#i hope you took none of it seriously but also i hope you did. we'll see what happens

[carnivalcarriondiscarded]

@real-oddity YOUR WISH IS MY COMMAND ok before i wordspill, keep in mind that this is all pure assumption and speculation cobbled together from looking at the map and tidbits i hope i'm remembering correctly. take all of it with a Hefty grain of salt

so.

i think that Julie's character arc might be about societal norms, the pressure of expectation, and how those conflict with the self. because i think the puppet show intended for her to be Wally's love interest - but that's not what either her or Wally want.

STAY WITH ME I HAVE EVIDENCE. first, lets look at Julie's house:

all of the blatant heart decoration, from her tree to the windows to the hedges and even the welcome mat. no other building has heart imagery, and especially none this heavy handed. it just screams Love Interest to me.

like if i was designing a house for a love interest character for a children's puppet show in the show's time period, i'd go ham on it. children's shows are rarely subtle. and more often than not in shows, especially in older ones, the "main character" (in this case, Wally) always has a love interest, and that love interest is always blatant. usually the Moment they appear onscreen, the viewer goes "oh, ok, thats the love interest."

not only that, but look at the windows. to me, they look a lot like eyes - reminiscent of Home. The way the curtains fall, the placement, even the structures under the sills looks like eye-bags. Julie's house is also the only house other than Home to only have one floor, not two. and then there's the fact that she has no flowers outside her house, but she has white daisy decorations - mimicking the white daisy flowerbeds flanking Home's door.

"but why do you think that's not what she or Wally wants" so glad you asked. lets start with Wally:

for one, there's the smiley-face balloon featured in the above image, tied to the swingset. two heart-shaped balloons colored red and blue are on either sides of it. as soon as i saw the balloon, i went Oh, that looks like Wally. but when have you ever seen a smiley-face with closed eyes? when does Wally close his eyes - he loves eye contact! to me, it seems indicative of Wally ignoring or avoiding the hearts.

that, and - now this part is definitely a stretch - the trees behind Home are set up in a strange way to me. Julie's house gives the appearance of "staring" directly at Home. but the trees behind Home are hiding it from the house's view.

(also, just imo, Wally doesn't seem very romance-oriented to me. he just gives off huge aromantic vibes. i could be completely off the mark and might be proven completely wrong <3 i probably am <3)

now here's why i think Julie is also not on board with this:

one, it's interesting to me that Julie's house has a lot of heart symbolism, but her character design doesn't. Wally has hearts on the soles of his shoes, but those have been explicitly linked to Barnaby's heart-shaped paw pads.

Julie's character design and symbolism is all about flowers instead of hearts. Which ties to her being in a best-friendship with Frank, a distinctly platonic relationship.

now, an argument could be made that the show might've wanted her to be Frank's love interest, or have had a Who Will She Choose, Frank Or Wally subplot. what backs this is her being close to Frank (the platonic nature of their relationship could've been a deviation from the "script" due to our lovely fruity Frank Frankly), and the fact that outside of Wally, Frank is the only other neighbor to have a white daisy growing in his "yard". though that could just be to depict his closeness with her - like Barnaby having paint supplies outside his house despite not being a painter like his bestie.

(if you want to read a dissection of neighborhood flowers and their symbolism, here's a post all about it)

also, it just occurred to me - the only design thing she has in common with Wally is her little tie thing. it's very reminiscent of Wally's ascot. but it's also Very vaguely similar to Frank's bowtie. it just stands out - Sally doesn't have any neck accessory (that we can see), Poppy has her shawl, and everyone else has ties. im stretching again. this is a yoga post

and again, despite her house being heart-infested, nowhere in Julie's canon images (outside of the Valentine's Day cards), her character description, or pretty much anything relate to romance. she's centered around friendship and fun.

all in all, it gives the vibe of the show wanting her to be a love interest, but Julie either ignoring it or actively going against it.

obviously something like that would influence her character arc, if not be a big part of it. then - HOLD ONTO YOUR GRAIN OF SALT HERE, FELLAS, I COULD BE MISREMEMBERING - there's the thing Clown said about homophobia being a... not quite theme, im missing the word rn, but it'll be a factor. which makes sense, this is a cast of mostly queer characters from a late 1960s / early 1970s kid's show.

the obvious target for any homophobia, internalized or otherwise, would be Frank & Eddie. but they're not the only gay folks around. Julie (i believe) has been stated to be bi, Poppy is a lesbian, and i'll eat my cats if Sally isn't some flavor of gay.

so i think it's entirely possible that Julie might get in on that storytelling element. if the show wants her to be a love interest, maybe she is. she's just interested in the wrong person (looks intensely at Sally)

all in all, i think she's going to have an arc about resisting the role chosen for her and her struggling with that. and i think it's going to be a Big struggle. i think she might make some Horrible mistakes while grappling with her inner conflict bc of the intense effect expectation/pressure have on a person's mind

(which might uh. which might tie into the flower symbolism i rambled about yesterday, but that's so much of a stretch that it's practically molecular. still. im Thinking.)

[captain-mj]

Graves obsessed with Price killing Shepherd VS. Price obsessed with Graves in that suit FIGHT

No but seriously, I'm loving this, thank you for always being the fucking boss when it comes to PriceGraves

I like to think when Graves does find out Price has been jerkin it to him in the suit, he gets offended because that's not even his best suit! So he just casually puts on his best one and takes some definitely not work appropriate photos in it and leaves them on Price's desk as a thank you for killing Shepherd :3

I'm combining like... so many people's asks into this because I got a ton of asks along this idea! I hope everyone likes it <3

Graves knew that Price had killed Shepherd. It didn't take a genius to figure it out. Nor did it come as a shock that he found it attractive. Murder was always a good turn on for him.

No, the true surprise of the night was that Price found him attractive in a suit. And that none of his friends (coworkers? Family?? Graves was unsure) were unhappy about this.

Right now, they were trying to do an... intervention? Of some kind? They were currently going over a list of his crimes to date, most of which were stuff they had also done, just framed in a significantly worse light..

Graves was wearing a suit at the moment, having been wearing one for a meeting that he was going to have with Farah and a few higher ups in the Russian government. It was supposed to be just a few things to smooth over everything and she thought his presence might be helpful. Alex would also be there and he was also in a suit. Apparently Gaz had been particularly excited about it. Not excited enough to overlook Price's... interest though.

He was listening to them talk to Price about all of the bad things. They tried to get Alex to pitch in but he just vouched that Graves was a pretty nice guy, just goal oriented. When he had a mission, he didn't stop.

Graves appreciated the comments. He looked at himself, thinking about his much more expensive, much more fitted suit. They had only gotten through Ghost, the least talkative one, in the time that Graves was listening, so he took this as an opportunity.

Graves went back to his room and got redressed. He put on some cufflinks, even added a few rings. This was his chance to maybe get Price as obsessed with him as he was.

They had moved on to Soap who was ranting at length about the fact that Graves shot Soap in the shoulder, which wasn't even correct because technically it was one of his Shadows.

Graves waltzed in, pretending to be fixing his sleeves. "Alex, I think the time zones got me a bit messed up. How long until our meeting?" He glanced at them and he made sure to look... unimpressed.

Price grabbed his jacket and immediately put it in his lap. Graves almost smirked, but instead, he just glanced around at them.

Soap and Gaz looked defeated. Graves wasn't good enough at reading Ghost to figure out his expression. He thought it was acceptance honestly. Ghost had known Price the longest according to what he had heard and he must know what Price looked for.

Graves talked to Alex for another moment, hearing Gaz whisper shout at Price "Really?? You're bricked up right now??"

Alex answered, clearly trying not to smile. "Actually, we should probably go now. We'll be back in two hours, guys."

Graves waved at them and if he made sure to make eye contact with Price, fluttering his eyelashes before leaving, Alex close behind.

Alex waited until they were out of earshot of the two of them. "He's down bad."

Graves smiled. "Yeah... Might have to take him on a date. Think if I treat him somewhere fancy, he'll let me take him home?"

"On the first date?? Probably if you wore a suit."

-

Graves groaned as he came home. The meeting ran late but he was excited to be home to take a shower. He went to take off his jacket before Price cleared his throat.

Graves glanced at him, in the dark, beanie on and in civvies. "Was this what Shepherd saw in his last moments?" He motioned to him.

Price nodded and took a puff of his cigar. "Yeah, it was. Different shirt though."

"Ah..." Graves felt his mouth go dry. He was so hot it made his head dizzy.

"Am I making you nervous, Commander?"

"Not at all, Captain. I'm actually glad I'm talking to you."

Price leaned back and spreading his legs a little more, as if getting comfy. "Really?"

"Interested in dinner with me?"

Price's expression didn't change as he slowly took another drag. He was luckily Graves didn't mind cigar smoke. "I wouldn't mind it."

"There a particular reason you covering your lap right now?"

Price didn't look away. "You're sexy in those suits. You changed on purpose."

"Knew you'd see right through me, even if your team can't." Graves slid his jacket off, not missing the way his eyes lingered. "Be nice to me and I'll wear a suit on our date."

Price laughed softly. "Right..." He stood up and walked closer, clearly looking Graves up and down. They were both too confident. Headstrong. Ambitious.

The sex was going to be mindblowing.

"I look forward to our date, Commander."

"I said dinner. Not a date."

Price's eyes widened a little, reminding Graves of the puppies in commercials. Quickly, he corrected himself. "Of course it's a date, Captain. I'll see you tomorrow night?"

Price nodded but he took a moment to admire the view before leaving.

[mangoisms]

circle k (back to you)

summary: in which you're just the graveyard shift employee at circle k bombarded by vigilantes.

━ chapter two: it’s getting late | read chapter one

━ pairing: tim drake x f!reader

━ word count: 4.5k

━ warnings: none

━ masterlist

━ a/n: would be lying if i said this was for tim's birthday tmrw. it was rlly just because the reception to chapter 1 was so lovely and i also did this with my other tim fic—posting chapter 2 early, i mean. but we'll just have to work with this. happy early birthday tim you are annoying and i want to study you under a microscope <3

You expect Red Robin’s appearance to be a one-off thing. 

It is not. 

Instead, the next day, you get Black Bat. 

It jolts you from the phone call you’re having.

“—understand the temptation to tell them to screw off but I really don’t want to get… shot…”

You trail off, watching, wide-eyed as your newest vigilante customer steps into Circle K. 

Black Bat cuts an imposing figure, her suit made up mostly of inky black material, with a few accents of gold, the Bat symbol on her chest standing out the most. Her black cape flutters behind her, moving like a shadow. She looks the most like Batman, you think, with the cowl and the pointed ears. Except the eyes of the mask are black and the bottom of her face is completely covered—stitched closed. Considerably more creepy, you think, goosebumps breaking out over your skin. Though that could be the fan you have on, fluttering your hair as it makes a slow rotation.

“Hey, did you die or something?”

“No,” you mutter, watching, your heart starting to pick up as Black Bat comes up to the counter.

You aren’t sure what you expect, but it’s not—

“Do you have Red Bull?” Her voice is low and melodic. Not befitting of her… general aura.

Wordlessly, you point to the refrigerators at the back.

“Thanks,” she says, then she turns and walks away. You can only see the top of her head and the pointed ears of her cowl. A second later, you hear the suction-y sound of the refrigerator door being opened. 

A voice calls your name from the other end of the line. 

Your best friend, Stephanie Brown, who gave you a call to see how your summer break has been treating you. 

“Sorry,” you say, clearing your throat. “Just got distracted by something outside.”

“Something outside? That’s not reassuring. At all.”

“It’s fine, it’s fine. Like I was saying, I’m not gonna tell them that. It’s tempting but like I said, I don’t want to get arrested or some shit.”

“The charges wouldn’t even hold. It’s a free country. I can tell a cop to fuck off if I want to. That’s my god-given right.” 

“I appreciate the spirit, but I don’t think the GCPD would agree with you.”

“Well, the GCPD can kiss my ass.”

“You and me both, Stephie. You and me both. So, how’s, uh, Metropolis?”

“Metropolis is Metropolis. Brainiac nearly took control of the city yesterday but what’s new? Mom’s having a good time, though. Even if things are way overpriced over here. I mean, seriously. Eight bucks for a cup of coffee at this place we went to today. They’re crazy.”

Steph babbles in your ear for a few more minutes. Long enough for Black Bat to reemerge from the aisle, two cans of Red Bull and a bag of Takis and a pack of sour gummy worms in hand. You wonder who the second person is. Red Robin, maybe? 

He’d been odd about the hot chocolates. Odd in general. But that’s what you get with these vigilante types. 

No matter. You quickly focus on your current situation, giving Black Bat a small, embarrassed smile and pointing at the phone crammed between your shoulder and ear, mouthing Sorry. 

You shouldn’t be doing this on the job and you should’ve told Steph you had to go but quite frankly, you need the assurance of another person with you. Even if said person can’t do anything and is across the harbor in Metropolis on a mini-vacation with her mom. 

 Black Bat shouldn’t give you trouble about it. You hope. She just scares you a little more than Red Robin. Which is silly because he’s a guy and probably more potentially dangerous but. You know. Her suit is just… too similar to Batman’s, and he’s the one who scares you the most.   

Still, Black Bat just shrugs and waves a hand. “It’s fine.”

You nod your thanks, then scan everything and bag it. She pulls out a twenty dollar bill from her utility belt and you give her the change, which she promptly puts in the tip jar. A kind gesture, really, considering the twenty is a bit of an overshoot for her total, leaving you with a nice tip. 

You guess that if anything else, at least it’s nice that these vigilantes tip. 

After dropping the receipt into the bag, she takes it and waves at you. 

Mystified, you wave back. 

Then she steps out, cape fluttering behind her.

“Anyway,” Steph says on the other end as you focus on her voice again. “It’s pretty fun but I miss home. Can’t wait to be back in the city. We’re hanging out as soon as I do, by the way. How are things with you?”

Oh, you can’t keep it in. You have to tell her. 

“I saw the Flash two days ago.”

But she misunderstands.

“Oh, yeah,” she says. “I saw that in the news. ‘Cause of Trickster, right? Bet Batman wasn’t happy about that.”

“No,” you say. “I’m saying I saw him. Here. At Circle K. He dropped in to grab a bite to eat. I know you and Tim absolutely refuse to believe me when I say he visited me and that we’re friends—which, by the way, he totally reaffirmed when I saw him—but he was here.”

“We’re jealous, that’s all,” she says. “Just don’t want you running off with the Flash thinking he’s cooler than we are. Which, to be clear, he isn’t. Not me, anyway. Tim is up for debate.”

“Well, you’re about to be a little more jealous.”

“And why is that?”

“Because since he visited, weird shit has started happening.”

“Weird shit is always happening in Gotham. What is so special about this weird shit in particular?”

“Oh, he said something stupid to Red Robin—Red Robin came in a little while after he did, I guess they were working together to track down Trickster—anyway, he was talking about how I’m… scared of the Bats—”

“Are you scared of the Bats?”

You throw up a hand, though she can’t see it. “I have a healthy amount of fear and respect for them—and on that note, please don’t tell anyone else I’m telling you this.”

“Of course.”

“Right, well, Flash was just ragging him, you know? About how he has a better relationship with me, someone who doesn’t even live in Keystone or Central, than the Bats do.”

“So?”

“So,” you blow out a big breath, “Red Robin showed up yesterday to get some hot chocolate—”

“Hot chocolate?” Steph asks, disbelieving. 

“Yeah. He said it was a better alternative to coffee. Guess he’s not into energy drinks. Weirdo. The whole thing about it—weird. Like… I don’t know. He was just acting weird when he was asking if we had any.”

“… That is weird,” she says, an odd note to her voice. She clears her throat. “And then?”

“I knew why he was doing it so I told him he didn’t have to come around ‘cause he and the others obviously need to uphold a specific perception, right? Then he was all, Well, what does a civilian like you know about it? Can you believe they unironically call us that?”

Steph laughs. She laughs hard.

You wait it out, not entirely sure what or why she is laughing so hard but it’s not the first time she’s ever done that, so you can just let it go. 

“Okay,” she giggles. “Sorry. Keep going. What else happened?”

“He left. But then, y’wanna guess who just showed up right now?”

“Who? Batman?”

“God, no. It was Black Bat. She was nice enough. Gave me a big tip. Creepy suit, though.”

“What’d she’d get?”

“Two Red Bulls, a bag of Takis and a pack of sour gummy worms. Wonder who that second Red Bull is for. And the snacks. Red Robin realizing hot chocolate in June is weird? Hard to imagine him eating Takis, though. He’s probably like Tim, saying they’re ‘too hot’.”

Steph laughs again for a while.

“Oh, god, you’re killing me,” she gasps out when she calms.

You shake your head, rubbing your finger over a scratch mark in the counter. “I don’t know what is so funny but sure.”

“So, then, what? You think you’re just gonna some more vigilantes? ‘Cause it’s only been two so far.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know,” you grumble. “But it’s two. When previously, this has never happened.” 

“True! Well… any preferences? For who comes next?”

“Anyone but Batman, thanks.”

Your next visitor is not Batman.

It is, in a turn of events that makes a little more sense, the Signal.

A few days after your call with Steph, things are fine, until your manager posts to the team group chat about wanting someone for an afternoon shift, saying someone quit unexpectedly. Not one to say no to some extra cash, you latch onto the opportunity—even if it’s an admittedly questionable idea. You try not to work weekends to let yourself recuperate from sustaining your not-so-great sleep schedule. 

Anyway, you feel and look like a zombie, but you get your work done. 

“I can help the next person in line,” you call. 

A tall, broad-shouldered stocky older man with long blonde hair and blue eyes behind coke-bottle glasses steps up, armed with two large cups of coffee. The scrubs he wears clues you into some kind of healthcare position. 

“Hi, did you find everything—”

The door opens, your eyes automatically flickering to the movement, and your voice cuts out sharply as you realize who it is.

The Signal stands there a bit awkwardly for a moment as all of you look—the blonde man at the counter and the other man waiting in line.

“Hey, you!”

You flinch, tensing, already fearing a confrontation as the other man steps forward, pointing at the Signal. The one in question tenses, shoulders rising, like he’s preparing to fight. You hope not. That would be a lot of paperwork for you. It’s the manager’s, technically, to report any damage done by vigilantes, but they always give it to you or the other employees on the floor.

But it is not as you feared. Instead of picking a fight, the man… thanks him?

“You’re the Signal, right? Right? You saved my son a few months ago from some muggers following him home from school. Thank you, man. Seriously, I can’t thank you enough. He wouldn’t be here with me if it weren’t for you,” the man says, holding out a hand.

“Hey, man,” Signal says, reaching out to shake his hand. “It was nothing. I’m glad I was there to help.”

“Are you here to buy something? Let me cover you. Please. It’s the least I can do—”

“Oh, you really don’t need to—”

“That went better than expected.”

The soft-spoken voice brings you out of your thoughts and you belatedly realize you still have a customer to take care of. But when you look at him, he is watching the Signal try to tell the other man that he doesn’t have to pay for him, a small smile tugging at his lips.

“Yeah,” you say. “Good thing. Signal’s a good guy.”

He turns back to you as you scan the cups of coffee, pulling out a wallet.

“He is,” he agrees easily—meaning his words, too, a genuine conviction you don’t hear often associated with the vigilantes of the city. 

Signal manages to hold firm on not needing the man to pay, repeating that he was just doing his job, and thankfully, the man accepts it with good graces. 

You quickly get your current customer wrapped up while the Signal steps into the chip aisle. 

You pass him the receipt. “Thank you, have a good day.”

He sends you a small, handsome smile, picking up the cups of coffee. “Thank you, you, too.”

The one after him steps up to pay, talking jovially with you, spirits still apparently lifted at seeing Signal and being able to thank him. It’s a nice moment, you think, and you make sure to respond in kind. 

The door swings shut behind him just as Signal re-emerges from the chip aisle, holding a can of Monster Energy and a bag of chile picante Cornnuts. The combination is… surely something. You let yourself slip with it, too, because you’ve personally heard a lot of good things about him. The fact that he works during the day helps his case, too. 

“I need the energy,” Signal says, seeing that thought in your face; he doesn’t sound mad, though, just vaguely amused. His suit is filled with more yellow tones, still intimidating but not as much in the daylight, a helmet of sorts leaving only his mouth exposed. 

“It’ll definitely give you… something,” you say, chuckling as you scan both.

He pats his stomach. “I have guts of steel. Don’t worry about it.”

“Not a problem as long as I never have to hear ‘guts of steel’ ever again. Jesus. Is that just a natural thing of your biology or is it evolutionary-based?”

“This life isn’t for the faint of heart or stomach,” he agrees, passing you a five dollar bill. “Adaptation is key.”

“I bet.”

Signal laughs, taking his change and dropping it into the tip jar. You smile, too, shaking your head slightly. 

“Have a good day.”

He tips his Red Bull at you. “You, too.”

Guts of steel. You nearly can’t believe it.

You pick up your phone, finding your conversation with Tim. You and Steph are hanging out tomorrow, so you’ll tell her about it, then. She asked him, though, and he said he was busy. Too bad. But that doesn’t mean he gets out of being subjected to those words, either.

no joke signal came in to buy a monster energy and cornnuts (a questionable combo) and when he saw me judging he said he has guts of steel

meta related do you think???

makes sense to me. you have a gene inside you that gives you literal powers i think they shouldn’t be having digestive issues/ibs like us common folk do

Your three texts, sent in quick succession, deliver. You bite the inside of your cheek as you see your previous ones still unanswered. It’s been like that for the past few weeks. Not him ignoring you but a bit of a dry spell going on in your messages that was only broken when you told Steph what happened and decided you had to tell him, too.

It’s not his fault. The dry spell from before or the lack of responses going on now. 

You started the first thing. So, it’s more your fault than anything for all of that. Steph’s talked to him, though, and she’s never let up on anything amiss…

You groan quietly, dropping your phone on the counter and burying your face in your hands.

Too complicated. Too much. 

It never used to be like that but… things changed recently. 

You, mostly. 

You met Stephanie Brown your second semester at Gotham University. 

Taking your required elective, you chose Intro to Psych. She was doing the same. Though, being a social work major, psychology was practically a cousin to it. 

The professor for the class turned out to be a total dud. Rambled during lecture, refused to give out study guides, and while he would give out hints as to what material might show up on exams, his questions were trick ones. When people complained, he said some crap about being in a higher ed setting and needing to do better because of it. Like his class was some 300 or 400 level course and not a literal intro course to a large and burgeoning field of study. 

But classes are expensive, so, you couldn’t drop it. Refused to, really, knowing you would face much more difficult classes later on, ones you knew you might need to drop and try again. So, you weren’t going to waste the money on this type of class.

Steph was of the same thought.

She sat next to you in the lecture hall. You two didn’t talk until after the first exam and everyone was upset about their grades, the exams having been handed back at the end of class. Your shared frustration brought you together, mostly as you two were ranting about it, you packed up and wound up leaving class together, the both of you just too caught up in your anger to realize you both needed to go in opposite directions for your next class. 

You initially agreed to be study partners, to cover more ground that way. But Steph managed to worm her way to your heart by the end of that semester. 

Your astounding lack of friends helped, too. Even if things had been that way since your junior year of high school, even if you wanted things to remain that way to protect what little remained of your heart, the loneliness hit you harder than you thought it would when you started college. 

