#i'm glad it waited to do this until after i finished making chapter 7 of my comic so i don't technically need to use it much

[arcaneyouth]

my shit ass gamer chair has developed a quirky lil issue where the seat won't stay up and is constantly sinking down and there's nothing i can do about it. it'll last for like 2 hours and then i just can't use it anymore. and i don't feel good asking my parents for a replacement we do not have that money rn. and i apparently don't know how to tell if a chair is going to be good before it gets here (i chose this chair. it's lasted less than a year) so i would have to ask my parents to figure it out for me and they don't have that time. so. i'm kinda just. not able to use my computer for very long. so that's awesome.

[thaliaisalesbian]

i get myself twisted in threads

Chapter 15: i tell you that i think i'm falling

Chapters: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16

“Will is staying the night. Jonathan should also stay the night.” Hopper is going to kill him. He’s dead.

“You’re not dating Will, El.” Steve tries to explain. She just thinks that since she’s got someone staying over, he should also have someone staying over.

“El, I have work in the morning.” Jonathan saves him. “I’d have to get up, like, super early and go home and change, so it doesn’t make sense for me to stay the night. Besides, I’m sure you don’t want me interrupting your reading time.”

Steve’s not sure he wants reading time tonight, honestly. Nancy had read them a few chapters of her old copy of Anne of Green Gables—one time, when she’d been sick, Steve had come over and tried to read some of it to her. Since then, they’d taken turns with it, at least until they broke up.

That had been good, but their surprise—it wasn’t the cookies, which were good, and would have been just fine as his surprise.

No, what they gave him, sitting in the car right before they left the park to drop Nancy off for her church dinner, is something he never would have expected them to even know he liked.

Carol’s the only person who's ever known about this. It’s something they shared when before Tommy, and then after Tommy, usually when Tommy was being a dick.

He doesn’t even know how they got some of these. Steve doesn’t want to know how long it took them to collect them all, and then organize them like this for him.

They’d had to make this all by hand. For him, at such short notice.

Steve can’t even figure out how they made the cover so thick, it’s almost like a published cookbook.

Nancy and Jonathan alternated recipes, and there’s a Polaroid of the finished product—he’s pretty sure some of the dishes are Mrs. Henderson’s—in the corner of the final page of each one.

He doesn’t recognize the cursive on the front: Knead for Sweets.

It’s so cheesy, and it’s so nice and well-thought out. He wants to spend the next month going through each recipe, making them until he can get them perfect.

He wants to know how in the world Nancy and Jonathan knew that while he likes cooking just fine, he loves baking. He can’t bake right now—Hopper and El won’t let him, and he could work with the space limitations but he might run out of pots and pans.

He wants to spend the night flipping through the recipes, seeing how many they’d been able to collect.

He’s glad they waited until they got to the car to give it to him; as soon as he realized what they’d done, he’d almost started crying.

It’s just so much effort, and time, to get the whole thing together. To get people to agree to give up family recipes, and then to write them out all, and take pictures of each dish.

“Yes, but you can be part of the reading, too.” El says, staring Jonathan down. “And you can get up early. You can just share the bed with Steve, like Will is sharing mine.”

“El, what are Hopper’s rules about you and Mike?” Jonathan asks.

“We have to leave the door open three inches. He cannot stay the night in my room, even though Will can.”

“What do you think the rules are for me, Nancy, and Steve, since we’re dating?”

“You are older.”

“That doesn’t mean the rules don’t apply. It’s true that some rules don’t apply because we’re older, but those ones do. It’s okay, El, really.”

“Fine.” El glares at Jonathan the whole time he’s leaving, not even looking away like Will does when he kisses Steve goodbye.

“El, that wasn’t very nice.”

“Well, he should want to stay with you! He likes you and he should want to stay here, no matter what Hop says.”

“El, just because he left doesn’t mean he didn’t want to stay.” Will tells her. “Besides, wouldn’t the bed be crowded with four of us? We’ve still got to read our book.”

“It would, but that is okay. We will be fine.”

“Would Steve be fine? He’s still healing.”

“Oh.” El looks at him again. “I am sorry, Steve. But he made you happy today, and I wanted him to stay and make you happy again.”

She’s not wrong about that, but she’s also not supposed to know that.

“El, what did we say about watching me?”

“You did not make any rules for weekends.”

“We’ll do that tomorrow, then. It’s bedtime.”

“It’s like, nine!” Will’s face screws up in the same way Jonathan’s does when he’s protesting. “That’s too early, we’re not little kids!”

“You’re right. You’re babies.”

“Steve!”

But El’s already headed to her room to change, so Will won’t have any ground to stand on much longer.

“Go get ready for bed, kiddo.”

“I’m not a baby!”

“A tall toddler, then.”

“Steeeeve!” It’s a tone he’s much more used to hearing from Dustin, but god it is fun to mess with these kids a little. He can’t be the nice babysitter all the time, he has to keep them on their toes, or they’ll start to think they can boss him around and get whatever they want.

(They can, but he can’t let them know that. They have to figure it out for themselves.)

Steve puts Knead for Sweets away before the kids come in to read. He’s not hiding it, not really, he just wants to keep it nice.

And if he wants to keep the wonder of the whole thing to himself for a while, then that’s for him to know.

finish on ao3 or continue reading

Jonathan can’t pretend he hasn’t noticed that the kids have picked up on the way he, Nancy, and Steve have been acting around each other. Will and El are the only ones they’ve actually told, but there are going to be questions from the others soon enough.

“Hello, Jonathan.” He won’t lie and say it doesn’t make him jump. That’s been one of El’s favorite things lately. Mostly with him and Nancy.

Okay, it’s only with him and Nancy.

“What’s up, El?”

“When are you going to take Steve somewhere again?”

Well, they’re going to a drive-in movie tonight, because Jonathan knows that Steve is still anxious about being seen around town. 

“Tonight, why?” She stares at him for a minute.

“If you make him sad again, you can’t take him places anymore.”

“Make him sad? What do you mean?” Steve hadn’t seemed sad at all after their first date; sure, he’d cried a little when they gave him the cookbook, but he’d said he was happy with it.

“He was upset, after you left.”

“El, what are you telling Jonathan?”

“He is not allowed to make you sad.” El doesn’t look at Steve. He’s walking a little more now, opting only to use his crutches on bad days.

“He didn’t make me sad, El. The recipe book he and Nancy made for me was a really nice and thoughtful thing to do, and it made me happy.”

“But then he left.”

“Yes, he did, but not because he wanted to leave. I was a little sad about that, maybe, but he can’t not go to work.”

“You don’t go to work.”

“I can barely walk, El, of course I don’t go to work.”

And Steve has never needed a job in the way Jonathan has, but that’s not something they need to explain to El right now.

“Where are you going?”

“El, no spying on us.” Steve says. “I know you like to check in, but not tonight, okay? Nancy, Jonathan, and I are trying to have some alone time.”

“Ew.” She crinkles up her nose. “Max says alone time is code for ‘things you don’t want kids to know about.’”

“Not always, but if it makes you stop checking in, then sure.” Steve finally gets over to Jonathan. “What time are we picking Nance up?”

“We’ve got about an hour.”

“So we could surprise her with slushies?”

“Yeah, if you want.”

“Nice.” Kissing Steve isn’t like kissing Nancy, not that he’d expected it to be, but it’s still good. Between the two of them, Jonathan thinks he can learn about the type of kisses that bring people to write so many poems about romantic love.

Still, it doesn’t mean he’s about to start writing poems or anything. He’ll stick with his camera and the darkroom.

He’s got some pictures to show Steve and Nancy today, too. He’d gotten these done as fast as he could, but it’d still taken longer than he would have liked. And he’s still got more to do.

It’s too bad that it’s going to be too dark for pictures at the drive-in. Otherwise, Jonathan could probably get a few good ones.

“Do you know if El has said anything to other kids?”

“About us dating? I don’t think so, but I haven’t asked. Pretty sure Mike would have already thrown a fit about it, he hated me for a while. Pretty sure it’s because he thought I was taking Nancy away from him. What was she saying to you, anyway?”

“I’m pretty sure she was trying to give me a shovel talk, actually.”

“She’s been like that lately.”

“Well, aren’t you and Hopper making plans to move you back to your house?”

“More like fighting over it. I don’t think Hopper wants me going back at all, especially not when I’m on crutches. I’d be fine now, honestly. I can get around well enough and I’ve handled crutches in my house before.”

“What, you don’t want to spend more time with El? What about your story time?”

“I’ll miss it, but I don’t want to keep taking up Hopper’s bed when I really don’t need it. He won’t let me sleep on the couch, though.”

“Mom wouldn’t mind if you spent the night at ours.” Jonathan offers. “And Will won’t tattle, either.”

“I know he won’t.” Steve puts his hand on his knee for a second. “I don’t know. I just… it feels unfair that I get to spend the night with you and Nance doesn’t, you know?”

“She’s not gonna mind, Steve. It’ll happen.” And it’s not like Nancy and Jonathan haven’t spent time alone together since they all started dating, though it’s much easier for them than it is for Jonathan and Steve. “We could ask if it would make you feel better.”

“Yeah, I guess.” Steve’s hand doesn’t move until they stop for slushies, but he doesn’t say anything else, and Jonathan’s left to wonder if maybe Steve’s been feeling left out, or jealous, and what he and Nancy can do to fix that.

“What type of slushie do you want?” He asks, instead of what he wants to say. Jonathan knows Nancy’s—cherry, which always tastes ridiculously sweet to him—and he hasn’t decided what he’s going to get himself yet.

(Blue raspberry. It’s always blue raspberry, even though he pretends he hates it in front of Will.)

“I’ll do cherry cola, I can come in with you, though. And Nance always gets cherry, which is just weird, like who gets just plain cherry? And you’ll probably get blue raspberry or something, which doesn’t even exist. It’s Will’s favorite, though.”

“How did you know that?”

“I take the kids to get slushies sometimes.”

“No, I know that, but how did you know I like blue raspberry?” Will’s old enough now that he’s in on the joke, so that could be it, but Jonathan doesn’t know why Will would be telling Steve about what types of slushies Jonathan likes.

“Wait, did you ask Will? Steve, have you been asking Will what my favorite things are?” Jonathan thinks back to all the times when seemingly random candy bars would show up in his locker or bag, and how Nancy always said it wasn’t her, but it was always on shitty days, so he figured she’d just been hiding it.

“...Maybe.” Steve’s got his good leg pulled up to his face. “I didn’t know how else to talk to you, sometimes. Most of the time, I didn’t have to ask, he’d just say something about it while we were getting other stuff.”

“But you didn’t have to remember it, Steve. You definitely didn’t have to do that.”

“I wanted to, though.”

“We’re telling Nancy about this.”

“No! No, don’t, she’ll never let me live it down.” Steve’s redder than Jonathan’s ever seen him—he was kind of starting to think that the guy just didn’t blush.

“No, I’m telling her. And I think it’s…” Cute? Sweet? What word should he use here? “Nice, that you remembered all that after Will mentioned it.”

“Can we just go get the slushies now?”

“Yeah.” Somehow, it’s not busy—even on cold days, there’s usually high schoolers here getting slushies as an excuse to meet up with their friends.

When Jonathan sees Hagan in the corner, though, it makes more sense.

“Do I have to talk to him?” Steve’s using his crutches while they’re in the store; it’s not icy on the sidewalks right now, but it’s still wet, so it’s a risk they’re not taking.

“No, I can scare him off.”

“You couldn’t scare off a cat, Byers.” Steve snorts. “But you’ll have your hands full, I can’t really help with the slushies.”

“Just ignore him?”

“I can try, if he even comes over.”

Jonathan doesn’t know what Hagan’s deal is these days—he’s come over a few times, to ask what’s up with Steve, but it’s not like he’s been checking every week, or even every month. From what his mom says, Carol has asked her about Steve every time she comes in, which is a lot more than Hagan has done.

“I’ll take one of those.” Hagan doesn’t just grab it off of the counter, or out of Jonathan’s hand, which is really for the best. “Since Steve can’t, and all.” Steve had moved over to the counter to pay, and probably had gotten them candy, too, since Jonathan was filling the slushies and couldn’t protest.

“Thanks.” Jonathan just hopes that he doesn’t ask Steve anything. Steve knows the basics of what they’ve told everyone, but they haven’t had time (or wanted to, really) to go over everything they’ve said.

“He’s doing better, then? Since he’s out with you?”

“I mean, yeah.”

“I don’t know if he’d want to talk to me.”

Then why did you come over? Jonathan wants to snap, but he doesn’t want to get into a fight with Tommy Hagan today. He doesn’t want to get into any fights today. 

“Is he… is he okay, at least? Is he doing okay?”

“Yeah, he has been.” He’d be shocked if Steve wasn’t having nightmares, but it’s not something he’s brought up with Jonathan or Nancy.

“Jon, you ready?” Steve glances their way, not bothering to look at Hagan.

Jonathan gets a little rush of vindication from that. The guy who has been Steve’s best friend for years, and Steve’s looking at Jonathan instead.

“Yeah.”

“Steve—” Hagan starts. “Can we talk?”

“About what?”

“You went missing again, that’s kind of a big deal.”

“So, you want the gossip. No, then.”

“No, Steve! Are you okay? Have you seen anyone? Do you need somewhere to stay? My mom still adores you, you know.” Hagan only gets quieter with each sentence, matching Steve’s pace as he leads them to the car.

“I’m good, Tommy.” Steve pauses to open the door and stash his crutches, sitting down before he speaks again. “Tell your mom I say hi.”

“That’s it?” Hagan hands over the slushie he’s holding; it’s Nancy’s, not that he needs to know that. “That’s all you have to say to me?”

“What else do you want, dude? You were pretty clear that we weren’t friends anymore. Made it real easy for Hargrove to come after me, from what I remember.”

“I shouldn’t have told him that shit, man, come on—”

“No. You shouldn’t have. And as much as I’m sure you regret it now, you haven’t even tried to apologize for that. If you want a lesson on apologizing, go talk to Carol. I’m sure she’ll help you.” Steve shuts the door in Hagan’s face, and Jonathan kind of wants to cheer.

That’s the Steve he remembers from before the Upside Down, the guy who could tear a person apart with his words. He hadn’t done it often, but damn, is it hot to watch when it’s not being used against him.

Even this much, much milder version of it. The one time Jonathan had seen him do it to someone else, he’d torn into the guy’s insecurities like it was nothing in the middle of the hallway.

He’d been a transfer student from the next town over, and he’d had rumors already. He’d gotten caught once trapping freshmen in the bathroom with him, and Steve had apparently decided that was enough.

Jonathan doesn’t know what happened to him after that.

“Was that too much?” Steve asks, as they leave. “Like, he’s still watching us as we leave.”

“Steve, I don’t know what he told Hargrove, but I’m betting what you said wasn’t enough.”

“I used to be a lot meaner, with a lot less guilt about it.”

“Well, you did grow up with Hagan. And I don’t think you were ever that mean, actually.”

“Jonathan, I smashed your camera. I let Tommy and Carol say and do shit they shouldn’t have gotten away with. Even if I wasn’t doing it myself, I should have stopped them.”

“And you apologized for that, or tried to, like immediately. And you were trying to protect Nancy, it’s not like you broke it because I was taking pictures of trees. That’d be different.” Does Steve still feel bad about that? Jonathan figured they’d been done with that a long time ago. “And come on, Hagan turned on you enough that he was telling Hargrove your secrets, what would have happened if you had stopped them?”

“I don’t know. I don’t want to think about him anymore, though. If I do, it’ll just ruin the whole night.”

“Then we won’t. We can tease Nancy about her terrible choice in slushie flavors, and I can tell her all about how you memorized my favorite candies already.”

“No! You said you wouldn’t!”

“I never said that, you assumed I agreed.” Jonathan winks at him as he pulls into Nancy’s driveway. He doesn’t get a chance to even open his door before Nancy’s halfway to the car.

“Let’s go before my mom decides to chase me. She’s not very happy about the cookies last weekend.”

“Just the cookies, huh?”

“Don’t you start, Steve.” She relaxes a little once she’s in the car, though. “I get the backseat all to myself?”

“Yeah, it’s cause I didn’t want to be near your disgusting all-cherry slushie.” Steve tells her.

“And you got trail mix cause you just love raisins, right?” Jonathan can tell from her tone that Nancy thinks she’s won. She’s probably right, because he’s about to give her a lot more ammo.

“What else is in that bag, Nance?”

“Oh, you let Jonathan pick out his favorites, too!”

“No, Steve got all the snacks while I was filling the slushies. And I’ve never told him any of my favorites.”

“Steve! How long have you been paying that much attention to Jonathan, hmm?” Nancy leans forward between their seats.

Jonathan doesn’t poke fun at them at the same rate they do each other, or even him, but he has to admit that the car ride is a lot more fun this way.

<- 14 16 ->

[robinismywifee]

Back to the Old House - Chapter 4

August 23rd, 2034

[4 weeks, 5 days since beginning of Chapter 3]

Raines age: 16 years, 6 months

Ellies age: 15 years, 3 months

CW: none?

Words: 1920

Masterlist

Raines POV:

Today is the first day of patrol. Maria was super impressed at the gun range and she gave me a week before doing the real patrol job, just making sure I was ready to be around new people, taking me out to eat and shit.

It's been difficult, but I need to pull my head out of my ass.

I woke up early, 6am, patrol started at 7am, but Maria wanted me to eat beforehand. I brushed out the knots in my hair and brushed my teeth, got dressed, just jeans and a black tanktop, as it was still summertime, and my black canvas shoes.

I swung my bag over my shoulder and equipped my holster around my theigh for my gun.

"Hey Maria" I said in a sleepy voice, rubbing my eyes, making my way into the kitchen where Maria sat at the stool infront the counter.

"Hey, you seem tired. You sure you're still up for it?" she said, sipping something out of a steaming mug.

"Yeah yeah, i'm sure- it's just early"

She nodded, "you want some?" she gestured to her cup, "uh, what is it?"

"Coffee" she smiled proud, "oh, no thanks, never had it. Wouldn't wanna waste any"

"You sure you don't wanna try? It has caffeine in it, get you out of your tired mood"

"Not really, i'll be fine with water."

"Would you rather us go to get breakfast or me make you something?"

"Uh.."

Well I would definitely rather stay here to get food, but I should probably go out to eat so i'm not too overwhelmed with meeting this Jesse guy.

"Let's go out?"

Maria smiled, she gulped down the last splashes of her coffee, placing the now empty mug on the table, "i'm glad you said that"

୨♡୧

After I ate only half my food, since it felt like i was gonna puke if I ate anymore, me and Maria left to go to the stables.

"I'm sorry that I couldn't finish it.." I practically mumbled to her as we walked

"What? No. Don't be. You probably have lots of anxiety right now and i'm proud that you even tried. I'm also very proud that you're going out of your comfort zone to do this job."

I felt confused. Why is Maria so nice to me?

she wouldn't be if she knew the real me.

I stayed quiet. Thinking of how happy her words made me feel and thinking of how much I didn't deserve to feel that happiness.

"Hey" Maria waved to the guy who worked at the stables once we arrived, "We're gonna have you take this guy. We found her injured a few months ago but shes healed since, and fully trained. She's a good girl who was in need of an owner. She doesn't have a name yet either, so feel free to name her. This will be both of you guys first time on patrol" Maria smiled, as she handed me the horses rein.

I nodded, getting up on the horse. "perfect, now just follow me" Maria said softly, I followed next to her slowly riding my horse until we made it to infront the exist, I saw 7 other people on horses. They all looked to range from ages 18-30.

"Sorry for the wait. We got new patrol people, this is Raine" Maria introduced me to everyone, as I shyly waved. It felt weird considering i've been in town for weeks now, and yet I only know about 6 people, 2 of them I dont even know the names of.

"Hey Raine! I'm Jesse" one of the people said, it was the guy closest to me and looked to be the same age as me. His smile was gentle and he seemed nice. Maybe this won't be too bad.

"Hi" I awkwardly said, unsure of what else to say as he already knew my name.

"Great, I hope you two become friends as you'll be working together from now on, that is if everything goes well, but im certain it will."

Maria continued to talk about saftey precautions and which partner group was taking which route, Jesse already had taken this route before from when he had did group patrol, so I was basically just gonna have to follow him.

Once the gate opened, every partner group went separate ways, and it was just me and Jesse.

"So, I heard you came in weeks ago and was in the hospital for awhile. I also heard you got out of it weeks ago, where you've been?" Jesse asked in a curious tone, glancing to the side to look at me for my answer. When I opened my mouth nothing came out, he spoke up before I could make an embarrassing scene. "Sorry, that could be very personal, I dont wanna overstep anything.."

"Uh- no it's fine. I- I was just um.. I mean, I was in a coma? So I was recovering.. from it.. i've been staying at Maria and Tommy's place."

God, I sound so fucking stupid. Also im lying. I've been done recovering, i've just been staring at the wall in bed letting my own thoughts consume me.

"Oh, thats cool. Maria and Tommy are nice dudes."

It was awkward silence since I didn't know how to reply, and by the time I thought of just saying 'yeah' it was too late to reply.

"So what's it like being in a coma? I heard you dream some weird stuff- oh, and when people visited you, could you hear them?"

I softly smiled at his excited banter, he actually felt nice to be around and didn't make me that type of uncomfortable yet.

"Uhh, no weird dreams that I remember. Just was sorta blank. And, I wouldn't know. It's not like anyone vistied me"

"What do you mean? Of course she vi-" Jesse started saying, but stopped talking in the middle of his sentance. I scrunched my brows confused.

"Uhh.. sorry," he let out a dry chuckle, "forgot what I was gonna say"

What the fuck was that about?

I nodded, feeling awkward.

"Uhhhmm. So what made you wanna do patrol?"

Jesse asked, "Oh, just thought i'd be good and could help out."

"Nice.." Jesse nodded looking at me, as I stared down at my horses mane. "same.." he said, stretching out the A.

"Welp, Maria had us take a short route since its our first time and we're young, so.. here we are"

Jesse said, once we made it some office type building.

I didn't say anything, we entered it and Jesse signed us in. "You don't talk much, do you?"

"Guess not."

He nodded, pukering his lips and blowing air out. "Hey, you wanna know a fun fact about me?"

"Uh.. not really?" I asked, confused of why he kept trying to talk to me as we searched the building. "Can I tell you anyway?"

I shrug, not caring.

"Okay, well, my girlfriend, is actually the one that found you. You know, like right before you passed out in that coma."

My eyebrow's scrunched, and my face visibly showed confusion. What is he talking about? Ellie was the one that found me and shes not into gu-

"Dina, is her name"

Oh right. They were in groups.

I nodded, "Nice" I said not knowing how else to respond. "I think you and Dina could be friends. You'll have to meet her one of these days"

"No thanks" I said, cutting him off. He looked at me confused, "Oh- I just meant, i'm not really.. a social person, and meeting you is enough for me.. for awhile.."

His confusion dropped as he understood. "Gotcha. Well, still, it's a small town, you're gonna have to meet her eventually. But yeah, sure, take your time"

The rest of the patrol was boring silence broken up with Jesse throwing in information about himself that I didn't need to know. He even told me his shoe size? He's kinda weird. But definitely better then most, he wasn't being weird to me in that way at all and I feel like I could relax around him.

We finished the job and made it back to Jackson. It only took us a few hours since we had a short and recently cleared route. We didn't run into any infected or anything.

The people at the gates said hello to Jesse and welcomed us back, I figured that they didn't know my name. We rode to the stables, the stables were empty except for the same person working from before, and a black haired girl standing off to the side, looking as if she was waiting for something. She looked odly familiar.

Jesse was infront of me when I heard the girl speak up excitedly, "Jesse! How was it?"

Jesse smiled, "Hey Dina,"

So thats her? Fuck I hope Jesse doesnt try and make me introduce myself.

"It was pretty chill, we had a short route and no trouble. No infected or anything."

Jesse got off his horse and put the horse in its assigned stable, while I did the same. I saw from the corner of my eye Jesse and Dina hugging.

I could feel their eyes on me once they stopped hugging. "Raine? This is Dina"

I took a breath before turning around, "Hi" I mumbled, barley audible. "Hi, it's nice to meet you. I'm glad to see you up!"

