noddycooper

[ppulverse]

how can some people be so heartless lol

[munsonsmixtapes]

Lost Number pt. I

Here’s Part 2!

Word count: 19k

Paring: Eddie Munson x plus size!fem!reader

CW: 18+ MDNI smut, fingering (f receiving), oral (f receiving)

Rhythm Riot Music Festival, Los Angeles, June, 1990

The venue was packed and if you were honest, you didn’t even want to be there. You were just trying to be a good girlfriend and cheer on your wannabe rockstar boyfriend. You never liked big crowds and the loud music gave you a headache, but you wanted to be supportive so you always stood side stage with a pair of earplugs, singing along.

Being the band’s manager, you somehow were able to book them a slot in a festival that was meant specifically for rock/metal. They were playing alongside a bunch of big names and your own boyfriend didn’t even seem grateful that you had gotten him the biggest gig of his career.

You didn’t want to admit it, but your relationship had been rocky for months. You were together but you weren’t. It was as if you both knew it was over but neither of you wanted to be the first to actually utter the words. He wasn’t the same man you fell in love with. You didn’t recognize him anymore with the way he was dressing and especially the way he was treating you and his own band mates. You would try to talk to him about it but were always met with doors slamming in your face or just straight up denial.

You paced back and forth in the hallway outside their dressing room while the band were getting ready for their performance. You weren’t allowed in because you were deemed a “distraction” despite the fact that Chris barely even spared you a second glance anymore. You were forced to wait until it was time for them to go onstage to make sure they had everything they needed even though most of the time they didn’t and they ended up being late.

One of the acts passed you having just come off stage and you couldn’t keep your eyes off the pretty lead singer as he nodded in your direction. You figured that would be it, but he stopped in front of you and you didn’t miss how he was checking you out. He crossed his arms over his chest, a smirk kicking up at the corner of his lips.

You had only ever seen Eddie Munson on TV or in magazines which didn’t do him justice. He was much prettier in person which you didn’t think was possible, but there he stood in front of you looking like something that came out of your dreams. He was dressed in a leather jacket with nothing underneath and pair of matching leather pants and you had to stop yourself from staring at his chest and the tattoos that were covering it. Even though Chris wasn’t really your boyfriend anymore, you’d never forgive yourself for cheating on him.

“What’s a pretty little thing like you doing out here by yourself?” Eddie asked, tilting his head to the side.

Before you could answer, the door behind him opened and the members of Void stepped out. Your boyfriend looked between you and Eddie and felt jealousy rush through him. He didn’t care if the two of you were practically broken up, you were still his and there was no way that he’d let Eddie fucking Munson steal you away from him.

“Hey baby,” he greeted you with a bright smile. He’d never called you that throughout your entire relationship. He hadn’t really called you anything except for your name. “It’s time for us to go onstage.” Honestly, you couldn’t have given less of a fuck about him. All you cared about was the absolute smoke show in front of you.

“I’ll see you after?” Chris asked, stepping over to stand next to you. He took one of your shoulder in his hand and turned you to face him before resting his hands on your waist.

“Yeah-“ you couldn’t even finish before his lips were on yours. He was quick to stick his tongue in your mouth which caught you off guard. He hadn’t kissed you like that in a long time and you wondered what had gotten into him. This was all about him. All for show. To send Eddie a message, to show him that you belonged to Chris.

You were quick to pull away, unsure of what he was doing and why he was doing it. Because it clearly wasn’t for you like he wanted you to believe. That was who he was now, the kind of guy who did things only because they would benefit him in some way.

“Uh, have a good show,” was all you were able to say. You were trying to say the right thing, knowing that the wrong one wouldn’t end well for you. He was becoming so sensitive, like you had to say or do just the right thing or else he would get angry. One wrong move and it was game over for everyone.

“That’s it?” He asked a little too loudly. “You push me away and that’s all you have to say?” He was the one who kissed you out of nowhere and he was the one who was upset?

“I-“ You tried to defend yourself but he cut you off be for you could.

“Save it. I have to get on stage. You better have a better attitude when I get back,” he pointed at you before heading to the stage, the others following close behind. You knew you should have gone with him, but you just couldn’t find it in yourself to care. Especially when most of the songs were about a relationship that you didn’t have anymore. It just reminded you of what used to be and it broke your heart that you two had grown apart so much when you were convinced that you were going to be together forever. You had laid side by side talking about how you were going to get married and now you couldn’t even remember the last time you slept in the same bed.

“Where the hell are you going?” Eddie asked Chris as he made his way to the stage. You were so in your head that you had forgotten he was even there. He wasn’t going to let Chris get away with speaking to you that way. Eddie wasn’t a saint by any means, but he’d never speak to anyone that way. Especially not his girlfriend. Chris only flipped him off not even bothering to turn around to face him. He disappeared around the corner and Eddie just let out a sigh, accepting defeat.

He turned to you to see how you were holding up and could see by the look on your face that you were tired. Whether it was because of lack of sleep or because of your dickhead of a boyfriend he didn’t know.

“I know he’s your boyfriend and all but his band fucking sucks.”

“I know,” you nodded, leaning against the wall. You hated that he was right. You tried to be supportive of Chris, but you just couldn’t. Sure, the lyrics were catchy, but they weren’t really about anything. At first, they wrote some of the most beautiful things you’d ever heard, but after they got that first check, it was like a switch was flipped. Now all they wanted was to write music that they thought people wanted to hear, not songs that actually meant anything. That would mean that they actually had to care about their work and weren’t just wanting to be paid.

That was what made Void different from the other bands in their genre. The others actually believed in their music. They poured their hearts and souls into it and it was obvious when people listened to it. It was the reason why they were all so popular. People could connect to what they were singing about and could relate to the words in one way or another.

After a while, all Void wanted was the fame, money, and girls and it showed. They never rehearsed before going on stage anymore or made sure that their instruments were tuned properly. The only reason why they even got the gig in the first place was because you had to practically beg the people who were running the event. How could you root for them when they were so bad that you had to ask for them to be invited to play?

“And no offense sweetheart, but he’s kind of a dick,” Eddie added. That was something you still weren’t able to admit to yourself. Gone was the man who’d make you breakfast in the morning and make up songs about how much he loved you while he did it. Gone was the man who you felt like you could tell anything to and he wouldn’t judge you. He was behaving like a completely different person and you felt like you couldn’t even be around him anymore.

“None taken,” you shook your head. “I’m very well aware. I plan on breaking up with him after the festival.” You actually hadn’t thought about it at all but now that you said it, you felt like you had to go through with it. You felt like you owed that to yourself. You had dealt with Chris’s bullshit long enough.

“Good for you,” he nodded. “I’d hate for you to settle.” He’d have been lying if he said he wasn’t attracted to you. Typical Eddie wanting something he couldn’t have. You were just so pretty and he tried to keep himself from admiring the way your outfit hugged every curve of your body.

“Well, unfortunately, I think I’m only attracted to losers.”

“That’s a real shame, sweetheart. I thought we had something going here,” he nudged your shoulder. His tone made it sound like he was joking but there was a hint of truth to his words. He had every intention of flirting with you until he found out you had a boyfriend.

“I didn’t think I was your type.”

“I didn’t think I had one.” Eddie wasn’t aware he had a type. How could he when he had only recently been getting female attention? He was still trying to figure out why women were even interested in him in the first place so who was he to deny any of it?

“Oh, you know what I mean.” You waved your hand in a dismissive manner and he didn’t like what you were implying.

“Clearly, I don’t.” He crossed his arms over his chest, his eyebrows furrowing. You hadn’t meant to offend him. You thought you were just stating the obvious. You’d only seen him with girls who looked nothing like you. They were all skinny not to mention literal models. You clearly didn’t fit into that category so you didn’t see why he would have been interested in you. It wasn’t like you cared. It wasn’t like anything would come of it even if he did.

“I’ve seen you on the covers of all the gossip magazines, okay? I know what you’re like.”

“Please,” he scoffed. “You really believe that bullshit? You know that everything’s fake. I mean, sure, I was hanging out with those girls and maybe I slept with a couple of them, but that doesn’t mean that they’re the only kind of girls I’m interested in.”

“Then what are you interested in?”

“Anything.” He stepped closer to you but still kept his distance, not wanting to push your boundaries.

“Even me?” You hadn’t meant to say that out loud but you were just too curious. If you were being honest, you had developed a little crush on the singer and had even made him your hall pass, that Chris had agreed on if he could have Whitney Houston. That was only because he never thought it would happen. But there Eddie was, shamelessly flirting with you and you couldn’t get yourself to do the same because you felt like you were betraying Chris.

“Oh, especially you, sweetheart. In this little thing?” He referred to your skirt. “Stopped me in my tracks.” Your face grew hot at his comment. You hadn’t been flirted with in a while and missed the way it felt to have someone actually be attracted to you. You wondered why you were even still with Chad when you had a man who was the total package right in front of you.

“You’re just trying to make me feel better.” You couldn’t tell whether or not he was actually being genuine or if he was just trying to get into your pants. Either way, you were going to take it. You just wanted attention and here he was, offering it up to you on a silver platter.

“If I was trying to make you feel better, I’d tell you how fucking gorgeous I think you are.” His eyes trailed down your body, taking his time to look at every inch of it and you didn’t miss how he spent a longer time on your legs. “Well, sweetheart, I should get back to my dressing room. It was nice to meet you-“ he paused, realizing that he hadn’t gotten your name.

“Y/n,” you replied, putting your hand out to shake unsure of why you were doing it.

“Y/n,” he repeated, taking his time with each syllable while taking your hands in his. “Sounds like a great song name,” he winked before reluctantly pulling his hand away. “Anyway, I’ll catch you later, alright?”

“Yeah, I’ll see you around,” you nodded and he turned on his heel to head back to his dressing room. You watched him walk away until he disappeared around the corner, wondering how he managed to even make walking look attractive.

You pressed yourself against the wall and fiddled with the pass that was hanging around your neck while Void was finishing up their set, wondering what the fuck just happened. You had just had a conversation with Eddie Munson and you didn’t sound like an idiot like you thought you would have if you had ever gotten the chance to meet him. He liked you and had even flirted with you and you hadn’t done the same in fear that your boyfriend would have found out. You didn’t know why you cared. Chris would have jumped at the chance to sleep with his celebrity crush and you were still faithful to him despite the fact that you knew that he was probably (definitely) cheating on you.

Your ears perked up as Chris announced that they were going to play their last song which just so happened to be their most popular. You wondered what people would have said if they found out that you wrote it despite not having any credit on the song at all. Chris had found the lyrics in your notebook and passed them off as his own in a writing session. You didn’t want to embarrass him so you called him out as soon as you were alone with him, but he couldn’t have given less of a fuck that he had hurt you.

Not only had he invaded your privacy by going through your private journal, he had given the song away which had ended up on their debut record and had quickly become their most popular song to date. There was something so sick and twisted about him profiting off of a song that you had written about how horribly he had treated you. He used your pain and turned it into something that would make him money while you hadn’t seen a single dime. It had gotten to the point where you couldn’t even be proud of it because it was tainted by your greedy boyfriend and his bandmates.

You headed to the dressing room and sat on the couch, awaiting the band’s arrival. If you didn’t, they were more than likely to leave without you, you practically being an afterthought to them. You didn’t want to admit it to yourself, but you knew that it wouldn’t have made any difference if you weren’t there. All of your suggestions were always met by vetos because God forbid a woman actually had a good idea. They treated you like their servant and you were starting to wonder why you had stayed so long. It certainly wasn’t the money since they weren’t paying you and it definitely wasn’t because of your piece of shit boyfriend.

It was about time that you stood up for yourself and did things that you actually wanted to do. You didn’t want to get their coffee or cigarettes or hem their pants because they were too long. You were over restringing their guitars and tuning them only for them to need new strings and another tune after one performance. You were tired of them taking advantage of you and you weren’t going to take it any longer. Void could find another manager, one who was more cut out for the job. And Chris could certainly find another woman to satisfy his needs. He wouldn’t miss you and you definitely wouldn’t miss him.

The door swung open and Chris entered the room followed by Joey and Max. They were all laughing about something but it quickly came to a stop when they locked eyes on you. You could see Chris’s eyes form into a glare. It was the kind of look that someone would give their enemy, not their significant other.

“What are you doing here?” He spit. Like he didn’t want you there and you knew he didn’t. He never wanted you around unless it benefitted him.

“I was waiting on you.” His eyebrows furrowed at your words as if he was confused. You always waited for him to get off stage, you just didn’t do it in his dressing room.

“Why?” The words came out like he was offended which you thought was weird. Why wouldn’t he want you to wait for him? He used to love coming back to you but now he was treating you as if you were a piece of gum that got stuck to the bottom of his shoe.

“To tell you that I quit.” You crossed your arms over your chest and you kind of liked that he was getting angry. It showed how much he relied on you and how fucked he was going to be when you were gone.

“Quit?” He let out a laugh as if it was the funniest thing he had ever heard. “You can’t just quit, y/n. We have a contract.” Did he mean the contract that he typed up one night when he drunkenly suggested that you should be Void’s manager? Back when he still thought you had good ideas. Back when he still loved you.

“Which isn’t legally binding so I can quit if I damn well please and I do.” You stood up from the couch with a newfound confidence, feeling a thousand pounds lighter. “Also, I’m breaking up with you.” The three boys’ mouths dropped open, like they couldn’t believe what you were saying. Chris’s eyes quickly turned dark, a look that always scared you.

“No you’re not,” he let out a chuckle. He wasn’t going to let you leave. You couldn’t. Not when he still had laundry that needed to be done and his guitar needed to be tuned.

“I am, actually. I’m leaving tonight and getting on the first plane out of here.” You had no idea how you were going to do that, but you were going to figure it out. You needed to get the fuck out of there and you needed to do it right then.

“With what money?” He laughed and Joey and Max joined in, the three of them laughing hysterically at you. For once, you didn’t feel embarrassed.

“Oh, believe me, I can find some.” You were sure that there were plenty of nice men in the city who would be happy to lend you some money.

“This is bullshit,” he shook his head, his eyebrows furrowing. He was angry and for the first time, you didn’t care that you had upset him. It was what he deserved for being a piece of shit.

“No, whats bullshit is how long I stood by your side taking your terrible treatment.” You shook your head. “I’ve been nothing but loyal to you while you’ve been fucking other girls behind my back.”

“I-“ He eyes were darting around the room as if he was he was avoiding making eye contact with you. He definitely was. You were right and he didn’t want to admit it. He was a selfish prick and had been too caught up in his own life to see how terribly he had treated you. Maybe if he could have apologized, you’d would’ve stayed.

“Don’t even try to deny it. I saw the Polaroids. Not only that, but I’m fucking tired of being treated like garbage. I’m a human. Did you forget that? You must have since all I seem to be to you is a servant. You’re a dick and so are you,” you pointed to the other boys. “Well, good luck, you guys. You’re gonna need it.” You grabbed your purse and made your way to the door and slammed it as soon as you were out of the room.

Before you realized what you were doing, you were heading to the bathroom in angry stomps, muttering to yourself about what had just happened. He had laughed at you when you told him that you were going to leave. The only reason why you didn’t have any money was because he had used up any little bit you had. Whether it was asking to borrow a twenty before he was supposed to be paid or just straight up stealing it from your wallet, you never seemed to have enough for yourself.

You shut yourself in one of the stalls and before you could stop it, tears were streaming down your face. Whether they were of happiness or sadness you didn’t know. All you knew was that you were relieved. You felt a huge weight lift from your shoulders. It was like you could finally breathe again, as if Chad had been suffocating you all those years. You were finally free and there was nothing he could do to stop you or make you stay.

You reached for some toilet paper only to find that the roll was empty, the only thing left being the cardboard. That only made you cry harder. Couldn’t you have anything? You had barely any money to your name to get a flight home, no where to go after the festival since you shared an apartment with Chris, and no friends that were your own. You were fucked and it was finally settling in. Maybe if you begged, he’d let you stay with him just until you got back on your feet. Fat chance. He’d probably already have someone else by the time you got back home with your stuff at the curb while the two of them laughed at you from the open window.

You exited the stall and reached for a paper towel before dabbing at your tears then fixing your smudged makeup with what you had in your purse, making sure there were no remnants of your tears. You’d be damned if anyone saw you cry. Especially over a man. You wanted them all to think you weren’t affected. You wanted them to think that you were nothing but a bad bitch.

After you fixed your hair and makeup, you fled the bathroom before taking the band’s car to head back to the hotel. You were surprised that they hadn’t left yet and were even more surprised that the driver had believed you when you told him that the band told you to go ahead.

You looked out the window and tried not to think all of the problems you caused for yourself. Maybe that was why you stayed with Chris for so long. Not because you wanted to make it work, but because you were scared of what it meant for your future. Now you actually had to think about it and hated how much he had fucked up for you. Of course you had moved into his apartment so you had nowhere to go when you finally got home. You supposed that you could live in your car until you got a job and saved enough to find somewhere to live more permanently. That was, if you actually found a way to get home. All you had was five hundred dollars to your name, which you were grateful to have anything, but that would have only covered your flight, not leaving much for anything else you were going to need.

The car pulled up to the hotel and you felt the tears fall again as you entered the building. You held it all in until you got to the elevator. Once the doors closed, you collapsed to the floor and let it all out, grateful that you were the only one there. You let out a loud scream out of frustration and felt relief rush through you as you did so. It was almost therapeutic in a way. It was years of repressed emotions that you were finally able to feel. You had bottled them up for so long that you were sure that they had to come out eventually and here they were, finally being able to breathe.

You exited the elevator when it stopped on your floor, wiping the tears from your face, grateful that no one else had been in the hallway. You opened the door to your room, still pissed that you had to share with Chris because you didn’t have enough money for your own room. You threw your bag onto the bed and frantically packed up your belongings into your suitcase, practically tearing the room apart partially in anger and partially because you couldn’t even find anything in the pig sty that Chris had created.

You rifled through the drawers on your side of the bed, finding all of your smaller belongings like your sleep mask and vibrator which you hadn’t even gotten a chance to use because Chris had always been in the room. You sure as hell knew he wasn’t going to satisfy you so you had to take matters into your own hands. Not that he ever satisfied you when you did sleep together.

You went through the drawers on the other side and stopped when you came across an envelope underneath Chris’s journal. You pulled it out of the drawer and noticed that your name was written on it in your mother’s neat handwriting. You turned it over and to your surprise, it wasn’t opened. You ripped it open and noticed a bunch of bills sitting inside it. It had to be hundreds of dollars. Hundreds of dollars that belonged to you. It was the money your parents had said they were going to send because they knew you had been struggling. It was your money and he took it, not even bothering to tell you that it had actually been sent. You had gotten into multiple arguments with your parents over it and now you felt bad for getting upset with them. It seemed like all of your problems always led back to Chris.

You pulled the cash out of the envelope and counted it, realizing that it had been much more than you had anticipated and you were grateful that it was all actually there. You set the cash on top of the drawer and turned the envelope back over only to see that it had been addressed to your old apartment meaning that Chris had been holding onto it for at least six months before the two of you had moved into your new place.

You put the cash back into the envelope and threw it into your purse before putting the journal back where it belonged and closing the drawer. When you went on your first date with Chris, you never thought he’d turn into such a dick. He had been sweet and caring and would have called out the man you just broke up with. He always hated guys like that so you weren’t sure what had happened that made him become one. Was it your fault? No, it couldn’t have been. What had you done except love him unconditionally?

It was late so you decided to head to bed, setting an alarm on the clock so you could get to the airport to catch a flight before Chris even woke up. He didn’t deserve a goodbye. You never wanted to see him again and if you had anything to do with it, you wouldn’t.

You threw on some pajamas and brushed your teeth, enjoying having the room to yourself since all Chris seemed to want to do was talk to you about shit that you could have not given less of a fuck about or made comments about what you were wearing or how you did your hair.

Since you had gotten to the room first, you decided that you were going to take the bed, the couch having done a number on your back having slept on it multiple nights in a row. It was just as soft at you thought it would be and you laid your head on the pillow feeling exhausted from the events that had taken place in only a matter of a few hours. You deserved a good night’s sleep after all the shit you had been through in the past twenty four hours.

Eddie entered the dressing room where Jeff, Gareth, and Doug were all sitting on the couch, the three of them still sweating from their performance and they each were nursing a beer. They all turned to Eddie whose cheeks were tinted a light red and a smile was playing on his pretty pink lips. He pressed himself against the door and stuck his hands into his pockets, staring at his band members as they all waited for him to speak, wanting to know if he got a number or not.

“Well?” Jeff asked since he knew the others wouldn’t. The four of them still weren’t used to female attention.

“She’s got a boyfriend,” Eddie sighed pushing himself off of the door and heading over to the vanity to fix his hair.

“Damn,” Gareth replied.

“Sorry man,” Doug added.

“I was so close to flirting with her when her piece of shit boyfriend came out of his dressing room. I could see the way he was looking at me,” he moved his hair this way and that, trying to make it look like less of a mess but he was sure that he was making it worse. “He was clearly threatened. Even stuck his tongue down her throat to send me a message. He was looking at me the whole time.”

“What a freak,” Gareth commented.

“And get this,” Eddie stopped messing with his hair and turned around to face the boys, resting his hands on the vanity and leaning against it. “He’s the lead singing of Void.”

“They’re a shit show,” Jeff shook his head.

“I know. Their only good song is Hurt and I heard that they didn’t even write it.”

“Not surprising,” Doug rolled his eyes. “You didn’t hear this from me, but I heard that they weren’t even invited and that their manager had to beg to let them play.”

“You’re kidding,” Eddie let out a laugh, leaning over as he did so, probably thinking that it was more funny than it probably was. “That’s fucking hilarious.”

“And probably true,” Jeff pointed out.

“So what are you going to do about the girl?” Gareth asked. Eddie didn’t know how to answer that. He didn’t know he was supposed to something. You were in a relationship and he definitely wasn’t going to get in the middle of it, especially not when Chris seemed to not be able to control his anger and could have easily knocked Eddie out with one punch.

“Nothing,” he shrugged. “She’s just a pretty girl, you know? There are plenty of those everywhere.” That was just what he was telling himself so he’d feel better. He felt bad for thinking it, but it pissed him off that guys like Chris got to have you while guys like Eddie had no one. Sure, being in the lead singer in a band helped him in the ladies department, but girls didn’t seem nearly as attracted to him as they were to guys who treated them like garbage. Was he not mean enough? Was that it? Did women just like assholes? Maybe he should have asked Chris since clearly there was something that he was missing.

“I know that’s right,” Doug went to high five him and Eddie ignored him, pushing off of the vanity. He began to pace, something he always did when he needed to think.

Now it all made sense. Of course they were only performing because their manager begged. No one in their right mind would have asked Void to perform and they certainly wouldn’t have done it willingly. It was putting bands like them on the same level as Corroded Coffin and Eddie didn’t like that. He didn’t like it at all.

Bands like Void took away from other bands who actually enjoyed what they were doing, making it hard for anyone to be taken seriously. It was hurting the industry and it pissed Eddie off that they were getting praise when they were only in it for the fame when bands like Corroded Coffin were doing it because they loved making music. It was a form of therapy for them. And now there was a group of phonies who everyone was worshipping because they had one hit.

“Whatever,” Eddie shook his head. “We still have tomorrow to be even better so we should get some rest.”

“I thought we were going out.” They usually did after every show, drinking and flirting, some of them getting lucky and others not so much. Eddie loved getting drunk but couldn’t stand the feeling of being hungover, sometimes not even wanting to drink because of it. He always eventually gave in when Jeff would urge a shot into his hand. It always looked so inviting that he had to get a taste and before he knew it, he was many drinks deep, stumbling out of the building with his arm around a girl who he definitely thought was out of his league.

“I think Eddie is a little pouty that he didn’t get that girl’s number,” Gareth teased. Eddie didn’t like the way that Gareth was talking about you, like you were just a girl he struck out with. He definitely would have be in if you hadn’t been with Chris. But that wasn’t what bothered him. He hated that you were being spoken about as if you were an object. You weren’t. You were so much more than that. You were a person and he hated that he always had to remind the guys that they couldn’t just treat women however they wanted because they were famous. They deserved nothing but respect.

“Her name is y/n.” Maybe Eddie was a little upset because you were dating someone, but he’d get over it. He always did. You were just another girl and he could easily find another one who wasn’t attached to anyone. And that was what he planned to do. If he could ever stop thinking about your tiny skirt and your thick thighs that he desperately wanted to bury his head between.

