Tumgik
#i woke up today and saw this message and have spent entirely too much time rambling now
since it's julian's birthday today, how would the m6 react to the mc setting up a birthday party for them or vice versa? i love ur writing so much!!!! thank u for these i just binged everything n i feel v satisfied after having post-arcana brainrot huhu
The Arcana HCs: how the MC celebrates Julian's birthday
~ ok so this request came in just as i was going to bed and when i woke up all i saw i had written for this was "spidoop for birthday boi" and ... i have no idea what that was supposed to mean ... anyways happy birthday Julian, enjoy your headcannons anon! - brainrot ~
Julian
You already know he loves a wild party, and that's what you're going to give to him
He's the type of guy who finds family for himself wherever he goes, and you want to make sure as many of them are there as possible for his big day
So several months in advance, you get a rumor going on Mazelinka's ship that Dr Devorak will be celebrating his birthday on March 12, and they pass that message along to every acquaintance they bump into
Considering that he's the person you're tying your life to, it's safe to assume that you understand the concept of "go big or go home"
You plan ahead of time to have access to one of the big, empty lots by the South End docks for the Vesuvian equivalent of a block party
You're a little worried about keeping it a surprise, because you know he'd never let you do so much for him if he knew
So you hide it in plain sight by telling him you're planning a big event with Nadia (which is true, she is helping) and he doesn't question you any further
Also because, as much as the two of you are working on his self-esteem, it's still low enough that he's not going to think any of it could be about him
So imagine his shock when, on a day he was so sure you didn't know about, you take him on an evening stroll down to the beach and throw him the party of his life
There's several ships he recognizes docked in the harbor, there's a roaring bonfire on the sand, there's trestle tables in a massive circle piled with treats, and there's the entire South End turned out to celebrate their favorite fugitive
Nadia is there with Nazali to celebrate their favorite student, Portia's ready to cry with delight, and even Asra's offering to dance with him to scatter any lingering bad feelings and reaffirm their bond
But most of all, he's enraptured by you, flitting between all of the people that make up his heart like you belong there and pulling every good thing he has to the surface where he can't deny them
The amount of noise you all make will leave your head ringing for days
He's having his plate piled with all his favorite foods, receiving more hugs than he knows what to do with and laughing until he cries
After everyone's eaten and had a few drinks, someone hands him a vielle and the music starts
It's like the masquerade all over again, but this isn't a feverish distraction from a living nightmare, it's the uproar of a battle worn family giving thanks for the life he's living with them
The next several hours are spent whirling around the fire, kicking up the sand and linking arms with every lovable hooligan Julian's ever met
Nadia and Portia also helped provide enough bedding for most of the guests to sleep there when they get too tired
The sweetest moment of that night comes as Julian lies awake on the sand, for once grateful for his insomnia because it lets him listen to the hundreds of breaths the people around him are drawing
And it lets him savor the way your danced out limbs are sprawled around him
(I didnt forget the other five, I will post birthday headcanons for them on their birthdays so everyone gets the attention they deserve on their special day :) cheers! - brainrot)
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bloodblanks · 2 years
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solace [masky / hoodie x reader] — chapter ii.
Despite having Tim and Brian still on your mind, you prepare to pack your things and leave. However, moving to your new apartment doesn’t exactly go as planned.
author's note: this fanfiction will contain explicit content, including rape/non-con, kidnapping, stockholm syndrome, and similar themes.
please read at your own discretion.
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<- previous chapter
It was still early in the day when you woke up. At least, it was early in your standards. It was already afternoon, and as you realized that, you let out a groan of frustration. Unfortunately, you had a hundred percent ruined your sleep schedule. But what else did you expect—you had spent the entire evening binging a show, continuing into the early morning hours. By the time you went to sleep, the sun had risen, marking the time of dawn. As it was summer break, it wouldn’t matter too much, but you’d need to fix it before the start of school.
Your hands swatted at the phone on your nightstand, snatching the device eventually to turn the alarm off. Perhaps it was a bad habit, but the first thing you did was open your social media applications, procrastinating your leave from bed. Your phone display showed that you had a few unanswered text messages, all from a group chat consisting of you and your friends. You could see that they were discussing a new game that had just come out, and they’d been waiting for you to join. You smiled; it was sweet that they didn’t start without you. However, you’d have to crush their hopes.
ark Y/N WAKE UP WE NEED TO PLAY
Zohlem Shes probably sleeping lol You saw her typing at 3am about some show
lilypop she always does that lol but she should be up anytime soon
Y/N stop typing like this
lilypop fuck
Y/N start without me, i need to prep for move srry
lilypop you
ark :kittysad:
You felt a pang of guilt for not spending time with them after they had waited for you, but it was true. You did plan to start packing your stuff, deciding what to bring and what not to. Still, it was bothering you. Even though they were online friends, they still meant quite a lot to you. After all, they were the closest that you had to real friends, considering how you were left alone after Tim and Brian’s disappearance. Before that, you never had any other friends. You never needed other friends. It was supposed to be the three of you, a close-knit trio of friends. It was supposed to be the three of you leaving for university together. It was supposed to be the three of you, forever and always.
But that wasn’t the way things went. And everyone in high school already had a friend group or some sort of clique formed in earlier years, making it awkward to befriend new people. Not that you particularly wanted to, either. At the time, you didn’t particularly want to do anything.
Sighing, you put your phone down and got out of bed. Undressing, you took off the clothes you slept in, grabbed a simple outfit for the day—not like you were going anywhere fancy—and headed downstairs.
“Good morning, Y/N.” your mom called out.
You glanced at her sheepishly, shrugging your shoulders and walking to the dining table. You pulled out one of the chairs there, sat down and prepared to explain yourself.
“It’s summer break. I’ll fix my sleep schedule when school starts again,” you mumbled the first thing that came to your mind in hopes that she wouldn’t continue the subject. Which she didn’t, something you were thankful for. Ever since you had turned eighteen, both your parents had become more relaxed with you, assuming you’d know how to be responsible. Bold assumption, you thought. But it was one that was in your favour.
“Have you decided what you’ll be bringing?” Your mother asked as she took the dishes, likely from today’s breakfast that you had unfortunately missed, sliding them into the dishwasher's racks.
“Kind of, yeah. I think I’m just gonna be bringing some of my clothes, uh, the PC setup, and... the box.” Stumbling over your words, you let your voice trail off at the mention of the box. It wasn’t often that you’d bring up anything Tim and Brian related to her. In fact, you didn’t think that you had done it for a very long time, likely not since your last therapy session. Your mom was one of the few people genuinely affected by their disappearance at the time. She had known the boys for just as long as you had and likely remembered more of them in their earlier years than you did, seeing how your childhood memories were relatively blurry. Your families had all known each other since virtually the beginning of time. They had all grown up in this small town, went to the same schools together, got married, and had kids here. Your parents hadn’t been close with the other’s parents, but since the three of you had become such close friends, your parents eventually befriended each other’s parents.
Likely, your mom thought of Tim and Brian almost as family to some extent, which is mildly weird if you factor in the fact that you very possibly could’ve been crushing on either one of them to some extent at some point in time.
“Right,” she said. “The box. I almost forgot about it.” She paused for a second before continuing. “What exactly is in that thing, anyway?”
You knew all the items in there by heart. It was only natural since you had taken each and every item individually, collected them over the years, handpicked them from their rooms, and held them in your arms while crying yourself to sleep for countless nights.
“There’s Tim’s hoodie. The black one that he was always wearing.”
Your mom laughed. “Right,” she said, “Tim was going through some sort of phase.”
“Mhm.” You nodded. “There’s also Brian’s notebook from school. All his notes are in there. It’s a shame it’s for previous classes. I can’t copy off of them anymore.” you joked, and your mom chuckled at that. “And… Tim’s sketchbook. You know, he was good at art. It’s filled with like, all kinds of drawings. I haven’t looked through all of them yet, but I think I did see a drawing of me.”
Your mom hummed as she finished the dishes, walking over to you and pulling out a chair for herself. Sitting down, she said, “I swear Tim had a crush on you.” which caused you to blush.
“No, really!” she insisted, disregarding the flush on your face. “He was always staring at you. Anyone could’ve noticed.”
You got up from your chair, face red as a tomato. “I’m going to sort out my stuff, see ya.”
She laughed again. You appreciated moments like these, the simple pleasures of life.
You had far too many clothes. You only realized that today after looking through your closet to figure out what to bring. Taking out one of the folded cardboard boxes from the stack in your room, you quickly pushed out the sides to make the box. You threw your favourite shirts in, the ones that would go with almost any outfit. T-shirts, check. Seeing as it wouldn’t be warm for too much longer, you figured it would also be wise to bring a few sweaters. Sweaters, check. When trying to fit in your jackets, you realized how much space they took up and concluded that you’d bring the rest of them next time. After a while of debating between which were your favourites and which would be most practical, you made your choice, finally sealing the box with some tape. You’d bring more clothes the next time you returned home. Check.
You thought of packing your toiletries, such as your hair wash, skincare and the other products you used on a day-to-day basis, but you decided against it. You’d want to use them up until the day of moving, so you’ll pack them right before the move.
Taking your phone out of your pocket, you checked the time. Shit, you cursed internally. It was already ten past five. How in the world did it take you so long to decide between a few pieces of clothing? Were you really that slow?
Whatever, you thought. At the very least, you had finished the task, which meant it was productive enough for your standards.
Finally receiving the break you’d wanted all day, you excitedly sat yourself down in your chair, turned on your PC and typed a quick message to your friends.
Y/N srry guys i’m here now
ark :kittypog: yay
lilypop come play fast
You found yourself grinning as you read their replies. You appreciated your online friends very much. After Tim and Brian had left, you ended up spending the majority of your time online. You played video games, browsed art, read, scrolled social media, and so on. Through those activities, you found yourself meeting new people, some of which you have continued talking to ever since. You didn’t want to go out, not that you had a reason to, anyway. The world outside had become empty and devoid of life without Tim and Brian. Your new friends gave you something to look forward to when you woke up, a reason to get out of bed, and ways to occupy yourself and your mind. Through them, you were able to feel something other than grief.
As much as you hated to admit it, you were very much dependent on Tim and Brian. It wasn’t necessarily the healthiest thing, but you had grown up with them. You had done everything with them. You went to school together, did assignments together, played games together, ate food together, and even celebrated Christmas together with each other’s family. When they vanished, so did a large portion of your life. Everything you did, everything you were planning to do, involved them. And there was no them anymore.
Lost in thought, your attention turned away from the game you were playing, your movements on autopilot. You only noticed it when you saw your screen flash. Startled, you directed your focus back to see what had happened.
lilypopxd killed you.
“What the fuck, Lily?! I was distracted,” you yelled, only to hear a high-pitched giggle in return.
“Mad?” she asked, continuing to laugh, but abruptly stopped when you saw on the top of your screen that Daniel ‘Zohlem’ had killed her.
“Daniel you fucking piece of shit I hate you!” she cried out, and it was your turn to laugh this time.
“Mad?” you asked.
Your dad was downstairs. And he’d likely been there for a while because your mom had come into your room and woken you up.
“Y/N, your dad’s downstairs, let’s go.”
Right, you thought. You were moving your stuff today. Getting out of bed, you walked towards the window, quickly glancing and checking the weather to pick an outfit accordingly. It tended to start getting cold near the end of August, but there were still many hot days between the cooler ones.
You turned towards your already packed cardboard boxes—you had packed your utilities and hygiene products last night—but they weren’t there. You looked around the room in confusion, wondering where in the world giant cardboard boxes could have disappeared, but they were nowhere to be seen.
You were dumbfounded; how does something like this happen? You weren’t usually one to panic, but unless someone broke in or Casper the fucking ghost decided to pull a prank on you, there was no way these boxes would’ve just gone missing. You were pacing around in your room, trying to figure out what happened, when your mom came back upstairs and knocked at your door.
“Y/N, what’s the wait? Come on, your dad and I already took your things while you were sleeping. Make sure you don’t forget anything else, and come downstairs.”
Thank God it was just that, you thought. Your PC had also already been carefully packed into the car, so you quickly ran downstairs, grabbing a granola bar from the pantry and hopping into the car. Your father was already in the driver’s seat, and your mom was riding shotgun. You’d have to go into the back.
“Morning, dad,” you said, and he smiled, shaking his head.
“Right, morning. What time did you go to bed?” he asked.
You thought about it for a second. You were up late last night playing the new video game with your friends, only having gone to sleep at sometime around four in the morning.
“Three?” you hesitatingly said.
“Do you think you can fix your schedule before school starts?”
“Yeah,” you responded. Your dad didn’t seem too convinced. “Okay, I can pull an all-nighter to fix it if I need to.”
Your dad sighed. You could feel a lecture incoming.
“Do you really think you’re going to be okay by yourself in university?” he seemed more concerned than usual. He wasn’t often at home since he was busy working, but he was always a welcome sight when you did see him. Your mom was usually the worrier, and your dad often would reassure her that everything was fine, so it was unusual to see your dad anxious. It made sense, however, seeing as you were leaving for university. You had always lived with your parents up until now, so it would be a stark change for everyone. They were sure to miss you after your departure, even though you tended to hide in your room more than interact with them. They were likely also hesitant about letting you attend school alone, in a different city, without anyone there to directly support you. Where you were going wasn’t a long distance from home, but given your track record of not attending school when unattended, it was sensible to worry.
You had been depressed for a long time, ever since the incident happened. Initially, you tried to pretend everything would be okay. Tim and Brian would return soon; they likely just got lost after wandering somewhere over some stupid idea they had come up with. It was typical of them to think up wild things to do. But then, why didn’t they take you with them?
The entire city was searching for them for a week. But after that, the trial grew cold, and your hopes paled. You stopped going to school; you found it hard to focus on your classes, anyway. You could hear your classmates, teachers, and everyone around you discussing your best friends, thinking you couldn’t hear them. No matter where you went, you were inevitably reminded of them. It was causing you to slowly lose your mind. It rendered you incapable of concentrating on anything besides them, and somewhere in between all of that, you had also found it difficult to wake up in time for classes. You had a hard time falling asleep. You stayed up all night, tossing, turning, and crying into your pillow as if it would bring them back. You began skipping classes and eventually just stopped attending altogether. Naturally, your grades began a steep plummet, one that you never fully recovered from. Your school staff would start calling your parents in for meetings to discuss your well-being, which prompted them to send you to a therapist.
None of it made a difference, though. Your life wouldn’t ever be the same again without your best friends, and no amount of trying or pretence could ever fix that.
You dwelled on the case each day and night. You often went to their parents’ homes, looking through their rooms, checking the same areas repeatedly in search of any possible clues. It was like beating a dead horse, and you could tell that’s what their parents thought as well, with the sorrow-filled, pitiful look they’d give you whenever you came by. Nevertheless, you didn’t give up. Not until a year had passed.
Eventually, you came to the conclusion that you had to give up on the search. You didn’t want to do so, but you had been forced to accept by then that it wasn’t getting anywhere. You showed up at Tim and Brian’s homes for the last time, asking if you could take some of their belongings with you as memorabilia. Both their parents agreed, allowing you inside and giving you a hug. The last one you’d ever got from them.
Tim’s mother was much thinner than before, and you knew it because she would often give you hugs throughout the year. Brian’s father cracked the weakest of smiles, and you felt a pang of heartache at sight; he was one of the liveliest adults you had known, always there to crack a joke and make everyone smile. But there was nothing you could do about it. As much as you wanted to, you couldn’t bring them back. They couldn’t either. And neither could the police. Nobody could. So you took your collection of items and left.
During your year indoors, you had spent much of your time online. You found catharsis in talking to your friends online about the situation; they were very empathetic and understanding. They always did their best to console you and never tired of you when even you were exhausted by how much of a broken record you sounded like, unable to stop yourself from constantly talking about your former friends. Nonetheless, they were proud of you when you took the box, and when you were ready, they encouraged you to slowly put your life back together at your own pace. And a few months after you took the box, you decided it was time to do so and went back to school. It was difficult catching up with all the work you had missed during the year and a half that you weren’t at school, but you did your best and pulled through. Enough to make it to university.
“Yeah, I’ll be okay. Don’t worry about it,” you said. “If something’s wrong, I can always come talk to you guys.”
Both of your parents seemed happy with that response. Putting in our earbuds, you plugged them into your phone to play music, settling for looking out the window for the rest of the car ride. The view was pleasant.
When you arrived at your new apartment, your parents found a parking spot just a block away. Exiting the car, your parents opened the trunk, taking out the boxes of your things to carry them to your soon-to-be home. You mirrored their actions, getting out of the car, closing the vehicle door and retrieving the last box—the box—from there.
Crossing the street, you and your family arrived at the front of the apartment. Setting your box down on the steps, you typed in the four-digit entry code of the building. The door opened with a soft buzz, and you opened it, holding it open for your parents to enter before picking up your box and following them. You entered the apartment lobby together, which surprisingly looked even nicer in person than in the already appealing pictures. Consisting of white marble with thin black streaks through it, it almost made you think of an igloo. When you walked further up and to the stairs, your mom pointed out a concern. “There’s no elevator here.”
“There’s only three floors though,” you replied, “and I’m on the first. It’s good exercise.”
Your mom nodded, understanding your point and likely glad that you’d do something besides sitting in front of your monitor all day. The three of you continued to carry on up the stairs. As you turned the corner to the second half of the stairs, you began to feel lightheaded. You took another step forward, not understanding fully that something was wrong. It was mere seconds before static had hazed over your vision and rang in your ears. Your sight was one of an old TV turned on a broken channel, causing you to stumble forwards. Your foot caught on something, you weren’t sure what, but it was likely a step, and you fell forwards, hands still gripping the box, unable to find a landing.
You felt pain shoot through the side of your head as it slammed into the corner of something hard.
Your parents were yelling something, but you were too disoriented to make out the words. You thought they wanted you to get up, but everything hurt too much. You didn’t want to move; you wanted to just continue to lie there on the floor until the pain vanished. Not that you could’ve done anything else, your eyes were shut with blinding static, and your head rang into the void. You allowed unconsciousness to take you, your mind fading away into oblivion. 
next chapter ->
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DAY 52
This update is actually about day 51, since it's currently just a little over midnight.
I really need to get today off my chest in all its details because there is no one I can/want to tell about it. So this blog seems my best option. Just so it's a day that's recorded somewhere.
I spent the entire day with a friend of mine who doesn't live in Paris but comes here often. She is someone who has suffered and still suffers a lot, but she is truly one of the kindest and sweetest souls I know and I absolutely love her. We met up at around 10AM, so I woke up at 9AM feeling REALLY SHIT because I've been gettinbg very intense and almost constant vertigo from the brutal absence of antidepressants these past days, small side effects from the vaccine (feeling feverish, shortness of breath when making efforts), and a small cold due to the rapid switches in temperatures. All of this combined, taking into account the fact that I barely slept and not even well, gives... a very miserable me lol. Except I'd promised my friend I'd be there with her and there was no chance I was going to let her down.
So I started my day very tired and dizzy, knowing I was probably going to get home 14 hours later, although that meant being with someone I love, which I can only be very greatful for!
The cool things we did today are going to some sort of tiny... market? Like just people selling their stuff, and I found a cheap card game and those tablets you can use to draw (also very cheap). We also found some dolls we were looking for! We ate nice things at a restaurant, sat down for quite a while at Place d'Italie and laughed. My friend also went to get touch ups on her tattoo with an artist I'd seen before and she was honestly ever nicer than the first time we saw her (if that's even possible), the studio was actually inside her home and she let us play the music we wanted and we chatted about one of her tattoos (which I immediately recognized as being from one of my fav tattoo artists) and it was really cool!
So lots of good things you see. However, I feel the bad ones kind of dominated. This morning I get a text from my mom saying she cancelled her plans for the day (going to the movies and eating out). And then at some point early in the afternoon I get a message from her again saying she ended up getting out of bed because she'd met a guy on a dating app who had lost his wife to lung cancer around the same time as my mom and I lost my dad to lung cancer, and that he had a daughted living in London (thinking of it now, I want to see his daughter because life, what if she's my soulmate and we get married and shit okay sorry I'm totally insane). The point is it really hurt me to see that the only thing getting her out of bed was not the love my dad and I bear to her, all the fighting my dad's done and all the fighting I have done too, but just some random man she's never met and is just soooooo excited to meet and it's like the highlight of her day. It just hurts because I've been so incredibly sensitive about my dad lately like just writing the word dad could get me crying somehow.
Other bad thing that happened might seem shocking because why the hell would I consider this a bad moment, but at the restaurant with my friend I just started laughing hysterically over... I'm not quite sure what? I don't even remember? And it happened again later when we were sitting down in a park while watching some old memes I'd saved somewhere. But when I say hysterical laughter I don't mean like "hahaha I can't stop laughing this is funny", I mean like "I am laughing incredibly loudly and have zero control over my body right now and I am laughing so hard I am choking and actually very much in pain". Now that I think of it, it really felt like those couple of moments in my life I was so full of anger that I felt "out of my body" and just couldn't control anything anymore, except with laughter. I find it quite terrifying.
Then we saw a play that was possibly the best play I've seen in my entire life and it moved me so much I actually cried, but I still had to refrain from crying too much or too loudly in order not to have everyone mad at me or ruin my makeup, so it was just one more moment today having to keep my shit together. Also I had to get up like 10 times before the play started because people kept wanting to get to their seats, and then back to the toilet, and then back to their seats, and then they realized they had the wrong seat, and so on. Very annoying if you want my opinion. The play was still excellent though.
Then I realized I got a message from my ex landlady telling me that she hadn't replied to me earlier although she legally HAD to send me documents by a certain date, because she was busy with [blah blah insert personal life details I literally do not give a single fuck about] and she'd sent me a second email which is basically just some shitty screenshot that ""proves"" how much money I gave her so she would leave me the fuck alone except it proves absolutely nothing and does not confirm she will NEVER ask me for money ever again although she's already stolen thousands and thousands from me that my parents struggled to put aside and it got me so hysterical I became, well, hysterical in front of my friend, and then played it cool and acted like I wasn't going insane.
Then my friend and I sat down near the Eiffel Tower and we got a dozen illegal sellers in the span of 30 mins asking us over and over again if we wanted to buy their stuff, I even got a guy lying down next to me and telling me I was pretty and that I was in love with me although my friend and I kept asking him to kindly leave us alone, and then I got a guy selling roses shaking a rose right into my face while I was comfortable lying down watching the Eiffel Tower, and I just wonder, why the hell are people, especially men it seems, like this?!
And then I received a message from one of my mom's Internet friends whom she got into an argument with and blocked. Did not read the whole message but it was very overdramatic and all like "Adieu dear I shall never talk to you again" and I think that's literally SO fucking shitty of him to go and try to guiltrip a 18 year old girl into telling her mom to talk to him again, like I have my fucking mental struggles and enough shit to deal with, can't you just grow the fuck up (you're almost 50 years old) and leave me alone and deal with your own shit on your own instead of sending a lowkey cry of help to ME?
I again would love to insist on how tired, dizzy, feverish, mentally unstable, and just overall sick, I feel. Or I should say I AM.
All of this is real. I am not a lying. I am not a lier. I do not lie. I wish I could tell someone. I wish someone would listen. My uni best friend asked me how I was and I remained very vague. None of my other friends want to hear about my state. My mother is too fragile for me to tell her all of this without destroying her. My grandparents won't understand or won't be able to do much to help except perhaps guiltripping my mom into telling her she's not doing enough. My therapist listens and she's kind but she's very passive because of course this is my life but spending €50 for 45 minutes of me just saying "well I feel kind of bad" and her saying "okay" is literally so pointless, like why isn't she just giving me some words of affirmation?! She might not realize it but simply saying "I know your pain is real" would be fucking REVOLUTIONARY and instead all she tells me is "okay :)" and "oops, we're done with this session, it's time :)"... when I have made it clear that all I need is someone to say they believe me when I say I'm in pain. And she can't even tell me those words. Maybe because just like the others, she doesn't. Or she just doesn't understand my needs. Or both. I don't know. And let's not talk about doctors and psychiatrists who simply tell me I look "just fine" or refuse to listen to me when I say I have episodes that are NOT depressive episodes.
Right now I feel like I'm going through both (hypo)mania and depression. I am so incredibly sad and tired and I just want to rest in bed because I physically cannot keep up, and another part of me is motivated to try her very best to show excitement and joy and also believes in great things. Like two days ago I spent an hour staring at myself in a mirror and interviewing myself like I was a published author. And then today, as I said, I bought one of those tablets to draw because I'm like, secretly convinced I'll become a great tattoo artist, or the next great YA author with famous graphic novels, or I don't know.
I think as soon as my makeup is off I might bawl. I just want to sleep. Please let me rest.
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marcholasmoth · 2 years
Text
OSRR: 3052
today was really productive.
i woke up to my alarm this morning! and then i fell back asleep. and then i woke up again not too long after! and i took my meds because i'd brought them upstairs with me last night because i knew i wasn't gonna wanna get out of bed to go get them but i needed to take them still, so i kept them by my bed. which was a great idea.
and then after taking then i fell back asleep again for an hour.
when i woke up, it was about 11:30 and mom asked me for help decorating, which i was planning on doing anyway, so i got up and showered and made my way downstairs to help decorate. mom gave me a working time of 45 minutes so i could get to work on my paper, and in that hour we got stuff organized and put up and problems solved and i'm pretty happy with how things look, even though we're definitely missing a box of greenery. i have some lights to put up soon, so hopefully the snow we've gotten today melts. which i doubt it will very much, but tomorrows supposed to be in the mid 30s and it'll be in the 40s later this week, so it probably will. who knows.
anyway, i spent the day editing the 54-page group document for our capstone. as the 4th person exiting it, i was shocked to see how many problems were left. repeated words, improperly hyphenated words, and missing citations, along with poorly formatted end citations, which i fixed all of, some of which entirely. that was fun.
but i got it done in time for our 5pm class meeting before our presentation tomorrow, so that was good.
and then i volunteered to cover the small business section. so i gotta do that tomorrow. eh.
and after dinner, after i finished up doing some other things and looking at rings because mom saw that someone got engaged and i was like "i picked out the ones i want, wanna see?" so we looked at them for a while.
i also helped mom move some empty boxes out of the way so it's less cluttered around the house, and james took our cars one by one to fix them in some way, and i learned i'll need new brakes which shouldn't be terrible, and i'll need a new something else which i anticipate being more expensive. but the good news is that i have some money i can use to pay for things, so that's good. it was nice being able to pay for tires myself.
and then, after all that, it had started to snow, and i switched tasks to the discussion posts i had left to do for my capstone. i had my textbook open so i could understand what i was supposed to be looking at, which didn't end up helping so much as google searches and looking at what my classmates commented. so i got all of those remaining posts done, so the last thing to do for my capstone is that presentation tomorrow. and then it's done. and all i'll have left is the few pieces that go to my paper for my other class. and then i'll be done. i'm so excited.
in the meantime, i've been so busy i haven't texted joel in a couple days, but i have thought about him. mostly in passing, though, like "joel would enjoy this," or "this reminds me of joel," and most frequently "i miss my joel :c" but i haven't reached out besides the other day of asking "do you need anything." i assume he's okay. he would tell me if he weren't, if for no other reason than he'd need a ride somewhere or need someone to watch the dog for a bit. joel is funny, but i understand. how babies have object impermanence, i have people impermanence. if they're not there and i'm not constantly reminded of them, i forget they're there. so i understand not reaching out. it's just. people don't exist if they're not in my top messages on here, facebook, snapchat, over text, or on discord. womp womp.
oh well. i'm fine. just tired. time to sleep.
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seekingthestars · 3 years
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THE MAN THE MYTH THE LEGEND, MR LEE SEOKMIN omg yes :DDDD
there are lots of rambles and pictures and links so. under the cut! :D
First! Before I ramble! This is a very cute interview he did for Get In The Car in July of last year! almost 11 minutes of him being a whole entire sun, bless okay now onwards to my rambles!
His birth name is Lee Seokmin, stage name is DK / Dokyeom. Birthday is February 18, 1997 (and fun fact, he shares a birthday with Vernon! same day, different year. they are the 218 bros c: picture below is from their birthday livestream this year!) He's a member of the Vocal Unit and is main vocal, a member of BSS (BooSeokSoon, a subunit with Seungkwan, DK, and Hoshi / i also believe he's leader of BSS!), and member of svt's 97 line with Mingyu and THE8/Xu Minghao (HEY BUDDY from Semicolon is a 97 line song!). and he has an older sister (three years older i believe)!
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He debuted as a musical actor in 2019 in the musical Xcalibur in the lead role as King Arthur! He was also on King of Masked Singer as "Baby Demon" and made it to the third round 💪
He's VERY LOUD LOLOLOL this is a fun story, but they were at a music show during Don't Wanna Cry era and BAP was in the waiting room next to them. DK was practicing his part for the live ("If I cry now, I may never see you again") over and over stupid early in the morning and Daehyun from BAP sent them a voice message going "STOP CRYING!!!!!" also I think I read somewhere that he collects headphones? and he has a really big collection of them!
Dokyeom is a PURE RAY OF SUNSHINE, just absolute sunshine in a bottle, he is the most adorable 🥺 the members call him pure, he's just a huge sweetheart 😭 during the online concert they had in January, there was a part during encore where they played a recording of fans singing svt's special song "us, again" to them, and Dokyeom just CRIED so much, Dino and DK were the only ones who cried, sweet boys, they made me cry 😭
He loves dogs!!! He loves doggos so much 😭💘 this video compilation is svt with dogs, but 70% of it is DK, it's so freaking cute i wanna perish, he loves doggos and doggos love HIM
his favorite food is PIZZA. the boy LOVES PIZZA. he had his own pizza-making vlive, he talks about pizza all the time, he just loves pizza. in US/English interviews he has taken to introducing himself as "Pizza Boy" and/or that time in that one Buzzfeed interview when he goes "HI MY FAVORITE FOOD IS PIZZA" and forgets to introduce himself, LOVE HIM. (both of those clips are in previous linked video!!) (and did you notice his birthday cake in that picture was PIZZA SHAPED)
more fun facts, Jeonghan recently adopted a pet rock (named Doljjong) and the rest of the members were like. teasing him mercilessly for it. but dokyeom, the SUNSHINE BEAM OF A HUMAN BEING, went to visit it and took pictures with it, and then BOUGHT HIS OWN PET ROCK, he named it Dodol, i love him
pictured here are DK with Jeonghan's pet rock and then the first picture of his own pet rock, Dodol
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i now include this picture of Jeonghan visiting Dodol specifically bc you can see DK keeps Dodol on a shelf with a collection of?? little fake dogs/dog figurines?? which is somehow SO DOKYEOM and also very endearing, i told you he loves doggos 😭💘
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OH also to go along with him being LOUD, he's also a bit of a scaredy cat 😂 (no judgement, me TOO) the members can and have referenced this one exact moment several times since it's happened, but it's iconic, you must see (clip set to start at beginning of the sequence for context, but the exact moment is ~6:40!) See also: Going Seventeen 2020 ep 28 The Tag #2 (dk and s.coups going into a ~haunted house~ together, that's full chaos 😂)
also apparently bad at video games, see Going Seventeen 2020 ep 29/30 Christmas In August #1 & #2 lol
Hoshi started his whole "horanghae" agenda two years ago as a special way to say "i like you"/"i love you" to fans and now every member has their own version and Dokyeom's is "doahae!"
^^^^^ ilu from the vocal team ❤️
He's also one of the members who posts on weverse a fair amount and his posts are either ridiculous and funny or like. stUPIDLY SWEET and so endearing 😭💘
like for example this one time he posted a couple of pics and was like "my hair is couch-colored........"
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bless his face
also this boy is so fine and fOR WHAT 😭 i cry about this. a lot.
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Some miscellaneous DK videos i will link bc i can!!! : DK being an archery master at ISAC 2019 and only hitting 10pts and also knocking out the bullseye camera // that time Jeonghan went live the same time as him and he sulked about it // DK's high tone rap is legendary
And some DK covers/OST songs! She Didn't Love Me / Missed Connections / The Little Prince
And lastly, random, but he has a Spotify playlist of favorite songs you can listen to ^^
ANYWAY THERE'S SOME INFO ABOUT RESIDENT SUNSHINE BEAN DOKYEOM, SORRY FOR ME JUST RANTING ALL THIS INFORMATION AT YOU BUT. HE'S A DARLIN'.
❤️@koalamb
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Secret’s Out
Father of Mine – Part 1 and Part 2
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Bruce was looking at his emails when Y/N arrived at the table.
She was breathing heavily and her hair was a bit messy, just further proving she had rushed to get there.
