#i'm too busy trying to fix myself thank you very much--

[sharonisthebettercarter]

'i could fix him--'

bitch, you could not *AFFORD* him.

[silentcryracha]

❍ ‗ Big Boy (L. Minho) ‗ ❍

Pairing : f reader x Minho

Summary : You see your boyfriend shirtless for the first time in a while and realize he got buff in the meantime

Genre/warnings : pure smut (kinda soft bc I can't help myself), 18 + ONLY, unprotected sex, m oral receiving, reader is called kitty a few times (not big on the term but by now it's Minho's, just replace it with baby if you feel like it)

Word count : 1.5k

A/n : Inspired by this set of gifs because I'm actually on the floor as we speak, no thots just drool

ps: There could be errors. Do NOT repost on other socials. Leave feedback if you feel like it, otherwise enjoy! ♡︎

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

The bathroom was completely steamed up as you entered, making you huff slightly.

"It's so hot in here" you said, then immediately stopping in your tracks as you took in the image of your boyfriend.

He was quietly standing in front of the full length mirror, only wearing a towel around his hips as he dried his hair with the hairdryer. He noticed you come in thanks to the reflection, turning off the noise and looking back at you.

"What was that?" his tone calm and casual, as if he wasn't looking like a literal marble sculpture come to life. You rested your hands on your hips, borderline annoyed at the fact that somehow you missed your boyfriend changing so much.

"When the hell did you get so buff?" Minho couldn't help but smirk at your words, slowly putting away the hairdryer to give you his full attention.

"Don't know, since I started working again with the PT, I guess." he spoke, walking closer like a cat that was about to catch his prey.

"You must've exploded in the last couple of weeks because there's no way that I didn't notice, with all the times that we've seen each other naked" you raised you eyebrows, placing your hands on his chest.

Minho's sly expression didn't falter, if anything became even more mischievous as your hands started to roam from his upper chest, to his shoulders, biceps.

"To be fair we were a bit too busy fucking to clearly take each other in. I've been so busy lately that we didn't even manage to take a shower together." his tone was so casual even saying the most dirty things sometimes that it made you blush.

"Whatever the reason, I won't let you out of my sight again, Lee Minho" your eyes looking up at him flirtatiously, while your hands slowly made their way lower towards his tummy. He sustained your gaze, his brown eyes intense as ever.

"How do I know that my kitten will not overlook me again?" the condescension in his voice instantly shifted the mood, sending shivers of excitement down your spine.

You decided to play his game, sliding lower and lower until you were kneeling on the ground. Hands on his hips, just lightly gripping the hem of the towel that was holding on for deal life to his shower-clean body.

"I'm so sorry. Will you let me make it up to my baby?" Your eyes still fixed on each other as you spoke. You waited for his spoken permission, even though the growing tent underneath the towel fabric was enough of an answer.

"I'll decide later. Wanna see how sorry you are, first" his cherry red hair fell a little on his eyes as his head was bent down, which made his gaze even darker somehow.

"I'll try my very best" the towel finally dropped to the ground with just a little tug from your fingers, revealing his hard cock. His abs tightened for a second as you took him into both of your hands, starting to move them up and down slowly but firmly, making it hard for Minho to not choke on air.

He tried to hide the noise by clearing his throat, simultaneously placing his right hand on your head, without forcing it, but merely resting there. You took it as a sign to take a step further, opening your mouth to take his cock, sucking on the tip.

His fingertips lightly grabbed at your scalp, but luckily, or not, for him, you had decided to take your sweet time. So instead you removed one hand from his dick to interlace your fingers with his, guiding his hand away from your head to his side.

He must've found it amusing, since he released a faint chuckle as he decided to let you lead for once, placing both hands behind his back.

For some reason, his sudden willingness to give up his usually dominant demeanor pushed you to try and do even better, desperately wanting to prove yourself to him. Your mouth opened even more as you took him deeper, his tip touching the back of your throat.

"Shit, my baby is really trying her best for me, isn't she?" he groaned, the humor in his voice never completely overshadowed by the arousal. The praise made you hum against him, which also made his hips buck onwards, making you gag a bit.

It wasn't exactly a mistake since he just kept going, with a steady pace, not thoroughly fucking your throat, but making sure that you gagged a bit at every stroke. Your head went still as you let him use you however he wanted, making the strokes of your hand on his cock almost automatic.

Tears prickled the corner of your eyes as your nails lightly dug into the flesh of his ass cheeks, making him hiss.

"Alright enough- I need to fuck you" Minho pulled back, releasing himself from your mouth and then bending down to reach for your face with his hands. His lips crashed with yours, immediately initiating a sloppy and messy kiss that was all teeth, tongue and lip biting.

Your hands gripped his arms for stability as he started to undress you, pulling down your pants and underwear in one go, and then interrupting the kiss to slip off your shirt too.

What he did after though, was unexpected, as he gripped your thighs and effortlessly picked you up, making you instinctively wrap your legs around him.

"Minho!" you gasped at his strength. He was always quite strong even when he didn't have as many muscles, but at least he looked like he did struggle just a little bit. But now, you could've easily been a sack of flour and it wouldn't have made a difference to him.

"You thought that they were just for aesthetic?" he laughed at you, crashing his lips to yours one more time before throwing you on the soft bed. Minho didn't waste time as he put two of his fingers, his pointer and middle, in your mouth.

"I'm sure you're wet enough, but just to make sure" he murmured, a glimmer of humor in his dark eyes. You eagerly did as you were told, sucking on his fingers and bobbing your head slightly too, just like you were doing moments before on his cock.

He groaned, too horny to let you continue your actions. He removed his fingers from your mouth, moving them south to rub up and down your slit. At the same time he leaned down to leave sloppy kisses to your neck, your arms wrapping around his neck and your hips bucking up.

"Such a good kitty for me. My good girl" he murmured against your skin, eliciting a hum from you that quite literally sounded like a purr. But of course it wouldn't be Minho without a whiplash, so he suddenly bit your shoulder, grazing it with his teeth and making you gasp.

"A good kitty that should remember to show love to her boyfriend, next time" his tone wasn't serious at all, but your response was. In addition, two of his fingers were now pumping in and out of you, getting you ready for him properly.

"So sorry, baby- ah, I'll make it up to you, I love you so much" he just chuckled at your desperate words, deciding to end both of your suffering as he removed his fingers from your pussy, replacing them with his cock instead.

"I know baby, I know" his voice much more softer, in stark comparison with the fairly quick strokes of his hips. "I know my baby loves me very much, I love you too" he continued.

Your legs wrapped around him, essentially pushing him deeper into you. Your mouth latched to his as you both moaned. It wasn't unusual to get these sweet moments with Minho, but his dominant side tended to show more in bed.

He just wanted to make sure that he knew that you loved him. That you found him attractive and cared for him, regardless of a few centimeters more or less to his biceps.

The new angle of his hips made sure that your clit rubbed on his pubic bone, which quickly got you to your orgasm. You moaned his name breathlessly as you came, lightly dragging your nails on his back. This action in addition to your walls getting impossibly tight around his cock made him come too.

Minho stilled for a few seconds as he came inside you, and made sure to gently ride out both of your orgasms afterwards. Unexpectedly, you turned your head to the side, leaving a teasing but gentle bite to his bicep, as his arms were caging you.

"You look really hot, by the way, if it wasn't obvious" voice dangerously teasing. Minho got his head up from your shoulder, looking at you with a raised eyebrow and a smirk.

"Careful or we might stay here all day, kitten" he responded, to then gently leave a kiss on your lips. "Thank you, by the way. Next time you can come see them in the making, if you want." he added, his head nudging to his arms.

You chuckled, still keeping him close as you moved some sweaty hair from his forehead. "I'd love to"

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

[dduane]

Hope this isn't an ask you get all the time, but how do you track your progress when you're doing editing?

Everyone talks about word goals, and that seems fine for a first draft, but doesn't make sense to me when it comes to revisions. Do you have any kind of system for setting daily goals for your revisions?

Actually, I don't think anyone's ever asked me about this. :) So no sweat.

Briefly: I think you're wise in not attempting wordcounting in this phase of dealing with an MS—or trying to push yourself into a structure so rigid. ...There's this, too: there's a whole lot too much emphasis out there at the moment on trying to force yourself into other people's writing and editing paradigms—so many of them riddled with bar graphs and "demonstrable" daily progress. You need to find what works for you. More words dealt with in a day, sure, that's encouraging in its way. But are they the right words?

Today’s Writer Take that will probably strike some as Hot (and ask me if I care): Some kinds of writing progress are just neither graphically nor numerically quantifiable. And damned to the least TripAdvisorally-acceptable regions of [insert your preferred underworld here] be those who’ve tried to sell people the idea that they are.

(sigh)

Now, for what it's worth: here's how I do it. Which may be useful to other people, or not so much so. And that's fine, because I'm not editing their novels. :)

(Adding a break here. Under the cut: advice + advice = advice, and some images of text I shouldn't be letting y'all see just yet... but WTF.)

Revision for me is a fairly relaxed business—unless my editor has told me WE NEED THIS ON TUESDAY, which thank sweet Thoth on his e-bike is very rare.

It also helps that I like revising. (When I was a kid, I liked liver, too. And spinach. Just call me Miss Outlier and let's move on.) I really enjoy the feeling of the work’s rough edges being filed down and the sparse places being filled out.

And also: second draft/first revision draft is nowhere near as tense for me as first draft. Because, thank God, at least there's a book.

First draft is where I sweat blood and otherwise suffer. While I can see the story just fine in my head, it's not really real for me until the first draft, whole in narrative and action, is complete on paper/in the machine. And till it's achieved at least that level of reality, I can't relax.

But by the time I hit my second/revision draft, I can be confident that any really serious problems in the novel have already been solved—because I'm an outliner. In the outline stage, potential thematic or structural troubles will routinely have revealed themselves way long ago: before drafting even got started, as I first wired the story's bones together. The successfully-executed first draft acts as proof-of-concept for that structural wiring. By the time that draft’s done, it’s immediately apparent whether the skeleton can successfully stand up by itself. And gods is that a relief when it does! You’re tempted to jump around yelling “It's aliiiiiive!" as the lightning strikes around you.*

However, if after submitting that draft my editor's found something structurally or thematically troublesome in it that I've completely missed until this point, my first order of business becomes to fix whatever their notes involve and submit the fixes. Nothing further happens until the editor sees what I've done about those problems, and until I get agreement that whatever intervention I've enacted has now sorted the problems out.

After that, everything happens in bed.

(...casually noting that for a line to use somewhere else...) :)

But seriously: I do my best revision and editing before getting up in the morning.

Some of this is because, for me, the mind's nice and quiet and (theoretically) at least moderately well rested, right after sleep. I might take the briefest glance at my email first to make sure nothing urgent needs attention... but once that’s done, I refuse to let myself go any further down that hole. That early-morning calm is a mental state I'm glad to exploit, and one I jealously guard. On days when I'm forced to do without the working lie-in**, I use a different approach: when there's a pause, sit down and do nothing—no reading, no video, no music, no phone, nothing—for half an hour: then start editing. Routinely, the quiet I need will once more have fallen.

The in-bed-editing approach also works for me because (since I'm working in Scrivener) it's absolutely no big deal to finish a day's editing on a file by exporting a version of the file containing the day's edits to ebook format, and into my Dropbox. From there, in the morning, without ever getting out from under the covers, I can pull that .epub file into my tablet and read it as an ebook, making corrections and notes there.

This is what it looks like (on a page without too many corrections) if the app you're using is "Books" in an iPad. The second image is what you get when you touch on the marginal yellow square of the note to examine it.

Then, when I'm finished looking over the previous day's/evening's writing and adding notes to it, I go downstairs, get some caffeine in me, and make the changes in the main Scrivener file. (If I was running the project in question on the iPad version of Scrivener, I'd just make the change right there. But who knows when I'd actually get up, then? Better to do it this way.) :)

In the normal flow of things I'll attempt to deal with a chapter or two a day in this mode. (Always bearing in mind that my chapters in early drafts typically run long—often 10K or so—and I'm likely enough to rebreak them later.) This first level of revision is the easy one: catching typos and bad or clumsy phrasings, reworking character interactions that need smoothing out; adding better descriptive passages (with particular emphasis on staying in the visual, audio and tactile senses), etc., etc.

So again: no way I'd ever bother worrying about word counts, with these. What seems to count for more is giving yourself time to recognize, gradually, at a reader's pace, what's working in the prose and what isn't. Rush—or try to force the pace to a given number of words per day—and you run the risk of missing something vital. To me, at the tracking level, it seems sufficient to note which chapters have been dealt with, and which are still hanging fire. (I can change the chapters' color labels in Scrivener to make this status visible at a glance, if I need to.)

