arm wrapped around her in response to it.

Now it was getting cold, thankfully she still wore her jacket…but maybe…

“Amy?”,

“Yeah?”,she quietly answered back to the nickname.

“It's getting a bit…chilly don't you think? Would you, would you like my jacket?”,

“Oh...Uh sure.If you wouldn't mind that is”, a blush covered Amelia’s cheeks, she was rarely flustered or at least visibly.

The jacket was a gift to Chiara for Christmas from one of her relatives, it was given oversized to her but she kept it since it seemed more comfortable like this. On Amelia the jacket finally looked normal, it fit her well and looked quiet lovely.

They went back to silence until Chiara broke it again.

“Thanks by the way. I really needed today- to get my mind off of all this stupid fucking stress l've been trapped in lately",

“Of course. We all need a break now and then",

“You could say that again…l love you" Chiara looked up, her chin now on Amelia's shoulder.

Amelia glanced down at her and grinned.

“The feeling is mutual, sweetheart"

The end

Okay now for me rambling

Uhhhhh l read through this and l don't think l made any mistakes? I'll edit this if there are and sorry if you saw any, idk l'm bad at checking for mistakes and l don't have someone to proof read for me

Oh and Valentino is human Seborga and alsooo not sure if l made it clear but Feliciano does know about their relationship and also Chiara is Bi and happy to feel valid in her relationship with Amelia as if it were the exact same as when she is with a guy and not something taboo in this time period

ALSO damn, sorry this isn't that particular to the 80s- l did leave out things l was originally going to add in though! Like l was going to have Felicianio and Valentino have a movie marton but according to Wikipedia they werent common around then and the ones that did happen were anime soooo y e p

Also thought about adding in a house cord phone but eh idk it felt nicer to have Amelia visit instead of having Chiara call her or if l tried writting it as Amelia calling and then showing up it just felt forced and weirdly put in any way l tried to write it in

AH l am so worried that this is boring or cringy, like l honestly can't tell if it is or is this fine-ehh l guess l've written worse um yeah if you've read this far thanks :)

(I'm editing this for mistakes and wtf 90 is so high why would she be shocked- damn l think l know why l originally wrote that, l was thinking Amelia said ONE of the questions is 90% right but before it l said she was correcting multiple questions so it reads as multiple questions being 90% right all together ANYWAY l corrected it so it's fine again okay bye -AND it turns out l missed some mistakes yet again-editing this for the 3rd time rip)

#hetalia #hetalia 2021 #hetalia america #nyotalia #nyo america #nyo romano #hws america #hws romano #romerica #hws americano #hws romerica #hetalia fanfiction

22 notes · View notes

thatsamericano · 3 years

Text

Screaming and Fighting and Kissing in the Rain

Pairing/Characters: America/Romano. Past Prussia/Romano, minor Cankraine.

Rating: Teen, for cursing. Also, suggestive implications at the end, but nothing even remotely explicit on-screen.

Warnings: Self-esteem issues, including body image issues. Mentions of violence that aren’t carried out. An unwanted kiss between Prussia and Romano due to miscommunication, but Prussia respects Romano’s boundaries when he makes them clear.

Word Count: 2412

Summary: America gets upset when he plans to meet up with Romano after a meeting and sees Romano and Prussia kissing when he gets to the restaurant. Romano has to chase after America in a rainstorm to make things right.

A/N: Written for Romerica/Itapan Week Day 2: “Kissing in the Rain.” Title taken from “The Way I Loved You” by Taylor Swift.

Despite changing his outfit twice, adding an extra spritz of cologne, and taming his hair as much as he could, Romano still managed to be fifteen minutes early to the restaurant. He ordered a drink at the bar and browsed Twitter on his phone as he impatiently waited for America to show up.

This wasn’t a date, so there was no reason for him to be so nervous, Savino reminded himself. It was just supposed to be “dinner and drinks” with a friend after the world meeting, but Alfred had seemed so excited about spending time with him that an incredibly stupid part of Savino was hoping he could manage to turn this evening in another direction. Savino wanted that part of him to shut the fuck up.

So when Prussia showed up at the bar and sat down on the adjacent stool, Savino slipped his phone into his pocket and engaged in a bit of lighthearted bickering back and forth. Gilbert was a useful distraction that would help him appear relaxed instead of jittery and anxious by the time America showed up.

Romano’s mind was so fixated on America and their date that wasn’t a date that he missed signals he would have ordinarily noticed. He only realized things had gone too far when suddenly Prussia’s mouth was on top of his, and his hand was inching up from Romano’s knee onto his thigh (and when the hell did it land on his knee anyway?).

Romano tore his mouth away and shoved Prussia’s hand off him before it could climb any higher. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?!” Romano squawked.

Prussia gave him that annoying, smarmy smirk he was way too used to. “Trying to turn you on so you’ll agree to come back to my hotel room with me. Is it working?”

Savino scoffed and picked up his drink. “Hardly. That hasn’t worked in a century, asshole.” He took a large gulp and picked at a cocktail napkin nervously. “Besides, I can’t go to your hotel room tonight. I planned to have dinner with someone else.”

“Oh, you’ve got a date?” Prussia asked. Now that sex was off the table, he was curious in a purely friendly manner.

“Not quite. I’m uh… supposed to be meeting America here in a few minutes.” Savino smiled nervously, in a way that must have given away his true intentions, because Gilbert laughed like Savino had said something incredibly hilarious.

“That sounds like a date to me.”

Savino opened his mouth, but before he could issue a flustered denial, he saw an enraged Canada marching towards the bar with an umbrella clenched in his fist like a sword he was about to wield against some very unlucky victim. Ukraine was right behind him, and she was fluttering her hands in the air and whispering, but clearly it wasn’t calming her boyfriend down at all. America’s brother could be downright scary when he was pissed off, so Romano wisely closed his mouth and shrank back against the bar.

Canada pointed a finger straight at Romano. “You!”

“Me?”

“What the fuck did you do to my brother?!” Canada snarled, resembling a polar bear. A fully grown, vicious mama bear, not the cute little cub he carried around with him sometimes.

“I… I didn’t do anything, I swear—”

“Well, somebody must have done something! Because Alfred practically ran out of here crying, and Alfie doesn’t cry like that for no reason! I know for a fact he was supposed to be hanging out with you tonight because he told me all about it after the meeting! He was so happy about getting to spend time with you, and now look what you’ve done!”

Romano felt nauseous with guilt. “Fredo was crying?”

Ukraine nodded solemnly. “I’ve never seen him like that before. Matviy tried to ask him what was wrong, but Alfred was so upset he couldn’t even answer him.”

“Shit,” Prussia whispered. He turned to look at Romano. “Do you think he saw us kissing and got the wrong idea?”

Canada ground his teeth together and gave Prussia a look that was colder than the chilliest day in the Arctic. Ukraine put a hand on her boyfriend’s bicep to keep him from lunging forward to beat the shit out of Gilbert like he clearly wanted to.

Savino hopped down from his barstool. “This is all a horrible, hideous misunderstanding. Where do you think Alfred went?”

Matthew released an irritated huff of air. “He was going out the front door. He’s probably on his way back to the hotel now.”

“Grazie.” Romano dashed past Canada and Ukraine and dodged a couple waiters and a few drenched guests on his way out the front door.

When he pushed open the restaurant’s heavy front door, Savino was instantly confronted by a harsh wind whipping through his hair and rain pelting down on him as thunder boomed from the clouds. The sky, which had been merely overcast earlier, was now in the midst of a full thunderstorm, but Romano didn’t care about getting wet or ruining his Armani suit or Ferragamo shoes. He only cared because the inclement weather made it harder for him to see.

Romano swung his gaze desperately around the street and quickly spotted a blond man in a business suit swiftly walking down the block several meters ahead of him. Romano ran towards him and started yelling.

“Alfred! Alfred, slow down so I can talk to you, damn it!”

When he got closer, he could see that the man he was chasing was indeed America, and that his shoulders were trembling. He was sobbing, just like Canada had said. “Leave me alone! Go back to making out with Prussia! That’s what you’d rather do anyway!”

“Don’t tell me what I fucking want, idiota!” He was close enough now to grab America’s jacket, which he did, forcing America to turn around and face him. “If I wanted to make out with Prussia, I wouldn’t be out here in the rain yelling at you!”

America’s face was met with a mixture of rainwater and tears. He was soaked through to the bone, just like Romano was, and his electric blue eyes were swimming with misery and betrayal.

“You know, Vinny, it’s bad enough that I had to walk into that restaurant, expecting that I’d get to spend time with you, alone, and see you shoving your tongue down Prussia’s throat. But I at least thought you respected me enough to not lie right to my face. Guess I was wrong!”

Romano shook his head. “That’s not what happened, damn it! If you’d just listen, I could explain—”

America made a noise between a derisive laugh and a wet, hiccupping sob. “Explain?! Explain what?! Let me guess, it didn’t mean anything, and you and Gil are just good buddies! Because kissing your friend like that is a totally normal thing to do, right?!”

Savino’s throat was closing up, and he didn’t know what to say. Because Alfred was half-right in his hysterical shouting. A long time ago, he had kissed Gilbert like that, and even slept with him, but their relationship had never turned romantic. There had been mutual interest and mutual understanding between them, but never love. He would have never run away crying into a rainstorm if he’d seen Prussia kissing someone else, and he knew Prussia wouldn’t have either.

Which made him wonder: why the hell was America reacting like this? He was acting like Romano had ripped out his heart, stomped on it, and then laughed about it while high-fiving Prussia, which didn’t make any sense, unless…

“Fredo, do… do you want me to kiss you?”

Alfred whimpered like Savino had just stabbed him in the guts. He hunched his shoulders to shrink down as much as his tall frame would allow and squeezed his eyes shut. “I get it, okay? Gil is… he’s more attractive than me. He’s less fat, for starters. He can be loud too, but most people aren’t as annoyed by him as they are me. He’s older and smarter than I am, so he’d actually know how to kiss people. Of course you’d want to be with him instead of me.”

The thunder rumbled ominously as Romano reached out to touch America’s shoulder. “That’s not true. None of that is true.” Dio, it hurt to hear Alfred talk about himself like this. Like he was nothing. Like his feelings, which were clearly hurt, didn’t matter.

America continued, disregarding what Romano had said. “It’s okay. You don’t have to try to make me feel better. I know you don’t like me the way I like you. You’ve got every right to kiss Prussia or whoever it is you want. But I’d appreciate it if you didn’t kiss them right in front of me, because it hurts. It hurts a lot more than you realize.” Alfred’s lower lip wobbled dangerously, and Savino could barely hear his voice over the wind and rain. “I’ve never… I’ve never even wanted to kiss anyone other than you. Talk about pathetic, right?” Then Alfred started weeping too hard to continue speaking and making these awful, animalistic, heartbreaking noises Savino never, ever wanted to hear again.

Savino reached up to wipe the tears and rainwater away from his cheeks. “You’re not pathetic, amore. You’re gorgeous, and smart, and fucking amazing. I don’t care if it takes all night, I am going to stand here in the rain with you until you believe me.”

Alfred sniffled and looked down at Savino like he was some strange, otherworldly creature he’d never seen before. “Did… did you just call me amore?”

Romano felt a white-hot flash of embarrassment at having his openly sappy words pointed out to him, but that only made him more determined and stubborn. “That’s right, I fucking did! You better get used to it, because I like you a lot, damn it! And that means I get to call you whatever sappy shit I want!”

Alfred laughed and pulled him closer by the waist. “You can call me whatever you want, baby doll. Just as long as you aren’t calling Prussia that too.”

Savino rolled his eyes and vainly pretended he wasn’t shivering from the possessive tone America had used with him or the ridiculous pet name. “For the record, I’ve never called Prussia amore, even when I was hooking up with him. And I wasn’t kissing him earlier. He kissed me, and I pushed him away.”

Alfred tilted his head and grinned. “You wouldn’t push me away if I kissed you right now, would you, Vinny?”

Savino had never felt more exasperated. “Honestly, the fact that you even have to ask—”

Alfred chuckled and leaned down to kiss him, and Savino closed his eyes. At first, Alfred was tentative and uncertain, but with Savino’s encouragement, he gradually grew more confident. His lips were cold and wet from the rain, which wasn’t ideal, because Romano was not a fan of this kind of weather. He obviously didn’t know what to do with his hands, but the fact they were roaming all over Romano’s back like he couldn’t touch him in enough places was flattering as hell. Overall, it wasn’t perfect, but the kiss was equal parts loving and desperate, so it was pretty damn incredible.

Then, with no warning, America lifted Romano’s feet off the ground like he weighed nothing at all. Savino groaned into his mouth and wrapped his legs around Alfred’s hips so he wouldn’t fall over. And because the fact Alfred could just lift him up like that was stupidly hot and making his mind wander to ideas he definitely wanted to explore somewhere more private than this very public sidewalk in front of God knows how many people.

He was a panting, horny mess by the time Alfred pulled away to breathe. Alfred was still holding Savino up, like he could do this all night, and he was smirking.

“Well, how was it? Was I better than Prussia?”

Romano smacked his shoulder without putting much force behind it. “You don’t have to beg for compliments. It was better than anyone I’ve ever been with. Especially the part where you lifted me off the ground.”

“I could carry you around like this for hours. I could pin you up against a wall too, if there was a wall nearby.”

“You should definitely do that at some point. But for now, I’d like to stand again.”

America obediently set Romano back down on his feet and let go of his waist. He gestured back down the street, from whence they had come. “We had dinner plans earlier. Do you want to go back to the restaurant, or…”

“It’s getting late. I think we should go back to the hotel.”

Alfred took his hand and led him down the street. “Makes sense. The hotel has room service. Plus a shower with hot water and fluffy towels. We can get warm, change into dry clothes, then order something to eat.”

He squeezed Alfred’s hand. “The hotel also has walls. And beds that are definitely too big for just one person.”

Alfred’s eyes widened, and he choked on air. “That’s… yeah. Lots of good stuff at the hotel.”

Savino smiled to himself without saying anything. As smooth and seductive as Alfred might pretend to be, this was entirely new territory for him, so he was naturally overwhelmed. It wouldn’t help him to know that his innocence was one of the most adorable things Savino had ever seen.

The light was red when they arrived at the crosswalk, and they had to stop to let cars pass by. Romano leaned up to kiss America’s cheek, and America gave him a puzzled look afterwards.

He shrugged, feigning nonchalance as best he could. “I just love you is all.”

Alfred beamed down at him, brighter than the high-beams of passing cars. “I love you too.” He tilted Savino’s chin up and kissed the bridge of his nose. “And I cannot wait to take you home with me.”

Home, hotel, a colony on the moon… at the moment, Romano would gladly go wherever America would take him. When the crosswalk light turned, he grimaced at the fact his Ferragamos had to wade through a muddy, filthy puddle, but it was worth it to be a few steps closer to a hotel room where they could finally be alone at last.

15 notes · View notes

bellakitse · 4 years

Text

Resonant Frequencies

TK and Carlos are friends with benefits. When a nosy neighbor of Carlos' mother runs into them kissing on the street, they pretend to be a couple to get out of the awkward moment. As a result, Carlos' mother wants to meet the secret boyfriend Carlos has told her nothing about. Cue the fake dating of two dumb boys who are more serious than they realize.

For @howtosingit, happy belated punk! Sorry it took so long, but I simply adore you and hope you like this. 🥰🥰

@daybreak96 asked to be tagged in this.

9.9k

The Texas noon sun beats down on TK Strand’s back as he stands in line waiting to order his lunch; next to him stands the man responsible for them being out in the first place. He turns slightly to look at him, studying every small detail. Carlos Reyes stands tall, his posture straight, but relaxed. He’s in street clothes like TK, a blue cotton t-shirt that clings and does nothing to hide the hard-earned definition of his drool-worthy body.

As someone who is personally acquainted with said body, TK feels he’s accurate in his description.

“Why are we here?” he asks, making a face when he hears the childish pout in his voice.

“It’s lunchtime, and we are at a food truck, TK. I would think the answer is obvious,” Carlos replies, turning to face him. TK can’t see his eyes behind his sunglasses, but the smirk playing on the hot cop’s lips is enough to make TK scowl, partly at Carlos, but mostly at himself for finding Carlos’ smugness so attractive.

In the last few months, he and Carlos have fallen into a ‘friends with benefits’ situation that TK finds highly enjoyable – like blacking out from the best sex of his life, enjoyable. Which is why he’s more than a little annoyed that they’re out here now, instead of enjoying the fact that neither have a shift until the afternoon by being alone and naked back at Carlos’ apartment.

“We could’ve eaten at your place,” he continues, voicing his thought.

“I haven’t done any groceries,” Carlos says smoothly, and while he’s not smirking, TK can hear the amusement in his voice. “Besides, why am I the one that keeps feeding you?”

