#i had the beginnings of this feeling when i took my flop one class semester two years ago

[livvyofthelake]

the further out i get from graduating the more i genuinely think like. what the fuck was that.

[grumpypixistix]

So good for me

Eddie Munson x Fem!Reader

Warnings- Fingering, brief mentions of masturbation, unprotected p in v sex, virgin!reader, coming inside, oral (f!receiving), use of marijuana, grinding, slight overstimulation

18+ Minors DNI

(A/n: holy shit this took way longer than I thought it would, but I really hope you guys enjoy it, I may or may not have rushed during the end though)

Life was stressful for you as a student in Hawkins High. You were constantly struggling with your grade in Mrs. O’Donnell’s class and time was passing by so quickly, there was almost no way you’d be able to pass the semester with at D.

But you weren’t the only one alone.

Your best friend, Eddie, was also struggling with her assignments, which made you feel a little bit better about the situation. He started passing you notes in class, asking for help about the assignments Mrs. O’Donnell stacked onto every kid in the class. One day, he decided to hand you yet another note on your desk.

You open the small folded piece of paper and read the scribbled handwriting on it.

“I can’t understand jack shit and Mrs. O’Donnell refuses to explain anything to me, so… my place to study at 7?”

You turn over to look at Eddie and nod with a smile, immediately making him grin back with a light flush to his cheeks. Your face begins to heat up and you can’t help but look away, biting the inside of your cheek and desperately trying to listen to the teacher.

It was no secret that you had a thing for Eddie since the both of you met. There were many nights where you would stay up, trying to stay quiet as you fucked yourself to the thoughts of Eddie touching you instead. Even though you weren’t experienced with anyone at all, the idea of Eddie potentially being your first made your head spin.

As you waited for the day to end, you went home and packed the things you needed to study with and patiently waited for Eddie to come pick you up. After about 15 minutes or so, you hear the faint sound of tires screeching in front of your house. Before Eddie could even knock on the front door, you open it and smile brightly at him.

“Wow, I didn’t even knock on the door yet. That’s a record” Eddie teases.

You playfully roll your eyes at him and pull his arm.

“Shush. C’mon, let’s get this studying done and over with” You chuckle, walking with him to his van.

“Right, right.”

During the ride back to his trailer, the two of you jam out to the radio and sing along to the chorus, not having a single care in the world. You would do anything just to experience this with him every day.

Once the two of you finally arrived to his trailer, Eddie hopped out of his side first to open your door for you.

“After you, princess” he hummed softly.

You thanked him with the same cheeky grin he gave to you and walked up to the front door, trying to conceal the bright blush on your face. The both of you enter the small, dimly lit trailer and walk into his room. Eddie closes the door behind you and flops down on his bed, blowing a breath from his lips.

You look down at him and notice how his Hellfire shirt is barely showing his trail on his stomach, making your thighs press together. Your heart pounds faster than before and you don’t even realize that you’re still standing and staring at him.

Eddie leans up to look over at you, a brow raised with a lazy smile on his plump lips. “You gonna sit down or just stare at me all night?”

Your face burns up as you smirk at him, sitting down on the corner of his bed. “Well, the second option does sound nice” you flirt jokingly.

“Oh, I’m sure it does, sweetheart. But we came here to study, remember?” He coos back, grabbing his notebook and folder for O’Donnell’s class.

You suppress the urge to groan out loud, instead letting out a huff as you also grab your notes and folder.

Trying to understand Mrs. O’Donnell’s assignments was hard enough, but it was even harder to understand it when all you could think about was the pet names Eddie called you earlier.

“Princess.” “Sweetheart.”

Fuck, you wanted more of it. You needed more of him.

After an hour of trying so hard to figure out how to do the assignment, you completely stopped trying to focus and lost yourself in the endless daydreams.

“Hello? Are you still with me?” Eddie asked, suddenly snapping you from your trance.

At this point, you stopped caring about the stupid assignment and sighed loudly.

“Eddie, can we take a break? I can’t do this for the life of me” you finally said, looking over at him.

Almost as if he was expecting it, Eddie smiled and nodded his head. “Yeah, of course. I don’t want either of us to stress out about this shit… speaking of which.”

He pauses his sentence and reaches over to his nightstand, grabbing a few items from the drawer and closing it. Once he sets the stuff on the bed, you get a better look at what he pulls out.

A baggie of rolled joints and a lighter.

“Maybe we can take a smoke break and come back to the studying later” he suggests.

You nod your head eagerly and he takes a joint from the bag, putting it up to your lips and lighting it for you. You take a puff of the smoke and blow it out in his face, causing him to let out a laugh.

“You’re a little shit, aren’t ya?” Eddie jokes.

“Hmm, maybe” You giggle, taking another hit before handing the joint to him.

After going through two blunts, the both of you are as high as the clouds, completely forgetting about the pile of assignments from earlier. The two of you are a giggling mess, deciding to ask random questions to kill time.

“Alright, alright… what’s something you’ve never told anyone before?” Eddie chuckles, his eyes red and squinted from the weed.

You look up at the ceiling and back at him, tilting your head. “Even you?”

“Even me, darlin’ ” he chimes.

You blow a breath from your lips and contemplate whether or not you should tell him what you’re about to say. But the longer you thought about it, the more you leaned over to the “fuck it” option.

So, you inhaled one last deep breath and sighed, looking at him.

“I like someone” you mumble.

Eddie pauses for a second before giggling. “Who?”

“Just take a guess!” You chirp, giggling with him.

He groans and brushes his curls out of his face. “Okay, okay, uhh… is it Steve?”

Your eyes widened at him. “No! Definitely not.”

“Damnit, hmm… is it Gareth?” Eddie asks cautiously, raising a brow at you.

“Nope! You’re getting warmer, though.”

“Is it someone in Hellfire?”

You nod at him and he leans up against the wall, his brows furrowed as he continues to think.

“…Is it me?” He asks quietly, making eye contact with you.

Your face burns bright red and you nod your head again, making his eyes widen a little.

“Holy shit… I fuckin’ knew it!” Eddie exclaims.

It surprises you at first, your heart beginning to pound harshly against your chest. “Huh-?”

“I always had this feeling that you liked me… I thought it was just wishful thinking because I’ve always liked you too and I never thought you’d get with m-“

He stops his sentence as you lean over to kiss him, making him moan out of surprise. You pull away for a second to look at him, a grin creeping up his lips. He pulls you in for another kiss, but this time it’s more slow and warm. He guides you with his lips and slowly introduces his tongue into your mouth, causing you to slip out a moan. The kiss grows more heated and you have to pull away to catch some air, a string of saliva connecting to the both of you.

You slowly crawl closer to him and he guides you on his lap, his forehead pressed against yours. You lower your hips and feel how hard he is, making the both of you moan in unison. He slowly begins to rock against you, the friction perfectly rubbing against your clit. He leans back in to kiss you, both of you whimpering softly into each other’s mouths.

“F-Fuck, sweetheart” Eddie breathes out, gripping your hips with his hands.

The way he moans breathlessly makes your stomach feel fuzzy and you’re sure your underwear is ruined at this point. Hell, you’re so out of it that you don’t even realize that you’ve just spoken to him.

“E-Eddie, I- I have another thing that- I haven’t told you” you mutter out to him.

He pauses and looks at you with a slightly concerned expression. “What is it?” He asks softly.

You struggle to get the words out, but eventually you’re able to form a coherent sentence. “I’m… still- still a virgin…”

His eyes widen for a second, then slowly smiles at you. “You are?”

You nod at him and whisper, “Yeah…”

Eddie hums and places a gentle kiss to your lips, carefully placing you flat on the bed. He hovers over you, his curls becoming a curtain to hide both of your faces.

“Don’t worry, princess. I’ll take care of you, wanna make you feel so good” he whispers, peppering kisses on your lips and down your jaw to your neck.

You can’t help but slip out soft moans and tilt your head back as you feel his soft and wet lips on your hot skin, fingers digging into his sheets. You can’t even tell if it’s the affects of the weed or the way he makes you feel, but you’re on cloud nine right now. His fingertips slide under the hem of your shirt and you subconsciously help him slide it off, revealing your bra. Eddie couldn’t resist the urge to admire you, his ringed hands trailing down your torso and landing on the waistband of your pants. He unbuttons them and slides them off your legs, along with your underwear (that he plans to keep later). He leans back down to place kisses on your collarbone and down your belly, reaching over to unhook your bra and throwing it on the floor.

“God, you’re so gorgeous. Such pretty tits” Eddie moans lowly, playing with your nipple in one hand and gently sucking the other in his mouth.

You gasp softly from the warm and wet feeling of his tongue circling around your nipple, your eyes rolling back as you let out a moan. “I- I can’t wait any longer. P-Please, baby” you plead quietly.

“What do you need, love?” He asks, still playing with your breasts in his hands.

“A-Anything, please- please, just touch me. I wanna feel you” you answer breathlessly.

Eddie nods his head at you and starts a trail of wet kisses from your sternum to your base, adjusting himself as he begins to kiss your thighs. You grab one breast in your hand and squeeze it gently, biting down on your lip as you watch him slowly make his way up your inner thighs. He looks up at you with glistening eyes before pressing a kiss to your clit, gently licking and sucking it.

You gasp louder this time, your hips bucking against his face involuntarily. “O-Oh, fuck-“

He pauses to check up on you, worried that you might be uncomfortable. “Are you okay?”

You smile and nod your head, letting out a giggle. “Mhm, it feels nice… keep going.”

Eddie chuckles lowly, swiping his middle finger against your slick and admiring how wet you are. “You like that, princess?”

You quiver and nod dumbly, buzzed from his touch. “Y-Yes, I do.”

He gives a small lick to your clit again while prodding his finger at the entrance of your pussy. “Tell me how much you want it.”

The anticipation makes you so desperate, you practically whine for him. “P-Please! I want it so bad, please baby. I’ll do anything, Eddie, I need you already.”

Eddie grins and slowly inserts his middle finger inside you, causing you to moan and bury your fingers in his locks. “That’s my good girl. You’re doing so good for me, hm? Asking so politely for me to please you” he groans against you, burying his face into your pussy again.

As he pumps his finger in and out of you, you can’t help but crave more of him. Your endless wet dreams of him were finally coming true, and God, was it better than your own fingers. The way he praised you, took care of you, pleased you. You felt like the luckiest person in the world.

“Shit, Eddie- n-need another one- please” you begged, your hips wiggling a little.

Eddie obeys your wish and adds his other finger inside, curling them against the spot you always desperately tried to get to. Your whole stomach starts to knot up and your legs twitch as you start to feel your orgasm creep up.

“Fuck! Oh- f-fuck! E-Eddie, I’m almost there! Don’t stop, don’t st- Ohh!!” You babble, gasping and moaning relentlessly.

He moans against you as he sucks your clit harder, curling his fingers faster and looking up at you. “Go ahead, sweetheart, let go. Be such a good girl and cum for me” he hums, grabbing one of your thighs with his hand and squeezing it.

With just his words alone, you do as he says and release on his fingers, practically shaking through your orgasm. He continues to fuck you through it to drag out your pleasure, causing you to feel overwhelmed and overstimulated.

“E-Eddie-“ you whimper, tapping his shoulder so you could tell him it was enough.

He immediately stops and slowly takes out his soaked and glistening fingers, looking up at you as he sucks them clean. Your stomach flutters as you watch him do so, letting out a quiet moan.

“You taste so fucking good, baby… Did that feel good for you?” Eddie asks, his voice dropping to a softer tone.

You let out a quiet chuckle and nod at him, a smile on your lips. “Eddie, that was better than anything I could do to myself.”

Eddie laughs and smirks as he looks back up at you. “Really?”

“Oh definitely… yet another thing I haven’t told you before… sometimes, I think about you while I touch myself” you mumble, turning red like before.

He stares at you, his jaw almost dropped. “Me? This little ol’ face is what you think about when you touch this pretty pussy?” He asks, pointing at him and at the base of your cunt.

You become bashful and quietly nod your head, making him laugh lowly.

“Aww, are you turning all shy on me now?” He teases, moving up so he can hover over you.

“Oh, shut up” you giggle, lightly smacking his bicep.

Eddie chuckles and leans down to kiss you, tasting yourself on his lips and tongue. You kiss him deeply and lightly tug on his shirt, moaning softly into his mouth. As if he knows exactly what you’re thinking, he pauses to take off his shirt and resumes back to kissing you hungrily. But the fluttery, warm and beating sensation grows back again between your thighs- and you can’t wait any longer. You’re ready for it- you’re ready for him.

You tug on his belt, indicating that you want him more. He pulls away from the kiss and looks at you, making sure that you actually want him.

When you nod your head and whisper, “It’s okay, sweetheart… I’m ready”, he slowly nods back at you and begins to undo his pants.

You look down as he strips himself, your eyes widening at the large bulge in his boxers. He finally rolls down his boxers and his hardened cock springs free, the tip red and leaking of precum. Your mouth practically waters at the sight and you can feel yourself get wetter and wetter, your thighs pressing together. He pauses, as if he just remembered something. You raise a brow at him and tilt your head.

“What’s wrong?” You ask him.

Eddie shakes his head and looks back at you. “Nothing, it’s just… I don’t have any condoms on me” he mumbles.

You shake your head at him and sit up to meet him, wrapping your arms around his neck. “It’s okay if you don’t. My mom… she put me on birth control after she found out I liked you” you mutter, grimacing at the memory of her saying that it was for “safety precautions”. But who knew that it would come in handy later on?

He lets out a chuckle and grins at you. “Jesus, you’re just full of fuckin’ surprises, aren’t ya? How come you never told me all this?”

“Because I was scared that you didn’t feel the same” you chuckle back.

“I’m still surprised you never noticed it. I thought I made it pretty obvious” Eddie teases.

“Like I said, I was scared. Now, are you gonna fuck me, or am I gonna have to wait?” You laugh.

He blushes bright red and lets out a small groan. “I see someone’s eager, huh?” He murmurs, kissing you and placing you on your back again.

“Very” you moan lowly, bucking your hips against his and feeling his warm tip swipe over your soaked folds.

The both of you moan at the warm and wet feeling, Eddie taking his cock into his hand and swiping it more. You shudder as he rubs the leaking tip over your clit, trying so desperately to keep your legs open for him. He notices you squirming around and places his hand on your tummy.

“Don’t worry, princess, I’ll give you what you want” he groans softly into your ear, slowly pushing his tip inside.

The pain of being stretched out by him makes you whimper, gasping and panting quietly. The noises you’re making is difficult for Eddie to not cum right then and there, causing him to moan and kiss your neck.

“Fuck, you’re so wet a-and warm” he stutters in the crook of your neck, panting softly as he pushes another inch inside of you.

You moan loudly as the pain slowly begins to fade away, clawing at his back as you tilt your head back. He carefully pushes more of his cock inside of you until you’re at his base, feeling him fill you up completely. You’ve never felt anything like this before, but you never wanted it to end. Tears fill up in your eyes as he begins to slide out and back in, your arousal complete coating his cock.

You begin to move your hips with his, grinding against his base and feeling his hair brush upon your clit. Hell, he’s practically burying himself up into your guts. He grabs your hips and helps you move them as he continues to fuck you, the both of you turning into a moaning and whining mess.

“F-Feels so- so fucking g-good, love it when you fuck me l-like that” you stutter out, gasping and tugging at his sheets again.

“Fuck sweetheart, keep talking like that and I won’t last much longer” Eddie whines out, picking up his pace as he thrusts into you.

His tip digs into that special spot and you swore you could see stars, letting out a loud moan. He squeezes your hip with one hand and cups your face with the other, sloppily kissing you as he bucks his hips quickly and hard. You moan into each other’s mouths, gasping and whimpering as Eddie starts rubbing your clit.

“Feels good, huh? You like how deep my cock is inside ya, hm? Can feel you squeezing me, you getting close princess?” He pants out, moving his hand from your face to squeeze your breast.

“Yes! Yes, please baby! I wanna cum, I’m s-so fucking close! I wanna feel you cum inside me, E-Eddie!” You cry out, tugging on his hair and wrapping your legs around his waist.

“Fuck- fuck! Oh, shit-!” He cries out.

Before Eddie can even stop himself, he’s cumming hard inside you, letting out the hottest noise you’ve ever heard. He wasn’t kidding when he said he wouldn’t last that long, but neither would you. As you feel his hot cum coating your walls, you cum around him afterwards. His chest raises up and down frantically as he tries to catch his breath, coated with beads of sweat from his forehead and neck. He collapses on top of you, finally being able to breathe normally again.

You can feel his cum seeping out of your pussy, sighing out as you feel him pull out and lay right beside you. You catch your breath as well and look over at him with a dazed smile.

“I love you” you hum to him.

His eyes widen as a wide grin slowly creeps up his face, pulling you in for a tender kiss. “Say it again.”

You giggle and obey his wish. “I love you, Eddie.”

Eddie sighs contently and kisses you one last time before looking at you again. “I love you too, my darling.”

And that night, you both didn’t bother to finish studying. Why would you? You just had the best night of your life, and nothing could ruin it. So the two of you fell asleep in each other’s arms, full of your best friend’s cum and love. You can worry about studying tomorrow… that is if Eddie can pay attention to something other than your face and tits.

[ageofnations]

2022 Writers Tag

thank you @sammysvanfeet and @streamingcolors-gvf for tagging me in this! sorry this took so long!

I think it might be fun to look back on what we've all achieved this year, let you give yourselves a well deserved pat on the back and also share what you love.

1. How do you feel 2022 has gone in terms of writing?

the beginning of this year was great in terms of writing, i had a somewhat easy semester of classes so school didn’t really get in the way, and i didn’t have to work too much this summer, so that was great! as the year progressed tho, my confidence started to struggle, and my self-worth in this fandom kinda declined. i’m still working on getting over that and creating something i know you all would like and i would be proud of. a new job, a harder class load, and grad school prep really made it difficult for me. i’m proud of how far i’ve progressed though!

2. What piece are you proudest of this year? It can be a shot/blurb/headcannon, a whole series or even a specific chapter.

ego. next question

3. Is there anything you posted that you wish had reached more people? (No such thing as a flop here!) Shout it out, it might catch a new pair of eyes!

i believe that all of my fics have done as well as they possibly could’ve, but i wish ego parts 2 and 3 would’ve gotten more attention. i know that unexpected additions to fics don’t do as well as the first part sometimes, though. i think ego is just my proudest bit so im protective of it lmao

4. Can you give us a hint of anything coming before the end of the year? Maybe even a little taster?

before the end of the year, you’ll certainly get more Table For Two (maybe even the finale of the series?) but from me specifically, i’m hoping to finish up a sammy wip to hold you all over until my new josh series is ready to be posted!

5. Are you setting any writing goals for next year, or just going with the flow? If you are, what are they?

mostly going with the flow, but i am setting goals to work on my confidence, discipline, and time management. i am working on sticking to smaller goals (such as writing a certain amount a week) and staying true to it, not posting for notes and rather posting because i am proud of what i’ve done, and figuring out ways to fit writing into my life as a student.

6. Do you have any one shots or finished pieces you're tempted to expand on or revisit next year?

ego, when the night is over, and maybe even a little josh x bip and danny x bip action in the chamomile au. we will see about all of that tho.

7. Is there anything new you're tempted to try out? A new style/trope/AU/another person in the fandom?

i think Wings of Midas will be a new stretch for me in many ways. forbidden love, suuuuuuper slow burn, and unrequited love. not to mention the research im trying to do in order to build the au and the mysteries behind it. it’s a really intricate piece

8. Now to hype some other writers! What's a piece you read back in the first half of the year that you can shout out?

oh dear i have the worst memory. tears of rain by my love @streamingcolors-gvf was (and still is) one of my favorite series. pretty by @jakekiszkaenthusiast is another off of the top of my head. and lazarus and abaddon ofc by @garbagevanfleet

9. And how about something you've read more recently?

the perfect treat by @streamingcolors-gvf has been in my head a lot recently (i wonder why…) so there’s that.

10. A fun one to finish...If you could insert yourself into any fic in the fandom, which would it be and what do you think would happen?

is it vain to insert myself into my own fic… kidding kidding.

put me in sugar plz, im tryna see something…it wouldn’t end how it did, just know that (but i know it had to end like it did, so this is all just /lh)

[mypoisonedvine]

The Kind of Girl You Take Home to Mom (part 3 - FINALE) | Andy Barber x reader

(part 1) (part 2)

summary: andy knows how to take what he wants, and he wants you.

word count: 5.6k 

warnings: SMUT, subtle dubcon elements, loss of virginity, infidelity (obviously), wedding ring kink (shocking!!! jk), 

a/n: wow, after all this time I FINALLY finished this series.  sorry it took so long.  I still have an alternate ending that I want to write... but I wanted to go ahead and get this out first.  thank you everyone for your patience!  I kind of expect this to flop despite being the most requested thing ever, but idgaf.

“Honestly?  I always had this weird fear that he was going to try to seduce one of my girlfriends.”

For the second time that day, you choked.

“Wh— are you okay?” Jacob gasped, running over to you as you coughed up water.

Your attempt to respond was useless as you could only sputter and cough, trying to communicate that you were fine with a casual wave, but only managing to flail your arm wildly.

“Was it something I said?” he pressed.

“No, I just—” you wheezed, but interrupted yourself with another coughing fit as your eyes watered from the lack of air.

He slapped your back to try to help you along but it wasn’t very effective, just adding one new source of pain to your predicament.  I always had this weird fear that he was going to try to seduce one of my girlfriends, that was what he’d said.  What does that even mean?  Did he mean it like “I always had this fear, for no good reason,” or did he mean it like “I was always afraid of this, and now it’s come true”?

The way Jacob was looking at you— kind, concerned, patient— it didn’t seem like he suspected you of anything.  He probably would’ve led with that if he knew something, right?

When your airways finally cleared and you were able to start catching your breath, you finished getting ready for bed quickly and hopped into bed.  You couldn’t handle any long conversations with Jacob, though you tolerated some cuddling before you fell asleep.

You dreamt that night that you were drowning.  Andy was holding you, his arms wrapped around you from behind as he pulled you to shore.  Or was he pulling you under?  Either way, you figured you’d had enough water in your lungs for one day.

~

You probably should’ve let them win at Scrabble… you just couldn’t help yourself.

“I have…” Jacob trailed off as he counted in his head, “177 points.”

“209,” Laurie announced, reaching over to rub Jacob on the shoulder sympathetically.  “Sorry, honey.”

“384,” Andy grinned, setting down his pen and pad triumphantly and looking to you for your score.

“Um,” you stalled, almost embarrassed to say now.  “I got, uh, 559.”

Laurie and Jacob erupted into sputters of confusion, demanding that you recount your points as if they hadn’t all seen you play ‘quixotic’ on a triple word space.

“Good game,” Andy murmured with a soft smirk as he stood up and left the table.  You smiled back at him quickly, the other two too busy recounting the numbers on your pad to even notice.

So, that was the end of board games for the night.  Jacob suggested a movie but you just knew that would just be you and him cuddling under one blanket… while Laurie and Andy cuddled under another.  You weren’t sure you could take that.  Instead, you decided to read your book outside— even though you figured Laurie was disappointed you didn’t want to do anything more social.  Complimenting her beautifully landscaped backyard eased the blow, though.

It was hard to get comfortable on the patio couch, not because of the couch itself but because you knew it wouldn’t be long until somebody bothered you.  When you heard the door open, you were a little disappointed to see Jacob approaching you.

“Hey,” he smiled, sliding in next to you on the couch and wrapping an arm around you.  

“Hey,” you greeted in reply, slightly flat in your affect as you immediately dove back into your book.

“You’re feeling okay, right?  We could go for a drive if you need some space,” he offered, rubbing your shoulder gently.

“No, I’m alright,” you mumbled.  “You know me, I like my peace and quiet when I can get it.”

“You… like them, don’t you?”  He must’ve sensed that you didn’t understand what he was referring to at first.  “My family, I mean.”

“Oh!  Yeah, that’s not the issue, really.  I know we’re going back home tomorrow but I still need to decompress a little bit.  I’ll be more social tonight, promise.”

When you looked up at him, his face was closer than you’d anticipated.  It reminded you of when you two met, at a party where the music was so loud that you’d had to stand about this close to be able to carry a conversation.  Well, technically that wasn’t the first time you met, because you had him in one of your classes that semester, but it was the first time you’d talked.  He was fun, he was new, he was friendly.  I can’t stay long, I’ve got a test in the morning, you’d yelled your explanation.  You’re gonna ace it anyway, he had dismissed at the time, so you should stay and have fun!  You deserve to have fun.

Maybe that was what had made you attracted to him: you couldn’t think of anyone else who had been so worried about what you deserved.  But now, Andy was added to that list.  You hated to imagine that Jacob had inherited that nature from his father.  Is he treating you right? Andy has asked you that night, and you really weren’t sure even now what the answer was.  He certainly wasn’t treating you poorly, but was that enough?  

Back in reality (and not in your whizzing, anxiety-ridden thoughts), Jacob leaned in and kissed you softly.  The kiss was just like him: patient, gentle, but also somehow energetic.  It was… nice.  Comfortable.  Feeling a surge of boldness, you set your book aside and leaned into him, pushing the kiss a little deeper.

He let out a tiny little noise, nearly a moan, as your tongues began to slide together.  His hand reached up to cradle the back of your head— you remembered that he did that a lot when you were making out, but all those times felt so foreign now.  Your hands reached up to rub against his chest through his t-shirt; that dark maroon one he wore all the time, so much that it was forming a few holes at the hem.  His hand slid down to your back and—

“Am I interrupting something?” Andy’s voice tore you both from the moment and from each other’s arms.

“Dad!” Jacob protested, sounding particularly immature with the way his voice rose to a shrill yelp of shock.

“I was just coming out here to let you know that your mother wants your help with dinner,” Andy explained, “but I wasn’t going to let an opportunity to embarrass you like that go by.”

“You never do,” Jacob sighed, giving you a quick kiss to the cheek as a goodbye as he stood up and walked inside.  You felt Andy’s eyes on you as you looked to the ground awkwardly, wiping your mouth with the back of your hand.  A few seconds after the door was shut, he spoke again.

“I couldn’t let you two get too hot and heavy, and besmirch this innocent patio couch.”

“You’d better not be mad at me for kissing my boyfriend,” you frowned as you stood up.  “That’s the most normal thing that’s happened all weekend.”

“I’m not,” he assured, beginning to step closer to you.  “Jealous?  Slightly.  Not that I see him as competition or anything.”

“Uh, you probably should,” you disagreed, raising your eyebrow in a mix of confusion and challenge.  

“Honey, I saw you kissing.  It was nothing to write home about,” he laughed.  “He doesn’t seem to realize that, since he brought you here.  Can’t blame him—-” he stepped closer to you and ever-so-delicately brushed his fingers against your arm— “but you know you can do better.  You know nobody can make you feel like I do.”

“Andy,” you murmured, trying to step back as you glanced to the window by the backdoor, through which the both of you were clearly visible to anyone who sat in the living room.  It was empty now, but it was too close for comfort.  “Someone could see…”

“They’re in the kitchen, don’t worry,” he soothed, leaning down to ghost his lips over your cheek and neck, “nobody’s gonna see us, angel, s’just you and me…”

You didn’t want to, but you melted into his touch anyway.  Just those little circles that his fingers drew on your back made your entire body erupt in shivers.  “Andy,” you found yourself whispering as if you needed to remember who was doing this to you.

“I’m gonna fuck you tonight,” he whispered against your ear.  

Your breath caught in your throat.  

“Are you scared?” he teased.  “Afraid my cock’ll split you in half?”

Embarrassed, you nodded.

He grinned, pulling back from your neck to force you into a deep, dominating kiss.  You wrapped your arms around his neck and clung to his shoulders, eagerly allowing his tongue access as it pressed into yours.  A little moan escaped you, causing him to pull your body even closer.  You had worried that kissing the two of them in a row like this would lead to an inevitable comparison, which would be beyond disgusting.  But nope, this kiss made you forget that you’d kissed Jacob at all.  Not that that exactly stopped it from being disgusting.

You knew if you didn’t stop yourself now, you wouldn’t be able to soon… and you really needed this kiss to end before you two got caught.  Pushing on his chest, you pulled back with a sigh.

“We shouldn’t—” you began.

“No, you’re right,” he agreed with a reluctant nod.  Still, you missed his touch now that it was gone.  “We’ll have plenty of time for that later.  It’s just hard to keep putting on a happy face when all I want is to grab you and bend you over the table and—”

“Oh god, you can’t talk like that,” you laughed nervously.  “You’re gonna drive me crazy, I swear.”

“Haven’t I already?” he smirked.

You nodded, because he was completely right.  With a quick wave, you opened the door to step into the house.  He called your name, getting your attention as you turned around.  In his hand, arm outstretched, was your book.  “Almost forgot this,” he smiled.

“Right, thanks,” you nodded, taking it and going back inside.

~

You spent the rest of the day reaching new heights of anxiousness.  Shaking your leg, chewing your lip, scratching your wrist— how could you relax after what Andy had said, how could you act casual?  You were just waiting for the other shoe to drop, for the obvious opportunity to arise and for Andy to be inevitable like he always was.

You weren’t sure how he did it, but he did.  He got Laurie and Jacob to leave you two alone in the house.  With his influential career, he was probably used to getting what he wanted, but you hadn’t anticipated that he was so good at the hard work it took to get those things.

He got you, though.  Not that that took all too much hard work.

“Enjoy the movie you guys!” you told them as they were making their way out the door.  Jacob leaned in for a goodbye kiss, and softly asked one last time if you wanted to come.  

He pulled your shirt up over your head, and you hadn’t even gotten it all the way off before he undid your bra with a quick motion.  You hated to think about Jacob in that moment, but those few times you’d fooled around with him to this extreme, that part of the process had taken quite a bit longer.

When your breasts were free his hands latched onto them instantly; the rough pads of his fingers felt good against the sensitive skin, and his hands were so damn big.  You felt your back arching into his touch.

“Can’t wait to get my mouth on these,” he purred, “but I need to see all of you first.”

You yelped as he picked you up and tossed you back onto the bed.  He took off your socks first, which made you feel a little hot for some reason, and then reached down to pull at your shorts.  You lifted your hips to make it easier, looking up at him and gnawing on your bottom lip nervously.

As he tossed your shorts and underwear aside, you suddenly felt very naked compared to his clothedness.  Probably because you were completely naked and he was completely clothed.  He smiled down at you before grabbing your ankles and resting them on his shoulders, starting to kiss up your leg slowly while never breaking eye contact.

You whined impatiently.  “Andy, please, need you…”

“Shh,” he soothed, “we’ve got time baby, I finally got you all to myself and I’m gonna savor it.”

His lips moved up your calf and thigh, but irritatingly skipped anywhere salacious to get straight to your hips and belly.  “Hnng, Andy—” 

You choked on your words when he licked over your nipple, swirling his tongue around it before sucking it into his mouth.  It instantly hardened between his lips and he smiled.  “Baby, you’re so sensitive,” he cooed against your skin as he kissed his way to the other and did the same.

