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potato-with-hair · 3 years

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Fake News

First tumblr Story Ever

As the newest Avenger it seemed that Tony Stark and Captain Rogers were more than comfortable sending you out on all of the shit missions, granted, you could use the time in with your new teammates to learn their little quirks and start working to meld your abilities with theirs so that you could start working together seamlessly, but it was getting ridiculous. You were half expecting to start getting told to go out and help the NYFD rescue kittens from trees and helping the NYPD direct traffic on Broadway in Manhattan during rush hour. Y/N was a technopath, which was a fancy name for someone who could control technology and anything mechanical with their mind, or if you wanted to be technical about it, according to the official S.H.I.E.L.D. dossier:

Y/L/N, Y/N: Main Ability: Technology Manipulation

User can manipulate technology, the sum of techniques, skills, methods, and

processes used in the production of goods or services or in the accomplishment

of objectives. However, most users only can exert control over technological

constructs, such as computers, robots, hardware, and other devices that can be

termed as "technology", in any way. Manifested as a special form of electrical/telekinetic manipulation, a special form of "morphing" which allows physical interaction with machines, or even a psychic ability that allows mental interface with computer data.

Also Called:

· Cyberkinesis

· Cyberpathy

· Mechanokinesis

· Technokinesis

· Technopathy

Pretty cool, huh? Anyway, spring was coming to a close and summer was just around the corner. Tony asked me and Sam Wilson, you may know him as Falcon, to head to midtown

Manhattan because there were some “unsavory” characters hanging around Grand Central Station.

Turns out it was some low-level HYDRA minions that were basically trying to see what kind of trouble they could cause, they had planted a pipe bomb in a waste bin in the middle of the station and it was a Friday when thousands of people would be traveling through the station heading to and from work and school. I think that HYDRA was more or less just testing us Avengers out to what abilities we had and see if there are any hidden capabilities we possessed before they come at us for a full-scale attack.

Sam and I arrived and were able to find the pipe bomb relatively quickly, part of my ability is being able to read the signatures of different technologies and mechanics, and if you don’t think that a bomb countdown timer throws out a red flag, you are mistaken. Anyway, we found it, and rather than call bomb and arson with New York’s Finest, I was able to manipulate the mechanics myself using my mind. I shut down the detonator without ever touching the bomb and made the whole thing inactive within a few minutes time.

Easy peasy, 10 minutes, another fast sweep which took an additional 30 minutes, and Sam and I were finished and ready for our close-ups from the media that always, inevitably followed. We had a small group of media that always showed up whenever a call went out that an Avenger was “working” and there was almost always a small fan base at Grand Central or where ever we were working who would come up to thank us, like we were some sort of rock stars, and as per usual some of the younger men and women took the opportunity to do some flirting with us. Tony told us, unattached Avengers, that any publicity and light flirting and playfulness with the fans was good publicity and would help for the public to relate to us and see us in a positive light. I am not going to lie, I may or may not have had a little thing for our resident speedy Sokovian, but our little flirting in the compound never seemed to go beyond that, flirting. I thought there was a possibility he liked me also, but, so far, nothing. Although I did catch him staring at me quite often and Wanda and some of the guys were always talking to him and then immediately looking in her direction like they were just discussing her. Pietro did seem to always try to be around me and sit near me as often as possible as well. Also when the “fans” would flirt with him, I noticed he never really showed much interest in them, always watching to see what I was doing.

Oh well, time to spend a little time with the crowd before Sam and I headed back to the compound. The New York Times was talking to some travelers about the pipe bomb that was found in the wastebasket and what their thoughts were and how they felt about us being there to “save the day, yet again” when an overzealous “fan” started to get a little handsy with me in the background. He had followed me around and asked me to dinner a few times, flashing cash and his business card a few times, trying to press it into my hand multiple times. I explained I was really bust and thanked him but said I was not interested or available, but he kept perusing me. He was leaning over my shoulder with his hand around my waist from behind, body pulled directly flush with my back and he was in an excited state if you know what I mean, and he was whispering in my ear about some of his fantasies and things that he has dreamt of doing to me. Of course, the camera flashed right as he started to kiss my neck and I had a smile on my face because I was focusing on a sweet 10 year old in front of me asking for my autograph and telling me I was her favorite avenger. If the camera had waited all of 5 seconds more, they would have caught me performing a minor assault on the prick and another 5 seconds would have caught Sam pulling me off of him and flying us out of the station and back to the compound with his hand over my mouth because I let lose a string of explicative’s that would put Wade Wilson to shame.

The next morning I woke up and took a shower, went down to the kitchen and made my normal toast and juice and bowl of fruit, and could not help notice that the Avengers that were there were looking at me strangely, I thought it was because I was still in a sour mood because of that jerk from yesterday and the icky feeling he gave me that I was assaulted by scum. I knew that Rogers, Wanda, Sam, and Nat were on their way to Lagos on a mission. Thor and Banner were MIA since Sokovia, which left Stark, Rhodey, Vision, Pietro and I still here.

“Y/N, so, how was the pipe bomb incident yesterday?” Tony asked seemingly hinting at something

“Uneventful aside from a slight annoyance in the crowd, is there coffee left?” Y/N responded looking at him while rising to get a mug and pour a hot mug to clear the remaining sleep from my head.

“Nothing happened? Nobody special you want to tell us about?” Rhodey chimes in.

“Not that I am aware of or worth mentioning now that it’s done and over with, is there something you would like to tell me about?” Y/N asks looking back and forth to them. “Hey, where’s Speedy, he’s usually down here eating everything that isn’t trying to eat him first.”

Tony looks at Y/N and smirks, “It is strange that you should mention that, he came in about 20 minutes ago, I assume you were in the shower or I am sure you would have heard him, saw the cover of the New York Times, flipped out and, well, here you are, please take a look, we are on pins and needles to know what you think. And I hope you know that all suitors must meet the full team before you becoming an “item” and pass Avenger inspection, and Rogers is particularly tough.” He slid the paper across the kitchen island to where you sat, both he and Rhodey watching your face for a reaction. You unfolded the paper confused and looked at the front cover.

There in black and white at you was a close up of the stranger with his arms around your waist from behind, you leaning slightly forward smiling and the stranger kissing your neck, the little girl you were smiling at was covered by the person being interviewed in the foreground. To someone who was not there and did not know the story, this definitely looked bad, like a very intimate moment caught on film, the headline read ‘Newest Avenger Moving Fast With New York Wall Street Trader’ the article went on to talk about how you just met the guy and did not bother to get his name, but just let him put the moves on you, yadda, yadda, yadda. Apparently, after Sam got you out of there, the “gentleman: in question decided to make a name for himself and gave a short interview making it sound like you approached him and started the whole flirt fest, lead him on, and then abandoned him, with the promise to return. You looked at Tony and Rhodey with wide eyes and a sick feeling in your stomach, “This is the biggest load of shit I have ever read in my life, this is not anything at all what happened. About 3 seconds after this picture was snapped, I basically slapped the taste out of his mouth and would have continued to do so had Sam not gotten me out of there. Flirting? More like this guy assaulted me. This was not consensual or wanted. I told him multiple times I was not interested and refused his advances and invitations to dinner and he kept bothering me. I was talking to a little kid and he pulled this crap when I had my back turned to him.”

Tony went from joking to serious almost instantly, “Okay, we were just going to bust your balls on this a little bit, but this has just become a non-joke. I’ll have Pepper contact someone in Stark Industries legal department to get in touch with the paper to track this guy down, he’ll have had to sign a waiver for publication and we’re going to go after him for liable and harassment. If he tries to come after you for battery for the assault, well, we’ll call that defense, Avenger or not, no one gets to touch you without permission. Y/n we really didn’t know, we were just going to play around with you about this a little, and we had no idea. He didn’t do any weird stuff, right?”

“NO, I mean, I slapped him and Sam pulled me off of him and flew me out of there, anything beyond what he did to me and you would have been getting a call from New York’s finest about bail or my court hearing for homicide. I was shocked, but if it had gone beyond what it was, I would have raged a lot harder than I did. The headline in the paper would have read a lot differently today.” Y/N responded.

“Alright, I know that yesterday was weird and I know that Nat and Wanda have had to deal with crap like this from time to time, unfortunately being an attractive woman on the team seems to let the guys out there think that it is open season to treat you ladies like meat. It is unfair and it sucks and if any of the men on the team are around just say the word and well step in and make sure the guys know it’s not okay, or step back and let you take care of it yourself, whatever you feel more comfortable with. In the meantime, take the weekend off and go to a spa or go shopping or to the movies or whatever you need to do to feel better, charge everything to Stark okay. Just let us know if you need anything alright.” Tony hugged you with one arm and kissed the top of your head. “One thing though, Lightning Legs. He flipped out when he saw this. He thought it was true and got hot and bothered. I would suggest finding him and letting him know what is really going on because the last thing you need right now is a crazy Sokovian kid acting like a jealous boyfriend right now.”

You look us at Tony and across the island to Rhodey, “What is that all about, what is he flipping out about, he brags about all the women he is into and dated back in Sokovia all the time, what does he care about what happens to me?”

“Y/N are you serious? That kid has been crazy in love with you since Sokovia. I swear I was coming close to sending you both on a mission that involved a tropical island and a case of rum soon. If he’s not staring at you, you are staring at him. It’s sickening.” Tony finished with a sarcastic eye roll. Go relax in your room, we'll take care of this. Just try to put it from your mind and well talk soon. With that, you left and headed to the elevator bank to the sleeping quarters level, feeling shitty, but better because you knew Tony would do what he could to help.

You were only in your Bedroom Suite for about half an hour when there was a somewhat frantic knocking at your door. You got up from your bed, put down the book you were currently reading, and made your way to the door, opening it, you found a seemingly tormented Pietro, he entered your quarters without an invitation and started to pace the length of your room, looking at you, Y/N could tell he needed to speak, but he was not sure where or how to start.

“Y/N, I ……. The newspaper, I saw the picture and…… Who is he? Do you like him? I mean does he make you happy? I want you to be happy……… I know that no one will ever be able to………. Not like I do………” Pietro kept starting and stopping sentences, never actually completing any, and getting agitated. You had never seen him this disconcerted before, he was always so unruffled when he would flirt with you before and this was a whole new side to him that you had never seen before. It was like he was unsure of himself and it was not something he was sure of how to process. You walked towards where Pietro was walking seemingly carrying on an argument with himself and reached out for his hands.

“Pietro, please stop, okay, please. It is not what you think, I don’t know that guy. It was fake, it was false, I don’t know him, I did not ask for that, I did not tell him it was okay to touch me or kiss me like that, I was not alright with that, He did that without my permission, and the photographer took a picture and they wrote some fake story to make it seem like I was into it. I did not want that. I don’t know him, I feel disgusted by that.” You start to rub your neck where the creep kissed you, sat down on the plush cushioned ottoman bench at the foot of your bed and start to curl into yourself to make yourself as small as possible as Pietro looks at you taking in your words.

“Wait, moja bohyňa (my goddess,) some guy you do not know came up to you and started to touch you and kiss you without your permission? No, I will not allow this, who is this man; I will go fight him right now. Žiadny odpadok sa nemôže dotknúť mojej bohyne bez jej súhlasu. Nikomu by nemalo byť dovolené pozerať sa na ňu bez toho, aby sa poďakoval bohom, že bola stvorená. (No trash can touch my goddess without her consent. No man should ever be allowed to look on her, without thanking the gods that she was created.) Are you okay?” He sat on the bench next to you giving you plenty of space, not wanting to crowd you. “I will kill this man, why would he think he could touch you, Bohyňa (Goddess,) if I had been there, I would have stopped him immediately, I am so sorry I was not there with you. “ Pietro sat staring forward with a look of disappointment in himself. You leaned over towards him putting your head on his shoulder and he wrapped his arm around you pulling you into him. You snuggled your face into his chest drawing designs on his stomach and chest with your finger as he kissed your head and held you close.

“Tony is going to get the Legal department of Stark Industries to look into the paper and find out who the guy is and get him charged with harassment, and I may or may not have given him a good slap as soon as I got over my shock and realized what was happening, so I figure I should let the cops know everything in case he decided to try to press charges later for battery saying I attacked him. But I promise Pietro, there is absolutely nothing at all going on with that guy or any other guy in my life because I was sort of waiting for someone I had a sort of thing for to maybe make a move, but I didn’t think that he was interested, so I had basically given up hope and just accepted that we would only be friends, and that was okay, but I really was hoping he would let me know he felt the same.” You continued tracing symbols on Pietro's chest with her fingers nervously

Pietro put his hand gently under Y/Ns chin and raised her face so that his clear blue eyes were looking directly into Y/N/E/C, “Do I know this guy?” He asked finally deciding to go with the advice the rest of the team when they told him that Y/N was definitely into him, and Wanda assured him that yes, Y/N thought about him often and was only too nervous to make the first move, but if Pietro would, she would be receptive.

Y/N looks from Pietro's eyes to his lips and back to his eyes again and states “I am sure you have seen him around here, sometimes he’s hard to spot because he’s pretty fast, but when he stops or slows down and doesn’t try so hard to impress everyone he’s really an amazing guy. I have to say to, he is sexy as hell too, and he has this accent when he talks, uggghhh, it does things to me.” Y/N just smiles at him teasingly.

Pietro chuckles and smiling leans in but says softly before he kisses you, “Prednesiem vám básne a texty, ak ma chcete počuť hovoriť, poviem vám všetky veci, ktoré chcem s vami a s vami urobiť, ale nikdy vám nebudem môcť vyjadriť, ako veľmi vás milujem a uctievam. Teraz si môj, ako ja tvoj, navždy. (I will recite you poetry and lyrics if you want to hear me speak, I will tell you all the things I want to do to you and with you, but I will never be able to express to you, how much I love and worship you. You are mine now as I am your, forever.)” He then lays the softest and most soul-baring kiss on Y/N that she has ever felt. It was as if all the passions in the world could have been transferred to her through that kiss and as he softly caresses her face while peppering gentle kisses on her face, Y/N thinks that maybe this stupid picture is not the worst thing in the world to ever happen to her if it is what FINALLY brought her and Pietro together, she figures if nothing else, this will be a brilliant story to tell their kids someday.

Slovakian substituted for Sokovian

Y/N = Your Name

Y/L/N = Your Last Name

Y/N/E/C = Your Eye Color

#pietro marvel #pietro x reader #pietro x you #pietro x y/n #pietro maximoff #pietro fluff #Pietro jealous #slight dubcon #fluff

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ackercrushing · 3 years

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A Little Wager

Ok, I don't usually write. If I do, I rarely complete it. I either have grand ideas that just don't come out or I read something similar that scratches that itch and I don't have to write anymore. But this little fluff nugget has been my constant daydream for a while. There are no warnings for this. It's lighthearted and fun. I suck at writing smut so I doubt I'll continue it. If someone wanted to pick up where I left off and do a shower scene, I would LOVE that! Anyway, here it is. Be gentle :)

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It was mid afternoon when you and your squad made it to the training grounds. Captain Levi’s squad was supposed to be done in the next half hour. You like to get your squad there early when the special forces are training to provide a little inspiration.

You choose Emily to lead the squad in stretches before they hit the course. All the while, they’re watching Levi’s soldiers expertly soar through the air completing maneuvers it will take years for your squad to accomplish. While stretching, you hear the oohs and aaahs, sometimes shocked gasps as another soldier completes in flight stunts that look impossible. You notice Levi, arms crossed, watching them intently. He never has to yell out instruction or commands. His squad is a well-oiled machine.

“Alright guys, what’s the bet today?” you ask your team, breaking their reverie.

“Isn’t it your turn to pick, Captain (y/l/n)?” asks the unofficial leader of the squad, Leo. “Besides, every time we come up with a bet, it’s almost guaranteed defeat.”

“I’m not stupid guys. The tasks get harder depending on what we bet. If you bet I walk topless through the mess hall at dinner time, Malcolm (glancing over to the brave boy who dared make that wager), you better believe I’m giving you a nearly impossible task.” Malcolm blushes.

“It was worth a shot.” He says sheepishly. Amelia punches his arm playfully saying “That’s gross Malcolm, she’s our squad leader.”

“Anyway, I think you’ll like this offer. How about you nail all your maneuvers I assigned last week and two more surprise tasks, and I’ll do all your laundry for a week?” While this bet wasn’t as exciting as a topless Captain at dinnertime, it did get the squad’s full attention. You knew some of them were wearing clothing for the second, maybe third time between washes and they stunk! This bet was more for you than anyone.

The slight turn and side eye from Levi let you know he wasn’t watching his squad as intently as you thought. He was eavesdropping.

“But you have to land properly. No biffing the landings!” You add, hearing groans from some of your soldiers. More groans when you tell them the surprise maneuvers they are to complete. They’re difficult but not impossible for their skill level.

“All right guys, I think this is doable.” Leo chimes in, pumping up his squad mates. Some were already looking defeated, having the most difficulty with their landings. They all circled up and started motivating each other. Levi might have the elite group, but no one could rival your squad in the heart department. These guys gave it their all every time, training or battle.

You had a way with these “kids” as you called them that few squad leaders did. They loved your inclusiveness and your no-blame leadership style. You made sure they knew they were a team. Mistakes were learning opportunities, even the fatal ones. Those most of all. And they did happen to all Scout squads. It was just the nature of the job.

“OK Captain (y/l/n), we accept the bet! Get the soap ready! Let’s do this!” The whole squad was pumped and ready. You couldn’t help but grin and hope that you had a lot of laundry to do this week.

“Alright, it’s on. Keep stretching and warming up!” you say as you walk over to join Levi and watch the last of his team’s maneuvers.

“Well, your team is certainly inspiring some young ones today.” You grin and bump his shoulder.

“Is that why you’re always early?”

“Yes sir, I’ll take all the motivation we can get.”

“So what’s up with that bet? Sounds like a recurring thing with you.” He asks, never taking his gaze from his flyers.

“All the motivation I can get, right? They really respond well to the bets we make.”

“Did I hear mention of a bet that would have had you walk topless through the mess hall at dinner time?” This question did pull his gaze to you with raised eyebrows. You couldn't help the blush that stained your cheeks.

“That was never going to happen.” You outline the tasks you gave your squad that day.

“Yeah, that would be hard for my group to accomplish.” Levi smirks. “Would you like to join us during our next training session? Maybe my squad would like to try betting on something.”

“That would be amazing! Thank you!” You are beaming. Training with the elites will certainly boost your squad’s morale.

“Alright, day after tomorrow at 1pm.”

“It’s a date.” tumbles out of your mouth. Levi briefly side eyes you with a slightly scrunched brow at your choice of phrase but continues walking to his squad for their debrief. You are blushing thinking he might have taken that the wrong way. Oh well, nothing to do now but show up at 1pm in two days. Your squad was going to freak out!

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

The joint training sessions became a regular once a week thing with the two squads. The bets initially started out pretty tame. Levi and you lost several but when they were “Do 100 push ups” or “Clean all the floors in the barracks”, it was ok. Neither of you minded losing those. But the soldiers started getting braver with their wagers.

You knew something interesting was in the works when you see Sasha Braus bouncing on her heels and clapping her hands before you both even make it over to them.

“Alright Sasha, what do you have for us today?” Asks Levi, arms crossed and one eyebrow raised.

“Ohhhh, this is a goooood one!” Her voice quivers with excitement. “If we complete all our maneuvers flawlessly, landings included, Captain (y/l/n) has to do 10 push ups.” She’s so excited, she can hardly continue.

“Sasha, that’s not a challenge.” You add, knowing there has to be more to it. You notice Jean, Conny, and Eren look slightly uncomfortable.

“That’s not all! With every push up, you and Captain Levi have to KISS!” She literally squeals. Your eyes grow large.

“Sasha, that only works if both parties are consensual.” You roll your eyes, knowing Levi will not agree to this.

“What do you mean Captain (y/l/n)? You wouldn’t consent to that?”

The phrase you could hear a pin drop is very apropos in this moment as all eyes are on Levi with gaping mouths. You could swear you heard the wind of heads turning.

“You mean to tell me YOU consent to that?” You ask incredulously.

Levi takes your arm and pulls you aside. “The task fits the bet, right? Here’s what we’ll have them do.” He outlines his plan and the butterflies in your stomach still. But you’re not sure if you’re relived or disappointed knowing your squad will definitely not be able to pull this off. Were you hoping to lose this one?

“Perfect. Let’s tell them.” You grin.

You both walk back over, and Levi lays out the maneuvers they’ll have to perform in order to win the bet.

They are obviously shaken but the elites take the young ones aside, and after a 10-minute pep talk and possible strategy session, they return and accept your conditions. Is this task as difficult as Levi thought? They seem pretty confident. "We accept!" Sasha yells.

Levi looks at you and winks. “Alright, get going then.” In pairs, the two squads enthusiastically enter the training arena.

The last teams are nearly finished. You look over at Levi nervously. All the pairs assigned to you were flawless. How could that be? The elites really were inspiring, but you realized you might have been going a little too easy on your team. What a sight to behold. And your squad was so proud of themselves. You would have made a bet to kiss a titan for this!

Levi’s mouth is agape as he slowly turns his head to look at you. You both just stare at each other in disbelief, his expression saying everything you needed to know. His group was flawless as well.

“Holy shit.” You mumble under your breath, heat now creeping up your neck, your palms sweaty already.

Levi regains his composure, that cool mask of confidence back on his face and in his stance. He strides toward you looking way more collected than you feel.

“Alright, new strategy.” He says, a sneaky glimmer in his eye. “They didn’t say what kind of kiss, right?”

You pause for a second, realizing what he’s saying and your breath that you didn’t know you were holding is released in a relieved sigh. Is relieved the right word?

“I know where you’re going with this.” You say shaking your head.

“Every time you lower yourself, I’ll turn my head and you kiss somewhere on my face. Forehead, cheeks, nose. We’ll keep them guessing.”

“They’re going to be so mad!”

“They should have thought of all the loopholes before they finalized the deal.” Levi stated coolly with a shrug.

Sasha, back to bouncing and clapping, yells “Ok you two! Assume the position!”

"This is stupid.”-Conny

“I don’t think I can watch this.”-Eren

"Why does Captain Levi get to do the kissing?" -Jean

Meanwhile the girls are giggling messes of anticipation.

Levi lies on the ground, hands casually behind his head like he’s relaxed and getting ready for an afternoon nap. Huh, to feel that relaxed right now. You crawl up his body, your knees straddling his hips and your hands to either side of his neck. Hoots and hollers from the two squads do not help the blush on your face. You raise to plank position, then slowly lower yourself.

Levi’s head remains still until the last second, then turns to the right, offering his cheek for the first kiss. You lightly feather his skin with your lips before returning to plank.

“Hey, that’s cheating!” Sasha sounds so defeated.

“You didn’t specify what kind of kiss Sasha. Let this be a lesson to you. Negotiate better next time.” Levi says smugly. “I want to hear you count! That was 1, 9 to go!”

The next 4 kisses were met with increasingly under enthused counting as the cheek, nose, and forehead barely-there-pecks were administered.

At the start of the 6th, Levi says to you “My turn.” Your eyes narrow in confusion and he clarifies “I’m going to kiss you now. Move however you prefer.” You nod, really just wanting this to be over with. You agree with the squad that this is underwhelming.