TK rolls his eyes at the question; he already knows Carlos isn’t serious. The guy enjoys feeding TK and not just his cock.

“We could go back to your place, and I’ll pay for the Grubhub,” he shoots back, grinning when Carlos takes off his sunglasses; now that he has his eyes on him, TK lets his grin get dirty. He licks at his bottom lip slowly, silently cheering when Carlos’ pupils dilate as he stares at his mouth.

“I’m pretty sure you can make me come, screaming your name at least twice before the food arrives,” he says casually, as if talking about the weather, and not the knee-buckling orgasms Carlos tends to bring out of him. “Maybe even three times,” he smiles as Carlos exhales sharply. “We both know how good you are at getting me to do that.”

Carlos touches TK’s hip for a moment before slipping his arm around him, pulling him towards his body so quickly it’s TK’s turn to gasp.

“Flattery and cock-teasing,” Carlos murmurs against his ear, and TK can feel his body’s temperature go up a few notches that have nothing to do with the Austin heat. “That’s your plan here?”

“If it gets us back to your place and me under you, sure,” he answers, gleefully laughing as Carlos lets out a low groan, his lips brushing against TK’s throat before moving up again. He has him now.

“Tease,” Carlos whispers against the corner of TK’s mouth. The word is said with fondness and amusement that warms TK’s belly. He lifts his arms to wrap them around Carlos’ shoulders, smiling as Carlos pulls him even closer, thankful that no one is behind them on the line that they might annoy.

TK closes his eyes as Carlos kisses him softly, sighing when Carlos touches the tip of his tongue to his lips, parting them as he deepens the kiss. TK is so lost in Carlos’ feel and taste, he doesn’t notice the old lady walking up to them until she speaks.

“Carlitos Reyes, is that you?”

TK feels the moment Carlos’ muscles tense under his hands before he breaks their kiss with a jerk, swiveling his head to the left.

“Doña Flor!” Carlos exhales, his voice coming out loud, cracking slightly at the end. He smiles as he turns his body towards the older woman who called his name, but TK can tell the smile is artificial and awkward. “How are you?”

Doña Flor, a short, plump woman with grey hair pulled into a loose bun, and a weathered face, looks at them with a curious glint in her eye. “I’m doing as well as I can for my old age, mijo,” she tells Carlos. There is the beginning of a grin on her face as she shifts her gaze to TK, before looking back at Carlos with a raised eyebrow. “But it seems, not as well as you,” she continues, her tone pointed.

TK bites down on his lip as Carlos lets out an embarrassed laugh while rubbing the back of his neck bashfully; when he looks at him, all TK can do is raise his eyebrows at him, waiting to see how he wants to handle the situation.

“TK,” Carlos starts, looking at him with wide eyes. “This is Doña Flor Moreno; I grew up across the street from her, she’s a close friend of my mom.”

TK understands the implication in Carlos’ voice instantly and turns towards the lady with the most charming smile he can muster. “Nice to meet you, ma’am.”

Doña Flor smiles at him, that twinkle still there in her eyes. “And you – ” her question trails off, looking back at Carlos expectantly, causing Carlos to look like a deer caught in the headlights yet again.

“Right, Doña Flor, this is TK Strand,” Carlos says, looking at him. “He’s a firefighter; we work together.”

TK bites his lip again, this time to keep himself from laughing at the incredulous look the old lady gives Carlos.

“Very friendly coworkers,” she says dryly, reminding them exactly what she’d walked in on. Now TK can’t help the chuckle that escapes him as Carlos blushes a rosy pink color that is just too adorable.

“Doña Flor – “ Carlos starts to say, only to trail off when the woman rolls her eyes.

“I have known you since you were in diapers,” she reminds him with a huff. “I know you like boys, cariño,” she continues, her expression softening. “You don’t need to lie to me, Carlitos.”

Carlos stammers a few ‘umms’ before turning towards him completely at a loss. His helpless expression has TK opening his mouth and speaking before he can second-guess his decision.

“I’m his boyfriend as well as coworker, ma’am,” TK answers with a smile, trying to ignore the way the words suddenly make his heart race. He can feel Carlos’ eyes drilling into the side of his face, but he doesn’t focus on that when Flor is laughing with delight.

“Yes, sweetie, that hot kiss I interrupted kind of clued me in,” she says to him with a grin, before turning back to Carlos. “Good going, Carlitos, es muy guapo tu novio.”

“Flor!” Carlos exclaims, his blush spreading from his hairline over his face and down his neck. “Dios mio,” he mutters, covering his face with his hands as the old woman laughs.

“I know that word, it means good-looking, right?” he asks, looking for confirmation from Flor when Carlos just groans into his hands.

Flor nods, a wide smile still on her face. “Si, cariño, that’s what it means, and it’s true, you’re beautiful.”

TK can feel his own face heat up at the compliment. Trying to distract from it, he leans in to press his shoulder against Carlos’ playfully. “How come you don’t call me beautiful?”

Carlos lowers his hands to scowl at him. “That is a blatant lie,” he accuses him. “I call you beautiful all the time.”

TK feels himself go redder; it’s true, Carlos calls him beautiful all the time. Usually, when they’re in bed having sex. Carlos tends to whisper in his ear how gorgeous TK is, how good he feels as he slowly and torturously sinks deep into TK until he doesn’t know where he ends, and Carlos begins.

What he’s thinking must show on his face, because Carlos’ eyes darken as he watches him, and TK can’t help but sway into him. He places his hand on Carlos’ stomach to keep himself from melting under that gaze.

“You two are so sweet together,” Doña Flor sighs happily. “Young love is always so beautiful. Your mama must be so happy you’re dating someone, Carlitos.”

The mention of his mom seems to snap Carlos back to attention, his expression going panicked again. “Actually, she – “ he starts but is stopped as Doña Flor’s purse starts to ring; he pauses as she roots through it to take out her cell phone.

“Oh!” she exclaims as she looks at the caller ID. “It’s my daughter, she’s in the farmers market across the street,” she explains as she takes the call.

He and Carlos remain silent as she speaks rapidly into the phone. The conversation is rushed before she’s hanging up again and turning to them.

“I have to go,” she says quickly, stepping forward to kiss Carlos on the cheek. “We have to go pick up my grandkids, half-a-day at school,” she explains before surprising TK by also kissing him on the cheek. “It was so nice to meet you, TK, make sure this one brings you to my place when you visit his mama, okay? I make the best sopaipillas in all of Texas.”

TK nods because he doesn’t know what else to do, watching as she turns and walks away, leaving him and Carlos alone again.

It’s quiet, and TK waits as Carlos frowns into the distance for a moment before he speaks. “What’s a soap – “ he trails off, not knowing how to pronounce the word.

“Sopaipillas,” Carlos tells him quietly. “It’s fried dough, drizzled with honey and powdered sugar, Doña Flor makes them from scratch.”

“Oh, that sounds good,” he says, hesitant as Carlos sighs.

“This is so bad,” he mutters, mostly to himself as he shakes his head.

“What?”

“She’s going to tell my mom she saw us here,” Carlos explains, his frown deepening. “That you called yourself my boyfriend,” he continues with a groan. “This is a nightmare.”

TK swallows around the sudden ache right below his chest at Carlos’ words. “Gee, thanks,” he says sarcastically, cringing when he hears the hurt in his voice.

Carlos hears it too if the way his expression goes apologetic instantly is any indication. “I didn’t mean it like that,” he says quietly. “I just wasn’t prepared for you to answer the way you did.”

“You froze when she called you out on calling me your coworker, and she caught us making out,” TK says defensively, hating how the sting of Carlos’ words still lingers under his skin. “Was I supposed to tell that nice old lady that I’m just the guy you fuck a lot? Boyfriend seemed like the more PG answer.”

“TK,” Carlos whispers, and TK has to curl his hands to keep himself from reaching out as Carlos looks sorrier than before.

“Whatever,” he mutters, mostly to himself as he tries to shake off the hurt. This is why he avoids getting attached these days. “Maybe she won’t say anything to your mom.”

Carlos lets out a dry snort, shaking his head like TK has amused him. “That’s not how Mexican moms work.”

֍֍֍

It’s a few hours into the evening when TK sees Carlos again. They didn’t go back to Carlos’ place like he had hoped initially before they’d run into Carlos’ old neighbor. Instead, they had stayed to order their food from the taco truck and then eaten it at a nearby bench in somewhat uncomfortable silence before TK asked Carlos to drop him off early at the station.

Now, as TK works on top of the truck, he watches as Carlos lingers by the bay doors, searching the room. It gives TK a moment to observe him, swallowing down an appreciative sound. He’s never had a kink for uniforms before, but he can admit – if only to himself – that Carlos fills out his exceptionally well.

Carlos finds him quickly, and TK tries to ignore how his heart speeds up when their eyes meet.

“Hey,” Carlos calls out to him as he nears the truck, looking up at him. A few of his teammates look over at the voice. Carlos answers their curious gaze with a half-hearted wave before focusing on TK again, making it obvious he’s there to see him. “Can we talk for a second?” he asks, looking nervous.

TK gives him a small nod. “Yeah – I’ll come down – ”

“Officer Reyes!”

TK turns his head and sees his father come out of the kitchen with a cup of coffee in his hand. He sighs quietly as he starts to climb down the top of the truck. His feet touch the floor just as his father comes to a stop in front of Carlos.

“What a nice surprise,” Owen says with a friendly smile, lifting his cup. “Would you like some coffee?”

“Carlos doesn’t drink coffee this late,” TK answers just as Carlos shakes his head. “Only tea,” he tells his father and tries not to squirm under the gaze of both men as Carlos looks at him surprised but also pleased while his father looks at him questionably.

His gaze lingers on him for a moment before turning back to Carlos with a smile. “What brings you by, officer? Paperwork for me?”

Carlos shakes his head again, his eyes straying back to him, and TK keeps from rolling his when his dad looks at him too knowingly.

“Maybe you’re here to see Michelle?” Owen continues, and this time TK does roll his eyes as he hears his dad’s familiar shit-stirring tone.

“He’s here to see me, dad,” he says with a huff as Owen looks pleased with the reveal. “But you figured that out already,” he accuses him, shaking his head as his father looks seconds from laughing at his aggravation. “A little privacy would be nice.”

Owen chuckles, raising a hand in mocking surrender. “I’ll leave you too it then,” he answers with amusement as he turns to leave. “Carlos, if you decide you want tea, make sure TK makes you some.”

Carlos gives him a slight nod with an awkward smile on his face. “Thank you, Captain Strand.”

Owen smiles once more before he heads for the stairs leading to his office, leaving them alone.

“Do you want to talk outside?” TK asks after a moment of silence between them. Carlos looks around the station, lingering on TK’s crew before agreeing.

“Yeah, that’s probably best,” Carlos answers, still looking anxious.

TK leads them to one of the benches they placed after the remodel, sitting down with an exhale. Carlos doesn’t sit next to him; instead, he fidgets where he stands.

“Okay, what’s up?” he asks when it becomes obvious that Carlos isn’t going to stop shuffling and get to why he’s there anytime soon. “You’re vibrating energy,” he says, frowning, not used to seeing Carlos nervous. “Is this about before?” he asks, biting down on his lip when Carlos nods.

Carlos lets out a sigh, a smile that is more a grimace on his face as he finally takes a seat next to him.

“Well, what is it?” TK can’t help but blurt out when Carlos doesn’t continue. Instead, he pulls out his phone, opens it to his messages, and passes it over to TK.

TK takes the phone in his hand, raising both eyebrows when the first thing he sees is a picture of them from earlier, right before they kissed. TK swallows hard, feeling his face heat up as he looks at the moment that was captured. Them in profile, with his arms wrapped around Carlos’ neck, while Carlos holds him by the waist. The picture’s taken from a bit of distance, but even so, TK can see a smile on his own face.

“When did she even have time to take this?” he asks, trying to focus on that and not how happy he looks in the picture.

“Latina moms are part ninjas, part spies, this is nothing,” Carlos answers with the voice of a man that is resigned to that fact.

TK looks back at the picture and realizes it’s part of a group chat called ‘Las Reinas y el Rey,’

“What does that mean?” he asks, not ready to look at the conversation just yet.

“Oh,” Carlos smiles, this time more sincerely as he leans over to look. “It means ‘the queens and the king.’ Reyes means king, and since my immediate family is my mom and my sisters, that’s what they decided to call our family chat.”

TK smiles, liking the reason behind the name even as he realizes who exactly saw their picture. He scrolls past the image and breaks out into a cold sweat as he reads the messages. When he looks back at Carlos with wide-eyes, he gets a solemn nod in return.

“Yep,” Carlos answers this time, grimacing outright.

TK looks down at the phone once more, the message from Carlos’ mom right under the picture sticking with him the most.

‘Do you have something to tell me, Carlos Aurelio Reyes?’

The question is followed by his sisters teasing him over their mother middle naming him and how that meant he was in trouble. It ends with his mother telling him to call her. Now.

“I didn’t know that was your middle name,” TK says softly, not knowing what else to say.

“It was my grandfather’s name,” Carlos tells him. When he doesn’t follow it up with anything else, TK finally cracks.

“Shit, Carlos,” he starts apologetically, anxiously running a hand through his hair. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to cause you any trouble with your family.”

“Hey, no, don’t do that,” Carlos says quickly, turning in his seat to face him. “You don’t have to apologize; you were just trying to get me out of an awkward situation.”

“And landed you in a bigger one,” he shoots back dryly, relieved when Carlos lets out a small, wary chuckle.

“The conversations with my mom – “ he trails off, shaking his head. “I’m 27 years old, and yet that woman can make me feel like I’m five again when I’m in trouble with her.”

“How in trouble are you?” TK asks, biting down on his lip when Carlos shrugs.

“She’s disappointed,” Carlos answers, making air quotes that have TK huffing out a laugh, and Carlos shoots him back a grin. “Apparently she called Flor to confirm what she’s bringing to a block party we are having this Saturday. Flor mentioned seeing me with you, of course, and then sent her the picture as proof, asking if I was bringing you to the party. Mom got caught off guard because I haven’t mentioned you to her and then lectured me about having a boyfriend she doesn’t know. She asked if we aren’t close anymore.”

“Ah, she gave you the mom guilt-trip,” TK says knowingly.

“Carlota Reyes has a Ph.D. in that field,” Carlos answers, but there is a fond smile on his handsome face that says he finds it endearing. “She just wants to know you, and I didn’t have the heart to tell her that we’re not actually like that,” he tells him quietly with a helpless shrug.

TK doesn’t speak for a moment. Instead, he lets himself consider something that sends his heart racing in a way that surprises him. That alone should be enough for him to realize it’s a bad idea, but still, he finds himself ignoring that little voice in his head that tells him he’s getting too close.

“We don’t have to tell her,” he says, taking a calming breath when Carlos shoots him a confused look. “As far as she knows we’re dating, she doesn’t need to know how serious it is or not.”

“TK – “

“You can take me to that party,” he continues, talking over Carlos quickly. “Then, your mom can get the satisfaction of meeting me.”

“She thinks you’re my boyfriend, not my – “ Carlos trails off, not knowing how to finish the sentence.

“Fuck buddy?” TK finishes for him, holding his breath when Carlos frowns.

“I’d like to think we’re friends, Tyler,” Carlos says softly, not realizing how the words make his stomach somersault in a pleasant way that makes TK feel happier than expected.

“We are,” TK answers just as soft. “You’re right, we’re friends. I like you.”

Carlos smiles at him; it’s gentle and happy as his eyes crinkle at the corners. “I like you too.”

“Right,” he gets out, clearing his throat as his stomach does another flip. “So, we shouldn’t have a problem pretending to be together for a night to appease your mom,” he continues. When Carlos looks hesitant, he leans into his space with a teasing grin. “I mean, it’s not like it will be hard. We usually spend our alone time with our mouths on each other anyway. Pretty sure we can pull off acting like a couple.”

Carlos shoots him a look, his mouth twitching with reluctant amusement. “You are so much trouble, Strand,” he accuses him, but the glint in his brown eyes lets TK know he means it with fondness.

“Yeah,” TK answers with a chuckle. “But you like it. So what do you say, Reyes? Wanna be my boyfriend?”

Carlos locks eyes with him, the intensity in his gaze causing the breath to catch in TK’s throat. “Yeah.”

֍֍֍

Saturday arrives faster than expected; he sees Carlos during calls and after work before the day. Each time Carlos tells him with a nervous smile that his mother and sisters are very excited to meet him.

Carlos drives them that late afternoon to Austin’s outskirts into a neighborhood with modest one-story ranch houses. They can hear music and people laughing before they pull up right outside the closed-off block. Carlos turns off the engine to his Camero before letting out a deep breath.

When he turns to face him, TK wants to tell him that it’s going to be okay. Instead, his nerves that have been getting the better of him since Carlos picked him up, have him blurting out – “Are you sure I look okay?”

