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albakore · 3 years

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Office Adventures

Synopsis: (office!au) Sometimes Kaeya’s ideas can be brilliant. Other times you wonder how this man even made it this far in life. This time, however, the outcome is a little different than you expect…

Characters (together): Diluc, Kaeya, Thoma/Tohma, Childe, and Zhongli (fem!reader)

Warnings: not sfw (18+), like pure unadulterated filth. public-ish sex, voyeurism, unprotected sex, vibrator, masturbation, Diluc fucking you while everyone else watches because i am Diluc’s whore before i am human,

part 2

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It felt so downright perverted to be acting this way. You tried your hardest to stay focused on the presentation in front of you but your mind kept drifting back to the device that was sitting between your legs. Kaeya had managed to slip a vibrator in your underwear right before this meeting, after he pulled you into an empty office and worked it inside of you. He pulled up the app on his phone and tested it to make sure it worked properly. It did, much to his delight (and your dismay.)

Zhongli was up at the front presenting some information about this months sales. He was flipping through various infographics in the presentation he had prepared, motioning to them every so often to accentuate his point. Diluc was sitting across from Kaeya jotting down notes as he went, next to him was a bored looking Thoma. Childe occupied the seat on the Kaeya’s left and was very keenly watching Zhongli as he presented. The seat to Kaeya’s right was empty, as that’s where Zhongli had been sitting. You watched Kaeya reach for his phone again that was sitting on the table in front of him. He tapped the screen a few times and you felt the vibrations inside of you grow stronger. You pressed your thighs together desperately trying to mask what was taking place. You couldn’t help but chew your bottom lip desperately trying not to let your pokerface drop.

“Ms. (Name), are you alright?” You heard Kaeya call from across the table, interrupting Zhongli. That little shit, you thought. You took a deep breath to help calm you down, putting on the best neutral expression you could muster before glancing up and meeting Kaeya’s mischievous smile.

“Of course. Why do you ask?” You tried to ignore how all of the men’s eyes glanced over in your direction. You could feel your impending orgasm looming as the vibrator continued to buzz inside you still even with all their gazes on you.

Thoma chimed in this time, completely oblivious. “You’re looking a little flustered, do you need to step out for some air?” Your eyes drifted to meet his, a genuinely concerned expression on his face as he scanned over you for signs of sickness or injury.

“I’m fine, really,” you assured him quickly, “I just picked the wrong day to wear this outfit.” You joked, motioning to your matching blazer and skirt that were made out of the same thick material. You added in a smile to really sell your excuse, fanning yourself to make it seem like maybe the heat was just getting to you.

Zhongli, who had been interrupted in the middle of his presentation, cleared his throat to take the attention away from the disruption. “Well, this is the last slide so if you’ll allow me to get through this then you can go back to your office and cool down a little. May I?” You nodded your head quickly and added in a small sorry before you ducked your head back down to focus on the notes in front of you. You were grateful when you felt the attention slowly shift off you and back to Zhongli.

Your mind drifted again with Zhongli’s voice as the perfect background noise for your fantasies that played in your mind. You thought again about Kaeya pulling you into that office right before this meeting with his fingers working you open slowly saying he had a surprise for you. You two had joked about doing something like this before, but you never thought he had the gall to actually go through with it. He was definitely enjoying this entirely too much, you could tell by the way his attention shifted from his notes to study you every so often. Whenever he altered the frequency of the vibrator, your resolve would fall just briefly and you’d allow yourself one shaky breath as your fists clenched and your eyebrows furrowed, desperately trying to fight the orgasm that had been creeping up on your for what felt like forever now. You were completely unaware of the vermillion eyes that would drift your way every time your face would scrunch or your hips would shift.

“And with that, we’re done for the day.” Zhongli’s concluding statement cut through your lewd thoughts. You let out a sigh of relief thinking about how you wanted nothing more than to get out of this meeting room and to the privacy of your own office. Zhongli returned to his spot at the table beside Kaeya and began gathering up his papers. The rest of the men also shuffled their stuff together, starting to stand from their seats and stretch.

“Say, Kaeya,” Childe’s voice cut through the shuffling. You watched in slow motion horror as he reached out and grabbed Kaeya’s phone that had been sitting face up on the table while Kaeya had stepped away from his seat to go return something he grabbed before the meeting. “What is this app you kept toying with throughout the meeting?” He asked as he examined Kaeya’s phone. Kaeya’s eyebrows furrowed as he tried to think of a way to draw Childe’s attention away from the phone without being obvious. As Kaeya opened his mouth to reply, Childe tapped something on the screen.

“Wait!” You and Kaeya exclaimed in unison but it was too late, the vibrator in between your legs kicked up a few notches and in a matter of seconds the orgasm that Kaeya had had you dancing around for the last half of this meeting came crashing down. You let out a loud, sultry moan as you ducked your head to keep some sense of your dignity as the men watched you clench your legs and squirm in your seat. Kaeya quickly made his way back to his phone and snatched it away from Childe, cutting off the vibrations. There were a few beats of silence as the men all watched you carefully while you caught your breath, head still lowered and hands still gripping the arms of your chair harshly. The realization of what just happened finally hit you as your head cleared. The fucked out expression on your face shifted to a mortified one as you tried to think of some sort of response.

Childe’s voice rang out hesitantly from the other side of the room, “uh, sorry..”

Instead of addressing his apology you used every ounce of courage in you to spit out a ‘please excuse me’ before getting up from your chair and promptly exiting the room. You ran for the nearest empty bathroom and locked yourself inside, suddenly thankful for the first time ever that your office had single person bathrooms. Your back hit the door as your head reeled from the events that just took place, embarrassment washing over you. I’m gonna get fired, you though bitterly, they probably think I’m disgusting. You slowly reached down and pulled back your underwear to see the soaked mess that had become your panties. You sighed, pulling them up again before your eyes met the mirror. Your appearance was disheveled: your lips were swollen from biting them to stifle your moans and your legs were still shaking from your recent orgasm.

A loud knock sounded on the door behind you. “(Name)?” Kaeya’s voice called out. “…I know you’re in there.” He added after a few moments of waiting for you to respond. You still didn’t answer his calls so he continued, “they’re all waiting for you to come back.” Your heart dropped. What does that mean? Are they going to discuss the consequences of your actions already? Why so soon? Couldn’t they wait and sleep on it?

You turned around hand gripping the door handle as you took a deep breath to calm your racing heartbeat, figuring it best to face this head on. You opened the door with a click only to be met with Kaeya’s fist inches from your face, evident that he was about to knock again. “There you are!” He quickly withdrew his knuckles and gave you a quick concerned once-over.

You glanced around nervously to make sure he was alone before slumping against him. He pulled you into his embrace as his way to apologize for the events that took place. He knows it was his bad to leave his phone out there like that, especially given the fact that Childe knows his passcode. He stroked your back a few times soothingly, allowing you to inhale his scent hoping that it would provide you some comfort.

“C’mon, let’s not keep them waiting.” He spoke after a few moments before gently taking your hand to lead you along behind him through the hallways. You approached the meeting room again in quick strides, your anxiety climbing higher and higher the closer you two got.

Kaeya stopped in front of the meeting room door and turned to face you, sensing your anxiousness. His hands grabbed your shoulders gently. “There’s no need to be nervous. You’re not going to get in trouble or anything of the sort, I’m certain of it.” He leaned forward and let his lips rest against your ear, “I’m also certain that they all had a boner when I left them. I mean who wouldn’t after the show you put on.” A shiver ran up your spine at his words. You opened and closed your mouth a few times trying to form some sort of response, but before you could he had turned around and pushed open the meeting room door.

“Where is she?” You heard Childe ask. You peaked over Kaeya’s shoulder into the room. The men had returned to the seats they had been in during the meeting.

“(Name).” Zhongli addressed you firmly when his gaze met yours. You squeaked and ducked behind Kaeya again. The man in front of you chuckled before taking a few steps into the room, motioning for you to follow. You swallowed thickly before taking a few tentative steps.

Kaeya closed the door behind you as you finally straightened your back and addressed the men in front of you. “Um…” you tried to keep eye contact with them to appear more collected than you actually were but quickly found your fleeting confidence fading. Instead, you settled for fixing you gaze on the ground in front of you. “I’m very sorry for what happened.”

“Did he force you into this?” Diluc’s question caught you off guard.

“N-no!” You stammered quickly. "He and I talked about it beforehand." You said assuredly, not wanting your actions to reflect worse on Kaeya than they already had. Your cheeks burned and your shoulders were tense. “I know it was very unprof-“

“(Name), come here.” The firm words from Diluc caught you off guard. You studied him for a second, trying to read his intentions. Kaeya finally took his own seat across the table from Diluc. You made your way past Thoma to where Diluc was sitting before you paused. Diluc patted his thigh to motion for you to sit there. It caught you way off guard. You noted how Kaeya was absolutely right, though you couldn’t see Childe or Zhongli, you could definitely see both Diluc and Thoma were noticeably hard. You went to straddle his thighs but he stopped you. “Other way.” You turned yourself around and settled against him with your back flush with his chest. It took everything in you not to grind against his boner that was even more noticeable now that it was pressed against you.

His lips met the shell of your ear. “Is this alright?” He asked, fingers hovering over you, waiting for your permission for him to touch you. You nodded, swallowing thickly and his hands came into contact with your skin. Diluc’s fingers worked to hike your skirt up. He let his fingertips ghost up and down your outer thigh a few times, pressing a kiss to your neck. He pushed his chair back from the table and spread your legs wide to make sure the other guys could see what he was doing to you. He stopped again briefly as his fingers came to rest on the edge of your panties, waiting for your go ahead before pushing them down your thigh. He paused to admire the string of slick that connected your sex to your underwear. You didn’t even have time to feel embarrassed before Thoma let out a groan beside you at the sight. Diluc continued working your panties down your legs until he slipped them off completely and tossed them on the table in front of you two. Next, his hands reached down and pulled the vibrator out of your cunt that Kaeya had stuffed in there with a quiet squelching noise. He held it up and examined the way it was coated completely in your arousal.

“I can turn it on, if you want.” Kaeya offered as he watched the scene in front of him intently. His signature cocky smirk had returned as he noticed how wet he had gotten you with his vibrator.

“Please do.” Diluc answered, turning his attention from the toy back to your cunt. “May I?” He whispered in your ear as the hand not holding the toy traced the skin below your bellybutton down to the area just above your clit and back up again.

“U-uh..” you hesitated, gauging the reactions from the men around you. Zhongli’s gaze was fixated on you. He was leaning forward on his elbows, his fingers locked together resting over his mouth. His irises looked like they were quite literally glowing as he drank in the sight of you. Otherwise, he looked completely calm. His breath was slow and steady and he was relatively still.

Childe had never looked more relaxed in his life. He was slouched against his chair, one ankle crossed over his knee and his elbows resting on the arms of the chair. His boner couldn’t be any more obvious as his eyes languidly trailed up your body, down your body, and back up again. He was truly basking in the sight in front of him.

When your gaze shifted to Kaeya he made sure to hold eye contact with you. He licked his lips seductively, eyes trailing down your body before snapping back up to your complete the eye contact again as he sent you a wink.

If there were any doubt left in your mind after looking at those three, that was all dispelled when your eyes drifted over to Thoma. He already had his cock free and was pumping himself slowly as his eyes stayed fixated on you. His cheeks were flush and his breath was fast, and the tip of his cock looked deliciously red as you watched his thumb swipe over it.

It had only taken you a few moments to be sure that none of the men in front of you were uncomfortable with what was happening before you gave Diluc the go ahead. A simple, but firm, 'yes' left your lips and in mere seconds the vibrator that he was holding roared to life, courtesy of Kaeya of course. He pressed it to your clit and immediately you mewled, back arching off his chest. You rocked your hips against the device and in turn also rocked yourself against Diluc’s boner that was growing harder by the second.

“D-Diluc,” you whined. “I want you inside of me.” You panted, focusing on grinding against him. He hummed at your request, pressing a few more open mouth kisses up your neck. Your eyebrows were furrowed and your mouth parted slightly.

“Let me prep you first.” He stated, shifting his arm and wrapping it under your thigh so he could insert two fingers into you. Your slick coated them easily, allowing him to add a third finger. He stretched you as much as he could slowly and gently, pumping his fingers in and out of you. After a few moments he pulled them away from your cunt before putting his fingers, now coated in your slick, up to your mouth. You took them in without hesitation, sucking and licking them. “Good.” Diluc praised. You locked eyes with Zhongli first, then you moved to Childe. Childes hand had also found it’s way inside his pants and was pumping himself lazily as he watched you.

You released Diluc’s now clean fingers from your mouth. “Unzip me.” He instructed, one hand working to unbutton your blouse the other one still had the vibrator pressed to your clit. You reached under you and unzipped his pants, hand trailing along his clothed dick eagerly. You pushed down his underwear and leaned forward to allow room for his cock to sprang free. You pushed back and let yourself rub against him eagerly.

He finally withdrew the vibrator from your clit so he could put both his hands on your hips to guide you onto him. He let out a low groan as he sank into you, your walls clenching around him. He bottomed out and allowed you to just sit there like that for a few moments to adjust to the girth he had. Slowly, he lifted your hips before sliding you back down again. You let out a wanton moan at the feeling of his cock sliding in and out of you. Diluc finally replaced the vibrator on your clit again, causing your thighs to tense around him. You placed your hands on his knees and took the lead lifting yourself up and down, slowly speeding up as the slightly painful stretch was replaced with immense pleasure. Beside you, Thoma moaned your name, matching his pace to yours as he worked himself to his own orgasm. Kaeya upped the speed of the vibrator again, enjoying watching you squirm around Diluc's cock.

Zhongli had even taken to pleasuring himself, his stoic expression fixated on watching as Diluc disappeared into your heat only to come back out again coated in your arousal. You were positively drenching Diluc's cock, leaving a wet spot on the chair underneath you two. Moans — hng, a-ah, mmh~ — left your lips as Diluc's other hand found your nipple, toying with it. Your legs started shaking as you got closer to your orgasm, but you tried to push through it to continue riding Diluc. He picked up on your fatigue quick though, and in return he lifted you up and bent you over the table in front of him, grabbing your hips from behind and pushing back into you. You moaned his name again, cheek squished against the hard tabletop, hands splayed beside your head.

"Diluc! I'm gon- I'm gonna c-" you desperately tried to choke out, feeling another strong orgasm coming on as the man slammed into you over and over. His tip curved perfectly into your sweet spot, making you arch your back. He groaned again at the feeling of your smooth walls throbbing around him.

"Let go, angel." You heard him murmur behind you. With one loud whine, your walls clamped around him as you creamed all over his cock. He let out a low 'fuck' as he was launched into his own orgasm, burying himself inside of you before filling you up with his seed. You glanced behind you to watch as Thoma coated his own hand with his cum, moaning your name loudly. Childe had also made a mess out of his shirt when he shot his semen in spurts all over it. Zhongli's hand was still working himself under his dress pants — and then you noticed Kaeya. Kaeya hadn't bothered to touch himself at all, cocky smirk plastered on his face as he stood up from his chair while you and Diluc caught your breaths.

"Is it my turn now?" Kaeya mused as he took slow deliberate strides toward you. This was going to be a long night.

#genshin x reader #genshin impact #genshin impact x reader #genshin smut #diluc smut #diluc x reader #diluc oneshot #kaeya x reader #kaeya smut #childe x reader #childe smut #tohma x reader #thoma x reader #thoma smut #tohma smut #zhongli x reader #zhongli smut #office au

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h0tchner · 3 years

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go team hotchner!

pairing: dad!aaron hotchner x fem!reader

summary: aaron is coaching jack’s soccer game & reader is in the crowd! aaron & reader are happily married, but another woman’s mean comments and blatant flirting makes the reader jealous. fluffy shenanigans ensue!

word count: 2.5k

includes: FLUFF, jack hotchner is the sweetest, you & aaron are married, jealous!reader, kissing, family planning, & AARON IN A GREY T-SHIRT

rating: 18+ (for VERY brief mentions of sex and a little smidge of cursing)

a/n: i wrote this for @ssahotchswife’s soft hotch saturday! this is my first published fic, so i hope y’all enjoy. PLS (!!!!!!!!!!!) interact if you liked this, rb, comment, like and/or send me a request if you have ideas for future fics! i love y’all! - rivka💞

“Atta boy, Jack!” Aaron yells from the side of the field, clapping his hands as his son scores another goal.

Beaming, you holler from the benches along with the crowd. You watch as your husband jogs up and down the sidelines with ease, keeping up with Jack’s soccer team. It’s a stunning Saturday morning and you are thrilled to spend every moment of it with the Hotchner boys. Your Hotchner boys.

When they asked Aaron to coach the team, how could he say no? After losing Hayley, he promised himself that he would do everything in his power to be there for Jack. When you first started dating, Aaron was hesitant to introduce you to his son. It wasn’t because he didn’t want you in Jack’s life, but rather he didn’t want to scare you away. You were a 26-year-old NCIS agent and he was a 40-something FBI agent. You knew he had a son, you knew he was a widow, and you knew he was older than you: but you didn’t care. You loved him. It took a little coaxing to get Aaron to open up to you about his fears, but once he did, you assured him then and there that you weren’t going anywhere. He introduced you to Jack the very same day. Four years later, you and Aaron are stronger than ever.

The ref blows the whistle, calling a break. Aaron motions for the kids to huddle in. He squats on the floor to get on their level, enthusiastically whispering, walking them through the next play. Your heart swells watching him talk to the group of children. Aaron Hotchner, always the hero, the role-model, the leader. Gentle yet powerful: he was intoxicating.

Your eyes dart over his crouched figure; the soft, heather grey of his t-shirt clings to his broad shoulders. You draw in a breath, a memory of last night flooding your senses, remembering how you held on to those shoulders for dear life as he pounded you into the bed. You feel your cheeks blush red, and you look up to the sky, shutting your eyes to collect yourself. Damn. Even just the thought of touching him gets your blood up.

You open your eyes, letting your gaze travel back to Aaron’s body, admiring how good his butt looks in those black Adidas track pants. You bite your lip a bit, feeling overwhelmed with joy, knowing that beautiful man, inside and out, was all yours. God, what you wanted to do to...

“Damn he is HOT. Way hotter than the old coach. I think his son is on the team?” A woman’s voice rings out from behind you.

“Yeah, I think so. Did you hear what happened to his first wife? So sad, lost her when his son was little. Apparently he’s shacked up with some 20-something-year-old now.” A second woman’s voice chimes in.

“No way. Him? Married to that? He needs a real woman, not some child. A man that experienced should be with someone his own age. I’m gonna talk to him after the game, see what his deal is.” The first woman replies, voice dripping with venom.

“I think you should!” Agrees the second.

“Oh, I will. I’ll make him an offer he can’t refuse.” Snickers the first.

They both laugh as you sit frozen in your seat, blinded by a wave of anger and sadness.

Some child? Someone his own age? Their hurtful words pierce right through your heart as you furiously blink back tears.

The ref blows the whistle, and the team scatters back onto the field. The ladies cheer behind you as the game starts back up. It takes all your strength not to break down under the crushing weight of their conversation. You take in some deep breaths, mulling over their comments. You weren’t “some child!” You were a grown-ass woman! You had a job! You were a federal agent! You loved Aaron and Jack: they were your whole world!

As you continue to give yourself a mental pep-talk, the hurt begins to dissipate as you realize how stupid those woman sounded. They didn’t even know you, or Aaron, or anything about your relationship. In that moment, you tell yourself that instead of wallowing in self-doubt, you would stand up to them and make it known that you were the only one for Aaron.

Just like that: you begin to feel a bit better. You focus all your attention on Aaron and Jack, letting the game fly by. You ignore the ladies gossiping behind you, and, by the time the kids are lining up to give the other team high-fives, you had pulled yourself together and come up with a plan to put these ladies right back in their place. You just had to wait for the right time to make your move.

“Wish me luck!” squeals the first woman. You can feel her getting up from the bleachers behind you.

“Go get him, girl!” sasses the second.

You watch as the woman walks down the aisle, her straight blonde ponytail swishing as she goes. She’s wearing blue-jean shorts and a white lace top: an outfit you’ve seen before on a hundred women who looked just like her. In any other circumstance you’d applaud her efforts (girls supporting girls, right?) but this was your man she had her sights on. No way. Not a chance. She wasn’t going to lay a single pink manicured finger on him.

Aaron is talking to the ref and the other team’s coach when she taps him on the shoulder.

Oh HELL no. You think, frowning.

He turns around and gives her a small, polite smile. You can’t hear the exchange, but after a few moments, she sticks out her hand to shake his, laughing. Aaron curtly returns the shake and turns back to finish up his prior conversation; but, this time, the blonde woman puts a hand on his arm again, lightly pulling him away. Your blood begins to boil. She gestures to the pack of kids, now getting drinks and snacks from the fold-up table next to the bleachers. Aaron nods, pointing over to where Jack is standing, sipping on some lemonade. She puts her hand on his arm again and tilts her head.

You decide it has been long enough. It’s go time.

You walk down the bleachers, picking up the hem of your baby blue floral sundress so you wouldn’t step on it as you descended.

The woman is still all over Aaron, clearly flirting. Aaron’s arms are crossed over his chest, lips in a terse smile. It didn’t take a profiler to know that his behaviour screamed “get me out of here.”

You fluff your hair a bit, letting it fall loosely around your face. With confidence, your feet hit the soft grass and you head towards your husband.

“Aaron!” you call out, waving and smiling as you near him, shooting daggers at the blonde woman by his side.

The moment he sees you approaching, you watch his entire demeanour change.

“Y/N!” he grins, excusing himself from the woman.

She whips around to face you with a vengeance as Aaron scoops you up, tanned arms firm around your middle. He spins you around as you laugh, surprised, looking down at him with pure elation.

He sets you down and, before you have a chance to say anything else, grabs your face in his hands, crashing his mouth into yours. You throw your arms around his neck and card your fingers in his hair, kissing him with the same fervour.

You can practically feel the adrenaline coursing through his veins. It’s hot and dominating: something about winning a game makes Aaron primal and giddy. You certainly aren’t complaining.

He breaks the kiss and lets his hands fall to your waist, squeezing lightly.

“Congrats on the win, Coach Hotchner.” You smile as you brush a lock of sweaty black hair off his forehead.

“Couldn’t have done it without my favourite cheerleader, Mrs. Hotchner.” He winks, pressing a light kiss to your forehead.

“Oh yeah?” You prod, cocking your head, looking into his gorgeous hazel eyes. “Who would that be?”

“Hm.” He pauses, looking up pensively.

He wraps his arms even tighter around your middle and dips his head down, whispering one word in your ear: “You.”

You laugh, swaying with him for a moment, capturing his lips in another kiss. As you pull apart, out of the corner of your eye you watch as the blonde woman stands frozen to the same spot, mouth agape. You smirk, feeling satisfied and self-assured knowing your little scheme was a success.

Then, like a rocket, you see Jack running towards you with a mile-wide grin on his flushed face.

“Y/N! Did you see? Did you see me make two goals?” Jack exclaims.

“Yeah buddy, I saw the whole thing!” You capture him in a bear hug, kissing the top of his head. You ruffle his hair and kneel down, looking into his soft brown eyes.

“I’m so proud of you. Did you have fun?”

“Yeah! I love soccer!” Jack nods.

“You did a great job Jack.” Aaron says, helping you stand. He wraps an arm around your waist and looks lovingly down at his son.

“You’re our soccer superstar.” You add, glancing between Jack and Aaron with unbridled joy. “Now go! Go back to your friends!” You laugh, shooing him away, back to the group of sweaty 8-year-olds and their snacks.

You stand there with Aaron, snaking your arm around his back to match his around yours. You both watch as Jack bounds off. A quick glance to the side shows that the blonde woman is long gone, probably stomping back up to her friend to whine and call you more names.

“Is she gone?” Aaron murmurs into your hair, pressing a gentle kiss to the side of your head.

You stutter, “How... how did you?” You trail off in disbelief.

“Oh please,” he smirks, “I had to stop you from practically biting her head off when you walked over.”

“Aaron!” you yelp, mocking upset. “You should’ve let me at her.”

He chuckles, lips twitching into a smile as he quirks one eyebrow up. “I couldn’t have my wife fighting with the aunt of one of my players. It’d reflect poorly on me.”

“She called me a child. Said that you should be with someone your own age. I think that warrants a free pass.”

His joking manner stops abruptly at your declaration. “That’s ridiculous and you know it,” he furrows his brow, shaking his head lightly.

You reach up and run your fingers over his scrunched forehead, soothing the lines into something softer.

“I know,” you nod.

Aaron pulls you into his side, wordless. Fingers tracing lightly over your hip. You knew he was thinking the same thing: no matter what they said, you knew in your heart that you and Aaron were meant to be. Age be damned. He was yours and you were his: forever. Simple as that.

“Mmm,” you sigh, taking in the beauty of the moment. You smile at the clear sky, the fresh air, and the feeling of the man you loved, right by your side. You two watch Jack as he talks and laughs with the other kids. He looks so happy to be surrounded by them: a natural conversationalist. You can’t help but start to think about how he would be the best big brother in the whole world. It makes your breath hitch in your throat a bit.

“What is it?” Aaron gives your side a squeeze.

Of course he could sense when your thoughts began to wander. Aaron was a man of many talents.

“Oh, it’s nothing.” You look up at him with a reassuring glance, returning the squeeze.

“Y/N...” Aaron trails off, hazel-brown eyes searing into yours.

Damn your gaze, Hotchner.

You look away, letting your arm drop from his waist and move to step away a bit: he grabs for your hand instinctively, keeping you next to him. His big hands engulf your small ones, fingers entwined.

You know he is still staring at you, but you can’t bring yourself to look at him yet. Your eyes refocus on Jack.

“I was... I was thinking,” you begin. “I love you. I love you so much, no matter what anybody else says. And I love Jack like he’s my own.”

You breathed in, prepping yourself mentally for what you were about to say next.

“Jack is so good with other kids.” You continue, “He loves being social, being a teammate.”

You gather the strength to meet your husband’s famous glare.

“And watching you coach these kids? You’re so good with them, Aaron. You make every one of them feel special. You give 110% of your heart, and I am so lucky to be your co-coach in life.” You tell him in earnest.

“Aaron,” you carry on, emboldened, “I think it’s time we added a new member to the Hotchner team” you finish, searching every inch of Aaron’s face for recognition.

You watch as he takes in the information. After a few beats, it clicks.

“Y/N,” his expression softens, “Do you want to have a baby?”

You bite your lip and nod, eyes wide and hopeful.

Aaron nearly explodes with happiness; his eyes crinkle as he smiles down at you, unable to speak. And then, his warm body envelopes yours, solid but soft: unmistakably Aaron.

You let out a shaky laugh and bury your head in his neck, breathing in the smell of cologne and light sweat.

He pulls back a little, one hand tilting your chin up to look at him.

“Oh my god, Y/N,” he shakes his head in disbelief.

“Does that mean yes?” you ask, in a small voice.

Aaron laughs again, letting out a sigh. He tucks a strand of hair behind your ear, letting his hand linger on your cheek. You lean into his touch.

“Yes,” he says, giddy. “Let’s have a baby.”

The sound of children laughing fills your ears as you grab the back of his head and pull Aaron into a soft kiss. The kiss is full of promise: a gentle pact, sealing the deal. You and Aaron were going to have a baby. Jack was going to have a little brother or sister.

You pull away, arms still around his neck.

“I love you, Aaron.” You breathe out.

“I love you, Y/N.” He whispers back.

Nobody on this planet could shake the bond you and Aaron had. Suburban soccer moms be damned.