When everything's dealt with on this pass—which if I'm lucky will take no more than a couple/few weeks—I try to take a couple weeks off before dealing with the MS again. Sometimes that's possible: sometimes not. The longer you can leave the book alone to let your perceptions of it rest and reset themselves, the better. Distance—mental or temporal—seems to lend clarity.

In any case, for me, next comes another pass, tougher to describe. Casually, I refer to it as the "Missed Opportunities/Complications" pass. This is a thing that one of the very best writers I know, John M. Ford, used to do. One of his editors (I think it was) came across him working on an MS one time, and asked him what he was doing. "Complications," Mike muttered. "Removing them?" said his editor. Mike shook his head. "Adding them," he said.

In this pass you look for in-novel connections you've previously missed making. Some dramatic moments have their impact significantly increased if you've found a way to connect them, even casually, with previous events, situations, character thoughts, or dialogue. (The cheap and easy mnemonic for this kind of thing: "Say a thing twice, and it echoes. Say it three times, and it resonates.")

Equally, events (and people) may turn out to require more complex backstory than you've given them in your first draft; so this is where you take care of that. And of course there are almost certainly character and emotional interactions that can use attention; fewer words, more depth, more complexity. What things do these people, in this situation, need to say to one another that they haven't? And also, what drama got scamped or passed up on because you were just too damn tired in the last draft? —Because you too, poor baby, are human; and that state can, entirely logically, make you want not to deal with any more damn drama just now. Even though drama is the lifeblood of your narrative, usually, and tying a tourniquet around it really doesn't help. You are the conduit of power into your narrative, and your varying ability to conduct it is always an issue… so you need to keep an eye open for places where the flow may have temporarily failed.

This pass, ideally, might take no more than another few weeks or a month. And again, I'm not sure any attempt at wordcount tracking would do this work any good. Because, again... are they the right words? And to make the narrative more effective, you may wind up removing as many words as you added in previous passes.

Finally, with all things taken together, I usually reach a point where (by myself, anyway) I can't think of anything to do that'll make this book any better. That's where there then comes—and again, impossible to assign a word count to it—a time when you know you're as Done As You Can Be. If you've been doing this long enough, you may even hear a strange kind of sigh in the back of your head, as the book gives up and lets go...

...into the next stage of production. But even then you keep an eye on it… because in my experience it’s rare that any book's ever that easily just finished. Even in page proofs, something may happen to surprise you.

Anyway, that's when I throw the book the hell out of the house—because no matter how much I've loved it previously, by that time I'm usually seriously tired of it—and wait to see whether the editor feels it needs one more draft. (Disclosure: this has never happened. There might be a few notes that need to be handled. But another full draft? Never yet.)

Anyway: hope this is of help to you.

But the heart of it all? Find your own way, and screw the bar graphs.

*That line, too, is an indicator of trouble to come. "It's?" Not "he's"? Tsk tsk.

**Usually sort of 7-9 AM. Sometimes way earlier, depending on the time of year. Dawn comes real early in the summertime in Ireland…

[sunny44]

We should talk

Pairing: Max Verstappen x girlfriend!reader

Warnings: none I guess.

Summary: after the fight and the thoughts that your relationship it’s not working anymore, you and Max decide to talk about it.

This is the second part of Business trip, the link of the first chapter is below.

Previous Chapter

After rolling around in bed almost all night trying to sleep I gave up, I kept thinking about last night and that it was the first serious fight we have had in 2 years of relationship and also the first time in our relationship that we slept in bad terms with each other.

I love him and I think I always will, but I was surprised at how naturally those words came out of my mouth that I began to doubt if I still wanted to be in a relationship with him.

Sometimes loving a person is not enough.

I didn't mind the many nights that I spent alone because he had to travel to race, or when he had consecutive days of simulator and came home tired at night.

When we started dating I knew that these were things that I would have to learn to deal with because that is his job.

But sometimes I feel that Redbull comes before me on occasions that are important to me like last night's stupid party as Max called it.

It was a stupid dinner but it wasn't the dinner itself that I was excited about it was to introduce him to my friends as my boyfriend and not as Max Verstappen the world champion which is how they knew him.

The hours passed and Sunday morning began, the city of Momyr Carlo was cloudy and raining, and gosh how I hated days like that.

I got up and forced myself to go to our room since all my things were there, when I entered he was sleeping and the covers were all messed up and this was a sign that he was not sleeping well, Max was a restless sleeper when he forced himself to sleep.

After doing my morning routine I got dressed in a sweatshirt set, thick socks and my slippers and after fixing the covers on him because it was so cold I went downstairs to do something for breakfast.

Waffles were my favorite thing to eat when I was sad so that's what I did, prepared them and just as I was about to start eating the doorbell rang and I was surprised since I wasn't expecting anyone but when I opened the door I saw Victoria and Luka.

"Oh hi, I didn't know you guys were coming."

"That’s strange because I'm sure you said you would be with Luka today."

"Geez I'm sorry that completely slipped my mind."

"Are you busy or..."

"I'm not, I just made waffles so if you want to come in."

"I can't stay but thank you." She smiles and puts Luka down who hugs me and runs to the kitchen. "Is everything alright? Where's Max?"

"Everything's fine and he's still sleeping."

"Ok, I'm going to go but if you need something you call me ok?"

"I will." She smiles and hugs me then leaves.

"Auntie y/n, I can't reach the waffles." He says from the kitchen and I walk over to her. "Where's Uncle Max?"

"He's still sleeping."

"Can we wake him up?"

"He's very tired so let him sleep a little longer and then wake him up, shall we?" He nods her head in agreement. "What do you think about lots of strawberries and a lot of whipped cream on top of these waffles?"

"Yeah."

After we finished eating I went to wash the things I got dirty and Luka went to play in the living room with his toys but it was very quiet so I went to see what he was doing and when I saw he wasn't in the living room I knew exactly where he was.

When I opened the bedroom door I saw him lying on top of Max sleeping with him who was hugging him, I smiled at the scene and left them sleeping.

Scenes like this made me think about our babies, Luka loos exactly like Max so sometimes this got me wonder.

I think I was alone for half an hour until I heard footsteps on the stairs, I knew it was him because the footsteps were too heavy to be Luka.

"Good morning." He says in a husky voice.

"Good morning." I reply simply without looking at him.

"Been up long?"

"I didn't get much sleep last night so yes." He comes over and sits down next to me.

"Can we talk?" I take a deep breath and agree. "I'm sorry about last night, I was an idiot and being tired was no justification for letting you go alone to the party I had promised I would go with you."

"It's not just about that stupid party Max, it's about the fact that I feel like I'm the only person in this relationship, I'm tired of feeling like I'm not a priority to you and I'm tired of not feeling loved."

"But you are, you are my priority and you are loved." He holds my face making me look at him and I feel his thumb wipe away a tear that had run down. "I love you so much and I'm sorry for making you feel that way, you are the most important person in the world to me and I promise that if you give me a chance I will show you how much I love you."

"I don't know Max."

"Please, I want to show you how much I love you, I want to marry you and I want to have a family if you want too or we can adopt a more cat’s or even a bird. I want to be your husband and the father of your children and I want to love you forever even if forever seems like a short time to love you.” By this time I was crying. "I’m only asking that you give me one more chance.”

"Do you promise that you won't talk to me like that anymore?”

"I promise, and if I do you can punch me in the face." That made me laugh between tears. "I love you and always will."

"I love you too Max." He held my face with both hands and kissed me, "And I also want to marry you and be the mother of your children."

"That's great because I really want to have children someday." I laughed and he kissed me again but we were interrupted by a certain person.

"Ew." He says making us laugh.

"I see you're awake mister." I said to her who ran to us and jumped on Max’s lap.

"I missed you." He says hugging him.

This was the reason I had told Victoria that I would take care of her this Sunday, it had been a while since they had seen each other and I knew they missed each other a lot.

"I was missing you too."

"Auntie y/n are you sad? Why are you crying?" He asks worriedly.

"I was sad with your Uncle Max but it's okay now." At that she starts to cry and gets off his lap coming to mine. "Why are you crying baby?"

"Because he fought with you but I love him and I don't want to stop loving him.” He says crying and Max laughs and I hug him.

"You don't have to stop loving him, we are not fighting anymore."

"You're not?" He asks looking at me and then at Max.

"Your auntie and I are fine okay? No need to cry."

"Shall we get some ice cream then?" He asks making us laugh immediately with his change of mood.

"All right mister, let's get your shoes on while your Uncle Max and I go put on some clothes to go out."

In the end we stick together.

Tag list: @thesparklylover @sunnytkm23 @dudenhaaa27 @cars-on-the-moon @luvrrish @luciaexcorvus @notacluelessblonde00 @lovelylunas-world @laneyspaulding19 @sillymakerbanana @omgsuperstarg @kimi240302 @iwouldkillformarvel @coldheartedmar

[the-fiction-witch]

Via Call

Media - Doctor Who (The Lodger Episode) Character - The Doctor (11th) Couple - The Doctor X Reader Reader - Y/n (Companion) Rating - Smut Word Count - 3300

Due to the goings-on of alien business this week, the doctor had to lay low while investigating. He had taken up a flatshare below the suspicious goings-on and was acting human. While Y/n remained in the TARDIS orbiting above where it was safe. The doctor bounced on his bed, tinkering around his room, earpiece in his ear on a call with Y/n back in the TARDIS a special dampener on the earpiece so anyone listening will only hear nonsense allowing them to talk as needed. 

"So how are you enjoying it? Pretending to be a normal human I mean?" Y/n asks

"Oh, you know, it's not so bad. I mean, the 21st century? You guys know your way around a bedroom." He laughs as he rolls over and pulls at the sheets on his bed. "Although, I think I need something to pass the time. So far it's been a few days of absolutely nothing. How is the TARDIS by the way? I hope you haven't gotten into trouble without me."

"the tardis is fine. I'm fine too thanks for asking"

He rolls his eyes playfully, "You're no fun at all. At least try and get a little bit up to trouble why I'm working." He lets out a small and frustrated sigh, "This case will be the end of me. There's almost nothing I can find... It's almost like the alien is a ghost or something..."

"Who knows what it is that's what you're meant to be figuring out. You need me to bring anything down for you?"

"Well," He hums thoughtfully, "I suppose I could use some of that jelly baby stash."

"you can just buy jelly babies, doctor"

"Yes, but the TARDIS ones are the better ones!" The Doctor sits up and crosses his legs and leans into the bed, "plus I'd like for you to come here and hang out with me. It gets lonely when I'm pretending to be human all the time. It is boring."

"And what are you going to say if that flatmate of yours happens to them up while I'm visiting?"

“You’re my companion just tell him that,”

“People don’t say that doctor,”

“Oh… Partner then? Is that better than companion?”

“Slightly…”

“Say that you're my girlfriend..." He says casually as he swings his legs over the bed, "That's what humans do nowadays, right? I'm still figuring them out..."  He looks at the mirror and rubs at the sides of his face, "I look old. Humans hate that right?"

"you look fine very handsome I'm sure" her voice chuckled "I don't know if I could pull off being your girlfriend I'm not a good actress... Besides I'm keeping the TARDIS up here we're it's safe like you told me at least till you know what It is"

"Oh, honestly don't worry about your acting. The human mind is so simple, you could probably fool them with a simple hug and a kiss on the cheek." He smiles and stands up, pushing his hair back a little. "Besides, you're very pretty. You'll have them melting as soon as you walk in the door and they get a look at your eyes."

"aww you’re sweet, only two weeks on earth and you're already losing it bouncing around the walls"

"Oh, shush. Is it so much to ask to want to see you again? I just..." He sighs, "I miss your face, I miss your voice, I've almost gotten myself in trouble at least five times without you..." He chuckles slightly, fixing his bow tie and checking himself in to mirror, "I feel... Lost, I suppose."

"well I'm only in the tardis you can call me on this earpiece thing as much as you want and you can hear my voice,"

"It's different though, I can't touch you. Your voice isn't the same as when I can feel it vibrating through your chest. I can't hear all of those thoughts you always think but don't say. The sounds of your stomach when your hungry or the little laugh you do when I'm going on and on about something that doesn't make sense to anyone but me." He lets out a small sigh, 

"well it's only for a little while" she giggled "Just till you find what's going on then you can come back to the TARDIS and we can go spend a week at the Crystal Falls okay?"

"A week?" The Doctor grins at the prospect of the idea, "You mean a week just the two of us? Alone there? With a view of those crystal waters and the falling rocks?"