You move your head so kisses land on both cheeks, your forehead, and your nose. Time for the final kiss. As you start to lower your body, Levi removes his hands from behind his head and places them on either side of your face. Your eyes widen when he says “Let’s give them a little something more, huh?” You feel those butterflies again as you nod your head in agreement. And time passes in slow motion. You continue lowering until your lips meet Levi’s. At first, the kiss is just a brushing of your lips together. Levi gently pulls your face away just a bit to look you in the eyes, then lowers you again, this time kissing you properly. You can’t feel anything else. Your body feels weightless. His lips part and his tongue grazes your bottom lip. You open your lips to him and the kiss deepens, tongues swirling and gliding together. There’s no one else here but the two of you. The gasps and cheers from the combined squads don’t reach your ears. You have no idea how long this kiss lasts but you can honestly say you don’t want it to end.

The only thing to break the spell is Eren saying “Geez, are they going to come up for air?” Levi reluctantly pulls away after a few more brief kisses. You slowly raise your body, as your eyes open and lock with Levi’s. “Damn” he mutters softly. You can’t help but grin a little as you complete your final plank. You blink your eyes a few times, trying to rid yourself of the spell Levi’s put you under. You push up to your feet, face flushed and lips swollen. You offer a hand to Levi, who takes it, even though he doesn’t really need it to get off the ground. Once vertical, you expect him to release your hand, but instead, he intertwines his fingers with yours and says “Ok kids, show’s over. Hit the showers.” The soldiers don’t miss the fact that you’re still holding hands as they depart. Sasha and Mikasa keep looking over their shoulders, hoping they won’t miss anything else.

Levi whispers in your ear “What do you say Captain? Ready to hit the shower too?”

#levi x reader #aot #aot fluff #levi ackerman #levi fluff

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opossumanonymous · 3 years

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How did he get in this mess?

Warnings: Inko literally uses her quirk to pull out AFOs pubic hair because I don't think anything else would immobilize him temporarily, talk of inko using her quirk to pull organs, guns mentioned

I wrote this on my phone so sorry if anything looks funky for computer users. If I made any mistakes or any characters are too ooc please tell me. Also this is a fanfic featuring AFO as Midoriya Hizashi and Inko as a ex-Black Widow and mostly features them please enjoy!~

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How did he get in this mess, face kissing the floor and completely caught off guard?

Hizashi wasn't quite sure himself actually. One minute he was doing some 'work' before he heard the voice of his wife over his shoulder.

"Hizashi, what are you doing?"

Then he was on the floor a nearly blinding pain spread over his body leaving him in fetal position unable to think of nothing else.

Once his mind got clear again he turned his head to the side looking up at the woman who he thought was his wife. Her usually gentle smile was gone leaving a cold look on her face as she read through his files. One of her hands out stretched towards him while the other clicked through the computer.

Which made him briefly realize he may have to put plan B into action but before that he had to know if this was his wife or someone else. Last thing he wanted was to do something reckless if this wasn't his wife.

"Who-" Before Hizashi could utter a word he felt another painful pull causing him to ball up even further trying to somehow ease the pain. He choked on air as Inko? Stared at him with a blank expression now turned away from the computer. She crossed her legs as she watched him wither in pain looking at with him cold emotionless green eyes.

Who was this woman she can't be Inko! It gave him brief fear realizing that a shape-shifting spy might have tricked him somehow. After all theres no way his sweet wife could ambush him, let alone be capable of hurting him this badly! But if this is someone with a shape-shifting quirk there's no way they would also have wife's quirk as well. Unless they can copy the quirks of people they shape-shift into but then-

"So was this what you were doing while I was comforting our son?"

His eyes widened at that realization, it hit Hizashi hard as he broke out in a cold sweat. He looked up at Inko who still had that chilling look on her face making Hizashi for the first time in 200 years feel...afraid.

He didn't know whether to be impressed at her or disgusted in himself, him, All for One, the symbol of evil, the villain who has brought many heros and villains alike to their knees is...afraid? It sounds unreal just thinking about it that someone could still scare him.

Not by much but still it was a feat that no one before her had done in a long time.

He felt like he was getting whiplash knowing that the same woman who cooked him breakfast nearly every morning, who cried at anything sad or happy, and cuddled up to him at night was looming over him like some villain.

"Hizashi speak up your mumbling." She spoke harshly as he felt another pull, he's starting to lose feeling in his legs.

"I already knew." He said breathless feeling defeated almost, yet another feat none before her had accomplished. He could almost hear his brother laughing from his grave at this point. "What?" Her forehead wrinkled the cold look leaving her face for a moment making her look more like the Inko he knew.

"I checked Izuku years ago, I had my suspicions when he didn't develop his quirk after he turned 5. While I can't tell what a quirk is if I don't know it, I can sense them." He told her truthfully "When I reached into his subconscious one night after I tucked him in bed, I found no sign of a quirk." He knew their was a chance Izuku would be quirkless anyway, Hizashi was from the first generation of quirk users after all.

But he would never give his son a quirk, no he's not going to let history repeat itself, if there's anything he's learned in his 200 years of life it's never give your hero loving relatives a quirk.

Plus being a hero is 10 times more dangerous now, no thanks to him, he'd rather his precious son live quirkless.

Despite the ridicule quirkless people get from society atleast he won't ever get badly hurt or worse killed. Luckily Hizashi had a back up plan just in case he needed to protect his family from themselves.

But seeing Inko looming above him is starting to make him think about adding more reinforcements to the vault. After all she's not so much of a gullible woman like he once thought she was.

"I see but that doesn't change anything, you weren't there for our baby when he needed you most. That's why after this you're going to march into our sons room and comfort him like a good father should." He almost winched at her harsh tone. He honestly didn't know if he should be scared or not. He did still have an arsenal of quirks he could use but none that were non lethal from a long range he could use on her.

"And if I don't, what will you do?" He was curious in all honesty after all it's not every day your usually gentle and emotional wife does a 360 degree personality change on you.

"Then I'll keep ripping out your pubic hairs till you comply." He felt a slight tug again at the slight flick of her wrist causing him to flinch.

He had felt tempted to challenge her, now realizing it was a mistake seeing as she has him by the balls...literally.

"And if you try anything...well you'll be surprised at how many organs count as a small objects." She said with a chilling smile which he almost hates to admit made him flinch.

He always knew her quirk was suspicious despite only being limited to small objects it could still be a deadly quirk if used right. The number of deadly weapons considered small objects was big and considering she only needs a vague idea of where an object is located to pull it to her which includes organs...Hizashi's starting to realize he didn't really know his wife like he thought he did.

After all who would've guessed his sweet Inko would use her quirk so...creatively. He nodded, head still pressed to the hard wood floor of his office.

Inko gave a sigh of relief as she genuinely smiled running her hand through her green locks. "Good I'm glad we could come to an agreement." Hizashi felt the release of her quirk as she sat back legs still crossed.

He slowly sat on all fours before rising to his knees still feeling phantom pains with each slight movement.

Once he was on his knees he wrapped his arms around her waist laying his head in her stomach. She gently caressed his head of white curls causing him to sink further into her and let out a content hum. After a while he looked up at her, the cold look on her face gone now taking a more softer expression.

"I knew you where a villain since the first week after we got married." Hizashi didn't think Inko could shock him anymore but that honestly got him, and yet again she conquered another feat.

He would have never guessed that she knew about him being a villain before now. "Honestly I felt like I got rusty since I found out so late, but I guess living a normal civilian life will make anyone like that." She smiled gently at him looking more like the Inko he knew. Or atleast thought he knew, she was one of the most ordinary people he met from her average nursing job to her adorable naiveté at times.(which he now knows was probably just an act) She played him like a fiddle, he underestimated her and made him fall even harder for her.

That's right, he didn't think it was possible to love her even more than he already did, but this moment proved that wrong.

"Wait then if you knew why did you stay and why wait until now to bring it up?"

She furrowed her eyebrows again before turning her head away from him thinking about her answer for a second before looking back. "I'm not exactly who I said I was either..." She trailed off with a far away look in her eyes almost like she was looking through him and not at him.

He took her hand which had stopped rubbing his head and brought it to his cheek. This seemed to help her focus again as she gave him a tired smile.

"I'm not a good person either Hizashi I've done alot of things that I now regret." For a moment he guessed that she was an ex-villain that he'd just never heard of.

Although that was very unlikely seeing as he liked to keep tabs on most high profile villains to find anyone with good...potential. Inko definitely wasn't a low class villain she just didn't fit the profile of a bank robber or common street thug. Her aura gave off a more experienced air to it not to mention no low class villain would have the guts to look him in the eye once finding out who he really is.

"I was once apart of an organization who specialized in training those considered...unless in society." The way she said useless held a malice to it despite her still having a smile, but it didn't quite reach her eyes.

"They kidnapped me and many other young girls most of them either being quirkless or having 'weak' quirks." Quirkless trafficking while rare nowadays still went on but he'd never heard of an organization making quirkless people assassins. Wlep there's a first time for everything he guessed.

"They trained and raised all of us to be assassins, to put it simply, they chose us because they knew we'd be underestimated."

Assassins? If someone had told him is lovely wife was secretly an assassin he'd laugh in their face before killing them for saying such a thing. But now after being brought to his knees by her he honestly isn't surprised, at this point he'd believe anything that came out of her mouth. She could tell him she could kill someone with only a plastic spoon and he'd believe her.

"I was one of the lucky ones i was able to escape before my 'graduation' if you could call it that. I was even able to find my birth certificate after months of digging through missing persons reports." She now went back to stroking his white curls as she spoke.

"After escaping I decided to live the life my mother wanted me to or at least I like to think she'd want me to." He knew she was an orphan, she'd told him that on their second date he never thought much about it.

He never even really looked into her mother much either only knowing that she died when Inko was young and that she was Nana Shimura's sister. When he found this out at first he was suspicious but over time he let his guard down, if that was a mistake is still up for debate.

"They called us Black Widows." He'd heard that name before but it's been so long, last time he heard the words Black Widow he was reading a comic book to his sick brother. It's either unoriginal or genius considering most will only think of the comic book hero Black Widow opposed to it being a real organization.

Finally getting the feeling back in his legs he stood up stretching slightly while she watched him. He stared down at her now that he had the high ground it was time to give her what she deserved.

He leaned down towards her his hands coming up to her face menacingly. But she just sat there unfazed with a serene look on her face, their was no real use in trying she knew he wouldn't hurt her. He held her face as he leaned in and gave her lips a gentle kiss.

After pulling away he took her hand and helped her out of his office chair. "Now time to go see about Izuku hopefully I can get him out of his depressed mood."

Giving her a true smile only reserved for his family he lead her out of his office not before shutting down his computer and locking the door.

"Yes please talk to him because I didn't know what to do than to apologize to him." She sighed clearly distressed. "While it has been a long time since I escaped somethings I still just don't know the right words for." She looked defeated like she didn't just have Japan's greatest villain nearly kissing her feet.

"It's fine darling soon Izuku will go back to being that happy kid again, you'll see." He gave her a final kiss before heading to Izukus room ready to help his son or else face the wraith of his wife.

He briefly wondered just how good of an assassin his wife is and just how many she's killed. But quickly shook those thoughts away as he entered his son's All Might themed room.

While he'd never ask her anything more about her past as a Black Widow he soon came to realize she was highly skilled as he watched his son on TV.

He was watching UAs sports festival with Tomura at his current hideout the boy exclaiming in shock at this year's winner.

The one to take first place was UAs first quirkless student Midoriya Izuku who took out the competition with only a pair of electroshock bracelets as wepons.

Not to say that it was only the support tools that secured his win, the way he bended dodging attacks and hit his opponents with devastating blows to the head made him nearly laugh out loud.

It was almost hard to believe that this was the same kind boy he once tucked in bed but he had to admit his son was quite reckless.

He's in all honesty proud of his son especially for beating Mizuki's brat whose bullied his poor son for years. While he isnt happy that his son's well on his way to being a hero atleast Inko trained him well.

Just how did Hizashi get in this mess he'd hoped quirklessness would make his son reconsider being a hero but it seems Inko had other plans.

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

Extras:

So originally Inko was gonna hold him at gun point but I felt like AFO wouldn't be sacred of a gun so....

Also Inko has wepons (mostly guns) hidden in every wall in the apartment after all you never know when the red room might strike.

Inko still gets chubby but not from stress over Izuku being quirkless it's more so over the red room possibly finding him and taking him. She's still bad ass tho, can kill anyone with a just plastic spoon.

She also ran away from the red room before they could sterilize her.

Izuku does eventually get One for all but it's after the sports festival instead, tho he does still parade as a quirkless hero even after One for all.

He also is a vigilante on the side under the name Black Widow tho most think he's a girl because of the Black Widow reference. He even wears his mom's old Black Widow suit.

You could say he's hero Deku by day and vigilante Black Widow by night!

AFO totally knows it's him tho because he knows Inko wouldn't be that reckless or feral.

Izuku has no idea his loving father is AFO but knows his mom's an ex-assassin.

#dad for one #hizashi midoriya is all for one #inko midoriya #inko midoriya is a black widow #inko midoriya just being a good mom #bnha fanfiction #canon divergence #black widow au #bnha dad for one

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greyfongschemmenti · 4 years

Note

Lin x reader request: Happy New Year, my love

I’m so sorry I’m publishing so late. I am so blocked so I literally took all day to try and write something for this request. Hopefully I did not let you down. Luckily this will be the last fic of 2020!!! So this is a milestone in itself.

It’s currently 11:16pm where I’m at so it’s still 2020. So I still accomplished getting this request in the year.

Hopefully you like this one anon. If not....I’m sorry *tears*

Happy New Year, My Love | Lin x Reader FF

Word count: 2510

It was the first new year’s celebration you were going to spend in Republic City, and you weren’t sure if you were excited or treating it as a normal day. Walking up to Air temple island and seeing Bumi and Meelo carrying boxes of fireworks “Ahh I see the island is going to have their own show” you smile. Both men give you their shit eating grin and nod “of course, It’s going to be huge!” Meelo jumps excitingly as he hurries over to the safe location to set up. “You are going to keep it safe right, Bumi?” you give him a glare as you fold your arms, and he smirks. “Of course, plus if things go south Kya can use her bending to wash it out. Wouldn’t want the chief to fine us” he laughs, and you shake your head. “there is only so much leeway I can do to not get you arrested, Bumi.” You exasperated and slid your hands in your pocket.

“where is the chief anyway? She is not with you?” Bumi looks behind you as he holds up the box and you shake your head. “no, why would she be with me?” you look at the eldest son of the cloudkids and he gives you a knowing look. You and Lin have been dating for a couple months and so far Bumi has been the only one catching on. As far as you knew Bumi was the only one…. The island sure loves to talk even if they are all about peace and quiet. It gets really noisy with the gossip. You sigh as you rub the back of your neck

“Actually no, she had to work tonight. You know because crime spikes up in the holidays.” you stress, and he rolls his eyes “hey I got this. It’s not my first time dealing with these beauties.” He smirks as he walks over and helps Meelo set up with the help of a few acolytes.

Lin has never really given an ounce of care for the new year celebrations. If anything it gave her more work and paperwork since it seems there are always crimes. Busted windows, drunken fights, disturbance calls, noise complaints, just to name a few. But this was the first new year since Tenzin that she was going to have someone, you. A part of her felt bad that she had to work, but duty came first. You of all people understood and for that she was grateful. You had told her that you were going to spend the evening alone, but Lin suggested to head over to the island with the airbending family instead. Once the shift was over Lin would head over, but the both of you knew that Lin would return in the wee hours of the night, after the festivities would be over.

Lin sighed as she glanced down at the paperwork in front of her and got back to work as her officers answered calls.

After a couple of hours playing with the kids you told them to run off and let them give you a chance to get something to drink. Kya walks up beside you as you sip some water and gives you a smile. “Fancy seeing you here. Actually I’m glad you’re here. No one should be alone for the new year.”

You gave her a soft smile and nod “yeah, I suppose that is true. I’m glad too. I love the family as if they were my own.”

“I’m sure everyone loves you too. Sad Lin couldn’t make it through.” She sighed as she folded her arms, and you looked a way for a second as you nod. “yeah, you know Lin. Always working to keep the city safe.”

“yeah, but I’m sure the city won’t crash and burn one night.” Kya huffs and you softly laugh “that may be true, but who are we to stop the chief from doing her duty”

A snicker is heard from behind the both of you and Kya rolls her eyes “really Bumi, how old are you exactly? You still snicker over that word”

You smile watching the banter back and forth from the two siblings. You slip past them as Bumi gets defensive at how funny the word sounds.

Stepping outside and feeling the cool breeze as some citizens couldn’t contain their excitement and started already setting off their own personal fireworks.

No one should be alone for the new year.

Kya’s words repeated into your mind and you glanced back at the temples. She does have a point, but who were you to just step into headquarters at this time of night. There is just two hours until midnight.

“you know as much as we love having here. I’m sure there is a certain chief of police that will love to be brought into the new year.” Bumi sits beside you at the wooden gazebo as you look out towards Yue bay and you playfully scoff “is this your way of kicking me off the island? And only with an hour left of the year”

“No, but what Kya said had some truth. No one should be alone during new year’s” he smiles softly as he nudges you before standing up. You look at him puzzled before looking back towards the direction of where headquarters would be before looking back at the eldest brother. “Go, I’ll come up with some excuse to give the family.” He nudges you before you finally give him a smile and stand up. Lifting your sleeve up you look at your watch and see you have less than an hour to head over. “Traffic is bad. I’m not sure I’ll make it” you mutter as you purse your lips. “well you better get going. Isn’t that why you have your motorcycle to begin with?” he smirks, and you return the smile. Giving him a hug “happy new year, Bumi” he returns the gesture, and you climb over the railing and earthbend down the island.

Lin looked over at her clock on her desk, 11:40 P.M., she groaned as she pinched the bridge of her nose. There would be no use to call the island, all the lines are busy with everyone else trying to call their loved ones. It’s just a day, tomorrow everything will be back to normal, surely you did understand and aren’t feeling out of sorts.

You were revving your bike weaving and bobbing through other cars and vehicles that were trying to do the same that you were going. Trying to get to your loved ones to wish them a happy new year. You almost collided into a guy balancing boxes of baked goods on the sidewalk when you swerved past a satomobile. You yelled out your apologies while he yelled out exploitative at you. Looking ahead at the road with the cold wind blasting in your face causing your cheeks to turn a rosy pink. Glancing down at your watch, 11:50 pm, “I can make it. HQ is right down the road.” You mutter under your breath as you revved and sped quicker.

A knock on the door brings Lin back to the present as she files a report in her cabinet, “Better be important” she calls out as she metalbends the door open. “Hey chief, with five minutes left to the new year I was wondering if you want to celebrate in the bullpen” Officer Zan talked to the Chief. Lin looked over and indeed the clock had just turned 11:56 P.M. since the question. “thank you for the offer, but I have work that needs to get done.”

“of course, Happy New Year, Chief” the officer bowed

“Happy New Year, Zan” Lin nodded at the officer and he closed the door.

“just 3 minutes until the sky is bright and the noises” Lin muttered as she looks into her cabinet for her stashed bottle of sake.

“10!”

You jump off your cycle at the front of the building as you start to sprint inside the building.

Running past the front desk as the secretaries were watching the television watching the broadcast. You hear the muffled counting.

You run up the stairs as you reach the top floor towards the bullpen. You’ve come here once or twice to visit Mako and in turn was a way to see Lin. Which was how you met the chief and got introduced to her, the start of that relationship. A smile appears on your lips as you think back to that moment.

No, this is not the time.

You push past the door and look around trying to remember if it was a left of right to the bullpen. You close your eyes as you try to visualize the floor plan. “Crap, ok focus…. Once you go up the stairs you make a….. right” you look in that direction and hurried over.

“followed by a left” you voice out the directions and then the first door to the right will open into the bullpen. Sure enough the bullpen comes into view

“Hey, you’re Mako’s cousin right? He’s not here” Tan looks at you as the guys are all holding cups to cheer in the year.

“I’m not here for Mako, is the Chief in? I need to report something” you urged to the officer and he shakes his head “She doesn’t want to be disturbed”

“It’s fine. She knows me” you brushed him off and l remembered where her office is, but Tan stands in front of you. “She’s busy” you glare at him and push past him

“Stop!” Tan shouts out as you grab the handle and open the door to Lin’s office.

Lin looks up and her eyes widen when she sees you and then looks at Tan “What is the meaning of this?!”

“Happy New Year!!!” the cheers coming from the bullpen as the three of you are looking at each other. “I’m sorry Chief, I tried to stop them” Tan quickly explains and Lin raises her hand up to stop him “It’s fine. You’re dismissed Tan, enjoy the festivities in the bullpen.”

“yes, Chief” Tan bows and he gives you a look before walking out as you closed the door behind you.

“What are you doing here, y/n?” Lin stands up and walks around her desk as she looks at you. Her voice laced with a slight anger that you caused a commotion at her place of work and surprise.

“Happy New Year to you too” you smile as you stepped closer to the metalbender.

“Still haven’t answered my question” she smirked as she leaned against the desk folding her arms.

“No one should be alone on New Year’s, Lin” you spoke softly to her as you stepped right in front of her. “if you couldn’t be with me where I was, then I figured I should come to you.” you gave her a smile as you looked into her eyes.

“it’s just like any other day, y/n” Lin muttered as she looked away to hide her slight blush.

“That maybe but I wanted to start the year with someone I love” you smiled more as Lin’s eyes widened slightly before looking over at you.

“what?”

“I love you Lin Beifong.” You confessed, looking right at those pale green eyes that you love to lose yourself in. A blush appears on your cheeks as you turn your eyes away from the slight embarrassment.

“Do you really mean it?” Lin looked up at you, this isn’t the first time you’ve dropped the word, but it still surprised her that someone would come to express it towards her. She didn’t think she would be able to find someone else to share those emotions with. She looked almost hopeful that you wouldn’t have doubts or regrets from saying it, doubts about you not really loving her. It all vanished instantly when you looked back at her and smiled. The love of your face is evident to anyone who looked at you.

“Of course, I do.”

Lin heard the fireworks setting off in the background followed by the cheers. You and Lin missed the countdown, but the most prominent sound that was going off was her own heartbeat. She was glad that you didn’t develop the skill to have seismic sense or else she was done for.

“Isn’t there some sort of tradition between couples?” you smirked as you stepped closer resting your hands on either side of Lin’s waist.

“I’m not sure I know what you mean” Lin breathed out as you looked at each other’s eyes.

“well the tradition is to kiss the one you love. Since here you are”

“Here I am” Lin smiles as your eyes glancing down at her lips. Your head came down to meet hers, and you kissed her.

The kiss started off slow and sweet. A slight uncertainty at first, each unsure about how far either one could go, but it slowly became more and more confident. Lin wrapped her hands around your neck as your arms made their way around her waist, and you pulled her even closer to you than Lin thought possible. Lin felt herself relax against you; she has never felt anything more... Right. You opened your mouth, hoping to deepen the kiss which Lin responded eagerly.

After a couple of moments, Lin reluctantly broke off the kiss, to get some air. Both of your faces flushed as you rested your forehead against hers. Slowly opening your eyes and looking into each other's eyes, each with a smile imprinting on each other’s faces. You brushed your hands down and held her hands into yours as you stepped back. Lin’s brow raised wondering what you were doing, and you smiled as you tugged her towards the window.

You spun her around once and Lin let out an amused laugh before you pulled her close to your embrace. Wrapping your arms around her waist as her back is pressed against your chest. A soft kiss on her neck as Lin’s face is illuminated by the bright lights of the fireworks. The other of you stand there a moment to enjoy the quiet moment and the sound of the city celebrating the new year.