Your hips bucked up and made contact with his clothed thigh; you let out a high-pitched moan and did it again, rubbing yourself against his suit pants.  The rough material sent shocks of pleasure through you as Andy smiled and left little love bites along your neck.

"Look at you, such a needy little girl," he tsked.  "Rubbing your cunt on me like a whore.  You're gonna make a mess, baby."

"'m sorry I just— oh, fuck," you sighed, your head falling back onto the pillow with a soft thud.

"It's only fair," he shrugged.  "I don't mind spending the rest of the night with your come on my slacks.  So long as you spend it with my come still in your cunt."

You gasped, trying to imagine how you would hide that from Laurie and Jacob…

But you couldn’t keep on that train of thought for very long as he started to kiss down your stomach again.

“Please, Andy, need— fuck, I need you to— um, taste me, please,” you whimpered.

“Hmm, beg a little more,” he smirked.

It was a long line of nonsense after that; some barely-intelligible string of ‘please’ and ‘Andy’ with a little flair of embarrassing whining.  He laughed a little before he finally did what you’d asked, latching his lips onto your swollen clit.  Your back arched instantly as your hands clenched at the comforter beneath you.

It wasn’t at all like you’d imagined it would be— it was so warm, and he alternated between surrounding you with his mouth and teasing you with the tip of his tongue.  You let out a long, deep moan when his tongue slipped inside you, twisting and massaging your walls so perfectly.  Your hands carded through his hair, accidentally tightening and pulling when he licked right over your clit.  He didn’t seem to mind, though, just moaning against you and doing it again and again and again until your legs were quivering. 

Just as you were about to tell him that you were close, he instantly pulled away to speak.  “I can tell you’re close,” he purred as if he’d read your mind.  

“Please, don’t stop,” you begged, but he continued to sit up and started to open his belt.

“It’s not time to come yet, honey.  It’s gonna feel so much better when you come while I’m inside you— for both of us,” he grinned.

As his sweater was discarded and his trousers were pushed down, you bit your lip.  You weren’t sure you would ever get used to seeing his cock, especially when it had leaked enough pre-cum to leave a wet patch on his boxer briefs.

He was on you the second he’d finished stripping, caging in your body with his, growling as he started to kiss your neck.  You whined and arched your back, your heart racing as you tried to cope with the fact that this was happening, this was really happening.  It was surreal, or maybe it was more than real— you were going to lose your virginity.  To Andy fucking Barber.

“I think you’re ready for me, don’t you?” he asked teasingly, his hips moving forward to press his cock against your inner thigh.  You nodded as you swallowed thickly, gasping as he reached down and started to rub his swollen head through your folds.

“Please…” you sighed, even as your chest tightened with distant fear.

You had wondered if what he'd said about his marriage to Laurie being sexless was true.  It certainly would be a convenient lie to garner your sympathy and make him look better.  But you had no doubts it was the truth when he pushed his cock into you; he moaned like a man who had dreamed of this moment for years, who had been so deprived of affection for so long.  

It hurt less than you’d expected, although it was certainly overwhelming.

“Oh fuck, Andy,” you moaned,

“Say my name again, baby,” he demanded with a groan.

“Andy!” you repeated, a little louder right as the tip of his cock hit so deep inside you that it hurt— and for some reason, you wanted him to do it again.

“Fuck, you need to be quiet, or the neighbors’ll hear you,” he hissed as he pumped into you deeper and faster.  “Can you do that or do I need to choke you to shut you up?”

You whimpered from fear at that idea and he laughed a little.  

“Don’t act so innocent, baby, I know who you really are: you’re my dirty little slut.”

“No I’m—” you began to disagree.  A quick slap to the face, not too hard but stinging nonetheless, shut you up.

“You know you are,” he hissed, “so say it.”

You could barely carry this conversation, his cock filling you so completely that you couldn’t think about anything else.  “Andy, I—”

“Say it.”

You gulped but managed to pant between heavy breaths, “I’m…  I’m your dirty little slut, Andy…”

He grinned and began to move faster, deeper, somehow.  You clutched at his shoulders, kissing him and groaning into his mouth.  When his hips slammed into yours, you moaned louder than maybe you ever had before.  "You want it rough, honey?” he taunted.  “Want me to fuck you hard?"

"Yes, please!" you sobbed, your voice hoarse and desperate now.

He grabbed your hips and made good on his offer of brutality, and then some, making you nearly scream.  He kissed you again, perhaps in an attempt to keep you quiet, although it didn’t work that well, as you mouth fell open with every cry.  His teeth captured your lip as he growled above you, holding your hips up so the angle was perfect to send his cock right into the end of you, so deep— too deep, in the most perfect way.

His cock stroking against your walls was indescribable; each thrust made your entire body erupt in shivers.  The stretch was difficult but you loved it, you loved the way his body pushed yours to its limits.  

"Gonna come inside you, honey," he moaned, "gonna fill you up so good, gonna mark your body with my come and make you mine."

"Oh god, Andy, please," you sobbed.

"You gonna come for me, pretty girl?” he encouraged.

“Yes, so close—” you cut yourself off as you choked on nothing, you entire body beginning to tighten and seize up as pleasure spiralled higher and higher.

“Just like that, come on my cock,” he demanded, but you couldn’t do anything else even if you tried— the coil snapped as your vision went spotty.  Just as you started to close your eyes, he held your neck and stared down at you.  “Look at me when I make you come.”

You struggled to keep your eyes open with the intensity of sensation washing over you, but you didn’t want to know what would happen if you disobeyed.  Those blue eyes pierced through you as you shivered underneath him, and with your walls constricting his cock just felt even thicker inside you.  “Andy,” you whimpered, your fingers and toes erupting into pins and needles as you felt him flexing inside you— and he must have been coming in you in that moment, with the way he sighed and his thrusts pumped deeper yet more erratically.

Warmth spilled inside you as numbness decorated your extremities and fogginess clouded your mind.  You lost focus as he collapsed beside you— even when he pulled out, you still felt full, due in part to his come inside you and in part to being ruined so thoroughly by him.  Maybe you’d feel normal again tomorrow, or next week, but right now it was impossible to forget that you were fucked, in every sense of the word, by Andy Barber.

He pulled you into his arms and kissed your neck slowly, his breathing slowly returning to a stable pace as his chest pressed against your back.  He was mumbling something about how you were his girl, how you did so good for him, but you were already drifting into sleep even though it was barely nine o’clock.

You woke up the next morning in the guest room with Jacob beside you, who informed you that he’d found you already asleep when he got back from the movie he’d gone to see with his mom.

You left just a few hours later, waving goodbye to Mr. and Mrs. Barber as Jacob pulled the car out of the driveway.

three months later...

The sun was just starting to set as you made your way home after your last class of the night.  Campus was gorgeous at this time of day, but you weren’t really taking the time to notice it as you focused instead on how wonderful it would feel to kick your shoes off, slip off your bra and slide into bed.  What you didn’t anticipate when you unlocked your dorm room’s door was to find Andy sitting on your bed as he waited for you.  You shut the door quickly so none of the girls mulling about the hall would see him.

He looked so out of place in your dorm.  He was so… adult, and yes, everyone there was an adult, but he was a whole new level of adulthood compared to the other residents of the honors dorm.

“You shouldn’t be here,” you reminded him.

“Why shouldn’t I be?” he questioned casually.

“Because your son is on the other side of the hall,” you explained, unamused.  “What if he sees you here?  What if he sees your car in the garage?”

“You worry too much.  I don’t give a fuck if my son lives nearby, if I wanna visit my girlfriend then I’m gonna do it.”

He’d never used that word for you before— or at least, not in front of you.  It made you feel nervous, glancing to the floor as he stepped closer towards you.  "I think I'm too young to be your girlfriend,” you decided.

"Perfect age for a mistress, though."

You stammered as you tried to balance the way that word made you feel sick with the way it made you feel aroused.  He lifted your chin with a finger, his other hand pulling you closer at the waist.  "Are you trying to act innocent, honey?” he smirked.  “Do you think I didn't realize that it turns you on?"

"Wh-what turns me on?"

"The sneaking around.  The secrets, the lies; the fact that it's wrong, forbidden, taboo.  It's why you haven't broken up with my son yet and it's why you stare at my ring all the time— yes, I noticed."

You frowned, crossing your arms impatiently.  “I haven’t broken up with Jacob because my relationship with him makes a great cover for my relationship with you… I’m doing that for us.  And do you think I like the ring?  I hate that stupid chunk of silver, seeing it on your hand makes me so livid because it just reminds me that I don’t have you all to myself and—”

“Baby, you know I’m all yours,” he purred, kissing down your neck as your back began to arch.  “Meanwhile, I have to share you with him.”

You were amazed that he could refer to his own son with such disdain, but then again, you knew how jealous he could get.  

“If you’re mine then take the ring off,” you suggested between panting breaths.

“If you’re mine then take it off for me,” he countered.  His left hand was travelling up your neck and you grabbed it by the wrist.  He pulled back to look at you as you brought his fingers to your mouth, kissing the tips of them before sucking on his ring finger, deeper and deeper, until it was poking down your throat and the ring was at your lips.  Lubricating it with your spit and spinning it with your tongue, you used your teeth to pull the ring slowly off of his finger.  He gasped a little as you opened your mouth and displayed it for him on your tongue, before spitting it out and across the room; it made a tiny little clinking noise as it hit your floor.

“Fuck,” he growled, the sound deep in his throat and dripping with desperation.

It felt like his hand never left your neck that night, like he was trying to claim you in every way he could all at once.  He was so possessive over you, ironically.  It was hard not to feel like your whole life was waiting.  Waiting for the semester to end so the next one could begin.  Waiting to graduate and get a job and finally begin your real adult life.  Waiting for the marks Andy left on your skin to fade so you didn’t have to wear a turtleneck in June.

Waiting for Jacob to find out, like he inevitably would.

Waiting for Andy to leave Laurie, or at least do something to make it seem like this was going somewhere.  

The thing about Andy was that he had this magical ability to make you stop worrying, in a way nobody and nothing else could.  When you were apart, reality would set in again and you’d decide you needed to confront him the next time you saw him.  It wasn’t even that you needed him to commit to you, specifically, you just needed to know what was going on— because how could he stay married through all this?  He needed to leave her, not for you but for himself.  You would get yourself all worked up and then he’d show up and soothe you until you forgot what you wanted to say in the first place.  When you were together, the future didn’t matter anymore, and neither did everything that was wrong about what you were doing.

It was like living in a dream, a really strange dream.  You were drowning in him, just like you’d known you would, but you didn’t want to stop.  You didn’t want to stop the secret dates when you gave your friends and boyfriend some excuse about having to study, the rendezvous in the back of his car, the midnight phone calls where he was whispering so his wife wouldn’t hear.

You figured that after all this time of being a good girl— the perfect daughter, the perfect student, the perfect girlfriend, the kind of girl you’d take home to mom— you deserved to let go.  You deserved to have fun.

[mvttsvn]

Useless [pt1]

Modern college!au

toxic Eren x gn!reader

warnings: angst, explicit themes, dubcon, embarrassment, manipulation, degradation, OOC, cussing, and typos

authors note: this has been sittin in my drafts for months I just haven’t had the motivation to finish. there will be a part 2 with smut I just wanted to get this out first.

part 2

Eren liked to think he was a pretty simple guy. He’d meet someone, use them for his benefit, lead them on till he didn’t need them anymore, then disappear. A sick trick that he used to manipulate all kinds of people. Life really can be easy with the right looks and a smooth voice. He and only ever got what he needed. He understands how selfish it is. But gotten him this far, so what would be the point in changing. 

Unfortunately, you had been one of the unlucky few to get caught up in his schemes. Let’s be honest it wasn’t a surprise, you knew of him before. A few of your friends pinned over him for being the cute nicotine-addicted guy who couldn’t care less about World Literature 1-2. But you believed each and everyone of of his sweet little promises. “No you’re so special, I think I’m gonna keep you around for a long time sweetheart.” Deception dripping from his lips as he gave you a sinful grin.

You should’ve known...

It’s been a few months now since Eren blocked and deleted your number for his phone, the last time you spoke was when he texted you to thank you for helping him pass his English final. You replied with asking if he wanted to get lunch the following day only to be left with your text never going through. That motherfucker. Of course you were angry, mostly at yourself though. You tried not to sulk about it yet every time you’d go out you’d dress up a little then you would usually just in case you’d see him. And luckily he wasn’t in any of your classes this semester either so it would be easier to forget him.

At this point you haven’t thought of Eren in weeks, you’ve focused yourself in uni and started taking assignments and things more seriously. That was until one of Eren’s roommates unknowingly took a seat next to you in your intro to ethics course.

You’ve been to Eren’s apartment a multitude of times. You knew who his roommates were, even after having a few conversations in the late morning with them after you would spend the night. Armin, who was too engrossed from whatever was on his phone plopped his books right next to you and took a seat not sparing you a glance. Once you professor started speaking he locked his phone slipping it into his pocket and glance around the room. Once he looked at you his blue eye widened and he sorta whispered “oh hey! y/n didn’t know you were in here”

You shrugged and gave a polite smile while turning back to look at the front of the room to stare through one of the windows above the projector screen. It’s not like you hated Armin, he was very kind and never judged you when you’d take the walk of shame in the morning through Eren’s kitchen, it’s just you know that this interaction would eventually lead back to him and that made you nervous.

A week or two passed and Armin continued to sit next you, you supposed it was more comfortable for him because it didn’t look like he knew anyone else in this class, neither did you. Nor were you complaining he’d give you notes and lend you his book when you would forget. Not much conversation would happen between you either, a simple hello and other small talk would occur nothing more. A very professional relationship.

Yet when your professor assigned a partner projects you and Armin both looked at each other like :| and silently agreed to work together. It was just easier that way. The assignment wasn’t due for another 2 weeks so you had confidence that you wouldn’t have to grind at the end of the this week to do it. Until Armin caught your arm as you were leaving.

“Hey sorry to ask but would it be ok if we could work on this after school? I have a lot of stuff due this week and I’m in a bit of a time crunch.” He shyly laughed hoping you weren’t busy.

You held in a sigh “Uhh sure, can I meet you at 5 tho..I have a thing-”.

“Yeah! That’d be fine, my place?”

You kinda really didn’t want to go to his place, “yea!”

You both continued listening to your teacher’s lecture while your mind was elsewhere, you didn’t have anything after school you just wanted to go home for a bit and prepare for who you may or may not see at Eren’s Armins apartment. By the end of the day you raced home, flopping onto your bed, this was a bad idea, why didn’t you just ask for him to meet at the library or something?? This situation could’ve been a whole lot simpler if you just offered your place instead. Hell you don’t have any unconventional roommates you sleep with him so it’s just unfair. At 4:45 you gather your things and drove over to Armin’s apartment. You knocked on the door, your nerves going haywire.

You’re greeted by Armin he smiled and opened the door for you letting you walk inside. You took a glance to the side and luckily Eren’s familiar beat up tennis shoes weren’t by the door. At least you could relax for a little while, hopefully he wouldn’t come home till you were gone.

Jean was sitting on the couch watching some action movie at a low volume with Connie who was fast asleep curled up with a throw pillow. The lights in the living room were dim with the curtains on the windows shut. Yet you could still see from the light in the kitchen that shone from above the counter. Jean gave you a nod, “welcome back” he half whispered as he tipped his drink at you. You smiled and waved and made your way into Armin’s room. You sat at the edge of his desk in a borrowed kitchen chair, as he joined you sitting in his computer chair in front of his desktop. He left his door slightly ajar letting you see right through into the kitchen and front door, which made you slightly on edge. Armin started going over the project, opening a document, and reading through a few paragraphs. You tried your best you to concentrate but you were too paranoid. Every so often a loud noise from Jean’s movie on the tv would make you whip your head towards the door. About an hour in you and Armin had crunched through about a few paragraphs and of your project, to Armin’s mistake you guys definitely weren’t going to finish tonight. Hopefully the next time you’d offer your place instead.

After another 30 minutes you and Armin gave up, eventually you guys made your way back into the living room. You went to the door to gather your things until Jean and Connie basically begged you to stay and watch another movie with them. You didn’t want to, you knew if you stayed any longer the possibility of Eren coming home would increase. But when Connie got up from the couch and handed you a drink, you gave in. As you sat down you began slightly regretting your decision. Why were you staying? You and Armin were finished you can go home.

You asked yourself this when you heard keys jangle outside the door and the click of the lock. It’s roughly pushed open and Eren moves into the room, swiftly locking it behind him. “Hey man” Jean calls, you immediately tense next to Armin and fix a stare at the tv. You’re too aware of your surroundings right now to know what happening but you need a distraction. You can see his movement in your peripheral, Eren saunters in to the dark living room to stand by the opposite of the end of the couch from you. when he spots you,  you can feel his blazing stare in your skull, he laughs out a scoff and the room goes silent, except for the low murmur of the tv. 

The air is tense and awkward and everybody can see your apprehension. your heart it beating in your ears and you can feel you palms starting to sweat. The sounds of the tv are immediately drowned out when Eren breathes our your name. “What the hell are you doing here?” He grips the arm of the couch and places his left hand on his hip. You slowly turn your head to look him in the eyes when Armin speaks up trying to lighten the situation “We had a project for sadis’ class” 

Your eyes dart between Eren and Armin when Eren snides, “hmm...well it doesn’t look like your working on it” 

“hey layoff man” Jean gives him a side eye. “Yeah we finished just a few minutes ago.” Armin adds. 

“It was just a question” Eren shrugs. You can believe him, he such a fucking asshole, you’re staring at him in disbelief when he meets your eyes again he laughs “what did you miss me or somethin?” His grin is sickening, you feel the embarrassment hot on your face yet what can you do in the situation? If you leave you’ll destroy your pride and yet if you stay what if you give in to him again?

Your frozen in your seat you nails digging shapes into you palms as you clench them together. You feel the stare of everyone one in the room and it makes you want to cry. He tilts his head “can’t you speak? what wrong?” the malice in his voice makes your ears burn. You want to scream, you want to run, but he slowly walks right in front of you and holds out his hand. “C’mon”

You can leave at any moment, the door is only a few feet away yet you cautiously place your palm into his as he hauls you up from your seat. No one says anything as you guys leave the room, what a complicated situation this is huh? 

As he opens his door you try to glace back at the others yet he roughly pulls your arm though and slams his bedroom door. You hope they don’t blame you too much for going with him. You stand in the middle of a very familiar room, one you’ve visited many times yet you’re too scared too move from the spot you currently occupy. He turns to face you locking the door behind him and takes a few steps forward. You look at the floor as you begin speaking “Eren I-” 

“ohhhh so you can talk?” 

“yes’ you puff. 

He fits his hand under your chin proceeding to squish your cheeks to face him. “I don’t like you hanging out with them when I’m not around” his hot breath fan your face and you widen your eyes. The audacity. “What do you mean, were not even together anymo-” you voice smothered by his grip. 

He tips his head back and see concern in his eyes, its almost like he was hurt by your words, “Yes we are” his eyebrows scrunched together. You go to spit out another sentence when his hand moves to cover you entire mouth, he brings face to your ear, “You wound me y/n, how could you think that? I thought you loved me?” Why does he sounds so genuine? Your mind is fuzzy with confusion, of course he’s lying, you would never in a million years utter those words to him during the short time you were together. Yet the pain in his voice and the grip on your jaw is making you dizzy, his hot breath on your ear and neck are causing goosebumps to raise on your skin.

 Your smaller hand goes to grip his forearm that's holding your face. He moved to look into your eyes. The dim light from the lamp in the far corner of the room casts a shadow upon his face, yet his deep green eyes seem to glow. He slowly moves his hand away placing it on your shoulder as his free hand moves to your hip. You want to yell at him, ask his why he’s doing this to you, but you place your palm softly onto his chest and drop your head in shame, “I’m sorry..i..I didn’t know” you whispered.

His warm hand goes to caress your cheek and moves into your hair lightly pulling to make you face him. “It’s ok babe, you just have to make it up to me” his chest rumbles underneath your hands as you eye widen. “You can do that, right?” You slowly nod your head and bunch his t-shirt under your fingers. He places a soft kiss on your forehead and lead you towards his bed in the corner of the room. He takes a seat on his dark blue comforter and your stand in front of him. Your hands lightly holding onto his index fingers as he carefully rocks them back and forth.  You take another look at his face and see the artificial softness slowly fade away into something dark, and conspiring.

“On your knees babe” his voice sounding rougher than before. You begin another protest but he takes his warm palms and encircles your waist to urge you down. You slowly fall to your knees, your hands on his thighs while digging your nails into his rough jeans. Your mind slowly starts to unfog and start realizing what your doing. Your shame and regret tug at your heart and you feel the tears begin to prick your eyes. You look up at Eren and see the distain in his eyes. He hums and caresses you shoulder. You wept into your chest as you feel the air being stolen from your lungs Eren moves his calloused hand to your throat and tugs to make you look him in the eyes.

Why did you have to be so damn proud?

[out-of-jams]

Rebound || pjm

↠ Rebound ↞ Who cared if Kim Taehyung slept with other people? You sure as hell didn’t. That was what friends with benefits meant, right? No, it didn’t matter that you were halfway in love with him. And no, you sure as hell weren’t going to try and make him jealous with a complete stranger. Nope, not at all. Right?

Right.

Word Count: 7k.

Pairing: Jimin x Reader

Warnings/Genre: College!au. s2l. Explicit language. Alcohol use. Slight angst. Jealousy. Pining. One shot. PG 16.

(yes, this is a repost of the original, but this has been changed and i'd already deleted it so yeet)

All works here are purely fiction. Everything I write is my intellectual property and therefore belongs to me. ©out-of-jams. Do not copy or repost without permission. That is illegal and you are stealing no matter if you give credit or not.

                              | | Masterlist | |

“So, you’re coming to the party tonight, right?”

The feminine and slightly accusatory voice of your best friend went in one ear and out of the other. You were too busy watching the digital red numbers counting upwards above the elevator doors to pay much attention to your phone. And the hum of the steel machine sent vibrations through your spine as you leaned against the back wall. With your heart in your throat and palms sweating, you took a deep breath.

“Hello? Y/n!”

“I dunno, Jennie,” you mumbled, bottom lip tucked between your teeth. The elevator was so slow that it practically moved backwards in time. “I might be too busy to go tonight.”

There was a slight pause on the other end of the line and you could practically picture the way Jennie was probably comparing outfits to wear for the night. “What you mean by that is, ‘I can’t go to the party with my best friend because I’ll be too busy fucking Kim Taehyung.’ Was I close?”

Not even her crass words could wipe the excited smile from your face. “Maybe.”

Kim Taehyung.

Three months of hooking up with the guy and just hearing his name still brought a blush to your cheeks. It was no secret that every girl and even some of the guys on campus had a crush on him at some point. He was beautiful. Adonis masquerading as a human made of flesh and blood. Tall, slim and charismatic, he knew everyone, and everyone knew him. If you needed a connection, Taehyung was the person that you went to. Teachers loved him, grandmothers loved him, hell, even animals loved him.

Which, of course, meant that he could have had any single person that he blinked those pretty brown eyes at.

When he’d pulled out a chair and sat down next to you in your shared photography class at the beginning of the semester, you couldn’t believe your eyes. And neither could any of the other girls in the room, if their glares were anything to go by. Because you weren’t anything special. Nor did you come close to Taehyung’s level. You didn’t have a bunch of friends, just Jennie, and you sure as hell weren’t anything to look twice at. So, you’d just chalked it up to him wanting to sit in one of the only two window seats and left it at that.

Fifteen minutes into class and he’d turned those chocolate eyes in your direction, chin resting in the palm of his hand. And when his cupid-bow lips parted, the smooth baritone of his voice spoke quietly in order to not interrupt the professor taking attendance.

“I haven’t seen you around before. What’s your name?”

Nine words. That’s all it took to seal your fate.

Five days later and you were pinned beneath his sweating, honey colored skin. Kim Taehyung had hypnotized you with his white toothed smile and you were pathetically weak to that silver tongue of his.

One night in his bed and you were his.

A single night turned into two and then three, and then before you knew it, Taehyung would wait for you outside of your last class for the day to walk you home. And his name would pop up on your phone at two am on a Saturday, his voice seductive through the receiver as he convinced you to take an Uber to his apartment.

You thought that you would have been strong enough to resist falling down the rabbit hole that was Kim Taehyung. But you were too weak to stop yourself from wanting more. From confessing to him your feelings that had built up with each press of his mouth to yours. You weren’t foolish enough to think that you were dating him. Though that did little from imagining that you were more than just a hook-up to him. That his heart beat quickly in his chest every time he laid those mocha eyes on you. It’d gotten to the point where you couldn’t take it anymore.

Which was exactly why you were glaring up at the slow ticking numbers above the elevator door with your foot tapping a nervous rhythm. Today was the day that you were finally going to grab the proverbial bull by the horns and confess your feelings for the man that walked your dreams like he owned them.

“I gotta go,” you quickly cut off whatever sentence Jennie had been in the middle of, already pulling the phone from your ear in preparation to hang up. “Talk to youlaterokaybye!”

Whether or not she’d been able to decipher your jumble of words wasn’t really your problem. Because the elevator came to a halt with one last obnoxious and unnecessary bounce. Closing your eyes, you swallowed.

“Okay, suck it up.” A deep inhale echoed through the steel box, accompanied by the rustle of the plastic bag of takeout dangling from your fingertips. “You got this, Y/n.”

A ding! was all the warning you got before the doors slid open along with your eyes.

And your stomach dropped all the way back down to the first floor.

Not even halfway down the hall, two bodies were mercilessly tangled with one another. Pushed up against one of the apartment doors, a flash of blond hair and tan skin was recognizable even with his back turned to you. And the girl, you couldn’t make out her face or a majority of her body seeing as how Taehyung’s was blocking her from view.

The elevator’s doors slowly started to close, but you couldn’t move. Frozen in place, all you could do was stare at Taehyung as he fished into his back pocket for his keys and blindly unlocked his front door. Both of them disappeared from sight just as the steel doors finally shut.

Your shocked, hurt expression was mirrored back to you in the morphed reflection. Plastic slipped through your fingers and the bag of takeout hit the floor with a muted thud. Vision blurring from tears, you jammed a finger into the button to go back down to the lobby floor. The elevator was sluggish in responding, so you pressed the plastic again. And again. And again.

How could you have been so stupid? So naive as to think that you would be the only person that Taehyung was hooking up with. You should have known that there was no way in hell he would have returned your feelings. But like the idiot you were, you’d let yourself get drunk on him. And now you were paying the price for being foolish.

The elevator finally moved, and you threw your head back to stop the tears from spilling over. Waiting until you were out of the shitty lobby to Taehyung’s shitty apartment building would be the only way you’d be able to hold onto your last shred of dignity.

“Back already?” Jennie didn’t even turn to look at you when you entered your shared dorm room, too busy examining her outfit in the full-length mirror. Whenever she got invited to go to a party, she always planned what she was going to wear hours in advance. Only to brush off the compliments she would receive at said functions with a giggle and nonchalant wave of her hand.

The door closed behind you with finality and you couldn’t hold back the sob that’d been threatening to break free since you fled Taehyung’s apartment building. Jennie whipped around at the sound, dropping the skirt she held in her hands and letting it fall to the floor.

“What happened?” In two seconds, she was across the room and held your face between her soft hands. Concern flickered through her dark colored eyes as she wiped the tears from your cheeks. “Did Taehyung do something to you? I swear to god, say the word and I’ll call up the guy from my biology class to kick his ass.”

You shook your head, which was more difficult than it looked with the grip she had on you. And when you opened your mouth to answer, the words barely made it past your lips with how hard the sobs rocked your body. “No...no, don’t call Jungkook. I’m just so stupid, Jennie.”

“You’re not stupid.” She murmured but guided you over to your bed and waited until you sat down to speak again. “Tell me what happened.”

There was something about her that made you spill your heart out. You’d been too reluctant to tell her about your feelings for Taehyung before. All she’d known was that the two of you hooked up frequently. She sat there patiently, nodding her head and scowling when you got to the part about him sleeping with other girls.

“So he never brought that up?” Jennie leaned back against your headboard and sucked her cheek in anger. “That he was seeing other people?”

Shaking your head, you whipped your damp eyes with the sleeves of your shirt. “No, but I should have known. I shouldn’t be so surprised.”

Your best friend opened her mouth to respond with what was most likely an angry rant aimed at summoning Jeon Jungkook to fight Taehyung. He was two years younger than her and yet that did little from preventing the enormous crush she had on the guy, even though she would argue otherwise. You held up a hand to stop her words before they could form.

“Look, I just want to forget about him, okay? I shouldn’t have thought...,” sighing, you ran a hand down your face, voice small. “I don’t want to talk about him anymore.”

“Okay then.” Jennie nodded her head slowly. She stood from the bed and crossed the small amount of space between your bed and hers. Swooping down to grab some of the discarded clothes on her duvet, she turned to shoot you a smirk. “You’ll just have to get over him.”

You flopped down on your back, throwing an arm over your face. “That’s what I just said.”

“Yes, but how do you get over him?”

Too emotionally exhausted to bother with throwing her a glare, you huffed in irritation. “If I knew that, I wouldn’t be lying here with my heart broken.”

A short pause encompassed the room before you heard Jennie’s footsteps approach your bed. She dragged your arm from your face and made sure you met her assured gaze. “That was rhetorical. You get over him by getting under someone else.”

You snorted, though it lacked amusement. “Having sex with a stranger won’t help.”

She shrugged and used her grip on your arm to pull you into a sitting position. “Or it might, you never know. You just need to find someone who can make you forget about Kim Taehyung.”

“That’s not possible,” your dry tone did nothing to dissuade her. Jennie threw a piece of fabric over your head, effectively blocking out all of the light and shrouding you in a blanket of darkness.

“It is possible. Now get dressed, you’re coming to that party with me tonight.”

“Do I have to?” You complained but held what you now realized was a skirt out in front of you. It was...well, short. Would barely even hit mid-thigh. “You know I don’t go to parties that often.”

“Which is exactly why you need to.” She was too busy examining a cute, short sleeve top to bother being affected by your glare. Apparently deeming it good enough, she tossed it in your lap. “If you don’t go, I’ll just drag you there.”

Arguing with Jennie was a lot like talking to a brick wall. Once she set her mind to something, getting her to change it bordered on impossible. And to be honest, you didn’t have the energy to even try. So with a grumble, you slid off of your bed. “Fine.”

“Maybe you should slow down?” Jennie’s suggestion came out more like a question, but you didn’t hear her because you were too busy downing another shot.

The vodka burned as it snaked its way down your throat and you hardly even noticed before you started to pour another shot. All around you, music poured from the obnoxiously large speakers set up throughout the frat house, shaking the floor with just how loud the bass was. Not even the music could detract from the heat of bodies grinding against each other on the makeshift dance floor.