“I’m so sorry I’m late,” she huffed embarrassingly. “My shoot ran over and every one was moving so slowly.”
Bruce smiled. “Y/N. Relax.”
Then he stood up to greet her with a kiss on the cheek.
The two of them hadn’t seen each other in over a month. Y/N had been traveling for work constantly. And between the vigilante life and Wayne Enterprises, Bruce was running on 2 hours of sleep on the daily.
“I need a drink,” Y/N finally sighed after she got situated.
As if on cue, their waitress dropped Y/N’s favorite drink in front of her.
Y/N eyed Bruce with surprise.
He just shrugged.
Sometimes Y/N forgot how much her father noticed literally everything.
“Thank you,” she told the waitress.
“You’re overworking yourself,” Bruce said with a disapproving look.
She rolled her eyes. “Really? You’re not one to talk, Bruce.”
“You deserve a vacation. I’ll pay for it. Pick wherever you want. Bring Jason. Or some friends.”
She narrowed her eyes. “Bruce…”
It was a warning.
From the very start of their unconventional father-daughter relationship, Y/N had made it clear that she could not be bought. And Bruce spoiling her made her extremely uncomfortable. Even now, she still tried to at least split restaurant checks with him. Bruce always won those battles though.
“I’ll take a vacation when you do,” she finally countered.
That sure shut him up.
“Hey, I actually brought you something,” Y/N changed the subject as she reached for her bag.
A moment later, she lightly placed a manila folder onto the table.
Bruce’s brow furrowed as he reached for it.
As soon as he opened it, he froze.
“I had to clean out some stuff and put things into storage,” Y/N explained. “I found all my mom’s photos. I figured I could make copies of some childhood photos for you.”
Bruce’s silence made Y/N nervous.
“If you don’t want them, that’s totally fine.” She started to reach for the folder out of Bruce’s grip with awkward embarrassment. “It was stupid–”
But Bruce quickly pulled the folder closer to him and stopped her from taking the photos from him.
“Thank you,” he announced.
It made Y/N quickly sit back in her chair, caught off guard by his sincere reaction and how he’d immediately become protective of the photos.
Bruce awkwardly cleared his throat. “Thank you, Y/N.”
He repeated to make sure she understood how thankful he truly was. And Y/N suspected the throat clearing was to hide his emotions.
Now she watched as Bruce slowly went through every picture. He took in every detail with a soft smile.
These weren’t just photos. These were all of Y/N’s memories that Bruce missed, that he could never get back. And he was savoring all of them.
Then Bruce paused and was fully smiling now.
“What?” Y/N asked.
She didn’t know why all of this made her so nervous.
Bruce didn’t say anything as he lifted a photo and flipped it to show her.
It wasn’t from her childhood.
It was a black and white photo of Jason. A candid from when he had escorted her around the slums of Gotham for her most recent gallery show.
After months of thinking about it, Y/N finally had decided she wanted to frame it and hang it somewhere in her apartment. 
Y/N’s jaw dropped with embarrassment and she ripped it from his hands.
“I was developing some photos at the same time as I was making the copies. Must’ve gotten mixed up in those,” Y/N explained too quickly, unable to meet Bruce’s gaze.
It made Bruce happy to know that Y/N didn’t have the same inability to love someone and let people in like he did. It was a relief that she didn’t isolate herself from it like he had. If her mother was still alive, Bruce would thank her for it. But if Y/N’s mother were alive, he would’ve never known about Y/N in the first place.
Their entire dinner was spent with Bruce looking at the old photos. He had at least two questions for each one. Some of them Y/N didn’t remember being taken. But most of them came with stories or a loving memory.
Y/N talked for most of the meal. But that’s exactly what Bruce wanted.
Furthermore, Bruce had nothing of value to update her on. Batman business had consumed his life as of lately, and he had made a promise to never involve Y/N in any of it. And Jason seemed to be on the same page when it came to his other life as Red Hood. 
Both men seemed determined to keep her safe and away from it all. 
Two hours later, Bruce was paying the check and helping Y/N into her coat.
“I’ll give you a ride home,” he muttered as they started walking out.
Y/N had learned by now to give up on those small battles. Jason was the same way when it came to making sure she got home safely.
As they made their way to the exit, Y/N caught a few stares from other patrons who were still eating.
“Do you ever get used to it?” She asked her father in a low voice.
“Get used to what?” He asked, genuinely unaware of what she was getting at.
“People gawking at you.”
Bruce glanced around and unintentionally glared at anyone who was staring at Y/N.
“It’s good that I’m seen in public…for obvious reason,” he hinted in a quiet voice, obviously talking about needing the cover to continue his life as a masked vigilante.
Once they were outside, Alfred was already waiting at the curb with the Rolls-Royce. He greeted Y/N with a hug and a kiss to her cheek before opening the door for her and Bruce.
When they got to Y/N’s apartment building, she said her goodbyes to Alfred. And Bruce walked Y/N all the way up to her door.
Even though Y/N insisted it was overkill and she could get up the stairs on her own just fine, Bruce had seen too many terrible things in this forsaken city. He could think of thousands of things that could happen to Y/N between the car and her front door.
Once Y/N realized that Bruce’s paranoia came from experience, she stopped trying to stop his chivalry and overprotective ways. She finally understood that Bruce had seen things that would prevent her from ever sleeping again. So if walking Y/N to her door gave him a little peace of mind, she wasn’t going to take that away from him.
Y/N turned to Bruce when they reached her door. “Thanks again for dinner.”
“Of course. I’m glad we could spend some time together. Thank you again for the photos.”
Y/N didn’t realize that Bruce was about to hang every single one around Wayne Manor. 
She gave him a quick kiss on the cheek and a hug. “Get home safe.”
——————
Y/N woke up wrapped strong arms, her body overheating slightly.
When she had come home from dinner last night, Jason had already left for patrol.
He hadn’t woken her up when he got back home, just proving how exhausted Y/N had been these past few weeks.
But it was the continuous buzzing vibrations of her phone that woke her up. When she brightened the screen, she saw that she had dozens of text messages and three missed called from Bruce.
“What the fuck,” Y/N whispered as she started opening them.
But they were all about the same thing.
Everyone had sent her similar articles from various gossip websites or news outlets.
BRUCE WAYNE’S NEW GIRLFRIEND IS FAMOUS PHOTOGRAPHER Y/F/N Y/L/N
BRUCE WAYNE’S FLAVOR OF THE WEEK
IS Y/F/N Y/L/N USING THE PRINCE OF GOTHAM TO FURTHER HER CAREER?
All of the headlines were joined with photos of Bruce and Y/N having dinner last night. Apparently other customers at the restaurant had snuck photos of Bruce greeting her with a hug and a kiss on the cheek.
Y/N could see how it would be misinterpreted as romantic and not familial or platonic. But it still made her sick to see the photos twisted in such a way.
Then there were paparazzi photos of them getting in a car together. Of course there were none of Bruce dropping her off and them going their separate ways. That would be just too convenient for the two of them. 
Y/N’s stomach dropped with panic.
“Fuck. Fuck. Fuck,” she gasped without realizing it.
Jason immediately woke up. “What is it?”
Y/N ignored him and called Bruce.
“I’m handling it,” was how Bruce answered her call.
“Handling it? How exactly?” She challenged. “We can deny the rumors all we want. But everyone is going to keep tabs on us now, and they’re going to see us together again.”
Jason grabbed his own phone.
One of his brothers must’ve sent him a similar article because he rubbed his face in annoyance, finally understanding the situation. 
Nothing like your girlfriend being rumored to have a relationship with her father, who was also your mentor and adoptive father. 
“Y/N, it will blow over. It always does,” Bruce tried to calm her down.
“So what happens when I get photographed with Jason? Huh? They’re going to just say I’m cheating on both of you with each other or some fucked up shit like that.”
Bruce was silent, because they both knew she was right.
Y/N glanced at Jason, who was already waiting for her gaze.
She took in a deep breath and pinched the bridge of her nose. “Maybe we should…Maybe we should just tell the truth.”
“You’ve never wanted that, Y/N.” Bruce tried to argue.
And he was right.
Y/N was terrified of being associated with the Wayne family. People would start believing she secretly built her career off of nepotism that no one was aware of. She also didn’t want that type of attention from the media and the upperclass of Gotham.
“I don’t think we have any other choice,” Y/N finally answered.
Jason reached for thigh and gripped it, trying to offer her some sort of comfort.
“Y/N, are you sure about this?” Bruce asked slowly.
“No. Not at all. But I’d rather not have the public think I’m dating my biological father.”
“OK,” Bruce sighed. “I’ll talk to my publicist today.”
“OK.” She bit her lip before adding. “Just…tell them the whole story.”
“Y/N, if you’re worried how it will make me look, don’t.”
“But I am worried about it, Bruce. They’re going to drag you for being an absent father. And none of that is true. They’re not gonna understand.”
“I’ll call you later with an update,” he told her softly before hanging up.
Y/N tossed her phone to the foot of the bed in frustration.
Jason watched as she buried her face in her hands.
“You OK?” He asked as he rubbed her back.
“No,” she answered honestly.
“Come here.” Jason pulled her into his chest.
There was no fight from her as he cuddled her tightly.
“This is a fucking nightmare,” she groaned into his shoulder.
“I know. But maybe it’s for the best,” he tried to reason with her.
“And what happens when they catch wind that I’m dating my father’s adoptive son? Huh?”
“We’re not actually related, Y/N.”
She pulled her face back so she could glare at him. “Yeah! We know that! But you do understand that people are going to see it that way, right? Like we’re gonna look like some fucked up incestual couple to them.”
“I don’t really care,” Jason finally told her.
“You don’t care?” She scoffed.
“No,” his answer and confidence didn’t waver. “I don’t give a fuck what people say about us, Y/N. If exposing the truth means we don’t have to think twice about going to events or even just going out to dinner, then I’m all for it. I’m sick of hiding our relationship.”
Y/N blinked. She never considered that their subtle relationship bothered him in any way. She was always a strangely private person, so it felt normal to her. But clearly Jason had been wanting to be a bit more public with their relationship.
“What if this changes everything?” Y/N whispered, not meeting his eyes.
Jason smirked at that and gripped her chin, lifting it up so she would look at him. “Some paparazzi and trash tabloids aren’t going to change how I feel about you, Y/N.”
Y/N laughed lightly at that.
“Maybe we should leave Gotham for a bit,” she offered. “Bruce won’t shut up about paying for a vacation for us.”
Jason nodded. “I think that sounds like a good idea. You’ve needed a break for awhile now.”
“Well…where do you wanna go?” Y/N asked.
“Doesn’t matter to me. As long as you’re there.”
She rolled her eyes and hit Jason in the face with a pillow. “God, you really are a sap.”
Y/N appreciated Jason always being able to make her feel better and feel supported. 
But even he couldn’t stop her from wondering...
What would life be like as a Wayne?
------------------------------
Father of Mine – Bonus Content
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tchallasbabymama · 3 years
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Instinct
Hello, fellow whores. You asked for it and I hope I delivered. I present to you: T’Challa in heat❤️‍🔥! This one had me blushing, y’all.
The next request I work on will either be sugar daddy silver fox T’Challa or Star-Lord T’Challa. I know I just threw the latter in the lineup, but apparently, people are seriously feeling the lack of Star-Lord T content here and I want to do what I can to help fill the void.
Check out my masterlist to read my other stories and oneshots, and, as always, comments and reblogs are my lifeblood! Enjoy😘
Word count: 4,903
CW: SMUT, infidelity
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Instinct [instiNG(k)t] noun: an innate, typically fixed pattern of behavior in animals in response to certain stimuli.
For centuries, the descendants of the great Bashenga retained their hold on the Wakandan throne. Challenge Day after Challenge Day, they beat their opponents and were rewarded by Bast allowing them to ingest the heart-shaped herb. The herb imbued them with a panther’s strength, speed, and instincts, effectively turning each of them from an ordinary man into the Black Panther. Now, strength and speed are pretty self-explanatory, but what exactly were their instincts?
When T’Challa was crowned king and ingested the heart-shaped herb, he visited the ancestral plane and reconnected with his baba. Their reunion was one full of tears, but most importantly, T’Chaka took the time to impart his wisdom to his son. T’Challa spent hours talking to his baba about life, what to expect as king, and, most importantly, what to expect as the Black Panther.
T’Chaka had warned him about what was to come, but until it happened to him months later, T’Challa was in denial. It couldn’t be that bad, right?
Wrong. When T’Challa woke up one sunny Wednesday morning, he felt strange. He felt feverish but not sick. Like most days, his morning wood stood at attention, tenting the crisp white sheets that laid across his lower half. He looked at the clock and saw that he had plenty of time to take care of himself, so he rolled to his side and reached for the tub of shea butter in his nightstand. T’Challa bit his lip as he rubbed his hands together to melt it down, but when he reached down to stroke his length, he nearly bit clean through it. He was much more sensitive than usual, and he wondered why...then it hit him. He jumped up and grabbed his kimoyo beads with his slippery hands, and he frantically opened his calendar.
“Twelve weeks,” T’Challa groaned as he counted backward to the night he became the Black Panther (the second time.) “Fuckkkk.”
He was in heat, and it was only going to get worse. T’Challa wracked his brain for ideas on what to do to fix his problem, but all he could hear was T’Chaka’s words echoing through his head.
“You should find a partner sooner rather than later. The instinct will take over you, and it will become unbearable if you do not have anyone to aid you.”
T’Challa had been so busy trying to rebuild the kingdom that his cousin damn near broke that he had forgotten to look for someone. Sure, there was Nakia, but she had moved to Oakland and their relationship quickly fizzled out. Then, there was that one Dora Milaje after he regained the throne, but that was a one-night thing and she went back to her wife the next morning. He needed to find someone, but who?
As the king’s mind wandered through his options, sweat beads began to form on his chiseled body. He knew he’d be no good today, so T’Challa typed up a message to his family and staff that he would be taking the day off. With that taken care of, all he needed to do was figure out how to get through this heat in one piece. T’Challa looked down at his dick again. It was swollen with need, and he watched as droplets of precum escaped from his tip. He couldn’t take it anymore and decided to bear through the sensitivity. Carefully, as though he might hurt himself, he reached his hand down and grabbed it in his hand. The whimper he let out was foreign to his ears, but it was all he could do when he felt the intense wave of arousal wash over him. He gritted his teeth as he began to slowly move his hand up and down his shaft. It seemed that everywhere his hand went, it left a deep burning sensation in its wake, but he just couldn’t stop. He rutted into his hand, and as soon as his thumb swiped over his reddened tip, he came undone quicker than he ever had before. His body jerked as the milky white substance spilled over his hand, and it seemed that he had plenty to give. However, instead of leaving him sated, all that did was arouse him more.
T’Challa had made a mess all over himself and decided to take a shower, but every touch of his hand, or even the water, drove him up the walls. He needed some pussy, fast. He exited the shower and allowed his body to air dry as he moisturized his mahogany skin. Minutes passed before he noticed that he was still massaging himself, too caught up in the sensation to notice the passage of time. His dick was rock hard again, and he groaned in frustration as he attempted to stuff it into silk lounge pants. He called for his breakfast to be brought to him and spent the day in his quarters, alternating between desperately jacking off and going through his contacts to find the right person. It had been so long since he had opened that figurative little black book that all of his usuals were taken, and unfortunately for him, they were hellbent on remaining faithful for some reason. As the day went on, his hunger grew in intensity, and it got to the point where neither his hand nor his sex toys could cut it anymore. He felt lost, he felt horny beyond belief, and he felt...famished.
T’Challa looked at the time again and realized that he hadn’t eaten in hours. He placed another order from the kitchen and waited impatiently for it to arrive. It wasn’t that he couldn’t wait for the food to be brought up; he was impatient because every moment that passed without him touching himself brought him more pain. He didn’t need the poor kitchen staff walking in on him feverishly pleasuring himself, so he just sat there and attempted to focus his mind elsewhere. Eventually, there was a knock at the door, and he breathed a sigh of relief.
“Room service,” a melodic voice called out, and T’Challa smiled to himself at his friend’s playful tone. It was Xoliswa. He hadn’t seen her in almost a week, and he was sure she was out of town, yet here she was bringing him his dinner. Xoliswa started working in the kitchen at the palace seven years ago, and they grew close over the years. He was even in her wedding.
T’Challa unlocked the door with his beads, and she came right on in with the cart full of more food than he usually ordered.
“Somebody’s hungry today,” she joked. Just as T’Challa was about to respond with some smartass remark, an aroma hit him square in the face. It definitely wasn’t coming from the heaping portions of doro wot and rum cake he ordered. It was sickly sweet and made the hairs on the back of his neck stand at attention, as well as something else.
The king began to salivate. “New perfume?”
“No, just the usual,” Xoliswa sighed. “Why?”
“No reason. You just smell different today is all,” he gulped to keep from drooling at her smooth, brown legs that were always on display. His eyes traveled up to the curve of her hips and the thickness of her waist before grazing over her delicious-looking chest and landing on her plump lips. Of course, he had noticed her looks before, and they would playfully banter and flirt back and forth from time to time, but this was the first time he was really seeing her beauty. Not only could he see it, but he could smell her from across the room, and his body was reacting in ways he couldn’t control. His dick sprung up and immediately started to harden as he watched her ass bounce in her flowy shorts when she pushed the cart out to the balcony. She had gone too far away, and he felt the intense need to be closer to her, so he bolted up and made his way outside with her.
“Here, let me help you.” T’Challa quickly picked up the heavy tray before she could and placed it on the table before taking his usual seat.
“I thought you didn’t feel good today,” she crossed her arms over her chest, unintentionally pushing her ample breasts even closer together. His body burned at the sight, and he visualized his lips wrapped around her undoubtedly perky nipples. He needed her body on his, but he knew he shouldn’t. Xoliswa was a friend, a confidant, a married woman...
“I don’t,” T’Challa cleared his throat and tried to focus his mind on anything but her. It wasn’t working, though. “But, uh, it’s not what you think. I just needed a day, that’s all.”
“Want to talk about it?” Xoliswa asked as she leaned against the balcony. He was acting strange, and it concerned her. “You know I’m here for you if you need me.”
“Don’t say that,” he chuckled darkly as something flared inside him.
“Why not?” she tilted her head to the side and uncrossed her arms. He would’ve sighed in relief, but she just made it worse by stepping closer to him. Xoliswa placed her hands on his shoulders the way she always did and began kneading his bare flesh. Little did he know, he wasn’t the only one fighting back their arousal. Xoliswa had a small crush on T’Challa since the moment she laid eyes on his muscular frame. Had she not been in a relationship the entire time she’d known him, she would’ve dropped down on her knees and given him the business by now. However, Xoliswa loved her husband and wouldn’t dream of doing such a thing...except for the occasional nights where she closes her eyes and all she can see is him. All she can feel is the king.
T’Challa let out a low groan as her hands worked out his stress, and as usual, the sound made Xoliswa flood the panties that had gotten wedged between her fat pussy lips. The scent of her arousal traveled straight to his nostrils, and his pupils blew wide. He jumped up and crossed the balcony in just a few quick strides, needing to get away from her before he truly lost himself to his lust.
“Seriously, what’s up with you today?!”
“N-nothing, you just...you smell so good, and- Xo, I can’t.”
“Can’t what?” Xoliswa narrowed her eyes as she tried to figure out what could possibly be wrong with him...but then her eyes fell to the large dickprint in his silk pants. She had seen him in those and similar pants several times before, and although they always left little to the imagination, she had never seen him in his full Bast-given glory. But this time? This time she could almost make out every vein through the soft fabric, which made her pussy spasm with need and release more wetness.
T’Challa could see that Xoliswa was staring right at his dick, and he knew she liked what she saw by the whiff of sweet honey that wafted his way. A low rumbling started in his chest like an engine revving as the burning need in his loins intensified.
Xoliswa spoke barely above a whisper, stunned but in awe of the man before her, “Why are you-”
“My heat,” he sighed.
“Your what?”
“My heat!” T’Challa snarled, and she nearly jumped out of her skin. Any other time, he would assume he had scared her, but he knew better now. He could hear her heartbeat, he could smell her dripping pussy, and he could see her hardened nipples and the way her luscious thighs rubbed together in a feeble attempt to quell the throbbing between her legs.
“W-what’s that?”
T’Challa gestured for her to take a seat, and she lowered herself into the chair across from his, squirming in her pooled fluids. Her obedience just made him harder, if that was at all possible. He gingerly sat down across from her and just stared for a moment, her breathing getting shallower with each inhale.
“One of my newly acquired panther instincts requires me to, uh, mate every three months.”
“So...you basically ovulate four times a year,” Xoliswa joked in an attempt to break the tension, but he began to growl at her again, causing them both to shudder at the other’s arousal.
“It’s more than being a little horny and fertile, Xo. I have to- no, I need to find a release, or I’ll go crazy. My whole body is on fire, and masturbating just makes it worse. I’ve been in here all day-”
“You’ve been in here jacking off all day?”
“Yes.”
“And it’s not helping?”
“Not at all.”
“Have you tried-”
“Yes. Whatever it is, I’ve tried it. Trust me.”
Silence descended upon the pair as they both stared at each other, stuck in a lustful feedback loop, chests heaving and mouths watering. Xoliswa was the first to break, so she stood and headed for the door. She had to get out of there, the atmosphere was too thick, and she couldn’t think straight with him staring at her like a piece of meat. She couldn't stand to look at him any longer or she might do something she’d regret later, but when he grabbed her wrist and looked up at her with those pitch-black eyes, she knew she was in trouble.
“Xoliswa, please,” he begged. He knew he had no business asking that of her, but he was desperate, and she just looked so damn delicious.
She bit her lip as her eyes traveled back down to his bulge that had started leaking through the fabric of his pants.
“Shit…”
“You like what you see?” his voice was lower than she’d ever heard. It seemed like everything he did turned her on more and more. T’Challa took a deep inhale so he could know for sure, and his head swarmed with the smell of her. “Yeah, you like it. I can smell that sweet pussy; it’s dripping for me, Xo.”
He had never spoken to her like that before, and every word lured her further into his trap. She had a brief moment of clarity and pulled her wrist from his grasp, taking a step back.
“T-T’Challa, I’m married-”
“Tell your body that, then,” he grumbled as he stood and stalked closer to her. She backed up with every step he took until she was wedged between his body and the doorframe. His arms went up on either side of her, and he leaned in close enough for her to feel his breath tickle her lips. “Tell me right now: do you want me?”
Her eyes darted around, desperate to look at anything but the coal irises that would surely draw her in. “I-I-”
“Say it, Xo. I want you so fucking bad,” T’Challa growled with his face buried in her neck, imprinting her scent deep in his brain. He knew he shouldn’t, but he couldn’t help but take a little bite. As soon as his teeth made contact with her skin, she let out a light moan and set his body into overdrive. He pressed his hips into her, and the heat of her skin made him whimper. The noise shocked her, and she realized just how much he needed her...as if the ten inches of clothed steel pressing into her stomach wasn’t enough of a sign.
Xoliswa had secretly wanted this for a long time. In her dreams, he’d fuck her good and deep and leave her a sobbing, leaking mess. Truthfully, if he had ever come onto her before this, she probably would have caved then, too, but she thought he was too gentlemanly to do so and pushed the dirty fantasy to the back of her mind. Boy, was she wrong. Right now, T’Challa couldn’t give a shit about chivalry and certainly didn’t care about her husband. Right now, all he wanted- no, all he needed was her body.
She pulled his curls to remove him from her neck, and he growled again at the titillating pain and the loss of contact.
“You want me?” she whispered, her lips mere centimeters from his.
“Mmm, more than anything.”
Xoliswa’s hand traveled down his body, leaving a trail of fire in its wake. T’Challa’s lip found its way between his teeth again as he struggled to maintain composure, but it all flew out the window when he felt her hand wrap around his throbbing length.
“Fuck! Xo, stop playing and-”
“You need me?” she teased as she pulled his pants down over his hips and let them pool at his feet. She wrapped both of her hands around his girth and stroked him softly. He was so sensitive that he jerked away from her hand, but she grabbed him and pulled him back in. Xoliswa had dreamed of this day, so why not make her dream come true?
Suddenly, T’Challa’s self-control went out of the window as he thrust into her hands and wrapped one of his much larger hands around her throat. She stared back at him with lust clouding her eyes as he met her lips for a hungry kiss. The taste of her on his tongue drove him wild, and she felt his dick begin to twitch. She picked up her pace and gripped him a little tighter, making him stick his tongue further down her throat. She melted into him. The firm grip he had on her made her knees weak, and just as they began to buckle, he pulled his lips from hers and said the three magic words he had uttered so many times in her dreams.
“On your knees.”
Xoliswa fell to the ground and looked up at him with her mouth opened wide for him to use. And use it, he did. T’Challa was surprised she could take all of him without any training, but he guessed her husband might have been around his size.
Her husband. He had a married woman on her knees, slobbering up and down his shaft. He had Xoliswa on her knees…
Just the thought of how wrong this was turned him on even more, and as if the same thought had occurred to her, Xoliswa started sucking harder. The spit foaming in the corners of her mouth and running down her chin soaked her chest, and the king longed to see more. He reached down and ripped her shirt down the middle, freeing her breasts from the confines of modern clothing. T’Challa grinned when he saw that not only was she not wearing a bra, but her nipples stood erect like two Hershey’s kisses ready for him to devour. Just the way he liked.
Xoliswa didn’t care that he had ruined her shirt; all she cared about was making her king cum. She wanted to taste him and swallow everything he had to give, so she grew impatient and turned it up a notch, fondling his balls in her hands as she sucked on him. Her tongue swirled around his tip, and he gripped her locs in his fist to hold her down on him as he exploded into her mouth. Splashes of him coated her throat, and she swallowed every last drop he gifted to her. She blinked up at him with those innocent-looking eyes as she sucked him like a straw, milking him for all he’s worth. Normally, he would get overstimulated at this point, but that seemed impossible. Xoliswa gave him the best head he’s had in a long time, but it still wasn’t enough to sate him.
T’Challa pulled her head off him, and the bridge of spit that connected them was a sight to see. He reached down and lifted her to her feet, kissing her once more to taste his saltiness on her tongue.
“You still...want...this pussy?” Xoliswa asked between kisses.
“Mmmmhmmm,” he grunted as he pushed up on her again.
Xoliswa pushed him away, and he looked at her like she had betrayed him. His face relaxed when he noticed the feral look in her eyes and the way her pheromones filled the air.
“Take what you need.”
T’Challa saw red, and the next thing he knew, he was buried deep inside her as he pounded her into the mattress. The arch in her back deepened as he fucked her rougher than her husband could have ever dreamed of. Xoliswa struggled to see as she reached for the sheets to hold onto, but he wouldn’t let her. T’Challa pinned her hands behind her back and continued to plow into her as she screamed.
“Fuck, yes! Just like that, baby! Ooooh, T’Challa-”
“You like that?”
“Yes!”
“Then take it. Fucking take it!” he roared as he released inside her, but neither was ready to stop. Xoliswa loved how his cum felt dripping out of her, making her pussy even wetter than it already was. Keeping it juicy for him to do whatever he needed to do to her body.
“This tight fucking pussy, Xo,” he groaned as he slowed down and grinded into her, stirring her insides. His heavy hand came down on her ass, and she let out the most adorable squeak. He smiled and did it again and again, her pussy tightening around him with every strike until she couldn’t take it anymore. Xoliswa’s body convulsed as she came all over the king’s dick.
“T’Challaaaa!” she wailed, and he stopped to massage her cheeks.
“Too much?”
She looked back at him and smiled mischievously with a glint in her eye. “No, my king.”
“I’m your king?” he teased while rubbing her clit, making her hips circle on his dick as he stood still and let her work.
“Yessss,” she whined.
“Then cum for your king one more time. I have another load for you,” he whispered in her ear with his teeth firmly gripping the lobe. His fingers tickled the underside of her clit, and she bucked her hips. “That’s your spot, huh?”
“Y-yes, my king!”
He alternated between circling her clit and strumming the underside for barely a few moments before her pussy began to grip him again. T’Challa leaned back and watched the way her pussy spasmed on him. He couldn’t hold out and exploded inside her once more.
“Mmmm, baby, I love when you do that.”
“You love when I cum in this pussy?”
“Mmmhm,” her voice grew higher in pitch the more she felt him twitch inside her.
“Good, because I’m not done with you yet.”
T’Challa pulled out slowly, and she moaned as his bulbous head dragged across her g-spot. He flipped her over with ease and slid right back into her slippery canal. She loved how full he made her feel, how he stretched her walls and beat the breaks off her pussy. But this? This felt so good.
His hips moved slowly as he stroked deep into her and gazed into her eyes.
“I just need one more, babygirl. One more, and I think I’ll be good, ok?”
“Whatever you need, my king,” Xoliswa whispered against his lips and pulled him into an open-mouthed kiss. She wrapped her legs tightly around his waist, and he chuckled darkly.
“You want me in there deep, don’t you?”
“As deep as you can go, baby.”
“You’re filthy. Does your husband know what a little slut you are?”
Xoliswa released all over him again.
“Oh, you like when I talk about him when I’m in these guts? You like being reminded of how naughty you are, don’t you?”
“Mhm,” Xoliswa nodded with tears threatening to fall from her eyes from how good it felt to have T’Challa inside her.
“Let me ask you something,” he leaned in close to her ear and thrust harder. “Does he fuck you like I do?”
Xoliswa frantically shook her head, “N-no!”
“Then you come to me whenever you need a taste of what a king can do for you.”
“Yes, baby!” she keened as he picked up the pace and dropped his weight on her.
“You know this pussy is mine, now, right? He can use it if you want him to, but this shit belongs to me. You’re fucking mine, Xoliswa.”
“T’Challa-”
“Mmmhm, say my name, babygirl. Tell them who owns this tight little pussy,” he punctuated those last three words with thrusts so deep she swore she could feel it in her ribs. “Who owns you?”
“T’Challaaaa!”
His eyes rolled back in his head at hearing his name fall from her lips. Her voice was shaky and hoarse, but she screamed his name over and over again as his hips pounded into hers, the curve of his dick angling just right to keep her creaming all over him.
“Fuck, baby, here it comes. You ready?”
Xoliswa looked him dead in the eye and wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him closer. “Cum in your pussy, Black Panther.”
He hadn’t expected her to call him that, but it lit something within him, and he came harder than he ever had before. He bit into her neck as he spasmed inside her, pumping her full of his essence. She came from the feeling of him releasing so much and putting it right where it belonged. Their bodies fed off each other, and when one would spasm, it would trigger the other to cum. T’Challa peppered sweet kisses all over Xoliswa’s face and spoke to her in hushed tones, “Thank you, babygirl.”
Xoliswa couldn’t speak; she could only moan incoherently. Minutes passed before their bodies began to tire of the constant state of arousal, and they slowly pulled apart. She whimpered as she felt their fluids escape her and drip slowly down her crack, and he could only watch in awe. He had never produced so much, and he wasn’t sure if it was because of Xoliswa or his heat or a combination of both. Whatever it was, he wasn’t ready to give it up just yet.
“Call Abdul. Tell him you have to work tonight,” he rasped, making a devilish smile appear on her face. She knew she was in for the night of her life, and just the thought of what was to come had her playing with her overstimulated clit. He swatted her hand away and replaced it with his own. “Call him. Now. Make sure your camera is off.”
T’Challa kissed from her neck down to her chocolate nipples and took a bite, making her yip at the sensation. “Be quiet, or he’ll catch you. You don’t want that, do you?”
“N-no, my king,” she stuttered out as she pressed Abdul’s contact card and called him.
“What’s up? Aren’t you supposed to be working? Or are you slacking off with T’Challa again,” he joked, and Xoliswa locked eyes with a smug T’Challa as his tongue swirled around her nipple.
“N-no, I’m at work,” she struggled to speak as T’Challa trailed his tongue down her body and suctioned his lips around her clit. She snapped her legs shut around his head, making him pry them open with a menacing growl.
“What was that?” Abdul asked.
“What was what?” Xoliswa chuckled nervously.
“I thought I heard something. Anyways, what’s up, sweetie?”
“I, uh-” she stopped herself and muted the call for a moment to let out a moan from the pits of her soul as T’Challa showed no mercy on her. His tongue masterfully maneuvered around her clit like he designed it himself, and the three slender fingers curling inside her coaxed another orgasm out of her.
“Take him off mute right fucking now,” T’Challa ordered with a mouth full of pussy.
“Hello? Xo?”
She scrambled to unmute the call and calm her breathing down as the king nibbled on her labia and sped his fingers up inside her.
“I’m here, baby. I-have-to-work-late-so-I’m-staying-at-the-palace-tonight!”