"y/n," Lin muttered against you as she looked out in front of her.

"Yes, dear?" you muttered back, rubbing her waist as the both of you slightly sway side to side.

"Happy New Year," she looks over her shoulder to look at you watching you smile. How she loves your smile, it causes her to turn to face you as you cup her cheek.

“Happy New Year, my love” you whisper as you smile lovingly at your beloved. Lin pulls you into another kiss; and Lin knew at that moment, that if this year was even half as good as it was at this moment... then It was going to be a very good year.

#lin x reader #lin beifong x reader #linbeifongxreader #linbeifong x reader #fyrefics #fyrefic

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cherripeach · 4 years

Text

Chapter 4

Little Match Maker

Summary: Your life motto is “I have the power of god and anime on my side, don’t mess with me,” and you stand by that with your life. No human, magician, or random creature could ever stop your firm belief in it.

However, getting transported to this world that seemed to turn your already bad luck worse was not what you wanted to be in your life story, but you made the most of it.Making friends, enemies, and disasters, you were in your prime in this world, and so you decided to help as many people as you could flourish, at least what you believed to be.

Prologue 8-10: hurricane katrina more like hurricane tortilla

Chapter Summary: Everyone in this school needs their hearing checked.

Warning: Curse words, jokes about death, slight violence, fire,

Words: 4.3k

Relationships: developing but future twstxreader

While you normally say “Sleep is for the weak,” this is not what you meant. And honestly you want to be weak compared to the literal 7 minutes of sleep you got. Everything felt off, and it wasn’t like your regular sleep schedule was great anyway. All you did the entire night was make up scenarios in your head and contemplate both life and exploring the campus more. However, by the time you decided to go find the tallest tower (just to see it dude), all three ghosts were floating above you close to your ceiling.

You whispered as to not wake up the sleeping cat that needs to stop taking up the bed, “Yo, not cool dude.”

The ghosts just winked at you and proceeded to try and scare the cat out of his slumber by reminding him about cleaning the school, but Grim seemed more like a teenager than you when he responded with a wish of “five more minutes.”

The ghosts did not find this at all amusing, so they continued and even tried to make a morbid joke:

“Laze about too long and you’ll never wake up!” The smaller one started the joke.

“Just like us!” And the largest one ended it.

The ghost's appearance frightened the cat causing the little demon to spring from under the covers and frantically run around the room basically accomplishing nothing. The ghosts, however, did not find this appealing and turned to you.

The tallest one spoke to you, “Are you all going to be living here? You’re gonna get pranked.”

Nodding your head, you agreed to the wonderful idea, but with a twist, “See dude I know you wanna prank us, but I would love to help all of you prank others.” You paused for a second and put your hand on your chin. “I’ve never had ghost friends and I really wanna know what you guys can do..”

Grim was the exact opposite and continued to scream at the ghosts, but you just nodded your head at your brilliant idea and thought of all of your plans that you could get away with ghost friends.

Right at this moment, the oh so gracious headmaster appeared out of thin air and greeted you, “Good morning, you two. Did you sleep well?”

Grim apparently did not, which peeved you off because you were the one up all night, so you just responded with, “Yeah the best sleep I’ve had since I was conceived…”

You knew the headmaster would not understand sarcasm, but honestly why is he even in your room in the early morning without knocking? The world will never know. And with a small world from him you zoned him out. At least until he mentioned cleaning the Main Street of the Campus. Once he stopped his speech his eyes flew to yours to wait for an answer.

“Sure, headmaster, but what am I supposed to use and where is this “Main Street”??” He never explained anything to you. I mean even if you listen when you try, the man tells you nothing.

Here he goes trying to not explain anything to you, “I'm counting on you. You have permission to have lunch in the school cafeteria. Take care of your work enthusiastically.” He yeeted out of here just like your world did to you.

“Ughhh, at least we get lunch…” You sighed into the unknown hoping someone would save you from this.

“Tsk... No way I'm doing any cleaning. I wanna go to class, and bang! Boom boom boom! Use a bunch of awesome magic.” There was no use speaking to either of the two children of the school.

“Dude, please, let’s just go and get this over with. Got it?” The cat just muttered in response to your reasoning, and you took that as a sign that he listened and that was the best you were ever gonna get from him.

You got yourself together and decided that since nothing was gonna go your way, why act like it was. Your ideal belief made you not even look at yourself in a mirror, but just pull up the hood you had on from yesterday and grab some of the cleaning supplies that you found in the dorm.

You and Grim headed out, and you waved a goodbye at the ghosts and blew a kiss at them because it is for the homies.

Grim did end up abandoning you for a while to go find some “great tuna” for him to snack on.

While walking out of the dorm and into the normal path of the school you encountered some odd people, and you actually considered yourself to be odd so these people were like the weirdest of the weirdos. One was a really jacked up on steroids furry, another was this pair of twins who everyone was avoiding and had weird anime twin hair which was the same hairstyle but parted differently or something, and you even saw an adorable boy, which is not considered weird, but he looked incredibly peeved at the rocks that he was kicking. Their outfits were all similar, but you did notice that there was a slight color difference between all the different people.

Since life is not going your way and probably never will, you decided that the next person who you saw that you did not already see before you would ask directions from. The one problem with that is that the dude had a very sus vibe. He had on like a hat that was from like the 1800’s, but he did not have any other terrible features. He was rather breathtaking if you thought about it, but his eyes moved all around the crowd walking to get somewhere, and that gave you enough stalker vibes. His blonde hair in the bob was very cute, and maybe a little bit attractive, but his fashion sense was eccentric. Honestly, he was just eccentric. However, weighing your options, he is mostly approachable, and besides who isn't afraid of everyone they meet.

You strided up to the man with as much confidence as a supermodel has. The male’s eyes swiftly darted to your form once you changed directions just making everything more awkward. Confusion spread through his face, but you kept on walking and stumbling and even lifted your hand for a small wave to him. The male did observe you just like you did him and found that you would not be a threat at least not that much and allowed your approach.

Once you were within a distance where both of you could hear one another, he spoke, “Well, well, well, is there anyway I can help you, canard?” The man gently smiled at you, and damn you were hooked, but the man totally watched you stumble around wondering who to turn to, so this was just a cute situation.

“Um, you see, I don’t know where the main street is..Could you help me?” This man was actually making you nervous, but you put it all to how charming he was.

“Oui, who would I be to not help un petit canard.” His hand went to his chest, and while with the headmaster and most of the others on this campus would piss you off if they did it, the male in front of you actually made you feel a little reassured.

Your mind paused for a second to finally realize, ‘It’s been five minutes and I already have a slight crush… wow.’

The male waved his hand to motion for you to follow him as his grin just grew and he turned around, and you in your confused glory stumbled after him. He slowed his footsteps to allow you to both match him and keep up with him in the long run, and he began to make conversation with you.

“You must be the magicless student, oui?” As gentle as he looked when he lightly smiled and closed his eyes, he also had an air of danger floating around him. You wanted to trust him but also didn’t.

“Yeah, dude...don’t know why I’m here either, and I can’t leave. Nothing seems to be going my way.” You shook your head and sighed deeply, but you were just happy that someone would listen.

“Poor petit canard, it would be my honor to help you with any of your problems,” he’s really good. He’s probably the best person you have met since the sun because he actually seems a little nice.

“Thanks a lot. With all of the assholes and weirdos here, I didn’t exactly expect someone who would care about me.” You placed your gaze on the ground where you watched your feet and his walk while your lips turned up slightly, but you did think that this guy was weird enough for making you feel embarrassed and his whole odd vibe.

“It is no problem, petit canard, but I would recommend giving a chance to the people here,” he halted his speech and steps for a second just to land in front of you and to turn around causing his gaze to meet yours while you slowly looked up at him, “No one is like they seem.” His eyes did those weird anime think where a light shines over them for a second.

“What?” Your mouth gaped open in visible shock at the man before you.

At least until he twisted back around with the wind giving his jacket a flutter, “We have arrived, canard. Do have a nice day, oui?” With a bow of his hat, the blonde hair man was out.

“You know what, that is probably gonna be the most normal person I will meet at this school,” you thought for a second recognizing that you forgot about the dude from last night, “either him or the silver haired sleeping beauty.” You chuckled to yourself.

You began to scan your surroundings which consisted of seven different statues and a long path leading up to the school one way and out the gate another. Many trees also decorated the area outside the path.

And from this you determined that you would need the broom and washcloth you brought, but a rake would be appreciated.

You groaned out to announce your displeasure and got started on cleaning up the place, and that is when Grim showed up to begin complaining that he had to pay for the tuna and that no one would give it to him for free. He even said that someone even threatened to kick him out of the school, but that did not surprise you. You just threw a cloth at him and told him to go scrub the statues.

He did his job for a good ten minutes without mouthing off at any of the students walking on the street getting ready to start school, but he did turn to you while washing the statue of the Queen of Hearts from the Disney movie Alice in Wonderland.

“Hey, servant,” the cat peered up at you with big doe eyes, “What’s with all these statues? All seven of them look pretty scary,” the cat gazed up at the statue he was cleaning again, “This granny looks especially snobby.”

You just giggled at his statement, but a male with red orange hair and a red heart on his face came up to you too, and he was puzzled, “You don’t know about the Queen of Hearts?”

Grim gawked back at the male, “Queen of Hearts? Is she important?”

“Grim, no one is important unless someone makes them important, so logically speaking no.” You just had to cut in with an idea about society that you just thought about.

The male with the heart on his cheek had something to say and started going on and on about how amazing she was as a queen. You just ignored him and went to work because you have heard of her and all that she was before, but Grim was captivated and started basically worshiping the words that came out of the male’s mouth. Grim even added in comments about the Queen here and there, but then Grim asked, “By the way, who are you?” and that caught your attention from cleaning.

“I’m Ace, a fresh-faced first year. Nice to meetcha~” Ace winked at the two of you.

But you had to open your mouth, “Who calls themselves a fresh-faced first year. That’s basically saying you're fresh meat.” You raised an eyebrow while asserting your belief.

However, neither of the boys listened to you.

“I’m Grim, a genius who’ll become the greatest magician.” Grim just had to introduce himself; he even introduced you and called you both a dimwit and a servant which did not surprise you.

Ace turned to you and in your eyes tried to compliment you, “You’ve got an odd sounding name.”

“Thanks I guess, dude, but why are you here?” He had to be leaving for class soon, but he was just sticking to you two. His introduction confused you about his personality because after all the people you have met only three of them had been slightly nice and even then, all of them were odd. This guy had to be hiding something, and you think it might be something to do about his personality.

“What are you talking about? I’m just here to help you two. I don’t mean to cause any trouble.” Ace responded.

‘So he wanted to cause trouble,’ was your immediate reaction.

Ace then turned back to Grim who started a conversation about Scar from Lion King. All that was in your head was “Be Prepared” the villain song in the movie while you watched the two discuss who Scar was and what happened in the movie. But Ace never mentions his death or how he betrayed those who helped him. From your understanding, there was a serious misconception about villains at this school. Now that you thought about it they must clearly respect and reverence them because they had statues of some of the worst Disney villains. And throughout your debate, those two started to talk about Ursula from The Little Mermaid, but Ace referred to her as “The Sea Witch.” Nothing was similar really from the interpretations of the story in your world or this other world’s interpretations.

While you will admit that some of the villains were not as bad as they could have been and that they were not total villains because most times the main characters and heroes of the stories were total pretentious assholes who knew nothing of ruling a kingdom or anything, romanticizing villains is a little wrong. Moana, though, an absolute queen. Cinderella also deserved better.

The two visited every statue from Jafar from Aladdin to the ‘Evil Queen’ which they called the ‘Beautiful Queen’ from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs to Hades from Hercules but the entire storyline was off because in greek mythology Hades wasn’t even the villain behind the story but whatever. The two finally gathered their stuff next to Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty, so you followed the two along because this was the last one and you needed to observe Ace, “the fresh meat,” more.

Grim asked the question about the statue, “And the last one, with the horns?”

Ace went on about her too, “That is the Witch of Thorns from the Magic Mountains. Noble and elegant, even within the Seven, she is top class in magic and curses! She can summon lightning and storms, cover an entire country in thorns, her magic is on a whole other level. There was even a time she transformed into a huge dragon!” You just nodded along at his speech.

Grim even contributed again, “Ooh! A dragon! All monsters look up to them!” Grim looked so overjoyed for having someone to tell him about the villains; he’s just your idiotic cat sibling.

“They’re all so cool!” There had to be a moment where Ace showed his true self but he hasn’t done it, “Unlike a certain raccoon.” And there it is!!

Grim backed up in alarm from the kid and switched his gaze quickly to you in panic. He was an incredibly trusting cat which made you feel pretty bad for him.

Ace ignored the communication between you and Grim and like a proper villain presented his monologue to you two, “Pfft... Ahaha! I can't bear it anymore! Ahahahaha! Aren't you the guys who went crazy at the entrance ceremony? You were summoned by the Dark Mirror even though you can't use magic, and you, a monster, weren't called but still trespassed. Yeahhh, it took everything I had not to lose it at the ceremony.” His laugh sounded like a fart trying to come out but was halted by the butt cheek and the fabric of the pants so really not cute.

Grim shifted his attention back to “fresh meat” and gawked at him, “Whaaa!? You're a rude one!”

Since you wanted to find more about this kid before you beat him up, you gave him a second to explain himself.

“And now you aren't allowed in and got regulated to be a janitor? Haha, how lame.” Is this kid kidding? Grim even agrees with you after his noises of distress and disagreement with the kid, but the kid kept going, “On top of that, you don't even know about the Great Seven. How ignorant can you be? As I recommend you go back to kindergarten before coming to Night Raven College.”

You just shook your head at the boy ready to step in once he finished his little speech.

“I thought I'd just mess with you a bit, but you really blew my expectations away. Unlike you two, I actually have classes to attend. Keep this school squeaky clean, you two~” The boy whistled at you two and waved at you and walked away.

At least he tried to before his collar was in your hands and your eyes were right in front of yours.

“Y’know I’ll give you some praise because you are the most pretentious fuck I have met at this school,” You let go of his collar and knocked his feet a little to make sure he would fall to the ground, “ And what are you like five. All of your jabs at us are literally terrible, but that’s not even the worst of it. You must be so bored of your life or have such a small dick that making fun of people supposedly weaker than you, just gets you off. I never get people like you who belittle and tease others. Is it fun kid, huh, to make jokes to basically another kid when you just know how they are gonna react? ”

Ace sat on the ground stunned by your comments acting like a helpless child who just got yelled at with his red flushed cheeks and his balled up hands by his side. At that point, you realized that there was a crowd gathering around your little spat, and Ace’s cheeks and embarrassment was probably due to getting yelled at by the magicless student who became the janitor.

However, Grim did not process that you were already lecturing the kid before he blew flames at the two of you.

“Are you kidding me GriM? I’m right here!” Normally fight or flight would respond to his action, but yours was not working causing you to stay in the same spot while some of the flames got closer.

The kid was running away screaming stuff like “Nope not today” and “why,” but after he stood all the way up and walked a couple footsteps his collar was in your hand again.

“Not happening, pipsqueak. You’re gonna pay for your actions.” You pulled him around to make sure he could hear you and see the mess of people running around behind you and the cat still trying to blow fire at the two of you.

Grim even started yelling, only making the flames worse and more rowdy, “It's what you get for making fun of me! I'm gonna light up that fire-head of yours!” Grim even smirked to make his point and pointed at the boy still in your hold.

This immature boy was not able to read the atmosphere and stood up to the fire breathing cat, “Fire-head, huh?Heeeeee. You've really got guts picking a fight with me. You too. I'll turn you into a puffy, little toy-poodle!”

You slapped him on the back of the head for that causing his head to go forward and his hand to grab where you slapped. But Grim kept on shooting fire.

At least until Ace managed to get out of your hold by twisting and wiggling so much. Once he left he ran over to join in Grim and have a fight, and it just seemed like these past couple of days nothing would go your way.

Ace took out the pen thing you saw yesterday and pointed in directly with a light coming out of it at Grim causing wind to go everywhere blowing the fire. More people also began to crowd around the two and murmurs and gossip broke out everywhere, but all you could pay attention to was stopping them.

That didn't work out.

The two kept on spitting insults at each other and magic, and once you got close you grabbed Ace by the ear pulling on it causing him to slightly turn from the fight. You tried to lecture Ace in that moment to tell him to stop, but Ace was far too focused on the cat in front of him and ended up grabbing your wrist, throwing it off his ear, and then shoving you right on your hands and butt into the cement where some flames were.

All in all basically getting roasted alive was a solid 3/10, but you are sure some people got pictures and videos of it. Since you did get out of those flames in a split second and ‘Stop, Drop, and Roll’ which surprisingly worked, all you ended up with is some burns on the palm of your hands and the back of your calves. And since everything was pissing you off today you also found out that the cult-like cloak you were wearing is fireproof.

Grim got more enraged the more the fight went on and finally had enough, “Eat that!”

A great amount of flames appeared darted toward Ace, but Ace had other plans, “And I just change my trajectory with the wind like… that!” The wind sent the flames hurtling to the statue of the Queen of Hearts causing the statue to be engulfed into flames.

And your only thought was, ‘This school needs to offer a physics class even a basic math class if all these magicians are as bad at predicting as this one.’

The two children were panicking and running in circles with their stupid tails between their legs screaming at each other and blaming each other. You just wanted to get this over with because you knew that you would be in trouble even though you can’t control anyone or threaten anyone because you are magicless. Grim is also a wild cat, and cats never listen.

Right as Ace tried to reason with Grim the headmaster showed up, but that only caused two to overreact in fear of him and run away from him and the problem both of them caused.

Neither escaped of course because they both got whipped which made you think what were the laws regarding teachers and children because you know that whips mostly were not allowed at school and not to be used on children.

Nevermind that because the lovely headmaster with his gorgeous top hap and magnificent cape started another lecture, “This is my Lash of Love! It'll be another hundred years before you can outrun me!I told you just yesterday to 'not cause any trouble', didn't I?Then you go and char the statues of the Great Seven!I very much would like to see you expelled.”

You could not wait to be let out and with a blank voice you let out, “Honestly, please let me out. I’ll take the streets over this.”

No one heard you or at least no one seemed to.

“Assholes,'' you grit your teeth ready to bear with another problem the headmaster gave you.

Ace did not agree with you and screeched out, “Wait! Not that!” He whined like the baby he is.

The headmaster could only make your day worse by turning to you who by the way is still covered in burns and had a look of pure defeat on your face and address, “And you, this is not how you supervise Grim.”

You just exhaled and promised to yourself that while getting expelled and kicked out of this school sounded great, living on the streets did not (Even if it did for the tiniest second there), so you nodded and smiled as best as your strained face from anger could take.

The headmaster thought that was enough and turned to Ace asking, “My goodness.. You, what's your grade and name?”

Ace actually replied, most likely in fear, “Ace Trappola, first year.”

The gracious headmaster was pleased, “Then, Trappola, Grim, and you as punishment, I order the three of you to wash 100 window around campus!” He bounced his head probably affirming to himself that he chose the proper punishment after he pointed at you.

Grim did not agree, “Nyaaa!? It's all cause this joker was making fun of us!”

Ace also did not, “Eeeh!? Me too?”

You silently sympathized with the headmaster for having to deal with so many children because he could only respond undoubtedly, “Most definitely! After school, meet in the cafeteria. Understood?”

The two children groaned in disapproval but went with it.

And Grim stated something that you couldn't agree more with,“Nothing but misery since yesterday!!”