He turns away from the mirror to lean back against the wardrobe in the room, "that actually doesn't sound too bad. Are you actually suggesting a holiday? For the both of us?"

"I am, a little trip as soon as you sort all this out" she smiled

The Doctor laughs and nods, "Then it's settled. We can have a holiday and relax. No aliens, no saving the world, just some time for the two of us to relax and just get away. This time together will be nice... It's almost too romantic."

"Almost?" She smiled "Hey... If your really bored I have a game for you"

"What game is this hmm? Is it a fun game?" He tilts his head as he sits down on the end of his bed, kicking his legs playfully, "is it the kind of game that involves you and me? And by that I mean it's two people who play in person and not in calls?"

"nope just via call. It's a very fun game"

"Well if it involves you I'm sure it is! I guess I'm quite lucky like that." He laughs softly, "how do you play this game hmm? What do I need to do?"

"you have to guess where in the TARDIS I am."

"A game of hide and seek on the TARDIS? Well that sounds rather fun. Give me a hint of the general area that you're in... That gives me a little bit of a chance to guess"

"left side corridor"

"Ah, the left corridor? Hmm, that narrows it down..." The Doctor hummed thoughtfully before snapping his fingers as something clicked in his mind, "I think I know where you are now. You little minx, I bet your in the library, aren't you?"

"nope"

"Damn." He smiles and snaps his fingers with a click of his tongue, "hmm, well not the Library. You're too mischievous to hide in an obvious place. Maybe... The swimming pool! Is that where you're hiding?"

"Nope try again,"

"Not the swimming pool either? Hmm, what other room do we have on the left side corridor..." He hums thoughtfully as he rubs at his jawline, the cogs in his mind whirring to think of another place...

"Oh!" He snaps his fingers again, "got it! The media room! You're definitely in the media room!"

"not the media room." She giggled "Have a clue" she smiled and the sound of bedsprings come through,

He laughs quietly as he hears the springs come through his ear piece, "wait... You're on a bed now? Hmm... A bed you say... And on the left side corridor no less..." He grins and clicks his fingers again as he realises exactly where she is, "ha! I know exactly where you are now, don't think you're clever enough to trick me... You're in your room aren't you? In the bed, bouncing on the springs and making noise so I know for sure you're there. I'm right aren't I?"

"not my room"

"Not... Your room?" He huffs with a smile and shakes his head, "you're making this very difficult on purpose aren't you."

A lightbulb moments goes off in his head as the truth comes to him, "wait! You're in MY room, aren't you? That's where you are! In my room, on my bed, giggling to yourself as you wait to see how long I'm going to take to figure this out."

"maybe" she giggled 

"Bingo." He laughs and stands up again, "I knew that you were there. I'm just too good at this game aren't I? Don't think you're as clever as me now."

He leans his against the wardrobe and rolls his sleeves up, "so, tell me. What are you doing in my bed? Aside from giggling of course, hmm?"

"nothing..." She answered with a sly smile

"Oh?" He raises an eyebrow and smiles, "you're not doing anything at all in my bed, hmm? It's just you, in my bed, by yourself. That doesn't sound suspicious at all now does it?" His tone suggests he knows she's up to something, "why are you in my room? On my bed no less. Surely you're not thinking about sleeping in my sheets are you? You cheeky minx..."

"already done" she teased "Been sleeping in your bed sheets since you left"

The Doctor's jaw drops in shock and he laughs loudly, "you've been sleeping in my bed? What have you been doing in there, hmm? Anything exciting in my bed, Miss Y/n? Tell me, what are my sheets like to sleep on?"

"very soft and Cosy, silky and smooth, and they smell like your hugs"

"You've been wrapping yourself up, thinking of me at night hmm?" He takes a few steps closer to the bed, "now why would you be doing a thing like that, hmm? Getting all cosy in my sheets every night just thinking of me when I'm not there. Missing me that much?" He shakes his head with a fond smile and laughs quietly under his breath, "you really are a handful..."

"I'm not use to being here all on my own" she pouts "so I came to snuggle in your room while your gone just to keep it warm and cosy for you"

His smile softens at the adorable sight she would make just laying there pouting and wrapped up in his bed. It's almost something out right of his dreams. "Well... I do always love coming back to an even warmer and cosier room. I suppose you are keeping it warm for me, aren't you? It's very sweet of you." His voice is softer now, almost affectionate, "and you've been enjoying yourself?"

"very much" she cooed

"Good... That's really good." He nods and takes a couple more steps towards the bed, looking at the ceiling as he imagines exactly what she looks like right now, in HIS bed. His sheets wrapped around her, burying her in his scent, just wanting to be with him. His voice is quiet and low as he continues, "just lay there... Close your eyes okay?" 

she hummed through the earpiece clearly doing as he asked her even if she’s so far away

He takes a deep, slow breath and lets it out just a little too slowly to be a regular exhale. He closes his eyes as well and imagines her on his bed, wrapped tightly in his sheets, thinking of him like she said, "just imagine that your in the room. Just think it. Imagine that I'm with you, that we're together right now. Just imagine it..."

"hum ..." She hummed the sounds of her shifting in his sheets and her sweet sighs of happiness before he can just hear the small sounds of kisses and he figures out quickly in her relaxed sleepy state she began kissing his pillow and he can imagine her laid on his bed hugging his pillow like it's his chest peppering it with kisses cause she missed him so badly

He smiles and bites back a low groan at realising that she's doing exactly what he's thought, kissing and cuddling HIS pillow. Imagining it being HIM! The Doctor can see her in his mind and he imagines himself there with her, wrapped in the sheets together kissing her neck as she kisses his pillow. He lets out a shaky breath, wanting desperately to be in this moment with her. The Doctor's breathing starts to speed up a little, his cheeks start to flush as his eyes are still closed, "that's it. Just keep kissing the pillow like it's me... I'm there, with you, in the sheets. Wrapped up tight. Just imagine me..." He can't help the low groan that escapes his throat now, not when he's thinking of this beautiful woman kissing away on the pillow, wishing that it was him. He's desperately trying to hold himself back though.

her kisses and gentle giggles continue but slowly her tone shifts the kisses become longer the giggles and gasps become small moans and it's obvious even just thought sound what she's up to

The Doctor's cheeks flushing even more as his breathing gets faster and faster, more heavy with anticipation. He can picture her so perfectly in his mind and he's wanting nothing more than to be there with her, taking in each one of her sounds. He bites his bottom lip as his imagination gets away from him, "Y/n... Don't... Don't stop..." He can picture every single detail, her hair splayed out on the pillow, her flushed cheeks and flushed body as she holds onto the pillow and kisses it like it's him, like it's his "I'm... There... I'm right there with you... Holding you... Don't stop... I wanna hear you..." He manages to gasp out between breaths, every word being a struggle. The Doctor can feel his hearts racing and his breaths are coming fast now. So close to the edge that the last little imagination could tip him over.

her moans become louder and the sound of kisses disappears replaced by another sound of movement "Doctor!" 

He gasps out again as the sounds of her moans get louder and he shudders as he imagines the movement she's making as she holds onto the pillow. "Oh God, Y/n-! Mmm. Ohhh... What's that? What are... Tell me! Tell me!"

she giggled innocently "Not till you tell me"

His breath catches in his through as he hears her soft, seductive giggling, "tell you...tell you what... Oh uggh, you cheeky little minx. You really want me to say it don't you? You want me to tell you... Tell you everything don't you?"

"mhm what are you up to doctor then I'll tell you" she teased between moans

"uggh! Just hearing you moan and giggle so sweetly for me makes me want to go crazy. I can't help it, you just get me so excited." His voice is practically panting into the receiver now, he's so close to the edge just imagining her like he is. He shudders against the receiver again before talking again, "mmm. Now just tell me what you're up to! Don't be quiet now!"

she giggled and said in the most innocent of tones loud enough he could catch every word "sitting on your bed, in your sheets, in one of your shirts, riding on your pillow imagining I had company"

The Doctor gasped out and groaned loudly, practically into the mic at the sounds of her words and imagined image in his mind. That...was enough to send him over the edge. "By the stars... Y/n...." He panted out between breaths, shuddering and moaning as his eyes rolled back for a moment. "I... Want you. So badly. So, so badly..."

"and what are you doing? Surely my cute little noises aren't being listened to while you just lay on that boring bed?"

"Listening and listening again and...imagining... It's making me go a little insane, but I can't stop listening to you. Just your voice is making me feel so good. Oh god I'm-" He's cut off by his own gasp and low moan and there's the sound of him shifting a little where he sits. His breath catches and he huffs out a shaky breath as he slowly comes down again, "you make it so hard to control myself, my dear."

"I'm sure controling yourself isn't all that's hard" she teased before she moaned his name again

The sound of her moaning out his name made the Doctor shiver and he swallowed harshly before he spoke again, his already gravely voice a little bit more low and rough now, "uggh woman you're killing me. You're gonna drive me completely insane if you keep moaning my name like that you naughty minx."

"I'll stop when you admit it"

He shudders again as he hears her soft, innocent voice in his ear. uggh that voice always gets him all hot and bothered. A groan comes from low in his throat before he finally manages to answer her, "Admit what, my dear hmmm?"

She giggled before she whispered into the earpiece "that your hard doctor?"

"By the stars you really do know just how to drive me mad." He groaned again and his voice shook with his next words. uggh his voice was so wrecked and hoarse now, he's sounding just so desperate. "Y-Yes... Yes, of course I'm hard. Just... Just” He huffed out a breath and shuddered a low groan against the ear piece before continuing, "imagining...imagining you right now...imagining what you're doing and the sounds you're making...how I just want to be there with you. How I just want to hold you close...I'm desperate for you, you sweet little minx."

"well as soon as you find out what's going on down there we can take our little trip a whole week at the Crystal Falls In a cute little cabin just you and me. And I'll sleep in your bed every night" 

His breath shudders again for a second as he imagines this. Just a week with her at the crystal falls in a cozy little cabin, her all curled up in HIS bed, in HIS shirt and wrapped up in HIS sheets. Just the two of them together… "Oh, yes..." He moans again, so low and almost right into his ear piece now as his eyes shut tight again, "uggh yes I want that."

The squeal that he hears from her is almost too much for the Doctor to handle. Just imagining her and knowing that he's getting her all riled up and needy, it's almost driving him insane. All he wants is to just be there with her, wrapped up together in his sheets. "Y/n...are you...are you close, darling?"

"mhm," she whines "I want to... With you... Please"

He shudders again at her needy whine, uggh she's so adorable. "Oh, I'd love that darling. I'd love that so, so much. I'm so, so close myself just thinking about you."

"doctor!" She screamed and squealed

The sound of her reaching her peak had sent him right over the edge again as he gasped out her name with a low, guttural groan that came from deep in his chest. "Sweet...Sweet stars... Y/n-oh uggh....!" He was panting and shaking against the receiver, his eyes shut tightly as he slowly comes down from his high again, his heart racing and his breaths coming out in low moans.

Y/n giggled "I think I'm just going to miss you more now..."

He laughed weakly in response, still coming back down from his high and calming himself down from that intense rush. uggh... She definitely knows how to get him up and send him spiralling, leaving him feeling all out in the open and vulnerable. "uggh, Y/n... That was some night. You're an absolute tease you know that? I'm gonna miss you terribly. I already know that this time apart is going to feel like an age."

"Maybe I could risk the TARDIS coming in for a... Little visit" she cooed "help you pass as human and all"

“Come down. Now.” He smirked before ending the call, 

[cereusblue]

https://gofund.me/96bce824

Hi, all. So, I've had a day from hell and I'm too exhausted to re-explain on another platform. But here, I'll copy paste the story here. TLDR at the bottom. If you can't help, pass it on. Literally everything helps. Love you all.

Good day all, thank you for stopping your busy day to check my page.

Let me lay out the situation as best I can.

First off, some background for myself and my family. My fiancee and I only have(had) one functioning car between us when we took in a family member of his in an emergency CPS case. We are trying our hardest to take care of her and teach her how to be a person, but our schedules and only having one vehicle has made that a struggle. She has gotten a job just last week and is working hard to get on her feet. It's great and we are very proud of her! It's part time for the time being while she learns how to manage finances and how the world works.