“Wait, slow down. I can barely understand you. Are you ok?”
“I’m ok,” she giggled as T’Challa nibbled on her inner thighs. “I’m staying here tonight.”
“Oh, no problem. Don’t let T’Challa work you too hard, ok?”
“I won’t!” she squeaked.
“Good. You get back to work, and I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”
“Tell him you love him,” T’Challa whispered against her pussy lips, and Xoliswa couldn’t help but oblige.
“Abdul?”
“Yeah, sweetie?”
“I-I love you.”
“I love you too, Xo. Call me when you get off,” he blew her a kiss through the phone, and she hung up right as T’Challa started chuckling.
“You almost got us caught!” she fussed.
“You liked it. Don’t lie.”
Xoliswa bit her lip to hide her smile, but it didn’t work.
“Maybe a little.”
“Mmmhm. Nasty slut, letting me use you like this. You ought to be ashamed of yourself.”
Xoliswa’s pussy jumped, and T’Challa couldn’t help but smile at her.
“Maybe you should teach me a lesson,” Xoliswa moaned as she ground her hips on his fingers, and his dick hardened right back up. “Or punish me.”
“Fuck, Xo, where have you been all my life?” he groaned and pulled his fingers from her, lining the head of his dick up with her entrance.
“Married...to my husband,” Xoliswa teased. T’Challa’s nostrils flared, and she knew it was on.
She wouldn’t be getting any sleep that night.
Taglist: @maddeningmayhem, @theblulife, @motheroffae, @love-mesome-me, @toni9, @bribrisback, @impremenior, @nahimjustfeelingit-writes, @dersha89
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wlwmarvelenthusiast · 3 years
Text
Turn Your Luck
Summary: After a day filled with bad luck and a series of unfortunate events, Natasha manages to turn your day around
Pairing: Reader x Natasha Romanoff
Warnings: None
Words: 6,167
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When you woke up in the morning and smacked your big toe off your bed frame, you didn't even think twice of it. It sent a jolt all throughout your foot, but after a few swear words, you were already feeling a little better. You didn't bother making the bed you'd just stood up out of. All your life you'd reasoned that it wouldn't be 24 hours before you just messed it up again. You grabbed a towel and moved into the bathroom. The hot shower made you forget all about the sore toe you'd been sporting only a moment earlier.
You were feeling great when you stepped out of the shower. The warm water had always instilled comfort into your very bones even this early in the morning. You wiped some of the condensation off the mirror to brush your teeth. The tube of toothpaste was completely empty, and the drawer where you usually kept the new ones was also barren. You rolled your eyes at your own irresponsibility, before brushing your teeth without any toothpaste and then using some mouthwash to try and compensate for it. You stepped out of the bathroom.
You got dressed in your favourite white shirt and black pants before making your way into the kitchen. You tossed your phone onto the counter as you passed it on the way to the small kitchen table. You were after the fruit bowl, which was already needing a refill. There were still a few apples left, though, and you were expecting to have one for breakfast. You were mistaken. You pulled the empire apple out of the blue bowl to find the bottom had grown immensely soft and was clearly not in any condition to be eaten. You were disappointed but tossed it into the compost bin and moved on.
Humming a soft tune as you moved, you popped a pod into the single-serve coffee maker and pressed start. You were moving toward the fridge in no time when a strange noise caught your attention. You whirled to face the coffee maker. Instead of the steady stream of coffee you usually got, it was spraying the hot liquid like it was a shaken pop can. You jumped behind the small island, using it as a shield. Thankfully, you'd managed to keep your white shirt safe from the wrath of the coffee. When it stopped, you finally dared step back into the kitchen. The dark liquid was dripping down every nearby surface. You huffed, running some paper towel across the biggest surfaces quickly.
You gave up on the coffee. It seemed you weren't going to get it anyway. You glared at the machine as if it had intentionally smitten you. Instead, you reached into the fridge instead and poured a glass of orange juice for yourself. You sipped it before setting it back onto the countertop. When your phone buzzed and indicated an incoming message, you reached for it. Your elbow hit your glass and it fell onto its side. The orange liquid spilled off the counter and into your white shirt. You gave the mess the middle finger, tossing a dishtowel on it to soak it up, with the intention of actually cleaning it after work. You already had to clean the coffee up anyway.
Any attempt at breakfast was abandoned. After the three kitchen incidents combined, you were convinced you'd be better off heading to some drive-thru on the way to work. Now in a new blue shirt, you grabbed your bag and headed out your front door. You unlocked your car, slid into the driver's seat, and hit the ignition. The car sputtered for a few seconds, before refusing to start. You tried again, and then again, before groaning, taking out your frustration on the steering wheel in front of you. You stood up and stepped back out of the vehicle, slamming the door behind you with much more force than necessary.
Then, it was off to the bus stop. You headed down the sidewalk to the nearest one, pulling out your phone as you walked so you could check your app to find out when the next bus was coming. When you saw big red letters informing you that the bus was halted until further notice, though, you had to refrain from throwing your phone hard into the concrete. You supposed you should have had a little sympathy for those in the accident that had halted your bus, but you couldn't find it in yourself right then. Your morning was not going well.
It was a good thing you hadn't smashed your phone against the sidewalk. It was the only thing you could use to get you to work now. You switched apps and ordered an Uber to come to pick you up. When the driver arrived, you climbed into the back seat and gave him the address of your place of work. He nodded and pressed his foot down on the gas. Your eyes had been glued on your phone, but your gaze flickered at the driver's movement. He was adjusting the mirror and you were absolutely sure he'd angled it to face you a little better. You could have puked when you realized the creep was checking you out. You didn't say anything, at this point just wanting to get to work and be done with it.
You practically sprinted into the building when you arrived. Security didn't seem to mind your rush, having seen your face every day for over three years anyway. You hopped up the stairs two at a time, faster than the elevator would have been able to carry you anyway. When you reached the meeting room door you took a few seconds to catch your breath, not wanting to seem too flustered in your professional environment. When you finally pushed the door open, everyone was rising to their feet. Their eyes all darted up to glance at you. You smiled sheepishly.
"You're late."
"I know, I'm sorry." That was honest. You might have been frustrated, but you hadn't wanted to inconvenience any of your coworkers as well. "I've really had a rough morning."
Your boss nodded. "We've all had those days. I'll send you an email and give you a summary."
You thanked him and left the meeting room with everyone else. You trudged into your office, throwing your bag to the floor, and refraining from slamming the door behind you. You collapsed into your office chair and closed your eyes for a brief moment. But you didn't have time for that. The paperwork on your desk needed your attention. You gave it. The hours you spent on all the files, emails, and documents were the smoothest thing that had happened all day, even if it was mind-numbingly boring and felt absolutely endless. It might have been smooth sailing, but it didn't brighten your spirits at all.
When your phone rang, you reached out blindly until you felt your hand come in contact with it. You shuffled it until it was upright in your hand. You were so completely absorbed in the document that was displayed on your computer screen that you didn't even bother to look at your phone as you fumbled to slide the answer bar. Only when the incessant ringing had finally ceased did you know you'd successfully answered the call. You hesitated before you slowly raised the phone to your ear, eyes still scanning the lines in front of you.
"Hello?"
"Hey, Hun."
Immediately you regretted not checking the caller ID before answering the phone. You could have kicked yourself. In fact, the move was so ridiculously and incredibly stupid that you could have beaten yourself to a pulp. The voice on the other end of the line was familiar, completely unwelcome, and not a surprise after having the day that you were having. You turned away from the screen, resting your elbow on the desk and massaging the migraine that was beginning to form in your forehead. You sighed heavily, sure she heard it.
"Hi," you stated. "What?"
"Hun-"
"Please stop calling me that, I already asked you."
You had asked her that. Multiple times. You'd broken up months ago after she'd broken your heart. Catching her in bed with someone else had left you shattered and unsure if you could trust anyone. You'd been okay for a couple months now after some comfort and reassurance from your best friend, who you were having dinner with tonight. You glanced at the time. Your attention was unfortunately brought back to the girl on the phone, though, when she sighed your name as if she were the one who was hurt. She had no right to be hurt.
"I just-"
"I'm working," you finally said bluntly. "Is it urgent?"
"No. No, I'm sorry. I... I can call you tomorrow."
You wanted to snap and tell her not to bother, but you didn't. You just nodded despite her not being able to see it, said goodbye, and hung up. Once more you were faced with the urge to smash the stupid phone. Once more you fought it, instead shoving it into a drawer so you could ignore it and work on the mountains of paperwork you had to get through before your six o'clock reservations. You got back to it. Soon enough, the information was able to push your ex far from your mind. You didn't want to think about her anyway.
It felt like it had been eons since you'd arrived at work, and yet, according to the clock in the corner of your screen, you still had over an hour until your reservation. You might have slammed your head down onto the desk in front of you had two things not stopped you. The first was the migraine that was still throbbing in your head, and the second was the ringing of your office phone. Even though you knew she couldn't call you on here, you checked the caller ID before you picked up this time. It was the front desk.
"Hey, Tamara. What's up?
"There's someone here for you. She said you're going to miss your reservations."
"Reservations? It's only 4:45."
Tamara hesitated. "Daylight savings. It's 5:45."
You had entirely forgotten about that and even if you hadn't, you would have expected the computer would auto-update something like that. But you had forgotten, and the computer hadn't jumped forward, and now you were going to be late, and you still hadn't turned in the file that you'd promised to turn in today. You groaned in frustration, but transferred the file to a flash drive, shoved it into your bag, and left your office. Clearly, everyone else had remembered the time change, as the office was empty.
You cursed all of your coworkers in your head. You made for the elevator. When you stepped on and hit the button to bring you down to the lobby, you actually crossed your fingers. With your luck, all of the cables on the elevator would snap and you'd plummet all the way to the parking garage and die in a fiery explosion. Thankfully, your little gesture of luck seemed to work, for the doors slid open safe and sound in the lobby. As you stepped out, though, your bag hit the door, and the company ID snapped off and slipped in that tiny little crack between the elevator and the floor and out of sight. You cursed loudly.
You didn't dare shine your flashlight down the crack to try and see how far it'd gone; either your phone would have gone down after it out the doors would have slammed shut on either side of your skull. Neither of those things were a chance you were willing to take. You abandoned your ID and continued to the front desk, letting Tamara know what had happened. She nodded in understanding before pointing out your best friend, who had come to collect you after you'd let her know this morning that you'd taken an Uber to work. You approached her and tapped her shoulder.
"Hey," she said brightly.
"Hey, Nat."
Natasha Romanoff was the best thing to happen to you all day. She was your very best friend. Too, maybe you wanted her to be a little more. She was the most beautiful woman you'd ever laid eyes on, the red waves on her head only accentuating her emerald green irises, which sparkled when she smiled at you. That was only her physical beauty. Though she was, to most everyone that knew her, a tough, scary Avenger, you knew it was a façade. Natasha was the kindest, most generous, selfless, and caring person you'd ever had the pleasure of knowing.
"Tamara tells me you forgot about daylight saving time started last night."
"Shut up," you grumbled.
"Irritable because you lost an hour of sleep?"
"Nat," you said, already feeling bad for snapping at her. You rubbed your head. "I'm not having the greatest of days."
That was how your friendship with Nat was. You both understood that not every day was a good day. She tried to convince you not to compare, but you especially understood that. Natasha had been through hell on Earth when she was a child and you wished with every fibre of your heart that you could bear some of that for her. But you couldn't, and you were sure that if you could have, she wouldn't let you. So instead, you understood the bad days, and in turn, she did too. When you stated that today was one of those days, she turned to you with concern sparkling in those beautiful eyes.
"You okay?" She asked.
Your heart fluttered when her hand took yours.
It was a friendly gesture, of course, but you couldn't help but wish it otherwise. You wanted to hold her hand and have it not be just as a friend. You wanted to be able to intertwine your fingers with hers and squeeze her hand tight and feel that constant touch against her. You didn't want it to be friendly, you wanted it to be more. You wanted it to be so much more. You wanted to call her yours and for her to call you hers. But she was just a friend, and it was far better than nothing.
You hadn't always believed that someone could fall in love without some sort of a romantic relationship leading up to it. Now you realized it didn't need to be romantic. You and Natasha were close. You were closer than you'd ever been with anyone before. Because of that relationship, you knew you loved her. You were head over heels in love with her at this point, and you'd realized that a little while ago when you caught yourself fondly admiring her as she drummed her fingers against the table, deep in thought. It was a habit that had once had the ability to drive you up the wall.
"Hello?" She tried again. Her hand squeezed yours.
Your stomach flipped. "Yeah. I'm alright. Just waiting for my bad luck to run out."
"What happened?"
"What didn't happen?" You scoffed. "My fruit is all spoiled, my coffee maker broke, I spilled orange juice on my favourite white shirt, my car won't start, my bus wasn't running this morning, my Uber driver was a creep, I missed my meeting, I almost missed our reservations, I lost my ID badge and... she-who-must-not-be-named called."
Natasha's eyes darkened, her hand gripped yours tighter, and her gaze moved to meet yours. You took a chance and swiped your thumb over the back of her hand to try and get her to ease the tension out of her muscles. It seemed to work, as she relaxed a little. Her shoulders moved back down, the crease in her eyebrow lessened, she loosened her grip on your hand and exhaled carefully. She nodded in thanks, green eyes once against soft and gentle as she searched your eyes. You knew she was looking for any hint of you being upset. You weren't, though. You were with her.
Natasha hated your ex-girlfriend about a hundred times more than you did. She'd begged you to let her sneak over to her house at night and slash her tires and egg her house. You'd given that a firm no, not wanting Nat to get in any sort of trouble. It was Natasha's idea to never speak her name again, and to burn a bunch of photos and clothes that were left behind at your house. She'd gone so far as to have the bench you'd once carved your names into removed from the park and replaced with a brand new one... on Tony's Starks card, of course.
"What did she want?"
"Dunno. I told her I was busy," you actually laughed a little for the first time that day. "It wasn't exactly a lie. I was swamped today."
"Hey, if Fury is overworking you, I'll kick his ass."
Imagining Natasha kicking Nicholas Fury's ass was utterly amusing. You had no doubt she could, but Fury was a force. She'd kick his ass and the next day half of S.H.I.E.L.D. would be at her doorstep to retaliate. But he was a good boss. It wasn't his fault you'd procrastinated your own work for days. That was on you, and you knew it. So, you shook your head no, he wasn't overworking you. She seemed satisfied by that, but the topic of your ex wasn't dropped yet.
"Next time she calls you can direct her straight to me."
"Tasha, you won't answer."
"Damn right I won't."
You laughed again. It brought a smile to her face too.
With that, you continued on down the street without another word of she-who-must-not-be-named. You had almost reached the restaurant where Natasha had left the reservations when you stepped on something that most definitely was not concrete. If Natasha hadn't had your hand, your leg sliding out from underneath you would have left you on your ass. She held tight to your hand, her other arm catching you around the waist. You had to force yourself from blushing red as a tomato.
You glanced down at what you'd stepped in and could have punched someone. The white paint that was being used on the storefront had spilled onto the sidewalk and of course, you'd stepped in it in your new, black shoes. You scraped the bottom of it off on the sidewalk, grumbling all the while. Natasha had let go of your hand when you'd tugged it away from her to wipe the excess paint on the side of your shoe onto the post of the 'no parking' sign next to you. It was still ruined, but at least you'd gotten enough off that you wouldn't stain the restaurant's floor.
"You weren't kidding with the bad luck, huh?"
You shook your head no. You motioned onward, though. She got the hint, and you closed the distance between you and the restaurant. You shifted your bag on your shoulder as you stepped in, hoping they wouldn't notice the wet paint you were tracking onto their floors. If you managed in and out without them seeing, you'd be alright. It was New York City. You were sure people had walked in with worse things on the underside of their shoes.
You watched Natasha closely as she gave her name for the reservation. You hated how the host eyed her even more than you hated how your Uber driver had eyed you this morning. You didn't want anyone to eye her like that. You wanted to be the only one allowed to look at her like that. You knew you weren't, though. You ripped your gaze away from where it had been travelling along her jawline just in time for the host to arrive and lead you to your table. You sat across from her, keeping your eyes down and you collected your thoughts.
"What are you having?"
When you looked up, her eyes were trained on you. Her eyes were your absolute favourite part of her. They always shone so brightly, and so clearly expressed whatever she was feeling. They sparkled like they could see into your very soul and were so deep you could get lost in them for hours. Even the colour was perfect. They were that amazing shade of green that had very quickly become your favourite colour. You often found you'd been staring into them for a little longer than what might be considered normal. Now was one of those times. You looked back down at the menu.
"I'm not sure. Definitely a drink," you hummed. "Though I might get poisoned."
She rolled her eyes. "I don't think your luck is so bad that your assassin will choose to poison you today."
No, because she would protect you from anything. She always had. You might have been a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent and perfectly capable of protecting yourself, but she was always stepping in front of you to defend you. You couldn't say you minded. You liked having her at your back. Some people had a physical location where they felt safe. You didn't. Natasha Romanoff was your safe place. When you were with her, you felt like nothing in the world could touch you. She wouldn't let anything hurt you, and you wouldn't let anything hurt her.
Soon enough the waitress was stepping up to your table and taking your order. You gave yours first, opting for a simple fettuccine alfredo. Natasha gave hers, unaware of the way you watched her lips moving as she talked. When the waitress left and she looked back to you, your eyes were cast toward the window, watching a young couple pass by, huddled close together in the cool March evening. When she called for your attention and you gave it immediately, looking over to her. She sipped her wine as you did.
"You said your car wouldn't start?" She said.
"Yeah. It keeps sputtering on and on."
"I'll drive you home and take a look at it tonight. I know a thing or two about cars."
It was a good thing she did, because you knew absolutely nothing about what was going on under the hood of the car. All you could think was that maybe the battery had died on you, but that wasn't possible. If you'd left the lights on, you would have been able to see it through the window in your bedroom the night previous, and you hadn't. There was no other reason the battery could have been drained. You'd driven the car yesterday from your house to S.H.I.E.L.D.'s New York location. You might not have known what the hell was wrong, but Natasha would figure it out in seconds. The thought of her bent over to study the underside of the hood made you shiver.
The image was pushed from your mind when the waitress returned with your food. She placed your pasta down in front of you and you thanked her politely. She set Natasha's down as well. The redhead smiled widely and after double-checking that everything was alright, the server left the two of you to your dinner. Natasha glanced up at you, a very amused smile playing on her lips. You knew exactly what it was about, too. You'd gotten the wrong order and said absolutely nothing of it. Honestly, you didn't really care. At this point in the day, you just wanted to eat.
"You could've said something," Natasha teased.
"It's nothing. I'm hungry and this is just as good."
"We can still say something."
"It's fine," you assured.
"Let's stop and buy you a couple hundred good luck charms on the way back to your place."
You laughed aloud.
Dinner was good, despite having gotten the wrong order. You suspected that was due to Natasha's presence. The two of you had been exchanging stores of the craziest missions you'd ever gone on. Of course, she was winning. She was an Avenger. Your missions as a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent were anything but boring, but they didn't compare to the alien invasion last year that Natasha had been at the heart of. You'd been helping from the edges of the city, evacuating civilians and the like, but you suspected she'd killed hundred more of the Chitauri than you did: one.
Before long you'd both finished, and the empty plates were cleared away. The server returned to you with the bill. You made sure your card was out before Natasha could even think about trying to pay. They collected your card, and you gave Natasha a very smug little smirk. She only rolled her eyes and thanked you softly. You thought all was said and done when the server returned. You prepared to leave but she shook her head, signalling you to stop what you were doing. She reached out, handing you your card back. You took it.
"I'm afraid the transaction isn't going through."
It seemed that your bad luck had struck again. You were fully confident that there was enough money in your account. There had been last night when you'd checked it, anyway. Either you'd had the misfortune of your card deciding to kick the bucket while you tried to buy dinner for Natasha, or even worse, someone had gotten into your bank account and cleared it out. That thought made your heart drop into your stomach as you reached for your phone, hardly noticing Natasha pulling out her own credit card this time.
You prayed for one tiny bit of luck today. Your prayers went unanswered. You logged into your online banking to find that someone had managed to get your credit card number and had been online shopping all day. Your card had long hit its limit and you were already dreading the phone call you were about to have with the bank. You huffed as you set your phone down roughly on the tabletop. Natasha glanced over at you as the server took her card this time. She raised an eyebrow. You were sure smoke was billowing from your ears.
"Luck isn't turning yet?"
You didn't answer that. "Thanks for dinner, Natasha."
She laughed. When the server returned her card and wished you both a good evening, she took your hand and dragged you back out the doors onto the noisy streets of New York. She was leading you back to S.H.I.E.L.D., where you knew she must have left her bike. When you got there, she scanned her ID and brought you both down into the parking garage. She brought you right to the motorbike and lifted the helmet off from where it was hanging on the handlebars. She reached out and set it on your head, doing it up underneath your chin. Her fingers brushed your skin as she worked at the straps.
"Normally I would never condone riding without a helmet, but I only have one. This head," she said, rapping her knuckles twice against the helmet on your head. "Is much more important than mine."
"Is not," you laughed. "There's hundreds of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, but there's only six Avengers."
"And there's only one you," she insisted. "The helmet stays on that pretty little head of yours, and that's final."
That compliment seemed to awaken the butterflies in your stomach. They were still present when you both climbed onto the bike. They fluttered even more when Natasha told you to put your arms around her and hold tight. You could have stayed like this forever if she'd asked you to. You almost wanted her to ask you to, because you loved the ways your arms fit perfectly around her waist. Facing forward, she wasn't able to see the smile that was growing on your lips. Maybe all that bad luck was to make up for this.
Reluctantly, you took your arms off from around her when she pulled into your driveway. She put the kickstand down and took the helmet once you'd pulled it off and handed it back to her. You straightened out your hair a little bit in the reflection of your car window. Wordlessly, Natasha had moved to the hood of your car and tapped on the red paint to get your attention. You unlocked the car and popped the hood for her. She unhooked the latch and lifted it up, studying the inside carefully. That scene you'd been picturing earlier was coming true before your eyes.
"Start the car for me?"
You nodded. You dropped your bag on the doorstep, digging through the pockets until your hand had closed around your car keys. You withdrew them by tugging on the dinosaur keychain that Natasha had once given you after winning it at the arcade, where you'd spent hours at all the different games. You slid into the front seat, turning on the car when Natasha gave you the thumbs up. The car sputtered loudly. Then it made a sound you might have mistaken for a gunshot. The backfire nearly made you jump out of your seat. You quickly got out.
"You alright, Nat?"
"I'm good," she nodded. She moved away from the car. "It's probably just your spark plugs. When's the last time you had them replaced?"
You raised an eyebrow. "Hell if I know. I drop it off for a tune-up and expect them to tune it up."
Natasha laughed. "I'll grab some tomorrow and replace them for you."
You nodded. You watched as she reached up and grabbed the hood of the car, closing it again. She rubbed her hands against her pants. You clicked a button on your car keys, locking the doors. The lights flashed to indicate that it was indeed secured. You fiddled with the keys in your hand to get the house key out, opening your mouth to invite Natasha in as well, but found you couldn't find the golden key. You growled at nothing and dug through every pocket in your bag to see if it had fallen off in there, but there was no trace of it.
"My house key is missing."
Natasha actually laughed at this. "Did you walk under a ladder this morning? Spill the salt? Break a mirror?"
You glared at her. "Can you help me get in through a window?"
She nodded. You both moved around to one of the windows that you'd left open last night, after telling her you weren't sure you had locked it when you shut it this morning. Indeed, she found that once you'd removed the screen, she was able to slide the window open. You linked your fingers together to make a spot for Natasha to use for leverage. You boosted her through the open window and then moved back to the front door just as you heard the deadbolt slide out of place.
"My hero," you grinned as she opened the door. "I owe you a drink. Come on."
"I still have to drive home."
"Stay the night," you offered. "If you don't, I could very well just get murdered tonight."
Natasha laughed. "Well, I'd better stay and make sure you're okay, then."
You smacked her gently. She knew her way around your small bungalow well, having visited what could have easily been a million times. She made herself at home on the couch, tossing her leather jacket beside her. You moved into the kitchen, only paying half a glance at the towels you'd thrown over the two spilled beverages. You poured the both of you a drink and then brought them into the living room, kicking back on the couch beside her. You grabbed the remote, clicking the TV on. The screen lit up the room. Out of the corner of your eye, you noticed the beautiful face beside you that had been illuminated. You turned back to the screen.
"I can put Netflix on," you said, pressing a button. "What do you want to watch?"
"Can I test your luck?"
"What?" You responded, turning your full attention to her.
She didn't offer an explanation. You felt her hand touch your thigh. Your breath hitched and the remote almost fell to the floor. You managed to set it down on the table as your cheeks began to burn red. She left her hand there for a few seconds before it slid away, letting you take a moment to remember how to breathe. Her hand moved away and wrapped around her glass. You knew how obvious you were being when you watched her touch the rim to her lips and the slight movements in her neck as she swallowed the alcohol. You needed a drink too, but you were frozen.
"I just mean... I could either turn your luck around or just maintain the bad luck."
You still didn't know what she meant. She was setting her glass down on the coffee table. Her eyes searched yours and you were once again tossed into the sea of green that you were so obsessed with. When she leaned forward and connected your lips, though, you lost sight of emerald green. Her eyes had shut and only a second later, yours had fluttered shut as well. You put a hand on the back of her neck to hold her closer and moved your lips with hers. You wondered briefly if you were dreaming. You didn't have long with your thoughts. Your mind was so overcome with whatever was happening right now.
Natasha pulled back. Her hand had, at some point, moved back onto your thigh, and was resting there gently. Your hand moved to cover it. She flipped hers over so that her fingers could intertwine with yours and for the first time, it didn't feel like it was just in a friendly manner. It felt so much more than that, just liked you'd wanted it to. Your eyes moved from there up to her face. She had been studying you intently. You'd never seen Natasha Romanoff look nervous. Not until that very moment. You chuckled a little, nervousness in your chest as well, and let your eyes fall.
"You definitely turned it," was all you said.
"Yeah?"
"By a long shot. I mean, I think this amount of good luck was enough to actually balance out the bad luck."
You didn't know Natasha could giggle, but she did. The sound made a smile immediately spread over your face. You reached out and took her hands in your own. You leaned forward and kissed her again, infatuated with the feeling of her soft lips pressed against yours so rough and yet somehow so soft. One of your hands pulled out of hers so it could thread through the red waves on her head. You'd wanted to do that for so long. She only pulled back when you'd both lost your breath. Your forehead rested against hers and you could smell the whiskey on her breath.
"Do you know how long I've wanted that?" You breathed.
"I'd guessed it, but I thought it was just my imagination because I wanted the same thing."
You laughed. She put her hands on your shoulders, pushing your back down against the couch and then putting her knees on either side of your waist. Her lips were on yours again, a little hotter this time. You didn't complain. You just let her lean down over you and kiss you and run her hand down your side. You only raised a hand to her chest and pushed her away when you once more felt the need for oxygen burning inside your chest. She didn't move far, face inches from yours, studying you this time from above. You blushed under her gaze.
"I... I've felt really strongly about you for a while," you said, hand moving so you could trace your fingertips across her cheek. "You know what I mean?"
"Are you trying to tell me you love me without saying you love me?" She asked, the teasing back in her voice again. "Because you're not going to scare me off. You can say it if you want."
"I love you, Natasha."
"I love you, too."
You couldn't help but laugh. It wasn't funny in any way, but maybe it was the relief trying to find a way out of your body. The sound seemed to make Natasha's eyes, sparkle. Your heart softened and the laughter fell from your lips and you didn't move a muscle. Her face was so beautiful looking down at you like it was. You felt so right having her touch you like this and touching her the way you were. Her hands were holding her torso up above yours and yours were touching her face so gently. It wasn't like a friend touched a friend anymore.
"Thanks for turning my luck."
"Are you kidding me? I'm the lucky one."
"I think we're both really fucking lucky, Natasha. Thank you."
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alpacaparkaseok · 4 years
Text
Shut Eye
pairing/genre: idol!Yoongi x reader, fluff
premise: In a world where every night you meet your soulmate in your dreams only to forget their face and voice when you wake up, you’re now more desperate than ever to find them.
word count: 2.6k
a/n: I was listening to the piano version of ‘For Forever’ from Dear Evan Hansen while writing this...so maybe that explains it?? THIS IS SOOO CHEESY YOU GUYS
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requested by anon - thanks for the fun request, hope you enjoy! a picture of your ask/request will be at the bottom of the post. Thank you!
_________________________________
You awoke with a gasp, the covers flung aside in an effort to grab the notebook and pen you kept handy on your nightstand. Not bothering to flip on the lamp, you used the little moonlight filtering in through your window to write down the events of your dream.
You spent most nights in the dreamscape with your soulmate, his face and voice a blurry mess in your mind. The two of you would talk for hours, that much you know. The general idea of the conversation would stick with you as well, but beyond anything else, you’d wake up with the same familiar feeling.
The specific brand of heartbreak that tends to accompany goodbyes. 
Tonight’s dream had been something entirely different, though. Try as you might, your mind can’t seem to conjure up the exact words your soulmate had so calmly whispered in your ear as you stood on a red carpet facing innumerable flashing cameras. However, one thing was for certain.
He was trying to send you a message. 
He was trying to find you out in this big world. 
You’ve made a bullet-point list now, with the words red carpet, famous?? and beautiful suit starting off the list. As the list continued on, you only grew more and more confused. Why did your soulmate choose that dreamscape? After years of the usual sitting room and long chats, something must have happened to make him change.
Frustrated, you scanned last night’s notes to see if anything out of the ordinary had happened. You nearly gave up before one of the final bullet-points caught your attention.
we talked about family
did we talk about our family??
Eyebrows scrunched and lips pouted, you wracked your brain for any recollection of the conversation from the night before. Indeed, you remembered waking up with the distinct feeling of discussing future baby names, but for the life of you, you couldn’t remember what he had said he liked. What you did remember was that it was a name that had made you laugh, and that he had been upset about it for the rest of the evening. 
Not too upset, though. He’d still quietly warned you in the way he always did when he knew he was about to wake up. Softly lacing his hand through yours, running his thumb over the back of your knuckles until in the blink of an eye he was gone. 
There had been several occasions when you’d woken up still feeling the ghost of his hand on yours.
The notebook in your hands glared up at you, an unwelcome reminder that you were nowhere near close to understanding the meaning of your most recent dream. 
Normally, you would have just let it go. But today was different. Today you woke up just knowing that he had meant something by the dream. The way he’d brought you out on that red carpet, your arm linked through his as he led you toward a group that was already posing for pictures-
Wait. A group? You’d forgotten that part. Another bullet-point was added to the growing list.
part of a group (friends?)
Your eyes drifted shut as you tried to remember any more details, the ways the cameras flashed seemed to impair your vision as you’d looked at the group that had smiled as you neared. One of them had made some extra space for you and your soulmate, and you’d nearly keeled over when you saw who it was.
But who was it?
You sighed, scribbling one last bullet-point before your brain quit functioning.
I recognized the friends - famous?
It was a bit discouraging to look down at the list and see so many question marks, but you paid it no mind as you tossed your notebook back onto the nightstand and found the strength to get up for the day. 
You’d just have to wait until the next dream.
•••••••••••••••••••••••
“I have no idea where this is going,” you admitted while staring up at the ceiling,  sprawled out on your bed. “But I just know that he’s trying to tell me something. You know?”
Your best friend, Ji-eun, just laughed on the other side. “I’m sure he was...but honestly, who knows? Maybe he just wanted a change of scenery.”
“Ugh. You’re no fun.”
“Well, I hate to break it to you, but no more fun for you tonight. I’ve got to go to bed. Got to wake up early tomorrow, remember? It’s a big day.”
“Oh, that’s right! Are you nervous?”
You’d nearly forgotten that your best friend was also one of South Korea’s most beloved singers. On most days, you forgot her stage name, too. 
“No, not really. I just usually hate having to sit there by myself, you know? There are so many groups, and them I’m just by myself. Looking beautiful.”
“Aww, poor IU, all alone.” You teased. “I’d go with you, but-”
In an instant, Ji-eun, or IU, squealed and you knew that she had an idea. “Yes! Come with me!! I’ll sneak you in! You won’t even have to worry about the red carpet- wait.”
You winced, having held the phone at a distance from your ear so as to not immediately lose your hearing. “Oh no, now what? You know I’m not fit for award shows, Ji-eun.”
“Didn’t you say that your dream was on the red carpet?”
You blinked. “Yeah.”
“Sooo,” Ji-eun dragged out, “Maybe you’ll see him.”