Your only response to the entire situation was to fall onto the cement again and try not to cry because a bad bitch doesn’t.

~~~~~

Hahaha...I can't with myself. I tried to make this short, but it's the longest one so far. Thank you so much for reading everything, and I hope you have a great day!

#twisted wonderland #twisted wonderland x reader #twst #twst x you #twst x reader

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hold-me-sickfics · 4 years

Text

14 Days: Taehyung

Hi guys! I’m really happy to be able to post this (somehow my internet came back, and I decided to post while I have it). I hope this is alright, I had a hard time writing it because I’m back home for the weekend and it’s hard to find somewhere quiet lol. I hope you guys like it!

TW: Food, Emeto, Nightmares, Slight anxiety attacks, Bruises are mentioned, (If there are any more, let me know and I’ll add them in!)

Note: Also, I wanna give some major credit to @thatoneemokpop-02 for all their help with ideas and getting me started. I kid you not, I was entirely blank earlier and in a few texts with them, they had me ready to write! Please go check out their writing, because they’re so kind and amazing and not to mention, they have some of the most well-developed fics I have ever seen. Especially their “You’re my Yellow” fic. I love it!!! <3

Prompt: “What they don’t know, won’t hurt them.” That’s Taehyung’s thought process when it comes to the other members. For the past several weeks, Taehyung has been having relatively frequent nightmares. Only these nightmares aren’t just “bad dreams.” No, they have him waking up gasping for breath, tending to an anxious stomach, and really whatever else bad can happen with nightmares. At first, he had a nightmare every week, but now it’s gotten to the point of every other night. Lack of sleep is catching up with Taehyung, causing him to really need some extra love from the other members. The only thing is, he’s too embarrassed and afraid to talk about them. Luckily for Taehyung, one of the members happens to find out on their own…

“Ladies and gentlemen, BTS!” The host gestured to the boys who were currently walking on stage.

Once the crowd quieted, the host began talking about BTS’ most recent accomplishments and asking questions to each of the members. As usual, Namjoon translated for them… mostly. BigHit had made a huge deal over them learning English and at least answering one question without Namjoon having to translate. Something about boosting their American support? The boys thought this was rather strange, considering their fans didn’t seem to care whether they spoke in Korean or not, but they did what they were told.

Taehyung watched and listened as the other boys answered their questions in perfect English, and the crowd squealed after every word they spoke. Then, it was his turn.

“Taehyung, let’s talk a little about you. A lot of fans, including myself, were absolutely stunned at your Singularity performance. How did you feel about the song? Any favorite parts in the choreography?”

Taehyung couldn’t breathe. He knew he was supposed to answer in English, but he couldn’t remember the words. Not even the first one.

He said his answer in Korean, hoping Namjoon would cover for him. Namjoon just gave him a look, seemingly saying “I’m not helping. Say what you’ve gotta say.”

Taehyung felt his blood run cold. Everyone was staring and starting to gasp… the cameraman looked worried as to whether or not to shut off the cameras and the members… they were looking at him… disappointed and somewhat angry…

Taehyung woke up unable to catch his breath. He was sweating all over, and not to mention trembling. His vision was blurry with tears.

This wasn’t the first time this had happened. He’d had a nightmare every night since Saturday (which was when their manager told them they’d be doing an English interview soon), and it was Wednesday now. He’d thought about telling the others, but he turned the idea down. He felt too embarrassed about not knowing as much English as they did, and he also knew they were exhausted and he wanted to make sure they got sleep. Or at least, as much as they could get. The boys already weren’t getting home until 11:45 every night, so when Taehyung actually could come home and go to sleep, he’d usually wake up around 2:00 with the nightmare, and wouldn’t be able to go back to sleep after that. Part of this was because of his anxious stomach.

Speaking of which, Taehyung was now frantically pushing his covers off, and covering his mouth. He knew he had about 10 seconds before his late-night dinner would reappear. Luckily, he made it to the bathroom in time, and was able to kneel in front of the toilet. His knees had hit the tile hard, but he figured a couple bruises wouldn’t be as bad as having his dinner projected across the floor.

No sooner than his hands were gripping the sides of the bowl, was his dinner coming up and to the back of his throat. In one retch, he’d brought up a small stream. Followed by another, and another. Taehyung’s stomach was killing him, since he was so sore from having thrown up so much.

After what felt like an eternity, it was over. Taehyung rested his head on the rim of the toilet, and reached up with a sweaty hand to flush it.

Shakily, he stood up and looked himself in the mirror. He washed his face and brushed his teeth, then went back to his bed.

He walked slowly so he wouldn’t jostle his stomach.

Taehyung got into his bed, and pulled the covers up over himself. The warmth felt nice, being as his sweaty skin had felt like ice in the bathroom earlier. He decided to follow his normal routine after this kind of stuff happened…

“Siri, open LanguageGuru.” He whispered, his throat still sore from all the acid.

The app opened, and Taehyung spent the next two hours working on his English. Somehow, he’d gotten lucky, and at 4:30, he’d fallen back asleep. However, since they had to be up and out of the house by 6:00, he had to wake back up at 5:15.

When 5:15 came, he jolted awake, and went to the bathroom to puke again. It had just become part of the routine by now. He threw on a t-shirt and sweats, brushed his teeth, and combed his hair. Each action made his core hurt. Putting on deodorant was one of the worst parts, being as he had to put his arm up and then use his other one to put it on. Every motion felt like his insides had just been squeezed and beaten. By 5:30, he was able to head to the kitchen.

Jungkook just happened to come out of his room at the same time.

“Morning Taehyung!” Jungkook was awake… somehow.

“Morning Kook.” Taehyung’s voice was at a mere croak.

“Woah, hold on are you okay?” Jungkook gently took Taehyung’s wrist to get him to turn and look at him.

“I’m good. Just tired.” Taehyung hoped he’d believe it.

“Yeah, I don’t know about that. Tired is what Yoongi looks like right now… you look sick.” Despite popular belief, Jungkook was actually following in Jin’s footsteps as a lead caregiver for the group.

The maknae pressed the back of his hand to Taehyung’s cheek.

“You don’t have a fever… what else is wrong?”

“Nothing Kook, like I said, I’m just sorta out of it since I didn’t get much sleep.” Taehyung still allowed Jungkook to hold his wrist since for some reason, JK’s touch comforted him.

“I don’t think so.” Jungkook moved his hand from Taehyung’s wrist to Taehyung’s back. He rubbed up and down, and watched as Taehyung leaned into the touch.

“We’ve got dance practice this morning, but if you feel sick, tell me. I’ll get Namjoon hyung to let you come home. Alright?” The concern in JK’s eyes was shining.

“Thanks Kookie.” Taehyung smiled slightly, and then continued walking to the kitchen.

Jin was already rolling with cooking.

“Okay guys, we’ve got 20 minutes till we’ve gotta be in the car. I’ve made toast, and there’s bacon if you can get it away from Namjoon. Taehyung, Jungkook, what do you want to drink?” Jin was pouring “on the go” cups for each of the boys.

“Orange juice. Thanks Hyung.” Jungkook looked over at Taehyung.

“Coffee please.” Taehyung’s bags under his eyes seemed to be deeper and darker than everyone else’s.

Jungkook didn’t approve of Taehyung’s choice, being as coffee in the morning always upset his stomach, but he allowed it, hoping that it would at least make Taehyung feel less exhausted.

By the time everyone had eaten, it was time to load up and head to the studio.

The car ride was torture. Taehyung had developed a mean headache, and felt like he was gonna throw up at the first stop sign.

Jungkook had sat in the seat next to him, since he still wasn’t convinced that Taehyung was as “alright” as he said he was.

They were almost 15 minutes from BigHit when Taehyung’s stomach finally revolted. Before he even had a chance to ask for a bag, coffee and chewed up bacon and toast was spilling down his legs. Jungkook was quick to put a bag under his chin for the next round, but it didn’t come. That first one and a mean wave of post-vomiting nausea was enough for him.

Taehyung cried, and Jungkook just held him. Jungkook knew he was sick now, and he could prove it. Before he could even tell Namjoon, the leader had already stood up and looked back at them.

“Oh no,” the concern in his eyes was evident. “It’s okay Taehyung, we’ll be at BigHit in a minute and we can get you cleaned up. Jungkook, can you help him get to the showers?”

“Yeah Hyung, I’ve got him.” Jungkook was wiping the leftover vomit from Taehyung’s chin.

“Taehyung, bud, I’m sorry you feel bad.” Jin spoke up, as he came back from the front. He’d brought a water bottle out of the cooler and a paper towel.

Jungkook helped Taehyung sip the water, and Jin dabbed the sweat from the younger’s face.

“Hey, this is Namjoon…” he went on to tell their choreographer what had happened. (It was always a big deal when one of them threw up. That could mean they were catching a virus, and since their trainer worked with other groups as well, he had to be strict about that kind of thing. It was the same way a few months ago when Namjoon came down with the flu.)

A faint noise told Taehyung that they’d been given the rest of the day off, which they were all more happy about than anything.

Then, they got a second phone call.

“Oh hey um-“ Namjoon wasn’t even able to get a word in. Judging by his expression, whoever was on the other end was yelling- a lot.

“Alright. We’ll be there soon.” Namjoon hung up, and then turned to the group.

“That was the head choreographer.”

Jungkook was still holding Taehyung close. He never was one to let a little throw up bother him.

“He’s still bringing us in. Taehyung… I’m so sorry. He’s letting you take a half-hour to clean up but then you’re supposed to join us…” Namjoon knew they weren’t his own orders, but he still felt like the bad guy having to say it.

“I-I’m okay hyung.” Taehyung shivered mid-sentence. “It was just the c-coffee. My stomach didn’t like it. I’m okay.”

How he looked said otherwise, and Jungkook piped up to mention that.

“Hyung isn’t there anything we can do? We’re all exhausted but Taehyung looks like he’s gonna collapse the second he gets off.”

“I’m sorry guys… he sounded serious… I’d talk to him but it seems the only thing he’s gonna do is make practice worse if we keep bugging him.”

The car stopped, and all of the boys stood up. Hoseok had his earbuds in before, but now that he’d taken them out, Yoongi was quick to get him out of the car and explain to Hoseok what was happening before he saw it. Hoseok’s sympathy sickness was not gonna help the situation at all.

Jin and Namjoon got off as well, followed by Jimin who was headed inside to find some clothes for Taehyung to change into when he got out of the shower.

“Taehyungie, can you stand?” Jungkook sweetly placed his hand on Taehyung’s upper back.

“Yeah I’m alright.”

Taehyung stood up, and Jungkook came right behind him. Luckily, the showers were on the first floor to the left, so Jungkook and Taehyung got there quickly.

Taehyung undressed himself, and then stepped into the shower. The hot water helped to soothe his sore muscles. He used the time in the shower to calm down, and try to refocus on his main mission for the day. Staying awake.

“Hey Taehyung, I’ve got your towel out here and Jimin brought clothes and a toothbrush. I’m out here when you’re ready.”

Taehyung knew what that meant. They’d been called back, and Taehyung’s time for showering was over.

He stepped out of the shower, and Jungkook handed him the towel. He got dressed quickly, and he and JK went to the studio.

By the time they got to the studio, the choreographer had already left, and the rest of the boys were already being led by Hoseok in the routines.

“Woah woah, pause it.” Hoseok waved the music off, and everyone stopped for a moment.

“Feeling better Taehyung?” Hoseok asked, walking toward the two.

“Yeah. The coffee just got me a little. I’m alright now.”

“Okay but if you need to stop just tell me. Joon, can you hit play again?”

Namjoon hit “play” and they started practice up again. Jungkook kept a close eye on Taehyung throughout the day, wanting to make sure that he really was alright.

Rehearsal lasted until 8:30 p.m. When it was over, the boys loaded up and headed back to the apartment.

“I’m making supper for anyone that wants it.” Jin got the chicken nuggets out of the refrigerator, and started to put them in the fryer.

“I think I’m gonna go ahead and turn in.” Taehyung both dreaded sleep and longed for it. H knew he’d end up having a nightmare anyway, so he might as well get some sleep while he could.

“Alright, night Taehyungie.” All the boys said their goodnights, except Jungkook who went with him back there.

“You going to sleep early too Kookie?” Taehyung asked, his eyes already heavy.

“Yeah… hey um if you need me tonight, wake me up okay?” Jungkook gave Taehyung a tight hug.

“I will Kookie. Don’t worry. Just get some rest.”

The boys said goodnight, and Taehyung was asleep almost instantly.

---

2:00 rolled around quickly, and as usual, Taehyung woke up unable to catch his breath. He was crying, terrified once again of forgetting how to speak in their upcoming interview. He felt sweat coating his skin, and he was almost at the part where he pukes, then someone came in.

“Tae Tae, it’s okay. It’s alright. I’m here. Breathe.” Jungkook was at his side, holding him tightly. Taehyung didn’t know how he got there, but he was glad to see him.

“J-Jungkook?”

“It’s me. Taehyung, you’re shaking…” Jungkook’s eyes widened.

Taehyung felt the bile rise in his throat, and he quickly went around Jungkook and ran to the bathroom. Once again, he crashed down, and vomit spilled out of him.

Jungkook came up behind him, holding his middle.

“Just get it up Taehyung. It’s alright. I’m here with you.”

The vomiting part didn’t last as long as usual, and Taehyung attributed that to Jungkook being there. Soon, they were back in Taehyung’s room. Jungkook decided to sleep with Taehyung in case he had another nightmare, but they couldn’t sleep until Taehyung told Jungkook what had him so upset.

“It’s that interview on the 25th. I’m- I’m afraid I won’t be able to speak correctly… or at all.”

Jungkook’s eyes filled with compassion.

“How come you didn’t say anything?” Jungkook rubbed Taehyung’s arm.

“I felt embarrassed about not knowing as much as you guys, and I didn’t want anyone to be worried about me since none of us are getting any sleep anyway…”

Jungkook took Taehyung’s hand, and gently squeezed it.

“First of all, I’m so sorry you’ve been dealing with this by yourself. I know it must have been scary. But now you’ve got me and everyone else. The truth is, all of us have been nervous about the interview. Or at least, I know I have. But that’s a good thing because it means maybe we can help each other.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, I’ve been studying pretty hard, and I know you have too… so maybe we can study together! Then if one of us has trouble in the interview, the other once can step in and help them out.” Jungkook smiled.

Taehyung liked the idea, and agreed.

“Good. We start tomorrow.”

After that, both boys went to sleep and thankfully, slept through the night.

For the next couple weeks, they worked hard together on learning English. Namjoon got them some extra time by firing their old choreographer and hiring one that gave them more time between rehearsals so they wouldn’t burn themselves out.

By the time the interview came, Taehyung and Jungkook both aced it. Including the part where Taehyung introduced himself.

“My name is V, and I’m good boy.”

#RPF #Emeto #Nightmares #14DayFics #Taehyung!Sickfics #Caretaker!JK #TW Food #Hoping to post JK tomorrow!#Slight Anxiety Attacks #Bruises mentioned

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kurosara · 4 years

Text

Modern!Neji Hyuuga x Reader (Naruto)

Alcohol on Halloween

"Bubble bubble toil and trouble. Mixing and whisking and brewing double. Should this evil sign arise, from this cauldron comes your demise!"

Screams filled the room as a firecracker went off in the bottom of a fake cauldron and a puff of smoke was cast in the air. The screams intensified as the door was flung open and the lights flickered on. The freshman college students didn't even take time to process as they ran screaming from the room and off the premises with haste. A bored sigh escaped the lips of whomever had rushed the door open so quickly.

"Neji! Thanks for the added affect! I really got them didn't I?" A smirk of victory adorned your lips as you looked at the stern faced guy in front of you.

Neji shut the door and looked at you with narrowed eyes, "(Y/n) I thought we talked about this? You could have the Halloween decorations and use a small smoke bomb but I told you we can't go traumatizing the freshman. It's bad rep for juniors like us." Neji scolded you.

You couldn't take him seriously however. It was around 10 pm on a Saturday night on October 31st. Halloween. And your best friend since freshman year of college Neji Hyuuga was dressed as a ninja. His flowing black hair held back by a headband with a leaf symbol etched into it tied across his forehead. His eyes a solid grey with the help of contacts. Adorning his body was a long sleeved black shirt with a green jacket and black pants. On his leg was a "med kit" (no doubt filled with snacks for you) and he just looked like the ninja he watched on streaming.

"(Y/n)? (Y/n)!" Neji said as he waved a hand in front of your face realizing you'd been staring at him for a bit now.

Your cheeks turned a slight pink as you broke out into a slight laugh, "Neji it's so hard to take you seriously with your ninja costume on."

His cheeks turned a bright red and he frowned slightly. He gave your arm a gentle punch, "That's not funny (Y/n). You told me I looked fine in this."

You nodded your head, "You do Neji! You just can't scold me looking like that. You're too adorable."

You turned your back as you spoke and didn't notice the blush growing on your best friend's cheeks. You picked up your jacket debating on if you needed it to keep you warm in the cool outside air. You were wearing a witch/warlock outfit that sadly didn't have long sleeves or long bottoms to protect you from the cold. Though you decided against it.

"Now Neji I hope you're ready otherwise we're gong to be late for the party." You turned around and heard the groan from his lips.

"Do we really have to go? I'm so sick of these frat parties. And someone always ends up spilling alcohol on me." Neji complained.

You just laughed at his whining and switched off the light to your dorm room. You grabbed Neji's arm and threw it around your shoulder and dragged him along.

"Neji. As your best friend for going on two and a half years now, you have got to trust me. This time will be different. I won't let anyone spill alcohol on you and I'll stay right by your side all night." You said to soothe his complaints.

Neji grumbled some words under his breath but you took it as a yes as you began dragging dragging him from the co-ed junior students' dorm building, not taking notice to the red cheeks on your best friend. The two of you walked, his arm on your shoulder and one of your's was around his waist. You two chatted, well you chat and he just listened. This was your dynamic. He was there as a figure by your side but you did most of the friendshipping. As you reached the fraternity's house you saw lights flashing and music blaring. People were loitering outside with questionable "cigarettes" and cups of alcohol. Neji slid his arm off of your shoulder and half stepped slightly in front of you in a protective manor. You chuckled softly at the predictable actions.

"I'm fine Neji. Come let's get some drinks in you." You told him as you gently tugged on his sleeve, leading him to a table with bottles and cups.

You mixed you two some drinks, making Neji's a bit, or maybe a lot, stronger than yours. You handed him the cup, watching and laughing at the sour face he made. "God I hate alcohol." He mumbled.

You walked through the crowds, greeting and dancing to the beat of the music as Neji followed you a bit closely. He wasn't really the partying type. He never was. But that never stopped him from going with you wherever you asked him to go. The thought never crossed your mind as to why he would agree to be dragged around and bothered by the likes of you all day.

"HEY EVERYBODY!! SPIN THE BOOOOOTTTLLLLEE!!!" Well known class clown Naruto Uzumaki who was clearly already drunk called for a classic party game.

You tugged on Neji's sleeve and without a word you pulled him towards the room the booming voice came from. You two snuck in, seeing the circle having already began to form. The two of you sat between Sai and Choji kind of near the outskirts of the circle. You two sat together, watching as about 6 different sets of people took turns. Naruto decided that whoever the bottle landed on had to spend 7 minutes in a dark closet with whomever had spun the bottle. The 7th turn had occurred. Class player Kiba Inazuka spun the bottle and it surprisingly landed on you. Your eyes widened a bit and it was as if you could feel Neji tense up beside you. Kiba smirked and got up, walking into the closet. You gave Neji a pat on the shoulder as you followed inside.

Hearing the door lock and click, you instantly stabilized yourself against the wall. Before you could say anything Kiba began pushing and banging on the walls and door, moving things around vigorously. "K-Kiba! What're you doing?! Stop that!" Your cheeks were heating up as you heard some whispers and snickering on the other side of the door.

"Trust me. You'll thank me later." Kiba said. You couldn't see it but you could hear the smirk in his voice.

You heard someone yell for time to be up. Kiba had tousled his and your's hairs with his hands for added affect as the two of you left the closet. You sat next to Neji again, your face all flustered though Neji's face was unreadable as he just watched Kiba very closely. Kiba just smirked victoriously as he walked intentionally between you and Neji, patting both your shoulders but slyly dropping a magnet just out of Neji's sight in front of his foot. Kiba sat down back in his seat and now it was your turn to spin the bottle.

"Here goes nothing." You said but the bass of the music from the rest of the house muffled it. You spun the bottle quite hard.

"What did you and Kiba do?" Neji asked sternly.

"N-nothing! I swear."

"Hmph." Neji's cheeks were pink but you weren't sure if it was anger or the alcohol as you noticed his half empty cup.

"N-Neji I'm telling you Kiba was just-" your voice was cut short as the bottle stopped spinning and landed directly towards Neji.

Neji stared at the bottle, his face blank before he tossed back the rest of his drink down his throat and stood up, taking your hand and pulling you to the closet. The door was shut and locked immediately.

"Woah Neji. Didn't think you'd finally let loose and drink so quickly." you teased slightly.

In an instant Neji was almost flush against your body, one hand pressed against the wall and the other gripping your hip and holding you to the wall.

"N-Neji?"

His breath tickled your lips as you realized how close he was, "Is that what you want? For me to let loose. Be an animal? Like Kiba?" His voice came out a bit bitter.

"Neji what're you talking about? Kiba just banged on the walls and ruffled my hair. That's it! I told him to stop and he was so smug talking about 'You'll thank me later.'" You mimicked Kiba's voice as you repeated his words.

Neji's eyes widened just a bit and he felt like an idiot, "He... he wha-? That idiot played me." Neji let out a soft chuckle that sent your stomach into a small frenzy.

You were still confused by everything until Neji embraced you softly, "N-Neji? W-what was Kiba talking about? How d-did he play you?"

"No doubt a magnet or something. He got me upset and made sure we got in here together." Neji explained as if it were obvious.

You still were having trouble putting the pieces together but your face was a bright red from the close contact, "B-but why-"

"So I can do this." Neji whispered before you even finished your sentence.

Neji wasn't making any sense until his lips came into soft contact with your's. In that moment you finally realized. The reason Neji had stuck around no matter how annoying you were. Why he let you drag him to parties. Why his face turned red whenever you got too physical with him. And why he was so angry about Kiba and you coming into the closet. Everything he had to say was in that passionate make out session they were having. They pulled back for air just in time for the door to the closet to be opened. Without even looking, Neji reached into his make shift med kit and threw a "kunai" (a prop he bought) but he threw it hard enough it zipped past the others and surprisingly landed in Kiba's cup of alcohol. The others closed the door and laughter could be heard on the other side.

You raised a curious brow, "Well I guess I was wrong."

Neji looked at you confused, both your eyes having adjusted to the darkness by now, "Wrong about what?"

You chuckled softly, "I thought you only had snacks in your pants." You said causally.

Neji chuckled deeply and began kissing on your neck before mumbling sexily, "I'll show you what all's in my pants."

"N-Neji!" You gasped in embarrassment.

He laughed softly, "Don't blame me. You gave me alcohol."

With a soft laugh he captured your lips once more and... well... let's just say Kiba had accomplished his goal and the others needed a new closet to play the game in since you and Neji were occupying that one for a while ;)

#neji #neji hyuga #neji x reader #Naruto Shippuden #anime #oneshot #one shot #OneShots #fanfiction #fan fiction #fanfic #imagines #neji x you #neji imagine

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morningfears · 5 years

Text

Rose Tattoo [Chapter Four]

Rating: PG-13 (Mentions of anxiety, swearing)

Summary: Calum’s sister is in town so while she and Tāne have an aunt/nephew day out, Calum decides to help Stevie (and her dog) accomplish one of the items on her bucket list. And if that accomplishment lets him hold her hand, well, who is he to complain?

Word Count: 6.6k

Chapter One | Chapter Two | Chapter Three | Chapter Five Series Masterlist

“What are you doing tomorrow?”

Stevie stared down at her cellphone, the seemingly harmless text from Calum unopened but completely visible as a notification at the top of her screen. She’d been staring at it for nearly five minutes, debating leaving it that way and pretending that she didn’t see it as she went on about her day as if nothing had happened, but she’d convinced herself somewhere along the way that that wasn’t an option. The last thing Stevie wanted to do was ignore Calum but, try as she might, she couldn’t bring herself to open the text.

Stevie was hesitant to admit it but she genuinely enjoyed Calum’s company. She felt at ease around him, something she hadn’t felt in a long while, and ghosting him would hurt her just as much as she imagined it would hurt him. However, she didn’t want to play along and give him the wrong impression.

Calum’s text was vague, vague enough that she didn’t know exactly what he wanted, but she could imagine what he was hoping for. Although he clarified - after seeing the panicked look on her face, she was sure - that whatever happened between them would remain unlabeled, she saw it on his face. She could see it in the way that he looked at her, in the way that he smiled at her, that he wanted something more than friendship. She hadn’t allowed herself to think about it but if she would allow herself to admit it, she would know that she wanted that, too.

In another life, Calum would’ve been the perfect partner for her. He was - at least thus far - everything she had hoped for. However, the timing couldn’t have been worse for her.