And Steph was nice and funny and listened to you and paid attention to you and you… were so very deprived of those things, so it was nice in the beginning, but then you realized, to your own horror, that you actually wanted her to stick her around, that just as she knew nearly everything about you by the end of the semester, you knew nearly everything about her, too, and you wanted to know more, wanted to be there for her like she always was for you. 

You have that and more now and you are so very lucky because of it.

Tim, though?

Tim was something else.

Steph told you she had a friend visiting.

Just that—that she had a friend visiting campus and she ‘hoped he could find his way to the computer workstation on the fourth floor because as soon as I sit down, I’m not leaving for anything other than to use the bathroom or some kind of world-ending event.’ 

It was a particularly grueling paper she had to churn out—twenty pages, heavily research-based with the kind of statistics that made your head spin.

Working at the front desk of the Martha Kane Library at the time, you humored her. Told her good luck and that you’d keep an eye out. The second part was a joke, of course, because she never said who was visiting her and how could you know if she never said anything?

You and Tim Drake wound up finding each other, anyway. 

Well, more like he found you. 

It sounds sort of romantic, right?

It’s… well, it’s certainly something.

“I’m just saying,” you’re telling him, totally neglecting your homework and the other duties you have at the front desk (you know this last part is especially true by the way your coworker, also at the front desk, is side-eyeing you but come on, there’s no one in line, so it’s fine!). “It’s a solid movie.”

Tim Drake gives you a comically disbelieving look. “A solid movie? It’s—it’s gaseous.”

“Did… you just make a physics joke? About the three states of matter?”

Tim turns an attractive shade of pink. “It’s four, actually, and, uh… yeah.”

You raise an eyebrow. “Steph is right. You really are a geek. Anyway. Cloverfield still sucks.” 

“Your opinion is automatically negated by the fact that you think the Final Destination movies have any kind of substance to them.”

“Hey, I didn’t say that. I just think they’re good ‘cause of Mary Elizabeth Winstead. You probably think the Transformers movies are actually good, don’t you?”

He looks offended. “Don’t insult me. We hate Michael Bay in this house.”

“Sure.”

“But I do think Bumblebee—”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, Bumblebee is good for a change, we all know it. You’re probably one of those Nolan stans, aren’t you?”

“I don’t think any of what you just said are real words.”

“Oh, they’re real alright. Nolan stans are constantly on his dick, they’re all like, ‘Nolan is so deep and thoughtful and there is no one else like him.’ Wrong. I could find ten of him in the movie industry.” 

Tim narrows his eyes accusingly at you. “Steph said Interstellar is your favorite movie.”

“It’s his only good movie.”

“Don’t count out Inception like that.”

“Never seen it.”

“Wow.”

“You know what you sounded like just now? A Nolan stan.”

Tim actually grins at you and your stomach flutters at the sight of it. It’s that that had drawn your eyes to him. The cute but confused looking guy loitering around nearby, systematically checking his phone and glancing around—presumably for a map of the confusing and ancient library. With dark hair, pale skin, and pretty blue eyes that make you feel unbearably seen, Tim Drake is a sight for sore eyes. Your eyes, to be certain. 

Of course, you also know he’s here for Steph. That he is the friend she spoke of. And also the ex-boyfriend. That reminder sobers you considerably. 

Kind of funny, really. 

Much can be said about Tim Drake. 

The adoptive son of Bruce Wayne. The kid who snuck into No Man’s Land on a dare and had to be extracted by the US military after his father made a fuss about it. Then later, became controlling shareholder at Wayne Enterprises for whatever reason, boosting him into a very powerful position. Then he got engaged. Then he was shot—he was meant to be killed but obviously, it hadn’t gone that way. All this at seventeen. 

But eventually it petered out. He stepped down. Engagement broke off. He recovered. Now? He does some work for WE. That’s all that’s known to the press, anyway. 

It’s like you said. Much can be said about Tim Drake. 

But most of your impression is from Steph. He plays Warlocks and Warriors sometimes. Is a bit of a computer geek and has built his own PC for gaming. Hits the skatepark every now and then. Likes to spend time tinkering on his car.  And… has strong opinions on movies. 

Above it all?

He is her ex. A good friend now! But still. That fact remains. 

“Anyway,” you say, adjusting your notebook, textbook, and bag of pens just to do something. “You’re here for Steph, right?”

“She told you?”

“Well, she’s obviously told you stuff about me.”

“Steph won’t shut up about you,” he says, seeming more amused than annoyed by that fact. “I can’t imagine it’s the same with me.”

“I know enough.” Like the fact that he is her literal ex-boyfriend. Even if Steph says their relationship wasn’t the greatest, had some very questionable decisions on both their parts, and ended a bit dramatically… he’s still the first person she ever fell in love with. She told you that much. “She’s upstairs on the fourth floor. Hit the elevators over there, then when you get to the fourth floor, turn left, then another left, and the computer workstations are on your right. Can’t miss them.”

“You should watch Inception,” he says, instead of acknowledging literally anything you just said.

You arch an eyebrow challengingly. “You should watch Interstellar.”

He taps a finger on the counter. “We should do both. You, me, and Steph one of these days.”

“I hate to say it, but that sounds like a good idea.”

Steph’s voice scares the shit out of you. You bang your knee on the desk, cursing.

Tim looks unruffled as she comes from the side—the direction of the elevators, joining him at the counter and nudging his shoulder as she goes. He nudges back. They keep the contact.

“Sorry, Stephie,” you say. “We got preoccupied.”

“Arguing,” she corrects, but she doesn’t look upset about it. Instead, her cobalt blue eyes twinkle with something you can’t quite identify as she drops her chin into her palm.

“We weren’t arguing,” Tim says next. “We were lightly debating.”

“Of course. My cute little movie geeks. I think Duckboy’s right, though—” Tim groans slightly and mutters her name in annoyance; she ignores it “—we should get together and see them.”

You scratch your cheek. “I don’t know. Finals—”

“—are not for another month. I say let’s do it.” She looks at Tim and jabs a thumb at you. “She needs more friends.”

“Stephanie, please.”

“Oh, don’t worry. Timothy needs more friends, too. Friends from, say, the other half.” She smiles mischievously, a joke known only by the two of them. 

Tim, for his part, rolls his eyes but says nothing in protest. 

You don’t need more friends. More friends is actually a very bad idea. Letting one person get close was bad enough. Another person? Hell, no…

But the look on Steph’s face tells you that you, quite frankly, have no say in the matter. And the way you and Tim ‘lightly debated’ movies for a solid half hour tells you, too, that it’ll be too easy for you and he to become friends. 

You decide to shelve the issue for now as Steph tugs him away, promising you that she’ll arrange for things.

Maybe it won’t pan out. Maybe he’s actually horribly arrogant and conceited. (Though, if he’s friends with Steph, the likelihood of that is admittedly low.) 

You don’t know. All you know is it’s dangerous to let yourself get close to someone else.

But that’s all rather dramatic, isn’t it?

And it didn’t turn out how you wanted—you met Tim in the first semester of your sophomore year; your junior year just ended this May. You’ve been friends with him for a year and half. Steph for two. No end appears to be in sight. But you’ve compartmentalized. It’s just two people. That’s fine.

It’s totally fine. 

Even if it’s two people to match the two others you lost when you were fifteen. Like a repayment for the pain.

(Or a way to double it.)

But you lost your parents in the earthquake. 

Scientists called that a once-in-a-lifetime event.

There are plenty of things going on in this city that could cost your friends their lives but… it’ll never be as devastating as the earthquake. 

The earthquake where you nearly died after a piece of metal pierced your thigh, barely missing your femoral artery, and you spent the entire time from after the earthquake, when they dug your body out of the rubble, and to when they decided to exile the city, in a coma from the infection. 

By the time you stabilized, you were on a helicopter to Blüdhaven, the rest of the city in a panic to leave, and your parents were officially gone by that point. 

They couldn’t even find their bodies in time.

It took almost three years before they did. The year in which the government turned a blind eye to the city and cast it away, then another two years to rebuild, to sift through the ruin and destruction, to find the bones of the ones left behind since they were decomposed by then, and identifying them was an even more arduous task.  

You only managed to receive the catharsis of burying them when you turned eighteen. 

You might tempt fate by saying this but even if you lost either of them, the fallout would never beat that. A blessing, in that way. 

But even you hate to consider the possibilities of them leaving you. For anything.

They won’t. 

Everything will be fine. 

It has to be. 

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[wonwoosthetic]

Amour Haine & Co. | Chapter 16 |

series masterlist

word count - 13.3k

warnings - cursing, alcohol consumption, mentions of non-consensual sex, prostitution; this might be a kinda heavy chapter for some, so please do read with caution! I will never ever write a scene where any of the mentioned trigger warnings are actively happening to the reader, but there are mentions of it in this chapter

a/n: none of the things happening in this story are things that I put into relation to the real people that exist in this story! I also want to send every single one of you an immensely huge thank you!! For your patience, for your love, and for your support! I'm getting back into writing more frequently and hope to give you weekly updates from now on ˙ᵕ˙ I also hope that you of course enjoy this chapter and do not worry, there is so much more to come for this story! We're not getting towards the end of the story in the next few chapters.

I HOPE YOU ENJOY IT GUYS🫶🏼🫶🏼🫶🏼

"You're not gonna be able to walk away from this conversation forever, just so you know."

"Is this even legal?"

Your leg hadn't stopped shaking ever since you had stepped foot into the modern law firm. In the elevator, the air started feeling restricted again, just like it did back in the car that you had to share with Wonwoo. Only Wonwoo. Wonwoo and you.

His head snapped towards you, looking slightly down at your frame, hidden underneath the oversized clothing you were wearing, "What?" His eyebrows were scrunched, and you could tell his head was somewhere else, his thoughts were not in the room with you.

"This," you pointed towards the envelope, holding the possibly most important papers of your career in his hand. "What we're doing here. Is this legal?"

With pure confusion written all across his face, he kept his gaze interlocked with yours. "Are you seriously asking me if talking to our lawyer is illegal?"

"No," you rolled your eyes, a soft sigh escaping from your lips, "You know exactly what I mean. These are confidential, and I'm just not sure if... you know... we're allowed to use them to get an advantage in court."

Your eyes fell to Wonwoo's chest rising and dropping again heavily as he took a deep breath, adjusting his jacket.

"We got this information legally. We didn't steal it," he explained sternly, making sure that you were listening to him, "Sehun came to you, gave you this and that's it. It's an important part that we can't leave out when explaining it to the judge, but I'm gonna leave that to Jihoon. We'll see what he says." You nodded in understanding. Fidgeting with your fingers didn't help ease the nerves, but the CEO's words seemed to do a good enough job - at least a little bit.

It didn't feel right. The whole situation felt off. First, Sehun just showing up in your office and then just dropping such heavy info onto you, giving you everything you could possibly need to take down the worst enemy you had ever had to face in your entire life: Park Chanyeol. You trusted Sehun, there was no doubt of that. Whether that was a good thing or not, you didn't know just yet. Maybe you had been too forgiving too quickly and you were sure that Wonwoo would remind you of exactly that again, once you were back at the office. As if his rant back at his apartment wasn't already enough. Oh god,... that apartment. Too much had already happened there, and more shit just keeps piling up.

-

“Can I help you?”

The squeaky clean voice of the beautiful woman in front of you kept echoing in your brain. Beautiful doesn't even cover it. Gorgeous. Breathtaking. That's it. Breathtaking. Because that's exactly what she did to you.

The rain that had drenched your hair suddenly added so much more weight onto your head, making even the clothes on your body feel too tight. When did taking a breath become so difficult?

The raise of her eyebrows along with a tilt of her head brought you back as you just stared into her light-brown eyes, beautiful like soft caramel. Even her skin seemed too perfect to be true. Out of which fucking magazine did that woman just jump out? With that oversized sweatshirt hanging loosely on her body, it would most likely have been more of a YA novel rather than a magazine, but such a face could decorate the covers of each Vogue magazine across the world, and no one would question it.

You shook your head hesitantly, "S...Sorry," gulping hurt, "I- ehm-" Thank God, another voice interrupted you because who knows what would've come out of your mouth if you had continued.

"Jesus, Yeri, I told you not-" Wonwoo came to a sudden halt once his gaze stopped at your figure, standing in the hallway like a lost puppy. "Y/N? Why aren't you at the office?" Taking in your heavy breathing, and the wet clothes sticking onto your body, his eyes quickly found yours, "What happened?", immediately realising what was about to happen when you started shaking your head.

"Nothing," you quietly spoke, not trusting your voice to be any louder, "I... I'll get going... See ya," turning around, ready to make your way back to the elevator, back to the office building, back to your normal work day, or as normal as you could be after what had just happened. Not even two hours ago, this man was standing in front of you, his fingers tracing over your chin, desperately wanting to pull you closer and intertwine your souls. Even his ghost of a touch was still imprinted on your skin, making you want to scream. Not even eight hours ago, he was sitting down, looking up at you with those big brown eyes, almost begging at you. Admitting to his feelings, revealing the deepest of his feelings towards you. And now, not even ten seconds ago, he let it all fall. Every word he said, every sentence he spoke just evaporated into thin air.

Before you could let the tears in your eyes dwell up, a harsh yet soft tug at your wrist made you stop and turn back around, immediately faced with the body of the man you had become so familiar with, whether you liked it or not - this position didn't feel all too foreign to you.

"What's going on?"

His low voice mixed with his touch sent an electric wave through your body, yet you avoided his eyes, knowing exactly it would hurt too much. You rather kept your head down, looking at his hand wrapped around your wrist, shaking free from his grip.

"Nothing, forget it, I'll tell you later-"

"No," he stopped you, "Come on," and nodded towards his apartment since you were still not looking at him, he repeated the action you dreaded so much as his fingers found their place on your chin again to tap it, making you look up and move away from his touch. "Let's go inside."

You gulped, hugging the envelope closer to your chest, "No, it's fine, you seem-"

"Busy?" There was something teasing, yet slightly concerned, in the raise of his eyebrows. "She's my cousin."

"Hm?" You met his eyes quickly after the last word left his lips, which have slowly but surely curled up.

"Mh," he nodded, "Yeri's my cousin." He didn't let you intervene as you opened your mouth but just kept on talking, "My mum called her over to spend some time with her. On the way here, it started raining, so I gave her something warm to wear. They were just about leave, that's why she was close to the door and opened it even though I told her not to open it to anyone that doesn't use the bell downstairs, but oh well." He turned towards the open door, raising his voice slightly, "It's not like it's her first time here."

The female voice shouted a soft, "Sorry!" back, making him shake his head with a sigh, before catching your gaze again. You held your mouth tightly shut. Oh.

Locking eyes with him seemed too intense, explaining your drifting glances around the hallway that slowly fell to the floor, looking down at your shoes.

"You didn't have to explain that to me," you raised her head again, "I-... It's none of my business... you know..."

An almost chuckle escaped Wonwoo's mouth, just almost, with that stupid smirk still plastered proudly on his face. "Sure." Sharing a quick one-second glance at each other before he took the word again. "Would you like to come in now and explain what's going on?" So soft, so gentle. As if the person in front of you had just found out about the vulnerable side of you and was trying to speak as softly as possible to you.

You nodded, rushing past him without sending him another look, just praying to forget this scene had ever happened.

Chaewon was surprised to see you back at the apartment, but she got the message after a quick explanation that you and Wonwoo had to have an important discussion - 'business stuff' as he put it without even knowing the exact reason for your sudden appearance. 

After the two women had left, you took a seat at the dining table, putting the envelope down, expecting the CEO to sit down across from you when he suddenly disappeared.

"Wonwoo?" Your voice echoed through the apartment.

"Yeah? What?" He exited his bedroom and came back into the living space.

"What are you doing?" You wondered, nervously tapping your nails on the glass of the table.

He put the sweat-set he had carried from the room over to you onto the surface, nodding towards it, "Getting you something warm to wear."

You were quick to shake your head, "No, don't worry, it's fine," and pushed the envelope towards it, the sound of it scraping over the table scratching your ear, "You should see this."

"And you should put something on that's not drenched in water. Go change." You opened your mouth to protest, but he beat you to it, "I'll take a look, but you go. Now." With a sigh, you gathered the clothing into your grip as he mumbled, "I don't need you calling in sick to work tomorrow."

You rolled your eyes and were about to make your way to the bathroom when a comment tickled your tongue that you just couldn't let go. "You really enjoy giving away your clothes, huh?"

A deep sound that could be counted as a chuckle came from Wonwoo as he reached for the letters you had brought along. Once you were a few more feet away from him, he sighed, eyeing your figure disappearing in the bathroom, "To people I care about." Before you closed the door, a small smile appearing on your face.

-

You decided to leave your pants on as they were spared by the rain, unlike your top, but happily accepted the soft sweater Wonwoo had offered you, the name of his past university on wide display across your chest. Once you were back in the open living space, your eyes drifted to the dining table, expecting the CEO, but coming to sight with empty chairs. The pieces of paper were spread all over the glass, clearly only hastily looked at.

You were about to call out for Wonwoo, when his voice caught your attention, "Jesus Christ, Jihoon, pick up." Low and angered, just like you used to hear it all the time. Before. Before... all of this. It almost seemed unfamiliar to you, that's how long it must have been.

Turning to walk to the kitchen after hanging your wet clothing over one of the empty chairs and the sweatpants on the seat, you found said CEO leaning against the countertop. What caught your eyes though was the glass he had put up to his lips, throwing the brown liquid down his throat.

"Wonwoo, it's 9 am!" You called out, catching his attention. He threw his phone to the side with a clearly annoyed sigh and put the glass down, right next to the Whiskey Decanter.

Ignoring your exclaim, he raised his hand, gripping the pieces of paper tightly, wrinkling them harshly, "Are those real?"

The stern tone of his voice made you take a deep breath and reach forward in a hopefully somewhat calming manner, "Can I explain?" But that didn't calm him at all. Not in the slightest. He rushed past you.

"Yes, in the car. Put your shoes on."

"What?" You turned around, watching him hastily compiling all the evidence and stuffing everything into the brown envelope. He brushed past you once again, back into the kitchen to grab his phone before getting to the front door and slipping into his shoes.

"Jihoo's not picking up his fucking phone, so we're gonna go visit him. Come on," he nodded for you to come closer. You knew it wasn't the right time to ask any questions and just followed his order, right until he reached for his car keys. A slap on his hand made him flinch back.

"Are you insane? I just saw you jugging down Whiskey! You really think I'm gonna jump into a car with you now?" He was quick to shake his head, trying to get some sense back.

"Right, right... sorry," he opened the door, "You got your keys?"

You nodded, "Yeah, let's go," with a calm voice you pushed him out, praying this was gonna go at least somehow the way you expected it to go.

-

The elevator doors opened, bringing you back to the present as you thought back to the car ride where you had tried to explain everything that had happened in your office. Wonwoo had 'only' interrupted you about twenty times with 'what the fuck was he doing there?', 'Are you being for real right now?', 'you're fucking with me, right?', 'I'm gonna fire Jisoo, for fuck's sake'. A separate argument had started on behalf of that last statement of his as you tried to talk him out of that thought, but at that point, you had already reached Jihoon's law firm building, and everything was forgotten again as you stepped into the elevator and let silence overcome the two of you.

Just as you were about to step onto the designated floor, Wonwoo's call made you stop, "Y/N."

You turn around with a hum.

"Who did you think Yeri was?" Was that why he had been so quiet the entire elevator ride? Was he really gonna ask that now?

"What?" You scrunched your eyebrows, slightly shaking your head, "N-No one."

As the door wanted to close again, the CEO stepped forward, putting himself in between.

His eyes never left yours and you couldn't get yourself to break the intense stare you two shared.

"You still don't believe me?"

You shrugged softly, "Believe what?" There were more important things to discuss, was he really not gonna let this go?

"You thought Yeri was some girl I slept with. Be honest."

...

Yes. Yes, you did. Alright? And you hated it. Every fucking second of it.

"So what, Wonwoo," you barely whispered, "Can we go now?" Motioning towards the hallway. You didn't wait for an answer but just stepped forward, stopping at the extended arm suddenly in front of you.

"I meant what I said. Last night." Again, his eyes were still trained on you. Even with your gaze straight, you could feel his burning the side of your face, making you turn your head.

You nodded, your eyes drifting down to the floor, "I know. I did too." Your comment seemed to have calmed him as you could see his eyebrows relaxing and his eyes softening.

"But still, you..." You could tell, he himself wasn't sure where this was supposed to go, so you stopped him with your palm up.

"Can we talk about this later?"

Wonwoo nodded with a heavy breath leaving his nose. You were ready to walk forward, but his finger pointing at you made you stop once again.

"You're not gonna be able to walk away from this conversation forever, just so you know." With a roll of your eyes, you pushed his hand aside and walked past him, waiting for him in the hallway to show you the way.

Similar to your office building, you stepped through glass doors but came to a halt at what seemed to be like a reception.

"Oh, Mister Jeon," the voice of the woman behind the desk rushed through your ear, "Do you have an appointment with-"

"I'm sorry, but I need to see him now," he interrupted her quickly.

"He has a client in there, and I don't think he's free until-"

"No," he stopped her again, "I didn't ask. I want to see him. Now."

She nodded, "I understand, but I can't interrupt-"

"If you can't, I will," his tone grew more and more serious with every word falling from his lips, making you step closer to him, your soft hand finding its way to his shoulder.

"It's fine," you said out loud, everyone knowing it was more directed towards Wonwoo than to anyone else, "We can wait."

He shrugged off your touch, "No, we can't," and turned around without another sound, crossing the floor with quick steps, and running down the hallway as he definitely already knew the way to Jihoon's office.

"Wonwoo!"

"Mister Jeon!" The two of you that had stayed behind called out, before you looked at the woman with a gentle smile, "I'm sorry," but still went to rush after him. 

You caught up just as he opened the door to an office.

"Jihoon!" With a quick look inside, you were met with the surprised eyes of the man you were looking for and a second pair sitting right across from him, gazing at you in shock and confusion.

"Get out," Wonwoo motioned to the stranger to get up, "Come on."

"Wonwoo, I-" the lawyer tried to stop him, but the man in front of him was already standing up, clearly intimidated by the stature of the CEO. He almost bumped shoulders with you with the rush he was in, excusing himself quickly, not even daring to cross gazes with you.

"We have to talk," he sternly told Jihoon, throwing the envelope onto his desk.

The smaller man sighed, "And that can't wait?"

"No."

-

Wonwoo and you had taken a seat across from Jihoon, each in their own seat as your eyes were fixed on the man in front of you. You had wanted to start picking at your nail polish, but once you realised that it truly was all gone, your fingers found new entertainment by playing with the leather of the chairs. While you could practically hear and feel your heartbeat slowly coming up to your throat, your foot twitching out of nervosity, Wonwoo next to you seemed to be doing just fine. A deep breath would leave his lips every now and then as his gaze drifted around the room, taking in the decor on Jihoon's shelves and the big windows showing you the skyline of the city. After that became too boring for him, he stood up and started pacing around the room, clearly getting impatient by how long the lawyer was taking, which you could definitely relate to. One quick look at the digital clock on his desk though let you know that it had only been four minutes. Four long fucking minutes.