Are you though?

I nodded slightly, pressing a fake smile that I thought was convincing when in reality it wasnt at all, and then turned around to leave.

Once I left the stables and was out of their view, I heard Jesse apologizing for my behavior.

Why the fuck do I act like that?

I speed walked to Marias with my head down, feeling my heart pump fast. My cheeks were red from embarrassment.

Once I got to the house, Maria was already in the living room, and was alerted by me slamming the door shut that I was back.

She got off from the couch and ran over to me, "Raine? Whats wrong, did you get hurt? Did you get bit?" Maria asked me in a calm voice, but you could hear panic and worry behind it.

"No- no im fine-" I took a deep breath, feeling my cheeks grow more red from being even more embarrassed, since I was starting to have a hard time breathing over it.

"Well what's wrong? Was it too soon to go out?"

I shook my head, bringing my hands to cover my face, "No, I just- I dont know, I think it was just- alot, for such a short time." I breathed out, pushing past Maria to get water from the kitchen.

"Oh, i'm sorry hun, are you gonna hold off on patrol for awhile, or are you gonna stick with it?"

She asked, following behind me to the kitchen.

"No- I can still do it. Im fine. Tomorrow at the same time?"

She nodded, "Are you sure? How was Jesse? Do you want to switch him for someone else?"

I immediately shook my head no. That would just cause more trouble, and I would have to meet another person.

Before Maria could talk more, I took my water and went to my room.

[yuiopiklmn]

Visiting Austin (Pt. 2)

Make your own request

A/N: Before we get started I just wanted to say that I am sorry it took me so long to write part 2 I started it and lost the doc and a busy life and writers block do not mix so I am sorry

OG Request: I was thinking reader x Jensen. The reader is a travel guide writer and she is checking out Austin and keeps running into Jensen. Some stalking on jensens part maybe. (from @hobby27)

Missed Part 1

Word Count: 620 (she a bit short)

Warnings: Not edited, that’s all

Rating: E for everyone

Pairing: Jensen Ackles x f!reader

Summary: The reader goes to Austin to write an article about the beautiful capital of Texas. During her trip she keeps runing into a certain green-eyed actor.

After half a week of going to different places and shops with my new friend Addison in tow it was finally the day Jensen was going to take me out. I was both super excited and really nervous.

I got ready doing light makeup, curling my hair, and putting on one of my new dresses, which was both fancy and casual, before grabbing my purse and waiting on the couch for Jensen to come and pick me up.

My mind was going haywire and I was overthinking a lot. Like was I over or under dressed? Was he taking me out of pity because he spilled on me? No that can't be it we've been texting all week. Was he joking about what Jared said at the bar were they just laughing because I was drunk? Thoughts were surrounding me until it all stopped when I heard a knock on my hotel door.

I shook all the remaining negative thoughts out of my head and went to open the door. I was greeted with sparkling green eyes and a smile that was brighter than the sun. My sense of worry immediately went away as we greeted each other in a hug and then walked hand in hand downstairs to his car.

We drove in comfortable silence both stealing glances at the other every now and then. We got the resturant and sat down at a private booth.

"So how has your week been?" Jensen asked me.

"Amazing I'm basically finished with my article and I had such a fun time visiting new places. It was a blast." I answered back excitedly. He let out a little laugh which was absolutly adorable. "How was yours?" I asked back.

"It was good I went out with Jared a couple of times." "That sounds nice." "Yeah it was even though I deal with him 24/7 he a goofball and can be kinda annoying but I love spending time with him." We both laughed a bit, and then just smiled at each other.

"When are you leaving town again?" Jensen questioned after a bit a silence.

"Oh ummm," I paused and checked my calender, "In two days," I said with dread.

"Hey its okay we will make the most of it and maybe before work starts back up again I will come and visit you."

"I would love that."

After a couple more hours of talking about everything and anything we finally decided to call it a night. We walked back to the car music and chatter filling the car and we zoomed down the highway. We made it back to my hotel and he walked me to my door. I opened it with my key and turned around.....

"I had fun tonight thank you for dinner it was delicious."

"You're welcome I'm glad you liked it, its one of my favorite places."

"I can see why. Well I guess this is the part where we bid farwell......" I started to trail off sad that the night was over getting lost in a trace again. He pulled me out by kissing my cheek. I blushed like mad and my eyes went wide. "You missed." I said with a smirk.

"What?"

"You missed." I closed the space between us and placed my hand on his cheek. I stood on my tippy toes and softly pressed my lips to his. He slowly wrapped his arms around my waist and put a hand on the back of my neck to deepen the kiss. We pulled apart with a shine in our eyes. We said our goodnights and I went into my room, kicking off my shoes and smilling to myself. If only I could stay longer.

A/N 2: I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter if you want another part please say so in the comments. Likes and reblogs are appreciated and if you have a request my list is on my page. I love you all my little bumblebees bye bye.

Taglist: @hobby27 @woodworthti666

Other stories by me

[hyunjinspark]

Hi! I was finally able to catch up to all the chapters of your new fanfiction today because I hadn't had time to read the chapters as you posted them :( I came here to give you my honest and most humble opinion about the story and characters so far

I'm usually swayed by other people's opinion so I've kept myself out of Tumblr so I wouldn't read other reader's opinion about anything before reading it myself (I'll read them after this because I'm so curious to see what everyone thinks)

First of all, let me start by saying I was hooked since the teaser came out and overly excited about everything. The first chapter was amazing from start to finish, you did a really good job setting out the base of the story and I got immediately wary of Hana since I tend to not like the typical main character's girl best friend but I thought "okay let's give her a chance" until she started showing how uninterested she is about her best friend's life and also about Hyunjin.

I'm so sorry I did try to like her but just couldn't. Who the hell breaks up with someone and tells their friends to cut ties with her ex even though her best friends are also best friends with him? It's called selfishness to me. She never really demonstrated so far that she really cares about her friends and it makes me so angry. I kind of miss Yeji now and feel sorry for everything I said about her being a bad friend lol but let's see if Hana will change, I feel hopeful

Anyways, this story feels like a PERFECT plot for a drama, seriously it's that good! The art store, the bowling alley, the diner they usually go to, every place is so familiar now and I can picture everything perfectly in my head. The characters are so relatable, I love Y/n's passion for art and how different she is from her friends, she's truly amazing and I love how she thinks, she is so sweet

Hyun is perfect as always, I wouldn't expect anything else, he's so charming and mature, I get why everyone is obsessed with him (why do I feel like his aunt is someone we know tho hmm)

Felix is my baby, my sweetheart, he's just so sweet and reminds me of one of my friends, he's truly the best friend Y/n deserves, he's always so aware of what's happening and how to make her comfortable, I love that Y/n has someone like him by her side although I wish she would be more open to him and share what she has been feeling, I miss besties scenes :(

Yeonjun surprised me the most of all of them, he seemed like the sweetest soul and so affectionate, I cant wait to see more of him

Honestly, I've been loving slow burn stories lately and I'm glad I'm not as impatient as I was before, cause this is some slow slow burn but I'm enjoying it, I love it

Also, I'm so glad I waited this long cause I had plenty to read today but I'm sad now that I've read the 7 chapters, I'm looking forward to the next chapters and hopefully, I won't miss any of them

hello love, firstly thank you for this beautiful and detailed review. im glad you were hooked since the teaser, and that you liked the first chapter. it took me so long to develop it as i wanted to, because i really wanted to build that world and bring it to life.

i understand why you don’t like hana. making her friends cut off ties with her ex (who was also their friend) is pretty bad indeed, and she hasn’t been showing too much interest in yn’s interests or life.

it makes me very happy that all the places and locations are familiar to you and that you can imagine them well. im a very visual thinker and i see everything in my head like a cute little movie so i try my best to convey that :(

hyun, perfect as always, of course. im glad you also love felix ! i wonder what you feel for him after part 8, and also part 9.

yeonjun indeed is the sweetest and kindest. i love writing him and his relationship to yn so much !

thank you for this review and for loving slowburn 🥺🥺🥺

[3rensgf]

rent a gf - two eren yeager x reader

word count: 2.9k

warnings: mentions of sex, talks about "getting bitches", eren is an idiot, fuckboy!eren implied, tatbilb mention, uhh fluff idk theres not much to warn abt in here, not beta read

notes: chapter two is out! i'm really glad a lot of people are enjoying rent a gf. it really means a lot! i see some people commented on the previous chapter, and i would love to reply to them, but i'm not familiar with tumblrs commenting system D: if you wanna leave a comment for me to just read, that's fine you can still keep commenting here on tumblr. but if you would like me to reply to it, you can comment on ao3, and i will reply! happy reading :) p.s, waffles w whipped cream r so much better

[ read on ao3 ]

previous ✩ series masterlist ✩ next

In the early hours of Saturday morning, you felt a hand shaking your shoulder to wake you. Groaning and mumbling, you sleepily swatted the hand away and pulled the covers over your head. No one should be forced to wake up early on the weekends. It was Saturday, for fucks sake. Not to mention your hangover due to last nights mistakes was making your head throb.

The hand rested on your shoulder once more, shaking you gently. “(Y/N),” Mikasa said softly. “Your alarm has been going off for the past 10 minutes. Wake up. I have water and Advil.”

“Nooooo,” you moaned, snuggling deeper into your bed. “Don’ wanna.”

Mikasa stopped bothering you for a moment, and you let your guard down. Finally you could sleep. When it was time to wake up, you’d wake up.

Right as you were about to pass out again, your blanket was roughly tugged off of you. “Mikasaaa!” you whined, covering your face with your hands. “What was that for? I was trying to sleep.”

“Get up. You have to shower and get ready for lunch with Eren today. Breakfast is almost finished,” she explained, setting down the pills and water on your bedside table. “Go brush your teeth and wash your face so you can eat. Now,” she instructed sternly, moving to your window to open the curtains. The bright sunlight hit your still half-asleep face, making you hiss quietly.

She left the room moments after, probably to check up on breakfast. Honestly, you didn’t know how she could function this early in the morning despite having partied all night last night. Curse her and her inability to get hungover.

Grumbling to yourself, you adjusted your sleep clothes that had gotten disheveled overnight to make sure you looked decent. Your sleepy gaze wandered over to your nightstand to see two Advils on a napkin beside a glass of cold water. Thanking every higher power for sending Mikasa to you, you downed both pills and the glass of water. Even though you might bitch and moan to her constantly, you really weren’t lying when you said you’d die without Mikasa.

After sitting down at the edge of your bed for a few moments, you eventually shuffled into the bathroom to brush your teeth and do your morning routine. It took longer than usual thanks to your sluggish and tired movements, but you got done nevertheless.

A wonderful aroma came from the kitchen when you left, stomach grumbling in anticipation for the wonderful food you were about to scarf down. Mikasa was in the process of setting down both your breakfasts on the island, sitting down on the stools when you walked in. “Morning, Sleeping Beauty,” she greeted, resting her chin on her hands.

“Morning, sweet angel,” you replied, sitting at the stool beside her. In front of you was a plate of Funfetti pancakes with whipped cream instead of maple syrup (syrup was for pancakes only). There were a couple of cut up fruits beside them, too. “Where did you get these?” you asked, picking up your fork to take a bite of your breakfast.

Mikasa dug into her own breakfast of oatmeal as soon as you started eating. “Went grocery shopping and saw the mix in the baking aisle. I thought you’d like it,” she explained, taking a bite of her food. “Good?”

Your response was a moan, tilting your head back as you chewed. “Insanely,” you said, cutting up another bite. You stabbed the piece with your fork and guided it to Mikasa, keeping your hand under it to catch anything if it dropped.

She finished her bite and leaned in to take the bite, humming in satisfaction at the taste. “Good,” she nodded.

“They put like crack ‘n this shit,” you said through a full mouth, shoveling forkful after forkful into your mouth.

You could feel Mikasa's judging gaze for eating like a pig, but you didn’t care. All you cared about was eating these crack laced waffles as greedily as possible. “What time are you supposed to meet Eren today?” she asked to make conversation.

You remember drunkenly slurring to her that Eren was supposed to take you out for lunch today while she was trying to put you to bed. All she did was nod and dodge your flailing limbs while she tried to change you into your night clothes.

“Uhhh,” you trailed off, “I dunno actually. I think he’s gonna text me when.” The familiar notification from your phone indicated you had a text from Eren. “Right now.”

ren ᕙ(`▿´)ᕗ - 9:04 AM picking u up at 12 dont be late

you - 9:04 AM k

ren ᕙ(`▿´)ᕗ - 9:05 AM dont use k with me that makes me sad :(

you - 9:05 AM k

“He says 12,” you told Mikasa, setting your phone back down on the table. You went to go take another bite of your waffles, only to be met with stray bits of whipped cream and waffle crumbs. How disappointing.

“You have time to get ready then,” she said, finishing up the last bit of her own breakfast. Holding her plate, she got up to go put it in the sink, taking your plate for you as well. Literally an angel.

Suddenly, she leaned in to sniff you like the weird English professor you had your freshman year and cringed. “You’re gonna need all the time you can get. You stink.”

Never mind, not an angel.

Grumbling and cursing under your breath, you got off the stool to go take a shower. “And here I was about to offer to get you something for lunch while I was out.”

“A burger from the joint I like would be nice. So would a Coke and side of onion rings.”

“Size?”

“Medium for both.”

You would’ve caved in and bought her something, anyways. Might as well know what she wanted in the first place.

Showering took longer than expected. Most of your time got wasted by you standing under the shower stream and soaking in all the warmth. It wasn’t until Mikasa knocked on the door asking you not to use up all the hot water that made you actually start going through your routine.

The clock read 10:09 when you got out. You still had more time to kill until Eren came, so you elected to sit on your bed in your towel to scroll through social media. At 10:45, you started to get ready for real now.

Your makeup was just enough to cover any imperfections on your face, and your outfit cute enough for a lunch outing with your friend-fuckbuddy.

At 11:50, you stepped out into the living room with your belongings in hand to lounge around while you waited for Eren. You would’ve gone to bug Mikasa, but she had just stepped into the shower minutes prior.

12 on the dot, a rhythmic knocking was rapped on your door, meaning Eren was finally here. Skipping over to the door, you opened it to reveal him while slipping on your shoes.

“Hey,” he grinned when the door opened. He leaned in to give you a kiss on the lips after you’d straightened up from putting on your shoes.

A grin found its way on your lips during the kiss. It only lasted a couple of seconds, ending with you pulling away with a quiet smack. “Hi,” you greeted back.

“Ready to go?” he asked, one hand leaving his jacket pocket to jut his thumb down the hallway towards the elevators.

“Yup, ready,” you said. Over your shoulder, you yelled into the apartment to say goodbye to Mikasa and locking the door once you closed. “Okay, ready for real now.”

There was a new hot pot restaurant near campus, Eren told you, that he so desperately wanted to try. He overheard some people talking about the place in his Stats class, and he’s been wanting to go ever since.

“So, about what I told you last night,” he said, leaning on the table close to you after giving your orders to the waitress. “You said you would help me get Mina.”

“I said it was a bad idea,” you countered, taking a sip of your drink.

“But you said you would help me. For a price.”

“That I… did say,” you sighed. “What’s your plan?”

Smiling, he opened up his jacket and dug into the inner pockets, getting out a small notepad and a pen. Your eyebrows raised at the sight of them. “Okay,” he started, flipping through his notepad. “So I was thinking about it this morning, and this is what I have down so far.”

Sliding it towards you, he waited impatiently for you to read what he had.

Your lips pursed to prevent giggled from leaving your lips. Well, it was a plan, alright. Written in Eren’s chicken scratch of handwriting were a few very simple steps.

eren yaegers fool proof plan to get bitches get mina aka operation rent a gf by eren yaeger 1. talk to mina to get her interested in you ✓ 2. get hot girl ((Y/N)) to pretend to be your gf and show you can be a good bf 3. get mina jealous so she wants you even more and not poopy thomas wanker 4. “break up” with (Y/N) and pretend to be sad 5. get mina to comfort you 6. get bitches make mina your gf 7. pay (Y/N) for her services 8. ta-da!

When you looked up from the notepad, you saw Eren waiting for your answer. “Well? What do you think? Is it any good?” he asked.

“Were you high when you wrote this?” was the first thing you asked him. Eren shook his head innocently. “You’re 100% serious?” He nodded.

You bit your lip, deep in thought about Eren’s supposedly fool proof plan. “What makes you think it’s gonna work?”

“I know girls and how they act. If Paradis University let me major in women -- don’t get smart with me I don’t mean Women Studies -- I would be passing all my classes with flying colors. I know it’ll work, trust me,” he said cockily, leaning back in his chair.

“No you don’t.”

“Yes I do. I know you. I know everything about you, (Y/N). I even know how to make you scream my name in--”

“Okay!” you cut him off, not wanting the strangers around you to know the intimate details of your sex life with Eren. “Okay.”

“I knew you were gonna do that. See, I do know women.”

A moment or two passed, both of you staring at each other. You with a deadpan expression, and him with a proud one. You were the first one to break the silence with a heavy sigh. “Okay, say I agree to this. What do I get in return?”

“Anything you want,” he said. “Within reason, of course. Please don’t ask me to like, hide a body or something.”

Ignoring his last comment, you continued speaking, “You’re not allowed to back out of whatever I ask you to, right? If this plan fails or succeeds, you still owe me whatever you promised.”

Eren nodded. “Of course. I swear on it.” He shifted a little so his elbow was on the table, holding out a pinky. Instinctively, you held out your pinky as well and intertwined the both of them. Pinky promises were something you and Eren had been doing for years now. It meant that the other was dead serious on their promise.

The waitress came back with your broth and dipping ingredients, setting them on the table for you right when your pinkes left each other. Thanking the waitress, the two of you talked some more while you waited for the broth to heat up.

“We should make it official. With a contract and set of rules,” he said. “Like that one movie you forced me to watch with you. The Boys I Loved or some shit like that.”

“To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before,” you corrected.

“Yeah, that. They’re kinda doing something like us, yeah?”

“Guess so,” you shrugged, picking up your chopsticks and a sice of pork belly when the broth started to boil. “After we eat though.”

Idle chatter was shared between the two of you as you ate. Even though you saw each other nearly every day, you never ran out of things to talk to. You could be talking about complete nonsense or how quantum physics made no sense, and you would still have the best time of your life.

By now, the broth had been drunk up and the table had been cleared out to be replaced with banana milk and ice cream. Eren brought out his notepad again to write down the set of rules for your fake relationship while enjoying your desserts.

Good progress had been written so far on the notepad. Both of you had given input and criticism on each rule made. In the end, you finally had a good set of rules written down.

(Y/N) and erens contract and rules for eren yaegers fool proof plan to get mina aka operation rent a gf by eren yaeger 1. act normally. eren and (Y/N) act like a couple already. just double the pda a little more 2. don’t tell anyone about the deal. the more people who believe in the relationship, the more likely it is for the plan to work 3. post each other on ig a lot. maybe add names and a date to bios to make it more believable 4. date night every saturday (go out or just hang out) 5. go to parties together 6. walk each other to class if you can 7. call each other cute pet names 8. after breaking up, the couple act has to stop including the sex 9. DON’T SLIP UP

payment for (Y/N):

Eren tapped a beat on the notepad, reading “payment” over and over again. Eventually he looked up at you, deep in thought. “Have you thought of anything so far?” he asked, clicking the pen to write what you wanted.

This was a tough decision. Eren was ready to give you anything to help him get Mina. You had to be wise and pick something big to take advantage of him. Something you were sure you wouldn’t ever regret getting.

“How about,” you started, trailing off, “you do my laundry for the rest of our time at ParadisU, buy me lunch every Wednesday even after we break up, recommend that godsend of a tutor you keep gatekeeping to help me too, and…”

“And?” Eren asked, looking up from his writing, waiting for your next words.

“All the orgasms I want during our relationship,” you finished, satisfied with what you chose.

“Is that all?” he asked, writing down the last of your words. “That’s a lot.”

“How about I let you know if I wanna add more,” you said. Eren nodded in response. His head hung to look at the notepad again, writing something down. Once he was done, he plaed the pen on the pad and slid it to you.

“Sign it so it’s official,” he instructed.

There were two lines beside each other, one already with Eren’s signature. Without hesitation, you signed your name neatly on the paper, giving the items back to Eren once you were done.

(Y/N) and erens contract and rules for eren yaegers fool proof plan to get mina aka operation rent a gf by eren yaeger 1. act normally. eren and (Y/N) act like a couple already. just double the pda a little more 2. don’t tell anyone about the deal. the more people who believe in the relationship, the more likely it is for the plan to work 3. post each other on ig a lot. maybe add names and a date to bios to make it more believable 4. date night every saturday (go out or just hang out) 5. go to parties together 6. walk each other to class if you can 7. call each other cute pet names 8. after breaking up, the couple act has to stop including the sex 9. DON’T SLIP UP

payment for (Y/N): eren has to do the (Y/N)’s laundry for the rest of university, buy her lunch ever wednesday, get tutor to help her and give her as many orgasms as she wants during the course of the relationship

signed x eren yaeger x (y/n) (l/n)

The two of you shook hands when Eren put away his things, to seal the deal again. The waitress came by again to give you the bill and collect your dirty dishes. Eren set down the cash needed to pay along with a tip in the check presenter before the two of you left.

You walked hand in hand back to Erens car before you realized you missed something. “Wait. What do we tell people when they ask how we got together?” you asked, pausing in your tracks.

Eren stopped with you, turning to look at you. “Um, you can say I confessed after lunch, and that this is technically our first date,” he suggested, tugging your hand to walk back to the car.

“Huh. Okay. That works,” you nodded.

The two of you got into the car a little bit past 2:30 in the afternoon, ready to go home. “Wait,” you said again, making Eren pause. “Mikasa wanted a burger from that one joint near our apartment. Could you take me there first?”

Eren smiled and nodded, starting the car. “Of course. Burger with medium Coke and onion rings?”

“How did you know?”

“She always gets that when we go there.”

“Huh… I guess you’re right.”

“When am I not?”

"Always."

taglist - @thestrugglesofateenagedirtbag , @lazalee , @countthemoons , @se-va-muriendo-mialma , @liaxxx109 , @prxttyguardian , @jeansbabycake

italic names, it wouldn't let me tag you!

3rensgf © 2021 ; do not repost or translate my work.

[a-pretty-nerd]

Chapter 8

Tomura Shigaraki x AllMight!Daughter!Reader

Premis:

When The League of Villains discovers that AllMight has a daughter, they are quick to snatch you up and hold you hostage. Shigaraki had a careful and thought out plan, but that was before you got there. Now you’re in the mood for some not-so-healthy rebellion.

Word count: 2,214

Warnings: mentions of sexual assault (sexual assault does not occur). 

A/N: 

This took so long for no reason, I am so sorry. I hate the holidays, I’m always so busy and can’t do anything I enjoy and it just drained all my time and energy. I’m so glad it’s over. Anywhoo, I hope ya’ll like this chapter! 

Chapter 7 Chapter 9

You starred up at the ceiling, nodding off into space as your mind wondered. The cracks in the ceiling painting an abstract paining, giving you much to ponder on. You had been thinking about Shigaraki. The man had plagued your thoughts. You knew very little about him and it bothered you.

He subverted every expectation you had about villains. He was ruthless and driven, yes. Crude and dastardly, of course. But the glimpses of kindness he showed you, made your mind spin. Why was he so kind to you? Why was he training you to use your abilities? And why, on God's green earth were you attracted to him?

It made your head spin to think about. About him. His eyes. It was those red eyes. So bright in color and deep in thought. The way he looked at you, like he saw you. When was the last time someone had looked at you that way? Reality would soon sink in after these thoughts. Reminding you that you should fear him, hate him even. That you should be working to get yourself free. But, you hadn't made a single attempt to escape. What was there to escape? You weren't in any immediate danger. In fact, you were being taken care of.

A knock at the door shook you from your train of thought. Without waiting for an answer, the man you knew as Dabi walked in, and closed the door behind you. His glassy blue eyes watched you as he moved. He stood up against the wall adjacent from you, watching you, leering over you. Maybe you were wrong. Maybe, this is where your torture begins. Wordlessly he looked away to pull out a pack of cigarettes, place one to his lips and then look back at you.