However, since October things have started taking a turn for the worse. Between my fiancee and I, we both worked minimum wage and in October I bent over to put on a shoe and my back made a horrible crack noise. I went to the ER in immense pain and despite having insurance, I still got dumped with a hefty bill that to this day I am still trying to pay off. I have gone through physical therapy as requested by my doctor, since he didn't want to operate on someone of my age. However, it did nothing but agitate the problem. While I can now move around again, bending over and lifting anything past 15 pounds is strenuous. I'm in pain every single day and even sitting up is difficult most days. I can't stand up for long anymore before it becomes too much on my back. But things continue to happen, as they do. I was set to come back to see my surgeon this year but on Dec 29th in the last hour of the day, my job decided that an AI system could completely take over my job and laid me off. Getting unemployment as well as answers back from my previous work has been very difficult. My benefits were cut off with no chance to refill medications or see my surgeon. So, now my continued treatment to fix my back on top of my other health issues have all been put on pause. I've been working for almost two years now to get treatment and figure out what's wrong with my health, but I am now on a desperate search for a new job.

Which leads us to today. We are already strapped for money, and on a trip to an interview and my fiancee going to work, we got taken down a gravel road that looked deceptively fine. Driving across, the ice was far deeper than it appeared and it destroyed the grill, bumper, and wheel well (I believe that's what it's called) aka part of the frame that covers the front wheels broke and are hanging. That's not where it ends. So, I took the car to get it temporarily fixed so we could hopefully figure something out to get repairs done. The car got a temporary fix, and then I proceeded to take the car to pick up my fiancee from work. He and I began our drive back home, and as we were passing train tracks a doe jumped out into the road way too close to us. She only came into view as she appeared in the lights of the car, immediately getting bodied by the car. As you can see from the image, she destroyed the hood of the car and much more. I feel horrible for the poor thing and I hope she went quickly, noticing the fur and blood on the front bumper. We managed to get the car home, but the check engine light came on. This car is a Toyota prius. Anyone who knows anything about a prius knows they are basically tin cans. So, the worry is that the cooling system is busted now too. This will exponentially increase the amount we need to pay to repair the vehicle.

The worst part is, is that this is the only car we have to go to work and for me to go to interviews. I do have a car, but it's not in running condition right now. The poor thing is a 1999 and needs some parts replaced that we have not had the funds or availability to get a list of parts and have them replaced. The car also can't move anyway right now and would need towed. The prius is our only vehicle we have, and I don't have the funds to drop on fixing it. Insurance won't pay for it as far as we have been made aware by the body shop because of the type of insurance we have.

So, this is the current estimate we have to work with in regards to repairs. The entire front, hood, coolant system, and I know a few more pieces need replaced. The prius can run and be moved to a body shop at least, but paying for it will be a nightmare. If he can't get to work, we are in major trouble. My fiancee, his little sister, and I all rely on this car for work. While I'm still looking for work, I'm very limited because of my current physical state. We've spent a lot of money on my Healthcare already and every day are worried I'm going to reach for something and have my back crack again. While we are working on Medicaid, these things are proving a slow process. They also don't cover previous medical bills when I did have insurance. So, our only choice is to live off his income currently while I'm on a search for a new job every day. Our lives depend on this one car. Especially since we live out in the woods and work is 40 minutes away.

If you've read this far, I appreciate every single second of your time. Every single hand this gofundme goes through will be a huge help. If you can't help, that's okay, please don't stress your own financials if youre in a tough spot. If you can pass this along to anyone you can, that would be more than enough. Thank you again, and I wish you all better fortune this 2024.

For those who can't read the whole thing;

TLDR; Me and my family are already going through a lot of financial troubles with my health and being laid off, our only mode of transportation is severely damaged from an unmaintained roads massive pothole and hitting a deer in the same day. Three people rely on this one vehicle for all our jobs and interviews that are far from home. Donate if you can, if not, please share and thank you so very much.

Also including another picture here for you all to see. Thank you all again, I wish you better fortune this year.

[cas-kingdom]

White Flower

A/N: Definitely a long time coming. I've been so slow in my writing since starting university but I'm glad to finally have this one done. Hopefully you all enjoy the introduction of my OC!

Set in the aftermath of Glass Onion.

Title: White Flower

Summary: Fleur Blanc, art student and only daughter of the world's greatest detective, wants to steal the Mona Lisa.

Words: 2336

Despite the alarm and the impassive yelling of “this is a smokeless garden”, Benoit Blanc believed he quite deserved this cigarette, thank you very much. Trying was one word to describe the weekend he’d had. All-round tits up was another.

Besides. The island was pretty much a raging pit of alarms, fire, and general chaos by now. One more addition didn’t make much of a difference, and there certainly was no stopping the activation of the hydrogen fuel now.

“Oh, do shut up,” he said anyway, because it felt good, and because the first yell had made him jump and squish his cigarette between two fingers.

He reached for another and let his sunglasses fall over his eyes, squinting into the distance.

The horrifically neon pink of Birdie Jay’s sunhat stuck out like a sore thumb in the midst of the remaining participants of the weekend’s fiasco. They were all fanned out across the beach, as far apart from each other as possible, waiting impatiently for the policeboats to arrive. Ironic, really, considering how they’d arrived, each one a suck up to the next.

Benoit lit his new cigarette and shook his head with a scoff. “Megalomaniac, Janus-faced…” He muttered the words under his breath and took a puff. The alarm and impassive yelling restarted, and the second cigarette promptly joined the one on the ground.

“For the love of...”

He was owed a proper vacation after this, at the very least.

The yelling stopped abruptly with a crackle and a robotic groan. When Benoit turned, he was met with the sight of a young woman, her feet precariously placed between the gaps of the odd white sculpture that the yelling emanated from.

No longer.

After a violent snap, she held a handful of the offending wires, a look of irritation settling on her face. A flick of long hair and a moment later she tossed the wires onto dry land and followed them down into the shallow water with a quiet splash. Benoit rose a brow and fit his third cigarette neatly between smirking lips.

“Why, thank you, my darlin’.”

Fleur Blanc, twenty-year old art student and daughter of the world’s greatest detective, offered a mock bow as she stepped out of the water. She stretched out a leg and shook her foot dry as her father turned his gaze back towards the beach.

It hadn’t been his idea to bring Fleur along on this particular adventure, and he had in fact protested against it when she and that good-for-nothing roommate of his had suggested it, remembering quite well the last time his detective business had taken him on a wild ride. Alas, lockdown had turned Fleur into a firecracker and Philip had eventually boiled Benoit’s options down to “you take her with you, or I take myself out with the shotgun in the safe.” All fun and games, of course. Of course.

He couldn’t say her presence had been unappreciated. Apart from the obvious ease in her company, and the slightest spark of feeling like they were on a proper vacation, she had helped with the investigation, too. His little detective in the making, he’d always teased, though for as much as he was sure she loved the thrill of investigation, he was certain her career path would lead her straight to the arts.

That certainty was consolidated at the unusual silence coming from Fleur. When he turned, she was standing with her back to him, her eyes fixed on what remained of the Glass Onion. The structure that had once been so…not on fire generated quite the backdrop for his obviously preoccupied daughter. Her head tilted, arms crossed, feet bare and loose hair billowing behind her in the summer breeze, one would assume she was the picture of innocence.

Benoit knew better.

The moment she glanced over her shoulder, a twinkle in her eyes and the—in this case—horrifying beginning of “Dad?” on the tip of her tongue, Benoit pulled his cigarette from his mouth and pointed it at her. His own head dipped dangerously low, and his brows raised in what Fleur knew to be warning.

“No,” he said. Firm and simple. He would not deny she often found herself wrapped around his little finger, but this was one thing he’d be ridiculous to abide by.

“But—”

“My goodness, Fleur, no!”

Fleur narrowed her eyes and whipped her head back around. Benoit saw her fingers tapping rhythmically against her forearm. He remained still, waiting, ready. Because when a thought entered Fleur’s mind, she was hard-pressed to get rid of it.

With a defining nod and not a single glance back, Fleur slipped her flip-flops on and started walking with absolute intent. Benoit rushed after her. He grasped her shoulder and stopped her before she could take another step.

Fleur was ready for him. “I’m doing it,” she stated, “I’ve decided. I have to.”

“You are insane if you truly think—it’s—you are just preposterous, child!”

“But, Dad, it can’t be a crime, right? Most of it’s already destroyed!”

Benoit spluttered. He dropped the cigarette and, with a sudden distaste for the thing, squashed it under the toe of his shoe.

“Jesus, God, Satan, give me strength,” he muttered under his breath, not for the first time concerning his daughter and certainly not for the last. He grasped her by the shoulders, ensuring she couldn’t avoid his gaze, then, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear, “Fleur, sweetheart, you want to steal the Mona fudgin’ Lisa.”

“Rehome,” Fleur was quick to correct. “And it’ll have a better life with me! You really think Miles appreciated it as much as I will?” That was a given. “And—and only a small part, Dad, that’s all I want.” She suddenly hardened her stare, that familiar seriousness suddenly reappearing. “That’s all I need.”

The detective’s speechlessness after that closing statement could have been due to a number of things. One, because the pure gall of this girl never ceased to amaze him. Two, because something seemed to blow up behind them, a puff of smoke emanating from the top of what used to be the Onion. Three, the most likely contender, because the moment said explosion had him distracted, Fleur ducked under his hold and made her way intently towards it.

Like father, like daughter, was all he could think. And he wasn’t referencing himself.

Surprising, considering he followed after her with absolutely zero hesitation.

The Glass Onion’s majesty was long gone. The maddest of people would advise anyone and everyone to stay about a hundred feet from its flaming mess, armed with a hard-shell helmet and a fire extinguisher, just in case anything went even more wrong. Which, looking at it, was likely.

Still, as was typically—stupidly—the case, Benoit Blanc stood in the middle of it all.

One hand wrapped around his daughter’s, the other gripping the doorframe for easy escape, his wide eyes darted around the Onion. If he was any less focused on the state of his surroundings, he would have been more concerned at his daughter’s lack of concern. True, the fire had somewhat died down, and the structure itself looked less ready to cave in than it had done before, but safe was still not a word he would use to describe it.

Helen’s stunt had certainly done a number on poor Mona, but the world of aesthetes could decidedly remain relieved with the knowledge that some parts of her were untouched. Surrounded by what had once been her glass refuge, she sat still in the place she had done since Miles had obtained her. One eye was black, the other pristine. A side of her hair reflected the fire, the other had been destroyed by it. Needless to say, the majority of her was gone, and if Fleur had the time, Benoit had no doubt she’d be down on her hands and knees, collecting the ashes in a little pot and shamelessly risking her life in the process. Alas, he would sooner drag her out, kicking and screaming, than have her be here a moment longer than she apparently needed to be.

Benoit watched his daughter’s eyes as they scanned the room before landing on Mona. In less than a second, that tell-tale glint went from inquisition to pure delight. It seemed no amount of staring from outside of the case could prepare her for now. True, the painting was charred more than not, and his watchful eye did catch a spark of disappointment, but it only seemed to spur her determination in getting it safely within her grasp.

Parental instincts ablaze since the moment he’d stepped foot on the island, Benoit immediately tightened his grip on her hand and yanked her back when she made to move forward. “Hold your horses,” he said, waiting for her eyes to meet his before wildly gesturing around them. “There’s glass everywhere, Fleur, and you’re wearing flip-flops. Why would you bring flip-flops to this island and nothing else?”

“We’re on vacation!”

“You knew darn well this wasn’t a vacation!”

Fleur spluttered for a moment before pointing accusingly at his own choice of footwear. “Like you and your boat shoes can do any better.”

Benoit gasped. Audibly. “These have hard, glass-proof soles, I’ll thank you to notice.”

He wasn’t quite sure what it was that spurred him to his next decision. Perhaps it was the urgency of the situation. Or the very distant, but ever-closer, sound of sirens. Or, maybe, it was the pure eagerness of his daughter; eagerness of which had always softened his heart, no matter the circumstances.

Whichever it was, he tried not to think about the guilt that would remain on his conscience for the rest of his life as he turned and bent over slightly, motioning with his hands.

“Get on my back,” he said hurriedly. When Fleur stalled, shock settling quickly on her face, he motioned again. “Come, child, we haven’t got long.”

And, with that, Fleur hopped on her father’s back with as much excitement as a child. Benoit gripped her legs, and she wrapped her arms around his neck, leaning her chin on his shoulder, the biggest of grins adorning her lips.

“Look at you, Dad,” she said as he began walking, stepping carefully over large shards of glass.

“We are not to tell your father,” was his only response to her obvious insinuation that he was becoming rebellious in his old age.

“Might be a little difficult when we come home with the Mona Lisa. Ooh! Why don’t we take the Porsche home too? Just the steering wheel?”

Benoit uttered a silent apology to da Vinci.

“Do you see these grey hairs?” he said. “You are the cause.”

