#i went and sat with our mutual friend before a meeting earlier which was fine

[exopelagic]

one day I’ll stop vagueposting abt The Guy but that day is not today

[chrisevansjellybeans]

Ransom x fem!Reader

Warnings: none (yet) some swearing

Part One

You’ve never wanted to punch somebody in the face so bad until you met Ransom Drysdale. The smug, arrogant, jerk-face had been a thorn in your side since grade school. You both grew up in the Boston area, your parents sending you to the same private schools all the way through high school. You had run in similar crowds but no matter how much your mutual friends tried to get the two of you to get along you never could. For good reason though.

Your family owned and operated Cloak and Dagger Publishing, the direct rival of Ransom’s family’s publishing house, Blood Like Wine. Unlike you and Ransom, your families liked to keep the rivalry in business and not in life. Your father, Jackson Y/L/N and Harlan Thrombey were actually great friends who just liked to rib each other when it came to business, but were proud of the other’s success regardless.

But for some reason you and Ransom could never get to that level of friendship. And you weren’t in any rush to fix that.

Especially when he was pulling shit like this.

You groaned as you opened the door to your office only to see the smirking son of a bitch sitting in your chair, feet propped up on the desk and your favorite fountain pen twirling between his fingers.

“Maria, you’re fired.” You joked to your assistant who nervously looked at you from her desk right outside your door.

“I’m so sorry, Y/N! He just-”

“It’s fine. I know.” You sighed before walking fully into your office, letting the door close behind you.

“Good morning, honey.” Ransom’s voice was sickly sweet.

“Is it?” You snapped. You walked around your desk and pushed his feet off. “Get up.”

“You’re not being very kind to your guest, Y/N. What would dear daddy say about your terrible manners?” Ransom teased but stood up nonetheless. You glared up at him as he stood to his full height.

“Guests are usually wanted and invited, Ransom. Neither of which you are.”

“Honey, you hurt me.” Ransom feigned pain as he gripped his chest. You wanted to stomp your expensive Manolo Blahniks on his toes every time he called you that. It started your junior year of high school and maybe if it was anyone else you would have thought it was a term of endearment but he said it in such a condescending tone you knew it was anything but.

“What do you want, Drysdale?” You let out an exasperated breath.

“Is it so hard to believe that I just wanted to visit an old friend?”

“Ransom, please. Unlike some people I actually have work to do.” You moved around him and sat down, pulling out your laptop. You looked up at him as he watched you with intense blue eyes that made your stomach flutter, annoyingly so.

“I’m actually here for business and not pleasure, honey.” He smirked as he sat down at the chair across from you. “I’m here to formally and personally invite you to Bleeding Hearts.”

You resisted the urge to roll your eyes. Bleeding Hearts was the Thrombey annual charity gala that they hosted at Harlan’s expansive, hidden mansion. Your parents had been going every year since Harlan first hosted it and you had started going about five years ago. You would never tell Ransom, but you loved Bleeding Hearts. It gave you an excuse to wear a beautiful ball gown-albeit rented-and to feel like a beautiful princess like the ones you had read about growing up. Harlan always hired a full orchestra to play the most beautiful classical pieces throughout the night and it was like stepping into a time machine. You didn’t understand why Ransom had to come all the way down to your office just to invite you to something that you were already going to.

“I’ve already had Maria send in my RSVP and donation, Ransom. So thank you for the courtesy, but it really wasn’t needed.” You rubbed at your temples, a tension headache now forming from all this ‘excitement’ so early in the morning. And before you’ve even had a sip of your coffee.

“I know. And you gave a nice amount this year. Did daddy finally up your monthly allowance?” He smirked.

Just one punch. Just one and then I’ll be satisfied. Technically he’s trespassing, it could be called self defense.

“Goodbye, Ransom.” You blocked him out as you opened your email and began typing away. You got about two sentences out before you felt your laptop being shut against your hands.

“I wasn’t done.” Ransom whispered, you didn’t realize how close he was until you looked up. He was now leaning over your desk, one hand on your laptop and one hand on the edge of the desk closest to you.

“Shame.”

“I’m here to ask if you wanted to come...as my date.” You snorted out a laugh and laughed even harder as a look of annoyance crossed over his face. He stood up and straightened out his shirt almost nervously.

“God, you’re funny. Now please leave. You’ve already wasted so much of my time with this little joke.” You rolled your eyes as you opened your laptop again.

“I wasn’t kidding, Y/N.” His words were sharp and his eyes blazing.

“Neither was I. Get out of my office, Ransom. Or I will call security.” You glared right back at him.

Ransom looked like he was about to say something but decided against it. He tapped his fingers against your desk and gave you a mock salute.

“See ya around, honey.”

“Close the door on your way out.” You muttered.

You clenched your fists as he left your office, leaving your door wide open. You could hear him laughing his ass all the way down the hall.

Damn you, Ransom Drysdale.

“Y/N, I am so sorry. He just kind of walked in.” Maria rushed into your office, almost tripping over her far too high heels.

“Ria, it’s fine. I know how he is.” You waved her off, giving her a sympathetic smile. “Please, don’t worry about it.”

“Okay…” she said nervously. When you gave her another reassuring smile she relaxed her shoulders. “I have to say though, he is really sexy.”

“Maria.” You sighed. “Get out.”

“Sorry.” She squeaked before exiting your office, closing the door fully.

You leaned back in your chair and let out a long breath. How had today already been the longest day and it wasn’t even nine?

“Good afternoon, sweetheart.”

“Good afternoon, dad.” You smiled as your father snuck his way into your office.

You and your dad had always been close. When you were younger he called you his “little shadow” because you loved to follow him around throughout his day. You would sit in on meetings and you loved when he would let you pretend to lead the team briefings in the morning. It was only natural that you would follow in his footsteps and work for Cloak and Dagger.

Your father always pushed you to be your best. He didn’t let you take shortcuts to get where you were today in the company. You worked your way up and proved your worth and made your father proud.

“What’s this I hear of Ransom Drysdale stopping in this morning?” He sat down across from you.

You rolled your eyes. “Because he doesn’t have anything better to do than irritate me.”

Your father laughed as he slid in his glasses up to the top of his head and then pinched the bridge of his nose. “You two have been fighting like cats and dogs since you were kids. Will this feud between the two of you ever end? And can it be soon? I made a bet with Harlan that you two would finally stop by the time you were twenty-five.”

“Glad to see that my torture has been amusement for you and your little buddy.”

“Just teasing, sugar plum.”

“Please, let’s talk about anything else besides Ransom Drysdale. I’m begging you.” You gave him a warning look over the top of your computer.

“Fine by me.” He clapped his hands together and leaned forward. “How’s it going with Brooke Archer? Has she committed to C&D yet?”

Brooke Archer was an upcoming mystery novelist. Critics called her “the Agatha Cristie of our time” and rightfully so. You had read her first two novels and finished them within a day, completely entranced by her style of writing that had you guessing till the end. She was notoriously self-publishing but now that her books were blowing up she had finally made the decision to sign with a major publishing house. And your father had tasked you with landing her.

“I have a lunch meeting with her tomorrow. I think this could be the closing meeting.” You said confidently.

“Good. I’m proud of you, sugar plum.” He tapped his fingers on your desk. “And please text your mother back. She’s freaking out over what to make for dinner tonight.”

Confused, you pulled your phone out of your bag. You sighed when you saw that you had thirteen missed texts from your lovable but definitely eccentric mother.

“You’d think she’d know what I like by now.” You joked.

“What can I say, she’s a perfectionist.” You dad laughed before saying goodbye and exiting your office.

As you were typing out a response your phone dinged with a new message.

I hope you’re thinking about my proposal from earlier. Wasn’t kidding around this time honey.

Your thumbs hovered over the screen. How the hell had Ransom even gotten your number?

And like I said earlier, neither was I. The answer is no.

He responded only seconds later:

No ugly colors, don’t want to clash with my suit.

You had to give it to him, the man had tenacity.

You’re annoying.

Ransom only responded with a winky face. You shook your head as you exited his chat and went back to responding to your mother, barely noticing the smile that was covering your face thinking of that annoyingly handsome pain in your ass.

[streetlight11]

Try Not To Fall In Love

Summary: Being forced into marriage is never an exciting idea simply because you are getting married to someone not out of pure love. So when he was forced to marry a girl he doesn't know, he desperately gets help from his friend, hoping his friend could save him from the arranged marriage.

Theme: fake dating au, strangers to lovers

Genre: fluff, tinge of angst

Warnings: none

WC: 6.6k

Pairing: Bestfriend's Friend!Hoseok x Fem!Reader

a/n: Hello! I got this idea the other day while I was listening to a song by Keshi called Summer, where there was a line in the song which goes, "3 months is all we got, try not to fall in love" so I wrote this before I lost the feel of it ✌

“Shoot, what am I gonna do? My parents are setting me up for marriage with this… I don’t know, this spoiled brat whose parents apparently owns the famous clothing brand in Korea. Ugh, I hate her! I don’t wanna be married to some spoiled girl who only thinks about herself.” Hoseok groans in frustration as he paces around Namjoon’s living room.

Hoseok’s parents were power and money hungry. They thrive to be rich but forgets that the safer alternative was to work hard for it instead of taking a short way out. Since Hoseok was an only son, they used him as a pawn by planning to marry him off to the daughter of the most wealthiest family in the country.

He despised this whole plan.

Namjoon could only frown as he didn’t know what to do for his friend.

“Can’t you like maybe, I don’t know? Tell your parents you’re not interested in her or something?” Namjoon asked.

“Yeah, unless you want me to waste my breath then yeah sure I’ll make that excuse to them. They’re going to make me marry her no matter what I say! Shit! I hate this!” Hoseok growled as he plopped on the couch and threw a pillow across the room, making Namjoon scold him for throwing a tantrum.

Hoseok mumbled an apology as the room fell quiet. Just then, it was as though something clicked in the back of Namjoon’s mind. He snapped his fingers and shot up from the couch instantly, shocking the poor boy.

“I know! How about you get a fake girlfriend? That way your parent’s can’t say anything right?” Namjoon exclaimed as if it was the most brilliant plan ever.

“What do you want me to do if they ask me to break up with this fake girlfriend? Joon, I’m telling you. My parents can be hella desperate, they'd do literally anything to make their plan work.” Hoseok sighed again.

“Look, if you get a fake girlfriend, treat her like a real girlfriend. That way, when they see how much you care and love each other, your parents won’t bother you with arranging a marriage for you ever again. There! Problem solved.” Namjoon shrugged, only for Hoseok to roll his eyes.

“Okay fine, sure. But the problem is, who am I gonna ask to help me with the plan? You know I don’t have any close female friends…” Hoseok frowned worriedly at his older friend before the male smirked.

“Don’t worry, I’ve got that covered.” Namjoon said with a satisfied smirk on his face.

You were just typing away your codings for your assignment when a familiar figure stood in front of you on the other side of that wooden table. You glanced up and were immediately greeted by your best friend, Namjoon.

“What is it now, Namjoon? I already told you the group project is not discussable with members outside your group.” You sighed, earning a blabber from him.

“Yeah yeah whatever. Listen. I need you to do me a favour.” Namjoon began, rendering you curious.

“With what?” You asked.

“I need you to be a fake girlfriend for a few weeks.”

“What? Why do you need a fake girlfriend? Having girl trouble again?” You chuckled at your successful mock directed to him.

“Shut up. Anyways, not me. It’s for my friend.”

Your eyebrow was raised in confusion, staring at him with so much doubt.

“Yeah, I don’t know about that.” You said but he was quick to stop you.

“What? Why?”

“Namjoon, for one, I don’t know who your friend is. And two, this might be a little risky…”

“Why do you say that?”

“Most of the time when two people get into these fake relationships, they often end up being awkward and are close to opposite from what they hoped to turn out.”

“Y/N come on! Please! He’s really in need of help, his parents are forcing him to marry a girl he doesn’t even know and love. Just help him this once, will you? After all of this ends, I promise I’ll make it up to you.” Namjoon begged as you stared at him with worry in your eyes and he could clearly see it.

After much thought, you decided to help out simply because if you were in this person’s shoes, you would also dread the idea of being forced into marriage.

You just hope this plan turns out successful.

It was a Saturday afternoon and Namjoon had texted you earlier saying to meet his friend for lunch to discuss how you want the plan to go. Namjoon gave you the address of the cafe and told you to find a guy with dirt blonde hair and black long sleeved shirt. You didn’t want to have a bad first impression for yourself so you opted to dress slightly nicer instead of your usual sweatpants and oversized sweater.

You chose a simple denim skinny jeans, fitted cropped top with a cardigan to go over. Once you made it to the cafe, your eyes skimmed over the entire interior of the cafe.

You noticed that the cafe was filled with people but out of pure luck, there was only one guy seated near the windows alone and was exactly as Namjoon described him to be. With that, you made your way to him, noticing the two cups on the table. You assumed he bought a drink for you to not get kicked out of the cafe.

He was handsome. You definitely never met him before. Which makes things slightly harder considering this means you would have a lot to learn about this guy if you had to pretend to be his girlfriend for the next few weeks.

Right when you were a foot away from the table, his eyes glanced up from his phone only to lock eyes with yours. For a moment, you saw the way his cute brown eyes sparkled.

“Hi, are you Hoseok?” You asked as he nodded.

“I assume you are Y/N?”

“In the flesh.” You joked, only for him to crack into a smile that seemed too adorable. You took a seat after he gestured for you to sit down. Both of you went silent for a split second before you spoke up.

“How long have you waited?”

“Not too long, I think close to about 10 minutes?”

“Oh, sorry. I got stuck in traffic for a bit.” You apologized knowing you were in fact late.

“No, it’s fine…” Hoseok smiled as his eyes glanced around your face for a second while you looked down at the cup to see that it was a Hazelnut Latte, your favourite.

“I bought Hazelnut Latte with almond milk for you. Not gonna lie, I had to get help from Namjoon on what you usually drink. Didn’t want to buy the wrong one on a first meet.” He said as he rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. You giggled at his confession, finding it extremely endearing how he asked Namjoon what your favourite drink was.

“Anything is fine honestly, I’m not picky but I guess I can say this is the perfect pick.” You smiled when you saw the corner of his lips curled up sharply.

The two of you began chatting more comfortably with each other, getting to know the other in slight depth so that you would know what to say if someone questions you about the other. You later found out he was your age and that he owns a puppy named Mickey. He was a dancer and he likes to rap when he’s bored.

You also found out that he and Namjoon have been friends since high school. Which means he’s known Namjoon longer than you have.

A few minutes later, you both decided to lay out the plan for his fake girlfriend project. You went through the basic stuff, saying what you can or can’t do in public, all that kind of stuff.

After brainstorming and exchanging ideas or thoughts on the plan, you smiled before saying the one thing that both of you had to try to be mutual about.

“Whatever we do, let’s try not to fall in love with each other.”

Your first few weeks of fake dating went well. Hoseok and you managed to act like a legit couple in public. He would drive you to campus every morning, hold hands as you walked around the campus grounds, sit with you during his free period, have lunch with you and Namjoon on days where your lunch schedules are in sync, walk you to your classes with his arm on your waist, basically everything a couple would do.

Of course, not to forget the little kisses he gives you after every walk, before every separation, in between chats, but those kisses were anywhere but your lips for you both agreed to avoid lip kisses.

Everything was going well so far and despite the little butterflies you sometimes get whenever he holds you or kisses you a certain way, you tried your best to remind yourself this was all temporary.

Besides, you were only doing this to practice so that when you do in fact go over to meet his parents, they would believe that you are dating their son.

Nobody would believe someone is dating if they saw an awkward couple who doesn’t know what to do around the other.

Right?

It was a Tuesday afternoon and you were having lunch with Namjoon and Hoseok when the latter sighed deeply the minute he sat down beside you with his own tray of food.

“Hoseok? What’s wrong?” You asked as Namjoon eyed his friend worriedly.

“My mum’s inviting that girl’s family over this weekend to our family dinner. All my relatives are gonna be there…” He said hesitantly as he avoided your eyes. Hoseok was currently picking his food, not actually eating it.

So you gently placed your hand on top of his that was on the table, successfully gaining his attention when he turned to look at you.

“Hey, you’re gonna be fine. Don’t worry too much, okay?” You tried reassuring him but it looks like he was too stressed out about it.

“I know… It’s just… The last thing I wanna do is to humiliate myself in front of everyone, or even worse, humiliate you. Maybe this wasn’t a good idea. I shouldn’t have dragged you into this mess in the first place.” Hoseok said as he began to have second thoughts.

Before you could respond, he got up abruptly while slinging his bag strap over his shoulder.

“Sorry, I have to go.” He apologized as he began to walk away. You turned to Namjoon who looked just as confused as you were. Namjoon told you to go after him and that was exactly what you did.

Hoseok had just left the cafeteria hall and was making his way towards the Dance Studio building when you ran after him.

You grabbed his hand to stop him and once you were standing in front of him, you took in a breath to speak.

“Hoseok, listen to me. Everything’s gonna be fine. No one’s gonna humiliate anyone. Don’t stress out too much okay? It’ll be fine.” You tried to reassure him but it looks like he was still having doubts about it.

“Y/N, the plan was to bring you home with just my parents and that girl around, not my entire family. I don’t want you to get hurt if they say anything bad about you, about us… We really shouldn’t have done this, I’m sorry for bringing you into this.” Hoseok apologized again but you weren’t having any of it.

With that being said, you cupped his face and caressed his cheeks with your thumbs, not caring about the looks you got from the students that were currently passing by your two figures in the middle of the hallway.

“That’s not gonna happen… Okay? We’re going through this together. No matter what. We have to finish what we started. Besides, if there’s anyone during that gathering who I trust would keep me safe, it’s you.”

Your words hit him deeply and he couldn’t agree more. It has been 3 weeks since you started this whole fake dating thing. And if he were to be completely honest, the very last agreement you made right before all this started in which you said ‘try not to fall in love with each other’, this statement has been washed down the drain since the first week of your fake dating.

After the third day of practicing your fake relationship, he realized that you were an amazing person. You were so humble, kind, selfless, down-to-earth, basically everything a guy dreams of. Seeing how sweet you were with such a genuine heart, makes him go all fuzzy and warm for you.

It was only after the first week of that fake relationship that Hoseok realized, maybe he really was falling in love with you.

With that being said, Hoseok leaned into your hands as you watched his frown get replaced by a smile and soon, he wrapped his fingers around your wrist gently to say, “Okay… Let’s show them how love should really be.”

Weekend finally rolled around and you were currently getting ready for Hoseok’s family dinner. You opted to wear a beautiful lavender laced sleeveless dress with a pretty round neck, where the hem of the dress stops just past your knees. You were going to pair it with your nude heels. You style your hair to a pretty low bun with your bangs framing your face in a middle parting.

You kept your makeup at a bare minimum since that was just your personal preference. You were just packing your important belongings into your purse when you heard the doorbell ring.

You abandoned your purse for a second as you jogged to your front door. Once you opened it, you nearly got your breath stolen by how handsome he looked.

He was wearing a white button down formal shirt, the first few buttons undone, his sleeves rolled up to his forearms, pairing that with a tie loosely hanging around his neck. He wore black jeans with the shirt tucked in, along with a pair of black loafers.

Not to mention his hair being styled in a way that his forehead is shown but at the same time, his fringe flops down with a slight volume so that it’s not too flat.

He looks really good.

“Hey gorgeous.” He smirked upon seeing your outfit.

You couldn’t stop the blush forming on your cheeks but you were quick to respond to him to avoid getting teased by him.

“Hey handsome. Give me a second to get my purse!” You said as you jogged back into your apartment, hearing his soft chuckle behind you. After you grabbed your purse, phone and house keys, you strapped your heels on and soon left the apartment. You made sure to lock your door before walking down the hall with him.

Both of you were talking about random topics when you felt him slide an arm around your waist. For some reason, this made you jump while your breath hitched in your throat a little too loud.

Hoseok chuckled at your reaction, clearly not expecting you to react that way especially since you were always relaxed when he does that out of the blue on campus.

“You okay? You seem jumpy…” Hoseok asked worriedly before his eyes searched for yours desperately.

“Uh, y-yeah… I’m just nervous I guess.” You laughed, earning a soft squeeze to your side before he kissed your temple gently like he always does.

“Don’t be. I promise nobody’s gonna hurt you… I won’t let that happen.” Hoseok’s voice gradually got lower until he whispered those last words to you. It made your heart flip and your stomach swirl from both anxiety and adrenaline.

The drive to his family home was about 40 minutes but you enjoyed the entire ride there. Hoseok made you laugh quite a few times, both of you singing along to the songs on his playlist, you played around with his things in his car, him glancing over at you every now and then only to smile every time he catches you doing something silly or was just laughing at something he said.

Gosh he was sickly in love with you.

He finally managed to park in his parent’s driveway along with a few other cars that probably belonged to the other guests. You got out of his car, suddenly feeling nervous all over again. Hoseok noticed the way you were stuck in place beside his passenger car door, making him walk over to you.

“Hey, relax. We’re gonna be fine. You said that yourself didn’t you?” Hoseok smiles as he cups your face softly while he caresses your cheeks with his thumbs.

You slowly nodded up at him, watching as he plants a soft kiss to your forehead.

Of course this was all for the fake relationship at the end of the day, but was all of this gestures really fake though?

Both of you walked towards the front door with your left hand in his, fingers intertwined while your right hand wrapped itself around his left forearm to hold him close to you. Hoseok stopped in front of the door before turning to you and whispered, “Are you ready?”

“Ready if you are.” You gave him a weak smile and soon, he pushed the door open.

You made it inside without anyone greeting you at the door since it was in fact his house anyway. However, the minute you entered the living room, you instantly squeezed Hoseok’s hand lightly. Clearly overwhelmed by the number of people who were gathered there.

“Oh! Hoseok dear! You’re here!” One of the middle aged ladies said with a smile.

“Yes Aunt Ju, I’m here and I brought my girlfriend with me if you all don’t mind. I figured it’s a perfect time to introduce her to all my family.” Hoseok said proudly, making you feel slightly safe in his arms.

Just then, a voice sounded from behind you and it wasn’t exactly pleasant.

“How dare you bring an outsider to our family dinner! She’s not invited! And who said you’re dating this low life girl? You’re getting married to Lena!” Who you could only assume to be Hoseok’s mother, said in full disgust as she glares and looks at you from head to toe.

Hoseok’s body shook with rage as he frowned at his mother, ready to shoot her down with his words if he had to.

“You can’t tell me who I can and can’t be with, mom. Why should I marry someone who doesn’t mean a single thing to me when I can live happily with the girl of my dreams?”

“Nonsense! I am your mother so you have to listen to my decisions!” You were afraid of what might happen next so you tugged Hoseok’s hand a little to gain his attention. Luckily, he felt it so he glanced down at you for a second and the moment he locked eyes with you, he immediately softened.

He took a deep breath before turning back to his mother and smiled, “Yes, you are my mother. But I get to decide who I want to marry for it is my life and not yours.”

His mother’s face distorts into an offended scowl. She watched as her son brought you over to the rest of his family in the living room.

Upon sitting down, one of Hoseok’s cousin’s greeted you with a hug as she began talking to you.

“Hi dear! What’s your name?” She asked.

“Hi, I’m Y/N, you?”

“I’m Seori. It’s nice to meet you!”

“It’s nice to meet you too.” For the first time that night, you smiled genuinely as Seori warmed up to you pretty quick. Though from the corner of your eye, you could see a girl who hadn’t kept her gaze off you from the minute you entered the room.

For this reason alone, you could only guess that she was Lena, the girl who Hoseok was supposed to marry.

You were just chatting with Seori about Hoseok’s old habits when she suddenly leaned in to whisper something surprising to you.

“Honestly, I’m rooting for you instead of that rich girl. She’s such a brat. Hoseok is definitely too good for her.” Seori smiled, making you chuckle. You couldn’t believe Hoseok’s cousin was actually agreeing with you being her cousin’s partner even though she only just met you.

“Oh… Thanks… I guess?” You said awkwardly, earning a laugh from her.

“No really! She’s such a spoiled brat. I don’t understand why my aunt is dying for Hoseok to marry her. Blegh…” Seori faked a gag at the end.

Just then, your eyes travelled over to the other side of the room, only to find Lena shooting daggers into your skull. You got uncomfortable under her intense gaze which caused you to fidget in your seat. Unfortunately, Hoseok noticed this so he turned to you and whispered carefully.

“Are you okay? What’s wrong?”

“H-Huh? Oh, n-nothing. I’m fine.” You smiled at him as he frowned knowing you were lying but he decided to just trust you so he snuck a quick kiss to your cheek before smiling at you.

Why is your heart racing?

An hour went by, Hoseok kept you close to him at all times, making sure Lena or his mother never got too close to you.

You were just talking to Seori and Wooyoung, another one of Hoseok’s cousins when you excused yourself to go to the washroom. You made it down the hall and was about to enter the bathroom when you heard bickerings from one of the rooms.

As bad as you know it would be to eavesdrop, you got even curious when you recognized one of the voices to be Hoseok’s.

The closer you got, the clearer those voices were. However, your heart wasn’t ready for what you were about to hear.

“I want you to break up with that stupid girl and marry Lena!”

“No mom! What the hell? You can’t do this to me!”

“I’m your mother! And I demand you to leave that lowlife brat or else, I won’t take you as my son anymore! You choose. Outsider or Family.” His mom threatened him as she began to walk towards the door.

For some reason, you couldn’t seem to move. Your feet were glued to the ground as your eyes pooled with tears at the brim.

The moment his mother pulled the door open harshly, you flinched.

The tears on your eyes were now falling freely down your cheeks. You locked eyes with Hoseok for a brief moment before you looked back at his mother who had a satisfied wicked smile on her face.

“So, you heard right? Break up with my son if you love him and care about him still being a part of this family.”

Hoseok was frozen behind her as he watched you carefully for your next words. You two were supposed to be strong for each other. You were supposed to come out of this family dinner hand in hand with a proud smile on your face. Unfortunately, that doesn’t seem to be the outcome tonight.

So with one shaky breath, you locked eyes with his mother while your tears streamed down your face, giving her exactly what she wanted.

“Okay. I promise I’ll leave your son alone from now on. This will be the last time you see me in his life, if that’s what you want Ma’am.”

“Good. Now leave. You don’t belong here.”

With that, you gave her a weak smile before you turned in your heels and ran. Hoseok was going to run after you but his mother stopped him.

Your running figure caught everyone’s attention as Seori and Wooyoung called out to you desperately but all you did was run to the front door and left. A few seconds later, Hoseok was seen running down the hall and was about to go to the front door when Hoseok’s mother yelled his name.

He stopped in his tracks, only for her to threaten him again.

“Jung Hoseok! Don’t you dare go after that girl!”

“Why?! Why not mom?! Why can’t I go after the one girl that I love?! Tell me mom! Tell me!”

“You don’t love her…” She scoffed, trying to convince herself that her son isn’t capable of finding love on his own.

“What do you know about love mom? You call marrying someone I don’t know, someone I’ve never talked to, someone I’ve never met before, love? If that’s what you call love, then I don’t want to be a part of it. In all my life, I’ve never known what is the true meaning of love besides a family’s love. And now I know…” He paused to take a deep breath before he continued.

“Call me insane, but I am in love with her. I am madly in love with the girl who you just blatantly threatened to break up with me. It’s such a low move of you to threaten an innocent girl when all she did was love me.” Hoseok said as he turned and was about to leave when his mother threatened him again.

“If you step out of this house right now just to go after that brat, you are never to step foot in this house ever again.”

With that being said, Hoseok turned around and gave her a sad smile. He knew the decision he was going to make. He knew it would probably change his life forever. And yet, not a single ounce of regret was lingering in him when he said the next few words.

“And let the girl I truly love slip out of my hands for good? I’m sorry mom, but I don’t think so.” Hoseok said and with that, he left.

Hoseok’s father had to hold his wife back from slaughtering her son as Seori and Wooyoung cheered for their cousin while Lena was just fuming in her seat.

Hoseok arrived at your apartment building, running up to your unit level only to pound his fist against your door. He waited a few seconds but all he got was silence. He tried a few more times and still no response. He panicked as he ran his fingers through his hair, trying to think of where else you could go.

Just then, it was as though something clicked in his brain that made him rush back to his car and soon drove off to the one possible place you could have gone to.

After a few more minutes on the road, Hoseok practically leaped out of his car and soon sprinted up the apartment steps not bothering to wait for the lift.

Once he was on level 4 where Namjoon’s apartment unit was, he gave it a few knocks.

It was currently 10:40pm so he knew damn well that Namjoon was still awake. Hoseok’s mind was currently running amuck as he tapped his foot impatiently against the ground.

Just then, the door opened to reveal Namjoon who looked worried for something, or perhaps someone.

“Joon ah! Please tell me she’s here…” Hoseok whispered desperately as his eyes pleaded for Namjoon to give him the answer he really wanted. Of course, Namjoon could never lie to his friend. Which is why Namjoon lets out a sigh of relief before smiling at the latter.

“She’s in my room.”

With that being said, Hoseok quickly kicked his shoes off only to walk towards Namjoon’s room carefully so as to not scare you.

Once he was standing in front of the door, he skipped the knocking and went straight ahead to open it.

The moment he did, his heart shattered upon seeing you sit on Namjoon’s bed with your knees up to your chest while you hugged them. You had your face buried in your arms as your soft cries echoed around the room.

Hoseok softly entered the room, closing the door behind him as he carefully made his way to you.

“Joonie… Why am I feeling this way? Why am I so sad? This is fake, isn’t it? All this is fake… So why does my heart hurt so bad?” You whispered in between sobs but still not looking up. You felt the mattress dip beside you which means someone had just climbed into bed with you.

Except, you just assumed it was Namjoon. Little did you know, you were wrong.

“Maybe because our feelings weren’t fake.”

His familiar gentle voice caught you off guard as you slowly brought your head up only to gasp when you locked eyes with Hoseok’s soft ones. He was smiling down at you, and yet, you could see how broken he was.

“H-Hoseok… W-Wha… What are you doing here?” Your voice was weak as you stuttered over your words.

“I left… I couldn’t let you leave.”

“N-No…” You croaked out. “N-No… No… What about your family? Hoseok, did you not hear what your mom said?”

With that being said, Hoseok gently cups your face with both hands as he shushes you to calm you down.

“Shh… Shh… It’s okay. I know what she said. But it doesn’t matter because what’s important is that we’re together.” He smiled as he kissed the tip of your nose, wiping your tears away with his thumbs.

“Hoseok…” Your voice was barely a whisper, earning a soft ‘shh’ from him yet again.

“I don’t care what she said. I don’t care what any of my family says. It's my life so I make my decisions. And right now, I’m so glad I left. That way I can show you just how much I truly care for you…” Hoseok paused as he slowly leaned closer to you until his lips were just an inch apart from yours, foreheads touching gently before he took one shaky breath and finally expressed his feelings for you wholeheartedly.

“I love you, Y/N.”

Your heart was pounding against your chest as you closed your eyes, afraid to look him in the eye. Finally, with one small breath, you whispered your reply for his little confession.

“I love you too, Hoseok.”

And just like that, Hoseok smiled as he caressed your cheeks before he kissed you on the lips.

Your heart almost jumps out of your chest as you slide your hands around his waist. He kissed you so sweetly, you nearly allowed yourself to fall on him. Hoseok pulls away with a soft sound, keeping one hand on your cheek while the other rests on your neck.

He kept his forehead gently against yours as his lips purposely brushed over your lips. You could hear his nervous breaths, only for him to whisper against your lips.

“Let me love you properly this time. You’re all that I want.”

With that, you couldn’t help but giggle feeling your heart full again. You loved him. You don’t know what you did to deserve him. Nevertheless, you promised to love him back equally.

7 months had passed without any of you realizing. Hoseok has been staying with Namjoon ever since that unfortunate incident with his parents, more specifically his mother. Hoseok hasn’t talked to his parents ever since, simply fulfilling her request if he decided to leave the house that night.

You were in a stable relationship with Hoseok in which he has shown you more love than what he was capable of giving you previously when you were fake dating.

He showered you with so much love, it makes your heart melt every single time.

It was a gloomy Saturday afternoon. You went over to Namjoon’s place to hangout with him and your boyfriend. Upon your arrival, Hoseok seemed too excited as he quickly tackled you down onto the sofa whilst he tickled the life out of you.

You had to beg him to stop as you ended up panting for air. You were just cuddling with Hoseok on the couch while Namjoon sat on the huge bean bag chair at the corner while you all watched the movie.

You were just drawing random patterns onto Hoseok’s clothed chest, earning soft kisses at the top of your head when you heard the doorbell ring.

All of you glanced around at each other, only for Hoseok to ask his roommate if he ordered anything.

Upon Namjoon saying no, the male stood up and made his way to the door. You and Hoseok continued watching the show while Namjoon went to answer the door. A few seconds later, you heard Namjoon’s voice calling to Hoseok from the end of the hallway but for some reason, his voice sounded a little suspicious.

You definitely didn’t expect this.

“Uh, Seok ah, you might wanna pause the movie.” Namjoon warned as you both turned around. The minute you locked eyes with Hoseok’s parents, you immediately tensed up whilst he sat up straighter in an alert stance.

“Mom. Dad.” Hoseok whispered under his breath as the two of them smiled at their son.

You could feel the tension rising as Hoseok’s body became stiff. To avoid making things worse, you carefully got up and excused yourself.

Before you could leave, Hoseok grabbed your wrist as his eyes were begging for you to stay.

“You should talk to them.” You whispered as you looked at his parents and soon gave them a small nod before you and Namjoon left them to head to Namjoon’s bedroom.