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ijustwant2write · 4 years

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A Secret Romantic-Benedict Bridgerton x Reader x Eloise Bridgerton (Platonic)

(GIF credit to @aryaofoldstones)

Requested by anonymous: ‘Hello! I saw your looking for Bridgerton requests, I would love some Benedict x Eloise sibling fluff! They have such a good dynamic in the show and I need more’

(I wouldn’t mind making another part of this if people want it tbh)

Characters: Benedict Bridgerton x Reader, Eloise Bridgerton x Reader (platonic)

Meanings: (Y/N)=Your name

(Y/L/N)=Your last name

Warnings: Fluff, fluff, fluff

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Eloise’s gloved hands clung onto her book as she and her family arrived at yet another social event, a ball once again. Her mama had ensured she was dressed to catch the eyes of men, and Eloise knew that meant there would be no room for intelligent conversation. With Daphne now married to the Duke, Eloise had more pressure on her shoulders than she imagined, having to find a suitor of similar standards. However, it wasn’t just her on the market, her brothers were too, especially Benedict (Violet knew it would be extremely difficult to marry off Anthony first, opting for the second eldest son).

Eloise smiled whenever her mama looked her way, though it quickly disappeared once she turned around. Benedict had been instructed to escort her sister around the ball to help seek out suitors, the men knew each other or something about someone; he could help her meet the right one.

“I cannot believe I am here.” Eloise moaned as she looped her arm through her brothers.

“Believe me sister, I do not wish to be here either.”

“Why must you parade me around like a horse at a dressage in order to find a new owner?” Eloise kept catching the men’s gazes, turning up her nose in disgust.

“So dramatic.” he chuckled.

She scoffed.“Well, if you’re going to advise me on who I should be marrying, I shall do the same for you. Now let’s see...”

Eloise looked around the room at all the women, wondering who would be the best match for her brother. Most of these women had no personalities, relying on their outfits to express themselves. Eloise knew of some ladies that were nice, though had nothing in common with her brother.

Eloise shrugged, tugging on her brother’s arm towards the door.“Ah, there’s no one here for us. Let us make haste and leave-”

“Oh no you don’t,” Benedict pulled her back,“we have been strictly told to stay for the night, even if it is just to socialise and...get our names out there.”

Eloise groaned a little too loudly, Ben ducking his head in embarrassment.“How long do these balls go on for?”

“I have never stayed for the full duration.”

“That’s not the answer I want to hear.”

Benedict glanced down at her, somehow only just realising that Eloise had brought a book with her.“Is that book sewed to your hand sister?”

“I brought it just in case I became bored. Which I am already.”

“I shall go and grab us some refreshments. Might as well enjoy them whilst we’re here.”

Eloise let her brother slip away, quickly finding a hiding spot by leaning up against a wall, away from the hustle and bustle of the crowds. She opened her book, continuing where she left off, happy she brought a pencil to scribble down notes for later. The studying never stopped for Eloise.

“Excuse me?” a woman’s voice interrupted her too soon.

Eloise tried her best to be polite, though her smile came off as sarcastic.“Yes?”

“Sorry,” the woman looked taken back,“I thought you were reading a book that I am reading at the moment, but I was wrong. I’ve disturbed you, I shall leave you alone-”

“Wait,” Eloise had now sparked an interest. No other lady had ever approached her like this,“I don’t mean to be rude. What book had you expected?”

“It’s oh so obvious, but I’ve been reading ‘Pride and Prejudice’ by Jane Austen. It’s the newest book out at the moment, and my mama lets me read it seeing as it involves a woman finding someone to marry. Although, it’s definitely about something deeper, that’s just what I told her.”

“I don’t indulge in romantic novels myself, but I am glad to hear of a female author selling her work.”

“It’s fantastic. And it’s nice to be able to read something without it being snatched out of my hands. Oh, where are my manners? I’m (Y/N) (Y/L/N). Sorry, I’ve been dancing with men all night and none of the conversations have been as riveting as this so far.”

“Why am I not surprised?” they both laughed.“I’m Eloise Bridgerton.”

(Y/N) tried to not show her shock when she heard the surname. They were only the most talked about family, her mama had gone on and on about them, especially when Lady Whistledown mentioned them in her writings.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you. Might I ask what it is that you are reading?”

“It is to do with my studies. I truly hate these events, so I thought I would ensure my mind was being worked properly.” Eloise realised that could come off as rude, squeezing her eyes shut in embarrassment.“I did not mean to offend you by that.”

“It really isn’t any bother.” (Y/N) giggled.“I rather enjoy these just for the dancing and drinks, I find promenading to be more successful in finding a suitor. Though I would much rather sneak off and see if I can get a few more pages in of a book I shouldn’t be reading.”

“Eloise, why must you go wondering off like that...” Benedict’s words trailed off as he approached his sister, spotting a beautiful woman stood by her.

Eloise’s eyes flickered between the two, and she smiled when she saw the adoration in her brother’s eyes. Cheekily taking the two glasses from his hands, she passed one to (Y/N), who awkwardly took it. (Y/N) had gazed upon the Bridgerton men in passing, they were very nice to look at. Of course, she never divulged in any fantasies about them, that would be silly. But seeing one in front of her had taken her breath away.

“Thank you brother.” Eloise said, taking a sip.“This is Lady (Y/N) (Y/L/N), a new friend of mine.”

He gently took her free hand in his, bending forwards slightly to kiss it. (Y/N) had this done to her many times, but this was different. Benedict made her feel butterflies in her stomach. Eloise could tell her mama was going to love this.

She cleared her throat.“We were just speaking of art, actually.”

(Y/N) furrowed her eyebrows.“We were talking about books.”

“I was about to move the topic along.”

“What kind of art would that be then?” Benedict asked, knowing what game his sister was playing.

“The...drawing, kind.”

“Isn’t all art drawn?”

“No, it is also painted.”

“I think artists may sketch out a rough idea before painting.”

“Well you would know brother, seeing as you yourself are an artist.”

“I wouldn’t say that-”

“You paint, Lord Bridgerton?” (Y/N) asked.

“Ah, yes, and I sketch.” he hoped his cheeks weren’t turning red.

“Anything in particular?”

“Mostly people.”

“Are you both attending the art exhibition my family are holding next week?”

“That’s your families’ exhibit?” Benedict became excited.

“Yes, my father collects a lot of art work. Then mother realised she could make a social event out of it, but at least everyone will be able to admire the work.”

“Would you believe it, we already have it noted down in our social calendar!” Eloise informed (Y/N). Benedict could sense her over-reacting, trying to keep a smile as (Y/N)’s face lit up in excitement.

“Perfect!” (Y/N) looked back up at Ben, making him stand a little taller.“It will be nice to have someone there who knows about the artwork. It will make for an interesting conversation. Just don’t let my father lecture you, he will talk for far too long! And I know you will be too polite to try and get away.”

“My brother is very polite.” Eloise said.“In fact, I’m surprised he hasn’t-”

“Excuse me for the intrusion,” a young man said from beside (Y/N),“but I was wondering if we could resume our dance lady (Y/N)?”

(Y/N) was smiling, but Eloise knew that look; it was the face women made when a man who made them uncomfortable approached, but they had to remain ladylike and polite.

“Actually my brother just asked her and she said yes. You two best make your way to the floor before the music starts again.” Eloise nudged her brother.

Benedict was confused at his sisters offer, until he locked eyes with (Y/N) again. They were pleading him to sweep her away, she was even leaning away from this man. He had been disrespectful in some way, and he wasn’t letting (Y/N) go through that again (despite only knowing the girl for a few minutes). He smugly smiled at the man, holding out his arm which (Y/N) took a little too quickly. Eloise was happy with herself as the pair walked off, sending the man a death glare when he asked her to dance instead. Once he left, her eyes went back to find her brother, who was already dancing with (Y/N), both smiling and laughing. Her mama was going to be ecstatic about this.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Eloise sat in the drawing room, obviously lounging with a book. Her younger siblings were being irritating as usual, running around her in circles. Before they arrived, she had peace. Eloise wanted a few moments alone, because she knew her mama would be bursting with questions about the night before.

“Ah, there you are.” Violet said as she walked in.

The book flopped into Eloise’s lap, a frown on her face. There goes her reading time.

“So, how was last night? Did you meet anyone?” her mama sat beside her.“You two, go play outside if you’re going to run around please.”

The children stopped as their mama spoke, sending each other devilish grins before they ran out of the room again, their giggling echoing down the halls. Violet went to shout after them, but decided to leave it be, there were more pressing matters.

“Well mama, do you see any suitors?” Eloise gestured around her.

Violet sighed.“Did you even try last night?”

“My life will not be reduced to a single night where I was forced to peacock around in order to please a man.”

“Oh, Eloise, must you make everything so dramatic?”

“Funny, Benedict said the same thing.”

“Actually, where is your brother? I have not seen him all morning.”

“He went out.” Eloise was relieved that the focus would now be off of her.“He’s calling upon a lady.”

Violet’s eyes widened.“What? When? Who?”

“Lady (Y/N) (Y/L/N).”

“(Y/L/N)? They are quite reputable.”

Eloise rolled her eyes.“Mama, she is a lovely girl. I don’t think you should just judge her on what family she comes from.”

“Oh, so you approve of this girl?”

“I...I mean...Well, I only spoke with her for a mere few minutes.”

“But?”

Eloise let out a huff.“I enjoyed her company. I think Benedict likes her. I didn’t see him for the rest of the night until it was time to leave. He spent all his time with her.”

Violet became overjoyed.“Oh, what marvelous news! I wish he had told me. Do you know what he took to her? Flowers? Food?”

“I have no idea mama. Just wait for his return and he will tell you all the details. I am not a psychic.”

Violet was impatient as she awaited the return of her son. Poor Collin had also been questioned when he showed up in the drawing room, but he had overslept in bed, waking with a terrible headache. It seemed that it was about to come back to him when his mama bombarded him with questions as to why he hadn’t called upon anyone that morning. Eloise kept her giggles quiet, ducking behind her book when Collin sent her daggers.

Poor Benedict had no idea what was in store for him. His cheeks were aching from how much he was smiling. He wasn’t surprised when he arrived at the (Y/L/N)’s house and saw multiple callers for (Y/N). However, jealousy rose inside him when he thought about these men dancing with her, trying to convince her that they were the man to marry. He held a beautiful bouquet of flowers, remembering that (Y/N) had mentioned her favourite the night before. Looking around at any other flowers she received, he was glad to see no other gentleman had chose it. Surely that would show he was listening? He endured sonnets, stories, songs and boasting from the other men, trying not to show his dissatisfaction as each one stepped forward. There was pressure that her parents were there, especially when he realised he was the last gentleman, everyone else had left.

(Y/N) had been incredibly anxious when she saw Benedict that morning. He had been the only man she genuinely smiled at, hoping he came at his own will, not forced by his mama. The night before had been the best ball (Y/N) had ever been to. Benedict was sweet, charming, handsome and interesting. They were able to talk about anything and everything, no small talk involved like all the other men she danced with. He had swooned her, and here he was, calling upon her.

Back at the Bridgerton house, Violet had not sat down since talking Collin’s ear off. Eloise was still in the drawing room with her, as were her two youngest siblings, munching on biscuits as they threw questions at their mama. She did not have all the answers, sometimes not even hearing them speak for she was too deep in her thoughts. At one point, she did sit, but beside the window, o the lookout for any signs of her son. When a carriage pulled up in front of the house, Violet leapt out of her seat, startling her children. She made a beeline to the door, standing there with her hands clasped together. When Benedict walked in, he too flinched, not expecting his mama to be there.

“Mama, how long have you been stood there?” Benedict asked as he walked past her, pinching a biscuit from his brother’s plate.

“She’s been waiting for you.” Eloise explained, also excited to hear about his calling.

“I hope you sat down at some point.” he joked, sitting beside Eloise and slouching.

Violet hurried to sit on the sofa across him.“You didn’t tell me you were calling on a lady this morning.”

“Well, we got back late from the ball yesterday evening, and I had to leave early to ensure I got there in good time. Though it seemed every other man thought that too.”

“There were many men there?”

“Yes, quite a few.”

Eloise straightened up at her brother’s grumpy expression.“You really like her!”

“How wonderful!” Violet gushed.

“Do not get ahead of yourselves.”

“But you do, don’t you? Otherwise you wouldn’t have called on her.”

Ben was lost for words. He couldn’t argue with that, and he did like seeing his mama happy.“Yes, yes I do. And it would seem she reciprocates the feelings.”

“This is such good news! I must see what our social calendar looks like, we must ensure you two spend time together.”

“Actually mama-” Eloise went to tell her about the art exhibit until Ben interrupted.

“Good idea mama.” he nodded, smiling at her as she walked away, a spring in her step. Once she was gone, he let out a big breath.“I just needed a moment without questions from her.”

“Well, you’re going to have questions from me.” Eloise angled her body to face him, her elbow perched on the sofa with her face resting in her hand.“I didn’t think you were going to call upon her. Are my match making skills really that good?”

“I hate to admit it, but yes, you have done an excellent job.” Benedict felt relaxed thinking about (Y/N).

“So, what happened this morning?”

“I took her flowers, she told me her favourites last night, and then I had to sit there whilst her other gentleman callers desperately tried to impress her. It was agony! Finally I was able to have time with her, and it was just...I don’t know how to put it into words.”

“Did you bring her anything else?”

Benedict became bashful.“I brought her a sketchbook, like the one I have. She mentioned how she used to often sketch when she was younger. I thought it would be a unique gift.”

“Benedict, you truly are a romantic at heart.”

“For her I am, yes.”

Eloise smiled for her brother, until a smirk fell on his face.“What? Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Aw, is someone also a secret romantic?”

“No!” Eloise protested, quickly grabbing her book again.“I am just happy you found someone.”

“And you helped, because you secretly want everyone to find someone.”

“No I don’t! You’re ruining this moment now Benedict.”

“Don’t worry Eloise, you’ll find someone.” Ben joked.

She groaned.“You are insufferable...but I still want to go to that art exhibit.”

“To see love bloom?”

“N-no, to see the art work.”

“Of course, of course. But, thank you Eloise.”

She tried not to smile, but couldn’t help it.“You’re welcome.”

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tobesobri · 4 years

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Traditions | 17.3k

a/n: it's been a while since I uploaded writing and for some reason I decided to sign up for this challenge and by some miracle actually managed to write something for it 🤯anyways, this is for the Valentine's Day Challenge by @1dffchallenges and it's honestly just a bit of fun, enemies to lovers little bit of angst and some smut! so i hope you enjoy! I'd always love to know your thoughts!! (also pls excuse any errors, I wrote this in a week with little editing lol)

prompt: doube date

dialogue: “So let me get this right. You want to hire me as your date for a Valentine’s Day Party?”

Pink and red were speckled throughout the entire office, whether it was a bouquet of chocolate roses, a banner of hearts, or stuffed bears residing next to bowls full of heart-shaped candies. Every employee’s section of the office had been filled to the brim with decorations as well. Pink and red ribbon taped carefully around the edges of their desktop computer, little store-bought balloons, also heart-shaped, grouped together and tied to desk chairs.

And Y/N, dressed in her typical all black outfit, rolled her eyes as she paced through the office toward the one section in the back that was immune to all things heart-shaped, pink, or stuffed.

She sat down at her desk with a loud sigh, her purse hitting the floor in its usual spot just before she slipped out of her jacket and draped it haphazardly between her back and the chair. It’d be wrinkled by the end of the day, but she didn’t care all that much, nor did she put much thought into the stains on her purse from leaving it on the floor. All she concerned herself with, after settling in, was getting straight to work… which was put on hiatus when she came face-to-face with both a pink and heart-shaped sticky note plastered onto the center of her computer screen.

Groaning, she ripped it off and moved to turn her computer on before she bothered to read whatever was written on the note. She considered three potential suspects while she pulled her keyboard down onto her desk and logged in. There was Kayla, who worked front reception and was one of the main culprits of all the Valentine’s decorations. A strong contender. It could’ve also been Ines or Carmen, her closest work friends whom Y/N knew both owned a pad of pink, heart-shaped sticky notes.

However, when she finally let her eyes fall to the note as her computer loaded up, the handwriting didn’t match any of the women she knew, and she was quite positive that none of them would have written was was sprawled out in black ink either.

Roses are red, violets are blue. I will fill your office with teddy bears and balloons, if you don’t send me your half of the proposal by two.

Harry.

She crumpled the note and tossed it into the bin under her desk. He could go fuck himself for all she cared. Sure, she was nearly done with her portion of the work and would be able to send it to him before then, but now that he’d pestered her about it, he’d be lucky if she even bothered to send it to him at all.

She didn’t doubt the promise, i.e. threat, he made on the note, but being surrounded by teddy bears and balloons would be worth making Harry’s life just a tad miserable.

After opening all the apps she’d need to get her work done, namely Photoshop and Illustrator, she connected her drawing tablet and set up the rest of her work station for the day, both on screen and off.

Harry had worked at the company for about two years longer than her and she’d started off as an intern while she was still in college and, after graduating, was hired as a permanent graphic designer. They had never really gotten along ever since Harry—jokingly—asked her to get him a coffee once… or twice. Unfortunately for her, though, they ended up working well together and their boss had stuck them both on the same projects ever since. Especially after the month-long project last spring that had been their most successful one to date.

While she came up with the design parts of client projects, Harry handled the more technical side of things and they’d never really argued much over each other’s work even though they clashed constantly at a more personal level.

“I see your feeling festive.” Just as she’d gotten into the groove of her typical morning and had forgotten all about Harry’s stupid note, his voice interrupted her entire thought process. So when she swiveled around to find him leaning into her little office space, it was hardly a surprise when she glared at him, even though he feigned offense at her bitterness.

“You got my note, I presume.” He let himself into her space anyway, holding a mug of steaming coffee she was sure he’d just made in the workroom, and leaned up against the opposite side of her desk that housed a much larger, digital drawing tablet for when she needed to do more intricate design pieces.

She just swiveled back around to face her computer again and went back to work as if he was no longer there. Pretending to ignore his existence proved to be quite difficult when the very particular woodsy, vanilla scents of his cologne met her nostrils and filled her entire office. Not to mention, the sight of what he’d been wearing singed the backs of her eyelids so that she still saw him every time she blinked. It was as if her brain refused to let her forget what he looked like in his white button-up, sleeves rolled to the crooks of his elbows, all tucked into his fitted black trousers that tended to get the imaginations going of all the women in the building.

Not her though, of course. She was better than that. Obviously.

He cleared his throat, still very much present in her space and still very much giving her a migraine. “So will it be ready by two?”

“Well, I planned to send it to you before lunch.” She tweaked the spacing between letters of a potential logo for the millionth time. “But now… I think I might need the rest of the day.”

She heard rustling behind her and knew he was shifting his weight impatiently and running a hand through his hair as he often did when he was… displeased. “I told you I’m leaving early tomorrow and I need it no later than two.”

She cocked her head to the side, still staring at her computer screen and not giving him an ounce of satisfaction. “Did you tell me that?” She teased, an amused smirk lifting the corners of her mouth when she heard him groan behind her. “I must’ve forgotten.” Shrugging, she went back to her work.

“Unlike you,” he snapped, “some of us actually have a love life and I’d appreciate you not fucking up mine.”

She froze then, only for a split second, when his words sank in. Two thoughts raced through her head. The first a string of curse words because of his assumption that she didn’t have a love life. But the more prominent and worrisome part of his statement was that he did have one. And that he was leaving early tomorrow—Valentine’s Day—so he could get ready for a date.

Throwing both her prickly exterior and heartbreaking smirk up again, she turned to face him. “I’ve known you for three years now and if anyone has the potential to fuck up your love life, it’s you.”

He narrowed his eyes at her and her gaze fell to the hand that seemed to wrap a bit tighter around his Bugs Bunny mug. His knuckles whitened and she met his heated stare again, pleased with herself for getting him riled up before he’d even finished his morning coffee.

“So,” she continued before he get get a word of retaliation out, and sat back against her chair, crossing her legs confidently as she folded her hands in her lap. “Who’s the poor girl you’ve tricked into going on a date with you this time?”

Harry had a terrible track record. The longest relationship he’d been in lasted for two months, and that was well before she’d known him. Everything else he had was just a one or two night thing and nothing more. Sure, it was all more than she had, but she preferred it that way. Harry seemed to resent the fact that he couldn’t keep a girlfriend to save his life.

“You don’t know her.”

Her smile widened. “How long have you been seeing her?”

“Couple weeks.”

“Ooh, that just might be your second longest relationship, Styles.”

“Well at least I’ve had one.”

His jab didn’t have an affect on her however, and he knew it wouldn’t because it never did. He knew she didn’t give a damn about relationships, or at least that’s what she claimed anyway. He couldn’t think of many twenty-four year old women who actually wanted to be alone. He actually couldn’t think of a mid-twenties anyone who wanted that.

“You’ll have to try harder than that.” She said nonchalantly, which irked him even more than he already was, and then swiveled away from him one last time, picking up her drawing pen and getting back to work.

“What’s your issue with relationships?” He went on and she knew he was headed right down a path intended to hurt her feelings just as much as she had his. So, she tensed slightly and braced for impact. “Is it a commitment thing? Or can you just not find anyone to put up with you for longer than five minutes?”

She let his words sink their teeth in and then smiled to herself. “Hm. Seeing as you’ve been in my office now for,” she checked the time at the top right-hand corner of her screen, “eight minutes, maybe we should date.” She lifted a brow, awaiting his next response.

It felt a bit like a cat-and-mouse chase bickering with Harry and since she was usually the cat, it brought her way too much pleasure fighting with him.

He scoffed. “Like I’d lower my standards for you.”

That one hurt, she had to admit. Not out loud or to Harry, but it still stung because it was true. He’d have to drop his standards to the floor to even consider dating her and she knew it.

“Maybe,” she began, still half focused on her work, and ignored his comment all together, “some of us like being alone.”

“Nobody likes that.” He responded quickly and she heard a shift of his weight again and then his voice once more a few moments later. “It’s nice to be by yourself sometimes, yeah, but you can’t tell me you don’t want someone to come home to at the end of the day.” He crossed one leg over the other as he gripped the edge of her desk for support and just when she thought he was done, he kept going, “Someone you can vent to about your annoying co-worker.”

She glanced at him through the little portable mirror hanging above her desk—mostly used to make sure she looked decent before meeting with clients or, sometimes, Harry—and saw the tight smile on his lips. Almost as if that’s what he wanted, like he was talking about himself and not her.

She’d slowed her progress down while he’d talked until she was no longer working at all. She no longer swiped her pen across the pad or had any idea what she was even doing when she focused solely on his words. Because, once again, whether he was talking about himself or about her, he was right.

“Yeah well,” she quickly hid herself back behind her wall and made her hands function properly again. “Some of us also don’t have the luxury of choosing whomever we want.”

She imagined him smirking at that one because, buried deep within her words was a compliment. That he was handsome enough to actually have anyone he wanted.

Instead, when she glanced at the mirror again and found him, there was the complete opposite of a smirk on his face, and as he stared down into his mug, clearly lost in thought, she wondered what the tightness in his jaw and the frown pulling on his lips meant.

She sighed and stole his attention away from his coffee. “I’ll have it to you before lunch. You can go now, unless you’d like to argue some more and slow me down by another��” she glanced at her clock again, adding up all the time he’d been standing in her office, “fifteen minutes.”

Without another word, she listened to the drag of his footsteps as he finally left her office space. And although she was glad to be rid of his distraction, the room felt so much bigger and so much colder and emptier without him in it. Shivering, she slipped back into her jacket and spent the next few hours doing nothing but staring straight ahead at her screen as she made final adjustments to her designs.

Any other conversations with Harry were had over email as he worked in his own respective office, messaging her with every little concern he had in order to get his work done efficiently so that he wasn’t stressing to finish it tomorrow before he had to leave. Even though Y/N considered not responding to him a few times, just to spite him and slow him down for her own amusement, she found herself feeling guilty after leaving him hanging a couple times. Sure, she hated Valentine’s Day and everything surrounding it, but she’d almost hate even more the idea of both her and Harry being miserable tomorrow, so she inevitably gave in and cooperated with him. She’d probably regret it when he came back on Thursday spreading around the office all the gory details of his date, but at least he wouldn’t also be in a shitty mood. Her days were both boring and slow whenever Harry wasn’t having a good day. And although she’d blame it all on selfish reasons, it did also make her sad to see him frowning around the office and sulking when all she wanted to do was bicker with him and make him smile again, even just a little bit. But it was easier leaving him to his own devices than risk him finding out she cared about him enough to not wish sadness upon him.

She couldn’t say the same for him. Harry probably relished in the days she came into the office in a sour mood. He probably celebrated and threw a party whenever she was upset, and, even so, it didn’t change how she felt about him.

The sun had long set and most of the office was gone by the time she finally called it quits and began packing up her things and giving her computer a rest for the night. There were still quiet murmurs from other workaholic employees, which comforting her knowing she wasn’t completely alone in the building, since the last time she’d done that, it took everything in her not to have a panic attack all the way to her car.

Even though her boss told her countless times not to stay past five o’clock, as he told every other female employee that worked for him that he didn’t wish to see attacked after sunset in the city. Of course, when she was the only one who didn’t listen to him, he hired more guards and one of them rounded the corner into her office space, ready to escort her all the way down to her car.

“Figured you were still here.” He leaned against the walls of her cubicle and watched as she startled, twisting to meet his eyes for a moment before she settled and returned to slipping her belongings into her purse.

“I don’t need you to escort me.” Zipping her purse, she rose from her chair, checking one last time across her desk to make sure she’d grabbed everything she needed to take home with her before turning to him as he still lingered in the opening of her little office.

William had been hired a couple months ago, and was only a year older than her, but even so he was more than a foot taller than her and his biceps were about as big as her head. While the entire office drooled over him, she tended to keep her eyes and her thoughts to herself.

“You say that every night you stay late. Just let me do my job and shut up about it.” He smirked at her and when her eyes met his again, sharply, glaring at him, she groaned and whirled past him toward the elevators. He followed swiftly behind, knowing she’d close the doors on him if he didn’t keep close enough pace with her, mostly because she’d done it before.

As he took his spot beside her and she pressed the button for the parking garage at the basement of the building, a familiar voice rang out through the office.

“Wait!” As if she wasn’t already annoyed enough with William’s presence, his stupidly large arm held the elevator doors open as Harry slipped inside a moment later.

“Thanks, mate.” Harry said exclusively to William as he caught his breath and stood wedged in the middle between the guard and Y/N, who was inching closer and closer into her corner to get away from Harry.

“You have any plans tomorrow?” Harry asked, his attention solely on William again while the elevator took off down through the levels of their building. Not fast enough for Y/N, of course.

William sighed, crossing his arms and trying to resist smiling. “Me and my girlfriend take turns surprising each other every year. And it’s her turn this year… so I guess I have plans, but I don’t know what they are.”

“Damn, way to make us feel incompetent.”

Y/N whirled her head to glare up at the side of Harry’s face. “Speak for yourself.” She warned.

Harry just ignored her though. “What did you guys do last year?”

Again, William stifled a grin. “I had been saving up for a while and took us both to Paris.”

“Shit.” Harry’s eyebrows rose and Y/N rolled her eyes away from him, watching the LED screen above the elevator doors as they neared the bottom levels of the building. She knew Harry and William had become friends, mostly because Harry was annoying and befriended everyone. Except her, of course. She heard his stupid voice again and wished she could just transport herself directly into the front seat of her car and be done with the both of them. “And now she has to do better than Paris.”

Y/N glanced around Harry just in time to see William smirk and she should have known what was about to come out of his mouth before it did. “Well, I don’t consider much better than her mouth ar—“

Y/N cut him off. “Ew! Are you serious?”