"You don't mind, do you?" He asked. You shook your head. He turned away to use his quirk to light the thing and then silently take a few drags as he looked off into the distance. Was he going to rape you? This was the perfect opportunity for him to. You were honestly shocked you hadn't been by now. Normally, kidnapping victims were sexually assaulted in some way. But no one seemed interested, until now.

Would you have to fight him off? Could you fight him off? If you screamed would anyone come to help you? Would he kill you?

"What do you want?" You asked after a few minutes of silence. He looked back at you and raised a brow.

"I just wanted to smoke in piece. It's raining outside." He told you before going back to his smoking. "I do have a question for you though."

"What?"

"You really the big guy's daughter?" He took another drag.

"Yeah. Why?" He shrugged.

"The way you talk about him. Sounds like you don't get along." You shrugged.

"I don't know him enough." Dabi scoffed before finishing his cigarette and stomping it out. He licked his lips and kicked his leg as he shifted his weight. His eyes darting back to the door before looking at you again.

"You ever wanna be a hero?" He chuckled.

"No." Your voice firm and decided. He smiled.

"Why?"

"It's a shit job where I'm from."

"It's a shit job here." He remarked. You nodded.

"I know. Heroes are shit." You shared a few smiles with one another.

"With a quirk like yours, you could really do some damage."

"I know."

"Something tells me this isn't your first time off your meds. It can't be."

"It's not."

"Care to share-"

"No." You barked. The idea of it made your stomach turn and your heart ache. You worked so hard to push that down you weren't about to have that break down in front of a stranger. Dabi raised his brows and threw his hands up in a mocking motion.

"Alright, fine. None of my business." He scoffed.

"What do you want?" You asked again, not satisfied with his previous answer. He sucked on his teeth for a moment before answering.

"Shigaraki asked me to over see your training while he's out."

"He's gone?" You asked softly, maybe a little too softly.

"Afraid so. So it's just you...and me..." He smiled. You held your legs up to your chest and pulled them close. He looked you over and then scoffed. "Don't worry, kid, I'm not that kind of villain. Now get up, I'm your trainer for now and I'm not nearly as forgiving as the boss." He turned and opened the door, waiting for you to follow.

"Do you know why?" You asked as you laid your feet flat on the concrete floor. Dabi looked back at you with an emotionless expression. A face he often wore, it screamed "auto-pilot." Like he wasn't really all there.

"Why what?"

"Why he's training me. I don't understand. Why waist time with a hostage like this? Isn't he worried I couldn't fight back and escape?" You asked. Dabi thought for a moment as he watched you pass through the door and out into the living room.

"What goes through that lunatic's mind is beyond me." He closed the door behind you. "But if I had to take a guess, I'd say he's planning something using your quirk."

"Like what?" He shrugged and walked passed you, turning a corner into what used to be the building's break room, now a make-shift kitchen where temporary supplies were being stored.

"Fuck if I know." He muttered as he went about his business. He opened and rummaged through the fridge before turning back to you. "You hungry?" He asked.

"Um...no." You lied. He starred at you before turning back.

"That's a pity. You need to eat. Keep up your strength. You can't use your quirk properly if you don't have the right fule. Here." He threw a small blurry package at you. The lite weight objected bounced between your hands for a moment before you finally grabbed ahold of it. Instant noodles. Right fule huh?

"This is fule?" You asked.

"What? Were you expecting the fucking food pyramid? Do we look rich to you?"

"No, I just...the way you were talking. Like we were gonna chug raw egg yolks, it's just funny." You smiled. You made yourself the sad excuse for a meal and sat at the small plastic table and ate as Dabi made his own disaster. You watched him. By all accounts, he was a relatively normal guy. It always shocked you, how normal everyone was. How they moved and acted. Not like the villain characters you'd imagined in your head. But just, people.

As he sat down across the table from you, he set down two canned sports drinks, sliding one over to your side without a word. You took it and popped it open before taking a sip. You furrowed your brow.

"Sugar free?" You asked. He looked up at you, as if you had interrupted something important.

"What? Sugars bad for you, makes me bloated." Your smile widened. He relaxed his shoulders and leaned back in his chair. "What the fuck is so funny?" He barked. It only made you laugh.

"I'm it's just...I don't know.."

"Just what?"

"It's just so normal!" You flashed a dazzling smile without even trying. "Everyone here is just so...I don't know, human. Nothing like I expected. They paint this big scary picture on the other side but, everyones just so normal. Even nice at times, yknow?" He brushed you off and went back to eating. "So what's the plan right now?" You asked, picking at your food.

"What?" He asked, annoyed.

"The plan, the big scary villain plan. Now that the plan with me clearly failed. What's the big picture?" Why were you so happy? What's with that smile, those eyes. Dabi looked you over, trying to figure you out.

"Are you serious?"

"Yeah! I wanna know."

"Why?"

"Because." He looked at you like he was waiting for you continue. You starred back blankly.

"Because?"

"Because."

"Oh my god."

"C'mon."

"Eat your food." He ordered.

"Please?"

"Shut up and eat."

"Are you gonna use my quirk to blow up a hero agency?"

"No."

"A military target?"

"A what?"

"Government building?" He rolled his eyes and stomped his foot.

"I don't know! Alright!? I don't know." The room fell silent for a moment. You ate a few more bites before finishing and waiting for him.

"So Shigaraki doesn't share everything with you, I take it?" You interjected.

"No he doesn't."

"So you trust him?" You asked.

"No."

"But you still follow his directions regardless?" You poked.

"Our agendas line up, that's all you need to know."

"Mh, okay. What are your agendas exactly? I have a vague idea of Shigaraki's and Toga's but I don't know yours."

"Why do you care?"

"I...." you thought about it for a little while. "I'm just trying to make sense of it all. Why, things are the way they are." He starred at you for a while. His blue eyes piercing your flesh.

"You already know why."

"Wait? Wait? What do you mean, wait!?" Your mother shouted furiously across the meeting room table. Rows of tables lined with pro-heros watched her out burst.

"I know you're concerned, but with all due respect ma'am-"

"Concerned!? Concerned!? I'm beyond concerned, I am livid! We finally know where my daughter is being held captive and you want to wait!?" She cried.

"Mrs. Please, we understand your concerns and believe me, we're going to get her as soon as we can but we can't just bust in there like last time."

"Last time?" Xavier piped up. "This has happened before?" The heroes looked at one another with a puzzled expression. Your father gave an exhausted sigh.

"A few years ago, a student of mine was kidnapped in an attempt to recruit him. Thankfully we were able to rescue the student, but it cost us. A run-in with All for One, Shigaraki's old mentor, nearly killed Best Jeanist, and led to my retirement. Since then, Shigaraki and his followers have become much more of a threat. We can't risk starting an all out battle again. They've positioned themselves in a very populated area. If we aren't careful, Shigaraki alone could decimate everyone and everything. We have to be careful about this." He explained.

"This isn't just about Y/N's safety anymore. We have to find a way to get her out of there without endangering the city around her." Eraserhead noted, looking down at the papers he held in had hands.

"If that's the case, shouldn't we be sending in heroes who specialize in stelth? If we can get her out there without anyone noticing, we won't have to fight. That way, we have time to evacuate everybody in case of an all out fight." A young voice suggested.

"I could see how that would be effective, Deku. But in order to pull off a mission like that we'd need more information. At this rate, even a stealth mission would be a rash discussion." Bubble Girl stood to attention at the projection on the screen.

"What about the girl herself? She didn't say anything about their numbers or the hideout itself?" DynaMight asked, his brows furred, eyes starring off into space in thought.

"Unfortunate no, and theres no way to contact her further at the moment. It's too dangerous." Eraserhead answered.

"Ugh, Heroes. Useless." Xavier spat, throwing himself from his seat and storming out of the room. Toshinari watched him and then turned back to your mother who sat there with her head hung low. Her dainty fingers shoving tears away from her face.

"This is all your fault." She muttered before standing and following Xavier out of the room. Your father sat there, frozen, unable to process or move or speak. She was right. It was his fault, he thought. If only he had asked you to stay that night. If only he took better care of you, if only he spent more time with you, if only, if only, if...only...

"Um, uh...meeting adjourned. You're dismissed." Your father shuffled out into the hallway, his head hanging low.

"Um...A-All Might?" A soft voice spoke. He slowly turned to find young midoriya standing there. His eyes sparkling as they always did. They never lost their sparkle, after all he'd been through.

"Young Midoriya..."

"...I...I never knew you had a daughter..."

"You weren't supposed to. No one was." He answered with a blank and flat tone.

"Right. Of course. I just...well...she doesn't have..."

"No. One for All isn't genetic so it's not passed on to a user's children. Why? Are you worried that Shigaraki might still be after it?" Deku nodded. Toshinori sighed and looked off in the distance. "You heard the phone call. She seemed fine...she even laughed. I haven't heard her laugh since..." he trailed off. Since she was a child. He hadn't heard you laugh since you were little. The revelation tugged at his weakened heart, shattering it to pieces.

"Sir?" Deku asked.

"Promise me something young Midoriya."

"What is it?"

"The world needs dedicated and strong heroes," Deku looked up at him with a determined furrowed brow, "but don't let it rule your world."

Taglist: 

@craftybean13 @babayaga67 @imjustverable

@bat-eclecticwolfbouquet-love

@kamenoyaki @hentaiqween101 @skzero-99 @justanotherlifeff

[xmint-conditionx]

☆ flanked ☆ ch2 | knj

(verb) flank -

guard or strengthen (a military force or position) from the side.

attack down or from the sides, or rake with gunfire from the sides.

☆ pairing: soldier!namjoon x widow!reader; namjoon x fem!reader ☆ word count: 3.1K ☆ summary: you’re a recently widowed military spouse who is stationed at camp walker, south korea. you’re dealing with the tragedy of your husband’s recent death, and in the process, you accidentally meet a k-pop idol you’ve had a crush on for years. who knew you’d both be at the same post while he’s doing his compulsory service? who knew he’d be so damn nice? who knew it would be impossible to get him out of your head? ☆ warnings: angst, mentions of death, grieving, lots of fluff in this chapter tbh and you might die because dork namjoon has come to the party ☆ a/n: hey everyone c: sorry this repost is a little late; i've been sick the past two days and holed up in bed for the last one. i'm so excited to release this for you and start on the next chapter.

It is 6:05 in the morning, and you are awake. Not wide awake, but awake. You can’t believe you let Namjoon convince you to get up this early, because frankly, nobody has ever convinced you to get up this early. When he said that you’d have to get there first thing in the morning so you can see everything, you really didn’t think he would mean you’d have to get there at 7 AM. It’s always been your philosophy that it’s wrong to wake up before the sun, and you’re finding that getting out of bed in your pitch black room isn’t easy. You’re gonna have to make sure to clarify everything that man says in the future. Ugh, military men, you think.

You groan, muscles stiff as you finally manage to get yourself out of bed.

Bananas is obviously not getting the memo, the only sign of him being his fluffy tail poking out from under the covers. He’s never been into early mornings either.

Namjoon sent you a text yesterday and told you that the exhibit that he really wants to show you requires tickets. He then told you that because they only sell 100 tickets per day on a first come first serve basis; getting in line any later than 7 AM would surely be entirely too late, apparently. The Daegu Art Museum opens at 10, tickets go on sale at 9:30, yet you need to be in line no later than 7? Sure.

He seemed really excited about the exhibit, though, saying that Yayoi Kusama, whoever that person was, was a genius. So… you couldn’t exactly turn him down. Her works were deep and breathtaking and spoke so much about life, according to Namjoon. He had promised it would be worth it, and you thought about that promise as you groggily did your morning routine. Yeah, you thought, it had better be. If only he hadn’t sent too many pleading-eye emojis.

You grabbed your over the shoulder bag and gave Bananas a good belly rub before heading outside.

Despite being almost non-functional this early in the morning, you beat Namjoon to the museum. Gawking at the massive modern building, you walk up to the front doors, where a decent line has already formed. Okay, maybe he was right.

You find yourself a place at the back of the line and just as you reach in your bag to grab your phone to text him, you see Namjoon walking in your direction, long legs making short work of catching up to you. You catch his eyes lingering on your bare legs as he approaches, and for just a moment, you’re glad you chose to wear this skirt.

“Morning, Namjoon,” you groan, leaning up against the museum’s outer wall. More people start filing in line after you, and you’re thankful Namjoon wasn’t too late. “I guess you were right. Look at all these people.”

“Morning, peach,” he says with another one of his dimpled grins, “Glad it’s warming up out? It’s supposed to hit 20 degrees today.”

“Okay, it is entirely too early for you to be this happy,” you say, voice groggy. Namjoon just shrugs.

“Guess I’m just excited.”

You look around the small crowd that has formed and notice that a lot of the people are sitting up against the wall while they wait. You decide to do the same.

“I am too, trust me,” you say, back resting against the cool stone, “I’m just not usually up this early.”

“I see. Maybe conversation can keep you awake. Are there any other places in Daegu you want to see?” Namjoon inquires.

“Well, there is that aquarium I keep hearing about. One of my coworkers on post says that there are mermaids that do a little performance with the fish.”

“Oh! I know which one you’re talking about! I’ve actually been there a few times. I love it there! Fish are so cool.”

“Before I went into veterinary science,” you say, “I was originally planning on being a marine biologist.”

“You’re a vet? I didn’t know that! No wonder Bananas looks like such a happy pup!”

“Yeah,” you say, letting your head fall back, “he really is. But, I really want to go check it out. It’s been a long time since I’ve been to an aquarium.”

“The mermaid performers swim around with a bunch of stingrays. Stingrays are actually not that dangerous, especially if they have the barbs removed from their tails.”

You feel your eyes growing heavy.

“Wow, I didn’t know that.”

“A lot of people think they’re really dangerous because Steve Irwin died from a sting from a stingray, but his injury was a result of the barb piercing his thoracic wall. Most stingray injuries are actually very mild.”

“That’s interesting,” you say quietly, eyes fluttering closed.

“Some people think that cutting down their barbs is abuse, but it’s like cutting off a fingernail to humans. They don’t feel it at all and it grows back over time.”

“Mhmmmmm,” you say as you feel yourself slipping back into sleep.

“It’s the touch tanks that can be a little problematic,” Namjoon continues, oblivious, “Stingrays have a type of mucus that covers their body that protects them from bacteria. If that gets rubbed off, they become vulnerable. A lot of zoos and aquariums are taking plenty of precautionary measures though, like making sure the guests wash their hands before and after they experience the touch tank. In fact, I think that given the proper precautions, touch tanks…”

______________

The warmth next to you feels like home, and threatens to pull you back to sleep. You feel yourself holding onto something... firm and yet so soft, but it’s comforting, so you tighten your grip and nuzzle further in. You then feel a gentle breeze run across your legs and wonder where your blankets have gone. Bananas has probably hogged them all. You breathe in and smell laundry detergent, a little musk and… men’s deodorant? There’s the quiet chatter of birdsong, and an unmistakable trickle of water, and you instantly remember where you are.

Your eyes snap open to find yourself snuggled up to Namjoon, arms hooked around his bicep and cheek against his shoulder. He seems un-bothered by your lack of respect for his personal space; he doesn’t even look up from his book. Like it’s the most natural thing for you to be attached to him like this. Embarrassed, you quickly distance yourself from him and apologize profusely while he just chuckles a bit. He puts his bookmark in to keep his place and turns towards you as you blink yourself awake, tasting the dryness in your mouth. Oh god, you must have had your mouth open.

“It’s fine, peach. I didn’t even realize you were asleep until you started snoring.”

You gasp. “I did not!”

“Oh, you did,” he says, eyeing you playfully, “It was only a little though. And it was really quiet. Kind of cute, actually.” You play hit him in the arm that you had just been latched on to.

“Hey, don’t be mad at me. I bought your ticket!”

“You what?! What time is it?” you ask, scrambling to look at your phone. It was 5 minutes until open. “Namjoon, why didn’t you wake me up?”

“I was going to, but you were sleeping so hard...”

“Well, at least that means I wasn’t all over you this entire time.”

“Oh, no," he says, "you were.”

You groan. “How did you get up and buy the tickets then without me knowing?”

“A man has to have some secrets, you know. Come on, let’s go look at some art.”

The inside of the Daegu Art Museum is stunning. The lobby is bright and open; the sunlight pours into that first room through the large windows, casting a lovely morning light on all of the bright and cheery visitors. Some of the larger pieces are displayed in this grand lobby, some towering ten of feet above you.

“Namjoon, this is beautiful.”

“Just you wait, Come on, first we’ll do classical, then lunch, then modern art. The best one we’ll save for last.”

Classical art wasn’t your favorite, but Namjoon got absorbed in just about every piece. When he saw one that really grabbed his attention, he would sit there gawking at it, mouth open as he read from the little plaque next to it. The way his eyes filled with wonder and widened with discovery at the newly rotated paintings was absolutely adorable. He almost had this child-like wonder about him, eagerly looking back and forth from the plaque to the painting and back again. You almost enjoyed studying Namjoon instead of the art.

You let him take the lead, showing you some of his favorite pieces as you navigate through the galleries. He is definitely in his element here. After he finishes his embellished tour of the classical works, you both decide it would be a good time to break for lunch. The museum has a little cafe, so Namjoon takes care of waiting for your orders while you are tasked with finding a nice spot to spread your blanket outside on the grounds. You see a spot beneath a tree offering up a little shade, so you spread the blanket over the soft grass and take your place, closing your eyes and breathing in the fresh air. Namjoon soon arrives with your food, and settles down next to you.

Before you start to eat, you remove your cardigan, exposing your chest and arms to the air, hoping to enjoy some of the new warmth in Daegu. You hear Namjoon take a sharp inhale, and thinking something’s wrong, you quickly look over at him. He’s got his eyes trained on you, and he swallows hard before he realizes you’re looking at him. He jerks his gaze away, finds something else to look at and shakes his head, as if to clear it. Was he… checking you out?

“Sorry, I thought I uh…” he trails off, “thought I saw a bug. It was, uh, just a shadow.”

“Uh, thanks for uh, looking out,” you say, before a thought strikes you, “Hey, Namjoon. I brought my painting stuff with me today. I was hoping to paint a little while we eat, is that okay? I don’t want to be bad company.”

He perks up, “Oh, yeah, sure. I can just keep reading my book. Hypervelocity stars aren’t going to learn about themselves!”

You set about getting out your watercolor palette, planning on using some of your bottled water to wet your paints. For some reason, you glance back over at Namjoon. He’s sitting with his back against the tree, legs crossed at the ankles, book in one hand, and bao in the other. His eyebrows are slightly furrowed together in concentration, and he lazily takes a bite, not even looking at the bao bun. You hold back a giggle when you see he got some sauce on his mouth. You can’t help but point it out by getting his attention and tapping your own bottom lip. Namjoon studies you for a minute, and slowly licks his bottom lip, almost too slowly. Before you can register what he had just done, he just smiles at you innocently and goes back to reading his book.

This man is going to kill you, so he might as well be the subject for your art. The way he’s positioned himself is just too adorable to ignore.

After getting the basic shape of his outline done and halfway through the details in his face, he stirs from his place under the tree. You watch him as he places his book down carefully on the blanket and walks toward your back, steps ever so gentle. You turn your head and see a little bird hopping around on the grass, and Namjoon is after it. He breaks off a piece of bread from his second bao and extends it towards the bird, who eyes him suspiciously. To your surprise though, it hops forward and takes the bread, chirping up at Namjoon. He goes to sit cross legged on the ground, but doing so ends up startling the bird, who then flies a short distance away on the lawn. Namjoon sulks and pouts a little before getting up and walking after the bird. This is the craziest thing you have ever seen. You love animals so much that you’ve dedicated your career to helping them stay healthy, but this is on a whole other level.

You go back to refining your art, throwing some color into the sky and on the tree, seeing as your main subject has wandered off.

You’re startled when he comes back from behind you.

“How’s the art coming?” he asks, looking over your shoulder at your book, “Hey! Is that me?!”

“Well, it was going to be until you started playing Snow White.”

“Yeah…” he says, looking down at what’s left of his sandwich, “the little guy ate all my bread.”

You laugh a little at him as he frowns at the char siu pork filling barely being contained by the thinnest bun dough you’ve ever seen. Widening his eyes, he downs the rest of the bao bun in one bite.

“Dind youh whanna fhinish youhr phaintingh?” he says, covering his full mouth as he speaks.

“I can finish it some other time. Let’s go see the modern stuff before I want another nap.”

Stepping into the large room that houses the modern art, you take in a sharp breath with how absolutely full it is. Sculptures, paintings, installations; and in the back of the room is a line leading to a small door. You don’t know where to look first, so thankfully your personal tour guide is there to show you the way.

You’re reading the plaque on a minimalistic piece when Namjoon comes and grabs your wrist, excitedly ushering you to follow him. He leads you to the other side of the room where he stops in front of a section of blank wall, gesturing for you to look at it. You sit there and wonder what in the world he could be talking about when you see it. A piece of bright pink gum is stuck to the pristine white wall.

“This wasn't here last time!” he exclaims in a whisper. “I can’t believe this.”

“Yeah, kinda sucks that someone did that.”

“No, you don’t get it. This is an installation.”

“... are you sure about that?”

“Yeah! Look, it's about how such a simple thing can ruin something so large. Like finding a fly in your chardonnay, or there being a hair in your food, or one small imperfection in a person ruining your whole view of them.”

“I’m pretty sure that’s actual trash, Namjoon.”

“Of course it’s actual trash. I don’t think the artist could have gotten the point across without using actual chewing gum. It says so much. It might also be depicting the actual process of tainting something too! Like, how long did the artist chew the gum before they stuck it there? How much time and effort did it take them to ruin this whole wall with their gum? Where’s the plaque?”

As Namjoon searches the nearby walls for a plaque, a janitor comes by and scrapes off the gum, smiling gently at the both of you. You send Namjoon a pointed look, one that’s screaming “I told you so,” and then you both start laughing, having to hold back most of the sound in the quiet of the viewing space.

“Okay, last but not least. You ready?” The two of you were next in line to enter that small door you had seen at the back of the room when you first entered. The lady taking the tickets had already informed you that you would have five minutes once the door shut. You still had no idea what to expect.

“Yeah, I guess I had better be.” The door opened, letting out the museum goer who had just been in there.

Namjoon leaned up to your ear from behind and gently said, “Close your eyes.”

You were about to protest when he continued speaking, placing his hands on your shoulders, “I’ll walk you in there and tell you when to open. Trust me?”

You answered him by letting your lids drop. You felt him guide you by your shoulders as you walked gently forward and then to the right. You could tell that the floor texture had changed from the concrete you’d been walking on all day to something more plastic. You heard the door softly click shut behind you.

“Open,” he commanded softly, and you complied.

You could not make sense out of what you were seeing. The view went on forever, but you could tell that the actual room was so very small. Directly in front of you and on all sides were mirrors, infinitely reflecting off of themselves into the horizon. You were both completely surrounded by them. Scattered around the part of the room that wasn’t the black platform that you were standing on were delicate fairy lights in a cool white tone. It felt like you were floating in a void, so endless and empty. There were specks of brightness, but they did nothing to change the darkness enveloping you. Though it felt infinite, there was a nagging sense of being trapped. Surrounded on all sides. It was beautiful and terrifying to look at. Consumed by everything and nothing. You forgot Namjoon was there until he spoke quietly against your ear.

“This is what I think grief looks like. If it could take a physical form, this would be it.”

He’s right. He’s so right. You’re being swallowed by emptiness. You both are.

You both stand there in silence for the next few minutes, Namjoon’s warmth radiating onto your back, his hands still on your shoulders. Occasionally, his breath would brush against the nape of your neck.

“You really get it, don’t you?” you ask quietly.

“I can’t say I understand what it’s like to lose a spouse, peach. But I understand grief in my own way. I know this sounds crazy, because I don’t believe in any higher power, but I think we were supposed to meet each other.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean... “ he starts, “I just feel better when I’m around you. I feel like a… better person. You don’t treat me like... “ he stops himself.

“Like what, Namjoon?”

“You don’t treat me like other people do. In a lot of ways. That’s... the easiest way to say it.”