You closed the door behind you and the minute you were inside, you couldn’t help but let out a shaky sigh. Pressing your back against the door, you slid down to the ground until you were seated on the floor. Namjoon frowned as he went over to you, pulling you into a warm hug as he caressed the back of your head comfortingly.

Meanwhile, Hoseok's parents took a seat on the same couch he was in except there was a huge gap between Hoseok and his mom.

“My dear son, how are you sweetheart?” His mom smiled sadly, knowing Hoseok probably still held a grudge on her.

“I’m fine…” Hoseok said coldly, unsure of how to react.

“How’s school? Everything okay?” His dad asked.

“Yeah. I’m coping okay. Nothing out of the ordinary for me as usual.” Hoseok shrugged as he looked everywhere but his parents. Just then, his mother was the first to apologize.

“I’m really sorry for the way I acted that night… I… I wasn’t thinking.”

Hoseok finally looked at his mom with a deep frown on his face.

“What are you saying?”

“I’m saying that I shouldn’t have treated Y/N that way and that I shouldn’t have made those threats to you and her when I should be happy that you found love and that you were genuinely happy to be with her… I’m so sorry, dear.” His mother started to tear up as Hoseok’s heart immediately softened for her.

Of course he couldn’t hate her.

He could never hate his mother.

So when she began to cry, Hoseok scooted closer to hug her, rubbing her back soothingly to calm her down. His father simply smiled as he patted Hoseok’s back a few times for he wasn’t a man of affection. No doubt, he still loves his family dearly.

A few minutes later, Hoseok pulled away from his mother, only for the lady to sniffle and ask, “Can I see her? I want to see the girl who’s been making my son so happy.” She smiled as Hoseok nodded.

He soon got up, making his way to Namjoon’s bedroom. He gave it a few knocks before opening it, only to find Namjoon and you seated on his bed facing each other, placing a game of rock paper scissors. You were just laughing at Namjoon’s mistake when you heard the door creak open and soon, you met Hoseok’s soft eyes.

“Hey…” Hoseok said as he stepped inside briefly to walk to you and Namjoon.

“How’s everything?” Namjoon asked with a weak smile, only for Hoseok to speak up.

“We made up…”

“Oh? That’s amazing.” Namjoon sighed in relief but then Hoseok looked at you and placed a soft hand on your thigh.

“But now my mom wants to see you.” Immediately, your breath hitched in your throat.

What if she still hates you?

Hoseok could sense your worries so he squeezed your thigh softly and soon reassured you that if anything goes wrong, he’ll be there to protect you. With his words of affirmation, you both finally left the room with Namjoon flopping onto his bed.

You walked behind Hoseok while he laced his fingers with yours. The minute you came into the living room, you locked eyes with his mother and for some reason, her words from that night came haunting you back.

You unconsciously hid behind Hoseok and his mother saw this.

However, the frown on her face couldn’t easily be mistaken for anything else. She knew she would leave this effect on you, but maybe not to this extent. And for that, she feels bad.

Seeing how you wouldn’t budge from behind him, Hoseok gently tugs you forward while he whispers to you, “It’s okay… I’m here…”

This was enough to give you some moral support as you carefully sat down on the couch beside his mother.

“Hi dear, how are you?” She asked as you saw a brand new tear threatening to roll down her cheeks.

“I-I’m good, Ma’am.”

“Don’t worry sweetheart, I’m not here to yell at you… I’m here to say sorry. I know what I said to you that night wasn’t right. And I know that I can’t take back whatever I said. And I totally understand if you don’t forgive me. All I wanna say is thank you for making my son happy. I can see that he truly loves you. I’m sorry once again.” She smiled as the tear finally rolled down her cheek.

All the while, you were still holding Hoseok’s hand as he sat closely behind you but his fingers were laced with yours on your lap while his right hand gently caressed your sides to calm your nerves down.

For some reason, you could see the sincerity behind her apology. Which is why you reached for her hand afterwards and spoke up.

“I forgive you.”

His mother stared at you in shock, surprised that you forgave her despite all the things she said to you.

“You… really forgive me?”

“I understand that all you wanted was the best for your child. And I couldn’t blame you for that. But apart from that, I’m thankful that you finally approve of my relationship with your son. I love him so much but I dread to see him being torn apart from his family.” You said.

His mother couldn’t help but cry harder as you offered her a hug to which she openly accepted.

You rubbed her back to soothe her nerves only to hear her say, “Hoseok did an excellent job at choosing the right girl.”

You pulled away to find her smiling at you before glancing past your shoulder to look at her son with a look that Hoseok seemed to understand. His parents soon took their leave, while you went back to join Namjoon after saying goodbye to Hoseok’s parents.

Hoseok was just standing by the door to say bye to his parents when his mother cups his face and whispers, “Don’t lose her, no matter what people say. She’s a keeper.”

With that being said, she kissed his forehead and soon left.

Hoseok couldn’t agree more with his mother’s sentence, knowing that he would never let go of you that easily nor would he lose you because of other people’s words. He won’t ever let those things happen.