Both men eyed her curiously just as the elevator came to a stop and, with a ding, the doors opened. She flew toward them quickly.

“Y/N wait, I have to—“

Again, she cut him off, turning once she was out on solid ground. “I’ll be fine, besides trying to rid my mind of that image you just burned into it.” She turned on her heel and headed off toward her car.

William made a move toward her and Harry grabbed his arm, “I’ll walk her. Forgot she’s a bit of a prude.” They shared an amused look and Harry jogged out onto the concrete and asphalt until he reached her side.

“I heard that, you know… and I know for a fact your car is not parked in this direction.” She seethed and he just smiled to himself, happier than ever that she was in the mood to bicker with him, because he wasn’t quite in the mood to leave yet, where he’d have to wait till tomorrow morning at nine-thirty to see her again. And she wasn’t always the most talkative person on Valentine’s Day, either.

“Why are you the only female in our building not foaming at the mouth over him?” He asked instead, referring to William.

He heard her scoff. “Just because he’s attractive doesn’t mean I have to be interested… or want to hear about his girlfriend sucking his—“

“Cock?” Harry finished for her and within a second she spun around to face him, forcing him to stop in his tracks just inches from her now. His smirk only grew when he saw just how quickly he’d gotten her all flustered.

And then, as they started each other down, the hardness in her face softened and she drew out a breath, forcing his eyes to fall to her lips and his smirk to fall from his mouth. He thought back to last spring, when there were numerous late nights with her just like this one. When he went home and couldn’t stop thinking about…

“Why are you looking at me like that?” She asked and he blinked a couple times before he lifted his eyes.

“Like what?” He furrowed his brows, trying to track down all the resentment he had for her but he couldn’t find it anywhere anymore. He couldn’t summon it and say something that would save his ass from being caught looking at her like he wanted to kiss her.

Like he wanted to taste her and feel her against him, and hear what she sounded like when he tugged at her hair for more.

“Nevermind.” She shook her head, silencing the chaos going on in his brain. And then she turned, continuing the walk to her car with or without him, but, when she heard the echoing click of his shoes against the asphalt once more, she knew she wasn’t rid of him yet.

“I don’t suppose you’ll give me a ride back to my car, will you?” He easily stepped back into place beside her like nothing had happened.

She didn’t say anything for much longer than he was comfortable with. And then, finally, they reached her car and she sighed. “Get in before I change my mind.”

As she went for the driver’s side, he took quick steps to the opposite side, watching her over the top of her little Honda as she unlocked her door, and then, after clicking the button, his door as well. They both slipped in at the same time and while she fastened her seatbelt and settled in for her drive home, he sat perched with his backpack in his lap, knowing he’d be out of her car within only a couple minutes.

He still glanced around at his surroundings as she backed out of her parking space. “Should’ve guessed your car would be as neat as your desk.”

She didn’t say anything as she drove in the opposite direction of the exit toward the section of the garage Harry always parked in. It was closer to the elevators because he always came in before her and snagged a prime spot. She preferred an extra few minutes of sleep over walking an extra fifty steps.

And he started up again when she continued to not talk to him. “Most artists I know of are super messy.”

“I’m not an artist.” She gritted out through her teeth as she came to a stop once she spotted the rear-end of Harry’s BMW. Although she knew it well enough to distinguish it from the other black BMWs in the garage, it also helped that Harry had an old, faded license plate cover filled with a collage of cute pictures of puppies. He’d said it won him bonus points with women, but she also knew his screensaver at work was a picture of puppies as well, and no women he was interested in ever saw that.

He peeled his eyes off his car and looked over at her. “I know you can draw, too.”

She paused, gripping her steering wheel. She did enjoy both art and design and she knew Harry knew the difference between the two. She just didn’t know why he always insisted on bugging her about it.

“Yeah, well that doesn’t make me an artist.”

When he didn’t say anything, she glanced at him just in time to find him shrugging a shoulder like he was agreeing to disagree. Even if she couldn’t draw, he’d still consider her an artist because the things she managed to design always blew his mind and if that wasn’t art…

She rolled her eyes. “Are you going to get out, or do I have to drag you?”

He grinned, and it was almost as if her eyes refused to see anything else but his dimples and the bright whites of his teeth, and the birthmark to the side of his mouth…

“I’m going.” He assured, and yet he still hadn’t moved an inch. “Even though I’d love to see you try to drag me.” With her knuckles whitening on the steering wheel, he chuckled and unzipped the small pocket on the front of his backpack, withdrawing his keys as he finally swung her door open.

Once he was out, he gripped the top of the door and leaned back in to find her staring straight ahead. “Drive carefully, yeah? Would be quite tragic for your bitter ass to die on Valentine’s Day.”

She reached over and, despite having to brush her knuckles along the side of his thigh, grabbed the handle of the passenger door and yanked. His body remained in her way, however, and he was unfortunately a lot stronger than her.

Then she finally looked up at him, and those thoughts he had earlier surfaced again as much as he’d tried to bury them. This time though, he didn’t fight it as he glanced at her lips once more, then back at her eyes, which had widened slightly just before the dimples reappeared in his cheeks. “And I guess I would miss bickering with you every day.”

With that, he was gone and she retreated back to her seat as he shut the door for her. She had no idea what to think about what had just happened. Why he’d looked at her like that again. What that look even meant.

By the time she reached the freeway, she’d convinced herself she was just seeing things. Harry wasn’t looking at her in any other way he had before when he was intent on pestering her. But, as she took in the scent of him still lingering in the cabin, she allowed a small part of her to hope she was wrong.

Her eyes fell on the man down the hall from her door as she slipped her key into the lock, her brows furrowing as she watched him. It wasn’t unusual for their paths to cross, as they tended to get home around the same time, but it was quite odd to see him sitting on the floor outside his apartment, his head in his hands.

They’d said hi to each other a couple times in the mailroom, but she definitely didn’t know him well enough to go up and ask what his issue was or try to fix it for him. And after it was confirmed that he hadn’t, in fact, lost his keys, as they sat beside him on the floor along with his phone, she figured it best to leave him be.

Turning her key, she pulled her gaze from him and disappeared from the hallway.

The second she was inside her apartment, she felt all the weight lift right off her shoulders, especially when her cat came racing up, screaming at her from the floor while also coaxing her toward the kitchen to fill the food bowl. Whatever was going on with her neighbor still very much on her mind, she tried to focus instead on relaxing and getting both her and the screaming Pretzel some dinner.

She tried to remember his name as she heated up leftover pasta. She knew it started with an A, but her brain was coming up short. So, while Pretzel crunched on his food in his corner of the kitchen, she tried her hardest to remember.

And it was no question why she cared so much. Her neighbor was someone she was actually interested in, and she had been since she first saw him. Of course, she was never foolish enough to think he was into her, but she still let herself fantasize. He was tall, nearly black curly hair atop his head always in a state of disarray, and he had the most beautiful blue eyes she’d ever seen hidden behind his glasses. And, if she was being honest with herself, he was just a darker-haired version of Harry. Maybe that’s why she liked him.

The beeping of her microwave tore her thoughts from the dangerous path they’d been headed down. Harry’s voice rang in her head a moment later.

Like I’d lower my standards for you.

She��d needed to hear him say that, because sometimes her thoughts got carried away when it came to Harry and sometimes she did let herself be a fool who hoped. But after he’d said that one damning phrase, it was enough for her to stop. She didn’t meet a single one of his standards, inside or out.

Still, she tried her hardest not to go back out into the hall and make sure her neighbor was alright. Maybe he just needed someone to talk to and it wasn’t like she was doing anything important. Even if she didn’t have a dumb crush on him, as she did Harry, she still didn’t enjoy seeing him in the state he’d been in.

Before she could work up the nerve, however, a knock sounded through her quiet apartment.

She held her breath as she opened her door, really hoping it wasn’t the boy from across the hall, since she was still blanking on his name, but she couldn’t imagine anyone else knocking on her door this late into the evening.

So when she inevitably found him there, looking down at her through his annoyingly long lashes as she took in the horrible state he was in—red, inflamed eyes and hair that needed to see a brush rather than his hand—she completely lost her breath instead.

“Uh, sorry, I… saw you come in and I know we don’t talk and this is a weird thing for me to ask but…” He ran said hand through said messy hair and she found her breath again while looking up at him like she’d do whatever he’d asked just so he’d stop frowning.

He sighed, glancing down the hall toward his apartment and then met her curious and somewhat concerned gaze. “Can I come in?”

She recoiled. “Um… why?”

“Well, um, I was hoping you could help me with something and I’d rather not have the entire floor know about it.”

She was beyond confused now, but still, she stepped aside and let him pass, assuming that if he was actually a murderer he would have done her in a lot sooner than this. He had plenty of other opportunities. Plus, something in his face just… made her want to trust him.

She closed the door and turned to him, watching as his eyes scanned her kitchen and where her food still sat before he twisted around, eyes wide. “Shit, I’m sorry for interrupting.”

She shook her head. “It’s fine.” And after clearing her throat, she crossed her arms over her chest. “What do you, um… what do you need help with?”

He swallowed and she watched his Adam’s apple budge in his throat. “I don’t imagine you’ll like me very much after I ask but… I need a date.”

“What?” Again, she nearly flew out of her skin.

His eyes darted back and forth between hers, gauging her reactions and very obviously on the verge of seeing himself out and pretending this never happened. Instead, he stuffed away his pride and went on. “My ex… she, uh… well we broke up a few months ago and I saw her the other day and she’s seeing someone and we were talking and I… told her I was seeing someone too and so she invited me to go on this stupid double date with her… but the thing is… I’m not actually seeing anyone and I just told her that so she’d be jealous but she didn’t seem jealous at all and I don’t exactly have many friends to ask for help and I saw you and…” He rambled, but she managed to understand his predicament just fine.

“A double date? With your ex?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know either. She’s… she does weird shit but… I still want her back.”

Y/N’s heart ached in her chest. As much as she detested relationships, she was a sucker for other people’s relationships and she was definitely a sucker for her beautiful neighbor, even if he was asking to use her to make his ex-girlfriend jealous.

“Not that I’m saying yes but… when? And where?” She finally asked after thinking things over for a moment.

“Tomorrow night… I can pay you. I will pay you, I mean… but, seriously, you don’t have to do it I just thought I would ask.”

“Where is this date at?” She repeated when he didn’t answer that part of her question.

“At this party… and bef—“

She cut him off. “Okay so let me get this right. You want to hire me as your date to a Valentine’s Day party?”

He lifted a brow, “Well, there’s more… she wants to get dinner before going to the party.”

She shook her head, looking away, “I don’t really do Valentine’s Day…”

“You wouldn’t have to do much. I’ll pay for your dinner, too. Whatever you want. I just… really need your help and you’re my only option.”

She narrowed her eyes at him. “You realize I’m not exactly…” she waved at her face and his eyebrows screwed together in confusion. “I’m not easy on the eyes and I don’t think taking me will make anyone jealous.”

He didn’t say anything for a while, just stared at her incredulously. She shifted her weight nervously and he finally opened his mouth. “You don’t actually think that, do you?”

Her features scrunched up and she kept her eyes planted on the middle of his chest. And then he realized that she, in fact, did.

“I’m so sorry… I shouldn’t have asked you to do this.” He also realized that using her to make his ex jealous would possibly hurt her more than it would help him and he could no longer fathom putting her through that. “I’ll figure it out. I’m sorry.” He moved to walk past her, back to his apartment but she stopped him before he got far.

“No… I’ll help you.” And then she realized his identity was still somewhat of a mystery to her. “This sounds even worse than what you just asked me to do, but… I completely forgot your name.”

He breathed out a laugh. “It’s Adam.”

She knew it had started with an A!

“Y/N.”

He smiled wider and nodded. “I know.” And then his face grew sad again. “I am really sorry I’m asking you to do this on Valentine’s Day, it’s definitely not my proudest moment.”

She waved him off. “I wasn’t going to do anything anyway. Just tell me what you need me to do.” She didn’t bother brining up the whole payment thing. She didn’t really care about being paid. He was nice, the only nice person she’d encountered in her apartment building and if getting him back together with his ex meant she’d never have to come home and see him in the fetal position on the floor again, she’d suffer through a date and a party on her least favorite holiday.

It was somehow even worse than it’d been yesterday. The decorations seemed to triple in size. Not an inch of the office was untouched by something pink and she prayed whoever had put up even more decorations had spared her little cubicle.

“Oh, hey, Y/N!” One of the receptionists most responsible for the overflowing decor, Kayla, called her over to her desk not even a minute after Y/N had arrived. And she stalked over until she saw the package Kayla pulled out that instantly lifted her spirits.

She stopped in front of Kayla’s desk and took the thin box from from her, already knowing what it was and thanking god for the timing so that her entire day wasn’t completely miserable. It was a new drawing pad she’d ordered, a bigger one that she hoped would be a bit more efficient to use than her current one.

Even with her back turned to the rest of the office, she sensed Harry’s presence long before he stopped beside her with his mug in hand.

He lifted a brow at the package in Y/N’s hands just as she reluctantly turned to look at him. “Getting gifts sent to the office? That’s a first.”

She rolled her eyes and stuffed the box under her arm, holding herself back from running off to her office to set it up. “Jealous?” She cocked her head.

And instead of his condescending smirk and a hateful response to go with it, the sparkle in his eyes seemed to fade as he eyed the box again, genuinely worried now that it was actually a gift from someone.

Before either could say anything, they all turned to find a delivery man walking up to Kayla with a giant bouquet of flowers in tow. And so it began. Although, when Kayla took the vase from the man eagerly, a bright smile on her face because Kayla loved love a little too much, Y/N couldn’t help but think about Adam. About how the only time she’d managed to get a date on Valentine’s Day was when it wasn’t even real. Instead, she’d stupidly agreed to help her cute neighbor win back his ex-girlfriend in exchange for a free dinner.

It was… pathetic. To say the least.

She felt Harry watching her, too, while she eyed the bouquet of flowers as they departed reception with Kayla and made their way to their recipient. As stupid as she found everything about the holiday, she couldn’t help but want someone to send her flowers. To give her anything for that matter. To have thought about her for at least a second of their day. Harry cleared his throat and she tore her eyes away.

“So… what’s in the box?”

“None of your business.” She rounded him, heading to her office, but he grabbed her free arm to stop her short and didn’t speak until she met his gaze again.

“Can we meet up in my office to finish the proposal? Think it’ll be easier to get it done than over email.”

She had every reason to be suspicious of him. They almost never worked in each other’s offices. When they did work together, which was often, it was in one of the empty conference rooms and it was usually at the beginning of the process when they needed the space to plan things out. The last time they’d really been in each other’s offices was last spring. Figuring he just wanted to get things done so he could be out of the office on time, she let it go.

“Give me fifteen minutes.”

He watched her walk away, watched her even as Kayla returned and noticed his gaze and giggled at him as she took her spot back behind her desk.

“It was something she ordered for herself, by the way.”

“What?” Harry whipped around again, not having even realized the other woman until now.

“I know you two pretend to hate each other but I see the way you look at her, Harry.” Kayla lifted a brow at him as she began typing on her keyboard.

He feigned disgust. “I’m seeing someone, you know.”

“Are you?”

“Yes.” He insisted. “I have a date. Tonight.”

She lifted her hands in surrender. “Okay… I’m just saying.”

“I don’t look at her.”

Kayla suppressed a smile and snorted instead. “If you say so. I guess you didn’t also sneak into her office this morning, either.”

“I think all these flowers and stuffed bears and heart-shaped things have gotten to your head.” He pointed around to the decor littering her desk while holding his mug steady.

Kayla met his eyes and her smile slipped off her face. “Harry, please don’t mess with her.”

His face screwed up. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“If you don’t like her then don’t lead her on.”

“I don’t think she’s capable of being led on.”

Kayla froze for a moment and then nodded. “You’re right.”

He wasn’t sure what she meant by that either. “Why are you being weird?”

“Because,” Kayla sighed, brushing her curled brunette hair onto one shoulder and then lowered the volume of her voice. “I happen to know she doesn’t think very highly of herself and I’d rather not see her get hurt, especially not by you.”

Now Harry froze. The hand that gripped his mug tightened and he didn’t even flinch as it began to burn his skin. He heard Y/N’s voice in his head then as he drowned out his surroundings.

Some of us don’t have the luxury of choosing whomever we want.

He had instantly regretted what he’d said to her yesterday when she’d told him that. And now hearing Kayla, in a way, confirm what he’d read between the lines of Y/N’s words… his chest tightened in quite possibly the worst way ever. He’d hated himself most of the day after telling her he’d never lower his standards for her and he could say he was just bickering all he wanted, but he knew now for certain she took it the wrong way. And he wished more than ever that he hadn’t said something so horrible to her, especially when it was the farthest thing from the truth.

And the real truth, that he was trying desperately to shove away with stupid remarks like that, was that he didn’t meet her standards. She wasn’t into relationships and he knew he wasn’t good enough to change her mind.

“How do you know that?” He finally asked.

“That Christmas party last year… she’s a really happy drunk until she’s not.”

He flinched. “Did she say something?”

“I don’t want to get into it, mostly because I don’t think she remembers and would probably kill me if I told you but… just leave her be.”

He hardened back up again. “She does’t have any interest in relationships anyway, ‘specially not with me.”

Kayla scoffed. “She’s a really good liar.”

Harry stood there for a few more moments, feeling as if his life had just gotten flipped upside down. He’d been in such a good mood mere minutes ago before his dumbass waltzed into reception all because he’d seen Y/N. Because, despite everything and despite the fact he was already attempting to date someone else, it was Y/N he wanted to be close to all the damn time. Groaning, he turned on his heel and left for his office, hoping she wasn’t there waiting for him so he could have a moment to himself to gather his thoughts.

In a hurry to open her package, Y/N slumped down into her chair tossing her purse on the ground at her feet and pulling out her box cutter in a rush of movements. She was so distracted, in fact, that she didn’t even notice the little stuffed frog, the box of chocolates and envelope sitting on the other side of her desk near her mouse. Instead, she unboxed her new tablet and began setting it up, not noticing the gifts until she went to turn on her computer. And then she froze.

With reluctant hands she grabbed the envelope first, her name printed on it in perfect cursive. She knew nobody in the office who had such good penmanship. Opening the card in hopes of finding out who had placed the items on her desk, instead, she just found it signed as ‘secret admirer.’ Rolling her eyes, she set the card down and realized it had to be from her boss. Sometimes he remembered to go around and give everyone little gifts on the holidays. Obviously he’d remembered this year.

She dug into the chocolates as she set up her tablet and began calibrating it to suit her needs before finally testing it out in the little bit of time she had before she needed to make her way to Harry’s office.

And once that time came, she left everything in its place, besides the box of chocolates, which she continued to pick at while she made her way through the room. What she didn’t notice while stuffing her face with candy was that… no one else had a stuffed frog or chocolates or a cheesy little card on their desks.

She rounded the corner into Harry’s office, which was a real office and not a cubicle that he usually shared with one other person who was thankfully out with clients for the day. She knocked on the doorframe to get his attention after just watching him focus on his screen for a moment. Harry was cute when he was focused.

But then he turned to her and his eyes fell to the box in her hand.

When he didn’t say anything, she held it out toward him. “Do you want some? I think Andrew was feeling generous this year.”

Harry’s eyes quickly panned up to hers and his brows furrowed as if she’d just punched him in the gut. And she couldn’t make out what that expression meant no matter how hard she tried.

“He didn’t give me anything.” Harry motioned around his desk.

“Maybe he doesn’t like you.” She shrugged, setting the chocolates down on his desk while she grabbed his office mate’s chair and pulled it up beside him.

Harry sighed, turning to his computer for a moment and then watching her from his peripheral while she picked out another piece of chocolate. “I didn’t see anyone else with chocolates on their desks this morning.”

Y/N just shrugged. “There was a frog too. And a card.”

“And why do you think he’d give you all of that and no one else?” Harry hoped she’d get the hint but he didn’t hope too hard. She was still Y/N after all. And he really didn’t mean to sound so bitter… well, okay, he did. But he knew she’d misplace his bitterness, crushing what little hope there was to bits.

“Maybe he likes me better than all the rest of you.”

Harry scoffed, shaking his head as he put his attention back on his screen.

“No one else in this office would give me a card signed as a secret admirer so… maybe I did something I don’t remember doing and he’s thanking me?” Now that she really thought about it, and if Harry was right… then it really didn’t make much sense. It’s not like she was Andrew’s favorite employee.

Harry just lifted a brow and then pretended to lose all interest.

Sensing the tension, she slipped the box closer to him. “Here. I think you need a knock-off Snickers if you expect me to work with your grumpy ass.” He made no move to indulge her, however. And so she went on, continuing to poke the bear. “Why are you in a lousy mood anyway? Isn’t this your favorite holiday? And you get to leave early.”

His eyes fell from his screen and he stared at the brick of sticky notes below his monitor before mumbling, “I’m sorry about what I said yesterday.”

Taken aback, she searched what she could see of his face for answers to what he was apologizing for. He’d said a few things she could imagine deserved an apology and yet, so did she. Maybe she should have been the one to apologize to him first.

“I didn’t mean to say what I did.” He finally turned to meet her face on. He’d hoped the frog and the chocolates would have been atonement enough, but considering she thought they were from their boss and not him, he just had to suck it up and actually say what he meant.

She shrugged. “It’s fine. I can be a prude sometimes.”

He searched her eyes for a moment and then shook his head, “No that’s not… I meant what I said earlier in your office… about lowering my standards. It was a stupid thing to say and not true in the slightest.”

But then she smiled and he grew confused. “Yes it is. It’s okay to have standards, you know.”

“I know that. But if we… I wouldn’t have to lower my standards. And it was cruel of me to have said that to you.”

She couldn’t stand looking at him any longer and averted her gaze, clearing her throat. “Well it doesn’t matter so… can we just get this proposal done?”

He’d wanted to spend how ever long it took to convince her that it did, in fact, matter, but Y/N was persistent, more so than him, and so he’d given in and they moved on to being productive with their time. And in less time than he’d anticipated their proposal was finished, being sent off to Andrew for approval before their presentation at the end of the week with their clients.

Harry sat back in his chair and she returned her own to the other desk where it belonged, all while he watched her.

“What do you do on Valentine’s Day?” He asked, just trying to get her to stay longer, knowing that if those were his true intentions, then he was fucked. That he wanted to be around Y/N, even though he was seeing someone else, albeit for just a week so far, even though she’d never want the same from him.

Maybe he was just as terrible with relationships as she claimed if he always chased after what he couldn’t have.

“That is also none of your business.” She grabbed her box of chocolates from his desk, his voice pinning her in place again though.

“Let me guess… it involves chocolate, your cat, and the most anti-romantic movies you can find?”

He would not think her very prudish if he knew what else she did on Valentine’s Day while alone in her apartment, but she figured it was best to keep that to herself. Instead, she smiled at him. “Something like that.”

He narrowed his eyes and threw his arms up behind his head as he laid back in his chair, watching her curiously like he was trying to figure her out. Meanwhile, she was trying to not make it obvious she was staring at his biceps as they just about bulged from underneath the sleeve of his pink button-up. He’d done it on purpose though, so as much as she tried to hide it, he still grinned with satisfaction when she became flustered.

“Well, have fun with that, then.” He nodded, and for a moment while she was lost in his eyes and growing embarrassingly hot, she wondered if he could read her mind. If he knew exactly what not-so-innocent things she did on Valentine’s Day. Then he brought his arms back down to rest his elbows on the edge of his desk, pinching his bottom lip between his fingers and watching as she rolled her eyes, held her chocolates close, and left his office.

Adam arrived right when he said he would at five-thirty. It had given her plenty of time to change out of her work clothes and into one of the few dresses she owned, to at least seem somewhat convincing that this was a real date. She also fixed her makeup and put on a pinkish-nude lipstick before switching out her bulky purse for a smaller crossbody.

When she opened the door to him, he most certainly did not disappoint. She almost let herself get lost in the delusion that it was a real date when she saw him dressed to the nines and cleaned up for the first time since she’d known him. And she especially got a little lost in it when he pulled a small bouquet of flowers from behind his back and handed them to her.

“You didn’t have to—“

“I know.” He gave her a once over when she wasn’t looking. “You didn’t have to do this for me either.”

She quietly accepted the flowers and let him in while she found a vase and filled it with water. He leaned on the counter, watching her as she did so.

“You look… beautiful, by the way.” He blurted out once she had cut and placed the stems into the vase. Her hands froze, though, and when he met her eyes, he knew he’d made a mistake.

“You’re paying me to make your ex-girlfriend jealous. Please don’t flatter me.”

“Sorry.” He muttered, although he was beginning to wonder if the bigger mistake was not taking her out on a proper date that had nothing to do with his ex.

She sighed and adjusted the strap of her purse. “Let’s go then.”

He went over all the final details on the Uber ride to the restaurant. Things about his ex he thought Y/N should know about. And he made sure she knew, for about the hundredth time, that she didn’t have to do anything she didn’t want to. And she reminded him for an equal amount of times that she never did anything she didn’t want to do. So, settling that, he helped her out of the back of the Uber when they arrived and opened the door to the restraint for her as well. Everything that she’d expect from a normal date, which only left her disappointed when she reminded herself it wasn’t.

She waited quietly, and tried to catch her nerves, while Adam talked to the hostess and gave her his ex’s name for the reservation. The place was packed and anyone who didn’t call ahead surely would not be getting a table tonight. She’d never been out on Valentine’s Day, though, so it was like stepping into a brand new world for her. And as she followed both the hostess and Adam, she paid more attention to all the couples enjoying their meals than anything else.

Except for when he reached back and grabbed her hand, entwining their fingers just before they came to a stop. She blinked her eyes at their hands for just a moment before he gently pulled her around next to him. And whatever way she’d felt about holding Adam’s hand went right out the window when she locked eyes with Harry.

Shit.

Shit, shit, shit.

The last thing she expected to find, while Laura, the gorgeous blonde ex-girlfriend, stood to hug Adam, was Harry fucking Styles. And what a fucking coincidence it was, almost as if this was her karma for feeling the need to constantly help people.

Adam’s hand slipped from hers but she didn’t even notice it anyway. She and Harry still stared each other down and neither of them moved a muscle either. Well, besides the one in his jaw as it tightened. Then he did move, glancing over at Adam with a blank expression before landing his gaze back on her again. And then his eyes fell to the glass of water in front of him and she felt like she’d been released from chains he’d tied around her wrists.

“This is Y/N,” Adam’s hand went to the small of her back, guiding her forward to meet his ex-girlfriend and Harry’s current… whatever they were.

Laura held out her hand, her smile a little too forced. “Laura. It’s nice to meet you. Please, sit.” She ushered them to the table as she took her spot beside Harry again. Adam, of course, took the chair opposite Laura, which left Y/N in the one opposite Harry.

This would be a long, hellish night.

She couldn’t help but wonder what Harry was thinking. That maybe she’d come to crash his date. Or, even worse, that he’d already figured the whole thing out. That Adam was paying her to be here. She really hoped he’d never find out because it was just embarrassing enough to make her want to change her name and move across the country, thousands of miles away from him. Harry finding out that she couldn’t get a real date to save her life… beyond humiliating.

“This is Harry.” Laura motioned to him and he just barely lifted his gaze, nodding at Adam and ignoring Y/N entirely. “You know,” the blonde went on, glancing between Adam and Y/N, “I was a little shocked when you told me you were seeing someone again.”

Adam just shrugged.

“How did you guys meet?”