“Okay, sorry, very pouty,” Gareth corrected, putting his hands up in defense. “C’mon dude, you can find someone to help you get over her. The Ruby Room is always crawling with babes.” Gareth was right about that. Eddie was always able to get lucky at The Ruby Room, girls crowding themselves around him like they thought he was somebody that they actually wanted to hang out with. He still wasn’t entirely used to the attention considering he never got any back home since everyone either thought he was a loser or a cult leader even though he was very much neither. Sometimes he couldn’t believe that women wanted him, like they were mistaking him for someone else, but when they would moan his name and his name only, he knew that there was no mistake.

Eddie headed over to the door, ready to head out. His mission now being to get as drunk as possible instead of heading to bed like he probably should have. He couldn’t go to bed sober, especially since you were on his mind. He didn’t like you, you were just someone he was trying to hook up with who happened to have a boyfriend. He wasn’t jealous. He wasn’t the type to be. He definitely wasn’t disgusted by thinking about what you were probably doing with Chris and how he wanted to be the reason for your pleasure.

“Well,” Eddie turned to his bandmates that were still sitting on the couch. They all stood up and followed Eddie out of the room. He was hoping that he’d see you but only found Void packing up their equipment with you nowhere to be found. He wanted to know where you had run off to.

“Don’t touch that,” Chris smacked Max’s hand that was reaching for Chris’s guitar. Chris had been in an even worse mood since you had broken up with him and now Max and Joey were paying for it. He couldn’t believe that you were leaving him. Him. He thought he had done so much for you over the years and this was how you repaid him? He had let you live with him when the lease on your apartment was up when he could have just let you live on the street. He let you tour with his band when he could have just left you at home. He even used your stupid song and you were just being ungrateful.

“What do you posers want,” Chris snapped as he turned to the foursome. If looks could kill, they all definitely would have been dead, especially Eddie. They were each hoping that the other had left already so they wouldn’t risk running into each other, but clearly that was just wishful thinking.

“Where’s y/n?” Eddie asked, wondering aloud. He didn’t know why he cared, but he was hoping that you were okay. He had hoped that you had dumped Chris’s sorry ass just like you had said you would.

“Kicked her to the curb,” Chris shrugged as if he was unbothered by your breakup. He turned his back to put his guitar into the case then turned back to Eddie once he was done. “You’re more than welcome to have her, Munson,” he let out a chuckle. “I should warn you, though, she doesn’t really put out.” Eddie took a deep breath, trying very hard not to take the bait. He wasn’t the fighting type, but goddamn was it tempting to punch that fucker square in the face.

“If I remember correctly, she told me that she was going to break up with you.” Just from looking at Chris, Eddie could tell that he was lying through his teeth. Especially since his band members didn’t seem to want to back him up. They just packed up their equipment, seeming unbothered by Chris’s behavior which caused Eddie to believe that he did things like this often.

“Oh, did she? Since you guys are so close, right? Well, you were wrong. I dumped her and now she’s at the hotel probably crying her eyes out.”

“I actually bet she’s at The Ruby Room right now getting cozy with someone that’s definitely not you. I bet he’ll take her to the bathroom and make her feel much more pleasure than you ever could.” Eddie was now inches away from him, trying to hold back a laugh at how red his face was. Eddie actually wasn’t sure what you were doing, but he hoped that whatever you were up to was going to piss Chris off.

“You don’t even know what the fuck you’re talking about, Munson,” Chris poked Eddie’s chest.

“I don’t?” Eddie raised an eyebrow, cocking his head to the side. “Because from the way she was reacting with your tongue down her throat, she didn’t seem to like it or you for that matter.”

“We’re going through a rough patch.” Chad genuinely believed that. He figured that you were just on your period and needed time to cool off before you’d come running back to him like nothing happened. He didn’t know that you had every intention of catching the first flight out in the morning.

“Right,” Eddie nodded. “So rough that she even admitted that your band fucking sucks. And that you’re an asshole. Cleary you don’t know her as well as you thought you did.” Chris was like a bomb that was seconds from going off. Anger was bubbling inside of him and his eyes were filled with rage.

“Alright, I’m tired of your shit, Edward.” Chris poked his chest again. Eddie wasn’t going to give in as tempting as it was. All Chris was looking for was a fight and Eddie had no intention of giving him what he wanted.

“Am I upsetting you, Douglas?” Eddie put on a fake pout and he could have sworn that he could see smoke coming out of Chris’s ears. He didn’t think he would actually hit him like he seemed to want to. He was a pussy after all.

“You should be so happy that I haven’t kicked your ass.”

“Like you could,” Eddie let out a laugh. Sure, Chris was ripped and could definitely win the fight, but he was all bark and no bite. There was no actual heat to his threats. Without another word, Chris punched Eddie square in the nose causing the singer to stumble backwards. He clutched his nose and just as soon as he was able to stand up straight, Chris went in for another punch, this time his hitting Eddie’s left eye. He stepped back again while the members of Void were quick to run off with their belongings, disappearing around the corner as quickly as possible. Jeff, Gareth, and Doug were quick to rush to Eddie’s aid, all wincing at the way his face looked once he finally pulled his hand away.

The foursome headed back to the dressing room, Gareth holding onto Eddie, making sure that he was okay as they walked. He thought it was his duty, them being best friends and all. He’d been there for Eddie’s good, bad, and ugly. He had seen how everyone in Hawkins had treated him and despite how much he stood up for the boy, nobody would relent. He was just a kid who played a role-play game with his friends and everyone thought that made him evil.

Gareth helped Eddie sit down in the chair in front of the vanity and handed him some tissues and a couple Advil along with a water bottle. If a few little comments set Chad off, Eddie wondered just how you were treated when he was actually upset. He hoped that Chris hadn’t laid a finger on you unless it was lovingly. But he was pretty sure that the guy didn’t have a single loving bone in his body.

Eddie turned to the mirror and stuck a tissue in each of his nostrils, trying to get a good look at his face. There wasn’t any real damage but the blood. For a couple of punches, Chris really got him good. He could feel the pain coursing through his nose all the way to his head. He didn’t look too bad but knew it would be worse in the morning. Maybe he could garner some sympathy with a sob story to ensure that he’d be able to take someone home.

Eddie took the Advil and threw back some water to wash it all down, feeling like his head was pounding. As he cleaned himself up, the band gathered up all of their belongings and headed to their car to take them back to their hotel so they could freshen up before their night out. Eddie didn’t care if he had the worst headache known to man, he was going to get some. He didn’t even care with who, he just felt like he needed something good after the shit he had been through.

The car pulled up to the building and Eddie practically jumped out, as soon as it stopped moving. He made a beeline for the elevator while the rest leisurely followed him, Gareth carrying his guitar since that hadn’t really been a worry of Eddie’s. All he was concerned about was getting out of the stupid leather and jumping in the shower to wash off the shitty day.

The elevator opened and the four of them stepped inside, Eddie tapping his foot against the floor. He didn’t know why he was so anxious, but his heart was racing and he couldn’t seem to stay still. He was just very suddenly aware of how his clothes were sticking to his sweaty skin and how dirty his hair felt. The doors opened on their floor and he practically ran down the hall, pulling his room key out of his pocket as he did so. He opened the door and slammed it behind him, so grateful that him and the other members of the band all got their own rooms. He could pace around with his guitar, humming the lyrics to a song he was writing at three am if he damn well pleased. He no longer needed to take showers just to have his much needed alone time after being overstimulated the whole day.

Eddie stripped himself of his clothes and left them in a small pile in the floor by his bed. His whole room had been a mess and he figured he should have cleaned it if he was going to bring a girl back there, but that would be after his shower. He entered the bathroom and turned the shower on, humming along to the stupid song that Void had performed before they left the stage. He hated their guts, but goddamn was it catchy. He’d give them that. He couldn’t help but think about how different it sounded to the rest of their songs. The other ones were so shallow and misogynistic and Hurt was so beautifully written that he thought it couldn’t have possibly been written by them, not even Chris. Especially not Chris.

Once the water was hot enough, Eddie jumped into the shower, taking his time to wash every inch of his body. It was something that he usually did pretty quickly just to get it over with because of how much he hated to look at it. He hated that he wasn’t as ripped as the other guys around town and the fact women either laughed at him or were scared of him definitely didn’t help. If he was being honest, it wasn’t until he lost his virginity that he actually felt a sliver of confidence. He had no fucking clue what he was doing, but the fact someone actually gave him the time of day and wanted to see him naked made him feel significantly better about himself.

Now he was the lead singer of one of the biggest metal bands in the industry and both men and women actually seemed to like him. He didn’t care if it was genuine or just because he was famous. He’d take any affection he could get no matter the intention. Whether they were into his personality or his body, it didn’t matter to him, as long as it was consensual and they were comfortable was all he cared about. He couldn’t believe how many men in the industry took advantage of people and got away with it because they were famous. It disgusted him and he wondered how many people would still like them if they knew the kind of men they really are when they thought no one was looking.

He finished with his shower and wiped down the mirror to get another glimpse at his face. His nose was now a little swollen but there wasn’t any actual damage from what he could see. And the skin around his eye was just a little red. Maybe it wouldn’t be as bad he had initially thought it would. Maybe it would just swell then go back down by the time he needed to perform the next day.

Once he decided he had enough of looking at his refection he headed back into his room and rifled through his messy suitcase for something to wear to the club. Everything he pulled out looked like shit. He usually didn’t put much thought into what he wore, but for whatever reason, he wanted to look nice. He wanted to look good. For whatever reason, he was hoping to run into you, even though he figured you wouldn’t be there. He was hoping that you were at LAX waiting for your flight home. He had hoped that you were okay despite the obvious pain that you were experiencing.

He settled on a black button up shirt and a pair of jeans with his boots that he definitely needed to replace. He only buttoned a few of the bottom buttons, leaving a lot of his chest on display. He then tucked it into his jeans, hearing a knock on his door. He headed over and opened the door for who he assumed was Jeff then headed to his shoes that he had left by the bed before sitting on it to put them on. Jeff stepped into the room, closing the door before stepping over to Eddie. He was dressed similarly the only difference was that his shirt was navy blue and he was wearing a wife beater under it and his jeans were a darker wash. Eddie always admired the way Jeff dressed and sometimes wished he had the confidence to pull off the things he wore when they were onstage.

“You clean up nice,” Jeff complimented. “I might even be into you.”

“Thanks, you too. Where are the others?” Eddie asked, putting on his socks then quickly throwing on his boots. He stood from the bed and headed for the door, making sure he had his key before the pair stepped into the hallway.

“Waiting on the elevator.” Eddie caught sight of his band mates who were whistling and catcalling him as he walked towards them. It was something they always did to mess with him while simultaneously trying to hype him up. He didn’t know why he was nervous. He had gone out more times than he could count so it was nothing new to him. Maybe it was because he didn’t actually want to go for once. Maybe it was the fact that he couldn’t seem to stop thinking about you no matter how he tried. You were taking up every inch of his brain and he hated it. He was trying to get laid and he couldn’t exactly do that when all he could think about was the outfit you had been wearing and how he wanted to be the one who got to see what was underneath.

As soon as the doors opened, Eddie stepped inside and threw on his sunglasses, knowing that the bright lights of the club would make his headache worse. He pressed himself against the wall, really wishing he had something to numb the pain. A joint or a line, whatever he could get his hands on. He knew they wouldn’t heal him, but they would at least give him the illusion that he was. He should have probably (definitely) gone to bed, but the night was young and so was he so he was going to have a great time and not think about you or how much he wanted to knock Chris’s light out. He couldn’t promise that he’d keep his hands to himself this time if he saw the bastard. He was going to punch the living daylights out of him, not only for what Chris had done to him, but also for you. Especially for you.

The Ruby Room, Los Angeles, 1990

Before Eddie knew it, the car that he wasn’t even aware that he had gotten into was pulling up to the all too familiar building with the words The Ruby Room across the front in bright red lights. Doug was pushing him out of the car and he took the hint, moving faster than he was willing to. He stepped out onto the street and headed towards the entrance, completely bypassing all of people in line waiting to get in. The man at the door pulled back the velvet rope and the members of Corroded Coffin walked through.

“Thanks Hank,” Eddie pat the man’s shoulder, showing him his signature megawatt smile.

“Anything for you guys,” Hank replied and Eddie followed his friends inside. He’d never get over how overstimulating everything was when he first entered the building. With all the bright lights and loud music, it was like his own personal hell, but he’d get over it once he had a few drinks. He made a beeline for the bar and ordered his usual while drumming his fingers on the wood while he waited. He scanned the room, looking for the girl he was going take home when he stopped. He felt like time had frozen when he caught sight of you sitting at a table by yourself sipping on a cocktail. He blinked a couple times, certain that his eyes were playing tricks on him, but once he rubbed them a little too aggressively and saw that you were still there, he was sure that you were very real. He turned back to the bar to see his drink was in front of him and grabbed it and was about to head your way, but he figured he’d leave you alone to give you space.

You hadn’t even planned to go out. You had every intention of going to bed, but you just couldn’t stand being there when Chris got back. You knew he would have intentionally been loud just to wake you up and yell at you for things that were his fault and he would definitely have something to say now that you had broken up with him. He was so angry with you and you didn’t want to hear it. There was nothing that he could say that would make you want to go back to him. You were done and ready to focus on yourself for once.

As much as you liked the idea of going home with someone, you couldn’t find it in yourself. Not because of Chris, but because you hadn’t had sex in six months and weren’t even sure if you knew how to do it anymore. You also weren’t even sure if you liked it. The only person you had slept with was Chris and you tried to get out of it any chance you could. You knew it wasn’t supposed to be that way. You had people talk about amazing it was but every time you did things with Chris, it was nothing but awkward and uncomfortable. He seemed to enjoy himself but didn’t even ask if you liked it. You knew that he wasn’t doing something right but blamed yourself because you knew that he couldn’t possible believe that he was the problem.

Eddie watched you for a few more seconds and was about to turn away when he saw a man approach you. He sat in the chair next to yours without an invitation and was getting a little too close to you for your liking. He was touching your hair and making odd comments which you figured he thought were compliments. He scooted his chair closer to yours and Eddie decided that he had enough. Before he could stop himself, he was making his way over to your table with more confidence than he ever had in his life. He weaved his way through all of the dancing bodies, trying not to spill his drink as he did so. He kept his eyes on you and didn’t miss the way yours lit up when you saw him. He didn’t know if it was because you knew you were going to be saved or if you were just happy to see him, but didn’t care which one it was.

“So sorry I’m late sweetheart,” he greeted as he got to your table. You turned to him and couldn’t stop staring. His hair was extra curly and you just wanted to run your fingers through to see if it was as soft as it looked. And his shirt perfectly showcased his chest and all of his tattoos that you wanted to trace with your fingers and maybe even your tongue.

“Who the fuck are you?” The man slurred before you could speak. He looked old enough to be your father and that made Eddie feel sick to his stomach. He couldn’t stand letting some creep hit on you when you were uncomfortable. He knew you could defend yourself, but he felt like he needed to step in to keep you safe.

“He’s my boyfriend,” you turned to the man, emphasizing the last word and Eddie couldn’t understand the feeling he got when he heard it. “And he’s going to kick your ass if you don’t get the fuck out of here.” You were speaking with so much confidence, as if you actually believed that Eddie actually could beat his ass when he definitely couldn’t.

“You?” The man laughed, standing from the chair and getting closer to Eddie, sizing him up. Eddie was sure that the guy could have flicked him and he’d fly across the room, so he wasn’t sure why you had said that he could beat his ass when there was absolutely no competition. He was going to get hit for the second time that night and he wasn’t sure he’d still have a nose after that. He moved his sunglasses up onto his head and prepared for the inevitable but it didn’t come. He opened his eyes and the man’s mouth was agape.

“Eddie Munson?” He asked in shock. “Shit, I’m sorry, man. I love your work.” Eddie let out a sigh of relief and the man put his hand out to shake.

“Oh, thanks. Nice to meet you,” Eddie smiled at him and took his hand, shaking it, swearing that he could hear a crack over the loud music at how hard the man was holding his hand. He finally let go, his face lighting up as he did so.

“The pleasure’s all mine. I saw you guys performing earlier and you were amazing.” Eddie realized early on in his career that Corroded Coffin’s main demographic was men that were old enough to be his father. Every one that he had met had been nothing but complimentary and seemed to be very dedicated. He was always so appreciative and couldn’t help but think about how they reminded him of Wayne. He really needed to give him a call.

“Wow, thanks man,” Eddie nodded. Had something actually gone right for him for once? He swore he was going to end up in the hospital and now this guy was telling him that he was a huge fan? Being famous was weird, Eddie knew that for sure. Maybe since now he knew the guy respected him, he could get him to leave you alone.

“Well, I won’t keep you. You guys have a great night and I’m so sorry, ma’am,” he nodded his head towards you then turned and disappeared into all of the dancing bodies on the dance floor. Eddie let out a sigh of relief as he sat in the chair beside you. You couldn’t take your eyes off him. How good he looked in the harsh club lighting which you didn’t think was possible. You thought maybe it was the alcohol, but you looked down at your drink and realized that you had only had a few sips so you decided that he just looked like that. So pretty and nice. The second thing surprisingly not being common in men.

“You didn’t have to do that,” you said, turning to face him. He looked intimidating, but you knew he wouldn’t hurt a fly. He threw his glasses onto the table and rubbed his face with his hands, trying to process everything that just happened.

“I know,” he nodded. “But I wanted to.”

“I could have taken care of myself.” Eddie knew that but maybe he just wanted an excuse to talk to you. He didn’t know why he needed one since he could talk to you if he wanted to. You made him nervous and he wasn’t sure why. He thought he was finally getting good at talking to girls but here you were in your red dress looking as beautiful as ever in the bright lights.

“I know,” he said again with another nod. “But again, I wanted to.”

“Well, that’s sweet. It’s good you didn’t get your ass kicked. Crazy that he was a fan, huh? Guess you should consider yourself lucky.”

“Oh, I do.” He had to be to have a chance to see you again. “I couldn’t take another ass kicking.”

“Another one?” He turned his face to her and she caught sight of the redness around his eye. She took his face in her hands and turned it so she could see just how bad his injury was. “Eddie,” she gasped, pulling his face closer to hers so she could get a better look and he had tried his best to ignore the thudding of his heart against his chest. “Who did this to you?”

“Your boyfriend,” he grumbled, hating the way the words felt on his tongue. “Or I guess now he’s your ex boyfriend.”

“Chris did this to you? Eddie, I’m so sorry. He’s such a fucking ass.” You hated that he had taken a punch from your shitty ex and wondered what had happened. You decided you were going to ask later when everything wasn’t so fresh. You brought your thumb up to graze the redness around his eye and he winced. “I’m sorry,” You apologized, completely removing your hands from his face and Eddie was already missing your touch. You stood up from the table and held your hand out for him to take. He looked at it, dumbfounded, wondering why you were offering it to him and what you wanted him to do with it. You shook it and it finally registered that you wanted him to hold it.

He put his hand in yours and you pulled him up from the table, pulling him towards the dance floor. You weaved your way through the crowd and Eddie admired how quickly and seamlessly you seemed to move, like you knew exactly where to go. He had no idea where you were taking him, but he didn’t care. He was beginning to realize he’d follow you anywhere and that scared him. He had only just met you and now he was head over heels. He didn’t get attached to women, that was his thing. He didn’t think he was even capable of being interested in someone beyond sex but here he was, following you, knowing that no matter where you were taking him, he’d be okay just because you were there. Eddie caught sight of his band mates as he looked around the club and they all gave him a thumbs up when they realized that you were pulling him down a hallway, assuming that the two of you were going to get up to something filthy.

Once Eddie was out of his daze, he realized that you were pulling him into the women’s bathroom. You instructed him to stand at the sink and he listened, willing to do whatever you told him. He looked at his reflection and was about to reach up and touch his eye but you rested your hand on his shoulder and turned him around before he could. Before he could register what was going on, your hand was digging through your purse for something and Eddie just stood there and watched, admiring your beauty now that he had gotten a full view of your dress. Your dress that he wanted to slip his hands under and feel your soft skin under his.

“I swear I’m gonna kill Chris,” you muttered, pulling out what looked like a tube of lipstick but instead of red or pink that he was used to seeing, it was the color of your skin which he had never seen before.

“Can I help?” He didn’t want to help for the sake of helping, he wanted to beat the shit out of Chris for how terribly he had treated everyone in his path, especially you. He also wanted revenge for himself, to reverse the rolls and give him the shiner. He couldn’t let him get away with it now that he’d seen the real him.

“I’ll need someone to help me bury the body, won’t I?” You set your purse on the counter and took the cap off of the tube, twisting the bullet so you had access to more product. “I’m gonna fix your eye, okay?”

“You can do anything you want to me, sweetheart.” Eddie closed his eyes and leaned against the counter, putting his hands on top of it. You moved to his left side where his injury was and pressed yourself against the counter, gently taking his chin in your hand, lightly pressing the concealer stick to his skin, not missing his winces as you did so. It must have hurt much worse than it looked. You lightly blended the makeup with your fingers and Eddie didn’t care how much it hurt, he just liked that you were touching him, loving the way the pads of your fingers felt against his skin. Loving how close you were to him, and how amazing you smelled. He couldn’t tell whether it was your perfume or if you just smelled that good naturally, but goddamn was it addicting.

Eddie opened his eyes and couldn’t help but look into yours, captivated by the color and the cute concentrated look you had on your face. Your eyebrows were furrowed and your tongue was barely poking through your lips, your pretty red painted lips that he wanted to know the taste of but knew he wouldn’t. Not then. Not when you had just broken up with your boyfriend. The wounds were still open and he could see them even though you had bandaged them up. He may have only known you for a few hours at that point, but he could see right through you. He could see that you were hurting even though you pretended that you weren’t. You were trying to be tough and he hated that you felt like you had to hide your emotions. You didn’t. At least not with him. He wouldn’t have judged you if you had wanted to break something in anger or if you just wanted to cry. He would have let you, would have even held you while you did it.

You tapped on some setting powder with a makeup brush and finished up before stepping back to admire your work, nodding to yourself in approval. It wasn’t your best by any means, but you did what you could in a pinch. It wasn’t like it mattered that much in the ruby colored club lighting, but you just wanted to help Eddie out. At least, that was what you were telling yourself. It wasn’t because you were looking for an excuse to touch his pretty face, no. And it wasn’t because you wanted to be close to him either. You just saw someone in need and wanted to provide for them. That was it.

“Take a look,” you referred to the mirror. Eddie turned to it and leaned on the counter to get a better look. The redness was gone and he actually looked normal. He turned to look at you and you didn’t miss the small smile kicked up at the corner of his mouth.

“It looks great,” he complimented. “Truly. The greatest makeup job I’ve ever had.” Maybe he was exaggerating but he didn’t care. He had only had his makeup done a few times for certain performances and some music videos and every time he dreaded it, hating that people were that close to him, hating being touched like that. But with you, he didn’t mind, not one bit. In fact, he didn’t think that you were close enough, didn’t think that you had touched him for nearly as long as you should have.

“Really?” You looked him in the eyes and could see that he was being genuine. Everyone in your life had always made fun of you for interest in makeup and the fact that you had wanted to make a career out of it. They all told you that it wasn’t a “real job” and that you couldn’t possibly be successful doing people’s makeup for a living. That it was just a silly hobby and you shouldn’t spend so much time doing something that won’t make you any money.

“Definitely,” Eddie stepped closed to you, taking a chance. Before you could stop yourself, you reached out and grabbed him by his hips, pulling him so he was flush to your body. His eyes widened at your sudden movement but he wasn’t going to deny your touch. His hands hesitantly moved to your shoulders and he looked at your face the entire time to gauge your reaction. He watched your pretty lips part and he stared at them, wondering if they were at soft as they looked, if they tasted as good as he was hoping they would. You ran your tongue along your bottom lip and that was it. He had to have you, but he wanted you make the first move.

You leaned closer to him, so close that he could feel your breath on his face. Your lips ghosted over his and he had to blink a few times to make sure that he wasn’t dreaming even though he could feel your hot touch despite his shirt being a barrier between your hand and his skin.

“We shouldn’t do this,” he said. He wanted you so badly but wanted to be considerate of you and your fragile state. He didn’t want you to move on too soon.