He frowns down at his black and white polka dot short-sleeved dress shirt. “Maybe I should have worn the green palm leaves; you like that shirt better, right?”

“I do like that one,” Carlos concedes. “The green brings out your eyes, but,” he continues, giving TK a smile when TK lets out a sigh. “I like you in the polka dots too.”

TK looks at Carlos doubtfully before turning the look back to his shirt, running a hand down the front to smooth out the material. “You sure?” he asks, startling when he feels Carlos’ hand touch his jaw; when he looks back at him, he finds Carlos giving him a soft, reassuring look.

“You look amazing in everything, TK,” Carlos tells him with naked want shining in his eyes. “You’re fucking gorgeous.”

TK lets out a shaky breath at Carlos’ words. Licking at his lips, it hitches in his lungs as Carlos stares at his mouth. He closes his eyes a second before Carlos presses his mouth to his, moaning into those full lips when Carlos moves his hand from his jaw to his hair, clutching it tightly as he moves TK where he wants to deepen the kiss. Carlos’ tongue touches his lips, and TK lets out a needy sound as he lets Carlos in, his hands blindly grabbing at Carlos’ strong shoulders to keep him grounded. There are times when Carlos kisses him like this, that TK is convinced he’s going to float away from how light Carlos makes him feel under his touch.

There is a hard knock on Carlos’ side that makes TK jump back. Carlos turns from him, letting out a deep groan when he sees who it is.

“Great,” he mutters as he wipes at his mouth. Leaning forward to look around Carlos, TK finds a beautiful woman with brown eyes staring at them, and there is a smirk on her red-colored lips as their eyes lock. Her features are similar enough to Carlos to instantly recognize the family resemblance.

“Which one is she?” he asks, hoping he can calm his nerves before they have to exit the car.

“That would be Lola,” Carlos says dryly, as TK mentally goes over what he knows about her. Closest in age to Carlos, a local artist, and in Carlos’ own words, a pain in his ass.

“Right,” he says quietly, taking a deep breath, he starts to reach for the door handle when Carlos stops him by placing a hand on his forearm.

“You okay?” he asks quietly, looking concerned and nervous himself. TK doesn’t like the look one bit, and even though Carlos’ sister is still leaning down to look at them, TK turns towards him and kisses him again.

“We got this,” he whispers against Carlos’ mouth, smiling when he lets out a sound of agreement. With that, he pulls back, missing Carlos’ reassuring touch instantly as he opens the door to get out.

“Hi,” he says to Carlos’ sister from across the car, flashing her what he hopes is a charming smile. “I’m TK.”

“Lola,” she answers with a grin of her own; it grows as TK nods that he knows. “Gotta say, you’re so much cuter when my little brother isn’t attached to your face.”

“Ha, ha, ha, hilarious,” Carlos says sarcastically as he too gets out of the car. “When was the last time you had someone as gorgeous as him attached to your face, Lola?” he asks, and TK has to cover his mouth to hide the smile that takes over instantly. That has to be the most childish thing he’s ever heard Carlos say, and TK can’t help but find it absolutely endearing.

“You brat,” Lola teases, her eyes crinkling at the corners from the massive smile on her face as she talks to her brother; it matches Carlos’ own.

“I learned from the best,” he shoots back with a laugh before he’s pulling her into a hug, lifting her off the ground. Lola lets out a squeal, clutching his shoulders. “How’s your show doing?”

“Amazingly,” Lola answers as he puts her back down. “But you would know that, if you bothered to stop by,” she says purposely, earning a sigh from Carlos.

“I’ve been busy,” he argues back as he and Lola walk around the car to him. He holds out his hand to TK, which he takes gratefully before they start walking towards the music and the crowd. “With work and – “

“ – a hot firefighter boyfriend that you tell us nothing about until you get caught by nosy neighbors?” Lola finishes for him, jokingly.

Carlos clams up, shooting his sister a look, but it does nothing to stop the teasing one Lola shoots back at him.

“Carlos said you’re an artist, but I didn’t know you had a current show,” TK jumps in, hoping to ease the tension. “Is it close?”

Lola turns to him, nodding. “Yeah, a small art gallery downtown, it just opened.”

“That’s exciting,” TK continues. “We should go,” he says as he turns to Carlos.

Carlos raises an eyebrow at that, trying to read if he means it. “We barely have dinner before we’re in bed.”

“I don’t need to know about your sex life,” Lola butts in, smirking when Carlos scowls at her.

“To sleep, pervert,” Carlos answers rudely, much to Lola’s amusement. “TK works really long, exhausting shifts.”

“We can go the next time we have a day off together,” he answers before Lola can continue messing with Carlos. “We’ll make the time. Carlos says you are really gifted.”

“Carlos complimenting me?” Lola jokes, but TK can see the pleased look in her eyes at his comment.

“Don’t tell her that,” Carlos hisses at him without heat. “She’s already insufferable enough as is.”

Lola shakes her head, stopping as they come to a pale mint-green house. “Secrets out now, mano, you say nice things about me.”

“A momentary lapse in judgment, I assure you,” Carlos answers, much to his sister and TK’s amusement. He’s never seen such a playfully combative side of Carlos, but it’s fun to watch.

“You’re so cute when you’re pissy,” Lola mocks him, before leaning in to kiss him on the cheek. “But I know it’s just cause deep down you’re scared to go inside and see Mami,” she says, pointing at the house they’re standing in front of. “She’s waiting, said to make sure you came inside the moment you showed up.”

Carlos doesn’t say anything, but TK can feel him tense up as he holds on to his arm, giving weight to Lola’s observation.

“Relax,” she says, her tone softening as she goes from messing with Carlos to being supportive in a flash. “She’s going to like him,” Lola continues. “He’s cute, polite, and the way you two are holding each other,” she points at their linked hands and at TK’s other hand holding on to Carlos’ bicep. “It’s freaking adorable. Mami is going to take one look at you two and start daydreaming of weddings and babies. She’ll love him.”

TK swallows hard at her words, feeling Carlos tense even further under his hold. “I don’t think that’s as reassuring as you hoped it would be,” he tells her honestly. It earns him a toothy smile that lets him know Lola is greatly amused by them.

“She’s not trying to be reassuring; she’s being a shit-starter,” Carlos tells him, rolling his eyes at his sister before they soften as he looks back at him, squeezing his hand as he leads him towards the house. “She is right about one thing, though, Mami is going to love you.”

“You sure?” he questions nervously, walking up the small set of staircases with Carlos.

“How could she not?” Carlos questions gently, the affection in his eyes warming TK’s insides. TK leans into Carlos, pressing a kiss on his shoulder in response.

“You two are nauseatingly cute,” Lola groans, making TK jump; for a moment, he had forgotten that she was coming up behind them.

“What are you doing?” Carlos questions with narrowed eyes as Lola types away on her phone.

“Updating Valentina and Sofía,” she answers, unconcerned when Carlos makes a sound in protest. “They’ll be here later, Vale is still on shift at the hospital, and Sofía said she’d come after she puts the kids to bed. They want a full report on you and the gringo.”

“I hate you all,” Carlos informs his sister, shaking his head when she waves off his words, still texting away. “Come on,” he says to him, opening the door. “Time to meet the big boss.”

Lola snorts at the comment, following them.

The inside of the Reyes household is colorful and warm, not just in temperature but love; just in the foyer alone, the walls are covered in pictures of the family.

TK instantly gravitates to a medium-sized frame picture of a young Carlos, no older than four in the picture, massive curls, and a bright smile with missing teeth.

“Holy shit, Carlos,” TK breathes, letting go of him to get a closer look. “You’re adorable.”

“Oh god, please don’t look at that,” Carlos pleads as he tries to pull TK away from the picture.

“Not look at it?” TK questions incredulously. He turns to Carlos with wide exaggerated eyes. “Are you kidding? The first thing I’m going to do after you introduce me to your mom is ask her if she has a copy I can have,” he explains, grinning as Carlos scowls at him in return. “You’re the cutest thing ever!”

Lola snickers as Carlos turns a pretty shade of pink at his compliment; he goes to protest some more when they hear someone clear their throat behind them. Turning around, TK finds an attractive older woman with shoulder-length salt and pepper hair, a pretty face, with those familiar brown-eyes looking straight at him; she holds in her hands a tray of delicious smelling taquitos.

“I do have a copy of that photograph. If you really want it, it’s yours,” she promises, the corners of her mouth quirking upward when Carlos groans loudly.

“Mami, no,” he complains, making TK laugh.

“Yes, please,” he tells her, smiling back as her own smile grows.

Carlos comes to stand next to him, wrapping an arm around his waist. “I didn’t bring you here to gang up on me,” he tells him with a pout.

“No, you brought him here to meet me after keeping him a secret,” Carlos’ mother reminds him sternly.

“Mami – “ Carlos whines before letting out a dramatic sigh. “Mami, this is TK Strand, TK, my beautiful, forgiving mother, Carlota Reyes.”

Lola snickers to the left of them. “Suck up.”

TK lets out a nervous laugh, as Carlos makes a face at his sister and his mother shakes her head. “It’s very nice to meet you, ma’am. Thank you for inviting me to your party.”

“Thank you for coming,” Carlota says politely. “Do you eat meat, TK?”

“I limit how much of it I eat for work, but yes,” TK answers, curious why she’s asking.

Carlota holds up the tray of food in her hands. “I’m about to take this outside for the potluck; would you taste it first?”

TK looks at Carlos for a moment, getting a pleased smile out of him. “I learned to cook from my mom, and you like my cooking.”

“That I do,” TK answers; now that he doesn’t walk out of Carlos’ dinners, he’s learned that Carlos is a fantastic cook, everything he makes, TK loves. He steps forward, taking a taquito from the top of the tray and eating half in a bite.

Carlos, Lola, and Carlota watch him as he chews, waiting for his verdict.

“Well?” Carlota questions, curious.

TK finishes the rest of the taquito, going as far as licking his thumb. “That is probably the best thing I have ever had in my mouth,” he answers truthfully.

“Beaten out by a taco for that honor, “ Lola says wickedly without missing a step. “Gotta be pretty embarrassing, bro.”

“Lola, you absolute brat,” Carlos hisses over his sister’s unrepentant laughter, while TK chokes, blushing furiously.

Carlota shakes her head, taking a step forward, she places a hand on his arm as TK finally stops coughing. “It’s times like this that I don’t claim them as mine,” she says with him with wry amusement. “Come with me, mijo, I’ll introduce you to the neighbors while the children fight.”

Carlos lets out a protesting sound, whether for being called a child or because his mother is guiding him out of the house, TK isn’t sure. He catches up to them in a few steps, throwing an arm around his shoulders. TK wraps his own arm around Carlos’ waist, feeling comforted by having him at his side again.

“You’re not going to say anything about Lola being a jerk, Mami?” Carlos pouts at his mother, and TK once again is struck by how different he is around his family and just how cute he finds it that he’s not as calm and collected as he usually seems.

“It was funny,” Lola complains, bringing up the rear as they head towards the crowd.

Carlota rolls her eyes, ignoring them both in favor of waving at a few neighbors. “If you two could start behaving, that would be great,” she tells them. “The neighbors are used to your spectacles, but TK is looking a little flustered,” she continues, nodding towards him before continuing towards a set of tables at the edge of the street with food on it. Lola follows her, but Carlos holds him in place, keeping him from doing the same.

“I’m sorry if that made you uncomfortable,” Carlos rushes to say when TK looks at him; out of the corner of his eye, he sees both Carlos’ mom and sister sneaking looks back at them. “Lola just likes to tease me.”

“You said your other sisters are the same,” TK reminds him, getting a grimace back.

“Yeah,” Carlos agrees, still making a face. “Maybe this wasn’t the best idea after all.”

TK frowns at that.

“We’re going to scare you away with our crazy,” Carlos continues, explaining, and TK feels his insides squeeze at the worry he hears in Carlos’ voice.

“Hey,” he says softly, cupping Carlos’ cheek. “I’m made of stronger stuff,” he jokes lightly. “It will take more than outrageous sisters with admittedly wicked burns to send me running.”

“Don’t you dare encourage her behavior by letting her believe you think she’s funny,” Carlos says sternly, and the laughter that has been threatening to bubble up finally spills.

“Great,” he continues dryly, his arms going around him as TK laughs into his chest. “Pick her side.”

“So pouty,” TK teases, still chuckling as he lifts his head to grin up at Carlos. “Who knew you were so cute like this.”.

“You’re enjoying this,” Carlos accuses him with narrowed eyes. TK shrugs a shoulder, not bothering to deny it. He’s still nervous about pulling this off without Carlos’ family and friends realizing that they’re faking the seriousness of their relationship. Still, TK finds interacting with Carlos’ family entertaining so far, especially because of the opportunity to see Carlos’s more playful, silly side.

“Yeah, you’re enjoying me being embarrassed a little too much,” Carlos continues as TK grins. “Well, come on then, might as well keep your entertainment going.”

Carlos’ dry voice makes TK chuckle, and he finds himself tilting his head, making up for the inch of height difference between them. Carlos’ mouth lifts at the corners as he closes the tiny gap between them, brushing his lips against his a few times, causing TK’s lips to tingle from the light contact. He lets out a sound from the back of his throat that has Carlos smiling against his mouth. TK groans in response to the teasing, wanting more than anything to deepen the kiss but knowing they can’t. Not when they’re around people who have known Carlos since he was a kid.

“Introduce me to your friends before we give them a show they’ll never let you live down,” he whispers, taking a step back out of Carlos’ hold.

Carlos groans softly before taking his hand and walks him towards his neighbors.

For the next hour, TK plays the attentive boyfriend, sticking close to Carlos as he gets introduced to his nearest and dearest. He listens as the older neighbors who watched Carlos grow up tell him about a playful younger version of the man holding him. Kind and helpful, bringing in groceries for the older folks on the block and getting paid back in cookies. TK enjoys as the comments make Carlos blush. And he smiles as the kids on the block all come around to say hi to Carlos, some trying to climb him as they hug him. It’s obvious to TK, Carlos is well-loved by his community.

He meets Carlos’ other two sisters, and like Lola, they take great joy in messing with Carlos about him, making teasing comments that make even TK blush, much to their delight. Carlos scowls at them over every comment pleasing them even further.

In response, TK is even more affectionate with Carlos, snuggling to his side, kissing him under his jaw to ease the sting of his sisters’ teasing, earning a happy smile from him, and even more ribbing from the Reyes women. He likes them; he likes how they tease with love, bright smiles on their faces, their eyes full of affection and easy acceptance of him in Carlos’ life. It becomes clear that if he makes Carlos happy, he’s welcomed into the fold.

It makes something ache inside TK to know all of this is for show, and he realizes quickly he’s not the only one feeling this way.

He can see the situation getting to Carlos the more his mother smiles in their direction. When she starts talking about Sunday dinner and how Carlos needs to bring TK for the next one, he can feel Carlos tense under his hand as TK tells her that he works long hours, and they’ll have to check with the station’s schedule for him first.

“You know, you didn’t give me the house tour earlier,” he says to Carlos, his tone flirty, but his expression meaningful as he turns to him. He can start to see the cracks in Carlos.

“That’s code for ‘take me to your teenage bed,’” Valentina says dryly, proving she’s just as bad as Lola, while Sofía, the quietest of the sisters, snorts into her drink.

“I thought that was clear,” he says with a smirk as he looks at them over his shoulder, his smile growing as they both roll their eyes at them.

“Go,” Sofía shoos them away, amused. “Go make out with your boyfriend. Lola was right, your love is nauseating.”

“They’re just jealous we’re so cute,” TK tells Carlos, laughing when they boo him. “Shall we?”

Carlos nods, turning them in the direction of his mother’s house. They walk towards it quickly, smiling back at the neighbors they make eye contact with, but the moment they’re inside the house, TK feels Carlos deflate under his touch.

“Oh man,” he exhales tiredly, walking away from him and down the hall.

TK hesitates for a moment but eventually follows him towards the far end of the house. He looks inside the room Carlos has gone into, obviously his, by the band posters and multiple sports-related paraphernalia on the walls.

In the middle of the room, Carlos sits on a twin-sized bed.

“So this is your room,” TK comments, moving to a wall with trophies and awards both in academics and sports.

“Yeah, Mami has kept all our rooms the same even after all of us left for college,” Carlos tells him with a small smile. “We tell her to turn them into something else now that we’re all moved out, but she says they’re our rooms, and that’s how they’ll stay.”

“That’s really sweet of her,” TK says softly as he comes to sit down next to him. “She’s really nice, and so are your sisters even if they really enjoy messing with you,” he smirks, remembering all the jokes the sisters have had tonight. “I like them.”

“And they like you,” Carlos says with an exhale. “Which isn’t surprising at all.”