And that’s exactly what he’s going to do.

~~~

[buckyswintersoldiermask]

The Super Soldier and His Friend

Part 7

Bucky Barnes x friend!reader

(Bucky x Sam, Sam x reader, Sarah x reader)

⊙ Bucky Masterlist ⊙ Main Masterlist ⊙ TSSAHF Masterlist ⊙

Summary: Bucky tells Yori the truth, and tells you that you’re his family. Bucky invites you to go with him to Louisiana for a cookout with Sam.

Word Count: 1.7k

Warnings: spoilers for FATWS Episodes 5 and 6

A/N: this is the final part of the series, I hope it’s to y’all’s liking :)

I don’t want FATWS to end :((

“You weren’t amending, you were avenging.” Those words rang in Buckys mind. He truly wasn’t amending, so he knew what he had to do.

“So you’re going to tell Yori today, are you sure today is the day?”

“I’ve waited long enough, he needs the closure (y/n) and it’s one step closer to me making amends.”

You patted his shoulder and gave him a warm smile, “I’ll be at my place, come over if you want, when you’re done.” He nods before you both leave his apartment. You went into your apartment just hoping the best for Bucky.

He’s had so much growth since you’ve met him, he’s finally getting closer to peace. Something he’s wanted since you met him.

Bucky didn’t take long. Bucky knocked on his door, Yori surprised to see him, he let him in. They sat down and Bucky told him straight up,

I, uh, have something to tell you. About your son.

Yori was confused to say the least, what could Bucky know about his son? Bucky and Yori sat down as Bucky slipped off his glove.

He was murdered. Bucky said, making Yori even more confused.

By The Winter Soldier. And that was me. Bucky finally spits out, as his voice shakes. Taking everything in him not to fall apart.

“Why?” Yori asked, Bucky inhales, trying to compose himself, “I didn’t have a choice.”

Yori showed Bucky out after that. Bucky took a little walk afterwards, before showing up at your door.

Once he knocked on your door and you saw his face, you knew he had told him. He had tried to tell Yori multiple times, but this time he stuck with it. You let him in and he sat down on your couch.

You stood just a few feet away from him, wanting to know if he’s okay. “So how did it go?”

“I told him, he asked why, and I told him why.”

“I know that was hard and I’m proud of you.” Bucky nods, as you pat his shoulder.

“Do you want to stay for a bit?” He nods again and you grab a bunch of delivery menus from your kitchen. “You’re lucky I don’t have work tomorrow.”

“Your hours are never consistent. Why do you even work there?”

“Well some of us aren’t a World War II veteran and need to work to have a roof over our heads.” You retorted, passing him a menu. “Order us some food, and if I didn’t have a job I wouldn’t be able to pay for our food.”

He smirked before ordering the food as you brought 2 sodas to the table. Setting them down, before sitting down across from him. “Do you want to talk about it?” He shook his head, popping the lid on the soda off.

Trying to lighten the mood you say, “Well I know what we could talk about.”

“And what’s that?”

“Sam’s new suit.” You say, before opening your own soda.

“I’m not following.”

“That’s a nice suit. The Wakandans did good.”

“How did-“

“Just a hunch. Now let’s talk about your suit.”

“My suit is fine.”

“I mean it could use some tweaks.”

“We are not doing this.”

“Sam’s suit is better than yours.” You blurt out, teasing Bucky more. His mouth drops open in fake shock.

“Take it back.”

“He has wings and a shield. You just have a jacket and some pants and a gold and black metal arm.” You exclaim, making Bucky roll his eyes.

“And here I thought you were my friend.”

“I am, and as your friend I’m saying your suit needs an upgrade.”

“Alright, fashion expert.”

After some more light bantering between the two of you, your food arrived, you paid for it then brought it inside.

You noticed the bag being extra heavy than usual. “Geez, Bucky how much did you order?” You asked, taking containers out of the bag.

“Enough.”

“Yeah enough to feed 6 people.”

You and Bucky ate as he told you about him and Sam stopping the flagsmashers. It was nice to hear Bucky and Sam working together and not being a pain in each other’s sides. You saw Sam’s speech on TV the other day, it was beautiful and inspiring. Sam is Captain America.

It was way past 12am and Bucky decided he should go home. Even though you didn’t mind him staying, he insisted. “Will you be alright tonight?” You asked, making sure he’d be okay after that day's events.

He nods, “if not, I’ll come over.” You give him a tight hug before he leaves.

It was quiet and calm in your apartment as you were getting ready for bed. Bucky seemed fine after talking to Yori but he knew he’s always welcome at your place anytime. Which you always expressed. You were getting ready for bed and was interrupted as you heard a knock on your door. You groaned as you trudged to your front door.

You unlocked it to see it’s Bucky. You let him in and close the door behind him, “why didn’t you just use your key?”

“I didn’t want you to think someone was breaking in.”

“Good point,” you sat down on the couch and patted it, telling him to come sit down. “You okay, Buck?” You asked, remembering what he said earlier. He sat down beside you as you got ready to listen to what he had to say.

“Yeah, I just wanted to ask you something.”

“What’s up?”

“Sam invited me to a cookout in New Orleans and I wanted to know if you’d come with me.”

“I’d love to, only if Sam and his family are okay with it. I wouldn’t want to intrude.”

“I asked him if it was okay. He said you’re welcome to come.” You smiled, “well if it’s okay with him.”

“I got us plane tickets.” He says, handing you a plane ticket he bought.

“You just knew I’d say yes, huh?”

“I just want all of my family to be there.” You stare at him for a moment, with a jaw dropping expression on your face.

“You’re family (y/n/n). I thought I had nothing when Sam gave up the shield, but I had you. Even though we are an usual pair of friends, you’re very important to me.”

“So that’s why you came here at almost 2am? To tell me I’m your family.”

“Yes?” Bucky answered, unsure of how you were taking this.

“I love you too, Buck.”

You glanced down at your plane ticket to see the date you’re supposed to be leaving.

“We’re leaving in 2 days?!”

“Yes..” you glared at him as he slouched in his seat avoiding eye contact with you.

After about a 3 hour flight, you and Bucky landed in New Orleans. You rented a car and you were on your way to the dock, where the cookout was.

“Wait.” You said, making Bucky stop the car abruptly.

“What happened?”

“We have to bring something. We can’t show up empty handed.”

“What should we bring?”

Bucky drove to the store and the both of you settled on a cake with buttercream icing and 2 liters of soda. You pull up to the dock and Bucky puts on some shades and his jacket. You shook your head as you grabbed the drinks and Bucky got the cake. Music was playing, food was being cooked and everybody was just having a good time when you walked up.

The first people who greeted Bucky were Sam’s nephews, Cass and AJ. Bucky pretended to fight with them for a little bit before walking over to the table and placing down the cake. You came behind and placed the drinks on the table as well. Bucky glanced around looking for the man of the hour. He was getting hugs and pictures from people in the community.

Bucky brought you over to Sam, giving him a hug. Buckys come a long way from ignoring his messages to hugging him, you thought. Bucky glanced over to you, introducing you to Sam.

“(y/n), this is Sam. Sam, (y/n).”

“Nice to meet you in person, Sam. Thank you for inviting me.”

“Anyone who’s friends with Bucky is a friend of mine.”

You met a lot of really nice people that day. You talked to Sarah and offered to help her cook. And man did she put you to work. After you were done, you sat at a picnic table, enjoying the atmosphere.

You watched as children played on Bucky's metal arm as he talked to Sarah, which warmed your heart. Bucky’s arm being a bar to play on for kids. It was nice to see him happy and peaceful there in Louisiana.

Bucky excused himself before coming over to you, “you okay, doll?”

“Yeah, I’m just taking it all in. You fit right in down here.” Bucky nods, agreeing with you, he does fit right in. “Why don’t you come over here with me, Sarah and the kids?” Bucky questioned as he grabbed your hand, leading you over to them.

“I know you two have met.” Bucky smiled, as you sat down at the table.

“Yeah, (y/n), helped me with the food earlier, she’s the one that deals with you in New York.” You laugh, before nodding at Sarah’s comment, “that’s me, though, I feel it's a mutual thing, we deal with each other.”

“Thank you for being so welcoming.” You said as a big smile appeared on your face.

“Of course.”

The music continued to play as everyone danced around, chatted, and ate. The sun began to set. Bucky went to talk to Sam for a moment and Sarah went to go talk to some more people. You stayed there watching the kids play, such innocence and beauty. You glanced over at Sam and Bucky as Bucky nudged his shoulder, a huge grin on his face. You had never seen him smile as much as he smiled that day.

Sam and Buckys moment was short but sweet. Bucky came back and sat next to you, still smiling.

“You’re really enjoying yourself.” You said, turning to him, making eye contact.

“I am, I’m really glad you came (y/n/n).”

“I’m glad I came too.”

That day Bucky realized something. He had a family and he was finally happy.

A/N: tell me what you thought about this part! Might make an alternative ending or something idk.

Bucky Tags: @ragnaroqk @mollysolo @mogaruke @whothehellisbuckybarnes @amelia-song-pond @fredweazleyswh0re @tinylumpiaa @i-reblog-fics-i-like @weenersoldierr @stephthepeach @sammypotato67 @ttalisa @mxltifaves @supremethunda @hanniebee33 @gamerartisy @afraid-to-be-me @qhbr2013 @kidswhofightmonsters @bahama-mama-llama @teti-menchon0604 @jbreenr

TSSAHF Tags: @nialeesato @marvel-ousnesss

Taglist

[in-class-daydreams]

The Splash Zone - Tsukishima x Reader (Oneshot)

Jurassic World! AUPairing: Son of Park CEO!Tsukishima Kei x Mosasaur Trainer!Reader

- Word Count: ~9,000

- Genres: Fluff, angst

- CW: Mentions of death, objectification of main character, sexual harassment-

Mango’s Introduction: Tsukishima the younger is a bit… prickly. Don’t say that to his face, obviously, because he’s technically your boss, but for all his personality flaws, he’s definitely excellent at his job and he cares more about the people around him than he lets on. He’s snarky with that mosasaur trainer more than anyone else, but you can tell he’s sweet on her. I guess you could call it the adult equivalent of pulling a girl’s pigtails on the playground. Uh, don’t tell him I said that, he’s my boss too.

(A/N: For all of you who were interested in this series, y'all waited nearly a year for less than 10,000 words, and I apologize, haha. It's been sitting 95% finished all that time, but I moved onto some other projects because I wasn't confident in my writing abilities. After a year's worth of writing exercises via different projects, I'm now okay with putting this out for all of you. I hope my next few projects (AoT and KnY) knock your socks off, but for now, here's a little journey about following your own convictions, featuring our favorite salty blonde.)

Tsukishima had it all. Money, looks, brains, and sure, his personality could use a little work, but he wasn’t completely insufferable. Most of the time. But if you asked him, his sour attitude was hardly his fault. After all, he was the heir to a multi-trillion dollar theme park, so it’s not like there were any consequences for him talking to people the way he does. For all he cared, he could be as snarky as he liked, considering he didn’t work with many people that were willing to speak their mind to him.

“Bite me, Tsukki.”

Well, except for a certain mosasaur trainer that was really grating on his nerves. Said trainer sat across from him from her seat in his office, arms crossed and jaw tense. Tsukishima tapped his fingers on his desk.

“Are you done throwing a tantrum like a six-year-old?” he asked. (Y/N)’s hands balled in her lap. She kept her mouth shut, glowering at the desk in front of her to keep her temper under wraps.

The blonde rolled his eyes. About fifteen minutes ago, he watched her kick in the door to the employee lounge and make her way over to the mosasaur staff supervisor. All eyes were on her as she moved towards him with murderous intent rolling off of her in waves. While (Y/N) was the one with the most control over the aquatic dinosaur itself, the supervisor was the one who hired staff, had them trained, made their schedules, and completed the other overall administrative duties. Their position was a catch-all and they were meant to do the primary inspections that made the mosasaur shows run properly.

Company policy encouraged open communication between colleagues, of course. Jurassic World Theme Park prided itself on proficient employee cooperation, as per the employee handbook and what the marketing team insists they say. Tsukishima just wished (Y/N) had opened her statement with something a smidge more polite than, “Are there any grooves in your fucking brain or is it all just smooth in there?”

After that hell of a conversation starter, she and the supervisor verbally ripped into each other. If Kei hadn’t grabbed (Y/N) by the windbreaker and dragged her into his office, he wouldn’t have been surprised if they ended up ripping into each other physically, too. To her credit, (Y/N) most definitely won, but that would have been a bigger pain in his ass.

“(Y/N), you can’t speak like that to people you work with. I heard what you said about him keeping an eye on his interns, and that’s his business, not yours,” he sighed. It was too early for this crap, especially since his assistant called in sick and hadn’t made him his morning coffee, and there were a million things to do in preparation for the board meeting today. He had better things to do than settle this stupid argument.

(Y/N) looked at him with disbelief, “You think I went in there to yell at him for fun? You have no idea what happened, Kei, how are you already taking his side?”

Tsukishima looked into her fiery gaze for a moment. He leaned back, brushing down the front of his navy blue button-down.

“You know that’s not what I meant.”

“But it’s what you said,” she shot back.

He pursed his lips. “Alright, I’m sorry,” he muttered.

(Y/N)’s mouth dropped for a moment, then the corner quirked up ever-so-slightly, “What was that, Tsukki?”

“Just explain before I lose my patience,” he snapped. His ears felt hot.

She laughed, “Because you’re the picture of patience right now.”

“(Y/N).”

Although the anger in her posture returned, she was able to remain more composed than she had earlier.

“One of the interns came up to me about an hour ago to ask me about the coding for the hydraulic lift.” (Y/N) threw her hands up and leaned back in her chair, as if that was the answer to everything.

“I’ll need some more details than that.”

She groaned in frustration, “There’s the mosasaur tank and the stadium

surrounding it, yeah? And partway through the show, the hydraulic lift lowers the stadium to the underground viewing area, right? Well, for all that to happen, the codes on the control panel have to be specific,” her hands moved fervently as she got deeper into her explanation. “The codes never change, but every morning, the supervisor makes sure they’re correct and I double check before the show. If the codes are incorrect, the stadium might lift too fast, too slow, too much, or not at all.”

Kei nodded for her to continue, to which she gave a grateful nod before going back into rant mode.

“Interns don’t have clearance into that area. He gave her his fucking badge so she could go in and do the checks without him. She shouldn’t have been down there and she definitely shouldn’t have been checking the control panel. Look,” she ran a hand through her hair, “I don’t want to tell the guy how to do his job. If he wants to train the interns how to run the control panel, then fine, it’s not in my job description to police that. But that brand-new, inexperienced, fresh-out-of-college kid was all by herself down there doing that idiot’s job. She could have gotten hurt. She could have gotten other people hurt. It was her supervisor’s job to train her better and to take better care of his interns and if I don’t raise hell about this kind of stuff now, then who will? So fuck that guy, he deserved to get yelled at.”

(Y/N) heaved herself out of her chair, “And now that everyone thinks I’m a raving lunatic, I’m going back to my office to change. Try not to need me.”

~~

As the son of the owner of Jurassic World Theme Park, Tsukishima Kei was raised to do two things: work with dinosaurs and obey his father. When he was younger, he thought he would get to work with the dinosaurs as a trainer, regulate their feeding schedules, train them, and educate the masses about the wonders of science. But he was wrong. The future his father had in store for him involved dinosaurs, yes, but more along the lines of determining the cost of developing a new dinosaur or what characteristics are interesting to the general public so that the park can turn a profit.

Several years ago, when his father originally had her brought to the island, Kei had been skeptical. Out of all the candidates for the mosasaur trainer, (Y/N) had been particularly young, but for some reason, his father was insistent that the new mosasaur trainer be her. (Y/N) later proved and continued to prove that she wasn’t just qualified, but born to work with the mosasaur, Dolly, she called her. She cared for her with a deep passion that transcended interspecies boundaries.

(Y/N) was amazing at her job, and it was unfair of Tsukishima not to hear her out initially. There was a fine line between teasing as a result of mutual pining and just being a dick, and it seemed like Kei had crossed that line.

(Y/N) knew he was coming. That was one of the things she really appreciated about Tsukishima. He was a snarky asshole who liked to rile her up, and in the beginning, he was garbage at apologies, but over time, they’d apologized to each other so often that he no longer dragged ass over it. Once he realized he was in the wrong, he would find her immediately.

Tsukishima let himself into (Y/N)’s office, where he found her and the raptor trainer in deep conversation.

“Kei! Seriously, I could’ve been changing!” she yelled. She’d told him a million times to knock before coming in, but he rarely listened.

“Don’t worry, even if you were, there’s nothing to see,” he said teasingly.

(Y/N) scowled, “You wouldn’t know.”

Tsukishima scoffed.

“Anyway, Hajime, what else did that guy say?” (Y/N) said.

Kei frowned at the two cups from Tiki Smoothie in front of them. He wondered if Iwaizumi had brought her one as a surprise or if she’d asked him to bring her one. Both possibilities put him in a bad mood. Supposedly, they were just close friends, but (Y/N) forced him to watch enough Hallmark movies for him to know the friends-to-lovers trope quite well. It ranked just below childhood friends-to-lovers and just above enemies-to-lovers. He must have been staring at those cups for some time, because by the time he zoned back in, Iwaizumi had already finished his explanation.

“--train the raptors for the battlefield,” Iwaizumi finished.

(Y/N) raised an irritated brow, “Like dogs?”

The raptor trainer shrugged, “Apparently.”

“Did you tell him that’s not how raptors work?” she asked.

“I didn’t bother. He-- Sorry,” Iwaizumi fished his ringing flip phone from his vest pocket. “I gotta go, (Y/N), I’ll tell you more at dinner later,” he said on his way out the door.

“Okay, but I wanna hear about your thing with that pretty P.O. Manager later!”

The taller man stopped and gripped the door frame in surprise.

“Wha-- There’s no ‘thing’!” Iwaizumi sputtered.

“Whatever keeps your blood pressure normal."

As (Y/N) waved her friend off, Tsukishima rested his weight on the back of the vacated chair.

“What was that all about?”

(Y/N) sighed, making her way over to the wardrobe next to the door.

“Some military guy had a talk with Hajime about using the raptors for war. He said they’re better than drones because they’re not hackable and blah blah blah.”

“Does he realize that-- what are you doing?!” Tsukishima choked when (Y/N) dropped her loose gym shorts. Underneath, she wore plain navy blue bikini bottoms.

“Relax, Kei, you’re the one who invited yourself into my office. Besides, it’s not like you haven’t seen a girl’s bare legs, right?” she teased as she stepped into her dive skin. The tall young man moved to sit behind the desk. Forcing down his blush, he took on a snarky tone once again.

“Obviously. I didn’t think you had time for that kind of thing, since you’ve been cooped up with Darby for the last few years.”

(Y/N) shook her wetsuit at him, “Her name is Dolly! It’s always been Dolly and you know it, you little shit!”

“Language, (Y/N),” he smirked. What would my father say if he knew you spoke to me like that?”

“Oh, trust me, Malfoy, your father knows exactly how I speak to you, and he couldn't care less,” she snarked, looking pleased with herself..

The teasing glint in Tsukishima’s eyes wavered at the comment, though he knew they shouldn’t have. ‘Don’t dish it if you can’t take it’ he always said. He knew his father loved him the way any man loves his son, but Kei’s rank in his father’s heart in relation to money had always been questionable.

“Sorry. Too much,” (Y/N) said quietly. She pulled up her dive skin and removed her windbreaker, revealing a matching bikini top.

“It’s not your fault,” the blonde mumbled back. (Y/N) made her way around the desk. Leaning her weight on the edge facing him, she said, “Really, I’m sorry. That was in bad taste.”

Tsukishima waved dismissively, “It’s fine, you didn’t mean it. Just caught me off guard… Actually, I came to apologize to you for earlier.”

She grimaced, “I’m sorry for freaking out so hard. I didn’t mean to make trouble for you the same day as a shareholders’ meeting.”

“You’d be okay with making trouble for me normally?”

“That a serious question?”

With a light chuckle he said, “Right, right. It’s fine... I’m sorry for not

hearing you out. For what it’s worth, that guy is as good as fired.”

“Fired!?” she yelped, making him jump. “Wait, you can’t fire him!”

“Actually, I can--”

“Fine. As his boss, you legally could fire him, but I’m saying don’t. One, we can easily get him to clean up his act. Two, his wife is preggers. Gregnant. Pregante.”

“I got it the first time.”

“Just making sure.”

Tsukishima huffed, holding back a smile, “Worrying about someone whose head you were about to bite off two hours ago. That’s just like you.”

There was a gentle knock at the door and Yamaguchi, a paleo-veterinary intern, poked his head through the doorway.

“(Y/N), are you ready for the show? We have 20 minutes until start time,” he informed her with a sweet smile.

“Yup!” She stuffed her arms through the tight neoprene sleeves, “Are you the specialist on standby this time, Yama?”

The shorter girl turned around and moved her hair to the side in a silent request. Standing to his full height, Tsukishima pinched the sides of her zipper with one hand and pulled the tab up with.

Yamaguchi couldn’t help but laugh. His two friends stopped, (Y/N) with her hands holding up her hair, Tsukishima with his hands tugging on her suit zipper.

“What’s so funny?” his childhood friend asked. Yamaguchi just shook his head and confirmed that, yes, he would be on medical standby for the upcoming show.

“Close the door when you leave, okay, Tsukki?” (Y/N) shot over her shoulder on the way out.

“Good luck with your show,” he said simply. She frowned in confusion. Before she could comment, Yamaguchi rushed her out the door.

~~

“--near the surface of the water, where it preyed on anything it could sink its teeth into, including turtles, small fish, even smaller mosasaurs, but don’t worry, that’s not why Dolly here doesn’t have any siblings.”

The crowd chuckled. Tsukishima always enjoyed when (Y/N) did the demonstrations herself. The guides did the jobs they were contracted to do, and maybe it was that he already knew how much she loved Dolly, but whenever (Y/N) did it, it always felt less like a show and more like the introduction of a close friend of hers. That was the truth, after all.

“You see, when Dolly was born, I was the first thing she saw. This caused something called imprinting, and if I just made you think about that freaky Twilight baby, I’m so sorry.”

Another wave of laughter rippled through the crowd. “And what that means is, Dolly and I share a special bond. She feels a special connection to me that she doesn’t feel for any other creature on this planet. When she was growing up, we communicated with this,” she held up a silver whistle.

“You can’t hear these sounds, but Dolly can. She knows the sound of the whistle, and that makes her think, ‘Oh, that’s my handler! Yay, she’s gonna feed me!’ Which is something I thought whenever my mom called my name during my teenage years.”

“She’s entertaining, isn’t she?” one of his father’s associates commented. Rather than sitting in the wide open arena seats under the beating sun, Kei’s father, the elder Tsukishima, sat up in an air-conditioned glass box high above the regular seats. Today, a group of shareholders and potential investors were performing their monthly assessment of the park’s assets. After going to every single one of these meetings since he was twelve, Tsukishima was more or less used to these meetings, but he was getting irked by the way a particularly sweaty, sleazy-looking businessman two and a half times his age was staring not at the tank itself, but at the trainer on the platform above it. If it weren’t for his father, he would have nastily told all of them to never take even a single breath in her direction.

“The girl’s gotten real grown up since we first saw her,” the man said, rubbing his chin.

‘Don’t look at her like that,’ Kei growled internally.

“Good eye, Yamada-san. She just turned twenty-one,” his father replied.

‘But that doesn’t concern you,’ Kei thought.

“Really? She looks young, but she seems so mature for her age,” another dirty businessman observed.

“You always did like the young-looking ones, you creepy old man!” laughed Yamada. Tsukishima bit down on his tongue so hard he had to remind himself not to bite it off.

“Ah, yes, I took her age into account from the get-go,” Tsukishima-san said. “By nature, the mosasaurus would only accept one trainer, and I brought her to the island at such a young and impressionable age that she would only listen to me.”

“And then you have a safe way to control the dinosaur,” one of the shareholders concluded.

“Exactly. And you’re right, Yamada-san, she’s grown up to be quite attractive. Shame she ended up so strong-willed, else she might have made a quality match for my son. Perhaps if Kei here can reel her in, he’ll make a wife out of her yet, right, son?”

The younger Tsukishima’s skin crawled as every pair of eyes in the room landed on him. He could just imagine opening his mouth and ripping them all a new one. What would Yamada say if he called him out on his predatory behavior? Or he could say, ‘Ah, Mr. Kawasaki, how’s that custody battle with your wife going? I hear she’s winning because the kids would rather live with her. Oh, Chairman Yang, I didn’t see you there! Have you beaten that nasty gambling addiction of yours? Goodness, from the looks of those eye bags and how badly your ‘designer’ suit is frayed, my guess is no.”

But Kei can’t say any of those things. He has too much to lose, should he compromise his position as his father’s heir and future CEO. The blonde glanced briefly out the window at the smiling girl talking animatedly about her most treasured friend. He mentally sends her an apology for being unable to defend her yet again.

Kei grit his teeth and finally replies.

“Yes, father.”

If he were born as anyone else, he could romance her properly, instead of passing glances, not-so-subtle flirting, and raging sexual tension. They wouldn’t have had to play the whole ‘will we or won’t we?’ schtick. But he was still Tsukishima Kei. He was destined to take over his father’s company, and by design, his partner would have to attend board meetings and brunches and wine and cheese parties. Kei had no desire to drag (Y/N) into that kind of life, but what’s more, (Y/N) would never agree to it. At one time, he considered asking her about it. Ask her to consider making that sacrifice for him. But at the end of the day, he never did bring it up to her because he was scared of the answer he’d receive.

Her enthusiastic voice faded back into his consciousness, “Enough of me talking. Is everyone ready to meet Dolly?”

They all turned back to the window at the sound of (Y/N)’s voice.

The crowd cheered in affirmation.

“What was that? I can’t hear you?”

The cheers transitioned into a deafening roar.

“Alright, for those of you in the splash zone, expect to get soaked in about ten seconds and counting.”

(Y/N) pressed a button, and the feeder crane slowly moved to dangle a heavy shark over the mosasaurus tank. The trainer leaned against her platform’s railing. She put the whistle to her lips, but no one heard any sound.

“You hungry, girl?” she asked the tank. There was no prior indication of any movement before the leviathan reptilian dinosaur leapt out of the water and easily snatched up its prey with its rows of hundreds of teeth. Its great mass seemed to linger midair for what felt like forever before sliding back into the water with a giant splash that had the crowd squealing with delight.

“Hold on tight,” (Y/N) spoke up as the stands started lowering under the stadium, “We’re gonna get to take a little closer look at our girl, Dolly the Mosasaurus.”

~~

“How was your meeting?” (Y/N) asked upon her arrival in Tsukishima’s own office, finally free of her restricting wetsuit and hair still wet from her shower. Not looking up from his paperwork, the blonde grunted, “Fine.”

(Y/N) smiled and sat on the edge of the desk beside him. Both hands came up to zip her windbreaker.

“That bad, huh?”

“You sit in a glass box for 45 minutes with a group of men over fifty, and tell me you had fun,” he grumbled. Giving him a sympathetic look, she slid off the desk to place her hands on his shoulders. She gently massaged the tension from them. Lately, Tsukishima Senior had been giving his son more responsibility to “prepare him to take over the company,” which would have been a more believable excuse if the older man wasn’t relaxing by the pool and golfing with his friends 4 days a week. Kei leaned into her touch.

‘You are nothing like your father, though, Kei,’ she internally mused. Dragging her hands down from his shoulders to clasp in front of him, she hugged him from behind. Soothed by her presence, he wondered if he even needed to tell her how he felt about her. It seemed like she already suspected. Though, if she already knew and wasn’t saying anything, what exactly were her feelings on the matter?

“Today was so tiring, Tsukki,” she rested her chin on top of his blonde head. “This family was asking me questions, but their two irritating ass kids kept climbing on the primary railings, and the mom got mad at me when I told them to knock it off! Like, do you want your kids to get chomped by a genetically engineered dinosaur, Brenda? Then, she asked for my manager, and I’m like, ‘Bitch, I will literally throw you in the damn tank! There, that’s my manager, you entitled piece of-- ughhh!!” (Y/N) buried her face in Tsukishima’s shoulder in frustration. “I hate customer service! Fuck her! Fuck them kids!”

“You said that to her?” he teased. Secretly, he was happy that she was tired today. A Tired (Y/N) meant a Sweet (Y/N), and after those creeps were leering at her in the box today, he was just glad she was somewhere he could keep an eye on her.

“Suck my dick, Kei, you know I wouldn’t actually say that. I still enjoy getting paychecks,” her words were muffled by his shoulder. ‘Sweet’ is a relative term for her.

“I’d pay good money to see you cuss someone out.”

“You would, wouldn’t you,” she replied.

Tsukishima desperately wanted to tell her how he felt. It was getting really irritating that they could do stuff like this, but he couldn’t tell those sweaty old men in the box today to keep their perverted stares off of her.

Tentatively, he turned his head towards her, lips ghosting along her jawline. His heart sped up as her fingers tightened into his dress shirt.

When his arm slid around her waist, she was like putty in his hands.

“You-- You’re kinda giving me mixed signals here, Kei,” she said breathlessly. The taller male placed his forehead against hers. His eyes stared down at her lips as he debated the long-term consequences of giving into his desires.

“I know,” he murmured. “I’m sorry.”

(Y/N) brought her hand up to cup his face. They both leaned in slowly, as if moving any faster would ruin the tension.

“Don’t be…” she whispered.

The office door slammed open with a bang.

“Sir?” (Y/N) jumped back from him like she’d been burned.

“What?” he snapped at the intruder.

“Your father wants you and Miss (L/N) in a meeting right away.”

~~

“Tsukishima-san, I don’t see why--”

“Of course you don’t, (Y/N),” Kei’s father cut her off, “You have a personal connection with the animal. That was the one oversight I made when I brought you to the island as a trainer.”

They sat in a boardroom, surrounding a large table with Tsukishima senior at one end, (Y/N) at the other, and the board members on either side. The blazing sunlight of Isla Nublar that shone in through the large floor-to-ceiling windows on the far side of the room contrasted heavily with the dark tension permeating throughout the room. Kei tapped his fingers against the table from his spot on his father’s right side.

Of all the ‘strategic investments’ his father made, this was definitely not one Kei could have predicted.

The girl took a deep breath, “With all due respect, sir, it can’t be a good idea to reinvent a new species of mosasaur. I think--”

“See, that’s the problem, sweetheart,” the sweaty man from before chimed in. “You’re not here to think, you’re here to look pretty, and to tell the dinosaur what to do.”

“I don’t appreciate your tone, Yamada.”

“I don’t appreciate your attitude, little girl,” he shot back.

Tsukishima Senior cut in, “Try to understand, (Y/N). The Indominus Rex has been a huge hit. The numbers say that these new hybrid dinosaurs are the next big thing. We can’t pass up an astronomical amount of money just so you can keep your pet.”

“My pet?” (Y/N) spat.

“Now, (Y/N), there’s no need to get hysterical.”

“Hysterical? My reaction is perfectly reasonable considering you want to euthanize the creature I’ve raised since birth, which, may I remind you, is something you people wanted me to do.”

“Doctor Wu and the rest of the genetics team is already engineering the genetics for a new mosasaur. Bigger, more teeth--”

“But they couldn’t engineer any more brain cells for all of you?!” she interjected.

“That’s enough!” CEO Tsukishima slammed his hand on the meeting table. “You’re like a daughter to me, (Y/N), but I won’t take this level of disrespect from you.”

(Y/N) rested her hands atop the table and leaned in, meeting his glare head-on.

“If you want to do anything to Dolly, you’ll need my help, and I will not do anything that can compromise her.”

“What a mouthy little thing,” one of the shareholders muttered.

“Give her to me, I’ll shut her up,” another said loudly enough for everyone to hear.

Tsukishima took a deep, stabilizing breath from beside his father.

“I chose you because I saw something in you. I never expected you to be this selfish,” the elder snapped, “You’re being unreasonable. Kei is barely older than you, and he understands that there’s profit to be made by replacing the damn dinosaur. Tell her, Kei.”

The room went silent. (Y/N) stared deeply into her friend’s golden brown eyes.

‘Don’t do this, Kei. They want you to become your father, but you are not your father. You are so much more.’

The younger Tsukishima felt like he was being crushed by an incredible weight. Whatever he did now, it would be nearly impossible to take back. If he chose her, his father may never forgive him. The problem was: If he chose his place as his father’s heir, would he ruin his relationship with (Y/N) forever? Which one of them could he live without? He closed his eyes and took a deep breath before opening them. His steady gaze met with (Y/N)’s intense stare. He hoped he sounded more sure than he felt.

“Yes, (Y/N). My father’s right.”

(Y/N) first looked surprised, then immensely disappointed. Realizing there was no one on her side, she sighed.

“I came to this island because I thought this company might be different. When you asked me to train the mosasaurus from birth, I was overjoyed at how much you cared for her development,” she made sure to stare into the soul of each and every dirty scoundrel in the room. “But I made a mistake, too. All of you are cowards. Selfish, soulless, money-grubbing cowards.” Blazing eyes finally landed on Kei’s wide golden brown ones. She aimed her final statement at him.

“Every last one of you.”

Kei’s heart squeezed so hard he thought his chest would collapse.

“Tsukishima-san!” a mousey-looking secretary burst into the boardroom. CEO Tsukishima clicked his tongue in annoyance.

“What is it now?” he snapped.

“It’s the Indominus! She’s escaped!”

Deafening alarms and flashing red lights resounded throughout the control room. Kei could barely hear his father barking orders to the security team. One of the technicians pulled up a giant map of the park on the main screen.

“She’s still on the outer edges of the park, but she’s moving fast, sir,” they said.

“Have the Asset Containment Unit get this thing under control. Make sure they use non-lethals.”

“Non-lethals!” (Y/N) yelled, outraged.

“We have 26 million dollars invested in that asset,” the elder Tsukishima growled.

Exasperated, (Y/N) threw her hands in the air. She avoided Kei’s eyes as she

turned and sprinted out of the control room.

Kei hesitated. Before he could chase after her, his father ordered him to stay put to help in the control room. Though it made him feel like he wanted to vomit, he obeyed.

Several hours passed and Tsukishima’s mind felt like it was at its breaking point. The monitors flashing red in the dimly lit control room strained his eyes to the point where he was convinced he’d need a stronger prescription after this. The beeping of the ACU team’s EKG monitors flatlining rang in his ears so loud he wished he would just go deaf. The Indominus was picking off their security team with ease, sometimes several members at a time. The young man rubbed at his temples.

“Tsukishima, we’re evacuating the rides on the outer edges at the park,” the lead Park Operations Assistant slid a map over to him. Taking a red marker, she circled a few attractions directly in the escaped dinosaur’s projected path.

“But I think these preparations insufficient,” she said, nervously twisting

the pen in her grip.

“We’d evacuate the whole park if it were up to me,” Tsukishima said under

his breath.

The assistant pursed her lips, “It’s a shame we’ll definitely be shut down

after this. You would have made a great CEO.”

“Are you flirting with me?” the blonde joked.

“Please, you’re so whipped for (Y/N) it hurts to look at you,” the assistant snorted in reply.

Before Tsukishima could make a snarky retort, both of their attentions were drawn to CEO Tsukishima, who had a large, middle aged man at his side.

“Kei, come over here!” the older man called.

Tsukishima handed the map back over to the assistant, “This is fine for now. If the situation escalates or if it doesn’t improve in an hour or so, close all the attractions on the west side of the park. I’ll be right back.”

The assistant grabbed his arm, “Tsukishima, that’s Vic Hoskins, the head of the private security force.”

“My father introduced us not long ago. What about him?”

“Commander Hoskins isn’t just a brute, he’s an ignorant one, and that makes him dangerous. If your father is listening to him, be careful.”

Tsukishima nodded gratefully.

“I will. I’ll be right back.”

He didn’t wait for the assistant’s reply before making his way to his father’s side, who pulled him off to the side. Hoskins had apparently taken his leave.

“The helicopter will be here in 10 minutes, make sure you’re at the helipad by then,” he told his son.

The younger Tsukishima’s eyes widened.

“What? Where are we going?” he asked.

His father turned to him, “Commander Hoskins has strongly advised us to get off the island. We can do our part in containing this crisis remotely.”

The younger man blanched, “We’re just going to leave? We still have people to evacuate, not to mention medical teams to coordinate, personnel to--”

CEO Tsukishima placed a hand on his son’s shoulder, “We can do all of these things remotely. Our first priority is maintaining our safety, and besides, the situation is in good hands with our employees here. It’s as good as contained.”

The CEO smiled and turned to leave. Kei didn’t move.

“Come on, Kei,” the older man urged.

Tsukishima took a deep breath.

“If the situation is ‘as good as contained,’ then why are we leaving the island?” he asked.

His father sighed, “I understand your concern, Kei, this is a safety issue--”

“So, you agree? You do think that evacuation is the correct safety measure?” Kei looked his father directly in his familiar amber eyes.

The elder shifted, “What are you implying, Kei?”

“I’m saying as long as we choose not to actively evacuate the island, we have a responsibility to our employees and to our guests to stay and control the situation the best we can.”

The flatlining EKG monitors were still ringing in his ears. If he left the island now, he’d never stop hearing the beeping of those monitors. They’d exist in his nightmares forever.

“Stay here, then, Kei,” his father’s voice broke him out of his thoughts.

He raised a brow, “Just me?”

“There’s no point to being in power if you refuse to reap the benefits of it. The helicopter is leaving soon. Join me, Kei. Don’t try to play hero when you’re not.”

(Y/N)’s face flashed in his mind. He couldn’t be sure where she ran off to after she left, but if he had to guess, it would have been to the main hall or to the infirmary to care for guests. Either way, she’d never dream of leaving the island with so much at stake. Neither could he, and the thought of leaving her behind made his answer clear.

“No, I’m not going. Have a safe flight.” He turned on his heel and marched back to the central console. To his horror, Asset Containment Unit Alpha had been almost entirely wiped out. Only 4 members of a 12-person team remained.

“They’re not gonna make it, Tsukishima, we need to tell them to pull back,” the P.O. Assistant insisted.

He nodded, “Do it.”

The woman quickly gave the order. “Has your father finally--”

“My father is vacating the island with the board members and other investors as we speak,” Tsukishima said.

“Why am I not--” the assistant’s phone went off. “Hello? ...You what?”

“What happened?”

She snapped her phone shut, “It’s--it’s Takeru, my nephew. He was visiting the park today, but my assistant says he got separated from her, and-- and--”

“Hey,” he grabbed her shoulders. “Don’t freak out. It’s not like you, and it won’t help.”

“You’re right,” she said shakily, brushing a lock of hair from her eyes. “I know I have work to do here, but I have to go find him, Tsukishima. I can’t--”

“I get it. Just go.”

The assistant nodded gratefully, sprinting out of the board room. As she

left, yet another assistant came for his attention and he was plunged back into the thick of things.

Meanwhile, (Y/N) stood at the doors of the underground lab. Her eyes were wild and her face flushed from exertion. The pristine, white lab was a stark contrast to the sweaty, panicked mob she passed by on her way here. It was as if the panic of the Indominus’s escape had no effect, save for the swarm of people in lab coats quickly packing up their equipment into thick armored suitcases. With the move in full swing, the lab doors were set wide open. In the chaos, she managed to slip into one of the adjoining storage rooms, where she found a large computer monitor. The bright blue screen was blinding in the dimly lit room. A profile displayed on the screen read “Indominus Rex.”

