#i will probably put him on aux for at least half of the trip

[southislandwren]

ohohoho boy update. today at work it was just us doing cheese while everyone else pulled an ice cream order, and i was like hey if youre not busy saturday would you want to roadtrip with me? and i fully expected him to say no, but we are roadtripping to nebraska on saturday <3 <3 anyway what playlist do i put on in the car. do we trust him enough for get loose get looser

[kissmyaft]

Moonwake in Venice (Gekko x male reader)

Summary:

(n.) When the moon's reflection on the water seems to follow you as you walk.

With a week passing from your recent adventure another one awaits. With you being pretty new to LA anyways there's a lot for you to experience and Gekko takes it as his chance to show and take you to all sorts of places

Notes:

I made a second part to this as a birthday gift for my friend (and also because he got other people invested and I was bullied into writing another chapter) Again, I'm definitely not a perfect author, but I tried and I hope you guys enjoy it.

@darkdestroyer-256 happy birthday you simp

ao3

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

"Whoa, slow down!" You yelped as you were practically dragged down a flight of stairs, almost tripping over your half-tied shoelaces. "Come on we're not in a hurry and it's so early too. I barely had time to brush my teeth and shower-!" Complaining was cut short when the sunlight hit your eyes making you slightly cringe from the sudden brightness change.

Going through your pockets to see if you have a pair of sunglasses while trying to ignore how the wind blew over your - already messy - hair, you heard the boot (trunk) of a nearby car open. You looked to see Gekko putting all sorts of things in it, well, trying to, at least. The bags and skateboard easily fit. The surfboards? not so much. You told Gekko before that you guys could rent them, but he insisted it's way better with your surfboards and that they'll fit. They didn't.

You watched as Gekko struggled with the surfboards before sighing and shaking your head with a soft smile before jogging over to go help him. They will fit fine on the roof of the car. Probably. Hopefully.

You soon find yourself in the passenger seat of the car, socks and sneakers discarded on the floor and feet resting on the dashboard waiting for Gekko while he's getting the little crew from the apartment. It's not long until you hear him opening the rear door of the car and the babbling of his pets as they get into the car. However Mosh being Mosh he quickly found his way over into the palms of your hands instead, preferring that over the crowded back. You carefully adjust him into one palm of your hand to put your seatbelt on with the other, having to fight with the seatbelt a little before you finally get it on. Removing your feet from the dashboard and letting Mosh get back comfortable you were ready for this trip.

The sunglasses on your face being snatched from you snapped you out of your thoughts. "Hey-!" You protested. Gekko laughed and slid the sunglasses on his face poking your cheek before sliding the car key into the ignition and putting on his seatbelt.

The car sprung to life, the car's blower motors kicking in to cool the interior of the car - before you turned them off because the cold air was hitting your feet - and opted for having the window down instead. While Gekko reversed out of the parking spot you grabbed his phone with one hand, Mosh comfortably in your other hand, and connected it to the car's aux, putting on the playlist you two specifically made for the trip.

Gekko gently nodded his head along with the beat of the song, eyes intently on the road ahead.

The trip there was chaotic, but when is being with Gekko not chaotic?

You had to stop multiple times because you needed to pee. At first, he'd handed you a bottle and told you to pee in the bottle. That ended with him getting a smack on his leg and you begging him to pull over and that you're 'not pissing in no damn bottle'. Road trips make anyone hungry so you two ended up in a little store at one point too. While you two were picking out snacks and water for the rest of the road, Wingman, Dizzy and Thrash got to stretch their limbs as well. Mosh was content being on your head instead, snoozing away. Gekko may or may not have sneaked a picture or two. But can you really blame him? The sight was just way too cute for him to not take a picture.

By the time you were back in the car, you were trying not to cringe at the feeling of hot leather seats against your bare thighs. You weren't even away from the car for that long, but it being summer and the sun high in the sky heating the car, it sure felt like a damn sauna. You were busy playing with the car blowers to keep you cool when Gekko returned from his own side trip to the shop toilet.

You swore it almost looked like Mosh was going to melt into a puddle right in your hands. Honestly so did everyone else in the car.

Windows down again, music playing and Wingman trying to drink water from the bottle without spilling it all over the back seat. Gekko's hand occasionally reaches over to steal your crisps, despite him having his own bag of sweets right next to him. With you having nothing better to do, you humour him by feeding him the chips so he won't constantly have to reach for them. Of course, also putting a quick video of your trip on his Instagram story is a must. Thrash definitely didn't excitedly shove his face into the phone camera that ended up making both you and Gekko laugh. At some point, you found yourself dozing off, the heat and sitting still making you sleepy. Gekko turned the music down enough for it to not disturb your little nap.

A cold, moist feeling on your face stirred you from your nap, hand coming up to rub your eye before pulling away, suddenly wide awake, "BRO- Why is my face wet?" you squawked at a giggling Gekko and an overly mischievous looking Wingman in the back. "Abd why the fuck is it sticky?? What did you put on my face".

"Well, you see, mi amor. I and Wingman were a little bored." Gekko began in a honey-sweet tone which was quick to leave you suspicious, "And we wanted to see if Kool-aid would leave your face blue when it dries-" you quickly interjected "You two put Kool-aid on my face??? How did you two even come up with something like that?" You blurted, the shock on your face enough to make Wingman snort, of course awkwardly going silent when your sharp gaze found its way over to him.

" I know right? It's so random! Come on you can't be mad, you have to admit it's funny. Even just a little!" Gekko stated. You pouted at him "It's funny when I'm not the victim- Ohhh man, come on I washed my face this morning and now it's all sticky and disgusting!" You cringed and snatched the water bottle from him to wet a towel you pulled from your bag to clean your face. It must have taken a while or maybe the time just flew and you didn't notice the car pull into a parking lot and stop until Gekko pulled your car door open.

"Oh, we arrived?" you asked and Gekko smiled while throwing your socks at you "yep! Anyways hey, how about I take you to that nearby suuuuper awesome food place to make up for the kool-aid thing, eh? sounds good, right??" This caused you to roll your eyes "weren't you supposed to take me there anyways?"

"Well yeah, but-! Uhhhh, then how about…Chick-fil-a?" He inquired giving you those puppy dog eyes, causing you to giggle "I'm kidding, you dumbass. Just get us into our hotel room so we can put our bags there and I can properly wash my face. Also, return my sunglasses and get your own."

The car beeped as it was locked. You and Gekko made your way to the front lobby to check in. Waiting while Gekko was talking to the lady was miserable, the heavy bag slung over your shoulder making it hurt. By the time you two made it to your designated room, you were more than happy to finally go wash your face and then flop on the bed, spread out like a starfish. Gekko smiled at your childish behaviour. He makes his way over to your laying form and basically lets himself fall on top of you making you wheeze. "you're heavy-!" He laughs and rolls off of you. Taking this as your getaway chance you sit up and slide yourself off the bed. Going to rummage through your bags to look for a shirt to change into, the one on you right now being all sweaty from sitting in a hot car. While at it you toss Gekko a new one too before pulling your shirt off. However, you don't notice Gekko sneaking up behind you and before you even have a chance to reach for the fresh shirt you double over in laughter, Gekkos fingers poking and tickling your sides. "S-stop! Gekko!" Your pleas for him to stop only encourage him on and soon you're crying from laughter on the ground with his fingers still running over your body begging him to stop before you end up pissing yourself. Luckily for you, he has mercy on you and stops his relentless tickle attack. More than happy it's finally over you rush to the bathroom to relieve yourself before you actually end up peeing yourself.

While you're busy in the bathroom Gekko takes the stuff out of the bags and places them in their correct places so you wouldn't have to deal with unpacking once you two come back tired afterwards.

With your things unpacked and taken care of you and Gekko take it as your cue to go outside. Gekko tells you all about Venice and gets distracted by excitedly rambling about the times he was here as a kid while dragging you all the way to Linnie Canal park where you spend some time exploring and taking pictures before he drags you to Baja Cantina, a food place. You swore this might become your new favourite place to eat. If you ever return to Venice. A lot of your time was spent at the skate and cycling trail. It was a good place to let Gekko's little crew run about too. You didn't really want to admit it at first, but you ended up loving them just as much as Gekko. He took you around introducing you to a few friends he has in Venice that lived right nearby.

The sun was setting and the sea was calm with minimum waves as you two just sat on your surfboards. Sure, you hoped to try and catch some waves, but this wasn't bad, not at all. Gekko playfully bumped his board against yours before you decided to try and push him off of his board which ended up with both of you in the water instead, laughing and splashing each other.

"Race you back to shore?"

"you're on." You challenged.

You ended up winning, but maybe it was because your lover slipped off his board at one point.

By the time he reached shore, you had already gotten to drying yourself and changing into dry clothes. As Gekko made his way to you, you threw the towel at him. He made quick work of drying himself off and getting on his dry clothes. But he opted to wrap the towel around his head since his hair was still moist, making him look like a diva which you were more than happy to poke fun at while you two put the boards in the lobby and the swimshorts in your room to dry before heading back down.

The beach too had gotten a lot quieter, many of the people returning to their homes or other nightly activities. The calming sound of waves, wind breeze and seagulls made the moment so much better and almost unreal as you two stalked along the shoreline hand in hand. The full moon shone brightly, reflection glimmering on the water, the reflection of the moon following you two. The walk on the beach was filled with quiet jokes, giggles, kisses and sweet words whispered to each other. When you two decided it was time to head back to the hotel and get comfortable for the night. You, Gekko and his crew enjoyed the cool air on the balcony. The two enjoyed a few glasses of dry apple cider and Gekkos buddies munched on their snacks. Having to retreat to your room in silent laughter when Thrash threw a water bottle against the head of the rude hotel resident on the balcony below you. Soon the curtains were closed, and teeth brushed. With you two in bed and the little guys already asleep the room was dark and fell silent.

Well, almost silent. The shuffling of sheets and quiet chuckles filled the room, soon turning into quiet sounds of pleasure, bodies rubbing together and sweet nothings whispered to each other as the night lived on.

The wind picking up and the sounds of waves crashing were promising, perhaps tomorrow will be a good surf day. But for now, maybe you can allow yourself to be a little bit louder.

[shcherbatskya]

okay here’s the much awaited (at least for me) first chapter of my multi chapter fic, where we go from here! it will be below the cut but i’m also uploading it to ao3 here

It was supposed to be a run-of-the-mill ghoul hunt. They’d be back in a day at most. But it had been more than a day and Jack was getting worried. Normally he wouldn't be this on edge, but Sam was off the grid with Eileen and wouldn't be in range for a few days. Dean and Cas had gone to Tennessee three days ago to deal with a call from a concerned local authority who got their number after another hunter had stopped by the town to deal with a vampire nest. They’d promised Jack they would call him if they really needed him, but they hadn't been picking up his calls or listening to any of his voicemails. So he did the only thing someone with the innermost thoughts of a four-year-old would. He contacted the first person he could think of that Dean and Cas cared about, minus Sam.

Claire was doing the normal thing to be doing at one in the morning on a Tuesday. Sleeping. She was understandably alarmed when someone knocked on the door at that hour. She opened the door, marine-grade knife in hand (a birthday present from Dean), to a kid no older than herself.

“Who the fuck are you and what are you doing at my house at two in the morning,” she questioned.

“Hi! I’m Jack.” He raised his hand and did a little wave.

“Okay, Jack, still doesn’t explain why you’re here.”

“I’m sort of your little brother? Did Dean and Cas not tell you?”

Dean and Cas? Huh. They had mentioned a kid, but she had expected a toddler not a teenage boy. “The god kid?”

“Yeah!”

“Huh. Okay then, so why aren’t you with Dean and Cas right now? They kick you out or something?”

“No, they’ve been on a hunting trip. They haven’t been home or answered any of my calls in a few days,” he shifted his weight from one leg to the other, “I came here to see if you’d help me look for them.”

Claire could see how worried the kid was and if anything she was no stranger to absent parents and she’d stop anyone going through that if she could. Plus it’s not like she had anything better to do these days.

“Okay but you have to let me get the rest of my night’s sleep. I’ll pack a bag and we’ll hit the road tomorrow morning.”

Jack was pretty much beaming at her now, it was evident that he looked up to Claire from what Dean and Cas had told him about her. Kaia, who he regularly talked to, also told him a lot about Claire. She was like the sibling he never had!

Claire already had a bag packed. It was her ‘drop everything, something bad has happened and I need to haul ass’ bag, so far she hadn’t had to use it aside from one time she just didn’t feel like packing a real bag. She didn’t think she ever would have to, but here she was. The stakes of the whole ordeal hadn’t set in her mind until now. If they didn’t find them or get there in time, Dean and Cas could be dead. They could be dead right now. She put those thoughts out of her mind, in favor of the more optimistic outlook of Jack’s probably just paranoid. She still couldn’t sleep very well that night.

Jack was still sitting on the couch in the living room. Claire still lived with Jody and the other girls so he couldn’t do much else without waking someone up. He eventually fell asleep on the couch. He woke up when Claire came into the room.

“You ready to go or what?” She asked.

“Yeah yeah im ready,” he mumbled back, still half asleep.

“Do you want me to drive?” Claire asked.

“I don’t have a car,” Jack said, with a look like it was the most obvious thing in the world that he wouldn’t have a car.

“How the hell did you get here then?”

“I can teleport.”

“I guess I’m driving then.”

Claire put her bag in the back seat and Jack took the passenger seat of Claire’s old Subaru. And they were off.

“So where are we going”

“Dean said they were going to Tennessee for a ghoul hunt. Someone in a small town called them, I’m not sure what town though.”

“Well, we’ve got a lot of ground to cover, then.”

They did have a lot of ground to cover. The seventeen-hour drive from South Dakota to Tennessee was a lot in and of itself, but to try and find Dean and Cas without having a clue where to look was another story.

“Do you want to look in the news for somewhere to start?” Claire asked, not looking away from the road. “Maybe if you found something in our lane we could take care of that and see if they knew anything about Dean and Cas.”

“Good idea.” Jack seemed to be happy just being out of the bunker and having something to do. He pulled out his phone to look at any news, he looked at all the major cities first. There weren’t that many. Nothing in Nashville or Knoxville.

“Heres something! A public works director in Chattanooga ran over the city treasurer with a car.”

“That just sounds like regular murder. Probably for money or something, maybe they wanted the position.”

“Yeah but there have been an increasing number of murder cases there, way more than normal, all in the past two weeks. It’s worth a shot, isn’t it? If it’s not our thing then we can just move on.”

“Chattanooga here we come, I guess,” Claire said. It wasn’t exactly the place she had thought of when thinking of the trip, she’d imagined a lot more action and less investigating a murder in Tennessee. But hey, it’s not for her sake. If it gets Dean and Cas back safe it’s worth it in her eyes.

About another hour passed in relative silence. It was going to get awkward if they were like this for another 12 hours.

“So do you listen to music?” Claire asked, just to break the silence.

“Yeah, I do. Mostly whatever Dean listens to.”

“Well do you want to play something?”

“Sure!” He seemed oddly excited about something as ordinary as picking the music, but he mostly rode in the car with Dean which means other people seldom got their say in what they listened to. Claire’s car had an aux cable which was also more than one could say about Baby. Jack really didn’t listen to much, he would listen to Disney soundtracks on occasion, but those are a sort of ‘listen to it once then it gets annoying’ thing.

“What are your thoughts on lo-fi hip hop beats to chill/study/sleep to,” Jack asked in a way that didn’t really sound like a question.

“There is really nothing else you can think of. In your super powerful angel kid brain, all you can think of is lo-fi beats to chill/study/sleep to.”

“Do you have a better idea?”

Truth be told Claire would rather listen to anything but lo-fi beats at the moment, but when put on the spot like that it’s hard to come up with an idea.

“We could just take turns playing songs for a while.”

It was a flat stretch of land for a good amount of miles up ahead so Claire didn’t need to focus so much energy on watching the road.

They went back and forth, Jack played Rainbow Connection from the Muppets and Claire played Celebrity Skin by Hole, so on and so forth. They went on like this for a while, Jack really liked Abba apparently. They eventually agreed on one of the premade “road trip” playlists on spotify. It was mostly dad rock.

“You still need to eat and stuff, right?”

“Yes, I may be part angel but I still have human DNA and organs.”

“Do you want to stop soon? It might be nice to stay overnight somewhere and just get there in the afternoon.”

“Sure. Saint Lewis isn’t too far away from here.”

They stopped at a shitty fast food restaurant and then went to try and find a motel. Instead of stopping directly in Saint Lewis, they decided to go nearer to Mark Twain National Park, as they figured they would find better luck finding somewhere available without a reservation. And they did. A shabby-looking motel almost directly off the one-lane road. They headed inside and sure enough, there were more than enough rooms. It was by no means the most pleasant place either of them had stayed, but it would do for the night. They’d be out early tomorrow morning. They checked in, the woman working at the desk couldn’t have been more than in her early twenties, which wasn’t what you would think of when you walked in, but they’d seen more suspicious things. Claire dumped her bag at the end of the bed closest to the door.

[quirkswriting]

the one with friendsgiving

Overview: It’s Friendsgiving time! After last year’s... explosive dinner, Akaashi. and (Y/N) decide to take their friends to a cabin when it’s their turn to host everyone for the holiday tradition. Who doesn’t love spending a weekend at a cozy cabin? Pairing: Akaashi Keiji x Reader (Uni/College AU) Word Count: 8.2k Warning(s): Just pure fluff, honestly. Author’s Notes: This is part of the ‘Leaves in the Wind’ collab, which you can find here! Please check it out, and take a look at all the other wonderful fics that have been written!

***

Friday night

The quiet hum of whatever playlist was going in the car while you looked out the passenger window at the passing trees framed against the darkening orange sky was nice background noise in the otherwise silent car; you’d been driving for the better part of the last two and a half hours on the way up to your uncle’s cabin (or, well, Akaashi had been driving but you were in the car with him and navigating with google maps so that counted for something) for the long weekend, and the sky was slowing turning into the soft dusk before night fell and the sun completely set and you couldn’t help but snuggle more into the sweater you were wearing as Akaashi switched lanes to take the next exit—you weren’t far away now, a quick glance at your phone telling you that you had maybe half an hour, if that, before you reached the cabin.

Bokuto was in the car with the two of you, but you never would have known that with how quiet he’d been. Well, for the last little while anyway—when the three of you had finished packing the van after Akaashi’s last class of the day he’d been full of energy, but as the trip went on he’d fallen asleep in the backseat with his headphones on. You’d taken plenty of pictures of him (with Akaashi informing you that he expected to have them sent to him later. Like that was even a question), and you’d have to remember that car rides put him to sleep. It might come in handy later. You had enjoyed the silence that came after a number of rounds of “LOOK AT THE COWS! (Y/N)! AKAASHI! COWS! AND HORSES! HORSES!” before Bokuto had settled in for a nap, but you were also very happy to see Akaashi turn onto the long dirt road that led right up to the cabin.

“Are we going to have to wake him up when we get there?” you asked, and Akaashi shook his head as he drove. You turned off the navigation on your phone and unplugged Akaashi’s phone from the aux cord and put both into the bag you had sitting at your feet.

“No, as soon as the car comes to a stop he’ll wake up,” Akaashi told you. “He’d better, at least. Or I’m going to make Kuroo carry him and all of his stuff inside.” You couldn’t help but laugh at that—even though you were pretty sure your boyfriend was absolutely serious despite the small smile on his face. True to his word, though, as soon as he’d parked the car off to the side of the cabin Bokuto was yawning and stretching out in the backseat. You could see the headlights of Kuroo’s car approaching from the right side, closest to you, and you were glad that they hadn’t been too far behind.

“I can’t believe your uncle gave you his cabin for the weekend!” Bokuto said, and you looked over your shoulder to see him bouncing in the backseat. His favourite yellow and grey blanket was balled up on the seat beside him, and his headphones had either disappeared into the dark void behind Akaashi’s seat or (hopefully) into the mess that was Bokuto’s travel bag. “I’ve never been to one before! This is exciting!” You smiled at him.

“It’s a really cozy place! I have a lot of good memories here,” you told him. Which was true; you’d spent a lot of holidays here with your family over the years while you’d been growing up. Once you’d entered high school, though, everyone seemed to get too busy to come up here anymore, which was why it was empty this weekend and your uncle had been more than happy to let you use it to have a nice holiday weekend with your friends.

The three of you got out of the car, with Bokuto going on about how excited he was and how much fun he was going to have, and made your way around to the rear of the vehicle to start unloading everything. Kuroo got out of his car to join the three of you, and it wasn’t long before Hinata was bounding up beside you, seemingly full of energy.

“Kenma’s sleeping in the backseat. Or he might be faking sleep so he doesn’t have to carry anything in. Either way, I’ll carry him in when we’re finished if he doesn’t wake up first,” Kuroo told you, and you nodded. If you hadn’t been on navigation duty you might have taken a nap yourself, it was a long trip. You were really looking forward to collapsing into bed as soon as possible, actually.

“If he’s faking he gets to do the dishes while we’re here,” Akaashi said. Kuroo laughed loudly. You reached out and took your boyfriend’s hand, squeezing it gently. Akaashi squeezed back. You looked to Bokuto and Hinata, who were talking excitedly amongst themselves.

“Hey guys, we’re going to bring everything inside now,” you said, raising your voice to get their attention. It worked; the two of them stopped talking to look to you and nod. “Groceries go inside first and put them on the kitchen table and the counters, and we’ll figure out what needs to go where once we have it all inside. I’ll show you guys where the kitchen is, okay?”

“Okay!” The two of them were speaking in unison now, and it was kind of cute. Akaashi and Kuroo voiced their own affirmatives as well, and you started digging through your bag for the keys while the four of them set about popping open the trunks on both cars and starting to unload everything. You found the keys and walked up the front door, using them to unlock the door before you pushed it open. You flipped the switches near the door to turn the porch light as well as the front hall light on, before sticking your head back out the door.

“Door’s unlocked! I’m gonna start turning all the lights on and cleaning up a bit!” you called out, and received some sort of affirmative reply from everyone else. You went back inside and pulled the door closed behind you. You pulled your boots off and left them on the shoe mat close to the front door. You pushed the sleeves of your sweater up as you dropped your keys back into your bag and dug out one of the bottles of Lysol wipes you’d brought with you to do some light cleaning. No one had been here in a while and it was probably more than a little dusty.You took out a wipe and started wiping down the light switch by the front door, and then wandered down the front hall until you came on the doorway to the kitchen. You flipped the lights on and started wiping things down—the light switch, the kitchen table, the chairs, the counters, the island… there was a growing pile of used wipes on the farthest end of the counter by the time Bokuto and Kuroo came in with the big cooler that held the turkey and the smaller cooler that held all the other things that needed to be kept cold. They left to go get some more of the stuff you’d all brought from the cars, and you continued cleaning. They were in and out a few more times, depositing all of the food you’d brought and then presumably going to grab everything else from the car. You were wiping down the outside of the fridge when Akaashi came in with some grocery bags.

“It’s nice in here,” he commented, and you turned to see him pulling out a garbage bag. He fitted it into the garbage can in the kitchen and deposited your pile of dirty Lysol wipes in there for you. “I’m not sure what I was expecting, but it’s nice.” You finished wiping down the fridge and came to drop your latest wipe into the garbage.

“It is, isn’t it?” You pressed a small kiss to Akaashi’s cheek, and he kissed yours in return. “I always loved it here growing up, I spent a lot of really great holiday weekends here. Playing in the leaves outside, wearing big sweaters and coming inside to warm apple cider, hot chocolate, and tons of food and snacks by the fire… I think we’ll have a lot of fun.” He nodded.

The two of you started unpacking everything and moving it into either the fridge or the freezer, depending on where it needed to go. It wasn’t long before the others came in to help the two of you—even Kenma was awake now, shuffling in with Hinata. It was quick work between all of you, and before you knew it you were leaning back against the counter.

“So there are three bedrooms plus the pull out couch in the den, and my uncle said he left two air mattresses in the linen closet,” you told everyone. “Since we’re already here we can divide up the bedrooms, and if anyone wants to take the couch or use an air mattress then you definitely can. And whatever is left over can be used by whoever comes up tomorrow or Sunday.”

“Dibs on rooming with Kenma!” Hinata yelled, loudly and suddenly, and Kuroo frowned.

“Hey, no fair!” he said, and Hinata stuck his tongue out. Kenma looked back and forth between the two, and then looked at you.

“Air mattress in the living room,” he said, and you brought your hand up to hide a laugh as Hinata protested with a pout and jumped on the older male. Bokuto took this opportunity to sling his arm around Kuroo’s shoulders.

“Hey hey hey! We can room together! It’ll be just like high school, at camp!” he reasoned, and Kuroo furrowed his brows—but you could see the smile on his face. Akaashi’s arm came to rest around your waist, and you leaned into him as you felt his warmth on your right side. His sweater was really cozy, too; you’d make a mental note of which one he was wearing so you could borrow it later.

“So then (Y/N) and I will be in one room, Kuroo and Bokuto will be in another, and Kenma and Hinata will take the last room. Then whoever else shows up gets to fight over the couch and the air mattresses. Sounds good?” Akaashi asked, and he received various affirmative responses.

“I’ll grab everyone clean sheets from the linen closet, and I’ll show you guys where the bathrooms are,” you told them. You stepped away from the counter and started walking out of the kitchen. “Things might be a little dusty so feel free to grab some Lysol wipes! All the sheets and pillows and blankets are in boxes and they were washed the last time my uncle was up here so they’ll all be clean for us.”

You found the linen closet after a little bit of searching, and then began to distribute them among everyone. Once you’d finished, you closed the closet door and led everyone towards the bedrooms. Kenma and Hinata were first, on one side of the bathroom, and then Kuroo and Bokuto to the bathroom on the other side.

“There’s another bathroom near the kitchen, but that one is just a toilet. This one has a full working tub and shower,” you explained, pointing out the bathroom door. You then turned around, and pointed to the door across the hall. “Akaashi and I will be in that room, and if you guys need any help finding anything let me know!” Everyone nodded and went about setting their rooms up. You opened the door and let Akaashi into the room you’d be occupying.

You hadn’t told the others, but you’d given you and your boyfriend the biggest room. It was because of you that you had the cabin, after all, and you’d always wanted to stay in this room when you were a kid, but it was normally reserved for your uncle. You’d kind of been planning this for a while.

“Do we have two closets?” Akaashi asked, putting the sheet set down for a moment to point to the two doors across from the bed. You smiled, coming around to stand in front of one of the doors.

“No, but we do have our own bathroom,” you said, bringing your finger to your lips as you opened the door to the ensuite. A smile graced Akaashi’s face as he came closer to take a look. It was a really nice little bathroom, with its own toilet, sink, vanity, shower, and (the best part) its own gigantic tub. That had jets. You fully intended to soak in it one night after everyone else had gone to bed.

“That’s sneaky,” Akaashi said. “I approve.” You laughed and closed the door to the bathroom. The two of you set about getting the bed ready, and before long it was comfy and warm and you flopped down on top of the covers. Akaashi was browsing the bookshelves near the window on the wall beside the bathroom. “Hm… can I borrow some of these? They seem interesting, and I wanted something to read outside of the stuff for my classes.” You waved your hand, giving him a thumbs up.

“You’re the only person I know who is still reading for fun right now,” you told him, and you felt the bed dip slightly beside you as he sat down next to you.

“That’s because no one else knows how to properly manage their time,” Akaashi said. You opened your mouth and he cut you off with, “I don’t need a lecture from you, coffee and the amount I sleep have me functioning just fine, thank you, and it’s just until I get accepted into grad school. Do we need to talk about how many shows you’ve watched on Netflix instead of doing your coursework?”

You loved your boyfriend, you did, even if he never let you get away with anything. Which is part of what you loved and it did always help you in the end, but still. He nudged your shoulder and got up off the bed, and you watched him circle around to the other side of the room.

“I’m going to get our bags so we can go to bed,” he told you, and you nodded. You closed your eyes as he left, and the next thing you knew he was shaking your shoulder. You opened your eyes and you couldn’t help the yawn that came out as you saw Akaashi hovering over you. You looked away from his face and saw he had some clothes in his hands, and he himself was wearing one of his sleep shirts. “You fell asleep,” he explained, “so I went ahead and brought everything in here and got changed. You should get ready for bed, love, and then we can go to sleep.”

You nodded, sitting up and taking the clothes from him and waking up enough to get up. You went about your nighttime routine and then, once you were changed and cleaned up, you crawled into bed next to Akaashi. He pressed a kiss to your forehead as you closed your eyes again, and it wasn’t long at all before you were asleep once more.

——

Saturday

Saturday morning passed quietly and pretty uneventfully. You gave everyone a tour of the cabin after breakfast, showing them where everything was kept and even the area behind the cabin that was full of trees and crunchy leaves, and even a swing that was attached to one of the trees out back. Hinata absolutely had to jump in all of the leaf piles created by the trees, and even Kenma let Kuroo push him on the swing while you recorded everything.

Time passed quickly, and then the six of you settled down in the living room to play some board games. It wasn’t long after you’d started playing and everyone had lunch when Bokuto asked what kind of dessert was gonna be served after the big dinner the next day.

“Um… I mean I brought a pumpkin pie, and since Akaashi and I are cooking he didn’t bring any sweets,” you said, thinking. You brought a hand up to rub at your chin. “Did anyone else bring anything?”

“My mom sent a cheesecake! And some cherries and strawberries to go with it. It’s in the fridge,” Hinata said. Kuroo shook his head, and Kenma shrugged.

“Yaku said he’s bringing something when he and Kai come tonight, but I don’t know if it’ll be food food or if it’ll be dessert,” Kuroo said. Ah, right, it’d slipped your mind that the other two Nekoma grads were coming later tonight. They both had prior commitments yesterday and this morning, but Kuroo had sent them directions and they were supposed to be coming to the cabin around dinner time.

“Is Lev coming?” Hinata asked, and Kuroo shook his head. The smaller orange haired man pouted. “Aw, that sucks! But Yamaguchi said he and Tsukishima will video call tomorrow before dinner! Tsukishima’s brother is home from America so they want to spend some time with him.” He started talking to Kenma about other people they’d gone to school with, and you leaned back into Akaashi’s side. His sweater was so soft, and you couldn’t help yourself as you rested your cheek on his shoulder. His hand found yours, and he started rubbing circles into the back of your hand with his thumb.

“I want apple pie!” Bokuto interrupted, hanging off the front of the chair he was sitting on. “Can we have apple pie? Please?” He clasped his hands in front of him, doing his best attempt at puppy dog eyes. You’d known him long enough to be able to resist them.

“Bo, we don’t have any apple pie,” you told him, but that just seemed to spur him on as his pout grew bigger.

“Apple pie does sound good, though,” Kenma said, looking up from the game console in his hand. “Can we get some?”

“There aren’t any grocery stores close enough,” you said, but you thought for a moment. There was a place… but you didn’t know if it was still open or not. You’d gone there plenty of times as a kid, and it might be fun. “But we might be able to get one at the local farm. They have an apple orchard that’s open to the public… I just don’t know if it’s still open. If it is, we could go and pick some apples and see if they have any pies for sale?”

“Apple picking! Apple picking!” Hinata started chanting, and soon Bokuto was joining in. Even Kuroo started to follow along, and you heard Akaashi sigh beside you. You pulled out your phone to see if the farm was still open to the public, and a quick google search confirmed that yes, indeed, you could definitely find apples and enough apple pie to make Kenma and Bokuto happy.

So that was how, half an hour later, you were squished between Hinata and Bokuto (who absolutely insisted on sitting next to Akaashi with his arm around him) on the tiny makeshift ‘train’ that was taking you from the main area of the farm to the apple orchard. They were definitely excited, and you did have a warm feeling in your chest as you saw the rows of trees come into view.

The train came to a halt and one of the employees who was riding in the front of the train explained how it would work—everyone was to fill their bag to the line just underneath the handles from the rows of trees with big signs in front denoting what kinds of apples would be found on those trees, and the rows without signs weren’t quite ripe yet and should be avoided if possible. Everyone stepped off the train following this, and you handed out the plastic bags for the apples to everyone who wanted one.

“Pick whatever kind of apples you want, and we’ll all meet back here for the next train! Does that sound good?” you asked, and there were nods all around. Akaashi took one of your hands in his and the two of you walked towards a row of Gala apples, while the other four disappeared off into their own rows.

“These are my favourite kind of apples,” Akaashi said as you showed him how to pick one without damaging the tree; turning it upside down and twisting it off. You gave the apple to him, and he smiled at you with his whole face. His lips turned up and he closed his eyes, little crow’s feet appearing at the corners and you couldn’t help the smile that came over your own face as you brushed his hair out of his face with your free hand. Looking around to make sure no one was watching—Akaashi was not a huge fan of public displays of affection—you pressed a soft kiss to his lips. He kissed you back, gently, before pulling away. The wind picked up and blew through the leaves and ruffled your boyfriend’s hair and honestly, you were definitely going to buy Bokuto the best Christmas gift ever for suggesting that all of you come here and letting you see the beautiful sight in front of you.

You both picked some apples in relative silence, taking your phone out to get some nice photos to remember the experience by—you even snuck in a few of Akaashi, which you’d keep for later. You wanted to get some of the two of you, but you also wanted them to be nice portrait style shots, not just selfies, and you were chewing on your lip and trying to think of how you could do it without a selfie stick before a flash of orange the next row over gave you an idea.

“Hinata! Could you take some photos of me and Akaashi? Please?” you asked, waving to the younger male. He nodded happily, setting his bag of apples down and running over. You offered your phone, and he opened up the camera app as you wrapped your arms around Akaashi’s waist and smiled. You felt his arms wrap around your shoulders, and Hinata tapped the screen of your phone to take what you assumed was a few photos.

“You guys should do some poses picking some apples! For the aesthetic!” he encouraged you, and you looked to your boyfriend and silently asked him if that was okay. He pretended to think it over a moment before nodding. You kissed his cheek and then moved to one of the nearby apple trees and the two of you started picking some slow enough to let Hinata take a few photos. After a few moments you stopped, and Hinata handed you your phone.

“Thank you!” you said, giving him a hug. He laughed and squeezed you back. He went back  to grab his bag of apples, and you called out, “Stay close by! The next train should be coming soon and then we can head back to grab some pie for tomorrow!” Hinata gave you a thumbs up before disappearing down the next row over.