TK bites his lip, not knowing what to say, the words sound positive, but Carlos’ tone tells him it’s anything but.

“I hate lying to them, TK,” Carlos looks at him with a frown. “They probably think we’re in love, and I hate how easy it was to fool them.”

TK swallows hard at that particular word Carlos uses. Love. It sends his pulse racing in a way he’s not prepared for. “You can tell them the truth,” he suggests gently. “You can tell them we are still figuring us out.”

“That’s not really true either, is it?” Carlos answers, giving him a sad smile. “We’re not figuring anything out. I know how I feel about you, and you know that you don’t want anything more serious than what we have.”

“How do you feel about me?” TK whispers hesitantly, his heart thundering under his chest at the look Carlos gives him.

“Come on, TK, you have to know,” Carlos whispers back, sighing when TK doesn’t say anything. “Fine. I’m willing to settle for a small piece of you, because even that little piece, is better than not having you at all. That’s how I feel about you.”

֍֍֍

The drive back to TK’s is a quiet one; after Carlos’ confession leaves them in awkward silence, they return to the party playing the happy couple until they’re able to escape. Carlota and the sisters give him an affectionate good-bye, telling him they hope to see him soon. It hurts in a way TK isn’t ready for.

Carlos pulls the car to a stop in front of TK’s home and turns off the engine.

“Are we going to talk about this?” TK asks quietly when a few minutes pass, and nothing is said.

“Yes,” Carlos answers finally, just as soft. When he turns his head to look at TK, he aches from how tired Carlos looks. “But can it not be tonight?” there is a quiet plea in his voice that TK can’t deny.

“Okay,” he says, reaching for the door handle.

“Hey,” Carlos starts, touching his arm, reeling him back before he can get out. “Thanks for coming tonight.”

“I – “ he starts helplessly, it feels suddenly like there is this giant drift between them. Something he’s never felt before, and he doesn’t know how to fix it.

Carlos seems to understand instantly and, as usual, tries to make it better. “Come here,” he murmurs, tugging him forward. TK closes his eyes, feeling the sting behind them as Carlos gives him the softest of kisses.

“Whatever you decide about us,” he whispers as he presses his forehead against his. “I’m here for you either way, okay?”

TK lets out a soft sound, swallowing hard around the lump forming in his throat.

Carlos makes a sound of his own, pressing his forehead a little harder against TK’s for a moment before moving back. “You should go,” he whispers. “Get some rest.”

“Carlos – ” TK tries again, no less sure of what he wants to say or how to mend the drift that keeps growing with every passing second between them.

Carlos just gives him a slight smile that doesn’t reach his eyes. “Good night, Tyler.”

Knowing that he has nothing to say to make it better right now, not when he doesn’t even know what he’s feeling, TK reaches for the door again. “Good night, Carlos,” he sighs before stepping out of the car.

He walks up the driveway to the front door, pausing when he opens it to look back, not surprised in the least that Carlos is waiting until he’s safely inside.

He enters the house and leans against the closed door with a heavy sigh. Resting there for a moment, he tries to work through the whole evening and, in the end, gets nowhere. He hears movement in the distance and follows it; walking through the house, he finds his father sitting at the island counter in the middle of the kitchen, stirring his tea.

“Hey, kid,” his father greets him with an easy smile. “Didn’t expect to see you tonight.”

“Why not?” he questions, opening the fridge to get a water bottle.

“Because you were out with a certain Austin Police officer, and you have a tendency to come home late or not at all when you’re out with him,” Owen answers bluntly, smiling brightly when he chokes on his water.

“You know,” TK gets out after a series of coughs.

“That you’re messing around with Officer Reyes?” Owen questions, his tone disbelieving. “Of course I know.”

“Then what was that the other day when he came to see me?” TK asks back. “You made it awkward on purpose.”

“That was me messing with you,” Owen answers without shame, his blue eyes dancing with amusement.

TK rolls his eyes. “Thanks, dad,” he says dryly as he comes to sit down next to him with a heavy sigh.

“Did something happen, TK?” Owen asks him, frowning as TK runs a hand over his face and through his hair.

“You could say that,” he says tiredly, staring at the counter. He closes his eyes when he feels his father’s hand on his neck, giving it an encouraging squeeze.

“Tell me,” Owen says softly, and TK does. The story just pours out of him. How he and Carlos started, the botched dinner he walked out of. Getting arrested, and the conversation between him and Carlos at the station. Them starting over, with no commitment, just friends and casual sex. How getting caught by Carlos’ neighbor ended with playing the loving boyfriend to Carlos’ family and friends tonight, and finally, he tells his dad, Carlos’ world-tilting confession.

“Wow,” his father blinks a few times as he stares at him; it makes TK chuckle without humor.

“That’s all you got, dad?” he questions. “I tell you that I have a ‘friends with benefits’ situation going with Carlos. That we played fake-boyfriends to his very nice family, which I enjoyed more than I should have. He then basically tells me that he only agreed to that because he has feelings for me, and went along with this because some of me is better than nothing. Which means I’m a selfish ass for not realizing sooner that this whole situation has been for my benefit, and Carlos gets nothing out of it but hurt, and all you can say is wow?”

“You’re not a selfish ass,” Owen says seriously, reaching out to touch his forearm when TK shakes his head. “You didn’t know how Carlos really felt until tonight.”

“I should have though,” he argues back, realizing how true it is. Everything Carlos does, from cooking for them after their shifts even though he’s tired himself. Listening to TK and never once judging him for his past. The sex, which TK now realizes even from the very first time, has never been just sex, not once. Carlos has cared about him from the start, it’s always been there, but because he was nursing a broken heart, he ignored it, wanting the comfort Carlos gave him. “He’s so good to me, dad. So kind.”

“Yeah, I can see that,” Owen agrees with a soft smile. “I like the kid.”

“I like him too,” TK whispers. “A lot.”

“But?” his dad questions.

“But what if I’m too messed up and broken to really try this?” he asks, swallowing hard around the question.

Owen shakes his head at him, frowning. “You aren’t a mess or broken, TK.”

TK sighs. “Dad – “

“No, listen to me,” Owen cuts him off with a stern expression on his face. “I get that this is about your addiction and about Alex. I get it. But your past doesn’t make you a mess. You fight your addiction every damn day, you’re a survivor, TK.”

TK takes a shaky breath, his eyes stinging from his dad’s words. Looking at his father, he can see that he’s holding back the tears too.

“And Alex didn’t break you,” Owen continues gently. “He bruised you up a bit, but you’re not broken, kid, not one bit. If he did, you wouldn’t be able to care about Carlos the way you obviously do.”

“But what if I try, and I mess it up?” TK whispers, giving voice to his fears.

Owen smiles at him with understanding. “What’s scarier, TK? Being with Carlos and making a mistake,” he pauses, his blue eyes serious, his next words freezing the air in TK’s lungs. “Or not trying at all, and losing out completely on the great guy you’ve obviously fallen for?”

TK stares at his dad, and this time when his eyes burn, he doesn’t hold back the tears that roll down his cheek. “Damn, dad,” he says softly, wiping at his face. “Way to not soften the blow.”

Owen chuckles gently, his expression loving, supportive, and a little amused. TK smiles back, knowing the answer.

“Can I borrow your car?” he questions, earning a large smile from Owen in return as he digs into his pocket. He places his keys in TK’s hand.

“Go get your guy.”

֍֍֍

The drive over to Carlos’ is a quick one, but that doesn’t mean TK doesn’t have enough time to second-guess himself and work his nerves up into a frenzy. By the time he pulls into Carlos’ driveway, he’s practically vibrating with nervous energy.

He bounces up the small pathway and knocks on the door sharply before he can stop himself to think that Carlos might be in bed. It takes a few minutes for the living room lights to go on, and maybe another minute before the door opens.

“TK?” Carlos questions, his expression tired and confused. He’s shirtless, just a pair of soft-looking sleeping shorts on. TK looks at his face, and his heart lurches; underneath the tiredness, Carlos’ eyes look red and a little puffy. “What – “

TK doesn’t let him finish, Carlos has obviously cried tonight, and he’s the reason. He takes a step forward, wrapping his arms around Carlos’ waist, hoping his hug is welcomed.

He feels Carlos tense up, jerking in surprise. TK holds his breath, letting it out in a hard exhale when Carlos finally wraps his arms around TK’s shoulders and hugs him back tightly.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, baby,” he whispers over and over into the crook of Carlos’ neck. His heart thundering with gratitude when Carlos’ body loses more of its tension.

Carlos sighs against the side of TK’s face. “You don’t have to apologize,” he whispers into his skin.

“I do,” TK answers, pulling back to look at Carlos. “I have been hurting you, and that’s the last thing in the world I want to do, Carlos. You have to know that.”

Carlos sighs again, taking a step back out of TK’s hold. “Come in,” he says, gesturing at the living room.

TK passes Carlos and sits on the couch, licking his lips nervously as he waits for Carlos to join him. He turns to face him when Carlos sits down.

“You’ve been crying,” TK says as he takes Carlos in again, his stomach twists when Carlos just shrugs in response. “I’m sorry.”

Carlos shakes his head. “You don’t have to apologize,” he tells him quietly. “You can’t help how you feel or don’t feel about me. I knew what I was getting into. I knew you just wanted to keep this light. I’m the one that went along and fell for you anyway.”

TK takes a sharp inhale, feeling his heart soar at Carlos’ words. Before coming over, he knew that Carlos had feelings for him, to hear him be so honest sends a spike of fear, but even more powerful is the sense of joy that overcomes him.

“Carlos,” TK starts, reaching out to take his hand, grateful when Carlos lets him, even going as far as covering it with his own. “You have to understand I didn’t plan for you at all,” he tells him, swallowing around the lump in his throat before he continues. “I came to Austin nursing a broken heart that wrecked me so bad I lost years of sobriety over it. Getting involved with anyone so quickly after my breakup was the last thing on my mind, especially with someone as wonderful as you. All I have been focusing on is my pain, and trying to keep my head above water.”

“I know that, sweetheart. I know you’ve been hurting badly; it takes time to heal,” Carlos squeezes his hand, and his expression is so full of understanding and compassion, it leaves TK in awe, and well, in love.

“That’s just it, though,” he says quickly, leaning forward in his rush to explain how things have changed. “I don’t hurt when I’m with you. When I think about you, I get excited about the next time I’m going to see you. And then when we spend time together, I’m filled with warmth and contentment,” he smiles, mostly at himself; he’s been an idiot not to realize this sooner. “For a while now, you, Carlos Reyes, have been the definition of happiness for me.”

“Really?” Carlos whispers, his expression tentative and hopeful.

TK nods, he raises their joined hands to his chest. “I have to admit that it’s scared me; I didn’t plan to care for anyone the way I care for you.”

“I don’t want you to be scared, TK,” Carlos answers quietly.

TK smiles again. “I’m always going to be a little scared, Carlos,” he says, reaching out to touch his cheek, swallowing a sigh when Carlos instantly leans into the touch. “How I feel about you means that you have the power to hurt me.”

Carlos opens his mouth, but TK continues before he can say anything.

“Caring about you also means being terrified of messing this up,” he says carefully.

“I worry about that too,” Carlos answers. “I don’t want to push you into something you might not be ready for.”

“You haven’t,” TK reassures him. Carlos has been letting him set the rules and the speed to them from the start. Even now, TK knows that if he tells him he’s not ready yet, Carlos will be nothing but understanding.

“I told my dad about tonight – well, I told him about everything,” he confesses, laughing softly at the surprised look Carlos gives him. “Yeah. By the way, he already knew we’re involved and was messing with us the other day,” he tells him, grinning when Carlos cringes. “Anyway, my dad asked what was scarier, giving us a fair shot and making mistakes along the way – or not trying at all. Not making any mistakes but also losing out on the chance of us being amazing together.”

Carlos visibly swallows before shifting closer into TK’s space. TK follows until their faces are inches away. “So, what’s the answer?”

TK smiles, his heart racing when Carlos does the same as he gets closer still. Carlos lets out a soft puff of air when TK brushes his lips against his. The kiss is chaste and unhurried.

“Tyler – “ he sighs when TK ends the kiss to rub his nose against his. “Are you sure?”

TK pulls back to make sure Carlos is looking at him. “Yes, I am. I want this. I want us,” he answers, relieved by how sure he feels. He licks his lips before biting down on the bottom one. “I mean – if that’s what you want too.”

Carlos lets out a huff, but the smile on his face is so bright it could rival the sun. “Keep up, Strand,” he teases, tugging TK forward again until their mouths are pressed against each other. “It’s all I want,” he says between them.

TK grins into the kiss Carlos gives him, moaning softly when their mouths part and their tongues dance over the other. The kiss goes from zero to sixty in a second, and TK finds himself groaning in pleasure from the wet heat of Carlos’ mouth and the hard press of his frame as he pushes him back on the couch, covering him with his half-naked body.

“Wait,” he gets out, letting out a breath as Carlos quickly unbuttons his shirt and starts kissing down his chest. “Baby, wait. I have something to ask you.”

Carlos whines, flicking his tongue over TK’s left nipple, causing him to gasp, his body responding instantly before Carlos pulls up to look at him expectantly.

TK lets out a shaky breath as he takes him in, his skin flushed, his warm brown eyes a few shades darker, and so much love and desire for him on his face that TK has to wonder how even for a second, he thought he could do without this.

“Wanna be my boyfriend?” he asks, laughing joyfully as Carlos lights up, both of them remembering how he asked this just a few days ago. “For real this time?”

Carlos presses into him more, his muscular body anchoring TK to the couch, enveloping him in his warmth. His face, inches away from his as he smiles sweetly at him, and TK knows he loves him.

“There’s nothing, TK Strand,” he answers, his beautiful brown eyes shining. “That I want more.”

#911 lone star #tarlos #tarlos fic #911 lone star fic #tk x carlos #my writing

132 notes · View notes

floralguccistyles · 4 years

Photo

nine: aliens, bigfoot, and nerds, oh my!

“Have you been eating, sweetheart? You’ve lost at least ten pounds since the last time I’ve seen you.”

My father rolled his eyes from over my mother’s shoulder as she pulled me into a big hug. Every time I saw my mother, she mentioned how skinny I was getting even though I was sure I had gained about five pounds since the last time I’d seen her. It was usually an excuse to come into my flat and make us a giant dinner, which I would never complain about. Her arms squeezed my shoulders as she released me, pulling back so she could look at my face.

“Pretty as ever, sweetheart.”

“Eva, can I please hug our daughter hello now?”

I laughed as my mother made a big deal of moving out of the way so my father could hug me. His embrace was familiar, his arms the ones I ran to when the bullying in secondary school got too bad to handle on my own. He had wiped my tears away and said “you’re one of a kind, mija, and they’re jealous of that.”

“Was the drive okay?” I asked them, pulling away from my father after he planted a quick kiss on my hairline. Their suitcases (the ones they had owned when they came to England) were decorated with vibrant stickers from Cuba. They were worn now, scratched at the corners, but their color had miraculously remained.

“It was wonderful. It’s been so long since we’ve been to London, and now look at us! We’re here to celebrate our daughter’s book!”

Inviting them to the book release party had been a last minute decision, but I found myself happy that I had. Though I knew they were proud of me, I also knew that they didn’t really understand a lot of the fandom stuff I had discussed in several chapters. They would read it to support me, of that I was sure, but I was uncertain about if they’d actually enjoy it.

“You probably won’t understand a lot of it, Mum.”

“You don’t know that. Your father and I have been watching that Doctor show...what’s it called, Roberto?”

“I don’t know, Eva. I fall asleep when it’s on.”

“It’s called Doctor Who, Mum,” I snorted out, biting back a bigger laugh.

“Whatever it’s called, we’ve been watching it. And we were alive when Star Wars came out, you know. I was there for the Darth Vader reveal and everything. Mamá took me to the theater and got me an extra large popcorn.”

I liked hearing little stories like that. It was almost too easy to picture my mum, sitting there in a little theater in Cuba when the true identity of Darth Vader was revealed. My grandmother had probably grasped her chest with her hand and shouted “¡Dios mío!” at the top of her lungs. If I eventually travelled to Cuba, if the movie theater was still there, I decided I would visit it.

The three of us piled into the Uber I had called for us, which wasn’t hard because their suitcases were so small. On the way to my flat, my parents regaled stories about their drive to London and how she was upset my dad wouldn’t let her listen to Dua Lipa on the radio because “that Dua Lipa girl was very talented, Petra.” We made it back to my flat with only three arguments broken out between them.

“You guys are staying in my room and I’m camping out on the couch,” I informed them, helping my mum to carry her suitcase in. “Sorry it’s so cramped. It’s perfect for me, but unfortunately having guests is a little difficult.”

“We could have stayed in a hotel, baby,” My father commented.