You just nod, wanting to soak up these last few moments in this room with him. In this dark space, it’s not so scary to get close. You allow yourself to lean back into him, and he stiffens up for a moment before circling his arms around you.

“We’re gonna get through all of this together,” he says against your ear, “I promise. Together.”

[guigz1-coldwar]

'Hope': New chapter for "Redemption in a Spirit in a Cold War" is out!

'Hope'

"I'm just glad that we found you, Yiri,"

Chapter Summary: Yirina & Zasha are trying to stay focus and well in their situation, awaiting a light of hope to come for them...until...

Link of the Picrew here!

To read it on AO3, click here!

Words : +3500

Taglist : @snowgoldwaylon , @clxudtea , @efingart

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

That's all that I & Zasha wanted at the moment to get out of here...a sense of hope coming to save us...Park, Portnova, the SAS...they're our hope but now, we have to wait...wait inside that small cell and let the time pass, trying to stay focus on not losing our minds in here as for me, my left eye's vision was worse, all blurred with now only my right eye that can see right. It was making me sad to think about it and I was trying to not think of it but having a stinging eye wasn't helping...I'm feeling bad...

It was long, very long to wait, Zasha staying near me at my right and the only good place that I could see perfectly, and our eyes were mostly focused in front of us as if we were awaiting at any moment someone to come in and each time, a noise was heard through it, we were preparing ourselves, was it going to be someone from Perseus? Was it going to be our saviors? Each time, unfortunately, it was false hopes when we were thinking about getting saved, it was just maybe the Perseus guards behind that door...each time...

I couldn't know if it was good or not but it seems that Beck's intervention hours ago stopped the two crazy Perseus agents, Bellamy & Sarah, to come here & fuck up my eye again but the bad was already done with it. They stopped coming here & since what happened, no one came to check on us, leaving us alone to dream & wonder what time it could be...was it the afternoon? The night? Having no means to know was...disturbing and I was starting to think that it was like days that we're here.

A long time passed until as usual, some noises were getting heard through the door while I & Zasha thought that it was just the guard before suddenly, the door was getting unlocked, and then, opened widely to reveal Beck alone, just him, not even his friend Lukas or the two crazy ones with him. It was just him, looking very normal and wearing the same clothes as the last time.

"You're okay?" He asked us, entering the cell and letting the door open behind him.

"Do you think that we could say yes now?" I told him with a low sarcastic tone, pointing at me & Zasha who shook their head at me.

"I'm sorry, it's just that..." Beck sounded apologizing to us, knowing that his question is a bit stupid to ask at this moment. "I think that you're thirsty, right?" He guessed, taking out from the inside of his jacket, a bottle of water.

"Yes..." Zasha whispered, offering their left hand towards the bottle that Beck urged to give them quickly. "Thirsty," They muttered between their lips before they starts to drink the bottle.

"You don't have...anything to eat?" I asked Beck as he was nearly kneeling in front of us.

"No, I'm sorry," He replied, shaking a bit his head at us. "I would have liked to but Bellamy & Sarah refused that I go down with food and only with that bottle," He pointed out the bottle that Zasha was drinking before they finished.

"Here, Yirina," Zasha offered me the bottle in my hand that I take gently, wanting to finish it quickly too, the feeling of thirst inside my throat. "What time is it?" Zasha demanded, sounding to have enough to be in the unknown about it.

"Uhm..." Beck drifted his eyes towards his left wrist to look at a silver watch on it. "It's evening, 7:21 PM," He revealed and even if it was relieving to know the exact time, that wasn't doing really something to us.

"I thought that Lukas will be with you," I said after I got my lips away from the bottle, putting it gently on my right, just in the space between me & Zasha.

"Nein, they send him away," Beck declared in a low voice, joining his hands together. "Told him to leave England to go back to Russia and I couldn't do anything," He added, his right hand moving behind his head to scratch it.

"They? Bellamy & Sarah?" Beck nodded when I tell him those names. "Shit, those two are the worst," I exclaimed in a clear voice, making Beck laugh a little.

"Yeah, the two are fuckin' strict, even avoiding me to take some of my Judge Dredd comics for relief," He alleged, the two of us getting along on the subject.

"You read comics?" Zasha questioned him, sounding curious to know.

"Of course," Beck responded directly, giving them a little smile. "Before, there were some NATO defectors that make me learn of comics with this Judge Dredd, and since, I'm a fan of this character," He announced, sounding very good to tell that to us. "You know him?"

"Never heard," I said.

"A few times," Zasha said, making me turn my head slightly at them. "You should read some when...you know," They advised me, sounding low at the end of their sentence.

"I'm sure that..." Beck was going to say something before suddenly, a big boom was getting felt inside the room, making some dirt falling off the ceiling. "Scheisse, what's going on?" He cursed, turning his head around outside the cell to see some people running in a direction...was it...our saviors...

"Beck!" A loud voice was heard coming into the cell, and then, we could see Bellamy arriving inside the cell, in a sort of panic. "Beck, here you are!" He mumbled as he was at our sight with a masked man behind him.

"What's happening, Bellamy?" Beck demanded, curious to know.

"The SAS has found our location and is closing in, we need to leave," He answered, making me & Zasha look at each other with wide eyes...finally.

"And Sarah?" Beck asked, his voice not really sounding worried about her to be honest.

"Sarah is with her team at the parliament for the bomb, don't worry," Bellamy told him in a clear voice before his eyes went on me & Zasha who give him back the same glare he was giving us, and then, he looked at the soldier behind him. "You know what to do, handcuff them," He ordered with a gesture from his head as the soldier starts to comply and enter the soldier, passing next to Beck to get to us.

"We're leaving them here?" Beck pointed out at us as he was looking at Bellamy and walking outside.

"Even, they're still going to die in a worse way," Bellamy declared before he & Beck got away from the cell, going in another direction as the masked soldier was taking some handcuffs from his vest after they closes the door behind them

"Give me your hands," The soldier demanded to us in an assertive tone as he was moving in front of us to reach our hands. "I said, give me your hands," He repeated after we didn't move our hands to comply, taking first my right hand.

"Zed," I muttered in a low voice as the soldier was starting to get the handcuff around my wrist. "You're still hurt?" I asked them clearly.

"Uhm...no," They whispered, looking at me with curiosity and wondering why I was asking this now before I gave them a wink with my right eye. "Oh...not at all," They affirmed again, a smile appearing on their face.

"Good to know," I said, and just before that the soldier could reach Zasha's left hand, I decided to make a stand, as the sounds of gunshot & little explosions were getting perfectly heard, and then, I decided to clench my left fist and land a punch right on the side of the man's head.

It caused him to remove his hand around my wrist that he was still holding in the case and Zasha took the charge by giving him a foot kick on his chest that make him fly in a little distance, in the middle of the room and away from us, giving us some moments of relief before we manage to get up on our feet and ready to leave but the soldier was quicker than us and got up back on his feet right before we could make a single step to get away, just after Zasha got up.

"You want to fight?" The soldier demanded in anger after he got up.

"As you wish," I told him straight before I starts to walk towards him, without any difficulties despite everything.

Honestly, this wasn't going to be something that I would have like to do but...now, I was like determined to...leave this place that if I had to fight for that, I will do it without any hesitation, even if I'm not in the state for it or that the man in front of me was tougher than us and now, even if a half of my vision is blurred, nothing couldn't stop me to put a fight between me, Zasha & an armed soldier...nothing and my thoughts were empty when I start the first moves against the soldier, soon followed by Zasha themselves but as I thought, the fight wasn't going to be easy for us because of our states.

Since half of my vision wasn't clear, I needed to be focus only on keeping my right eye on the soldier but that guy was seemingly knowing this detail and was making sure that it wasn't on him with his punches while Zasha was trying to strike him back but the guy was tougher than us and was avoiding all of their punches before he manages to grab them and throw them away against a wall violently as I was coming back from avoiding one of his punch but then, he threw himself on me, causing me to hit the ground with him on top of me.

His hands went straight towards my neck to start to strangle me to death and he was putting all of his strength on it, me trying to remove them away with my own hands but getting my hands below his to stop him only allowed him to have better control of me and traps my hands. I got a quick peek with my right eye towards Zasha who was still trying to recover on their side before my eye got back into looking at the masked soldier on top of me, seeing nothing but death in his eyes...before my eyes tries to shut down...

"You're going to die here, сука!" The man told me as my strength was slowly giving me up to him. "She's going to win, London is going to bu-" The man continued until he then stopped, a sound of a gunshot getting heard, and a second after, a bullet went to pierce his skull on his back before he falls on me, dead.

I found myself with the man's body over me as no more sounds were getting heard around me, making me think that...maybe that I wasn't alive anymore until I got this thought away from me and get the body out of me, struggling a bit into doing so before I could breathe freely for once, my eyes moving to the door to see...Portnova...holding an MP5 in her hands and looking across the room.

"Grigoriev! Zed!" She said, sounding relieved to have found us here as she got inside the cell, soon followed by a SAS soldier behind her.

"Portnova..." I muttered, a smile forming on my face to see her.

"Yiri..." Zasha's voice whispered across the room and getting Portnova's attention at them.

"Zasha," She breathed, looking at them getting up on their feet before she moves to get to them. "My god, Zed," She sounded so happy & relieved to see them as she got her hands off her gun to hug them.

"Hey, easy, Grigoriev," The SAS soldier told me with a muffled voice as I was trying to get my back off the ground, him moving next to me to help me before he removes his mask, revealing Soap. "Glad to see you still alive," He exclaimed, helping me to get up.

"What happened?" I asked him, even if that question was also for Portnova who was staying with Zasha.

"Someone tipped us off about your location, we came in and got you," Soap replied, starting to walk with me outside with my left arm behind his neck. "Come on, let's get you both out," He proclaimed before my feet arrives outside the cell...my first time out of that room and discovering a hallway full of metal doors.

Soap was staying with me as Portnova got Zasha out of the cell with her and no more sounds of explosions & guns were heard in that place, meaning that...our hope was here, that we got saved after...I don't know...but we got saved by the SAS, Portnova, and...Park...where was she now? That's the only thing that my mind could think at the moment that her name came inside my thoughts while Soap & Portnova were getting us out of that hallway to reach some stairs to get up.

I could walk normally but my thoughts about Park's presence here made me so worried that Soap's help for me to walk was necessary and I was able to see with my right eye but better, the place we were trapped once that we got up the stairs to reach the ground level. It was like an abandoned warehouse and bodies were all around the ground, getting cleaned up by some soldiers whose looks were on me as we were passing by before we arrives near some sort of garage door...

"Where are they? Where are they?" I suddenly heard a voice coming right in front of me a few meters outside. "Did they..." The voice stopped as...I could see her...Park, standing in front of me, her blue eyes from afar looking at me. "Yi...Yirina!" She exclaimed with the happiest voice before she walked right to me and took me in her arms, Soap getting off.

"Park," I whispered, so happy to see her now, a smile forming on my face and some tears coming out of my eyes because of the emotions. "Ouch, that's stings," I mumbled, my left eye-stinging and causing Park to get off me, her eyes widely open.

"Bloody hell," She muttered, her right hand moving on my cheeks. "What did they do to you, Yiri?" She asked me, her eyes focused on my left eye as her hand was going near it.

"Injection...they...I should sit, right?" I suggested, thinking that...what to say needed to be...told while sitting.

"Of course," She agreed before we took only a few steps to go near a small crate outside the warehouse. "Here," She helped me a bit to get sit as the SAS soldiers were starting to clean up the place, Soap staying not far from us as Zasha & Portnova were staying near the garage door on their side. "So, what happened?" She demanded. "What happened yesterday at that crash?" She clarified herself, sounding curious.

"The train crashed after our pilot...Griffin got hit, and then, Sarah...captured us with her men," I started, trying to remember perfectly the events of...yesterday.

"Sarah?" Park whispered and I nod to her. "You mean, Sarah Mcgrath?" I nodded again.

"Sarah Stone," I corrected, Park's eyes going wide again at this news from me. "She was his sister, plotting to make the MI6 believe that Stone was still alive, killed Peter, and faked an abducting," I continued, Park, looking very curious and astonished to that. "Her & Bellamy...they did this to me, injecting me with a needle...Can't see right with that eye," I pointed out to that eye, sounding bad as the vision wasn't coming back.

"Shit," She cursed, getting her hand back on my cheek to have a look at this eye.

"I look ugly, right?" I presumed, not having seen my eye with a sharp of glass, and even, I'm not sure to look at it. "It's all blurred so, I presume that's bad," I added.

"Your eyes have different colors now and..." Park was trying to say something before she stops herself, looking sad at seeing me like that. "I'm just glad that we found you," She expressed, a smile on her face.

"Not in my best shape," I muttered, looking down at my feet and seeing the bad shape of my outfit, filled with dirt on some parts of it. "I can't see on my left part, not the best feeling I have at the moment,"

"Don't worry, we're going to heal you with Zasha," Park exclaimed, putting her hand below my chin to make me look at her, a tear coming out of my right eye at seeing her. "You'll be fine with me," She said, giving me a comfortable grin on her face.

"Grigoriev?" A voice called me out behind Park and I could see Price himself arriving at us. "I think it belongs to you," He told me as he was handing me over an M1911 in his right hand...my very own M1911 that...I'm been using it since I came back...

"How?" I questioned him, taking nonetheless the gun in my left hand.

"Soap found it with Ghost when they came back from the train crash," He responded, his head turning around to look at his men inside the warehouse as Zasha & Portnova were getting sit on their side, looking at me with a smile. "Roach was wounded but saved as for Griffin, he was dead when they came to the crash," He announced, making me feel bad to hear that from him.

"I'm sorry, Price," I apologized as I was the one who took this Griffin with me...caused his death.

"It's not your fault, Grigoriev, you did what was necessary," Price told me, trying to stay positive towards me but I can't forget that my decision got me & Zasha captured, someone killed and another wounded.

"Captain, we found something inside," Then, a masked SAS soldier came towards us, holding a sort of picture in his hand and offering it to Price. "Picture of a nuclear bomb but nothing else," The man said.

"Looks like an American one," Price judged by looking at the picture that was looking to be in the inside of a building as he was giving us a peek at it before...before...

"Wait!" I raised up my voice, something inside of my mind enlightening. "You said...you said, a bomb...a nuclear bomb," I pointed out at the soldier whose head came to look at Price before nodding back at me. "Nothing about a location?" The soldier shook his head.

"Where are you getting here?" Price demanded as Park was worried about what I was thinking.

"Bellamy said, before leaving that...Sarah was with her team...under the parliament," I announced, and directly, I could see Park's & Price's eyes going wide at my declaration, having the same realization as me. "Greenlight," I muttered that name, making the link between a nuclear bomb and that CIA project.

"No..." Price whispered, looking down at the ground. "The whole government is having a session tonight...both houses...it was going to happen tomorrow but they reported to...tonight," He revealed, his eyes going over in a direction...the direction of the city on the horizon.

"Perseus wants to blow up London with the Greenlight bomb...and it's under the parliament," Park said, Perseus's intentions in London getting clear for everyone now as Zasha & Portnova came to us to hear the news. "We need to go now, that bomb can't explode," She spoke to Price who agreed.

"I'm coming!" I told her in a clear voice, a feeling of hatred coming inside of me against Perseus, Bellamy & Sarah.

"No, you're hurt, Yiri, I..."

"No, I'm coming!" I cut out Park in her words. "It's not because they fucked up my eye that I can't fight," I added as I look up at my M1911 in my left hand, seeing it well cleaned up. "We can't allow them to blow up a nuke in London and kill everyone...and for that, I'm coming!" I made my stand loud & clear to her before I look up at Zasha, shaking my head at them, meaning that I don't want them to follow me & reenact what happened the last day.

"Yiri, you..." Park was going to say before she resigns herself to not continue in her words. "No, you're right, we're not going to let them detonate that nuke," She agreed even if I could see on her face that she wasn't willing to let me fight.

"Soap, you're staying here with a large part of the men," Price ordered to Soap who nods at him. "Those outside are coming with me to the parliament!" He raised up his voice to make himself heard well before he walk away from us towards a van parked at least 20 meters from us.

"Yirina, you're sure about this?" Zasha asked me, sounding worried as Portnova was in the same state as them. "You're hurt and...even with that...you're sure?" They repeated and I nod back.

"I won't let Sarah destroy London...not our new home, Zed," I responded to them, their face understanding my reasons to do this. "You two should stay here, you need to heal up,"

"You too," Zasha remarked to me.

"Maybe but not for the moment," I said, the urge of stopping Sarah into destroying London getting over the fact that I should be healed now. "Stay here, me & Park are going to stop her," I told the two, gesturing at Park that I'm ready to leave and she opens the lead, me giving me a head gesture to Zasha & Portnova with a little smile before going to follow Park to a car...

I'm not going to let that bitch destroy the new home I want to have!

[finnwolfhard7137]

The Heart of Mine-

Miles Fairchild × Reader

{Based off of The Turning}

Story Summary: You are an 18 year old nanny and you take on a job for two orphans-Miles and Flora-in a gothic mansion in the Maine countryside. Unexpected events occur, pulling you and Miles towards each other and hearts connect.

Chapter One: Meeting Miles and Flora

Word Count 2,889

Warnings: slight angst (will change throughout the stories progression)

All of your life growing up as a kid, you loved taking care of kids. You loved looking after them, teaching them new things and watching them grow. So now that you are eighteen, you are now a nanny. You have been putting your name all around Maine and you finally got a call. Her name is Mrs. Grose, and she needs a nanny full-time for two orphans: Miles and Flora Fairchild. Miles is 18 and Flora is 7. The house is in the countryside which you loved! It is beautiful there, well the parts that you traveled through. You told your best friend Rose about the job offer. 

"She said it is a mansion!!"

Rose "oh well you definitely have to take it now! You can be rich by the end of it!" 

"Come on Rose, you know I'm not in it for the money."

Rose "I know, you got a good heart Y/n...I am going to miss you."

"I know I am going to miss you so much. I will come visit every chance I get. But it's not going to be right away."

Rose "yeah that makes sense. So when do you have to leave?"

"In three days."

Rose "damn! Well I guess I have to hog you these three days so I can get my sister-time in!" You and Rose are like sisters. You have been friends ever since elementary school. You two are polar opposites though which you find funny how opposites attract. She is more of the partying type while you are more calm and mellow. 

…. 

During the three days, you and Rose went shopping, to the movies, to the bowling alley, etc. It was really fun but now you have to get ready to go to work. You put your bags in the back of your yellow car and are about to leave.

Rose "I guess this is it huh?"

"Only until I see you next!" You try to make light of the situation. You know that you are going to be away from each other for a few months, and that'll be the first.

Rose "okay well, drive safe! Call me when you get there, and keep me updated! I want to hear all the details." You agreed and gave her a quick hug and left. You watched your friend get smaller in the rearview mirror as you drove further. You are excited to meet Flora, from what Mrs. Grose tells you, she is very kind and sweet. On the other hand, Miles is more of the rambunctious type and gets in trouble a lot in boarding school. However, you can handle it. And who knows, maybe you can tame him down a little bit. The drive there was beautiful: lots of open farmland and trees but when you got closer to the house, the landscape changed drastically: many of the trees were dead, not many people on the road. You got to the gate of the manor and saw the house. It was absolutely beautiful! More on the gothic side but you loved that. You could see a maze field as you drove by and a pond. You couldn't wait to see inside. Once to the front door, you knocked but no one came. So you decide to walk around the house and you find a greenhouse. The doors were open, so you helped yourself to the inside. It was filled with beautiful flowers and plants. You were admiring a peony plant when Mrs. Grose came up behind you. 

Mrs. Grose "beautiful aren't they?"

"Oh! Ye-yes they are. They happen to be my favorite."

Mrs. Grose "you must be Y/n." 

"Yes ma'am. You must be Mrs. Grose." She nods and shakes your hand. 

Mrs. Grose "come now, Flora is inside. You won't meet Miles until he comes home from boarding school." As you walk through the house, you are taking in your surroundings. Paintings we hung on every wall, every wall was painted a different color, and there were so many antiques. Once you get to the living room, you see a beautiful little girl sitting on the floor playing with a toy horse.

Mrs. Grose "Flora...this is Y/n, your new nanny." She got up and ran to you. 

Flora "Hi!! You are very pretty!" She was right, Flora is very sweet. She runs to you and gives you the biggest hug.

"Aw thank you sweetheart! But not as beautiful as you...it's so nice to finally meet you." She lets go of you and smiles. 

Flora "Miles is going to like you."

"Oh, is that so?"

Flora "yeah...he melts when he sees a pretty girl!"

Mrs. Grose "Flora, enough of that now." She raised her voice which made you jolt a little. 

"Uh so...tell me about yourself!" Flora told you about what she likes and doesn't like. She loves riding her horses with Miles. But one thing that stood out to you was that she isn't allowed to leave the house. Why isn't she allowed to leave this property? You didn't want to ask so you changed the subject. 

"Do you want to show me around the house?"

Flora "YEAH!!" she grabbed your hand and started running around the house. Showing you where you sleep, the bathrooms and kitchen. Once you get to a long hallway, Flora stops. "That's the East Wing...we don't go in that part of the house."

"Why not?"

Flora "don't wanna." She runs off, leaving you to wonder why no one goes into that part of the house. 

"Hey! Wanna show me your horse!? I love riding horses." She nods and takes you to the stables. 

Flora "this is Miles' horse, he only lets Miles ride him. And this is my horse!" She was white and beautiful! Flora handed you an apple that she keeps laying around the stable so that you can feed her. 

Flora "did you know that the seeds have cyanide in them?"

"Umm no, no I didn't. How did you know that?"

Flora "my doll told me." And she grabs her baby doll off of the ground. 'She's been through a lot, don't freak out.' You think to yourself. 

…..

It is dinner time and you sit next to Flora while you eat. 

"This is delicious, Mrs. Grose!"

Mrs. Grose "this is Flora's favorite, isn't it darling?" Flora just nods. You begin to think that Mrs. Grose speaks for Flora most of the time. That bugs you, but this is only your first day so you don't want to start anything by bringing that up. You finish your plate and are ready for bed.

"Flora, will you show me to my room again, I forgot." She nods and takes your hand. She has such cute little hands and it makes you melt. You already love this little girl with all of your heart. 

Flora "this is your room!"

"Thank you lovebug. Did you have fun today?"

Flora "yeah!! Tomorrow can we go riding?"

"That sounds like a great idea! Sweet dreams Flora." You give her forehead a kiss before she leaves the room. You put on a red nightgown for bed and brush the knots out of your hair. As you are doing that, you hear creeks coming from outside your door. The creeks got louder so you decided to go check it out. It is completely dark since Flora and Mrs. Grose went to bed also. It was deadly quiet once you got out of your bedroom door. You walk towards the hallway leading to the East Wing, and stop. You hear what almost sounds like a woman screaming. You open the door at the end of the hallway and the screams stop. It was a room filled with paintings and mirrors. You look in the mirror and see a boy, it made you jump and let out a little scream. You turn around to see a boy standing in the doorway.

Miles "you shouldn't be in here."

"Jesus you..you scared me! Are you Miles?"

Miles "yeah."

"Why are you home? Shouldn't you be in boarding school?"

Miles "I got sent home early. You really shouldn't be in here, you should go to bed." And just like that, he walks away. Now you know Miles, it was strange but hopefully tomorrow you can get to know him.

____________________________________

The next morning…

Mrs. Grose "good morning miss Y/n. How did you sleep?" You see Miles sitting next to Flora on the sofa. He smiles at you and you have to admit, his smile melts your heart. 

"Uh good i guess. How did you all sleep-" the phone rang, cutting you off. Mrs. Grose gave you the 'okay' to go get it. You answered it and it was Miles' principal, telling you that Miles has been expelled. You were shocked as to why he was expelled. He is staring at you as you talk on the phone, almost telling me through his mind not to tell Mrs. Grose. 

"Okay. Yes of course I will inform Mrs. Grose, have a good day!" You walk over and sit down.

Mrs. Grose "so, what was the news?"

"It was Miles' principal. Telling me how well in school he is doing!"

Mrs. Grose "oh very good!" You gave her a smile and looked back at Miles. He was smiling at you from ear to ear, as if he was thanking you. You had to ask him why he did what he did but not right now. 