Y/N left all the talking to him. Mostly because she was still in shock that she was sitting across from Harry. And she hadn’t even taken the time to properly take him in and realized he’d also changed his clothes since work. Swapping his wardrobe out for a fitted black button-up, that wasn’t buttoned all the way to the top as his shirts normally were. The sleeves were already rolled to his elbows. He’d shaved off the scruff along his jaw as well and fixed his hair so that it was combed back out of his face, although a a couple rebellious strands hung down onto his forehead. He looked… like absolute perfection. And he was being forced to be on a date with the ex-boyfriend of the girl he was seeing and his annoying co-worker. She felt terrible for him.

“Oh, uh, well we live on the same floor.”

Laura nodded, clearly anticipating more. “Is that it?”

Y/N felt Adam tense up beside her and so she took over, easily spinning a lie. “I ran out of milk one night a few weeks ago. He’s the only one who answered the door.”

She noticed a flash of movement in her peripheral and turned to find Harry’s gaze on her again, one eyebrow lifted curiously. He was either wondering how she hid it so well, or trying to figure out what to ask in order to reveal their ploy. He never said anything, though.

“Sorry, um,” Laura’s tone changed as she glanced between Harry and Y/N, both of them looking away when the other girl interrupted. “Do you two know each other?”

Harry grinned, sitting back against his seat and folding his hands in his lap. “Something like that.”

Y/N rolled her eyes. “We work together.”

“Really?” Although her tone said otherwise, Laura’s face said everything about how she felt upon hearing that bit of information.

Adam twisted his worrisome gaze to Y/N, but she ignored it. Harry, however, did not.

“Don’t worry, mate. I was under the impression she was celibate up until now.” With that, Y/N kicked him under the table and he sat forward to swallow the groan that very nearly left his lips after she’d jabbed him in the shin with the toe of her heels. “Guess she’s really good at hiding things, though.”

Adam just chuckled nervously and Y/N shot him an apologetic smile, trying to reassure him that this date would still work out despite Harry.

“What a small world.” Laura laughed, trying to break the tension but dinner hadn’t even started yet.

Sometime during the main course, Laura excused herself to the bathroom and Y/N almost, in a desperate attempt to flee both Adam and Harry, invited herself along. But she figured it’d be worse to be alone with Laura than with them. Laura might ask questions she wasn’t prepared for. So, she stayed put, as much as it pained her to do so.

“So, Adam, what do you do for a living?” Harry asked suddenly and she wanted to kick him again. Mostly because his tone was that of a jealous teenager and he’d waited until Laura was gone to pester her ex-boyfriend who most certainly did not deserve Harry’s pestering.

“Oh, uh, I’m an artist. I work for an animation studio at the moment but I’m trying to get into freelance.”

Harry’s eyes shot to the suspiciously quiet girl sitting across from him. “So is Y/N.”

Adam turned to look at her, but she just glared at Harry. “Oh, I didn’t know that.”

Harry titled his head as he narrowed his attention in on Adam again. “So you’ve known her for a few weeks and you never asked what she did?”

“Harry.” Y/N warned, trying to kick him under the table again but he dodged out of the way.

“Well… she said she was in graphic design… not art.” She had told him that, during their crash course yesterday while they got to know as much as they could about each other in a span of a couple hours.

“I think it’s the same thing.”

Adam just shrugged. “I guess. I don’t think I could be a designer, though. Most artists make what they think looks good, designers create things to appeal to customers.”

“Just ignore him.” Y/N advised and Harry was the one shooting her daggers and attempting to stomp his foot on top of hers under the table this time.

“You and Laura used to date then? She never told me how you split up.” Harry moved on.

Adam swallowed nervously. “She broke up with me.”

“Why?” Harry pushed and Y/N looked at him like she wanted to kill him, which he ignored.

“I, uh… I had a drug problem for a while. I was not the best person to be around sometimes. But after we broke up, she helped me with rehab and everything.”

“Guess that explains why you’re on such good terms.”

Now Y/N really wanted to do more than just kick him.

Adam grabbed Y/N’s hand under the table and pulled her straight from her violent thoughts about Harry. And he didn’t lace his fingers between hers, instead, it felt as if he had just been looking for something to ground himself with. And her hand resting on her lap was the closest thing he could find. It didn’t, however, go unnoticed by Harry and his jaw clenched as he stared at the point in the table where, just below, there their hands met almost as if he was trying to set everything on fire.

Laura returned shortly after that.

As promised, Adam paid the entirety of both his and Y/N’s bill, even though she attempted to snag it from him, seeing as the date had gone to shit and it was all her fault. Well… maybe it was also Harry’s fault a little bit too. But she definitely did nothing to make Laura jealous. Adam, on the other hand, did a great job at making Harry jealous just by existing and being Laura’s ex, whom she was still friends with.

The four of them stood outside on the curb awaiting their Uber after dinner was over, agreeing upon splitting one car to get to the party instead of taking two. Laura was apparently very cautious about fossil fuel consumption.

Y/N shivered as she stood between Adam and Laura, wishing she’d bright a jacket instead of relying on a long-sleeve dress to keep her warm. Then an arm wrapped around her shoulders and Adam pulled her close, running his hand up and down her arm to form heat. She tensed up, though, forming into an immovable brick. She had no idea the last time she’d been that close to another person, let alone a member of the opposite sex. When he felt her go rigid, he leaned down until his lips were at her ear. “Is this okay?”

She just nodded and tried to relax. Which turned out to be quite easy because Adam was warm and he smelled nice. She, of course, didn’t let her mind wander off too far. He was still in love with his ex. He’d still shove cash into her hand at the end of the night for her troubles and go on with his life.

Adam let go of her when the car pulled up and quickly went to the passenger door to confirm with the driver. Then he opened the back door for the three of them to climb in, Laura going first, then Harry, and, at last, Y/N, while Adam slipped into the front seat beside the driver.

While the car took off, Y/N was shoved into the corner when Harry moved closer to her in order to find both his and Laura’s seat buckles in the dark. Eventually, he settled back into the middle and gave her some space again. When she made no move to do the same as them, Harry turned to look down at her.

“Put your seatbelt on.” He whispered.

Her eyes whirled up to his. Wordlessly, and of course after rolling her eyes, she grabbed her seatbelt and he made room for her to buckle it in. Then she sat back in her seat, crossing her arms over her chest while she stared out at the traffic through her window.

She would have stayed in that exact position the entire trip, too, if Harry’s knee didn’t insist on bumping into hers constantly. And she couldn’t tell if he was doing it on purpose or not.

When she glanced up at him, and found the corner of his lips curl upward, she figured it was, in fact, purposeful. So, with the hand closest to him as her arms were still crossed, she poked him in the side, right against his ribs, hoping it hurt.

“Ouch.” He whined, covering the spot with his hand dramatically. Everyone in the car glanced at Harry, all except for Y/N who snickered as she returned to staring out the window.

Harry wasn’t giving up, though. This time, with his arms crossed in his lap, and glancing at Laura to be sure she wasn’t watching, he walked his pointer and middle finger up the outside of Y/N’s thigh, close enough to her hip to make her squirm slightly when his touch tickled her. And as soon as he got her attention, he looked down at what he was doing and pressed his middle finger against her, meeting her gaze with a smirk.

In the same moment, the driver turned up the music in the car as they waited tirelessly at a red light. It was better than silence or listening to his passengers breathing. But Harry mentally thanked him and turned his attention back to Y/N, leaning into her slightly until his lips were at her ear and she shivered for an all new reason.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you in a dress before.” He whispered for her ears only. The music was especially loud in the back and he wasn’t sure Y/N had even heard him.

Especially since she didn’t respond right away. But how could she? Harry’s fingertips were still grazing her thigh, as if trying to emphasize the dress she had on. And his stupid knee was pressed right up against hers. She couldn’t think straight.

Though when she finally turned to him and whispered back, “Don’t get used to it,” he knew she had, in fact, heard him well enough.

He leaned again, “Afraid I already am.”

She hated that there were butterflies in her stomach. That he was saying such odd things to her when his date was sitting just on the other side of him. The date who most definitely met all Harry’s standards.

Huddling away from him, she stuck her eyes out the window and kept them there the rest of the trip.

It was just past eight when they arrived, a fifteen-minute trip up through the city taking half an hour due to all the Valentine’s Day traffic. Another reason she hated this holiday.

The party was being held by Laura’s best friend, who’s name Y/N did not care to commit to memory. In the elevator ride up to the penthouse, though, Harry stood close to Laura, his arm wrapped around her waist and Adam to Y/N, although he didn’t touch her. She wouldn’t have minded if he did, but she figured it was best to keep those boundaries in place anyway.

Pink and golden balloons littered the ceilings of the penthouse. The drink cups were also pink, as was the communal punch bowl that Y/N steered clear of, having no idea what was in it, or who had already spiked it. She knew nobody at the party besides who she’d come with, though she assumed both Adam and Harry were somewhat acquainted with Laura’s friends.

It was most definitely not someplace Y/N ever saw herself being at, not only because it was a Valentine’s themed party, but also because she wasn’t exactly comfortable around so many people. Especially when those people were all so unfamiliar to her.

“Here,” Adam handed her a drink and then grabbed one for himself. She downed the thing in one go, needing to take the edge off. It might’ve been a slight mistake when the alcohol burned the back of her throat, but she didn’t care too much when she grabbed another.

Then he was leading her into the dancing pit of bodies where they huddled close enough so that his lips were at her ear. “Is it alright if I touch you?”

She glanced over at where Laura and Harry had been left, finding both her hazel eyes and Harry’s green ones glued to the both of them. She wasn’t sure what Harry’s deal was, but this was her moment to fix things and make Laura jealous, so, turning back to Adam, she nodded.

He eased his hands onto her waist as they began swaying to the music. And then he pulled her closer, his hands slipping to the small of her back as her arms wrapped around his neck, being careful with her own movements even though she desperately wanted to sink her hands in his hair.

And, god, he smelled so good as her head rested in the crook of his neck. And he felt good, too, as he moved against her body. She knew it wasn’t real, and that the alcohol was making skewing her perception of things, but it was still nice. Nice to be held and to just let go for a change.

Over Adam’s shoulder, Y/N caught Harry’s eyes again. His jaw clenched and he looked the same as he did back at the restaurant. Angry. And then she realized that maybe she wasn’t really trying to make Laura jealous anymore at all, but rather Harry.

It was dumb, she knew that. He’d have to like her in order for her to make him jealous. But… the way he was looking at her. The way he had looked at her. His eyes lingering too long on her lips. What he’d done in the car ride here.

She heard Adam in her ear again. “I think it’s working. She just stormed off into the kitchen.” Then he pulled away and she realized she hadn’t even seen Laura. Just Harry. Harry and his stupid, obnoxious green eyes.

“You owe me more than just dinner.” Y/N teased but Adam grew serious.

“I know. And since you refuse to accept my money, I’ll have to figure out another way to repay you.” He smiled and then twirled her around so that she no longer had any line of sight toward Harry. He pulled her close again, one hand going to her waist while the other stayed locked to one of hers. “Suppose I could start with making your coworker just as jealous… although I think he already is.”

Confusion flooded her features as she peered up at him.

“Oh, come on! He was ready to rip my head off when he realized I’d grabbed your hand. And when I put my arm around you? I thought I might be better off just giving you my jacket and freezing to death instead.”

“I don’t…” she shook her head in disbelief. It was one thing for her to be pretending to make Harry jealous in some delusional hope that it’d work. But this… this was a whole other thing.

“I’m actually quite interested to see what he does if I kissed you.”

She was shocked at first and then, possibly due to the alcohol, just as interested. “Are you asking my permission?”

“Are you saying yes?”

Y/N hesitated. “Is she back?”

Adam’s eyes scanned the room and Y/N realized he hadn’t asked to kiss her for Laura’s sake at all.

“She is.” He finally announced.

Without any more second guessing, Y/N’s hand slipped to the back of his neck and pulled him in. As soon as their lips collided and she tasted the alcohol on him, she knew that she’d never agreed to this without it. Or maybe she would. Adam spun them back around again, deepening the kiss as her eyes opened and fell into the direction she’d last seen Harry.

He was still there.

Still watching.

His hands in fists. His jaw tightened into a crisp line. His nostrils flared. His eyes… sad.

She pulled away. Adam steadied her, grabbing her shoulders when she swayed. But, as she caught her breath, the dizziness went away.

“I’m going to find the bathroom.” She told him and after he nodded, she left, forming a rift for herself through the bodies that danced all around them until she was in the clear. Then she was avoiding Harry as she walked past him, not so sure his gaze was still set on her. Maybe she’d gone too far. She didn’t often just kiss people for no good reason and that’s exactly what she’d just done with Adam. She barely even knew him.

She didn’t exactly need the bathroom, just an open, empty and quiet place. And so, she fell back against a wall in the foyer and ran a hand through her hair.

“That was quite the show.”

She startled at the sound of his familiar voice and looked up just as he stopped a few feet away from her. “What are you talking about?”

He lifted a brow. “You expect me to believe that that you, anti everything to do with this holiday and with relationships and romance, are actually dating that guy?”

“Is it that hard to believe?” She crossed her arms, willing to go as far as she needed to before she let Harry see the truth. That she was that pathetic.

“Yes.” He didn’t even hesitate to respond and she flinched.

“Well, I’m sorry that you have a hard time believing that someone may actually like me.” She had no reason to nearly be shouting at him and no reason to be saying what she was because Adam didn’t like her.

“That’s not what I said. It’s hard for me to believe you just dropped all your ideas about relationships for some guy with obnoxious blue eyes.”

“I didn’t.”

“So then what is this?”

Y/N hesitated. Hating that the truth was about to boil over out of her mouth for him to see all the embarrassing bits of it, but she had no other way of convincing him. And it didn’t really help that Adam was so far out of her league that it wasn’t even convincing to begin with. Nor did she want to convince Harry of anything either. It was clear now that he hadn’t been jealous, he was just trying to figure out when she stopped hating relationships so much.

And the truth of that was she never really hated them. It was just easier telling herself she didn’t want it than admitting no one ever actually wanted her.

She trembled, not even sure why, but he was making her incredibly nervous, so much that she wished she could rewind and stay squished next to him in the back of the car forever. Being that close to him... his stupid fingers on her thigh, whispering things in her ear that made her head spin. She’d much prefer that than standing in front of him now, seeing every ounce of judgment he was about to throw her way.

“What do you want me to say, Harry?” She shrugged and dropped her eyes to the white marble floors between them, focusing on calming her anxiety while she was no longer looking at him. “He needed a date and I felt bad for him.”

“What does that mean?”

Letting her head fall back against the wall, she stared up at the ceiling this time as her eyes burned with embarrassment. “He paid me to be his date so his ex-girlfriend didn’t find out he wasn’t actually seeing anyone. That’s what it means.”

Harry didn’t say anything.

“So, yeah.” She folded her arms, looking down at the floor again, still unable to meet Harry’s eyes and see the look that would be on his face. A smirk of amusement at her expense. Even probably his dimples, taunting her and turning her into the joke she already was. “You were right. I can’t find anyone to tolerate me, which is why I’m on this stupid date that isn’t even real.”

“Him kissing you seemed quite real to me.”

There was more exasperation than humor to her laugh. “It wasn’t.”

Harry seemed to finally understand. “He’s trying to make Laura jealous.”

Y/N just nodded. “I promise I didn’t know you were going to be there, that he was trying to get her back from you.”

“You still kissed him though.”

She couldn’t argue that, nor could she tell him the real reason she’d agreed to the kiss. That it wasn’t exactly Laura she was trying to make jealous. She’d never live that one down, if she ever managed to live any other aspect of this night down.

When she didn’t say anything, he stepped closer. “Why did you kiss him?”

“I’m sorry, Harry I just... I don’t know.”

He shook his head and took another step, making her eyes widen when he was close enough that she had to crane her head back to meet his gaze. “Seemed like you were trying to make me jealous.”

She swallowed, not exactly in the position to laugh it off and argue with him when he was this close and all she could feel were the traces of his fingertips on her thigh. Her voice was quiet when it finally came out. “Making you jealous would mean I assumed you liked me in the first place... which I’m definitely not stupid enough to assume.”

A crease formed between his brow and his stupidly perfect jaw hardened as if he was biting his tongue from saying something. And fuck him for choosing then to finally stop opening his mouth.

Just then, a pair of drunk guys, one on the other’s back, came racing through the foyer, screaming at the top of their lungs while a few others followed quickly after them. It was enough to force Harry away from Y/N again, enough for the both of them to step out of the little bubble they’d been in together the past ten minutes.

Once they were alone again, their eyes gravitated toward each other and just when she thought Harry might say something after all, he flipped around on his heel and left. And she watched as he turned the corner and mixed back into the party.

After a few moments to gather herself, she followed him, not exactly sure what she was going to do now that Harry wouldn’t talk to her and it felt weird being with Adam while Harry knew everything. But, whatever plans to keep herself occupied no longer matted when she spotted Laura.

Making out with Adam in the middle of the room.

Without even thinking, she turned to locate Harry and he might as well have been a source of gravity because her eyes fell right to him within a second. And he was watching them too. He knew.

He met Y/N’s eyes and she wasn’t quite sure if he was upset or not. She couldn’t really read anything on his face, and stopped attempting to when he moved towards her and she had other things on her mind, like where he was going and if he was going to bother taking her with him.

Shortly after he stormed past Y/N she made sure he wasn’t going to leave her behind and chased after him. She didn’t know Adam very well and definitely not Laura to want to stay with them. And everyone else in the room were complete strangers to her. Adam had promised he’d take her home, but he probably hadn’t expected to be making out with his ex by the end of the night, either.

Harry didn’t say anything, not even when they’d reached the foyer and Y/N asked where he was going. He just located his jacket and slipped it on before making his way out the front door.

And right when she thought he really was going to leave her behind, since she was the reason he’d just lost Laura to her ex, he held the door open and glanced over his shoulder at her while she still stood on the other side of the threshold.

“Are you staying?”

Without a word, she sprung into motion and trailed right behind him into the hallway like a lost puppy, letting the door shut behind her that cut them off from the music as it faded into the background behind them.

It was a silent trip down the elevator, mostly because she had no idea what to say that would sound sincere and he didn’t say anything at all. At least not until she followed him through the lobby until he stopped on the curb just outside the main doors.

She took up the spot next to him, eyes glued to the side of his face as he took in a deep breath of fresh air, or at least as fresh as traffic allowed it to be.

Then he spoke, and it seemed like the first time she’d heard his voice all night. “I’m the one who gave you the chocolates and the frog.”

She narrowed her eyes, both not exactly sure why he’d just said that or if he was even being serious. “What?”

He looked down at her. “It wasn’t Andrew, it was me.”

“Why?” She breathed and while she was positive she’d be freezing cold soon, the fresh air after being surrounded by so many people felt good. It felt freeing and she wondered if he felt that way too.

His eyes scanned hers before he looked away. “Well partly to apologize for what I said.”

“What’s the other part?”

Sighing, he turned his entire body to face her now. “Something else entirely…” He trailed off, only confusing her more as he stuffed his hands into his pockets and stared at his feet. “I didn’t tell you because I know you don’t like all this stuff, but seeing you with him tonight... I wish I had.”

“It’s not that big of a deal. It’s just a frog.”

He shook his head, grinning. “It’s not just a frog, Y/N... because the thing is,” he paused to catch his breath, “I’ve been in love with you for... a really long time… since last spring. But with you being the way that you are, I never thought you’d feel the same way.”

She opened her mouth and then closed it.

“And then you come in with that guy and...” He pulled his fingers through his hair. “I don’t think I’ve ever been more jealous in my life... because all this time I thought you weren’t interested in relationships, but you just weren’t interested in me.”

Inhaling, she summoned every ounce of courage she could fathom. “You were right about why I kissed Adam.” He lifted a brow, waiting for her elaboration which never came. “You were right about other things, too. I wish I had someone to come home to almost every single night I got to bed alone. No one—“ She cut herself off, trembling again as tears stung her eyes. “I pretend not to be interested so I can ignore the fact that no one’s ever wanted me.”

“That’s not true.” He had that same look on his face as before, when she’d told him she wasn’t stupid enough to think he liked her.

She just nodded. “And I’m sorry but... why would you want me when you could have someone like Laura?”

“Y/N...” He huffed and stepped closer to her, the heat from his body making her shiver. “This is not the first time I started seeing someone to get over you... in fact, all my relationships since I met you have been shit.”

“Why didn’t you just tell me?”

“Well you’re very anti-relationships so I think I was justified in wanting to avoid you rejecting me… especially since we work together and it would have been really awkward.”

“I don’t, uh... I...” She stammered, not really sure what to say to him even though her heart was screaming at her in full volume.

He held his breath and then, in almost a whisper, “Is this the inevitable rejection?”

“No.” She didn’t even hesitate that time and at this point, her mind no longer controlled the words coming out of her mouth as she let another organ finally speak for itself. “No, I liked you the second I saw you, Harry... and at no point tonight was I ever trying to make Laura jealous.”

The corners of his mouth began to curl into a smile. “That was very cruel of you to do to me.”

“I didn’t think you liked me at all twenty minutes ago, Harry.”

“Twenty minutes ago,” he fully invaded all of her space now, leaving the smallest gap between their bodies as he could get away with, lifting his hand to her jaw and rubbing his thumb over her cheek. “I was still on this date with the wrong person.”

“I think the date is over now.”

“No,” his eyes fell to her lips just like they had before. “It’s not.”

“You’re looking at me like that again.” She mumbled, out of breath.

He lifted a brow and didn’t once remove his eyes from her lips. “Like what?”

“Like…” she trailed off, not having the courage to say it in case she wasn’t right.

“Like I’ve wanted to kiss you for a very long time and I’m tired of pretending?”

“Something like that, yeah.”

He grinned, both of his dimples making an appearance just before he leaned in and brushed his lips against hers. And once her brain realized what was happening, she sunk right into him, letting his arm wrap around her waist as his other hand tangled its way into her hair to bring her closer. She threw her arms over his shoulders and he hunched lower to meet her. She staggered back a step when he did, nearly losing her balance but he caught her instantly and then drew his lips back as he laughed.

“This is not how I expected tonight to end.” She couldn’t help but think the way he struggled to catch his breath was possibly the hottest he’d ever been. Not to mention the tiny bit of her lipstick smeared on his face. She could look at him just the way he was right there and then for days and be perfectly satisfied.

“It doesn’t have to end yet.” She fully blamed her sudden burst of confidence on the cold, but refreshing February night. And maybe she also just wanted to get out of it before it caught up to her and she would, yet again, regret not having a jacket.

“Oh?” She wanted to smack the mischievous smirk off his face and leave him there on the curb. “And here I thought you were a prude.”

“You thought a lot of things about me that weren’t true, Harry.”

He thought about that for a moment and after realizing she was right, he then wondered just how wrong he was when he’d called her celibate. “I suppose… I’d quite like to find out just how wrong I was.” He slipped a loose strand of her hair back behind her ear, which is where his lips ended up as he whispered softly, “And I’d also quite like to show you just how wrong you were about me not liking you.”

They stumbled into her bedroom in the dark, Pretzel racing out between their twisted feet in a hurry, screeching at them in the process. Harry giggled against her lips, “Your cat sounds friendly.”

“Well, since I was supposed to be spending tonight with her, and chocolate, and anti-romantic movies…” She pulled away from him, watching as his smile spread further. Maybe she could actually believe he’d been in love all this time.

“Right… I’d be upset too.”

She shook her head and kissed him again, then pulled back a second later. “You know that’s not actually what I do on Valentine’s Day.”

He lifted a brow and waited for her to explain but she didn’t.

“And what is it that you do, then?” He finally asked, curiosity getting the best of him, although he had some inkling as to what she was talking about.

Her smile was devoid of innocence as her hands fell to his belt. Harry’s shirt had already been lost to the kitchen floor. Her dress hardly covering what it was supposed to once Harry had gotten his hands on it.

“Maybe you’ll get to find out.”

When she brought her lips back to his, after undoing the buckle just under his navel, he spun them around and led her backwards to the bed. He wasn’t sure how far it was, but hoped he was headed in the right direction. And because of that, when her knees did finally bend over the mattress, he practically came flying down on top of her.

She squirmed out from under him, crawling back towards the pillows as she watched him at the end of the bed while he stood and removed his belt completely, trying not to drool at the sight of him. At the sight of Harry, her fucking annoying ass, perfect, beautiful, coworker standing shirtless at the end of her bed where he was also about to be…

He pushed his trousers down off his hips and they fell to the floor with ease, almost with the same amount of ease that her eyes fell to the tight boxer-briefs he wore underneath. She swallowed as he adjusted the waistband back into place, quite certain that, even in the low light, her eyes were not deceiving her.

The bed shifted at her feet as he joined her, and then it took all her willpower to not fling herself at him as he crawled up the length of her. As he settled himself between her thighs and she felt every last, very hard, inch of him pressed against her. She couldn’t be blamed for the whining moan that she let out in his ear as his lips became familiar with the shape and taste of her neck. She also couldn’t be blamed when her hips instinctively collided with his.

He just giggled again and shook his head, the loose strands of his curls tickling her forehead. “Easy now.” He warned in a hushed mumble, his lips vibrating right against the vein in her neck that pulsed so much faster the more his free hand began to wander up underneath her dress.

He left her speechless for multiple reasons, but the main one was when she felt his fingers tracing down her thigh and then, moments later, after he shifted his weight and used his knees to keep her legs open, she sucked in a breath of air as she felt him pressed against her clit, forcing her nails to dig into his back but he didn’t seem to mind.

Coming back down to kiss her, he began moving his hand in expert little circles, grinning against her mouth every time her body begged him for more. It wasn’t long that he complied, either, when he sat back on his knees between her legs and tugged her underwear off for good, throwing it to the depths of her bedroom floor. He wouldn’t have known where they landed even if he tried because his gaze belong to her only as he lowered himself to his elbows before her, kissing his way up her thighs until he reached her center.

When she squirmed away from him, he wrapped his arms around her thighs and pressed his hands into her hips after gently moving her dress out of the way.

“You know when we used to stay late at the office working?” He asked suddenly and the heat of his voice against her made her squirm again, but he held on tight. “And you would get sick of sitting in an office chair and made me promise not to tell Jim when you sat on his desk instead?” She had no clue where he was going with it, but still, she nodded. “Every single time I turned to look at you, I thought about doing this.” Before she could get words out or even a coherent thought, she felt his tongue on her. And this time when she jerked against him, she nearly slipped out of his hold until he grabbed her again and pulled her back down, digging himself further into her as she struggled to breathe properly.

She dug her fingers into his hair when he brought her close to the edge and showed no mercy. And somehow, she’d managed to get the sole of her foot up onto his shoulder in order to kick him away, but it didn’t matter much because he never budged. Not that she wanted him to, but he just felt so good…

“Harry!” She shouted, pulling at his hair and making matters worse for herself when he moaned against her sensitive bundle of nerves. He let her come, never once lifting his mouth from her even as her hips jerked off the mattress and she very nearly pulled his hair out. When she stopped screaming, her voice caught in her throat because she was lost to her own orgasm, is when he lifted his mouth, replaced it with his fingers and watched her as she came down. As her eyes fluttered shut and her chest heaved, her lungs struggling to get oxygen back into her system. Her hold on him loosened as she came undone around him, melting into his hands it seemed like.

And when he began rubbing his index and middle finger into her, once she was far and beyond overstimulated, and he knew that, she reached down with a whine and grabbed his wrist with what little strength she had in her and pulled him away. His hand fell to the other side of her hip, which he used to his advantage to pull himself up over her again, his other hand taking her dress with it until he was able to tug it over her head and toss it. Then he came back down to kiss her, letting her taste herself on her lips. He rubbed his thumb across her cheek and when he pulled away, found her looking at him finally. Although it was with heavy lids as she still struggled to regain her bearings.