“But doesn’t that make it more fun,” your grip on his waist tightened and he’d have been lying if he said he didn’t like seeing that side of you. “Knowing that we shouldn’t but doing it anyway?”

“Fuck,” Eddie breathed and closed his eyes, waiting for your lips to meet his. Just as you caught his bottom lip between your two, there was a loud beeping sound coming from your purse. You ignored it and rested your hands against Eddie’s face, slowly moving them into his hair. He wrapped his arms around your waist as your tongue swiped along his bottom lip and he opened up, letting yours meet his. He pressed you against the counter and you untucked his shirt from his pants, moving your hands beneath it to run your fingers up his bare back.

The loud beeping sounded again and you reluctantly pulled away, Eddie chasing your lips as you did so. He got in one more kiss before you reached for your purse and pulled out your pager seeing that you had pages from both Max and Joey. All that was said was that Chris needed you and that you needed to come back to the hotel. You didn’t need to do anything. You threw the pager back in your bag before pressing your lips to Eddie’s again.

“Do you want to get a drink?” You asked, pulling away from him. He was caught off guard by your question and figured that whatever message you got on your beeper must have upset you.

“I’d love to get a drink,” he grabbed your hand and pulled you towards the door but you pulled him back. Before he could ask what you were doing, you wiped away the lipstick that had transferred onto his skin and only laughed when it smudged across his cheek.

“You look like the Joker.” You continued to laugh and he couldn’t help but join in as you tried and failed to wipe the lipstick off his face.

“Me?” He laughed. “Look at you!” He moved out of the way so you could see yourself in the mirror and you leaned in close to get a better look. He was right. You did look much worse than he did. Your lipstick was all over the bottom half of your face to the point where you almost resembled a clown. You were quick to grab Eddie’s face, about to wipe the lipstick away before he stopped you.

“Wait,” he grabbed your hands, moving them away from his face.

“What?” You asked, eyebrows furrowing your eyebrows.

“Don’t wipe it away.”

“Why?”

“I like having your mark on me.” You blushed at his words then turned to the mirror to remove your lipstick to fix it up.

“What all do you have in there?” He asked as you rummaged in your purse for your lipstick.

“In my purse? Anything and everything I could possibly need.”

“Like what? Can I see?” You handed him your purse while you continued wiping his face. He pulled out everything one by one, mesmerized by how much you were able to carry in such a small bag. He didn’t miss the envelope filled with cash but didn’t want to mess with it. He came across what felt like a pencil and pulled out quickly realizing that it was eyeliner. He had seen other performers wear it but was always afraid he’d poke his eye out.

You finished taking off the lipstick then took your concealer and put it in on the spots of your foundation that had been removed then tapped on some powder over it to make sure it stayed in place. You then took a tube of lipstick and applied it to your lips, rubbing them together to make sure that it was evenly applied. Eddie watched you in awe, fascinated with the whole process, loving the precision of everything. He swore that he could watch you apply your makeup for hours and never get bored.

“Ready?” You asked, turning to him with a smile on your freshly glossed lips. He just smiled back in complete adoration.

“Ready,” he nodded and pulled your purse out of your reach when you went to grab it from him. “Now what kind of a gentleman would I be if I let you carry your purse?” He scoffed in feigned offense.

“You’re not a gentleman,” you replied, reaching for the purse again but he just held it further out of your reach.

“Ouch, doll,” he put his hand up to where his heart was and acted as if he was in pain. “You wound me. Let’s settle this now. You let me carry your purse and I’ll buy you a drink, alright?”

“Then what do I get in return?” You crossed your arms over your chest and put on a pout.

“You get to hangout with me.”

“Hmm,” you pondered. “I don’t think that’s a fair trade.”

“Damn, you’re just firing shots tonight, aren’t you, doll?” He gave you his megawatt smile then opened the door for you to exit the bathroom. You stepped into the hallway and grabbed his hand, leading him back out onto the dance floor.

“Don’t pretend you don’t like it.” You led him over to the bar. He drummed his free hand on the bar while you waited for the busy bartender to get to you. You turned to look at him and gave him a small smile which he returned and you gave his hand a gentle squeeze. For someone who was so used to be being in the public eye, Eddie always seemed to forget that people could perceive him when he wasn’t onstage. He didn’t expect attention, especially not from women like you. You were so pretty and smart and now you were available. He could have asked you out if he wanted to. But he wouldn’t. Only because he wanted you to be comfortable. He was going to wait and see if you’d give him your number or at least tell him that you were interested. He didn’t think that making out with him in the Ruby Room bathroom counted as interested.

You ordered another cosmopolitan while Eddie ordered another beer, adding both drinks to his tab while handing over his credit card. While you waited, you wrapped an arm around his waist, pulling him as close to you as possible. He leaned into you, turning his head towards yours. He looked at you in admiration and hated that he could see himself falling for you only having met you earlier that day.

He could see himself calling you while on tour and hearing about your day. He could see the two of you dancing around the kitchen in your pajamas while he hummed a song that he wrote for you. He could even see the two of you sitting on the front porch of the house you just bought while the dog you insisted on getting ran around the yard.

Eddie’s first thought would have been to run, to get away from you and the feelings that he was having, but he couldn’t. He didn’t want to. He wanted to stay put and see how everything would turn out. He was just so content being beside you. You didn’t even have to speak, just knowing that you were there was enough for him.

“Here you go,” you handed him his beer and for a second, he completely forgot where he was. For a moment, it was just the two of you in your own little world and now he was back in the real one where other people existed and he wished the two of you could go somewhere you could be alone. He wanted to get to know you without the outside world intervening. He didn’t want to be arrogant but he knew of his celebrity status and as much as he loved the people who loved him, he had to admit that he wasn’t always so happy to have them interrupt his night to talk to him.

“Thanks,” he smiled and took a sip, turning to scan the club. When he turned back to you, you were holding a shot out to him. “What’s this for?” He set his beer on the bar and took the shot from you, holding it between his fingers.

“To new beginnings,” you held your shot up motioning for him to cheers.

“Fuck yeah,” he nodded, completely understanding what you were implying. “To new beginnings.” You both downed the liquid and it burned going down but you liked the way it made you feel. It gave you more confidence. It let you turn your brain off even if it was only for a few hours.

“Do you wanna dance?” You asked, looking at the dance floor longingly. Eddie followed your gaze and couldn’t help but think about how much he hated dancing and being around that many people at once. He normally would have said no but how could he have after seeing that adorable pout on your face?

“Sure,” he nodded and you were quickly to pull him out there while he tried to make sure that you didn’t spill any of your drink. It was a very close call but he was successful as you got onto the dance floor. He watched you as you moved to the beat, insisting that he hold your drink while you did so. He couldn’t keep his eyes off of you as you moved your hips to the terrible pop beat that was playing over the speakers. He set the drinks on the table where his friends had been sitting and you were quick to grab his hands and rest them on your waist. He tried to mimic the way you were moving but didn’t think his body could do the same.

You thought it was cute that he was trying to copy you and decided to help him in his struggle. You rested your hands on his waist, moving his hips this way and that and he couldn’t help but let out a giggle at how ridiculous he probably looked. Once you thought he got the hang of it, you turned your back to him and started grinding against his crotch. His eyes widened as he watched you, unsure of what he was supposed to be doing. He had seen people dance like that countless times but when it came time for his turn, his mind went completely blank. It didn’t help that you were making him hard and there wasn’t much he could do about it.

After what felt like far too long, you turned back around and wrapped your arms around his neck, resting your head on his shoulder. His arms moved to your waist and he enveloped you into a hug, pulling you closer to him.

“Thanks for hanging out with me tonight. I know that you probably have better things to do but I really appreciate it.” Better things to do? Like what? Going to bed? Sleeping with a woman that wasn’t you? Yeah right. He wanted to be there for you. To be the shoulder you cried on.

“I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else,” he rubbed your back sympathetically. You stayed like that for a while, the floor slowly emptying as the night turned to morning. You heard last call and decided to call it a night. Neither of you wanted it to end, but you thought it was for the best. You didn’t want to go back to Chris, but you didn’t think you had a choice. You certainly weren’t going to ask Eddie if you could stay with him. He had already done so much for you and you weren’t going to push it.

The two of you exited the club as it was shutting down, the remaining members of Corroded Coffin following your lead. The five of you stood on the sidewalk awkwardly as the boys waited for their ride. You saw the other boys eyeing Eddie as if they were all communicating with looks that you clearly didn’t understand.

“Well,” you spoke up. “I should probably get back.”

“Okay,” Eddie nodded, even though it was taking everything in him to not ask you to stay the night. Not even to sleep with you. He just wanted to make sure you were safe.

“Have a good night guys. I had a nice time.” Before he could register what you were doing, you had grabbed his hand, scribbling on it with your eyeliner pencil, that being the only writing utensil you had on hand. “This is my phone and pager numbers. Don’t be a stranger, okay?” You threw the pencil back into your purse and pressed a kiss to Eddie’s lips before making your way down the street.

That wasn’t it. It couldn’t be. He wasn’t really going to let you walk down the streets of LA at night alone would he? No, he couldn’t. He couldn’t let you leave without one last kiss to hold him over until he saw you again. He ran after you as fast as he could and you turned around in confusion as he stood in front of you. He grabbed you by your face and pressed his lips roughly to yours, taking no time to swipe his tongue along your bottom one. You let him in, grabbing hold of his shirt. His hands quickly moved to your hair, his fingertips pressing into your scalp.

“I just needed one more taste,” he mumbled against your lips. You only pulled him closer, wrapping your arms around his waist.

“I told you not to be a stranger, Munson.” You only pulled him closer, pecking his lips.

“I-“ he cut himself off before speaking again. “Sorry.”

“Nothing to be sorry for, baby. You could ask me up to your room right now and I’d say yes.” You really hadn’t been expecting to go back to where he was staying, but you couldn’t help yourself. You didn’t want to go back to your room and who would pass up the chance to fuck a rockstar?

“D-do you want to go to my room?” He was surprised he could get the words out considering how fuzzy his brain felt at the thought of you wanting to fuck him.

“I’d be honored.” You took his hand in yours and he pulled you back over to the boys as soon as the car pulled up. The five of you all piled into it, you and Eddie ending up alone in the very back seat. Your hand was still holding his and you pulled them to rest on your lap, your free hand fiddling with his rings that adorned his fingers. His fingers that you so desperately wanted to touch you in every place imaginable.

You whispered to each other the whole way, giggling as you did so, definitely annoying Eddie’s friends who were sitting in front of you. They were all getting sick of your flirty conversation and couldn’t wait for the car to pull up to the hotel so they could get away.

The car finally go to the hotel and your jaw dropped at the sight in front of you. You weren’t surprised that Corroded Coffin had the cash to stay there considering how popular they had become over the years.

Eddie took you by the hand and led you inside the building and you were completely mesmerized by how nice it was. It made where you were staying look like a dump. It was so nice that you felt out of place like you usually did when you went to places like that. You didn’t grow up with much money and didn’t really know anyone who did so you definitely didn’t think you’d ever step foot in the Beverly Hills hotel. Especially not with the lead singer of Corroded Coffin.

The others took the elevator that came down while you and Eddie stayed back to take your own. Your flirting continued as you stood in the empty lobby, the only people there being the two of you. You looked up at him and realized that you didn’t actually have anything to worry about like you usually did when it was that time of night. You’d lay your head on your pillow and everything you were worried about that quieted itself during the day became very loud in your head. It was to the point where you could barely sleep most nights because whatever Chris had been worried about would be passed off to you because for whatever reason, he wanted to make everything a concern to you even when it didn’t actually involve you.

It was as if all of the chaos had left had your head as soon as you and Chris were broken up. All of the problems that you previously had just weren’t there. You didn’t have to take care of his laundry or pack up his suitcase to make everything fit. You didn’t have to restring his fucking guitar or make him his special tea that supposedly helped his voice sound better but you were sure it was a scam. You didn’t have to do anything for that man anymore and you felt good. You were finally free from his shackles.

One of the elevators opened and you grabbed Eddie by the shirt, pulling him inside. He pressed the button for his floor before his hands found your waist again and moved farther down as your lips attached to his. You went to unbutton his shirt, the fact that you were in an elevator was the least of your worries. You needed him and you needed him now. It didn’t matter that you had issues with being intimate with someone. You were confident that Eddie would satisfy your needs and be nothing but a gentleman while he did it.

Eddie’s hands slipped under your dress as you undid the last button, his entire chest in display for your viewing pleasure. You pulled back to look at him, wondering how you got so lucky. How you got Eddie Munson to actually agree to sleep with you. And it took absolutely no convincing. He was on board for whatever you liked to do. You barely even knew him and he was already wrapped around your finger.

Before his hands could get any farther, the elevator dinged signaling that it was on the correct floor and Eddie reluctantly removed himself from you, stealing one more kiss before leading you to his room.

“It’s kind of messy,” he said sheepishly as he unlocked the door. You didn’t think that mattered considering what you were about to get up to. The cleanliness of his room was the least of your worries. He opened the door and you were surprised at how surprisingly clean it was. It wasn’t immaculate by any means but it was definitely better than the rooms of other men that you had seen. There were small piles of clothes and an open cluttered suitcase, but that was it as far as the mess went. It was very clean compared to the roommate you had shared a living space with over the past few years.

“So this is how the other half lives,” you sighed, collapsing onto his bed. It was much softer than the one where you were staying.

“It could be your life too,” he replied, lying down next to you. He didn’t know why he said that, but it was too late to take it back. You turned to look at him but he just kept staring at the ceiling, afraid to look you in the eye.

“I guess you’re right. I think I was put on this earth to be a rockstar’s girlfriend.” His cheeks heated up at that. He would have asked you out if he knew for sure that you were talking about him, but you weren’t. You definitely weren’t. Eddie was the kind of guy you snuck into your window because your parents didn’t approve, not the kind of guy you’d bring home. And definitely not the kind of guy who wanted to be a boyfriend. People slept with him and that was it. And that was how he liked it. It was everything he liked without all the “feelings” bullshit.

The two of you fell silent and you rolled on top of him, straddling his hips and pressed your lips to his once again and he was quick to put his hands under your dress. You removed it, letting it fall to the floor. His hands landed on your thighs, giving them a squeeze as he licked into your mouth. He liked how soft they were under his rough hands.

“Fuck,” he breathed. “So this is what I’ve been missing. God, angel, you’re perfect.”

“Perfect?” You loved that word and how easily he was able to say it in regard to you. Like it was something that he said all the time.

“Perfect,” he pressed his lips to yours once more. “And don’t you forget it.”

You pulled his open shirt from his shoulders and threw it to the side. Eddie was quick to flip you over so now he was straddling you. He captured your top lip between his two in a brief kiss before moving down to your neck, pressing open mouthed kisses to the skin. He went down to your chest ,sucking on your breast, his tongue running over your nipple.

You let out a soft moan and he chuckled to himself, loving the way it sounded coming from your pretty lips. He continued sucking on your breast, hearing more moans come from you. He took your nipple in between his teeth and pulling to get just the right sound he wanted from you.

“Oh,” you let out another moan. He repeated the same action before giving it a little suck. “Oh, Eddie.”

“That’s right, princess,” he said before pulling away from your chest. “Say my name.” He moved to your other breast and did the exact same thing, getting more moans from you. He was loving seeing you like this and knowing that it was all for him was driving him wild. He kissed all the way down your stomach and made his way to your waist.

“Can I remove these,” he asked, referring to your underwear. He was being so nice and respectful and you weren’t used to that. You were used to rough and mean.

“Um,” you hesitated. You wanted him to, you really did, but you were still fragile. You weren’t ready but were too afraid to admit that to him. You felt bad considering how eager he was, but you just couldn’t go through with it.

“I don’t have to," he sat up, completely moving his hands away from you, leaning up as he did so.

“I’m sorry,” you apologized. Eddie didn’t know why you were telling him that. He was willing to do whatever you wanted. He hoped that you knew that.

“You don’t have to be sorry. It’s okay if you don’t want to.”

“I do…I just-I don’t know. I’m nervous. I-I’ve only ever felt this way a few times but it’s been a long time and I don’t even know what to do.”

“That’s okay,” he pushed some of your hair out of your face.

“I mean, I don’t even know what it looks like down there anymore.”

“I’m sure it’s fine,” his hands rested on your face. “We don’t have to do anything you don’t want to. I want you to feel comfortable, okay? Tonight is all about you.” All about you? You couldn’t remember the last time you had been the focus of anything. For the longest time, it was all about Chris and what he wanted. For once, you were going to be the center of attention and you weren’t sure how you felt about it.

“Me? What about you, Eddie?” You wanted to know what he was going to get out of the arrangement. Certainly not much.

“Darling, believe me, I’d get plenty of pleasure from hearing your pretty sounds.” Your eyes widened at that. You were still in shock that he always somehow knew exactly what to say.

“Remove them,” you commanded.

“What’s that, sweetheart?” He knew exactly to what you were referring, but he wanted to hear you say it again.

“Remove them,” you repeated. “Please,” you begged and he was quick to remove the fabric and toss it aside. He spread your legs and a devilish grin made its way upon his face.

“Well look at you,” he looked down at your pussy that was much more damp than you were used to. “Is this all for me, princess?”

“Well, it’s certainly not for me.” You couldn’t remember the last time you got wet like this. If you ever had. Any time Chris had tried to fuck you, you were as dry as the desert. You hadn’t even done anything and Eddie was already making you feel much more pleasure than both Chris and your vibrator combined.

“Well, I’m honored.” He took both of your legs and draped them over his shoulders. “Gonna make you feel so good, angel.”

“Yes, god, please.” Eddie lowered his head, pressing a kiss to each of your thighs before burying his face between them. His tongue was quick to lick from your slit to your clit and you slipped your fingers into his hair, giving it a yank. He took that as an invitation to continue and moved his tongue back and forth before adding his fingers into the mix. He pumped them in and out and your legs tightened against his head.

“God, fuck Eddie,” you breathed. “That feels so good, baby.” Eddie continued working his magic with his mouth, removing his fingers, his hands, grabbing onto your hips, digging his fingers into your skin. Your hands buried themselves into his hair, the tips of them pressing into his scalp. “Eddie,” you moaned. “Need more of you.” Eddie pulled away looked up at you and you swore that you were going to remember that look for forever. Like he couldn’t get enough of you. Like he was in love with you and from the way you were making him feel, he was convinced that he was.

He kissed back up to your lips and licked into your mouth, his hands grabbing onto yours, intertwining your fingers. His legs straddled your waist and you could barely even tell that he had put his full weight on you. You were so focused on him and his talented tongue.

“See how good you taste, angel?” He asked, squeezing your hands.

“No,” you shook your head. “Only know how good you taste,” you responded.

“You know exactly what you’re doing to me,” he pressed his lips to yours again. “Don’t you?”

“I don’t know anything, Eddie,” you bat your eyelashes. “Except the fact that you’re fucking hot.” Eddie captured your lips in another kiss before moving down to your neck, sucking on the base of the side on your throat. His teeth grazed the skin gently and he was quick to diffuse the pain with his tongue.

“Flattery will get you everywhere, sweetheart.” He pressed a few open mouthed kisses to your neck before sucking again.

“Then I guess I should tell you how good you are at this.” Eddie lowered himself on top of you, slotting his legs between yours, his fingers still interlaced with yours.

“Then I should tell you how good you are at taking it. You’re doing so well, princess.” You wrapped your arms around his waist and his hands went to your thighs. “You’re so pretty,” he said, pressing more open mouthed kisses to your neck. “Not even just your face, your body.”

“You’re sweet.”

“I’m also right,” he replied. “Don’t you think you’re pretty?” You did think you were pretty. Despite all of the things Chris had said to you over the years, you still thought you were hot shit.

“Absolutely,” you nodded and he grinned.

“Good,” he pressed another kiss to your neck, letting his lips linger there before pulling away. “You should be. You’re so fucking hot.”

“You think so?”

“I know so, princess. Could do this all day every day and never get bored. I think you’re the perfect partner.”

“Out of all the others?” Eddie laughed at that. He didn’t like that you were comparing yourself to the other women he slept with, but he couldn’t understand why you were. To him, he could get rid of every other one and be content to have just you every night. He could see himself falling asleep with you in his arms, his head resting on top of yours. He could see himself performing and looking to you who was standing side stage with the biggest smile on your face, cheering him on. He was falling and fast and for once, he wasn’t going to kick you out. The door was wide open and he was letting you in without question.

“There’s no competition. And this isn’t a line. I genuinely mean it.” he went back to work on your neck, sucking on the spot once more. Your breath hitched and you weren’t sure how he was able to take your breath away. His teeth grazed the skin again, harder this time and you let out a gasp.

“God, Eddie,” you moaned. “Is this always what it’s supposed to feel like?” He chuckled and feeling his breath on your neck made goosebumps rise on your skin.

“As long as it’s with me, yeah,” he responded before diving back in. You liked how he knew when it was starting to hurt and he would quickly swipe his tongue across the spot. He knew exactly what he was doing and you were eating up every second of it.

“Well, maybe next time you can give me the full experience.”

“Already thinking about next time, huh?” He pulled back to wink at you.

“Maybe,” you let out a giggle, starting to feel your eyes get heavy, feeling the after effects of all of the pleasure you had just experienced.

“Right, maybe,” he replied, letting go of your hands and moving your hair away from your face. “You’re starting to slur, angel. Maybe it’s time for bed.”

“No,” you whined. “I didn’t get to please you.”

“Next time, sweetheart, next time,” he pat your cheek. “You can do whatever you want to me when you’re not about to fall asleep on me.” He got off of you and went to his suitcase, pulling out a t-shirt. He handed it to you and you changed into it. It was a little tight, but it was still pretty comfortable. You stood up from the bed, feeling sleepiness take over you as you pulled on your underwear. You almost fell to the floor but Eddie caught up before you could.

“Alright, come one. We gotta remove your makeup, sweet girl.” He scooped you up, holding you by the waist with one arm and putting the other under your legs. He carried you to the bathroom effortlessly and set you on the counter. He then grabbed your makeup remover from your purse and put some on a hand towel before wiping your face with it.

“Eddie, you don’t have to do this.”

“I know,” he nodded. “But I want to. Can’t let you sleep in that all night. It’s not gonna be comfortable.”

“I can do it.”

“Can you just let me take care of you, please?”

“You were taking care of me just fine earlier.”

“Not that kind of care, angel,” he wiped your face again, his other hand holding onto your chin.

“I thought you were going to fuck me,” you pulled away from his grasp.

“Well, I was, but you were getting tired and I’m not really into fucking women who are unconscious.”

“I guess I can’t fault you for being a gentleman,” you sighed.

“Gentleman? That’s the bare minimum. How come here.” You leaned forward, leaning into his touch. You opened your legs and he was quick to slot between them, trying to get closer to you. He continued to remove your makeup, trying to be gentle as he did it. You could get used to it. The two of you having a night out, him holding your hair when you drank too much and him taking you home and removing your makeup when you were too drunk. God, you were really was falling for you. You were fucked.

“All done,” he threw the towel to the side and grabbed onto your waist to help you from the counter. He took you by the hand and led you back to his bed. He helped you under the covers and made sure that you were comfortable before removing his pants and throwing on some sweatpants. He then turned off the lamp beside him and got under the covers and was quick to move over to you, taking you in his arms. He rested his chin on top of your head and you buried your face into his chest. He tangled his legs with yours and pulled you even closer, brushing his lips against your forehead before pressing a kiss to it.

You were so comfortable that you were quickly slipping into sleep. Your face was against Eddie’s warm chest with his arms wrapped around your waist and you were very content being there, knowing that he would protect you if anything happened.

“Goodnight, sweetheart,” he said, rubbing

“Goodnight, Eds,” you sighed dreamily and Eddie loved hearing that sound, feeling at ease that you were content. Before you could fully let sleep consume you, you pulled back to look at him one last time.

“Can I get one last kiss? I really think that would help me sleep.” What was he going to do? Say no? With you looking at him with that adorable sleepy smile? “Please?”

“Well, since you said, please.” He tilted your chin up and pressed a featherlight kiss to your lips. He pulled away only to find you glaring at him and he just let out a laugh. “Oh, I’m sorry. Was that not good enough for you?”

“Not even a little bit.”

“Ouch, doll,” he put his hand up to his chest. “You hurt me again.” You removed his hand and pressed a kiss to the spot he had been covering.