The young woman scrolled down the profile. She had to find out what the dinosaur was made of. The ACU would never survive without that information. They may not even survive with it. Finally, under the section titled “Genetic Makeup”, she found what she’s looking for. Before she could react to her findings, there was a sharp pain in the skill and she dropped to the ground unconscious.

Back in the control room, Kei gripped his cell phone tightly. Eighteen missed calls and (Y/N) still wouldn’t pick up. He couldn’t fight it anymore. He had a tech trace her cellphone and he hastily exited the room.

Once he left the building, Kei was greeted with what he expected hell looked like. There was a swarm of panicked park guests, sweaty and fearful. Several were injured from the sudden panic. Some had a haunted look in their eye that suggested they’d seen something that would haunt their nightmares for years to come. And where was his father? Safe on a helicopter, leaving all these people to fend for themselves simply because he could.

Kei was disgusted with himself. The Indominus had escaped hours ago. All this chaos could have been avoided by simply evacuating the park. But who cared about people’s lives when there was still profit to be made? Sure, he hadn’t actively supported his father’s selfishness, but he definitely didn’t object to it either. In all his indecision, ultimately, he was siding with his father. He was equally to blame for all this.

As Kei entered the underground tunnels, the screaming and cries of the panicked went silent. He realized he could hide away in the tunnels until the situation had blown over. Instead, Kei chose to press forward, knowing it wasn’t fair that he had that luxury.

The Mosasaur Stadium sat in the middle of the underground tunnels. From his view from the glass, Dolly, like her trainer, was nowhere to be found.

By the time Kei made it to the lab, it had been picked clean of equipment and personnel. All that remained were sterilized lab benches and pristine white walls. He found (Y/N) on the floor of an empty storage room. There was a nasty gash in the back of her head.

Kei kneeled and gently put two fingers to her pulse.

“Wake up!” he snapped at her. To his relief, her eyelids fluttered open. “Thank god. What the hell were you doing down here?”

“Ouch, my head,” she moaned. “I thought… the ACU… If they knew what the Indominus was made of…”

Kei nodded in understanding. He removed his tie to apply pressure to her wound.

“And? What is it?”

(Y/N) shook her head.

“I dunno. I think they hit me right as I saw.”

(Y/N) sat up, slowly regaining her strength.

“How much of the park has been evacuated?” she asked.

Kei checked his messages, “Almost everyone has been moved to secure locations or off the island completely.”

“What’s left?”

“The control room.”

She looked at him meaningfully and he nodded in agreement. Quickly dialing a number, he raised the phone to his ear.

“Evacuate the control room,” he said.

“Sir, are you sure?” the voice on the other end replied.

“Positive. I’ll take care of everything when I get there,” Kei reassured.

“...take care, sir,” the voice said reluctantly.

“You too.” Tsukishima ended the call and looked at (Y/N), who was already standing. She steadied herself against a wall, her balance wavered slightly, but her eyes were resolute.

“Let’s see what we can do.”

The underground tunnels were expansive. As the mosasaur trainer stalked down the hall ahead of him, Kei forced himself to speak up.

“I couldn’t, you know,” Tsukishima said.

“If you have to talk to me, say shit that makes sense,” (Y/N) snapped.

“My father. He wanted me to evacuate with him, but--”

“What? You could’ve gotten out of here! Do you have any idea how hard shit’s hit the fan?”

“I needed to know you were okay.”

(Y/N)’s expression softened for just a moment, then she ripped her gaze from his face. She retorted, “Why? You don’t seem to have a problem with hanging me out to dry.”

“(Y/N), I was--”

“Would you have left if not for me?” she demanded, stopping and facing him with her arms crossed.

It took Kei a minute to find an honest answer.

“No. I wouldn’t have. I’m rich, I’m an asshole, but I wouldn’t have left all these people. Not when I have the kind of clearance to help them, and especially not since all this is my fault.”

(Y/N) looked at him, bewildered.

“Your fault? How on Earth is this your fault?”

Kei shrugged, “I knew evacuation was the only safe bet, but I was too much of a coward to tell my father so. At least my father is blinded by money. Me, I don’t have an excuse.”

(Y/N) walked on silently for a while, opening her mouth a few times to speak, but shutting it each time. Eventually, she gave into the silence.

They came to the underground stadium, where the massive fiberglass panes housed the park’s biggest attraction.

(Y/N) placed her hand on the glass.

“Dolly… You okay, girl?”

Something enormous splashed into the water. When the bubbles cleared, there was Dolly, swimming around the bitten carcass of a pterosaur, as if she was celebrating her catch. The reptile’s handler smiled weakly.

“Good girl.”

“(Y/N).”

Tsukishima took her by the shoulders and spun her around to face him. His tired eyes met hers. The blonde watched as the only person who really mattered to him glared back with a look of sadness, frustration, and betrayal.

“You would have supported them?” she asked sharply.”

“Look, I’ve been trained to follow orders my whole life--”

“And I’m sorry for that. But you can unlearn what you’ve been taught, Kei. You know how much I love Dolly! You knew, and-- and,” she gripped his shirt. The trainer hung her head in defeat.

“I thought you weren’t like your father.”

“I’m not, I promise. I’m sorry,” he whispered. This was it. He had to tell her. If he didn’t do it now, he never would.

“(Y/N), I lo--”

“No!”

Kei looked stunned, “No?”

“No! Dammit, Kei, I can’t do this with you right now. First, this is not the time. Second, you stabbed me in the back, like, two hours ago!

“I said I was sorry!”

“I get that, Kei, but for important shit like this, sorry just isn’t good enough, okay? Now, let’s get to the control room and get this dinosaur under wraps, then maybe we can have this conversation.”

Tsukishima pursed his lips, “Okay. Okay, I’m sorry for bringing it up.”

(Y/N) kept walking down the corridor, “Don’t be. Let’s just deal with the situation at hand.” The trainer produced a flip phone from her pocket. The person she was calling picked up on the third ring and she put the call on speaker.

“(Y/N)!” the familiar voice called in relief.

“Yama! You’re still doing okay?” she asked. The line went quiet for a while,

“Yams?” Another pause before the intern responded, “Yeah, I’m fine.”

She and Tsukishima looked at each other, “Yama, what happened? Are you hurt?”

“No, I’m not hurt, I just… Oh god, (Y/N), it’s Hinata,” Yamaguchi’s voice

cracked at the end.

(Y/N)’s breath caught in her throat, “What happened to Hinata?”

On the other end, she could hear Yamaguchi choking back a sob.

“He went to the aviary to check for survivors and I saw his vitals monitor. He’s flatlined, (Y/N), he’s dead.”

Tsukishima closed his eyes. The whole situation was snowballing so damn fast and there was so little anyone could do about it.

“No…” (Y/N) whispered, “Jesus, I’m sorry, Yama.”

“Me too,” he replied. Yamaguchi sniffled, then his voice stabilized, “Anyway, keep making your way to the control room. I’ll get into the database somehow and we’ll figure out how to stop this thing.”

“Got it. Please be-- ...careful,” she said softly.

“(Y/N)?”

She clutched her head, “It’s coming back to me now… Yamaguchi! The Indominus! I saw it on the database, could it be part raptor?”

On the other side, Yamagichi gasped, “They never let me see the file, but now that I think about it, it’s highly likely! I’ll contact Iwaizumi and see if there’s anything he can help with! Let me know if anything changes!”

“I will. Please be careful,” she begged.

“I will, and you, too, (Y/N). Tell Tsukki I love him.”

“I love you, too, Yamaguchi,” Kei replied. With that, the call clicked off.

(Y/N) inhaled deeply, “Hinata’s dead.”

“I heard.”

She shook her head, “Let’s just keep moving. I--”

Her eyes fixed on the tank where Dolly had just leapt out of the water for prey again. Bubbles flooded their view as the massive dinosaur crashed back down into her tank. (Y/N)’s mouth dropped open.

“Holy shit.”

“What is it?”

(Y/N) started sprinting down the corridor towards the control room, “I have an idea!”

~~

‘You better know what you’re doing, (Y/N),’ Tsukishima thought. He paced the floor of the control room nervously as he waited for the signal.

Their plan was well underway, and it had gone surprisingly well, which was all the more reason for him to feel like something was going to go horribly wrong.

When (Y/N) originally told him what the plan was, his response was, “Fuck no,” but after Yamaguchi and Iwaizumi both agreed that it was their best bet, Kei relented, though not without voicing his displeasure extensively.

That girl was really lucky he L-worded her. Through the security monitors, he could see the T-Rex and the Raptors were tag-teaming the Indominus. They seemed to be making progress, but the whole group looked like they were losing steam.

The radio beside him crackled to life, making him jump.

“Kei? Can you hear me?” (Y/N)’s voice came through the machine.

“Loud and clear.”

“Okay, on my signal, cut the power to Security Fence 4.”

The button was red, marked with bold black letters, and had a plexiglass case over it. Kei pressed the “disable” button, making the screen read, ‘UNAUTHORIZED COMMAND: Please enter credentials.’ He typed, ‘Tsukishima Kei,’ placing his hand on the biometric scanner when prompted.

‘MANUAL OVERRIDE: Accepted

All the previously red buttons turned green.

“Okay. Ready when you are.”

“Good. Now, listen to me, Kei,” she said grimly, “You have to cut the power the moment I tell you to. The system has a backup generator that will kick in within 30 seconds. If it's electrified when we hit it, the jeep will explode and our whole plan is shot. That fence can NOT, I repeat, CAN NOT be electrified when I get there, do you understand?”

The male nodded weakly, then, realizing she couldn’t see him, said his affirmation aloud. The radio went quiet. On the screens, the Indominus dug it’s rows of razor sharp teeth into the T-Rex’s neck, throwing the creature as far as it would go. The T-Rex lay there and did not move.

The Indominus Rex roared in victory and went in for the kill. There was a bright flash of red further away as someone offscreen lit a flare. The light became brighter as the person neared (Y/N) and they tossed it into the jeep, catching the Indominus’s attention.

Turning away from it’s prize, the hybrid screeched in rage and took off towards the light. (Y/N) hopped out of the driver’s seat, placing something on the gas pedal and diving away from the vehicle.

‘It might be better if I stay in the jeep and drive it myself,’ he remembered her saying back in the control room.

‘Better for you dying. If the impact with the fence doesn’t kill you, you’ll either drown or Dolly will eat you,’ he’d snapped.

‘But what if--’

He cut her off, ‘But nothing. Put a brick on the gas and move out of the way. There’s no reason to put you in any further danger.’

Amazingly, Kei was the one who won that debate and that’s what brought them to the present moment, with (Y/N) scrambling up off the floor and sprinting out of the Indominus’s path.

The hybrid dinosaur sprinted after the jeep that was speeding towards the mosasaur tank. The distance between the two was closing at an alarming rate.

Just before the vehicle made contact with the security fence, the radio crackled to life, “Now, Kei!”

Tsukishima slammed the button.

‘SECURITY FENCE 4: Disabled’

Just before it made contact with the fence, the jeep’s metal frame crunched under the Indominus’s powerful jaws.

“Fuck!” Kei yelled at the sight. A few seconds later, the buttons turned back to red and the screen read, ‘SECURITY FENCE 4: Enabled.’

“Well, what now?” he yelled into the radio.

“Uh, I don’t--! Fuck-- I don’t know, I’m out of ideas!” she cried in response.

Having been given a break, one of the raptors jumped in, ready to finish the fight. The creature leapt into action to subdue the murderous hybrid, but with that size difference, she wouldn’t last long.

On the verge of panic, (Y/N) said, “If the jeep broke through the fence, Dolly would have noticed the prey, but the Indominus by itself hasn’t gotten her attention! She must be too deep!”

“Well, then, get her attention!” he shot back.

(Y/N) gasped, yanking her whistle out from inside her windbreaker, “Hold me up to the main PA.”

He reached over and jabbed the button.

(Y/N) looked up when she heard his voice over the speakers spread throughout the park, “Whenever you’re ready.”

As Kei keld the radio up to the PA, (Y/N) put her whistle to her lips and blew as hard as she could, the sound undetectable by human ears. They waited with baited breath as the Indominus flung the raptor aside, where the smaller reptile did not get up. The Indominus stopped and let out another bloodcurdling roar.

When nothing more happened, all Kei could think was, ‘We failed.’

Just then, quicker than Kei could comprehend, an incredible volume of water overtook his field of view. Water droplets obscured the CCTV cameras giving him a view of the action, and when they cleared, it took him a moment to register the massive aquatic dinosaur protruding halfway out of its paddock. It held the silver, spiny-backed hybrid in its ginormous maw of thousands of teeth. Crushed by a predator honed by millions of years of evolution, the Indominus writhed in pain and panic, but its struggle only opened more wounds in its flank. It screeched in pain or terror or frustration, Kei wasn’t sure. The only thing that mattered was the slick sound of Dolly sliding backwards into her enclosure, taking her prey with her. All that was left was dark purple blood, soaked pavement, a broken fence still sparking, and a crushed jeep.

“Holy shit,” Tsukishima whispered.

“Holy shit,” (Y/N) murmured in agreement before her knees gave out and she fell to the floor unconscious.

~~

With the Indominus gone and the pterosaurs having been hunted down by the military, park guests were being reunited with their friends and family. Rescue teams were sent to canvas the park for survivors, though they were advised not to get too close to the mosasaur tank. Tsukishima shuddered, knowing that the mosasaurus was always fully capable of leaping halfway out of its tank, she simply chose not to, perhaps out of respect for (Y/N). If, by some miracle, the park survived, he’d have to enforce some serious regulations.

“Tsukishima-san?” one of the surviving guards came to collect him. Conveniently, Kei’s general demeanor kept him from flinching at being addressed the way he heard everyone address his father. The guard led him to a private section of the infirmary, where he saw (Y/N) sitting on a cot looking like she’d spent the last 10 hours in a ditch, though her injuries otherwise looked far from anything life threatening.

“Oh, relax, I’m fine,” she said when she saw the look on his face. “I just got myself all scratched up jumping out of the jeep. I’m not even that hurt.”

Kei scooped her up in his arms in relief.

“Okay, owie, owie, I’m not completely unharmed, stop, stop, stop,” she whined.

The tall male pulled back and stared down at her. The left side of her face has several cuts and she held an ice pack to her ribs on the same side. She had heavy bags under her eyes, but those same eyes shone with relief and delight now that the whole ordeal was over.

“I’d ask if you had brain damage, but you must’ve already had some to come up with such a reckless plan,” he scolded.

(Y/N) gaped at him, “Reckless? It worked! Don’t be mean, Kei, I did good today.”

“You would have done great today if you hadn’t come back to me injured.”

“Again, it worked, didn’t it?”

“I suppose,” he rolled his eyes. “But it would really do wonders for my blood pressure if the person I care about most didn’t have such self-destructive tendencies.”

She grinned at his choice of words, “What was that you called me just now?”

“Self-destructive.” Chuckling, he took her hand in his, pressing a gentle kiss to the back of it. “Are we gonna be okay?” he asked, not making eye contact with her.

Content, the girl smiled and nestled against her pillows. Her eyes slowly drifted shut.

“We’re gonna be just fine, Kei,” she replied. For a moment he thought she didn’t quite understand what he meant until she squeezed his hand gently. Tsukishima smiled in relief, squeezing her hand back.

“Kei?”

“Hmm?”

“I feel the same way.”

@delicious-peaches-blog

@unusproomnibusomnesprouno

@mac-the-oregonian

[that-bi-bitch-writes]

The Rumor Around Hogwarts (Ch.4)

Chapter Four: The Train Ride There

1k+ Words a lot of it is taken from the book but as always I added a lot of [Name] in to make it.... chaotic and slightly angsty

Still uses he/him pronouns for now and later addition of they pronouns will be announced before the chapter. Hope you Enjoy!!!

Last  //  Next

“What the actual hell- Ow, heck i meant heck.” [Name] choked out while rubbing the back of his head

“Mhm sure you did”

“Anyway you mean to tell me I have to run at a wall.”

“Yup”

“In a muggle train station”

“Yes”

“In the middle of the day?”

“Look, do you want to go to Hogwarts or not?”

“I mean I do but-”

“If you don’t you’ll only disappoint Harry” [Mother’s name] interrupted

[Name] hesitated before responding “I’m sure he’ll be fine he like defeated an evil lord as a baby of course he can run at a wall and make other friends”

“[Name] if you miss the train I’m not taking you to school myself”

And just as [Name] seemed like he’d be okay with that aspect (anything to not embarrass himself in public really) all his hopes were completely crushed

“And I’m not taking you back home to ride on the house elf express”

“Okay but if I die or embarass myself I’m gonna have to find a way to jinx you or something. Maybe i’ll tell that weird muggle mailman you find him cute and force you to flee the country”

“You wouldn’t”

“That’s what you think”

[Name] seemed to gather the courage of all his ancestors (may they rest in peace) and ran straight at the obvious death trap. He had a chosen one to meet after all. He closed his eyes right before impact only to have his senses assaulted by the sounds and sights of something completely unexpected

‘Wow' he whispered under his breath

“I told you so”

“Alright alright I’m sorry I didn’t believe you. But I mean you’re not exactly the most trustworthy. If I needed someone to help me cover up a crime maybe, but a prank that could end in bodily harm..”

[Mo. Name] pretended not to hear a word as she fussed over [Name], the train departing soon. She’s a mother, she couldn’t help it. After running down a long list of things [Name] should have (And did) pack in his trunk she gave a forehead kiss and pushed him off to the trains. As he got on she did the unthinkable.

“Bye baby!! Momma loves you. Tell Peeves I said Hi’

Yeah [Name] definitely wasn't gonna be popular now. At least… not in a good way. There’d be rumors around hogwarts. And he’d be in the center of them.

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

Harry sat alone in an empty compartment after all the hustle and bustle that came with parents seeing their children off for the first time. And could’ve sworn he had heard someone say something about being peeved. Suddenly his thoughts were interrupted when the door of the compartment slid open and the youngest red headed boy he had seen earlier came in.

“Anyone sitting there?” he asked, pointing at the seat opposite Harry. “Everywhere else is full.”

Harry shook his head and the boy sat down. He glanced at Harry and then looked quickly out of the window, pretending he hadn’t looked. Harry saw he still had a black mark on his nose.

“Hey, Ron”

The twins were back

“Listen we’re going down the middle of the train- Lee Jordan’s got a giant tarantula down there.”

“Right,” mumbled Ron.

“Harry,” said the other twin, “did we introduce ourselves? Fred and George Weasley. And this is Ron, our brother. See you later then.”

“Bye” said Harry and Ron. the twins slid the compartment door shut behind them.

“Are you really Harry potter?” Ron blurted out

Harry went to nod but the compartment door slammed open once again

“Harry there you are. Thank God I found you.” [Name] gasped out “My mother totally embarrassed me as I was getting on the train screaming about someone named Peeves and she called me BABY. Anyway I’ve been trying to find you without drawing to much attention to you or myself.”

Harry had wondered how [Name] had said so much in one breath. He didn’t know [Name] to be particularly talkative. He of course had his moments when he’d stand up for someone but Harry had always seen name as a little bit of a worrier or an outsider like himself.

“Sorry." [Name] said almost as if he read Harry’s mind “It’s the nerves. I’m super glad that you’re not alone but I’m also jealous I didn’t get to you first.” [Name] continued as he moved to sit next to Harry.

“What were we talking about? Oh yeah he was asking about your chosen one status which is kind of cool and lame at the same time. Is that offensive?”

“Have you really got - you know?” He pointed at Harry's forehead.

Harry pulled back his bangs to show the lightning scar. Ron stared. And surprisingly [Name] did too.

“Y’know as close as we are for two people who only met twice, I realized I haven’t gotten a good look at you Harry.” [Name] realized turning all of his attention on the resident Chosen One

Harry and [Name] stared at each other for a moment. [Name] was curious as to who the boy who lived really was and why he was drawn to him. It was like they were meant to meet up. At the Zoo, in Diagon Alley and now hopefully they would remain on the same path at Hogwarts too.

Harry on the other hand was staring at [Name] in appreciation. They were strangers, yet [Name] came to Harry’s rescue so naturally. Ron was to be a good friend to Harry, he’s sure of it, but it was different with [Name]. Their friendship wasn’t founded on titles, or reputations, or anything but mutual respect and destiny perhaps? If he were more naïve he might’ve attributed this feeling to a crush.

“So that’s where You-Know-Who-? Ron interrupted the staring contest

“Yes” said Harry “but I can’t remember it”

“Nothing?” Ron said eagerly.

“Well- I remember a lot of green light, but nothing else.

[Name] got incredibly bored of the topic, not really keen on discussing Voldemort’s attack on Harry so he began looking out the window like the main character. Only catching flashes of the conversation and adding his own commentary when appropriate. Apparently Ron had 5 brothers and a little bit of “a lot to live up to” but being friends with the chosen one was sure to give him some stories to tell..

[Name] didn’t interrupt with much about his family because he’d already talked about his embarrassing mother and there was nothing else to talk about but his incredibly large and empty house which would have made him a little uncomfortable and slightly awkward. Y’know since he was talking to an orphan and a poor kid with a huge family. How could either of them relate?

What he did however pay attention to was Harry’s bravery and generosity. Apparently he was only a little bit of an oblivious idiot. Sure he proudly said Voldemort’s name (a trend [Name] hoped to follow) but he was smart enough to realized in the wizarding world at least he was rich and could splurge a little bit on the less fortunate *ahem* Ron *ahem*

“Go on, have a pasty” said Harry, who had never had anything to share before or, indeed, anyone to share it with. It was a nice feeling, sitting there with Ron, eating their way through all Harry’s pasties, cakes, and candies (the sandwiches lay forgotten.)

“What are these?” Harry asked Ron and [Name] holding up a pack of chocolate frogs. “They’re not really frogs, are they/” He was starting to feel that nothing would surprise him

“No” said Ron “But see what the card is. I’m missing Agrippa”

“He has no idea what you’re talking about, look at his face” [Name] laughed out. Ron followed his line of sight and chuckled at Harry’s confused face as well.

“Oh, of course, you wouldn’t know - Chocolate frogs have cards inside them, you know to collect - famous witches and wizards. I’ve got about five hundred, but I haven’t got Agrippa or Ptolemy.”

Both Harry and [Name] removed the cards from the chocolate frogs. Harry got Dumbledore which set his curiosity aflame once again. [Name] kept his a secret for dramatic effect of course. After answering his questions Ron asked for a chocolate frog as well only to get Morgana.

“Well Ron” [name] started “if you show me a trick, I’ll give you this” flipping over the card Ron’s eyes went wide at the sight of a Ptolemy card.

After a long conversation about the dangers of eating Bertie's ever flavored beans (which [name] would never even touch) Ron eventually worked up the courage to perform a spell when the toadless boy from earlier appeared, but this time he had a girl with him. She was already wearing her new Hogwarts robes.

“Has anyone seen a toad? Neville’s lost one,” she said. She had a bossy sort of voice, lots of bushy brown hair and rather large front teeth.

“We’ve already told him we haven’t seen it,” said Ron, but the girl wasn’t listening, she was looking at the wan in his hand.

‘Oh god.’ [name] said to himself as the girl’s thoughts assaulted him and drowned out the obvious awkward silence in the car ‘this girl may have redeeming qualities, or at least I’m hoping she does but she needs to get over herself’

“Oh, are you doing magic? Let’s see it, then.”

She sat down. Ron looked taken aback

“Er- alright” he cleared his throat

“Sunshine daises, butter mellow, Turn this stupid fat rat yellow”

He waved his wand but nothing happened. Scabbers stayed gray and fast asleep.

“Are you sure that’s a real spell? Said the girl. “Well it’s not very good, is it? I’ve tried a few simple spells just for practice and it’s all worked for me. Nobody in my family’s magic at all, it was ever such a surprise when I got my letter, but…

[Name] having heard most of this speech in his head already tried to tune her out and gave a snort at the end of her rambling when Harry and Ron looked at each other incredulously. Only a little offended when he heard Harry's comparison of Hermione to the nervous [Name] earlier

They all introduced themselves but Harry’s introduction led her on another tangent about him not looking himself up as if this was a common thing to do?? Then she asked what houses they thought they’d be in before leaving, taking the toadless boy with her. Poor Neville.

“Whatever house I’m in, I hope she’s not in it”

“I doubt we’ll be in the same house Ron” [Name] realized “you’ll probably be in whatever house your brothers are in”

“Gryffindor” Ron spoke up

“Right, and Harry will probably be with you where as I’ll end up in Slytherin probably”

The car went silent a bit before [name] spoke up again “I know what you’re thinking. Literally. I never had a Ptolemy card. I only said that because I wanted to show off my powers as a legilimens. I can see into your mind basically and I made you see what I wanted you to see. Don’t worry though I won’t like brainwash you or anything. Wouldn’t want to be a typical Slytherin and end up a dark wizard.

[Name] got ready to flee the cart after that whole speech and he could tell Ron felt kind of guilty but [Name] couldn’t risk Harry hating him. He was going to the house that produced Voldemort after all. He rushed out of the cart as some blond entered probably because Hermione had spread the rumor about seeing the chosen one.

Before [Name] knew it he was facing his newest worst enemy. The sorting hat.

[sunsetinmyvein]

You Pick a Fight - P2

Eyyyyy it’s prompt time. I have since forgotten what prompt’s @imagine-that-100​ gave me from the prompt list for this part two, but hopefully you enjoy it anyway. :P

And I was right, because it wasn’t over. The pool incident was just the start of much more bickering and fighting over nothing that was set to come during the months between Matty and I. We hadn’t known each other all that well prior to that day, but it definitely set the bar for future interactions. Being argumentative and stubborn was just a habit neither of us could break, much to all of our mutual friend’s annoyance. It might’ve been on the verge of immature, since we were both pushing thirty, but neither of us cared. And we never really meant it. Grudges about stolen floaties were not held for long. It was a rare occasion that we genuinely made up and said sorry, but typically by the end of the day we had either forgotten about it or played some prank on the other to feel avenged about our wrong doing. Over the course of many months of arguing and pranking, Matty and I inevitably became closer. Realistically, Matty was probably one of my best friends by this point in my life. We saw each other at least a couple of times a week for various reasons and I enjoyed his company (mostly). But that wasn’t going to stop me from trying to constantly one-up him and make sure I destroy him any time he challenges me to anything. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer, right? You gotta know your opponent’s weaknesses to best exploit them.

 However, tonight was our regularly scheduled movie night. So, more than likely no arguing would be occurring tonight. The movie had already been picked by democratic vote by the group, which meant there would be no debates about that. Everyone was bringing their own snacks, nothing to fight over. And we rotated who hosted, so no arguments there either. This week it was Matty’s turn. Last week when it had been at my flat, we had picked a comedy movie to watch and ended up receiving a noise complaint from my neighbour about us being “too rambunctious”. I was hoping that we wouldn’t have the same issue to deal with this week given Matty’s much thicker walls. I was cutting up a tray of brownies that I was graciously bringing to share - one of which may or may not have been spiked with cayenne pepper just to spite Matty for last week when he mixed my bag of skittles with m+m’s - while I replayed the events of last week. The details of the movie were actually a bit of a blur, because after the few drinks that I had downed after a rough day at work, I recalled falling asleep. When I woke up, I found myself snoring on Matty’s shoulder. God, that was utterly embarrassing. Other than my snoring, to wake up cosying up to Matty? I’d rather be caught dead. But I must have been too distracted by these memories, because as I was cutting, I slipped and managed to slice open my thumb with my new knife.

  I felt the cut the instant it happened, bracing myself for what I might see before I looked down. Sure as shit, all I saw was a lot of red. The first thought to run through my head was that my brownie plan was ruined. I couldn’t serve brownies that had been doused in blood. The second was that I absolutely needed to seal this wound as soon as possible. I raced to the bathroom, grabbing a roll of gauze and wrapping it around my thumb as tightly as I could. Do I call an ambulance? No, this wasn’t an ambulance sort of emergency. Emergency, though. I should go to the emergency room. Now. But I had to let the guys know I wasn’t coming. I could see the gauze starting to turn red as I searched my phone for Matty’s contact. Fuck, I felt so bad for bailing on this movie night given it was our regular thing, but this was really not good. Really, really not good. The phone rang twice before he picked up.

  “Hey-”

“Look, I need to go to emergency.” I interrupted in a garbled rush.

“What?” He shouted down the line.

“I need to go to hospital, so I’m not gonna make it tonight.” I explained, slightly slower.

“What did you do?” He asked in an incredulous tone.

“I sliced my thumb open cutting brownies.” I just heard him laughing. “It’s not funny, Matty. I need stitches.” I frowned as I started to grab my essentials. What if they wanted to keep me in overnight? Oh my god, I was absolutely not prepared for something like this. I should have a go bag. Is that a thing normal people did? Have a go bag in case they accidentally injure themselves? Maybe smart people did.

“Do you need me to drive you?” He offered as I was contemplating what exactly I would put in a go bag.

“What? Uh, no. I’m okay. I think.” I rattled off.

“I’ll meet you there.” I heard him say. He what? Why would he want to come to the hospital?

“Wait. No, you don’t-” But he’d already hung up.

  Before I left the house, I slapped another few layers of bandage over the gauze on my thumb to try and put some pressure on this cut that was apparently bleeding like a tap by the rate it was turning things red. Driving to the hospital with a thumb as fat as mine was with all the bandages wrapped around it was not easy to say the least, but I managed to get there in one piece. Once I had gotten there, paid for my parking, and then managed to check myself into the ER, I was able to take a seat and decompress slightly. But, the peace and quiet didn’t last long, because not even five minutes after I sat down a familiar face entered through the sliding glass doors.

“Good job.” Matty said as he approached, with a slow clap for emphasis.

“Don’t patronise me.” I scoffed.

“Show me.” He said as he took a seat in the uncomfortable plastic chair next to my own.

“It’s okay-”

“Just show me what you did.” He dismissed.

“I mean, I can’t really take this stuff off-” I gestured to my half blood-soaked bandages, “-or it’ll bleed worse.”

He let out a low whistle as he raked a hand through his curls. “Bloody hell.” He muttered under his breath, before glancing up at me. “Pardon the pun.” He added with a smirk.

“Shut up. It’s really not as bad as it looks.” I lied. I was trying to play it down, to pretend like I hadn’t briefly seen how deep that knife went, but I knew that this was definitely very vital that I see a doctor very fucking soon.

He met my gaze, clearly seeing the stress I was trying to hide. “You’re not very convincing.” He chuckled.

  Despite my protests about him wanting to wait with me, Matty continued to ramble on about what he had done earlier in the day while we sat in the crowded waiting room. He also told me not to worry about cancelling on the movie night, and thanked me for trying to make brownies. If only he had known what his brownie was going to taste like. But at least he was distracting me from the weird sensation in my thumb. After about half an hour, I was called through to be seen by the nurse - which realistically just meant that I sat and waited in another room for a further ten minutes until I was finally seen by someone. When she walked in, she introduced herself and asked for a run down of the situation as she started gathering some supplies. After I had explained what I had done, she started moving towards my giant wad of bloody fabric.

“I’m gonna look away.” I warned the nurse, she just nodded in response. I felt her unravelling the bandages on my thumb, trying really hard to busy myself by studying the vision tester chart on the wall. She let out a quiet hum as she analysed the situation.

“All right. I am going to put some glue on this now to hold it, but we are going to need to anaesthetise you to properly sort this out. Is that okay?” She asked in a calm tone. They were going to knock me out? It was bad enough to need to be knocked out for?? Holy shit.

“Um, yep.” I nodded. “I suppose it’ll have to be.” I added with a nervous laugh. “When will that be?”

“As soon as they can get you in. Likely in the next few hours.” She answered.

  When I came back out of the nurse’s station, I sat back down and told Matty what they had said.

“They need to sedate you?” He asked in shock.

“I’ve apparently done quite a number on myself.” I could feel the stress building up as the realisation set in. Oh my god. I had cut off my thumb. I had cut off my thumb and now they needed to reattach it. Holy fuck. Holy fuck.

“Hey, calm down.” He reassured, placing his hand on my shoulder. “It’ll be all right.”

“But what if it’s too late? What if I cut too far? What if-”

Thankfully, Matty interrupted my downward spiral of anxiety. “They would’ve told you if that were the case. They’re going to operate, so it must be fine.” He moved to take my good hand in his, squeezing it reassuringly. I took a deep breath, trying to calm my racing mind as I nodded in agreement. At least one of us was the voice of reason right now. “When are you going in?” He questioned, seeming genuinely sympathetic.

“They said as soon as possible. I just have to wait here until a theatre frees up.” I replied. He just nodded thoughtfully. “You should go back to the movie night.” I said, eventually feeling guilty that he’d already been sat waiting here for an hour.

“No.” He shook his head as he rifled through his pocket. “You want some gum?” He asked, holding a packet out in my direction.

I looked down at them apprehensively. “They’re not some ridiculous flavour, are they?”

He laughed loudly. “No, I threw the wasabi ones out.”

  It was another hour before I was finally called through to get ready for theatre. Now I was genuinely feeling pretty awful that Matty had been here this whole time. We had well and truly pushed past dinner time, he’d missed the movie, our friends were all sat at his place without him. He can’t have been having a good time stuck here with me.

“Okay, I gotta go in.” I said as I stood up.

“I’ll be here when you wake up.” He smiled up at me from his seat.

“Just go home, I’ll be fine.” I said as I gestured to the door.

“No.” He grinned.

“Go.”

“No.” His dark brown eyes bore into mine, clearly challenging me to push him further on the subject.

“I hate you, so much.” I grumbled as I heard the nurse call my name again.

“I love you, too.” He said, blowing a kiss for emphasis as I walked off.

  The doctors all reassured me that the operation was going to be quick and easy. Knock me out, stitch me up, wake me up fifteen minutes later. Easy peasy. I had never had any issues with operations, being knocked out was easy. It was the stuff you had to be awake for that was hard. True to their word, when I saw the clock when I started coming to, it had been no more than half an hour than when I last checked the time. But my god I felt groggy. My brain felt like it had been replaced with a bunch of cotton balls and my eyelids might as well have been made of lead. I glanced down at my thumb, seeing a much smaller pile of bandages on there, that were now thankfully not soaked in blood. That was nice. I then caught sight of the man sat next to my bed.

“Hey, you’re up.” Matty said quietly as he stepped over. As soon as he leaned over the bed frame, the fluorescent lights above him just illuminated his dark, curly hair. Holy shit. It looked borderline angelic. “How’re you feeling?”

“Your hair…” I mumbled as I reached out my good hand to touch it.

He seemed surprised by my actions at first, before letting my run a hand through it. “What about it?” He asked with a quiet laugh.

“It’s really soft.” I answered, genuinely quite surprised by how nice it felt. “Has it always been that soft?” I felt like I had been missing out. I could’ve been touching this hair for nearly a year now and instead I had been swapping his shampoo for ranch dressing and perfume.

  Matty seemed keen to indulge my anaesthesia haze, letting me bother him with all of my weird questions about his hair. Maybe he wasn’t such a bad guy. I did a lot of mean shit to him and here he was, sat with me in emergency all evening instead of hanging out with his friends. After the pranks I’d pulled, I likely didn’t deserve a friend like him. But he’d pulled them on me too. We were a pretty good pair, I suppose. And I had no idea if it was this lighting or what, but dare I say, Matty was looking pretty attractive today. Had I really just been so focused on butting heads with him that I never noticed these things before?

“Are you sure you really look this good? I feel like I must still be dreaming.” I said, pretending to shield my eyes.

He frowned, before the realisation dawned on him and his eyebrows shot up in surprise, “Are you flirting with me?”

“Maybe.” I shrugged.

“Don’t use cheesy pickup lines on me.” He chuckled.

“How else am I meant to pick you up?” I scoffed as I rolled my eyes.

“Are you trying to?” He asked as a smile slowly made its way onto his face.

“Maaaaybe.” I said in an attempt to be non-committal, but then my curiosity got the better of me. “Is it working?”

“I’m gonna remind you of this when you’re properly out of the anaesthetic.” He just looked amused. Not the reaction I had hoped for. But I was too tired to keep trying to come up with clever lines.

“Okay.” I muttered, nodding softly. “Gon’ sleep now, though.” I added.

“Rest up.” He agreed. “You’re gonna need all the energy you can get to deal with me giving you shit for this tomorrow.”  

Part one

Part three

[noladyme]

The Frog Princess. Chapter 6

She had no wish to be bound down to anyone, but Y/N none the less found herself being dragged across the continent; to marry King Foltest of Temeria.  Instead of pomp and spectacle; she was accompanied by the witcher, Geralt of Rivia. Their travels would bring both monsters, lust, love; and heartache. All sound tracked by an endearing buffoon of a bard, named Jaskier.

TW: Violence, language, sexual themes. Rated M.

6

The rooster that woke me up, was a real one. Sunlight was slipping in through the shutters; and lighting up the face of the man lying naked next to me – his arm draped over my chest.

We looked at each other for a long time without a word. I knew the situation should be awkward – our circumstance being as it was – but in that moment, it wasn’t.

His amber eyes were warm; nothing like the cold, heartless eyes I’d seen earlier. I lost myself in his gaze; and smiled. I ran a finger down the side of his face; from the soft skin on his temple, over the stubble on his cheek, and he closed his eyes in pleasure. He pulled me towards him gingerly, so that we were laid facing each other; and put his forehead to mine, exhaling with a satisfied expression. His arm was around me, and his fingers played with the hair at the back of my neck.

The fire having gone out; the room was cold; and Geralt pulled the covers over me, to shield me from it. I sighed contentedly, and he smiled at me; pulling me in for a soft kiss. I let my fingers slide over his chest, running them through the hair there; before slipping my arm around his warm body. Taking a hold of my thigh; he slowly slid my leg around his hip – still softly kissing my lips; occasionally letting the tip of his tongue met mine.

Our eyes met in mutual consent; and he gingerly slid inside me again – taking care not to hurt me; as I was still sore from our lovemaking the night before – we hadn’t stopped at one time, and I could see a few bruises on my arms from where he had held me pinned down on the mattress. I gasped as he began to move. “Do you want me to stop?”, he whispered. I shook my head. “Never”. He smiled softly.

His movements weren’t so much thrusts, as slow sways of his hips; as he held me against him. His member felt velvety as he moved in and out of me; and I stroked his back lazily – closing my eyes in relaxed pleasure.

We were in a state of pure bliss in that moment. Nothing could touch us inside this little bubble we had created.

He continued to move; pulling himself on top of me – taking care not to put his full weight on me. His hands slid over my breasts; fingers tracing a purplish bruise his mouth had left there. “I didn’t mean to hurt you”, he said; and kissed the mark. “You didn’t”, I breathed, and stroked his cheek. “I’m all right”.

Our lips met again; brushing against each other. He ran his hand down my side; lifting my leg to lay it around his torso. I moaned from the angle he was getting; only having made such a slight change to our position. He kept kissing me and gently excavating my core. His pubic bone was softly pushing against my bundle of nerves as he moved; and I felt my insides beginning to clench around him.

“Geralt…”, I breathed. “I can… only once…”. “Yes”, he whispered into my ear. “Together”. Moving a little faster; we chased our highs together – moaning in unison.

It wasn’t the same explosion as the ones that I had felt the night before – but no less pleasurable. It was a poof; and then a soft wave of tingling warmth spreading throughout my body. Geralt came along with me; a quiet groan as he pushed into me one final time – his cock twitching along with his body’s jolt.

Sliding out of me; he laid back on the mattress. His hair was tussled, and I grinned at him. “What?”, he asked. “Now you look well and fucked”, I giggled. He raised his eyebrows and smiled back at me. “I am”.