You and Akaashi set about filling up your bag together, wandering through some nearby rows for some variety. By the time your bag was full the temperature had dropped a few degrees and you came to sit on the bench near the train area. You huddled close to your boyfriend, apples beside him on the bench, and you waited for the others. Hinata came by not long after, sitting on your other side, and then you saw Kenma (who had not taken a bag earlier) wander over with his phone in hand. But there was no sign of Bokuto and Kuroo. You waited a few minutes before you started looking around, but you couldn’t see them anywhere.

“Keiji, did you see where Bo and Kuroo went?” you asked Akaashi, who shook his head. Kenma looked up towards the two of you.

“They went down that way,” he said quietly. You furrowed your eyebrows, and he pointed down towards the far end of the orchard, well past where all of you had been. None of those rows had any signs on them so you’d known none of them would be ready. Obviously the other two hadn’t realized that.

“What were you doing when the two of them took off to the other side of the orchard? Where we were told not to go?” you asked, and Kenma motioned back in the direction of the barn that held the cows, which was only a few minute walk away. The train was mostly for the aesthetic and the experience (and so that families with small children didn’t have to walk too far).

“I was over on the bench,” he told you, and you could make out a small bench next to the barn. You could definitely imagine Kenma sitting over there, hiding from any little kids that might wander up to him and ask to play his games or use his phone—Kenma always attracted kids, and it always annoyed him when he was interrupted in playing so it would be the perfect spot to hide from them while still pretending he’d been wandering around the orchard and hadn’t managed to find any good apples.

“Why didn’t you stop them?” Akaashi asked, and Kenma once again gestured towards the barn.

“Because I was over on the bench.” You shook your head, and you heard Akaash sigh. Kenma shoved his hands into the pocket of his hoodie and rocked back and forth on his feet.

“We should go and find Bokuto before he has a full meltdown.” You nodded, and stood up with him. “Can you two watch the apples, please? We’ll be back soon.”

“You got it!” Hinata said, and Kenma nodded as he settled into occupying your vacant spot now that you’d stood up.

Thankfully Bokuto and Kuroo weren’t too far down when you found them. Bokuto was in tears, surrounded by what were no doubt sour apples, while Kuroo was sitting underneath one of the apple trees.

“AKAASHI!” Bokuto cried, throwing himself at the younger male. Akaashi accepted the embrace gracefully, patting his best friend on the back gently as Bokuto babbled on about being left to die. You walked over and held out a hand to help Kuroo up, and he smiled at you as he took it and stood up. He brushed his jeans off with one hand, and picked up a half full bag of apples.

“Those probably aren’t ripe enough,” you said, and he shrugged. He kept hold of the bag, though.

“Yeah… Bo tried to eat some and started crying about starving and being stuck with poison apples,” he said, and you tried to hide your laugh behind a cough as he winked at you. “We were too far to see the train or any of you and he was worried we’d been left behind.”

“And you?” you asked, smiling at him. He smiled back.

“I wasn’t worried,” he said. He shoved his hands in his pockets. “Kenma wouldn’t let you guys leave without me. Who else would drive him home? I have his charger cords in my car and he won’t leave without those.” That was smart, you had to admit. You’d have to remember that.

“We should probably get going, we don’t want to miss the train,” Akaashi said, and you looked from Kuroo to your boyfriend, who had managed to calm Bokuto down enough to get him to let go. You nodded, and the two of them turned around and started walking back to where you’d come from. Kuroo put his hand between your shoulder blades and the two of you started walking behind them. You talked quietly while you walked, asking Kuroo about how his classes were coming this semester and him asking about your plans for the coming winter holidays because Yaku was having a Christmas party and wanted everyone that had been friends with him at Nekoma to stop by (and of course that meant you, who’d graduated the same year as Kenma and Yamamoto) and you agreed because it would be so nice to get everyone together again.

The four of you made it just in time to catch the train, and you took your bag of apples from a smiling Hinata who squished in beside Kenma on the benches in the train car, and you settled in between Kuroo and Akaashi to continue getting details about Yaku’s party.

The six of you rode the train back to the main area of the farm, and after thanking the drivers and farm workers, you wandered into the general store near the exit. Everyone had fun, looking through all the homemade blankets and scarves and different items scattered around. You helped Kenma and Bokuto pick out two apple pies, and even grabbed some ice cream made from the dairy on the farm. Once everyone had gotten what they needed, you all walked back to the two cars you’d taken and piled in.

The ride back to the cabin from the orchard had been fairly uneventful, and by the time you made it back Bokuto was bouncing back into good spirits. He and Hinata took the volleyball that one of them had brought and went around the back to throw it around while you busied yourself putting everything away. Akaashi took one of your uncle’s books and settled on the couch to do some reading while Kenma curled up for a small nap. Kuroo sat at the island in the kitchen while you moved about, working on some lab reports and coursework. He also helped you  get dinner ready while everyone else was busy—just some pasta and garlic bread, nothing fancy. The fancy dinner was tomorrow night, after all.

Yaku and Kai made it to the cabin right around dinner time, and the two of them joined you at the table when they came in. You were quick to give them both hugs and plates of food, and took their bags into the living room while they settled in. They didn’t bring any dessert, so you were glad you’d grabbed the pies while you’d been out, but they did bring some homemade cranberry sauce and some of Kai’s legendary macaroni and cheese (which you absolutely hugged him for, he only made that on really special occasions and Kuroo mumbled something about favouritism). You laughed, and joined them at the table once you’d finished.

After dinner—and Kenma doing the dishes as Akaashi followed through on his words from the night before—everyone gathered in the living room to relax and play board games well into the night. It was only after Yaku almost flipped the table over when Kuroo hit him with his third consecutive ‘draw four’ card in Uno that you all decided to call it a night and you taught Yaku and Kai how to use the pull out couch in the living room.

——

Sunday

You really had to remind yourself that you loved your boyfriend and you loved your friends when the alarm you’d set on your phone informed you through a series of annoying bells, chirps, and other vaguely recognizable noises that if dinner was going to be ready on time you absolutely had to get up now. Especially since you’d snoozed the other four alarms you’d set for yourself because you’d known this exact situation was going to happen. Who the hell could actually get up at four in the morning?

“(Y/N), we need to get up now,” Akaashi’s voice, low and coming from somewhere vaguely to your left, reminded you that yes, your boyfriend could get up this early. Or maybe he just hadn’t gone to bed. You could never be sure (at least not until he crashed at some point the next day). You felt his lips brush lightly against your shoulder and you groaned, reaching out in the dark to smack your phone until it stopped making noise. Which took a few tries, but you were tired and really just wanted to stay under the covers and sleep curled up next to Akaashi.

Akaashi’s lips ghosted over the shell of your ear. “Love, come on. We have to get the turkey in, and then you can go back to bed. I’ll even let you sleep in,” he whispered, and you groaned. You pushed yourself up on the bed and used one hand to rub at your eyes once you were sat up fully.

“‘M not getting dressed for this,” you told your boyfriend, and you heard him chuckle. “Should have just stayed home.”

“Oh no, I am not risking burning down the entire apartment building because Bokuto doesn’t know how to thaw a turkey properly. Again. We are never hosting there and he is never cooking for us. We’re ordering takeout next time,” he said, and you laughed. That woke you up just a bit more, and you managed to get up and out of bed. The two of you quietly made it from the bedroom to the kitchen, and you set about getting the turkey prepped and ready. You’d done some of the work the night before, getting the bird cleaned and prepped, but now you actually had to get it ready to cook. You handled getting the turkey pan and the bacon wrap for the turkey ready while Akaashi handled the stuffing.

It didn’t take too long for the two of you to get it all put together, and then you put it in the oven once it had been preheated and set the timer according to the weight of the turkey (which, oh my god, to feed this many people you’d had to get a bigger turkey than you’d ever even thought possible and you knew it was a miracle it even fit in the oven).

You cleaned up, yawning the entire time, and eventually Akaashi came up behind you, his chin resting on your shoulder as his arms came around you and helped guide you through washing up the dishes (you hadn’t wanted to leave these until Kenma woke up, and the two of you would need the space to get everything else ready for dinner later on anyway). Akaashi kept his arms around you as he led you back to your bedroom and helped you climb into bed. You curled up, closing your eyes because it was still horribly early and you definitely did not want to be awake any longer than you had to be. You heard Akaashi close the door in the silence of the room, and then you felt the space beside you dip lower as he climbed into bed with you.

“I love you, (Y/N),” he whispered, pressing a soft kiss to your cheek. You smiled and mumbled the same back, and you felt the warm weight of his arm around your shoulders and he held you close, continuing to whisper to you as you drifted off back to sleep.

You woke up some time later, warm and snuggled up in your blankets, and you stretched out comfortably in bed. You saw sunshine coming in through the sheer curtains covering the window, and you took your time getting up and getting ready. Akaashi wasn’t in the room with you, which meant he’d either gotten up earlier than you or hadn’t gone to sleep at all—and knowing him, it was most likely the latter. You went through your morning routine, using the bathroom to get freshened up and ready for the busy day ahead, before you got dressed and headed out to join the others.

They were all lounging in the living room, and you received various greetings when you came in. It was later than you thought it was, but that was okay. You sat next to Akaashi on the loveseat, and Hinata handed you one of the apples you had picked the previous day. It was a nice and relaxing day, at least for the moment, and you couldn’t help but bask in it. Between school and life and all of the extracurriculars that everyone had taking up their time, it was really rare for all of you to be able to get together like this. That’s partially why you had started this tradition in your first year; Bokuto had suggested it, wanting to spend time with his friends.

First year had been a rough adjustment, moving from high school to university level studies, and right around this time you knew you’d been feeling a little burnt out. And since Bokuto wasn’t heading home to see his parents until winter break, he suggested everyone coming together at someone’s place and having a potluck style dinner to give everyone a temporary break and spend some much needed time together to recharge. You had been the one to call it Friendsgiving, and that’s how the tradition had been formed. Kuroo had hosted it that first year and made the turkey himself, so you’d all decided that every year someone else would take turns to make it fair. It was usually just one day for dinner, but after last year’s… accident where Bokuto had been a little overeager and assured everyone he’d known what he was doing with the turkey (he hadn’t) and almost burning down his and Akaashi’s (and yours, technically, but that had been before you’d fully moved in with the two of them and you had a feeling Akaashi asked you sooner than he’d planned to make sure that situation didn’t happen again) apartment, Akaashi had refused to let the two of you cook in the apartment. So here you were. And you were really, really glad your uncle had said yes when you’d begged him to let you use the cabin.

True to Hinata’s word, Yamaguchi and Tsukishima did video chat early on in the afternoon—you all gathered around Kuroo’s laptop to say hello, and to wish them a happy holiday. Tsukishima liked to huff and act like this was an inconvenience, that it was all for Yamaguchi’s benefit, but you caught the way the creases in his forehead smoothed as he got into talking about the volleyball league he was playing in outside of school was doing, or while listening to Yamaguchi talk about what Yachi was up to lately. It was good to see the two of them looking so relaxed, and they promised they’d come next year for sure.

“The cabin looks so nice! Are we going to head there every year?” Yamaguchi had asked.

“I hope so! It’s so fun, you guys!” Hinata said, a big and bright smile on his face as he gestured widely with his hands (and just barely missed smacking Kenma upside the head). “We went to a farm and picked apples! And there’s so much space outside, me and Bokuto jumped in leaf piles and practiced tossing for each other! I definitely think you guys and Kageyama need to come next year!”

“Are you sure you should be telling us to come when it isn’t even yours to use in the first place?” Tsukishima asked, a smirk on his face, but his tone was playful and lacking any actual venom. Hinata’s cheeks and the tips of his ears turned pink, and he looked at you while scratching the back of his head. You saw Yamaguchi elbow Tsukishima and you shrugged.

“I mean, I won’t be cooking next year but I don’t see why we can’t make this a more permanent thing if my uncle agrees,” you said, and both Bokuto and Hinata let out loud cheers. You ruffled their hair, and the conversation continued for another half hour or so before the two of them had to go and help Tsukishima’s parents get ready for dinner. You’d all bit them goodbye, and then you and Akaashi were in the kitchen getting the rest of the food made. Kenma and Hinata got the dining room table prepped, and everyone else set about minor tasks while you and your boyfriend set about heating up pre-made dishes, and getting the rest of the food besides the turkey made and ready to go.

You turned on some soft music while the two of you cooked, talking in low voices about what you were doing sometimes, other times humming along or singing to what was playing, and before you knew it everything had been cooked, heated, prepared, and was ready to be served. You placed the pies in the oven to stay warm while you ate dinner before you left the kitchen. Everyone took turns bringing dishes out to the dining room and setting them on the table. The turkey came last, balanced carefully between you and Akaashi, and you placed it at the head of the table where Akaashi would carve it for everyone. You sat to his left, across from Bokuto on his right, and Hinata was next to you, across from Kenma. Kuroo sat next to Kenma, and Kai and Yaku were beside him.

“This smells so good!” Hinata said, and everyone echoed his statements. You smiled, reaching for Akaashi’s hand and squeezing it.

“I had the world’s best sous chef helping me,” you said, and he raised an eyebrow.

“I’m the sous chef? Who was the one who wouldn’t wake up this morning?” he teased, a smile on his face, and you laughed. “No, it’s okay, we made it together. Even though I was the one who was awake for most of it.” He stood up, grabbing the carving fork and knife to start serving dinner.

“Wait! Before we eat, we should go around and say what we’re thankful for!” Bokuto said, standing up and grabbing Akaashi’s wrist before he could slice into the turkey. Akaashi froze, and Bokuto continued, “you know, because I think it’s important. And I can start! Because I’m really grateful to have all of you here and in my life, and for this good food and this really cool cabin, and I know I’m where I am because I have support like all of you with me. So thank you.”

You couldn’t help but let out a small ‘aww’ at that, and Akaashi nodded and put the knife and fork down for now. Bokuto let go of his wrist and sat down. He looked to Kenma, who was next to him. Kenma sighed.

“I’m thankful for all the success I’ve had with my company and my channel since we started up this year,” he said, looking down at his lap, where you were sure his hands were clasped. “And thank you all for being here too, I suppose. You’ve been good friends to me, and you’ve stuck by me and given me challenges and competition to make things fun.”

“And I’m thankful for the fact that I only had two lab reports to type up and that most of my first year students know how to properly submit their work through the online portal,” Kuroo said. You laughed. “And for my friends and family. You guys make the hell of school and grad school worth it. Some days.”

Yaku elbowed Kuroo, but he had a smile on his face. “I’m thankful that I met this jackass the first year of high school and he never left me alone,” he said. He looked around at everyone. “It let me meet all of you, and there’s nowhere else I’d rather be right now. And I’ll remember you all when I go to Russia next year to play professionally.”

“I’m thankful I won’t have to hear Kuroo and Yaku bickering while Yaku’s in Russia,” Kai told everyone, and you and Bokuto laughed out loud. “And Yaku and Lev, as well. I love you guys, but there’s only so much I can take. But I am very happy to be here too.”

Hinata was next, and he had his hand on his chin and his face scrunched just a bit. “Hm… I mean, I’m thankful for all of you and for this food and how lucky I am to be alive and be here! But all of you already said that!” he said. He thought for a moment more, until Akaashi cleared his throat and you nudged his shin with your foot. Hinata brought his hand down from his chin to smack onto his open palm. “Oh! I know! I’m grateful for Kageyama being a jerk! Because if he wasn't I wouldn’t have tried to compete with him, and then I wouldn’t have become his friend and met everyone and learned how much fun volleyball is! And I wouldn’t have gotten to eat so many meat buns or see Tokyo Tower! Or even try and apply for university and I wouldn’t get to see all of you!” There were a few chuckles, and you could hear Bokuto sniffling. He was easily moved.

But now it was your turn, and you also had to think for a minute. “Well… I’m grateful to have such a wonderful boyfriend like Akaashi, and the friends who are here and who aren’t here too,” you said, looking around the table. “I’m thankful to have such a nice place for us to stay, and a good roof over my head. I never thought I’d be here, but I’m happy I am and even though it’s hard sometimes, I’m thankful I’ve made it this far.” Akaashi’s hand found yours and squeezed it tight, and you turned to see him with the biggest smile you’ve seen in a long time.

“I think (Y/N) said everything I was thinking,” he started, “but I’m also thankful to be hopefully heading to grad school the year after next, and also thankful that Kenma is doing the dishes tonight.” The pudding headed man mumbled something that had Kuroo laughing like a hyena, and you were going to remember to ask him about it later. But for now, Akaashi stood up once again and picked up the carving knife and fork. “Are we good to start eating now?” he asked, and everyone gave him an enthusiastically positive response. So he started carving the turkey, and before long everyone was talking loudly and passing food around the table as they ate. You managed to sneak in a few photos of everyone to remember the night by.

Once everyone had eaten as much as they could before they burst, you stood and started clearing things away. Kai and Akaashi helped you bring all the leftovers into the kitchen, and you started packing everything to be placed in the fridge so it could be divided up tomorrow before you left (or most likely just coming home with you and Akaashi and Bokuto, where you’d be eating it all for the next and a half). Everyone else moved into the living room for the moment, sleepy and full and waiting for dessert before they took their post-dinner naps before you all started playing games again (you could hear Yaku vowing to kick Kuroo’s ass at Uno this time and you wanted to be the one to beat both of them).

Once everything had been cleaned up and put away (and Akaashi mandating that the dishes be left in the sink for Kenma and most likely Hinata who would be helping him), Kai thanked you for the food and went to go join everyone else. That left you and Akaashi in the kitchen, and you gave your boyfriend a hug the second you were alone.

“Thank you for coming here with me. And for being with me,” you said, your face pressed against his neck. His hands rubbed up and down your back, and he swayed you back and forth slightly.

“Thank you for all of this, love,” he said. “I’m lucky to have you in my life, and I’ll always tell you that as long as I have breath in me. I love you, most ardently.” You laughed, moving back to look him in the eye.

“You’re so corny, This is why you’re a Lit major,” you told him. He laughed too, letting you go to turn and start taking the pumpkin pie and the cheesecake out of the fridge. You grabbed the oven mitts and took out the two apple pies, carefully placing them on a tray on the counter so they could be moved into the dining room while they were still warm. You turned off the oven, and Akaashi placed his items on the counter before grabbing the ice cream and Hinata’s cheesecake toppings too.

“Come on! It’s time for dessert!” You patted Akaashi’s arm, giving him a kiss on the cheek before you grabbed the cheesecake and the apple pies and headed out of the kitchen to bring them to the dining room table.

Akaashi brought a hand up to gently brush the spot where your lips had met his skin. He couldn’t help the smile that pulled the corners of his lips up as he used his other hand to make sure that the small box he’d been hiding in his bag was still in his pocket, which it was. “Yeah… it’s time,” he said, keeping his voice quiet. His smile grew even bigger as he grabbed the pumpkin pie, the toppings, and the tub of ice cream you’d left on the counter and followed you out of the kitchen and ready to have the best ending to the best Friendsgiving yet.

[liamscxtt]

a day in the life ; self para

when: thursday, august 28th

where: literally everywhere

nb: just a brief (long) narrative of what the typical day looks like for liam.

trigger warnings: homelessness, death and drug mentions, drug abuse

5:00am

there’s a moment when you first wake up when everything is just a haze. a moment when you forget who you are, what day it is -- all of your problems just don’t exist, for that moment. the moment only lasted a few seconds before the blaring sound of the alarms coming from the phone bring you back to the brutal aspects of reality. and yet, those were the best five seconds for liam.

groaning, he turned over and tapped on his screen, desperately trying to shut the alarm off; the bright screen burning his already sleep deprived eyes. he probably only got about three hours of sleep, if that. he was used to it at this point, and then there were days like today. days where he wanted to wither into the depths of his own self-loathing. 

he looked out the window to see the sun beginning to rise. a sky painted with shades of blues, purples, and oranges, almost like a messy yet somewhat neatly put together painting made by a middle schooler. there was something beautiful about waking up with the sun, parts of it that brought him peace. his sister loved watching the sunrise - she always went on and on about how sunrises were the true underdog; how mother nature picked it’s most beautiful mixture of colors for the sunrises, all because it took a special person to appreciate the beauty that came from it. he never really understood what she meant, until he was forced to watch the sun rise every single morning. and as always, she was right. sunsets had nothing against sunrises. 

these quiet mornings were the best part of liam’s day. the hours where he felt most connected to his sister and to himself. the hours he felt truly at peace. it was crazy to think that liam’s favorite time of the day was between 5:00am and 6:30am. 

he turned on his car to play youtube on his aux before climbing out of his vehicle. the sweet melody’s of the soft pitched tunes filled his car and the immediate area surrounding it, and a smile creeped on his face as one of her favorite songs began playing in the background. he wasn’t religious, but there was a part of him that truly found strength in knowing that his sister wasn’t far away. 

he rolled up the worn down mattress topper, collected his pillow and blanket in one hand. he broke down his bed as he pushed the backseat of his 2006 ford escape upright and neatly tucked his belongings into his trunk. 

5:30am

he pulled into the vacant parking lot of the soulstice gym. the gym was set to open in a half hour; luckily for him, there weren’t many college students that would dare to wake up at the crack of dawn just to work out. he stuffed everything he needed to get ready for the day into a duffle bag; shower supplies, and a clean outfit. he desperately needed to do laundry, and he needed to get food...but pay day wasn’t until next week. he was gonna have to find cash, and find it quick - maybe he’ll just pick up another shift at the bar. he practically lived at that place now.

his footsteps echoed through as he walked through the empty fitness center; not even the cleaners had arrived for their early morning shift. he quickly hopped into the showers and get ready for the day. lord knows he needed to wash the dirt and sins that painted his skin from the previous nights festivities. he couldn’t even recall what exactly happened, and that was both a blessing and a curse. it was shortly after he turned on all the lights and greeted the early morning cleaners, jimmy and george. 

“good morning, son!” greeted george. 

“mornin’, will.” jimmy greeted shortly after. 

jimmy and george worked closely together, and were usually gone for the day 2pm; and yet, liam knew the guys quite well. 

jimmy is in his early-forties, married with two children. he worked two full time jobs to get his children through school. his son played division II baseball at a school somewhere in the midwest, and is majoring in sports education. he wants to be a gym teacher. his daughter is studying to be a nurse at monarch. she aspires to work in women’s health. jimmy always spoke so highly of them two. 

george is in his mid-sixties, but is still kicking it like he’s twenty. he’s also married with children and even grandchildren, but his story is more tragic. he’s a retired firefighter, who is still working a full time job because his pension wasn’t enough to make ends meet. can’t make ends meet. his only daughter passed away at a young age - drug overdose, he says. his only son is constantly in and out of jail for drug charges - leaving george and his wife to take care and raise their two grandchildren, layla and michael. layla is 14 and is getting ready to start high school. she loves to play volleyball, and apparently is a natural. michael is 9 and is getting ready to start fourth grade. he love cars, spider man, legos, sonic, and baseball cards. he wants to be a youtube gamer when he grows up. liam didn’t know the kid, but he thought he was fucking awesome. 

two completely different stories, and yet liam believed that those two men deserved the world and then some.

“what’s up, guys?” liam greeted with a smile as he filled up his metal water bottle at the nearest filling station. “when are the kids set to go back, george?”

“this coming monday. mikey’s already complaining how he doesn’t need school to be a youtuber. apparently he’s ‘done his research’.” the comment makes both liam and jimmy laugh. 

“tell the little man to put that energy into a sport, or a trade. i need a new mechanic.” jim jested, once again causing the other two to laugh. “what about you, will? getting ready to start the semester back up? gabby is already stressing because some of her professors already posted the syllabus.” 

“shit, i haven’t even gotten my textbooks yet. i might have to join mikey with this whole youtuber plan and hope for the best.” liam said with a nervous chuckle. he almost had completely forgotten about the upcoming semester approaching. 

to quickly divert the question away from him, he spoke once more. “say, george. i found a few baseball cards at the bar the other night. remind me to bring them in for you.” 

“you’ll make that boys entire week. maybe i’ll use that to bribe him to go to school.” 

jimmy just smiled. “you’re a good kid, scotty boy. never change.” 

2:30pm

it had only been a half hour since liam clocked out from his morning job, and he quickly made his way over to the library. the mention of school that morning brought liam into a panic. he grabbed a spot at one of desks in the computer station, powering on the device and pulling out his notebook. luckily enough, most of the textbooks he needed the library had available. leaving his stuff behind, he went to go fetched them. 

he already had mastered the technique of not having his own textbooks. every week, he would go and scan all of the chapters he needed for each and every class. luckily, monarch offered free scanning and printing. he made small talk with the librarian that sat at the desk nearby as he printed out at least three weeks worth of chapters for each of his classes. 

he sat down once more, and took the time to put the pile of papers neatly into his binder. it was time to start planning. 

6:30pm

now it was time to work his night time job, mars bar. he was working with adrian tonight, so he knew it wouldn’t be that bad.

his stomach had been grumbling half way through his shift. he hadn’t eaten anything all day. but he continued to push through. he had to, at least until pay day. he continued to chug water; if his stomach was full of water, his body didn’t have time to remind him that it needed some sort of nutrients. he was a master manipulator when it came to his own body now. 

1:00am

the rounded out the tips that he received from his customers. it was a good night, and luckily enough he would be able to do laundry the next day. his body was tired, though; aching from the lack of sleep and abuse his body endured from the festivities. he felt like he could sleep for an entire month, and then some. 

he drove around for a bit after his shift, a thing he did as he needed to both unwind and find a somewhat safe space to park his car. university police were patrolling the parking lots that night, which immediately told him not to park there. he couldn’t park in greek row - too many people he knew by this point. he was left to park in a nearby park, in a nearby neighborhood. he found himself saying a small prayer that nobody would mess with him that night. 

he lit up a joint once he found his place, feeling the smoke fill his lungs as he listened to the calming music that played on the radio. ed sheeran was playing, a song from his multiply album. it was one of his and his sister’s favorite albums. that’s the one thing they shared in common, their taste in music. but she was more pop in a sense, and he was more edgy. but still, the music brought him comfort.

he got his bed ready; a mattress topper, paired with a pillow and a blanket. he made himself comfortable and looked at his phone, just to see he missed a text from his mother at 10:45pm.

hi honey! spoke with your aunt today, and we’re making plans for christmas. did your father reach out to you? let me know what plans he has set. i’ll arrange my trip around your plans. 

i hope you had a great day! i love you! ❤️

her message was followed by a bitmoji image of her holding a huge heart. and he smiled. 

i haven’t spoken to him all week, but i’ll reach out tomorrow and let you know. i’ll call you tomorrow. love you ❤️

there was a huge part of him that wanted to call her now, that wanted to tell her he had been struggling both physically and mentally...but then he remembered the damage and the financial burden his injury left. it ruined his family. he ruined his family. and just as he was about to press call, he let out a frustrated sigh before locking his phone and tossing it not too far away from him, rolling over to attempt to get some sort of rest.

just to do the same thing. all. over. again.

[torujours]

hello helloo!! i was js thinking of this earlier and i was wondering if u could do headcannons for it? i was thinking of singing throwback songs in the car w bokuto, atsumu, and oikawa?? thank you!!

˖♡ ˗ˏˋ Lexi's notes: hello darling! ugh this is so adorable and so much fun to think about 😫❤️ thanks for requesting and enjoy!! ˎˊ-

bokuto:

- MANS GOES INNNNN

- okay really tho like he kills it when it comes to throwback songs (half of his playlists have throwback songs in them don’t @ me)

- say you are on a road trip, it’s the middle of summer the windows are all down and he is just belting old school songs with you

- you would have to join in of course, his singing is contagious (and he has a good voice i stand by that) so you can’t help but join in as the song becomes a duet

- other cars passing by are watching you two like yall are crazy but why not have fun and enjoy yourself ya know

- you two would play the time crazy, dance time of throwback songs the ones that you two can just have a whole dance party in the car with

- songs on his throwback playlist include: super bass, hips don’t lie, replay and fergalicious 

atsumu:

- he doesn’t listen to throwbacks often but when he does you know he is really feeling it

- whenever you guys go out music is playing and it’s a whole ass performance with him everytime

- he has a pretty okay voice but it’s more like screaming when he gets into it lol

- you would probably put on the songs at first then he would take hold of the aux and it’s go time, plus he plays those types of throwback songs you still know all the words for 

- he dedicates every song to you but you are just like uM SOME OF THESE SONGS AREN’T THAT ROMANTIC?

- you two totally play more chill vibe type of throwback songs, like ones you can still get down with but a lot less hyped or crazy ya know

- songs on this throwback playlist include: poker face, sexy back, halo and bye bye bye  

oikawa: 

- he probably is the one that listens to throwbacks the least, like every once in a while if they show up or if he is a throwback mood

- you two don’t even need to be in a car for him to start singing but you two would be going for a date and it becomes a match of who can sing better 

- yall would fight over the aux lmao but 9 times out of 10 you would win 

- he acts like a whole idol, trying to hit the dances even behind the wheel like while you would be like bOTH HANDS ON THE WHEEL I SWEAR TO GOD-

- but some songs you both start dancing and it becomes a wild and funny time watching the two of you try your hardest to dance along to the songs (even more so if the song doesn’t have a dance you two make up your own moves)

- you guys play a perfect mixture of hype dance party songs and chill lets vibe throwback songs

- songs on his throwback playlist include: hollaback girl, S&M, call me maybe and what makes you beautiful 

[calumbringbackthewatermelonshirt]

Hiraeth (C.H.) Part 2

FIND PART 1 HERE

a/n: I think after this I’m probably going to try and update once a week to keep things consistent! please enjoy and lmk what y'all think!! also feel free to send me any questions!

“I believe you owe me something.” You had set your tray at your spot at the usual table. The time had come. Your cravings had taken over. The need for some awful, over sugared coffee was consuming your every thought. Except for the ones about Cal. But coffee. Coffee was something you could have, and soon at that.

“And what would that be?” Classic Ashton. Playing dumb. You were relentless, though. Especially when he had something you so desperately wanted.

“We both know. A ride into town. I’m thinking Dunkin first, then target, then chipotle for a quick bite, then more Dunkin.” You had been ticking off your town to-do list on your fingers as you went, wearing a smile very similar to the Sierra wore when she was up to something.

“As much as I would love to drag your sorry ass around the entire town, I’m busy tonight.” You frowned, knowing that if you didn’t go tonight that you might very well die from withdrawal. That and you’d have to wait another week and a half before your schedules aligned enough again to make the trip.

“Fuck.” You dropped your feet from the table and sighed, running a hand through your hair and screwing up the part in it. It would be fine, you’d manage. You’d run out of toothpaste and eyeliner, but you’d live.

“However, my plans do not involve my car, so I’ve arranged to have someone take you in my place.” You perked up again. Even though you didn’t appreciate being toyed with, you could appreciate the dramatics of it. After all, it was fun when you were on the other side of it.

“Hell yeah! Is it Crystal? She’s cool.” You pumped your fist, practically buzzing with excitement. Even better. You could already picture yourself and Crystal screaming the lyrics to the High School Musical soundtrack together.

“Nope. Hood.” Ashton knew he piqued your interest when he saw your eyebrows shoot up. All a part of Sierra’s plan of course. The elusive Hood, who’s name you still did not know. You’d finally be able to meet the most mysterious man on campus.

“Even better. I get to meet the mysterious ‘Hood.’” You put air quotes around his name. At this point, you weren't even sure he was a real person.

“There is a bit of a hitch. With Hood comes four irresponsible teens.” Ashton winked at you, knowing exactly what he was doing. He had to give Sierra her credit where it was due. This plan was brilliant. Instead of one, Hood would now be operating with four wingmen, each one more bold than the last. Ashton could almost picture the dumbfounded look on Hood’s face when they started to hint at their end goal.

“Fine by me. As long as I get my coffee.” You stood and leaned in closer to Ashton, feeling his breath on your face. It was your hand slipped into his pocket, a twenty finding its way into your sleeve and his keys dangling between your fingers. You dangeled them from your fingers, still grinning at Ashton as you backed away and shot off a text to the members of your group.

….

It took about twenty minutes of scrolling on your phone until you finally heard footsteps and the lively, somewhat loud chatter that surrounded your little group approaching.

Your fingers flying, you shot off one last text and looked up.

Only to be met with a very familiar pair of dark brown eyes.

Elevator guy?

A million questions ricocheted in your brain. What was ele- Cal doing here? With your gaggle of friends?And why was he carrying Luke on his back piggyback style?

You froze, head cocked and eyebrow raised. Cal strongly resembled a deer in headlights at this moment, having missed a step when he noticed it was you leaning against the car. Luke didn’t notice; instead, he took two fistfulls of Cal’s hair, as if trying to control him that way, like Remy and Linguini in Ratatouille.

Michael was the first to catch on to the tension between the two of you. He head swished back and forth a few times, trying to patch together why both of you had reacted to each other like that. It took a second to click. “Wait, do you two know each other?”

“We’ve met. Briefly.” You winked at Cal and slid your phone into the pocket of your jeans, procuring Ashton’s keys in its place. You jingled them before the group for a second before tossing them over to Cal. Kaykay gave her best attempt to snatch them out of the air, but Cal caught them easily over her head, appearing to still be a little bit stunned by your presence.

“Wait a second. You’ve met?” Sierra was screeching. You and Hood were supposed to meet like this, not however you had met before. This couldn’t be right, one misstep could throw off her whole plan, and she had NOT gone to the lengths of planning your wedding only to have it be for nothing.

“Um, yes. Just for a second, though. In the elevator up to the first bell classes.” Hood dropped Luke from his back unceremoniously. Instead, he studied the keys in his hands, looking again like he wanted the earth to swallow him whole. You were starting to wonder why he looked like that every time he saw you.

“So you’re the famous ‘Hood’ I’ve been hearing about.” You grinned and pushed yourself off of the car, crossing your arms. You took a few steps toward him. “I was beginning to doubt you even existed.”

Kaykay snorted and stopped messing with Luke's hair for a second. “You two have met. Obviously he existed.”

“No, no. I met Cal. Hood was a rumor.” Kaykay and Sierra turned and gave each other a look. They seemed to be in agreement that maybe the prior meeting wasn’t so bad.

“Alright, alright. Are we going or not?” Hood sighed and stalked around to the driver’s side, getting into the car before anyone of them could even think of saying anything.

You turned and hopped in the passenger’s side. Only to hear five other people shouting at you.

Apparently, getting in the car was cause for rioting these days.

“Hey, why do you get shotgun?” Kaykay was the first one to say something vaguely coherent. She almost never got shotgun, and she had kind of been hoping that today would be her day.

“Yeah, hey, I want shotgun.” Sierra was next, speaking fast. She was right next to the door, tugging on the handle. But before she could make her first pull, Hood clicked the lock button on his side of the car, effectively shutting all the kids out.