"So?" Wonwoo was the first to break the silence, making his friend sigh, look up and lean back in his chair. His eyes first fell on Wonwoo, but then travelled to you, suddenly a confused look written across his face.

"You went to Seoultech?"

"Hm?" You wondered, copying his facial expression before you lowered your head to where his gaze was fixed on. The sweatshirt. You forgot. "Oh, no," you stuttered, "I-It-"

"It's mine, not important," the CEO finished the explanation quickly, not wanting to dive further into the reason why you were wearing it, making Jihoon's eyebrows jump up in surprise. His change in expression went uncommented. "So, what do you say?" Wonwoo steadied his figure by placing his hands on the backrest of the chair he had sat in only a minute ago, not looking anywhere else but at the man whose opinion mattered the most at that very second.

"I think you know what I'm gonna say," he answered calmly.

"Well, I wanna hear it," Wonwoo argued back.

The lawyer sighed, "It's great evidence. Amazing even."

"Exactly," the younger man nodded with somewhat of a proud grin on his lips.

"But," Jihoon started again, catching both of your attention suddenly.

"But?" The CEO and you questioned in chorus. That was never a good start.

He gathered the papers together in his hands, waving them gently, "It's too good. And too much."

"What the fuck do you mean, too much?" Wonwoo didn't seem as confident anymore as before, annoyed by what he had to be confronted with. "That asshole did all of this, how could it be too much?!" You didn't miss the slight raise in his voice, neither did Jihoon, but he seemed unfazed by it.

"I mean it's too much." He stated once again. "You bring this amount of evidence to a judge out of nowhere, they're gonna start questioning it. All of it."

"So? Let them question it."

The shake of his head, made Wonwoo stop in his tracks. "That would give Chanyeol just more time to come up with something to fight this. Because he WILL find out that everything's getting delayed because of a sudden appearance of evidence the court needs to look through."

"Fuck that," the CEO shook his head with a deep mumble, followed by a sigh.

"How did you even get this?" Jihoon wondered, his eyes flicking between you two, waiting for an answer.

You lifted your head to find Wonwoo's gaze already on you. The soft nod towards the lawyer along with a gentle, "That's your story to tell," made you take a deep breath.

With your fingers holding on tightly to the sleeves of the sweater, you started, "Sehun came into the office today."

"Oh Sehun? Park's guy?" To which you nodded, but Jihoon had more questions, "Why? You know him too?"

"Yeah... he..." you tried finding the right words, "He used to be one of my best friends before... Chanyeol and I became a thing. So- I don't know, he just was there, sitting in my office with that envelope and told me to use it for the lawsuit."

"Just like that?"

"He feels really guilty for what they did," as much as you didn't want to defend him, since you knew the other party was still in the wrong, you couldn't help but let your feelings play into it, "He wants to be better than that them-"

"That sounds pretty sketchy to me, not gonna lie," Jihoon sighed, crossing his arms over his chest as he stood up. Wonwoo was back to sitting down next to you, his eyes never leaving your side profile.

"It's not," you argued, "I trust him. Kinda..."

"Kinda?"

"I know that it's hard to believe, but if you knew him like I do, you'd trust him too. Of course, I don't want to put all of my trust into him and into this," you pointed at the papers on his desk, "But I do believe he meant what he said. He wants to take down Chanyeol just as much as we do. He's done with his bullshit."

"Alright," Jihoon nodded, "I'll take your word for that," and took a few steps closer to his desk again, suddenly separating the papers into two piles, "This," he pointed to the left one, "We can use. I'll get that to the judge as quickly as possible." Then turned to the right one, "But this. We can't use it like that."

You sat up straighter, trying to get a glimpse at what pieces of evidence he was talking about when you found the statements of the women Sehun had told you about.

"What?" You called out, "What do you mean, we can't use that? Are you kidding me? You just wanna throw that away?!" Your voice got louder with each sentence, desperation and shock lacing every word. Frustration started building up in your body like a slow fire spreading.

"Listen, we-"

"These women deserve to be heard! They had the courage to talk about what happened to them, and now you don't even want to use it?! You can't be serious right now..." The rough hand gently covering yours on the armrest of your chair made you take a deep breath. You didn't need to look down to feel the intensity.

"Jihoon," Wonwoo spoke up, much calmer than you, "Their statements are just as much evidence as that other shit-"

"No, it's not."

"Yes, it is-"

"Not, it's not, Wonwoo!" Jihoon was the last person to raise their voice in the room, but it had to happen at some point. Before either of you could interfere, he continued, his tone much lower but not any less strict, "We know what law enforcement is like these days. You out of all us should know it the best," he pointed at the CEO, who shifted in his seat and his grip on your hand tightened. He hit a nerve with that. "What they're gonna do once they read through these is give that Park idiot a warning and those women some money because they think it's gonna make them feel better and forget everything that happened. This is their way of handling these types of situations these days, and it's not gonna benefit us in any way or bring Park down."

The three of you sat in silence. You understood now. Wonwoo did too. And Jihoon was right. When it comes to sexual assault cases, law enforcement was the worst to deal with it and whatever the outcome would be, it never benefited the women on the lower end.

"There's a big difference between the raid videos and the statements," the lawyer started again, sitting down opposite of you, "Here with have video evidence, which is VITAL in a case like this. Yes, videos can always be edited, but these idiots forgot that you have a watermark on all of your security camera footage, like smart people would." His comment almost made you chuckle, but it certainly made Wonwoo smile. "Statements won't get us far, that's the problem. They can be faked easily. They can even say we bribed these women to say bad shit about Park." You nodded in understanding. "But."

"Can you stop with these 'buts' and get to the fucking point?" Wonwoo started becoming impatient again, never breaking the cold demeanour you had become so used to.

Jihoon took the right pile of paper into his grasp, "Did you read through them?"

"Not all of them, why?" The CEO shook his head.

The smaller man sighed, "I figured," earning himself an unamused facial expression from his friend, "Some of these women stated that the sexual harassment happened at the workplace. There's no way we're getting camera footage from their office unless Sehun helps us with that, but that again could get us into some deep trouble as well," he explained, knowing he had both of your full attention. "But not all of them talk about their workplace. Some of them mention a club."

Wonwoo stared at him in confusion as he noticed the slightly smug look on the lawyer's face, "What club?"

Not giving him a verbal answer, Jihoon pushed the papers towards the two of you, making Wonwoo's hand lift from yours, leaving a cold empty space. It was only then that you noticed for how long his warm palm was covering your entire hand. The man next to you got a hold of the papers, reading through them quickly until his eyes stopped and what he was looking for.

"The Monbebe..."

"The Monbebe," Jihoon nodded with a smirk, a pen of his now in between his fingers as he played with it.

Wonwoo shook his head in slight annoyance or disappointment, you weren't sure, "Fuck..."

Your eyes switched between the two men, hoping someone would explain what had just happened, but since neither of them continued, you decided to speak up, "What's the Monbebe?"

Wonwoo was quick to answer, "A club downtown."

"And part of our past," the lawyer continued, a subtle smirk daring to escape on his face.

"Jihoon. Don't." The CEO looked up, glaring at his friend. But he just rolled his eyes.

You didn't miss the sudden change in the atmosphere that ran across the room, the tension that had started to build up again, and you couldn't help but let your curiosity win over, "W-What do you mean?" Eyes on Jihoon first, but when he pointed towards Wonwoo, you switched to look at him, "What does he mean?"

The man next to you shook his head as he threw the papers back onto the table with a huff, "Nothing, it's not important."

"Oh, it is VERY important," Jihoon contended.

"No, it's not, you fucking know I don't want to have anything to do-"

"You can't run from your past, Wonwoo!" The two men started to argue. You stayed seated, watching the heat in both of their eyes as they took a trip down memory lane, to a memory that Wonwoo seemed to want to forget.

The CEO stood up with an angry breath leaving his lips, "That was never supposed to be my past! Or any of our pasts! You forgot about that?! Oh sorry, my bad, just because it got deleted from your record, you're just gonna pretend like it was fine what happened back then?!"

"Don't start with that," Jihoon, now also standing as a defence mechanism, pointed a finger at his friend, "I'm not the one trying to erase everything that happened. Yes, it wasn't okay, but like I said, it's in the past, Wonwoo." He shook his head with a sigh, "Jesus Christ... I'm not saying you should go back there and become their best fucking friend."

"Then what exactly are you trying to say, Sir lawyer?!" Wonwoo spat those words at his face, almost sounding like he was holding them against said lawyer.

"Will you let me finish for once?"

The CEO raised his arms in defence and motioned for the other to continue talking. You just hoped to soon get out of this misery of the unknown.

Jihoon took a deep breath, taking a look out of the window before turning his attention back to you, "I told you. The security camera footage that Sehun brought you won't be a problem. That's good evidence. But the statements are not enough-"

"You already said that," Wonwoo interrupted him, earning him a glare from both you and Jihoon, receiving an annoyed sigh in return.

"BUT, we know that the Monbebe has security cameras all over that freaking place, and those also have a watermark, meaning that the judge and everyone else would look through, but they wouldn't question the sincerity of the footage. Because those are harder, if not, impossible to fake in the period ever since it happened to now."

"And... how do we get to this security footage?" You had started picking on the fabric of the chair again, still not feeling an ounce of casualty or calmness yet.

Jihoon dared to look at his friend from across the room for a split second before answering, "That's why I mentioned our past," looking at his shoes and meeting your eyes again, "We-"

"She doesn't have to know everything," Wonwoo stopped him sternly, taking the last piece of patience you had with those final words. You shot up from your seat and turned your entire body towards him,

"I'm in this shit as much as you are! So yes, I do in fact have to know everything, are you kidding me?! While you two have been fighting over God knows what shitty past you have, I've been sitting here and just listening to this, not knowing what the fuck is going on. So you better start telling me about this right now! I've had to tell you everything about Chanyeol as well-"

"That's not the same!" With a few quick steps, Wonwoo got dangerously closer to you, "Your fuckhead of ex-boyfriend is suing our company, so I think I'm damn well entitled to know who the fuck he is and why he's doing that!"

"Yes, and now this is also part of that whole fucking trial, that I'm in as well, so stop arguing and start fucking talking," you had lowered your voice, remembering that there was still another person in the room with you and you were in fact in an official law firm, holding multiple other lawyers that worked next to yours.

Wonwoo couldn't tear his eyes off you, but the same went for you. He captivated you once again. So easily. And he didn't even try.

"The owners of the club are old friends of ours," Jihoon spoke up, making you turned towards him, but you still caught the sigh escaping the other man's lips as he shook his head,

"Friends..."

"They were." The lawyer repeated, much sterner this time and definitely directed at Wonwoo.

"Exactly, there WERE."

"But they'd still help you," Jihoon argued, "If they saw you at the Monbebe, you don't think they'd want to talk?"

The CEO nodded with a smirk, "OH, I know they'd want to talk, but I wouldn't let them finish whatever the fuck they're gonna say."

"Well then, you're gonna have to learn to in order to get those security camera videos."

You switched your weight from one leg to the other as you crossed your arms, "You think they're just gonna give us that footage?"

Jihoon motioned you a clear 'no' with his head, "No, not just like that. But if that idiot over there could get the stick out of his ass, I'm sure they'd be more willing to do it... Maybe bring Mingyu along too. They always got along with him the best."

Your gazes switched between the annoyed CEO and the calm but smug-looking lawyer, while you stood in the middle, unsure of what was to come next. Wonwoo was for sure not going to take the next word as his friend's last sentence was still running through his mind. You decided to take the initiative to get out of this situation as quickly as possible.

"So...?" Eyeing the two men, "What are we gonna do?"

Jihoon took a seat behind the desk again, leaning back in the chair, looking straight at you, "You might want to go shopping."

"What?" You scrunched your eyebrows in confusion, "Why?"

 A quick glance at Wonwoo made the smile on his face only go wider, "The Monbebe is... how would you put it, Wonwoo?"

"Don't." The other man growled, catching you off guard, but Jihoon chuckled.

"It's... a very special kind of club. With... a very special audience."

But that only fed into your confusion.

-

"You’re kidding.” You stated matter-of-factly, rather than as a question, gazing at Wonwoo with raised eyebrows. Your eyes travelled to the dress he held by the hanger. Scratch that. Piece of cloth, that’s what it was. You could not call that a dress or any type of clothing, just something that should represent a form of shorts? Undergarment? A small little cover of some sort with a top not wider than a headband.

“Underwear has more fabric than that.” Your comment made him chuckle, followed by a roll of his eyes.

“You wanted to find out what the Monbebe was all about. And I hate to break it to you, but this is exactly what women that go to that club would wear. Although this here is already very modest for that kind of club.” He put it back on the clothing line and continued walking behind you as you passed multiple other racks filled with not much different attire than he had just held in his hands.

“I don’t want to find out what that club is like, especially after what you told me, but if Jihoon thinks we could get the security footage by talking to them, or with you talking to them, then I’d say let’s give it a try,” you explained while continuing your search of something appropriate to wear.

He swallowed the ball that had formed his throat, "You know if you'd just stay at home like I proposed-"

"No," you turned around too quickly for him to react, catching him off-guard as you pressed your fingers into his chest, "Don't even start with that shit again. We're in this mess because of me." Before you could continue, Wonwoo wrapped his much bigger hand over yours, releasing your finger from touching him, but keeping you just as close as he leaned down.

"And you don't even start with THAT. We're in this because your ex is a fucking moron. This could've happened to anyone he wanted to fucked over."

You shared two more seconds of silence, just gazing into each other's eyes before a voice tear you apart again.

"Hi," she screeched into your ear, "Can I help you find something?"

"N-"

"Yeah, we're looking for something for her to wear to the Monbebe," Wonwoo answered for you, earning himself a quick glare from you that just made him nudge you towards the direction the over-motivated lady was heading.

"Oooh! Special night, I see, I see," she rushed over to a corner you didn't even dare to look at, already sensing the 'not my style' vibes from miles away. "Well," she picked out the first outfit, as skimpy as it could get, "You can never go wrong with a classic black bodysuit."

"That- That's not really what I was going for, you know?"

She shoved it back on the rack, nodding quickly, "Alright, alright, well then, what exactly were you looking for?" Her big caramel eyes were digging holes into your soul, almost making you want to give in and just go with whatever fabric would cover the most important parts of your body. What a great selling strategy...

"Something...." you started motioning around your body, trying to think of the right way to say out loud what was going on in your head, "that maybe looks a little bit more like... clothing?"

The questioning tilt of her head made you sigh in frustration, but Wonwoo was quick to come to the rescue.

"Maybe more coverage. More fabric."

You nodded, holding in a deep breath, "Yeah... that would be great," looking back at the woman, who just stared blankly at you, blinking with her big eyelashes.

"More coverage? For the Monbebe?"

"I already explained that to her, but... yeah," the CEO nodded in defeat.

The sales assistant seemed to think for a few seconds before clapping her hands, "Okay okay, I think I may have a few pieces, but I'm gonna have to check the back. How about you go take a seat in the changing rooms, and I'll get back to you once I've got something."

The two of you went off on your own, trying to find the changing rooms that were on their individual floor, where you were welcomed by two other women, who just couldn't keep their eyes off the man by your side. You'd like to say it didn't bother you, that you didn't even notice the way their eyes basically undressed him before they turned to each other only to start whispering and giggling like little school girls. Oh, what you'd do to be able to think like that. But that was not the case. You didn't like their gazes on him. You couldn't help but try to stay as close to him as possible. He must've noticed at that point. And that thought made you want to crawl into a hole and never come out again. You prayed he couldn't tell how your heart had started speeding up anytime he had more or less accidentally touched you. You begged he didn't notice the chill running down your spine, making the hair on your body spike up when he would bend down to whisper something in your ear. 

But he did. He observed you like homework. He wanted to be able to read you better than anyone else. And he wasn't going to be subtle about it - why should he? He had already confessed almost on his knees to you, what else was there to lose? You already held his heart and his dignity in your soft hands, whether you knew about that yet, he wasn't sure, but he was going to find out. There was no doubt about that.

You had taken a seat in one of the dressing rooms, the curtain still open, giving you a perfect view of Wonwoo, who was sitting right in front of you, making himself comfortable on the soft cushions in the middle of the room, probably specifically made for the boyfriends to wait for their girlfriends. Or rather sugar daddies that would wait for their sugar babies to put on a show for them in the dress they would be getting just for them.

"Sooo...," you wanted to break the stillness and tension that had started building up, "What exactly is the dress code for the Monbebe?"

He leaned back slightly, the upwards shift of his hips didn't go unnoticed by you, making you take a deep breath in. "You want mine or the official one?" Wonwoo had his head turned to the side, leaving you to stare at the sharp line of his jaw.

"What?"

He looked at you. Gazed at you.

"Come as you are. Be and feel free. Don't hide. That's how they word it."

"And yours...?"

A sigh tumbled from his lips, "Skimpy. As less as possible to give us easy access."

You scrunched your eyebrows at his comment, "Us?"

He met your eyes with a guilty look, "Men." You nodded. Right... you remembered the explanation of him in the car. What the Monbebe club was. A whorehouse basically. The more known and official designation was 'Gentlemen Club' but everyone knew what it really was. You felt the sick feeling in your stomach come back when your mind brought you back to that part of your conversation.

"So, prostitution?"

"Pretty much," Wonwoo had looked out of the window the entire ride, not even sending you a quick glance.

"But," you swallowed at the hard fact that was reality, "I mean, it's definitely not legal, but the police doesn't care about it, right? They just seem to turn blind when it comes to that. Those women know what they're doing, so... why do Jihoon and you talk so bad about it?"

"Because they don't." You stopped at a red light and turned to face him, answering him with a questioning hum, hoping to get his attention. He did change his line of sight but kept his head straight ahead, still not meeting your eyes. "It's not consensual prostitution."

Oh.

"I mean," he cleared his throat uncomfortably, "In a way, it is because they're the ones who come to Monsta X to start working there, but... their... clients... and visitors... they can do whatever the fuck they want with those women. And they can cry as loud as they want... it doesn't bother those pigs. If anything, it only turns them on even more."

You had heard enough.

Disguised as a club with a bar, but in the back was where the 'fun' for the visitors truly was at. Wonwoo had also mentioned something about a fighting/boxing business even further down into the basement, but he didn't want to go into further detail about that area of the entire building, hoping that he'd be able to keep the two of you as far from it as possible.

"But I'm not working there," you told the CEO as he crossed his arms, watching your legs that you crossed, "Why should I dress the same as the women that do?"

"Do you think they care? The people that go there do not give a fuck about who officially works there and who doesn't. They just try to get their hands on anyone that's available and the Monstas need to uphold their honour in the industry." He explained. You could tell he didn't enjoy talking about this which seemed to have been a part of his past at some point. It scared you. He hadn't told you how he had gotten involved with them just yet, but you were terrified to find out. Scared of what side of him would be revealed to you. It seemed like such an unlikely place for a man like him to be, for any of his friends that you had met so far, so you were curious to find out more.

"But...," the start to your question made him look up, "If they're so infamous for such things, how did you guys-"

"Alright!" The familiar voice of the saleswoman rang through your ear, making you stand up. With four steps, you were out of the dressing room, only to stop right next to Wonwoo, but with your eyes on the lady, or rather the stuff hanging on her arm. The questionable things hanging on her arm. Your eyes caught some glitter, some pearls, and... chains?! "I know, I know, some of it might not look THAT good at first, but just try it on and trust me, okay?" She beamed the brightest possible smile at you, her bleached teeth blinding you as you unsurely nodded, opening your arms to get the pieces of clothing handed over. She brushed past you and hung everything on the hangers on the wall before stepping out again,

"I'm gonna leave you two to it, but if you need anything else you can just ring that bell over there," and pointed towards what looked like a light switch. With one last, what you presumed to be, fake smile, she left you two to have the entire floor to yourself.

"Wonwoo...," you gasp-whispered as your gaze travelled across the fabric hanging on the wall.

The CEO shot up from his seat, with one big step closer to the dressing room, pretty much standing inside of it with you, "What? What's wrong?" You didn't notice the slight worry in his voice as you were still trying to calm yourself from the embarrassment you were about to experience as soon as you would put on any of these things.

"What?" He repeated.

You shook your head, "I-I don't know..."

"What do you mean?" He kept on digging for a proper answer from you, but you just stared at him with a blank expression.

"This. This dress. All of them. No." The words fell quickly from your lips before you could even think of properly forming sentences.

"Y/N...," he spoke softly, "You haven't even tried any of them on-"

"Look at them!" 

"I am," he calmly answered you.

You motioned at them wildly with your hands, "Well then, you should see the problem."

"Look," the man sighed once again, "I told you, it's their fucking dress code, if I could change it, I would. Trust me."

"I knowww," you whined, a defeated breath of air leaving your lips. Wonwoo was patient with you. Too patient. But at some point, it had to be over.

"You know, I can still do this on my own-"

"On it," you were quick to interfere, pushing him out of the dressing room, making him fake gasp,

"I don't even get the full show?" You revealed your face from behind the curtain with a scolding expression.

"Watch your mouth, mister." Leaving him with a smirk on his lips to fall back onto the cushioned seats.

Two minutes later, the curtain was pulled back again as your head out, finding his eyes immediately. Before he could even open his mouth, you started,

"I look ridiculous."

He couldn't help but grin at you, "I highly doubt that." Wonwoo couldn't lie, his position was making him excited. The thought of what the clothing this particular store was selling would look like on your body made his own react in ways he wished it wouldn't.

You shook your head, the blush evidently on your cheeks, "You can't see me like this." But that only made him chuckle as he leaned forward, letting his forearms rest on his upper thighs.

"I think we've crossed that boundary a few times already, don't you?" He teased. You knew the answer. But you kept your mouth shut and just motioned him 'no' once again.

"Still."

"Come on," you tilted his head, but you stood your ground, sending him a blank facial expression, "What? You're getting shy now? It's too late for that."

With a sigh, you disappeared again, mumbling a loud enough, "I hate you," for him to hear, making him grin. 

That smirk got wiped off his face as you surprised him by stepping out of the dressing room fully, standing in a skimpy little black lingerie dress in front of him. A dress that pushed your boobs up so much, they almost quelled out of the cups, and your boobs had never been THAT big.

Wonwoo whistled, "Well, hello," his eyes were clearly not on your face.

"Stoooop," you whined, hands coming up to clasp your breasts in defence, hoping to hide a little bit.

He chuckled, "What? I said hello," raising his arms in defence.

You squinted your eyes at him, "I know who you said hello to," hands still on your boobs. The chuckling continued. He couldn't help it. He couldn't hide it.

"And what were you so worried about?" Wongoo genuinely wondered as he kept eyeing you up and down, he really tried to stop but it was almost as if his eyes moved on their own.

You sighed and turned back to take a look in the mirror, your backside now facing him, not making it any better for the poor man in the chair. He decided to stand up to not have your ass on perfect eye level and was only graced with the beauty of your reflection.

Your hands caressed the dress, trying to get every single crease out of it. "I mean-," you breathed out in frustration, "just look at it! The fabric is way too thin, my boobs are on the verge of falling out and one wrong move and I'm flashing my ass to everyone."

"I'm not complaining," he grinned, hoping to get a similar reaction from you, which you gave him, but it quickly changed to a shake of your head.