There was a gentle knock on the door. “Geralt?”, Jaskier called softly. “Are you awake?”

“Fuck”, Geralt grumbled.

I released myself from his grasp – squeezing his hand in the process – and went to get the robe I had left by the tub. The water was cold; but I used it to quickly rinse myself off from Geralts and my own juices; smiling at the memory of the moments we’d spent in it the night before.

Having put on his pants and breeches, and checked to see that I was decent – pouting playfully at the lack of skin he could see on me – Geralt unbolted and opened the door. Jaskier stepped in, carrying a tray of assorted fruits. “Good morning”, he chirped sweetly, like a mother to a child. He set down the tray, and sat himself on a chair by the table. Geralt went to build a fire.

“Well, that was a party!”, Jaskier smiled. “I didn’t see much of you. Where did you go?”. He looked from Geralt to me; to the untouched bedding on the cot by the door. Seeing my flushed cheeks; his mouth went agape. “Oh”. He said. “Oh! Oh, wow!”, he smiled brightly. “Well, I can’t say I didn’t see that coming”. Popping a grape into his mouth, he smirked and wiggled his brows. I ran a hand through my hair, and looked away.

“What do you want, Jaskier?”, Geralt asked. “I wanted to make sure to see you off”, the bard answered. I sat down across the table from him; wincing slightly from the pain in my nether regions. Jaskier drew in a long breath through his teeth. “Do you need some ice, my lady?”. I threw a plum at him. He laughed in response.

“Are you not continuing on with us?”, I asked, trying to change the subject. “Alas, I cannot”, he answered, stuffing his mouth with another three grapes. “The Baron has asked me to stay the week, and perform at the evening festivities each night. I’m charging him a good amount of coin for it”, he said proudly. “Good for you”, Geralt said disinterestedly. “Yes, well; I’m sure you’ll miss me very much”, Jaskier smirked at him.

He stood up and took my hand; kissing it chivalrously. “My lady. It has been an honor”, he said. “I shall write you another ode; and if we’re lucky, I’ll be able to sing it at your wedding”.

Geralt looked as if he was ready to smash the bards face into the wall.

Another knock on the door. “Jasky?”, a light voice tweeted. “Coming, Cri… Clo… Cuddle cake”, Jaskier called. “I can’t remember her name”, he whispered with a shrug.

He walked up to the witcher, and patted his shoulder. “Take care, old friend”, he said. “Goodbye, Jaskier”, Geralt answered. “Don’t die before we meet again”. Jaskier smiled brightly, and went out the door to join his newest conquest.

“I give it three days”, I smirked, making Geralt chuckle. He grabbed an apple from the tray, and took a large bite of it. “Get dressed”, he said, mouth full. I looked him with a raised eyebrow. He swallowed the bite. “Please?...”.

---

We set off from Tigg within an hour. Geralt had offered me to sit on Roach, but I’d declined. “It’s probably going to be a few hours before I can straddle anything again”, I’d smirked at him; getting a grunting chuckle in response.

It was strange leaving behind the place we’d spent the night making love; and moving towards the place he was to hand me over to another man. I think we both felt the awkwardness of the situation build; but once we’d left the village behind us, and were out of the sight of others, Geralt took my hand; clearly trying to clear the air, somehow.

“Are we going to… do that… again?”, I asked. Suddenly I felt strangely shy. “What do you mean?”, he smirked; looking out the corner of his eye at me. “Fuck you, Geralt”, I sneered. “Oh, that! Yeah, I wouldn’t mind”, he chuckled. My face reddened. “Hels ass. I feel like a… bloody juvenile”, I snorted.

He stopped, and pulled me in to his arms. “I don’t know what this is; but whatever it is, it feels good”. I looked up at him. “I want you to be happy; safe and content. And if it wasn’t for your soreness; I’d want to throw you against that tree over there, and screw your brains out, until you screamed in pleasure. Trust me when I say; I haven’t felt that way about someone in quite a while”. I laughed, and bit my lip. “That fucking lip”, he growled. I raised a brow at him, and smirked. “Don’t play with fire, little frog”, he said warningly.

I got on my toes, and kissed him softly. He groaned in response. “What did I just say?”, he said, and looked at me with mock threat in his eyes. “Fine”, I said, and we kept moving.

We walked throughout the day, stopping once for a bite of bread; and a tender kiss. The landscape changed again; as we moved towards the edge of forestland. The air had a brisk chill to it; biting at my nose and cheeks. My knee was no longer in any real pain; so, I tried to keep a brisk pace, to keep myself warm.

“Eager to get to our destination?”, Geralt asked curtly. “I’m cold”, I bit back. “Sorry”, he said, voice softer.

I saw a patch of white flowers at the side of the road; and let go of Geralts hand to examine them. Chamomile!, I realized, and began gently cutting their stems with my knife, to save them for future use. I saw more plants further in to the trees, that I wanted to have a look at. “Y/N”, Geralt called after me. “I’m just going to look at these flowers”, I called back. “Keep your bloody breeches on… If you insist…”, I mumbled.

I found another patch of flowers – pretty pink ones – which I recognized to be oleander. I wasn’t in the habit of dabbling in poison; but if the last week had taught me anything, it was to always be prepared. I moved on; finding both honeysuckle and mandrake. Looking back over my shoulder, I could no longer see the road; or Geralt. I realized I was lost.

I tried to find my own tracks, thinking that I could follow them back. I didn’t want to call out for the witcher, admittedly a little ashamed about my predicament. It was swiftly becoming darker around me – the sun beginning to set. Suddenly, someone grabbed my arm. Geralt looked at me with angry eyes.

“You’ve been gone over half an hour. I thought you were trying to run again!”, he snarled. His words made me turn from embarrassed to enraged. “Who says I wasn’t?”, I said. “The honeysuckle in your satchel”, he answered. “How did you?...”, I began; remembering his perfect sense of smell. “Of course”, I scoffed.

He dragged me back to the road; which to my embarrassment was only about 50 yards away.

“You need to stay near me”, he growled, not letting go of my arm, and snatching my satchel from me. “I can’t spend every minute of the day having to worry that you’ll suddenly wander off and get yourself in trouble!”.

“I wish you’d just ignore your duty for once, and take me somewhere else!”, I said. “Y/N…”, Geralt said, having let go of me. “I can’t… Even if I did, I couldn’t give you what you want”. I looked at him confused, but he seemed to take that as sadness. “I’m sorry, little frog”, he said. “I was made for one thing. To kill. I’m not going to be able to settle down in a cabin near Kaer Trolde; shearing sheep and tending to crops”.

I stopped in my tracks – rage seeping out of every pore of my being. “Did you completely miss the point of what I told you that night?”, I snarled. “I don’t want you to change for me. I just don’t want to…”.

“Shut up”, he said. I slapped him hard across the face. He looked at me with a sudden indignance; which made me lift my arm, to strike him again. He caught my wrist in the air. “Shut up, and get out of sight!”. He shoved me towards the side of the road; gesturing for me to get behind the trees that made out the edge of the forest. I instantly obeyed; recognizing the expression on his face.

Crouching behind a tree, I looked down the road from where we had been coming. A group of men on black horses were approaching.

“Halt!”, the rider at the front called out. “You! Where is the girl?”, he demanded, looking at Geralt. “What girl?”, the witcher answered. “Don’t play dumb. The girl you’re transporting!”.

I recognized the men as the ones who had been at Coodcoodlaks feast. “She’s gone”, Geralt answered calmly. “She ran off. I’m searching for her myself”. The man laughed gruffly. “You lost the future queen of Temeria? Even a witcher can’t be that stupid”, he sneered. “Or is it that you take me for a fool?”, he added. Geralt smirked. “You brought only 4 men for a fight with a witcher. That seems foolish”.

The man got off his horse; his men following his lead. They all drew their swords. “Don’t tempt me, mutant”. I saw Geralts face contract into anger, and held my breath. “You should have just told me, if you wanted to dance”, he said.

The man put his blade to Geralts throat; making the witcher lean back slightly. “Where. Is. She?”, the man said asked again. Geralt bared his teeth in a sneer – his expression terrifying. “She ran away”, he repeated. “Which is something you should do as well”.

The man let out an angry grunt, pulled back his sword; and went to join his men at the horses.

“Don’t walk away angry; just walk away”, Geralt called after him.

Suddenly I felt something cold and sharp against my neck. Someone put their arm around my waist; pulling me against them. “Hello there”, someone whispered in my ear. I could feel his hot breath and spittle against my neck. It smelled rancid.

He dragged me from my hiding place; his blade making it clear that I shouldn’t struggle. I couldn’t help myself though; and tried to jostle myself out of his grasp. His knife nicked at the skin on my neck; and I felt a tiny trickle of blood from the wound, running down my collarbone.

My captor dragged me onto the road; and shoved me towards the man who had been threatening Geralt. He grabbed a hold of me with a laugh; holding me close to his chest.

“There she is, the whore”, the man sneered. “Don’t worry, witcher. We’ll bring her to our master. I’m sure he’ll bring her to good use”.

“I’m…”, I tried, “…my name is… Zaba. I’m an herbalist. I don’t know who this man is”. “Sure you are, my lady”, the man growled into my ear. “What’s in the satchel? The crown jewels?”.

Geralt drew his sword. “Let her go”, he snarled; his eyes almost black – not from any draughts, but from pure rage. The men around us drew their own weapons; and their leader kept me held against him; turning me, so my back was to his chest. “No. No, I don’t think so”, he chuckled; and let his hand travel to my breast, taking a hold of it – testing its firmness. “Come to think of it, maybe I’ll have a go at her myself”.

Geralt took a fighting stance, and then jumped forward with a brutal slash, hitting one of the men across the torso. He fell to the ground with a scream; and I could see his guts spilling from his stomach. One of his companions instantly vomited at the sight.

The men sprang at the witcher; but had not counted for his speed. Even the man holding me seemed surprised; which gave me the chance I needed. I threw my head back – hitting his nose – and then slipped the sgian-dubh out of my boot, and spun around; stabbing him in the side. The man squealed like a stung pig; and stumbled backwards. I drew my knife back; and turned towards the fighting behind me.

Geralt was effortlessly avoiding the slashes of his opponents swords; slashing at one mans shoulder, and hitting another on the back of his knee, making him unable to stand. At this point, three men were dead or dying; and Geralt grabbed the throat of a fourth one; lifting him into the air, and lowering him onto his sword – killing him instantly in the process.

The witcher ran towards me and the leader laying on the ground. The man was bleeding out, color gone from his face. My first captor sprang onto his horse, and made to ride off. “Tell O’Dimm the witcher has her!...”, the man on the ground cried out; before Geralts sword pushed through his neck; making any other words disappear into a rattle. The rider kicked at his horse, and quickly disappeared into the forest.

I looked down at the dead man at my feet. “I killed him…”, I said below my breath. “No. I killed him”, Geralt said gruffly, and pulled back his sword. “We have to get out of here”. He examined the horses the dead men had arrived on; and apparently being satisfied with the build of one of them, he took my satchel, and fastened it to the black stallion. “Come on”, he said. I was frozen in place; looking at my bloody hands; breathing superficially.

Geralt put his hands on either side of my face, forcing me to look into his eyes. “Y/N, these weren’t soldiers, but they were Nilfgaardian. They came here to take you to their master – Gaunter O’Dimm, I suspect. Whatever he has planned for you is not good”. He raised his eyebrows, boring into my eyes. “I killed them. They’re dead. It was bloody; you saw it happen, and you took part in the fighting yourself. This is real. And I need you to move past that; get on that horse, and follow me out of here”.

I shook myself. “Yes”, I said. Geralt nodded, and led me to the horse; quickly depositing me on its back. Kicking at the corpse of the man that had held me, he then took the mans sword, and fastened it to my saddle.

We rode through the night, putting as many miles between us and the battleground as possible.

---

As the sun began to rise, we arrived at a lake. Geralt helped me off my horse. He gently slid his thumb over the cut on my neck, and grunted. “You can wash up. I’ll find us something to eat”. He went to get his things; but I grabbed his hand, stopping him. He put his hand on my cheek. “I’ll be close”, he smiled reassuringly.

I walked down to the edge of the water. Meeting my own eyes in the reflection, I didn’t recognize the woman looking back at me. Geralt dealt the finishing blow… but I killed him, I thought. I killed a man… a man that was going to do very bad things to me if I didn’t… and he’s dead now. Because of me. The thought didn’t make me as distraught as I thought it would. I should be screaming and feeling like a murderer – but in reality; I felt nothing but indifference. I’d done what I had to, to survive. I felt strangely… satisfied.

I quickly washed my face, arms and hands; and walked back to the horses. The black stallion standing next to Roach was beautiful and strong. I blew at his muzzle, as I had with Roach’s when I’d first met her – and he responded in kind. “You need a name, boy”, I whispered.

“Are you talking to your horse?”, Geralts gruff voice came from behind me. I turned to face him. “Training for conversations with you, I suppose”. He grunted with a smile.

He was carrying a dead hare by its ears, and slit his knife down its front, beginning to skin it. I winced at the sight. “You just saw 5 men killed brutally; but can’t stomach a hare being prepared for a meal?”, he chuckled. “I’ve just seen enough blood for a while”, I answered.

I went to build a fire, as Geralt continued his butchery of the hare. The flames were a welcome sight, after having ridden through the cold night. Putting the meat on a stick over the fire; Geralt looked at me with enquiring eyes. “You like animals?”, he asked. “No more than anyone else, I guess”, I answered. “But you know how to speak to them”, he said. I sighed, and considered his words. “I eat their meat; wear their skins; and ride their backs. It’s only fair to treat them with respect; if I expect for them to serve me like that”. He chuckled at my response, and handed me a piece of the meat to eat. It was sweet and gamey.

“But it’s more than that, isn’t it?”, he said, between bites. “What do you mean?”. “The cat. How you talk to the horses. I’ve never seen anyone interact that way with animals”. I looked at him challengingly. “Ask”, I said, as he had to me those nights before. “You want to”. He laughed, and narrowed his eyes. “You’re playing with things you shouldn’t, little frog”, he said. “Magic isn’t for humans”.

I laughed at him. “Not everything is magic, witcher”, I said. “Sometimes it’s just two creatures meeting, and reacting”. He exhaled with a grunt. “Are you unhappy with my answer?”, I asked teasingly. He looked into the fire. “I think there is more to you than you're telling me”, he grumbled. “Maybe”, I said. “But if there is, I don’t know”. He nodded.

We went to wash our bowls in the lake. The morning sun was shining orange across the sky. “Do you usually hit your lovers?”, the witcher asked out of nowhere. I looked at him questioningly. He gestured at a scratch on his cheek, that I’d apparently left there when I slapped him. I smirked. “Only the ones who ask for it”. He made a scoffing laugh.

“You missed a spot”, I smiled. “Where?”, he said, looking down at his bowl. “There”, I said; took a handful of water, and threw it at his face. I laughed heartily – until I saw his expression. It wasn’t angry, but it was menacing. He wiped his face, and snarled. I threw my bowl on the ground, and ran. “Hurry, little frog!”, he growled after me.

Laughing, I sped towards the trees; him fast at my heels. “Does water make witchers melt, like it does witches?”, I giggled, and looked back towards him. He was gone. My heart was in my throat, and a tingle spread through my body in anticipation. I couldn’t see him anywhere. I spun around, and he appeared in front of me; grabbing me around my waist with one arm. “I don’t know; do witches melt?”, he said, and emptied his bowl – filled with water – over my head. I yelped, and struggled to get away from him. I could feel his hardness against my stomach, and my breath hitched. Biting my lip; I smirked at him. “Fire…”, he growled; and grabbed my mouth in a violent kiss, leaving me breathless and panting. “There are plenty of trees around”, I moaned against him; and he picked me up – pushing me against an old oak.

Everything happened fast after that. Frantically kissing and panting; he pulled up my skirts; and put his large hand between my legs – earning a desperate mewl from me. “Mmhmm…”, he groaned; excavating my folds, and sliding two fingers into me. “No bath to confuse your wetness this time”, he growled into my mouth, as he kept kissing me. His fingers hooked, and his palm rubbed against my nub; quickly drawing me closer to my undoing. I was desperately trying to keep my composure; but quickly had to accept the fact that I was coming violently on his hand. He chuckled menacingly at me. “Only once isn’t going to be enough this time”, he said; pulling out his fingers, and tasting my juices on them. “Mmmhmm…”, he smirked.

I was still seeing starts as he was beginning to undo the buttons on his breeches; one knee between my knees to keep me from moving. I managed to push him away; meeting his confused eyes with a teasing smile. I turned him around; and pushed him against the tree; kneeling down in front of him. Looking up at him, his expression had turned primal; the pupil in his amber eyes blown.

I finished the task he had started on his breeches; and reached down into his pants, taking a hold of his hardness – relishing in the soft skin covering the rod-like firmness underneath it. I tasted the salty precum with the tip of my tongue; and closed my eyes, smiling. I gently cupped his testicles; and folded his penis against his stomach; tracing my tongue from the base to the head of it.

Geralt gasped, and put his hand on my head; sliding his fingers into my hair. “Y/N”, he sighed. Giving his balls a soft squeeze; I slid my lips around the head and sucked at it, before moving my head towards the base; massaging it with my tongue all the way.

Geralt let out another gasp; and I released him from my mouth, smiling up at him. “I think I found your weakness, witcher”, I whispered; letting my index finger find the soft skin just behind his testes, stroking it. I pumped his cock, and licked the tip again. “Princess…”, he moaned. I gave his member a firm squeeze, and frowned up at him; removing my tongue from where it had been. Chiding him with my eyes, he smiled apologetically. “Sorry”, he breathed. “Better”, I smiled; and slid him into my mouth again; going as deep as I could without choking.

I kept massaging his balls, and hummed softly as I bobbed my head back and forth. He tasted better than any treat I’d had before. Before long I felt the precious jewels in my hand tighten; and Geralts voice became strained in his moaning. He grabbed tightly at my hair, and cried out – before coming in my mouth. Pulling him out, I looked him in the eyes; swallowed; and smiled.

He stroked my cheek, and looked at me in wonder. In front of my face, his still hard member was twitching; and I gave it a final lick at its head – like it was a delicious sweetie on a stick. “Fuck”, he groaned at me, looking on in amazement. I stood up; straightened my skirts and smiled again. “That was lovely”, I said sweetly, and went to walk back to the horses.

“Not finished!”, he snarled; picked me up; and slammed me against the tree-trunk again. I gasped in shock. “Again?”, I squeaked. “Again”, he growled; hitched my skirts back up, and sank into me with his still rock hard cock.

“Remember what I said?”, he breathed into my ear. I nodded; digging my fingers into his jerkin, holding on to him as he thrusted. “Screaming in pleasure, little frog”. “Do your best, wolf!”, I panted.

Having held on to only one of my legs; he now lifted the other one from the ground; and was now carrying my weight, as he continuously hammered into my core. The familiar tingling returned; turning in to a pulsating warmth; before finally exploding – as I began throbbing around his length.

And then I did as he’d said. I screamed in pleasure.

---

Thanks for reading.

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- no lady

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@ayamenimthiriel​

[adenei]

Could you write about Ron and Hermione going to a Halloween party and wearing a matching couples costume please 🥺

Hi Hufflepuff Pixie! Or do you prefer Pixie Puff (as I feel like I’ve seen on my feed from other mutuals?) Ah, no matter! Thanks for the ask! Once I got past the writer’s block of the actual costumes, this was a fun one to write! Hope you enjoy!

***********************

Halloween at the Hog’s Head

“Hermione, are you sure this was a good costume choice?” Ron asked as he was looking in the mirror. He was dressed in a grey button up under his black dress suit. He was reluctantly tying a red scarf around his neck, and then placing a Gatsby hat on his head.

“Of course it’s a good costume choice!” Hermione came out of the bathroom dressed in a pleated maxi skirt, ruffled white blouse and red bow tie under a peplum blazer, and fedora with Gerber daisies hot glued to it. She went to the bed where she sat down to put on the Victorian boots she’d acquired for her costume. 

“I just don’t see how this makes sense. We’re going to have to explain who we are to everyone at the Hog’s Head. Most witches and wizards have no idea about muggle movies,” Ron shook his head.

“Ron, you’re the one who wanted to dress up. You know I don’t really enjoy the whole costume scene. I’d much rather dress up as a movie character than some of those completely rubbish punny costumes. I think being Mary Poppins and Bert is a clever idea. You love muggle movies, and this was one of my favorites growing up. The book and the movie,” Hermione tried to reassure him.

“Yeah. Fits us, too. You’re the uptight rule follower that quietly loves the whimsy of the adventure while I’m the more laid-back, all for it type” Ron said with a lopsided grin.

“Just for that, now you’re definitely getting the charcoal makeup on your face,” Hermione shot back playfully. She got up and grabbed the eye shadow, and brushed some on various parts of his face. Hermione was almost done, and then doubled back to put a little smudge on his nose.

“Hey! Bert doesn’t have soot on his nose.” Ron went to wipe it off with his arm, but Hermione grabbed his arm to stop him.

“No! Leave it, please?” she asked him.

“Why?” Ron furrowed his eyebrows as he asked.

“Because it reminds me of the first day on the train. When I told you that you had dirt on your nose.” Her cheeks felt hot as they flushed with color. 

They’d been together for a little over two years, but Hermione still became embarrassed sometimes when she made the realizations that she had been looking that closely at him as early as that first day on the train. Ron’s face softened as he leaned in and kissed her gently on the lips.

“It’s really quite adorable when you admit that you were staring when we were younger,” he smiled. “Should we get going then? Harry and Ginny are probably there already.”

Hermione checked her watch. “Oh, yes! We are running late. Grab your chimney sweep!” she said as she grabbed the carpet bag she’d rummaged out of her parent’s attic earlier that week, and they made their way to the fireplace. 

They flooed to the party at the Hog’s Head minutes later, which was already in full swing. Aberforth was tending bar and had managed to acquire a band to play for the evening. All of their friends were there, and Ron and Hermione made their way through to the bar for a drink before finding Harry and Ginny at a table. 

“It’s about time you lot showed up,” Ginny said as they sat down. It looked as though she and Harry were dressed as Ariel and Prince Eric from the Little Mermaid.

“Nice costumes!” Hermione complimented. “And here Ron thought we’d be the only ones dressed up as muggle movie characters.” She gave Ron a look.

“What can I say, Hermione? Looks like we’ve converted them both into movie lovers,” Harry said as they laughed.

“Ariel’s just so relatable! She’s fun, knows absolutely nothing about muggle objects on land, and is fiercely independent, like me,” Ginny laughed.

“Well, that’s good for you,” Harry grumbled.

“Oh come on, Harry, like you haven’t always wanted to be a Prince?” Ron sniggered.

They continued to fall into an easy banter as Neville and Luna joined them, and other former classmates stopped by to say hello. At one point they got up to go participate in a Butterbeer Pong tournament. Ironically, Ron and Ginny ditched Harry and Hermione to be partners because they were an unstoppable team when they got going. 

Hermione was fine with it as she and Harry mingled and sipped on their drinks, enjoying being on the sidelines of the game after they’d been eliminated fairly quickly. They made their way back over to the finals as Ron and Ginny took on Seamus and Dean. They were neck and neck until Dean missed a shot and Ginny sunk hers. The whole bar roared in applause and Aberforth shot them a dirty look. 

The band started playing soon after and Ron and Hermione made their way to the dance floor. “This is fun,” Hermione said as they moved to the music, their bodies pressed against each other.

“You think so? I didn’t think you were going to enjoy this much. I know you don’t like crowds,” Ron commented.

“Yes, well, it’s not so bad when I get to stare at a fine looking chimney sweep all night,” she said seductively.

“That right? Have I done a decent job of ‘sweeping’ you off your feet?” Ron waggled his eyebrows at the pun. She playfully hit his arm as he pulled her in for a long kiss. 

They reluctantly broke apart, and at that moment in time, Hermione decided that she didn’t want to be on the dance floor anymore. She discreetly looked around, and noticed some of the booths in the back of the bar that looked unoccupied. Hermione knew it was too early to leave yet, but they could disappear for a while, and hopefully no one would notice.

“You know, you’ve got a little something on your nose there,” Hermione raised her eyebrows at him as she gave him a look. “Maybe you could go take care of it in the loo, then meet me back there at one of the empty booths?”

He eyed her as if to catch her meaning before saying, “I think that’s a brilliant idea! Be right there,” as he kissed her cheek.

Hermione went to the bar to get them two more drinks, and made her way to the back of the room. It was a bit quieter away from the band, and she saw the top of Ron’s hat around the booth in the back left corner. She walked over and set the drinks down on the table before sliding into the seat next to him.

They wasted no time locking lips as Ron managed to pull her on top of him and unbuttoned her blazer, sliding it off her shoulders. “Ron,” against his mouth,” We can’t do that. Not here.” She’d observed that he’d lost his own suit coat and the scarf.

“I wasn’t meaning that we had to. It’s bloody warm in here and you can barely move your arms in that. We wouldn’t want to rip it,” Ron responded. 

“Good point,” Hermione said, and then their lips met again as they continued to snog heavily in the back of the bar.

After a while they heard someone clear their throat and they broke apart to see Harry looking disgusted at them. “Last I checked you do have a place to go home to if you wanted to do that.”

“It’s too early to go home yet,” Hermione said as she grabbed her blazer and slid off of Ron’s lap and out of the booth. Ron reached for the rest of his own costume and put it back on.

“Yeah, we were just taking a break, mate. You and Ginny were off with Nev and Hannah, so we just snuck away for a bit. We didn’t ditch you or anything,” Ron assured him.

“Yeah, well they’re about to start the costume contest, so I figured you two might want to rejoin for that,” Harry told them. 

“Er, yes, thank you, Harry,” Hermione said. She and Ron shared guilty smiles as they grabbed their drinks, and followed Harry back to the main room.

They may not have won the costume contest, but Hermione still deemed their choices a success. A group of students who were a couple of years younger than them took the prize for dressing as some of the professors at Hogwarts. They’re costumes were quite impressive. Neville had even thought that the person dressed as Professor McGonagall was the actual Professor McGonagall.

“I still think ours were better,” Ron said to Hermione as they made their way back to the table with Harry and Ginny to enjoy one more drink before calling it a night.

“I guess that means we’ll just have to be more clever next year,” Hermione said with a smile.

“Does that mean you’ll be willing to dress up again?” Ron asked hopefully. Hermione responded only with a smile as they continued on with the rest of their night.

[polaristranslations]

Shinobu Mustard Episode 4

028

"Kanbaru. Do you mind becoming a slave for tonight? Also, lend me your house."

"All right!"

Second slave, secured.

"Oikura. Tonight, become my slave, and cook for me."

"Don't think you'll be able to live until tonight."

Third slave, failed to secure.

The reason for that failure was most likely because I'd been a hurry and said "my slave"... Well, it wasn't like I could tell her to become the slave of a golden-haired, golden-eyed girl.

And because of her connections with Gaen-san, I couldn't exactly get Kanbaru fully involved in this either, so renting her house for one night should be good enough.

As the "citadel" of the king of oddities.

I'd heard yesterday that her grandparents were out on a trip, so Kanbaru could stay over at Higasa-chan's house or even Karen's room in the Araragi house and hold a pajama party there, while I was allowed to do whatever I liked in the meantime.

I knew it made me sound like an outlaw, but it was a decision I couldn't avoid—the only building I could think of in this town that could serve as a vampire's stronghold was Kanbaru's mansion.

Just as the death-prepared, death-inevitable, death-certain vampire, Deathtopia Virtuoso Suicidemaster, had once taken up residence in the "Castle of Corpses", the iron-blooded, hot-blooded, cold-blooded vampire, Kissshot Acerolaorion Heartunderblade, needed a building of suitable pedigree in which to take up residence.

It was fairly Japanese-style for a castle—or rather it was just a Japanese mansion—but hopefully, this being Suicidemaster's first visit to Japan, she wouldn't be able to differentiate between castles and mansions in Japan... Not that I, a Japanese person, could.

"But no, I didn't say that just because I wanted to show off. If Suicidemaster were to learn that her former thrall who she came to visit had been rendered harmless and sealed in the shadow of a pervert—nay, human—she may close herself off entirely. We won't be able to hear a single shred of information. In the worst case, you might even be killed. Would you be fine with that?"

"No, I wouldn't, but..."

"In that case, become my slave again like you were in last year's spring break, and prepare a castle and a banquet. To make my reign more convincing. If you can secure two or three more fake thralls, then that would be great."

The slave sealed in my shadow stuck out her chest in pride and ordered me as such from the child seat.

Erm...

"So basically, you want to greet your old pal with a master-servant relationship in that sort of fashion?"

"Fashion is important in hospitality. I'm pretty strict on fashion. Like a Parisienne."

"No, rather than a Parisienne, you're more like a putting-on-airs-ienne. Respectfully speaking, Shinobu. Wouldn't a petty trick like this just be found out immediately..."

"Oh, you're already getting into it. 'Respectfully speaking', you say? Ka ka, you're an expert at acting like a slave already! Have you done this before? Wait, of course you have! Ka ka, keep it up for the real thing!"

With a loud laugh as if she'd already gotten accustomed to being the master, Shinobu sunk back into the shadows... It almost looked like she was assimilating with the child seat.

What a mess. She'd appeared as if she was going to listen to my concerns, but then she just said whatever she wanted to—however, as soon as I parked my New Beetle in the parking lot, before I went inside, it was then that I called Kanbaru, who'd been in the middle of her morning run, and Oikura, who'd been indulging in her slumber at her lodgings.

Kanbaru had eagerly agreed (it was scary how eager she was, but I decided to call her back and discuss it properly, as well as other things), while Oikura had refused (if I left her alone, she'd probably call me back, so at that point, I'll more or less apologize from the bottom of my heart... and ask for her home cooking separately).

Well, Shinobu putting on airs was the same as always.

I almost wanted to tell her to be more show-offy towards me, but considering the way she was cooperating for this case, I couldn't bluntly refuse that honesty... I had better properly inform Gaen-san about this, too.

Thinking about it, Kanbaru was the "niece of that Gaen-san", but in reverse, Gaen-san was the "aunt of that Kanbaru". What if Gaen-san casually went, "I'll do it, too! Let me be a slave, too!" after I went to her with our plans?... I didn't want to see Gaen-san like that.

What an odd family they were.

On the other hand, even though my parents were ordinary, upright public servants, why had all their children turned out like that?

Speaking of which, the fact that only the members of the girls' basketball team of Naoetsu High were being attacked could be rephrased as "only Kanbaru's juniors were being attacked", so maybe it was a good idea to think about things with her as the focal point.

Even if the gourmet Suicidemaster were only able to dine on "Princess Beauty", Kanbaru Suruga was the daughter (in other words, the direct descendant) of Gaen Tooe, who's practically talked about as if she were a legend—so for the club members that were under her influence, the possibility of them being targeted is...

Although, in that case, maybe Kanbaru herself would be targeted? Actually, it was fairly possible that that was the case—and if so, then using Kanbaru's house as a meeting place wasn't a bad idea, if only to see Suicidemaster's reaction, but Kanbaru herself should probably be kept far away.

That was what ran through my mind as I wandered around the campus of Manase University to kill time, having arrived earlier than expected (it was a fairly expansive university, and I still hadn't seen all of the campus yet. Supposedly, it would take over four years to check out all of the facilities—what was this, the British Museum?), but once it got close to 7:45 am, I knocked on the door to the lecture hall for my international linguistics class.

Although it was called "linguistics", it was different from classes on foreign languages in that it put languages from all over the world, both famous and unknown, on equal footing and compared them in detail. Ultimately, an unproductive course with no destination in sight—there were many incomprehensible courses like this in college.

But I liked that sort of incomprehensible stuff. Could this be Ougi-chan's influence?

It was a liberal arts course unusual for someone in the mathematics department to take, and it was hard to say that the course was particularly popular even taking into account how early in the morning it was, but for Meniko, whose goal was to work with codes in the future, there was no way she couldn't take this course—well, for her, international linguistics probably wasn't even an "incomprehensible course" (in exchange, Meniko was bad with normal foreign language study).

"Hola. Araragi-chan, you're ea~arly. How diligent of you~u."

"I dunno about being called early when you're here in your seat before me. Hola."

Not to mention, I planned on skipping class after this. Unfortunately (or not), today's lecture hadn't been canceled.

It seemed I'd have to borrow Meniko's notes another day—the number of favors I was asking her was increasing. Someday, I'd better do something for her in return.

I bumped fists with Meniko and sat down next to her, and then asked, "Do you mind if I asked you to decipher another code?", showing her the sequence of numbers that I had displayed on my cell phone.

"Hmm. Hmm, hmm?"

A normal person, after being asked to solve codes like these two days in a row, would find it strange and ask for my intentions before even trying, but this was Hamukai Meniko—she couldn't not solve a code that was put before her.

It was a difficult personality, but I liked that about her... It wasn't necessarily a bad thing, but neither I nor my proud network of friends from high school were people that moved without some reason or purpose.

Even Hanekawa and Oshino.

And even the violent onmyouji Kagenui-san that was heading towards this town was actually a person of reason—she moved according to her own, unique logic.

As a result, there had been a time when I'd thought that people were just like that, but after becoming friends with Meniko, I came to learn that there were people who weren't like that—I'd been enlightened.

Meniko also seemed to be rather interested in the fact that I was (in a rough estimate) rather logical about things, so I suppose it was a mutual thing.

In order to maintain this relationship, I didn't dare introduce Meniko to any of my other connections, such as Oikura, even by mistake—of course, I had absolutely no intention of breaking off my connection with Oikura, who I had reconnected with after entering university, but as for her... Rather than our connection being broken off, it could be more like she herself would snap.

"A cell phone, huh. Was the code recorded in a cell phone?"

"Yep. Although I don't know if that holds any meaning..."

"That's tru~ue. These days, cell phones are like a part of our brains now, aren't they? Some people criticize the fact that when you go on a trip, you end up looking at the scenery through the small screen of your smartphone, but looking at something with the camera of your smartphone is basically the same as looking at it with your own eyes. Maybe when people complain about train passengers playing with their cell phones, it's a sign that they've failed to pair their phones with themselves?"

I hadn't exactly mastered the use of a cell phone myself, so it was hard for me to wholeheartedly agree, but, well, it wasn't like I didn't understand what she was saying.

"Anyway, this time it's only numbers, huh. Hm. I did solve it, bu~ut."

"Already? You're really the one that's early to things, aren't you. The truth is, I didn't have the slightest idea."

It wasn't like I didn't feel helpless when delegating the whole thing to Meniko, so I'd thought that I'd challenge it on my own in the period of time before I took it to her, but I'd spent most of that time on Shinobu's matter.

"It doesn't seem like putting it on a phone and not on paper really mattered? But numbers are easy to make into a code, aren't the~ey. Languages can vary from region to region, depending on grammar and culture, but numbers are worldwi~ide. No matter where in the universe you are, one plus one is two, and a prime number is a prime number, ri~ight?"

"That's not actually the case. For example, in Nepalese, the representations for '1' and '9' look similar, so when a Japanese person sees them, the math wouldn't add up at a glance. The logic would look completely wrong. Also, it's only in Japan where people use the '正' kanji to count to five, and for someone like me, the little horizontal bar used to distinguish a '7' from a '1' is enough to make me not think of it as a '7'".

"I see. For someone like me, a '7' with a horizontal bar looks kind of like the kanji for seven [七] upside down, so I end up getting those confu~used. So you're above me when it comes to that, huh, Araragi-cha~an."

There wasn't really an above or a below in this exchange, but aah, I wanted to have a conversation like this.

I suddenly realized.

When Shinobu—when Princess Acerola, as "Princess Beauty"—went about destroying countries... When she was a human, did she feel the same way as this when she met a vampire?

Even though it was a relationship of eat or be eaten.

The interpretation that they were vampire and thrall, or master and slave, was at odds with the lighthearted way in which she spoke of her as an "old pal".

She had said that she'd reflected from that time with Shishirui Seishirou, so I'd interpreted it as the master-slave relationship having been reversed, but what if it wasn't that? What if Suicidemaster really was just a "friend" to Shinobu?

Like, for example, Kanbaru and Higasa-chan.

According to Hachikuji, Suicidemaster had called Shinobu a friend as well.

A friend, huh.

There had been a fiercely determined class representative who had declared, "If I can't die for someone, I wouldn't call that person a friend". But what if Shinobu wanted to meet Suicidemaster with that in mind?

Did I have the qualification to stop her?

Talking about qualifications at this point was what made me, me—regret may always come too late, but logic always took precedence. If I ultimately acted upon my emotions, then I would most likely act too late to a disgusting extent.

I should learn a bit from my new friend.

What I wanted was not qualifications, but qualities.

"Hmm. Araragi-chan, what's the matter? Thinking about something?"

"No, I'm trying hard not to think about something. So, what's the answer to the code?"

"Like yesterday, I managed to solve it, but it's a dead-end that isn't really refreshing. Even though I managed to decode it, it just leaves me stressed aga~ain. But it ended up being letters of the alphabet aga~ain."

"Alphabet—then, 'D/V/S'?"

"No~ope. This time, it's 'F/C'."

"F/C"?

029

"If 'F/C' are also initials, I wonder if there's someone from the girls' basketball team who has those initials," said Gaen-san, the human representative of logic, after hearing my report.

We were once again in Naoetsu General Hospital, in yet another hospital room different from the three we'd been in earlier—the hospital room where Kanguu Misago-chan's mummy had been put up.

"I wonder if the message was left on a cell phone to hint at that. Since they had matching straps with their initials."

"Aah... That's right, they did have those," I said.

In that sense, I would've had more hints to decipher it than Meniko did.

It wasn't really a contest, but I did find it a bit frustrating.

"By the way, Kanguu-chan also had a strap. Since she's Kanguu Misago, it was 'M K'."

"Eh? But wait, Gaen-san. Wouldn't that mean that the vampire that we're looking for is actually among the members of the girls' basketball team?"

If, not the dying message, but the living message was indicating a specific member's initials, and Suicidemaster was being falsely accused of a crime, then that would be it.

"F C".

"Not necessarily. It could be that Kanguu-chan, in a hazy state of mind, was just trying to write the name of a friend she thought of. Or it's an act of deception to make us think that way. In other words, diversionary tactics by Suicidemaster."

A vampire trying to blame a human for their vampirism—it seemed a little narrow-minded, almost pitiful at that, and not at all in line with the image of a vampire. Well, if we can consider the possibility that the crime is being pinned on Suicidemaster, why can't we consider the opposite?

Taking it to extremes, it was even possible now that this was a diversionary tactic to make us think that everything was fabricated, like a deduction in a honkaku mystery.