“Better?”

“Much, thank you. Alright, I’ll give you one more kiss and then we have to go to sleep.”

“That’s all I’m asking.” Tilted your head back again and captured your lips between his, this kiss slow and sweet just like all of his others. For being such an intimidating looking guy, he was very good at being a sweetheart. Looks really could be deceiving.

“Alright,” he sighed, pulling away from you. “Bedtime, angel,” he wrapped his arms around your waist again and pulled you to his chest. His chin once again rested on top of your head and he closed his eyes, for once feeling comfortable. All of his nightmares seemed to vanish, the only thing taking over his brain being you and your beautiful face.

Eddie woke up to the sound of a high pitched ringing. He looked to his left and found you on the other side of the bed, looking like an angel, still deep in sleep. So he wasn’t dreaming. All of that stuff that he had done to you had very much happened. It wasn’t a figment of his imagination. He watched you for a second, noticing the very obvious hickey on your neck. He loved watching you come undone at his simple touches. He loved hearing those sounds come from your pretty lips. God, your lips. He could have kissed them all night long and never gotten bored. They were so soft and sweet just like you. You were so nice and caring and he wondered how Chris could treat you like shit, especially with all of the things you had done for him. If Eddie had been in his place, he would have put a ring on it a long time ago.

The ringing was still going and Eddie turned over, reaching for the phone that was by the clock. He put the phone to his ear, expecting to be met by yelling from his manager, Rick.

“Hello,” he answered, his voice still filled with sleep.

“I swear to god if you’re not here in the next five minutes, I’m going to rip the strings off your guitar one fucking string at a time so that you’ll be on stage looking like a goddamn idiot,” Rick warned through grit teeth.

“God, Richard, you’re so dramatic.”

“I swear, if you were up late with one of those groupies-“

“She’s not a groupie,” he corrected.

“Oh, sorry,” Rick apologized, his voice dripping with sarcasm. “Or should I say whore.”

“She’s not a whore either,” he looked over at you, still sleeping peacefully. “Look, I’ll be there, damn,” he pulled the phone away from his ear then immediately put it back. “And send a car for (y/n), will you?” He slammed the phone down on the receiver then looked at the clock and swore to himself, practically flinging himself off the bed. He was going to be late for rehearsal. He rushed to put on some jeans he had left in the floor and a t shirt that was hanging on the knob of the bathroom door.

All of the commotion stirred you from your sleep. You watched Eddie throw on his shirt and you wondered where he was going to early. You glanced at the clock and realized that it was noon. Your flight was at four and you were going to have to run like hell if you wanted to change it.

Eddie rushed into the bathroom and quickly brushed his teeth before heading back into bedroom.

“Where are you going?” You asked him, trying to be flirtatious, but he only looked at you with a stressed expression.

“Got rehearsal, doll,” he sighed, grabbing one of his shoes and throwing it on, not even bothering to tie it then grabbed another shoe and put it on.

“Those don’t match,” you let out a laugh and he looked down, noticing that he was wearing a sneaker and a boot. He took off the sneaker and threw on the other boot before rushing over to give you a kiss.

“When’s your flight?” He asked and you almost didn’t want to answer him. If you did, then the whole thing would be ruined. You just couldn’t say goodbye.

“Four,” you grumbled.

“I’ll still be at the festival then, so we can say goodbye at the car.” You wanted to go with him, but you didn’t feel like you had right to. Hookups didn’t stand side stage.

“You’ll still call me?” You were really hoping that he was going to call you.

“I’d be an idiot not to.” You gave him another kiss before changing back into your dress, handing the shirt back to him.

“No, keep it,” he pushed it back to your chest.

“I can’t take your shirt, Ed.” Even though you knew he had plenty to spare, you felt bad taking it, even though you really wanted to.

“Sure you can. And you look way better in it than I do.”

“Oh, shut up.” You put your shoes back on and made sure you have everything that was in your purse before heading to the door. Eddie opened it for you and the two of you headed down the hallway, Eddie making sure to grab hold of your hand as you did so. You were really hoping that he wasn’t going to be a stranger. You couldn’t stand not seeing him again especially after how close the two of you had gotten in just one night.

Eddie pressed the down button for the elevator then pulled you into his arms, pressing a lingering kiss to your lips. The elevator doors quickly opened, and Eddie urged you inside, the two of you still attached. He pressed you against the wall, his hands grabbing onto your thighs, giving them yet another squeeze. He licked into your mouth and you opened up, letting it find yours. His hands found your ass and he gave it a little pinch, causing up to let out a little squeal.

“Jump,” he commanded and you did as you were told, totally confident that he was going to catch you and he did. Your legs wrapped and his waist and he was quick to pin you to the wall again. “Fuck,” he moaned. “Should’ve done this last night. You look so pretty with your legs wrapped around me, sweetheart.” That only made you tighten your legs around his waist. He pressed his lips to your neck gently and let out a whistle at the mark he had made the night before.

“Oh, how scandalous,” he chuckled. “This is a gnarly hickey. Who did this to you?”

“You did,” you smiled and a full blown grin made its way upon his face.

“That’s right, princess,” he ran his nose along your jaw. “Guess that means you belong to me now.”

“Guess it does,” you responded nonchalantly. You knew Eddie was joking but you definitely wouldn’t have minded being his. The elevator doors opened and Eddie was quick to drop you gently to your feet, grabbing hold of your hand and pulling you out. You tried not to laugh at the older couple giving the two of you disgusted looks as you headed for the entrance.

You got outside where there was a car that Eddie assumed Rick had called for him and he pulled your body to his, pressing yet another kiss to your lips, this one lingering longer than the others.

“I’ll call you as soon as I get back from the festival, alright?” He kissed you again.

“Okay,” you nodded with a sigh. Eddie opened the car door for you.

“Your carriage awaits, m’lady,” he gestured to the backseat and you hesitantly got in before he closed the door behind you. You waved at him from the window and he waved back before heading over to the car that was waiting for him.

You had to remind yourself that this wasn’t the end. He was going to call you and you’d meet again. He’d fly to you if he had to. And he would, no questions asked. He had all of this money and he’d gladly spend every cent just to see you one more time.

You told the driver where you were staying and the car took you there. Now that you were away from Eddie, you were forced to think about the near future. You were about to go back to what was left of the life you shared with Chris and you didn’t know what you were going to do. All you did know was that you had every intention of changing your flight to an earlier one. There was no fucking way that you were going to sit next to that dickhead for five hours with nowhere else to go.

You entered the motel, definitely looking a little worse for wear. You hated that you had to leave Eddie and that you actually had to go back home. You hated having to finish packing your suitcase. You hated everything. But all you could think about was Eddie and the way he had made you feel the night before. You couldn’t help but have wanted him to be there to help you out. And he would have in a heartbeat. He would have made you stand behind him while he called Chris out on his bullshit. But he wasn’t. He had to go to rehearsal for the next day of Rhythm Riot so you’d have to face Chris alone.

You reluctantly unlocked the door and stepped inside, caught off guard by the absolute wreck it was. It was as if a tornado ripped through it considering the state it was in. Chris’s back was to you and he whipped around to look at you. His face was beet red and his eyes looked like they were going to pop out of his head. His fists were clenched so tight that you were convinced that one of his veins was going to explode.

“Where the fuck were you?” He asked through grit teeth.

“Out,” you responded nonchalantly as you closed the door behind you. You began to gather your stuff from the floor to put back inside your suitcase. You put the thing on the bed and started throwing your belongings into it, not even bothering to do it neatly. You didn’t have time for that.

“Out where?” He hated how nonchalant you were being. He assumed that he was still your boyfriend so he thought he deserved real answers, not your vague ones.

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” You raised an eyebrow, loving how angry you were making him.

“Yeah!” He yelled. “I would! I was up all night waiting for you!” You paused for a moment, looking him in the eye. “I needed you to pack my suitcase.”

“I’m not packing anything. We’re broken up, Chris, remember?” You put one of your t-shirts into the case then turned to face him. You then turned back and grabbed more of your clothes from the floor and piled it on top of the others. You moved your hair away from your neck, feeling it becoming sweaty because of how hot the room had become because Chris had the window open despite it being scorching hot outside considering that it was June in California.

“What the fuck is that?” He pointed to your neck. You knew exactly what he was referring to but wanted to play dumb. You just wanted to have some fun.

“What’s what?” You tilted your head to the side, your eyebrows furrowing in confusion.

“That!” He pointed to your neck again.

“Chris, I have no idea what you’re talking about.” He rushed over to you and grabbed your face roughly in his hands, turning your head to the side so he could get a better look at the purple mark on your neck.

“This,” he looked directly at the mark.

“Oh,” you let out a giggle. “That. Why don’t you ask Eddie?”

“Munson?” He let go of you completely and turned away, rubbing his hands along his face.

“Maybe,” you shrugged. “I don’t recall.”

“Do not fuck with me, you bitch.” He pointed at you. “Did you…did you fuck him?”

“I did,” you confirmed with a nod. “And he gave me more pleasure than you ever could.” All Chris could do in response was let out a scream in frustration. You were quick to grab the rest of your things and zip it up before racing out of the room.

You got to the elevator and hurriedly pressed the button to go down to the lobby, hoping that Chris wasn’t following you. The door to the suite never opened so you let out a breath and got onto the elevator, letting it take you to the lobby. You went to the front desk and made sure to let the woman behind it know that Chris would be paying for the room you shared. You left after that, making your way to the airport.

[erideights]

Little pieces here and there (4)

Pairing: Buggy x Fem!Reader (One Piece Live Action)

Parts: one, two, three, five

Word Count: 4,2K, i should ask for forgiveness

Warnings: flirting, pinning, (FUCKING) FINALLY, unprotected sex, buggy detaching parts of his body during sex like the freak he is

A/N: i've been building this moment so long that i was, once more, inspired by god to make this chapter the longest ever, i hope you all enjoy and that the awaited smut doesn't disappoint and delivers (let me know, anxiety is killing me, love u all, see you in chapter 5, the final (until season 2) of this series) (again i'm really really sorry for any grammatical mistake!)

Day 5 after what happened during the Arlong Park fight, or what is the same for her = 5 AAP, (Y/N) is sure about three things:

1. With the choice of leaving her mercenary life behind, comes her new position as the ''strategist'' of the Straw Hat crew, a group of very unique people that after a couple of stops along the way, would arrive at the Grand Line.

2. Their next destination is Loguetown, which excited her; she loved the city, she never turned down an assignment that involved working there. They would arrive in a couple of days and stock up on everything they would need before beginning the greatest adventure of their lives.

3. Buggy's nose was real. Very real. And she missed him. Just a bit.

To be more precise, that bit of tension and constant sarcasm around her. She knew he was a pain in the ass, and that his staying on the ship wouldn't have lasted much more than an extra day and a half because one of her crewmates -Zoro- would have unceremoniously thrown him overboard anytime.

But it was really fun for her, so from time to time and in particular, when she passes by the helm, she finds herself remembering that annoying talking head and smiling a bit.

And so, after an entire week, they arrive at the famous Loguetown, the tomb of the most famous pirate of all time, a refuge for mercenaries, pirates and bounty hunters from all corners of the East Blue! No matter what, everything your heart could desire -except for the One Piece- you could find there. Jewelry, weapons, food, alcohol, a good bed to sleep and rest in, or other darker, macabre and adult types of entertainment.

Ah, what a city. Anyone could get lost among its endless alleys packed with people. That's why when the crew splits up, they do it in pairs, making sure that Zoro, who they had already discovered, lacked complete and utter sense of direction, wouldn't be left alone and lost among the city's infinite tide of pirates. (Y/N) is the one who goes with him, both heading to the largest armory in the city to replace his destroyed katanas while Sanji and Luffy take care of the food, and Usopp and Nami go around to do… she doesn’t really remember what. Trying clothes she believes.

She must say, however, that this swordsman is not exactly the most talkative person in the world even though their friendship has considerably grown and deepened during their little journey. Apart from sharing small notes about the city, how many people there are, or what they should do, they don't really talk that much; in her case, because she is absorbed in her surroundings, soaking in every possible detail. Him, silent because his reputation as a pirate hunter is famous around all the East Blue, and of course, in Loguetown there are only pirates. He prefers to stay alert to avoid future conflicts and have a peaceful morning. Not for him, but for his crew.

That's why when a gloved hand flies out of a dark alley, and violently covers the girl's mouth and nose, preventing her from screaming, while another grabs her by the waistband of her pants and yanks her back, forcing her to get in said alley, Zoro doesn't even notice, he continues calmly walking, minding his own fucking business, heading to only God knows where.

Farewell, mosshead.

In a blink, (Y/N)'s back collides with a strong torso, and with her heart in her mouth and adrenaline running wild in her veins, she stretches her right hand to reach the knife she has in the holster on her right thigh to destroy the asshole that dares to try to steal from her. Or murder her. Or that's her idea until she hears a familiar voice murmuring an “I got you” behind her, before turning her head and discovering the biggest, reckless buffoon she's ever met.

Buggy.

Eyes wide open, she screams against his palm, pissed off by the way he scared the shit outta her. Extremely angry, she yanks his hand away from her mouth, turns her entire body around and looks at him with what he would swear, is the most annoyed expression he ever saw in his entire life. Before the clown can excuse himself and his lack of manners, just as she begins to see that stupid smile appear on his stupid face, she slaps him so hard that for a second, he thinks his head will detach from the rest of his body.

Then, and pushed by an outburst of passion that comes out of she doesn’t even understand where, a mixture of adrenaline, surprise, her desire to kill him with her own hands and the -sexual- frustration with which he abandoned her the last time, she grabs his vest, pulls and kisses him. Again, all before Buggy can even react.

The kiss is brief. Really quick, but intense as hell, and she manages to leave him breathless. Yes, him. Only him. Because the moment they separate, when (Y/N) pushes him back, she spits out a heartfelt “You're an idiot!”

What a fucking rollercoaster. He doesn't even remember what he was about to say anymore to greet her. He's in fact, too stunned to speak. Did she slapped, kissed, and insulted him in less than a minute? Oh, she's a freak, just like him. The only difference between them is that she knows how to pretend the opposite. But she can't hide it from him. Not to the king of the freaks.

''I missed you too, baby'' he admits with an amused smile, moving his jaw a little from side to side, as well as his neck; that woman is stronger than he expected.

''Yeah? Because I really didn’t.’’ she spits once again, taking a deep breath. ''Liar'' he retorts, eyeing her up and down. ''Liir'' she instantly mocks, still recovering from the tsunami of emotions that just passed through her. ''What the fuck are you doing in Loguetown?''

''I came looking for my sorry excuses for a supporting cast,'' his crew. Were they still alive? Would have sworn Zoro destroyed all of them but who knew. ''and turns out I found the perfect, shiny, little new supporting star for my show'' he adds, as flirtatious as always around her, approaching (Y/N) again.

''Oh, I feel flattered but as I already told you, I don't like being in the spotlight. I relate way more to the shadow around it.”

He rolls his eyes but nods in understanding, reaching out to grab the girl's waist. ''Mhm. What about a private show, then? We have a play to finish, If my memory's not betraying me.'' He whispers honeyed, closing the distance between the two just a bit more. Cannot stop himself, neither he wants to. He knew as soon as he recognized her on the street, he would not let her go without putting order in their outstanding matters.

She’s about to add her usual sarcastic and smartass remark saying something among the lines of ‘without inviting me to dinner first?’ but she chooses not to. Just for once. ''I could agree to that.'' The girl admits, tilting a smile. ''Not here, tho.'' Pressing the clown's chest with her index finger, signaling for him to stay still, (Y/N) runs her tongue over her upper teeth, taking a couple of seconds to think.

In the end, she raises an eyebrow, and with an amused smile, she asks: “Do you trust me?”

''Not in a million years''

''I knew you would say that.'' She still takes one of his hands, that was still on her waist, and starts walking quite fast towards the other end of the alley, pulling him with her. He doesn’t object at all, despite not knowing where the hell is she taking him, and simply follows her lead, unconsciously squeezing her hand to not to lose her in the crowd.

Not many minutes later, after climbing some stairs and turning a few streets, there they are, in front of a beautiful tavern with windows decorated with ornate dark wooden planks, designing patterns of small squares, offering a beautiful view of its interior. The building was not one of the largest in the area, but it was not one of the smallest either. She knew from experience* that the floors above the tavern were rooms rented to the pickiest pirates. They had enough space to rest comfortably after a long voyage at sea, with a good bed and several locks on the doors and windows to prevent intrusions, attempts at robbery or murder, or a drunken idiot making a mistake and entering the wrong room.

*She knows this because a couple of years ago she needed to sneak in during the night to steal a jade seal from a famous pirate captain, who had previously stolen it from the temple it belonged to a few months before. Getting in wasn't easy at all.

Walking to the side of the building, where the windows of the rooms can be seen better, (Y/N) looks right, then left, making sure there’s no one nosing around.

‘’Here we are.’’ She announces, looking at him with a devilish smirk on her face. ''Now pay attention, here's my brilliant, unique and exceptional plan. It will absolutely blow your mind.’’ He cracks a genuine smile after hearing how she praised herself. She sounded almost like him. 

“First step: Throw your head up to that window over there,” she points said window with her index finger, two floors above their heads, “and tell me if there’s someone sleeping inside. Or if you see any sign someone rented the room.’’

Confusion is the feeling that crosses his beautiful face for a second, looking at her with a raised eyebrow and lips pressed into a small incredulous smile. She wants to sneak through the window without being seen and not pay a single berry? Exactly what a true pirate would do. He was starting to fall in love with her.

Without a second thought, his head separates from his body and floats to the open window, slightly sneaking in to check as she asked. And as fast as it goes up, it returns back down, just like a yo-yo. ''Clear'' He confirms, amused. 

''Perfect, second step: now throw your right hand, same window, and leave it there.'' And he does as she says, no questions asked, because he could not do otherwise. Because he wouldn't want to do otherwise. He was not made to follow orders and still, deep down, he knows he would follow hers. Or better said… he would follow her around. She was, maybe, not a theatre kid like him, but to his eyes, she shines brightly.

Not as much as him, tho.

Once Buggy's right hand waits patiently on the window frame, (Y/N) grabs the clown by the shoulders and strategically positions him under the window. Then she takes his left hand, bringing it forward. "Third step: with this hand you propel me into the air, with the other you grab me and you help me sneak in."

''And the final step?'' Getting very close to his face, the girl rubs her nose against his and whispers, voice low and lustful, ''You float to the window and meet me inside for that private show you mentioned before.'' He already knew the goal of that whole improvised plan, but he almost purrs when he hears her say it.

Then Buggy throws her upwards without prior notice, way stronger than she expected, and a sweet, genuine laugh escapes (Y/N)'s lips at the lack of gravity and that distinctive tickle in her stomach that rises to her throat. Not even when he uses that floating hand to catch her and guide her to the room, her feet on solid ground again, she’s able to stop laughing.

She expected this whole forbidden getaway to be entertaining, but not so, so fun. There was no point in denying the obvious: the complicity, the chemistry between them is criminal, asphyxiating, palpable, and so, so /real/. It's not only about physical attraction and sexual tension anymore, they were actually really compatible, which could only, and is already, making things one hundred times better.

As soon as she's inside, still giggling a bit, she's quick to reach the door and securely close it, fitting the bolt with a pair of lockpicks that she had on her. On the other hand, as soon as Buggy gets inside the room he chooses not to lose a single second, because every second he wastes is one less that he can enjoy that fantastic woman who is driving him crazy; before she can return to the center of the room, he has already recovered his right hand, thrown his hat to the floor along with his coat, and has rushed towards her, kissing her again, this time without a hurry, but voraciously, passionately, with the irresistible yearning he has been suffering for almost two weeks. He wants-- no, he needs to make her his. The desire making his blood boil. Her warmth, her smell, the taste of her lips-- even her laugh. It was too much. Too intoxicating.

(Y/N) welcomes him, sighing deeply against his lips, tilting her head a little, melting in the kiss, her hands flying to his hair to take out the bandana and pull at his blue locks, to which Buggy responds by grabbing her from the back of her thighs, lifting her up and carrying her to the bed, near the window. He lets some of his weight fall onto her, loosely holding himself on his knees on the mattress. She closes her legs around his waist, pressing him even a little closer against her body, excitement coursing through her veins like poison.

All that little game with the clown was just flirting, huh? Yeah, sure.

For a minute, everything is kisses, stealing each other's breaths, strong caresses on arms, legs, and back over clothes. There are bites at each other's lips, seemingly incapable of getting enough of the other, the attraction between them driving them both so absolutely insane than getting some distance to get naked seems impossible.

“Baby,” raspily, he press his crotch between her legs to let her feel his growing erection under his pants. ''I suggest you getting naked before I rip your clothes off by myself.''

She moans in response, wetter, more aroused by every second passing, unable to even think about playing hard to get this time. ''Aye aye captain'' she manages to whisper back mischievously, separating her hands from his body in order to pull her own shirt up and throw it somewhere in the room.

He grunts, but makes the titanic effort to separate himself from her, standing on his knees in front of her laying body, licking his lips, breathing heavily, eyes half-closed, already fucking her in his thoughts. Of course, seeing her undress for him is quite a show.

After her shirt comes the button and zipper of her pants. Although before getting rid of these, she pulls the scarf around the clown's neck, forcing him to lean over her again, and after it goes his vest. Given the girl's haste, he lets escape a hoarse laugh that reverberates inside his chest and decides to help her with whatever’s left between them; shoes, pants, gloves, and underwear.

''You're gorgeous'' he breathes, taking in her image in front of him. “You’re almost making me feel guilty for what I'm about to do.”

Before she could even ask, or threaten with a ‘don't you fucking dare’ or something among those lines, one of Buggy's hands flies to her own, and pins her wrists against the bed with such force, she hisses, heart in her throat, deafening her ears. She remembers herself, this was all too good to be true, and that damn clown promised to make her beg. He wasn't going to forgive her so easily, was he?

Her fault.

''Sweetheart, open your beautiful legs for me, will you?'' Returning to the bed, the clown settles between the girl's thighs, running -with the only hand still attached to his body-, one of her legs, from the knee to the hip bone in a slow and tortuous caress.

''Now, I'm pretty sure I warned you about what's about to happen last time you took advantage of my... uncomfortable, kinda-hostage situation on your stupid little boat. When you decided to push me to my limit.''

She is too aroused, too turned on to think clearly, her mind clouded by the same rush of hormones that’s making her incredibly wet. Having him now naked between her legs, threatening her in that low tone of voice, exposed helplessly in front of him, doesn't help at all; it is, as a matter of fact, making things way worse.

''You wanted me to beg, right?’’

''Exactly. It's that easy.'' After a couple of strokes, he grabs his erection and runs it slowly through her wet folds, both of them barely containing a moan in their throats at the sensation. He, perhaps, better than her, because (Y/N) involuntarily pushes her hips upwards, trying to get some more. ''Ah-ah. Want me to fuck you, sweetheart? Just beg for it. Beg for /me/.''

Being the proud woman she is, it's not exactly easy for her to seriously beg for something. Joking? Of course, any time, even sarcastically, but something is telling her, her sixth sense probably, he won't settle with a sarcastic remark and dove eyes.

Closing her eyes tightly, she lets herself be carried away by pure and absolute desperation every time he runs his erection through her, lubricating himself with her fluids. He is silent, already tasting the sweet victory he’ll feel when he manages to break her and make her beg. Although this doesn't happen as quickly as he would have preferred.

''(Y/N)'' He warns, and it's the first time he says her name out loud. The first time she hears him, with his raspy voice and his beautiful accent, pronouncing her real name instead of some compliment or silly nickname to call her.

Welcome, breaking point.

''Beg--'' 

''I need you,'' she interrupts him in a low whimper, lifting her hips. ''Bugs-- Buggy, I need you to fuck me. Now.”

Usually, it's moments like this particular one in which the clown enjoys recreating himself, making others beg a little more, -sex, mercy, forgiveness- doesn’t matter-, taking his good time listening to her moans and cries of desperation. But he can't help it, the second he hears the girl call him by his name, telling him how much she needs him, and that silly attempt of an order at the end, he knows it’s game over, and he decides to give her exactly what she wants, penetrating her suddenly the last time he runs slowly through her folds. A sweet moan of relief and pleasure escapes from (Y/N) chest along with a "Fuck, Buggy--". From him, a hoarse grunt. A shiver runs down their spines, and quickly, Buggy recovers his other hand, freeing her from his grip, to aggressively pull both of her thighs to bring her closer to him, and begins to thrust hard, all shreds of self-control escaping from his body lightspeed.