You weren’t sure which frat house you were at to be honest. Not that it mattered. They were all the same anyway and the free alcohol had called your name the moment you stepped foot inside the packed place. Jennie stood next to you in the almost empty kitchen with a red solo cup held delicately in her manicured hand. She stared at you with barely hidden concern while you knocked back a third shot.

“O-kay.” She reached out a hand to grab the bottle of vodka from you when you went to pour another. “Pace yourself before I have to carry you home.”

“You’re the one that wanted me to come,” you complained but let her confiscate your alcohol anyway. “Might as well get drunk off the free supply.”

“Yes, well.” Jennie raised an eyebrow, scooting closer to you at the island when a guy you didn’t recognize approached to mix his own concoction of poison. “While that’s true, ending up face down in a dirty frat house toilet isn’t the way you wanna go out. Trust me.”

You paused in surveying the darkened room of dancing bodies to send her a questioning look. “You speaking from experience here?”

“Oh, shut up.” She let out a very unladylike snort into her cup and brushed her long black hair over her exposed shoulder. She nodded at the crowd in the other room. “Look, let’s just find you a hot guy to get under so you can get over that douchebag.”

The guy who’d been pouring himself a drink looked over at Jennie’s words, eyes lighting up in interest. She either didn’t notice or did and chose to ignore him. You sighed and tried your hardest to ignore the way your stomach dropped at the reminder of Taehyung. “I doubt I’ll find anyone here that could compare to him.”

A slap to your bare arm had you turning to glare at your best friend, fingers rubbing furiously at your now red skin. Jennie just rolled her eyes with an exasperated huff. “Not with that attitude you won’t. Besides, Kim Taehyung is not all that.”

The strange guy occupying the kitchen made himself scarce after that, whatever interest he may have had in the conversation fleeing at the mention of Taehyung. She ignored your look of disbelief and continued. “He’s not. There’s plenty of hotties here who would be eager to take his place. You could literally just close your eyes and point.”

She wasn’t wrong there. The number of attractive men that paraded themselves around the party like peacocks werenice to look at. But they weren’t Taehyung. And that was where your problems lie.

“Go take a lap.” Jennie didn’t wait for you to respond before her hand was on your back, pushing you towards the open kitchen archway. “If you don’t find someone who catches your eye, then we can just call it a night and get drunk.”

Letting out a put-upon sigh, you sent her a look over your shoulder and let her push you out of the kitchen. She didn’t follow, choosing instead to retreat back into the kitchen and strike up a conversation with a girl she apparently knew. Whatever. It wasn’t like you needed her to escort you around like you were a child at a birthday party. No! You were an adult. A grown woman who was going to get over Kim Taehyung.

And if you had to get under someone else to do it, well, that was exactly what you were going to do.

The barely lit living room was completely different from the bright lights in the kitchen, and you had to squint to let your eyes adjust for a moment. It was just like you’d seen when you’d walked through earlier, though you hadn’t been paying much attention then. Not even two feet to your left was a couple. What they were doing couldn’t even be defined as dancing, it was more like sex with clothes on.

Grimacing, you weaved through the crowd, most people not bothering to move out of your way. The seductive music that poured over your ears was silently beckoning you to move your hips to the beat, but you resisted. You weren’t nearly drunk enough to let loose on your inhibitions and drown in the pulsing rhythm. So, you pressed on, navigating from the living room and into the spacious foyer. It connected one side of the house to the other and you took a moment to breathe.

Eyes closed; you ran a shaking hand through your hair. You could do this. Hell, it wasn’t even the thought of sleeping with a stranger that made you hesitant. Whether or not you were just a hook-up to him, your feelings for Taehyung had been real. It’d been a very long time since you’d last felt the same way for someone, to the point where you’d begun to think that you never would again.

You were heartbroken.

Over a guy who couldn’t give two shits about you.

If you closed your eyes, you could hear his voice murmuring in your ear. And the ghosts of his fingertips could be felt running through your hair, short nails scratching against your scalp. The way his tongue spoke words was one of your favorite things about him, and his deep baritone practically yelled in your ear.

Wait.

Your eyes flew open in shock. No, it hadn’t been your imagination after all. Because Taehyung’s excited shout reached over the music and had your head snapping in that direction. Your feet moved before you registered it, right across the foyer and into the other room. Inside was just as dark as the living room, except this one was lit up by a glow-in-the-dark beer pong table situated right in the center.

Couches had been pushed up against the walls and were occupied by people either passed out or couples making out like they were alone in their own homes. You didn’t pay them any mind, nor did you notice anything else in the near vicinity. Because on the far side of the beer pong table stood Taehyung. His blond hair glowed white in the neon lighting and the yellow button-down shirt he had on made him look like a well-dressed highlighter.

He had one hand raised, a white ping pong ball held between his slender fingers. Dark brows were pinched in concentration and his tongue stuck out of the corner of his mouth as he stared down the cup on the other side of the table. But that wasn’t what had you freezing in your tracks, effectively blocking the doorway.

His other arm was slung around the petite shoulders of the same girl you’d caught him making out with earlier that day. Or at least, you assumed it was her since you hadn’t been able to get a good glimpse of her face. Not like how you could now. She was pretty. Beautiful. With long brunette hair that framed her pixie-like face perfectly. And her cute, girlish giggle floated through the air while she watched with big, innocent eyes as Taehyung dramatically took his shot.

You didn’t even notice it land in the last cup standing on the other side, too busy caught up in how that girl was everything you weren’t. It was no wonder she’d caught his eye. You’d been surprised that he’d even given you attention in the first place but had taken it as a confidence booster. Had thought that maybe you weren’t as plain looking as you’d thought you were. But now?

Now you were positive that Taehyung had only slept with you because you were convenient. Or because he was bored. Whichever it was, you felt your insecurities rear their ugly head along with a flash of white-hot anger. Jealousy tightened your throat, and you couldn’t even stop yourself from glaring at the unsuspecting girl.

How dare he?

How dare he sleep with you and then throw you away like you were nothing? Like you meant nothing? Like you were just another notch under his belt?

You’d show him.

The crowd gathered around the table was cheering, some going up to pat Taehyung on the back. He was too busy flashing his boxy grin at a tall, dimpled man to even notice that you’d entered the room. A guy broke free of the crowd, shorter than some in stature but beautiful enough to make you look twice, and his feline-like eyes barely met your own before he slipped past you and out of the room.

“We need another player!”

A split second after the shout overtook the crowd, you found your feet moving on their own once again. Raising a hand in an attempt to be seen over the taller boys, you blamed the alcohol for the way your voice left your mouth unhindered. “I’ll play!”

The crowd parted at your call and you emerged on the other side before you could second guess yourself. Cups were being set back up by those standing on the sidelines, cans of beer cracking open and filling the plastic halfway up. Your eyes locked with Taehyung’s chocolate ones and his face morphed into one of surprise before a grin overtook his features. The arm he still had around the girl had yet to drop.

“Y/n, hey!” He waved an opened can of beer at you in greeting and it was by pure will alone that your steps didn’t falter. How was he acting so casual with his arm around another girl like he hadn’t just been making you scream his name two days ago?

Did you really mean so little to him?

Bitterness stung your throat and fed the anger coating your tongue.

“Are you my new partner?” A voice, so surprisingly sweet and raspy that it contradicted itself in the best possible way, drew your attention from the blond across the beer pong table.

You hadn’t been thinking straight, therefore you hadn’t even given a second thought to the fact that you’d just volunteered yourself to play a game you’d only participated in a handful of times. A glance to your left had you doing a double take. Because the guy approaching you didn’t call for anything less.

Full, kissable lips were the first thing about him that caught your eye. They were pulled back in a grin and you took a moment to notice a cute, crooked front tooth. Even with the lack of sufficient lighting, you could tell that his mouth was soft. That he applied chap stick often. Moving your gaze slowly upwards past a button nose, you finally met his gaze. His eyes weren’t chocolate colored like Taehyung’s or dark like Jennie’s.

Espresso. 

The same shade as the coffee you drank in the morning to get through the day. Deep and expressive, they reflected the glow of the table despite the fact that they were squinted up into half-moons from his smile. He ran a lightly tanned hand through his black hair and your attention shifted to the two silver rings on his fingers. His hands, much like himself, were petite, but not in a way that made him look small. 

No, he was slender, slim, and all leg. The muscles in his thighs were perfectly visible through the tight material of his ripped jeans. And a soft looking striped sweater took up his top half.

His dark brows were lifted in a silent question and it was at that moment that you remembered he was waiting for you to answer. Clearing your throat, you pushed Taehyung to the back of your mind and gave him your best smile. 

“Yeah. I haven’t played in forever so I’m sorry if I suck.”

Laughter fell from his mouth, a sweet sound, and he shook his head at you. “That’s okay. I’m not very good either.”

In a flash of silver, he extended a hand out to you. “Park Jimin. And you are? I don’t think I’ve seen you around before.”

Your hand met his. It was soft yet had calluses that made you wonder where he got them from. Tilting your head up, you met his curious stare. “Y/n. And I’d be surprised if you have. I don’t get out much.”

“Yet you’re here volunteering to play beer pong with me?” Jimin let go of your hand to press his palm to his chest, teeth flashing in another grin. “I’m honored.”

“Remember you said that when we lose.” You snorted in amusement.

“You guys playing or not?” The question came from the right side of the table and you turned to look at the same dimpled man Taehyung had been talking to. He waved his hand at the table with a smirk aimed at Jimin over your shoulder.

“Ignore Namjoon.” Jimin nudged your side with his elbow, making sure to catch your eye before he threw you a conspiratorial wink. “He’s drunk.”

“I heard that!” The man you assumed was Namjoon shouted over the music. He rolled his eyes and nodded his head towards Taehyung’s side of the table. The blond’s arm had dropped from the girl’s shoulders, but he wasn’t looking in your direction, too busy downing the rest of his beer. “Tae’s team starts since he won.”

Namjoon must have been playing as the referee, but with the way his eyes were glazed over, you wondered if he was in the right state of mind to. Taehyung crumpled his now empty can of beer and set it off to the side of the table, reaching forward to grab a ping pong ball and dip it into a cup of water next to his empty can. He barely even paused before taking his turn.

Of course, his shot landed.

You had to bite the inside of your cheek to stop a scowl from overtaking your face. When the unnamed girl at his side picked up her own ball, you silently prayed for her downfall. Or at least for her face to get stuck in that expression she was making. How was it possible to still look attractive when her nose scrunched like yeah?

“You got this, Minjae.” Taehyung’s encouraging words barely even registered through the green tinted fog clouding your vision.

She--Minjae--finally took her turn and as if in slow motion, the ball flew through the air and bounced against the rim of the first cup in the triangle. And because of course, it landed in the beer filled one next to it. Gritting your teeth, you glared at it.

Jimin pouted but grabbed up the cup the ball landed in anyway. Plucking it out, he handed it to you with a smile and grabbed the other. “Cheers.”

You absentmindedly tapped your cup against his and downed the bitter, carbonated alcohol. The taste lingered on your tongue. An arm being casually thrown over your shoulders had you glancing up from where you’d been watching Taehyung’s team get the balls back to go again. Jimin’s cologne washed away some of the stench of the party, masculine yet sweet, just like him. You had to stop yourself from inhaling like a weirdo when he murmured low enough for only you to hear.

“Okay, we should talk strategy.”

“There’s strategy to this game?” Your lips twitched in amusement. Flickering your attention to the other side of the table from the corner of your eye, you noticed Taehyung staring directly at you. Good. Pretending like you hadn’t noticed, you leaned into Jimin’s comforting warmth and grinned up at him. “I thought it was just a pretense to get wasted.”

A tiny dimple appeared between the corner of his mouth and his high cheekbone as a chuckle tumbled out. “While that’s true, the goal is to get drunk and win.”

“What did you have in mind then?”

Jimin’s espresso irises twinkled and he leaned closer conspiratorially, making sure to keep an eye on Minjae taking her turn. “Taehyung has been carrying their team all night. So, all you gotta do is distract him whenever it’s his turn.”

Her shot veered too far to the left and bounced off the table. Namjoon attempted to grab it out of the air, but he fumbled it and it fell to the sticky floor. Jimin’s words had your brows furrowing. “Distract him how?”

He shrugged, lightly jostling your shoulders with his arm. Taehyung was talking to Minjae, his words too quiet to hear, with a ball rolling between his fingers. Jimin leaned back a little, letting his eyes rove over you. “You’re cute. You’d sure as hell distract me.”

You couldn’t blame the people crowding the room for the way your cheeks flushed. The flirtatious compliment fell from his lips so easily and sincerely that you couldn’t doubt that he meant them. Which just made you flustered all over again. Clearing your throat, you did your best to play it off. Just as you opened your mouth to respond, a familiar voice had you snapping it closed again.

“It’s your turn.”

Taehyung had his arms crossed and he nodded at the cup his ball landed in when both you and Jimin looked over.

“Alright, alright,” your partner responded playfully, squeezing your shoulder with a smile just for you. “I’ll take this one, you can go first.”

While Jimin drained the cup of beer, you approached the table and took one of the balls from Namjoon with a nod of thanks. It was wet and sticky between your fingers and you took a moment to spare a thought towards how unsanitary the game was. One of the cups in the middle of the other team’s formation caught your eye. Hesitating for only a moment, you took aim and tossed the ball.

It landed right in the center and the noise from the crowd faded in the background when you met Taehyung’s heavy stare. His eyes were unreadable, but that wasn’t all that surprising. From your brief three-month stint with him, you’d learned that while friendly and outgoing, he was very good at hiding his emotions when he wanted to. Which made you wonder what exactly was going on behind those chocolate eyes of his.

“Holy shit.” Jimin appeared at your side and you broke your staring contest to beam over at him. “I thought you said you sucked.”

“Maybe you’re just my good luck charm.” You shrugged nonchalantly and tossed your hair over your shoulder. Oh, god. Were you trying too much? Flirting too hard?

“Maybe.” By the pleased look on his face, you’d take that as a no.

Jimin took his turn, landing his ball in a cup. You cheered along with the crowd and raised your hand in the space between the two of you. His palm hit yours in a high-five and you couldn’t even hide your excitement. It wasn’t that you were super competitive, you just wanted to beat Taehyung.

Though maybe beating him was setting your sights a little too high.

Because you and Jimin didn’t last much longer against him. Contrary to him assuming that you’d be any type of distraction to the blonde across the table at all, you weren’t. How could you, when Minjae stood by his side? Every time she missed a shot, he’d say something to wipe the frown from her face. Instead of forcing her to down the beer she grimaced at, Taehyung would drink it for her.

Had you really meant so little to him? What the hell did she have that you didn’t?

The answer to your silent question echoed in your mind as you watched him line up to take his winning shot.

Everything.

Practically in slow motion, the ball flew across the table and landed in the cup. It spun ‘round, and ‘round, and ‘round against the inner rim before finally falling into the carbonated liquid with a quiet plop!

Just like before, everyone spectating the game screamed. You weren’t anywhere near drunk enough to deal with the volume. It took a lot more than a few half-full cups of warm beer to push you over the edge. Maybe you shouldn’t have let Jennie confiscate that bottle of vodka you’d been drinking out of earlier.

At your side, Jimin let out a groan. He didn’t sound all that upset at having lost a second time and you spared a moment to get caught up in the way his hand felt on your shoulder. Despite the fact that it was incredibly stuffy inside of the house, he wasn’t overflowing with heat. The look he gave you was one of shared exasperated amusement. Like the two of you were in on a secret and hadn’t just lost a game.

Looking back over to the other side of the table, you were just in time to see Minjae throw her arms around Taehyung’s neck. He didn’t even hesitate to bend down and let her pull him into a congratulatory kiss.

Watching Taehyung touch the girl at his side like you weren’t even there made your blood boil. And if you were in the right state of mind, maybe you would have realized that it was hurt, not anger, that had you turning to Jimin. He’d just finished downing the final cup of beer when you approached him, grabbing his hand like it belonged in yours.

You weren’t sure what you were doing. Maybe it was the desire to be wanted that took control of your actions. Or perhaps the need to have someone erase the ghost of Taehyung’s touch that still lingered on your skin. Whatever it was, you found yourself gravitating towards the man at your side.

“Hey Jimin?”

Jimin’s coffee-colored eyes flickered down at you with a smile, but he didn’t pull away. And that was all the sign you needed to muster up your courage. If he rejected you, well, you’d have to change your name and move to another country. Picturing Jennie in your mind, you tried to conjure up every flirtatious move she’d used on guys before and fluttered your lashes, a sweet upwards tilt to your lips.

“You wanna go dance?”

Hand giving yours a quick squeeze, Jimin leaned down to murmur in your ear, “you sure you can keep up, sweetheart?”

His cheek was close enough to brush against yours as he spoke, and you blamed the alcohol for the way your mind went blank. Swallowing to clear your head, you responded. “I should be asking you that.”

Jimin leaned back just far enough for you to see the smirk that quirked up the side of his mouth. His thumb stroked along the back of your hand in time with his words. “We’ll see.”

You didn’t even have a chance to look back at Taehyung before Jimin was leading you through the crowd around the table and across the foyer. Hopefully he couldn’t hear how hard your heart was beating in your chest. You’d be lying if you said that Park Jimin wasn’t attractive. That his voice didn’t make you want to hear what it would sound like panting in your ear. The thought had your cheeks flushing, but you barely had time to let it permeate your mind. Jimin must have found a spot on the packed dance floor, because he turned to face you.

Maybe it was the lack of lights that made his eyes spark, or perhaps it was the challenge that simmered in the air between the two of you like an unlit spark. Whatever it was, Jimin’s hands found your waist and he pulled you in close until your hips met his. Your hands instinctively flew to his chest. He was warm and his sweater was soft beneath your palms as you slowly slid them upwards to lightly lock your arms around his neck.

It was either a blessing or a curse that had the song fading out into one that was more sensual. You would put money on the former, especially when his plush lips brushed against the shell of your ear.

“Show me what you got.” His words were completely unnecessary, since your hips had already begun swaying in time with the tempo.

Park Jimin must have been a dancer. That was the only excuse you could think up that proved how he moved. Like it was second nature, like his body had a mind of its own. One of his hands slid up your side until it rested right beneath your breast, and a leg found itself slipping between both of yours. The group of people dancing behind you didn’t even register on your radar; you were too busy focusing on the thick muscle of his thigh.

His hands angled your hips until you were grinding up right against it. You couldn’t help the gasp that escaped you when he tensed his thigh right in time for you to grind against it. It sent a jolt of pleasure through you so suddenly that your nails gripped his shoulders in surprise. When you didn’t pull back or push him away, he took that as a sign to do it again.

That time you were expecting it, but that didn’t make it any less pleasurable. Pulling your bottom lip between your teeth was the only thing you could do to stop the sound that threatened to leave your throat. Dancing with someone you’d just met shouldn’t feel like that, shouldn’t make you imagine what it would be like if the two of you were alone.

Eyes closed, you let yourself get lost in the music and the feel of Jimin’s body. You couldn’t even blame the alcohol for the heat that simmered between your legs. Sweat made his dark hair stick to his forehead, and despite this, it was silky beneath your fingers as you gripped it. Ran your fingertips through the damp strands while his warm breath caressed the side of your neck.

You didn’t know how long the two of you danced, didn’t care to keep track.

The soft press of his lips to your neck had you tilting your head back for him. Your mouth parted as he kissed his way upwards. Once he reached where your jaw met your neck, he caught your skin between his teeth. As he sucked the sting of the pain away, you could practically feel the hickey beginning to bruise. But you didn’t mind. You were sure that if someone were to look over at the two of you, they’d see another couple getting handsy in the middle of the dance floor.

Not knowing who initiated it, one second Jimin’s lips were on your neck and the next they were on yours. Soft. That was the first and only word to pierce through the fog in your mind. The second was that holy shit he was a good kisser. Novice was not a word that you would use to describe him. And when his tongue parted your lips and slipped into your mouth to caress your own, you were consumed by all things Park Jimin.

The music, the heat of the crowd, the smell of beer, it all faded away until all you knew was the taste of his mouth. His teeth when they caught your bottom lip as he slowly pulled away before coming back for more.

“Your place?” You barely managed to mumble against his lips. And you knew it was sudden, knew you barely even knew him beyond his name, but your desire for him demanded to be addressed now.

“You sure?” Jimin’s voice was coated in lust, huskier than it had been when the two of you were just playing beer pong. His question, spoken between kisses, brought a smile to your face. Even in the heat of the moment, he was sweet.

But what you needed wasn’t sweet.

Your teeth caught his ear. “I want you.”

With one last press of his lips to yours, Jimin pulled away and his half-lidded coffee eyes met yours. They were glazed over, but not with the alcohol that flowed through his veins. He held your gaze, clearly searching for something before he found it. “C’mon.”

And as he led the way through the crowded bodies and towards the front door, you could have safely said that any and all thoughts of Taehyung were long gone from your mind.

[queen-swagzilla]

So Much Worse Than A Phantom Limb, Chapter 4 [PREVEIW]

"You been doing your homework, nerd?" he barked as he barged into the room. Izuku was propped up by pillows and elbows deep in their quirk theory textbook. His head snapped up and he looked at Katsuki with wide, slightly red eyes. "And have you been sleeping?"

"Do the homework or get sleep, Kacchan. Can't be both." Izuku replied, a little bleary.

"They are never gonna let you out of the hospital if you don't take care of yourself, fucker," Katsuki snapped. "You know that."

"I'm trying to catch up!" he cried, frustrated.

Katsuki glared at him fiercely. "If you focus on your physical health now, it'll be easier to do the catch up. It'll go faster because your body will be able to handle it. Do this shit the right way, nerd. You know I'm right."

Izuku pouted. It was not cute. It wasn't. "I just feel pathetic," he mumbled.

Katsuki took a deep, calming breath. Yelling in the hospital was bad form. "You nearly got  fucking deleted by a villain, Deku. Two weeks isn't enough time to fully recover from two months of internally dissolving. What if it were me in the bed? What would you tell me?"

Izuku flushed and looked at Katsuki sheepishly. "Oh."

"Yeah, oh," Katsuki mocked him. "I get being restless, but you gotta be smart, dumbass. Take it easy in the beginning and work your way up to doing more every day."

"Fine." Izuku flopped back into his pillows.

"Take a nap while I check over your work," Katsuki instructed. "I'll wake you up when its time to review."

"Don't you have your own homework?"

"Yeah, but I'm basically studying by checking your work," he shrugged.  "Don't sweat it. I got some of it done during lunch, and I'll get to the rest after they kick me out."

Izuku seemed to know better than to argue with him (for once), and settled in to take his mandated nap while Katsuki picked up his binder of makeup work and began to flip through it.

Katsuki, Momo, and Aizawa had come up with a makeup plan for Izuku almost as soon as he'd woken up. It included a lesson plan, the notes and study guides that they had compiled, and a binder of assignments that he'd have to complete in order for Aizawa to deem him caught up enough to take the semester's final exams.

It meant that Izuku would likely be working to catch up for the duration of their two- spring vacation, and he wouldn't be entirely caught up for a while. He was months behind his classmates after he'd been doing so well and it frustrated him to degree he'd never experienced before. It made him angry.

Fuck Hiroki Takeda. Izuku wanted to Detroit Smash him in the face for stealing two whole months from him. For terrifying his friends and family, too. He kinda wanted to slap the villain's head off. But he wouldn't because he was a hero. Dammit.

Katsuki let Izuku sleep for two hours before waking him up to go over corrections. He could feel Deku's bubbling frustration, even as he tried to absorb what he was being taught with a positive attitude.

"Oh good, you're still here." Deku's doctor let himself into the room and addressed Katsuki. They were reviewing the math assignment that Izuku had done almost perfectly. There were a couple slip ups, but they were minor. Better safe than sorry, though. Both boys looked up at the intruder, blinking owlishly.

"Uh...yeah," Katsuki uttered intelligently.

"Hope you're not overworking yourself, Midoriya," the doctor warned, eying them suspiciously. "Or else I might rethink my decision to discharge you and allow you to complete your rehab in Recovery Girl's care."

Izuku's eyes widened. Damn, Recovery Girl worked fast. Katsuki was impressed. "What?" Izuku yelped, jolting forward.

"I understand that you've agreed to be his primary caregiver in the dorm, Bakugou? You're planning on managing his recovery and academic plans?" the doctor continued as though Izuku hadn't interrupted. "That had a fairly large bearing on my decision, so I'd like to confirm some details with you before I officially sign off on it."

Katsuki nodded, even as Izuku turned those wide eyes on him. "What?" Izuku demanded.

Katsuki ignored him. "Yeah, that's the plan. Our classmates will be helping, but I agreed to be the main contact. Aizawa will be monitoring his progress, too, so that'll be an extra set of responsible adult eyes on the nerd."

"That's good to know," the doctor agreed, both of them ignoring Izuku's incredulous sputtering. "If we do this, Recovery Girl will be taking over as the primary physician. You'll need to go to her for weekly checkups and report any problems to her as soon as possible. I've already sent her the care plan we've following, but I'd like to go over it with you. There are a lot of physical therapy exercises that he'll need to do daily, and a fairly strict diet plan. He'll also need to take medications, and there are signs of fatigue you'll need to watch for."

"Kacchan, you don't need to—"

Katsuki cut him off with a ferocious glare. "Do I ever—ever—do anything that I don't want to do?"

Izuku opened and closed his mouth a few times, looking like an odd green fish out of water. "N-no?"

"Then shut up and let me talk to your doctor, nerd."

"O-okay. Alright," Izuku complied, sitting back but not taking his huge, amazed eyes off of Katsuki. He tried very hard not to flush under the scrutiny.

"Hit me, doc."

The doctor (who was thoroughly amused by the two flustered boys) outlined Izuku's care thoroughly, handing Katsuki sheets of paper and explaining them in detail. Pointing out particulars of Izuku's injuries and weak spots on the boy's body and explaining how each exercise was done and how it helped. Katsuki's focus was laser-sharp, and he asked questions attentively—turning over every detail until he was sure he'd be able to take care of the nerd flawlessly.

"I think I feel comfortable releasing you into UA's care, Midoriya. You're lucky to have friends like Bakugou, here," the doctor smiled. But then his face darkened slightly, and he cut his eyes to Katsuki. "Not many people would take such good care of their friends' families in situations like yours."

Katsuki remembered then, that this was the doctor that had banned the 'Dekusquad' from the hospital. Katsuki shook his head ever so slightly. This was not the forum for that conversation. The doctor pursed his lips, but moved on, even as Izuku eyed them both suspiciously. "I'd like to keep you one more night so that we do one more round of regen therapy before you leave. Bakugou, you can pick him up in the morning. He'll need a wheelchair any time he's walking more than fifteen feet—do not argue with me—it is non-negotiable."

Izuku grumbled but agreed because honestly, he was way more excited about getting to leave the hospital than he was bummed about his lack of mobility. "When did you agree to be my caretaker?" he asked once the doctor had left.

"Today, after class," Katsuki replied, turning back to the homework. "Went to Recovery Girl. Noticed you were getting antsy." He looked up when Izuku didn't say anything because a silent Deku was nearly unheard of (unless the asshole was in a fucking coma), and found Izuku staring at him with a look so soft and warm that it made him want to tuck tail and flee. "What?" he demanded, self conscious.

"Nothing! Just...thank you, Kacchan. You're amazing."

Katsuki squirmed. "You've been saying that since we were four. Careful or it'll lose meaning."

"You're also a complete dick," Izuku replied, a little wry.

"Watch it, or I'll push your wheelchair down the stairs, Freckles," Katsuki barked. "Let's finish this chapter, and then I'm gonna go baby-proof the dorm for you."

"I'm not a baby!"

Read the rest on Ao3!

Like it? Buy me a coffee!

[youtuberswithalex]

PRVL, Vol. 3, Ch. 5: Never Miss A Beat

Summary: As the tournament picks up speed, our heroes get a chance to relax and connect with their loved ones.

Word Count: 3,567

Warnings: Family argument, a bit of implied self-hatred

(Sorry for the short chapter, but future chapters will make up for this! Promise!!)

Masterpost – Volume 1 – Previous

------

BEEEEEEP!

Roman leapt out of his seat, screaming at the top of his lungs. “Yes!!! Yes, Yang!! I knew she was gonna beat them, I knew it!!”

“Wow,” Riad said. “I did not think she would be able to put up a fight against Flynt’s trumpet. That thing packs a punch.”

“That’s Yang for you! Always the biggest, strongest blondie you could ever lay eyes on!” He flopped back down, letting out an energetic groan. As soon as he was settled, he hooked onto Riad’s arm and cuddled in. “I’m absolutely ecstatic that she’s going to the finals! I can’t think of a single person left that’s deserving of the championship!”

“Not even Penny Polendina?”

Roman looked to his other side, where Thomas was shooting him an amused look. “No way!” he exclaimed. “I don’t care if she’s got those psychic swords or whatever they are; Yang could beat her no problem!”

Joan leaned forward raised an eyebrow. “What about Pyrrha?”

“Not even a chance.”

Riad chuckled. “Didn’t you say Pyrrha beat her in a match in Glynda’s last semester?”

“Shhh…” Roman reached up and put a finger to his lips, silencing him. “We don’t have to talk about that. Yang cannot be bested.”

“Uh, excuse me, did you forget that your sister is still in the fight?” Trix huffed, leaning down from the row behind to press her cheek to Roman’s.

He paused for a moment as his face heated.

“…I can think of one person who could maybe best Yang.”

“That’s what I thought.”

Next to her, Abeba nudged her with their elbow. “Come on, let him root for who he wants. Besides, you haven’t even had your match yet; we don’t know if you’ll be in the finals or not.”

Trix raised an eyebrow. “Very bold of you to assume Eve and I wouldn’t be able to take down a couple of first-years.”

“Yeah, and did you see their match against NDGO? It was a complete luck of the draw that they managed to win!” Keahi added from Trix’s other side. “STER’s going to wipe the floor with them, no question.”

Abeba leaned forward to look at her, narrowing their eyes. “Aren’t you from the same school as Team SSSN?” they asked. “How come you haven’t given them any pointers on their strategies and stuff? Help them prepare, you know?”

Keahi scoffed. “Come on, you think I actually pay attention to other people in fighting classes? I don’t know jack about them.”

Trix and Abeba immediately deflated and slumped against each other.

“Well, it was worth a shot,” Trix sighed.

“I tried.”

As the next teams filed onstage, Roman dropped his cheek against Riad’s bicep and let out a breath. Riad stared at him for a beat before taking one of his hands with his free one. When Roman looked up, he offered a soft smile and pressed their foreheads together.

“Hey,” he whispered.

Roman smiled back, but despite the red dusting his cheeks, there was pain behind his eyes. “Hey.”

“You’ve been awfully clingy these last couple of days,” he pointed out. “Is there something going on?”

He hummed and buried his face back into his arm. His eyes flicked around, and his lips pressed together; one could almost see the gears turning in his head as he thought about the words he wanted to say next.

“Are you… worried, at all, about this?” Roman softly asked.

Riad raised an eyebrow. “About what?”

“Us,” he replied. “Like… Do you worry that things are going to end soon? Badly?”