"Clearly." Wonwoo didn't like the tone of your voice. He knew it all too well. It reminded him of his mother. All the times she would check her reflection in any passing mirror, trying to fix every hair that was possibly laying wrongly on her head. Any tiny smudge of her makeup had to get corrected, and every inch of her body had to either be hidden or look fit and young.

The comments of his father rang through his memory. The words he had thrown at his mother as she, slowly but surely, aged like beautiful fine wine, much to the dismay of his father, who had looked like the molerat he had always been. He hated the way his mum saw herself. Just because that asshole couldn't keep his mouth shut. Wonwoo promised himself to never make that same mistake.

"Well," he wanted to touch you, oh so badly, but he kept his hands to himself. For now. "If my opinion is of any importance to you, I think you look beautiful. But so did you in my old ass university sweater, so I don't know how much of help I really am."

You raised your head, meeting his gaze in the mirror, sending him a shy and tight smile as you grasped the seem of the dress tightly. God... why was he doing this to you. Well, you knew it. He had told you. He told you exactly what he was thinking, so, you knew. But what were you going to do with that information?

"Thank you," you softly told him, to which he just nodded. "But I still don't feel comfortable in this."

"Then let's try to find something you at least find somewhat comfortable to wear," he suggested kindly, sitting back down as you went back into the dressing room, pulling the curtain close before you released a heavy breath.

-

"They can't be serious about this," you commented as you stepped out in your now fifth dress. ...Dress? If you could call it that. It was much rather just a bunch of chains that were intertwined with each other, creating something you could throw over your upper body.

Wonwoo looked up from his phone, putting it back into his pocket immediately. 

"Why are you wearing underwear with that?" He exclaimed, getting a wide-eyed stare from you in return.

You stuttered, "Wh- Am I- Am I supposed to just go bare?!"

"Well, with this, clearly," he stated like it was the most obvious answer possible.

You crossed your arms, "You'd like that, wouldn't you?" He didn't answer you verbally but just shrugged, making you roll your eyes with a chuckle.

"But this is actually something that a woman would wear to the Monbebe," he quickly added before you could disappear again.

"This?" You pointed to yourself, "Without underwear? Seriously?"

Wonwoo kept quiet for a few seconds, eyes interlocked with yours, before sighing, "I know, you don't actually want me to answer that." You nodded.

With the curtain closed, you started to get undressed again.

"You know," the CEO stated, "The more time we spent here and the more dresses you try on, the less I enjoy the idea of you coming along," he decided to just throw out the facts as they were. He didn't like it at all. He was almost terrified. Almost.

"Well, too bad," you got the dress off and put it back on the wall, "Because you're not getting rid of me now." You could hear the quiet mumble from outside but couldn't make out what he said. But you knew better than to ask him and just decided to let it pass.

Standing half naked in front of the dresses, you realised that the fifth one had been the last, and now you were left in your underwear, gazing at the clothing in desperation.

"You okay?" Wonwoo had gotten up and walked towards the curtain, his voice now closer than before.

You sighed, "That was the last one. Last dress."

"So then? Which one is it gonna be?" He wondered, only adding to your frustration.

"I don't know," you soughed, running a hand through your hair, "No fucking idea..."

"What about that third one," the CEO suddenly suggested, "You said that wasn't too bad, right? I think it was the best out of all of them."

You reached out to look for the mentioned piece of clothing, getting it out and hanging it at the front once you had found it, studying it with your arms crossed.

"But you said it had too much fabric on it," you argued.

"Mh, guess why it was my favourite," he commented back, almost getting a chuckle out of you. "Do you need help?" His question made you grin.

"No!" You shouted back, "Don't you dare come in here." Looking at the curtain as it started moving, you found fingers creeping in and grasping the seem of the hanging fabric, making you jump forward and slap it before poking your head out.

"Won-" you hisses but stopped as soon as you realised just how close you were all of a sudden. This position felt familiar with him. Too familiar. You could feel his breath on your lips, and you did not mind at all. It was too close and yet not close enough.

"Are you sure, you don't need any help?" He whispered.

The breath that left your lips was clearly shaky, yet you hoped he didn't notice. Although... maybe it wouldn't be too bad if he did notice it... right?

You smiled shyly, "Yes... thank you."

Wonwoo copied your facial expression, "Look how considered I am."

"Mh," you hummed with a nod, "May I go back and change now?"

"I'm not stopping you," he stated, smirking, knowing damn well what he was doing. Without another noise, you were about to close the curtain fully again. "Y/N," but his soft voice stopped you and made you look back at him. Why did he still have to be so close?

"This morning," he started, "What did you want to do?"

"What do you mean?"

"In the kitchen. Before we got interrupted." He didn't take his eyes off of yours, but you couldn't help but to lower your gaze, feeling intimated by his question. The gentle touch of his finger made you lift your head again, "I think there's something we need to catch up on." The almost kiss. Before Binna ruined your pretty much perfect morning. Was he so caught up on that? The memory made you grin. Oh how bad you wanted to kiss him. You still wanted to. Damn you Wonwoo...

"You really want to do this here?"

"A beautiful woman is half-naked in front of me. What more could I ask for?" His comment received a soft chuckle from you, "But I want you to do it. Because you want to, not because you feel like you have to."

"Wonwoo...," another whisper escaped your lips as you could feel yourself leaning more into him, now only millimetres away from his lips. He noticed it too.

"I just need to know that you want to," he copied your tone, his hand coming up to brush your hair on the side of your face.

You would've trusted your heart to stop right then and there. It was beating so hard, it had to be close to exploding. Your breathing had quickened, the adrenaline rushing through your body just like you had missed it.

You nodded so very gently, someone could've missed it, "I want to." Earning an even wider grin from Wonwoo.

"Well then," he just answered, not moving from his position, waiting for you to continue. You knew what you had to do. And yes God, it didn't matter how much of a mistake this maybe was, you were about to do it. Just one last time, you dared to look down at the man's lips, before meeting his gaze again. That was the last thing you saw as you closed your eyes and finally closed the small gap between the two of you. Finally. It had been way too long. Well, at least it felt like it. The soft moans coming from both of you just emphasized that. Finally, you felt his lips move against yours again. His hand held your cheek, his thumb brushing smoothly over your skin, trying to pull you in closer while you had a tight grasp on the curtain, hiding your body from the chest down. It didn't matter that you were in the middle of a clothing store. You could not give less of a fuck. What mattered was the man in front of you with his lips on yours, keeping you as close as he possibly could. The lips you had found so much comfort in.

Whatever this was... it was complicated, yes. But you were so ready to find out what exactly it was and how you could make it work. Finally ready. 

You pulled back before it could get any more heated, out of breath, your eyes met again. You bit down on your lip as he opened his mouth.

"I meant what I said last night."

You looked down with a soft grin, "How often are you gonna say that?"

"Until you believe me," he stated, finding your hand that was still choking the fabric of the curtain. 

Your gazes met. His once cold and dark eyes had turned so soft. The face you had once wanted to avoid at all cost had become so warm and comforting to you. You felt seen. You felt safe.

The subtle nod of his head brought you out of your trance, "Go change, we gotta get ready for later."

You turned around, careful to not let go of the curtain, taking the clothing hanger with the 'dress' into your hands, "Okay, take that for a second, we still gotta pay for that. I'll-"

"Alright done." He grasped the dress and took a few steps back to give you some space again.

"What?" Your question made him look up, "When?"

"I gave them my card and told them which dress you're gonna take," Wonwoo got a hold of his phone, just shrugging his shoulders, looking as comfortable as ever while you were still desperately hiding your body behind a curtain.

You squinted, "How did you know which dress I was gonna pick?"

He stared at you with his soft gaze, "You really think I would've let you pick any of the others?"

-

Already out of breath, you kept running through your apartment, trying to find the pieces of accessories you were looking for, groaning when they weren't in the bathroom, or your bedroom. You rushed into the living room, hoping you had maybe left them on the coffee table, but no luck. You had been looking for your earrings for at least ten minutes. Ten long minutes. After showering and literally shaving every single inch of your body, you had taken the time to do your makeup better than ever before, but now the problem was something else. Fucking earrings.

The shoes you should wear were already waiting for you in the hallway, along with the little black bag you had decided on. With one last groan, you chose to forget about the accessory and went back into the bedroom to finally put on the dress as you were sure Wonwoo would be here in no less than five minutes.

You took it out of its cover, revealing the beautiful stitch it had, along with the chains and pendant attached to it. It was gorgeous. Hot. Nothing you'd ever wear anywhere outside, not even a nightclub - and you had been to clubs before.

Putting in on seemed easier back at the store, you realized as you tried to close the last hook in the back. God dammit... why did expensive clothing also have to be so extra.

The ringing of your phone caught you off guard, making you have to walk into the living room again, where it had sat on the sofa. Wonwoo's name lit up the phone screen as you accepted the call, still trying to somehow get that freaking dress to close.

"Hello?"

"Hey, you can come down, we're here."

"Ehm...," you thought about it for a good second before continuing, "Could you maybe come up?"

"Why?" His voice was laced with confusion, and a little bit of worry, "Are you okay?"

You quickly assured him, "Yeah yeah yeah, I just... I need help with this dress, I ca-"

"On my way."

"Thank you," a gentle smile crept its way onto your face, "Fourth floor, ap-"

"I know." Were you ever going to be able to finish sentences with that man around? Who knew.

Not even two minutes later, there was a knock on your door, letting you know he had arrived. With your hands still behind your back, you entered the hallway, opening the door just a little to make sure that it, in fact, was who you were waiting for.

"Hi," you beamed brightly at him.

"Hey," your facial expression made him chuckle. He was about to ask you something else, but the sight of your entire figure in front of him made him stop, "Wow..."

You rolled your eyes as you felt the heat in your cheeks come up, "Don't."

"What? Am I not allowed to compliment a beautiful-looking woman." You didn't know what to say. What do you answer to a comment like that just being thrown at you? Multiple of those comments as a matter of fact. 

Wonwoo's eyes fell on your hands that were holding onto the piece of clothing in the back. He took a step forward to get closer to you, making you almost breathe out at the sudden close distance when he put his hands on your shoulders to turn you around. His hands replaced yours. "You're gonna have to get used to me complimenting you."

You shrugged, "I just don't know how to react."

"Then you're gonna learn," he placed his palm on your lower back, "Done." You turned back around to meet his gaze.

"What if I don't want to?" The teasing question even surprised you, but for some reason, it felt fitting. And God did it feel good.

He grinned, his eyes running down your hair, his fingers followed, "You'll have to." Making you roll your eyes with a shy smile,

"You don't look too bad yourself, Mister Jeon." You brushed an invisible piece of lint off his suit jacket. Seeing him in suits every day at work didn't change the excitement that crept up your stomach at the sight of him in this clearly much more expensive anorak. All black.

"Shoes on." You nodded at the demand and brushed past him to bend down, forgetting how short your dress actually was. Only when you felt the sudden wash of cold over your clothed core, you shot up again, taking the shoes to the little stool you had placed in the hallway. Wonwoo waited patiently for you, watching you put on one shoe when he bent down onto one knee, taking the other shoe into his hand before moving to put it on your foot.

"Thank you," you told him, watching his fingers move so gently and skillfully over your skin, trying to make sure he tied the strings of the heels just the same way you did with the other one.

With a pat on your leg, he let you know he was finished, looking up to smile at you. If you hadn't been sitting down, you for sure would've melted to the floor at the look on his face. When had the cold-hearted bachelor turned so soft?

"Ready?"

You shifted in your seat, sitting up straighter, moving closer to him unknowingly as you put your hands underneath your thighs, trapping them between skin and cushion.

"I don't know," you let him know in full honesty, shaking your head in the process.

"As long as you stay next to me, you'll be fine. Alright?" He tried to find your eyes as you looked away, not being able to shake the unweary feeling you had about this whole situation you were about to run into. "I won't let anyone there touch you. I promise." His hand on your knee assured you even more of his statement. He promised. You knew he meant it.

With a nod, you agreed, "I know."

For a few more seconds the two of you stayed in your positions, sharing gazes as you watched his eyes go from concerned to reassuring to... something you couldn't quite put your finger on. So much had happened over the past few months for you to sit right there with the man in front on his knees. Just like he told you... 

"What?" His question brought you back, making you shake your head,

"Nothing, let's go." You stood up to walk past him, but his hand on your naked leg stopped you when he stood back up, only to let it travel up slowly, knowing damn well what it did to you when he caught your eyes again, and your lips slightly parted.

"What was that look on your face?" Again, he tried to dig deeper. You shook your head. But you knew there was no escape from him. If he wanted something, he'd get it.

His fingers grasped your chin to make you look at him. You were quick to wrap your hands around his wrist, ready to pull back whenever you wanted to. If you ever wanted to. 

The raise of his eyebrows let you know that he wouldn't move until you answered his question in proper words, so you took a slightly deeper breath.

"I was just trying to read you."

You saw his eyes falling to your lips before meeting your gaze again. "You don't have to try to read me. Just ask me."

A quick look down at your shoes got you the small amount of confidence that would hopefully be enough for what you were about to do.

"Can I ask you something?" You whispered.

He nodded, "Everything," lowering his voice to match yours.

You swallowed, tightening your grip on his wrist, as your heartbeat quickened, "Can you kiss me?"

He grinned right away and didn't waste a second to pull you in, only stopping when your lips brushed against each other before he whispered, "You don't have to ask for that."

You could've cried if you wanted to. The emotions had been building up for too long, and there were oh so close to spilling out of you.

The passion his lips wrote all over yours let the tingle in your stomach errupt. The butterflies were finally freed from their cage, letting an exciting chill run across your entire body. God... it felt so good. Too good. His warmth made you feel finally safe again. You felt... loved. Truly loved. Cared for. Anything you could ask for. Right there in front of you.

But all good must come to an end, and so did this kiss.

Wonwoo smiled all so gently at you again, his thumb caressing the faded touch of his lips left on yours, almost making you moan.

"Ready?"

But even in your dizzy state, you were able to hear him. You saw him. You felt him.

You answered him with a nod, followed by a soft, "Yeah."

-

In the car, driven by Hongseok, on the way to the club, the two of you had fallen into a comfortable small-talk-like conversation. Wonwoo let you know about the day in the office run by Mingyu as the two of you had been busy. He also informed you that the co-CEO would not be joining you that evening since he "never wants to ever put another foot into the cursed, run by the devils themselves, building", as he had worded it apparently.

The man's rough hand was on your naked thigh throughout the entire drive. It wasn't uncomfortable. Not at all. It didn't even make you nervous. It just made you feel safe. But you couldn't hide the shaky breath tumbling from your lips whenever he'd start moving that freaking thumb over your skin. Fucking tease.

Before you knew it, Hongseok notified you of your arrival, making the breath get stuck in your throat. You were about to enter a lion's den. A literal hell, just like Mingyu had put it. If it wasn't for the CEO next to you, you would've already had the worst nervous breakdown of your life, but his presence assured you. He wouldn't let anything happen to you. He promised.

The driver opened the door for you and you were greeted with a mix of blue, red, and purple light blinding your eyes once you stepped out, Wonwoo's hand right there to help and steady you before his moved to the small of your back, leading you forward. You two thanked Hongseok and wished him a good evening before he disappeared again, but not without sending you a warm smile.

You walked ahead, stopping a few feet away from the bouncer in front of the big, fancy-decorated doors. There was no line, which surprised you, but they probably wouldn't want to catch too much attention, you explained to yourself.

"Jeon," the big man suddenly exclaimed, making you jump at the tone of his voice. Not welcoming, that was for sure. "The fuck are you doing here?"

"Good to see you too Sidae," Wonwoo nodded at him, changing the placement of his hand as it was suddenly in front of you, making you pause in your tracks.

"Why are you here?" The man was not about to let you two off easily, you could tell. His eyes came to you, running up and down your body, sending an uncomfortable chill down your spine.

The CEO closed the button on his jacket, "I need to talk to them."

The doorman was quick to shake his head, crossing his arms in front of his massive chest. "They're gonna talk to you."

"And how would you know that?" Wonwoo argued back, earning himself a growl from the man in front of you to which your arms snaked over his, trying to keep close to him. His hand immediately found yours, hoping to give you some form of comfort.

"Do I have to remind you of what happened the last time you and your friends were here? The mess you idiots left." His comment made you scrunch your eyebrows in question. Wonwoo hadn't told you everything. He didn't want you to know the entire story of this part of his past. But slowly more and more was coming to the surface, whether he wanted to or not.

The CEO looked around, "Am I here with my friends? I don't see them anywhere," annoying the bouncer just a tad bit more, "Just me. And I just want to talk."

The big man in front of you nodded towards you, "And her?"

"You really think she's gonna start something?"

"I don't trust any bitches you bring along," he commented, earning a warning glare from Wonwoo.

"Careful with your words, man. I'd better shut my mouth if I were you." Even though the man was double Wonwoo's size, he didn't seem intimidated in the slightest. The past they shared together must add to that.

The bouncer sighed, before turning to the barricade, opening it and motioning for you two to go through. The man on your arm took a step first, making you follow. You didn't get far though as the doorman stopped you by grabbing Wonwoo harshly by the arm.

"If I hear anything about you starting God knows what shit, it's over for you, Jeon." If you hadn't gotten the message before, you sure as hell got it now. You gulped. Wonwoo just nodded relaxed, opening the door to let you go in first, but he was still hot on your step.

Immediately, loud music and darkness, only lit up by the same colour as outside surrounded you. While the entrance was empty, only men lined up next to each other, one bigger than the one next to them - must've been bouncers too - the open space, functioning as a dance floor was FILLED. You didn't think another person could fit into the mass. The bar to the side was fairly empty too, with only a few men sitting there, waiting for one of the women that walked through the room to stop by their side.

Your eyes widened when you saw the outfits. That's what Wonwoo meant... Those were rarely clothes... not even underwear... you guess they were supposed to be covers, but they hardly covered anything. There were a few women in another corner that were wearing slightly more, but still not enough for a normal nightclub in your opinion. You felt out of place. Wildly out of place.

Wonwoo was next to you again within a second, taking your hand and taking it to loop your arm with his.

"Just follow me, okay?" He shouted over the loud music, to which you nodded.

He took you to the right and right before you passed the bar, he brought you in front of him, his hands securely on your hips as he lead you straight forward, past all of the men on the side and women on the other. It was bigger than you expected. From the outside, it looked like a smaller nightclub but just could tell that that was just an illusion.

One more turn around the corner and through deep black curtains, you found yourself in front stairs but waited for Wonwoo to continue. He noticed you hesitating and stepped forward, taking the first step down. He turned around again, extending his hand for you to take and leading you down.

Black stone surrounded you, and the temperature dropped a significant amount as you were now in a basement - still lit up by blue, red, and purple lights.

Arrived on the lower floor, two signs let you know where everything was. With one look to the right and left, you also found multiple doors, leading to more rooms. You could guess what was going on behind those doors. Wonwoo had told you, and you didn't want to imagine what those men were possibly doing with the women that worked there.

You were dragged towards the 'lounge', passing all those doors. You didn't question anything, you knew this was the moment to shut your mouth. If you had any questions, you could ask those later.

The two of you came to a stop at the end of the hallway, one bright red door right in front of you. Your eyes fell to Wonwoo to your left, watching his chest rise before falling again. Maybe he wasn't as relaxed as he pretended to be. You squeezed his hand a little tighter, just to let him know that you were also still there. He wasn't about to do this alone. He copied your action, followed by a gentle shake of your hands.

He brought his other hand up to the door, knocking hard against it three times. Not even trying to open it, he knew only seconds later it would open up just like it was supposed to. His hand dropped yours the moment a beam of light came from the other room. You looked to your side, hoping to catch his attention as you didn't expect the sudden action. He sent you an assuring smile, tapping your palm with his finger before looking straight ahead again, walking in first to keep you secure behind him.

You were about to follow him when the sight in front of you made you stop in your tracks. A lounge with a big U-sofa, massive even. But more importantly, were the people on the couches. You found three men, sitting with their legs wide apart, surrounded by multiple women, one dressed skimpier than the other, all over those men. Their lips and hands running all over their bodies and all you could do was stare blankly.

The one in the middle caught your attention first as he saw you walk in. A bright smile, that you could only describe as creepy, brightened up his face.

"Jeon Wonwoo!" He shouted, pushing the women off him while gaining the attention of the other men left and right who had turned to look at the two of you. "A face I never thought I'd ever see again." With a slight tilt of his head, he also met you. A wink was sent your way making you quickly walk up right behind the CEO. The door behind you closed. Turning around you found two security men on either side of it. Those people here really care for their safety apparently. "To what do we owe the pleasure? And tell me why I shouldn't tell my men to pop your eyes out of your skull immediately."

You wrapped your arms around your torso in comfort as you started to feel the chill coming down your spine once again. He maybe didn't look as scary. But he sure as hell sounded terrifying.

Wonwoo sighed, putting his hands in his pockets, "Good to see you too, Shownu. And that would just make a terrible mess, don't you think?"

The man on the sofa looked to his left and right, sharing glances with his colleagues before gifting you his attention again.

"Well," he smirked, "Can't be worst than last time, right?"

Can’t even explain how nervous I was finally releasing this bc I haven’t written in so long, I hope I haven’t lost my spark… thank you for taking your time to continue reading this series🤍

Taglist: @nctxtrash @leicy0756 @hoe4wonwoo @jeonwonhi @nothingbutadeadesceane @smileywoo @angelarin @onewoowonderboy @goodforgyu @kavvs @sugarmilkchan @sweetheart-gs @wonforgyu @lilactangerine @meltinghershey @wonw00t @soonchanshua @jayswifeuwu @allorysayshi @shaurenlaw @drama-1998-girl @yoonren07 @malakasae @sseuyeon @venusprada @jeminiepabo @billboard-singer @safsaf1980 @monmarguerite @ji-jii-visha @renjunphile @haogyuslut @destinyg237 @taestrwbrry @renkkuri @travelleratheart101 @love-svt @sunshinein17 @morklee02 @wonuziex @pwwarkjisung @hokuuu @clvudisan @awyunh @restlesswritings @woohaosworld @everyw0nu @woo8hao

[lythea-creation]

Caught on Camera - Shams x fem reader (Chapter 6)

Chapter 1

Previous Chapter

warnings: none

word count: 1.045

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

After Nadeen had left, Shams had offered me to stay in her room as long as I wanted to. I was actually surprised of her trust for me in that matter. But we had soon returned to the party again.

Now one week later I was over at Shams' place again as we still needed to finish our project. In contrast to before I did not dread working with her anymore, rather the exact opposite, which took me off guard.

When had I started to want to spend time with her?

We had settled down at the kitchen table as Omar was hanging out with his friends anyway and it was more comfortable to work here.

Shams had also provided us with several snacks. Apparently she loved food, from what I could tell.

For a while we were simply working silently on our part of the task, deeply focused.

But after two hours my concentration began to falter and my focus was drawn over to Shams.

She was still working diligently, her eyes scanning line after line. Her glasses had slid down a bit and she had opened up her tie and the first few buttons of her shirt to be more comfortable.

I could not help but blush when I realized that I was staring at her. Why had I never noticed how hot she actually was and why did I have to recognize it now?

I scolded myself to pull myself together and got back to my task. But now that my mind had gone this far, I just could not resist the urge to take a look at Shams every few seconds.

After about ten minutes I was absolutely frustrated and decided to take a short break.