A wry laugh escaped you. “What makes you think he would recognize me even if he was there? Or that I would recognize him?”
IU made an indecisive noise. “Well, you already described his beautiful suit-”
“Hey, no teasing. It was absolutely gorgeous.”
“Exactly! If there’s a guy that shows up wearing that suit, then maybe that’s him! And, maybe he’s part of a group! You would recognize the group if you saw them, wouldn’t you?”
“You’re just trying to get me to come with you,” you drawled, ignoring the little spark of hope. 
“Obviously. Hey, you know that really pretty red dress you bought not that long ago?”
“Yeah.”
“Wear that, and work your dreamscape magic or something to help him remember the red dress. He’ll recognize you when he sees you tomorrow!”
With an eye roll you’re pretty sure Ji-eun heard through the phone, you groaned. “If he’s even there. If.”
“So you’ll do it?”
In the end, it was the memory of having to say goodbye every morning without even remembering who you were saying goodbye to that had you agreeing. 
••••••••••••••••••
Falling into your dreams had always felt more like waking up, the urge to stretch and run around almost too much to deny. Tonight, you entered the familiar sitting room that you’d frequented nearly every night for the past few years.
Your soulmate is waiting for you when you enter, his back turned to you.
A part of you knows that the two of you have been through this many times before. You’ve technically met your soulmate hundreds of times - maybe even thousands at this point. But every night, it’s the same little feeling of anticipation as you wait for him to turn around. 
Always wondering who it might be. Always dreading the moment you wake up and forget his face all over again, waiting for the next dream to identify him.
He’s in the black, lightly checkered suit that he wore last night, not a single strand of his black hair out of place as he turns around with wide eyes.
Your breath is momentarily caught in your throat as you suddenly recognize him, not only from the previous dreams but from nearly everywhere else in the waking world. 
“Hey,” Yoongi mumbles, a soft smile gracing his lips as he looks at you. “You look beautiful.”
You looks down at the red dress you’re wearing, the same one you’re planning on wearing at the award show. Nodding at his suit, you grin.
“Are you wearing that to the award show today?”
He nods, stepping toward you. “I wish you could go, I know that I’d be able to find you-”
“I am.”
Yoongi stops, his mouth slightly open. He takes a single step toward you. “You are? How?”
“Ji-eun is my best friend, remember?”
He takes a moment to recall that tidbit of information about you, nodding. “So...we’ll see each other.”
“I hope so.” You tilt your head. “But will you recognize me? It was so hard for me to remember any details after last night’s dream, I feel like it’s getting harder.”
“I think it is,” Yoongi agrees, striding over to you and grabbing your hand even as a light pink dusts over his cheeks. “But I don’t think I’ll be able to forget this dress.” With a wink that belies his shy nature, Yoongi leads you out onto the red carpet, where cameras are waiting. 
He walks you through the event, glancing at you every few seconds as though afraid that you’ll disappear at any moment. That’s certainly a valid concern - it’s happened plenty of times.
You’ve just made it to where the rest of the members are standing when you feel the tell-tale pull back toward reality. 
You’ll be waking up at any moment now. Most likely because of that pesky nest of birds that have decided to camp out just outside of your windows. 
Instinctively your grip on Yoongi’s arm tightens, and he turns to you. He can tell by the look in your eyes that you’re about to leave.
“What if it doesn’t work?” You blurt out, taking in every last detail of him. From the way his cheeks are still pink to the fit of his suit. 
Yoongi absolutely shocks you as he presses a chaste kiss to your forehead, pulling you a little closer. His breath that dusts over your ear feels so real as he whispers gently to you.
“We’ll find a way. I promise.”
•••••••••••••••••••
It was the same dream as the night before; the same infuriating goodbye that seeped into your bones as you hurtled awake. However, this time, you could have sworn that you recalled a puppy-dog gaze that was begging you to remember him as you left the dreamscape.
You’d worn the red dress you currently had on, the red lace falling just below your knees. A part of you remembered the way your soulmate had reacted when you’d waltzed into the dreamscape, the way you had casually linked your arm through his as you walked onto the red carpet.
Today you couldn’t find the energy to write anything in your full notebook, opting to bury your head in your hands.
“Who are you?” You groaned. The feeling of his soft lips against your forehead has you sighing, wishing that you could replay it all over again. After shooting a glare at the red dress hanging in your closet, you grabbed your notebook to write down one note before getting up.
We love each other
•••••••••••••••••••
Ji-eun - er, IU, instructed you to wait for her at the entrance to the photo-op portion of the red carpet. She would be busy doing little interviews before that, which honestly didn’t seem that appealing to you. 
Especially not when you were so nervous you thought you were going to throw up.
Staring down at your red dress, you nearly jumped out of your skin when there was a hand on your shoulder.
“Ha! You’re jumpy today,” IU teased, “I wonder why.”
“Oh good, you’re finished.” You ignored her tease, happy to get moving. “You look amazing.”
It wasn’t a surprise, but she still deserved to be complimented. IU looked absolutely ethereal in her flowy green gown, the two of you looking like some sort of Christmas ad. 
“You look great as well!” She motioned toward the carpet. “I think we’re just after this group. Ready?”
Armed with a smile and your best friend at your side, you ventured onto the carpet. It was easier than you though it would be; most of the time you were stepping aside to allow the photographers a clear view of IU.
You’ve nearly made it to the end when a fresh round of screaming picks up. 
There’s only one group that can command that much attention.
You couldn’t help but crane your neck as you see BTS walk onto the carpet, just a couple of groups behind you. Your eyes widened on their own accord when you saw them, unable to shake the feeling of having met them before. 
Of course, they pay you no mind. However, you couldn’t help but chuckle at the way Suga took a moment to get up on his tippy-toes, looking around. You went to point it out to IU, nobody paying either of you any mind as you walk off the carpet. You lost all ability to speak, however, as you took a closer look.
It’s the suit. 
The one that is checkered with a light gray, the one that fit your soulmate just right. 
It’s the black hair that’s perfectly styled. 
And as Suga turned to look your way, you didn’t miss the way his eyes caught on your red dress.
Almost like he had been looking for a red dress.
In the span of a single heartbeat, you made eye contact with the idol, the same question lingering in your eyes. 
For Min Yoongi, that’s all it took. 
Abandoning all precepts, he took off down the carpet, heading straight toward you. From the way the other members took one look at you and your red dress and immediately began speaking to those present, you knew that they’d been waiting for this. Knew that they weren’t planning on keeping this low-key, because there was no real way to do that. 
Not as Yoongi saw you and knew. 
You managed to take three steps toward him before he was before you, grinning with his gummy smile even as his ears turned red. 
“Quick,” Yoongi breathed out, reaching down to take your hands in his. “If it’s really you, tell me what name we can’t agree on for a girl.”
The question threw you off guard, making you laugh. But after a moment, you found with a gasp that you remember.
You remembered everything.
The way the two of you first awkwardly stumbled into the dreamscape at the age of nineteen. How you eventually opened up to each other, grew to care deeply about the other. 
You remembered the nights when the two of you were rambunctious and laughing at stupid stories Yoongi told you about the boys. 
You remembered the nights when you sat in silence, dreading the moment you would have to wake up.
And you remembered that just a few days ago, Yoongi had brought up family. You’d spent the night talking about how many children you’d want, how you’d raise them, what you’d name them.
And there was one horrible name that he loved and you hated, and neither of you were willing to budge on it.
“Ugh,” you groaned even as you smiled. “We are not naming her Pearl! It would make her sound like a pirate ship!”
The cameras flashed, which made Yoongi’s eyes glimmer as he laughed along with you. Then, without a care in the world except for knowing for certain that it was all real, Yoongi tugged you closer until your foreheads touched and all you could see were his dark eyes pulling you in.
“I told you we’d find a way.”
Hundreds of cameras flashed, documenting the moment and effectively labeling it a dream come true.
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Note
Anon who’s dog had a seizure. I wanted to be able to give a positive update, but I won’t be able to. I was woken up by a call at around 1:30am from my mom and the first thing she said was “[my dogs name] died”
I don’t know all the details, I was in a full fledge panic attack and was overcome with despair when it was either explained to me or I overheard (frankly, I don’t remember) but apparently at some point either last night or veryyyyy early this morning my mom let the dog out to use the restroom, and he collapsed again similarly to how he did two days ago. My mom rushed him to the emergency vet (a thirty minute drive) but he didn’t even make it there.
I think I was dry heaving at some point because my panic was so bad. I ended up going to the vet with my dad so I could say goodbye (he had before my mom left with the dog) and ngl, going with him did not help in the slightest. My dad has NPD and he kept making the situation about himself and I stg I was ready to throw myself out the car window in the middle of the freeway and walk the rest of the way there OOP—
I was afraid we wouldn’t be able to because of Covid, but we were allowed to all head into the vet and hold him and give proper goodbyes before they took him to be cremated (they have a partnership with some place that does all that jazz). It was rough. He’s a small dog, only 18 pounds, but just holding him felt so different. There was no resistance when I picked him up (I’m not his favorite person lol, so he’d always deadpan and shuffle away a little from me before giving in whenever i’d make grabby hands hahaha) and it was just rough.
A year and a half ago my old bird passed away in that same emergency vet, so I just felt like I was suffocating the whole time. It was basically history repeating itself and I had a ✨mental breakdown✨ while cradling the pooch. My mom almost had to drag me out 2.5 hours later because I didn’t want to leave him. I tried to be strong, he was her dog in the end and they had an unbreakable bond. I should’ve been the one comforting her, not the other way around. I totally failed lol.
Thank god I was able to go home with my mom and not my dad. I wanted to be the one to drive home so she could rest, but I didn’t have the energy to protest when I saw she was already in the drivers seat.
We’ve had him since he was a few months old. I was in first grade at the time, and despite us having a very rocky start (young me didn’t like all the attention he received bc it used to be mine) he was my lil buddy and I would have done anything for him. I was looking forward to taking my senior and graduation pictures with him soon, but it seems like that won’t be happening. I just wish I did more with him.
Sorry for rambling and being so depressing! I haven’t gotten much sleep over the past two nights so I’m really out of it.
If it’s not too much to ask for, could I have a part ii of my previous request but have it involving what I wrote above? Asdfghjkl my depressed ass needs comfort and all of my friends are in school LOL. (Thank god I was called off from school this time) Plus, I don’t wanna make my mom feel worse by adding my grief on top of her own (I hope that made sense)
Part 1
(A/N): anon, I’m so sorry to hear about your dog. From what you sent me about him, he sounded like an absolute delight to be around and a very good boy. You deserve to grieve too, even if you don’t think you should. Grieving is healthy and it’s something that shouldn’t be ignored. Everyone grieves differently, so maybe you and your mom could reminisce on the good times with him? Only if you both feel comfortable doing so of course. Please get some sleep, drink plenty of water, and eat some food if you haven’t already. My DMs are always open if you ever want to talk <3
Warnings: death of a dog and bird (mentioned), panic attacks, NPD parent mention
You were jolted awake by a loud ring from your phone laying on your nightstand. It was the ringtone you specifically set for your mom. Blinking deliriously, you answered with a raspy, “mom?”
You were only met with her choked sobs on the other end. This woke you up completely as you turned on a lamp and sat up fully in your bed, “mom what’s wrong?”
“(Dog name)...” She was unable to say your dog's name before she broke into more harsh sobbing. Worry and fear pricked your gut at the mention of your dog’s name. “What about (dog name)? What’s going on?”
“He d-died, (y/n). He isn’t suffering anymore.” You felt as if ice cold water was poured onto you as you sat staring at the wall in shock. Faintly you heard your mom telling you how it happened, but you didn’t register her words. The words that came out of your mother’s mouth were nearly incomprehensible anyways due to her distress. You didn’t know when she hung up, but the next time you looked at the phone screen your homescreen met you: a picture of you, Techno, Wilbur, and Tommy at an amusement park. 
Your panic attack had escalated to you dry heaving over the toilet after puking up your dinner. You felt like you were suffocating as you remembered the techniques Techno used a few days prior. You stumbled up from a crouch and scrambled over to the sink. Your hands could barely grab the faucet and turn it on as you lost most of your sense of spatial awareness and everything you touched felt distant, like every single synapse in your body was both simultaneously working in overdrive and failing at the same time. The water was as cold as it was going to get, so you plunged your hands into the liquid and felt your body jolt at the temperature. After a while, your hands turned numb after regaining some senses back so you shakily cupped your hands under the faucet and gathered water into your hands. You splashed it at your face and felt yourself becoming more grounded as time passed.
By the time you left the bathroom, your dad gathered you into the car and started to drive you to the emergency vet. The entire time he was ranting about how you needed to pull yourself together because the dog was closer to him than to you. That definitely did not help in any way, it made you want to jump out of the car and walk the rest of the way to the vet. It would be better than having someone constantly belittling you for grieving. The ride was hell, but you persevered for (dog name). You needed to say goodbye to him.
When you left the car and walked into the building, it felt as if you were walking through the nine rings of hell with blazing infernos licking at your skin with every step. Dread and despair filled and overwhelmed you with every step. 
When a nurse escorted you to the room, she offered you her condolences and left you to say goodbye. With wide eyes, you slowly walked over to your mom and saw the motionless bundle of fur in her hands. It looked like he was sleeping, but you knew better. She looked at you with so much heartbreak and sadness as tears slipped down her cheeks that you remembered that he was her dog in the end and they’ve always had an unbreakable bond. You needed to be strong for her.
Your stony facade broke the second your mom handed you (dog name). He was cold and stiff as he laid unmoving in your arms, not even trying to wiggle out of your embrace like he always did. You were never his favorite person. He felt so… different. So wrong. 
Time passed around you as you held him and cried into his fur. This situation was very similar to your previous one that happened about a year and a half ago when your bird passed away and that was what finally sent you over the edge. Before you knew it, your mom was dragging you out of the building so he could get cremated. Your dad had long since gone home so he could get ready for work, so that left you to ride home with your mom. Not that you were complaining, it was certainly better than riding home with your dad. You just wished that you could drive so she could get some rest. 
By time you got home, it was about the same time you would leave for school. As you were driving down your neighborhood, you saw a very familiar car pass you. It was Techno, Wilbur, and Tommy’s car. They were probably going to school. You kept your head down and stared intensely at your tightly clasped hands. 
The second the car was in park in your driveway, you made a beeline for your room. For the rest of the day, you hid underneath your covers and ignored the incessant buzzing of your phone on the nightstand. You spent that time alone having a panic attack. This was your longest and most intense one yet, by the time it finally calmed down it was 10:30 at night. 
You smacked your dry lips together and feel absolutely drained. The buzzing still wouldn’t let up, so you reached out with a shaky hand and opened your phone. You had at least eighty combined missed texts from Wilbur, Tommy, and Techno. 
Tuesday, Innit?
Yo, the fuck’s goin on? 
Why the hell did you ignore us when we passed you???
Music man take me by the hand lead me to the land
Ignore that dumbass
What’s going on? You weren’t at school today
(Y/n)?
Technology Sword
You don’t have to tell us what happened if you’re not comfortable
Just tell us if you’re okay
That was only the start of the messages in the group chat. Granted it was mostly Tommy spamming your name and Wilbur and Techno trying to get him to chill out, but some of the messages managed to calm the swirling panic inside of you slightly. Your phone buzzed as you got another text. This time, it was an individual one from Technoblade.
Technology Sword
Look out your window, grab your notebook
You raised your eyebrows slightly as you read the message. Your window was right across from Technoblade’s, so when you saw Taylor Swift’s “You Belong With Me” music video and showed it to Techno, you both decided that this would be your primary communication before you eventually got phones. It wasted a ton of paper, but you both felt like the main characters in a story so you kept doing it. You hadn’t done this since you got your phone and he got his. 
After you grabbed your spare notebook and a sharpie, you sat up in your bed and turned on your lamp. When you opened your curtains, you saw Techno smiling at you before he grabbed his notebook and wrote ‘hello’. 
You uncapped your marker, wrote ‘hi’, and shakily raised it to him. You saw him frown at your shakiness, he wrote ‘you okay?’
You stared at your paper for a bit contemplating whether or not you should tell him the truth. It was no use in lying to him, he knew you better than you knew yourself. After a moment, you wrote ‘no’.
You watched as he frowned and his eyebrows crinkled together in an upwards slant. ‘Discord?’
‘Sure’
You closed your curtains once more and opened up your PC. You could already see that Techno, Wilbur, and Tommy were in a separate voice channel. When you joined, you were startled by Tommy’s loud screaming and Wilbur’s hysterical laughter. 
“WILBUR YOU PRICK WHY THE FUCK DID YOU DO THAT I WORKED SO HARD GETTING THAT NETHERITE!” 
They were interrupted by a knock on Tommy’s door, “Tommy for the love of god it’s almost eleven at night kiddo. You can keep playing but please just keep it down.”
“SORRY DADZA!”
“Good job dumbass,” Wilbur chuckled.
“Hey (y/n), how’re you?” Techno’s somewhat pointed voice interrupted them. “(Y/N)! Please tell Wilbur that it’s not cool to borrow my armor and ‘accidentally’ fall into a lava lake.”
“It was an accident I swear!” Wilbur’s slight chuckle told you otherwise. “Wilbur,” your croaky and wobbly voice scolded him quietly, “not cool.”
The voice channel went silent as you logged into your shared minecraft server. You immediately spawned in the main lobby at spawn that you built the last time you logged in. You got to work gathering wood for walls you were going to build around the city. You saw Techno’s character run to you and help you gather wood. 
“...You good, (y/n)?” Tommy’s voice took on an uncharacteristic level of gentleness and concern. 
“‘M fine.” 
After a while of silence, you heard keyboards start to click again. Gradually conversation started back up and everything felt lighthearted once more. Though, you only talked when you were prompted to. After gathering the correct amount of wood, you and Techno went back to your house so you could craft some slabs. However as you approached the crafting table, you passed your bed. Next to your bed was your pet dog, barking slightly and looking at you with it’s pixel eyes. 
You could feel tears well up in your eyes at the sight of the pixelated dog. With a lump forming in your throat you struggled to breathe through it, your breaths coming out shuttering. You made quick work of muting yourself on Discord and started sobbing, the white dog staring at you sitting on top of your minecraft bed. This wasn’t a panic attack, you knew that. But you still felt overcome by a massive wave of grief. 
After a bit, you saw Techno’s character pop in front of you and start hitting the air. In chat, you saw that he private messaged you ‘vc 2’
You clicked off the main voice chat and was immediately greeted by Techno’s gentle voice. “What’s goin on buddy?” He was only met with your sobs, “deep breaths.”
“I’m not having a panic attack.”
“Still, deep breaths are good. Follow me.” With that, you two worked on getting your breathing back to normal and your tears slowly stopped. The entire time he was giving you praise and gentle reassurances whenever you tried to apologize to him. By the time you stopped crying you felt almost completely drained. 
“You okay now?” You hummed in confirmation, too tired to say anything. “Thank you Tech, I-I’m sorry-”
“Stop apologizing for feeling emotions. They’re one hundred percent valid… Do you feel comfortable telling me what happened?”
“I…” You trailed off as you couldn’t bring yourself to say the words out loud. “You don’t have to tell me, ya know.” Technoblade gently reminded you.
“I’ll PM it to you.” With that, you PMed him on minecraft explaining that your dog died this morning. “Fuck, I’m so sorry (y/n). I’m sure he isn’t suffering anymore. Did- did they ever find out what caused the seizures?”
“No, but… he had tons of health issues that I’m glad he doesn’t have to deal with anymore.” 
“Do you wanna talk about the good times with him with Wil and Tommy? If you don’t want to we can just talk about them here.”
“Let’s rejoin the main voice channel.”
“Hey (y/n), how’re you doing?” Wilbur gently asked you. “I’m alright, do- do you guys know what happened?” They both said yes. Technoblade must’ve told them what was happening.
“(Y/n) come outside. We built something for you.” Tommy was uncharastically gentle. 
When you moved to go outside of your minecraft house and Wilbur and Tommy led you to an empty spot in the city you four were building, you stopped in your tracks. In front of you built in various types of stone was a dog statue. In front of it stood a sign that read ‘in loving memory of (dog name)’.
“We aren’t done with it, but we can finish it in a couple of hours,” Wilbur mumbled into the microphone. 
“No, it’s perfect as it is. I don’t know what to say guys…”
“You don’t have to say anything, just know that we’re here for you.” Tommy said, his minecraft character walking over to your own and hitting you. 
“Oi, don’t hit them!” Techno punched him back and that started an all out brawl between the two. It quickly ended when Techno pulled out his fully enchanted netherite sword named ‘Orphan Obliterator’. 
“Get fucked, nerd.” You could just tell Tommy was holding in screaming at his brother. “I’m not the nerd here, you’re the one that reads for fun.” Tommy retorted. You heard shuffling on Techno’s end and him walking away from his PC. You were about to ask what was happening before you heard Tommy silently scream in terror. “Oh fuck he’s coming!” You assumed that Tommy ran to lock his door. Not long after that you heard a knock, “I just wanna talk.”
“No! You-”
“I just wanna talk.”
“Let him talk, Tommy!”
“NO WILBUR.”
You heard Philza’s groggy muffled voice, “it is midnight on a Friday. I don’t care what happens or who fights who, just do it in your own rooms and do it quietly.” 
“Sorry Dad,” you heard Techno’s retreating steps before he returned to his chair. “You’re a douche, Technoblade.” 
“I just wanted to talk, Tommy.” At that, Techno started beating Tommy to death once more. Each time he would kill Tommy, he would give Tommy a small head start before he would find him again. While this was happening, Wilbur PMed you ‘wanna prank Tommy and Techno? I’m thinking we put chickens under their houses’.
You looked at his player and nodded. You and Wilbur got to work luring chickens into holes you dug around their bases and burying them so that they were close enough to hear, but deep enough for it to be mildly inconvenient finding them. After you two were done with that, you met at spawn again.
“Techno stop killing Tommy. We want to tell stories about (dog name).” You saw Techno’s character sprint to your group and Tommy’s come up from a hole in the ground. “I was just about to find him.”
“Thank you! God, I hate it when he does that.”
The rest of the night you four spent reminiscing on the funny things that (dog name) did over the years. At some points you even laughed along with them. After you told them that you wanted to take your senior pictures with him, Techno offered to edit him into your photos. You didn’t know when you passed out but when you woke up, you had a crick in your neck and your PC monitor was off. You could hear three sets of soft snoring on the other end of the call. You felt yourself drifting off to their gentle breathing and smiled slightly; with them, everything felt better. 
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1engele · 3 years
Text
daybreak | sal fisher x fem!reader - 6. high
Previous | Next
[warnings: SMUT (it's female receiving oral), weed]
"i think of you in colors that don't exist." — Watching Sal shift repeatedly in his seat and squirm uncomfortably the entire way home is almost comical. You watch him shorten the distance between his thighs and then spread them over and over again as he drives, smiling to yourself.
"Doing okay over there?" You ask, a giggly lilt to your voice as you sit still in your spot.
The feeling between your legs is still buzzing and the engine rumbling your seat beneath you is a bit.. overstimulating.. but you're decent.
"Hmm," he hums in response, squinting your way. "Stop baiting at me," he teases.
When you pull into the parking lot at Addison's Apartments, the both of you remain seated for a silent moment, after Sal pulls the keys from the ignition. The high from moments ago has dulled down, and you're left to soak in what exactly had happened.
Except you don't. You don't even think about what had happened—you barely meet Sal's eyes, nervously grin and reach for the passenger door handle. "Alright, see you tomorrow, let me know what your dad says, text me, goodnight!"
Before the blue-haired boy even has a chance, you've opened the car door, hopped out, and gently shut it behind you. You weren't looking for him to catch up to you, either—so you ran like mad into the apartment complex and took the stairwell instead of waiting for the junky elevator.
When you'd gotten home, you were light on your feet and tiptoed through the living room towards your bedroom. You'd took note of Sal's earlier tactic (taking his shoes off before he entered the apartment) and mirrored it.
When you'd finally gotten to your room, you collapsed onto your bed, comforter beneath your back, and stared up at the ceiling.
Your mind was blank. You couldn't even mentally conjure the words to describe what had just happened.
As you ran the earlier events through your subconscious, you remembered the feeling of his teeth and mouth on the flesh of your neck—and how he'd sucked on it until it hurt. You jumped from your bed, ran (lightly) to your bathroom, turned the light on, and peered into the mirror.
You pushed your hair from your neck—which was stuck to your skin from sweat—and gasped in horror at what you saw.
Sure, they weren't fully formed and hadn't reached their full potential, but those were hickeys. Blood red, slightly purple, forming hickeys. And, from what you remember.. you'd attacked his neck worse than he had to you.
The boy was practically translucently pale. You burned with shame at yourself because of the purgatory you'd subjected him to. He'd have to hide them for a week.
You closed your mouth after hanging your jaw open for 30 minutes and breathed out slowly. Despite the nightmare they'd be to hide.. it was almost nice to see on you. Something of him was left behind. At least you had something to remind you that what had played out tonight occurred and hadn't been a dream, or something.
You pressed your fingers on the marks and winced. They were sore.
After a shower—a cold, icy shower—you retreated into bed. You were so exhausted, you didn't dream.
What felt like moments later—you knew better to say it was, though, because there was early morning light shining through your blinds—you were jostled awake by a cold hand on your shoulder. You groaned, turning to the person and squinting.
"Mom?" You slurred tiredly, taking in Michelle's dim silhouette looming over you. You almost couldn't tell who she was at first before you'd rationalized that the only person who'd be shaking you awake in this ungodly hour would be your mother. Also, you could tell by the work uniform she wore. "Wha'?"
And although you were half-awake, your mind was rational enough to remind you to pull the covers up and conceal the bruises on your neck, which you knew had probably worsened.
"The school called," her words are like a bite. You expected this, but hearing her confrontation is sort of scary. "Not only did you receive detention yesterday, but you skipped it. You're lucky you weren't suspended—I had to lie and blame family emergency for your disappearance."
You didn't say anything, staring up at her and into her eyes.
"I can't believe you. You'll still be attending detention—they've rescheduled it for today. If you pull a stunt like this again, you'll pay the price, got it?"
You couldn't remember the last time she'd scolded you. It's not like you did much to warrant it. You never had someone before recently to play hooky with—or to cheat answers off of in class. You never had friends before.
"Okay," you reply, breaking away from her eyes and looking anywhere else. Eventually, her dark gaze rips from your face and she leaves the room.
You watch your bedroom door that she'd closed behind her—listen to the muffled shuffling and jangling of keys in the living room, and when she finally shuts the front door, you breathe out a sigh of relief and roll over onto your back.
And you smile. Because it's funny. Because she has no idea what you did with a boy last night.
You reach beneath the covers and fish for your flip phone (which you'd started sleeping on, a habit spawned from paranoia) and open it. You know it's early, but you slept before receiving any texts, so maybe...
There's nothing. He hadn't messaged you.
Eventually, you roll back over and give yourself another hour or two of sleep. It's too early to start getting ready.
When you woke up again, you got ready—threw on a black halter top, along with an a-lined, purpley-blue plaid skirt. Slid your feet into over-the-knee black socks and rolled them up your legs and to just below your thighs. Topped it off with a chunky black shoe.
After that, you spent a moderate amount of time on your hair and a little on your face.
You made it a point to wear flavored lip gloss. For no particular reason.
The hickeys were still a bit visible, so you topped off your outfit with an oversized denim jacket. You didn't think that much about it. Whether or not that was a mistake would be decided later. There wasn't much you could do—you didn't own all of the makeup necessary to cover them.
You meet with Sal in the lobby first. You approach him before he's noticed that you're even there—standing with his eyes on his feet, kicking the ground and toeing at nothing.
"Hi," you breathed, unsure of yourself.
His head raises. When he meets your eyes, the light fixture over you flickers. "I can see them," Sal says, stepping closer to you and inclining his head to examine your jawline and below.
The actual is a bit abrupt—you're momentarily started. That is until you've processed what he'd said.
"Yeah," you agree, shrugging. He looks back up at your eyes, his gaze widening. "I can't do anything about it."
He laces a hand through his hair and genuinely looks panicked. That's when you decide to examine him—and his neck.
"Holy shit, Sal," you breathe, a laugh of pure disbelief slipping off of your tongue. "You look like someone choked you."
Sal groans. "Yeah, pretty sure you used teeth."
"What're you going to do about that?" You choose to disregard his prior statement.
"I have an easy way out. I'll claim Travis did it yesterday. Super suspicious because I wasn't bruised this way at the time.. but-"
You meet his eyes with a deadpanned expression. Internally, though—it's almost humorous.. the fact that neither of you are even questioning what you'd done together. But you knew that would bite you in the ass. You'd only done what you'd done once—maybe it shouldn't happen again.
"I don't know, Sal." You press your lips together, smooth the gloss around. You taste artificial cherry flavoring on your tongue. "They look like hickeys."
"No one is going to believe I've been given hickeys, Y/N."
"They'll believe it whenever they see we've got a matching set!" You exclaim, meeting his gaze warily. You struggle a bit. Before, it felt so easy to make eye contact with him—but now you could barely lock eyes without looking away.
"Matching set?"
You jerk, breaking your staring contest with the floor and sliding your eyes upward. Larry was a few feet away, speedily approaching as his long legs closed the distance. Quickly, you split your hair in the back—separating it into two sections and placing one on either side of your face.
You watched Sal mess with his in the corner of your eye.
Nervousness made your heart drop what felt like ten stories when Sal spoke in reply. "Hey, Larry," he says. "Is Ashley driving again?"
"Uh, yeah," He replied, running lanky fingers through his lengthy brown hair. "'Was thinking we could all do something after school."
You hold your breath.
"Oh," Sal takes a moment to swallow thickly. "Y/N and I are doing detention—so we can't."
Larry's dark brows draw downward, casting a shadow over his deep eyes. He glances over at you, examines your face, and then locks eyes with Sal like he had been moments before. "Again? Didn't you guys do that yesterday?"
You decide to give your response this time. "Must've been a misunderstanding. We did go to it yesterday—we just, um.. have to do it again. Today."
Before he can further question the situation, you all hear the beeping of a car horn outside of the complex. It sounds familiar—it's Ashley's car. You all step outside.
Looking at the pale silver Ford Fiesta leaves you with mixed feelings. It's nice to look at—but now it just reminds you of the fact Larry tried to get into an altercation with Sal inside of it.
This time, Todd is in the back seat by himself. It's almost comical. You raise an eyebrow and look towards Ashley in the driver's seat. She rolls her window down and acknowledges you with striking green eyes.
"Shotgun?"
You almost feel bad for leaving Sal in the backseat, knowing he's probably on edge with those marks on his neck. But you can't help yourself as you run around to the other side of the vehicle and climb into the passenger seat beside Ashley.
"It smells great in here, Ash. I forgot to tell you that last time," you smile as you breathe in the familiar strawberry scent.
"Thank you!" She grins. "Yeah, I really like these car fresheners."
The guys get into the back seat—Sal's in the middle, having climbed in first, to Todd's left, and Larry entering last.
Once the doors are shut and all hands and feet are inside of the car, Ashley shifts gears and gets going. She looks to you, then throws a look over her shoulder toward Sal. "How was detention, troublemakers?"
Your eyebrows furrow, about of stupidity washing over you. Even having discussed this with Larry and Sal only moments ago, you've completely forgotten that they thought you'd attended detention.
"Huh-"
"It was great," Sal cuts in. "We sat for hours and did nothing. A lot of fun."
You come to realization quickly, and look up to meet Sal's eyes in the rearview mirror. He's shaking his head in lighthearted disappointment—a glint of amusement in his blue gaze.
"Yeah," your laugh trails off. "Sal couldn't sit still. It was funny."
You smirk deviously. That was an obvious reference to last night, on the way back to the apartments.
He meets your eyes once again in the mirror in front of you. "Don't bait at me," he warns, but you hear his grin. That's what he'd said when you'd laughed at him last night.
You smirked, shifting in your seat. You smelled cigarette smoke and guessed Larry was smoking again. It doesn't smell regular, though—smells a bit grassy.
"You're fogging up the car, Larry! It'll be your fault if we crash!" Ashley confirms your suspicions as she yells over the sound of rushing wind. He's rolled down the window—it fails to eliminate the smell but clears your line of sight.
"Sorry," he grins around a cigarette. It was nice to see him in a better mood.
"Have any of you decided on the plans for after school?" Todd speaks up for the first time day, absentmindedly fiddling with his flip phone. It's not any of your business, but you wonder who he's texting. Every time you see him, he's playing with his phone.