The soft smile fell from Riad’s face; he frowned, shaking his head.

“No, not at all,” he said, leaning to try to catch Roman’s eyes. “I wouldn’t be dating you if I thought that. What’s this about, babe? Where’d this come from?”

Roman gave him the quickest of glances before looking back at the battlefield. There was a moment of quiet between them; Riad didn’t rush him, despite the nerves beginning to build up inside.

Finally, he let out a soft sigh. “Anole really doesn’t like us being together.”

Riad felt his heart drop into his stomach. He opened his mouth to reply, but Roman pushed on before he could get a word out.

“We were talking yesterday morning, and he… he really thinks we’re going to hurt each other,” he continued, “As if we’re doing this just to mess with him. And, Riad, I…” He shifted to look into his eyes. “I need you to know that that is not why I said yes when you asked me to be your boyfriend; I really, truly do adore you and Anole has absolutely nothing to do with it!”

“I know,” Riad answered, having to force his words through a thick wall of emotion. “I never worried about that for a moment. I do feel the same way about you; please don’t worry that that’s why I asked.”

“I wasn’t,” Roman replied, despite the way his shoulders fell.

Riad paused for a moment, pretending he was watching the start of the next fight as he sorted through his thoughts. “…Anole really said that?”

Roman nodded. “And he implied that we dove into this without thinking… That I was being reckless.”

“You are,” Riad said. “That isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It’s something I really like about you.”

Scoffing, Roman rolled his eyes. “Tell him that.”

“I don’t need to. You’re the only one who needs to worry about how I feel about you,” he firmly replied. “And that’s something Anole needs to learn. Not you.”

Roman slowly nodded in understanding and leaned back in his seat. “I just wish he would leave us alone,” he quietly admitted.

Riad wrapped an arm around his boyfriend’s shoulders and pressed a kiss to his temple.

“I’ll talk to him.”

 -------

Logan didn’t know how long he sat at the ocean docks after his parents left.

It was certainly more than a few minutes, if the ebbing stinging of his eyes was anything to go by. He could very faintly hear the announcers and buzzers from Amity Colosseum far, far in the air above; at least a couple of matches had come and gone, but he wasn’t paying much attention. Not when he could watch their boat disappear over the horizon.

While he felt no obligation to see them off after they set sail, he found that he wasn’t quite ready to head back to the dorm, or the arena, or… anywhere, really. At least not anywhere that he would have to interact with people. A weariness settled in his chest just at the thought.

He knew his parents needed to go. Vacuo and its citizens needed the two of them more than he did, and the ever-persistent Grimm weren’t going to let up during a worldwide tournament that just so happened to include their son. The fact that they were even gone for a couple of days was worrying; who knows what might have happened to the people they were protecting while they were away?

Logan knew this, and yet… he couldn’t stop himself from being sad to see them go.

So here he sat, in the midst of the stench of fish and tourists bustling around, watching a boat sail away as if it could grant him a few more minutes with his family before the long wait until they could see each other again.

Someone sat next to him on the bench, and he nearly leapt out of his skin; a coffee cup was offered as if nothing happened. Logan blinked and looked up to see Thamir softly smiling at him.

“Thamir,” he dumbly stated. “What are you doing here?”

“I saw you when I came by earlier on my way to my family’s house. Didn’t think you’d still be here on my way back,” he laughed. He pushed the cup towards Logan again as he took a sip of his own. “Figured I’d get you some coffee, since it didn’t seem like you’d be leaving any time soon.”

Logan glanced at it, and then back to him. “I… thought I was the one who owed you coffee after Team AMBR’s match?”

He shrugged. “Consider it a freebie,” he said.

Logan felt the corners of his lips tug up, and he finally accepted with a word of thanks before taking a sip. It was pleasantly warm, but not scorching hot, and just barely sweet and creamy— exactly how he liked it.

“So… Did your parents head out?” Thamir asked.

Eyes flicking to the boat, Logan nodded. “They weren’t able to stay away for long. Really, they probably shouldn’t have come in the first place,” he admitted, “But… I do have to say, I am… very glad they were here, even if they did have to see our loss. Perhaps even more so for the same reason.”

“They seem cool. It was really nice to meet them,” he said. “It must be intense, having a full family of Huntsmen.”

He sighed and looked down at his cup, where his fingers idly played with the rim of the lid. “It is rather extraordinary; I’ll give it that. I’m sure Roman and Calanthe could attest to my saying that it can get a bit overwhelming at times. There’s always training and jobs to be done, and hardly any time to rest.”

Thamir nodded. “I can imagine.”

“And that’s not even mentioning the impacts of being separated for long stretches of time,” he continued. “I was fortunate in that my parents could afford to stay home and take on few jobs while raising me; my mother originally insisted upon it, and Father wanted to keep that after she was gone. It was one of the most important things to him when he and Esther began to see each other. Very few children of Huntsmen are able to have that, unless they find a stable job in one place, such as the Reptilias.”

“Calanthe’s told me about that,” Thamir informed. “Her older sister had to take care of her when their parents were on missions, and then she was on her own after she left for Haven. She said it got pretty lonely.”

“Well… I suppose it’s just another part of the job,” he quietly replied. “Another sacrifice we make for the safety of humanity and faunus.”

Thamir fell into silence for a moment, staring over the ocean. He took a deep, weary breath.

“It’s not just a sacrifice for Huntsmen.” He turned to Logan. “It’s a sacrifice for the kids, too. I know time with your family isn’t the same as a life, but… It’s alright if you grieve it. You’re allowed to, even if you know it’s worth it.”

Just like that, the stinging in Logan’s eyes was back. He pressed his lips together and tightened his grip on his coffee, trying to keep his breathing steady. A lump formed in his throat, and it was harder to swallow it away than it should have been.

The echoing of a buzzer and a roaring crowd bounced around the buildings behind them, giving him just enough of a distraction to ground himself. He took a calming breath as music began to play.

Thamir bumped his shoulder against his. “You know… I remember you making a pretty hefty sacrifice a few weeks ago,” he said.

Logan frowned and raised an eyebrow at him. “You do?”

“Well, it wasn’t as big as leaving your family behind or anything, but it was still something you gave up to be ready for anything.”

“What was it?”

He pointed his thumb at the streets behind them. “The Vytal Festival Ball,” he stated, giving Logan a half-smile.

Logan scoffed and rolled his eyes. “That was not a hard decision to make,” he huffed. “Our missions were far more important.”

“Would you have gone if it was a different night?”

He blinked and looked at Thamir, who simply watched him with a soft curiosity on his face. Logan took a moment to consider the question before opening his mouth.

“I… do not know,” he admitted. “The chances would have increased, of course, seeing as the date was the main reason I chose not to attend, but, well… I still would not have had any preparations as to what to expect. I still don’t know how loud or crowded it would have been, nor how overwhelmed I would become.” Huffing out a weak laugh, he added, “I don’t even know how to dance, to be completely honest with you. For all I know, it would have been a disaster.”

Thamir hummed. “So… What you’re saying is, in two years, when we have the next Vytal Festival…?”

“I would not be able to tell you if I would go or not,” Logan finished.

Thamir nodded, and then he set his coffee to the side, getting to his feet. He turned and held a hand out to Logan.

“Well,” he said, “I can help you with one of those worries, at least.”

He furrowed his brow. “What do you mean?”

“Let’s dance.”

If he’d had any coffee in his mouth, Logan was sure he would have choked. “W-What?”

“Yeah!” he laughed. “C’mon, I’ll teach you how. We can start small.”

Logan stared at him, frozen in place; after a moment, he let out a breath and took his hand.

“Well… Alright.”

He set his drink aside as Thamir pulled him up, taking both of his hands and holding them an arm’s length away. They started to sway to the music echoing through the area.

Though I can’t find what to say, I know that you’ll hear me If you’re in this game I play, I can tell you when I need you more…

Logan couldn’t help but chuckle as Thamir started getting more and more invested in the song; his shoulders moved, and his head bobbed back and forth. Thamir caught him watching and laughed, yanking Logan’s arms forward and back to the beat.

“The more you get into it, the more fun it is!” he exclaimed. “Try it!”

He rolled his eyes, but the smile didn’t leave his face as he attempted to copy Thamir’s movements. When he beamed, he couldn’t help but notice his face warming.

“I feel ridiculous,” he said.

“A step in the right direction, then,” he replied.

Thamir took a step and began to lead them into an achingly slow rotation around each other. Logan stumbled a bit at the first step, but was quick to follow. When they made it around a full circle, Thamir pulled one hand away and lifted their connected hands, taking Logan through a careful twirl.

Taking both of his hands again, he smiled. “You’re getting the hang of this pretty quick.”

Logan grinned.

 --------

Virgil threw his fist in the air and let out a cheer, nearly throwing his scroll out of his hands. “I think that’s the best score I’ve ever gotten!”

“There’s platinum?! I thought gold was the highest one!” Patton yelped.

“Nah, not even close. There’s a diamond tier, but you can only get it when you play a level on Multi-Extreme mode,” Virgil replied. He turned to Patton and reached across the space between their beds, holding his scroll out. “You sure you don’t want to give it a try? It’s pretty easy to get the hang of, even if you don’t know the music.”

Patton shook his head and waved him off. “It’s okay, really. I’m having more fun watching you!”

Virgil shrugged before looking back to his desk, where a rented gaming console projected his score. “Alright. Just don’t think you’re going to make it through break without playing a round with us. Ever since I showed him the game, Dad won’t let a person into our house without making them compete."

“Your dad plays Rhythm Hell?” Patton asked with a laugh.

He scoffed, rolling his eyes as he looked through the game’s available songs. “Dude, you have no idea. He dedicates a solid two hours every Saturday to touch up his skills.” A grin formed on his lips. “Any time we have a family event, he brings it along, and there’s a whole competition— he and Papi’s mom are, like, mortal enemies because of it. It gets intense.”

Patton grimaced. “Oh… Is she… Not a great person?”

“Huh?” Virgil frowned and looked at him, brow furrowed; when he realized what he was asking, he sucked in a sharp breath and waved a hand at him. “Oh, no, no! Not like that! Abuela’s really cool, she’s really chill usually! She just gets competitive like Dad does when it comes to video games. But it never gets aggressive, don’t worry.”

A sigh of relief tumbled out of him. “Good. Okay.”

Virgil offered a soft smile before turning back to the game. “Yeah, you won’t have to worry about anything like that when we’re on break,” he said. “We do have plans to head to Argus for a reunion, but no one is gonna be anything bad. Everyone’ll be excited to meet you.”

Finally settling on a level, the two settled into a relaxed silence. Heavy guitar and drums played through the speakers, just loud enough to hear, but quiet enough to not disturb the others in their hall. Patton watched as Virgil’s face dissolved into concentration; when the artist began to sing, he shifted and lay on his stomach, resting his chin on his arms.

“I am weak; can’t save myself, from my own flaws…”

“Can’t you see, I can hurt you…?”

An grin started to form on his face as he listened to Virgil’s soft singing. He buried his face in his arms to hide his huff of laughter.

Apparently, it wasn’t quiet enough.

“Are you making fun of me?” Virgil asked, no bite to the accusation.

Patton giggled. “No! It’s cute!”

A scoff rang out. “I’m not cute! I’m edgy.”

He bit his tongue to keep his argument back, not wanting to ruin whatever score he had at the moment.

There were a few more seconds of silence before Virgil’s humming resumed. Patton beamed and pulled his face up, turning to look at the screen, but sunlight glinted off of a picture frame behind it and dragged his attention away.

The photo showed a much younger version of Virgil nestled in the middle of their four-person family at a professional photo shoot. He was dressed in an outfit that Patton couldn’t dream of Virgil ever agreeing to today; a gray button-up, black dress pants, and a soft, purple sweater vest. His hair was short and spiked up, and his grin wide and front-toothless, but there was no mistaking it was him.

His younger sister sat next to him in a lavender blouse with puffy sleeves and light blue tights. Her hair looked like it might have been styled into a nice set of low pigtails at some point, before being ruffled and tumbled around. She and Virgil held each other’s hands tight.

On either side of them were their dads, looking exhausted but proud. Their matching white dress shirts were a bit wrinkled. They each lay a hand on one of their children’s shoulders, and a close look to their Papi’s arm revealed he was seemingly holding Crina in place.

Despite the frame of the photo looking relatively modern and clean, the actual photograph was worn and faded at the edges. A couple of creases circled what had once been their family. It was the only crooked one of three hanging on the wall, between one of Virgil and Chao at a graduation and another of their team in the cafeteria, taken early in their first semester.

Patton’s eyes drifted over to his own bare walls above his desk, looming over the clutter and mess below. His scroll sat on the corner of a stack of textbooks; it blinked with a silent unread message notification. He made no move to get up and check it.

On the shelf above, a picture frame lay face-down.

“Let it latch to the hope that I’m controlled…”

He glanced at the scorched handprint stained to the door frame. Guilt and shame built up in his stomach before he could tear his eyes away. He gripped his forearms tight until a dull ache began to make its way through the muscle.

“I’VE GOT A MONSTER IN ME; IT’S TEARING THROUGH MY HEART!”

Patton just about jumped out of his skin as Virgil began to scream-sing along to the music, leaping up onto all fours and staring at him with wide eyes. Virgil either didn’t notice or didn’t care, as he only continued and started to dance along.

“It won’t stop ‘til it breaks free, so make it stop before it starts!”

Forcing himself to release his breath, Patton lowered himself back into a sitting position and watched. Virgil’s score began to go down as the beats flew by unnoticed. His eyes squeezed shut, and a grim formed on his face around the lyrics. He lifted his hands into fists and bounced them to the rhythm of the drums that were practically shaking the speakers of the gaming console.

Patton huffed out a little laugh before glancing back at his scroll.

The light wouldn’t stop blinking.

I fear the monster in my soul, I fear the monster in my soul, I fear the monster in my soul, I fear the monster…

[sunrise-lou]

The Romantic

Ft. Lee Donghyuck x Reader / Zhong Chenle x Reader

Word count. 3k

Warnings. Fluff, tiny amount of angst, mostly  gender neutral but there are a handful of ‘he’ and ‘his’, Haechan playboy Au basically

AU: College / Unrequited love / Love Triangle / Song Lyric

Songs: ‘The One The Got Away’ Katy Perry + ‘I Feel The Love’ Tritonal / R5

Edit: I just got home from a closing shift and the paragraphs were all mixed around??? I have no idea how it happened, so I’m reuploading it- hopefully it’s fine this time

❥ - Wednesday 15th

"Sometimes I wonder what my life would be like if we dated, rather than me just going out with any guy or girl that asks me out, then leaves when they get bored"

Face flushing as he jolted up from his previous hunched position, Y/n turns to his childhood friend, "Excuse me Hyuck, but, what the fuck?"

"You know," Donghyuck inhales before continuing "if you and I got together or at least tried out what I do so often."

"I thought you had a girlfriend this week?" You mumble back to him, sounding more like a statement than a question.

"I do, but I doubt it'll last long, and you should know I was just joking when I said we should date." Donghyuck laughed in between his ramblings, "We're too close to date anyway."

"Yeah, you're right" You say back, under your breath.

 "Zhong!"

You jump at the shouting.

"Lee! L/n!"

You flickered your eyes up, smiling when you see rich kid extraordinaire and the other third of this friendships heart, Zhong Chenle, jogging in your and Donghyuck's direction.

"Hello Lele," you greet quietly, leaning back on your palms.

"How are you?" Donghyuck basically shouts before you get a chance too say the same.

 "I'm in trouble, my parents are getting on my back about improving my skills with instruments" He yelled before dropping to his knees and pretending to faint into your collective laps.

"Welp, I've already filled my daily quota for dramatic and annoying Chenle events with our class earlier," The older of the three says, "I'm gonna hop over and grab a drink from the cafeteria and visit my darling for this week." Hyuck promptly slides Chenle's legs from his lap and stands, before dusting off the grass from his jeans.

"I shall be back." He finishes, not bothering to turn to look at either of you, and instead just walking towards the pavement.

 After watching Donghyuck walk away, Chenle rolls off of you quickly, almost like his idea was to pester him till he had left.

"So, how did the planned confession go-"

"Horrible" You let out before falling back and laying in the grass.

"He mentioned his 'darling for this week' and he was single on Friday" Chenle complained, rolling his eyes during his air quotations.

 "You've been trying to confess for, what, 3, 4, maybe 5 weeks now and he's almost never single long enough for it NOT to be awkward! Can I ask who this week?"

"A girl from his Hospitality class, she's friends with the guy he dated last semester" You explain, resting your arm over your eyes to block out the sun. "He joked about us dating before you got here, I'm thankful you showed up when you did, I think I would've cried if that conversation continued" You finished, voice cracking midway through the later part of the sentence.

 Chenle gives you an almost pitying look and shuffles closer, grabbing hold of your free hand so he can swing it around in attempt to distract you from Donghyuck.

"Actually!" Shouting as you sit up, wanting to change the topic.

"I want to join the senior talent show, but I want to do it acoustic…"

The 'rich kid' hums, raising his eyebrows, knowing exactly what you're about to ask.

“Please, please, please can you play the guitar for me?” You plead, immediately turning on the puppy eyes.

 Chenle quickly turns away knowing your tactics by now.

“What do I get out of helping you?” he asks plainly, eyes scrunched shut as to avoid your infamous puppy eyes

“I’ll bring snacks to the practice sessions and if we’re both free after the sessions, maybe we could go for ice cream, not to mention practice for your instrumental talents- just like your parents want~.”

“That ice cream part sounded an awful lot like a date,” He coos back as you teasingly.

Rolling your eyes at him, you took your other hand and encased his, “Please, President Zhong Chenle, I’m begging you!”

Scoffing at the ridiculous nickname, Chenle smiled “Fine! But I want those ice cream dates!”

 “Dates? Are you two dating behind my back?” A third voice emerges.

Both of you spin to see a familiar boy, walking towards you.

“So, are you? I’m upset you never told me...” Donghyuck exclaims in an almost sarcastic voice, clutching at where his heart should be.

Laughing the elder makes his way from the pavement and plops down onto the grass, in front of you two.

You blink at him, confused, before looking down at your hands and essentially throwing Chenle’s hands at himself.

“Ow, the fuck Y/n, why did you yeet my own hands at me?”

  ❥ - Monday 20th

“I can’t believe you picked up an entire quarter of the song over the weekend! And then played it almost flawlessly every time!” You shout to your friend, your back to him as you lock the door to the music room you had booked to practice in during your free time.

“I know, I’m pretty impressive, aren’t I?” He boasts, earning a snort from your smiling figure.

“What about that ice cream you promise, or are you busy?” Chenle nudged you, crossing his fingers that you were free so he had an excuse to continue being in your company, as well as eat ice cream.

Beginning your walk back to the Student Services Desk, you mention your plans with Donghyuck later.

“Aww, okay Y/n, maybe after the next session-“

DING! VRRT, VRRT.

“Hold up, Lele,” you mumble, retrieving your phone from your pocket and unlocking it.

 Sighing as you discard your phone back into your back pocket, “Never mind, I guess, it’s a cancel plans relationship this week. So, I’m about to get really lonely…”

Chenle rolls his eyes once you look back at him, expressing his own disappointment in your mutual friend, “How about I pay for ice cream today instead?” he says, awkward smile on his face in attempt to make you feel better.

“Thank you Lele,” you mumble back to him with a shy smile “Donghyuck has always flip flopped his relationship status and I’ve followed him around with heart eyes for ages, but you, Chenle, seem to have been a constant throughout my life… So, really, thank you.”

 Chenle glances in your direction, flustered smile on his face, bright enough to match his red cheeks, you pretend not to notice, but you do and it makes you feel some kind of way.

What you didn’t notice was the pure looks of adoration he seemed to shoot your way anytime you yelled happily or exaggerated a story that included your interests.

  ❥ - Friday 24th

A chime echoes through the ice cream parlour as you walk in, ‘Hellos’ and ‘Welcome backs’ are heard from the familiar faces that work there and you wave back to the happily, after all this was your and Chenle’s fifth weekday in a row visiting for ice cream.

You and your best friend waltz over to an empty booth near the counter, somewhere near the back too, it’s usually the seat you sit in whenever you frequent the parlour.

 “Sooo,”

“Wait! Before you say anything- I actually bought this a little while ago, mostly as a huge ‘thank you’ for helping me with this, but also because you’re also my best friend…” Quickly you turn to rummage through, grabbing a little plastic bag out and from that bag a small cheaply made bracelet  with a locket on attached to it.

“I know it’s super cheap and flimsy, but here…” You finish, before slowly sliding the locket across the table.

“Y/n, you- you didn’t have to. I would’ve said ‘yes’ to playing the song regardless of all your little bribes.” He tries to fret the unimportance of him helping you with your performance, all while carefully tying the bracelet around his left wrist.

You lift up your arm and rest your chin on the palm of your hand, showing off your matching bracelet by jingling it beforehand.

 Before you know it, you’re looking at the same flustered face from earlier in the week, only this time you go just as red if not redder, in the face.

Both of you scoffing and laughing to hide the slight awkwardness of the embarrassing situation, “Hey, wait- isn’t that Hyuck?” your friend asks.

You turn to him, then in the direction he is now pointing to.

“Yep, that’s him alright,” you sigh, “why this of all places.” You growl as you pull at your face to exaggerate you distaste.

“If we ignore them maybe they won’t try to talk to us- wait, no, Donghyuck has spotted us and is walking in this direction, maybe if you look away, he won’t recognise your back.” Chenle chuckles, now clearly finding the situation funny.

You click you tongue and roll your eyes at him, a hand slapping down onto your shoulder, causing you to jump. “Jesus, why!” You yell and turn to glare at your childhood friend.

 “So, you two are dating~” Donghyuck smirks, before also jumping as his newest fling hooks their arms together, he drops his hand from your shoulder and you frown.

“I got us both mint choc and boba ice cream!” His date mentions, side eyeing you the whole time, you and Chenle glance at each other, knowing Donghyuck isn’t particularly fond of mint ice cream but opting to not tell her.

  ❥ - Saturday 25th

  ❥ - Tuesday 4th

  ❥ - Monday 3rd

You shuffled your feet as you stood in front of your locker, the showcase was getting closer, you were getting more and more nervous, surprisingly it had been nearly 3 weeks since Donghyuck and the girl had started going out.

You hadn’t learnt her name, you didn’t think you had to, but now it’s still going you guessed you should at least ask… right?

“Hey Y/n!” You turn to the voice and here comes prince charming himself, “Sorry, I haven’t hung out with you or Chenle lately, Ha-Won has been basically taking up all my time.”

You nod back to him with a tight-lipped smile, “It’s fine Donghyuck, Chenle and I have been pretty busy with our own stuff.”

The two of you stood there awkwardly, it was usually comfortable silence with him, but it was different today, not a different you liked either. You just wished Chenle would run up and ease the tension that seemed to only grow the longer you were in your crushes’ presents.

RIIING! RIIING!

Reaching up to close your locker, Donghyuck noticed the locket around your wrist and furrowed his brows. “When did you get a new locket, what happened to our locket necklace you had?”

“I bought them a while back, Chenle has the other one. That’s besides the point… What do you mean ‘what happened to ours’?” You made sure to air quote that last part.

“Matching lockets was our fucking thing.”  He pouts in reply, kicking the ground.

 “Excuse me, a lot of people do lockets, it’s not an exclusive thing. Not to mention, you haven’t worn yours for nearly a month! I don’t want to argue about this.” You turn away, trying not to notice the other students giving you two weird looks and begin to walk away.

Donghyuck has other ideas though, trailing after you.  “C’Mon Y/n, just because I never wear it doesn’t mean I don’t still have it! You said Chenle has one, but I never see him wearing it when we walk past each other!” He yells, grabbing onto your arm so you will look him in the eyes.

Naturally you look away, only to see a smiling Chenle running in your directions, he’s waving his arm in the air and you see he’s wearing the bracelet today. Assuming he took you asking why he hasn’t worn it to heart.

 You rip your arm from your childhood friends’ grip and step back to stand almost behind Chenle, Chenle cocks an eyebrow, sensing the butter thick tension.

“What’s- what’s going on between you two?” He asks with a light chuckle.

“This doesn’t concern you Zhong.” Hyuck spits, making Chenle furrow his brows too.

You laugh back at him, “Ha! This doesn’t concern him? You’re the one getting upset over a locket! It was a ‘thank you’ for him helping me with something I’m working on, but you would know that if you were ever around anymore.”

“I said I was sorry! Okay?!”

Both you and Chenle go wide eye at the shouting, Chenle lifts his am up to almost put a barrier in front of you.

“Donghyuck, I think this friendship needs to take a break…” Chenle mumbles.

“Don’t talk to us, we’ll talk to you when we’re ready…”  You add eyes tearing up and linking your arm with Lele’s, prompting him to continue the walk back to your class.

Leaving Donghyuck standing there to think about his actions and words.

  ❥ - Friday 7th

“I still can’t believe you chose to sing something so cheesy.” Chenle chuckles while helping you set up the microphones for your little performance.

You notice more and more people begin to walk into the assembly hall of the college campus, you knew this place was really only used for Performing Arts and the annual ‘Senior only Talent Show’. It was always nice seeing it being used.

“What do you mean, matey? Katy Perry’s older music can’t be beat.” You laugh in retort.

You dust off the chair Chenle would be sitting in, then yourself before looking up at the almost full seating area, locking eyes with Donghyuck. He smiles and waves, you turn away to test out the microphone.

 You clear your throat and speak into the microphone, “Hello- Oh, it is working. Hey everyone, I’m L/n, a senior obviously, I’ll be announcing the people performing today, as well as next Friday and then the Finale on the 21st.”

“So, first up actually, is me and Zhong Chenle…  I hope you enjoy it.”

You trotted over to fix the mic height for Chenle’s guitar and then walked back over to your own.

 ‘Summer after high school when we first met- ‘

Occasionally throughout the song you would glance over at Donghyuck, each time he seemed more and more surprised, you really hoped he realised you were basically singing at him.

‘Never planned that one day, I’d be losing you. In another life, I would be your boy~’

You sung and finally locked your gazed with Donghyuck, smiling sadly, his eyes wide and mouth agape.

Donghyuck’s look of realisation didn’t seem to settle the butterflies in your stomach, you turned to Chenle, seeing him focused on making this performance perfect for you.

It clicked.

“It’s time to face the music you’re no longer my muse.” You turn back to sing towards the audience, you hear a wrong cord play from Chenle, he hadn’t known you intended on changing the lyrics, then again neither did you.

‘Can’t replace you with a million rings’ Clutching the locket around your wrist.

“I’m glad I never told you, what you meant to me.” You were honestly beginning to tear up a little, but you only wiped them away quickly with your sleeve.

‘Cause now I pay the price’ You turn back to look at Chenle, you’re both smiling at each other like two silly children in love.

He looked at you like you were his world- his universe, you have his heart in the palm of your hands.

‘We keep all our promises, be us against the world’

“So now I get to say, I was the one that got away.” You slowly finish the song, smiling back at the crowd and waving at Donghyuck, who had by now, risen out of his seat.

 The crowd erupts out in an applause, they had not only witnessed a near perfect performance (minus Chenle’s little cord mix-up thanks to your surprise), but they saw two of the schools most notable students fall in love.

You waited for the crowd to calm down, before speaking into the microphone again, “So, I guess it was good-“ Some whistles and ‘yays’ sound throughout the hall, “thank you, I appreciate it, I actually prepared another song, that doesn’t involve Chenle. However, I would like the ask him to stay seated up here on stage.” You tilt your head towards him, and he cocks an eyebrow, still smiling though.

 ‘I've gone too many nights, chasing the shadow of your silhouette’ You’re tapping your foot on the wooden stage floor, it echoes louder than you had anticipated but it’s appreciated.

‘Stumbling through the crowd, feet lifting off the ground looking for you’ Midway through the line, you lift the microphone from it’s stand and walk over to your friend.

You smile at his face being beet red, and hold out your hand for him to take. He stands up and laces your fingers together. Chenle recognises this song, he had shown it to you not even a week ago, during an instrumental pause he whispers if he could sing along and you happily nod.

‘Standing here face to face, nothing to lose, I won't look back now’

‘I feel the love, I wanna get to know you’ He sings, tightening his grip on your hand and you respond the same way.

‘It's not over tonight, stay in this moment, we can hide away’

‘Cause they're gonna turn on the lights’

‘But we're burning bright, no, we'll never fade’ You sing together.

 Once the second song had come to a close, another round of applause sounded.

Both you and Chenle walked back over to the microphone stand, hand in hand, placing the mic back in its rightful place.

Throughout the remainder of the night, as well as the following Talent Shows you and Chenle MC’d together, always holding hands, smiling widely and joyful. Though the two of you never made it to the finals, because, let’s face it- with a performing arts department, you kind of have to be a bit more prepared than a guitar and a love story.

Neither of you seemed to mind though, but it will be a fun story to tell if anyone asks how the two of you got together.

[burnedbyshoto]

Awaken

Kinktober Day 4 ~ kink: bondage, praise

pairing: todoroki shouto x fem!reader

warnings: smut, cursing

word count: 4,707

a/n: happy two month anniversary lovelies!!!!! we been here a full ass 60 days OMGGG well, have some shouto smut because we all know I LOVE HIM SO MUCH!!!! anyways sorry for yet another late upload, I got into a deep conversation with my roomie when I wasnt yet done with this

✩✶✩❇✩✶✩

Todoroki Shouto was an intriguing man.

When you first met him five years ago, in high school, you would have never thought you were going to be friends. He was rather cold, aloof, and sometimes rude. No amount of attractiveness could make that up to you, so you were hardly what you would consider friends.

Even after Shouto seemed to begin to overcome some of his demons. You were turned off by the idea of being his friend that you spent the rest of the first semester uncaring. You had no opinions for the powerful boy.

It wasn’t until he apologized to you during the summer training camp. An apology that caught you off guard, did you finally think you could become friends.

You two were fast friends at that too! Shouto and you had your own respective friend groups in your first year. But two times a week the two of you would eat lunch together.

So it went. The next two years of U.A. were incredible, the two of you helping each other out with areas of weakness. The areas you lacked in, Shouto excelled in, and vice versa. So it was no wonder the two of you were always paired up to spar.

It wasn’t until the third year when you sat with your entire class around you, did something happen. You and Shouto were having your own conversation outside of the one the class was having. Your hands shoving a grinning Shouto whenever he said something annoying.

“You guys are fucking disgusting,” Bakugou’s irritated voice snapped at the two of you during a moment of silence. Everyone was staring at the two of you, and Shouto and you were nonetheless wiser to it. “We’re trying to fucking eat here, could you for one damn minute stop fucking flirting?!”

Your cheeks flushed red.

Shouto stilled next to you.

Your eyes flashed over to Mina and Hagakure who were gaping. The girls were your closest friends here. You knew that those two, in particular, liked Shouto still. Which was why you never made a move, why you denied your feelings for Shouto for two years now.