He pushes into her as deep as he can in no time, burying himself between her legs, face hidden in the crook of her neck, hands keeping her legs open, close to his hips.

She doesn't know what she likes more, the erratic sound of his breathing and panting in her ear, the desperation with which his whole body seems to search for hers or each penetration sending an ecstasy shock through her nerves, but she soon becomes a puddle of sweet moans, whimpers and breathing as heavy as his, one hand pulling hard at his blue hair, the other resting on his abdomen, nails digging slightly his skin with each thrust.

''Oh god, Bugs--’’

''Moan my name louder baby,'' he breathes before biting her shoulder, leaving the mark of his teeth imprinted on her skin. ''I want them to catch us. I want them hearing you scream my name.”

And she does. She moans his name again, just not as loud as he wants. Which means there is something, something he can do better. Something to push her to her limit, to make her a believer, and make her /his/.

Summoning all his willpower, and not before one last, violent thrust, the clown stops and suddenly pulls out of her. (Y/N) complains with a loud cry, opening her eyes to ask what the fuck is he actually doing, how dares he to stop. Thank God, she doesn't have time to threaten him before he speaks.

''On your knees.'' And of course she obliges, on all fours, the simple idea making her completely lose her mind. Only thing, Buggy doesn't intend to keep her like this for a long time; as soon as she exposes herself for him again, he buries himself once more inside her as deep as he can and starts thrusting again, slowly but strongly, ending each thrust with a loud slam. This time, both hands separate from his body, one reaching for her delicate neck, which he circles with his fingers and presses to lightly cut off her breathing. The other one flies to her mouth, pushing between her lips with two fingers that she soaks in her saliva.

(Y/N), unable to articulate a single complaint, sucks, bites and licks them, muffling against them every sound that escapes her throat.

A pleasure shock, like a lightning bolt, forces her to arch her back the moment that same hand flies to her clitoris and starts masturbating it, overstimulating her.

Buggy is really determined to make her his, to not let her forget about him, to become the legitimate protagonist of each of her erotic fantasies, so to finish driving her crazy, the hand he has around her neck lifts her up, pulling her until he forces her back against his torso in a beautiful reference to the day they met and the first time he felt that magnetic attraction inevitably pulling him towards her.

''So. Much. Better,” he manages to whisper between grunts and raspy moans, surrounding her abdomen with one of his arms to keep her in place, close to his chest, sacrificing penetrating her as deeply as he would like but without caring in the slightless because he knows, she is quickly reaching her orgasm. He can feel it in the way her walls contract around his cock, in the beating of her heart in her throat against his hand, and in how her hands reach for anything, trying to support herself; in this case, his arm around her, nails scratching his skin.

''C'mon baby, cum for me.'' He groans, refusing to fall headfirst to his own orgasm because he doesn't plan to finish before her. Under other circumstances he would have done it, he has never been the kind of generous lover who thinks of his partner's pleasure before his own. This woman is breaking some old habits and patterns just being the way she is. And he doesn't care at all.

A few more thrust, the lack of enough oxygen in her lungs and that wonderful pressure on her clitoris, and (Y/N) explodes in an orgasm so strong she begins to breathless moan Buggy’s name over and over again like a mantra, which obviously feeds his ego so, so much, it ends up sending him over the same edge, moaning her name under his breath, resting his forehead on her shoulder, hugging her body tightly as they ride their climax.

                                        …

''Told you I would make you beg'' he cracks a devilish smirk, wrapping his right arm around her shoulders when he finally lies on the mattress.

''Yeah'' she giggles, although sarcastically, recovering by the second, enough clarity to recompose her own ego. ''You also told me you would make me find the One Piece without going to the Grand Line and I cannot see it anywhere yet.''

What a subtle way of asking for a second round, he thinks to himself, clearly pleased -instead of offended- for the way his smile stretches even more, looking intently at her.

“You're right.” He would have liked to lie on the bed for a while, getting back some energy and attack again, but damn him if he ever dares to reject a provocation as bold as that one. He wouldn't forgive himself.

Getting out of bed almost as quickly as he lay down a few minutes ago, Buggy cracks his neck from side to side, and taking one of the chairs next to the table in the room, he turns it in the air, leaving it pointing towards the girl.

He then sits down, leaning on the backrest, relaxed, exhaling an erotic, slow sigh as he exaggeratedly separates his legs in a clear invitation for her to come closer and sit on them.

"What did you say the other day? About liking a man with his entire body, capable of fucking you in his lap and making you scream his name?"

[everything-fine-n-peachy]

agree to disagree (z.cl)

pairings: zhong chenle x reader genre: high school angst summary: y/n thinks chenle has the biggest head on the planet (literally and figuratively) and chenle is a boy with a crush and a lot of issues to work through.

warning: slight mention of parental neglect and ensuing anxiety

You hated Chenle’s guts. 

There was just something about this boy that made your eyes roll every single time he was with you in the same room. You had to agree that there were perks to haveing someone as affluent as Chenle in your grade. The sponsorships from his family during school events meant that teachers were inevitably more lenient. But behind this so called generosity, you could clearly see the humble brag that he was. 

Everyone adored the fair skinned boy who liked to laugh obnoxiously loud with his friends who all wore rolex watches. There was an undeniable envy behind the thin veil of admiration that everyone seemed to have though. Except you, ya’ll stay safe. 

You knew it since day one of the 7th grade when the teacher announced elections for class officers a week prior. Elections that you intended to win. The next day Chenle showed up with a bag of lollipops for everyone, automatically securing him a win as president of the class while you lost with less than five votes to your name. 

It wasn’t to say that he did a lousy job. But he wasn’t going to silently work behind the scenes, no. He liked to make everyone aware of his status and wealth in the most subtle of ways. Free snacks whenever he felt like it, free entrance at the golfclub their family owned, and souvenirs for everyone from when he would go overseas with his grandparents. And you hated it. The feeling of being treated as a charity case. Like this boy thought he could buy everyone’s love. But not you. 

“I hope everyone enjoys the free handwash mom says they cost a lot,” he announced. You with the long French braid and mouth full of braces promptly had enough by then. 

You approach him with your irritation having reached it’s limit within your stature of four-feet-eleven. “If you’re always going to tell us how expensive everything is, then I think you should just shut up,” you spat, shoving the pink paper packing into his chest. You walk away with satisfaction as Chenle muttered crap about how it was from the tropical islands of whatever country you couldn’t pronounce. 

Your hate was was palpable across the entire grade for the next five years. Everyone knew that you and Chenle didn’t mix except maybe your 12th grade English teacher. 

“Class this is just for the first term. No one is being forced to sign a marriage certificate so I would appreciate if everyone cooperated with their partner,” Ms. Son commented as she flashed the list of pairs on the screen in front.

You visibly frowned, “you gotta be kidding me.” Jaemin, who sat next to you tried to contain his laughter upon realizing that you had in fact been paired-up with Chenle. Ms. Son eyes anyone who dared to complain before explaining the project. “I want each pair to pick a topic that you disagree on. For the next nine weeks I want you to come up with a presentation on how communication skills will help you understand a different perspective.” 

Murmurs fill the room. Some of your classmates are excited. Many are quite bored and just wish the bell would ring. You are downright fumming at Chenle’s audacity to wave at you from across the room when your eyes meet. 

On the first meeting you drag yourself into the library for the inevitable. Chenle lounges lazily on one of the bean bags, engrossed in his tablet. You drop your things on an empty table before clearing your throat. 

“I think the sooner we get this over with the better,” you say with a tight lipped expression. He agrees before standing up and joining you on the table. 

You notice him studying you and can’t help but fumble with your pencil and notebook. “Why are you looking at me?” 

“I just can’t figure out why you hate me so much,” he mutters more to himself than to you. 

“We’re here to discuss the assignment.” you pointedly respond before proceeding to go over some of the topics you wanted to tackle. As you’re reading off the list you notice Chenle’s eyes linger on you a few times. You find the way he can keep eye contact unsettling but you push on wanting the assignment to be over sooner rather than later. 

The good news was that you found plenty of topics that you disagree on. The bad news was that none of you could get through a conversation without picking a fight, well mostly you couldn’t get through a conversation without picking a fight. 

You mutually decide that Renjun would be present on your second meeting. You both think maybe a mediator would help you. But not even 30 minutes in and Renjun’s hands are rubbing his cheeks in frustration. 

 “Let’s take this from the top shall we?” He reiterates,” you need to listen to each other first. Stop trying to win over each other.” 

“I think there’s nothing wrong with using your connections to get farther in life, if I have an advantage why shouldn’t I use it?” Chenle states.  

“If said advatange is within your reach because of privileges that you have, shouldn’t that be regulated by policy?” You bite back. 

“They /are/ regulated by policy. Don’t companies have referals? Isn’t that even better since people are vouching for them?” 

At this point Renjun let out an exasperated sigh. None of you were listening to each other, let alone him. “Guys, the pont of this assignment is to hear both sides. I need you to find some common ground,” he exclaims earning some looks from other kids in the lounge. 

The two of you promptly stop arguing. Renjun sighs again, “you don’t actually disagree as much as you think.” 

You snort in response, “yeah and Chenle just needs to get his big head back to earth to see that not everyone has a rich family who can get them places.” 

“Why do you always act like that’s a bad thing?” Chenle retaliates. 

“It’s a bad thing when you keep trying to buy your way through life!” you yell. 

You visibly see Chenle shrink back into his chair. His face morphs into something you’re not sure of. Even you are a little surprised at yourself. 

Chenle presses his lips together. He laughs to himself before speaking, “well, I don’t know what to say to that. But I have taekwondo training in five, so …” 

You watch Chenle gather his stuff in silence. You stare hard at the blue metallic surface of the table long after Chenle is out the door. 

“That was pretty mean even by your standards,” Renjun said. “I get that he’s annoying but isn’t that a bit unfair considering you barely know him?” 

That night you stare up at the ceiling finding it hard to sleep. You toss and turn thinking about Chenle. You remember the boy who bragged about his thousand dollar drone, the boy who accidentally dumped his iphone in the pond and had a new one the next day, the boy who liked to tell people that money wasn’t a problem. 

Then you also remembered that he was the boy whose parents didn’t show up to any ribbon ceremony, the kid who constantly brought nannies instead of family to his school shows, and the only one who hadn’t received a personalized letter from his mom or dad during the senior retreat in 10th grade. 

You think you don’t really know Chenle as much as you’d like to think. Maybe you were the problem for allowing your 7th grade grudge get the best of you for the last five years. Maybe, you needed to give this project a chance by not sabotaging it nearly as much as you did. 

You’re nervous when the third meeting comes up. Words have been scarce between you and Chenle but you at least have the decency to set up another meeting at the library. You’re a few minute early but soon five minutes turned into ten and ten turned into twenty. You attempted to text your partner but to no avail, you try and look for him yourself. 

A few steps into the 12th grade corridor you hear shuffling in one of the rooms. Curious, you follow the sounds and find yourself face to face with Chenle who was in the process of pacing. You can’t help but notice that his hands shake a bit. 

“Go away,” he says. When you don’t follow his command, he let’s out a shaky breath and a tiny laugh before slumping against the wall. You stand and watch as he sinks to the ground. 

“You’re probably right. All I have going for me is my family and I can’t even please them. Can't win a medal, can't get on the merit list.” 

You find yourself sitting next to him, leaning your head against the wall. Not quite sure what to respond, you let him drawl on. 

“I don’t even like taekwondo,” he laughed to himself again. 

“Why do you do it then if you don’t like it?”

“It’s the only tournament my dad ever attends.” 

Your eyes look straight at the windows that offer a view of the sun setting beautifully in soft hues of pink and stark orange while you both bask in the misery of the moment. 

“I got into university today. The university that they wanted for me so badly.” 

“Do you want to go?” 

“No,” he chuckled, covering his face with his hands. 

“Then don’t go. You’re plenty smart I’m sure you’ll find a good university that you actually want to go to,” you reply turning your face to look at Chenle. 

He takes a deep breath, shaking his head. “My parents have already paid for the first semester.” 

There’s a long pause before Chenle speaks again. “I was thinking about what you said a couple of days ago. It kinda stung but it wasn’t something I heard for the first time.” 

You unconsciously shift your position, uneasy at how Chenle’s demeanor changed from the last time you spoke to him with Renjun at the students’ lounge. He seemed so vulnerable, cocky have-it-all attitude all gone. Instead, a very much exhausted Chenle seemed to take his place. 

“I don’t take any offense, don’t worry,” he assured you. “I just reaized for the first time that I actually let myself use my pain as an excuse. I parade this generational wealth around since that’s all it was ever good for.” 

You feel yourself soften at his confession. Not that he was totally forgiven but it was a start. “That still isn’t an excuse for me being mean to you for the longest time. I apologize,” you mutter, eyes looking ahead. 

“I guess we can call it even since I’ve been a jerk to you, too. Sorry bout that.” 

You turn only to realize that Chenle was already looking at you. He had always been looking at you except you never did notice. He liked the way your eyes reflected the pretty sunset. Even after five years, his crush on you hadn’t worn off. 

Truth be told, he pulled half the stunts he did to get your attention. Winning class president, giving away free strawberry hand soap because he had overheard that you liked the color pink, engaging you in arguments, and everything in between. 

He knew from when you didn’t back down from him during class elections. Since then he only found more reasons to reaffirm his feelings with everything you do. His heart would skip a beat when your bright voice fills a room when you talk about social injustice, the way you were so proud of your dad, a teacher on career day, or the way you earnestly listen to your friends when they have something to say. 

Chenle offers his hand, “to new beginnings?” 

“To new beginnings,” you replied. 

As you’re both standing up to leave you can’t help but feel the urge say something. “Chenle, about the university. I guess there won’t be any harm if you honestly tell your parents that you don’t want to go. Just a suggestion,” you offer with your palms raised. 

For the first time, you experience Chenle smiling at you. Like, really smiling at you. You aren’t particularly sure why but you notice the crinkle of his eyes and the lopsided curve of his lips and you can’t help but feel endeared. 

“Well, there’s that,” he says. “But I’m hungry. We should order pizza.” 

You nod in reply, “as long as you aren’t getting them with pineapples, I’m down.” 

Chenle’s eyes widen as he slowly lowers his phone, “you don’t like pineapples on pizza?” 

“They’re disgusting, no.” 

“But they bring out all the other flavors!” he exclaims. 

You smile at him while he continues to tap on his phone. As you walk down the corridor you think- no, you feel that something has changed and even if you wouldn’t want to admit it, you were glad that it did. 

“Let’s just agree to disagree,” you finally said, putting one foot in front of the other. 

[ventithedrunkbardehe]

Hello, if you write angst, may I request luxiem x reader, where in the process of time travel, they lost reader. It can end with a reunion or anything you want.

If you don't write angst, may I request a any xsoleil boys x short reader, with anything you want.

Hello hello! I like this idea os let's get started shall we? Also I will still write for Mysta even after he graduates.

Luxiem loosing then reuniting with their s/o

Vox the Voice Demon, well, as everyone knew him in the in the Sengoku Period and mostly in the Akuma Castle. You were one of Vox's closer servant who was always by his side. There were many rumors going thru the people in the castle that the two of you were together, or just someone that he used for his own pleasure, but that wasn't really the case.

The two of you were generally close cause the two of you had many things in common, and could talk about a lot of stuff, like for an example, cooking. You never guessed that this man likes to cook but well, he does to your suprise. He also kinda opened up to you and you opened up to him too, so you guys were big safespots for eachother. The two of you just went to hangout with eachother but some of them ended up as a date, and well it was another occasion of a hangout that turned into a date when he asked you out. You said yes and well, now the rumors were now true. The two of you were officially dating.

Everything was good until the war had started. Vox asked his most trusted man to get you somewhere safe. Almost everyone except for your little group. The 5 soldiers and you watched as Vox was trying to fight the Shogunate's soilders were getting killed by Vox but then eventually overpowered him. As you felt your heart break after the Shogunate left victorious and ran away with the remaining people.

It took weeks to months to recover yourself from that war that happened, you tried going back living your life as it was but it was a pain living without the person that you needed the most in your life. Eventually more and more weeks that turned into moths that turned into years have passed and you gave up on your life even and even more.

It was another painful day in your life that you woke up to. You moved on with your life since Vox died, or well that's what you thought. You went on your day like you did for the past few years. You were walking on the market-street as someone came up next to you. You didn't really care until the person took your bag out of your hand and started packing more tihngs into it. You looked up at the person ready to antigonize with him until you realized who was standing next to you.

"V-Vox?" - your voice barely came out from your throath. He looked down at you and smiled then wrapped one of his arms around your shoulder and pulled you closer, looking down at you as you looked up to him. "I-... I thought you died..." - you said as your voice became more and more shakely.

"Well, I did not as you can see that." - he smiles at you. "Is there anything else you'd like?" - he asked as he gave a kiss on your forehead. You shook you head then he payed for the stuff that you and mostly him collected for the meal.

"H-how? W- what happened?" - you asked as he escorted you from the shop as he always did.

"I'll tell you everything okay? But now, I need to start plannign for the next war... since I have Kindred on my side now too." - he said as he looked foward and saw his newest army ready to fight.

Ike always liked books since he was a little kid, and so did you. The two of you met back in his early years as a writer. You always read his books, you were always the first one to buy his newest book, and well... you were on a trip to the market again to buy his newet book as usual. You arrived to the bookshop and bought the book, as you started walking away you bumped into someone and the book fell out from your hands as you fell down too.

"I-I'm sorry-" - you said as you tried getting up, your face red from the embarrasment.

"Oh no, it was my fault... are you okay" - a soft voice spoke to you. You opened your eyes and you saw him... Ike Eveland himself. Your favourite novelist, in person infront of you, and you had to meet him with you bumping into him... 'How embarraing' - you thought to yourself. Ike offered you a hand to help you up that you accepted.

"I suppose this is also yours." - He said with a smile as he gave you the book that you just bought.

"Thank you..." - you said as your took it from him.

"So you're the one that the book-shopkeeper keep telling me about." - he said with a smile on his face.

"What do you mean?" - you asked as you looked at him with widened eyes. He chukles at your expression.

"He always tells me when I drop by that there's a person who's always the first one to buy my books." - he smiles. "Would you like a signiture?" - he asks as he looks at you.

"I-... I'd love that but y-you don't have to... you're probably busy..." - you say with a happiness with sadness in your voice.

"I'm quite free right now." - he says as he signs your book. A blush creeps to your face as you thank him. "And also, I'd like to get to know the person better who supported me since the start of my career. So if you're free right now, would you like to go to the café with me?" - he asks you as he gives you back the book with a smile. Your eyes widen once more, the blush becoming more visible on your face as you nod.

The two of you started to hangout more and more after that day, and eventually got together.

It was another simple day, you were staying over at Ike's place, who was at his desk, writing his newest book. It was already late and you tried to get him to stop and go to bed since the dark circles under his eyes were becoming more and more visible. But he just replied with, "I'll finish this page and I'll go. You should go to sleep, no need to wait for me." - he said as he continued writing. You tried waiting for him but you were too tired and ended up going to sleep alone again. The next day when you woke up you were alone in the bed as usual. You got up to search for him in his workroom where you saw his still unfinished work but no signs of him. You went into the kitchen, into the livingroom, into the bathroom, but he was nowhere to be found. You started to worry but calmed yourelf with 'He's probably just out getting more suplies' but the end of the day came sooner then you expected and he was nowhere to be found and you were alone in the novelist's house. It was cold and empty jut for one person. You couldn't go to sleep knowing that he wasn't near you, so you took one of his shirts out from his wardrobe that smelled like him and went to sleep sucsessfully. But he didn't return the next day or the rest of the days. You felt hopeless... You thought he was sick of you and he left you purposfully, so you tried moving on ith your life.

It has been a few years since the incident happen, then you heard a knock on your front door. You put the book that you were reading to the side as you got up to open the door. As you opened the door, a familiar male figure stood infront of you. You didn't want to belive your eyes as you froze down.

"I'm back..." - Ike said as tears filled his eyes, and so did yours.

"Welcome home..." - You said as you jumped into his arms. "What happened?... where did you go?..." - you started asking a lot of questions from him as he held you tight.

"I'll tell you everything." - he said a he kissed your temple. As the two of you calmed down he told you everything that happened to him.

Our golden retriver- I mean Luca, our "evil" mafia boss. He's a big softie now, but he wasn't quite a big one when the two of you met.

It was just another day in your life, as you walked home from work you were thinking about making a shortcut to home, so you turned into the alley, and well you heard two people talking but you could barely undertand what they were saying, but you caught some of it.

"Is this her?" - asked the taller man.

"I think so..." - said the other as he looked at you walking past them. As you left them you picked up your pace but they caught up easily and put a cloth on you covering your mouth and nose causing you to pass out not so long after doing it.

You woke up in a room, you tried getting up from the chair that you were sitted on but you were tied to it.

"I would surroundings first if I were you." - a man said as he walked infront of you. "Do you know why are you here?" - he asked while smiling. The man had blone hair, a black dress shirt which's buttons around his chest were fighting for their life, leather gloves and white pants with black stripes on it. He looked handsome, like the man of your dreams.

"N-no? Did I do something wrong?" - you asked as your voice shaked a bit.

"I mean... you weren't the one who done something but your husband did." - he said as he started ggetting closer to you.

"M-my husband? I- I don't have a husband... I don't even have a boyfriend." - you said as you looked at him with widened eyes.

"W-wait... you're telling me that you're not Aya Cox? - he asked you with a worry in his voice which he tried to hide.

"N-no? I'm Y/N..." - you answered.

"A-are you really not Mrs. Cox?" - he asked as he started to panic even more.

"I'm really not her... you can check my ID if you don't belive me." - you said a you tried to hold back your laughter. He took your ID and as he read your name his face turned white like he just saw the dead.

"I-I'm very sorry-" - he said as he untied you. "To take a better look at you... you don't have as visible wrinkle's as she has." - he said as he stared at your face.

"I-... thank you i guess?" - You said as you stood up from the chair.

"Anytime!" - he laughed a bit then noticed your annoyed expression. "I-... sorry." - he said.

"It's okay... can you just let me go home now please?" - you asked as you took your stuff from the table.

"A-ahh yes... but... if you tell anyone that this happened-" -he sarted as he came behind you and lifted your chin to make you look at him above your shoulder. "You'll be my target then for real... and I won't how mercy." - he said with a darken expression on his face then let your chin go. "Anyways... Y/N... as an apology, can I take you to the best café in the city?" - he asked a his expression compleatly changed from a sadistic, blood thirsty mafia boss to a puppy who wouldn't hurt a fly.

"I- emm.. sure?" - you said as you tuned around taken aback a bit by his personallity change.

"Where do you live? I'll pick you up at 5pm." - he said. You told him and you thought that the drung's effect was still on you, cause you could've sweared to god that you saw his tail wiggling.

And well, he insited on taking you home too, and wouldn't let you say no. And then the next day came and you were going on a date with a mafia boss. The date went well and you questioned yourself multiple times that was Luca really a mafia boss or he wa just a child in a grown up's body. But well anyways, it was obvious that he fell in love with you on the day the two of you met, caue after that said apology date, he asked you to go on more dates with him, and since you couldn't say no for his adorableness, the two of you went on many dates and well, eventually got together. And after three years into your relationship he even asked you to marry him. (I-I'm not Luca biased okay?... I am but anyways-)

He tried to keep you out from his criminal life as much as he could since he didn't want you to get into danger, which he managed sucsessfully. He'd always ask some of his most trusted man to look after you on the streets when he couldn't be there with you, and if anything happened to you under the man's watch, he sweared that he'll kill them.

Well, it was just another simple day as you went over to your shared place, but he wasn't there so you thought he'll be back soon, but that didn't happen. You went to sleep thinking that when you'll wake up he'll be there. But he wasn't there. You asked his men if someone knew anything but noone did. You started getting more and more worried but still tried to stay calm. Many days went by, which turned into weeks, which turned into months then years. You'd think you've gotten over him but no. You still wore the engagement ring on your finger, or just kept it close to you. You didn't know wheter he was alive or not you were worried very much, but durring the day you couldn't show it, but when you got home your broke down a lot of times. The first nights alone you couldn't even sleep without him so you wore one of his shirt to sleep.