Larry laughs, pulling the cigarette away from his lips. "No. Thought Sal or Y/N would have some ideas, but they can't even go. They've got detention again."
Ashley looks toward you, awaiting your confirmation.
"We always had detention again. It was a miscommunication.." you trailed off, telling a lie. They didn't know that, though.
You watch Sal fiddle with his rings in the rearview mirror. "It's my fault, really."
You're not sure exactly what he means. He could be talking about the reason you'd even been given detention (attempting to share quiz answers) or maybe he was talking about the fact you'd even ditched detention—because he'd proposed it.
You disliked how easy he was to blame himself. You'd agreed to it.
And it wasn't something you found yourself regretting—not only had you received the pleasure of grinding Sal into oblivion in the driver's seat, but you'd came while you were at it.
Something you did regret, though... was doing that while you were so unsure of yourself—and what exactly it was that he wanted from you.
Not only that, but what did you want from him?
What was this?
"No, not really," you replied, after momentarily zoning out. "I agreed to it—to you... um- giving me those answers, Sal."
You hear his rings clack, keeping your eyes on the road, and on the broken white lines in the middle of the asphalt that pass beneath the car. You assume he's pressed his hands together harshly. "Yeah, well, it wouldn't have happened if I hadn't proposed it."
This conversation wasn't really about test answers, was it?
You hear the crackle of a cigarette. No one else seems to assume anything about the conversation—just two people who refuse to blame the other person.
"The only thing I care about is the fact that you have to deal with the repercussions, Sal. I wouldn't care if it was just me having to do detention."
That shuts him up. He doesn't say anything after that.
"It's okay." You say, one last time.
After that (thank god) Ashley reaches towards the radio and turns to a channel. Heavy metal plays through the speakers—not too loud, though—and although it's a bit unsettling considering your mood, the distraction is welcome.
As soon as you've stepped out of the car in the school's parking lot, you regret the fact you hadn't worn a heavier jacket. The denim jacket is oversized, yes—but it's lightweight and breathable and you can feel the autumn wind fluttering against your skin.
Goosebumps rise on your arms. You involuntarily shiver.
You, Todd, Larry, Sal, and Ashley begin the walk inside of the school. You still smell smoke, and a glance to your left confirms that Larry is still smoking that cigarette.
"A teacher will see," you warn lightly.
"Eh, it'll be alright." He looks at you inquisitively and raises it toward you. When you meet his eyes, they're bloodshot. Your lips part in surprise.
"Are you... high?" Your gaze flickers to the cigarette again. Turns out, it's a joint. Larry is smoking weed. Figures.
He doesn't answer the question. It's not like he has to. Instead, he raises it toward you again, quirking an eyebrow questioningly.
You swallow the thick saliva that had begun to pool in your mouth and look toward the rest of the gang as they continue on.
"Why are you looking over there?" Larry calls you back from your reverie. You look up to meet his blown pupils again. "You don't need anyone's permission. If you want to smoke it, smoke it."
You bit your lip, raising a hand. Your digits twitched as you reached to pluck it from him. As you took the blunt away from his grip, and your fingers brushed, his eyebrows twitched upward.
Nervously, you inhale like you'd done with the cigarette. You don't feel it enter your lungs until you've ripped it away from your lips. You don't want this to go like the first time you'd ever smoked, so you hold it in. Those few moments feel like forever—but eventually, you cough, and allow yourself that relief.
You don't feel high, per se. You've only just smoked it, but it was a big draw, and you're already feeling the effects of lightheadedness.
Your head spins as you absentmindedly drag from it again. You don't realize how long you've been inhaling until lanky fingers have grabbed the blunt from you and pulled it away.
You blink slowly, looking up to Larry in confusion.
"Holy shit," his red eyes widen, before laughing comically. You find yourself giggling as well, experiencing a high that wasn't from weed—but from the rush of trying something forbidden and new.
"You're going to be so fucking high," he laughs again, passing a hand through his hair and looking down to the blunt. "It's... gone."
You can't even remember how long you'd been smoking that shit. How long had you been walking? How far back had Ashley parked?
Conveniently, as he examines the used-up joint, you pass by a green trash bin. He opens the lid and throws the useless blunt inside of it.
A few moments pass as you step onto the concrete leading up to the school. You vaguely feel Larry's large hand gripping your shoulder to steady you. Even though you felt a bit woozy, you remember to keep your hair in place, covering the hickeys Sal had left on your skin.
When you've stepped into the halls, the amount of people walking all around and bumping into you feels a bit overstimulating.
You hoist your bag tighter over your shoulder and follow after your friends. You feel Larry's arm bump into yours every so often, reminding you of his presence.
When you reach your locker, you put your books away, arranging them accordingly, etc. Once you've shut the locker door, hard enough for the cage to rattle—you sort of.. just- stand there. It feels like your consciousness is somewhere completely different, and yet all of this noise feels like too much.
Your heart is beating way too fast and it hurt to stand up straight.
It didn't feel bad—but you'd certainly rather snort salt and pepper than have to function an entire school day like this. You felt way too floaty, like everything was swaying—you honestly couldn't deter up from down.
You don't know where the rest of the gang is, and you're too high to care. You wander down the hall, and continue like that, even when the bell rings and everyone steadily begins to file off and into their respective classes.
Desperate to be alone, and sitting down somewhere, you find a door. It looks like the door handle is growing dust, and there are no signs or labeling on the wood. So you turn the handle and try your luck.
Of course, it's locked. Why else would a school keep an unused room unlocked?
You dig into the denim compartments of your large denim jacket, blinking away the blear in your eyes as you search between the seams at the pit of your pockets. Eventually, you find a stray bobby-pin. Breathing out a sigh of relief, you stick it into the keyhole and wiggle and force it accordingly.
There were multiple reasons you knew how to do this. Your mother used to accidentally lock you out of your previous flats. It wasn't a hobby you'd picked up—it was something you were required to learn. At least, so you wouldn't have to sleep in the hallway at night.
The door eventually gives. When you've entered, you find yourself in a storage room. It makes sense. All of the junk was stored here.
Still high as shit, and becoming a bit nauseous, you close the door behind you. That shuts out any light, and you feel a chill roll over your skin. You couldn't see shit.
You make haste as you reach into your pocket again and rip your flip phone out. You pop it open, and soon enough, your eyebrows raise in surprise. The messages are a bit unclear, but they're visible once you focus.
Sal :) Missed Call (2)
Sal :) where r you?
Sal :) i'm looking for you. class is about to start
Sal :) larry's gone too. you're with him?
Before you type out a reply, you use the phone's light to search the room for a light source of some kind. Eventually, you find a shaded lamp. You feel around for a cord, and once you've found it, you pull a bit. Thankfully, it's already plugged in.. somewhere.
You return your fingers to the lamp itself and turn it on. Soft yellow light fills the dusty room, and you sigh in relief.
You try to disregard the floating dust particles, and sink to the ground, pressing your back against a wide, wooden desk. As you adjust on the floor, the cold tile momentarily presses against your bare thighs. You breathe in sharply, allowing yourself a moment before going to reply to Sal.
You are you in class?
Sal :) No
Sal :) where are you?
You i'm not with Larry. m alone. DK where he is
Sal :) sure he's skipped to smoke. where are you
You allowed yourself to look around the dimly lit room before replying. You swore you felt the dust sticking to your skin, and the skirt hugging your lower half felt too tight.
You shakily breathed in, and then breathed out. You repeated this process, shaky fingers gripping the phone tightly.
You bobby-pinned my way into some storage room i'm sitting on the floor so high rn lol
Sal :) i know where that is. coming rn . it's at the end of a hall, right?
Sal :) what did you smoke?
You blinked slowly, wiggling your thighs back and forth.
You you're correct.
You smoked weed
Before you could comprehend what was even happening, the door directly in front of you had opened. You blinked as white light constricted your pupils before they returned to their expanded state as the silhouette closed the door. While he did that, you reached up to the desk, slid a drawer open, and placed your phone inside of it.
You could've just put it in your pocket. You didn't know why you didn't.
He sunk to the floor in front of you, sitting criss-cross applesauce. His shoes were a breath from yours as you hugged your bare knees tightly. Your lazy eyes followed his movements as he clasped his hands around his ankles. He seemed to be watching your eyes—because when you looked up to make eye contact, he'd already been looking.
"Can barely tell what your eye color is," Sal says nervously. "Your pupils are blown."
"Is' just the dark," you chide softly. "I'm fine. My heart's just beating really fast."
"How much did you smoke?" He asks, his blue eyes—ever vibrant, even in this dingy lighting—searching your face. "Larry gave it to you, right? Jesus.."
You genuinely think about it. It seems you think about it too hard because the room began to rotate.
Maybe that wasn't just the high. You'd fallen onto your side. Luckily, you'd been sitting already—so it was a gentle collide with the cold tile. It felt nice against your cheek. You closed your eyes and watched the floating colors and shapes that look like nerves flash across the backs of your eyelids.
You fully press your side against the floor snuggling into it like it's the softest blanket you've ever slept with.
"Hot," you breathe. "Get this jacket off."
Soon enough, you feel purposeful hands sliding the denim off of your arms. It takes effort to get it off of the arm beneath you, but Sal manages. He balls the jacket up and slides it beneath your head. When your cheek meets the cool denim, you feel at total peace.
"Better," you open your eyes. He's watching your face. You can tell he's concerned, but there's something in his gaze—a look that tells you that he knows he's got this handled. He was confident in himself to take care of you.
He's probably experienced this before.
You roll onto your back, holding your eyes open to look up at the ceiling. Your eyelashes ghost your eyebrows as your imagination forms clouds in the shapes of the floating things you see.
Your skirt rides up your thighs a bit. You don't pay attention to it until you feel Sal's ring-clad fingers gently fixing it for you. You look at his face and smile.
"We need to do it again," you mumble. You don't feel the sickness of the high anymore—only complete clarity.
"Do what?" He asks, curiosity lilting his words.
"What we did in the car."
After those words roll off of your tongue, all that meets you is the intaking of breath. It's so quiet in this storage room that you can hear him licking his lips. You hear shuffling, the clacking of rings, and your breath—and for a moment, you believe he won't say anything back to you.
"I," he starts, swallowing hard. "You.. when do you.."
"How about now?"
You grin, meeting his eyes. He blinks a few times.
"Y/N, I-" he cuts himself off with a breathy laugh. You don't know if he feels nervous—or he just genuinely cannot believe this is happening. You wouldn't blame him, because you can't process it, either.
It's the weed boosting your confidence like this.
Then and again, you'd been confident with him during your first sexual encounter. Maybe the high just amplified that.
"As much as I'd like to," he starts, voice tight, "I don't know how well walking around the rest of the day having... uh— would go. I know it'll happen. We've got detention to sit in, too."
You pouted sadly but accepted it. He didn't want to, and that was fine.
"But, I, um.." his eyes flickered across your face. "I could go down on you."
The words surprised you so much you jerked upward and into an upright position. Your shock had also made you a dumbass, it seemed, as well—because you smacked your head straight into the wooden drawer you'd left open, which you'd put your phone in not even a few minutes ago.
"Ow," you winced, hand reaching up to rub the sore spot.
"Holy shit," Sal says, now closer to you. He closed the drawer (something you should have done way earlier) and blinked down at you. "Are you okay?"
"Yes," you breathed, meeting his gaze. "You'd.."
His eyes shifted to the left momentarily. "Yeah. If you don't want me to, that's fine. Your decision. I mean, I have no experience, besides things I've heard before."
You felt a bit giggly all of sudden. Your forehead was pulsing but it was fine. "I can always teach you. I mean, I've never had someone go down on me but I know what feels good."
Sal's demeanor seems a bit nervous as he glances around the storage room. "You want this to happen in here?"
You let out an abrupt laugh, holding your upper body weight on your elbows and arms. "Yes."
He chuckles along with you. "Alright."
Once again, you thank whatever intuition it is you have for swaying you into choosing to wear a skirt again today. You feel Sal's eyes burning holes into your skin as you grip the hem of your skirt and pull the material of your skirt higher on your thighs until it's bunched up at your hips.
His eyes—which, moments ago, were so blue and clear—had now grown a bit darker and looked as though a shadow had been cast over their pretty sheen.
"Did you lock the door when you came in?" You breathed, the ache between your thighs painful as he stares you down.
"I don't think it locks from the inside. We'll have to make it quick."
You're heart's never beat this fast before. And it keeps crashing against your ribs when he slides his fingers up your legs. He pulls your knees away from each other, and shifts so he's a bit farther between your legs.
You watch him slide every silver ring off of his digits, collecting them in a palm and sliding them onto the wooden surface of the desk beside him.
Your blood pumps in your ears so loud you feel like your brain is going to explode. That is, until you feel the pressure of the pads of his fingers right between your thighs, over the fabric that separated his fingertips from the burning heat there. Every other sense diminishes as your entire body focuses on what you'd just felt.
You instinctively gasped, never having been touched so intimately before.
You can tell he's shocked, barely having to glance at his face. You know he's nervous, but you don't believe he has reason to be.
"You're.."
"Wet?" You finish the sentence for him shyly, feeling completely dirty about insinuating something like that out loud. "The fabric is thin, but.."
"I haven't even done anything," he murmurs.
"Yes, you have," you reply, giggling quietly through your chest. "You're torturing me. Get on with it."
His hands shake as he reaches his hands behind his head and unclasps the buckles that hold the prosthetic onto his face. Before you can even take him in, he's turned the lamp above you off.
It's completely dark in the room.
"Can I.."
You know what he means when his hands brush the sides of your thighs. "Yes," you reply, instantly.
Sal hesitates. "Are you sure?"
You smile to yourself. "I am. Are you?"
"Absolutely," he mumbles, hooking his thumbs around the lace of your underwear and pulling it down your legs. You can't hear your heart anymore, thank god—you can only feel it. It beats unmercifully against your ribs as he daintily finishes sliding the fabric off of your body.
Sal barely moves after that. You guess he's put your panties in his pocket.
Before you know it, he's flattened the tip of his middle finger on the place between your legs. You shakily sigh as he barely dips a finger into the place your dampness had collected. He then slides his digit upward, spreading the wetness up and through your slit.
You know what he's doing—preparing you for what's to come—but you can't help it when his touch ghosts your clit. It takes a lot of self-control not to clamp your thighs around his hand—so you hold yourself back with a whine.
Sal stops when you make the sound, but his touch remains. "There?" He asks lowly—like now you're more at risk at being caught. There's no way, though. When you'd picked the lock, the doorknob seemed like it hadn't been used in forever.
"Yes," you whisper, barely lifting your hips to press into his hand. He uses more fingers this time—passing them through your wetness again. Eventually, he makes it back to that bundle of nerves, and gently circles it. You feel your gut tumble as he presses on it just eight.
"God, please," you sigh, settling on your back and raising a hand to grip at your hair. "Sal, I want-"
"Okay," he murmurs. You hear shuffling, feel him move. You know he's lower when his hair tickles the flesh between your thighs.
His breath fans over the apex of your thighs. You'd expect breath of this proximity to be hot—but it's cold and feels minty. It makes sense. That's how he smells—and whenever you'd kissed him last night, that's how he'd tasted.
What broke you from your musing was the feeling of his warm tongue flat on your sex. You throw your head back, dropping your jaw. You'd been waiting this whole time for that feeling—and now you'd gotten it.
Your skull feels like it's rattling (you had just thrown your head back and into the hard flooring) but you disregard that and focus on everything else.
"F-fuck," you stutter, as he rolls his tongue up and over your clit. You knew his memory was basically photographic—but you didn't realize he'd be able to find that spot every time.
He flicks his tongue over your clit in a way he hadn't been like he was experimenting. And it worked because you'd cried out and reached between your thighs to grip his blue hair.
He pulls away from your sex, exhales cool air onto the junction of your thighs and pants. "Gonna need to be quiet," he reminds you, his voice thick.
"I'm sorry," you swallow, before feeling him duck back down.
You shiver in anticipation as his mouth closes over the slope of your inner thigh, sucking onto your skin. You whine as he nibbles your flesh, barely closing his teeth over it before pulling away and returning to what he'd left.
Your spine arches off of the painfully hard floor as he closes his lips over your cunt again, flattening his tongue again and rolls it upward and back into his mouth.
It's not like he has a technique—he's just reacting to your reactions.
Your eyes are watery and fill with tears as you close them too tightly. Your fingers interlace with his hair, gripping close to his scalp and pulling just a bit. He hums in acknowledgment against your clit, and you feel that coil that had been steadily tightening in your gut began to tighten excruciatingly.
"Close," you breathe. "Please. Gonna cum."
Surely enough, he smiles into you, passes his tongue through your slit one last time before flicking it over your clit, and with purpose. He feels your legs spasm against his shoulders, so he flattens his tongue over the bundle of nerves.
That's when that coil in the deepest pit of your stomach unraveled.
"I'm coming," you whined. The feeling stuttered, you felt like you were teetering off of a cliff before it finally crashed over your body and through you harder than anything you've ever felt before.
He rode you through your orgasm—and it was hard not to clamp your thighs around his head.
"Fuck," your legs twitched as you came down, sighing as he pulled away from your sex. He panted, taking in the air quickly, before reaching up and turning the lamp on.
You met his eyes, pressing your thighs together as they shook.
"Oh my god," you exhaled, allowing yourself to soak in your shock. You watched him lick his lips before passing the back of his hand over them.
Sal seemed a bit lost for words himself. "Was that- um.."
You sat up—hiking your skirt back down with one hand while catching him by the nape of the neck with the other. You captured his mouth with yours, kissing him with fervor and want and appreciation. It took less than a second for him to reciprocate.
You didn't care if you could taste yourself on his tongue—it didn't matter much. It wasn't even bad, thank god.
After passing your tongue over his lip, you pulled away, eyes wide with shock. "I should.."
"I know what you're going to say," he cut you off, reaching into his back pocket with a smile. He hands you his underwear, and you close it in your fist. "And I'm alright. We've spent way too much time in here, anyway."
Your knee accidentally nudges between his thighs. Of course, he's hard. He was a teenage boy and he'd just made a girl come in a dingy old classroom at school during class. You felt bad.
"Another time." It's not a question. You're promising it to him.
"I.. okay." He murmurs, nervous in a way he hadn't been when he'd been eating you out moments before.
You watch him slide his rings back on, buckle his prosthetic back onto his face—and pretend not to notice how he adjusts himself as he stands up. You slide your denim jacket back on, slide your panties up your legs, and move to stand. You nearly fall back down when your legs spasm.
"Are you okay?" He asks, concern dripping off of his low voice.
"Fine. A little shaky," you breathe, gripping his arms and rising to your feet. You let go of him a few beats later and move toward the door. You forget your phone, but Sal grabs it for you and slides it into your pocket.
And as the both of you go to leave, you think about how the rest of the day will play out.
240 notes · View notes
so-writing · 3 years
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Sugar, Honey, Ice and Tea- Matthew Tkachuk (20)
all parts here
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“It’s about fucking time!” 
“Holy shit, he finally did it!” 
“Go, Chucky, get your girl!”
The shouts from the team when they saw the two of you together were as loud as ever and everyone seemed to be celebrating.
“We’re still just friends,” you reminded Matthew and removed his arms from your waist.
“I know,” he shouted after you as you quickly skated away from him.
“So shut your friends up!”
You’d just told yourself that it didn’t matter what the team and their families thought but seeing them, and hearing them cheer on whatever was happening with you and Matthew had you trying to put as much space between the two of you as possible. 
It was easy to think about the two of you when you were alone in a hotel room with one bed, or were in only ones in the hallway at work, or anywhere else where it was just you and him but letting everyone else in wasn’t something you were ready for. You weren’t sure you would ever be ready for it, because it would mean actually letting your guard down. Not just with Matthew, but with everyone around the both of you and thought of doing so wasn’t something you could see yourself doing anytime soon.
You could never picture a time in your life where it was acceptable for Matthew Tkachuk to wrap his arms around you or pull you into a kiss with his teammates and your bosses surrounding you and easily supporting it like it was nothing. 
 The room was starting to get hot and your skates were bothering you. Scanning the wood rink, you found Matthew at the other end fucking around with a few of the guys.  His team, his friends were here now. That meant you probably didn’t need to be, and you doubted he’d notice if you slipped out and took an Uber home. 
*
“Have you seen the girl I came in with, before everybody else got here?”
Matthew had gotten a little too caught up in spending some off time with the guys that he kind of abandoned her. He hoped she was off somewhere socializing with someone else and wouldn’t be be bothered. After checking the entire place and speaking to a bunch of people who claimed they hadn’t seen her in a while, he found himself talking to the girl behind the skate rental counter. 
“She left, turned in her skates like twenty-five minutes ago.”
“What? Did she happen to say why?”
“Nope, just gave back her skates, told me to have a good day and headed out.”
His head was spinning and his feelings were more than a little hurt. They were having fun before everyone else arrived, at least he thought so. What had changed?
“You good, man?”
“Yeah, thank you.”
Matthew replaced his skates with his shoes and set them underneath the table. He couldn’t just leave what was supposed to be a team event, but he needed to know what happened and stepped outside to make the phone call.
Her phone rang twice before she answered. 
“Hello?”
“Uh, hi. What the fuck?”
It came out angrier than intended but fine, maybe he was a little angry. 
“What?”
“You just bailed on me. Why?”
“I just assumed now that everyone was there you’d want to spend time with them. You rarely get to do fun stuff like this with them so I just figured..”
“I get to skate with them everyday. It’s literally my job. I wanted to spend time with you,” he paused for a second to recover, “as friends, obviously.”
At least the first part was true. 
“Oh.”
Oh? That was all she had to say?
“Well, I need to get back inside so I guess I’ll just see you when I see you.” 
“Ok,” he was too irritated and hurt to notice that her voice had gone just a little bit softer. 
*
Matthew ended the call without saying goodbye and you knew you fucked up. He hadn’t been paying much attention to you though, and he looked like he was having so much fun, and maybe you were a little scared that people would get the wrong idea if you hung around him the entire time. 
That’s what friends did though, right? Spent time together? You knew you couldn’t go back to the rollerskating rink and face him, but you knew you couldn’t leave things the way they were. 
His phone went to voicemail after the normal amount of ringing, which you figured would happen. He definitely wasn’t going to be waiting around for you to get in touch with him after ditching the hangout. 
“Look Matt,” you went casual hoping it would soften him a bit, “I’m really sorry I left. I honestly didn’t think you’d be mad but clearly I was wrong. If I’m being honest, this thing happening between us is the most confusing relationship, if you can even call it that, that I’ve ever had and I’m having a really hard time navigating it. Again, I’m sorry for ditching you. I guess I’ll see you at work. I hope you still have fun today.”
++
You were pretty deep into the second season of “The Circle” and a ten piece spicy nuggets from Wendy’s when your phone vibrated. It was a text from Matthew and you were scared to read it. 
So you decided not to, not yet anyway. Hopping off the couch, you headed into the kitchen and poured yourself a considerable glass of wine and downed it like it was a shot of tequila, and then you did it a second time. After that, you grabbed the barely touched bottle of tequila from your cabinet and poured yourself a shot, tossing it back with no chaser. 
It was too much at once but you got comfortably tipsy pretty quickly and decided that it was time to open his message. 
Get out of your fucking head and just hang out with me. We’re trying to be friends, not work out how to handle an arranged marriage. I’ll be home tonight, head up if you want
If he was offering, who were you not to take him up on it?
*
Someone was pounding entirely too aggressively on Matthew’s door and he had an idea of who it might be.
“Jesus, I have neighbors!” 
Matthew pulled her into his apartment and shut the door behind them. He noticed her slightly glazed eyes and the silly smile on her lips, “why are you only cool with me when you’re drunk?”
“I’m not drunk,” she defended, “just nicely tipsy.”
“Come on,” he lead her into the kitchen and thrust a bottle of water into her hands, “drink this.”
“Fine,” she huffed but did it anyway and he couldn’t deny how cute he thought that was. 
She downed the water and seemed to be a little more stable but he wasn’t sure.
“You want to come watch TV with me?”
“Depends, what are you watching?” 
“The Circle.”
“Which season?!” 
She lit up at his response and fuck, that was fucking adorable too.
“Second season, you watch it?”
“Yes! I’m on the tenth episode!”
“I’m only on the second, do you mind watching stuff you’ve already seen?”
“Not at all, I love this show!”
She fell asleep with her head on his chest within twenty minutes and he didn’t dare try and move her so he continued watching the episodes in the same position and finally let himself fall asleep when Netflix asked if he was ‘still watching?’
*
You woke up on a couch you didn’t recognize with your head on a chest you weren’t familiar with. It wasn’t until you stretched your arms and your hand slid into a mess of curls that you realized where you were. 
“Fuck,” his voice was heavy with sleep, “you’re going to have to fuck me if you want to pull my hair like that.”
“Shit,” he was up quickly and practically shoving you off of him, “I didn’t mean that.”
“Jesus, Matthew,” you chuckled at the expression on his face and stood up from the couch to stretch, “this is the worst couch I’ve ever slept on. I thought you had money?” 
“Shut up.”
He ran a hand through his curls as he stood up and you couldn’t stop yourself from watching. Matthew was only dressed in a pair of basketball shorts that hung low on his hips. You counted his abs and wished you had been sober when you slept on them because then you could have truly appreciated them. 
“Eyes on mine,” a smug smile sat on his lips, “you’ve had plenty of looks, no more until you’re willing to return the favor.” 
Matthew Tkachuk was an irritating, annoying pest and an overall pain the fucking ass but he was lovely to look at and you’d always known it. If he could be a scandalous flirt, so could you.
“I could say the same to you. Your eyes have been below my neck since we got up and I think it has something to do with the tank top and shorts I’m wearing.”
He was standing in front of you now, his chest less than an inch from yours and the sexual tension radiating off the two of you was strong enough to cut diamond. 
“I’m looking respectfully,” he commented, “I respect the fact that you are beautiful and that I don’t just want to be your friend. I, respectfully, want so much more than that.” 
There it was fucking was. Matthew didn’t want to be your friend, and you didn’t want to be his either. 
“I’m going to, respectfully, tell you that I don’t want to be your friend either. Also, respectfully, I’d like you to ruin me, Matthew Tkachuk.”
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mshomestyle · 4 years
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[MHA] Reader x Multiple Characters: Looks like You made Headlines Part II
Yes, most of the same characters as last time. I like writing for them too much. T^T
(Midoriya, Hawks, Shinsou, and Bakugo)
Midoriya:
You put a hand on your abdomen, feeling incredibly bad cramps coursing through the area. You whined a bit and wiggled around on the bed, trying to find a comfortable position.
“You okay?” Izuku asked. He was laying right next to you as you both tried to sleep. You shook your head.
“I feel so awful and sick and blegh,” you told him. Izuku rose an eyebrow, and then like clockwork his entire face turned red. He then shot out the bed.
“Oh! I’ll go to a drug store right now!” He hurried and got ready as you just watched, feeling incredibly impressed that he would go out of his way to get you something for your cramps.
As Izuku hurried out the door, you turned the TV on, knowing that you weren’t going to be getting sleep any time soon. About an hour passed and you decided to catch the late night hero news.
“...And everyone was saved, thanks to the efforts of all of those involved,” the reporter was finishing up a story about a derailed train, “In other news, a civilian was lucky enough to catch a video of Deku at a drug store.” The caption at the bottom of the screen read:
Pro Hero Deku Buys Pregnancy test for Wife!
“What?!” you exclaimed as if you would get a response. The TV then cut to a clip of Izuku standing at a counter, talking to the clerk.
“Which one is the most accurate?” he asked, voice sounding a bit shaky, “You know what, just give me one of each kind!” Seeing that, you put a hand on your face and groaned.
“No...No, Izuku, no.” You knew that your supposed pregnancy would be across headlines everywhere now.
Hawks:
“I just want to go to sleep now,” you mused as Keigo unzipped your dress. Since he was always so busy, it was rare that the two of you could go out on dates or do anything romantic, so you seized that opportunity whenever you could.
“Go to sleep? Or go to bed~?” Keigo asked with a slight chuckle. You huffed a bit before stepping out of your dress after it fell to the floor.
“Don’t forget, you were the one who wanted desert before dinner,” you nudged him before heading into the bathroom, “Gotta live with your choices, bud.”
So, you both spent a nice night cuddling and sleeping. The next day, Keigo went off to work, while you had a bit of time before you had to leave. You just relaxed in bed scrolling through your phone until you came across something that made you scoff. It was a video titled:
Pro Hero Hawks and his Wife going a little too far with the PDA at a restaurant
You could not help but to click on it.
The first thing you noticed was that the video was taken at the restaurant that you and Keigo ate at last night. The place had been dimly lit and the angle being recorded from showed the top of Keigo’s wings and the edge of your dress. That was not the issue. No not at all. The sound, in fact, was.
“Oh, right there...Yeah, that feels so good...” You felt your face heat up immensely! You remembered that last night, Keigo massaged at your neck and shoulders, but that had been it. You would never have sex out in the open like that! Immediately, you sent the link to Keigo, feeling very anxious about what his response would be.
‘Yeah, I saw that. Anyway, want to order food tonight?’
Shinsou:
Two in the morning was incredibly late for most people, but for heroes like Shinsou, it was break time. You sat down across from him in a booth at a 24 hour diner, drinking coffee and having pancakes.
“You really should sleep more,” you teased. Shinsou rolled his eyes playfully before resting his head on his hand.
“Between having a relationship with you and being a hero, I don’t think that’ll ever happen,” he said.
“Oh, ha ha,” you responded, “You’d be so lucky to have more of my time.”
“More? You’re always so demanding,” Shinsou teased. You puffed out a cheek in annoyance as he reached over and rubbed at your head. You spent what time you could together before going your separate ways.
After sleeping in all day the next day, you woke up to a message that Shinsou had sent you. ‘See, even click-baiters think you’re high maintenance.’ You raised an eyebrow before clicking on the link.
Pro Hero Shinsou’s girlfriend Monopolizes his time!
The two were seen last night at a diner where a very peculiar albeit slightly disturbing conversation was heard. It appeared as if, instead of wanting Shinsou out and fighting villains, his girlfriend could care less and would rather...
You didn’t even want to continue reading that.
Bakugo:
You had been working for Bakugo for a few months before the two of you started dating. Currently, you were both doing some grocery shopping as Bakugo had told you earlier that he was going to cook some Mapo Tofu for dinner, causing you to impose a bit.
“Oh, come on, admit it,” you giggled, “You definitely checked me out when you hired me.” Bakugo growled in annoyance, tossing some spices in the shopping cart.
“I’m not some sleaze who’d hire a girl just because I thought she was hot,” he grumbled. You weren’t going to let up, though.
“Come on, admit it,” you smirked, poking at one of his cheeks. Bakugo whacked your hand away before grabbing onto the basket and starting to push it to the next isle.
“Hmph...Fine...I did think you were pretty cute,” he grumbled.
“Haha, I knew it! You though I was hot when you hired me~,” you sung out. If only you had been quieter. News traveled fast; it sure did.
Pro Hero Bakugo only hired his new Sidekick in order to date her!
Today we find out something utterly shocking. Several people reported to hearing a horrid conversation between Bakugo and his new sidekick turned girlfriend. Apparently the pro hero is a big sleaze bag! It was reported that he only hired his new sidekick [Hero Name] because he was attracted to her and wanted to date her.
Needless to say when Bakugo got wind of the article, he was furious. He refused to go on any patrols or missions with you for about a month, not wanting others to see you working together. You wouldn’t lie, though, you found this mini tantrum of his over some gossip article to be pretty funny.
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parkers-gal · 4 years
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hey honey! how are you doing?
i was wondering if you could write something where the reader is either tom or harrison’s sister, around 19-20 years old, and she hears her brother talking bad about her behind her back and she gets distant towards them and her brother realizes how much he’s missing out on (her first boyfriend and stuff like that)
sorry if it’s long or if you don’t wanna write it lol it was just an idea!!
don’t be sorry! i loved this! also doing pretty good :-)
i didn’t really understand what was in the ending parentheticals so i hope this is what you wanted!
wc: 1.7k
Being the established girl in a group of four boys meant a lot of things. Often, you were confused as a girlfriend to whichever boy you were accompanying, aside from your brother, of course. There was a lot of territory that came with being close family-friends with the Holland family. Especially since your brother used to be Tom’s assistant. It was expected, though, because they had been close friends growing up, especially since being in the same grade. 
You were younger, which meant you were in between ages for the twins and Paddy. You didn’t consider yourself too young for them, though, and found yourself in the presence of the boys for most of your time. 