“Oh my god, Kacchan!” Midoriya’s snickering voice sent everyone’s attention to the green-haired boy. He was sitting next to Bakugou. “No one says anything when you flirt with—“

“SHUT THE FUCK UP SHIT-KU!” Bakugou raged sending the conversation into a whole new tangent.

You and Shouto, however, stayed silent next to each other. Refusing to look at one another.

At the end of the day, you packed your bags, talking with Mina who was waiting for you to walk back to the dorms. You pulled on your jacket and said your goodbyes to the last lingering classmates in the room. It was, for the most part, the old Dekusquad as they had been playing a card game. Because they didn’t want it to be with the entire class, they stayed in the classroom.

You enjoyed finishing your homework in the classroom. So Mina would stay here with you as she would hang out with Uraraka and Tsu in the meantime.

You and Mina chatted about today’s lessons, as most conversations went. Mina was not that confident in her understanding of things. It wasn’t to say she was stupid. In fact, if you excluded Momo who was, in fact, a genius. The difference between the two spots in class and Mina’s spot was a total of six wrong questions. Yes, everyone had dramatically improved over the years.

“You know, y/n-chan,” Mina said clasping her hands together. “If you like Todoroki-kun, you should go for it!”

You snap your head to the pink girl who was grinning at you, a knowing look on her face. “Mina, but you—“

“Nuh-uh, girl, we all see how the two of you act with each other. It’s disgusting and super cute!” Mina sighs, the romantic in her shining right now. “Toru-chan and I are in love with his face and body! That’s all! Have you ever seen us have an actual conversation with him?”

“Well, that’s because you two, even three years later, drool when he talks to you instead of responding back!” You laugh, trying to mask your discomfort. Shouto couldn’t like you, you knew that he liked someone in the class, and you figure it was Momo. Of course, it was the worst girl to have a crush on, but you understood why he would! Momo was amazing but super gay.

“Even if you never existed, if you never came to U.A., it wouldn’t have changed anything!” Mina insisted, her hands squishing your cheeks between her hands as she stared at you. The two of you stopped moving as your face flushed embarrassed looking down at the ground. “If you like Todoroki-kun, go for it!”

“Mina, he doesn’t even like me though!” You say with a sad smile, but Mina laughs so hard your eyes widen as she sinks to the ground in tears. “Mina!”

“Girl, you’re literally the only person in the entire world who calls him ‘Shouto-kun,’ and he likes it!” Mina gasps as she lies on the floor, a loopy grin on her face. “Hop on that dick, please!”

“Y/n-chan,” Shouto’s voice is distant. You shriek feeling as if you had gotten caught doing something dangerous. Mina gets off the floor and throws her arm around you as the two of you await Shouto.

Your eyes stare at Shouto who looks like he ran the entire time to catch up with you. His shirt partially untucked, his tie loose, and without his jacket, he stares at the two of you. Your hands trying to hide your burning cheeks.

“Could I take y/n from you, for a bit Ashido?” Shouto asks turning his attention to Mina who nodded.

“Remember, Todoroki-kun, y/n loves caramel chocolates!” Mina says with a nod before she grins, laughing and running away as you begin to squeak in embarrassment.

You reluctantly return your attention to Shouto who stares at you. His eyes swimming in confusion.

“You look disgusting, where’s the proper Shouto I know?” You say, not wanting to look at Shouto instead tugging at his untucked shirt. Your fingers tightening his tie as he goes to tuck in his shirt.

Shouto never stops looking at you, his lips pursed as you finally reach his gaze. “I need to tell you something.” He begins, and your stomach flips and flops. “Well, I should’ve done it earlier, but I just didn’t.”

You can’t deny that your heart begins to pound as he reaches his hand into his pocket, and your breathing stops. What in the actual fuck was he—?

“Your eraser, you forgot it,” Shouto says placing your white eraser into the palm of your hand and you freeze. Your soul freezing up and cracking into a million pieces as you take it with a quick nod.

“Oh… I could’ve just gotten it back tomorrow, Shouto-kun!” You squeak snatching the eraser from his hands and shift your backpack so you can throw it in. Your cheeks burn as you bow in thanks, turning on your heel so that you could run to Mina and start crying.

Before you could get that far away, his hands clenched on your wrist and pull you back in. You stumble into his chest, your hands pressed flat against his chest.

You feel a hammering heartbeat, but you’re too afraid to ask if it’s his or yours. “I like you,” Shouto admits, and you snap your head up towards his, your cheeks burning red.

“I… you… oh my god…” You feel faint as you attempt to understand, your head spinning as he’s intoxicatingly too close. His body burning and freezing you. His fresh detergent smell overwhelming your person.

Ever so the reactionary person, you can’t conjure the words to reciprocate his feelings. So instead, you lean up to press your lips clumsily against his own. It’s short, soft, and sweet.

Blushes exploding over both your faces as you nod, “I’ll see you later?” You ask, your voice pitching.

“Yes, tonight?”

“Yes.”

“Okay.”

“Okay.”

His lips are back on yours and you can only think of throwing your arms around his neck. You kiss him with enough passion to make Shouto pull away prematurely.

Both your cheeks are blazing hot and without saying much, the two of you walk away from each other. Both of you unaware of the screaming onlookers of your classmates. All who had been trying to get the two of you to confess for a solid year now.

That was two years ago.

Now at twenty years old, you stared at your boyfriend who was eating his bowl of rice and salmon. His eyes concentrated on the food as you pushed yours around distracted.

You loved Shouto, truly you did. But your sex life was a means… of a mockery.

To put it in simpler terms, making out was much more exciting than fucking, and it made no sense to you. You could be grinding away on his lap. His hands roaming your figure as another simple kiss turned into a make-out session. You were on your shared bed, clothes stripped off, and you sunk into his dick. Like clockwork, he froze up.

All passion and intensity went and Shouto stared up at you with lit eyes as you would attempt to get the two of you off.

Even when he came, he was quiet, his eyes fluttering shut as he would fight the loudness of his orgasm. Panting as you felt nowhere near done, at first it was okay. But given it was nearing a year since the first time the two of you had sex for the first time, you were sick of it.

You loved being on top, you enjoyed it so much! But Shouto took it in a way that he was unresponsive and just sort of laid there. You were twenty and wanted to get dicked down so good by your insanely hot and amazing boyfriend.

So with regrets and no regrets, you asked the girls for help. They all seemed to be having a better sex life than you were anyways.

The six of you boiled it down to doing two things to get Shouto to snap out of this shell he sunk himself into.

Bondage and praise.

You had to admit, the first few times having sex was extremely awkward, so you never praised him. But in a non-sexual environment, Shouto loved praise. Hell, he had hugged you for twenty minutes after you praised him for his meal cooking.

You had no idea how things were going to go tonight, but you had made a plan and you prayed something was going to work.

You stood up from the kitchen table and went over to Shouto and pressed a kiss to his cheek. “I’ll be right back.” You promise as you walk over to your bedroom.

You got onto your hands and knees as you reached underneath your bed and you dragged out a box. Opening it, you smile seeing what you were going to need for the night. You let out a shaky breath as you put it back under the bed.

Shouto and you had vanilla sex, you knew that. It seemed that in order to break him, you would have to crank it up from vanilla to kinky in one go.

You returned to the kitchen as Shouto was staring at his phone. “Midoriya and Iida want to go to a store later tonight,” Shouto informs you as you draped over his shoulder. Your chin perched onto the crook of his neck. “Do you want to come with me?”

“That sounds like a bro date.” You admit as the corners of your mouth brush against his sensitive skin. You delight at the goosebumps that flash against his skin, and the shiver that goes down his spine. “Isn’t it for his wedding suit?”

“It’s the final fitting,” Shouto nods as his hand grasps yours and he places a gentle kiss to it. “Do you want to come with us? I’ll be leaving in an hour, and it shouldn’t take long.”

You smirk, well it seems you only had an hour to get what you wanted. You two were Pro-Heroes, you always performed better on a time limit. “No, you should enjoy the time with your friends!” You finally say and Shouto sighs.

“They’re your friends, too!”

“Well, I’m not sitting on his side during the ceremony.” You tease as you nuzzle your nose into his neck. “But since you have an hour, wanna make out?”

You say this as easily as you can, hoping to catch him off guard. But it seems that Shouto was expecting that question as he shrugs, “I guess that would be okay.” He teases and you snort as you are quick to straddle his hips despite him still eating.

Your eyebrow quirks to match his own as Shouto drops his chopsticks to hold your waist. “I love you, Shouto.” You say as you run your fingers through his hair, your eyes kind as you stare at his handsome face. His eyes were light as they stare at you, love and joy reflecting as your thumb traces his scar burn. Something that never truly embarrassed him. Something that never failed to remind him of why he was a hero, and something that he loved wholly because of you.

His eyes flutter closed as you press warm kisses against the heated flesh. A content hum escaping his mouth as you do so.

You pepper kisses around his face, placing one on his forehead, temples, cheeks, noses, eyelids, chin, jaw, and finally, you press one onto his mouth. His mouth doesn’t hesitate to press against yours, his lips never losing contact with yours.

Your hands hold his face to yours as your head tilts to the right. His nose pressing softly against your cheek as his hands grip your hips. You smirk as you roll your hips, your weight shifting so that you’re now on top of his dick. Shouto reacts the way you hoped he would, his hands slipping underneath your shirt to lay on your skin. His calloused fingers tracing shapes onto your skin.

You break away from him, Shouto trying to follow your mouth. Your heart is hammering as you’re almost embarrassed to say what you need to say. Your lips pressing against his ear. “I love when you touch my skin like that, it makes me feel so good.”

You make those words feel as alluring as you can. Despite the embarrassment that fills you from those words. Shouto stills completely underneath you, and you’re unsure if you broke him in a good way or a bad way. You return your lips onto him, hoping that you could move on.

His hips twitch from under you, and you can feel his arousal.

Oh… he did like that.

It’s more minutes of making out, your hips continuing to roll on top of his. Shouto’s pants filling the air as you were merciless in your teasing. Shouto grumbles as he pulls away, his mouth on your neck. Sucking and biting his way down your neck. You moan at the feeling, your heart hammering as you cry his name. “Yes Shouto, keep biting me like that, oh god yes, I love it so much!” You praise and Shouto curses into your neck. “Keep going, Shouto, you’re doing so well.”

As if willed by Kami herself, Shouto yanks you closer to him. His hips bucking against your ass as his mouth refuses to give you mercy as he sucks and bites down your neck even more. Your mind is dizzy as his hands grip your breasts and you toss your head back as your arch into his groping hands. “Fuck… you’re perfect, shit Shouto! Don’t stop!”

A strangled moan escapes his mouth as your head returns to kiss him, his lips eager to meet yours again. You squeak as he sits up with no warning, his hands clutching your ass as he begins walking to your shared room. A heated pressure begins to form as you anticipate what’s to come. You know that if you don’t act quickly, he’s going to flip you on top of him and go stiff for the rest of the night.

Your fingers begin yanking his shirt over his head, your lips breaking for less than a second to do that. Shouto is able to remove your shirt with ease with only one hand. He sits down on the bed, your knees sinking into the soft mattress.

You pull away reluctantly, your chest heaving as you shake your head, “Wait!” You say as you watch as Shouto’s eyes open with curiosity. His eyebrows scrunched as if he was trying to figure out what he did wrong. “I want to try something new…” You gasp trying to collect your breath.

“What?” Shouto asks most likely unaware of what you said.

You get off Shouto and walk to your side of the bed, pulling out the box. You take out a black rope, “I want you… I want you to tie me up.” You demand, and you look into his eyes that widen slightly.

His nod is minuscule, you almost miss it, but with awkward movements, your at the head of the bed. You are slipping the rope between the spaces and you lay down on the bed as Shouto is above you. His face unsure, unknowing.

His hands knot the rope around your wrists, and your breath hitches each time as you stare at him. Your chest rapidly rising and falling as he looks at your form. “Keep being good for me,” The words roll off your tongue, hoping it’s praiseful enough to incite action for him.

“I… I don’t—“

“Yes you can, my love,” You say your eyelashes fluttering. “You got this. You always make me feel content and happy.”

Shouto stills from above you, his eyes locking on yours and he leans down and presses a kiss to your lips.

He breaks away, panting in the thought of what’s to come.

“What if I fuck up?” Shouto asks his hands sliding down your torso, leaving a trail of goosebumps in his wake.

“Shhh,” You disagree, now regretting the ropes as you can’t pull him in. Was he really just insecure this entire time? “You’re doing perfectly? Okay? You got this.”

Shouto stares at you, a fire in his eyes. It’s dim, wavering, and unsure, but it’s there. He presses his hands by your head, and you can’t help but shift in anticipation as he leans down. His lips gliding over yours soft and smooth.

Not one to shy away, you pressed your tongue against his lower lip and smiled as he opened his mouth. His tongue letting yours dance with him.

Shouto pulls away, his chest heaving as he shakes his head. “No.” He snaps and your furrow your eyes confused.

“No—?”

“You want me to be dominant… don’t you?” He asks sharply, his eyes scouring yours. “I know I’m not the best in bed, and this is your way of helping me.”

“Shouto…”

“Stop, y/n, it’s okay…” Shouto says his hands raking through his hair. “Please… let me be the one to take charge.”

All you can do is stare at him, ambition and fire in his face burning you as you feel your arousal spike. You nod your head, agreeing to his terms, and his mouth is on yours again.

Hesitant yet demanding.

You gasp as he splits open your legs and settles between them. His tongue immediately lashing into your mouth. You shudder against him as his tongue traces the roof of your mouth, his fingers gripping at your waist.

Your hands tug at the ropes, and you sadly moan at the denial of raking your fingers through his hair. You gasp as his lips trail down your neck. His tongue softly pressing against the hickies he had early engraved into your skin. “Keep going lower,” You pant, your eyes screwed as you pant.

Shouto still against the valley between your breasts, and he shakes his head. “You’re going to have to stop praising me…” He shudders as his left-hand grasps your bra in his fingers. “It’s making me want to lose my control.”

“I want to see you lose control,” You tease, your eyes staring at him through your eyelashes. “You want to do it, no? Do it.”

Shouto snarls against your skin, and your bra reduced to ashes as you gasp in shock. He doesn’t give you time to reprimand you as his mouth is surrounding your nipple. His tongue flicking your pert nipples in his mouth. “Fuck, baby, yes oh my god that feels so great!” You cry out, your chest arching off the bed. You jut your hips up off the bed in an attempt to get some form of friction with him.

His right-hand rolls your right nipple, his teeth biting down on your sensitive nipples. You shriek softly, this new feeling overwhelming. His free hands gently touch the underside of your breast and you gasp again, and Shouto pulls away. Your breast gleams with his saliva, and you moan as his fingers gently grind against your crotch.

“You’re doing so well,” You groan as Shouto’s fingers undo your shorts. Shouto heaves again as he pulls off your shorts, staring at your soaked panties, and he chuckles.

“You’re so wet…” Shouto says, a curious tone to his voice as he shifts backward, his finger ghosting where your slit is. You squirm slightly. Your hands fighting against the restraints once again as you shudder.

Shouto rolls his finger against his thumb, “All this just for me?”

“You make me feel so fucking good…” You whine, and your hips try to reach out to his hand, desperate for friction.

“Am… Am I doing alright?” Shouto asks, and you blink again, your mouth falling slightly. Your heart swelling even more so for the man between your legs.

“You’re doing perfectly, keep going.” You say biting down on your lip as he nods, full of insecurity again. “Shoucchan, I am so fucking wet right now, and you did that all on your own… I want you... so badly.”

His lips pressed into a fine line, as he nods again, this time confidence once again filling his form. Before you could react, your panties were thrown off, and his tongue is between your folds.

You scream his name, your knees clenching around his head as his tongue teases your entrance. His eyes search yours, and your legs shakily release your vice grip around his head. His eyes are looking at you for help, and you nod your head, unable to come up with words. “That’s good, baby… fuck, it’s good!! Why not try--aahh my god--try using your fingeRS!” You squeak, your hips rolling into his flickering tongue. Your body is unable to handle the feeling of him.

Your belly fills with liquid heat as tingles shoot down your legs. The coil in your stomach tightening with every passing lick.

Two fingers curl as they enter you, and you shake against him. The overstimulation was quickly getting to you and your legs thrash around.

His nose brushes against your clit, and you sob out his name. You want nothing more than to tug on his hair and to bring his soaked lips to yours as you ride him, but you’re unable to do that. Another finger enters you, and his free hand presses into your clit.

The pressure builds up higher and higher. Your hips are relentlessly rolling into his mouth and fingers.

“I’m going to… shit… Imma--!” His mouth leaves your pussy. You pant as you looked at him with pained eyes as he wipes his mouth which is coated with your juices.

“I can’t believe I didn’t let you do this earlier.” Shouto murmurs as he licks your juices off his fingers, grinning slightly as he does so. “Did that feel good?”

You don’t know whether to praise him or to berate him for having you on edge like that.

“I just…” Shouto sighs as he takes off his pants. “I want to see you around my cock…”

You whine softly at those words. Your arms once more tugging at the restraints as Shouto undresses completely. Your wet your lips again as the tip of his cock teases your entrance. “Are you ready?” You ask, your eyes locking onto his, Shouto looks worried but he nods his head.

“Yes.”

With a hand to guide his cock into your soaked folds, you yelp as he thrusts into you. Burying his length to its entirety into your heated cave.

“Oh my god, your dick feels so good!” You moan as your hips wiggle in an attempt to get him to move. “Baby, you’re so perfect to me.”

A growl leaves his lips, and the next thing you know Shouto’s hips are drilling into yours. His movements are sharp, rough, and fast. Your arms pulling yet again on the restraints. As you ever so desperately want to feel his toned body under your fingers.

“Fuck, you’re so fucking tight…” Shouto groans as you nod your head pathetically in agreement.

His grip is leaving bruises on your waist. You let out another lewd noise at the sound of his body intercepting yours. “Don’t stop, you’re doing so well. Shouto, oh my god, please go faster, you’re so amazing!” You shriek as his arm moves your leg to his shoulder.

His penetration deepens and you pull against the restraints. Your body moving towards the bed, and Shouto is quick to follow after you. His thrusting never waiver once, his grip leaving your locked leg to press flat onto your clit. You shudder against him.

Sharp pants escape his mouth as he places his hands onto the pillow by your head. Your leg hooked around his shoulder stretching as your hips meet his with every thrust. Your arousal intensifies as a burning pressure erupts within you. Your head falling backward as you lacked the energy to keep it up. “Look at me,” Shouto growls. The pleasure burns through your veins. It almost prohibits you from staring into his mismatched eyes.

Shouto drops to his forearm, and you scream, the tip of his dick brushing against your g-spot.

“Did you like that?” Shouto snarls against your throat. You nod your head as he angles himself into the same position and rocks even harder. Even further than before. Your body is trembling underneath his own. Languid moans seeping from your mouth in harmony with Shouto’s grunts.

“You’re so fucking amazing!” You sob as the heat within your core is overwhelming. Your breathing hitching with every slam of his hips.

“Come for me?” Shouto almost pleads against your neck, and you nod frantically.

The pressure breaks, and you come hard onto his dick, your mouth open as his lips messily press against yours. You cry his name as you pathetically squirm underneath him. Your pussy clenching around his dick with every thrust. The tingles spreading throughout your body as he chases your orgasm.

You feel Shouto curse against your throat. And with a stuttering thrust, expels his sticky and hot seed within you.

Shouto pulls away from you, sweat dripping down his face as he smiles. His hands wipe his forehead as he puts your leg back onto the mattress. He presses another soft kiss to your lips as he stands up and grabs his phone.

Looking at the screen he smirks before dressing himself.

Despite your high, your whine at the fact that he was dressing without untying your wrists first.

“Shoucchan--?”

“I have to go now, love,” Shouto admits as he presses another kiss to your bruised lips. “I’m not quite done with you yet, you’re just going to have to wait for me to come back? Okay?”

He doesn’t give you time to reject those thoughts as he slips out of the room. Ignoring the pleading calls for him to get back. The sounds of you thrashing against the mattress making him smile as he leaves.

Oh yeah, you had definitely awakened something within him.

[applejongho]

a vampire's guide to blood dealing | bang chan

genre: humor, supernatural, adventure, dumbassery

pairing: vampire!chan and female vampire!reader named Mei (platonic)

description: Newly turned vampire Chan and old vampire Mei form a friendship through their shared hunger for blood, but can’t help but get into wildly bloody situations as their friendship blooms.

word count: 5.9k

warnings: mentions of blood, vampires, swearing, (a small amount of) violence

author's note: SURPRISE, I'M YOUR SECRET SANTA @meiiyue!! Did you guess me correctly when you had a hunch as to what my identity was at the beginning of the month? ;) You've made my month of December so much fun and I can't wait to start talking with you not behind my chanon pseudonym >:) anyways, chan and mei being dumbasses together, I had a HELLA fun time writing this and I hope you smile when reading <333

masterlist here!

SHE HAD KNOWN when the tea on his desk, next to the scattered medical papers and signatures that bound people to donating blood, was just a bit too red for any normal tea.

There was also the fact that the tea smelled like blood, but then again, everything smelled like blood at a blood drive. Being a vampire, Mei had to pinch herself every few minutes so she didn’t salivate all over the floor and reveal her bloodthirsty identity. She had no idea how the biology major that was running this drive, and also clearly a vampire by his red tea - Christopher “Chan” Bang - was holding himself together. Perhaps the tea was what kept him tethered to reality. But a vampire running a blood drive - that was the act of a being who had lost his mind.

Mei sat in Chan’s desk chair in his office - a white, cramped, doctor’s office that smelled like hand sanitizer - waiting for Chan to realize she was there. She had her feet propped up onto the table, black boots obscuring what seemed to look like calculus homework or chicken scratch. She couldn’t tell. So he studied here as well. Mei couldn’t help but laugh as she looked around his office: paintings of instruments that looked like they came straight out of a museum adorned the walls, a printer sat in the corner that looked like it would fall apart if it was asked to print one more paper, and a coffee pot with stains that would likely never come off. This was most certainly the living space of a tired and stressed college student - he had hidden his vampirism well. She doubted he even used the coffee pot anymore, Mei herself couldn’t bring herself to swallow anything except for blood.

She wondered how she hadn’t noticed the other vampire sooner. But now that she had found him, she was determined to befriend him and possibly help him; he couldn’t have been a vampire for too long. Mei shuffled her feet so they sat over some chemistry homework instead. She hoped she looked intimidating because it would have been embarrassing for a two-hundred-year-old vampire to not strike some sort of visceral and primal emotion into a baby vampire.

Like on cue, Chan entered the office with such frantic movements that she swore he would trip on himself. He had tousled black hair and a white lab coat snug on his shoulders that looked a little too perfect to be a real lab coat, like one a small kindergartener would wear on career day. He also carried a clipboard, and seemed to notice his franticness before he noticed Mei because he made eye contact with her but was much too delayed in his reaction to say anything until at least a few seconds later.

“Hello?” He said after a few seconds, staring at her. He looked like he was going to pass out with her feet on the table, or maybe he was just startled that someone was so confidently intruding on his space. Mei kicked her feet back onto the ground.

“Hello,” Mei said in greeting, then gestured to Chan’s cup of tea on his desk. “May I ask what kind of tea this is? It has such a wonderful taste. I couldn’t help but have a taste.”

He looked like he was going to pass out. “It’s a really, um, exotic flavor,” Chan said, placing his clipboard down on his desk. Mei glanced at it. It looked like a medical form. “You wouldn’t like it. Or, no, I’m really surprised you like it.” His voice had a clear accent - British? Mei was slightly surprised he wasn’t asking why she was in his office. He was probably too worried over the tea.

“Oh, it was bloody delicious, whatever it was,” Mei said. Chan looked like Mei had just found his illegal drug stash. “Okay, I’ll stop teasing. I’m a vampire. And I’m going to be terrified if you’re not also a vampire because it would be weird if you were a human drinking blood.”

Mei hadn’t realized Chan was on edge until his shoulders shrunk down a few inches and he gave a small smile. He was refreshing to see at ease - Mei was far too used to people being scared of her. “You are?” He asked in that hopeful fledgling tone that made her heart clench.

She nodded. “For two hundred years. I’m assuming it’s hardly been a month for you.”

She could tell he tried not to be phased by her age. It was routine for humans and young vampires to not be able to comprehend her age. “Three weeks, actually,” he laughed nervously. “I signed up to run this a few days before I got turned. I would have never accepted had I known...”

He trailed off, but Mei understood. “Baby vampires are usually more thirsty than adult vampires, and even I felt a little unhinged walking by all of the vials. I can’t imagine how you feel.”

Almost on cue, Chan reached for his tea cup and took a long, quenching drink. Mei watched him drink. He let out a breath after he finished, and his hair flopped in front of his eyes. “It’s painful,” he said simply. He let out a nervous laugh and scratched his head. “I was going to come in here for a break from the smell. But you’re here.” He stared at her for a moment, and Mei could see the gears turning in his brain. “Can you help me?”

It was such a vague question, but Mei nodded with certainty. Can you help me be a vampire? Can you help me not kill everyone in this blood drive, because I seriously might? “Let’s first give you a mask to wear. Like one of those disposable doctor masks?”

“I already thought of that, it doesn’t work,” Chan groaned, but Mei shook her head at him. 

“Do you have gum?” She asked. “Peppermint flavored?” He wordlessly gestured to the main drawer in the desk, confusion etched onto his face.

Mei pulled out the gum. “I know you don’t want to eat it, and you don’t need to.” She unwrapped a piece, but threw out the gum, holding out the wrapper for him. “Stick this into your mask. I don’t think it will mask the scent completely, but it will certainly be a distraction.” She raised her eyebrows at him and urged him to take the wrapper. He took it, looking at her with wariness stretched across his face.

“Really?” He asked, pulling a blue mask out of his lab coat. He grinned and slipped the mask on, sticking the wrapper in it.

“Absolutely,” Mei said, not absolute at all. She had thought of this out of the blue. He seemed to relax at her certainty.

“Thank you,” he said. Even with a mask on, Mei could tell he was smiling. It was a smile of gratitude, a smile of being seen. “It’s... it’s so relieving that there’s another vampire on campus. It’s nice to know you’re here. Even if you broke into my office and ominously waited for me in my office chair.”

“That’s what I’m here for, I suppose,” Mei laughed. “I would say that I’d help you with the blood drawing, but I’m a music major. I certainly don’t have any license to perform anything related to human health.”

“Can you help me pack up the vials after the blood drive is over?” Chan asked quickly. “It’s just me and two more people, and they’re assigned to clean up. I’d trust you to, you know, not tamper with them.” Mei noticed he avoided saying the word blood. He must have been fighting his thirst harder than what he was letting on.

“Yes, and take another sip of your tea,” Mei recommended. He did so, rather rushed. He wiped his mouth and pushed his mask back on when he was done and gave a cooky grin that she could see through his eyes.

"I have to get back to... the blood tests, but I suppose you can stay here." He stood, silent for a moment. "Feel free to do my chemistry homework if you're bored."

"I wouldn't dream of it," Mei said sweetly, causing Chan to give a snarky eye roll. Then, he exited the room to continue with the blood drive.

Nearly six months later and with another semester gone by, Chan and Mei had formed an unlikely, yet close friendship. Mei preferred to say they were blood-bound because between Mei's music theory classes and Chan's cellular biology homework, the two of them had no academic similarities. They had first hung out together in the library of the university, both always carrying opaque flasks of blood that felt like an inside joke between the two of them. They had upgraded to spending a few weekends together, and now they were practically inseparable. Chan knew all of Mei’s quirks, like how she had to practice guitar in the mornings and piano at night, or how she had to always be in the same practice room to get anything done. Mei knew Chan’s sense of humor, which was essentially knowing his entire personality - quick puns that could slip by as casual comments, or teasing that was prolonged and never-ending. He had gone an entire month speaking in a British accent when Mei had mistakenly called him British. There were certain phrases he had taken upon himself to abuse profusely.

“Bloody hell, I’m Australian!” He had told her, giving a teasing grin. “Aren’t you old enough to have traveled to other countries to know their certain accents?”

“I’ve been all over Europe,” Mei had corrected. “Mostly Spain, Portugal, and France, and not so much Britain. There are so many different dialects of English in Britain that I had just assumed that your accent was from there, so shut up.”

Chan had taken a sip of his blood tea and had given the evil look of a taunting younger brother. “Then I suppose your mind isn’t as sharp as you thought it was. It makes sense, considering you’ve been un-alive for more than two centuries.”

“I’m going to stake you,” Mei had said sweetly.

Another fond memory was when they had gone to a museum so Mei could narrate what actually had happened in history as they walked through exhibits. What they discovered instead was a love letter Mei had written to a female lover when she was a young vampire that had an entire exhibit to itself. And, as historians usually were, they had erased the gay undertones of the note. Chan had to stifle giggles as he read an excerpt from the exhibit’s description that very proudly declared the note full of heterosexuality, while Mei had to hold back on murdering every employee in the museum. Mysteriously, that was the last time they had ever gone to that museum.

Yet none of these experiences or moments could top the underground blood ring.

Mei and Chan, during the semester, stole small amounts of blood from the monthly blood drive a few biological science majors held, enough to keep them satisfied for at least until the next blood drive. But now the spring semester was ending, and unlike winter break, summer break was much longer and hotter. Neither of them loved going outside because, as vampires, too much time in the sun would make them thirstier and sometimes blister.

“So what should we do?” Chan asked, sitting with his legs crossed on Mei’s couch in her apartment. “You’ve been a vampire much longer than I’ve been one. What have you done in the summer?”

“Back when I got my last degree, cameras were really terrible and too weak to see me,” Mei said, squinting while reading something on her computer. Mei had gotten a creative writing degree back in the 80s in Spain, and a history degree in the 60s. She liked to point out frequently that she would have gotten many more degrees, but sexism prevented her for a long time. “Which had made it much easier to steal blood or drink from a sleeping person, regardless of the season. But cameras are much better nowadays, and while they still wouldn’t be able to see either of us that well, they would see things being moved around and possibly changes in shadow. And we don’t want that. Also, with you being a new vampire that’s not an expert at stealthily drinking blood from someone, we can’t just have you slinking around peoples’ houses at night.” She sighed and shut her computer, then gave Chan a look that made his spine dance.

“I have a few ideas, but none of them are that ethical or easy,” she said, grimacing. “Do you have any?”

Chan pursed his lips. “I could try hosting another blood drive?” Chan suggested, then discarded the thought. “Or we could go to the hospital I intern at and steal blood from there.” He said that calmly, normally, and Mei was a little shocked at how nonchalant he had become regarding blood acquisition. He used to cringe when Mei gave crazy stories of how she had taken blood from people.

“Hospitals should keep their blood, though,” Mei said, ignoring Chan’s surprised expression. “It’s one thing to take a few blood vials from healthy college students. It’s another to withhold a hospital’s stock that could potentially save someone’s life.” Chan wanted to mention that the blood collected from the university’s drives eventually made it to the hospital, but he didn’t want to create an ethical debate. They were already unethical as it was, being undead beings that drank blood.