“I’m not going to make my parents pay for a hotel room. I can sleep on the couch for one night and survive, Dad.” They had been to my flat before, but I still showed them where the extra towels and soap was in the bathroom. “The party’s at seven tonight, and dinner will be served. I’ve got to go a little earlier, but I’m just a text away if you need anything.”

“My baby,” my mum said, her eyes glistening, “we are so proud of you!”

I found myself enveloped in another tight hug, this time joined by my father. The lump in my throat grew when I thought of their praise. Too often, I had taken their support for granted. “I love you both.”

“We love you, mija.”

A sudden knock on my door had us pulling apart. “Were you expecting anyone, baby?” my mum asked, going to the front foyer and looking out the foggy windows. “It’s a boy, Roberto!”

“What?”

I moved around my frozen parents to answer the door, swinging it open and greeting Harry Styles’s smiling face with a blank look. I had no idea what Harry was doing here, but he really had very impeccable timing.

And by impeccable, I meant shit.

“Morning! I was thinking about grabbing something to eat at a little bistro around here and thought I’d come by and see what you were up to today. Wanna join?”

Speech wouldn’t come. I felt the stares of my parents behind me, still hidden from Harry’s view, and how they would squeal and gush when they found out I was on somewhat good terms with Harry Styles, something they’d been trying to get me to do for years. “Harry—”

“Harry?” My mum’s voice asked loudly from where she was standing. She marched up behind me and swung the door open a little wider so he could clearly see her. “Oh my goodness! Harry Styles! Petra, it’s Harry Styles!”

“I know who he is, Mum,” I whispered in an embarrassed voice.

“Last time I saw you, you were about four feet tall,” My mother cooed, stepping forward. Before Harry could react, she had him in a tight hug, wrapping her arms around his body. “Petra didn’t tell me you were friends again!”

I bit down the urge to argue that we were never friends, but my mother wouldn’t listen. She never had when it had come to my bullies at school. “Just give them a chance to change, Petra,” she had told me when I would bury my face in her shoulder and cry that I didn’t want to go to school.

“Hi, Mrs. Gallego. I didn’t know you guys were coming to town. Sorry for intruding on family day. I was just coming down to this part of town to grab some lunch and wanted to see if Petra could come. No worries, though. I don’t want to take away—”

“Nonsense!” My father cut in, reaching out his hand for Harry to shake. “Nice to see you again, Harry. Feel free to take Petra to lunch. We’re probably going to nap a little before her release party tonight. The drive was long.”

“Release party?” Harry asked, glancing back and forth between my parents and me.

I awkwardly scratched the side of my head. “My, er, book is being released tonight.”

“What? Petra, that’s amazing!” His smile seemed genuine enough, but all I wanted was to shut the door and rewind the last five minutes. I never would have answered the door in front of my parents if I had known it was going to be Harry on the other side. “If you, um, want to go...it can be a celebratory lunch. And obviously you all are invited, Mr. and Mrs. Gallego.”

“Oh, Harry, we’d love to come, wouldn’t we, Petra?”

My eyes moved between Harry’s cautiously hopeful face and my parents, who were already grabbing my mum’s purse and getting ready to leave. In their eyes, I had already agreed. “Sure,” I said uncomfortably. “That’s fine. Let me just call an Uber for us and we’ll follow behind you.”

“Oh, don’t be silly, Petra. We can call an Uber and you can go with Harry.”

There was no arguing with Eva Gallego when she set her mind to something, so I just nodded. “Okay. Er...I guess that settles that.”

We awkwardly stood around in my foyer until my mum cleared her throat. “Petra, darling, aren’t you going to invite Harry in while we wait for our ride?”

“Right. Come on in, Harry.”

His gaze locked on mine, expression questioning. I knew he felt the tension that was creeping up inside me with having him in the same room as my parents, but I didn’t want to get into it. Not when I knew it would ruin my night. The morning had already started off with self-destructive behavior as I looked back at some of the tweets about my day out with Harry from February. I had never been as aware of my appearance as I was in that moment, scrolling through absolute strangers saying the worst things. I had an extra appointment with Doctor Thorne this week to make up for it.

“How long have you and Petra been hanging out again?” My mum asked as we all sat in my living room.

“A couple of months. She contacted me in January about being on the show. It was an amazing experience.”

“I just love listening to Petra’s podcast,” my father said happily, reaching over and patting my knee. “I have no clue what she’s talking about half the time, but she sounds damn smart saying it.”

“She’s incredibly smart,” Harry agreed, and I ignored the urge to bang my head on the coffee table. I didn’t want him agreeing with my parents about my intelligence. We weren’t really that good of friends, if I even considered us friends yet. I had admitted to myself that Harry had definitely changed for the better, but that didn’t mean the past hurt went away.

“I almost forgot, mija! Your grandma sent you Materva. She said you wrote her an email about it.”

Normally, I would be jumping for joy. The first and only time my grandmother had visited from Cuba, she had brought Materva with her and it had become my favorite drink. With Harry here, however, I felt uncomfortable and self-conscious. I squirmed a little in my seat.

“That was nice of her. I’ll email her and tell her thank you. Want me to put it in the fridge?”

My father went off to my room to grab the Materva and Harry raised a quizzical eyebrow. “What is Moterva?”

“Materva,” my mum corrected with a smile. “It’s a soda.”

“And it’s delicious. Remind Petra to let you try some later,” my father said, returning with a set of six cans. “She sent us more, but we’re selfish and kept the rest of it at home for us.”

He stocked them in my fridge and pulled out his phone when he heard the small chime. “Our Uber is here. We’ll see you two at the restaurant.”

I made sure they made it into their car okay before I hesitantly pulled open the door of Harry’s. We both got ourselves situated, clicking our seatbelts into place.

He didn’t start the car.

“I didn’t know your parents would be here,” he said, offering me an apologetic smile. “I could tell it...it made you uncomfortable.”

“I’m just not used to this.” I gestured back and forth between us with my hand. “And my parents...they mean well, but when I was in secondary school and coming home to them crying, they told me to try and make friends with you guys. They didn’t really understand how hard that would have been. They think I should let bygones be bygones and I want to...but I don’t know if I can just yet.”

“I completely understand.” He tapped his fingers against the steering wheel. “Can I ask you something a little personal?”

“I don’t know if I’ll answer.” Honesty seemed to be the best approach with Harry.

“Why do you seem so embarrassed when your Cuban heritage is mentioned around me? When your dad brought out the soda, it looks like you were going to stab yourself with a fork.”

Go back to where you came from, Gallego. Nathan Penrose’s voice filtered through my thoughts. To them, I wasn’t English enough for England. But it was almost worse to feel that I wasn’t Cuban enough for Cuba.

“It’s about what that prick Nathan said when we were younger, right?” he asked softly, his fingers tightening around the steering wheel remembering it. “I so wish I would have punched him in the face.”

“It’s not just Nathan. That’s a big part of it, but it’s not just you I feel uncomfortable talking about it with.”

“Okay. You don’t have to talk about it, but...just know you can, if you ever want to. I’m serious about trying to be friends, Petra.”

The rest of the car ride was spent in silence, with some pop song playing lowly over the speakers. It wasn’t an uncomfortable silence, per se, but it made me wriggle around in my seat and wish I was sitting at the restaurant already. I wasn’t used to silences with Harry not trying to fill the space with his random thoughts. I appreciated that he was letting me just sit and absorb the moments, but it was also unnerving.

We pulled up to the little bistro right after my parents, who had already decided to get a table for us. Harry walked around to the other side of his car and opened the door for me, holding out his hand to help me out. My parents waved us over from their table outside, pulling out our chairs. I was seated between Harry and my mum, across from my father. It meant that I caught the sly looks they gave me whenever Harry was engrossed with his menu.

“What’s good here, Harry?” My mum asked after a couple moments of looking.

“I like their vegan buffalo wings and macaroni.”

“You’re vegan?” I asked in surprise, raising a brow at him.

“No, but I eat plant based meat when I can. And most places make their vegan wings with cauliflower, which hurts my stomach. This place makes them with mushrooms.”

“Petra loves mushrooms. You should try them, sweetheart.”

I set my menu down without really looking at it. “I’m getting a bagel and their cucumber and edamame salad.” Since both of my parents loved cucumbers, I knew I would be sharing at least a few bites with them. It was normal for us to sample each other’s meals. “What are you getting, Mum?”

“Maybe the chicken breast and mashed potato lunch special. Your father, predictable as ever, is getting a burger.”

My dad shrugged. “Don’t fix what isn’t broken.”

The waitress eyed Harry a little longer than necessary when she came to take our orders, but eventually left. I could tell he would be getting asked to take a picture before he left, despite how unprofessional that was. Then I thought about if it had been Hayden Christensen if I had been the waitress and understood what the fuss was about.

“So, Harry,” my mum said after a long sip of her lemonade, which I knew meant she was going to ask a lot of questions, “what have you been doing now that you’re solo? I ran into your Mum when she was visiting home for a couple of weeks and she showed me one of your music videos. You’re very talented!”

I’d never seen Harry Styles blush, but I noticed a faint twinge of pink on his cheeks. “Thank you, Mrs. Gallego. I’m writing some more music right now, but I’m not sure when the next album will be out.”

“We just love listening to your first album. We listen to your group stuff too,” Mum commented, tapping her nails on her wrist. “Petra has a wonderful singing voice, did you know?”

Before Harry could question the statement, my father and I both snorted. “No, she doesn’t, Eva. No offense, mija.”

“None taken. I sound like a dying animal. Mum, I hate to tell you this, but the last time I sang, you were very intoxicated and would have thought our next door neighbor’s cat was Shakira.”

“Petra’s good at other things, though. She’s awesome on Alien Crossing. And I’m sure her book is going to be fantastic,” Harry supplied helpfully.

“Has she invited you to the party tonight? I know her other friends are coming. Jeremiah, Veronica, and Melody?”

I shifted in my seat. Harry looked pained, like he didn’t want to say anything that would hurt my mum’s feelings. I hadn’t invited him to the book release party because this book was mine, something untainted by the memories of secondary school. Talking about my nerd stuff on AC was one thing, but publishing them on paper was another. “Mum…” I trailed off.

“He could come with us! Are you going to buy a copy of the book, Harry?”

“Mum, he’s not going to buy—”

“Yeah, actually. I preordered it on my phone. And I was going to buy a hard copy, as well.”

Harry’s words had my mouth closing in surprise. I blinked over at him, at his secretive little smile when he raised his soda up to his lips and took a sip. “You preordered it?” I whispered, my throat thick with some emotion I couldn’t identify. “You’re not gonna understand it all.”

“Well, I’ll understand the Lord of the Rings bits now. And anything unfamiliar I come across, I’ll just make a note to watch or read it.”

This action felt more significant than anything that had happened in our hesitant friendship thus far. Even though he had introduced me to John Williams and had brought me a plant, this was the thing that felt essential. I felt like the Grinch in that moment, my heart growing a size bigger and allowing room for hesitant optimism to sink in. Maybe Harry Styles and I actually could be friends.

Which was why when my mum suggested him coming another time, I shyly looked over at him and said, “Of course you can come if you’d like. I’ll text you the details.”

My publisher had rented out the Aldgate Library at my college for the release.

It felt weird stepping back into the library, stumbling a little in my black heels when I accidentally grazed a rock on the sidewalk right outside. The last time I had been here, I had my hair in a messy ponytail and was in tears at midnight trying to study for my last finals of my university career. Now, I was publishing a book. It felt surreal.

I smoothed down the skirt of my red dress, trying my best not to chew on my lip. Veronica had meticulously spread some kind of red lip stain on it that was supposed to be long lasting, but I didn’t trust it’s longevity against my teeth nervously biting at it. Plus, I knew pictures would be taken tonight and the last thing I needed was to have lipstick on my teeth.

“Petra!” My publisher said, walking out of Aldgate in a tailored suit. She was also wearing a little badge that had “Aimee Metcalfe, Dorrance Publishing” printed right underneath a fantastic photo of her. I found myself jealous. My ID photos never came out that great. “What’re you doing standing outside? Come in, you numpty!”

I gave Aimee a quick salute and followed her inside, trying to keep up with her. As familiar as she was walking in heels, it was a new skill set to me entirely. She led me through the front of Aldgate and back into one of the large common area study rooms, which had been transformed for the launch. There was a giant banner hung up on the far left side, with #Aliens #Bigfoot #Nerds printed over it in sparkling letters. In front of the banner was a table decorated with cupcakes and cake pops, each the same color blue as my book cover, which featured a picture of myself that I hated but Aimee had insisted the readers would love. Jeremiah and Zach were shoving their faces with one of the cake pops, while Veronica looked on in disgust. Bailey was chatting with Melody by the photo booth that Aimee had suggested, which when printed, would frame the pictures in the same hashtags the banner provided.

My parents were crying in the corner of the room.

I went to them first, holding out my arms. My mum immediately let out a wail, pulling me into an embrace. “This is supposed to be a happy day, Mum.”

“Oh, I’m so happy for you, sweetheart. You have worked so hard. And you look beautiful.” She pulled back to examine my dress and makeup, pressing her hand to her mouth when she did. “Such a beautiful young woman, inside and out. Oh, how did we get so lucky, Roberto?”

My dad smiled at me. “Proud doesn’t even cover it, mija. Your mum has demanded she be first in the book signing line.”

“Oh, I did not, Roberto!”

“Petra,” Aimee said, interrupting our conversation. She introduced herself to my parents and then led me over to the podium. “You’re going to do the reading, and then Terri and I put together a fun little trivia game about some of the fandoms in the book. Whoever wins that will get a free signed copy. Afterwards, you’re on book signing duty. We’ve got about twelve hundred Sharpies lined up for you. Questions?”

My head was spinning with all the information, but I found myself growing excited. This was something I had put blood, sweat, and tears into. And I was finally getting to share it with the people who meant the most to me. “None so far. I’ll flag you down if any come up.”

“Good. Oh,” she said, reaching into her bag, “keep this close. This is your best friend when you’re up there reading and when you’re signing books.”

She handed me a water bottle with room temperature water, which was apparently better for the vocal cords. Then she was pushing me towards the podium and I hid the water bottle on the hidden shelf on my side. My book was sitting there, my own face staring back at me.

When I looked into the sea of people, I saw my friends giving me encouraging looks and my parents crying happily, my mother now with a tissue from the dessert bar that she pressed underneath her eyes every five seconds. The rest of the people in the room were people who were avid listeners of AC, the ones who sent in messages for me to read. I noticed Daisy Callahan sitting at one of the tables, shooting looks over to Jeremiah and smiling like a smitten school girl. I made a mental note to ask Jeremiah if they were officially together after the reading.

And then, there was Harry Styles.

It looked like he had just come in, dressed in a nice suit in a dark red color. I was so used to seeing him in bright neons when he was dressed up that the muted burgundy almost faded into the background. However, he was still Harry Styles and it was hard for Harry to do anything but stand out. He was fidgeting with his suit jacket, messing around with the collar of it before he looked up and caught my eye.

I wondered what he saw, looking at me standing up on the podium. I knew what my friends and family saw; they saw me finally getting one of my big wishes to come true. But what did Harry Styles, who already got his dream, see?

I didn’t have time to think about it, because Aimee was gesturing for me to start the reading. She was helping usher people to their seats, and I felt the weight of more than just Harry’s eyes on me.

“Good evening everyone,” I said into the small microphone attached in front of me. “Thank you all for coming. This is the culmination of blood, sweat, tears, and other bodily substances I won’t mention. I can’t wait to share it with you. This reading comes from chapter seven, in which I discuss why Game of Thrones actually became so popular and how I think the last season is going to go, amongst other things.”

Jeremiah let out an embarrassing whooping sound and I rolled my eyes.

Then, I read.

If I had expected to be embarrassed standing there in front of a crowd, reading the words I had written, I was wrong. Instead of feeling down, like I had so many times before when I discussed the things I loved, I felt powerful. Because yeah, Nathan Penrose could be a racist asshole all he wanted, and his friends could drop all my books in the puddle. But I had done it. I had written my book, I had a kickass podcast that introduced me to my best friends, and I was filled with an uncharacteristic pride.

So I went along with it. It’s what Doctor Thorne would have wanted. But more importantly, it was what I wanted.

Aimee had been a lifesaver with the water, as I found myself finishing up my excerpt and drinking nearly all of it during the applause. “Thank you,” I said after I had capped the bottle and set it back where I had it hidden. “Thank you to Aimee Metcalfe, my knight in shining armor through this process. Thank you to Terri Patterson, who spent night and day editing. Thank you to everyone at Dorrance Publishing who put up with trying to get copyright issues taken care of because I wrote about some of the biggest money shark companies in here,” I paused for the light laughter that trickled through the room. “But most importantly, thank you to my friends and family and everyone who supported me through this. It means the world. I hope you enjoy the rest of the book.”