“I'm gonna go to the restroom”, I excused myself and stood up a bit too eager.

My foot got caught on the table and I knew there was no way to stop me from falling.

But at the last second Shams caught me, concern written over her face.

“You okay?”, she wondered.

Just now it doomed on me how close she was. The feeling of her hand on my waist getting more eminent by the second.

Heat crawled up in my face as I was struggling to answer her: “Yeah … uh … I'm fine.”

My eyes were always wandering to hers and then down to her lips and back up.

“I … I need to go”, I stammered out and hurried to the bathroom.

I groaned at my red face the mirror was portraying.

“You can't be serious!”, I cursed myself. “Why do you always have to lose your cool around her? Can't you take care of yourself for once? And why are you having such thoughts all of a sudden? What the fuck was that?”

I splashed some water over my face, hoping that it would was the redness and the intrusive thoughts away.

When I returned to the kitchen, Shams was tidying everything up. Before I could question it she enlightened me: “It's pretty late. Guess we forgot the time. I don't think you should go home on your own this late. How about you sleep over?”

I was still wondering when we had become friends for her to offer me to stay the night. Not like I was complaining about it.

“You sure?”, I reassured.

“Of course. Though the guest room is still a mess. You can have my bed”, she offered.

“Where are you gonna sleep then?”, I inquired.

“On the couch, I guess”, she suggested, putting the food away.

“No way! I'm not kicking you out of your bed. I'll take the couch”, I insisted.

“Don't be silly! Omar and mom are probably gonna return late in the night and wake you up”, she considered.

“The same goes for you then”, I pointed out.

“Fine”, she declared, holding up her hands in a defeated manner. “Then we'll just both take my bed. It's not like it's too small anyway.”

That was definitely not what I had intended. How was I supposed to sleep when she was laying right next to me? But that was an issue I would deal with later. Now I needed to call my mom.

“Hey, mom! Yeah, I know it's late. Sorry, we forgot the time. I'm going to sleep over at Shams'. So you won't have to worry or pick me up or anything”, I enlightened her.

“I don't know, (f/n). She has a brother hasn't she?”, she worried.

“Seriously? That's what's bothering you? He isn't even home”, I stated.

Shams chuckled at my reaction.

“Then at least face time me and show me you're not doing anything reckless”, she requested.

“Okay”, I agreed and hung up to face time her.

I was slightly annoyed. After all I had never done anything to deserve this low level of trust. I knew that she was only worried about me, but it was still tiring.

“Hey again”, my mom greeted me. “It's good to see you.”

“Yeah, you too. That's Shams”, I introduced her, swinging the camera over.

“Hi”, Shams greeted her with a wave and a smile.

I basically showed the whole house to my mom to reassure her. But at least she finally agreed to let me sleep over.

“Sorry. My mom can make quite a big fuss over nothing sometimes”, I proposed.

“At least she's around”, Shams pointed out. “Our mom's working so much that we barely see her.”

We retreated to her bedroom and she gave me one of her pajamas. While I got dressed, she got another pillow and blanket for me.

When we were all ready, we settled in her bed and turned off the light.

“You know … I don't even remember the last time I had a sleep over”, she confessed.

I had never considered that. She was alone a lot of the time, at least at school. Nadeen and I were having sleep overs on a regular basis.

“I'm feeling honored”, I declared, earning a grin from her.

To my surprise it actually did not take me long to fall asleep at all.

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

Next Chapter

So here's yet another chapter. What do you guys think about it?

Tag List: @sunwoniie

[writtenjewels]

Stick Figure

Hope-tober day 6

Mark nudged Kate and raised his eyebrows at her. She answered with a shrug indicating she knew as much as he did concerning this meeting. Jamie and Erin soon entered the room and took their seats looking equally confused. So this was a case of Charlie calling a meeting but explaining to none of them what it was about. Mark did not like where this was going.

“All right, everyone,” Charlie began, “unfortunately the location for our next shoot won't be available until this weekend.”

“Are you kidding me?” Jamie burst out.

“Charlie, I thought you said you had it all arranged,” Kate added with a tired sigh.

“It is arranged,” Charlie insisted. “The time-table's just been shifted a bit. I thought in the meantime we could work through the shots we want.”

“And how exactly are we going to do that?” Mark wondered. Charlie flashed a smile and brought out a piece of paper. It looked like amateur blueprints; a closer look showed that it was to their location. Before Mark could ask any more questions, Charlie also brought out some paper cut-outs glued to Popsicle sticks.

“Uhh.” Erin stared at them, her eyes darting to the other crew-members. Clearly hoping someone else would ask. Kate was bound to, but Mark decided to speak first and save some arguments.

“What's with the stick figures?”

“This is Kate,” Charlie explained, waving one of the figures back and forth.

“I have no idea how to take that, Charles,” Kate said dryly. Charlie ignored the use of his proper name, as he often did whenever Kate spoke it, but his lips did press together a bit tighter.

“As I was saying, this is Kate,” he resumed. “We'll want a shot of her entering the building.” He walked the stick figure forward. Mark glanced over and saw that Jamie was fighting hard not to laugh. He made the mistake of catching her eye and had to bite back his own laugh. “I was thinking Mark could be here to get a good angle.” Charlie used another stick figure to indicate Mark's position.

“Why is my stick figure smaller than Kate's?”

“Obviously because Charlie had to accommodate for Kate's big head,” Jamie answered.

“Could we focus, please?” Charlie scolded. “The more we have this planned out ahead of time, the quicker we can get all of our shots in when we arrive.”

“Sorry, Charlie.” Jamie gave him an innocent smile. “It's just hard to take this seriously when it feels like we're watching a puppet show for grade schoolers.”

“I think it's kind of cute,” Erin piped in. She shot a nervous glance to Charlie. “Well, I mean, not cute exactly,” she quickly corrected. “I mean more like, it's a fun idea. I don't know a lot of directors who block this way.”

“Thank you.” Charlie pointed one of the stick figures at her. “That's the sort of attitude I love to hear. Shall we continue on, then?”

He walked them through all the shots he wanted. They paid attention for the most part, but it was still hard not to look at each other and keep from laughing at how silly it was. Never a dull moment at Lonnit Entertainment.

[myinternetaddictworld]

You think you're better than me?

TASM! Peter Parker x Reader

Summary: Everyone thinks Peter is perfect but you see right through his facade...or so you think.

CW: enemies to lovers kinda thing, another fluff piece because I'm soft for Andrew's Peter, some language but not too much

This one is pretty long so grab a snack and get comfy lol

Hope you enjoy!! please feel free to leave feedback because it really helps me out :) also, feel free to make requests if you would like

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

Peter Parker.

Star basketball player, making the varsity team as a mere sophomore. He was also top of his class, earning the highest grades in all of his courses. Everyone from teachers to students loved him...well almost everyone that is.

"Good morning!" your best friend cheerfully greets you as you open your locker to prepare for your first class of the day.

"Hey," you say half-heartedly as you stayed up all night studying for your exam in chemistry.

"Well isn't someone excited to see me," your friend joked, trying to cheer you up.

You flash them a fake smile and pull out your textbooks and pencil case. They roll their eyes as the two of you make your way toward the chemistry lab.

"If I don't pass this exam, my mom is going to kill me and Ms.Smith already doesn't like me!" you whine.

"Please, she doesn't dislike you, she just wants to see you do well." your friend encourages you.

"Yeah, well if she wants me to do well maybe she should make her test's a little easier," you say half-joking as you make your way into the classroom.

"Good morning everyone, as you know we were scheduled to have an exam this morning but I decided to push it off until Friday to give you all a bit more time to study. I realize it was quite a large unit so thank me later." your teacher begins.

"Today we'll be doing some review activities to make sure you guys are ready for Friday." she continues.

"I'm going to place you in pairs of two and hand out some worksheets that I expect to be completed by the end of the period." she finally finishes.

Happily, you turn to your friend. Truth is as hard as you prepared for the exam you knew you probably couldn't pull more than a C considering you crammed the night before. You sat back in your chair as your teacher began calling group members.

Expecting to be placed with your friend you lazily took your phone out and began mindlessly scrolling through Twitter. Before you knew it she had called your friend's name only for yours not to come behind it. You watched your friend and their partner who was not you walk up and take their assignments.

"What the fuck?" you mouthed to them as they sat on the opposite side of the room.

"I don't know, I'm sorry," they apologetically mouth back to you.

The teacher finally falls upon you and your partner's name and it is none other than Mr. Golden Boy himself. You cautiously stand up and make your way to the front of the class to grab your assignment. Peter is already there, taking the assignment from your teacher. You wait for him to finish before pulling your teacher aside.

"Hi Ms.Smith, I was kind of hoping to be placed with my friend over there...they're really good at chemistry and have been helping me through the class," you say politely hoping she will change her mind.

"Well, Ms. Y/L/N, your grades say otherwise. Peter has a great grade in this class and is very sweet, I'm more than sure he'd be able to help you complete the assignment as well as study for the test this week. I did this for a reason. Use your resources." your teacher says before walking back to her desk.

You give a defeated sigh before walking to Peter's desk taking a seat in the empty one next to it. He looks up from his paper, seemingly already halfway done with it.

"Hey!" he greets you.

"Hey," you respond. "Are you seriously almost done? You know we have like 40 minutes left in the period right?" you say looking back down at his paper.

"Oh...yeah the worksheet's not that hard so I thought I'd knock it out early so I can chill the rest of the period," he said smiling at you.

"We can do the next problem together if you want," he says pointing to it on his paper. You nod in response.

He reads the next problem which is plagued with vocab words you know you studied but can't think of off the top of your head. Peter took notice of this as he could almost see the gears in the back of your head turning. He paused for a moment.

"Why did you stop reading?" you say looking up at him.

"You do know how to do this stuff, right?" he asked.

You gasped at his audacity to ask.

"Of course I do!" you say placing your pen on the paper writing nothing. You can still feel his eyes on you.

"Okay, that may have come off a bit ruder than I wanted to but I can help you if need it," he said a bit softer than his first comment.

"Look, I know you think because you're so perfect that you can just rub it in my face but don't go around thinking you're better than me, okay? I'm bad at chemistry, I'm not dumb!" you say agitated by his words. His eyes widen in response.

"...Okay? I'm not perfect and I'm just trying to help. After all, this is a partnered assignment. Ms.Smith told me you were struggling and thought I could help you boost your grade." he said, his voice slightly rising. You glared at him.

"You know what...I don't have time for this." you say grabbing your backpack and making your way out of the class. You were no stranger to occasionally skipping class and you especially weren't going to let Mr.Golden Boy talk to you any way he wanted. You walked to the nearest bathroom and that is where you stayed for the remainder of the period.

The bell rang and you made your way to the hallway to find your friend. After spotting them near another classroom, you make your way over to them.

"Hey," you say linking your arm with theirs.

"Y/N, everyone saw you storm out of class and Ms.Smith is pissed. She's probably going to call your mom later!" your friend explains. You shrug.

"Well, I'll just tell my mom my partner did the entire assignment by himself then proceeded to call me a moron." you spit.

"Peter? There's no way he said that." your friend follows up.

"Oh, so you're taking his side now?" you question.

"No, I'm not taking anyone's side it just seems that you maybe didn't give him enough of a chance. Plus like Ms.Smith said...he may be your best chance at passing her class." they say. You grimace.

"Okay...fine maybe I did overreact, but I'm still not working with Mr.Perfect. I'll tell Ms.Smith I had a family emergency and that's why I left class the way I did. Maybe she'll give me an extension on today's assignment. Then you can help me do it and help me study for the exam." you say batting your eyelashes at your friend.

"Look, I would love to help you this time but I also have other classes to focus on. I say give Ms.Smith your little excuse and see what she says. Now if we don't stop talking about this, I'm going to be late for gym." they say quickly stuffing their backpack and scurrying down the hall. Just like that, you were left alone in the hallway. You sigh making your way to your next class.

The rest of the day was slow but not slow enough. You dreaded going back to Ms.Smith and explaining why you not only stormed out of her class this morning but also why you still had a blank worksheet sitting in your backpack. The time, however, had come. The final bell rang and you hurriedly made your way back to the science room. When you arrived you saw her at the desk grading papers.

"Knock Knock," you say carefully entering the room.

"Ms. Y/L/N." she said emotionless.

"I wanted to apologize about this morning, I had some family stuff going on and had to leave.." you start.

"Mhm, Mr.Parker told me what happened this morning," she states looking up from the papers she was holding for the first time.

"Oh..." you say not knowing what to expect next.

"Now Y/N, I have done nothing but try to work with you this semester but it seems that you just don't want to pass my class," she says with a slight look of concern on her face.

"Your other grades are fine, it seems to just be my class that you are having an issue in." she finishes. You look at your feet in disappointment.

"I'm going to give you one more chance. Finish the assignment by class on Wednesday," she says.

"Than-" you begin before being cut off.

"I also expect you to apologize to Mr.Parker," she says not breaking eye contact. You nod sensing the seriousness in her tone.

"He said he is still willing to give you the help if you need it and I suggest you take it. If you get below a 70 on this next exam you fail my class, Ms.Y/L/N." she finishes. You nod not knowing if she's completely done talking.

"Of course, Ms.Smith. Thank you for everything," you say shyly. She nods and shoos you out of her classroom so she can finish grading.

Great. Now I'm still on the brink of failing chemistry and I have to apologize to the one and only Peter Parker. Today was by far a total bust.

You made your way home and quickly showered and got in bed hoping to sleep all of the day's troubles away. The next morning had come much sooner than you wish it had. After gruelingly getting ready for school, you walked to the bus and carefully awaited the school day. You hatched a plan in your head. Enter the school, locate Peter, give him a half-assed apology and finish the day off by forcing yourself to study for your exam in the library.

The bus pulled up to the schoolyard, allowing you off. You made your way through the hallway hoping you would see Peter somewhere but he was nowhere to be seen. Not wanting to be late for your next period you quickly gave up on your hunt and made your way to your first class of the day. After a boring British Literature class, you began your search again. This time spotting him in front of the cafeteria speaking to some people who you've never seen.

"Peter...can I talk to you," you say shyly. He nods and follows you as you walk to a more quiet corridor.

"Firstly, I want to apologize for yesterday...you just caught me on a bad day. Didn't mean to go off on you." you say, bullshitting.

A small smile begins to creep on his face.

"Don't worry about it, consider it water under the bridge. I take it you didn't finish the assignment?" he ask.

You shake your head.

"No, but don't worry about helping me I promise I'll figure it out."

"Man you really like being on the struggle bus huh?" he jokes.

You click your teeth.

"If I'm being honest, Ms.Smith said she would give me extra credit if I help you."

You glance at him a little hurt by his words.

"So...you're just using me for a better grade?"

"No, I'm genuinely offering you help but I also have my reasons. Consider it a transaction. I help you, you help me." he says looking at you.

After weighing your options in your head, you finally gave in. Peter helping you seemed to be the best course of action considering you sucked at chemistry whether you wanted to admit it or not.

"I better get at least a B on this exam or I'm going to make the rest of your high school life a living hell." you say looking up at the boy.

"Okay..." he laughed.

"Meet me in the gym at 4, that's when practice ends. I'll change and we can head to the library to study," he suggested.

You nodded in agreement. With a quick wave, he was off, disappearing in the hundreds of other students rushing to get to class. What had you just gotten yourself into? Being forced to study with the guy you practically hate?

After 7 more long class periods, you walked down to the gym. The time was only 3 but you figured what was the harm in being early. Maybe it would give you time to catch up on your favorite shows before you had to endure tutoring with Peter.

You sneak into the bleachers of the gym and pull out your phone and headphones. Before you have a chance to place the small buds in your ears, you hear the sounds of teenage boys scuffling on the gym floor. You look up annoyed to see the varsity basketball team practicing. Despite there being at least 12 boys on the court, your eyes stop on one. Peter. The sweat is glistening on his skin. His arms look great in the practice jersey he's wearing and his shorter-than-average shorts give you quite the view. Before you realize it, you're completely enamored by him. You practically hated the dude but couldn't deny that he was not the worst to look at. Maybe you could see why all the girls liked him. You shook the thoughts from your head as you remembered how he spoke to you in the chem lab and went back to Netflix on your phone. After a while, you heard the loud ring of the coach's whistle, signifying that practice was now over. You made your way to the last step on the bleachers and waited for Peter to spot you. He found you relatively quick, jogging over to you.

"Did you see that?" he asks excitedly.

"See what?" you question.

"I scored four 3-pointers in a row today, babyyy" he said, feeling himself a bit too much.

You rolled your eyes at this.

"I in fact did not see that...but good for you, I guess," you said, half-assed.

He gave you that stupid smirk again before changing the subject.

"Well, I'm gonna go say bye to the guys and change really quick. I'll be right back." he said before disappearing into the boy's change room.

Not too long after saying that, he returns, this time in a hoodie with your high school's logo and a pair of sweats.

"Ready?" he asks before taking a sip of his water bottle. You nod, wanting to get this over with.

The two of you leisurely walk to the library which is just across the hall from the gym. There, the two of you find an empty study room to work in. The room was small and had a table with two chairs, a whiteboard, and a small bookshelf. You took your seat across from Peter.

"Okay, so the assignment is pretty similar to the exam." Peter begins.

"You have to know polar and covalent bonds and how to name compounds." He says pointing to the textbook pages he had pulled out.

You nod, excited because those are words you actually understand.

"Cool, so let's do a couple of practice problems before finishing the worksheet." he finishes.

He walks over to the whiteboard and writes the formulas of a few compounds and asks you to name the elements that make them up. After getting the first few right, the fourth one stumps you. You become visibly frustrated and Peter can tell.

"Hey," he says softly.

"Sometimes it helps me to come up with stupid rhymes to remember the elements." he proceeds to name a few rhymes he came up with which gain a laugh from you.

"See, they're silly but they help you remember, right?" he says getting closer to you. You nod, finally answering the question correctly.

"Good job! I'm so proud of you!" Peter says excitedly. A pit forms in your stomach as he praises you. There was no way you were actually enjoying your time with him.

By the end of the session, you had finished your assignment and he helped clear up pretty much any questions you had about the upcoming exam. You felt really good with the progress you made and really excited that you finally understood the material.

"Well, if you don't have any more questions, we can wrap it up, I guess." he says, gaining a slight frown from you.

"Yeah," you mumble

"I had a good time and hope I helped." he said smiling

"Definitely," you say closing your textbook and shoving it into your backpack.

"Good. I expect to see at least a B on Friday or you can officially tell Ms.Smith that I'm a horrible teacher," he says smiling at you. You nod and give him your goodbyes.

That night, Peter was all you could think of. His stupid smile. The way his stupid hair falls in his face when he's explaining something to you. His stupid laugh. His stupid cute glasses. Even the way his stupid stupid voice sounded as he was ringing your praises. You were officially beginning to like him. He was the only thing you could think about as you drifted to sleep that night.

The next few days were filled with studying. The only class you cared about was chemistry. You stayed after school studying the books in the library and even began asking actual questions in class. Ms.Smith even saw the difference in your demeanor, telling you she was excited to see your results on Friday. Just like that, it was test day. You eagerly took your seat and began your exam, confident that you would do well. As you flipped through the rather lengthy exam, you saw questions just like the ones you and Peter went over in your tutoring session. You happily began answering the questions one by one, finishing up the last one right before the bell rang. You happily handed in your test and made your way to your friend.

"So how do you think you did?" you asked your friend with a smile on your face.

"Uh...pretty good, I didn't know how to do that one math question so I just guessed but other than that, pretty good. You?" they reply.

"I feel great actually," you say giving a sigh of relief. This gets a chuckle and half-hug from your friend.

The rest of the day sails by as you jump from class to class just worrying about the grade you got on the exam. Not being able to wait anymore, you again wearily make your way to Ms.Smith's classroom.

She spots you as you walk in.

"Ms. Y/L/N, just the person I wanted to see." she says, sincerely this time.

Your ears perk, hoping to hear some good news.

"So, I'm not done grading everyone's test...but I just wanted to say your results were quite surprising." she begins.

"Out of the 15 some exams I graded this afternoon...I'm happy to announce that you have the highest score!" she says with a smile on her face holding up your paper revealing a 98%. You're taken aback. You almost don't want to believe her. A big smile forms on your face.

"I'm extremely impressed with the improvement I have seen. I knew you had it in you and all it took was a little push from Mr.Parker." she laughs.

You smile again thinking of the short but fun time you spent with him.

After thanking Ms.Smith, you leave the room looking for Peter. Luckily, he's not too far, sitting on the steps at the end of the hallway with his headphones on. You happily skip walk over to him with a giant smile on your face. He notices and quickly removes his headphones.

"Y/N," he says in that voice your ears have now grown to like.

"Thank you...for everything Peter, seriously. I was an asshole to you and you helped me anyway. You basically saved me the pain of having to see Ms.Smith again as a junior." you say.

He dawns a big toothy grin.

"Happy to help, did she tell you your grade?" he asks.

you nod.

"B?" he continues

"Higher."

"B+?"

"Higher." you say your smile getting bigger.

"An A?" he asks with wide eyes.

You nod excitedly.

"Oh my god, that's so amazing!" he says, reaching his arms around you pulling you into a bear hug.

Before you realize it, you're hugging him back. The smell of his cologne setting off sensors in your brain.

The two of you let go before the hug goes on too long.

He looks down at you, the smile never leaving his face.

"Hey, would you maybe want to hang out with me again...and do some non-chemistry-related things? Like a movie this weekend?" he asks sort of shyly.

Your heart rate speeds up. "Is he asking me on a date right now?" you think to yourself.

"Or not...sorry if that was sort of out of the blue," he says making you realize you haven't answered him yet.

"Yes!...this weekend is great," you say trying to mask the excitement in your voice.

"Great," he says smiling again.

You still didn't know if Mr.Golden Boy was worthy of his title but now you were more than willing to find out.

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

This one was fun to write lol I was smiling the entire time. Hope you all enjoy!!

[danganronpasurvivoraskblog]

And here I thought I would sing ding dong the witch is dead but this is way better than I thought. Nice job everyone.

So...she was the last one standing, huh?

Like I said. Akira Tsuchiya has also been dealt with. I saw to that personally.

And Kuripa and I took care of Koyasunaga and Koime and her AI.

Otonokoji and Gyalusetsu too. I made sure of that.

Shirogane, Osone and Yumeno are nowhere to be seen. It's best to assume our allies took care of them.

So...That's it then...The nightmare...is over.

...And so is Organization Zetsubou.

Yeah...I guess that means we only have one last thing to do.

Get the hell out of here?

Exactly...

...

Is something wrong Makoto?

No...Everything's fine. It's just...I don't know how to put it...

Something tells me...we're not entirely done yet...

How do you figure?

There are some things that aren't adding up right now...Sure, all of Zetsubou were defeated by this point, but one thing is bothering me. Because it just doesn't make sense.

What's that? What's the matter?

Organizaton Zetsubou's security was shut down by Uchui a while ago, and Tsuchiya wasn't completely able to get it up and running again by the time you guys all got here. And yet...despite that...How were the Zetsubou members able to tell exactly where we would all be so they could jump and attack us?

Koime, Koyasunaga, Celeste...None of them should have known our exact locations after all these people dropped in on them, and they were forced to scarper. It's almost like...They predicted perfectly what we would do beforehand, and made a counterattack plan. But that's impossible, right?