Although she couldn’t admit that Calum’s crush on her was not one-sided, she could admit that she wasn’t in the right mental state to attempt to form a committed relationship with anyone. She was barely holding herself together, every day was a struggle just to leave her apartment; she knew that it wouldn’t be fair to place that burden on someone else. And though she had no issue with the fact that Calum was a single father - in fact, she admired him deeply for the love and devotion he clearly held for his son - she knew that she was nowhere near emotionally ready to enter a child’s life.

Stevie tended to distance herself from others in times of crisis. She worried about the effect her mental state would have on them and kept interaction to a bare minimum as to avoid hurting them when she inevitably fell into a depressive spiral and became a shell of herself. She’d hurt plenty of people in that way over her lifetime, had been hurt that way herself a time or two, and she was afraid that Calum would be next. She didn’t want to break such a pure heart, someone who so clearly deserved the world. Calum deserved someone good, someone who could be wholly present, and she knew that that wasn’t her.

Stevie wasn’t prepared to spend time with Calum, to open up to him and have him hand her his heart. She wasn’t prepared to think about anyone other than herself and she knew that was selfish but she’d rather be proactively selfish, prevent anyone from getting too close, than hurt them by pulling away when it was too late.

However, she was selfish in another way. Calum made Stevie feel at ease. When she was with him, her anxiety didn’t feel so suffocating. She didn’t feel like the world was crumbling at her feet. She could see a light, somewhere in the distance, instead of the all encompassing darkness that she’d grown so used to and she desperately wanted to hold onto that feeling. Although she felt that she couldn’t give him what he wanted, she still wanted him in her life.

So, instead of ghosting him the way she knew she should, instead of telling him that she was busy and stopping him in his tracks, she ushered him closer. “I should be writing but I’ll probably end up laying on my couch with Max,” she sent. She stared at the message thread for a moment, contemplating turning off her phone and tossing it into the garbage can beside her desk, before she realized how that sounded. She wasn’t sure that Calum knew she had a dog so she quickly typed a follow-up message. “My dog! Max is my dog.”

She realized, after pressing send, that it might’ve been better in the long run to let Calum think that Max was her boyfriend. However, that selfish desire continued to prick at the forefront of her brain. She didn’t want to push him away and letting him think that the tiny little ball of fluff that terrorized her apartment was her boyfriend was a surefire way to do that.

Calum responded almost immediately. Before Stevie had a chance to even leave the text thread, Calum’s response came through. “Do you and Max want to go on an adventure?”

“That depends,” Stevie typed, her bottom lip lodged between her teeth as she stared down at the device in her hands. “What’s the adventure?”

“I can’t tell you that. You’ll just have to trust that it’s going to be worth your time,” Calum responded with a smile emoji attached to the end for good measure.

With anyone else, that text would have been met with an instant refusal from Stevie. She didn’t like stepping into any situation blind. She preferred knowing what she was going to encounter, knowing exactly how her day would pan out, and was almost afraid of the unknown. However, she found that she trusted Calum, even if she barely knew him. She couldn’t imagine that he would lead her into a situation that she didn’t want to be in or couldn’t handle, not intentionally, so she agreed.

“Fine. I’ll trust you this time. But if it ends badly, just know that Max is a powerful enemy to have. He can hold a grudge for ages and you don’t want to be on the receiving end of his pouting,” she sent back.

“Consider me thoroughly warned. 10 in the morning? We can meet at that coffee shop and go from there. Wear something comfortable.”

Stevie stared at his text for a moment, curious as to what he had up his sleeve, before she shook her head with a slight incredulous laugh. “That already doesn’t bode well but I’ll see you then,” she sent before exiting the text thread and turning her cellphone face down on her desk.

Stevie leaned back in her chair and rested her head on the headrest. She stared up at the ceiling, wondering what she had just gotten herself into, and could feel a bit of anxiety creeping into the pit of her stomach. It was the good kind of nerves, the ones she got before she started school or whenever she met her friends somewhere new growing up, and it was almost a foreign feeling. She wasn’t sure what was happening to her, why she suddenly felt so giddy, but she didn’t have time to dwell on it as a knock sounded at her office door.

“Writer’s block again?” Noah asked as he entered the office and took a seat at the chair across from Stevie’s desk. He placed his coffee cup on the solid wood before sliding a second cup across to her.

“You’re the reason Calum was at the party, aren’t you?” she asked, completely ignoring his question as she sat up straight in her chair and reached out for the cup of tea in front of her. “You invited him.”

Noah, unsure what Stevie was getting at, nodded slowly. “Yeah. I told you, I want to do a feature on him and Ashton. I figured this would be a good way of getting him comfortable around me. But then he disappeared so…” Noah trailed off, this time glancing at Stevie with a sly smile.

Stevie rolled her eyes at the look Noah gave her. She believed him when he said that his intentions had been pure. She knew that he wanted to feature Ashton and Calum, along with a few other New York based artists, in the magazine and that this was his way of connecting Calum to their world. She knew how Noah thought. If Calum felt that he was a part of their world, if he felt connected to more than just Noah, he would be more willing to open up and agree to the feature. And Stevie imagined that was true. Calum seemed to be the type to do anything for his friends.

She kind of hoped he would agree. Her selfish desire to keep him in her life aside, Calum was talented. She truly believed that he deserved something good and she knew that the shop would experience a boom in inquiries, at least, with the exposure from the article. Stevie didn’t want him to turn into one of those Instagram famous tattoo artists that only cared about the likes - not that she imagined he would - but she did want him to get the recognition he deserved.

“I’ll ask him how he feels about the interview,” she relented, glancing over at Noah who had taken the liberty to place his feet in the chair beside him. “Maybe he’ll be into it.”

Noah, who had been staring at his laptop, glanced at Stevie over the lid of his coffee cup. “You seeing him again?” he asked, a smile quirking his lips as he watched Stevie fidget in her seat. “Where’d you guys run off to the other night, anyway?”

“We just went to get coffee,” Stevie huffed, tossing a paperclip in Noah’s direction before leaning back in her chair once more and lolling her head to the side. “We’re hanging out tomorrow. But just as friends!” she added quickly, shooting Noah a look when he raised his eyebrows and grinned at her.

Noah made a noise of acknowledgment but otherwise said nothing as he began tapping at his keyboard. Stevie rolled her eyes and folded her arms over her chest as she sank lower in her chair. “What are you doing in my office, other than being annoying?”

“Mark is yelling at the interns and I didn’t want to listen to that or to them talk shit about him when he finished, so, I’m hiding in here to get some work done.” Noah went quiet for a moment, staring at his laptop, before he looked over at Stevie and added, “Maybe you should get some done, too. That way you don’t have anything to worry about while you’re on your date with Calum.”

“It’s not a date! We’re just friends,” Stevie huffed.

“Sure you are,” Noah hummed, barely hiding his laughter as he did so. “Whatever helps you sleep at night, kid.”

Stevie rolled her eyes at Noah’s comment and pointedly turned her attention back to her own laptop. She stared at her screen, barely seeing the words on the word document she’d been working on, and felt herself begin to get lost in her own thoughts again. Although she meant it, that she and Calum were just friends, a small part of her - one that she refused to acknowledge - desperately wished that she didn’t.

**********

“Okay, so, tell me everything.”

Calum rolled his eyes as he searched his closet for his green ‘Empathy’ hoodie. He hadn’t seen it in weeks, although he was sure he’d washed it and stashed it somewhere in the depths of his wardrobe, but he wanted to wear it for his date - no, not date, adventure - with Stevie. It was the only solid green item he owned and though he felt cheesy, wearing green just because she loved it, he found himself hoping that she would like it as he made a quiet noise of triumph upon finding it in a pile of unfolded clothes tucked in the corner.

“There’s nothing to tell, Mali,” he mumbled as he emerged from his closet, tugging the green fabric over his head. “I’m just hanging out with a friend today. That’s it,” he said with a shrug as he avoided making eye contact with his sister.

Mali was perched on the foot of his bed, sitting amongst the pillows and blankets Tāne had piled onto the surface for their traditional Friday movie night the night before. Calum could feel her gaze on him, burning a hole into the back of his hoodie, as he searched for the grey beanie he’d taken to wearing. She’d been questioning him since she arrived and though he’d filled her in on the situation with El in advance of her visit - if Calum had to guess, that was likely the reason she’d decided to stop in New York and spend a week with him and Tāne, just so she could be there for the first custody hearing - he hadn’t mentioned Stevie to her. He guessed she’d talked to Ashton, or maybe Luke, and he made a mental note to tell them both to fuck off as he turned to face her once more.

“I don’t buy that,” she laughed as she stood from the bed and crossed the room to adjust the beanie for him. “But if that’s what you need to tell yourself, feel free. Tell me about her, though. Ashton said she’s nice.”

Calum rolled his eyes as Mali confirmed that it was Ashton who had told her about Stevie. “She is,” Calum confirmed as he stood and allowed Mali to adjust his clothing as she saw fit. “I don’t really know how to describe her,” he confessed after a moment of silence, when Mali began to grow impatient with his lack of an answer. “I know a little bit about her but I don’t know her that well yet. She’s nice and she’s beautiful. She’s talented. I’ve read a few of her articles and she’s a brilliant writer. She’s trying to finish a bucket list her best friend left and she just seems like such a good person but there’s something beneath it all. I want to get to know her and figure out what it is.”

Mali, who hadn’t heard Calum gush about anyone in years, was surprised to hear how much he had to say about this girl. She stared at him, her eyebrows raised, and Calum could feel his face heat as he looked away from her. He hadn’t meant to say all of that, he hadn’t meant to say anything at all, really, but he’d been keeping his thoughts to himself. He didn’t want to encourage Ashton to play matchmaker and he didn’t want to bother Michael who was dealing with a newborn and a packed appointment book. He hadn’t had a chance to sit down with Luke so he felt as if he hadn’t had the chance to get what he was feeling off his chest.

He liked Stevie, more than he cared to admit, and voicing that out loud was mildly terrifying.

“Well, even if you don’t know her that well, you seem to really like what you do know,” Mali commented as she stepped back and shot Calum a genuine smile. “I know that this is hard for you, getting back out there after El, but I’m proud of you, Cal. You’re trying and that’s all you can do.” Mali paused for a beat, watching Calum as he sprayed on a bit of cologne, before she hesitantly asked, “I don’t mean to bring you down before your date, but what are you going to do about El?”

“It’s not a date,” Calum clarified, breathing a heavy sigh as he crossed the room to take a seat on the foot of the bed. Mali followed suit, reaching out to nudge his shoulder as she took a seat beside him. “I don’t know, Mal. I’m trying to be the best dad I can be but I don’t feel like that’s enough. I keep thinking that if I don’t give them a reason to take Tāne away from me, they can’t. But I know how it usually goes. The dad rarely wins. I don’t know if there’s anything I can do now.”

“Don’t say that,” Mali chided, her voice gentle though her words were stern. “You’re a good dad, Cal. Any judge could see that you deserve to keep your son. Anyone who rules in her favor is obviously not fit to be on the bench,” she huffed and Calum laughed at the look on her face as she did. At the sight of Calum’s smile, Mali offered a small smile of her own in return. “Has your lawyer got any ideas?”

“She’s talking about using the paperwork we had drawn up last year as evidence El’s not doing this for the right reasons. She agreed to all the terms verbally, just never signed the papers giving up her rights. That’s the strongest thing we’ve got right now,” Calum answered with a shrug and Mali felt her heart break for her brother.

She hadn’t seen him look so defeated since El left, leaving him alone with a small child and no clue how to care for him on his own. Calum looked exhausted, the dark circles under his eyes evident. She knew that he wasn’t sleeping well and it looked like he wasn’t eating well, either. She knew that the stress of the impending custody battle was taking its toll on him and she hadn’t been surprised to find him curled up in bed with Tāne when she arrived. She knew that he was searching for happiness in the little things, in movie nights with his son and visits to coffee shops with Ashton, so she was more than happy to see Calum preparing for a date - even though he refused to acknowledge that’s what it was.

Calum breathed a heavy sigh but before he could continue speaking, quick footsteps alerted him to his son’s presence. He had barely glanced up when Tāne came running into the room, his pajamas wrinkled and his hair a wild mess of sleep mussed curls atop his head. “Aunt Mali!”

Calum watched with a fond smile as Tāne launched himself into Mali’s arms. “Hey, bub,” Mali cheered with a grin as she wrapped her arms around Tāne and hugged him. “You ready to spend the day together? Just us, no dad to bother us?”

“Yeah,” Tāne cheered, his cheeks pink with excitement as he settled on Mali’s lap. “Can we bake cookies?”

“You’re supposed to wait until I’m gone to ask about the stuff you’re not supposed to do, bub,” Calum reminded him with a laugh as he reached out to tickle his stomach. “Don’t give him too much chocolate, please,” he requested, glancing at Mali, even though he knew he’d return to find them both with stomachaches from ingesting far too many sweets.

“I make no promises,” Mali retorted with a grin, her arms wrapped around Tāne’s torso as she gave him a gentle squeeze. “We’re making our own rules today. The house will still be standing when you return, that’s the only guarantee I give you.”

Calum stared at her, an unamused look on his face, before he breathed a quiet laugh and shook his head in mock exasperation. “What are we going to do with her, huh, bub?” he asked Tāne as he stood from the bed and leaned down to press a kiss to the top of his son’s head. “You guys please try to be good today. I’ll be back in a little while. I love you both.”

“I love you, too, daddy,” Tāne called, a wide grin on his lips as he waved goodbye to Calum.

“Love you, too, Cal,” Mali repeated, her grin matching Tāne’s as she bounced her favorite nephew on her knee.

Calum was glad that Mali was here, that she was the one spending the day with Tāne and that she would be present for the hearing. He was glad that he had a sister like her, that they were close enough to call on one another in times of need, and he felt a little of his anxiety ease as he left his home.

Calum was excited for the day. He knew that this wasn’t a date, that it was just an outing with a potential new friend and her dog, but he felt butterflies in the pit of his stomach that he hadn’t felt in a long while. He hadn’t been on many - any, really - dates since El left. He’d been focused on balancing his son and his career. A partner didn’t exactly fit into his schedule but he always told himself that he’d try to be open to it should the opportunity present itself.

Though he still had his reservations, he knew that his first priority was on ensuring Tāne stay with him and not end up with El, the opportunity had fallen into his lap with Stevie. She was, at least on the surface, everything he wanted. A small part of him was thankful that she didn’t seem interested in anything romantic. This gave him a way to keep her at arm’s length while still getting to know her and easing her into his life. He hoped that by the time the custody battle was over, by the time Tāne was (hopefully) safe in his care, he would know Stevie well enough to know that she would fit perfectly into their lives.

He hoped that by getting to know her now, he could love her later.

As Calum approached the cafe, half expecting to see Stevie waiting out front or just inside the door, he imagined that loving her wouldn’t be very hard at all. She had a way about her, something that made those around her feel at ease, and Calum loved that. He loved how at ease she made him, how simple everything seemed when he was with her, and imagined that loving the big things would come just as naturally.

The vibrations of his cellphone tore Calum out of his thoughts and back to reality. “Running a few minutes late. Max is in a mood,” read a text from Stevie, explaining why she hadn’t beaten him to the coffee shop. He stood near the entrance for a moment, debating, before he decided to step inside and order drinks for the both of them, along with a peanut butter treat for Max.

Less than five minutes later, just as he emerged from the shop with a drink carrier in one hand and a bag with the treat in the other, Stevie rounded the corner. He almost laughed when he saw how similarly they were dressed. She was wearing ripped black mom jeans and a green hoodie, though hers was cropped and neon, with a grey beanie topping it all off. However, he did laugh when he noticed the small white dog tugging her down the street.

“Dude, slow the fuck down,” she huffed, sounding out of breath as she tried to keep pace with the small creature, “first you don’t want to go and now you can’t get there fast enough? Come on.”

“Is Max the one in a mood or was that you?” Calum asked, a slight grin on his lips as he placed the drinks and bag on a table before bending down and offering Max his hand to sniff.

“Max started it,” Stevie explained with a huff, trying to catch her breath as she watched Max lick Calum’s hand. “He didn’t want to get out of bed and refused to walk when we got outside. I had to carry him four blocks. But the second he smelled food, he was trying to jump out of my arms and sprint to it.”

“He knows what he wants,” Calum reasoned with a laugh as he scratched Max’s head before standing and smiling at Stevie. He met her gaze for a brief moment, his eyes shining with amusement and hers narrowed in mock exasperation before he laughed and said, “Good morning.”

“Good morning,” Stevie returned with a small smile. She looked like she hadn’t been awake long, Calum could see the marks from her pillow on her cheek and the way her hair was still mussed (maybe that was why she’d chosen the beanie) and he felt his heart warm at the sight. “Can you tell me what today’s adventure is?”

Calum laughed at Stevie’s question and shook his head as he reached out for the tray and bag. “You’ll see when we get there,” he told her as he handed her her latte. “This is for you,” he explained before he handed her the bag, “and this is for Max. I don’t know if you want him to have it now or later so I’ll just give it to you.”

“He’s weird about eating on places that aren’t my kitchen rug so I’ll give it to him when we get home,” she explained as she placed the bag into her backpack before glancing at him. “Thank you. You really didn’t have to get me this or Max a treat.”

“I pulled you guys away from spending the day on your couch,” Calum reasoned with a shrug as he pulled his own drink free from the tray. “It’s the least I can do. You want to start heading to our destination?”

Although Stevie gave a wary hum, she willingly followed Calum down the sidewalk. The pair of them walked, side by side, as Max happily lead the way. Although he was just as in the dark as Stevie, he was happy to guide them through the busy streets of New York and soak up whatever attention was thrown his way.

“How long have you been in New York?” Calum asked after a few beats of comfortable silence, marked by the pair of them sipping their lattes and taking in the cool morning air.

“About two months. It feels like forever, though,” Stevie answered with a laugh as they waited at a crosswalk. “You’ve been here a while, though, yeah?”

“Mm, a little over six years,” he confirmed as they skirted around a crowd and inched closer to their destination. “Do you miss home?”

“Sometimes,” Stevie answered with a shrug as she kept her gaze on Max. “I miss the food, mostly. I haven’t found a good Cajun place in New York yet. And the way I didn’t really have an accent there but I have one here. Also, people look at you funny if you use manners here. I said yes ma’am to this woman in a shop, she had to be at least fifty, and she got so offended that I was calling her old. Like, no, I’m not calling you old, I’m just being polite.”

Stevie huffed at the end of her rant and Calum laughed as he watched her roll her eyes at the encounter she recalled. This was a moment he enjoyed, seeing her with her guard somewhat down and so animated as she described her feelings about living in New York. These were the moments he felt that he was seeing the real Stevie, not the front she put on or the smile she wore. The emotion was real and she wore it well.

“What about you?” she asked, pulling him back to the moment. He looked over and saw that she was glancing at him from the corner of her eye, her gaze curious as she attempted to pay attention to both him and Max.

“Yeah,” Calum nodded, a wistful smile on his lips as he held onto his now lukewarm latte. “I miss it a lot. I love New York, don’t get me wrong, but I’d love to go home someday. Everything was easier there, more relaxed.” He paused for a moment before he added, “I miss my family, too. My sister’s a musician, she’s in town for a show now. She and Tāne are having their own day and pretty much kicked me out of the house,” Calum explained with a laugh as he glanced over at Stevie once more. “I get to see her more often than my parents but I still miss being at home with them all.”

“Family means a lot to you, huh?” she asked, her expression unreadable as she returned her full attention to Max and attempted to keep him from bothering another small dog sitting outside a cafe.

Calum nodded. Family meant more to him than almost anything else - and he counted his friends, the guys, as his family just as much as his son or his sister - and he would do anything for them. They were one of the biggest pieces of his heart and he didn’t know where he’d be without each of them.

“What about you?” Calum asked after a momentary lull in conversation. “Any siblings?”

Stevie hesitated for a moment before she shook her head. “Nope.” Her tone was clipped and Calum could see that there was more to her answer than a simple no but he didn’t want to pry. He knew that there was a lot about Stevie he didn’t know, there was a lot she was keeping hidden from him, but he hoped that in time, she would trust him enough to reveal her secrets.

Instead of continuing that line of questioning, Calum asked, “How long have you had Max? You guys seem like you know one another pretty well.”

“Two years,” Stevie answered with a small smile as she glanced at the ball of fluff bouncing along ahead of them. “He’s my best boy and I love him a lot. He drives me insane sometimes, he likes to sleep on top of my head like a fucking cat, but I would trade him for anything. The little monster,” she huffed as she watched him stop to sniff a lamppost. “Do you have any pets?”

“No,” Calum answered with a sigh. “I want one and so does Tāne, we both love dogs, but between his schedule and mine, I don’t really have time to take care of one and it wouldn’t be fair to get a dog we couldn’t care for.”

Stevie nodded in understanding as she glanced over at Calum. “I get it. If you guys ever just want to borrow a little dog with a big personality for a day, Max loves kids,” she offered with a laugh.

“I think Tāne would love that. I’ll just have to make sure there aren’t any markers around or you’ll end up with a dog that matches your hair.”

“I think Max could go for a new do, honestly,” Stevie shrugged, grinning at the mental image of her dog returning to her with green fur. “He’d let him. Max is literally the most chill dog on the planet. Sometimes he’s a little diva, wanting everything his way, but he’s a good boy.”

As Stevie and Calum talked about Max, about how she adopted him from a shelter in south Mississippi just before he was due to be put down and how she never imagined she could love a pet as much as she loved him, neither of them noticed their destination fast approaching. Calum guided her through the streets she wasn’t yet familiar with, ushering Max along almost subconsciously, and he was glad that the weather was mild enough for them to wander the streets without freezing or sweating.

It was comfortable, walking along with Stevie as if this was a normal part of their day, and he wondered what they must look like to passersby. They wore nearly identical sweatshirts, each in shades of green, with matching beanies and black jeans. They looked like one of those couples that attempted to coordinate outfits, even if they were neither a couple nor attempting to coordinate, and Calum liked thinking that others would get that impression of them.

It made him feel better for wanting it to be reality.

However, Calum imagined that Stevie’s comfort would end soon as they approached their destination for the day; The Empire State Building. He knew that this was one item on her - Angela’s - bucket list that she was terrified to accomplish and he hoped that having a hand to hold would make things easier for her. He’d wondered if he was overstepping by dragging her through the city, to the one destination he knew she was terrified to go, but he reminded himself that she’d been terrified of getting a tattoo and she’d accomplished that for her friend.

If he could make the process of mourning, what he imagined her completing the bucket list was, any easier, he was going to.

“Okay, so, now that we’re almost there, I think I can tell you what we’re doing,” Calum said, breaking the silence that had fallen over them. “I wanted to help you cross off another item on your list.”

“I don’t think you’d let me bring Max to roller derby and we’re not that close to Central Park. So, I’m guessing it’s the Empire State Building,” Stevie breathed, her voice shaking just a bit as Calum imagined she was dreading being so high up.

“Yeah. I figured you wouldn’t want to do this one alone,” he pointed out with a shrug as he shoved his hands into his pockets, now free of the latte. “We don’t have to, if you don’t want to. I just thought it’d make it easier for you.”

Stevie was quiet for a moment, staring at the entrance to the building across the street. Calum could tell that she was nervous, just as she had been the day he met her, but he could see her steeling herself to complete the task. She was there, right across the street, and she needed to cross off another item.

“Thank you,” she nodded, finally turning her head to look at him. “You’re right, I didn’t want to do this alone. I appreciate this.”

Calum didn’t know how to respond to her gratitude so instead of speaking, he gave her a smile he hoped would convey his emotions and gestured for her to follow him across the street. They were both silent as they made their way inside, Stevie holding Max in her arms and Calum standing closer than he imagined he should as they boarded the elevator to the observation deck. He could see the way she tapped her foot and patted Max’s side anxiously, her movements giving away her panic as she watched the elevator climb higher and higher.

Without really thinking too m much about it, Calum reached out and grabbed her free hand.

Stevie paused, blinking in surprise, and Calum almost pulled his hand away but before he could, she laced her fingers through his and squeezed. He glanced down at their intertwined hands, her pale, unmarked hand a stark contrast in his ink-covered one but it was nice. It felt normal, like this was where they belonged, and he returned the gesture with a squeeze of his own as the elevator doors chimed and began to open.