Needless to say, through no innate conformism, Fleur’s inner connoisseur had won over her desire to keep a piece of the Mona Lisa in her cardholder. The moment the police had finished detailing the basics of the weekend’s mess with her father and struck up the sensitive question of the possibility of either of them having seen the Mona Lisa’s remainders at all during the night—Benoit believed it was their imploring “the Louvre are simply desperate to get it back” that had swayed her—Fleur had produced the scraps she’d been able to save from her pocket. Handing them over with only the tiniest hint of reluctance, she’d smiled at the gratefulness from the police and watched them go with the bit of longing she could allow herself.

Chuckling softly, Benoit wrapped an arm around her and drew her into his side, pressing a kiss to the top of her head. “Well, darlin’,” he said, “I’m very proud of you, if it counts for something.”

Fleur breathed a deep sigh and pressed her lips in a thin smile. “It does. At least I cay say I’ve touched her, right, Dad?”

“Oh, absolutely. That’s more than most people can say, after all.”

The police were wrapping up now, gently guiding the exhausted party members onto a boat—one in particular in aptly placed handcuffs. The island itself would take mountains of work to be habitable again, he’d heard a firefighter voice in passing, and for a moment he wondered if Derol had made it onto the boat. After brief consideration, he decided Derol was probably better off here than America.

Benoit pushed his sunglasses down and steered himself and his daughter in the direction of the shore. He didn’t quite enjoy the idea of sharing a boat ride with previously-dubbed megalomaniac, Janus-faced…people, but alas, after today he would no longer experience the displeasure of seeing them again. Though, he would be glad for Helen to attend a few of his dinner parties when the pandemic allowed.

Fleur reached up to grasp her father’s hand at her shoulder as they walked slowly, stepping carefully around anything glinting in the sand. Then, quietly, “Where’re you gonna put your steering wheel?”

Ah. Benoit instinctively glanced down at the duffel bag in his free hand. True, it was heavier than it had been when he’d first arrived on the island, but he had told his daughter that he’d be much appreciated if she didn’t remind him of his rebelliousness at every given moment. Which she had.

“I’m going to lock it away in a safe, so it’s never found, and I’m never arrested for thieving,” he said, finality embedded in his tone. If anyone ever asked: no, he had not stolen the steering wheel of the Porsche 918 Spyder’s wreckage. No, he did not have it in his duffel bag, blanketed by his clothes and second pair of boat shoes. And, no, once it entered the safe he would never look at it again. Except on birthdays. And maybe Christmasses.

He couldn’t say he regretted it.

But he did regret not regretting it.

“And may I just reiterate,” he said, leaning closer towards her, “your father does not need to know a thing.”

Knives Out Masterpost

[reasonablerodents]

rattie! because i am a petulant child with incurable brainrot, i am going to request you test out a little hotchgan. an argument ending in a kiss is so good, hotch having to apologize and morgan accepting the apology with a kiss is top shelf, but i'm not picky. as long as it is the two of them.

A fresh piping hot hotchgan argument and kisses, just for you!!!! I hope I did them justice!! Despite never writing them before, I really enjoyed it! Very soft and tender and ready to do anything for the other <333

Whilst I may not be a hotchgan scholar, I feel like when they argue, it seems to pretty much be only out of genuine concern for each other, which is what I was trying to go for here!

Bring It On Home To Me

Aaron Hotchner/Derek Morgan, Established Relationship, Make Up Kisses

* * * * * * * * * *

“You said that you’d only be another hour,” Derek points out when Aaron finally gets home, three hours later than he’d promised.

“I know.” Aaron says with a sigh, setting his briefcase down on the kitchen table and going to the fridge, looking for the leftovers he knows will be there.

“It would’ve been better three hours ago.”

“I know, Derek.”

“Then why didn’t you come back three hours ago?”

Aaron presses a few buttons on the microwave, a little bit harder than he needs to. “I was busy,” he mumbles, watching the plate spin around instead of the disappointment on his boyfriend’s face.

“You’re always busy.”

“And you’ve always been aware of that.”

The tone is far more bitter than he had meant it to be. No sooner have the words left his mouth, he cringes internally. He was the one in the wrong- he hadn’t even texted Derek to say he’d be late. Aaron’s not even sure why he’s arguing.

The microwave hums.

Derek traces the kitchen tiles with his toe.

Aaron picks at his fingers.

He knows it’s up to him to fix this.

“I’m sorry.”

He can sense his boyfriend moving closer, so he turns around, finally meeting his gaze for the first time since he’d walked in. Surprisingly, he doesn’t look as upset as Aaron had feared- instead, his soft brown eyes are filled with concern. Derek grasps the hand that Aaron’s been picking at, holding it in both of his own.

“Thank you.” He sighs, shaking his head. “I’m not mad at you, Aaron. I’m just worried. I know how you get, and it’s not good for you. You’re gonna stress yourself out, end up hurting yourself.”

Aaron’s just about to say something, but Derek keeps on talking.

“I know how hard the job can be, okay? But I’m not gonna sit back and watch as it takes you over again. I need Aaron, not Agent Hotchner. And Aaron needs to come home when he says he will.”

How he had even managed to end up with a man so understanding was completely beyond him- and he hadn't even had to look outside of his team to find him. When he replies, his voice is a little tighter than usual, a small lump in his throat constricting his vocal cords.

“You’re right, Derek, I’m sorry.” If Derek notices the way his voice shakes a little, he doesn’t say anything, just soothingly rubs circles into his boyfriend’s hand with one of his thumbs. Aaron swallows. “I love you.”

“I love you too.”

Aaron leans in then, gently catching Derek’s lips with his own. It’s slow, tender, full of unspoken promises.

I’ll do better. I’ll look after myself, and I’ll make more time for you.

Derek drops the hand he’s holding in favour of wrapping his arms around Aaron instead. His embrace is strong, always is. He hugs like he never means to let go, but it’s never cloying, only ever comforting.

I know. I just don’t want to see you struggle. I’ve always got you.

The microwave beeps.

Aaron pulls away first, but he laces his fingers behind Derek’s waist, keeping him close. “Thank you for making dinner,” he murmurs. “I’ll make it up to you tomorrow. I’ll even cook dessert.”

“Mom’s apple pie?” Derek smiles.

“Mom’s apple pie.”

[flower-boi16]

Hey, uh, is it okay if I like rant amd criticize for a bit? I want to post about it but I'm scared of getting harrassed.

I really should have seen this coming since I watched Helluva Boss and it's terrible 2nd season, but I blindly believed that HB sucked because Viv was too busy with Hazbin Hotel and I convinced myself that HH will be better but now here we are.

So, I just watched the first episode of Hazbin on YT, and I have some.... issues. First of all, it's the pacing. I think it went WAY too fast for the first episode and it got me seriously confused, like, the first episode is supposed to be the intro to the story, WHY IS IT SO FUCKING FAST?! Hell, if Viv intended the PILOT to be the introduction it's fine, but STILL, IT'S WAY TOO FAST! And this brings me to my next point : Hazbin Hotel is NOT newbie friendly. As someone who knew Hazbin lore for a while, the first episode already left me seriously confused, just IMAGINE how confused a new viewer, who has no idea about the lore and stuff, will be. Again, first episode = first intro, especially for NEW fans. Like LEGIT if a fan needs to get info from OUTSIDE the show itself, it isn't good.

Oh, and the whole plot of Charlie meeting with Adam? Should've been done in a DIFFERENT episode! Again, first episode = first introduction, WE SHOULD'VE USED THAT TO SHOW THE PROBLEMS IN THE HOTEL! THAT SHOULD'VE BEEN THE MAIN PRIORITY FIRST! If I could rewrite the episode, I'd do it like this :

Episode 1, it focuses SPECIFICALLY on shooting a new commercial. We can still have the whole call from Lucifer about the meeting with Adam, but instead the meeting will be held in about a week or two, which not only excites Charlie, but also adds fuel to the fire about the situation at the hotel since she wants to present the idea without any flaws to heaven. So then the episode focuses on Charlie and Vaggie trying to (force) shoot a better commercial and it can play out how it does in the canon episode. Ater that, the next three or four episodes then focuses on the problem IN hell while keeping Charlie's whole attempt at fixing the hotel's situation as a small side plot.

Then, come episode 5 or 6, we see Charlie meeting Adam and the angels about the project after she tries her best to make it work, only for Adam and the rest of heaven mocking her hard work because of their black and white mindset, and this would cause Charlie to have both some doubt in her mind about the project, along with frustration of not getting any respect despite her best efforts. And then the later episodes can be Charlie struggling with these thoughts and the season can end with Charlie regaining her confidence and motivation while accepting that even though it may not work, at least she TRIED.

Anyways, this is only my opinion and it's very much limited by the fact I've only watched the first episode (I saw some clips for the upcoming episodes and I don't think I want to watch HH anymore) so please just take it with a grain of salt. I thank you for reading this whole ordeal very much.

Well, this is definitely a LONG ask. But ya, good rewrite! I personally didn't find too many issues with the pacing, but I agree that HH isn't newbie-friendly, the show is written like a continuation of the pilot - it doesn't introduce the characters like the pilot, it just does what HGS did; just...have the characters there without telling us who they are.

I haven't seen the pilot myself but the only reason why I'm not too confused right now is because I absorbed information about it through reviews of it for a long time. So ya good rewrite!

[gingersnappish]

Hi!

I’m Ginger: artist-nerd, citizen-scientist, make-garden-not-lawn enthusiast, and avid baker-of-cinnamon-rolls-from-scratch! I very much enjoy fandom! What is my weekly fanfic consumption like? High. Very High. Some of my current favs include: Star Wars (especially Kylux), The Witcher (here meaning I saw about an episode and a half of TWN, found the fandom, and wandered happily off towards Lambert and Aiden), LotR, sometimes StarTrek…..assorted others! I am passionate about creating things, too! Often, that means drawing fan art and/or comics. Actually, I’ve found myself stalling intermittently in that department over the past year or so. I’ve been almost exclusively drawing Kylux things using only Procreate, for a while now. Which I love doing! But I suspect doing just that one type of art for going on 4 years now is starting to have an effect of the breadth and depth of my creative well. So I’ve decided to change up how I create for a while! A good friend gifted me a sketchbook IRL and I want to fill it with traditional media drawings. I want to try drawing from more fandoms, try out new digital techniques and styles that maybe I hadn’t allowed myself before. I want to invest some time into art forms besides drawing, even - I’ve always enjoyed fiber arts and I’ve got a jack loom I’ve meant to finish repairing for a while. Once that is working, I want to learn to weave. And I want to share some of these things here! On that note, I suspect more than a few people who follow me on Tumblr are here because I have drawn a lot of kylux. Especially the long-form fan comic ‘Dying Is Easy Young Man, Living Is Harder’. WRT The Comic: Kraken and I are still fully intending to see it to it’s conclusion! Honestly, though, it’s been on unofficial hiatus for a while now and it’s likely to remain that way for a bit longer. Kraken is super busy with retraining and job related demands IRL, and I am also pretty swamped and trying to get back in a more sustainable groove artistically. The whole sitch doesn’t leave us a lot of room to create a big project like DIEYMLIH together, right now. I know firsthand how hard it can be to wait a long time for a story you enjoy to get finished - so I want to say ‘thank you’ to everyone being very patient with us! We will get there eventually! If you want to check if there has been an update or just re-read the kylux comic to-date, the best place to go is the DIEYMLIH Site

If you want more kylux themed stuff in the meantime, I’m still putting my Kylo Amidala and other AU stuff for them on my Patreon

If you want the whole complete collection of my art (kylux or other)…. I'm working on that. I’ve historically been really inconsistent with tags. I'm trying to be better about that and also go back and fix all my personal art so it is consistently tagged. It’s gonna take a while. Eventually!

[fullofgutsndopamine]

Maybe I'll Feel Better (Give Me Forty-Five)

or: the one where you two are elementary school teachers "judging" a gingerbread house competition. hasan takes it very seriously.

listen: the bad news is all i'm watching now is hallmark movies. this was like, super briefly mentioned in a movie i watched tonight so here's: something?

anyways y'all seem to like my teacher AUs (or at least tolerate them) so

more hasan here

the email ping got you first.

my room. noon. sharp. sharpened pencil and other supplies provided -Piker

you snort. your fingers hover over the keyboard, considering what to say next. hasan’s emails usually seem like he wrote them in between passing periods, as kids tug on his shirt sleeves, begging for milk containers to be opened and for shoelaces to be tied.

you stare at the email, start typing something, realize it sounds dumb, backspace and delete it. there's not much time to think about it, before the bell rings and the students pile back into the room.