A few years passed since he went missing and you felt giving up on him coming back.

You were watching tv as you heard a knock on the door. "Coming!" - you shouted as you stood up from the couch and opened the door. You couldn't even open the door normally as the perosn standing on the other side flung it open and hugged you. If it weren't for his big chest in your face you would've thought that the one hugging you was a random person and so, it didn't take you long to hug your beloved back who was now crying and hugging you tighter as you hugged him back.

"Where were you?" - you asked him as you started to tear up too.

"I'm sorry... I'm really sorry... I don't know what happened back then, I just got sucked into some kind of hole and jumped into the future." - he said.

"Y-you what?!" - you pulled away from the hug and looked at his teary face.

"Yeah, i-if you don't belive me, you can ask M-Mysta Rias, cause he ended up there with me too." - he said a he wiped away his tears.

"I belive you, but anyways... first you should calm down and then tell me everything that happened..." - you said as you closed the door.

"Mhm... but can I get another hug first?" - he asked you and you couldn't denied even if you wanted to.

Since Mysta was a famous detective back in his original world, so I could only imagine that you met him when he was out in a case, and you were involved in it too, and you were a great helper of his. So you technically were his little Watson to his Sherlock. You guys started hanging out after that a lot, solved more and more cases togheter. The more time the two of you spent togheter the better you guys got to know eachother.

On a beautiful night he took you to one of the higher places in the city and asked you out. He was a bit akward but you thought it was adorable, and well you said yes and the two of your started dating.

Everything was good until he got sucked into the hole and got transported to another world and you were left alone. You didn't have time to process what happened at first since there were still a lot of cases that needed to be solved, but everynight when you arrived home in your shared apartment you broke down. You didn't know if he was alive or not, you didn't know if he'll be back ever again or not.

Crying yourself for the first few months didn't really help so you started busying yourself with work the cases that were still unsolved were slowly solved by you.

It's been almost 2 years that he was gone, but he somehow came back, and well the two of you were finally reunited.

"M-Mysta... you're finally back..." - you stood infront of the opened door, tears forming in your eyes.

"Yeah, and I'm still in one piece." - he said while having a big smile on his face opening his arms. You took no longer then a second to jump into them, burrying your face into his chest as you broke down completely.

"I have another case to solve at another city... Would like to come with me?" - he asked as he wiped your tears. You told him "Yes" and the next day the two of you were on your way for another city to solve a crime there. Throught the road he told you everything that happened to him, you could see the happiness and the sadness behind his eyes as you guys were talking on the train.

You met Shu in the modern world. You don't know how the two of you ended up together cause, one day you guys were still talking as friends, then the next day the two of you were dating.

The two of you met on the street at night as you were walking home. You weren't really looking foward, you mostly looked at you phone, watching your favourite Nijisanji EN streamer. As you were walking you didn't notice that someone took your wallet out of your bag, just only when a young man came up to you and tapped your shoulder. As you turned to the person who tapped your shoulder, you froze in one place as you saw the one and only Shu Yamino.

"Miss, this is yours?" - he asked as he held your wallet in his hand.

"A-ah yes thank you..." - you said a bit embarrased as you took back your wallet.

"It's alright, just try to pay attention of what's going around you not just only to your phone" - Shu said as he smiled. "Well then, be careful out there." - he said while still smiling as he turned around and started walking away. You were still embarrased and frozen in one place as Shu started walking away.

"W-wait!" - you shouted after him. He stopped and turned back to face you. "I-I'd like to thank it more properly..." - you said as you looked at him. "M-may I invite you to the local café?" - you asked hoping that he'd say yes. And he did, so the two of you met up at the local café the next day then the day after that too and again and the two of you started getting to know eachother more and more, then eventually became friends. The two of you hung out more and more and then just got together.

When he streamed you never bothered him, never wen't into the room, waited outside patiently while you watched his stream. Months and years passed as he arrived to his last stream. And well, it was his time to go home. You knew what you got yourself into at the start of the relationship but it still hurt seeing him go, even tho you both promised eachother that you'll keep in contact, but it wasn't going to be the same as being in the same room with eachother.

The two of you bid farwell to eachother and he left. You were alone again, you were friends with the other Nijisanji EN members but it was weird without Shu. Even tho you were with friends, you still felt alone. Since he left, you always went home more early cause it's just didn't feel right.

You eventually moved on with your life after a few months had passed, the two of you eventually fell apart and started speaking less and less with eachother.

It was another day in your life as you were just watching (Your fav streamer)'s stream as you heard a knock on your door. You turned your phone's volume down, cause you thought it was your neighbour who was going to complain about you watching the stream too loudly. Then you heard another knock so you put your phone down and went to the door. You opened the door and said "What?" from reflex. The person who was standing infront of you started laughing and then you realized who was standing infront of you.

"You never change do you." - he said as he wiped the tears from his eyes from the laughter. "So... did you miss me or you're just gonna stand there until the sun goes down?" - he asked as he opened his arms. You didn't really hesitate and jumped into his arms. He wrapped his arms around you as you burried your face into his neck.

[raviollies]

Summary time

The gang decided to investigate a Selunite encampment for Eirwen to ask for ways to combat Shar and the influence of the Shadowfell and maybe clues regarding her lost memories. The Selunite outpost was....well rundown. Everything was dirty, tattered and no Selunite symbols. When questioned they literally just said "DO YOU SEE HOW WE LIVE?"

2. I think you guys can tell that it was actually a Sharrian enclave instead. Blythe used Dominate Person and charmed one of them and they gave us a guided tour of the facility. The basement had a bunch of bodies and relics, which we looted of course.

3. The party (Eirwen and Arameia) refused to leave unless we took care of them because they're hurting innocent people. Blythe couldn't possibly give a fuck cause she's not getting paid, and Raha just kind of was ambivalent. Then Blythe had a lightbulb moment and told them to UNALIVE themselves (Yes I know Dominate person doesn't work this way but we found it to be funny enough to just go with it)

5. Afterwards the gang went back to camp and hung out for a bit. Had a long discussion about whether or not it matters if Eirwen regains her memories because at the end of the day, she's still herself. Who cares who she used to be, and if that information hurts her...why not let sleeping dogs lie?

5.5 I FORGOT but at dinner Lorelai decided to be bat form as it's easier for her to get cozy and warm up and she had her blood in a goblet (Yes we all thought batstarion was too adorable). Arameia however thought it was EXTRA adorable and asked her to sit her in lap. She did.

6. Raha made breakfast the next day - Rice Porridge with nutmet and cinnamon with side of plums and nuts...it was an Elven dish from his childhood - unfortunately it had milk in it and Eirwen is lactose intolerant.

6.5 ANOTHER THING I FORGOT - Arameia introduced her tiny little miniature dragon she found in her coinpurse (yes. that's his horde. pocket change) and Blythe went Wild because of the amount of chemical reagents she could acquire from the little guy. The little guy in question was sweating bullets and attempting to flee.

7. We went to an Elven village to restock but turned out that it was ransacked by most likely humans, judging by the weapons left behind. Raha himself was the most despondent out of them all since he had lost his family due to a human raid, his entire village facing a similar fate and nothing remained except some survivors that had to relocate.

8. Arameia asked Raha to translate something she found and it was clear that Raha did not speak Elven naturally, and it is his second language. It was revealed that Raha never learned Elven as a child, due to the proximity of his village to a large human settlement most spoke common instead of Elven to be able to communicate with the humans. Unfortunately this caused a lot of friction with the Elves that took in the refugees. Facing a lot of ostracization and othering, Raha had left this other village as soon as he could, and learned Elven on his own, causing him to be fluent by no means anywhere near a native speaker.

(I shit you not tumblr wouldn't let me post this until i did the border. I don't know what it has against Forlorn Raha)

9. Raha and Arameia had a heart to heart at the fire, as Arameia also lost her parents when her village was wiped out (hers by a pack of werewolves, hence her deep seated hatred towards them). Raha could sympathize, but he doesn't hate humans, due to the hate he faced from other Elves. He believes that it's simply a product of having power, and chooses to remain solitary.

He is thankful for meeting everyone but he can never trust crowds or big populations ever again, preferring to stay clear.

10. Lorelai bullied Raha for getting laid

[yevmarie]

Light My Fire | Chapter 4

Masterlist

< Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 >

Plot: having lost everything you are drowned in depression, which had happened to you a year ago. Now you need to struggle with the apocalypse as well with no sparkle in your heart. But there is one man who can light your fire to live.

Pairing: Daryl Dixon x Female Reader

Word count: 2.1k

Pronouns: you, she/her

Warnings:

angst;

mentions of depression;

swearing;

differences from the main plot may occur;

bad English (not my first language).

Honestly, not a big fan of this chapter, but I hope you'll enjoy it. Or at least find it fine.

Taglist: @your-shifting-gurl @bae-live-0

You started feeling worse both mentally and physically as several days had been passed. Not accepting Rick’s death did a bad thing to you leading to crying most of the time, losing proper sleep, and isolating from all the group. Carl was not an exception as Shane started stealing his attention and behaving like a father. The child in turn couldn’t resist it which was natural; you couldn’t blame him.

The only thing that cheered you up a bit was Daryl’s trophy after one of the runs he took part in. He brought you a jezve and a coffee package, asking if he could join you in the mornings. You found it cute and caring. The ritual involved sitting together in silence, sometimes pointless talking. If you both were in a mood you joked causing different looks from the group but Daryl and you didn’t care at all.

To distract you started helping in the camp kitchen because you liked cooking. You also used to spend lots of money on culinary classes to dig into the hobby. Both for pleasure and getting this damn serotonin your brains craved while the therapy.

But the magnificence didn’t last long until Daryl suddenly stopped joining you in the mornings probably for three days in a row. He didn't talk to you during the days and tried his best to avoid you. You didn’t blame him but found it ridiculous. And damn it disappointed you as Daryl was the closest person in the group although you knew nothing about each other. But you didn't push on him, just coped that you would do it on your own. This was definitely you didn’t have to get used to.

One day you joined Carol in the kitchen, helping her cut ingredients for the meal. You struggled to do this, the knives were dull and it irritated you. You missed your ideal kitchen with expensive knives you sharpened masterly. Thanks to the course you knew how to do it right. Not without spoiling the two at the beginning, but no one learns from the first attempt.

“Carol,” you groaned, “I’ll go and sharpen the knives. It’s just torture to cook with them”.

Carol hummed in surprise “Okay. What about gathering the group’s knives as well? I think everyone would be grateful to you for this,” she smiled.

“Why not?” you shrugged your shoulders and headed to your tent. You took a grindstone you grabbed when you were packing your things on the first day of the outbreak and your machete as it was dull too after your several runs in the forest. You decided to sharpen the kitchen knives and the machete first to then offer your help to the group, so anyone could be sure you wouldn’t waste the weapon. After some time you returned to the kitchen.

“Carol, are they fine now?” you asked the woman offering her to try cutting vegetables.

“That’s perfect!” she exclaimed smiling after the first try.

Your face blushed. “Thanks, I’ll go ask the group then,” Carol nodded in agreement.

You turned around and saw Daryl sitting near the kitchen all this time wiping the bows from the blood. Anxiety started to hit you as you decided to come up to him and offer your help.

“Hey, I’m going to sharpen the group’s knives. Do you need..?” you asked cautiously not knowing what to expect from him. As he showed his ignorance you decided to head back to other people.

“Ya ‘re so cliche,” he murmured when you turned your back on him.

“Excuse me?” you asked surprised.

“Jus’ like a manic pixie dream girl,” he almost spitted the words becoming angrier every second.

“Dixon,” you started, “Don’t let me fall for you. You seem much more clever than you pretend. Haven’t ever noticed you being interested in art,” you replied sarcastically already regretting the tone as he stood up in front of you making just several inches of distance so you could feel his body warmth. “What’s your problem?” you crossed your arms as a defense gesture seeing him clenching his jaws and breathing heavily.

“Tha’ coffee on the highway,” he started talking in his low raspy voice, almost whisper, “Tha’ first dialogue on tha’ hill, mornings, knife sharpening, running through the camp pretending to be an ideal bro for everyone,” he made a step towards you as if there was any space for it and it made you step back not to collide with his wide frame, “Swimming naked…” he silenced for a moment to make sure no one heard and returned his gaze now deeply into your eyes. “Your recklessness ‘ll kill ya one day,” he almost growled in your face thankfully not too loud so that no one still couldn’t hear him.

“Haven’t heard you complaining about this before. So it’s your ‘No’?” you just answered as if you were unbothered at all.

“Jus’ fuck off me,” he rasped and stomped back to the log and sat continuing wiping the arrows.

“Ain’ no bloomin' in a heavenly garden?” you heard flirting Merle’s voice as he was approaching you.

“Seems like that,” you replied trying to distract from his younger brother. “Do you need your knife sharpened?”

He took your arm pecking your hand. “I don’t believe these arms are made for it, but something else,” he smiled with the gaze undressing you.

You chuckled in response. “Has it even worked on any woman?”

“Not so often,” Merle replied after several seconds of silence changing his facial expression from seductive to a desperate one.

“I guess I know why. So?” you were waiting for the answer.

“Ya know how to do it properly?” his face and voice are serious now. The Merle you haven’t ever seen before.

“Yeah”

“How?”

“Used to attend culinary classes; was a big part on tools and their service. Wanna check?” you offered him your machete. Merle took it sliding his thumb over the blade making sure it’s straight and sharp. He then went to a nearby bush to do several cuts.

“Ya reassured me. I’ll bring you some,” he answered with appreciation making Daryl uncomfortable to stay longer with you both, so he grumbled something and walked away.

“Someone's jealous,” Merle whispered to you smiling giving your machete back, and walking away to his tent.

---

The white and blue room was filled with the warm sunlight. You were sitting on the chair. Palms crossed and fingers tapping because of the disturbing silence around. A fair-haired woman put on glasses and started examining your answers on the Beck’s test. After some minutes, she put them down and talked.

“Ms. Y/LN, unfortunately, I have to diagnose you with depressive disorder.” the psychiatrist’s voice sounded concerned yet calming. “This is tough as you may know, but CBT therapy in cooperation with antidepressants makes a good team to relieve symptoms and then conquer the disease. But we need your input as well. Nothing will help you without your right attitude and strict followings to guidelines.”

“Okay,” you replied silently.

“So, you need at least eight sessions of CBT and medication for at least a year to avoid probable recurrence.” the doctor said while prescribing a recipe.

“Are there any drawbacks?” you asked anxiously.

“Yes, as many other usual medicines. But if you take it regularly and correctly, nothing similar will happen. As for drawbacks, you may have headaches, nausea, probably vomiting, and anxiety attacks. But this all happens when you quit the therapy incorrectly. I mean when you drop the course without gradual minimization of the dose. Don’t be afraid, I’ll write the detailed plan, and we’ll have regular sessions so I can track your condition. Here it is.” the doctor gave you the recipe sheet.

“Thanks, Dr. Cloyd,” you smiled feeling your eyes become watery.

“Get better, Ms Y/LN.”

---

Another several days passed, perhaps a week, you couldn't remember. Everything you cared about was the permanent headache and nausea as you dropped the treatment course right after the outbreak. Just because you forgot the pills at home and there was no meaning in getting new ones as this could do worse. And you were not satisfied with the idea of someone dying just to get you antidepressants. Also, you got more anxious than before and you isolated yourself again to feel more relaxed.

This time you decided to have a run alone in the woods to find some berries and nuts for children who were ‘suffering’ from the lack of sweets. You grabbed a bag and machete and headed down the forest disobeying Shane’s guidance to walk in pairs. Although he knew you were often out alone, he seemed not to care about you. To be honest, you were happy with this as you didn't like to have any conversation with him.

You were going through the forest trying not to make much noise as the cases of walkers appearing near the camp became often. Having found a bush with berries and started to gather them in the bag, you heard someone’s moan afraid that someone in the group could be injured. You grabbed the machete and followed the noise sneaking between bushes. The moans started to be louder and repetitive which made you confused. Surely, not an injured person was whimpering. You made several steps until you found the picture opened to you and made everything clear in your mind from now on. You saw Shane fucking Lori just on the ground. The two noticed you.

“Y/N,” Shane exclaimed and froze while Lori was panicky trying to hide her bare body.

Your body was flustered with the full spectrum of emotions you couldn’t recognize separately and made two steps back.

Shane couldn't say anything but the stupidest thing that could be ever said in such a situation. “It’s not what you think.”

Your eyes sting with tears blurring the sight of your beloved one and your friend’s wife.

“No way,” you whispered and ran away in another direction. The affective state fogged your mind injecting adrenaline in your blood so you couldn't remember how you ended up at the hill, your personal space once shared with Daryl and Carl. You thanked your instincts they brought you there and didn’t let you get lost in the forest instead. You dropped to the ground and took out a cigarette almost dropping it as your hands were in tremor. Then you found a zippo in your pocket to lit a cigarette but the body wasn’t listening to you. It was too weak to roll the flint wheel. After several attempts, you finally did it and made the first drag when suddenly you felt your warm tears covering your face and sobbing left your mouth.

It was the late evening when Daryl came back to the camp from the hunt. He was too exhausted he decided to have dinner and go sleeping right after it. The man approached Carol who served food as usual.

“Daryl, I know you were on the hunt all day, but maybe you’ve seen Y/N today?”

“Nah,” he replied emotionless and headed to the campfire having got his portion.

“I’m very concerned about her,” the woman continued, her head down. Daryl was still ignoring. His basic need was a priority. “I asked her to help me today…” Carol’s voice was trembling. “I told her not to go away alone in the forest, but…” the woman wiped her tears.

Daryl’s heart flipped and he stepped back to Carol.

“What if she..?” she glanced at the man with watery eyes. “That’s my fault,” Carol covered her face with her palms sobbing.

Daryl returned the meal. “Do you remember the direction she went?” he started biting his lower lip nervously.

“There,” she pointed in the direction, “But I don’t know where exactly…”

“That’s enough for the start,” Daryl answered then went to his tent to take a crossbow.

After taking the weapon the man started from the direction Carol pointed at but he thought what if you had come to the hill or quarry? He decided to check the hill first. As if someone just told him you were right there. He slowly went down the narrow track leading to that place passing by bushes and trees, holding his crossbow but hoping he wouldn’t need to use it.

Daryl’s heart skipped a beat regretting all the shit he had told you. What if you were not there? What if you are a walker already? What if something else bad happened to you? He didn’t notice how he started imagining the camp without you and this hurt him so badly. What if he would never have a chance to tell you stupid jokes while drinking coffee in the morning and you laugh sincerely in response?

Daryl’s heart then raced imagining all the worst cases until he reached the point and saw you sitting right on the hill. The man exhaled relaxed until you suddenly got up and ran away towards the trees nearby.

“Y/N!” Daryl yelled chasing you.

< Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 >

[iamthecomet]

I don't know if anyone's said it yet- but someone should write about aether being like "okay guys im retiring!" and everyone is just like "you're WHAT"

You didn't actually ask for angst, but it's what you get. Specifically Dew Angst. Under the cut.

The words don't register right away. Dew feels a little like he's underwater. Like all those days spent on the bottom of the lake as a water ghoul listening to people show his name from the surface. Garbled. Distorted. Gibberish.

He hears them, sure. But they don't mean anything because they're not possible. Not real. Dew would be stupid to think all of this would last forever. He's had half of his pack retire--vanish--before. He's been through it.

But Aether? No. Aether, Mountain and Dew were summoned one right after the other. They have stuck together through every single thing the church has thrown at them. They lost their papa together, helped a new one rise. They have been a team. A unit. The back bone of the pack and now--

"You're abandoning us." Dew hears himself say. He's talking over someone--Rain maybe? but he can't hear that over the roaring in his own ears.

Aether turns violet eyes over to Dew, his brows knit together. Dew knows the look too well--pity, concern, gentle compassion that Dew can't take as anything except being talked down to. It feels like his skin is too tight all of a sudden. Like he wants to crawl out of himself and away from this, from here, from the truth.

"I'm not leaving the Abbey, Dew."

Dew doesn't have anything to say to that. He wants to ask a thousand questions. They rattle through his mind on repeat. Mostly, he just wants to know how he's suppose to do any of this without Aether by his side.

First Sunshine going off to work at another Abbey. Now Aeth staying home. Retiring. Dew feels adrift.

He pushes himself off of the couch and walks out of the common room without another word. The rest of the conversation reaches him in pieces. Understanding from Cirrus and Cumulus, questions from Swiss. Silence from Mountain. Encouragement from Rain. Dew drags himself to his room.

He doesn't allow himself to think about it. Tries not to. Tries not to think of endless bus rides with an empty seat next to him. Or worse, one filled with someone else. He didn't even think to ask about that. Finds he doesn't particularly care who steps in to Aether's role--whoever it is, they won't be Aether.

He doesn't know how long he paces around his room, following a familiar path already worn into the hardwood from years of doing this. Hands behind his back. Spine so straight it aches. Back and forth across the floor in front of his cold fireplace. If he stands still for too long reality sinks down on him like stones. He keeps walking. Watches the moon rise and silver light slide into his room, over his mess of a bed.

It's stupid, he thinks, to feel betrayed like this when everyone else just takes it like it's normal--expected. To get hung up on it. Aether could have really left--like Ifrit. He isn't. He'll work in the infirmary. He'll be here waiting when Dew gets home exhausted and sore.

He will still be Dew's lighthouse. Nothing can change that.

He feels empty anyway. Hollowed out. Everything behind his ribs scraped clean and made numb. Some childish part of him wants him to run down the hall, to bust down Aether's door and beg. To cry at his feet, face in his thighs to take it back. To not do this to him. And no matter how many times he tells himself that Aether will still be here it doesn't matter.

Because he won't be there. With Dew. To wick away exhaustion and headaches. To bully him into a corner after a show. To wrap his arms around him from behind and hold him. To braid his hair while Dew drifts off to sleep in a lumpy hotel bed. In those moments where Dew feels like he needs him the most--he'll be here. Home. A book, or a guitar, or a mug of tea in his hands.

Alone.

The knock on the door is expected. Dew's been waiting for him without realizing it. Knowing the way this works--knowing Aether in a thousand unspoken ways that makes up what they mean to each other.

Aether doesn't wait for Dew to answer. The door cracks open. Aether slips in, closes it behind him. He leans against it as Dew freezes mid-step.

"You're going to be ok, Firefly." Aether whispers. Like he knows every secret thing in Dew's head. Like he can translate the indecipherable screaming happening inside the walls of his skull.

Dew looks at him. Swallows the burning in his throat, the lump building there. He wants to tell Aether to leave. To fuck off.

Instead, he throws himself into Aether's arms. Fingers digging hard into the back of his neck as he drags him close. Pressing his face into Aether's neck. Breathing. Like enough deep breaths will be enough to keep this scent with him. Like he can bottle it and save it for his loneliest moments.

If he talks, he'll lose it. He knows it. Already flayed open, raw like an exposed nerve he can only shake his head. Press tighter against the cool comfort of Aether's body. He'd climb inside of him if he could. Live there. Stay there. Keep Aether with him always.

"You are," Aether says, a promise. He slips his fingers into Dew's hair and tugs, just a little, enough to dislodge Dew from his neck so they actually have to look at each other.

Dew founders. Fingers clenching against Aether's shoulder. Body screaming, shaking. He feels panic well up within him and before he even has time to register it, it's dropping away under the gentle guidance of Aether's quintessence.

"Don't do that, Dew. You don't need me for this."

Dew tips his head. He feels the break coming, the part where he dissolves, comes undone. Where all of the things he's warring with win.

Aether cups his jaw, drags his thumb over his cheekbone, across tears Dew didn't realize were falling.

"What do you mean I don't need you?" he spits. "I've never done it without you."

Dew half expects more platitudes. Some more of Aether's always optimistic bullshit about how he'll be here when he gets back. How he can call him any time. How everything will be fine he just has to get used to it.

Instead, Aether just pulls him back into the cool embrace of his body, holds him tight enough that it makes Dew's ribs ache. He leans his head against Dew's, nuzzling their horns together as he does, dragging his nose into Dew's hair and inhaling like he wants to hold onto Dew's scent too, inject it under his skin to savor. Like he knows that soon, they'll both be foundering at sea, searching for a lighthouse that's too far away to light up the horizon.