“It’s not too late. We can drive off and leave them now.” Cal? Hood? sighed out his words, leaning forward and putting his head on the steering wheel.

“Oh, come on. You know you love them. It’s obvious. Besides, the only way they’re gonna get me out of this seat is if they kill me first.” You turned to the window and stuck out your tongue at the kids staring at you through the window before putting on your seatbelt.

“Have you met Kaykay?” Hood smirked at you, looked out at the murder written on Kaykay’s face, and then back at you. “That might not be as hard as you think.”

“Believe it or not I’m tougher than I look.” You unlocked the car with the button on your side, but flipped the lock on your door back.

The kids piled into the car, grumbling about being shoved into the back.

“Damn. I wanted up front.” Michael climbed in behind Hood, but not before leaning the seat forward to allow the two youngest to clamber into the back.

“Yeah, yeah. We all wanted shotgun.” Kaykay was behind you, picking at her fingernails, disgruntled. “Can I at least have the AUX?”

“No offense, Kay, but no one wants to listen to death metal.” Sierra wrinkled her nose at the idea of having to headbang and messing up her hairstyle. Her space buns may have looked messy and spiky, but that was a carefully curated look that had taken her a while to perfect.

“I wanna listen to Mozart. I find it calming. You know, statistically, babies who have mozart played to them in the womb come out smarter?” Luke was a big fan of classical music, despite his younger age. He found it versatile, great for both studying and falling asleep to.

“Makes sense. I guess your mom must have played you a lot of Mozart when you were little, huh?” You twisted around in your seat and smiled at Luke for a second, who flushed, but still smiled back. “How about we all choose one song to go on a playlist and we can turn that on shuffle?”

All the children shrugged and nodded, so you called names and collected the songs into one playlist on your phone, playing it through the car stereo a bit louder than was necessary.

“That is the fastest they have ever agreed on anything ever.” Hood looked at you out of the side of his eyes before turning his attention back to the road. “And the fastest solution we’ve ever procured for an argument.”

You shrugged. “What can I say? I’m a natural leader.”

Most of the songs on the playlist ended up being ones you all knew enough to sing along to, asides from the cello melody (Luke) and the heavy metal music (Kaykay).

It took about half an hour and another song draft to reach Dunkin. By the time you got there you were practically vibrating with excitement. Hood kept glancing at you, a small smile at his lips and mirth in his eyes. Apparently, he took great amusement in your love for mediocre coffee.

Instead of attempting to corral all the kids in and out of the restaurant, Hood figured the drive through would be a more time effective option.

Kaykay demanded to order for herself, despite being on the wrong side of the car and in the back seat. Still, Michael rolled down his window obediently, just sighing and leaning back when she unbuckled her seatbelt and climbed into his lap to talk into the speaker.

You went next. You felt bold for no reason today. That was the only explanation for what you did. Mirroring Kaykay, you too unbuckled, leaning over Hood’s lap to rest your weight on the car door.

“I’ll have six shots of espresso, over ice, with a caramel drizzle, please.” You heard a scoff from inside the car, turning to find Kaykay gaping at you.

“That’s enough caffeine to kill a small horse.” Kaykay was a little amazed, and a lot worried. You didn’t even order milk. That was gonna taste like battery acid.

“Are you okay?” Sierra looked absolutely disgusted at the mere thought of your coffee order. Even though she was more of a tea person, Sierra liked her coffee as sweet as her personality.

“I think it sounds good. Can I have one?” Luke barely got the words out before five simultaneous nos were yelled.

“Luke, honey, I’ve only known you for a couple weeks, but even I can tell that you and coffee would not be a good mix.” You took sympathy on the child, who looked downright embarrassed by his chastisement. “How about a hot chocolate instead?”

Luke seemed to perk up by that idea, and when the car pulled up to the window, you wordlessly handed Hood your debit card.

“I have cash with me. How much was my drink?” Michael was the first to ask. You knew it was coming, the onslaughts of ‘let me pay you backs’ and ‘here's the money for my drinks.’ But that wasn’t gonna happen, at least not today.

“This one’s on me.” It was simple enough, but all the kids still looked suspicious. You rolled your eyes, a little offended that you had to explain being nice. “Think of it as a thank you. You know, for taking pity on me and allowing me into your little group.”

They still all looked like you were about to tell them their dog had died.

“Fine. My parents are loaded, I took the RA job cause I wanted my own room, and the way I communicate love is through gifts. Happy?”  You sighed and slurped down half your coffee in one sip.

“Isn’t it almost freezing outside?” Hood was the first to break the somewhat awkward silence. “Are you sure drinking an iced drink was the best choice?”

You grinned slowly. “It’s time I told you my life motto. If you can’t handle a cold drink during the winter, your bloodline is weak.”

Seeing as you had the only iced drink in the car, this caused a bit of an uproar.

…

“Hey.” Cal had turned down the music in the car. Aside from Kaykay, who had her headphones in, you and Cal were the only two people awake. So when he broke the silence on the ride back to campus, it startled you just a touch.

“Hey yourself.”

“I, um, I had fun today. It was nice to see you again.” You made a mental note about Cal: he reverted to CEO mode when he got nervous. Well, you assumed he was nervous. He wouldn’t make eye contact with you, so you figured you were probably right.

“You, too.” His nervousness was kind of endearing, you thought. Even if it made talking to him a little bit awkward and choppy.

“You know, I’m actually pretty grateful Ashton bailed on me.” Calum’s eyes widened a bit, but you ignored it. You had a feeling if you pointed it out, Cal might do something drastic like bailing from the car while it was still moving.

“Oh?” Hood attempted to keep his expression neutral, but there were all sorts of bells and alarms going off in his head.

“Yeah, it was fun spending time with all of you. Being part of a group like this…” Your tongue darted out of your mouth and wetted your lips. You rolled them together and then drew your bottom lip in between your teeth. They were such a tight knit group, and while all of them were welcoming and kind to you… it was still hard to not feel like an outsider. You didn’t regret it, of course, but there was a nagging feeling in the back of your mind that this was a honeymoon phase in your friendship. All good things came to an end. You just hoped it would be later rather than sooner. “It feels like a family.”

“We’ve only known each other for three months.” Cal looked at you out of the side of his eye, skeptical. He was close with his little gang, but family was a bit of a stretch in his opinion. Sure, he spent all his time with them and looked after them, and cared about them, of course. But that didn’t exactly mean they were family.

“Cal, you literally make them bring you their report cards so you can make sure they’re doing okay in all of their classes.” Was he kidding you? It was funny how the man in front of you was able to delude himself in believing that was true.

“I don’t give a damn about their grades.” Hood scoffed. He had his own problems that didn’t include the grades of a bunch of freshmen and sophomores.

“You give so many damns they’re visible from space.” The lies about not caring were probably to keep up his stone cold loner ruse. They were, of course, lies, but you didn’t want to spoil that for him.

“Yeah, yeah. Whatever.” Hood was grumbling, but there was a slight chuckle behind it.

…

It was a couple of days before you had the time to speak to Cal again. The older kids used a ‘divide and conquer’ method to keep tabs on the troublemakers of the bunch, which was a lot more difficult than you remembered babysitting to be.

It was in the library. You had been in there for a couple hours at that point, desperate to get in some studying for your test in AP history. That table had been your best friend for a while now, so when Crystal started her shift and came over to chat, it was a welcomed interruption.

“Hey. What are you doing?” She motioned to a chair, sliding it out and taking a seat only after you waved at her that it was okay.

“Just doing some cramming before my history test tomorrow.” You sighed, marking your page in your history book before slamming it shut and sliding down in your seat. “You?”

“Luke asked me to pick some books up for him, despite having not yet finished the ones he’s already checked out.” Crystal made her hands busy flipping through the pages of the books Luke requested. They didn’t seem bad, just… tedious.

“Our own little genius.” You stood, pushing your chair back as you went. “I’m going to grab some paper from the supply closet.”

As soon as she was sure you were gone, Crystal pulled her phone out of her pocket and shot off a quick text to Sierra.

Sierra smirked from her own table at the library, hiding it just in time from Hood. He was ‘helping’ her study for english. Or so he thought.

“What?” Hood looked up from his own calculus homework. “You’re looking at me weird.”

“Nothing. Will you go grab more printer ink from the supply closet? I need to print off my rough draft, but the computer says the cartridge is empty.” Hood grumbled, but he rose and set off in the direction of the supply closet anyways. Sierra grinned at his back. Phase three was a go.

It only took Hood a couple minutes to cross the library to the supply closet. It was mostly empty as he navigated through the bookshelves. He gave a quick wave to Crystal when he saw her, but didn’t stop to chat since she had her headphones in.

The storage closet was small. It barely fit the few racks of supplies that had been stuffed in there, much less a person. Or two people.

Hood. And you.

Hood, once again, felt himself freeze. He really, really had to stop doing that. It had been a few days since he saw you last, and he wasn’t expecting to see you here.

That was when he heard the door click shut behind him.

“Oh, no.” Hood whirled around, pulling on the door as hard as he could. Nothing. Shit. Shit fucking balls. He had just managed to get the two of you locked in here. Together.

“Oh, no?” You sounded a little concerned and a little offended. ‘Oh no’ was never great, but there was raw fear in Cal’s voice.

“Um, I may or may not have just gotten us locked in here.” Hood rolled his lips into his mouth. Not good. He reached for his phone, only to realize that it was still back at the table with Sierra. He didn’t think he would need it. Apparently, he had forgotten to account for the fact that he was very dumb.

“ Oh. Oh, no.” This time it was your turn to panic and pat yourself down, also searching for your phone. You had yours on you, at least, but it wasn’t much help since the battery had died a half an hour ago.

“Yeah. Not good.” Hood exhaled slowly through his mouth, sliding his back down the door til he was sitting on the ground. “Well, at the very least, we know someone will come for us eventually.”

“We do?” You walked over and took a seat next to him, your shoulder brushing his.

“Yeah. I’m here with Sierra. She sent me to get an ink cartridge. It’ll probably only be a few minutes before she comes looking for me.” Hood glanced down at his watch. 7:38. He would guess they’d be out by 8:00. And that was being generous.

“Good to know. Guess it’s just you and me until then.” You sigh and tipped your head back, leaning it against the door.

“I can think of worse company.” Hood watched as you raised your eyebrows, leaving your eyes closed.

“Hmm. Like Luke hopped up on sugar.” You smirked at your own words. Luke was already hard to control.

“Have you ever met Luke on a sugar high?” Hood leveled his eyes at you, and you peaked the one closest to him open.

“No?”

“Then you will never know how true your words are.” Hood chuckled a bit at the memory of Halloween. They let Luke ration out his own candy. That was mistake number one.

“Oh god. I don’t even want to know.” You grinned, but it was a tired one.

“Can I, um, ask you something?” Hood fiddled with his own fingers, more nervous than he had been in a while. And for what? You were just a person. Okay, maybe not just a person. But there still wasn’t a reason for all the knots in his stomach.

“I’m an open book.”

“Why did you only start as a RA a couple weeks into the school year?” It bothered him to not know. He was an RA and still couldn’t figure out a reason after thinking about it for weeks.

“Oh.” That was not what you were expecting him to ask. “Um, I had applied. The old RA left to go to the public school. That’s pretty much it.”

Hood just hummed. He felt like there might be more to that story, but it wasn’t his place to pry.

“My turn.” After you felt Cal’s eyes on you, you sat up and met them. “You got to ask a question. Now it’s my turn.”

You studied Cal’s face for a second before deciding on your question. “What do you think is your biggest flaw?”

Hood chuckled. “This is gonna be ironic, but probably the fact that my sense of humor doesn’t exist.”

“Now that can't be true. We're talking, laughing.” That much was true. You were both smiling.

“Okay. My turn again?” After a quick confirmation nod from you, Hood asked his next curiosity. “What’s your favorite place on Earth?”

“Home.” It was so simple, just that one word. And yet, you sensed that it had somehow struck deep with both of you. You were sure for different reasons, though.

Your next words were forcibly bright, rushed. “My turn. Do you prefer when people call you Hood or Cal?”

“That would depend on the person, I suppose. Everyone calls me Hood, including most of my teachers.” Hood smiled down at you, as if daring you to do what you were both thinking. “Back to me. How about your favorite book?”

“I can’t choose just one. There’s all sorts of great crap out there.” You smirked. “The fact that I called it crap is meaningless. My turn again. Do you believe in ghosts?”

Hood gaped at you. “Really? You can ask me anything you want, knowing full and well that I have to answer with complete honesty, and you chose to ask if I believe in ghosts?”

“Just answer the damn question.”

“Fine. No, I don’t believe in fucking ghosts.” Hood wasn’t 100% confident in his answer. He believed in the possibility of ghosts, perhaps. But not the existence of the ghosts themselves.

“Look, I just asked if you believed in them. I didn’t ask what you thought about their sexual habits.” Hood pushed your shoulder playfully, chuckling again. He had noticed himself doing that kind of a lot around you. It felt...nice.

The frequency of the questions dwindled after that, most of them escaping as yawns through your lips. More than once you found yourself nodding off in the middle of both questions and answers. Hood found great amusement in it. You would scrunch up your nose and sway a bit, wiping at your face and trying to fight your own body. Eventually, you would succumb to sleep, your head just brushing his shoulder. It would rest there for a split second before bouncing right back, snapping you back to consciousness each time. Each time, your head would use his shoulder as a pillow for just a fraction longer, until eventually you didn’t wake back up.

You were just… sleeping. On him. Really, you were snoring a little. It was cute to him. Hood glanced back at his watch. 8:17. It had been over half an hour, and still no rescue. Hood reached behind him and gave the doorknob a little jiggle again. Still nothing. He sighed, not that he was expecting it to magically open. It was worth a shot.

It was five minutes later Hood heard footsteps. He didn’t even have time to turn around to knock before the door swung open. You and Hood fell flat on your backs without the door supporting your weight, waking you up. In Hood’s arms. He had put his arm around you when you fell to make sure you didn’t hit your head, although, now that he was thinking about it, that was a bit weird. You sat up before he could move, pulling him up with you.

“Sierra. Our savior.” You grinned up at her. Cal was already on his feet, offering you a hand to help you up. You took it, barely using any of your own muscles with the strength he used to pull you up. “Well, this has been a pleasure. I’ll see you around, Calum Hood.”

From there, you went back to your table to gather up your things. It was time to get some real sleep. And not on the shoulder of Calum Hood.

…

tags: @rbforsmileycal​ @whatthefuckimbisexual​

[mateasha]

rendevous 18.6y

summary: chikage shows up at the front door of MANKAI after disappearing from the face of the Earth for 3 years. itaru is not happy. fandom: a3 pairing: chikage x itaru word count: 5340 tags:  original characters for the sake of plot, friends to strangers to lovers, angst, fluff, flashbacks, mentions of death, bad attempts at action, bad attempts at comedy

chapter 4: leaving

Itaru doesn’t really need much, so a single duffle bag and a suitcase might be able to fit everything— as he’s probably not going to be able to bring his entire gaming setup— which he is not ashamed to admit the fact that he did think about it (and tried, but stopped when he realized he would have to lift the actual desktop.) ...

As usual, Chikage is finished already, always ready to go and packed up all nice and neat. He sighs as he finally finishes zipping up the suitcase after stuffing in the rest of his stuff, which doesn’t necessarily make sense, because all he has is some nice clothes, a suit, a 3DS and some undergarments, of course.

He pulls himself away from the suitcase almost viciously, picking up the bag to leave it outside the door, and slowly make its way to the van, as they are going to be leaving later today.He picks it up by its handle and struggles a bit to pick it up, finally picking it up and heading to the front door.

He’s definitely dreading this trip, as for some reason, this suitcase he would normally be able to carry isn’t as manageable as he previously thought, but that barely matters to him when he has more pressing things to think about— like going on a business trip, (where he has to be professional practically 24/7, no gaming either) so Chikage’s existence has barely any effect on his psyche, when he’s mostly just in a tired state constantly.

He finally makes it to the front door, but coincidentally, as always, Chikage is standing right there in front of him.

“...Need help?”

Itaru looks at Chikage in front of him, staring at him absentmindedly, before Chikage taps him on the shoulder to make Itaru notice him.

“Oh, uh… Yeah. Sure.” Chikage takes the suitcase from Itaru’s hands effortlessly, like there was nothing in it, Itaru turning back around to pick up his duffel bag. 

“I’m putting it into the car.”

“Go ahead. I’ll meet you up there. We’re leaving in half an hour, okay?”

“See you.”

Itaru goes to the longue and dumps his duffel bag on the couch, sitting down with it, and taking out his phone, fiddling with the handle a bit. It’s late and dark outside, and barely anyone is awake, except for the couple people awake, who are the usual— Tsuzuru and Azuma.

But the one anomaly is awake— Izumi, who’s always preaching about sleeping early.

“Hey, Itaru.”

“Hey.”

“You’re going soon, I see.”

“Yeah.”

Izumi goes to the kitchen and pours herself a cup of hot water and puts a tea bag in. It’s slow and methodical, and Itaru feels like he can hear each and every movement— like just for a moment he had super hearing. He disregards it immediately, chalking it off as some weird thing that happens to him all the time, as Izumi comes back to sit down on the couch next to him.

She stops and lets her face fall into a resting position, calm as she takes a sip of her tea. 

“I didn’t prepare you one because you’re going soon, is that okay with you?”

“Yeah. I’m not really in the mood anyways.”

She chuckles a bit before taking another sip of her tea. “Thought so.”

She looks back towards the front, basically staring at nothing, exactly like Itaru is, but at least she has something to do. For some reason, time feels like it had stopped while she drinks the tea, the dust not settling anywhere. She takes another, more lengthy sip of her tea before turning to Itaru. 

“Hey.”

“Yeah?”

Itaru can smell the tea on her breath carry over towards him, the faint scent of valerian softly whispering over his nose, and the sound of farewell slightly ringing throughout the dorms. The room reverberates with melancholy after she says it, like her statement echoes, when in reality, it just stops. It isn’t much different to some days where the dorms are quiet and soundless, and just the slightest conversation is somehow out of the norm. Izumi takes a breath.

“Are you going to be okay?”

Itaru is surprised by the question, but not visibly so, just the sign of his attention being pulled towards her. “Yeah, why?”

“Well… it’s just you… Chikage…”

“It’ll be fine, Izumi. I’ve survived worse.”

“No gaming except for mobile though.”

“Well, that’s the real mission here. To live through the week without straight up dying.” Itaru tries to force out a laugh, to but on at least a little bit of the façade he can usually put on at work, but it comes out empty and soulless— which isn’t really much different from how he usually is at work. But at least a little more  heart is put into it, he thinks before Izumi notices and immediately starts talking.

“Listen. If Chikage does anything to you, call me ASAP.” Izumi looks into his eyes sternly and with a matter-of-factness that she only uses when she’s giving orders in practice.

“He won’t.”

“I don’t mean physically.”

“He won’t. I’ll be fine.”

“Just… I’m a bit worried. You reacted terribly—“

“Seriously, Izumi. I’m over him, and I’m over it. I’ll be fine. I know you’ll back me up anyways. Thanks.”

Izumi sighs loudly, finishing up her tea in a swift gulp. She gets up slowly, the couch creaking a little bit— but not enough to warrant the purchase of another one. “I’ll be going to sleep.” She goes to the trash can and throws away her tea bag, and fills up the old mug with water again, before passing by Itaru. “Have a nice trip, okay?”

“Thanks, Izumi.”

Itaru definitely knows that he isn’t over Chikage. Not in the dating way, the dating breakup way that that sentence could definitely be taken as a dating breakup way. Not that he would be opposed to dating Chikage. Which is a lie, of course. Maybe.

But his train of thought is stopped immediately by the shut of a door and the open of another, as he sees Chikage enter the lounge, picking up a couple things he left on the counter. “Oh, are you ready?”

“I’ve never been more ready.” Itaru’s fake enthusiasm doesn’t even scratch the surface of trying to convince him that he’s completely happy to go on this damned business trip, when he so obviously feels like he’s been cursed with having to do anything.

“Yeah.” Chikage’s voice is soulless as he looks towards the hallway, and the exit, and starts walking there slowly, and Itaru follows close behind.

“You have the tickets, right?”

“Yeah.” Itaru opens the door to the car and gets in. It smells like a citrus scent that isn’t too intense and he hands Itaru the aux to play something.

“I’m not in the mood for anything in particular. The airport isn’t too far anyways.” He sighs and buckles his seatbelt, Itaru following in his footsteps a bit after he does it.

Itaru doesn’t play anything though, instead opting in for the radio, because he doesn’t trust himself to play anything fitting for the car ride to the airport, playing the same slow jam as they were last night— I mean, what can he say? It is definitely a vibe, as he taps his feet slowly to the beat, not bringing any attention to him because Chikage is so focused on driving for no reason. Or maybe he’s faking it, and just doesn’t want to acknowledge the fact that he and Itaru are going to have to spend a week doing whatever their boss was going to do.

He’s definitely glad for the opportunity though. Maybe he’ll be able to game even harder later. It’ll all pay off in the end. They merge into the highway slowly, and the road seems like it goes on forever, but that’s fine, when the airport is only half an hour away.

All he needs to do is endure this week. It can’t get much worse.

—

There are some situations where someone can trick themselves into believing their own lie— which Itaru almost does, until Chikage touches his hand while picking up their luggage and putting it into the trolley cart. This shouldn’t be such a big deal, he says to himself in his mind to calm himself down, but to no avail, when Chikage looks at him weirdly, then looks away quickly to push the cart towards the now opening elevators. 

“Hurry up. The elevator is gonna close soon.”

Chikage doesn’t look at him as he says that, pushing the luggage cart into the elevator, as Itaru rushes in. 

“Can you push 25?”

“Yeah. Okay.”

The air is a bit stiff and smoky, the scent of nicotine filling the elevator, even if there is a no smoking sign plastered next to the button interface but it doesn’t matter to him, when he knows no one follows that rule anyways— or just the scent of smoke imprinting and soaking into the elevator walls. Contrary to popular belief, the elevator does not play music in America— which Itaru is only slightly disappointed about, as he tries so hard to occupy his thoughts to force out Chikage.

But it’s a different type of freedom when Itaru and Chikage finally get out, into less smoky, less stifling air. The design is slightly ornate— as ornate as the modern style can get, Itaru perceives as he looks around off the railing, the center of which being a large fountain. Chikage stops and pulls out the room key, which isn’t actually a key. 

“Get in. I’m tired.”

Chikage is visibly irritated— for select reasons, the reasons being that the lady at the receptionist desk did not believe them when they said they were here on business, and in fact bachelors, or maybe even dating. Which Chikage immediately shoots down with his inaccented English. Itaru can’t lie— he is impressed.

The inside of the room feels a lot better, with the smell of fresh linen, and the clean, finally non smoky air that he needed. It’s modern— again, with gray tones scattered across the room, with splashes of color— and modern paintings which anybody could have made. 

But the real kicker is the window/sliding door that opens up to the balcony, which overlooks the city, and allows you to see the twinkling lights overtake the stars, as Itaru walks over to the sliding door, looking towards the sky, leaving Chikage to do whatever he has to do alone.

“Could you help, please?”

Chikage doesn’t really need the help.

“It’s two bags, senpai. It’s fine.”

Chikage sighs, and carries the other bag to his side of the bedroom, and puts it onto his bed. 

“Let’s unpack. We won’t be here for a while, but I’d like us to get organized in the meantime.”

Which reminds him— his only criticism of the bedroom is the fact that it’s only one room, and Itaru would prefer his privacy. Especially with Chikage. And even if they do dorm together. For now.

Chikage is already finished, taking out the last couple pieces of clothing, leaving the now single mound of electronics in his bag, some of which he recognizes from the dorm— but no matter, he thinks, once he hears his stomach rumble.

“Can we get food?” Itaru is a bit timid with it, still looking down at his suitcase, even if it’s already empty. He feels around a bit before Chikage responds.

“...What?”

“Did you not just hear my stomach growl?”

His voice is deadpan, with only the slightest bit of questioning coming from his cords. “Yeah, I did— but now? It’s 1 am, Chigasaki.” 

“So? I eat when I want.” Which is a half lie, coming from Itaru, who has now localized almost a family’s fridge worth of food into his tiny mini fridge next to his gaming setup— which he had posted “DO NOT TOUCH” in big bright red letters on the door, when he already knows Banri is gonna go through it. That’s fine. He knows he won’t take much anyways, when he could just grab Omi’s leftovers.

Chikage sighs, before grabbing a laptop from his suitcase. “And what is this about ‘we’? I’m halfway done with today, and we haven’t even started the day.”

Itaru is practically done with Chikage— because the only thing worse than being with Chikage at this moment, at this time, is being with Chikage when he’s being pissy. “God, we can just get In ‘n Out. Don’t need to be an ass about it. Nice facade you put up. I would have liked it if you kept it up until at least the end of this trip.”

Chikage thinks for a bit, sighs, and then starts walking to the bathroom. “Let me splash my face with water first.” He completely disregards the facade part of his sentence, quickly moving to the sinks. He grabs the keys out of his pant pockets, and jingles them around. “Let’s go.”

—

No, it is not weird to be eating a burger in a In ‘n Out at 2 am. Especially in Los Angeles, which is filled with its fair share of night owls— well as much as these people could be considered night owls. Clubbing isn’t the most productive thing to do at night— but he respects the hustle.

But is it unbecoming? Maybe for Chikage, but not for Itaru, who is fully immersed in his laze which gives him an aura of carelessness, as he dives into the fry carton for the last fry, crunching away. Chikage’s burger wrapper sits on the table sadly, Itaru taking a look around.

The In ‘n Out is bustling for 2 am, with its diaspora of tired barely twenty, or almost thirty year old people scattered across the room— with— for some reason, this overly brown and white aesthetic going on throughout the restaurant. It’s larger than usual, the tables a bit more spread apart, and the sounds sparse, with a low chatter from the kitchen and from the tables around them, which is all he can hear from the corner of the store— god bless that no one can really see them. He takes a quick look at Chikage’s side of the booth.

“...Are you really gonna eat just that?” He glances back at his meal, which has all the fixins— the milkshake, fries, etc.

“Didn’t know you cared so much about my caloric intake.” Chikage snarkily bites back, taking out his phone and scrolling through it.

“What about it?”

“Dunno. Just thought about stuff for a bit.” Chikage says it as passive aggressively as possible to Itaru.

“We didn’t have to go here, if you’re so… against being here right now. My stomach needs food, Utsuki-senpai.”

“No, no.” He says it with a tone that’s more similar to aggressive than passive. “It’s fine.”

“I’m not gonna argue with you. I’m just trying to be nice.” He gets up.

“What’d I do wrong?” Chikage says it like he’s the most innocent person in the world, but still with that shit eating tone that sounds like he’s won— when he hasn’t, if there ever was a winner for this nonexistent competition. “I’m acting perfectly normal.”

“Don’t do that shit with me, Chikage.” Itaru starts to get only a little mad, but still keeping it under wraps in order to prevent him from actually snapping in this restaurant— figuratively and literally. “You know what I mean.” He takes a final bite of his burger, and wipes his mouth. “We literally could’ve just ordered In ‘n Out to our hotel room. I have Uber Eats on my phone. I just wanted to go out with you. Might as well catch up right? You’re obviously closed off to the idea.” He takes a large sigh in the gap of time from Itaru’s words and Chikage’s silence that somehow irritates him, when it shouldn’t. “We’re going now. I don’t want to stay here any longer.”

Chikage doesn’t respond, but he does get up. He gathers all the trash onto the tray and leaves Itaru there.

Fuck. 

He walks to the door, Itaru taking the tray and throwing the trash away.

There are a lot of things he could’ve said, Chikage thinks as he opens the door, looking at Itaru who quickly overtakes him to get to the care even faster. Why did I choose that? Why did I choose to push him away yet again? Chikage doesn’t want to think, as he gets into the car, and stares at the windshield, keys not yet in ignition. His stare isn’t blank though— which is obvious when he sighs. I have a job to do. He’s not a part of it. It does not matter. It shouldn’t matter to me at all.

Itaru pokes him once, looking directly at him. “Chikage. Are we going to go?”

“Fucking… give me a moment.” He takes a breath.

“Chikage. Why are you so pissy today? Did I do something? Trying to squash this bullshit so I don’t have to think about it either.” 

“Nothing. It’s fine. Don’t want to hear it right now.” He starts the ignition quickly, pulling out of the parking lot, and speeding off into the night towards the hotel. 

Chikage makes a lot of mistakes. A lot is an understatement— obviously, but genuinely, he thinks he may or may not have overreacted to whatever Itaru said— which wasn’t even offensive in intention or what he said.

Stupid decision. I have to work with this guy for the next week. Why did I say that?

Itaru can feel the car get faster and faster the more Chikage says stupid in his inner monologue— which he is not aware of, of course, but all he can wonder is why Chikage is so pissy. He half crosses his arms, and unpockets his phone out of the jacket pocket to check his messages.

—

5/1

// from: kantoku (Tachibana Izumi)

   to: irresponsible itaru (Chigasaki Itaru)

   // at 3:12 am

>>

kantoku:

did you get there safe, Itaru?

<<

irresponsible itaru:

yeah why?

>>

kantoku:

am I not allowed to be worried?

listen, you’re there with Chikage. I just need to know if everything is...

good. between you two.

<<

irresponsible itaru:

as good as me and chikage can get

hes being rlly pissy rn

dunno what i did tho…

we went to In n’ Out. i was hungy

>>

kantoku:

just making sure…

what do you mean pissy? Chikage is generally like that, Itaru.

<<

irresponsible itaru:

just more than usual. wont even let me talk.

not like i was trying to talk. i asked him

“oh are you sure thats all ur gonna eat??”

and he went all like

“blah blah blah didnt know u cared about me”

when obviously i did.. i told him to stop trying to start shit w me

>>

kantoku:

doesn’t sound… the best. I definitely wouldn’t want to be there.

just… text me if something goes down between you two. nothing petty, Itaru. no time to hear you have some petty gossip or complaint about him. there’s a lot of stuff… going on here.

if he’s shitty to you, I'll kick him out. it’ll be fine.

<<

irresponsible itaru:

thnxs

i rlly appreciate the gesture

>>

kantoku:

I’m your director. that’s what I'm supposed to be doing

<<

irresponsible itaru:

whats going on over there?

>>

kantoku:

uhhh… 

the normal. just a little more backed up, I guess. with you gone.

speaking of which, I have to go now. I’ll talk to you later, okay?

<<

irresponsible itaru:

thanks

—

He looks back up to Chikage who’s brows are a little furrowed with frustration, or maybe anger— Itaru was never the best at recognizing stuff like that— but he seems to be gripping at the steering wheel like there’s no tomorrow.

There isn't much to think about when the bright lights on the strip are still on for some reason, but that doesn’t matter when he’s tired too. Maybe Chikage is just tired— but he never really showed that, he thinks, when he looks back to his past with him. It’s completely fine. It’s not like he cared about whatever Chikage treated him like. I mean— except when his job is on the line— which is what the situation is right now; so yes. He does have a reason to care.

But jobs are jobs, and he knows he could take care of his finances— so it’ll be fine. Maybe he should quit. It wouldn’t really be the best idea however, when he still needs the money to whale on his best girl. Human suffering is nothing compared to her. He berates himself in his head for saying that and then laughing a bit about it in his head later. 

He turns on the radio, but to no avail, when the volume is already put all the way down— and the car doesn’t even have any preset stations on it— which  is generally weird. He fiddles around with the knob to look for a radio station and decides on a quiet slow jam. He doesn’t know why he got into these all of the sudden but he can feel his head bob while he listens to it, up and down to the beat, Chikage’s head facing forward at the road. Itaru doesn’t know why it's not nearly as tense as before, or as awkward as it was before. Maybe it’s the conversations they’ve had. Maybe it’s because they’re getting back into the groove— which they’ll never get back into the groove that they had before— but close enough. But he can’t decide, because at least it’s not like torture being near Chikage all the time. He bets Chikage thinks that way though.

He’s not hurt by it. Maybe he’s just slightly mad at something that happened, but Itaru is far too scared of Chikage right now to ask. Scared isn’t the right word, he thinks. It’s more of an anxious thing, he thinks, because Chikage’s eyebrows are still furrowed with anger for some reason. He can see it in how he turns, how he presses on the brakes and gas, and how he switches gears. 

By the time they’re almost at the hotel, it’s already 4 am but Chikage races straight past the valet, and takes up a parking spot, heading underground to park in that section, as there isn’t much parking space above ground either. It’s probably safer, but Chikage doesn’t care, and almost makes the tires screech in, as he abruptly stops the car and parks it so straight somehow, even if it only took him 10 seconds.

Chikage takes a deep breath. “Let’s go. I have things to attend to at the room.”

Itaru wants to ask why, but he definitely knows better, of course, when Chikage is like this for no reason, so he responds with an “okay”, and opens the door quickly to get out ASAP, so he doesn’t get murdered.

But the slight breeze and palm trees slightly swaying reminds him of something. It always will.

—

8/26 - 3 years ago

“...Senpai.”

Chikage looks behind him, jerking his hand away from the water that drips from his hand slowly, making ripples in it. He looks surprised. “Chigasaki-san.” He tips the -san with a bit of surprise.

Itaru is still in his night time clothing but this time with a warm puffy jacket surrounding him to warm him up, rather than that windbreaker that he wears while gaming— because even if it is summer, the docks are always so cold at night. He can see specks of sand in Chikage’s hair, that rustles like a bush in the wind, but waving as if it was a banner. Chikage looks back down at the water, but doesn’t go back down to touch it as wistfully as wistful can get. But instead, he runs his fingers against the grain of the floorboards, feeling it bump and curve against his fingers, the rough texture of the slightly weathered wood, stroking it carefully.

Itaru is just standing there, looking at the moon, his phone in his hand, but it isn’t even on, the screen reflecting a bit of the moonlight onto the board somehow, as he gets distracted by the full moon shining brightly on Chikage and the water, the reflection of the full moon rippling water. His hair shines bright also, as if it was platinum white, but it’s just glossy from the moist ocean air blowing through his hair. Chikage’s glasses are off, and set to the right of him, also reflecting the moonlight, a slight glint decorating the steel rims.

Itaru suddenly speaks. “It’s pretty out here.”

“It is. What about it though?”

“...Just saying.” He walks closer to Chikage, who’s still wearing the same attire as usual, even on this cold, late summer night. “Can I… sit here?”