“Okay,” he said, sighing. “So what are your ideas? Because those are mine.”

Mei gave a little smile, and Chan got nervous. “Mei, what are you thinking?”

“I was thinking of an illegal blood ring,” Mei said casually, then folded her arms over her chest and frowned at him when Chan gave an expression that was equivalent to her saying she had murdered someone. “I know your track record is perfect, but as a desperate vampire, I don’t know what else to tell you. Would you rather starve?” Chan opened his mouth to speak, but Mei held up a hand. “Hear me out.”

A million thoughts were running through his head, but Chan did as she said. She was right, he did have a perfect track record because it was imperative for someone that wanted to go into medicine that it was spotless. A blood ring was the perfect addition to his record if he wanted to throw away his degree and any chance of employment.

“There are more blood rings than you’d think, and a lot of them aren’t nearly as scary or dangerous as you might think,” Mei started. “Think of doctors that are fed up with blood donation regulations because certain people, such as gay people, can’t donate blood. Think of psychopaths that want to sell tainted or drugged blood to scrape a profit. Think of people without ID that need blood but can’t get it through lawful means. These are the types of people we’d encounter, and considering that we’re both strong and smart vampires, being friendly with them, stealing blood, and then jetting wouldn’t be hard. We’d only have to do it once,” she said as Chan’s expression darkened with doubt. “I don’t love the idea either, but I think it’s doable. Allow me to ask around, and I should be able to find a place for us to go and get our blood within a week.”

“And what about next summer?” Chan asked. “And the summer after?”

“By then, you’ll hopefully know how to take blood from humans in their sleep,” Mei said evenly. “I should have taught you earlier, but I didn’t. Please, Chan,” she said and gave a look. “Just go with me. I promise things will be fine. And if it doesn’t, we can just change our names and go to university somewhere else.”

“You’re insane,” Chan groaned. There was nothing smart about this plan. Chan could name several things that could go wrong off of the top of his head: the blood they could get would be so drugged that both of them would kill someone in their insanity, they could get caught or ratted out and lose their place in the university, or they could simply get killed by the blood dealers. But Chan begrudgingly agreed with Mei because it was the only plan they had. And blood, as delicious as it was, was slippery to deal with. This was simply one shady deed in a life that would last an eternity. He was too young to understand the small weight of this blood ring that would carry on his immortal life. He had to trust Mei.

“And besides,” Mei said, climbing off of her bed to grab a bag of blood from her fridge, “you can think of it as a heroic job. Maybe we can rat out the blood dealers to the cops, steal their blood, but then tell the police they destroyed it all in a hairy crossfire. You’re not the bad guy, Chan, nor a vigilante. You’re just a vampire that needs his needs met.”

So a little more than a week later, Chan found himself in the passenger seat of Mei’s Toyota, Mei driving like she was on her way to the grocery store to pick up some eggs. “Mei, I don’t know if we should do this,” Chan said, shifting nervously in his seat and rubbing his hands together.

Mei turned smoothly to a dirt road. The highway they had been on before had been smooth, so the new bumpy terrain made the two of them bounce around in the car. It just made Chan even more nervous - this was territory that wasn’t crossed often. “Chan,” Mei said in the same way a mother would soothe a child, “we’ll be fine. Like I said before, I wouldn’t be able to do this alone. You’re here for backup. I told the dealer you have a black belt and can make shit fly if things don’t go as planned.” 

“I don’t have a black belt,” Chan felt he had to point out.

“And they don’t need to know that,” Mei said calmly. She turned again. Somehow this road was even bumpier. Chan felt like he was going to throw up. “You’re here for looks and intimidation. And if things do go awry, you look strong enough to do damage.”

Chan groaned. It was night out, and Mei turned off her headlights. It wasn’t a problem because both of them could see fine during the night; it was so no one else could see them. “Just relax,” she continued, which made Chan even less relaxed. “Think of the blood.”

Thinking of blood did make him feel better, much to his relief. He sat dazed while Mei navigated through the dirt path, thinking of the result rather than the work he had to do to get there.

Mei parked the car in between some trees and the two of them got out. Mei adjusted her hoodie and sunglasses, which made Chan pull out his sunglasses as well. He felt like a fake criminal putting them on. They only did this in movies. “This way,” Mei said, her voice amplified because of the silence that hovered around them. Trees were everywhere and Chan had no idea how Mei had managed to maneuver the car into the forest. He hoped a quick escape wasn’t going to be needed.

Mei trudged through the forest, Chan following. She led him to an old shack that looked like it was one breeze away from toppling onto itself. Chan had to duck to not hit his head on the door frame. The inside smelled exactly how a dilapidated and abandoned shack should smell like - grimy, slimy, and dusty. Then, of course, there was the smell of blood. He knew Mei could smell it too by how she stood straighter, or perhaps that was to seem more intimidating, because Chan had just noticed a few more figures already in the shack.

“I presume you’re Em and Bert,” said a cool, feminine voice across from them. The blood dealer.

“Bert?” Chan growled, quiet enough so that only Mei could hear, but she only smiled.

“That’s us,” Mei said, her voice devoid of the humor and carefreeness it usually held.

Even in the shadows, Chan could see the other woman give a smile. Despite the hood and mask she wore, the blood dealer wasn’t too incredibly intimidating. Chan thought she was sitting at first, but she was just short. A small lock of curly and blonde hair stuck out from her hood, giving the illusion that she was a small child. He almost snickered, but he was nervous himself.

Then he paid attention to her bodyguards. Three bodyguards were surrounding her, all tall, dark, and intimidating. The one to her right looked like he had muscles that could clock him into next week, while the one to her left had eyes of steel that he could feel scanning him. The one in the middle, right behind her, had the veiniest hands he had ever seen. He imagined them choking Mei or himself and he shuddered. Like the girl, they all had hoods and masks to conceal their identity.

“And do you have the money?” The girl said, a lilt to her voice. Mei nodded and pulled out enough money in cash to pay for an entire semester of school. Chan was amazed at his self-control to not do a backflip in the middle of the shack. Where had she gotten so much? He decided he’d have to ask later, or never.

The girl’s expression didn’t change at the sight of the money. “Put it on the table,” she said, then waved a hand to a three-legged table that sat in the middle of the room. Mei placed the wad of cash onto the table, then swiftly stepped away from it like the table was going to suddenly grab her hand if she didn’t move fast enough. 

Chan was hit with a pang of anxiety. Why hadn’t Mei asked to see the blood first? The bodyguard to the girl’s left pocketed the money. They could be murdered right there, and Chan still had to study for his anatomy final. He glanced over to Mei, who appeared to be unfazed. He gave her a look that he hoped she interpreted as, “do you still have an ounce of sense rattling in that brain?”

He didn’t need her to answer, however, because the girl motioned her hand. The buff bodyguard to her right bent down and picked up a box - Chan’s heart sank - a small box. His vampire senses started screaming because now the scent of blood had a visual paired with it, but there wasn't even that much. At most, this box of full blood vials would last Mei and Chan a month, which was less time than the two of them had for summer. The bodyguard placed it onto the same table where Mei had placed her money. This time, Chan took the case of blood. It was heavier than he had suspected, but it was still so little.

“You promised more,” Mei said evenly, echoing Chan’s worries. “I brought the money you wanted. Where’s the rest?”

“This is all we have left,” the girl said smoothly, and Chan had read enough crime novels to know that was a twisted truth. Likely, someone else had outsold them. And based on the amount of money Mei had given, that was an accomplished feat.

But even so, Chan could smell more blood somewhere, much like a human could smell both cookies and brownies being baked in a kitchen. Was it the blood from the girl and her guards? He didn’t think so, because that wasn’t the case when he was surrounded by fellow university students.

He didn’t have to look at her to know that Mei had smelled as much. Mei’s mouth twitched.  “I see more right there,” she said, pointing vaguely towards the girl. The bodyguards stiffened.

“We have no more,” the girl repeated, her tone stricter than any of her bodyguards’ body language. Her eyes narrowed, and Chan caught the hue of them - blue. “Perhaps if you had offered more money, or if you were a bit more reputable, I would have-”

The girl was unable to finish her sentence, because Mei had darted forward, faster than any human could have ever moved. Before Chan realized what she was doing, Mei already had a hold on a second box, identical to the one he was holding. It must have been hiding somewhere, and for whatever reason Mei had managed to see it.

Chaos ensued. The girl screamed, Chan screamed too, and Mei had delivered a blow to the muscular bodyguard, sending him to the floor. He realized that he was supposed to act the part of the strong sidekick, but Chan’s rationality and legs had a different idea. He was not fit to fight. While Mei sized up another bodyguard, Chan took off running. He ran out of the shack, blood vials rattling violently in his hands. He realized too late that under no circumstances could he drop the box of blood - it would defeat the purpose of Mei’s inception.

To his chagrin, he realized one of the bodyguards, the one with veiny hands, had taken off running behind him, and Chan deliriously wondered if he was good at playing piano as he dove into the dark forest around the shack.

“Stop!” The bodyguard yelled as if Chan would obey. He ran further into the forest, grateful it was nighttime. He could see easily, and based on how the bodyguard faltered around the frequent trees, he didn’t have the same advantage. Chan slowed his running when he saw how far behind the bodyguard was and crouched by a particularly large tree, cradling the vials of blood like they were a newborn baby.

He heard the bodyguard come closer, but Chan had faith that he was hidden and quiet enough to not be noticed. “Shit!” The bodyguard swore when he must have been about ten feet away. Chan remained perfectly still, crouched low, not breathing. He was dimly aware of the spiraling and sharp pain coming from his toes because of the way he was sitting, and he decided to ignore it. Then, without warning, Chan lost his balance and toppled onto the forest floor, the vials crashing into each other and creating a cacophony of noise. It was Chan’s turn to swear.

The bodyguard was upon him within seconds. Chan had barely gathered himself and the blood, and was still struggling miserably on the forest ground, pain exploding from his toes. “Are you insane?” The bodyguard growled, his voice rough. Chan squirmed away from the bodyguard and barely missed the bodyguard’s lunge towards him. He couldn’t tell if he was trying to reach for his neck or the blood.

“Yeah,” Chan answered him, tripping into a standing position, but the guard was too close for him to make a run for it. The adrenaline racing through his system had adrenaline, and briefly he wondered how Mei was doing. Could she hold off two bodyguards and that girl on her own? He wasn’t doing well even with one. His knees began to shake, and for a moment he wished he had never become a vampire - he wouldn’t have ever been in this situation. He wouldn’t have been moments from death or capture.

“You must be truly desperate if you’re willing to steal from people like us,” the bodyguard snarled. “What were you gonna do with it all, resell it? Give it to authorities to rat us out?” He backed Chan into a tree. “Or fucking drink it?”

Chan’s eyes widened, and a lightbulb glowed in his mind with a ridiculous idea. For the past few months, Chan had adjusted to being a vampire, but he couldn’t help but often felt alienated even with Mei being a new addition in his life. He avoided drinking blood in front of a human and even broke out into a sweat when it was in a concealed and opaque container in fear of their terrified reaction. Now, Chan took this opportunity to turn the tables in his favor. He just hoped he wasn’t the greatest fool for doing it.

“It tastes like cranberry juice,” Chan said in a voice that was much too cheery for how unhinged he felt internally. Then, without warning, he uncorked one of the vials of blood and chugged it. He let it slosh around in his mouth as a red sea, he gurgled it, he let it run over his mouth and onto his chin, and he prayed to some god, a god that likely had damned him already, that this plan had an ounce of sense. At least the blood tasted good.

“What the fuck?” The bodyguard choked, which was precisely the reaction Chan had hoped for. Chan kicked out and slammed his leg into the bodyguard, causing him to sputter in surprise before falling to the ground. His head connected with a tree and the sound was sweetly sickening. Chan stood, staring at the man lying unconscious on the floor, staring at his hands, staring at the blood. He must have stood there for a few minutes in stunned silence, before being interrupted by screams and shouts coming from the old shack.

“Seungmin!” A masculine voice shouted, and Chan assumed the voice was referring to the knocked out man lying on the forest floor in front of him. Unfortunate for both of them. A few more screams, and then, “-in the building!”

He heard a crack, and the most horrible, loud sound of splitting wood, metal chafing, and tile cracking overcame all silence in the forest. Chan cringed as he ran back towards the shack, fearful of Mei’s safety.

He emerged from the forest, only to have Mei dart in front of him to seize his wrist. Her hair, done in a ponytail under her hood, had become exposed and frazzled, but otherwise she seemed fine. She was carrying the second box, that special box, under her arm, and Chan wanted to cry with relief. They were both okay, they had done what they had come to do. “Car!” She huffed, then took off running, still gripping Chan. He felt like a rag doll being yanked by his five-year-old owner as Mei dragged him towards their escape.

He threw himself into the car, Mei already driving before his butt hit the seat. He placed his box of blood at his feet and felt out-of-body as Mei drove like a demon out of hell out of the forest and onto the gravel road. Chan had never felt so happy to feel the motion sickness that came from the rough terrain. He glanced over to Mei, who had ripped off her sunglasses. She looked like she had just slain a dragon and was glowing with adrenaline. Chan was filled with the happiness of knowing her. How could he ever have gotten so lucky? He broke into a grin, then began crying with laughter.

“We did it!” He cried, and Mei joined in with him after a few moments. He could hear the tension, fear, and anticipation leave her body as she laughed - a joyful, boisterous, and relieving laugh that seemed to be perfectly in rhythm with the car bouncing on the gravel road.

“We did, didn’t we?” She choked out after her laughter subsided. “But God, Chan, you look like you were shot in the mouth. What happened?”

Chan suddenly remembered his silly vampire distraction, and he burst into laughter all over again. “I scared the daylights out of the bodyguard that chased me by chugging some of the blood,” he giggled. His head was going to fly off of his head in the next few seconds. “It was all I could think of to distract him.”

“Oh my God, Chan,” Mei laughed. “That’s brilliant.” Mei turned, and the car gave a few jolts as it tore into another dirt road. “I destroyed the shack. It was sort of an accident, but it was only a matter of time.”

“And how’d that happen?”

Mei chuckled. "Throwing a bodyguard enough times against a wall causes a lot of strain on the house. I think I crushed everyone in the shack. Oh!" Chan's mouth dropped open as Mei reached into the center pocket on her hoodie and pulled out the wad of cash that she had used to pay for the blood. “There’s this.” She threw it into his lap, and Chan jumped as it touched him.

"Mei!" Chan gasped, unsure whether to laugh or be terrified. "We literally stole from them, and now we cut them short of-"

"Yeah, and they cut us short too," Mei shrugged, having an ethical compass of a seesaw. "Their leader, the little girl, promised me a second box. I was essentially paying for two boxes and she only gave me one. It's only fair. Well, at least for us." Mei stared off into the distance as she drove. "And I bet you smelled the blood of the second box, too. Perhaps she thought she could undercut us. Either way, I hope all four of them are screwed either financially or physically. Honestly, I might have killed the ones in the shack. But now I can pay for my next semester and not die of thirst over the summer." 

She said all of this causally, and Chan didn’t feel like lecturing her. He had sins too, lying unconscious in the forest. Chan also decided not to ask where Mei had gotten her money. He didn't want to, because he knew she didn't have it before this. "I mean, they're blood dealers," he said instead. "I don't think they care about laws or rules. But still..."

"Still nothing, Chan," Mei laughed. "We did it. Can't we celebrate?"

"Ah, two vampire college students stealing blood from a shady group of people that we might have killed. Congratulations to us," Chan said in a mocking voice, but smiled. "We certainly did it. Let's never do it again."

"You can say that again," Mei agreed. Her mouth quirked upward, and she barely suppressed a giggle. "Honestly, I thought we were screwed the entire time," Mei said carefully. "I thought they'd have backup in the forest or around the shack. Me reaching for that second box - that was pure stupidity."

"But we got our blood," Chan said with a note of finality.

"We got our blood," Mei echoed. Against all odds, they had pulled off a plan only a college student could conjure. "If we can do this, finals will be easy."

"Are you sure about that?"

Chan and Mei bickered back and forth over if finals or stealing illegal blood from shady vandals was harder (finals won) until Mei got onto the highway. Homebound and their goal accomplished, the two vampires laughed all the way home. In the sky, the moon's white rays glowed on them, the foil of the sun that they had grown to love as creatures of the night.

[missdawnandherdusk]

How Do You Solve A Problem Like Malfoy?

Draco X Gryffindor!Reader

Part One     Part Two

Summary: Now that you were as confused as ever, you decided to do something about it. And that something was absolutely nothing. Or was it? And would Draco notice? 

A/N: Y’all I really can’t stop writing this because it’s so cute and it needs to get somewhere but those things take time and well welcome to pining and a change of heart. Please enjoy my semesters of Latin used in this series also. It’s quite fun to use what I know to create potions and spells. I love you all and the feedback I’ve gotten so far! It means the world to me! Stay safe and stay creative!

Tags: @un-limiteddd @geekysimmerthings​ @coffee-addicti​ @ilikestuffproductions​ @msmcsmutt​ @ravn-87​ @artemismohr18​ @whygz​ @crazywritingbug​ @dolphincommander​ @bisexualbumblebeesstuff​ @fuzzy-panda​ @bitemebro522​ @zombiesnips-blog​ @jillanaholland​

I spent almost all night trying to figure out what Draco meant in the hall but found nothing. Well, there was the hope that maybe he understood something deeper about happiness... but that couldn’t be possible. And if it was why would he tell me?

I wanted to talk to him, confront him, ask him what he meant.

I also wanted to know where this family feud started... there had to be a good reason that Lupines didn’t get along with Malfoys, other than the obvious I assumed.

But was it obvious?

“You’re going to stare a hole through the wall Y/n,” Hermione didn’t look up from her book as she noted my glaring.

I sighed and flopped back into the plush couch of the common room. Hermione was currently reading—or maybe rereading—So You Think You’re A Wizard? A Guide to Simple Spells and Hexes.

“What am I supposed to do?” I muttered, hugging a pillow and watching the fire dance. “What is anyone supposed to do with a Malfoy? The only options are fear him, hate him, or follow him like a puppy,” I noted.

“Have you actually been around their family?” Hermione asked. “Your family is pureblood, almost noble, like Malfoy... ever go to parties or gatherings or whatever it is that you all do?”

“No,” I sulked. “I was in America. Far away from all of that.” I sat up. “Not that I’m complaining, I loved growing up Muggle... no magic... no shortcuts.” I smiled. “But I came back to go here, and the feud followed me.”

Growing up Muggle was one thing that my parents had kept a secret from the rest of my family and the wizarding world. The only one who knew that I had grown up like that was Hermione—I had accidently slipped up and mentioned that I knew how to bake around her. It was part of the reason that we were good friends, we understood the bizarre nature of magic versus normalcy.

“So, why did you give in?” She asked, looking up from her book.

“I don’t know,” I groaned. “I was younger... he didn’t like me, and I guess I just went with it.” Shrugging, I thought about the last four years.

“And when do you ever do what you’re told?” Hermione challenged with a smile.

I didn’t have an answer for that. She was right of course, there was no reason that this was the one thing that I let someone else decide for me. I was too stubborn for any of that. And maybe it was time that I stopped letting people tell me who I was and who I was going to be.

From the moment I fell down the rabbit hole of Hogwarts I've been told where I must go and who I must be. I've been shrunk, stretched, scratched, and who knows what else. But this was my life. I was going to decide where it went from here.

How I was going to do that... I didn’t have the faintest idea.

“Maybe try to talk to him,” Hermione suggested, reading my thoughts as if they were the words on the page of her book.

“He’s not going to talk to me,” I pointed out.

Hermione gave me a sympatric look and a shrug as she picked up the next book.

______________________________

Draco paced his common room, Crabbe and Goyle’s eyes following him. Every time they tried to speak or offer advice, a cold glare shut them up.

“She is absolutely mad!” He insisted. “She’s worse than Potter and I never thought that was possible! Who does she think she is to accuse me like that!?”

“Why do you care?” The question came from Pansy, who was leaning against the entrance to the common room.

“Excuse me?” Draco snapped.

“You hate her. Why do you care what she says about you? Stop acting like a princess and man up.” Pansy sneered. “She doesn’t know who you are, so why are you listening to her at all?”

Draco glared Pansy down. She did have a point though.

Why did he care at all what you thought of him? Why did he care if there was something about you that drove him insane? Why did he care if you hated him like the rest of the school did?

Why did he care if you had people to confide in about this? Why did he care if you could write to your parents and ask them what to do?

He didn’t care.

That was the bottom line.

It had to be if he wanted to stay on top.

He had a reputation. He wasn’t going to let some Gryffindor demolish it because you could bat your pretty eyes at him and make all of his thoughts stop on a dime.

Nope.

He wasn’t going to let you.

___________________________

“Okay,” I stopped Hermione before we left our shared room the next morning. “There is no way that talking to Draco is ever going to get him to open up... or do anything,”

“Yes,” She waited for me to continue.

“But... he is doing better in the classes that he feels like he has to beat me in?” I said sheepishly. 

“So are you,” She pointed out.

“Yeah, uhuh, not the point,” I dismissed. “But what if I... just kept doing what I am doing... and let it be?” It was a weak proposal, but it was all that I could come up with in the early hours of the morning when he had me wide awake.

“So... you’re going to do exactly what you’re doing and giving into the rivalry... to stop giving into the rivalry and try to get through to him?” Hermione clarified.

“Yes?” I squeaked.

“Yeah, okay I’m in.” She grinned. 

“Really?” Shock flitted across my face.

“Well, you’re doing it with a better motive, so I suppose that’s better than whatever it is at the moment,” She bottom-lined. “Now, will you help me get Ron and Harry to talk to each other again?”

I laughed and took her arm as we headed down to the Great Hall for breakfast and another day of lessons.

Nothing did change, not on the outside. Malfoy was still himself and I still did everything I could to get under his skin. My hand would shoot up in class with the answer before his could and a smirk would stay on my face when the professor commended me on my knowledge. In Potions later that week was the highlight of it all.

“And what is the most dangerous ingredient to Pungo Aedificem?” Snape asked, looking down his nose at the rest of us.

Draco’s hand shot up a grin curled onto his face as he glanced over at me.

“Re'em Blood,” He answered, confidently.

I almost laughed out loud and raised my hand passive aggressively.

“Miss Lupine?” Snape diverted his attention from the crestfallen Draco to me.

“Belladonna,” I answered correctly. “Where Re’em Blood is expensive and rare, it can’t kill you,” I smiled sweetly at Draco. He glared.

“Yes,” Snape eyed the two of us and continued with his lesson.

It was a great way to start the weekend.

As November slipped away and Draco and I were still at our game—one that I had decided to play myself... not because anyone told me to—the excitement of the first task was all the school could talk about. Our feud seemed to simmer a bit with the Triwizard Tournament.

Of course, I supported Harry and wished the best for him, but I knew he shouldn’t be in the tournament to begin with, and I didn’t want to see him win... not that I wished anything terrible on him.

“So, you supporting your friend?” Draco sneered. “He doesn’t have a chance of winning. Not with Krum in the running,”

It was true, Krum had a good chance of winning. Not that every girl in the school had already told him that... multiple times... as they followed him around like a shadow. It was ridiculous.

“How is Krum?” I purred. “He must be swarmed with pretty girls all day. Not like you’d know anything about what that’s like,” I drawled.

“I don’t see you at his heels,” Draco grinned. “He tell you off?”

“I’m flattered that you think I’m a pretty girl, but no, I don’t need to follow a guy around for him to notice me. Unlike some people,”

“I don’t need pretty girls to tell me how good I am,” He retorted.

“You’re right,” I didn’t miss a beat. “You have enough mirrors for that pretty face of yours,” I batted my eyelashes and walked away, towards the Gryffindor Tower to study for upcoming exams.

Hermione found me neck deep into notes and books when she came back to our room.

“Do you have time to help Harry and I work on a Summoning spell?” She asked, grabbing a few books.

“For?”

“The challenge, it’s dragons. Harry needs to Summon his Firebolt and fly,”

“Some of those words made sense, but how they fit together I will never know,” I mused and turned the page of my book. “And I wish I could, but Snape is giving an exam soon on Potions and I need a good grade.”

“Still at it then?” She asked. “How’s your plan working?”

“Like I know... He is talking to me more... but we’re just arguing. Talked about Krum today.”

“Krum?” Hermione stammered.

I grinned, knowing about her little crush. I had caught them a few times in the library closer than necessary.

“Yes, I said he had a good chance of winning. Not that I don’t believe in Harry,” I amended. “Seemed to annoy him that I was interested in Krum,”

“So, he’s jealous,”

“Of what? Me liking Krum? I don’t even like Krum like that,” I scoffed. “And besides, he’s all yours,”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” She mumbled. ���I’m going to help Harry,” 

“He called me pretty,” I blurted out.

“What?” Hermione lit up like a Christmas tree.

“Well, kinda? I said something about pretty girls following Krum around and he asked me why I wasn’t following Krum around and I don’t think he meant it, but it happened?” I rushed the explanation out.

Hermione smiled and rolled her eyes, leaving me to my thoughts and books. When the books look more like Latin than English, I gave in and packed up my stuff.

Rain started to patter on the windows as a storm swept over the school. I sighed and got up, draping my robe around me and headed to the Great Hall for some food. It was getting rather late and I hoped that I didn’t wait too long to eat.

I began to think that maybe I should write to my mother about what was happening. She would know what to do... or at least what to say to make me feel better. I didn’t know much, but I knew at least that she was the one who had made my father move to America to take me away from the feud.

In the midst of my thoughts, I ran into someone.

“Sorry,” I blinked, offering an apologetic smile.

Then I saw familiar cold blue eyes.

“Oh,” I took a step back. “Sorry,” I repeated and walked past him.

It struck me as odd that he was alone in the halls without his normal posse of Slytherins. I paused and turned back to him.

“Where’s your friends?” I asked, half teasing half curious.

“None of your business.” He snapped. “But if you must know, they’re helping Krum with the challenge.” He smirked.

“Okay,” I spoke slowly. “I’m... going to get dinner... You’re welcome to join?” My voice was as unsure as I was about what I was asking.

He stared at me like I grew a second head and a tail. Pursing my lips, I shook my head and headed to the Great Hall, rather quickly now.

_________________________

Draco stared at you as you rushed away from him. Did you seriously just ask him to go to dinner with you?

What was that about?

You seemed more at ease around him when it was just the two of you and he thought that it was odd. And you apologized to him instead of making a remark or snide comment. What the hell were you doing?

Nothing much had changed between the two of you. He still found every reason to put you down and you still tried your best to beat him. But recently you weren’t getting angry. You were just smiling when either of you won.

Not that he noticed you smiling.

Of course not.

“Y/n!” He called.

You turned; an expectant look on your face. The same warmth in your eyes. 

“The Great Hall closed about an hour ago,”

You slumped and let out a disgruntled sigh. You rubbed your face, and something fell from appearance. He could see exhaustion in your features. He wondered what had you up so late and so neglectful of mealtimes. Actually, no he didn’t. He didn’t care.

“Okay,” You sighed, finding some sort of resolve. “That’s okay, thank you,”

You kept on your way towards the Great Hall and he wanted to ask what you were doing, or if you needed something to eat. Surely, he could get something from the kitchen for you. He knew how to order around house elves. Now that Dobby was working here, it would be too easy.

Instead he went his own way and didn’t look back.

.

. 

Part 4

[sugarsugarmoon]

The Rivalry

Summary: Namjoon x reader. You have always been the best in school until Kim Namjoon showed up. e2l, university!au, non-idol!au

Genre: Smut

Warnings: Unprotected sex, lots of smug Namjoon.

a/n: This is my gift for @ddaenysus​ for the BTS Writing Cafe Coffeehouse. I hope that you like it, darling. I tried to incorporate as much of the things you like into it. I enjoyed talking with you and getting to know you and reading your fics! 🥰

Word Count: 3147

You had always been the best in all of your classes in school. Growing up, you’d gotten all the stars, check marks, As, and pats on the back that were possible to receive. You weren’t sure what motivated you so much,  but, if you weren’t the top of your class, you didn’t know who you were supposed to be. This continued into your experience at university. You pushed your way to the top of every single class, the apple of every professor’s eye. Now, you were reaping the benefits of having worked so hard through your first 3.5 years, and you had one semester left before graduating with the highest honors and moving on to graduate school.

That was, of course, until you met Kim Namjoon. For some reason, he was in two of your classes this semester even though you hadn’t been in classes with him before. When you scored 93% on a test, he’d score 96%. You were used to being the student who set the curve for all the tests, but now you found yourself coming in slightly below the top score. Kim Namjoon, however, was sitting at the very top.

You hated him. His smug, adorable face with his little dimples. Who did he think he was fooling looking that cute? You can see the danger in the way he stared, the way he held his shoulders back, the way he sat with his legs spread, leaning against the chairs casually. He always appeared like none of this was a big deal to him. Yeah, he took notes, worked on his computer, just like everyone else who did well in their classes, but he looked so effortless doing it.

You’d worked together with him and 5 other classmates on a group project, so you had his number saved in your phone. You never planned on using it, but if you ever did, it would only be to tell him what a twat you think he is. When your phone vibrates in the middle of class and you see the name on the screen, you nearly gasp out loud and do drop your phone clumsily on the floor. You pick it up to make sure you saw it correctly. You did. There on the screen, shown the name you’d least expected to see on your phone in  the middle of this class: Kim Namjoon.

Why the hell was Kim Namjoon texting you? He’s sitting 10 feet away from you. What could he possibly want?

When you swipe your phone open, the text simply reads, “Why are you looking at me like I personally insulted you and your entire family?”

You roll your eyes and type out a response. “First of all, I was not looking at you. I have better things to do with my time. Second of all, you have personally insulted me and my entire family.”

“What? How?”

The two of you are usually attentive in class, but, now, you’ve distracted one another. Before you can get your snarky shot off, the professor calls on Namjoon to answer the question. Namjoon panics a little, and you snicker to yourself. Though, it does become less satisfying when after a stunned moment, Namjoon answers the question correctly. You sulk in your seat for the rest of class, forgetting your half-typed venomous words waiting for Namjoon. Your phone slips out of your hand and clatters on the tile floor.

The professor turns to you and, with his face scrunched in anger, asks, “I’m sorry, y/n. Was I boring you so much that you needed to be on your phone while I was talking?”

You feel your cheeks instantly heating, and you almost want to cry because you rarely get into trouble, especially at school.

“No, sir, I’m sorry. It won’t happen again.”

The professor looks at you through his narrowed eyes, “You better hope so. You can have another try next class, but, for now, since you violated my cell phone policy, you need to get out.”

Your jaw drops, and you feel the tears well behind your eyes. You hastily collect your notebook, pen, and backpack, and you skulk out of the classroom, trying hard to avoid eye contact with your classmates.

Once the brisk air outside hits your face, you feel the tears start to fall from your eyes, rolling dramatically down your cheeks. This was all fucking Kim Namjoon’s fault. That handsome asshole just kept causing you problems. You continue dwelling on everything that he’s done wrong to you or every annoying habit he has or how often he knocks over things sitting on his desk.