Us people of logic.

"You're right. It would be too unexpected a truth for there to be a vampire among the club members."

"I don't remember explicitly denying that possibility. You can't say for sure that there aren't more oddities like you, Koyomin, that put on an air of innocence and casually attend school, right?"

"Again with the jokes."

And this was a bad joke, at that.

The phrasing of "air of innocence" felt like biting words.

"It's not entirely a joke, though. Well, this is just a brute force through all the possibilities at the moment. Like a canvassing operation done by throwing more people at the problem. It's true that, as a result of last night's events, the suspicion placed on Suicidemaster has faded. 'F C' seems like it would be fairly rare for initials, so I'm sure we'll be able to narrow it down to just a few girls out of the hundred on the basketball team..."

As she spoke, Gaen-san began flipping through the register of names borrowed from Higasa-chan, beginning her check. I'd promised not to make any copies of it, so it was the original document.

"For reference, do you mind if I ask, Koyomin? About how the code was deciphered. It's possible that the method can also provide a hint for us."

"Understood. However, I don't think it'll be very relevant."

"I'd like to hear it anyway. I may not exactly be a sciences person, but it's not like I hate number puzzles. It's a great way to exercise the mind and relax."

Relax?

Putting aside exercising the mind... She didn't really look like it, but was Gaen-san actually stressed right now? With this incident taking longer than expected, Kagenui-san drawing closer to the town with every moment, and my betrayal that must not be forgotten, well, there were plenty of things that could be cause for concern.

Well, if revealing the trick is somehow relaxing, then I'll gladly do so.

It's atonement for my infidelity.

"However, this code ended up not being a number puzzle. It had nothing to do with prime numbers, either—though it's still in the sciences, it was not mathematics, but the field of natural sciences."

"Natural sciences? If we're talking about fields, in middle school, they'd divide the natural sciences into the 'first field' for physics and chemistry, and the 'second field' for biology and geology."

"In that respect, it would be the first field—Celsius and Fahrenheit."

In other words, temperature notation.

Like numbers, temperature was the same throughout the world, or perhaps even throughout the universe, and high temperatures were high, low temperatures were low, and absolute zero was absolute zero—but temperature wasn't notated in the same way everywhere. The units differed.

And that difference was Celsius and Fahrenheit.

"Ah—that's why it's 'F' and 'C'?"

As expected of a logical person, she caught on fast. After speaking, Gaen-san flipped the register shut—it seemed she'd finished checking it all.

She was even fast at reading.

"But how does '820/280/610/160' become Celsius and Fahrenheit? Although, since Celsius is 'C' and Fahrenheit is 'F', perhaps I should ask how it becomes Fahrenheit and Celsius."

"For both Celsius and Fahrenheit, a '°' is placed in the top right direction to denote 'degrees'. In the same place where you would write an exponent."

"Do an explanation like that for a science major. I got it just from you saying 'in the top right direction'—don't go off in a completely different direction, Koyomin. And?"

"We look at the '0' in the code and interpret it as a '°'—basically, the '0' in '820', the '0' in '280', the '0' in '610', and the '0' in '160', all the zeroes at the end of the numbers, should not be taken as numbers but as symbols. Then, '820/280/610/160' becomes '82°/28°/61°/16°'."

"Aha. Highest and lowest temperatures, huh?"

That was exactly it.

The code that had been left behind was showing yesterday's temperature, represented in both Celsius and Fahrenheit—just like the Rosetta Stone, which could be described as the originator of cryptanalysis.

However, the essential letters of the alphabet were missing—"F" and "C".

"That's why, 'F/C' becomes the deciphered text to the code. Oh, but if they're initials, you can't really call that a text. But I see. It's amazing that someone could come up with something like that."

"Yes. Checking the daily high and low temperatures may be natural for an athletic person, but even then, I don't think they would have been able to come up with that in their hazy state of mind."

"No, my intention was to praise your friend, Koyomin."

It would be a bit troublesome if you show too much interest in her.

If you point your finger at her.

This was entirely my own self-interest, but I'd like to settle this case before I needed to ask for help with a third code...

But after relying on Hachikuji and getting Shinobu's cooperation and borrowing Kanbaru's house, I'd strayed pretty far from what I'd originally intended, so maybe next time I'd just give up and go to Ougi-chan for help with the cryptanalysis... Although, that girl likes to be befuddling, so she definitely wouldn't just give me the answer straight up like Meniko.

She was also a person of logic. A mysterious form of logic.

But anyway, let's return to the main subject.

For the sake of protecting Meniko, and for the sake of resolving this case.

"But anyway, how many people in the girls' basketball club have the initials 'F C'? Although we'd probably need to check whether that girl has a strap or not..."

Since the first mummy, Harimaze Kie-chan, didn't have a strap on her phone, it wasn't a given that everyone had a matching strap. Perhaps, within the club, that small level of resistance against peer pressure was allowed.

"There were as much as zero people."

"Eh? What did you say?"

"Sorry, that was a weird way to put it. Zero. There were none, is what I meant. Girls with 'F C' as their initials, that is."

030

"Have you looked for the reverse order? You know, when representing the name of a Japanese person, there's the pattern of 'first/last name' and 'last/first name'."

"Of course. There were none like that, either."

Could Meniko's solution have been wrong?

No, there was no way.

"I wonder if we should expand the range of possibilities. Should we include the third-years that have already retired as candidates?"

"Umm..."

It wasn't impossible to ask Higasa-chan through Kanbaru for a list of the OG members, but I wasn't sure. If we expanded it that far, it felt like the possibilities would be endless.

It didn't seem too productive to force the solution into the initials 'F C' and look for a person that matched, either... Rare as the initials might be, it wasn't like there was nobody with those initials.

"We did figure out that the victims were members of the girls' basketball team using the straps as the hint, but like with 'D/V/S', maybe there's a famous vampire with those initials?"

"The vampires here are from overseas, after all. It's normal to add a middle name... It's unnatural to have initials with just two letters."

"Is that so..."

I'd ended up bothering Meniko with this (though she'd been happy about it) and I'd ended up skipping class (though I probably would have skipped class anyway), but it didn't end up being that much of a hint... Well, even Oshino had said that fieldwork was a cycle of futility.

It was important not to dwell on it.

"By the way, Gaen-san. You don't seem to be in that good of a mood, so is it possible that you received more unpleasant news while I was out?"

"Hm? Did it seem that way to you? I was trying to act calm about it, but this onee-san that knows everything must be losing face to receive your concern, Koyomin. Even though I want to be an onee-san you can always rely on."

"No, no. Gaen-san, you're always an older woman that I can rely on..."

"I'm not trying to be a dependable older woman. No, but anyway, Koyomin. Your worries were right on the mark. The contents of a high school girl's cell phone weren't something we should have looked at."

And the fact that it hasn't produced any good results so far is nearly breaking my heart, said Gaen-san as she laid eyes upon the mummy on the bed—the owner of the cell phone, Kanguu Misago-chan.

Having been made to wear a patient gown and laid to rest on the bed... I didn't want to say I was getting familiar with the sight, but I was getting used to it.

When humans become nothing but skin and bones, it's hard to distinguish between them—their height became ambiguous when laid down, and since they were in a sports club, their hair was fairly short, so it was hard to distinguish them that way, too.

Kanbaru had also had a short haircut when she'd been active... Don't tell me it wasn't just because they were in a sports club, but because they were following after Kanbaru...?

Everyone doing the same thing... Hm?

"Even so, this onee-san won't be surprised any more. Seriously, after being shown the ugly side of human relations, I won't even be scared of vampires."

"Being shown? Gaen-san, you're the one who went and looked at it yourself."

"And I have nothing to say in response to that. They say you're not supposed to check your partner's phone, and that's completely true. If you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you."

What was in that phone, exactly?

Honestly, if she said it like that, it made me even more curious... However, it probably was better to not ask. For the sake of respecting their privacy, and for the sake of my own health... If Gaen-san ended up like that, I might even end up hospitalized as a result.

And if it wasn't producing any good results, then all the more reason not to.

"Well, I suppose the girls' basketball team is pretty unique. If this sort of thing was commonplace... Well, it's not something I want to think about, as an adult. Their club activities are certainly strange. It felt like they were bullying themselves."

"But aren't all athletic clubs more or less like that? Even more so if you're a powerhouse."

Or rather, a former powerhouse. In the case of Naoetsu High.

Of course, that may have intensified that athletic mindset...

"Mm. I've always had a commander-like nature since I was in high school, but even then, I was still pretty incompatible with those sports-minded people."

"So there was a time when you were a high school girl, Gaen-san."

"It's not like this onee-san was always an onee-san from the moment she was born. Or an older woman."

"That wasn't what I meant... But even so, the hardest person to imagine as a high school girl would probably be Kagenui-san."

She didn't seem like she would be in the liberal arts or the sciences, or in a cultural club or a sports club... What kind of high school girl would she have been?

"That girl was actually a surprisingly diligent student. Although I only knew her as a college student, not a high school student. She's the only one from that trio to graduate without dropping out."

Is that so.

Human beings really couldn't be described one-sidedly, huh.

"Oh nooo. While I carelessly stepped into a colony of high school girls and got my feet stuck in a murky, bottomless swamp, Kagenui will probably arri~ive!"

Even if you lament the word "arri~ive" all cutely like that, that in itself seemed more lamentable.

Please remain a reliable older woman.

"It may be fine for me to think this way, but Gaen-san, aren't you being a little too cautious regarding your junior? She may be a bit uncontrollable, but it's not like she completely ignores the orders you give her, right?"

In the first place, Kagenui-san was coming all the way back from the North Pole because she was called by Gaen-san—plus, if she were truly uncontrollable, she would've ignored any sort of harmless certification and gotten rid of Shinobu and me.

Though she was infinitely violent, that was just a matter of the way she did things, and it should be possible to talk things out—she was a person of logic, too.

"That's right. It's true that, if I explain the circumstances, she might understand the reasoning behind why it's not necessary to exterminate Suicidemaster. It might even be possible to certify her as harmless, with how much of a little girl she's become."

Even while stuck in a bottomless swamp of high school girls, it seemed she'd long since considered the things I'd thought of, with the way she spoke.

"Yes. In fact, as soon as I'd heard that Suicidemaster had broken through Hachikuji-chan's mayoi-ushi barrier, those thoughts had already crossed my mind. It wasn't that Suicidemaster had broken through the barrier with brute force, but simply that she had been weakened to the point that the barrier didn't even react."

"......"

Was that even possible?

It sounded pretty painful and distressing, considering that she was the progenitor who birthed and named the legendary oddity.

"Even in that state, she should still be able to suck the blood of high school girls, so just by being in this town, nothing has changed regarding her being the prime suspect. However, the reason she became a mummy might not be because she was attacked by someone, but because she'd weakened to the point that she entered cryptobiosis by herself."

"In that case, would that mean she was the one to bury herself in the mountain?"

"Yes, it would be safer in the dirt, after all. The cryptobiotic-sleep, hibernation-sleep, dozing-sleep vampire. In that case, perhaps she was attempting to make her way back to Hachikuji-chan who was in charge of immigration control, and collapsed along the way. Well, we're still just brute forcing the possibilities here—the strongest possibility is still that she grew so hungry that she attacked a high school girl, but for now, we can apply the principle of innocent until proven guilty. But the problem is, that won't work on Kagenui."

"...Why is that?"

She sure was stubborn in a weird way.

In a sense, she was pretty laid-back to even put her faith in someone like me, but right now, Gaen-san was being weirdly obstinate in regards to Kagenui-san.

"Well, this is just between us, but they share a bit of a past. The problem at hand, Suicidemaster, and the even bigger problem, Kagenui."

"The problem—and the bigger problem."

"Even if Suicidemaster happened to not be the culprit for this case, and even if it's possible for her to be certified as harmless after not having harmed a human for the past six hundred years—even then, they share a past that makes it impossible to stop Kagenui. Though justice is the only thing that can put that unorthodox onmyouji in check, she's very likely to move out of a personal grudge for this time alone."

G—grudge?

That bundle of justice?

"If I make the wrong move, I may find myself having to excommunicate yet another junior. And I don't want to do that."

031

Kagenui-san's personal grudge probably wasn't something that other people should be prying into, so let's return to the main subject. Although the main subject was a ghost story with intense pressure. But anyway, back to the main subject.

The risk of intruding into her private life had been clearly demonstrated, and Gaen-san, who had hinted at it, didn't dare tell me the details of her past—perhaps she'd let it slip after being embroiled in the high school girls' darkness.

Speaking of being embroiled, it seemed that the reason Gaen-san associated the initials "F C" with the members of the girls' basketball team was not only because of the alphabet strap, but because she'd looked into the darkness of the club displayed on Kanguu Misago-chan's cell phone and had been influenced by it (it seemed she even considered the possibility that, in her dazed state, Kanguu-chan thought she could pin the crime on a team member that she had some friction with). But in the register, there was no one with those initials—and, as long as there was no initial for a middle name included, it likely wasn't the vampire's signature, either.

Before expanding our reach to the OG girls, one more possibility came to my mind.

"What if these aren't initials, but an abbreviation for something in English?"

"Abbreviation? ...In other words, something other than a person's name?"

Normally, Gaen-san would have come up with something in an instant, but at the moment, she'd been caught up in the murky mires of those high school girls... And it could be even more damaging to her as an adult.

I've learned that the private life of others is nothing but poison.

"It probably isn't 'franchise (FC)'—then maybe it's something like 'football club (FC)'?"

It seemed appropriate.

First a basketball club, now a football club.

It also wasn't impossible to interpret it as a franchise of making vampire thralls, forced as it was—but there was no need to twist it that much.

But before we went to Naoetsu High's soccer team, we couldn't forget the other organization in that high school that we should consider.

"'Fan club (FC)'."

"Hm?"

"There was something like that. In the past—well, it wasn't that far in the past—an unofficial fan club for the superstar Kanbaru Suruga."

It was an organization separate from the girls' basketball team, yet was an organization that was strongly influenced by Kanbaru, in a way different from the girls' basketball team.

It was something that came to mind after thinking that all the mummies' hairstyles were the same—let's see, as I recall, that fan club's name was "Kanbaru Soeurs"?

"What's that? Is it something like the Rukawa Kaede Imperial Guard?"

"Exactly. But somehow they ended up getting involved with me and I forced them into disbanding—"

"That's something really scary you're saying as just an introduction, Koyomin. Forced them into disbanding. You really are a delinquent like the rumors say, aren'tcha?"

"I think the remnants of that fan club could be related to this case."

As much as the hypothesis that there was a vampire among the girls' basketball team members was incredible to believe, the possibility that there was a vampire mixed in with Kanbaru Suruga's fan club was just as ridiculous.

But we weren't in a situation where we could afford not to consider ridiculous possibilities just because they were ridiculous.

"That's a fact that this onee-san that knows everything didn't exactly need to know. Ah, yes, but my dear sister had a cheerleading squad like that when she was in high school, too."

"It doesn’t seem like it will have much of a connection, but I suppose I should do something now that I've thought of it. She wasn't a member of the fan club herself, but my little sister is pretty close with that organization, so I'll look into it just a teeny bit."

"Your little sister?"

I looked at Gaen-san's clouded expression.

"My little sister (the bigger one)," I amended.

After hearing that, Gaen-san seemed to relax, smiling.

"You mean Karen-chan. Okay, do as you see fit. But, out of concern—from this old lady's point of view—please don't bring Tsukihi-chan into this. Of course, Koyomin, you were originally the one who said you didn't want to cause trouble for your family, but even discounting the thing with Yozuru, things that go well just don't go well when Tsukihi-chan is involved."

She's talking about you in a pretty amazing way, my little sister (the smaller one).

"And, I apologize for the late report, but Shinobu laid out some conditions for her cooperation in Suicidemaster's interrogation."

I presented an outline of the master-servant reversal to Gaen-san. Even though the plan seemed like it would be laughable regardless of the time, place, or occasion...

"Right, that sounds good."

I received the commander's approval.

Of course, she didn't say anything like "I'll do it, too! Let me be a slave, too!"

"Although, rather than an interrogation, it's practically an undercover operation at this point—but if Suicidemaster mistakenly sees that Shinobu-chan is doing well in this country, then she might end up chattering away without any caution."

Mistakenly. Well, she would certainly be mistaken.

Rather than "doing well", she'd been on the verge of being exterminated, on the verge of being killed, and on the verge of death, and in the end failed to die, turned into a little girl, and then ended up sealed in a teenager's shadow.

At any rate, seeing as I'd gotten the go-ahead to put the plan into action, it was inevitable—I wasn't sure if I could pull off the part of a slave, but I would do what I could.

"In that case, even if it didn't have to do with the fan club, I figure I should have a proper discussion with Kanbaru about this, but is there anything I should be careful about when talking to her? The situation has completely changed from yesterday."

"Something to be careful about... I'd like if you could avoid the storm entirely. I know you might feel a sense of duty, but don't go poking your nose into the murky depths of your juniors."

Her advice was not as a specialist but as a person with more seniority in life, but I wanted Kanbaru, too, to follow these words of Gaen-san, who was called a senior by various people.

Even if I couldn't mention Gaen-san's name.

Even if I doubted that Kanbaru would actually follow them.

"I'll stay at this hospital and do my best with the cell phone analysis while waiting for a report from the search party and preparing for the night."

"I'll meet up with Karen-chan and Kanbaru, and if I have some spare time I'll go drop in on Oikura."

"Putting aside your childhood friend, when it comes to your little sister and Suruga, there's no need to wait up until they come back from school. Koyomin, I think you should go back home at least once for a nap. Though I know all-nighters aren't hard on you thanks to your vampire constitution, you must still be at your limit, right?"

That was true.

Thinking about it, vampires, being nocturnal, did go to sleep in the daytime... Just as Shinobu was doing right now.

The truth was, I'd been working out a plan to drop in on Oikura's place until school let out for the day, but it seemed I'd have to abandon that idea.

Even sleeping was work.

Well, if it was around this time, that mathematics maniac was probably in class, too...

"Ah. I know. I'll split the difference and go to Oikura's place to sleep. I have a spare key, after all."

"Childhood friendships are pretty hard for other people to pry into, huh."

032

I decided to just go to my own home. Of course I needed to catch up on sleep, but I wanted to take a bath, too. Alas, I didn't have any clothes to change into at Oikura's place. I'll do something about that later.

Afterwards, I thought about saying thanks to Ononoki-chan for last night—since I'd left in a hurry, I hadn't been able to talk to her about how she relayed Hachikuji's message to me, or how she called over Gaen-san to the mountain after that.

From Ononoki-chan's point of view, I'd gotten a fortune slip and left all of a sudden, and then decided to go to hell—I probably seemed pretty weird to her... I couldn't bear being thought of as a weird guy by Ononoki-chan.

With both parents working, the first daughter a high schooler, and the second daughter a middle schooler, the Araragi house was generally empty in the daytime—I would be able to speak to Ononoki-chan, who'd infiltrated the house as a stuffed doll, without reservations.

It was one thing to give my thanks, but I figured I may as well tell her that Kagenui-san was approaching this town like a hurricane—for Gaen-san and me, it was an approach that was currently fairly inconvenient, but it could be good news for Ononoki-chan, who idolizes (?) Kagenui-san as an "onee-chan".

Because Ononoki-chan was busy with something else, she wasn't participating in this incident, but it wasn't like she was intentionally left out of the loop, unlike Shinobu until she found out—if the conversation went well, perhaps I'd be able to learn about the past between Suicidemaster and Kagenui-san, which I had failed to ask about, or rather, which I had wanted to hear but didn't want to hear.

Perhaps those ulterior motives led to my ruin, for when I arrived home, it was not just my parents and sisters but also that expressionless, frilly-dressed stuffed doll that was absent.

It seemed that young girl was even busier than public servants and middle school students, though not college students.

Well, I'd like to hear as much as what she had to say, but I didn't think it was a past that I wanted to dig into myself... If anything, maybe what I should be doing is to let the foreshadowing die so that her past doesn't get revealed?

Araragi Koyomi, killing the foreshadowing.

With that, feeling a mix of disappointment and relief, I took a shower and crawled into bed.

It seemed I'd been more tired than I realized (perhaps out of worry, too), so I slept soundly until the afternoon, waking only to the sound of Karen's return—despite her training in martial arts, she was a lot noisier in her movements, so it was easy to hear.

"Yo, Karen-chan. By the way, I wanted to ask about Kanbaru's fan club."

"That's way too direct. I haven't even taken off my shoes yet! At least welcome me back. You gotta have some sort of introduction before starting off the main topic with a 'by the way'. What happened?"

Araragi Karen. 16 years old.

She was super tall. My bigger little sister.

Tsuganoki Private High School first-year. She did not take part in any clubs, and continued to attend a martial arts dojo—something like that.

Also, her hairstyle returned to a ponytail.

"Kanbaru-sensei's fan club? Ah, aah. The one that nii-chan smashed up, huh."

"If I didn't break them up, they would've broken me. Just remembering it now, it's super scary."

The fact that she was still calling her Kanbaru-sensei was pretty considerable, but then again, the way Karen yearned for Kanbaru was... pretty unique.

I couldn't exactly give a thorough explanation of the circumstances, so I simply said, "Have you heard anything about, say, them having resumed activities?" and continued the conversation without explaining my reasons.

"Mmm. No, I don't think they have. When an organization like that comes apart once, it's pretty hard to reorganize."

"Is that so?"

"The crux, Kanbaru-sensei, retired, after all. Fans easily heat up and easily cool down."

I see... I guess it was like that.

Just as Karen said, if Kanbaru had continued to be active, then perhaps the fan club could have been passed down to the next generation, but now that the target of their admiration had retired, it was probably hard to gather new members.

And Kanbaru herself wasn't the kind of person that liked attracting that kind of attention, too—I had to admit I felt a bit elated at the inspiration of reading the deciphered code "F/C" as fan club... But I guess it wasn't that easy.

When comparing the girls' basketball team, of which Kanbaru had been a member, with the fan club, which was unofficial and separate... The quality was certainly different—if it became a fan club full of stoicism that could enforce ironclad laws without the actual person in question, it would be one of the best in Japan.

If only it had been "C/F", then it could at least have been read as "center forward", a basketball position...

Well, whether the culprit was in the girls' basketball team or in the fan club, it didn't change the reality that the vampire might be nonchalantly attending Naoetsu High—if that was even possible.

Of course, even though Gaen-san had been trying to implicate me, there were quite a few students that had gotten entangled with oddities, like Senjougahara Hitagi, Hanekawa Tsubasa, Kanbaru Suruga, or Oshino Ougi.

Well, a high school girl being a vampire did make for a prettier picture than a high school boy being a vampire—oh yeah.

"Karen-chan. You're a high school girl now, right?"

"What's with that, all of a sudden? But, that's right. I've become able to get married."

"That's not because you're a high school girl, it's because you've turned 16 years old. If anything, you've gotten harder to marry. Especially for me."

"Nii-chan, for you I'm the most difficult person in the world to marry. I'm your little sister!"

"How does it feel to be a high school girl? Is everything going well with your new friends?"

Regrettably, I pretended to be an overprotective older brother and started a survey to try and collect some live opinions—could even Karen be mired in the murky depths that had been a downer for the easygoing Gaen-san?

"I dunno what sort of school life you mean by 'going well', but this new world is pretty fun. I almost want to go to school on the weekends, too."

That's pretty insane.

But that's true, it's not like all high school girls have a dark side to them. There are individual differences, and it depends on the environment and the situation.

To put it in a good way, Karen's personality was endlessly bright, and to put it in a bad way, she was endlessly idiotic, but that wasn't just it—when surrounded by a stiff atmosphere, even the brightest idiot would lose some of that excitement. However, Karen was a follower of Kanbaru—

"—Oh yeah. Can I ask one more thing, Karen-chan?"

"What is it now? Today, it's all questions and no groping my boobs, huh."

"Don't talk like groping your boobs is a regular occurrence. I'm not going to touch them. This year."

"It was a problem when you've been touching them for the last year. Touching a girl's boobs like you were kneading clay. And? What's the question you were gonna ask?"

"You know the Fire Sisters, that you and Tsukihi-chan were a part of? You guys disbanded after you graduated, right? What happened after that?"

"Whaddya mean what happened. I told you, didn't I? Now, Tsukihi-chan's working hard on her own as Moon Fire."

I may have heard that before, but regrettably, the information she had on her sister was a bit vague.

Not that I could speak for others, considering I was the same way when it came to that sister.

What I wanted to ask was how the community of Tsuganoki 2nd Middle School changed after Karen, the mainstay and core of the school, left, like with the girls' basketball team—wasn't there anything like a war to be the replacement for Tsukihi's partner, or any sort of factional strife?

"Oh, for that, Tsukihi-chan, as the staff officer, handled it pretty well. For better or worse, Tsukihi-chan thinks she's so special that she doesn't expect anyone else, including me, to be able to imitate her."

I see. I'd been worried about my youngest sister's (excessive) self-consciousness, but that was an insight.

As is often the case with hard-working superstars, Kanbaru's self-esteem was quite low, and she had a tendency to believe that "anyone can do what I can do if they work hard enough"—that was something I could appreciate from a human perspective. However, if someone that was charismatic on a national level said such empty words as "if you work hard, your dreams will come true", then it would lead to a generation of people that actually buy into it.

Even though it wasn't Kanbaru's fault, the current state of the girls' basketball team was probably a climate formed by such a belief in hard work.

If I had to say it, when Kanbaru retired from the club because of her left arm, she should've picked a proper successor instead of leaving everything to Higasa-chan—though it was useless to say that now.

"Tsukihi-chan is basically a 'wasted effort is wasted' kind of girl. She'll say stuff like, 'Instead of hard work, just do what needs to be done!' 'If you put in wasted effort, you'll get even farther away from your dreams!'"

"I can't say that leaves a good impression..."

"She'd always insist, 'Find a way to make yourself a lucky boy or Cinderella girl!'"

"Tsukihi-chan probably shouldn't publish any business books. Speaking of which, it worries me that Tsukihi-chan, a middle school student, is coming home later than you, a high school student. Rub rub. What in the world is Moon Fire up to now that she's gone independent?"

"I dunno either. Rather than being independent, Tsukihi-chan's always been a dependent person with an independent spirit. Nii-chan, what were those rubbing sound effects you tried to mix in for the first time this year, without even trying to get them lost in the confusion? And I've heard rumors that you were helping out a magical girl, but how much of that is true?"

"Hmm."

Especially with Kagenui-san's return, I wanted Tsukihi to stay quiet, but she wasn't exactly the kind of sister that listened to her brother.

If I'd been able to talk with Ononoki-chan, I could've asked for her to do something about that... Rather than worry, it made me a little anxious.

Being a big brother was a lifetime job.

"Then, Karen-chan. I'm going to leave the house now, and I don't think I'll be coming back today, so in the meantime, watch over Tsukihi-chan carefully, all right?"

"You mean, today also, right? College students shouldn't be so flashy with their playing around at night. Your new life is an important time for you, too, nii-chan. I don't want to see you get burned like you did when you became a high schooler."

"Those are useful words. Worthy of engraving onto a chest."

"Don't engrave them on my chest!"

033

My fearless (of even a god) strategy to get Hachikuji to sit in the child seat ended in failure.

In transporting the ancient vampire from the Kitashirahebi Shrine to Kanbaru's house while waiting for her awakening (sunset), I'd proposed the formation of putting Hachikuji in the passenger seat and Suicidemaster in the back seat, but considering the size of the target of transportation, I was defeated by the logic that it would be legally safer to secure Suicidemaster, a six-year-old girl, in the child seat.

Well, considering that, in terms of outward appearance, Hachikuji was fixed in the form of a ten-year-old in fifth grade, it was already kind of impossible to fit her in a child seat—and Hachikuji was fairly grown for a ten-year-old. Over the past year, I'd directly felt her measurements with my own hands, so this was for certain. Of course, if the child seat itself were to break, it would be the end of everything.

It was a child seat I hoped to use for many years to come.

However, I'd been worried that Suicidemaster would suddenly go berserk in the middle of the day after being taken out of the shrine and lowered from the sacred mountain, so I consulted with Gaen-san on the phone and ended up applying further seals before securing her in the child seat.

The seals that Hachikuji applied as instructed by Gaen-san were, in simple terms, a blindfold and shackles on her arms and legs, but the image of a blindfolded, shackled little girl in white clothes fastened to a child seat honestly did not make me feel the slightest bit of safety in the legal sense.

If I were to go through police questioning, it wouldn't just end with my license being revoked.

My life would be revoked. Societally.

"A~ah. It was fairly controversial for Araragi-san, who loved his bicycle, to start riding around in a car, but I have to admit that the mobility of a car is certainly different. You can go all over the place, in every direction!"

Hachikuji herself seemed rather happy-go-lucky from the back seat—incidentally, she was in outing mode, which meant she'd changed from her white clothing to her clothes for an outing through the town, with her rucksack on her back.

She was sitting backwards, looking out the rear window, and flapping her legs—was it like a field trip for her?

"Hachikuji. Did your daytime stroll have any results? If you went around looking but couldn't find it, then that would mean the fifth mummy has yet to be made—maybe?"

"I'm not sure. If my godly eyes were able to reach every corner of this town without any problems, you could say this incident would not have happened in the first place. Although it's not that I regret allowing Suicidemaster-san to pass through without security."

"Well, sure."

From Hachikuji's point of view, she might even be a lifesaver—upon Suicidemaster-chan's arrival in Japan, it wouldn't have been odd if she had trampled Hachikuji underfoot, mountain and all.

Even though she was a god, our Hachiku-jin wasn't all-powerful—even in her weakened state, it could be possible for Suicidemaster to defeat even an athletic high school girl in a single blow.

"Hachiku-jin? Please stop. Don't give me a weird nickname. It seems your respect for gods is lacking, you know?"

Hachikuji did a half-turn and took her seat in the normal position.

"I knew that, with the case of Shishirui Seishirou-san, Shinobu-san had messed up twice, after all. I hoped that this could be an opportunity to wipe away that irreversible trauma—although, it would be a lie to say that I wasn't worried about letting Suicidemaster-san meet Shinobu-san, who was currently practically enslaved by a human."

That's why I'm all for the master-servant reversal, said Hachikuji.

"Although, I think it would be better to be honest about it afterwards. It would be sad to lose a friendship because of vanity. When I was alive, there was a boy in my class that I was close to, but because I'd been too vain—"

"Let's save that story for another time, Hachikuji. When Gaen-san called earlier and taught us about the sealing methods, I tried probing a bit, but it doesn't seem like they've found the fifth mummy yet."

"You seem way too uninterested in my flashback scene, Araragi-san."

"The analysis of the cell phone is still in progress, but it doesn't seem like there's any traces of her having made a call or sent a text or used an app since Kanguu-chan went missing, so it's hard to pin down the time of the crime. In other words, we still don't have proof of Suicidemaster's alibi."

I glanced at the little girl in the passenger seat.

The golden-haired little girl fixed in the child seat, in white clothing, blindfolded, arms and legs shackled.

"Is that so? Well, my credibility is at stake, too. I'll cooperate to the full extent of my power. Is it fine if I pretend to be a slave, too? Uhehehe."

"You sound less like a vampire's slave and more like a slave to money. Mm, I've thought about it, but..."

"So you've thought about it? Turning Hachikuji Mayoi into a slave?"

"But ultimately, a vampire's slave should be at least a little vampiric, or the lie will be found out. If it were Ononoki-chan, I may have just barely asked her to, but she's on bad terms with Shinobu. Plus, she's away at the moment, so it seems I'll have to be the only slave. If anything, Hachikuji, you can act as the local deity and be a guarantor for the relationship between Shinobu and me."

Not a bondsman, but a bondsgod.

It seemed rather apt.

Just as we were about to arrive at Kanbaru's house, the cell phone that I had left in the cup holder between the driver and passenger seats buzzed. This time, a call from Gaen-san—had the fifth mummy, Kiseki-chan's mummy, finally been discovered?

I felt slightly nervous, but I was driving, after all, so there was no way I could be the one to pick it up.

I'll leave it to my secretary.

"Who are you calling your secretary? Yes, hello? This is Hachikuji."

Seems like you've taken a liking to it.

"Araragi is currently driving. Yes. Yes. —Yes, I see. Understood. I'll let him know."

Finishing up the short phone call, Hachikuji returned the cell phone to its original position.

"What was it. Did we make any progress?"

"Rather than progress, it's more like we've fallen backwards."

That was Hachikuji's response.

"Putting aside the 'F C' initials, it seems they've completed their brute-force investigation of the remaining members of the girls' basketball team who were on the register, but everyone has been confirmed to be safe."

Everyone was confirmed to be safe?

"Isn't that a good thing? It's the first good news we've heard in a while. What's so backward about good news that's really worth celebrating?"

"The fact that they're safe means that they're also innocent—the results of the investigation made it clear that there is no vampire among the remaining members of the basketball team."

Back to square one.

034

The girls' basketball team members were cleared of suspicion, the fan club was also cleared of suspicion, and there were no signs of another vampire that could be associated with "F/C".

With this, Deathtopia Virtuoso Suicidemaster wasn't just the prime suspect, she was the only suspect—the only reason that could lead me to believe that she was innocent would be Shinobu's testimony that "Suicidemaster, whose diet is unbalanced to the point of refusing food, would never suck the blood of an immature high school girl".

Tonight's interrogation was becoming increasingly important—it wasn't an exaggeration to say that everything depended on my ability to act as a slave.

I never thought that I would get the opportunity to become a slave to a little girl and deceive another little girl, but I guess I never really know where life will go.

There were many things that made me think that my high school years were the peak of my life, but as I lived on, there were many more interesting things occurring.

And with that, a greeting to my sponsor, Kanbaru.

The sealed little girl and the deified girl had been left in the New Beetle parked in the parking lot of Kanbaru's home—of course, I'd made sure the air conditioner was left on. It certainly wouldn't do if I left two children in a car and came back to find that they'd been mummified.

"Hiya, Araragi-senpai. We only just saw each other yesterday, but it feels like it's been so long ago."

"It hasn't been that long!"

"Yes, now here, the key to the house. Use it however you like."

I figured it was impossible for an ordinary person to imitate this sort of openness—if you tried too hard to act simple, you'd crumble under the stress.

However, they say a person is only as unhappy as the number of keys they have... I wonder how many keys I will have in my lifetime.

"Tonight, we decided to hold a pajama party at Higasa's place. If you've made any progress with the matter from yesterday, I can pass it onto her."

It wasn't progress, but falling backwards.

But it was a bit hard to say that.

However, I couldn't turn back now, and I was committed to it—I wasn't going to pretend that I didn't know anything about the girls' basketball team now.

Regardless of the outcome of this case, I should work together with Kanbaru and Higasa to come up with a plan to reform, or perhaps break down, the current situation. Without going against Gaen-san. She'd called it a pajama party, but it seemed it was actually a gathering of the OGs of the girls' basketball team to brainstorm about the current situation of the younger team members...

This had nothing to do with Karen's remarks, but as a former near-dropout of that high school, I couldn't just leave behind the students that seemed like they would drop out. Even if it was odd to speak of me, who nearly dropped out on my own, and the club members, who were about to drop out because of their stranglehold from club activities, in the same breath.

"Oh yeah, Kanbaru. When you ended up reuniting with Hitagi-san, the senior that you yearned for, at Naoetsu High, what kind of airs did you put on?"

"Airs? What do you mean by that?"

Of course.

Even if the person she was talking to was a senior she admired, she wasn't the type to pretend to be something that she wasn't—she was the type of person to charge in just as she was. If anything, it was maybe Hitagi-san that was likely to put on airs at the time.

Or display her stubbornness.

As a result, it would end up taking over a year before Senjougahara Hitagi and Kanbaru Suruga, the Valhalla Combination, would reunite.

"Huh. You're talking as if you're looking for wisdom in regards to Shinobu-chan reuniting with an old acquaintance!"

"I didn't talk like that!"

I didn't even bring up Shinobu's name!

She certainly was Gaen-san's niece, and I couldn't let down my guard—if I let something slip, this capable junior might decide to get involved all on her own.

She might decide to pretend to be a slave all on her own.

As someone who felt badly about the fact that I'd gotten her involved in the case of Shishirui Seishirou because of my own personal circumstances, this was a situation I wanted to avoid.

I needed to make up some reason to change the subject and get rid of her as soon as possible.

"Oh yeah, Kanbaru."

"Araragi-senpai, you sure come up with things frequently, don't you. What is it?"

"There's one more thing I wanted to ask of you—"

035

Though we'd settled on Kanbaru's place for our choice of location, it would be effectively impossible to clean up my junior's disastrously messy room before sunset, and, even if she'd told me to use the house however I liked, it certainly wouldn't do to infringe upon the territory of her grandfather and grandmother, so we ultimately decided upon using the Japanese mansion's garden for the revival of Deathtopia Virtuoso Suicidemaster.

Much like at Ryōan-ji, it was a Japanese rock garden.

Well, even if it was a measure of desperation, the mansion gave off much more of a castle-like impression when viewed from outside rather than being inside.