Before they could get much further, a loud crashing sound from the other room made both of them nearly jump out of their skin. She shot up instantly, grabbing hold of Harry’s bicep before moving him out of the way and sliding off the edge of the bed.

“It’s just the cat.” Harry would have probably said the same thing even if it was not just the cat, he’d say anything just to get her to stay with him.

“I know but it sounded like…” her voice trailed off as her feet hit the floor and the moment she went to stand on her own two legs, her knees buckled. He reached to grab her waist but she righted herself before he could. She didn’t see the way he hid his cheeky smirk at the fact that he’d been so good, she was still dizzy.

“You good?” He asked as she stumbled her way into a shirt. With only a groan in response, and what he was sure was her middle finger, she left him alone in her bed to investigate the noise. Sighing, he laid on his back and got comfortable amongst her pillows. And after about three minutes, decided to locate the remote to her TV to entertain himself.

He flipped onto his side and felt around her bedside table, but his fingers never landed on anything remote-like. So, frustrated, he reached up and switched the lamp on. Again, he found nothing. Looking further, he realized the table had a drawer and so he pulled it open in hopes of finding the damned remote before she got back.

But what he found instead was so much better than turning on late night news.

“Fucking cat knocked over my vase.” Y/N was back within ten minutes. Harry had left the light on, but made sure it wasn’t obvious he’d gone snooping into her drawer, at least not yet anyway. She crawled back into bed beside him and it was then he noticed the bandage on her thumb.

“Are you alright?” He forgot all about what he planned to tease her with when he gently grabbed her hand to inspect the damage.

“Yeah. I was in a bit of hurry trying to clean up the glass…”

Harry rolled his eyes and dropped her hand. “I would have come help you.”

She just smiled up at him as he fit his arm around her shoulders, his bicep under her neck. “That’s alright.”

He shrugged. “It was for the best anyways that I didn’t.” When he smirked, she narrowed her eyes suspiciously at him.

“And why’s that?”

She followed his other hand as he reached for something and then, moments later, it reappeared with a very familiar pink object clutched in his grasp. “Because then I wouldn’t have found this.”

Her first reaction was to pry it from his snooping fingers, but when she reached across him to grab it, he way too easily held her back and, at the same time, held it far out of her reach.

“So this is what you do on Valentine’s Day, then?” He flicked his wrist back and forth, waving her vibrator in the air as he taunted her.

“If you don’t give that back to me,” she reached for it again to no prevail, “you won’t be doing anything, least of all, me.”

He clicked his tongue. “Why would I give it back when I plan on using it?”

She froze and he chuckled at her reaction.

“Would be rude of me to break your traditions, wouldn’t it?”

She swallowed, her eyes slowly meeting his again. The appearance of his right dimple told her he wasn’t playing any games. She had no idea how many times he planned to make her come tonight or whether or not she’d even be able to walk tomorrow at work. But, given the stupid look on his face, she almost began making plans to call out sick instead.

“Do you actually know how to use that thing?” She finally asked, glancing at the wand still held very firmly in his hand.

He looked at her like she was crazy moments before he pivoted and pinned her onto her back, settling himself into the position they’d been in before the interruption of the cat.

Just, this time… he was clicking on her vibrator and watching her face as she began to regret her words.

“‘Course I know how to use it. The real question is,” he brought his lips to her ear, the soft vibrations and the sound of his voice mixing together like sin itself. Even more so when he nipped at her earlobe. “Do you know how to handle it?”

#1dffvalentine #harry styles fic #harry styles smut #harry styles x reader #harry styles writing #harry styles fanfic #harry styles imagine

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lilysdaydreams · 4 years

Text

Praise Bingus (No fucking way)

→ I do not claim to know corpse- therefore please don't think that this is what he would actually act like, or that any details about his life are actually true. this is fiction.

→ Pairing: Corpse Husband X Fem!Reader

→ Genre: Angst and fluff. (FLUFF IS COMING I SWEAR)

→ Words: 3.9k

→ In a world where everyone is born with a mark on their wrist, two souls come together over the power of bingus.

→ (this isnt crack lol)

→ Warnings: Lots of swearing, um self-depreciation? rejection (kinda) and negative thoughts overall. Sorry im new to warnings.

→ Authors Note: this is the first time im doing like angst so please tell me if I did well? Um also, I’ve already started on the part 2 so keep your eyes out for that. If you wanna be tagged for part two please comment and lemme know. Also check out my other fics if you want!