You are so caught up in your thoughts that you don’t notice the figure approaching behind you, and the tap on your shoulder causes you to jump and shout. When you turn, it’s the person you’d least like to see. Kim fucking Namjoon.

“What?” you spit, wiping at your tears with the back of your hand.

“I’m really sorry for getting you into trouble back there. I started it, and you just got caught when I didn’t.”

You look at him. It’s so typical of guys like him: apologize but then keep on doing what he was doing. You mutter “typical” under your breath.

“Okay, seriously,” Namjoon huffs, “What did I do to you? What is your problem with me? I truly apologize for anything that I’ve done, but I have no idea what it is.”

“Of course you wouldn’t know what you’ve done. All you care about is yourself, and you are so smug all the time about yourself and about how you think you’re better than everyone,” you force out, though your voice is a little shaky from the tears that are now drying on your cheeks. You feel your hands shaking, and you want to take your fists and beat them on his chest.

“So...you hate me over some perceived slight because, and tell me if I’m getting this wrong, you think that I think I’m better than other people even though you’ve never asked. And you also hate me because...I do well in my classes? Really?” His face starts to contort with anger, and his typical soft expression shifts in into a harsh, tight look, with his jaw set and his mouth a hard line.

You are fuming. He is so smug, and now he’s telling you that the clearly observable facts about him are a “perceived slight.” Instead of responding, you just turn on your heel and begin to walk away. This time, it seems that he doesn’t follow you, and you make your way to the university housing and flop down onto your bed.

About a week later, you are in the library, perusing the stacks for a particular book for your research for your Human Sexuality class. You turn down an aisle, and there you see Kim Namjoon, squatting and intently reading the titles of books on the shelf. You roll your eyes and turn to walk away. He stands up, a book in hand, and turns to walk your direction before you disappear. You hear a soft whisper of your name as you turn down another aisle and sneak out of the library.

Then, suddenly, he’s everywhere. You see him in the library and in class. You also see him at the cafe you go to to study. You have your books spread across a four person table, headphones in, blasting your study jams. You are working diligently on your computer when the light from the window becomes blocked. You look up to see Namjoon standing before you. You pop one of your earbuds out.

“Hi, I’m sorry to bother you,” he sounds shy and nervous, “but there are no more open tables. I was wondering if I could take up a tiny bit of your space since I actually know you?”

You want to say no, but you don’t want to be cruel. After all, you want to show him that you are a better person than him.

“Fine,” you say curtly, “but please don’t bother me, I’m working on my research for Human Sexuality.”

“Oh! Me too. What are you researching?”

“Not that it matters to you, but I’m researching the effectiveness of sex therapy.” You shrug your shoulders and go to slip your earbud into your ear.

“No way! Me too!” Namjoon exclaims excitedly, shifting slightly in his chair. “Did you read the Hawton article?”

You roll your eyes. “Of course I read the Hawton article. What am I, an amateur? I think he made some really compelling arguments for the long term effectiveness, which is empirically provable through anecdotal evidence, but what I want to talk about is the short-term effectiveness and quantitative data.”

A smile spreads wide across Namjoon’s face, and, again, he shifts slightly in his chair, a little awkwardly this time. He looks deep into your eyes with the softest expression you’ve ever seen him give you.

“What?” you ask, furrowing your brow.

“I’m sorry if this is too forward, but that was the sexiest sentence you’ve ever said.”

You are stunned, and you feel your jaw fall open. Is he fucking kidding? you ask yourself as you contemplate what he could possibly want from you. He giggles to himself, cheeks red, and runs a hand through his hair, resting his hand on the back of his neck.

“I’m sorry I shouldn’t have said that. I just...can’t stop thinking about how smart you are and how good you looked in that skirt last week…” he rambles off and starts to pack up his things.

“Wait!” you reach your hand out to grab his. You are completely unsure of what you’re even doing. After a moment’s pause, you ask, “do you have A Clinician’s Guide to Systemic Sex Therapy?”

You are still holding onto his hand as he nods slowly. He looks down at where your fingers are wrapped around his hand, fingertips resting on his palm.

“I have it at my apartment. I can bring it to you or…” he trails off again, so you jump in.

“How about I just come with you to get it? It’ll be quicker that way.”

You have no idea what you’re doing, but you can’t help the image of Namjoon over you, panting and sweaty, from entering your mind over and over. You’ve just been working on the sex therapy research for too long. It’s just been too long since you’ve been with him. It’s not the way that his dimples peak through when he smiles, the way that his hair is parted slightly off center and rests haphazardly against his not, the way that he’s the only person with whom you’ve carried on an intellectual conversation about the topics you’re interested in in months, the way that he sits with his legs spread and his thighs showing in his shorts. It’s definitely not any of that.

Namjoon nods again, shoving his notebook into his backpack, slinging it over his shoulder. He watches you a little impatiently as you pack up your notes, books, and computer. When you have your satchel draped across your body, he grabs your wrist and pulls you behind him.

He lives a short walk from the cafe, so, before you know it, you’re stepping into the foyer of his apartment.

“My roommate is out, so we can...study...here if you want to,” he says, looking into your eyes intensely before stalking off through the living room into one of the doorways in the hall which you assume is his room.

You scurry down the hallway, following him. When you get to the doorway he entered, he’s standing in the middle of the room with the book in his hand. The expression on his face is so penetrating, like he’s already undressing you with his eyes.

You drop your satchel absentmindedly on the floor and walk toward him. You stand about 6 inches in front of him, suddenly very aware of your own breath. What am I doing? you ask yourself again. Is this really what I want? Before you’re able to doubt yourself, you look up into his eyes and your breath catches.

He slips his hand around the back of your neck, and his fingers tangle into your hair at the nape of your neck. He stays there, hovering over your face for a moment. You push yourself up onto your toes until your lips are touching his. Your mouths start to slowly move together, pushing past the awkwardness of the moment. He uses his hand on your neck to press harder into the kiss, angling your head to kiss you deeper.

Your hands wrap around his back up under his shirt. His skin is smooth under your fingertips, and you feel your body press against him. The heat growing between your legs causes you to let out a small moan into his mouth. He pulls away and looks at you, smiling for a moment until the intense countenance returns.

He pushes you back on to his bed and guides his fingers under the waistband of your sweatpants. He looks at you to make sure it’s okay, and, when you nod, he loops his fingers into both your sweats and your panties. He yanks them off and tosses them aside. He positions himself between your legs, which has you absolutely dripping.

He pushes your legs open and dips his head to your folds. He makes eye contact with you as his tongue begins to circle your clit slowly. You feel your back arching off the sheets of his bed as he runs his tongue through your arousal down to your entrance and back to your clit. He wraps his lips around it and sucks it between his lips. Little moans and whimpers escape past your lips, and he brings his fingers to your entrance.

After circling his fingers through your arousal, he slides one into you slowly. He pumps the one finger in and back out until you’ve adjusted, and he slides another in. With his mouth on you and his his fingers inside of you, the moans become louder, and you can’t control your hips.

You push yourself against his face, and he pulls away. He chuckles to himself. “For someone who hated me earlier today, you sure can’t get enough of me.” 

His smirk sends both rage and arousal straight to your core. “Okay, whatever, Mr. ‘that’s the sexiest sentence you’ve ever said.’ You’re one to talk.”

His smirk remains, and he laughs sarcastically. “Yeah, but I haven’t had some sort of rivalry with you in my head since we met. I’ve always thought you were hot. You just didn’t even give me a chance to talk to you.”

You roll your eyes and feel the heat sneaking into your cheeks. “Fine. Okay. I didn’t give you a chance. You know that arousal and aggression are very close processes in the brain, so it isn’t a surprise that I want to fuck you.”

You feel hot blush creeping into your face and neck at having said that out loud. He crawls up, so he’s hovering over your face.

“Oh, so you do want me to fuck you?” that intense gaze has returned to his face, and you don’t know where to look.

“Yes, okay! Would you just hurry up and fuck me, Namjoon?”

He hovers over you for a moment longer then presses his lips gingerly against yours. “You could ask nicely, you know.”

You roll your eyes so hard that you think that they might get stuck in the back of your head.

“Y/n, I won’t do it unless you use your nice words.”

You huff. “Fine. Namjoon, please fuck me.”

He giggles to himself, dismounts, and starts to take off his clothes. Before he pulls his underwear down, he pulls your shirt up over your head, taking in a sharp breath when he sees you aren’t wearing a bra. He pushes his underwear to his ankles and climbs back on top of you.

Wordlessly, he aligns himself with you and pushes inside. You gasp at the stretch of his dick in your pussy. You rock gently against him trying to get used to it while stimulating yourself. His pubic bone is causing friction on your clit as he’s buried inside you. You let out a moan, and he pulls back and guides himself slowly back into you. Keeping a slow, rhythmic pace.

Once you’ve adjusted, you whisper, “Joon, faster please.”

He shifts back to his knees, grabbing each of your legs in his hands to spread you open. He starts at an unrelenting pace. He drops one of your legs and moves his lithe fingers to your clit. He rubs a steady pace, perfectly matching the one his hips have established. You feel yourself careening towards an orgasm, and you hardly have time to warn Namjoon before you are pulsing around him, all of your muscles clenching.

He fucks you through it, his cock hitting all of your most sensitive places, pulling your orgasm out as it continues to wrack through your body. 

As you come down from your orgasm, still slightly disoriented, Namjoon asks in a shaky voice, “Y/n, where should I cum?”

“Fill me up, please. I want you all the way inside me. I’m on birth control.” You’re panting and feel your hair sticking to your forehead as his hips start to stutter.

“Oh fuck, sweetheart, I’m going to fill you so full of my cum.”

You look at him for a moment, his face strained, and then he groans long and low. You fill him painting your insides with his release, and you pull him down against you as he continues to vaguely move his hips.

As he stops moving, he slides his hands underneath, under your back.

“Fuck, I’ve been waiting for so long for that,” he sighs, nestling into your neck.

“Excuse me. You what?” you ask incredulously.

“That’s right. I’ve wanted to fuck you from the moment I saw you. And then when I heard you talk in class. And when I watched the way you look while you study. And when you get flustered or frazzled. And when you’re mean to me. Yeah, pretty much all the time.”

“Look, Namjoon, this doesn’t mean I’m your girlfriend or anything,” you start. Namjoon leans up and looks you in the eye, looking slightly disappointed. “But we can start here. I’ll stop being so cold to you at the least. I’m also not opposed to doing this again...a lot.”

He chuckles and buries his face back into your neck. “Deal.”

The two of you stay like that, entwined in one another for what feels like several hours before you decide you should actually do the studying you came here to do.

[ihatetosayitoldyouso]

august

masterlist

pairing: spencer reid x reader

content warnings: none? i’m pretty sure

word count: 3,153

a/n: i changed the ages of spencer and reader to 26 and 20 just because i didn’t like her being 19. in case anyone gets confused :)

chapter 2

I don’t wanna look at anything else now that I saw you.

I woke up groggy and absolutely exhausted. I had gotten maybe an hour of sleep before I needed to get up and ready for my 8 am. I dragged myself from my sheets and pulled my feet one in front of the other. I made it to my closet and opted for the comfiest outfit I could manage without looking completely busted. A sweatshirt and leggings it is. I combed through my hair with my fingers and pulled it into a tight messy bun, trying my best to control the frizz that came from the sweat and humidity of the night before. I walked into the bathroom I shared with Amber, quickly brushing my teeth and performing the quickest skincare routine I could without feeling absolutely disgusting. Thank god I don’t have Criminology class today, I would not want Spencer seeing me like this. Spencer? When did I start calling him Spencer? I shook my head at the thought and threw all of my things into my backpack and made my way into the lounge area. I saw Amber’s things thrown onto the counter and the door to her room shut, hopefully she would feel okay when she woke up later. I filled up my water bottle, not before downing as much water as I could, and proceeded to shove it into the pocket on the side of my bag. Checking my watch, I ran out the door and closed it quietly so as to not wake Amber.

I bounded down the stairs and quickly walked to campus. The apartment complex where I stayed for the semester wasn’t too far from the majority of my classes, but the anxiety of possibly being late always drove me to walk at an accelerated pace. I walked past the trees and the grassy knolls that littered the campus. The atmosphere of the land combined with the old, beautiful architecture of the college buildings made it feel so… romantic. Well, that’s something to keep me distracted from this wicked hangover. Fuck, was I still a little drunk? Maybe I should’ve skipped class this morning. No matter, I was already on my way and I knew that I would’ve felt incredibly guilty if I hadn’t gone. As I briskly walked to class, I passed by other students and faculty members along the way. I got lost in thought about what they might be like. It’s incredible that we all have our own intricate and complicated lives. It’s impossible to completely understand that everyone else has a life just as complex and detailed as my own. 

I finally made it to the main campus building in which my Journalism History and Cultures class would take place. I’ve never been completely sure what I wanted to major in or what I wanted my career to look like, but I randomly picked Journalism last year and I actually really love it. I’ve always known that I wanted to do something important with my life and I’ve always enjoyed writing, so I guess it just kinda made sense to me. I walked down the long hallway decorated with doors and windows and bulletin boards. I made my way to the classroom I required and pushed open the door with a deep breath. I was early, but not so early that I beat my professor there. I looked down at the ground as I made my way to the front of the room, taking a seat in the third row, as usual. I looked up and smiled at my professor to say hi and he smiled back politely. I began taking out my things and more students filed into the classroom. Before I knew it, class had started and ended in a hungover (and maybe a little drunken) haze. I took a swig from my water bottle before standing up and placing a hand on my desk to steady myself. I threw my bag onto my back and trudged out of the classroom, into the hallway, and out of the building.

The rest of the day seemed to go incredibly fast while simultaneously going excruciatingly slow. See, this is why I don’t party. I always feel like absolute shit the next morning and it affects my entire day. I wonder how Amber’s holding up. I realized I hadn’t really talked to her all day so I made my way back to our shared space in order to catch up with her. It was almost a guarantee that she would be home because during the day, she’s either in class or asleep in our apartment. I looked down at my phone to text her and ask if she wanted to do a girl’s night in, but before I could type anything I ran into something- wait, no, someone. 

“Oh my god, I am so sorry I-” I began to fluster immediately before I looked up and noticed who it was that I ran into. I took a shallow breath and my eyes widened before I gained whatever composure I could. “Dr. Reid, I- I’m so sorry I was just-”

“Spencer, please, and it’s okay,” he brushed it off, “don’t worry about it.” We both stood facing each other for a moment. Why didn’t we just say our apologies and keep walking? “Um, how are you, Y/N? Did you end up getting any sleep last night? Or should I say this morning.” He laughed shyly as he spoke. 

“Oh I, um, got like, maybe an hour of sleep. Coffee is a godsend, honestly,” I replied.

“Don’t I know it.” He said. I looked at him meekly, not sure what to say. He looked back into my eyes and I swear, his gaze could bore a hole through my skull. I could get lost in those eyes forever and I wouldn’t bother trying to find my way out. Y/N, stop it! I couldn’t stop it. Because as long as I looked into his eyes, he looked right back into mine. My spiraling thoughts were interrupted by the sound of his voice. “Are you okay?” He questions.

“Oh!” I jumpstart back into reality. “Yeah, I’m fine, I guess I zoned out from not getting enough sleep. I’m hoping I can catch up tonight.” I laugh and I look down, hoping that if I stare hard enough, I could bury my face into the pavement. 

“That’s probably a good idea. I hope you don’t regret staying out so late though.” He says quickly, so quickly I almost missed it.

“No! I don’t, it’s just always hard the next day, you know? But it was nice to go out, for once.” I try to match his pacing, which isn’t too difficult, considering that the anxiety of the situation sped up my speech significantly. 

“Yeah, I get that.” He says and we begin to just… Stare at each other again.

Not wanting to make the situation more awkward, I hear myself beginning to talk again, “Um, I should probably get home, I haven’t seen Amber all day and I want to make sure she’s still among the living, haha, um… It was nice seeing you again, Dr. Reid.” I begin walking away, in a similar fashion to last night.

“Spencer.” He corrects me. 

“Spencer.” I say. I start walking away but not for long. I hear footsteps behind me, a voice yell “Y/N!” and a hand grabbed my arm. I turn around pulled by the force exerted from the hand. I’m sure I looked shocked because the hand quickly let go of me. Spencer’s face looked apologetic.

“I’m sorry, it’s just-” he rings his hands, “I was wondering if you would want my number? Um, I listed my email on the syllabus but it’s actually a lot easier to reach me through my personal cell phone, if you had questions about class or homework or… something.” He flustered through his words, why was he flustered? I’m the one who gets nervous here. His words put goosebumps along the back of my neck and the sides of my arms. I take a deep breath before answering, in hopes it would calm my nerves and steady my voice.

“Um, sure! That would actually be great because I already had a few questions about some of the material and I was going to email you but I haven’t had much time today and I guess I probably could’ve asked you now but I should probably get home so-” Is it possible for me to speak any faster?

“Y/N.” He stops me before I can embarrass myself even more. “Here, I’ll put it into your phone for you.” I pause for a beat before unlocking my phone and extending my arm to hand it to him. He types the letters and numbers necessary into my phone and I can’t help but linger on his hands. How were his hands so attractive? Is that normal? He gently hands my phone back to me and I smile and say “Thank you, Dr. Reid,” not before he looks at me expectantly and raises his eyebrows. “Um, Spencer. Thank you, Spencer.” I smile as he looks into my eyes one more time. 

“You’re welcome. See you tomorrow?” He questions.

“See you tomorrow.” I confirm with a tight-lipped smile before turning and walking away. I try my hardest to walk at a normal pace, but as soon as I can be sure that he is no longer watching, I nearly sprint to my apartment.

“Amber!” I yell as I cross the threshold into the apartment’s living room and nearly slam the door shut. “Amber, are you alive?” I call out, jokingly, before I hear movement coming from her bedroom.

“Yes, I’m alive and not deaf. You’re far too loud for the morning.” She groans and rubs her eyes, walking toward me.

“Amber, it’s 3 pm.” I state bluntly.

“Are you fucking serious?” She hurtles across the room to dramatically grab my phone and confirm the time. “Goddamn it, I have so much work to do.” She rubs her face and flops onto the couch. “Whatever, I’ve waited this long to do it, I can wait a little longer.”

I look at her with what I’m sure was a ridiculous look on my face and say “Girly. You-” I stop myself before telling her what to do. She always knows what works best for her when it comes to school, so who am I to question that? “Nevermind.” I sit down, cross-legged, on the opposite side of the couch. “Hey, do you want to have a girl’s night? I was gonna text you earlier but I- um, got distracted. I could go out and grab us some snacks and we could watch Clueless? It’s on Netflix now!” She knows Clueless is my favorite movie of all time and I think I’ve forced her to watch it enough times now that it’s her favorite too. I looked at her with as innocent a face I could and she rolled her eyes and nodded. 

“Okay, sure. That sounds really good actually. But only if you buy the snacks! And get me my favorite ice cream?” Her voice raises the inflection at the end of her question and now it was my turn to roll my eyes. 

“Of course, dummy. I’ll head to Wawa and I’ll grab a bunch of stuff. Text me with what you want.” I bend down to kiss her on the cheek and quickly turn, grab my keys, and head out the door. 

---

“So,” Amber begins as the end credits of the movie begin to roll, “Who was that hot guy you were talking to last night?”

I nearly choked on the popcorn I was eating. “What? Oh, um, it- I-”

“He seemed really into you. I could feel the tension all the way across the room.” She takes a spoonful of her pint of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream.

“I thought you were dancing with what’s-his-name across the room, how did you see what I was doing?” I try to throw her off.

“I am much more perceptive than you think, girly.” She pokes my thigh playfully. “Now, spill! The guy I was dancing with was not really anything. Once I sobered up even the slightest bit, he wasn’t that cute. Or that good of a dancer. It was a little bit of a disappointment but I don’t care, I wanna know what happened with you!” She pokes me a few more times, which I will admit, was not a bad interrogation strategy on account of I am extremely ticklish.

“Okay, okay!” I swat her hands away and secure my pint of ice cream in my lap. “He, um, he is actually my Criminology professor.”

“Excuse me? What was your Criminology professor doing at a student bar in the middle of first week parties?”

“That’s what I asked too! He said his coworker dragged him there or something. I don’t know what they were doing beforehand or why he wanted to go there, but,” I shrugged my shoulders.

“What were you guys talking about? And don’t think I forgot about you going outside with him later! I was blackout but I always remember everything.” That was true, Amber had the memory of an elephant. But like, an elephant who also has a photographic memory.

“I don’t know we were just kinda talking about nothing! I was still pretty drunk so right now, I’m just hoping what I said made sense and wasn’t too embarrassing.” 

“Lame! Next time you talk to him, and I know there will be a next time because that was too interesting for there to not be a next time, I expect there to be a lot more juicy details!”

“Well, uh,” I begin again, “I actually talked to him today.”

“What?!”

“Yeah, I ran into him while I was on my way here earlier and we talked for a little bit. It was kinda awkward but I don’t know, it was weird. He gave me his number?” I say it like a question and watch Amber’s eyes widen.

“He gave you his number?” At this point, Amber was eating popcorn and looking at me like I was the movie.

“Yeah, he said it was for if I have questions about class, do you think that’s weird?”

“No, it’s cute! Wait, how old is this guy? I thought he was a student when you were talking to him last night and I can get behind a hot professor but a huge age gap and predatory behavior is not cute.” Her tone turned serious and I quickly dismissed her concerns.

“No no, he’s 26! Don’t worry about that.” She breathed a sigh of relief. “Isn’t it like, against the rules to date your professor? Not that we’re dating! And not that I was thinking about us dating! I’m sure he sticks to the rules I doubt he would ever do anything like that and it’s not like I’m one for breaking the rules I-”

“Slow down, speed racer!” She says as I try my hardest to figure out how to breathe at a normal rate “I’m pretty sure it’s not technically against the rules, but yeah, I guess it’s frowned upon and pretty taboo to date your teacher. But I mean, you two seemed to really get on last night. And it doesn’t make sense to stop something that has the potential to be great just because some people don’t think it’s ‘acceptable,’ whatever that means.”

“You think it has the potential to be great? I mean, I just met him yesterday. We barely talked, I barely know him!” I feel myself beginning to freak out a little bit.

“Hey, hey, I mean, you don’t have to do anything that you don’t want, but I know that I saw something between you too. Maybe it’s just a friendship or maybe it’s nothing! I just want you to be happy, you know that, right Y/N?” She puts her hands on my knees in an effort to comfort me. “I love you so much.”

“I love you too.” I smile softly at her, “I guess I just, I don’t even know what our relationship is right now. I mean, he’s definitely attractive, I’d have to be blind to miss that. But he’s my professor, you know? I guess I’d have to be completely positive that he feels the same way for me to ever initiate something.” Amber nods her head. “You know what is kinda strange though? He insists on me calling him Spencer. Is that weird? I guess I just feel weird because I’m most comfortable calling my professors by their titles or something more formal. I don’t know, I don’t know. It’s not that big of a deal I’m sure I’m just overthinking this.”

“Hey,” Amber has always been good at comforting me. “Whatever you are feeling right now, is totally and completely valid. You know I tease you because I love you, but I seriously just want what’s best for you. You seemed really excited last night and I just want you to be happy. I expect to be updated on this regularly, okay?” She laughs and raises her eyebrows at me.

“Of course,” I giggle and spoon a mouthful of ice cream into my mouth. “Now, I think it’s time we watch Legally Blonde, huh?” Amber laughs and I grab the remote and turn the TV to the timeless classic we both adore.

I couldn’t stop thinking about what Amber said about the potential of something great. Did it really seem that special to Amber? I trust her judgement, but as of right now, there’s nothing happening between me and Spencer. He’s just my professor and I’m just his student who happened to run into him twice outside of class. And who couldn’t stop staring into his eyes as he spoke. And who could barely breathe when he said my name. And who couldn’t focus when he talked because his hands moved with his words. And who now calls him Spencer, apparently. Do I even want something to happen between us? Sure, he’s handsome, like, really handsome, but he’s my professor. I’ve never really been one for dating anyways. 

I take a deep breath and try to focus on the film playing in front of me. I mean, he did give me his number. That’s gotta count for something, right? I look at my phone and the clock reads 12:43 am. I take another breath and do my best to leave those thoughts for tomorrow. It’s too late to be thinking clearly anyways. I grab the blanket that was hanging on the back of the couch and throw it over mine and Amber’s laps. I relax my shoulders and melt into the couch as I let the sounds of Reese Witherspoon and Luke Wilson take over my senses.

taglist: @pumpkin-reads @haylaansmi

[un-beel-ievable]

Before October’s Gone (Mammon × reader) | songfic

Author’s note: Please do not repost!! If you like my writing, please leave a like and a comment (and follow me to see similar content in the future :D)!

Inspired by Cimorelli’s song Before October’s Gone! You can listen to it here.

One of the longer fics I’ve ever written...I hope you guys enjoy it! I worked really hard on this one :3

_____

♪ Our phone calls got shorter

And the nights they got longer

You stopped replying

And I saw you with her

You tell me you miss me

I feel special for a second

But then you turn around and show me that you didn't meant it

I listen to your voicemail from last September

And I bet that you don't remember leaving it

But it's all I got

My last piece of you ♪

“Mammon!” The chirpy voice at the other end of the line made up for the weeks that he’d missed hearing it. Curse Lucifer for implementing the stupid roster for phone calls —having to wait his turn while his brothers got to listen your cheerful voice and melodic laugh was beginning to drive him up the wall. He understood why Lucifer would have to put such a rule in place for his brothers, but surely the peacock could loosen up a little for him right? The others may be “eating up too much of their time”, but such an offensive statement could never be applied to him. After all, he was your first. “Yo! How’ve ya been? Wait, lemme guess. You’ve just been wanderin’ around in that sad, depressin’ human world with no place to go and nothin’ to do...right?”

You laugh, and his heart does a somersault in his chest. How he’s missed it. Nothing in all of the three realms could make him happier than hearing the sound of your laughter; it’s like music to his ears. Knowing that he was the one that drew such an adorable sound from your lips was the cherry on top. The first time he’d heard you giggle, he’d sprinted back to the House of Lamentation to begin devouring joke book after joke book to ensure his chances of getting to hear it again. Hearing his brothers criticize him for acting like a fool had always been something that bothered him in the past, but your arrival had put a spin on things —if amping up his antics was something that got you to crack a smile, he was all for being the butt of his brothers’ jokes. “How’d you know?”

He grins. “What did ya expect? I mean, I was your first, right? Your first demon. Which means we share a special sorta bond! I know these things!”

Another laugh. Mammon wonders if he should shoot for a third time, but you don't give him the chance to try. “Listen, Mammon...it was great hearing from you, but I have to go.” The bitter taste of disappointment fills his mouth. He’d been looking forward to this phone call with the eagerness of a child awaiting to open their Christmas presents...and you had to leave already? The two of you had barely even talked for 5 minutes! That’s so unfair! “What? Already? C’mon, we barely got to talk—”

His whine of complaint cuts off abruptly when he picks up on the sound of someone else’s voice on your end of the call. Curious, Mammon turns up the volume of the call and strains his ears. It’s a male’s voice, one that sounds awfully familiar… He frowns. “Is that Solomon?”

“Yeah! We’ve been hanging out a lot more ever since we returned to the Human World! Keeping each other company and all that. Let me just pass him my DDD, I think he wants to say hi—”

“Nah, don’t bother. Y’all have fun, I’ll talk to you again soon.” Mammon hangs up before you can get the chance to say anything else and flops back against the pillow pile on his unmade bed with a sigh. Solomon, huh? The two of you sticking together made sense —after all, you were the only two humans living in a realm of demons for an entire year. Of course you would form a bond over this shared experience. Still, the idea of you hanging out with Solomon frequently didn’t sit well with him. He was your first, if anyone should be hanging out with you, it should be him.

Envy was Levi’s thing, not his. But there was no stopping the jealousy that was blossoming in his chest. In an attempt to keep his emotions in check, Mammon powers on his DDD and pulls up the voice message that you’d left him a few months ago. You were still residing in the Devildom then, back when he didn’t have to resort to playing back an old voicemail to make him feel less lonely.

If he closes his eyes, he can almost convince himself that you’re lying in bed beside him, and not by someone else’s side an entire realm away.

♪ I heard all the rumors

I didn't want to believe it

You barely mentioned her once

I didn't think anything of it

Sitting there on my driveway

Said you could listen to me all night

Now you're the boy who never meant it

And I'm just the girl who "took it all the wrong way" ♪

You’d always been fascinated by the sports car that he kept permanently parked in the upper floor of his bedroom. The both of you had gotten into a playful argument over justifying the reason behind his “absurd decision” (your words, not his). Out of the dozens of possible reasons that they’d managed to come up with during the hour or so their discussion had lasted, your personal favourite had been “to allow a quick escape from one of Lucifer’s extensive monologues”. He hadn’t even bothered to come up with a counterargument for that. One, it wasn’t entirely false; he wouldn’t deny that getting behind the driver’s seat in order to get away from one of the peacock’s pointless lectures wasn’t a thought that had crossed his mind on more than one occasion. And secondly...the expression that you wore while you were coming up with all of these ridiculous thoughts was just too cute. Your brow would furrow in concentration, and your tongue would peek out between her lips —you looked just like the cats that starred in those “cat blepping” videos that Satan would relentlessly spam his DDD with. The way your face lit up when you’d thought of a reason satisfactory enough for your standards was even more adorable —Mammon knew that as long as you kept directing that megawatt grin at him, he’d go along with anything that you said.

At some point during their conversation, the two of you had  relocated from the couch you were perched on to the backseat of his car. Mammon doesn’t even remember whose idea it was to move in the first place —he couldn’t recall if this was the result of you pleading with him to allow you to take a better look at the vehicle or if he’d suggested it to you first. He doesn’t even remember what the both of you had talked about once you’d gotten in the car; the topic of their conversation had switched course multiple times. What was etched into his mind’s eye for the rest of time, however, was how attentively you’d gazed up at him when he was talking. You seemed as mesmerised by his words as he was by yours. The notion that someone genuinely wanted to listen to everything that he had to say felt foreign to him; his brothers had brushed him off as nonsensical and annoying a long time ago. You made him feel important.

“...Mammon! HEY, STUPIDMAMMON! Did you even hear anything I just said? Sheesh…”

Mammon’s train of thought is derailed by a pillow that hits him square in the face. Normally, such an action would trigger a rowdy pillow fight that usually ended in Lucifer barging in and bringing an early end to an evening of fun. But today Mammon was so lost in recollections of the past that he barely even kicks up a fuss as he peels the cushion off his face. “Huh?” Levi raises an eyebrow at the second born from where he’s seated across the room. Mammon could be a moron at times, but rarely was he this unaware of his surroundings. “I said, did you see MC’s latest Devilgram post? They were at this Human World anime convention with Solomon, you know the one I told you about last week? The one that Ruri-chan’s voice actress was going to appear at? MC’s soooooooo lucky that they got to see her perform live. I can’t believe Lucifer wouldn’t let me go, it’s so unfair…”

Mammon usually tuned out of the conversation entirely whenever Levi starts going off on a tangent about something related to his animes, but the mention of your name had caught his attention. You were at a convention? With Solomon? Like...on a date? Mammon snatches up his DDD from where it’s lying on the armrest of his seat and loads up your Devilgram page. As usual, the sight of your bright smile is enough to cause his heart to skip a beat —you’re so breathtakingly beautiful that it’s unfair. But the sight of the male posing beside you in the picture causes his mood to turn sour quickly. Solomon. Was that the human sorcerer’s arm around your waist?