"I'll miss you too, firefly."

[bleedingcoffee42]

so many wips! need to hear about casablanca <3

I did too much research into Lewis Nixon I and have to use it. Nix comes homes to his parents divorced, Stanhope being Stanhope and most of his grandfathers estate sold off. The will still not anywhere near a probate court. He's staying at the Yale Club and struggling with how much has chanced. Dick isn't back yet. Kathy is now the ex-wife. He doesn't have his dog. He has drinking and a bit of nostaglia and a family who owned a house damned near everywhere. Except---not anymore. There are articles in the paper about Grandpa's estate, he needs something to get his mind out of a fog. Starts looking into it, I mean what else does a former intelligence officer do? Some habits are hard to break.

The scene is set: The house in Monmouth Beach. It always seemed a little sketchy to him that the 'hotel' next door burned down because the town had been after the owner to shut the illegal hotel down. Even taking it to the NJ Supreme court. Still, the Nell Grace Hotel remained open. The town, filled with men like Grandpa who had outrageously large and expensive homes, probably were not happy with the operation of the hotel next door. So, it always struck him as convenient that the place burned down. And that they used the water spicket on Grandpa's house to fight the fire, a house he wasn't going to be staying at because it was winter and was winterized, yet the hotel was occupied and water was frozen. He's known the men in this neighborhood all his life, he wouldn't put it past them to resort to arson.

Why does it matter if the neighbor lady's house is gone? Well, probably nothing except that the records on Grandpas house list Mary Nixon selling it to another rich widow. Mary using an address in Newark he's never heard of. Mary who has been busy selling off everything. He's a little suspicious that the will left everything to her, without a single thing to his grandkids or Joel. He thinks there could be another will hidden somewhere and his guess would be the house closest to the ocean, the old sailor was always in a better mood when he could breathe in salty ocean air.

The problem was the house was sold and sold again. And the great hurricane of 1944 had battered the shore, destroying roads and houses. When he drives by so many houses are gone and another era of Jersey history forgotten. However, he remembers good times sitting under that red and white striped awning on the porch listening to stories of the sea, stories of Grandpa going to school with the King of England, meeting the Czar, having Stanhope meet the Pope(Lew is convinced it was for an exorcism) and a slew of other insane stories that were packed into amazing life of his Grandpa. Someone he wished he could have come home and talked to about everything that haunts him.

It doesn't make sense he got nothing. That Blanche got nothing. And Joel, nothing? He adopted that kid, named him after his own father, and leaves him nothing but the Nixon name? None of them needed money, but there was a lot of sentimental value lost. And something feels wrong. So he buys the house, and comes up with a reason to piss off whatever neighbors are left so he can find out who exactly was behind the Hotel burning down.

So why not make it a bar? Maybe some illegal gambling thrown in to really twist the knife. He has just watched Casablanca with Blanche, and he drank enough to get through it that he started to blur the lines of what was on screen and any fantasies he had of Dick looking fabulous in a tux and him being some snarky investigator who clearly was more of a love interest than Ingrid Bergman. Hell, that movie was about those two guys ending up together, wasn't it? Screw the girl, let her leave with the text book husband and the dog and save the world, who needs her when you have a buddy who has a gambling and drinking problem and sharp whit? So he names it Dick's Cafe Americana and has the arch thing from Holland built over the sidewalk to the house. Puts up dick's picture. Uses the bar that's already there because grandpa was a fine gentleman. Has the piano tuned. Adds tables. Hell, the place looks like it was sold full furnished, so he starts looking for hiding spaces he remembers to see if there is a copy of the will somewhere.

And Dick finally comes home and is a dick about not calling. So Nix has to call him and ask why he doesn't want the job he offered him. Instead of meeting in New York, take the train to Monmouth Beach I have something to show you--

And Dick Winters thinks his friend has gone insane but he's glad he's not drunk. Owning a bar seems like a bad idea, owning a bar because you want to piss off an arsonist even worse. Dick's been locked up in his bedroom for a week so he's not really upset at the change of venue and Nix tells him he can go swim in the ocean if he wants. beach is next door. Nix plays the piano for him, As time goes by, and Dick is 100% gone and agreeing to all of it.

Dick takes the job at the factory, and spends weekends with Nix on his little project. It feels like good times, working together. It feels like purpose. The struggle to blend back in at home lessens when he's too busy being a host to Nix's neighborhood parties on the weekends. He gets to see a little of the old Nix, the Nix who he met at OCS come through as he works the crowds for information and gambles and drinks with the rich neighbors. And he is weak for Lew playing piano....

Maybe it just ends up being another Winnix and a gay bar fic.

[ramenremm]

YOU - CREEPYPASTA

My name has always been the most boring name in the world to me, my name is Rick Glasm. I live alone in a small apartment in the borough of Brookly, New York, although I should more call it a caged apartment, because an apartment can't exactly be called that by how small it is and I still have to work two jobs to make a living here at all. During the week I work at a popular coffee shop "Thiloa", and on the weekend I'm a security guard at one of the local gyms. Not everything is perfect, but I've never felt the need to complain about my life. I don't have too many friends, in fact I have only work acquaintances, but it doesn't bother me that much. They often change to new ones anyway. I don't have difficulty making new friends, so it's almost like I'm making new friends all the time. Admittedly, I'm alone in New York City itself due to the fact that my parents are in Atlanta, but I'm already closer to my 30s than my teenage years, and phones are enough to keep in touch.

My day always looks the same, waking up at five o'clock, showering, morning routine, making my own coffee for breakfast, looking for my lost badge for work, wearing the only clothes that are still wearable, leaving at 5:30, walking to the coffee shop to open it. The whole way takes eight minutes, the shift starts at 6, and it's practically full of people right away, so I don't even have time for my own thoughts. I finish around 3pm, although sometimes I stay longer if there is really a lot of chaos, because it would end badly for the person on shift. I have a weekly paycheck, if it's a Monday, I go get the money and then get the groceries for the rest of the week and come home. Most of the money goes to rent and bills, so I can't afford too many activities. I usually go to bed after 7 p.m. As for the weekend it's all the same except that I get up later and spend the whole day at home, and only around 9 p.m. do I leave the house, the gym is 6 minutes away from my apartment. When I go in for a shift it's usually someone else working out at it, because it's open 24 hours. I hole up in my little office waiting for it to break 6 a.m. and so on and so forth every week.

Most of the time I thought the routine was wearing me down, and maybe it was, but only up to a certain point. I still remember the exact day when everything started to go wrong and my mind changed.

The day I noticed him for the first time.

Sunday, May 21, 2017. I had my shift at the gym and came in early as usual. Even as I was climbing the stairs, I could hear that there were still a few people in the room. Behind the counter of the small reception desk stood a young woman packing her things so she could leave. We always eluded each other through our shifts.

- Good night Effy.- I threw to her tapping my fingers on the counter to announce her presence. Her head immediately lifted from the bag in which she was looking for something and a small smile appeared on her lips.

- Good night Rick, have fun- she replied amused by her own words, because every night here was torture by boredom.

- Be careful when you go out- I threw as I walked toward my small cubicle in which there wasn't even much room to move around. There was a desk, monitors on which camera images were displayed, and two cabinets standing against the wall with all sorts of things. Originally they were supposed to be for documents, but there wasn't even anything to write down, except for the number of squats done by the elderly man who came here every day. Willingly or unwillingly (more the second option), I put my backpack on the ground and sat down on a slightly decaying swivel chair and turned to look at the monitors.

Looking at them was so monotonous that I felt like I was watching the same movie day in and day out with no end in sight. Everyone at the gym had a routine and stuck to it, so there wasn't even anything to hang my eyes on. At least that's what I thought, until I noticed a boy sitting at one of the machines. He didn't look like he was going to exercise, but more like he was just sitting. He was wearing a black T-shirt, short gray shorts and longer blond hair that made me wonder if he was interfering with his exercise before I remembered that he was just sitting.

He sat like that for a full fifteen minutes until he got up and walked toward the men's locker room. After he left, I didn't think much of it, it wasn't anything interesting.

That's what I thought.

The whole evening was quiet a few people went in and out during the night, and around five o'clock more people began to gather, at which point I could barely keep my eyes open and my bag fell out of my hands twice before I finally managed to pick it up and throw it over my shoulder.

I didn't have the energy to look at the front desk, but I knew Effy was getting ready for her own shift, now running around and cleaning the halls, so I didn't bother her and quickly left the gym. The sun was already in the sky and was extremely annoyingly blinding me, so I couldn't do anything but squint. I had a few hours left until my shift at the cafe because I started a little later on Mondays by the fact that I was finishing my second job late, and I didn't feel like doing anything other than sleeping.

That's when I didn't notice how he walked past me, I thought he was an ordinary person. He looked at my face and I didn't see it, as if he was a ghost.

Monday, May 22, 2017

The morning was foggy, I don't really remember how I got home or when I fell asleep, all I can recall is setting another alarm clock on my phone. I didn't check to make sure I locked the door from the house, I didn't think I needed to. My body gave up immediately. I didn't think about anything until the alarm clock snapped me out of that state to start this circus all over again. My body was already getting so little sleep that I barely knew where I was. That's why I wasn't surprised that some things were messed up, I was living in a mess and in a hurry, it wasn't new.

Another washing up, dressing up, wondering if I even had the strength to eat anything, going to work. The coffee shop took far too much of that leftover energy from me. There was constant traffic, it was impossible to sit down even for a moment.

- You look even worse than last time- threw to me Tommy, a boy who had not yet given up working here and was often with me on shift. He was young and ambitious, it was sad to see such a person wasted in something like this.

- Good morning- I just replied still not really knowing who I actually was and immediately moved on to making coffee orders. We always had a lot of traffic, but most of the customers were returners, with other new units, of course. Across the street was another cafe with more expensive prices, hence we were the ones getting new customers.

After two days of working here, I stopped paying attention to people. Whether they were wearing glasses, had bad makeup, how they were dressed, it all poured into one and it was just a matter of taking an order, completing it, serving it and taking the money.

With one customer, however, I couldn't pretend not to recognize him. The longer straight blond hair immediately caught my attention. Instead of the countertop and the hand in which he held the money, I looked at his face. It was the first time I looked at him up close. I couldn't distinguish much because all my attention was caught by the scar on the top of his nose. It was huge and looked like his nose had almost been torn off. I knew it was rude to stare like that, but I couldn't help myself. It seemed like I was the only one who noticed it because of the fact that Tommy was busy with something else.

- 8,50- I finally said reaching for his money. He gave it to me without a word and took his cup. He left without stopping or looking back.

The only thing I could think of was that he lived somewhere in the area, there were a lot of people here who found themselves here by accident and already had to stay or really wanted to live in New York and had to start somewhere.

I thought my theory was true after seeing him every day for a whole week. every day he would come in and order a black coffee with sugar. He didn't spend more than five minutes here.

We could have called him our regular customer.

Friday 26 have 2017 I ended my shift unusually late by the larger group of people that passed through our establishment, and me and Tommy stayed late to still clean up. It was going reluctantly for so many hours of work, but in the end all that was left was to take out the trash. I was supposed to do it, the trash cans were at the back of the building, so I took two bags and went outside. It was a small alley with two containers and a terrible smell. While throwing the bags out, it seemed to me that something moved at the end of the alley, but I blamed it on fatigue.

There were a lot of plastic coffee cups pounding under my shoes, I kicked the one closest to me to get out of the way. To my surprise, instead of a clear path, there was coffee on my shoes and the ground. Black coffee. It's hard to describe how much irritation I felt at that moment. So much so that I walked out of there without saying goodbye to Tommy.

Walking briskly towards my apartment I once again thought I saw someone. It was starting to annoy me, so I turned my head in that direction only to see blond hair. I furrowed my brow at the sight.

I didn't want to be fucking paranoid, after all, it could have been anyone.

Not everyone is seen every day everywhere you go yourself.

He was everywhere. I saw him at the coffee shop, at the gym, outside my own apartment as he walked down the stairwell. Every day. Day in and day out.

I was beginning to feel like I was going crazy.

Every time I carried my gaze I was afraid I would meet him.

The day of June 20, 2017 was the one that poured the spell of bitterness. Specially after leaving the cafe, I didn't go home right away but started walking around the city, it didn't help much with my discomfort, but I could breathe for a while. I was on the verge in the last few days, everything seemed to go wrong. The quietest sound in my house made me flinch.

I didn't tell anyone about it, I had no one and didn't want to. I felt it was stupid.

All the way I tried to reason with myself, exhaustion made me start making up all sorts of things. I even started to believe it when under my apartment I found not a trace of the strange stranger. No one was around.

I breathed a sigh of relief and reached for the keys in my pocket to open the door. The recliner clamped over my face prevented me from doing so completely.

Within seconds I felt the plastic digging into my skin harder and harder. I acted instinctively and with a jerk I reached for the part that was on my lips. I broke it off to get air. I knew immediately what was happening, I knew that everything that was happening was not my imagination. I turned my head to the side to look my tormentor in the eyes. What I saw in them made the blood drain from my face. He expressed no emotion, he knew what he was doing and what he wanted.

He let go of the rest of the snatched commercial and his hand rose once hitting me on the head. That darkness was unsettling, I felt like I was in sleep paralysis, I wanted to wake up, but something kept me in that state.

Opening my eyes, I thought it was really a dream. I recognized the ceiling of my apartment, there were small spots of paint. I was in the living room on the floor. My head was heavier than ever Keeping my eyes open was a challenge. I tried to get up only to feel something holding my legs tightly. Only then did a little more awareness come back to me. My hands were also tied behind my back and I was losing feeling in them from lying like this.

I tried to struggle, but the pain went through my whole body with every violent movement.

Turning my head to the side, I noticed that the light in the kitchen was on and the sound of searching for something could be heard.

- What do you want!- I shouted, knowing that I could not escape. The only thing left for me was to try to get along.

- I don't have much money, everything is in the bedroom, maybe you can find some valuable things there, take everything!- I shouted further trying to think of some way to escape anyway.

- WHAT DO YOU WANT- I repeated after noticing that he was ignoring me. He wasn't after the money, surely by the time I would have woken up he would have taken everything, instead he seemed to be doing something in the kitchen quietly without hurrying. I was beginning to feel all the emotions at once. I tried to tear what my hands were bound with, but it seemed impossible to do so.

His footsteps walking towards the living room were quiet, if it weren't for the fact that a shadow was following him I wouldn't have even noticed him.

He looked at me with the same blank stare. In his hands he held a knife and scissors, and he was wearing clothes to protect his clothes from getting dirty. My heart was pounding in my chest.

- let me out. LET ME OUT!-I screamed groggily despite the pain. He did not look moved. He approached me slowly until he was over me and sat on my body pressing me tighter to the floor, making it completely impossible to move my arms.

- LET ME GO! HELP!-I shouted hoping that one of the neighbors could hear me. Now I regret that I was not on friendlier terms with them.

- Soon I will be you- He finally spoke up putting down the knife to reach my head. I tried to move away so he wouldn't touch me, but it was no use. His fingers grabbed a handful of my hair and the scissors that were in his other hand made a vague cut leaving some of the hair in his hand.

- You- He repeated looking at my hair intently before he put it aside on the floor and turned towards me again. I was terrified, tears began to flow from my eyes, he was not moved by this. I wanted to start screaming again which was a mistake. As soon as my mouth opened his fingers were inside grabbing my tongue.

His nails dug in hard to hold it at arm's length.

My eyes widened even more. I felt the sharp metal go through the muscle cutting through it like a piece of paper. Blood immediately started pouring into my mouth and onto my chin. I tried to scream through the pain burning me like hell, but I couldn't make any meaningful sounds. He only let me go when the scissors came together and he held a large piece of my tongue in his fingers. I couldn't look at it. The part of my tongue that was still in my mouth made me swallow some of the blood.

- I just need to talk and look like you.- he said, watching the muscle from all sides before he put it in his mouth like some piece of candy.

I wanted to vomit.

Because of the adrenaline and shock, I was more than aware of everything that was happening, so when he began to approach my eyes I knew what was coming. My muffled screams did not move him.

This time he was quiet but kept his hand on my forehead, and whenever I tried to close my eyes he would grab my eyelashes to keep my eye open.

I saw the tip of the knife get closer and closer until it was sunk into my eye socket.

The knife didn't go through the center. It punched out my eye so that it was a best condition. My image in my left eye was completely cut off and the pain made my back arch and my fingers began to scratch the wooden floor beneath me.

I was on the verge of consciousness tilting my right eyelid, but I could see exactly how he tried to put my eye into his like a lens. His blue eye was covered by my green one.

The feeling of my eye being forcibly opened was the last thing I felt before I lost consciousness again through pain.

On Wednesday, June 21, 2017, the shift at the "Thiloa" cafe started normally. Tommy set up all the chairs and started to clean up. There was no sign of his co-worker, however, he recognized that Rick had finally overslept through his schedule.

He had just washed one of the machines when the bell rang throughout the premises announcing that the first customer had arrived.

The teenager immediately assumed a more cheerful expression and raised his eyes ready to take the order. What he saw made the cleaning fluid and cloth fall out of his hands and his face turned pale.

- Sorry I'm late- Said the man standing in front of the counter in Rick's clothes with a whisper. The sign bore his name. Rick Glasm. There were staple brown strands in his blond hair, and on his face.... His face was replaced by Rick's face. A cut out piece sewn to his own.

Looking at his hands one could see more stitch marks. On the squares, which were a lighter shade than his skin.

- Can we begin?- he asked and a piece of his tongue accidentally fell out of his mouth. Rick's tongue.

[shaperaverse-brainrot]

subverted fairytale tropes?? In my Jill/Marjolein fanfic?? It's more likely than you think. Written for NADS au week for the prompt fairytale. Cw for implied transphobia.

This was as awful idea, an awful, stupid, terrible-

The thoughts rattled through Marjolein’s mind like the clatter of hooves in a horse’s gallop, even if her physical body couldn’t move as fast. She pulled the cloak she had tighter around her, concealing not only the lace of a well-made outfit from outside view, but her own skin from the bitter, biting cold as she walked on, one foot in front of the other.

This was far from the first time that she made the journey through the woods, although she wasn’t accustomed to treading it so late at night, flinching at any sound that she could hear over her own breathing. Usually, she made the journey under light of a warm sun, without fear that someone could be right behind her ready to drag her back, with the person she was journeying to at least aware that she was coming, who would know if she got lost in the woods and didn’t turn up and-

Panic wouldn’t get her anywhere except lost. She forced herself to breathe, a sharp, shaky inhale, and then a more steady exhale. She could do this.

She could do this.

She had packed as much as she could manage into the bag she carried on her shoulder. It wasn’t much, just whatever she could take without it being obvious, but it was better than nothing. It was better than staying in the castle, with her family, with people who would never let her be… She’d stolen the dress, too. It wasn’t the first time she’d stolen feminine clothes, and if her family found her out here, it wouldn’t be the first time they’d caught her doing so.

It was, however, the first time she’d done it without the intention to return.

She really, really should have planned this better.

She kept walking on. Why hadn’t she waited until morning, when it was safer? Couldn’t she have just waited it out? Pretended to play along until morning? When tales she’d been told as a child didn’t seem far too true? Any young royal had been terrified away from the woods, told of dragons they’d have to fight or witches they’d have to fear, and Marjolein had been no exception.  Even if she didn’t quite believe them, anymore, even if her family had been wrong about a lot of things, she still couldn’t help the dread that built in her, and the guilt that rose in her chest. Old habits die hard, it seemed.

Recognising a fallen log, next to an awfully familiar stream, she re-orientated herself. She was alright, she was almost there, in fact, she was so close to safety.

And then she heard a rustling in the trees, and she pressed a palm to her mouth to stop herself screaming, as she spun to face it, stumbling slightly over the roots and plants of the forest ground.

A witch stood there, a basket of potion ingredients and a pointy hat and everything.

Marjolein felt a wave of relief wash over her, as she dashed forward, wrapping the woman tightly in her arms.

“Marjolein?” She asked, voice full of concerned confusion. “What are you-”

“I came to see you.” Marjolein said, still not letting go of Jill. The woman she knew was most certainly not evil, who’d she’d laughed with and kissed and adored on too many “pretend kidnappings” to get her away from a home that didn’t quite accept her.

“What’s wrong?” Jill asked, bringing her hand up to cup the princess’s face. Marjolein shook her head, biting back tears.

“I can’t go back.”

“Why? What happened?”

Marjolein didn’t respond, simply casting her gaze around the pair. Even if Jill was one of - probably the safest person she’d met, she still didn’t want to risk her chances in the woods alone. Jill noticed her gaze, and sighed, giving a soft smile.

“Let’s go home, Leinie. I’ll get you a warm drink, okay?”

Marjolein found it in herself to smile back, as Jill held her hand through the rest of the journey, to the small place Jill had made in the woods, that Marjolein had started to consider more of a home each and every day.

[zanniscaramouche]

Zanni WIPs of 2024

See what I'm working on under the cut ♡

Star Trek

❄️️ Fathom - Star Trek AOS - Jim Kirk/Spock + Jim Kirk/Bones

Jim raises his head and tries to stay on track of the conversation. “Always?”  And what he means is, ‘In every reality?’ Spock inclines his head in a subdued nod. “All that is, is yours.”  Est. 30k

❄️️ Wonderful Boy - Star Trek AOS - Jim Kirk/Spock + Jim Kirk/Bones

Jim wakes up in the new version of reality and he’s trying to find his place. Meanwhile, his relationships with Bones and Spock are strained as he works to reconcile the shift in status quo. Bones doesn’t stroke his hair back at night just to see his eyes better. Spock stands a little too close and keeps making abortive movements like he’s about to reach out. Jim can sympathise, but it’s still weird to have affection cut off from everyone but the one person who’s always given him a cold shoulder. OR AOS Jim wakes up in a world where his father didn't die on the Kelvin, his crew are polite but not personal, and he's never stepped foot on Tarsus IV. Oh, and he's got the wrong size science blues hanging up next to his gold shirts. Est. 60k

❄️️ Untitled - Star Trek AOS - Jim Kirk/Spock

A military AU set throughout the Bell Riots, Second Civil War, Eugenics War, and WWIII. Est. 200k

One Direction

❄️️ Cherry - One Direction- OT5 (starts off Nouis-centric) - ABO

Louis Tomlinson is probably the bureau's least impressive employee (and that's including janitor Stan 'the Man') but when an anonymous hook-up leaves him the best person to infiltrate a crime ring, he's forced into the field with a fake identity. Can he seduce the members of The Pack well enough to bring them down? And by the time he uncovers more than just their secrets, will he want to? Est. 45k

❄️️ If I Could Fly- Larry - Spiderman!Louis + Uni AU

Louis is busy coming to terms with being a superhero, but that doesn’t mean all the other responsibilities that come with being human are suddenly put on hold. The sanctuary of the education system won't last forever, and with Harry-- his lovely, beautiful, sex-god of a boyfriend-- a week from graduating with Masters, it's time to start thinking about the future. Their future. If only Louis could get his past to stay in the past. How long can Louis keep spinning lies until he’s caught in his own web? He's hoping at least a week. Est. 25k

❄️️ The Goodbye Scene- Larry - Authors AU + Enemies to Lovers

Louis and Harry are in the midst of co-writing a novel. Everything is fine, except for how they kind of can’t stand each other right now. Harry’s a romantic, wants everything to be perfect with the glossy sheen of pornography. Louis hates that. Things aren’t always perfect, and he wants to show how sex in reality can actually be kind of lack luster and awkward. He might be a bit sour since he’s still getting over his ex, but so sue him. He’s right on this, okay? It culminates in a heated debate as Harry insists the extravagant can be sexy and romantic when done right. Louis doesn’t believe him, and he’s not putting it in the book until Harry proves it to him. Which means Harry decides to prove it. Thus begins their trials to see who’s right: can sex be just as sexy and lust filled as the most harlequin romance novel out there, or will these grand ideas fall flat and lead more to injury than ecstacy? Est. 20k

❄️️ Black Silk - One Direction - Larry - ABO + Crime Thriller

Louis is a drug mule for designer narcotics that gets caught in a messy drop-off that leaves him on the wrong side of a corrupt deal. With nowhere to go and a city full of gang-lords and millionaires on his tail for the lost product, Louis seeks haven with the last person he even remembers having a conversation with. Only Niall the friendly omega is out of town, and in his place is a grumpy cat-sitter who doesn’t appreciate convicts bleeding on the rug. Est. 30k

❄️️ Ride or Die, Sweetheart - Larry - Bike Racer AU + Exes to Lovers

Harry bleeds diesel. He exhales red desert dirt and sweats motor oil. After twenty-six years he’s discovered two truths of life: He was born to race. He will love Louis Tomlinson until the day he dies. A case could be made to say there's a third fact: Louis’s hate for him burns hotter than an engine in the sun Est. 40k

❄️️ Who Hung the Moon - Larry - Time Travel + Exes to Lovers

After the second worst day of his life, Harry is sent back in time to the most horrible-terrible-no-good-very-bad week of his existence: The week Louis Tomlinson shattered every dream he had and broke his heart. Est. 25k

❄️️ Broken Wishbones - Larry + Narry - ABO + Accidental Bonding

It was Louis who spent Christmas morning with Harry, and it was Louis who received birthday blowjobs, and it was always going to be Louis who got on one knee with a ring. Niall didn’t have a part in any of that. Which is why it’s so fucked up that the teeth marks on Harry’s neck don’t match Louis’s mouth. Est. 20k

❄️️ Honeybee - Harry Styles/Louis Tomlinson

Sex, Drugs, and Rock n' Roll during glamorous 70's. Est. 200k

Teen Wolf

❄️️ Hope You Get This Message - Teen Wolf - Stiles Stilinski/Derek Hale

Had anyone actually seen him recently? When was the last time you spoke to him? Did any of us really know him?  When the man known as Peter Hale disappears, Stiles is just one of a group of strangers that come together during the investigation. Pretty quickly it's clear that things don't quite match up to what everyone thought they knew about him. The one thing they can agree on is that everything they know about Peter might have been false, but there’s no way he’s guilty of what he’s being accused of. Right? The longer the case goes on, the more apparent it is that Peter wasn’t the only one with secrets. Est. 60k

See something you like? Want to read it sooner? Please send all encouragements and inquiries to my ask box! ♡ xoxo

[rosey100]

Just thought I'd draw some roses 💐

Some Rose inspired by @kazzykatt 's aus

Wanted

Brair

23

🩶💣🐈‍⬛🌒

I closely based on Loona from Helluva Boss and Batgirl/Barbara but with a black market father who sold her and her parakeet for "a check up" and has never been adopted once growing up. By the time she runs away at 17, Bair survives whatever is needed to steal, sells scams, everything for money to even get some fries or a small place to stay till she makeshift a shed from an abandoned train. She adapted skills and knowledge to make it where if it were making distractions or trying not to get caught by anybody, whether they were a dog fighter or police she can a brothel paunch the light bulbs out of them easy and also has some special effects from the check up let just say no one can't make this up but nobody will believe it.