Chikage doesn’t object, still fixated on the way that the water ripple and the sounds of the crashing waves onto the area around them. The sea is calm for once, which is odd. It’s odd of Chikage to be so attentive to the water, when there’s nothing super special or very interesting about it, just the fact that the waves are quiet. But he seems appreciative of it for some reason, when there is nothing to appreciate, Itaru notices.

“It’s a nice night here.” 

Chikage doesn’t respond to it as he skims his toes against the water idly, but almost without notice. He feels the water go through the spaces between his toes but for some reason, his toes aren’t cold. They’re warm to him. 

“...It is.”

The pauses between each question and each response are just long enough that it doesn’t become uncomfortable, or a chore to keep doing. A slight gust of wind brushes Chikage’s bangs out of his forehead, Itaru takes a quick glance to the right of him, before looking back down at their feet. He never realized how nice he looked in the moonlight. 

Itaru pauses to stop himself from asking every question at once. “Why are you out?”

“No reason.”

“There has to be some reason.”

“Not really.”

“It’s 3 am.” He pauses for dramatic effect. “There’s a reason.” Itaru feels like he’s prying a bit (and is), but not too much to the point it becomes uncomfortable. “I’m up because I finished my game and saw you weren’t in the room. If you were a little curious.”

Chikage laughs a little. “Oh, so you’re curious about me.”

“Oh, fuck off.” He says in a joking tone. He plays along with the silence that Chikage sets, just the same two sounds— the waves and the wind, but just one more added to the mix, which is the sound of the water sloshing beneath Chikage’s feet, and Itaru’s, who soon joins a little later. But even in this silence, it’s not uncomfortable. Itaru starts up again. “There’s a reason though, right?”

Chikage responds, “Sure.” in this most laconic, “get off my back” way he could, just as if he does not want to hear it.

“Beeeep. Invalid response. Try again.”

“It’s open to interpretation.” Chikage says it in his normal facetious fashion, with the same asshole tone that makes him sound like he has the biggest shit eating grin on the planet.

Which he does.

“Well, if you aren’t going to tell me…” Itaru trails off, officially just shutting up for a bit, which is because of the stars. Chikage sits there, expecting him to say something else to finish off his sentence, but he doesn’t, which takes Chikage by surprise.

Itaru instead stares at the stars again, and reaches into his pocket subconsciously for his phone, before realizing he left it by his bed before sleep. He interrupts the silence. “‘S pretty tonight.”

“Yeah. There isn’t much light pollution out here, surprisingly. It’s pretty.” Surprisingly, because it’s hard to escape the bright lights of Tokyo, even 20 km out of the city boundaries. He’s glad though— don’t get him wrong— that he has the chance to glance at the stars like before, but this time with different people. Or a different person. But maybe things aren’t so different after all, as he takes a glance at Itaru, who’s eyes sparkle a bit like a rose speckled with morning dew, his hair still tied up stupidly to unobscure his face.

He thinks back to his past again, about a certain someone.

“Sure is.” Itaru gazes harder, but suddenly becomes conscious again of what he’s doing. He looks at Chikage, who’s still staring at him, unfazed, but Itaru just looks at him a bit weirdly, before feeling a bit of red coming over the tips of his ears, and decides to crack a joke to lighten the mood— or more specifically, his mood. “This is kinda romantic, isn’t it? Just you and me, st—“ Chikage punches him a little harder than light to shut him up.

“Owwww…” Itaru over exaggerates the pain. “Rude…!”

“There are just some things you keep in your head.”

“I prefer not to do that.” Itaru almost sounds like he put a heart on the end of the sentence, like a little cherry on top of the section of conversation they just had. Chikage stopped stirring the water a while ago, now solely just looking at the ripples from the waves, and the little bit of sea form that touches the dock’s wooden stands. Chikage stops, and backtracks.

“What were you gonna say?”

“Dunno.” Itaru is obviously lying. Or maybe not. Chikage can’t even tell this time, which is odd, when usually he can read Itaru like a book. “But you can tell me stuff, y’know? I’ve done more ‘Organization’ stuff than everyone. ‘Cept Hisoka but… yeah.”

“I’m… aware.” Chikage reluctantly says aware for some reason, which is only a little bit of an oddity when it is taken into consideration for Chikage, but he soon moves on just to cover it up a little more. “I know I’m very capable of doing such.”

He really does know, Chikage thinks to himself quickly, as he starts to swirl the water, when he notices Itaru’s foot covered in the foam of the sea as if it was a little too much frothy milk, which Itaru notices next before dipping his whole foot into the water to get it off. He laughs a bit, which causes Chikage to roll his eyes— in an endearing way of course, (as endearing as Chikage can get) prompting a slight kick from Itaru.

“Good.” Itaru smiles, as much as a 3 am smile can be a smile through the haziness of the night, and the fog of the brain that sticks to it like honey to a spoon.

“What?”

“It’s good that you know.” 

“...Yeah.” Chikage nods, but in an “I guess” manner, which elicits another, stronger nod from him, this time with a little more assuredness.

“You can come to us if you truly need help. Even if it does put our lives on the line— we can take it.” Itaru doesn’t look at Chikage while saying it, but instead looks down, as if he was frowning a bit, but isn’t upon closer inspection by Chikage’s eyes, who are only a little bit looking at Itaru’s form. “Head to bed soon, ‘k?” He gets up, and pats Chikage on the back. “It’s a bit chilly out here. Don’t wanna catch a cold on MANKAI vacation.”

“Yeah, yeah. Forgot it was a vacation… haha.” Chikage watches Itaru leave slowly, feeling the vibrations of his footsteps get farther and farther away, and the slight sounds of creaking boards get farther and farther away, but Chikage doesn’t even look back. He keeps swirling the water around, as if someone would come out if he had kept stirring it, but he stops, and looks at the moon, still full as ever. His eyes are only a bit glossy, but not in the crying sense.

“I believe you, Itaru.”

chapter 1 / chapter 2 / chapter 3 / chapter 4 / chapter 5 / chapter 6

[lovetorn]

camping [colby brock]

for @sp00kybrock :)

When Colby asked if you wanted to go camping, you were hesitant. It was such an out-of-the-blue question, but he looked keen and you couldn’t turn him down.

“where did this come from?” you had asked him at 2am when you two were on the brink of sleep.

“I want to get away with my girl and show her my phenomenal boy scout skills” He mumbled, half asleep. All you did was laugh and pat his cheek, nodding.

“Okay loser” You whispered, too tired to move your hand off his face.

-

“You got the snacks?” Colby asked you, attempting to stuff another pillow in the trunk.

“Yeah baby, the whole stash” you giggled, opening the packet of beef jerky. As he closed the trunk, the car shook, and he hopped in the front seat, closing the door.

“Shall we go?” He questioned happily, grabbing a piece of beef jerky and putting it in his mouth, starting the car. You only smiled at him as he reversed out of the car spot, putting your fist out for him to bump. His fist bounced off yours as you plugged the AUX into your phone, pressing shuffle on Spotify.

-

As the two of you pull up to the campsite, there was a stray doe standing next to the bench. You lock eyes with Colby,

“uh- it's fine, they probably won’t be near our tent” Colby claimed unsurely, squeezing your hand reassuringly, although you didn’t take any of his bullshit.

“Colby, I swear to god” you warned, opening the door and getting out, the crisp air hitting your face. You shivered and noticed Colby wearing a hoodie, you not.

“Fuck its cold” you complained, grabbing your bag from the backseat. Colby didn’t reply, gathering the supplies from the back of the car.

“This is the part where you give me your hoodie, boyfriend” you rolled your eyes, closing the back door and meeting Colby at the back.

“But I’m cold, girlfriend” he winked, shutting the trunk and trying to balance the tent, chairs, food, pillows and blankets in his arms. You rolled your eyes once again and took the chairs off him.

“Thanks, baby” he grinned, puckering his lips dramatically. You sighed, jokingly, and leaned in to kiss his mouth. He pulled away abruptly and locked the car, leading you to where you would be spending the next 15 hours.

“This doesn’t make any fucking sense!” You yell, throwing the tent poles on the ground. Colby laughed, his side of the tent finished. He stumbled over to you, picking up the poles.

“Here baby, this is where my boy scout skills come in handy” he winked, going through the steps with you, even though you weren’t listening.

Once the tent was pitched, by Colby, he took your hand,

“Let’s go exploring” He suggested, an evil twinkle in his eye. You squinted at him before nodding willingly.  

-

The exploring part was quite an adventure. Colby continually ran ahead to try and scare you and would attempt to climb large trees. You tried to follow him up one tree but kept slipping, whilst Colby sat at the top laughing at you.

“Cole stop laughing at me” you pouted, “I’m going back to camp” you teased, hearing Colby hurriedly make his way back down the branches.

“Baby, baby, wait” but you were already halfway back. Once you were out of his sight, you hid behind a thick trunk, snickering to yourself.

“Y/N?” he yelled, walking quickly down the path you went came from. Once he was close enough, you sprung out and Colby was left staggering back, hand on his heart.

“Fuck!” he hunched over to regain his breath while you were doing to same but for the opposite reason. You couldn’t stop laughing, every time you closed your eyes you saw his face in shock. You leaned backwards, tears falling from the corners of your eyes. Colby also started to giggle, seeing how pleased you were with yourself. It was cute.

-

Once you got back from the campsite trails, it was getting dark and Colby suggested he start a fire. You reluctantly agreed, thinking he was gonna pull out his lighter and burn some leaves. But you were terribly wrong. This boy made a circle of rocks and filled it with sticks and leaves, trying his hardest to start a fire by causing friction between two sticks. You decided to opt out of this one, lounging on a camp chair, covered with blankets and Colby's hoodie in which he removed because ‘creating fire is hard’, and boy was he right. You had been sitting in the same chair for an hour now, Colby’s forehead was covered in sweat as he tried for the millionth time to create a spark. You looked at your surroundings, it was dark now, so dark you couldn’t see 10 metres in front of you without some form of light.

Colby then screamed, a small flame present at the bottom of the pit he made.

“YES!” he exclaimed, beyond ecstatic he had finally made fire. He ran around the fire in happiness, picking you up from the camp chair and continued running. He had a smile spread across his face, his dimples deeper than ever. He put you down and pointed at the fire, “Baby! Look!” He laughed in astonishment, you nodded, a smile also gracing your face.

“I’m so proud of you bub” You squished his cheek as he sighed loudly, before plopping in the chair, pulling you on top of him.

“What do you say? Let’s make smores!!” He bellowed, throwing his arm beside the chair into the bag of food, pulling out biscuits, chocolate and marshmallows.

Once the smores were made, Colby had gotten the extra chair, claiming that ‘its easier to make smores on a flat surface’ to which you rolled your eyes to, ‘I still love you though’.

-

As cliché as it sounded, it was around 10:30pm when the two of you decided to lay on the picnic blanket you brought and watch the stars. The trees rustled above you, a bitter wind blowing through your site. Colby laid his head on your chest, arms around your waist as you run your fingertips through his blue locks. He interrupted the silence with,

“Do you think they can deliver pizza in the middle of the woods babe?”.

After a while of silence, Colby felt the urge to tell you about his childhood.

“Can I tell you about boy scouts when I was little?” to which you whispered a soft ‘yeah’. He then went on to tell you amusing stories from when he used to camp and learn skills with his friends.

“And I remember when I was trying to get my Eagle Scout Award for Knots-“ he stopped mid-sentence, freezing up.

“Yeah, continue” you urged him to resume, but he didn’t, he laid there, arms tightly wrapped around your frame.

“Y/N don’t freak out” Your eyes widened, “Why?” You shuddered, lifting your head. You could see now why he froze. On your leg, sat a large, furry spider. You screamed loudly, jumping up from Colby and the blanket, running around the fire to the other side, him not far behind you.

“Kill it!” he trembled, you looked at him stunned, “IM NOT KILLING IT. YOU’RE THE BOYSCOUT BROCK YOU KILL IT”. His eyes widened as he made his way around the fire, shoe in hand. He screamed once again when he couldn’t see it anymore.

“If it crawls on me in the middle of the night, you’re killing it” He warned, grabbing your hand and pulling you into the tent.

-

It was about 1am when you awoke from how cold you were. Colby laid on the opposite side of the tent, in his own sleeping bag. You didn’t necessarily want to wake him, but, desperate times call for desperate measures.

“Cole” you whispered, shifting across the tent in an attempt to get closer. “Colby,” You said louder, patting his cheek softly. The only way he would wake up was if he felt the cold like you did. So, without waking him up, you unzipped his sleeping bag and slipped in next to him. He turned over in the cramped space and faced you, eyes scrunched.

“Hi” he mumbled, throwing his arm over you and snuggling his face into your neck. Finally warm, you fell back into slumber, Colby slightly drooling on your collarbone, but you ignored that the best you could.

-

The next time you woke up, it was 4am and you cursed yourself for drinking that whole bottle of water before you slept. Shaking Colby awake, you felt bad when he turned over worried.

“What’s wrong” He croaked, voice full of sleep.

“Can you come pee with me?” You whispered as he sighed, nodding. The two of you got up lazily, pulling on hoodies and putting shoes on. You pulled him out of the tent and into the cold air.

“Oh Jesus” he muttered, as soon as you were out of the tent. It was pitch black, and cold, and you knew you couldn’t get lost. Picking up the lone flashlight, you latched onto Colby’s arm, trying to find the toilets at the campsite. You nearly tripped over a few tree roots, but it was worth it when you saw the dingy lights of the toilet block. You ran from where you were, making it in time, “I’ll wait here”.

-

The morning after your adventurous journeys, you two were knackered, to say the least. Colby hastily threw the camp chairs in the trunk and yours and his bags into the backseat.

“Cole pack the car nicely so it’s easier to unpack when we get home” you scolded. You wanted nothing more than to do the same and throw all your shit into the car, but you knew when you got home you would’ve probably cried from the unorganisation. He rubbed his eyes, huffing and putting the bags and supplies in the car in order instead of messily.

When you finally got into the car and started to leave, your eyes were heavy. You curled up to your pillow that leant against the door and sleep overcame you.

Colby looked over at you after half an hour of driving. He smiled as he saw you in your position, softly singing the words to his favourite songs, being careful not the wake you.  

[packsbeforesnacks]

Notes on Camp || Orion & Winn

TIMING: Friday, April 10th, 2020, Sunset LOCATION: Somewhere in the Foothills of Appalachia, Maine PARTIES: @3starsquinn & @packsbeforesnacks SUMMARY: Rio and Winn were supposed to go on a retreat for their theatre class. Winn gets them lost. Maybe the real camping trip was the friends we made along the way! (feat. Yeth Hounds) WARNINGS: None.

There were few things that Winn enjoyed more than a good ol’ fashioned campin’ trip. And given his run-in with the asanbosam earlier in the week, he was more than happy to get out of White Crest for the weekend. Darbussy had been ecstatic when the sun came out on Monday evening, now no administrative excuse for why the retreat would have to be cancelled. He knew Blanche would hate it — hell, Orion probably would, too. But it would be a good bonding experience. Probably.

Blanche had laughed him off the phone when he’d called her to see if she was ready, which he took to mean that she’d put off packing until the last possible moment. Orion seemed like he had a good head on his shoulders, though. He’d be packed, for sure. So, Winn drove to the library, whistling a happy tune.

He pulled up on the curb, and honked twice. Winn didn’t want to kill Orion, so he’d dressed conservatively — a loose tank that showed off his arms and only a hint of his pecs. Tasteful side boob, as it were. He honked one more time for good measure, just in case the younger man hadn’t heard him, and set about fiddlin’ with the radio before decidin’ he’d toss Orion a bone (ha) and the AUX cord.

This was gonna be great.

Orion was a mixed bag of emotions, but what else was new? Sure, he did want to hang out with Blanche and Winn. If only his desire to make friends was strong enough to completely destroy the fear of embarrassing himself in front of them. But alas, it seemed like that wasn’t going to go away anytime soon, so instead he would just have to force himself against his own judgement and will to go camping. Really, the only thing he could hope for was that he didn’t have a straight up panic attack like last time, or at the very least that the two found his awkwardness endearing. It was all he had going for him.

Of course, when Winn had offered to drive, Orion wasn’t going to disagree, but he certainly wasn’t about to let Winn pick him up from his house. If his mom had been home… well, Orion didn’t want to think about that. If his family found out he was going out in the woods camping with a werewolf? They would implode. That was how he ended up at the library, bag full of clothes, supplies and snacks awkwardly resting at his side while he read one of the books he had planned on checking out to bring with him. Just in case he finished one. He didn’t know Winn’s sleep schedule, and if Rio found himself up late he could get some good reading in.

The horn cut through Rio’s hearing like a bullet, catching him off guard and forcing him to jump (much to the surprise of a few other students around him; either they hadn’t heard the horn or it wasn’t nearly loud enough to scare normal hearing). Assuming that may be his ride, Orion jumped up and slung the bag over his shoulders. He tucked the stack of books under his arms and ran over to check them out, another honking lighting up his senses. At least he didn’t jump that time.

Orion waved on his way to the car door and opened it up, tossing his bag in the back as well as his stack of books. “Hey! Thanks for picking me up.” Of course, Winn’s muscles were on full display, and Orion rubbed at his eyes to force himself to look away. He climbed into the front seat, holding onto one of the books that he had checked out. “I’m excited!” Mostly.

The corner of Winn’s mouth tugged upward into a half-smirk as Orion took the front seat of his car. ‘Course, who was he to argue with dibs? Blanche hadn’t been ready, so Blanche could lose her seat. ‘Sides, he was more than willing to get to know Orion. Since their ill-fated acting exercise, he’d tried to stick close to the younger man, the same old instincts that made him go into counseling cropping up. Wolves ran in packs, and Winn wouldn’t deny he made friends — or, folks he would call a friend — fast. And since Orion was clearly uncomfortable with Darbussy’s constant needling at all of their expenses, Winn figured he could be (somewhat) of a buffer. He was broad and charming, and Blanche could take care of herself.

Given that Orion had been fairly normal around him — other than the occasional raised heartbeat, which, right, Winn still needed to organically bring that little tidbit up — Winn figured he was doing a half-decent job of making sure he stayed under the radar in his attempts. Darbussy had seemed to notice, though, and, for better or worse, paired Winn and Orion up for exercises more often than not. There was, strictly speaking, less touching and certainly less kissing involved than their initial encounter, so it had been fine — even fun! But Winn still felt like he didn’t really know the other guy.

He glanced over to make sure Orion had buckled himself in (humans were squishy!), and noticed Orion was rubbing at his eyes. He wasn’t yawning or nothin’, but the joke came easy: “Stay up late partying?” Winn chuckled. Thirsty Thursdays, indeed.

But Winn didn’t really think Orion was that much of a partier, if at all. After all, he’d seen the books that Orion had slung into his backseat. Was he doing homework this weekend? Gross. Not if Winn could help it. But then, there was one in the other man’s lap. Maybe he… just liked reading? Winn knew he liked comics. And if nothing else, Winn was great at small talk. “Whatcha got there?” he asked, sticking a thumb out towards Orion’s lap as he pulled off the curb outside the library and drove towards Blanche’s house.

This was going to be fun, right? This was going to be fun… This was totally going to be fun. This would be fun! If Orion told himself that enough he would create some self fulfilling prophecy. He wasn’t really worried about the company, at least not exactly. If anything he was worried about himself in front of the company. Orion had learned that he seemed to make himself far more nervous than other people had the ability to. Not that people like Winn or Adam couldn’t do just fine prickling Rio’s nerves on their own. But Orion seemed to always find a way to make things even worse.

“Ha ha.” Orion fake laughed at Winn’s joke, shooting him a side eye and trying to keep himself calm and collected. No need for nerves right now. “Just stayed up late I guess.” Not exactly an exciting answer, but it would take a bit longer for Rio to find his footing before he could try for a joke. Orion kept glancing over at Winn, mostly because he hated himself he supposed. It was supposed to be sunny today, but still not above the 50’s, which made Winn’s choice of outfit stick out. Knowing what Orion knew, the cold probably didn’t bother Winn much anyways. On the opposite end of the scale, Orion was probably getting ready to sweat during the hike today. He had worn a long sleeve shirt with a hoodie on top of that plus a pair of track pants. But he wasn’t about to make the same mistake that he had with Skylar at the Farmer’s Market.

“This?” Orion asked, flashing the book that he held tightly in his hands. “Nothing, really. Just a book on Norse Mythology. I met this guy who speaks some Scandinavian who offered to help with some translations if needed. So I’m going to reread through some of these and try to pick some out that I hope he can help with.” Orion smiled nervously. That may have been the lamest thing he could possibly have said to Winn, but oh well. Despite Rio’s desire to make some friends in this town, he also wasn’t exactly prepared to change anything about himself to do it. “You uh— Ready to do some hiking?”

“Couldn’t sleep?” Winn asked, trying to pry a scrap of information out of Orion. He was beginning to sense he was maybe, a little bit, out of his element. It wasn’t that Orion was a brick wall, precisely, more than Winn didn’t know what to say that wouldn’t be taken the wrong way. He wished, like with Noah, he could just push past the awkwardness and into a blossoming friendship. But, well. Maybe Orion would open up if Winn revealed more about himself? “Can’t get to sleep myself, a lot of the time. Have to take a sleep aid to get me there.” Among other things. But he’d hold off on suggesting Orion try weed or, well, any of the supernatural drugs and sedatives that Natalia had hawked in his direction. The younger man seemed a little clean-cut for that. Not that Winn really knew. “You look snug as a bug in a rug, though. I run hot. Heck, even in midwinter I was only puttin’ on pants when I had to be somewhere, y’know?”

His ears perked up at Orion’s mention of Norse mythology. When Winn was younger, before he’d gotten involved in sports and his afternoons were burned away with practices and games, Winn had had an ongoing, but passionate, love affair with his father’s stacks of myths. He’d learned a little bit of everything and, while he’d forgotten most of it, he couldn’t deny that he’d cottoned onto the Norse myths the best — the idea of different realms, of the deep magic in those stories, enraptured him. Made him an easy target to believe in werewolves, he supposed. “What’s your favorite part about it?” he asked excitedly. “My favorite deity is probably Frigg or Freyja, though I know some folks think they’re the same goddess or came from the same goddess? ‘S kinda cool, right? Like, Frigg having the whole “I see the future” thing and havin’ to keep it secret and be kind of mysterious. I, uh.” He coughed, blushing a bit. Most of that had jumped out of him before he’d even really thought about it, and he’d been about to talk about wonderin’ if the gods and goddesses were real. That’d prolly be a step too far, even for Orion. He pivoted. “I, uh. Dunno how serious y’are in myths and whatnot, but I can read Chinese. Simplified and traditional. A little out-of-practice, but if you, like, needed help, I could help. If you needed help.” Wait, shit, he’d already said that. He decided to take the lifeline that Orion had given him.

“Shit yeah, bro,” he said, fist pumping to no one in particular. “Hiking is the bomb. Gettin’ out into nature, really seein’ what’s hidin’ in the woods? If you’re lucky, o’course. How ‘bout you? Could prolly carry you on my back, but it’s a lot more fun for the both of us if you can keep up.” Shit, was that offensive? Orion was kind of small, but it’s not as if Winn knew his, like, muscle mass. Maybe he worked out. He fumbled, again, shit, he was really putting his foot in his mouth today. “I, uh. If you want some music, there’s, like—” he gestured vaguely at the AUX cord hanging out of the cassette deck “—that whole thing. Should work. I’m into most everythin’. ‘Course we can just keep talkin’, so long as it’s not, like, dead silent. ‘Course, when Blanche gets in here, there’s no chance of chatter dyin’ down… Actually, speakin’ of which, I should give her a call, we’re only a few minutes out. Y’wanna stop and get some grub before we head out or wait until we get there? This car’s taken its fair share of food stains, so don’t worry your pretty little head about bein’ polite. I can scarf down with the best of ‘em.”

Orion shrugged. He didn’t talk about his sleeping issues much. The nightmares kept him up a lot of times. They weren’t usually as bad if he was sleeping at the Scribe Headquarters. He figured that was because he was away from his parents and that house. Still, the headquarters kept him busy enough that he usually ended up staying up way too late into the night reading anyways. “I uh—I get distracted easily.” That was the simpler way to put it. He didn’t feel the need or desire to delve into the nightmares right now. Not exactly an easy or friendly conversation. “Really? Sorry to hear that. I—” He wasn’t sure what Winn was implying when he meant sleep aid. Like sleeping pills? Or something else? “It depends on the night.” Rio crossed his arms instinctively. Rio wished that he ran cold, so the outfits would make more sense. But he had adjusted. “Oh yikes. I’d freeze to death.” He laughed nervously, trying to push the thought of Winn without pants far from his brain.

Orion had to admit that he was pleasantly surprised by Winn’s interest in Norse mythology. Not that Orion had wanted to judge a book by its cover, especially considering that first interaction the two had during the improv class. Plenty of Winn’s choices had taken Orion by surprise that day. But here the two had found some sort of common ground—and just the thought of talking about something like Norse mythology was enough to put Orion more at ease. “Oh, those are great! Yeah, there are a lot of stories that equate them to being the same deity, but regardless Freya was crazy cool. Some of the stories credit her with teaching Odin what he knew about magic. That’s so crazy cool. Since Odin would go on to be one of the mainstays of Norse Mythology in popular culture.”

He thought on things for a moment. “Obviously Ragnarok is an incredible story. Everything about it is just so… grandeur. It makes some other mythologies look like children’s stories. Which I mean, I guess a lot of, like, Greek mythology has been turned into a children’s story. But it probably shouldn’t be, you know?” A giant grin spread across Orion’s face at Winn’s offer, not knowing that about him. He paused for a moment, not speaking as he tried to home in on a few of the words that he had learned of Chinese: “That’s so cool!” It was broken up and the pronunciation could have been terrible for all Orion knew but he was like 90% sure that he had at least said the correct words. Whenever he started learning the basics of a new language, he usually started with phrases that he said a lot in English. ‘That’s so cool’ was probably one of Orion’s most used sentences. “Oh, I take mythology and history very seriously. And I really appreciate it! The other day I was reading about unicorns and how they’re considered a sacred animal in Chinese mythology, but how they look nothing like what we picture as unicorns. Turns out the idea of a horse with a horn is a lot more European than universal. Which I found fascinating.”

Turned out, Winn really liked to talk. It was perfect, because it meant that Rio didn’t have to worry as much about keeping a conversation going.  Plus, the more Winn talked the more Rio realized that… he almost sounded a bit nervous at times. Which was, well, comforting to say the least. “I’m incredibly clumsy and my body rejects the outdoors, but other than that I’m very excited. I like hiking enough.” He hadn’t done it much admittedly, but it was definitely something that he was interested in doing. With the right people. He giggled at the comment about Blanche. Thankfully, Orion was very comfortable speaking to her now, surprising even himself. “I’m good with pretty much any music. I uh—I’m not really picky about anything. I’m not super crazy about, like, metal. Or Christian Rock, I guess.” The mention of food made Rio’s stomach growl on reflex. “I uh—well, I could definitely eat. Always. But I’m fine with waiting.”

“Hm,” Winn said. “Mostly just gettin’ to sleep, for me, rather than stayin’ awake and gettin’ lost in somethin’ or other.” Winn privately wondered if his transformation had thrown off his Circadian rhythm. The wolf wanted to be out at night, prowling, so, maybe, it would do anything to fight off its other half, to make Winn feel like he couldn’t sleep at night, that he should switch over entirely. But no. He was still, well, negligibly human. Had to live a human life. Not his fault that his inner wolf had taken all of his rebellion and ramped it up to eleven. “Rain helps, white noise. Stayed in Seattle for a couple’a weeks during undergrad? Best sleep I ever got.” Granted, part of that was Roberto keepin’ him exhausted. But, well, Orion didn’t need to know that much about what Winn got up to.

“And let’s be real, Odin prolly needed someone to teach ‘m magic. Shit, if magic were real—” Winn laughed privately “—I bet all those goddesses, like Hecate, Freya, Isis, whoever, would come down to show us what’s happenin’. I remember gettin’ jealous, like, when are dudes gonna get to sling around spells and potions and shit? Like, I’unno, Loki was sort of that. Though, guess they were a little more gender-fluid, so maybe not the right example.” He hummed thoughtfully. “Yeah, man, if the Greeks and Romans could see what Disney did to their myths, they’d be, like, super mad. “Go the Distance” is a bop, though, so the dead folks can suck it.” He watched as Orion’s face split into a (brilliant, frankly) smile at his offer of translating, and when he spoke, admittedly a little rough (but like would Winn be rude? naw), Mandarin. It was precious. Winn wondered why he didn’t smile more, it really changed his face. Not that Orion was ugly or nothin’, but there was something about enthusiasm, about pure joy, that really lit people up from the inside, gave their souls (or whatever) a chance to shine.

“Thank my father!” he said back, then in English to cover his bases. Winn listened to Orion talk about Chinese mythology, an area that he, oddly, didn’t know as much about. “My pa taught comparative literature, but I guess he had a pretty… Western trainin’? Or had mixed feelings ‘bout China. Never really found much. But that’s cool. I mean, unicorns are associated, in the West, with, like, purity, right? I can imagine Europeans focusin’ on a horn and associatin’ it with purity, if you catch my meanin’.” He wiggled his eyebrows, to make his intent even clearer. “But, naw, that’s really cool. I’m serious about the offer. Could help pass some of those sleepless nights, and I… miss it, I think.” Plus, like, who knew what elements from mythology were real. Orion might stumble upon somethin’ that Winn would actually run across. He wished, in that moment, he could show the other man. He seemed like the type to appreciate it, rather than run away screamin’.

“C’mon—” He fumbled, since he was pretty fast and loose with the nicknames. Didn’t want to offend Orion, but he felt like he’d heard Blanche call him somethin’ else a few times… “Rio. Just pick somethin’, bro. I got no judgment in my heart. Though, well, actually. Yeah. No Christian rock. This car’s been part of too many sins to not burst into flames. Don’t think either of us would love that.” Rio’s stomach growled, and Winn smirked. “I heard that. Like I said, don’t be shy about needin’ anythin’. We’ve got plenty of time and I like night drivin’ regardless. You prolly know this town better than me, so just pick somethin’ and we’ll head there after gettin’ Blanche.”

Speaking of. Winn picked up his cell, knowing they were coming up on Blanche’s house. He’d been almost taken aback the first time he’d visited her, post move. And then, like, hangin’ out when Blanche had been tailorin’ him for his date with Ricky. It was a big house and, like, Blanche—if her reaction to Winn’s own wealth was anythin’ to go by—seemed, uh, uncomfortable with money. To say the least. Blanche picked up on the fourth ring. “Winn,” she said, “Please tell me you aren’t at my house right now.

“Uh, pullin’ up in five. What’s up?” he asked.

“Winn! My shoulder is wack, you think I’m going to that? I’m at work!” Blanche said. Winn heard a loud rumble in the background. “Gotta go, have fun, bye!” Then, she hung up.

Well. Huh.

“Uh,” Winn said, intelligently, as he put his phone into one of the cup holders. “So, looks like Blanche isn’t joinin’ us on the trip. Forgot she hurt her shoulder, and I guess she forgot to tell me she wasn’t comin’? Just you ‘n me, Rio.” It’d be fiiine.

Conversations like this reminded Orion of how little he knew about Winn, which shouldn’t have been surprising considering the two hadn’t known each other long and didn’t spend much time talking to begin with. At least not about themselves. “That’s cool. I feel like you’ve… been a lot of places? Like travelling and stuff.” As much as Rio liked to think he knew about the history of the world, he had never actually seen any of it for himself. He had never even left Maine.

Orion remained pleasantly surprised by how much Winn knew and seemed interested in Norse mythology, but he was even more surprised by how much he was talking to keep up with the conversation. Maybe it was because the conversation was about history that Orion had turned so chatty. Of course, thinking about it seemed to make Orion a bit more nervous and he resigned himself to mostly nodding in agreement with Winn, chiming in to proclaim “God the Distance is a bop. All of Disney is.” He giggled about the unicorn, the phallic symbol of the horn never really occurring to Orion until Winn had mentioned it. “I- well I actually never thought of it that way. But yes, the symbolized peace or innocence. In Chinese cultures they look like sort of a chimera of other creatures. They’re considered one of the four noble animals of East Asia. It sort of symbolized virtues and it had all kinds of powers associated with it. So thanks, I will definitely take you up on it.

Orion procrastinated with choosing music just long enough for Winn to get on the phone with Blanche. His hearing picked up on the conversation and Orion felt his stomach drop. He was going to be alone? With Winn? Oh god. He was going to pass out. But it was too late to bail now… what excuse could he possibly come up with? “Oh.. right. Well, yeah that’s probably for the best. That she gets some rest.” He nodded, maybe a bit too long and had to force himself to stop nodding. Oh boy. “Um, welp let’s get going I guess!” He finally picked a song. It seemed easy enough to go based on a song that they had just agreed was a bop. So Hercules it was.

“I have,” Winn admitted. He’d alluded as much to Blanche, referenced being from the South in conversation often enough, that it was a fair observation. Winn always felt privileged, in some ways. Even before his trust vested, Dad and Ma had taken him over the country — and beyond. They always returned to Falls Church, but Winn knew he’d seen more of the world before his eighteenth birthday than some saw in their lives. “I always thought to myself, ‘The world’s a big place, there are places some folks never see. I wanna see ‘em all.’ Have you travelled much?” Winn got the sense… maybe not. It wasn’t just the clear interest in Rio’s eyes whenever he talked about the places he’d been, but that helped. “Where would you want to go? If you had your pick o’ the lot?”

He could hear Rio’s heartbeat skip a bit when he announced Blanche wouldn’t be joinin’ them, but Winn was used to it. Would Rio ever not be nervous around him? What was there to be nervous about? Winn hummed along to the melody line of “Go the Distance,” half-singing the end of the chorus when it came up. It was… unexpectedly a little emotional for Winn, but he didn’t need to unload his baggage on Rio. They barely knew each other, after all. “You, uh…” He coughed, hoping to hide the roughness in his voice. “Figure out dinner?” The song faded in the background, and into “I Won’t Say (I’m in Love)” smoothly.

Orion laughed. It was sarcastic, but not harsh. “No. No, I haven’t. I’ve never even been outside of Maine.” He was still laughing, mostly under his breath now. “There are so many places I’d want to go. I want to go to Massachusetts and eat Sonic, first thing.” He laughed again, realizing that without context it didn’t make much sense. “Uh— That’s a conversation I had with someone. I’ve never eaten there.” He shrugged. “But, uh, like a serious answer. God… so many options. I want to go to Egypt. And Rome. And Tokyo. And a bunch of other places.” Not that he thought he’d ever really get the chance.