Today, however, you were with your friend Aisha, walking around the shops. She had to leave unexpectedly early, so you parted ways. You came into the house quietly, setting a few things as you silently made your way into the kitchen. It wasn’t actually your house, but you practically spent all of your time there anyways. You heard voices coming from the den. Though you knew it was wrong, you halted in announcing your arrival, choosing to listen in on what they seemed to be joking around about. 
“Finally got ‘er off your back, huh mate?” You heard Tom’s voice, followed with joined laughter from everyone else. Your mind wandered, thinking maybe Harrison had a girl he was interested in, though he never brought that up, so you stayed quiet to hear more. 
“Yeah. Out with Aisha or whatever.”
Your eyes widened as the realization dawned on you. You purse your lips and think not to assume anything just yet. 
“That her only her friend?”
“Honestly,” Harrison laughs in agreement. “Mum said to be a good older brother but I’m tired of playing babysitter.” They all laugh again and you will yourself not to burst into anger — or worse: cry. “She’s gotta grow up or something.”
“Mate.” Tom snickers. “She needs a life. The boys are a tight circle; can’t let no baby sister in on that.”
“Yeah,” Harry’s voice pops in. “Who else would we spill disgusting secrets to?” They laugh seemingly in universal knowledge. 
“Anyways,” Tom settles down. “Good thing we finally got the superior Osterfield alone, for once.”
You abandon your station near the kitchen door and speed walk out the other swing door. You pick your bags up quietly, making for a quick escape as your tears attempt the same. You’re almost done putting your shoes on when Sam comes down the stairs, brows furrowed while he wipes his damp hands on the front of the shirt. You curse in realizing he was probably in the bathroom. 
“Y/N? Everything okay?”
“Uh…” You glance to the hallway that leads to the kitchen, wearily hoping nobody comes out. “Yeah, just uh… forgot I had to do something. I’ll see you later.”
You quickly make your way out of the house, shoving everything into your car while you can, starting the engine with great speed. Sam was in the middle of saying something else to you on your wait out, but he never got around to finishing because you were already out of the door. 
He didn’t mention anything to the boys, trusting that you were okay and that you did actually have something to do. 
That night, you tried not to cry yourself to sleep in your small apartment, one you shared with Aisha. When you woke the next morning, she wanted to go to the skating rink for some fun, so you agreed, eating breakfast before showering. You spent the entire day there, really, and let your phone in a rented locker, ignoring the texts from a few of the boys asking if you wanted to come over for a movie and some pizza. 
When you did have the chance to reply — over five hours later — you gave them scarce replies in the main group chat, apologizing without much sorrow. From their end, they shook it off, knowing you probably just had other plans that specific day. The five of you were planning on going to the golfing course tomorrow, so you’d get time together then. 
But they were wrong, because you cancelled on them, simply stating that “golf isn’t your mood, today.” They’d accepted that, but Harry knew that was bullshit, because half of the fun of golfing was competing with you.
They tried not to think much of your absence while they were on the field, but it was weird and awfully quiet without you. They’d figured it might be different throughout the week, but they were still wrong. You were with other people throughout the week while you could be, and it only made it worse for the boys because you were posting it all over your social media. Not in a flaunting manner, but just for the aesthetics. They didn’t find it very pleasing, though. 
Harrison knew something was off, knew you didn’t normally just start ghosting people unless you had a real reason. He intended on figuring out what that reason was, and Tom was hell bent on learning it too. They drew up a plan to get you to come over, telling you they had a few of your missing things. You complied, figuring you’d have to face them at some point. 
Strolling up to the house for the first time in ten days, you opened the door as casually as you could, only to be met with four pairs of eyes staring in your directions from seats in the open living room. 
“Uhm,” You cleared your throat. “Where’s my stuff?” Tom wordlessly points to a bag on the head of the couch, and you pick it up wearily, sifting through it while you hummed. “Thanks, I’ll just take this and get out of your hair.” 
“Well, wait-” Tom stands abruptly. “Why… why don’t you hang out for a bit?”
“I mean… do you want to?” The tone in which you speak catches him off guard for all of ten seconds before each of the boys are nodding their heads.
“Of course we do.” Harrison smiles and you nod wearily. 
“Okay.”
However, you don’t make any move in settling down for the long run, and Tom huffs. “What’s going on here?”
“What do you mean?”
“You’re avoiding us!” Harry concludes. “Why?”
You clear your throat, looking at your feet while your tongue clicks. “I, uhm, I heard you guys talking the other day.”
Harrison raises his eyebrows as a silent message for you to elaborate a little.
“You said you were tired of babysitting me, so I gave you guys some space.” They all physically defeat and you begin to defend yourself. “I just thought it’s what you wanted! You don’t have to explain.” You’re unknowingly beginning to tear up, and they all know it before you do. 
“I think we should talk.”
“No, I- uhm…” You glance out the window to your car. “I should really get going.”
“No!” Harry pleads with you. “We just… we miss you.”
You stop short in your tracks, turning around slowly. “Well I don’t really think you get to. Not after what I heard.”
“That’s not fair, Y/N/N, and you know it.” Harrison’s stern with you, and you can feel the tension beginning to set nicely like a creamer. 
“None of this is really fair for me, so why should it be fair for you?” You point a finger up in their direction while you shrug offendedly. “I mean, if you’re gonna say one thing don’t act like you don’t mean it.”
“But we didn’t,” Harrison says. 
“Really, we didn’t. It was a stupid thing to say.” Tom adds on. 
“Yeah, we’d never say it knowing you were there.”
“Oh, but you’d say it if I wasn’t around?” You’re making this more difficult, you realize, but you don’t much care, because when feelings get hurt, things get difficult, and you’ve come to terms with that. 
“That’s not what I meant.” Harrison crosses his arm. 
“No, but that’s what you implied.” You jab him back with your next words. 
“Stop making this hard.” He’s reminding you of what things were like when you were young and arguments were regular. 
“I’m not the one that started this.” You huff angrily, hand finally gripping the handle of the front door, swinging it open and slamming it harshly with an “I’ll see you all around.” 
Tom blinks, glancing to Harrison in question on what to do next. Harrison sighs and so does Harry. 
“I saw her leaving that day she heard you guys.” Sam speaks calmly, almost nervously. “She was- uh… she was crying.” “Oh jesus.” Tom groans, hands running through his curls. “We made her cry, Haz.”
“I know, I know.” He speaks hastily. “C’mon, I know what to do.” He picks his coat up, opening the front door as the rest of the boys follow him out. 
You’re coming home that night after spending the rest of your day at the country club with some friends. You’re alone, of course, expecting to eat dinner with Aisha, though the two of you normally dine separately because you’re always with the boys and she’s always with her girlfriend. Things are different now, though. 
As you open the door to your flat, you expect to find it dark and empty, but you’re met with your favorite take out meal and four very sorry boys, a large teddy bear sitting on the couch for you. You drop your bags and glance at each of them. 
“What’s all this?”
“We’re really, really, really sorry.” Harrison steps forward with an apologetic smile and three DVD disks in his hands, all of your favorite movies. “But me especially. I love having you around… even if you are my baby sister.” You slap his arm playfully and he laughs. You let a smile creep onto your face at his demeanor. “We really missed you this past week.”
You nodded, fiddling with your fingers. “It just… hurt. You broke the one rule I thought…. The rule I thought we all swore to keep.”
“I know.” He sighs, looking at the boys as everyone says it simultaneously. “The circle before yourself.”
You’d seemingly all established it during your first all-nighter as a group of five. You vowed to put them before your own silly ego or public facade. Obviously, some things are harder for others.
“Can you ever forgive me?”
“Can you ever forgive us?” Tom speaks up, eyes deep.
You smile softly, voice laced with feelings. “Of course I can.” You don’t miss the smiles that break out onto their faces, and when everyone comes in for a group hug, they know things are going to be okay. 
read the spinoff! - circles before yourselves - rule #2
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Just What I Needed: Part 4
A/N: 👀
Series masterlist
Word Count: 18.2k
You slowly blinked your eyes open, feeling relaxed and rested. Sunlight poured in through the window and filled the room with a sense of warmth in contrast to how cold you knew the late January air felt outside. 
A sigh of content left your mouth as you stretched and glanced around the room. Although it was no match to the comfort you felt in your bed at home, it was cozy and rather quaint. 
Frank was still laying at the foot of the bed, stirring awake as a result of your movements, but wasting no time in getting up so he could attack you with kisses. 
"Hey, buddy," you chuckled and started scratching behind his ears in his favourite spot. After a moment of giving Frank the attention he craved, your gaze then drifted to the corner of the room where an empty playpen rested.
In your hurry to get out of your house the night before and get to where your family was, you didn't even think of grabbing Mia's travel bed for her to sleep in when you got to Alice's cousin's house. Luckily for you, though, Alice's cousin was a grandma and had things in the house that Mia could use for the night. 
Usually, if you woke up to find Mia not in the spot you'd put her to bed, you'd panic. However, you had gotten used to mornings where you would wake up and know that Auston was already up and downstairs with your daughter, getting ready for the day. This situation was no different because you knew that either your dad, Alice, but more than likely Nate, snuck into the room and took her while trying not to disturb you. 
"Couldn't even warn me about someone taking Mia, huh?" You said to Frank as you sat up, chuckling at how he must've been so unbothered by whoever came into the room and grabbed Mia that morning, seeing as he knew they posed no threat to your little girl. "That's ok. I know you would've gone nuts if it was someone you knew shouldn't have been near her." 
Frank just made one of his typical noises in response to that, then licked your face once more before moving away so that you could get up. Before you climbed out of bed, you made sure to grab your phone from where it laid next to you on the mattress and not to your surprise, it was dead. 
You knew the battery died shortly after you got to the house, and then you got so wound up with trying to get Mia calmed down for the night. You must've forgotten to plug it in before you passed out from exhaustion almost as soon as your head hit the pillow, which you didn't overthink. So, with a shrug, you threw on one of Auston's hoodies that you grabbed the night before and headed for the washroom. 
As you brushed your teeth and washed your face, you couldn't help but smile as you listened to Mia giggling like crazy from downstairs. You then heard your brother just messing around with her and felt your heart swell at the thought of the two together. Mia and Nate adored each other, and it made you so freaking happy to see. 
Once you finished your half-assed morning routine, then packed up yours and Mia's things, you and Frank went downstairs, but you stopped in the living room briefly to plug your phone into the charger you spotted there the night before, then made your way to the kitchen to see your family. 
However, when you entered the room, only Mia seemed excited to see you. Meanwhile, your dad, Alice and Nate looked worried for some reason. 
"Uh, good morning," you greeted, then scratched your head awkwardly as they all looked at each other in a way that you didn't know the meaning behind.
"Mommy!" Mia said happily and began reaching for you from where she was being held by Nate on the other side of the room, noticing how she was already in much better spirits than she had been the night before. 
"Hi, baby," you replied, smiling as you approached the two and took her from your brother's hold. "Are you feeling better today?"
"Yeah," she answered, then laid her head against your shoulder. 
"I don't think her ear is hurting as much anymore," Alice was the first to speak as she smiled at you and Mia. "But it probably wouldn't hurt for her just to take it easy today to make sure."
"Well, we can do that, can't we, little miss?" You asked your daughter, to which she nodded in response. After placing a quick peck on her forehead, you then looked around at your family and could still feel that something was up with them. "Did something happen? You all just kind of seem… off for some reason."
You then watched as your dad, Alice and Nate, gave each other a hesitant look before your dad finally said something. 
"Have you talked to Auston at all?"
"No, not since yesterday," you explained. "I told him Mia wasn't feeling well before his game, but then got caught up with everything with coming over here and her not doing well, so I haven't talked to him since. Plus, my phone died. Why?"
"You, uh, you might want to head home to see him then," Nate said while looking at you nervously. 
"Wait, he's home?" You asked, feeling confused as your brother nodded. "But the team isn't supposed to be back until later this afternoon."
"Exactly," Nate replied again but still did nothing to help how lost you felt. 
"Nate, why do I feel you're not telling me something?"
At that, your brother sighed before glancing at your dad and Alice once more. 
"I woke up to five missed calls from him. So, I called him back like ten minutes ago to find out that he spent the entire night thinking you packed up your things, took Mia and Frank, and left him."
"What?" Was all you were able to respond with because honestly, you weren't able to comprehend such a ridiculous idea. 
Why the hell would Auston think you were leaving him? Was it something you said? Something you did? You raked your mind for ideas of what the hell happened that could've possibly made him come to this conclusion but came up with nothing. 
Then, with one final look at your brother, you adjusted your hold on Mia then went straight for the living room so you could check your phone. 
"What's wrong, mommy?" Mia asked curiously as she continued gripping on to you. 
"Nothing for you to worry about, baby," you assured her. "This is between your dad and me."
Once you entered the living room, you saw your phone light up with some kind of notification, so you knew it was on again, but weren't sure if you were prepared to see what would be waiting on the screen when you finally looked at it. So, after taking a deep breath, you held Mia close and braced yourself for what was about to come. 
The first thing you saw once you tapped your screen were the numerous missed calls and texts from Auston. However, there were also missed notifications from Ema, Brian, both of Auston's sisters, Mya, Steph, Mitch, Lexie and a couple more of your friends, all wondering where the hell you had gone. Although dramatic, some of the messages from Steph were her asking if you were kidnapped or decided to fall off the grid, and it wasn't until then you realized, with how overwhelmed you were with Mia the night before, it very easily could've seemed that way. Especially to Auston. 
And it wasn't even 9 a.m. yet. 
"Fuck," you whispered to yourself, but unfortunately, still loud enough for Mia to hear. 
She gasped, which had you glance at her right away. "That's a bad word."
"You're right, that is a bad word," you agreed, then unplugged your phone and headed towards the kitchen again. "But we're not going to repeat it, right? You didn't hear it from me."
"Yes, I did, mama," she responded, calling you out on your bullshit, then giggling when you gave her a surprised look. 
"Mia! The sass, I can't. You get that from your father."
"Nope."
"What do you mean nope!?"
You continued looking at her incredulously, which made her giggle even more, and that didn't stop until after the two of you were back in the kitchen. 
"Even Mia knows she gets her sass from you," Nate said and wasted no time taking Mia from your hold again. "So, what are you going to do with Auston?"
"I don't think there's much else I can do other than go home right now and talk to him," you replied, then glanced at your dad and Alice. "Would you guys mind watching Mia for an hour or so? I'm really sorry to ask, but I'd prefer that she wasn't there when Auston and I have this conversation."
"Of course we can watch her," your dad replied. "Sweetheart, it's ok to ask for help. And there's no need for you to apologize about it either."
"I know, it's just-," you started, then paused. "I guess I've been forgetting that lately. Maybe that's part of why I'm now in this situation with Auston."
Your family looked at you sympathetically but refused to comment. This was something you and Auston needed to work out on your own. No one else's opinion should matter. 
"Everything is going to be fine, hun," Alice said. "We love having Mia around, so please, you and Auston, take all the time you need. Just call us when you're ready for Mia and Frank to come home too."
"I will," you told her with a smile, then looked back to Mia and pushed her curls away from her face as she leaned against Nate. "I'll be back soon, sweets. Can you promise me that you'll be good for Pa, Alice and Uncle Nate?"
"I promise, mommy," she replied and began waving at you, sending you on your way. Almost as if even she, too, knew that you needed to go talk to Auston asap. 
Lastly, you looked at your brother and let out a breath. 
"Auston needs this conversation as badly as you do," Nate said. "Try to hear him out too. You know he's going to listen to whatever you have to say, but you need to do the same for him. It's the least you could do."
"I understand that," you replied. "But Nate, for him to just assume I'd up and leave him? What the hell is that?"
"I don't know, but if you don't at least try to see things from his point of view too, you're not going to solve anything," he stated, making you sigh. 
"How was he when you talked to him?"
"Not great. Relieved to know that you and Mia were somewhere safe, though."
"I see," you nodded in understanding. "I guess I should get going. I think I'll take an Uber, then once we're done talking, can you bring Mia and Frank home in my car? Mia's seat and everything is already in there."
"Of course I can," he responded. "Just call me when you're ready, and I'll bring them over."
"I will. Thanks, Nate."
After that, you ran back upstairs to grab your things and put them in your car so Nate wouldn't have to worry about them when he was packing up Mia and Frank. After that, you ordered an Uber, then said goodbye to Mia and the rest of your family before heading outside to get into the waiting vehicle and began mentally preparing yourself to face your husband. 
As soon as you were in the Uber, you texted Auston to say you were on your way home, then put your phone back in your pocket. You didn't think he'd respond. In complete honesty, you didn't want him to either because you just didn't know what to say about the topic anymore. 
You began thinking of how mad you were that he just assumed you left him. Had things really gotten that bad between the two of you? Sure, you knew with everything going on in life, and how you've been feeling lately, things had been a little rough between the two of you, but not once did the thought of leaving your husband cross your mind, and it hurt to know that Auston was at a point where he believed that you would. 
After taking a deep breath to calm yourself down some, you glanced at your stomach and were reminded that on top of all this, you were still approaching your 20th week of pregnancy. You were almost halfway through your pregnancy and were due to meet your baby in less than five months, yet you were feeling the shittiest you've felt in a really long time. There was no way you could've ever predicted being in this type of situation, but, you still were. 
When the Uber came to a gradual stop at an intersection and the road sign indicating you were about to turn down the street your house was on, you became nervous as hell. You began rubbing small circles over your bump, trying to soothe your nerves and in some way communicate to your baby that everything was going to be ok, but unfortunately, you weren't so sure of that either. 
By the time the car came to a stop outside of your house, your heart was pounding. You didn't feel ready to have this conversation with Auston, and you hated the thought of not wanting to talk to your husband about something, but you knew it needed to happen. So, with another deep breath, you thanked your Uber driver, then got out of the car and walked up the driveway. 
Needless to say, you weren't exactly expecting the scene you came across once you walked through the front door and looked into the living room. 
Auston didn't notice you at first. In his defence, you did enter the house very quietly, but instead of greeting you like he usually would, he stayed sat on the couch, staring forward at seemingly nothing. He was completely zoned out as he hugged onto his body pillow and didn't move aside from the deep breaths he took every few seconds. So, you took this moment to observe him even more. 
His hair was dishevelled, subtle dark circles were forming under his eyes, and it was clear that he was still wearing the black Nike t-shirt and joggers he more than likely changed into once he got home the night before. His facial hair was a bit more excessive than usual. Typically, he would've shaved a little bit by then, but over the few days, since you last saw him, it was apparent that he hadn't, and it just really tied into the whole look he had going on. Then you noticed the throw blanket that rested in a heap on the other end of the couch and could only assume that was because Auston spent the night on the sofa rather than upstairs in your bed. 
He looked rough and going off of how he appeared on the outside. You could only imagine how shitty he was feeling on the inside. 
A cool breeze from outside then drifted in through the open door, making you shiver but also snap you back to reality from the trance you'd fallen into while observing your husband. You knew you probably shouldn't prolong the conversation you were about to have any more than you already had, so with another deep breath, you closed the door loud enough that Auston would notice and your presence would be known. 
The sudden noise made him jump, but it wasn't long before he was standing up from the couch and looking at you, concern written all over his face as he did so. It took him a second to realize that he was still hugging the body pillow but was quick in tossing it back onto the couch before walking towards you.
"Hey," Auston greeted softly once he walked into the foyer, but came to a stop after acknowledging the absence of the other person he was also looking forward to seeing again, his mouth turning into a frown. "Where's Mia?"
"With my family," you told your husband as you took your boots off and hung up your coat, then stepped towards him. "Nate is going to bring her and Frank back in a little bit. I didn't think she needed to hear us have this talk."
"I see," he replied while nodding in agreement. You continued looking at him, unsure if you should start the conversation or he should, and you could feel yourself gradually becoming more anxious than you were in the Uber with each passing second, but luckily, Auston spoke up again, your name sounding from his mouth in a whisper as he did so. "I don't even know where to start."
"Ok," you said, tears already pricking at the corners of your eyes as you tried focusing on keeping your breaths even since it felt like your chest kept getting tighter and tighter. "I will then. Auston, how dare you think I would just up and leave you? It's one thing to think that'd I'd do such a thing, but for you to assume I would ever do that to Mia? You could do your absolute worst to me, and I still wouldn't be able to keep our daughter away from her father. I could never do that to her or you, and it fucking hurts knowing that you think I would."
"I know you wouldn't, and it was wrong of me to assume otherwise," he replied calmly. "And I can't even begin to explain how sorry I am for that being the conclusion I jumped to. My mom already gave me enough shit for that, but it was the only thing that made sense to me at the time."
"How can you even say that?" You scoffed.
"Because, since Christmas, you've been pushing me away! You've been pushing everyone away for almost a month now, and we've all been worried about you. I thought you'd talk to me about the things bothering you, you always do, but this time has been different for some reason. You closed yourself off from me, babe. I haven't heard anything about your therapist appointments since before the holidays. You've barely told me about your last doctor's appointment and how the baby was doing. I just feel like there's so much going on with you that you won't let anyone know about."
"Because I refuse to bother people with my problems, Auston! My mind can be a damn scary place sometimes, ok. I haven't felt like myself for these past few weeks, and that is no one's battle to fight but my own."
"Why don't you realize that you don't have to fight those battles alone?" Auston's voice cracked as he said that, which struck something deep in you. "We're all on your side, Y/N. We want to help." 
It was evident that he cared so much about you and your wellbeing. You've always known that, and you didn't mean to block out him or any of your loved ones, but what else were you supposed to do? You didn't even know how to explain what you were feeling to him, just that it wasn't good. So, you continuously tried to distract yourself from your thoughts, even though, deep down, you knew what you were feeling all revolved around your pregnancy. And you believed Auston had a right to know that.
"Please let me back in."
You hadn't realized that your gaze drifted away from him until he said those words, and when you looked back at him, his eyes were watering like crazy. That's when your tears finally broke free and began streaming down your face.
Just as you were about to reply to him, though, you heard the radio that was playing softly in the kitchen, change songs. The familiar guitar riff of the Red Hot Chili Peppers' Under the Bridge and the distinctive voice of Anthony Kiedis wasn't loud or anything. Still, to you, it was deafening in how the lyrics resonated with the way you were feeling. 
The main difference between you and the lyrics was that you knew you had a partner and knew you had a friend in Auston. He hasn't given you a reason to doubt that. But still, if you were to say you didn't worry about things, well, that'd be a lie. 
"It breaks my heart knowing that our relationship is at a point where the thought of me leaving you would even cross your mind, though," you told him, your voice almost in a whisper. "And part of that is on me—a big part, which I get. I should've just told you what I was feeling and what was going on. I really don't know why I didn't. But Auston, you could've communicated with me too."
It was your voice that cracked then, and you were no longer able to keep in the sob that you felt building in your chest as soon as you started talking again. You didn't think much of it, but then you began sobbing uncontrollably and closed your eyes as you fought to catch your breath, but even that didn't seem to work. 
You felt as if you could collapse right then and there. Everything felt heavy. But before you could, Auston had his arms wrapped around you and was bringing you against his chest, keeping you up as you clung to him for support. By the way, he was shaking; you knew that he was crying as well, but couldn't bring yourself even to attempt to comfort him in some way too as he lowered you both to the ground, then pulled you into his lap. 
"Breathe, baby," Auston spoke softly as he rubbed small, soothing circles on your back, still making you a priority in all of this even though you were ready to rip him a new one only moments ago. "Slow down and just breathe for me, please."
Although you still took a few staggering breaths, you listened. Auston always held you against his chest like this when your anxiety got bad. It was a way for you to match his deep, steady breaths and eventually calm yourself down. It was also a way for him to remind you that he was there and wasn't going anywhere, which, honestly, was exactly what you needed from him at that moment. 
"I hate this," you said after a few moments, once your sobs turned into sniffles. "I hate feeling the way I do, I hate that I blocked out the people I care about the most, I really didn't mean to. But most of all, I hate fighting with you. I'm so sorry."
"I'm sorry too," he replied, then leaned away so he could look at you but continued holding you as he did so. "I think we both messed up in this situation. God, I knew we could be bad at communicating sometimes, but I never thought it would get this bad."
"It's not very fun."
"Not at all."
The two of you chuckled slightly as he pushed back some of your hair away from your face, but the moment soon passed when you noticed Under the Bridge came to an end and With Me by Sum 41 started playing. Another song you knew would just hit differently during a moment like the one you and Auston were in. 
"You were stupid to think I would leave you, Auston," you stated. "I'm well beyond the point of even thinking I could go on without having you in my life in some way. How do you not know that?"
"I do, and that's the thing," he responded, then paused, smiling a little bit as you reached up to wipe away a tear that still rested on his cheek. "You're right. I was stupid to think that. I just felt like I've fucked up so much lately and that you had every reason to leave me if you wanted to. I know it's not easy with me coming and going all the time. You are absolutely incredible with the way you take care of Mia. You know that, right? She adores you. Even with you being pregnant and facing your own troubles, you never falter when it comes to making sure that our daughter is ok."
"Because regardless of whatever is going on with me, I am Mia's mom first. Above anything else. She will always be my priority."
"I know. I've always known that which is why I'm pissed at myself for not thinking why you weren't here when I got home last night was because you were doing just that. Prioritizing our daughter. I know how hard it must've been for your stubborn ass to swallow your pride and ask your family for help. But, you knew that was what was best for Mia and yourself. I'm so proud of you for making that call, babe, and I am so sorry if my overthinking and assuming the absolute worst made you think otherwise."
"It's ok," you told him honestly, then shifted your position on his lap, placing a leg on each side of his so that you were straddling his thighs in a way because you wanted to be face to face with him properly. "I'm sorry for pushing you away, Aus. It's just- this pregnancy has not been easy. Nothing seems to be going right, and I-I'm at a point where I dread going to my appointments because I don't want to be told something bad again. I'm scared, and I didn't want anyone to see me like that. It makes me feel vulnerable."
"You can always be vulnerable with me," he said and made sure the two of you locked eye contact as he did. "I'm not going to hurt you, babe. I would never. You don't need to put up any walls. Be upset. Tell me what you're thinking like the other night when I missed dinner, for example. Don't let me off on that shit! If something is bothering you, especially if it's something I caused, please promise that you'll tell me about it from now on."
"That was kind of shitty of you, not gonna lie."
"I know it was, and I deserved to feel bad about it, but you care too much about others that you couldn't even tell me that."
"I didn't want you to feel bad about it, Auston. Ok, I mean, yeah, maybe a little bit at the time. But, you talk about not wanting to hurt me. I don't want to hurt you either, even if it is just a petty argument or comment. I love you too much."
"And I love you," he replied and leaned his head against yours. "You had every right to be mad at me that night, and you still do. But let me tell you that I suffered from thinking you left way more than you think. I was distraught. I just know that I need you in my life and the thought of you never coming home scared the shit out of me. Fuck, all of that drama on my part and for what?"
You laughed at that. 
"I can tell you were struggling by the body pillow and blankets on the couch. Couldn't sleep in our bed, hmm?"
"It was a rough night, ok? Sue me. And no, not while thinking I may never share it with you again."
"Good thing you never have to think that again then, right?" You asked and gave him a pointed look. "Because if you do, then we'll have real issues, Matthews. Right now, I'll give you a free pass because I know Ema would've given you an earful on my behalf already."
"You have no idea," he groaned and threw his head back dramatically. "I don't think I've ever been called so many synonyms of stupid all at once. It didn't help that Alex and Bre chimed in on it too."
"Sad I missed it," you teased. "And I promise to talk to you about everything, Aus. Please know that I really didn't mean to shut anyone out the way that I did."
"We all understand, babe, but I can assure you that everyone is going to be glad to have you back. Mitch and Steph especially have been missing you."
"I need to call them today. I miss them too."
You and Auston smiled at each other, then you noticed that all the weight you felt on your chest had seemingly disappeared.
"We're ok?" Auston asked before you could say anything else.
"We're ok," you repeated, then closed the gap between the two of you as you hugged him, happy with how the conversation turned out because you knew that he felt a lot better too. However, it wasn't long before he was moving away so that he could gently cup your cheek before leaning in again and connecting his lips to yours with a sweet kiss.
"I love you," you told him again while mumbling against his lips, not bothering to move away from him.
"I love you, more than anything," he assured, but unlike you, moved away so he could look at you again. "You, Mia and our little one on the way are my everything, Y/N. Please, never forget that."
"I won't, I promise."
About half an hour later, the two of you were cuddled up on the couch together, his body pillow and blankets completely forgotten. Auston laid between you and the back cushions, his head resting next to your bump as you mindlessly played with his hair, both waiting patiently for Mia and Frank to arrive home. 
After you and Auston cleared the air between the two of you, he then held onto you as he stood up off the ground and carried you into the living room. Soon after, he texted Nate to let him know that he could come over, and you didn't stop him. You were already missing Mia and knew that Auston was probably missing her a bit more. 
Luckily for both of you, your little girl was making her grand re-appearance as Nate brought her and Frank through the front door. She was giggling like crazy as Nate talked to her in a dramatic voice, but then saw how Frank booked it right for the living to greet you and Auston, and soon let out a squeal of delight once she spotted the two of you. 
"Daddy!"
"There's my girl!" Auston greeted her, smiling so freaking wide as he scrambled to get off the couch, but made sure to help you up as well before going over to take Mia from Nate's hold. "Hi, Mini! I missed you so much."
You couldn't help but smile too as you watched them, not missing how Auston seemingly held onto your daughter a bit tighter than usual and refused to let go. As you observed them, you leaned against the doorway of the living room and mindlessly rubbed your hand over your stomach but soon jumped when your brother nudged you with his elbow and snapped you out of your daze. 
"Told you everything was going to be fine," Nate smirked. 
"Whatever," you replied. "But thank you for watching Mia and Frank."
"Anytime."
The two of you then looked back to Auston and Mia as they chatted away. 
"What do you say we take Frank for a walk in a bit?" He asked Mia, to which she nodded in response excitedly. "Or better yet, how about when Mitchy gets home later, we see if he, Steph and Zeus are up for a little visit?"
"My Mitchy!"
"Yes, your Mitchy, baby girl. C'mon, let's go get you a little snack first."
You and Nate laughed as you watched the two, but before Auston could head down the hallway to the kitchen with Mia, your brother stepped away from your side and spoke up.
"Wait, Auston, before you go, I have a question," Nate said, then glanced between you and him. "For you and Y/N, actually."
"What's up?" Auston asked as he came to a stop and shifted Mia in his hold. 
"Ok, I know it's probably a weird thing to ask, but hear me out."
"Nate, just spit it out," you joked as you pushed away from the doorframe and went to stand with Auston and Mia. 
"Rude," your brother replied but brushed your comment off quickly. "I was thinking, well, if you're ok with it, that maybe I stay here with you guys for a while?"
"What?" You asked, surprised.
"Feel free to say no. It's just a suggestion. But, I work from home. That's why I could go to Florida with dad and Alice for so long, and I thought that maybe I could just stay here for a bit and do the same thing. I'm sorry to be so blunt, but I know you haven't been doing great health-wise, Y/N, and I want to help. I'm going to be back here in less than two weeks for Mia's birthday as it is. What if I just stayed then?"
You continued looking at your brother, completely shocked because that was not what you were expecting him to say. But, it wasn't much to process. It was actually a very genuine offer.
"You've been thinking about this for a while, haven't you?" Auston asked curiously.
"Since I was here at Christmas, yeah," Nate explained. "I figured it might be easier on you, Y/N and Mia to have an extra person here all the time, you know? Just to help out where I can and, of course, hang out with my favourite niece."
"Nate, are you sure?" You questioned. "You really don't have to."
"I want to, though. Or else I wouldn't have offered."
"Well, I have no issue with it," Auston stated, then looked at you. 
You just smiled, then shook your head. 
"I'd love to have you stay here with us for a while. I could never say no to getting to see my baby brother."
"Let's see how quickly that opinion changes when I do stay," Nate responded, making you all laugh. 
"How's that sound, mini?" Auston then asked Mia. "Uncle Nate is going to stay with us in a couple of weeks. Did you have fun with him, Pa and Alice this morning?"
"Yeah," Mia replied and leaned her head against her dad's shoulder. 
"And what did you all do?"
"Mommy said fuck," she blurted out, making you gasp this time as you looked at her with wide eyes. 
"Amelia!"
"Busted," Nate mumbled and gave you a look, to which you just scowled in return. 
"Did she?" Auston questioned your daughter, a playful grin tugging at his mouth as he did. "And did you tell mommy that's a bad word?"
"Mhm."
"And I thought we agreed you weren't going to rat me out, Mia," you said, then leaned over to tickle her a little bit. "But we don't say that word, ok? Even if mommy does. It's not nice."
"Ok, mama," she replied, then looked to Auston again. "Snacks, daddy?"