Noon comes quickly. If you weren't lying to yourself, you'd be honest about how your dragging your feet across the hallway to Hasan’s classroom, where the near constant cheering and songs he makes up makes your head ache and pound at the end of your day.

You feel as if you can feel your kids eyeballs on the back of your head as you finally go to Hasan’s room, but you push it down quickly.

Hasan is pacing around his room.

Correction: Hasan wears a crooked Santa hat on his head as he paces back and forth.

"Hey," You knock gently, "Am I interrupting something?"

You seem like you're interrupting something, and you fight the urge to take your phone out of your pocket to check the time, even though you know you're right on time.

"Finally!" He smiles, a lopsided grin on his face, "Time to get down to business."

You hesitate in the doorway.

"Come on," He laughs, "Have to show you everything, we have a whole procedure to go over."

You walk to his desk, where he stands, a clipboard in his hand before he nudges you a small wooden clipboard, a small stack of stapled papers under the clip, little boxes that were obviously handmade that say: rating, student, comments its obviously made in MS Paint, and was thrown together last night, but as you run your fingers over the lines, you think of hasan, in his pajamas after a long day, his laptop on his lap, glasses crooked on the tip of his nose as he stays up half the night, putting together this paper to try and make the day a little more magical for all his students.

"Here, my class made this for you too." He looks down as he passes it, but it's a homemade ribbon out of construction paper; blues and reds and yellows, is pinned to his chest, says: #1 judge in slanted writing.

He slides one across the table to you, matches his, and a little safety pin is fixed to the back of it.

"I guess you take this very seriously." You tease as you pick it up, your hands fumble with it as you try to pin it to your shirt with no success.

"May I?" Hasan is at your elbow, his voice is low and gentle as he takes it out of your hands gently, pinches your shirt as he carefully pins it, his fingers are long but work perfectly to pin it with practiced ease.

He talks as he does so.

"Class worked all period on this," He mumbles as he pins it, adjusts it carefully, "Said we should at least act like we care about the cold war, but I think they were a little pre occupied."

He takes a step back, tilts his head: "Beautiful, it's perfect."

And you speak so he doesn't see your bright pink face: "I think they spelled judge wrong." you tease gently.

He tsks, like he didn't see it, "Amateur hour, I'll get to the bottom of it. Here-"

He slides you a small collection of pre sharpened pencils, all that have Mr.Piker’s Favorite Student etched into the side of them, sparkle when you turn them around in the fluorescent lighting.

"Nice pencils." You tease, and he beams, lets it roll off his shoulders, only seems embarrassed for a second:

"Thanks! Made 'em myself. Follow me, I'll explain everything to you when we walk to the auditorium."

It's a short walk.

The school is small, the auditorium even smaller, his class load only in the twenties, but he holds the door for you into the small room, and ignores his students squealing when they see him, a wink and a nod to them, like they're all involved in some inside joke that you aren't a part of-

the rules are simple enough. follow him with the clipboard, rate the art, try and narrow it down to the winner. he explains everyone's a winner, doesn't have the heart for everyone to walk out without some sort of award, even if it's most creative, or most frosting on the side of a house or-

"Hell," He'll even say, throwing his hands in the air as you get to the first house, "Most creative use of a gum drop, it doesn't matter. Everyone's a winner when I'm judging."

and you realize how he's so loved among the students, as they run to his side and pull on his shirt for him to kneel on the filthy floor and listen to them, speaking through broken teeth as they tell him the random gossip happening-

"This is a good one." You say at the second one.

The roof is crooked. Half hanging on, except through a prayer and an approximate shit ton of frosting and red and green skittles, it's still cute, well coated with candy-you think of hasan in a little apron running around his room as he makes sure all the students have gingerbread, frosting, all the candy and fixings-

"Most creative use of frosting, l'd say." hasan nods, scribbles something onto his clipboard.

You snort.

"Most creative use of skittles, obviously." You scribble something as he does, suddenly feel like you should be doing it as well.

He snorts now. "come on. The frosting job."

"The council has spoken, Hasan. I'm so sorry."

"The council," He laughs, "And you're the council, I take it?"

"Obviously."

"And any way to object the council?" He pushes.

"Give me five minutes, I'll bring it to the council." you tuck the pencil behind your ear.

It feels good, finally laughing. Being a first year teacher and spending most periods holed up in your room, eating a peanut butter sandwich at your desk, craning your neck and face turning bright red every time you hear someone passing your room, always afraid that it's you, that you're the punchline.

"And?" hasan pushes after a few houses.

"Bad news, bud." You tease gently, "Council denied it."

He groans, "Fuck. Let me see your notes."

you glance at his; for the most part, he takes it seriously, little notes in the boxes on the placement of frosting and color patterns, enough for any child to feel appreciated-

but in the corners are little flower stems and hearts, litte scribbles you can barely make out-

"No way," You giggle as you hold the clipboard close to your chest, trying to not laugh too loudly, because this seems dangerously close to flirting, and you aren't here for that-

"Come on," He pulls at your sleeve gently, "We gotta announce winners."

You nibble your lip.

Even being a teacher, teaching in front of these kids it's different then talking to these peers that you're terrified of, terrified of being a punchline to a joke-

"Come on," His voice comes quieter, gentler, no edge to it, "I'll be right here, l'm not going anywhere."

And you barely know him. Like, besides him popping his head into your classroom occasionally, gives you supplies when you need it, helped you hang decorations once in passing-

"Okay," you nods, "Yeah, okay."

and you follow as he leads to a makeshift stage.

Somehow, everything is less scary with hasan by your side now.

"Everyone," He clears his throat, "We have the winners. Now- you all are winners to us two-"

Load groans are heard around the room, boos from his students, but he puffs his chest out and smiles widely as he calls the students to the stage, little make shift awards he obviously spent lots of time creating out of different brightly colored construction paper as the two of you take turns pinning it to the children's shirts.

"We make a good team." hasan declares as he holds your hand to help you off the stage, the winners still get pats on the back and photos for the year book

You shrug, to downplay it all, "Yeah, I guess. You're pretty okay."

He lauahs "I'll take it. Come on I made the hot chocolate, and not to brag, but it's my best batch yet."

He doesn't let go of your hand as he leads you away from the stage, even with all eyes on you two

[faerunsbest]

Gave myself a case of the sads thinking about the gith egg

I would imagine that rolan after everything is done is just incredibly busy. He doesn't have time for much if anything and when he tries it just turns I to him napping near Ma'na and she's very happy he does sleep near her. She loves his little snore and the way his face looks at rest.

But she was a silly thing, she kept that egg that is now a child that desperately needs attention. Her attention and she's so happy to give it. Sadly that means they're quite split in need and availability.

One day Ma'na while feeding her baby, hers. She didn't expanyone else to lay claim...though she might have hoped. One day while feeding she say that babies playful smile fall when Rolan came into the kitchen searching for something.

Oh.

She pressed her mouth into a thin line before taking a breath.

"My love, can I help with something?"

He turned and glanced back to see her witha spoon raised to a now disinterested baby.

"Ah, no I see that you're busy. Thank you."

"Oh."

He paused to look at her, that crestfallen expression and wasn't sure what to do. He left the room to continue his search elsewhere.

A day, two days and week.

"Rolan, is everything alright? Where did you sleep last night I don't see you in bed anymore."

"Oh, I just didn't want to wake you two. You looked exhausted."

"I miss you."

He furrows his brow at forlorn features, unsure how he can fix things. He thought he was being polite, the thought took too long. Rolan watched her expression shift as she absorbed that silence as an answer. His chest tightened and when he wanted to say something he was called away.

That's really quite enough.

Rolan watched from his study as Ma'na paced about, the baby on her hip playing with her hair. She was doing something but he couldn't tell what until much later neat dinner she came to knock at his door.

"Mmm?"

He glanced up to see her walking in, he gave a smile as she did.

"Yes?"

"I thought...well."

Rolan blinked as he looked up from the scroll, pausing his work as he studied her face.

"Yes?"

"I'm going now, so you can sleep in your bed tonight. We won't take it up anymore."

He frowned, setting the quill down to look at her

"You're heading out? When shall I expect your return?"

His heart dropped at they way she looked at him so sadly.

"I love you very much but it's best we leave."

His breaking heart began to race, he stood in a hurry...freezing when she stepped back.

"What's this about?! The bed? I'll go to it I swear every night-"

"But you don't want to."

"What?! What do you mean?"r

"I love you, but I need to choose right now. I made a choice without talking to you. I brought this baby with me cause he doesn't have anyone, and that's my fault. So I...I'm going to my best for him."

" I don't, I don't understand what's happening please just talk to me about this Ma'na."

"Rolan, when I bring him with me into a room. You leave it. I have never seen you smile at him, not once."

"I'm sorry I'm just bust and stressed..I'm not good with infants but I'll try-"

"No!"

Rolan feels his eyes sting, his hands dropped to his sides as he waited for what he knew was the end.

"You can do that, you put in all the fforr. You can strive and struggle to make him feel loved but all he will now is that it is a struggle to love him."

He watched her eyes flutter as she caught back tears.

"Maybe one day you'll have time, or maybe you'll find someone who works for what you have, but I need to leave. I will not have anyone feel the way I did. So I love you, I do. But you don't need me. You'll be fine, you can take care of yourself."

For a moment, he felt like time stopped and when he blinked, she was out the door. He went rushing out just In time to see her with her old pack heavy on her back and that damn baby on her hip while she left.

[valentine-writes]

1am with swollen eyes . . .

[ tws + notes: hurt + comfort, a bit of an angsty start, implied depression/depressive episode, very self indulgent hcs, desperately trying to claw my way out of hiatus (not working), unedited as usual ]

↳ ft. asra and muriel

「 gn! reader, can be platonic or romantic <3 」

author's note: reader cries. asra. muriel. r there 2 help. this is vv self indulgent but shhh... consider this a late bday post 4 myself.... ^_^

you have been hurting for far too long. at first, it was a dull, yet ever present ache. the feeling was easy to ignore or push aside, letting it dwell in your subconcious rather than in the forefront of your mind. you could live as normal, letting it lurk if it meant it never had to consume you.

these emotions grew unsatisfied with your denial. ravenous, they festered and grew, until they finally had become large enough to start chewing away at you. it felt like your pains would swallow you whole.

one particularly dreary morning, you found yourself laying in bed. stuck. you hadn't slept the entire night, too busy crying to even rest. these days, crying was prefered over the usual apathy you felt over your situation at hand. so there you lay, tangled in your bedsheets. there were no reasons coming to mind which gave you any urgency to get up at this time- still, you sit up, pulling your knees to your chest with no intention to leave. glancing at the small alarm clock on your bedside, you check the time.

1am. is that really how long you've been crying?

headcanons below

▸ the softness of ASRA's voice when he says your name is almost too soothing to be true. you watch him as he quietly approaches your bedside. his lilac eyes are fixed on you, with a concern you know all too well.

"i'm so, so sorry..." they whisper, quietly reaching out to cup your face with a warm hand. their thumb brushes over your cheek as you lean into the touch. "i should have checked up on you sooner."

tears prick at your eyes, threatening to fall at any minute. you take a sharp inhale, shaking your head.

"it's not your fault. you didn't know." your voice is trembling. your attempt to reassure him only makes him frown.

the touch of his hand on your cheek leaves you, just for a moment, as he sits on the edge of your bed, before pulling you into his arms.

their embrace is well known to you. it feels like home– the gentle yet protective feeling. the faint smell of vanilla. the warmth. you missed this all too much. you find yourself clinging to them, never wanting to leave their arms.

asra lets you rest your head on their chest. you can vent, you can cry, you can complain– you can even just choose to sit in the comfortable silence.

he'll stay by your side and make sure you're okay. he'd do anything for you.

▸ seeing you like this makes MURIEL's heart ache. you don't deserve all the suffering you've endured. at first, he's unsure of what to say. or if there's anything to be said at all.

"...hold on– i'll go get you some water." with that, he turns away to leave, but not before glancing over his shoulder to make sure if you're okay with being left alone.

you nod a little, sniffling, before mouthing a small "thank you." the corners of your mouth twitch up ever so slightly, to offer muriel a small smile.

he's back in less than a minute, not wanting to leave you for too long. he holds the glass of water to you, and you take a few sips before setting it down on the bedside table with a clink.

"do you need to talk about it?..." his voice is mild as ever. usually, he had trouble meeting your gaze. but now he looks into your eyes, needing to know that you'll be okay. he's slightly disheartened and considers shying away when there is no immediate answer. but ever patient with you, he waits in the soft silence.

he watches as you, pause– considering what he had said, before slowly move to sit to the edge of the bed, legs dangling off. "stay here with me?.."

he doesn't even hesitate. muriel sits by your side, quietly putting an arm around you and you lean your head on his shoulder. it feels safe with him. secure.

muriel won't force you to say a single word if you don't feel like talking about it. however, despite his usual hesitance to be vulnerable– he'll be so much more open to communication with you. he'll attempt to remind you in every way possible that he's here for you.