Orion hummed along quietly to music as they drove along. “We can just swing by any fast food place and grab something on the way. I will eat anything.” He tapped his fingers against his knee along to the music. Winn had a good voice, and the desire to sing along with Disney was strong. But for the moment, his own nerves kept him from joining in outside of humming along to the muses' words. He cracked open the book he had been holding onto and absentmindedly stared at the words. “Sorry that Blanche couldn’t come along. I know I’m not really exciting company. Blanche is always fun.”

“Sonic does make a good burger to satisfy all your beastly cravings,” Winn said, laughing a little at his own joke. Beastly. Ha. Speaking of which… He turned the car away from the road to Blanche’s house, heading towards a burger place on their way out of White Crest. Darbussy would be Dar-pissy if they were late, and Winn knew Rio already was nervous around their professor, especially after that first day with all three of them in class together. “But, bro, we could swing down to Massachusetts on any weekend! Hell, if I didn’t think the teach would kill us, I’d take us there now. Could still camp out, even…” Winn got lost in his own daydream for a moment, humming lighty. “Never made it to Egypt, and the one time I was in Japan, I got food poisoning. Bad sushi.” Winn shuddered. “But Rome is… stunning. There’s really nothin’ like it. I’m not that good at appreciatin’ art or nothin’, but I could get lost in that city for days and never get bored. Why don’t you take a Study Abroad or somethin’? If money’s a problem…” Winn trailed off, shrugging. “Well, I mean, don’t let it be a problem,” he said cryptically.

They ordered quickly, Rio picking up a standard meal — his indulgence of choice being a chocolate milkshake. Winn ordered about three times as much food as he needed, figuring a lukewarm burger reheated on a campfire was still better than his sorry attempts at cooking. Plus, he got the vibe that Rio wouldn’t order as much as he wanted. Even more so when the younger man apologized for, well, for not bein’ Blanche. “Rio, man. Blanche is great. But you’re great, too. Your greatnesses are in their own vacuums. I like hangin’ with you, from what little I’ve gotten to do it.” He smiled, genuinely, poking Rio’s cheek with a fry. “I don’t hang with folks I don’t like. Don’t got much time for that shit. So, c’mon, lighten up. We’ll show B that she should’a come with us! I hope you’re ready for approximately a metric butt-ton of selfies, bro.” His eyes shone with laughter, and he turned the car again, trying to remember the way to the campsite. It was a left, right?

Winn was definitely trying his hardest to conversate with Orion. Rio knew that it wasn’t always easy. Talking to people, especially guys and especially especially attractive ones were not easy for Rio to connect or communicate with. In most cases, he usually found that it was easier to just… not communicate with them at all. But he supposed he didn’t have much of a choice here. “I can’t say the money would… exactly be the problem? It’s hard to explain.” Rather, he did not want to explain it. Especially with that obnoxious tingling feeling constantly ringing that kept reminding Rio that Winn was a werewolf and Rio was a Hunter.

“I don’t really do selfies…” Rio mumbled, but mostly to himself. When Winn asked about the turn, Rio couldn’t offer much assistance. “I have definitely never been here before. So, uh— you’re on your own.” They kept driving around for a while and the more they did, the more Rio was pretty sure that the campsite was nowhere around here. “So, uh— you sure that campsite was here?”

Winn decided to let sleeping dogs lie (ha), and not press Rio on the reasons he couldn’t travel to other places. Winn had been the kinda person, once, to go along with what other people wanted for him. Whether or not he still did, sometimes, was no one’s business but his own, but now, at least, he knew that he could make those decisions. Expectations be damned. His ears twitched a little when Rio mentioned that he didn’t do selfies. Winn was, slowly, learning more about Rio, and the first real thing he’d picked up on was the younger man’s near-criminal lack of self-confidence. And, while Winn couldn’t say he understood, per se, he’d been friends with enough folks with shit self-esteem to know when to press. Now, Winn knew, wasn’t the time.

“I’m not… not sure?” Winn said dubiously, pulling the car off to the side of the road for a moment and flipping his hazards on. Just in case someone drove past and decided to take pity on them. The sun had begun to set over the horizon the longer they’d driven, and now it was almost dark. His phone was little help, having lost signal a few miles back, but Winn was able, at least, to double-check the address. Winn hadn’t really noticed, content to let Rio read in the dim light provided by one of his overhead lights, but they’d driven for longer than he thought it’d be. He cracked a window and sniffed as subtly as possible, not smelling the salty brine of the ocean for once. Had they gone too far inland? He looked out his window, trying to get a sense for the terrain, of the soft dirt and the slow inclines and the— Oh, that scent. Slightly different, but familiar all the same.

“Think I drove us to the mountains, bro,” he said, softly. “Luckily, you can’t piss in Maine without hittin’ a campsite, so let’s keep driving for a minute. Park rangers might have a phone we can borrow, call, ugh, Darbussy and explain that we’re not skippin’ class. And then, like, have a fun, chill, bro weekend to ourselves, I guess? Head back in the morning, pretend it never happened, uh, ha, right, yeah.” He was rambling, he knew, but the last time he’d had a bit of a word vomit, Rio had noticeably calmed down. So, maybe his panic could prove some use. Winn flicked off the lights, flicked on his headlights, and continued down the road, a tight frown marring his usually sunny face.

Admittedly, Orion wasn’t heartbroken about missing the acting class field trip. Rio still wasn’t sure Darbussy even liked Rio. He could never get a read on her after he ran from the class that day. He couldn’t tell if she thought it had been part of his character or if he was skipping out on class. Either way, she hadn’t acknowledged him much outside of it. Maybe that was for the better though. Despite this, Rio was terrified at the idea of spending an entire night alone with Winn. Oh god. “Right. Yeah. I mean… hiking is fun! I like hiking and other stuff. I guess… let’s do it? Just pick a place.” Rio jumped out of the car as soon as Winn had parked and stretched out his muscles, staring up at the sky. The sun had not completely set yet, though the sun was beginning to creep towards the horizon. A few stars were already visible across the sky. “This place looks pretty. Want to hike up that mountain there and see if we can find a place to set up?” Hiking would pass the time and get them closer to the morning.

“You don’t sound too convinced,” Winn mumbled, huffing out a laugh under his breath. Didn’t want Rio to think he was makin’ fun of him or nothin’. Winn sniffed the air again. No signs of anythin’ that’d make their life uncomfortable for the night, even if they were more or less roughin’ it. He pulled out a map the park official had handed them on their way in and squinted at it for a moment before handing it to Rio. “Looks like there’s some trails out here, leadin’ up the mountain some. Don’t think y’want to be in one of the big areas, but looks like there’s some single-tent clearings? So long as we can see the stars, I’m a happy camper.” Ha. He popped the trunk, slinging his bag out and onto this back, along with the tent he’d brought along in a rare moment of forethought. Darbussy hadn’t made it clear whether or not they’d be goin’ with a cabin or what. He started walking, letting Rio set the pace. “We might both be up late, given what you said earlier, but you’ve got a sleepin’ bag or somethin’? I run hot, so I don’t mind you usin’ mine, if you need it.” The winter chill hadn’t entirely left the air, but Winn would be comfortable down to a certain point. The thick scent of pine entranced his senses, reminding him, simultaneously, of home and of something new. Hiking always had that appeal to him — of nostalgia and discovery workin’ in tandem. “Soooooooooooo,” he drawled, trying to let Rio pick a topic of conversation. He’d never been great with silence, unless he was in a session. But he was still figurin’ Rio out. Best to encourage any openin’ up the younger man wanted to do.

The two worked to unpack their things from the back and then set off on a trail that Orion assumed would lead up to the clearing that Winn had pointed again. Given that they had already gotten lost once, Rio wasn’t entirely convinced they would end up where they were supposed to go. But as long as they knew how to get back to the car in the morning, he supposed it didn’t matter much. “Have you seen my clothes?” Rio attempted humor, holding his arms out and spinning around, the baggy hoodie swinging out widely in response. “I’m basically always wearing a sleeping bag.” It wasn’t that the cold didn’t bother him, Rio found himself cold quite often during the winter. It was more that he wore layers of clothes all the time that helped keep him warm. “My family used to go hiking sometimes.” He wasn’t sure where he was going with this, but as he looked up at the sky as things began getting darker and the stars got brighter and brighter, sparkling across the sky and lighting the path for them. Not that either of them needed it, honestly. Rio had no issues seeing at night, and the constant tingling feeling was proof enough that Winn didn’t either. “They’re all super active. Big into competition. Hiking became more of a like… sport. It was all about the race. Some big competition to get to the end of the trail first. I never really got the chance to appreciate all the views.” But that wasn’t exactly a stellar conversation. “You uh- you must like the woods right?” Jesus Christ. Rio facepalmed himself silently and rubbed at his temples. What kind of stupid question was that? “I mean uh- that’s what dudes do right? They like the outdoors and stuff? Or something?”

“Adorable,” Winn said, deadpan, as Rio spun around in the setting sun. It was, but Winn figured as much distance between the truth as possible was likely warranted. “But forreal, if you need the bag, take it. Hell, we can just unzip it and use it as a blanket. Tent’s a little snug, as it is, since it was mostly my backup plan.” He hadn’t planned on sharing it with anyone, but Rio was fairly small. They could make it work. If Rio didn’t want to be as far away as possible, that was. “Same, actually. Well, not the competition thing. My gran’pa, my mom’s dad, was a coal miner, so we went into the mountains pretty often to see ‘m. I spent a lot of nights, when I was young, listenin’ to the crickets ‘n frogs, watching the stars and tryin’ to catch a new one formin’. Ambitious little asshole, in that regard.” He laughed, mostly to himself. “Doesn’t seem like your all that competitive, no ‘ffense, really. Think I like you just the way you are.” He whistled for a moment, content with the walking, taking a long drink of water while Rio rambled slightly. He cut the younger man off with a gentle: “I do. ‘S in the name, right?” He laughed again, louder, at a joke that Rio couldn’t possibly pick up on. “I’ve always felt a little more at-home in the woods, honestly. I like the city, I do, but there’s somethin’ out here that feels more… real? Present? But naw, not every dude has to want to go white water raftin’ to be a load of fun. Way I see it, we should all get to choose our own paths, our own things we like to do. Who cares ‘bout what dudes should wanna do? If y’want to be a mountain man? More power to ya. But there’re lots of things that folks who keep themselves in boxes miss out on.” He paused, looking up at the sky and considering his next words as carefully as possible. “Don’t know if I would’a ever kissed a guy, if I hadn’t shoved myself outta the ol’ box. And even then, I still got so stuck in it, for so long.” There was something wistful to Winn’s voice, a precarious sort of melancholy that seemed like it could tip over into mournful at a moment’s notice. And yet, he smiled.

Orion had to turn away from Winn to hide the red in his face. He had instantly blushed at Winn’s compliment, but didn’t need that embarrassment on top of all the other things today. He was pretty sure he didn’t have a crush on Winn. At least, it didn’t feel the same way it had with other guys Rio had previously had a crush on. But Winn was still a hot guy complimenting him so… yikes. “No offense taken. I’m not competitive at all. I don’t really care about winning.” That had to be a good thing, considering he spent so much time losing. Wouldn’t have been good for his psyche if he was a sore loser on top of being bad at things. “I get that. I used to think I wanted to be one of those people. The like… outdoorsy woodsy type.” Rio sighed, maybe he still did. He couldn’t tell anymore. “But I’m kinda comfortable with being a nerd, honestly. I like reading from the comfort of my own home.” Winn’s words about kissing a guy struck a weird, sympathetic chord in Rio. He didn’t even know that kissing dudes was something that Winn did on like… a regular basis. He had still been half-convinced that the kiss in theater class had been some kind of joke on the new student clearly flustered by the attractive actor. So, hearing Winn say the words made Rio feel… weird. “Maybe someday I’ll fall out of my box too?” Knowing Rio, it would probably be face first. “You seem to have a pretty good handle on yourself though. Like… who you are as a person?”

“I know exactly who I am,” Winn said, chipper and confident. “But it wasn’t an immediate thing or nothin’. Took work.” What was that old phrase? Anythin’ worth doin’ was worth doin’ well? Winn didn’t regret the time it had taken him to step out of his parents’ expectations, to become more of the person he was today. But he wouldn’t lie to Rio either; it had been rough. There had been some dark moments. But, speakin’ of the dark… The sun had set fully now, the stars darting the sky. Winn paused, whistling low as he looked skyward. “Beautiful.” He scanned the line of the sky for Boötes, having picked up a little star-gazing from his nights under the moon. Okay, now, Ursa Major should be… He glanced further to the right, stopping midway to Ursa Major and squinted, thanking his werewolf senses for the ability to really gaze at the beauty of the dimmer stars. “There,” he said, pointing. “Canes Venatici. Or, the hunting dogs, probably of Boötes. But they’re a little hard to see, so…” He traced his finger, farther and farther over until he found it: “There you are,” he said, smiling. “Or, Orion anyway. But I’m sure you knew that. Behind him, though, there’s the real dog star. Sirius, with Canis Major. Any earlier, and it would’ve been under the treeline, I think. We got real lucky. A Hunter and his loyal dog. Or… dogs, anyway. Canis Minor is… somewhere around here.”

“I’m glad you do.” Orion trailed behind Winn, watching him as he walked. It certainly did seem that way, didn’t it? Winn seemed so sure of himself. He talked to people like he had known them his whole life. He walked with a sort of confidence that Rio could only hope to achieve. And he talked about himself with no hesitation in his voice. In Rio’s eyes, it couldn’t just be an act. Nobody was that good at faking it, right? If so, how did Rio learn how to do it? “Everytime I think I do, something comes along and shakes my world.” Rio stopped hiking and stood by Winn, happy to let him point out constellations along the sky. Though Rio didn’t know exactly where to spot a lot of them, he was familiar with the names. “The stories about Orion are all so different that it’s sometimes easy to forget that almost all of them involved his hunting dogs.” How ironic, the Hunter aided by a beast. “It’s said that people in the Nile used Sirius to signal the flood of the Nile River. It symbolized the Sun God Osiris rising from the dead.” He continued staring up at the sky, getting lost in the stars as the cool breeze provided a break in the silence. But eventually the wind was enough to make Rio shiver from the cold, and he broke from the haze. “Come on. I think we’re probably getting close.” For show, Rio flicked on a flashlight. It didn’t affect his vision much, but he was supposed to be a human. The two continued towards the camp, quieter for the final parts of the trip. Finally, the two found the clearing in the trees and Rio happily discarded the bags he had been carrying, dropping them on the ground in a pile and stretching out his arms to relax the strain in his muscles. “Wooh. That was exhausting. We made it!”

“Exhausting, but fun!” Winn chimed in, shrugging the tent off of his back and into a pile with his bag. “C’mon, help me set this up, bro.” If Winn was bein’ honest, it had been a minute since he’d slept in a tent proper. He was, more often than not, content to find a soft patch of ground, let the wolf come out, and keep his ear out for any threats. That long year he’d spent in the mountains, he’d gotten used to it, and, sometimes, he wondered if that wasn’t part of his insomnia. Tonight, he hadn’t brought any aram with him, not wantin’ Rio to get into it (or worse, ask questions), so he was prepared to lay awake, stuck with his thoughts for company. Given enough time, he’d reorganize the entire team six different ways before settlin’ back on their current arrangement. The work went quick, despite Rio claimin’ he wasn’t much of an outdoorsman, and Winn glanced over at the storage container, undoing the heavy latch and sliding it open. “Grab some snacks and we’ll throw the rest in here. Don’t want a bear comin’ after us.” Not that a bear would be a huge inconvenience. It had been… a minute, since Winn had fought one off, but he could still do it. Probably.

No sooner than he’d said the word bear, there was a soft rustle in the bushes. Winn stifled a growl, wolf already on alert. “Aw, fuck. Stay back, Orion.” There was a long stick, left near the firepit, and Winn crouched down to grab it. His eyes trained on the spot where he’d heard the noise, and he used the stick to push back the brush. “Oh, what the fuck,” he said, recoiling back as the creature approached him, snarling. Its tentacles moved slowly, whipping at leaves, and its canine skull was, near as Winn could tell, poking through the remains of its skin. He dropped the stick immediately, kicking off his boots behind him and pulling off his shirt. Then, he remembered. Rio. Shit. He could feel the change coming, his claws and fangs eager to tear through in the moonlight… and he wasn’t sure he could stop it.

Orion didn’t mind helping Winn set up the camp. He didn’t know what he was doing really, but the tent wasn’t that complicated. Plus, Rio was really looking forward to finishing up with everything so he could finally relax and lay back.

Of course, the noises out in the woods would ruin that plan. Rio heard the rustling bushes, immediately tensing up. If Rio had been logical, he would have assumed it was a rabbit or deer or something else completely normal to be out in the woods. But because Rio was paranoid and terrified of basically everything, his immediate thought was some kind of killer monster that wanted to kill them. Or worse, a werewolf Hunter. Or worse-worse, his parents. Rio didn’t waste any time jumping behind Winn as they faced the potential threat. Rio was pretty sure Winn would be more useful in a fight against whatever came out of the woods anyways. But thank god for both of them, the creatures that came out from the woods were practically harmless. Rio breathed a sigh of relief. He had never actually seen a Yeth Hound in person, and had to admit that they certainly looked terrifying. But despite the horrifying appearance and Rio’s typical attitude of being scared of practically anything that moved towards him too quickly, he couldn’t have any other reaction besides excitement towards the creatures.

Unfortunately, it didn’t seem like Winn had the same amount of information as Rio did. He discarded the stick and began kicking his boots off before ditching the shirt as well. Rio immediately blushed, knowing this wasn’t the time to think about that, but suddenly very interested in looking at anything other than Winn’s chest. Rio grabbed onto Winn’s arm, “Hey, don’t—” he started, but it looked like the transformation had already begun. Rio could see the claws extending and Winn was shaking against Rio’s hand. And he was strong. “Winn!” Rio tried again, louder this time. He ignored the sinking feeling in his stomach as he wrapped his other arm around Winn’s stomach and planted his feet into the ground, putting a bit more Hunter strength into it this time as he tried to hold Winn back. “They’re not going to hurt us! I promise. They’re called Yeth Hounds and they’re harmless!”

Every transformation was different, every time the wolf was let out had the potential to go wrong. There would always be a part of Winn worried that this time would be the time that the wolf really went wild, tearing apart everything in its path. Like he’d expected, Winn wasn’t able to stop himself from transforming, once he began. It was still too close to the Full Moon, he was still too amped up from his encounter with the asanbosam. But he heard what Rio was saying, as the younger man tried to hold him back. In his wolf form, Winn was just bigger, and he felt, as his bones twisted and reformed, as the wooly fur spread across his skin, Rio being pulled up and onto his back, until the younger man was gripping at his coat. Winn growled softly, unsure how Rio, who had claimed he was no outdoorsman, had been strong enough to hold him back from leaping forward. There were a few answers, none which Winn liked.

The Yeth Hound approached them, and Winn crouched down, mock-bowing to the other canine. If Rio said that the Hound was harmless, Winn believed him… He crouched, to allow Rio to hop off of his back, if the other man wanted to, before sitting back on his hind paws, sniffing curiously at the Hound. The smell wasn’t quite as… dead, as he would’ve thought and, like Rio had indicated, Winn didn’t sense any malice from the other creature. Juliet had been dubious, given her normal quarry was (dangerous) werewolves, on other species and how dangerous, or not dangerous, they were, but, as Hunters were wont to do, had recommended Winn assume they were all dangerous. Of course she would say that, even as generally on the side of angels that Jules would. Hunters were indoctrinated in their ways, even the ones that were less stabby. Winn had been too eager to believe it, too, that other creatures might be a threat to him, to the safety of humans. But… Well, he wasn’t human. Not anymore. He couldn’t believe shit that black-and-white. It was a lot to think about… too much to think about when Winn was a giant wolf-man.

He whined curiously, nudging Rio’s back with his head, not wanting to change back (on the off-chance Rio was mistaken), but wanting an explanation as to what Rio knew about the creature. ‘Course, there was only so much he could communicate in this form. But, well, Rio clearly knew something, and far be it from Winn to not let the younger man talk. He stretched, languidly, setting one paw just in front of Rio, ready to protect, if given a reason.

Orion wished that he could have been more graceful while climbing off of wolf Winn’s back. Unfortunately, he was far too awkward to pull anything that cool off. He mostly slipped off, trying to hop to regain his foot once he landed but instead he twisted his ankle and crumbled to the ground and just barely caught himself at the last minute. He sighed at himself and shook it off, focusing instead on the exchange between Winn, now fully in wolf form, and the yeth hound. The whole thing was pretty incredible. Despite reading the books and being attacked by one, Rio had never actually seen a transformation in its entirety. It was… remarkable. And a bit scary.

Before leaving, the Yeth hound glanced over at Rio. Of course, despite everything indicating that this should be another creature that Rio was irrationally afraid of, the only thing Rio wanted was to reach out and pet the dog. But he knew better. Yeth hounds trailed behind humans, following them around from the shadows. They didn’t want that physical interaction with a human. Rio was respectful enough to acknowledge that. The creature, content with the two apparently, scurried back off into the woods. Rio was still shaking from the excitement of seeing one in person.

But that left him alone with Winn. And not just Winn, but Winn in wolf form. He supposed that a conversation needed to be had at some point now. “I’ve always wanted to see a Yeth hound. Since I was a little kid.” Rio detoured, staring at the spot in the bushes it had originally emerged from. “My sister never really understood it. I was so scared of everything and yet all I wanted was to have one as a pet. Crazy right?” Rio laughed. Partly from the irony of his story and also because he was currently talking to a werewolf. A full on werewolf. “But uh- they’re harmless creatures really. They like the scares. But they wouldn’t actually harm anyone.” He didn’t know what Winn was thinking at this moment. Had he already connected the dots? Was he still trying to figure out why Rio wasn’t freaking out over the werewolf thing? Sometimes Rio wished that he could read minds. But instead all he could do was fall back against a tree, sliding down it until he was sitting on the ground and staring at the werewolf. “This is so cool. Holy crap.”

There were moments when there was nothing more than the wolf wanted to do than wag its tail. Encountering another wolf was usually the typical scenario. Despite Winn’s reservations about other wolves, his furrier half didn’t care. This time, however, his tail wagged at the human (?) in front of him, talking adoringly about the mons— creature that had just appeared before them. Winn tried his best to communicate his approval with a huff of air that could be mistaken for a laugh. The best thing, Winn figured, about being a wolf-man was that he could be expressive, marginally. Rio did seem scared of him, nor was he going in for the stabbing. So, Winn did what any curious animal would do and approached Rio, sniffing the younger man. Nothing on him… or, well, at least not wolfsbane or something equally bad. And then — partly because he figured it would be funny, partly because he got the sense Rio maybe knew that Winn was a werewolf before now, and partly because caving into his baser instincts was, sometimes, just rad — Winn licked the side of Rio’s face.

He bowed his head into Rio’s personal space — look, everyone wanted to touch the fur, Winn had wanted to touch the fur before he’d been turned — allowing the man to poke and prod at him if so chose. Then, because he’d have to turn back eventually, Winn sniffed at the perimeter, stalking around the clearing for any signs of bears, moose, or the like. His human form hadn’t sensed anything, but, well, then he’d found the yeth hound. So, clearly, another look around was in order. And, oh. There was an idea. Rio had said it was cool to see Winn in this form and, short of riding him around the woods, there was one more thing werewolves were pretty famous for. He reared back on his hind legs, coming up to stand tall, inhaled deep and howled at the still-mostly-full moon in the sky. It wasn’t a mournful howl, or an angry howl, but a howl of pure pleasure at being allowed to run free.

But all things had to come to an end eventually and, after another gentle head-butt to Rio’s chest for good measure (and… well… maybe some pets), Winn dipped just outside of the clearing, behind the tent, and shifted back to his human form. ‘Course, that left a naked Winn Woods standin’ behind their tent and, while Winn didn’t have any shame to speak of, he figured he should ask before flashing Rio. “Bro,” he started, “if you could go in my bag and pull out a spare pair of shorts, that would be, like, so great.” He wiggled his eyebrows at the younger man because, well, why not?

Orion still hadn’t quite wrapped his head around the fact that the wolf in front of him was Winn. Moments ago, he had been a human, setting up camp with Rio. Now he was… well, a wolf. Rio had known about werewolves his entire life, studied them and memorized everything he could about the species. Yet, this moment was still more informative than anything he could ever see in a book. He knew a werewolf. In real life, knew one. Winn sniffed at Rio and eventually licked his face. Rio laughed and backed away nervously, wiping at his face. Was it weird to accept licks from someone he knew was a human? Where did the rules stand with werewolves? He knew where his family stood on the issue, obviously.

Eventually, Winn took off, and Rio decided not to follow. Opting to hang back and observe instead. He seemed… happy? He couldn’t be sure, but Winn seemed to enjoy being in this form, out in the wild. Rio had always seen werewolves as strictly human, the wolf form being something that they only used when necessary or when forced by a full moon. It had never occurred to him that some may like or maybe even prefer the wolf form. And then Winn did what Rio had always wanted to see, he howled. Against the Hunter’s hearing, it was unbearably loud. But despite flinching and squeezing his ears shut between the palms of his hands, Rio was smiling the entire time.

Winn came back over to Rio once more and nudged against him. Unsure what else to do, Rio tapped his hand against the wolves head. Was that what Winn had wanted? Was petting something that he… enjoyed? It was an entirely new world for Rio. He had no idea what to do or expect. His heart raced a mile a minute. And it only got worse once the wolf disappeared behind the trees and he suddenly heard Winn’s voice again. Shorts? Oh god. He turned beat red immediately, frantically leaping for the bag and grabbing out shorts, closing his eyes and covering them with his hand for an extra precaution. He stumbled through the woods, tripping over branches and dips and flat out falling at least once. But eventually he made his way to Winn’s voice and held the shorts out, waving them wildly until Winn grabbed a hold of them. “Sorry, uh— Wow. That was… so cool. And crazy. But cool. And did you see those Yeth hounds? Incredible. They look like something straight out of a Goosebumps story. So creepy.”

Winn winced as Rio tripped and stumbled his way through the brush, eyes closed, hand clamped. Not that he was one to go around assignin’ sexuality or anythin’, but… If a higher power hadn’t made this dude gay, they’d sure made him confusing. Not for the first time, Winn wondered if he’d accidentally stolen Rio’s first kiss. Which… oops. He slipped on his shorts, tapping Rio on the shoulder when he was mostly-clothed again, sidling around the backside of the tent to look for his thrown shirt. “Hmm,” Winn said, intelligently. It… Well, honestly? Rio was right. It had been cool, even if Winn had almost gone toe-to-toe with somethin’ harmless just ‘cause it looked weird. “Yeth hounds.” The words felt odd in his mouth, but, then, what new supernatural thing hadn’t sounded weird. Hell, even the word “ghost” was loaded, nowadays, full of things he didn’t know.

But… There was the lingering question, in the back of his mind, somethin’ he needed to clear up before he got too attached to his new friend — even if that friend hadn’t tried to kill him, had looked delighted to see a werewolf up close (and, thank fuck, the wolf had played nice today). “So… Didn’t seem too surprised to see me get all, y’know, furry. Knew a bunch about the hounds, too. Now, you didn’t knife me the second I turned, and you seem pretty chill — and, like, I have friends who do the…” He trailed off. Rio deserved a firm question, more than his rambling. “Are you a Hunter, Orion?” There. It was out there, and Rio could deny it, but… Well, like, he had the feelin’ this dude was bad at lyin’. “No judgment,” he added, as an afterthought. Just because Rio had known, probably, what Winn was, didn’t mean he was obligated to tell Winn everything about himself, so, before he could answer, Winn barked out a laugh.

“My name is Winn, and I’m a werewolf.”

It couldn’t be avoided, Orion supposed. He had used the Hunter strength. He certainly hadn’t meant to. But it was too late now. The last thing that Rio wanted to do was expose himself as a Hunter to Winn. He didn’t want to be hated. He liked Winn, enjoyed hanging out with him. Honestly, he wasn’t even sure why Winn liked him back. “No— I’m not.” Rio began, sure that he wanted to be honest. “I mean, yes. Technically speaking. I don’t really like to acknowledge that though.” He was nervous, scratching at the back of his neck. He didn’t know how to explain this away. If Rio had been a werewolf, alone on a mountain with a Hunter, he probably wouldn’t take it very well. “But I’m not a Hunter. I don’t… hunt. Anything. And I definitely don’t want to be known for that.”

Rio laughed at Winn’s joke, rolling his eyes and stepping away and towards the tent. “I’m not saying I’m a Hunter, just fyi. But uh—very funny!” He climbed inside the tent. It wasn’t big, but it would be fine for the night. Especially after Rio stacked six pounds of pillows and blankets between the two of them. The last thing Rio needed was thrashing around and touching Winn during the night. Nope. No thanks. If there weren’t enough pillows or blankets he would figure something else out. Like their bags, or branches. Whatever it took.

Once he had divided everything in the tent, Rio finally settled in. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad? Winn knew about Rio being a Hunter and he hadn’t yelled at him, left him or killed him. That was insane. “Okay well… don’t kill me in my sleep tonight, please. I promise I don’t care that you’re a werewolf. Actually, I think it’s insanely cool. But I think I’m going to bed?” Rio didn’t really do sleepovers or the like. He wasn’t sure if he was going to be able to sleep tonight. But he could pretend to be. “So, uh— I guess we go to sleep now? This is so awkward, oh god. Uh… night?” Oh boy. This was going to be a long night.

[amyscascadingtabs]

you can hear it in the silence

pre-the cruise, inspired by this tumblr post.  read on ao3

It’s too early.

Jake’s never been a morning person, and he’s certainly not about to become one at the age of thirty-five. Morning people are smug and infuriating anyway; the way they’ll act all chipper and try to make small talk in the break room while he waits for the coffee to brew, casually mentioning their pre-work 5k jog or their green juice breakfasts, is high up on the list of things Jake loathes. He doesn’t want to be a morning person, and it would contravene all his values and leave him questioning the details of his personality for ages if he were to become one. However, if there were any benefits to being one, it’s that he imagines it would improve his current situation.

It’s five-thirty a.m. and they’ve been driving for an hour. He says they, but he means Amy, as his girlfriend of seven months took one glance at his lethargic appearance and slumped posture as he dragged himself out of bed five minutes before they had to leave, and promptly declared that she would be driving. They’re on their way to another prisoner transfer upstate - not all too dissimilar from the one they dealt with on the disastrous road trip over a year ago - but this time, the NYPD couldn’t offer them to stay over. They would have to drive, and they would have to do it at an hour which Jake, as he made sure to let Holt know, considers inhumane. Sadly, his use of the fancy word had no effect on the superior officer, and Jake asked himself once again what the point of trying to improve his vocabulary actually was if it couldn’t get him out of these situations like. He asked Amy before they went to bed the night before, but she’d simply laughed - that laugh, it could distract him from anything, there could be a war going on outside and he still wouldn’t hear a thing but her laugh - and told him his whole morning-hating thing was adorable. 

Jake feels like many things when he’s leaning his head towards the car window, using his balled-up hoodie as a pillow and closing his eyes to attempt another micro-nap, but adorable isn’t one of them. He’s grumpy and uncommunicative, there are bags under his eyes from the lack of sleep tonight, his hair is a certified mess and he’s oceans away from being anyone remotely close to his best and most charming self. He feels bad for Amy, really. She’s seen him in worse conditions and she didn’t even run away scared when he had the mumps two weeks ago, but he still feels like she deserves better companionship than his uninterrupted yawning. 

“Hey,” he mumbles, placing a hand on her arm to try and get a fragment of her attention. “I, uh - I’m sorry for being worthless company.”

“It’s okay.” Her response comes immediately, and she smiles at him for a millisecond before returning her focus to the traffic. “I know you’re not a morning person.”

“I’m usually not this bad, though.”

“You’ve just been ill,” she counters, and warmth spreads in his chest at the sound of how soft, how caring, she says it. Her voice makes him comfortable, and the way she says her words makes him trust them. “And you’ve been working non-stop since then. You just need to give yourself some time to recover and not be so hard on yourself.”

“Yeah, you’re probably right.”

She’s keeping her eyes on the road, but he thinks he can spot a content smirk on her lips. He watches her drive with all the skilfulness and patience it takes to manage driving in the dark, and the regret of not having kept his eyes open for more of this drive washes over him; she looks unfairly gorgeous like this. Even in the semidarkness of the car, his trained detective eyes note the way her lips purse when she focuses, the subtle movements of her wrists on the steering wheel when she adjusts the car so they’re driving perfectly straight. Every minuscule movement she makes, every little detail and quirk he notices about her, leaves him in absolute awe. He’s secretly happy she’s too uncompromising a driver to look away long enough to meet his near-hypnotized gaze. 

 It’s a bewildering feeling, getting to think these things about her without an acute pang of guilt following it, and there are days when he wonders if he’s living a dream. Certainly, the fact that he’s been Amy Santiago’s boyfriend for seven months must be too good to be true, and he’s still not entirely sure she won’t wake up one day and realize she’s much better than him and dump his grumpy, tired-in-the-morning ass without warning. She’s Orangina, and he’s regular store-brand orange drank who won the highest lottery win when she showed up outside his door to tell him they should screw just being colleagues. 

“Do you want to stop for coffee and breakfast somewhere in a little while?”

It’s such a casual, everyday question she’s asking, but at this moment she could be talking about the science of dust particles and it’d be music to his ears.

“Somewhere with pancakes?” He asks mostly to hear her laughter again, and for a blissful second, he does.

“I looked up a few diners yesterday. They should have pancakes.”

“Always the researcher,” he grins. 

“It’s good to be prepared.”

“Title of your sextape.”

She snorts, shaking her head, but there’s a smile spreading across her lips she makes no effort to hide.

He asks if he can play some music and she nods, knowing he’s already found the aux cord and opened his Taylor Swift playlist by the time he asks. A moment later, You Are In Love is sounding through the speakers and he's humming along to the songs - he's always at least humming along. Part of it is simply because it makes Amy smile when he does. She makes that charming little half-smile, where she’s attempting to look stone-faced but the corners of her mouth are twitching anyway and her eyes gleam to say that she’s entertained, even if she’s trying her best to hide it. Jake’s seen that half-smile more times than he can count since the first day she sat down at the desk across from him. Of all the numerous different faces he’s ever seen her make - and they’re many - this one is up there with the ones he loves most. He makes her laugh, she likes to remind him, and getting to do so feels like his greatest honor in life. 