Flora "Miles! Y/n and I are going riding today, do you wanna join us?"

Miles "yeah of course!" You get up to get dressed for the day.

You put on a pair of brown pants, a white shirt and a black vest with some boots. It was perfect for riding horses! You are in the middle of pulling your hair up when there is a knock on your door. "Come in!"

Miles "hey um, I just wanted to thank you for doing that back there. You didn't need to but yet you did. Thank you."

"You're welcome. But I have to ask you, why did you do it? Why did you hurt that boy?"

Miles sat down on your bed and patted the area next to him so that you could sit down. Once you sat down, Miles explained, "they burned a photo of my father and it made me mad. I loved him and I miss him. I just lost control."

"It's okay, I understand how you feel. I also lost my father when I was young, I miss him too. Just promise me that you will try to control your temper, even when someone is in the wrong?" 

Miles "I promise y/n. I'm glad that you are here. I gotta say though, I wasn't expecting a girl my age to come nanny me and my sister. But I'm glad that you are. Flora all morning, would not stop going on about how much she likes you!" 

"Well i like her a lot too, she's a sweet kid."

Miles "yeah she is. Well hey, you look ready to go so come on, let's go riding!"

Once he explained to you why he did what he did, all was forgiven and honestly, you liked him. You can't wait to see how this all plays out. 

…..

Miles "do you know how to ride?"

"Yeah, I used to ride growing up! It's just been a bit."

Miles "do you want me to teach you? To ya know, refresh your memory?"

"Yeah, sure." You got on the back of Flora's horse and started riding. Miles informed you on how to keep your form in check and how to keep control of the horse.

Miles "you look good up there." You blushed at his comment. Maybe Flora was right, Miles does like me..

Flora "see I told you that Miles would like you!!" You both laughed. 

Miles "okay you look like you are ready to ride without my help. Follow me and Flora, and we will take you through the maze." You nod and did as he said. The maze was long and complex. 

Flora "you can easily get lost in here!"

"Yeah, no kidding! There are so many ways to go." You weren't worried about getting lost because Miles was leading the way and you trust him. You try to familiarize all the twists and turns of the maze. It was pretty extraordinary! After you got out of the maze, you all went to the stables and got off the horses. 

Flora "did you have fun!?"

"I did! It's crazy in there." You get down to her level, she was tall for her age but she is still much shorter than you.

Flora "tonight, can you read me a bedtime story?"

"I would love to Flora." The whole time you were talking to her, Miles was looking at you and smiling. He has never met anyone quite like you. Yes, nanny's in the past loved Flora too but not like you. He is really starting to like you. You just don't know that but soon will find out. 

You walk back to the house and Miles is walking next to you. You look up at him and smile. 

Miles "what?"

"Nothing just, thanks for today. Thanks for showing me how to ride and the whole maze."

Miles "of course, it's my pleasure really. Are you liking...staying here?"

"I mean I've only been here for 2 days but yeah, I am."

Miles "good! I really hope that you stay. Everyone who comes here, normally ends up leaving….without saying goodbye."

"Hey..I'm not planning on going anywhere." Miles grabs your hand and gives it a quick squeeze. 

Miles "okay, good. Let's go inside, it's time for lunch." When he touched your hand, it was like a spark ignited in you. You felt something for Miles that it was too early to quite put a finger on. All you knew was that this is only the beginning.

…..

Nightfall finally came and it was time to read Flora her bedtime story. She picked her favorite one and she crawled into bed. You got into bed with her. 

Flora "Y/n..can I ask you something?"

"Of course sweety, anything!"

Flora "are you going to leave?"

"No of course not! Why would I leave you?"

Flora "I don't know. Everyone just leaves me and Miles and never says goodbye."

"Miles told me that today, it broke my heart. I am so sorry they did that to you but I promise that I will not leave you and Miles."

Flora "promise, promise?"

"Cross my heart and hope to die." She leans into you as you begin to read. She falls asleep and you can feel yourself start to fall asleep as well. You lightly get up, making sure not to wake up Flora and close the door behind you. You make your way to your room and see Miles in his room. You smile at him and continue walking. Unlike last night, you fall asleep pretty quickly tonight. You were in the middle of a nightmare when you woke up, seeing Miles standing in front of you. 

"Miles?"

Miles "I-I'm sorry! I heard you whimpering in your dreams and it was killing me. Your door wasn't locked so I helped myself in...I was about to wake you when you woke yourself up."

"It's okay..I am sorry for waking you. I get these terrible nightmares sometimes." Miles sits down next to you.

Miles "it's okay, no need to apologize. It just scared me a little, I didn't know what was happening. I am glad that you are okay."

"I am now, thank you Miles." He put a piece of hair that has fallen into your eye behind your ear and smiled. 

Miles "I heard you reading to my sister. She really loves you y/n."

"I love her too. She asked me tonight if I was going to leave her, as you did earlier. I promised her that I wouldn't. I care about you and Flora too much to do that."

Miles "good because we care about you too," He pauses for a second, " All I am going to say right now is that I promise to always protect you."

"What..what do you have to protect me from?"

Miles "just listen to me okay...I'm not going to let anything happen to you, I promise. I know that you have only been here for two days but I have grown to like you, and I won't let anything happen to you, okay?" 

"Yeah." He kisses your forehead and then leaves. You didn't know what he meant but from the way his voice changed, you believed him. You just didn't know what from. You struggled to fall back asleep after that.

_____________________________________

《I have been wanting to write this for a while now, I hope that you all like the first chapter!! It is only the beginning and i promise that it only gets better from here!! ♡♡♡ let me know what you think in the comments》 《im tagging my girls!! I hope you know this movie and love it so far!! If you do please share it》

@hvitserkmarcosource @moriartysringtone7137 @azurebrock @kid-that-likes-to-xplr @daddydobrock @taradummy @cutiecolbsss

[babieyangyang10]

violent ends (chapter 9)

(chapter 9)

series masterlist

genre: hunger games!au

pairings: huang renjun x oc, na jaemin x oc

warnings: language, murder, mentions of blood, vomiting

previous | next

After Jaemin and I went hunting together, we cooked our game over a fire. I know the fighting had finally stopped at the Cornocopia, once I heard cannons go off. One shot for each dead tribute. They are late, since the bodies can only be confirmed and collected once the killers, or in this case, the Careers, have stopped fighting enough to let the Gatekeepers keep track of fatalities. I counted each shot as they went, counting eleven in total. That's means there's thirteen of us left.

Noticing it was getting dark, we quickly kicked dirt over the fire to avoid people seeing the glow of orange flames. "Do you want to keep watch now or later?" Jaemin asked me.

"I'll do it first." I say, leaning back against a tree. I hand him the backpack, resulting in him looking at me in confusion.

"A pillow?" I suggest, however, he just smiles and shakes his head, before laying his head on my lap. Looking up at my reaction, I just chuckle and playfully roll my eyes at him.

Before he can say anything else, I hear speakers playing the Capitol anthem. In the sky, the dead tributes began being displayed.I recognize the District 3 girl, who Jeno brutally split open with an axe, the District 5 boy, who tried to choke me to death, a District 7 boy, who I'm pretty sure was the other one I killed, and then the District 8 boy, who got his throat cut open by Renjun.

After the Capitol symbol returns and the music comes to a finishing climax, it fades into the sky. Now, all you can hear are wild animals and crickets. I look down to see Na Jaemin had his eyes closed.

Having nothing to entertain me, I simply observe the sleeping figure on top of me. I gently push his blond hair out of the way. At my touch, a content smile forms across his face.

Ripping my hand away, I come up with an excuse, "I thought you were asleep and I was-"

"No, don't stop." He groans, voice laced with the effects of his tiredness. Sighing, I softly play with his hair, while he drifts off into a deep sleep.

I wonder what the people in the Capitol are thinking, watching us right now. I know we are going to have to really spice up the whole lovers idea, especially as time goes by. However, I haven't really felt like we haven't  been acting that lately. Or at least I know I'm not. Jaemin, on the other hand, is harder for me to tell. Sometimes I find it difficult to decipher if a random, flirty comment is actually him or just his persona.

I do know he's a wonderful companion, though. Over time, he really has proved to me that he knows how to hold his own, really well. I'm glad I have him with me now, instead of having to uncomfortably sleep in a tree by myself.

For the next couple hours, I spend the majority of my time sharpening all my knifes with a rock I took from the river. River rocks are good for sharpening, since the water has already smoothed and flattened them down. I stop once all the knifes have gotten extremely sharp, however not sharp enough to chip off.

By this point, my eyes have been trying to close on their own. Knowing it's time to switch, I shake Jaemin from his slumber, "It's time."

He lifts his head off my lap, before switching places with me. However, instead of laying my head on his lap, I place my body between his legs. My back is comfortably resting on his chest. Once I lay the back of my head against his shoulder, his face is just inches away from mine.

"For warmth." I clarify, trying to hide my smile.

He wraps his arms around my stomach, before agreeing, "For warmth."

A scream forces me awake from my sleep. I jump and grab my knife, laying next to me.

"Jae-!" I start, but a hand is covering my mouth from behind me. My body begins thrashing around, trying to rip the hand off.

"It's me!" A familiar voice whispers from behind me. Jaemin releases me, once I stop fighting.

"I saw some smoke through the trees on your right," I turn my head to see the smoke from a fire clearly visible in the barely dawn sky,  "I think the Careers found the person. Let's not stick around."

He lifts me off him, and hands me my backpack. Grabbing his trident, we silently slip away from the nearby tributes.

Now back at the lake, we wash up and refill our water bottle. I suddenly hear the hushed sounds of talking over the running water.

Yanking Jaemin behind a large rock, we spot a group of young boys across the lake. There's three of them. I recognize one as Mark Lee from District 12. The only reason I remember him was because he received a score of seven, which is pretty high for a lower district. Compared to the young boys accompanying him, he looks older and more muscular. Most likely a coal-miner, then. Everyone else from twelve are usually very skinny and weak. Much like the other two, who have bony bodies. Definitely, no where near as much of a threat as Mark.

Since they don't see us and there's Careers close enough to hear a fight, we just wait until they return to the woods behind them.

"I know Mark Lee is from 12, but who were the kids with him?" I ask Jaemin, once we are alone again.

He paused, "I'm almost positive that was Park Jisung from eleven and Zhong Chenle from ten.”

The next two days are actually pretty calm. Other the person who started the fire, a girl from District 8, no one else died. We spend the two days without running into any trouble.

That is, until the fourth day, when I am suddenly shaken awake by Jaemin.

“I hear screaming again.” He whispers. At first, I thought it was the Careers again. Until, I was hit with a strong smell of ash.

“Something’s burning.” I jump up, throwing on my backpack. I look around, checking the skies, to see where the source was. However, out of the corner of my eye, I see two flashes of light running past.

“Athena, run!” Jaemin runs ahead of me. I follow, feeling the earth burn beneath my feet. Above me, branches were now blazing, falling from trees. My boots kept catching on roots and burning limbs.

“Help!”

For some unknown reason, I pause. Turning around, I spot a boy trying to free his leg from underneath a fallen, burning log. Hesitating, I contemplate if I should keep running or not.

“Please, help me! I’m stuck.” The young boy is still struggling, flames approaching him. He’s pleading with me.

Before I can stop myself, I run over and lift up the log. I can hear the sound of my skin melting, as he uses his hands to pull his leg out from underneath.

Flames kissing our skin, I pull him into his feet, “Come on!”

However, once he takes once step, his leg tumbles from underneath him. With no time to lose, I wrap his arm around my shoulder and began dragging him out of the heat.

Even as hot as it is, nothing can compare to the amount of smoke there is. My throat and nose literally feel like their being cooked. With every breath I take, my chest is heaving in pain.

“Duck!”

I move my head down, just in time to avoid getting hit by a ball of fire. It’s then, that I realize that this wasn’t caused by a campfire gone-wrong. No, this was the Gamemaker’s doing.

It’s only when I collapse under the combined weights of our bodies, that I notice our clothes are burning. We roll on the ground, trying to extinguish the fire. Suddenly, I look up just in time to watch as an apple-sized fireball grazes the side of my thigh.

I don’t even have time to react, before I’m carrying the boy once again. I see his head, beginning to droop down, “Come on kid, we can’t die.”

There are no more fireballs or flames at our feet, however, there is too much smoke to even breathe. If we inhale too much, we’ll die. I don’t even know or see where I’m going, it’s just all smoke. Suddenly, I began to feel water on my shoes. Both the kid and I fall into a small pool, stomach first.

“Kid, wake up!” I choke out, slapping his face to keep him conscious. I dip his head under the water, watching as the ash and blood washes away. With a startle, his eyes open in surprise.

I peer down at the melted skin on my hands and leg, which I had ripped my pants to further get a look at. Although it hurts, at least that means that none of my nerves have been damaged. The skin is raw, but not blackened. Using my elbows, I drag myself out of the water. The boy follows me, now able to drag himself.

Suddenly, I feel an acidic substances making its way up my throat and onto the ground. Before I know it, the two of us are violently vomiting up the smoke in our lungs.

Finally done convulsing, we both lay on our backs in exhaustion. Jaemin’s gone, I have all of our supplies, and to top it all off, I’m now alone with an injured kid.

“Hey kid, what’s your name?” I tiredly tilt my head over to him. He looks pale, but at least he’s awake now.

“I’m Park Jisung from eleven.” He barely chokes out.

“Well Jisung,” I crookedly smile, “I’m Lee Athena from two. Look’s like we’re going to be sticking together for a while.”

[shnuggletea]

InuKagWeek 2020

Alright, to those of you still here, thank you! To those of you who left... eh, it's your choice. Anyway, here is chapter two day two of InuKagweek 2020! Loyalty. @inukag-week thanks for the poster art and here’s my day two! Still working on my own art for this piece. Something I was working on a while ago and quit. Hence why Kagome looks way better if you ask me. Thank you @petri808​ for showing me a few tricks for my posts on tumblr!

Chapter 2 of 8 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8

Fanfiction link HERE

AO3 link HERE

Or if you’d rather, just reading reading!

Loyalty

If I'm being honest, I never had a job in food service. But I had to assume they were all the same mostly. Things like learning the names of the drinks and the regular customers as well as how to handle a tray filled with heavy things were to be expected. However, given my place of 'work', getting grabbed, touched, and pinched wasn't. Two weeks later and I was as used to it as you could be. When you go from living in a girls home, sharing a room, and counseling sweet innocent children to your own space in a mansion and bringing drinks backstage to the dancers, it would never feel normal.

The girls were nice enough though and I never saw Inuyasha which I was fine with. Mostly.

I'd even made friends with most of those that worked there. Some were just there to strip and make money so a little inexperienced waitress wasn't worth their time. Which was fine. But my favorite was a girl named Sango.

Her eyes brightened at the sight of me, a smile on her pretty face as she paused in putting on her fake lashes. I handed off the other drinks, giving Sango her whiskey sour last. "Oh, I do love the nights you're working Kagome."

"Which is every night?"

Sango giggled, taking a sip and moaning her appreciation of the flavor. "Yes. But you are so quick with our orders. The others take forever."

"I just don't want you guys going without some liquid courage. I couldn't do what you guys do."

Sango tisked her tongue at me as I leaned against her vanity table. "It's not that bad. I mean, the audition was a little awkward."

"Audition?"

Sango went back to her makeup, lining her lips with a dark red lipstick. "Yeah. Having to get naked in from of the boss? That was nerve-wracking, wasn't it? Naomi told me she had to do the same thing even as a server. You had to too right?"

I shuttered. So everyone had to do that? Inuyasha had slept with every single girl in this place as an audition? Was that what that was? I lost my virginity to a man like that?

I swallowed my disgust and the rising vomit in my throat, suddenly feeling a desperate need to get checked for STDs because he definitely didn't wear a condom with me, and pushed off the table. "I should get back to it."

"Yep yep. Don't want the boss to catch you slacking!"

As if he could, he was never here. Too busy 'auditioning' more girls. The only one here every day, giving me a hard time, was Koga. He was always somewhere around the club, waiting to bark at me for doing something wrong or touch me. It was never in an inappropriate place but it was still unwanted. A hand on my shoulder or a push to my back. Once, he patted my butt and I nearly tore his arm off. He hasn't done it since but I see him do it to the others all the time.

Returning to one of my tables, I leaned in to be heard over the loud music. The girl on stage now was talented for sure so I was always surprised when anyone gave me their attention over those on stage. Probably thanks to the required low cut top I had to wear. It wasn't even a top really, it was a vest and I barely fit in it. There definitely wasn't room for a bra. And the pants sat low on my hips so my skin showed all the time. Every time I leaned over, I waited for a breast to fall out. Not that anyone would mind, save for me.

Plastering a smile on my face, I listened as the guy I was attending rattled off a drink order as slowly as he could to keep me there longer. It was a struggle to keep my fake smile up. He finally finished, certain he was touching himself under the table the whole time, I fled to the bar. Far from safe, it still had fewer men ogling me at it.

I rested, waiting for my order and Naomi stood next to me. "Hey, Kagome? I'm not really sure I should say something but...there's a guy here who keeps sitting in my section and watching you."

I suppose stalkers were a normal thing here. It didn't mean I was okay with it. "He's watching me? With that going on?"

I thumbed towards the stage as Sango did a super sexy split on the pole. Not sure what I'd do with myself if I was ever that sexy but it was nice to dream. "Well...I've only been here a few days but yeah. I wasn't going to tell you until I was sure. I mean he's far less creepy than the other guy that watches you…"

"There are two guys watching me?!"

She grabbed my shoulders to reassure me. "I'm not really sure! I haven't even been here a week yet. But it seems like this guy is definitely here to watch you. He sits in the corner booth in the back so he can see you but you never seem to see him…" I gently pulled from her hold and made the quick decision to face the creep. "Wait, Kagome!"

I waved back to her, heading off towards the mentioned table. "Don't worry, I won't get you in trouble."

I didn't have to go all the way to the table, figuring out pretty quickly who it was. Shaking my head and growling a laugh in irritation, I walked right up to Inuyasha who looked a little taken aback that I seemed to notice him. Crossing my arms over my chest served two purposes; hiding my overexposed breasts and showing him how pissed I was at him in general. How the hell did Naomi not know who this was? She auditioned for him last week!

Setting his drink down carefully, he cleared his throat over the loud music and adjusted his seat. "I just wanted to check on you, that's all. See how my investment was holding up."

That wasn't good enough for me and I told him as much by not changing or saying a thing.

"This is my club, damnit, I can come in and do whatever the fuck I want."

"Yes you can, Boss," Koga said, coming up from behind out of nowhere. "Everything up to your standards?"

There was something about Koga. He said one thing but clearly felt another. Inuyasha had to be ignoring it, no way he missed the indignation in Koga's demeanor. "Everything is fine, Koga. Except for your customers getting too handsy with the wait staff!"

To my added irrigation, Koga put his hands on my shoulders as if to hold me steady. Never did I ever need another to keep me steady or still and now wasn't the exception. I glared over my shoulder at him but he ignored me. But then his hands popped off me as if burned and I turned back to Inuyasha who looked ready to kill someone. And that someone was Koga so he stepped further away from me.

"I'll..uh...I'll see what I can do about that, Sir."

Just the two of us again, I turned to leave but Inuyasha called out to me again. "Looks like you're blending in here. A real chameleon or just within your element here?"

Turning on my heel, I stormed back up to his table. Leaning over I put my finger as close to his face as I could. "I survive. It's what I've always done and those girls back at the home wouldn't if they were tossed out on the street. So remember that when you think I'm okay with any of this. With you, this place, getting my ass grabbed daily, or even going through your audition. I'm a survivor and I will survive this."

He had backed up a little in his seat but I'd rid the distance in an instant. Big golden eyes danced between my finger, eyes, and lips. "I can see that." I slowly removed myself from his bubble and he crossed his arms over his chest like he was the one wronged. "I said I was sorry the other night. I lost control and took things too far…"

"Do you say that to all the others too? Is this your blanket apology for using women the way that you do?"

He had been looking toward the exit but snapped back to me with my words. "What are you talking about?"

I huffed, pissed to the point of tears. "Fine. Play dumb. Stop coming here and watching me. I'm not going to screw up your stupid club."

He tried to say something but I really wasn't interested. It wasn't like we didn't live together, not that I ever saw him at home either. If he really wanted to talk to me, he could do it there.

I caught Koga grinning at me as I stormed away, feeling Inuyasha's glare on my back. All I could think was that I really had fallen into a den of demons somehow.

oOo

Checking every day, every hour, I didn't see Inuyasha return. A week had passed and he hadn't come back to the club. Meaning things went back to the way they were, not seeing or hearing from him at all. This time I was glad.

That is until I got to work on another Friday night.

The place was packed and Koga was far too pleased about it. "Kagome you're going on stage tonight."

"Wait, what?!"

"We're short-staffed and I've gotten requests. So you're dancing tonight. Be ready to go on after Kiki."

I was numb, staring at my reflection at the vanity that Sango let me use. She was doing something with my hair but I felt none of it. The only man I'd ever been naked in front of was Inuyasha and I was fine with that. It was a livable condition to my servitude. But now I was going to be naked in front of a ton more. As I said, the place was packed tonight so easily 50-60 people were going to see my bush.

"It's not that big a deal, Kagome, I promise."

"That's easy for you to say! You can dance! And you're super sexy."

Sango sat down beside her and frowned. "You're sexy!" When I frowned in return, she kept on. "You are! Plus, dancing isn't so bad. You're alone and no one is touching you. It's easy to pretend you're just dancing in front of your mirror. Stay out of the champagne rooms though. They touch a lot in there."

I'd heard about those rooms and had stayed clear the entire time I'd worked here. But I was a server. As a dancer, if someone paid to take me in there, didn't I have to go?

The question was bouncing around in my brain when the door to the dressing room slammed open. Inuyasha took a quick look around and when his eyes landed on me, they went from bronze to molten metal. The others squealed and ran while I was frozen in my seat, Sango stuck by me even as he stormed up and ripped me up from my seat. The only thing he said or did before dragging me out was grab a robe and throw it at me.

"Cover yourself."

In the bra and panty set I had worn there that night, cause no way in hell was I borrowing from anyone else, it was nearly my turn to go on but Inuyasha was taking us towards the exit. Koga stood near it, shaking with anger and...fear?

"I told you. I fucking warned you. She's not to go on the fucking stage. Ever. She can't even dance!"

"Look, I got requests, what was I supposed to do…"

"Tell them to fuck off, that's what! Jesus, what the hell do I pay you for?! When some asshole with a few bucks tells you what to do and you listen to them instead of me?"

Koga's head hung low but I didn't feel any pity in the slightest. "Sorry, Boss."

Inuyasha still had my hand in a death grip but he put his free one on Koga's shoulder. It was the kindest act I'd ever seen him do. "If anyone bothers you, you call me. Got it?"

I didn't get to see how Koga reacted, Inuyasha pulling us out into the night. He stopped, only to wrap his coat around me before shoving me into his car. The ride was silent until I could take it no longer. Anger was surging in me. Sure, he saved me but who asked him anyway?!

"I don't get you at all. You put me in a strip club to work but then get pissed because people want me to take off my clothes?"

"You're a server."

"IN A STRIP CLUB! What did you think was going to happen?!"

"I thought you'd do your fucking job!"

A dark laugh escaped my lips and Inuyasha turned to glare at me. "My fucking job? Interesting words coming from you. Considering you bought me to fuck you."

"I told you, I'm sorry. I didn't mean for that to …"

I wanted him to stop apologizing because it made the loss of my virginity a regret to him. I didn't regret it, I had enjoyed it until he opened his fat mouth! "It doesn't change a thing! Your apology doesn't change that night and it doesn't make my hymen magically grow back! And it doesn't change your complete lack of care for my feelings on the subject either!"

"Lack of care?!"

"I know I should be thankful...that things could be a lot worse…" I really tried not to, because I didn't want to give him my tears, but I couldn't stop them either. "But it's hard to feel anything but resentment when I went from being surrounded by angels all day to working for the devil."

I cut my sobs off after five escaped and Inuyasha listened to each one. It made me wonder if he got off on them until he spoke again. "The devil huh? That's how you see me?"