→ Buy me a coffee

Part two →

~~~

Soulmates were a phenomenon. They'd been there for ages, drawn into the Egyptian tomb paintings, seen in the cave paintings from millions of years ago, talked about in stories passed down from generation to generation. They could be matching drawings, first words, names; all black before the soulmates met and turning gold the moment they talked to each other. There wasn't a scientist in the world who could explain the phenomenon.

You'd received your mark at birth just like everyone else, a sentence running around your wrist,

"No fucking way."

Your parents weren't that happy when you asked at the age of 4 what "fucking" meant but it wasn't that bad. You were happy that you had something unique, something other than the "Hi," or "Excuse me," that was on every other arm.

When you were 13, a little girl on the train pointed to your wrist and asked her mom what it meant. Ever since then, you'd taken to wearing bracelets over it. This had turned out to be a good idea because a few years later you started making Youtube videos. At the age of 16, you started a Youtube channel where you focused on a variety of things; makeup, fashion, games, art, skits and a whole lot more.

At the age of 20, you had a steady following of a little more than a million subscribers, and you had moved to LA to be closer to all your Youtube friends. You hadn't just grown on Youtube, you'd also started a lot of side projects. You were known for the art that you did on the side, along with the makeup palette you'd come out with a year ago. Soon you were planning to release a merch collection, one that you had been working on for a whole year now.

You hadn't met your soulmate at this point but honestly, you didn't really mind. Balancing Youtube and study (along with all your other side projects) was hard. There was no need to add the struggle of love into it... Or that's what you told yourself anyways.

There were days though, days where you wished you had someone to hug, someone to cuddle in bed with, someone to go on long walks with. You didn't let yourself wallow on it that long though. Crying about it was gonna do absolutely nothing.

It started on a rainy day. The story of you and him. You were editing your soon to be uploaded video, an e-girl outfits lookbook, which had been requested by your followers. Your personal style was all over the place and your previous soft girl and cottage care look books had done well, so you decided to continue the series.

You eyes blurred as you looked at the same point of the video, and you sighed, removing your glasses and rubbing your eyes. Your editor was sick and had let you know that they wouldn't be able to edit it by the deadline so here you were, editing it yourself. You stretched in your chair letting out a yawn. You were contemplating on whether to make coffee or not when your phone pinged.

"Nooooo" you whined when you noticed it was on the coffee table that was just a little out of your reach. Stretching your foot out, you tried to grab it between your toes and then sighed when the phone fell.

"I have zero luck, I swear" you muttered to yourself, bending to pick up the phone.

The text was from Rae, asking you to join a game of Among Us. You and Rae had been friends for a bit now, which all started when she came across your art and decided to order something from you. You had chatted and clicked immediately, immediately becoming fast friends. Ever since the lockdown started, she often asked you to join in on Among us games and your friendship had really grown over these past few months.

You sent a quick "sure!" and then went to your table, waiting for the PC to turn on. Quickly tweeting out that you were streaming, you opened up Youtube and turned on the stream, saying a quick hello and letting them know what you'd be doing.

"Rae just invited me guys, I don't really know who's there," you mumbled, replying to a comment asking you who you were playing with.

You squinted your eyes, joining the voice chat and then opening your phone camera to quickly check that you didn't look horrible. Sure you didn't really care about how you looked but it was always good to check that you didn't have anything stuck between your teeth before you turned on the camera.

There was already a conversation going on, between who you thought was Corpse and Sykkuno, judging by their voices.

"Yeah I could totally do that. Get a cat and name it Bingus. I wonder if th-"

You gasped when you heard what they were talking about and unmuted yourself immediately yelling "PRAISE LORD BINGUS" and effectively shocking everyone in the chat.

A moment of silence and then Rae yelled: "OH MY FUCKING GOD Y/N, YOU SCARED THE CRAP OUT OF ME."

You giggled as everyone groaned and whined, saying hi as they realised who it was. You had played with Sykkuno and the others a few times before but you'd never met Corpse before. You'd heard his voice though, as he was trending on twitter constantly over the past few weeks. Once they all quietened down, you realised Corpse hadn't said anything. Since you knew everyone else in the lobby, you introduced yourself, wondering if you'd scared him a bit too hard.

"Hey Corpse, I'm Y/N from Y/C/N, its so nice to finally meet you," you said gritting your teeth at you awkward introduction. For a second there was no response and then three words were said that made your jaw drop to the floor.

"No fucking way"

He had whispered it, obviously still in shock, and your eyes widened in surprise as a tingle spread all over your body. So this was what everyone meant by "you'll just know," when you asked them about how you would recognize your soulmate.

"Holy shit" you thought frozen in your seat.

Never had you been more glad that you hadn't turned the camera on yet.

"Uhhhh-" you started, but stopped now knowing what to say.

What the fuck were you supposed to do now.

"Wha- Whats wrong?" Rae asked after a moment passed.

Corpse cleared his throat and started "Its um, shes my -" and you cut him off, heart beating in your chest.

"Nothing. Its nothing." you said talking over him. "Who else are we waiting for Rae?" you asked joining the lobby quickly and choosing red as your colour.

"Uh one more person," she said slowly, still a bit confused.

"Oh awesome!" you said fake enthusiasm prevalent in your voice. "So Sykkuno," you started, wanting to keep the conversation going. "How's Bimbus doing?"

Sykkuno launched into a story of Bimbus and you blew out a sigh of relief, mind still numb over the revelation.

Corpse was your soulmate.

The guy who had literally went viral the past few weeks was your soulmate.

You'd finally found him.

You heard Rae cut Sykkuno off, telling everyone she was starting the game and muttered a "Thank god" when the words "CREWMATE" appeared on your screen. You would not have been able to play imposter at the moment, your mind pretty much stuck on the fact that Corpse was your fucking soulmate.

Heading down to admin, you realised you hadn't said anything yet to the stream so you quickly turned on your cam, saying a quick sorry to the viewers.

"Sorry guys, I forgot to put the camera on," you smiled focusing on card swipe.

"I hope everyone's been okay, I know this was quite sudden, but Rae invited me and I was like why not you know," you said rambling as you moved to comms and did the task there.

Lights were called and you moved to electrical, arriving there just as Leslie fixed them. You moved into the back of electrical doing the three tasks you had there when Sykkuno suddenly came in and went straight to standing on top of the vent.

You giggled already knowing his trick.

"Okay guys," you mumbled watching Sykkuno wiggle on the vent. "do we trust Sykkuno or not?"

"You know what," you said making a split second decision. "Its the first game, we might as well."

Joining him on the vent, you stilled for a second and then breathed a sigh of relief when he didn't automatically kill you.

"See, what did I tell you guys huh?" you question smiling straight at the camera. "I knew Sykkuno could be trusted."

You decided to follow Sykkuno going into reactor with him and starting 'Simon says' and just as you were on the last part, a body was found making you let a whine out.

"Guysss," you whined to the camera as Rae started talking about how she had found Daves body in admin.

"Um, I havent been in admin since the start of the game," you said, "also I can clear Sykkuno, for the last part of the round, he's been with me since lights went out."

Sykkuno confirmed it, "Yup that's right, also I can hard clear Y/N cuz guess what? She stood on the vent with me and none of us died."

Everyone chuckled as he said "Thats good enough for me."

"Uh, I was in navigation mostly." said Lily.

"Poki, can I just ask what you were doing?" said Sean, an undercurrent of mirth present.

"Me?" asked Poki speaking for the first time. "What was I doing?"

"You weren't doing any tasks, you were literally just walking from one side of medbay to the other when I peeked in."

Poki started laughing, trying to get her words out at the same time.

"Okay so-" a giggle. "okay okay- I was just, I was trying to um do the beep test," she said finally breaking down and making everyone else laugh as well.

"What the fuck?" you said, laughing at the image in your mind.

"My chat told me to do it last game so I decided to do it now, I was literally just playing around," she said finally, adding "I swear I'm not imposter" at the end.

"Hmmm," you hummed, bringing a hand up to stroke your chin. "Are you sure it was last game Poki... hm...."

Giggling at Poki indignant "YES it was last game", you quickly skipped voting like everyone else as the timer went into the last ten seconds.

Humming a tune under your breath, you went back to reactor, taking a minute to carefully do Simon says and then moved to the other task counting out one two three as you pressed on the numbers. Humming, you moved out of reactor, only to come face to face with Corpse. You paused for a second, and then moved ahead, refusing to show anything on camera. For some reason he followed you as you went to storage, looking at you while you did the trash.

"Why is he just staring?" you mumbled, biting your lip. God, you really didn't wanna think of him right now. You started walking to shields, him still walking with you when lights were called and not a second later a body was reported.

Suddenly there was screaming your ears as Toast and Rae both started accusing each other.

"Wait- Wait WAIT" yelled Poki trying to get them to stop. "What happened?"

"I'll explain" declared Rae, not letting toast get a word in. "We were in navigation okay, me, Toast and Leslie. Lights went out, and suddenly a report buttons there. It's either Toast or someone came in just as lights went out and killed but that doesn't seem likely because I didn't see anyone anywhere near us at all. Anyways I'm fucking telling the truth guys, its Toast, he's the one who did it."

"Toast, do you have anything to say for yourself?" asked Corpse, his voice making your insides shiver.

"Holy shit, this is my soulmate", you thought for the fiftieth time.

"Uh yeah," replied toast. "I didn't do it."

Everyone laughed as he continued.

"Like seriously, I wouldn't do anything like this because it'd be a stupid move from my own part, and I think Raes smart enough to not do this as well. I think someone else came in just as lights went down and killed immediately, which to be honest, was pretty smart of them."

"Okay so I can clear Corpse," you cut in noticing the timer was close. "he was with me in weapons when it happened, he wouldn't have had time to go all the way up, or even vent there because we were literally walking in."

"Yup that's right," confirmed corpse.

"I'm in cafeteria" said Poki.

"Yeah, I saw her on my way to weapons," said Sykkuno, "and I'm in weapons right now,"

"I'm in lower engine" said Sean, and Lily said she was in reactor.

"I think it's Toast," you mumbled and then rose your voice to talk over everyone. "Look okay fine, maybe he said it was a stupid move and he wouldn't do it but maybe he did it for that exact reason. He thought he could get away with it because no one would expect him to do something like that."

As the timer started going down by 10, you voted for Toast and it turned out 3 had skipped the vote while five had voted for him.

damn.

"Guys you actually voted for him?" you said in a high voice, re-enacting one of Sykkunos most said lines.

You heard a "oh for gods sake" from Rae before everyone went silent and you giggled as you moved back down to weapons to do your tasks.

You finished all your tasks and decided to go to security to check where everyone is. Humming as you moved through the electrical hallway, you narrowed your eyes as Corpse came out of electrical and went towards storage. Quickly ducking in you didn't see a body so you headed back out, going into cams and gasping as you saw the body. Reporting immediately you were shocked to see the four kills that had happened. Now only you, Corpse, Sean and Rae were left.

"Oh my god," you mumbled confused. Either there were still two imposters, and Toast wasn't the imposter or the imposter literally killed and did nothing else. Now either that could mean that its definitely Rae if Toast wasn't the imposter, or that it was Corpse as the only imposter left. That was a bit weird though becuase he could have totally killed you at the start of the game. You didn't suspect Sean at all.

"What the fuck?" mumbled Corpse, and Rae made her animal noises expressing her shock.

"Okay," you said taking charge and relaying the kill and your theory to everyone. "So either it was Toast and there's only one other imposter, who is Corpse. Or Toast wasn't an imposter and there's two of them left. I-" you took a deep breath in at the end, very confused. " I don't know anymore,"

"I think its Corpse as well,"

Corpse who hadn't said anything up till this moment suddenly started stammering out "hey-hey uh let-lets not gang up on me okay. It's not-"

"No, wait, its because Y/N said you came out of electrical right, and I saw you in upper engine literally a bit ago and you went down. I went towards cafeteria so I don't know exactly where you went but its totally possible that you killed."

You voted form him after that, convinced it was Corpse, and the other followed quickly.

"Guys what the fuck, at least give me a chance to explain my self" he whined when his body was thrown off the ship seconds later. You cheered when the "VICTORY" sign was displayed across the screen, bringing up your chat and laughing at Toast as he pretended to be angry at me.

"That was a great round, good work Y/N"

"Thankyou" you mumbled staring at your chat. You were confused when you saw the absolute influx of messages on there, and you were barely able to read them because they were going so fast. You scrolled up, and read through the few of the messages;

"You've made corpse sad."

"Corpse has literally been so quite since you came in, can you leave."

"Omg stop with the hate messages, its not her fault if corpse isn't talking to you"

"are you his ex or something? What was that reaction at the start?"

"what did you do? Corpse literally hasn't said a word since you came in."

"Um..."

Corpse POV

Corpses heart stopped for a minute, his breath catching. The words on his wrist glowed gold, and he stared at the little red character standing there.

This person was the reason that he had "PRAISE BINGUS" stretched across his wrist.

They were the only reason that he had searched "Bingus" on google for all of his life. The only reason Corpse knew about the meme before anyone else was because he was constantly monitoring the word online. Ever since March, he had been waiting with bated breath, anxious that he could meet his soulmate at any moment. and here you were.

For some reason, he had never expected that he would meet you in among us, or while he was on stream. He always thought it'd be someone outside. It was a bit stupid in hindsight as all he did nowadays was play among us.

He heard you introduce yourself to him but the only thing that came out of his mouth was “No fucking way”.

Immediately after he wanted to slap himself.

“Idiot” he thought to himself. “At least try to make a good impression.”

When Rae asked what was wrong, heat sprung to his cheeks as he started revealing that they were soulmates, but Y/N cut him off, saying that it was nothing.

Corpse’s heart sank a little then.

'Maybe she’s just a private person,' he reasoned with himself.

'I shouldn’t have tried to say it on stream either. God, I’m a fucking idiot, if I said it, literally everyone would know and not only would I have hated the attention, she probabaly would have as well.'

Convincing himself that she was right, he reassured himself that it wasn’t because of him. She wasn’t revealing it because she probably didn't want all the attention.

For some reason though, his heart sank even more when Y/N didnt talk to him, instead talking to sykkuno about his dog. Like sure he could understand not wanting to reveal they were soulmates but shouldn’t she at least wanna talk to him? At this point he wouldn’t even mind if she talked about his voice like everyone else.

He groaned when the word "Imposter" came across his screen, his and Toasts character standing together. He was not in the right mindset right now to be able to be a good imposter. Breathing in deeply he continued in the game, with the first round passing by quick. The second round, he saw Y/N and stood with her for a bit wondering if he should kill her. Her red character moved to weapons and he sighed moving the mouse over the kill button. Just as he was thinking of clicking a body was found. Corpse swore as Toast flew off the ship. Deciding he needed to speed it up he killed four people in the round, hissing when the meeting was called. The moment Y/N accused him, he knew it was over. He didn't even bother defending himself much, just hoping the game would end soon.

When they were in the lobby, he quickly told everyone that he was going to leave because his internet was acting up. Turning off the stream after saying a quick thank you to everyone, he leaned back in his seat breathing through his nose.

What the fuck was his life.

Even his soulmate didnt want him. Honestly, he should have expected this. Abandoned at 12 with no one around him, why did his expect his soulmate to even give a fuck about him. Tears pricked his eyes and he blinked trying to get rid of them. He breathed in deeply, grabbing the water on the table and taking a big gulp. He had never hated himself more than he did right now. Why couldnt he have an easier life.

“Why cant I just fucking be NORMAL” he yelled throwing the empty bottle of water at the wall.

Throwing himself into bed, he scrunched up his eyes, hoping that sleep would come today, not noticing as his phone lit up with a single message.

Your POV

You stayed for another game and then ducked out apologizing and making an excuse up.

"Sorry it was such a short stream, everyone," you said pouting at the camera. "It was fun though so hopefully I get to do it again." Waving goodbye, you turned off the camera and leaned your head back staring at the ceiling.

What the actual fuck.

Grabbing your phone, you stared at it for a bit. Everything that you had pushed to the back of your mind in the game, was suddenly in the forefront.

The only thing you knew about Corpse was that he had a really deep voice, he narrated horror movies, and he maybe did music?

'Rae mentioned that once right?' you thought to yourself.

You unlocked the phone and then locked it again, too scared to actually do anything.

Unlocked.

Locked.

Unlocked.

Locked.

"Oh get a grip," you muttered to yourself, opening the phone and sending a text to Rae.

‘Hey Rae, do you have corpses number? Do you mind sending it to me, I need to tell him something.’

A reply came in a minute,

‘umm, why. he's pretty private so idk i don't rlly wanna give his number if he doesn't want someone to have it’

You sighed, and decided you might as well tell her. You knew Rae wouldn't betray your trust.

‘He's my soulmate’

Immediately a ‘AHDJHAKJKAGDAK’ came as a reply and you giggled at the string of emojis after it.

‘Don't tell anyone,’ you sent quickly, trying to calm her down.

‘Okay okay, its XXX - XXX - XXXX, ASHAGDH IM DYING OMG. GO TALK TO HIM.’

Biting your lip you added Corpse into your contacts hesitating before putting a small black heart next to his name.

"Already simping," you mumbled under your breath, hands hovering over the keyboard as you struggled to think of what to write.

You finally decided on 'Hey, its Y/N, can I call?' thinking that something short would be the best way to go. Hand hovering over the send button, you sucked in a breath and pressed it, waiting with bated breath.

A minute passed.

And then five.

And then, without you even you realising, it'd been half an hour of you just looking at your phone.

An hour later, you were slumped on your desk, eyes closed and snoring lightly, the phone still open, the message you sent lighting up the screen.

tbc.

#corpse husband #corpse x reader #corpse #corpse husband x reader #corpse x y/n #corpse husband fanfic #corpse fic #sykkuno #corpse husband imagine #corpse husband headcannons #corpse husband one shot #lilydaydreamsfics

2K notes · View notes

guqwrvte · 3 years

Note

hii, i could request "are you jealous" for taehyung :))

⨽ pairing: taehyung x reader (established relationship)

⨽ genre: fluff

⨽ warnings: none that i can think of

You crossed your arms over your chest, slightly pouting as you watched your boyfriend turn down another girl.

"I'm taken," he said, turning to point at you. You flashed the girl who was now looking at you a fake smile and waved. She awkwardly smiled before making her way back to her table.

"Why did he have to be blessed with such good looks," you ask yourself as he continues to wait in line.

You and Taehyung had been dating for a year now. You met him during one of your art classes. He was the model you and your fellow students had to draw depending on the perspective you were looking at him from.

You had taken more time on yours, and he was kind enough to sit longer, allowing you to finish your drawing.

"Thank you so much. Sorry for making you wait..." you trail off, realising you didn't know his name. "Kim Taehyung," he said and flashed you a smile. You returned the gesture. "Sorry for making you wait, Taehyung," you said.

"No need to apologise. I was the one who offered," Taehyung said, shaking his hands and head. "How about I treat you to coffee or a cupcake," you offer. "Actually, I prefer tea but sure."

You unconsciously smiled, remembering how the two of you began talking.

"Here, sorry it took long," you snap out of your thoughts to see your boyfriend taking a seat opposite you. You give him a small smile. "It's okay."

"Should we go to your place or mine?" you ask, reaching for his cup and taking a sip of his tea. "Hey, you have your own," he chuckles, pulling the cup from your hands. "How about yours? We were at mine yesterday. Plus, you said you needed to work on something anyway," he responded to your question, taking another sip of his tea.

"Excuse me," the two of you looked to see a girl standing by your table. You examined her figure. Her cheeks were pink, and her phone was in one hand. While she played with the hem of her skirt with the other. You took note of her features. She was pretty. She seemed to have a good sense of fashion, her hair was styled neatly. She had a cute hat on her head that matched her outfit. You frowned.

"Yes?" Taehyung asked, placing his cup down and turning to properly look at the girl. "Sorry to interrupt. I was wondering if I could get your number?" she said, shyly holding out her phone.

"I have a girlfriend," he said, glancing at you. You give her an awkward smile, and she gasps. "Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry. I thought she was your sister," she said quickly. "It's fine," you grumbled.

"Well, do you think I can still get your number?" she asks, causing you to raise your brow. "I, well, I have an assignment for my art and photography class. I have to find someone to model for a photoshoot for the photography part, and then I need to make a portrait of someone for the art part. I just think you're perfect for it," she said quickly, realising how the first part of her sentence probably sounded to you.

"Oh, um," Taehyung looking at, silently asking you if it was okay, and you simply nodded in response before staring at your reflection in your drink.

"Sure," he responded, and she smiled, handing her phone to him. Once Taehyung gave the girl her phone, she smiled before waving walking back to where she came from.

"That was-" Taehyung cut himself off with a frown. You were stirring your cup of tea, playing with the teaspoon. "Are you okay?" he asks, and you just hum in response, but the slight scowl on your face was quite evident.

Taehyung got up from his chair, walking over to sit on the chair next to you. "What's wrong?" He asked, trying to get you to look at him. You only turn the other way. "Nothing," you responded, and Taehyung let out a laugh.

You looked at him with a frown. "What's so funny?" You asked, and he only smiled, ruffling your head messy up your hair. "Are you jealous?" he cheekily asked. Your eyes widened, and you gasped. "I'm not jealous," you grumble, fixing your hair, and he laughs once again.

"Don't worry, I'm not interested in anyone who's interested in me other than you," he said, wrapping his arm around your shoulder, pulling you closer to his body.

"I'm only interested in you," he whispered in your ear and placed a quick kiss on your cheek.

Your cheeks began to redden, and Taehyung laughed. You snuck a glance at him and smiled before picking up your cup of tea and taking a sip of tea.

hii anon, here you go, hope you enjoyed it and thank you for the request :)

i didn't thoroughly proofread so my apologies if there's any typos that make it hard to understand :)

part of quote game , submit request here

#anon ask #bts drabble #kpop drabbles #bts fanfic #bts scenarios #bts fluff #kpop fluff #kim taehyung fluff #kim taehyung #taehyung fanfic #kim taehyung fic #bts taehyung #taehyung fluff #taehyung imagine #taehyung drabble #quote game #prompt game #taehyung x reader #taehyung x y/n

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mochegato · 3 years

Text

Even the Losers

Chapter 17

Chapter 1 Chapter 16

Marinette shook her head and tried to hide her giggles. Red Robin had to have thought he was being discrete, right? Unless he was intentionally making himself known as a way to intimidate any more rogues from trying to get to her. He was discrete enough that the average person probably wouldn’t notice him, but anyone paying attention, looking for him, would see him easily.

She waited until he was looking down at her again and waved at him. He smiled and waved back before blushing, shaking his head, and motioning for her to continue. Marinette grinned and looked back at the map on her phone. The restaurant Jason chose was around here somewhere. One of the places he just ended up at a lot, he said. Low key and cozy, exactly the kind of place she needed right now.

After that, he said he was planning on following her around for the rest of the day. He’d said it in a joking tone, but she knew there was nothing joking about his intent. He would be shadowing her for the rest of the day. He couldn’t hide the gravity behind the statement. He couldn’t mask the concerned questions, no matter how casually he tried to play them off. The insistence on seeing her apartment, make sure the view was good enough and the kitchen was stocked enough. The way he casually suggested she teach him how to make a baked good she liked.

Honestly, she was shocked he let her walk there on her own, but he said he’d be have eyes on her anyway. She looked back up at Red Robin with a smile. Clearly, he wasn’t kidding. White lensed eyes. The smile quickly morphed into a frown when she couldn’t see him. He hadn’t been hidden this whole time, so where was he now? She squeaked and whirled around into a fighting stance when she heard someone land behind her. She barely had time to put her hands down before Red Robin was standing next to her, his hand on her shoulder while he looked around, eyes sharp and calculating.

Marinette followed his lead and scanned the crowd. In lieu of knowing what she was looking for, she kept her eye out for anything that seemed out of place. Everything looked normal though. Nothing seemed suspicious. There were a few people throwing them odd looks, but nothing that seemed hostile or calculating, instead it seemed more curious and fearful of what having a vigilante dropping down in the middle of the night meant for them.

Red Robin turned back to face her. “Let’s get you somepl…” his hand went up to his ear. “Shit!”

Marinette’s eyes widened in fear. “What happened? Did someone get hurt?”

Red Robin’s eyes looked around them again and narrowed at one of the buildings. He moved his arm to her back and firmly pushed her toward the building. “Nobody is hurt.”

She looked at him doubtfully. “But…”

“There’s just an issue that needs attention, but nobody has been hurt,” he assured her, looking down briefly to meet her eyes.

Marinette nodded uncertainly, not feeling calmer with his reassurance. She couldn’t see his eyes past the white filters to gauge his sincerity, and it was unsettling. “So my friend and brother, my… the Waynes, they’re… nobody is hurt?”

Red Robin paused almost imperceptibly. If she hadn’t become used to his constant pressure on her back, she wouldn’t have noticed. He looked back down at her as they walked, the tense muscles in his face softened considerably. “They’re all safe. Your friend and brother and family. They’re all safe. I promise. I just need to go assist someone, but I don’t want to leave you alone.”

Marinette raised an eyebrow at him. “I can defend myself you know.”

Red Robin gave her a deadpan expression. She’s sure if he didn’t have a mask, he’d have his own eyebrow raised at her. “After last night, you can understand that we and your family are a bit concerned and perhaps a bit overprotective just right now.”

Marinette rolled her eyes with a sigh but didn’t fight him. “So you’re going to, what? Hide me in some abandoned office until everything blows over? That sounds safe.”

Red Robin huffed out a laugh. “Absolutely safe. That is our standard approach. I’m glad you understand how we operate.” He gave her a look she couldn’t quite decipher with his mask in the way. “No. I think your family would hunt me down if I did something so reckless with you. They’re quite protective, you know?”

Marinette opened her mouth to say something but shut it quickly. He was a stranger. There was absolutely no reason to get into her family dynamics with him. “No,” he continued, oblivious to her uncertainty. “I’m going to stash you with someone we know we can trust.”

Marinette looked up at him with narrowed eyes. “A babysitter.”

The corners of Red Robin’s mouth quirked up. “Well, if you’re going to whine like a baby…” he teased.

Marinette gasped dramatically. “If you want whining, I can show you whining. I grew up with the most spoiled brat in existence. I can give new meaning to the word.” Red Robin actually laughed as he opened the door to the business. “You know, I’m supposed to meet my… um… br… brother,” she stuttered over the word. “Jason’s going to wonder about me.”

Red Robin cringed slightly. “You should probably text him. It isn’t a good idea for you to go out until this is resolved.” Marinette nodded and shot a text off to Jason letting him know she was okay and Red Robin was putting her somewhere safe for a bit.

They heard movement from the building, finally drawing Marinette’s attention to the business they had gone into. “Can I help… T… Red Robin? Marinette?” Roy asked pushing out from behind a motorcycle with its transmission in his hands.

“Hey, I was hoping you could watch Marinette while I take care of something. You’re a friend with the Waynes right?” Red Robin asked pointedly.

Roy stared at him for a few seconds before realization set in. “Yeah. Yeah, we’re like fam…” he looked over to Marinette, “well, not family family. But, uh, yeah.”

Red Robin cocked his head to the side and pursed his lips. “No, I’m pretty sure you are con…” he was cut off by something in his com. He paused for a moment to listen before turning back to Roy with what Marinette was pretty sure was supposed to be a glare. “I’m trusting you,” he growled. “There’s some madness going on.”

Roy’s face turned serious and he gave him a determined nod. “I’ll protect her. Go.”

Red Robin looked between them for a second then nodded and took off. Roy and Marinette watched him leave for a second before turning back to each other. Marinette gave him a shy smile. “Hi,” she waved sheepishly. “Sorry to just drop in on you like this.”

Roy gave her a welcoming smile and motioned to the garage bay. “Not at all. I guess you’re just visiting sooner than we anticipated. Can’t say I’m upset at all.” He moved some parts off of a stool and motioned toward it for her to sit. “I should say sorry that you have to hunker down here. You definitely look like you were going somewhere a bit nicer.”

Marinette looked down at her outfit analytically, a blood red, long-sleeved blouse, black skinny jeans, and black heeled boots. She’d wanted to wear ladybug colors after the previous night in the Riddler’s facility and the Wayne dining room. Ladybug colors always reminded her of the strongest, most resilient parts of herself. She looked back up at him, her eyes catching on the coat rack behind him. “Excuse you. All I need is that jacked over there and I’d fit right in. In fact, I’d match your baby.”

Roy looked to where she was looking, seeing his black leather jacket hanging up. He blushed slightly at the idea of her wearing his jacket. He could picture it on her, the jacket hanging loosely off of her significantly smaller frame, her clinging to him as they rode on his bike… He looked back at her with a soft look. “And you would still be too classy to be here.”

Marinette pouted at him. “You say that like I don’t fit in.” She didn’t want to say the ‘with you’ that was running through her head. Did he think she wouldn’t fit with him? “I can fit. I can even be helpful.”

Roy shook his head. “No, not at all just…” He motioned to his own clothes, an old tee, stained jeans, and a backwards ball cap that was just as stained with grease as his jeans, and then motioned to her.

Marinette looked between the two of them and grinned. “You underestimate my ability to get dirty. Give me a few minutes and I’ll be as dirty as you.”

Roy’s eyes snapped to the wrench in his hand. Based on the complete lack of amusement or sultriness in her eyes, she did not at all realize what she just said. He took a few seconds, it may have been minutes, to calm his heart and mind. “Okay, how about you prove it?”

Marinette raised an eyebrow at him. “Prove what?”

“That you can be helpful. Roll up those sleeves and help me with this engine.” He motioned to the transmission on the workbench next to her. “I can also get you some coveralls so your outfit won’t get dirty if you prefer.” He looked back at her with an amused glint in his eyes. “They’ll be a bit big on you…” Marinette narrowed her eyes at him but his eyes danced with even more amusement at her reaction. “Since you’re so litt…”

“You know what…” she cut him off, standing to get in his personal space. She stared up at him, her eyes meeting his for a moment before her cheeks burst into color. She looked away and cleared her throat. After a second to recover, she motioned to the transmission as she rolled up her sleeves. “Just tell me what you’re doing and how I can help.”

Roy grinned and twirled the wrench in his hand. “Yes, ma’am.”

He leaned over the transmission and started loosening one of the nuts holding the piece together. His hand faltered for a fraction of a second when Marinette leaned next to him, close enough for him to feel her breath as she let out a sigh, close enough to feel her body heat. Close enough he could easily wrap his arms around her and pull her against him. He had to tighten his hands to keep them from reaching over.

He took a breath to focus. Now was not the time. She had just been kidnapped and people could take a bit of time to recover from something like that, especially considering the things she had said about having a breakdown. He flicked his eyes over to her trying to assess how she was doing. Her eyes were intently watching his hands as they moved around the transmission. They were sharp and her body seemed to be relaxing the longer she watched him work. If he didn’t know better, he’d never know she had been kidnapped and threatened the night before.

She looked up at him questioningly when his hands stilled as he analyzed her. He gave her a small smile and motioned toward the tool box. “Um… I need… Can you, um, get me the, um… 5/16th wrench, please?” he stuttered.

Marinette jumped up to search through the wrenches in the box. She frowned, her lip jutting out as she searched. “I don’t see it here. Is there somewhere else it could be?”

Roy’s face scrunched as he tried to remember where else he might have used it. He’d been working on the bike almost all day. He looked back at the motorcycle trying to remember what he had done with it. He was broken from his concentration by Marinette’s light giggle. He looked over to her with a raised brow.

Marinette looked away quickly, another blush on her cheeks. She followed where his line of sight had been and searched around the motorcycle, focusing her energy on her search for the wrench instead of the adorable face he made when he was concentrating and the way his nose wrinkled up in thought and his lips quirked to the side. After a minute of looking she shook her head and held her empty hands out for him to see.

“Any other ideas?” she asked as she came back over to her stool.

Roy sighed deeply and scanned the workbench. He had a backup set of wrenches, but he knew he had used that one recently. It couldn’t have gone too far. His attention was brought back to Marinette when she giggled again, her giggles turning into full blown laughter. He gave her a confused look which made her laugh louder. She reached over the workbench, almost climbing onto it to grab the wrench that was behind the transmission. She held the wrench out to him triumphantly with a smug, teasing smile on her lips.

Roy fought choking on air at the sight of her climbing onto his workbench and all the images that immediately flooded into his mind involving that particular scenario, especially in his jacket… and nothing else. He took the wrench, hoping she believed the blush he knew was on his cheek was from embarrassment rather than where his thoughts had gone. “Thanks,” he managed to mutter out.

“Anytime,” she grinned back. “See?” she motioned to herself. “Helpful.”

Roy chuckled and shook his head fondly. “Guess I’ll have to keep you around then.”

Marinette chuckled and let her focus settle back on the part he was working on. She watched his hands move effortlessly and confidently over the pieces. “Flathead screwdriver,” he asked, holding out his hand for her. She quickly grabbed one and slapped it in his hand like he was a surgeon. He looked up at her with a grin. “Thanks, nurse.”

Marinette shook her head and let her gaze pass over the garage bay. She quirked her head to the side when her eyes settled on a bow leaning up against the wall by the door. “What’s with the bow?”

Roy’s head jerked up. His eyes immediately found his bow and quiver. He looked back at her with an almost natural smile. “Oh, I just… like to shoot.”

“It’s yours?” she asked perking up.

“Yeah… I just pulled it out… recently.” His eyes flicked to the cut on her cheek quickly before returning to the transmission.

Marinette looked back at the bow. “That sounds fun. I always wanted to learn. How did you learn?”

Roy’s eyes took on a far off look and a sentimental smile spread on his lips. “My father, my adopted father.”

“Oliver?” Marinette asked, confusion clear in her voice as she tried to reconcile the sentimental smile with his description in the bar.

“Ah, so you know,” Roy said quietly, eyes suddenly in focus and pointed at the transmission.

Marinette gave him a sympathetic smile. “Sorry. Damian… he um… thought I knew,” she stuttered out. She really didn’t want to get into that conversation right now. She was sure Roy would be upset and it was just something she wanted to leave between her and Damian, not someone else. “He just mentioned it yesterday.”

Roy nodded and flicked his eyes up to her for a second, gauging her reaction, waiting for the questions. There were always questions. Questions about Oliver, questions about their relationship, questions about their money. The exact combination might change but they were always there. “Sorry for bringing it up,” she said quietly.

Roy shook his head, with a small smile. “No. It isn’t your fault. No not Oliver. It was before Oliver. My birth father died saving me from a forest fire and a man named Brave Bow adopted me. He raised me. He was a really good man. He taught me how to be a good person and how to shoot… and just about everything else I know.”

The smile on Roy’s face made Marinette smile too. “He sounds like a good father.”

Roy nodded. “He was,” he said quietly. He looked over at her hesitantly before focusing back on the piece he was working on. “How are you feeling?”

Marinette quirked her head to the side. “Feeling? Not as useful as I could be. A burden on you more than a help, if I’m being honest,” she shrugged.

Roy snorted. “Sorry, I’ll try to get you to do more of my work for me.” He sent her a smirk that got an eye roll out of her. “And I would never call you a burden. In fact, I’d fight to keep you nearby,” he added quietly, no longer meeting her eyes. He tried to focus on the transmission but he could feel her eyes on him, making it impossible to think of anything else.

After a few seconds he cleared his throat. “I mean after,” he motioned toward her face, his hand still grasping the gear he had just removed. “How are you handling it? The Riddler’s no joke.”

Marinette scoffed and picked up a wrench. She spun it in her hand as a distraction while she spoke. “He really isn’t. I didn’t find him funny at all.” Roy gave her a flat look and returned to working on the part, letting her decide to continue discussing it or not. “How did you know?” she asked quietly.

“He broadcast it to all Gotham. Everybody knows. Everybody saw you deliver the verbal smack down of the century,” he grinned at her. “It was inspiring. You were amazing.”

“I was pissed is what I was,” she grumbled. She looked away and sighed, running her hand over her face and grimacing when she accidentally touched her cut. “I forgot everyone would see that.”

She stared at the wrench as she twirled it in her hands. She knew the Waynes probably knew she was taken. She’d called Jason to let him know she was fine, but had pretended she had to go talk to the police and cut the call short. She really didn’t want to talk to them after the scene at dinner. She didn’t want to have the conversations she knew they were going to want to have. She just wanted to move on. It didn’t have anything to do with them, especially the kids. It was her past, one they had no way of knowing about and no way of helping with. There was no reason to hash through it all again.

But she hadn’t realized they would get to see the full video. She frowned at the thought. She’d said so much while she was yelling and she couldn’t remember what all she had said. It was a moment of weakness that now the entire city, possibly the world now knew about. Thankfully she was positive she didn’t mention anything about the miraculous so to anyone watching she would have looked like any other normal, non-miraculous wielding person.

And on top of it all, she wasn’t sure if she was grateful or upset that M. Wayne hadn’t reached out to see if she was alright. All of the kids had even Lucius had, but not him… or Alfred. After the way she left, he might not feel like he’s allowed to. But still… he hadn’t bothered to check on her at all.

She looked up with a weak smile. “Guess I’ve truly experienced Gotham now.”

Roy grimaced. “Sorry about that.” He watched her as she seemed to work through her feelings on the matter, going from annoyed to hurt. He returned his attention to the engine part. “I think I need to start calling you Fire Flower.”

Marinette looked up at him curiously. “Fire Flower?”

“Yeah,” he looked up briefly with a spark in his eyes. “It’s like a fire cracker, but cuter. More impressive to look at.” Marinette blushed and looked down, accidentally dropping the wrench she had been playing with. Roy grinned widely at her before focusing back on his work. “You sure you feel safe?” he asked, still focusing on the engine.

Marinette nodded. “I have Adrien and Max. We might not look like we can protect ourselves, but we’re pretty good at it.” Actually incredibly well. She was possibly the best protected person in the world right now, but he didn’t have any way of knowing that.

“I’m actually pretty surprised Adrien isn’t with you right now or Max.” He looked over at her with a raised eyebrow.

Marinette nodded. “You’re not wrong. They would be but Max just started work and couldn’t really take a day off immediately and Adrien had a job interview in Metropolis today. And this is the one he’s really excited about. I was supposed to go with him and check out Metropolis, but then I wouldn’t have had anyone with me while he was in the interview and that made them a bit too nervous. Here at least they know I have the bats following me at all times so, they were pretty confident I was safe.”

“The bats are keeping an eye on you, huh?” Roy asked with a secretive grin.

Marinette nodded. “I’m not sure if they’re trying to be subtle, but yeah. I don’t know what kind of relationship they have with the Waynes. They mentioned… the bats certainly act like they talk a lot and know each other well.”

Roy froze for a second. Well, they certainly weren’t being as discrete as they normally are, it would seem. Although after last night, he could imagine they were pretty flustered. He had been and she was just an acquaintance to him. He wanted it to be more but… that wasn’t the point. But at this rate, she was going to figure it out before they told her and he didn’t imagine that going well for them. “So you’ve caught them a few times?”

“Caught is a liberal term for it. Is it catching if they aren’t really hiding? I think Red Robin might have been trying… maybe, but Batman was on our balcony, standing vigil all night last night.”

Roy glanced over for a second. “Batman was watching over your apartment last night?”

Marinette nodded. “Markov said he was there until Red Robin took over some time around breakfast.”

Roy paused for a few seconds then tapped the screwdriver against the workbench. “And… Bruce? Did Bruce check in on you?”

Marinette looked away and licked her lips before pursing them. She twisted the wrench around a few more times, focusing entirely on that, not meeting Roy’s eyes. “No,” she finally said in a falsely calm voice. “I… I didn’t… Dinner didn’t go so well.”

Roy moved closer to her until he was close enough to reach her comfortably but still gave her space so he wasn’t crowding her. He ducked his head to try to meet her eyes. She yielded quickly and met his eyes. “He’s worried about you. I guarantee you he is. He’s just… shit at emotions and reading a room.

“If you guys fought, I promise you he isn’t less worried about you, he’s just afraid that seeing him or hearing from him will upset you more. I promise you he’s finding out everything he can about how you are from anyone that will tell him. He cares. Your fight didn’t push him away. He’s just a fucking idiot. And an asshole, so there’s like a 97% chance if you did fight, it was his fault. And he probably knows that, just not how to make it up to you.”

Marinette huffed out a laugh despite her eyes suddenly turning glassy. “I don’t need him to make it up, just… it’s not even his fault. It was mine really.” She fiddled with the wrench in her hands, testing the strength, trying to bend it, focusing on that as if it was the most interesting thing in the room.

“I doubt it.” He sighed and readjusted his cap as he tried to come up with the right words. “I’ve found that when bad things happen at the manor it’s almost always because Bruce was being a controlling little bitch.” Instead of laughing, she frowned at the wrench. Right, calling her father, she’s trying to connect to a ‘controlling little bitch’ probably isn’t really helping. He sighed and looked back up trying to figure out how to remove the frown. It didn’t look right on her face. She should be smiling. Always. “Do you want a hug?”

Marinette finally looked up from the wrench in surprise. After a second she gave him a weak smile and shook her head, returning her focus to the wrench. “I’m fine.”

Roy lightly placed his hand on the wrench to stop its motion. “That’s not what I asked,” he said gently.

She blinked at him a few times before a smirk quirked her lips up. “I mean… I’m not going to object to a handsome man wrapping his arms around me,” she answered slyly, throwing his words from days earlier back at him. Roy grinned and wrapped his arms around her, gently at first but holding her tighter as the hug went on. His arms were strong and reassuring, giving a sense of warmth and safety and Marinette quickly found herself melting into his embrace. She nuzzled into his chest and dear God, she could feel his muscles moving through his shirt with every minute movement.

She tried to hide her frown when he pulled away after a few minutes. But, it turned into a smile when he stopped after a few inches, just enough to look down at her. Roy smiled softly and rubbed her cheek with his thumb a few times. Marinette leaned into his hand, captivated by the feel of his hand on her face. He started to lean down but jumped away with the sound of clattering right next to them. Roy moved in front of her, caging her in behind him as he looked for the source of the sound.

Marinette grimaced and leaned down to pick up the wrench that had slipped through her fingers when she was looking at Roy. He chuckled awkwardly and moved back to his transmission. He started working on it again a lot slower than he had been before. His hands were shaking slightly. He could still feel the traces of her on his fingers and around his chest, trilling through him. “Can you… um… the. Can you hand me the Phillips head, please?” he stuttered, unable to get his mind settled.

Marinette stared at him for a few seconds, her cheeks still bright red, as her mind tried to kick back into gear. She looked at the tools in the toolbox and back to him. “Is… that’s a tool, not like a horror movie thing, right?”

Roy blinked a few times before breaking out in laughter. Marinette smiled at his laughter, beyond grateful for the change of topic. “The one with the cross for a head,” he said motioning toward the screwdrivers.

“Oh,” Marinette nodded in understanding. “Tournevis cruciform,” she muttered to herself as she searched through the tools for the right screwdriver. “Americans and their naming things.”

Roy grinned at her outrage. “And what do you call it? The cross screwdriver.” he teased.

“That is literally what it translates to,” she deadpanned.

Roy puckered his lips in an attempt at keeping a smile off his lips and make his annoyed wrinkled brow more believable. “Oh, well I bow to your superior naming capabilities,” he snarked with a fake bow.

Marinette nodded graciously and passed the screwdriver to him. “Thank you. That’s all I ask.”

Roy laughed and returned to the transmission, pretending like he could focus on that instead of the kiss they almost had. Marinette watched, almost transfixed as he moved the gears synchronously on the transmission, creating intricate and ever changing patterns. She pulled her sketchbook and pencil out to capture a sudden idea.

“The wrench?” Roy called out, not looking up from the transmission. He held out his hand and waited for a few seconds before adding, “Please?” He waited a little longer before repeating it a bit louder. “Wrench, please?” He finally looked up when she still hadn’t handed it to him. “Marinette?” He looked over to her concerned. His face immediately softened when he saw her.

Marinette’s face was frozen in intense concentration on her sketchbook as she drew confidently and without hesitation. She held the sketchbook out and tilted it slightly. She narrowed her eyes at it and tilted it a different way. Her mouth curved into a satisfied smirk before she added in more details and notes. Her eyes lit up with inspiration, bright and clear. She shook her head to get a stray strand of hair out of her eyes, hands too busy committing her inspiration to paper to waste time with such trivialities. Roy shook his head, mentally berating himself for having backed off before. She had been right there and leaning toward him. Maybe Jason and Dick… and Tim and Damian, were right. He was an idiot.

Before Roy realized what he was doing, he had reached out to tuck it behind her ear, being careful to avoid her cut as his fingers brushed her face. Marinette jumped at the unexpected contact. She looked up at him wide eyed but a sheepish look quickly overtook her expression. She looked down in embarrassment, but that only pressed her face further into Roy’s hand, which made her embarrassed blush deepen but not due to embarrassment this time. “Sorry. Did you need a tool?”

Roy shook his head. He smiled and moved his hand slightly so it was cupping her face this time. “It’s fine. I was enjoying watching you get caught up in inspiration.”

Marinette looked down again and rolled her eyes. “Yeah, right. It is probably the most embarrassing face.”

Roy smiled softly at her, his eyes shining with sincerity and fondness. “No. It wasn’t. It was cute.” He took a step closer to her and leaned a bit closer, more intimately. “I wouldn’t mind seeing it more.”

“More of my too distracted to pay attention to you face?” she smirked and leaned closer to him.

“Any version of your face you’ll let me see. Although I would prefer to see it with fewer cuts,” he frowned at the cut on her cheek as he rubbed a soothing line just below the bruise that had formed around the cut. He leaned closer to examine the cut until his lips were centimeters from her cheek. He flicked his eyes to her half lidded ones and leaned to close the distance.

“Hey, guys!” Dick boomed as he came into the room. Marinette and Roy jumped apart, or rather Roy jumped away and Marinette straightened up on the stool, grabbing the workbench to keep from falling off. “Sorry I’m late. And sorry I’m here instead of Jason. He got… caught up in the attack. Not personally!” he rushed to assure Marinette when her eyes widened and body stiffened. “I meant he’s dealing with the fallout. Jason is fine. He’d just be really, really late and asked if I could come over here instead. If that’s okay.”

Marinette nodded, but her eyes were still slightly widened. “Of course. But you’re sure Jason’s okay?”

“Absolutely,” Dick shot her a charming smile. “He’s just going to need a bit of time to deal with things,” he lied smoothly. He looked between Marinette and Roy with narrowed eyes and moved between them as he hugged Marinette. “He really, really wanted to be here with you today. I think he’s planning on attaching himself to you tomorrow though.”

Marinette chuckled lightly. “That’s okay. We’ll have fun doing something.” Her face suddenly sobered. “Oh, no, wait. I have lunch with Duke and Cass tomorrow. I mean… I think I have lunch with them. We had planned it, but that was before…” she trailed off, not wanting to go into detail at all, but especially in front of Roy.

“I’m sure you still do,” Dick assured her. “They’re probably just waiting to get confirmation from you in case the last few days were a bit much and you wanted a break.”

“No!” Marinette exclaimed. “No. I’ll text them. Thanks.”

“But I get you for tonight. How do you feel about a movie marathon?” he grinned widely, already planning a full night’s marathon with her, Adrien, and Max. She had to love Disney movies, right? Who didn’t love Disney movies?

“I like movies,” Roy chirped with a teasing grin.

“No,” he answered sharply. He turned back to Marinette with a mock sympathetic smile. “You must have been so bored here.”

Roy narrowed his eyes back at him but Marinette jumped up to defend Roy. “Not at all. It was interesting watching him working on the bike. I got some good inspiration too.”

Roy raised a pointed eyebrow at him with a smug grin. “Motorcycles remind her of her grandmother.”

Dick looked back at Marinette who was looking back at Roy with a surprised expression. “Good memory.”

“I remember important things,” he shrugged.

Dick glared at him. “Uh huh. But not to check if things are loaded.” He looked back at Marinette. “You’ve got something just there,” he motioned to the cheek Roy had stroked earlier. “You might want to get that grease off.”

“Oh!” Marinette exclaimed grabbing her cheek, almost succeeding in covering the blush that flushed on her cheeks. “Do you have a bathroom I can use?”

Roy nodded and motioned toward the bathroom. “Just right over there.”

As soon as the door closed, Dick punched Roy’s shoulder. Roy frowned at him. “What?”

“What the Hell are you doing?” Dick hissed and motioned toward the bathroom.

“What?” Roy answered rubbing his shoulder. At least it was just Dick. If it was Jason, he’d be rubbing his jaw right now. “Tim dropped her off here. What was I supposed to do? Ignore her?”

“You were supposed to not hit on her,” he grumbled.

“That’s just unreasonable,” Roy rolled his eyes and leaned back against the workbench. He motioned to the bathroom. “Have you met her? She’s smart and sassy and really sweet. She's funny and obviously gorgeous. Who doesn’t want to hit on her?”

“Yeah. I’ve met her. Didn’t hit on her.” Dick let out a long suffering sigh. “Jesus, Roy! I’ve had her as a sister for like a week. I don’t want to lose her because I’m in jail for killing you.”

“You’re her brother, you don’t count in the hitting on her count. And please,” Roy scoffed, “you’re too good to go to jail for it.”

“True. Just…” he narrowed his eyes at him and pointed at him threateningly, “if you mess around and hurt her… I’ll choose her over you. And I won’t forget to load the magazines and Jason will be more than happy to use them.”

“That’s hurtful,” Roy groused. “One time. I forgot to load the magazines one time.”

“Yeah, in the middle of a mission!” Dick whisper hissed.

“You survived,” Roy shrugged. “Stop being such a baby. But I get it. I’d choose her over me too. Or you. But if you were going to kill anyone for hurting her, Riddler wouldn’t still be alive… or Bruce.”

Dick pursed his lips at the reminder of how Bruce had treated Marinette, of everything that had come up the night before. His anger quickly deflating. He looked toward the bathroom, his eyes softening. They really needed to work harder to support her, to assure her they weren’t holding her at arm’s length. Maybe talk to Bruce about telling her the truth. That seemed like the only possible way to salvage this. “How does she seem to be doing?”

Roy shrugged and watched the bathroom door to make sure she wouldn’t walk in on the conversation. “Actually doesn’t seem too bothered by the Riddler incident. She’s more anxious about the family knowing.” He pursed his lips and picked up a transmission piece, pretending to examine it. “Bruce hasn’t said anything or made any attempts as far as she knows.”

Dick sighed and massaged his temples. “That should surprise me more than it does.” He let out a heavy sigh. “Last night… dinner didn’t… some things came out that Bruce didn’t know. Things she had to go through. He’s beating himself up over it. Too ashamed to talk to her.”

Roy sighed and shook his head. Bruce was going to lose her before he even had her at this point. “That have anything to do with why she’s so unaffected by having been taken captive by one of the most dangerous rogues in Gotham?” Dick’s resigned sigh was enough confirmation for him. “Fuck,” he grumbled. “She thinks it’s her fault he doesn’t want to bother with her anymore.”

“Damn it,” Dick grumbled, drawing out the words in frustration. He ran his hand over his face and collapsed on the stool she had been on earlier. “Good to know. Thanks.”

Roy nodded and threw the part back on the workbench. “How’s Jay doing?”

“He’ll be okay. Tim got there in time to stop him from going too far, but he’s going to need a few hours, maybe the night to let the Pit Madness recede. And I think he’s really nervous about showing any part of that to Marinette.”

They both snapped their attention to Marinette when she came back. “My cheek look better?” she turned her cheek for them to see. “I mean obviously not the cut.”

“Yeah, you look beautiful.” Roy assured her and handed her purse to her.

Dick glared at Roy. “Could you stop hitting on my sister for five seconds?” he hissed low enough for Marinette not to hear. He turned to Marinette before Roy could respond. “Ready to go? I don’t know about you but I’m hungry.”

Marinette rolled her eyes. “Yeah, yeah, okay.”

Dick walked ahead of her, pretending like he didn’t notice her lag behind. When he was almost out the door, she turned to Roy and gave him a lingering kiss on his cheek. “Thank you for babysitting me today and for the tour the other day. I’ve had a lot of fun.”

Roy nodded and handed her his phone with a spot for Fire Flower already started in his contacts. “If your plans ever get canceled again or you need to hide out or you need to borrow a jacket so you fit in, give me a call, Fire Flower.”

Marinette put her number in and passed it back to him with a grin. “You have extra you can just loan out?”

Roy grinned back and nodded. “A few jackets, suit coats, shirts, ties, clean pants, even a few pairs of coveralls, none of which would fit you, but if you ever need them… Or even if you don’t need anything, just want to talk or hang out, let me know.”

“Marinette! I thought you were ready to go?” Dick yelled.

Marinette shook her head and sighed. She waved to Roy as she rushed out. “Thanks again!”

Roy watched her leave until he couldn’t see her anymore. He let out a deep sigh and collapsed against the workbench. He looked at his phone and quickly sent a text with a smile.

Tags:

@maribat-bdbwm @jayjayspixiepop @redscarlet95 @alice-hazelwood @deathssilentapproach-blog @unoriginalmess @alyssadeliv @emotionalsupportginger @frieddonutsweets @when-no-wings-do-broomsticks @toodaloo-kangaroo @colorfulmongerpsychicranch @iloontjeboontje @wolf-for-life @maribatserver @aespades @prettylittlebutterflie @imarivers8 @ certainmuffinbagelcalzone @ritacrow-blog @unoriginalmess @demonicbusiness @kking13 @lady-bee-fechin @blur-of-colours @kittenmywaythrulife @kashlyn @loysydark

#maribat #bio!dad bruce #bio dad bruce wayne #roynette #Even the Losers #prompt - no miraculous au #this is the last chapter I have written already so updates are going to be more sporadic from here on out #mbdbwm2021

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vanilla107 · 3 years

Text

Eclipse (in the shaded shadows where you and i meet)

Pairing: Ekko x Jinx

Words: 10 899

Summary: “Did you really mean what you said inside?” Ekko asked.

“Mean what?”

“The whole ‘you wanted to feel pretty and wear a nice dress for this evening’ thing.”

He watched her open her eyes and she looked at him before pushing down her skirts and gliding her hands over the fabric.

“We never got this kind of stuff in Zaun. I just wanted to experience it just this once,” Jinx murmured.

Tags: Fluff, New Year’s Eve Fluff, New Year’s Kiss, I needed an excuse to make them wear fancy clothes and slow dance, he is the sun, she is the moon, slow dancing.

Read on AO3

"Are you sure this isn't a bit...much?" Ekko asked, raising his arm and feeling the soft fabric against his skin, and Heimerdinger laughed.

"Of course not, my boy! This type of finery is completely normal at the Piltover New Year's Eve ball."

The suit was nothing short of extravagant. It was a white two-piece suit with a cape and gold embroidery adorning the shoulders and back. There was a large sun motif on the back of the cape that matched his gold shoes and rings. It was minimalist enough to not draw too much attention but enough to blend in with the other guests.

Ekko only stared at his reflection in the mirror before rolling his shoulders back and sighing. He was beginning to regret accepting the invitation from Heimerdinger as his plus one. He was aware of the annual Piltover New Year's Eve Ball and remembered his mother paging through the old magazines displaying the pictures of the guests arriving when he was growing up.

It was practically a fashion show and one of the biggest social events of the year, with celebrities, socialites, and leaders from all around being invited. Every year there was a theme and people who were invited went all out with their outfits. Ekko never thought he'd be one of the guests though, so standing in a Piltover boutique wearing a suit that surely cost more than his life, was surreal.

Heimerdinger had received his invitation a month prior and initially planned to not go but for some reason changed his mind last minute. He had begged Ekko to go with him and at first, Ekko had rejected the invitation. He despised Piltover and everything they stood for, so why would he go to a fancy ball that celebrated everything Piltover was when he knew that they didn't give a shit about Zaun?

But Heimerdinger opened up to him about Jayce Talis and Viktor and Ekko felt pity for the old professor. He could imagine how hurt he felt by Jayce's betrayal and in a moment of empathy, he accepted the invitation.

But standing in a Piltover boutique getting the last fittings done, it felt all sorts of wrong to go to a Piltover event as the leader of the Firelights.

"I don't know Heimerdinger...I don't know if I should do this," he mumbled.

Heimerdinger paused before ushering the fashion consultant out of the room. Once they were alone and double checked to make sure no one was eavesdropping, Heimerdinger lowered his voice as he turned to face him.

"What are your concerns about tonight, Ekko?"

"I...it just feels wrong. I'm the leader of the Firelights. I hate how topsiders treat us. I should be representing them. Not...not Piltover. And going to a fancy ball that’s reserved for the elite…I feel like a fraud," Ekko said with frustration.

Heimerdinger walked onto the platform and looked into the mirror at their reflections. He also wore a white suit with gold thread, the design simple in comparison to Ekko's suit, before standing up straight.

"I know this is hard for you and if you choose to back out, I won't be upset, but this isn't about representing Piltover at all. This is about representing you. You will be asked for your name and where you're from at the staircase and they will announce who you are. You aren't representing Piltover, Ekko. You're representing Zaun at a Piltover Ball. See this as an opportunity to show them who you are and what Zaun means to you. I would never ask you to represent a city that has let you down."

Ekko let Heimerdinger's words sink in before shaking his shoulders.

You're representing Zaun and what Zaun means to you.

He nodded and took a deep breath in before exhaling. He gazed at his reflection before grinning at Heimerdinger.

"Okay. Let's go to this fancy ball then."