There was a small table with stacks and stacks of my book. I didn’t think I’d ever seen that many pictures of me in one place before, including my parents’ house. Aimee started up the trivia game, and I heard the first question asked about what the aliens that destroyed New York in the first Avengers movie was called while I took my seat at the table.

“The book is awesome.” I heard from my left. I turned, seeing Harry standing beside the table, leaning against a pillar. “I could tell you love it when you were reading.”

“It’s a little overwhelming to see it all finished,” I said, awkwardly gesturing to the pile of books in front of me.

“Would you ever want to write fiction?”

I shrugged. “I’m not sure. For now, no. I might change my mind later.” He nodded, fixing his suit jacket again like he had been earlier. “I didn’t expect you to come,” I said after a few moments.

His eyes crinkled and his head tilted to the side, like he was confused. “Why? You invited me and this is important to you. I wouldn’t miss it.”

“It wasn’t hard...with the paps or anything?”

His jaw set and told me everything I needed to know. “I’ve got someone on security here tonight, just in case. I’m not gonna let anything ruin your big night, including paps. There was someone who recognized my car, but I don’t think anyone else is coming.” He unclenched his jaw and looked down at me. A softer look took over his face. “You look gorgeous. That color reminds me of the dress you wore to prom.”

I blinked. “You didn’t talk to me at prom.”

In fact, I had spent most of prom standing in the corner, nursing the lemonade I had gotten myself. Nathan Penrose had spiked it, but not before I had gotten myself a cup. I had saved up all my money for the pretty red spaghetti strap dress, but looking back it was a useless purchase. I didn’t have fun and was home drinking tea and watching Legally Blonde by midnight.

Harry gave me a small smile. “No, but I saw you. I remembered thinking you looked so beautiful and how I was an idiot for how I’d treated you.”

“You did not,” I argued, rolling my eyes at his statement. “You were thinking of your audition and what song you were going to sing. I wasn’t even a blip on your radar.”

He shrugged, bringing his own water up to his lips. “Think what you think. Doesn’t change the fact you looked gorgeous— then and now.”

I fiddled with one of the books in front of me. I didn’t know how to take his compliment. It was something I’d always been bad at, but especially when it came to Harry. Part of me wanted so badly to believe he was telling the truth; he had seen me at prom and thought I looked pretty and was looking at me now and seeing the same thing. The other part of me was hardened and cold, telling myself not to fall for it.

In the end I just decided to ignore his comment. If I didn’t acknowledge it, then I didn’t have to dissect my feelings on it.

“I’ve got to take off. I’m sorry I can’t stay long. I’m flying out to Los Angeles tonight for some meetings. But I wanted to be here.” He held up one of my books and set it in front of me. “Last time I asked, you said you wouldn’t sign it.”

“Wipe that cheeky grin off your face. Of course I’ll sign it.” He slipped a fifty pound note onto the table (more than double what he actually had to pay for the book) and opened up the title page.

The blank page stared at me. There were so many things I could write. Aimee advised me just to sign my name, but that felt too impersonal for Harry. Uncapping the pen, I held down the page with my other hand to keep it steady.

Live long and prosper, my young padawan.

Petra Gallego

He grinned when I handed it back to him. “I’m reading this on my flight to LA.”

“Might put you to sleep.”

“I don’t think it could,” he argued, tucking it under his arm. “Think I could...um...text you while I’m there?”

“I can’t control what you do or don’t do, Harry.”

“Yeah, but I wanted to give you the choice.”

The choice to talk to him. It was something I didn’t have in secondary school, but I realized a small part of me acknowledged that it was something I didn’t have now, either. There was something in me that wanted to see where this friendship with Harry went and if we could make it work.

“Yeah, Harry. You can text me when you’re in LA.”

Which was how I woke up the next morning, with a message reading: Made it to LA. Didn’t stop reading once. And despite what you may think, I didn’t fall asleep either.

A/N: Here is the next installment of AC! I hope you guys liked reading as much as I loved writing. I’m just so happy for Petra!

#ac #1dff #harry styles fanfiction #harry styles ou

32 notes · View notes

fortune-fool02 · 4 years

Text

Displacement

Caesar Zeppeli x female reader

Requested by: anonymous

Body-Swap

Please enjoy.

“Caesar, watch out!” the blonde Italian leaped out of the way of the incoming attack, missing the strike and landing beside his lover. Their unexpected opponent was strong, they had to admit that much, but he was no Pillarman by the looks of it.

[Name] threw a glance at Caesar, who seemed to understand her plan. If they rushed in from different angels and use their Hamon, they stood a chance against this opponent. Darting off in unison, the two charged at their opponent, avoiding his attacks and latching onto him, their combined Hamon flowing through them and into the man. However, a sudden bright light blinded both of them and a force threw them backwards.

A dull throb drummed in her head as she pushed herself up to see the opponent laying on the ground, motionless. Finally, the battle was certainly a challenging one but that was good, as it meant they were growing stronger. As she sat upright, her eyes fell onto her hands, noticing the odd gloves on them. She never wore gloves like these. Actually, these gloves looked like.... Caesar’s. Her eyes fell down to the outfit, patting the material down to see it was Caesar’s outfit. Everything from the jacket to the gloves to the headband wrapped around her head.

Looking over, [Name] saw her own body sit upright, “Accidenti, that hurt.” the voice was hers, the body was hers but she was not in her own body. Upon noticing the difference in his voice, Caesar looked up to see his own body looking at him.

“Caesar?” [Name] spoke, a concerned glow in those emerald green eyes that belonged to Caesar. The Italian looked equally as confused as she did. His attention shifting to the body he was in, eyes widening when realising it was not his but [Name]’s.

“Um... [Name], why am I in your body?” the Italian asked, looking down at his new form again, still trying to process the situation. [Name] stood upright, looking between the corpse of their opponent and the body of her lover.

“Maybe it had something to do with the light?” she suggested, her mind still trying to understand this. She knew what Hamon light looked like and the light produced was not that. Was it something to do with the power their opponent had? She was unsure. But the one thing she knew, without a doubt, was that they needed help.

“We need to talk to Lisa Lisa, she might know what happened.” [Name] thought, helping Caesar to his, more like her, feet.

***

Getting back to Air Supplena was the easy part, explaining the situation to Lisa Lisa and Joseph was not. The second they crossed through the door into the building, [Name] had been tackled to the ground by Joseph, who -without mercy- rubbed his knuckles across [Name]’s head despite her protests. Though, when Caesar intervened, Lisa Lisa immediately noticed the difference in the two.

How they stood. How they spoke. Even the auras they radiated were different. [Name] and Caesar explained the best they could about what happened. From the ambush to the blinding light to waking up in the wrong bodies.

And after a round of questions thrown in by Joseph to confirm that they were in the incorrect bodies, they were convinced. Lisa Lisa had gone off to see if she could find anything that could help, leaving the two with Joseph.

“Caesar, what’s it like in a woman’s body? Does it feel weird?” the brunette asked, earning an irritated look fro Caesar and a unsettled one from [Name]. Sometimes Joseph was a nice guy to hang around with, the kind of guy who would crack jokes to see his friends smile, but he didn’t know when to stop asking questions, or when to draw the line at them.

“JoJo, I’m not going to answer such a foolish question.” Caesar spoke, turning his attention back to the book in his hand. At the rejection of his question, Joseph turned to [Name] and asked the same question, earning an eye roll from Caesar. [Name] blinked at Joseph as she tried to think of how to explain it.

“It’s... odd.” That was all she could come up with. How could someone explain to another how it felt to be in the wrong body? She could only hope that they find a way to reverse this soon before something bad happened. Upon noticing the discomfort in her, Caesar took a seat beside her and wrapped an arm around her, which proved a little awkward as [Name]’s body was smaller than his. A light smile lifted her lips at Caesar’s attempt to comfort her, even if they were in the wrong bodies, he tried to do his best for her.

As the day grew to an end, [Name] and Caesar both left for their rooms for the night. As [Name] got her pyjamas ready, she stopped upon realising that they would be a little tight on her new figure. Maybe she should ask Caesar if she could borrow some of his pyjamas until everything was fixed. As she went to leave her room, she caught a glance of herself in the mirror. To look at a mirror and see the reflection of your lover staring back was very odd. His build was impressive in her eyes, a mix of both beauty and power, much like the bubbles he used for his Hamon.

A thought popped into her mind as her eyes scanned her new body. Their relationship was only weeks old, so she was unaware of what laid underneath the layers of clothing and her curiosity got the better of her. Slowly lifting the shirt up to reveal his torso, [Name]’s eyes widened at the muscle and abs that presented themselves.

“Jesus Christ, Caesar.” she whispered with a bashful smile on her lips, her hand gently brushing over the abs before dropping the shirt and hiding the body again. She knew Caesar was a well-built man but she wouldn’t have guessed it was this good. She could only pray this was fixed soon but she doubted she would be able to look at Caesar the same again.

Hopefully, he wasn’t doing anything ridiculous with her body.

***

Caesar stared at his reflection, admiring [Name]’s body from every angle that he could. The clothing hugging her figure perfectly, such a delicate flower appearance but he knew of the power of her Hamon.

“Mio Dio, [Name]. I never realised just how beautiful you were.” he muttered to himself.

#caesar #caesar zeppeli #jojo bizarre adventure #caesar x reader #caesar zeppeli x reader #jojo bizzare adventure x reader #jojo #jojo x reader #battle tendency #jojo battle tendency #battle tendency x reader #jojo part 2

281 notes · View notes

jjba-hell · 4 years

Text

Fate and Fortune

Part 5

Part 4, part 3, part 2, part 1

Content warning: Familial loss, Dissociation via PTSD, blood, injury, Dio’s nasty ass fleshbud and hinting/quick mention of assault

For the moots: @risottoneroo and some new followers (seriously like ya’ll make me so giddy (⌒▽⌒)) @fyre23 and @comeationmeerer

A/N: Aight time zones are strange and I might be a bit ahead but this piece is gonna be published a few hours before NYE for me so I consider this the final piece to a VERY cursed year. Thank you so much for the support on this series thus far, it means so much to me and don’t worry- I’ll be continuing it into 2021. TwT. Oh and Happy New Year ya’ll!

Don’t have the word count but it feels long lol

Vera turned the picture of Holy and her son around in her hands. Looks like Mr Kujo’s been out of the picture for a while. Maybe not legally but definitely socially.

“Stop being a creep.” Jotaro grumbled as he passed her in the hallway to the kitchen.

“Oh cut an orphan some slack, would you? All my baby pictures are court property.” She feigned sadness as she put the picture frame down and followed into the kitchen where they were cheerfully greeted by Holy who put two platefuls of eggs Benedict in front of them- with Jotaro sitting with three eggs and an extra serving of rice.

“Just shout if you want some more, Vera.”

Jotaro looked her over as if she’d materialized at the table beside him.

“Yes, my name is Vera.” She extended a hand out to him over the corner separating them. “Vera Astbury.”

“Astbury.” He frowned, taking her hand for a nonchalant shake.

She chuckled, opening the napkin over her lap. “Yeah I don’t think it suits me either but it’s what I got. Just stick to Vera though.”

They sat in comfortable silence over breakfast- not minding much as she enjoyed a cup of coffee over the newspaper.

“Can you even read that?” He asked after he finished the bowl of rice.

Her gaze shifted to him as he continued to scoff down a glass of water. “I’d rather not wait for manga translations to make it to the shelves where I live.” Was all she answered as she continued to read up about an excavation of 20 tombs in Egypt.

“Shoujen gets you that excited, huh?”

Fortune moved before Vera could quite catch her but she herself didn’t move. The butter knife met the table right between his fingers- Fortune’s faceless head staring him down.

“I’d suggest you rethink the sexist stereotypes you hold me to. Or at the very least keep those comments to yourself.” She said flatly, she wasn’t about to make him think he was getting under her skin.

Jotaro’s stand emerged and gave Fortune a hard shove away from his user- Vera feeling the phantom touch on her own shoulders.

She narrowed her eyes at him, sitting up straighter and looking him straight in the eye. “You wanna tussle, Kujo?”

Jotaro, admittedly, had a strange effect on Vera. Her usually calm and calculated demeanor seemed to slip around him, her temper flaring dangerously whenever he’d open his mouth around her. What was it that made her want to punch that stupid scowl off his face? It couldn’t be because she wanted to prove something to him, could it?

He only gave a disinterested ‘tch’ as he stood up from the table. “Don’t try it.”

Nope, she definitely wanted to prove she could floor him...

Avdol entered the kitchen soon after and without so much as a good morning, Jotaro was out the door- Holy running after him to see him off. Watching her beg him for a simple goodbye made her blood boil hot enough to put her own shoes on and feign a walk in the neighborhood.

Fortune tripped him up just enough for her to catch up to him and snatch his cap from atop his head.

“You’re a damn pest, you know that?” He grumbled as he knelt in front of her.

She swung the inner brin of his cap on her finger as she peered down at him. “I told you to quit the punk act with your mom.”

“Why do you care?” He straightened, his stand reaching for her but Fortune blocking the reach. Vera nonchalantly placed the cap on her head and started walking ahead of him. “Because I’d kill to have a chance to say goodbye to my mom.”

Soon as other students started coming into view, Vera tipped the cap off of her head, letting his stand grab it before it landed on the floor. She was off the path, heading back to the Kujo residence. Holy refused to let her help with any laundry and soon enough she was shooed into the same room as Avdol and Mr Joestar.

“Tea or coffee, Vera?” Avdol asked. She looked down at the traditional green tea alongside the little tin of coffee. A pick-me-up would have been nice, so she picked the coffee up and took a whiff to see if it would be worth it. The smell she got instead nearly made her cough.

She closed the tin immediately and looked at Avdol in confusion. “Are you testing me or something?”

“Why do you ask such a question?” Mr Joestar interjected, “ it’s so much less work than tea.”

Vera peered down at the nameless metal tin with disgust. “Mr Joestar, I would have to ask if that’s the best coffe you have because that... stuff... is only coffee scented.”

Beside her Avdol chuckled as he prepared the two cups that would hold their tea. “I suppose that was why you begged for ground coffee from home, Vera?” He spoke with a slight smile.

“Avdol, they were labelling the coffee grinder scrapings as ‘columbian roast’- it was daylight robbery!”

Mr Joestar chuckled, handing his mug to Avdol to prepare a cup of tea for him as well. “You have a fine nose for such things?”

Vera opened her mouth to explain but when the ominous shadow of Jotaro spilled into the room the conversation was forgotten. She and Avdol moved in tandem, clearing the room of the table and tea ceremony supplies to lie the redhead down on the floor.

“You said he attacked you-“ her gaze moved up from Jotaro’s head to his knee right in front of her. She forgot what she was saying as she let Fortune start healing his leg first but was called back to attention for the redhead. Mr Joestar revealed the ugly little fleshbud sitting on the guy’s forehead.

“Can’t you just extract it and heal whatever was hurt?” Jotaro asked over her shoulder.

“I move time and the healing process forward but the brain doesn’t regenerate. I could revert its state to what it was before the fleshbud but for that to work it needs to be removed.”

Jotaro bent down and held Kakyoin’s face while bringing his stand out. “I’ll extract it and you fix whatever I damage.”

“Wait, did you...?” Before she could even finish her sentence his stand was already reaching for the fleshbud. She brought her own hand to Kakyoin’s face, focusing her stand’s energy. The fleshbud shot two tentacles up into Vera and Jotaro’s arms, the subtle sting challenging her focus for just a moment. Vera focused Fortune’s energy into any damage being done to Kakyoin’s brain, forcing on turning the dial back. She spared a glance up at Jotaro, where the fleshbud was inching into his neck. Peering down at her own, she noticed hers wasn’t too far behind.

Kakyoin’s eyes shot up and instinctively Vera’s hand flew out to keep his eyes shut. “Not to rush but could you hurry it along?” She hissed at Jotaro.

The fleshbud separating from Kakyoin’s head sounded like separating Velcro to her. It flew through the air for a moment and like catching a wishbone between two people, Fortune and Jotaro’s stand grabbed hold of the two ends of the fleshbud and pulled. It bounced out of their grasps as it ripped in three and was finally finished off by Mr Joestar but definitely not by his stand- or maybe she was just seeing things.

Fortune’s dials turned frantically as they healed three people all at once, Vera bending down to check if the hole in Noriaki’s head was closing up.

The redhead looked between her and Jotaro and then asked the golden question... why did they save him?

Vera got up from kneeling beside Kakyoin, “I don’t know, morals, I guess?” She shrugged as she left the room to find the first aid kid, Holy stopping her in the hallway to listen to Jotaro’s answer.

His answer meant less than nothing to Vera but to Holy, she smiled and inclined her head in the direction his voice was coming from and smiling- almost as if to say “see what I mean?”

All Vera could do was smile and nod, pulling her back a bit to quietly ask for the first aid kid.