Calum let Stevie lead the way to the edge of the deck. He didn’t want to push her faster than she wanted to go, he just wanted to support her. They lingered near the center for a moment, her breathing deeply and clutching Calum’s hand, before they slowly approached the side to look out at the city.

The view was just as beautiful as Calum remembered and, if the gasp Stevie emitted was anything to go on, he believed she felt the same way. Everything looked so small from so high up, one of the biggest cities in the world was reduced to a child’s miniature, and Calum always felt grounded when looking out at this view. Stevie continued to clutch his hand, her nails digging into his skin, but she kept her eyes on the view.

Calum didn’t want to ruin the moment so he remained silent as they stood there, staring out at the city. He could see her bite her bottom lip out of the corner of his eye and when he turned his head to face her, he could see the unshed tears lining her lashes. It was another moment of peace for her, a moment that she needed, and he was glad that he could give it to her as he gently squeezed her hand once more.

They spent nearly thirty minutes there, just looking out at the city and watching life pass them by, before they took the same journey down the elevator and back out onto the street. Although Stevie returned Max to the ground, letting her furry best friend return to sniffing every object in the city, her hand remained in Calum’s as they began their walk back to the cafe.

“Thank you for this,” Stevie said, after they walked several blocks in silence. She looked over at him, a sincere smile on her lips as she met his gaze. “I knew I had to do that sooner or later but having someone with me made it easier.”

“Any time,” Calum answered. And he truly meant it. Although he never meant for Stevie to become such a big part of his life, although he was telling the truth when he told Mali that he didn’t really know her that well, he found himself eager to usher her into his life. He wanted to get to know her. He wanted to make her a part of the family he cared so much for. He wanted her to be happy and he wanted to be the one to make her happy.

He wanted her.

And as they approached the cafe, their time together nearly over, Calum told her as much. “Would you want to hang out again sometime?” he asked, his tone hopeful as he gently squeezed her hand. “It doesn’t have to be crossing off another bucket list item or a date or anything. I meant it when I said I wanted to get to know you.”

“I think I’d prefer hanging out without facing another fear,” she answered with a laugh as they stopped by the cafe and stepped out of the way on the sidewalk. “I’ll be honest,” she began, her voice quiet as she stared down at her feet, “I haven’t made many friends since I’ve been in New York and today was nice. I don’t…” She trailed off, seemingly searching for right words, and Calum waited patiently as she cobbled together the right sentence. “I don’t know if a relationship is right for me, not right now, but I really would like to hang out with you again.”

Although Calum was somewhat disappointed, he respected where she stood and he was grateful that she was being so honest with him about her feelings. He wanted whatever she would give him, though, and if he had to wait until she was ready, he would.

“That’s okay,” he nodded, meaning it wholeheartedly. “Whatever you want this to be, that’s fine with me. As long as I get to see you again.”

Stevie smiled, a barely there quirk of her lips, and squeezed Calum’s hand once more before she untangled their fingers and nodded. “You’re a good person, Calum Hood. You know that?” When he shrugged, not at all convinced he was as good as she imagined he was, she breathed a quiet laugh and shook her head. “I’ll see you later, Calum. Thank you.”

Calum watched as Stevie and Max melted into the crowd of New Yorkers, bustling down the busy sidewalks. He watched until the neon green of her hoodie was no longer visible and, when he knew that she was gone, turned to head home himself.

__________________________________________________________

Author’s Note: I’m aware that dogs can’t go into the Empire State Building unless they’re service dogs. But this is fiction so let me live on this one detail. I slept past eight this morning which was nice. Also I’m done with my thesis until I get edits from my advisor and then I have 24 hours to edit it and get it to my committee and then I’ll be done forever so that’s terrifying. Also, I love feedback so please let me know how you feel about Stevie and Cal??????

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infinitum-imaginaerum · 5 years

Text

Graffiti | Jaehyun | 04

Badboy Tagger!Jaehyun | Mini-series Words | 3,800- Warnings | Language, mature themes, blood, violence. Notes | Hiii, here I am a whole year later writing another installment because even if nobody is reading this anymore (and they’re probably not) I vowed two things for this blog: I would never delete anything (with exception), and I would never leave anything unfinished so here I am.

03 | 04 | 05

The day didn’t pass well. You hoped he would reply, but you were unsure how long you were willing to grace him before it was time for you to contact him again. The sun was going down, so it was about to be prime for him and his gang’s activity. His thread sat open on your phone as you glowered at it, placed against the armrest of your couch. You’d hardly picked at any food all day, water about the only thing that survived in your stomach as the bad feeling from the previous night still hadn’t subsided.

He said he was okay. You were inclined to believe him; but with the lack of response, or anything really from him at all, you questioned that. It became too much for you to take anymore pretty quickly.

10:27 PM: Are you going to ignore me all day?

Jaehyun didn’t even feel his phone vibrate in his pocket. The only sensation he knew was his hot breath against his face, covered by a dust mask, as he sprayed the wall in front of him, covering it in a menagerie of colors in very precise lines. Yuta was to his right, greasing the trucks on his skateboard while Jungwoo worked on a small piece of his own on an adjacent wall.

The abused plastic container on the ground gave and received numerous bottles of paint, the air thick with the sound of small metal balls inside the cans as they were being shaken, mixed to apply the appropriate color despite the separation.

After finishing another small section, Jaehyun tossed the can back into the plastic container and plopped onto the ground next to Yuta. He tugged the dust mask down over his chin and looked at the older male.

“You grease those basically every day,” he commented, making small talk since the air was kind of thick, and not just with fumes.

“She’s been my trusty board for years, I have to take care of her with how much I ride,” Yuta replied with a soft chuckle, matching that from Jaehyun.

Jungwoo plopped onto the dirt soon after, next to the two older males.

“Have you talked to your duchess today?” he inquired. Jaehyun shot him a look—where did he even hear that from? The thought of you put a hole in his stomach, as he was amidst the great decision of leaving you alone or not. After dropping you off last night, he had intended to see you again, but after everything that went down following that, it fell into serious question.

Tentatively, Jaehyun shook his head, which seemed to surprise not only Jungwoo, but Yuta as well.

“And she hasn’t tried to contact you?”

“I left her on read. It’s kind of up to me to say something…” he trailed off.

“You should probably say something. What if she gets worried? She’s got that glint in her eyes, Jaehyun—she’ll come looking for you if she thinks you’re in trouble.”

“That’s ridiculous of you to even say,” Jaehyun replied sharply, looking at the older male.

“I’m just saying, she knows something’s up with you after you texted all night. I wasn’t trying to snoop, but I saw a piece of your message. The please tell me you’re okay bit is pretty concerning. I’ve only encountered her personally once, but you know how I am about being able to read people—”

“That’s enough,” Jaehyun interrupted. He didn’t want to entirely discount what Yuta was saying, but the more he spoke, the more the reality of the situation set it. His phone was burning in his pocket, your unread message still sitting there, begging for his attention.

“On top of that, you might want to tell her about your hand,” Yuta added, despite Jaehyun’s plea for him to just be quiet.

His gaze shifted to his injured left hand, still wrapped up despite the bloodied gauze having been changed. The wrap was thinner now, bleeding subsided. He clenched it as far as he could before standing and tugged his mask back on to select another color from the beaten plastic container and continue his piece.

Against your better judgement, and knowing Jaehyun would undoubtedly be mad at you—if he even had more room to be mad at you—you pulled on your running shoes and grabbed a few things, including a light jacket, and took off into the night. This time, you had a plan for where to go. You remembered the ditch and how to get there, so you checked there first but there was no fire, and no signs of life. You checked painted walls, small crevices between buildings, and looked into every window of every open shop you passed before pulling out your phone again.

11:57pm: Jaehyun…

It was really all the heart you had to say before shoving it back into your pocket and taking a seat on the street-curb. Something felt so wrong. You couldn’t decide if you thought he was in trouble or if you were just having some irrational thoughts about the way you felt about him. You hadn’t known him for very long, so you supposed it was normal to be questioning the chemistry between the two of you. Either way, you rested your chin in the palm of your hand and looked up towards the stars before a waft of aerosol fumes crossed your nose.

The quiet jingling of a can caught your attention, and with all the hyper-focus you could muster, pinged a couple of male voices, one you for sure recognized. After making your way to your feet, you spotted an alleyway between buildings. You made your way over to it, creeping up to it to see if you could see far enough to recognize whoever was back there.

A sharp squeal exited your lips when you were grabbed from behind, a large and sweaty hand thrown over your mouth as you were turned and pushed up into the rough brick of the building. Fear was the first emotion to course through you, but upon seeing a familiar face, a fire grew in your stomach.

There, pinning you against the wall, was Yejun himself with a grin only the devil could have.

“What are you doing out here in the dark, and so alone?” he asked patronizingly. He was referencing your distinct lack of a protective Jaehyun and crew, but with his hand over your mouth, he muffled a reply he was shocked you even had. Despite that, he let go of your mouth, but instead pinned you by the throat, cutting off your airways to prevent you from screaming.

“You should know better by now than to go off by yourself, and now that I have you, Jaehyun will pay in the most severe manner; he won’t ever forget this cute little face—”

“I don’t need him,” you replied, voice hoarse and strained against the grip of his hand on your throat. Your hands were tugging at his, appearing to be much to weak to have him release you, but for some reason, you weren’t afraid.

“You don’t need him?” Yejun scoffed then laughed and looked at his partner, “It appears to me that you’re in a little bit of trouble.”

You flexed your fingers, digging your sharp nails deep into the soft skin on the back of Yejun’s hand and, with a quiet hiss following a rather loud gasp, brought his other hand back with the intention of striking you. If he were a little quicker, perhaps he would have succeeded, but you had already brought your own hand back and, in a downward sweep, slashed your nails across his eye, clawing into the skin across his face to cut it open.

A loud and aggravated yell echoed through the alleyway, and the boys who were previously laughing together all turned their heads in the direction of it. The distance was a bit far, not even a squint would help.

“Little bitch!” Yejun roared, reeling back as he cupped both hands over his face while the other man with him apprehended you. A slight squeak fell from your lips, the hard knuckles of a backhand making contact with your cheek but that didn’t prevent the twisted sense of accomplishment you felt when Yejun pulled his bloodied hands away from his face for you to see three diagonal slices across his left eye socket and over his cheek. You could feel remnants of flesh under your nails for a moment as the fight was kicking in and you rolled onto your back just in time to kick away Yejun’s partner, concerned not with the aching in your cheek that was sure to be swollen any moment.

You could hear the distinct click of Yejun’s switchblade, a point at which you stood little chance as you lay on the sidewalk near the building you’d previously been pinned against. With all the breath your lungs could muster, you ripped a scream loud enough to ring in Yejun’s ears, distracting him for only a moment that you were able to sweep kick his ankles.

At the sound of the scream, Yuta was first to draw his blade after casting his board aside. He could vaguely see two bodies on the ground and could identify the scream as female, meaning someone was in trouble and he couldn’t just let it go—not in his neighborhoods. Jungwoo looked at Jaehyun who watched on as Yuta cautiously approached just enough to become aware of the bodies, and then took off in a dash. It was slightly alarming to the two others who followed behind, but stayed in the distance.

You flung your foot upwards into the crotch of the other male ready to nab you, sending him to the floor in a hurry just as Yuta was approaching. The sight of another body sent you in full defense mode. He kicked at the knife loosely in Yejun’s hand before he was hauling you to your feet. You clawed into the back of his hand, unable to get a good glimpse of whoever it was, all you knew was that you were in trouble and you had to fight.

He hissed quietly, but no protest other than that left his lips until he was identifying himself.

“It’s me, it’s Yuta,” he uttered to you through his gritted teeth, trying to stave the pain of his tearing flesh as best he could. It took a minute to process, but once you recognized the name, you stopped trying to rip all the flesh off the back of his hand. Your wide eyes turned to him, just to double check and he could see the adrenaline still pumping through you.

Yejun had barely made it back to his feet, forgetting about his knife for a moment as he lunged at the both of you, only to grunt and gag after being abruptly taken into a headlock. Yuta held you protectively as the two of you looked on, Jaehyun’s strong arm hooked around Yejun’s neck and pulled tightly.

“I thought I said if you went after her again, I would kill you,” Jaehyun growled, his leather jacket easy protection from Yejun’s prying claws, attempting to tear Jaehyun’s arm from around his neck, but it merely tightened, and the choking continued a little more roughly. Jungwoo had apprehended Yejun’s right hand man, able to handle him on his own, although the bigger male was still mostly incapacitated, able to feel your strike for generations to come.

The sight of those three gashes across his face sent your heart beating a little faster; from just above his eyebrow across the bridge of his nose were three blinding and bloody marks that oozed the more Jaehyun choked him.

“Let him go,” you uttered quietly. Yuta looked at you, turning you a little bit to get a look at your face. Jungwoo looked at you; although he hadn’t been a part of previous altercations, he’d clearly heard of you. Jaehyun’s gaze snapped to you, softening in an instant as he processed the terror on your face. Your fight had subsided a bit, and although that man had directly put your life in danger, your conscious felt a little differently. Jaehyun wouldn’t let up, though; he wasn’t very lenient with his warnings, ever. He made Yejun a promise that it would be his last day, aggressively crossing your path again.

Yejun’s face was turning colors, those gashes oozing as he struggled, the gagging ringing in your ears seemed to have no affect on the three around you. You could almost see the muscles shift under the sleeve of Jaehyun’s jacket as it continued to constrict even tighter with zero intention of heeding your request.

You shook Yuta off you and took a step forward, just out of reach of Yejun’s swinging leg, but it didn’t faze you. Jaehyun stared at you, stared at the bruise forming on your cheek that made his blood boil and a strained noise came from Yejun’s throat.

“Jaehyun,” you growled sharply.

Jaehyun’s arm unleashed from Yejun’s neck, who promptly dropped to the floor and gasped for hair in the most grotesque fashion, undoubted damage to his trachea as he clasped at his own neck. Jaehyun cast you aside for a moment as he looked down at Yejun.

“Rest assured, next time, you won’t be so lucky. If I catch you one more time, Yejun… take your wicked life and get the fuck out of my neighborhood,” Jaehyun growled, kicking the injured male back onto his side after he had struggled to make it to his knees in the first place. You took a hold of Jaehyun’s arm, pulling him away from the struggling male.

“That’s enough,” you whispered to him, taking his cheek to turn his gaze to you instead of glaring holes through Yejun.

His eyes sparkled in the streetlights like all the stars in the galaxy as he looked at you. Stubborn about turning all the way towards you in case Yejun wanted to finish it, it took two fistfuls of his leather jacket to turn him completely, but he still didn’t go easily. The scabbed cut on his cheek didn’t go unnoticed as you touched against it with your thumb, still fairly fresh, and only when his hand rose to bring your hand away from it did you notice the bandaging around his hand.

When you noticed that, you could feel him shift uncomfortably and avoid your gaze for a moment. You couldn’t find the words, no matter how hard you tried, to ask him what had happened. Yuta and Jungwoo had disposed of Yejun and his counterpart in due time in the background.

“Not here,” he pleaded, turning his desperate gaze back to you. “Please, not here,” he muttered about your imminent chat. There were many things to discuss, and he was pissed as all hell that he only had about nineteen hours to figure it out.

The four of you meandered back over to the bucket of spray paints and Yuta’s board among other things to get everything cleaned up before you’d head out for your chat. Jungwoo and Yuta eyeballed each other, trying to keep you and Jaehyun out of their silent exchange for a moment. You sat quietly while everything was picked up and, just as Yuta and Jungwoo were about to leave you be, Yuta had to comment.

“Not to rub it in, but I told you she’d come look for you,” Yuta commented, earning a warranted growl from the younger male because, if he was going to rub it in, he at least could have done it not in front of you.

“Get,” Jaehyun growled, fist clenching at his side. You looked up at Yuta who returned your gaze, just more pathetically. He knew the two of you were probably in for another long night, so he quickly assembled his board and gathered the paints and dust-masks with Jungwoo’s help and they were gone in a hurry. Jaehyun stood there with a heavy sigh, contemplating his half-completed work that splayed across the cinder bricks. You sat silently, waiting for him to say something to you.

“Jaehy—”

“He was going to kill you,” Jaehyun snapped, but still kept his gaze across the menagerie of colors, noticing every imperfection that lay in it now that he was giving it a scrutinizing second look.

“Put that aside for a minute,” you begged from the ground as you looked at him.

“I can’t,” he growled through his teeth. “I’m the whole reason you’re in this mess. He was going to kill you to get to me. He was going to kill you to shatter me. I’ve always been the hardest to break. I never get attached to anything for fear it will be ripped from me just like that,” he explained, reaching out to touch the still slightly wet paint across his new piece to wipe it, ruining the image that decorated with a hand shaped smear.

You’d stood from the ground while he was busy talking at his work. You dusted yourself off and ambled over to him to take his arm to turn him. He looked at you almost pathetically, while you looked up at him like he was your stars in the night sky.

“Put it aside for a moment,” you whispered, looked up at him, and took his cheeks in your hands. The way your eyes glanced between his gave his shoulders the means to slump, finally able to relax a bit, even if your thumb grazed the cut he couldn’t stand to have you see on his face. He looked at your injuries with the same disdain, watching the purple hues rise to the surface of your skin around your eye socket and he would have clenched his fists if they hadn’t occupied themselves by wiping wet paint on his jeans before taking your waist to drag you into him.

He wanted to delay the imminent conversation a little longer, so he pressed his forehead against yours and took a deep breath, letting his eyes flutter closed as he slowly began to sway with you. You could feel the uneasy way his fingers clawed against your back, searching for words deep in the maelstrom of his mind. Admittedly, you arched into the way he held your back, stroking down your spine now and again to press you deeper against him before he finally decided the correct, simple sentence.

“I’m so wrong for you,” he whispered, breath fanning across your face and you could feel his brow draw together against your forehead, grip turning a little more anxious. “I would have ended him in a moment to keep you safe; but you are so gracious and gentle—”

“Do you even hear yourself when you talk?”

He scoffed gently, trying to understand your implications; exactly what part was he supposed to hear that was supposed to convince him that he wasn’t so wrong for you?

“I don’t know what your history with Yejun is. I don’t know what your history is at all, but you’ve made it painfully obvious that your mission now is to protect me—”

“I put you in danger, it’s my responsibility to make sure nothing happens to you because of me,” he interrupted, reeling back so that he could look at you. That brow was still drawn, displaying apparent dissatisfaction, but his gaze was so much softer than it had been when he spared you a glance while dealing with Yejun.

“You got me out of danger in the first place,” you reminded him, pushing your hands passed his cheeks so you could drape your hands around his neck and shoulders. “Aside from that, it was never your responsibility to step in; you did, though. You’re a good man, Jaehyun.”

He scoffed again. “A good man,” he jeered sarcastically. “I’ve never been a good man; I’ve been a trouble maker, a fighter, a hoodlum—”

“That does not stunt your capacity to be a good man in other things,” you reasoned some more.

“Why are you trying to convince me?”

“Because apparently it takes some convincing for you to see it,” you responded a little roughly. “Do you not see how you’ve changed my fate on so many different occasions, all because of your good heartedness? You are so stubborn and particularly hard-headed and while I know that comes with the territory of the life you grew up in… if you weren’t a good man, why would you do those things for me?”

Jaehyun opened his mouth to speak, but the words wouldn’t come out—he didn’t really have any words to share with you in the first place, at least no good ones.

“Maybe you’re right,” he conceded a bit, his tone softening but his grip around you never wavered. “But when I look in the mirror, when I see the scars everywhere, I don’t feel like a good man.”

“You just need someone who will see those scars and appreciate them because they’re part of you. They’re reminders of experiences that made you, you, and if that makes someone love you right, then there’s no reason to be ashamed of them,” you encouraged, filing your fingers through the hair on the nape of his neck.

He reveled in the feel, because you watched the way his eyes fluttered a bit, the way his jaw shifted and clenched, the way his exhale extended. His eyes gazed over your face, reaching here and there to brush some stray strands of hair away from it. The silence was calming as he soaked it all in; ultimately, you were right. He’d always had bad associations with those scars, but you had a way with words that made him consider working on wiping all of those associations away to build new ones. Part of him, deep down that he tried to tuck away, didn’t believe you. He wanted to show you, wanted you to feel them all and tell him you weren’t afraid, that you didn’t judge him because he knew you would.

“I’m not afraid of you, Jaehyun,” you told him, as if you were able to read his mind. “You think you’re all bad, rough, edginess. You’re just as gentle as you think I am, the way you’ve been holding me since we came over here.”

“Stop,” he pleaded, taking both of your cheeks in his hands. He gnawed his bottom lip, looking over your face multiple times. His tongue danced behind his teeth, jaw shifting.

“Why?” you asked.

“Because, I’m about to be an absolute mess for you.”

#jaehyun #jung jaehyun #nct #nct jaehyun #jaehyun scenarios #jaehyun series #nct scenarios #nct series #badboy jaehyun #series: graffiti

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biscuitreviews · 4 years

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Biscuit Reviews The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

When I started this blog almost three years ago, there were a couple games that sort of inspired me to start it. Followers will know that I started with a back to back to back marathon of Persona 3, 4, and 5. There was also another game that contributed to me wanting to start this blog as well and that was the Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. It’s a game that won many 2017 Game of the Year from a lot of outlets. I also marked it as one of my top games of 2017 but ultimately gave the Game of the Year to Persona 5.

In my first playthrough of Breath of the Wild, I played it on Wii U and I loved it. I recently repurchased it on Switch along with the DLC pass. For this review, I’m going to look at not only the main game, but also give an opinion on the DLC as well.

You are Link, a man who wakes up in a strange chamber with no memories of how he got there or what happened that led to him being in the chamber. Shortly after Link wakes up and he hears a voice how his help is needed to defeat Calamity Ganon and save Hyrule once and for all after it’s been in chaos for 100 years. With nothing but the voice to guide him, Link sets out to help the voice to not only save Hyrule, but to hopefully learn more about who he is along the way.

I do want to highlight the area you start at. It’s an area of Hyrule known as “The Great Plateau.” It’s a large area that Link cannot leave until he accomplishes certain tasks. Until then, the player has free reign in this area. They can explore, climb and learn the game mechanics in a small controlled area. There’s even a mysterious old man that will offer Link tips and teach the player a few things that the environment can’t teach them.

Having a mysterious old man in this area encouraged players to talk to him to try to figure who he is, which in turn gave the designers and developers a way to teach the player about how the mechanics of the world worked. Talking to the old man however, is completely your choice. You are by no means forced to talk to him all the time, only in certain instances that move you forward to leaving the area. Even in those instances, he’s just giving you goals, he doesn’t tell you what to do or railroad you. As you walk around the plateau, that’s when you can see him in various areas and can approach him to learn other things like hunting, cooking, and stealth. Learning these skills is purely your choice whether to talk to him and learn.

Something else that I love about The Great Plateau is how it gives you all of the tools you will need in the game at the very start. Getting these tools not only teaches you how they work, but they also teach you about Shrines, which act as mini dungeons that have puzzles for you to solve where you obtain Spirit Orbs. After completing all the Shrines on the Plateau, you are then taught to give Spirit Orbs to a statue to increase your health or stamina, which in turn creates a positive reinforcement for you the player to seek out more Shrines.