Hm...

You're right...That is indeed peculiar...This lab is ginormous, and there's no way that any specific locations or movements of ours could be predicted...

Then...how did they do it?

...

I have an idea...But I'm seriously really hoping it isn't true...

Wh-Why?

...Hopefully, we'll never have to find out. Regardless, we should get going...I'm probably just paranoid and it's making me act up again. I don't think I can stand another minute in this cursed place...

Yeah, I think that goes for all of us. Grab Taeko and let's get cracking.

[heartofspells]

So I saw this on a different blog, but give me Kensington lyrics for the Marauders and their friends

Ah, Britt. You can't just send me something like this out of nowhere. You know what this stuff does to my brain. But I'm starting this off by saying I have no idea how many characters I'll actually do.

And I'm continuing it nearly two days later by saying that I've spent hours thinking about this. I've studied. You've thrown me back into my Kensington phase (they really are amazing, just saying. if you've never listened to them, i highly recommend). I've made lists. Charts! No, not charts, mostly because I don't have the patience for that, but I did make lists. Extensively. I did my due diligence, my nefarious and sly friend.

And because I took this very seriously, I approached it from a canon standpoint only, and I tried extremely hard to leave ships out of it. (see how well that worked, huh)

Marauders

I found two definite choices for the whole lot of them together. Fiji and Perfect Family Day

Not all we're building up is indestructible But all we're hoping for We'll know how to get it though We'll know how... To get in a constant phase Of digging a heart-shaped grave for ourselves

And

Every night's the same God has left this place Left us on his way out

Cover up these stains Keeping up appearances Jaded smiles remain Watching fate take place We're sulking and we're stumbling through Grey and spiteful days

I could honestly quote the entire song, really

James

James is also Fiji, just different pieces of it. I think this song is a good way to look at how he viewed his friends and the people closest to him during the war.

A hell of a case you'd make If only the tides weren't so strong You're letting it in, all you're darkest ways

Waste it all away Inside of a king-sized cage Enough of the comforts of home But none of it all takes the bars away

Peter

Peter is Bridges, What Lies Ahead (but that one is more because it kind of amuses me), and Island

Yet another ungraceful evening Another man's faith An easy foe And we're off to shiver In the face of the unknown

Yet another ungrateful weekday We're caught in a game Where the winner takes all And we're off to tell it As the greatest story told

Though we long together For the tables to turn Though we pray together For the bridges to burn Still we stay cold

We got carried away by it We got carried away from home

And

And all I do Is getting lost in the past To find where I'd first hear I was never gonna be somebody That I was never gonna feel light come around

And

I don't want to blame I just want to leave this horrid place the way I came But here we are again I don't want to wait For another wave to come and rule another day

I don't want to stay I just want to wash away this vile and awful taste But here are again Got nothing more to say Only want to leave it an not seek for it again

And I'll be an island And the shore where I stand Can't be reached by more than waves I told my sharks That I need an island For I know the violence And I'll make the same mistakes again

Remus

Our Moony is Storms and What Lies Ahead. And they're both just...so very sad to me.

I don't want to be alarmed I don't want to know what's coming I don't want to lie here Waiting for my end If I knew how to fight it I would never go never go dark I will never be a storm again But if it's easier now then I'll pretend

And (this one is so very second war to me. and it could reflect on the war itself and the wizarding world...or Dumbledore...or Sirius)

And they rise again as I am told that I should see Red now And to fear what lies ahead now But I know that I will Do everything for you again I will do everything for you again And I bet now You will see that I will burn what I don't need here

Lily

I only found one for Lily (though if i'd wanted to focus on the whole Snape aspect, i could have chosen so many more), but her song is Uncharted. I feel like it's an accurate way of how she would have viewed all the loss during the war.

No one knows what part to play It's like the we're in uncharted territory No one knows another way It's like all grace in life has parted from me And all sensible words All sensible souls Oh, where do they go? And why do they leave us now? And if I could go back again, I'll go back again If the worst is happening, how does anything work? Now let me please go back again, I'll go back again

Sirius

Obviously, I found soooo many for Sirius. So very many that I had to tame it down and really narrow my options. Who's surprised? You shouldn't be.

Sirius is Storms just as much (probably more) as Remus is.

Don't want to be alone But genuine lives won't appear On the horizon Oh, what a long wait If there's no way to find it Will I ever calm ever calm down? I will never be a storm again But if it's easier now then I'll pretend To leave it all

He's System. He is the entire song.

And all I am trying to gain I'll seed it then forget how to reap now So I'll deny it again How your wrong is my right How your luck is my doubt But no, don't ever leave me out

Sirius is Insane.

Scenes of distress They follow me around 'til I lose again and by then (You might be calm but my head will explode) I'm out of moves here I swallow it down like a poison undefined That enters my veins like a thread that I can't shake

'Til I cave It's not the words, not the fear or the doubt Not the lack of heart that takes me out It's the knowing that you can't relate when you're insane It's not the pain, not the bruise or the scars It's the knowing that you can't relate when you're insane

I know I wait too long Before I will break a bond I know my body froze My greatest loss

He is No Me, and while this song has a very obvious meaning, at least to me, I think so many parts of it apply perfectly to Sirius.

See the fading of the past The unwinding of the thread It was all above me Right above my head Now it's pouring on me It's dawning on me That everything that's golden Is buried deep in ground eroded Now start digging there where all the lines meet

Regulus

Ooooh. Regulus is Slicer, no question about it.

What are you aiming for? I will never be the one to call When your heart is in need The coward in me Will be all that you face Why do you say no more? Was the heaven I sold you on Just a trifling daze? A glorious cage? And it was in vain?

Then how do we get Stone cold, red hot and And now we're on like a thunder Soon all ends go dead Then how will we get away?

I was going to do more individual characters, but this is hard and I ran out of steam. But obviously I couldn't resist throwing some relationships/pairings into it (platonic or romantic, however you choose to look at it). I'm not going to list any lyrics for these because I'm starting to go cross-eyed, but feel free to take a listen to the songs!

Black brothers

These two...oh, these two. They have my heart, they really do. The whole of the Marauders clump is so very tragic from a canon standpoint, but these brothers stab me in the chest every time I think about them.

Regret, Sorry, and Rivals really hits home for them in certain areas of those songs.

Sirius + Remus

This first one mostly comes from a second war viewpoint for me, after they reunite, after the truth is out, while the second is just a general good song for all they've lost.

St. Helena and Uncharted

James + Sirius

I just can't help myself. And it's possible that the first song is more romantic than platonic. Actually maybe more than little unrequited one-sided love sort of thing. The second just sums them up for me, all that they did for each, all that they were willing to do for each other.

Riddles and Ten Times the Weight

[my-catholic-abortion]

my initial wwdits thoughts, straight out the episode, not reading any meta or seeing any other opinions

Laszlo: heart is really broken, I know he was absolutely not the best father, and maybe there are some things better forgotten, but he truly and genuinely loved colin as a son and cherished the memories they had made together. I think they'll address this next season, hopefully, and maybe Colin will get his memories back and we will also learn more about energy vampires? anyway yeah my heart is beyond shattered over this one. Matt berry's singing voice is absolutely lovely here though and I loved the song for this episode (sunrise, sunset). probably gonna listen to it tonight and cry myself to sleep. my point stands that Laszlo is the most empathetic character in the series and it pains my heart. I REALLY hope we get emotional resolution because while everyone else moved on, Laszlo very clearly cannot

Nadja: I do think it is an absolutely poetic ending with everything Nadja stole and threatened burning up, while the hard work of others stayed intact. the blood sprinklers did their job, their actual function of sprinklers, and all of the club money was destroyed. she didn't even think far enough ahead to take out the fucking money she stole nearly every single night before torching the place. it's a funny parallel to Laszlo doing the same thing, but he did it for ultimately unselfish reasons (collecting insurance money to send the volleyball team to state) while Nadja's was only for greed, and if backfired SO spectacularly. it's both funny and sad. like she was going to essentially destroy the home of the guide and the wraiths as well?? where were they going to stay?? I genuinely do feel bad for her because nobody wants to see their girlboss girlhusband fail like that, but all of this is also so completely deserved. none of this had to happen, she failed of her own accord and because of her own greed and short-sightedness.

Guillermo: OH FUCK

seriously though, I had a feeling Guillermo was going to leave by the end. he was just holding out for Colin to finish his teen years and decide what to do. but I was NOT expecting the bribery though it makes so much sense I was screaming. genius Guillermo at it again (counterpoint however Derek might've done it for free lmao). we didn't see him give nandot a beating but you know what??? this would be so much better. becoming a vampire, something withheld from you for so long, for 13 YEARS; not only accomplishing your dream but getting to rub it in the face of the person who withheld it afterwards? I'm VERY interested to see how it plays out. I loved that cliffhanger actually, gives us a lot to chew on before next season

nandor: strangely fitting that he was barely a part of this episode?? his whole thing this season was this big dramatic buildup just to let it all go and stop caring, just go back to basically almost season one Nandor. while I was hoping for Guillermo to fucking stab him this episode, I absolutely believe he's got some SHIT coming next season. this episode was more about emotion and the sudden expectation that you'll just move on from something big and important (like Laszlo raising Colin Robinson only for Colin to forget everything) or be able to throw away your emotions when it stops being fun and convenient (nandor turning marwa into freddie and essentially throwing her/him away). I think next season we'll see a little more action. I'm kinda glad Nandor played such a small role in this episode because I want to punch him

Colin Robinson: I mean fucking hell there's so much to say, though I tried to cover a lot of it in the posts above so I can make this shorter lmao. I FUCKING CALLED THE HAMMERING HOLES IN THE WALLS BEING CONNECTED TO SOMETHING DEEPER so that's nice, that feels good. but the emotional toll this episode took on me... he just completely forgot everything. makes sense now that he couldn't really remember his childhood before the reincarnation, and it's funny that he described his father before as really outgoing and social (just like Laszlo) and his mother as boring and forgettable (I wouldn't describe Nadja as boring but baby/teenage Colin might seeing she was only interested in the night club)Edit:(his "mom" is Guillermo, pointed out by saxophonechihuahua, makes MUCH more sense, there you go). I think next season we will see how this affects his and Laszlo's relationship because there's no way you can raise someone from a helpless baby to a hyperactive but loveable toddler to a child star to a moody teenager to the exact same adult that you shared a house with for 80 years prior and just pretend that there's no parental relationship there. fucking WILD direction they took, but I think if they dig into it and we learn more about energy vampires, it'll really pay off

Overall: IN MY FEELS ABOUT IT ALL RIGHT FUCKING NOW. uncertain about the future, but overall I think I liked it. I'm not surprised about any of the cliffhangers, physical (Guillermo turning into a vampire) or emotional (Laszlo/Colin), I'm very much looking forward to season 5, and I'm ready to rewatch the episode with my roommates tonight

[agentgumsh0e]

post-fight kisses with sova (sova x reader)

summary: sova wants to make you feel better after fighting max-bot, so you suggest 'kissing it better'

word count: 720+

warnings: none but sova gets a little smug

notes: this is part of the warm-up series, found on my masterlist

“hey, sova! are you almost ready?” you called, assembling your gun at the back table before inspecting it again for good measure. you and sova were next in line to fight max-bot and hopefully break its winning streak.

you watched as sova checked his operator at the training room's doors. “almost, love.”

“i'd be careful if i were you,” killjoy said while trying to fix her turret, which had suffered collateral damage after the boom-bot turned against raze and herself and exploded, “just look at what it could accomplish! so wonderful.”

also trying to mend her bot, raze added, “yeah, that max-bot is no joke. that is, if you don't like explosions as much as i do.”

“note taken. we'll try our best.” you winked and walked over to sova with your gun pointed up in the air.

“you know i believe in us. we make a good team, no?” sova smiled down at you kindly, a beam so affectionate that it was only meant for you.

“yup! let's do it.” exhaling, you readied your gun while sova did the same. as the doors opened to reveal max-bot standing at the end of the room, you could see sova’s face morph from easygoing warmth into a look of concentration and seriousness, though you failed to notice the small upturn of his lips when he caught you staring.

you shook your head almost imperceptibly (only because sova noticed this as well, his smile pulling a little further), as if to clear your head. focus on the mission, please, you thought, should be easy with him by my side, right?

-

as it turned out, you were quite wrong. the two of you ran out of the room in a panic, the rogue shock dart luckily hitting the closing doors. since he was only occupied by the two of you, max-bot had predicted the dart’s trajectory and sent it flying back towards its sender.

“ow ow ow ow,” you grunted, tenderly prodding the fresh bruises left around your waist by the practice bullets the bot used.

“are you alright?” sova calmly asked, but his actions betrayed his worry as he lifted your hand to see the bruises. “sorry, i should've expected that to happen.”

you winced as he brought you to a secluded lounge in the next room over and sat you down on a plush couch, so that he could look at your injuries better (and to be away from the smirking yoru whose ego and pockets grew at the recent loss.)

you neglected to bring up the fact that sova had stolen your attention and ran away with it for the majority of the fight, mostly because you assumed he already knew. “neither did i. it’s okay.” nevertheless, he knelt and lifted your shirt a little to inspect.

“i'll be fine, sova,” you consoled, “i've been through much worse. no need for any ice packs or compression bandages.”

despite your reassurances for him to stop worrying, you couldn't deny that the concerned look on his face was pretty cute. “there is one thing you can do… could you kiss it better?”

since you simply meant it as a tease that he probably wouldn't follow through with, you were caught off guard when he fulfilled your request, and even more surprised when sova gave you a smirk. “it would be my pleasure.”

sova kissed each bruise and left feelings of warmth wherever his lips touched. you giggled at the fluttering sensation of each kiss, feather-light so as to not hurt you.

he took a seat next to you when he was done. without losing his smile, sova said, “ah, i think i missed one,” and finally kissed you on the lips.

you sighed into it, but before you could fully reciprocate it, phoenix’s voice sounded from the adjacent room. “hey fam! let's go again.”

“well, i'm hoping i get hurt now so you can kiss it better,” you said while you looked towards phoenix’s voice, pulling away and standing up.

“you don't need to get hurt as an excuse for me to kiss you wherever you want,” sova said, his somewhat smug smile from earlier returning, “and eyes up ahead, yes? not on me this time.”

you stood still for a second, heat rushing to your face, before nodding and following him out of the room. of course he knew.

[helloalycia]

my patient’s neighbour [four] // wanda maximoff

summary: taking Wanda to meet your parents wasn't the best decision in hindsight...

warning/s: none i don't think?

author's note: i’m not sure what to say other than sorry in advance oops

part one | part two | part three | part five | part six | part seven | masterlist | wattpad

The restaurant my parents chose wasn't too flashy but rather comforting and homely, with an Italian theme and matching cuisine. It was bustling with people, but it didn't take long for Wanda and I to find my parents sat at the back waiting for us.

"You gonna be okay?" I asked, glancing at her with a comforting squeeze of the hand.

"I've got you, haven't I?" she asked playfully, her accent thicker than usual as she spoke. And though she was joking, I knew there was truth to her words which sent the butterflies in my stomach into a frenzy.

"You're cute," I said with adoration, appreciating how lovely her eyes looked in the dimly-lit restaurant. "Come on."

Hand in hand, we approached my parents' table and I had hopes that tonight would go well. My parents weren't exactly intimidating – at least anyone I'd ever known hadn't got that impression – but I still worried for Wanda. Unlike her, I couldn't read minds, so I couldn't tell if she was actually looking forward to tonight or if she was just doing it for me.

"Y/N, you're here!" my mum exclaimed with a grin when she spotted me.

"I am," I said with a nervous smile, before motioning to Wanda. "And so is Wanda, my girlfriend."

"Yes, Y/N mentioned you would be coming," my mum said with a friendly smile, looking to Wanda, before motioning to the table. "Please, sit, sit."

I squeezed Wanda's hand gently before pulling out a chair for her. She smiled at me appreciatively before I took a seat beside her, facing my parents.

"It's nice to finally meet you, Wanda," my dad said with a nod. "Y/N mentioned you plenty of times when we'd call to catch up with her."

"You, too," Wanda spoke politely. "Both of you. Y/N told me that you're travelling the world, is that right?"

I leaned on my hand and glanced at Wanda, who shot me a mischievous smile. Quirking a brow, I mentally applauded her. Getting my parents to talk about their travels was an easy way of bonding with them – they would tell every server and customer in this restaurant about their travelling if they could. She'd cracked them instantly.

I'm just that good, milashka (cutie).

Trying not to laugh as her words echoed in my mind because of her powers, I leaned back into my seat and listened in as my parents went into a ramble about their ongoing adventures. This was pretty much how the rest of the evening went, as the four of us dined on expensive wine and delicious pizza. They seemed to be getting along well, with Wanda asking all the right questions and giving them her picture-perfect smile that impressed all the elders. Heck, she was even impressing me.

Naively, I appreciated how well the evening was going until my parents decided to talk to Wanda about her career.

"So, Y/N mentioned you're one of those Revengers," my mum remembered as we ate.

"Avengers," I corrected her, mildly embarrassed.

Wanda chuckled, glancing at me, before nodding. "Yes, I am. For over a year now, I've been working with them."

"Them being Iron Man, Captain America, the Black Widow...?" my dad asked, looking up as if trying to remember the rest, further embarrassing me.

"Those are the ones," Wanda quipped with a nod.

My mum hummed in response as my dad nodded before leaning back in his seat and eyeing Wanda curiously.

"I can't imagine your job is the safest," he began. "You protect people from threats, right? Keep them safe."

Wanda seemed caught off guard, but recovered quickly. "It's got it's... dangers, yes. But I can handle myself. I've got powers and I know how to use them."

"You do," my dad agreed, before his eyes flickered to me briefly. "But Y/N doesn't. She's just a regular human."

I set my fork down on my plate and looked to him calmly. "Dad, what are you saying?"

"No, it's fine," Wanda said reassuringly, resting her hand on my leg under the table. I grabbed it and held it as she continued to speak to my father. "Y/N doesn't have powers, you are correct."

"And dating an Avenger, I can imagine, must put a huge target on her back," he said with concern, and my mum nodded in agreement. "How can we be certain that she is safe?"

"Dad!"

"Your father is right, Y/N," my mum said, giving me a look, before her expression softened as she looked to a startled Wanda. "We're not implying that you're incapable, Wanda. We can clearly see that you care about our daughter. And you're a lovely person. You're pretty much perfect."

Wanda swallowed hard. "But?"

My mother frowned. "But dating you is bound to put our Y/N in danger. She could get hurt just for being involved with you, with your friends. She doesn't have powers to protect herself. And I can't imagine you're around her all the time to keep her safe."

As angry as I was at my parents for saying this stuff – even if they were saying it out of love – memories of the incident flashed to mind. They were right, but it was a risk I'd accepted when dating Wanda. What good was it doing by bringing this up now?

Noticing Wanda's silence, I spoke up instead. "I appreciate your concern, guys, but I'm an adult. I understand the danger I may be put in by being with Wanda. But I love her and I know that she is here for me if anything were to ever happen."

"We know," my father said, giving me a small nod. "We just thought we'd share our opinion anyway. It's been weighing on us for a while is all."

I sighed quietly. I couldn't exactly fault them for that.

"Anyway, never mind that," my mum said, setting down her fork. "Now that we've got that out the way, let's order some dessert, yeah? Our treat."

Nodding, I let my parents get excited as they perused the dessert menus before them. Instead, I looked to the quiet brunette beside me and saw how lost in thought she was, eyes focused on the table and stuck in a daydream.

With the hand that was holding hers, I patted her hand with my thumb to earn her attention. She looked up suddenly, questioning gaze falling to me. I frowned and quirked a brow, wondering if she was okay. She forced a smile my way, squeezing my hand reassuringly, but I didn't believe her. I also couldn't question it right in front of my parents, so I decided to speak with her later.

Dessert went by quickly as Wanda, suddenly, wasn't very talkative. I didn't know if my parents noticed, but I sure did and I felt extremely guilty. If I had known of my parents' concerns, I never would have brought Wanda to meet them tonight.

After the evening came to a close and we all stepped out of the restaurant, I expected to be going home with my parents since we lived together, but they claimed they had more plans together tonight.

"Wow, you guys have more of a social life than we do," I joked when they told me to make my own way home.

Wanda barely smiled and I felt bad.

"We'll be back in a few hours," my mum promised, before pulling me in for a hug. "Tonight was fun. A great final night before we leave tomorrow."

I returned the hug and as I gave my dad one, I heard Wanda thanking my mum for the lovely evening halfheartedly. After saying our final goodbyes, Wanda led me to her car in silence, giving me time to try and put some jumbled thoughts together coherently.

As she had been for the past hour, Wanda was quiet on the drive back to my place. Whenever I would glance in her direction, she'd be chewing on her lip and focusing on driving, though the blank expression on her face made me think that maybe she was distracted. It didn't take a genius to know she was thinking about my parents' words and I suddenly felt guilty for putting that all on her.

"I'm sorry," I blurted halfway through the journey. "I'm sorry for what they said. It wasn't fair of them, I know that. They just... they meant well, Wanda, they really did." I tucked my hands under my thighs, wincing as their words echoed in my mind. "It doesn't change anything though, y'know? We're still us. We're still okay. I don't want you to feel like anything's changed because it hasn't."

I paused, swallowing hard, and glanced her way. She didn't even look my way, still in the same position as she was before I started to speak. Looking back to the road ahead, I let out a disappointed sigh, figuring she wasn't in a talking mood. I didn't blame her, but I hoped she would have understood what I meant.

The remainder of the drive was like this, Wanda deep in thought and me huddled under an imaginary blanket of guilt. When we finally reached my house, she turned the engine off and I waited for her to say something, literally anything. Her fingers drummed against the steering wheel mindlessly and I figured she was out of words for tonight.

"I'll ring you in the morning," I mumbled quietly, opening the car door. "If you want to speak, that is."

Leaving her there, I grabbed my bag and headed to the front door, but stopped when I heard her get out the car, too. Waiting, I turned around and watched as she approached me, eyebrows knitted in thought.

"Please say something," I said with pleading eyes.

She licked her lips, biting her lower lip so hard I'm surprised she didn't draw blood. Finally, she released it and looked to me with apologetic eyes.

"Your parents were right," she said.

I blinked with confusion. "What?"

She nodded, looking down at her shoes momentarily. "They were right, what they said. My life puts you in danger."

"Yeah, I know," I agreed, crossing my arms. "I knew that when I got with you, but that doesn't change anything."

She gave a disbelieving smile. "Seriously? Y/N, that changes everything."

"No, it doesn't," I told her sternly, growing frustrated. "This is the stuff you sacrifice when you love someone."

She sighed, shaking her head and looking away. "You shouldn't have to."

"But I chose to," I said, clenching my jaw.

"Don't you remember what happened last time?" she asked, stepping forward and holding my hand. "The incident?"

"We said we wouldn't talk about that," I reminded her with a low voice.

"But you remember, right? When they took you and I wasn't there? They could've hurt you!"

"Shut up!" I told her, raising my voice. Pulling my hand away from hers and taking a step back, I continued, "Why are you saying that? You came! You helped me!"

"But what if they did something to you before I got there?" she snapped. "What if I hadn't got to you on time?"

The memories came spilling into my mind, escaping the locked box I kept them in. Tears burned the corner of my eyes as I tried to think about anything else.