Nothing more was said even as we split off to our rooms. The devil going silently into his and I could honestly say for the first time that I hated someone. Cause I hated Inuyasha.

oOo

I half expected Inuyasha to show up at the club again the next day. But with him nowhere in sight two hours in, I considered him a no show and went about business as usual.

Sango was happy to see me, jumping up as soon as I entered the dressing room while everyone else seemed surprised to see me as well. "Oh man, last night was intense. You're okay, right?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Inuyasha is just...weird…"

"Weird? I thought it was hot as hell. I wish I had a boyfriend that protective. I was wondering why you were just a server all this time but now I get it…"

"Wait," I stopped her ramble with a gentle hand in her face, "that guy is not my boyfriend."

"Huh? Then who the hell is he? The way he dragged you out of here I thought for sure he made you quit…."

"What the hell do you mean, who is he? He's the boss!"

Sango's face and those eavesdropping around us twisted in confusion. "No, Koga's the boss."

I looked around, finding faces that agreed. "Wait...so when you said you auditioned for the boss…"

"Yeah, Koga. He made us all strip for him in his tiny little office. I was scared he'd do more but that was it."

I felt faint, my head getting light and my breaths feeling shallow. "But I thought… Inuyasha…."

"Kagome? Are you alright?"

Sango was holding me up off the floor and I gripped her shoulders tight. "Yeah, I just… need some air…"

If she didn't have her first set in five minutes, I was sure Sango would have gone with me. As it was, I wasn't sure I wanted the company anyway, following her finger to the back door of the dressing room.

It was freezing out, middle of January, and snow falling lightly from the black sky above. The cold helped my brain though, forcing the sticky feeling inside it to freeze so it would function.

So when Inuyasha said he was sorry...what had he said? He didn't mean to, that he lost control. Did he never intend to sleep with me? He was Koga's boss but not the boss of the other women? How did that make sense? It was if he had some kind of loyalty and he was actually showing it to me but I didn't understand or know how to take it.

Damn, now I hated him a little less.

"Hey."

So lost in thought, I missed the guy standing nearby, smoking. He took a step closer and I took a step back. It pushed me into the dark and him into the light. The bright red bulb at the end of his cigarette as he took a long drag and then tossed it. His features were sharp and dangerous looking, even with his long, wavy locks that softened his appearance. It was his eyes really, they were dull and lifeless and set on her.

"You're...Kagome right?" I really didn't like that he knew my name. "I'm a bit of a fan of yours. I'm Naraku."

He stuck out a hand but I refused to remove mine from their wrapped position around my chest. Naraku chuckled as he dropped the offer, digging in his pocket for something so I took another step back. A new cigarette and lighter in his hands, I still didn't relax, trying to slide towards the door. If he noticed, he said and did nothing as I grabbed a hold of the handle and pulled with all my might. But the door didn't budge.

"It's locked from the outside. Usually, the girls leave something to block the door but I guess they didn't tell you about that, did they?" he was grinning while my skin was trying to find a new home far from him. "Why don't you dance? You have a killer body and are so damn sexy. Does Inuyasha have a reason for not letting you? I must admit, it has me curious about your relationship to him."

"We don't have a relationship past employee and employer."

He shook his head, clucking his tongue at me. "Koga is your boss. Or...isn't he?" I fidgeted, looking for a way out. "Oh...I see… you belong to Inuyasha, don't you? Just what is your title then?"

My only choice was to walk around the building to the front, which I was about to do when the door popped open and Sango's head appeared. "Kagome? There you are! Sorry, I forgot to warn you about the lock…"

I was breezing past her, not worrying about the slip-up and Sango was glaring at Naraku. "If you ever want a change of pace, Kagome, let me know."

The door slammed heavily behind us and I couldn't be happier. Sango was still looking behind us as if Naraku had a key he forgot to mention. "You should stay away from that guy, Kagome. I'm not sure why he's even allowed near the building."

"Why do you say that?"

She looked back at me, her face pale. "Well...he snaked away a few of the girls that worked here a few years ago to work at his house or something. He promised them more pay and no stripping. But the last I heard he was sleeping with all of them and only some of them were willing."

I didn't bother hiding my disgust, nearly vomiting on the dark tile below us. Sango looked sick too. We were making our way back towards the front, Sango required to 'meet and greet' after her show and get tips. I was supposed to get tips too but I think they all went to Inuyasha or something. They could all go to the home for all I cared, I was loyal to the cause.

Naomi ran up to us as soon as we made it out of the hall and into the main floor. "Kagome, someone is here for you."

If it was Naraku again, I was just going to slug him and call over Koga. But it wasn't him. It was Mother Kaede.

And Naraku shows up, so you know there's going to be issues. Drama. Angsty drama. Weeeeeee...

[forkanna]

WARNING: I did tell you that Rise and Ai will have some views on gender and sexuality that I don't agree with. Well here they come in the next few chapters. Please take everything my characters say with a grain of salt; these are simply very realistic reactions and opinions, even if less than ideal.

[AO3] [WATTPAD]

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

Why could she suddenly hear "Purity" playing in the background again?

"You… huh?" Rise finally managed. She had no idea how long it had taken her to say that much, even though it was practically nothing and she had already said that.

"Maybe… ugh. Now I'm embarrassed."

"What- now you're embarrassed?"

"Yes! Because clearly, it did something for me and it didn't do anything for you, so I'm all alone in caring about this, and I feel so stupid!"

Frantically waving her hands, Rise scooted a little closer as she hissed, "Wait, wait, slow down for a sec! I never said it didn't mean anything to me!"

"You did!" she sniffled, trying to recover from her emotional outburst.

"No, I said it wasn't the end of the world, and it's not that big a deal! But I… I'm not going to pretend I didn't feel anything at all. I did. You just seemed really upset about it, so I was… trying to let you know everything's okay."

Ai was glancing over at her occasionally now, clearly unsure of what she should do. Her mouth opened and closed a few times indecisively. "Ugh. I'm ridiculous. This is ridiculous, I don't know why we can't just be normal friends. What is wrong with me?"

"Um… can I ask you a question?"

"Might as well."

"Is this… Class S yuri, or… did you really…?"

They both looked at each other in shock for a moment. Rise was positive that they both were feeling the same thing, as well: the same sensation one gets standing at the edge of a deep precipice, fighting down vertigo and the unhealthy urge to throw oneself down. She couldn't help tracing the contours of Ai's stunningly beautiful face with her eyes, her proud chin and soft lips…

"O-of course it's just a Class S phase. I've never had a close friend, and everything got mixed up. It's probably similar for you, so we just… we have to work on not getting carried away. Right?"

"R-right! Yes, I…" Rise tried to get ahold of herself. This was too silly; they barely knew each other, all things considered. Brand new friends, fresh out of the shrinkwrap. So what was the use in going so crazy about them misreading signals and sending the wrong ones? They could sort this out.

"Great! Glad we settled that." Ai cleared her throat. "And I'm sorry for trying to blame you for everything."

"Oh, it's okay, we were both a little… y-yeah." Rise chanced a nervous giggle. "Sorry I smacked you."

"Hey, it's not like I didn't deserve it. You were right. Do… you want to…?"

When she didn't finish the thought, Rise prompted, "What?"

"Aiya? We, um, could stop by Aiya for a couple of beef bowls. O-or something." She grimaced. "I already feel like we wasted enough time fighting because I'm an oversensitive asshole."

Rise smiled and moved close enough to put her arm around her. "You're fine. And look; we're fine, too. Nobody's dying!"

"Yeah," Ai laughed very quietly. Rise could swear her cheeks were rosier, but that could easily have been from all the crying.

"I would love to go with you to Aiya. Like, we're friends! We should totally start hanging out like normal friends and stuff. Like, you could even come with me if I'm meeting up with Yuki-chan or Naoto-kun sometime."

For whatever reason, that made Ai stop smiling. But she cleared her throat and shook her head hard. "No. It's fine."

"Oh. Sorry, I didn't mean to… offend, I ju-"

"Wait, wait. I meant… it's fine for you to ask me. I should hang out with other friends besides just you. This is normal. I was… kind of…"

Why did she look so embarrassed? "Go ahead."

"I was talking to myself. Stupid. Trying to reassure myself that normal people hang out in large groups, and it's not you trying to ditch me. I'm sorry."

"Awwww, no need to be sorry." She cuddled her closer, and felt Ai stiffen briefly before letting out a sigh. She could hear it, her ear was so close… "We'll figure this crap out, buddy!"

"Buddy," she snorted. "Don't go too crazy, Risette."

"And you're not a fan." They both laughed and they embraced — really, truly embraced this time, no holding back, no letting the awkwardness hold them back. And it was good. Rise still felt her heart beating a little faster, but that was definitely the kind of thing that could be ignored. And she would — until such time as it went away. Even if it didn't, she could take it; she was tougher than she looked.

"Okay, let's go before I get grosser," Ai half-laughed, half-hiccuped as she drew back. Rise could see she had been crying again — and was already trying to wipe the tears away before she realised what she was doing. "Wh-what?"

"Just… trying to help." She pulled back and got a handkerchief out of her bag instead, handing it to her. "Sorry. Here, this is probably better."

Nodding, she started dabbing at her eyes with one hand while the other fished out her compact. The sound of lamentation as she saw her mascara was loud, but she still just nodded and put the compact away. "Well, I did promise myself I'm going to be less vain. Let's go to Aiya."

"You got it! And it's on me!"

"Wha- no way, I will fight you for that check!"

"BRING IT!"

                                                    ~ o ~

Everything was fine. Rise had been a little worried about how the evening would turn out, given how anxious they both were after their odd brush with lesbianism. No such issues. They were still just getting to know each other, and what better way to do that than over a steaming bowl of rice and beef?

Ai was a pretty interesting girl. She really didn't seem the type to like daifuku — Rise liked them, too, the sticky red bean paste and rice dough was so much fun to chew. But they were so very traditional, and Ai was a thoroughly modern girl who revelled in trends. Between that, her love of Korean dramas and old city pop, retro games, and hatred of aromatherapy, it was interesting how much they had in common even though a few things they definitely didn't. She loved uncovering this more well-rounded picture of the girl she wanted in her life more and more.

The week wore on, and Rise tried to track Ai down whenever she could to help cement their growing bond. They even hung out with the others a few times, and though Kanji and Yosuke kept getting nervous when she would snap at them for making some off-colour comment, generally everything went well. And by much the same token, Rise hung out with Ai's friends — or what passed for them. Kou and Daisuke had seemingly decided to give her another chance as manager. Yu had told her before that she basically just sat in the corner doing her nails, but she was doing much better at actually engaging with the team, by all accounts.

Thursday was different. Ai was gone again, and didn't respond to texts. Eventually, she did get a message back in the evening…

EBI: Sorry I just needed a day

RISE: What's wrong? RISE: Anything I can do? ;-;

EBI: No I'm…

RISE: Ai-chan?

EBI: Listen it's really dumb but my mom called. EBI: And I just needed a little time to get out of my head

RISE: Oh you ditched again? RISE: You're going to get in trouble you know…

EBI: Listen I know you're going to lecture me but just save it EBI: Oh too late you sent yours before I could send mine

RISE: I'm sorry, I just don't want you to fail and get held back

EBI: Yeah I know. EBI: Thanks. :heart:

RISE: You could have told me and I'd ditch with you

EBI: What? No. I wouldn't want you to miss class because of me

RISE: Are you ditching tomorrow?

EBI: …probably

RISE: Where are we going?

EBI: Come on I told you that's not necessary. This is my damage and my weird thing and I have to face it EBI: And sometimes I need to be alone.

RISE: OKAYYYY okay

EBI: Fine. I'm probably going into Shinjuku this time

RISE: I'm really sorry for pushing RISE: Wait what? RISE: ALL THE WAY TO SHINJUKU?!

EBI: Hey I said I needed space and Okina isn't cutting it EBI: And I promise I'll be fine

RISE: ...when and where? Straight to Yasoinaba Station?

EBI: Rise… EBI: Alright I guess I can't stop you

RISE: Really?

EBI: Pain in the ass EBI: Yeah fine… 8AM don't be late or I'll leave without you.

RISE: YAAAAAAAAAAY~ RISE: We're gonna have the best time just you wait!

EBI: Uh huh EBI: Lol you're amazing.

RISE: Huh? Why?

EBI: Nevermind EBI: See you tomorrow.

RISE: Can't wait Ebi-chaaaaaaaaaaan~

EBI: UGH

And that was that. The pop star curled up in her bed with her big plush Jack Frost, grinning into the stuffing as she contemplated what the next day could bring.

                                                    ~ o ~

"What the hell are you wearing?"

"SHH!" Rise hissed at her as she strolled up to Ai on the train platform. "I'm incognito!"

"Uh huh. Can you take those big sunglasses off? It makes you look like a cartoon character."

Rise pouted as she pulled her shades off. At least most of her hair was still stuffed up into an oversized cap; no trademark pigtails to tip off Shinjuku residents that a famous idol had gone truant for the day. "Don't make fun of me. I'm not used to skipping."

"Weak. But I guess it still looks okay, it's just very… Parisian?"

"Whatever. You look cute, though."

"Oh, this?" Ai said airily, swishing out her long bohemian skirt around her heeled boots. Also seemingly suited to colder weather, but her top was a light blue babydoll tee; somehow she pulled it off, even though it was so much less ornate. Her bag was also a little simpler than usual. "I just rolled out of bed and was this fabulous."

"Right," she giggled, bumping her with her hip. The formerly-grumpy girl finally cracked a smile. "This is cute, but you usually have super pricey Prada or Anello or whatever."

"Hm? Yeah, I like this kind of bag. It is Anello — well, Legato Largo. It's more functional."

"Totally." The train pulled in just then, and Rise stepped forward to board once the doors opened, following Ai's lead. "Where are we off to?"

"Shinjuku."

"Well, I know that," she laughed. "But I mean, did you have anything in particular in mind? I mean, it's kind of… a rough neighbourhood, a little."

"Not if you stay out of Kabukicho. And we will," she reassured Rise with a raised hand. "Believe me, I'm even less interested in being jumped than you are."

"Why do you think I'm 'interested' in being jumped?!"

Ai snorted as she held onto a strap and the train took off. "I didn't say you were! Just… because I'm- nevermind, I just meant I don't have a death wish."

It didn't take them long to get to the bustling streets of Tokyo, and switch train lines to run up to Shinjuku. The same way Rise had been relieved to get to Okina, she was even more full of life now that they were really in a thriving metropolis again. So many sights and sounds! Grinning, she turned and grabbed Ai's hands, dragging her forward.

"H-hey, slow down!"

"You're the one that wanted to come here!" she giggled. "So why so slow?"

"Okay, okay, GOD." Taking a deep breath, she brushed down the front of her clothes needlessly, even though they had barely been rumpled, if at all. "Wherever you want. But I do want to stop in somewhere eventually."

"Where?" No response. So instead of dwelling, Rise just sang out, "Okaaay, then let's goooo!"

                                                    ~ o ~

The day was everything she had secretly been hoping for. They dipped in and out of lots of shops, buying one or two things but mostly browsing. Took advantage of the big city to grab foods that weren't readily available in a small town like Inaba. Stopped to speak to some of the more colourful inhabitants. Rise knew vaguely that a lot of gay men hung out there, but she didn't expect to see so many in flamboyant colours, openly acting so, so… feminine. It was both bizarre and exciting. Were there really this many people in the world who bucked societal norms so openly?

All along the way, Ai was becoming more and more comfortable with her. She still sniped and snarked but there was a playfulness to it that surpassed her previous efforts. They further eroded their anxieties about the accidental lip-lock and started to hold hands and pull each other over to see something instead of being horribly shy all the while. Progress was progress.

Finally, a little after they had enjoyed steaming bowls of udon for lunch, Ai dragged her down an alley unexpectedly. Rise asked if this was where she was finally going to get them "jumped", but Ai only laughed that off.

"No, but seriously, where are we going?"

"You'll see… okay… here."

"'Crossroads'? Okay, cool. Is it a karaoke bar?"

"Not… quite. But I promise we won't be long."

The interior was dimly lit, and everything seemed tinted red. There was a sort of warm atmosphere, combined with a raciness because of the low mood lighting. Rise was fascinated; she had been to a few more upscale places because of her work, and some of the venues she had performed at had bars inside, but this was the first standalone public house she had entered. Mostly because she was a couple of years too young to really be doing that…

"Hey, sugar. You lose your way?"

While Rise was still goggling at how deep the voice was that had come out of the kimono-clad woman behind the bar, Ai was smiling and turning fully in her direction, hands clasped so politely in front of her. "Not yet. But you did help me find it once."

The woman squinted for a moment, then gasped and pressed a hand to her chest. "Little Ebi-chan? Is that you?!"

Rise half-expected them to run together like in a movie and embrace, but they didn't; Ai just smiled wider and plopped herself down on one of the bar stools. "It's me, Ai. In the flesh."

"Whooo! I see that, wow. Well heck, you got no business in here; you're no performer."

"No, definitely not," she admitted with a laugh. "And you helped me see that, Escargot-san."

"PFFFFF," she scoffed very loudly, waving one of those meaty hands. Rise couldn't help thinking that this bar definitely didn't need a bouncer because the hostess herself was so strong-looking! "You'll call me Lala or you'll get outta here. Now, I'm pretty sure I'm not gonna serve you two a drop, since your little friend there doesn't look any older than you. Want a lime-and-tonic?"

"Sure. One for both of us."

"Oh! I…" Rise cleared her throat. "Can I have a cherry, if you don't mind?"

"Sweetie, for you? Two cherries." Rise giggled a little, pleased at the concession. While she made the drinks, she asked, "What brings you back to the neighbourhood? Haven't seen you for a couple of years."

"Oh, I heard from Mother again." Even while Lala was sighing, she passed over Ai's drink, and she stared down into its sparkling depths. "Had to get out of my head. I tried bumming around Okina yesterday, but it's just too…"

"It's the sticks, honey. Of course that's not gonna be enough of a distraction. You need flashing lights, dancing, drinking- well… not drinking," she said firmly, pointing at her. "And I'd better not hear you started trying to sneak booze at any of the other places around here, neither. Everybody knows everybody in this neighb-"

"Okay, okay, wow," Ai cackled before taking a sip. "Mm. I promise not to try to scam drinks from other bartenders."

Lana nodded firmly, satisfied for the time being. Then she turned to Rise. "What's your story, sugar? In the same club as your gal pal?"

"Huh? Oh, I… no, I haven't joined her club; they already have a manager."

For some reason, Ai looked worried about this. Why? They both knew for certain that she had no interest in the basketball club — even just being their manager like Ai was. But her answer seemed to satisfy. "Really? Well hell, that's quite a performance you're putting on, queen! All that contouring, and those are fabulous!"

She had gestured to her chest. While Rise was blushing and looking down, Ai cleared her throat and hastily said, "N-no, Lala, she… don't you know her? This is Risette! You've probably, um, probably seen her v-videos, or heard her songs?"

"Oh, it's Risette, is it?" Lala chuckled, waggling her fingers like she were casting a magic spell or sprinkling glitter. "I used to have a thing for Cher — don't even say it, I know, I know. Walking cliché. But I'm sure you can guess how well that went over; I gave that up eventually, settled on this." She fluffed her violet-hued hair… which shifted. A wig?

"No, I mean she's really Risette. Rise Kujikawa? Like, we're going to school together." Nothing. "The Quelorie Magic ads?"

Now Lala was blinking and looking at her again. "Hmm, really? The hair's not right." Hoping to help clear this up and move things along, Rise took her cap off, letting her pigtails fall. They were messier, but she was still more comfortable with them that way than with her hair down. "Ahhh, there it is! Well I'll be- you two ain't kidding, are ya? This would be a pretty weird prank if you were."

"Nope, it's me," Rise laughed awkwardly. Still a little thrown off by some of their word choices — what contouring? What performance, and why were her boobs being complimented?!

"And no, we're not in the same clubs. In fact, I don't think she knows much about my club at all."

The way those words were emphasised threw Rise off even more. Conversely, Lala's eyebrows shot up, and she looked between them for a moment… before gasping. "OH! Ohhhh, well then, that's fine. Just found a famous friend when you moved to the boonies!"

"Y-yeah," she finally sighed in relief. If Rise didn't know any better, she would swear her friend was sweating now; maybe that shine on her temples was just a trick of the light. "It's pretty wild; I mean, she grew up there, but I don't think anybody expected her to go back after she made it big."

"Nope," Rise said distantly.

"Sorry," she whispered. "I, um… I probably shouldn't tell your whole life story."

"It's fine! So, um, Lala, you have a wonderful bar here. Crazy good atmosphere!"

The bartender was still smiling at her and chuckling as one of the curtains rustled that led to the restrooms, Rise assumed. She barely glanced over. "Well, thank you much. Real lovely soul for an idol; they usually end up kinda bitter." Then she did turn to the side properly. "Hey, you'd better stop stinking up my back room, gaijin."

"Whaaaaat?" called out the lively redhead in the yellow dress. Not that her bobbed hair could possibly have been that vivid shade of crimson naturally — though she was an American, so it was entirely possible. Rise had a hard time telling Westerners apart, but there was no way someone that gaudy couldn't be from the States. "Come on, Lala-san! I have to get on my perfume, where else will I?"

Her Japanese was just quirky enough, both in terms of word usage and her bizarre accent, that the others laughed. "You're a riot, sweetie. But congrats, I guess you're part of Ai's club for real now."

"YES!" The woman saluted, other hand on her hip. Then she laughed. "What club is that? The Love Club?"

"Close enough. Erica, this is… Ai-chan?" Ai nodded. That was funny; Rise could have sworn they were old friends of some kind, and she forgot her name? "Ai, this is Erica… An… Andeshi…"

"Anderson," she provided in her normal accent. "Boy, it's weird using English again after all that time Nihongo-ing!"

"Uhhhh, right," Ai laughed, clearly having no idea what she was hearing.

"Hey! I'm Risette, and I want to be the star of your heart!"

That single line made the woman's huge brown eyes shoot even wider. "Whoooaaaa! Holy Schnikes, your English is really good, like you sound like a Yankee and shit!"

Stammering, she managed, "Sorry! I do not… understand…" Then she switched back to her native tongue and hissed, "I just learned that part for a show and like, a handful of other phrases; I'm really sorry."

"Ohhhh, it's okay," she laughed with a huge grin. Something about this woman instantly set Rise at ease; like she was almost as used to doing that as Rise herself. "Why did you learn that?"

"You missed it, honey," Lala laughed. "Risette here's a big idol. And yes, I have seen you strutting your stuff on the news; you're killing it, girl."

"Oh, thanks," she laughed, having already forgotten about that thread of conversation. "But yeah, that was one of the phrases I had to learn for my New York City concert — even though that's the only one I performed overseas. I also learned, 'Everybody having fun tonight?' and 'I love you all!' and a few more."

Erica laughed and applauded, as if she were performing a particularly impressive trick. "Amazing! You might know only a small English but you sound very good!" As the others chuckled again, she turned back to Ai. "So what did she mean? Lala-chan. You and me in the Love Club."

"O-oh, um…" She glanced at Rise, who arched her eyebrows at her. "Ugh. Come on, I'll tell you back here."

While Rise blinked, Ai led the redhead over to a booth in the corner. They were both roughly the same height, though Erica was taller by a hair. Figuring there wasn't much point in watching them whisper to each other, she turned back to smile at the host of the bar.

"Ai-chan didn't tell you why she brought you here, did she?"

"Nope," Rise offered lightly as she tugged one of the cherries out of her glass. "Just that she wanted me to see this place. Maybe you were some kind of tutor? Helped her pass some class? I don't know."

Lala laughed heartily as she wiped down the bar. "Close enough. You know, I'm honestly kind of relieved."

"Huh?"

"Back when I knew this little squirt, she didn't know which way was up. And I could tell she was heading for a fall; she lucked out with her parents, but she was going to throw herself so hard into her new life that she would forget who she was. But it looks like that straightened out eventually."

"Uh… huh," she said dubiously, turning to look at Ebihara again. Now those two were hugging tightly. She would hug some complete stranger and not her? Though the longer she looked…

Erica's expression was taut and pained. It looked like a couple of things they had talked about were less than fun.