He should tell her, he thinks. She deserves to know. She deserves getting to hear those words he knows bothers her he hasn’t told her out loud yet, but each time he tries it’s like a panic switch is pulled in his brain and he ends up making some dumbfounded joke instead, trying to make his way out of the emotionally vulnerable situation before he makes a mistake and admits too much. It’s happened before, meaning surely it can happen again, and he can’t lose it this time.

He can’t lose her.

In the meantime, he tells her in other ways, trying to pretend they mean as much. When they park the car outside the diner, he declares that he’s driving the next section and receives a grateful smile in return. Before they go inside, he wraps his arms around her from behind and spins her around so he can give her the good morning-kiss he never gave her at their 4 a.m. wakeup call. While she goes to grab them a good table near the window, he pays for extra bacon to his pancakes so she can steal more of it. 

He loves her, and he’s getting more certain by the day that it’s the most he’s ever loved another person, but it doesn’t make the step of verbally telling her any easier. He’s standing on the edge of a metaphorical swimming pool, waiting for the courage to take one deciding, pivotal leap forward and crash into the water, hoping he’ll swim and not sink.

He knows he’ll have to tell her eventually. Someday, sooner rather than later - at least so he hopes - when the thought of saying it seems marginally less daunting. 

“Did you get extra bacon?”

“Yeah. I knew you were just going to steal mine anyway.”

“Hey!” Amy puts a hand on her chest, eyes wide open in exaggerated shock. “I’m not a bacon-thief! Lies!”

“I’d never lie about something as serious as this,” he says, keeping a neutral expression. Then he lifts his plate of pancakes, pushing a few of the syrup-coated pieces onto her plate of eggs and toast anyway.

“Dream boyfriend,” she winks, and her grin is so wide it should be a physically impossible feat for this early in the morning. He scrunches his nose, miserably failing at hiding just how crimson he’s turning at the sound of her calling him her boyfriend.

It’s still dark outside, but the sunrise is coming closer, and their only company in the greasy diner is a grumpy-looking waitress with big glasses and an older man a few tables away, drinking coffee while reading his newspaper. A magenta iPod - the old kind, not the new flashy phone lookalike version - is connected to a speaker in the corner next to their table, interrupting the 80’s mix soundtrack for a ten-second crackling noise at uneven intervals. Everything about where they are feels like an in-between, a temporary break from reality, and Jake wishes they could stay longer than the twenty minutes the timer on Amy’s phone says they have left. Partly because the pancakes are great, dusted with specks of vanilla powder underneath the bacon, syrup and blueberry jam, waking his body up with every sugar-infused and carbohydrate-filled bite, but mostly because Amy’s being pouring too much creamer in her coffee with the focus of a chemist executing the perfect experiment. She looks radiant to him like this, biting her lip absentmindedly while she mixes the result with a plastic spoon. She didn’t put on any makeup before they left, and the bags under her eyes together with the way she practically inhales the too-bitter, too-much-creamer diner coffee reveals she was also affected by their early wakeup call despite acting a lot more cheerful about it than he did. Her ponytail’s a little messy with a few strands falling out of it and framing her forehead, and he knows she’ll use her pocket mirror to ensure it looks perfect before they leave for the actual transfer, yet he almost wants to tell her to keep it like this. She looks real like this, real and honest and utterly relaxed in his presence, and he thinks it’s the most beautiful she’s ever been but knows he’ll change his mind tomorrow because somehow Amy Santiago only gets more beautiful for every day he gets to be with her.

He needs to learn how to tell her that, too.

“Do you think you’re going to eat the last pancake?” She’s pointing to the final one with her fork, a mischievous tone to her voice.

“You seem awfully confident for someone who just stole all my bacon.”

“You wanted me to!”

“Doesn’t make you any less of a thief,” he winks. 

“I drove here,” she declares, and then she reaches across the table, cuts the last pancake in half and puts one piece on her own plate. He lets her - the look of satisfaction on her face as she bites into it is childishly adorable, making his knees weak, and for a moment he thinks he’s brave enough to say it.

I love you. I love every bit of you, more for every day you’re with me, and I think this might be the most I’ve ever loved anyone and it terrifies me but I’m okay with it because it’s you. You’re everything I never knew I wanted until I fell in love with you and now I don’t know how to live a single day without it, without you, because I feel wrong and like something’s missing when I’m not with you. I love you, and it drives me crazy but I don’t really care, Ames, I don’t care because it’s you and I just love you.

“You’re staring at me”, she remarks, and he’s brought out of his reverie and forced back to the reality where she’s looking at him and he wants to be brave enough to say it but isn't, just yet. He takes the empty sugar packet from his finished coffee instead, crumpling it to a ball and flicking it at her like he’s six years old all over again and she’s another first-grader he has some innocent crush on. She scrunches her forehead and watches his blank expression for a moment before bursting out into laughter, and he tries to control himself, but her laugh is too contagious and soon he’s giggling, too.

“You’re so good-looking you’re worth staring at,” he says, and it’s not I love you but it’s a baby step, something to keep them afloat in the meantime.

There is time, he thinks as her timer goes off and she gives him a peck on the cheek before they grab their stuff and leave for the car. Surely they must have time.

Someday soon, he’ll be brave enough to say it.

[dobriking]

Bend Into A Break (3)

Summary: Not one, but two vlog-squads came with the death of Vine. And the rumored beef between you two is absolutely true! So, you and David (begrudgingly) set up a month long-retreat among your groups to film team challenges and go against each other. Y’know. For views. Pairing: David Dobrik x Reader, Enemies to Lovers, living together. Warnings: Profanity, mentions of drinking, sexual...themes?

1 | 2 | 3

“David…you do realize how impractical it was to rent the party bus, right?”

David hangs out the bus by holding onto the door’s nearby pole, and carelessly swings back and forth, only his heels keeping him on the bus’ front step. He sucks his lips in, really thinking about it. Because to him it seems only practical to get everybody completed wasted to prevent the car-equivalent of capsizing from the many fights likely to break out.

So he blinks very slowly.

You sigh. “David…how is anybody going to leave like we promised if we’re renting one party bus just to take us there? And if no on-demand Ubers will be in the vicinity of a creepy, half-haunted mansion on a hill available to drive a bunch of bumbling adult babies from one house to the next because somebody forgot their stupid phone battery?”

Oh. That’s what you’re getting at.

He’s stuck letting out this crackling groan trying to think of something to say.

“Well uh,” he snaps his fingers — genius, “that’s why me and you are taking the Tesla.”

You drop your head. “We’re going to leave our groups drunk and unsupervised on a party bus together aren’t we?”

“I…didn’t think this through.”

“No, David. You didn’t.” You walk inside, your black bomber jacket making more noise for your dramatic exit than you would have liked. But to start this week out right (after the previous week of haphazardly buying and planning for this), you, David, and the rest of the crew wear the merch you promised. Well, the closest you could get to it. You couldn’t create around 18 labeled shorts and shirts in such a short time, so you gathered typical athletic styles, red and blue for each team, and scoured the internet for stitched name tags to be pinned on each shirt.

You chose our style thinking of the future and how convenient an easier way to air out would be. So your shorts are cut off at (almost) the very top of your thigh, traditional to those stereotypical 70s shorts with the neon majority and white trim. Currently you’re freezing your ass off with the clouds hanging overhead, but your jacket does something to proportionate the warmth.

You pass around the name tags to everybody standing in David’s living room, clustered in groups of two with their corresponding members.

To deal with Natalie being an outlier, David (with a pain in his heart) agreed to let her represent your team opposite Scott. You’re careful handing her the badge and she takes it with caution, pinning it in her shirt while her eyes continuously flicker to yours.

Zane and Noel, Heath and Cody, they make some contest out of who can put their badge on faster. Heath cackles and runs his finger up Cody’s chest to flick him in the nose, trying to trick him into thinking his badge is horribly off-center. Zane gives Noel the stink-eye for giving Heath the stink-eye for messing with his friend.

Corinna and Enya don’t try messing with each other. Contrary, Corinna brought Enya some lemonade and they stir their straws through the ice in unison as they talk with each other.

Toddy and Amanda (the groups’ resident hotties) stand together but don’t look. They watch the others, unable to shake their anxieties.

Erin and Emily, Carly and Chloe…they’re getting along just fine!

Actually talking!

You smile at the display ready to hand them their badges, but make it quick when you hear them mutually bashing the trip. Ouch, okay.

Then there’s Matt and Drew. They sit opposite each other on the couch, and similarly too with their legs spread and hands limp in their lap. They can’t figure out what’s so similar about them, but it’s easy! They’re both pretty tall and seem to be a voice of reason, but then they hit you in the gut with bizarre humor and blatant understanding.

At the very least everybody’s followed instructions and bought the clothes you provided them. They have their suitcases and backpacks, and while you know none of them are really prepared for what you and David have in store, they’re prepared enough.

You hop on David’s coffee table, cup your hands around your lips, and whistle.

“Okay okay, listen up! So David’s got the party bus — “

Corinna squints “But what about our cars?”

You hiss. “Heh, that’s what I tried to tell him but guess what, he still has the party bus! So..!” You pump your fist in the air; you couldn’t be less enthusiastic, “Yay…Don’t worry, we’ll figure something out. Right now I think its best we all just travel together, and when you start to go insane with being unable to leave in anything but a strobing party bus, we’ll probably drive everybody around and pick up a few cars.”

Scott frowns, impressed. “So no Tesla? Never thought he’d part with that thing.”

“Oh no, he’s bringing the Tesla.”

“Hey, that’s no fair!”

“Yeah how come he gets to bring his car but we can’t bring ours!”

You groan and your volume and intensity increase with each word, “Because he just wanted you all to get drunk and have fun and not murder each other on the three-hour drive and he didn’t connect the dots about him bringing his Tesla and you guys not bringing your own cars o-KAY?!”

You hop down and stomp out of the room. “Just bring your damn bags and stop complaining!”

David’s standing by his Tesla holding a hand to his hip and the other to his forehead, spieling his eyes from the sun beaming down from behind the house. “How’d it go?” He’s chewing his cheek. “Good?”

You shrug and drop your arms. “I dunno.” You force a smile. “Started getting mad about the car thing but I told them to shut up then left so I have no idea how it escalated.”

“Hmm, that’s good. You need to like, be more assertive.”

“Don’t tell me what to do!” Your voice is lost on him once you hop on the bus and look around.

It may be a little tight. Like David said, being drunk (for those who can be) might do a bit to deal with the comfort but you have an inkling a fight might break out before they even bring out the vodka. “Hey, David?”

“Yeah?”

“Do you think ew should take a few people with us?” You head off but he hops on, swinging in by the door’s immediate pole.

He shakes his head, “Nah, they’ll be fine.”

You sigh through your nose and return to looking deep into the bus. “I think the fact we have to get them drunk during the transport is enough of a red flag.”

“Yeah no definitely.” You’re shocked by his ease but he shrugs. “But don’t worry.” He pats your arm. “Gonna be fun.” Then he hops back off. You back out slowly and in time to see him jogging inside the house to gather everybody. You step out and go to the back, slipping the poor driver a 50. You pat his shoulder and don’t say a word, but he still nods solemnly knowing that you mean the best of luck.

David comes out leading the group and it looks like an elementary school field-trip. He stops at the door, waving his hand to gesture one after another forward, and counts even to make sure everybody’s there. He squints, watching you take pity on the driver before giving him room to haul everybody’s things into the under-part of the bus.

You watch them get on one by one, actually worried. David can see it from where he stands. He keeps his eyes on you over his shoulder as he locks up the house, though only does that after popping into do a quick run through and make sure the doors are locked and lights are on.

While checking with the driver to make sure his address is right, he admits it is indeed crowded.

He steps over everybody to get to the back’s fridge and out he cradles bottles of champagne and vodka to the middle table, cheering “Yaaaay!” To combat the stillness. He stands back, hands on his hips and gestures the drunk. “C’mon guys, have some fun. Woo!” He claps and skips to the front, “Party time!” Ignoring the discomfort he brings Corinna and Cody particularly (Cody disturbed with her close presence and Corinna disturbed by the sheer amount of space he fills up with his spread legs).

David hops off the bus and jogs to his Tesla. You’re in the passenger seat and he slips in, buckles up, and starts it as fast as he can.

He wonders if there’s enough alcohol on the bus to last three hours. His bets are they’ll battle it out, get drunk out of frustration, and have a really good time for about an hour then pass out before reaching the third. Fourth depending on traffic.

You jump at his hurriedness, voice quaky. “Everything okay?” And buckle yourself.

He bites his tongue and waits. When the bus’ driver gives him a thumbs up he answers, “Yuuup,” before driving.

You hum. “There’s a bathroom on the bus…right?”

“Yup, yup.” He thinks so but he’s not sure. Best to assure himself that it won’t be a literal shit-show.”

You frown. “David…are they gonna die?”

He holds his tongue again. “Mhmm.”

You slump back and pick at your sleeves.

Thirty minutes in and you become comfortable enough to make yourself comfortable. You pull your legs up to the seat, though hesitate when David eyes you. Seeing you rethink your decision he shakes his hand over your lap as he turns a corner. “Oh no don’t worry — that’s nothing compared to what they’ve done in here.” You slowly bring your legs back up, and David too relaxes, thighs separated and palm press to one of them.

He sticks his hand between his seat and the center console, pulls out the aux cord, and tosses it in your lap. You play some tunes knowing full well David’s put them at the end of a few vlogs — just to be safe.

Though you get a chill when Zedd’s “Beautiful Now’ comes on and you’re treated to the (wonderfully sung) lyrics of:

I see what you’re wearing, there's nothing beneath it

Forgive me for staring, forgive me for breathing

David rolls his shoulders and sinks deeper. But the initial soft sounds of the track grow into something more powerful and you’re both ignoring it until the beat drops again:

Stranded together, our worlds have collided

This won't be forever, so why try to fight it?

That’s ironic, you think.

And on cue David says “That’s ironic,” with a faint chuckle.

You chuckle too. It’s breathy and highlights your anxiety even more with the addition of the otherwise silent car. “Sure is…”

Maybe five minutes pass, then David reaches and turns it down. He sniffles, swiping his wrist under his nose as you come to a red light.

“So, uhm…” He blinks harshly and rapidly before shaking his head at himself and forcing a chuckle. “I don’t even know what I was going to say.” You hum to soothe him. Then he snaps his fingers, “Oh yeah! So like…? What challenges do you have in mind. I have some obviously, just wondering what you have.”

“Oh. Well…” you sit up and grab your phone, turning down the volume even more and opening your notes. “I mean I had some typical stuff like a water balloon fight.” You point over your shoulder. “Brought some balloons for that —“

He takes his eyes off the road and light, “Red and blue?” and smiles are you.

You chuckle. “Yup…yup. Red and blue. So water balloon fight, the pool could be of use but I dunno, a swimming content seems too standard.”

“Right.” The light’s green and he gets going again, letting his eyes dart to you every so often when it’s the least inconvenient.

You start to stretch, wrapping your arms behind you and around the headrest. It lengthens you out and lifts your shirt a little. “I figured we’d be ordering food all month, but at one point before Heath goes too crazy we should have a cooking contest or something.”

David watches you stretch. But he hisses at himself realizing how strange it must be. You recall his hissing as a response to your suggestion however and he saves himself with “Ouch. Just gonna hand over a win like that?”

You shrug. “I mean hey, if he doesn’t pull out a hatchet I’ll gladly give you guys a win.” Speaking of hatchet, “Kind of a shame we’re in California cause a snowball fight could show spectacular sportsmanship.”

His face scrunches up. “It’s still June.”

“Yeah but still. I’d be willing to postpone for that. Snowball fight, sledding, white elephant and crap.”

He leans forward, squinting to read the sign up ahead. “Some holiday spirit would make everybody a little less angry. I’ll see what I can do.”

You find that curious but ignore it and continue. “And since we’re a bunch of adult babies I figured we’d all get a kick out of a giant pillow fort. I’m talking all through the house. We could figure out things to do in there like those games where you try to balance an egg on a spoon…only through a pillow fort.

“OOoooOoo, I like. And uhm, campfire? We could like, do a campfire. Tell stories. I mean you rented a creepy ass mansion for this so,” he clears his throat, “let’s knock some socks off, y’know?”

“…Did you just say ‘let’s knock some socks off?’”

“What’s said in the Tesla stays in the Tesla.”

“Got it…Why don’t we just shove every season of the year into one month”

“I mean hey,” you chuckle, “sounds good to me!”

You don’t have anything else to bring up, and neither does David. He turns the music back up, and after a few songs “Bad Romance” by Lady Gaga comes on maybe an hour into the drive…you and David squint forward, taking in the synth instrumentals with her slick voice.

“Hey—“ your voice cracks “—what do you think about a lip syncing contest?”

David gulps. “Yes.”

Immediately David pops in your mind when you think of this song. Digging through your childhood memories you recall ‘Total Drama Island.’ You reabsorb that damn show and every little thing about it, specifically that season where the host switched teams up the last minute. But no, that wouldn’t work. You would be on different teams regardless of the shake-up being team-leaders and all.

“Wh-” you start. David looks at you, waiting. “What if it’s like, a versus battle. So like, me versus you, Enya versus Corinna, corresponding people, y’know? Instead of the entire group.”

David hums. “Yeah but, who’s going to vote?”

Can’t be your fanbases because the answer to them would always be clear.

“Uh…anonymous voting? Each person votes for who objectively did better in the battle for each battle, and then, y’know.”

“What about voting for yourself?” He shoots it down, logically.

You sit deeper in your seat and slide down a bit, neck posing your head awkwardly against the seat rather than the headrest. “I hope everybody’s mature enough to be objective…”

David leans against the center console and picks at his lips. Then he snaps his fingers, “I got it. Surprise guests. Like, I could bring Brandon and Jason.” He points at you with his thumb, “couldn’t you fly Tom here and like, get Casey? Frey? And they have to come to a mutual decision. Problem solved.”

You hum. “So to be clear me and you are dancing to ‘Bad Romance’, right?”

“Oh definitely.”

You clap once, “Good on that.”

“I mean, we both know you’ll win, so,” he says so casually, turning down the music again. It’s sickening to see him pass over the crown so easily.

You scoff. “That’s not true. You’re very expressive.”

David smiles. “Oh. Am I?”

“Yeah.” You roll your eyes, unsure if this is him fishing for compliments or his ignorance. “You can shake it, David. No — you can work it. I’m not gonna deny that.”

He hums and bites his thumb.

“What?” You nod at him, beckoning him to continue. He lets out a faint squeal and shakes his head, going to different lengths from covering his mouth with his palm to his wrist to biting his fingers again to keep quiet. “David, tell me.”

“‘anks for ‘icing.”

“David — articulate.”

He giggles and repeats, “Thanks for noticing,” in a whisper. You roll your eyes and slink down further in your seat. He stutters for a moment but shouts “Hey! Y-you’re uh, you’re pretty expressive too…so.” He slaps the steering wheel and sits back at the next red light. “I said it. You’re ‘expressive’ too, okay? So who knows which of us is going to win?”

You squint. “So basically you check out my ass—“

“Hey! I did no—“

You cackle, “But you still check out my ass!”

“Okay!” He holds up a finger and runs his tongue over his lips. “Okay okay, but to be fair, you check mine out too!” He curses himself. You have the strange ability to pull facts out o your ass and whoever isn’t prepared enough for them falls right into your trap.

“HA!” No I don’t!”

“YOU SAID I’M EXPRESSIVE!”

You jump and lean over the console to get in his space. “I LOOK AT YOUR LEGS!” You slap at where they’re clothed. “Your thighs! And your waist and your chest and your arms - ALL of you is expressive, David! You’ve got this like,” you scrunch your hands up, “weird, tiny little dancer’s body!”

“Wait wait wait hold on a minute!” You lean back, cheek against your seat. “How am I worse?!” He laughs. “I only look at your ass, you look at all of me!”

“Because I look at you in an artistic way. Cause that’s what the body is: a beautiful piece of art.”

He gulps, trying to hum as though impressed with your observation. But it hurts his throat to do it and he coughs, choking on his own giggles and having to press his fist to his lips to stop it all from spilling over as he starts driving again.

He takes a deep breath, focusing all his energy on not giving himself away this time. “Well psh, how,” he takes a deep breath, “how do you know I don’t look at you like a piece of art?”

You shrug. “Cause you don’t. Or,” you hum, “wait? Do you?”

Hoping this time it’ll work in his favor, David keeps his mouth shut. Still, his lips curl fighting a smile, but he’s successful. You hum with your mouth open (“Mhmm”) and keep your jaw slack for a period before chewing on your cheek. Though you still make the effort to hum, making your thought process accessible to David.

“You know,” your hand goes over his, jokingly (of course), “I’m very flattered you consider me a piece of art. No no-not just that, but a ‘beautiful’ piece of art.”

“I mean, what am I supposed to say?” His chin goes to his chest and he shakes his head as best as he can. “I’m not a liar Y/n, so.”

“Never said you were.”

“You have a hot body so I’m gonna say you have a hot body. So let’s just —“ he swipes his hand down like a karate chop, “—stop with the, y’know, work-arounds.”

When the silence becomes too much, David notices you staring at him. Almost emotionless but with the tiniest upward flick of the corner of your lips. He does a double take, readjusts his position in his seat.

“I’m gonna ask you to rethink what you just said to me.” He squints, not sure why but you see his brows twitch while he does as asked,

Then he jumps, eyes wide and body as stiff as a board. His jaw drops before his teeth dig into his lip, then “UGH!” He slams the center console, turning the corner with one hand and waving his other around with each syllable. “How do you do that?!” When the words initially came from his mouth they came out so formally yet so casually he hardly thought anything of it. Like how he would tell Jason to cut the shit, only this time instead of just ‘cut the shit’ he said to ‘cut the shit’ in terms of dodging the notion he’s attracted to you.

You shrug and pat his shoulder. “Allll you buddy.”

“I—“ he shakes his head, “—I never said that. What is said in the Tesla stays in the Tesla.”

“Fine by me. If that’s the case guess we’re not gonna put on the record that I would totally let you rail me. So, whatever.”

What.

You dig through your backpack and crack open an Arizona iced tea. The click of the metal and bubbling of the drink as you swallow breaks some of the silence.

Otherwise, at this moment David embodies the meme of that blonde gal’s eyes jumping every which way, some math problem overlaid on the screen. He’s completely silent, and you shift, waiting. His nose scrunches up every time he thinks he’s got it but he just can’t quite grasp onto what you said.

In a tiny voice, “Well I’d rail you too—“

You throw your head back and dig your free palm into your eye — “I WAS KIDDING!”

You weren’t. Not entirely.

“OKAY WELL SO WAS I!” David’s face is so flustered you swear you could stick your hand to his cheek and leave an indent showing his true tone. You bang your head back against the headrest over and over, eventually biting your thumb so you don’t cry from hysterical laughter. He’s snickering but ultimately blinking tears out of his eyes. He shakes his head, clenching the wheel with both hands (for once). “I hate you so much.”

“Awe…” You squeeze his shoulder. “I hate you too.”

Maybe this won’t be such a long ride?

TAGS

@wefracturedmotivation @blackhood5sos @i-heart-movies @sinfulmango @edalalalalalala @mostlydobrik @latelycrazy @zavidzobrik @thetrickster67

[crownedbyluke]

Long Road Ahead (Chapter Five)

Estelle Finley has been friends with Ashton Irwin and Luke Hemmings for three years. When the boys bring her along on a jam-packed road trip to Cape Cod with the rest of the band, their adventures are just beginning. Through long hours driving, exploring cities, and hidden secrets, something more is bound to happen on this journey. How will this road trip change Estelle’s friendship with the friends she’s come to love so dearly?

Word Count: 3,400

{Chapter One} {Chapter Two} {Chapter Three} {Chapter Four}

“Dude, get your ass up!” Calum said, hitting me in the face with his pillow.

I groaned, slowly opening my eyes. He gave me a big smile and then proceeded to hit me again.

“You’re ungodly annoying in the mornings,” I said, glaring at him.

“And you’re making us late!” Crystal called from the hallway.

“What’s she talking about exactly?” I asked while getting up.

“Luke, we’re dropping the girls off at the spa before we head out. Your alarm went off two hours ago,” Calum said, grabbing a couple things.

“Right. Sorry. I’ll be down in two,” I called after him as he walked out of our room.

I pulled on some shorts and a workout shirt.

“Shit, you um, you left the door open. I didn’t. Um. I’ll just head downstairs,” I heard Estelle’s voice from the doorway.

I stopped midway during pulling my shirt over my chest. Estelle had come down to talk and I was here changing with the door open.

“Wait up!” I called, grabbing my bag and shoes before going to meet her.

There was a blush over her cheeks when I met her on the stairs. We had seen each other in swimsuits, but I guess catching me changing was different.

“Um, morning,” she said quietly, looking away from me.

“Morning,” I said, watching her bite her lip.

She only ever did that around guys she liked. My heart picked up as we continued walking.

“Thanks for taking us to the spa,” she said, giving me a small smile.

“Yeah of course,” I responded, noticing how she was a little closer to me than usual. Taking them hadn’t even been my idea, but if it meant that Estelle would be a little closer to me, I’d take it.

“Um, thank you for the picks by the way,” I said, heading towards the door.

I sat down to quickly tie up my shoes before standing back up. I hadn’t noticed the height difference between us before. I didn’t tower over her, but there was enough that she had to look up at me.

“You’re welcome,” she said, standing by me.

It was awkward between us, some of the residual tension from our fight still present. It felt like Estelle was holding back from being herself around me. I understood her hesitation, but it wasn’t usually like this after we fought. Estelle and I went back to normal, made up, and then it was forgotten. She probably doesn’t know how to act now that our feelings are out. I held the door open for her, catching the smell of her perfume. The citrus scent catching in my nose and making me feel at home. We needed to talk about what all of this meant and the whole Calum thing. It needed to be soon too because I can’t handle the tiptoeing around each other for much longer.

“Since you were dragging on this morning, you lost shotgun rights,” Calum said, giving me a wink.

I rolled my eyes at him and flipped him off. He was such a dick in the mornings.

“You all know that I’m not a morning person,” I said, opening the door and getting in the car.

I felt Estelle’s presence next to me. It was like we were magnets that were being drawn to each other. Her hand was resting on the empty seat between us and I wanted to reach over to hold her hand like it was a part of my nature. I had spent the whole ride in my own head that I hadn’t realized that we were at the spa.

“Have fun at the park!” Estelle called before closing the door.

“Dude, are you gonna get in the passenger seat or what? Because I am not playing chauffeur today,” Calum asked once both of the girls were gone and we were left idling on the curb.

“Right, sorry,” I said, quickly moving to sit in the passenger seat.

“What’s up with you?” he asked, putting the park address into the GPS.

“Nothing Cal,” I lied, adding some songs to a playlist while I waited.

“Try again,” he chided, glaring at me.

I sighed and took the aux from him.

“Estelle and I are in a phase so it’s a little awkward between us,” I admitted, smiling at the opening of “Carry On My Wayward Son”.

“Because she told you how she felt or because she told you about what happened between us?” he asked, turning the volume down.

Clearly, Calum was determined to talk about this. I was a little shocked by his words, but he was right. I needed to at least get what was in my head out.

“Honestly, both. I know that I don’t have any grounds to be upset about her hooking up with you, but it just feels like I wasn’t good enough for her to realize her feelings for me without almost having sex with you,” I confessed, feeling the weight of my stress lifted off my shoulders.

“You’re right though. You don’t have the right to be mad at her for hooking up with me. That doesn’t mean you’re not allowed to have feelings,” he said, glancing over at me a bit.

It took me a minute to process what he was saying.

“Yeah I know, but we weren’t together when it happened,” I explained, playing with my necklace.

“So? You were dating some girl that was a hoe. Don’t blame yourself for Estelle’s choices. Now, why are you guys being weird? Both of you have feelings for each other. What’s stopping you two from getting together?” he asked.

“Because I was a dick to her after she told me and I don’t want to take the risk of ruining our friendship,” I said, looking out the window.

The city had faded, leaving open roads and blue sky. There wasn’t anything on the side of the road, but it was still nice to look at.

“What do you mean you were a dick?” Calum asked, confusion in his tone.

I sighed, remembering how I was rude to Estelle at the arch.

“No. I still do.”

I glared at her, anger boiling under my skin. How could she just expect me to forget what she said by telling me what I wanted to hear?

“Oh so, because you still have feelings for me, it’s supposed to make me forget that you basically fucked my best friend? That’s not how life works Estelle. Your daddy can’t get you a free pass on this one,” I almost yelled, letting the anger take over.

I walked away, leaving her there alone. I drove off, not thinking about how Estelle would get back or how she felt.

“Is that why Ashton yelled at you that night after he brought her back?” he asked, pulling into a parking lot.

“Yeah. He stayed in Estelle’s room that night too,” I said, getting out of the car.

“Did you apologize to her at all?” Calum asked while getting his bag out.

“Not yet. Well not completely. I said sorry before we left St. Louis,” I said, putting my sunglasses on.

“No wonder she’s being weird. You left her at the fucking arch with no way of getting back,” he said, pushing my shoulder.

“I know Cal. I know that I messed up and there’s no reason that she should forgive me, but I am stupidly in love with her,” I said, following him onto the trail.

“Well, you better tell her that, not me. You should also mention that you were a dick and apologize,” he said.

Calum had a point and I knew the moment I got back, I had to at least try to talk to Estelle.

                                                       ➢➢➢

It was four o’clock by the time I looked at my watch.

“Cal! We’re gonna be late for dinner if we don’t head out,” I called over to him.

He was sitting on an outlook cliff, snapping pictures to show his mom.

“You’re right. Let’s go,” he replied, getting up and walking over to me.

We drove back and got there with a half hour to spare.

“Please tell me that you two are gonna shower before we leave for dinner,” Crystal said when we walked into the house.

“Going right now,” Calum said, already heading up the stairs.

“Luke, get your ass up those stairs too!” Crystal said, pointing up.

“Going! Calm down,” I said, taking the steps two-by-two.

I came back down after ten minutes, hair still wet. Ashton whistled, making me roll my eyes.

“Not you Hemmings. Essie, you look absolutely stunning,” he said.

I turned around, seeing Estelle with her hair curled and a white dress. She looked beautiful. My heart basically stopped at the sight of her.

“You do look good,” I said, taking in the way she looked effortlessly beautiful.

“Thank you,” she said, blushing slightly.

Ashton moved in front of me, offering his arm for her to take. She smiled up at him and I felt jealous of the way she was so carefree around him. What happened to her being that way around me?

“And where’s the other third of our unstoppable trio?” she called, turning her head to meet my eyes.

I smiled at her, hoping that we could easily go back to normal. I linked my arm with hers, looking down at her. She flushed when our eyes met. In that moment, I wondered how it would be to take her out on an actual date.

“Let’s get eatin’!” Calum cheered as we walked out.

“Yes!” Ashton and I responded at the same time.

Estelle laughed between us, the sound reminding me of melodies. I helped Estelle into the car before crawling in next to her.

“How was your spa day Essie?” Ashton asked once we started driving.

“Really good. Crys and I got facials. Then I got a massage. It was very relaxing,” she said, a calm smile coming over her face.

Just from the way she was talking about it, I could tell that she was less stressed.

“How was the music store?” she asked, all of her attention on Ashton.

“Good. I got some vinyls and Mikey showed me some bands I should check out,” he said happily.

“That’s cool. I actually looked into that band you played on our run yesterday and they have some good songs,” she said quietly.

I pulled out my phone and started scrolling through my playlist called “Little Dove.” It was my way of tuning out and making sure that I still liked the songs that were on it.

“We’re here!” Michael said, bringing me back to the present.

I helped Estelle get out of the car so her heels wouldn’t make her trip.

“Thank you,” she said softly, the golden sun bringing out the blue in her hazel eyes.

It felt like I couldn’t take my eyes off of her. The time in the sun had given her a slight tan and the white dress was showing it off. Plus, her hair seemed to be lighter. She was gorgeous and deserved all the attention in the world.

“Estelle, you really do look marvelous tonight,” I said, watching her blush yet again.

“Thank you Luke,” she said with a big smile on her face.

The red lipstick accentuated her lips and all I could think about was how badly I wanted to kiss her.

“You look very handsome tonight,” she said, taking my arm as we walked towards the restaurant.

I looked down at my outfit, the black jeans and dark blue short-sleeved button down being something I just grabbed.

“Thanks little dove,” I said, giving her hand on my arm a gentle squeeze.

We sat down across from Michael and Crystal while Ashton and Calum sat at the heads of the table.

“What are you thinking about getting?” I asked quietly.

“The house field green salad sounds good. You?” she responded, pointing at it on the menu.

I saw a glint on her finger, making me look at her hand. There was a silver ring with a wave on her middle finger. My hand reached up unconsciously to play with my necklace.

“Oh um, the Asian pear salad. I really like the idea of dessert though,” I said, twirling the charm between my fingers.

“Oh my gosh I could go for some dessert. Do you wanna share the apple crumble?” she offered, looking up at me.

It felt like we were getting back to our normal, but there was a different energy between us now. Instead of just friendship, there was a slight romantic touch to everything.

“I would like that,” I said before tuning back into the conversation around the table.

I wasn’t completely paying attention to everything, still stuck with melodies and lyrics swimming in my head. Estelle’s hand came down onto my lower thigh suddenly. She was laughing about something that I had missed. She took my breath away yet again. Within a moment, it was gone. I remained quiet for most of dinner, not really having anything to add to the conversations happening between my friends.

“And here’s the apple crumble,” a waitress said, snapping me out of my thoughts.

“It looks delicious. Thank you so much,” Estelle said, giving her a giant smile.

Estelle offered me a spoon, dropping an eye in a wink. I laughed before taking it from her. We both took a spoonful of the crumble along with the salted caramel ice cream and whipped cream before clinking our spoons. It tasted better than it looked.

“Oh my god,” she almost moaned at the sweetness.

“It’s amazing,” I agreed, wanting to savor the taste.

“We made a good choice,” she said before taking another bite.

My best choice was falling in love with you.

I wanted to say it out loud, but I stopped myself, not wanting to ruin dinner by making a stupid comment that would in turn stop conversation.

                                                    ➢➢➢

I came back down after changing into joggers. I heard everyone’s voices outside and before joining them, I went to the kitchen. I grabbed an apple and caught Estelle sitting in the bay window. She had a book in her hands and the pale moonlight was casting a slight shadow over her face.