Yesterday, it had felt like I'd greeted nightfall feeling like I'd run out of time without doing everything I had to do, but today, it felt like I'd done everything I could and was greeting the night having run out of material. Now, I wonder what will happen?

"Thanks for waiting. So, shall we begin?"

At the moment the sun had set about halfway, Gaen-san appeared with a one shou bottle—the ones to welcome her were me; Shinobu, who had woken up early and crawled out of my shadow; Hachiku-jin, our witness; and Suicidemaster, who had been laid down—it seemed a little too pitiful to lay a restrained little girl on the bare ground, so I'd put down a rush mat (I'd found the rush mat in Kanbaru's room—why did she have something like that?).

All the actors were in place.

The show must go on.

"I've set up a barrier going all the way around the mansion, so if by some chance a battle breaks out, we'll be fine."

"That 'some chance' is what I'd like to avoid... But, Gaen-san. What's with that bottle?"

"Well, I am a specialist, after all. Wine would be better for vampires, but I figured we could do this the Japanese way, with sacred sake for a demon."

I guess I couldn't rely on crosses and holy water in a Japanese mansion with a shrine's god present... Her behavior was as if she'd come to a late-night drinking party, but in this Japanese mansion it held an air of sophistication.

"You should've come in full dress, then."

"Did you want to see me in shrine maiden's clothes, Koyomin? Unfortunately, I don't respect formalities and ceremonies as much as Meme does. I may be a pacifist, but at the same time, I'm a rationalist."

Indeed, now that I thought about it, that careless-seeming middle-aged Hawaiian shirt guy was surprisingly pretty picky about arrangements and whatnot to the point of irrationality... And looking closely, Gaen-san's bottle was just a bottle of cheap sake from a discount store... It was a bit difficult to call that sacred sake.

I guess it's the Gaen way to push through what's difficult.

"Goodness, I never thought I'd be visiting the Kanbaru house that rejected my dear sister like this—the wheel of fate sure turns."

As she spoke in an amused manner, Gaen-san casually turned over the one shou bottle and poured it over the body of the little girl.

Rather than occult ceremony, if anything, it seemed more like the "magic kettle" thing they did in rugby clubs.

Good, judging from that composed demeanor of hers, it seemed Gaen-san had managed to safely get through the murky swamp of the high school girls.

"Ooh. White clothing getting wet and sticking to a little girl's body... Kind of erotic, don't you think?"

Hachikuji made a vulgar remark, unbecoming of a god—for the record, though I hadn't touched upon it (double meaning) out of kindness, when you were meditating under a waterfall for a joke yesterday, you looked the same way, y'know?

Putting that aside.

"By the way, Shinobu-sama."

"...... Hm? Ah, you mean me, my master?"

She wasn't getting into her role at all.

Her servile disposition was so deeply ingrained in her.

"I mean, my servant. What is it?"

"Even if you catch it right away... Well, it's fine. Listen, Shinobu-sama. My master. Would you allow me the honor of inquiring something of you?"

"If you bring that quality of acting to the real thing, it'll be your fault if we get found out, my mast... my servant."

I think it would be both our faults.

But since we didn't have time, I continued instead of retorting.

"I haven't really thought too deeply about this until now, but... What's it like, living for six hundred years?"

"Huh?"

"I mean, if I may be permitted to speak for myself, I believe I have undergone quite a few changes, just looking back over the past year."

"Speak normally. I can't tell what you're saying at all."

Right.

I didn't even know what I was saying at all.

"In the course of our lives, we change our opinions, change our minds, realize our mistakes, and learn right from wrong, right? I won't make friends, because my strength as a human would decrease—when I used to say that, I really believed it, and I don't think I could have believed back then that I would have normal friends in college."

And that was in just a single year.

If that had been six hundred years—I'd ended up suddenly wondering how I would feel when I looked back on the past.

"I can't tell what you're saying at all, even when you're talking normally—after all, I've been quick to cast away the past that I can't remember."

Was it because she couldn't remember, or because she didn't want to remember? She probably didn't even remember that.

Well, it's fine. I just wanted something to say at the last minute—not even I, speaking normally, could tell what I was saying at all.

Just because they were meeting again after six hundred years, didn't mean they had to make the same decisions they made six hundred years ago—is that what I wanted to say? However—if I ran into Kissshot Acerolaorion Heartunderblade on the verge of death in an alleyway again, what if I would offer up my neck again, just like I had done a year ago?

"In the first place, before oddities are immortal, they're unchanging, universal. They don't change so frequently, like humans do."

"Then, let me ask you the same thing I did in that spring break. Shinobu, to you..."

To you, what are humans?

When Oshino Shinobu had not been Oshino Shinobu, when she had been the vampire, Kissshot Acerolaorion Heartunderblade, she had responded immediately.

She'd responded—"food".

But for Shinobu now, that was incorrect.

Even under the premise that she was sealed—but when you took that out, it was still incorrect.

However, what she would respond was another matter entirely—and it was as if Shinobu had been caught off guard, because for a moment, she fell silent. But, as if aiming for that moment...

"O devourer, o imbiber, o lurker! Now that the holy sun has set, tear open the coffin and rise! Boil the flesh in blood, and stir it with the bones!"

Gaen-san started chanting something like a magic spell that had taken the world by storm a few decades ago—it seemed like a joke, but it was for real, right?

"Come together with the night! Deathtopia Virtuoso Suicidemaster!"

It seemed like the sort of hackneyed incantation that I would've been convinced if she'd said, "Just kidding," but in that instant, the little girl soaked in cheap sake began to glow gold—or so it seemed.

But it was just my imagination, and my misunderstanding.

In actuality, the girl who had been sleeping as if she were dead had suddenly opened her eyes—the blindfold flew open, revealing two eyes as golden as her hair, and it had felt to me as if they were glowing.

Miss Suicidemaster's facial features, who had previously appeared as expressionless as Ononoki-chan's, became clearer as she awoke—though they had the same golden hair and golden eyes, she gave off a different impression from Shinobu.

The sake that had been sprinkled over her evaporated in an instant—not only the shackles on her arms and legs, but even the sash of her white clothing flew off, just like her blindfold.

Had Gaen-san broken the seal, or had the little girl herself broken it? It wasn't clear from afar—but if anything, my impressions were more towards the latter, and I couldn't help but think, "What part of her is weakened?"

I was just beginning to regret my thoughtless act of treatment, which made me recall my actions last spring break, and was wondering if it would have been better to leave her as a mummy, but then...

Creak!

The little girl's face turned towards me.

Lying on her side, only her head turned to look towards me—no.

Not me. Those golden eyes had fixed their gaze upon the one standing on my shadow, the other little girl in this garden—within moments of waking up, the ancient vampire had sensed her former thrall.

And then.

"Ha."

She said.

"Ha." "Ha."

She said.

"Ha." "Ha." "Ha."

She said.

"Ha! Ha ha! Ha ha ha! Ha ha ha ha! Ha ha ha ha ha ha!" "Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!" "Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!"

She said—sprawled out on the ground, from the lowest position imaginable, her laugh rang out louder than I could have imagined.

And in response to that loud laugh, Shinobu, who had borne vivid witness to her former "master"'s revival—

"Ha."

She said.

"Ha." "Ha."

She said.

"Ha." "Ha." "Ha."

She said.

"Ha! Ha ha! Ha ha ha! Ha ha ha ha! Ha ha ha ha ha ha!" "Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!" "Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!"

She—laughed in return.

"Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!" "Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!" "Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!" "Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!"

If it weren't for the barrier, their loud exchange laughter would surely have disturbed the neighbors—it was like microphone feedback. How long had it gone for?

Six hundred years. A thousand years.

Did it go on for eternity?

It was quite the uproarious bout of laughter, as if Gaen-san and Hachikuji and I weren't even there in that garden, but it was finally brought to an end.

"Somehow or other, it seems I've died again."

That was the remark from the little girl on her back.

And, hearing that, Shinobu shrugged her shoulders.

"It seems we've both grown old," she said.

The two little girls had reunited for the first time in six hundred years.

[lieuwrites]

The First Date | Lee Felix | Oneshot

Title: The First Date

Pairing: Felix x Reader

Synopsis: Felix finds out his best friend has never gone on a date and makes it his mission to take them on the best date ever

Genre/Warnings: Fluff, angst (?), best friends, college!au, seemingly unrequited love

Words: 2.6k

Requested: No

“So you're telling me that you’ve never been on a date before?”

I buried my face into my crossed arms and hoped the ground would open up and swallow me whole. I don’t know how we ended up on this topic but I didn't want to look up across the table at Felix and have him tease me for being inexperienced.

The vibrations of him tapping on the table near the top of my head called for my attention. “Okay fine,” I raised my head and glared at the guy in front of me, “I’ve never been on a date. At my big age, I’ve never been on a date.” 

Felix held his hands up in surrender and chuckled, picking up his pen and going back to writing his notes for his music theory class. He seemed to get the message that this was a topic I was embarrassed about and now it's become something I wouldn’t be able to shake from my focus on for the rest of my day. To think, I’ve gone this far without even striking up a relationship with anyone.

“You know,” Felix spoke up, bringing me out of my thoughts, “it's not uncommon to never have been on a date at this age. You’re a college student, you've got things to do! Some people are just too busy for dates right now.” 

“You know when people try to comfort you but it just makes you feel worse?” I grumbled

He rubbed the back of his neck and smiled meekly at me. “Sorry.”

“No, it's just that I’m not busy which means there's got to be something wrong with me. I’m taking it easy with my classes and work and yet instead of meeting new people and going on dates, my spare time is filled with staying at home and watching dramas.” I slumped back on the desk and sulked.

“You forgot to mention you spend a lot of time with yours truly over here.” Felix pointed at himself smugly before his expression suddenly changed to one of excitement. “(Y/n) I’ve just had the most brilliant idea.”

I signalled for him to continue with my hand.

“Go out with me.”

A silence settled between us, Felix with his wide smile and me with an incredulous look on my face. When he realised I wasn't going to say anything, he continued.

“Okay hear me out, you’ve never been on a date–”

“We have established that many times already, move on.”

“–Right, okay, so you don't want to get desperate and throw yourself at the first guy willing to take you out and you end up having a shitty time, yeah?”

“You’re making me out to be quite pathetic but if I’m having this stupid conversation with you I guess you’re not wrong.”

“Who better to take you out than your best friend? I’ll make sure you have a good– no, the best first date ever! Then you don't have to sulk so much over this.” If he could, Felix would definitely throw himself some sort of awards ceremony with the way he was patting his own back over his idea.

I thought about it, what was the harm? He was right, I would have a good first date --at least I hoped I would but I didn't know how much I could trust that idiot’s definition of ‘good’-- and I’d get to check ‘first date’ off of the imaginary to-do list in my head. What could go wrong?

You could fall for him

I quickly shook the intrusive thought out of my head and nodded, holding my hand out to shake with Felix’s

“It's a date.”

I looked at the box that Felix dropped off at my apartment room, wondering what the hell was inside. Surely I could just open it but the velvet lining and the silk ribbon told me I couldn't afford whatever it was.

After a few minutes of nail biting and contemplation, I slowly tugged the ribbon loose and opened the box to a dress. It was definitely something I would see and turn away from because the price would scare me off. 

I held it up in front of me and looked in the mirror. It was short and bouncy, a fun patterned dress that could be dressed up or worn casual. As I turned to put it back, I noticed an envelope addressed to me.

In cursive it wrote,

’To my dearest (y/n), 

I hope you're looking forward to our date. I’ve picked this out for you to wear tomorrow cause I know you’ll definitely stress about it. Aren’t I the best?

Yours truly, 

Felix.

(ps. I hope your bedroom floor isn't as destroyed as I know it is.)’

I looked at all the scattered clothes I had thrown on the ground just an hour ago in an attempt to find the perfect outfit for our date tomorrow.

“Jesus Christ… he couldn't have dropped this off a little earlier?”

A knock on my door signalled Felix’s arrival and I jumped up excitedly to let him in. I opened the door to be greeted with his warm smile and crescent moon eyes. He pulled his hand out from behind him and presented me with a single red rose. 

“For you.”

I couldn't help the blush that crept up my face as I accepted the flower, hoping that my makeup was enough to hide it.

“Thank you for this... Oh and the dress, it’s really nice.”

I spun to show it off and laughed as he applauded. “My taste is immaculate,” he praised himself. “Are you ready to go?”

“Yeah, just let me grab my jacket.” I turned to get it until I felt Felix’s hand circle my wrist.

“No no no you're doing it wrong. If you get cold, then I would simply have to lend you my jacket. That’s why I wore this one, it matches your look.”

I could only laugh at how silly he was being but I went along with it anyways. As we left my apartment, his hand dropped from my wrist and slipped into mine. We’ve held hands many times before and we’ve hung out many times before but the context of this being a date made my heart beat just that little bit faster.

“So, what's the plan?” I asked looking up at Felix. He let go of my hand to open the car door for me, closing it after I got in. He hopped into the driver's seat and strapped himself in.

“First, I’ll take you to a stupid restaurant where the portions are small and the prices are high. We’ll feel a little awkward because we don't know how to act but we keep up a facade of small talk and shallow laughs,”

I nodded along, enjoying his narrative. He started the car and drove, turning on the radio and lowering the volume so he could continue.

“Then we’ll leave unsatisfied and hungry. I’ll ask ‘so… did you enjoy it?’ and you respond with a polite ‘yeah it was nice.’ Then we’ll sit in an uncomfortable silence for a bit until we settle on an unspoken mutual understanding that it was shit. That's when you speak up and say…” he looked over at me and prompted me to speak.

“Uhhh, lets go get some real food?”

“Correct! And I’ll respond with ‘I know just the place.’ so then I drive us to– Oh, look there’s our first destination.”. I looked out the window to an italian restaurant. After we drove in, my door was opened by a worker and Felix tossed his keys to the valet. 

“Come on (y/n)! We’ve got a reservation to get to.” 

I jogged up to Felix and slipped my hand into the crook of his elbow. 

“You didn't finish your story.”

“Well I guess you’re going to have to see this date through to find out how it ends.”

Felix was very detailed in his plan. The portions of the meals were indeed small and their prices weren't even listed on the menu --‘that’s how you know they're stupid expensive’ he commented while looking through it--

During dinner he really stuck to the ‘awkward small talk’ act, from the way he fiddled with his cutlery, to the way he stuttered when he talked.

(”So… what do you do for a living?” Felix looked up at me and then had his gaze dart back down to the pasta on his plate, pushing the food around stiffly with his fork.

“Felix you literally picked me up from my shift two days ago,” I deadpanned.

“You know,” he twirled the noodles with his fork, “you’re really taking the fun out of this awkward start to the date. Could you at least give me a dry answer?” 

I couldn't help but soften at his pout. “I’ll do you one better.” I sat up straight, chewed on my lip a bit while shifting my eyes away from the man in front of me, choosing to focus on the pattern of the floor of the restaurant.

I let out a pretend anxious cough and spoke up, “Uhh… I do office work. You know just dealing with filing papers and data entry, low level stuff that isn't interesting to talk about.”

I looked up through my hair at Felix who was trying his best to hold back a smile, instead pursing his lips together to stifle a laugh.

“Oh o-okay. I mean we don't have to talk about your work, I j-just–”

“No,” I cut him off, “it's fine. Um, we could think of a different topic?” 

“Yes let's do that.”

And then we sat in silence for another minute, only hearing the sounds of our cutlery scraping against the plates.

As much as this little performance was meant to be awkward, I’d never felt more comfortable acting stupid with Felix.)

We sat back in the car silently, waiting for the other to speak up. 

“So, how was the food?” Felix asked.

I pretended to contemplate a bit before answering with a curt, ‘It was okay. I enjoyed it.’

Felix nodded, looking out the window clearing his throat to break the silence.

“Okay you know what, let’s get this part of the night over and done with,” I reached over and tugged on Felix’s arm to get his attention, “let's go get some real food.”

A smirk made its way on his face and he started the car, “I know just the place.”

As we sat on the sidewalk eating our cheap burritos from the food truck parked across the street, I couldn't help but admire how Felix looked. He had loosened up his proper look from the beginning of the night, tousling his gelled hair a bit and unbuttoning the first two buttons of his button up. The lights from the small carnival set up behind us illuminated his features flawlessly, accentuating the sharpness of his jawline. When it came to bone structure, Felix was definitely gifted with it. His button nose and full lips rounded out his features, balancing his look perfectly.

To put it simply, Felix was beautiful.

As I took the last bite of my food, my ‘date’ pulled a clean tissue from his pocket and wiped the corners of my mouth. He then took the rubbish from my hands to toss it.

“If you hadn’t guessed–” he held both my hands to pull me up– “we’re going to the fair. We’ll play some games, I’ll do my best to win you something despite the fact the system is rigged, and we’ll end the night on the ferris wheel.”

Before I could respond, Felix was already tugging me along as he dashed in past the gates, laughing maniacally and I couldn't help but burst out in laughter with him.

I could smell his cologne as it enveloped me. I felt like sinking into his blazer that he passed me as soon as we got into the cab of the ferris wheel.

“I can’t believe you ended up winning this for me,” Felix sulked holding up the dinosaur plushie. 

“Sorry. Should I keep it for myself instead?” I teased reaching out for it and he quickly pulled it back to him in a hug. 

“No. I just hoped this date would go as planned.”

I scoffed playfully in response, looking out at the lights below. Despite the fact that Felix thinks his plan went slightly off track, it was still amazing. Playing games with Felix, cracking jokes and simply enjoying each other’s company made it the perfect first date. My heart palpitated just thinking back to when the night started up until now and I couldn't believe how it was making me feel. 

I looked over at Felix and locked eyes with him. The way he was looking at me made my heart stop palpitating and instead clench. I could feel the butterflies in my stomach go crazy with the way his gaze held mine. It was as if I was the only thing that existed to him at that moment.

Or at least, that's what I had hoped.

I looked back to the lights below and cleared my throat.

“Geez Felix, you’re really taking this ‘first date’ role seriously huh?” The ground got closer and the ride went slower as our time on the ferris wheel ended.

Felix smiles his usual grin that turned his eyes to half crescents. “Of course! As I said, I’m making sure this was the best first date ever.”

Ah yes, he was just completely immersed in his act. 

Unfortunately, I was also completely immersed in his act and I couldn't help but long for the night to stretch out just a little bit longer.

We stood outside my apartment door and reality was slowly starting to come back to me.

I moved to take off the blazer to pass it back to Felix but he only shook his head and pulled it back onto my shoulders. “It’s fine, you gotta keep the look complete right?”

“Right… I want to thank you for today. It was honestly the best first date I could’ve hoped for and I really appreciate the time and effort you put into making it the best for me.”

The grin on his face was now a soft smile as he looked down at me. 

“It was no problem at all. I’m glad you enjoyed yourself.”

Whether it was intentional or not, Felix was back in his awkward state.

“Well, I should head in. Get home safe.” I turned to unlock my door but Felix caught my wrist, pulling me back to him gently.

“Wait, we should end this properly,” he stepped closer to me and lifted his hand to cup my cheek, “(Y/n), can I kiss you?” 

His eyes bore into mine and had me trapped. I couldn't look away. It was as if he had some sort of power to reel me in and leave me speechless. I merely nodded my head. 

I caught a glimpse of a small smile before he dipped his head down and captured my lips with his. Although it was very brief, I reveled  in every second of it before he pulled away.

With a small wave and sad heart, I thanked him as I closed the door.

The idea of my best friend taking me out on the best date ever was good but I had stupidly fallen for him. Heartbreakingly enough, we were no longer two people on a date but two best friends, and for the sake of my heart and sanity, I had to pretend one of the best nights of my life had never happened.

I like the concept and the narrative and how I picture this in my head but I don’t think I’ve conveyed it to the best of my abilities here lol. I kinda just wanted to post something.

Anyways this might have a part two so lemme know if you want one !!

Request here, follow here and read my other works here !!

[donkey-hyuck]

Leader Taeyong request!!🥺💞

25+32+75: “What the hell were you thinking?!” , “Why are you doing this?” , “What did you expect?” Member: Taeyong, ceo! Au

Here’s the link to the prompt list!

⚠️this includes suicidal thoughts/attempts and depression!! PLEASE DON’T READ THIS if you get triggered, thank you⚠️

❀。• *₊°。 ❀°。

Taeyong was the I.T. fashion ceo. He owned multiple brands, but his biggest brand was ‘The Lee’s Express’ stores found all over Southeast Asia. And he was undeniably gorgeous, no wonder he was such a powerful fashion ceo. With a sharp nose and chin, and a jaw chiseled by the gods, he was worshipped by people across the globe. He was young, only twenty five, but he was to get engaged.

You and Taeyong had met when he was still in college. Through mutual friends, you two immediately clicked and became close since then. He was engaged to you and he wouldn’t have it any other way. He loved you more than life itself, only you wished your life was never brought upon this world.

Taeyong knew, of course. Over the years he’d known you, he’s seen the severe pain, and only wished you the best, but it had yet to come. You were diagnosed with depression in middle school, dealing with your parents divorce, and handling your alcoholic and drug addict mother, you’d learned about the responsibilities very early in life, taking care of your mother more than yourself. You didn’t hate your mother, though she always brought you down, but she was there, and you didn’t have the heart to leave her. Your life was immensely difficult.

You were struggling your jobs, academics, and your mother. When you met Taeyong, he was there to help you, and you couldn’t be more grateful. Along the way, you stumbled upon some unknown feelings toward the male and you were unsure if he felt the same way. Lucky for you, he shared the same feelings and your relationship became quite public. He was a new ceo at the time, and he was the top buzz of Asia for quite some time. Coming with the fame and recognition, came hatred and jealousy. Mostly directed toward you, Taeyong’s most prized person.

You and his sister had been out, shopping and bonding even closer. You were thankful of the family. In fact, they were one of the only people that made you feel like you actually had one. His sister was in the fitting room, trying on some clothes for her brothers three year company anniversary party. You already had something picked out, while she practically begged you to come with her to multiple boutiques. While sitting on the couch, and scrolling through your phone, two pair of legs stood before you. Some workers, which you immediately recognized, from Taeyong’s company. “I don’t know what he sees in her. She’s just a lazy bitch, look at her.” And all at once the overwhelming feeling cascaded over you. They grabbed you by your hair, “Don’t act all high and mighty, you’re not capable of being with Mr. Lee.” You knew you weren’t, but Taeyong always made sure you were treated like a porcelain doll. And all of a sudden, your breath had gotten shorter and tears faded down your cheek. You stormed out of the store. Just in time for his sister to see, they went through your bag. And Taeyong’s sister slapped each of them on their cheeks, her wedding ring cutting them in the process. “Taeyong is my brother, they are to be wedded soon. There is no way you’re treating her like that. Get out of my face before your Mr. Lee gets disappointed, again.” Shocked, the pair of girls look at the beautiful young woman. “Go! Go! It really is Mr. Lee’s sister!” , “Pathetic.”

You ran outside and walked down the street, trying to calm yourself down. And you found yourself sitting at come cafe not far from where the boutique was. “Y/N?” You recognized that voice in an instant and looked up. It was Seulgi RV DHSJDJ sorry lol, an old friend of yours. “Hey, hey. What happened to you?” , “Y/N!” It was Taeyong’s sister, running into the cafe with her hands full of your things that you left at the boutique. “I’ll see you around Y/N,” said Seulgi as she patted your back and his sister gave her a glare.

“Sorry for leaving. I hadn’t had a panic attack in years. And what they said really bothered me, I guess.” , “Oh gosh! Don’t apologize, beautiful! I totally get why you left. But don’t worry, I’m here to protect you. What did you expect? Me to just leave you? I could never oh my gosh!”

It was later that evening, and she brought you to her house to comfort you, informing Taeyong what had happened. “Where is she?!” Said he, pushing past the doors and running directly toward you. “I’m okay Yong. Your sister helped me.” , “I’m sorry angel. I should have been more careful with our relationship. You have been suffering all these years and yet you continue to stay with me.”

But everything only went downhill after this.

❀。• *₊°。 ❀°。

It was the night of the anniversary party. Taeyong had asked you to get your hair, makeup, and outfit done in his office. Claiming that he felt less nervous when you were there. The stylists came and sat you in a chair across the mirror in the bathroom. The hair and makeup was quite simple.

Your hair curled in a half bun updo with two braids located on each side of your head, meeting in the bun. Makeup was very glowy and natural, little brown shades in the crease of your eyes as a light pink shimmer covered your lids. Your dress was a beige princess gown style silk dress. It was a bit tighter around your chest and torso but flared out and had a small train as the dress reached the floor. There was also a small slit on the right side of the dress, exposing your right leg a bit more.

Taeyong had planned the party to start at around 7 P.M. and he and his fiancé— you— were to meet the guests at around 7:30. And when the two of you entered the room, cheering and whistles filled the entirety of it.

“Firstly, I would like to thank everyone who was able to make it here tonight! I’m so glad my business is lifting off and that my team and I could make it this far. Secondly, I would like to thank my soon-to-be wife for standing with me through it all. We’ve gone through so much together and she practically helped me with ideas when I first started out. Thank you and please enjoy the rest of the night!” Cheers again.

It had been about an hour into the party and you’ve lost sight of Taeyong at this point. It was fine with you, considering this was his party. You’d been talking with Jaehyun, a good friend of yours, and he actually helped set you and Taeyong up. “Hey Y/N! Have you seen Seulgi? I’ve been looking for her for a while now and I can’t find her.” You shake your head no and look for Taeyong, just to ask around. And soon, you realized you’d been trying to locate him for ten minutes before giving up and talking to some of the guests and employees.

9 P.M. sharp. You distinctly remember this. Walking up to the office to rest your head from the communicating and loudness in the room. Until you heard Taeyong and Seulgi’s voice. “What will make you believe me? You’ve been with her for so long. Can’t you see that she’s using you? Or are you too in love with her?” Lies. It was all lies, what she told Taeyong. You were friends, yes, but you were aware of her little crush on Taeyong years ago. She was jealous at the time, and obviously she was still jealous, even now.

Disturbed was the word. After a few moments of contemplation, you entered the quiet room to be met with their bodies close together. The whole scene before you, there were no words to utter.

You ran and ran. Past the guests, and past the double doors of the company. Unfortunately, it was terribly cold that night. But you didn’t have any thoughts beside the horrific moment that you had just witnessed.

It felt like hours before you stopped running. It was somewhere around the park. The park you escaped to before your parents divorce. The place where you felt a place of security. And now, it’s a place where you were to be gone. Slowly stripping out of the dress, you shiver and your lips and neck turn purple, while the goosebumps on your body try to keep you warm. Stepping into the freezing lake, your head is dipped in the water and you fight off the need to breathe. Then everything turned black.

❀。• *₊°。 ❀°。

The blaring beeping of the machine wakes you up. You were still shivering when you were conscious enough to wake up. “It’s cold,” you chattered your teeth and Taeyong immediately ran when he heard your voice. “What the hell were you thinking?! Angel, please listen to me, I know what you saw earlier but it was all misunderstanding.” , “Where’s your sister?”

His sister had ushered him out of the room. Completely take aback and disappointed about what you had told her. “Let’s get you some rest and warmth. When the doctors told us you had hypothermia, I went to by a heater and hot packs. Use them, please. I know you don’t want to be here anymore. But believe me, I want you here. And no matter what you saw, I know Taeyong still loves you, and I know he wants you here.” She hugged you before leaving the hospital.

“I’m sorry. Visiting hours will be open in seven hours. You can see her then,” said the nurse to Taeyong. “But I’m her husband. I should be in there!” , “I’m sorry Mr. Lee, but we had already disobeyed the hospital rules for you and your sister. You have to go home, you can see her in the morning.” Giving up, Taeyong walked out to meet his sister in the car.

“What did you do? You must’ve done something considering what she just went through. How could you let her suffer like that? Do you realize that she had been suffering so much these past weeks.” His sister talked in such a disappointing tone as they drove to his house. “It was truly a misunderstanding. From her angle it looked like I was kissing Seulgi. But I swear I wasn’t. I love Y/N with all my heart. I could and would never do that to her. She’s the love of my life.”

❀。• *₊°。 ❀°。

You’d been discharged from the hospital three days after. Barely speaking a word to Taeyong, but laughing whenever his sister joked around. This made his heart hurt and wanted to prove so much to you that he and Seulgi weren’t doing anything— because he truly loved you.

At this point, you’d been ignoring Taeyong in the house, well, whenever he was home. He was beyond shocked when you moved your things to a guest room far from your shared master bedroom. It took him two days to find out you had moved rooms. Clearly, you didn’t want to interact with him. At all. But he didn’t want to give up so easily. You didn’t even want to sign divorce papers, which made him think he still had hope.

The day before, Taeyong’s sister had called you that it was all a false alarm. And that Taeyong and Ssulgi did nothing. However, you were stubborn and refused to believe it.

One night, Taeyong had come home early and cooked you food. When delivering it to you, the door was slightly opened and he could see you dancing to some Bruno Mars song. Quietly laughing, he placed the plate of food on the floor before placing the note next to it, knocking on your door, and hiding behind the nearest wall. “Please eat. I don’t know if you already ate but I want you to fill your stomach. At least a little bit. I love you- Taeyong.” Scoffing, you shut the door. He gulped when he heard the lock to the door. Looking back, everything was back to where he left it.

Sighing, he took the plate and gloomily walked toward the kitchen. There was a knock coming from the inside of your room and a note was slid under your door. “I already ate.” The response was meaningless and short, making Taeyong sigh again.

“Angel.... you don’t have to open the door. I just want you to know what happened that day. My sister probably told you already. But it’s all true. You know I wouldn’t do anything to intentionally hurt you, especially cheat on you. That’s such an inhumane thing to do, especially to you. But may I ask you.... why are you doing this? It hurts me that you’re not talking to me. It hurts me that you’re avoiding me.... please, just talk to me.”

[khhunniewriting]

The Others (3)

[ Mafia/Gang AU ]

Jay smirked seeing Dok2 arrive at the meeting with his son in tow. “Don’t you think the kid is a bit young to be listening in on these conversations?”

Dok2 closed the door of his car with no prior warning to Ji-hoon who was still insistent on arguing with his father. He rounded the car as two guards came out of a vehicle behind him and stood on either side of the car Ji-hoon was in to ensure he would remain in there.

Once again Ji-hoon had managed to compromise his own safety for his father’s attention. It just so happened to be a day when he was going to meet Jay Park, AOMG’s leader and the rival to Illionaire.

The two groups operated in separate areas except for a few streets that were shared. This area was always a headache to Dok2 as he often got called to deal with things mutually.

“Why did you call me here?” He ignored Jay’s previous remark and got down to business as usual.

“Seems your men are getting sloppy Joonkyung.” Jay pointed to the wild brush along the highway to give him a reference area. “My men found a body the other day that didn’t belong to us.”

“So you assume it was ours?”

“If it’s not then we would have a pretty big problem on our hands. I don’t think there’s room for a third competitor in the market.” Dok2 did not offer any form of response unless information was given and Jay knew that. Yet, he loved to joke around with him. “Don’t worry my men took care of the cleanup and got the cops off both our as*es. I just wanted to let you know there would be a price to pay for sloppy work.”

Dok2 gave him a pointed look, “You would know.”

Jay had been incarcerated for ten years allowing Illionaire to further the gap between the two groups as AOMG struggled to keep themselves together without their leader. Jay Park was annoyed every time he was reminded of it, nonetheless, he smirked knowing soon he would have the upper hand. 

“I do know a lot don’t I.”

Jay’s smile irritated Dok2 knowing very well it had a hidden meaning. “Unlike you, time is not something I can spare. If you have something to say then be direct.”

Jay nodded, “That’s why I never had any children. At least you don’t have to worry about that last one.” Jay gave Dok2 a pat on the shoulder. “See you later Joonkyung.”

Dok2 didn’t bother with the commentary of someone beneath him. Everything that came out of Jay Park’s mouth went in one ear and out the other. 

As Jay walked past Dok2′s car he got a better look of Ji-hoon who was seated in the passenger seat. His signature unruly hair was slightly less so allowing him to make out the boy’s features. Mentally he began envisioning Leo beside him and smiled. It has to be his.

Ji-hoon scowled at Jay Park in turn. Stupid adults. When his father got in the car Ji-hoon expressed his distaste for Jay. “That guy really annoys me. Who does he think he is smiling at me.”

Dok2 turned to his son showing the same blank look he gave Jay earlier. “Ji-hoon, as my son you will have to learn to put your feelings aside if you are going to become Illionaire’s leader.”

“Why? Isn’t it better just to let out your anger-”

Dok2 realized how similar Ji-hoon was to his mother. They were quick to act on their emotions, never hiding their distaste for things. 

“I hate when people act all cool,” Ji-hoon scowled remembering how he had encountered someone similar to his dad. “How can you stay silent when someone is confronting you? If you’re mad shout, if you’re hurt then f*cking say something!”

Dok2 gave his son a pointed look.

Ji-hoon crossed his arms with a huff. “Forget it-” he grumbled to himself as he slouched back into the seat and looked out the window. “That guy is so annoying.”

\\\

At the end of the school year, there was one final game for Leo’s school. He was warming up when the rival team entered the gymnasium. 

His eyes spotted the unruly kid who by now had made it clear that Leo was his target. His long wavy tresses were held back out of his face by a headband after being called out on it in a previous game.

Leo’s friends caught him eyeing his rival. “Don’t worry about him.”

The silent teen turned his attention back to his side of the court and nodded to assure them he wasn’t worried. He followed through by shooting flawlessly from the free-throw line. 

Unfortunately, he was wrong.

Leo gritted his teeth when he fell back onto the ground. One of his teammates quickly came to his aide and helped him up off the ground.

“You alright man?”

Leo nodded looking stoic as ever even after he just fell on his ass in front of everyone.

The ref blew the whistle carding the person who had knocked Leo down from mid-air. “Number eight pushing,”

Number eight was Leo’s rival. The kid was much taller than Leo and nearly growled at him after being called out. “Come on!”

Leo did nothing but stare in silence when he got scolded by his coach. His eyes shifted to the crowd where he expected to see you.

Sadly his eyes never landed on you that game.

This was his final game and he won again. The next time he plays it will be as a high school student because he did intend to continue the sport.

“Leo congratulations~” A few girls from his class caught him after he had taken the picture with his team and asked if they too could take a picture with him.

He had no objections as he simply stood and waited for them to take a selfie with him. His talkative teammates/friends were closeby to witness the scene. “So he’s athletic, smart, and good with girls?”

“Guess so.”

“I’m so jealous! What did he even say to get them?”

The other shrugged knowing 100% of the conversations Leo has are never initiated by him. “Nothing, guess girls just really like the mysterious silent type.”

\\\

When Leo came home he found you sleeping on the couch. Your purse was crossed over your chest, your shoes on and the television on. This had happened before.

Leo knew you were tired from working so much. You justified taking a nap by making sure you were ready to run out the door the moment you woke up- hence the purse and shoes.

This had happened before when he asked you for a computer and you went above and beyond by buying him the most ridiculously expensive computer. Being a single parent, single-income household meant you made all the money.

Now that he thought about it, Leo hated that about you. There was no need yet you always seemed to try and recompensate for something. He feared what that something was. He never dared say nor ask.

I don’t need it if I never had it. Words he kept to himself but often thought when people tried to coax him into new things that didn’t interest him.

The young boy let his heavy sports bag fall to the ground yet you did not move. He went further by opening and closing doors as loudly as possible but still no reaction.

Feeling a little sore from his side, where the kid elbowed him, Leo went for an icepack. He sat down beside you in the small space you had left unoccupied and put his feet up on the coffee table as he held the ice in place.

After flipping through a few channels he noted you began to stir.

“Huh, what time is it- Leo?” Your eyes nearly bulged out seeing your son was already home. “Did I miss it!”

He nodded.

Suddenly you were sulking throwing yourself back into the cushions with an exasperated sigh. “How could I miss your final game... I’m a horrible mother.”

Leo practically slammed the ice pack on your forehead to negate your response but all it did was anger you.

“Why do you have this? Did something happen to you?”

He reluctantly pulled his shirt up exposing the purplish bruise on his side.

“My poor baby,” you gasped placing the ice back on it. “How did this happen? Was it number eight? I hope the ref saw it.”

Again he nodded to assure you this foul had been called out.

“Still, harming my precious son-” you chocked back tears feeling helpless. He didn’t know it but all his life you had been paranoid about him being hurt. Illionaire and Kylie were always in the back of your mind.

If she was ever curious enough to look for you again surely she would see that Leo was indeed Joonkyung’s son. The thought alone nearly kept you from sleeping at night. It was your reason for moving when he began primary school.

You pushed all negative thoughts aside when you noticed Leo staring at you. “Oh, right I almost forgot.” Leaving him alone for a second you retreated into your bedroom to fetch a colorfully wrapped box.

Leo stared at the item as you placed it on his lap.

“Open it.”

He meticulously pulled at the tape salvaging the wrapping paper not because it was how he usually went about gift wrapping but because it was easy to see you had haphazardly wrapped it in a way where the tape wasn’t completely set.

“You’re no fun, Leo.”

The young teenage boy rolled his eyes. The final piece was removed and he saw the familiar black box of an expensive basketball shoe brand. Now he knew why you had been working so much.

He gave you an unreadable look which worried you. “What? Weren’t those the ones you wanted? I saw you looking at them when we were shopping last week.”