"You've got a pretty special friend, Risette. Just go easy on her."

"I will, Escargot-san," she said right away, turning back so she could bow properly.

"Woweeee, everybody's so formal today," she chuckled as she turned to head into the back. But just then, footsteps approached, so she paused in her action to wait and see what happened.

"…and don't you be worried," Erica was saying, her arm around Ai's shoulders. "I wish I could stay and help but I have to go back to Chicago. And I promise, it will get better. Look at me, over thirty years, and I am very happy! And strong, like a wrestler! And beautiful!"

"And humble," Ai laughed, and the others laughed with her. Then she reached up to rest a hand on Erica's upper arm. "But seriously, I could never thank you enough. It's so… nice knowing I'm not alone. Even if I would have to move to the USA to be less alone in a literal sense."

"Oh, you're alone. I'm in a class all by myself — Boss always says this. He even loves my feet because I am so special." When the others exchanged curious glances, she cleared her throat and said, "No! I mean, he takes care of them, with nice shoes! Sneakers?"

"Ohhhhh," Rise said, laughing a little too much to try to hide her confusion and discomfort. She felt like Yukiko. "I was about to say, that seems a little over the line if he's your boss!"

"Yes! Though I am sure he would love them if I gave him a chance. Look!" She slammed her leg up on the bar, and Lala was already rolling her eyes in mild exasperation. "See? Beautiful!"

While Rise was politely examining the pedicure shown off by Erica's strappy sandals, she caught sight of Ai out of the corner of her eye — and noticed she was blushing hard. So either she was a candidate to love Erica's feet instead of this Boss character, or she was being powerfully reminded of something embarrassing. Rise tried to recall a hazy memory, some story about Yukiko and Chie… she only wished she could remember what it was.

                                                    To Be Continued…

[do-not-careissa]

Hi! I just saw you updated yesterday night and I really wanted to read it but I also really needed to sleep, so... guess what? Someone didn't go to sleep until midnight after finishing your newest masterpiece ^^ first off: I'm glad Fiona is alright (or was by the time I wrote my last comment. I really wanted to reply sooner but life was a hassle and I wanted to do it right and not between one emergency and the next and then I kind of forgot...) (1/?)

(I really hope she is still good and going strong.) I also don't know how sever the whole corona situation is where you live and I hope you still get to go home/are home right now and are as good as possible. And i wanted to thank you again for sharing your writing with us. It's always so good and my imagination is running wild with the pictures you paint with your words. It's jist all so vivid and emotional and beautiful (2/?)

I could practically feel the budding love between Jason and Kyle nd I love how you write them. It's somehoe spot on and still different from their usual relationship... more serious and less love-hate and I absolutely adore it. I also love whatever you are doing with Guy and Hal right now. It's funny and cute and they are on the best way to become some of my favorites (3/?)

(Though you do have a way of making all the characters incredible... relatable if not likable. Even Bruce and the others. Guy and Hal and Carole and Roy and Lian and Kyle and obviously Jason are incredibly lovable and so great, but I also ger Bruce, no matter how mad I am at him... that said, I also wouldn't disagree with some of the GLs and Sapphires having a long, nice talk with him.) And i am really ibterested where you are taking the situarion wuth the red lanterns. (4/?)

Your Batfam chapters always make my heart ache so good and I can't wait to see how they react to Bruce's assumption. And if Bruce puts it together after that idea gets stomped out by the RL oe ifit takes Jason coming back to earth for him to realise what's really going on. On that note I'm also really interestwd in how Jason's official ressurection is going. Also, I'm not 100% sure if the line about Hal's name going on Jason's papers was a joke or not (5/?)

(it probably was and he is going to be ressurected as Jason Todd, ward of Bruce Wayne) but it's really funny to think about Bruce's reaction when Jason's new legal identity would be Hal's son of all people. I can really see Bruce throw hands about that and it would be so funny. That said, I can't wait to see where all of this is going to go. (6/?)

And I'm already looking forward to the next stages of the JayKyle relationship and Jason's relarionships in general and how the hero community is going to react to his return after everything Bruce told them about him (and I absolutely adore how the GLs are having none of his 'Jason is dangerous and unpredictable' bullshit. Like, hell yes! Adopt him! Which reminds me how much I loved their reactions to Kyle's crush. That was easily one the funniest thing I've read in so long, it was great) (7/?)

Coming back to what you said about considering to put Roy in a relationship with Dick: I usually don't really read RoyDick, but I'm also pretty sure you could make me read and enjoy just about anything so I'm going to be totally onboard whether he dates Dick or Kori or Dick and Kori or just stays single. (8/?)

So, last but not least: I'm really happy that you like my reviews because your stories always make me so happy (and your art is gorgeous by the way, I'm parricularly in love with your designs for the Sapphires) and are on their best way to become my new favorite fanfic. I hope you are alright and having a good time and enjoying your art (written and painted) (9/9) (that got a lot this time, I'm really sorry for all these comments '^^)

----

Thank you! I'm actually living in China right now (from the US) so all the additonal Corona stuff has been going on here since way before I returned in February. Biggest thing is just wearing a face mask everywhere. Now I'm just waiting to find out when and where I go back to work. It's giving me time to write and draw at least so no complaints there.

Fiona's still hanging in there, she giving my family something to focus on since almost everything's still closed back home.

For the fics, the Jason and Kyle relationship has definitely been a practice in picking and choosing what works. Countdown being their only actual interaction in the comics as far as I know helps because I don't have to keep looking to a Canon relationship for reference since they basically don't have one. Oh, what's that meme I'm thinking of? It's free real estate. (Tumblr won't let me post images in an answer apparently)

Bruce can be pretty set in his ways so it'll take a bit to realize he's wrong about what kind of Lantern Jason is, especially without proof. And his assumptions tend to leave the family an emotional and mental mess which isn't gonna be good for what's about to happen.

The line about Hal's name on Jason's papers was mostly a joke, though the Lanterns are hoping for it. At the moment Jason doesn't know they're doing the resurrection for him, they basically want it to be like a gift when he returns to Earth. While they want to change the names around to put Hal in there, they'd want Jason's approval before they did that. If he wanted to do it they'd be more than up for a quick change (I'd assume if Roy couldn't get it done Talia's got more than enough contacts to get a guy to deal with it). Man, I don't know if Bruce would even be able to throw hands at that point in the story if that's what they do, he'd just be kinda done, completely hopeless for ever mending his relationship with Jason.

The GLs are quickly becoming some of my favorite characters honestly. They're all so varied in their experiences both as Lanterns and before they were Lanterns (and technically during times between being a Lantern). Reading and researching them for this series is really making me see how much I've been missing out on them and what amazing stories you could tell with them. It also helps, especially in this story, that their GL duties have them leaving Earth so often. Most of the other heroes would become normalized to a lot of the issues going on, with them not being there all the time that normalization doesn't really have a chance to sink in.

Roy's still super up in the air. Kori's coming back so we'll get their interactions but I'm not entirely sure if he or Dick or anyone on Earth is getting a relationship.

Thank you again, I'm really glad you're enjoying everything!😊

[heyyyharry]

My Girl Series: Chapter 7 - Birthday Blues

…in which Harry tries to make it up to Y/N for all the birthdays he has missed.

Series description: Y/N falls in love with the older boy next door who doesn’t feel the same, years later they meet again at a funeral.

AU: actor!harry, older!harry, younger!y/n; (4-year age gap)

Chapter 6: This Time - Y/N needs a wedding date, and this time Harry’s not giving up.

wattpad link

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After Harry had left Holmes Chapel, every spark of joy in Y/N's life slowly died out with the part of him inside of her. The day she turned fifteen was also the first time she'd spent a birthday alone. Celine was abroad for a three-month exchange program. Her grandma, who lived in Brighton had just passed away, so both of her parents had to go there for the funeral. Since she refused to come along, they left her home with her mother's younger sister, aunt Lynn, who was only twenty-two at the time and didn't even bother to remember her name.

"Sweet baby, do not tell your parents that I invite some friends over, okay? Your mum is gonna be so mad," the young woman said, holding Y/N by the shoulders and the teenage girl could only pay attention to the sound of her aunt chewing bubble gum. For some reasons, Lynn always had something in her mouth. If she wasn't chewing gum, she had to make sure her mouth was kept busy by eating something, or someone. Y/N had met her three times before but each time she was snogging a different guy. Sadly she was the only option for a 'babysitter', just because Y/N's parents didn't believe their fifteen-year-old daughter was capable of staying home alone.

"But today is—"

"Shit!" The woman exclaimed, holding her head. "You're right! It's Friday night, I should throw a party. Play with your dolls, baby. Your aunt has adult stuff to take care of."

"My dolls?" Y/N muttered under her breath as the bedroom door was slammed shut in front of her eyes. Putting on her favorite song and turning off all the lights, she lied down, staring at the spinning fan above her head.

All the kids her age probably spent their fifteenth getting drunk and making out with their crushes, or losing their virginity without their parents knowing. But there she was, locked in her room while her aunt was having all the fun she was supposed to have. For the first time in her life, she found herself alone. She'd always been a loner, yet she had never actually felt it until that night. She stayed utter still in silence, holding Thumper close to her chest. The stuffed animal could probably hear every sound of her heart cracking open. Her mother wasn't there to tell her what a woman she'd become, nor was Harry to sing her the birthday song. It was just her, alone in the dark, with a purple bunny that still smelt just like him.

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.

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Celine always said that working in the library was the worst decision Y/N had ever made, because there was no job more boring than organizing dusty old books. But the thing was, Y/N loved her boring job. She mainly got paid for sorting and shelving books according to their categorization, which wasn't really hard work, not to mention that Ms. Florence, the librarian, was really easy-going. Y/N got to spend most of her time in the fiction section, avoiding her responsibilities to read and write as much as she wanted. Besides, she really liked her co-worker, whose name was Alice.

Alice was a year younger than Y/N. She liked to talk and Y/N liked to listen, so they were pretty compatible. Finding a drinking buddy in university was easy, Y/N had plenty of them; the hard part was finding a buddy you could trust. So even though Alice wasn't what Y/N would consider a close friend, she could be someone to count on.

"Why is it that every time I see you, you're reading something?"

Alice's voice pulled Y/N's attention away from the novel on her lap, as she looked up and found the tiny brunette smiling at her. Y/N leaned back against the bookshelf, crossing her legs so there was room on the floor for Alice to sit down as well.

"I have a surprise for you, big sis!" Alice said, making Y/N roll her eyes and chuckle.

"You've found another porn book, haven't ya?"

"No! An actual surprise!" The younger girl giggled, then finally showed Y/N what she'd been hiding behind her back. "Ta-da! Two tickets to see Heathers!"

"Heathers The Musical?" Y/N dropped her jaw when the other girl nodded. "I love Heathers!"

"I bet you do! You seem like someone who enjoys dark comedy with tragic endings."

Alice's comment made her laugh, but she couldn't say it wasn't true. Her life itself was already a dark comedy.

"Are you giving me these for free?" She asked, pointing to the tickets and Alice's lips curved into a smile as she nodded fast in response.

"I bought these to go with a friend next week, but we're both gonna be busy that night. So just consider this as my temporary birthday gift to you. I'll buy you something else tomorrow."

"How do you know today's my birthday?" Y/N's eyes went round as her mouth fell open, yet the grin on the other girl's face only expanded.

"I was cleaning Ms. Florence's desk this morning when I found your CV. I didn't have time to actually get you something so—"

"Alice..."

"I know you hate birthdays, but please accept these tickets or else I'll die!"

Y/N rolled her eyes, chuckling a bit at how dramatic that sounded, but eventually, she accepted the birthday gift from her co-worker, and thanked the girl for being so thoughtful. "By the way, there's really no need to get me something else," she said, making Alice snort.

"Don't be silly! You're getting a proper birthday gift from me." Alice barely stood up when she flopped onto the floor again. "Oh, and one more thing! Do you wanna go out tonight? I know this pub that's—"

"No, thanks. I've got a lot of work to do tonight."

"But it's your birthday!"

Y/N gave the girl a shrug, lifting a corner of her mouth as she replied, "I never celebrate it."

"Boo, you suck!" Like a child, Alice blew up her cheeks, eyebrows knitted together. "But if you change your mind, ring me up, big sis!"

Y/N tried to contain her laughter as she watched Alice hop away and almost fall head first when she tripped over a stool. It was only when her clumsy co-worker had gone out of sight that Y/N finally checked her watch and realized her shift was just over. She rose from the floor to place the book back on the shelf, then put the tickets into her bag before heading out. Usually, she would always be the last person to leave, but since it was her birthday, she still wanted to do something special for herself, even if it was something as simple as going home before Ms. Florence.

Instead of taking the bus, that day Y/N decided to walk home. For the first time in two years living in that city, the girl finally paid attention to what was going on around her; it was also the first time she had realized how boring London had always been. The grey color of concrete dominated the entire city; it was hard to spot a hint of green anywhere, unlike Holmes Chapel, her home.

Y/N missed that place so much, now more than ever.

She missed the meadows behind her house at springtime, when all the wildflowers added vibrant colors to the fading green. She missed the tall pine trees surrounding a field full of white poppies. She used to run across that field, imagining herself in the opening scene of The Sound of Music, and she could still hear Harry's voice calling out "Bambi, wait for me!" as he tried to catch up with her.

He was the green that she missed the most.

The sound of her ringtone cut right through that thought, causing the vivid images before her eyes to fade back to monochrome. His name showed up on the screen, as if he knew she had been thinking about him.

"Hello?" She answered, standing close to the wall on her right so she wouldn't get in the way of the other pedestrians.

"Are you on the way home?" Harry asked.

"Yeah, I'm just a few blocks away. Why?"

"I'm coming over."

She snorted, pursing her dry lips. "I'm busy tonight, remember? Birthday dinner with Isaac?" That lie was as smooth as melting butter coming from her mouth, yet her insides were heating up and her hands started to shake. She was glad he couldn't see the way she shut her eyes and pressed her lips into a firm line after lying to him.

"I'll see you in five."

"Wait, I said—" Y/N began, yet couldn't finish. Harry had already hung up on her.

.

.

.

The sun was sinking fast now, turning the sky to grey tinged with purple and pink. Harry was already waiting by his car outside the building when Y/N returned, standing with his back facing the ruby-red skyline. With golden-rays casting down upon him, Y/N thought Harry glowed even brighter than the sun itself. But of course, he didn't have to know.

"Happy birthday." His voice was husky and deep as he handed her a white poppy. "Just like the ones back home," he said, and the reluctance from her expression made him feel the need to add, "I didn't buy it. I stole it from a flower shop on the way here."

Y/N didn't know if that was true, but his slop-sided grin made her doubt every single one of his words.

"Headline: Harry Styles stole a flower for a mystery girl!" She said, swiping her hand across the air like she was presenting the idea to him, which only made the beam on his face grow twice as big as he pointed to his car. "Get in, kid," he told her. "Before what you said become reality."

"Where are we going?" She asked in hesitation.

"To your birthday party."

"My birthday party?! But I'm—"

"I'm sure we've got a lot of time before Isaac returns from Italy to take you to dinner."

That one sentence got Y/N tongue-tied. The girl couldn't make a single sound, instead, she was gawking at him like a fool. What did she expect though? He would find out sooner or later because he was still friends with Isaac. So all she could do at that moment was try to come up with an explanation, in case he asked her to tell him why she'd lied. However, he didn't ask her anything. Harry flashed a smile as he walked back to his car and told her to come along. But Y/N refused. She couldn't just follow him blindly without knowing exactly where they were going.

"You're not taking me to a fancy restaurant, are you?"

"Bambi, the last thing I want is for the paps to eat you alive." Harry chuckled and opened the car door for the girl. "Don't worry, kid. It's just gonna be the two of us."

.

.

.

The loud music and laughter from downstairs made it almost impossible for Y/N to even hear the voice inside her head. The birthday blues made it hard for her to stay awake, yet she couldn't sleep either, and there was no way she could talk her aunt into ending the party. Lynn was probably drunk off her ass right now, so Y/N knew the only place for her to be alone with her depressing thoughts was the treehouse. She hadn't gone back there since the night she last saw Harry, but she guessed it had become such a big part of her that she couldn't stay away no matter how much she'd tried.

Still in her pajamas, the fifteen-year-old climbed the rope ladder to get to her childhood spot. The floor was still wet from the rain yesterday, so she leaned against the doorway and stood there to ponder on her own. However, it didn't take her more than three minutes to burst into tears.

Y/N hated crying, it was physically and emotionally painful to cry, and when it was over, what was left was just...nothing. Emptiness. Nevertheless, crying was how Y/N understood herself best. When she cried, she knew who she was. And she had always thought, just like a heartbreak, though crying left her feeling empty when it was over, she would still sigh in relief, because, at least, she knew it was the end.

"Y/N!"

When she heard that voice, the girl stepped closer to the edge of the treehouse and looked down at her neighbor's garden, where she found Harry's big sister with one hand behind her back and the other waving in the air. Y/N quickly wiped away the remaining tears on her cheeks, feeling thankful because if Gemma had come earlier, she might have already seen Y/N bawling her eyes out.

"Gemma! When did you get back?"

"Just a couple days ago. I'm home for two weeks to work on my thesis." The other Styles chuckled. "Glad I found you out here, I was just about to come over."

"To see me?" Y/N lifted both eyebrows, pointing to herself and receiving a nod from her neighbor.

"Yeah, come down here. I have something for you."

The teenage girl hesitated a bit because she couldn't figure out why Gemma wanted to see her and had something for her. Even though she used to hang out with Harry, she was never that close to his older sister. But she climbed down anyway, curious to know what Gemma had behind her back.

"Happy birthday," said the 23-year-old as she handed Y/N the birthday gift she'd been hiding that whole time.

A snow globe.

It didn't have a snowman and a Christmas tree like the ones you normally found in souvenir shops. The one Gemma gave her had colorful glitter inside instead of fake snow; and it was a miniature London, with tiny versions of Big Ben, the London Eye, and the Tower Bridge.

But all Y/N could see, was a person.

"You remember my birthday?" The younger girl asked quietly as she received the gift from her lovely neighbor, who was smiling from ear to ear.

"Of course," Gemma said. "I came to your birthday party every year. But I guess you don't like them anymore, huh?"

"Yeah..." Y/N faked a laugh, hoping her awkward eye-roll didn't give away the fact that she was just lonely.

"Well, I'd love to stay and chat but I must get back to work now."

"Sure. Thanks for the nice gift," said Y/N. "Where did you get it by the way?"

"Bought it when I was in London last week."

Y/N didn't say anything else and just watched the older girl walk back to her house. Of course, she wanted to ask Gemma about Harry, but it was so sad to even think about him right now. His sister remembered her birthday and even got her a present, yet she hadn't heard a single word from him since the day he left. He was supposed to be her friend, or was it just another thing she had fooled herself into believing?

Holding the little London between her palms, she thought that maybe it was time to let go of the London inside her heart.

.

.

.

"Don't peek!"

"I'm not peeking!"

Y/N giggled, holding the hand that was covering her eyes as Harry carefully led her up the stairs, giving her directions so she wouldn't trip and cause them both to fall over. She extended her arms once they had reached the top, feeling the cold metal surface in front of them. The creaking sound caused her to flinch, so Harry quickly reassured the girl that it was just him opening the door. She could feel his other hand reaching around her waist to pull the handle, and a cold breeze blew right through her thin shirt. Y/N immediately took a step backward and bumped into Harry's firm chest. She felt the pressure of his fingertips on her hip as he gently pushed her forward, for the third time that night, telling her to trust him.

"If I didn't trust you I wouldn't have walked up all these floors with my eyes closed." She giggled, and his soft laughter sent shivers down her spine.

"Sit," he ordered, holding the girl by the arms to guide her into a chair; and when she was finally seated, Harry leaned in so his lips were close to her ear as he whispered, "open your eyes."

Y/N did what she was told.

Slowly, she opened her eyes.

The girl had begun to envision her surroundings ever since the cool air hit her skin for the first time as she stepped out, yet what she saw was far from her imagination.

They were sitting on a rooftop of a tall building somewhere in London. From her spot, Y/N could see the entire city spread below, tiny vehicles rushing along tangled roads. The city lights looked like stars dropping to the Earth, making her feel as if they were being squeezed between two galaxies. There were no words magical enough to describe what she was seeing, so Y/N didn't say anything, and just took in a deep breath to let it go with the biggest smile on her face.

It was windy on the roof, so Harry took off his coat and wrapped it around her shoulders. They sat side by side on two wooden chairs, staring at the city and the sky above, completely mesmerized by such beauty, which had completely changed Y/N's opinion about London. Maybe from a different and higher view, it wasn't plain and dull after all.

"Almost like Holmes Chapel, huh?" She heard him speak and turned to look at him. Harry was gazing up with a beam on his face as he pointed to the sky, and told her the names of the stars he knew, not aware that she wasn't really listening. She was too busy looking at him, and thinking, maybe somewhere underneath that man was still the little boy she used to know.

"Oh, I forgot!" He suddenly flinched and turned to pick up the box at his feet. "I made this for you. But...the rest of the batch...already ended up in the trash bin."

He opened the box and revealed one single cupcake with a candle on top. It didn't look terrible, still, it wasn't a very pretty cupcake either. But if that was the best out of the whole batch, Y/N couldn't help but snort as she tried to imagine what the other ones looked like.

"Hey, don't laugh at me! At least I tried!"

"Okay, okay." Y/N bit her lip to hold back a smile. She didn't know why it was so endearing that he'd exerted himself to make her one cupcake. Even if he'd got it from a store instead, she would still be overjoyed.

"Can I eat it now?" She asked, but he quickly shook his head no.

"You have to make a wish first."

Y/N giggled, eyes bored into Harry as he looked around to find something else. "Shit!" His jaw went slack. "The lighter! I forgot the lighter."

"Relax, lemme check," Y/N mumbled, reaching inside the inner pocket of his coat to search for the object, and she felt something like a little triangle box, assuming it was the lighter. But when she took it out, both of them froze as they saw what it really was.

A pack of cigarettes.

Y/N's mouth fell open, she was speechless, and so was he. "Harry..." Her voice was quiet when she looked at him. "Do you smoke?"

"No." He shook his head fast. "N-Not anymore."

"Really?"

"Why would I lie?" A blush crept up his face as he made eye-contact with her. "If I still smoked, I would have a lighter with me, right?"

That sounded like a good enough reason for her to believe him. Moreover, he didn't smell like someone who smoked, and she'd never seen him with a cigarette between his fingers before. So apparently he was telling the truth. Y/N inhaled deeply as she nodded, squeezing his hand for more assurance.

"Smoking could kill you. So don't...don't go back to it..." The way she could barely maintain eye contact while saying that to him made his heart flutter somehow. He took her other hand, linking their fingers together as he asked, "are you worried about me?"

"Of course I am," she said without pause. "I can't bear the thought of losing you."

The corners of her mouth turned down and her whole face contorted so he knew she was serious when she said those words. After all this time, he still mattered to her; and knowing that was like getting a heavy weight lifted off his chest.

.

.

.

Harry sank into his chair, holding the mini calendar above his face. "It's already April," he mumbled to himself, but his roommate Isaac assumed Harry was talking to him, so he replied, "yeah, almost time for finals."

It wasn't finals that came to Harry's mind when he thought about April, it was a birthday actually. He rarely remembered birthdays, and sometimes he forgot his own; but for some reasons, he always remembered hers. He hadn't spoken to Y/N since the night he left, and he could never forget the way she looked at him when she asked him to kiss her. It was awkward, yet it was sad. She truly cared about him, and he could never repay the same kind of feelings because she was too young. So he didn't know how to talk to her again after everything she'd confessed. The last thing he wanted was to lead her on and lull her into believing that one day he might feel the same. He knew he could never like her back the way she wanted him to.

However, it would be a lie to say he didn't miss her. He missed her a lot. How could he forget about his little Bambi? She was the only girl he'd spent the best years of his childhood protecting and looking after. She was something more than just the girl next door, and he kept the image on her face on the treehouse that night in his memory as he left Holmes Chapel with no intention of coming back. Every time he thought about her, a part of him wanted to pay her a visit, but he was glad he didn't change his mind. But now her birthday was coming close, and he knew she wanted him to be there with her. He wanted to be there with her. But he couldn't.