~~~

Ekko was sweating under the bright lights as he walked towards the staircase. He didn't know how Heimerdinger was fine with his fur and the heat of the lights but he focused on relaxing. He was thankful that Hiemerdinger had chosen to skip the red carpet and avoid the paparazzi and cameras. He didn't need the Firelights to see him in the tabloids even though the likelihood of that was low.

You're representing Zaun. You'll be fine. Just schmooze your way in.

They walked to the announcer where Heimerdinger gave their invitation with their names scribbled on the top before the announcer turned to face the ballroom.

"Introducing Cecil B. Heimerdinger from Piltover and Ekko from Zaun."

It was as if the entire ballroom froze as their names were mentioned and Ekko's heart thudded in his chest as he felt the stares on him.

"Just be calm, my boy. You know who you are," Heimerdinger whispered as they descended down the stairs.

They walked down and Ekko took in the sight of the room. It was a marble and gold masterpiece with high ceilings and Piltover decor. There were white curtains along the sides of the walls and intricate centerpieces on the buffet tables. There was an orchestra softly playing music in the front and a few people swaying as they spoke but no one was dancing yet. Ekko figured that people would start dancing as the evening went on. He could hear the whispers of 'Zaun? That man is from Zaun?' and 'Heimerdinger? Wasn't he voted off council?' as they walked to the buffet table like filled with the most food he had ever seen.

This could feed the Firelights for at least a week.

He watched Heimerdinger take a plate and choose his food before following. Ekko wasn’t sure what he was looking for, so he grabbed a few things that look appetizing. They walked off to the side to watch other people mingle and he eyed Heimerdinger.

"Well that was…"

"Embarrassing?" finished Heimerdinger and Ekko chuckled. "I didn't expect a reaction like that to happen. I should've known about it with my status as an ex-council member and how some people here thrive off of gossip. I'm sorry."

"It's no problem. I'm used to large crowds staring at me with speeches to the Firelights," he said softly and Heimerdinger gave him a smile.

Ekko ate his food, his mouth in heaven as he tried the different finger foods. He wondered if this was everyday food for Pilties before taking another bite. He picked up a piece of fish (at least he assumed it was fish) and chewed it experimentally before nodding in bliss.

“If there’s one thing Piltover can do, it’s throw a good party,” Ekko hummed and Heimerdinger laughed as he bit into a mini sponge cake.

"Ah, Heimerdinger! So glad you could make it!" a voice said and Ekko looked up to see a beautiful woman in a halter-neck gold dress that reached her ankles. Her braids were loose and her sharp brown eyes took in his appearance.

"And you’re plus one from Zaun. Ekko, correct?"

"Yes. It is a pleasure to meet you, Councilor Medarda."

She raised an eyebrow in surprise and smiled, her expression softening almost instantly.

"The pleasure is all mine. I must admit when you responded to the invitation, Heimerdinger, I was surprised that you included a plus one and to hear that he's from Zaun was certainly not my expectation.”

“I wasn’t sure anyone would want to talk to me if I went alone so I asked Ekko to accompany me. He’s a brilliant inventor.”

Mel laughed and Ekko eyed her curiously. All the information he could find on her was sparse. All he could gather from research was that she was from Noxus and came to Piltover where she became part of the council a few years later.

Other than that, Mel Medarda was a mystery to him.

“Of course he’s an inventor!” she said as she regained her composure before focusing on Heimerdinger.

“Heimerdinger, I'd like to think that you aren't an outcast just because you're no longer on the council. While I came here to greet you, the real reason I’m here is because I don’t want any bad blood between us. I know a lot has happened but I do hope we can be civil. I don't want you to cut all ties with the people you've build friendships withjust because you aren't on council anymore."

Ekko watched as Heimerdinger nodded his head.

"No hard feelings Mel. I understand why Jayce made that decision."

Ekko wasn't sure if that was a lie or truth. While Heimerdinger had looked sad when retelling the tale to him, he seemed to be more at peace with the situation now. But then again, he didn't really know the feelings of the Yordle.

Mel turned her attention back to Ekko and he swallowed uneasily. He knew how powerful she was with her ties from Noxus and he stared back at her.

"Ekko, how did you and Heimerdinger meet? I will admit I haven't kept tabs on him but I am curious as to how your paths crossed."

Hemierdinger looked panicked for a second but Ekko knew how to answer.

"We met on the streets in Zaun. I was tinkering with an invention and Heimerdinger was inquisitive. We talked for a bit and shared ideas before he offered me an apprenticeship. I was hesitant at first but after a few lessons, I couldn’t say no.”

Ekko knew that was far from the truth considering that Heimerdinger found him off the side of the bridge with his ankle busted but the less Mel knew about him, the better.

“Oh, that’s wonderful! I hope some great inventions come from this apprenticeship and who knows, you might find yourself another Viktor or Jayce within Ekko."

"Ekko's his own person, Mel, no need for any comparisons. I have no doubt he'll create something marvelous," Heimerdinger said with a jovial tone.

"Of course. Apologies, Ekko I assure you I didn't mean it like that," she said and Ekko nodded his head in understanding.

"I'd love to ask more questions but I do have to see to the other guests. eimerdinger, you must come over for tea next week. I'd love to catch up with you,” she said, shaking Heimerdinger's hand and giving Ekko a nod.

Mel walked away and Ekko watched Heimerdinger exhale slowly before shooting him a smile of relief.

“I don’t know whether to be impressed or concerned that you’re able to lie so easily but I am happy you managed to make up such a believable lie at the drop of a hat.”

“Living in the Undercity will do that to you,” Ekko replied, taking another bite of food and Heimerdinger nodded before surveying the crowd.

“You don’t need to stay by my side the entire evening, Ekko. I assure you I’ll be fine as there are people here that I know. Mel was right that I shouldn't just cut everyone off just because I'm not on council anymore. Maybe I could learn a thing or two from my past students and friends here. Remember, think of this as an opportunity to show off what Zaun really is about,” Heimerdinger said and he discreetly pointed to a group of girls.

“I’m sure they wouldn’t mind talking to you.”

“And what makes you so sure of that?” Ekko asked in confusion.

“Well, they haven’t stopped staring at you since you walked in and you look rather dashing tonight so I’m not surprised,” Heimerdinger laughed. “Oh, look! One of them is walking over right now!”

Ekko didn’t expect to be approached so soon and he quickly eased his nerves before putting down his plate. He only acknowledged the girl when she was close enough to him and he looked at her curiously. She was a blonde with hair piled high in a up-do and wearing the most poufy pastel pink evening dress he had ever seen. Her strong perfume nearly had him sneezing before she greeted him.

“Sorry to disturb you! My name’s Eva Starling and my friends and I were wondering if we could have some of your time to talk to you. We’re especially interested in your outfit. It’s gorgeous!” she gushed.

Ekko was stunned for a moment. Did topsiders really initiate conversations like this? It felt so…formal but he shook off his bias before responding.

“I don’t mind. I got this ensemble at Ophelia’s on the edge of Piltover,” he said smoothly as he walked with her.

From the corner of his vision, he could see Eva’s friends giggling as they walked across the ballroom to them and once Eva introduced him to them, he was pulled into a deep conversation about fabrics and fashion. He inwardly thanked his parents for working briefly at the fabric factories and for retaining the knowledge as he smoothly maneuvered the conversation from fabrics to Zaun. He answered their questions lazily at first, not wanting to give them too much information about Zaun because he felt that the interest had to be authentic.

He didn't want to come off as a preacher.

Gradually the conversation spirled to the factories in Zaun and Ekko launched into one of the stories his mom and dad had told him after their shifts at work. Eva’s friends all gasped as he told them about the underpaid workers, his parents, and the factory conditions.

“That’s so horrible! How could the factory managers allow that?” Talia, one of Eva’s friends, exclaimed.

“Underpaid workers mean that there’s always a demand for money so they will work in those conditions to put food on the table.”

“Why can’t they just get better jobs?” asked Eva with a shrug of her shoulders and Ekko had to restrain himself from snapping at her.

Get better jobs? He had never heard of such ignorance in his entire life.

"Eva! You can’t just ask people to get better jobs!” Talia exclaimed.

“Most people in Zaun don’t receive a proper education as children because there’s a severe lack of funding for it. Without education, there’s no way a person is able to get a better job without those qualifications,” Ekko responded carefully.

They all gasped again and soon, Ekko was dragged to a couch on the side of the room, the girls sitting around him as he told them stories of Zaun. He couldn’t believe how easy it was to engage with them but also remembered Herimerdinger’s words.

They haven’t stopped staring at you since you walked in and you look rather dashing tonight.

Did that mean the only reason they were giving him the time of day was because he looked good?

Well he knew he looked good and if Pilties were only going to listen to him if he looked good in a suit, then so be it. He continued to talk to them, all nodding at his words, as if he was a king and them his subjects.

“I’ll definitely donate to the cause! You poor Zaunites shouldn’t have to suffer like this!” Eva cried as she wrapped her hand around his bicep and he chewed on the inside of his cheek to prevent himself from pushing her away.

Zaunites didn’t need pity. They needed a government that actually gave a shit about their city instead of prioritizing Piltover constantly and ignoring Zaun.

Ekko had noticed that Eva had taken quite a liking to him over the last two hours. She was fluttering her eyelashes, making eye contact whenever she could, and was practically on top of him on the couch. He knew that if the other Firelights had to see this, he would be teased endlessly.

He was sure Eva was a sweet girl, despite her not being the smartest one there, but he wasn’t interested in any sort of romantic relationship. His main priority was the Firelights and making sure that Zaun thrived. He didn't mind the attention, if anything, his ego was flying amongst the clouds but he was out of his element. Just because some upper class topsider women were showering him with attention, didn’t mean anything.

He had seen some of the other girls catch his eyes and blush but then they would look away. He realised that Eva was their leader. She had the most influence in the group and he realised that they were there with him because she was there.

He continued his conversations with the girls, the topics moving freely from Piltover technology, Zaunite street food, the tensions between Noxus and Ionia, and the Shimmer factories. Ekko managed to mix in lighthearted stories and humor with heavy topics to avoid giving lectures and casually complimented the girls on their outfits from time to time. He finally complimented Eva, who giggled at his words.

“I begged my dad to increase my budget for this dress because I wanted a pink one for tonight,” Eva explained as she smoothed down her bodice.

“I’ve been meaning to ask why pink? Isn't the theme sun and moon?” he asked.

“Because the sun is red and orange and pink is just a lighter shade of red!” she said with a dazzling smile. “It’s also my favourite colour and I didn’t want to wear a dress from last year like Talia. I wouldn’t be caught dead wearing the same clothes.”

It was at that moment, Ekko realised he found Eva insufferable as he watched Talia's expression fall and look away in embarrassment. It was one thing to be ignorant but to be a bully and humiliate someone in public?

That was cruel.

“I think your dress looks gorgeous Talia,” he said nonchalantly and he watched her slowly face him, her cheeks red, as she looked down at her red evening gown.

“Thank you, Ekko,” she said softly.

“I don’t see the big deal in always having new clothes. If it’s comfortable and makes you happy, then go for it. Maybe things are different in Piltover but…” he gave her a once over and smiled, “I think you look dazzling, especially your hairpiece.”

Talia touched it self-consciously before giving him a smile and he could tell Eva was seething from not being the center of attention anymore because her grip on his arm tightened.

“Ekko, how about we go dance?” Eva asked but he didn’t hear her.

He thought his eyes were playing tricks on him. Surely that wasn't her? He focused on the staircase and he inhaled sharply, his stomach dropping as he saw the girl.

She was dressed in shades of blue, an unusual color for the theme but still somehow blending with everyone. He sat up straight and leaned forward, convinced his eyes were playing tricks on him but the blue hair was unmistakable.

Jinx was at the Piltover New Year’s Eve Ball.

Jinx...the girl who had tried to kill the same the councilors just a few months ago, who were present at the Ball.

"Presenting Miss Juliet Raelik from the Kasserak islands," announced the presenter.

Ekko knew that was a lie. While she carried herself with grace, he recognised her walk, her movements and watched as she descended the staircase before making her way over to the buffet.

“Ekko? Hello? Ekko!”

He snapped out of his trance to find all the girls looking at him, some of them failing to hide their laughter and others looking away with knowing grins on their faces. Eva was the only one who looked irritated.

“Sorry…I need to get a refill,” he said quickly before getting up, shaking off Eva’s iron grip, and walking towards the buffet.

He walked over to the buffet table only to find Jinx had vanished. He groaned before someone whispered in his ear, “Looking for me, Boy Savior?”

He turned around and there she was, in all her mischievous glory.

Ekko took in her appearance, her hair in a voluminous up-do with tendrils framing her face and light makeup. Her dark, long-sleeved, navy blue dress was bedazzled with tiny diamonds along the round neckline that gradually faded into the skirt in a lighter blue that looked almost white. He couldn't see her shoes from all the layers of abric but he figured she was wearing high heels with her being taller than him by a few centimeters.

He was temporarily stunned by her appearance and she grinned as she took a bite of a breadstick.

“Cat got your tongue?” she purred and he shook his head before the full force of the realisation hit him.

She was in the same room with the same people she tried to blow up just months ago and the only reason why all the councellors were alive was because Mel's armour saved them. They all needed hospital attention but healed over the months. Piltover amped up security and while no Zaunite ratted Jinx out purely out of loyalty to Zaun, they recognised that she had nearly started a war with Piltover. He hardly saw her these days but he refused to let her out of his sight tonight.

"What the hell are you doing here?" he hissed.

"I could ask you the same thing," Jinx said as she ate a mini cake before her eyes widened and grabbed two more from the table and shoved them in her mouth.

He watched her in disgust and partial amazement as she grabbed another one and attempted to fit it into her mouth.

"Uh…my plus one invited me and will you please chew before putting another cake in your mouth? I know they're good but you’re going to choke if you-"

"-Hmph, found yourself a Piltie? I knew you'd follow Vi's footsteps," Jinx said as she swallowed her cake and he was surprised to hear a trace of bitterness in her voice.

"What? No, I'm here with Heimerdinger."

"The rat thing?"

"He's a Yordle and you know that."

“You know I meant to say that. So you’re officially a Piltie now? Wow, three months was all it took to leave it all behind?” she said with sarcasm and a raised eyebrow.

“This has nothing to do with Piltover… I’m representing Zaun tonight,” he argued.

He saw Jinx’s eyes widen and she put her empty plate down on the table before rolling her eyes and crossing her arms.

“Okay so if you are representing Zaun and trying to make peace with the Pilties-"

"-I'm not making peace with them-!"

"-Why is an entire group of girls glaring at me from across the room?”

Ekko froze and he stared at her before she rolled her eyes and looked away, allowing him to quickly turn his head and see Eva and her friends glaring from across the room.

“They’re glaring at you…? Oh…they are. They’re…uh…I met them a few hours ago and spoke to them. I promise they're nice-”

“Oh, I'm sure they're nice to eligible bachelors who they've never seen before at their other little gatherings. Breaking Piltie hearts already? From Firelight Leader to Piltover heartthrob in an evening,” she chuckled and he watched her survey the dance floor before grabbing his hand.

“Jinx- what?”

“It’s Juliet Raelik from the Kasserak islands for the evening. Now, just dance with me."

She only giggled as she pulled him to the dance floor and they clicked into place as the orchestral music sang through the air. He inwardly thanked Heimerdinger for giving him waltz lessons as his one hand on small of her back and the other holding her hand in a waltz. She was in his arms, dancing in a gorgeous gown and it felt like something of a fantasy. There was a part of him that wanted to dance with her forever but he knew what Jinx was capable of and if he could prevent the evening from whatever she had planned, that was a priority.

"What is going on…Juliet?” he asked again sternly. ”If you're planning something-"

"-Why do I always have to be planning something?" she interrupted.

“Because the last time I heard of you, you had blown up the council headquarters, which by the way, has every member here present tonight,” he whispered furiously. "How did you even get in here?"

Jinx blinked at him before shrugging her shoulders.

“Ekko, I want one evening to feel pretty and wear a nice dress. Can you please shut up?”

But you’re pretty all the time, his brain screamed but he stared at her in confusion as he registered her words.

Did she just call him by his name?

Not Boy Savior.

Not Little Man.

Ekko.

Did that mean she really didn’t have anything planned after all? He was speechless as they danced and after he got over the shock of her using his real name he cleared his throat.

"Um…you look nice," he said softly and she peered up at him, a small smile on her face.

"You don't look too bad yourself."

He couldn’t help but chuckle at her words and he spun her in a circle before bringing her back to face him.

“Got yourself quite a fan club,” she murmured and he cocked his head in confusion before shaking his head with a laugh.

“I'm sorry they're not being welcoming...they were nice to me,” he mumbled and she sighed.

“It's just because you're an attractive, eligible bachelor so I'm not taking it to heart. Although...some of them are glaring at me like I murdered their parents! Especially that blonde girl. Do you know her name?”

“Eva? Does she have her hair in an up-do and wearing a pink dress?”

“Yeah and...her dress doesn’t even match the theme! And before you say ‘Juliet, your dress doesn’t match the theme either!’, it does. It represents the tides and how the moon controls them so therefore the moon is represented! Plus, people have hints of blue in their outfits too but none has pink, so she’s the only one who looks like a walking fashion disaster.”

Ekko’s shoulders shook with laughter and Jinx grinned.

“She’s…definitely something.”

“That only tells me that you dislike her intensely. Spill the beans. How awful is she?” she asked mischievously, leaning forward as if he was about to tell her priceless information.

Ekko watched her in fascination at how normal this all seemed. It didn’t feel like he was the leader of the Firelights and she was the girl who he had lost. They were two people just dancing and gossiping about topsiders. He decided to indulge her.

“When I was talking to her earlier…she told me how Zaunites needed to get better jobs if they were being overworked. She also insulted one of her friends for wearing the same dress as the year before and has been flirting with me all evening. I suspect she likes me more than I anticipated.”

Jinx’s jaw dropped and shook her head before rolling her eyes.

“Pilties and their privilege. Sounds like a spoiled brat to me. And she was flirting with you? Ew, you could do way better. Wait…do you wanna piss her off? Get a little revenge?” she asked, her eyes bright with mirth.

“I’m not doing anything illegal-”

“-No! No no no no…okay, just…just hold me, okay?” Jinx said, stifling her giggles, and she removed her hands from his shoulder and his hand before wrapping them around his neck. “Now wrap your arms around my waist,” she murmured.

They were only a few centimeters apart and Ekko felt his heartbeat skyrocket. He placed his hands on her waist and he heard her laugh softly.

“You should see her face. She is furious,” she murmured.

As they turned, Ekko pulled Jinx into him, so that their bodies were pressed together and he watched her eyes widen in surprise.

“There…now it’s not just one-sided,” he whispered and he took in her magenta eyes.

So unfamiliar but familiar at the same time.

“It’s like you want to cause a riot with some Pilties,” she said with amusement, looking down with a small smile on her face.

“I was never on their side. I’m here to represent Zaun. No one else.”

Their gazes met once more as the song ended but there was a clinking sound that echoed the room and they all turned their heads to see Jayce Talis tapping a champagne glass from the front of the room.

“Good evening everyone! Just a quick announcement from me. Thank you all for attending the annual Piltover New Year’s Eve Ball. We know that a lot has happened this year but I assure you that the council will do everything in its power to keep the City of Progress thriving.”

Ekko watched Jinx roll her eyes in annoyance from his peripheral vision.

“City of Progress my ass,” she grumbled.

“Now, without further ado, please enjoy the rest of your evening. We have cuisine on the tables over there to suit any palette, a beautiful orchestra to dance into the night and don’t be afraid to chat to new faces!”

Ekko applauded as everyone else did and Jinx slow clapped in annoyance. The orchestra began to play again and Jinx led him off to the side.

“All that dancing has me thirsty. I need something to drink,” she said and Ekko had no choice but to follow her. They stopped at the drinks table, a large bowl of a cocktail in the middle with glasses of water around it. Ekko grabbed himself a glass before Jinx dumped some liquid into the bowl from a flask.

“What are you doing?” he sputtered and she grinned.

“Having fun! You should totally try some!” she said as she poured herself a glass.

“If you poisoned it-”

“I said I wanted a normal evening, did I not? And why would I poison myself?” she shot back, glaring at him before taking a gulp of the drink.

He was about to ask what she had spiked the cocktail with but her face lit up in a fake smile. It was unnerving to say the least.

“Oh my gosh, hi! Your dress is so beautiful!”

Ekko’s brows furrowed in confusion before he realised that Jinx wasn’t talking to him but to someone behind him. He spun around and came face to face with Eva and her friends. Eva gave him a sickly sweet smile before extending a hand to Jinx.

“Thank you. I don’t think we’ve met before. My name is Eva Starling. My dad is the owner of Starling Enterprises, which I’m sure you know already.”

“I’m Juliet Raelik and I didn’t know that about your dad but thank you for telling me,” Jinx said as she ignored Eva's extended hand and Ekko bit on the inside of his cheek to stop himself from laughing.

“How do you not know?” Eva asked, lowring her hand immediately, a flash of anger on her face before looking shocked and her friends giggled behind her. “I thought everyone knew. It must be because you’re from one of the islands right? They probably don’t teach you about the major contributors in Piltover.”