Flipping his DDD over so that he doesn’t have to look at the screen, he sets it back down on the armrest with enough force that it actually causes Levi to cut his ramble short mid sentence. Pretending that he didn’t notice the odd look that Levi was giving him, Mammon settles back in his seat and closes his eyes.

If there was something going on between you and Solomon, he wasn’t sure if he wanted to know about it.

♪ On that October night when I let you go

You didn't even try to make me stay, no

I didn't know that you could be so cold

Like the Minnesota snow

Somehow I always knew we'd end up this way

And I hope you feel happy someday

I just wanted you to open up to me

But now that's on the list of things you never did ♪

Mammon had spent the last couple of months waiting for this moment. You were back. Back in the Devildom, back in your room in the House of Lamentation, back by his side. A new semester of classes was something he’d never looked forward to in the past, but things were different this time. A new school term brought copious amounts of coursework and misery, sure, but it also brought you back to the Devildom. You’d returned from your vacation in the Human World with bright eyes and rosy cheeks, armed with souvenirs for each and every one of your favourite demons. Mammon was thrilled by the small paper bag bulging with keychains and other assorted trinkets that you’d thrusted into his hands, but the one gift that he’d appreciated the most was the warm embrace that you’d pulled him into.

The next few days pass in a blur, with Mammon still finding it difficult to believe that you’ve really returned (he has to keep pinching his arm to reassure himself that this isn’t a cruel joke that his subconscious is playing on him). He'd been there to greet you upon your arrival in the Devildom. And he’d seen you during meals and passed by you in the hallways...but he hadn’t actually gotten the opportunity to spend proper one on one time with you —you were too busy settling in and making up for lost time with everyone else. Until now. 

Seated atop of a hill overlooking the rest of the Devildom, the vantage point gives the both of you a spectacular view of the expansive shopping district. You can even spot the town’s affectionately dubbed “party central” —also known as the area where most of the popular bars and clubs are located— in the distance; or at the very least, the colourful lights that illuminate every building in that part of town. It’s quite a sight to behold, but the hustle and bustle that can be seen even from a distance makes you appreciative of the fact that you and Mammon are far away from the crowds of Denizens enjoying an evening out. You shiver when a passing gust of wind rustles the leaves of the tree overlooking the bench you’re seated on.

“Cold? Let the GREAT Mammon warm ya up.” Before you can even roll your eyes at the suggestive nature of that statement, Mammon has shrugged off his jacket and wrapped it snugly around you. Not that you’re entirely surprised by his words at this point, this isn’t the first time he used that line with you. Just like every other time he’s done this, he doesn’t remove his arm afterwards, keeping it draped around your shoulders. But unlike the previous times he’s pulled this stunt, you don’t nestle into his side, or even lean your head against his shoulder. He feels a pang in his chest, but he refuses to let it show on his face. “So how was your vacation in the Human World? I bet it had to be pretty borin’ without the GREAT Mammon there to keep ya company.”

“It was alright.” A pause. “Listen, Mammon...There’s something that I need to tell you.”

The smile that Mammon’s attempting to keep plastered to his face wavers, but he nods at you in encouragement as you chew on your lower lip anxiously. When your next course of action is to raise up your left hand instead of carrying on the conversation, his brows knit together in confusion. He’s about to ask if this was some kind of odd ritual and whether or not you’d joined a cult in your absence, but then he spots it. The glint of silver on your ring finger.

His jaw drops.

Noticing the expression on his face, you hurry to clear up any misunderstandings before he —understandably— jumps to the wrong conclusion. “It’s not what you think! I’m not engaged or anything, it’s just a promise ring. Solomon and I...we got together two weeks ago. I meant to tell everyone, but everything’s been so crazy ever since I got back —I’ve barely had the time to catch my breath, let alone make such a big announcement.. But now that thing’s have quieted down a little...I wanted to tell you first. After all, you are my first demon.”

The Avatar of Greed was uncharacteristically quiet as you rambled on. When he finally speaks up again, his voice lacks the boisterous energy that usually radiates from him. “I am, aren’t I?”

A low chuckle rumbles in his chest, but there’s no humour in the sound. “You should head back to the house without me. I’ll catch up.”

“Mammon—”

“Look, don’t worry ‘bout me. I’m fine.” Mammon takes both of your hands in his and gazes up at you with earnest wide eyes, as if his overexaggerated acting skills were enough to sell his words to you. Ridiculous as it may be, his ploy seemed to work —or perhaps you just didn’t care enough about the hailstorm of emotional turmoil that flickered in his azure hued gaze. It didn’t matter. Either way, you were gone before Mammon could change his mind and convince you to not to leave him. Tears pool in the corners of his eyes and blurs his field of vision, but he doesn’t take his gaze off of you as you disappear down the path that leads to the House of Lamentation.

You don’t even bother to turn around and look at him.

♪ Maybe sometimes things just have to end

Maybe sometimes there's just no explaining it

But you could've let me know

You'd be moving on

You'd be moving on

You'd be moving on before Octobers gone ♪

[artificialqueens]

Tree House Kisses, Chapter 39 (Adorney/Adore x Tatianna) - Scorpio and Veronica

A/N: Click here for previous chapters or here if you’d rather read on AO3. Thank you so much once again to @saiphl for being a fabulous beta! xoxo!

Chapter Summary: Just when Courtney thinks her year can’t get better, a new girl arrives who immediately captures Adore’s attention.

TW: Underage sexual activity (implied)

Chapter 39: Poker Face

Courtney loved being a senior; so far, it had been everything she’d always dreamed of. To begin with, she was fitting in better than she ever thought possible with Adore’s friends. As much as she loved the neighborhood kids, they tended to stress so much about school that it made her stress also--no such problem with Adore. It was already October and they’d yet to have one conversation about their grades, or discuss school in anything but the most casual terms.

Violet was still not her number one fan, but for the most part, she’d calmed down a lot, and the others were all great. Courtney had always loved Willam, his snarky sense of humor cracking her up constantly, and Trinity was just as funny, her deadpan delivery and calm presence immediately making Courtney feel at ease. Fame was pure sweetness, and Pearl was enough of a flirt to make Courtney feel cute but not so much to be awkward. She was having a blast with all of them, to the point where sometimes she felt guilty for not missing Roy more.

Today, she was sitting beside Adore on the bleachers, waiting for the homecoming pep rally to start, sipping an extra large boba tea that they’d picked up before school, and she just felt so...adult. She’d had to do a lot of convincing to get Adore to come to the rally, her friend generally opting to skip this kind of activity to smoke behind the portables with Pearl, Trinity and Willam, but it was worth it.

“Aren’t you glad you came?” Courtney asked, gesturing to her former cheer squad friends warming up. “You get to watch cute girls jump around in short skirts.”

“Bitch,” Adore cut her eyes at Courtney, shaking her head, “Those are not the girls I would choose to see jumping around.”

“Yeah...sorry I quit,” Courtney said coyly, and Adore shoved her, laughing.

“By the way, this drink is weird.”

“I know, but I kind of like it. We had so much of it this summer, Katya was obsessed.”

“You mean Mommy?” Adore teased.

“Omgod, stop it.” Courtney giggled, leaning a head on Adore’s shoulder, linking an arm through hers.

“Guys!” Fame waved from the bottom of the bleachers, where she was dragging Violet along by the arm.

Courtney waved back excitedly, beckoning them over, gesturing to the space on the bench she’d saved.

“I know this is a pep rally, but can you like, dial down the pep?” Adore groaned. “It’s too early for that shit.”

“Sorry,” Courtney said with a grin. “But look, Violet’s coming, you can be miserable together.”

Adore’s eyes suddenly went wide.

“Who is that?” Adore asked, mouth hanging open.

“Where?”

“With Fame and Vies…”

“Oh, uh…” Courtney squinted, then shook her head. She didn’t recognize the brunette with them, hadn’t even noticed her until Adore pointed her out: a tall girl in low-slung jeans and dramatic eye makeup. “I don’t know. Maybe she’s new.”

“Wow.”

Courtney couldn’t help the slightly irritated feeling that filled her chest, seeing that Adore was once again going gaga over a new girl. Sure, she was pretty, with a glossy black pixie cut and rich, dark skin, and what Courtney supposed she had to admit was a killer body...still, it was annoying.

As difficult as it was for Courtney to swallow down her bitterness, she did, making room for the new girl, whose name was Tatianna. She’d just moved with her family from Virginia, and she didn’t seem too pleased about having to do her senior year in a new school, but she was grateful to get the good fortune to sit next to Fame in yesterday’s advanced drawing class.

She seemed nice, too. Ugh.

Adore noticed her tattoo, just barely peeking out from her top (of course she’d noticed that), and immediately complimented her on it.

“Oh yeah, it was the first thing I did when I turned 18,” Tatianna said, “just a little reminder of my band back home. Another thing I had to leave.”

“Wait, you had a band? What do you play?” Adore asked excitedly.

“Bass.”

“Oh my god, I play guitar! We should totally jam sometime!” Adore exclaimed, cheeks flushing when Tati nodded slowly, her full lips curling into a smile.

“Yeah, sounds great…”  

Courtney jabbed her straw into her drink. Suddenly Adore didn’t seem to have a problem with pep in the morning, did she? Fortunately, the rally started, so she had something to focus on besides Adore’s embarrassingly obvious flirting. And something to distract her from her increasingly intrusive fantasies of pouring the rest of her boba right down Tati’s smooth, tan back.

Courtney wrapped her arms around herself, a slight shiver going through her.

“You cold, babe?” Fame asked sweetly.

“Oh, yeah, a little.”

“She’s always cold,” Adore said, punching Courtney on the arm and then turning back to Tatianna.

“Here, Courtney,” said a smooth, silky voice, and Courtney looked up with surprise to see that it was Violet offering her a sweater.

“Vies, that’s so sweet!” Fame squealed, thrilled that she was finally making a gesture of kindness towards Courtney after hating her for so long.

“Thanks,” Courtney said.

“You look like you need it,” Violet added with a wink, and Courtney sighed. Of course Violet would find a way to make a sweater feel like bullying.

“So..have you guys decided what you’re wearing to the dance tomorrow?” Fame asked.

“Do we really have to go to that?” Adore moaned, cutting her eyes at Tati. “School dances are so lame!”

“Yes, Dory, you promised!” Courtney said. “We said we’d all go together!”

“Ughhhh…”

“I know it’s really cheesy, but I actually love school dances,” Tati said, running a hand through her hair.

“Oh yeah, I mean they can be totally stupid fun,” Adore backtracked, and Courtney did her best to hide her eyeroll.

“Too bad I don’t have a ticket.”

“Oh yeah, bummer,” Courtney said, trying to hide her delight with extra sympathy.

“No, they're still selling tickets!” Fame exclaimed. “We’ll get you one at lunch!”

“Party,” Adore added, grinning.

-

Tatianna was totally right about the dance, Adore realized. If you just leaned into how dumb it all was, you could have an amazing time. At one point, when she was taking a break to get some punch, Tati caught up with her, touching her on the wrist in a way that made her a bit tingly inside.

“Hey…”

“Hi! You, uh, having a good time?” Adore asked.

“Yeah,” Tati smiled, her brown eyes warm, a lock of dark hair falling into her eyes that Adore almost reached out to brush away--but thought better of it. “Your friends are really great.”

“Yeah, they’re a riot…” Adore glanced over at the dance floor, where Willam was currently wearing Trinity’s shoes and bolero and putting on a show for everyone.

“And I was wondering,” Tati continued, stepping closer, “if maybe you would want to do something together, sometime.”

Adore looked back at her, slightly surprised. She didn’t want to be presumptuous, but it seemed like Tati was asking her out. Was she?

“You mean...just us?”

“Yeah.”

Adore held her gaze for a few moments, pulse racing as she nodded slowly.

“Yeah, I think I’d like that a lot. Maybe...um...well we talked about playing a little. You could come over tomorrow, bring your bass...if you want.”

“Okay, great.” Tati grinned again. There was a heated moment, and then she leaned forward slowly, pressing a kiss to Adore’s cheek, close to her ear, that made her whole stomach flip around like crazy, goosebumps breaking out on her arms. It had been such a long time since Adore had felt this way about anyone. Well, anyone available.

Adore swallowed, clearing her throat before saying, “Um, wanna go back and join the group?”

“Sure.” Tati held out her hand and Adore took it carefully, still buzzing with excitement.

They ended up back at Adore’s house after the dance--all of them crashed out on her living room floor. In the morning, Adore stumbled out of bed into the kitchen and Courtney was already up, sitting on the deck with a cup of tea. Adore opened the sliding glass door and padded outside in her bare feet to join her.

“Up early for some morning yoga?” Adore joked.

“No, just needed some air.” Courtney turned her head to take Adore in, hair a wild, tangled mess, her loose pajama shorts practically falling off her hips. She patted a spot on the lounge chair beside her and Adore trotted over.

“So, did you have fun last night?” Courtney asked as Adore flopped down beside her with a yawn.

“Sure...well, about as much fun as I could’ve hoped,” Adore laughed. “What about you? Did you miss Roy?”

“Yeah, of course.” Courtney’s cheeks reddened, realizing that she hadn’t really thought about him. It was strange, how normal it felt for him to be gone. She should probably text him, make sure that his first semester was going okay.

“Sorry. I hope you had a good time anyway,” Adore said.

“Totally!” It took a few moments for Courtney to work up the courage to ask the next question on her mind. “Um...are you and Tatianna like, a thing now?”

“I dunno,” Adore said, scratching her head, little butterflies in her abdomen waking up. “Well...I mean no, but...maybe eventually. God, I’m so bad at this.”

The slight blush on cheeks told Courtney everything she needed to know. She pasted on a bright smile and linked their arms together.

“Nah, you’re doing just fine. I think she really likes you,” Courtney said. As much as she didn’t like it, this thing between Adore and the new girl, she knew that she needed to be supportive. That’s what friends did, right?

“You do?”

“Yeah, she barely looked away from you all night.”

This news somehow felt most shocking of all. Not only that Tati had been paying her so much attention, or that she’d somehow not realized it, but that Courtney had noticed. It was just a lot of information for Adore to process.

“Really?” Adore felt her cheeks burning.

“Why do you sound so surprised?” Courtney asked.

“Well...just...she’s so cool. And hot.”

“So are you!” Courtney insisted.

Adore opened her mouth to toss out something sarcastic, but found herself at a loss for words, finally offering a quiet, “...shut up.”

Courtney giggled, snuggling closer to her and resting a head on her shoulder.

-

Adore could not possibly have been more awkward with Tatianna if she tried--she was just so out of practice. It had been over a year since she broke up with Raja, and she hadn’t gone out with anyone since then. She’d basically forgotten how to flirt; it was absolutely hopeless.

She tried to cover up her awful nerves by focusing on the music (and perhaps taking a few more bong hits than she normally would’ve). Once she discovered that Tati’s band back home had done a lot of classic rock--80s hair bands and 90s grunge, cool shit like that--she tried even harder to impress her, playing some of the music she’d been working on all summer. It was rough, and a little embarrassing, but it also felt good to finally be sharing them, especially with someone who knew music.

At one point, she got super into one of the newer songs, forgetting to be self conscious and just rocking out. When she ran out of lyrics, she stopped abruptly, looking over at Tati, who was sitting on her bed with an amused expression, and shrugging.

“That’s...all, I guess. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry, it was good.” Tati plucked out a soft bass line, eyes still on her. After a few moments, she chuckled to herself, shaking her head.

“What?” Adore’s cheeks grew hot, a flush creeping up from her neck.

“No, it’s just...when you said to come over and jam, I kind of thought that was code.”

“Code for what?” Adore asked, a smile tugging at her lips.  

“Nevermind,” Tati said, biting her lip.

God, she was so cute, so irresistibly sexy. Adore could not fuck this one up, she just couldn’t. She placed her guitar in the stand and got up from her desk chair, walking quickly over to Tati and standing over her.

Tati looked up, dark eyes smoldering, and Adore realized that this was it, her shot at finally moving on for real. She cupped Tatianna’s face in her hands and bent down, planting a kiss right on her mouth.

It wasn’t until it was happening that Adore realized how much she’d missed this: human touch, the press of a body against hers. She was already trembling with need as she grappled with buckles and zippers and perfect, biting kisses that left her reeling.

Tati’s hands were perfect: soft and sure, and her plush mouth was absolutely transcendent. Adore closed her eyes, surrendering completely to the moment, the heat, the delightful helplessness of someone else taking full control.

Afterwards, she lay flat on her back, trying desperately to catch her breath, hands in her hair. Tati sat beside her, packing the bong, her gorgeous tits on full display as Adore watched her through heavy-lidded eyes.

“Fuck...that was so...fuck…” Adore breathed, and Tati giggled girlishly.

“Yeah?”

“Oh yeah. Shit.” Adore rolled over, burying her face into Tati’s lap, her thigh still slick with sweat, pressing her lips against smooth brown skin.

“My next ink is going there,” Tati announced.

“Here?” Adore laid another kiss on her thigh.

“Yeah. I want to get a cherry bomb.”

“Oh my god, that’s so fucking cool!”

“Right?” Tati coughed, passing the bong to her. “But I need to find a good artist, I don’t want it to be cheesy.”

“I might know someone,” Adore said.

“Really?”

“Yeah, there’s this chick my cousin goes to all the time, she’s fucking rad. I can show you her MySpace page...later...when I have the strength to get up.”

Tati laughed, patting her bare ass and dropping a kiss to the top of her head. “Sounds perfect.”

The shriek of Adore’s phone ripped through the moment, startling her for a second. She reached for the receiver on her nightstand, answering groggily. “Hello?”

“Hey, it’s me,” Courtney said, immediately asking, “So...how’d it go?”

“Uh...great,” Adore said, fiddling with the edge of her blanket.

“Yeah? Did anything happen?”

“Uh huh,” was Adore’s cryptic reply, but Courtney seemed to have caught on.

“Is she still there?”

“Uh huh.”

“Well...I was about to go pick up some Chinese food, do you want anything?” Courtney then asked.  

“Hell yeah!” Adore sat up, only then realizing how starving she was. “Beef with broccoli! And lo mein, you can choose what kind.”

“Okay, what about your guest?”

“Oh, right.” Adore covered the receiver, telling Tati, “Courtney’s getting Chinese food, what do you like?”

“Oh, that’s so nice of her. Um...I’ll eat whatever.”

“She’s down to share whatever. Maybe some kind of fried rice? And egg rolls. And orange chicken. Or, mmmm, Kung pao shrimp! Or what’s that creamy one? Cashew shrimp!”

“You’re high, huh?” Courtney asked, laughing.

“Little bit.”

“I’ll bring it over ASAP.”

“I...love you...so much.”

“Duh, same. See you soon.”

-

Moving across the country a month into her senior year had absolutely sucked. Tati went into the situation knowing that the entire year could very well be miserable and lonely. It was a brilliant stroke of dumb luck that on her first day, she happened to sit next to one of the friendliest, chattiest girl she’d ever met. Fame was truly a gift from the universe, not only immediately taking Tati under her wing, but introducing her to all of her friends, making her feel like she belonged.

It was possible, of course, that it was a mistake to jump into things so quickly with Adore. She didn’t know her very well, she didn’t know any of them very well. But Adore seemed so into her, and Tati couldn’t resist that smitten expression on her face, how absolutely cute and fun she was. And besides, she deserved to have something good in her life after leaving all of her friends back home.

Not that she was without reservations. When she reported the hookup to Nina, her oldest friend seemed extremely dubious about the whole thing.

“How long have you known this girl?” Nina asked.

“A...couple of days?”

“I dunno girl, that seems...you could be getting into some deep shit, especially if you’re trying to be friends with herfriends? Do you even know the dynamics of their group? You should really have waited a bit.”

“I see your point but like...it’s not like I’d be losing deep friendships, you know?”

“Yeah, but...well, just be careful. Don’t get too invested. Don’t be a mess.”

“I know, I know.”

In spite of the very sound advice from Nina, and Tatianna’s own misgivings, she couldn’t help catching onto Adore’s enthusiasm. Especially when that enthusiasm led to an intro to an absolutely fantastic artist to do her next tattoo. It took almost 5 hours, and by the end, she was really feeling the burn, eyes watering.

Adore was incredible the whole time--fetching her cold sodas, holding her hand, distracting her with cute stories. She really was working overtime to be the perfect girlfriend, and Tati appreciated it, putting all of her negativity aside and just enjoying herself.  

After all, Nina didn’t know everything.

-

As much as Adore hated to admit it, senior year was pretty fucking great so far. She had awesome friends, a sexy new girlfriend, and she’d planned an easy, low-stress course schedule for the year with barely any homework. She was living the dream.

It was Halloween night, and the gang all decided to meet at Courtney’s before heading to Laganja’s for her annual ‘why-do-her-parents-agree-to-this’ blowout.

Adore had been hanging out with Tati all afternoon, smoking and fooling around and eating Cheez-Its and peanut butter straight from the jar until the last possible second before they had to get dressed, dragging themselves out of bed to change into their costumes. As they walked next door, the chilly Autumn air hit Adore smack in the face, having quite a sobering effect. She shivered and slipped her arm around Tati’s waist, using the cold as an excuse to get close to her--which Tati gladly didn’t object to whatsoever.

“Happy Halloween!” Courtney flung open the door, squealing with joy when she saw Adore and Tatianna’s ‘Bacon and Eggs’ costumes. “You guys. Look. So cuuuute!”

She pulled them both in for a hug, jumping up and down. Adore eyed the big, nearly empty bowl of candy by the door, as well as Courtney’s mouth stained blue, Tootsie Roll pop in her hand, and shook her head.

“I warned you that she’d be hopped up on sugar, didn’t I?” Adore said, giving Tati a slight eye roll. Courtney didn’t eat refined sugar that often, so Halloween was one of those days when she was even more extra than usual.

“You did,” Tati laughed.

“Shut up, it’s my favorite day!” Courtney exclaimed. She stuck it back into her mouth and then thought better of it, holding out the glistening lollipop to Adore. “You want some?”

“Can I have the ones without your fucking drool all over it?” she asked, gesturing to the bowl.

“Take it all!” Courtney said, laughing. “Fuck the trick-or-treaters, right?”

“Exactly.” Adore swiped the bowl off the ledge, fishing out a bag of Sour Patch Kids.

“I love the Rosie costume, Court!” Tati said.

“Thank you very much.” Courtney twirled, displaying her Rosie the Riveter costume, complete with pin curls and a red bandana headband. “Come on in, guys! Fame, Violet and Pearl are here already.”

She led them down the hall, clinging to Adore’s arm, chattering a mile a minute about how Fame had been helping with her hair, and how everyone’s costumes were amazing, and how they were gonna be the coolest group.

“So, be honest. Do you think my costume is too abstract?” Adore asked. “Because we had a long debate about it.”

Adore’s interpretation of a fried egg was a little abstract--she wore a white unitard with a bright yellow felt circle pinned to her shoulder, and a yellow, chin-length wig, with matching face paint. Tati’s bacon dress was a little more straightforward, long, fat strips of painted fabric covering her corseted bodice and then hanging down to form a skirt.

“No! It’s perfect! You look adorable. Both of you.” Courtney wrapped an arm around them both, giving Tati a side hug.

It was nice for Adore to see Courtney being so welcoming and sweet to her new girlfriend. It certainly hadn’t been like that with Raja, or even when Pearl moved in. Adore wondered if maybe, for all her best intentions, it had just taken her this long to be truly comfortable with the whole gay thing. But whatever the reason, Adore was happy that she was being her warm, friendly self, treating Tati like an old friend without any coaxing.

They opened the door to Courtney’s bedroom, which was a bit of a madhouse, Pearl putting the finishing touches on her Beetlejuice costume, and Violet, dressed in what looked like real 1920s vintage flapper glam, helping Fame smear blood and brains all over to complete her zombie cheerleader look.

“Whoa, cool costumes!! But I can’t believe you guys all beat us here when I’m right next door,” Adore laughed.

“What the fuck are you supposed to be?” came a voice from behind her. She spun around to see Willam, dressed as a Bratz doll, and Trinity, in a cute Cheer Bear costume.

“I’m fried eggs!” Adore said, turning to Tati and whining. “I told you it was too abstract.”

“I think it’s cool,” Trinity said, checking out her reflection in Courtney’s mirrored closet doors and tucking some stray hair into her pink hood. “Will’s just being an asshole.”

“Being? Willam is always an asshole,” Violet piped up, laughing as Willam shoved her, pushing him right back.

“Guys? Guys?” Courtney jumped on her bed, eyes bright. “Are we almost ready? When can we go?”

“You need to calm down,” Adore said, a hand on her hip.

“I’m just excited, it’s Halloweeeeeeen!” she said, then shrieked as Adore tackled her, bringing her to her knees.

“No more sugar for you!”

Pearl couldn’t help notice the mildly perturbed expression on Tati’s face as she watched them wrestling on Courtney’s bed. She sidled up to her, slinging an arm across her shoulders and saying, “They just...get like that sometimes.”

“Uh huh.”

“Honestly, it’s no big deal,” Pearl assured her.

“Yeah, no, it’s cool,” Tati said, adjusting her bacon headband.

Pearl’s gaze traveled back to the bed, where Courtney had successfully gotten Adore face down, arm twisted behind her back. She sat down firmly on her as Adore squealed out, “Truce! Truce!”

“Guys?!” Courtney kept Adore in the hold a few moments longer before releasing her with a victorious smirk and a sharp smack on the ass. “Can we go? Can we go?”

“Why are you so anxious to get to this dumb party?” Willam asked. “Everyone we know who’s remotely cool is already in this room.”

“Awww, Bill, does that mean you think I’m cool?” Courtney asked, fluttering her lashes at him.

“I didn’t say that, cheerleader.”

“She’s the cheerleader tonight,” Courtney said, gesturing to Fame.  

“I think we should go, but first…”

Pearl pulled a bottle of Captain Morgan from her bag.

“Heyyyy! Look at you, good for something for once,” Violet said, bumping Pearl with her hip.

“Should I go get some glasses?” Courtney asked.

“Glasses?” Pearl took a big swig of rum and passed the bottle to Violet. “What are you, the queen of England?”

“Oh my god, this is so unhygienic!” Fame said, wringing her hands.

“Does that mean you don’t want any?” Violet asked, holding the bottle out teasingly.

“No, I still want some.” Fame snatched the bottle from her hands and took a swig. “I guess alcohol kinda kills germs, huh?”

“Totally,” said Trinity, accepting the bottle and taking her swig, pushing Willam away with her other hand. “Wait your turn!”

Courtney was last to drink, and Adore watched her swallow down several shots worth before pulling the bottle away.

“Take it easy, bitch! We don’t want you passing out on us.”

Giggling, Courtney handed the bottle back to Pearl, then wrapped her arms around Adore’s neck and gave her a big smack on the cheek. Tati watched them, but before she had the chance to get uncomfortable again, Courtney pulled her in, kissing her as well. Maybe this really was just how she acted when she was all hopped up. Tati grinned and slung her arm around Courtney’s waist.

“So, are we doing another round?” she asked.

“Whoaaa...Virginia knows how to party!” Willam said, raising his fist up in celebration, chanting, “Round two! Round two! Round two!”

-

Adore’s eyes were superglued shut. That was the only reasonable explanation. She slowly, painfully pried them open, the hazy morning light hitting her like a freight train, making her squeeze them shut again.

“What the fuck?” she asked. Well, tried to ask. Her throat was parched and it came out sounding something like a hoarsely whispered, ‘Watafuh?’

What had happened last night? She remembered arriving at Courtney’s, already a bit buzzed, doing a few rounds of shots and heading with the whole group to Ganja’s. There’d been oppressively loud music thumping, a toxically strong bowl of murky orange punch, a crowded dance floor in her den, more punch...way too much punch.

The ground was hard and awful, and something was holding her down, making it impossible to move. She turned her head, peeled her eyes open a second time to see Courtney’s blonde head buried in her shoulder, red bandana now over her eyes, covered by a familiar crocheted blanket. Adore recognized the blanket, figuring out for the first time where they were.

Violet’s basement. When the fuck had they even come here? Violet lived far enough away from Laganja’s that they would have needed a ride. Unless...did they walk 30 fucking minutes in the middle of the night? She had vague, hazy memories of making her way with the whole gang through a green belt “shortcut,” and the pair of muddy shoes lying by her head seemed to support this. She squirmed on the hard concrete floor, trying to get whatever was holding her down off. Probably Courtney’s leg, although she couldn’t really tell…

A groan sounded from behind her and she turned to see Tati. It was her leg, apparently, and she was not too keen on being moved. Or being woken up. Or being alive, presently.

“Good morning,” Adore whispered. “I guess.”

Another groan came from Tati’s lips.

“Yeah, me too.”

Adore forced herself to raise her head and look around, realizing that they were halfway on the shag rug. Her friends all seemed to be in equal states of comatose, their costumes in shreds or half off or, in the case of Trinity’s bear hoodie, being used as pillows. Fame was curled up with Trinity in the armchair, Violet and Pearl sprawled on the sofa. Willam seemed to have gotten the worst of it, face down on the rug a few feet from them.

“Hey,” Adore nudged Courtney with her shoulder, jostling her awake. “Court...wake up.”

Courtney yawned, arms tightening around Adore’s waist before her eyes finally blinking open.

“Ohhh, where are we?” she croaked.

“I have no idea,” Tati said.

“Violet’s,” Adore informed them.

“How did we get here?”

“I dunno exactly but...can you make sure Willam’s alive? He looks like a corpse.”

Courtney forced herself into a sitting position to lean forward and give Willam a good shake. As she did, the blanket fell away and revealed her bare chest. Adore let out a little yelp, hand flying to cover her eyes.

“Jeez, Courtney, cover up! Why aren’t you wearing a bra?!”

Courtney laughed, pulling the blanket back up.

“I didn’t need one with this costume. Would you calm down, you’re such a prude,” she giggled.  

Adore looked over at Tati, doing her best put-upon eye roll. But instead of commiserating, Tati shrugged, searching the ground for her purse.

“I better call my mom,” she said, brow furrowed. “Shit. Did I leave my bag at your house?”

“Oh, shit. There’s a landline in the kitchen. Come on, I’ll show you.” Adore took her hand, helping her up. There was a strange, faraway look in her eyes, and Adore squeezed her fingers, hoping to bring her back into the present moment.

She was rewarded, finally with a smile, making her shoulders drop in relief before guiding Tati towards the stairs.