[captaincravatthecapricious]

20 questions for fic writers

Thanks @bluejayblueskies for the tag!

1. How many works do you have on Ao3? 

58!

2. What’s your total Ao3 word count? 

463,287

3. What fandoms do you write for? 

Malevolent! But I do have a tma long fic going on that I am still working on and updating regularly.

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

After the Circus (tma)

Can't Get Up (tma)

Broken Ribs (tma)

Things You Said When You Were Scared (tma)

Cold as the Rain that Falls in December (Malevolent)

5. Do you respond to comments?

Yes! Comments mean a ton to me so I try to respond to them!

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? 

Oh man either Things You Said Through Your Teeth (tma, a little study on Martin grieving everyone throughout the seasons, ending with him pushing Jon away) OR I Don't Want to be So Sober So (Malevolent, that ended up with Arthur possibly drinking himself to death. I mean you could chose to believe that John got him back home. I don't think I've actually decided, even when I wrote it).

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? 

I mean... all the rest of them, probably. I write happy endings. Angst with happy endings. Maybe the Jumanji fic? The first one ends up pretty happy.

8. Do you get hate on fics? 

Not that I know of? Am I popular enough to get hate?

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind? 

Nope.

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

GODS, okay so this isn't published. Hell it's in an old NOTEBOOK, but once I wrote a crossover between Doctor Horrible's Sing Along Blog and Bones.

Of the things published, I do have a tma Jumanji au, but I wouldn't call that a crossover.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen? 

I don't think so?

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? 

Not that I know of.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before? 

I was going to, once upon a time, but it fell through. That was a very long time ago.

14. What’s your all time favorite ship? 

I'm not sure. I like queerplatonic ships over anything else. I really like playing around with the inbetween relationships of Jon and Tim (tma) and Arthur and Parker and John (Malevolent). But I'm not sure if I really write or ship any of them romantically. I like the messy inbetweens. And being aro ace, I kind of explore the plasticity of relationships through that lens.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will? 

I'm pretty methodical with things so I don't have a lot of projects left undone. I would like to write a third chapter for my oneshot fic called Coffee. And I would like to fix up the second chapter enough that I can actually post it.

In a wider sense. I have so much more I want to do in the Parker Lives AU, but I have no idea what I'll be able to do with time/work/mental health constraints. I'm certainly not done with the AU. But will it ever be truly finished?

16. What are your writing strengths? 

rambling. Endlessly. Which is also a weakness. But I sure can do whump and stream of consciousness.

17. What are your writing weaknesses? 

I haven't the foggiest idea how video games work and I am writing a video game au.

In a more serious sense. I have a lot of trouble with pacing. I fill everything up with my rambling and I have no idea if I am getting the original point across or if it's gotten lost along the way. It also tends to make it hard to stick in important details in a longer form work. I get too busy with tangents.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic? 

I don't think I know other languages well enough.

19. First fandom you wrote for? 

Ice Age 3, Dawn of the Dinosaurs. And it was written in marker in a plastic spiral bound notebook. And it will never see the light of day.

20. Favorite fic you’ve written?

For tma, probably If That's What it is

For Malevolent... I'm not sure. I love of Cold as the Rain (and that might be my top pick overall) but I am also really proud of myself for finishing Phosphenes and Pasts. I guess my readers will have to be the judge of that once I finish posting it!

Tagging @genderfluid-druid @thisstableground @cannibalthoughts @cappurrccino @sokkas-first-fangirl @breannasfluff @acewithapaintbrush @late-to-the-magnus-archives

[alj4890]

Mixed Signals

(Dr. Tobias Carrick x F!MC *Chris Valentine) (Dr. Ethan Ramsey x F!MC*Chris Valentine) (Dr. Bryce Lahela x F!MC*Chris Valentine) in an Open Heart Fan fiction.

A/N I've written only a few drabbles for Open Heart, but after the disappointment of Book 3 and no book 4 to fix everything, the idea for this series has been in my mind ever since the attack in Book 2 began.

Masterlist

Song Inspiration for this series: Sparks by Coldplay

Prologue

Mass Kenmore Hospital...

"Dr. Valentine?" Tobias said in surprise. "What brings you deep into enemy territory?"

Chris took a hesitant step forward. Her fingers twisted the material of her wool skirt as she faced the man partly responsible for saving her life.

What did one say to the very person that she had insulted, labeled the enemy, and fought so hard to beat?

After all that she had done, Dr. Tobias Carrick had dropped everything and rushed to Edenbrook on the day of the attack to find a way to save her life.

Licking her lips, she lifted her eyes to his. "If you're not busy, Dr. Carrick, I was wondering if I could speak to you," she looked about at the nurses and doctors rushing past on the fifth floor of Mass Kenmore, "alone?"

His smug smirk peeked out. Stepping to the side, he waved her down the hall. "Fourth door on the left is my office."

With shaky legs, she walked toward the direction he pointed.

He opened the door for her and followed her inside.

Smoothing her damp hands down her skirt, she once more faced him.

Tobias sat down on the edge of his desk, his smirk slowly disappearing. "You okay, Chris?"

She nodded and took a deep breath to try and keep her tears at bay.

He reached for her hand. "Hey. It's okay. Take your time."

She bit down on her lip. That gentle bedside manner of his touched her heart. He had used it when he swooped in to see if he could find a cure for the poison she had inhaled. Hearing it once again made her feel...well, feel for the first time in a long time.

"I just...I just wanted to stop by and thank you--"

"You already thanked me." He told her, smiling again.

"I know." She swallowed once more. "This is my first day out of the hospital and I wanted to thank you again when I'm not..."

When I'm not what? Out of my head? Weak from nearly dying? Heartbroken over losing Danny and Bobby? Worried about Rafel? Wondering why neither of the two men I work with and have feelings for won't say what we are?

"Chris?"

"Sorry." She sniffed and reached for a tissue on his desk. The movement made her move directly between his legs.

She heard the light intake of breath and looked up. Their faces were close to one another's, so much so that she could smell both the peppermints he preferred and the light splash of cologne he had on.

He was completely still yet tense with his body poised for whatever she was going to do next.

Without any thought or plan for where this might go, she kissed his cheek and hugged him.

His arms lifted to hold her when he felt her stray warm tears against his neck.

"Do you want to talk about it?" He asked softly, gently squeezing her close.

"Not really." She admitted. "Everyone keeps telling me to give myself time and all." She eased back. "I wish they would leave me alone."

He kept his hands on her waist while studying her. "Then tell them."

"Ha. You've met them." She snorted. "They don't take orders like that well."

"True." He replied. "You want me to do it?" His smirk brought a grin to her face. "Ethan already considers me a pain in his ass. What's one more mark against me?"

She laughed, while dabbing at her eyes and nose. "After what you did for me? No way am I letting you continue to be the bad guy."

"Aww shucks, Valentine." Tobias teased. "You're going to give me a big head."

"As if it wasn't already big enough." She teased back. Tilting her head, she pretended to study him. "How do you lift it?"

"I work out." He winked then stood up. "I'm glad you came by."

"Me too." She held her hand out.

He shook his head. "You already hugged me. I figure that could be our thing."

"Our thing?"

Tobias pulled her back into his embrace.

"Yeah." He hugged her close. "Now that you won't let me be the big bad guy, I think this means you want us to be friends."

"Whoa. I'm merely a girl coming to thank a guy for saving her life." She teased. "Don't go thinking this means more than that."

"Sorry. Thought is already there." He countered, letting her go. "You're stuck with me now Chris whether you like it or not."

"Ugh, fine." She playfully grumbled. "I already deal with so many ego maniacs. What's one more?"

He opened his office door for her. "I knew you would agree."

"Just because you won this round doesn't mean you'll win them all, Dr. Carrick." Chris warned, completely unable to keep from grinning at him.

"Allow me to let you in on a little secret, Dr. Valentine," he leaned down close to whisper. "I win all the rounds that are important to me." Swiping up the folder he had previously been studying, he saluted her. "See you soon."

*****************

A couple of weeks later...

"Baz and I will go talk to the patient." June offered.

"Good, I'll..." Ethan's eyes widened when the door of the diagnostics office opened.

Chris calmly walked in and flashed a brief smile. "Good morning. Sorry I'm late. My landlord needed some help being admitted."

"Chris?" Ethan's brow furrowed. "We didn't expect you back so soon."

Baz bounded over to wrap her in a hug while June questioned her about any lingering side effects.

"A little tired still and occasionally breathless, but other than that I feel mostly back to normal."

"Fascinating." June's smile formed. "I'd love to sit down and discuss with you--"

"Kerri Monroe's diagnosis." Ethan bit out. "That's what you need to focus on now."

"On it." Baz whispered how happy he was to have Chris back as he followed June out the door.

"Anything I can do?" Chris walked over and picked up the medical file. "Should I order some labs for Mrs. Monroe or--"

"Sit down." Ethan ordered. "You shouldn't have come back so soon, Rookie."

"Why?" Chris looked up at him, surprised he called her that particular nickname again. "There are things to do here. People need my help more than I need to sit on a couch all day."

He ran a hand through his hair. "You don't need to exert yourself. We don't know if--"

"You weren't worried about me exerting myself after the funeral." She muttered.

His cheeks flushed at the reminder of what had happened in his car on that stormy night. "Chris, I'm still your superior. I don't know--"

She quickly waved her hand dismissing his same reason of why he wouldn't fully commit to her. "I get it. No need to tell me again."

An awkward silence fell between them.

"If," she coughed to cover her embarrassment, "if you don't need me right now, I'll uh, I'll go make my rounds."

"Go ahead." Ethan said softly. His eyes drifted over her face before he forced them elsewhere.

"Just page me if you need another set of eyes." She tried to sound like her old self, yet it held a shrill edge at the end.

"Will do."

She tried to keep her steps from rushing out the door.

"Chris?"

Taking a steadying breath she turned back toward him.

"Don't overdo it." He ordered.

With a quick nod, she walked out the door.

******************

A few hours later...

"...and then Robin flips over the bad guy and..."

Chris couldn't stop smiling at her seven hear old patient telling her his favorite stories of Batman and Robin. Throughout examining him, he had shown her his toys and comic books that his parents had brought into his room.

"How's you're tummy feel?" She asked when he paused for breath.

His little face dimmed of happiness. "Still hurts some."

"I promise it will feel better soon." She then addressed his parents about the afternoon's surgery.

A knock had them all turning to see Bryce walking in, wearing a Robin mask.

"I heard that a hero needs some..." His eyes widened. "Chris! What are you doing back at work?"

She shrugged while helping them move the patient to the gurney. "It felt like it was time."

His brow furrowed much like Ethan's had when seeing her.

"Walk with me?" He asked as soon as they began to wheel towards surgery. "And wait until I drop him off."

"You're not performing the surgery?" She asked.

"Not today. I have one in about an hour scheduled that Dr. Tanaka wants me for."

A few minutes later, Bryce motioned for her to follow him to the cafeteria. It was for the most part empty, save for a couple of doctors grabbing a late lunch.

"You want anything?" He asked.

"No thanks." She sat down at a table while he went to get a snack.

He grinned as he sat down across from her. "Here." He pushed a bag of peanuts toward her. "You should eat something."

Her nose wrinkled. "I really haven't gotten my appetite back yet."

She noticed the concern in his eyes so like her roommates' and knew she would have to force down some of the peanuts just to make it stop.

"So?" She tried not to gag on what once was her favorite goto snack. "How have you been?"

"Shouldn't I be asking you that?" He bit into a burger. "I mean," he said between bites, "of the two of us, you've been the patient."

"Yeah." She slumped some in her seat. "I wasn't too sick to talk on the phone though." Her eyes narrowed somewhat on his. "Or have visitors."

Bryce winced. "Sorry about that, Chris. I guess I didn't know what to say or do?"

"Really?" Her eyes narrowed more.

How often had she stressed to him within the past year that he was important to her, that she wanted to be with him. Then when he wouldn't say he wanted that too and reverted back to calling her a friend, she gave in to trying something with Ethan.

Only for both men to keep her on a yoyo string to pull back and forth whenever they needed her.

What do I see in them to keep swallowing my pride and allowing them to basically use me for sex whenever they want?

Chris was fed up. The longer Bryce stammered about his busy schedule and not wanting to disturb her rest, the more she wanted to chunk the peanuts at his stupid, much too handsome face.