You’re then given a paraglider to leave The Great Plateau and make your way to your next destination. Even though you’re given directions on how to get there, the game doesn’t restrict you in following that path. In fact, you can get to your destination however you want to get to it. However, following the path teaches you more about the world. Nothing is stopping you, it’s your journey and your choice if you want to go right into the adventure or if you want to explore.

Unlike in previous Zelda games, you are not given a starting weapon and shield, in fact you have to find your weapons and shields from the environment and they have durability. These weapons are extremely fragile, at least at first. These weapons will break fairly often. This encourages players to learn the different weapon types so that they know how to use them. You will eventually find weapons that won’t break as quickly, but they will break eventually.

You might think, well that’s fine, I’ll just find the Master Sword and have a weapon that doesn’t break. You see that was my thought in the first playthrough of the game. To find the Master Sword, because there’s no way that Nintendo could break the Master Sword. Well, turns out Nintendo can. The Master Sword can run out energy and will have to take 10 minutes to recharge.

That’s right, the Master Sword can get tired.

It’s a really weird thing, but I get that Nintendo needed to find a way to have the Master Sword follow the rules of the established weapon mechanics. I just wish that Nintendo found a better way.

The Divine Beasts serve as the “traditional dungeons” for Breath of the Wild and I love how you have to manipulate the layout of the beast itself to solve many of the puzzles within. The boss fights however are a low point. I do like the idea that it’s a piece of Ganon that you fight, but I don’t like that the boss itself is just fightable like a normal enemy and doesn’t have its own puzzle to fight them.

However, I feel it suffers the same problem as “A Link Between Worlds” In that entry, you were able to take on the dungeons in any order. Although it provided great freedom on what to do, it came at a cost on its difficulty because any dungeon could be your “first” dungeon. Breath of the Wild suffers from that as well, any of the Divine Beasts can be your first Divine Beast so there is no slight increase in difficulty in dungeon layout and puzzles.

I feel the story of Breath of Wild contains suffers as well. Any piece of the story you find, can be your first memory and these memories do what they can to be self contained and not rely on another memory to tell a story.

You do learn more about the pieces of what happened 100 years ago to Link, but again that’s only if you want to pursue those pieces and that’s what I think makes Breath of Wild really stand out is how much choice the game gives the player. Want to learn about the story, do these quests, don’t care for the story, that’s fine go do whatever you want. Even the Shrines, despite having an ideal way to solve them, there are multiple ways to solve a puzzle. You could argue it makes puzzles easier to solve, but I think that’s what the developers wanted. You could do it the designed way, or you can do what the mechanics allow and solve it yourself in your own unique way.

The game also constantly rewards you with exploring and experimenting and even encourages it. Because there’s so much to see and explore, Hyrule being a giant world doesn’t feel like a giant empty world as there is always something around every corner. Simply exploring rewards you with Shrines, weapons, ruppees, secrets, Koroks Seeds to expand your inventory, there’s a lot to gain simply by just exploring.

Breath of Wild is great because of the freedom it allows its player. The freedom allows you to pick and choose what you the player care more about for your experience. It’s the freedom that really makes a huge difference and in my opinion makes the game really stand out.

When I first played the game, I didn’t think it was exactly the 10/10 or in my case the 5 out of 5 game that everyone was giving it, but was still a great game in it’s own right. But honestly, after a few years away from the hype, I think the game really is deserving of all of those accolades. Mostly because of the amount of freedom it allows. Exploring, fighting, climbing mountains, and learning about the story and lore of Hyrule. All of this can be done at your pace and I think giving the player that control and making their own story along the way is what makes Breath of the Wild, a truly fantastic game.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild receives a 4 out of 5

As for the DLC pass, the first expansion gives you a combat trial where if you complete it enhances the power of the Master Sword. This power just makes it to where the Master Sword is powered up all the time rather than near corrupted areas and corrupted Guardians.

There’s also quite a few quests that lead you to find items and outfits from past Zelda games, however they’re not upgradable in anyway and are mostly cosmetic for the most part. A few of them do have special abilities, but overall, it’s more about having the item tied to past Zelda games.

There’s also Master Mode which contains stronger enemies and they also heal overtime while you’re fighting them. It also allows you to save Master Mode as a different save slot from your original file making it to where you have one regular save file and one Master Mode save file. I will admit that I’m disappointed that Master Mode came in a DLC pass rather than an unlockable mode after clearing the game like in previous Zelda titles.

The second expansion is a new story known as the Champions Ballad, which provides more Shrines and trials that reward you with a cutscene on how Zelda recruits the Champion to her cause 100 years ago. It’s cool to see, but I was hoping for more of an insight into the Champions. The extra trials are really fun and some of them are actually a bit difficult to do. Even the final boss of the expansion was a bit of a challenge. In the end you get the Zero Bike, which is a motorcycle that you can summon anywhere. The motorcycle does run on fuel, but you can refuel with anything and depending on the items and how many items, depends how much the tank is filled.

As far as the expansion pass goes, if you like Breath of the Wild and just want more game, it definitely gives you more. My biggest disappointment was with the Champions Ballad as it was advertised as a more story heavy expansion, when in reality it was a bit light in that regard.

As far as the expansion pass goes, I’m going to give it a 4 out of 5. I do think that you do get quite a bit for $25 USD, but having Master Mode locked behind this when in the past it was always an unlockable New Game+, and Champion’s Ballad not really delivering much in the story department are what kind of bring this down for me.

#Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild #Breath of the Wild #botw #Legend of Zelda #Link #Zelda #Ganon #Hyrule #Champion's Ballad #video game review #game review #Biscuit review

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lhne · 5 years

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The Painting I Know Better Than Any Other

I’m not a painter. I’m a photographer. And, to be totally honest, my painting skills have been sub-par from the time I was a young child. However, one of the joys of being in a cross-disciplinary MFA program is getting to work with artists who create with different media from one’s own. And sometimes working with a variety of artists means that one has to leave the familiar comfort zone to venture into something quite different.

The amazing artist Jonathan VanDyke taught an incredibly enriching elective during my last MFA residency in January. We met for two three-hour sessions during which we got to explore different ways in which we could be creative.

For the first session, Jonathan created an approximately 30x10 foot rectangle of brown paper on the floor of a stage. He surrounded the paper rectangle with a number of materials that could be used for crafting- paper plates, streamers, plastic bags, etc.

Fig. 1 French Hall, New Hampshire Institute of Art

After a brief group meditation and stretching session, Jonathan presented us with the task: We were asked to collaboratively create something on the brown paper surface with the materials he had provided. Only one person was to be on the rectangle at a time and talking was not permitted. We were given 70mins. It was very interesting to be part of this exercise. It felt strange not being able to communicate with one another verbally. I’ve never been a very crafty or even creative person, so the exercise was definitely something that brought me to a place of slight discomfort and self-doubt.

Fig. 2 French Hall, New Hampshire Institute of Art

The result was a slightly chaotic collection of creative expressions from all participants- some spoke to each other, others lived in their own little spaces. I had a lot of fun.

For the second session, Jonathan brought us to the Currier Museum of Art in Manchester, NH. I should have had a hunch about what our exercise would be. Jonathan had previously shared a few performance pieces with us in which he looked at pieces of art continuously for a prolonged period of time, such as The Long Glance when he stood and looked at Jackson Pollock’s painting Convergence: Number 10, 1952 for 40 hours.

Fig. 3 Jackson Pollack, Convergence: Number 10, 1952

At The Currier, after another short meditation and stretching session, Jonathan asked us each to pick one piece of art in the museum. I chose Picasso’s Woman Seated in a Chair, 1941 because Picasso’s work has always fascinated and confused me. I remember going to the Picasso Museum in Barcelona in 2006 and being blown away by Picasso’s realist paintings, making his cubist works even more puzzling to me. Once we had all chosen our works of art, Jonathan explained the day’s exercise to us. We were asked to look at the art pieces for 60 minutes without looking away. We could move around, get closer or farther away, change our perspective, but not turn away from the piece. For a full hour. And we were asked to do so without speaking. Or looking at our phones or watches. No distractions.

I won’t lie- I felt a bit panicked. It felt like I was facing a difficult task that I might not be able to complete. I approached the painting with reluctance. How long did I usually look at a painting? Maybe two minutes. Four if it was one that really interested me. Some paintings that gripped me I would come back to and look at a second time, possibly a third. Or I might sit in front of the painting and spend some time in its presence. I tried to think of the longest I had ever looked at a painting. It cannot have been longer than 10 minutes. And now I was faced with having to look at one single painting for 60 minutes. It seemed impossible.

Fig. 4 Pablo Picasso, Woman Seated in a Chair

I stepped in front of Woman Seated in a Chair and looked at it. I decided to do the exercise standing. First, I gave the painting the usual glance-over I would give any work of art in a museum or gallery. Then I got closer. I got incredibly close. (Actually, so close that I got yelled at by the museum security guard twice…) I looked at the brush strokes. The thickness of the paint and the inconsistencies therein. The drips I found in several spots. I examined the different colors that had been layered on top of one another. I moved a bit further away to get a better perspective on the depicted figures. I tried to make sense of the three-dimensionality that Picasso had created within the painting. The parts of the woman’s body. The shape of the chair.

It was very disorienting not knowing how much time had passed. I would estimate that after about 20 or 25 minutes I was sick of looking at the painting. I felt like I had seen all there was to see in this rectangle of colors and shapes. I became quite irritated with the exercise. I had a lot of self-doubt. The little voice inside my head kept insisting that I was faced with a task that I could not successfully complete; it kept telling me that I couldn’t do it. To be honest, the most difficult part of the exercise was having to deal with my inner voice for 60 minutes. Despite my irritation, I stayed with the painting. I had questions. So many questions. The window on the left side of the painting- why were the brush strokes so vastly different in the two window panels? Was that deliberate or just something that happened that way? Why all the imperfections? The heavy globs of paint in the top left section of the painting. The drips in some sections. The underlying colors that weren’t fully covered by the top layers of paint. I felt mystified by it all. No longer irritated, more genuinely curious. Like I would have loved to ask the man himself about it all. And even after all the time I had been staring at this painting I somehow still managed to find things I hadn’t noticed before. Interestingly, I had some physical experiences as well. My heart rate increased at some point for no apparent reason. My body felt restless and I had to move around a bit more than I had anticipated to combat the feeling.

Suddenly, my timer went off and the 60 minutes were over. I had worked through my discomfort and self-doubt and completed the exercise. In addition to being surprised by my own accomplishment I found myself feeling sad that I had to leave the painting. We had become friends, the Woman Seated in a Chair and I. Leaving her behind felt uncomfortable. I rejoined my fellow students in silence while we all jotted down some notes on our experience.

Looking back on this day I feel a fond love for Picasso’s painting. And I miss it in a way. I’ll definitely go back to see it again. After all, I know it better than any other painting in the entire world and that must count for something…

Vivien Stembridge is a documentary photographer based in Manchester, CT currently exploring 'the gaze' in photography. She is pursuing an MFA in Photography at The Institute of Art and Design at New England College. In addition to being a photographer, Vivien is a mother of three, a full-time EMT, and a martial artist.

http://www.vivienstembridge.com/

https://www.instagram.com/vstemb/?hl=en

About the LHNE Collective

#lhne #picasso #artschool #nhia #art criticism #artists on tumblr

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anxiousdemi · 5 years

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Mysterious Mailman

okay vagueposting is my jam here but I’m gonna dump some actual info because that’s also what I do

I’m a distracted human being, I get the mail whenever I happen to remember or my flatmate gets it. But for at LEAST the past month or so, our mailperson who happens to be a man noticed that I work from home (not hard, my desk is at a window near the door cause it’s convenient), and so he’s been just knocking on the door to hand me the mail so I don’t have to unlock the mailbox to get it. Super convenient, real nice, I thank him for doing that regularly.

At some point he also started asking about my day. He’s got a full route or whatever and is busy but like he takes a few seconds to ask about my day and say like ‘have a good day’ or whatever. It’s super small, but he consistently does this, and I’m like ‘dude I have been missing decent human interaction with others this is so refreshing.’ I don’t say this to him but I think it and feel it.

Now and then there’s a small dialogue of ‘have any big plans for the weekend’ or asking about my hobbies n such. And I’m out of it from literally just focusing on work so I answer honestly if not in detail and have short conversation like this for a bit.

Last Friday, I was sleeping in and he got there earlier than I anticipated, so when I hear the (very small) knock I throw on a cloak over my sleep-deprived shorts-and-awkwardly-loose-Tshirt to cover the fact that my shirt is quite loose, and answer the door. He hands me mail and actually seems to have a few more moments to talk, which I am delighted to do because I have decided to finally learn this decent human’s name. And then HE asks about my plans again and I share them, because I actually have some for once, and he suggests we should do something sometime.

I have no idea what we would do, because I never get a chance to ask him much about himself, but like I have been needing and intending to increase my interactions with others since I work from home and all my friends live forever away and I have no personal transportation other than my feet. So I’m VERY down for this idea, and finally get A Name from this guy. He also mentions he lived in France for a while, which now that I think about it kind of explains his very slight accent. He does not look classically French but the world is a varied place so I’m not surprised.

He heads out and I REALIZE I COMPLETELY FORGOT to get ANY kind of way to actually coordinate doing A Thing at some point. I facepalm and resolve to ask for his number on Monday because that’s the next day mail comes.

Monday comes, and there’s a frickin BLIZZARD. Like 10+ inches in hours. Mailman doesn’t arrive until many hours after he usually does, which I’m not surprised about. But I had just been researching and rambling online before he knocked, so I was very out of my thought processes. He gave me my mail and we talked worriedly about the weather a bit and told each other to stay safe and warm n stuff.

I close the door and like 3 minutes later realise DAMNIT I FORGOT AGAIN AGH.

So MORE RESOLVE to DO THE THING on TUESDAY.

Today.

Well guess what day a different mailperson came to the house.

Today.

I have anxiety, even psyching myself up to ask a mailperson to take outgoing mail I have on hand TAKES psyching myself up and like sometimes it takes a few days of trying to legit get out and do it. It’s always fine, always successful, but anxiety is a bitch. So like me getting to a somewhat comfortable conversation level with Mailman is actually a good accomplishment I am happy with. But so the idea of asking for his number, even though he literally asked me to do something sometime, is hella taxing on my nerves.

But when I see the mailcar and hear the mailbox being opened, nothing else happens. And then after sitting on my anxiety ridden ass for a bit, I check and there’s a woman delivering the mail around now.

Logical explanation: he has a day off, is sick from the insane snow yesterday, or shifted locations for a day.

My brain: remembers NOW that at some point in the past he mentioned this mail route is a temporary one for him for who knows how long. Is convinced he has transferred and I have no way of contacting him. And despite the fact that I’m not swooning interested in this guy, I’m VERY put out at the fact that I had an opportunity to make a fluid, genuine human connection and I SCREWED IT UP. REPEATEDLY. And have missed the opportunity all together and completely.

Cue my brain making life hell for me for the next several hours. By several I mean like 5. While I’m still trying to work.

I recognize, within 10 minutes, that there’s nothing I can do about this situation except plan for a way round it or just move on with my life, cause it’s not like it was a huge part of my life to begin with, just a small opportunity. But NOOOOO, I gotta FEEL THINGS. And after an hour of struggling to just move on, I look up some articles to help me out and they all suggest feeling my feelings in the moment. And I’m over here having trouble breathing like ‘MAYBE NOT THO.’

So I walked around a bit, made some tea, and binged scrolling tumblr for a bit. It helped.

And then I had a therapy appointment later anyway and that also helped.

And I’m more at peace with things now, and also realize that maybe I can just give a note to this new mailperson if Mailman isn’t back, and hopefully they can pass it along. And if not then this is how my life is and I can learn from it.

But hell, today has been a RIDE.

#anxious rambles #mysterious mailman #I told a friend about all this and she thinks it's romantic aahaha #...wait is it

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jojosthetic-boogaloo · 5 years

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@staruplatinum says: hey so I’m sending this as a submission because I don’t want to send multiple asks. I hope this isn’t to too long. Thanks in advance and I hope your account gets 11111100000000x more followers because you deserve it. Such a cool and unique idea! 💓

anyways,, I’m a bisexual Italian girl, but I prefer men. Im 20. I’m a Taurus (super stubborn and reserved) and I’m quite shy. I am a survivor of abuse, because of that, the last few years of my life have involved me being extremely shy and quiet. I can relate a lot to Jotaro because honestly - I rarely talk. Especially with new people. I have really bad anxiety lol and I try not to get too involved with drama. In my free time I workout/weightlift. I enjoy helping others, and I love children. My close friends consider me the mom of the group because I take care of everyone, and I always put people before myself. I’m short (5’2), and I have a toned physique that I maintain every day at the gym. (I take working out and eating healthy super serious xD) my hair is naturally black but I currently have it dyed silver. I love to cook + clean 🧼

There’s not much else to say ;___; I just want one of these sexy men from the jojo universe to protect me and hold me ~ ღゝ◡╹)ノ♡

Honey hi! Dia here! Much much much love from this (currently melting from Spain’s heatwave) gal! You’re so sweet dear!! And I can only wish to get recognized out there ;W; But, I must accomplish being known with consistency and effort! So I’ll do my best for you guys!

Rambling over! Onto your lovely matchup! Since you did tell me in DMs that you wanted a moodboard, I’m adding one here too, yowza!

Now now, though at first it was an intense “JUST SLAP JOTARO IN HERE” kind of reaction, I decided to think it over! I gave you a brochup just because of this simple fact! Hope you like it! (If you don’t, you’re always free to tell me to think it over or redo anything you’re not good with! I really won’t get mad I just want you all to enjoy what I write for ya!)

Translation: “Let’s change the world together, my love”

Jean Pierre Polnareff!

You actually met at the gym! He was new to this one, and he so happened to get an instant crush on the hot silver haired girl weightlifting for her life in a most ridiculously gracious way. Why were you the only one there though? He didn’t care much, for now.

He walked up to you, trying to make himself look cool and resting on a weights machine next to you, his arms crossed and a flirty smile on his lips. When you noticed, you rolled your eyes. Not this type of dude again. When you were about to start with your usual “Listen dude…”, he spoke up, and you didn’t expect his speech to be… like that.

“Hey there! Our hair matches! That’s pretty cool right? We could be gym buddies, that way we match in more stuff, right?” He said, an almost childish grin on his face. Was this man for real or was he just that oddly, innocently cute. You rose from your position, leaving the weights to the side and facing him with your arms crossed as well.

“Where did you come out from?” You asked, unintentionally aloud. And he quickly answered. “France! And if you ask as of right now, the door right there!” You couldn’t help but chuckle, okay, the guy was funny. Oddly cute for the respectable amount of muscle he packed teamed with his height, but no matter, cute.

“Alright… french guy, you can be my gym bud. I warn you, I get here early.” He gave you a thumbs up and a wide smile. “Três bien! Now, let me sit right here and do some bench pressing, buddy.”

You never actually got around to share each other’s name that first day. Nevertheless, you were surprised to see him appear there the next day right about 10 minutes after you did. How did he manage to get there in such close range of time when you never even told him when you exactly clocked in?

“Bonjour mademoiselle! I didn’t quite catch your name yesterday, what was it?” You stood there, kind of still confused on his punctuality and shook your head. “Well, I’m Y/N, pleased to… meet you? Again?” He gave you a hearty laugh and a nod, extending his hand to shake it with yours. “And I’m Jean Pierre Polnareff, just Polnareff is fine, though, Y/N.” You timidly stretched your hand out, gently feeling his bigger, warm hand envelop yours. That was the start of your relationship; gym buddies.

As time went by, you had exchanged numbers, and texted each other about jogging routines and when you’d go to the gym to meet up. But one day, he asked through a simple text. “Could we go to the movies today?” You pondered. This was the first time Polnareff had offered to meet anywhere that didn’t imply exercise. After some doubting, you replied curtly with a “Sure.” This did not stop Jean Pierre from smiling idiotically in his apartment upon reading it. His plan was going smoothly.

When you met in the evening, you were surprised. And so was he! You looked so different in casual clothes from your more sporty usual ones. With a slight blush to his cheeks due to the pleasant surprise and thinking about how cute you looked, he offered to go kill some time before the movie started and go for a drink in the meantime.

You sat on a newly opened healthy shakes local. As you drank your juice, Polnareff had been chatting casually about this and that, you were paying attention, really! But your eyes worked in a different wavelength than your ears. While you tried to focus on whatever he was talking about, your eyes wandered from his broad shoulders to his collarbone, to his toned pectorals and then back up to his face. His beautiful icy blue, almost grayish eyes staring back at you as he talked. He was talking… so you dragged your gaze from his eyes to his lips. Was it weird you wanted to touch them? They looked so plump and… they looked nice okay, you wanted to feel them, even if for a moment.

“Y/N, is there something on my mouth?” He seemed to have caught on with your staring and made you snap out of your thoughts. You blinked, leaving your cup down on the table and about to shake your head no. Instead, you kept staring at him, giving a small nod and leaning over the table, timidly raising your hand and muttering a very quiet “Don’t move.”

You pressed your thumb to his lower lip, making a wiping motion as you slid it along and finally retreated. He couldn’t help but stare back at you with a deeper blush on his face, thinking on how nice that felt and how he, now even more so than before, wanted to kiss you. But he’d refrain, he respected you first and foremost.

When you finished your drinks, and the time for the movie to start had arrived, you awkwardly got up and made your way to the cinema. Once there, you sat and focused on the screen. Even though both of you could barely focus on the screen, the tension from before still on your bodies.

Halfway into the movie, you saw Polnareff had timidly let his hand rest facing up on the armrest that divided yours and his seat. Taking this silent offer, you slid your hand timidly from your thigh to gently place it on top of his, tangling your fingers together and feeling how he squeezed, upon looking up, seeing he had a childish smile on his face with his eyes glued to the screen, refusing to look back at you out of embarrassment yet.

After a few minutes of holding hands, you felt him shift slightly on his seat. When you turned around to face him, you saw he had put his whole arm on the armrest, resting on his elbow and slightly tilted to your side he kept watching, but, as you observed, he was slowly falling asleep.

Taking this chance, you leaned close and put your temple to his, carefully nudging him to stay awake. He turned his face around to face you with a sheepish smile on his lips, giving you a nod and turning around once more to watch the rest of the movie.

When you got out of the cinema, you’d awkwardly stood next to each other in silence, only broken when Polnareff took charge and started walking slowly, offering you his hand once more with a timid smile. You took it in yours and quickly caught up to him, now both of you walking together in pleasant silence on your way back home.

It was quiet and tranquil outside, not many people were around at this time of the night. After some time, when you started recognizing the path that lead to your house, he spoke, an utterance so quiet and firm sounding that you needed to take a minute to process correctly.

“I think I’m in love with you.” He said, giving your hand a gentle squeeze once more. When he looked back down at you, his preoccupied pout turned into a tight lipped, lopsided smile on his face. You looked embarrassed, and you didn’t really look him in the eye, but the way you had tenderly clung into his arm told him everything he needed to know to feel at ease.

Without another word spoken, since you were terrible at handling this situation even if you really wanted to speak up, you decided to rest your head on his arm, holding into it in the most sweet way you managed to, hoping the feeling came across to Jean Pierre.

“Lord have mercy, for I’ve fallen deep for this girl.” He thought.