“Whatcha reading?” I asked, taking her attention away from the book.

“The Great Gatsby for the fourth time,” she said, looking up at me.

I sat down across from her, wanting to spend some alone time with her. She put her legs in my lap and looked out the window.

“Still obsessed with Daisy and Mr. Gatsby?” I asked, following her gaze out the window.

“More like their struggle to be in love,” she said, a coy smile on her face.

“Estelle, I need to apologize,” I blurted, surprising both of us.

“I’m guessing this is about that night at the arch?” she asked, putting her beaten copy of the book down.

“Yeah. I was an absolute dick to you. I left you there with no way of getting back and for no reason other than I didn’t like what you said. Then I gave you a shit excuse for a sorry and just expected you to forgive me,” I said, taking her hand in mine.

“Luke, you don’t have to-”

“There’s no good excuse to treat one of your best friends like shit,” I cut her off.

“Stop, listen to me. I’m not saying that it was a smart move or that I forgave you right away. You had every right to be mad at me. I was wrong to think that you would be able to get over the Calum thing so easily,” she said, squeezing my hand gently.

“It’s not like we were dating when it happened,” I said softly.

“He’s still your best friend and my delivery of the news wasn’t fantastic,” she said, trying to lighten the mood.

“And so are you,” I responded, moving a little closer to her.

“I’m sorry for not telling you sooner,” she whispered, playing with my fingers.

“And I’m sorry for leaving you,” I said, picking up her hand and looking at the ring she bought.

“We should talk about the other thing yeah?” she asked, resting her head on my shoulder.

I knew she was right, but I wasn’t sure what that meant for our friendship.

“Probably. What shall we talk about?” I asked, still looking at her ring.

“Why do you keep staring at it?” she laughed, grabbing my hand.

I twirled it around her finger before looking up at her.

“Because while I’m the moon, you are the tide. A connected process that the world would fall apart without. Without the moon, the tide would not exist. Without the tide, the moon would have no purpose,” I said, making eye contact with her.

I felt the shift between us happen, the exact moment the tension became romantic instead of angry or hurt. Estelle leaned into me, our close proximity making me glance at her lips.

“Little dove, when you said you have feelings for me, what did you mean?” I asked quietly.

I caught her eyes drift to look at my lips. Were we both thinking about kissing each other right now?

“I love you Lu,” she said, eyes looking back up at me.

Was I dreaming? Had Estelle really said that she loved me?

“Estelle, I-”

My phone started ringing, making me pull away from her. I checked the screen, seeing my mum’s name.

“Hi Mum,” I said, getting up and walking out to the front porch.

“Hi honey. I just wanted to check in,” she said, sounding a little out of breath.

“I’m all good. Actually on vacation for once. How are you?” I asked, taking a seat on the steps.

“Fantastic. I just finished up a workout. So, I have a reason for calling you so late,” she said, the background noise quieting down.

“Okay. What’s up?” I asked calmly despite my pulse picking up.

“I wanted you to thank Estelle for sending those flowers for my birthday,” she said happily.

My eyes went wide from the words.

“I can do that. I had no idea that she did that,” I said, playing with my necklace again.

“Yeah. She sent a beautiful bouquet of daisies over with a birthday card,” she explained.

I heard the smile in her voice and it struck a chord with me. Not only had she remembered my mum’s birthday, but she had gone the extra mile to send my mum something to celebrate. It made my heart swell.

“She’s a good one Luke. You should tie her down,” my mum teased.

I laughed, a giant smile on my face.

“She really is. I’ll do my best,” I said, looking over my shoulder to see Estelle was still sat at the window.

“You love her don’t you?” my mum asked, making my smile widen.

“Yeah Mum, I really do,” I replied, seeing Estelle look up at me.

“Then you should go tell her. I’ll talk to you later honey,” she said, her smile still in her voice.

“I love you Mum,” I said while getting up to head back inside.

“I love you too Luke,” she replied before hanging up.

I walked back into the house, going right back to the bay window. Estelle looked up at me with a soft smile playing across her lips.

“Everything okay?” she asked, closing her book again.

“You sent flowers to my mum for her birthday,” I blurted, making her laugh.

“Yeah. I thought she’d appreciate it,” she said with a shrug.

“She said thank you,” I said, feeling like I just needed to tell her how I felt.

“It was no big deal. I’m glad she liked them though,” she said, tucking her legs underneath each other.

“Estelle, I love you,” I said, the weight of my words lifting off my shoulders.

Her eyes lit up as she stood up to meet me. My thoughts were racing as we looked at each other. I wanted nothing more than to kiss her. The sound of fireworks made both of us jump. It was electric between us and it was as if we would spark with one small touch.

“Estelle, grab your camera!” Ashton yelled at us.

“Timing,” she said with a laugh.

I watched her walk away, leaving me standing by the window alone. Before she went outside, she turned and winked at me. I picked up my guitar that was by the window and started writing. I was inspired by the mutual love that had transpired and I would explode if I didn’t get this down.

OH BOY WE GOING PLACES HOMIES! Des literally yelled at me for not letting them kiss in this chapter and it was a beautiful moment. I hope you’re all enjoying!

tag loves: @notoriouslyhood @thruheavenandhighwater @24kcalum @bbycal @cashton-queen @a-little-international @tommossoccer @slimthicccal @thebookamongmen @jetblackyoungblood @kiss-the-kat @no-guilt-in-living

[jetfuel-cantmeltsteelbeams]

I’ve got a thing for (a)U.

Chapter 01: Day 01/07

Scene: On the first day of their freedom from parental control, Rue comes down after a week of hell doing Blyze’s grunt work.  Characters: Rue Demmekke, Renegade Demmekke, Daniel Nightengale, Caydin Blythe

"I ain't ever gonna dance again; these guilty feet have got not rhythm..." Rue rolled his eyes the music assaulted him the second he pushed open the front door. He'd spent the past week in his father's office- literally, his cot had been set up on the floor behind a desk- as per the agreement his parents had come to. It seemed like these days he'd only had one single say in any of this; and since he'd confirmed that he wanted to become the next Dark Leader, everything else had been taken out of his hands.

Every other weekend he spent at the angel compound. Week nights, if it wasn't Midterms or Finals, and every holiday. It was like soccer camp- but with more plays and matches. And way, way more carnage. Even his classes had been changed; Karsyn had booked him for more Otherworld History courses than he could keep up with, and he didn't want to think about the fit she'd throw when she finally saw the grade of his Trig III final.

But with the Academy shutting down for two months of summer, he'd thought he might catch a break. But while his brothers were whisked off on family vacations and trips to expansive realms, he'd been handed a cot and the latest statistics of the recon missions spanning six months back. He'd probably spent half the week buried in his history books, comparing war strategies from this ruler to the next.

All so Blyze could walk in, scan the report that had taken him three days to type up and format, toss it to the desk and wave him out.

He was still simmering when he'd picked up Ren a few hours later, honking the horn of his Wrangler until Charlotte came out with garden shears to cut his breaks if he didn't stop.

And the redhead had come galloping out of the front door, pecking his mother with a kiss on the cheek before barreling into the Jeep so hard, Rue was sure they'd topple over.

"Remind the strung out cunt to take her meds."

Renegade stuck his entire head out of the passenger window as Rue began to pull out of the drive. "Your vitamins are in the fridge beside the OJ- Love you!"

"Why do you call them vitamins?" Rue murmured as his half-brother returned his entire body mass inside the vehicle.

With a grin, Ren tugged at the seat-belt. "Because the last time Dad called them her cure for the Benzo Blues, she threatened to send us all straight to the Hell Realms, flaming asses first."

The young leader rolled his eyes as he took the long, waving road away from his half-brother's large estate. "Have you talked to her about Sythe?" The other day, while Rue was locked up in their father's study, Renegade had come in to supposedly help the silverette. Instead, they'd found classified documents locked safely in Blyze's desk drawer with an entire dossier on Charlotte.

Under confirmed paternal link was Sythe's name.

"Nah, she's been locked up in her bedroom all weekend." Fishing in his duffle, Renegade withdrew his aux cord and began hooking it up to Rue's stereo. "Is Ray gonna be at the house?"

Struggling to suppress his instinct to stomp his brother's dreams, Rue just replied. "We're all restricted to the grounds; Maman set the security bounds before she left this morning." She'd known whenever they checked in to the estate, and when they left- the nosy ass. "And you know we've all been told to keep you two separated. You're supposed to sleep in my room every night."

But Renegade smiled at his phone as he scrolled through his music to find a song to play. "That would be the good, Catholic thing to do, I guess."

At the long gaze Rue shot his brother, the redhead actually had the audacity to look appalled. "Oh, don't you dare get high and righteous with me. Caydin? Really? Dude, you live together. You're practically brothers."

And just like that, the silverette turned back to the road. "Don't say that. We're not brothers."

A snort as Renegade turned back to his phone. "What would you call it then?"

Santaria began to play on the Wrangler, and despite himself the angel's heart began to speed up. "Roommates."

-

...-All I really want to know, I already know. And all I really want to say, I can't define. It's love that I need...-

Daniel lowered the red solo cup so Rue could read his lips; "Eight grand says they fuck before we even make it to bed."

The angel rolled his eyes away to the sight of his brother on the couch. No matter where Raychl Cross seamed to stray around the room, Renegade's gaze followed the curve of her ass. It'd been about two hours since the toddlers were put down, and even with the two sleeping demigods in the next room, his brother just couldn't seem to keep it in his pants.

"Thirty bucks. He'll sneak in her room first night. The rest... he won't even bother pretending he's not taking that bedroom for the rest of the week."

The snickering from his best friend was enough to draw out a sickened grin from the angel. It was horrible, really. Them betting on Renegade's self-control.

But it wasn't like they all weren't painfully aware of the elephant in the room. Renegade and Raychl had been raised together; there were pictures framed in the hall of the two of them in a bath as two year olds. The fact that they weren't technically related meant nothing; the two families had lived as one for too many years for the two to find each other attractive.

...-My soul will have to wait, 'til I get back and find Heina of my own. Daddy's gonna love one and all. I feel the break, feel the break, feel the break. And I got to live it out, oh yeah...-

From the corner of his eyes, Rue felt more than saw Caydin come into view. With his hair held back by one of Karsyn's headbands and her apron tied around his front, the blond was bustling away in the kitchen to make brownies of the green type.

For the past month or so, the feeling Rue felt for the other had begun to worry him. The strain of his instinct to grab him, bury himself in him, hold him so tight he left bruises on that pale, alabaster skin... The fantasies that came to mind were enough to turn even his stomach.

An itching in his canines made him shift in place. And damn him, Daniel noticed. "Looks like I'll be the only one in this gods damned house sleeping alone tonight. Fuck. Me."

As his friend chugged the last of his drink, Rue couldn't help but agree.

-

Laying in his bed was the hardest thing he'd ever done. Agreeing to sign his life away to end a war his father had begun? Nothing. Waiting to see if Caydin made the first move by joining him in his bedroom? He was lucky the bed wasn't shaking half as hard as he was.

The door to his room opened, but it was Daniel's dark features looking in to find him. "Is Ren in here with you?"

"No. Why?"

"Raychl's door is locked."

"How do you know Raychl's door is locked?"

"Because I tried to open it."

"Why did you try to open it?"

"To see if Ren is in there."

"Are you trying to see my brother's ass?"

"No, but if our dads find out-" The demigod paused, turning to glance back behind him into the dark hall. "Caydin? What are you doing?" The blond must have mumbled his answer, because even from the bed Rue could spot the change in Daniel's demeanor. "I'm so tired of being the only one in this gods-damned household not getting any ass!"

-

Chapter 02: Day 04/07

Scene: Rue is contacted by Blyze to go to the estate to receive a mission that’s returned early, which carries with it an added guest.  Characters: Rue Demmekke, Caydin Blythe, Sargent Jasyn Rogue, Drig’uhl Dav Iyra

Rue set his phone down in the center console of his Wrangler, a scowl set hard in his face. Beside him, the petite blond didn't comment on how fast he was taking the dirt road, or the jostling it gave the two angels.

He kept telling himself he'd brought Caydin along because he needed the company. That the blond could entertain him on the long car ride between home and the compound. While his instincts screamed to keep him close enough to touch, to see or smell, he held firm on the desire to control himself.

"What's so important that he sent you to receive a mission?"

Over the last few weeks, Caydin had grown more and more interested in the role Rue had agreed to inherit. Venting to him had been so easy, and the angel had been curious enough to ask questions for better understanding.

"Adler's mission should have taken another week at the least. He's back ahead of schedule."

"Is that a bad thing?"

Unease brewed in his gut. "Could be. Either he was one lucky bastard and completed his mission early, or everything went to shit and he had to run back."

-

As soon as he came through the double doors of the compound, the council surrounded him. Among the many war generals and foot commanders, Sargent Rogue appeared on his right to fill him in. Behind them, Caydin walked in Rue's wake as the crowd hurried up the main stairs. "Commander Adler returned at 14:57 on the West pad with all of the original party that accompanied him." Papers were shoved into Rue's grip as the Major took over. "-And some additional party members."

That wasn't particularly abnormal. It wasn't unusual for their teams to go in with a set goal, and while conducting the mission were able to bring slaves back to the compound. He'd done it himself a few times- whenever he could chance getting to them.

But the summary of his report wasn't adding up. Slaves only had one surname with no definitive family mark, so why were there multiple...

As they came up on the door to the briefing room, Rue lowered the papers to glance over the faces of his council. Behind him, Caydin listened. "Hold on." He scanned through the papers one more time, a frown contorting his features. "Does that mean Adler..."

"Was successful."

Rue's throat bobbed as he swallowed hard against his sudden dry throat. "How many?"

"Five, Sir."

"Five." From where he stood, Caydin could see the blood leave Rue's face as he watched the Major beam with pride. Confusion brought the blond's own brows down as he tried to make sense of what he was hearing. They'd managed to bring back five slaves? That was good news- so why did Rue look like someone had taken the floor out from under him? What was on that paper?

To the left, a Lieutenant stepped up. "If you would rather we wait until the Dark Leader returns..."

Rue’s face twitched with the desire to fire back at the obvious disrespect, but his eyes were locked on the door to the council chambers. "I'll handle this, Rickman," he mumbled before turning the knob and stepping in. 

But once Caydin could see what was waiting on the far wall, he had no idea how the silverette could force himself to take another step. 

"Dark Leader," Commander Adler mumbled, bowing his head in respect to the young silverette. Rue's eyes never strayed from her face as he walked to address the commander, nodding his greeting. And from the door, as the other members of the council filled in around him, neither did Caydin’s. "The eldest female of the Royal bloodline; Drig'uhl Dav Iyra of the Dirgulian household."

She'd been forced to kneel on the concrete floors; the dress skirts of her gown torn and muddied by the harsh Drigulian tar. Caydin could barely see the white blonde of her hair beneath the black paste, or her pale skin beneath the dirt. Her eyes were shut tight beneath a dirty veil of hair, but he could see her lips moving silently as she prayed.

20. She couldn't be older.

I'm young and I'm foolish, I've made bad decisions. I block out the news, turn my back on religion. Don't have no degree, I'm somewhat naive, but I've made it this far on my own.

Maybe to save Rue the embarrassment of asking himself, Sargent Rogue spoke aloud. "What do we do with her?"

The dark leader's gaze never lifted from her face as a general in the crowd answered. "Blyze would throw her to the soldiers. Give them her royal ass as compensation for the slaves she's sent to death." 

But lately, that shit ain't been gettin' me higher. I lift up my head and the world is on fire- there's dread in my heart and fear in my bones, and I just don't know what to say.

At the man's crude words, the princess's eyes closed even tighter as her body began to rock back and forth. She seemed to throw herself into desperate prayer, her mouth moving too fast for Caydin to make out what she whispered. He managed to catch one word that fell from her lips again and again; “Doukr.” Mercy.  

Maybe I'll pray, pray. Maybe I'll pray

"How would you like that, bitch? Your father raped my sisters before throwing them to the guards-"

Just as the Sargent lifted his leg to kick the princess, Rue moved. His hand snatched up the chains binding her wrists together to give a tug. The boot barely grazed her back as she stumbled to keep her balance. "Then we'll wait for Blyze to come back from vacation to decide. Until then-" Turning to meet Sargent Rogue's pale features with his own, he handed off the chain. "There's holding cells on ground floor B for this. Put a dozen rotating guard on her at all times, and keep them segregated from gen pop. I don't need a mutiny during my first week in command."

I'm not a saint, I'm more of a sinner. I don't wanna lose, but I fear for the winners.

"Yes, Sir." A glint of relief burned in Rogue's gaze as he hurried to lead the princess out of the room.

Caydin stood there, frozen to the ground as she came closer and closer. His eyes couldn't move from where she'd been kneeling- a princess. Drigulia was a patriarchy; she had no say in their laws.

But when her eyes opened to see the doorway coming closer, she began to fight the restraints. Rogue gave a sharp pull to jerk her through, but her hands found the wooden frame and refused to let it go.

Her eyes found Rue's from across the room, and then the most beautiful accent followed on foreign words she screamed at the silverette. Caydin's frown deepened as she spoke. Why do I feel like I know what she's saying?

"Vroat- dr kl'rbuor!"

The blond's gaze found the dark leader as Rue wet his lips. His answer was short, clipped."Vlouo auo raiu kl'rbuor?"

"Rai kaax klod."

If possible, Rue's face got paler. He nodded once to Rogue and the princess was tugged from the room, screaming in that strange language the entire way down the hall.

The room was quiet then, after her screams faded out. The tension Caydin could feel twisted his gut- there had been too much disrespect in the past few minutes for Rue to let it go without recourse.

"First Sargent Rickman, you can go."

For a second, Caydin couldn't understand why the offending officer's face flushed with rage at the dismissal. It wasn't until the man had hurried out the door that he realized Rue had just demoted the Lieutenant with nothing more than six words.

"Now, gentlemen; excuse me while I make a call." Without waiting for any confirmation that they'd heard him, Rue snagged Caydin's arm as he led them out. Before he knew it, Rue had released him once they'd traveled far enough away to find a deserted office.

One with a trash can. Rue's entire body jerked as he heaved into the bucket without waiting for Caydin to rush the door closed behind them.

-

Chapter 03: Day 06/07

Scene: On the back porch on the estate, smoking Karsyn’s weed. Characters: Rue Demmekke, Daniel White

Rue plopped down on the amber lawn chair, sinking deep into it's cushion as he propped his feet up. Without looking away from the flatscreen streaming a vine compilation from Daniel's phone, he set his hand out to the side for the raven to pass a joint over.

Beside his chair, Daniel was in his own little world. Two dozen blunts bursting with their mother's stash sat perfectly aligned in a tray, with a pipe and multiple lighters. He'd come out here hours ago, when the others began settling the toddlers into bed. Not because he didn't want to put his sisters to sleep, but because the demigod switched off with Karsyn with caring for the girls when Night was away on business.

"...-I said, 'whoever threw that paper; your mom's a hoe.'"

As Rue drew a deep pull to hold, Daniel chuckled beside him. When the silverette turned to raise a brow, the raven shook his head. "Dude, you're so fucked."

Grey eyes rolled as Rue slowly exhaled. "Not compared to the heathens upstairs. I've barely seen Ren eat or piss over the last few days. There are times I forget that they’re actually here with us in the same damn house."

Daniel's head shook as he lit a second blunt. "They'll be fine. Uncle Nate's too guilty over those years Ray spent in Bristol, and Ren is Blyze's favorite son."

"So you think they wont care? There's a picture in the hall of both of them in the bath together as babies."

Daniel shrugged over Rue's cough, letting the smoke leave his lungs on a slow push. "They'll be pissed, but it'll blow over. Six figures says they'll be hitched by this time next year."

"No dice," the angel choked out. His fist came down hard on his chest a few times as he eyed the joint with suspicion. "What the fuck is Maman smoking? This shit is deadly."

"No idea," Daniel mumbled, struggling to keep his chest tight to keep from coughing. "But I want her dealer."

For a while, they both lay in silence as the television flickered. "...-Is there anything better than pussy? Yes; a really good book."

"What are you gonna do? I mean, are you ready for the..."

"Calenhai." It took him a moment of mulling the question over in his mind before he could answer. "No. No one will tell me anything about it. For all I know, it's a ceremony that they cut each other's dicks off with a rusty spoon."

Daniel's snort sent them both into hysterics as the image appeared in their minds. "Maybe," the raven heaved through a gasp, "They paint their cocks grey and sword fight."

Another round of muffled screams as the brothers lost their minds in hysteria. "What if it's a carwash? Just a fucking carwash."

"Blyze in a bikini-"

"-Scrubbing the windshield with his ass!"

"Dark Leader Booty, reporting for duty."

-

Chapter 04: Day 09/07

Scene: Inside Night’s personal office on the estate, discussing the angel’s war.  Characters: Danicious (Daniel) Nightengale, Dyatose (Night) Nightengale

Night shook his head, eyes glazed as he stared into the woodwork of his desk from where he stood clutching the edges. "We don't intervene, Dani. It's crucial you understand that." Even as the words left him, Night's chest caved with emotions. Anxiety, fear, desperation- things no father wants his son to see.

Well, my goodness gracious- let me tell you the news. My head's been wet with the midnight dew.

From across the room, Daniel's face flushed with rage. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't stop the tremble that had taken his balled fists- something he knew Night had noticed. "You can't tell me that you're just going to sit by."

-I've been down on bended knee, talkin' to the man from Galilee.-

"It's not right to take sides. We must remain impartial in these issues."

"Da', he's my brother. He's your son."

-He spoke to me in a voice so sweet, I thought I heard the shuffle of the angel's feet.-

"It's not just Rue. He's leading thousands of souls into an event we cannot influence."

"What if it was me?"

"Daniel."

"-What if it was me, Da'? Would you turn your back and let me die? He already had one father who did that to him, he doesn't deserve another!"

"It wouldn't be you, Danicious."

-He called my name and my heart stood still, when he said "John, go do My will!"

Night's words tightened as he struggled to soften his tone through gritted teeth. "Any war you wage will be a battle of Gods, not natural souls. Gods, who have a fighter's chance against your powers. Not mortal-born beings who will fall before you as lambs to slaughter if you fight by your brother's side. Thousands of pure lives that will be tainted by our influence- do you understand that? We cannot influence the lifelines of men outside our means, or the Balance will shift."

You can run on for a long time,

Silence. "Does he know you're not going to fight with him?"

"Rue and I have spoken many times on the subject. That neither of us will be able to intervene if-"

"-Fuck you."

"Excuse me?"

Run on for a long time,

"Fuck you. If you think that you can stop me from defending him-"

Run on for a long time.

He didn't have a chance to finish. Night's guards pushed so fast, so hard against Daniel's that the raven felt his chest cave. There was something in his father's eyes, something deadly, that promised he wouldn't be moved on the subject.

"Remember who you are born from, Danicious, and what power brought you here." The pressure lifted just as soon as it came, giving the young god a chance to breathe.

But sooner or later, God'll cut you down. Sooner or later, God'll cut you down.

[ims-monbebe]

Just friends, right?

I finally finished my Hyungwon request for the anon! Thank you for requesting, I actually had so much fun writing this so enjoy ヾ(๑╹◡╹)ﾉ"💓

Requests are open so please keep requesting 😊

You fumble through the clothes in your closet looking for a decent outfit to throw on. Moments before you were totally fucking up your closet that you had just organized the night before you got a text from your best friend, Chae Hyungwon demanding to hang out for the day.

"Y/N, you're in big trouble for never texting me!"

"Shut up Hyungwon, I text you every damn day."

"And your point is?"

"My point is you're annoying smh. What do you want?"

"Be ready by 1:30, I'm picking you up. That isn't a question. I'm picking you up Y/N."

So here you stand, in the middle of a chilly October day trying to color match your coat and scarf. The clock on your night stand reads 1:28, you groan as you know Hyungwon to be a very punctual person. Especially when he picks you up to hang out. You finally settle on your long white fall coat with a white scarf to match, throwing it over your black turtle neck. If you also knew Hyungwon like the back of your hand you knew he was just gonna take you to some hipster coffee shop somewhere downtown. You fold up your light colored jeans and throw on some white shoes too match. You settle on putting a beanie over your head because this turd basket only gave you ten minuets to get ready. You grab your hand bag and cellphone and sprint out your apartment. You're actually pretty excited because ever since Hyungwon debuted you never really see him as much. Him texting you today was a total surprise. As you're locking your door you feel your phone buzzing inside your back pocket.

"What?!" You shout as you put your keys away and begin walking down the stairs.

"Are you ready?" You hear your annoying best friend on the other end.

"I'm about to make my way to the front of the complex. I'm assuming your annoying ass is here?"

"I think you mean to say if my handsome manly self is already here?"

"Shut up."

You hang up the phone and open your apartment buildings gate. You're met by a smiley Hyungwon. "What are you smiling about?"

He laughs as he opens the passenger door to his car. "You're cute when you're angry. That's all."

You step into his car, laughing slightly to yourself. It was never weird when Hyungwon would call you cute or beautiful. He'd always try to let you know as much as he could that you were, and any guy would be lucky to be with you. If it were up to you, he'd be the one guy to be with you but you never found it in yourself to tell him your true feelings. You didn't wanna ruin whatever friendship you had because just being by his side someway or another was enough for you. But you always longed for him to be the one you could call home. "What are you thinking about Y/N?"

You look over to see Hyungwon glancing from the street to you. You let out a happy sigh "Oh nothing, just thinking about the delicious coffee you're gonna take me too."

He laughs but quickly shuts down your request for coffee. "Coffee is always good, but no. Today I'm taking you to do something else."

"Something else? Like what?"

"Okay don't laugh but I actually have something planned that I've been thinking about doing for a while. You'll see when we get there."

"This is out of character for you especially since you're lazy."

He laughs at your remark. "I know, I know. But I've seen that you've been stressed out with your exams and projects and stuff like that so I wanted to take your mind off collage for once. Even if it's just for a little bit."

Your heart flutters at the thought of Hyungwon actually putting thought and consideration into you and your activities. You look out the car window to see all the cars blurring by. "Thank you Hyungwon, for a always seeming to care about me."

"Remember when we were seven and you fell down the tree branch in my backyard when we were playing outside? And I swore from then on that I'd always protect you and not let anything bad happen to you?" He looks over at you slightly. "I guess I'm still connected to that promise Y/N."

You look away, the hallow of your cheeks hurting. "You're dumb, it's not like I need you protecting me."

He smiles at your shyness. "I know, but it's nice to have at least someone lean and can rely on me."

"Well I can always count on you."

He looks forward at the road. "Always." He looks at you and gives you a small smile. "Anyways, enough with this sappy shit.  Want to listen to music or something?" He hands you the aux cord to his radio. "We got quite a drive still and it would not be a fun mini road trip without singing terribly with you."

You grab the cord from his hand and plug it into your phone. "What do you wanna listen to?"

"Anything, as long as it isn't my group." He laughs.

"Speaking of them, where are the others at today?"

He shrugs. "I assume at the dorm. I don't know what they have planned for themselves today. I was happy to have a little free time with you. I know I don't see you as often these days, but I try to see you as much as I can."

"I know I know you're busy. But why are you wasting your free day on me?"

He shakes his index finger in a no motion. "Not waisting, privileged to be spending it with you. Come on Y/N, stop thinking about me constantly. Today is for you."

You go to your music library and start playing a song. You look over at Hyungwon, his eyebrows frowned in front of the road. "I know I can't be here for you constantly these days. But just know I always try to see you and be with you when I can. You're my best friend Y/N you know? You're one of the few people that matter to me the most."

"I know Hyungwon. I'm grateful for what you do for me in the limited time in your schedule. It's just hard because I miss you all the time."

"I miss you too Y/N. But let's not think about that and enjoy the time we have together today."

You nod as he hires the volume on his radio. "You're right. Thank you for spending today with me Hyungwon."

-

It's about an hour and a half or so later. You're met by the horizon in the distance towards the sky. You look out the window and are met by the waters of the ocean over taking the scenery. You smile big as you look over at Hyungwon, who to your surprise is smiling too. "You brought me to Wolmido island?"

"Yes! Remember after you watched our Right Now series and texted me how you wanted to go there someday with me? Well surprise! Do you like where we're gonna spend today?"

You only nod in excitement. "I can't believe you remembered that! That was like what two years ago?"

"I always remember the things you tell me." He trails off. "For whatever reason, they always stick in my brain."

You laugh as you put your hand on his shoulder gently squeezing it. "Thank you for today and thank you for thinking of me. Let's have a lot of fun together okay?"

He nods as he pulls into a line of cars, waiting to get inside and find parking. "Of course, that's what I'm here for I'm the king of fun."

"You're the king of lazy."

"Yes but being lazy is fun, therefore I'm still the king of it."

It takes a little time to pull into the parking lot and find a parking but once you guys do you jump out of the car with excitement. "Come on Hyungwon!" You're jumping up and down. "I wanna ride the rides!"

"Hold on Y/N I'm grabbing my wallet pipe the fuck down." He says as he finally steps out the car. "I found it, we can go now."

You guys walk to the board walk where all the rides are and stand in line to buy tickets for as many rides as humanly possible. Your body can't help but to itch with excitement. "Oh my god, Hyungwon we have to get on all of them!"

He laughs as you two take a step forward. "Of course! That's what we're here to do."

"Can I choose?"

He punches your arm slightly. "No! I brought you here, I'm not gonna let you choose all the ride fun!"

"No fair!" You whine. "I wanna go on some I want!" You look up at Hyungwon and pout your lips.

He rolls his eyes. "Fine, we'll take turns choosing and going on rides. You know I can't deny that pouty face."

"That's why I still use it."

He rolls his eyes again. "What ride do you want to go on? Or... do you want to get ice cream first?"

"Depends, can I get two scoops?"

"Y/N you could get five scoops and I wouldn't care." He says as he pays the fee  for the tickets to the rides.

"Ice cream it is then!" You stomp towards the nearest ice cream shop you could find.

"Do you know what flavors you want?" You look back at Hyungwon and see that his long legs have him caught up to you in two seconds.

"Hmmm, nothing fancy. Probably just vanilla and mint and chip."

You stick at your tongue. "You're so boring Hyungwon."

"Yeah yeah. What are you getting?"

"Hmmm... probably black cherry and I hope they have cotton candy."

"Ew, you're weird."

"You're weirder for being my friend."

"No." He points forward as you two keep walking. "Look there's an ice cream parlor right there." He starts walking faster. "Hurry up or you can kiss your five scoops goodbye!"

"Shut up!" You instantly walk faster. "I don't even think I can eat five scoops of ice cream!"

Hyungwon opens the door to the ice cream shop, allowing you to enter first. "Yes, but even if you can't you wouldn't even be able to see if you could try."

You guys walk inside and are instantly greeted. To your surprise there's no line. You and Hyungwon walk up to the counter and look at all the flavors displayed in front of you. You sigh as you discover there's no cotton candy flavor.

"You two ready?" The cashier asks.

"He could go first, I'm still deciding on what I want."

Hyungwon looks at you but begins to order anyways. "Can I get two scoops of mint and chip ice cream with a scoop of vanilla?"

The cashier nods. "Cup or cone?"

"Cup please."

"And for you miss?"

"Hmm let's see." You clap your hands together. "Can I just get a scoop of black cherry and strawberry in a cup please."

"No problem, is this together?"

Hyungwon nods as he steps to the cash register.

"That will be 9,000 won please."

Hyungwon grabs his wallet and hands over the money quickly.  The cashier pushes a button and hands him back his change. "Thank you, please enjoy."

Your thank you’s are harmonal as you find a table in the store to sit at. Once you sit down you begin to dig into your ice cream. Hyungwon takes a bite and instantly groans. You notice a few people walking in before he speaks. "I gotta use the restroom Y/N, I'll be right back."

You nod as you take a bite of your ice cream. You smile at the sweet taste as Hyungwon disappears to find the men's room.

After a few bites of your delicious sweet treat your eyes notice a pair of shoes. "Hey beautiful." You hear an unfamiliar voice.

You look up from your bowl and see a guy you've never seen before in your life. "Can I help you?" You ask anyways still unsure of his intentions.

"Why would your boyfriend leave such a pretty girl like you alone? You know anyone can scoop you up." He sits next you.

You shift in your seat uncomfortably. "H-he isn't my boyfriend. We're just friends."

The stranger smiles. "Even better, why don't you come with me yeah?"

"Sorry, I'm not interested in going with you."

The stranger grabs onto your arm and yanks you up. "I didn't ask if you wanted to come with me bitch you're gonna come with me!" He instantly begins to drag you away from the table.

You instantly begin pulling your arm back. "Hey get off me!" You plead but the dude isn't letting his grip up on you.

"Is there a problem here?" You hear the most familiar voice in your life.

The dude stops his actions, his hand still has a grip on your arm. "Oh look, it's just the friend. Do us a favor and mind your own damn business before you get hurt."

Hyungwon laughs. "She isn't interested in you dude. Let her go. You look pathetic trying to force girls to go with you."

"What did you say?" The guy let's go of your arm and instantly is face to face with Hyungwon.

"Did I stutter? I said you look fucking pathetic forcing girls to be around you. Do everyone a favor and leave. No one wants you here. You're just wasting quality space by allowing your presence to linger here." He grabs your arm and pulls you to his side, instantly shoving you behind him.

"Are you trying to pick a fight kid? I swear I'll beat the shit out of you and have you crying in front of this ugly bitch."

It was in the moment your body sensed something, you didn't have to see Hyungwon's face to feel the heat of anger rush off his body. Sure, say anything about him. Hyungwon can live with that. But anyone disrespect you in front of him? He couldn't have that, he couldn't live with himself letting someone get away with disrespecting you. This guy picked the wrong guy to mess with, he picked the one wrong thing to take a stab at. Hyungwon couldn't bare to hear such language used towards you. Ugly and a bitch? He knew those words weren't true. And he had to make sure that guy knew he wasn't going to get away with this.

In a matter of seconds you see Hyungwon's arm swing back, his knuckles instantly connecting with the strangers face. The echo of his hand colliding with his face bounces off the walls. You quickly step to the side and see the guy's body hit the floor. Hyungwon's body towers over him and he instantly grabs a hold of the collar of the guys on the floor shirt. His hand connects with his face another time. The mans who's name is still unknown has blood dripping down from his nose. You see Hyungwon's arm swing up again before it connects to the mans chin twice in a row. Your body shudders at what you're seeing. You've never seen such an angry Hyungwon. You've never seen the look in his eyes that you're seeing right now.