"You remember how scared you were?" Wanda asked, frowning at me with exasperated eyes. "You couldn't be by yourself for weeks!"

"Why are you doing this?!" I yelled, clenching my fists. "Why are you trying to frighten me?!"

"Because you should be frightened!" she retorted, stepping closer to me. Her dark green eyes were swirling storms of rage as she added, "It could happen again!"

I shoved her away from me, pinching the bridge of my nose with annoyance. Tears slipped from my eyes at the terrifying memory of what happened, what could have gone wrong, but I ignored them as I swallowed down the lump in my throat. Why the hell was she acting like this? Making me so angry at her for no reason?

"It's not even just that," she continued, jaw tensed. "How many times do I get hurt because of work and you get worried?"

"That's because I care about you," I muttered through stinging eyes.

"This will always be my life," she said, a hint of regret in her words as she looked to me. "I can't change it."

"I'm not asking you to!"

"Exactly! You're not! Which means you'll suck it up and stay with me and will live your life in constant concern for my well-being. It's not right."

I opened my mouth to respond because what she was saying was entirely stupid. But my emotions got the better of me and no words came out. Instead, my bottom lip quivered as I sucked up a breath.

"I need time to think," she suddenly said, anger disappearing from her voice and being replaced with an astute calmness.

My gaze snapped her way and through blurry vision, I watched her step back with her hands on her hips.

"So you can what – think about breaking up with me?" I said bitterly, and despite my anger, I didn't expect her to look at me with a softened expression, meaning my words were correct.

"Maybe it's better that way, Y/N," she said gently, eyes meeting mine.

I squeezed my hands together and tried to breathe through the pent-up anger that she'd caused, but the longer she stared at me, waiting for a response, the more I wanted to explode.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" I muttered, scrunching my eyebrows together.

She pressed her lips together, looking away, and it only pissed me off more.

"Are you fucking kidding me, Wanda?!" I yelled. "You're quitting on our relationship because, what, you think I'm in danger? Well, news flash, honey, the worst already happened and I'm still here!"

She barely flinched as she avoided my eyes.

"You're a fucking coward!" I said, pointing at her. "If you needed an excuse to end things, you could have just said so!"

Breathing out, I wiped my tears away shakily. I expected her to argue back, to realise she'd made a mistake and regretted her words, but as I waited, I knew she was certain of her decision.

"Fine," I settled, brimming with rage. "Fuck off, Wanda."

Still, nothing.

Turning on my heel, I stormed to my front door and went through my keys with difficulty, hands shaking with anger. I heard Wanda's car door shut from behind me but didn't bother turning around. I clearly didn't need to as I heard the tyres screech against the road and knew she was gone.

Kicking my door with frustration, I found the key and opened up before heading inside and slamming the door behind me. How dare she break up with me because of something that I chose off my own back! She just gave up like we meant nothing to her, not even bothering to talk things out with me! And selfishly, she left me feeling pissed and resenting her more than I ever thought I would.

"What a bitch!" I shouted into the empty house, throwing my keys to the side harshly.

When they clinked against glass, I looked up and saw the vase of flowers Wanda had given me before dinner.

"The first and fucking last," I said dryly, before grabbing ahold of it and throwing it against the wall without thinking.

The glass shattered on impact, leaving a mess of water, flowers and small shards on the wooden floor. I looked at it, the brokenness resembling how my heart felt. As the adrenaline of my actions and previous angry words wore off, all that was left was hurt and pain and oh God, Wanda was gone. She'd left me. She'd given up.

I sank to the floor, pulling my legs up to my chest, and hugged them tightly. Stifling my cries, I dug myself into my knees and felt a pain in my heart. Why didn't she fight for us? Did she not love me enough? Was I not enough?

—

"You ignored the memes I sent you, I thought you died."

As Natasha pushed right past me and into my house, I blinked with disbelief.

"Sure, come right in," I mumbled sarcastically, closing the front door.

Following after Natasha, I found her making herself at home in the living room, plonking herself on the couch and pulling her feet up comfortably.

"You could have sent an emoji or something," she continued, giving me a knowing look. "They were some good memes."

"Well, forgive me if I wasn't in the mood," I said sourly, joining her on the couch.

Her playful smile faded as she picked up on my words. "How are you doing, sweetie?"

I ran a hand through my hair and leaned my elbow on the back of the couch, getting comfortable. It had been two weeks since Wanda broke up with me and in those two weeks, I hadn't been doing particularly well. I guess you could say I was still in a slump. A horrible, tiresome, angry, sadness-filled slump.

"I'm fine."

She pursed her lips, looking like she wanted to argue, but thankfully, she didn't. I was glad – the last thing I wanted was to prove that I was okay when, really, all I wanted to do was curl in a ball and suffocate under my duvet.

"I'm sorry," she said, resting her hand on mine. "If it's any consolation, I think Wanda made a huge mistake."

"Ah, so she told you," I said with a nod of realisation. I hadn't told Natasha the specifics of why we broke up, but clearly Wanda did. I guess it made sense – they were teammates. If anything, I was surprised Natasha still wanted to speak to me, instead expecting her to side with her friend.

"She did," Natasha answered. "And I think she's an idiot, but that's not my business. I just came here to make sure you were okay."

"Really? I thought you wanted to show me the memes," I said jokingly, trying to lighten the mood with a small smile.

She chuckled, slapping my hand gently. "That, too... but seriously."

My smile faded as I looked down, my finger playing with my trousers distractedly. "I'm not okay, but I'll get there." I began to glare at my trousers, my anger for the witch returning. "I have to be. Because she doesn't want me anymore... fuck her."

"I'd rather not," Natasha mumbled.

Though my anger was present, making me tense like it had been the last few weeks, I couldn't help but smile at Natasha's words. Then laughter bubbled from my lips and for the first time since Wanda left, I felt momentarily happy.

"I'm glad we can still be friends," Natasha said, making me look to her with a smile. "I know that you and Wanda are over now... but I still like hanging out with you."

"Me, too," I said in agreement. "Thanks for coming to check in. You didn't have to."

"Yeah, I did." She nodded before offering me a small, encouraging smile. "You're gonna be okay, y'know."

I wanted to believe her, but despite how pissed I was at Wanda, I still loved her. And I couldn't imagine stopping, though I knew I'd have to if I was to make it through this.

—

Getting over Wanda was a difficult process. Everything I felt was a mixture of resentment, exhaustion and misery because I missed her. I missed being able to call her when I saw somebody do something stupid in public; I missed kissing her when I hadn't seen her in a long time; I missed hearing her adorable accent first thing when I woke up after she spent the night; I missed her.

Two months followed the breakup and the only time I'd see her was when she'd dodge Anna's apartment upon knowing I was going to take care of her. I guess I was glad in that sense, as it meant I wouldn't have to deal with her awkwardly. But it also made me feel like shit because it meant she didn't care about me at all. Clearly our breakup wasn't affecting her like it did with me.

And it was definitely affecting me.

I was scrolling through Instagram one day when I saw a particular post on my feed from Natasha's account. Yeah, one of the Avengers had a private Instagram account. She gave me her username when she saw me on it one day and I remember being so confused to how she had it.

"I'm an Avenger, not a hermit," was her response, and from that day onwards, we followed each other.

So, I saw a post on her Instagram and it was some goofy photo of her, Tony, Bruce and Wanda. They were posing with exaggerated smiles as Natasha grinned up front; the caption said something about working long days, but I wasn't paying much attention as, naturally, my gaze fell to Wanda.

Just like everyone else, she had a playful, exaggerated smile on her lips like nothing kept her down, but what stood out was the sling around her arm and the cast underneath. It must have happened in a mission or something and it wasn't my business, but I couldn't help but worry. Was she okay? Was she looking after herself? I wanted to text Natasha and ask, but I stopped myself.

She'd broken up with me for this very reason. I wasn't agreeing with it, but for a second, I did see why she'd made her point. It still wasn't fair though. She didn't get to make that choice for me.

We weren't together anymore, I reminded myself. She broke up with me. It had been two months and I needed to let go. If she didn't care about me, why should I waste my time and energy caring about her?

Not letting it get to me anymore, I simply liked the post before continuing my scrolling. Though I knew that deep down, her face was imprinted in my mind and I still worried for her well-being.

—

The fourth month following our breakup was when I properly saw Wanda again, excluding the times she would duck out of Anna's apartment upon my arrival to care for her. It was also the first time since the breakup that Wanda made the effort to speak to me.

I was sat eating dinner on my day off when I got a call from the hospital nearby, interrupting my meal. The nurse was explaining how Anna had fallen over and hurt her back and was now in a hospital room. She was calling me because she thought I'd like to know since I was her registered nurse and carer. I was glad to get the call, immediately pulling my shoes and coat on and rushing over there to make sure she was okay. She didn't have anyone else apart from Wanda and I – it was no question I had to go.

Though, of course, I didn't really think about the fact that Wanda may be there until I saw her there. I also didn't consider the fact that I was wearing my pyjamas when I stepped in the lift and headed to Anna's floor. Too late now.

After asking the receptionist where Anna's room was, I found Wanda hanging around it outside the door. With only Anna on my mind, I approached her and tried to hide my panic. She spotted me instantly, stopping her pacing and looking to me with tired eyes and a frown on her face.

I didn't care that she looked worried, nor that she was holding up well since we last spoke in anger. I didn't care that she'd dyed her hair a reddish-brown colour, nor that she managed to pull off both that and the whole 'loungewear' look in a place surrounded by blinding white and blue. I didn't care that my heart ached when her green eyes found mine, nor that I missed seeing her so close and not in my dreams for once. I didn't care about any of it. Or, at least, I tried to tell myself that.

"What happened?" I cut straight to the point, stopping in front of her. "Is Anna okay?"

Wanda nodded instantly. "She's fine. She tripped over her dining room chair and hurt her back. The doctors just checked her out and said it's nothing too serious, but she won't be able to walk for a while."

I pressed my lips together, feeling the panic wear off at the sound of good news. Anna had always been more than just a patient to me and the last thing I wanted was to hear she'd hurt herself badly.

"Can I see her?" I asked Wanda, quirking a brow.

"Yeah, of course," Wanda said, before looking away awkwardly. "I was just waiting out here for you. The nurse said you were coming."

I chose to say nothing as I walked past her and into Anna's room, seeing the older woman laying on a hospital bed and staring at the ceiling. When she noticed my presence, she smiled at me and motioned for me to join her side.

"It's so good to see you, milaya (sweetie)," she said happily, as I stopped by her side, "but you didn't have to come! I'm not dying."

I heard Wanda enter the room behind me, but she took a seat on the chairs opposite the bed. Ignoring her, I smiled down at Anna and grabbed her hand.

"Don't say that," I told her gently. "Of course I'm here. You're my number one priority. I had to make sure you were okay!"

Anna waved her hand in typical Anna fashion. "I've suffered worse. I'm absolutely fine."

I knew it was best not to question her, so I didn't.

"I'm glad you're both here," she said, looking between Wanda and I, making me swallow awkwardly.

Since breaking up, I hadn't mentioned it to Anna, but she wasn't stupid and she'd clearly noticed that we weren't spending time together anymore. I didn't know if Wanda had told her, but if she had, Anna never mentioned anything. Like now, she simply looked between us both with a grateful smile, unaware of how awkward we felt.

Thankfully, the awkward silence was interrupted when a doctor walked in the room. After introducing herself, I asked if I could speak to her outside about Anna and she happily obliged. She told me about Anna's condition and how it would affect the way I cared for her, especially regarding her new medication, and I asked anything and everything to make sure she was truly okay. After being reassured that she was, I thanked the doctor and returned to Anna's room, only to find Wanda and Anna in a heated a argument.

I couldn't tell what had got them so fussy as they were bickering in Russian, sentences too fast for me to comprehend with my limited knowledge of the language. It got to a point where Anna began slapping Wanda on the arm, looking angrier than ever, so I stepped between them and pulled Wanda away.

"What the hell is going on here?" I interrupted, holding Anna's slapping hand down to the bed and raising a hand to keep Wanda at bay. I looked between them, seeing the frustration in both their expressions, and asked questioningly, "Well?"

Wanda said nothing, eyes avoiding mine as usual, so I looked down to Anna who was glancing between us before spouting off into another ramble in Russian, trying to grab Wanda so she could yell at her directly. To my annoyance, Wanda tried to push past me, yelling back, and I was unfortunately caught in the middle as I attempted to keep them from ripping each other's throats out.

Thankfully, their bickering came to a halt when an unknown voice called into the room: "What is going on in here?"

I looked to the door, following the mystery voice, and saw a young woman, maybe in her thirties, standing in the doorway and looking between the three of us with confusion. I had no idea who she was, though she seemed familiar. Judging from the confusion Wanda had, she didn't seem to know either.

"Sasha," Anna breathed out with surprise, and then I realised. That was Anna's granddaughter. "What are you doing here?"

[ally-writes-many-things]

Father Figure (Jay Halstead) Part 3

Summary: For nearly two years, you were in a relationship with Jay, until a tumultuous breakup shattered your connection. Little did you know, fate had an unexpected surprise in store for you. Shortly after parting ways with Jay, you discovered that you were carrying a precious life within you. Filled with a mix of apprehension and hope, you attempted to reach out to Jay, eager to share the news, but your calls were met with silence as he stubbornly refused to answer. Fast forward six years, and Jay unexpectedly reappears at your doorstep, asking questions about a crime in the neighborhood

Words: 1148

Requested: yes

Warnings: none

A/N: I felt like giving a little flashback of how they met so hope you enjoyed it. I think there will either be one or two more parts. We'll see.

Prompts: n/a

You sat there, mouth wide open as you stared at Jay. "So you're telling me, you had no idea?"

After getting all your stuff packed, Jay took you to his house and Benji was with his grandparents in another state. They had came up a day ago to pick up Benji for a month since it was summer vacation, you told them to go ahead and take him back. No one here knew where they lived back you.

You shook your head no as you stared at Jay's computer because you couldn't form the words to explain how betrayed you felt towards Ryder. You looked at your bank account and seen multiple withdraws that you didn't do. It ranged from fifty dollars to a hundred dollars. You didn't think much of it because you have a good paying job. You looked over up Jay who was sitting next to you. "How'd you find out?"

Jay looked at you and sighed. "When we meet the first time the other day, I did a background check just to see if you were doing okay and I noticed a few withdraws that didn't seem like you but I ignored it-"

You looked at Jay. "You went through my financials for what?"

"Just to see if you were doing okay,"

You rolled your eyes. "Or was it so you can make sure I was taking care of our son?"

Jay looked down at his feet, sighed and looked at you. "No, I told you. I was seeing if you had everything you needed,"

You got up from your seat getting pissed. "You could've just asked me! I wasn't the one who kept lying,"

Jay stood up straight. "So you wanna do this now?"

You raised in your hands in the air. "Might as well since this is the first time we've talked seriously about this,"

Jay raised his hands did the same thing. "Fine! Let's hash it out. You weren't innocent in the end either,"

You chuckled. "What does that mean?"

Jay took a step closer to you. "It means that you may act like you were the perfect one but you weren't. You were always trying to control what I could and couldn't do. That's why I started lying,"

You stood there not saying anything trying to control the anger. "So you're saying you lying to me was cause I wanted you to be safe and not do stupid shit? I seriously can't believe you, Jay!"

Jay looked down at his feet and then back at you. "It was stupid, I know it was. I only did it to keep from losing you but I ended up losing you anyways. If I could go back and change it, I would,"

You shook your head. "If that was the truth, you wouldn't have done it in the first place,"

You turned around and walked out the front door and you just kept walking till you entered a building. You looked up and saw that it was Roses'. A bed and breakfast. "Y/N!" You heard someone say.

You looked up and you saw the owner of the building. She was an elderly lady who reminds you of your grandmother. "Rose, hi. It's been a long time," You said walking over to hug and give her a gentle but tight hug.

She smiled and let you go. "How have you been and that hunky guy of yours?"

You frowned. You stopped going here because it was the place you met Jay.

You were walking home from work when it started to rain and you ducked into a bed and breakfast. You smiled at how random the decorations were but also how cute it was. While you were admiring the shop, you felt someone bump into you. You turned around and saw about 5 feet 8-inch tall man who was also soaked from the rain. You thought he was the most handsome man you have ever saw in your life. "Oh I'm sorry, this rain just came out of nowhere,"

You chuckled. "No worries,"

"Oh darlings, you're soaked," You heard a cute little voice say.

You tore your eyes from the handsome man and looked at the little old lady who had walked up to you. "Oh I'm so sorry, I don't live too far from here and I just got off work and I wanted to walk home but the forecast didn't call for rain,"

The old lady waved her hand. "Don't worry about it. I'm Rose, I own this place,"

You smiled. "I'm Y/N,"

The guy reached out and shook her hand. "Jay,"

She smiled and looked at both of us. "What a cute couple,"

You immediately felt your cheeks start to burn. "Oh no, we just met like a second ago,"

Rose chuckled. "Oh well, you'll make a cute couple. Follow me, you guys are probably cold,"

Rose had taken you to a back room and gave you and Jay some extra clothes while she dried your clothes and now you're sitting in the living room with a fireplace lit with Jay. "So y/n, what do you do?"

You looked at Jay and smiled. "I'm a financial advisor, you?"

Jay nodded. "A cop, I just took the detective test though. So hopefully I'll get it,"

You turned to face Jay a little better. "Oh a detective, that's interesting,"

Jay turned to face you a little better. "Some days are better than others,"

"Okay, my turn to ask the question,"

Jay smirked. "Go on,"

You smiled. "There was enough room in the main area. I was far enough from the door. Did you purposely bump into me?"

Jay's smirk disappeared for a second and then quickly reappeared. "I was gonna come in here out of the rain period and then I saw a beautiful girl run in here too and I wasn't gonna purposely bump into you but I wasn't paying attention when I came in and ran straight into you,"

You giggled. "So what you're telling me is that my beautifulness distracted you?"

"Very much so,"

"Oh, we broke up a few years ago, that's why I stopped coming here. Too many memories,"

Rose frowned but her eyes showed understanding. "That's okay. How have you been though?"

You smiled. "I'm a mother now,"

Roes's eyes lit up. "Can I see a picture?"

You smiled and pulled out your phone and showed a picture of Benji to her. "He looks a lot like Jay, is he?"

You nodded. "I found out, I was pregnant a few days after we broke up. I tried to tell Jay but he wouldn't pick up so no he didn't know till a few weeks ago,"

You heard the door open but you didn't bother to look back. "Y/N! There you are!"

You turned your head and saw that it was Ryder.

[carbondioxidewater]

Sorry for 'taking too long' for this hahahaha, I don't have much time these days so it took a while. Maybe it's a bit sloppy, I usually want everything to be perfect but idk I'm also kinda content with it. I hope you enjoy it anyways.

@karamatsus 🦋

Summary: A story of Tobirama and you being in love with each other without knowing the feelings of the other one, then both being put into arranged marriages with others. (info: female s/o)

Warnings: none

Taking Too Long (Pt.6)

The weeks slipped by and Tobirama was officially declared the Second Hokage. This carried a lot of work with it of course, so there was not much time for you both to take care about your personal business nor spending hours with each other in general. When he asked you to be his chief assistant, your confidence increased, knowing that he didn't make this choice out of emotions, but real recognition of your abilities and trustworthiness.

You felt highly appreciated and happy to be valued by him this much since you knew if it comes from him, it can be taken seriously. You were obviously looking forward to be around him so much, but when the time came, there wasn't much you did apart from giving in some papers or helping him with those. But you didn't really mind that, it was already enough for you to be near him almost every day.

Ever since you comforted him that day though, you felt like he was avoiding you, which made you a little concerned. You wondered if he purposely kept your personal confrontations at work low because he felt ashamed of himself for showing his vulnerable side to you. This behaviour nibbled on you, you've known each other for years and he behaves like you're just anyone, when in fact you two are planning to get married. Nonetheless, you decided to leave this topic for a while and give him the space he needed.

Occasionally, you even met Haruki - he is still a good friend of yours and things have calmed down so far. The atmosphere between you also got much better, it was not the typical forced and pent-up tension that enlarged your engagement.

It was a day like another when suddenly, Tobirama told you the upcoming meeting with Tsugumi's parents would actually occur this day, in a few hours, to be specific. A wave of dread and guilt overflew you and you started to get more and more nervous the more time passed. It was getting time - Tobirama and you agreed that you would not take part in the meeting since it could enrage the parents even more to find out the reasons behind the cancellation - so you left the room as Tsugumi and her parents reached the door. Kind as you were, you smiled at them in innocence, opened the door for them and gave Tobirama one last worried look, telepathically wishing him good luck. He got your message and just nodded, a sign for you to close the door behind the guests and leave.

But you didn't leave. How could you, if your nervosity ate you up this bad? You decided - and you knew it wasn't right, but you just couldn't stop yourself - to eavesdrop the conversation. After the welcoming and formal greetings, the father of Tsugumi already took the initiative.

"To come straight to the topic, I'd like to know how you'll excuse this demeanor. This alliance was arranged because the village and your brother - may he rest in peace - wanted our Clan to join Konoha. If Konoha doesn't want our support anymore, we'll easily find another village to settle down at."

"No, of course the village still wants your contribution. But I was hoping to find another solution to this unfortunate situation. Of course we'll do anything possible to make it to your liking, since this is the priority."

"If it would be Konoha's priority, then there wouldn't be this annulment, would it? I don't quite understand why you want to break off the engagement, is there a problem with my daughter? Is your eminence unsatisfied with her qualities?"

"By no means. Your daugther is a lovely woman and I have no doubts that she'll be an excellent wife-" he didn't let Tobirama finish his sentence.

"What is it then? This can't come out of nowhere. I demand the contract to be strictly followed!"

"I fear I can't meet those obligations. I couldn't give your daughter what she deserves - and she deserves a lot, but I am the wrong man to do this."

"Are you talking about love? There have been many arranged marriages in the past that lacked love, it's not uncommon for political alliances. It's all just formalities." Tsugumi's father explained.

"Let me ask you one question then. Would you really want your daugther to live such life? A life that is indeed politically high accepted, but personally unsatisfying? Where she forcefully ruins her own happiness? Don't you want her to live a good life, full of love, instead of making her a victim to such inhuman actions?"

These words seemed to hit the guests hard as the room turned into silence. They thought about the harsh, but true words of Tobirama and it took a while for them to respond.

"If I may address this, I heard about a possible other woman being the reason. Are these rumours to believe?" Her father asked again.

A silent gasp escaped your lips. You held your hand over your mouth and looked down the floor in shock.

How did he find out about this? The feeling inside of you worsened.

It took a while for Tobirama to respond. Obviously, the both of you didn't expect to be exposed like that.

"I want to be honest with you, these rumours are true." Tobirama replied, short and painless. Tsugumi's father exploded in rage.

"This is a scandal! I am bitterly disappointed! Such unreasonable demeanor coming from a Hokage! How do you intend to fix this? This is irreparable! And what kind of woman would dare to destroy an alliance of that importance for the village? She must be from poor heritage! Her parents didn't raise her properly! A slut like her belongs to the streets!" Suddenly, you heard a loud slam at the table and Tsugumi's father shushed.