Her personality is mostly cold, and she can be a bit stubborn and harsh, but she is understanding, bold, outgoing, convincent, and sociable. She is a very smart (street smart) and calculated too. Brair mainly cut off, showing her emotions or physical even her weakness in life are off limits and her feelings are merely closed off to everyone who meets her but she might well threatening people if they give off her the wrong way.

Can things get more crazy for her life(the answer is yes) on her regular " business" routes to a factory to give someone "a simple pack", but things got too fresh with that and she had to go in the place to get the money she was going for leaving the client outside while going in with his lab coat. Managin to get caught by fixing her looks and going through the vents to get to the locker. After getting the money, she stumbled into an explosive sound of glass breaking and birds chirping? Not wanting to be nosey she kept walking towards the exit and go home but curiosity had other plans, peeping in the lab she started to see two dudes trashed the whole room beyond prepare and Brair was mostly known the situation too well on why. The site of motion of the two men usually motive that she heard about and her knowledge of the is entire area suspected of starting animal testing for their products it was no surprise why two people wanted for their crimes to come in the factory to make damage and let out some animals that were almost ready to be tested on. As fate had it she was caught by the two men and she didn't have any cover up leaving her expose to a whole, got even more worse when someone caught all of them ran out to call cops but got " knocked out ".Let's just say no one knew what to do except run the fu#k out of there as fast as possible (but now without a few animals or more), and before that, a security guard came in front of her asking why she was doing in the factory hall realized she had no disguise she was about to going to the head office while the bros were almost free til the guard grab her wrist, turned around and saw them mid of escape. When he was about to alert the cops, the guy lost consciousness as Brair's teeth slowly vemon enough to tranquilize him, as all three of them ran out while throw another ball of dynamic on the roof for a distraction.

Apocalipsis

Rosa

18 ?

🦴🧫⚔️🐦‍🔥

She is the first child who came to the chew somehow at 3 y/o alive of terror and chaos. The group was not in the most likely position to even be able to look after themselves, let alone an three year old nearly covered in bl00d that is not her own( Mero almost thought of dangled her off the roof but decided to not go with it calling her Edge for awhile before changing her name 🫣) but kept her knowing the Threats outside the Tortuga so far she was kept in a room for safety measures. Rosa may have been grateful for the hospitality spake that she would leave if she had anywhere to go anyway, and that when everyone else knew things definitely changed.

Life may not be sunshine and rainbows, but she can picture a good glimpse of the life that could be. Some may think she is a defenseless wallflower jokes on them she's a beast and a wild and dangerous one at moments of disaster comes at the door, one time in particular when she was playing with some rocks and a hyena came in the room seamlessly fear wasn't coming into mind was is gruesome, by the time Mero come in to see a red splatter room and a little girl holding out a detach head in front of them bl00d covered mouth.. chewing whatever face it had (no amount was wasted that day).

Ro is pretty smart and observative even at a young age but mostly less humanly emotionally than the chew suspected that she would be growing up, though it could be the isolation and the small notion of the chew (besides Collin)tolerance of just keeping her alive. Maybe she's a small bit they had to deal with or was a bitter reminder of the past either way she knows all too well about faces, meaning that knowledge every single feature is clear to her without even a word and she can prevent any attacks from any animal even without falls through it took a lot of practice and scratches.

Xverse

Aose

20

👩🏽‍🎨⛓️‍💥🪆🪢

She was a new art school sophomore student who was bubbly, full of ambition ( I got inspired by Harley Quinn and characters like her)and who mightily have known she'd been followed by who came in her dorm that night. She had calls last at night, random creepy notes on her desk, dead flower buds at her door, and by then, it had gotten worse as she'd grown a bit more paranoid before the day happened

She has burd and badly missing memories about the night she was kidnapped. She's kind of has half of memories of her fighting off someone to the ground, but something hit her head, and nowadays, it was just a rain cloud painting, a broken bottle, and yellow eyes? Her mind is still in a blur due to that night and nothing else. In one incident, a test was performed in where she was injected with something, and she was in room full with endless supplies of medications. She was more concerned with what the results of the injection than whatever medicinal effects it could cause. It didn't really help when her body (she was unconscious) laying on the floor shaking when she came to half of her facial and physical form was unrecognizable and that,she looked down at her hands now in chains and hread a voice say "it was for her own good". Enraged with everything that happened, she started at whaling and screaming in on the top of her lungs. Asking what happened to deserve this? She started hitting the walls even if her hands were blooded, but they didn't, then someone came in-and-in a fit of rage. Sheet, you didn't know what happened. But for everyone else, all they saw was the dead body. At least her hands were somewhat free, but her mental state cracked, and since then, she always had a smile on her face.

The effects of the medicines mix in her did much more to a physical form, but a somewhat form, she started to become more aggressive and feisty when five stronger people have to force her to the task room, become more faster on her own two feet even if she ran on broken glass or lava, annihilated a whole steel table in minutes using one hand and her hearing is Is almost third percent of naturally hearing in a more normal human way and because of the incident she grew more tolerant any pain since.

Trottamundoss

Rosita

25?

🪷🎀❤️‍🔥🩰

For what I can say about her: she's mixed with Pinkie pie's personality, golden retriever vides, and a dash of calm blanket of 60's flower power in a large bowl and I throw it in a garden bed ( but sprinkling some thorns in the mix so) and the rest is sun baked for a while. Mostly sweet, bubbly, fun-loving, graceful, cheerful, and smiling girl with a heart of gold 💛

What I think she likes is that it's basically enjoying sunny days, music, friendly company, walks in parks, blowing bubbles, playing with the critters, dancing in the field, etc. ( Gosh, bless her, I made a fu#king deer). I also think that since she likes a big pile of wholesome, Rosita is very good at 🥁 air flying (yes believe it) where she can find a high place dropped herself off and she can just float in the air kinda like a dandelion but without the process of dying just float for long time till she finds a place to lands on

Defenseless as she is for a lot of would take their chances for the kill, but don't think she's knows her opponents will do, that why this little ray of sunshine can burn you when she exposes her bristles that gives a temporarily painful experience for anyone who came to harm her or anyone who seems to be in danger. There's something else she can bo where if she's surrounded , she could spin round liking one of those ballet moves and could just throw up thorns from all of her hair and body and we strike people down like a russian ballet dan throw loose throwing stars at the same time dancing, Also turns into a pack of flowers. FYI

Space

Rosaclipse

12

🪐🌠🩷🤓

Something happened... something weird happened the day she was born, a long solar eclipse happened and let just say no one survived except her a small, crying, defenseless slime baby who was just hungry and had no idea what happened(or at least that what was said), No one know what happened, whether it was a monster that came in or at a sessionation assassination or anything if for some reason, they left her alone and alive for what . Basically, with bodies who they might believe were her parents. But no one knows since no one couldn't tell since everything was covering like some weird acid. But did not come from her as a baby.. Luckily, she would be in good hands after a long time looking for a good home and have no knowledge of her past, but figured that good for her.

She has been a working experience for almost anyone who's currently knows her, at most shy, fearful, very docile, but is smart,kindhearted, and free spirit. It was between trust and people in general for her. Basically, just being nervous about strangers and having to talk about her to caretakers was hard before she warmed up to them, but that aside is just a sweet, loving star hiding behind the clouds. Ro is also really smart, like her IQ sore would be higher for even university professors to quit and let her take their jobs saying fu#k it.

Ro could do more than just floating all over the place, and being a smart cookie, she actually runs super fast though not much light speed fast but it's hardly anything can catch her so that good right. Also she gives off electricity her can subtract thousands of debris and other times where if you shake her a bit she glow 100% natural light from her own body just like that nobody knew till they found her upside down on the floor just shining bright 🌟. She has been doing well at teleconesis she a little shy about showing that, but she is good at it

Wild school

Rosalie

21

🐺🎆🕵🏽‍♀️🏍

She's Jade from Victorious, but softer and "secretly" a sweet pea holding a "Don't try me B!cth til I have my coffee " coffee mug with a small breeze of Belle from Beauty and the Beast (but not in the whole stockholm syndrome thing ) so she can be a bookworm as well.

It is no surprise that her background is a mystery. Besides, she was just transferred to the principal's understandings, but there are times when rumors may progress in the mix is almost a theory, and Ro could never care less than a ferrell cat in the middle of fu*king traffic😑. Besides, it's not like she's there for "something else" or something magical, just some good ol' learning is all

Rosalie isn't really social, it can be on for mostly any type of gathering or parties, that she would be forced to go to but as long as you don't underestimate her or judge her for anything( She checked a whole gallop mix of Spite and cocktail mix while filling knives for darts all in the center at the same time for being call a whimp of a female and no one can't say sh!t to her without being out did 🎯 no joke ) you think on the top of your head. Her own willpower can be quite terrifying, especially when her really knows what the situation she could be in, whether it's deadly round house kick a door down closed by some bratty girls or kicking some jeck's ego down on a flirting attempt while Tempting her for a few drinks plus she can read body language real good and surprisingly excellent fighting skills.

[tea-with-evan-and-me]

Spicy Peru request! Lemme know if you want a part 2 for days two and three ;) ~ Belgianon

Four days. Four fucking days. Four days straight of hiking on a trip that was supposed to be a nice little relaxing rest for the two of us. I wasn’t angry, per se – just… I hadn’t prepared, okay?!

Evan told me to pack light, since we’d be in a warm climate, and sure, I was hiking ready in the sense that I had boots and what not – but four damned days of climbing… ugh. I’d have done some preparation on the stairmaster back home if I’d known. Still, my protests didn’t stop Evan from packing two camping rucksacks with everything the tour guides had said we’d need for the Inca Trail. It surprised me, actually, that Evan even wanted to do something like this; he wasn’t abundantly sporty in the sense that he enjoyed the Great Outdoors, but then I was always learning things about him as he grew more comfortable with me.

Four day hikes along gorgeous backdrops with a local tour guide taking us off-piste for a special tour hadn’t been on my bingo card for the year. But then I learned that donkeys would be involved, and it all clicked into place.

“Ready to go?” Evan asked, pulling a baseball cap over his curls. He’d had them cut down a bit for the trip so he wouldn’t get too hot, but he’d left enough for me to hold onto when it mattered most.

“Sure,” I replied, picking up my rucksack. Evan slapped my ass as I walked past.

“You’re hot with that on.”

“You’d find a fucking chipmunk hot at this point.” I still stuck my ass out at him as we left the AirBnb he’d found. Evan usually took care of all the travel planning, since he had a strange knack for finding hidden gems away from the press and the absolutely insane fans.

The first day into the trip was a huge historical overload, with facts and stories told by a guide who painted the brightest, golden picture of Peru’s Incan history. I found myself lost in a world I knew nothing about as we wandered around ancient ruins that seemed to vibrate and pulse with thousands of years of energy… And when we set up camp for the night, we were so deep into the jungle-like surroundings that we got the treat of a lifetime: the glittering backdrop of billions of stars. Evan’s eyes were glued to me most of the evening, as I stared at the skies in love.

Day two… well, let’s just say, Evan being in his element asking questions and being a goof had me a little hot and heavy when we got onto the donkeys. The sway of the animal put my mind firmly on the sway of a certain someone beneath me, on top of me, behind me… I couldn’t shake it. Something about Peru’s breathtaking landscapes, and the fact that we were almost entirely alone except for this local guide… it was giving waterfalls.

“Stop thinking about it,” Evan murmured, moving his donkey beside mine while the guide went into the trees a bit to pee.

“About what?”

“About me fucking you against one of those trees over there in a bit…” Evan reached over and squeezed my bare thigh.

“I mean, if you’re offering…”

“Be good and we’ll see.” He grinned at me wolfishly and trotted on ahead, stretching up so I could see the damned work he’d been doing in the damned gym for a damned role he had coming up. Damn.

We reached a little clearing, and it was time for lunch. Lunch usually meant our guide buggered off for a bit on his own, and Evan and I were able to be alone, too. Our guide went down to a little ravine with one of the books he’d brought. We knew the part of the trail that was safe for us to be on, and so I wandered off a bit, pulling my top off to reveal a bikini underneath (literally no-one had time for anything more in that heat). I draped my top on a tree branch, fully aware that Evan was watching me.

I didn’t look back, though.

As I stepped through the lush foliage, Evan rushed behind me, pantsed me, and pinned me against a tree. He picked me up, wasting no time in freeing himself. He didn’t even give me a chance to get him going – he was already there, rock hard against my ass. He looked me in the eyes, his hand somehow rubbing me up in all the right places, spreading the slickness around my clit so much so that my head hit the tree behind me, and I had to fight to not scream Evan’s name deep into the fucking trees as he slid a finger into me.

“Can you f-fucking not,” I breathed. Evan laughed, attacking my bare throat and chest as he replaced his finger painfully slowly with his dick, adjusting his grip on my ass. It was thrilling, the breeze on my bare ass and breasts, the idea that at any point, anyone could come and find us… god, I nearly came before he even started moving.

“I just wanna savour this,” he murmured. “Scream my name.”

“No! No –“

“Come on,” he groaned, moving inside me. He felt fucking amazing, every sense heightened as he drove into me, his hat falling to the floor. I ran my fingers through his hair, grinning as his hips grew more and more urgent. “Scream for me, baby, come on…”

“S-some m-might he-ear,” I panted, face flushing with colour at the thought of the guide hearing me. We still had two days to spend with him.

“G-go on… d-dare you,” Evan growled, kissing my jaw. “Dare you.”

“F-fuck – Evan! EVAN!” The bastard had reached down and, with a very well-placed thumb, pressed down on my clit. I didn’t care about the noise then. The world could hear me. The ghosts of the Incas who undoubtedly surrounded us could hear me. I didn’t care.

“That’s it, baby,” Evan growled, grinning. “Fucking – c-come – come f-for me, baby –“

Entirely at his mercy, his thrusts turned sloppy, and his thumb circling my clit faltered a little as he tried to hold back, but couldn’t. Evan buried his face in my neck, trembling as he came, his breath hot against my already-hot skin. I could feel him dripping out of me, and it felt downright fucking sinful… I tried to move against him, teetering on the edge myself. He looked down at me, a gleam in his eye.

“Don’t you dare,” I whispered. “Don’t you dare leave me like this…” I was stuck.

“I kinda like it,” he murmured, stroking my damp face. “All needy and desperate…” He reached between us and stroked me slowly, stoking the fire that nearly made my body snap. “But I don’t remember hearing my name…” Motherfucker.

“Evan, Evan,” I breathed, desperate for him to speed up. Even a little bit. “Evan – Evan!”

“Come on… louder…” He pressed a little harder. He moved a little bit inside me.

“Ev-AN! EVAN!”

“Who do you belong to?”

“EVAN!” With that, he gave me the rough circle and thrust that I needed, and I came far harder than I’d expected to. I blacked out for a second, but when I came back to my senses, Evan was holding my face against his chest, chuckling.

“Good girl,” he murmured. “I think that noise scared a couple goats.”

“Shut… the fuck… up… about fucking… goats…” I panted, leaning against him. I looked to the side… and five goats were stood, watching, chewing on grass or whatever. “Oh god…”

“Come on. We should get back to the donkeys… before the goats take us to their leader…” Evan slid out of me, and the noise was unholy. I grimaced, feeling him drip a little bit down my thigh. He produced a packet of wet wipes from his back pocket. I cleaned up a bit, then put my shorts back on.

Our guide was, thankfully, sleeping by the ravine when we got back to the donkeys. Evan held my hand the entire way back, and as we lay in the sun for a bit, enjoying the sounds of nature, I couldn’t help but feel just a little more in love with him.

we’ve been blessed again 🫶🏼

[ashperiences]

Meant for this to just be part of talking about the first game but didn't realise how much I'd go on lol

Didn't like this one as much, on paper most things sound better and I liked a lot of those ideas but I left without much of a real impression left on me.

The stratums never really ended up feeling like a place to me, I got a little shot of excitement going into the airship but it ultimately just felt like a big bunch of yellow corridors with a knock off version of the previous final boss. The areas could be really pretty and I liked some of the level design and the bringing a specific class gimmicks that unfortunately feel more fun of an idea than actually evocative but oh well.

Therein lies a big problem I had with this, the gameplay mostly turns into spamming big damage, the enemies and levels can get really obnoxious in response and the quests routinely become pains in the ass even as they build some genuinely endearing steps and events in them that make them more than just go to A or collect 6 of B (loved the one that made me mad that finding a guy to deliver a thing to relied on an rng roll to check if he runs away over and over owning me by having the guy eventually be like why the hell are you chasing me who are you though).

I like all these ideas it has, getting to know people in town better, weird FOE gimmicks and all but a lot of the quiet imaginative space is lost, I didn't really wonder about my party, the npcs were more fleshed out and likeable but they weren't really memorable enough to make up for feeling like just some decently entertaining guys in some dlc pack levels.

So much is hampered by relation to the first game, class design is heavily built around nerfing old strategies and over empowering other ones, the story has the same structure but less interesting as an attempt at playing the hits again, we got bird people again but they're magical helpful natives now. It's all just kind of uncomplicated heroics where your attack goes up and eventually you beat up god who is mean and make friends with everyone.

Its fun enough though although similarly the gameplay made it hard to distinguish any real sense of character between my variety of big numbers damage guys. The new class concepts are fun but not tremendously well implemented and the reuse of old classes doesn't help the stale feeling.

I can't stop complaining about it but whenever I think about parts of it I think of them fondly anyway, its not charmless it's just, it's overshadowed and directionless, everything you like feels nice but overtime it kind of just eats away at itself until its a town of slightly charming people and their heroes in a world that just feels built for purpose. I can barely remember any of the actual exploring.

If etrian odyssey 1 ends with your party literally going to hell this one feels like a conscious attempt at crafting explorer heaven - nothing complicates your role, doing big damage almost always wins, everyone ends up loving you and you can live forever as a cool sword guy (suppose there's a fun little thing to think about on context of the villain speech there actually).

I think you can summarise this game with two things:

1. The pathways only open to certain classes that just give you an rpg narration of your guy doing some cool stuff that repeats exactly the same the next time you find one without any of the environment reflecting it and usually organised into some weird box room with multiple class paths like you've found some side mission level select.

2. The way the gunner just inherits a strong move from the now decimated survivalist and also functions as a superior alchemist, the way the war magus can awkwardly remove any mp consideration or how the hexer can just turn hp loss into practically instant killing everything. The game gets flattened under this stuff to the point that the struggle of it all ceases to feel real, no monster is a real threat except by just doing something annoying, every boss gets steamrolled and as if representing the shift in genre the survivalist ends up with practically no purpose.

It was fun while it lasted for sure but also super annoying and I spent most of it thinking about my previous party and looking back on it all I can imagine my party as is an endless succession of multi attack skills.

A true dlc side story 6/10 where you go oh that's a nice idea I guess oh that's a funny guy they put in here and then evaporates.

[eposerta]

☾ ⋆･ﾟ:⋆･ﾟ below the cut are some plots that i think would be fun , or at least entertaining enough . open to all mutuals just ... idk hit the heart and i'll slide my way into your dms ! i 'd love to build on these dumb little snippets i wrote and most of them are fitting for platonic / romantic dynamics depending on the vibes .

main verse :the mentor  renata byun is in hiding , she's still trying to figure out who she is , what she's doing , and knows that she is supposed to hide from the angels , but doesn't understand why . main verse : the hunter / the hunted :  this character is one of the many hunting for renata for what she is , she may not know it right away , but it's a conflict ( there could be a platonic/romantic twist too )

main verse : the human who finds out her secret . ren doesn’t openly use her abilities , definitely doesn’t tell people what she is , but this person finds out and it can go in plenty of directions . any verse :  opposites attract .this can be romantic or platonic ,  ren is the more soft and kind type , but she needs someone who will remind her to grow a backbone , challenge her , and is also more the opposite of her in personality ( honestly i’m extremely weak for these dynamics for ren , because she can be super spicy , she just needs to be comfortable first )

apocalypse : fellow survivors , they likely don't know what ren is ( but they could ! ) , but if they do it could be fun to have them work together to try and fix things

college / criminal verse : close friends , they could have gone to college with ren before she transferred to be closer to home

crime verse : her boss . ren works for a crime family and perhaps they did her the favor of paying off the loan shark that was harassing her for the money her foster father owed before he passed away , and perhaps he has a beautiful arboretum / garden and considering how good she is at her job , it seems to be a perfect fit .

fae verse : the confidant - ren is a fae princess based on the ‘ spring ‘ kingdom . her position in the royal family has been kept a secret for her safety as her sister was crowned queen at six years old . this confidant is well aware of who she is , and they have a very close bond .

fae verse : the secret lover - with her secret close , this person could either be a part of her personal guard , who is well aware of her position or someone who has no idea who ren is to the kingdom , they could also be from another kingdom leaving them more in the dark .

hybrid verse : the hunter -  a witch turned into a vampire and virtually lost her mind , going on a murder rampage , this will likely cause some hunters to find & kill her . bonus points if they realize that maybe she can be snapped back to reality and function in a non murderous way.

royalty verse : see fae verse plots , except in this verse she is human - could be modern or any place in time .

sanctuary verse : the close friend - while ren was oblivious to everything going on within sanctuary , she did have a handful of friends ( most of them were children of equinox employees etc ) growing up . eventually , she would escape but perhaps they find each other again ( this verse is ship exclusive with @mythous )

witch verse : a guiding hand of sorts , this person is helping her understand her power , they could be part of the same coven , or whatever wolf verse : the hunter - this person had a hand in the murder of her pack , probably very antagonistic .

wolf verse : the new pack - having been on her own for some time , she’s found by a new pack and assimilates well . bonus points if someone from this new pack is the reason that she survived the attack on her previous one