"Yes, of course," he told her, then rushed down the hallway towards the kitchen, making her start laughing like crazy again. You and Nate just gave each other knowing looks, smiling, then headed down the hall after them. 
~*~
The following days were the best days you’d had in almost a month. 
Everything between you and Auston was good, there were no further issues between the two of you and everything felt right once again. The best part too was that after one game in Buffalo two days after you and Auston had your talk, the Leafs were on bye week. So, Auston was going to be home during that entire week and then once the team started up again, there was a nice home game stretch. You were thrilled. 
Although the day after you stayed with your family, Nate flew back to Montreal while your dad and Alice went back to Vancouver, it definitely wasn’t as hard as a goodbye. Unfortunately, your dad and Alice weren’t able to get more time off work to come back to Toronto the following week for Mia’s birthday. But, Nate and Mya were going to be there and that was more than you could’ve asked for. Also, your dad and Alice made sure to spend a bit more time with Mia and gave her a little gift before they had to get to Pearson and fly home. 
On the Monday before Mia’s birthday, you were out with Mitchy picking up a few things in preparation for the little birthday party you and Auston were having for her that following weekend. It worked out nicely too because you didn’t have much work to do for your job that day and managed to finish it all before Mitch picked you up then the two of you embarked on your shopping trip together.. 
Mia’s actual birthday was on Thursday, which was going to consist of your little family just having a little chill day to yourselves before going to Mitch and Steph’s house for dinner because, as Mia’s godparents, the two of them insisted that there was no way they weren’t seeing their goddaughter on her birthday. But the party set to take place on Saturday was a completely different story. 
“So, you’re just not going to help me with figuring out what to get Mia?” Your cousin asked as the two of you sat down at a table to grab some lunch together before heading home. “Selfish.”
“Mitch, I don’t even know what to get her,” you replied. “Auston was the one that came up with her birthday gift this year. I’ll probably get her a toy of some sort just to toss in with it seeing as Auston picked out clothes and stuff. And besides, you don’t have to get her anything.”
He scoffed at your last comment.
“Did he show you what he picked out at least?”
“No! He hid everything from me so I wouldn’t give him shit about it.”
“Now why would you give him shit?” Mitch asked, laughing. 
“I think the fact that he dropped a Gucci bag while taking out the recycling this morning, then looked at me with wide eyes before booking it into the garage and avoiding the situation entirely, speaks enough for itself,” you responded, making your cousin laugh even harder. 
“Incredible.”
“Mia doesn’t need Gucci slides, Mitchell. She’s two.”
“Try telling that to your husband,” he replied with a shrug, making you roll your eyes. “And here I am wondering how the hell me and Steph are going to do better than last year's gift.”
“Is it wrong of me to guess that you won’t?” You questioned while looking at him with an expression that resembled the yikes emoji, earning yourself a look of disbelief from your cousin. 
“Y/N!”
“What? You know how much Mia loves that stuffed whale that you and Steph got her last year. It’s literally her comfort item. I genuinely don’t know how you expect to top that when even me and Auston can’t.”
“Ok, that’s fair. That makes me feel a bit better.”
“Drama queen,” you grumbled just as the waiter approached, thankful that their presence seemingly covered what you just said. 
You and Mitch were at one of your favourite restaurants in the city, so neither of you needed to look at the menu to know what you wanted seeing as it was the place you frequented the most together. So, after kindly greeting the waiter, who already recognized the two of you, and placed your orders, you both soon fell into comfortable silence and began doing your own thing while waiting. 
Almost instinctively, you messaged Auston to see what he and Mia were up to and how they were doing. He briefed you on how he took Mia downtown to the Distillery District with Frank and that they walked around for a bit before going on a little lunch date themselves before going back home to unwind a bit. You couldn’t help but smile at the image that entered your thoughts as you picture your little family on their day off, but were then interrupted by Mitch laughing out loud. 
“Sorry,” he mumbled after he noticed you jump at his sudden outburst. “Steph just sent me this tweet. Hold on, I’ll send it to you too.”
A moment later, your phone vibrated with a new notification and sure enough, it was a link to the tweet that Mitch was talking about. You clicked it couldn’t help but chuckle when Twitter opened and showed a meme talking about things only people who lived in Toronto would understand. After reading it, you shook your head then went to tap the little home button to see if there was anything new on your feed, but then you realized that you had a notification. 
It was weird though, because you hardly ever used Twitter. When you did, it was just to scroll through and get caught up on things you may have otherwise missed or to see something someone else sent you. However, for the past month you were more drawn to the app and you hated why. 
Since around Christmastime, literally the day after you fainted and learned that you had anemia, you’ve been the subject of an unnecessarily large amount of internet hate and you just couldn’t look away. 
This kind of thing wasn’t new. Ever since you first started dating Auston back at the beginning of 2017, there’d been a fair share of comments and speculations made by accounts with no name or picture that seemingly went out of their to talk shit about your relationship. Usually, you were unbothered by it all. Sure, some of the comments stung but you always reminded yourself that these people knew nothing about your life or your relationship. It was unfortunate there were people in the world that just had nothing better to do than have opinions about strangers and felt the need to bring them down because of it and so it was never something you tried to entertain. But, this time around, their words were really getting to you.
You knew you shouldn’t care, however,  you couldn’t help but wonder what the notification could be about, so, you clicked and saw that you had been mentioned in a tweet. Even more curious, seeing as you didn’t recognize the profile of the person who mentioned you, you then tapped on the tweet to see that it was actually someone defending you. 
And yet, you still felt your heart drop because that tweet was actually part of a whole thread going off about how rough you looked when you and Mitch were briefly seen at Costco about an hour prior while the two of you were there getting supplies for Mia’s party.
You suddenly became more self-conscious of the messy bun your hair was thrown up into on the top of your head. But it wasn’t just that either, it was your baggy grey hoodie that you didn’t even realize actually belonged to Auston until you were met by the familiar scent of his cologne once you put it on and your simple black tights seeing as you were beyond the point of trying to squeeze into jeans anymore with your growing baby bump, as well. The most impressive part of your outfit was how it seamlessly hid your stomach and that wasn’t even intentional. 
When you were getting ready that morning, you didn’t think you’d have to dress up to hangout with your cousin as the two of you did some running around then get lunch, now you were thinking you should have. But why? Why did these people seemingly care so much? But what you really didn’t get was why you once again, took what they were saying to heart. 
Mitch noticed the way your smile soon turned into a frown as you stared at your screen. He wasn’t going to say anything at first, but after a moment passed and he saw your eyes become glossy as you continued scrolling, there was no way he couldn’t.
“Y/N?” He asked, making you jump as you snapped your attention to him. “What’s bothering you?”
Honestly, if it was anyone but Mitch, you would’ve immediately gone into denial. But when it came to your cousin, someone who has been by your side literally your entire life and knew you better than a lot of people, it was impossible because he could just simply read through your lies. 
“It’s stupid, really,” you sighed. 
“If it’s making you upset, it isn’t stupid. Everything ok?”
You didn’t respond, instead you glanced down at your phone at the still-open Twitter thread then set the device down on the table and slid it towards your cousin. Mitchy looked at you skeptically, but then picked up your phone and started reading what was on the screen as well.
It didn’t take long for his eyebrows to furrow in disappointment as he scrolled and took even less time for that disappointment to turn into anger. 
“Mitchy-.”
“Who the hell do these people think they are?”
“I don’t know,” you whispered, shaking your head as you fought to keep the tears you already knew were welled up in your eyes from spilling over. “I try so hard not to pay attention to things like that Mitch, but they've been coming for my throat lately and having that on top of everything else I’m dealing with is just a lot.”
“Y/N, there’s a comment of someone saying apparently you looked worse today than when another person saw you last week when you were crying,” he explained, sounding confused but also pissed off. “How long has it been this bad?”
“About a month now. And yeah, I saw those comments as I was getting home from the appointment I had with my therapist last week. That’s why I was crying.”
“Excuse me? That’s what they’re referring to?” Mitch asked incredulously. “Oh, my god. Y/N, I’m so sorry, this is fucked up. I’m tempted to say something, I-. What does Auston think about it all?”
“No, don’t!” You stressed, knowing full well that he’d definitely make a comment in your defence if you didn’t stop him. “And, Auston doesn’t know.”
“What do you mean he doesn’t know? Has he not seen how upset this is making you?”
“No,” you replied before pausing. “I haven’t let him.”
Mitch’s expression softened at that, but he still looked at you with a stern gaze. 
“Y/N, you can’t keep blocking him out,” he stated. “I know the two of you talked the other day and things are good. You don’t have to deal with this alone. Auston will listen, you just have to give him the chance to.”
“I know,” you said, then sighed again. “Things have just been so good since we talked and that’s what I’ve been focusing on. I honestly forgot about the comments until I saw that I got mentioned in one of them. But you’re right, I don’t know why I just haven’t told Auston. I guess it does kind of indirectly involve him. I’ll tell him once I get home.”
“As you should. He’d probably find a classier way to shut that shit down than I would anyways.”
You laughed at that. 
“You’re not wrong. But thank you, Mitchy. You have no idea what it means to me knowing that I always have you looking out for me. And Steph. I’m very grateful for both of you.”
“Good, cause we’re not going anywhere,” he stated as a matter of factly, then glanced away as he noticed the waiter approaching again. “Also, I’ll be following up on whether or not you told Auston.”
“Yes, Mitchell. I’d expect nothing less.”
After you finished getting lunch with Mitchy, he drove you home, but didn’t leave without saying hi to Mia first seeing as she was already out with Auston when Mitch picked you up. He didn’t stay for too long though seeing as he knew he’d be seeing his goddaughter again in the upcoming days for her birthday. 
Once Mia was done saying bye to her Mitchy, Auston saw him to the door and locked it behind him while you took your daughter upstairs to put her down for her afternoon nap. You were pretty tired by then, thinking that taking your own nap would be nice too and as you snuck out of Mia’s room and gently closed the door behind you, only to meet Auston in the hallway as he came up the stairs, it seemed like he had the same idea too. 
A few minutes later, the two of you were laying in bed all curled up together. Auston had you wrapped in his arms; his left leg slung over both of yours, while you rested against his chest, letting yourself relax and your eyes gradually flutter shut with each breath he took. He let out a sigh of contentment, and that was when thoughts of your conversation with Mitch started creeping into your mind again. 
There was no point in telling Auston right at that moment about the Twitter trolls, you could easily just tell him later. But since you started thinking about it, you knew you wouldn’t stop until you talked with your husband, therefore, became less relaxed. 
“Something’s bothering you,” Auston spoke, surprising you and making you roll your eyes at how that man could read you like a freaking book.  
“It’s nothing to worry about right now,” you replied and snuggled closer to him. “I’ll tell you after we nap.”
“Babe, I know you. You’re not going to rest until you get whatever it is bothering you off your chest. You can tell me.”
At that, you sighed.
“You know me well, Matthews.”
“I’m assuming that’s part of why you agreed to marry me, isn’t it?” He teased as you shifted away from him so that the two of you could face each other, but not away from his embrace. 
“That, and your irritating charm,” you replied as a matter of factly, making him chuckle. You smiled too as he delicately reached up to tuck a strand of hair behind your ear, then leaned against his touch as he let his hand linger there for a moment, studying you. 
“What’s going on in that mind of yours, bub?”
 “A lot of things,” you told him honestly. “Mainly good, but a couple not so good.”
He looked at you and nodded. 
“Do you want to talk about it?”
“Yeah, if that’s ok with you.” 
“Of course it is,” he responded. “You never have to ask, you know that. What’s bothering you?”
“Well,” you sighed. “It seems pretty pathetic the more I think of it.”
“It’s not pathetic if it’s getting to you this much. Clearly it’s something important.”
“I- I guess you’re right. But, I think it’ll be easier to show you instead of trying to explain it. Do you have your phone?”
“Yeah, it’s just over there,” he explained, then rolled over to grab the device from there it rested on his bedside table, then faced you again. “Do you need it?”
“No,” you replied, smiling at just how much this man made your heart swell so effortlessly. “But, I want you to go on Twitter for me, please. Then search my first and last name and see what comes up. But make sure it’s our last name.”
Auston looked at you curiously, but still nodded and did as you asked. You laid there and observed as he unlocked his phone, opened Twitter and assumingly typed in your name. As he scrolled, you witnessed his soft and relaxed expression turn hard while he read each and every comment made about you, his brows furrowing as he did so. 
“Babe?” You asked after a couple of minutes.
“Y/N, these things that people are saying about you are so unnecessary,” he said, shaking his head in disbelief. “And they’re recent. How long has this been happening?”
“It’s always been a thing, but over the last month it’s just gotten out of hand,” you explained, sniffling a bit as you tried to not get upset over this, but failed miserably. “Some of them are just so mean. I’ve never felt like I was being watched or anything, but now I feel like I’m under this microscope just so people can attack me and go off about how everything I do is wrong. Usually I just ignore it. I don’t know why any of these people think it’s ok to make comments like that on someone’s life without knowing anything about it, but it’s been happening more frequently and it’s hard to ignore, Aus.”
“I don’t even know what to say. They’re talking about you not being at games and making comments about how you look. These people have no clue what the hell you’re going through. This is insane. T-they haven’t made any mean comments about you being pregnant, have they?”
“No, babe. I haven’t seen any comments about that,” you told him, knowing he was already putting blame on himself, which you refused to let him do. “I don’t think anyone assumes that we’re expecting again. Probably because of how I haven’t been going out all that much lately unless it’s with Mia real quick or to an appointment. But, Auston, that’s beside the point. Can you look at me for a sec?”
His brown eyes immediately snapped to yours, moving from his phone screen for the first time since he began reading the tweets. He was frowning and you knew it was because this was beginning to bother him as much as it bothered you.
“This is not your fault.”
“Y/N, the reason people even feel the need to make comments like this about you, is because of me. If it weren’t for me, you wouldn’t be getting attacked like this for literally no reason at all.”
“Do you not think I knew that when we started dating in the first place?” You challenged him. “That I didn't know people would constantly be criticising our relationship? I knew what I was getting myself into and if that was do or die for me, I wouldn’t be here with you right now. You are worth everything. And  besides, Auston, it's not you, it’s them. I didn’t tell you this to upset you. I’m just trying to be better with letting you know how I’m feeling and this is something that’s really been bugging me lately.”
At that, Auston’s hardened expression softened as he took in everything you said, then nodded.
“You’re right,” he spoke softly. “Thank you for not letting me get too in my head about it and for being so open with me, baby.”
“Of course,” you replied while smiling at him, then glanced down at his phone, which still had Twitter open. “I wish I could tell them to fuck off without causing a whole scene because of it.”
“I’ll say something.”
“Absolutely not.”
“Y/N-,” he started to argue, but you cut him off. 
“Please, Auston. Don’t,” you replied firmly. “You know as well as I do that if anyone was to react in my defence to this, especially you, it’d cause an uproar. It’d get way worse before it got better. Although I appreciate the thought and really don’t know how else I can make this better, I know that’s not the way to do it. And besides, I don’t think the Leafs PR would love you picking fights with random accounts on Twitter.”
“Fine,” he sighed, rolling his eyes slightly because he knew you were right. “Just know that if I can come up with a way to shut all of that down without directly telling those people to fuck off, I’m doing it.”
“I’d expect nothing less, and I wish you luck with trying to come up with a way to do that. But for now, I think I’ll just delete Twitter. That way I can just avoid it entirely. Thank you for listening to me vent about this, though.”
“I’m glad you did. And please try to not let what they’re saying get to you, Y/N. They’re not true. These people know nothing about you and if they did, they wouldn’t be able to say any of that because they’d know how amazing you are.”
“Thank you, Aus,” you replied, then leaned over to peck his lips before laying back down and cuddling close to him again. “I don’t know about you, but I definitely need a nap now.”
“You and me both,” he responded then laid down too, making sure to wrap his arms around you again. “Then when we wake up, we’ll get to see our little girl again too.”
~*~
Three days later was Mia’s birthday, which was pretty hard for you and Auston to accept, but you couldn't have asked for the day to turn out any better than it did. 
The morning started pretty simple. You woke up resting against Auston’s exposed upper body, shivering slightly at the cool air that filled the room, then spotted the pyjamas shorts that you never put on the night before partially hanging off the edge of the bed. It was easy to assume that the t-shirt you planned to wear as well must’ve fallen onto the floor during the activities you and your husband engaged in after taking a romantic and intimate bath together. However, you were unbothered by it all because you felt great. 
The sun peeked through the closed curtains, filling your bedroom with warm orange rays of light as the sun continued to rise outside, making you smile as you basked in the rays and at the thought of how it wouldn’t be too long until Mia was awake. Your two-year old. What a concept. 
Auston shifted next to you, making you wonder if he was still asleep or not. But when he gently stroked your arm as he moved his hand up to start playing with your hair, you got your answer. 
“Good morning,” you said, smiling as you moved away from him. You didn’t bother covering your chest either as you kissed his bicep then leaned onto your elbow so you could face him. However, instead of the seeing the usual smile Auston greeted you with most mornings, he was frowning. Which made you do the same. “You ok?”
“What makes you think I’m not ok?” He asked, curiously. 
“You’re moping.”
“I’m not!”
“Ok, if you’re not sulking then let’s go get Mia,” you prodded. “Our two-year old.”
“No, stop,” he whined dramatically and rolled away from you, not stopping until he was on his stomach but still turned his head back to face you. “I’m sensitive.”
“This is hitting you pretty hard, huh?”
“She’s two, babe! Time is moving way too quick. How can I not be upset over that?”
“And dramatic,” you pointed out, making him roll his eyes. 
“You’re acting pretty chill for someone who is the mother of said two year old and her soon to be little sibling,” he challenged, making you frown. 
“I know that, but you don’t gotta remind me.”
“You know I’m teasing,” Auston replied, then leaned over to place a soft peck on your bump before looking up at you. “Man, Mia is going to be the best big sister.”
“She really is,” you agreed while pushing your hand through your husband's hair. “I still don’t think she completely understands the concept of how there’s going to be a baby around all the time in a few months just yet, but she did point to my stomach the other day while we were taking a walk and asked if ‘her baby’ was warm.”
“And I missed it?” He asked while looking at you with a face that resembled the pleading emoji, a pout forming on his lips as you nodded. “What’d we do to deserve the sweetest little girl on the planet as our daughter?”
“I don’t know, but I’d say we’re pretty freaking lucky to have her. God, can you believe that she’s two already? Like that’s insane to me.”
“I don’t think I’ve fully processed it, yet. What do you mean she’s not going to be small forever?”
Both of you laughed after that, but it was really just a way to cover up the pain. However, before either of you could think about it for too much longer, you heard Mia shuffle through the monitor and listened as she said good morning to Frank, who decided to sleep in her room the night before.
“I guess that’s our cue,” you said to Auston, then leaned down to peck the side of his mouth before rolling away from him and getting out of the bed. Goosebumps raised on your skin as you wrapped a blanket around your body and made way to the ensuite, but had to pause when an all too familiar wave of lightheadedness crashed into you. 
“Babe?” Auston asked. Concern laced his voice as he sat up right away and watched you grip onto the duvet and slowly sit down on the ottoman that was positioned at the end of the bed, your eyes closed as you did so. He immediately stood up, keeping the bed sheet wrapped around his lower body as he went to where you were sitting, crouching down and taking your hand into his, noticing how cold you felt, before gently rubbing over your knuckles with his thumb. “Hey, I’m right here.”
“Thank you,” you responded after taking a few deep breaths, then slowly opened your eyes to meet his gaze again once you felt ok enough to do so. “I think I’m alright, must’ve just stood up too fast.”
A small sigh left his mouth as he continued looking at you with the same expression he looked at you with when you told him about the Twitter troll's other dau. As if he was trying to read your mind. 
“I worry about you,” he spoke quietly. You knew he didn’t mean it in a way to upset you and you didn’t take it that way either. Auston was letting himself be vulnerable while getting something off his chest, just like you had been doing a lot lately by working on not shutting him out. The least you could do was listen to him, and you wanted to. “So much. You have no idea how much harder it’s gotten to leave for away games with you constantly feeling like this.”
“It sucks,” you agreed with him. “But, it’ll all be worth it in the end, Aus, when our baby is here. We both just have to stick it out for a few months longer. It’s not going to be easy, but we can do it. I know we can.” 
You maintained eye contact with him as you spoke and were able to see the way his gaze softened as he hung onto every word you said. However, he didn’t respond. Instead, he nodded then pulled you into his embrace, which you gladly accepted.
“You are the strongest person I know,” Auston eventually said, making you laugh slightly, then him to move away so he could look at you again. “I mean it, babe. I swear, you’re like Superwoman. It doesn’t matter what shitty hand you’re dealt, you always see the best parts of it and power through. You’re incredible.”
“Well now you’re going to make me cry,” you replied, letting out another laugh in an attempt to cover the sob that was inevitably going to escape your mouth. When in actuality, tears were already streaming down your face and you were sniffling, but not in a bad way. “And here I was thinking my hormones weren’t going to be as bad as they were when I was pregnant with Mia.”
“Oh, and you claim I’m the one that’s going to be emotional today over it being Mia’s birthday.”
“You are and we both know it.”
“Touche,” he smiled as he squeezed your knee, then leaned in to peck your lips real quick. “Why don’t you wait here and I’ll go grab Mia? Then we can get ready and go downstairs for breakfast.”
“Sounds like a plan to me,” you nodded, then watched him stand and leave the room as you began mentally preparing yourself for what the rest of the day would consist of. 
As soon as you and Auston wished Mia a happy birthday, she took the idea of being the centre of attention and ran with it. She absolutely loved and was thriving being the prime focus of everyone who FaceTimed her that morning to wish her well and would make sure to remind you and Auston that it was her special day constantly because of how hyped up she felt. 
A few snarky comments were made between you and Auston over who Mia got her ego from. However, it was still apparent that she got it from her dad, but Auston had to make sure the fact that she got her sass from you was still known. 
After breakfast the two of you gave Mia her gifts. As you suspected, Auston bought her unnecessary luxury items that no two year old in the world would ever need. But, you had to admit Mia looked pretty freaking cute strutting around in a tiny pair of custom Air Force Ones and a Prada bucket hat that matched ones Auston owned too. What you contributed to the gift was this little nurse kit you saw after getting lunch with Mitchy on Monday. It had little toy bandages, a stethoscope and a bunch of other items, along with a little bag to carry them all in. Seeing how Mia was always concerned and wanted to help when she thought one of the people she cared about was sad or hurt, the nurse kit seemed like a very fitting gift. And with the way Mia smiled like crazy once she saw it, then wanted to open the kit right away, you knew you made a good call. 
Once the initial birthday hype dwindled a little bit, a couple of hours later, you found yourself cuddling on the couch with Mia as the two of you watched Inside Out together. You had finished all the work you needed to do for the day and Mia was fading fast as she rested against your side, holding onto her stuffed whale with one arm and letting the other rest on your bump. Each time you glanced down at her, she continued fighting to keep her eyes open. However, once you started gently rubbing her head, seeing as you knew it was nap time, she was done for and soon passed right out.
Not too long after that, Auston returned home after running downtown real quick and thanks to the look you gave him once he walked through the door, knew he needed to be quiet. 
“That didn’t take long,” he spoke softly after he took off his coat and shoes, then came into the living room. He made sure to give you a quick kiss as he walked by, then curled up on the other end of the couch with Frank before looking back to you and smirking. “Did Mia think you weren’t feeling well?”
“Hmm?” You responded, confused by what would make him think that because in the moment, you felt fine.
“You have bandages on your face, bub.”
“Oh! Yeah, she thought I wasn’t feeling good and only agreed to lay down with me and watch the movie if she could make me feel better first. I just forgot that including sticking bandages on my face.”
Auston laughed as he watched you peel off the two bandages from Mia’s nurse kit that were stuck on your cheeks, then looked at you with a kind of serious gaze once your eyes met his again. 
“How are you feeling, though?”
“I’m alright,” you explained. “A little tired, but otherwise, both physically and mentally, I’m feeling pretty good right now. This little girl has been playing a big part in that, for sure.”
“I’m glad,” Auston replied with a smile then stood up again. “You rest. As soon as Mia is awake again, she’ll be wondering when we’re going over to Mitch and Steph’s so you might miss your window of opportunity. I’m going to get a drink, though. Would you like anything?”
“I’d love some water. Thanks, baby.”
“Of course. I’ll be right back.”
You smiled as you watched him leave the room, then let your head fall back against the pillow and took a breath. Mia shifted beside you, but only to snuggle closer to you, which made you smile even wider as softly ran your hand through her curls. Then your gaze fell to your phone, which was resting on the cushion next to you, as it lit up with a notification. 
It was an Instagram notification. After the talk you had with Auston about the unnecessary hate you were getting, primarily on Twitter seeing as that was the only social media account you didn’t have set as private, and how it was affecting your mental health; you deleted the app entirely. Which, in complete honesty, did give you a peace of mind because it was all just easier to ignore that way. Although part of you wished you were gutsy enough to shut down the people who were attacking you, and were well aware of how the people who cared about you had no issue in saying something, ignoring it seemed like the easiest thing to do. 
It was nice seeing a social media notification and not getting anxious because of it, so without thinking too much about it, you unlocked your phone to see what was going on, on Instagram. 
The notification was about something the Maple Leafs account had posted, which instantly piqued your interest because you knew the post would have something to do with either your husband, cousin, or just one of the guys. You knew they weren’t playing that night, they were still on bye week, which made you wonder what the post could be about even more. So, without wasting any more time, you clicked the notification and were brought to the post. 
Much to your surprise, there wasn’t even a proper caption on the post. Instead, it was just a link to donate and a hashtag that said #BellLetsTalk. 
Bell Let’s Talk was something you were very familiar with. It was an annual event hosted by Bell, a major telecommunications company in Canada that was an awareness campaign to help bring attention to and support mental health initiatives across the country, as well as try to end the negative stigma that tends to surround mental health struggles. Although you believed that there should be events similar to this one for every day of the year as opposed to one, you still took part because regardless, it was still for a good cause.
During the event, which lasts 24 hours, Bell donates five cents for every call and text their customers send that day. The same thing goes for every Tweet that is shared using the Bell Let’s Talk hashtag and each time their promotional videos are shared and viewed, as well as a number of other ways for people to take part on all social media platforms.
It was a campaign you supported greatly with how close it hit to home. Having faced mental health struggles for much of your life and knowing how it truly was something that affected everyone in some way, you took part in Bell Let’s Talk and donated to the cause every year. However, up until that moment, you weren’t even aware of how that day was the day of the campaign. 
Your immediate thought was to go to Bell’s website so you could donate, but before you could do that, you noticed that what the Leafs posted was a video when JT’s face appeared on your screen. The video was muted, but you were quick in turning your volume up so you could hear what he was saying. 
“Today is Bell Let’s Talk Day,” he spoke calmly, before it cut to a clip of Mitchy. 
“Mental health is something that affects us all,” your cousin said. “Whether it be something you personally face, or maybe a loved one, it’s important to bring light to these struggles and help end the stigma that surrounds them.”
“People face internal battles that you know nothing about,” Auston’s voice started, then showed him wearing the exact same black hoodie and cream coloured beanie he’d been wearing all day. “There’s no way of knowing what someone may be going through regardless of what is seen on the outside and it’s up to us to be respectful of that. Kindness goes a lot further than unnecessary hate.”
“It’s ok to not be ok,” Mo spoke next. “Ways you can help end the stigma is by clicking the link below. If you’re unable to donate, a simple tweet using the Bell Let’s Talk hashtag, Snapchat filter, or view on Bell’s video will get five cents donated towards mental health initiatives across Canada. Help be the change.”
The video went dark, and you could feel the tears welled in your eyes as you closed out of the app then looked up at Auston as he entered the room again, chuckling slightly at the way the smile that was on his face dropped once he saw you. 
“Are you ok? Did something happen?” He asked, concerned.
“No,” you told him, smiling as you shook your head, but still being careful not to disturb Mia. “I’m fine, babe. I did just see the Bell Let’s Talk video the Leafs posted, though.”
“Oh, yeah, that’s what I had to run downtown for. Did I forget to tell you?”
“You didn’t forget. You’re not that smooth, Matthews.”
“Ok, ya got me there,” he replied, letting out a small laugh as he walked towards you, then crouched down so he’d be eye level with you. “I know how important this campaign is to you and with how you’ve been getting attacked even while dealing with your own shit so much lately, I figured this would be a good way for me to subtly address that issue as well as support a great cause.”
At that, you closed your eyes and shook your head again. 
“I don’t know what I did to deserve you,” you told him honestly, and didn’t miss the small grin that tugged at his lips once you opened your eyes again. “I mean it. Thank you, Auston. Thank you for caring and never making me feel like what goes on in my mind is a burden.”
“You’re never a burden to me, Y/N. Please don’t ever forget that.”
“I’ll try not to, I promise.”
“Good,” he responded, then leaned forward to meet your mouth in a sweet kiss. You smiled against his lips, then used your free arm that wasn’t wrapped around Mia to pull him closer. After a moment, the two of you broke away from each other, but Auston stayed where he was and leaned his forehead against yours and smirked. “Did you donate?”
“Not yet,” you told him, grinning because you knew where he was going with this. “I’m not telling you how much I’m donating either because I know you’ll try to one-up me like you do every year.”
“Just trying to support a good cause,” he shrugged, then winked at you. “Proud of you though for continuously supporting something you believe in though, babe. It’s kind of hot, I must say.”
You rolled your eyes. 
“Leave it to you to turn a serious talk into flirting.”
“Why are you acting surprised?”
“Oh, I’m not,” you stated. “I expect it at this point.”
“As you should,” Auston said then pecked your lips once more before standing up again. “Now, I don’t know about you, but I’m going to squeeze in a nap before that one wakes up again.”
“Well come on then,” you replied and scooted a little closer to Mia. The couch cushions were obnoxiously wide and Auston could easily fit where you and Mia were laying. The three of you had cuddled in that same position many times before and by the way Auston stayed smiling as you said that, you knew he wasn’t opposed to the idea either. 
“Well, if you insist,” he responded, then waited as you shifted onto your side so that you’d be facing Mia and Auston crawled into the space behind you, wasting no time in getting into a big spoon position as he held you close and you both eventually fell asleep too. 
~*~
The rest of Mia's birthday consisted of going over to Mitch and Steph's for dinner and not much else, but the birthday festivities didn't end there. Two days later was Mia's birthday party with all the friends and family that could make it, and you were pretty damn excited.
The day after Mia's birthday, Nate and Mya arrived. Mya stayed for the weekend and would be flying back to Vancouver on Sunday evening, the day after Mia's party. However, Nate came packed with a giant suitcase and a gym bag full of belongings seeing as he was going to be staying at your house for the foreseeable future. It wasn't really discussed just how long Nate would be staying, but you didn't feel like you needed to. You were happy to welcome your brother into your home for however long and could tell that Auston and Mia didn't hate the idea either. 
Nate made the five and a half-hour drive from Montreal to Toronto, getting to your house around noon, then crashed in one of the guest room he was claiming as his own for the duration of his stay. A couple of hours later, after he woke back up, the two of you took his car to Pearson so you could pick up Mya, then went back home to spend the rest of the evening hanging out. 
Mia refused to leave her aunt and uncle's side until she had to go to bed; she was just so happy to have them around again. Nate and Mya ended up being the ones to put her to bed that night before joining you and Auston back downstairs to watch a movie before you all soon went to bed as well. 
The next morning, you were up early so you could start making breakfast for everyone and get all the last minute things organized for Mia's party. Normally you'd spend some of your weekends doing freelance writing and editing, seeing as the rest of the week was consumed by your PR job, which luckily you were able to work from home doing both. But this weekend, you took off entirely and left open, so you could spend time with your loved ones and, of course,  celebrate your daughter all over again. 
Not long after you first got downstairs, Auston soon entered the kitchen carrying a still sleepy-looking Mia as she leaned against his shoulder and tiredly knuckled at her eyes. 
"Morning, mommy," she greeted, her voice a little scratchy once she and Auston were beside you, then leaned away from her dad so she could hug you. 
You were at the end of being 20 weeks pregnant, and your bump was enough proof of that. Every day you were convinced that your stomach got larger, but more importantly, you just couldn't believe that you were already halfway to meeting your new baby, and you were so excited. 
Mia became accustomed to resting against your bump whenever you held her. She claimed that 'her' baby was in there and would talk to your stomach from time to time as well. She was taking the idea of you being pregnant really well, even though she didn't fully understand it, but you couldn't be happier about it. 
"Good morning, sweet girl," you replied, then took her from Auston and held her on your side. "Are you hungry?"