"I forbid you to talk like that about someone you don't know, unless you want things to get uncomfortable!" Tobirama threatened loudly before returning to his calm composure again. How he defended you made your heart flutter and warm.

"May I remark that this is not the only reason to it. As the Hokage, I would not have much time for Tsugumi, more so because she is not working herself. She would be lonely and out of company most of the time, and it would drive her to despair one day or another."

He paused to give them some time to let it sink in and after a short break, he continued.

"I'll promise to find a way to make this alliance work nonetheless, you can be sure of that. I am myself very ashamed to cause such problems. I can't apologize enough. There is nothing that can excuse this and I am very aware of it. But I'll do anything to satisfy your interests, you have my word."

"We also had your word when you agreed to the wedding! How could we trust you again after such betrayal?"

"I understand your worries, but on my duty as Hokage, I swear to hold my word this time. I have no influence on your trust, you have to know yourself if you are able to trust me again. I'll respect if you don't of course, even if it would be tragic for both sides."

"Well...we would benefit from a treaty with Konoha too, it's not like that...We need time to think about it. If you have an agreeable offer in mind, you know where to find us."

"Of course. Take your time."

The conversation went to it's end, and before you'd be caught, you fleed quickly. Your mood was not the best obviously, they couldn't come to a clear conclusion. Of course they didn't completely turn down the suggest, but they also didn't break things off.

You were amazed by Tobirama's talent of speaking though, his speech was convincing and respectful. Could he be more perfect? You gushed about him in your mind and went around the village.

A few days later you woke up with an idea. You weren't even fully awake yet, but the solution to it all crossed your mind. You were so excited that you hurried up in getting ready and met Haruki.

After talking to him about your plan and him agreeing with this idea, you jumped onto him, hugging him in excitement. You were overwhelmed with happiness when he tapped you on your shoulder. Confused, you turned to him and then to the person he was pointing at. In close vicinity to you too stood Tobirama, watching you curious. You got off Haruki immediately and dissociated yourself from him - you needed to go to work now anyway. When you said your goodbyes, you turned around, but Tobirama was already gone. You actually wanted to accompany him on his way since you had the same destination and wanted to tell him about your plan, but it seems like you had to meet him in his office. Thankfully, it wasn't far from your current location.

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

"Where did you go so fast?" You laughed and positioned in front of his desk. He looked up from the papers in his hands.

"I had work to do.", he just said.

"I see." You looked down at the desk and he watched your expression.

"...You're seeing Haruki often these times." Tobirama mentioned, carefully watching your reaction.

"Uh, yes...That's what I wanted to talk to you about." you explained and wanted to talk further, but he took the chance first.

"Do you regret leaving him?", he then asked and you looked at him with a frown.

"What?" You had to laugh. Was he really worrying about this? That was kind of cute. You knew he had issues addressing this though, so you stopped laughing to not make him feel worse.

"What makes you think that?", you asked.

"I don't know. I've been especially distant lately. Maybe you realized this is not what you want."

Your frown hardened.

"...This? You mean you?", you wondered, not really understanding what he meant.

"..."

It took him a while to respond.

"I mean, I could see how happy you were around him. He also is more open about his feelings than I am."

"So?" You had to smile again, entertained by his adorable worries. He clenched his teeth in annoyance of not being able to just say what he wants to say.

"I don't know, maybe you just want someone who is emotionally active!", he shouted now, with a slight blush on his cheeks. You couldn't hold back your laugh and could see him pouting at your reaction.

"I'm sorry, I'm not laughing at you. It's just too adorable.", you said quickly to not make him feel ridiculous. He twitched his eyebrows at the word 'adorable'.

"You are emotionally active too, Tobirama. I know that. Yes, you might not show it as openly as others do, but I know you long enough to tell." You walked around the desk and took his hand. He just hummed with his eyes closed.

"Don't ever worry about that again. I already told you; I like you for who you are." You kissed his hand and gave him a small peck on his cheek. He didn't say anything, probably being caught off by these sudden affections.

"Whatever...you wanted to talk about something. What is it?", he switched the topic in flusteredness.

"Oh right! So...I know the situation with Tsugumi is still unsteady and-" He raised one eyebrow and you hesitated for a while.

"I may have found a solution!" Tobirama looked at you in wonder, and before he could ask what it was, you already started to explain it by yourself.

"So, you know Haruki needs a wife, right? And for an alliance with Tsugumi's Clan, we need a new arrangement. What if Tsugumi and Haruki would marry? I know this may sound crazy the first moment, but just think about it!"

Tobirama's face looked like he had a brainwave. Then it changed to a doubting expression again.

"That's not a bad idea, but what would they think of that. We can't ask them to do this. Especially since it is for our gainings only. This is too presumptuous."

"But it's profitable for all sides! I already talked to Haruki earlier and he would be in it." His eyes closed a little in suspicion.

"So that's what you've been so happy about today?"

"Yes."

Closing his eyes, he thought about it for a while and sighed then.

"I can't believe I'm saying yes to this." he crossed his arms, opened his eyes to look at you and smiled in disbelief. Your grin started to widen too when he agreed, and you jumped in the air to relieve your emotions.

"Let's try it.", he said and you nodded before jumping onto him to hug him. He briefly groaned and winced in surprise at the unexpected movement, but soon put his arms around your body too, holding you tight and smiling into the hug.

Not much was needed for your luck anymore. Now everything would get better, wouldn't it?

[stopbeingrude]

Hi guys. Happy Gruvia/ Greige day. I wish all of you wonderful time.

That's gonna be the first one shot , i have ever published here, feedback is welcome. I hope It's not that bad and you'll somehow like it lmao.

,,I think I would rather have a plushie as a Christmas gift…., but I guess I shouldn't be too picky."

-Dad? - called 6-year-old Greige, on one December afternoon, when both him and his father were decorating a christmas-tree in the living room . December 24th was slowly approaching. It was Greige's favorite time of the year , because he was able to spend Christmas with all of his family, including all of his uncles , aunts and friends. Not forgetting about grandpa Makarov . Even Uncle Gildards would show up, bringing something for the kids. -I was wondering what would happen if Santa's reindeer suddenly wanted to pee while flying?- asked seriously little boy. No one wanted to tell him that. When he asked big bro Romeo , he just started laughing and then he called him silly. "How could he do that?" -thought heartbroken Greige after. -Heh , where did that come from? ... you know ... they'd have to stop somewhere by, right? Daddy doesn't know much about it- said Gray, trying to keep himself from laughing. He couldn't laugh, he knew it would offend his little angel. Their son hated when someone made fun of him . After all, he was already a big boy, and everyone knows that such must be taken seriously. - So maybe Mommy knows? I will go and ask her,- said the little boy, putting down Christmas decorations . Speaking of mom, he had recently noticed his mother's strange behavior. She had been getting tired very easily lately, she often took naps. He also noticed that she spent an enormous amount of time sewing ,mostly clothing. Well.. he was aware of his mom's hobby, but usually it was limited to sewing plushies, sometimes socks or fixing their clothes. - You know, I don't think mommy knows more than me - said Gray after hanging the last Christmas-ball. - Besides, you know that mommy is sleeping now, right? She hasn't been feeling well lately, so she mustn't be disturbed. Something was off, even Daddy acts differently- thought little Fullbuster Now, that got the boy worried. - Is something wrong with Mommy? - asked slowly Greige He loved Mommy and Daddy most in the world and the very thought of them suffering hurt him deeply. "No, I won't start crying…Boys my age don't do that..." He had often been told that he should stop being such a crybaby (mostly by Yajeh or Nasha . Shutora would never. She was always trying her best to cheer him up,while reminding her twin and little Dragneel that if they won't stop with this stupid teasing, she would make sure both of them would regret it later). Unfortunately Greige could not help it. Whenever someone was hurt or something went wrong, he would usually cry. Turns out he inherited his mom's sensitivity... "Mommy…..something was definitely wrong with her.." The thought of something happening to his dear Mom filled him with great terror once again. He started shaking What if she's ill, or even worse..she's gonna….. "No , no , that's not possible..." - he shook his little head full of dark , curly hair. - I'm overreacting, just like Yajeh told me - No, no.. don't worry, Greige, Mommy's fine, it's nothing serious,"-Gray said quickly, trying his best to calm his son down, giving him a hug and then kissing him on forehead He knew exactly what was going on with his beloved, in fact, when an excited Juvia came back home one evening and informed him of the pregnancy, he was overjoyed. Soon he will be holding his son or daughter in his arms. Then it hit him. The baby might turn out to be a girl, and Gray had no idea how to take care of girls...Dear God….Ok ,ok.. he still has plenty of time to learn. He can always ask Gajeel about it..yes Gajeel or Alzack...even Elfman ( he would never ask Natsu, even if he's life depended on it, that would be too humiliating for him). Wait...it wasn't his top priority right now. After all, he needs to inform his son about the news first. Neither of them was quite sure how to do it. They remembered very well the situation from a few months ago when the Redfox twins got into an argument. Horrified, Greige stated that being an only child is not that bad, since having siblings meant constant war. Although being honest , Greige never

directly told them that he hates the idea of having a sibling . Considering how much time he spent with Nasha and Elfman and Ever's daughter Ember, or year-old Reiki Fernandes, it would seem that he's perfect for the big brother role. Besides, they can't hide it forever, sooner or later he would notice Juvia's belly. However, the biggest concern for Fullbuster was the fact that such news could lead to a longer conversation, which again could lead to uncomfortable questions that Gray was not ready to answer. He is not going to tell his son about the birds and the bees. No, no, hell no… None of them are ready for this! "Come on Gray, what's wrong with you, you just have to tell him. You've been in worse situations….after all, you've fought with all sorts of criminals, weirdos and monsters ,compared to what you've been through, it's nothing''- thought the ice mage But how to start such a conversation? How about …. -Hey Greige, have you written a letter to Santa yet? "Yes, just ask him what he wants for Christmas and make a few innocent suggestions." -Oh no i didn't, thank you for reminding me Dad. - And tell Daddy, what would you like to ask Santa for? The boy was silent for a moment, most likely to think about the answer, but after a while he called out in a loud voice. -I'D LIKE TO ASK HIM FOR PEACE IN THE WORLD AND FOR EVERY POOR PERSON TO GET A BETTER LIFE AND FOR EVERYONE TO BE HAPPY!..... It would also be nice to get a new plushie……but it's not as important. Do you think Santa can do that?-he asked hopefully Gray stood there for a moment, stunned. His baby was truly an angel...wishing happiness upon the entire world, it nearly made him tear up…. but no... he needed to explain to his son that he should wish for something more....... attainable. -Ooh... really..that's....very nice of you, but...I think that such a wish...yym...takes a bit of time and Santa w-won't be able to do it…., why don't you ask him for….. for example a toy like a teddy bear, figurines....or new books or something else...I don't know.......sibling?... Greige looked at him, like he had just proposed to him to take a walk on the rooftop. Where did that come from? What is dad talking about? S-sibling...?? -Sibling? You mean like a little brother or sister? A baby?- asked the little boy loudly. -Yes, that's exactly what I meant, but well you'll need to wait for a while, because it takes time for a baby to….be ready.- mumbled out Gray - So that's not really a Christmas present- stated boy still visibly shocked -...Well y-yes , but... -But didn't you say mommy has been feeling unwell lately?...If we had a baby, wouldn't it be tiring for her?....Besides, do you think we need a new baby? - asked seriously Greige Why would they need a baby? They were living happily in this house , just three of them. It's not like he dislikes babies , they're cute and all…..but it's just simply weird.. -Well... I wouldn't say it's necessary , but it would be nice to have one at home.. don't you think?....- asked his dad Maybe? -And don't worry about mommy, I am sure that she will be so happy with the new baby , it will make her feel better.- stated Gray , this time with a smile -Hello my darlings- Juvia's voice said suddenly They both turned their heads toward the bedroom's door, finding Juvia's tired but smiling face there. Greige quickly got up and ran toward his mother. -Mommy, are you feeling better? Do you need anything?- said the little boy, hugging her legs. Juvia kissed her son's cheek. -Hi sweetheart, Mommy is fine- she answered while taking a seat next to her precious Gray, giving him a quick kiss on the lips. -Did I hear you talking about babies?- Juvia asked, pretending to be surprised, while giving Gray a tiny smirk. - Daddy said it would be nice to have a baby and that it would make you feel better... - he began. - I don't think a baby is necessary, because it would be a little strange that there will be more of us in the house, but if you really wish for one ,then that's fine with me. -Really? Mommy's glad to hear that.-

replied a happy Juvia , giving her husband a big smile. Gray gave her the same smile, but just when he thought everything had been taken care of, there came the soft voice of his baby boy. - Mommy....Daddy...but you won't love the baby more than me, will you? - asked Greige, with his head lowered and tears in his dark eyes. Both Gray and Juvia stood there very surprised, neither of them had even thought of such a scenario. -Greige, what makes you think that?- asked older Fullbuster. -Sunshine, no...- Juvia hugged her son quickly- You mustn't think like that, we would never stop loving you. Remember darling, parents love all their children equally. - You know, its true that we'll have to spend a lot of time taking care of your brother or sister, but you have to remember that they won't be able to do anything on their own. You were like that when you were born too.- said Gray - I'm sorry. I won't do that again- said Greige seriously. -Do you think I offended the baby? I don't want the baby to think I don't want him or her,- said the terrified boy .What if the baby will always remember this and he will never be forgiven. - Don't worry, honey, I'm sure she won't mind,- said the water mage, stroking her belly. -She?-Gray thought. Turns out his wife wasn't telling him everything... -Wait a minute! -said suddenly Greige after a moment of silence -The baby will be in the tummy, just like Reiki was in Auntie Erza's , right? - Well baby is already there, but your right - answered Gray -Daddy? - Yes buddy ? - How did it get there? Shit. -Yyyy… Horrified, Gray turned his gaze to his wife, silently pleading for help. -You know what, angel? It's almost 8pm, I think it's time for you to take a bath, okay?- proposed Juvia, saving her husband from very uncomfortable talk. - Ok Mommy. Will you read me a bedtime story after we finish? - Of course They were already moving towards the bathroom when Juvia quickly turned towards her husband, gave him a kiss on the cheek and whispered : -You're welcome. Has Gray already mentioned how much he loved his wife?

Bonus!:

( ok I swear it was funnier in my head...Once again Happy Gruvia day !!!)

[hexpea]

Ch. 7 - Deeper

As soon as you exited the restroom, using the back of your hand to wipe your mouth, you made sure to distance yourself from Naoya as quickly as possible while still finding your friends. As you passed by the table that Gojo was seated at with his date you found it to be empty. Your eyes continued to scan the bar but came up unsuccessful. He had clearly left with his date.

You refused to feel defeated because of his snarky comments in the bathroom. You had successfully rattled him and you took pride in that. You didn't know why you felt the need to rattle him in the first place, but it was what it was.

At the end of the night, you found some other stranger to go all the way with - taking an Uber back to their place. This particular partner was not from Kyoto, so you were able to take advantage of this one not finding you again, a hotel being your domicile for the night. It wasn't anything spectacular, just something you did on an average weekend for fun before returning to another drab work week. It was actually a great stress reliever, being able to pour your body's stresses into someone else.

When the morning came, as you usually would, you'd slip back into your clothes and slink out of the room - the person lying on their stomach in bed none the wiser to your disappearance with no way to contact you.  You made your way down into the lobby, not caring that you were carrying your heels and walking completely barefoot on the cold, marble floor.

You stopped by the small dining area of the hotel, sitting down to slip your shoes on your feet for the travel home. You sighed loudly to yourself and leaned back in the chair after putting them on, giving your body a minute to adjust to the sunlight that came in through the large windows after quite a night of mischief. When your eyes fluttered open, gaze straight ahead toward the continental breakfast that was laid out, you spotted that stupid crop of white hair again. He was busy putting pastry after pastry on a plate three times too small, one even stuck in his mouth.

"You've got to be kidding me," you groaned to yourself, standing up and hoping to slink away without being noticed.

"Y/N?" You heard his voice from across the way.

You turned around carefully with a painful smile on your face. "Hey..." your voice trailed off and you refused eye contact.

"What are you doing here?" He laughed with a grin, lips covered in powdered sugar as he took a bite from the jelly-filled pastry he had stuck in his mouth. "Are you following me?" He questioned with his mouth full, using a finger to point at you - that same hand also holding said pastry.

"No," you pinched the bridge of your nose, "I came back with someone from the bar," you lazily motioned upstairs and proceeded to place both hands on your hips as if you were waiting for him to ask another stupid question.

"What a coincidence!" He exclaimed a bit too loud for your comfort. "Me too!" He loved that he could see that he got under your skin. It was suddenly becoming a back and forth between you, kind of like an inside joke that only he enjoyed.

"Alright, well, I'd better get going. It was nice seeing you for the hundredth time in two days," you nodded your way out, beginning to walk away. "We'll talk later about the next time I need you as a boyfriend."

"Was it Naoya?" He asked seriously despite you clearly walking away to end the conversation. You stopped dead in your tracks. "Was it him?" He repeated, licking his lips to clear them of the sugar.

"N-no," you shook your head and quickly continued to turn and leave before he could ask any more uncomfortable questions. What does he care? You thought.

You hurried onto the sidewalk, wanting to just get home to clean up and rest before the upcoming work week. As you pushed through others on the tight sidewalks your mind couldn't resist wandering. You replayed what happened a few moments ago, the way he so seriously asked if you had ended up sleeping with his co-sorcerer. What does he even care? You asked yourself again.

Gojo ate his pastry breakfast alone, seated at a small table toward the back of the room before heading back to Tokyo. His mind lingered on when he saw you, reflecting on how things had so quickly escalated after just a regular, dumb one night stand. He...actually thought you were pretty sweet. Your playful, headstrong attitude matched his though you were often annoyed at his banter. Though you might not feel the same, Gojo now considered you a good friend.

Fushiguro Megumi was accustomed to being left alone for extended periods of time as a fourteen year old, but when it lasted for a few days Gojo would often leave him with Mei Mei or Principal Yaga - depending on who was available. It was more often than not Yaga unless he, too, needed to travel. This time around, he was able to leave him with Yaga as expected. He had warped directly to his front porch, knocking loudly until the door was opened. The teen stood in front of a pissed-looking Yaga, both glaring at the limitless sorcerer.

"You don't need to knock so much," Fushiguro muttered as he exited the house and began walking down the steps and toward the sidewalk. He proceeded to walk home without Gojo.

"Thanks for taking care of Megums," Gojo ignored Fushiguro's mutterings to opt for conversation with Yaga's angry expression.

"What have you been doing over there?" He asked in a threatening deep voice. He had one eyebrow cocked, just waiting for some sort of obnoxious excuse.

"Not much, why?" Gojo inquired, seeing Yaga's facial expression was lending to more information.

"I just want to know why I received several calls from an incredibly upset Gakuganji regarding your behavior. You understand that you can be barred from their campus, Gojo family or not," Yaga crossed his arms tightly in front of his chest.

"Oh, yeah," Gojo chuckled. "I'm dating his granddaughter."

"You're what?" Yaga about had an aneurism, the veins in his forehead quickly pulsating with anger.

"Yeah, we got together recently," Gojo's voice trailed off, realizing he couldn't tell Yaga the full truth seeing as he'd just go and tell Gakuganji. "Recently like two years ago..." he laughed nervously, trying to keep up with the fabrication, "and he's just now found out."

"I didn't know you were seeing anyone..." Yaga mumbled to himself, relaxing his arms, "either way, you're going to give that old man a heart attack."

"Isn't that a good thing? He looks like he needs to be put out of his misery," Gojo rolled his eyes from under his blindfold, not that Yaga could see.

"Satoru..." Yaga scolded.

"What?! It's all in good fun," Gojo dismissed the scolding with his hand, "besides, I really like her."

"You really like her?" He repeated. "Then why do you insist on bragging about the one night stands you bring home every other night?"

"Damnit, Megumi..." Gojo hissed under his breath. "I tell him that information in good faith, but, clearly, he cannot be trusted."

"He's not your friend, Gojo," Yaga went into scolding mode again. "He's a boy that you picked up and vowed to take care of, as a father figure, from the Zenin family. You shouldn't share any of that information with him."

"Well he's better off with me than he would have been with that Toji asshole," Gojo muttered in his defense. Yaga couldn't argue there.

"And in regard to Gakuganji Y/N, either cut out the cheating or break up with her. She's a good girl. It'd be a shame if you hurt her."

"Yeah, yeah," Gojo waved him off and turned to catch up with Fushiguro. Yaga sighed loudly and shut the door behind him.

"So if you've been dating Y/N for two years and you've been bringing all these girls back to the flat, that's kind of a dick move," Fushiguro noted as soon as Gojo caught up with him. "Not to mention you never told any of us about her."

"You're starting to sound like Yaga," Gojo stretched by putting his hands behind his head as he walked. "I leave you with him too much. I should bug Mei Mei more often."

"Are you going to marry her?" Fushiguro asked with sudden interest. "I've never heard of you going steady with anyone."

"Oh..." Gojo was suddenly thrown off by Fushiguro's question, his arms coming back down to his side. Keep up the lie, Satoru... He encouraged himself. "Maybe, yeah...two years is a long time."

"Wow, then you really should quit bringing other people home," Megumi said in his usual monotone voice. There was just a subtle hint of excitement that could be noted. He had spent many a night with a pillow pressed to his ear as he tried to sleep in the room adjacent to Gojo's. He looked forward to moving on campus for the next school year, and away from his supposed father figure.

"Yeah," Gojo replied calmly with a smile. This lie was quickly becoming bigger than the two of them, but Gojo didn't think anything of it. In fact, he was entertaining himself. "Maybe I should propose," he said jokingly.

"I'll keep her in my thoughts and prayers," Megumi muttered as the two continued down the sidewalk.

"So...two years huh?" Your father asked suddenly at the dinner table.

"Yup," you answered while looking down at your plate, mouth full. You hated the fact that he randomly brought it up. You felt like you were digging yourself quite a hole.

"Doesn't your company headquarter out of Tokyo?" He asked, clearly connecting some dots.

"Yeah," you looked up this time, drawing out the answer in suspicion as you narrowed your eyes.

"And isn't that where Gojo is? Teaching at the Tokyo school?"

"Yes..."

"Have you considered moving in with him? Transferring to headquarters?" There it was.

"Are you trying to get rid of me?" You chuckled, calmly taking another bite of food.

"No, not at all!" Your dad panicked. "I definitely love having my kid at home. You're good company! I just want to make sure you aren't holding back because of dear, old dad. Or your grandfather for that matter. You're allowed to go off an live your life."

"I know," you answered simply, "I just like it here in Kyoto."

"But you love Gojo, right?" Your dad continued. You mentally begged him to just drop it. "So if you really wanted to, you have my blessing to transfer to Tokyo."

"I don't know about that," you snorted while picking at more of your food.

"Really, Y/N, I hate knowing how alone you are all the time. I don't want you to be so lonely when I'm out on missions. And what if I don't return from one...then you'd be truly alone. God forbid your grandfather outlives me."

"Trust me, Otosan, I'm not alone." You tried to reassure him. He scrunched up his face, still feeling as if he were holding you back in some form or fashion. "I see my friends every weekend, I'm fine. I promise."

"Whatever you say, Y/N," he nodded and continued to eat as normal. You huffed but also continued eating, the hole you were digging getting even deeper.