He nodded, sure he liked them but he didn’t need them. His current shoes were fine. It wasn’t until your shoulders fell that he realized this was obvious on his face. “I like them.”

Three words and your smile was back. “I’m so glad,” you wrapped your arms around him tightly not minding at all that he didn’t return it. “I promise I won’t miss another game.”

A long silence took over until your ears perked up hearing his muffled voice.

“Promise?”

“Promise!”

\\\

Dok2 avoided Kylie like the plague now that she was constantly flaunting her daughter around. That meant he went home less than before and he was rarely there, to begin with.

But unfortunately, sometimes he ran into her when he would pick up his son. It wasn’t spoken of but he had moved out to his own place where he often took his son. He was old enough to start learning about the business he would inherit so that’s what Dok2 did. 

“Hello Joonkyung, did you come for my son?”

“He’s going to stay with me for a while.”

Kylie looked legitimately upset and confused. “What?”

“Hey Dad,” Ji-hoon came down the marble stairs tapping away at his phone with a duffel bag on his shoulder. “Bye Mom.”

“When did you start deciding things on your own?”

Ji-hoon sighed angrily, “Since you stopped giving a damn about what I do.” His mother hardly ever paid attention to him, leaving him to do as he pleases. The only time he mattered was whenever his father was being mentioned.

He became painfully aware of the kind of relationship his parents had when his sister was born. He began doing all sorts of things for attention, all bad until now. He realized no matter what he did his mother could care less.

“The high school I want to go to is near Dad’s house anyway so it will be better if I stay with him.”

Even Dok2 was caught off guard by that confession. He thought he was picking his son up for a few days, not a permanent living adjustment. “Ji-hoon-”

“What, are you going to deny me too?”

Dok2 and Kylie looked to each other for a response, neither knowing what to do.

-end-

A/N: I tried to keep it a secret and make it suspenseful but I think everyone knows who Leos’ rival is.

[strayneoculturekids]

Why Should it Matter? - Jisung x Curvy!Reader

Summary: Jisung had been your crush for years, despite this, you never seemed to have the guts to talk to him. When you, Jisung, and your guys’ mutual friend, Chenle, were put together in a group assignment, Chenle finally gets sick of the both of you being insecure and maybe makes a little bit of a plan.

Highschool AU

Genre: fluff, angst

Jisung’s part to the Curvy!Reader Dream series - Mark, Renjun, Jeno, Haechan, Jaemin, Chenle, Jisung

Requested by Anon: can I request a crush! Jisung x curvy!Reader fluff uwu

Warnings: Deals with low self-esteem and insecurities, but this one is mostly fluff, nothing too dramatic

----

“I just don’t think they- I just don’t think they’d be into someone like me?” Jisung sighed, looking awkwardly at Chenle

“Dude! I’ve seen the way they look at you, I’m serious! Plus, I’m their friend, I know their thought process better than you do” Chenle said, obviously annoyed at his best friends stupid worries

“But they’re so- I feel like- ...they would want someone who’s manlier than I am”

Chenle rolled his eyes before pushing Jisung lightly, telling him that if he thinks that you want someone manlier, then Jisung should man up and confess to you already. Jisung was about to protest but the first bell rang just in time to cut him off. The pair exchanged glances and began to head towards class.

“Hey, Chenle!” You called from behind, catching up to him “Oh, Jisung, you too” You smiled, blushing slightly, turning back away as soon as you made eye contact with him, slightly trying to hide behind Chenle, ultimately failing.

Luckily, you three made it to class before an awkward silence could settle in- either that or Chenle would’ve yelled, telling you two you guys need to stop being so awkward with each other and start confessing.

You three walked into the classroom, immediately taking three seats next to each other, both you and Jisung forcing Chenle to sit in the middle, to which he dramatically sighed at, cutting himself off when the teacher walked in.

A few minutes in and you were already half asleep, leaning into your hand and trying to get your eyes to stay open. You seemed to be processing some of the information the teacher was giving, but most of it flew right over your head. Suddenly, the entire class collectively groaned and you immediately sat back up again, looking at Chenle expectantly, silently asking him to give you an explanation.

“We’re getting a group assignment. Plus we can’t choose our group” He said, a slightly annoyed tint to his voice

You sighed and slumped back into your chair, hoping you’d at least get people who were co-operative and didn’t slack off. The teacher began calling out the names eventually, yours was called out along with Chenle’s right after. You and Chenle exchanged bright smiles, you immediately let yours drop when Jisung’s name was called out, indicating he was in your group as well. Chenle and him, of course, exchanged smile but you for one couldn’t be more nervous. You never really liked getting close to Jisung and preferred to hide your body while around him.

Your teacher gave the class time to get together in the chosen groups and discuss the assignment and soon enough, the entire class were talking and bickering, some kids occasionally straying from their groups to quickly talk to their friends before they were caught.

“Do you guys want to come over to my place tonight to work on the assignment?” Chenle asked, an unreadable expression on his face

“Yeah, sure,” Jisung said casually

“Yep. I’m free tonight” You hesitated a bit, wondering how you could possibly spend that long with Jisung

“It’s also a Friday today...you guys can stay the night”

“Uh-” You and Jisung both hesitated, quickly exchanging glances with each other without meaning to, both blushing at the same time and looking away

“Aish, you two are so annoying! Just stay, I know neither of you have anything on tomorrow” Chenle complained, a devilish glint in his eyes that neither you nor Jisung managed to catch

“Yeah, ok, ok, I’ll stay” Jisung agreed after a little while of mulling it over, rubbing the back of his neck nervously

Chenle looked over to you expectantly, raising a brow

“I guess so...” you half-heartedly gave Chenle a smile to return the one he gave you

“Great! I’ll meet you two at the school gates at the end of the day then”

“shouldn’t we go home first to get our things?” You asked cautiously

“You can just borrow some of my PJ’s,” Chenle said, shrugging

“Chenle. There’s no way I’d fit in your clothes” You said, looking at him, a bit unimpressed

“You can borrow some of mine” Jisung perked up, trying to hold back his blush “I keep a lot of spare clothes at Chenle’s, plus my size is a lot bigger than Chenle so I think they’d fit you-”

“Jisung you’re...a lot skinnier than me though...”

“Oh but I mean- I think it would be fine, some of my clothes are very loose”

You looked down at yourself, then up to Chenle, looking for a bit of confirmation. Chenle nodded firmly.

“Ah, ok. Thank you, Jisung” You said timidly

“Of course, no problem” Jisung replied, looking down slightly

“Jisung just wants to see you in his clothes, Y/N. Bet” Chenle smiled mischievously, leaning back in his chair

“Chenle” Jisung glared, sending a silent warning to his best friend

Chenle just winked and leaned forward again, starting to actually begin to discuss what to do for the actual project with you two.

The end of the period came and you, Jisung and Chenle said your goodbyes, going to each of your guys’ different classrooms.

The school day dragged on for a while and you eventually became a bit more awake throughout the day. Finally, the last bell rang; you quickly packed your things but, unfortunately, didn’t manage to escape for the classroom before anyone else and got trapped behind all of your classmates, ending up getting trapped between all of the students in the hallway once you actually made it out of the classroom.

You were too busy trying to make yourself as small as possible, not wanting anyone to brush against you, that you didn’t notice as Jisung was pushed right next to you by the crowd.

“Oh! Y/N” He smiled, looking down at you while continuing to try move forward

“Ah- Jisung” You gave him a small awkward smile back

You both frowned, not knowing what to talk about. While you were in your own thoughts, someone from your side pushed you directly into Jisung. He caught you, steadily wrapping his arms around you as a reflex. Your eyes widened and you quickly jumped back, pushing Jisung’s arms off you, causing Jisung to blush.

“O-Oh! I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to...” It looked like he was going to say something but the words just trailed off

“No, it’s um...It’s ok! Thanks for uh- thanks for catching me” You looked down, trying to do anything but meet his eyes

Luckily, thanks to the mass amounts of students surrounding you, there was no awkward silence and you both parted, making your separate ways to your guys’ lockers, quickly saying your goodbyes, knowing you’d both see each other in a few minutes.

You quickly went to your locker, packing up and taking out different things, remembering only at the last second that you still needed to call your parents to ask if you could stay at Chenle’s house. Getting out your phone, you dialed your mum’s number.

“Hey mum” You spoke into the phone, beginning to walk to the school's exit

“Mhm?” She responded

“Could I stay over at Chenle’s tonight?”

“Chenle? Oh yeah, sure”

“Thanks, mum! Love you”

“Bye sweetie, love you too,” she says, hanging up afterward

You smiled to yourself, stuffing your phone back in your pocket and continuing to walk through the crowd of students as well as the occasional teacher. 

You eventually made it out and did a small jog to the front of the school, slightly waving to Chenle who was already there. You made it to him, saying a quick hello before turning around and seeing Jisung. You were about to greet him as well but what happened just a few minutes earlier replayed in your mind and you ended up cowering back and giving just a small wave in return, not fully meeting his gaze. Jisung frowned, wondering if he’d done something wrong before saying hello to you and Chenle.

“Come on guys, my ride is already here,” He said winking

“Chenle... ‘ride’? What are you? A f- HOLY CRAP THAT CAR IS NICE” You said, eyes widening at Chenle’s so-called ‘ride’

Chenle laughed at your reaction while Jisung just did a small smile, having seen Chenle’s car multiple times before.

You hesitated to get in the car, but Chenle ended up just pushing you inside, greeting his driver and introducing you to him. The driver smiled at you, saying hello and then looked at Jisung, greeting him as well. Jisung greeted him back comfortably by name.

After a couple minutes, you guys made it to Chenle’s home, which, was to say the least, a tiny bit bigger than your normal house.

“Chenle??? I didn’t know you were rich???”

“Well it’s not like I go around yelling it in everyone’s faces” he chuckled

Jisung watched you two talk a bit from behind. You and Chenle were smiling and laughing together, and for some reason, it made Jisung mad beyond belief. Jisung just found it weird that he could never make you smile or laugh like that. He wasn’t jealous though, right? There was no reason to be jealous of Chenle, Chenle knows about Jisung’s crush on you, he wouldn’t try anything, right?

The three of you gathered inside, pulling out your laptops and beginning to discuss how you guys could go about it. Surprisingly, you were able to get a lot of work done, not getting distracted by each other much. Maybe two hours had passed and you guys had really made significant progress.

“Ughhh okay, that’s enough for today I’m completely done. Let’s build a pillow fort!” Chenle pumped his fist into the air while you and Jisung chuckled, exchanging quick glances and agreeing with Chenle

You guys all split up, searching the house for large pillows and blankets that could be steadily stacked on top of each other. You and Jisung met back up in Chenle’s room, giving each other a small smile and beginning to wait for Chenle.

“Oh, you guys are already here? Good” Chenle smiled, dropping the pillows in the room, taking a key from the side of his desk and immediately walking out of the room again while you and Jisung stood there in confusion. Before either of you could react, Chenle slammed the door shut and quickly locked it.

“Chenle?!?!? What the hell???” You questioned, baffled, looking over to Jisung who looked equally as confused as you

“I’m not unlocking this door until you guys confess, by the way,” Chenle said simply through the door “It’s so tiring watching you two, just talk to each other! Geez”

You and Jisung both stood there, silent, the only sound being Chenle’s footsteps slowly getting quieter.

“Um...” You and Jisung both spoke at the same time

You flinched, looking at Jisung before sighing, wracking your brain for something you two could talk about. From the little you knew about Jisung, the only thing you two had in common was your friendship with Chenle.

“Chenle’s house is...bigger than I expected,” You say, cringing at your own awkwardness

“Yeah, I was surprised the first couple times I came here too” Jisung quickly replied, mirroring your own actions, cringing at himself 

“He always seems to surprise me, I didn’t know he could work that well either. I was expecting him to just be yelling the entire time we worked on the assignment” You lightly chuckled

Jisung laughed a bit as well, but couldn’t help but feel a tiny tinge of jealousy.

“You seem to really like Chenle,” Jisung said, trying to hide his bitterness

“Oh! No- not like that- Chenle’s just a friend-” You shook your head, waving your hands a bit

“haha...yeah...” Jisung smiled half-heartedly, still not entirely convinced

After that, an extremely heavy and awkward silence settled into the room. You clenched your jaw, trying not to start screaming from how awkward everything seemed to be.

“OH MY GOD” Chenle yelled, kicking the door open “YOU TWO ARE SO FRUSTRATING”

“Ah ah too loud” Jisung complained, covering his ears slightly

“Y/N, out. Jisung and I are going to talk”

Chenle said it so demandingly that you couldn’t help but comply. He was actually slightly intimidating if you were being honest.

A couple minutes passed since Chenle closed the door on you and started talking to Jisung. You didn’t want to intrude so you tried your best not to listen. Curiosity almost got the better of you but luckily, the door swung open before you could take a closer listen. Jisung was pushed out of the room and Chenle grabbed your arm, bringing you in and this time, closing the door on Jisung.

“Ok” He breathed “Why are you refusing to tell him you like him?” his voice was slightly more quiet than usual

“I- It’s unrealistic that Jisung likes me back-”

“Why do you think that?”

“Wow, welcome to Chenle’s therapy-” you said sarcastically

“Y/N. Answer. I’m doing this so both you and Jisung can be happy”

You had never seen Chenle act this mature before. It was almost surreal but for some weird reason, you overlooked it and just spilled.

“I- look at me Chenle...there’s no way anyone could ever find me pretty”

Chenle now looked genuinely confused

“Wha- why?”

“I’m fat” You pouted, refusing to meet your friend's eyes

“That’s why??” He started to feel slightly bad “Why didn’t you ever tell me you were self-conscious-”

“it’s not your problem to deal with-”

“I’m your friend Y/N” He began to slowly walk up to you grabbing your hand and giving it a small squeeze “Jisung is your friend as well. You have so many friends that all love you. Of course it’s our problem, the moment we became friends, we became each other’s problem” he smiled slightly

You chuckled lightly, turning to the door when it slowly creaked open. Jisung stood in the frame, mouth slightly agape, his eyes immediately being drawn to your and Chenle’s connected hands.

Chenle immediately dropped your hand when he saw the look on Jisung’s face. A slight mix of anger an betrayal in his surprised features.

“Jisung-” Chenle started

“Why- so you like them?”

“Aish, Jisung-ah, you’re reading too much into this. Look at me, I’m your best friend” Chenle began to walk up to Jisung, reaching him and pulling him into the room, closer to you, so the three of you could all talk easily together “I don’t like Y/N like that. You like her like that, and from what I’ve just heard from her, I think it’s about damn time you tell her.”

“What did you hear?” Jisung asked timidly

“Ask them yourself, idiot” Chenle playfully rolled his eyes, finally showing his original personality again and skipped out the door, closing it behind him.

“so...what was-....what was Chenle talking about?”

“My...insecurities?” You smiled slightly

“Oh...” Jisung said, looking you up and down, trying to figure out what you meant “OH!” he yelled, jaw dropping yet again

You pursed your lips, cringing slightly.

“No, no, Y/N, no, that���s not- why would you think that I-” he hesitated, trying to figure out what to say

“It’s okay Jisung. No one would like me with this body anyway so I don’t blame you-”

Jisung enveloped you in a hug before you could finish your sentence, causing you to flinch slightly. He wasn’t normally one to be so bold but when you said what you did, something inside of him just snapped.

“I don't see- I don’t think- just-...why should it matter?” He said slowly, struggling to find the right thing to say “your size is- I don’t care about that! I’ve liked you for so long and- you’re just so cool and your smile is the most beautiful thing in the world and- you’re just...you’re beautiful!”

You covered your mouth, small tears beginning to spill over the sides of your cheeks.

“I-” Jisung continued “I love you...in case I didn’t make that clear” he took a deep breath in, holding it, waiting for your reply

“I...I love you too” You smiled

Jisung breathed out again, an adorable smile finding it’s way onto his face. He slowly wiped off the tears from your cheeks with his thumb.

BONUS

You walked out of the shower, a pair of sweatpants and a large hoodie that both belonged to Jisung adorning your body.

Jisung turned around to greet you, immediately turning back around to hide his rather large blush the millisecond he saw you wearing his clothes.

“Oooooh I told you Y/N! Jisung just wanted to see you in his clothes! Look at that damn blush!” Chenle yelled, clapping his hands

“Chenle...” Jisung whined, squinting at his best friend

Chenle just smiled before telling you to come sit on the couch with them, patting Jisung’s lap, assumably motioning for you to sit on it.

“CHENLE” You and Jisung yelled at the same time while he happily laughed his ass off

[aaronhart93-archive]

Theater Talk ll Aaroman

Discord thread featuring: Aaron & @romanbeckett

Mentions: @davieslandon @jayceelynd @alison-haynes

When: Monday, June 29th, 2020

Where: Bullskits Theater

Description: Aaron and Roman decide to take a break from each other

Trigger Warnings: alcohol use 

𝐑𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐧. 

Roman was having a hard time, and for good reason. He was stressed, in between outbursts of tears, and just overall tired. Ro was an empath, always had been, and taking on everyone’s hurt on top of his own was overwhelming. He sat on the basement couch, bouncing his knee, and running his hand through his hair before picking up the glass of vodka in front of him on the table. He shouldn’t be drinking right now, but lately he’s been drinking a lot, and he couldn’t seem to stop himself from chasing the numbness.

AARON.

Aaron had been having an internal battle within himself for the past couple weeks. He loved Roman, and wanted to be with him more than anything but he had been trying to push back the fact that his friends had felt betrayed by him. He hadn't spoken to Jaycee in weeks - didn't even wish her a happy birthday - and the conversation that Aaron had with Landon at the reception left him really uncertain about their relationship. Aaron walked in on Roman as he picked up his drink. Had Roman always drank this much? "Hey." he said, breathlessly. His heart had been racing ever since Roman asked him if he should step away from their relationship. He knew this was something that they needed to talk about in person.

𝐑𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐧.

“Hey.” Roman glanced at his boyfriend with a faint smile. He was embarrassed. Ro had never been this unstable in his life, and lately it felt like he was nothing but a huge ass mess. How did Aaron even stand it? “Thanks for coming.” He sniffed, and looked down at his hands. God, he hated acting so weird about someone he trusted, and loved so much. But lately it was just like the stress never ended.

AARON.

Aaron immediately picked up on Roman’s discomfort. His heart sank even further. He had a feeling this was going to be a tough conversation. Obviously, Aaron wasn’t very good at those. His eyes wondered over to the bottle vodka on the table across from them. He grabbed a glass and helped himself to drink. He leaned against the table and shoved one of his hands in his pocket. “You okay?” There was tension in the air.

𝐑𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐧. 

Roman simply shrugged a shoulder when he was asked if he was okay, looking down at his nails as he picked away at the polish. He hated when he did that, it was a terrible habit. “Are you okay?” He asked Aaron, turning to look over at him across the room. He was so handsome, and he couldn’t help but think about that despite how terrible he felt mentally right now.

AARON. 

Aaron watched his boyfriend’s hair fall over his shoulders as he looked down at his hands - angelic as fuck. The businessman swallowed hard. “I mean your text made me a little nervous. I won’t lie.” He adjusted just glasses that were falling down his nose. A shaky hand moved his glass to his mouth for a large swing of liquor.

𝐑𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐧. 

Roman shook his head, because the last thing he wanted to do was make Aaron nervous. “Aaron. I jus’, I don’t want to make any decision about us that isn’t mutual.” He looked up at the smaller. Because, it was true. He didn’t want to break up, but if Aaron thought it was best, he would understand. He wasn’t going to make that decision if it wasn’t what the businessman wanted. “I’m worried though...about what we’re doing to our friends. It feels so shitty knowing we barely have anyone on our side.”

AARON. 

Roman was definitely a more empathetic person that Aaron; less selfish. After all, Aaron was the one who had originally told Landon that he was going to continue hooking up with Roman regardless of his wishes. Maybe it was time to go switch gears; think about others before himself. “Yeah.” He agreed. Especially since all of their friends were so happy for Avery and Monroe; it was hard not to think that the whole city was against. “But at the same time I’m not in this to please other people.”

𝐑𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐧. 

“I know, and I get that. Obviously.” Roman scratched his chin, and then reached for his drink yet again. He’d said he was done, but now he wasn’t. “Jay, Landon, Ali, whoever the fuck else.” He said painfully, shaking his head before taking a sip of his grey goose. “I don’t wanna care, trust me. But, when you said Ali doesn’t even want me around Des? I dunno. Did we rush into this, Aaron?” He asked him, confused, and already broken hearted.

AARON.

Aaron raised his brow when he mentioned Ali. “Don’t worry about Ali, please. She’s taking our fight out on you. She’ll come around.” He shook his head. Of course his relationship with her had to fuck this up for him. Aaron found his way to a chair across the room and sank down. He put his face on his hand for a moment, just trying to catch his breathe  “yeah maybe...” he finally admitted, solemnly.

𝐑𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐧. 

There had been a part of Ro that hoped Aaron wouldn’t agree with him, because he did love the other, but they couldn’t deny that they went into this full speed with no thought to anything else. Now they were suffering the consequences. “Then...what should we do? I can stay here for now.” He offered, even though it sucked to do so. He’d already offered earlier, but it seemed like...that was what they were actually going to have to do.

AARON. 

The brunette loved that green eyed man so much. Every part of his soul wanted to be with him; and he didn’t want to end this. He didn’t think Roman wanted to either. They had such an amazing connection. On top of this, he hated the idea of Roman being homeless until he found an apartment. “No, you’re not sleeping in your office like a divorced person.” He shook his head. “If we are actually going to end this...” he paused. Saying that out loud hurt. “Which I don’t want it to...but if we do then you can stay at my manhattan pent until you find a place in Kingsboro.” He offered.

𝐑𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐧.

Roman just shook his head, because staying at Aaron’s place if they were broken up, honestly sounded like a nightmare. “No, this is a fully functioning apartment, I’ll be okay.” It wouldn’t be the first time he’d slept here. “Maybe we should jus’ step back a minute, and let things settle. Let Ali come around, and Landon.” Those were his main concerns with this right now anyway. “Not that I want to do this either.” He rasped with a tear trailing his cheek.

AARON.

Aaron felt his whole body hurt. It took all of the strength he had not to cry. He reached to grab the bottle of grey goose and sip straight from the bottle. He put took his glasses off and shoved his face in his hands. don’t cry Aaron, don’t cry His dad’s voice rang out in his head. He wasn’t gonna sit here and beg for Roman to reconsider, even though he really wanted to. Aaron didn’t think there was a right or wrong answer here. Either way, someone was going to end up heartbroken. “Okay...” he mumbled as he started getting a nauseous feeling in his head and stomach.

𝐑𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐧.

“Aaron...” Roman started, and then pushed himself to a standing position so he could hobble over to his boyfriend. He took the bottle away to sit it on the table behind him before grabbing Aaron’s hands. “Look at me.” He requested softly, light green eyes searching blues as he heart broken for this both. “Please talk to me. Tell me what you think we should do. I don’t want to make this decision without knowing how you feel, or your thoughts on it. I love you.” He laced their fingers together. “I love you so much. That hasn’t changed. Okay?”

AARON. 

Aaron could hear his boyfriend...EX boyfriend get up to walk over to him. He couldn’t look up, not yet. He feared if he did the tears would start flowing. When he felt Roman’s hand in his - a feeling that he had become all too familiar with -he slowly lifted his head to look over at him. Wow. that beautiful man in front of him was fucking stunning, even during a conversation like that. “I love you, Ro.” He said. He did know Roman’s true feelings for him. He made them very apparent. “I know it’s the right thing to do. It j-jus fucking hurts.” He admitted, biting his lip to try to hold back tears.

𝐑𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐧.

“It does.” Ro pressed his lips into a tight line as he watched the other, actually breathing out a ragged breath at how much this hurt in fact. “It’s jus’ for now...” he hoped that was true. Sure, life had a way of shocking them, and not turning out how they’d planned, but that didn’t mean Roman wasn’t capable of hope. “Hey.” He cupped the smaller’s scruffy jaw, and rubbed a thumb over his cheek. “Everythin’ is gonna be okay. I promise you.”

AARON.

Aaron wasn’t sure whether to believe that this was just going to be temporary; he wanted more than anything to believe it. But what he did know for certain was that they loved each other. Hell, they’d already been through enough. They could get through this too. Aaron presses his cheek into Roman’s palm and brought his hand up to meet his. “I feel sick.”

𝐑𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐧. 

Roman knew the feeling. He felt pretty fucking sick as well. “Here, sit down.” He guided the male over to the couch, making him sit while he gathered a bottle of water, and wet wash cloth. “Stay as long as you need to.” He say back down so that he could hand the water to Aaron, and place the wet wash cloth on the back of his neck. He then rested a hand on the man’s knee, and squeezed it. “It’s okay, Aaron. It’s all going to be jus’ fine. Breathe for me, and relax a minute.”June 30, 2020

AARON.

Aaron let the taller man lead him over to the couch where he slowly sat down. He watched as the other grabbed him a bottle of water and a wet wash cloth; for once Roman was one the one tending to him. “Look who’s being the dramatic one now.” He said, trying to lighten the mood but he failed miserably at doing so. He took a little sip of water. After several deep breathes, Aaron grabbed Roman’s hand from his knee to kiss his palm. He closed his eyes tightly, trying to steady his breathe. “I wish this could be easier, Ro.” He mumbled.

𝐑𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐧.

Ro smirked when Aaron made a joke, because it was much needed, though he felt terrible that he could see the smile didn’t reach his eyes. Aaron was in pain, they both were, and he hated this. “I know. Me, too.” He said simply, watching as the man held his hand after kissing it. “But, not everything good, can be easy. Sometimes it takes a lot of fucking work. Right?”(edited)

AARON. 

Aaron nodded. Roman was right, and Aaron was willing to do a lot to make whatever this was work. He loved him too much to let him go for good. “Yeah.” He said finally, he managed to give him a weak smile. “So where do we go from here?” He asked. Was Roman okay if he still texted him? When would they see each other next? His mind was racing.

𝐑𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐧.

“I don’t know.” Ro genuinely didn’t know how to answer that question. He barely knew what they were doing right now, let alone what they would be doing moving forward. “I’ll stay here for now, and we’ll jus’ go from there. I’ve gotta focus on my show, and you’ve been super busy lately as well. We’ll just give it some time.”

AARON. 

Aaron frowned. That wasn’t the answer he was looking for, but Aaron didn’t even know what to do himself. He sighed, look down at her feet for a second. “Alright.” He scratched the back of his head and let out a heavy sigh. He wasn’t happy with this and things were left really uncertain: which Aaron hated.

𝐑𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐧.

“Aaron, I need to know what you’re thinking.” He pleaded, and squeezed the man’s hand. He didn’t want to push him, but he also was so on edge, and kind of freaking out. Okay, a LOT freaking out. “Tell me your opinion, your thoughts. How do you feel about this? What do you think we should do?”

AARON.

"I don't know, Roman. I'm not happy about this. I don't want this." he began with a heavy sigh, squeezing the other's hand back. He'd always been bad at having hard conversations like this which was why he was letting Roman do most of the talking. "But I trust you. If you think this is the right thing to do then I'm with you."

𝐑𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐧.

Roman wanted to cry, so he started to. He hated that things had to be this way, but they couldn’t even enjoy being together when it felt like everyone was against them. “I jus’ don’t want this to cause issues between us, and ruin any potential. It’s difficult to enjoy what we have when everyone else is so upset about it.” He sniffed, and then brought Aaron’s hand up to his cheek. “I feel everyone else’s hurt on top of my own, and I feel like I can’t breathe.”

AARON.

Aaron physically felt his heart pang when he say Roman start to cry again and when he told him he felt everyone else's hurt. Aaron knew that Roman felt a lot all the time, and Aaron wished that he could take some of that hurt from Roman and carry it himself. He wanted to beg Roman to stay and tell him that they could get through this together, but Aaron didn't know if they could. "This isn't over, Roman. I love you so much." he said, bringing his other hand to the other's cheek. "I'm not going to lose you like this - I don't ever want to lose you."

Roman.

Ro held Aaron’s hand on his cheek, and then turned to kiss his palm a few times, not wanting to stop because he wasn’t sure what would happen past this moment. “I know.” He rasped, and then turned to look at Aaron with watery, reddened eyes. “It’ll be okay. People need time to cool off, and they will.” He sucked in a deep breath, and then leaned in to kiss the other male, several quick kisses, because he just needed to. “I love you. Okay? I’m still here. Don’t forget that.”

AARON.

"I won't" he promised him. Aaron couldn't believe that they had just spent an amazing week in Japan together, and now they were here. Then again, he knew Japan was just a distraction from this conversation. They both had known deep down that this was a long time coming. He nodded, squeezing his eyes shut in an attempt to hold but tears. He felt a stray tear fall down his cheek though. "Can we just sit here for a little bit?" he said, motioning for Roman to sit down next to him. "I'll leave soon, I jus'...don't want to yet." he said, knowing that when he left the theater things would be so different.

𝐑𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐧.

Roman watched the other male as he answered, nodding at the question following, because he thought that was a good idea. Aaron didn’t need to leave right now, not in this state. “Of course.” Ro sat down on the couch, and decided to lean his head against the smaller’s shoulder. There was no music, no television on. It was just Aaron, and Roman, sitting on the couch together, and accepting the inevitable. It was almost poetic, the way they just wanted to be together a little bit longer before reality sat in. But, this was the right thing to do for now. They both knew it.

[jising-jisang-jisung]

Truth or Dare | Kim Seungmin

Genre: fluff

Word count: 1.9k

A/n: hi I did this instead of everything else I was supposed to do and I think it's really cute and I love Seungmin and I hope you like it

"Cmon y/n, when will you confess to Seungmin?" Your friend, Kate taunted you again. She has been on your case ever since you filled her in on your little crush. She only knows that you've liked him since freshman year, but really it's been since like 7th grade. "It's senior year, what's the worst that could happen if you confess? You move away in a few months and never have to experience the awkwardness of seeing each other everyday? How awful." You don't laugh at her joke, so Kate takes that as a sign that it's time to change the subject. "Well, yknow how my birthday is in like 2 weeks. My mom is letting me have a party with my friends and she won't even have to be there to supervise. Since I'll be an adult and all!" She emphasizes adult as if being 18 suddenly makes her mature.

"Sounds great, Kate," you rhyme. You're hardly paying attention because something, or rather someone, caught your attention. "I'll see you after class," and then you're off to math while Kate had biology. She definitely noticed how hard you were staring at Seungmin while she was talking with you. Of course, you know nothing of what's to come.

~

"Hey! Felix!"

"What's up, Kate?" Felix was friends with Seungmin and some other boys. He also tended to be seen with Kate. Most people just assumed they were dating, and maybe they were, not even they know for sure.

"I'm having a birthday party next weekend and you and your friends are invited! Especially Seungmin." She adds a wink with the last statement.

"Will Miss y/n be there?"

"Of course. Why do you think I'm specifying for Seungmin?"

"It's so painfully obvious that he likes her so why can't he make a move already?!"

"Y/n is no different," Kate admits. "That's why I have a plan."

~

"H-hey y/n, " Seungmin stutters as he sits in his seat next to you.

"Oh, hi," you manage to reply, blush evident throughout your face.

"Um, did you get number 27 on the homework? I was super confused."

"Yeah, the equation for that one is different than the others because..." you explained the concept to Seungmin while he stared at your face unbeknownst to you. "Does that make sense?"

"Yes. I get it now!" He smiles and you actually die. You caught a glance at his homework to see number 27 done correctly but you were to affected by his smile to put two and two together.

~

All the days seemed to be same, passing by until it was finally Kate's birthday party. Obviously you went super early to help her set up. There was no alcohol allowed since her mom said she would let her throw it all by herself under that one condition, not that Kate would ever underage drink anyway we are good children here.

Kate left to answer the door as you pulled some cookies out of the oven. "Kate! Happy birthday!" You heard Felix's voice ring through the entryway. You weren't surprised she invited him, but then you heard more voices.

"Your house looks really nice."

"Happy birthday, Kate."

"Where should I put this gift?" Your eyes widened. You could recognize that voice anywhere.

"Kate! Can you come here for a moment?" You shouted for her.

"What's up, buttercup? Are the cookies okay?"

"I can't believe you invited Seungmin. Bro, I thought we were cool." You overreacted.

"Chill, y/n, all his friends are here, along with our friends. There's so many people, don't even worry about it." She tries to reassure you.

"Well... do I at least look okay?" You ask shyly.

"Look fine to me." You jump at the boy's voice. "But I suppose I'm not the one you want to look good for."

"Jisung, you scared the crap out of me," Kate smiles as you nearly died of embarrassment. Had he heard your whole conversation?

"No. Only the last part." He answers. It's only then that you realize you asked that out loud. You face palmed with bright red cheeks as more boys filed into the kitchen.

~

"Now that everyone is here, let's get this party started!" Kate announces as she turns on some speakers and blasts some upbeat music. She and Felix dance on the coffee table while everyone else is jumping around on the couches and dancing on the floor. The mess of people was starting to become overwhelming when you felt someone push you from behind. Unluckily, you fell directly into Seungmin's arms.

"Wow. Falling for me this early in the night. I hate to say I'm not surprised, y/n," Seungmin says in a low tone. "I'm just kidding," he quickly adds when he sees your eyes bulging out of your head.

"Oh, yeah. Right! Haha! So sorry I fell into you. There are so many people."

"Since I have you here, wanna dance?" He smiles again. How could anyone say no to his perfect smile?

"I'm sorry what was that?" He looks confused, like a puppy.

"I said yes!" You lie trying to cover up your thoughts that you must've spoken out loud, again. You and Seungmin begin to jump around, laughing. Kate gives you a knowing look which you return with a glare. Little did you know Felix and Seungmin were in the same boat.

~

"What else do you have planned?" Felix asks sounding very rehearsed.

"Hmm. Why don't we play truth or dare?!" Kate suggests. That was not on the schedule you had for the night's events. You knew something bad was going to happen when Kate smiled your way.

Everyone sat criss cross applesauce in a circle and Jisung volunteered to start. "Minho, truth or dare?"

"Dare." The boy responds with a brave look in his eye.

"I dare you to," he pauses, thinking of something good, "do a sexy dance for everyone."

"Pff. Okay." Minho continues to grind on the ground, not minding the looks he's getting at all. In fact, Jisung had to stop him, because it was getting too out of hand too quickly.

"I didn't dare you to strip, MinHOE!"

"Whatever, you know you liked it," he teased back. "Hmm let's see. Kate, truth or dare?"

"Uh, I'll pick truth."

"Do you like Felix?"

She furrows her eyebrows together, looking confused. "Felix and I are dating. So, to clarify, yes I like him very much." Everyone is so lost as to how they hadn't known that the two were official. I mean, y'all obviously could see that they liked each other duh. "Felix, truth or dare?"

"Dare." He adds a wink to Kate.

"I dare you to kiss me." The crowd shouts a bunch of ews and grosses as Felix briefly pecks Kate's lips.

He turns to Seungmin with a devilish look. "Seungmin, truth or dare?"

He must not have been paying attention yeah cuz he was admiring you face again whore because he is completely oblivious to the grin on Felix's face right now. "Why not? Dare."

"I dare you to kiss y/n" Felix sticks his tongue out at Seungmin as everyone turns to look at you. You tried so hard to keep your face from looking like a tomato but you knew it was no use. Seungmin gulped as he stared at you.

"I- I can't." His words made you frown without thinking. "Y/n, should have a say in this too. I can't just kiss her without her consent," he elaborates.

"Fine then," Felix speaks again. "I dare you to go up to Kate's room alone with y/n. Anything you two might do in there is all up to both of your consents." Felix smirks at you and then back to Seungmin. You both kept eye contact as you stood to head to your friend's bedroom. There were lots of hoots and hollers following you two as you made your way up the stairs with faces painted with crimson shades.

~

You both sat on Kate's bed. You face was on fire even more now because he was so close. When I mean close,, like your legs were nearly /touching/. And you can't handle being so /close/ to your big phat crush. However, the feeling seemed somewhat mutual for Seungmin.

"Do you like me?" You squeaked out. It was completely random and Seungmin even flinched slightly at the sound of your voice.

"..." the boy stayed silent and you refused to meet his gaze.

"ohmygosh that was so rude of me to just ask. I'm sorry. Just forget I said anything." You began to get up to walk away when he grabbed your wrist.

"Do you- like me?"

"..." it was your turn to mimick the silence you'd not heard moments earlier.

"Did we both not say anything for the same reason?" You opened your mouth to respond when the door opened, revealing Jeongin.

"I was told to come make sure you two weren't doing anything," he narrows his eyes on Seungmin, "gross." You both sat there like deer in head lights. Jeongin looked at your hand and then back at Seungmin. You hadn't noticed that Seungmin's and your pinkies had been laced until Jeongin's judgy stare pointed it out. "Also, you are both welcome to rejoin the party." The younger boy smiled and walked back down the stairs without a care in the world.

~

"Wow look who's back," Jisung announced. "You two didn't have too much fun did you?"

"Don't be icky!" Jeongin defended you. "They weren't even talking to one another when I walked in. But- they were basically holding hands!"

"Not true! He's lying!" Seungmin shouts back. You laugh, looking down to see that you, in fact still had your pinkies intertwined. You broke away and returned to your seat to continue the game.

"Anyway, it's my turn," Hyunjin claims. "Seungmin, truth or dare?"

"Me already again?" He looks a bit freaked out before taking a breath and choosing, "truth."

"Wrong choice, buddy. Do you like y/n?"

He makes deliberate eye contact with you as he answers the question. "Yes. Y/n, pick truth."

"Truth." Everything was happening so quick, you didn't have time to react to what Seungmin was even saying before you responded.

"Do I have your consent this time?" It took a moment for you to figure out what he meant. When you put together that he was asking if he could kiss you, you shook your head quickly. He wasted no time before softly pressing his lips to yours. They were sweet like honey and warm and soft and you thought you could get lost in the moment forever. That is, until he pulled away. It was much to soon for your liking, until you remembered where you were. You both looked around to see everyone's jaws dropped in shock. You timidly smiled and your friends began to cheer. They were soon followed by Seungmin's friends screaming, Jeongin in particular.

Needless to say, you remember very little of what happened after that moment at the party. All you do know is that your friends set you up and Seungmin's friends set him up and now you two are in love. Senior year sure was going to be interesting.