"Isaac," Harry broke the silence in the dorm room, turning his head to look at his best friend who was lying on the bed. "What should I give a fifteen-year-old girl for her birthday?"

The sudden question made Isaac lift an eyebrow. "I thought you only had a big sister?"

"Uhm...it's actually for my...my...cousin."

"Well, I'm bad at this stuff. Why don't you ask Niall?"

Harry rolled his eyes and scoffed. "He would just give me crazy ideas."

"Then ask the birthday girl herself." Isaac shrugged, sticking out his bottom lip. "I mean, try to be subtle and find out what she likes without giving away the fact that you don't know what to get her."

If only it was that easy. Harry shook his head and put the calendar back down. He used to be the one who knew about her more than anyone else, probably only second to her mother, he should be able to know what she liked, but right now he didn't. He knew nothing about her anymore. It was only then that he started to feel bad for all the time he didn't spend with her. But had he not kept his distance, their goodbye would've been much harder.

So he tried to think, swirling the pencil in his hand for a couple seconds. And finally, an idea came to his mind. Maybe there could be a way for him to come back to her after all.

.

.

.

For the rest of the night, Harry and Y/N sat in their chairs, eating pizza for dinner while discussing irrelevant topics like the existence of aliens, strange kinds of flowers, as well as their favorite movies, songs, and books. Soon both grew tired so they fell back to silence. He was staring at the city, and she was taking in the sight of him.

"Are you mad that I lied to you?" Her sudden question made him turn around with an eyebrow raised. "You know, about Isaac."

"I'm not mad at you, kid. But I'd like to know what happened..." Harry couldn't say he had heard most of the story from Niall because he wanted Y/N to tell him herself, if she trusted him enough, and of course, he didn't expect her to. But somehow she did. She ended up telling him everything.

"I didn't want Isaac to turn down the job offer for a relationship that would probably never work." She sighed with her chin on her knuckles, hooded eyes staring blankly ahead. "I liked him a lot. And I thought to myself that if he asked me to be his girlfriend, I would say yes immediately. But when it happened, I got scared. I couldn't let him in because I was afraid that if he knew too much about me, he wouldn't like me anymore. I guess I'm just not ready to fall in love again, and I don't want him to wait for me to be ready. My first and only relationship didn't end very well. So I didn't have the heart to let the same thing happen to us." Holding her breath, she said, "He's too good for me anyway. I'm better off alone."

"Nobody is better off alone," Harry spoke at last, a line appeared between his brows. "Everyone needs someone."

"Not me." She shrugged, and the look in her eyes broke his heart in a million pieces. "I'm sorry I had to lie to you...I didn't want you to do anything for my birthday. I've troubled you enough already."

"But you're not troubling me, love. I did all of this because I wanted to. I...I care about you."

She couldn't remember the last time she heard him say those words, or if he'd ever said them at all. So to hear them now made her feel happy and sad at the same time. If there was one thing that she'd learned from their 'relationship' it would be, Harry's words weren't always credible.

"How did you find this place though?" She changed the subject, putting on a smile to lighten up the mood, which had gotten a bit blue since Isaac was mentioned. She could see it from the look on his face that he was also glad she'd brought up something else.

"Niall's uncle owns this building. They're doing some reconstructing so it's closed for a couple months. It might be the only place we could be together without people bothering us."

"Thank you." Y/N took in a long breath as she smiled. "I've never seen London so beautiful."

"Agreed." Harry nodded fast. In this bad lighting, his dimples seemed even deeper than they actually were. "But my favorite is the winter time. The city looks best when it's covered in snow."

Those last words made Y/N's head turn as her eyes went round.

"It was you, wasn't it?" she cried out, causing the man to jump in shock. He was meant to ask, but she didn't even let him have his chance. "The snow globe! You asked Gemma to give it to me, did you?!"

"Ouch!" He yelped when she smacked him hard on the arm. The girl didn't look very sorry when he rubbed the sore spot and his brows drew together in utter perplexity.

"Why did you ask her to lie for you?! I was so sad, I thought you didn't remember my birthday!"

"I thought it was for the best if you forgot about me, after..."

There was a pause, a gap for her to fill in.

"Our first kiss...I know," she mumbled at last.

It was weird to talk about it now, since both of them had been pretending like the kiss she'd stolen from him when she was fourteen had never happened. After all, she was fourteen at the time, he couldn't blame her for acting so impulsive. But recently he'd been thinking about it and wondering if her feelings back then had been all true.

Her eyes darted as she whispered under her breath, but still loud enough for him to hear, "why didn't you send me anything on my birthday next year or the ones after that?"

"I...I wanted to...I almost did." He swallowed hard while fidgeting in his seat. "But Gemma said you were seeing this boy, so I thought I should stay away from your life and let you forget about me for good. Then time passed and I actually didn't think a lot about you, until..."

She nodded without waiting for him to finish, her lashes fluttered as sadness overtook her face. After a moment of thinking, she asked, "if you could turn back time, would you come back to see me?"

"Yes," he answered. "Without a second thought."

Y/N had seen Harry in a lot of different situations, yet she'd never seen him like that, all flustered and ill at ease. She loved the way the rings on his fingers sparkled as he was nervously toying with the hem of his shirt. She loved it when even under the dim lights surrounding them, she could see a blush creep up his face. She knew better, that it was never good when she felt so drawn to him, yet she couldn't stop, so she released a slight laugh, which got his attention.

"Why are you laughing?" He asked.

Shaking her head with the grin still remained, she said, "nothing."

.

.

.

As he walked with her five floors up to her flat, Harry struggled to find something to say so the silence carried on until they reached her front door. He couldn't explain why he was at a loss for words every time he stood in front of her. He knew her well, he'd grown up with this girl. But deep down inside he knew it wasn't like that, not anymore. He knew his heart had more to say about her than it should, and the way it began to race whenever she was around had him frustrated most of the times.

He watched her unlock her front door and turn to say goodbye. But just when she was about to leave, he stopped her by taking her hand. It wasn't the first time they'd held hands, still, he let hers go after about two seconds like it was hot coal burning his skin. Maybe it was, maybe she was, yet he couldn't stay away because he enjoyed the burn. With round Bambi eyes, she stared at him, slightly puzzled by his strange behaviors. Harry asked her to wait. He searched in his pants pocket, finally pulling out a silver locket necklace.

"Your birthday present."

"Harry—"

He shushed her right away, telling her to turn around as he took a step closer to put the chain around her neck. His fingers brushed against her collarbone only once, but it was enough for both of them to flinch at the contact. Y/N gently touched the heart-shaped locket now lying on her chest, then opened it to find a tiny photo of her mother.

"So you could always keep her by your heart," he whispered, his voice was low and hot against her ear.

Slowly, Y/N turned around, but Harry didn't pull away so they were just one step away from pressing against each other. She meant to just thank him and go inside her flat, but as she parted her lip, not a single sound managed to escape. Her cheeks turned pink, her bottom lip was quivering as she batted her lashes. She had never looked into his eyes for that long, and the look he was giving her made her pupils dilated. It was the same look she'd seen him give that blonde haired girl on the treehouse when he was seventeen. He had never looked at Y/N that way before, and now he did. If only she could read his mind, she would know he was also trying to do the same.

Harry knew it was wrong, but he couldn't resist. The last time he had the same feeling, he wasn't thinking straight so he went for it by instinct. Now he knew exactly what was happening, and still, he didn't stop it. He leaned in a little closer, their foreheads touching. He expected her to pull away or even slap him for making that bold move, yet she stayed exactly where she was, chest heaving with anticipation. Her scent was flooding his senses, and the second he finally found the courage to place his hands on her hips, it was she who decided the next move.

Her lips brushed against his. Not innocently, but hot and passionately, he wanted to pull away before he lost control, but like a magnet, she drew him in more and now he was stuck. "Harry," she whispered slowly, making his heart flutter as he clasped his hands on either side of her face.

That kiss wasn't like the first or the second, this time it was an open-mouthed, almost sexual kiss. He pushed her against the door, loving the way her body melted into his as their lips fitted perfectly like they were made for each other. She held his hair and he held her so tight as if he was afraid it wasn't real, and she would disappear the moment he loosened his grip. They broke away after what seemed like ages, and from the look in her eyes, he could tell she expected him to run, just like he had before.

But he didn't. Even if he wanted to, he knew his trembling feet wouldn't let him. She stood with her back against the door, him with one hand on her hip, the other fisted to rest beside her head. He inhaled sharply and she was still trying to steady her breathing. It took almost five seconds for either to open their eyes and look at the other person.

"Goodnight," she mumbled, reaching behind for the doorknob and the next thing he knew, she had fled inside and shut the door right in front of his face. Harry was left standing in the hallway like an idiot, not knowing what to do next. He lifted a fist, about to knock because there were still many things that he wanted to say to her, an apology was one of which. But he thought again and decided that he should probably go.

Harry left the building, stepping out on the street with his head still on the cloud as he kept touching his lips, trying not to smile so big or else people would think he was insane. But maybe he was, because he was too happy to act differently. He got into his car and sat there with both hands on the steering wheel, head tossed back, smiling contently. His whole face was red, but he didn't really mind. He was soaked in the scent of her perfume, and all he could think about was how he could possibly fall asleep with every trace of her lingering on his body.

His phone lit up in the dark, notifying a new text from Bambi which got him to sit up straight at once. His heart could've exploded when he read the first line, if the next one hadn't come on in less than a second.

⌲ Bambi: That kiss was a mistake.

⌲ Bambi: You're gonna have to earn it next time.

⌲ Next time? :)

⌲ Bambi: Don't be smug about it!

⌲ I'm not! But wait, on the scale from 1-10, how great was tonight? (minus the kiss)

⌲ Bambi: 7/10 (including the kiss)

⌲ Heeeeeey!

Sitting at her working desk, chin resting on her palm, Y/N cracked a smile. The birthday surprise, as well as the kiss they'd shared in the hallway,  were definitely 11/10. But she couldn't give it to him that easily. She placed her phone down, leaving his latest message on read as she touched the chain around her neck once again.

The London snow globe was still sitting on her desk, and she hadn't touched it in so long that it was a bit dusty now. She kept it there so it could remind her of the terrible birthday she should already forget, but she didn't want to. It was a way of telling herself that sometimes the people you loved would leave you behind, and that was just a cruel fact of life that one should just accept and carry on. But now that she knew it wasn't all true, the way she felt about the snow globe had also changed.

Quickly, she typed down 'Thank you for the locket' and sent it to him, then while waiting for him to reply, she sent another text right after.

⌲ I have two tickets to see Heathers The Musical

⌲ H: Yes.

⌲ I haven't even asked?

⌲ H: Whatever you're gonna ask, it's a yes.

⌲ Have you even watched Heathers?

⌲ H: There's always Google! Send me the date and time, my assistant will get back to you shortly.

⌲ Haha funny.

Y/N rolled her eyes and giggled as she snapped a quick shot of the tickets Alice had given her and sent it to him.

⌲ H: Wednesday night! I'm free!

⌲ You sure there's not another award show that night? I'm gonna kill you if you skip another one for me.

⌲ H: Nah I'm not supposed to attend any event next week. If you don't believe me, google it!

⌲ Oh God.

⌲ H: Say that instead of my name 'next time'.

Y/N's face turned scarlet when she read that line. She sucked in her bottom lip, face-palming herself with her eyes shut and wishing she hadn't moaned his name into the kiss. That couldn't have been more embarrassing. She typed down a few words, trying to come up with a reply that would save herself from the humiliation, yet she kept typing and deleting for three times or so. Then came two new messages from him.

⌲ H: It's late. Go to sleep Bambi. Good night.

⌲ H: Once again, happy birthday! :)

The twenty-year-old smiled to herself as she sent him back a goodnight text. Y/N knew she should get to bed now if she wanted to wake up early for a class in the morning. But she also knew it would take forever for her to fall asleep. This time, fortunately, it wasn't gonna be the birthday blues that kept her up all night.

[non-stop-imagines]

Baby Daddy Stark (Part 5)

Here's Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4

Pairing: Tony Stark x Black!Reader

Word Count: 2427

A/N: Finally, Part 5! This one was cute and fun to write and hopefully just as enjoyable to read. I just kinda started typing and couldn't stop until I was done, so... Yay! Anyway, hope you all enjoy, expect to see another chapter of Three Floors Up, soon (hopefully)! Love you all!!!💖💛💖💛

Warnings: Just some cute family time, and Travis makes a new friend 😊

UNIVERSAL TAGS LIST: @avc212 @beautifulwisdom2001 @iamzion-therealhabesha @cheychey10142 @thottio @jetaimeamore

Baby Daddy Stark Tags List: @blackreaders-assemble @blueoz @shakzer00

Masterlist

_____

You wake up the next morning at 6:30 am and treated it as you would any other tournament morning. Travis had to be at the field by 8:30, so you had to wake up and make sure he had everything. You yawn and stretch, taking a moment to grumble at how early it was before finally rolling out of bad and heading to the bathroom, where your brush your teeth and wash your face. You groggily make your way to your sons room to wake him up, finally beginning to fully awaken yourself.

   “Get up, Slugger. We’re leaving at 7:45.” You glance at the alarm clock sitting on the nightstand by Trav’s bed. 6:50. Seems reasonable with what he has to do.

   “Mama, please, 5 more minutes. I promise I’ll get up this time.” He refers to his last tournament weekend when you gave him “5 more minutes” that ended up only giving him 10 minutes to get dressed, get his hair up, check his bat bag and eat. He ended up with the wrong color socks and having to use one of his teammate’s gloves.

   “Nope, not this time. I don’t think Jonathan will be able to lend you his glove this time.” You take your son’s long, somewhat lenky legs and gently pull them so they’re hanging of the bed. He just grumbles in response as he sits up and rubs his eyes. “There you go. Breakfast will be ready by the time you get dressed, and you’ll actually be able to eat at home instead of trying to scarf down a McDonald’s McGriddle in the car 5 minutes before getting the field.” You ruffle his disheveled loose curls then exit the room to finish getting yourself ready.

    You head back to the bathroom and take a quick 5-minutes shower, being sure to cover your hair with some form of shower cap, which you already took upon yourself to perform the more tedious tasks with your hair last night and tightly wrapped before heading to bed. You get dressed in a flowy white t-shirt and some skinny jeans, then picking out your puff and putting on your Curl Cap, the most that you had energy and time to do with your hair. You put on some powder foundation, mascara, and subtly light pink lipgloss for your make-up then start toward the kitchen, stopping when you hear your son calling for you from his bathroom.

   “Mama, I need your help with my hair!” You enter his bathroom and stand behind him in the mirror, gently pushing his hair back. “Can you pull my hair back this time? I did it last time and it kept falling in my face whenever I threw.”

   You sigh and grab the brush that sat on the counter. “What would you do without me? Hmmm…” You somewhat aggressively brush his hair back, grabbing it as you brushed more and more locks back.

   “I don't know.” Travis responds, equally sarcastic. You put down the brush and pick up the elastic headband that he has to use to hold his hair back, tightly wounding it around his hair. With as much hair as he had, a normal sized hair tie wouldn’t have cut it.

   “I know. Now, finish getting ready. Make sure everything is in your bag, and please wear the long sleeve under your jersey. It's gonna be pretty cold until your last game. I'm gonna go heat up the breakfast sandwiches." You lightly fluffy his curls then exit the bathroom, rolling your eyes at the groan he emits once you leave.

   Once you reach the kitchen to make a quick breakfast for you two, you get a text from Tony:

   Do you need me to bring anything?

   You take a deep breath and type your response:

   No, I think I've got everything. Thanks for checking.

   With no obvious way of Tony feeling the hostel tone from your words, you still felt sort of bad for snapping at him, but not bad enough to change your words. You just set your phone down and finish making breakfast.

_____

   "You get to the field, I'm going to go park." You instruct your son as you pull up to the front gates to the park. He quickly climbs out, gabbing his bat bag and hurries out to the field, you then pull away, driving to the first open spot you see. You pull in and turn off the car, but stay in it, adjusting your hat and taking a deep breath. As you sit and think you realize that you haven't notified Naomi about the situation, so you take a moment to text her.

   Hey. Forgot to tell you but Tony is coming to Trav's tournament today.🤷🏿‍♀️

   You tuck your phone back into your purse and climb out your car, grabbing your mesh folding chair and small cooler, then head over to the field.

   Once you get situated behind the back stop next to the bleachers, you pull your phone out to see that you received 2 messages: one from Naomi and one from Tony.

   Naomi: Uhhh… CAN WE NOT FORGET THIS STUFF FROM NOW ON PLEASE? I need details!

   You answer her first:

    I know a LOT has been going on recently. We'll meet up soon, I promise 😁

   You go on to read Tony's message:

    Hey we're here. Which field?

   Your heart and mind begins to race as you read the text. Okay, he's here. Calm down, Y/N. Wait, we? You shoot him a quick text back.

   Field 3.

   Should you have asked who "we" was? Maybe, but it wouldn't have made a difference so you let it go for now. You fiddle with your phone and watch your son warm-up fielding, practicing your deep breathing and checking toward the entrance every 30 seconds. About 5 minutes later you see Tony and a teenager, no more than 16 years old, walking toward the field. Tony was dressed in sunglasses, a black leather jacket with a grey t-shirt underneath, jeans, and somewhat expensive looking sneakers, subtle enough for no one to really realize who he is. You take one last deep breath then get up to meet him halfway.

   "Hey." You greet, wrapping your cardigan that you brought with you tighter around your body.

   "Hey." Tony responds, giving you a dazed and, from your point of view, slightly arrogant grin. You two take a moment to just, sort of, stare at each other. Letting your eyes roam over each other's appearance, until you manually break your trance, coughing to break Tony's focus. "Oh, uh, this is Peter. Peter, Y/F/N Y/L/N." Tony introduces the kid, who reaches his hand out to shake your's.

   "It's nice to meet you Miss Y/L/N." Peter, gives you a sweet but nervous smile as he firmly shakes your hand.

   "Nice to meet you too Peter." You respond as he lets go of your hand, crossing your arms once again, slightly shivering at the cool gust of wind. "Well, I'm over here." You begin to lead them to where you were seated. "I'm sorry, could only find one seat, but I sat close to the bleachers and saved a spot." You remove the cooler and place it on the ground, watching Peter and Tony climb on.

   "This is fine ." Tony reassures you, giving a small wave toward the field. You look to see your son frantically waving, letting a small grin grow on your face. "Is the game starting soon?" Tony asks, still focusing on Travis.

   "Should be in the next couple of minutes." You look back toward your son for a moment then switch your gaze to Peter, who was looking at the field behind yours, who's game has already started. "So, Peter… you're in high school?" You ask, startling him.

   "Oh, uh, yeah. I'm- I'm a junior." He begins to fiddle with his hands for a moment then tucks them into the pockets of his blue zip-up.

   "Oh, okay. So you're getting college ready, or…" You trail off as you watch the coin toss at home plate.

   "Um, yeah. Actually, I'm-uh- currently doing an internship with Mr. Stark that comes with a college grant. He lets me tag along sometimes when he comes upstate, so that's why I'm… I'm here." Peter finishes his answer with a confused face that makes you chuckle a bit.

   "Well that's good. And I'm glad you're here." You give him a reassuring smile, then turn back to the field, watching as your son's team heads out to the field.

_____

   You had no idea what you expected when you invited Tony to watch Travis play, but you sure didn't expect the enthusiasm that you were met with. He ended up acting as any dad would watching their child play, cheering on the entire team, heckling the umpire after a bad call, every once in a while giving Travis some pointers or reiterating what you just said. He almost got thrown out for the amount of heckling he did, but it didn't keep the ump from calling a fair game playwise, which lead to Trav's team to their first win today.

   As you pack up your chair to move to the next field, Travis come running up to Tony, stopping in his tracks when he gets in front of him, but going in for a hug when Tony holds out his arms.

   "You did great out there, kid." He dodges Travis bat that was protruding from his bag, but stays in the hug, patting his back, then pulling away. He adjusts Trav's hat and gives him a proud smile.

   "You're really good." Peter cuts in, to which Travis turns to look at him, silently asking who he was. "I'm Peter, by the way."

   "Travis. But you can call me Trav." Your son responds, grinning, then moves over to you.

   "Hey, baby. You did good. Next game remember to keep your wrists strong when you make contact with the ball. And watch the ball all the way into your glove when your fielding, don't want it hitting this cute face of yours." You pinch his cheek with your free hand and kiss his forehead, movie ng his hat little, earning a groaned "Mama" from him as he readjusts it. "Alright, go to the next field we'll be right there, and as a little incentive for you to play extra hard your last game, we're gonna go get pizza after your last game." Your words were sing-songy as you wiggled your eyebrows, laughing as he celebrates then rushes over to the field. You finish packing your chair, not noticing Peter's excited reaction to getting pizza. Tony turns and squints at Peter, then grins making Peter a little more excited. "Hey, Tony could you grab the cooler?" You ask, slinging the chair's bag strap over one shoulder and placing your purse strap on the other, then make your way to the next field.

   "I like her. She's nice." Peter compliments, watching you walk away.

   "She's something, I'll tell you that." Sarcasm drips from Tony's mouth as he picks up the cooler, following behind you.

_____

   "He sure has a lot of energy considering he just played 3 games." Tony points out, watching as Travis and Peter bounce from game to game, the bundle of tickets in their arms growing.

   "I'm surprised Peter is keeping up with him." You giggle, watching the games light up their smiling faces.

   "Trust me, the more you get to know him, the less surprised you'll be." Tony shakes his head and takes a sip of his Coke. "So… Travis plays with 12 year olds, huh?"

   "Yeah. He's on a 12u team so his team is primarily 12 and 11 year olds, same with the teams he plays. Besides he's the size of a 12 year old, though. Gosh he so tall. But I'm extremely proud of him every time he steps out on the field... I'm always proud of him" You gush, swirling your straw then taking a sip of your drink.

   "You should be. He's… amazing." His eyes roam back over to his son. Examining his brown curls that sprawled every which way now that his hair isn't pulled back, his bright smile, the way his eyes crinkle when he smiles the way his own do.

   "Mama! Mama! Look at all the tickets we won!" Travis comes running over, arms overflowing with tickets.

   "Yeah, Mr. Stark, look! We're about to go cash them in, but we wanted to come show you guys." Peter comes up behind Travis, just as many, maybe even more, tickets in his arms.

   "Well go, cash them in. And bring me back something cool." You shoo them away, taking a bite of pizza.

   "Sooo… sticky hand for you and...one for you too, Tony." Travis gives him a big smile then jogs off toward the prize counter. You turn your head to look at Tony, watching as he lowers his head slightly, letting a small grin grows on his face.

   "Tony… I want this as much as you do and as much as he does. I think it would be great for him to have his father in his life, but for me to feel comfortable right now, I need a few… precautions." Tony turns to you and raises eyebrows to signify that he's listening. "First, if you decide to come and visit, please just let me know first. And always let me know if you plan on taking him somewhere." You take a deep breath and sneak a glance over to Travis, who was pointing at a prize in the glass counter, then begin to pull at your curls. "And please let him organically call you 'Dad'. I don't care when he does just as long as it's on his own terms, okay?" You look back at Tony to be with a gaze that was similar to how he was looking at Travis.

   "Of course. And thank you, again. I'm just glad I get to see him." Just at this moment Travis and Peter return to the table, the largest prizes between them being a medium sized water gun and a paddle ball game, but due to the knowingly large amount of tickets they possessed prior to this, they each had a bag full of candy and smaller toys.

   "Look at what we got. This is probably the largest thing I've gotten from here." Travis admires his water gun before setting it down and reaching into his bag, pulling out a sticky hand and parachuting toy soldier. "I decided that it would be better for you guys to have different things." He smiles as he hands you guys your corresponding toys: you the sticky hand, and Tony the parachuting soldier.

   "Honey, you didn't have to, really." You hug him.

   "It's fine, I always get you something, and I haven't bought one for Tony yet, sooo… here we are " He slides into the booth next to you and grabs a slice of pizza. You just shake your head and kiss his cheek, then continued eating, the rest of the table making light conversation.

Part 6