The next morning Vera got up a bit later than usual, the night before she had slipped out of her room for a smoke break. When she returned to her home she had slipped up a step and scraped up her knee.

She had only wrapped it in gauze before crawling back into her futon but waking up she realized it wasn’t just a simple scrape- she’d need to stitch it up.

So with a soft groan she got up, hopped through a shower and with wet hair still hanging over her shoulders slid Noriaki’s door open after her knock.

The first aid kit was left in his room and he was still asleep as she slipped into the bathroom he was given and sat down on the floor, knee propped up.

Over time she’d gotten used to patching herself up- the nurse at the boarding school got sick of her relatively quickly the first few months she was there, at the time she used Fortune for anything, especially to make sure teachers didn’t check for homework but that didn’t quite fare well when in turn, she’d end up with food poisoning or bloody noses.

Pain wasn’t much of a bother for her anymore- she’d poured enough hydrogen peroxide into open wounds to not flinch anymore.

“Doesn’t that hurt?” A velvety voice asked behind her as she wiped her newly stitched new clean.

She looked over her shoulder at the redhead in the doorway. A smirk spread over her face. “If you’re still sworn allegiance to Dio, I’m gonna have to politely ask you to give me a minute? I just closed this up.”

Kakyoin took a sharp breath through gritted teeth, about to say something when a commotion disturbed them both.

To her, it didn’t feel real. She felt like she was floating through the motions of finding the other three men in the kitchen with an unconscious Holy and then laying her down in her futon- concerned for her sake.

It felt like she was stuck, watching as Mrs Kujo strain against her own body to draw a single breath- behind her Jotaro and the others were finding to pinpoint Dio’s location but she had very little care for it at that moment.

It wasn’t until Jotaro gave her shoulder a light tap that she seemed to shake herself out of it. “Take a breather, outside.” Her gaze travelled up to meet his face, that same scowl on his face as always. “Might also wanna go wrap your leg up.”

True to his word, she was bleeding through her jeans. All she could do was nod and leave the room. Another hydrogen peroxide soak and this time she decided to busy herself with Avdol in the library.

“I never asked you this but, could you ever explain how you overcome your stand fever?” Avdol asked as she leaned against the entrance of the library. She moved closer, pulling the next books Avdol had his eyes on into her arms.

“I can’t really say. I heard a lot of voices while I was sick but in a sense... I’d say it was just my reluctance to die.”

“So- Mrs Kujo could survive that fever?” Noriaki asked from the doorway this time.

“Unlikely.” Vera and Avdol had answered in unison.

Kakyoin seemed confused by that answer. “But you just said-“

“Vera is the first of, close to a thousand cases I’ve ever seen to survive.”

She rolled her head back to peer at the redhead. “Not to sound too special.” Her attention returned to the stack of books she held for Avdol. “Not that I’d wish that fever onto anyone- except maybe Dio.”

“What does it feel like?” Noriaki continued to prod.

A groan left her lips. “You born stand-users, honestly. It’s the most accurate remake of being burnt alive- I haven’t been able to feel pain normally ever since.”

Avdol peered down at the note in his hand and then at the page of the encyclopedia. “Look familiar, Vera?”

Deadmatch.

“I had had my suspicions that he might have left Egyp but it seemed he stayed.” Avdol pondered with Mr Joestar, Holy still unconscious on her futon.

“So I’m going home.” Vera sighed quietly, bending down to feel over Holy’s forehead.

Kakyoin announced his help and when asked why, he spared a glance at Vera, saying “I don’t know- morals, I guess.”

They stayed one more night at the Kujo residents, waiting for the Speedwagon Foundation to arrive for Holy. She had once enjoyed a quick smoke break at the dead of night when once more she found herself face to face with Jotaro.

She pulled a cigarette from its pack and handed it to him. “I’m heading to bed.”

“No,” he reached his arm out to stop her leaving. “If you’re coming with us, you’re gonna explain some shit to me.”

Vera peered up at him, unphased, hand on her hip. “You got questions. And I got answers. Ask away.”

“Why don’t you just heal my mom?”

“I can’t cure curses. A stand fever is like immunity for life- I can move it forward or back but it doesn’t change your body’s ability to make a stand.”

“So why don’t you heal yourself?”

She shrugged, “I could but I’d rather take a stitched up leg over another assault case on my counselor’s case.”

The scowl on his face disappeared and was replaced by a slack-jawed shock.

“As hard as this will be, Jotaro, you’ll have to learn to trust me. I wouldn’t expect you drive without experience. In the same way you have to trust that I’ll do everything in my power to help you.”

Jotaro dropped his harm back to his side, letting her stroll by calmly until he spoke again.

“At what cost?”

“I’ll deal with the costs-“ she turned to face him. “But uhhh I’d appreciate if you stuck around when I told you I felt unsafe.”

Jotaro didn’t say anything, only nodded before turning to light his cigarette and Vera turning down the hallway to bed.

#jojo's bizarre adventure #jojo no kimyou na bouken #jojo part 3 #jotaro kujo #Muhammed avdol #Joseph Joestar #noriaki kakyoin #holy kujo #dio brando #Fate and Fortune

15 notes · View notes

lifeofroos · 4 years

Text

part 39: And who’s idea would this be...

In short: Nico gets therapy from Dionysus. In this chapter, Nico has a family dinner with Hades, Persephone and Will. The rest can be found on AO3, FanFiction.net and in tumblr tags like Dionysus, Nico di angelo, hurt/comfort etc.

This might be crazy: Chapter 39: Kids’ champagne ‘If I say that this will go wrong somehow, it will be cliché.’ Will pushed his fork a teeny tiny bit to the right, so that it was laying ever so slightly staighter.

‘You just said it.’

‘Well, isn’t that just stupid?’

I chuckled. ‘We can’t say how it will go until it happened.’

‘Yeah.’ Will looked around the rich salon. Our table only occupied a very small part of it. There were mirrors on the walls and chandeliers hanging from the ceiling. It was way more fancy than anything most people would ever see in their lifetime. ‘Do you know how Dionysus found this place?’

‘He is Dionysus.’

‘Right.’ Will looked at his watch. ‘Eh…’

‘If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you were nervous.’

‘Well, maybe I am. Now, how late would they be arriving aga…’

The doors opened. A butler came in, followed by Hades and Persephone.

They both peered around the room. ‘Hm. It’s not too shabby, for mortals,’ Persephone tutted before folding her arms before her chest.

Hades turned his gaze towards her. ‘Hey, you said you wanted to come. You can leave again if…’

‘I am staying! I said it was not too shabby!’ She did not wait for her husband to lead her further into the salon. She went on herself.

She looked at Will and me. ‘Aren’t you sitting down?’

‘Eh, yeah. I mean, of course, ma’am.’ Will pulled my chair back. I quietly sat down while he moved onto the chair next to me. Hades made haste to sit down next to Persephone, who sat down across from me.

For a few seconds, there was awkward silence. It seemed weird to stare at Persephone, so I looked at my cutlery instead, while I wondered whos idea this was again (Because I seriously forgot).

I took a deep breath. ‘So… I can’t take credit, or blame, for picking the place. That was Dionysus' job.’

Persephone stared at her plate. ‘Yes.’ She bit her lip. ‘I, er, didn’t mean anything with what I said.’

‘Eh, it’s okay.’

‘Lady and gentlemen?’

We all gasped when the waiter began to talk. It made him take a step back. ‘Oh, excuse me…’

‘No, no, It’s okay,’ I quickly said. The waiter nodded, a little unsure.

‘Do you want to see the menu?’

Persephone rolled her eyes. ‘Of course not. Just surprise us!’

The poor server looked afraid. ‘Eh…’

Persephone began to blush. ‘Eh… Isn’t that a good idea?’ She looked at the rest of us.

Honestly? Sounded kind of fun. ‘I mean, I would be down,’ I said. I looked at Will. He shrugged.

‘That’s alright, I guess.’

The server noted something down. ‘Sir?’ He looked at Hades.

‘Fine.’

‘Lady, Gentlemen... one surprise dinner coming right up.’

The waiter turned around, a little dazed, but he pulled himself together in a matter of seconds. The customer was always right and all that.

Persephone seemed self-conscious about both of her mistakes. She turned to me and Will. ‘So, eh... how did you two meet?’

I looked at Will. ‘Well, we were both at camp for quite a long time before we began seeing each other the way we see each other now. The first time we talked was just after the Giants were defeated.’

Hades raised his eyebrows. ‘Interesting.’

Will stared at his plate. ‘It gets better. Or worse, that depends on how you see it. The first thing I ever said to Nico was that I had just helped with the delivery of a Satyr baby.’

Persephone put a hand over her mouth. ‘Oh, those are… very interesting.’

Will looked up. ‘Your majesty, you don’t mean you’ve got a similar experience, do you?’

‘I do, sadly enough… eh, I mean, it is not sad, obviously, but...’

Hades scraped his throat. ‘Eh, lovely that you two… have something in common, but maybe not the best subject at the dinner table.’

Will got a little red. Persephone shrugged. ‘Who knows.’

Hades nervously pulled a thread out of his napkin. ‘Eh… you two were talking about how you met.’

I nodded. ‘Yes. So, after our lovely first meeting, we witnessed the two camps defeating the earth mother and finally uniting. In the weeks afterwards Will and I began to hang out more and more, until we unofficially were a thing.’

Will nodded, with a wide grin this time. ‘It became official after they threw us into the lake. Tradiation. It began with Percy and Annabeth.’

Hades stared at his plate. ‘Strange traditions you got…’

Now I raised my eyebrows. We have strange traditions? Dude, you come from ancient Greece.

Before I could say something snarky, our food arrived. They brought us everything at once, including desserts. Perhaps Dionysus had told them there was some urgency to getting the food to our table when he made the reservation.

A few waiters opened up bottles of champagne, which I noticed was childrens’ champagne on further inspection. Well, okay, understandable.

When the servers left, Persephone put her elbows on the table and looked at everything we got. ‘What do we have?’ She already seemed less cold when she had spoken to Will, but now she was clearly excited. I looked at my dad. He was looking at her with a little smile.

A lot. There were different types of fish, meat and fowl, at least five different soups and salads, baked potatoes, so many sauces I was too lazy to count them, and I hadn’t even looked at the desserts yet.

‘Much,’ Persephone answered her own question. Carefully, she selected a few tiny meats and took a bit of each salad.

The rest of us began to move as well. Hades got the same things Persephone had, I got a lot of baked potato wedges because they just taste so damn good and Will chose a bit of everything that did not come out of the ocean.

Slowly, I dipped a potato wedge into the first sauce. While I took a bite, I noticed Persephone was staring at me. ‘And?’

‘Eh…’ too much pressure, lady. ‘It’s a little spicy.’

Persephone reached out her hand, before stopping and picking up her fork. She put a bit of chicken on it, dipped it into the sauce and thoughtfully took a bite. ‘Hmm. There is quite a bit of pepper in there. It could have used something sweet to balance it out.’

Will gave her a bit of a weird look, dad acted like this was just another day at the dinner table with Persephone and I picked up a new potato wedge to dip into the second sauce.

When she saw that I was using my hands to eat, Persephone left her cutlery by her plate as well. She picked up a new piece of chicken.

We both tasted. Hades and Will looked on. ‘And?’

‘Hmm…’

‘I think the first one tasted better,’ I muttered.

Persephone shrugged. ‘Perhaps, but I also think it is difficult to compare the two. We didn’t get any names for the sauces, right?’

‘Sadly not.’

Will shoved his knife and fork aside. ‘Can I…’ he stole two baked potato wedges from my plate and dipped them each into a sauce.

‘I think the second one is better? It is slightly lighter.’

I shrugged. ‘Really?’ I was already reaching for more potatoes.

Hades sighed. ‘Alright. So I got three of them now.’

‘Three people who enjoy their food?’ Persephone shot him a sarcastic look.

He sighed. ‘Let's just continue our meal.’

When we were on our seventh sauce (I did eat some salad in between, of course. Like at least a whole bite), Wills’ eyes lit up. ‘Hey! This sauce is made with sunaloe!’

I gave him a weird look. ‘Gesundheit?’

‘No, Nico, it is a magical herb.’ He took a piece of fried chicken and dipped it into the sauce. ‘It’s delicious.’ Oh, so now we were at the stadium where we talked with our mouths full.

Persephone smiled widely. ‘You tasted it too?’

‘Yes!’

‘You know, I created that herb, together with Apollo. It was meant as a birthday present for… I don’t remember, but it was meant as a gift.’

‘Really?’

Within no time, they were having a deep conversation about sauce and plants. I ate a few more potato wedges.

Hades made eye contact with me. Come, he said without a word. A little confused, I got up, with my glass of childrens’ champagne in my hand.

‘Solace, Seph, excuse us for a moment.’

They looked up for a split second, before continuing their conversation.

Hades took me to a separate compound, seperated from the salon by a curtain. ‘What is it?’ I asked.

‘Yes, well, I saw that Persephone and your boyfriend were busy. So I thought that maybe now was a good time to ask you something.’

‘And that is?’ We better be back in time for desert.

‘Dionysus told me you have been having nightmares and that it worried him. Can you tell me about it as well?’

‘Yes, I think I can.’ You picked a weird moment to ask, though. ‘So, usually, I am either in darkness or in Tartarus and there are voices that tell me to come find them. They are very loud and plead me to come, or else. There are people with masks of some sort. They’ve got horns, snakes coiled around their shoulders and red eyes. They don’t say anything though, they just vaguely smile at me if they look at me at all. ’

I took a sip of my alcohol-free champagne, which had gone lukewarm. ‘Nico, do you see any other faces?’

Is it that important? I honestly already feel like a maniac now that I am telling you all this. ‘Not really. Although the face is not… it does not always look the same. Sometimes its horns are longer, or it doesn’t have them. It doesn’t have the same hair colour every time either.’

‘That’s… tell me: Has Dionysus already told you what he thought it was?’

‘Well, no. I noticed that he has a hunch, but he hasn’t told me what that hunch is yet. Maybe, if he told you I am having these dreams, he wants your opinion on the matter as well.’

‘Uh-hu. That might be.’ He had a hunch too, I could see it. ‘I think I would rather discuss it as well, before I tell you what I am thinking. Is that alright? Am I doing it the right way?’

I felt a little out of control, but I snickered. ‘Yes, dad, that is alright and I think you are doing good. Thanks for telling me.’ Now I know you and Dionysus will be talking about me. Do I mind that? I mean, I can trust Dionysus and I have grown to trust my dad, I think. And technically, only good could come out of it. Still, it felt a little off. But I wouldn’t hold them back.

‘That’s… yes.’ He nodded, with a small smile. ‘Eh…’ He to the curtain. ‘And what do you think of this so far?’

‘I must say, I had some concerns about having a family dinner, but it seems to go alright, at least up until now. We all love the sauce, except for Persephone, who seems to adore the sauce

‘Well… yeah. Persephone likes to eat. It’s cute.’

That was both sweet and a bit disgusting. ‘Why don’t we go back?’ Before all the deserts have melted, you know?

‘Eh… yes.’ He pushed the curtains aside. Persephone and Will were still talking. I wondered if they missed us at all.

I chose a big bowl of Chocolate mousse and sat down. While we finished our meal and talked, I noticed Hades thoughtfully looked at me a few times. I wondered what it was that both he and Dionysus were thinking about.

A/N: Persephone likes to eat. That is partly a headcanon and partly something R.R. Confirmed.

This was going to be two chapters initially, but the second one was very short upon writing and I decided to… put ‘em together. Better a lot at once than some teeny tiny bits sprawled throughout, in this case.

I think I used the phrase ‘the customer is always right’ correctly. It does not mean you can be rude to servers or not pay, but it does mean that if you want something weird that they can give you, they should. You want sugar and yoghurt with your fries? Welp, alright.

Not to brag or anything but in the Netherlands we have HEMA Jip & Janneke childrens’ champagne. None of you know what that is and that is why I am superior.

8 notes · View notes

devil-dxrling · 4 years

Text

Unadulterated JoJo Smut

Pairing(s): Kira x Reader, Dio x Reader, Jonathan x Reader, Kakyoin x Reader x Jotaro

Warnings: Anal, age gap, threesome, balcony sex, shower sex, public sex, double-penetration, stand sex, oral, cock-warming, and many more I can’t remember.

Word count: 3867

Summary: It’s c o m p l i c a t e d.

Here is the story. The wildest night of my life. It was a quiet night with Kira and I was begging him to let me go to a friend’s house. He got pretty jealous because we both knew the house I wanted to go to. All of my friends were going to be there! I thought it was going to be left at that. He would just get mad and I would sneak out. But no, I had to find myself slammed onto the nearest wall and left to nobody’s mercy.