"Yeah," she told you, then leaned against your shoulder just like she had with Auston. "Breakfast?"
"Yes, I'm making pancakes. Your favourite. Did you brush your teeth with daddy?"
"Yup!"
"Good job, baby," you responded, then placed a series of kisses on her cheek, earning yourself a series of giggles as she squirmed in your hold. Once she stopped moving around, you gave her a little squeeze and looked at your husband, who was looking towards you and Mia but seemed to be a little zoned out, then smiled. "Aus?"
"Hmm?" Auston asked and shook his head slightly before looking towards you.
"You seem in deep thought."
"Oh, uh, just thinking about everything, I guess. Mainly about how much I love my two girls, though."
You gave him a look in response, but he just smiled then engulfed both you and Mia in a bear hug. 
"Daddy!" Mia groaned and pushed him away, but she was trying to get a reaction from him with the way she was smiling at him.
"Mia! I'm hurt," he gasped as he moved away from the two of you and held a hand over his heart in fake pain. 
"What a drama queen," you whispered to Mia, making her giggle again. However, before she could respond, a genuine gasp left her mouth, which had both you and Auston on high alert. 
"Mama," she whined as she clung onto you but began squirming in your hold, moving her leg away from where it was resting against your stomach. "I don't like that."
She then looked down at your bump, which you had to admit, felt a little weird for some reason and then it all clicked. What you and Mia were feeling was your baby moving for the first time. 
"Oh, Mia," you started with a small laugh, then glanced towards Auston, who looked very confused. "That's the baby moving around."
"Wait, are you serious?" Auston asked, then moved towards you and went to place his hand on your stomach, his face lighting right up when he felt the movements too. "They're moving."
"They're moving," you repeated, then let out a small sob once Auston looked at you again. It simply wasn't possible for you not to cry during that moment, but at least they were happy tears. Your baby moving was the reminder you needed to know that every hill you've had to climb and will continue to during this pregnancy will be so worth it in the end. 
Auston then had you engulfed in another hug and kissed you sweetly before anything else can be said. However, it wasn't long until the moment was ruined by your two-year old. 
"Baby, stop!" Mia exclaimed, then reached for Auston again so she wouldn't have to feel the baby any longer. 
"Do you not want to feel your baby, mini?" Auston asked as he took Mia and tried not to laugh. 
"No," she replied grumpily, then hid her face against his chest, making both you and him unable to contain your laughter anymore. 
"What's going on?" Mya's voice spoke, causing you to glance towards the doorway into the kitchen just as she walked in.
"Tee!" Mia said excitedly, then reached towards your sister. Auston set her down, and she sped right over to Mya, who wasted no time in scooping her up and holding her close.
"Hi, bestie!" Mya replied, then hugged her niece before looking at you and Auston. "Mmm, it smells good in here. What're you making?"
"We've got some pancakes, sausage, bacon, fruit and toast right now," you told her, then glanced towards Auston. "If you guys want eggs, by all means, but I cannot do the smell of them right now."
"That's fine. I can make some if you want to go get dressed," Auston suggested and leaned down to peck your lips again. "That way, you won't have to smell them."
"Deal."
"Mia, wanna go wake up your Uncle Nate?" Mya asked. 
"Yeah!" Mia replied, smiling widely as Mya carried her out of the room. 
You then looked at Auston, who was smirking at you before shaking your head again and heading upstairs with Frank to get changed into the outfit you planned on wearing that day. 
About 45 minutes later, you were changed, had eaten breakfast with your family and were now getting everything organized before everyone began arriving at your house for the party. Once you were all done eating and everyone helped clean up, Nate and Mya started getting dressed to go outside. 
"You guys going somewhere?" You asked the two of them as you stepped into the foyer from the living room. 
"Uh, yeah, we just have to go pick something up real quick," Nate explained, awkwardly glancing towards Mya as if silently asking for help as he did so. 
"Ok, weirdos. Everyone's going to start getting here around 4."
"We'll be back in like an hour," Mya stated, then glared at Nate, making it known that the two of them were up to something.
"Y'all are shady," you teased. "Where are you even going?"
"Hey, Mia, want to come with us?" Nate asked, then tried to glance around you to see where Mia was in the living room still with Auston—smoothly changing the subject.  
"Ok!" Your daughter replied, then came running into the foyer and over to her aunt and uncle. 
"You can't just take my kid," you scoffed. 
"We'll be right back," Mya said again, then started helping Mia put on her coat and boots. "She'll be fine."
"Babe, they're right," Auston spoke up as he came up behind you and wrapped his arms around your middle. "She'll be fine with them. You know that."
"Fine," you grumbled and leaned back against Auston. "But not for too long. Mia's going to need a nap still before people start getting here. Also, just take my car, so you don't have to move her car seat."
"Sounds good," Nate responded as he opened the front door, then held his hand out for Mia to take, and the two of them walked out of the house together. 
"See ya!" Mya said, then went outside after the other two and closed the door behind her, leaving you and Auston alone in the house with Frank.
"They're up to something," you told Auston, then turned around in his hold so you could face each other. 
"When aren't they?" Auston chuckled. "I swear those two are always plotting."
"You've got a point."
He smiled at that, which soon turned into a smirk. 
"I didn't get the chance to say how good you look, baby."
"Oh," you replied softly, then glanced down at your outfit. You weren't wearing anything spectacular for the party, just a pair of ripped maternity jeans that fit you really well and a black off the shoulder long-sleeved shirt that admittedly did make your boobs look good. The outfit was accessorized with a gold necklace with a little circular disc that had an Aquarius symbol on it, Mia's zodiac sign that Steph gifted you on your birthday the year Mia was born, along with a bracelet Auston got you as a wedding gift. Your hair was in simple waves, but it seemed so soft and was glowing, which tied everything together. The more you thought about it, the more you realized that he was right. You did look good. 
Auston told you that you were beautiful every day, but this was the first day in a while that you actually felt that way. Every one who would be at Mia's party knew you were pregnant, so you didn't feel the need to hide it. Sure, you knew you didn't have to hide your pregnancy regardless, but with your loved ones, you felt comfortable enough to let your pregnancy glow really show. 
You then moved your gaze back to Auston and smiled. 
"Thank you, babe," you told him and welcomed the way his hands lingered on your waist as he pulled you closer. 
"Do you think we have time to go upstairs and, well, you know," he suggested as he looked down at you with heavy eyes full of lust. 
You bit down on your bottom lip, pondering what he was proposing for a moment, then grinned and took his hand to lead him up to your bedroom. 
"Yes, but let's make it quick."
About an hour later, after you and Auston were done with your activities upstairs, the two of you went back down to the living room and cuddled on the couch with Frank as you both waited for Nate, Mya and Mia to return home.
Not too long after that, you heard a car pull into the driveway and knew they were back. You and Auston didn't move from your spot until the front door opened. Mia's giggles filled the house, which instantly made you smile as you shifted out of Auston's hold and got up from the couch, but your mouth soon dropped open when you turned around to look into the foyer and saw a familiar blonde standing there holding your daughter. 
"Lexie?" You asked and covered your mouth as tears began pricking at your eyes as you rushed around the couch so you could greet your best friend. 
Lexie was your oldest friend. The two of you met when her family moved into a house down the street when you were both eight years old and have been inseparable ever since. She had been by your side for as long as you could remember and never strayed away. Lexie played a major role in helping you cope with your mom's death when you were 13. She was with you through the shitshow that your life felt like after you found out your ex-boyfriend, Chris, who you had been with since you were 16, was cheating on you and broke up with him five months before you met Auston and stuck around for everything in between. Nate and Mya called her their sister, and Mitch called her his honorary twin. That's how close the two of you were. 
She was also your roommate all through university, saw your relationship with Auston form and was just someone you've confided in for most of your life. Almost 20 years after the two of you first met, you were both still so incredibly close. Even though she moved to the States after you both graduated, that did nothing to strain your friendship. She was a bridesmaid in your wedding, a prominent figure in Mia's life regardless of the distance and just truly one of the best friends you've ever had. 
You and Lexie would talk at least once a week, and during your conversation the weekend prior, she apologized for not being able to come back to Toronto for Mia's birthday. It was apparent that she felt terrible, and sure, you were bummed you wouldn't be able to see your best friend, but you weren't upset. You understood that she couldn't make it, but now she was standing in your foyer, and you didn't know how to act. 
"What are you doing here?"
"What do you mean, what am I doing here?" Lexie scoffed and winked at you as she gave Mia a little squeeze. "Couldn't miss this little girl's second birthday, now could I?"
"Lexie, mama!" Mia said excitedly and couldn't stop smiling, making you feel like your heart could burst. 
Nate and Mya then peaked their heads in through the door, smiling widely. 
"Surprise!" They said in unison before coming into the house carrying bags. You then heard more doors close outside and felt confused once again. 
"I hope you don't mind, but why we really needed your car was because we needed it to pick up some other people from the airport too," Nate explained, then nodded towards the doorway just as Ema walked through the door with the rest of Auston's family not too far behind. 
You were full-on sobbing by that point and were quick in turning to hide against Auston's chest so no one would have to see your ugly cry as Auston laughed and wrapped his arms around you. 
"I'm surprised you all were able to pull it off," he said, then kissed the top of your head. 
"Wait, you were in on this?" You scolded as you moved away to look up at him, but as he grinned at you, you couldn't even pretend to be mad, then hugged him again. "Thank you, Auston."
After that, you pulled away from your husband to hug Lexie and Auston's family before everyone got settled in. 
When you and Auston first moved into your home in Toronto, it always felt big, but that was exactly what you wanted. Although there was one less bedroom now that the one across the hall from Mia's room was being transformed into a nursery, there was still enough room for everyone. Nate claimed one of the guest bedrooms on the main floor to sleep in for the duration of his stay at your house, then Mya and Lexie took the other main floor bedroom, which they would share for the next couple of days until they both had to leave. Auston's family took the basement, which was finished with two bedrooms, a washroom and a pullout couch in the living area. 
It was a full house but in the best way possible and only got better when everyone started arriving for Mia's party. 
Mitch and Steph arrived first, naturally, and you were quick in finding out that they too were in on Lexie, surprising you. Mitchy then immediately scooped up Mia as she came running into the foyer to greet him and Steph. He made his way down the hall towards the kitchen with her to say hi to everyone, leaving you and Steph to give each other a knowing look on how it'd be a while before anyone else got the chance to hang out with the birthday girl. 
Mitch's parents and brother Chris arrived not too long after, so did some friends and guys from the team along with their significant others and kids. Then the party really began. 
Mia loved having so many people she knew and loved around and had no issue being the centre of attention either. Once Mitch finally set her down again, she immediately went over to Freddie, Will and Mo, three of her favourite guys, and just sat on Fred's lap, completely content as he continued the conversation he was having. 
 An hour or so went by, and Mia was still living her best life. You and Auston knew that she would go to sleep smoothly that night because of how exhausted she'd be, but she was having so much fun, so it was definitely worth it. 
After everyone had something to eat and those who weren't driving grabbed another drink, you all gathered in the living room and dining room so Mia could open the excessive amount of gifts she had waiting for her. She got equipped, putting on her Prada bucket hat as she sat on Alex's lap then dug right in. 
Spoiled was an easy way of putting it when it came to the things Mia received for her birthday, but even then, she didn't let it get to her head. After every gift she opened, Alex would tell her who it was from, and Mia would climb off her lap, go over to whoever the present was from to hug them and say thank you before going back to her aunt and opening the next thing. 
You and Auston stood in the doorway, watching it all unfold. He stood behind you, his arms wrapped around your front again as you leaned back against him, his head gently resting on top of yours. You were pretty sure you saw Steph taking a picture of the two of you out of the corner of your eye, but you brushed it off as you shifted and placed a soft peck to Auston's bicep. 
"I still can't believe she's two," Auston said, thinking his voice was only loud enough for you to hear but was greatly mistaken. 
"Great, here we go," Lexie started from where she stood a few feet away, then looked over to where Mitch, Steph, Nate and Mya were all standing and held up her half-empty wine glass. "Drink."
They all took a drink, and that's when you noticed that many others in the room did too. 
"Hey," Auston whined as he looked around at everyone. "What's going on?"
"We all made a drinking game," Will spoke up. "Whenever you get sulky about Mia being a year older, we have to drink."
"I'm allowed to be, ok!" Auston defended, meanwhile you were trying not to cry laugh. 
"That's another drink," Mitchy stated, then cheered his drink with Mo before they all took a sip again. 
Auston looked so offended, which only made it better as everyone started laughing. 
"Babe, do you see what they're doing to us?" He asked and looked down at you. 
"This isn't about Y/N. This is about you," Bre told him. 
"Yeah, we only drink when it's you getting emotional," Steph elaborated. "Y/N is pregnant. She gets a free pass."
"Well, I'll just keep my mouth shut then, I guess," Auston grumbled, then went back to leaning against you and lowered his voice. "Even though she's going to be my mini forever."
"Drink!"
~*~
Almost a week later, you found yourself laying on the bed in the same building your doctor was in, about to get an ultrasound so you could see how your baby was doing and find out their gender. 
It was just a regular Friday afternoon, and you hadn't done a whole lot that morning, but you were exhausted. You had trouble falling asleep the night before because you got so nervous. Although you were just having a regular checkup with your doctor then getting the ultrasound done, you couldn't help but feel anxious because you kept worrying you were going be told something you didn't want to hear yet again when it came to you and your baby. 
You were scared, to put it simply. But luckily for you, Auston was there. 
Bye week had come to an end, and Auston was back playing games again, but they were at home. After the game he was to play the following day, the Leafs would be on the road again. But you got almost two full weeks of your husband being at home the entire time, so you weren't going to be greedy about it either. 
Auston had a practice that morning, so the plan was for him to meet you downtown for your appointments after. Your first appointment wasn't until 2pm, so as you waited until then, you, Mia, Nate, Steph and Lexie all got lunch downtown with Auston's family. Auston's family was flying back to Arizona that weekend, so it was just them and Nate in the house still, but you loved it. 
Ema, Alex and Bre all joined you for a few trips to various stores as you slowly continued getting things ready for your baby's nursery, and you spent a lot of nights in the kitchen having talks with Brian about everything going on in life. You adored Auston's family, that was a known thing, and you couldn't even begin to explain how much it meant to have them around and as involved as they were.
The same went for Nate and Lexie. He'd only been staying at your house for a week, but Nate had been so helpful around the house without you even having to ask. He just did his own thing but was also there helping with chores, keeping Mia occupied while you did work and taking Frank for walks whenever he felt like stepping out of the house for a bit. Lexie only stayed at your house for a couple of nights before visiting with friends and family she hadn't seen since the last time she was in Toronto. You still saw her almost every day, though. There was even a day where you and Mia joined her in driving a couple of hours out of the city to visit her parents, who you hadn't seen in a long time. But were always like second parents to you. 
Lexie would be staying in the city for at least another week, which was terrific. You had so many people that you cared about around again, which was amazing. You still had your usual Toronto fam, too, with Mitchy, Steph and some of the other guys on the team along with their wives and girlfriends. You still got to see a lot even without going to as many games as you usually would if you felt better physically. 
You woke up that morning feeling a little lightheaded and nauseous, which you immediately assumed was because of your anemia, but you knew it was also because of your nerves. However, as the day progressed and you spent time with your loved ones, you gradually felt better about your upcoming appointments. Then when you met up with Auston after lunch, those worries went away even more. 
Just having him near did wonders for your nerves seeing as he and Mia were two of your constant reminders that everything would be alright. 
The appointment with your doctor went much better than you were expecting. She could tell you were nervous but had nothing bad to share, which made you feel like an invisible weight had been lifted from your chest. Your baby was healthy, and so were you, which is all you wanted to hear before going down a couple of floors to where you'd be getting your ultrasound done. 
Mia was so good during it all too, and Auston was a big reason for that. She was just naturally more comfortable in any setting whenever he was around. Although she wasn't a fan of all the weird-looking machines in the ultrasound room, Auston kept her calm as the two of them chatted from where they sat on the other side of the room.
"Mia, what is with you and touching my moustache today?" Auston asked, making you laugh as you turned your head towards them and continued waiting for the doctor to come in. He had a point, though. Mia had been oddly fascinated by his moustache that day and just wouldn't stop poking it. Just after he said that she touched it again. "Mini!"
"Caterpillar, daddy," she replied casually, making Auston's mouth fall open in disbelief, and you gasp as you tried to contain your laughter. 
"Excuse me, did you just say my moustache looked like a caterpillar?"
"Yup," she confirmed, earning a scoff from her father. "Not pretty, though."
"I, I don't even know what to say to that," he responded, feeling speechless as he looked towards you for help.
"Don't look at me," you chuckled. "I haven't been telling her that, but I think I know who has."
"Hmm, looks like someone has been spending too much time with her uncle," Auston said, knowing what you were implying as he looked back to Mia. "The next time Uncle Nate says that mini, you tell him that at least your daddy can grow a moustache, unlike him."
"Oh, my God," you groaned, still smiling but soon had to recollect yourself as the doctor came in and did your ultrasound. 
The ultrasound also went really well. It didn't take too long. The doctor was great and even let Mia come over to stand next to the bed and hold your hand as it all happened. Then you, her and Auston were able to go back home together, having further confirmation that your baby was doing ok and their gender. 
You were thrilled. Both you and Auston cried a little bit after finding out and couldn't stop smiling as you explained what it all meant to Mia. 
Once the three of you got home, you all went upstairs to your bedroom and decided to lay down together. No one else was home, everyone was out still, and you knew they wouldn't be back until closer to dinnertime, which gave the perfect opportunity for a little family nap. 
After you changed into some comfy clothes, you and Mia got all snuggled in bed together as Frank curled up at the end of it, and Auston went into the ensuite to take a quick shower. Mia was fading fast as she cuddled you, resting against your bump and fighting to keep her eyes open as you mindlessly played with her curls. 
A few minutes later, Auston emerged from the ensuite, but Mia was already asleep. He couldn't help but smile at the sight of his two girls and wasted no time walking over to the bed. You went to shift to look at him better, but he quickly stopped you.
"Wait, no, can you stay like that for a sec?"
"Oh," you replied, confused, but still did as he asked. 
Auston then grabbed his phone and held it above where you and Mia were lying so he could snap a picture of the two of you. You chuckled and immediately looked down towards Mia so that your face would be covered by your hair a little bit. Once he was done taking the picture, he sat down and looked towards you again. 
"She's really going to be a big sister soon," he said disbelievingly and shook his head. "Like we've known for months now, but I just still can't wrap my head around it."
"Me neither," you told him and smiled softly. "Everything is going to be so different, but in the best possible way. Hell, even this pregnancy has been different. I'm not even referring to what I've been going through, either. This has really been able to stay our little secret aside from our loved ones, and that just feels good. We're going to be the ones to share our news, not anyone else."
"Exactly. Speaking of that, I think I have an idea for how we can share our news before we lose our chance to do so."
"It's overly dramatic, isn't it?"
"A little bit," he admitted. "But in a good way. Might end up breaking the internet a little bit, though."
"Auston," you started, feeling a little unsure. 
"Only if you're ok with it, of course. We don't have to."
After he explained his idea, you shook your head at how wild it was. 
"Babe, that'll literally be how our friends and family find out what we're having too. You know that, right?"
"I do," Auston nodded. "Which makes me want to do it a bit more. I'm feeling kind of chaotic."
"I can tell," you responded as he crawled under the blankets on the other side of Mia, then looked back to you. "But, if that's what you want to do, then sure. I'm just glad it's on our terms."
"Me too, just get ready for all the calls and texts from everyone."
"Oh, I'm ready."
The two of you fell silent as Auston went on his phone, then a couple of moments later, your phone lit up with a notification saying that you'd been tagged in a picture on Instagram. Although you already knew what it was, you still gave Auston a look, then unlocked your phone to see what the picture was of and felt speechless as you took it in. 
The photo was the one he'd just taken about ten minutes prior, and it was beautiful. Your baby blue sweater stuck out against the white bedding you laid on and looked aesthetically pleasing with the way it matched the tiny elastic that was holding Mia's hair away from her face as she slept. Mia's face was only partially visible as she laid next to you with her arm draped over your bump. Your face was in it more than Mia's was, which you preferred, and you were looking down at Mia with a huge smile, and even you had to admit, it was a lovely picture. Auston sure was getting better with using portrait mode.
However, this picture wasn't just announcing your pregnancy to the world. It also revealed something else that Auston typed out as the photo's caption. 
Baby boy Matthews, coming soon. See you in June, little man. 💙
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A/N: This is a Hux x reader request I got in my DMs! Also, I wrote this on the Tumblr app, so I don’t know if there will be any formatting issues. If there are, I’ll fix them later on! I’m nervous, as I’ve never written Hux before, but I hope I did him justice! Your request is only part of the fic, but I hope you like it all the same. Enjoy!
Request from @bbarton : hi!! can i request hux x reader (secret relationship bc she has a lower status than him) where he gets jealous bc he sees someone flirting with her!! <3
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General Armitage Hux had a reputation to uphold. He was cold, calculating. Officers and stormtrooper’s alike scampered away from him in the hallways. He knew what his inferior officers thought of him, and he used it to his advantage. If they’re scared, he thought, they’re less likely to rebel. And so, to ensure they stayed scared, he was more than happy to play the role of tyrant whenever the opportunity presented itself. If the new recruit fumbled and spilled coffee, he screamed at them in the middle of the mess hall. If a lieutenant failed to get a report in on time, they were publicly demoted. Officers were interchangeable in this profession, so as one was demoted, another was promoted to replace them. It sent a clear message: The Order does not need you. You are lucky to be here. You are lucky that The Order allows you to be here. It kept them in line.
General Armitage Hux had a reputation to uphold. He wasn’t known to be lovable and cuddly. Growing up, his father ensured that he never entertained the thought of a marriage based on love. From a young age, it was clear to Armitage that any marriage he partook in would be solely for the sake of siring an heir. Someone to continue the Hux line, ensure that the family name lived on past the individual. He definitely never saw you coming. You, soft and gentle, loving and warm. You, with a motherly embrace to rival the one he had conjured in his head. You took care of him, before he even knew what you were doing. Bringing him his tarine tea that he enjoyed so much, ensuring he ate at least two meals per day. At first, he genuinely thought that you were his new assistant. He thought that the Supreme Leader had assigned you to him without telling him, and who was he to question the Supreme Leader? But when he handed you a stack of paperwork about two months into your taking care of him and told you to transcribe all of the documents into basic and load them onto his datapad, you had giggled at him. He was almost offended, and he would have reeled back and screamed at you, if he wasn’t so entranced by the musical noise that was bubbling out of your mouth.
“Is...Is something funny, officer?” He had managed to choke out, his strangled voice surprising even himself. You smiled that wonderful smile, which he now realized was reserved for only him.
“No, sir, not funny per se, just...mildly amusing. I regret to inform you that I am not here to do Lieutenant Mitaka’s paper work for him.” You walked over to Mitaka’s desk, dropping the stack of papers there and writing a little note to stick to the top of the pile. Hux remembered purposefully looking anywhere but your rear end, which was poking out as you leaned over the desk.
“I beg your pardon?” Hux cleared his throat, cursing the hoarseness that lingered in his throat. Why was he suddenly becoming so affected by you? Perhaps it was because that was the first time he was seeing you. He’d known what you looked like, sure, but he’d never taken the time to really look at you. The way your eyes lit up when you smiled, the way your uniform hugged your body in just the right way to make his mouth water. The sheen of the lip balm you wore, glistening just enough under the fluorescent lighting of Starkiller Base to bring attention to those tantalizing lips.
“Well, it’s just that, you know I don’t work for you, don’t you?” Your voice had snapped him out of his thoughts, ringing through the air. You were looking at him, an amused smile on your lips.
“I beg your pardon?” He repeated, dumbly. He silently cursed himself again, before continuing, “If you do not work for me, then what is it that you are doing here, officer?”
“Why, making sure you don’t run yourself into the ground, of course,” you tilted your head at him, still smiling so happily, as if you were amused by his confusion. “Someone has to take care of you, General. I couldn’t exactly turn a blind eye when I noticed that you’d been skipping meal times.”
“And who do you work for, then?” Armitage was still confused. How could you have this spare time to constantly check on him? It made no sense.
“I’m part of the Cradle Initiative.” Finally, it’d hit Hux like a freight train. The Cradle Initiative was thought to be a joke among superior officers in the First Order. An old wives’ tale, even. The generation of First Order officers before Hux had often joked that the incoming line of soon-to-be generals and commanders were too soft. They needed to be nursed and taken care of. Cradled. And so, the newest generation of foundlings that the Order collected were put into the Cradle Initiative. These officers were trained to essentially be mother hens. They were taught how to cook, clean, and nurture. There were even some lessons on how to nurture children. Some factions of the Cradle Initiative were specifically to breed and nurture the next generation of the First Order. The rest were sent to First Order bases, where their job was quite literally to take care of everyone. It all made sense now.
“I see. So you...assist me—”
“—Take care of,” you interrupted with the ghost of a smirk on your face.
“—Take care of me,” he gritted out, “because you are part of the Cradle Initiative.”
“My, nothing gets past you, General,” you’d teased, rather boldly, in Hux’s opinion. Most would dive headfirst into the Tattooine suns before teasing a superior that way. “Yes, I was put on this base to take care of you and your fellow officers.”
Hux had nodded stiffly. Of course you would take care of him. It was your job. Nothing more than that. It was silly of him to ever entertain the idea—
“But I must tell you, General, that I check on you most frequently because I want to. I like knowing that you are taken care of. I like knowing that you’re not running yourself into the ground. I like being around you.”
From that moment on, you became Hux’s closest confidant. He would confide in you about Ren’s tantrums, and you would patch him up when the tantrums were taken out on him. Things changed, though, after you spent the night with him. It was entirely innocent, really, you had just fallen asleep while cuddling him after he woke up from a nightmare. He had those often, nightmares about his father’s abuse. At first, he was ashamed that you’d seen him in such a weak state, but the shameful feeling was pushed aside as you slid onto the bed and gently laid your hand on his knee.
“I’m here to take care of you, General,” you reminded him softly.
“Armitage,” he blurted out, “call me Armitage when we’re alone.”
You smiled and repeated his name, the word sounding too lovely as it fell from your lips. He couldn’t help himself. He kissed you. And you had kissed him back. You’d wrapped your arms around him and laid with him the entire night.
That night changed everything. You both knew that if anyone knew of your relationship, it would change how you were viewed. The officers of the Cradle Initiative already had a reputation for essentially being prostitutes. They were often ridiculed, and told that they were there to be bred with and that’s it. You’d be publicly humiliated if anyone knew you were in a relationship with the highest ranking general of the First Order. So you had to hide. And then there was the most important reason.
General Armitage Hux had a reputation to uphold. He couldn’t risk his officers thinking he had gone soft. There was too much at stake, and he needed to have their complete respect and loyalty.
But then he saw that damned Lieutenant Trecol Verstan. Verstan was a thorn in Hux’s side from the very beginning, constantly questioning and defying his orders. He was one misstep away from being demoted to janitorial staff. And it appeared that he would be making that misstep today.
Upon entering the somewhat crowded command center, Hux’s eyes immediately zeroed in on you, and he saw red. Verstan was currently leaned up against the wall, his arm caging you in as he chattered into about Maker knows what. He was likely telling a highly fictionalized version of his last mission, during which he hid on the ship while the stormtroopers assigned to help him gathered Resistance sympathizers and took them hostage. You were smiling, but it was a thin smile, as if Verstan was testing your patience. Because, he was. You were struggling to come up with a solid enough reason to walk away, when you felt a familiar presence sidle up next to you.
General Armitage Hux had a reputation to uphold.
“Is there a problem, Officer Verstan?” Hux asked, purposefully using the wrong title to refer to the man.
“Lieutenant,” Verstan insisted, huffing in annoyance.
“Yes, well, I don’t think my fiancée needs to hear anymore about your cowardice on Kijimi, Officer Verstan.” Your head snapped to stare at Armitage, jaw dropping a bit.
You saw Verstan’s jaw drop even further than yours did, immediately growing bright red and backing away quickly.
“I-I had no idea, General Hux, if I had known I never would have—”
“Harassed a fellow officer? I’m sure that wouldn’t have stopped you, Officer Verstan.” Hux’s tone was even, almost dangerously so.
“L-Lieutenant...” Verstan muttered under his breath, clearly embarrassed at being degraded in front of his fellow officers and superiors.
“No, no. You’ve been demoted. Between harassing a fellow officer, and your performance on Kijimi, which was nothing short of disgraceful, you’ve made it clear that you do not deserve the title and responsibilities that come with the lieutenant position. You will now be an officer, acting under the guidance of Lieutenant Mitaka. I suppose, in a way, due to the pecking order on this base, that means you work under me. Well, that is to say that I am your superior’s superior. How nice.” Hux looked the most amused anyone, aside from you, had ever seen him.
He turned to you, about to speak, before realizing that Verstan was still standing there, gaping like a fish. “Are you still here, Officer?”
Verstans ears burned red as he scurried away, hurrying out of the command center.
You were still staring up at Hux, eyes wide and shining. He turned back to you, stepping close and murmuring an, “Are you alright, my love?”
You were so unused to him openly showing any care for you, for reasons you both agreed on. He kept his hands clasped behind his back, but you were now standing toe to toe, close enough to kiss him. You wouldn’t, because you didn’t know where his boundaries were right now, but the thought did cross your mind.
“I’m alright. Thank you for that. I’m sorry I couldn’t get rid of him.” You felt his breath fan across your face as he sighed.
“My darling, I could never be upset with you. You have my complete trust.”
You smiled softly at that. You knew he loved you, of course, but to hear that he trusted you always felt good.
“I know,” you spoke softly, “I know you trust me, and I trust you. With my life, Armitage.”
As he was about to close the gap between you, he realized that the command center was quiet. Too quiet. He lifted his gaze from yours to see that everyone in the command center had frozen during the exchange with Verstan, and they were still watching with intrigue. Some looked absolutely astonished, while others had knowing smirks.
“Unless you are all looking to join Verstan in his demotion, I suggest you get back to work.” His voice was calm enough, but he spoke with such a commanding tone that everyone in the command center scrambled to look busy. Those that could find an excuse scurried out of the room entirely.
Hux led you out of the command center, hands still behind his back, but your hand loosely nestled in the crook of his elbow. Everyone would know within the hour, what did it matter now? There was no point in trying to hide anymore, he thought to himself, as he guided you into his quarters. Your quarters too, he supposed. You basically lived with him at this point.
“So fiancée, huh?” Your teasing voice had his attention snapping back to you in an instant. While he was lost in thought, you have perched yourself on the small loveseat that sat to the left of center in his quarters, next to the electric fireplace. “When were you planning to ask me about this? Where’s my ring, Armitage?”
You were joking, and he knew you were only teasing him to make him blush. You loved being the only one able to fluster him. Still, he turned away from you, walking into the bedroom and digging through the nightstand. He emerged before you could even question him, and walked over so quickly that you didn’t even register it until he was on one knee in front of you, breathing your name in that soft way that was reserved only for you.
“My love,” he began, “I never thought I would find anyone like you. I assumed that I would never marry for love, it would simply be an arrangement of convenience. But when I met you, I knew that the tightness in my chest was love. I knew that the lightheadedness that set in whenever you smiled at me was love. I knew that the feeling of something missing whenever you left the room was love. I love you. And at first, that terrified me. I didn’t want anyone to hold the power over me that you hold. But when you held me through the night after witnessing one of my lowest moments, I knew you would never abuse that power. You’ve proven time and time again that you love me just as much as I love you. There is no one else that I could fathom a life with. There is no one else I could love. There is only you. Will you do me the honor of marrying me?”
You were crying now. You had been joking around before, but now, with Armitage on one knee in front of you, you knew that you’d never say no to him. “Yes! Yes, Armitage, yes!”
You waited until he slipped the ring onto your finger before launching yourself at him, holding him tighter than he’d ever been held.
“I love you, so much, Armitage,” you cried into his neck. His arms wrapped around you, one hand tangling in your hair.
“I love you, my darling.”
General Armitage Hux had a reputation to uphold. Everyone knew who he was, and everyone was terrified of him. After news of your engagement broke, everyone knew not to touch you. Those who’d seen what happened with Verstan were most likely to stay away. About a week later, there was an incident with a newly recruited officer who thought perhaps they could charm you into cheating on Hux, reaching out to try to feel you up, but before Hux could even think to do anything, you had the offending arm pinned behind the officer’s back. Armitage had never been prouder.
General Armitage Hux had a reputation to uphold. And you, as his fiancée, took it upon yourself to ensure that reputation stayed intact.
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