The look in his eyes are clear. If someone doesn't pull him off this guy, he's probably gonna kill him. Your body instantly moves to Hyungwon. You throw your arms over him before his hand could make another connection. "Enough!" You yell. "Hyungwon please, he gets it. Enough!"

Hyungwon immediately stops at the sound of your voice. He looks up at you and back to the man, his hand still on his shirt. He let's go of him after a moment of hesitating. He stands up quickly and gives him a last kick to his side. "Now get the fuck out of here before I change my mind."

The man instantly stands up and runs out the door. Hyungwon runs his hands over his face and starts fixing the tables that were messed up by his actions. He looks at the worker giving him a small bow. "I didn't mean for that to happen. Please forgive me. We'll be leaving too."

He grabs your hand and heads out the door before the worker could protest. He walks up the street without saying a word to you. After a few moments he stops in his tracks, his hand still around your own. "I'm sorry you had to see that Y/N."  He turns around. "I probably ruined today. And I'm upset at myself because I don't see you often, and this is how I give you one day together." He's now looking at his fist, blood stains and a tint of purple covers his skin.

"Y-you didn't ruin anything. Honestly, thank you for sticking up for me."

"Did you honestly think that I was gonna let that pig say those things about you and get away with it?" He shakes his head. "What kind of person would I be if I had let him? I'd be a disgrace of a man." His face is hard, but soft. He shakes his head and sighs. "I would never let anyone hurt you. Just know that okay?"

You nod. "I know. I know."

"What was worse is that he had the audacity to touch you! It made me sick to my stomach when he was trying to drag you away." He shakes his head. "It made me absolutely sick. Men like him don't deserve to live."

You stare at Hyungwon as he looks forward. "Hyungwon?"

His eyes meet yours, his face seems worn out as he's waiting to hear what you gotta say. You gulp. "Can we be honest for a moment?"

He stares at you and begins to slightly laugh. "What? Are you gonna tell me that you don't wanna see me anymore? I understand if you wouldn't want to."

You shake your head. "No, nothing like that. Nothing like that at all."

He continues to stare at you. He nibbles at his bottom lip while your eyes are still looking for an answer and a question to give. "Y/N... I think I got to be honest with you for a second."

You look at him confused. "Why do you gotta be honest with me?"

He laughs again, this time his laugh is a little mocking. "You really don't get it do you?"

"Get what Hyungwon? What don't I get?" Your hand reaches for his arm and he instantly pulls away.

"Nothing Y/N forget it. It's not worth explaining."

Your eyes find a home on the ground. You can feel that he's staring at you but you can't find it in you to look at him again. You close your eyes and feel the anxiety take over the pit of your stomach. "H-"

Your cut off by Hyungwon forcing your face to look at him. Before you could ask him what he was doing you feel his lips connecting onto your own. Your eyes widen in shock. What's happening? Can this be happening? You step back as he pulls away, shock still running throughout your body. "Are you okay?" You'd be lying if you didn't admit you didn't love it. Of course you did, you've been in love with this boy for as long as you could remember. But any wrong word could have him leaving from your life forever. And having Hyungwon by your side in anyway was more important than your feelings.

You see Hyungwon smile a soft smile. "Isn't it obvious stupid?"

"Isn't what obvious?"

"That I'm in love with you."

Your eyes widen. "Love in as friends?"

He shakes his head. "No, love as in I wanna be more than just your friend Y/N."

"When did you decide this?"

He shrugs. "Don't remember, I just remember always being in love with you. This growing feeling I have in my heart, it's always been there for you. I can't close my eyes and remember a day I didn't feel this love for you. And I can't close my eyes and picture another day of not holding you in my arms and knowing that your mine." He looks away from you as he continues to speak. "Y/N I've always been in love with you. I always have, and I probably always will till the day I take my last breath. I don't know what I can do to prove that to you. No one understands me the way you do. You've been there for me through all the break ups, all the training days I went through. You know me better then I know myself. If I want anyone to hold my heart in their hands forever, it's your hands I want Y/N."

You stare at him and he let's out a nervous laugh. "Please say something before I throw up." He pleads. "Anything."

You nod your head. "Hyungwon, I've been in love with you for as long as I can remember too. I just never told you anything because... I was so convinced that you could never love someone like me. I was scared that you'd reject my feelings. I don't know how to feel right now to know that you've always felt the same way that I do. But just know I'm happy." You smile up at him. "I can't form what I feel into words, but just know that I'm happy. It feels like a huge weight is lifted off my shoulders to finally be telling you I feel this way after 16 years. 16 long years of being your best friend have been amazing, but." You look up at him.

"But what Y/N?"

"But... I hope I can spend the next 16 years of my life being the woman you love."

He smiles slightly at your words. "You've already been that woman."

"Well you know what I mean." You wrap your arms around his torso and begin to rest your head on his chest. "Thank you for telling me all this. I'm happy to know you feel the same way. I love you Hyungwon."

"I love you too Y/N."

You look up at him to see his soft brown eyes melting at the sight of you. You lean up and kiss his cheek. "Now can we enjoy this day then as our official first date and go on some rides? I promise you we'll have a good time."

He kisses you back on your forehead. "That sounds good Y/N. Come on let's go!" He starts to drag you forward by your hand. "The sling shot looks a lot of fun!"

"Hyungwon!" You screech. "I don't like heights!"

He laughs as he keeps dragging you anyways. "Come on I won't let anything bad happen to you remember?"

You smile at him as your feet begin to move on their own. You know things were gonna be okay because as long as you had Hyungwon right there, everything was going to be okay. As long as you had each other everything was gonna be fine.

You look over at Hyungwon as he steps behind the last person in the line. He looks back at you and smiles once again. You smile back as your stomach starts to flutter.

As long as Chae Hyungwon was in your life one way or another, you'll be okay.

[encoru]

float (chansoo, pg-13)

5, 860 words / implied depression and recreational drug use / Summer is in full swing and the sadness comes in huge, strong waves to Chanyeol these days.

Chanyeol tosses and turns on his bed. Summer is now in full swing and the heat comes in huge, strong waves these days. It threatens to swallow him whole until he drowns in his own sweat. He has put his air conditioner in maximum cool already but even the machine can’t seem to handle the humidity of the weather.

He’s tired. He just wants to fall asleep in peace.

Giving up momentarily, he gets up and takes off his shirt. He forms it into a ball and throws the cloth on the laundry basket opposite his bed. He lets out the breath he didn’t notice he’s been holding when it lands perfectly on top of the basket, but frowns when it falls on the floor shortly after. The basket is already overflowing with his soiled clothes. He makes a mental note to do his laundry first thing tomorrow morning.

Chanyeol walks to his window and stares at the city outside. Down below, streetlights flicker actively, joining the mix of yellow and red lights of vehicles traversing in the night. A few people are still walking, either coming to or going home from work. The day has long been over but the city never sleeps in this part of the world.

He looks back to his room. It’s almost completely engulfed by darkness. The only light comes from the moon outside, barely illuminating his empty king-sized bed and his bare walls.

Chanyeol suddenly feels a strong urge to escape.

He grabs his phone on the bedside table and types a message.

10:45 PM

Chanyeol

Let’s run away tomorrow.

He thinks it’s a stupid idea but he presses the send button anyway. He’s too tired to be logical right now. He’s tired of the summer and its heat, tired of the city and its restlessness, tired of nights like this where he gets this sinking feeling that he can’t seem to push away no matter how many times he tries. He just wants get away from here.

His phone buzzes a minute later. He gets the response he expects the least.

10:46 PM

Kyungsoo

Okay.

Chanyeol wakes up to a warm hand patting his face. In the haze of his sleep, he tries to push it away and bury his head on his pillows. The hand disappears, only to be replaced by strong arms lifting him by the shoulders, forcing him to sit up.

Chanyeol opens up one eye. In front of him is Kyungsoo, staring at him with an unreadable expression on his face. He’s clad in a white shirt, black shorts, and his favorite pair of Flyknits. Behind him sits his backpack on the floor. He looks like he just freshly got out of shower.

“What time is it?” Chanyeol starts. He wants to ask, “Why are you here?” but Kyungsoo tends to show up in his apartment unannounced more often recently that he’s no longer surprised.

“Four o’clock,” Kyungsoo answers. “Start packing.”

Chanyeol does as he’s told. He retrieves his worn out duffel bag from the drawer and starts to grab clothes from his closet, throwing them haphazardly on the bed. He runs to the bathroom to gets his pouch of toiletries. He starts to pile everything on his bag when Kyungsoo grabs a shirt from him and starts to fold it neatly before placing it inside.

“I’ll take care of this. Go wash up.”

Chanyeol immediately undresses and proceeds to the bathroom. He feels his senses slowly start to wake up when the warm water hits his skin but his mind is still in a state of haze. He rubs his eyes then covers them in the curve of his palms in a vain attempt to alleviate their puffiness. It feels like he has only slept for a minute before he was forced to face consciousness again.

When he goes out, he sees Kyungsoo opening his drawers one by one, obviously in search of something. Their bags are now sitting side by side atop his bed.

“Where are your car keys?” Kyungsoo asks.

Chanyeol grabs the pants hanging on the door of his bathroom, fishes something out of its pocket, then throws the car keys to Kyungsoo. The guy catches it perfectly.

“Where’s your car?” He questions him back in return while he towels his hair dry. He doesn’t mind Kyungsoo using his car, but it’s so unlike him to use a vehicle not of his own. Chanyeol knows how much the guy loves his Maserati.

“I lent it to Baekhyun last night. He said he needs an extra car for a road trip with colleagues today. Let’s go.”

Chanyeol silently follows Kyungsoo out of his own apartment. He watches Kyungsoo place their bags in the back of his G65 and hop on the driver’s seat as if he does this everyday. As he gets on the passenger seat and puts on his seatbelt, he racks his brain for the other times that Kyungsoo has drove his truck. He thinks maybe Kyungsoo has done it twice - maybe the number is even greater - but his mind is still lagging. Giving up, he settles on plugging his phone to the aux cord and pulls up his morning drive playlist.

The engine soon roars to life. Chanyeol turns to Kyungsoo. Kyungsoo has always been small but when he’s sitting on a seat made for a six-foot tall guy, hands placed firmly on the big steering wheel in front of him like this - he just looks tiny. Kyungsoo looks back at him and normally Chanyeol would feel guilty when he gets caught staring, but there’s a glint in Kyungsoo’s eyes that forces his gaze to stay.

“Are you ready to escape?” Kyungsoo asks and smiles for the first time today.

“Where are we going?” Chanyeol asks him in return.

“To somewhere you won’t forget,” Kyungsoo replies as he pulls out of the parking lot, eyes now on the road.

Chanyeol finally peels his eyes away from Kyungsoo and stares ahead. He looks out on the window. Streaks of orange can now be seen on the sky, signaling the start of sunrise.  As the night slowly gives way to the day, Chanyeol feels the excitement thrum on his veins.

They’ve been on the road for almost two hours now and Chanyeol still sees no end in sight. The expressway they’re currently traversing through seems to run for miles and miles and he fears Kyungsoo might be getting weary soon. He still hasn’t told him exactly where they’re going.

“Muchangpo Beach,” Kyungsoo says all of a sudden, as if reading Chanyeol’s thoughts.

Chanyeol gapes. He’s never been to Muchangpo before, but he knows it’s a four-hour drive from Seoul. He doesn’t even know if Kyungsoo has slept well. The guy is notorious for working late hours on weekdays.

“Do you want to switch at the next gas station?”

“I’m good,” Kyungsoo says. The corners of his lips pull up into a smile. Chanyeol thinks if this is the sight that greets him every morning, maybe he’d be more motivated to get up and go to work. “No need to worry yourself. Sleep if you want to.”

“I’m not yet sleepy,” Chanyeol replies but his body breaks out into a yawn right after, betraying him. Kyungsoo chuckles. “No dude, seriously. Just tell me if you’re tired. We can switch once we’re halfway there.”

“Half of this drive involves a zigzag road, Chanyeol,” Kyungsoo glances at him. “I’m really fine. I can manage.”

Chanyeol lets go of the argument after that. He shifts his attention on watching their surroundings. The sun has fully risen now and based from the bright lights streaming inside the car, he can only imagine how scorching hot it must be outside despite it only being eight o’clock in the morning.

“Thanks, man. Don’t worry, I won’t fall asleep.” Chanyeol says and smiles, even if he knows Kyungsoo isn’t looking at him.

An hour later, Chanyeol feels his eyelids begin to droop but straightens up on his seat when he sees the view gradually change. The tall buildings have been replaced now by a vast landscape of farmland. Old, traditional houses are situated at least one kilometer away from each other. The sky is a brilliant shade of blue, the clouds more prominent and huge - a complete contrast to the pale, smoggy skyline that he’s used to.

“We’re almost there,” Kyungsoo says.

Chanyeol doesn’t answer. Instead, he grabs his phone and stops the music, only to replace it with a hard EDM remix of Justin Bieber’s Cold Water and turns the speakers on full volume.

He sees Kyungsoo visibly grimace. Chanyeol laughs. The bass is thrumming is so hard that Chanyeol can almost feel it on his skin, with the way the music is blasting within the cramped space of his truck.

“Why did you replace the song with this?” Kyungsoo half-shouts.

“So you won’t fall asleep!” Chanyeol shouts back. Kyungsoo shakes his head in response, prompting him to laugh loud again. “I thought you like Justin Bieber!”

He starts to pump his fist in the air and makes little dancing gestures, acting the same way he does when he’s at an EDM party. Beside him, Kyungsoo has his condescending smirk on, the kind that he wears when he thinks Chanyeol is being dumb again, but he’s mouthing the lyrics every now and then.

At one point during the buildup of the song, Chanyeol grabs one of Kyungsoo’s hand and forces him to throw it in the air, causing Kyungsoo to smack him hard on the shoulder.

The road is almost empty now, save from them and the Sedan in front who seems to be taking their time. Chanyeol watches Kyungsoo tap on the turn signal before sharply moving to the next lane and taking over.

“That guy drives like he’s taking a walk in the park,” Chanyeol snorts.

“The speed limit around here is 100 kilometers, not 40.” Kyungsoo replies. They pass by a street sign shortly after that proves Kyungsoo is right. “But my former colleagues and I used to race around here. I went as bad as 180.”

Chanyeol gapes at Kyungsoo. He has that glint on his eyes again along with a fond expression on his face as he reminisces. Somehow, he finds it difficult to picture Kyungsoo driving on this road, going as fast as his car would allow, knuckles turning white as he grips the steering wheel tight. Kyungsoo is the most level-headed and reserved person that he knows. He didn’t peg him to be the type to be as risky as that but then again, he reminds himself that there are still probably a lot of things he’s yet to learn about Kyungsoo.

“Did you win?” He asks.

“I didn’t,” Kyungsoo smirks. “I slowed down when I thought my life flashed before my eyes. The car started to shake.”

Chanyeol laughs despite himself. Then, an idea pops in his head. He turns to Kyungsoo. “Hey dude, what if—”

“No,” Kyungsoo shuts him down. “Don’t even think about it, Chanyeol. I’m not getting a speeding ticket again.”

Chanyeol turns the volume down when the road gives way to sharp turns. He holds onto the handle located above his window and sees Kyungsoo’s grip on the steering wheel tighten. He’s not afraid of zigzag roads and he knows Kyungsoo is a careful driver but this is his first time traversing through this path, on top of being an anxious bundle of nerves lately.

He feels the ringing on his ears as they ascend the hilly road. A hand rests on his left thigh.

“That’s the beach we’re going to,” Kyungsoo says without looking at him.

Chanyeol looks to his right. They’re right beside a steep cliff covered in pine trees and wild bushes. Down below, he sees the beach. Even from this distance, he sees the sea glimmer under the sunlight.

As they descend back on the low land, the pine trees that line up the path seems to increase in height. There comes a point where they seem to be caving in unto the road, like two hands waiting to grab you from above, and Chanyeol shivers at the thought of driving here at night. He’s determined to take over the wheel on their way back home but he’s starting to think maybe he should let Kyungsoo drive first, until they get out of this creepy path at least.

They stop at the next gas station in Muchangpo. Kyungsoo proceeds to the restroom while Chanyeol goes ahead to buy them snacks for breakfast. There are surprisingly only a few people despite it being the peak of summer, with most of them cargo drivers resting and grabbing something to eat.

Chanyeol remembers how he used to go on long drives like this with his family. Back when he was still a kid, his dad drove them cross-country every time he got a holiday. He and his sister Yoora fit themselves in the cramped backseat, covered in blankets and toys, and Yoora often kicked him for his long limbs that took up too much space. Of course, he kicked her back in return, which resulted in a fight. Their mom scolded them and both pinched their ears, and Chanyeol recalls whining about how unfair it was because he had bigger ears than Yoora so it hurted more for him. His dad never took his eyes off the road but he always laughed, eyes crinkling as he stared at his small family through the rearview mirror.

As they grew older, the long drives have lessened until it finally stopped altogether. His dad is too weak to drive across the country now and he’s lucky if he can even manage to stay behind the wheel for more than three hours straight. Nowadays, he’d rather hire a chauffeur or take a plane. Meanwhile, his mom is too busy managing the family restaurant. Yoora is the same, preoccupied between juggling work and married life at the same time.

Chanyeol sighs. Twenty-four is a good age. He has a flourishing career that enables him to live on his own. He can already make decisions without having to wait for his parents’ opinion. He can literally do anything he wants to because he’s now an adult. But some days, he just wants to go back to being a child again and come back to the safety of his mom’s arms, or bicker with Yoora about the smallest things, or fall asleep listening to his father’s voice. Some days, he just wants to stop pretending he’s got it all together and succumb to his misery. Some days, he just doesn’t want to feel anything.

He’s afraid those days are becoming more frequent as of late.

Chanyeol gets interrupted out of his thoughts when Kyungsoo taps him on the shoulder. He gives him his own black sesame bread and banana milk. Kyungsoo mumbles a soft “thanks” before taking a bite.

“Is it your first time here?” Kyungsoo asks, large eyes looking up at him.

Chanyeol tries to rack his brain for all the times he’s been at this part of Chungcheongnam before and fails to come up with any. “Yeah, it is.”

Kyungsoo smiles at him. “Good. You’ll love it here.”

I’ll love anywhere that’s not home, he wants to reply, but Kyungsoo is already walking back to his truck.

The 20-minute drive to the beach proper is more quiet, but Chanyeol simply lets it be. Kyungsoo hums a melody he doesn’t know, fingers drumming on the steering wheel in time with the tune. He seems to be really happy to be here.

They’re driving by a small village made up of tiny, bungalow houses when Chanyeol feels a hand rest on his thigh again.

“These are all designed by me,” Kyungsoo says, voice almost a whisper, as if he’s letting in Chanyeol on a secret. A small smile graces his lips.

“All of these?!” Chanyeol gasps. He looks back on the houses. They’re dainty bungalows reminiscent of old Victorian architecture, a design he hasn’t seen anywhere in Seoul. The houses are beautiful but most of them look empty.

“Yeah. I was fresh out of college when my uncle contacted me and said he needed a freelance architect for a small project. Never knew his definition of small was basically an entire village,” Kyungsoo explains with a chuckle.

Chanyeol nods in understanding. He tries to imagine a younger Kyungsoo, skinnier and smaller than he is now, bubbling with excitement as he spreads a hundred blueprints in front of him. Hands tainted with charcoal as he draws on a sheet of paper with his pencil, thick brows knitted in concentration, his black-rimmed glasses hanging low on the bridge of his nose. It’s an interesting image.

“You did great, those houses are beautiful,” He tells Kyungsoo.

“Thanks.”

“Are they all occupied?”

“Every once in awhile, yes,” When Kyungsoo sees Chanyeol frown in confusion, he adds, “Those are vacation houses. People either buy them as a spare or rent them out.”

If he had a house that beautiful, Chanyeol thinks, he’ll never want to live anywhere else. In fact, if he had a house designed by Kyungsoo himself, he’ll never ask for anything more. But then again he remembers his own condo apartment - which he learned later on was designed by Kyungsoo too - and how its big, bare walls seem to cage him in every time he arrives from work, a blatant reminder of the lack of warm bodies in the new space he has learned to call home.

Kyungsoo pulls over a few meters away from the beach. Chanyeol grabs their bags from the backseat before he gets out. He immediately regrets wearing his all-black tracksuit today the moment he finds himself directly under the sunlight, the sweltering heat beating down harshly on him. The heat is relentless. He’s only been outside for what seems like two minutes but he can already feel the beads of sweat collecting on his pits.

“You good?” Kyungsoo asks, fanning himself with the bottom of his shirt. Chanyeol nods. He suddenly wishes he had imitated Kyungsoo and wore a thin, white shirt as well.

The briny scent of the sea greets his nose as they make their descent down on the beach. The sun seems to shine even brighter in this area, a ball of blinding, yellow inferno on the blue sky. The sea and the sand sparkle under its light, making them appear like blankets of blue and gold littered with tiny crystals.

Chanyeol thinks if this is the view that greets him on each day of summer, then he probably wouldn’t mind the heat just as much.

He takes a couple of pictures of the scenic view with his phone before Kyungsoo tugs him by the arm and indicates Chanyeol to follow him.

They settle on an al fresco table located right next to a tiny open-air restaurant and bar. Chanyeol looks around. Muchangpo isn’t filled with a lot of people, much to his pleasure. Different stalls fill up in the place, most of them grilling seafood and corn under the shade of their huge umbrella. Cottages can be found on the whole length of the beach but not all of them are occupied. There are families on a vacation, a small group of friends, and some learning to kayak but other than them, there isn’t a lot to consider a crowd. He figures that most people either stayed within the congested white beaches near Seoul or went all the way to Jeju.

For once, Chanyeol is thankful Kyungsoo decided to bring him here.

Chanyeol pulls down his cap lower at the same time that Kyungsoo removes his. A strong gust of wind blows in their direction and Chanyeol watches it mess up Kyungsoo’s hair. His hair is getting too long now, fringe almost reaching his eyebrows. Chanyeol remembers how trimmed Kyungsoo’s hair was the first time they met.

“See that house atop that hill?” Kyungsoo points behind him and Chanyeol turns around. He sees a big white house nestled on the edge of a cliff. “That’s where my office used to be.”

“You used to live here?”

Kyungsoo shakes his head. “No, but I used to go here a lot for that project. My boss - my uncle’s friend - would let me work in that office whenever I was around.”

Chanyeol imagines doing the four-hour drive here on a daily basis. He doesn’t know if it’s something he can do.

“Did you swim a lot?”

Kyungsoo chuckles. “I never had the time to swim, but I went fishing with my boss sometimes. We picked clams when the sea parted.”

A picture of a younger Kyungsoo flashes in his mind. A skinnier and probably tanned Kyungsoo, dressed like he is now, joining hundreds of people who walk down on the emerged road from the sea, picking clams and seaweed with his bare hands.

Somehow, it feels like Kyungsoo is giving him a tour of his previous life, letting him on a secret, and Chanyeol doesn’t know what to make of it.

“That must be a really nice workplace,” Chanyeol replies and he means it, “You got an awesome view.”

Kyungsoo smiles. “Yeah, I know. I miss it sometimes.”

Chanyeol orders them a grilled tuna steak for lunch and volunteers to pay for the tab. Kyungsoo insisted on paying for his own but Chanyeol is more persistent. It’s the least he can do since Kyungsoo already drove them all the way here.

“This one’s on me though,” Kyungsoo says with a smirk when the waiter brings a beer tower on their table. Chanyeol could do nothing but laugh. He can’t recall when was the last time he went drinking during broad daylight. Some 2-3 years ago, maybe? Probably around the time when he was tearing his hair apart about not making it to the dean’s list during university.

Kyungsoo pours them a glass of beer each. Chanyeol downs the alcohol in one gulp, letting the cold, malty liquid wash away the saltiness in his mouth from the tuna he just had earlier. The sun is still shining bright but the breeze of the sea blows towards them, the wind a cool reprieve from the heat that lingers on his skin. Nothing else can be heard but the gentle splashing of water as the waves hit the shore, the caws of the crows flying above them, and the simple chatter of the people nearby.

Chanyeol briefly closes his eyes as he drinks his second glass. He basks in this kind of quiet. He thinks of the solitude of his big empty apartment, of the buzzing of the concrete jungle when he’s asleep. He discovers he prefers this silence more.

He never thought all it would take is a text message, a four-hour drive on the road, and Kyungsoo’s comforting company for him to feel and taste summer like this.

Chanyeol has just finished his third glass when he lets out the question that’s been bugging his mind for days. “Have you ever thought about leaving it all?”

Kyungsoo stares at him. “What do you mean?”

Chanyeol gulps. He’s starting to feel the alcohol now. “I don’t know, just leaving. Packing your bags and never coming back again. Starting all over in a faraway land where no single soul knows you. Figuring your life out.”

Kyungsoo chuckles. “You mean soul-searching?”

Chanyeol looks back at Kyungsoo. “Is that what do people call it these days? Yeah, soul-searching or whatever.”

Kyungsoo sighs. Chanyeol watches him slosh his now half-empty glass as he stares ahead. There is nothing in front of them but the endless sea and the horizon.

“Sometimes. It’s easy to think about those things when you’re tired. It’s easy to think about escaping. But it’s hard to actually leave.”

“Because you’d be called a quitter?”

“Because you have responsibilities,” Kyungsoo turns and faces Chanyeol, staring at him in the eye. Chanyeol stares back. “People can be replaced depending on the job, but it takes time. Weeks or months, even. There are certain tasks only you can do and once you leave them, things might suddenly fall apart. You can’t just let that happen.”

Chanyeol nods in understanding. He knows exactly how that feels but the alcohol fuels his curiosity. “What if you didn’t have responsibilities?”

Kyungsoo laughs and looks at him like he’s the most ridiculous person ever. “What kind of question is that, Chanyeol?”

“Just answer me.”

Kyungsoo empties his glass before pouring alcohol in it again. Their beer tower is half-empty now. “If I didn’t have responsibilities, I’d just probably be here with you everyday.”

Chanyeol feels warmth crept up his neck. He isn’t sure if it’s the flush from the alcohol, the heat from the sun, or the way Kyungsoo is staring at him now with a funny smile gracing his lips.

“Dude, you’re so crazy,” Chanyeol laughs, hoping that Kyungsoo doesn’t notice his blush. He pours himself another glass and drinks it all in one go. He is definitely getting more tipsy now.

“What would we even do?”

“I don’t know,” Kyungsoo pushes back his fringe that keeps getting blown by the wind, “Maybe just be like this. Drink beer during the day, catch fish in the afternoon, smoke weed in the evening. Then when the sea parts during the middle of summer, we’ll go pick clams and seaweed for the elderly. Sounds great?”

Chanyeol lets out the loudest laughter he’s had that day. “Sounds like a plan to me.”

Kyungsoo laughs with him, cheeks forming a scrunch, eyes disappearing into crescents. Kyungsoo has always looked young for his age but he looks even younger whenever he laughs like this. Chanyeol sometimes wishes he was gifted with the look of youth as well.

When his laughter dies down, Kyungsoo holds Chanyeol again with his gaze. He schools his face into a serious expression but amusement lingers on his eyes. “What about you, Chanyeol? What would you do?”

He glances at the sea in front of him and imagines being washed away by the waves.

“I honestly have no idea,” he replies.

They pour themselves a glass each for the last time, emptying the tall beer tower. Kyungsoo clinks his glass against his before drinking his beer. Chanyeol replies with a laugh. The tips of Kyungsoo’s ears are red now and a flush has also crept up his neck but Chanyeol knows by experience that Kyungsoo is still far from being drunk. The guy is a heavy drinker, unlike him.

“Let’s walk on the beach,” Kyungsoo says.

Kyungsoo takes off his shirt right then and there, startling Chanyeol a bit. Chanyeol watches him fold his shirt neatly before placing it inside his bag. He tries not to stare at the way Kyungsoo’s chest heaves when he breathes, at the lines that dip on his stomach, or at how his pale skin seems to glow under the bright sunlight. Chanyeol gets rid of his own tracksuit and stuffs them inside his duffel bag, leaving nothing but his shorts on. He grabs his bottle of sunscreen and starts to spread them generously all over his torso.

“Want me to put some on your back?” Kyungsoo offers.

Chanyeol relents and sits down. Kyungsoo is a lot shorter than him and it would just be unfair to let the guy struggle to reach up to his back. He lets out a sigh when Kyungsoo’s hands start spreading the sunscreen on his bare back, leaving lingering warmth on every expanse of skin they touched.

Chanyeol does the same for Kyungsoo. Kyungsoo’s skin feel warm under his palms but his back remain strong and firm to the touch.

They change into their slippers and start to walk by the beach, the fine sand dipping on each step they take. He feels the sand seep between his toes.

“What do you want to run away from?” Kyungsoo asks, looking up at him.

Chanyeol is quick to look away. He’s afraid he might get lost in those round eyes; they seem to compete with the vastness of the sea. “I,” he tries, “I just want—”

What do you want to run away from? The question resonates within Chanyeol. He wants to run away from his job, he wants to run away from responsibilities, he wants to run away from the ghosts of himself that seem to haunt him every night. But that’s the problem — he doesn’t know what exactly he’s running away from. He doesn’t think he’s capable of giving Kyungsoo a concrete answer.

When he glances at Kyungsoo, he discovers the guy is still looking up at him.

“I,” Chanyeol tries again, “I just want life to stop sometimes.” He scratches his head. He feels so stupid.

Kyungsoo raises an eyebrow. “But life doesn’t stop for anybody.”

Chanyeol pouts. “I know! But don’t you ever think about it, Kyungsoo? Will we always just stay like this? Working our asses off in the corporate world while trying to save up for a future that doesn’t even hold any guarantee? We sacrifice our time for our friends and our family. And by the time we’re finally stable, when the day comes that we finally have time for them..t-they’re…”

He stops as he runs out of breath but Kyungsoo is still looking at him, encouraging him to go on.

“..T-they’re either too old and frail to do the activities we’ve always wanted them to do with us. Or gone.”

Chanyeol blinks. He doesn’t want to think about it, but it crossed his mind too many times. The good thing about growing up is your perspective broadens. The bad thing about it is realizing that as you grow old, so does your parents, and they seem to do it faster than you do. Chanyeol has always been afraid of not being able to keep up.

“I understand,” Kyungsoo replies a moment later. “My dad always nags me about coming home to Ilsan even though I do it every weekend. Says my mom needs company.”

Chanyeol looks at him. “But doesn’t Seungsoo live next door?”

Kyungsoo shakes his head. “Yes, but he’s busy with his own kids now. Mom doesn’t want to bother him if she can help it.”

They stop by a closed shop in the middle of the beach. The shop features a wall mural of a girl playing a piano by the sea, her face covered by her long, silky hair. Nimble fingers touch the piano keys while the sea continues with its waves behind her. The mural is made of such vibrant, striking colors that Chanyeol ponders fishermen could probably still see it even from a distance.

“My parents are getting old and I’m afraid I’m disappointing them,” Chanyeol whispers as he traces the lines of the mural with his fingers, “I’m already 24 and I still don’t know what to do with my life.”

“You got your whole life to figure that out,” Kyungsoo replies. He’s wearing one of those bright, reassuring smiles again that Chanyeol loves so much. “You’re not supposed to figure out everything at 24, Chanyeol. Stop rushing things.”

Chanyeol blinks. “Damn, when did you get so wise? Did you inhale Confucius or something?”

Kyungsoo moves to smack him but Chanyeol is quick to recoil. Thankfully, the hit doesn’t come.

“My dad’s words.”

Kyungsoo suddenly removes his slippers and runs to the sea. Chanyeol chases after him. The sand feels burning hot under his soles. He finally gets relief when his body finally makes contact with the water.

The water is shallow in these parts. Chanyeol has to walk around five meters before he gets submerged up to his chest. The waves are gentle too, swaying him every now and then but not strong enough to throw him back to the shore.

Kyungsoo appears beside him. His body is splayed out in the water, eyes closed, as he floats in the sea.

“How do you like Muchangpo so far?” Kyungsoo asks.

Chanyeol sloshes water at him. “I like it. It’s very quiet.”

Kyungsoo opens his eyes and stands on his feet. The water reaches up to his ears, whereas it only reaches a little past Chanyeol’s chest.

“I go here whenever I need to escape. It makes me feel grounded,” He gestures to the bungalow atop the hill, “Makes me remember how it all started. Why I’m doing the things I’m doing right now.”

Chanyeol hums. He can’t think of any place that makes him feel grounded but he knows one person who does and he’s right in front of him.

“Sometimes, you just have to let it go, Yeol. Life doesn’t stop, but this is why we’re here. So you can run away with me,” Kyungsoo adds with a smile, lips forming into a heart as he flashes his full teeth.

Chanyeol smiles back at him.

Kyungsoo returns to his former position again and floats on his back.  Chanyeol imitates him, arms on his sides. The water feels amazing on his back. He tries to ignore the sunlight that directly hits him on the face.

“Sorry, I just like doing this. Letting the waves sway me. It’s so..” Kyungsoo says beside him, “..relaxing.”

“Mmm..”

Chanyeol wishes life is as easy as floating in the sea. He wishes he could just let go of everything and completely let the waves take hold of him and bring him wherever they please. Then, his mind strays again to a thought he had earlier.

It would be so easy now, with him floating like this, for the waves to take him for good, for the sea to swallow him whole. He bets no one would even notice as the waves come back to kissing the shore because that’s what they’re always meant to do.

Chanyeol opens his eyes when he feels Kyungsoo’s fingers thread with his. “Stop thinking.”

Chanyeol stands on his feet. Kyungsoo follows him. Kyungsoo shoots him a deadpan glare.

“Stop thinking,” He says again.

Chanyeol wants to scream. He wishes it was that simple. His mind has always been on overdrive for as long as he can remember.

“What are you even saying?” He replies, not intending to sound irritated, but he still does.

“Clear your mind for once, Chanyeol,” Kyungsoo says, stepping closer. He still hasn’t let go of his hand. “I brought you here because you said you wanted to run away. So stop overthinking and just enjoy the water.”

Chanyeol sighs heavily. Kyungsoo is right.

Chanyeol floats on his back again and lets the sea wash his worries away, even if just for today. Kyungsoo threads their fingers together, his hand soft and comforting beneath the water.

Summer is in full swing and the sadness comes in huge, strong waves to Chanyeol these days.

But with the sea on his back and Kyungsoo on his side, Chanyeol thinks the waves aren’t strong enough to take him and let him drown. He’d simply let himself be thrown back to the shore, because that’s always been where he’s meant to be.