Brochup: Jotaro Kujo & Muhammad Avdol

Jotaro Kujo because…

You’re a physically strong lady, he can get behind that, he thinks you’re really cool for it. The fact that you’re reserved much like him only adds to the mix of things he likes about you; you’re relatable, you’re real, nothing about you is fake to him. And quite honestly, he’ll fight anyone who dares say otherwise, barefisted.

You’re nice to hang with! You are chill and don’t talk much, he thanks you for this internally. What can he do, he’s bad at conversation and so are you, perfect bros.

One of those friendships that relies on being comfortable in each other’s presence without the need of words, Jotaro DIGS that, immensely so.

He secretly likes it when you teach him how to cook new things. Even if he messes up most the time, you always help him clean up and start over again! He finds you the sweetest person and most versatile in expertise he’s ever met. Except his mom, his mom and you are both beings to watch out for.

Muhammad Avdol because…

Avdol just really really likes how you treat others around you! The way you interact is so gentle and caring! He relates to that, he also likes to make those around him happy, and that’s one of the strongest points as to why he’s one of your bestest friends!

You’re good with kids, that’s very important for him. Treating with care and nurturing the youth with either love or knowledge is vital from his perspective. And you do just that! He thinks you’ll make a wonderful parent, if you ever even decide to be one, of course. He won’t ever pressure you about that subject.

He teaches you new workout techniques and loves to hear you speak about you thoughts on the gyms you train in, the people you meet in them or just your life in general while you kick into his open palm.

Teaches you new recipes and helps you improve the ones you know! He’s a great chef, so you’re always delighted when Avdol texts you a “Guess who just learnt how to cook x thing?”. That’s when you know you’re in for a fresh and wonderful cooking lesson.

#jean pierre polnareff #jotaro kujo #muhammad avdol #moodboard matchup #matchup #jojosthetic-boogaloo #staruplatinum #submission

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justkending · 6 years

Text

Knock, Knock. Part 14.

Summary: You are a really good friend of the Padaleckis. Your apartment gets infested with all kinds of problems, so you have to move in with your friends for a couples of days. Little did you know who you would run into while staying there.

Chapter Summary: Jensen has a girl over. Christmas is coming up. This dang table needs to be built.

Pairing: (single) Jensen x Reader

Warnings: Cussing. Slow burn.

Word Count: 4981

A/N: Please let me know your thoughts! I feel like my writing is going downhill, and I need to know what you guys think!!! Happy reading:)

Part 14:

Two Weeks had gone by.

Cole and you had gone out on dates every other night, and when you weren’t out, you were texting or calling.

Jensen on the other hand had a new girl clung to his hip every other night. He was also acting different toward you. You wouldn’t necessarily say cold, but more… distant. If you had to describe it, it was almost jealous of Cole and you. But you put it in the back of your head because why would he be jealous of Cole and you. Right?

There had been a few instances where he wouldn’t be as distant or ‘busy’ as he called it, but as soon as you brought up Cole, or a going out with him, it was like a flip was switched. At night he would go out for hours, and come home with another girl.

It became a little too much last night when you came home to some raven haired woman straddling his lap while they made out quite heavily on the couch.

You had just walked in through the garage, and were coming through the kitchen when you heard shuffling and moaning in the living room. You quietly made your way in confused by the sounds because when you left to go hang out with Cole, Jensen said he had no plans that night.

“Jensen?” you asked before turning in to see the girl on his lap. They both quickly stopped their actions and turned to you.

The women never moved from her position. She had both hands on Jensen’s chest, and just turned her head enough to see who interrupted them.

Jensen didn’t even look embarrassed by getting caught.

“Oh god. I’m sorry! I-I’m just going to- I’ll be upstairs.” You said rushing for the staircase.

“Sorry Y/N/N. I didn’t think you would be home this early.” Jensen said pushing the lady off of him enough to where she was sitting beside him now. She huffed out a sigh in anger at the disruption.

You examined his face to see if he was actually sorry, but instead you found a hint of proudness instead. Almost as if he wanted you to see it.

“Yeah well, I said I would be home at 8. It’s 8 so.” You sassed at the end of the stairwell, annoyed of the scene in front of you.

“Yeah well, you’ve said that before, but came home at 10 anyway so I thought it was another night like that.” Jensen said with a smart ass smirk.

“Hmm” you hummed in frustration while tapping your fingers on the railing of the stairs. “Well, you said you weren’t doing anything tonight, but by the looks of it, that’s not quite true is it?”

“What is with the feistiness?” he asked with a smile as if he was getting the exact reaction he wanted.

You let out an exaggerated sigh and rolled your eyes.

“I’m going to bed. Have fun with this one.” You said with a squint of your eyes toward the girl to show the sarcasm that was meant to be said with it.

“Night Y/N.” Jensen said watching you go up the stairs. Did he accomplish his goal of making you jealous? He thought.

“Who’s the bitch?” the woman asked snapping Jensen out of his thoughts.

He quickly shot his head to her.

“Yeah, I think it’s time you go.”

“What, but we were just getting started?”

“Yeah, but then you called my roommate a bitch.” He said getting up and gathering her things. That may have been one reason, but now there was no purpose for the black haired woman. He wanted to see your reaction to this girl on his side, and he got it. If he was right, there was a hint of jealousy in your words.

“You’re going to kick me out because of that?” she said watching his actions.

“Yup.” He said without a blink handing her her things.

“But she was being a-“

“Don’t say it. No one, calls her that. Now please leave.” He said opening the front door motioning toward the car she had come in.

“Really, just like that?” she said with a stare at the man that was seconds ago telling her how hot she was, and sweet talking her.

“Just like that.” He said in a serious tone.

She huffed and started walking out with a small bundle of her things in her arms. Before she was completely out she stopped in her tracks, and turned to Jensen.

“If I didn’t know better, it looks like you have a thing for that girl.” He gave her a blank, non budging stare. “Yeah, that’s what I thought.” She said turning and walking towards her car.

He waved her off before shutting the door, and leaning up against it closing his eyes.

He let out a long breath, and then started walking into the living room to straighten up the couch.

When he was done he looked up that empty stairwell, and after thinking about it rolled his eyes at himself.

He made his way up to your room, and gently knocked on your door.

You didn’t open it, instead just yelled out, “Who is it?”

“It’s Jens. Can I talk to you?”

There was a pause. He could tell you were hesitant on the request.

“Can it wait for tomorrow? I’m about to go to bed Jensen.” You said through the door.

“Please, Y/N. I need to talk to you.”

You rolled your eyes, and looked over at the door from your vanity where you had just finished taking off your makeup. You put down the makeup up wipe, and walked over to the door. Your hand hovered over the knob for a few seconds before you turned it.

Once you opened the door, Jensen’s green eyes turned up from the floor, and he gave you a soft smile.

You kept your hand on the door knob and placed the other on the door as you leaned on it.

“What’s up?” you asked.

“I’m sorry about downstairs.” He said quickly. “It was rude what I said, and I should have been more respectful of your space. This isn’t just my house anymore. I shouldn’t have brought home a random girl and started hooking up with her on the couch, when you could’ve come in any minute.” He said hands now in his pocket as he looked from you to the ground.

You sighed and the tension in your shoulder went down some.

“It’s fine.” His head shot up at your forgiveness. “I should probably stop saying I’ll be home at a certain time, and then show up hours later.” You said rolling your eyes to yourself.

“I still shouldn’t have been a smart ass to you though. Especially with her there.” he said looking deep into your eyes.

“True, but it’s not like I didn’t return the sass.”

He shrugged his shoulders and chuckled out his breath. “I deserved it.”

“How about we say we’re both at fault? Let’s just keep each other updated on our plans from now on so we don’t have anymore awkward interruptions again.” You said.

“Sounds like a plan.” He replied.

“Now, I’m sure she’s waiting for you down there. I won’t keep you any longer.”

“Oh, I sent her home.”

“Why? Was it cause of me? Oh, I’m so sorry-”

“No, no! She was- well she was kinda a…”

“A bitch?” you finished for him.

“Something like that.” He chuckled.

“Well then I guess it worked out for the better.” You smiled kindly at him.

“Guess so.”

After looking into each other’s eyes for a few seconds you snapped out of the long gaze remembering that tomorrow was the last day of school before Christmas break.

“I should really turn in now. Last day of school and all tomorrow.”

“Oh, Yeah! Sorry, yeah. Go get your beauty sleep.” He said waving his hands at you, and you smiled going to shut the door. As he started walking away he mumbled, “Not that you need it.”

“What was that?” you asked hearing him say something.

“What?” he said shooting around back to you. “No, nothing. Just talking to myself.”

“Oh, ok.” You said with a grin. “Night Jensen.” But right after he turned you stopped him. “Oh and Jensen?”

He turned quickly with a raised eyebrow. “Yeah?”

“I think you can do better too.” You winked and gave him a quick smile before shutting the door.

He smiled at your closed door for a minute, then his smile turned to a sad one. “I don’t think I can.” He whispered to himself walking to his room for the night.

The last day of school was actually less stressful than you thought it would be. There were only a few hiccups in the day, but nothing that wasn’t unusual.

Gen had texted you again asking if you could bring the boys to her house on the way home. She had a video conference with some web designer, and also wanted to sit down and talk to you about some stuff.

You walked into her house, and the boys immediately ran to her while she was in the kitchen getting them a quick after school snack.

“Hey, boys! How was the last day of school?” she said as you took off your coat and got situated on a bar stool.

“It was so fun! We played games almost all day!” Thomas said.

“Fun! Well, you guys will have to tell your dad about it while I talk to Aunt Y/N.” she said getting down to their level and handing them each a bowl of mixed fruits. “He’s in the living room. Go get him.” She said giving them a soft push that direction.

They both ran off laughing and calling out to their dad.

You watched as they ran off and laughed. Gen moved around the island and stood in front of you while leaning on the counter exactly across from you.

“So… How are things going with you and Cole?” she asked bringing your attention back to her.

“Uh. Good. Yeah, really good actually.” You said with a grin.

“James said that he talks about you all the time. If you ask me, it sounds more than just good.” She said with a sly smile.

“Really? It’s only been a little over two weeks, but yeah. It’s been pretty great.” You said with a slight blush rising.

“Why do I sense a but coming though?” she asked with a raised eyebrow.

“But? There isn’t any buts…”

She just stared at you with a knowing look.

“I wouldn’t say there’s a but, just- just a I’m still trying to see where this is going.” You responded with a scoff.

“And do you see it going anywhere?” she said propping her elbows on the counter.

“I mean yeah, but it's only been two weeks. We still have a while to go. Plus…”

“Plus, what?”

“I don’t know.” You got up and walked around to the island to grab an apple, Gen turning, and leaning against the counter with her arms crossed. “Jensen’s been acting really weird about it all.”

“How’s that?” she asked.

“Well first off, he’s been with multiple girls over the last couple of weeks. They never stay for more than one night, if you know what I mean…” you nodded her head slightly to show she knew exactly what you meant. “Also, when I bring up Cole it’s like a flip is switched. He becomes all distant and quiet about anything I say about Cole.”

“And… He’s not the one that gets to say you can, and can’t like someone.”

“I know, but it’s kinda off putting. Almost like it makes this thing for Cole and I seem… not so connected as I thought.” You finally spit out. “You know, now that I’m hearing it come out of my mouth it sounds crazy. Why should I care what Jensen thinks of my relationship? I mean we’ve only known each other for a little over a month.”

“Yeah, but you guys became really close in that month. I think like Jared and I, you care about his opinion on things. Therefore, deep down... you care about what he thinks of Cole.” She saw you contemplate what she was saying before continuing. “Now, I’m not saying you should up and leave Cole solely based on Jensen’s thoughts, but in a sense you want to keep his opinion in mind.”

“When did you become so wise?”

“Eh, call it a mother’s intuition.”

“You’re not my mom though.” You giggled.

“No, but I can see when someone I care for is at battle with themselves.” She said smiling at you, and uncrossing her arms. “For now, let’s put this in the back of our heads. I have some other things I wanted to talk to you about today.”

You took a bite of the apple. “And what may that be, mom?”

She playfully pushed you as she walked over to the counter and grabbed a stack of papers.

“So, I had this idea.”

“Lay it on me.” You said continuing to eat.

“So, around Christmas time we like to get group together and have a little party. Kinda like the Halloween, but more low key, and not AS wild.”

“Ok… I’m listening.”

“Well, we usually host it, but I thought that now Jensen and you live together you could host it this year. He hasn’t done it in the past since it was just him. I can help with the planning and set up, but like I said it’s low key. It can be a housewarming party for you guys.” She said laying out the papers in front of you.

“Ok, I’m following. What’s all this though?” you said laying the papers out on the counter to get a better look at all the notes she had.

“A list of the people that come, and some activities that we can do.”

“You have this all planned out already, don’t you?”

“You could say so.” She said with a proud smile.

“Ok sure! I would love to host a party. It’s a great way to make the home more like- like I actually live there. I’ll just ask Jensen what he thinks of it.”

“It doesn’t feel like you live there yet?” she said with a laugh.

“Well, I mean it does, but it still feels all kinda… Unreal still.”

“I get that.” She said. “So, what are your plans for today?”

“Not sure yet, probably go home, play some records to unwind, and figure out some Christmas gifts in my room.” You said going to throw away the apple core.

“Or you can help Jensen and I build that table.” Jared said walking in with both of the boys wrapped around his legs. “He told me about the desk you built. Said he it was quite impressive. I’m surprised Gen never told me about that little skill of yours.” He said wobbling over to her and wrapping his arms around her shoulders.

“Never came up.” She said winking at you.

You laughed. “I thought that competition was between you guys and Misha. No outside help.” You said with a hint of sass.

“Yes, but who says he needs to know.” He said with a smile that made his dimples show more.

“I don’t know…” you answered.

“Come on Y/N. Just a few pointers here and there?” he said with those big puppy eyes.

“Ok, I’ll see where I can put my two cents in.” you said rolling your eyes dramatically before smiling at him. “Only because you play the sad puppy too well.”

“Thank you! Jensen is actually on his way right now, so we can get started. I think we are going to do the whole presentation at the Christmas party.” Jared said bending down and grabbing Shep off his leg and moving him to his hip, as Thomas continued to cling to his other leg.

Your heart flipped slightly at the fact Jensen was coming. “What was that about?” You thought.

“Uh- do you guys have everything you need?” you asked.

“I think so. We got the wood, paint, screws, and stain just in case we want to stain it instead. All from your recommendations of course.” He said with a head bow to you.

“It was just a suggestion.” You laughed. “I just personally, I think that stain looks better. Homey and more cozy actually.”

“I agree, which is why I had Jensen pick some up on the way here.”

“Sounds good.” You laughed out. “Hey boy’s, you wanna help your dad build a table for you guys?” you asked bending down to them.

“Yeah!” they shouted.

“Ok! Let’s get our coats on, and go out to the garage to see what we can get started on while we wait for Jensen.” You said.

They jumped up and down before running to their rooms for the coats. All the adults in the room laughing at their reaction.

“You know how to rile them up don’t you Y/N?” Jared said watching the boys run up the stairs in the distance.

“Honestly, I think they can build a better table than Jens and you ever could. I only asked them so you have a fighting chance at this competition.” You said shrugging and going to put on your coat.

___

Twenty minutes passed, and sure enough Jensen showed up with about 5 different stains for the table. He pulled up seeing you in the garage with the boys pointing at the wood that Jared was holding up. Probably explaining to them what the steps were.

For some reason, that made his heart flutter like yours had early at the mention of his name.

“How the hell does she look so… perfect all the time?” he asked himself still in the car. He grabbed the bag of stains before getting out of the car. “It doesn’t help how she acts around kids. Shit, stop it Jensen. Get out, and go build a fucking table. Get out of your head.” He said shaking his head, and opening the truck door before walking into the large garage where you guys were standing.

“I come bearing gifts as asked.” He said holding up the sack with a wide smile on his face.

“Took you long enough.” Jared said.

“Well, I didn’t know what kind, so I bought a couple of choices.”

“I’m sure one of them will do the job.” You said standing up from your knelt position with Shep by your side.

“What do we have here? Helpers?” Jensen asked ruffling Thomas hair after putting the bag down. “Are you here to do all the work for me Tom?”

“NO! Dad said we can only help sometimes. You have to do the adult things.” Thomas replied jumping into Jensen’s arms.

“What? You mean I actually have to work?” he said putting him on his hip and tickling him.

“Yes!” Thomas answered in between giggles.

“Oh man!” Jensen said with a big smile. Then he looked over at you.

You were watching him with the greatest grin. You loved how he was with the kids. You were too wrapped up in the moment you didn’t notice him watching you. The only reason you were snapped out of your daze was because Shep ran and grabbed your legs, making your attention go to your balance.

“Whoa Shep. What’s the rush dude?” you said putting a hand on his head.

“Can you come with me to get a juice?” he ask quietly.

You laughed at the innocence. “Sure thing bud. Come on.”

“Make that two!” Jared yelled as he organized the boards.

“No, three!” Thomas yelled in Jensen’s arms.

“Alright! Jens you want anything?” you asked with soft eyes.

“Uh, nah. I’m good. Thank you though.” He said with a gentle smile.

“Ok. We will be right back.” You only broke your eyes from him because of Shep pulling you into the house.

Jensen watched as you left with a small, but happy grin on his face. He didn’t know how, but you always manage to put one on his face.

“Whatcha thinking about?” Jared said interrupting his thoughts.

“What? Huh?” Jensen said shaking his head.

“You’re staring.” Jared said plainly.

“No I’m not, I’m just-“

“Why do you look at Aunt Y/N like Dad looks at Mommy, Uncles Jensen?” Thomas said looking Jensen straight in the eyes. Jared trying to hide a laugh in the background.

“What, Thomas?” Jensen said putting him down.

“Kid’s pick up on the darnest things, but he’s not wrong.” Jared said agreeing with his son.

“Oh, so you’re going to side with the 6-year-old?” Jensen said walking up to Jared.

“He may be six, but he has eyes. Heck, we all do.” Jared said never breaking his attention from the task at hand.

“I don’t-“ Jensen scoffed. “I do not look at her like that. Besides, she has a boyfriend. It’s not like that.”

“Sure, but that doesn’t mean you don’t want it to be like that.” Jared said with a raised eyebrow at his friend.

“Jared-“

“I’ll drop it.” He said putting is hands up in surrender. “But I did overhear Y/N and Gen talking about you having some-“ he looked to see if Thomas was paying attention, but he was distracted by the cans of stains in the bag. “some ‘lady friends’ over the past two weeks. And if my memory serves me correctly, Y/N and Cole have been dating for a little over two weeks.” Jared said crossing his arms with a extended brow.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Jensen said going to mess with some of the tools to distract himself.

“Come on Jens. What’s going on? It’s not like we don’t all see what’s happening.”

“It’s nothing Jar. Really, don’t worry about it. I have it under control and I’m fine. Promise.”

“Yeah, I’ll believe it when I see it.” There was a pause before Jared continued. “You know you can talk to me about it. I don’t want you making the same mistakes and choices you did after Danneel.”

“I won’t.” Jensen said quickly and defensively. “It’s not like that this time. It’s completely different.”

Just then, the door to inside opened and Shep walked out with two juices in hand. Jensen quickly shot his friend a look that said ‘Drop it.’ Jared rolled his eyes and nodded back in agreement.

“Here’s your drink Jar, and Jensen I went ahead, and grabbed you one just to be safe.” You said handing the men the juice packs.

“Thanks.” They both said in unison.

“Sure thing. So, do you guys have a plan? Layout? Measurements?” you said looking around at the mess of wood.

“Uh, kinda. I was hoping that could be the part you help us on. I think we can handle the screwing and painting part of it.” Jared said rubbing the back of his neck while taking a drink from the tiny juice box in his hand.

You laughed, and turned to the troubled men. “Ok, but that’s all I’m doing. This is between you guys and Misha.” You said pointing fingers at them with squinted eyes in a joking way. “Show me what you got.”

___

About 30 minutes had gone by of you all trying to figure out the layout of it all. These boys were helpless with carpentry.

The kids left about 5 minutes after finishing their drinks, and went inside to watch a movie because they were cold, and bored not being able to help much yet.

“Ok that should give you a pretty good head start on all this.” You said putting down a pencil from writing the measurements and such down.

“Thank Y/N/N. We really appreciate it.” Jared said with a smile.

“Yeah, really. I didn’t realize you knew so much.” Jensen said looking you in the eyes.

“Like I said, my dad had a hobby, and out of his three kids, I was the only one who was interested. You just learn from there.” You said shrugging and putting your hands in your pocket.

“Well, it’s impressive.” Jensen said with a smile.

“Thank ya.” You said proud of yourself, and feeling a blush creep up your face. Realizing the redness, you quickly changed the subject. “Oh Jensen, I just remembered. I need to ask you about something.”

“Sure, what’s up?” he said stopping what he was doing and turning his body toward you.

“Gen said that you guys do a small Christmas party around this time with friends. She’s actually invited me in the past, but I was always with- well I was with Dipshit.” You said laughing awkwardly at the thought.

“Yes.” Jensen said with a smile and waiting for what was coming next.

“Well, she thought it would be a good idea to host it at our house this year. You know, kinda like a housewarming party in a sense.”

“Oh.” Jensen said taking a second to think it through.

“We don’t have to if you don’t want to. I understand if-“ you started, feeling as if he was against the idea.

“What? Oh, no! That sounds fine with me! I would love to host this year.” He said smiling, and putting his hands on your shoulders.

“Are you sure? I don’t want to push if you aren’t comfortable doing it.” You said looking up through your lashes.

God, he would do anything for you with that look on your face.

“No. Really. I would love to co-host and plan a Christmas party with you.” He said bending down to your height to meet your eyes.

“Ok.” You said smiling at him. “Then it’s settled. We will host the party this year.” You said all gleeful at the task.

You surprised him by wrapping your arms around his waist and giving him a side hug. He froze at first, but melted into it seconds later. You both didn’t move from that position.

“Besides, I don’t know how much planning will actually be done on our part. Gen already has a whole google doc on the games, food, and guest.” You said resting your head onto his shoulder.

His eyes went wide at the movement, but you couldn’t see it. A smile formed on his lips at the warmth of you, and squeezed you tighter into him without noticing it.

“I’m sure she does.” He said with a low chuckle.

You both stood like that for a few minutes as you talked with Jared about the soon to be table in front of you.

You don’t know why you leaned into his touch. You really didn’t think much of it until it happened. You didn’t feel regretful of it though. If anything you melted into it feeling a sense of home and warmth with him.

You were broken out of your daydream when your phone started to buzz. You pulled away from Jensen going to grab your phone in your pocket. Hesitantly, Jensen let you go, and watched as you scrambled for the device.

You finally got a hold of it, and saw the caller.

“One second, it’s Cole.” You said holding up a finger, and answering the call as you walked out to the driveway.

Jensen watched you walk away, and as soon as you were out of ear reach Jared spoke up.

“Dude, don’t stare like that. It looks like your about to bash someone’s brains in.”

“What? I’m not staring.” Jensen said never moving his eyes off of you. You looked worried. His face softened after seeing your expression change.

“Yeah, no. Not staring at all.” Jared said rolling his eyes. “Come over here and help me with this. You’re supposed to be building this with me you know?”

Jensen walked over to the project, but didn’t look away from you.

“Yeah, yeah. I’m here.”

“Eyes dude. You don’t want to drill your hand into the side, do you?” Jared said snapping his fingers in front of Jens eyes.

“Fine ok. I’m here, what do you want?”

Your conversation was only a few minutes long, but every chance Jensen had he would look up to check on you until you walked over.

“Everything ok?” Jensen said seeing tiny bits of worry on your face.

“Yeah, it was Cole. I guess he got in a car wreck.” You said still looking down at your phone.

“Oh my God!” Jared said rushing over closer to you. Jensen doing the same. “Is he ok?”

“Yeah, yeah. He has no injuries or anything. Everyone is perfectly fine. It was just a fender bender, but it was enough to total his car.” You said looking up and rubbing your eyes the exhaustion from the whole day falling over you. “He tried calling a couple of friends closer from where he is, but they are all out of town for the holiday already, or can’t come. I’m going to run and pick him up.”

“Yeah for sure.” Jared said putting a hand on your shoulder. “If you need anything call us, ok?”

“I will. Thanks, and sorry for running out like this. Tell Gen I’ll call her later tonight to go over things.”

“It’s fine Y/N. Go help out Cole.” Jensen said giving you a quick hug.

“Yeah, I’ll tell Gen what happened. Get out of here. We’ll be fine.” Jared said.

“Thanks guys. I’ll see you at home later Jensen!” you said running out to your car.

“Be safe!” He yelled after you never looking away till your car was completely out of sight.

“Yeah. You got it bad dude.” Jared said smacking him on the shoulder.

“Do not!” Jensen said turning back to his friend who just gave him a bitch face. “Shut up!”

Part 15

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