She didn't even want the damn things. Might as well use them as a quick release to her frustration.

Her fingers curled around the bag. Her bicep tightened in preparation to throw them, when Sienna walked up.

Her friend's excited hug and squeals of seeing her at work again were what saved Bryce's overly confident face.

"Why didn't you tell me you were coming back?!" Sienna sat down next to her. "I would have made celebration pancakes this morning!"

Chris couldn't stop from smiling. She could always depend on Sienna's sweetness to boost her mood.

"I didn't really decide until you had left for work. Then Farley came by to check on me and he wasn't feeling too good..."

She continued to tell her about his diagnosis of lime disease.

"Hate to break this up, but I have to get ready for surgery." Bryce smiled at them both. "Take it easy, Valentine. I don't want to have to operate on you next."

Chris bit back a bitter retort that he better hope she needed surgery. It would be his only chance to catch her naked again.

"Meet us at Donahue's later!" Sienna shouted. "We will celebrate Chris being back."

"There's no need." Chris began.

"Yes, there is!" Sienna squeezed another hug out of her. "My best friend is back with us and I'm over the moon about it!"

Bryce smirked at her. "She's right. We have to celebrate our friend's return."

Our friend. Chris despised the word, friend. Why did she keep placing her hope on him seeing her as something more than a mere friend?

And to make things worse, Ethan walked past.

"Dr. Ramsey!" Sienna called out before Chris could stop her. "Come have a drink with us tonight in honor of Chris's return!"

Ethan hesitated. That action nearly earned him peanuts in his handsome face too.

Gawd, I hate that look. The sad, yearning eyes. The slight frown. Man up and either say you want to date me or leave me alone for good! This back and forth is killing me worse than the poison did.

"Where at?" Ethan finally asked.

"Donahue's." Sienna beamed when he said he would try and stop by on his way home.

Chris mumbled a goodbye as Bryce left and Ethan headed off to find something to eat.

"Who else should we invite? I know Rafe is still too sick to get out." Sienna tapped her fingers on the table while scrolling through her contacts. "We can invite the rest of the diagnostic team and Ines and--"

"I'll send an invite to Tobias." Chris decided.

"Tobias? Who's...oh!" Sienna's eyes widened. "Dr. Carrick, right?"

"Yeah." Chris sent a text to him before she could think too much about it. "He did rush over with Aurora to try and save my life."

"I thought he was the enemy?" Sienna whispered while her eyes cut to Ethan. "Don't they have bad blood between them?"

"Something like that." Chris grumbled. "They can get over it."

Her phone vibrated with Tobias's response.

You want me to come deep into Edenbrook territory for a drink?

She snorted while answering.

Too scared, huh? And here I was longing for your company.

Well hell, Chris. I've never been able to refuse someone longing for my company. I'll be there. Just make sure no one sticks a scalpel in my back.

Don't worry. I'll protect you.

My hero.

Sienna leaned over, her eyes growing larger with each of their responses.

"Oh my gosh! You like Tobias!"

Chris's smile disappeared. "I don't hate him. But like like him? No."

"You're flirting in your texts!" Sienna giggled. "That is so cute. I haven't see you like this since our first year with--" she clapped a hand over her mouth.

"Uh huh." Chris pushed her chair back. "Anyway, I'll see you after work." She patted her friend's shoulder as she walked away. "Don't worry, I'm not upset with you over the name you almost said."

"Yeah, but." Sienna chased after her. "There is also another person who is interested in you."

"If you mean the one I think, then no. He made it perfectly clear this morning that we can't."

"No!" Sienna wrapped a comforting arm around Chris. "Why not?"

"He's still my boss." Chris mumbled. "And he won't abuse that. No matter how often he gives in to temptation."

"I think he's in love with you." Sienna whispered.

"Not enough to be with me." Chris grumbled.

[naesarangyunho]

Can you blame me?- Jeong Yunho

[I do not own these images all credit to the original owners]

SFW

A/N: I've been struggling to find Yunho fluff so I just wrote one myself. If anyone would like to, I'd love some Yunho fluff recommendations.

Synopsis: Y/n has been in love with her best friend for years and in a spur-of-the-moment decision confesses to him. Contents: Pretty much just a soft best friends to lovers because I'm sappy like that.

[wordcount: 1.9k]

"You know, I'm actually glad you called me," Yunho admitted as he walked at a leisurely pace next to her.

She turned her head to look at him as she walked, "What do you mean?"

He sighed, "I really needed a break from life. Work is getting busy and some fresh air is bound to be good for me."

She watched as his eyes fell shut for a moment as he took a deep breath of the cool, evening air. He did seem a little tired, perhaps not to the untrained eye but after years of knowing him she could tell otherwise.

The sun had begun to set over the Han River and the street lamps along the path they walked had begun to flicker to life.

She smiled at him, "I'm glad I called too. It's good to see you and I think I just needed this break too-- My family is driving me up the wall."

Her friend gave her a slightly concerned glance, "Are they still trying to convince you not to pursue a career in photography?"

She gave him an exaggeratedly drained look and nodded gravely in response. He huffed out a laugh that most definitely didn't make her heart stutter, wrapped an arm around her and tugged her into his side in a quick hug.

"They'll come around eventually. You're a really great artist and photographer. Don't stress your pretty head about it too much."

She tried to ignore the way her heart clenched at his words and actions. She shot him a quick smile in thanks as he squeezed her tight once more before releasing her.

"I hope you're right."

"I'm always right," Yunho responded rather confidently. She rolled her eyes and snorted in amusement.

"What? You don't believe me?" He gasped in feigned disbelief and clutched his heart in a very dramatic fashion. Jeong Yunho, the class clown even years after graduating.

She shook her head with an affectionate laugh.

"I'm just saying that statement is a little debatable, Yun."

Yunho bumped his shoulder amicably into hers with a slight pout, "We've been best friends for nearly ten years now, when have I ever steered you wrong?"

She raised her eyebrows at him, "Do you need a list?"

"It would be void of evidence."

She scoffed, "Are you sure? Remember that time you were convinced the girl at the bookstore liked girls and told me to get her number? Remember how she had a boyfriend?"

Yunho scratched the back of his neck with a sheepish grin, "Okay, I'll admit to that one but besides then? I've never steered you wrong since that uh… hiccup."

She huffed out another laugh, "Yeah? Right after that you were convinced that Yeosang liked me and that I should ask him out."

"Okay but remember how I eventually said you shouldn't?" Yunho interjected defensively.

She shoved him lightly, "Only because you found out he already had a girlfriend!"

Yunho's mouth opened and closed a few times as if he was searching for an excuse but he suddenly walked faster, "I don't want to partake in this conversation any longer."

She laughed again-- She always laughed so much when she was with him-- She couldn't help it. She scrambled to catch up with his long strides and hooked her arm around his once she did.

"You're so dumb," She teased affectionately.

Yunho slowed his pace again and looked down at her with a cheeky grin, "You love me though."

She felt her ears heat up just the slightest at his words and hoped he didn't notice as she responded with a soft "Unfortunately."

He chuckled deeply and ruffled her hair. She glared at him and slapped his hand away before fixing her hair with a disgruntled glare that the taller man found all too amusing. He loved riling his best friend up and lived for her reactions. He always had and even years later she still fell into his traps.

They came to a standstill at the end of the path that they had been following where there was a bench and a quiet little lookout point where they could gaze out at the sunset over the Han River. Yunho flopped down onto the wooden bench with a content sigh and tugged her down next to him. She yelped as she landed next to him. She shifted and got comfortable, leaning into his side. They sat in pleasant silence for a while, their conversation dying down as they watched the sunset paint the sky heavenly pink and orange.

Yunho took a deep lungful of air, a smile of pure satisfaction gracing his features as he closed his eyes to enjoy the feeling of the cool breeze and fading sun on his face. His schedules had been jam-packed lately and he hadn't had much time to relax, let alone outside in the fresh air.

She couldn't help but watch him surreptitiously. He had always been breathtakingly beautiful, inside and out, and she could never help the way her eyes would stray to his face or the way her heart would race as she looked at him. It's been years of silently pining after her best friend now.

She wasn't even sure when it had all begun but it must have started around the time she met Yunho way back when she had still been a trainee under KQ Entertainment. He had been an absolute godsend, entering her life just when she needed him most. She had entered the company about six months after him and they had just clicked the moment they had met.

Yunho had been there for her when things were good and when they were bad and she had returned the favour gladly. He had held her when she cried. He had helped her tape up aching muscles and joints and massaged knots out of her shoulders after hours and hours of gruelling dance practice. He had snuck her food when the company had put the girls on diets.

He had been there to support her when her fellow trainees of the girl group she nearly debuted in turned nasty. She had been pretty talented and they had been jealous of not only that but her close friendship with Yunho. Many of the female trainees at the company had crushes on him but he had only ever had eyes for her. He only paid attention to his best friend and it didn't go unnoticed by them.

He had just always been a constant in her life, her rock and safe place, even after he debuted in his boy group and left her behind to train on her own. Even then, he still tried to make time for her between hectic schedules.

When she eventually decided that the life of a kpop idol wasn't what she wanted anymore and left the company to pursue her passion in the Arts, Yunho supported her even when her family didn't. He even sat down with her when he had the chance to help her research universities she was interested in.

When everyone else had left her behind, Yunho had stayed. He never forgot about her even when he became a very successful idol and his group was making headlines. She had begun to love him unconditionally along the way, in more than one way and, honestly, could you blame her?

Yunho must have felt her eyes on him because he turned to look at her with a warm, curious smile, "What's up?"

Stupidly, before she could even think it through, she had leaned in and pressed a lingering kiss to a very surprised Yunho's lips.

He froze and panic had shot through her- quick and sharp.

She had pulled away so quickly one would think she had been burnt, "I'm so sorry, I don't know what's come over me I just-"

She was cut off by Yunho gently cupping her face and pulling her in for another kiss. Her eyes fell shut and she placed a hand on his waist as she kissed him back. He kissed her slowly, gently, thought put into every movement of his lips against hers and she couldn't help but melt into the kiss.

The kiss was over all too soon and Yunho pressed one last kiss to her lips and then her cheek before pulling away.

Her eyes remained shut for a moment longer as she tried to calm her racing pulse. When she did finally open them she saw Yunho gazing tenderly at her.

Her cheeks flushed instantly and she buried her face in his neck with a groan. He chuckled and wrapped his arms around her in a warm hug.

"I've been wanting to do that for a while," She finally admitted bashfully, speaking into his neck.

Yunho stroked her back and kissed her hair, "I had a feeling."

She pulled her face from his neck, "What do you mean?"

He smiled and brushed her hair from her face, his touch featherlight.

"I have had a suspicion that you liked me for the longest time now," He admitted.

Her eyes widened, "Then why didn't you say anything?!"

"Because I wasn't sure. I've loved you since we were trainees and I didn't want to get my hopes up in case I was wrong," Yunho confessed and she looked at him in absolute disbelief.

"You mean to tell me that for most of our friendship, I've been stupidly pining after you when you actually felt the same way?"

Yunho gave a soft, happy giggle, "Yes, it seems so."

She was at a complete loss for words and could only look at him in stunned silence, her heart still thumping away in her chest.

He grinned that perfect smile she'd always found disarming and kissed her once more, smiling against her lips still.

He cupped her face in one of his large hands again, "One of the perks of ATEEZ is that we don't have a dating ban so…"

She watched him patiently, the slight flush to his ears amusing.

He cleared his throat, "So, once this week's filming of Wanteez wraps up, would you like to get dinner?"

She felt like she was dreaming and was tempted to pinch herself.

"Like, a date?" She wanted to clarify.

He nodded, "Yeah, like a date."

A bright grin slowly spread over her face as his words fully registered. A date. Yunho wanted to take her on a date.

"Yes. I'd love that."

Yunho grinned, a sparkle in his brown eyes that had her tummy erupting into butterflies. He wrapped her up in a tight hug.

He nuzzled his face into her hair for a moment before standing and tugging her up after him.

"Let's get out of here and pray that those weasels at Dispatch didn't manage to see us."

"Shit. I didn't think of that!" She exclaimed and he just shrugged.

"It was a joke. I don't think they have that much of an interest in me."

He reached for her hand, "We'll have to let people know eventually though, right?"

There was a teeny spark of fear in his eyes, like he thought she would suddenly reject him now that that had been mentioned.

She got why he'd panic a little. Dating an idol wasn't going to be a walk in the park and she had heard some of those horror stories but it was Jeong Yunho. She'd never leave his side, especially now that she knew he loved her too-- and, really, could you blame her?