Ekko felt anger burn in his stomach at Eva’s words. He knew that Eva was just trying to humiliate Jinx or…Juliet? Whatever, she was Juliet for the evening.

“Well the islands are quite advanced Eva. I’m sure you didn’t know that my mother is queen there,” Jinx said, her sweet tone hiding the fury in her eyes. “And besides, I’m sure I read somewhere that Starling Enterprises was in danger of going bankrupt. It was all over the news a few weeks ago.”

Ekko raised an eyebrow at the information and looked at Eva, who had gone scarlet from her neck upwards.

“That was a rumour!” she said a little too loudly and Jinx glanced at her nails before Eva changed the subject.

“Oh and your mother is a queen? So you’re a princess! That’s impressive! Do you have any suitors?” she asked and Ekko wasn’t sure how much longer Jinx could hold up her lie.

“I’ve rejected all of them. None of them really clicked with me,” Jinx shrugged. “But there’s quite a few people here who seem to be possible candidates.”

Ekko watched as Eva’s friends all gasped and he found himself watching the conversation in awe.

“Oh? Anyone caught your eye ?” Eva asked, her voice cracking.

“Hmmm, I better not tell. Don’t want to go into the New Year telling everyone who I think is attractive,” Jinx said with disinterest.

“Well give us a hint please!” asked one of Eva’s friends and Eva glared before Jinx laughed.

“Alright…um…they’ve chosen to dress as the sun counterpart for the theme this evening,” she said, shooting Ekko a wink and he watched as Eva’s friends comically squealed and Eva gritted her teeth.

He realised that Eva was not good at hiding her emotions well at all and decided to try and diffuse the situation somehow before pouring her a glass of cocktail and handing it to her.

“Oh, thank you, Ekko. That’s so considerate of you,” she said giggling too much and he saw Jinx only grin before remembering that she had spiked the same bowl just a few minutes ago.

He watched in horror as she downed the entire glass and prayed that she wasn’t a lightweight. Ekko had no idea what Jinx had put in there but the alcohol seemed to hit her almost instantly as her face turned a rosy colour.

“Ekko! We should go dance!” she said a little too loudly, causing some heads to turn their way. “We were so rudely interrupted the first time round so I’m sure we could-”

“Eva! Keep your voice down,” Talia said quickly and Eva glared at her friend.

“Excuse me? Keep my voice down? I’ll speak as loud as I want!” she yelled.

“Eva Marie Starling, will you be quiet!” a voice hissed and Ekko tensed up as a woman wearing a floor length silver dress strode up to them, her presence radiating authority. She took one look at the glass in Eva’s hand before taking it out of her grasp.

“We agreed that you’d go steady on the alcohol! What is this?” her mother demanded and Eva blinked as if her thoughts were foggy.

“Ekko offered it to me and-”

“Oh no, you are not blaming someone for giving you a drink when you know you could have declined. No one is forcing you here to drink, Eva!”

“But…but Juliet must’ve spiked it!” Eva said accusingly, pointing a finger at Jinx, who looked back in faux shock.

“But Eva…I’m drinking the same thing as you…see?” she said as she drank the spiked beverage and put her cup down. “I’ve had two glasses and I’m fine. Maybe you’re a lightweight?”

Eva’s mother glared at her daughter before huffing and grabbing a glass of water from the table.

“You are going to sit with me until you’ve sobered up young lady!” she said and Eva struggled against her mother.

“But mom-!”

“No buts! You can return to your friends once you’re in a better mind space.”

They watched as Mrs. Starling dragged her daughter away and as if a spell had been broken, most of the girls walked away to the dance floor or to the buffet. A few of the others stood back, to talk to each other but only Talia stepped forward.

“I apologise…she usually isn’t this…wild,” she said softly and Jinx grinned.

“It’s okay, a party isn’t a party until someone gets a little drunk. Oh, Ekko, why don’t you dance with Talia? I’m sure you’d love to show off your dance moves while I…uh…go to the bathroom and...freshen up.”

Ekko didn’t have time to ask what that even meant because Jinx ran off into the crowd. She was willingly allowing him to dance with a topsider? Did that mean she liked Talia? Or was she only going to cause more mischief? While he wanted to go after her, it felt rude to leave Talia when she was the only one who seemed to be genuinely nice to him the entire evening.

“Uh…may I have this dance?” he asked Talia and she fidgeted with her hands.

“I don’t think Eva would like that…” she mumbled and he shook his head before grasping her hand and leading her to the dance floor, and he could hear some of Eva's friends giggling behind them.

They walked to the middle of the dance floor as the orchestra played another song and they glided effortlessly across the floor.

“You shouldn’t let Eva control your actions, Talia. I don’t know if it's a Piltover thing but…she’s not the boss of you,” he said and she averted her gaze.

“I know…it’s just easier to let her get what she wants. We had another friend…she usually stood up to Eva but then Eva managed to make her life a living nightmare and she became a social outcast. Thankfully she moved after we graduated from high school but still…her influence is terrifying.”

“You’re joking.”

“Unfortunately not…Eva has a lot of power especially because of her dad. No one has stood up to her since…well since today. Juliet is quite the feisty one,” she laughed.

“Yeah…she is,” Ekko said.

Juliet was more than feisty when she needed to be and if only Talia knew who she really was.

“Do you two know each other? You seem awfully close and if there is something between you two I wouldn’t want to intrude...” Talia asked quickly.

“Oh no. There’s nothing between us. She noticed how uncomfortable I was with Eva and she wanted to be a menace. So she stole me away for a dance.”

“Ah, a menace." Talia chuckled. "I must admit…I was a little surprised when she brought up Starling Enterprises going bankrupt.”

“Why?”

“Eva knows that the majority of her influence is because of her dad’s business. If she loses that, she’d be nothing but empty threats. When that article was published she was hellbent on making everyone believe it was a rumour.”

“How do you know if it’s true or not?”

“I don’t but the way Eva was acting…I could tell she was nervous and she’s hardly nervous. I felt like she was hiding something so I drew my own conclusions.”

“Are you close with Eva?” he asked, aware how serious their conversation had become and tried to not look too interested in learning information about one of the most influential topsiders, and she sighed.

“We were close a few years ago but I don’t know what shifted. I still care about her deeply but I hate the way she treats people.”

“So why do you hang out with her?”

“It’s easier to be friends with her than not to be friends at all. It’s all about connections in Piltover and with her dad being so influential, I’d rather stay quiet.”

“But surely your parents have connections too?”

“Sure we’re wealthy but Eva is in a league of her own and standing up to her wouldn’t be wise. I know it’s nothing in comparison to your life in Zaun but there’s different ways to sink or swim in Piltover and being enemies with Eva is the easiest way to sink. She has the connections to control our futures or completely destroy our reputation...I can't risk it.”

“A blonde who has rich parents can do that?”

“Surely you know someone like that in Zaun?” she asked and Ekko was quiet as he thought of Silco, the most powerful man in the Undercity and all his underlings, the Shimmer factories and his influence over Jinx.

“I understand,” he mumbled sadly and she gave him a sad smile.

“She has her good moments but I don’t know how anyone’s supposed to change her. The only person she can change is herself. And I don’t think she wants to at this moment.”

They swayed before Ekko saw the flash of blue hair in his peripheral vision and watched as a waiter offered Jinx a glass of champagne that she accepted. He watched her take a sip before wincing. She didn’t seem to be up to anything too chaotic so he could afford to relax but then he saw Eva walk up to her. He watched them exchange words and from the looks of it, Eva was getting angrier with every passing second.

“Oh no,” he whispered and Talia turned her head to see what he was looking at.

“This is not going to end well,” she whispered as they slid out of the dance floor.

Talia tried to make her way to Eva but Ekko stopped her, holding her wrist.

“Talia, I think we should stay out of this,” he said cautiously.

While he believed Jinx wanted a normal evening, he didn't trust Eva's emotions. He knew Jinx could handle herself but he didn't want Talia to be caught in the fray because she didn't deserve it.

“But…what if something bad happens?” she said gesturing to Jinx and Eva, who only seemed to be getting more red with every passing minute.

“You can’t babysit Eva all the time. Remember what you said to me? The only person she can change is herself. She is never going to learn if you keep softening the situation for her.”

Talia looked at him incredulously before nodding and taking a step back.

“So we just...watch?” she asked.

“If things get crazy we can intervene-”

Everything seemed to happen in slow motion.

He saw Jinx grin before whispering something into Eva’s ear and he knew she had said something that caused Eva to snap. He watched as Eva turned red with rage, screamed in fury, and she lunged at Jinx, who only stepped out of the way, and crashed into the one buffet table. Unfortunately for Eva, that buffet table had the chocolate fountain and he watched in horror as Eva screamed as the warm chocolate got all over her gauzy pink dress and hair.

“My hair! My dress!” she shrieked.

Her mother and some of her friends ran to her aid, as did security personnel and Jinx darted out of sight. Jayce ran up to her and Eva cried as she was escorted out of the ballroom, leaving a trail of chocolate behind her. Mel walked to the front of the room, tapping a champagne glass hastily before smiling brightly.

"Apologies everyone! Just an accident. We'll have Miss Starling all cleaned up in no time. Please, eat, drink and dance! Only half an hour from the New Year," she announced.

Talia was frozen next to him with her hands to her mouth but Ekko realised she was hiding her laughter.

"Oh my...I should've helped her...but wow she looked...hilarious," she snickered and Ekko smiled at her.

"Maybe she'll learn to not lung at people next time?" he said and she struggled to conceal her laughter.

Ekko would’ve laughed because finally some karma but knowing that Jinx was behind the whole thing had him worried for her safety. Usually he wouldn’t be concerned but knowing that she wanted a normal night (at least that’s what she said when they were dancing) he felt oddly protective over her in a room full of topsiders.

"Are you concerned about Juliet?" Talia asked and he groaned.

"I can't help but feel partly responsible for her. I'm from Zaun...she's from the Kasserak islands...I'm not sure if it's her first time at this Ball but...I feel oddly protective of her," he lied.

Protective my ass. I need to make sure she doesn't get caught by security.

"Say no more. You clearly care about her and I suggest you find her before Eva blabs enough to get security involved. I don't think Juliet needs that kind of angst into the New Year. I'll cover for you and her. I should go comfort Eva and I'll keep her distracted for as long as I can."

Talia was about to turn away before turning back to face him.

"Thank you for the dance and for talking to me about Zaun...I didn't know it was that bad."

"Most topsiders don't know how bad it is but now you know. Do with that information what you will," he murmured.

She squeezed his shoulder before lowering her voice, "And thank you for sticking up for me earlier. I appreciate it, really."

"Thank you for being real with me," he said, giving her a genuine smile and she shook his hand before walking out the ballroom and following the trail of chocolate that was almost cleaned up by staff.

Ekko looked around the room for Jinx but he couldn’t find her until he spotted a curtain gently blowing in the breeze on the other side of the ballroom. Curtains didn’t move without wind which meant there must be a door behind it. He looked around, making sure Eva hadn’t come back, before slipping through it and found himself on a balcony. There were sconces providing light above him and realised that he was looking into the gardens of the venue. He spotted various rose bushes and the scent of them floated to his nose before looking across the rest of the balcony, where he found Jinx pouring the champagne out the glass onto the grass below.

“So…you want to tell me what just happened with Eva?” he asked hesitantly and she placed the glass down on the windowsill.

“She was being annoying,” Jinx said with a twirl, the skirt of the dress flaring out and Ekko watched the moonlight hit the diamonds on the neckline.

“I saw Jinx…you said things to her too and she ended up lunging at you.”

“She needed to be put in her place. No one disrespects you or Zaun,” Jinx said, as if it was the easiest answer in the world.

Ekko didn’t know how to respond for a minute. Eva had disrespected him? And Jinx stood up for him? If he had known how this evening was going to go, he would’ve prepared himself to not be stunned into silence whenever Jinx spoke.

“She disrespected me?” he managed to say after a moment and he saw her jaw tense.

“Bitch said some shit like 'she saw you first and that I needed to keep my hands off of you', like a spoiled child. We both know that no one tells me what to do and I hated that she was making assumptions that you actually wanted to be with her. Then when I defended you, she said how Zaun was dirty and only thieves came out of that city and that the Kasserak islands have nothing to offer like Piltover does. So I put her in her place.”

Ekko watched her lean against the balcony, the moonlight bathing her in silver and she looked ethereal.

“I told her that she was a two-faced Pilitie bitch and who had the blandest personality based off of the two minutes that we spoke. I told her that you’d never date….court… whatever Pilties say when they date people, because she was too ugly from the inside. And that if she wanted a shot at dating you, she needed to actually have worked a day in her life and not rely on her daddy’s money which might be non-existent considering the company is bankrupt.”

“You called Eva Starling a two-faced Piltie bitch?”

“And I’d do it again!”

Ekko heard some applause from the ballroom but he didn’t care if someone was giving a speech. He could watch Jinx here and no one would get hurt…but then again she had only caused minor chaos this evening.

"I have two questions for you," he said to her and she looked up in acknowledgement.

"How do you know so much of the Kasserak islands? And what did you use to spike the cocktail?"

Jinx threw her head back and laughed before responding, "Did a little research on the Kasserak islands before getting this dress. Wasn't hard to research and I spiked the cocktail with Fire's Breath."

"Fire's Breath? But that's not too bad unless you have three glasses."

"Yeah so poor little Eva was a light weight," Jinx said with a strech of her neck before facing the gardens.

They watched the gardens and the fountain water trickle from the balcony and Jinx sighed before closing her eyes, as if she was savoring the moment.

“Did you really mean what you said inside?” Ekko asked.

“Mean what?”

“The whole ‘you wanted to feel pretty and wear a nice dress for this evening’ thing.”

He watched her open her eyes and she looked at him before pushing down her skirts and gliding her hands over the fabric.

“We never got this kind of stuff in Zaun. I just wanted to experience it just this once,” Jinx murmured.

A melody floated out of the ballroom and Ekko watched as she swayed to the music. It was a slow song, the violins humming and he rolled his shoulders back before taking a few steps towards her.

“May I have this dance?” he asked, cringing at the awkwardness of words and Jinx snorted in laughter before accepting his hand.

“Who would I be to turn down the most eligible bachelor of the evening?” she said through giggles

"Oh, shut up," he groaned and they slowly danced under the stars.

Ekko wasn’t sure when his hands wrapped around her waist and hers around his neck but it felt so natural to place them there. She laid her head on his shoulder as they swayed from side to side.

“Who taught you how to dance?” she asked.

“Heimerdinger. Took a couple tries to nail the waltz but I got there.”

“The Yordle taught you how to waltz?”

“Well, who did you learn from?”

“I taught myself!” she said proudly.

“Bullshit,” he muttered and he felt her snicker into his shoulder.

He couldn't help but notice how she seemed protective of him and he couldn't help but ask her.

“What if I told you that I wanted to date Eva?”

He felt her tense up and for a moment regretted asking her but she only laughed.

“That’s hilarious, Boy Savior.”

“Why? What if I actually liked her?” he asked jokingly.

“You’d be bored of her in two weeks and she’s the most uninteresting person I’ve ever met,” Jinx said bluntly and Ekko couldn't hold back his laughter.

“So what you’re saying is that I need someone interesting?” he asked once he caught his breath.

“Someone who…keeps you on your toes. Someone who keeps you guessing and your mind going. It can’t just be anyone though."

She paused as if listening to someone in her head before nodding.

"You’re the leader of the Firelights and they obviously have to know about that…so yeah you’re a lost case, Boy Savior. No dating Pilties for you,” Jinx said with a nod, as if satisfied with her answer.

“Guess I’ll have to date a Firelight,” he said.

“Guess so but that could be messy if you break up.”

“It’s like you don’t want me to date anyone,” Ekko grumbled.

“It’s not my fault you chose to be the leader of the Firelights,” Jinx said dramatically. “Maybe if you weren’t, you’d actually have a shot at dating someone.”

“So being the leader of the Firelights is limiting me right now? That’s your conclusion?”

“Yep!” she said, before holding him tighter, as if that was supposed to silence him.

It did silence him and he wondered if this was her way of saying that he should only date her.

She said that he should date someone who wasn’t a Piltie, which she wasn’t. She said he should date someone who knew he was the leader of the Firelights but not an actual Firelight because the break up could be messy and if they still had to see each other everyday, it would be even worse. So if he wanted to date someone, they had to be a Zaunite who knew he was the leader of the Firelights but not be a Firelight who kept him on his toes and was interesting.

She met the description but with their messy history…was there even a possibility?

He decided he was over-thinking her words and decided to enjoy the moment with her instead. They swayed in silence for a while, enjoying each other's company before he cleared his throat.

“Was this everything you thought it would be? Despite Eva and the chocolate fountain colliding?” he asked her eventually and she raised her head off his shoulder.

“Everything and more! And Eva being covered head to toe in chocolate was the cherry on top!” she grinned as she looked into his eyes.

Ekko heard some footsteps from inside and voices gradually rising as they stopped outside the curtains. Ekko prayed the wind didn't pick up otherise the curtains would blow and giveaway their hiding spot.

“Where is Ekko? I must find him!” roared Eva and they tensed up.

“We’ve looked everywhere for him, Eva. Maybe you should give it a rest? And you still have chocolate in your hair,” Talia said and Eva only screamed in frustration before the group of girls walked away.

Ekko and Jinx laughed and the voices inside got louder before Ekko realised the people inside were chanting a countdown.

Shit, it was New Year's Eve.

He had forgotten after all the chaos that had happened that evening.

"Five!"

It was tradition to kiss someone.

"Four!"

And a Jinx was in his arms. He could kiss her if he wanted.

But was it what she wanted?

“Three!”

He was the leader of the Firelights. She was...she wasn't on the right side...but if anything, tonight showed she didn't have to cause that much chaos to have a good time. It made him feel oddly content. Part of him felt that kissing her into the New Year was a bad idea on every level possible but the other part of him that had dreamed a life like this with her was riding on a high from how they had danced together.

“Two!”

“Jinx…I don't know if now is the right time but-” he began but she cut him off with an index finger to his lips.

"Pucker up, Boy Savior," she whispered and pulled him closer.

“One! Happy New Year!”

Ekko was sure there was applause and cheering but all he felt was the soft fabric under his fingertips as he held her waist and her lips on his.

He felt her sigh into the kiss and he tilted his head to deepen it. He swiped his tongue against her bottom lip teasingly and she giggled before granting him access. Ekko wasn't sure how long they kissed for but it was everything he could've wanted.

It was slow and soft as if they were making up for lost time. He gripped her waist so tightly, he thought he was leaving bruises. The thought of his bruises on her only made her hold her tighter. She only tightened her arms around his neck in response. When they broke apart Jinx only chuckled before sliding her hands down from his neck to his chest, her lips pink and her face flushed.

"Happy New Year, Boy Savior. Thanks for sharing that with me. Unfortunately, I should get going," she said breathlessly.

"What? Why?" he asked, still dizzy from the kiss.

"Let's just say...I didn't buy this dress," she grinned before giving him a final kiss on his cheek and jumping over the balcony.

He watched her land and sprint off into the gardens, looking like a princess from a fairytale, when someone cleared their throat from behind him. Ekko spun around, ready to make up an excuse to a girl jumping over the balcony and running into the gardens, when he registered who was standing in front of him.

"Vi," he breathed and she raised an eyebrow at him before gesturing at the retreating figure in the gardens.

"You...idiot!" she yelled, her anger flaring and he winced. "Did you seriously kiss Jinx? Tell me right now what I saw was a hallucination!"

He didn't know what to say to her. He was so dead.

"Yeah, I kissed Jinx," he said finally, realising that he should just come clean.

They stared at each other for a minute before Vi's facade broke and she snorted before dissolving into peals of laughter.

"Little Man all grown up, huh?" she asked and he blushed as she laughed again. "C'mon, it's better that you say that you were out here for fresh air than kissing Jinx, who stole Juliet Raelik's dress and left her knocked out in a closet."

Ekko was too dazed to comprehend Vi's sentence as she wrapped an arm around his shoulders and dragged him back into the ballroom. He was surprised she wasn't upset with him. Those thoughts vanished when he saw Eva talking to a group of Enforcers tearfully in a corner.

"Some context would be great right now, Vi," he said nervously and she sighed.

"Juliet Raelik was found in her closet, tied to a chair and gagged. She explained that someone knocked her out in her hotel room and stole her dress, shoes, and her invitation to the New Years Ball. She woke up in darkness, gagged and bound to a chair. A concerned hotel resident said they heard noises from her room and Enforcers found her banging her chair on the closet door, trying to escape. The only reason I know about this is because Caitlyn got an Enforcer alert and demanded we stop by at the hotel to assess the situation. We came here as soon as we found out."

Ekko remembered what Jinx said about the dress and he watched the Enforcers leave Eva and exit the ballroom.

"No wonder she managed to get into the Ball so easily. She was lucky to get out when she jumped over the balcony. Enforcers probably know the dress description and now they'll have a description of Jinx from Eva," he said solemnly and Vi nodded.

"This is worrying as this might put Jinx on Enforcer alert because Juliet is royalty but it's honestly not the worst case. You want to tell me what happened to her?" Vi asked, glancing at Eva who ran out the ballroom to follow the Enforcers, and Ekko retold her the whole saga with Jinx and Eva.

"I usually don't condone Jinx's actions...hell I'm still getting over her blowing up the council quarters but…maybe I'll let this one slip. No one says shit like that about you or Zaun…even if she did steal a dress worth thousands and knocked out Kasserak royalty," Vi said and Ekko noticed the small smile on Vi’s face as well as her outfit.

She wore a subtle gold suit with white trimming on the cuffs and high heeled boots. Her hair was slightly curled and he swore he smelt perfume on her skin.

“I’m surprised you’re wearing those shoes,” he said and Vi rolled her eyes.

“Blame Caitlyn. I lost the bet and I have to wear these for the rest of the night. They’re not bad just…if something happened, I would break a leg first before helping anyone. What are you doing here anyway?” she asked.

“Here with Heimerdinger. He’s been really nice though and has let me mingle with other people.”

“Anyone to your liking? Like a girl with blue hair…?” she teased and he glared at her as she laughed.

“No comment, Vi. Are you here with Caitlyn?”

“Yeah, we ran late and only got here a few minutes ago but I still got my New Year’s kiss before the Enforcers arrived and so did you,” Vi grinned.

"You're never going to let this go are you?"

"Not a chance, Little Man."

They walked over to Heimerdinger who was talking to a thin man with brown hair before he beamed upon seeing Ekko.

“Ah! Ekko! Just the man I was talking about! You must meet Viktor! He was my assistant but is now the co-creator of Hextech!”

“Thank you Heimerdinger. I appreciate the praise but it is not needed. And you must be Ekko. I’ve heard a lot about you and from one Zaunite to another, I’m happy Heimerdinger has seen potential in you,” Viktor smiled and raised his hand and Ekko grasped it and shook it, aware of how boney Viktor’s hands were.

“Completely coincidental but I’ve learnt a lot from him in this short space of time,” Ekko said.

“That’s no surprise to me. I’d love to see what you’ve worked on another day-”

“-Viktor! Oh, thank goodness that debacle has been sorted- oh. Uh…Hello Heimerdinger,” Jayce said, faltering for a moment before straightening himself.

“Hello Jayce. I must say, you have gone all out with the decor this year,” Heimerdinger said and Ekko could feel the awkwardness between the two.

Jayce looked nervous but Heimerdinger seemed fine.

“I think I’ll give you two some time to catch up-” Ekko began before the Yordle interrupted him.

“Oh, that won’t be necessary. We have much to do tomorrow, Ekko, and I think it’s time we take our leave,” Heimerdinger said and Ekko nodded, not phased at the party being cut short.

He knew it would’ve been a different story if Jinx had still been there but he was fine to leave then. He had schmoozed with all the people he needed to and if Eva tried to talk to him again, he surely would not make it out.

"Tell Caitlyn I say hi. Sorry I missed her," he said and Vi squeezed his hand.

"I'll pass it on. Get home safe."

He said his goodbyes to Viktor and Jayce before following Hiemerdinger.

They left the ballroom and walked through the corridor to the carriage waiting for them outside. The plush velvet seats were heavenly as the carriage started moving to take them back to Zaun. They were quiet for a few minutes and Ekko was about to fall asleep before Heimerdinger tapped him on the shoulder.

“I do apologise for making things awkward just now. I suppose I wasn’t in the right frame of mind tonight to see Jayce,” Heimerdinger said as he fiddled with his hands.

“It’s okay. You seemed fine with him and Viktor. You acted well.”

“Viktor didn’t vote me off the council but they are partners. I can imagine Viktor must’ve felt torn too when he found out but I can’t make assumptions. Thank you for attending with me though. I got to catch up with some old students and council members. I do appreciate it.”

Ekko smiled, relieved that Heimerdinger had a decent evening after all.

“You seemed to have an eventful evening too. I saw your little group around you,” Heimerdinger said in amusement and Ekko chuckled.

“Yeah, that was quite an experience I’ll be glad to never have again. Piltover women are…intense.”

Heimerdinger laughed loudly and clapped his hands, “Intense one word to describe them! Do you feel you represented Zaun the way you wanted to?”

“I think I did the best I could under the circumstances. I think I might have gotten through to at least one person,” Ekko said, thinking of Talia and how similar their situation was.

He hoped that she would somehow distance herself from Eva but she could only change herself after all.

“Oh, before I forget! I managed to take this photo of you and that girl on the dance floor. I hope I didn’t overstep.”

Ekko thought he was getting a picture of him with Talia but his heart skipped a beat when he saw the blue hair. It was a photo between him and Jinx and they were smiling at each other with his hands on her waist and hers around his neck, and their clothes shining under the light.

"You seemed quite smitten with her all evening. I know there was some drama but I didn't have to worry myself in it. I'm not on council anymore so I don't need to!" he laughed and Ekko grinned.

This must’ve been taken when she was trying to piss Eva off.

"Happy New Year, Ekko. May this year be one of success and victory."

“Thank you Heimerdinger. Happy New Year,” Ekko murmured, eyes locked on the photograph.

He knew that photograph could be the only photographic evidence against Jinx since the dress description matched the one from Juliet but he wasn't planning on sharing it with anyone. He wasn't sure if Heimerdinger would ever ask him to give the photo to Enforcers as evidence but he would lie. Say he lost the photo or something. He needed to keep the memory of the Piltover New Year's Eve Ball and his time spent with her alive in every way possible.

Happy New Year, Jinx. I'm glad I got to into the new year with you.

He tucked the photo into his blazer pocket and watched the bright lights of Piltover dim into the neon ones of Zaun, before closing his eyes and dreaming of the sun and moon dancing together.

A/N: Happy New Year everyone!

I know it’s the end of January, but I had this fic in my head since mid November and only really had time to start writing it on New Year's Eve LOL. (Also it wasn't supposed to be this long but I kept writing and writing and...here we are 10k later).

I want to thank Kissun13 for inspiring this idea! She said in the Timebomb discord server something along the lines of how Ekko and Jinx are yin and yang and how they're the sun/moon, day/night, and light/dark to each other. She said that they should wear fancy clothes because they deserve it and I was like YES A FANCY PILTOVER BALL LET'S GO. She then proceeded to send me a whole visual concept of their clothes and the way I could see their clothes in my mind told me that I had to write this fic. It was my first idea that I fleshed out in the server when the server was still quite small so I feel weirdly sentimental about the fanfic. So thank you Kissun13!

The biggest of virtual hugs to you.

Also the Island Juliet is from doesn't exist so...yeah do with that information what you will.

Title credit to Kim Lip - Eclipse from LOONA

#ekkojinx #timebomb #arcane #vanilla107writes #jinx #ekko #my writing

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