He spent no time on me whatsoever, getting straight to the point. I hadn’t listened to him, and it was my fault I was being punished. His lips briefly bruised mine as they went down my neck and collarbone, down my chest and close to my-... My thoughts were cut off by a moan. Was that mine? He pulled me by the neck and slammed me down onto his bed, grabbing my hands. Normally he would kiss them, be soft with them; I must have hit a nerve. They were pinned down above my head and I struggled to free myself. It was to no avail. It just made him push down harder. I could feel my circulation cutting off. My stand came up in an attempt to protect me, but was instantly scared away as I saw Killer Queen lurk behind him. I thought Killer Queen would just go away, but it stayed there watching. My clothes were gone before I could react, my attention was on that stand, it scared me. Quickly, he flipped me over on all fours. I was beginning to feel fear. What was he going to do to me? Was it going to hurt? What was-... I was once again cut off by a pain in my backside. I didn’t know what to think of it at first. Out came a barrage of moans and screams in pleasure and agony. Then, out of my mouth came something I never thought I would say in a million years.

‘Kira-san, blow me up baby! Fuck me in the ass and call me your wife! Kira! Oh my god! Blow me up, baby, blow me up.’

My moans echoed through the halls of his empty villa. With a final, deep, sexy, groan, he emptied his explosive cum into my pulsing pussy. It burned through me as I plopped down onto the bed, next to him.

‘So, Kira-san, can I go to Dio’s afterparty?’

He smirked and leaned in for a kiss, ‘Go enjoy yourself baby.’

I quickly dressed back up and jumped into a car. It would be a 30 minute drive to Dio’s castle. I was going for a dinner date with him, some of his friends, and mine. Pucci wasn’t coming, he had work to do in the west and was away. As soon as I got there, I saw Dio outside, staring at the moon. I joined him, sitting next to him. ‘Hello Dio. How have you been?’

‘Good, what about you?’ His deep voice bore through my soul and sent shivers running down my spine.

I smiled and looked at his eyes, then his lips, then they trailed down to his perfectly sculpted abs. Shit, he was hot. I think he read my mind. He walked towards me, towering over me. We were in public, the thought of getting caught made me shake. I was wearing a simple black shirt and skirt, but my shirt wasn't tucked in because I had to leave as soon as I got out of that situation with Kira. His hand went to my waist and proceeded to slip under my shirt. I was bra-less. His hand kept gliding over my bare skin, it was ice-cold and I felt like I was being frozen. He moved me to the wall I was sitting on earlier for support. He knelt down, his hand still up my shirt, groping my left breast. His right hand guided my knee over his shoulder. I knew where this was going…

Me and Dio were always really good friends. At times, too good. We kissed when normal friends didn’t, we had Netflix and Chill at my parents house from time to time, I was 18, he was… Very old. We were VERY good friends. I looked down at him and yanked his hair a little, making me giggle but he came back at me and bit my thigh. I knew he was a vampire, but he didn’t bite to cause me pain - he was playful around me. Normally, he didn’t draw blood. A moan passed my lips as I tried to clench my legs together. Dio didn’t let that happen, he forcefully spread them back up and dove in. I don’t think I will ever have feelings for him in ‘that’ way, but damn, his tongue is that of gods.

‘Dio, fuck, don’t stop.’

‘Why shouldn’t I stop?’ No answer came to his question. I was about to cum, I felt it as I started to vibrate lightly. Just before I peaked, he stopped and got up. Fucking dick edged me. He leaned into my ear, left hand sliding down to massage my aching clit, he whispered, ‘Answer my question.’

‘Please. Just do it.’

‘Do what?’

‘Fuck me daddy!’

He finally got it out of me, the words he had been waiting to hear all night. Out of nowhere, a carriage pulled with a karen-looking chick coming out of it. Her sorrowful boyfriend trailing behind her. Dio grabbed me as we hid behind a thick bush. We heard the woman talk, her voice was high-pitched and nasely, ‘Oh my goodness, honey come look at these beautiful flowers!’

The flowers were right next to us. We would have gone unscaved, but of course Dio moved his hands to where they didn’t belong. ‘Fuck you,’ I muttered to him as I felt his hand play with my soaking pussy. He let out a low, quiet chuckle and continued to relentlessly toy with me, bring my lips to his and kissing me on my sweetspots. ‘Did you have some trouble with Kira?’ I guess he saw the hickeys and other shit that merciless bitch had left on my body. I slowly nodded my head but was taken out of my trance and I felt something behind me. Did they find us? No, they didn’t. It was just The World sitting behind me, enjoying the view. I wanted to play with my luck and shifted in the grass a bit, in a way to cause Dio mild discomfort. The thing was that I didn’t get very far. The World viciously grabbed my hair and brought his face up to mine. ‘If you think I’m kissing a piece of metal, you can shove your beliefs right up your posh, British ass.’

As soon as those two idiots were gone, I hauled myself up and grabbed Dio by his perfect, sharp, blonde hair. I yanked him into a heated kiss and told him to us The World and to take us somewhere more private. His definition of private is obviously his bedroom’s balcony, one of THE most spottable places to find someone piping a bitch.

I was rapidly spun around and pinned to the balcony railing. The shock of me possibly falling off the balcony hit me as scream ruptured the night air. Luckily, I come to remember that he does actually care about me. In fact, he cared about me enough to spin us around, so he was leaning on the stone railing. I knew the railing was strong enough to hold about 10-12 people since there was this one time when I was hanging on on his balcony with some of my friends, but it still scared me a bit. Dio looked at me with a glint in his eyes, ‘It’ll be okay, we won’t fall.’ I leaned into his touch as his arms slid around me, it was a frozen embrace. I had almost fully come down from my high unfortunately, but I knew he hadn’t forgotten what just happened. I was waiting for him to make the first move. As I stood there, hugging him in silence, I suddenly realised something that made my cheeks go beet red. ‘Shit,’ I whispered under my breath and looked up to meet Dio’s eyes. ‘What is it?’ he asked. I let out an embarrassed giggle and looked back down, slightly ashamed. ‘Just tell me already, you have nothing to be embarrassed about.’ I let out a sigh, who was I to even think of trying to hide this?

‘Dio, baby, I… I’m… I’m kinda soaked.’ I thought he would just laugh at me, no get all up in my grill! I felt one of his hands trailing down the small of my back and under my skirt. He lifted up my underwear and let out a low laugh. Was it really that bad? ‘My goodness babygirl, you’re dripping.’ ‘For you, I guess.’ The ‘I guess’ at the end was supposed to come out as sarcasm, but I wasn’t sure if he understood. He muttered the word ‘jump’ as he was unbuttoning his pants. He normally dressed pretty casual around me, but this time it was supposed to be an event, so he wore a black suit. His blazer was long gone before we got the balcony and his dress shirt was half undone. Soon as his dick was out of it’s confines, it plunged into me. He gave me a second to adjust and wrap my legs around his waist before he began to pound my pussy with his thick cock. Moans erupted from my throat and I had to hold myself back from screaming, the place around us had some good echo. It was just about time to see if he would let me cum.

‘Please Dio. Senpai let me cum, please!’

‘Well, since you asked so nicely, I’ll allow it.’

‘Ah, ah, AH, DIO, my God, fill me up baby.’

We both came at the same time as we held each other. Carefully, he got off of the railing and carried me over to his shower. After gently undressing me, he steadily put me down and I tried to walk over to the shower. Key word ‘tried’. Instead of me letting me flail around on the floor, he just did the extra work for me and helped me. I could feel the lukewarm water fall over my bare skin and him behind me. It was funny how he was one of the most caring friends I had. He was always there for me. And obviously so was his stand. I felt soap being rubbed over my skin as I slowly opened my eyes. But it didn’t make any sense since Dio’s hands were around my waist. Had he just grown a new pair of arms or something? Well, no not really. It was just The World, casually washing me off like it was an everyday thing that I would be with my best friend in the shower at midnight after 2 rounds of mouth-watering sex. Yeah, normal every day. I felt that now was the time to bask in the brilliance of stands and how useful they could actually be. It wasn’t going to matter anyways since I could feel The World trying to stall from washing me any lower than my waist, so I tried to comfort him. Dio let go of me as I moved towards The World, bringing my arms around his neck, pulling him into what he probably thought was going to just be a hug. My right knee slowly drifted up the stand’s chilling, metal-like leg and to his crotch. Anything that stand would feel, Dio would feel too. The stand just froze in place for a second, as if it was shy, which I didn’t really understand - Dio was one of the most, if not THE most, outspoken person I know.

I heard a smack and I felt a sting behind me. My head snapped around to look at Dio who stood there smirking, ‘Dirty little whore aren’t you? Using my own stand against me? Where is our darling Copycat Killer? Hm?’ At the sound of her name, she came out. A humanoid stand that was definitely more beautiful and more confident than me.

Copycat Killer, or CK as I called her, carried herself with arrogance and dominance. But that wouldn’t matter when I was around Dio. He grabbed CK by the neck and threw her to the other side of the shower. So that’s how he wanted to play it. Before looking back to The World, I looked at my stand one last time. They were already on their knees, mouth and eyes watering, choking on Dio’s dick - great. And the only bad part was that I could feel myself gagging because it was my stand’s mouth taking him. Luckily, I came up with a plan in the moment. For me to not feel like I’m about vomit, I had to distract him enough so he wouldn’t be concentrating on fucking my brains out. And I knew just how to do that! He always had pretty sensitive abs. Slowly, I started to kneel and drag my hands sensually down the stand’s chest. Wow, this was actually happening. I began to kiss the stand’s abdomen and caress him in all of the places I knew Dio was vulnerable. I even licked up his v-line, which I could tell either pissed him off, or got him harder because it didn’t take long before he emptied out into my stand’s throat. I guess it was my turn to be yanked by the hair…

After that whole ordeal was over, I got dressed and we went downstairs to the actual party. Since I wasn’t really dressed for the part, I was just going to see who was there, say hello, and be on my way. I had called Jonathan to send me a cab to his place since he was only about 10 minutes away from this place. I waved to some of my friends and walked towards the door when I saw two very close friends of mine, Giorno Giovanna and Bruno Buccaratti. I told Dio to wait for me outside and I went to greet them. Bruno was the first to talk between the two. ‘Ciao, bella,’ he said in his milky Italian accent as Giorno followed up with an underwhelming, ‘Cioa.’ I kissed them on both cheeks and told them it was great to finally see them. I also told them to save me a seat to Italy when they left again, to which they both laughed and nodded. Still don’t know if it was a yes or no. As I got to Dio’s side, he straight up burned me, ‘Straight from one dick to two more huh?’

‘Are you just jealous ‘cause he’s your kid?’

‘No, he’s 18 now, he can do what he wants to. I don’t care anymore.’

‘Sure. Anyways, the cabs here. I’m going to head off. Thanks for tonight, I love spending time with you. Now, go and enjoy yourself, you’ve almost missed your whole party!’ He laughed and gave me one final kiss on the cheek before leaving me to go off to Jonathan’s house. Once I got into the cab, I realised that maybe he wasn’t wrong.

Once the cab pulled up outside I got out and sent him a text. ‘Did you pay the driver?’ He responded with a ‘Yes.’ Then, I sent the second question on my mind, ‘Where do I find you?’ His house was a bit smaller that Dio’s, but I knew my way around Dio’s castle better than his house because I had been there so many times. I knew the basics of Jonathan’s house.

The main living area, the dining room, the garden, the kitchen, a few bathrooms, a guest bedroom, the library, his study, and his bedroom. ‘My study,’ was the reply he sent, short and sweet - like him, if you exclude the short part. He had a similar physique to Dio but Dio was taller. He was the sweetest person I knew and I could always rely on him. He was a very brotherly figure. But, if I’m being honest, I have thought of him as a sort of ‘step-brother’ from time to time (if you catch my drift).

I continued to walk through the mansion, the door was left open for me and so I let myself in. Finding my way to his study, I looked at his décor. I found something new every time I was there. I saw him sitting at his desk reading a book. I walked towards him. We smiled at each other and I saw something that caught my eye. A book. I walked towards it but managed to trip over a pile of books in the shadows that I didn’t see before. Jonathan moved his desk light to where he heard the thud of me tripping. No words fell from his lips. Shit, my skirt! I got up without saying anything, a blush spread over my face, tinting it. We stared at each other for a moment when I saw his bulging boner. ‘You want help with that?’ I knew it was a taboo thing to ask of, but hey, my night was already crazy as hell! He got really flustered and started to heat up. ‘Yes or no?’ Embarrassed, he nodded his head. I took the book and set it down on the desk. Gracefully, I straddled his lap and began to unbutton his trousers, now tight around his hard.

I slipped off his boxers just enough for his dick to spring out. Before going any further, I looked back up at him for consent. He nodded, flustered. Before slipping him into me, I gave him one stroke up the thick vein on the back of his cock, it worked for, like, everyone. I was sure it would, and it did. Swiftly, I took him. Not all at once though. He was very girthy, so I had to take my time adjusting. My arm swung around to the table, grabbing his book, and giving it to him. ‘Read, I’ll stay here.’ The only way he would be able to calm down was if his nose was in a book. Every now and then, when he would get very into the book, I would grind on him and take him in deeper. Sometimes my fingers traced his jawline, sometimes his clothed biceps. It felt warm, leaning on his soft shoulder, padded by the layers of clothing he would normally wear. That night, he cummed about 3 times. All I had to do was cause his dick a bit of discomfort. Luckily, I was constantly on birth control since I knew an accident would cause problems with the numerous people I can fuck in one night. Every time I would nearly fall asleep, something would happen, but the last time, nothing happened, and I fell asleep. How did I fall asleep with a dick shoved up me? Please don’t ask.

In the morning, I woke up in the guest room that I was oh-so familiar with, not even his bed. There was a note on the nightstand,

“My dear angel, I let you sleep in the guest bedroom for your own privacy, and so I also wouldn’t have to wake you up when I left for work. You will find everything you need in the bathroom, including your clothes, which have been washed. It was lovely to see you.

Sincerely, JoJo.”

What a gentleman. I got ready, had a shower, washed my face, took a pregnancy test (you can never be too sure), and got out of there. I said goodbye to the other residents there and got into the cab that was probably called for me.

That’s when I checked my phone. I was spammed by Kakyoin and Jotaro because I should have had breakfast with them this morning, it’s already 10 in the morning so it’s a bit late for that. They probably thought I was dead. As soon as I got home, I went to Holly’s house and asked her where the boys were. ‘In Jotaro’s bedroom dearie, they’re playing video games!’ Of fucking course they are. They’re friend could have possibly been kidnapped, but they’re playing video games. When I got up to Jotaro’s room, I didn’t bother knocking, and just walked in. Jotaro saw me and rolled his eyes, but Kakyoin jumped to me and started flooding me with questions.

‘Are you okay?’

‘Is this your clone?’

‘Are you really here?’

‘What happened last night?’

‘She probably got piped one too many times,’ of course it was Jotaro to spoil the minute.

‘Actually, to correct, it was only, like, 3 people.’

Their jaws dropped after I said that. Then Kakyoin went into Sherlock mode:

‘Okay, so obviously Kira because you were at his house, which makes me want to vomit because of your age gap, but if that makes me vomit then I might pass out because I’m guessing you’ve also fucked our immortal nemesis. Who would be the third?’

Wow, how the fuck did he get that all? ‘How did you know about Dio’s party?’ Then Jotaro spoke facts, ‘Dumb bitch, everyone knew about it. We have the same friends.’ They kept going on, and on, and on about it for what felt like hours until they asked me who the third person was. ‘Just a humble Jonathan Joestar.’ Once again, their jaws dropped. ‘How did that actually happen?’ To be fair, Kakyoin had the right to ask. ‘Well, my dear cherry, I just so happened to trip over a pit of books and land face-down, ass-up.’

‘Of course you did,’ they both said in unison. Their faces only spoke trouble.

‘So when do we get our turn?’ I don’t even remember who said it, probably the cherry. I was still in a daze from what happened and my friends just asked me to fuck them. This wasn’t going to end well.

Jotaro shut off the console and put the remotes back as Kakyoin summoned his stand. What was he going to go with that? Hierophant Green pinned me down by my ankles and Star Platinum grabbed my wrists and pinned them above my head. They all stared at me like hungry, rabid animals.

Star Platinum tantalisingly removed his loincloth to reveal one of the girthiest dicks I had ever seen, maybe even thicker than Jonathan’s. It was in my mouth before I could react. Then Jotaro slammed his cock up my ass, and Kakyoin slipped into my soaking pussy. It went on like that for almost half an hour. My eyes were watering and every part of my body was sore as hell. Finally, they let me go and have a shower and get dressed. I said goodbye to them and headed off, back to my parents house. On the walk, my limp reminded me of one last, crucial thing.

‘Shit I promised my friend I’d train with them tomorrow.’

#jjba #kira #dio #jonathan #kakyoin #jotaro #xreader #smut

49 notes · View notes